(2014-05-29) Great Train Crash Busts a Block
Great Train Crash Busts a Block
Summary: Another attempted tech robbery, this time in New York City, results in a train crash in Hell's Kitchen. Heroic types and wanted vigilantes respond to the chaos, and make some more. Also, the in-game origin of Blockbuster
Date: 2014-05-29
Related: Not sure which ones to use
NPCs: Blockbuster, Calculator
Scene Runner: Winsome
Social/Plot: Plot
Players:
hummingbird..kyani..skids..the-punisher..red-sonja..

The sun's still out but the time's moving towards dinner as a train makes its way through the area of New York City known popularly as Hell's Kitchen. Aboard that train are certain chemical permutations derived from a formula captured from the Nazis during World War II. There's a bounty on unusual new technology being paid for by unknown parties… and it seems this qualifies. Because as the train hurtles through Hell's Kitchen two masked men attempt to hijack it. It goes badly when it turns out the engineer is an ex-Marine. In the fight, switches are thrown. The train takes a turn too fast and it derails. The train skids a good three hundred feet down a street before crashing into a tennament building. There's some explosions and soon, there's a fire.

To make matters worse? One of the train's cars rips open and a giant stumbles out. He is at least ten feet tall, grey, and well muscled. Vaguely reptillian, it is obvious he was once a normal human. His old skin still hangs from his body like so much torn clothing. The giant takes two steps, roars in anger, and grabs hold of a car. He tosses that car like a shotput, putting it through a nearby storefront.

There's a rainbow blur as Hummingbird rushes past the giant. Of course she was nearby - the Defenders have their office in Hell's Kitchen. "Someone deal with the giant!" She says through her comlink. "I'll take care of the fire." Then she begins running around the building and the train at high velocity. Devising a whirlwind. Intending to starve the fire of oxygen long enough for it to go out… but not so long, hopefully, that those inside die from asphixiation.

Punisher had been tracking the robbers, part of a gang that had performed a few low level snatch and grab heists in the area. This one would've been ambitious, to say the least. Frank kept his distance, though, at first, knowing that the Kitchen had a habit of attracting masks and 'heroes'. Amateurs.

Sttill, it doesn't take long for thte ruckus from the monster to attract his attention. He could sit back and let the supertypes handle it, but there's a daycare half a block down the street and the only one he sees so far is a some little chick.

Which is why soon, The Punisher emerges from the drifting smoke of the fire, with a heavy AR-15 in his arms, fitted with a grenade launcher that he aims squarely at the incoming monster, "Hey there, Young Frankenstein!" he calls. "How 'bout puttin' on the Ritz?" he says, starting to spray at the thing with a burst of automatic gunfire.

The gunfire has about as much effect on the creature as spitwads would. Well, except they attract its attention. The Blockbuster picks up another car. He throws it at the Punisher.

"Stay here!" Sally says to the new redheaded assistant/receptionist. She's 'far' behind Hummingbird, so to speak. Body surrounded in a golden-yellow glow. Pausing at the alley's entrance, she starts towards the explosions, picking up speed, when the call via her comm comes in, "Giant, what gi-…" "Oh, /that/ Giant." she says more to herself, gliding atop the street, the pavement, and with the gunfire that sprays from the lone vigilante running into the fray, pausing to see the day care, she glides over and pushes inside, "Get these kids out of here, now, everybody, buddy up, buddy system, get down the street, off this block, off the next 5 blocks, out the front, i'll cover you all!" And with that being said, she turns toward the fray, tall and scrunches her eyes as she focuses. A golden dome expanding along the edge of the building, up to about 15 feet in every direction, except flush against the building's walls.

Stay at the office. Call for help. Oh, Mary Jane Watson has every intention of calling for help. But with people hurt, and others in danger, she's not going to be dialing 9-1-1. Instead, the feisty redhead waits until her blonde boss has gone running out of the office, and then she goes to her backpack, lifting the flap and then pulling on the handle of the sword hidden there amongst the frame of the backpack.

