| Day of the Dinosaurs | |||||
| |||||
| What: Prehistoric Panic! Times Square comes under attack by dinosaurs and the devious Dinosaur Man leading them! There may be more to this situation than it seems but people should probably stop the rampaging dinos before trying to figure that out. | |||||
It's a nice and sunny Saturday in Metropolis this Memorial Day weekend. Sure its a little cooler than some may like but that's not keeping anyone in. People are out and about enjoying the day and Times Square is as busy as ever. People go about their business and only one fight needs to be broken up between knock-off Elmo and a giant M&M.
All seems calm with the day.
And of course that is when the screaming starts. It comes from the Toys R Us, people initially writing it off as overexcited kids. But then people start running from the building...and there's a roar. Right before a T-Rex bursts out of the building and stomps into the street. More people yell, car horns blare, and the giant lizard...which for some reason is bright neon green and feathered...roars again. Odder still, it's got what seems to be a bright orange Stegosaurus man riding on its back. "Hahahaha! Yes! Flee! Run from your prehistoric superiors!" the Dinosaur Man calls out. He did say superiors. Meaning more dinosaurs. Like the several raptors swarming out onto the street as well along with a full sized triceratops, stegosaurus, and a few Pterodactyls following shortly behind.
Cir-El patrols the city on a variable schedule, both the time and the pattern change. Actually she has a number of patterns mapped out, and uses a computer program to decide which pattern and at what time using random number generators so it is hard to predict. With her super hearing, she can hear a call for help from miles away, she considers it her most useful power.
Superlass hears the screaming ans is off like a shot...literally because she is moving at the speed of a bullet (though running, not flying). She reaches the area in seconds and says, "You know, there is a reason these things went extinct." Then she jumps up and hits the T-Rex har enough to flip it over from the blow to the jaw...
Manker, having started to reach a high amount of mass recently, had set on the helmet of his suit to prevent excess solar mass bleeding into the area around him. Though this seems to only further make him stand out against the masses in the city known as new york.
Which seems to be undergoing strange festivities and gathering that he hadn't dared to intrude upon to learn more about- such questioning is best saved for after the event, when his mass isn't nearing critical point.
Then there's the screaming which catches his attention. He turns to face the source and starts jogging there quickly, easily outpacing the local traffic, even some of the ones weaving around traffic in their smaller vehicles. By the time he's there to witness giant reptilian creatures, his sword is being drawn.
The massive and unwieldy mass of metal is handled by Manker as though it were nothing, and he leaps into the fray once he notes that one of the larger creatures is being attacked by a flying... person. He swings the broad of his blade to collide with an upset looking triceratops cranial plate, letting loose a rattling crack as said plate dents and cracks from the impact, shearing a good portion of it off while leaving the beast standing and concussed otherwise.
Zenith is flying towards Central Park with some pizza for his friends when he hears the screaming. Setting the pizza down on the nearest rooftop, he turns, flying at speed towards the Toys R Us. He takes a split second to take in the scene, before flying down to try to grab and carry some civilians out of the path of the giant creatures.
Billy Batson usually doesn't head to this part of town, he normally doesn't have the money to hang around here, but sometimes even a foster kid wants to check out the better part of town. That and the fact that sometimes the magic that the Wizard granted him to be Shazam sometimes points him in the right direction in case of trouble. In this case... a dinosaur rampage... in the Toys 'R Us no less.
Billy just blinks for a long moment and then as people are running away, he hears the call to action as other heroes arrive. He'll probably end up being unneeded, but better to be there and not needed, then not there but needed. The decision made, he looks around for a good place to transform, not wanting to make a spectacle of himself even though it's unlikely anyone would know who he is around here.
Billy sees a place where no one is running to and slips into an unoccupied alleyway and calls forth the magic lightning with a word, "SHAZAM!" The lightning smashes into him and he changes from a 16 year old foster brat to a much older and much stronger version of himself, with the powers of several deities at his command. He flies into the air and says, "Well now, how did Metropolis turn into Jurassic World?" He summons the magic lightning to his fingertips and launches a ball of it at one of the rampaging dinos.
"Hey, little dude. Need a hand?" comes from near Zenith as he's scooping people up. If he looks over, he'll see Superboy in the process of doing the same thing. He'd been in the area to talk to one of the news agencies so he's on scene to help out. "Got incoming, dude," he warns, nodding to a pair of pterodactyls swooping at Zenith.
