2013.06.20 - Circling the Wagons

Jun 20th really isn't much of a special occation, but the gangs never really need much of an 'occation' to cause a spot of trouble. The Theatre sits like some relic to a bygone era of the cities past and sullied history. Harkening to an age where these streets were a little brighter and the crime was a little less previlant.. but those days are long gone.

There are still small bashions of hope scattered into the cancerous wastes of South Gotham, but those piece of antiquity only serve to show the severity of the rot... Even as it offers a colorful alternative to the hoods hanging out only a few doors down. A little ma and pa store sits opening offering fresh baked goods. The 'Jundersons' have been in this part of town since the 60s and are a tough breed of Gothamite... they have to be.

Down the road a spell sits a beat up old limo with the windows busted out and taped over with birthday ribbon. Along the right side is spray painted bright red 'ha has'... in the front seat is a man dressed like your typical driver, complete with one of those little hats and everything... and tears running down his eyes. His hands are duct taped to the steering wheel and something is ticking ominously in his lap.

Beside him sits a man in a rubber clown mask holding a grenade launcher (because we're going for overkill) to the man's timple.

"Jus' do wha' we say an' nobodies gotta get dead, ya follow?"

High above the Eastern Seaboard, Superman is floating in the night sky. His eyes are closes as he listens to thousands of conversations that, without focus, would invade his mind at every moment of the day. He tunes them out most of the time, but at moments like this, he merely waits until he chances upon a moment where he can spring into action. As soon as the words, "nobodies gotta get dead" are uttered, Superman's eyes open and he soars downward at incredible speeds, headed for Gotham.

The limo sits waiting, but for what exactly isn't entirely clear. The bakery is just now starting to close, the elderly couple exiting and locking up behind themselves with the 'over the shoulder' glances one really has to expect from folks living in this part of Gotham.

The gang kids take notice, sure, but this is their neighborhood and the Junderson's pay their 'rent' money on time. No reason to go about messing with the locals.

So, who then, will bother them?

It wouldn't be much of a story if it was just a bomb... no punchline. No nothing, really.

So when an arrow whistles out of a dark alley and embeds itself shaft deep in the chest of one of the gang members, the others are sort of dumb founded.. The Jundersons, bless them, run for the alleys... wide eyed and startled. The other gangies whip out pistols and start circling around half expecting the Batman to come popping up out of one of their fruit of the looms.

Instead comes a group of 'Indians' (all wearing outlandishly offensive stereotypical garb) on horse back galloping and whooping. Firing arrows at the gangsters as they 'circle the wagons'.

The last to exit the alley is a slinder, barely clothed, Joker... wearing the biggest feather headdress he could possible find in any thrift store ever... Sauntering all slow motion to the last remaining gangster. "How, black man." Raising one hand with his fingers together in that F-Troop stereotype of an Indian Greeting.

"I am Chief Laughs in face."

Superman lands violently, creating a small crater in between the gang members and Joker's merry 'band." His first move is to rip the arrow out from the chest of the man that was shot, and within a split second, his heat vision is cauterizing the wound even as the man screams in pain. "Stop this madness!" Superman exclaims, only to turn and see the Joker with wide blue eyes. He's heard of this menace, but has never believed any of the stories.

Until now.

The mounted indians all rear up on their horses as the Man of Steel lands amongst them, Chief Laughs in Face circling his own horse for dramatic effect like in all the movie pictures.

The horse neys in anxiety, perhaps sensing what the Joker only laughs at... violently, menacingly, insanely. Without even dropping character.

"Black man move in on Clown tribe lands... Promise blankets... make people sick." Giggling in psychotic glee.

The three other 'indians' pull their bow strings and aim them at the Super man. Letting loose a flurry of arrows that will be about as effect as throwing bacon bits at him.

"Chief Laugh in Face not amused." He's lying, he's totally amused.