A muttered incantation later, and a very, very different redhead comes out the door, sword slung onto her back. Virtually six feet tall, dressed in a scale mail bikini, long, flowing, vibrantly red hair a curtain behind her as she runs on soft leather boots down the macadam street. The girl's memories and thoughts tell her some of what she's seeing that is new. But even so, it's a confusing miasma … until she catches sight of the monster. Monsters are Sonja's specialty.

"Ho there, beast! Leave the old man be, and come play with me!" the redhead shouts, as she sprints in along the creature's flank and slices at it with her sword. Probably won't do any better than those bullets. But getting it to follow her is the plan, so that will do.

The shield Sally projects is erected just in time. The first car thrown, the one that went through the store front, explodes (as all cars in comic stories are wont to do eventually). Her shield protects the daycare and all those kids waiting to be picked up after their parent's workday ends from a fiery and horrible death.

As for Red Sonja? One might expect a sword to do little damage. After all, the machine gun's bullets merely bounced off the giant's skin. However, it seems the sword is made of sterner stuff. Star metal, perhaps? Whatever it is, the sword draws blood. The monster turns and swings at Red Sonja, attempting to turn her into goo.

Having been out and about tonight, Kyani is pretty much able to travel through New York rather fast and in matter of seconds. Tonight is one of the nights he's going through Hells Kitchen. He has been through here, but as he is about to head out, the speedster hears the train going off the tracks then the crash. There was no way he would be leaving, lowering a his hood over his head, his blue lens goggles over his eyes, the speedster sees the giant like lizard guy as well as some other guy, "What the hell…" he says more to himself then to anyone else as he stops at a corner to see what unfolds.

Frank Castle leaps forward, his armored chest scraping on the ground as he just manags to get under the car thrown his way, rolling as he hits the ground, "Who're you callin' *huff* an old man?" he snarls, shaking some dust off of himself. He narrows his eyes and stalks forward a bit more, arming his grenade launcher. The car behind him blows him, giving him a proper backlighting as he walks away from it. Hey, he's an action guy, walking away from explosions is part parcel, "Yo, Xena, get yerself clear and we'll see how Franky here likes the taste o' grenade."

There's a wince and a slight groan as the car hits , explodes as it lands infront of her. "Hurry up!" she calls back in a low groan. "I Can't hold this up all day, just get those kids to safety." Sally calls back to the daycare. Keeping her field up and expanded a strain on her, unlike just keeping it around herself.

The daycare staff works as fast as they can but it is two of them and fifteen children ages 0 to 4. Herding them away from the scene isn't easy.

Of course, Sonja is ready for the creature to swing - she was counting on it. And when it does, she dives and rolls, but not away from the creature. Instead, she dives around behind it, and then swings her blade with two hands, rather than one, putting as much force as she can against it as she slices for an ankle. Reducing an opponent's movement and stability can be key, especially when the opponent is so much bigger and stronger. To the girl riding around in her skull, Sonja complains . o O (What insanity are they speaking? Who is Xena? And what is 'grenade') Oi. Poor MJ. Unfortunately for Frank, the best he's going to get is Sonja /behind/ his seemingly impervious target.

Despite the strength of the blow, all Sonja manages to do is a shallow cut. Not enough to slice through tendons. Not enough to hamstring the Blockbuster. And those wounds she inflicted? Already closing.

Watching from where he is, Kyani sees the situation and as the grenade is getting ready to go boom towards the lizard and Sonja postioned behind the giant lizard. This isn't going to go well for her. But then as he continues to survey the rest of the scene, he notices Sally working on getting kids out of harms way and seeing that many are still looking confused, they are more important. Nothing but a blur, Kyani is on the move, picking up two to three kids at a time but moving at a speed thats managable so as to not really scare them more then what they are now. "HOld that a bit longer." he says to Sally quickly as he helps her.

The fire's out. Hummingbird's tactic won the day. She comes running up, carrying a burned train engineer in both arms. "Wow. That guy's really Busting the Block, huh?" She says the Punisher. "Love your work by the way. I'm on a forum dedicated to you. I'll want an autograph later." Then she's gone, running the guy to the hospital. She stops next to Sally long enough to say. "Good job!"

