2014.04.25 - Not a Picnic

Maybe someone said that 'what could go wrong?' phrase that always sets off trouble. Or maybe someone crossed the path of one too many black cats. Either way, a sunny and warm Thursday afternoon has started to go a bit weird. An intersection that had been relatively busy grinds to a halt as crackling green lightning starts arcing around. Some people abandon their cars and others look on with interest. Slowly that lightning begins to grow more frequent until the air itself cracks open and a glowing doorway of sorts opens. From with in it, two odd poles emerge and imbed themselves in the pavement. Attached to them are thick black wires leading back into the doorway. And for a few moments, there's silence. Then things start to emerge. Teddy bears. And they're walking on their own, making adorable little squeaky sounds as they wobble and shuffle into the area. They come in various sizes, including at least three as big as two full grown men stacked on top of one another. And right now they don't seem to be doing anything more than wobbling around.

Of course this has attracted the attention of one of Metropolis' defenders. Superboy, in costume, has come down from flying on his patrol to hover over some of the stopped cars. "Huh. Don't see this every day..."

Soleil had been jogging along, a backpack on his back filled with baked goods no doubt as he takes a bite from a rather large hotdog as he slows to a walk. He smells like biscuits and croissants and chocolate but he's enjoying a double stuffed hotdog with a drizzle of honey and a drizzle of mustard on it. Deliveries are mostly finished for the evening, so he has leftovers stuffed in the canvas backpack on his back, his golden backpack hanging from his shoulder. This is what he had been doing. However...now he's standing there, just staring at the scene unfolding with his cheek puffed out with hotdog and white bread and he just chews slowly. Buh-Link.

Since it's a nice day out, Robbie Baldwin has decided to take the high road out of school. Which means turning into Speedball and bouncing along the rooftops. There's less foot traffic, that way. Unfortunately, he's heading right over the intersection, waving at fans that he imagines (wholly in his head) are cheering him on, when the roiling green lightning gets his attention. "Get back!" he calls to the passing citizens! It might be another invasion! And he'll have to hold the line! He angles down, landing on the street, hands curled into fists ready to face the meanacing scourge emerging from the portal.

Speedball stops, and also blinks.

"Wait, what?"

Flying through the air using the ring he borrowed from his cousin, Zack's flying a bit awkwardly right now. His landing when he gets to the portal is none too smooth either. "Bloody hell." He mutters under his breath, running fingers through his dark hair and looking up at the portal. Then he notices what is coming through and just stands there looking utterly baffled. This was not what he expected to see today. Gun toting wackos, tentacled beasts from some hell dimension, angels with flaming swords and even Devils with pitchforks would have phased Zack far less than what he's seeing right now. Removing his 10th Doctor's replica screwdriver, Zack points it towards the gateway and performs a quick scanning spell trying to determine what it is that the portal is actually doing.

Blink indeed. The animated Teddy Bears are wandering about, climbing on cars and even encouraging people to pick them up. They're even wandering towards Soleil and the heroes. The portal meanwhile seems to be a natural thing. It's a point where two different dimensions are just close enough to one another to allow passage between them. Normally the opening would only last a few minutes but something is holding it open.

Superboy glances around at all the others and approaches one of the giant bears. He pokes it a few times and laughs. "What the hell is goin' on here?" he chuckles. He'd been expecting trouble too but this isn't that bad. Of course then there's a scream. He looks over quickly to see that one of the bears has opened a mouth full of sharp looking teeth...well...as sharp as plush teeth can look...and is flailing it's arms at the woman that picked it up, trying to get at her. Other bears are following suit, hissing and starting to chase people. "What the he-" Superboy starts to scowl and get ready to rush into the rescue when something happens. That big bear that was behind him opens it's mouth, leans down...and swallows him whole. Uh oh. There's a small delay before beams of heat vision lance out from the bear's stomache and cuts it open. Stuffing spills out and Superboy re-emerges looking annoyed. And more shockingly...well...that costume's gone. All that's left of his costume seems to be bright red shorts with one leg shorter than the other. The waistband of his boxers can be seen peeking out of the tattered shorts. "Not cool!" Kon snaps, swining a punch at the injured bear and sending it flying back through the portal.

Chew...chew...chew...Soleil can only watch with a tilt of his head, brow furrowing for a moment before he watches things start to get out of control and he's jogging forward, pushing past a few onlookers to edge closer to where the bears are gathered and he takes a deep breath. "Oh...merde..." He murmurs softly before opening his mouth and closing it and then sighing as he reaches around into his canvas backpack, pulling out a couple of...those honey drizzled biscuits and he raises his voice. "Oooohh...little bears, look what Iii have..."

