Scene: Stormrider and Tin Man have followed leads to an archetypical creepy, abandoned amusement park.
Page 1:
In the darkness behind an old chain-link fence, an engine roars abruptly, and then Stormrider leaps his bike over the fence to land within. Tin Man lands beside him, his rocket boots blowing dirt into the air.
"Alright then, Tinny" Stormrider says to Tin Man, "the informant said that Cold-Snap was talking to somebody here. Let's look around and see if we can find more information. But be careful."
"Ha!" Tin Man laughs (tinnily of course). "It's an abandoned amusement park. What's the worst that could happen?"
Meanwhile, on the other side of the park, Dorothy Dean squeezes through a broken section of fence.
"Hmm," she thinks to herself, "this is where the clues lead, but why here? What kind of weirdo does business in a rusted-out theme park?"
From behind a nearby booth, a dark form watches her with glowing eyes...
Dorothy suddenly looks behind her, but all she sees are stuffed animals on a shelf. "Those stuffed animals shouldn't still be here", she mutters. I wonder if that's anything important. She climbs into the booth and starts pulling out stuffed toys while behind her the dark figure moves closer and closer...
Meanwhile, across the park, Tin Man hears a scream echo through the darkness! With a flick of his wrists, he powers up his blaster cannons, their charged whine quickly drowned out by his rocket boots. "Let's split up. You keep looking for clues. I can handle this" he says as he flies toward the location of the scream.
Dorothy stares at the dark figure in shocked horror, and flings a stuffed bear at it, to no avail! Its shadow moves over her... and soon she is lifted off of her feet by her neck. The thing moves forward, and the dim light reveals some sort of evil clockwork clown!
Page 2:
Dorothy claws at the clown's arm with one hand while digging into her purse for her cell-phone with the other. She presses two buttons before the phone slips from her fingers, falling to the ground.
Tin Man swoops over a carousel and through the struts of a delapidated roller-coaster, rocketing toward Dorothy and the clown. He barrels bodily into the construct, knocking Dorothy free of its grasp and burying it in debris and rubble. But the thing just won't stay down. It rises from the crash site, sparking and twitching. Long claws extend from one hand at it limps toward Dorothy's prone form.
Tin Man rises behind the clown, the glowing eyes and power-ports on his suit the only thing visible, and unleashes a blast of white-hot energy at the clown-bot, but even with a hole through its center, it just keeps coming. "Tin Man, get me outta here!" Dorothy damands, her eyes never leaving the approaching monstrosity. As the blades come down, Tin Man leaps in front of the clown-bot, and they spark harmlessly off of his powered armor, but the robot cannot deny its programming, and it bats Tin Man aside with amazing strength!
Stormrider barrels down a roller-coaster track, the rickety timbers splintering and disintegrating under his motorcycle as he ramps off, sending his bike flying at the clown-thing and coming down on it tires first!
A moment later, the three stand together, recovering from their ordeal when three more clown-bots emerge from the darkness! Each takes on one of the heroes and the one facing Dorothy slaps her to the ground and raises his bladed fingers over her.
"HA HA HA TIN FOOL YOU ARE NO MATCH FOR THE TRUE GENIUS OF DR. ARACHNOS!" the robot cackles in a frightening monotone as it stares at Tin Man with glowing eyes. While it is distracted, Dorothy quietly crawls behind a nearby colorful barrel.
"Of course! Dr. Arachnos!" Tin Man says. "Who else would build such horrible robots. He must be the one working with Cold-Snap!"
Page 3:
The clown-bots turn around, looking for Dorothy, but Tin-Man dives into their midsts, swinging and blasting away. But the robots are too quick, and soon all three are upon him, overwhelming him and bringing him to the ground. Stormrider leaps into the fray as well, and soon the clown-bots are mere clown-components, twitching their last as their glowing circuits fail.
Meanwhile, Dorothy crawls for safety away from the fight. Then she hears a sound. Behind her, obscured by the darkenss, a small child sobs softly. "Oh dear", she say kindly, "are you lost? You shouldn't be here. It's not sa..." Suddenly, the child looks up, and it's glowing eyes reveal its "sad clown" face and wicked metal claws!
But the clownling is quickly blasted away by Tin Man, who steps up beside Dorothy. "Don't worry, Ms. Dean" Tin Man says confidently, "I've got these guys figured out. They won't be a threat anymore."
