| Late Charges May Apply |
| Summary: | Control Freak freaks out, Jubilee and Black Knight deal with the situation |
| Date: | (2014-11-07) |
| Related: | NA |
| NPCs: | Control Freak |
| Scene Runner: | Jubilee. |
| Social/Plot: | Plot |
| Players: |
 .. .. |
Gotham City. The words bring all kinds of images to mind: Dark streets, creepy old architecture, strange stories of vigilantes, and especially crime. But right now, it's the only vague promise of shelter Jubilee's got.
The Asian-American teen's making her way through the West End on the fringes of Chinatown, watching for someplace just abandoned enough to be welcoming. She's got to hole up for the night at some point, and she's not desperate enough to chance sleeping in an alley… yet. Her bright yellow raincoat stands out brightly in this town, accented by her signature earrings and ruby shades, at least ensuring that she's not mistaken for just some local punk out for fun at someone else's expense.
She pauses at the window of a DVD rental store, just to rest her feet. Strange… TVs normally don't flash that much, even on an action film.
She peeks inside through the window, which could stand a little cleaning. Shadowy figures move about inside, looking distinctly movie-ish. Some kind of convention?
It isn't. Inside, an overweight, youthful guy in an outfit that simultaneously calls to mind characters from several sci-fantasy movies and that undying guy with the katana from a much older film is waving about a remote control, glaring at the store's only other occupant: A frightened young woman wearing the green polo shirt and cap of the Video Power chain. "Admit it! Space Wars is the greatest movie series ever made!"
The girl blinks owlishly at him, torn between fear and a half-nervous, half-amused desire to laugh out loud. "I… I just let people rent movies, okay? I really don't care what they're about!"
Dane happens to be heading for said rental store. They have some documentaries that just so happen to relate to a personal case he had taken. Not so much a case, he isn't a detective, he doesn't keep files. More curiousity that he is tracking something of interest. The internet showed him that this place actually had a few old documentaries relating to his interest and they were in stock. Thank goodness they went digital world with their ecclectic collection. Not hearing the argument or seeing the shapes, he is approaching and sees the window browser, aka the Asian-American girl resting her feet.
"You know, you can see the pictures on the cases much better if you just go on in," a rhetorical question, but he moves to open the door, no looking through the window, to offer to hold if for her. Chivalry is not quite dead it seems.
Something just seems… /off/ about what's happening inside. And that clerk doesn't look happy at all. Frowning a little, Jubilee glances down at her hands, flexing her fingers tentatively. Maybe she should check this…
Voice. Close. Male. She glances up, blinking, as her train of thought suffers a derailment. "Dude, I'm not lookin' at the cases," she replies, just a touch of irritation lacing her voice.
And then he opens the door, holding it for her…
"You are /not/ leaving this store until you put Space Wars I, II, or III on your top ten rentals list!" comes the voice of the balding geek.
"That's determined by corporate!" protests the clerk, fast losing her previous amusement as she realizes that, to this guy, Space Wars is serious business. "I can't change the list from here."
The geek smiles menacingly, lifting his remote and thumbing a button. "On second thought, my little worrt, you might leave after all… as a pile of ash!"
The remote's beam strikes the wall of flatscreens at one side of the store, currently showing a very old romantic film. With a flash and a grinding of support members tearing apart, the nine TVs slowly lift themselves on feed cables turned into spidery legs, their screens now showing sinister faces that might look at home on any jack-o'-lantern, and advance on the unfortunate countergirl, brandishing sparking input jacks at the ends of wire arms.
Jubilee gasps, then ducks through the door that the admittedly-handsome guy is holding open for her. "Gangway!"
Dane is considering a snappy retort about eye-oogling whatever the girl is gawking at inside, if not the cases. Then the argument that outpours seems enough to suggest she noticed some sort of disagreement going on in the establishment.
That is then followed by the TVs become menacing and advancing on the clerk. Ready to step up and say something, that is when his offer to hold the door for someone is taken and the cute girl bee-lines inside, taking his lead in to that now menace.
But its time enough for him to say some mystical Arthurian words and summon Avalon equipment, right along with snappy transformation bit as his jacket and jeans are overtaken by black plating/scaling/chain(ing) armor, complete with helmet, snazzy shield and a sword even. "There will be no pile of ashes today!" He finally says that, stepping in distantly on the heels of Jubilee it seems.
