Summary:Some lunatic lets loose video game monsters made real in Central Park. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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Central Park on a weekend is a very busy place for a variety of reasons. People running, people enjoying the surprisingly nice weather. People enjoying the patch of green and growing things in the middle of the city. And of course people on their phones playing augmented reality games. Central park is a good place to find rare monsters and it's been kind of a thing to see roving packs of players in the past couple of years.
The first indication that there is something wrong is some shouting in the middle of the north meadow. The various baseball games in progress stop as people look to see what the commotion is.
Commotion turns to panic as a ROAR echoes out over the park and an orange winged lizard with a fire burning on the end of it's tail smashes down into the middle of the green. From the trees a number of smaller brightly colored creatures emerge and the North Meadow becomes a maelstrom of fire, flying rocks and lightning bolts. The panic turns into a stampede as people rush past or over one another trying to get away. Smoke begins rising as the grass catches fire and in short order… it's ALL over the news.
Jessica Jones didn't wake up until about an hour ago. She's sitting on a park bench, drinking from a styrofoam cup full of black coffee acidic enough to burn a hole in an ordinary stomach. Sunglasses protect her bloodshot eyes from the irritant of the sun. She was supposed to meet an informant twenty minutes ago, but shockingly, junkies are terrible at being punctual. She thinks about breaking the dweeb's arm, realizes that would be overreacting, thinks about doing it again. Almost smiles.
Then there's a roar and people screaming and there are children running by and Jessica pushes up to her booted feet and sees something flying over the trees. She pulls down the hood of her jacket and shakes out her black hair.
"Ah, shit."
Fjorkar has been skulking about in the trees and undergrowth, avoiding detection in that incongruous manner all large monsters seem to possess when they wish to (largely due to human obliviousness). Now, though, she makes her way towards the commotion, keeping out of the meadow proper until she can assess what she's dealing with. A fire drake of some manner, obviously, but what else…
Keiko had been trying to get across Central Park to get another job. Saturdays are generally good for business, the work-a-week crowd having time to get the small tasks they can't see to during the week done, and well .. penalty rates.
Right now, her bike is dropped on the grass to the side of the path as she just sort of stares at the giant orange wizard lizard. "Another spirit animal?" She mutters to herself, not connecting this creature with the giant yellow Pickachu that attacked her the other day.
Either way, this isn't good.
Rolling her sleeves up, the small dusky skinned woman touches one of the detailed images marked on her skin. "Come forth, Bella, I might need you."
A few seconds later a *huge* glowing wolf appears at her side, eyes fixing on the lizard and growling.
Elmo is totally not in Central Park just to chase down imaginary AR monsters. It would be super nerdy and dweeby. That's why he's standing on one of the spawn points messing with his phone, of course. He's in the process of eyeing a nearby girl who's trying to snipe him when the giant orange lizard with its tail on fire appears. And then it starts setting everything on fire. People start running, and Elmo scrambles halfway up a handy tree to avoid the stampede. "What the HELL is going on?"
The dragon is big. It's easily nine or ten feet tall at the shoulder and possibly twenty feet or so long. It turns as it's charged, it's burning tail swinging wide. A gout of fire rolls past Fjorkar as he impacts and staggers the beast. This thing is quick to recover though and it smashes down a big clawed hand at the wolf-ram thing.
There are other things swarming around. A couple of the yellow lightning bolt creatures with the crooked tail. There's a handful of dark fox like things with yellow circles on the head and legs. They keep jumping in and out of shadows. One emerges near Elmo as he asks what the hell is going on and jumps right at his head, jaws wide.
"Pika?" That's… near Jessica's feet. A little cute yellow thing is looking up at her. "Pika?" Electricity starts to crackle over it. This is probably not good.
Keiko has a clear line to the big dragon and the… wolf thing fighting it. At the moment. There's got to be a dozen creatures running around here so that may change soon.
Jessica Jones has been momentarily distracted by the dragon, as dragons are wont to do, when the little yellow thing starts to chitter at her feet. It looks vaguely familiar, like something she saw once on a children's cereal box, like a thing made of sugar. It might dissolve on her tongue if she licked it. Except that it's starting to crackle with electricity. Fan-friggin-tastic.
Someone else might've been daunted by the cuteness of the thing, but Jessica Jones is relatively immune to cute. Lightning bolts, not so much.
