ic Miniature Heroland

[Azuth65]

Thursday, Jan 5th, 2012

The crowd outside Fun Time Toy's main lobby had begun growing as the unveiling of their newest product line came closer. The company had managed to keep what exactly it was under wraps, using everything from harsh Non-Disclosure Agreements with their employees and contractors to false leaks declaring everything from a line of Freedom League action figures to working hoverboards.

When the announcement had been opened to the public and not just to the press, demand and interest had spiked. The entry fee for the public had also included a gift basket with a random selection of the company's catalog.

The speakers setup outside the entrance crackled to life. "Welcome ladies and gentlemen! Please step back from the doors and have your ticket ready. Our friendly staff will guide you to the exhibition hall where the new line as well as complementary donuts and drinks are being served," a male voice sounded over the chilled crowd.

[Azuth65]

Victoria Knight pulled the hood up on her hoodie and grumbled something unflattering about the weather in Russian to herself. She brushed under the hood a few strands of her snow-white hair as the wind came up around the crowd. The announcer's promise of drinks did brighten her spirits somewhat as she and her classmate stood in line. She recalled the short hand-to-hand sparring and the bet they'd made as she looked out the corner of her eye and around the sunglasses she habitually wore she commented with a small smile, "Thanks for coming Kristin. Sorry if that submission hold was a little much back in practice."

[Supercape]

Well, it kept a bit of change in her pocket. And she got to see the grand unveiling.

But otherwise the job had little going for it. Serving donuts, pop and hot drinks to the masses. And wearing some generic Green t shirt with the toy company name on.

Still it suited Synth. She had money and even she needed a little to get by. A few days temporary work was up her street, and the pay was cash in hand and not unreasonable.

"Yes sit enjoy the show!" she said for the umpteenth time to the umpteenth customer.

[Scuffles]

Kristin tried to scowl at her classmate, but couldn't really pull it off. In truth, despite the ease with which the Russian had wiped the mats with her she had enjoyed the training session greatly. Except for the last two seconds perhaps.

"You should be sorry about making me come out here in the cold, not about beating me up!" She chuckled as she pulled her jacket more tightly around her body. "And I demand a rematch you know!"

The mention of drinks and donuts brightened her day even more. "Oh hey you could have just told me there'd be donuts instead of cranking my arm off!"

[Cubist]

For Jubatus, it began with a series of break-ins, the victims of which were warehouses that stored large quantities of high-tech components. He wasn't completely sure of who was behind these crimes, but considering the eyewitness reports from some of the on-site security crews, it was a pretty good bet bet that Toy Boy was involved. Toy Boy plus high-tech: Not a happy-making combination.

Whoever the 'man behind the curtain' might have been, the bastich had an excellent grasp of operational security; thus far, the fastest cat alive had made little progress towards tracing down the stolen components. He'd managed to uncover a few pieces of information which pointed towards Fun Time Toys, but those meager few clues simply weren't enough to let Jube conclude how FTT was involved. And it just happened that FTT was unveiling some sort of superwaycoolspiffy new product line? Gosh, who could possibly think that that could be the work of a toy-obsessed supervillain? Habitually suspicious feline that he was, Jubatus wondered whether the clues he'd found had been deliberately planted by the villain responsible, in order to manipulate any investigator into a position of the villain's choosing... well, even if those clues were some sort of scam, if wasn't like he had an overabundance of leads to follow.

Jubatus had looked into Fun Time Toys, of course. The company seemed to be on the up-and-up, as best he could tell without blatantly violating all sorts of privacy-related laws... so was the link-to-FTT a red herring planted by the culprit, or was the company a corporate façade that competently concealed who-knew-what vile machinations, or what? He just didn't know.

In the end, Jubatus decided he'd attend the 'unveiling' ceremony. It was open to the public, after all, so why shouldn't Jay Xavier be there? There was a small chance that his presence might unnerve the culprit enough to make a mistake that Jubatus could exploit, which was a good thing. The presence of mass quantities of civilians was not a good thing; if the fecal matter impacted the rotary oscillator, Jube just had to trust that he'd be quick enough to keep people out of harm's way.

