16293/The Vulture Strikes!

The Vulture Strikes!
Date of Scene:	23 May 2024
Location:	The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Synopsis:	Vulture attempts to steal the Eye of Horus from the Met, but is thwarted by an unlikely band of heroes!
Cast of Characters:	Ghost Spider, Wolverine, Rogue, Hawkeye (Barton), Wonder Woman

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Ghost Spider has posed:The night air buzzes with tension -- the kind that prickles at the back of your neck and sets your senses on high alert.

Ghost-Spider swings through the city, building-to-building, sometimes pole-to-pole, flipping twice before landing on a ledge and running, only to leap back into another graceful arc. The alarm tied to the scanner on her phone guides her steadily towards the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and when she arrives, the scene is chaos. The familiar red and blue flashes of NYPD cruisers form a perimeter around the grand structure, their lights dancing off the marble facade in an urgent, chaotic pattern. The distant sound of helicopters thump overhead.

"Looks like the party started without me," she calls, flipping gracefully over the barricade of squad cars. The police are in full force, setting up a command post and trying to manage the growing crowd of onlookers. Officers bark orders, pointing and directing civilians and each other, faces set in grim determination.

"IT'S SPIDER-WOMAN!" a few voices shout under her as she passes. None except for a few in the crowd sound particularly happy about it. There's even one cry of, "YOU'RE UNDER ARREST!"

That's not surprising, really. The Spider-folks haven't been on the NYPD Christmas Card list since the big Spidey himself had a warrant issued for trying to assassinate the mayor.

Long story.

"IT'S _GHOST-SPIDER_," the girl in the white-and-black costume shouts, her signature teal Chuck Taylor high-tops streaking through the sea of red-and-blue lights. "Sorry. No time for autographs!"

Landing softly on the museum steps, the lithe young woman hurries higher, disappearing behind a column so she can peek inside without getting shot (even by the NYPD).

There are hostages inside. She can hear them screaming. Henchmen, too, of course. Such a classic villain move. The goons are well-equipped, dressed in tactical gear and armed with high-tech weapons that shimmer menacingly under the streetlights.

Ghost-Spider's big costume eyes narrow on a henchman behind the reception desk that's fiddling with the computer terminal. There's even a guy behind him, looking over his shoulder, but they're both focused on the screen. Too focused.

Perfect.

Wolverine has posed:
Logan's out in New York. He just needs to get away from the school. Too many reminders of happier days. Those will fade, life will move on, but not today. Tomorrow isn't looking good either. He knows the metaphorical light is at the end of the road. Right now, he's hoping there's a second light. Preferrably from the 12th bottle of beer out of just as many rounds.

That's when he crosses path with red and blue flashes. A Spider is here, too. Something about being "Ghost Spider." To be fair, he's only half paying attention. He's trying to ignore the call. Ignore the reason why there's a brown and orange uniform under his jeans, coat and button up flannel shirt.

Screams of people can be heard. Talk of hostages follow suit, "F---!" he curses under his breath. He'll start moving around the police perimeter. When he sees the least patrolled spot, Logan will leap over the barricade then sneak forward. "Shnkt!" the claws are out before he makes it into the building.

Metal bites into concrete as he starts to scale up the building. Along the way, he'll dig up his mask and slip it on. The rest of his outfit, a midthigh green jacket that looks like it belongs for campers and those jeans will get shot off. Although his brown combat boots are just part of the costume.

Maybe deep down he knew New York would sing his song. Somewhere deep down, the world might need an X-Man.

Rogue has posed:
Logan's not the only X-Men trying to put things in the past behind them. Not only that, but where else can one go when things are going bump in the night and scaring them into hiding more and more. So she's flying over New York. Change of pace. Change of scenery. It's louder here, so her thoughts are drowned out by the fray.

Only soon she's not hearing typical noises of New York. There's more screams of panic. And there's something about hostages. Because of course there is nowhere they can't go where trouble seems to be found.

