1956/The Fast and the Flabbergasted: Tedkyo Drift

The Fast and the Flabbergasted: Tedkyo Drift
Date of Scene:	12 August 2017
Location:	Gravesend, Brooklyn
Synopsis:	Superpowered street racing, what could go wrong?
Cast of Characters:	Blue Beetle (Kord), Ahadiel

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Blue Beetle (Kord) has posed:
RACE CLUB - the world's foremost underground street racing circuit! Costumed individuals of all stripes can compete on neutral ground!

Rule 1: Don't tell anyone about Race Club.

"Booster," Ted Kord says excitedly. "You'll never guess what our next 'sure thing' is gonna be!"

Rule 2: Don't tell anyone about Race Club.

Ted continues, "It's this thing called Race Club! And you can make beaucoup money on it! And I have THE BUG, man! It's flush with sweet high-tech improvements. And it flies! Where we're going, we don't need roads."

Rule 3: All drivers have to stay on the road.

"Tell you what," Ted says, clapping his hands together, "I'll try /just one/ race and see how much cash I have pouring out of my pockets by the end of the night. Good luck with whatever /your/ idea is. Some sort of smell-related augmented reality? I don't think the 'Panolfacticon' is going to be a hit, dude. It just won't."


LATER THAT NIGHT

The Blue Beetle leans out of the window of his Bug, on the sides of which he's sloppily spray-painted flames and a Rat Fink-esque creature.

"How do you do, fellow hot rodders?" he asks the assembled racers, a sheepish grin on his face.

Ahadiel has posed:
Angela Davis is not a hotrodder. Nor a racer. Though what she /is/, is occasionally a mechanic. One picks up odd skills over the millennia, and well... it's a different kind of experience. Currently, she's passing out cards, offering to do detail work and body modifications for the racers. Then she looks at the Bug, the redhead wincing at the... well, it could charitably called 'art' one supposes?

She then looks over at Ted as he leans out, "Ah, you know you need to have a /car/, right?" She crosses her arms, "Not that I make the rules, but I'm just gonna tell you what everyone else will." Indeed, the other racers look at Ted like they're hip teens, and Ted is Steve Buscemi.

Blue Beetle (Kord) has posed:
The Blue Beetle frowns and retreats into his cockpit for a moment. A set of large tires is deployed from the bottom of the Bug, which lowers onto the ground.

"Fine. There. Happy now?" he asks passive-aggressively.

"Who's running this thing, anyway?"

Just then, twin gouts of flame burst into the night sky, framing an androgynous figure in a full-length fur coat.

"GREETINGS, RACERS!" the figure calls in a feminine voice. "Prepare yourselves for the race of a LIFETIME! Or, at least, an evening," the figure adds with a chuckle.

"The coordinates have been sent to each of your devices--on-board computers, if possible; otherwise, check your smart phones. Got it? Good."

"Now," the figure continues, "on your marks ... get set ... race!"

A dozen vehicles of all tyypes peel off into the night.

Among them:

* An amphibious vehicle on tank treads.
* Four motorcycles welded together on a frame supporting a La-z-boy recliner, where the driver sits in comfort.
* A stock Ford Taurus.
* A race car that almost looks like its headlights and grill are the mutated face of a teenager.

Ahadiel has posed:
Angela grins, "I'd be happier if you had a /real/ paint-job on that thing, but..." She pauses, and decides to take some pity on the new guy. Besides, he's driving something like that, he's got to be rich. And commissions aren't always easy to find!

She continues, "Look, you're obviously new here, so how about I ride shotgun and make sure you don't screw up so your first race isn't your last?" At which point she'll try to get onboard if let onboard the Bug... and of course, that's when the race actually starts!

Blue Beetle (Kord) has posed:
Just before the race is on, the Blue Beetle presses a button and a skateboard & tow line appear near the rear of the Bug.

Ted gestures to them with a nod. "Saddle up."

Moments later, he's white-knuckling the controls to his favorite vehicle, maneuvering in-between a lumbering tripod-walker and a speedster in what appears to be a giant hamster ball.

"Comin' through! Comin' through!" he cries.

A digital display, overlaid on his cockpit window, shows the route to follow.

What it doesn't show, of course, are the racing circuit's secret obstacles.

The tripod-walker finds that out the hard way, when a giant buzzsaw blade suddenly swings out from a nearby building and tears through one of its legs. The craft goes down hard, skidding along nearly half a city block.

Ahadiel has posed:
Angela blinks, and gets on the skateboard, and shouts, "BY THE WAY, THE DEATHTRAPS ARE EVERYWHERE. YOU MIGHT WANT SOMEONE WHO KNOWS WHAT TO LOOK FOR UP THERE!" She smirks a little, not terribly concerned. After all, she can just let go. Though for a regular bystander, she seems to have pretty mad game on that board as she's drug along behind the Bug.

Blue Beetle (Kord) has posed:
The race leader, up ahead in a bright blue racing car, deftly swerves from space to space and outpacing most of the obstacles, which take out various vehicles just behind it.

The Bug, for its part, slowly creeps up in position.

"Hey!" the Beetle calls to his skateboarding companion. "We're in fourth place! That's good, right?"

As he looks back toward Angela, up ahead a matrix of DEADLY LASERS is triggered at an intersection, blinking in and out of existence at seemingly random intervals.