---

The line leading into the Fun Time Toys lobby was every bit as irritating as Jay Xavier had expected -- all those people, and all the noise they made, and all their scents... It was a toss-up which was worse; the ones who didn't use any deodorant, or the ones who used too bleeding much of the stuff -- and then there were all the ones whose perfume reached LD-50 levels...

Jay sighed and forcibly suppressed his annoyance. He could do this: Living in a crowded modern city as he did, Jay got a lot of practice suppressing his annoyance.

After buying his ticket -- "One adult, please." -- and receiving his 'complementary' gift basket, Jubatus upshifted for privacy so he could thoroughly examine the toys in said basket with a variety of instruments. Nothing exotic showing up -- no power spikes or anything. Tentative conclusion, the stuff in my basket is all legit, he thought to himself. Time to circulate around the place; see if anybody else's basket has something nasty in it, and also see if there's any weirdness visible in IR or UV wavelengths...

[Tiffany Korta]

Well this was it she was finally a legal citizen of the US. But she was aware that she had been an absolute nightmare for the last couple of weeks, and now she was slowly trying to make up for that fact. Little Asha had probably let her bad moods slide right off of her, but was easiest to find a sorry present. Because she had been going on about this mysterious toy launch by Fun Time Toys ever since they had announced the launch date.

So after a few celebration drinks she had slipped out of her own celebration party to join the cue outside FTT. Clad in a heavy winter coat and scarves and with her brown wig in place she’d hope she wouldn’t be noticed and she could spend a quiet few hours looking at this mysterious toy.

[Azuth65]

Vicky gave a smirk and chuckled before saying, "Next time we spar, I'll show you how to do that chickenwing arm hold. Besides, you did send that basketball across the gym and right into my jaw. That stung too." Vicky reached into her hoodie's pocket and pulled out the pre-order receipt as they neared the front of the line.

Handing them to the attendant at the door she handed the receipts for scanning. She and Kristin made their way towards the stairs the staff member directed them to head down. The heated air inside the lobby was a relief from the January chill outside. The line continued more or less in the same order once inside, leading to stairs going up to the second floor. "Just when you thought we were really going somewhere," she mumbled.

[Azuth65]

The lines finally began to collapse as people took their seats for the press conference and official unveiling of the new line of toys. Not far into the room a large black curtain hung, a small stage and podium set up before it. Several men and women in business suits walked on stage, the first of which, a woman in her mid thirties with shoulder length blond hair and a well tailored black suit, stepped behind a podium. "Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming to our public unveiling. For years Fun-Time Toys has been creating toys that bring joy and happiness to boys and girls as well as collectors of all ages. Today, we're expanding on that with a new series of highly detailed scale models."

[Azuth65]

At her words the curtain began to withdraw revealing a table, easily fifteen feet wide and twenty feet long. On the table it seemed as though somebody had shrunk down some of the most famous landmarks around the world. Circling and criss-crossing the entire thing were easily half a dozen model trains. Movement, lights, and scaled-down noise buzzed around, through, and from the model.

"What you see on the table before you is actually several of our new lines as well as animatronics our company has been working on for several years. The model trains are the first collection, the various cars and trucks you can see on the roads and highways linking the areas of the map together are another," she continued.

Her speech was cut short however by a light beginning to wink on over the Eiffel Tower in the Parisian section of the model. As the light passed over the assembled crowd they felt themselves being lifted from their seats and pulled towards the model.

[Azuth65]

As the light faded, the assembled crowd finds themselves on the top level parking tower with only a handful of the, until recently, subjectively small cars. Nearly every civilian in the crowd maintains a look of panic and naked fear on their face. Before more than a few cries of fear can be raised, something looking like a TV with arms on a unicycle rolls up the ramp down to the lower levels. "Good morning, I'm afraid because the toy lines used in this demonstration contain pieces of my creator's designs, you have all been officially taken hostage. Sit tight and if the CEO of Fun-Time Toys authorizes a shut-down of the line, you'll be released unharmed. If he doesn't, you and this building will be blown sky-high."

[Supercape]

What...shrunken???

Due to a mixture of inexperience and her own shape shanging powers, Synth was not as taken back as one might have expected. Even so, she stared at her hands for a few minutes, then the donuts, and then the distorted world around her.

