ic Bad Beat

[Supercape]

GM

 

The fire was not spreading as fast as John dreaded, not as fast as the suicidal Amber wished. But smoke, now that was proliferating. 

 

Even as John came the front entrance of the Bad Beat, smoking was pouring out. As where the first people - coughing and spluttering, and bruised. These were the strongest and largest, who had basically beaten a way through the crush. 

 

And Blowfish was amongst them. Never one to miss an important moment, he spotted John and gave him a look. 

 

"Hmphhh...I saw you go backstage. You have earned a very special place in my books...." he said, steel of voice. 

 

Screams and smoke continued to emit from the Bad Beat. And whilst people were getting out, it was a mad scrambling chaos. Several people were phoning for the fire brigade, but it would be a few minutes before they arrived...

[Thunder King]

John merely shrugged at Blowfish. "Didn't start it. Smelled the smoke and dealt with the source." Not that Blowfish's wrath held much sway on him. He wouldn't even match his own description in an hour or so. He began trying to wave people out of the building. He didn't really want to stick around, he was a little worried Blowfish might try something. Yet, he couldn't afford to let these people all just die. He assumed some of them, many of them, had dirty hands, but few hands were clean in Bedlam. He couldn't tell the sinners from the saints, and he couldn't let them burn. He did, however, take a private sort of joy in knowing that the Bad Beat might not survive the fire. 

[Supercape]

GM

 

"Shure ya did, Son, Shure ya did...hwphhh..." said Blowfish, eyes like tiny pinpricks of shark blackness. His gazed was interrupted by a cough. 

 

More people tumbled out, and more screams too. The smoke was escalating. The lights had blown, plunging the Bad Beat into near darkness, to make matters more dangerous and terrifying. 

 

In the distance, some fire and rescue sirens could be heard. 

 

Now, some more bruised and battered customers were coming out, often coughing hideously from the smoke, eyes watering. 

 

"Theres...still....some down there.....trampled....My God its horrible!" cried some woman whom John recognised as the same he had stood behind in the queue. 

 

Jane had climbed up behind him, after a nasty fall on the fire escape. She was hobbling on a twisted ankle, but she was of stern soul, and ignored the pain. 

 

"You're...going back in there?" she asked him, half angry with him for rescuing the scum, half in awe of his bravery. "What about Amber? I think she wants to die....or maybe live, if Blowfish got out. But she was prepared to end her life in ashes if it meant going down with Blowfish..."

[Thunder King]

"Ain't up to me who lives or dies." John said, turning towards the building. "But I can give people a fighting chance." He knew there were people that he couldn't save, but he was going to try. Amber was desperate, angry, didn't have a way out. John knew how it felt to feel alone in the world. Maybe Amber was going to die, hell, maybe she deserved to for what she tried to do. That was above his pay grade. Right now, there was a sad, angry and scared girl inside a burning building, and that was all that mattered. He headed inside.

[Supercape]

GM

 

The smoke was curdling like cream on the floor, and it was making good headway into the upper parts of the club. It was dark, not that that mattered to John. But smoke was another matter. It was hard to see through it, and it slammed up his nose to prevent he smelling much at all. Except burning. 

 

But the fire had not spread far, he could see. The backstage was lit, but it had not blossomed as fully as the Burner might have wanted, and had not yet spread across the stage itself. 

 

It was hard to breath, with smoke in your lungs. He could see a few people passed out on the floor - some from smoke, some from being trampled underfoot. Hard to judge. 

 

Amber was clawing her way through the smoke, coughing violently, gun in hand. 

 

"Where are you Blowfish? Don't ya want a kiss?" she said, seductively planting her lipstick'd lips on the gun, and giggling hysterically. 

[Thunder King]

John stepped out. "The club is toast." He said, walking towards her. "Blowfish got out, but the Bad Beat is going to take heavy losses, it'll probably never reopen. You don't have to die in here. You can disappear. Bus ticket, anywhere you want to go, just have to get out." He looked down. He could tell, there were a few bodies, a few people so far gone there was nothing that could do to help him. There were more people, though, who were injured, and scared. He could hear the sirens in the distance, some of these people would be okay.