Putting his hands down as he sees the 'invaders' are terribly cute, Speedball mentally calculates how many he could collect for his friends and teammates. Of course, need to find a green one for Billy or he'll get cranky. And hey, there's a green one walking right towards him. "Oh, perfect," Speedball says, and reaches down to pick up the waddling teddy. That's when its mouth opens and tries to chow down on his hand. "Woah!" he says, backing up a step. He turns, and sees Superboy just in time for the latter to get swallowed whole, and he gives a start. "Sure, Chucky picks /today/ to branch out!" He jumps, starting a bounce to get him above the action as Superboy eye-beams his way out. "Hey!" he calls out. "Welcome to Beanie Babies Gone Wild!"

Drawing his rapier when he sees them starting the bears starting to attack, Zack frowns,"Why couldn't they just be nice sweet bears? Who decided to cause problems here." He says looking disturbed before he starts using his sword to form a circle on the ground. "Superboy, if you want I can use something to limit their movement." He says as he works on making a binding circle. There's a lot going on and he needs time to prepare this sort of spell.

Superboy ducks under a bear that leaps over a car towards him and punches another out of the air. Glancing at Speedball, he smirks. "Great, rejects from the 90's," not that he was even alive then...just part of his programming. Zack gets his attention next and Kon frowns a moment. "Yeah. Slow 'em down and we can throw 'em back where they came from!"

Speedball meanwhile should watch his back. One of those smaller bears has leapt onto his shoulder and started to gnaw. Oddly enough...no pain. And it's not even trying to break the skin. Nope, if Speedball pays attention he'll see his suit dissolving into the creature's mouth leaving the bouncy teen hero underneath unhurt. And it wants more. And to make matters worse, one of the two mega-sized bears is lumbering his way.

The bisuits attract the bears' attention pretty quickly. Three of them have gathered around Soleil's feet. They sniff the biscuits a few times and squeak at one another. Slowly they look at the homeless teen and then bypass the baked goods entirely. Nope, they go right for his pants and start chewing/dissolving the fabric off his body.

None of the bears are focusing on Zack specifically right now. No, they're too focused on trying to attack civilians and break into cars to eat clothing, seats, and any other fabric and materials they can get their fuzzy little maws on.

Yes. Evil, clothing and fabric eating animated teddy bears.

Only in Metropolis.

"Oh! What a pretty petite you are, oh yes you a-" Soleil blinks as his biscuits are ignored and then he looks down to see...they are eating his pants. His good pants! The new dark blue jeans that actually fit and his protest gets stuck in his throat as he just stares and then takes a few steps backwards and then forwards and then backwards and then he flails a bit, his hair unbraiding itself from its single braid and there are three bears? His hair fades from is dark brown to a color that matches the teddy bears as it grows longer, tendrils of hair reaching out to wrap around the bears' throats and squeeze tightly. "Oi!" Granted by now his pants are more like shorts, but he flails a bit. "You are to be stopping that! Shi-" He cuts himself off as he looks at the chaos around him.

"But I left my ultra-blankie powers in my other costume!" Speedball calls back. He has to try and make jokes; it beats freaking out over the fluffy attacks. He cranes his head to find one of the little bears has clamped onto his shoulder, and he braces for the pain of the bite...

"Huh," he says. "Build-a-Bear hasn't put in their 'real teeth' option yet. But why-HEY!" It's about that time that Speedball notices that the shoulder of his costume is dissolving. "Hey, get off!" he says, trying to pry the bear from his shoulder before he becomes Speedball al-flagrante (To him, that's a word). So he doesnt notice the large bear until the shadow falls over him.

"Oh man, two more months of therapy, here I come."

Taking his rapier and stabbing it into the center of the circle and clapping his hands together,Zack says,"Air answer me and bind movements of my enemies!" A series of small tendrils snaking out of the circle and going towards a series of the bears designed to hold them still and keep them from being able to move. His blue eyes watch the teddy bears as he tries to direct the binding spells with his eyes towards the variety of them. This is something that he can do. He's doing his best to support Superboy here.

The bears grabbed by Soleil's hair flail and squeal in that grip. One points a fluffy arm at the now shorts-clad young man and starts squeaking at him as if trying to curse him out. The squeaks take the edge off it though. He should be careful though because a bear the size of a small dog is bouncing his way. And a smaller one is gnawing on his backpack and eating a hole into that material.

