ic The Pinball Wizard Strikes!

[Amelia]

Octoman

 

After the giant ball passed him by, Octoman re-inflated his body, peeled himself off the wall, and sent a stretchy tentacle shooting down the hallway. As soon as it found solid purchase, he retracted it, pulling his body down the hallway. When he came around the corner, he took a moment to admire the enormous pinball table that the room had been converted into. "Whoa...shiny..." Then he saw the caged man, and the ricocheting ball. "Uh oh." He jumped and flipped and tentacle-ziplined across the room until he was standing in front of the cage. Then his tentacles shot out in all directions, wrapping around and sticking to whatever purchase they could find. He pulled the tentacles taut, but relaxed every other part of his body, hanging limp in the oncoming ball's path. His face twisted into a cringe. "This is gonna suck...oh man not in the face, not in the face, not in the...wait a sec, I don't have any bones!" His head twisted around 180 degrees, and he laughed. "HAH! NOT IN THE FACE!"

 

[RocketLord]

GM

 

The ball came rolling, ricocheting off the walls a few times, before its direction finally brought rolling directly towards the man in the cage. He screamed, holding his hands up in front of himself in a futile effort to do anything to stop it, when Octoman threw himself in, grabbing on to walls and ceiling and floor with his octo-arms! The sight of the many armed octopod only made the man in the cage scream even louder, though it stopped as the ball collided with Octoman.

 

His arms stretched. He was pushed back, but slowly, the ball's momentum slowed and it came to a halt, held against the loudmouth leviathan himself, stopping only inches from squishing him against the cage!

[Darksider42]

"Ah dammit." Spectre mumbled. The giant pinballs trajectory quickly became apparent to the teleporting, but Octomans quick thinking stopped it from crushing the cage. "Nice one... Not gonna sleep well with your face like that though." She quipped before vanishing.

 

She appeared next to the trapped hostages cage and nodded. "Might wanna step back a bit." She told him before forcing her hands through the upper section of the bars.  Never done it like this before. Hope it works... The glow from her hands started to travel into the bars and small flashing pinpricks of blue light appeared around her. Flakes of metal rapidly fell to her feet as the bar lost a chunk of it. She then moved down to the lower half and continued.

Edited December 21, 2019 by Darksider42

[RocketLord]

Archer II

 

The ball was pinging around, like some kind of pinball. Its trajectory seemed random, nothing he could predict, and the guy in the cage was screaming, but at least Octoman saw what was going on, and jumped to the rescue. 

 

While Spectre dealt with the prisoner, Connor moved to the ball. The way it had hit Octoman and been stopped, it didn't seem like it was electrified like the walls had been earlier, so that was something, at least. It didn't mean it wasn't booby trapped in other ways. Or maybe this entire place was just one big trap. Pinball Wizard... he lived up to his theme, at least.

 

"Step back a moment. I'll anchor it." he said, making sure to be turned so Octoman could see his lips.

 

Switching his arrow out, he took a quick shot at the bottom of the ball once Octoman had stepped back, a thick foam quickly spreading out from the arrow and keeping it in place. 

[RocketLord]

GM

 

The bars gave away, quickly disappearing as it flaked away and quickly undone. The man inside the cage had taken a step back, looking a bit nervous, but seemed visibly relieved when it turned out Spectre was out to help him. "Guys, guys, you gotta help. This guy, he just grabbed me. Rolled this little ball at me, then he got me in a cage and in this weird place with giant balls rolling everywhere. Didn't really work out, he said I was no fun, then put me in here earlier." He was obviously panicking. He seemed dehydrated, starved, but still strangely active. He quickly ducked out of the cage once the bars were gone.

 

"Aw, guys, that right there? That's so not cool! That's, like, a full tilt! You can't do a full tilt!" There was a vibrating sensation, then suddenly, the entire place shook violently three times. "Ya'll just gotta nudge it!"

