Dada Disaster (IC)

[Supercape]

Lord Steam shook himself, and galvanised himself into action.

"Rocket launchers are all very impressive, madam" he said "but perhaps you would consider an alternative location for their usage? After all this is an art gallery!"

He took a few quick strides towards the Lady, and as he passed one of the goons, quickened his stride and flicked his cane - knocking aside his gun arm, and following up with a strike to the man's temple.

"Philistine!" he roared and the thug.

[Aoiroo]

Madam Marvelous smiled greatly at the new person trying to garner attention from herself.

"Well I will admit they are rather dangerous, but I've always been a person for danger."

Faster than they could see she shot her hand into her pocket and pulled a stun gun out jabbing it into the gentlemens chest.

"Like it's dangerous to try and steal my show."

Carrie watched from her place mentally assulting the outworlder with every swear word she knew in every language she knew. Which was really only one, but still. Why did the idiot have to go up and try and talk down a woman with a freaking rocket launcher, did he have a death wish. Apparently he was only lucky the chick had alternate means of attack, and which the rocket launcher down it meant she could try something at least.

Why do I always work with the freaking cowboys, can't any of my help just do things quietly from the shadows, I cannot be the only one ultilizing this stradegy.

Given she pretty muched abandoned it as she lunged at the other woman. It was a quick struggle as Carrie pulled the gun from her hands and tried to shove it back at her only to be danced around while the woman grabbed her rocket launcher. Carrie looked at the woman, than at Lockwood,

"Now that's just great, look what you got me into."

[Supercape]

Lord Steam gawped at the speed of his new comrade.

Where did she come from? he asked himself, before noting...

She has some sterling moves!

The thug by his side was annoying him, what with his bullets and noisy gun. Plus, his body stung from the taser that the Madam has sprung at him. He was most grateful that she had been disarmed. His body adopted the classical baritsu pose, and the cane swung overhead to bop the thug on his cranium.

He kept one eye on the Madam as he did so. "I'll deal with you later!" he told her, and shuffled his feet slightly. It might have looked like he had turned his back to her, but his body was coiled to spring back at the mysterious madam of chaos.

[Aoiroo]

Madam was not impressed or amused having her stun gun taken, or the just random movements trying to make a distraction. She was even less amused as these two were taking the attention of the crowd. Reaching to her side she shifted her weapon towards Lockwood,

"Enough!"

Shooting out wildly with the gun she missed by a mile and Carrie saw her chance.

The woman was shaken now, things weren't as controlled as before so Carrie looked at her,

"Not so hot when you can't have all the spotlight are you?"

Her voice was low and cool,

"Not one for attention myself however,"

She sprung forward like a jack in the box and reeled into three cartwheels before stopping just short of MM who looked stunned at the display, just stunned enough for her to get a sucker punch into the wooly witch,

"I do know how to put on a show."

[Supercape]

Oh dear thought Lord Steam as one of thugs bullets slammed into his shoulder.

Memo to self: Bullets hurt

And bleed. His eyes swam briefly. That was going to need some proper medical attention, but he was damned if he was going to let that slow him down. He turned to the shooter, and with a few swift paces, swung his cane squarely at the man's head with all his body weight going into the blow.

"Rotter!" he shouted at the goon.

[Aoiroo]

Carrie had nearly forgotten about the thugs, but apparently one got lucky and a shot that lodged itself in her thigh made her freeze up in pain. She nearly kneeled cursing loudly as she did so while Madam Marvelous shot her a glare and held the assault rifle.

"You ruined my show."

She barked off a hit that nailed Carrie in the shoulder and left her reeling in pain once more.

"#*@)@Y%)*$&"

She found herself on the ground cursing more, wishing she hadn't been so stupid. She should of brought her costume, she should of just stayed a shadow instead of throwing herself into the fry, she should of done a lot of things. But she couldn't move, she couldn't use her powers to avoid being hit again, or flatten her skin so the bullets would be pushed out. She felt blood but she didn't care, she was too angry at herself, and Lockwood too, but that part had to wait until later.

[Supercape]

Bullets! Mayhem! Young maidens in danger!

This simply would not do!

"For England!" yelled Lockwood, his mind whirring on how to fight multiple opponents in this frantic battle. He stepped two to the left, three to the right, bobbing and weaving, ending with a low spin and a crack of his cane at the reeling but not defeated thug he had caught with a blow previously.

