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The cause rarely mattered at events like this- everyone would come, pay some ridiculous amount of money for a plate of food and an open bar all for whatever cause needed the extra cash. The real reason most people were here was to be seen doing something good for "The Community".
This particular soiree is an event for New York City- and Hell's Kitchen in particular. Hometown girl Alexandra "Lex" Luthor, along with fellow hometown girl Danny Rand have joined forces for a new community center in Hell's Kitchen.
A raised platform sits at the front of the room, with a table where the 'larger investors' sit above those who donated less. The big names are all at that table, with Lex standing and clicking her glass with a spoon as the party reaches its half and hour mark, just before the real meals are about to be served. "Good evening!" she calls out, "As you are aware LexCorp and Rand-Meachum are companies born and raised in New York City. I, myself, was born and raised in Hell's Kitchen and I can not forget my youth or the neighborhood which formed such an important part of my childhood." Luthor pauses quietly, "As such, it fills me with great joy to see you all here to help assist the creation of this community center, with its fully stocked free clinic and abundant youth programs to help better the lives of everyone in Hell's Kitchen. Thanks to generous donations from people like yourselves, this project nears completion…." At this point, waiters begin to filter through with champagne for everyone.
This is the part that Danny's board usually tries to keep her out of. It's not that she's not good with people. Danny's great with people. It's just that she always seems to pick the wrong people to be most interested in. For example, while Lex is making toasts at the head of the table, Danny's trading shots of definitely not champagne from a flask with a group of local community leaders at the foot of the table, wearing a dress that the board would categorize as much too short and much too tight.
She does, however, manage to quiet down the laughter as Lex starts the toast, slipping the flask to one man where it can conveniently disappear into a breast pocket as champagne comes around.
Up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a…
Lara-El flies along over this version of New York City, a version roughly a century older than the one she knew. She's keeping her flight speed low, so that she can look at details here and there, as she tries to acclimate herself to her new surroundings, after having been unceremoniously thrust out of her own reality, her own time, and into a whole new version of the world she knew, with both differences and similarities that often surprise her.
Everything Lex does is measured and weighted- she had started this with Danny, and it would be wrong to exclude her from one of the final fund raising events. Anyways, it would only build confidence in LexCorp in the end if Danny Rand was seen doing shots with community leaders. "The LexCorp sponsored medical facilities in the Luthor-Rand Community Center will be cutting edge, and medical treatments will be offered on a sliding scale based on the income level of the patient, with free medical treatment for children and young adults who are currently attending local, New York schools." Lex continues as she raises her own glass of Champagne, "And so I toast to a healthier, and…"
A gun goes off, each of the waiters pulling out pistols and throwing people to the ground as one among them holds a smoking pistol above his head. "Everyone get on the ground!" he shouts, as he fires a second round into the air. "If you're all smart no one will die tonight!"
Danny's head snaps up at the gunshot, and where others might panic, the young woman is surprisingly calm…and sharp-eyed, given the number of shots she's tossed back and the way she was laughing just a few moments earlier. While she doesn't immediately hit the floor, she does quickly and quietly start guiding the community leaders she was drinking with to spots under the table, crouching down and pulling a few chairs between them and the armed waiters.
Flying along, Lara-El pauses by this one building, which its sign declares is hosting a fund-raiser for a new community center, eyes on the large number of 'rich and fancy' cars parked outside it. That's when she hears the gunshot from inside, spurring her to shift her vision to where she can see through walls and such, to see what's going on — and decides on a course of action!
In a blur, she's through the double glass doors of the place and in front of the 'leader' of the gunmen, her hand on his gun. With a screeching sort of sound, the metal of the firearm in her hand simply crumples as she squeezes it to the point that the weapon's completely unusable. "I suggest you all stand down before I have to hurt you", she says, in a flat tone of voice. She hasn't even landed, simply hovering in the air in front of the gunman she's already disarmed by destroying his weapon.
"Holy shit!" The leader says, as his gun is crushed in front of him, "Grab the hostages!" The leader says, as he immediately grabs the nearest civilian and holds a knife to the poor man's throat. "Stay back you dumb bitch!" he shouts, "We're the People's Liberation Front and we refuse to let government stooges like you stop us from being heard any longer!" The other nine men all grab a hostage. Some hold their guns to the temple, others point the weapons at the back of a kneeling hostage. "So, can you stop all of us, Hero? We have demands." the man with the knife says with a growl.
Lex has not hit the floor, she's staring at these hostage takers with barely restrained rage. Her knuckles have gone white as she grabs the edge of the table and her eye is twitching ominously. Apparently, this is not how she planned her evening to go. "You stupendous IDIOTS!" she suddenly shouts, "Do you have any idea who I am?! Do you have any idea what you're doing?!" The woman seems fearless, but really, its unbridled rage…
Or particularly good acting… Lara might notice that Lex's heartrate hasn't increased whatsoever, she's oddly cool as a cucumber despite how red her face and bald head have grown.
"Hey, hey, hey." As things start to take a turn for the dangerous, Danny starts to stand up a bit, holding her hands out toward the men with the guns. "Hey, it's all cool, right? No need for things to get violent." She flicks a glance toward Lex, then toward the unknown woman floating in the room. Powers of some sort or another. Noted. "I'm Danny. Danny Rand. Rand-Meachum Enterprises. Lots of money. Let's talk about this, yeah? Maybe with less knives and fewer hostages."
