ic Monorail Mayhem

[Supercape]

GM

 

May 19th

 

Near Midnight...

 

The clock was but five minutes from the middle of the night. In this part of the city, there never was any total sleep. Cars still drove, lights still shone, drunkards still drank. Even at the weekend. And the monorail still circled round Downtown, slick, smooth, effective. A testemant and a salute to the  hope that technology brings. 

 

Until it goes wrong. 

 

Disaster!

 

With an almight creak, with a shower of sparks, the rail cracked, tore asunder, and sent a wailing carriage to the ground, sliding across the tarmac and crunching into a building. There was smoke, there was fire, there was panic. 

 

And there was, of course, a call for all emergencies services! 

 

It looked like they would be needed....

[Poncho]

Dwayne Devon Davidson had been asleep. He was on call, but the correct thing to do whenever you're working on the shift is to catch some sleep when you can. But no EMT sleeps through alarms either. When the station started blaring, his eyes snapped open. The dispatcher's voice rang through the bunk. Monorail crash. Injuries. Serious. Pants, boots, shirt buttoned. He was ready in a few seconds, stomping his boots as he ran towards the ambulance.

"Let's go let's go let's go!" He clapped his hands quickly, getting his partner up and at them as they ran towards the ambulance. They were out of the station before the trucks were, as fast as could be; sirens blaring as they cut down the streets, with careful, effective speed.

 

He was calm under pressure, but he had practiced this, and he was ready; he'd had plenty of emergencies before, after all. He navigated the heavy ambulance with speed as they headed to the site in question.

 

Once the ambulance arrived, it was time for triage. They tagged who they could, and worked with the firemen to help anyone who was severely injured but still capable of saving. This was his job, his serious, non-heroism job, and he had far more experience at that.

[Supercape]

GM

 

The scene was carnage. Twisted, smoking metal. Engines on fire. Shattered bones and splattered blood. Even the vortex of chaos that surrounded the crashed carriage was enough for a serious incident - crashed cars and stunned onlookers. A fire hydrant had come off, spraying water into the air, yet not enough to quell the flames. Many were dying, and surely a few were dead. 

 

Dwayne did his best, patching up one, then another. Applying torniquets and inserting IV blood lines at a phenomenal rate. Even shocking one elderly lady back to life, due to her arrhythmic heart rate. Few would have been able to work so fast, so effectively, under pressure. This was battlefield medicine. 

 

But the show was not over. 

 

The Monorail had been twisted asunder, leaving a horrific gap in its circular loop. 

 

And... despite (surely) every alarm and safeguarding being fired, Dwayne could see another carriage approaching, threatening a repeat performance of the crash!

[Poncho]

"This is bad. Where's a Hero when you need one." he cursed as he continued working on keeping the injured in the world of the living. No one else seemed to be coming, at least right now, which meant he was on scene and no one else. So he grit his teeth, frowning as he did so. He called out to his partner.

 

"I need to try and stop that new carriage from crashing! I know it's against regulations but it doesn't look like anyone else is going to be here on time!" he said in a clipped yell. The machine on his wrist beeped as he turned his attention to it. His fingers carefully typed in symbols he didn't understand, flipping through menus he couldn't read, until he got to the one he knew only by rote memorization instead of actual understanding. His fingers hit buttons he had mechanically come to repeat rather then enter via his actual knowledge.

 

Five characters, none of them legible to him, but together they meant something. He hit the enter button and began to change.

 

From a human to an alien. An extra pair of legs, four in total, horse-like with thick, powerful muscles instead of human legs. A thinner, more delicate looking upper body with an extra digit on each hand. Two eyes positioned not on the head but on stalks that swivel around. The entire creature had a pale grey and white color scheme, with a tinge of bright green. The clothing it was wearing was a mimicry and modification of the EMT uniform Dwyane was wearing before he transformed.

The Galloping Ghost reared up on it's hindmost legs and dashed off, trying to use super speed to get up to the out of control monorail before it could crash! Maybe there was an emergency brake or something he could use!

[Supercape]

GM
 

The Galloping Ghost was fast enough to head the next carriage off at the pass...

