InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "so many things lately"

Jennifer Hill ℘ [Clark Kent] (womanofsteel) wrote in thereincarnates,
@ 2017-12-16 13:24:00

Entry tags:

alyssa kenworthy, emma bailey, jennifer hill, kai whistler, kelsey lark, peyton lark, rory flynn

Who: JL members! (also maybe some IC villains if they want to show up, idk I'm winging this)
What: Criminals dressed up as Santa are robbing a bank
Where: Manhattan, NY
When: Saturday afternoon, December 16th 2017
Warnings: Lots of violence, probably

Thanks to Peyton's mad skills with technology, the JL had been able to start hacking into police scanners and different radio frequencies so they could stay more up to date on the latest criminal activity in the area. It was actually proving to be a lot more useful than Jen's super hearing, which always worked, but most of the time a little too well. She still hadn't quite figured out how to get her powers enough under control in that respect that she could successfully single out any one sound, and when you had a super power that let you hear absolutely everything going on in the world at any one time? That could get a little overwhelming. She'd been working on it, but she wasn't yet to the point where she could actually pick out the subtle but completely different sounds of individual heart beats, like Clark could.

Life goals to work toward.

When they first started hearing reports of a bank robbery in progress that afternoon, Jen had immediately put out the call on the JL comms to anyone that was within ear shot and able to respond. It hadn't been all that long since they'd just added a few new members to their team, but by now the JL itself was a well oiled machine, and they were on the scene within minutes. It helped that at least two members of the JL had super speed and could carry at least one other person with them. Once they'd all arrived and had spread out around the perimeter, Jen took a hard look through the building to do an initial assessment, making note of the ten hostages on the floor she could spot in the lobby, plus the three bank tellers with their hands up behind the counters, and the people with guns dressed as... Santa?

"Okay. Looks like we've got at least thirteen hostages, probably more in there," Jen turned her head to speak directly into her comm link. "I can see at least six men with guns on them, and they're all dressed in Santa outfits. 'Tis the season, I guess."

She'd been doing this long enough that she'd probably seen weirder things. "We'll split up in teams of two or three. Flash, you're with me, we'll go in from the roof. Eggplant, Torch, you'll take the side entrance, you should be able to get in with no problems, I don't see anyone watching that door. Team Arrow, you'll go in from the back. Canary, can you hack the bank's security systems and get us some camera footage so we can all see what's going on in there?" X-Ray vision was handy, but unfortunately, Jen couldn't really share that power with the rest of her team, and she didn't want them going in blind.

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irredeemable
2017-12-17 02:45 am UTC (link)

Kelsey had to admit it: she really didn't hate this bigger team thing. When it had been just the three of them everything had worked out okay but Sara had bucked a little bit when it came to following Kai's orders when she'd gotten used to being the captain... especially when their methods didn't always exactly line up. She'd played nice with others, especially since Peyton was involved, but three just wasn't quite big enough to settle comfortably into any real kind of dynamic. When it came to the JL though... who was going to object to following actual alien Jesus?

Jen. That'd be Jen. Who was awesome and most importantly didn't have any kind of awkward history with the badass bitch in Kelsey's head.

Even better though? Kelsey still got to work with Peyton and Kai most of the time, just without any pressure and with more resources than the three of them had on their own. Not that they hadn't made it work. Not that Kelsey couldn't have made it work if she was just striking out solo. This felt comfortable to Sara though, in a way. There weren't any time ships or anomalies and there definitely wasn't a hard drinking pyromaniac holding on to being one of the good guys mostly by accident but it was nice to know that more ground was going to be covered and that there was a wide set of skills going into any situation. Even if they were all tragically paired off—not officially when it came to Jen and Rory but please. You'd have to be completely immune to the pheromones to miss where that one was going.

"I've got Canary's back while she works, Steel." Not that Kelsey thought that would come as a surprise to anyone. The Lark sisters came as a matched set and Kelsey was more than willing to kick ass with one of the other ladies (or Kai or Rory) her first choice was always going to be Peyton. Besides. She'd met up with Peyton as soon as she got there anyway. She already had her baton extended and ready for action. If Kelsey was really lucky? They'd get this finished in time for her to grab a smoothie before she MTNed it back to Chicago for her shift at Happy Endings. If she was mildly lucky she'd actually get to her shift at Happy Endings on time and wouldn't have to risk pissing off the boss. This new superhero thing could really get in the way of a girl holding down a day (night, whatever) job sometimes.