"Get outta here," she says and, with a quick step, she tries to punt Pikachu up and across the park.
Fjorkar is part sea serpent, so has no love for fire drakes to begin with, but this one is being plain rude. ~This is not your territory, interloper!~ she bellows at it in the spirit speech, trying to dart clear of its claws and teeth so she can land a bite of her own. ~Be gone, or I'll send you hence.~
"Do I need Glydril, Bella?" Keiko mutters again, seeing more of these creatures appear. She recognises the miniature Pikachu's but the rest not at all. As she watches, she pulls a short metal rod from her pack.
"Get the Lizard …" She shakes the rod once and extends to a staff. A staff that she twirls quite expertly.
The glowing wolf growls again as it lopes off. Bella leaps onto a bench and launches herself at the Lizards throat, gouts of flame … don't seem to phase her.
Maybe they should.
Keiko doesn't understand the spirit speech, though it resonates with her. Bella though, seems to flinch.
Elmo emits a strangled yelp as the fox thing leaps at his face. *Pow!* Electricity flares and pops the fox creature. Pikachu's not the only one around here who's got some lightning to dish out. Elmo skids down the tree and grabs for something out of his pocket. (His first impulse is to call up one of the AR monsters from his phone, but he can't exactly get it out of the phone to do anything.) It's a metal tape measure, modified in some weird way; it has what seems to be a battery pack and a set of gears soldered to the case. He aims it at a purple fox thingie. The gears go whirrr! and the metal ribbon of the tape measure lashes out like a snake tongue, crackling and fizzing with electricity. "NO! Bad Umbreon!"
Pop! Fizz! Smoke pours from the umbreon and it's not just smoking fur. Elmo's attacker falls short and twitches. There's a bit of metal visible in the jaw along with what is defintiely something like muscle. Robots? Are these some kind of… cybernetic creatures? Whatever they are they don't like lightning or at least that one didn't.
"PikaPIKA!" Is the shriek as Jessica boots the creature actually toward the dragon. It lands heavily and sparks everywhere before throwing out lighting bolts like a dynamo. Some land near Bella. Some near the dragon. Some near Fjorkar.
The dragon thing doesn't seem to understand what is being roared at it. It pulls itself up into the air as Bella lopes toward it but far from running away it spews fire in a wide arc in front of it.
This time it's Jessica and Elmo who find themselves with the breathing room. Keiko has finally been noticed by something else. A creature kind of like the one that attacked Elmo but blue and coming right toward her on a razor sharp ramp of ice.
There's a few civillians pinned down. Hiding behind trash cans or benches and too afraid to move. They're looking at the people who are actually fighting these things with wide eyes. Oddly the normal looking folk - Jessica and Elmo - are getting odder stares than the obviously powered ones.
Jessica Jones considers just leaving. She's not a superhero anymore. This kind of crap isn't her responsibility. Let the cape and cowl set show up and do their jobs.
But then she sees some of the pinned civilians and mutters under her breath. She reaches down and rips the park bench out of the ground, the wrought iron of the thing making a straining squeal as she rips it out of its concrete moorings.
"C'mon, this way, go on. I'll cover you. Just run!" she shouts to one cowering family, preparing to wield the bench like a baseball bat at anything that comes at her.
Bella pulls her leap as the fire spews forth, landing hand and tumbling over her shoulder, heavily. She yelps as a gout of fire hits her, the glowing fur charring as it does.
That doesn't seem to affect Keiko - not visibly at least. The woman winces at the pain in her Wolfs call but she can't spare much attention as she plants her feet, spins her staff and waits for the creature to get close enough. 'FORE' she thwacks at it.
Bella recovers, shaking her shaggy head, growling loudly as she starts to tests the lizards defenses. Darting in and out, biting at its feet and legs.
If somethings not done soon, Keiko might have to summon Glydril. And … that's just going to cause more panic.
Fjorkar is surprised to see another spirit, much less a wolf, join the fray, but doesn't pause to wonder at it. She bolts clear of the fire, snarls at the drake, ~Coward,~ and turns to find something she can deal with. Like the thing attacking Keiko, mostly because it's mobile and not flying. She runs towards it, trying to intercept before it reaches Keiko.
