2009-06-01 - Send in the Harlequins

From JLU MUX

The information contained within this log is to be considered information gained Out of Character (OOC) . This information may not be used as In Character (IC) knowledge or in roleplay unless it has been learned in-game or permission has been granted by the parties involved. Questions should be directed to staff.

Send in the Harlequins
Summary: Piper, Jewelee, Trickster and Prank decide to steal an entire building full of experimental electronics. This causes a stir.
Who: Jewelee, Pied Piper, Trickster, Prank, Kinetic When: June 1, 2009 Where: Central City

Chalk it up to boredom due to relative inaction after a brief stint as a member of Task Force X, or perhaps due to her favorite harlequin Punch being locked up in Stryker's Island, or due to it being a day ending in 'y', but for some reason, Jewelee was in the Gallery. There was confetti, there were poppers, there are still a few streamers festooning the rafters and the entry-way, and somehow, some way, this led to an honest to God plan being formulated between she and a couple of the Rogues on hand.

It probably helped that one was so very familiar seeming to her, but that is another story.

Now, she is bouncing idly up and down on a loud yellow pogo stick on the other side of the street from a low key electronics laboratory. Her blonde hair is flying all about with each bounce, and she is giggling madly in genuine joy the whole while.

Traffic has... had a fun time getting through the street before the lab for the last half an hour or so as well. It is likely related to the lattice of opaque white crystals connecting pairs of roller skates like a geodesic caterpillar, a few dozen in all. Each pair is connected by a horizontal length, while several long vertical ones serve as a base to keep them all cohesive.

The Pied Piper is somewhat exhausted, as he is doing quite a lot of intricate playing in order to separate the building from the ground, without losing its floor. There is a lot of creaking and cracking as the entire structure is lifted from the ground on a pillow of hypersonic force, music notes swirling and dancing around the walls. Several of them are all around the edges, basically levering things up with their eighth-note tails. Rats are creeping out of the sewer grates and from the dumpsters behind restaurants, drawn in as is typical for them when the Piper plays.

Trickster claps his hands along with Piper's music, although it doesn't really have any rhythm to it. But then, neither does Trickster's clapping. It's all pretty random. Happily, he prances around Piper and dances in midair, meant to be encouraging to his fellow Rogue.

Intent on investigating tons of complains about crazy traffic jams just because so many people were talking about it, Kinetic's out and about right now. Flying through the air, he's wondering just what's going on up ahead. Of course, once he gets close enough to see two Rogues he knows, one he doesn't, and a floating building, the teen comes to a stop up above them. "Oh you have got to be kidding me..." he sighs. "HEY!" he calls down to them. "Put that building down before you hurt someone!"

When Kinetic has gotten near enough to be loudly indignant, Jewelee responds accordingly; a few forward bounces and then one especially powerful one propel her up to the Trickster's level, one hand coming free of the toy so that she can try grabbing onto his torso for support while the other maintains her grip on the pogo.

"HEY!" she calls out in kind, allowing her voice to echo resoundingly throughout the area.

Once it has faded, she tucks the pogo stick under her arm, smiles broadly, and begins to prod Trickster in the side over and over as she chimes, "Hey! Listen! Hey! Listen! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!"

Finally, she ceases, and she waves her pogo stick towards Kinetic. "There's an annoying little boy yelling at us! Who is the annoying little boy?!"

Piper is, of course, unable to really answer Kinetic or anyone else, because if he stops playing something terrible is going to happen with that building. He continues his odd melody and the structure floats forward and then starts to sink down, starting to come in for a perfect landing on the waiting device that is made up of rock candy and rocket skates. Some of the rats scatter, however, due to all of the shouting.

Trickster prepares to answer Kinetic, but then he's been Jeweleejacked and is resorted to bouncing around in midair with a harlequin on his back. "Jewelee!!" He finally manages to sputter. "He's Kinetic, he's the local kid hero. He's telekinetic so be careful. Like maybe he'll look up your skirt or something."

Kinetic's eye twitches slightly behind his mask as he listens to Jewelee. The teen lowers down slowly to put himself between the Rogues and the building. "First of all, I'm not the Flash, Trickster," he says, looking a little irked by the skirt comment. "Second, not a kid. And finally, you three are causing a big mess out here and that's really got to stop."