[Supercape]

GM

 

Amber wavered for a long second. "He did, did he?" she snarled, before letting out an unfettered scream of rage. She had a good pair of lungs, but after the scream expired, she sucked in two mighty sacks of smoke, and started coughing terribly, collasping to her knees, which only made things worse. She might pass out any moment. 

 

"He has ruined so many lives...taken so many....and still he smiles and tortures....why can't there be any justice...."

 

She brought her gun up. Not pointing at John, but at the universe. 

 

"Just one bullet...between the eyes...damn the law...we must make our own justice..."

[Thunder King]

John understood her rage, he did. If he had remembered who put the bullets in the back of his head he probably would have taken weeks to find and kill that person. The intervening time caused him to focus more on what he could do. He ran over to her and picked her up. "Blowfish is ruined." He said. "The club is ruined. Everything he has burned up in this place, and he did it to himself. You want justice? Live. Blowfish is gonna get his, and you don't have to do anything else."

[Supercape]

GM

 

"You...you think?" asked Amber, dropping the gun, clutching her head and retching. "So hard to think...." 

 

She entered and violent coughing fit. 

 

"We have to get out of here...you...are right I have to go on, just so I can wipe that smile off his blubbery lips another day" she said, face scowling. 

 

"There is always more fire!" she said, defiantly, rising to her feet in defiance. 

 

"And Blowfish deserves all the fires of hell. Ill burn him! I swear it!" she spat, despite the fumes. A second later, another coughing fit, and the reality over took the emotion, with tears of despair. "But he has this place insured twice over. And fingers in so many pies. Maybe the other gangs will take this as a sign of weakness...maybe attack...but he is no fool! Curses!"

 

"Lets get out of here" she said, swirling between rage and despair. 

[Thunder King]

He picked her up and threw her over his shoulder and gazed through the smoke and haze. The stupid fire exit, badly maintained, insufficient, made the Bad Beat a death trap. But, it might prove to be Amber's salvation. He ran through the smoke and to the back. The door was in splinters, singed on the sides, but none of that mattered. He leaped out the back window and landed in the alleyway, wanting to get clear of the building, and of Blowfish. With all the nasty business going on inside, Blowfish might not realize she was cleared of the area.

 

Once John was sure they were a decent distance away, he set her down and let her catch her breath. She probably needed to see a doctor. He knew enough to treat basic wounds, but this, this could be bad.

[Supercape]

GM

 

Amber was too weak to resist, even a token resistance was out of the question. She was not even sure she wanted to, anymore. Not sure of anything. 

 

When everything had been so clear just minutes ago. 

 

Still, despite the smoke, despite the leap, she was conscious. "Did...Johnny make it? Poor Johnny..." she cried. "He was never the smae after they burned him....made him the burner...."

 

At this point, John noticed the Flamethrower he had throw out of the window, just by the fire escape. 

 

Or rather, noticed it was not there. 

 

"Please...don't hurt him....he is living on rage. It fuels him...keeps him alive. Take that away from him, and he has no meaning..."

[Thunder King]

John couldn't bring himself to say what he was thinking. He tried to hurt Johnny, mostly because he was trying to set him on fire. John figured the suit was in rough shape, too. The missing flame thrower told him he was probably going to run into 'The Burner' again. 

 

"I'm pretty sure Johnny made it out." John said. "I didn't hurt him, just disarmed him." That much was true, at least. "I meant what I said." he said. "Blowfish might think you're dead. Could get you on a bus anywhere you wanted to go. Get you clean out of town." He listened as the sirens approached.

 

"A friend of Vanity's asked me to look into things, and I figure the best way I can hurt Blowfish is to take you away from him." 

 

He knew that Amber was guilty of a number of things. Attempted murder, conspiracy, they could probably get arson charges to stick. Realistically though, he wasn't interested in that. The law of Bedlam failed him, it failed Vanity, it would fail Amber. What was the point of sticking her in the corrupt Bedlam police system?

[Supercape]

GM

 

"I....don't know....." said Amber, regaining some of her composure as she regained her breath. "How can I live with myself, running away? Johnny is still out there, planning hell knows what. Blowfish is too, and probably speaking to his gang right now. Or paying the right people to do the wrong thing" she muttered, wringing her hands. 

