ic Iron Works

[Supercape]

GM

 

The golden beam of beamy goldness sizzled into Barrelhouse with an explosion of sizzling gold. The head dented almost imperceptibly. 

 

Gazooks! What was the giant robot made of? Impervium? Whatever metallurgical marvel it was constructed from, it seemed both completely impervious to heat and diamond-like to anything else. 

 

The scuttling robots scuttled up and scuttled down. They seemed essentially mindless. Possibly remote controlled (for at least one had scuttled off). The remaining ones seemed programme to protect and repair the Giant robot. They set about trying to bend and move the scaffolding back into place, for much of it had bent, and some of it had broken!

Edited August 10, 2018 by Supercape

[Avenger Assembled]

Up in the highest rafters of the iron works, Anna and Esperanza were not having a good day. "We should have burned this place to the ground," hissed Wadjet, her tone burning as much as the rapidly spilling steel down below. "See what that rich bitch would make of the walls coming down on her head." 

 

"Aye, well, thou might be a prophet yet," said Lady Horus, only keeping her helmet on for the aerial escape that seemed inevitable at this point. "The contents of Ptah's forge spill below..." Lady Horus struck the rail with the flat of her hand, hard enough to bend steel. "Burning the place down would put honest laborers out of their jobs - and not solve the battle we came here to win." 

 

"I can't believe I lost my gun," Wadjet spat, "like to find that guy again and put my fist through his throat, see what he makes of me then." She hmmed. "Do you hear that? No alarms. Hm. Of course not, if he had any alarms, then the fire department would come and they'd find his giant robot. Those little bastards might not burn but I bet they can't dig themselves out of solid metal, either. If we wait for things to cool down there, and you pick off the ones that are left...I think we've got a chance."

 

"This is going to be a _long_ evening," pronounced Lady Horus as she peered over her sidekick's shoulder. 

[Supercape]

GM

 

The building did indeed burn, and burn furiously. The night sky was lit up, and smoke filled the air. 

 

Of course, this was an Iron works, and some contingencies had been made for even the worst of fires. It was brick and steel rather than wood, at least for the most part. Whilst windows and furniture burned, the best part of the masonry did not collapse. True, some of it did...and no doubt some Architect or builder somewhere had skimped slightly on the safety paremeters of the buidling. It looked, however, like the building would survive. Burnt, blackened, and horribly damaged, but upright. 

 

The smoke, however, was thick and unpleasant. It would be a devil of a job to see your own hand inside...and oxygen was no doubt in thin supply. 

 

The scuttling robots, however, appeared mindless. Neither the Lady nor Wadjet could see them inside, but they made no attempt to follow the heroic pair, or do anything other than what their limited programming allowed. Protect the grand giant robot, Barrelhouse...

 

Wadjet was also correct. No alarms. 

 

But fire brought attention. And tonight, it was in the form of a group of five punks who had been loitering and spray painting graffiti and kicking over trash cans. One might well call them vandals, because that was indeed what they were. 

 

"Woah! Awesome!" said their leader, a short muscular girl of twenty years age with a horrible collection of facial tattoos that appeared to inform the viewer that her name was "Destructor". She seemed very impressed with the fire. "Did you do that?" she asked Wadjet, awe in her voice at the perceived act of arson. 

 

 

[Avenger Assembled]

By the entrance to the partially-burned building, Lady Horus cut off Wadjet's response - Anna knew perfectly well that her sidekick was about to give a vigorous and perhaps profane affirmative. "Nay, twas the owner of this foul place," she lied with alacrity that made the divine voice in her head twitch. Well maybe I wouldn't have to lie to these kids if you would be more helpful! she thought back. "She built a machine to turn on her neighbors, but we mayhap foiled her plans." Well maybe! In Anna's experience, where there was one killer robot, there was probably two. "She and her minions may yet be about. This is no place for the likes of thee." 

 

"But if you want to take a picture," said Wadjet challengingly, "go right ahead. Make sure everyone knows that this is what happens when you go up against Lady Horus and Wadjet." 