 

But this was odd - something was borked with the whole system. Carriages shouldnt be travelling that close to one another. Somebody, or something, was going very wrong today. 

 

The Galloping GHost leapt up to the next carriage and through the walls into the drivers seat. The driver was screaming, and so were the breaks. A shrill, tinny sound that threated to burst eardrums. Sparks were flying off the monorail as malfunctioning brakes tried to squeeze onto the monorail and generate enough friction. They werent working - at least, they werent working well enough. Slowing the carriage down, maybe, but it was still destined for a crash. 

 

"Help!" screamed the driver. 

 

Out of the dashboard, a face appeared. Not a face of flesh. The metal of the dashboard warped, crumpled, and undulated until it formed a face. 

 

"Wheres the fun in that?" laughed the face. "Wheeeeeee! CRASH BANG WALLOP!"

[Poncho]

The ghostly centaur bounced around the monorail's control room like, well, a super fast ghost. He phased through the conductor himself as he shot from panel to panel, flipping switches, pulling levels, hitting buttons. He only really had a vague idea of what he was doing, but the computer on his watch was beeping loudly and he followed what he thought it was asking, following it's chirps and beeps to pull, twist, and turn levers, hoping to stall it.

 

"I'm here to help." Said the Galloping Ghost, who spoke in an unearthly wail that was still understandable thanks to the machine on it's slim wrist. "I'm figuring it out." then the ghost once more ran full speed over to the metal dashboard face and wailed disapprovingly. It sounded a lot like

 

"waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahneeeeeeiiiiigh", except like, ghostly alien horse-like. The wrist-machine translated.

"Who are you and why are you doing this?" the Galloping Ghost asked as it's eyestalks swiveled to try and keep a look on any possible issues.

[Supercape]

GM

 

The braking system was locked, half-engaged. A few twists here, a few jangles there, and Dwayne had disengaged them, causing an alarming leap in velocity. Fortunately, he could re-engage them straight away, causing a horrible lurching and scream of grinding metal. As ugly as the sound, it worked - the Carriage stopped, inches away, from the break in the monorail. Practically every alarm light on the carriage was bleeping away. 

 

"I'm me!" said the face on the dashboard, frowning deeply. "Mister me. And you are a dirty rotten spoilsport!"

 

A metal hand emerged from the dashboard and gave Dwayne a slap round the face. Not hard, but shocking. 

 

"I'm going to have some fun elsewhere, you rotter!" screamed the face, and dissapeared. 

 

Further along the track, a metal form emerged, as if growing from the track itself. It was pure metal, humanoid, but only two or three feet tall. And it started sliding across the rail, away from Dwayne, at a high velocity!

[Poncho]

"That was rude!" said the ghostly centaur, rubbing it's face with it's hand in some level of shock. What was this bizarre creature!? Then it was suddenly gone again! "Where did you go!?" he said in shock, his eyes swiveling, then seeing the metal form. "Oh no." He looked around, looked at the driver of the monorail, and his horsely face was clearly trying to work through this.

 

"You have emergency exit protocols right? You work on those. I'll keep this 'Mister Me' and it's minions away from the train, but you'll have to help disembark. There's emergency services ready to help; maybe one of the ladder trucks can help disembark people." He spoke, relying heavily on the translator before he refocused, looking down the track at the humanoid metal goblin and rushing down towards it, trailing whispers of ghostly 'ectoplasm' as the ghostly creature that needed no rider rushed down the great monorail tracks!

[Supercape]

GM

 

"Protocols. Me Exit. Emergency, mister. Got it!" said the Driver, babbling a babble before a veneer of professionalism settled on his instinct for self-preservation. 

 

"Ladies and Gentlemen..." he said over the tannoy. "Please remain calm and seated. Help is on the way. Do not worry, we have protocols for exactly this type of panic. There is no need to emergency."

 

He looked up to Dwayne. "That's right? Yes, we have exactly this type of protocol?"

 

But Dwayned was already rushing after the metal man!

 

Who laughed, reached down to the monorail, his hand melding with the metal. And then, he pulled himself into the metal and was gone!