She took a few strides towards the TV.

"How dare you do this? Mass Murder? for what?" she demanded, adrenaline and anger coursing through her. Despite her anger, she felt in control, she experienced emotions just like humans, but somehow her brain was good at integrating them, rather than being overcome by them,

"For some toys?" she continued, pointing around her "what could possibly motivate you to do such a thing?"

[Scuffles]

Besides, you did send that basketball across the gym and right into my jaw.

"Hey! I thought we were playing dodgeball! It's not my fault you suck at dodging!" Kristin protested. "Or that you weren't looking because you were doing something else entirely! I'm blameless for sure!"

Relieved to be out of the cold, Kristin didn't even grumble about the slow line, and dropped into her seat next to Vicky with a grin on her face as she munched contentedly on an iced donut that she had filched from a strikingly pretty blond waitress.

The unveiling of the massive model-covered table made her sit up straight in her chair, eyes wide as she remarked "Hey wow, that's just about the coolest thing I've seen since I got here! And I've-" Whatever she was about to say next was cut off as everyone was dragged towards the models and downsized.

Disorientated by the change, Kristin staggered a little as she found herself on a model rooftop, grabbing hold of Victoria's shoulder to steady herself. "Taken hostage? What the..? Oh that's bad." She grumbled as she looked around wildly. "What do we do? These people are all going to panic in a minute if we're not careful!" she asked, glancing at her more experienced friend for guidance.

[Cubist]

Okay, that basket's non-dangerous… ditto that one… and that one…

With each successive gift basket whose contents proved to be innocuous, Jubatus reduced his estimate of the probability that Fun Time Toys was an active player in the case he'd been investigating.

And… the lobby's got no obvious anomalies outside the visible spectrum. Good to know.

Yes, the balance of probabilities definitely favored the proposition that FTT was more a victim than a culprit here.

Good enough for a tentative conclusion of 'not guilty', until such time as contrary evidence comes up. Note to self: If the [bg=black]xxix[/bg] hits the fan, maintain customary standards for avoidance of collateral damage.

And then the FTT spokespeople hit the stage:

"What you see on the table before you is actually several of our new lines…"

Jubatus supposed the Big Reveal was impressive enough, particularly to those who (unlike him) were part of the intended audience for such things. He didn't much care, as he was more concerned about whether or not any criminal unpleasantness was going to occur…

…and then a light flashed from atop the model Eiffel Tower!

The room's getting bigger—wait, I'm getting smaller! And so's the rest of the crowd! It was a peculiar sensation, not unlike being crushed between two mattresses with monotonically-increasing force. Don't want to let it finish its job. Also don't want to find out the hard way what happens if the shrink process is interrupted. Probably better to let it run its course, damnit.

The fastest cat alive retained sufficient presence of mind to whip out a number of sensor devices from various pockets on his vest; with any luck, he'd be able to collect some hard data about the shrink process while it was actually running. And if his sensors didn't record any data, well, that would be useful information, too. Jubatus kept his sensors active for a few clock-seconds after the shrinking seemed to have stopped; whatever he'd intended to do next, his plans were derailed by the appearance of a one-wheeled robot.

"…if the CEO of Fun-Time Toys authorizes a shut-down of the line, you'll be released unharmed. If he doesn't, you and this building will be blown sky-high."

Oh, [bg=black]xxxxixx[/bg] hell. And Jubatus aimed his sensors at the robot, hoping the bloody thing was a remote unit being fed data and/or commands that he could detect; if it was autonomous, the odds of picking up something useful would be lower, if not nonexistent…

[Tiffany Korta]

Lucy had to admit that it was quite an impressive display; it reminded her of some of the old models you use to get at the World Fair. Not that she had much time to enjoy the show before her and the rest were whisked away to a miniature wonderland.

Well all in the course of a normal day.

She was still surprised even now at how undisturbed she was at the strangeness of the whole thing; instead she looked around to see what she had to hand. Whilst the others kept the robot bust she stayed at the back testing her strength against the toy cars which lay about the place as an improvised weapon, or even escape route.

