Participants:
| Scene Title | A Second Chance Getaway |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | A bustling streetside becomes a site of chaos as the flashes wash over Brooklyn, and a prisoner transport goes awry. |
| Date | June 10, 2010 |
The streets of Brooklyn, in the midst of an NYPD prisoner transport.
Red
Green
Yellow
Red
Traffic lights on an day as ordinary as any other, directing traffic with expert programmed precision. The streets of Brooklyn run busy with late morning traffic as some finish early morning shifts, others head out on their lunch break, and still others simply spend their day out on the town, making the most of the finally normalized temperatures outside.
For everyone out, things are not so casual. Down one busy road, one large gray vehicle, NYPD identification emblazoned on its sides moves slowly down the street, it’s drivers looking taciturn and vigilant as they watch ahead, two of NYPD’s finest undertaking a job as dangerous as any other, escorted by a second squad car following close behind.
“Tch.” A scoff from one of the driver, a bulky, fit looking man. He gives a simple shake of his. “What’da think we did to be stuck doing this?” His partner doesn’t offer an immediate response, instead keeping his attention, motioning forward.
“Shut up an pay attention, its right at the second intersection up here. If you miss another turn, someone’s going to have your ass.”
Up and down the sidewalks, the vehicle garners much attention, several watching as it passes by, some with nonchalant curiosity, some with pensive, worried expressions.
That vehicle gets the attention of Monica Dawson as well, who walks down the sidewalk in jeans and a purple zip-up hoodie, her hands firmly in her pockets. Frankly, she looks a little nervous, but heads down the street toward a local coffeeshop with determination. She's got someone there she has to meet…
God bless the New York City Transit System. Helena has been occupied lately with the gradual reduction of the ice age snows, because things melting too soon equals lots and lots of flooding. The call she'd received from a familiar personage was welcomed warmly, and her agreement to see Monica came without hesitation. Of course, Helena's living the legit life now, so there's a lack of paranoia in her stride as she walks down the street. The twenty-one year old has been in New York City for four years, long enough to be one of those New Yorkers who doesn't bother paying attention to vehicular antics unless they directly involve her. Right now her concerns are simple as she makes for the cafe: get caffeine and talk to Monica. These things can even happen at the same time.
There's a bit of freedom that comes with having a job, and that involves credit cards and paychecks. Since Elaine now has both, she's planned a fun little outing for herself that involves shopping for a present for Magnes. Of course, he doesn't know that. After all, surprise presents are way more fun, and since he had already surprised her, she felt like it might be fun to surprise him and return the favor. He wouldn't expect that.
Strolling down the sidewalk, hands in the pockets of her winter coat, Elaine is more than happy to window shop, looking carefully for the perfect present for Magnes. Spotting a few promising shops on the opposite side of the road, she jogs to the corner to catch the crossing signal that just turned to the little walking man.
The complete opposite of Helena, Magnes' entire reason for being here is to watch the traffic. He's in his completely white costume, if one can call it that. White sneakers with a black sole, white jeans taped down at the ankles, a tight white long-sleeved shirt with white leather gloves on, and of course his completely white mask, no eye holes or anything, zipped to the collar of his shirt all the way around the neck, which he has his long red scarf tied around. He's crouched on the roof, only occasionally looking down at the cops. He lets them go ahead one block whenever he has to jump over a large gap, trying to make sure he's not seen. It's all very tricky, but whoever they're transporting, well… he just wants to make sure it goes smoothly.
Kendall has no school right now, which is a blessing, since he hates school but is kinda being forced to go. Fortunately, they didn't extend the school year to make up for all those misseed days due to impending apocalypse. The newly turned 17 year old is currently wandering around, scoping out potential jobs. After all, he doesn't want to mooch off people his entire life. The traffic is ignored, for the most part.
The driver simply grumbles in response, even as there’s a bang on the metal wall of the cab of the transport truck. The driver responds similarly, eliciting a glare from the passenger beside him. “Don’t egg him on. I don’t feel like dealing with a pissed off inmate.” The driver waves dismissively, returning his attention to the road ahead. “Look, this ain’t the most interestin’ job they could put us on. No need to be such’a-“
And in an instant, the tone of the entire street changes. All up and down the street, no warning comes as suddenly people begin to slump and fall to the pavement, blacking out as they begin to experience something entirely different than the world that had been around them a moment before. Horns blare as heads bang against them, and suddenly the whole world comes to a momentary stop – or at least, the people do.
