Emitter: Franklin
Date: October 22, 2010
Participants: Arcane, Daybreak, Spectrum, Diana, Aleksei
Summary: A pair of Mexican superterrorists attack a Halloween carnival for disadvantaged children. Is there no end to their villany? But who was paying them?
Age of Heroes - Thursday, October 22, 2009, 7:04 PM
It's a bright sunny day, in contrast to the gloomy fall atmosphere the season seems to dictate in the rest of the country. There is no lack of trying here, either; colorful paper cut-out fall leaves are tacked up and bunched together, along with 'haystacks' and 'scarecrows' situated at strategic places. The Hughes High Gym is hosting the annual Big Boo Halloween Festival for the area disadvantaged children. Costumes are provided, there is face painting, spooky stories, 'trick or treating', and more all under the sprawling gym roof, safe and secure. The kids can rough and tumble in the 'haunted graveyard', play games at the Old Witch's House (Miss Batt is particularly put out at being selected ONCE MORE as the Old Witch, but she puts on a game face for the kiddies).
And there are the teens. Too many kids and not enough teachers and parent chaperones means the sullen student body must be dragooned into service, lured with the promise of extra credit, getting out of certain projects, or others. Of course there are always those who volunteer as well. Makeshift costumes are provided for them as well. Aleksei is one of the volunteers, since he wants to show off the pirate costume he has, and he's just that enthusiastic about a holiday he's never celebrated before.
The afternoon is winding down and the kids are hyped on sugary treats and horrific stories and pure adrenalin.
Halloween has been Leigh's favorite holiday for a long time — it's one where it's easy to declare her particular problem in darkness to be a side-effect of glow-in-the-dark paint. And so she was happy to volunteer for the party — and drag a few of the other cheerleaders along with her. The new ones, mostly freshmen, are helping at various parts of the carnival, telling stories, handling the apple-bobbing tank, and so forth. Leigh is watching over a small gaggle of children, herself, guiding them from station to station and making sure everything's safe and fun for everybody. She looks decidedly pleased.
As a gag, and a fitting counter to Aleksei, Linus Tate has decided to do a simple costume this year, along with volunteering. He always volunteers. This time, he's dressed in all black with a cloth head wrap, and a plastic sword to complete the Ninja costume. Though, most of his friends might get the gag, for Alek it might be a different message. Still, the boys have been seperated all day on different tasks. He leans against a wall as Alek works, chomping on an able he bobbed out a few minutes back. "So, Snowbeard," he says, joking with the boy. "You actually don't have Halloween in Russia?" Leigh is also spotted, and Linus waves un-ninja-like at her. If he were a real ninja, he'd have to commit seppuku.
The whole thing seems to be going pretty good, in fact; everyone is having fun and no-one has thrown up in public yet. Alek greets Linus and shakes his head. "Nyet, is mostly an American thing I've been reading, especially the big parties and the tricking, and such. Not so much in Europe," he says, still waving his plastic sword around; He's in the classic Gilbert-and-Sullivan tights-plus-poofy-shirt pirate look, with some nice leather boots that don't look fakish at all.
The children herded by Leigh point and grin at the Ninja and Pirate, even if they don't get the Geek Joke, and puddle around Leigh's feet, waiting. "Face painting next?" this small girl asks, pointing at one of the artists nearby.
It's entirely coincidence that Leigh's costume has her dressed as a copper-colored robot, her brown tresses lightened and teased into stiff waves for the occasion, clothes tight and metallic. A copper funnel is perched atop her head, and every inch of her exposed skin is painted a deep bronze shade. She -does- get the geek joke, and her own addition to it — she is not unversed in geek culture. "I think we can arrange some face painting," she informs the child, lifting her up and leading the group over toward the face-painting booths, winking at Linus and Alek as she passes.
The young mystic-now-ninja chuckles at Leigh's costume. "All we're missing is…" Linus doesn't complete that sentence. Not now, and especially with what they know. "Still, Alek, you really go all out for stuff like this," he comments, with a smile. It's the poofy shirt; they're not just for vampires, anymore. He pushes himself off the wall. "I'm gonna go help Leigh with her squabs," he says. "Wanna come with?"
Alek nods quickly and follows Linus, obligingly doing a 'Yo-ho-ho' for a group of passing little kids who squeal in laughter and mock fright. "I do; is fun!" the young Russian says as he follows along beside.
