Summary:Anon, Dazzler, and Jin fight evil clowns. As if that's not a redundancy. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
Related LogsTheme SongNone |
   |
A cloudy Monday night in New York. Not the most enchanting of times, so Alison Blair (aka Dazzler), probably won't be writing any songs about it for now. She has just finished her set at Tavern on the Green and is wandering the gloomy Park, close to midnight. No fans hounding her, despite still being in her white jumpsuit stage gear under her long coat. At least she's taken off the blue make-up. She hums quietly to herself as she wanders down towards a pond.
Fans may not be hounding her but someone…or something…is watching her from the dark of the trees.
Celerity had just been at the Tavern on the Green, too, though just briefly. When a delivery takes people to Central Park, Celerity's pretty much the only person who actually takes it; she doesn't have to depend on a car to get places. Now she has the food order, so she slips away to get into costume. Mask, check; leotard and hood, check; food bag strapped tight to her body, check. In the shadow of a restroom, she stretches… but given the distances involved, they aren't expecting this pub grub for at least another twenty minutes.
This gives her time to peek around the corner and see the young woman walking the park on her own. And is that… something in the trees behind her? She squints, but she's not the best at night vision.
So there's this dude.
He's out for a late night stroll in the park by himself, a pair of wireless earbuds in his ears, nodding his head to the beat of the music with a goofy kind of grin on his face. He looks fresh off of an ass-kicking, what with the band aid across the bridge of his nose and another one on his cheek, but whatever happened he's still in good spirits about it. Every now and then he'll stop and do a dance move on the sidewalk, or stop again and shadowbox for a quick second.
But he isn't -just- goofing off. See, this guy has the absolute best luck when it comes to running across trouble. Some really vague notion that there are people with bad intentions like… Over in this direction, following behind some chick with a cool leotard on while she heads for the pond. So he dance-walks casually over that-a-way, giving the delivery girl he sees a little upward nod and a wink as saunters on up.
Alison may not even be aware of where she is heading since she is on intent on getting the tune she is composing right. It seems to be getting even darker around her. Is there a storm about to break? She looks up at the cloudy night sky before a glow of light appears around her left hand to illuminate the way - she is obviously unaware of anyone nearby if she's using her powers. At least the darkness has broken her from her reverie. She shivers at a chill in the air…and now has the definite feeling she is being watched. "Hello?"
From the darkness of the trees there is a reply. In the form of carousel like music. Like a giant organ is blowing out shrill notes to a jaunty tune.
Oh jeez. Circus music is barely a good thing at a circus. In the wee hours of the morning, in Central Park, while no circus is in town? That is IT.
And Anon has some time to spare. She's not going to rush in and punch things straight away, but she does step out from around the restroom, still keeping to shadows — as best her costume allows — and creeping in closer to keep an eye on just what's happening, and if it might need some manner of intervention. Maybe punching, maybe grabbing-and-running rescue.
Is that… Circus music? Da fuck?
Those are the words that Jin mouths without actually speaking them, one of his bushy eyebrows raised as he plucks an earbud out of his ear, then the other one, and stashes them in the pocket of his jacket. He's walking a little slower now, looking around suspiciously while he shakes his arms out a little, like a boxer getting ready for a bout. When his fists clench he does it hard enough to make his knuckles pop audibly, a subtle sound, but if anybody has super senses they'll hear it. Jin's way of saying 'Hi baddies, these hands are over here, come catch em.'
And what does every circus have that everyone loves? Clowns! Emerging from the darkness is just that. Four clowns in multi-colored outfits, giant shows, and even bigger grins on their faces that seem to be made of facial distortions rather than their mouths. Their gait is slow bouncing steps, like they're walking on the moon. In their hands are some rather strange looking…handguns?
Alison stares at the quartet before mumbling, "Not again." She hits the grass as one of the weapons fires a glowing blue ray where she once stood. The air it passes through seeming to freeze into lines of ice.
Anon shivers, her body buzzing to deal with the bone-deep chill that can only come from one thing. Clowns. That alone doesn't necessarily require her assistance, but these are clowns with guns.