The arrows bounce helplessly of Superman and clang upon the ground. At least the fire is upon them and not the gang members. Superman turns at the waist and looks back to them. "Gentlemen, I'm not sure who you are or where you come from, but I assure you that this is one fight you don't want to be part of. I recommend you run. And that you run now." Slowly he turns his attention to two of Joker's men and zooms off the ground, grabbing them by the neck and attempting to pull them straight off their horse.

These guys are standing face to face with the Superman... AND... the Joker. Running is definitely something they'll be doing and fast. Rushing off down the street as if they're being chased by a madman dressed like an indian on a horse...

The two 'indians' are pulled off their horses with ease... these are not super individuals, just off rocker ones... They kick a bit, but that's just desperation...

The third fires another arrow at Superman because he's anything if not presistant.

Chief Laughs in Face spurs his horse after the gangsters running down the street, 'whooping' his hand against his mouth in that 'waa waa waa' thing they do in old movies... splattering one of their skulls open with a long curved wooden 'coup stick'.

"YOU TELL GOVERNMENT WE NOT TAKE IT ANY MORE! NO WE ARE NOT TAKING IT!"

Superman chucks the two men against a far wall, just in time to turn around and see the Joker murder one of the gang members.

"NO!" he screams as the head bursts open like a blood sausage.

Before anyone can blink, Superman is aiming to tackle Joker off his horse. There's a loud crackle of energy and the sound and feeling of displaced air.

Before reaching him, Superman does pull up in order to avoid cutting right through the villain. But, things just got very, very serious.

The Joker probably doesn't want to get tackled from his horse, but there's a whole lot of nothing he can do to stop the Super man from doing it. So when that crackle of energy whips into him a half second before a wall of rock plows into his back, his expression goes all wide eyed... then he's tumbling and the horse is running off in another direction, kicking and stomping as it too is startled.

Chief Laughs in Face rolls and back crawls once he's hit the concrete, spinning up to his feet holding his coup stick in both hands like a baseball player at the plate. "You side with Black man! You no stand for truth and justice like magic moving box say!" Giggling.. he's standing face to face with Superman... and he's laughing about it.

The third 'Indian' dives off his horse towards the Man of Steel's back like this will some how turn the tide of battle!

It will not!

But Joker swings his club at another gang... bashing in right in the spine with enough surprise force to at least dislocate some vertibral. "WE NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE!"

Superman reaches up to grab the thug who jumps upon his back and swats him away as if he's an unwanted bug. The flick of his hand sends the man airborne before he collides with a conveniently placed trash dumpster. The man hits with a loud thud, and even leaves a little dent. As Joker attacks again, it's time for the Man of Steel to finish this.

Superman digs his toe into the ground and pushes off, using his superspeed. The punch he aims at Joker is definitely pulled, otherwise it might take the villains head clear off. For good measure, Superman's eyes begin to glow red just before a blazing blast of energy is aimed at the club Joker is using to damage folks in an attempt to incinerate the club in one fell swoop.

'AYEEEEEEEEEEE' Airborne Chief Laugh in Face! He's flying ma, he's flying! And landing in a heap, rolling with a grumpy sort of oof sound escaping his lungs when the air is knocked out of him and coming up to his feet wobbling... The coup stick comes up just as the red beam catches it ablaze... a blazing firey wooden weapon he holds onto just like a burning match!

Until it burns his hands. It's tossed away in deliberate comedic fashion with his hands waving in the air like some looney toons cartoon! "Man of Steel play unfair like Pale Eyes!" They are not pale eyes, apparently...

"So does Chief Laugh in Face..." Pointing with a still smoking finger, smile growing obscenely wide a half second before he starts laughing.

The limo, the reason for all this, sits back up the alleyway. 3...2....1 POP!

Pop it does, green smoke filling the cabin like some kind of infection spreading through bile ducts. Then laughter... horrible, agonized, painful laughter...

The clown masked armored up man steps out with his grenade launcher and starts firing off canisters into every window... more of that green smoke bellowing out everytime one hits.