The little girl in Leigh's arms squeals as they approach the face painting booth, the other little ones around her ooohing as a tall spectral figure glides past, pausing to dispense Tootsie-rolls into paper sacks held in grubby hands - the Principal Itself, with a ghoulish sense of humor.
Diana never really thinkis of herself as a teenager, so having heard there is something interesting going on at the school, from flyers blown around the campus. Naturally Diana has her own costume, which is her own clothing and skin. She wanders in, smiling at the decorations and the children, milling about so happily, even if some stare at her. "Thank Goodness," a voice says, one of the matronly teachers, "Aren't you frightening? Listen, we need you to go and handle the snack cart, just push it around and let the kids take ONE snack each." She tosses an apron over Diana's head, that has a witch on it saying BOO in big cartoon letters. Pushing Diana in a general direction, Diana makes her way over to a steel cart with pitchers of cider and pumpkin shaped cookies.
Timo has come with a probably fitting costume today. A classic reporter look, complete with trench coat, hat, and press card, as well as a notepad and pencil. And, lenseless glasses. And is that something blue hidden behind the collar of his shirt? In any case, as he comes from doing a 'magic show' for some of the kids, he spots his friends and makes his way over closer, "Hey."
Leigh bestows a bright smile upon the principal — a princiPAL can be your PAL; the mnemonic never fails to flit through her head when she sees the man. "Say thank you, Mr. Ghostface," she tells the kids with a grin, and then leads them on to the face painting. "Hey, guys," she says to Linus and Alek before spying Diana. "Oh, and we've got a zombie, too. Um. Somebody just put Diana in charge of food service…"
"You know about the party, right," Linus asks Alek in a low voice as the two follow to assist their cheerleader friend. "Next weekend? The birthday?" or was it deathday? Or rebirthday? Linus eyelids twitch with the possibilities. He watches the Principal go past, and raises some eyebrows, because he finds the stodgy principal oddly personable during this time. It doesn't help the vampire rumors, no. He turns as Leigh points out arrivals. "Uh." Pause. "You know…that might not work out so well?"
Leigh's charges mill about, some riffling through their paper sacks to compare loot, as the face-painting artist quickly dots both the little girls cheeks with bats to her delight. The next boy gets a yucky spider!
Alek waves as Timo joins them, and then nods to Linus. "Dah," he says. "It should be interesting." He quietly watches Diana push the cart about. "Well.. there is no meat on it, so.. should be OK.." he says in a low voice.
Then from the back of the gym comes a surprise, as two large skulls maneuver their way out of the 'graveyard' that covers the back end of the gym - not unusual itself, but for their size, and the fact that they are decorated brightly in white and yellow and red piping, done like massive sugar candy skulls from the Day of the Dead celebrations in Mexico. Looks like someone wants the Big Boo to have a bit of an international flavor this year. Kids point and oooh at the large skulls, the black-draped wearers looking tiny in comparison beneath them.
"As long as she doesn't get the idea to put her hand in the punch to scare people," Leigh murmurs, "we ought to be okay." The skulls are regarded with a raised brow, but there doesn't seem to be anything worrisome about them to Leigh. There is, after all, a very large Mexican-American population in this part of the country.
"Not the cart I worry about," Linus mutters, and crosses his arms. "And all we learn here is that witches are scary. It's prejudice, I tell you." His mouth is in that wry half-smile; he's joking, of course. He does a mock-offended sniff, but he breaks his expression at the sight of the giant skulls. "Did you read up on Mexican traditions, Alek? In southern Cali, here, there's a lot of crossover."
Timo grins as he sees the skulls, "Oh, wow, cool. I wasn't expecting those." He looks to the others again, nodding to Linus' comment. "A lot of it. I'm glad, too." Seeing as he *is* Mexican-American, of course. He glances over to Diana as the others mention her, waving.
Diana looks at the cart and turns it around to push it, when suddenly she's attacked by small hungry creatures of every shape and size, shouting at her, "Lady, hey lady, I want some juice!" "I want a cookie!" "What are you supposed to be?" "Duh she's a ghost girl." "She's like the spooky people at the hay ride!" For her part, Diana just stares with a slight smile. She's not scared, just amused it seems as she pours juice. She knows she could shoo them all away, but there's something strangely reassuring about small children. When the Sugar Skull people arrive, she watches as the kids' high pitched screams pierce adult eardrums, and she laughs at the ridiculous style. But until someone waves at her, she hadn't notices people here in the crowded room, and she waves back, with a toothy grin.