The Triceratops is in the process of destroying an UBER driver's car when Manker comes flying at it. And something very unusual happens when that sword connects. Sure there's cracks and dents but that doesn't sound like bone it hit. And the beast doesn't seem very concussed...in fact it shakes its head and turns to glare at Manker before charging. Its foot steps don't sound as heavy as they should either. The thing is fast though and if Manker isn't fast too, it'll be like getting hit by a large, angry truck. With horns.
The Stegosaurus is perhaps acting the most lazy. It just lumbers down the street, casually swatting cars with its tail. And then a ball of lightning hits it. The creature gives a shriek as it falls over and a rather nasty stench fills the air. Not one of burning flesh...no...melting plastic. Where the ball of lighting hit? The dinosaur appears to be melting! It reacts rather angrily, tail lashing out and striking a fire hydrant, sending the metal object flying at Shazam!
The blow connects with the T-Rex's jaw and dents it but the beast keeps itself from flipping. Its smarter than the average dinosaur. Be afraid for your picnic baskets...and probably yourself too. Either way, the terrible lizard roars once more and whips its tail at Superlass.
The blow did send the Dinosaur Man tumbling off his mount though. He hits a car and groans, cursing the heroes. "That just means I'll need more..." he mutters, rummaging in a bag he's got hanging from a belt around his waist.
Cir-El braces herself and grabs the tails as it comes towards her. She does not have enough mass not to be moved. She grabs on and pulls...hoping she can get the leverage to swing the T-rex and use it as a club to hit one of the other big brutes.
Manker, thoroughly curious at this reaction to his attack, is making some distance and analyzing the situation around him. Something interesting catches his attention, a distraction that lasts long enough for him to be swatted aside by a very horned and angry beast.
He doesn't fly off as much as his size might imply, moving upwards and then curving down to the ground with his sword hardly leaving its position in the air from the hit. Rather than the normal scrabbling, he pulls himself up on the handle of his floating sword until he's able to get his feet under himself. A glowing mass of light gathers in his left palm, causing heat to shimmer in the air. He thrusts this palm forward and lets out a strong ejection of solar plasma towards the triceratops, sending a burst of heat and light that hangs in the air as the radioactive mass is expelled violently. The circular ring to the right of the gauge on his back loses some of its segmentation, to any careful observer behind him.
Zenith looks up to Superboy and smiles, "Hey! Yeah, could definitely use the help. This is..." He thenlooks up to the pterodactyl and flies into the air, trying to grab its' wing and, if he manages that, do a spinning throw at the other pterodactl.
Shazam raises an eyebrow at the scent of burning plastic and mutters to himself, "Huh... must either be robots or magical constructs made out of plastic toys." His musing is enough to distract him and get slammed by the fire hydrant. He oofs as he sent sailing backwards, landing hard onto the pavement and grimaces, "Yeah... keep your head in the game Billy..." He gets up from the rubble of the pavement he made when he landed and then flies as fast as he can and attempts to land a huge punch to the creature's jaw.
Appropriately enough, Carol was sneaking out to Toys 'R Us to do a little shopping for Lieutenant Trouble's (aka: Kit Renner) upcoming summer birthday. She was just pulling up on her motorcycle as things went the way of the dodo bird. "Seriously." she mutters, "Can't I just.. go shopping? Or should I go to Boston for that?" she mutters to herself as she stops her bike half a block off, takes her helmet off, and starts walking forwards... golden energy ribbong flowing from her feet to her neck.. and as it passes, her outfit transforms into that Red Blue and Gold uniform she wears, complete with crimson belt/sash. "I am -so- not in the mood for stupidity like this." she mutters.. just kinda.. stalking in the direction of these dinosaurs.
And, lots of people are radiating high amounts of energy, so.. she's not gonna join -that- bandwagon just yet. She's.. well her plan is to walk up to a Stegasaurus, and try grabbing its horns and holding it in place. "C'mere." she mutters on the way in.
That punch from Shazam connects but it doesn't sound right, too dull of a noise. It dents the Stegosaurus' jaw badly though and the beast attempts to roar only to make a rattling hollow noise instead. Of course it starts to charge at Shazam only to find it can't get more than a step because Captain Marvel has its tail spikes held on. The creature makes that noise of protest again...or is it a call for help? It may be because that back of raptors? Well they're abandoning chasing civilians and leaping at Billy and Carol!
