Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? (Woof plus one)

NEW CENTRAL PARK

A big police event was being held today, open to the press and public, though the media was given seating priority. Reporters from all the big networks had already found their prime seats, leaving the middle and rear seats for the bloggers and internet news. Everyone was abuzz with excitement and trepidation, as everyone had heard partial rumors about the unveiling of some new... tool.

The presentation began when all eyes turned to a bald man in a fine suit, take to the podium and addressed the crowd. His voice was strong, projected well, and spoke with gravitas and emotion. "Good morning, esteemed members of the press. We live in a dangerous world today, where the metahuman gene has given individuals dangerous, uncontrollable powers. We have seen firsthand the devastation that can be wrought by those with such power, and no qualms to use them. From the most terrible supervillains who have laid this city low, to even some teenage punk who can throw fireballs at will... humanity is facing perilous times."

He paused, getting many affirmative nods from the reporters.

"So today Parthenon Industries, working with Wong Enterprises, is glad to bring you the NYPD Metahuman Response Division's newest tool... in protecting us against the dangers posed by superpowered individuals. Never again will we have another New York. Never again!" He then gestured to the van. "Bring out the Myrmidon armor!" He said, with a dramatic flair.

From an MRD armored van emerged a man in impressive looking powered armor. He strode up the stage, a head taller than all the police officers and the speaker. A calm applause arose from the crowd, though they were unimpressed. This was not the first battle suit rolled out before the public, only to prove ineffective later down the line. The mood was skeptical. At best.

The man laughed slightly. "Not the most dramatic entrance to date... but we're not here to put on fireworks. to demonstrate the Myrmidon's capabilites...NYPD MRD's finest, Sergeant Maxwell Charger. How you feeling today, Sergeant?"

The speaker addressed the man in the suit, and his helmet parted to reveal a young but tough looking cop inside.

"Like I could wrestle a dragon girl, sir." He said with enthusiasm, pumping his fists as the script required. The crowd was not convinced of course. A few reporters retorted, having covered what that hero was capable off. "...What a joke."

"That's great, son. But the crowd doesn't seem too convinced. Why don't you take it for a spin?" The bald dude said, the skepticism natural and expected.

"Sure thing." Charger closed his helmet and crouched a bit, then in an instant blasted off the stage in a jet stream, flying low around the demonstration area, before taking off and putting on serious speed, circling the entire Central Park in under a minute. The reporters start clapping. a bit.

"...First off, the suit has immense flight capabilities for rapid emergency response. Its upper speed limit is classified... but rest assured, it can accelerate to Mach 1 in under 20 seconds." The man said confidently, as the presentation went on.

All the while the power armor was flying around, a young lady sat quietly in the crowd. She appeared to be a bespectacled reporter, wearing business wear, but she had no mic, no camera, not even a notebook. She had a strange grin on her face watching the MRD operative fly, and her eyes were swirling pools of color, hinting to an unnatural nature...

"Arrr. Too many people." Jake groaned as he turned off his red vision. The sea of red turning back into normal people who had gathered together for this... announcement. It was something pretty big because it had a theme, a theme that always took plenty of attention when it came to news. Anti-Meta protection. Being a Nephilim, Jake didn't really consider himself a meta like the average one but he knew that as long as he could punch a tree in half, he was going to be a meta to everyone who considered him one.

Jake himself was seated on a branch in a tree a small distance away from the event. He was in his red suit because he had actually forgotten about this, he saw it because of the sea of red as he was jumping about but now that he was here... Well. He was worried. All this Anti meta talk made Jake think about his own actions which had been rather safe he thought, a lack of buildings being destroyed was in his mind but he also knew that many might not see it all the same.

Turning his Red vision back on, Jake scanned the area once more to see if there was anything strange, like a dead person, anything really. Cause he also knew that Anti Meta events like these would draw attention, bad attention that could bring unnecessary death.

The demonstration continued without much of a hitch. After flight, they moved towards a cleared blast zone to demonstrate it's durability- pipes, knives and baseball bats were the warm up, followed by bullets and grenades rendered ineffective. A flamethrower bathed the suit in white hot flames, but the cop was completely fine. Finally, a large moving vehicle was driven straight into the suit, and the crowd gasped as Maxwell as carried along, though rose to applause when he stops the truck and even carries it in an overhead press.

"...Amazing!" The skeptical reports were, one by one, slowly being convinced that this was the real deal. Suspicious reporter woman watched, as amazed as all the others.

Meanwhile...