[Cubist]

According to Jubatus' instruments, the shrink ray that had zapped everyone had indeed come from the top of the diorama's Eiffel Tower facsimile. Which was the likeliest possibility, of course, but it was good that the evidence supported it. As well, the readings he'd taken matched up with a published analysis of the shrink ray Toy Boy had used several years ago. At this point there were really only two viable candidates for the twisted mind whose work he was currently investigating: Either (a) Toy Boy himself, or else ( someone who'd gone way the hell out of their way to make it appear that Toy Boy was the culprit. Wish there weren't so friggin' many supervillains who actually are insane enough to attempt (-type schemes… B-F-D. If wishes were horses, the entire human race would be eyebrow-deep in manure.

As for the one-wheeled robot, it had been trivially easy to detect electromagnetic impulses in and around it -- after all, even mundane living creatures emitted EM energy -- but the resulting data hadn't been enough for Jube to determine whether the 'bot was an autonomous agent, or 'merely' some sort of telepresence unit, or what. Sigh. Would've been nice to know, but again, 'wishes' and 'horses'…

At this point, Jube figured he'd learned all he was going to learn about the 'bot, for the time being. He now downshifted to the standard tempo of 1—and couldn't ignore the undercurrent of Fear in the crowd's collective mood. Oh, joyous day. Last thing we need is for some idiot to do something that triggers a tsunami of stupidity. Like that beautiful airhead making noise at the 'bot… aaargh! Somebody's gotta take charge here, and it looks like I'm elected for want of any better-qualified candidate. Damnit.

The fastest cat alive blurred to the roof of a conveniently-placed model car; then he emitted a weird sound, not unlike that of an air-raid siren, to get the crowd's attention. When he had that attention, he went on: "Okay, people, listen up! My name's Jubatus, and I'm one of the more recent hero-types in the area. Now, I'm pretty sure that 'getting stuck in a Steve Martin routine' wasn't on anybody's to-do list for today, but this is Freedom City! Where the impossible happens once a week, and twice on Sunday! So it's weird, sure, but it's nothing to freak out over, am I right? At the moment, I don't know how to reverse what happened to us all—but I promise you, I will find out. And while I'm working on that, how about if those of you with first aid skill or medical training make yourselves available to take care of whatever injuries people may have? And if you see somebody's losing their cool, try to talk 'em down, okay? Let's all keep our heads clear, because panicking just isn't going to help."

Having said his piece, the fastest cat alive stayed on the car-roof for a few more seconds, gauging the crowd's reaction to his spiel…

[Azuth65]

The crowd of civilians seemed, surprisingly enough, to be calmed by the cheetah-man's speech. Unfortunately for Jubatus the robot wasn't as thrilled. It raised one arm, the three flat spatula-like pincers used as hands folding back over the wrist and a weapon's barrel emerging from the end of the arm. "Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to get off the car and quickly and quietly rejoin the group."

Rather than wait for a response, the robot's gun-arm fired a blast of bright red energy at the hero. The feline was able to dodge in time but car he stood on had some rather nasty scorch marks where he'd been standing half a second earlier.

[Cubist]

Jubatus was pleasantly surprised that his attempt at crowd control had worked as well as it did. Alas, the robot refused to allow him any time to appreciate his accomplishment, forcing him to dodge out of the way of an energy blast that would have messed him up badly, if it had hit him. Okay, you mechanical schmuck, let's see how you like being a target!

In a fraction of an upshifted second, a small bag of 35-mm nuts appeared in Jubatus' left hand, freshly extracted from one of the many pockets on his vest. And in the next fractional-second, the bag was empty. for Jube had thrown them all, one at a time, at hypersonic velocity, all of them aimed directly at the robot…

[Supercape]

Synth reacted to the Robots threat quickly. Pouring her metabolic reserves into her stem cells, and pouring those same cells into her arms, which dutifully expanded and stretched.

Sometimes, two isn't enough... she thought to herself.

The donut company t-shirt ripped two holes in the side, and two more identical arms sprung out - embyonic at first, but growing to normal size and longer in a second.

"Gnnahhh!" she grunted, over - reaching herself as her arms collided with each other and missed the robot.

Need to practice that... she mentally noted.