Jewelee nearly falls off in her haste to clap a hand over her mouth to stifle her gasp of shock at the notion. And then her brows angrily knit as she sputters, "He wouldn't! He couldn't! I'm a prim and proper young lady and no dirty little telekinetic boy could possibly be so perverse as to--wait--"

And then she stops, and in an instant her disgust and rage have faded in favor of a creeping smile. She vaults from Trickster's back. The pogo stick is brought into place so that she's able to bounce safely and minimize the shock to her knees and ankles, and then she bounces from it to plant her feet firmly to the ground.

She throws her hands up, fingers spread apart in a brief pose of triumph, and she lowers them to be held behind her back. She chirps, "Well, if these people weren't driving where we planned to take this building, there wouldn't be a mess, would there? I mean, God, the nerve, and also? Also?!"

"I wear shorts under my costume for people like you, Kinetiperv!"

With that, she whirls suddenly, bends forward, and... indeed, there are shorts there when her skirt is hiked up to allow her to moon the teenaged hero. Black shorts with white diamonds.

Black shorts with white diamonds and a little gem attached to the back of one leg. A little gem that flashes briefly before emitting a prismatic beam of concussive energy towards Kinetic.

A taunting "Thhhpbt!" leaves her lips (and tongue) as the blast leaves her gem.

There is a loud, crisp 'k-chunk' as the building settles into place, perfectly centered upon the skate-candy construct. Piper finally stops playing and just bends forward, resting his hands on his knees for a moment as he pants for breath. So, he inadvertently moons Kinetic as well, but at least no rays are blasting from his trim, tights-clad bottom. Then, it occurs to him that some kind of fighting is going on so he straightens up and looks back at the others over his shoulder. "I got the thing on the stuff," he tells Jewelee and Trickster. "Oh, it's the kid," he adds, a little witheringly.

"You are totally a kid," Trickster counters, to Kinetic. He doesn't appear to be actually fighting yet or anything. He's just sort of annoyed by the heroic youngster's presence in general. Maybe he's still feeling merciful after Kinetic was kidnapped those few weeks ago. Trickster was pretty happy to see him when he turned up again. "Oh!" The stripey harlequin turns to Piper, brightening up. "Thanks, Pipey!!"

"Do I look like I'm wearing the Flash's costume? Seriously! He's the pervy one, not me," Kinetic throws his hands up in the air, getting rather annoyed. "And if I'm a kid then so is Piper! He doesn't look much older than me," he shoots right back. "Kinetiperv? Lady, you are so gonna pa-gah!" he's cut off, looking away as mooned incase she's lying about the shorts. This of course keeps him from seeing the beam until it's smacking him in the face. The teen smacks right into the building and slumps to the ground. "Ow," he grumbles, looking back to the Rogues. "Now you're getting on my nerves."

"Heeeeey! The building's set!" Jewelee calls out once she has straightened and arranged herself. She jumps into the air and pumps her fist triumphantly a moment, and then she fishes a little remote control from within the band of one of her yellow leggings. She boards her pogo stick again and bounces until she is upon the labs roof, and after sitting Indian style atop it she waves the remote about happily.

"Who wants to drive? Come on, any takers? While Kinetiperv's recovering from his trip to the moon?"

"I am not a kid!" Piper snaps, shaking a fist at Kinetic as he gets knocked into a building. "I'm twenty now!" So there. That was probably a lot more personal information that he would normally give out, but moving that building put him under a bit of strain. With that, he swings his arm in a "c'mon" gesture to Trickster and runs over to the now mobile building that Jewelee is sitting on.

"He is not!!" Trickster seems absolutely aghast at the accusation, reaching out to hug his arms around the redhead, almost at the same time that Piper protests and gives his own assertion. But when Piper moves, so does he, and then he helps the other Rogue up to the top via his sky-walking shoes.

Then, however, there appears to be a mirror or a clone machine or something; but then, on closer inspection it's not a clone at all. It's a very colourfully-clad blonde who has her hair teased up on top and in a golden mass everywhere else. She wears a particularly striking and mismatched bodysuit much like a leotard, all colours, all shades, all hues, different patterns like checks, stripes, polka dots...arm warmers, leg warmers, stiletto heels...and she's doing a series of backflips. Towards Trickster. "Tricksy!!" She calls out cheerfully, settling into place. Was she always there? Was she just waiting on the rooftop all this time? "Oh right." Hastily she pats herself down and pulls out a domino mask from her cleavage, plastering it on her face. "Sorry. Hi!"