The coffee shop is in sight, but only for a moment before Monica stumbles to her knees, barely catching herself on her hands before she faceplants into the cement, taken by the black outs as well.
Elaine doesn't even have time to think about the stores across the street as she blacks out. She drops like a rock in the street, merely a few feet from having made it to the sidewalk. She doesn't even have time to do anything to break her fall.
…and she really wants one of those cinnamon dolce lattes, and lots of whipped cream, and Helena doesn't have time to pursue her caffeine directed thoughts, as she promptly falls to her knees on the sidewalk (ow, that's gonna hurt) and teeters off to the side in a half-fetal position, eyes closed as her vision overwhelms her.
Magnes only momentarily looks away from the traffic, spotting Elaine down there, but before he can even figure out how to act on this new information, he suddenly falls forward… and well, he floats there with his eyes closed. And hopefully there's no sudden breezes.
Kendall was just minding his own business, and was stopping at a crosswalk to wait for the 'walk' sign to light up when he's hit the whatever-it-is. He falls on his ass, then just sort of falls over, fortunately not hitting the ground with his head too hard. After all, there is no need to crack the pavement.
The crunching and scraping of metal, shattering of glass, and numerous other sounds of chaos go initially unheard by the unconscious masses. Only after several moments do the low rumble of car engines, the stinging smell of smoke, and the quiet groans begin to rouse people up and down the crowded street. Eyes open to cars bunched on other cars, a dented a tilting street sign, and a busted light pole that had just managed to prevent a car from running up on Elaine, just short of the sidewalk.
Up and down teh sidewalk, confuses masses begin to rise, eyes fluttering open after the bizarre series of fainting and visions they had jsut experience. “Jesus Christ, my head!” one man shouts, as a teenage girl is heard letting loose a string of curses as she pulls herself to her knees, The slow mummer of recovery begins, shift and standing as best as those who are able to can. In the coffee shop, broken plates and spilled drinks fill both tables and floor. One patron sits up, the syrup of a waffle dripping down his face as blinks and looks around frantically.
“Oh good lord, what just happened?!”
In the middle of street, the police transport truck sits on its side, it’s windshield spiderwebbed and broken, neither of the officers sitting in the front seat mobile, at least not yet. A hinge creaks, locked door bent and forced open, an orange clad arm hanging out, just beginning to flex and move as its owner groans and sits up.
Monica groans and pulls herself up off the ground, her jeans ripped at the knees and scraps on those knees and one along her cheek. She looks around at the others also coming back to, shaking her head in confusion. But confused isn't all she is. There's also a haunted look about her, and she might even look paler just now. But when her eyes fall over on the transport again, she blinks once and then heads over that way, "Oh… no." And she seems to be aiming to try to get the driver's side door open to help the policemen back to the moment.
It would be one thing to wake up from having simply blacked out in the street, it would be another to wake up from blacking out in the street having had a vision like /that/. Elaine's awake soon enough, but she doesn't move right away at first, her mind trying to wrap around what she saw. It takes her a moment to try and comprehend it before she sits up and notices the lightpole with a car wrapped around it right in front of her. "Ohgod. That was almost /me/!"
Helena groans as she sits up, and it takes a second for her brain to realize her shins and knees are hurting. She lets out a stream of foul language, albeit not loudly, as she rubs them for a moment until it processes that she should look around. The chaos registers, and her pain is quickly forgotten. "Monica?!" she yells out loudly, and begins to make her way hurriedly to the coffee shop. Glass crunches under her boots.
Having no idea what the hell that was in his head, Magnes tries to push it to the back of his mind as he rights his gravity again, looking down at the chaos in the streets. His eyes widen behind his mask, and the first thing he does is leaps down from the building, landing a few feet from Elaine. He stares at her for a long moment, then finally speaks through the voice modifier, which makes him sound as if he has multiple voices, "Are you alright, ma'am? Is there anything I can do for you?" But of course, that van has his attention again, turning his head to eye the orange-clad arm. "Don't go near there." he warns, starting to approach it himself, scarf blowing behind him.