"And hands off the maiden!" he added "it's not cricket!"

[Aoiroo]

Picking between a girl with two bullet wounds, and the dude with the cane that just knocked out another one of their guys, the thugs had an obvious choice. Firing at Lockwood, none of them seemed to get a hit but Madam Marvelous seemed to remedy this by climbing up on one of the pieces and yelling for a spotlight,

"The shows almost over, and it's time that the interlopers be taken care of."

The music blared in the background as she shoot off the rifle at Lockwood.

"Your freaking nuts lady."

Carrie pushed herself to her feet, though she heavily favored the non-shot, non-bleeding leg. She sort of just let her shoulder hang as she glared at Madam Marvelous.

"Show, interlopers, this is a crime you sick witch. Besides you couldn't lead a show if it appeared on your doorstep and handed you a lease."

She gave her a half smile, a little light headed, but still ready to work,

"Now this, this is how you do a performance."

With that, Carrie, to the amazement of pretty much everyone there pushed off her good leg like she had bounced off a springboard into a one handed backwards into a series of flips that landed her on the spot Madam Marvelous had first appeared. She stuck the landing with both feet forward and held her hands up in the air like so many practiced routines all those years ago. She was bleeding, her arms and legs were killing her, but she was smiling because no matter how much it hurt, you always smiled at the end of a routine. In the spotlight she swore she heard some applause, but than, she could of been hallucinating as she had lot a good bit of blood.

[Supercape]

"Ow" muttered Lord Steam, as the high calibre bullet whizzed straight through his left thigh, and left a trail of blood.

Sure, he had been stabbed, and shot, before, but that one hurt. And the circumstances were as dire as he could imagine. Worse still, the fair maiden had been shot to hell as well.

He struggled to regain his balance, and shuffled as quickly as he could to the crazed woman who had shot him, his trusted cane whipping like a snake.

"I'm none to partial to be shot at, madam!" he muttered. "Forgive me if I make an exception of my rule never to strike the fairer sex!"

[Aoiroo]

GM

Madam Marvelous didn't see Lockwood coming as she tried to make her way over to Carrie instead to try and put down the distractor altogether. That being said, she didn't get a look at the can as it hit her hard, and she began losing conciousness. Her last sight was that of a cheering crowd and the fleeing of the entorage she had brought with her, fading from conciousness her head swirled with hate and longing for there attention to be on her before finally blacking out.

The ambulence was around ten minutes later, as were the cops. People throughout were recounting the story of the event, of the incredibly flashy villianous, and the actions of Lockwood, and the unnamed woman who seemed to have slipped into anuminity. The paramedics themselves were rather curious themselves to find this woman as it was said she was shot twice, but no one in the room seemed to able to locate her after the falling of Madam Marvelous.

[Aoiroo]

Carrie leaned up against the center leg of the table as she regained her form, she had pushed the bullets out of her skin by switching form thus expelling all non-flat things. It was a trick she learned early on, but it was pretty freaking painful, and she had cut off a lengh of the overly long tablecloth which she bit on as she did so. She had already sliced off two long thin strips to act as bandages and she had snuck some off one of the bottles of vodka from the temporary bar set up for the event, and used it to try and clean the wound and numb the pain. Not that all of this stopped her from going over what happened a million times in her head. How it could of gone better, how it could of gone worse, mostly it was how she could of avoided getting shot, but there was no use broading over it for long. It was done, and now she had to hide away until everyone cleared out so that she could fade into obscurity instead of being questioned by the cops and paramedics. She didn't need to be only any official record of being some citizen hero, in fact it was exactly the type of attention she didn't need.

[Supercape]

Lord Steam straightened up and gave Madame Marvellous a jab with his cane. She seemed out cold. He resisted a brief, tiny, and uncharacteristic urge to kick her with his boot. It would be most unsportsmanlike, and he was loathe to strike women under any circumstance. But she had shot him, and that mysterious ally of his...

...speaking of which, where was she? what was she for that matter? it was pretty blurred, what with all the fighting. Something a little odd about her...

He looked down to the floor and saw the blood trail. It could be anybodies, of course... including his own. And there were a few broken noses amogst the goons he and his ally and bashed. His cane at the ready, he followed it, cautiously at first. The slick red line lead - in a rather jagged and intermittent way - to a table covered by a drooping table cloth. The table cloth had the faintest few droplets of blood on it.