Kinetic blinks a few times as the Rogues head up and over. He looks down at the skates and produces a rather undignified 'eep'. "Oh, so not happening," he declares, placing his palms on a skate each. The teen closes his eyes and concentrates on using his telekinesis to try and break each and every wheel on the skates. He's distracted for a moment by the new arrival, cursing softly. "Another one?" he mutters before getting back to work.

A big red button marked 'DO NOT PRESS' at the bottom center of the remote is pressed when Kinetic starts playing with skates, and one by one each of the dozens of tricked out child's toys roars to life. Rockets in the backs of each flame on, and slowly the entire structure begins to roll down the street. Cars are honking and skidding crazily to get the hell out of the way, while onlookers are coming out to stare, because there is a goddamn building rolling down an affluent neighborhood's street.

It is not going to be driven with any real acuity just yet, though, because Tricksterette--Lady Trickster--Trickstrix--some chick in a colourful costume has just bounded onto the scene, and, well. You know.

"Oh my God!" Jewelee squeals as she bounds up to her feet. "There are two of you!" She does an artful cartwheel to carry her closer to the Trickster and his gal Friday, and as soon as she hits her feet, she lets the pogo stick fall by the wayside to try snagging the girl's hands, frolicking and spinning with her.

"I love your heels! What's your favourite gimmick?! Those arm warmers are fantastic! You should meet my Punchy!"

When the wheels get messed with, the Piper can hear the parts being broken, despite the overall noise of the entire situation. "I think the kid is messing with our conveyance," he says, as Trickster drops him on the roof. He brings up his pipe, then pauses and turns to just look at the trio of harlequins. "Yeesh, I'm really feeling out of place!" Even with the polkadots, the Piper's theme is more 'elf' than 'jester'. He starts playing, to help shore up the breaking skates. Shimmering, translucent whole-notes appear as wheels fall away, rolling and replacing them.

Trickster stands there stunned, for a moment. And then he starts to laugh softly, blinking a few times in disbelief. "Zoey?!" He starts to do a little dance. "I thought you were... y'know... retired." He gives a sheepish grin that slowly widens into a brighter one. Then the Harlequin Girls start to do their own dance, leaving Trickster to do a backflip of his own in delight.

But Prank turns for a moment, pausing in her dancing. "Prank!!" She hisses, reminding him, even though she's beaming at seeing Trickster. She turns back to Jewelee and laughs, dancing with her. "You're so great! I didn't think there were any other harlequins in town but Tricksy!! Did you make that costume? It's so fancy!!"

Jumping slightly as he feels those wheels replaced, Kinetic blinks. He looks up at the dancing harlequins and sighs. "Why me?" he asks, holding onto the building as it goes. Looking up at Piper, Kinetic tries to pull the Rogue's hat down over his face in hopes of using the distraction to break as many skates as he can as fast as he can.

Really, Jewelee should be paying more attention, but... but, you know, come on.

"I'm from all over; you could say I get around, but I'm really not that sort of girl, unless maybe it's Punchy's birthday, or Punchy is in prison, or we're on the outs, or I haven't stolen anything for a little while and I need to let off steam!" the harlequin in red and yellow happily exclaims. "I made it myself! You should see my Punchy-Wunchy, he looks like an adorable little jester and you just wanna hit him over the head until he coos like a widdle baby and twitches a little on the floor!"

"Oh, god," Piper is murmuring to himself, due to all of the harlequin cavorting, squealing and giggling that is going on behind him. Being a serious and mature musician, he clearly feels it is up to him to salvage the caper. He does not stop playing when his hat is pulled down over his eyes, but he does go to a one-handed fingering sequence on his pipe. This is so he can draw a sound gun from his belt, carefully walking a few steps then pointing it at where he can just hear Kinetic's breathing before he fires a bolt of sonic force.

