Night at the Museum

The Metropolitan Museum of Art. A wonderful place and one Lucifer had been to a couple of times in his long life of crime. Sometimes to visit for himself, other times to take things for himself, and still other times like tonight to take something for a client. Sure, it was always a pity when priceless pieces of art were removed from the museum, taken by some grubby fingers and out of the eye of the public. Their beauty lost to the rest of the world simply because someone with a lot of money decided that they needed to piece more than everyone else. Completely ruining the painters intended purpose for the piece. It sickened Lucifer and yet when a reliable client with their grubby fingers in lots of things and supplied The Crime Syndicate with a lot of information wanted a piece and was willing to pay. Well they got the piece.

This of course would generally be a job for a lower member of the Syndicate or even one that Number Three could do herself but Phantom was feeling bored. He hadn’t stretched his legs in quite some time and didn’t want to get rusty; that and he simply couldn’t pass up the opportunity to visit the museum again and see how New York, and the Syndicate’s interests in the city, were progressing at the same time. This was how the illusive leader of the world’s largest underground criminal organization found himself walking around the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the middle of the night, well after closing, admiring the many different Exhibitions with two other men by his side. One of course admiring the pieces almost as much as Lucifer himself, while the other looked bored out of his mind.

The two aforementioned men were Number Two and Number Six of the Crime Syndicate. Otherwise known as Iapetos and William the Bloody. Both had questioned why their boss needed them on this particular snatch and grab as it didn’t seem at all that hard and didn’t truly pertain to either of their skills. No further questions were made from Two as he enjoyed the Met and had wanted to see the Fredric Remington at the Met exhibit for quite some time; anymore questions that Six posed were silenced by the promise of a fight were anything to go wrong as this was of course New York City.

Thus, the three high ranking members of the Crime Syndicate, and one other, made their way carefully and slowly through the now abandoned Museum, as one of the security guards was a sleep thanks to Lucifer and the other was under the thrall of Number Two. Not on any deadline the four moved as if without a purpose, to any on lookers it would even appear as if they were on a tour led by the guard. If it wasn’t after hours of course. Eventually they came across a room dedicated to 18th Century England, which interested Six and before Lucifer or Iapetos could say anything the assassin reached out to touch a piece setting off an alarm. No guards there were alerted, obviously, but this certainly made things harder for the World’s Greatest Thief and his compatriots. Now they were on a time table.

At no point did Danny ever wear out her welcome throughout a global museum- unless the curator hated her parents and by extension her, but that only happened once. Twice if you count Peru, but the curator was a vampire, so it would go in a completely different file. Now, the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art did keep a warm relationship with the Tamamoa family, and even hosted a small exhibit of theirs in one of the lower wings of the building.

No pieces of any significance made their way into the family exhibit for about a year. A notice Danny received from the museum curator via a well written E-mail explaining without any new pieces, the exhibit would not be able to maintain its spot. For a year, Danny sent a few artifacts from a vampire cult found in Calcutta, a mysterious trident in undersea ruins in southern Greece, and a moonstone found in the aftermath of a volcanic eruption in Hawaii. However, the museum never obtained any of the artifacts in question.

Being of able body and short temper for theft, Danny decided to take her family's latest discover, a batch of dinosaur eggs and Davey Jones' favorite drinking flask. On their own they did not bring in as much awe as the other pieces- a fact Danny came to face as she looked at the exhibit that looked very much the same as it did before she arrived. "Man, that trident though. I had some other pieces to put up to really bring it all together."

How they got lost still did not really make too much reason to her. Her parents shipped them to Stanford, then Danny picked them up, sent them to Bliss since she could mail large packages, and then- "Wow, Bliss. New low. When I run into her again, I am curb stomping her until she- what was that?"

A noise turned into an alarm, giving Danny a new set of priorities. Her T-shirt and skirt did not yell superhero, nor did her scarf command respect to be feared, she did keep her ever handy bracelet on her wrist. "Bliss, you just postponed the meanest Instagram slam you were ever going to receive."