The fried smell of the fox critter is far from pleasant, but Elmo recognizes it as burning wire and electronic components. He grabs its head to get a closer look at what's going on there. The conclusion is unclear, but at least it's got SOME important computery stuff in it. Then Elmo realizes he's holding what might be some kind of animal corpse and drops it with a grimace. Instead of fighting further, he starts pulling things out of his satchel and hastily assembling them into an improvised device.
Fjorkar does get the Glaceon - that's what it's called though probably only Elmo knows that - and puts it down. Like Elmo he finds that it's a wrapping of flesh around mechanical components. Keiko still has to deal with the razor sharp ice ramp coming right at her. It keeps going carried by its own momentum, aiming right at her neck only to be smacked away by expert staff work.
ROAR!
The dragon lands near Jessica and tries to just bite her in half, not paying any attention to the bench in her hands which is… probably a mistake. It swipes it's tail at Bella now, trying to keep it's rear clear though it's doing so blind and the wolf does finally have an opening.
A pair of umbreons are circling Elmo as he builds. They get closer. And closer and…
CRACK! POP!
Something from Elmo's device goes out over the field and causes all of the creatures to spasm and drop. Well, all of the small ones. The big dragon stumbles but remains standing. And now it looks pissed.
Figures that the big one would have a faraday cage of some kind…
Jessica Jones finds herself facing down a dragon. Totally normal New York thing. Happens all the time. Shouldn't even be startled by it at this point.
"Why does my life suck so hard?" she mutters.
She leaps backwards just beyond the snapping jaws, barely getting free, "Back off, Barney!" she yells, swinging the bench with all her might and giving a proper Babe Ruth swing right at the jaw of the thing.
Keiko … seems very cool in the face of an ice ramp coming at her, though the impact of the staff vibrates up her arms causing her to grunt. She's such a slight thing.
The appearance of Fjorkar does have her blinking and frowning, making a split decision as to friend or foe. Friend, she must decide - given the demon has taken out that other … thing.
What the hell is it? Keiko has no idea. Demon, seems to be what she's labelled it. The Glaceon that is.
Bella growls and snarls, leaping agilely even as her spirit fur smokes. She's managed to inflict minor wounds on the dragon but now she senses her opening.
Setting her feet, the glowing wolf growls loudly, bolting around the creature and leaping at its throat again. This wolf is large, easily twice the size of a normal one. Her powerful jaws clamp over its throat, biting down hard.
Fjorskar spits out metal parts, disgusted, pokes at the remains with her gleaming claws. Of course they're not spirit creatures given flesh. Ah, but she'd somehow hoped they were. Well, maybe it was for the best. She spares a glance for Keiko, mostly to ensure she's not about to be attacked, watches Elmo's EMP take out the others. She turns her attention on the dragon, maneuvering to join Bella and Jessica on the off chance their attacks don't finish it.
Elmo builds fast. His hands fly from satchel to weird spindly thing he's improvising on the spot. The circling Umbreons make his palms sweat and the hair on the back of his neck stand up. A city boy isn't so used to being stalked, even if it's by robot Pokemans. He's in such hurry he doesn't even put on a hard switch, instead just grabbing a strut of the thing and hitting it with his own innate power. *BWOOM!* Lights and phones and everything electronic go dark. The Umbreons tumble over, twitching. Elmo whimpers in relief and sags back on his skinny butt, shaking with adrenaline. Then he kicks one of the disabled robots with a vengeful snarl.
Jessica's smack on the jaw actually seems to dislocate it and it also shears some of the flesh off of it to expose a metal endostructure beneath. Bella's attack does the same thing. It also seems to sever something as some kind of gas - maybe what it was lighting into the flames - starts to spew from the wound the big spirit wolf makes.
It's still disoriented from the EMP. It tries to stagger forward and smack Jessica but it's flailing wildly now. The tail swings wide and possibly very nearly smacks Elmo as he takes out his frustration on one of the disabled… thing.
This creature is almost done. But it DOES need to be put down or it will continue to be a danger to people.
Jessica Jones just keeps whacking, seeing no reason to stop at this point. The metal endoskeleton actually reassures her a bit. Robots she can understand. She's been to Epcot, she's seen the cutting edge of human technology.
"Bad friggin' dragon!" she says, just intending to batter and smash at the darn thing until it or the bench give out first.