The bald spokesperson watched with pride as his product was put through its paces, though a few of his colleagues watching from the sidelines, monitoring the suit's systems and integrity. One of the older scientists, an older african-american gentleman in a suit, approached the boss. It was extremely unlikely to notice this exchange, considering the demo ongoing.

"...Sir, you need to take a look at this." He tried to show the speaker something on a screen, but the CEO of Parthenon Industries gestured him to not get on stage.

"Not now, doctor. Can't you see the media's eating out of our hands?"

"Sir, please. I'm detecting abnormalities in the suit's neural-matrices! I've told you before, We need to run more tests before demonstrating it! We don't know what its effect is on-"

"Doctor, for the last time. I make the calls. If you want to be the one in charge, make your own company." He said aloofly, before smiling once more for an intrepid young reporter that approached him.

"Asshole." The scientist muttered, returning to the sidelines with the other engineers.

So far so good, more people were coming in to see the event, the loud noises of gun fire and explosions enough to draw anyone who wondered what was happening in and so more and more came and it got a little harder for Jake to keep track of the many red lights the lit up his sight. Too many people, far too many. Looking to the spokesman of the event, Jake didn't see much, there were a bunch of lights not unlike the crowed, but smaller and machines.

He saw how one light went away from the rest towards the spokesperson but was quickly dismissed from stage as more lights showed up. Turning off his red vision, Jake watched as the colors returned, but saw nothing new or anything he could tell from the safe distance he was to avoid prying eyes. As much as the this... Cop suit was an improvement, Jake didn't think too much of it, he could survive all those things the cop went though easily, his only concern was the strength of the cop, something that proved to be enough to carry a truck but it could easily be more and for there sake he hoped it was. Jake was certain that he could kick the cops ass without much trouble at this point, as long as he kept it from flying.

"Honestly a bunch of hype for a machine that has seen no real combat with Metas. Heck, how would it survive demons. And the pilot. One good shot on them and the machines useless." Jake went about, criticizing the machine as he relaxed into his tree. Maybe the event would go perfectly fine, with no upstart villains appearing trying to prove how much of a villain they were. Honestly.

Knightfall wasn't one for this kind of crowd, but of course anything the government cooked up that could potentially become a threat to him was a problem. So when the police department whipped out RoboCop MK2 he was deeply bothered. Someone had to take this thing down before it progressed any further. Hey, he might even snag some tech from it for future research. So rolling his shoulder's Knightfall stood up from his chair on the outside of the crowd and rolled his shoulders. "Time to get to business." He then got up on the stage and wrenched the microphone from the speaker's hands. "Testing... testing, one, two, three. Alright now some of you may recognize me as the guy who essentially messes up everyone's day. The same will most likely be happening today as I stand before you. Now before the rest of you cops try to arrest me and get your asses handed to you, I actually want a challenge. If I take down your cyborg cop guy then I get to take his technology as a reward?"

The speaker, the bald rich CEO, was initially taken by surprise by Knightfall, followed by slightly annoyed.

The scientists were outraged, but slightly afraid. Some in security predicted the demonstration might attract... wrong attention. The suit's developer shouted at Knightfool.  "...Wh-Who in the world do you think you are!? Security, escort that man off the stage!"

The media were now covering this surprise turn of events.

The CEO however, gestured the overeager regular police officers to back off. If Knightfall was a metahuman, as he suspected, the supercop was the only significant challenge who might put a world of hurt on him. Besides, it made for a killer presentation.

"Ah. I was going to have Sergeant Charger go and find criminal activity to put a stop to... but a live demonstration, against a metahuman eager to get hurt, will also be sufficient." He even stopped to pull out a pen and paper.

With that charisma and self-confidence, he talks to Knightfall like the consummate businessman. "...You've got balls, son. I may not be a big sympathizer to your kind, but I laud tough talk... especially if it can be backed. What's your name? I want to know what to put on the waiver for you to sign. If you can beat him I'll even hire you... but if he beats you, neither I nor the NYPD can be held liable for your... injuries. Do we have a deal?" he offers the papers to Knightfall, like a faustian bargain. As they spoke, the CEO's personal assistant, a pretty redhead in business attire and a short skirt got on stage, putting herself between Knight and the CEO. She eyed Knight, not letting him make any sudden moves against the boss without her reacting.

Jake stood up in his tree, his eyes going wide, a man in what could clearly seen be a motocycle helmet had walked on stage and... Jake didn't quite believe what he was seeing, what the man was asking. He wasn't sure he wanted too. "Is this guy insane? Is he stupid?" Jake may have berated the suit, but it was still impressive, even he had to admit it. It flew quickly, had strength, and could take a serious beating that seemingly matched Jake's, but he also knew it could be hiding it's true potential so that when a real threat arrived, it could take it down without worry of being too known.