As she gets closer, she has to figure out a spot to fly over where the cops won't think she's some rogue (pun intended) boogie out to make matters worse. This is when she spies Logan.

Well. Fuck.

She flies over and then tries to hover near him. "Tryin' to get to the roof? Want a lift?"

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Surprisingly, the Avengers aren't out tonight to save the city for the 177th times. "Or it is the 178th times? You're loosin' it, Hawkster," Clint Barton says, to no one, just because.

For indeed he is alone, Avengers probably on another planet, he lost track. As for S.H.I.E.L.D.? Naw, the archer isn't working for them tonight. Or more precisely, he is pretending to work for them - will take the pay - and pretend to patrol.

This is how Hawkeye ended up near the Met - not in search of cultural knowledge, but just out of chance. Or out of luck, bandages will tell tomorrow when he wakes up. By what he can observe from the top of a building across the street, trouble is brewing.

There a grin on his face as he notices the X-guys, but his attention is also caught by someone yelling about spiders. Dang ears. Did he hear "Spider-Ghost"?

"Pff, no shit, some heroes names nowadays."

Ghost Spider has posed:
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a two-million-square-foot building, one of the largest art galleries and the fourth largest museum in the world. The building is four city blocks long and sits on 11.5 acres in Central Park along Fifth Avenue.

In short: it's big.

It's the Friday before Memorial Day, one of the busiest times of the year for the Met, where attendance can be more than 20,000 visitors in a single day, and even though the Met employs their own armed security in dark, tailored suits, it's more than a little obvious that they couldn't stop the hostile takeover.

Of course, it's not the _entire_ museum they're trying to hold. As is usually the case with these sorts of things, they're after something. The question is... what? They've gathered the hostages up somewhere behind the main atrium -- how far is hard to tell. There's only the sounds of their cries and the shouts of the guards stationed to safeguard them.

From behind her column, Ghost-Spider sends a web shooting out to one of the front, glass doors of the museum, yanking hard and pulling it off of its hinges with a shattering of glass. She lunges into the newly made hole just as the two men behind the desk are going for their guns, two more web-lines going out for their rifles and _yanking_ hard to dislodge them from their grips. Both men are scrambling, one to rush her, one to grab at a nearby radio.

"Hey there, boys," she calls out. "I think you took a wrong turn. The villain convention is downtown."

Suddenly from deep within the museum, a single shot rings out -- a small caliber pistol. A second later, there's a *brrrrt* of automatic weapon fire, and then everything goes quiet again.

Wolverine has posed:
"Nope," Logan says firmly and he keeps climbing. "How do ya wanna play this? We got one Spider 'round here. In 'bout five minutes we'll probably have two Avengers and another Spider," he looks at her, trusting the tactics. "Stealth is the game, but stealth can include grabbin' someone from the other side of the wall, like Robocop." An eighties action movie Logan's a fan of. Rogue would have seen it enough to get reference. There was a hostage situation and it was diffused because the cyborg punched through a wall to grab his target. "Yer probably the strongest one here," he says trying to play to tactical strengths. Also, it's therapeutic to stab something right now. Even if it's just a building, it does make him feel better.

Gunfire barks into the night, "Grab me. No use bein' all stealthy now," Logan says as he waits to be taken to one of the top windows. Now, she could throw him through it, or near it. The latter he'll have to cut open a hole in the glass, unlock the window and then pull it up just to get in. The former is a knuckle ball version of a fastball special.

Rogue has posed:
NO time for hashing out semantics when they're on the job. Rogue was just about to nod and fly off somewhere else when the shots ring out. "Welp. That's our signal..." So she grabs him and flies the little further up it is to the window. She knows he could handle being thrown through it, and so that's precisely what she does. "One Adamantium Launcher, comin' up!" She says, almost like a warning or a threat, before she throws Logan towards the window. Soon as he's busted through, she'll make her way inside after him, landing to stand beside him. "You've got the hearing...where do you think those shots came from?" Cause maybe he can smell the gunpowder too. Either way, they'll work as a team because they can. Then likely go their separate ways right after.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
From across the street, an arrow flies in the night, going right throughout the now opened front doors. Of course, the archer had noticed Rogue and Logan going for the top of the building, so this would be covered already. Which is why Clint opted for the already opened doors.