Kelsey nodded to Peyton and turned to put her back to her sister's so that they could get this little party started.

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canaryscry
2017-12-18 02:34 am UTC (link)

When Peyton had first started going out in the field, choosing an outfit had been a bit of an issue. The version of Black Canary that was in her head apparently thought it was both a good and extremely progressive idea to run around in what was basically a bathing suit and fishnets, and Peyton would rather be dead than caught wearing something like that out in public. Especially if she wanted to be taken seriously by the people she was delivering epic beatdowns to. Not that she necessarily cared about their opinions but it was the principle of the thing. She would not be running around in a bathing suit and tights.

She'd ended up designing an outfit that was actually more similar to the Black Canary from her sister’s source, a full body black suit with breathable kevlar. Screw that polyester bullshit, Batman had the right idea when it came to vigilante fashion. Her fighting sticks were strapped to her back and her hair was tied up in a high ponytail, if there's one thing that Peyton had learned since becoming a vigilante it was that long hair is a nuisance.

“Sure thing, Steel,” Peyton chirped from where Team Arrow was already positioned around the back. The entire area surrounding the building was filled with the sounds of police sirens and the nervous chatter of onlookers who just couldn't help themselves, standing clustered together just behind the yellow tape to see what was happening.

With Kelsey covering her, Peyton kept her back to her sister's as she turned her attention away from any possible threats and reached for a side pocket on her thigh, pulling out a small device that looked like a mini computer. She started tapping into the small keyboard with a flurry of fingers, forehead creased in concentration for the two minutes it took for her to hack into the bank’s security system, access the camera feeds and send it to everyone's smart phones. “Got it.”

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supertardiness
2018-01-08 12:16 am UTC (link)

Rory's quick look at his phone was quicker than anyone else's quick look at their phone would be; he looked over the scene inside and then said into his comm, "Got it here. See you on the roof, Steel?" Theoretically the two of them had the longest way to go to get into position but that was why they were the ones taking it... that and the fact that neither of them would have problems getting there.

A millisecond to brace himself and then Rory was taking off up the side of the building, a streak of red against the brick.

Okay. Maybe he should have saved his look at the security feed for when they were actually making their entrance, but it wasn't like he didn't have time for another check once he got up there. Rory didn't even check to see if Jen was on her way up. He knew she wouldn't be far. He might have even been running a little slower than top speed just to give her the chance to catch up. They both knew who would win if they were really racing for it.

Not that Rory was enjoying the robbery. It wasn't the kind of thing that you enjoyed but the JL definitely had this one and it was kind of the most meaningful thing that Rory had going on in his life right now. Also kind of his only group of friends... not that he didn't find excuses to hang out with them outside of official JL business. And by them he meant mostly Jen. And by hanging out he meant mostly races, pizza, and science. It was kind of what they did.

Rory crouched up on the roof and took that second look at his phone. Man. Jen hadn't been kidding about the Santa suits. This would almost have been funny if there hadn't been hostages. Of course if there hadn't been hostages then there really wouldn't have been much of a robbery going on at all so...

Focus, Rory. Focus. They had bad guys to catch and the rest of the team was going to be as ready to go as he was soon.

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girlblunder
2018-01-08 11:45 pm UTC (link)

By this point things like bank robberies were pretty old hat to the more senior members of the JL, but since the newer members now definitely outnumbered the rest of them, it was good that Jen was taking the extra steps to make sure everyone was in place and on the same page before they all went in, guns blazing. Metaphorical guns, anyway, none of them actually used anything that uncivilized. Most of them didn't even need to, even the ones without superpowers. They all had their special gifts and reincarnate influenced talents. Jen had all of her alien powers, Rory had his speed, and Alyssa had her fire.