The skulls break into a merry little jig, the massive top swirling as the handler beneath spins. The kids clap and yay, the small bodies gradually migrating to see the new act in place, the teachers smiling a little. Miss Horner, the coordinator, is passing by and she smiles faintly, then puts on her glasses and looks at her tablet. "I.. huh. Who ordered them?" she says in a wondering tone.
About then, the skulls morph from gaily sugar-frosted carnival clowns to monstrous fanged monsters, their eyes suddenly kindled with green fire. Several kids scream and start to cry, as the funny paper-mache things suddenly metamorph into ancient horrors that rise into the air, floating.
Left behind are two figures at the edge of the 'graveyard', lean muscled young men dressed all in black - black that swiftly bleeds into dark red costumes that cover their bodies, red domino masks morphing into place over their features. They're grinning broadly as the massive horrific skulls float higher, looking at the momentarily paralysed populace like it's the funniest thing they ever saw.
"My brother, that was very funny," one says to the other, both young men appearing identical. "Si, it was," responds the other, his accent heavier. "Indeed, it should bring down ze house!" The other man claps his hands. "Excellent idea, my brother!"
And there is a tearing groan of metal from the spine of the gymnasium high above them, as all the doors slam shut at once. A breath. Then panic strikes.
Both young men bow. "Mi hermanos, you have the excellent pleasure of being killed today by the Terror Twins!"
You paged Timo with 'Despite what they're calling themselves here, YOU recognize these guys. In fact, you might have had dinner with them one time before at your grandfather's place. They call themselves Dos Diablos and they are super-powered terrorists for hire. The bad kind, who don't mind wiping out an entire village to send a message to one man or decapitate everyone on a school bus to kill one uncooperative politician's daughter. They have awesomely powerful telekinetic talents, and a nasty sense of humor.'
Why can villains not have the consideration to attack when she's not surrounded by witnesses? That's what Leigh wants to know. She regards the Terror Twins balefully as the kids around her start squealing in fear, and rapidly she starts to usher them away, signalling to the nearest cheerleader who ISN'T in the process of panicking herself that she needs help. Leigh is not above sharing her secret identity now and then, but she is not going to reveal it to the entire school, sundry children and a couple of supervillains. She needs to get the kids to safety… and then find a place to change.
The ninja-costume'd Linus' eyes go wide as the villains reveal themselves. "The hell?" he mutters to himself. All these strange attacks on the school; Linus hasn't been able to see a pattern, yet. He turns to Alek, Timo, and the others. "We should Hide," he says, and one can hear the capital H there. It's Linus' code for 'hide and change'.
Timo's eyes widen as he sees the two. "Oh, ." Possibly the first time the others have heard him swear, though maybe not. Softly, he says, "Those are Dos Diablos. Terrorists, telekinetics. They'll kill everybody." He nods quickly in agreement with Linus then, running quickly. All he needs is an instant out of view, and he can teleport with an illusionary costume.
Diana watches still, kids screaming and running around her. She tilts her head, curious, looking at the panic. What does this mean? She gasps! This is what she was looking for! A chance to be special! More so than what she is. She grins, and takes off the apron. The goth lowers her brow and her grin takes on menace. She doesn't have a plan yet, but her spooky side is in control.
Alek nods as he hears Linus, and runs with him for a hiding place, hand already at the stone around his neck that allows him to change. But then Fate intervenes in the form of a frozen little kid in his path; Alek dodges, slips, and there is a dull metallic CLONG from the steel support beam he hits. He slumps to the ground, unconscious, as panic swells among students, teachers, and the little kids.
The Cheerleaders spring into action around Leigh, shuffling kids off as fast as they can, even picking them up by belts and costumed like little sacks of luggage to get them out of the way.
Meanwhile, the Terror Twins soak up the screams and yells like they were cheers. "Ahh, the bleating of the sheep, my brother! If we were not being paid /so/ much, I do not think I could stand it!" the right-hand one grins. He gestures, and a face-painting booth silently blows part in a slow burst of color as the paints fly open and paint 'You're All Going To Die. Happy Halloween!' across several backdrops and patrons alike.
