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Summary: Midnight Movie Madness gets a lot more 'mad' than expected. Cue a member of Freedom Force and three people that just wanted to see the show to save the day.
Date: July 30, 2009
Kalimari Combat
Rating: R
NYC - Union Square
Always bustling with life is Union Square, with its large statue of George Washington standing in the center. Live music, dancers, artists, activists, vendors, and more can all be seen here on a daily basis. There are even some tables set up for chess games. The Green Market can be found here, selling fresh fruit, breads, vegetables and other farm products. Union Square has more of a younger feel as most the kids who hang out here have that artistic, indie look to them, making Union Square one of the more open minded parks in the city.
Midnight Movie Madness!
That's what the banner above the theatre says. It was a supposed to be a special event, just showing some films for any insomniacs that showed. But this quiet little place in Union Square really isn't quiet. Especially not when a glowing blue humanoid is suddenly tossed through a window and onto the street. The glow fades away after a bounce to reveal Defense, shield-making member of Freedom Force, laying on the street. His costume, blue with silver accents and a shield-emblem over his heart, is dirty but unharmed. "Alright…round two," he grumbles, getting up and stalking back towards the theatre as several people from inside run out screaming.
Kalindi is certainly not opposed to attending events where movies are shown, and after a hard night of doing whatever it is she does, she wanted to attend this thing. She was approaching the building when she saw Defense hits the ground. She tilts her head slightly and approaches, tugging the strap of her backpack lightly. "What is it that is happening?" she asks out loud, to nobody in particular. Gold strands emerge from her backpack and start wrapping around her, to form a fine thin armour, just in case.
Erik sighs a little bit as he comes up upon the scene to see…blue people. At least this one isn't naked, that was a strange summer. "Every time I try to take a goddamned night off." He sighs as he cracks his neck and takes a small loop of steel wire out of his coat. "What are we looking at?" He calls to Defense curiously.
Not a complete novice to the entertainment practices of the undisciplined masses, Keld has been advised that if television is too predictable, he should attend actual theatre. And among the many "gratuities" people try to foist off onto the Avengers, tickets to second-run off-broadway. Or worse, to Special Movie Presentations (with highly probable Audience Participation.) Javis has unloaded this cultural treasure trove on the alien houseguest, as part of his "forced cultural immersion" program. I.e. "Get him out from underfoot."
Defense pauses at the door, avoiding a few people that run by yelling about a monster of some kind. The shield-maker looks over his shoulder at Kalindi and then Erik. "You folks should get somewhere safe. There's a dangerous situation inside and you'd just get hurt," he says. With little more than that, the hero dashes inside. A few seconds later, an insane laugh and a strange roar are heard. A crumpled theatre chair is tossed out the hole Defense's initial exit made shortly afterwards.
Kalindi blinks a few times at Defense and, like any reasonable superhuman, she just covers herself with more armour and wills it to float her off of the ground. Her eyes flash and begin to glow an eerie black, like light is being pulled out of the air into her eyes. "I think that means it's worth looking at, at least," says the teen passively, as she tries to get a peek into the building.
Erik sighs a little bit. "Because I don't put on a mask and a codpiece, and people don't think I can do anything, how sad." He offers with a shake of his head. He begins walking for the hole, idly making sure the tossed chair doesn't hit a bystander before he plunges in.
Dangerous situation? Let's get dangerous! Keld is pretty certain that whatever's in there can't be worse than watching whatever movie was supposed to be showing. And, now with two additional people joining in, further confirming his belief that superhumans are more common than mud, he grins and heads for the way in himself, superspeeding to make a fast entrance and a fast reconnoiter of the situation before committing himself to suicidal fun.
Defense isn't out there to counter any of the arguments or comments made, a bit busy inside. And this is seen once people get to the hole in the front of the building. Past the snack bar and right in the middle of 'Viewing room 2!' is a rather large and bright purple squid with glowing red eyes. A jolly, orchestral tune can be heard playing over the sound system and the squid sends a few more of the cheap plastic chairs flying. "Of all the weird things!" Defense yelps, diving out of the way as a pair of tendrils smash the seat he was standing on.
Kalindi blinks a couple of times and then shrugs. She isn't actually very experienced at all at determining what's normal and what's not, so the purple squid isn't all that surprising to her. She decides that, if nothing else, dealing with the thing will give her some much needed combat experience, so she enters through the crack, getting ready for a squid fight.