"Miss, look out!" she calls, as she breaks from the shadows. She moves like a bullet — the only bullet around, given those aren't slug-throwing guns — and aims first to disarm the nearest clown, to pull the weapon from his hand while she rushes past.
Man I just got done watching IT with my girl, this shit ain't right.
"So what's this shit," Jin says to the strange quartet, a cocky grin on his face. "Y'all run outta gang colors so you hit up a fuckin costume store, ha."
But the clowns aren't intimidated, no, they're too busy being creepy clowns with freeze rays. One of them takes a shot at the girl down by the pond, which makes Jin blink and watch the weird bolt of energy fly past him. That means he doesn't see the -next- shot, which catches him full on the arm, completely covering it in a big block of solid ice.
"The fuck is this?" he shouts, glaring down at his arm.
He waves it in the air a few times to try and dislodge the ice, but that doesn't work. So instead he sets his jaw and charges at these freaks, swinging his iced-up fist like it was a big boxing glove.
Miss? Thankfully they did…except the one that shot at Jin. The ice that forms around his hand looks rather sparkly and takes on a blue hue…like a flavored slushie from the circus. But it is damn cold.
Anon grabs the gun in the hand of another clown but it is holding on tight. As she speeds past, trying to wrench it from his grip, his arm follows her movement. The gun still firing until it blasts the clown alongside him. Anon able to rip it free from the giant fingers of the clown as the one hit by the ray turns into a blue slushie.
Alison springs to her feet as she tries to figure out what is happening. A blur that seems to be helping. An innocent bystander hit by a ray but looking rather annoyed then hurt. Putting her hands out in front of her, a sphere of light appears around Alison just as another blue ray bounces off it.
One of the clowns grins as Jin charges him - or is that its normal eternal grimace. Dropping the gun, it opens its arms wide. It seems to want to give him a hug.
Anon grits her teeth, growling with effort. Normally, rushing past with that kind of speed, that kind of kinetic energy running through her, is enough to dislodge a human's grip. Which says some distressing things about these opponents. "Do not hug the clown," she calls to Jin. …good advice in general, actually.
She now has a gun — a gun which apparently covers people in slushie. She's not comfortable with guns at the best of times, so she turns it over in her grip and comes at the next clown. She wields her purloined weapon like an oddly-shaped club, to batter the clown still shooting at Alison.
This part's all muscle memory.
Jin has thrown this punch a few thousand times, maybe a million, who knows. A good old overhand right. His dad's favorite finisher, but we don't have time right now to go into backstories and all that. Jin's right foot plants, his left shoulder is already set up ahead of the right shoulder, then all it takes is a quick twist of the waist to send his ice-blocked right hand careening at the clown's midsection like a cannonball. Of course Jin isn't sure how much force his opponent can take, though it's probably enough to shatter the ice covering his hand in a pretty spray of sparkly stuff. Whether or not clown boy gets his hug, we'll see.
Anon's super speed certainly helps with the power of the clubbing. But she discovers, as does Jin, that their targets are rather…spungy. The clowns all have rather large bellies and though the ice shatters when Jin hits it, his power is diffused a little by the way his fist sinks into the clown. Still, it is enough to send the jokester waddling backwards.
As for Anon, the handle of the gun is pounded repeatedly onto a skull that seems to bounce back after every blow. But she too is at least able to force the clown back towards the trees and stop it shooting anyone else. With those two clowns occupied, and another impersonating a snow cone, Alison shoots laser beams from her hands that sears off the remaining clown's gun hand. The wound immediately cauterising as her target laughs like a maniac at the damage.
"Oh what the hell that's just gross." Anon's words all come out in a quick rush while she feels how the clown's rubbery flesh makes her attacks rebound. Jin is a braver man than she; she's not doing to touch these clowns even to punch them. Instead, she rushes past and around a tree, taking it for cover in case they start shooting. That one stray shot seemed to do a good job taking out a clown, so she turns the gun right-way around again. Deep breath, carefully line up the shot… and she ducks around the tree again to shoot at the clown she'd just left. Ducking out of cover, naturally, leaves her momentarily exposed.
Well uh, at least it didn't come with a -BOING- sound effect?