Bella growls again, seemingly disoriented by the gas spewing forth. She staggers a bit as she drops heavily to her feet. Her movements are slower now as she turns, moving to the side of the lumbering creature as she rushes it. It should topple, leaving it vulnerable for the others.
Keiko hasn't taken any damage in all of this, though as her wolf starts to stumble, so does she.
Nearly drukenly, the tattooed woman makes her to the dragon. "Bella …" and then "Is it dead?" to those gathered.
Bella whines and stumbles, falling herself.
The dragon's still moving, so Fjorskar joins the fray. Seeing Bella injured drives her to new fury, and she tears into the mechanical thing, avoiding the gasoline as best she can. ~Go, sister, rest,~ she snarls at the other wolf.
"Gevalt!" Elmo has to lunge backwards to avoid the swinging tail. He scrabbles to his feet, his knees shaking, his lips curled back from his teeth in an expression of terrified fury. Electricity crawls over him, sparking in his clothes and hair. He takes in what everyone else is doing—and doubletakes at Fjorskar. Oh. …Realizing Keiko is stumbling, he lets the electricity die out offers her an arm to hang on to, but he doesn't grab her or make any move to touch her otherwise. "Hey, you all right? Did you hit ya head?" His voice is shaking. All of him is shaking, actually. He flinches a little as Fjorskar makes a renewed effort and Jessica plays batter-up with the park bench. Okay, that's impressive.
The claws and benches and well just kind of everything expose more and more metal. It's not clear exactly WHAT finally puts it down but after a solid ten seconds of being beaten on the thing makes an almost pitiable noise and stops moving.
For a second enverything is quiet. Then a cylender pops up from the back. Something laser scans everyone present and then POP POP POP.
Shiny… things fly out and strike everyone but there's no force. They're light and flimsy. Actually shiney paper or film of some kind. About the size of a cheque and golden in color.
Each one of them says 'WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER!' Along with an address along the Hundson.
They're… ticks? Golden tickets?
Bella whines at Fjorskar, not moving from where she is as Keiko joins the others and grasps Elmo's arm.
"I did not." The woman with a mutt of an accent replies. "She … breathed in the gas. She is ill…" She, the wolf. It takes Keiko a moment, but she makes a gesture in the air, saying something unintelligible. Bella dissipates to 'smoke' that speeds to the ink on Keiko's arm. In a moment, it's like the wolf never existed.
"Thank you …" the tattooed woman murmurs to Elmo, snagging a piece of golden paper out of the air "What… are these?" The pop-culture references are completely beyond her. "And is everyone here ok?"
Fjorskar crouches as the ticket flies at her, peers at it lying on the ground. She sniffs but doesn't touch it, turns her attentions to Bella. As Bella dissipates she blinks, ears flattening back. She starts to snarl, a low, furious sound, and turns on the mechanical dragon corpse. She tears at it a few times for good measure.
Elmo blinks. Keiko's wolf (there was a wolf in the first place, which is also weird) just shoomped back into her arm. Okay! Well, weird shit happens in New York. "You need help?" he asks her, eyebrows up with worry. He really flinches as golden tickets suddenly spray out and one hits him in the chest. "Jesus!" Instinctively he grabs it, then peers at its crumpled text. "It's some kind of prize, I guess? For killing Charizard?"
Fjorskar's angry tearing jerks something and a mangled speaker lurches to life and plays a little… tune. Ta-ta-ta-ta ta ta ta-ta-taaaaaa. Those with a, er, pop culture bent might recognize it as a victory song from an older electronic RPG.
"Congratulations on round one. To continue the game and collect your prize, proceed to the next arena in time for the next round."
So yes. A prize… and the next round of the 'game'? Someone thought this was a game? People could have been KILLED by these things.
"The dragon had a name?" Keiko asks rather confusedly. Pokemon - so not a thing she's aware of. "This was not a game, people could have been hurt." Come to think of it, she's not sure that people haven't been.
For the moment, she watches the demon, not sure the danger is completely past. "Is … she safe?" Keiko asks Elmo, gesturing to Fjorskar. "I will recover soon. I need to rest, as does Bella."
One things for certain. The tattooed woman is going to visit her favourite, or not-so-favourite, SHIELD agent.
