1082/Burning Up the Dance Floor

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Burning Up the Dance Floor
Date of Scene: 21 June 2017
Location: Southside, New Troy
Synopsis: Booster Gold, Blue Beetle, and Dragonfly take on a dancing-themed super-arsonist.
Cast of Characters: Blue Beetle (Kord), Booster Gold, Dragonfly (Arazello)




Blue Beetle (Kord) has posed:
"Hello there! 'Booster & Friendz' Fire-fighting and Loss Prevention' hotline!" says Blue Beetle into a phone, cheer in his voice but pain on his face.

"...can't believe I let him name that one..." the hero grumbles, a hand over the phone for a moment. Then, it's back to the performance.

"You have a what now? And it's what? For how long? Okay, okay!" he says with a hint of exasperation. "We're on our way!"

MEANWHILE, ON THE SOUTH SIDE OF METROPOLIS

Flames begin to lick at the walls of the 'Disco Will Never Die!' retro roller disco, and a cloud of smoke begins to trickle up toward the blue sky overhead. The doors are sealed shut, and the patrons within try their best, if futile, attempts to bodyslam the doors while wearing roller skates.

Meanwhile, in the middle of the rink, a red-headed man performs a wheeled version of Riverdance.

"They said I'd never amount to anything! That I couldn't make a living doing what I loved!" the man shouts, hands on his hips.

"Well, now they'll get a load of FIREFOOT, the world's foremost dancing arsonist!"

One of the panicking patrons screams: "Why is the DJ playing that Irish music? Someone call the police already!"

The DJ comes on over the speaker: "Don't worry, ma'am! Heroes are on the way!"

Booster Gold has posed:
"I'll go high, you go low!" Booster tells Ted, as the SUPERBUDDIES arrive on scene! With Ted in his trusty Mighty Blue Bug, and Booster soaring through the skies with his faithful companion Skeets the Drone just off his shoulder, they form a startlingly chromatically appealing streak of blue and gold as the duo races to the scene of the crime!

Booster swings over a skylight and hits it with a pair of plasma bolts, then smashes right through the portal and lands heavily on the roller rink ground. He bounces to his feeet, fists out in a boxer's stance, and starts looking for... ...the villain, who doesn't readily stand out.

Needless to say, the sudden addition of an extra chimney does wonders to help the fire, and Booster yelps in surprise as the flames abruptly get much taller and more energetic, wind whipping past his perfect, curly hair.

"Beetle! We need fire suppression!" he hollers.

Dragonfly (Arazello) has posed:
    Talking of blue skies, high up in the air Dragonfly corkscrews through the sky, outracing her sonic boom, and just generally enjoying the Hell out of being alive and flying. On the flip side of her barrel roll she spots the thread of smoke. The whoops of joy die quickly as she pauses; the sonic boom pulses through her. She then plummets down, heedless of speed. A few broken windows will be the price paid for alacrity in response to a threat to life and limb.
    Seeing Booster's penetration of the roof she fruitlessly calls out "No, you idiot!" from too far away to be heard. Dammit. That's a few more broken windows as she boosts her speed and generates a louder boom. The boom that catches up with her as she swoops in to land at the skylight. The boom that shatters the rest of the skylight, making the problem worse.
    "Dammit!"

Blue Beetle (Kord) has posed:
"SUPPRESSING FIRE!" Blue Beetle shouts from the control seat of the Bug, which begins wildly spraying fire-retardant foam all over the outside of the roller disco as well as inside the hole that Booster's made. And anyone standing nearby said hole.

Inside, Firefoot continues dancing, with tongues of flame shooting out from his toes and heels as he moves about to the music's rhythm.

The DJ, in an effort to disrupt the arsonist's fiery feet, puts on Snow's "Informer." Over the intercom, the DJ says, "Here's a blast from the past that always keeps you /cool/ ... try keeping up with this beat!"

Momentarily stymied, Firefoot seems to lose steam--until he begins popping and locking, and his toes begin spitting red-hot fire.

A number of patrons have begun to drop to the ground from the amount of smoke in the area, where they cough and hack, clutching their throats and crawling across the floor.

Booster Gold has posed:
"Sir! You're on fire!" Booster shouts, spotting the psychopath trying to dance his way to a flame-free life. "I'll-- acppthlthl!"

He's hit with a massive mound of the foaming green fire suppressant, which manages to hit absolutely nothing or no one on fire, and staggers around.

"Damnit! I'm blind! Skeets, I need HUD wireframe compensation!"

