2012 04 18 Charitable Bullets

Log Title:
Charitable Bullets

Characters:
Sandman, The Thing, Richenda Gray, Phantasm (cameo)

IC Date:
18 April 2012

Location:
Arturo's Pizza

Brief Log Summary::
The heros make an appearance at a charity event in time to thwart a gang of robbers

Rating:
r

There is no TS in this log::
Yes

Post your log::

The evening hours of Wednesday, although not quite as busy as the Thursdays and Fridays of common time keeping, it is quite busy when compared to the evenings of Monday and Tuesday. That said, it's the later later portion of the evening and most people are either in the middle of their entertainment activities for the evening, or they're one of the many, proud, silver haired centurions who are heading to bed after a wild night at the Bingo hall.

Over at Arturo's, it is finishing a rather successful night as the owner of the establishment has teamed up with a nearby Public School for a charity night with a 'generous' 10 of the profits for the evening going to the school. It's not an overly high scale event but if people have kids in the school, have gone to the pizzeria recently or have just wandered into the area of SoHo in the past few weeks to see the flyers, it's a known event going on tonight. And so, this is where we find our story starting. Not inside the pizzeria, but outside. Near the side entrance, hidden away in the shadow of the conveniently placed alleyway where some unsavory individuals linger in the shadows.

Having heard about the event, Sandman has opted to make his presence known. He was never successful on school, but has always yearned to be educated. So he gives back. Decked out in his Avengers costume, perhaps, his presence will lead to more donations. Chumping away on some pizza, the hero smiles as the event seems to be doing well enough, but he ponders if he should have invited more of the popular Avengers to generate more charity from the patrons.

Apparantly, Sandman is not the only one that had the though to lend a little star power to the events. After all it's for a good cause… and well Ben had gotten a call from a little bird that has said the event was not doing well. The big lumox has forgone his usually hat and massive rain coat in favor of his FF blues. He speaks on a cellphone that looks incredible small in his hands, "Yah 'licia, I found the place. Thank's again fer letting me know." There's a pause, "Naw no worries, It's for a good cause, and I get to eat alot. Why would I have something else I'd wanna do tonight?" He hangs up the tiny fon and walks into where the event has spilled out into the street, "Ok Arturo! I hope yer Kosher, cause I'm planning on eatin my weight in pizza tonight!"

The owner, who has taken up the front lines of greeting folks smiles as Ben approaches the small gathering of lingering patron that are gabbing about what their next plans for what movie they're going to grab now that they've eaten.. "Ah! Mr. Grimm!" Arturo greets, "Welcome!" He reaches around the doorway to grab a menu before looking over to the Thing. "Are you joining Mr. Baker tonight?"

With the arrival of The Thing, Sandman smiles to himself and with a mouth full of pizza, "Benjy Grimm!" His hand shifting to a hardened sandform smacks the rock hero on the back, and while that would send a normal person flying, it will barely have any impact of Ben. "Yeah, you heard Arturo…join me, man! It's been forever." Sandman ponders ordering some beers for himself and Grimm, but realizes at this charity event there would only be wine and such, so shrugs and just seems to be in a pleasant mood with the arrival of his teammate and friend.

"Well I sure is now Art!" Ben says to the proprietor as he folds himself into the pizzeria and makes his way to Sandman's table. "Heya Bill! I think I shall!" He turns to Arturo, "Get us a coupla pitchers of what you've got on draft and five fresh pies once their ready! We're gonna need to wash down some pizza." Ben pulls back a chair and settles.. Gingerly at it… mostly supporting himself with his own legs, "So how yah doin' Sandy?"

Arturo follows after Ben, setting the menu down before him. "I will take care of the drinks and your waitress should be with you in a moment for your food orders," he offers as his parting words before scooting off towards the kitchen area. The restaurant inside is quite a bit noiser than outside as the conversations of each table overlays upon each other. A few tables over an elder woman is talking about how the boil on the back of her neck is driving her nuts while her daughter tries hard not to grimace. Over a few more tables, a kid, who likely should be in bed by now is telling his bored looking parents all about how he got the part of the cow that goes meow in the backwards zoo school play they're doing. Quite a talkative event it is.

The conversations are not just to the dining area. However the conversations within are not quite distinct, there are raised voices which likely are going over the orders that have come in so far.

