May 02, 2018:
Monkeys, monkeys everywhere! Now with more Zooming, more iron mongering…and a peanut gallery.
Conservatory Garden, Central Park
The Conservatory Garden in Central Park where a street fair has been set up.
Characters
![class="image1"](http://cmbeta.wdfiles.com/local--resized-images//class="image1"/medium.jpg)
NPCs: Human sheeple a plenty.
Mentions:
Plot:
Mood Music: None.
Fade In…
There are, in truth, very few places in the world as beautiful as Central Park. And Central Park in the spring? Entirely a magnitude above. And today, in the warm spring sunlight, the Park seems to be teeming with residents ans tourists alike, all wandering towards the Conservatory Garden, not far from the Vanderbilt Gate. The Garden has finally opened to the public and they're offering a series of staff-led tours.
And because New York is New York, something of a street fair has sprung up not far from the Gardens. Food stalls, rolling carts, crafters, merchants, vendors of every sort look to make the most of the run on tourists. For the most part, it's been an orderly affair, with the general popular on one side and all of the news and 'official sorts' on the other.
Making her way from one side to the other, is Donna Troy. Dressed casually in jeans, a slightly cropped shirt and a fitted blazer, she's slung her camera over a shoulder in favour of the dirty water hotdog she's currently fussing with. An unopened can of soda has taken up residence in the the right pocket of her blazer.
-
Malachi always did love those little street fairs.
It's been a rather odd 24 hours for him. Having to do with a butcher shop and some weird mutations. After that was handled and sleep was properly done, Malachi had come down to the Central Park of New York City to relax and think. He didn't have his sword with him, though that could easily be rectified. He wore simple clothing. A black coat over his shoulders with red lining, blue jeans, combat boots, and a grey t-shirt. A necklace with a cross on it to cap it off.
Ironically enough actually, he ends up -almost- walking right into Donna because this guy cannot pay attention to his environment to save his life. Not true, but he can be daydreamy at times.
"Woah…so sorry about that." he'll help pick anything up if it dropped.
-
Nathaniel has a very nice view of the park from the Avenger Mansion hangar, so the presence of the fair drew his attention from the current 'this is impossible' engineering problem (which is building an artificial gravity system small enough for a Quinjet using 21st Century components).
He probably needs some fresh air, anyway.
So he shifts his armor into plain clothes and heads to check it out. Looking now just like a college student taking a break a nice spring day. Nothing interesting here, really.
-
It's been a while since anyone's seen the man in the yellow suit. Maybe he's moved on to another universe? Maybe he's just been laying low. Either way, he's been out of the public eye for weeks after he attacked Metropolis and got away from /Superman/ of all people.
Suddenly, a red trail of lightning zips right by the general area where Donna and Nathaniel are… and it goes back and up a building in a second.
There, on the rooftop of a building, is Professor Zoom, his blurred visage and red lightning arcing around cooking his surroundings as he watches. The easiest thing to see on the man is his red glowing eyes though… filled with what ever energy he draws upon.
-
Of course, as usual, Sun Wukong is flying around checking things out and this big festival is something he just has to see. Of course, then he blinks at the sight of the red lightning zipping all about. He considers that and then hmms, "Well, why not both?" He asks of no one in particular and then flicks out a hair and then jumps down to the fair.
He lands with a massive thump on his staff. The staff lands first and he is perched atop the tip and then looks around, "Oooo." He simply states as people give him a bit of a berth but a few stop to see if this is some kind of show. He considers a moment and then flips into the air before landing by grabbing the top of his staff as he falls, shrinking it down as he falls and rolls it up and over his shoulder. It flips into the air and then lands behind his ear, as small as a needle.
Meanwhile, up on the same rooftop that Eobard is on, he'll likely hear a soft popping sound as a smallish object breaks the sound barrier. Almost like a bullet…except that bullet flips off a tiny cloud and grows to the size of a full grown Sun Wukong perching on the corner of said building as if it were simply normal to be perched that high in the air, "Hi." He waves a hand as his tail twitches behind him, "So…what are you?"
-
Luckily for Donna, she has fantastic reflexes, and so, the hot dog manages to escape the collision unscathed. And perhaps in the biggest giveaway that screams, 'I am not from here', she actually does not respond with a reflexive cursing out, as Malachi might have endured from someone a bit more local. That, and, as she speaks, the accent, which is something quite generic, the sort of thing that seems to fit everywhere, without sounding like it belongs anywhere. "No, no, you're fine. No harm do—"
And she would have finished that thought, if not for the streak of lighting that flashes through the Park. A quick turn of her head as she attempts to track the streak of light and any potential final destination. Not that difficult, in the end, as she zeroes in on the cloud lighting and the glowing eyes. And then another visitor, as she sees the anthropomorphic monkey grow like a magic grow sponge dinosaur. And once you've seen that, well, what can you do but take a bite of a hot dog.