Lord steam lifted the corner of the cloth with his cane, and peeked below, catching sight of a bruised and bloodied Carrie.

"Good show!" he said, smiling, instantly putting two and two together.

[Aoiroo]

Carrie was almost startled at the the arrival of Lockwood, but she met his smile with a scowl and grabbed him quickly pulling him under the table and under the cloth without another word leaving him unmissed by the now leaving crowds like he wasn't even there. Her scowl didn't soften at all at the person, but she ignored him for the moment as she started to tie a cut piece of table cloth over the newly cleaned bullet wound in her arm. She was quiet as she started to try and set the tie, but had difficulty getting it set at an angle before quitting altogether. She put the piece down than turned towards him,

"Did you have to make a freaking spectacle of yourself?"

Her voice was low, a little higher than a whisper in a not so subtle hint that she didn't want to be found.

[Supercape]

"Hmmm... spectacle?" replied Lord Steam.

This is how I always am! he replied, in his head.

However, he judged Carrie was somewhat angry, scared, and most importantly, in pain, at the moment.

"Hmm, my apologies, dear woman" he replied as kindly as he could. "It was a rather bizarre experience for everyone, what with that magnificent madwoman. Bullets! Mayhem! quite extraordinary business, this dimension of yours. Quite insane. I shall, of course, stay as long as I can!" he proclaimed.

He looked at Carries bullet wound.

"I say, old girl, that's a nasty little business there. You should see a quack about that" he said, genuinely concerned. Of course, he had been shot himself, and he ached from the wound, but it looked like Carrie had come off even worse than he had.

[Aoiroo]

"Keep your voice down, if you don't comprehend, I sort of don't want to be found."

She rolled her eyes at the suggestion,

"Screw doctors, how the hell am I going to explain this to someone, and don't say some nonsense like the truth. I do not have time for this, not to be questioned by the police or press, or a bunch of stuck up wealthy arstocrats who didn't have the gull to try and do anything but heard into the middle of the room like a bunch of sheep."

She let out a sigh as she put a hand her face and let out a sigh before picking up the longer cloth and started tieing up the wound on her leg. She winced a bit, but got it tied and covered as she slipped another piece of folded cloth in over the exact location of the bullet wound.

"Why does it always have to be complicated?"

[Supercape]

Lord Steam put his finger to his mouth in a show of silence.

"I am sure I can sort something out" he whispered "I have plenty of resources at my disposal... money buys discretion, and a convincing story buys things for free".

"For starters, I am sure you are just an innocent bystander who took cover when the firing started. And, well, those bullets went simply everywhere... you just happened to catch a bad one. Nasty luck, old girl. "

He peeked out of the table.

"Sirens, and the old bill, outside. Better get the story straight, I'll back you up. "

[Aoiroo]

"Well aren't we the optimist."

Than, he seemed to do everything with enthusiasm, it was one reason his little attack was so annoyingly ineffient, and incredibly unsubtle. But, he was not an enthusiastic coward,

"Well, it's better than spending my time under a table. You do the talking, it's what you're best at."

She pressed the piece of cloth to her arm than peeked out. The paramedics were just about to leave, and the cops had their hands full with a bunch of drama queens giving their spin on the story,

"Lead the way than."

[Supercape]

"Good afternoon, constable" said Lord Steam with a magnificent and low bow. "Lord Steam, ambassador from Earth Victoriana, at your service" he said with as much authority as he could muster.

"We, er, I, have apprehended the crook, this tiresome lady here..." he motioned towards the Madam with his cane. "Quite extraordinary, came in here, hell bent on shooting the place up. I don't know, you colonials and your guns eh?"

It wasn't actually delivered badly, it was more representative of a culture clash between Earth Victoriana and Earth Prime. Entirely plausible, but also significantly uncouth, at least to the police of freedom city.

"I'm afraid one of the bystanders was hit by a stray bullet, I was just administering first aid when you dashing fellows came in. I feel obliged to escort the young lady to the nearest hospital!" he finished, drawing himself up to his full, and not unimpressive, height.