[Amelia]

Octoman

 

Once the giant pinball finally came to a stop, the Sensational Cephalopod's neck twisted back around and he grinned and held a "thumbs up" gesture above the ball. Once Archer had the giant pinball anchored, Octoman let his muscles return to their resting state and allowed the air bladders in his body to re-inflate. To the others, it was like watching a mattress spring back into place after being compressed. He slapped the panicking hostage on his back. "Nah, Dude, it's all good, you can chill, the cavalry's here, we got this. Any ONE of us could run circles around this clown and redecorate the room with his face, but there's THREE of us. Dude's HAMBURGER. Hey, you don't look so hot." He turned to the other two superheroes. "Anyone got, like, a water bottle or some jerky or somethin'?" He patted his own chest and abdomen. "This thing doesn't really have, like, POCKETS. At least, not the kind anyone would wanna EAT out of..."

 

He half-stumbled, half-jumped into the air when the quake began. "HELLL-OHHH! QUICK, FIND A DOORWAY!" His tentacles tore themselves free from their purchases around the room and reflexively retracted, snapping back toward him like rubber bands. The ends of the tentacles planted themselves in various spots on the floor around him, and a couple on the ceiling. He staggered in a few random directions, his tentacles arranged around him and lifting him above the ground like the legs of a spider. "Nevermind, pretty sure that doorway thing's a myth anyway."

 

[Darksider42]

Spectre stepped back shook her hands as the glow faded from them and the last bar fell to the ground. Each individual finger tingled like the sensation of pins and needles. She tried to not look at Octoman as his form went back to normal,  the flesh contortions sending a mild shiver down her spine. "Got enough arrows to keep that up Archer?" She asked while helping the captive out of the cage.

"Eh, don't worry. Knowing my luck we should be back at the food court in no tiiIIEEE!" The conversation was cut off as the floor shook. Caught by surprise, she stumbled backwards before falling and landing on her back. There was a brief flash of blue and Spectre was back on her feet as though nothing happened. "Wow. Petty much?" She mumbled, rubbing the back of her head and feeling a dull ache from where she landed.

[RocketLord]

Archer II

 

Connor moved closer. The guy was clearly freaked out, not that anyone could blame him. He had been holed up in a place like this for days, with whatever the Pinball Wizard had planned for them. How long had he even been in that cage? He barely had any room to move? And then there was Octoman and Spectre. Hardly the most normal looking people out there, but at least the guy seemed to hold up relatively stable. Silly or not, they had to take the Pinball Wizard seriously

 

"Let's hope so." His response to Spectre was cut off by the Pinball Wizard and everything starting to shake. Connor started to move, forced to shift his position, but not quite tumbling, he planted both feet firmly on the ground again. Spectre fell, the guy from the prison fell. 

 

The ball started moving, struggling against the riot foam.

[RocketLord]

GM

 

The entire thing continued to shake. The ball shook and threatened to break loose, but Archer's riot foam held fast. The Pinball Wizard cackled, his laugh spreading through the entire place. All around them, neon lights were flashing and lighting up. 

 

"Aw man, not this again!" The prisoner struggled to remain standing as everything around them shook. In a circle of about 10 feet from the cage, long spikes suddenly started shooting up from the floor, with little choice but to move up or away to get out of their reach.

[Amelia]

Octoman

 

The spikes thrusting up from the floor around the cage appeared to miss Octoman by a hair. A close inspection would reveal that one of the spikes did not in fact miss him, but he somersaulted away from it quickly enough that the spike's point barely broke his skin, and not deeply enough to draw blood. It still stung, though. "YEEOWZA!" He angrily shouted up at the ceiling while the tentacles coming out of his back and sides flailed around him expressively. "Oh it's ON now! I was gonna go easy on ya when it was just you playin' with your balls, but now you go and try ta STAB a brother? I'm'a grab those big balls o'yours and FEED 'em to ya! And I did NOT mean that to sound so erotic!"

 

Out of the corner of his eye, Octoman saw the cage begin to slide down into the floor. "Yo fam, change of plans! Back in the cage! Elevator, goin' down!" He leapt into the gap Spectre had dissolved in the bars, and his body once again appeared to deflate like a popped balloon. He sat down and leaned against the inside of the bars, but he looked more like a layer of paint someone had splashed against them. "Plenty of room, cuddle up!" His tentacles reached out to offer a "hand" to any stragglers.