A lot can happen in a few seconds of ancient incantations and armoring. The now-terrified clerk cowers and shields her face with an arm as the first of the TVs looms over her, lifting its sparking tentacles for a killing blow… only to be knocked away and demolished by a sudden, shrieking torrent of multicolored energy! "Dude, your show is /so/ not family-friendly," Jubilee says, plasmoids whirling around her hands and lighting the entire room in a kaleidoscope of pastel hues. "I'd call off your friends before I have to cancel you."
The couch potato with the souped-up remote grimaces, but points the remote quickly, beaming several life size cardboard stand-ups with it. "Dark Invader, Dark Mauler, Baron Dornok, Sheriff of Nottingham, rise and protect your master, the mighty Control Freak!"
And, as the stand-ups come to startling life and move to surround Jubilee, brandishing weapons, that's when someone else steps in. Distracted, the teenage heroine doesn't hear his words. But Control Freak certainly does. "What is this, sweeps day for costumed losers? Show him what metal does with electricity, my servants!"
And the living TVs, all eight of them, begin to converge on the heroic knight, wiry arms sparking and arcing.
Electricity and metal do not mix, the only saving grace for the Black Knight is, alas, the Shield of Night's ability to absorb/deflect such attacks. No time to focus on the remote-wielding fanboy of the Space Wars trilogy, as eight of them are coming for him. He can only lift his shield and move to try and stop one before he's circled.
While attempting to let his shield take in some sparcs, he'll shoot them out of his sword if he catches them at another of his menaces, maybe Dark Mauler, to see if it does anything to them. While he attempts this, he joins the banter, "Yes, losers, it seems you've forgotten your costume." For Control Freak.
The TVs have a numbers advantage, but they aren't bright minions. Two of them try to come at the Black Knight from the front, confounded by the Shield of Night and its imperviousness to electricity. The others try to encircle him, but the sudden charge and that first slash of his sword takes out one of them, leaving him a gap to barrel through into the clear!
The sword comes level, and a bolt of electricity comes forth, setting the stand-up of Dark Mauler aflame! The unliving villain convulses in soundless agony, burned up within seconds.
This leaves Jubilee fending off a cardboard army of three. Rather than fight them, she grabs hold of the top of a display shelf and vaults up out of their reach. Seeing the TVs closing in on someone, she summons up a flight of plasmoids and directs them into circling patterns, knocking out one TV and giving three of the others something better to think about than zapping the person they're zeroing in on. She can't get a good look at that one, though. Maybe she'll get a better look once this battle is over.
"Forgot my… Oh, very funny, Sir Blab-A-Lot," Control Freak grates, stung by the verbal barb. "How about I give you the enmity of some of your peers?" The remote comes up again, bringing another three stand-ups into the battle. "Reginald Front-de-Beouf! Brian de Bois-Gilbert! Guy of Gisbourn! Your enemy is over there!" And three new armored knights, clad in mighty cardboard, stride forth to meet the foe.
Free and in the clear, the sword swining seems effective as does electrical redirection. And that cute girl is doing some rather fancy stuff with, laser light show or something. He can't quite make it out, other than she leapt up on a shelf and sent the light out. Too much to focus on with cardboarded knights joining the fray. "Ah, you lack insight into the true Pendragon, alas, I cannot some my knights of the round." That might actually be serious, summoning knights, a real Pendragon even.
Maybe realizing the remote has something to do with it, the Black Knight will sword swing at new foes to slice or keep at bay, in an effort to get closer to the Control Freak no.
The plundering Normans might be only cardboard, but there are still three of them to Black Knight's one. Guy is wary of closing with that sword, but Reginald is too courageous to be deterred, and charges in. From another side comes Brian, craftier and a better swordsman, and the melee begins. Reginald's lack of caution soon betrays him, and he's ingloriously sliced in half, leaving the servant of Pendragon facing only two knights and slowly closing in on Control Freak.
Jubilee, for her part, swirls and twirls that swarm of plasmoids, directing them into the milling TVs. Two more go down in showers of sparks. "Bet you're wishing you'd gotten into internet video now, Control Freak!" she taunts…
… and is startled by a sudden shriek of terror! The Sheriff of Nottingham has discovered the unfortunate clerk, a foe more in keeping with his cowardly nature, and is trying to slay her! She's staying ahead of him so far, but he won't miss forever!
"Oh, that is /so/ dark ages…" Jubilee mutters. Instead of risking a blast from all the way across the store, she moves to get closer… by jumping to the top of the nearest free-standing shelf and running across it, using them as stepping-stones!
