The Gala

BlackOut took the disc from Cosmos inspecting it for a moment before placing it on his wrist. "Snug fit" he said opening and clenching his fist. He was fairly certain he could short it out if need be but he was a man of his word for now. Besides he had no real intention of being killed if he couldn't disable the device. Black watched as the good doctor left the stage to address the scientists the woman followed soon after.

Sighing he floated off the ground again levitating toward the crowd of civilians ensuring that they made it out of the building safely. He watched from above, there seemed to be no problems as the filed out of the building slowly and orderly. Black could see the lights of dozens of emergency vehicles flashing from outside the building. The colored lights splashed against the windows as though they were making sure that everyone inside knew were there. Though Black knew they would never dare enter the building, not in a hostage situation. Honestly even if the did they would probably just get in his way.

As the last hostage stepped out the door Black returned to the stage, he sat down on the edge of the raised platform. His eyes shifting back to Cosmos, the woman and the scientists as the began to disconnect the device. "So how long is this gonna take" he said turning his eyes back to the now empty and trashed lobby.

"Let's get to work. This man's waited long enough."

Cosmos visibly winced, but raised a gloved fist and covered his mouth, coughing lightly into it to cover up the sudden and rare display of uncontrolled emotion. Elizabeth, with her sharp cruel little eyes must have caught it, because she smirked. Clement hated her, almost instantly, with an intensity that seemed to be exaggerated by the thing in his skull. It took an enormous flex of willpower to stop himself from reaching for the Ray Gun and turning her upper body into nothing more than a collection of rather pretty atoms.

"We need to know what it is you're doing; don't just unplug stuff without telling me."

Cosmos turned to her and smiled, a charming smile, under his neat little beard. ”Of course not. The first thing we need... Actually, that you need to do, is disconnect the power source. This consists of an Atomic Engine that looks very much like a large circular power core.” Elizabeth lost that smile, when the stranger seemed to display an uncanny amount of knowledge about the prototype power source. Cosmos stepped forward, looking around the alcove behind the wall. In the corner the engine hummed and throbbed, with a large amount of tubes streaming from it into a number of computer monitors. Cosmos turned to the young woman and pulled the gloves from his hand. ”First, you need to disconnect all but one of the monitors. And then we need to break the lead to the supercomputer situated beneath the stage. That’s where I will be, not only disconnecting the other monitors but making sure that the fluctuating power levels do not do harm to the computers.”

He moved towards the wall, where a staircase leads up to the stage. Under it ran a large number of tubes, secured down by a dark rubber. Under the stage sat the large expensive computer, laid against the wall. It had no active interface on it, of course, but there were a number of ports and small hand held devices that could be plugged in and Cosmos was sure that the Scientists would be happy enough to provide one of their own.

”If you need help, Ma’am, talk to one of the scientists cowering here and there. They’d be happy enough to help you.”

"Snug fit"

Cosmos smiled to himself, as he watched the hero observe the device on his wrist. He wondered briefly what he was thinking and immediately assumed some form of righteous revenge, although he may have been watching with bitter eyes. Cosmos watched him float from the stage to shepherd out the previous party goers that had recently been his bargaining chip. As they opened the lobby doors, he saw the multiple lights and sighed softly, knowing that the escape would be harder unless there was some sort of grand distraction.

And even more difficult was the idea of taking the rather charming woman with whom he had now adopted as a assistant. Would he take her with him? What measures would he take to protect his hide away from being exposed to the “lighter” element of the costumed community?

"So how long is this gonna take?"

Cosmos bought himself out of his thoughts and looked up at the Hero, before glancing back at the scientists. ”Done quickly, it might be too dangerous. However, the police won’t sit outside forever. Not unless someone talks to them. So, I think an hour is a good time frame, without factoring the loading times in the rear of the transportation truck.”

Workers scattered around the platform completing their tasks. Ashley hovered around the workers as they bustled through their work. Cosmos seemed increasingly aware of the situation. The events that transpired gave Ashley the droll revelation about Cosmos and this corporation.