The flying reptiles aren't expecting their prey to come at them. So its pretty easy for Zenith to snag one and slam it into another. They both go plummetting down to make a taxi driver's insurance rates go up but there's about a half dozen more pteredactyls swooping at people. Superboy's in for the rescue but someone should do something about the dinosaurs.
Something like what Manker is doing. The triceratops bellows out a victory noise and starts to charge again...only for hot, feiry death to rain down on it. The beast makes a rather unsettling noise and the stench of melting plastic grows even stronger as Manker's beam reduces the creature to a steaming pile of plastic goop on the pavement. Someone is going to have a hell of a time cleaning that up.
What happens when Cir-El grabs the T-rex tail may be surprising. There's some resistance but then a loud...POP! She'll find herself holding a wildly thrashing tail. The T-rex is understandably angry about this...and apparently hollow. It roars again before charging the tail thief.
Stegron the Dinosaur Man meanwhile has taken a handful of little toy dinosaurs from his bag and dropped them on the pavement. Stepping back, he lifts an amulet from around his neck and concentrates. A beam of light comes from said amulet and starts to make those toys move and begin to grow. Looks like someone got a new toy...toys...yeah.
Superlass sees Superboy up there, so she can not easily use her Red Star Burst, it might be dangerou for other Kryptonians. However, there is a latge hole where the tail used to be, so she jumps inside the dino and slams her hands together at supersonic speed, creating a small sonic boom INSIDe the dinosaur.
With his first foe of the day vanquished, Manker gives a sigh inside his suit. He doesn't know what a geiger counter is, but anyone nearby with one is going to have a field day with the field of crackling static that resulted from Manker's plasma ejection.
His next move is to make an announcement, his voice coming up muffled and tinny, despite being amplified out of his suit. "The hollow beasts seem to have an aversion to heat. If you have access to any such talents, let us proceed with haste in jolly co-operation to quell this threat!"
His voice drops after this announcement and he starts to chant. Unlike the previous attack of his, a green light gathers into his left palm, before it glows and spasms with instability and bursts into flame. Flame which he keeps buried in his palm as he charges towards the rest of the group, sweeping over the current battlefield. He notes that the strange talking creature is spawning more hollow beasts, and that a group of hunters have closed in on the pair handling another large creature. And that the sky is alive with aerial assailants. This might be getting fun.
The young son of Zod pauses in the air as he hears the booming anouncement. Zenith grins then, and calls, "Good idea!" He turns, flying into the mass of pterodactyls, and starting to let loose blasts of his heat vision, aiming for wing joints.
"Seriously, callin' for help? What kinda mighty hunter -are- you?" asks Carol as she tenses, flexes, and heaves. Her plan is to swing the Stegasaurus by the tail, smacking it through the gang of charging Raptors. However, it is entirely likely that her grip will pull that tail off too. So, it's either... Dinosaur club, or a big-ole' Photonic blast at the Raptors. "Seriously, say hi to DoDo for me!" she yells.
Yep, another POP as Carol pulls that tail. It still wriggles and writhes though. If the Stegosaurus could talk, it would say something about eating plants. But because it can't, it goes back to chasing Shazam. The raptors meanwhile keep charging. Two get sent flying back with melted holes in them but others snap at Carol with jaws full of surprisingly sharp teeth or slash with those foot-claws of theirs.
The sky isn't too alive. Not with the way Zenith is flying in and blasting away. Wings get severed and angry and confused dinosaurs start falling to Earth. Thankfully, Superboy is flying down to catch them before they can hit civilians. "Careful, bro!" he calls to Zenith. "Try not to squish the people we're tryin' to save," just a little light scolding. But two Pteradactyls down, four to go.
When faced with a rampaging dinosaur, most people would not come up with the solution: Jump into its butt. Cir-El is obviously not most people. The T-rex makes the most startled and confused sound a giant animated dinosaur can possibly make and spins a few times trying to find Cir-El. And then comes the sonic boom. Apparently these creatures are made of pretty tough stuff since the boom doesn't explode the dinosaur so much as...turn it into a big round ball of plastic with legs and tiny little arms flailing helplessly. It starts rolling too, stopping against a building where it continues to make distorted noises but can't move.