Real threat no matter how quick the sword takes to them, and the chance of more sparking, Dane is forced to fend off the remaining two that are pressing at him. His aim was Control Freak in moving about this battlefield of shelves and DVD/Blue Ray cases, maybe some tapes still lingering around just in case, but the shriek of Terror gives him a new avenue. Or new destination. Though Jubilee is going to get their first, Black Knight must answer the call of Damsels to the best of his ability it seems. "The dark ages had much less knights, honestly, all the armor and stuff was literary infusion of the genre by 13th century writers," he protests about it being dark ages in here as he tries to best Brian the current better swordsman, a shield bash may help, or better, if any sparking arms remain, a sheild absorb followed by a return electrical blast would be better.
The sudden change of course by Black Knight is followed quickly by Guy, still trying to backstab the noble knight, and Brian as well. Counting the Sheriff, there are now /four/ armored men closing in on the clerk, much to Jubilee's confusion. Brian, the sudden focus of that sword's deadly attention, falls back a pace, hard-pressed to defend himself but hardly out of the fight. The image of the grim-faced Knight Templar actually smiles a little. /This/ is an opponent worthy of song and poetry!
Jubilee, seeing the surviving TVs moving to join the sudden center of the disturbance, pauses to blast them to melted plastic and circuits. "Hang on! I'm coming!" she calls to the clerk, who is now ducking behind the counter to evade the Sheriff's weapon. It's a momentary place of safety, as the villainous Norman vents his frustration on the countertop (leaving nasty gouges as if his blade is good steel). But if he finds the swinging door, there will be nowhere for the terrified girl to run…
Jubilee, unable to tell just which of the knights is speaking, shakes her head at the explanation. "Dude, seriously, less talk, more sword! This is totally not a literature class!"
Having to focus on the skilled Brian incarnation as he moves, Black Knight can't simply reply to Jubilee and yet, its a sword fight, it needs banter. "I'm just saying," pause, perry, retort. "To wittingly cut someone … it needs a foundation … is all." Then realizing too many armored men closing on the clerk doesn't help, in fact it might hinder and as Jubilee is offering to help with the Sheriff …
Black Knight takes a stance near a counter, probably the console game rentals, trying to stop the other knights with him and focus on them as a distraction for the saving of the damsel. As well, to re-evaluate the scenario and see where the man with the remote has gone.
This, Jubilee is beginning to realize, is getting /way/ too big for the endangered video clerk. At least there aren't any more armored maniacs coming this way! But she hasn't seen Dark Invader or Baron Dornok in a while…
The Battle of the Counter has changed a bit, now that Black Knight has his back protected. Guy, frustrated, charges forward for the first time, raining blow after furious blow on his opponent's shield. Brian takes a step back, as wary of Guy's waving sword as Black Knight himself might be. You could lose an eye to that thing!
Jubilee arrives at the counter just as the Sheriff finds the swinging door. The craven villain shrinks back in surprise as she vaults the counter, turning him into ash with a torrent of plasmoids. "Ha! Bet Maid Marian never did /that/!" she crows triumphantly.
As for Control Freak, he's been frantically looking for something else to bring to life. Video display shelves, old videotapes, video consoles… nothing seems quite right. But then something catches his eye, and he grins. The remote flashes!
Seconds later, the cash registers from the top of the counter tear free, blinking and buzzing menacingly, and zoom off like fighter planes, maneuvering for strafing runs on Jubilee!
Black Knight holds his shield up, letting it absorb the blows of Guy, as if building a charge to release in his weapon. Timig perhaps crucial, and no banter. Making sure ot keep Control Freak in his view while guy assualts him. Finally after moments of this, the Black Knight will try to swing with the stored force of that assualt from Guy, to break out from the counter, cleave Guy if he can, and past Brian. His intent Control Freak. Better still would be if the Dark Invader or Baron were about with sparcing arms, but if not, he still presses for Control freak instead of the movie dejects/TV casualties.
Black Knight's timing is perfect: Guy has lots of speed and strength, but little technique. The blow /shreds/ the cardboard villain with its incredible force, sending bits flying all over the store! And the knight follows his sword through what's left of Guy of Gisbourne, leaving a startled Brian de Bois-Gilbert staring after him. And Control Freak, just as surprised as Guy and Brian, lets out a high-pitched shriek of sudden fear as the armored man bears down on him like a speeding train!
