(2014-12-14) Droneball
Droneball
Summary: It's a quiet evening in a Metropolis park. Or is it?
Date: IC Date (2014-12-??)
Related: None
NPCs: Various bystanders, the Quinzel's.
Scene Runner: NA
Social/Plot: Social
Players:
harleen-quinn..domino..michael-garin..

Kurtzberg Memorial Park is truly beautiful as the settng sun cascades an array of colors across the sky. The natural splendor is unmarred as it casts long shadows from the treeline across the open fields and natural dirt walkways as people enjoy the slightly brisk early evening air. An elderly couple sit together, feeding the pigeons and the occasional squirrel or two, humming some little old song by Tom Lehrer or some such fellow. A couple frats are having a game of football, with some spectators and improvised cheerleaders. Children and Teens frolick, playing all sort of games. It is a lovely night in the suburbs of Metropolis.

Deena Dennis is laying on a blanket with a picnic decked out before her. Across from Deena sits little Lucy, a strawberry blond toddler playing with toy cars… wearing tutus. Lucy is joined by Harleen Quinzel, smiling and giggling, and making voices as if talking for the tutu wearing cars. Some might call the sight surreal…

*

Follow the money. That's always what it comes down to. Metropolis may play by its own (drastically more high-tech) rules but it's still a city. A very rich city, full of very rich people. So long as there's people and money there's also crime, and those willing to pay for it. This is why Domino's here. Should be another proverbial walk through the park, easy money for an easy gig. With a catch. Metropolis, with all of its fancy toys, also has some killer surveillance. She can still do her job, she'll just have to mind the drones. And all of the other people in the area. Should be pretty simple, really!

From the distance comes an awkward buzzing sound before a damaged aerial drone smacks through the naked branches of a tree, diving right through the flight path of the thrown football in a way that causes it to twist further off course as the loosed ball takes an entirely different trajectory. One which causes it to strike a branch, knocking an unsuspecting squirrel off of its perch to flop to the ground in front of the elderly couple. The football is but a moment behind, plummeting to the ground right next to where those toy cars happen to be. The drone falls to the ground last, tripping up an unsuspecting jogger in a flash of flailing limbs.

*

It wa a quiet walk in the park for the second generation Russian immigrant, meandering his way through the wealthy Metropolitan neighborhood with nary a care in the world. He was in the area for a quiet bit of soul searching, hands in his pockets, one of them softly grasping at something in the pocket of the cargo shorts he wears. The goings on in the park were happy memories of a simpler time…like when his mother was still alive. A time that was in the past, unfortunately. Ah well.

And then the random drone crash? The crunch of electronics and person snap the Russian out of his reverie, turning his gaze towards the commotion. What exactly was going on here?

*

Frats boys shouting, a pigeon falling over dead beside the squirrel, Harleen and Deena both leaping to shield Lucy from harm, hugging each other, and comforting the little girl when she cries out, "Merle Park, Maryon Lane, nooooo?" as if the football hitting the cars hurt them. The drone strike seems the least of the picnicers worries. After Deena and Harleen show Lucy that he tutus can be straighted and no harm has come to the car, both women wiping the little girl's tears and hugging her, Harleen stands up and says, "Don't worry baby, mama will handle this." uses her foot to pop the ball up to her hands, then says, "Hey, be careful with your pig skin, punks!" hauling back and throwing a mad spiral toward the QB who'd chucked it before…

*

Not far away from all of this is an albino woman with a black spot around her left eye, though both eyes are currently wide open. And her mouth is slightly agape. One hand is raised forth as if about to call out a warning but no sound comes out. Rather, with every pinball effect that takes place within the park before her there's a shift of expression, most of them coming out as some form of wince.

By the time the drone's winding down in its death throes half embedded in a crusty snowbank Domino slowly lowers her hand, muttering a "Whoopsie."

There's another problem, however. Taking out the drone was only half of her current task. With the multiple distractions already enacted she suddenly leaps out of cover and sprints across the park, rushing for the downed drone.

"Pardon me nothing to see here lovely day isn't it?-Yikes!"

She's not entirely sure where that football came from but it nearly clips her in the head as she runs. Luckily for her the only cranium it connects with is one of the jocks, turning just in time to get plowed over flat across his back with an abrupt "Yaugh!"

So much for a peaceful evening at the park.

*

As the scuffle happens and the football clips the albino woman, Michael just sorta…blinks. Ooooooook then. That wasn't really all that normal. Intriguing, yes, but not normal. Who just runs in to snag something like that. And so, he makes his way over to the small group, head tilted to the side. "Everyone ok? No broken bones or anything like that?" He turns his gaze towards HQ and the crying girl. "Everything ok over there too?"