Frank Castle has already noticed the Blockbuster's healing capabilities and figures the best thing to do for now is test its limits while the capes get the bystanders out of the way. Sonja's at least behind the beast now and it doesn't seem like the type to dodge, so he fires his grenade, aiming carefully so that, at worst, it lands short rather than overshooting and hitting the swordswoman, "Keep your eyes right here, ugly, I ain't done with you yet," he snarls, trying to keep the beast focused on him.

Boom goes the grenade. While Blockbuster is big and strong he's not completely immune to the laws of physics. The shockwave throws him backwards and he hits the ground. Then he roars in bestial rage as he gets to his knees and pounds both fist into the ground. A crack forms, spreading straight for the Punisher. The crack is ten feet wide at the start and only a foot wide by the time it reaches Frank's feet. And, of course, it leads straight down into the sewers.

"What?" All she sees is a blur, as kids are being removed from the daycare, and that's just fine. It means they are getting moved. Taking a slow breath Sally bows her head, and closes her eyes, focusing on just keeping the forcefield up and against the wall to combat oncomming debris.

Shrapnel! Sonja may not know the English word for it, but she knows the pain of it as one of the pieces from the grenade pierces her bicep. The redhead hisses bitterly, though she did manage to duck and dive out of the way of the falling, angry Blockbuster. "The creature has to breathe, the same as a man." Odd, for a demon, but Sonja goes with what she can observe, and is not hidebound by teachings or prior experience. "Have you a mystic, to summon up a spell of sleeping clouds?" she calls out. She's no spellcaster, so she's of no help right now. Except that she slices at Blockbuster's neck to get its attention away from Frank, and then scampers out of the way.

Blood spurts from Blockbuster's neck and he roars in pure rage. This time he does not turn to punch. Instead he gets to his feet and claps his hands together, creating a concussive shockwave of force that heads in the swordwoman's direction.

Kyani isn't wasting time at all, he really can't, if he does, more harm can come to the kids and he wouldn't ever want that. With the incoming car being blocked off by Sally, Kyani dashes around her grabbing up three more kids, then deciding to pikc up a forth, Kyani gets them into an alley and out of the line of fire. THey are all behind a large trash can that he moved, "Alright kids, keep close and stay here, if you do, candy for everyone." he says, then he is off after more kids.

And with that, the daycare has been evacuated. The kids are out of harm's way. Hummingbird returns and grabs another victim - this one who had the unfortunate distinction of owning one of the apartment the train crashed into - and dashes out to the hospital.

Frank Castle overhears the swordswoman's words as he runs off to the side, stumbling a bit as the shattering of concrete gets near him. He frowns and nods, taking a quick moment to load his grenades, two distinct grenades going in one after the other. With the Blockbuster turned now to face Sonja, its back is to the giant crack it created. He fires, aiming the first, high explosive grenade at its feet, attempting to open the pit wider and make the 'buster fall back into the sewers. And the second fired down into the sewers itself, a grenade loaded with knockout gas, hoping the walls of the sewer tunnel would keep the concentration high enough to zonk ol' grumpy britches.

With the daycare clear, Sally can relax, the golden field dissipating away until it's just surrounding her. Briging a hand to her head, she winces, "Ok gotta work on that..whew." She says to herself, easing out into the middle of the street, to look and see just what's happened while she was unable to do much other than protect kids.

This is not the first giant-sized foe Sonja has faced, and she has seen a thunderclap effect before. But she was not expecting it from this one. She dove and rolled, to get clear of the expected punch, but is then propelled far by the shockwave of the clap, thrown into a wall and sliding back down, dazed and shaking her head. She may be the greatest warrior of skill who ever lived, but that doesn't make her invulnerable or perfect. The bloodloss from her wound isn't great, but over time it will get worse unless she treats it. The girl will surely cringe when she does. "Hellspawned creature." she growls, as she forces herself back up to her feet.