Dropping to the ground, Jake went to a crawl as he moved slowly towards the crowd, most likely there eyes were going to be glued to the insane man and the mechanized cop but in this frenzy, his suit could be a danger to him, clearing stating what he is, a meta in there eyes, and a possible danger. So why get close? He needed to make sure that this fight, did not go badly, that people did not get hurt. That if he had to punch the super cop or the idiot, then he would, but he also wondered why they didn't straight up try to arrest the guy, a strange move for the police. A dangerous move at that and Jake did not like the idea of more danger being involved in this strange situation.

Now this was a first for him, he walks up on stage and threatens a new police security measure and they respond with a job offer, and people said he was crazy. Now the bald guy was trying to get him to sign a waiver, a "sell your soul to the devil" type deal. Knightfall was tempted to punch the guy into a coma he may never wake up from but a woman stepped between them. So he just decided to sign the damn thing, he was always in need of a job anyways. "Put Knightfall on your waiver." He said eyeing the RoboCop under his visor.

"Excellent. Sergeant, if you will, detain this metahuman for disrupting our demonstration." The CEO puts the contract away and invites the supercop to test himself against Knightfall.

"Your funeral punk." Sergeant Maxwell was happy to comply, but remained tactical in his approach and drew his specialized weapon, a six-barrelled grenade launcher.

The CEO provided narration of course, for the news crews that made alot of room, abandoning five or six rows in the front, leaving Dabbler the sole seated spectator. "When facing an unknown metahuman, the most important weapon is not bullets, or strength, or armor... it's knowledge. Know your enemy, don't let your enemy know you."

The launcher fired, but it was a steel net weapon rather than an explosive. It was a rapid, non-lethal capture tool that quickly entangled and tightened, subduing weaker targets and at the same time assessing their physical strength.

meanwhile as Dabbler watched the two muscle bound meatheads duke it out, a cruel smile flashed on her face as she simply teleported out of her seat and into the backstage area. She had a wonderful idea.

Jake watched from the safety of the back, everyone was far too focused on what was in front of them to see what was behind them which meant he could easily creep up behind them, he did however, did not make a move to get closer, a single woman still seated where the others have left, ether very smart or didn't care which... Did that cop just pull out a Grenade launcher?

Jake stared wide eyed at the cop, not sure what to think, this area, this zone was a zone full of civilians. Preparing to stand up and interfere, he was too late as the mechanized cop fired there grenade launcher, but rather then a explosive, Jake saw that a net was lunched out of it. Thanking that the cop wasn't a total idiot, a threshold that seemed hard to reach with the metas introduction to this whole mess, Jake made another scan of the crowd, only to notice that the woman from before was no longer in her seat, yet looking at the crowd, he couldn't seem to pinpoint her.

"Why don't people care for there own safety." Was all Jake could say, letting his red vision come back to see better, he ignored the fight for now, civilians was top priority and one was.... Jake took note an extra in the back stage of the area, unable to clarify if this new extra was the woman from before, Jake just assumed it was, which meant that she too would be a meta to get back there so fast. Now it was only a matter on what the hell she did, and how this fight between a meta and a super cop went. "A new cop suit is coming out, why not make sure nothing bad happens I mean, what are the chances of that happening, stupid Jake. Stupid." He finally muttered as he continued to scan the area, but mostly kept to the mysterious new back stage person and the ensuring fight, his muscle tensing and relaxing, ready to spring into action if he was needed.

Knightfall was prepared for his sudden end when the cop pulled out what appeared to be a grenade launcher. Lucky for him though because it was only a net launcher. Knightfall channeled the adrenaline in his system and sidestepped the net as it was launched towards him. "Damn shame." He then took this time to adjust the voltage on his galva-knuckles to maximum, swinging a hard right hook at the cop's jaw.

The fight would continue as the supercop prepared to fire another non-lethal ordinance. After all, he was a cop trying to arrest Knight, not murder him. This time a grenade was shot at Knight's feet, which exploded on impact into a super-cold gas that rapidly enveloped a radius in freezing air.

But, this boring demonstration was too much for Dabs. Having viewed a movie trailer recently, she decided to pull an epic prank on these people. She pulled the plug on the demo music playing, a silence falling all over the park. She then assumed the form of a certain... clown.