*

Squatting back down, Harleen checks that Lucy is okay. She looks back up, Lucy says that Merle Park's tires are now out of alignment and that Maryon Lane drained her oil pan in terror from the vile pigskinned monster that attacked them." then moving back to whisper to Deena who nods and starts putting thing away, as if they think it would be better to be packed, just in case they need to take their picnic somewhere else in a hurry." she then glances back toward a fat guy with a beard sleeping under a blanket while a little blond girl and black boy hop on him, "Nicky, Jenny, wake your father up, tell him to get is stuff together. You guys may be riding with Lucy and Aunt Deena to Memaw and Pawpaw's house. Aunt Harley may have to take care of some business." she then stands back up, "No one hurt here… yet. Preferably no one needs to get hurt at all." she grumbles under her breath, "Looks liek Bernie was right, I can't have one normal day without something funky happening."

*

(Drone, drone, drone, drone…)

The seat which the elderly couple occupy gets vaulted over as Domino passes by. The downed jogger nearly gets similar treatment as he starts to push himself upright just in time to see the monochromed woman bolt past him. "Hey-!"

Snow and mud gets displaced in a pair of shallow lines as she dives low and slides across the thawed surface of the ground, coming to a halt right next to the damaged drone. (Tag! Um.) "Now what." (Right!)

An object which looks suspiciously like a pistol of some fashion comes out of hiding and into her hand, though it might appear that the device itself isn't something she's wholly familiar with.

(Flip the thingy here, adjust this dingus on the side, verify the little blinken lightens be blinkin' and lightin,' three-two-one-do something useful!)

Pressing the 'barrel' against the side of the drone's body and pulling the trigger results in a sudden flash of blue energy, causing thin bolts of electricity to dance across the metallic hull of the drone. The air around it is quickly filled with smoke and the acrid scent of burnt ozone, its internal electronics effectively fried.

It's met with a fist-pump from the albino, hopping back to her feet then kicking the braindead drone once for good measure. "Not today, sucker!"

*

Whoa! What the hell was that? Why did she just up and fry that drone? This is uh…suspicious to say the least. He takes a closer look at the monochrome woman, but ultimately doesn't recognize her. He's not up and up on the mercenary world. Still though…strange tech and frying a drone? He begins murmuring something to himself in Russian, one hand moving from his pocket to behind his back, clenched tightly into a fist.

*

Albinos? Meh, Harley is used to them, even put on white-face a few times herself. Insane acting people? Again, nothing special in Harley's world. Electro-zappy doohickie thingamajig whatchamacallit bibbledibobs? Harley has a few with her this very second. Downed Drones? Okay, that is a bit out of the ordinairy to her. She gestures for Deena, Lucy, Nicky, and Jenny to get behind her, while tugging the overwight half-asleep lump forward, 'Hey, Barry, for once in your life do something productive and go see if that lady needs some help," pushing him forward as she reaches into her large bag…

*

It's only after having accomplished her task that Domino remembers that she's anything but alone, and all of this had been anything but subtle. Slowly turning around to face the disorganized crowd, she awkwardly holds a hand up and calls out "Sorry, folks! Solar flare caused ol' Sparky here to go AWOL. Everything's cool now, carry on!"

(Yeah, that'll work. Juuust ignore the suspicious stares and the lady with the wicked throwing arm.) It's followed by a quick point toward Harley, "Nice toss!"

She'll worry about the mud she's currently wearing later, right now her priority is getting the heck out of here and back to cover before this 'one drone incident' becomes a 'multiple drone incident.'

*

Barry Quinzel is not usually known for moving quickly, but his 5'10" 250lbs moves pretty quickly when he realizes he's being pushed into something he doesn't need or want to pushed into, "You heard the lady, sis. just Soalar flares.. everything's cool." scrambling to get behind his sisters, niece, and children… yup, real tough guy, Barry Quinzel, cowering behind his own 9 year old son, 6 year old daughter, and 3 year old niece.

Sighing, Harleen nods. Were she alone, she probably would investigate, but for the time being, caring for her family is much higher up her list of priorities then getting answers. Maybe if her brother weren't such a lazy wuss, she could rely on him to protect the family while she did some heroics, but he is a cowardly unmotivated lump who the only reason he didn't get to squander another 300K on trying to restart his band and ended up with an apartment instead, is because Harley prepaid the lease well in advance, had their mother sign on the lease, and told Barry that she'd hire an attorney to file for Deena to get custody of Nicky and Jenny, if he didn't man up a little. She gives the drone and the woman one last cursory glare, then turns back to pick up Lucy, "Lucy, Nicky, Jenny, you guys want to stop for ice cream on the way to Memaw and Pawpaws?" getting cheers from the three children. Smiling, Harley hugs Deena with her free arm, and starts to lead the family away, letting Barry carry all there things as punishment for being a scaredy jerk.

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