Ahadiel has posed:
Angela shouts, "SLOW DOWN ABOUT..." She pauses, and does some math in her head, "FIVE MILES PER HOUR! NOW!" Because it isn't like she knows the timing of these lasers or anything, as she swings wide on the skateboard, coming in closer to the Bug as she mutters to herself.

"For /this/ I gave up wielding the flaming sword. Name give me patience..."

Blue Beetle (Kord) has posed:
Blue Beetle pumps the air brakes to reduce speed appropriately.

"I'm a little low on patience myself at the moment!" he shouts, wincing as the Bug slips through the space where DEADLY LASERS had just been--and where another competitor had been eradicated by them moments ago.

"Whewwwwww," he exhales loudly. "Don't suppose you have, like, psychic powers and know what's coming up next?"

Up ahead, there are two giant machine guns mounted to the rooftops of nearby buildings. They're literally just firing at all racers on the street.

Ahadiel has posed:
Angela grins, "No, but I might have been consulted on the deathtraps. You signed the waiver, right?" Because there's /always/ a waiver. The one thing worse than a supervillain? Litigation.

She then shouts, "PUNCH IT WOULD YOU!" Because she's mostly immune to bullets, but these might be high enough caliber to hurt!

Blue Beetle (Kord) has posed:
"That was a waiver?" Beetle asks. "I thought they just wanted my autograph!"

As he drives into the hail of bullets, there may or may not be a shriek of terror. Sure, the Bug's bulletproof.

Also, Ted punches the throttle, and rocket-powered thrust kicks the Bug into high gear.

"Hold onto your butt! Steering's going to go to shiiiiiiiiiiiooooohh myyyyyy godddddd--"

The Bug launches itself into first place, in part by its newfound speed giving it enough momentum to send the blue racecar careening into a nearby parking garage.

"We just might pull this off!" Beetle shouts, before adding a moment later, "I just jinxed us, didn't I?"

Ahadiel has posed:
Angela sighs a bit, then shouts, "WHAT DO YOU THINK?!?" She sounds pretty darn annoyed at this point, even as she's been able to hang on to the skateboard. Which, if Ted was thinking about it, probably would be pretty damn unusual for a normal person to manage considering everything that's been going on.

Blue Beetle (Kord) has posed:
"I think we're home free, though!" the Blue Beetle calls in response. "I mean, the only other person that might have a chance is ... oh, crap, I haven't been paying attention to her location!"

Just then, the QUANTUM RIDER pops into view up ahead, just shy of the finish line.

"Why did I think about her speed?!" Ted slams a fist against his forehead.

"Ok, ok, there's still a consolation prize for second, right?" he asks.

Just then, since he hasn't been paying attention, the speedster-in-a-hamster-ball rolls past.

Ahadiel has posed:
Angela looks wryly up at Ted, "MAYBE NEXT TIME YOU SHOULD DO SOME RESEARCH." She doesn't look terribly unhappy at Ted's misfortune for third place. She shakes her head as she balances on the skateboard, looking more than a bit angry.

But then, Ted of all people should be used to redheads looking angrily at him, right?

Blue Beetle (Kord) has posed:
Sneering, the Blue Beetle snaps back to Angela: "You're not my supervisor!"

As the Bug slows down, now that the race is over, Ted sighs and looks at his paint job. "I suppose I /should/ have done more preparation. Which is to say /any/ preparation."

He looks back to Angela. "Just ... just don't tell Booster Gold about any of this, okay? He doesn't need to know he can hold something over my head."

"Wait," the Beetle adds. "You're not here /because/ of Booster, are you?" His eyes grow wide.

Ahadiel has posed:
Angela says, no longer shouting as she skateboards up to be even with the cockpit of the Bug, looking up at Ted, "No, I'm not with Booster Gold. Never met him, nor you until tonight. But your slapdash paint job and clear unpreparation made it pretty clear that you could have planned ahead." She hmphs, "Maybe you /need/ a supervisor, Mister Beetle. Or do you go by Blue?"

Okay, she's a little miffed, but then again, she was just taken through a very hazardous war zone on a skateboard, she has a right to be!

Oh, and there's a distinct sleeve of her blouse. Where something must have torn the fabric. Though she hasn't seemed to notice it yet.

Blue Beetle (Kord) has posed:
Seemingly oblivious to Angela's potential injuries, Blue Beetle shakes his head. "I prefer Beetle. Blue Beetle, really, but 'Beetle' works well enough. As to anything else you might call me..."

He pauses for a beat.

"There's always the next race, right?"

The androgynous race-master walks toward the Bug.

"Mister Blue, we understand you broke the first rule of Race Club. You are hereby banned from any further races," the figure says with a feigned smile.

In response, the Blue Beetle groans and slides down in his pilot's seat.

Ahadiel has posed:
Angela tries not to look smug. Really, she doesn't. Instead she looks at Beetle, "Well, Mister Blue, you might want to look into getting a supervisor, because frankly you need the help. Also." She reaches up and offers Ted her business card, "You need a better paint job. Seriously."

Angela then hops off the tethered board and looks around, getting a few amused looks from the other racers as they saw her getting dragged along, quite literally, during the race. To which she simply shrugs.