Bliss was going to be pissed when she found out Ashley gave up the machine without a fight. Ashley thought about taking out her phone to call her, but right now nothing good would come from that. The situation seemed like clay in Cosmos's hand. He shaped and crafted it to whatever he deemed necessary.

Heels clicked against cold metal and brought out the announcement of Ashley's presence before Cosmos. The spatial between them presented a distance that Ashley hoped to span with her control of body language. "I want to come with you. I don't need to know where I'm going or how I got there, but I need to go with you." Ashley gave her request to Cosmos.

To all that happened Sean only watched.Staying the silent curious observer.He intended to stand behind his word,and not interfere.This was not his buisness.It was between the strange girl who approached the good doctor and the lightning shooting man.Honestly he didn't care if the doc succeded or failed.He only looked onward with mute interest.
Absorbing all of the information spoken that night.From how to unplug the machine to minor details that had little importance.Though after a few minutes of doing nothing he grew bored.So he decided why not help this man in his venture.So he with a slow pace approached the Doc and the machine he so desperatly wanted.All of the hostages there were gone.Him and the other three were the only remaining as far as he knew."You need any help with this?"He asked with the charismatic smile he so enjoyed to wear.Maybe he could help.If the Doc wasn't full of bullshit.He would like to help someone who wanted to save their precious daughter.

"I want to come with you. I don't need to know where I'm going or how I got there, but I need to go with you."

Clement’s mouth twitched, in the softest of smiles, although the effect was mostly hidden by his neat little beard. He turned to her and raised a quizzical eyebrow. He turned and walked towards her, lifting his arms and crossing them against his chest. The image presented to her was one of a person closing himself off. Of course, this was not true. He was simply manipulating the moment, trying to make sure the ground beneath her feet feel unsure. As the scientists worked around him, crawling under the stage or muttering near the computers, he smiled the slightest of smiles.

”Why?” He kept the air of good humour, his eyes twinkling at her. ”If you wanted to protect the machine, then you would stop me, here. You could use any number of tactics to do so. Mr lightning could short circuit all of my toys while one of you could throw the remains of atlas at me, to pin me into place.” He paused, to take a breath and look around at the other scientists. He was almost acting secretive for a moment. ”If you cared only for the child, you could simply do the same. You could force me into submission and then get some kind of telepath to pluck the very information from my mind.”

He turned away from her, leaning forward so that he could watch the men and women work.

”Are you curious about me? About my Lair?” He laughed softly, turning to look over his shoulder at her. ”I don’t know your name. You know mine; you have seen my very soul, bared out on a stage, performed to you like my life was naught but some tragic play.” He turned to her now, looking up with a critical eye. His good humour seemed to leave him now. ”So the question remains: Why?”

."You need any help with this?"

Cosmos stopped, turning to the young gentleman. The coldness within him was brushed aside again, a smile surfacing on his lips, but it didn’t reach his eyes. He seemed sadder now. ”No, everything should be fine, as long as they keep working. But thank you for the offer.”

Black sighed as he waited for the device to be disconnected. His he eyes rolled across the large lobby. It was odd that not that long ago this room was crammed with some of the city's most affluential indiviuals, now it as barren. Black hopped off stage his foot landing in a puddle of what was he assumed was once Atlas's face. He walked around the stage joining the rest of the the group as the stood and watched the the scientists disconnect the machine they were quick but very careful making sure not to damage any of the equipment. Every few minutes one of them would throw him an angry glance and mutter something under their breath as though the still expected him to save them.

"Well, I'm assuming your are going to need me to cause some kind of distraction so you can escape..." he said turning to Cosmos tilting his head to the left. "Since you seem to the criminal mastermind type I'm guessing you have some sort of plan?" His eyes flicked from the Doctor to the woman who was standing next to him and then quickly back to Cosmos as he awaited a reply.