Stegron meanwhile looks up from what he's doing, only now registering just what his creations are. "They're still -toys-?!" he exclaims. Of course stopping mid process means there's a several dinosaurs of various species the size of small dogs running towards hero and civilian alike.
Really, it would be easy to use a red stasr burst to melt one ofthese things, but if she did it would hurt...well whoever that kid up there with Superboy is, he seems likely to be either Kryptonian or Daxamite, and either one would have trouble if she let loose. Still, turning them into large baloons seems to work.
She pops out of the T-rex balloon and starts gathering up the small dinos as fast as she can.
Manker's fistful of flame is then tossed at the surprised dino toymaster, hurling a half meter sphere of magical heat and sizzle towards the source of this trouble. Meanwhile he closes in himself behind his attack, moving to venture into closer range to handle this threat directly. The flame is only half the heat of the beam he'd just used to melt the previous toy, he also wonders if this ringleader is hollow like the other creatures seem to be.
Zenith looks down to Superboy, and says, "Oh! I'm sorry!" Man, what a mistake. Muttering to himself, in Kryptonian, "Watch the civilians, watch the civilains," he goes after the next pterodactyl with his heat vision, but makes sure to be in position to catch it this time.
Shazam has been taking a moment to consult with the Wisdom of Solomon and finally says, "Let's make sure he can't animate any more toys... SHAZAM!" He holds up his hands and fires magic lightning straight at the amulet being worn by Stegron, attempting to shatter whatever magic spell or spells it has, trusting Carol to take care of the Stego in case what he tries, doesn't work.
Well, trusting Carol is one thing, but Carol is being charged by a bunch of Raptors. However, she hears the word yelled, and looks over her shoulder to see Shazam focused elsewhere. Mainly to herself she mutters, "Seriously..." And then she ducks one Raptor's bite, only to have a second one latch onto her left bicep. "Hey! Ow!" she yells.. punching the nose as it tries to hang onto her arm, making it let go, and then performing a twisting aerial spinkick to send that raptor flying at the Stegasaurus before turning to face the others...
There may be falling pterodactyls and raptor sent flying. A tailless stegosaurus and Cir-El with an arm full of tiny dinosaurs gnawing at her arms uselessly but the main event is with Stegron. He sees the ball of sizzling pain coming his way and prepares to jump out of the way when Shazam's lightning comes in for the steal. It hits the amulet dead center and for a split second there's silence and stillness. Then...
KAFWOOOSHBOOM!
Windows rattle and hair stands on end, Manker's ball of flaming fun sucked up into the sparky lightshow and turned into little balls of light fading away as they rain down over the area. Stegron's nowhere to be seen but all the dinosaurs seem to have gone still. They haven't shrunken or reformed but they seem to have all returned to their toy state with the destruction of the amulet. Big toys...but toys.
Of course Superboy and Zenith still have to catch the pteradactyls that can no longer fly.
Hearing the youth talking in Kryptonian, Cir-El is glad she restrained herself. That pretty much confirms he is from Krypton, or is a descendant of someone from Krypton.
Cir-El says, "We should return these to the store...perhaps they can sell them to make up for the damage caused when they escaped."
Manker seems confused at this turn of events, straightening himself up. A couple flourishes of his sword and a dusting of his hand before he sheathes it, and Manker's attentions turn wholly unto the gathering of comrades. "As short-lived as that battle was, it was nice to get in some exercise since I've arrived to this Newer York." he calls out.
The big House of Zod emblem on Zenith's chest should give a good indication to other Kryptonians where he's from, or at least descended from, too. He looks towards the explosion, blinking, but then doesn't have much time to waste as suddenly the remaining pterodactyls are falling, and he flies up to catch what he can.
Shazam simply nods, it's about what he expected, the amulet was powering the toys and when he shattered the spell on it, everything stopped. He flies up into the sky and helps the Kryptonians with the pterodactyls, catching a couple and says, "They should be safe now... we still need to find out more about the person who was controlling the toys."
And.. as things stop, Carol is surrounded by a half dozen giant toys. She... tenses for a moment and then relaxes. "Wonder if there's any giant price tags too." she mutters as she starts inspecting the Raptor toys. Her plan? If it's marked like 9.99, is to pay for it, take one of these toys, and make -it- her birthday gift for the 9 year old sidekick!
