| Bugerffic |
| Summary: | Jack gets eaten by a bug, Vance tries to save him, but Stargirl actually saves the day. |
| Date: | July 18, 2014 |
| Related: | None |
| NPCs: | Jimmy the Slug |
| Scene Runner: | Jack Flag |
| Social/Plot: | Plot |
| Players: |
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7/18/2014
08:04 AM
Logfile from Justice.
-==[ RP Suite #5 ]==----------——
This is a blank slate room! It can be any place that you like, that isn't already on the IC grid. Paris! Rome! Mars! For help on resetting the room variables, please see 'suitehelp'.
The scene unfolds.
A giant stag beetle is rampaging through some junkyards and dumps between Metropolis and Gotham, more likely Jersey. Its headed for a nearby nuclear power plant as if to feed for more energy and its already pushing beyond the size of an elephant. Its massive mandibles have crushed a path through cars and debris, scarring off the dogs that terrorize the junkmen around here and snapping a power line or two in the process. From inside the bowels of the beast comes a cry, "Snrf rffr mnfrn smnf fllbb snff!" (Translation: You said you could get me out of here!)
How we got here, Justice and Jack Flag chased down Jimmy the Slugg to the junkyards of New Jersey. The little slimy fellow is an alien that looks like a slug. He had some coordinates for a prison in space they were looking for and, as luck would have it, as they came to get him the then rhinoceros sized beetle. One might say opportunistic, as Jimmy's native race evolved from parasites and the belly of a large beetle is the perfect place to hide. Thusly, a few waste spills later and a more than double sized beetle now houses Jimmy the Slugg and one Jack Flag who went in after him and is, apparently, unable to break out and may just be running out of breath. Leaving Justice to try and pry it open, he might need a hand.
With all his telekinetic might Vance struggles to pry open the maw of the beast. However it's fail with a capital F. Vance is presently atop the back of the giant beetle holding on for dear life (think Starship Troopers) while he does his best to concentrate. He calls back, "JUST ONE MORE SECOND AND I'LL GET YOU OUT OF THERE!"
"Ftlfl fnnwppr snyytyff srrrprrp!" (Translation: You said that one second ago!). For what it's worth, there is some struggling done by one Jack Flag from the bowels of the beast, he does have one hand around Jimmy as they slide through that esophagus and more towards the nuclear waste in its belly, closer to Jack's demise. The struggle, at best, gets a slight rumble from the beast. Like it has indigestion, but it roars its mighty giant insect roar and tries to dislodge the pest on its back. First by trying to grab some cars, but the mandibles be wrestled with makes it try to careen into them instead.
While most people wouldn't really care if Jersey gets stomp on my a giant beetle, there is a principal here. One that says heroines don't let even the underdogs of states get stepped on without doing something about it. Thankfully this particular heroine was already enroute to Metropolis and spotting that large a beetle from the air isn't all that hard. With staff in hand she free falls into a dive forcefield forming around her. As she get closer the little ant like figure on the back of the beetle solidifies into a person..a screaming, costumed person at that. So she wasn't the first one on the scene. Coming to a sudden stop several feet above she spins the staff and aims it a the large bettle "Heads up!" she shouts as a beam of force blasts from the staff with enough force to hopefully knock the beetle onto its back.
Vance looks up. He starts to say, "NO WA..>!" and is suddenly interrupted. The blast wave that strikes the beetle also jostles Vance who is then thrown from the beetle and off the beetle's backside. He hits the ground with an oof and will quickly try to dodge the impending doom of the beetle's step or flipping.
The beetle monster roar turns to foul play cry as it falls to that side, its own legs giving slightly to its weight. Not completely on its back, but enough punch to move the mammoth, it would seem, for now. Interestingly enough, whatever food gets dumped into the wastes of Jersey (the toxic sort of food good for radiated insects) seems to have helped it grow by about a foot since just before the arrival of Stargirl. Vance is rather good at stepping and flipping to avoid giant beetle, he just needs to watch out for the nearby trash pile that is subsequently being toppled by the trip up of the beetle. It would seem the blasts can effect the beetle, but for direct damage, its chitin armor seems to absorb quite the blow. From within, "Flf snr lf!" (Translation: WTF!)