Kendall wakes up suddenly and flails about. Wait, what's going on? Where's the fire and stuff and omg is he still invisible? He peeks around, but that… does not seem to be the case. He sits up and looks around, and stuff does seem to be going on. "Wait… that's impossible, I can't do that!" he mutters to himself, then rubs his chin. "Or… can I?"
The dull mummers rise to a clamour as people begin to remember where they are, some shouting to friends or co-workers, others making their way to the streets to help, and the piercing cry of one crying child as he tugs at his still unconscious mother. Cries of “Are you okay?!” and “What the fuck just happened?”, or otherwise similar, ring out constantly and consitantly as teh populace begins to move.
There’s a sudden clank and clamour of metal hitting metal as the back doors of the police truck are kicked open, a thin man in an orange jumpsuit breathing hard as he scans the surroundings, another man kneeling just behind him. “The fuck is goin’ on out here?” The standing one said, hands still handcuffed together. “Fuck it, I don’t care.” His feet wobbly, he jumps down and out of the truck, eyes scanning the populace, looking for a gppd place in teh chaos to make a hasty exit. At the front of the truck, the driver finally stirs, simply groaning before jolting awake at shrill sound of a woman screaming “Help!” from just in front of truck – trapped, a leg pinned and tears streaming down her face.
Monica doesn't answer when her name is called, possibly because she's distracted when those doors get kicked open. And then there's screaming. Well, crap. Flipping the hood of her sweater up out of habit, the young woman soon becomes quite obvious among the crowds as she runs after the orange clad man as he tries to make his way out of the area. And she just leaps up and plants the sole of her shoe against his back in a kick that aims to be firm enough to knock him off balance.
Elaine looks up at the… white superheroything… and gives a quick nod. "Sure, I'm fine. Don't worry about me." Her gaze shifts over to the van where she's been warned /not/ to go near, and right now she doesn't have the urge to go help that particular mess. She's a little bit stunned at the moment, and she gets to her feet, albeit a little bit wobbly. "That didn't just happen.." She murmurs.
"Monica!" Helena yells again, but no, she just misses the other young woman, and when she gets to the coffee shop, she doesn't see her. She turns to assess the damage and…oh, there she is! Running toward the guy in the orange suit. Yes, Monica would do that. And so would Helena. She starts in that direction, but then skids to a stop at the cries of help coming from another direction. Without hesitating, she veers that way.
Magnes starts running after the man, before Monica goes and does a flying kick at the man. "How am I supposed to fight crime when there's ninjas all over the place?" he asks with an exasperated sigh, having pulled the doors shut tight with gravity before the other man can escape. When he catches up with Monica, he looks to the inmate and rubs the back of his head. "I can take it from here, ma'am." He offers Monica his gloved hand, introducing, "White Knight."
He looks back at the familiar face of Helena momentarily, and finally starts hearing the yells himself. "I'll get him back into the truck, you should probably see if anyone else needs help. I'll join right after."
Kendall has no idea what the hell is going on! Then he catches sight of the guy getting kicked, and he's wearing orange. Hey, he's seen criminals on TV wearing that, so he must be a criminal! "H-hey! He's supposed to be locked up!" naw, Kendall, really? The teenager looks around, but he doesn't see anything he could do to help aside from draw attention to the fact. And then there's a superhero….. a superhero? Really?
“Hey! HEY!” The man now once again trapped inside of the truck bangs on the metal doors, his next few sentences laced with profanities, some shared by his present companion as he received Monica’s boot squarely in his backside. Stumbling, his balance is lost and he tumbles to the ground, rolling. “God, you gotta be fucking kiddin’ me…” Sprawled out on the ground, he scrambles, attempting to get to his feet and continue his getaway – the broken shard metal he spots seemingly ready to make an excellent deterrent to attacking him again. Eyes narrow, he dives.
At the front of the truck, finally the police officer panic subsides enough to allow him to do his proper job – but first he leans over to her partner, shoving and shaking him in an attempt to rouse him. It’s the red and ripping crack place firmly in front of him on the windshield that causes further hesitation on the matter. No breathing. “Damnit, John.”