"You think too much." Ashley shot out. He sounded just like Bliss. "And you broadcast it to the point of boredom." He kept all the meticulous ranting up. It passed the time as the engineers kept going about their tasks.

"Honestly, I just want to know more about this device. I don't feel like broadcasting my inner dialogue in front of all these people." Ashley moved along the stage and walked back over to where the engineers worked diligently. "All these wonderful people, and their scientific pursuits." She smiled across her shoulder to Cosmos. "I can help, and your rambling already came to the conclusion that I offer no ulterior motives. I openly state that I want to know about this device. I don't want to take it from you. I just want knowledge about it." The machine seemed completely dismantled, but she looked at it from the lens of a spectator and not a scientific mind.

He was slightly agitated that the doc didn't need his help.He truely did want to help.To help this man save his precious daughter.Do for her what he couldn't do for his mother.Then he remembered what the doc and the lightning man were talking about."Well if you don't need my help with the machine.Then how about me helping you with distracting the police?"He suggested shrugging.Commanding all of the ice to converge to him.Melting in an instant and swirling around him like a transparent maelstrom.Even though no sound was produced from it."I am pretty damn good with distracting people"Which was true.He had enough experience in escaping the police.Maybe he could use it to help this man do the same.

"You think too much. And you broadcast it to the point of boredom."

Cosmos almost choked out a laugh, surprised by her directness. He managed a stifled hrmph, his years of being a gentlemen of polite society stopping him from laughing to the point of tears. She was right. He did think too much. The thoughts that moved from one side of his mind to the other sped at often the speed of light, or though that might be an exaggeration, and they were many and varied. Often they fluttered like great flocks of birds, and it was his job to wrangle one from the many. But before he could make a sharp rebuke, because he had one, he was interrupted.

"Well, I'm assuming your are going to need me to cause some kind of distraction so you can escape...Since you seem to the criminal mastermind type of guy I'm guessing you have some type of plan?"

."Well if you don't need my help with the machine.Then how about me helping you with distracting the police? I am pretty damn good with distracting people.”

Cosmos looked at the two of them, slightly disappointed that he wouldn’t have the chance to refute her, to claim that mystery seemed to be the proverbial “filler” for an actual personality. Facing the two men he tapped a foot, looking brightly from one to the other. ”I had one or two ideas, yes. For example, I could turn on the alarms of every single bank in New York. I’m sure the panic would cause many of the fine Gentlemen and Ladies and blue from their position around the building. However, those that remain will undoubtedly see me attempt the escape in the large moving truck, so... Perhaps a pseudo explosion?”

He moved to the left, his eager feet now pacing back and forth in front of them. ”You sir, can fly. I’ve seen that. So we could do something of a Rooftop escape where you lure the ground units away. However, I don’t know if this young sir here has that power.” He took a deep breath, turning to them both with sharp eyes, his pulse higher than normal as he performed his little thinking trick, something that had kept food on his table and a roof above his head since he had arrived.

”Perhaps blow the front lobby. Then one of you, pretending to be me, uses the buildings west exist. With minimal guards, you should escape easily. The brief confusion will be enough for me to escape, and presuming that you, sir,” He pointed at the gentlemen who manipulated electricity. ”Could vouch for him, and say that in the explosion, you became confused. This absolves everyone of blame. And by the time they have gotten the guests to tell them what really happened, you can be gone. Talk it over, I’ll be back.”

He turned his back on them, instead moving to the young woman, who had watched the scientist dismantle the machine with an alarming proficiency. He listened to her intently as she spoke, his eyes on her and on them, making sure each nut and bolt was removed correctly. He nodded here and there, a vacant agreeable look on his face, before smiling as she finished. ”Ah. The purest of sins, afflicted only on those with inquiring minds. I’m sure the people working on the Manhattan Project simply wondered where the power of the Atom. This machine... It’s dangerous. Dangerous and familiar. There were things like it in the place I use to call home. And they were a both a curse and gift.” He left the cryptic words hanging in the air, before calling out, ”How much longer?”

