When Animals Attack Part 33 (IC)

[Flare Knight]

Hanover Zoo; 3 PM, 11/16/10

It was mid-November in Freedom City, and for many people, that meant getting out some of their winter clothing, and taking the kids to the Hanover Zoo for a day out. The Zoo, of course, obliged, and it was in as full a form as a place where animals are kept to be viewed by the general public was. The Monkeys were active, swinging in their enclosure and, for once, not throwing poo down on the unsuspecting, and instead seemed to actively be attempting to entertain the children. The Parrots and other tropical birds did much similar, amusing the children with brilliant flights and some of them, when they could, would even mimic the children, eliciting to no end great laughter and enjoyment from the children, and even some of the parents enjoyed it. Even the snakes got in on the fun in their heated enclosure, with one snake, an odd one born with two heads, showing off to the children- possibly- by crushing a dead rat and eating it. Some of them found this disgusting in a cool way, others ran screaming, but the snake looked to be having fun. The Bears were not left out, sitting flat on their rumps and staring at the children, or wandering around their enclosure. It was not that every animal was doing something cool, but every animal was moving, which was a rarity for any zoo, where at least half of them would be lethargic at any given time.

It was in this time when an ape, swinging on a vine and jumping across his enclosure, landed on the ground, it's thick muscles rippling and massive fingers looking like a man's thumb instead of an actual finger. It looked around, then stood up. This did not mean that the gorilla stood up in an ape's usually hunched posture, or leaned over. The ape stood straight up, like a human, and walked straight to the glass. It stood there, looking out at the people, with eyes that seemed...highly intelligent, and most people backed away, feeling uneasy. Then it...no...HE, then HE smiled, and a scream resounded from a small girl.

At the same time, sitting on a bench at the entrance to the park, a man in a dark trench-coat looked to the man next to him reading a paper. The man with the paper nodded, and the coated man stood up...or hunched, as his posture made it so that he was leaning over more then standing. Slowly, the coat ripped off his back as his entire body structure...changed. what had been fingers turned to claws as the coat fell to shreds, muscles grew where there had been none, his face, covered by a dirty mop of black hair, with a sickening crunch, elongated into a cruel muzzle, drool slipping off it as fur the color of his hair covered his entire body. His shoes ripped and became paws, and he howled, and the people- who had been screaming and running as the man changed- redoubled their efforts to escape as the man finished his transformation with a scraggly tail exploding from his torn jeans, as he rushed off deeper into the Zoo.

After the Wolf-man ran off, the man with the news, who had been sitting quietly throughout the entire transformation, slowly folded his paper, placed it next to him, and stood up, and slowly began pulling off his shirt and jeans. Under his original Clothing, he wore a dark red Spandex Top with no sleeves and a long pair of black spandex pants, and even a short cape tied around his neck, reaching to his mid-back. He took off into the air at a low altitude, skimming along the ground, sparks of lightning flying off his legs as he flew, and either people got out of his way, or he ran them down- not killing them, but they were definitely KO'd for awhile- and began his job. Every time he reached an exhibit- and there were a lot of them- he blasted the glass out with a beam of green lightning from his left hand, but didn't stop. It wasn't long before the entire Zoo was in Chaos, either the people were running- it was an extremely busy day, and some people had been very deep in the zoo- to escape the Wolf-man, or were trying to escape the Animals.

When the Flying man reached the Cage with the standing ape, he slowed and straightened, staring the ape for a second. The ape spoke back.

"Everything according to plan, Striker?" He asked, standing behind the glass. The man nodded and held out a cane. The ape roared, and the man, in response, broke the glass the ape was stuck behind. Handing him the cane, the Ape became even thicker then before, his fur becoming thick, and hard, like stone. Leaning on it, the ape watched passively as the wolf-man ran up to him. "Alright chums." he said, like a refined gentleman- a man you would see in a fancy tea house, if not for the fact he was a gorilla. "Lets' show them why you don't upset Doctor Gorad." The ape said, as he began strolling, there was no other way to describe it, down the path, the cane hitting in time. The Spandex'd flier looked at the wolfman.

"This guy better be worth it Lupine. the man named Striker said, to the wolf-man, who snorted at him and took off behind the doctor on all fours, the flying man following.

[Fox]

"See," said Gaian Knight, sitting cross-legged on a chunk of rock and looking down at the zoo, "this is not really what I had in mind after work today."