There’s no time to lament. The officer forces open the door, grabbing sight of Helena as she veers away from the incident at the back of the truck, of which he still seems blissfully unaware. He grunts, pulling himself up, and motions to the front of the vehicle. “Hey, you! There’s… someone needs help up here!” Techncially, he shouldn’t be asking a civilian to do his job, but until he can pull himself out of the seat, it’s what he has to do. His radio crackles to life, grabbing his attention, as he grabs it. “Yeah, this is officer Bradey. I’m at…” What intersection as this again?
The woman cries out again, back arching as she cries out in pain. “Jesus, it hurts…”
When a hand is offered out to her in the middle of a fight, Monica just gives the White Knight an odd look before her attention turns back to the convict. And seeing him going for a makeshift weapon she rushes over to put her foot down on his hands this time. To the superhero she just says, "If you're going to help, now would be a good time!"
Moving over towards a nearby building, Elaine leans back against it, tilting her head back and resting it there against the brick as she takes in a deep breath. So much going on, it was hard enough to concentrate. She'll give herself a minute before she figures she'll check and see if she can do anything to help.
"No shit, Sherlock." Helena mumbles inaudibly under her breath. She moves to grab the end of the truck - but aside from basic human strength, there's very little more that Helena can contribute. She does try her best, though. "Hey! Hey!! We need some help here!!" she hollers as best she can between efforts to lift, hoping to grab more attention.
Magnes holds his hand in the direction of the downed prison, who can suddenly feel himself weighing down to the ground as if he were a sack of bowling balls. "He won't be going anywhere, come on, let's go help out."
He hears Helena's call, then leaps into the air, doing a front flip with his arms stretched out. He lands lightly on top of the truck, crouched slightly, then looks down at the door as he tries to assess the situation. "I can probably get that off, back up a little, just in case."
Kendall hears a police officer! And finally notices the injured lady, and so he moves away from the orange-clad man and lets the weird people handle him. "Ah, are you okay… I mean, of course you're not, um…" he dithers as he moves to the side of the lady and starts peering about. "Uh, are you stuck under something? Am I supposed to move you? Pull you out? What if that hurts you more…" guess being in a panic makes Kendall more talkative, although it also seems to sap his brains. Oh, and one of the weird people is coming to help too. "I'll pull her out?" he suggests. "Er… you can lift the car or something like that, right?" superheroes are supposed to be able to do stuff like that!
The woman breathes rapidly, frantic as people begin to gather around her, looking to help her from her predicament. “M-My leg, I can’t move it..” Obvious, yet, but her mind’s a little to caught up in the situation to do much more than frantic sputtering and reaching at the people around her, though there’s a brief pensive look as the “White Knight” as he enters her vision. “Lord, I don’t care, just please, get it off!”
The convict, on the other hand, has little more to offer, his face – and the rest of his body – weight to the ground by Magnes, and all he can do is grumble to himself, fingers clenching angrily against the pavement. “A goddamn kid in a fucking costume. You have to be fucking kidding me.”
The cop stows the radio away. “Help’s Coming!” He yells out to everyone who can here, finally worming her way out of the van and hitting the pavement with a thud, hands cupped around his mouth as a makeshift megaphone. “Everyone, please remain calm! Assistance is on the way!” For all the help it would do. He glances back to those helping the woman, a grimace on his face as her runs over, observing the others as he crouches down in an attempt to help in any manner he can. “Emergency services are on their way, M’am. It… it sounds like this is going on all over the city.”
Monica moves over to pick up that piece of metal, just in case, before she rushes over to join Helena. "It's good to see you again, Hel," she says with a bit of a crooked smile. And she'll keep trying to help move the transport for now.
"Hey." Olivia greets Monica conversationally, like they're just calmly reuniting in a trendy cafe. Well, that had been the plan. "Back up." she tells her fellow Phoenix-er, "Crazy guy is going to do something." She's guessing he's Evolved, and he appears to want to help, so hey, give him a shot. "Dude reminds me of Sergei."