A scientist shrugged, indicating he wasn’t sure, but mouthed somewhere between fifteen to twenty minutes.

”I had one or two ideas, yes. For example, I could turn on the alarms of every single bank in New York. I’m sure the panic would cause many of the fine Gentlemen and Ladies and blue from their position around the building. However, those that remain will undoubtedly see me attempt the escape in the large moving truck, so... Perhaps a pseudo explosion?”

Doctor Cosmos began pacing back and forth in front of them thinking. Black stood silently his eyes following the him as he processed what the Doctor has said. He then turned to Black and the man next standing next to him again. ”You sir, can fly. I’ve seen that." he gestured toward Black who nodded silently. "So we could do something of a Rooftop escape where you lure the ground units away. However, I don’t know if this young sir here has that power. Perhaps blow the front lobby. Then one of you, pretending to be me, uses the buildings west exist. With minimal guards, you should escape easily. The brief confusion will be enough for me to escape, and presuming that you, sir, could vouch for him, and say that in the explosion, you became confused. This absolves everyone of blame. And by the time they have gotten the guests to tell them what really happened, you can be gone. Talk it over, I’ll be back.”

Cosmos walked away to speak with the woman who was overseeing the dismantling of the device which seemed to be nearing its final stages. Black watched for a moment with his arm crossed across his chest tapping his fingers on his biceps. "So what do you think?" he said turning to the man next to him. "I should be able to blow the front lobby easily so that woun't be a problem" he said. "Next you fake an escape attempt disguised as Cosmos, and then... well I guess thats it." he said rubbing his eyes with the palms of his hands. He was never really much of a schemer so this was new to him. He was much more comfortable with the jump in head first and see what happens approach. So all of this planing really felt foreign to him. "So what do you think" he reiterated bringing his hands back down and turning to his new partner in crime, as he fiddled with the bomb that was still active on his wrist.

"And where exactly am I during all of this? You're planning on taking me along right?" Ashley insisted on a relevant role in the planning of this escape. She wanted none of the fighting that could take place, and knew that too many hostages might make her out as an accomplice. She gazed over to the woman whose face was framed with a glinting pair of glasses. Her jaw lines held up a look of content. The look seemed well placed in this situation, but Ashley couldn't get the feeling the woman scorned at her.

"I think you've outstayed your welcome. This room seems like the more space it entails the more judgmental it becomes." She kept pace with Cosmos, holding herself to his pace. Her hands held each other behind her back, moving her shoulders forward and changing her stature. "What do you think the corporation will do now that you've returned?" She kept her voice low as to not alert anyone to the content of their conversation. "How high up is this corporation on the national standings? I know the government probably loves tax season with this groups capital influx, but what type of dealings do they have. You know, how much of the government do they own?"

The plan in theory was sound.If everyone did their part in this.Noone would go down this night.Afterall being incarcerated would be just a pain in the ass.So he would go along with the Good doctors plan.For now anyway."Sounds easy enough"He shrugged."Though i wonder how i should go about doing my part"He spoke silently to himself.This wasn't a simple robbery like he was used to.Police had this place surrounded.Maybe there was little room for escape.Still he had been in a tougher situation.If he could get through that.He could get through this."So whenever your ready we can begin"then he realized something."Oh almost forgot.Before i do anything else i need to ask your name.Im Sean.Sean Collin"He smiled extending his hand.Water around him moving to form a cloud above him.After all he couldn't work with someone whos name he didn't know.

"And where exactly am I during all of this? You're planning on taking me along right?"

”Yes.” He replied, almost immediately, watching her. He had decided that, for better or for worse, she would come with him. He wondered if she was ready for the consequences, because while the gentlemen may have a darker light cast on their reputation, it would be her that would be labelled as would be assistant. However, he did not ask her, rather confirming to her wish of not being questioned.

"I think you've outstayed your welcome. This room seems like the more space it entails the more judgmental it becomes."

