ic Cole in Wonderland (IC)

[Dracostern]

GM

Southside isn't the safest place in Freedom City, but that didn't stop people from enjoying their lives there as best they could. Starting up their own businesses, buidling new stores. Such as the new library, called the Alley Archive, that had just opened up. A small archive of old news stories and biographies of many older generation heroes and villians, going all the way back to the Golden Age. 

The librarian, a woman named Natasha Shares, was an older woman with an interest in the city's history and legacy. However, her library was set up in a seedier part of town due to lack of funds (for now). Still it was a humble place. On the corner of a street, close to a small intersection, buildings stretched behind and beside it, the area it was in didn't seem all too busy at the current moment either. 

Renee's reason for going would be her own. Maybe she was looking for a good book to read, maybe she wanted to know more about her grandfather? Whatever it was, she would find it here, hopefully. 

What would she like to do?

( @Poncho )

Edited June 25 by Dracostern

[Poncho]

King Cole III, or rather, more appropriately to say, Renee Cole King, was not a teenager who drew attention to herself if she didn't need to.

 

Her blonde hair was pulled into a ponytail, and she was wearing her glasses and a beanie to keep her head down, dressed in baggy clothes and jeans with worn tennis shoes. The last thing she ever wanted was to have someone notice her, someone acknowledge her existence; to be acknowledge, to have one's existence verified, was terrifying to Renee, and something she strove to avoid. She had her book bag with her and had made her way to the library on what she hoped was an auspiciously not very busy day, so that she could explore the tomes in peace.

 

What she was looking for was simple; she knew her grandfather had hideouts and stashes in the city. Magical regents, more spellbooks, things he'd never reclaimed and- hopefully- no one had ever found. Those were her right as his granddaughter and as his successor, hers by inheritance and deed. She had spent a lot of time trying to find them, and had found a few of them, but it was highly likely there were more, and that meant more places she needed to find before someone else could find them and use them for ill-gotten purposes. She was hoping these biographies and stories would give her hints about where her grandfather had hidden some of his vaults.

[Dracostern]

GM

 

Upon entering the library, she would notice that it was...quite small inside. There were small rows of books, and on the left side there were a few chairs and beanbags that could be used for reading. On the right side there was a small bathroom just in case. It was a humble little building with a humble woman running it. 

 

Said woman could be seen behind the desk, she had typed back grey hair, a wrinkled face with some glasses over her green eyes. She wore a white long sleeved blouse with a brown jacket over it, she had matching brown buttoned up pants. On her nametag Renee could see the name ' Natasha Shares'. Upon spotting the young lady, whom couldn't really hide that well since she was the only other person in the library right now, Natasha spoke. 

"Good afternoon. How may I help you?" She smiled calmly.

[Poncho]

don't percieve me, don't perceive me, don't percieve me.

 

Crap

 

Renee stared at the woman behind her glasses and under her bangs. Her throat was tense. Social anxiety. Utter helplessness in the face of strangers, in the face of acknolwedgement. This was a bad idea, she was panicking. She flexed her fingers. This was going on forever, each second dragging on infinitely. She was weird. This lady was going to kick her out. This had been a bad idea. She was a laughing stock. No, she could do this. She had to do this. This was important to her so she had to get over it.

 

Renee paused for a little bit before mumbling a little. "I am uh...looking for books on...King Cole. The First One, not the Second. Only the First One Please."

[Dracostern]

GM

Renee seemed quite jumpy to the old lady, so she would try to act slow and not startle her too much. After confirming that was what she was looking or, she would move out from behind the desk and slowly make her way to one of the shelves, then she pulled out a book about the Raven, specifcally the older one, Duncan Summers, she then moved over to Renee and gave her the book. 

"Why don't you start with this dear? I'm surprised young people these days are interested in the Golden Age." If Renee opened the book and flipped to the Index, she would see that there was indeed a section about King Cole I...under the 'villains' section that is. 

"Feel free to sit and read." She smiled and gestured to the reading corner before going to some more shelves and going through the book spines.

However as Renee move to sit down, she would manage to catch a glimpse of something moving outside the window, more like someone. The young hero could see a girl with blonde hair in a tattered school uniform. She was glancing through the window and looking around the library before pulling a phone to her ear and talking into it.

[Poncho]

Renee took the book very happily and sat down in the reading corner. It was one of the few times she could really feel connected to her Grandfather. Sure she had stories from her mother, but she'd never gotten to actually meet him, and in reading about his costume antics, she could feel connected. So what if people thought he was a villain; he wasn't a bad guy. If he was, he'd have been sent to jail, instead of being the most popular dad in their suburb. All the adults around Renee always talked about how much they loved her grandfather's plays, so she knew he wasn't bad. Not really.