Erik blinks slowly as he follows the path of chaos and unusual things to find himself staring in to viewing room 2, and a giant squid. "Wow…uh…ok." He says simply as he begins drawing magnetic energy from the earth up and in to himself, spreading the energy to his limbs and muscles. "If Mohammed won't go to the Calamari…"
Now, among the stranger things Keld found in the Avengers parlor was a book by some fellow named Lovecraft, but he never mentioned C'th'ulhu as being purple, nor quite so small. What does one SAY to a giant squid? Oh, right.
"Fthagn wagl?" Keld assays, in what he vaguely recalls as the greeting one gives to giant squiddies. He's come to a stop just at the edge of what he thinks should be the creature's maximum reach. Maybe.
The squid pauses as Keld speaks to it, not understanding the greeting in the least bit. It stares at him a moment before sending a trio of crumpled chairs flying at the gold-skinned alien. Defense tries to launch an assault only to get smacked away by a tendril and the squid turns one eye at Kalindi and Erik. There's a small pause before a large jet of thick, black ink is sent rocketing at them both. Ew.
Kalindi does the only thing she thinks wise when ink is being shot at her, and that's cover her eyes with her hands. Well, she could dodge too, but she wasn't thinking quick enough for that. "Augh!" she shouts, though, letting her disgust at all of this. Luckily, other than her backpack, most of her other clothes are covered by her armour and won't be ruined.
"Balls." Erik opines as he snaps up a magnetic shield in front of the three of them to keep them from being smushed and inked respectively. Ok, so some got through on Kali, but the shield does start in front of Erik. "Ok…" He will say before he drops the field, ink splorching to the floor. "Man, Charles, why am I doing this…" He murmurs with a sigh. "We come in peace. Squid along, and you won't be hurt." He offers Legs the Squid.
Not aware yet of the marvelous magnetic manipulations of the Mutant maven (Help, I'm possessed by Stan Lee!) the gold-skinned alien zips out of the way of the chairs, then sees them smash into the air and, well, smash.
"Well, it doesn't speak Lovecraft," Keld says conversationally. "Where did it come from, Blue Shield warrior?"
Climbing back through the wall he got knocked through, Defense peers at Keld and readjusts his goggles. "The name's Defense and it came out of the sceen. Woah!" he yelps, throwing up a shield to block a jet of ink.
The squid regards Erik for a few moments before seeming to look up. The music crackles a moment before the speakers emit a laugh. "The show must go on!" is called in an amused female voice, the words appearing on the movie screen at the same time. There's only a short pause before the squid sends tendrils whipping at Erik, Kali, and Keld.
"Augh, this is stupid, what is this voice?" spits Kalindi angrily, drawing more gold from her pack to form a sword and swinging it at the tendrils as she tries to slowly back from the whipping. She doesn't know how strong this thing is, after all, so keeping her distance may be a good idea.
"Ok, it is a psychotic, psychic female cephelapod. I think, I always get the orders confused." Erik says, reflecting for a moment before he brings up a quick local sheild to block himself off, seeing the others capable of self protection. He holds out his hand to the side and there is a quick spark and crackle between his fingers; when he holds out his hand, lightning lances out bright and shocking toward Legs.
Grabbing a plastic chair to use as a makeshift shield, Keld zips to the side, only to dive back away when the whipping tentacle explodes the chair into plastic shrapnel. He grins even more happily, "Well, whatever you are, and whoever is behind the voice, let's see if we can see what's on the other side." He attempts to circumnavigate the squid, to examine the screen in passing, if possible.
"How rude!" that same voice yells. "Who are you calling a cephalapod, you old codger!?" it adds. Keld will be able to see that the screen is completely normal. Just displaying the images projected from the booth. After a moment the music starts back up.
The sword and the lightning both strike the incoming tendrils before they crack the floor open. And while the squid does let out a pained skreel, there doesn't appear to be any visible signs of danger other than the areas struck suddenly becoming devoid of color.