[Poncho]

The Galloping Ghost stalled out as the metal man disappeared. He didn't really have any way to track it, and if the creature was evil, and was going to continue to harass the area, he'd likely be able to try and track it down then; if the creature was as much of a troublemaker as it seemed to be, he probably wouldn't be waiting around too long.

 

"...Dang. Okay then." He mumbled, turning around to head back to the monorail. If the creature was gone for now, that meant he was ready to get back to his actual job. The Galloping Ghost made his way back to the monorail car, preparing to use his Ghostly powers to assist anyone who needed help getting down.

 

"Alright, let's try and evacuate this poor monorail before anything worse happens." He said, his horse-man face contorting into a frown as he made his way back to the monorail.

[Supercape]

GM

 

As Dwayne started helping the people off the carriage, the metal man's head (and face) once again appeared out of the monorail itself. More specifically, the shorn end of it. 

 

"Boo! Spoilsport! Wheres the fun in this? Helping people. BORING!"

 

The face pondered for a moment, chewing its metal lip whilst deciding what to do. 

 

"I'm  going to play on the other side of the circle. You just stay here and rescue people. Dont go spoiling it again... BORING!"

 

The face sang a song. 

 

"BORING BORING BORING.... BO-RING!"

 

With his little ditty complete, the metal man (although it was only about 3 feet tall) started running down the monorail track. With great agility, one might say - dancing along the track as if his feet were magnetic. Which, Dwayne could guess, they probably were...

[Poncho]

The Galloping Ghost let out an annoued neigh and stomped it's hooved foot at the little metal man. The little creature was clearly a danger to everyone! But the people still on the monorail were also in danger. He didn't hace time to weigh all his options, he had to trust his gut and go from there.

 

The Galloping Ghost reared back again and dashed towards the monorail instead of the metal man. His goal was simple; help them off the monorail, make sure everything was under control in the crash zone, then pursue the metal man across the city. Was this the correct decision? Only time would tell. But he had to do what he thought was right.

 

[Poncho]

Charging down the monorail, the human turned alien creature was focusing intently on chasing after the metallic man once he was sure everyone was disembarked relatively safely. He always felt like he was an E.M.T. first, and a Superhero second, so often when confronted with such situations, he leaned towards support rather then actually stopping villains. This lead to a lack of experience on his part, in some ways, and that meant he made mistakes.

 

Like the mistake of not solidly placing his footing as he was dashing down the slick, metal monorail track, meaning as he raised a foot he slipped, sending himself careening off at full speed. He was able to phase through a building using his ghostly form, but as he slowed down- his velocity being robbed by the inability to continue running-, he could not longer maintain his intangibility and instead he smashed into an awning, crashing through it and down into the fruit stand before, scattering apples and other fruit all across the road. He groaned, a nasty bruise on one of his legs, as he stood up slowly.

 

"...That hurt..." he grunted, frowning on his long horse face. But he spied an apple and his horse-like alien instincts took over, and he could not stop himself from grabbing one off the ground, shining it up, and taking a heavy chomp out of it. The horse quietly ate his apple, waiting a bit, before dashing off again after the metal man.

[Supercape]

GM

 

"Har Har!" laughed the micro metal man, laughing and pointing. "You humans are so STUPID! You uare no match for my amazingly amazing metal powers, are you!"

 

He paused, drumming his hand fingers on his bald metal scalp. 

 

"Wait... you are one of those.... Super heroes! Arent you! Har har har! What an IDIOT! What do they say on those programmes I watched... oh yes! Your KUNG FU IS REALLY PATHETIC! Har har har!"

 

However, as Dwayne got up to the fight again, the Metal Man decided it was more prudent to run, or more accurately slide. He skidded along the monorail as if he was surfing a wave, the metal undulating under his feet. 

 

"WHEEEEEE!" he added, clearly enjoying himself. 

 

Scanning ahead, Dwayne could see a potential problem.... Aside from all the business buildings, pedestrians, and vehicles, an unfortunate issue lay ahead. A lorry labelled "Franks Fabulous Fireworks" had parked just below the monorail, delivering fireworks to the liberty park for an upcoming festival...