He doesn't quite get there. The minions of the Star Shadow step forward from the aisles to meet Black Knight, energy blades flaring in their hands. Past and future-to-be collide with incredible force. Control Freak is safe for now.
Jubilee isn't. A machine-gun volley of coins has her ducking out of the way, joining the frightened young woman behind the counter. She winces, seeing the gouges the coins left in the sheetrock. "That is /so/ not normal behavior for a workplace appliance…" She stands as the first cash register soars away, downing it with a stream of plasmoids. "Sorry!" she calls to the clerk.
Black Knight does find a retort, "Alas, the virtue of shields." Though, technically, other shields wouldn't take gun fire, coins or real bullets depending on the calibre. And he can't elucidate on that, with minions of Star Shadow using their energy blades on him. If he can get some energy off them though, into his shield, he can fire beyond them.
He'll have to be quick before Brian recovers and is at his back, but if he can take some in, he might be able to wedge the minions apart enough for a clear shot on Control Freak. With whatever energy he gets from them, if any. If nothing comes out of the Sword of Light though, he'll have to rethink this plan.
The blades flash and crackle, skating off that impenetrable shield with little effect. The same cannot be said of Black Knight's own sword, though: The unleashed energy blast narrowly misses Control Freak, who, if anything, manages an even higher-pitched shriek than before, scrambling back and falling on his well-padded behind.
And dropping that remote!
Jubilee, forted up behind the counter, ducks another furious barrage of coins from the remaining register. "You don't have a fire extinguisher handy, do you?" she asks the clerk, who frantically shakes her head in the negative.
An advantage, to be pressed, Black Knight thinks he'll have to see how indestructable his armor really is. While any force beyond human will damage him inside the mystic armor, hopefully they're not much beyond that. "It is with my mount," he shouts back to Jubilee, as if she asked him - not thinking she asked the clerk. But he's diving for that remote, to smash it if he can, or have control of it at least and keep that from getting back to Control Freak.
The two Shadow Lords aren't playing along, swinging for the stalwart knight as he lunges forward, dropping low to grab for the remote. The two crimson energy blades buzz angrily over his head, very close… and Baron Dornok drops, cloven in half by Dark Invader's blade! Black Knight's hand closes around that remote, crushing it in his mailed fist.
And, after a sudden crash of a formerly-flying cash register hitting the floor and the soft smacking sounds of large pieces of cardboard doing the same, an eerie silence falls over the ravaged Video Power franchise.
It's a moment before two pairs of eyes peek over the countertop. "Whoa… I think it's over. Or we just hit the commercial break," Jubilee murmurs.
There is probably some bruising to the Black Knight, if not a bit more, but crushed remote, the crash of everything else for the moment, then the silence. He pushes to get up, to meet with the eyes over the countertop. "Let us hope it is not a commercial break," he was doing banter just fine, now all stoic. "You and your .. ward, are well?" Meaning the clerk, as if by some code, he has to see that they're both fine. He'll turn slightly to see where Control Freak is …
"I'm good. You?" Jubilee glances at the clerk, who nods in amazed silence, staring at Black Knight. "We're good!" the Asian-American girl confirms.
But Control Freak is gone. It's not the first time someone's gotten his remote away from him, and he's learned that the best thing he can do is be elsewhere when anyone remembers to check on him. He's fleeing out the back door now, the only sign of his passage a fading, "THIS ISN'T OVER!!!"
Jubilee shrugs. "Looks awfully over to /me/. Kinda messy, too."
.
Indeed, bits of cardboard strewn about, coins everywhere. Marks and scuffs on the counters, other damages. "Alas, it does seem a bit of a mess," says Dane, sheathing his sword, but keeping shield on arm all the same. He moves towards the counter where Jubilee and the clerk are for the moment. "Okay, so, he ran out, I wasn't watching. Do we know his name?" He looks more at the clerk, "Is he a regular, like did he have a membership?" Though, if Space Wars trilogy wasn't top ten last week, this might of been last weeks happenings in the store.
The clerk, whose nametag says 'Debbie' now that anyone can get a good look, sighs at the destruction. "My boss'll understand, I think. It'll all be on the security cameras," she says. "I didn't recognize him at all. I don't think he's ever been in here before. And I hope he never comes back!"
Jubilee dusts herself off. "This has to be the first time I've ever heard of someone with a /remote control/ as his weapon of choice…"