Danny stepped down the hall, focusing her eyes on the 18th Century England exhibit. "Well. Okay." Danny rushed down the hallway, assuming she would merely meet a jewelry thief, or at worst some kind of small time metahuman trying to use their shadow jumping for a quick score. Instead she found far more of a problem than her previously thought of notions. "It doesn't look like those belong to you, unless you're a two hundred year old English zombie, in which case, great skin!"

Lilith was not really a museum type of person but she'd been in New York on business and had already turned into Shatter, in order to do some patrolling to pass the time. She'd made certain to keep her ear out for the police band and other alarm related things, from security companies and the like. And just like that she got a hit, and jumped into the data stream coming out above and behind the four crooks and the casually clad hero.

"Well, either someone came back for their stuff. Or you guys like going to crimes in themed outfits" quipped Shatter at the men that seemed like they belonged in is 18th century exhibit. Looking at the girl, she hoped that she was on her side cause there was no telling what these four could do, and frankly Shatter knew she didn't look all that intimidating.

As she was often told she looked like some kind of techno fairy or something with the digital wings, lotus coloured hair and puffy skirt. But she was much more then she looked "Well I hope you're on my side lady, you take two and I'll take two. How does that work for you" posed Shatter as she created a digital construct in her hand that resembled a crossbow. And aimed and fired at two of the men, leaving the other two for the casual girl.

Flick was minding his own business as he crawled along the walls of the museum. At 1.5 inches tall and wearing an armoured suit with a stealth field, he was pretty confident that any security guards would miss him. The Fly On The Wall had wanted to browse the exhibits in peace, mostly so that he could either mess around with what was on display or possibly find something cool or expensive to steal.

After all, his recent trip here had proven that some of these old artefacts were more valuable than they first appeared. How is Victoria getting on now, he wondered.

Flick eyed the sign directing visitors to the 18th Century England collection. The Scotsman smirked to himself and decided to take a look. "I'm -sure- this English shite brings in the crowds," He said mockingly, rolling his eyes and confident no one would hear him.

The mercenary leapt from the wall, landing gently atop an open book that showed a map of the British Empire circa 1850. It included a faded note of gratitude from Queen Victoria to a Royal Navy Captain, dated 1851. The alarms failed to go off, the tiny man's weight being far too insignificant to trigger them.

As Flick surveyed the room from this new vantage point, the trio led by the security guard arrived into the room. Reasoning that they must be some posh arseholes getting a private tour, the mercenary burst into laughter as one of them foolishly touched an exhibition piece and set off the alarm. Idiot, he thought, then sighed as his own plans to rob the place would have to wait until after the police arrived.

Flick's amusement turned to surprise as Danny arrived and confronted the tour group. Regarding the woman with confusion, the thief continued his bad habit of talking to himself, "What's this lassie doing-" before he was interrupted by the arrival of Shatter.

Still trying to work out what was going on, the mercenary stretched out his arms in shock as the digi-fairy suddenly summoned a crossbow and started firing it at the small crowd. "The fuck?!" He whisper-shouted.

“Closer to a hundred and eighty, but who’s counting.” William immediately replied to the young woman that arrived on scene. A grin spread across his face, as he flipped through the book that he had picked up before returning it to its pedestal. “As a matter of fact, this does belong to me. Wrote this back in my early days, I’m quite touched it ended up in a museum; people of my time didn’t care for the Poems I wrote.” He was even ready to keep talking to the girl, despite the obvious protest coming from Number Two and The Phantom, when another individual made their appearance. Or, rather she appeared seemingly out of the defunct security cameras above the three members of the Crime Syndicate and their willing helper the Museum Security Guard. She spouted out something about them doing a crime dressed up in era which made no sense. Sure, Lucifer and Iapetos wore suits but William definitely didn’t look like he belonged in 18th Century England (at least not anymore).

