"When They Hear Oom Pah Pah!" (IC)

[Heritage]

Fortunately, Estelle was able to sweep her hair of out the way of the odious-looking goo, but this was all taking far too much time, time better spent tracking Dr. Archeville; she had to finish this business up fast!

She shook her head and sighed. "Gentlemen, I'd really love to stay and chat, but I have more important things to do this evening, so we need to wrap this up, if you don't mind."

Suddenly her hair shot out in all directions like an explosion of golden needles, and there was a sound like a hundred whips being cracked at the same time. Then her locks lazily returned to surround her like an amber cloud, twitching fitfully.

[Dr Archeville]

Gossamer's flurry of hair-fists strike true, knocking out not only four of Scrounge's minions, but also Scrounge himself! The four minion slumped to the floor or ground, while Scrounge fell thirty-some feet from the sky, into an open dumpster.

But wait: there's five minions! And there the fifth one was, standing at the truck, clutching the giant spider-leg staff tight. "Ha! Guess this thing's got some power in it after all! I-"

He stopped and looked around, seeing everyone else was down for the count.

He turned and ran.

[Heritage]

Well that was far more effective than I thought it would be! Must remember that trick in the future.

Happy with her success, she hoped to make equally quick work of the remaining would-be thief. She slipped out her cellphone and speed-dialed ASTRO Labs as she formed a thick tentacle and started it whirling over head. "Gentlemen, if you could contact the police and let them know there are six unconcious miscreants passed out behind the Supers Museum; I'll leave them in a neat pile."

Then the whip lashed out at the back of the fleeing minion.

[Dr Archeville]

The minion had been running in a wide parabolic arc towards the street, and Gossamer had aimed her hair-strike accordingly, but the fellow suddenly turned when the spider-leg-staff got caught on a streetlight, causing him to turn sharply. It was not much of a turn, but it was just enough for Gossamer's attack to miss.

"Ha!," he triumphantly exclaimed, "ain't no stoppin' me!"

[Heritage]

"Ha!," he triumphantly exclaimed, "ain't no stoppin' me!"

"Oh for pity's sake, you're not the damn Gingerbread Man! Get back here!" As she tucked her phone back into her belt, Gossamer was really far more annoyed by her failed attempt at heroic multitasking than she was at this ridiculously lucky buffoon. Feeling a bit like a Keystone Kop, she chased after him, a very large golden hammer swinging 'round her head.

Boom!

[Dr Archeville]

This time, the blow connects, and knocks the minion into another lamppost, rendering him quite unconscious.

Amazingly, even when knocked out, he still clings to the spider-leg-staff.

[Heritage]

True to her word, Gossamer arranged her vanquished foes in a neat pile, careful not smother any of them; once that was done, she withdrew the scanner and checked it again, hoping to get back on Dr. Archeville's trail.

"Hang in there, Doc; I'm still coming!"

[Dr Archeville]

After disabling the advanced gravity-manipulating technology that caused the scanner to lead her here in the first place -- the copies of Freedom Eagle's gravity-gauntlets that Scrounge wore -- Gossamer saw that the scanner indicated she go east-southeast. Soon she finds herself in a familiar setting: the North Bay area, a posh district of expensive waterfront homes and historic mansions owned by some of Freedom City’s wealthiest families. The scanner leads her to one particular oceanfront home, a light blue three-story home with multiple decks. The house had a few lights on, at each floor, but she did not hear anything unusual from inside. Then again, it would have been hard to do so, given that several of the houses flanking this one were throwing a big communal bash. It was the middle of summer, after all, so the beachhouses were filled with many college-aged kids (they went to Ivy league colleges, but they were still college kids) were partying hard this Friday night.

[Heritage]

How very odd! This was not where Gossamer expected to find herself; she hoped it wasn't another wild goose chase in the making. As quietly as she could, she used her hair to scale the side of the house and started checking for open doors and windows, as well as pressing her ear to the glass in the hopes of hearing nefarious plans being discussed.

[Dr Archeville]

Gossamer crawled up and down the house like a giant spider, largely unnoticed by the drunken revelers at the nearby houses.

The first few doors and windows she came to were all shut and locked tight -- no easy entrance there. Sure, she could smash them in, but a) she wasn't entirely certain she was at the right place, and if she was, such noise would probably alert the Power Corps that she was there. Peeking in the ground floor windows, she just managed to catch an odd blue light coming from beyond a wall; pressing an ear to the glass at the same level revealed murmurs of conversation, but nothing she could clearly make out.

At the very top, though, she found an opening: the door to the third floor balcony had a simple latch, and the weather stripping was rotted away in a few places, so there was enough of a gap that she could thread some of her hair in and lift the latch up from the other side.

Were she to poke her head in, she would just be able to hear the murmurs of conversation again.

[Heritage]

As quietly as she could, Gossamer opened the door and tiptoed in, sending thin tendrils out to the walls to judge the size and shape of the room. She moved slowly, straining her ears to pick up any conversation as she slowly made her way towards the door into the rest of the house.