The ground cracks open beneath Blockbuster and the giant falls into the pit. Water and sewage splashes upwards in a spray as it lands below. Punisher's second grenade falls into the pit and bounces a few times. The gas quickly fills the pit but it will take time for the gas to take effect. Already, Blockbuster has begun to climb out…

With the kids cleared and safe, Kyani saw Big Red drop because of the thunderclap that hit her from the big guy. "Alright lets end this." He didn't want any more grenades going off nor did he want any more collatral damage to be had withing the area they are in. But as the ground gives way under Blockbuster, pausing and moving in a bit closer, his hoodie comes up and his goggles come up, watching the lizard as it's starting to climb out and the gas not really getting down towards the big guy. "We need to get that gas moving down faster. Kyani dashes forward, moving blindingly fast, circling Blockbuster and attempting to push the gas down upon Blockbuster as well as taking away the air from him.

Blockbuster manages to get to the lip of the pit. He coughs and chokes on the gas that is blown into his face and down his lungs by Kyani's whirlwind doesn't help. Angry and dizzy, Blockbuster reaches out with a giant hand, attempting to grab hold of the speedster as he whizzes by.

Frank Castle is soon at the edge of the pit, a small gasmask slapped onto his face, adhering by suction as it cuts off Frank's nose and mouth from the fumes, "Down, boy," he snarls, pulling a pair of heavy duty pistols and firing at close range, one aimed to blow off the beast's fingers as it grips the lip, the other just hammering bullet after bullet into the monster's face, eyes and throat, trying to disorient him enough to fall back into the gassy sewer. He eyes a gas main down there. If one kind of gas doesn't do it…

With having this type of speed, Kyani is able to see things as if it's moving in slow motion and as Blockbuster tries to grab his leg. Nope, not happening, but as he manages to dodge Blockbuster. He turns and continues running that is until he allows his attention to slip back to Blockbuster to see if he's dropped backdown into the hole. But when he turns around, he sees Frank just waltzing right into his way, "SHIT!!!" he hollars as he trips up and skids away from Frank and Blockbuster. Which in this situation, Kyani and trash cans collide.

Frank doesn't destroy Blockbuster's fingers but those armor-piercing rounds at close range do chew the fingers up and cause the giant to lose his grip. The shots to the face don't help especially when he lifts up one hand to swat at the bullets as if they were angry flies. He falls back down into the pit, hitting the bottom again with another splash that sends a wave of sewage and water up and out.

Its a dirty job, Frank. But someone's gotta do it.

There's what…three people playing king of the hill with a monster in a hole…but there are still injured people on the streets. People walk in this city and while most by now have gotten on their merry way, quick fast and in a hurry, there are other's left, and it's those Sally's getting too, helping to move out of the immediate zone of danger towards a more stable area for EMS to get too easier…when they arrive.

Sonja stood prepared to intervene, to help drop the creature back down into the hole, the filth, and the cloud of gas, all without knowing what kind of gas it is. But the elder warrior did manage to do what she needed done, and the victory has now mostly been achieved. "Time to find the unfortunate." she calls out, swinging the sword up and sheathing it along her back as she makes her way towards another collapsed spot, looking for the injured, the fallen, or even the dead. Will miracles never cease: the redhead is actually sticking around past the end of the fight.

Hummingbird zips by Sonja in a rainbowstreak, stops and then reverses course. "That," she says to the redhead, "is a bitchin' outfit. I love it." Then she's off to grab another survivor and carry them to the emergency room.

In the pit, Blockbuster thrashes but his motions are getting sluggish. Slow. He grabs a chunk of wall and begins to hall himself out of the pit. He makes it halfway before he falls, passing out, into the muck below.

And, of course, this is when the sirens sound. The first responders are on the way.

Frank Castle drops another gas grenade down, this one by hand, trailing greenish fog in its wake as it tumbles down to conk the creature on the head. He loads up the launcher with more HE, preparing to pound the beast down again and again until he stays down, "C'mon, ya big bastard. Nighty night already. I ain't in no mood to sing you a lullaby," he says, his voice muffled and odd through the mask, grey eyes relentless as he stays on target. Oh, the speedster kid, "Didn't break yer neck back there, did ya, roadrunner?"