 

[Darksider42]

The faint sounds coming from the floor pierced through the aching pain in Spectres head and she leaped away from the wave of metallic spikes jutting out of the ground. It quickly started to become a dance to avoid being impaled while moving the prisoner along, something she could not do that while intangible to the world.

 

Frantically looking around, her attention was drawn to the cage and the frantic flailing of a shapeshifting Octoman. "Look, I know I just sprung you but..." She shrugged and pushed the terrified captive into Bens waiting tentacles. Her form became surrounded by the blue haze and she leaped through the bars. "Hurry up, don't wanna give the jerk the pleasure of seeing you skewered right?" Her voice echoed, as though she was speaking from the other side of a thick pane of glass.

Edited January 20, 2020 by Darksider42

[RocketLord]

Archer II

 

Into the cage, then? Alright. Seeing where the others were headed, Connor set into a run, quickly shifting to a grappling line arrow that he fired into the ceiling. He had to get past those spikes without falling and getting impaled, so instead, he swung over them. It'd be cramped in there, even with Octoman squeezing up against the bars like that (honestly, that guy was freaky) and Spectre making like a ghost, but hopefully, it'd be worth it.

 

Letting go of the line, Connor reached out for Octoman's tentacle while in mid-air, and let himself get pulled into the cage with the others as it descended. Things were tight. No way he'd be able to even get to his arrows before they got out of this place.

 

"You know we're going into a complete unknown here, right?" Of course they knew. They were prep school heroes. "Just checking."

[RocketLord]

GM

 

The cage descended until it reached the floor below the, and what appeared to be long, brightly lit service tunnels stretching out ahead of them. The entire place was white, having a very much 50's futuristic look to it. As the cage reached the floor, it began to move, having connected to some kind of automatic floor that started bringing it further down along the halls.

 

"Hey! You're not supposed to do that! Get back in the game!" It seemed that, even here, the Pinball Wizard could see them. There was a sound like everything above them shook, the tunnel the cage was moving down shaking from side to side, but not enough to topple any of the heroes. "That's cheating! What kinda hero cheats?"

[Darksider42]

Spectre steadied herself as the cage started to shake and sway under the impotent rage of the Pinball wizard. The smile and repressed smile told everyone present how she felt about the whole thing. "Looks like someones tilted." She quipped before diving through the bars and into the tunnel proper. A perfect three point landing later her form began to properly solidify. "We didn't cheat, Your game just sucks." The eerie echo in her voice faded as she fully settled back into this dimension.

 

She spun around and faced the rest of the team, along with the unfortunate hostage of this villain. "So, where do you think he's keeping the rest of them?" 

[Amelia]

Octoman

 

Quote

"You know we're going into a complete unknown here, right?"

 

"Dude, THE UNKNOWN is where I LIVE! BRING. IT. ON! Seriously, Man, that whole 'Look before ya leap' gimmick, it's OVERRATED. Study, train, practice, SURE, but when it comes time ta put fist ta face and foot ta ass, when you're IN THE MOMENT, ya gotta just let INSTINCT take over. Ya already know whatcha gotta do before ya do it, and standin' around thinkin' about it isn't gonna make ya do it any better. It's just gonna make ya SECOND-GUESS everything and PSYCH yourself OUT. That's why Tinder's so popular." Octoman yelled, throwing his hands up, then stage-whispered and motioned with one hand like he was sweeping a bunch of dishes off of a table. "DON'T THINK! Just swipe."

 

Quote

"So, where do you think he's keeping the rest of them?"

 

"This guy's OLD SCHOOL. That means death-traps, puzzles, giant props, THE WORKS. Even if we DID jump the rails and do a major sequence-break, there's NO WAY the hostages are just sittin' in a dungeon playin' Go Fish. They gotta be, like, in a cage hangin' over a pit of acid, or tied to the strings of a giant piano, so if you play the wrong note they get crushed under the hammers, some wacky crap like that."

 

[RocketLord]

Archer II

 

Octoman's arm felt weird. Off. Of course, he probably wasn't quite human anymore, was he? Didn't look like it, at least. Connor had worked together with a bunch of people already, but for some reason, Octoman was just throwing him off his game. 