As he slides down along the line, Hawkeye also notices the remnants of web on the ground among the shattered glass.

"Someone's unhinged. That's it, no more RedBulsh for Spidey," Hawkeye comments, again to no one, just because he is Hawkeye.

Quickly assessing the situation, the archer notices the guards struggling in a web of problems as Ghost-Spider has a grip on their weapons.

Yet another arrow flies towards the men, catching them both with the same bolo-arrow. Caught, neutralized.

"Hey She-Spidey," Clint says, glancing at Spider, "News flash, we've got heavies topside. Might want to regroup?"

Ghost Spider has posed:
The general layout of The Met:

The first goon in the reception lobby is already drawing a pistol, preparing to end the troublesome Spider, when Clint's bolo-arrow wraps around his arms, pinning them to his side and his back against his buddy (who was stopped JUST short of radioing for help).

Arms still up like she was preparing for both of the goons to jump on her at once, the hooded and white-masked face of Ghost-Spider looks back over her shoulder, mask-eyes going comically large.

"Oh my God! It's... you!"

She pauses.

"Hold on. Don't tell me. The... Brown Arrow? No. The Angry Archer?... Robin Hood?.. Am I getting close?"

Then her thumb lifts over her shoulder.

"Actually, that was _really_ cool.. can anyone get one of those? Cause like..." She mimes firing an arrow.

Heavies.

"That's team talk for we should work together, right?"

Apparently working in a team with 'heavies' was not something she was used to. But this conversation isn't going to last for long. There's already the sound of footfalls running towards the pair of them.

Meanwhile, Logan and Rogue obviously have the right idea! They're barely inside when they practically land on a group of four henchmen patrolling the second floor. Not far behind them, there's an overlook down to the large Egyptian Temple, which also happens to be where the hostages are being gathered with an even larger contingent of henchmen.

"X-MEN!" one of the henchmen shouts, raising his rifle to fire off a burst of bullets at the intruders. Although a little delayed, his buddies are soon joining the fight, too.

Wolverine has posed:
Logan flies into Egypt. Well not titerally. Well, more like falling with style...into an Egyptian art exhibit. Glass and wood splintered around him as he went through it. His coat and shirt are in tatters. That's before he bowls over some henchmen. He will work quick. Just going for silet strikes until one he cannot reach yells. "X-MEN!"



The scatter shot finishes off his shirt and coat.

Logan will try to hide against a statue. Logan's wanting Rogue to be the distraction. She has flight and strenght. Besides when they're distracted, he can get to stabbing. Gunfire goes off and when someone shoots, he'll go "Shnkt!" Trying to muffle the sound in the sea of gunshots.

"And they say I ain't cultured," Logan grins maliciously. Today is going to be a good day afterall.

Rogue has posed:
"Oh please. I bet this is the first time you've actually stepped foot in a museum...and not been offered to be part of the tour." Rogue quips with a grin before bullets are flying her way. She's got a sense of danger coming at herself though, and is fast as fook boi! So she easily ducks, dodges, and one shot barely grazes her yellow uniform before she's yanking the gun out of one of the henchmen's hands and kicking him at the chest to cause him to fly to the other side of the room.

"Let's not be hasty, boys, there's plenty of us to go around...." The gun itself is bent and twisted like it's nothing until it cannot be undone unless one is machinist. Logan's got himself his own target which leaves two for Rogue to tango with. "Don't suppose if I just say 'Boo' you two will run away screamin' like pansies, would ya?"

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
There's no time for formal presentations as the sound of gunfire erupts on another floor. Just a simple answer to her questions, "No, no and yes. In that order," Clint says, moving forward towards the large staircase in front, arrow at the ready. "You can call me Hawkeye."