Emma was actually pretty relieved to get a few more members on the team roster who were more like her, in that they didn't have any special powers beyond what their normal human minds and bodies could do. Yeah, Peyton did have that crazy canary cry thing, but other than that it was all super smart hacker brain and, same as her sister, some extremely disciplined styles of martial arts coupled with mastery of certain weapons. It was the same with Kai except for the guy's added skill specific to the bow and arrow.

She had the martial arts thing down pretty well, though Emma wouldn't really go as far as calling herself disciplined. She was more of a bull in a china shop than an actual martial artist, but she could land a punch and a kick just as well as any of the others could, super powers or no. Plus, she had all those fancy gadgets that the bat family was so well known for. With their recent influx of newcomers, the JL had become a fairly well balanced fighting machine, and Emma was pretty pumped about it every time they went out as a unit to get in on some action. Especially when the action was this freaking bizarre.

It wasn't the first time they'd dealt with costumed bad guys, far from it, but a bunch of bank robbers in Santa suits? It was a pretty on-the-nose gimmick, considering that the holidays were right around the corner. Emma was curious to see if these guys were actually certifiably crazy or just that bad at being bad guys. Honestly, she would take either at this point. She was itching for a fight. "Ready, Torch?" Emma grinned over at Alyssa from behind the mask that covered the bottom half of her face, so Alyssa couldn't actually see her mouth, but her eyes crinkled with the effort. Pulling her hood lower over her forehead, Emma glanced at her phone again to check the camera feed closest to the side entrance. Still clear. "We're going in. Eggplant and Torch, out" Then she brought back her right leg and kicked the door in.

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hottothecore
2018-01-11 01:47 am UTC (link)

Alyssa lived for the moments when she got to throw on her costume, kick some ass, and save lives. Normal people would probably be more scared of the idea, and there was likely some issues if a psychologist ever felt like digging further into her psyche, but whatever. She'd never strived to be normal even before she was blessed with Johnny Storm, and she wasn't going to settle for normal now. The best parts of her life came from this part of her life, including the incredible woman next to her.

The JL was bigger these days, which wasn't a bad thing. It always seemed like there were more bad guys than there were good guys, so getting to level out the playing field some wasn't anything to balk at. It was weird to think that she was a senior member; she never felt like a mature individual, and to be one of the adultier adults in the room was surreal. Still, she liked all of the new people, and it really felt like they were getting stronger. It was like in the team movies when the team members suited up, stood together, and the music swelled. Or, at least, that's what it was like in her head. Private thoughts. That should probably stay private.

Naturally she'd be telling Emma later.

Her suit was pretty classic, the bright blue color with the "4" emblem on the chest. She'd finally given in and gotten a mask, however, to feel less exposed. The best superheroes had some kind of thing to protect a secret identity, and she couldn't be arrogant enough to ignore that anymore. Sure it was one of those simple ones that only covered her eyes, and if somebody knew her they'd easily be able to tell it was her, but...progress.

"I'm always ready," She grinned, and even as Emma kicked the door in, she was declaring a casual "flame on!" to burst into her trademark flames.

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canaryscry
2018-01-12 01:31 am UTC (link)

Once Peyton heard the go-ahead from Jen over the comms, she turned her full attention to her two teammates and nodded her head. 'Team Arrow' was going in from the back entrance, which only had the disadvantage of being compromised from the entry point. Peyton was locked into the bank's security cameras, but once they were inside, they wouldn't be able to immediately see any threats that might be coming in from behind them. Maybe Peyton was just being paranoid, but also, if you weren't at least a little paranoid in their line of work you were probably doing something wrong.

The mask she wore also only covered the larger area around her eyes, but she wasn't too worried about being identified, she wasn't some kind of celebrity like Kai (if having money made you a celebrity, which in America kind of did) and she hadn't really been very social on the boards thus far. Besides, it was better than Dinah, who hadn't even bothered wearing a mask along with the personal choice to not wear very much clothing at all. Peyton didn't know what it was about comics and making all their vigilante women scantily clad, but Peyton was a little annoyed by it.

She could hear Rory, Jen, Emma and Alyssa making their respective entrances around the building through the comm link, and Peyton checked the camera feed on her phone again one more time for confirmation. "Our path in front of us is still clear, at least for now. There's a flight of stairs and a few corridors between us and the main lobby where the hostages are being held. Some of the doors are key coded, but I can break them."