The bear chewing on Speedball is easily pulled off. It squeals angrily and tries to bite his hand. Of course there's that big bear. And unluckily for him, it might be more than two months. Just like the first large bear did to Superboy, this second one opens it's mouth and swallows Speedball like a candy ball. Inside it's dark and there's A LOT of cotton all around. It shouldn't be too hard to escape but he should probably move quick. His suit's dissolving away quicker now and it won't be long until he's in the same boat as Superboy.

Speaking of Superboy? He's busy prying bears off civilians and tossing them into the portal. When one takes a bite out of what's left of his costume, Kon launches it with TTK and it ends up popping like a fluffy balloon against a car. When he sees what Zack is up to, Superboy flies over. The tendrils grab onto several bears and they fall over, rolling like turtles flipped on their backs. Conner scoops them up quickly and tosses them like footballs into the portal. Of course this earns Zack the attention of that last big bear and it pushes a car out of it's way as it lumbers angrily at Zack. "This is just messed up," Superboy remarks, heat-visioning one bear that's trying to break a car window with a rock.

"Yeah? And your maman too!" Soleil returns to the bear's cursing with a steam of rapid fire French. He squeaks as he swats at the bear on his backpack, eyes widening. "Non! This is not how to be polite!" He distractedly slams the one cussing at him against the ground before taking a few running steps and looking up towards the portal before his free hand is tugging at the smaller bear on his backpack. "Non, that is not for you! Haven't you ever heard of bed the bath and the beyond, is many nice sheets fo-" He looks up to see the small dog bear and just starts running towards the portal. Bears entangled in his hair. "Come on, be nice and I will be giving you all the clothing you want! Off!"

Suddenly, Speedball is upended and falls into a dark, cottony place. Namely, the giant teddy bear's stomach. "Let me out!" Speedball says, but maybe he's the only one that can hear him because there's a lot of cotton inside to insulate the noise. He bangs against the 'walls' of the stomach, producing more bubbles...which is making it more crowded. If there was room, a little light bulb might have appeared over Speedball's head. "Oh yeah, Stare /this./ He starts moving his arms faster, creating more impacts, therefore creating more kinetic energy bubbles...

"I think someone missed the point of teddy bears. At least they're not flesh eaters. That is even worse." Zack says as he continues making gestures, more tendrils of air flowing out of the circle and flying towards yet more, binding them in air so they cannot cause more damage. His blue eyes are tracking their movements. "There are so many of them. We need to close those gateways." He says towards Superboy,"Any ideas what we can do to shut it down?"

When swatted, the small bear hisses at Soleil. It then goes right back to gnawing the backpack. The one slammed into the ground slumps, apparently knocked out. More bears chase Soleil as he runs and the small one is easily pried off his backpack. One of the bears jumps off a car and grabs onto his back. It bites his hair...only to pause. It lets out a squeal and stars chewing more. Soleil will notice the creature is eating his hair just like they'd gone after his clothes. This is probably not the kind of haircut he ever wanted!

That big bear seems quite pleased with it's bouncy snack. And seems completely unaware that Speedball is working on getting free. Even when Speedball's bouncing causes bumps and bulges it seems oblivious. But as it gets more and more crowded, a faint glow forming, the bear makes a confused squeak and then...BOOM. Well...not so much 'boom' but the bear does explode and send cotton and stuffing everywhere. Poor Speedball will find himself left in nothing but his mask and a pair of shorts that used to be his costume but...at least he's free and decent. Yay?

Superboy keeps scooping up bears after Zack binds them and tossing them into the portal. Thankfully all this activity has gotten the bears focusing on the two teen heroes from the YJL so civilians are safe. "Uhh..." Superboy trails off, looking at the portal. "What about those things?" he asks, pointing at the odd poles sticking into the pavement and attached to wires leading into the portal. "Watch my back, man. I don't need to end up flashing the super-goods everywhere," he comments as he flies over. Meanwhile that huge teddy bear is reaching down trying to grab Zack. And those with sharp eyes will notice something...kind of cute maybe. Little bears dressed like doctors and nurses dragging the torn and ripped remains of injured bears back towards the portal.