Now, there was gunfire sounds coming from the basement, and also from the upper level. Surely, the X-Guys will manage whatever they face upstairs, so securing the way and surroundings might be more appropriate for the moment.

Assessing the situation on the lobby floor, Hawkeye waits to see how long it will take Logan and Rogue to reach the lobby. Maybe 50 seconds?

"Heavies, yup. One prickly, one touchy, both lethal."

Ghost Spider has posed:
"Ghost-Spider," the white-and-black clad spider returns Hawkeye's introduction, those expressive eyes seeming to smile under her hood.

It's a good thing Clint's moving towards the staircase, though, because a trio of new goons appears at the top! And not only that...

From outside, there's a distant explosion. For those with _incredibly_ adept hearing, it sounds exactly like a police helicopter getting hit with a projectile and going into a spin before crashing into the side of a building.

A few seconds later, the museum's atrium above the Great Hall, a masterpiece of glass and steel, suddenly shatters into a thousand glittering fragments right above Ghost-Spider and Hawkeye. The cacophony of breaking glass fills the air, and from the gaping hole in the atrium roof, a dark figure descends with menacing grace.

Adrian Toomes, the Vulture, has arrived.

His wing-suit, a marvel of cutting-edge technology and sinister design, glints under the city lights as he swoops down like a bird of prey. The mechanical wings spread wide, their edges sharp and deadly, slicing through the air with a menacing hum. His eyes, cold and calculating, survey the chaos below with satisfaction. The henchmen who had just arrived to 'deal with' the Spider and the Archer, momentarily stunned by his dramatic entrance, quickly rally at the sight of their leader.

Ghost-Spider is forced to shield her head from flying debris with her arms, crouching until it all thunderously crashes to the ground.

Vulture lands with a predatory elegance, his metal-clawed feet (worn like boots) hitting the marble floor with a resonant thud. He rises to his full height, the wings folding behind him with a mechanical whirr, giving him the appearance of a monstrous bird poised to strike.

"Gentlemen," he calls out, his voice dripping with authority and malice, "it seems we have some unwelcome guests."

His gaze sweeps over the scene, taking in the scattered hostages, the disabled security systems, and the NYPD forces just outside the perimeter. The element of surprise is gone, but Vulture thrives on chaos, and he's ready to adapt.

"Secure the artifact," he commands, his tone brooking no argument and broadcasting simultaneously over the radio of every henchman in the building like some kind of twisted PA system. "And deal with the meddlers. We're on a tight schedule."

Then his predatory eyes turns to focus on Ghost-Spider, both his bald head and his long green beak glinting in the artificial light of the museum.

"You," he seethes.

Ghost-Spider peeks. "Buzzard?"

"VULTURE!" he yells, and then he's airborne, flying towards her.

Meanwhile, there's a flurry of activity around Logan and Rogue, especially around the easily-visible hostages in the Egyptian exhibit. The Vulture's voice on the radio was easy enough to ear, but what none of the others got to hear were a few shouts from around the model pyramid.

"Where's the Eye?!" "Look for the Horus exhibit!" "What the hell's a Horus?!" "You're useless! Watch the hostages!"

And those hostages are getting restless, especially the ones in the security uniforms. Two of them are nodding at each other, edging towards one of the hechmen with assault rifles. Presumably, they're unarmed, but they definitately look like they're going to try to take him... for better or worse.

Wolverine has posed:
"Brooklyn Museum. Hiroshige's One-Hundred Famous views," proof he is cultured, but only with a particular culture. Logan sheds the rest of the clothes so it's jsut the uniform before he goes rushing at one of the assailants. He has to keep the anger in check. Non-letal is the game.

Claws will try to hit a cheek or an arm. But Logan's intent is to push the guy toward the stairs then send him over. They're facing the railing more than an opening, so he wants to aim toward the flat floor rather than the actual stairs. Or maybe slow the person's decent with a grab, lower then drop.He wants to humiliate someone, not paralyze.

Suddenly, there's a thing that's moving quick and someone speaking over the radios.