<<On it sir!>> Skeets says, hovering a safe distance away. Holographic lasers scan the entire area and project a digital display right into Booster's obstructed visor, and he straightens up--

Just in time for Firefoot to kick him right in the gut with a jet-powered skate. Booster 'oofs' in pain as the impact slips past his kinetic shield and staggers backwards-- right into Dragonfly's path!

Dragonfly (Arazello) has posed:
    Well, pick a lemon, make lemonade, right? Dragonfly, after gaping at the huge flames she's caused to expand, looks past them to the civilians caught in the disco. Unable to make out the source of the fire, but able to see the patrons succumbing to smoke inhalation, she makes her leap down into the hole.
    A leap whose trajectory peaks, at that tiny fraction of a second where an object moving ballistically, is hanging suspended in the air, right at the moment that the first stream of foam reaches the locale from Blue Beetle's desperate spray-and-pray.
    A human-sized Stay-Puft marshmallow woman lands on the floor below. Well, would land on the floor were Booster not in the way.
    "Dammit!"
    Stay-Puf...Dragonfly's sunglasses fall to the floor and get lost in the foam as she hits Booster full-on, her heeled boots grinding into his kinetic shield. She, thrown off-balance, falls to the ground desperately scraping the foam off of her compound eyes so she can see enough to fight or rescue as the need arises.

Blue Beetle (Kord) has posed:
"Hey, now!" Firefoot calls, 'moonwalking' about the rink. "The DJ didn't say anything about 'couples only' here!" He puts his hands on his hips and boogies, beginning a backwards Russian Cossack-style kick-dancing.

With each kick of his foot, a ball of flame soars at the dueling do-gooders. FLOOM! FSHHAW! FWOWZERS!

Meanwhile, above the disco, Blue Beetle drops down from his skyhook, landing on the ground outside the front door. He takes aim and blasts the locks with his compressed air gun.

Almost immediately afterwards, half a dozen choking patrons burst through the doors, tackling--or collapsing on top of--poor Beetle, followed by a large dark cloud that suddenly belches forth from the sudden space it's given to escape through.

Booster Gold has posed:
"Ow! Ow! Ow!" The kinetic shield works great against fast-moving threats, but it's almost useless against someone /stepping/ on Booster, and he yelps in pain when Dragonfly gets something tender with a bootheel.

"Get-- ow! Stop stepping on me!" he says, scrambling to his feet.

<<You know sir, Japanese businessmen pay a great deal of money for-->>

"Shut up, Skeets!" Booster says, trying to get the last of the foam from his visor and failing. Fighting blind, he has to rely on his suit's sensors, and he tenses when flaming napalm is flung at Dragonfly's back!

"Ack!" he yells, coherently, and throws himself in front of the flames. This is something his suit IS good at dealing with, and he manages to swat the fireballs out of the way, his personal barrier shimmering.

Twice, anyway. The third one sticks to his hand, and Booster yelps and shakes his palm violently to try and get the sticky flames off of his fingers.

"Ted! How you doing over there, buddy?" he asks, trying to gauge a shot at the villain-- but there are too many civilians nearby to get a clean burst off from his blasters.

Dragonfly (Arazello) has posed:
    "Alright, I've had about enough of this," Dragonfly says, her voice deadly serious. She stares at Firefoot...well, seems to stare. It's hard to tell what her literal bug eyes are actually looking at. "You," she says, her voice dripping with menace, "have five seconds to surrender before I take you out." Her voice is under control (for a change!). Her facial expression is dead on. Her stance on the floor is perfect. She's obviously been practicing threats.
    Pity it's so hard to be taken seriously when you're covered in foam and look like a food mascot.
    Firefoot's continued fusilade hits Dragonfly straight in the face with a ball of sticky flame, turning her into ... the offspring of the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man and Ghost Rider. And not the kind of offspring you'd get from a loving, tender relationship. More the offspring you'd get as an accidental byproduct of grudge sex. And this GhostPuft mascot is royally pissed.
    "That's it!"
    One second there's an angry GhostPuft mascot. The next there's a thunderclap as she accelerates full-tilt at Firefoot, the shock of her passing shattering anything glass in the room. Fortunately for Firefoot the combination of foam on her eyes and flames engulfing her head have her miss squishing him. Not so fortunately for him she instead hits the pillar that holds up all the disco paraphrenalia. Including the giant disco ball, mirrors cracked and pulverized, that falls down on his head.
    Also not so fortunately, the same pillar holds up the DJ's booth which now slowly starts to collapse.

Blue Beetle (Kord) has posed:
Firefoot continues to dance about, pirouetting and even briefly performing a Van Damme-esque split before trying to tap-dance in skates.

Just then, Dragonfly's hail-mary maneuver manages to take him out, and he drops to the ground as the disco ball collides with, and then breaks to engulf, his head.