Without even waiting to see if she had her facts straight or confirm that a crime had been committed the digital fairy summoned a crossbow and fired it off at Lucifer and Six. Although definitely fast enough to dodge out of the way of such a simple device Six instead allowed it to simply pierce his skin. Grinning like a mad dog unleashed he grasped the bolt and tugged it out throwing it to the ground as his wound slowly started to close up. The Phantom on the other hand simply turned his body intangible as it past right through him. Letting a sigh escape his lips he placed a hand on William’s shoulder and momentarily getting the attention of the Assassin. “Wait but a moment lad, this one is obviously in the wrong and doesn’t have all of the facts.” A nod to Iapetos was all it took.

From there the brown-haired individual in the lavish suit, straightened his tie and stepped forward hands raised. “Stop.” The command was issued out, his voice although soft spoken almost echoing in the exhibit. Or so it would seem to the two, or rather three, other individuals. “No crime has been committed here, an over eager individual touched an artifact that interested him but surely that doesn’t warrant a crossbow in the gut.” It wasn’t a question, more so a statement, yet at the same time it wasn’t a command. The only one that had been issued thus far was the one to stop. Thus far. “Therefore, you have no business here. We’re being led by this nice Security Guard on a private tour. Nothing sinister. So. Why. Don’t. You. Leave.” Not truly directed at either of the two girls the command was clear though, and during this speech Phantom of course turned himself invisible and quietly made his way out of the room towards their true destination.

The number of criminals in the room did race past Danny's original guess of probably one. Maybe two. This team really packed for the road, which means stealth might be the first option, but the second option involved platinum blonde hair. "I might believe that if it wasn't for the guy with Guy Fieri tips with the book. There is no way I see that guy at a museum after closing hours, after an alarm has gone off, and think 'yep, he's not a problem'."

While Danny began her verbal back and forth with the squad, a new arrival drew her attention. Just as quickly as a pair of fairy wings arrived, so did Danny's surprise at seeing a fairy stand a few inches taller than her. "I thought you were about to hit me from behind. If you're here to stop whatever this is, then let's be friends. We can even get bracelets made after we deal with- well, you wanted those two right?"

Before Danny's hand signals could continue, a bolt fired from Shatter's crossbow. It started Danny seeing someone jump the trigger so quickly, causing Danny to hesitate before forming a turquoise shield in her left hand and hand crossbow in her right. "I think we should give them a chance to surrender before firing, you know, read them their rights or something."

The voice of the Phantom yelled out a declaration. He had a point, but so did Shatter. It was just Shatter's point hit a guy in the gut. "We don't buy the tour thing." The shield kept up covering Danny as she stepped in front of Shatter in case of a counterattack. "Now that you know we mean business, let's just drop this standoff and you guys can surrender. How about it?"

The guy who acted as the leader had held back his little healing friend, claiming some sort of wrongness that Shatter had taken. She rolled her eyes at the statement, as the casual hero girl had decided to comment on Shatter's idea about teaming up. "Sounds like a plan, but lets leave the social stuff till after this" replied Shatter to the girls' comments.

Shatter heard Danny's words and understood them as a kind of sympathy for these guys, even though they'd already admitted they weren't technically mortal anyway. So it didn't really matter in Shatter's books "They don't look the type to back down, but I guess there's no harm in asking" added Shatter as the other suited man yelled stop.

Shatter dropped her crossbow to have it vanish like a life lost in Mega Man, pixel like death and disappearance. But she was quickly back to being armed in the form of a paint ball gun, this wouldn't give grievous wounds but would still hurt like hell. Danny had shown she was some kind of construct wielder and pulled up a shield and a crossbow of her own, Shatter hadn't run into anyone else with a power set on par with hers.

As the man who yelled kept prattling on, the one who'd acted like a leader suddenly turned invisible. Probably trying to make his way out of the place with whatever ill gotten gains he'd acquired, Shatter just smirked and fired off her digital paint ball gun towards where the man was most likely heading. Since there was only one true exit out of the exhibit, it wasn't just a couple of shots but a line of paint balls fired off.