"Oh Mon Dieu. Here!" Soleil yanks a hankerchief from a pocket to shove at the small one that was on his backpack, so now he's leaking crumbs from that backpack but he's trying to appease Tiny Backpack Bear with the red hankie before he has to stumble forward a few feet when something is on his back! Biting his hair. Now most people would probably find it annoying, but when your hair is like another appendage, its like someone is eating his arm, or his leg. The scream that comes from Soleil is somewhat piercing, ending in a bit of a hiss as he tears up and takes a deep breath and then another, letting out soft hitches of breathing, hand moving up to grope weakly at the bear as his hair releases the bears it had originally captured to try to wrap around the bear on his back, desperately, squeezing and whipping and tugging, its a panic of hair over there ---> the colors pulsing between blond and red. Tripping and running for the portal. (Read: Stumbling)


 * FLOOMPH* That Zen question is answered; what is the sound of one giant mutant clothes-eating bear exploding?

"Waaaa-hooo!" Speedball is freed, and he takes a long, deep breath of actual non-cottony oxygen, and it feels so good! "Yeah, take that! There's more where that came from!" Beat. "And when did it get so cold?"

Oh. He's in shorts and a mask. Whatever Robbie might say about himself, it's mostly talk, and his cheeks turn a bright red out of embarassment. He looks around; maybe there's someone with a trenchcoat he can borrow. "Wait..." he looks over, again. "These wires..."

"They're not magic so I don't really know." Zack says letting out a yelp and jumping away from the bear. "Stupid bear!" He says angrily, making a gesture and shackles of air continuing to flow out. "Bloody Hell." he says as he makes a wall of pure force appear in front of himself. Biting his lower lip casually, as he looks around. "What should I do to these? Maybe we can get rid of the poles and that will allow the portal to close."

"Maybe? Let's wreck them and see what happens," Superboy suggests. He's about to head right for them when he hears Soleil scream. He rushes over even as the hair pulls that teddy bear off. He fries the bear with a quick burst of heat vision and TTK-shoves the ones that were dropped before they can be dropped. "Are you alright, ba-" Kon starts to ask, pausing as he notices something. A faint blush comes to his cheeks as he's embarrassed at his mistake. "dude?"

Those wires are thick black cable and occasionally pulse with the same green energy as the portal. They're connected to the poles and running right back into the portal. And best of all? There's a clear shot towards them. Other than the medical bears dragging the 'injured' back to wherever home for the bears is, nothing is guarding those poles or wires. There are a few bears moving towards Speedball though, after the last of his clothes and unluckily for him...no clothes around to borrow.

The big bear roars as it misses Zack. It immediately starts pounding on the wall of force. It's not the only thing Zack has to worry about. One of the more normal sized bears has snuck up behind Zack and is gnawing on the back of his pants leg. Others are approaching too.

Soleil pants heavily, lashes lowered when he feels the release and the lifting of his burden so to speak by heat zapped and tk-shoved interference and his hand moves up shakily to where the bear was chewing, the hair there wiggles a bit in how its slightly shorter than the other strands, pulsing red and sloooooooooowly, almost too slow to be seen, growing back and his lets the other strands of hair withdraw to past his butt legnth as he offers a shaky smile to Superboy. "Non...I am not, but go..." He waves towards the portal, taking a knee for a moment as he watches the medical bears begin dragging the bears towards the portal. "I-I will be fine. Merci..." He might be trembling but he's pointing. "They are just wanting to e-eat...but buffet time to be closing..."

As Superboy speaks about taking out the poles, Speedball shouts "On it!" Anything to keep him from thinking about his current state. Because, well, that way he won't give into the urge to crawl into a hole and die as opposed to fighting the bad...bears. He bounds forward, building up momentum as he heads right for the poles. The wires are way too thick for his skinny arms to pull, but the poles look solid and breakable, and that's just what he intends to do.

"GET OFF!" Zack says shaking his legs trying not to shake off the demented teddies. "Come on! This is just magical cloth NOT FOOD!" He says trying to kick the things in the head with the full force he can manage. He might not be super strong but he does play footie. "Whoever made those things is going to have to pay the bill. This outfit was NOT easy to make." He says grumbling as he tries to get rid of the stupid bears attacking him, trying not to incinerate them with a spell.

Superboy nods to Soleil, checking him over for injury. He's a little surprised by how that hair is pulsing and growing but he shakes it of. Conner has seen weirder and hair-control isn't that outlandish a power. Patting Soleil's shoulder, Superboy looks around. "Right. Get somewhere safe then. We'll take care of this and these plush pests made enough of ya a snack," he says, starting to fly towards Speedball to guard him from attack while he breaks the poles.