"I'm good, Benjy. Learned a new trick and just been busy with the team. Cap is back, so I've been training that much harder." Sandman offers, "And the beer. Good idea. AS for the pizza, I am a meat lover so sausage, pepperoni, bacon, and chicken. None of them green veggie stuff…" He looks about at all the chatty cathies in the room and back to Grimm, "Good turn out…hopefully we get some good money for the kids…and how've you been? How's the world at the Baxter Building?"

The Thing shrugs, "Ain't been sleepin' well.. but otherwise, It's business as usually. No attacks from the Negative zone in a while.. that's good."

With the '10 % profits for the local school' charity event at Arturo's, It is a busy night at the pizza establishment. Tables are valuable real estate and The Thing has made things easier on the restaurant's owner by deciding to sit with Sandman. Arturo has run to the kitchen to fill their beer order while a waitress jots down Baker's order. Some old lady is finding the boil on the back of her neck to be excellent conversation material while a little kid is boring his parents with tales of the upcoming school play.

The waitress who appeared in time to get Baker's order jots down the request and then looks over to Ben expectantly, giving a big BIG smile as she tilts her head to the side. One could just imagine the accompanying 'Tee hee!' to go with her stance.

Shifting his arm to a pssamic form, Sandman jabs Ben in the ribs, â?It seems you have a fan in the waitress, Benjy…you should take her out." Grinning, the Avenger looks about, "You know being here and watching all this makes me wish I had stayed in school. All these people giving what they can to help out. Makes me feel like I missed out."

Wow. Tell people it's for a good cause and the neighborhood shows up for the first time in months! Guilty as charged, Richenda Gray darkens the doorway for the first time since going off to school in the Great Upstate Wilderness, looking around at the crowd inside. "Whoa…"

Fortunately, two members of the crowd really stand out. Okay, one of them really stands out, and the other stands out to a slightly lesser degree. A smile crossing her face at the sight of an old friend and a recent rescuer, respectively, the gypsy girl strolls over to say her howdy-do.

She does pause when she gets there, behind and to the right of the server, to playfully imitate her pose and expression, winking at Ben conspiratorially.

"I'm sure it wuz you she was checkin' out Bill. It's that jawline." Ben says coughing a bit embarrassedly and looks quiet happy to see that Food is soon arrived. "Ya know Sandy.. they're ain't nothing saying you can't go back. Hell if I can get a degree… Anyone can." He turns then and smiles to the Gypsy, "Hey there kiddo."

The waitress's smile is quite present even after she went to the kitchen, and brought back the pizza and beer. MAN service is fast around here! However, the waitress's smile does not last as the sounds of dishes breaking in the kitchen is immediately followed by a gunshot errupting at the entryway of the kitchen inspiring a rather high pitched scream from the waitress, right into Ben's ear. The conversations at the other tables cease as several masked men start stepping out of the kitchen, a rather, justifiably upset Arturo being yanked out with them by the collar. So rehearsed on the action undergone, four men move out to the left of the kitchen entryway while four move over to the right, each very much armed and very much serious with their intention. The one holding Arturo by the collar remains to the center, holding a smoking gun in his other hand as he raises his voice, starting to scan around the room "ALRIGHT! EVERYONE STAY CALM AND NO ONE WILL GET HU-", his eyes come across the two hero's table. Because really, how do you MISS the Thing? The agressive expression falters as he registers this, "-Oh. PLAN B!"

The other gunmen move quickly, yanking up the nearest patrons to them. Alright! Operation: human shield is a go!

"Hey, Ben!" Chenda leans down to hug her favorite hero, and grins at Sandman. "Yeah… sorry that I never got to say thank you. I'm good…"

Which is about when things go south. The gypsy girl glances up to find that there are opportunistic criminals ruining a charity event! "Wow… you can't do /anything/ good in this town without some wacko showing up to ruin it. Or a bunch of wackos!" She lets go of Ben, so as not to impair him if this continues to go south, and silently forms a power seed, hiding it in her hand, ready for use.