 

"And...he knows, doesn't he? That song I played. Oh! How I wanted him to hear, to see, as he went up in flames. But its all gone wrong. Blowfish may look like a stupid thug, but make no mistake, he is smart, careful. And he isn't prone to impulsive rages. He bides his time, strikes when it suits him, not his heart's fury" she explained. 

 

"Wherever I go, he will want me back. And get me back too. Or worse. Maybe not today, or tomorrow. Maybe not this year. But sooner or later he will..."

 

Something seductive, weak and strong at the same time hit her. Perhaps the stress made her fall back on her normal pattern of responses. She pursed her lips. "Hey handsome, you saved my life! And been so sweet too! How can I repay you?"

[Thunder King]

John sighed, he was tired and a little sore. Running in and out of a burning building taxed even his heightened endurance. He pointedly ignored her flirtations. Whatever other nonsense he was dealing with tonight, he didn't need some vulnerable young woman on his conscience, too. a "Blowfish knows what you tried to do, and if he finds you, he'll probably kill you, or worse. But, right now, he probably thinks you're dead. They're in there, in the building. They're going to save whoever they can find, but the fire...well, it'll be weeks before they sort the bodies, before they figure out who got caught in it, who got trampled, who got burned. By the time Blowfish finds out you weren't in there, you can have vanished into the air."

[Supercape]

GM

 

Amber nodded, the prospect of being "dead" sinking in. "I...alright then..." she said, recoiling, angry with herself and John, but capitulating. "Now is my only chance. Your right, the only way I walk from Blowfish is if one of us is dead. I wish it was him, but if not, then best I walk away appearing to be dead, rather than actually so" she conceded. 

 

"You are a hero. My hero. Not many people like that. My Johnny was before...." she started tearing up. "Oh Johnny, what he did to you..."

 

She turned back to John. 

 

"Just make sure Blowfish pays for what he did to Johnny..." she said, before turning heel and walking away as fast as she could...

[Thunder King]

John turned to the Bad Beat, and sighed. Blowfish paid, alright. He paid with everything he had. Deserved it, too. Deserved to be inside the building, even. So many people died in Bedlam, so many lost dreams and broken lives. He owed it, he thought, to Jane. If nobody else, he'd try to get straight with her. Give the woman some kind of closure. But out of Blowfish's earshot, that was important. He climbed a nearby building and watched the crowd below. He wanted to make sure things were okay.

[Supercape]

GM

 

The fire crew had just pulled up, and with slick professionalism started pulling together a response. Perhaps they were afraid. Blowfish was looking angry. 

 

"Boys, this has cost me a lot of money. I am angry" he said, in a calm voice. "But more importantly, the other gangs will be looking to see if they can't make a meal out of this. I don't want my reputation burned along with my club. So that means, I get to..."

 

The rustle and bustle of the fire crew half obliterated his next words. 

 

"Find Amber, and that stranger, and ask them a few questions, And then put their [&^%!] in a vice, cut of their [*&££] and stuff it in [%$£!!!&^] fried in garlic with a pencil and two tennis balls"

 

His minions seem to go white at the prospect. 

 

Jane had come out relatively unscathed, and was helping with some first aid, at least at a basic level. As the emergency crews, amublances, and police started piling in, she elected to leave before too many questions were asked. Hugging herself for some kind of comfort she walked off. 

 

John couldn't help but notice Blowfish being very friendly to some of the police. And they were even friendlier back. 

[Thunder King]

John changed his face into something quite different from his previous face and changed out of the suit, waiting for Jane to leave. He did not want Blowfish to know him, best he think McDonald was dead. He watched Jane from far above, the tattered coat caught up in the wind. He was glad that Blowfish might catch some more metaphorical heat over the literal heat, and that was fine with John. He needed to wrap things up a bit, but he had a feeling he might have to deal with Blowfish again.

 

He just needed to wait for her to be alone.

[Supercape]

GM

 

He did not have to wait long. 

 

A few blocks down, Jane Silverfinger turned into a low lit street to the tune of mewing cats and scuttling rats. It was a nice appartment she was in, despite the small street. Old, with character, but without the accompanying decay of mortar or brick. 