In fact. She fumbles with her phone, struggling to unlock it - that's something Elmo will be familiar with - and sends a text. Well, she *thinks* she sends a text. Maybe she's posted to some random forum, instead.
Fjorskar pauses, ears flat against her skull, at the recording come out of the speaker. She roars at it, furious, and rips it off the mechanical corpse. For a moment she stands there, panting, angry beyond belief. Then she turns from it and eyes Bella, her baleful, glowing eyes searching her with open curiosity. "She's…bound, to you." Her physical voice is gravely and rough, coming from a mouth and throat not made for human speech, but (mostly…) understandable. She flicks a glance at Elmo, determines he's alive and not actively dying, considers Keiko again.
"Is she safe?" Elmo says, eyeing Fjorskar, like this is a question he never could have thought of on his own. "I, uh, I don't think so, but…she ain't never hurt me." There's a certain loyalty in his tone. Even as Fjorskar roars and digs into the dead robot. When that happens, Elmo is suddenly backing away fast and trying to drag Keiko with him. "But there's a first time for everything!"
Keiko puts a hand on Elmo's arm, arresting his movement if she can with a shake of her head. "I think she might be … she did help after all."
The small, asiatic looking woman, glances at the demonness, considering her answer. "We are bound." Interesting answer. "I am Keiko Kurita, who… are you?" Curious and gutsy, or perhaps stupid.
"Elmo, yes?" That's to the man as she crouches to the pieces scattered over the ground about them. "I think these can be analysed, yes?"
Maybe her WAND agent will arrive before she leaves.
"We," Fjorskar echoes. She studies Keiko a time, finally replies, "Fjorskar." Through the snarling of her voice it sounds like it might be Northern Scandinavian of some variety, though of course it's hard to tell. Fortunately, she adds, "We are the heart which is torn."
She eyes Elmo again, then the detritus around them, curls her lip in disgusted. This probably means she's not going to be helping with analyzing, touching, or anything along those lines.
Elmo does stop, but he's quivering with tension. He knows his friend is in Fjorskar, somehow, and yet, she still frightens him badly. The robots, though! There's fire and smoke and chaos all around, and Elmo's all too happy to focus on the robots. Sirens wail as first responders start arriving. Elmo looks around like he just realized where they are. "I gotta get outta here, I got priors." With that he grabs up one of the fox-shaped robots.
With the sirens growing nearer, Keiko glances up. "I will stay and speak with the police. They'll probably blame me again for this." Second time in a week? There's a good chance they will.
It seems like Fjorskar isn't going anywhere and Keiko certainly isn't going to push.
She'll hang around and then go find a WAND agent to hand this mechanical monstronsity to.
The sound of an engine preceedes that of sirens in the distance. A rather familiar - to Keiko - WAND agent gets out. A well built man with sandy hair. He looks at the fires burning and the mangled robot husks and makes a face.
"Keiko Kurita what the hell have you done?"
Fortunately for Elmo he doesn't seem inclined to stop him from gathering souvenirs. Nor indeed does he seem inclined to do anything untoward to Fjorskar though he gives her a wary look.
"Spirit-wolf." He says quietly. "I take it you all stopped this from getting worse."
The sounds of sirens are close now. "Go on. Quick. I'll deal with NYPD." He's sure they don't want to give statements or be stuck with hours of paperwork.
Except Keiko. She gets to do that while she answers his questions.
Fjorskar's ears go up at the approaching sirens. She growls, soft and irritated, casts a look at Keiko and Elmo, and heads for the trees at a lope. She has to get back into the underground labyrinth of tunnels under New York City, since there's no way she won't be blamed.
"I owe ya," Elmo mutters to Keiko. He stuffs the robot Umbreon corpse kind of under his coat, like he's planning on fencing it under an overpass. The EMP device he'd built, he kicks apart. "Go," he yells at Fjorskar, and he makes tracks too. The WAND agent gets a wary look, but he's letting Elmo go and Elmo goes while the getting is good. It's okay if he runs, lots of people are running!
The look Keiko turns on Koa as he approaches is speaking "It wasn't me." comes the defensive reply.
"They did, yes. And Bella." The tattooed woman is still looking green about the gills. "These things though just appeared and attacked."
Koa is given the golden ticket she took. "When it was defeated, these were provided. Someone thinks this is a game…"
With the others going and the police arriving, Keiko reschedules her appointments.