Even Villains Have Standards (Pika, Open to 1 more)

It was one of the larger museums in the city. The entrance hall led to a big circular lobby with a very high ceiling. Around the circle were several pathways leading out to the different sections of the building. A few were closed off for renovations. That was probably why the crowd that day was not really much of a crowd. There were probably less than fifty visitors. Even the staff and personnel were sort of sluggish from the lack of activity. One worker though remained motivated as ever.

Hanging from a cord suspended from the ceiling was Marleigh with a cleaning rag in hand. She was working part time that morning as a cleaner and was polishing the 30 foot tall bronze statue that was the main centerpiece of the lobby. A few onlookers found her more interesting than the museum exhibits as she nimbly moved about, adjusting the cord as she applied polish to the statue. It was not something she felt particularly good about. There was so much history and culture around that she felt deserved more attention.

For most of the people present, it was an uneventful day. Little did they know, they would probably regret wishing for something more "exciting" to happen.

A middle-aged man who looked like he could well be part of the exhibit walked into the lobby. His attire was reminiscent of an 18th century gentleman, with a coat, boots and even a walking cane. He pulled out a very small ancient-looking pistol from inside his coat and fired a warning shot into the air.

There were scattered screams as people ran for cover. The previously static atmosphere was suddenly very lively, albeit not in a good way. Marleigh who was focused on her cleaning was surprised by the shot and nearly lost her grip on the cord. She scanned the area from where she was hanging to try and get a better grasp of the situation.

"These uncultured plebeians could not possibly appreciate this art and history. It is only right that such artifacts and memorabilia become part of my collection. After all, I know how to truly value them."

"Grab whatever is on display, boys. No doubt those meddling authorities will be here soon enough. I would rather not waste precious bullets."

Right on cue, about 20 men dressed in similar 18th century attire and wearing masks swarmed the lobby and then spread out to the different sections of the building. The man who was presumably the leader stayed in the room, looking at his pocket watch. It seemed he had not noticed Marleigh yet who had momentarily hidden behind the large statue.

Metamorphi walked across the street, he still couldn't believe what he had done, or rather almost done, to that girl in the clothes store, he wanted to punch something, but that was how he had gotten into that situation in the first place, he was almost going to punch a fire hydrant but he saw a bunch of weird men enter a museum, super villain thugs, super villain thugs that were committing a major crime, as opposed to petty theft. This was just what Meta needed.

He ran into the museum and solidified into steel, he punched a thug in the gut, he would of died were it not for Metamorphi holding back, it was however, still more than enough to knock the thug out. Some of the other thugs fired at him, but with their old fashioned weapons their bullets did nothing. He turned his steel into paper and swiftly moved between the thugs, turning back to normal when delivering the punches and turning back into paper to keep his swiftness up.

Violet strolled through Midtown just after a quick practice. She felt extremely energized, which was unusual for her. But she wasn't complaining. Usually, she'd just go home and sleep after practice, but today she didn't just want to go home and waste all the energy. Just as she was thinking about heading back, she noticed a few strange looking men walking into the museum. They didn't look too friendly. This would be a nice way to not waste energy.

As she quickly walked toward the museum, keeping a low profile, she noted that these men were here to steal the artifacts. Which made sense. Why else would anyone go to a museum? The artifacts set in their sights were very valuable, Violet knew that much. If she didn't interfere, she might be able to grab a small artifact and keep moving without getting noticed.

She entered the museum rather casually, considering there was a grand robbery going on. She managed to stay under the radar, but saw two things that may cause problems when she scanned for a small prize. Marleigh and Metamorphi. She had assumed that she was in good standing with Marleigh, and she definitely did not want to be on Metamorphi's bad side. She would look around more quickly, in an attempt to find something and get out before she could be noticed.

Slowly and quietly, Marleigh lowered herself from where she hid, carefully making sure she was behind the statue all the way. As she did so, she wondered how she could somehow remedy the situation. The criminals looked ordinary enough though they had an unusual taste in clothing. Before she could make a move however, someone else decided to crash the party.