Kalindi takes a couple of steps back when she sees the effect of her attack, and she looks at the squid for a few moments and then off to the screen. "What magic is this? Some kind of sorceress?" She floats above the ground and notes, "Defeat the source, defeat the magic." Of course, not knowing where the source is may be a problem. She reforms the armor on her arm (leaving the limb vulnerable) as a long thread and wraps it around the end of her gold sword. This is so that she can finally throw the sword at the squid's body and still have a chance at recovering it, which is exactly what she does.
Erik raises an eyebrow as he notices the gold sword, giving an appreciative nod; he never thought to use gold, apparently, before he too begins to float for a moment, moving quickly up towards the ceiling and setting off another bolt at the body.
Well, if it isn't here, is it upstairs? Keld also takes to the air, arcing above the tentacled horror, unaware that this is Standard Maneuver Two in every Japanese erotic-horror anime. Fortunately he doesn't know about those. The direction he moves is intended to leave him where he can see into the projectionist's booth.
Once more, the squid is struck by sword and bolt alike. And while the squid is once more drained of color where struck, the sword just bounces off and clatters away. Apparently it's not easy to pierce the squid. It responds by firing a few more jets of ink at each attack. Defense meanwhile flings a shield-disc that gets similar results against the squid. "Hey! Cool it with the lightning! We're trying to not burn the place down!" he calls to Erik. Up in the air, Keld will be able to see a decidedly female shape in the projection booth. But before he can get to it, a bolt of shimmering pink energy comes from from the booth as a distraction while one of the squid's tendrils snaps up to wrap around the alien's waist and yank him back down out of the air.
Using her connection to the blade via the thread, Kalindi uses her abilities to pull it back into her hand and wrap the thread back around her arm. This last is clumsily done, so parts of her arm are still exposed, the sleeve of her jacket getting covered in ink. She raises her other arm to cover her eyes again. "Fine, if I can't harm this, then I will find the source," she lets her temporary allies know. She flies to where Keld had flown up to, trying to get a better view of the situation.
"That is why I am not /missing/." Erik responds calmly. "And should the person who was used to mess with the buildings stability lecture on property damage?" He offers back before he blinks at a bolt of shimmering pink energy. Erik takes the piano wire he had clenched so many poses before and launches it out at the tentacle holding the Alien, trying to wrap and sever it.
Keld struggles for a moment as the thing becomes FAR too familiar with his person, and (feeling himself being pulled down) fights against it for what seems to him to be rather a longish time, though surely it can't have been more than 10 seconds. More than enough time for it to bring another two tentacles into play and wrap the alien completely. It ALMOST has to climb up a bit before he is finally held on the ground, in theory where a feeding cephalopod would put something it planned to bite.
Once Keld is grounded, the big ol' squid starts to wriggle over. It lifts up enough to reveal not a beak like one would expect but a rather large mouth filled with very sharp looking yellow teeth. Thankfully those teeth don't get lowered towards Keld, just several large globs of drool falling at the alien. The piano wire wraps around a tentacle. And while it doesn't seem able to severe, the draining of color is spreading all around that area. Defense just tosses another disc to get a line of decolored squid. "Easy Defense…don't trap the old, electric prick in a bubble. Good heroes don't do that…" he mutters to himself.
Another shimmering bolt is fired at Kalindi as she approaches the booth. Should it hit, the girl will find about three seconds of being blinded by light as well as suddenly being covered in pink glitter are the results.
Kalindi tries to swipe the bolt away from her with her hand out of instinct, but she drops to the ground as it connects and blinds her for a few moments. As soon as her vision resumes she rubs her eyes and grits her teeth angrily, "Oh, you are making me annoyed," taking air once again and flying right at the booth, one of her hands in front of her eyes to protect them. She doesn't see where she's going, but when you're intending to blast right through something, that's not always such a bad thing.
"I am 24 years old for fuck's sake!" Erik comments angrily. He shakes his head and holds out both hands directly /at/ the squid. He attempts to create a shield around the squid…but not around Keld, hopefully seperating the two.
Being bitten? Not a problem. Teeth, beaks, stingers, probosci, even pincers. Keld is unfazed by that concept. However, being DROOLED on by disgusting alien life-forms, especially when said drool is most likely a molecular acid capable of dissolving solid granite, just the sort of thing to make the alien feel profoundly disgusted. In response to his stress, the inaudible cosmic sound track changes, going from a light, airy passage (flight) to a new, solid, regular continuo. The uncomfortable pressure from the multiple tentacles ceases, as his body becomes somewhat less damagable than adamantium. It still drips on him, and while it may well dissolve away part of his shirt, it simply won't affect his flesh. Not that he's got the leverage to actually get OUT of this sucker-tastic Squid Roll he's in.