The earth-shaping hero put out his hands, sweeping in closer to the zoo as large, solid walls assembled themselves around the few enclosures that still had animals in them or nearby. "I just wanted to go see the zoo! Maybe do some tricks for kids, cheer up their day...go check out the wolf pen, you know?" As the stone barriers finished, a few last fragments of rock drifted up into the air, unnoticed, to hover around his shoulders. "A basic, cheerful day. And now look at the place. You guys suck."

[trollthumper]

Eric didn't usually find himself up in Hanover as part of business. But the Black Petal had been asked to cater a business meeting, so he had run uptown with two portable jugs of Sumatra Blend and a bag of scones. He was on his way back from the run when he saw the pig in the street. A zoologist would probably have told Eric it was a peccary, but all he could think about was swerving to avoid it.

When he finally pulled the car over, he noticed the animals streaming out of the gate of the zoo... and the people trying to beat them to it. Great, he thought. I'll think of an excuse later. In the back seat of the car, a small portal to the back closets of Hades's manse opened... and by the time it sealed, Nick Cimitiere was running out of the car, hoping he wasn't double parked.

When he streamed into the gates, he took quick measure of what was going on, locking his eyes on the rampaging wolfman. "Your clock's off, my man!" Nick yelled out. "Full moon ain't for another four days!"

[Raveled]

Robin Cross wasn't at the zoo to admire the animals. It wasn't that she couldn't recognize the beauty and grace and majesty of these wild beasts; indeed, it was because she acknowledged such traits that she had come out to the zoo on her day off. To collect the various animals' droppings. It wasn't a pleasant task, but neither was it the messiest thing she had ever done in search of spell reagents. She just gave silent thanks that the droppings were fairly dry by the time she came to collect them.

A sample from each animal went into a separate plastic baggie, which she dutifully tagged. The whole lot fit into a largish plastic container with an airtight lid. The sorceress made her good-byes to the animal attendants who let her take the feces, and she started making her way out of the park. Her path crossed with the wolf-man, though, and she watched as he walked into the primate. A minute later, she heard a short, sharp, lout noise and three men -- well, a wolf, a gorilla, and a man -- walked out.

Robin tucked her dish under a bush and strode forward, aiming to intercept the group. She shouted a single, harsh syllable that seemed to hand on the air for a moment. At the same time she made a rolling gesture with her right hand, graceful and boneless, and she was suddenly holding her staff. The sorceress gathered in her power, ready to meet there three head-on.

[Flare Knight]

The Efforts of Gaian Knight were not in vain, and in fact far from it. As the Earth Controller summoned walls of Earth, the Animals, seemingly obligingly, lined themselves up in small areas to be confined with creatures that wouldn't eat them. Apparently, they had wanted absolutely no part of it. Some animals did countinue to roam, but Gaian's efforts meant there was precious little roaming room to find, though a Pig did manage to escape into the parking lot with the people, and a pack of wolves jumped the fence and ran off, but otherwise, Gaian's quick thinking had managed to contain the animals before any serious harm could be done, and this allowed the people to make their frantic rush to the gates slightly less frantic- people know when Superheroes throw down to be no where near, but running fast makes you a target- as the Security guards kept enough order to prevent someone from getting crushed.

As the trio of Man, Beast, and Beast-man were surrounded on three sides rather rapidly by three different heroes, the stone-like gorilla taped his cane on the ground, looking at the three with care, examining. For Lupine's part, he snarled at the man who had rushed into the park, only to be smacked rather severely by Gorad's cane. "Down boi, I do say old chum, get down." he barked, causing the wolf-man to cringe. "Oi'lright then, 'ow do you do? I'm Sir Doctor Gorad Komrade, t'at's a K, not a C., Esquire. You do see, I 'as locked up right tight in that cage t'ere, I 'ad to get my associate Striker an my man-servant to let me out." he pointed to the floating man, who stared at him with a raised eyebrow. "and t'is is my Man-servant Lupine, the one I just now told you abots. Right fine fellow really, nasty temper t'oug', don't get on 'is bad side. Then again, 'es all bad side! Now if you'll just let us be on our way, we'll be gone before you can say 'toodle pip'." The Gorilla finished, laughing at his own joke. Striker stared at the Gorilla for a second, then at the Earth mover.