 

"Well if thou art a criminal!" said Lady Horus, annoyed. She didn't turn away from the kids taking pictures, though - those damn cell phones! 'OOr a fool. In any event, if thou wishes to be of use, young ones, perhaps call the authorities? They need know this is a true blaze - and that Lady Horus is on the hunt for its cause!" Which was arguably not a lie, since the cause of this was the robot. With a hand gesture to Wadjet, she signaled Fast search - stay on guard, and then disappeared into the building.

[Supercape]

GM

 

"Well, that sure sounds like you caused it..." contemplated the Destructor. She was hearing what she wanted to hear, and believing what she wanted to believe. And these delusions started cementing themselves with every video and snap photo the gang took on their mobile phones. 

 

Calling the authorities, however, was something they did not want to hear, and thus they heard it not. For the authorities would mean the blaze would be put out, which would spoil the awesomeness of the night. 

 

The building was smoking and choking, and Lady Horus began to cough, splutter, and feel faint. Plus, she could hardly see five feet. That said, with super speed came super-draft, and with judicious use of running-around-very-fast, she could clear enough smoke to at least see a bit, and at least breathe a bit. 

 

Still, it was dusty and smoky despite the best breeze. It took longer than she might have normally wished, but it would do - it would suffice. As far as she could see Barrelhouse, apart from glowing a dull orange, was quite as impervious to heat as its small protector robots. And he moved not a millimeter, quite inert. The remaining five protector robots seemed to content to scuttle about checking it was unharmed. They had no intelligence or initiative, and providing Lady Horus just observed, they did not act. 

 

Fortunately, there were no other robots to be found. Nor anything else alive (or possibly dead) that moved. 

[Avenger Assembled]

Truthfully Anna had not really been interested in the local authorities showing up, at least once it was clear that the fire wasn't going to spread through the rest of the complex. But the kids had been distracted long enough not to follow her inside the smoldering building, which was all she really cared about. Teenagers'll breathe in smoke and think it's cool every time, she thought. At least talking to them had kept Wadjet busy while she was searching, for which she was profoundly grateful. Going to have to have a talk with her about not ruining my bit in front of people! It wasn't that she disliked the idea of putting the fear of the Egyptian gods in the bastards of this miserable town, but she knew perfectly well that outsiders who stuck their heads up too high in a town like Bedlam got noticed - and getting noticed outside of Bedlam was not on her list of plans for the future. Briefly fighting off visions of the Freedom League coming to arrest her and the disappointed faces of her grandchildren, Lady Horus considered her options. She could easily have stepped 'ahead' to when the smoke was clear and the factory was secure, but by then _someone_ besides the looky-loos surely would have shown up. 

 

She settled for 'plinking' off the robots one after the other, appearing behind one and stabbing it in the back, then disappearing to take down another one, until finally the job was done. By the time she was finished she was tired as hell and sick from the fumes, but they'd gotten the damn job done. Outside, she did her best to act unphased as she rejoined the others. "Well. The monsters are defeated, and thou may return to thy homes..."

 

This, at least, Wadjet was on - "Yeah! You go home and you tell them what you saw tonight," she snarled. "Lady Horus and Wadjet don't take crap from wannabe supers!" 

 

"And now," muttered Lady Horus to her sidekick, "I am going to go home and take just a little nap, and then we are going to go to a certain rich girl's house and have some words with her..." 

 

 

[Supercape]

GM

 

And so...

 

It would be nice to say that the next morning the sun rose up strong and bright, and Bedlam was a happy place, full of the joyful aroma of coffee and fresh danish pastries. 

 

Alas, the truth of the matter was that the sun rose through grey dirty clouds, the heat was oppressive and their was a languid humidity in the air that made everyone tired and sleep deprived. The only aroma's were of dirt and sweat and unpleasant polution. 

 

Still, the morning papers were alive with STOP PRESS: FIRE AT THE IRON WORKS! ARSON OR DELIBERATE FIRE SETTING? YOU DECIDE!