[Poncho]

The Galloping Ghost disappeared! He was at a single moment running towards the fireworks truck, then he completely disappeared! Where could he possibly have gone?! It's impossible to know! Well, unless you knew what the whispering, whipping wind beneath the metal man, what the sound of the ghostly, howling wail, what the clattering hooves that seemed to come from nowhere meant! Because those were the signs of the Galloping Ghost, the Equine Ectoplasmic Entity!

The Metal Man was about to find this out first hand, as suddenly, as the little metal man was rushing down the tracks, the howling, clattering and whinnying was coming straight for him! As the Ghost emerged from nothingness in front of the Metal Man and was charging directly at him, intent to run him down under his mighty hooves!

[Supercape]

GM

 

"Whoooaaaa!" screeched the Metal Man, his voice tinny, like scratched metal. 

 

"I didn't see you coming! Wait! Are you going to chase me? WHEEEEE! FUNTIMES!"

 

The Metal man leant backwards and tried to slow his pace - lamentably, he was not fast enough. He may have made the metal as shiny and frictionless as an oiled mirror to try and fool Dwayne, but that very transmutation now worked against him. He only had a second to decelerate, and whilst his reflexes were fast, they were not fast enough. 

 

He slid right into Dwayne!

[Poncho]

The Galloping Ghost grabbed the little metal man with a whickering neigh, holding him off the metal of the monorail line to try and keep him from running away again. The horse let out a loud nicker, whinnying loudly. He was saying something, but it took a moment for the translator to pick up, letting out a frazzled beep before translating again.

 

"Why did you make the Monorail crash?" The translator slash transforming gadget finally said, sparking slightly.

[Supercape]

GM

 

"Why?" asked the Metal man, his little legs running frantically in mid-air. "Why, because its metal! I like metal. Us Metalloids do. You have so little metal in this place, but its awfully fun to play with. Look at all the fun we are having," he giggled. 

 

The metal men started melting, dripping right out of Dwayne's hand, reforming in a crouch on the monorail itself. 

 

"Wouldn't it be fun if we electrocified this? Shocking! I am sure I saw the power generator earlier. So primitive.. but effective! Yippee!"

 

With another wide grin that threatened to split his face, the metal man shot away again, pounding across the monorail like a bullet. 

[Poncho]

"Ah! Get back!" Dwayne yelled. "Who are the Metalloids? Are there more of you!?" He tried to chase after the cresture, this time doing his best to not slip and hurt himself, even if it meant going slower. If there were more of them, if the monorail was aggressively electeified, that could be quite bad. He needed to stop this creature, and find these other 'Metalloids'. The best thing to do was probably trying to keep a close eye on this metalloid and keep him busy.

 

"Please tell me more about your Metalloid allies. If we're going to have fun, surely they should also be here?"

[Supercape]

GM

 

The metal man slowed down to half speed, his face one of excitement. His hands flapped, his eyebrows twitched, his body restless, insatiable. 

 

"Allies? Family! We are the Metalloids! Made of metal. From a world of metal. Everything, metal! Such strange chemistry you have in this universe... some things arent metal at all. Shame. But we can have fun here!"

 

He looked around. 

 

"My twin should be here. We snuck off, to have some fun in this universe. All this excitement! All this chemistry and stuff! Its so dull where we come from. Everything just metal. And the elders dont let us have fun at all..."

 

He shook his head sadly, then stomped a metal foot on the monorail. 

 

"And you stopped all the fun, too! All that crashing and smashing, and crying and excitement. Best fun ever!"

 

The man-or was it child-scanned ahead. 

 

"I'm going to overload the powerstation and electrify the monorail! That will be great fun!"

 

And off he sped. 

[Poncho]

"A second one..." Dwayne mumbled to himself, looking up into the sky. So they were aliens? This was definitely some Atom Family issues, so his second job was really colliding painfully with his first job right now. What was the play here? Electrifying the monorail could be dangerous, but it's likely already being evacuated. If people aren't on it, then it being 'electrified' wouldn't be an issue, right? All he really needed to do was buy some time for evacuation to finish, and maybe do a little secret modifications to stop the metal alien from doing anything bad.

 

So the Galloping Ghost followed along, leaving bursts of ectoplasm behind him, but he wasn't after stopping the creature.

 

"Why don't I escort you to the power station, maybe your twin will show up."