The Main Man |
Summary: | The Guardians turn to one of the universes most wanted for some answers: Lobo |
Date: | (2014-08-29) |
Related: | http://ageofheroesmux.wikidot.com/plot:lady-martuk |
NPCs: | Lobo |
Scene Runner: | Jack Flag. |
Social/Plot: | Plot |
There are a few places Jack or Vance wouldn’t readily go, even if slightly shady, for the purpose of trying to find information or meeting a contact or moving goods. Oddly part of space adventure seems to be trying to turn a little space credit along the way. Though, this one is a little different. In fact, one might suspect it is some sort of space station intended for space freight drivers, or a dive, or both. As if the space station itself could be dirty, and it is, with alien graffiti and all. Jack may have explained something of it, about needing to go into a certain bar on a sublevel of the main hub, then having to get clearance to get into a back room and all that. Shady characters warning and the like.
That still might not prepare for the actual scene which is near chaos, its loud, bar-like and filled with a mix of aliens that would fit in as bikers on earth if not for the alien-ness each one has. From there, Jack goes to the bar, which is in a bad state of disrepair, and turns to the large one eyed alien cleaning dirty cups with a dirty rag, “All right, no time for games, we need to speak to the Main Man.”
Inversely to this, a nearby gorilla like alien overhears this request and takes sudden interest in the conversation at the bar. He stands up, taller than the ogre like alien, “Get in line Jack, Lobo’s mine!” By Jack, he probably meant it slangwise, not knowing Jack’s name is Jack.
There was no argument from Courtney. She is fine going from surfing one day to deep space where ever the next. It didn't matter where, shiny futuristic cities to hole in the wall backwaters, it was all good to her. As far as this mission goes, she isn't exactly sure of her roll. So she is going for a arm candy/body guard kind of combo as she follows Jack up to the bar, being the eyes and ears of what is going on around them until they get in front of the contact they are looking for. The gorilla alien gets her attention "It looks like someone is a bit possesive."
A chuckle, Jack turns from the one-eyed bartender, who is putting his hands up at the moment, not wanting anything between gorilla, Jack, or the body guard eye candy. Jack nods to Courtney, side whispering - for real this time, not the stage sort, "It could get ugly, but we want that, it'll get Lobo's attention." As if he was expecting some trouble. Then to Gorilla, "Ya, uh, sure, after I talk with him, you can see about being his bedtime buddy, I ain't gonna step in your way."
The Gorilla snarls, "Shut yer trap, y'ain't welcome around here." He lifts a hand and smashes it on a stool, proceeding to pick up a broken metal leg as a weapon. Things start to get a little harry. He has a leather jacket without sleeves with some patch of like a missile with some alien hotty (or ugly) riding it, Courtney might notice a few more around wearing the same patch. Two more alieans step up as the chaos starts to unfold, one short gremlin guy with brass knuckles and a tall thin female with no hair, holding what looks like an electrified whip or something. Everyone else backs away a little.
Poke the bear Jack says. Courtney was always advised that provoking already irate people was a bad idea, but if she went around taking everyone's advice she would be working as a paperpusher or as some other peon in some police department somewhere. "I'm sure your ugly face isn't welcome around very many places either, but you don't hear us complaining." she taps Jack's arm with the same number of fingers as this alien guy has friends.
Courtney did not come into this unprepared and she is dressed appropiatly and has her belt on. Never leaves home without it. She alien gorilla is large, but she knows that doesn't mean he is slow, but she doubts he is as fast as her. She moves, certainly a lot faster than the alien guy and his buddies probably expected. Grapping his makeshift weapon she uses it to pull him toward her, and with a rapid succession of blows she drives the heel of her palm into his nose, chest and then the arm that is holding the weapon. Any one of these would have probably been sufficient to disarm him but the combo has the weapon in her hand and him probably reeling from the sudden attack.