Subtly is not in Stargirl's wheelhouse it would seem and from the distance she probably can't hear the shouts coming from within the great big beetle "Don't tell me this thing is your precious little pet!" she calls down to the man, who, for a moment seemed to be not like the idea of her blasting the creature. She floats down lower, staff held out as it fires another beam, this one forming a forcefield around the creature, trapping it in place for the moment.
Rolling to the side Vance ends up getting pelted by the falling trash debris. Smelling the horrible stench, he leaps up and his first thought is to get the smell away, but he realizes he's in the middle of a super battle and says, "HEY! There are people inside that thing!" up to Stargirl. "We need to get them out… can you pry open the creature's mouth? If so, I may be able to reach in and get them with my TK."
he's covered in refuse and bad smells.
Daunted slightly, the beetle is returning to a stand. To show off its prowess as a Stag Beetle against the threats, it reaches for a nearby junked car, swings it around randomly and flings it in the air. It tries to dissuade the others while still wanting that power source - the nuclear one. Its stacks are probably 500 yards away now, its pleasant white smoke billowing out harmlessly into the sky. Such a nice contrast to the typical black plumes that used to dot the Jersey skyline decades ago - well, actually, one of the last five rubber burning plants is in Jersey so they're not all gone, but mostly. "Frnrnffnr!" (Translation: Ya!!!!") Ya to anything, Jimmy is slipper and still hard to get oxygen for Jack Flag.
"Ewwww!" typical blonde girl reaction to hearing something gross. "That's disgusting." Stargirl is a true hero though and doesn't let the ick factor stop her from lowering herself through her forcefield "And how exactly am I supposed to do that?!" she inquires, she knows nothing of the anatomy of bugs, do they even have mouths…or at least what a human would call a mouth. Common sense tells her whatever orifice it uses for a mouth would be in its head "How about I just blow it's head off, seems a lot simplier." she suggests as she floats into the dangerzone of its large pinchers.</REPOSE>
"Right under the pincers." states Vance as he's moving toward her position but is prevented by the force field. "If you can blow the head off, go for it. I couldn't get past the armor. If not, stick your stick in it and use it as a wedge."
"Nnnyyy, lnnlllwnff nnnyyyy" (Translation: Now, totally now!!!!!). There is some snarky chuckling from within, curse that Jimmy the Slugg. Stargirl might notice that there is some strain on the force field, this thing is going from class Jack Flag size strength and pushing upwards now. If something isn't done too soon, it could be hitting class Hulk or Superman levels. While offset by its weight not yet being comparable to working with that size strength, it is insect and comes with that ability to hold/manipulate/maintain things of much larger size/weight. If only it could move ….
Decisions, Decisions…blow the head and kill it, which would probably be the best move or try to force its mouth open, which risks her getting shallowed as well. She flies upward suddenly, the staff being thrust downward as another sizzling beam erupts from it as the forcefield drops. The beam sizzles for a reason, its a heat beam, fully capable of melting steel in a matter of seconds, no telling what it is going to do to the creatures head. Thankfully it is a localized beam and Stargirl has fine control over it so the collateral damage should be minimal.
Having leveraged partial weight against the force field, Vance stumbles forward when it is shut off. He catches himself and starts moving to get a good vantage of the opening. Which ever works, he intends to reach in with his TK and grab Jack.
"HANG ON BUDDY, I'M ABOUT TO PULL YOU OUTTA THERE!" he yells as he reaches.