[Dr Archeville]

Gossamer slowly makes her way down the beach house, trying to focus beyond the innumerable party noises coming from outside. With some luck, she thought, those noises would mask the sounds of her entrance from any bad guys in here.

She still saw nothing by the time she reached the stars going down to the ground floor, but she could now hear something: muffled voices, and an electric hum.

Carefully, tentatively peeking down, she still sees no one in the house. The ground floor does have some signs of habitation -- several empty food containers strewn about, as well as a few large empty UPS and FedEx boxes -- but still no signs of anyone.

It wasn't until she (again, carefully, tentatively) ventured onto the ground floor that she finally saw something definitely out-of-place: electric-blue light coming up from the floorboards in the kitchen. That area was where the muffled voices and electric hum was coming from, too. Goss' keen scientific eyes could see that the boards could be moved from up here; apparently whoever was active here had dug a "basement" under the house, accessible from the kitchen.

Such actions would likely frowned upon by the landlord.

[Heritage]

Keeping a good fifteen feet between herself and the concealed hole in the floor, Gossamer extended her hair to gingerly lift the floorboards and place them to one side; she waited to see if there was a reaction from the denizens below before she opted to step any closer.

God, I hope they don't have a lot of guns! :?

[Dr Archeville]

Carefully lifting the planks, Gossamer found a ramp sloping down to a large chamber under the house, about as big as the living room. From where she was she could not make out much, but what she did see filled her with dread.

At the bottom of the ramp was one of the Power Corps members, facing the others and thus away from her. His arms were crossed, and his tapping foot made it clear he was impatient. "How much longer is this gonna take?"

In the room were the other three, and Archeville. Two of the Power Corps were monitoring a bank of odd machines, which were connected via long wires to a cap over Archeville's head. Archeville looked very roughed up, with a fresh black eye; his coat lay on the floor a few feet from him. The fourth Corps member was kneeling next to Archeville, but she could not make out what he was doing.

"There's a lot to squeeze out of him, it's gonna take time."

The Doktor did not appear to be in pain. In fact, he appeared to be in some sort of hypnotic trance; she could make out that his jaw was working, he was speaking, but from her current position could not hear what he was saying.

"Time's something we don't have, there's no telling who that girlfriend of his may've called! Someone like this, they may even call in the League!"

They appeared mercifully oblivious to Gossamer's presence.

[Heritage]

"Time's something we don't have, there's no telling who that girlfriend of his may've called! Someone like this, they may even call in the League!"

For a moment, Gossamer was actually mad at herself.

Damn it, should I have called the League? But how does one even do that? Nevermind, I'll take care of this myself.

Shaking off her self-doubt, the blonde heroine took a deep breath, and then sent the full mass of her hair sweeping down into the basement, like the boom of some great sailing ship smashing its way across the deck in a gale. And with great satisfaction, she felt the men knocked aside like storm-tossed ragdolls.

All but one.

The golden tidal wave retreated back up the steps and swirled around the statuesque scientist, hovering like a shimmering thunderhead about her shoulders as she glared at the last man standing.

"So...I take it you're the ringleader?" Her locks coiled and flexed behind her, creating a very disturbing creaking sound that suggested a catapult ready to fire. "Release my friend now, or I will bring this house down on your head." :evil:

[Dr Archeville]

"Wantonly destroy property?," the armored ringleader smugly replied. From his kneeling position he had been partially able to see her; now he rose and faced her directly. "I don't think so. I've seen you in the news, Doctor de Havilland, and know you're one of those do-gooder types. Always swooping in to save the day, with a minimum of bloodshed and collateral damage."

"I, on the other hand," he said as he raised his right gauntlet, which was crackling and sparking as if about to overload, "don't have that problem."

An intense bolt of energy shot out of the gauntlet-blaster and made a beeline for Gossamer. It singed a good portion of her hair as it slammed into the stairs behind her and destroyed them, through up a cloud of dirt and ash, but she herself was unharmed.

[Heritage]

"I, on the other hand," he said as he raised his right gauntlet, which was crackling and sparking as if about to overload, "don't have that problem."

The heroine's eyes went wide with fury as her smouldering hair twitched and snapped in outrage. Then a cruel smiled spread across her lips.

"No, you don't; you just has a microscopic member and can't hit the broad side of a barn!"

In a flash, Gossamer's still-smoking hair shot forward, attempting to wrap itself around her arrogant foe. "You're so I right, I hate to shed blood and get it all over my lovely hair...but I have absolutely no problem shattering bones." She hoped to give him a squeeze, just a little one, to give him a taste of things to come.

"Now tell me how to release him, or you'll spend the next year hooked to a machine yourself."

[Dr Archeville]

"I'd watch whose aim you're criticizing, missy," the armored antagonist retorted as he bobed and weaved away from Gossamer's hair. A quick burst from his jetboots had him flip over the chair Archeville was strapped to, so now the Doktor was between the two combatants. He aimed his left gauntlet blaster at Archeville's stomach, "but you should also watch your step, or else I gut him here and now. I'm almost done getting what I want from him, and once I am, you're going to let me and my men go."