 

Connor climbed out of the cage, moving steadily. There was no way he would inside it for wherever it was going to. He motioned for the prisoner to follow. They couldn't just leave him alone. He already had an arrow ready as he stared ahead at the hallways.

 

On 2/12/2020 at 9:54 AM, Grumblefloof said:

"Dude, THE UNKNOWN is where I LIVE! BRING. IT. ON! Seriously, Man, that whole 'Look before ya leap' gimmick, it's OVERRATED. Study, train, practice, SURE, but when it comes time ta put fist ta face and foot ta ass, when you're IN THE MOMENT, ya gotta just let INSTINCT take over. Ya already know whatcha gotta do before ya do it, and standin' around thinkin' about it isn't gonna make ya do it any better. It's just gonna make ya SECOND-GUESS everything and PSYCH yourself OUT. That's why Tinder's so popular." Octoman yelled, throwing his hands up, then stage-whispered and motioned with one hand like he was sweeping a bunch of dishes off of a table. "DON'T THINK! Just swipe."

 

"Guess you gotta get a shot with the ladies somehow," he quipped in return. "But you're probably right about the death traps. Doesn't seem like the kinda guy to just leave people hanging around."

 

So, what now? "Follow the cage. Maybe it'll lead the way to the other prisoners." He didn't know if the prep school heroes would do as he asked or not, it didn't matter. At least like this, he had something of a plan.

[RocketLord]

GM

 

The cage rolled along in its track as the heroes decided on their actions. With at least Archer following the cage, they would meet a few turns and hallways that turned left or right on their way, though the cage continued onwards in a straight path. The general silence of the place was only broken by the noise of the rattling cage, with the Pinball Wizard having fallen silent. The heroes met no resistance or traps in their path.

 

Eventually, the cage would roll into a much larger room, which seemed to be at least 100 feet in all directions. Like the rest of the backstage area, the room was completely white. The walls of the room was littered with hallways with tracks like the ones the cage had been on, all the tricks ending in the middle of the room, where a group of 9 other cages waited, each hanging from a long mechanical arm from the ceiling.

 

As Octoman had predicted, the cages were hanging over a pit, though they couldn't see what was in it from the hallway that entered the room. The distance from the edge of the pit to the cages seemed to be around 10 feet.

 

6 of the 9 cages had people in them, the last three were empty. While the heroes watched, the cage they had followed reached the end of the pit and stopped. A large large mechanical arm reached down from the ceiling and pulled the cage up, pulling it in to join the others.

[Darksider42]

On 2/12/2020 at 7:54 PM, Grumblefloof said:

Octoman

"This guy's OLD SCHOOL. That means death-traps, puzzles, giant props, THE WORKS. Even if we DID jump the rails and do a major sequence-break, there's NO WAY the hostages are just sittin' in a dungeon playin' Go Fish. They gotta be, like, in a cage hangin' over a pit of acid, or tied to the strings of a giant piano, so if you play the wrong note they get crushed under the hammers, some wacky crap like that."

 

 

"So all over the place? Figures it wouldn't be easy." Spectre grumbled. "He'll be predictable at least. Really wants to stay on brand."

She looked over at Archer. Spectre teleported around the back of the cage and held onto the bars as they went down the corridor. If there were any surprise traps, she was confident she could get out of the way in time. By the time it had reached the room Spectre had wrapped her arm around one of the bars in an attempt to not tire out her hands from gripping the cold steel. The hooded girl ported over to the top of one of the empty cages suspended high above.

"Hey guys. We're here to bust you out." The teen scanned the other cages and their occupants. "This everyone or did he move the others to someplace else?"

[Amelia]

Octoman

 

Octoman turned back toward the man they'd rescued on the upper level. "OK, um...Hostage-Dude, just, like, hang out in the back and chill. We got this. Uh...don't touch anything!" Then he turned his attention to the rest of the room. "Hey Spectre," he shouted at the cages hanging above the pit, "Lemme know if your whole BAMF-POOF trick doesn't work and you need me to come rip the doors off or somethin'! OK, time to get the bird's-eye view! Or to find out what else Disco Stu electrified...either way, here goes nuthin'." His tentacles shot up toward the ceiling and out toward the other walls. The suckers lining the tentacles searched for places to stick, anchor points he could use to hoist himself up, zip along, and swing around, so he could look at the room from every angle, seeing, among other things, the tops of the cages and whatever was in the pit.