He laughed easily, looking around at the tall walls, the glass and the steel, the imposing, invasive ability that white seemed to have on a tall grandiose building. He supposed that if a heaven existed, a place where he may one day stand before the judgement of a high building, this building would look remarkable familiar to it.

"What do you think the corporation will do now that you've returned?"

”Oh, they’ve known I’ve been back. There’s been a large media blackout on the whole thing, however. It seems not only does Clement Industries have pull with the fine political figures in Washington, but they also seem to control the words that spill from reporters mouths.” He smiled, cruelly towards the woman whom had been hosting the show. ”There was an agreement made, when I exited this universe. Clement Industries would be ‘kept warm’ for me, until my return.” He lifted his hand and made two quotations around the words kept warm, his face frowning as he did it. ”This would help keep the business running if I did not return.”

He took a breath now, his pacing finally stopped, his hands crossed in front of his body. ”They did not honour the agreement. When I returned, I was tied in so much bureaucratic nonsense that it would have taken me ten years to wriggle free. Ten years before I could access my daughter. Ten years before every single scrap of information on ever project was finally at my disposal. And by then, it would be too late.” He sighed, shaking his head and looking at the two gentlemen talking amongst themselves. ”By then, Clement Industries would be offering a service to give any number of men or women abilities that you or I may have. An army of super powered soldiers, sold to the highest bidder. Morally, it is disgusting. A crime against the human way of life, although we may be tarred with the same brush...” He paused, looking thoughtful, before finally tackling her last question with a single, curt reply.

"How high up is this corporation on the national standings? I know the government probably loves tax season with this groups capital influx, but what type of dealings do they have. You know, how much of the government do they own?"

”If I retained my presidency of the company, I could buy my way out of any court. And then run for President of the United States and win.” He laughed again, lightly, shaking his head in what appeared to be disappointment.

"Oh almost forgot. Before i do anything else i need to ask your name. I'm Sean.Sean Collin" the man said said extending a hand to Black. Turning Black scanned the man his left eyebrow raised slightly. Sean seemed quite cheery given their current state or maybe he was just bitter because he had a armed explosive device on his arm. No matter he seemed harmless enough so why not get to know him while waiting for the scientists to finish their work.

"BlackOut" he said shaking Sean's hand. "You can call me Black if you want. " he said waving his hand at the direction of the machine. "So do you really trust this guy or even believe him." Black asked changing the subject. "I just don't know about him, I feel like he's up to something." Black crossed his arms again and watched Dr. Cosmos closely as he spoke to the woman on the other side of the room. "I don't trust him" he said quitely to himself clenching his jaw angrily.

The conversation sat in an odd surrounding. Anxiety from the outside and the ever impending action that would cause her to need to relocate from this current setting. "Its good to have friends in high places. But having conversations under the flood lights of helicopters is low on my list."

A calm set upon the room. The two other heroes talked amongst one another, the hostages quieted down, and the scientific staff lost their fear amongst their work. "The room is calm. People have lost their fear in complacency." Ashley monitored the room from her perch along the scaffolding. "Ask nicely with the established power, but never use it. And then the people just sit back and let you work."

Placards and engraved marble lined the room, but failed to offer anything of importance. Whatever force came to collect on Cosmos would tear it apart to get their target. "The police will try and threaten you with force. That's wear their power lies. If they have to use it, they loose all their power and we win the moral victory. It will be a very Pyrrhic victory if we aren't alive with this machine though, so we should probably start moving."

"Honstly im a little sceptical about his whole story,but its not my place.What he does with his machine is what he does.The only reason i should have to stop him is if he does anything to hurt me"Sean stated plainly.After shaking the hand of the man Blackout he crossed his arms."Not too crazy about staying around here either though"He admitted.Never did like high tension situations such as this.Much preferred meditating and such.Learning to control his powers.To avoid the backlash of overusing.Which was extremely painful in its self.Though that is a different story in its self.Now he was ready to get the hell out of here.Whenever the good doc was ready to.He would do his part,and leave all this shit behind.