"I did it for the money only." He explained, as if pleading the other people around to realize he did not do this except for the fact he really, really, needed money. It was almost sad, until you remembered he was a villain. "Anyway, Doctor. You do realize that we broke the law and they want to arrest us, right?" For his question, he received a smack in the face with the Doctor's cane. "What was that for!?" He barked at hte doctor, green lightning flowing off his hands. "For being suc' a 'Orrible, Mindless, Driveling, fool. Of course I know they want to arrest You two. You two endangered innocent 'umans, I did nothing! Infact, I was just going to 'and you over to the proper Aut'orities, but t'ese 'eros s'owed up and are going to do it for me, I'm sure! So I'll just be on my merry little way!" he explained, then sighed and cracked his neck. "I'm lying o'course. I wouldn't be Sir Doctor Gorad Komrade, remember, K, not C, Esquire if I did not tend to the business of my Man-servant. Plus, my Dear girl, I remember you collecting my poop! That is personal belongings and you 'ad no right to collect those!" He explained, standing up straight and turning to the new girl, as the Wolf-man snarled at Nick. Striker floated in the air for a second, staring between Gorad and Gaian, then shrugged, always a consummate professional, Striker offered a friendly enough bow to Gaian

As the Battle was joined, Gorad and Lupine struck fast, both lashing out at the person they had a reason to attack and attempt to injure, apparently proving they didn't understand the concept of 'gang up on one person at a time', or that chivalry wasn't dead, hard to say really. While Lupine's eyes rolled back into his head and he rushed at Nick, his claws slashing in a bright flurry towards the Necromantic Rocker man, snarling as drool fell from his teeth and splashed on the ground, while Gorad turned to Robin and fired off bolts of cosmic energy from his staff at the mage, though not without throwing out insults in his horrible fake British accent. "You fig't like a Cow! Like a 'Orse! I've seen better fig'ting on a C'inese B-movie!" he said, doing highly overcomplicated taunts and movements and, of course, gesturing with everything he did.

[Fox]

"I don't suppose we can talk about this," Gaian Knight offered. "This was an awfully public place to cause trouble. If you keep wrecking up the zoo it's not going to look so good for you when the police get here...."

Even as he tried diplomacy, though, he reached out with one glowing hand and moved the earth. Nothing violent - no one had gotten hurt yet, that he knew of - but vine-like growths of stone tunneled out of the ground under Striker, reaching upward to seek out his limbs and head like a thing alive. "I'm pretty sure the police would look kindly on...y'know, surrender. If you'd just hold still." Not that I'm nearly that lucky. Well, it's worth a try, anyway...a guy can always hope.

[Flare Knight]

The Lightning user isn't fast enough to avoid the growths of earth below him, and they wrap around his arms and legs. "Hey! Hey! Hey!" Striker exclaims, as the tendrils of rock cover his face alongside his body"You guys are supposed to be heroes!" He says, obviously worried, as it covers his face, his eyes glancing around rapidly right before they are covered. "Stop trying to kill me!" He continues in the same voice, over-reacting to Gaian's Earth bonds and trashing against them as green arcs of lightning race around his uncovered mouth and pulsed under the bonds, even as he twisted and turned in an attempt to get himself free. "Why would I want to talk to someone trying to kill me!" he says in his most incredulous voice, like he honestly couldn't believe what he was hearing and not seeing.

[Raveled]

Robin saw the great ape raise his cane and began to turn, trying to present a slimmer target; it didn't help her avoid the attack, but her spell-toughened coat absorbed the blow. She'd have some bruises, but the adrenaline made sure she didn't feel them. The sorceress locked eyes with the sinister simian and leveled her staff at him, touched her other hand to her temple. She shouted a quick word in Homeric Greek and pushed her power straight at him, assaulting him psychically.

[Flare Knight]

The Over-sized Gorilla took a second to realize what was going on, but when the attack began to hit his head, he roared in pain, unable to resist it, as the Sorceress' attack caused him damage in his brain itself, instead of on his body. "That was quite unnecessary Old Girl, all I want to do is cause people immeasurable pain and suffering for locking me in a cage, is that so 'ard to let me do as I please?" He asked, his head aching from the mental blast and holding his glowing cane off the ground and pointed at the female.

[trollthumper]

"Y'know, I'm all for the freedom of the individual," Nick said, "but that's kinda pushing it." Nick reached out to the zoo as a whole, trying to get a sense of the history of death in the area. It was a lot more primal than he was used to dealing with -- a ghost's memories could be hard enough to grasp at times, and trying to get a grip on the rush of memories that came with an atavistic mindset was like trying to catch mercury with a magnet.

