3904/How Many Souls to Kill Tonight

How Many Souls to Kill Tonight
Date of Scene:	18 February 2018
Location:	Unknown
Synopsis:	Summary needed
Cast of Characters:	Film Freak, Negasonic Teenage Warhead

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Film Freak has posed:
Word had gone out that Film Freak had done some low-level work for a mysterious agency in Gotham, giving Burt Weston money and resources to check out Mafiaso outfits and operations with token sums of money. This had raised his profile, the notion of Film Freak working for a major player, and Intergang had grown interested in him. Bruno "Ugly" Mannheim had given Burt Weston a proposition he couldn't refuse.

To take on the role of Jack, in Lord of the Flies, and hunt Ralph across a burning island, with an army of hunters at his side. It was the role of the lifetime. And although Burt Weston was afraid, he was in need of money. Just to feed his cat, and himself, and his habits. And Edison, well, he loved organizing the entire thing, talking to his minions, setting up positions. Film Freak, meanwhile, was ready to dive straight into Hell.

It's seven PM, and the dinner crowd has mostly left the island of Hackensack, the town's small diners and restaurants full, while most of the wealthier inhabitants have gone to Gotham or elsewhere for their meals. In a small office, a private investigator with data vital to the arrest of an Intergang lawyer that's been rigging cases for Darkseid, sits in his chair, putting together the final information to give to Metropolis prosecutors. He's a special forces veteran, and a SHIELD mercenary when the need calls for it.

Firebombs go off in garbage cans, cars explode, and incendiary lights up out of sewers, sending manhole covers flipping up into the air. The small town atmosphere is shattered, and directly outside a small Mexican cuisine outlet, below the investigator's office, fire rakes through the streets. A number of mobsters in black trenchcoats stand outside with plasma cannons, in their center Film Freak, his head shaved and black goggles on, a plasma cannon in his hands.

"It's time to cook!" he shouts, laughing, as the Intergang thugs around him cheer. There are more thugs in the area, ready to box in the escaping PI.

Negasonic Teenage Warhead has posed:
How the hell does a cool girl like Ellie wind up in a place like Hackensack, NJ? Well, you got the Rising Tide and their cutting of the internet to thank, that's how. She navigates with her GPS apps, she never bothered to learn the lay of the land. Map application tells her what train to take, when to switch, and she gets where she needs to go. Today, without internet, this becomes guess work. Instead of Manhattan, she wound up in freakin' Hackensack, thank god there are places to eat there as well.

Ellie was showing some signs of withdrawl-like symptoms without her internet access. Usually experiencing life through Twitter and Facebook, she now was devoid of all this information about one and all. It felt excruciatingly lonely, and empty. She stepped into a cheap ass tacqueria, got herself a bite, and then explosions from across the street.

Ellie steps outside, squinting as she looks at Film Freak with his semi-steampunk look. "What the shit is going on?" She snaps, still taking a bite of the half eaten taco in her hand. Barbacoa is pretty legit you know.

Film Freak has posed:
As the buildings of the main street begin to catch fire, heat welling up from beneath the road with the sewers steaming and swirling with chemical fires and noxious accelerant, a hail of plasma shots pump out with a *BWMP BWMP BWMP* from Film Freak, up into the office window. People begin ducking and covering, as an Intergang member marches past the Freak and alongside the tacqueria, moving up the stairs to the private investigators office.

Moments later, there's a gunshot, and a hail of plasma fire, and then, the remains of the melted office window shatter and the private investigator bursts out of building. A briefcase in one hand and an Uziel submachine gun in the other, he rolls from the second floor and onto the back of a scorched, burning car, before bouncing to the ground. He fires a spray of bullets as suppressive fire, the Integang soldiers (Film Freak included) ducking and backing off.

Then, the private investigator is running off down the street, dressed in a grey suit with a red and black striped tie. Film Freak and his three men move out of cover and fire down the street, all of them putting on headsets with microphones, Film Freak's clicking into his goggles and givig him a HUD view.

There are screams elsewhere in town as other explosions follow, buildings catching ablaze and police sirens flickering on and office, before cutting silent, the relatively small police force of Hackensack pinned down and requiring backup from Gotham proper, across the bridge to the island. The fire departments, meanwhile, are getting calls from all over town, of building fires, people either hiding in the buildings from the marauding gangmembers, or flooding out into the streets into the chaos of flaming sewage and burning stationary vehicles.

Negasonic Teenage Warhead has posed:
Being largely ignored, which considering she's only armed with a half eaten taco, does make sense, Ellie snorts and finishes her taco. Because waste not, want not. Live and learn kids. But once she's done with her taco, she utterly glowers at Film Freak, and starts to walk up directly towards him. Energy crackling around her while her eyes start to glow an orangish-red hue. "Yo, pyromaniac dude, what the fuck do you think you're doing!?" She snaps.

Unlike full fledged X-Men, she's really new to trying and pull off the hero bit. She's not comfortable with it, and would much rather others would do it.