Magnes cracks his knuckles, walking up to the side of the vehicle with the woman under it, then he grips under it with both hands. "My name's White Knight, and this is going to hurt me, a lot. Grab her when I get this up." He takes a few deep breaths, then suddenly starts pulling, hard. He grunts, concrete starting to crack under his feet at the pressure his body goes under. Gravity is doing a number of things, trying to push the car up and lower its weight, and also make himself heavier to avoid buckling under the weight he can't quite handle yet. He's going at the car from two ways, trying to conserve as much energy for a getaway as possible, but after a few minutes he finally lifts it, holding it up like a human carjack. "Get her out, now!" he urgently commands, his body shaking and straining as he struggles to keep the gravity from returning to the car.
Kendall squeaks a little as the car is lifted up. Whoa, DUDE! He actually did it! Kendall interrupts his internal fanboying, however, because…. well, this is a tense situation. Hurriedly, he grabs the lady's arm and pulls with all his might. Wimpy as he is, he can still manage that, unless she's like… 400 pounds, then she's just out of luck. At the very least, Kendall pulls her out from where the truck would fall again.
Perhaps luckily for both of them, Kendall’s aid is just what the woman needs to pull herself out from underneath the overturned vehicle, though her leg is clearly worse for wear – though not bleeding profusely, numerous cuts and gashes line up and it, and as she attempts pull herself up off her side and put weight on it, she cries out in pain – most likely at least broken. “Oh Jesus…” Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out. Glance is offered up to each individual around her, to everyone who attempted to help in some way. “T-Thank you. Thank you so much…”
The cop looks up to White Knight with a furrowed brow, and then gives an understanding nod – if this guy was willing to help, there was no need to get in the way of until things settled down. Instead, he turns to Monica and points to the far end of the block. “If you wanna help, go see if anyone’s alright!” The truck looks shut tight, and for some reason the one that got out’s not movin’ – figure the man in white’s got something to do with that. Looking around, he begins to survey anyone else still in fear or otherwise still on the ground. Spotting Elaine, he jogs over, a hand outstretched as he approaches. “In need of help, Miss?”
Overhead, the whump whump whump of helicopters in the distance begins to ring out, approaching sirens audible through the air – whatever had happened, people were finally responding.
As she's approached, Elaine blinks in surprise. She'd been off in her head at the moment. Speaking of which, she reaches up and rubs a bit. "Oh, don't worry about me, I'm fine.. just a bit sore. Think I might've knocked my head a bit, but nothing serious." She peers towards the truck. "Everything okay over there now?"
Helena helps with pulling the lady out if she's needed, but once that's over and the woman's being tended to, she calls out to the cop, "Hey - hey! There's a guy in an orange jumpsuit you might want to get secured!" Adamantly she points at the man in question, hoping to get the cop to see it.
Magnes watches as the woman is pulled out of the way, then quickly releases the vehicle, backing up as quickly as possible from it as it starts to slowly fall back to the ground. "Well, good luck, I have to get out of here fast. Be safe." He sounds in pain when he suddenly pushes up off the ground and leaps into the air. Truthfully, his gravity's completely gone, but he can't go showing the same weaknesses and limits as Magnes Varlane, so as far as they know, he leaped up over the building because he wanted to.
Kendall looks up while he's dragging the lady to watch the strange person jump away. "Huh… wish I could do that." he sighs, then blinks at the lady. "Ah, you're welcome, I, uh, better go uh… let the hospital people help you." what, you mean paramedics? He starts backing away, then turns and runs towards home.
Propped up properly now, the woman’s breath begins to normalize, even as she winces in pain. Her eyes widen a bit as the White Knight blasts off – even in the world of the Evolved, it was pretty amazing to actually see such things, at least for some people. Closing her eyes, she reaches up to Helena. “Thank you. Thank you, so much.”
At the same woman’s yelling, the cop looked up, turning to face her. Orange jumpsuit? Shit, right. Elaine taken care of, the cop turns his attention back to back to the convict. Grabbing the man by the collar, he pulls him up, and thrusts him against the toppled truck, even as the other bangs from inside. ‘You and I are gonna have a long talk until backup gets here.” And it won’t take long, from the sound of sirens quickly approaching from the distance. The convict only grins in response.
“I don’t know what the hell’s going on here, but there’s a long day ahead’a us.”
If only he knew.