From what she could see, he had the ability to alter is body in some way. The villains looked like they were outmatched as even bullets bounced off him. He then changed form again, moving faster than normal, punching thugs as he went. The ringleader was not visibly pleased.

"This is what I'm not very fond of in this city. Normally it would take the police around 15 minutes to respond to an alarm or call. That was plenty of time to make off with something. But in this town, heroes like this showed up at the most inconvenient of moments."

The villain put his pocket watch back in his coat and pulled out his pistol.

"Lads, you have my permission to use the special ammunition. There is nothing of value in this lobby anyway. Might as well bring this brute down quickly."

At his words, the remaining thugs quickly loaded their own pistols with what looked like different colored bullets. Two of them fired at the ground close to Metamorphi. As the bullets made contact with the floor, they instantly released a thick black mist in that small area. The mist vaguely smelled like oil. Two more aimed their guns at the mist and fired. But instead of bullets, fireballs the size of baseballs came out of the barrel. There was a small explosion as the orbs of flame made contact with the mist.

Marleigh ducked for cover, still behind the large statue. Things were getting pretty violent.

When Metamorphi saw that they were trying to blow up the mist he got an idea, he turned back to normal lept back away from the mist so that when it exploded the explosion propelled him towards the leader. The explosion sent him towards the leader and while still in midair he collided with him, if the leader was an ordinary explosion he hit the wall and be knocked unconscious. Metamorphi himself would almost suffer the same fate where it not for him becoming steel at the last moment, slamming into something that isn't nearly as hard as you doesn't hurt much.

While Violet was generally a rational person, the presence of fire generally drew her in. It was just one of those things. She almost began acting upon instinct and bending the fire under her own will, until she realized that would cause suspicion. Still... she couldn't help but push the fire back towards those who started it. It was fun to see things blow up in other people's faces. Literally or not.

As Metamorphi flew headlong towards the leader, an interruption came in the form of one of the underlings. The minion pushed the leader out of the way and Metamorphi crashed into him instead, knocking him out. The leader stood back up after being pushed down and rubbed the dust off his coat.

"Hmph. An unnecessary move, but loyalty and bravery are a gentleman's virtues. I should give him a raise."

Back at the epicenter of the explosion, there were some unexpected happenings as well. The fire seemed to be moving unnaturally. The thugs standing nearby noticed this and attempted to scamper away but the flames were able to catch up with two of them. They dropped to the ground, rolling and trying to put out the blaze on their coats.

That was not the only commotion the fire had caused. After just a few seconds, the flames and smoke finally triggered the sprinkler system of the museum. As the lobby did not have any exhibits in it, there were a larger number of sprinklers overhead. Everyone in the room was drenched. The fire of course was also put out.

"I've had enough of this fiasco."

The leader aimed his gun at Metamorphi. "My pistol is a little bit different from what my boys have."

He squeezed the trigger, the gun shot out a large amount of a viscous liquid, almost like slime. Anything that got caught in it would get stuck, fast.

All of the thugs' attention was at Metamorphi, watching what he would do next. That, in addition to the sprinklers muffling the sound, provided Marleigh the perfect cover to make finally her move. Silently moving behind three of them standing near each other, Marleigh reached into her satchel and pulled out an oversized table cloth. She threw it over their heads. The thugs were caught unaware and  struggled to get out from under it. Meanwhile, Marleigh had already pulled out her trusty mop and whacked the panicking villains on the head, knocking them out.

Looking around, she saw that there were only about five more left not counting the leader, but they were all on the opposite side of the room.

Metamorphi knew the slime was probably bad news so he became as light as a feather by becoming made of it and lept over to the slime, although some of it still caught on his leg, it was stuck to his leg, he tried to shake it off to no avail. He gave up on freeing himself from the liquid and turned his attention back to the leader, and, unless the liquid somehow stopped him from doing so, he would run towards the leader then solidify to normal and throw three punches, one aimed at his face, the other at his sternum and the last at his solar plexus.