"Find the eye or the asshole, darlin'. I can get rid of stragglers," he says with a smile. A gleam of maliciousness in his eye.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue is listening to everything, but when Logan gives her a direction she gives him a nod. Then she looks at him directly and for a moment - however brief - there's something akin to guilt or sorrow that fills her. "Right. Lucky y'all I actually studied a book or two on Egyptology..." She says this and then turns to run down the stairs and towards the Egyptian room. The eye of Horus is an eye with very cool line art around it. Horus is the god who's head is that of a Falcon and Hathor restored his left eye - which is why the Eye of Horus is thought to have certain powers attuned to it.

On her way to the room and then into it, she faces a couple of hurdles. Not big ones or even...hard ones...just there's more than one person looking for this thing. She comes up behind one of the henchmen, taps him on the shoulder, grins and then clocks him good in the face. Knocking him out. Stepping over that body, she pushes another one into the wall. Maybe a little too hard. There might be a body-shaped hole in that wall now. Still, it gains her the advantage and since she knows precisely what she's looking for, she'll grab it before anyone else is able to. "Awww. Is the big bad bossman lookin' for this? Well, tell him I'm waitin' to talk to him...oh and...first order of business is to let the hostages go. I really don't feel like cleanin' up a huge mess when this is all over."

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
There isn't much protection to be found by the staircase, so the archer reach for the closest wall, to protect himself as much as possible against the falling debris. There's also the matter of the three goons by the stairs, but that is taken care of swiftly thanks to a concussion arrow. If they do not wear special protective gear, they will be down for a while and regret meeting the archer.

Now, the green peacock who just destroyed the glass ceiling is another matter. Since the X-Guys seem to want to keep all the fun for themselves - hey, it has been more than 50 seconds already - Hawkeye decides to do the regrouping by himself and join them.

"Spidey! Let's join the party?" he invites Ghost-Spider to follow him, while aiming yet another arrow at the green degenerated parrot. Shot straight at Vulture, the arrow is equipped with black smoke that on contact, should distract the madman long enough for Spider and himself to join the fun in the Egyptian room. "Carrion, nothing to see!" he jokes, waiting on Spider.

Wonder Woman has posed:
Diana Prince is more than passingly familiar with the museum and the arts. Given her heritage, both Amazonian and Olympian, she quite appreciates Art. She has been to The Met for many events in her time serving as the Amazon's Ambassador. However, they have all been scheduled publicly promoted. This? This was planned but for all of the wrong reasons.

As the others move to intercept and apprehend, Diana is just arriving on the scene. Coming to a hover above the police cordon, she looks to the officer in charge. As she opens her mouth to ask a question - probably "How can I help?" - she hears the gunshots, and the crackle of radio chatter even if it is faint: ... Eye of Horus...

Someone seeking any artifacts by gunfire and force is something she understands. Holding a finger up to indicate she knows what is needed, she flies into the building through the smashed skylight.

Floating down to the floor, a look is cast to the others moving to stop what can best be considered a robbery. Not knowing where they are heading, she looks to the one she recognizes.

"Logan?" Studying his method of fighting without killing - which is itself unusual, she inquires, "Where am I needed?"

Ghost Spider has posed:
There's so much chaos. The Great Hall is in shambles, there's glass everywhere, and Vulture is mid-flight, looking like he's about to eat Ghost-Spider like road kill.

Meanwhile, the Egyptian Exhibit is a frenzy of repelling the X-Men who are making relatively quick work of them, shouting at hostages who are screaming and trembling in fear and being pushed to their emotional limits by the sounds of explosions and gunfire, and a frantic search for something that only a few of the henchmen seem to even have a clue how to locate.

At least in the Egyptian wing, Rogue's know-how seems to bring some amount of order to the chaos -- at least for a moment. She's taken out a couple of them, and as soon as she starts taunting the rest with having found what they were looking for, two more henchmen appear at one of the doorways closest to where they're keeping the hostages.