The DJ, meanwhile, grasps for anything to keep him safe--even though the floor, and walls, of the booth begin to drop out from beneath and around him. He clutches for dear life with one hand to a shelf of records, the other to his microphone.

"Why can no one ever resist the allure of the roller disco?!" he cries into his mic.

Meanwhile, outside, there's a brief glimpse of movement outside the entrance to the disco.

"Huurunnghhhhh ..." Beetle says from beneath a pile of still-breathing, if only semi-conscious, roller disco patrons. "I ... want ... to die ..." he manages to gasp.

Still more crawl slowly out the front door, like a weird roller-themed zombie film.

At least in the distance, sirens can be heard approaching.

Booster Gold has posed:
<<Sir! The booth is collapsing! It's essential to the club's structural integrity and the funky beats are the only thing standing between the dancers and arrhythmic anarchy!>> Skeets squawks, highlighting the collapsing booth in Booster's visor.

"Crapsack!" Booster agrees-- but he's still wincing sympathetically at Dragonfly's impact with the pillar. Even for the big Booster Gold, that kind of head-on impact... ow.

Not the villain, though. "Sheesh, Skeets," Booster says, zipping past the man. He removes his visor momentarily, pausing to examine the fellow felled by the glittering disco ball.

"Disco fever... has claimed one more victim."

Punchline delivered, Booster flies to the booth and gets underneath it, and in a very heroic manner (with excellent form), he squats under the edge of the collapsing booth and lifts it upwards, holding it over his head to avert a total collapse.

It's realy the suit doing the work, but he does still look cool.

Dragonfly (Arazello) has posed:
    Dragonfly crawls out of the wreckage she's left scattered and shakes her head. A bit disoriented she looks around at the carnage, trying to spot her foe. Foe disabled she spots instead the wailing DJ.
    "I've got you!" she calls, stretching out her arm. Across the room the DJ floats into the air before being gently set down on the floor next to Booster.
    "Get out of here!" she shouts at the man. She then looks at the ceiling as a girder snaps. Reflexively her arms go up in a defensive posture. The girder pieces settle on ... nothing. Groaning ominously, but still settled.
    "Can you guys evacuate this place? I don't know how long I can hold it together!"

Booster Gold has posed:
"I-- you? What? -I'M- holding it together! YOU run!" Booster squawks at Dragonfly, indignantly.

<<Yeah!>> Skeets adds, buzzing at Dragonfly. <<Mister Booster's the hero here, lady!>>

Blue Beetle (Kord) has posed:
In the middle of the skating rink, Firefoot groans and rolls about, languidly slapping at the disco ball over his head. He's saying something, but it's entirely incomprehensible within the glittering Mysterio cosplay he's recently begun showing off.

Outside, Blue Beetle very slowly extracts himself from the near-ton of roller disco patrons that had fallen on top of him. Just as he finishes standing and dusting himself off, he's bowled over by the fleeing DJ. They both drop to the ground in a tangle.

"Huurunnghhhhh ..." Beetle groans.

Booster Gold has posed:
There's a fairly heated back and forth in the roller rink. Mostly between the two heroes inside, stubbornly attemping to out-hero one another and be the better hero who stays behind and holds up the weight of things while the rink evacuates.

In fact the argument continues well after the rink is completely evacuated, Booster and Dragonfly getting increasingly loud and preachy at one another in their attempts to secure the place.

"You leave!"

"No, YOU leave!"

Then the main structural girder /does/ crack and fall, and Booster screams a battle cry that sounds very high ptiched and launches himself at Dragonfly in full flight. He grabs her under one arm, shooting for the exit, and scoops Ted up in the other, and all three shoot out of the front door in a muddled pile of soot, ash, smoke, and that green fire retardant.

Booster grunts in pain from under the pile. "Lady, would you /please/ move your foot? That heel's in a very tender spot," he mutters.

Dragonfly (Arazello) has posed:
    "I should push harder," Dragonfly mutters, but fails to act on the impulse, squirming her way out of the pile to stand on the pavement. She looks back at the building.
    "That could have gone a bit better," she decides, "but at least we got all the people out. Did someone remember to pick up the perp?"
    She starts to wipe away the traces of foam retardant and soot from her face, carefully wiping her eyes clear so she can see properly. She then stands, fists on hips, in a well-practiced "job well done" pose, facing the crowd. "Everybody OK?..."

Blue Beetle (Kord) has posed:
"Lady," Blue Beetle interjects, "whatever you're hurting with your heel, please ... /push harder/."

He pushes himself over onto his back with one arm, breathing heavily. "You know ... I think ... I /think/ we did, /technically/, put out the fire ..."