Peyton looked over at Kai expectantly. Even though Jen was designated team leader when it came to all of them, when it came to just the three of them, that was still Kai. "So how are we doing this?"

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greenhoodie
2018-01-21 09:09 pm UTC (link)

It might have been controversial thinking depending on who the opinion was being given to, but Kai would take one Peyton over a thousand Felicity's any day. Peyton's technological know-how was above and beyond, and she was kick-ass to boot. Oliver chose to remain silent on that discussion--which was probably the smarter option--but he didn't. Maybe he didn't say it enough, but between Peyton and Kelsey, he was sure he had the better Team Arrow. Despite initial hesitation about working with anybody instead of solo at first, he had no regrets now. He considered them family.

And it was starting to feel that way with the Justice League as well. Sure, it was basic instinct to fall into the group of three he was used to working with, and every once in a while he had to remind himself that Jen was the leader of this party and not himself, but he couldn't say he hated all of the good they did. It was much more than he could have done on his own, and more than they could have done as the smaller Team Arrow. He was beginning to trust more people, which couldn't completely be a bad thing. It was certainly less lonely.

Peyton wasn't wrong, though. He still had to be insanely careful about his secret identity. While some of the Justice League didn't quite need the secrecy, Kai was still a Whistler. Being found out had the potential to put a lot of people in danger who hadn't chosen this life, as well as complicate his ability to vigilante. He still wore Oliver's costume, his features hidden both by his eye mask and the shadows of his hood. The rest of the suit was for protection, more armor-like and less comfortable. Thankfully it had plenty of storage for weapons and gadgets alike.

"We need some cover until we can get in position inside. Knocking out some lights might help, unless we want to take pointers from the league and have a dramatic, smoke-filled entrance..." He glanced with a smirk at Kelsey. Yeah. He was even developing a sense of humor.

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irredeemable
2018-03-19 02:08 am UTC (link)

"Damn, I left my smoke grenades in my other suit." Kelsey smirked right back at Kai and patted her hip with her free hand like there might have been a chance that she had one stashed in a pocket anyway—not that she had pockets anyway, which was clearly a huge mistake. Everything should come with pockets even if shoving things into them would completely ruin the lines of the suit. "Guess we're gonna have to go with the lights if we want the cover." She guessed if that was the way that Kai wanted to go she could live with delaying to take a few lights out before they charged in. Sara had gotten used to charging in consequences be damned with the Legends but cosidering how many things the Legends managed to break (like time itself)...

Kai's way was probably better, especially when there were civilians involved. Not everything could be swashbuckling through time and space and dressing up in the coolest period costumes that they could dream up for the ship to replicate for them. She was really going to have to insist that she get to pick the adventure sometime though. She and Peyton would have a blast with the dressing up and she had a feeling Kai would enjoy being able to go out without having to worry about someone recognizing him.

Baton loose and easy in her hand, Kelsey asked, "Can you take the lights down, P? Or are we going with trick arrows?" Between Peyton's sonic blast and Kai's shooting there wasn't much need for Kelsey when it came to anything that needed to be taken out from a distance. That was okay. Someone had to be the first line in the fight and that was something that Kelsey was more than happy to do. Her were pinned back out of her face; Sara's White Canary costume hadn't bothered with a mask since it wasn't like anyone was looking for a dead woman and people in a different time weren't going to know her anyway but adding one was the only change that Kelsey had made to the general aesthetic of it.

Between her costume for this gig and her costume for Happy Endings it was a wonder that Kelsey spent any time in "real" clothes at all.

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womanofsteel
2018-03-21 05:49 pm UTC (link)

Jen spoke quickly into her comm. "Whatever you're going to do, do it fast. And try not to draw any attention to yourselves before we can get the hostages out of bullet range. Trigger happy criminals tend to spook easily." She waited a beat before saying anything else, nodding when Peyton's voice rang back over the comms saying she'd knocked out the lights on the lower level only, and Team Arrow was going in. A second later, she also heard verbal confirmation that Alyssa and Emma had entered through the side door where everything was still clear, and then turned exclusively to talk to Rory.