He felt the power flow through him, however, and knew he'd locked on. Talons -- and they were truly talons, much more bestial than what he usually dealt with -- rose out of the ground, grabbing at the legs of the trio, trying to pin them to the ground.

[Flare Knight]

Though all of the people- including Striker, whose rolling abilities while covered in rock were quite a sight- managed to dance around the talons for a short time, eventually they were snagged, pulling the group into the air, then to the ground. This resulted in a massive outcry from the group, varying depending on who it was saying, as they were stuck to the ground. "I dare say, Old Chum. 'at was w'olly unnecessary! We are co-operating to the fullest extent of the law, and t'en comes this unprovoked assault? I assure you, You s'all be 'earing from my lawyers soon for this unlawful treatment." The Gorilla said, waggling his cane at the Sorceress and Nick. Lupine just snarled at Nick, his hackles raising, but mostly useless, as he scratched along the ground at the man, his claws gouging the concrete, his eyes entirely white. Whatever he couldn't say probably wasn't something people wanted to hear. "I'm not with these people!" Striker yelled from within his en-taloned cocoon of rock, struggling worthlessly, in far from wordless fury "Lemme out of here!" he screamed, shaking the cocoon, as Green Bolts of lightning struck from him to the inside the cocoon.

The bonds don't hold the Wolfman down for long, however, and, with his fur and muscles contorting and twitching, He slowly pulls his way free of the grabbing hands, Howling as loud as it possibly can, even within it's worthless, soundless, screams, his claims are obvious, promising to bring his strength against the Necromancer, while Gorad fails to entangle himself, his large body worthless even as he strains himself to get away from his bonds, his sharp teeth showing as his face is bared in a horrible grin. "I shall get right of you right now!" He said, in annoyance, as his accent falls away under his condensed rage.

[Fox]

The begoggled professor shook his head, sweeping in a bit closer to the cocooned Striker. "Would you just calm down? You're not being killed. You're perfectly fine." His attention wasn't on the electric criminal, though; it was on the wolfman, who was apparently more stubborn than his friends. Gaian Knight was kept a critical eye out just in case the others needed help.

"Well, I mean, you're stuck in a bunch of rock, and you can't see anything," he continued, after a pause. "But other than that, you're fine. I don't suppose you want to discuss surrender now? I know you can't see it, but your friend the gorilla over there isn't doing much better than you are. It really would be for the best if you'd just calm down and wait for the police." Who, hopefully, bring a lightning rod to attach to their cuffs. "This whole thing really doesn't need to be any more complicated than it is already."

[Flare Knight]

Squirming in the cocoon even harder, Striker seemed almost deaf to the statements from Gaian, mostly because he was screaming so loudly he couldn't hear except for when he had to pause for breath. "Let me out! Let me out! For the love of all things, let ME OUT OF HERE!" He screamed at Gaian, shaking the cocoon. "There you are again!" He said, twisting and turning, soundly reasonably un-crazy for the minute. "You keep saying 'Calm down', but you have me trapped in this hole and I can't see! I can't negotiate with someone being so cruel!" He finished, back to the whining and screaming.

[Raveled]

Robin stared for a moment as the man in the cloak and the armor started talking to and trying to reason with the odd menagerie. "Just lock them all down," she offered, waving her free hand loosely. "Call the cops and have them haul away this -- shit!" That last came out as the wolf-man broke free of his ghostly bonds. The sorceress whirled and pointed her staff, sending another lash of will and power down it.

[trollthumper]

"Good plan," Nick said. "I mean, if you're gonna run around making a mess, you might as well get back on the leash." He drew up the swell of ectoplasm, away from the broken bonds and into his hands. The ectoplasm hardened into the familiar talons, thick as they were barbed. He closed his fist -- last thing I want is an impromptu wolfskin cloak -- and lunged for the wolf-man, aiming for his jaw.

[Flare Knight]

The Wolf's howl of fury quickly turned to one of pain as it's brain burned in it's skull. Clawing at it's own head with it's claws, the wolf attempted to end it's pain and get some air to the offending item, but it failed as he could only inflict superficial cuts to his skin. Eventually, he fell to his knees, shaking his head and howling in pain, dazed and confused and barely clinging to consciousness, not entirely sure what was going on around him, only that he was in pain and he wanted to go home. However, his fall to his knees was enough to cause Nick's fist to sail over his head, while Gorak turned to Robin.