But as it seems she's the only one around, and there's no way the police can stop these bozos before they blow up the entire town, she figures she'd step in.

Film Freak has posed:
The private investigator is cut off down the road, Intergang members moving in and coordinating over their radios to box him in. There are more plasma cannon shots and responding bursts of gunfire, as the private investigator wheels around and moves into an industrial park, Intergang visible tailing him. On the other side of the industrial park, more Mafiaso trudge into position to trap him inside.

Film Freak turns about to face Negasonic Teenage Warhead, his broad skull and noble brave facial features giving him a demonic appearance as he grins amid the flame and evening stars.

"Well, it appears as if the priest is a lady!" He swings his plasma cannon around, as the other three thugs level their guns at her. He fires a series of shots, although he aims right past her and into the tacqueria, screams and shouts coming out as the plasma rounds burn through innocent people.

"FIRE!"

The other three Intergang members all open up on Negasonic, Film Freak standing in the middle of the road while the other members are near the wrecks of cars, using them as cover.

Negasonic Teenage Warhead has posed:
"Priest!? The fuck are you on about...? Don't you know drugs fuck with your brain?" Yeah, Ellie really doesn't care to be called a priest. Not her thing, and it's one of the more curious names she's ever been called. Her eyes flare as he shoots at the tacqueria, "they had decent tacos, you bastard!"

She starts charging at Film Freak, building up speed, and from the looks of it, all the fire being absorbs by the crackling sphere around her seem to power up her sphere, which looks more and more volitile, probably not a good idea for Film Freak to wait and see what happens when she gets to him.

Film Freak has posed:
Film Freak laughs like a madman and turns above with a wave of his heft, body armor and his trenchcoat weighing him down as he turns with the plasma cannon, before he throws himself forward and into a highly controlled roll against the ground, left hand springing down into the pavement and propelling him back up to a knee. He's quite the athlete for an actor, a regimen of Pilates giving him the agility and dexterity necessary to be a specialist assassin, eschewing all the brutish weight lifting and wrestling that a knife to the spinal cord or pistol to the back of the head negates. A man that relies on his masculine self-image to be confident is a pussycat compared to someone that isn't afraid to shoot that man's child for a briefcase full of money. In Mafia terms, the hitter is the rockstar.

Despite Film Freak's evasion, the other three Intergang remain in place, firing at Negasonic. They're spread out about seven feet between one pair, and thirteen between the other, the markers planned in advance by Edison. He has an attention to detail when it comes to the Hollywood occult.

Meanwhile, in the industrial park, the private investigator lugs his briefcase full of records and casefiles along, Uzi in his hand as he creeps along into a drafting building. The Intergang members follow, alarms going off as one of them kicks in a security door to get into the main causeway. The building is mostly empty, besides the cleaning crews, who flee the incoming gangmembers.

Negasonic Teenage Warhead has posed:
Negasonic leaps into the air, more or less launching herself, and for a moment it looks like she might be flying away. Only she stops at an apex, to suddenly plummet down to the ground, she doesn't aim for a direct hit at Film Freak, but rather his vicinity. Because once she hits the ground, she may well have done more damage than him to the neighborhood, as the impact is like a bomb going off, leaving a crater in the ground, and hopefully sending all the goons with their guns flying from the shockwave of the explosion. With any luck, they might get a clue and decide they just might be overmatched here.

Sadly, not an X-Men, Ellie doesn't realize the bad publicity that will follow, likely painting her the terrorist that ruined the neighborhood.

Film Freak has posed:
Film Freak is send hurtling away by the explosive concussion, his kneeling position prior being the only thing saving him from a complete fault out of a quick recovery position. His plasma cannon goes flying from his hands as he rolls along, and he comes to a halt skidding as he grabs the pavement with a black rubber glove.

The other three, meanwhile, are sent smashing backwards into buildings, one of them flying into the fires created by one of the incendiary bombs, crying out in tears and blood curdling ratcheting as he burns alive in his heavy, hot armor.

The private investigator wheels around a corner, firing an Uzi burst at an Intergang thug. The thug drops to the ground, struck in the shoulder beneath his hidden armor paldron, as other Intergang members work to close in on him.

Film Freak is helped to his feet by more Intergang goons arriving from a different situational sector, as firefights can be heard elsewhere in the cottage township. They are joined with racing engines and fluttering helicopters, Intergang mounting up in military hardware to hunt the remains of the resistance, the private investigator, and the new threat, Negasonic.

"So, lady," Film Freak says, as he pulls a Desert Eagle off his hip, pulling a thick clip out of his coat and slapping it in. "Pearls before swine, or are my friends just in time?" he asks, the fires shining on the circles of his black goggles.

Negasonic Teenage Warhead has posed:
Ellie stands up in the crater left in the wake of her attack, looking surprisingly unharmed despite being at the center of the explosion, as she spreads her hands wide apart, "you want to come at me? Did you not see this? I will fucking blow you to kingdom come, idiots!" As if to make her point, she starts charging up again, another crackling sphere building up as she glowers at the goons.