[Azuth65]

Vicky looked around, mentally noting how the collectable unveiling had gone from fairly fun diversion to disaster in seconds. When she saw Jubatus jump onto one of the cars she sighed a breath she hadn't noticed she'd been holding. Turning to Kristin she whispered, "We may need to clear these civilians and keep the robot from following. If things come to a fight, you might need to use your abilities. I've seen the video of you online but it's up to you if you want to use your powers sans costume here."

Then the robot fired at the feline, at crowd screamed around them as the blast's light flared and crashed into the toy car. "It's never easy," she muttered, ducking low and willed her costume and current clothes to trade places. The costume change came with her teleporting ability's signature bi-colored smoke as she quickly followed the costume change by teleporting behind the last car between the civilians and the enemy robot, waiting for her chance to strike.

[Tiffany Korta]

She discarded the idea of using any of the cars the machine was too close to the crowd and beside she wasn’t sure how the model car would fly. Instead she decided it would be a good idea to get the machine away from the people as quickly as possible. So she began to run toward the mechanism bounding from car to car.

“If this works I suggest you get everyone out as quickly as possible. And if not, well…â€

With all the speed and momentum she had generated she slammed into the robot with as much force as she could muster. Even if she didn’t have enough strength to force the robot backwards she would at least get the machines attention.

[Scuffles]

Kristin cursed as the robot opened fire on the speedy feline hero, then again as Vicky simply disappeared from her side in a puff of smoke.

There's so many people here, if that thing starts shooting into the crowd..

With a frustrated growl Kristin flipped the hood of her jacket up. At least they're mostly behind me. Hopefully not too many will see my face. Could be worse, at least Jerkson isn't here!

With a thought she willed a telekinetic barrier into existence in front of her, then broke into a run. Light on her feet, she angled off towards the side of the rooftop and picked out one of the cars there as she yelled "Hey Robot! Look at me!". Without breaking stride she planted her hands on the hood and performed a handspring somersault up onto the roof, landing in a half-crouch. "I'm on a car too! Shoot at me!"

[Azuth65]

The display on the robot's face flickered from a friendly smiling face on a white background to a snarling face framed in red as Revenant shoved him backwards, skidding to a stop twenty-five feet away from the crowd. "My Master will not like that at all," the machine's staticy voice called as it raised the same arm that had seconds ago fired upon Jubetas.

A flash of the same scarlet energy erupted from the robot's arm cannon and flew towards the dark haired woman, the blast catching her square in the stomach and leaving harsh looking scorch marks on her clothes. "You have one chance to surrender, I suggest you use it."

[Cubist]

As the robot finished threatening Revenant, the fastest cat alive blurred towards it! The claws on Jubatus' forepaws slashed at the robot's weapons-arm… and there was a flash of light as those claws raked against and through the outer shell of that limb. Jubatus wasn't sure how that flash looked in visible wavelengths, but it was painfully bright in the UV range his upshifted eyes were currently seeing by. Judging by the wave of static that washed across its videographic 'face', Jube's assault must have damaged the robot!

[Azuth65]

Wisp poked her head over the hood of the car and watched Jube's claws slice into the robot like knives through butter. With a smirk she stepped up from her position and pushed energy into her palms as she raised her hands.

Black and blue energy crackled between her fingertips and more swirled in her outstretched hands. Please let all those hours of practice have paid off, she thought as she lined up the shot.

In a rush the blast lanced from her palms to her enemy's body, resulting in a short body spasm and a chunk of it's shoulder plating being torn from the mechanical menace.

[Supercape]

Surely we can disable one robot...thought Synth as the mechanical threat suffered from an increasingly vigorous assault from multiple angles.

It looked like she was not alone in the fight, which was good. Some of Freedom Cities other 'superhero's' were with her. She guessed she was one too, that was why she had come.

She needed a better costume than a ripped "Diablo Donuts" t shirt and hat, however.

Once again she flung her arms at the robot, whist moving closer to it.

Incredible! It's strength! she whistled to herself as the thing threw off her hold. It was stronger than her, even with all her cellular vitality and multiple limbs.

Well, she would just have to try harder, she noted to herself.

"It's strong!" she yelled "very strong! I...don't know if I can hold it..." she conceded.