"One of the X-Men has the Eye!" one of them shouts into their radio, an announcement broadcast for everyone to hear. "The woman! Get her!"

Once more, chaos erupts.

The two Met security guards that were inching closer to that one henchman make their move. Both of them jump him at once while he's looking in Rogue's direction, and his rifle goes off in a spray of bullets that pepper the ceiling, raining debris down on others. There's screaming and panic. The gun goes off again, and it's down to a wrestling match. Some of the henchmen are now running at Rogue, but a couple are on their way to help contain the hostages, aiming the guns towards the wrestling trio but holding their fire for the moment for fear of hitting their own man.

Vulture is less than a second from plowing into Ghost-Spider when the smoke arrow hits him and they're both enveloped in the inky blackness. Less than a blink later, the winged madman soars out of the cloud of smoke without the Spider, twisting and hitting a wall so hard that it reverberates like an earthquake.

"Good one!" Ghost-Spider chokes, stumbling out of the smoke a moment later and waving her hand in front of her mask like she's trying to clear her vision. It's unclear if she means the smoke bomb or the pun. Probably both.

"IDIOTS!" Vulture screams in a voice that reverberates again over all of the radios as he's picking himself up off the ground. "GET THE ARTIFACT!"

"Uhhh... you go!" Ghost-Spider shouts back to Hawkeye. "Bird Brain and I need to have a talk about respecting the arts."

Vulture wheels on the Ghost-Spider. "You call this ART?!"

"We're talking about it, aren't we -- " the slender Spider starts to ask, but she shakes her head, squinting like she's got a headache. "I just got the _worst_ case of deja vu... Oh, hey! It's Wonder Woman!"

Oh, sure. _Her_ name she gets right.

Ghost-Spider raises a hand to wave at the floating Diana, but she's suddenly clobbered in the side by a soaring Vulture in a wing-suit and promptly smashed through the closest adjoining wall.

Then another.

Then another.

Within seconds, they explode from the wall next to Rogue, showering the whole area in debris and sending Ghost-Spider rolling across the ground, groaning.

Wolverine has posed:
Logan notes the sorrow in Rogue's eyes. A flash of anger flows through him. Which he begins taking out on the assailts. Now he's going for shins, arms and any place he knows will miss anything vital. It has to be measured, Logan knows his anger could cause mistakes. Very fatal mistakes. So, he is holding back.

When everything dies down in his area, Wonder Woman shows up. "Dianna," he says remembering a Wonder Woman from the war. Ocean blue eyes looka to Diana, "We got a Mastermind, or flyer, after some kinda Eye of Horus. Ya got flight. The rest of us don't 'cept one," Logan suspects he would have seen flight by now from others.

"That's the target. Find em'. Another one of ours is there, Rogue. Work wit' her. Take lead in flyin' formations," because he knows Amazons will have so much more combat experience.

Rogue has posed:
Chaos. Panic. Disorder. Guess Rogue's work is done then. Still. She has the Eye of Horus in her hand, and as the henchmen approach her, she makes quick work of them. Tossing one across the room and the otheer to follow. As the room fills with the cries from the hostages, gunfire from the guards trying to wrestle a henchman, and then Gwen comes crashing in through a wall... the X-Man has had...

"ENOUGH!" Her voice reverberates. Did anyone else know she could do that? Probably not. Must be some hidden power. Or maybe just the fact that she's woman. Hear her roar. Something, something. "I have what your master wants. So he'll talk to me. You will let the hostages go...mostly because they con't do anything more for you. But I can crush this...so think twice about actually coming and attacking me. That goes for you too, Bird Brain!" Oh she heard the name 'Vulture'. Sure. She doesn't care.

Pissed off Southern Belle anyone?

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
As he makes his way further into the large room, Hawkeye glances behind to assess if the ugly green oversized duckling is following. But the madman soon vanished from sight as the fight with Ghost-Spider provided another emergency exit to the MET. For now, a few goons spotted ahead are taken care of with quickly shot arrows, which will clear the way and help evacuate some hostages once more guards are taken care of.