[Avenger Assembled]

Anna slept soundly that night, a skill she'd taught herself in prison. Esperanza slept hardly at all - and was still working on building a new gun the next morning. She did have questions for Anna that she practically spat across the breakfast table. "Dammit, ,why the hell didn't we go over there when we had the chance? By now that lady is probably-" 

 

"still in her house. Women like that don't run, honey, not when what they've built up is so nice." She stirred the sugar in her cup, the spoon clinking against the ceramic, then said, "You know, I oughta call up that nice policeman we met the other day and see if he wants to come by. We're gonna hit that place one way or another. She's gonna be waiting for us either way. Might as well give 'em something to see." 

 

"And if she _is_ gone?" 

 

"Well, what they don't know about what was in it won't hurt 'em..." 

[Supercape]

GM

 

Bedlam Police Dept...

 

"Oh sweet Jesus and his band of merry men" groaned Slate, mangling his theological and historical figures. He poured himself some more cold coffee and popped some paracetamol. "I gotta a helluva hangover, lady. And I tell ya, I ain't getting no damn younger. I gotta get up three times in the night. Doc says I got a prostate the size of a plum, and as for my back passage, let me tell me ya...."

 

He clammed his mouth shut at the thought and swigged down his stone cold coffee. He was irritable. Well, more irratable than normal. Short on sleep, hungover, and drowning in the crimes of Bedlam City. Which included suspected arson, apparently. 

 

"What can I do for you, anyhow? You got a name for me or something?" he said, half hopeful. 

Edited August 23, 2018 by Supercape

[Avenger Assembled]

Do I sound like that? Anna mouthed at Esperanza, who nodded immediately. With a great sigh, Anna said, "Listen, honey, I don't know what you heard about no 'crazy arsons', but Lady Horus and Wadjet found a giant robot in that plant and traced it back to the owner and that creepy little dwarf that runs around with 'er." She'd never actually met the dwarf, but she trusted Esperanza's description of the man. "They're the ones that burned the place down," which was arguably true if you blamed them for starting the whole fracas. "You gonna send some cars?"

[Supercape]

GM

 

"Dwarf? Ya mean like in that nerd wizard film? or as in a little dude?" he asked, suspicious for a moment. You could never tell in Bedlam!

 

Presuming it was the latter, he proceeded. "Probably is good enough for me. But the damn cops and the damn law says you need evidence" he muttered, almost spitting out the last word in a seething wave of vexation. "Or a lot of money to bribe the cops. Or you know, maybe you happen to drop an oil can and a firelighter on the dude's back garden and you know, maybe its evidence..."

 

"So whatya got for me? Evidence or..." he winked "evidence?" he said, slowly and knowingly. 

[Avenger Assembled]

Anna considered her answer to that carefully before giving the name of the man Wadjet had interrogated - and what she'd learned from him. "One of the Lady's, er, informants found out some useful information." She thought quickly, of how she and Wadjet had passed their time in the iron works as they waited for the fire to go down. Shoulda snagged one of those robots! she thought, annoyed. The one time she'd failed to steal something, too. "And we got some pictures of the inside of the place too; good ones." She thought about what she knew of the laws in Wisconsin. "Listen. You can't do much here, on account'a Wisconsin not respectin' super-investigations. But what if I could get you more? Like a confession?" 

[Supercape]

GM

 

"Confessions are good" said Slate, cracking his knuckles as he unconsciously recalled how he got "confessions" in difficult situations. 

 

"Pictures are good to" he continued, the more usual and professional way of police procedure kicking in. "Yeah, you get me that, then I can arrest someone and take all the cre--- I mean, I can take good care of the case" he added, his brain still not working at top speed. 

 

"I'd normally ask if you need any help. But first, we ain't got enough boots here to give anybody no help. And second, looks like you don't need no help anyhows. And I suppose third, if you dont get no help, means you don't have to be completely one hundred percent legal. So I tell you what, Ill pull a few tricks here and make sure nobody looks your way. Or if they do, Ill make sure they dont care..."