Sandman says, "Hey, I know you." Sandman smiles when Richenda Gray walks in, "You were at the concert that went badly. How are you?" His voice sours a bit as he thinks of how badly things went there and how he really should have checked on Mike afterwards, but alas Avengers duties kept him busy and once again, it is his Avengers duties that make him respond when all hell seemingly breaks loose in the pizzeria. When the gunmen grab patrons as shields, the pssamic hero shakes his head as his body turns completely to sand, "Hey, Benjy, here is the new trick I learned." The sand humanoid swirls around for a bit until three completely identical pssamic humanoids appear. As if he just cloned himself into four beings, each 'Sandman' points to a gunmen and one disembodied voice speaks out, "If you let them go…I will let you walk out of this pizzeria right now…no jail time, no nothing. I used to be a criminal…so I know how rough it is, so I'll go easy on ya, but let the people go and leave the money!"

With all armed nine men with a hostage up close, the man in the center starts to smile again, feeling as if he has the edge once more. His eyes set upon the tabl- ok, the trifecta of Sandmen. The smile wavers once more before he forces it back up, shaking his head, "No… HERE's the deal. We walk out, WITH them and we'll let them go once we're sure you don't do anything. For everything heroic you try, one gets shot." One of the men not covered by a Sandman clone presses his gun against the woman he has for added emphasis, "So… be a good hero and put yourself back together and sit. down." MAN that's guy got some bal- uh bullets.

And as everything just goes to hell and without the neat little hand-basket the Thing rises as the Gun men burst from the Kitchen with Arturo by the Collar, and other pulls up a hostage. When the ballsy one levels his gun at another woman that's when Ben exchanges a knowing look with Sand man. It's Hero look #462, which is: "Can you disarm them before they get a shot off?" It's a mainly form of non verbal communication, that often gets misrelied when non-telepaths try to use it.. but I digress. Richenda get's look #22 for the record which is the 'get behind us.' look. Ben starts to hold up his hands, as if showing he's unarmed, "Look guys, I think you all want to listen to my friend here. This is only go go good for you if ya put down the guns and get the hell out of here right now 'fore the police show up… There ain't no getting o' this with hostages, All you got here is scared people and money fer kids so c'mon… do the smart thing."

Looking to Ben, The main Sandman which really cannot be distinguished. A disembodied voice speaks out, "Alright, fair enough." The four Sandman run into each other and suddenly a storm brews within the pizzeria as a sandwaves focused on the gunmen attempts to knock their weapons and separate the gunmen from the hostages.

Unarmed? UNARMED? It's the @#$!ing Thing! His arms are weapons! But no matter. When the sandmen converge and the storm starts, the loud bang is nearly drowned out by the screams from those who are too close to the gun-men. As they sands fly they soon become tinged with red as the bodies start tumbling, one woman's figure much limper than the others. "Go-" The center criminal starts to shout, starting to cough as sand gets into his lungs as he lets go of Arturo. Not necessarily out of willingness but more out of the result of getting knocked over as well.

Chenda winces at the speech. "Huh. Big man with a gun talkin'," she stage-mutters, before Ben gives her that Hero Look #22. She stands firm, though. She's supposed to be a hero now, too. Ben himself gets a sympathetic look. "Nothin' personal, Ben, but I better stay where I can help…"

Which comes a lot sooner than she would've thought, with these guys' attitudes! The sight of the hurricane of sand is enough to pull a scream from Richenda's throat as she stumbles back, covering her face with her arm. "Sandy, stop it! The hostages!"

Ben barely has time to give Richenda a proud little smile as she stands her ground, before ground Zero begins. The Sands swirl… the Gun reports, and the sillouette of the woman's body goes limp as the sand carries a red mist into the air. Ben Surges forward and calls out, "Every body Flatten!" he says to the bystanders, hoping if they were stunned with get on their bellies so to be under stray fire… Ben for his part lunges for where the woman's limp body falls, Trying to cover her from an other small arms fire that errupts in the comming moments in the hopes that she's still alive. Clear Blue eyes are already looking for the nearest armed target to him once he's certain the woman is shielded.

Continuing to press the attack, Sandman refines his control and moving more like a wave moves from gunman to gunman to spinning in smaller tighter waves almost as if bouncing from gunman to gunman attempting to knock them over or out.

The shouted instructions are heard by those closest to Ben but the screams drown out his shouts towards the back, to where the sand storm is not taking place. Those that hear Ben get down, with the exception of one child who is looking wide eyed to where Ben is, "MOMMY!" The are of floor Ben lies upon does not have time to be visibly another color as the sand continues with it's motion.