With her powers, it was only childsplay for her to emerge from beneath the stage as Pennywise. While some fool clown coming into view was hardly attention grabbing, the media present were in for a big surprise when all their camera feeds were quickly haunted. Terror began to rise as people abandoned their mobile devices and portable cameras, as a mad grinning clown seized control of the media, a dark laughter echoing across the park over hundreds of devices. "This is turning into a total freak show!"

A blogger ran past Jake, leaving his haunted phone at his feet, for his viewing pleasure.

The scientists, with their laptops and other devices, used their brains and ran away when their screens turned clowny. Even the confident CEO who didn't take Knightfall as a threat, was stepping back, staying behind her bodyguard. "Wha... what is that? who is that? is this some... some kind of sick joke?! Appolyon, get that clown!"

"Yessir." The bodyguard lady approached fearlessly, demonstrating an inhuman control over her emotions. She drew a gun, but Her unflinching determined walk was cut short when a monstrous tentacle dragged her beneath the stage in the blink of an eye. Gone, just like that. The CEO stared wide eyed, jaw open.

"...You'll float down there." Dabs delivers the line, and decides to approach Knight.

"Fu-Fu-FUCCCCCCCCKKKING EVIL CLOWN!" It seemed the power armored sergeant had a certain... reaction to clowns, and rocket-boots flew away, leaving Knightfall to deal with Dabblerwise.

"You'll float too. YOU'LL FLOAT TOO!" Dabs was definitely in-character.

Jake turned his vision off as the fight ensured, trying to get a sight as to what was happening and it was... Well the super cop had some interesting things, so far all he had done was try and detain the meta before them, it was slow, long. And would allow the meta to attack with much more... well, not really caring for his foe.

But then, something... strange happened. A strange looking clown appeared, it's appearance that seemed unethical for what was happening, yet it got people scared. People were running, running his way that he would be seen no matter what so he simply hoped up to his knees, someone passing by dropped there phone and a quick glance at it's screen showed Jake what everyone seemingly feared. It spoke aloud to which Jake could only assume this new clown had some stake in it. "Right then. Better do something about this." Jake said as he stood up fully, looking to see that a woman was dragged down under the stage by a tentacle and the cop ran away... Things were not going right anymore, it was only a matter of time before someone got hurt badly. He needed to do something..

Running forward, Jake jumped from his position into the air, if anyone looked up, they would see the red suited individual rising into the air and then swiftly falling back towards the ground, just before the stage. Feet hitting the ground, Jake bent his knees and did a smaller jump right after, rising and landing on the stage next to the new murder clown. "Bonk." Jake yelled as he aimed to strike the clown's nose with an open palm, hoping it was not as durable to not be affected by his strength, his plan to stop this before the meta or anyone else got hurt.

This was certainly not how he'd expected things to turn out today with a living copy of Pennywise the clown before him. But of course it was only a copy, hence the tentacle that dragged the cop under the stage, and why Pennywise wasn't channeling his fear. It was only in fact reciting quotes from the trailer that recently came out. There was only one person Knightfall knew who would cause this type of mayhem and had a large association with tentacles. "Dabbler?" But before he could say anything else a kid in a red suit palmed the clown's nose. "You've got to be kidding me. The best you could come up with for cheesy one-liner was "bonk"?"

Dabblerwise took in the terror she created, and all who dared to resist. Jake not the dog swooped in all heroically, to squash Dabblerwise about the nose, but was kind enough to warn her first. Dabbler stood still for a second as the attack came, only for Jake to meet thin air and possibly fall over face flat onto the grass.

Dabbler teleported beside Knight, losing the clown get up and becoming her regular old witch self. "Awwww. You spoiled the prank." She said disappointed, the tentacles returning to their home dimension.

Moments later Appolyon the bodyguard punched right through the stage, returning to the land of the living. Her business suit was all shredded up, revealing she wore black lingerie... and was not entirely human, given her cyborg bits under that skin. She looked around, her boss having since vacated the park, looking at the metahumans. "Where is that clown?" she said rather deadpan, like she wasn't just being dragged by monstrous tentacles moments before.

The supercop hid behind a tree, and took awhile before he calmed down and remembered his duty. He dared to look back and saw the clown was gone.
"Inhuman freaks!" Gasping rapidly, the cool collected cop using nonlethal measures moments ago and took aim with his launcher. A second flash-freeze grenade was fired their way.

"Oh he's still alive-" Dabbler wouldn't be able to react, as the freeze grenade catches her and encases her in a layer of frost. The others were likely to be caught in the blast zone, if they didn't react well enough.