"Pale man of Steel make choice... Him catch savage chief or him save people... Chief Laugh in Face think him know what choice Pale man of Steel make..."

"NO!" As the canisters begin to drop, Superman bolts away after delivering a vicious punch towards Joker's face. With as many men as he has, it's likely that Joker will be able to be carried away in some fashion, but Superman's already lost one human in this fight. His superspeed is now focused on collecting as many of those green canisters as he can, throwing them out towards the ocean, and using his a massive intake of air to 'suck in' as much of that poison as he can. All the while, he attempts to get over towards the vehicle and rip open that door.

The Joker sprays the street with several of his teeth when his head snaps around. He wobbles a few steps, saunters like he's regaining his composure, then throws a harmless, poorly aimmed (like in the entirely wrong direction) looping punch and crumples into the gutter head dress first ala Glass Joe in Punchout.

As the superman goes about collecting canisters, the armored thug keeps firing them into more windows... unafraid of the bees nest he's stirred up with the Man from Metropolis. But the Joker's people are willing to die for his insane cause... whatever that cause is...

And several more are starting to come out of alleys on horseback, all dressed up in lavish, outlandish, indian garb to collect their fallen leader while the Kryptonian is busy saving the poor undeserving people of Gotham. All of whom are crying with laughter... faces starting to twist into sickening rectus grins as they cough sputter the green gas..

The man in the front seat of the limo has it pretty bad off, though.. the canister he's breathing from was strapped right to his chest and his face is already petrified into that unnatural grin that only plastic surgery can fix.. laughing his ass off and crying like he just had to shoot his favorite hunting dog.

Joker is thrown over the back of a horse and the indians all whoop and hollar as they scatter like roaches in every direction.

Leaving Superman to deal with one man, a grenade launcher, smilex gas, and about twenty smilex gassed bystanders who were 'CERTAIN' Superman could prevent this and came out to watch the Clown'jin Chief of Crime go down hard.

Even as Superman is rushing towards the man with the grenade launcher, his heat ray vision is attempting to melt the tip of the gun order to stop the canisters from firing. He reaches back just a tick, and though the punch is again pulled, he attempts to deliver a knock out blow to the man in question.

The air crackles with whooshes and wind blows all over as Superman bends down to collect all 20 of the canisters in mere moments. Stacking them in a pile in the middle of the street, a vast front of ice breath encases them safely and prevent them from doing any more damage than they've done thus far.

From there, he begins to root out all of the bystanders, both on the street and in the buildings where the canisters were jettisoned. It's slow going (in Superman terms), but he cradles each one into his arms and jets off in the air to the hospital as fast as he can without blowing out the windows of the buildings he passes.

Usually when he's rescuing someone, he does so with a reassuring smile. This time, however, his teeth are gritted in anger and his eyes seems to be moist.

Gotham City will never be use to the Joker... they cannot ever become familiar with this kind of horror.. but to see it for the first time is probably the worst. Stories abound about his psychotic games, but when they look right in the eyes and laugh heartily, it truely is the worst of humanity.

The people are thankful the Man of Steel was there. Greatful beyond words that he gets them to the hospital in time to prevent a complete demorphication because of that horrible Smilex gas... only the 'driver' is permanently injured.

Several EMTs and three Doctors meet the Superman outside the hospital and rush all the patients towards the emergency room where they can get to work... A nurse stands on, watching Superman with a sad... but understanding... look in her eyes. "We have a special councelor you can speak with..." She says it, but the words seem scripted. Apparently this is not new. Old hat enough that they have someone onstaff to deal with 'survivors' of the Clown Prince... she feels, and looks like she feels, obsurd offering this to Superman, though.

Superman stands, looking in on the hospital rooms with a dour face. He folds his arms over his chest in a familiar pose, but there's something different this time around. It almost seems as if it's less confident.

"I think I'd like that, ma'am."