Big Girl, Small Package

Brief Title:
Big Girl, Small Package

Characters:
Ultragirl, Ant-Man

Scene Runner/Watcher:

IC Date:
08/13/12 10:00

Location:
Seaport - Manhattan

Summary:
Ultragirl and Ant-Man stop a few burglars

Social or Plot:

TS:
No

Log:
Seaport, where the glass behemoths of Lower Manhattan butte against he river and harbor. Where the Odyssey House meets the Exchange Hotel, right next to American Reality's glass octagon giant. It is atop the Odyssey where Scott Lang finds himself. Answering a call from a tiny colony that has find a way to nest atop the building, he has arrived to find the main roof access blown off its hinges, indicated high tech infiltration of the building. The purpose is unknown. There is one man standing as if guard outside the building. Though, Scott is small and mostly unseen. It would only be obscure if someone else was over head or nearby on a rooftop that could look down and see it. Such a person might suspect the man on the roof is watching for helicopters and news groups, sort of cover to someone or another who might have gone into the building.

Flying about over the city, in the semi-random 'patrol' that she's so often doing, Ultragirl happens upon the rooftop. The missing door's obvious, along with the black singe-marks of how it was removed, as is that the door, itself, is laying on the rooftop near the now-open access. Pausing in her flight-path, she eyes the 'guard' for a moment, then floats down, easily in his field of vision, to land on the rooftop - where she can see him /and/ the blown-open doorway. "What's going on?", she asks of him, putting her hands on her hips. She's failed to spot the tiny form of Ant Man, yet.

Before Scott can react, the heroine enters the scene and confronts the lookout. The man, not ready for a flying hero as he was watching for the big, noisy sort of eyes in the sky, is slightly startled. However, not startled enough to reach a hand up to press the button of a communication device on his shoulder webbing harness, "Rooftop unsecure, abort." Its all he says before he reaches for a 9mm, as if for personal protection, he starts making his way towards the edge of the building. Ultragirl can most likely see his webbing is equipped for rapid repel, and there are ropes near the edge of the building.
Even as the man is backing up, Scott commands a flying ant to go towards Ultragirl. The commandeered ant takes the small Ant Man up to the young hero, where he side comments to her, "Now it gets complicated, I wanted to see who was in the building too." Then he flies away, but continues to speak at normal human audible levels. "I can't stop him, but I can cover the doors below ..." Its all he says, either to see how she reacts, or because he's going to start calling street level ants to monitor below for more friends of this guy.

Ultragirl wasn't expecting a bug to fly up around her ear, and makes a half-hearted 'shooing' gesture in its direction - not like she thinks it can hurt her, after all. As she shoos the bug, she takes a step towards the guy who just pulled a gun... then stops, eyes wide as she's suddenly being spoken to, and looks around, eyes wide with surprise. She's /totally/ distracted from the gunman who's about to try and escape via rappel - as if /that/ will work when she can fly, right? He may as well shoot at her, watch the bullets bounce off her... then throw the gun at her, too.

The villain complies, a chortle as she seems distracted and pop-pops a couple rounds. Whether or not to any affect, he tries to use it more as a distraction to secure the repel line and get up on the edge of the building. Even as he's flying away, Ant Man calls out on the loudspeaker, "Hero Lesson 101, keep eye on bad guys ... I'm with you, here to stop them." Then he turns the flying ant, maybe she'll see him by this point, he's a good 1/2 inch tall on a flying ant. He'll half salute, "If you grab that guy on your way down, we'll meet below to try and grab the other guys as they come out?" With a 1/2 inch hand salute, he pilots his ant towards the edge to make his own way down, still working with street level ants to cover all exits there. Some are telling him about sublevel access, so he's trying to get that covered too.

"Whoa...!", Ultragirl says when she finally does spot Ant Man. She's never seen anyone /that/ small, yet. His words, however, break her out of her surprise... as do the bullets that come her way, one bouncing off her shoulder (and tearing her costume just a bit, even if it doesn't even scratch her underneath it), and the other whizzing past her head, sending her hair into a flutter. "Hey! My hair! You /shot/ my /hair/!", she calls out at the gunman, and flies over to him... to grab at the barrel of the gun in his hand, her intention being to squeeze it and render it useless by application of force.