"Alek!" Linus hisses, as the younger man goes down, and he winces, dragging the unconscoious one out of the way behind a partition. There, Linus whispers a spell to change his clothing into the costume of the young mystic Arcane. When done, he flies up. "Baa baa," the masked magician says. Someone's paying them? Man.
Disappearing under a table, soon Spectrum appears, right in front of the two terrorists, force field alive around him. "Dos Diablos, get out of here, now. Whatever you're being paid, it isn't worth the beating you're about to get."
Diana suddenly notes heroes in the room, and she's glad to have seen that some people she knew were here. People can do things here! We can all be heroes! she thinks. As there's chaos going through the room, Diana keeps low but starts to run right at the closer of the twins, moving in to deck him hard and true.
The two young masked men blink in momentary surprise at hearing their real names, and look at each other. "My brother, you have gone and acquirred an arch enemy without telling me?" says one. "No, no, my brother, it is YOU who have done this.." says the other.
Floating to one side, Arcane uses the arguement between the brothers to his advantage. A whispered spell unleashes a bolt of brilliant mystic energy that strikes the twin on the right. "Uh, sorry to interrupt," he says, as the hit twin feels it. "We were just getting to the part where we take you down."
The Terror Twins frown as the heroes form up against them; they link hands. "Now you will taste our true power!" one yells and sends a pulsing bolt of energy over Arcane's head; the other sends a blue bolt of twisting kinetic energy pounding against Spectrum's force shield like a drill bit; it flares and billows with light but fails to get through the boy's protections.
Diana runs out of the crowd, after the blast of light, seeing that there's a danger here. She saw one get hit by a blast, so the other must be unhurt. She goes for him. Running right at him she swings with a fist, but she's never done this before, and these guys have. He dodges out of the way.
Timo grins as the telekinetic blast doesn't even nudge him past his force field, "Really, you're going to have to do better than that. Here, let me demonstrate." He raises a fist, and a blast of pure photons, a bright flash of light, flies straight at the Diablos who attacked him, making him stumble. "Don't buy the act," he adds to the others. "Their powers work just fine when they're apart."
"Good to know," Arcane says, which means that he ditches his immediate plan to seperate them with mystical bindings to keep them apart. "Sometimes, you just have to go with the classics," he adds, and gestures with a hand, as a bolt speeds from his open palm. It zooms around the stunned Diablo, to the left, to the right, then slams him right between the eyes. He doesn't go unconscious, but he's reeling a little.
Staggering amidst the ruins of the Halloween 'Graveyard', the two red-clad villains grimace at the assault that glows around them. Dismissing the goth-girl attack, actually not even deigning to look at her, the pair switch tactics. Still grabbing hands, a bloom of light erupts from their joined hands and lances at Spectrum, a pulsing bright bore of power that hammers at his shield over and over; it abates, leaving him unscathed. "<You know a little too much about us, little one,> the left-hand brother says in Spanish. "<So, we kill you first,>" they say together, though their combined barrage does nothing to the youth.
Diana is ignored, and frowns, her combat skills weak. She's never done this before, and it shows. She's moving back to the one she tried to punch in the face, but she grabs him from behind and keeps him in her grip. "No no, you stay." She squeezes a little to keep him from struggling so much, but he's wormy.
Spectrum keeps focused on the one that's still free, causing a bright flash of light, but the guy's already ducked out of the way. Frowning he launches an attack, another photon blast. Instead of hitting the Diablos, though, he ends up destroying a good amount of the graveyard decorations.
There's a wince from Arcane as some of the scenery is blasted. Man, Leigh and Alek are going to kill them. They worked all week… He shakes his head, still buzzing around and airborne, drawing a bead on the first Diablo brother. "I don't know what you said," Arcane comments…since he is taking French. He now thinks that was a bad choice of action. "But you mess with one of us." Another bolt explodes from his fingers, sizzling into the already-hit Diablo, inflicting another bruise.
Long distance to Diana: Franklin realizes that ripping your limbs and head off /doesn't hurt you/. Mind if I do something kinda gruesome to you? :)
From afar, Diana laughs, I would love it. :)
«OOC» Franklin says, "GM FIAT. Everone gets a Hero Point."