The magical cloth is food for the bears though. And magic infused cloth is as tasty a treat as Soleil's unusual hair was. THe bear seems especially unwilling to let go but Zack manages to get it loose. And then...GOAL! The bear goes sailing through the air and right through the portal. Soccer training paid off. Zack might want to rethink not burning things though. More bears are surrounding him and the big bear has gotten around his force wall.

Solid and breakable they are indeed. The teddies nearest the portal look on in fuzzy horror as Speedball craches though the poles. SNAP-BOING-SNAP. The polls break and spark, the wires they're attached to popping free and flailing before they're sucked through the portal. The glowing green crack in reality pulses before turning into a vaccuum of sorts. While the people in the area have to deal with some strong wind, the bears are being picked up and sucked right back where they came from.

The bears all squeak, hiss, and roar as they're pulled and dragged back from where they came. That massive bear that was...bearing down...on Zack is the last one through, seemingly plugging the hole like a certain fictional bear. It gets pulled through with a POP though, the protal shrinking down to nothing more than a small point of green light and then just winking away into nothingness. There's silence and Superboy looks around before landing next to Speedball and tossing a friendly arm around his shoulders. "Woo! Good goin', bro!" he cheers, apparently not minding that the two of them are nearly naked.

"Merci..." Soleil straightens up, tugging briefly on his new jorts and looking up in time to see the teddy bears are being sucked back in from whence they came and his eyebrows raise a fraction. He just stares and tilts his head from one side to the other before he leans against a car, sinking down into a seated position as he just shakes his head slowly. "....mon dieu...

Being toothpick-like, Speedball grunts a little 'oof' as Superboy congratulates him. "I'm just surprised that worked," he says. "Had to do something; I was running out of clothes." He lets out a sigh, realizing he's almost in the altogether. "Oh, bother," he mutters, and looks up to check on the others. Soleil gets a concerned look. "Look...Superboy, right?" Pause. "Oh wow Superboy said I did a good job." Back to reality. "/Any/way," he says. "Your friend there looks a little shell-shocked."

"Sorry guys... I know I am not perhaps as unadorned as the pair of you are at the moment but if I don't get home and get to work repairing this thing, it'll be months before I have one that functions as well." Zack says in his crisp upperclass British accent and makes another gesture creating a vortex of blue light,"I'll be going now. If you need me for anything, Superboy has plenty of ways to contact me." He says before jumping through the vortex,"Geronimo!" Is said right before he passes through.

Superboy just blinks as Zack abandons ship...or street. Rolling his eyes slightly, Conner shakes his head. "Couldn't even magic us new duds?" he murmurs. He lets it go though, in a pretty good mood. Extra sunlight absorbing and a victory have him grinning. He nods, keepking an arm around Speedball just because. "Tell me about it, man. I'm almost super-streaking too," he says, gesturing down at himself. He looks up at Soleil when Speedball points him out and blinks. "Actually, I have no idea who he is but yeah. He is lookin' a little messed up. Course havin' crazy teddy bears chewing on your pants can do that..." he trails off. "Hey, I got some clothes you can borrow if ya want," he offers Speedball before looking towards Soleil. "Hey, you alright over there?" he calls to the pastry-carrying teen. Of course civilians are crawling out of where they were hiding now, some complaining about ruined clothes and others snapping pictures and capturing videos with their phones.

The Pastry-carrying teen shakily gets to his feet, moving a hand to his head and closing his eyes before quickly shaking his head and straightening up. Soleil lifts a hand to wave to Superboy and Speedball, offering another weak smile before clearing his throat. "Non, but...I will be. I..." He sets the canvas backpack of sweets down. "Here, you can be helping yourself, I ...thank you both..." He adjusts his new jorts once more and turns to begin walking off, muttering softly to himself in French.

"Go help him," Speedball says, shaking his head. "I have a place to go to to get something new. I'll...get over this." Click. Click. Damn camera phones. "When I'm forty. Maybe." He doesn't look like Superboy; he feels embarassed. "I'll see you around. Thanks."

Superboy just shrugs. Some police and EMTs are arriving to help people shocked by all this even if they're pretty confused. Superboy meanwhile has actually noticed Speedball's embarrassment. He feels bad for the guy even if he doesn't see a reason for him to be embarrassed. He'd probably flirt if there weren't more pressing matters. "Sure, see ya. Hey, allow the one and only Superboy to explain what went down here," he calls, out, drawing attention to himself so others have time to get away without too much attention.