Cutting the head is certainly one way to do it. Strength for strength wasn't working, pry bars might of helped if only Stargirl could get closer. Though, laser to head is probably even better cause not only could it save Jack Flag, but without a head it won't continue rampaging. To say it stinks is an understatement. There is one drawback, it flails wildly in death throws. Even if it cuts its brain in seconds, the body flails from all those synaptic signals. Though, there is a directly line into its esophagus (thorax?) which looks like the place that holds Jack. Sticking ones hand in there is brave and grabbing the other man shows some signs of damage to Jack's costume because of digestion. Jimmy looks fine - slug with book keeper glasses, tiny appendages flailing and all, in Jack's hands. "Bout time!" He inhales a breath, then Stargirl, "Woah! Who's this!" Forget he was nearly left in jersey after a giant beetle dump siting, and his mask is nearly gone.
It doesn't matter how it is done, hands or TK it is still gross and Stargirl wrinkles her nose in disgust as she looks down from where the darts around dodging the flailing beetle for a moment before just moving to hover out of its reach. "Gross!" she exclaims, covering a nose with a blue gloved hand "Even the cesspits of Gotham don't smell that bad."
With the slurp of Jack coming out of the beetle's inners, Vance falls backwards as the TK is suddenly released. Albeit he's several feet away from Jack, he also smells the rank not only from himself, but Jack. His nose wrinkles and he tries to turn away. He tries to answer the question from Jack and starts with, "I don't know, but she saved your…" and he gags which stops his further comments.
"Whoa whoa," returns Jack Flag, "Its much better out here, and a fella get's used to it." But he holds up Jimmy by the scruff of his little alien parasite neck (he's about mid-dog sized, so small child almost). "Besides, it looks bad, if we got some interrogating to do, all un professional like." Then he pfffsssht's and wags his thumb at Justice, like its unprofessional, as if trying to make a good impression on Stargirl even, despite her being just as grossed out for the moment. "This guy," he says nonchalantly, still waggling little Jimmy around.
Never mind the guys in costumes, Stargirl's eyes go the the thing dangling from Jack's grip "What is that?!" her voice is all nasally from pinching her nose. Lowering herself to the ground, she holds her staff at her side as she takes a few steps closer to get a good look at the alien. Not to close though, because, well, ewwww.
Standing and recovering, Vance begins to brush off what remains of the refuse. But he remains a few feet away, and upwind, of Jack. He tries to answer, "That's the punk whose gonna tells us where the prison planet is so we can save the rest of our team."
"Vance," says Jack, as if slightly shocked, "Ixnay on the .. priso — sonpray … ya, prison. This is like the 21st century, we don't just give out information." Like its a new concept cause, 70s was so long ago. Then he grins at Stargirl, "We're totally gonna get him to talk about this prison, where our friends are." Despite him not being sure if Vance should of blubbed about what they were doing, he falls right into the trap of monologging because of cute girl. Then, ya, Jimmy, he holds him up a little, "Ya, start talkin!"
Jimmy weezes, cause of the air maybe (fresh air). "Look, guys, if I tells'ya, they'll know it was me, see …"
"Wait, wait, wait…prison planet. Like a whole planet that is one big prison?" Stargirl asks, looking between the two men, somewhat suspiciously obviously thinking she has rescued a couple of criminals, "So you are shaking down this…reject from Alice in Wonderland so you can break people out of prison?" her staff moves between the two of them.
"The chick just helped save your bacon. Surely she's entitled to a little respect when answering questions.". However, when she starts to get aggressive, Vance clarifies, "Hang on there cupcake, we're the good guys. Our team, the /Guardians of the Galaxy/ were captured by intergalactic bounty hunters working for the Skrull Empire - an evil empire, I might add. They're being held on a prison planet where they're being forced to mine Spaceium, or some exotic element. So yeah, we're shaking down this space-slug for information on our friends and he'd /better talk/ or else it may hurt a little."
"Whoa whoa, no one says cupcake, that's so sexest," says Jack, nodding to Stargirl, "Right, shortie?" He waggles his thumb towards Vance again, a 'this guy' sort of gesture just like before. But slug, Jack holds him into some pile of rubbish, most likely some cars that haven't toppled yet, "Ya, but I'm thinking a lot."