 

So she lost herself in the world of his 'heists'; of turning the Freedom League into characters from the Wizard of Oz, or his giant spider that he had, or when he animated an army of playing card soldiers. These were things she loved, and she scrawled in her notebook as she read, possible locations of his hidden troves, of spells he cast that she didn't know yet.

 

It was only when she looked outside to check the time that she noticed the other blonde girl. She raised an eyebrow quietly, and idly started to jot down notes on the girl's appearance and sketch her with her hand while the other girl talked; what was she up to? Hard to say, but nothing wrong with a little examination.

[Dracostern]

GM

The blonde girl scanned the building, then seemed to notice Renee noticing her and jumped a little bit, gulping as she nervously waved before looking down the street and starting to move. She had not noticed that the hero was sketching her though. Still it was a little odd that someone would look but not enter this building. Even Renee managed that despite being a wallflower! 

The old lady would come back with another book about King Cole's crimesprees, as well as one on the Fable Gang themsevles. She would gently put them down next tot he young lady before looking out the window and shaking her head. "She was here again hmm? I've seen that girl come here for a week now...doing the same thing, just staring in and talking on her phone. Hmm...kids these days." She shakes her head a little bit. 

[Poncho]

Oh no, she's talking to me again. Why is she talking to me again. What do I say. What did I do to deserve this.

 

"....Wh..what do you...mean?" she finally asked, really not wanting to get into this conversation but realizing she had no option; this lady was giving her books, which she wanted, but that meant now she had to talk to someone. She didn't like that at all. She screwed up her face and looked up at Natasha through her glasses. "She's been here every day for a week?" she asked, looking down momentarily at her drawing again.

[Dracostern]

GM

 

"Yes, yes she has. I think she's just shy but..." The old lady cut herself off and shook her head. It was clear she had concerns about this young lady, but didn't want to scare Renee off. So she seemed to keep it to herself for the moment. "...nevermind me heh, enjoy your reading." With that the old lady went to leave the girl alone..

 

...when suddenly the door to the library burst open! three men burst into the building! Two had baseball bats and the other had a handgun. "Alright!" The gunman called out. "You two little ladies stay where you are..." With a flick of the wrist, he ordered the two baseball bat goons to start taking books from the shelves. 

"Too easy." One muttered under his breath. 

"Yeah, the intel we got was indeed accurate." The other muttered back.

One thing Renee would notice that each thug had a shirt with a white rabbit symbol on them.

[Poncho]

The Granddaughter of the original King Cole could more than understand that feleing of being shy. It was hard to go into places where you were the only person; it often felt like it put an uncomfortable spotlight on you; the only customer in a restaurant, or going in too early or too late. Those were uncomfortable feelings that Renee could really feel, could intensely put herself into the shoes of the person feeling them. She was suddenly even more uncomfortable and embarassed, imagining herself under the scrutiny of the people around her; imagining stuff like people looking at you funny because your shirt was untucked. Or what if your windshield wipers were going too fast? Or you were going straight but you were in the right lane and the person behind you wanted to turn right on red? She shuddered.

 

Then the criminals came in, and the granddaughter of a former crime boss almost yelped like a frightened animal.

 

She did not, really, have the heart of a lion in her current existence. The slam of the door was enough to startle her like a rabbit, and then guns and baseball bats came out and she was even more of an unsure creature, just wanting tom ake sure that she- and the librarian- weren't getting hurt. She noted the white rabbits on their apperal but at the moment, in a sheer disadvantage, she instead was focused on not getting shot or hit with a baseball bat, and ducked under the table; even if they knew she was here, which they clearly were aware of. She could formulate plans and plots afterwards, but right now it was just making sure she didn't get hurt. Let them take what they wanted for now, she just held her book abour her Grandfather and hid under the table, waiting to see what they were doing.

 

"Okay. Okay. I won't do anything." she said, keeping her head down.

[Dracostern]

GM

 

It was easy for the robbers to clear out the library. Funnily enough they seemed to be targetting books on the Golden Age of heroes, and the Fable Gang specificall, one gangster even muttered. "F**king bastard." when he picked up a book about King Cole, figraively spitting on him.. This means that all those books that the librarian had picked out for Renee? Completely gone. The gangsters smirked then left after one of them stomped his foot near Renee just to frighten her.

 

Natasha would start to sob quietly. The old lady had spent a long time gathering everything after all, this was her life's work.  But the theives didn't care. This was an easy robbery for them. They could take things slowly and carefully. Their backs were turned to Renee however...

[Poncho]

"Y...you can't...s..spit on that book." Renee mumbled from where she was hiding under the table. She had no idea if this guy was even going to hear her, but that hurt her to watch; to see books dismantled and damaged. Taking them was one thing, but destroying them would make it impossible to get them back. She was intending to get them back after-all, not just because this was cruel to the Natasha, who didn't seem that bad, but also because they had said bad things about her grandfather. But she wasn't going to do that in the middle of this library in front of all these thugs and the librarian. She wasn't that kind of person. She needed her magic potion, and some quiet to change her costume. All she was going to be able to do right now was commit the details of these guys to memory, and plan to go after them once they left.