These by no means would hit any artifacts, and were more aimed at attempting to show the leader guy back on to the radar of everyone else in the room. And even if she'd hit what the man held in her hands, it was digital and she'd be able to remove it if she willed it. "Take out the speechifying guy, there's something up with his voice. He's best taken out quickly, these bastards are more then just shifty I'm guessing so bring your A game" informed Shatter.

Flick continued to watch in bafflement, the revelation that the tour group had super powers shattering his already shaky understanding of the situation. This was way over his head, but he was delighted to have stumbled across it.

The mercenary nodded as the brown haired man explained that they had only been here on a private tour and that the alarm going off was a mistake. That's exactly what I thought, rationalised Flick, as Number Two's powers of mind control found fertile ground in the man he didn't even know was listening.

Flick paused as the brown haired man demanded an answer, suddenly."...So. Why. Don’t. You. Leave." Flick spoke out loud in response, feeling compelled to answer, though nowhere near loud enough for anyone to hear. "Because I want to steal something, obviously."

The Fly On The Wall blinked, unsure why he blurted that out, then quietly crawled along the railing. He pauses, realising something was wrong, and tried to work out where the Phantom had suddenly vanished to.

As he began to crawl along the underside of the railing, the mercenary heard footsteps that were at once booming to him, and at the same time, near soundless to others. Flick blinked, quickly surmising that the missing man had literally become invisible. He grinned and made to follow at pace.  Curiosity had been his downfall in the past, but he couldn't help himself. More than that, it usually led to new opportunities.

But how do you keep track of an invisible man ...

“You think I’m a problem? I’m touched. Just wait until you see my dance moves.” William replied with a Cheshire like grin. He loved it when the ‘heroes’ jumped to conclusions, when they decided they were in the right without even knowing what happened. When they appeared on the scene and started blasting off their abilities or punching people in the face. Honestly, he was surprised there weren’t more people suing the so-called heroes or charging them with things like assault or public endangerment. Hell, they hadn’t even stolen anything yet and William had already ended up with a digital crossbow bolt to the gut. That was simply assault and anything the three of them did after this could totally be held up in court as self-defense. Not that they’d ever get caught but if they somehow did they’d never even see the inside of a courtroom let alone a jail cell with how fast their case would be dropped.

When Iapetos noticed that neither of the girls seemed to be listening to him a frown made its way onto his face. He hated it when people didn’t listen to him. When they thought they were so much better than he was. The audacity to believe that they were better than he was. He had even tried to be nice, he could have them kill themselves if he wanted. Point their own constructs in their mouth and fire up. Maybe even turn them on each other and fight to the death while the Syndicate members went about their business. But no, he simply had told them to le-no he had asked them why they hadn’t left. The damn wording. He was smarter than that, should have realized what he was saying could have been interpreted that way. Swayed in such a way that it wasn’t taken as a command or ‘suggestion’ and instead a question, thus letting them do as they wished. That was easily fixed but William obviously wanted to fight and Phantom was already gone meaning they were the distraction.

As the digital fairy fired off a paintball of sorts in a line across the room hitting nothing but the wall Iapetos shook his head and sighed. “This could have been so much easier. Sergeant if you would. Take down the fairy.” The security guard of course immediately turned to face the digital fairy and fired off three quick shots in rapid succession from his pistol, aiming center mass at Shatter. Turning to face the other female the voice of the Phantom simply rolled his hand as if inviting her to join in. “Help him take her down.” He wasn’t entirely sure if it would work or not but the command was still there. If she didn’t follow through and resisted William would rush over to her and attempt to slam his shoulder into her, quite like that of a football tackle or hockey check.

As for Phantom, himself he had simply stepped back and waited behind Iapetos, watching the scene unfold in front of him. When the girl fired off her digital paintballs intending to strike into him and light him up he made his move. A smart idea but one that instead simply allowed him to walk around the areas of digital paint and out the exit of the already opened door and into the next room. He had complete confidence in Number Two and Number Six and knew they could handle the situation. If, however it did start to go downhill and he needed to intervene he was quite sure that they would be dealt with in a timely manner, and if not and they themselves were unable to retrieve the piece there was a backup plane in place. Everything was going according to plan. More or less. Except for the distinct feeling that he was still being watched . . .