 

[RocketLord]

Archer II

 

Connor hung back while Spectre and Octoman moved. Someone had to keep his distance and keep some kind of watch, after all. Could just as well be the guy with bow and arrows. The two prep school heroes were already planning everything, figuring out how to get the people out of the cages. Octoman was even crawling around all over, looking as weird as ever.

 

"Better do like he says," he motioned towards the man they had rescued. "There's enough people out there, we don't need anyone else to fall into the pit if what they do don't work."

 

He reached for an arrow. He had another idea that might work, but for now, he'd let the others see what they could do.

[RocketLord]

GM

 

"Yeah, sure." The first hostage stood back, idly scratching his arm, looking around nervously, even while Archer stayed close to him.

 

From his position above, Octoman could see that the pit was filled with spikes, each roughly 2 and a half feet in length. They looked metallic, like they could easily pierce through the cages if they fell and skewer whoever was inside.

 

The cage shook and swung a bit with the sudden added weight, with a young man in one of the nearby cages shrieking in shock. "No no no, get away!"

 

Then, the cage that Specter had landed on was let go from the arm and fell towards the spikes below.

[Darksider42]

Spectres head snapped up to the sounds above her. "&*@$!" escaped her mouth just as she felt her stomach and the cage drop into the pit below.

A ghostly image of spectre hung in the air as the cage was crushed and skewered below. The Teleporting Teen appeared beside Archer, cross-legged and with a hand on her chest, gasping. "OK! Should have seen that one coming. Gets the adrenaline going at least." She leaned forward and waved to Octoman. "Might need to start with the ripping and tearing. Dunno who Retro Reject here is gonna drop next." 

 

"Guessing you have a plan too?" Spectre asked Archer, noticing the Arrow in hand.

[Amelia]

Octoman

 

"PIT'S FULLA SPIKES!" Octoman shouted to the others from above. "BIG ONES! REALLY BIG ONES! SO, LIKE...DON'T FALL!" One of his tentacles stretched and loosened, dropping him down past the cages. It then immediately contracted, pulling him back up to eye-level with the prisoners, like a bungee cord. He grabbed onto the bars of one of the cages and pulled, sending himself swinging in a circle around them, taking note of which cages were occupied and which were empty. Then his tentacle retracted, hoisting him back up to the roof, where his hands and feet stuck firm.

 

"Gonna try somethin'!" He sent all of his tentacles surging toward the occupied cages. They slid inside between the bars and wrapped around the ceilings of the cages, gripping them firmly. "OK, I THINK I can lift 'em if he drops 'em again! Get in there and get yer POOF on!"

 

[RocketLord]

Archer II

 

"Yeah. Ready to get everyone out of the cages?" He looked at Spectre for a moment, then back to Octoman and the cages. Octoman moved fast, sure, and he was probably strong. Seemed plenty strong from what Connor had seen so far, at least, but still, no reason to let him do everything on his own.

 

Raising his bow, Connor took the shot. His arrow flew above the cages, exploding around the middle of where they all hung from. A light grey foam exploded out from the point where the arrow exploded, quickly covering the top of each cage and the point where it connected, holding them in place.

 

"Go!" Spectre could teleport, and with both the riot foam and Octoman supporting the cages, this should be easy, right?

[RocketLord]

GM

 

Octoman and Archer worked in concert, the riot foam and Ben's arms catching on to the cages just as the arms started to let go. Everyone in the cages felt a sharp jolt as they moved, almost everyone yelling, but for now, they were safe and sound. All the heroes had to do was hold the cages in place while getting everyone out. They probably couldn't jump far enough, so Specter would have to get them out one by one.

 

Of course, the spike pit was the only real danger here. Nothing else, everything was safe and sound.

 

"Man, you guys are not cool! Not cool at all! But don't worry guys, I got just the thing!"

 

A buzzing noise from above, and a horde of small hortnet-like robots were released from what had seemed to be airducts. Flying into the room, they swarmed all over, shooting electric jolts at the heroes whenever they got close, though so far leaving the hostages alone.