"Whoa!" Superboy exclaims, catching a dino as well. There's one pteradactyl for each of the dino-catchers. Superboy blinks when Manker calls out to them, glancing Zenith's way. "You got any clue who that is or what he's talkin' about?" he asks. He flashes Shazam a grin though. "Pretty sure that dude was called Stegron. I've heard about him before. Got a mad-on for turning the world into one ruled by dinosaurs however he can," he shrugs, heading down to the ground with the giant plastic dinosaur. The crowd that had been watching from safety has started to cheer and applaud. And while there are no price tags on the dinos, the store may be glad to see them gone.
Meanwhile, unknown to the heroes...someone is running away. Stegron wasn't melted or vaporized. No, he's dropping into the sewers and running for it...only one problem. He's currently action figure sized. A problem he'll have to solve another day. For now, he's running away to cause dino-chaos another day.
In the end, Carol offers fifty bucks for the half dozen raptors she was dealing with. The manager gleefully accepts the chance to make money off of the situation. However.. afterwards, she strolls back outside after informing said manager that she'll have them removed shortly. "So folks. That was impressive." she calls out. Then she approaches Shazam. "Good call on the targeting there. I thought you were just taking a shot of opportunity, but... I was mistaken."
Cir-El says, "Hey Kon, who is your friend?" She does not have super vision, so she has trouble with recognizng his symbol until she is a bit closer. Then she mutters softly, "Zod?"
Manker quietly looks over the others, noting little attention being directed to himself, and starts off to the sidewalk again, so that he can continue roaming down the street and exploring the city.. if nobody pulls him over.
Shazam lands and says to Carol, "It just seemed the easiest and best way to solve the problem... besides, if I hadn't, with that amulet he could have started animating more than just toy dinosaurs. It's a pretty powerful geas that was put upon it, I had to use my lightning to break the spell on it. Hopefully it'll set Stegron back a while."
Zenith looks towards Manker and then to Superboy as he puts down the plastic pterodactyl, "Nope." He looks back to Manker as he starts to leave and calls, "Thank for the help!" He looks back to Cir-El then and nods, smiling as he flies closer, "Hello. Yes, my name is Lor-Zod. Most people call me Zenith, though."
Flying along with Zenith, Kon gives the youngest Kryptonian's hair a friendly ruffling. "What he said," he says. A quick wave is tossed Manker's way before Superboy looks around. "We should probably get started on the clean up."
"Ain't that the truth." Carol states to Shazam. She looks about at the others then and inclines her head. "Who is Zod?" she asks towards Cir-El as the woman speaks. The tone used to say that name makes her zone in on that particular discussion of course.
Superlass introduces herself, "I am called Cir-El, and I am kind of Kon's kid sister...we both carry DNA cloned from Superman, though I have less than he does. The clean-up will not take long, not with the three of us working at super speed."
Cir-El says to Carol, "Zod was a military leader from Krypton who attempted to overthrow the ruling science council about a decade before Krypton was destroyed. He was sentanced to eternal imprisonment in the phantom zone."
Zenith nods and says, smiling to Cir-El, and says, "Nice to meet you." Then he nods again to her explanation and says, "That's my father, General Dru-Zod. He's still in the phantom zone, as far as I know." Then he changes the subject back to the work, "This'll be easy to clean up. Come on."
"Leave those six raptors. I bought'em." says Carol as she shakes her head, "I had no idea you were a blood relation to Superman." she adds to Cir-El. She shrugs and looks back towards Zenith. "Okay then." she remarks before looking back to Shazam and shrugging. "So, lightning, eh?" she asks with a smirk.
"Oh Pama.. where'd he go?" adds Carol as she notices there's nobody where she just addressed.
Kon shakes his head slightly, glancing at Carol. "He took off," he says, pointing skywards. "Let's get to work," he says, cracking his neck and moving to start cleaning up.
Cir-El shrugs, "Technically, if you measure by amount of DNA, and if it were done biologically not artificially, Kon wouldbe Superman'sson, I would be his granddaughter. Since it was stolen DNA in both cases though, I am not sure if you count it exactly."
"Okay then." remarks Carol as she shakes her head, "I mean, I'm a genetic whackjob myself. I'm a fusion of two species that are -got- genetically compatible, so... I don't really have much room for criticism there." she adds with a shrug as she starts collecting the giant raptor toys, "God, Kit's gonna -love- these."