 

The little road was deserted, bar the urban animals crawling around, and she took out her key. Her hand shook with adrenaline and her composure cracked. But it did not disintegrate. A few seconds of focus, and she regained a steady hand. A deep breath, and she put t into her front door. 

 

Ready to turn, there was a slight cold breeze, and something made her look around, perhaps half aware that somewhat was watching her. Perhaps just shaken by the event of the night, Perhaps appropriately worried about the vengeance of Blowfish. 

 

"Calm. Get it together Jane" she muttered, and made to enter her appartment. 

[Thunder King]

John landed softly behind her. "Amber's gone. Not dead, gone." He said, in the voice she knew. "Her boyfriend started the fire. He took off somewhere." He felt he owed it to her, to let her know. "Hopefully, she'll go where she can't be found." He stood in the darkness."I just thought you should know." He waited for a response. After all the damage done tonight, he wanted some sign that something went well, that somehow, there was a good ending out of all of it somewhere.

[Supercape]

GM

 

This time, Jane dropped her keys. She took a deep breath in, shocked, but not totally afraid. 

 

"Amber?" she whispered through stunned vocal cords. She pulled herself together again, and stared at the Tattered Man. 

 

"Amber? how do you know about Amber? Who are you?" she asked, even as her brain woke up to the possibility of just whom she had been speaking to that night. 

 

"Do you know me?...wait..." she paused, looking at him even more intently. "It's a different face, but...were you at the Bad Beat tonight? speaking to me? helped rescue all those scoundrels? and Amber?" she asked, curiosity now seeping in through the fear. 

[Thunder King]

""I was." He said, quite simply. "I was, that was me." He shrugged. "I don't know those people, but I imagine fire and smoke inhalation are an awful way to die. If even one person in that building was innocent, that fire wasn't justice. The Bad Beat is pretty damaged, and Blowfish is going to have to worry about rivals for quite a while. It's not justice, not even close, but it's better than what could have happened."

[Supercape]

GM

 

Jane nodded, taking it all in. 

 

"Nice trick you have there. Handy, in Bedlam. The man that can walk anywhere, do anything, without recrimination"

 

She picked up the key and turned it this time, swinging open her door with the faintest of creaks. "Come in, then. If you can do that trick, I guess you can do others. And I wouldn't be able to stop you if I wanted to. Not even armed with determination. And you best believe I am packing a lot of determination..."

 

A few seconds later, inside Jane Silverfingers appartment. 

 

Jane was a public prosecution lawyer. Not the best, not the worst. Just doing her job. She had enough money to live comfortably enough, but was hardly rich. Somehow, it looked like it had been warm once, but was now cold. Her mind had been blown sideways by "Vanitys" death. 

 

Something cold, and hard about it. The shotgun by the entrance was the fest testiment to that. 

 

"I don't drink. But I can make coffee, if you want" she said. "If...you drink coffee, that is. Or anything. Come to think of it, mind telling me who and what you are???"

[Thunder King]

"Coffee sounds good, actually, thank you. Who, well, that's complex, and not something I'm comfortable with sharing, but what...well, I'm human. Still human. You know how they have those superheroes over in Freedom City? Kind of like that. I need to eat, breathe, all that. I just have a few tricks up my sleeve." He said, relaxing a bit.

 

"I have a history, and I don't have a history. Sorry, there is little trust in Bedlam."

[Supercape]

GM

 

"Trust is dead in Bedlam"

 

She  kicked off her shoes. Flat, sensible, good for running in. But shiny and black, stylish. She made the coffee lost in thought. One foot rubbed against her calf. As her hands percolated the coffee, so her mind silently percolated the evening. 

 

She handed him the coffee. Black and aromatic. She wore a half smile that seemed genuine. But as The Tattered Man had just pointed out, this was Bedlam. 

 

"But lets keep a small part of it alive, right here" she offered. 

 

"Its my good fortune to run into you then. I want to bring Blowfish down....well, if I am honest, I would first like to know, rather than almost know, that he killed my sister. But beggars can't be choosers. I don't really know what I was doing in the Bad Beat, other than asking for my head to get blown off" she said, the reality of the danger crawling over her skin. 

 

She wiped her brow and but her hands through her hair. 

 

"Oh God! What was I thinking! I should be dead!"