Jimmy considers that, "Ya, see, ain't'so easy, dealsie then, give me a lift, I'll gets ya there, drop me off on Quintar, one star over, and we're square, ya, square."
Being called cupcake doesn't equal respect "That's Stargirl to you space boy." she counters "Guardians of the Galaxy? Never heard of you." her eyes narrow behind her goggles as she listens to the schpell Vance is giving her "Likely story." her eyes go from Vance to Jack, wondering who he is calling shortie, her or the alien slug he is holding. "This Skrull Empire, why are they hunting your team down…besides the fact that you say they are evil.
"Because we've crossed them on several ocassions. However, now is not the time nor the place to go into the details of space operas. You just need to understand that we're the good guys and we're on a mission to save our friends and the galaxy at large, cupcake Stargirl." answers Vance directly to Stargirl adding the ending just for his own amusement.
"At least he didn't go with sugar ti…." begins Jack, but Jimmy interrupts, whizzing, "Guysh, look, see, the deal, ya, we gots ourselves a deal …?"
Jack looks between slug and Vance and Stargirl. "No, he's right, they're all evil. Like Vladimir Putin wrestling tigers with his shirt off evil." Then he chuckles a little, "Oh yeah, there's one for you Vance, Communism isn't evil, the took down the Wall in Berlin and all that, from your time, but Russia is like evil again or something, invading Ukraine and all that." That full circle is amusing to Jack at least.
Stargirl continues to look betweetn the two, her expression moves from suspicious to confusing as Jack explains things that anyone who hasn't lived under a rock should know..but then again Vance did say something about space and such, so another alien wouldn't know those things…but then Jack said, your time…oh the implications "Well you just answer the slimy thing so he will shut up with the 40's mobster talk?" she gestures to Jimmy
Vance agrees and looks to Jack, "Yeah. What cupcake said. Let's get this show on the road. We've got showers to take and friends to save."
"Fine then, deal Jimmy, you're in," says Jack, not quite saying they'll just drop him off at a random starport or something. But if the slug get's them to the prison, all the better. "Showers and blast off, like literal. You in then, I mean, whatever you did there, the pewpew zzzt or you know, was a lot more effective than," he doesn't say the name but waggles a thumb yet again at Vance. "He can prove the space evil stuff too, and we can forget about prison," cause you know, Jack is still a federal escapee on earth and all.
"Go with you two strangers…into space? Are you kidding? How do I know you two are just going to drop me off on the first planet and leave me there." Stargirl asks, not quite beleiving what she is hearing still "Or worse you two sell me into some wierd alien slavery?" well at least she isn't naive.
That gives Jack a pause, Jimmy nods, "She's got a point, fella."
Jack gives the slug a squirrely eye, "You're not helping." Then ignores him, still holding him up even though they struck the deal. "Well, I guess you don't," he says trying to rationalize it himself. "Except Vance is total Astronaut stuff, probably has a card. Just, it was issued in like the 60s probably, so its expired, but its real. And how do we know you won't try to steal our vessel and run around doing your cupcake Stargirl business while leaving us stranded with Jimmy?"
"I'm not bad company," protests Jimmy.
Her eyes go to Jimmy when he agrees with her "Pipe down." Stargirl tells the slug with the glasses "Like the 1960's?" she eyes the direction Vance disappeared, probably to find someplace where the two of them can get cleaned up, or something "I'll fully capable of space travel on my own. I don't need a friggin' space ship to do that.
"Oh yeah," ponders Jack, like space travel is a pretty cool thing. "But its not like Mission to Mars," the disney ride, "Totally other stars and stuff, you're faster than like hyperspace travel?" As if, instead of that being her credential to show she doesn't want to steal the ship, he's playing up how good their crappy ship is, the small one they stole from the bounty hunters, so to speak. But that's semantics.