[Dracostern]

GM

"Pfft, I don't care." The lead robber just chuckled before he and his henchmen left. The library was destroyed by this point. Yet it seemed as though the danger had passed for the moment. The poor old lady would wipe her tears and get up before starting to clean what was left. It seemed as though she had resigned herself to her fate.

"Well dear...I think you'll have to leave..I'm probably going to close the library anyway. It was a mistake to open it, it seems." Natasha sighed as she paused her cleaning to look back at Renee. "I hope you have a nice day...please stay safe." With that she got back to work, her back to the younger girl. 

If Renee looked around the destroyed place, she would see that there were other rooms, specifically a toliet, if she wanted to change then she could right now. If not well...the criminals hadn't gotten far. 

At the end of the day it was her choice. What will she do?

[Poncho]

Renee whimpered as the villains finally left. She was just holding the book that she had borrowed. This was horrific. No wonder they hated her grandfather; these people were clearly rogues and dastards of the highest order, completely unsalvagable. Her grandfather never would have let them be in the Fable Gang, because he just wanted to bring smiles to children, not terrorize librarians. They were terrible people, that much was quite certain, and she slowly crawled out from under the table with the book, taking in the destroyed library and the disheartened librarian.

 

"N...no. I mean. It's Freedom City, right? There's always superheros around. I'm sure one is going to show up in no time and sort this all out. Don't worry, Natasha." she said, her voice as thin as a fingernail and as trembling as a reed in a storm. "I..I'll go make a call. I'm sure they'll send someone." she said, moving to a back room.

 

Of course the call she was making was to no one, because the hero that would solve this problem was already here! She locked the door behind her and took a drink of her potion, that she always carried with her! It brought out her inner potential, and she immediately stood straight backed and confident with her new eye color. She quickly changed into her costume, then wiggled her way out through a window, onto the back alleys!

 

King Cole III was here! And her goal was stopping those jerks who had hurt that nice librarian! So with nothing to do but to do it, she quickly ran off towards the main street, then after the bad guys!

[Dracostern]

GM

"O-Of course dear..I'm just a bit concerned is all." Nichole goes to turn around, and once she does. She finds that the young lady she was talking to had completely gone! Well at least she was safe, or so the old lady thought. She would smile a little bit before going back to cleaning up her Library. Maybe she'll get a hero sometime...

As for King Cole III, she was able to get back onto the street with ease, and as she looked around, she would notice that there was a dropped book, one of the ones she saw at the library, on the ground, close to an alleyway two blocks down. Renee would get the feeling that she was being watched as she moved closer to this area. 

However before she could look around, a loud BANG could be heard. 

Renee would feel what seemed to be a bullet shot past her and hit a wall in the opposite building. The people around the area grew terrified and ran back into their homes or took cover.

From the Alleyway, she could hear what seemed to be laughing. It seems the criminals had caught wind of her following them.

[Poncho]

Why would King Cole III be scared? She was King Cole III, the descendant of one of Freedom's greatest costumed individuals! She didn't even flinch at the bullet whizzing by her as she pent and picked up the book, dusting it off and putting it off to the side as she looked to the allyway, heading down it boldly.

 

"You can run, and you can hide, but you'll never escape me!" she intoned. "Be you Hero or Harmer, Prince or Pauper, bow your head before me!" she yelled, raising her staff as she walked forward. "I am King Cole III, the King of Heroes and Villains both! If you don't surrender now, the only thing left will be your suffering as you are brought back into the fold!" She slammed her staff on the ground as she walked, making it ring out as she walked aggressively towards the ally, her eyes tracking and ready to dodge if it looked like they were going to try and shoot her again; she was a lot of things, but she definitely wasn't bulletproof!

[Dracostern]

GM

 

The thugs blinked and the leader, the one with the handgun, grinned at Cole. He was quite confident in their numbers advantage. 
 

“King Cole III? Don’t make me laugh. Still the fact that you are here is better for us. After all we can begin by taking you out of the picture, then we can become the new Fable Gang!” 
 

The two henchmen, both holding baseball bats, began to surround her…

[Poncho]

"Haha! I make you laugh!? Well of course I should, after all, a Hero is a person who brings smiles and laughter to all they interact with!" King Cole III said, raising her staff into the air boldly. "Even disastrous dastards that definitely disgust me like yourselves! So you wish to be the Fable Gang!? Well unfortunately for you, the Gang is not recruiting right now, and definitely not looking for cowards who beat up old women and damage books! So I'll be parceling out some premium punishment for you palookas!" She laughed again, a deep belly laugh that was her best approximation at an evil villain's laugh, a loud cackle as she leaned back and put her full force into it, which led to her leaning back a bit too far and stumbling backwards, almost falling over.