[Aoiroo]

Carrie had to stop herself from putting her hand on her face. But the cop just nodded and pointed them towards the paramedics muttering something about always getting the nuts. The paramedics weren't terribly interested in questioning her, apparently she wasn't the only one with stray bullet wounds. They started some proper application before getting her ready for the ride to the hospital. Before that, she couldn't help overhearing some cops talking about a missing piece from the muesum, a jade cat that was on loan from another muesum. Her eyebrows raised,

So that bimbo was, a distraction.

Letting out a sigh, she climbed out of the ambulence,

"Why are things always so complicated?"

[Supercape]

Lord Steams ears pricked up when he heard of the theft.

Interesting. But if fits... he thought. If anyone could cause a distraction, it was that madwoman with a rocket launcher...

His detective impulses itched to start looking into it. But he had Carrie to consider, in tandem with his gentlemanly code of behaviour. The woman must be attended to first!

He hopped onto the ambulance with Carrie. Come to think of it, he could do with some medical attention himself, he was still bleeding, although not dangerously so, and as far as he could tell nothing was broken.

"Well, we've been through the wars today, eh?" he smiled at Carrie as the ambulance trundled off. "I heard another artifact was stolen elsewhere. It rather irritates me to consider we were just the distraction..."

[Aoiroo]

"We weren't the distraction, we distracted the distraction. I doubt that loon had any inkling about the actual robbery."

She leaned back in her chair and put a hand on her face,

"That statue must be worth a small fortune, it'll probably be on the black market soon. Once it's sold it's gone, two day time limit is what I'm thinking probably. If the person is selling it that is, hard to say with theives, sometimes they just like to collect things."

Letting out a sigh,

"Police's problem I suppose, or Freedom Leagues."

[Supercape]

Lord Steam actually stamped his foot on the ambulance floor.

"Blast!"

He tapped the side of his head with his cane in frustration a few times.

"Its really not on, my dear. I can't let this mystery pass me by. And I don't like being the side course when the real meat of the matter passes me be. I won't stand for it. "

He sharply brought the cane to the floor with both hands. "I'm going to find out exactly what happened and who stole that artifact. And I havent had a crime I cant solve yet!"

If nothing else, he looked determined. But it was also clear that he was confident, and perhaps with good enough reason. His boast of detective prowess was no lie, at least so far as Earth Victoriana was concerned. This new strange dimension might be a different matter. However, it was not in Lord Steam's nature to consider the possibility of failure - at least not at this juncture.

[Aoiroo]

Carrie rolled her eyes as she looked back,

"In Victoriana I'm sure, but you aren't there anymore."

She looked at the paramedic for a second seeing he had deemed his patients less than critical and put in his earbuds. Still she kept her voice to a whisper,

"Things here are weird in an entirely different way, heck we're just lucky that the only thing we have to worry about is gunshot wounds, that Madam Mentalcase wasn't some metahuman, or that she was more concerned about holding a show than holding hostages."

She leaned forward and propped her chin up on her good arm,

"You're way of doing things isn't nessicarily the best, like directly confronting an armed gunman, because guns are a dime a dozen here, and there are few and inbetween in the places you might have to go who would want to give you a sporting chance."

[Supercape]

Lord Steam contemplated this for a moment. It was true, firearms were pretty rare in the British Empire of Earth Victoriana. Well, not exactly rare, but not floating around like penny chews as they did in Freedom City. The odd revolver, even, on occasion, a hunting rifle. But firearms needed licenses, and were generally sniffed at, even by the criminal establishment.

Fully automatic rifles, like the Madam's were almost unheard of. Perhaps only the Special Zepplin Service. And as for Rocket Launchers... strictly military only.

"Its true" he conceded "I shall need to exercise a little more caution. And perhaps invest in some body armour!" he laughed. "But I was caught unaware this time. Usually, its me taking the criminal down on my terms, not theirs. "

[Aoiroo]

Carrie let out a light snort,

"Your terms? What exactly are your terms? A fair fight between men, a proper duel where the winner bows out honorably after being beaten? That's not how crime works here. Criminals fight hard, they fight dirty, and they take whatever shortcuts they can to try and get what they want. We're just lucky that flashy chick wanted an audience more than anything, or she would of hit us with that freaking rocket launcher which body armor most certianly won't protect against, at least not body armor readily available to civilians."

At least not unless it's custom made by one of the many people she knew with such access to things. Not that she could really wear body armor herself.