Stargirl lifts her shoulders in a shrug "No clue. I haven't been further than the moon's orbit, but with no air there is no friction. I could probably get going at a pretty decent speed." she doesn't metion that she knows nothing of space so probably would get lost pretty quickly.
"There ya go," grins Jack, still holding the silent Jimmy who looks rather bored at this conversation and how its probably not going in the right direction. "You're good, space travel and all. See, Vance is with NASA, we save the Galaxy stuff, I mean look, we totally stopped that bug." He thumbs at the stinking mammoth sized carcus. Forgetting they came to get Jimmy and Stargirl actually did the stopping.
She points the staff back to where Vance disappeared in a temporary fashion "He's with NASA?" it's said with disbeleif. Sure she can beleive the save the galaxy stuff, but an astronaut is a stretch…go figure "What do you mean we?" and hand goes to her hip. He fight have forgotten, but she certainly did not.
"Well," ponders Jack on those exact thoughts, "I mean, I totally had his gullet on the run." Even with bits of his costume sort of coming off from bodily acids of the monster beetle. "And we found it first, right, sort of helped bring attention." Jimmy deadpans at Jack, he looks down a little, "I mean you, but we were trying at least. You're just that good, which is why you need to come and help us save our friends." Good stretch of logic.
Vance seems mortified that he's never been heard of but then realizes once again that this is the 20teens and not the 70s when astronauts were rockstars. He shakes his head, "Listen cupcake, I was flying in deep space when your parents were still dropping acid behind the bleachers during gym class." which is likely overstepping the age difference, but he doesn't care and continues. "You would be a wonderful asset to bring along on this mission, but I have a feeling that you're not as experienced as you would like us to believe. Additionally, you would only get yourself in trouble and probably captured by the evil space pirates of Drenar III. So it's probably best you keep your narrow backside firmly planted Earthside and let the professionals handle the mission."
In all, he's challenging her wherewithall-ness and seeing if she quits balking and steps up to the challenge of being a real hero(ine).
He had her up until cupcake, at that point she turns to Jack "I bet he practices speechs like that in front of his mirror while shaving. Doesn't he?" she asks the one guy that so far has seemed the most reasonable, to her at least, "Relax grandpa." she stresses the grandpa when she says it to Vance as she turns back to him, "If you need help busting these friends of yours out of a planetary pokey," she uses the old fashioned slang for prison on purpose, "you can count on me."
With a chuckle, Jack nods, "Well, just the chin, cause you know, got to have a rug under the hood to hide your medallion at that age." Chest hair that is, Burt Reynolds/Tom Selleck hair. "Its all good then, Jimmy gets us up there, we toss him out the airlock, bust everyone out, stop the Skrull. Home in time for dinner I bet." No, not really, but he goes with it being that easy.
"But brotha, you gotta shower first. I'm not gonna be couped up in our Enola Gay for the duration of our mission with your stench." states Vance as he lifts off the ground in TK flight.
Stargirl chuckles at Jack's joking at Vance's expense "Gold chains an all?" she knows what he is talking about, she's seen movies from the '70's era. She glances upward as the other guy flies off. Assuming Jack and his alien prisoner don't fly the blonde woman heads over, thanfully she has gotten used to the worst of the smell, but she still isn't going to touch him. "We following him?" a forcefield bubble forms around them and they lift off into the air.
"Ya, can you," then the forcefield bubble forms. Jack nods, "That, thanks." And as their in the same bubble and forgetting Jimmy is along for the ride - seems Jack tucked him under his arm, like a rich girl and a chihuahua - Jimmy looks all undignified but isn't complaining at least. "Stargirl, that's pretty cool. Mine's Jack Flag." He pumps his fist like its awesome (everying is … after all). "Cause of flying into space and stuff?" Her name that is.
Vance is slightly ahead, he calls back. "Jack, let her know where the crash pad is. I'll meet yall there in a few. Gotta run to my place and get some stuff done."