-
As soon as Zoom enters the area Nathaniel armor's sensors pick the Speed-Force extra-dimensional energy trail and warn him through his cybernetic interface. He slows down, glancing at the red trail. There is a quick comparison of the power signature with his records on Flash and then with Iron Man's records on Zoom. The Avengers were on the watch for this particular super-villain, yes.
His clothes change quickly, from charcoal grey slacks and blazer into bright silver and red metal, golden lines of light seemingly holding it together. A helmet grows over his head. Then he takes flight, hovering fifty feet over the ground.
-
Malachi then chuckle a bit, a little bit embarrassed at himself for almost running into a nice lady. "So sorry about that. are you alright?" though he did notice how almost superhuman her reflexes were…it becomes apparent when he sees that red lightning dash across the field and he looks in that direction. A few blinks then before he turns his head to Donna.
"You saw that too right?"
Before he sees the monkey too, using his vampiric senses to do so. He sighs a moment…but then he sees what looks like Iron Man flying into the sky. (what? he doesn't know this other one!)
-
With her attention focused on the lightning storm, Donna misses the young man's change from well-tailored suit to armor, until he springs into her field of vision, and she, sadly, has to lower her hot dog. She does manage a glance over towards Malachi, the wryness in her expression saying it all. 'Just a normal day in New York, right?'. "Saw what? The streak of ball lightning, the grow-up monkey man, or the man in the flying metal suit?" Somehow, there still manages to be an edge of humour in her voice, as though none of it has her much bothered. And, so as not to let the meal, sadly only half eaten, go to waste, she lowers her hand to offer it to a passing canine. Feed the furry children and all that.
-
When Sun Wukong essentially pops into existence next to him, Professor Zoom disappears, almost instantly. He goes from that rooftop… to another a few blocks down, in practically a second, once again.
Doesn't look like Professor Zoom is interested in answering questions. or in being next to the monkey. Those red eyes search out Sun Wukong, seeing if he moved or not.
A blink from the Monkey that was next to Eobard and then the monkey hmms, "Rude! Very rude." He then looks down toward himself down below.
The monkey on the ground looks up at Cable before blinking several times, "Oh…neat." He states and then he walks over toward Donna and Malachi and then says, "So, you found a girlfriend." Sun Wukong looks Donna over, "Good job. She's cute. I approve!" He gives a thumbs up to Malachi before looking to Donna, "Did you know your boyfriend was going to be…hold on." He pauses mid talk and then sighs, "Very rude." He states as he looks up at where the man was and then where he seems to be. Zoom that is. Then Wukong idly plucks several hairs from his arm and blows them off of his hand.
Moments later, several mini-Wukong's go zipping off on clouds. "Sorry about that!" He then looks back at Donna, "Going to be squished. That's where I left off."
Meanwhile, Zoom not only gets a new Wukong…but he might notice that every skyscraper in every direction suddenly has a Wukong perching on them, all looking his way, all grinning, "Hello again. You're really fast! Are you made of lightning? Red…lightning?" And yes…all of them are asking these questions, simultaneously.
-
Nathaniel spends a minute trying to raise Iron Man on the channels, but the Tower AIs are unable or unwilling to open a channel to Stark. So it looks it is going to be up to him to solve this problem.
And then there are monkeys. Clone monkeys.
Of course Nathaniel does try to make sense to what his armor sensors are detecting. But no, it doesn't make sense. It requires investigating, however. So he flies to the closest Wukong-clone, which means the nearest building. "Good afternoon, sir. Er… oh, you are from another timeline, aren't you?" Nope, still not making a lot of sense, but extradimensional physics tend to do that. "I am Iron Guard. I am with the Avengers, that man your… duplicates are trying to talk to is a dangerous criminal."
-
It doesn't take long for Professor Zoom to test that notion. Soon, everyone in the area is caught up in a small hurricane of wind drag as the man in the yellow suit starts to literally run up to each and every rooftop in the city at Mach 20. Red lightning trails behind him as he goes too fast for the normal person to keep up with.
He might not be the Flash, But Professor Zoom seems to be just as fast as the Fastest Man Alive. Can Nathaniel keep up with the Speedster?
-
Malachi turns his head to Donna as she speaks with her wryness, chuckling a little bit. "No kidding. I swear I should be used to this stuff by now. and as for what you missed, I mean the blur of a guy with lightning running, the weird monkey dude, and the guy in the metal suit, yeah…doesn't sound like you're skipping a beat at all." he grins at her. "What's your name? I'm Malachi. Malachi Von Caedmon." his attention returning as things get exciting.