[Heritage]

"I'd watch whose aim you're criticizing, missy," the armored antagonist retorted as he bobed and weaved away from Gossamer's hair. A quick burst from his jetboots had him flip over the chair Archeville was strapped to, so now the Doktor was between the two combatants. He aimed his left gauntlet blaster at Archeville's stomach, "but you should also watch your step, or else I gut him here and now. I'm almost done getting what I want from him, and once I am, you're going to let me and my men go."

As he talked, Gossamer very slowly sent a single tendril of hair down her back, hidden behind her leg, and sent it along the edge of the baseboard, as slowly as she could; while this was going on she held her hands in front of her in a non-threatening manner.

"Fine, you're getting what you want; tell me, exactly what shape is the good doctor going to be in when you're through with him? Will he be cognizant, a vegetable, or will the process actually kill him?"

She finally got the limb in place behind the ringleader and made a quick grab for his leg, but at the last second she realized her angle was wrong and the tentacle missed him by mere inches.

[Dr Archeville]

"Oh, the beauty distracts the blackguard so she can stall for time, giving her a chance to think of a way to save her brave knight?," he mocked. "Sorry, I don't think so!"

Keeping the one gauntlet-blaster trained on Archeville, he raised his other hand and blasted straight up. A bolt of energy plowed through the ceiling and up through the rest of the beach house. His boot jet then kicked in, and he flew straight up, ramming the ceiling shoulder-first and breaking through, up and through the rest of the building. Bits of flooring and ceiling tile collapsed in, some coming dangerously close to Archeville.

There was something not quite right here, though: he wasn't running, not exactly. She'd seen how fast they could go, when they first showed up and nabbed the Doktor, but he left at a fraction of normal power. Was his suit drained from the earlier confrontation? Did they cannibalize parts to set all this up? Or was he pulling another feint?

[Heritage]

Estelle was tired; what started out as a nice date with an attractive German super-genius had turned into the night from hell, and right now she just wanted to be home, curled up in bed with a nice cup of tea listening to the Offspring. She was tired of this madman's ravings and wanted him to shut up.

"Oh, the beauty distracts the blackguard so she can stall for time, giving her a chance to think of a way to save her brave knight?," he mocked. "Sorry, I don't think so!"

"No."

It was all she could muster anymore, her wit and intellect all but spent; with a thought, she focused all her hair into a massive python-like coil that shot straight up, wrapping itself around the annoying little man and his annoying little gadgets, and she put just the gentlest squeeze on him to let him know she was feeling rather cross as she pulls him back down to her.

[Dr Archeville]

Gossamer's "gentle squeeze" compressed the armored mercenary in just the right spot and with just enough pressure to make him black out for a few moments. His boot jets stayed on, but their protests were not enough to prevent the gold-tressed scientist from reeling the man in.

He was already starting to regain his bearings, though, so her next actions would need to be swift if she were to take advantage of his momentary impairment.

Archeville remained in the chair, staring ahead, words streaming softly from his mouth.

[Heritage]

Gossamer frowned with concentration as she carefully ripped apart the suit's flight system, making sure not to tear off any of the criminal's fleshy bits but otherwise not overly concerned for his physical comfort. When she was confidant she'd clipped his wings, she held him upside down over Doc's blank-eyed form.

"Now, how do we fix him?"

[Dr Archeville]

"Fix him?," the armored man repeated while (futilely) struggling. "Ask Bob Barker, he's the spay & neuter expert!"

Then he did something unexpected. He started laughing.

"You don't get it, do you? Even if you send me and my boys here to jail, we've already won. We did what we came to do, got what we wanted. That son-of-a-Nazi thought he could ruin us, embarrass us by taking us down so quickly, but we've hit him where it hurts. Soon everything he's worked for is gonna come crashing down, and there's not a blessed thing you can do to stop it, girlie."

"So let me go, and I'll tell you how to safely unhook him. 'Cuz as much as I hate him, and wouldn't mind seeing his brain fry, a part of me wants him to see just what we've done!"

[Heritage]

"You don't get it, do you? Even if you send me and my boys here to jail, we've already won. We did what we came to do, got what we wanted. That son-of-a-Nazi thought he could ruin us, embarrass us by taking us down so quickly, but we've hit him where it hurts. Soon everything he's worked for is gonna come crashing down, and there's not a blessed thing you can do to stop it, girlie."

"So let me go, and I'll tell you how to safely unhook him. 'Cuz as much as I hate him, and wouldn't mind seeing his brain fry, a part of me wants him to see just what we've done!"

At this point, Gossamer's smooth patrician facade finally shatters into a million tiny pieces as her eyes go wide and her nostrils flare, and she starts to shake the living crap out of the arrogant little thief, flipping him around the room every which, stopping just short of slapping him against the walls. Just short.

"I have had it with you! Do you see the position you're in right now? You don't get to negotiate, you pathetic little weasel, because you've lost! You are a loser! You've risked countless lives and caused thousands of dollars worth of property damage because you're an immature little baby who likes to play with toys!"

At last, Estelle found herself panting like thoroughbred as she pulled the man in close, the veins in her temples noticibly throbbing as she glared at him with eyes like death.

"Tell me how to fix him now, or you will be eating through a straw for the next three years!"