The man luckily gets his hand out from the trigger mechanism as she grabs the gun to squeeze it to uselessness. His face registers fear, perhaps something in his aura as well, but he jumps to begin repelling, hoping to escape now. Not knowing where the men in the building are just yet, Ant Man tells the roof top colony to keep an eye on the blown up door and then starts to figure out the sublevel labyrinth of building and NYC sub-street level for safety precatuions as Ultragirl deals with the first man.

Ultragirl reaches down to where the man's rappeling ropes are secured and takes hold of them, lifting them and making a twirling motion with her hand to wrap them securely into her grip. That done, she uses her other hand to break the metal loop that holds the ropes secure to the building. "Hey, mister!", she calls down to the man, as she floats away from the edge of the roof and makes it plain that she's the one holding him up. "You wanna give up, now? It's a LONG way down, and /you/ can't fly like I can!"

By the time she's floating away from the edge and he can't touch the building he calls up to her, "Allright, you got me," agreeing with her assessment that pavement far below is not an enticing option. Though he pushes the button on the communication system the robbers are using, "Its Ultragirl ..." As if they might know enough through recent media to try and avoid her somehow. Scott is presently quiet on the hero front, working his way to street level, he's out of normal talking distance with Ultragirl.

Ultragirl hand-over-hand pulls the would-be escapee up to her and takes hold of his web-harness. "Don't make him whack you, okay? I'm still figuring out just how strong I really am, and I'd rather not hurt you by accident. Tell your buddies to come up to the roof, too, and surrender all nice and peaceful like... and that if they hurt /anyone/ along the way, I'm gonna be mad at them", she says, right into his face.

"You'd risk killing me to get the whole team," ponders the man, not sure if she's bluffing, but giving his friends some time perhaps as she's engaging him, "Not good for the sponsorships right?" He's aware enough of her fast rise to fame and if she's on patrol, she probably is displaying some sponsorship just the same. Scott is out of the picture for the moment.

"You wanna risk me hurting you to let your team escape? Fine by me...", Ultragirl says, lifting one hand and cocking it back, balled into a fist. "Sorry if this hurts, mister, but I really can't have you getting away while I try and catch your friends...", she adds, taking her time - to give him a chance to give in and call for his friends to surrender, too. If he doesn't, of course, she does intend to bop him on the head, doing her level best to pull her punch so that all she does is KO him, instead of splatter him.

Cringing, the man does seem willing to take that risk. More likely he's actually hoping he's calling her bluff even though he's visibly shaking as she gives him one last chance. Hopefully she doesn't splatter him so that he's only breathing heavy versus not breathing. Regardless, if she takes him back to the roof to deposit, the ant colony will have a message waiting. They've formed themselves into a message - near some of the gear, to hopefully be visible enough. They spell out 'Street - Need Help,' which takes up quite a bit of ants for so few words.

When he seems to be willing to suck it up, Ultragirl goes ahead and cuffs the man upside his head, knocking him out. Flitting over to deposit him atop the roof, she can't help but see the message spelled out in ants. "Uhm... okay...", she says, not sure how to respond... other than to, again, dive off the edge of the roof (after being very careful to not step on the helpful message-delivery ants) and let gravity assist her in flying down to street level.

Ant Man arranges to meet Ultragirl as she gets more near to the street level, flying up to fly down with her. "They've gone sublevel to try and get into the subway access tunnels. I can get myself down there, but can't fight them all at once. You got some quick way down there, or do I need to find some grates we can open for you to squeeze through?" He doesn't know how strong she is other than bullets don't affect her, but he also knows he needs help if it gets to a fight down there, being if he gets hit, he'll splatter.

"Uhm... you got any ideas on how I can get down there quick-like? If not, I guess it's the grates... I can probably pull 'em up easy enough so I can get past 'em. Just point me at the right ones!", Ultragirl replies. Then, sparing a glance at him as she comes to a hovering stop at street level, she adds, "Wow... you're, like, itsy-bitsy and stuff..."

"If you're strong as well as cute, I imagine you can punch a hole were we need it, but I try to avoid assumptions." He is flying towards the side of the building. The space between buildings here is designed for pedestrian traffic, not alleyways, so its more open. "Small things, big packages ... my friends say there is a human access panel over here, we can get to the subway about where the bad guys are gonna come out. It locked to us ... so if the muscle thing is true, it would save us some time." By us, he mean's her, who can't just slip through the cracks.