Sonja pulls another from the rubble, though she can do little more than carry the woman out cradled in her arms, and lay her out safely for the medicos to find her when they can. "Glad you like it." she offers the fast-moving woman in white, with those colorful streamers. She is so fast she must be Blessed. But when the sounds of the sirens come, the redhead is clearly looking for a way to escape. It's not at all a good idea, in her mind, to meet the Guard. Whatever uniforms they wear or names they answer to.

Getting up a bit slowly, he's been running into things for a while so he's used to it, but doesn't take away the fact that it didn't hurt. It did. He stretches and looks around as he surveys the area, he stretches a bit, "I'm good, I'm good." he says as he looks to Frank. But when he hears the sirens, "Everyone ok?" he asks as he looks to each person who is around him, but seeing as everyone is starting to leave, "We better get going." he smiles, then remembers. He goes to the alley where the kids are and the adult who was watchign them. He hands the woman a twenty, "Treat them, they deserve it." he says. He walks back out of the alley, and once out, he waiats for the others and then quikly takes off, seeing a woman in rainbow streamers race by, "Hey you have a way to get out of here?" he calls towards Sonja.

Once he's certain the monster's down, Frank casually holsters his weapons and starts to walk away. As he does, he sees one of the original robbers stumble dazed out of an alley, his ski mask askew, clothes tattered, "Help me…help me…" he calls, reaching out…only to go pale as he sees the emblem on Frank's chest.

Frank's pistol slips right free of its holster again, letting loose two casual killshots through his skull as he walks by him, his body dropping to the ground like the worthless sack of meat he is, "You're welcome," he snarls, making his way back towards the van and home. Damn monsters. Had to waste a lot of good ammo on that freak.

With the sirens comming, and heard, she looks up from her staging of survivors and injured. Then jerking her head at the pair of gunshots just fired ever so casually. Mouth agape, as Sally watches Frank make his exit, shocked, until the person she's helping shifts and groans, bringing her attention back to helping the middle aged man down wit the others.

The tall redhead in the scale mail bikini is jogging quickly up the street as the sirens approach. She'll make her way to an alleyway, then climb one of the fire escapes, and make her way to the rooftops. From there, she'll jump to another roof, and another, before making her way back down to the ground, transforming back into Mary Jane Watson, who will then have to get back to the Defenders offices, and get her sword tucked away in the backpack again. She does not care at all for that kind of casual killing of someone presenting no threat, but she cannot afford to stick around to deal with it right now. It will have to be another time.

The disaster scene becomes one of rescue as ambulances arrive to treat the injured. Within the hour the DEO will be here as well, in full force, to take possession of Blockbuster and the train itself. By tomorrow morning, the entire train will be gone and the only sign this happened will be the injured and the wrecked buildings and store fronts and street.

Just another day in Hell's Kitchen.

Hell's Kitchen — New York

Some people call this area the Lower West Side; some people who want to talk it up call it Clinton. A few particularly unwise types call it West Midtown, but they'd better not do that where anyone can hear. Everyone else calls it Hell's Kitchen.

The congested streets are dominated by flat-faced, boxy buildings, three and four stories tall. Between some of them run alleyways - some wide enough to park a car in, some too narrow to give space for anything but ambushing a passerby. The slow transformation of much of the rest of Manhattan into a playground for the wealthy has met its match in the underworld here, which has a vested interest in keeping Hell's Kitchen and its inhabitants poor and desperate as a cover for its own activities, and in the danger of merely entering the neighborhood. After all - though other cities are better known for them lately, Hell's Kitchen is one of the places where street gangs began.

  • Contents:
    • Sally
    • Hummingbird
    • Kyani
    • Frank Castle
  • Obvious Exits:
    • [00] - Subway Midtown — New York
    • [01] - Abandoned Warehouse — Hell's
    • [02] - Esca — Hell's Kitchen
    • [03] - Haven's Arms Apts — Hell's Ki
    • [04] - Run Down Tenant Bldg — Hell's
    • [05] - The Cat — Hell's Kitchen
    • [06] - Firehouse H404 — Hell's Kitch
    • [07] - The Bar With No Name — Hell's
    • [08] - Nelson and Murdock — Hell's K
    • [09] - Back Alley — Hell's Kitchen
    • [O] - Lower West Side and Midtown We
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