Of the nine men, four- three (thanks Baker…) still retain their guns, one of which is the one who was last seen holding on to the still form that Ben tries protecting. He's pulling the trigger again, not quite aiming but just shooting randomly. The other three are positioned off to the exterior of the storm, bracing themselves against walls as they shout for their allies to get out of the restaurant.

"Ben!" It's hard to miss a huge, rocky form dashing past you. Aghast, but still aware of the danger a lot of innocent people are in, Chenda dashes forward, lunging for the nearest gunman. "Sandy, Ben, pull up your socks!" she calls, tossing that bright power-seed in the general direction of the gunmen as she grabs for the one in front of her.

*FLASH!!!*

The storm now diminishes as a pssamic humanoid appears in front of one of the gunman body checks him into the wall attempting to knock him out.

Sluggs flatten against Ben's shoulder blades as the thug hovering over the prone fires his weapon. Ben looks right at the Child that calls for his Mommy, "You're going to be ok I promise." And Ben looks down then as Richenda throws a big FLASH into the air. The moment he feels it fade he raise up and with a motion quicker than people would give him credit for he reaches out to snatch the gun from the thugs hand and crush it to pulp. If the thug's hand get's a little crushed in the process.. Ben's probably not going to loose any sleep over it.

With the sudden burst of light that the gunman was not expecting, he lifts up a hand to shield his eyes as he turns his head. "AUGH!" Squinting, he starts to turn to look back where it came from but is having difficulty seeing. This allows for Chenda to make a rather easy grab as he reaches his unoccupied hand to grab at the hand grabbing him.

The gunman who was recently disarmed by Sandman ends up getting slammed into the wall, smacking his head against it. Although he doesn't get knocked out, he does seem to be a bit dazed which is evident as he just slides down to the floor. Yyyyeeeaaaah. He's not getting up.

There's a loud yell as his hand, unfortunately for him, was still holding on to the gun as Ben grabs it. To compound this, he was in the process of shooting another bullet which leads to hot gun, bullet, and crushing combining to a very PAINFUL experience. He might even be starting to cry a little.

Seeing his comrades get knocked down, the final gunman freaks out and starts running full tilt towards the front exit to which his forward motion suddenly stops from the head up while his feet keep moving forward, causing for him to fall back onto the floor hard. The gun soon flies away, seemingly kicked away from the man's reach by an unseen foot.

With all the men disarmed, either out cold, injured, escaped, or getting the general idea that they should probably just give up right now, their group goes quiet, allowing for the sounds of the lingering screams of fear and cries from those in pain or still scared to be the sound effects for this charitible night of dining. It's an eiree quiet. Which is soon marred by a voice coming from mid air, "…what the hell happened here?"

Well… technically Chenda's opponent isn't unarmed. She changes that with a finger to the gun, which vanishes with a flare of yellowish light and a *pop*. "Ben? Sandy? Can somebody call an ambulance?"

Taking a human form, Sandman clicks on his Avengers id which sets forth a summons to the authorities and medical personnel and assist with the care of those who were injured or hurt when he notices the voice coming from on high.

Looking down at the now crying gunman, Ben just scowls but doesn't waist another word on him. He gives him a quick headbutt. Just enough to knock him down and out, but not enough to really hurt him.. just to ring his bell. If there's one thing that Ben's good at it it's being able to use his strength without hurting those around him as much as he might feel otherwise. "Art! Get yer first aid kit!" he says as he kneels down at the woman on the ground, trying to inspect her injuries as best he can, but he seems almost afraid to touch her, "Look is anyone here a doctor or a nurse?"

With no gun and with Sandman and Ben quite available to assist if he doesn't stop, Chenda's gun man also gives up. As for the man Ben knocks down, he is indeed quite out. As for the question posed, a person to the far back raises their hand slowly. A few more moments tick by before they get up, and move towards the fallen woman, frowning as he points to two people, "You and you, call 911, request an ambulance. Gunshot victim. Needs immediate attention." Oh where was this authorative tone earlier?

As people who can help bustle about, the disembodied voice addresses the trio of heros, "Can't stick around. But see you guys later."

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