Prank squeals with glee, waving her hands frantically. "Oh, and Tricksy's always thinking up something new! He's always got some kind of... new... wait a minute." Holding up a hand, she turns to look at Kinetic and Piper, and she moves quickly. Tossing a big blue and yellow striped comical bomb towards Kinetic, she waves her hands and shouts, "Bang!!" And then it explodes, sending a cloud of thick blue smoke around the telekinetic boy. Maybe she figures he can't hit what he can't see.

Trickster, meanwhile, moves towards Piper and, when he's apart from Kinetic, pulls his little hat up carefully. "Pipey!!" He is very protective of his musician. "Are you okay?! Did he hurt you?!"

Kinetic can be heard muttering something about Rogues and perverts right until that bomb goes off. Holding his breath, he looks around and gets smacked with the sonic blast. Bouncing a bit and rolling on the pavement, he's thankful for his bodyfield. A few moments later, he's getting up. "Urge to crush Rogues rising..." he trails off before blasting into the air and giving chase once more.

The building is picking up in speed as momentum is garnered; weird noises are perhaps rising from the whole note wheels interspersed amongst the normal graphite ones, and now that Prank has made herself useful, Jewelee is doing much the same by actually steering. Which is nice, because now she can try to maneuver around cars a little instead of simply leaving cars to swerve around the building.

Of course, even now, she is only so focused; she is all too happy to intermittently taunt Kinetic with shouts of, "Catch us if you can, Kinetiperv!" and "Neener neener the princess is in another castle, jerk!", not to mention the loud cat-calls and... occasional moonings. At least there are no more energy blasts.

"I'm fine, Tricky, but he broke a bunch of our wheels. I need to keep playing if we want to maintain our speed and stability," Piper explains, quite primly, as he has clearly decided he is the responsible and mature one involved in this caper. Never mind that he is also the youngest. "So the rest of you will have to keep Kinetic too busy to wreck our framework." The building is wobbling a little now as the notes start to fade, so the Pied Piper quickly brings up his pipe and plays the whole notes back into being.

"Oh...oh right!!" Trickster bounces and digs in his vest, reaching in to try and find something likely. He puts hands on a few gadgets that surely will help if Kinetic decides to attack again. "Can do!!" Bouncing over beside Prank, he flashes her a grin that she returns, and the two turn as one to confront the potential attacker.

Kinetic doesn't seem to be a happy Kinetic tonight. Judging by his expression, he's mad. The glowing air around him is another good indication. Picking up speed, he rockets forward. He's no speedster but Kin's pretty fast when he needs to be. Fists held out in front of him, he's making a bee-line for Jewelee and her remote. He's fully intent on smacking right into any Rogues in his way too.

This time, Piper fires a broad-beam from his soundgun as he continues to play his pipe one-handedly. It is therefore not a direct attack on Kinetic, but rather a sound field. As back-up protection, behind whatever Trickster and Prank are cooking up; normally it is used for speedsters but Kinetic is going pretty fast. It'll be like hitting noisy, speed-impeding Jell-O.

Trickster is knocked aside, but not before he lets one of his stickybombs fly at Kinetic. Prank is also pushed aside, not having expected such a hearty assault, but she's determined to have her triumphant return be...well, triumphant, so she tosses another one of her bombs at Kinetic, this one more of a stun-bomb.

Kinetic jumps slightly when Piper fires, not wanting to stick around to see whatever Piper just shot at him. With the sticky-bombs impacting his forcefield, Kinetic gets slowed by the field. Cursing, he sends the stun-bomb flying back at Prank before trying to telekinetically yank the remote away from Jewelee.

Jewelee's arm is yanked about due to her grip on the remote, and after gripping it in both hands for a little while to tug against Kinetic's telekinesis, she takes one away to switch gears a little.

Scowling, she flips one of several gems hanging from a bracelet up into her palm, and then that hand is thrust forward as she shouts, "Hey! Kinetiperv! Look out! I brought back-up!"

It flashes with that, and then from doors, windows, alleys, garbage cans... really, all around, villains begin to swarm out. Central City Rogues, Arkhamites, Metropolis folk, journeymen... all are coming free now to leap or charge or fire upon the hero from all angles.

Of course, they are all just illusions, but they're good illusions; they might sting a bit if the attacks hit, but there's no force behind any of it.