Jin, grateful that his fist is no longer encased in frozen (and possibly sugary) substance, looks a little perturbed. Perhaps it's dawning on him that these clowns are more than costumed thugs with stolen gadgets, and the thought seems to get him a little excited. He grins, crouching down into something like a boxer's stance, and for a moment his reddish brown eyes seem to gleam in the low light.
"Yknow I can kick a heavy bag in half," he chides. "Just sayin. You might wanna think twice about this shit mijo."
Jin does not wait for a retort. He simply slides in and cuts loose with a flurry of punches so fast his fists become a blur of motion.
With all that super speed, Anon has good reflexes. Her shot hits the clown, turning it into a blue snow cone. Its shot back hitting the tree which crystalizes next to her. It must have been close because she can feel the chill on her arm…in her very bones.
The frantic punching by Jin has the effect of making the clown sway back and forth with each blow; it's those giant shoes that won't let it fall. Back and forth. Back and forth. Giggling loudly even as each blow leaves a dent in its body. A wet sucking noise as Jin's fist punches into the body. Literally into it. His hand and forearm now covered with a yellow sticky substance that resembles caramel syrup. Syrup that burns at Jin's clothes and flesh beneath.
The clown without a hand giggles its way back into the darkness of the trees as the carnival music suddenly ceases.
As a speedster, Anon also finds her pulse racing beyond what would be healthy for a normal person, pounding loud enough to distract her hearing. Yes, it's worked out so well so far, but it's a tense moment, and she jerks away from the tree when she feels its chill. She can't quite suppress a shudder that doesn't actually have to do with cold.
Two clowns turned into snow-cones; one being punched into pulp; and one doing a Jaime Lannister impression. Anon zooms out, just to duck and grab the dropped gun, before she comes back Alison. "Are you alright, Miss?" She'll check on Jin next. He seems like he's a bit… busy.
"Ora ora ora ora ora oraaaa!!"
Yes, he actually yells that.
But it's obvious that he isn't going to KO this thing punching it center-mass like this, especially since it's giggling throughout his whole flurry even after he punches a literal hole through it. At the moment he doesn't have time to worry about acidic caramel syrup, it hurts and all, but that's what adrenaline is for.
So for a change of tactics, he abruptly drops down low and swings out his leg like an iron broom, catching those big clown shoes with enough force to trip it over and make it fall down onto its butt, or back.
If it's the butt, this thing is getting a wheel kick to the face. If it's the back, it's an axe kick. Either way it has a foot in its future.
"Please, call me Alison" Dazzler replies to Anon, doing her best to summon a smile in greeting while warily looking at the darkness behind the speedster. Though there is also still a beating going on nearby.
The leg sweep from Jin sends the clown onto its butt. A bulbous butt that causes it to bounce back into the air before Jin's foot slams it back onto the earth. The foot leaving a deep impression in the clown's face. Literally. At least it stops laughing. And moving.
Alison nods over to Jin, the syrup still burning away, as she asks Anon. "Friend of yours?"
"Alison," Anon repeats. Both guns passed to one hand, she offers the other to the woman to help her back up. The question brings her attention out to the scene of the fight again, watching the impact of the kick — with a wince. "No. But I'm glad he looks to be on our side." That's not something she'd want to fight. She hangs for several seconds, watching the clown to see if it'll move… and when it remains still, she exhales a sigh. "Hey!" she calls. "You alright?"
Fuckin KO. Whew.
The clown bounces up comically, gets a foot to the face, bounces back down and stays down, and for a moment Jin just stands there and looks at it, blinking, with an expression that says he's about to laugh. Maybe clowns are funny after all, ey.
But then there's the matter of his searing left arm, which is soaked to the elbow in a caustic substance. It would appear that Mr. Reyes has a decent tolerance for pain, because while it makes him grimace a little, he isn't dashing madly for relief. He just lifts his arm to look at it curiously, turning it this way and that to see that it does, in fact, look like candy. Acidic candy. Huh.
The girls calling out to him get his attention and he turns to them with a rakish grin, despite his weird injury. "Yeah, heh," he says, waving his syrupy arm. "just another night in Cetral Park right?"