THe whirlwind from Zoom running around like a maniac does cause him to raise his arms defensively, prepared for anything to happen. While he can't see -everything- that Zoom does, his senses are preen enough to be able to see Zoom at certain intervals..or rather, his blurry form. "Jesus this guy is fast…"
He moves in a way that's only half defensive to Donna, knowing she's likely special if she can notice all this stuff and yet only look calm.
Theeeen Sun Wukong. "Woah woah…w-we just met!" he's blushing sure. What, Donna was pretty! He then kicks dirt at the Monkey king. "Damned monkey!"
-
Donna doesn't bother to offer the non building-scaling monkey man a correction on the state of her relationship to the practically complete stranger standing beside her. Of all of the things to be concerned with, that seemed the least of things to worry about, "Squished? By what exactly?" And, she does Malachi the kindness of ignoring the blush. Since, lightning aside, nothing seems to be hurtling from the heavens. And that means there's still room and time enough to return a politeness, her name offered to man and mostly man, "Donna Troy. A pleasure to meet you."
Once the wind starts up, threatening to become a vortex, some of the humour does begin to go out of the woman, as she glances away from her companions of the moment, and towards the people milling around, not to mention the stalls which are now starting to throw debris far and wide.
-
A blink and Wukong holds up a finger, "Hold on, this is tons of fun…well, not this." He gestures at them and the area around, "This is kinda fun. The other thing is tons of fun but you can't see that because you aren't there…but I am." He pulls a hair and drops it and another Wukong appears and he points at him, "You talk to them, I gotta…oh you know." The clone laughs and nods while Wukong flies straight up on a cloud high into the air.
The clone that is next to Nathaniel blinks and states, "Umm, I don't know what you are talking about but…whatever he is, I am Sun Wukong. The Great Sage, equal to heaven. Ya know, the Monkey King. Nice to meet me. I'm sure." He nods, "And I don't think he's ready for me." He whispers as if conspiratorially.
Then back down on the ground next to Donna and Malachi, the monkey laughs, "You're blushing!" He leans toward Donna, "He thinks you're cute, too. Oh and such manners. I'm Sun Wukong." He bows, "Great sage, Equal to Heaven. The Monkey King!" He nods his head and then looks to the right, "And right now I'm apparently messing with a dangerous criminal. Scary."
Speaking of dangerous criminals being messed with. Well, Wukong can't quite really cover /every/ building in NYC…he can cover 50 or 60 and while Zoom might hit Mach 20, his clones can hit Mach 5. So, simply put, as soon as Zoom is far enough away from a clone it vanishes in a poof of smoke and Wukong is busy throwing out more and more clones in all directions to cover buildings before Zoom can reach those areas. A sort of wave of Wukong's vanishing and appearing as Zoom zips about.
-
Match 20 in the middle of a city. That is likely to cause… not as much destruction as Nathaniel expected. Interdimensional physics in action again. Whew. "Yes, an honor to meet you," he does a quick mythological research and sighs. Oh well, it can't be Thor every day.
"Indeed," he adds. "He calls himself Zoom. A few weeks ago he set off several powerful explosives in Metropolis. There were some casualties and the damage to the college was extensive." He liked Metro university!
While he speaks his right arm is changing shapes, the palm repulsor vanishes, as the systems are redirected to a pulse ultraviolet frequency laser canon. Not a weapon he likes to use, much less in a city, but a slow-moving (relatively speaking) repulsor blast is not going to do much good against someone so incredibly fast.
Now, a score of laser pulses moving at the speed of light might do the trick.
-
When some… monkey thing starts to basically give you a wild goose chase, it becomes very obvious to Professor Zoom that he's either toying with him, or not interested in attacking.
A laser Gatling gun coming out of thin air though… that gets Professor Zooms attention as he zooms around the city… and he stops near Nathaniel. Red lightning arcs around him heavily from the heavy Speed Force use, the blurry man in the yellow suit seems to be watching Nathaniel; it's hard to tell with those red glowing eyes.
-
Malachi does seem greatly appreciative that Donna hasn't messed with him about blushing about her. Though nonetheless, he smiles. "A pleasure to meet you, Donna." he gives her a genuine smile, something that rarely happens now, before his eyes fall upon Sun Wukong once more. "Yeah, what about it?" he says about Sun's claim that Malachi thinks Donna is rather attractive.
"On whose opinion is it nice to meet you?" Malachi does -not- like Sun Wukong. At least not yet. Though he does seem relatively amused at the Monkey as he appears to be causing one heck of a mess of annoyance to zoom and possibly even Nate.
Regardless, his eyes seem to narrow a moment and eventually, his senses pick up Zoom as he slows down to a stop. and he reaches for one of his runes in his coat pocket.