But no sooner does he say that, than the group is surrounded by 10 more of the clowns. They flank and manuever and use cover intelligently. That's when it occurs to Dorothy. "Look at them! They're too smart for robots! Too 'natural'. And look at that glow. Do you recognize that glow Tin Man? It's pygmallium! That's why ColdSnap was trying to steal it! So Dr. Arachnos couldmake more of these robots!" As she makes this realization, the clown-bots close in. Dorothy clenches her fists and readies herself, determined not to be a liability in the fight, but Stormrider puts a calming hand on her shoulder.
"Don't worry, lady" he says through his helmet, "I've got this."
Page 4:
"Yeah, like I was actually going to fight them myself", Dorothy replies, rolling her eyes.
"Well, if you want to have a go at it, I can..."
"Gah! No, I'm sorry. Tell you what, how about you guys stop the clowns, and I'll keep my smart remarks to myself, huh?"
"DEAL!" the two men shout simultaneously (and a bit too quickly) before charging into the fight. As Tin Man blasts away with his blaster cannons, Stormrider arcs lightning at the oncoming circus rejects, but it doesn't seem to be enough and they slowly start to surround him. But Stormrider focuses on blasting a hole through the crowd and ducks through, running down the fairway, drawing the clowns with him.
"Hah!" Stormrider laughs, "Come and get it!" Meanwhile, concealed behind old circus tents and shadowy game-booths, even more clown-bots converge on Stormrider's position. But Stormrider anticipates this and explodes in a ball of electrical fury, blowing them back, and frying over half of them outright!
Farther back, Tin-Man finishes blasting the lasts of the clowns near him and turns around to accept Dorothy's praise, only to see her at the edge of a nearby booth, a hand over her mouth and a clown's bladed hand at her throat.
"YOU LOSE, TIN MORON" the clown chatters. "MAKE A MOVE AND SHE DIES. DO NOTHING AND SHE DIES. SOME GENIUS YOU Aaaaaa.....!"
Suddenly, the clown-bot, as well as several of his defeated brothers, as well as various bits of metal detrius hurtle toward Tin Man, clinging to him magnetically with a clang. There's a breif whine, and then everything blasts away from him, smoking and charred. Dorothy just looks at him in shock. Tin Man shrugs.
"Recent upgrade I'm trying out. It's supposed to stick me to large metal objects, but I guess this works, too."
The rain begins to fall gently on Tin Man and Dorothy as they look around for Stormrider. Unfortunately, he's well on the other side of the park, and the clown-bots just keep coming. His electro-punches, falling one after the other, keep getting weaker and weaker, but the things just don't stop. Finally, exhuasted, Stormrider goes down under a pile of electronic evil.
...
And then lightning strikes from the sky, sending robots flying! Stormrider, reinvigorated, throws punch after lighting-fast punch, until finally all of the clowns are defeated. Once again spent, he drops to one knee, the steam rising from him as he breathes heavily into his helmet.
Jason:
Abandoned Amusement Park ("Let's split up", Rides, Rickety, Conceal)
Tin Man (Blaster Cannons[Love], Blaster Cannons[Love], Face Overwhelming Odds, Confident, Blaster Cannon[Duty], Blaster Cannon[Duty])
Daniel:
Dorothy Dean (Curious, Shocked, Multi-Task, Delegate, Kind, Determined, Negotiate)
Conflicts:
A Clue is Found! 1/3(Jason) (Resolved - Jason gets 2pt Inspiration)
Dorothy Dean is About to be Killed (Jason) 5/2 (Daniel Gloats - 1 ST) (Resolved - 3pt Insp to Jason)
Stormrider gets in over his head 1/4 (Daniel) (Resolved - 3pt Insp to Daniel)
Inspirations:
2pt - Dr. Arachnos is behind the attempted pygmalium heist
5pt: "Cold-Snap tried to steal Pygmalium" (Used)
3pt - Robo-clowns tried to kill Dorothy Dean
3pt - Stormrider got in over his head and survived
"If you fudge dice rolls, your system is failing you!" -Sons of Kryos
"I genuinely think that some people measure their free will by reading how unhappy their GM is." - TonyLB
[dice type=fudge]3dF[/dice]