"Isn't punching random holes in stuff a /bad/ thing, though?", Ultragirl says, in a tone of voice that says that she's confident she can do just that.
Flying, the girl follows the flying bug and its passenger to the access panel, which turns out to be a steel door set flush into the concrete, next to which she lands. Reaching for the handle, she pulls at it... as if checking to see if it's locked, and finds that it is. Cocking back a fist, then, she drives it down at where the locking mechanism is clearly located.
The punch lands with a resounding *CLANG*, and leaves a dent in the steel and the lock clearly broken. When Ultragirl pulls on the handle again, the door swings open easily, letting her hop down into the subway service tunnel, below.
Looking one way then the other, the teen heroine asks, "Which way?"

"Technically," asks Ant Man to this being a bad thing, "I suppose so, but for the greater good. You got the guns, I can find the targets. Quicker this way, and keeps Damage Control employed. Win-win in my book." Maybe he's actually attempting a joke.
Needless to say, he goes down into that hole, leading down the ladder, and through a few passages to the subway proper until they find an access door. "They're making their way through the basement of the Odyssey right now, this should be the door that brings them to the subway." He doesn't know what the other man told them or why they're coming to the tunnel here, just some insect's reported they are moving this way. It won't be long before the sounds of them reaching the door can be heard, they just need to get it open from their side.

"Well", Ultragirl says, thumping one fist into the other hand, and smiling a bit as she can hear them coming. "Let's throw them a surprise party when they get here!" She floats herself up, so that she's 'laying down', but flat against the ceiling near the access door to which she's been led by Ant Man - clearly planning on ambushing whoever comes through the door.

Floating up for a moment with her, "Good plan." But he doesn't stay up there, "I'm taking cover, they'll probably blast the door, I don't need that insurance bill. Let me surprise the first one before you reign hell upon them." Or whatever it is she does even. A chuckle from Scott and he's flying off and dismounting his current ride to get to safety.
A few minutes pass, there is an explosion, the door falls inwards (towards the building), and four men come out of the smoke. If she waits long enough, Scott does come out from hiding, unseen at his height, where he proceeds to grab one man by his foot and throw him into a nearby wall. Despite his height, he's as strong, if not stronger, than the lead man and begins to engage the normal human in a scrape. This still leaves three men.

Ultragirl, curious to see how someone not even an inch tall's gonna handle someone normal-sized... waits. Then, of course, she sees that he's way stronger than his diminutive size would seem to indicate. With number one out of the way, she simply releases her flight and lets herself drop down in front of numbers two, three, and four... and then leaps forward into a 'flying tackle' with her arms out to her sides, trying to catch all three at once. She's not going full-speed, of course... still trying to 'pull her punches' so as to not seriously injure, or perhaps kill, men who look to be 'normal joes' to her eyes.

For his size, he's better at avoiding punches, thus Scott Lang can eventually manage to get to the chin button and take care of his one man. The flying tackle by Ultragirl is enough to group the three unsuspecting men off their toes and bundled together as they fall over. They struggle to regain themselves against the stronger foe, one is reaching for a gun, for all the good it will do. As she takes care of the trio, Scott begins to search the man he handled to find clues what they were doing - why they broke into the hotel. They seem a little high tech for simply hitting the safe, but one never knows with this. He doesn't come to help Ultragirl, perhaps more worried that at his size, he could get squished in that tangle.

Ultragirl floats herself up, so that she's hovering over the men, and reaches out to grab and crush the gun that's been drawn, like the did to the gun that got pulled on her up on the rooftop. "Oh, please... guns don't even scratch me!", she says in a tone that would go very well the the rolling of eyes. "Give up before I hafta /beat/ you up, guys", she adds.

Not finding a clue, Ant Man is turning to regard everyone else now. The stop struggling as it seems futile, "All right, all right, we're done." One last man tries to struggle but eventually gives up just the same. Curiously as they give up, Ant Man ponders, "Is that what passes these days between the girls and the boys?" Perhaps making a joke, but it could be falling very short, no pun intended. He lets her wrangle them up if she desires, but offers, "I found nothing on the other guy, we might of interfered before they could get what they were after."

"Oh well... We can let the cops try and get that info outta them", Ultragirl says, as she lands with her hands on her hips, standing right in front of the three still-conscious men. "You don't got some way to tie 'em up, do ya?", she asks.