Film Freak's puzzling words, get an arched brow out of her, before she announces, "I'm Negasonic Teenage Warhead...and I'll be the end of you if you don't fuck off..."

Film Freak has posed:
"They call me Film Freak in this city," the man with the goggles responds, pointing his Desert Eagle at Negasonic with both hands. "You're in an off-stage production of Lord of the Flies. I hope you like making people laugh, because you're pretty fucking funny."

He pulls the trigger and fires a round at her center of mass, the huge calibered .50 round bucking the pistol backwards in his dual grip, his precision skilled but not expert, a generalized center of mass shot.

The private investigator moves through the drafting facility, going past computers and boards and machines, plasma fire bursting the place to flames behind him as he fires through the makeshift cover, pausing on occasion to drop to the ground and duck a particularly aggressive shot. And as reaches the other side of the shop floor, he goes into a hallway and pops the clip out of his gun, breathing heavily with his back against the wall. He puts his briefcase down, and as he looks down to pull the next magazine free from his belt, he's caught face to face with one of the thugs.

The private investigator slumps to the ground against the wall, his head a blackened husk with charred skull and brain splattered on the white tile behind it. The Intergang members collect the briefcase and hustle out of the industrial site.

A gunship helicopter rushes overhead for Film Freak and his assortment of goons, a machine gun mounted on the side with a man in black fatigues and a helmet with a suppressor visor manning it. It begins to touch down behind them, fires licking as the helicopter blades beat the ground. Other Intergang detachments, meanwhile, get picked up by vans, relieving the police nearby to make radio calls. On the bridge, tactical response units designed for the likes of the Joker rush towards the town.

Cigarette boats move up along the shores of the island, ready to make contact with the vans and take the remainder of the Intergang footsoldiers to freedom.

Negasonic Teenage Warhead has posed:
"I never agreed to be in anything," Negasonic points out, glaring at the crazed Film Freak, even as her energy build up grows and she seems prepared for another charge. He has all of her attention, she has no clue about a private investigator or anything else going on about now. But she does know she wants to ground that joker, and get some peace and quiet back in this hapless NJ town. Her force bubble seems to handle the desert eagle shot without much difficulty, crackling as the bullet shatters against it, and then she starts running at Film Freak, only her speed is getting a little supernatural fast. This time she seems on a collison course directly with Film Freak, looking specifically at him and none of the other goons, lightning crackling around her sphere as she charges at him.

Film Freak has posed:
Film Freak discharges two more rounds into Negasonic, fruitlessly, as she charges forward, before he feels the woman slam into him at full force. There's a rictus stutter-shock that comes over him as blurs backwards and through a fire, slamming into a wall on the other side and bouncing off, down to the pavement and his face. Laying there, he's jolts on the ground as he retches out of character.

The helicopter door gunner opens up on Negasonic as the other minions move to board the landing helicopter, rushing towards it and away from Negasonic with ducked heads. The high-speed gatling gun chugs rounds at her as the gunner bares his teeth with a grimace, the pilot nimbly moving the chopper about to hover above the ground for boarding.

The vans that the Intergang hoodlums were using arrive on shores at predetermined locations around the island, and the gangsters quickly dispose of the automobiles, boarding the boats. The final boat boarded is the one carrying the case, and with that, there's a massive radio communique, and the boats break away from the island.

Burt Weston, no longer in the persona of Film Freak, limps towards the gunship as it takes off, grabbing the edge of a prop and hanging on. He looks frail now, afraid, hefting himself up with the help of one of his cohorts.

Negasonic Teenage Warhead has posed:
Negasonic totally takes out Film Freak, take that! Problem is she's not used to being under fire from a freakin' gatling gun mounted on a helicopter, and when the fire rains down, she cries out in horror and rushes away for cover, sliding into an alley while screaming, "fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" Looks like under the heavy fire, Burt just might get away, as Negasonic tries to calm herself and build enough peace of mind to use her powers again. "I just wanted a freakin' taco!" She screams from behind her cover.

Film Freak has posed:
The helicopter takes off up into the air as the shaken, woozy Burt is pulled aboard and into safety. The speedboats, meanwhile, churn off into the Atlantic Ocean, taking multiple routes. The chopper and the boats are all heading to a container ship in international waters, where the evidence will be delivered to a waiting Darkside Club member, and Film Freak will receive his stipend in unmarked, non-sequential hundred dollar bills. He's looking at a single contract paying him thirty-thousand dollars for an operation of this size, with a broken rib and a bruised pelvis to show for it. He winces, touching his head tenderly. And maybe a concussion.

GCPD's tactical unit arrives alongside additional fire engines, and Gotham Major Case, across the bridge, to survey the damage and analyze the scene of the crime. The Cross Centre, meanwhile, is dealing with the wounded.