"Opening night at the Met!", Hawkeye remarks, "We've got a bad case of culture vulture here!"

Directing his attention at the goons closest to the hostages, Hawkeye takes them out one at the time - which in itself doesn't take long. Using a concussion arrow would defeat the purpose of clearing a path for the hostages. Once enough goons will be down, the hostages will feel safer to try and escape under Hawkeye's cover.

Wonder Woman has posed:
Diana Prince nods to Logan and turns quickly, flying low through the halls toward the Egyptian wing. She does notice and nod, seriously, to Ghost Spider. Who.. then points the way to the Egyptian wing as she takes an unscheduled tour along the way with Vulture.

Arriving just as Rogue shouts, Diana lands and watches Vulture. He's the one who appears to be in charge of this robbery.

For the moment Diana waits as Rogue's demand is delivered. What will Vulture and his minions do? Of course she already knows, but she is one to give the benefit of the doubt. Humans so often surprise her.

Ghost Spider has posed:
"Oh, hey... you're the one who found the thing!" Ghost-Spider groans, looking up from a little pile of debris at Rogue and her artifact-treasure.

"INCONSEQUENTIAL VERMIN!" Vulture roars, rising from his own pile of Egyptian debris not that far from Spider-Gwen. He's all old, bald guy with wrinkly skin and a giant, mechanical green wing suit. And those wing-tips? They look SHARP, especially as he rises from that debris, letting it roll off of him as he brings himself to his full height (plus a bit, thanks to the metal claws on his feet), and spreads his wings out to their full span.

Neither one of them are far from Rogue. This is it. The showdown.

"GIVE ME THE ARTIFACT AND I WILL LET YOU LIVE," the winged man demands, towering over all the three women that are now in a rough semi-circle in front of him -- Rogue, Wonder Woman, and Ghost-Spider. "DESTROY IT, AND YOU'LL BEG FOR DEATH BEFORE I'M DONE WITH YOU."

The henchmen closest to them are all waiting, rifles raised, unwilling to fire lest Rogue's threat be serious... and if they were the one that caused her to destroy it? Vulture was sure to fly them well up above the city and drop them... No one wants that.

The ones Hawkeye are facing are another story. They're only a room away, but their fight is still going strong. When an arrow jabs into the leg of the goon that the two guards were wrestling with, they quickly overpower him, and the others turns their rifles on Hawkeye.

Thump. Thump. Thump. More of the goons drop from well-placed arrows, and with the herd thinned, there's more movement from the hostages.

"We have to go" one woman yells. The two Met security guards step up then, both now armed with newly acquired assault rifles, courtesy of the fallen henchmen.

"Through here!" one of the guards directs, moving to a well-concealed staff access door so they have a place to filter out, rather than going through the exhibit where Vulture still lingers.

Meanwhile, Spider-Gwen's looking between Vulture and the others. She has no idea what Rogue can do, but she's _pretty sure_ she has an idea of what Diana can do, given the opportunity.

"Hey Baldy!"

For just that split second, Vulture's attention turns towards her, and she raises a wrist, hitting him in the face with a *SPLAT* of webbing that covers his eyes.

He screams.

"Now!" Spider-Gwen shouts... as if they had some sort of pre-arranged plan.

Which they don't.

Wolverine has posed:
"At least it ain't as rough as openin' night elsewhere," Logan thinks of how people get murdered at the apollo. Well, at least on stage. He listens to the demand from Rogue. It shakes him. There'a pause from Logan, "Might wanna put that down darlin'. Remindin' me of Sinister when he gets a hold of tech n' people," although there may be brief flash of Logan using this thing against Sinister. Just the brifest of thoughts.

"Nice shootin' Hawkeye," Logan will command that sound of bodies going thud, like a drumbeat.