The one brother staggers again, his rippling TK shield bowing and bending under Arcane's assault, but still holding.. for now. As for the other brother with Diana grappling him and clawing at him.. his shield ripples, inverts and slides between him and her. Then it pulls her off him. Then… horribly, it rips her arms and legs off, then pops her head off as well. "<I grow tired of this foolishness! Brother, are you going to be beaten by mere children!?>" He snarls as the cowering crowd goes into a full blown panic as Goth Girl gets torn asunder and tossed behind him. The gym floor ripples and the walls seem to /breathe/. "<We are being paid well, and I mean to vacation in Paris this year!>" he snaps, exerting his titanic TK might against the steel structure.
«OOC» Franklin says, "At this point, there are NO kids anywhere near y'all. They've been scooped up, and are pressed against the walls and doors, or fled to the back locker rooms and downstairs areas."
Diana's body falls to the floor, her head severed. Her leg fallen to the floor, her arms ungripped. But as her death seems well assured, her arm crawls over to the twin's leg, and grabs him, casting a miserable pallor over his face. The leg comes to life and kicks the man hard in the ankle tripping him and dropping him to the floor. Her head rolls by, and says to him. "Now you've made me mad," as she continues on reconnecting with her body.
"You made her mad," Arcane says. He's trying not to be queasy at the sight of Diana's head rolling around and still talking. Linus finds her really sweet, and reacting so makes him feel like a bad friend. "We're ending this," he adds, and fires a barrage of arcane energy into the first Diablos, stunning him. "Set up…go for it, guys," he says to the others.
Spectrum's eyes widen as he looks up to the shaking building around them, and turns to face the one that's working so hard to bring it down. He lashes out with another blast of photons, but it barely gets past the TK's defenses.
The crimson-clad pair look at each other, as Diablos #2 gapes in shock at seeing Diana /still moving/, and spends his time getting to his feet, looking like he's going to puke at any second. "Yes, is time to end this, I agree," he says, starting to glow. He fires a forcebolt at Arcane's head, missing the boy by a mile. He frowns and gathers his power, and tries /again/ and misses once more. Diablos #2 takes a potshot at Diana's rolling head, and misses totally.
Diana's head reconnects, as her leg hops back over, while the man fell to the ground. She picks up her arm and reattaches it, and screams! She relaunches herself at him, swinging wildly, angry, her sane mind gone behind a wall of fury, but she can't connect.
Spectrum's form suddenly flares bright as a star and he hammers Diablos #2 into the ground with a brilliant beam of light that skids the man halfway across the gym to land against the metal bleachers, unconscious.
"Double your pleasure," Arcane comments, as he takes the time to try and get the mystic blast correct. But this time he keeps focused; no more quipping, just do the job. He unleashes his powers, and the remaining Diablo is hit. Still, while the bolt strikes home, Arcane is not trying to cause permanent injury, so the bad guy is still up, reeling.
Diana runs up, the fast zombie in a fury, clasping both hands as she moves, twisting her body. When she arrives, she swings both fists together, and cracks his jaw, his body arching back up in the air a moment before crashing back to the ground. She pauses a moment, and salivates, glaring about…hunger filling her eyes.
Once the villains are down, Arcane watches Diana in action, and the lenses on his mask widen a little. He floats down;; not too fast as to be threatening. "Di," he whispers. "Good job," he adds, moving into her line of sight. "It's over. Can go grab a burger if you want?" A nice, tasty, already-dead-not-made-of-People burger.
As the last Diablos brother hits the dirt, the doors spring open and the people file out, screaming moms grabbing kids, cops and firemedics pouring into the place to deal with the injured and wounded they are certain litter aisles. Only to find maybe a couple of sprains and some crying kids who missed apple bobbing. Two giant paper mache skulls fall to burst on the ground.
Spectrum gives a sigh of relief as the enemies fall, and he says, "That one was close." Then the parents and everything are arriving, and he glances to the others. He vanishes again, and a moment later Timo is climbing back out from under the table he 'hid' under.
Diana grins and says, "Fresh…must be fresh…" she slowly looks back at the fallen twins and licks her lips. "Hungry…so very hungry." She closes her eyes tight and tries to gather herself. After a moment, she reopens her eyes, and looks very tired. "Let's go eat something, then." She is worn, being torn apart against her will isn't as comfortable as just letting go.
Slowly, Alek is brought around later by a paramedic, nothing but a huge knot on his head to show for the day. Some ice and 24-hours-observation, and he'll be fine.
Epilogue
The Terror Twins, nee Dos Diablos, lawyer up immediately with a frustrated statement coming from the police chief that they have as yet no motive for the attack.