"I'm thinking tag team. You and I will get down there the fastest, so you get all of the hostages out from under their guns first and I'll go straight for the creeps holding them. If anyone starts shooting, at least I'm bullet proof." Jen still didn't like being shot at even if the bullets would just bounce right off her, but she'd do it. She was a team player. It was more that guns bothered her in general. She'd never liked them, or the power they seemed to hold over a majority of America. The sooner they could get them out of these guys hands, the better, but they had to make sure all of the hostages were safe first before anything else.

There were two entrances from the roof, an access stairway that led down a few flights to the main lobby, and a skylight in the very middle of the roof that would take you straight down to the action. Jen assumed her position above the skylight after removing enough of the panels that she wouldn't have to make a lot of noise smashing through the glass. Even with Rory taking the stairs, she wasn't worried about him not getting down there before her. They'd already done enough racing that she could concede to him possibly being the faster of the two. Maybe. When she was feeling gracious. It was always a close race though.

Getting into flying position, Jen nodded over at Rory. "On three? One... two... " And, drop.

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supertardiness
2018-03-23 03:29 am UTC (link)

Rory had assumed that they'd be going after three, not when Jen should have been saying three, but hey! No big. It only took him a tiny fraction of a second to catch on and start running down the stairs. That was plenty of time to catch up before Jen beat him down to the lobby and after that it was just taking care of one person at a time until they were all out and safe. That was easy. Rory could do that, no problem.

It was a close call which one of them made it down first but this was no time for competition or demanding a redo. Rory grabbed the first hostage and zipped back up the stairs with them, and then a second, and a third. Maybe it would have been better to get them completely out and on the ground but! Their teammates were coming through those doors and Rory didn't want to confuse anybody or run into anybody if they happened to be right in his way. He knew the stairs were clear and that made them the safest option.

Of course there wasn't time for an explanation to any of the hostages why they were suddenly trapped on the roof but Rory was pretty sure they'd just be so glad to be away from the guys with the guns that they weren't going to question it much.

"Clear," he told Jen once the last hostage was safely on the roof and he finally stopped moving... behind her because she was right about that whole her being bullet proof and him not being bullet proof thing. He could almost definitely outrun them but then there'd be a stray bullet going somewhere and who knew who'd get hit then? Nope, it was safer if he left Jen to take care of that and stayed out of the way.

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girlblunder
2018-03-25 06:41 pm UTC (link)

She and Alyssa were already inside when Emma heard the verbal confirmations from Team Arrow and Team Jory (that's what Emma was privately calling Jen and Rory, all of the cute celebrity couples had mashup names and in her opinion it was only a matter of time with those two) that they'd also made it in. "Copy that. Team Spoiltorch is making their way to the rendezvous point." They couldn't use their real names over the comms or otherwise Emma would have used her more favored 'Emlyssa' as their code name, but apparently you couldn't always have everything. Spoiltorch was okay, sure, but it was no Emlyssa.

From the side entrance into the building, it looked like a straight shot down a long hallway, through another door and then they'd come out around the back part of the front lobby, or at least that's what Emma was getting from the camera footage of the building that she was still squinting at on her phone. Emma had gone in ahead of Alyssa, with the other woman only a step or two behind her, which always made Emma feel better. Not that either of them couldn't take care of themselves, but Emma liked it better when they teamed up together. They were always at their best when they had each other's backs.

They were halfway down the hallway, almost to the second door, when Emma froze and motioned with a hand signal for Alyssa to stop too. The camera footage was showing one of the Santas making his way towards their exit, which meant they'd have to move fast to get the advantage on their only way out of here. "Incoming," Emma spoke in a low voice behind her to Alyssa. "I'll get into position behind the door when it opens and set off a smoke screen. When he opens the door, we take him out double team style, quick and quiet. Good?" There wasn't much time to argue about it though. Emma slipped behind the door, subtly dropped a small, inconspicuous looking metal ball onto the floor and let it roll across the floor just as the door opened. Smoke filled the hallway and the Santa grunted in surprise just before Emma grabbed hold of the door and used the force of it to bash him from behind with.

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