Jack may have been ready for the Gorilla himself, but Courtney's quick reactions turns the tables. With a grin that she moves in and shows him up, Jack turns towards the gremlin first, picking him up even as he starts punching Jack with the brass knuckles. It turns Jack's face a little, but he easily overmatches the gremlin. Until the whip lady strikes it at Jack. He gives a startled chuckle, as if it really hurt and surprised him that she could hur thim. Then another whip, "Ouch, lady, geez!"
The Gorilla is still looking confused and started to slump by the speed with which Courtney moved at him. A few others jump in, as if wanting to get even with the gorilla, or steal his wallet, or both. Jack uses the germlin as a distraction, throwing it at the whip lady, she overturns a table to use as barricade. There is the sound of bottles breaking, more fighting seems to pick up. The bartender ducks down, still 'cleaning' the glass with his dirty rag.
Once the regulars starting beating on the large gorilla like alien Courtney will back off of that fight. She made her point, no use beating it to death, literaly or figuratively. As the fight spreads an eyebrow raises, she's never been in a bar brawl before, the fact that her first one happens to be on she started doesn't escape her. She grabs a nearly full glass of some kind of purple drink off the bar, takes a whiff and then a large gulp before hurling at an alien near the Whip Lady. When it bounces off his back Courtney immediatly shrugs and points to said Lady with the Whip, who quickly gets accosted by the alien she bounced the glass off of. Apparently, Courtney has watched to many spaghetti westerns.
Jack was contemplating what to do about that whip lady, Courtney's intent to spread the growing chaos in her direction earns a smile. "Its that easy is it," he says from that grin, turning to look at her when some other large biker with a different outfit - his patch shows crosshairs over some cartoon character not too much unlike Mickey Mouse but completely alien. He seems to feel that, and turns to grab the puncher, pushing, shoving, or tossing him towards the bar group.
Then a voice booms over the bar, as a back room door opens, there is a light blue alien there, with lots of muscles, read eyes and black patches or tattoos over covering each of them. "Damn bastiches," bellows that voice, "I told ya, no fightin', unless the Main Man's fightin' … who started this!" They're quick to point out Courtney in this one. Jack moves closer to her, side whispering, "That's him, the one we want, he would know if anyone does." About why they came here, "We don't want to fight him, he's like Power Woman tuff." Or beyond.
When the bellow rings out across the bar, Courtney has the gremlin lifted up and is about to give him a similiar toss around the room. The little creature doesn't seem to learn, and even after her earlier display seems to thing she is an easy target. A nod is given to confirm that she understands and she drops the alien, hopefully on his head. Since they want to speak to this large, muscly, avatarish looking guy she figures the best thing to do is to own it, "Hey when a girl says no, she means no!" she says in her defensive, walking the few steps toward she alien gorilla and giving him a kick in the stomach. There will probably be those that claim other reasons for the fight, but at this point her lying is a much more effective way toward thier goal.
"You heard the lady," says Lobo in his rough voice, looking at Gorilla and the two with him, "You three frag off, don't let me catch your likes around again." Around here is implied, but maybe anywhere Lobo goes, they better not show up. They try to collect themselves to get out.
Half smirking and rubbing his stubly face, "What's a classy broad like you doing in a joint like this? Come on back, get away from these clowns." An offer to go to his back room, like its some VIP lounge. Jack shrugs, and gets ready to go, walking there, to which Lobo steps forward to stop him. One hand, stopping Jack easily it would seem, maybe Jack was right about this guy and how tough he was. "I said, away from the clowns, joker, where you headin'?" Jack blinks and looks to see if Courtney might vouch for him.
Well she got his attention, probably not the kind of attention she actually wanted but she will work with what she has "You know the usual, looking for a drink, maybe a card game, and some useful information." she glances toward where the three aliens exited and then back "But you know how some people are. Can't take no for an answer." its her story and she's sticking to it. When Jack gets stopped she also pauses on her way to this back room "Jack may be a joker, but he's no clown." she waves a hand, in what she hopes is the universal signal for he's cool "He's with me." he's vouched for but Lobo being Lobo who knows if he will take it,
"Ya, sure, with you," says Lobo, smacking Jacks cheek a little in a friendly manner - gangster friendly at least. "No squirrly business chum, or you swim with the fishes." And by that, he probably means space dolphins. Letting them past he moves closer to Courtney, but doesn't get touchy feely. She did say information amidst some of his other favorite things. "You're in luck then, girl, booze, cards and information is what the Man knows. Where do you want to start."