After the first sprinkler in the room started to rain down water, Violet ran as fast as she could to try to escape that. Try as she might, she still ended up under a sprinkler or two before exiting the room. However now she was in a double jam. There was absolutely no way to grab an artifact, or escape without being seen doing it. As well, on the off chance that she would be noticed, she had no way to defend herself at long range now. That is, unless another fire spontaneously started in the now soaked building.

For now, Violet would snap out her wings and hover high above the face-off. It might've been risky, but she figured she would at least be safe there.

The ringleader's eyes were wide with surprise upon seeing that Metamorphi could still move a bit even after getting stuck on some of the slime. He raised his walking cane to block the first two punches but third managed to get him, bringing him down to one knee. Seeing this, the remaining thugs all jumped the hero, attempting to restrain him by piling on top of him.

The leader got back on his feet and aimed his pistol at Metamorphi again. "Not bad hero. But this is where you go down."

As he pulled the trigger, the gun shot a green mist of some sort. It was a kind of neurotoxin in the form of a gas attack. This explained why the thugs wore masks.

Marleigh rushed to Metamorphi's aid, pulling out a leaf blower from inside her satchel. Setting it at full power, she dispersed the mist before it could cause any significant harm. The leader was caught off guard by her sudden appearance but maintained his cool.

"So there was another one."

He pointed his pistol at Marleigh and fired. A fireball the size of a basketball was now hurtling towards her.

Metamorphi was about to deliver a fourth blow to finish off the leader but he was dog piled by the thugs. He struggled to get free but could not, he saw the gas and prepared to hold his breath, but he didn't have too since the woman blew the gas away. The thugs were distracted by the girl so Metamorphi threw them off of him and turned his flesh into steel, attempting to break the stupid cane with a punch and then he would aim a punch at the leaders face, holding back so it wouldn't kill him, but it would still knock him unconscious and break his nose.

From where she stood, or hovered, Violet wasn't sure if Marleigh could deflect that fireball. So much for staying out of this. The ringleader might notice that the fireball he shot off would almost instantaneously reverse direction, heading directly back at him. Violet would also split off some fire and light a small curtain, just to have a source in case things went south.

She also let herself land on a ledge, so as to possibly draw less attention.

While the leader was initially surprised that his fireball was sent back at him, knocking him down, it soon proved to be a stroke of good fortune. Metamorphi had shaken off his minions was about to punch him but before the hero's fist connected, the leader was pushed back by the force of the fireball, avoiding the punch at the last moment. The flame was moving unnaturally. What remained of it seemed to be attempting to set a small curtain ablaze. But because everything was still soaked from the sprinklers earlier, the fire was put out as soon as it made contact with the wet cloth.

"One after another. This is seriously getting on my nerves."

The leader attempted to sit up using his cane as support, aiming his gun at Metamorphi again. He fired and this time what came out appeared to be a powerful laser. It would have seriously injured him even if he was made of steel. Karma struck however. Seemingly to balance out his good luck earlier, the leader's cane slipped on the wet floor, causing him to fall back flat on the ground and throwing off his aim. The beam struck the huge bronze statue in the middle of the room, slicing it at the waist. The top half of the statue came crashing down at the area where Metamorphi, Marleigh and the villains were standing. Part of the ceiling was cut as well raining down portions of it at the floor below.

Marleigh didn't have time to think about how she was saved earlier. She rushed for cover behind the statue's base to avoid the large falling debris.

Metamorphi saw the statue fall, it would of crushed him, had he not dove out of the way at the last second, the debris fell to the ground, Metamorphi ignored the small pieces, as they would either break on contact or bounce off, however he was met by a larger piece of rubble that struck him in the face. He fell over and clutched his nose, it was broken and a flow of liquid steel fell down his face where blood would be if he was a normal human. He looked around for the boss.

Violet had almost reached the other side of the museum when she met a similar fate as Metamorphi. When a piece of rubble flew past her ear, she dove to avoid damage, only to be hit by a bigger part. The blow to her wing would cause her to spiral downward until she landed on someone. She wondered if this person would attack.