Lara's attention is on the gunman in front of her, and the others in the room — not on the heartrate of one of the apparent victims in the place. When he simply leaves his gun in her hand and reaches for a hostage… she is a blur of motion, moving to try to grab both his knife-wielding wrist… and his neck. Looking him right in the eyes, she says, even as the gun she dropped along the way hits the floor, "You might like to listen to Miss Rand and tell your pals to stand down. If even ONE person gets hurt here, I'm going to be very upset — I'll likely take it out. On. You." Her eyes glow red with energy of some sort as she says that last part.
Lex's eyes narrow as Lara takes control of the situation. One of the thugs looks to the others and begins to pull his weapon away to point it towards Lara.. or is he about to throw it to the ground and give up… "Fuck this, I'm not being pa…"
BOOM! Another gun shot. A hole in between the man's eyes, and a smoking gun in Lex's hand. "I swear to Christ almighty if you don't do what that woman says *right now* I will personally kill each and every one of you communist pieces of shit." she growls, as the pearl-handled semi-automatic colt gun is pointed at another of the terrorists. "This is *my* party and I won't have my guests taken hostage!"
There seem to be a lot of new elements to this- and the men with weapons look between one another as their leader squirms and finds himself easily taken apart by Lara's super strength and speed- barely able to do anything. The weapons are tossed on the ground and hands are lifted.
Except for one gentleman so very close to Danny, "You cowards!" he shouts, as he racks his pistol and prepares to fire at someone, at anyone- he raises the gun towards Lex, specifically- she is making a target of herself, after all. His finger twitches as he makes to snatch the trigger…
Danny Rand blinks as Lex breaks out the firepower. The first gunshot didn't surprise her. The flying brick didn't surprise her. But the pistol in Lex's pocket? Yeah, that one got her for a moment. It's almost enough to distract her from the man closest to her when weapons start to go down.
Almost.
She looks toward the man aiming at Lex, and what happens next is so quick and efficient that anyone not looking directly at her is unlikely to realize just what's happened. Danny takes one sidelong step to close the distance between herself and the man with the gun, then a hand snaps out to catch his wrist. The other slaps across the muzzle of the gun, popping it into the inside of his wrist, and one foot sweeps beneath his even as she twists at his wrist, tugging him off-balance and sending him tumbling to the floor as she sets the gun neatly on the table next to herself.
There's a gunman on the ground, unarmed, and Danny doesn't have a hair out of place.
Lara, once the hostage of the man she's immobilized is free and clear of harm, and with the other gunmen seeming to surrender, gives a quick squeeze and shake to the wrist of the man she'd holding — to make him drop his knife, not hard enough to break bones or anything, though he likely will be bruised about his wrist. That done, she gives him a 'gentle' shove back away from herself and, finally, lets her feet touch the floor. "I suggest you all", she says, glancing from one gunman to another, "sit down where you are and put your hands behind your heads… to wait until the police arrive."
Cold, in a word, is Alexandra Luthor. Her eyes focused on the man with the gun who aimed it towards her. She slides her pearl-handled Colt 1908 into her clutch as the police arrive and rush in to begin taking statements. Lex is led out by her own security in the confusion. Other men in LexCorp security jackets arrive in short order to help in the most professional manner any of the party goers- offering aide, to make phone calls, or just to walk what could be frightened people to their cars.
Once Lex is inside her own limo, and its begun its drive away from the scene of the crime the bald woman's face turns to a scowl. "I want to know everything there is to know about that flying freak who nearly fucked everything up." she states to someone who sits across from her. "If she takes a shit anywhere in a hundred mile radius of New York City, I want a goddamn sample of it!" she growls out, as she grabs a bottle of whiskey from the bar in her limo, pulls the cork and pours herself a glass.
"Go and get the press involved. Call my lawyer and have him make a statement to the police, self-defense, sudden patriotic fervor, a sudden onset of motherly desire to defend my "Friends"… whatever. Just make sure everyone knows I was willing to die for the goddamn cause." Lex sneers quietly, "And two more things- thank the heroine in the paper, and make sure that Danny's okay. I'm sure she is, she did kick the shit out of Marcus, after all… Oh, and quietly get the lawyers ready for our employees, won't you?"
Danny fades into the background for the most part once things are under control, though she does have some words to exchange with the community leaders she was drinking with earlier, checking in on everyone personally, making sure there are no injuries, no damage done. Eventually it gets her over toward the stranger. The flying stranger.
"Hey," she says, offering a small smile. "Thanks. Got a name for the paper?" she asks, pointing a thumb toward the gathering reporters.
Lara stays in the place, though she backs away from the police when they arrive, take statements, and arrest the gunmen. Being as she's staying out of the way… and, likely, because the statements of others paint her in a very good light for the policemen, and probably also because she doesn't look like some wierd mutant, she's left alone by the police. When Danny approaches, she turns to face the woman. "I'm…", she says, noticably hesitating, with a glance to the reporters who've shown up. "I'm Supergirl", she finaly says. Then, looking right into Danny's eyes, she says, "You are an extremely skilled warrior", though in a lower voice — the comment's not meant to be heard by the reporters. That said, she picks her feet up off the ground, floating… and, over the heads over everyone in the room, flies to and out of the broken double glass doors, then up into the sky and away from the scene.