A second later Ghost Spider is talking and she says "NOW!" There is no plan, so Logan goes for one of the henchmen with claws out. He'll leap in the air. Thanks to the healing factor and bones, Logan's not adverse to taking gunfire. Especially when it gets him close enough to slice at the weapons. He's trying to get one, maybe two weapons out of play. Plus, the guy that can take a lot of rounds is often a distraction others in the room can use. Ususally, they just tend to keep firing at him. Well, most. These could be the exceptions to the rule.

Logan's just ready for a night filled with burning, bullet removal and itchiness. Sometimes they just do that, itch a little.

Rogue has posed:
"You're speakin' a lot of guffaw for someone who ain't got shit up his sleeve to play..." Rogue says this, her eyes on Vulture directly. The goons who are holding her at rifle point don't even get attention from her. The pause between everything is allowing the hostages to make their escape. She does briefly shift her gaze to all the other heroes that are beginning to gather here. Gwen, Diana, Logan, Clint...and here she is holding the artifact that this bird man is trying to gain.

"You can try to kill me. Wouldn't get ya very far...I can promise you that..." She says, looking the artifact over, and then back to Vulture. "Also, you could bring your voice down an octave or two, sugah. We're right here. In the same room. Ain't no need for shoutin'. Now... what's so important about this artifact? Does it grant you eternal life? Phenomenal cosmic powers?" A little smirk hits her lips then.

"And yeah. I could crush this. Easily. Into dust."

Wonder Woman has posed:
Diana Prince is not known for speed in the typical sense of a Quicksilver or the Flash(es), still she can move very quickly when she chooses. This would be one of those moments.

As Ghost Spider webs Vulture in the face, Diana moves in a blur of red, blue, silver and glowing golden lasso. The flies out, intent on coiling around Vulture to not only ground him but properly detain him. That he might escape the unbreakable cord is never a question in her mind.

Holding firmly to the lasso, she gives it firm tug to topple him backwards to the floor. No dignity given this time.

"You should listen to the woman. That will be quite enough from you. Tell your men to stand down and surrender. Now."

Her voice is calm and firm, like that of a mother scolding a petulant child. The Lasso of Truth amplifies her will and command. Vulture can resist; but it will come at the cost of ever increasing pressure to obey. Probably something he hasn't done since he was truly a petulant child!

Ghost Spider has posed:
In not much more than the blink of an eye, Vulture is on tied up on his rump, and Logan has worked through most of the guns in the room even before Toombs has had a chance to comply.

The old man squeals and squawks, twisting against the rope and shaking his head against the webbing that still clings to his face like a blindfold. He hadn't managed to get the sticky stuff off before Diana roped him up.

But the more he resists, the more uncomfortable and frantic he gets, until he's finally screaming, "ALRIGHT! STOP! PUT DOWN YOUR WEAPONS!"

His bald head turns in Ghost-Spider's direction -- at least, approximately.

"THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT! YOU'LL PAY FOR THIS!"

"Why does it always have to be _my_ fault?!" Gwen protests, raising her arms to her sides. "_I'm_ not the one holding your weird Eye toy. Which is kind of ironic, since you can't even see, right now."

A beat, then, as Ghost-Spider looks over at Rogue. "I _love_ your accent, by the way..."

Back to Vulture, Gwen shakes her head. "I'm not even the one who tied you up... in a completely non-creepy way." She visibly shudders, then. "Ugh. I need bleach for my brain, now."

Blink.

"Okay, so listen... it looks like you guys have this. I'm gonna go make sure the hostages all made it out safely and then let the cops know it's safe to come in. By exiting. Myself."

She takes a few steps back and holds up her hands, making a heart.

"Thanks, everyone! You guys were great. Hawkeye, I still want one of those bows... and probably some lessons. Call me."

*THWIP*

And with that, Ghost-Spider has made her exit, because soon, the police will be filing in. And the last thing she needs after a fight with Vulture is a show down with her father.

"I HATE YOU. ALL OF YOU," Vulture croaks from the floor, impatiently subdued, but no longer a threat, as the rest of the henchmen either lay down their weapons peacefully or make their own escape.