"Take this!" He said, throwing his staff forward and sending out a massive blast of green energy at the Female Mystic, far larger then his original beam. The Gorilla was annoyed at how hard this was becoming- he should have been out in the city by now!-, and his face and accent of British man had disappeared in his rage, making it obvious that he was just a Gorilla doing whatever he felt like, and pretending to be things he wasn't.

[Fox]

Gaian Knight sighed, raising his hands. "Alright, alright. Jeeze. Hold still, I'll try to make you something more comfortab-" That thought was lost completely when the big monkey shot something at the woman with the staff - and, from the looks of things, actually hit.

"Hey!" For all his shouting and struggling, the electric captive was pretty forgotten, now; the elemental hero swung his platform of rock around and leaned it back, holding onto the edge as a stream of rocks and debris tore off the bottom to hurl themselves at the ape with the temper. "You guys just don't know when to quit! None of that. You keep your creepy energy to yourself."

[Raveled]

Robin turned from the wolf-man to the gorilla, her staff automatically homing in on the felonious ape. As she turned her coat fell open, and the gorilla's blast slipped past her defenses, slamming into her belly and driving the breath out of her. The sorceress doubled over, leaning heavily on her staff to stay upright. After a moment she glanced up and locked eyes with the great ape. "Blind," she snarled, drawing a hand past her eyes, her words resonating oddly on the air. "Go blind. See no more!"

[trollthumper]

"Yeah, y'know," Nick said, "I could've bought the whole 'please don't impinge my simian rights' thing up until then." Nick swung at him with a fist mailed in ectoplasm. "Not that I would've, but I could've."

[Fox]

Gaian tilted back upright, standing on his rock and looking down at the rather sad state of the villain trio. Reaching a hand back into his hood, he scratched his head and coughed.

"So, uh. I don't suppose you three are feeling like surrender now, are you? 'cos things don't really seem to be going your way."

[Raveled]

Robin stalked around the small group of bound villains, judging distances with one eye and running through formulae in her head. "You should go call the police," she said, addressing the air rather than specifically giving the robed figure or the necromancer the job. Before either could protest she reached out one hand, fingers spread wide, and sent a wave of calming, soothing energy through the air and over the trio of villains. "Solumnus," she muttered. "Morpheus, morpho infinti."

[Flare Knight]

As the waves of sleep slowly descended on the three, it was obvious that at least two of them were effected. The punishment that had been so heavily heaped upon Gorad and Lupine caused the two, already with eyes out of focus, to go more so, yawning loudly and barely stringing together words. "I'll....do someth-" The gorilla tried to say, only to be cut off by a loud yawn and sit down. "I could...use a nap." He countinued, as Lupine sat on his haunches and yawned as well. Only Striker seemed immune to the feelings, as his screaming continued just as loud as before.

"Lemme go! Please! I'm begging you! Begging you for the Love of whatever you worship or something! Let me goooooo!!!!!" The Electic man screamed, still trashing in his trap, though he seemed to have worked himself to exhaustion, as his screams were losing power and his voice growing hoarse.

[Fox]

Gaian Knight sighed, turning his attention back on the struggling, panicked criminal. "Yeah, alright. Hold still, will you?"

Motioning with two glowing hands, dirt and rocks from the temporary enclosure walls he'd put up swept together into a large dome over the bound criminal, leaving him a decent amount of space and a few small holes in the top for air and light. Another wave of the hands and the rock binding him in place fell away, crumbling into dust and rubble to leave him free...within the bounds of his new, much larger cage. "Are you happy now? Honestly, I didn't mean to give you a panic attack, but you really ought to think about these things before you run around with super-intelligent monkeys and a werewolf."

[Flare Knight]

Striker, the instant he got the chance when the massive snares let go of him, grabbed his legs and curled into a ball on his side, weeping in sheer terror. "I'm a good boy. I'm a good boy. I don't want to go back in the darkness..." He muttered, clinging to his knees and talking louder. "Just take me to jail, Please." He moaned, drawing small circles in the ground. There wasn't even a hint of lightning surrounding the man anymore, like he had completely forgotten he had powers at all.

[Fox]

Gaian Knight just shook his head, pulling a cell phone out to call the police, who were - hopefully - already on their way anyway. Making sure they knew that the villains were - for the time being, anyway - contained and ready to be properly arrested, he tucked his cellphone back into his coat and dropped down to ground level, peering at the two sleeping villains.

"I'm Gaian Knight," he offered to the other heroes, wondering just how a gorilla got human-level intelligence in the first place. "I don't think we had time to properly introduce ourselves."