The Beetle looks around at the various patrons, while two fire trucks, a trio of ambulances, and a police cruiser arrive on scene.

"What were you two even /doing/ in there for so long? Trying to get in a game of Pac-Man?" he asks, rubbing his temples.

One of the officers approaches cautiously. "Is everyone alright? We've got medical here--" She stops and grimaces. "You two. There's gonna be a /lot/ of paperwork tonight ..." As the officer pinches the bridge of her nose, she spies Dragonfly. "What's with the Michelin Man? New recruit?"

Booster Gold has posed:
Booster punches Ted in the shoulder, and for his trouble is immediately counterpunched.

"Ow!" He punches Ted again, harder.

"Ow!"

"Ow!"

"OW!"

The back and forth goes until the officer walks up, with Booster sitting on his butt with his legs out in front of him. Like two schoolboys caught in the middle of a foodfight, he manages to look a little guilty.

But he punches Ted once more just for good measure.

"/I/ was trying to keep the place from collapsing," Booster tells Ted. "And it's not our fault this time!" he hastily tells the officer. "The... guy, with the fire feet, he... hey, where /is/ he?" Booster asks, looking around. His face falls in dismay as the only sign of Firefoot or Hottoe or whatever his name is, turns out to be a scorched-mark skate trail leading off towards a blinde alley.

The officer pinches her brow. "You guys burned down the skating rink and didn't even /catch/ him?"

Dragonfly (Arazello) has posed:
    Dragonfly looks down at her foam-puffed body and pinches the bridge of her own nose. "Yeah, new recruit," she mutters. "Call me Tireman." She stares at the skate trail as if pondering ... nah.
    "I caught him," she adds, darting a poisonous glance Booster's way, "but a certain someone was so intent on being the hero that holds up the building he forgot being the hero who CATCHES THE GOD-DAMNED PERP!"
    That last is shouted somewhat. Where 'somewhat' is in the vein of the Atlantic Ocean being 'somewhat wet'. She turns back to the cop.
    "I'm pretty sure that we got everybody out, though, so there's that," she says apologetically. "That's a lot of people not-dead who would otherwise have gone in a particularly unpleasant way."

Blue Beetle (Kord) has posed:
Just then, from out of the rubble, crawls a fiend so foul, so fierce, so fabulous, that its head glimmers like the blazing star that was disco itself!

It tries to dance a little jig, but the rubble's uneven, and the figure's still wearing roller skates, so instead it topples forward, rolls down the pile of collapsed roller-disco lumber, and lies motionless but breathing at Dragonfly's feet.

The police officer seems completely nonplussed. "So that's the big threat, eh?" she asks.

Blue Beetle rubs his shoulder and tilts his head to one side. "Yes....?" he asks, inflecting upward at the end while he looks to Booster Gold for confirmation.

Booster Gold has posed:
Booster blinks at the tire marks. He was /sure/...

He looks at Blue Beetle, at Dragonfly, at the officer, back at his friends, and Skeets, then back at the office.

"Yes," all four say in chorus.

"Well! Job well done, we did good work, people," Booster remarks, getting to his feet. "No need to thank us officer, it's all part of the line of duty," he adds, hitching his britches a little. "When you've been a hero as long as I have, y'know, you realize that sometimes it's the little victories tha--"

The ceiling of the rink abruptly collapses, exhaling smoke and fire upwards, and Booster blinks and doesn't look behind him.

"I think we should go. Right? C'mon Superbuddies, let's, uh... let's get out of the way of our fine professional firefighters." He starts walking sideways, edging towards a lane of departure. "You guys! The real heroes here," he says, grabbing Ted by the arm and trying to haul him along.

Dragonfly (Arazello) has posed:
    "Yes. We should leave this to the professionals," Dragonfly says, her acid tone of voice suggesting that her eyes would be narrowed and focused on Booster had they been, you know, human. Then to the officer, "I think we'll just, you know, head off and find other buildings to demolish," she says grimly. "I hear there's a brand new skyscraper that someone shoplifted from..."
    She takes to the air, shedding foam in flight, as she gets the Hell out of line of sight, stopping only once clear to watch where Booster and Beetle go to for later following purposes.

Booster Gold has posed:
<<She's /totally/ checking you out, sir!>> Skeets tells Booster in a chipper tone, floating ahead of the gold hero.

"Really? I mean, duh!" Booster says.

"Hey! HEY! You can't just leave the scene!" a senior officer bellows at Ted and Booster.

"Crap! CHEESE IT, TED!" Booster yelps-- and he and Ted zoom off into the skyline, heading eastwards!