2014.01.30 - Booster Gold Meets Boom-Boom

Today would've been like any other windy, winter Wednesday all up in the New York Botanical Gardens. More than half the area was sectioned off for the season, yet it still drew a reasonable amount of visitors. Deep in the heart of the ultra-metropolitan sprawl, this was still a place for the urban residents, and tourists, to get a glimpse of nature. Diverse nature, even.

By some coincidence, the chairman of the popular spot was on site this afternoon--he had planned to meet with someone from the city's water department. Instead of doing that, however, he had his index finger extended into a pointing motion. Why, yes, he was pointing--pointing deep into the gardens, where numerous small but powerful explosions were launching upwards, from below. If these were fireworks, he wasn't amused.

"What the hell is that?! Some hooligan--or terrorist!--is in the seedbeds!" he shouted, unconcerned with his spit spraying onto those nearby.

The nice thing about current-era social blogging platforms is that they are ubiquitous, and when something strange happens, the odds are good that someone will notice and post commentary. Booster Gold does not spend his time perusing such feeds, but he does make his assistant Skeets do so. When the robot finds interesting leads and events, he filters them to his boss.

Not long after the chairman's exclamation, Booster flies in overhead and hovers there for a moment, hanging in the air looking shiny and dynamic as he scans the area. Then, he is moving again, arrowing roughly towards where the explosions seemed to originate. Fireworks, bombs, whatever they might be, that sort of thing doesn't worry him. He does comment to Skeets, as he drops down towards the ground, "Wow. This sure is a lot of ... plants."

The deepest entrenchment of The Gardens sloped concavely, making this section especially difficult to scan, or easily reach by foot. This was where some of the more rare plants housed on the facility were bred. As soon as Booster is close enough to eyeball the scene, he'd see only one person here--it's a skinny blonde girl wearing a BAZOOKA JOE t-shirt, hot pants, and a mink fur coat.

"Quit being all... fast!" she shouted, shaking her fist defiantly. Surrounding her were five or six little robots--about the size of skeets--and they all had giant-grinned yellow happy faces on them. Their eyes, however, were less friendly, and were in fact shooting red laser beams at Tabitha. She ducked under one of the tables housing seeds for cover, its contents either obliterated or scattered. "You're sooo gonna get brokety!" she shouted from under the table. A moment later, her arm swung up from under the table, and a tiny, sparkling little 'energy' ball flew from it--directed at one of the floating happy-faces of doom. As it neared, it exploded into a short-range, hot wave of plasma, as the little robot dodged the attack.

As the explosions continue, Booster raises one fist and it glows and swirls with golden kirby-crackle. However, once he has a chance to get a better look at the situation, the energy fizzles out and he looks over at Skeets, who turns in the air to glance back at him. Then, Booster walks forward and says, "Ah... hi there. Could you droids please stop firing at this young lady? I'd prefer to avoid using force on any of you, but you're causing a disturbance with this fight. I need you to cease all hostilities immediately."

Skeets just flies up and back, because he knows a bad situation when he sees it, and has decided he does not want to be targeted by one of those plasma bursts. "Sir, I could try disabling them if they refuse to submit."

///*FZZZ!*/// A crackling sound erupted over a poor-quality speaker from one of the happy-faced, floating robots. ///*Fzzzt!* Ahhh--Good--Another plaything! //// -- a creepy, static-riddled, human voice was heard. An adjacent robot turned towards Booster, it's eyes began to show signs of red light--probably to shoot more lasers.

"Hey Assface! Get out of the waaay!" the young lady shouted as she jumped up from under the table. She ran up close to Booster, arms akimbo, and foot impatiently tapping on the ground. "This is *my* super-heroic task, buddy! I call dibs!" she says, looking slightly miffed.

"Yes, Skeets, if they keep this up--" Booster frowns at the robot who seems to be threatening him, then down at Tabitha. He gives her one of his bright smiles. "Why don't we discuss the situation. I'd like to know what's going on." Waving one gloved hand, a translucent golden bubble appears around himself and Tabitha. "What's with these little guys?" He jerks a thumb towards the floating robots. "Are you having some kind of fight with your, I dunno, with your archfoe? I'm here because I wanted to make sure no civilians were getting killed."

The woman's eyes go wide when she sees the force field, and begins pounding her fists on it. "What the hecky-hell." The robot's laser-eyes go off, and start firing a maintained, powerful energy beam against Booster Gold's force field--the beam is far more powerful than it's painted, cheerful expression would suggest, and begins increasing in strength.

///// *FZZZT!* Ahaha! The longer it shoots, the stronger it gets!! Ahahaha! //// -- The crackly, monaural speaker said tauntingly.

"Lemme outta this thing, bubble boy!" the woman shouts, now kicking at the force field she's being protected by. She, alas, miscalculated how hard it was: "Ouch!"