 

"So! Which of you will be first!?"

[Dracostern]

GM

Renee gets the feeling that she is being watched from the rooftop to the right of her, yet nothing seemed to happen from that. But her focus should be on the thugs, as the boss of the trio grins and takes out a booster shot before jamming it into his arm, Renee sees his muscles get a little bigger as he grinned at her.

"Get her boys!" He pointed towards her with a grin. "Once we beat her, we shall claim glory!" 

One of the goons grinned and raised her baseball bat and rushed her. He would swing at Renee but miss!

[Poncho]

King Cole III cackled again at the boss as he got bigger, arching her back to laugh into the sky.

 

"'Claim Glory'!? Ridiculous! You're card soldiers in the queen's kingdom, and I'm the queen herself, here to take off your heads!" not that she was gonna kill anyone, but still, sometimes you had to play the part, you know!? So when the bat swinging goon came at her she nimbly dipped and back-stepped as he swung, dancing backwards. When he overstepped for a moment, she threw out one of her hands, and a wave of playing cards shot out of her sleeve directly into the man's face.

 

"You look like a 7 of Spades, personally!" she declared as the man's eyes filled up with copies of the card before she swung her staff directly into his midsection!

[Dracostern]

GM

 

"H-Huh? What?!" The goon was distracted by the cards that he didn't see the hit coming! He took the blow to his midsection and dropped his back before doubling over in pain and falling to the ground. He was effectively out of the fight now. But there were still more bad guys to take down! The other thug rushed at Cole with another bat, he would swing but she was able to duck out of the way.

 

Still Renee felt like she was being watched again...and the Boss seemed to confirm that there was another person there when he yelled out. "TAKE THE SHOT! YOU USELESS GIRL!" before rushing at Renee and punching her right in the stomach with his enhanced fists.

[Poncho]

The punch got her! And she wasn't exactly a few strong girl at the best of times, so King Cole III doubled over as the punch hit her, going a little limp. She hung there for a moment like she'd been taken out, groaning. Her staff clattered to the floor.

 

She'd genuinely never gotten hit before; it was her first time as a Hero to actually get like that, and she genuinely had to stop and catch her breath, waiting. Playing Opossum. And when the boss and his goon dropped their guard for a moment, she stomped her foot down on one side of her Staff, making it bounce back up directly into the chin of the goon with the bat. When she looked up at the boss, she had a devilish grin like a cruel prankster on her face.

 

"Don't you know it's only a kill shot if the sword goes all the way through?" she taunted. As the staff fell back down with the goon sent to dreamland, she caught it on her shoulders and spun, sending the end twirling into the boss' forehead as she daintly twisted away from the large, enhanced man. "Haha! What's wroooong? If you want to give up and grovel for forgiveness I'll let you! I'm a generous and well meaning King after all!"

Edited September 6 by Poncho

[Dracostern]

GM

 

The thug goes down with a THUD! He was out cold! Before the big bad boss could reach, he was smacked in the head by Cole's staff! Pow! A bruse started to form on the large man's head. He was getting really angry now. The criminal was glaring up at one of the buildings for a brief moment when suddenly Cole heard a BANG sound and a bullet shot past her and into the ground below her. It was coming from one of the side buildings. If she looked around, Renee would find some ladders heading up there attacked to the wall. 

"Useless B*tch." The man cursed before rushing in himself. While Renee was distracted by the bullet, he goes for a punch to the face...

[Poncho]

The bullet! King Cole III was not bullet proof, so she was forced to spin away from the oncoming fire. She needed to get out of the line of sight! But the big guy was bearing down on her and cracked her across the face. She rolled with it, but she had a solid mark on her cheek now. She let out an anguished, over dramatic sob as she went down to her knees.

"AAAH! You hurt me!" she wept, grabbing her cheek with one hand. "I don't wanna fight anymore! I don't want to! This is scary! I don't want to get hurt!" She wailed. Then she swept the legs of her opponent while he was distracted, then brought her staff up and over, bringing it down as hard as possible on the man's face.

 

"No! I lied!" she didn't really lie. It hurt pretty bad, but she wasn't going to give up over something easy like that!

[Dracostern]

GM

 

The criminal seemed to be thrown off by her act and this momentary distraction was just what the hero needed! Her sweep caused the large man to stumblr a bit, then with a CRACK! Her staff came down on his face, pushing him onto the ground with a loud thud! This big guy looked extremely beat up now, some bruising on his skin and his face had a small bump on it now. Due to the pain and the exact position the hit was taken, the man could not do anything as he lay there in a daze, unable to act.

BANG!

Another shot whizzed towards Renee, but instead of hitting her, it hit the ground near her feet.