"I..." Danny kept her shield up while William spoke his ill intent to her. "Yeah, I don't want to see any of that." Gunshots rang out in rapid succession from across the room, directed at Shatter. With her position already established, Danny managed to block the bullets with her shield. Seeing a perfect opportunity to turn the moment, Danny managed a construct to extract the bullets, forming them into a bullet laden charm bracelet. "See, just like mine."

For a moment the world around Danny made sense. Her new friend behind her, a slew of villains in front of her, and her tried and true bracelet on her wrist. While Danny felt she would be able to advance like a hoplite and put Platinum Tips on his back, she suddenly felt her mind slip. A turquoise bolt flew out, turning into a bola to try and wrap up the nicer looking man, so she could focus her attack on William. However, instead of making a well adjusted advancement to deal with a foe, Danny turned around and would try to slam her shield into Shatter's chest.

The split second response quickly faded, but the bash from the shield still shot out. "Woah, sorry, no clue where that came from!" Feeling trickery at foot, Danny dissipated her shield and instead tried to go for a hard construct helmet to cover the Phantom's eyesight. While her maneuver would assist with cutting out on some flexibility, it did come at a rather costly expense.

She turned her blind side to William, instead focusing on the loss of control or possible telekinesis that caused her shield to slam at Shatter. She could feel the movement originate in her arm, so telekinesis would not take the blame today, someone around her could suggest and influence. "Careful, I think this guy wants to play mind games with-"

The blindside hit threw Danny to the ground. She impacted hard, shoving her bracelet under her body as she slid across the tile floor. "Someone needs to teach you to dance." Danny would try to respond as quickly as she could to get a hold of her bracelet and summon a shield to defend herself from William try to press the advantage on his downed foe.

This whole thing could've easily been dealt with if Miss casual had listened to her, but unfortunately it was a cluster stuff just like her attempt to light up the Phantom guy. So with a quick wave of her hand, or make that a mere gesture the digital paint as it laid on the ground. Would get up and attack what vibrations that sounded off near it, in the formation of a nest of digital spiders homing in on Phantoms foot steps.

Meanwhile Shatter was accessing the information well that was the museum audio tour which runs through this section as all others, grabbing a hold of the excess of information Shatter formed a shield to protect herself. Though Danny's shield caught the bullets aimed at her from the controlled guard, it was lucky she kept it up as Danny got swayed and bounced her own shield off of hers. With her free hand Shatter aimed toward Iapetos, attempting to the let of a barrage of information towards the man. Though Iapetos wouldn't see anything coming his way as information isn't all that visible.

If it hit him, then he'd bombarded with information at high and fast volumes, causing incredible migraines and making it impossible for him to speak or think. She floated down to ground level and dropped her wings, reshaping them into a war hammer and attempting to take a swing at William as he made his move.

Flick's determined pursuit of Phantom continued apace, with the miniature mercenary carefully avoiding the paintball-shells as they exploded between he and his quarry. It wasn't quite the Normandy landings, but he didn't want to be covered in digital gloop. Then he heard them.

BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.

The gunshots changed matters. Magic crossbows, metahumans and special effects were one thing, but bullets were bullets. He glanced back towards the doorway that the Phantom had stepped through, then sighed. His curiosity would go unrewarded, tonight.

Flick turned to the security guard, who was reloading and as of yet untouched by anyone. The Scotsman darted towards the man, using his jets to hover just behind him as he charged up a blaster shot.

Unshrinking to his full height of 6'1", the power armoured observer suddenly revealed himself as he blasted the back of the guard's head with a stunning shot of electricity. The bright blue flash illuminated the room, like a spot light.

"Eh... hey," Flick said, unused to heroic interventions. "I thought ye might need a hand with these English arseholes." Flick cleared his throat, doing his best impression of a deep, strong voice. Better they didn't think to ask why he was here in the first place, right?