"Is that smoke coming off your arm?" Alison delicately asks Jin about the toxic fumes arising from the acid caramel. "Maybe you should get that seen too?" A shrug to Anon about the man's desire to be in pain.
There is a sudden blast of blue light that illuminates the area around them. It may not bother Dazzler much but it will blind the others if they don't have protection. And when it is gone, so are the trio of clowns. All is quiet in the Park once more." Alison purses her lips in a frown. "They…well…it looked like they dissolved" she explains for any who may not have seen it.
Anon purses her lips to Jin's answer. "I… guess so? Werider than what you usually get out in the Bowery, that's for sure." Alison's already suggested he get the arm some attention, so Anon just gives her an equally mystified shrug.
Then comes the glaring light. Anon gasps, flinching away and shielding her eyes. No, she certainly does not have protection; she doesn't even have sunglasses with her, this time of night.
Is it smoke? The questions makes Jin look back at his arm.
"Oh shit, hah, yeah it kinda does look like smoke huh."
Jin, being that he's not all edumacated, decides that the pond is the solution. Does he know that caustic chemicals might not wash off in water? Nah. But it seems like it'll help so he's gonna try it. He begins to make for the pond, to crouch down and dip his arm in the water, when all of a sudden a blast of blue lights up the night. He flinches and lifts his good arm to shield his eyes, maybe too late, maybe not, but when it's through he'll most likely be blinking the stars from his eyes either way.
Alison prods with her foot at where one of the clowns was - definitely gone. She watches Jin trying to wash off the syrup. "Seriously, dude, maybe we should get you to a hospital?" Though the water seems to be easing the pain at least. "I've had a couple of run-ins with clowns but these ones were different. Totally not human. Right?" She looks hopefully at the pair.
Anon blinks a few times, slowly clearing her vision. "Definitely not," she says. "Humans have skulls, not… spongy whatever-that-was." She grimaces, another shudder running over her shoulders. "You're sure they… dissolved? Didn't just teleport away or something?" Something clicks in her memory, and she stands up straighter. "Oh! Hi. I'm Anon."
Jin chuckles at Alison, still crouched down by the edge of the pond with his forearm stuck in the water. It feels pretty good.
"Didn't feel like punching a dude," he says, as he gazes down at his submerged hand. "More like a Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Man."
After a moment he stands up and shakes some of the water off of his arm, sticking his wet hand in the pocket of his jacket and sauntering up to the girls with a kind of casual smile on his face, like suddenly doing battle with freeze-ray wielding clowns isn't that weird.
"Jin," he says. "Nice to meet you guys."
Then he looks between the two of them and grins. "You two have pretty cool tricks. By now I'm thinkin everyone in New York is a little super huh."
"Anon? As in anonymous? Really no point in you telling us your name then" Alison teases with a grin before considering the redhead's question. "I guess they could have teleported but I've never really seen one of those in action so couldn't say for sure."
"Not sure what you're talking about, Jin" Alison smiles sweetly to his accusation of being super. "I should really be getting back to the Baxter Building." See how normal she is! "I…umm…stay there in the…" Probably no point trying to get out of that. "Alison Blair. Feel free to look me up."
Anon does not doubt that Jin has quite thorough understanding of just how it feels to punch a dude. She greets him with an up-nod as he approaches. She pouts at Alison. "As in 'anonymous', and also as in 'at once'." She sounds pretty proud of the play-on-words in her supranym. "Baxter Building, you mean like the Fantastic Four and the Young Avengers?" She knows a little.
And also knows that it's about time for her to get moving. She looks over her shoulder at the bag strapped close. Still intact, yes. "Got to go," she says. And with that, the golden blur is gone.
"Anon? Huh. That's different. You're pretty fuckin fa—"
Then he blinks, because Anon has whooshed off faster that he could say 'fast.'
"Well shit," he says, with a little chuckle. "Guess she had a cake in the oven."
He turns his attention back to Alison then, nodding genially after she's introduced herself. "Baxter Building, got it. Watch your back on the way, for like, cartoon characters with heat rays or some shit."
And the stroll continues. Hopefully he didn't put his earbuds in the pocket he stuck his wet, caramel-acid covered hand in.