Shaking his head, "Not at the moment, give me some time and I can send some ants to find rope." Then he goes silent, saying sporadically, "Old cable ... wires ... nearby tunnel." Back to Ultragirl, "Give me two minutes, I can bring us something back." Then he is growing to regular size, man in red suit, silver ant helmet. He gives a two fingered salute and moves to the indicated tunnel and comes back shortly with some wire that isn't being used. As he hands some over so they can begin the restraining process, he ponders, "You're sort of new to the business aren't you?" Perhaps having seen recent press agreeing with the sentiment.

"Yeah... my powers only woke up a couple weeks ago, or so", Ultragirl replies, as she helps to bind up the three conscious men, then brings the one Ant Man KO'd over to add to the pile. "I'll go get that guy from the roof... can you call the cops while I'm doing that?", she adds, once the trussing-up is complete.

"Like mutant powers you mean, or just didn't realize how tough you were before," ponders Scott and then she's talking about the last one. He reaches around to pocket the guys until he gets a cell phone/mobile device. "Sure, police will be on their way." He pauses a second then nods, "Ya, that guy is still out on the roof. You did a number on him." As if letting the three she handled down here know she went easy on them.

"Like... I didn't /have/ the powers, before... they just kinda 'turned on' when I saw my parents about to get squished by that big robot. I even went down to get registered, too, but they wouldn't do it -- they said I wasn't a mutant", explains Ultragirl. "Be right back", she adds, then, flitting up and out of the tunnel and to the roof, to return, shortly, with the still unconscious man, his destroyed gun, and the rappelling gear and rope. As she lays him down, she says, "I... hope I didn't hurt him really bad when I bopped him. Do you know how to check?"

While waiting for the police, when Ultragirl returns and ponders if the man is okay Scott comes over. "Well, medical isn't my forte. He's breathing and has a pulse, he should be good." Though he still looks closer, "I don't see any signs of internal bleeding, not the noticeable kind - like swollen body parts. I don't want to risk getting that small. He's breathing, so I think he'll manage with whatever injuries he might have until an ambulance arrives. We'll just tell the police so we don't move him too much." As if that seems to settle it. "If you're worried about punches, talk with your sponsored about training equipment. Really, if you want to measure you're strike force and learn to control, I might be able to throw something together, depending how much force is packed into your blows."

"Well, I don't really /know/ how strong I am. I've had to really go all-out at least once or twice, already... like when Red Ronin threw his shield at Washington and I had to catch it... but it's not like that /really/ tells me... right?", Ultragirl says, looking down at the unconscious man. "I just don't wanna accidentally /hurt/ someone, someday", she adds.

"No, I understand, I don't have that worry," a grin, as he points to himself. His helmet has ant antennae, he's smaller in that regard, no catching big shields or punching the hulk or something. "It only takes a few resources, we can measure your output and adjust some training equipment to your scale. Its simple, I've done a bit of work for the Avengers while working for Stark Enterprises. If you're sponsors are serious about your public image, they'll be more than willing to go in for some high tech training equipment. It'd be good for their publicity just the same - images of you training in their sponsored equipment." Half a shrug, "Side business of mine you could say."

Ultragirl snaps her fingers and smiles, as if a sudden insight's come to her. "You're Ant Man!", she says. "Sorry I didn't recognize you til you mentioned the Avengers, but that's when I finally stopped wondering who you were and /knew/", she explains. "Well... I'll mention it to the guy who's my 'handler' with UnderArmor. Should I just tell him to call up Ant Man, or the Avengers, or Stark Enterprises, or what?"

Shaking his head, Scott replies, "Not Stark, there are some issues of board control at the moment and I'm not regularly with the Avengers." He ponders this situation, "But, I suppose I could leave the number to a friend, its who I get most of my contracts through and he could use some of the work too." That being said, he considers his own costume, and then reaches under the regular suit and into his pocket to find a card. Its crumpled just a little all the recent action considered and hands it over. Its the card to Scott Lang, but he does his best to keep Ant Man and Scott separate, its his secret identity. "Scott and I work together often. I can speak with the Avengers too if you like."

"I'll pass this along to my handler and let him talk to your friend about that super-gym stuff", Ultragirl says. Sirens have been audible, and are not 'right on top of' the entrance to the service tunnels. "Looks like the cops are here, now. I'll go up and fill 'em in on all this and let 'em know these guys are down here", she says.

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