"Well ya look older!" Defense shoots back, running and using a chair to vault into the air. He becomes surrouded by a glowing blue shield before he slams into the squid. This results in a Defense-shaped area of discoloration on the squid and the creature's grip loosening slightly around Keld. The shield doesn't do much as the squid flails tendrils about wildly. One of these tendrils is sent right for Erik with intent to spike him against the floor.
Up in the booth, there's a girlish shriek as Pink-Glitter-Kalindi makes her smashing entrance. She might just catch a glimpse of a girl in a pink and blue jester outfit before the room is suddenly flooded with a thick, pink fog. When it clears, the projector seems to just stop, the unconscious man that normally runs it groaning as he starts to wake up. And down below…the squid lets out on last might roar before just exploding into a massive cloud of that same pink glitter.
"The hair is genetic." Erik grumbles before he tries to react…and then is covered in pink glitter when the tendril bursts in to it. "That was not /the/ most unpleasant way to end a fight." Erik says with a sigh, brushing himself off.
Kalindi growls as the pink fog appears and just waits out the duration of its stay, looking none too pleased once it clears. She floats back down onto the ground and frowns as she glances about. Her gold armour and weapons begin to pull away from her body once she is on the ground, entering her backpack once more. "I am… guessing there will be no movie madness," says the girl as she brushes herself off.
Cloud of pink glitter. WHUMP. Keld is covered in a layer of pink … glitter. As if he had once more been assaulted by a roving band of rednose mockers on that Trollian colony, and not allowed to kill them because the local laws prohibited recycling children, no matter that they were all well into breeding age. "This would probably be humiliating if I knew what just happened," Keld says in an annoyed growl, and spins himself at very high speed to get rid of the glitter. "Also, what just happened?"
Thankful for his shields protecting him from the glittery explosion, Defense frowns as Erik flies off and then turns to Keld and Kalindi. "Well, quite simply…some giant squid that was apparently made of glitter and lost all color upon being hit decided to redecorate and cause havoc. We stopped it. Yay, us," the hero in blue explains, snickering slightly. "No. No movies. And I'm Defense," he reintroduces himself. "What are you two called?" he asks, gathering information for his report. "And what was in the booth?"
"It appeared to be a human female, but I didn't have a chance to see clearly because I was dodging an energy blast and being dragged under the giant squid thing," Keld answers, flicking remaining bits of glitter from his arms. It's also in his hair, clinging.. "Perhaps the gold-wrapped woman had a better view than I did. I doubt anyone had a worse one. And my name is Keld Jonahl. I'm from out of town."
Kalindi furrows her brows, answering the last question first, "I do not know. It was some woman dressed up like a clown. She was wearing pink and blue, but then there was pink fog, and I saw nothing else." Her accent is strange and mostly unplaceable, though it has some traces of Hindi. "My name is Kalindi, but you may call me Kali if you would like," she says passively. "My night plans are /ruined/," she complains, changing tones completely, now brushing herself some more.
Defense frowns a moment, doing his best to memorize all this.
"Alright…thanks," he says with a sigh. "And I'm sorry your plans are ruined," he chimes in for Kalindi. "If you're both uninjured, I'd ask for you to leave the area. The police will be here soon and we've got work to do," he says. "And thanks for the help."
"Certainly. This evening has been useless as an examination of local culture, but very amusing as an example of local color. It would have been more of a pleasure to meet under less spectacular circumstances, Ms. Kalindi. Defense," Keld nods, "thank you for providing the report to the police. I'm still unsure how all this could possibly work legally. Perhaps Jennifer can explain it to me," and rising into the air, he moves through the opening then vanishes at nearly-supersonic speed into the distance.
Kalindi nods at Keld first and says, "I think it would have, yes, Keld." She then looks at Defense a bit bewildered when she is asked to leave, but then looks around and actually notices how banged up the place is. "Oh, yes. I will go, then," she says. "It was nice meeting you, Defense. But I have had nicer ways," she notes before walking out of the building.