Piper is partly laying on the roof, as he had to duck when Kinetic came diving in. His gun is re-holstered for now as he concentrates on his playing from his almost supine position. There is a very brief pause in the music, simply at the sight of so many villains rushing in, and then he continues bolstering the wheels of the rocket-powered skates.

The next thing to happen would be really hilarious if it were in slow-motion, but sadly it is just regularly-paced. Nonetheless, it does have comic value when Trickster tries to intercept the bomb hurled back at Prank, but she does exactly the same thing. They meet in the middle, smack into each other, and fly back; the bomb misses a direct hit, but the blast knocks them both to the surface of the roof, not knocked out but certainly stunned for the moment.

Kinetic sends a TK-punch at Jewelee's midsection as she starts yelling about the reinforcements. When the illusions start appearing, Kinetic's eyes go wide. "Blue blazes..." he yelps. He starts dodging and weaving, cringing at a few stings. It hits him when he can't sense any substance to the attacks. "Oh you so did not..." he trails off, trying to telekinecally blast the illusions away.

The illusions don't last being blasted at all; they really were just intended to be a temporary distraction, though given that Jewelee's been sent rolling backwards a few feet by an invisible blow to her midsection, their usefulness is kind of questionable.

There are no birds and stars circling her head as she pulls herself upright, but she is kind of wobbly and unsteady at first, and after mumbling, "Mmm, like my honeymoon all over again..." to herself she shakes her head quickly and shouts out, "Get the little creep!"

"For heaven's sake." Piper sounds a bit exasperated, getting up into a crouch after Trickster and Prank nearly take each other out. "I see that, as usual, I must do everything!" As he has stopped playing, the building is wobbling more, with less wheels to provide for its stability. On one knee, the Pied Piper plays, aiming his music at Kinetic. This is not an attack, so much as it is a sweet and lulling melody meant to soothe away the teen's anger and aggression.

Trickster groans and pushes himself up to his feet, standing unsteadily. He reaches out to help Prank up, and she does much the same. The two make quite a pair. Thankfully they didn't actually take each other out. But they're not really making themselves useful at the moment.

Kinetic is back and chasing the Rogues again rather quickly. He sends a shockwave down with the intent to break more wheels just as Piper's music starts to take effect. "No... not good... knock it off, Piper!" he calls.

Piper's music gives Jewelee ideas, and those ideas lead to her charging across the building as the gems dangling from her wrist delicately clink and jingle against one another. By the time she has sprung from her feet to perch herself on the Pied Piper's shoulders, she's got the jewel of choice in hand, and as she waves goodbye to Kinetic it shines brightly.

The gimmick is sending sheep flickering madly all across the telekinetic teen's vision, strobing at just the right speed with just the right pattern of colors to have at least a shot at inducing sleepiness. It is as if she and Piper are a colourful totem of lethargy, perhaps.

"Guys, we need to deal with this thing before we crash into something or someone," Piper points out, because there are cars careening everywhere trying to avoid the mobile building. He rubs his chin, thinking about their situation. Kinetic is always so tenacious. So, he plugs the amplifying device he carries on his belt into his pipe, then plays it and the building, all the harlequins and the musician start to flicker out of view.

Trickster looks around, getting sort of to his senses, such as they are. He takes Prank's hand -- which she will probably swoon about later -- and hurries closer to the Piper, hoping that this will at least solve the problem for the moment. He has become more of a silent partner in this whole thing.

Kinetic's eyes go wide as the sheep appear. Letting out a yell, he closes his eyes and sends another TK-punch at the Rogues. Seems he's trying to hit Piper and Jewelee. He can't help but let out a yawn though, falling from the air and landing in the back of a convertable. Atleast it's a soft landing for once.

Jewelee tumbles right off of her perch, going tumbling backwards in a comical roll until she has finally hit an air duct. She does at least stick a thumbs up into the air and emit a muffled, "Ta-da!" once she has come to a stop. It's kind of groggy, and she's in an awkward little ball, but she obviously meant to do it.

Piper is less acrobatic and when Jewelee gets clobbered off his shoulders, he just hits the roof with a groan. The runaway building is semi-there, flickering into view for a moment, but the musician rallies. Flat on his back, he resumes playing and makes the structure and its riders "vanish" once again.