The VIP lounge opens up into a plush room that could be a harem. There are some others there, best not to look at them without having X rated blinders on. Lobo ignores them too, waves a hand to some booze and a card table off to the side even. Seems he has everything he needs here, and a screen showing whats going on in the bar, and around the space station even.
Stargirl follows Lobo into the VIP lounge, waggling fingers at the envious bar goers as the door closes. She turns to look around the room and immediatly regrets it. She isn't naive or completely innocent, but this goes beyond what her eyes have ever seen. She locks her gaze on the indicated booze and heads staight in that direction "Yes a drink would be great." maybe she can use the alcohol to disinfect her brain.
Lobo sort of shrugs, as if hoping it was elsewise, but then getting more of a game face as Courtney settles on drink and the table versus the other part of the room. He simply grabs bottles, two actually. Chucking on to Courtney, keeping one for himself. Jack, forgotten, does move and avert his eyes and brain from the rest as well. "Me too, a drink would be …" He stops talking when Lobo levels a gaze at him, and just takes a chair instead.
Grabbing the cork with his teeth and spitting it, Lobo takes a drink from his bottle, "Booze is free, information, we'll have to see about, depends what you want and who's asking. Simple az'that." He shrugs, and sits across the table, grabbing the cards and starting to shuffle them.
Her reflexes being what they are, Courtney catches the bottle deftly and politely takes a drink to at least show there is some level of trust going on here. "We didn't come here expecting to find a library, where information is ours for the taking." she says back to him as she takes a seat. A slight shrug is given to Jack. Her doing the talking wasn't part of the plan…guess its wing it time again "The information is simple enough, we don't want to find out the location of the crescent diamond of Gelack 5 or anything." she makes stuff up, though for all she knows that could be a real thing "Just want to know why certain members of the Guardians are wanted by Lady Martuk.
"You're good there," nods Lobo, "The diamond of Galack is off to Oa, last I heard, someone working on a new spectrum lantern or some such." Seems it was a thing, no telling what he means by lanterns, unless one really talked with Kyle last time he was on earth. "Ya, the Guardians … she doesn't want them so much as want them out of the way. She's planning on taking over some of your galaxy there." Scratching more fuzz with yellow fingernails, he thinks, "What do you call it locally, the Milky Way - funny that, cause you named it after some of your candy." He knows obscure information about obscure planets, but he got that one backwards it would seem. Still, he knows enough. "Ya, what she needs, some of you know about, she can get it while you're out of the picture, and you won't be able to stop her if you're all locked up and forgotten somewhere."
She takes a few sips of her drink as she listens to Lobo talk. Courtney goes easy though, she doesn't need to get mentally impaired here, especially since her backup is getting the cold shoulder "Since I didn't want to know that, I'm considering that a freebie." bold words, but Lobo seems like the type that appreciates boldness, especially from a female "First Despero and now Lady Martuk." she glances at Jack "Is there anyone out there that doesn't want the Earth on a silver platter. You would think its the crown jewel of the galaxy or something." she focues back to Lobo "And here I was hoping it was something simple, like Vance forgetting to call the day after or something.
Smiling that someone remembered him, Jack nods enthusiastically - earth is the crown jewel to him. He would give a thumbs up even if Lobo wasn't trying to forget about him.
Lobo deals out cards, seems they play poker in space. "Despero, that's new," to Lobo at least, "What's fish head want with earth?" Time traveling isn't one of Lobo's things, he's not aware of futures and trying to change them. "As for Vance, if he shacked up with Martuk, that's his business. I don't think I'd want the details. Tell ya, what, maybe I ought to come visit earth some time, been awhile. Is Supes still floating around the skies there? You give me a place to shack up there, and I'll point you in the right direction to figuring out what Lady Martuk actually wants, other than conquest - heck, she's Skrull, its all the bastiches want, conquer everything."