"I'm -Booster Gold-," Booster explains, a touch reproachfully. "Are you sure? Because I can feel the energy this thing is outputting--by the way," He shifts his focus from the blonde girl to the robot who is currently firing at him, "If you don't stop that, I'm going to disable you." And then, back to the young woman, "My force field is impenetrable." Nearly so, at least, but he's not going to admit that in front of something that's shooting at him. "But, okay... if you die, though, I'm going to feel really bad about it."

The bubble seems to contract abruptly, leaving the teen free, and Booster outlined in a faint golden glow. This has him frowning at the attacking robot again, and he raises a fist, energy crackling around it threateningly. In the meantime, Skeets is attempting to probe at the little drones, trying to scan them and electronically prod them.

The woman, now bubble-free, lept up and down excitedly, raising her arm triumphantly. "Woohoo!" And from her raised hand another little energy-plasma sparkler flung out, aimed straight at Booster's attacker. It nailed its target, exploding in a bright flash of light. Small, burning metal and plastic robotic pieces twirling to the ground below.

"You're TOTALLY ruined my chance to hook up a wicked arch-nemesis, dude, but... thanks," she conceded with a goofy little smile. The young woman was so happy, however, that she hadn't even noticed the three other robots, who had now re-directed their attention to her, and prepared to fire.

"Oh, you're welcome." Booster tilts his head to one side. "I'm sure you'll have plenty of other chances to gain some kind of foe." Both of his hands point towards the teen, or at least, at what is lurking behind her. Golden bolts of energy erupt from the backs of his hands, firing to either side of her, at the drones. "Pro-tip, though, don't stop in the middle of a fight unless you're fireproof or whatever."

The young woman marched straight up to Booster Gold, somehow already aware that the robots behind her were getting destroyed by his blasts, their explodey parts flinging every which way, debris falling to her sides. Stomping her way up close, she gave a scowled expression that looked part serious, part sarcastic, and swung her palm at Booster's face to slap it. Hitting instead the forcefield around him, she grabbed her hand with her other hand--"Aiye!"--rubbing at the pain.

"That...was...for... messin' with my turf, mang," she declared, wangling her finger declaratively. Then, with a complete 180-degree shift in personality, she was suddenly happy, perky, and soft-voiced, "So, I'm Tabitha. They call me Boom-Boom, cause, yeah..." she said, introducing herself. "TOYMAN was trying to RUIN-UP these gardens. I've been following them around for, like, the last ten minutes. Those robots said plants were BORING... can you believe that?!" she continued. Her fidgety right hand unconsciously ran itself across the edge of a tall blade of grass to her side. It had no distinguishable properties whatsoever. She then swatted it.

Although the force field protects Booster from the sting of the slap, he still gives Tabitha the mildly hurt look of someone with an emotional bruise. "This is your turf? The uh..." He gestures vaguely around.

"Botanical gardens, sir," Skeets prompts, swooping down to collect bits of exploded drone with one of his extensible pinchy arms.

"Botanical gardens," Booster nods, although he is not entirely certain what that is. He lifts a hand, index finger pointed upwards to help with declamation as he says, "Plants are a precious resource and one that enriches this planet in this era. Destroying them is a vile act." He seems to at least somewhat believe this. Dropping his hands so that his posture becomes more casual, he says, "Well, you're going to have a little problem, because the explosions you were creating were seen, and you might get into trouble if they don't understand that you were fighting a villain. Or... at least, a villain's accessories."

"Aw, man," Tabitha says with a sigh. "You tellin' me I should make a run for it? But I'm the good guy! They should build me a statue... right here," she declares, pointing down to where Booster is standing. Exasperated, Boom-Boom panned around The Gardens, no doubt plotting her escape. "Listen, Bustier, you wanna help me out here? I could, like, buy you a Pepsi or something," she says, suddenly whispering as if she were making a drug deal of some sort.

"It's Booster," the tall man corrects. He holds his hand out as Skeets drops some destroyed drone bits into his palm. "And sure, I'll help you out. I'm on the Avengers. And I help the Defenders. And I'm also a Legionnaire. I have a -little- credibility going on. Let me fly you with me to the security office, or whatever it is they have here, and I'll explain what happened. And that you were fighting off some kind of super-villain... I dunno, spy thing. Scouts." He gives a slight wave with his free hand. "You don't have to bribe me for it. Superheroes help each other out, right?" Booster turns the wave into a finger-gun pointing Tabitha's way, and he winks at her.

Tabitha hadn't heard of any of the groups Booster Gold mentioned except The Avengers, which was enough to get her to grin. "Cool robot," she said snappily. And then made a sudden, way-too-trusting, full-body-lunching jump at him, assuming the position of one who was about to be caught mid-air. When he does, she wraps her arms around his neck.

"Well, Boosty my dear," Tabitha said, still getting his name wrong--and was that a twinkle in her eye?--"I think this'll be the start of a beautiful friendship!"