-
It's nigh on impossible to miss the action going on above, from the monkey men where no monkey men should be, to the increasing wind vortex, to the iron suited man and his rapidly developing armaments. And whatever the eventual outcome, that seems to settle things for Donna, as she looks between the monkey man standing in front of her and the notboyfriend standing next to her. Something shifts, in her face, some momentary fancy, some small play in her expression that, for a moment, makes her seem an entirely different woman, "We need to clear these civilians out of here, I'll go right." And if you asked Donna how she knew she could trust Malachi to break left, she would not have been able to tell you. "Feel free to pitch in a hand." That, to the Sun Wukong who remained on the ground with them.
-
And then he blinks at Nathaniel, "Oh…that's kinda neat." He points at the gun thing and then looks at him directly, "Oh yeah…umm, that's interesting. So, like, if I had been here none of that would have happened. Too bad." He nods his head and then looks over at Eobard and hmms even as ten clones land right next to Eobard on teh roof. They all lean on their staves in various poses even as one speaks up.
"So, like…are we done? Are you just gonna be a dick and ruin people's days or do you have a plan? I mean, honestly so far you seem to be just blowing air around…Oh wait!" The monkey laughs, "Are you trying to blow up girl's skirts and see what kind of panties they are wearing? If so, I'm in!" He then pretty much cackles.
Then down next to the pair, the monkey who is invited to help gives a thumb's up, "See what I can do." He then runs off perpendicular to the pair, "Alright people! Time to run!"
-
Now Nathaniel red and silver gantlet sports the short barrel of what looks a ray gun. Streaks of yellow energy run along the sides, like St. Elmo's Fire. When Zoom blurs to the building, he points the hand in his direction. But there is a number of monkeys on the way… he is not firing.
"Professor Zoom I presume," he greets politely. "You are wanted for a number of serious crimes. Please, do not move. I am wearing a neurokinetic armor from the 30th Century. I assure you the targeting computers can compensate for your hyperspeed."
On the other hand Eobar probably knows there is no way something like a neurokinetic suit can be built in the 30th Century. That kind of thought-machine integration is the stuff the Kree could only dream building in the distant future.
"The only two people who can match me in any way are the Flash and Impulse. You, are nothing." Professor Zoom replies to Nathaniel in a distorted, monstrous voice. "You're also one of the worst liars I've ever met. Your technology looks futuretech, but your approach is haphazard. You might be time displaced, boy, but you should learn to bluff better."
Professor Zoom laughs maliciously… before he superspeeds away. Mach 25. Mach 30. Faster. /Faster/. He's heading west, approaching the speed of light doing so.
-
Malachi watches everything going on, including his notgirlriend Donna standing next to him. and of course Sun Wukong generally being a somewhat pleasant nuisance since he's messing with everyone else instead of him! woohoo! But he can see the effects of this confrontation affecting everyone else, and when Donna says she'll go right, he nods. "I'll break left!" and they both move at the same time…it was like they were both extremely experienced in this maneuver. Namely their teamwork.
Weird.
Nevertheless, he helps people who were knocked down stand up and get moving, helping to lift people trapped under debris, and the like.
He's gonna leave the big fights to the big guns.
-
Unfortunately, as with most things in life, removing the cause does not also remove the effect, and even as the red streak of speed and lighting takes off for parts unknown, and the wind vortex begins to die down, the people in the park are still in a panic. Stalls and carts are overturned, crafts and trinkets everywhere and people are, as people are wont to do, attempting to stampede in an effort to get clear of what they believe is the impact zone. hard to blame them, really, and so Donna doesn't. She simple moves at best speed, faster than a normal human, but certainly not enough to set off panic. Paths are cleared, debris is moved, and she's soon lost in the tide of humanity flooding back out into the city.
-
It was a bluff, yes. Nathaniel is quite sure some of the pulse laser burst would have hit Zoom. But he is also quite sure a few others would have poked holes in the nearby skyscrapers, likely injuring or killing people. Zoom accusing him of lying is a bit surprising, though. What did exactly Zoom think was a lie?
“I suppose we really need to make the time-anchor portable or… some other technology,” Stark had some promising ideas. Time to get back to the lab for Nathaniel. “Mr. Wukong, a pleasure to meet you. But I need to help with the damage control, now.” He flies down, to the fair.
-
A blink at Nathaniel and then at Zoom and then Wukong snaps his fingers and all the clones vanish, "You should have just fired. They're clones." He nods his head and then the one from below flies up and he looks at him. The clone nods and looks to Nathaniel.
"You should have fired." He nods and then vanishes as well. Wukong then shrugs and turns to fly off, "Boring!"