"That I'm not sure. He wasn't polite enough to send a memo, just Jack here with a deadly virus." Courtney picks up the cards in front of her, fanning them out in her hand as she studies them. Her experience with poker is limited, hopefully this isn't a high stakes game or anything "No Superman, a few other super people though, not sure of the relation there." she shrugs as if she didn't care one way or another "A place to crash? Like what kind of place? A hotel and apartment?
Looking at Jack with slight improvement, Lobo grins and chuckles with a devious turn, "Ya, deadly virus, nothing wrong there chum?" As if he likes that idea, "I used mosquoitos, ya, they're universal, the little bastiches." A grin with more deadly virus thoughts, he moves his cards around as he fans them out too. "Ya, a bed, not far from a bar, been awhile since I checked in around that Sector - heard you had a new green lantern." Then he leans forward a little, grabbing for a stoogie in a nearby ashtray, "That might be part of your problem, why they come to earth, everyone in the sector probably wants some of that. They Corps attracts trouble like - well, blood and mosquitos, since we went there."
"But also easy to kill. Jack here not so much." she gestures at her friend with her bottle "Plenty of motels near bars, even more with bars right in the place itself. Those tend to be more pricey though." assuming they are playing just standard 5 card draw no wilds she pulls two cards from her hand and tosses them face down on the table "I'll take two." she says before continuing the actual conversatoin "Green Lantern…" she thinks a moment "Yeah there was a Green Lantern around for awhile. Hasn't been in the media lately though." she shrugs "So you are saying the big hitter heros are attracting the trouble. Sounds to me like the chicken and egg argument.
"Funny thing about chickens and eggs, both taste great with hot sauce," grins Lobo, taking one card, dealing out the needed after discarding. "Sure thing, motel, bar, babes … you put me up, I'll come make a visit on old Earth." Maybe he's getting some information out of this just the same. "Good enough, there's a girl, Astrid. Was helping the skrull, but is hiding away from the local cluster you live in," he offers a name of the galaxy, and corrects, "Centauras A is what you guys call it. In one of your constallations. She probably knows exactly what Lady Martuk is after in your galaxy."
"I prefer barbecue sauce, but there is really little difference but the spice." Courtney gives a sidelong glance hoping for some signal to tell her if agreeing to setting him up is a good idea. Commiting to non-commital may be the best option here "We'll see what we can do." she doesn't know Lobo like Jack does so if its a bad idea she wouldn't particularly know "Astrid in Centauras A." she repeats, mostly in help her remember "Anything we should know about this Astrid person?
Jack nods a little, if its just to let Lobo crash a few days, check up on the planet shouldn't be a problem. He would be pretty honest if he was gonna frack the planet (Lobo that is). Besides, one Kyrptonian might have a hard time, but Earth seems to be going good for itself in the hero deapartment so if he got out of hand.
"You do that, I'll ring the doorbell when I'm ready then." He lays his cards down, three of a kind, "Other than she's crazy, nah, not really. If it gets sour, don't let her draw her blades, she's can get wicked with them." Coming from a man who lives to fight some of the best in the universe (physical and extended even).
Courtney isn't sure she wants to know what he considers to be ringing the doorbell and just gives a nod to him "Do you know any women that aren't crazy?" present company excepted of course, "Watch the blades, can do. Of course she would have to catch me first before she could actually use them, but still useful information.
"Ya," chuckles Lobo, "There is that. Ya, if you can like run or dodge, you're good then. Just, she has a wicked poison, almost frakked me, minus the clause from me entering hell, she might of offed the Main Man." He shrugs. "You need anything else, or that cover the blunt of it for ya?" He finishes off his bottle finally, and as he only had a drink or two earlier, he's pretty much giving it a guzzle.
Courney had nothing of any value in her hand so tosses down the cards "It's more than we had before. So yeah that's good enough." she sets her half empty bottle on the table and starts to get up "Thanks for the info. Once we have some arrangements made we will contact you." she gestures toward the door "We can see ourselves out.