Roleplay By Monologues

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Grey Eagle heard what sounded like bass voices (that's voice-pitch bass, long A, not bass the fish with a short A) singing "Oh-ree-oh, pi-OHH-rum, oh-ree-oh, pi-OHH-rum!" Forcing Valteesha ahead of him as they came to a corner beyond which the space was well lighted, he whispered, "Call one of the guards or workers or whatever over here."

Valteesha stepped around the corner, looked to see who was there, and called out, "Excuse me, Oscar, could you come over here?" She stepped back beside Grey Eagle, and a moment later--

Not one, but four armed guards came charging around the corner, guns at the ready, to fire the instant they saw him. It took all of Grey Eagle's superhuman reaction speed to get his telekinetic defense activated in time. Wearied by heavy use, his power only _slowed_ the bullets in the air, but slowed them enough that they could not penetrate his body. Almost as quickly, he struck at all four men's brains with internal heating. Too tired to exercise fine-tuned control, he killed them all, their brains literally cooked to death inside their skulls.

Whipping around, he saw Valteesha fleeing in terror from the promised retribution. "Let me guess," he called after her, "they don't _have_ a man called Oscar, do they?"

Yet in a way he was glad to let her flee. Despite all her treachery, and although he certainly _wasn't_ in love with her, he knew he did not have the stomach to kill anyone who was helpless before him and begging for mercy. "Vengeance is Mine, says the Lord, I will repay..." But what lay ahead was not killing for vengeance, it was _saving_ lives. The chemical bomb had to be near; he hoped to neutralize it by extreme freezing.

Taking up two of the dropped guns for his own use, he felt a fresh pain in his back. The wounds there had opened from his exertion. He re-froze them...then levitated up to walk on the ceiling, like Spiderman with machine-pistols. His position gave him the first shot at his next adversaries...and what looked like being his _last_ fight commenced.
 
The party was going on and everybody was celebrating this big day. The white Rabbit wanted to play a funny game: Guess what I'm thinking about. The Hatter loved to join and the Rabbit who was sitting next to Nessa asked her if she would join too.

" You have to guess what I am thinking about. And remember...I only reply with Yes and No".

Nessa grabbed her husband's arm and asked if he would join too. Of course Eric wanted to join.

" Okay...all of you may ask a question which I can only answer with yes or No. So the Hatter is first and then Nessa and then Eric. Let's start".

The four of them had a very fun time. They played four rounds and then it was time for another cup of Tea. Eric whispered something in Nessa's ear.

" Have you watched how crazy they are about Tea?"

Nessa nodded her head. And she started to laugh when the Rabbit started to sing.

" What are you laughing? You never heard a Rabbit sing before?"

" Of course I heard you sing before but these songs are funny! They are all about.....tea!"

Then the music started to play and Emmett took the hand of his lovely wife Queenie.

" Mrs Frankl, may I ask you to dance with me?"

" Owww...dearest Mr Frankl, I love to dance with you!"

And so Queenie and Emmett opened the ball which was a part of the wedding as well. Soon more couples started to dance and Eric took the hand of Nessa and they started to dance too.

" Look Hatter....all couples, happy people and soon-to-be couples. Isn't it great to watch them all dancing together?"

" Sure Rabbit, this is one of the best days ever".

Then the Rabbit and Hatter started to dance too. They didn't have a partner to dance with but they joined anyway.
 
Two young girls of the town--among those who HAD been able to see Aslan that time when stuck-up 13-year-olds couldn't see Him--soon offered to dance with the two Wonderland characters to make them feel welcome. These girls' mothers had taught them well about being nice to guests.

Other nice girls like those two were enjoying the sight of Emmett and Queenie unabashedly kissing each other as they danced. Young boys found that much less interesting to watch; but the young girls were thinking, "Give them time..."

One boy, 11-year-old Boy Scout Joel Finney, had something more serious in mind: why his fellow groomsman Bat-Bat had left the head table after making his toast to the newlyweds. The superhero had seemed concerned about something, yet not wanting the others to worry. So what WAS Bat-Bat up to?
 
One of the young girls who was around 12 years old asked Nessa if she was allowed to dance with Eric.

" Of course you can dance with him darling! But don't let him do the waltz! He will think he is on the hockey rink".

The Rabbit rushed up to Nessa and invited her for a dance.

" Oww yes! I love to dance with you my dear friend!"

And so the dancing part was very nice and exciting. Both the Hatter and Rabbit danced with Nessa and with the others like Alice and Abby as well. Emmett and Queenie however danced together. They were too much in love to be seperated for even a few seconds. This was their day. The day they both looked forward at.
 
Grey Eagle _really_ wished he could have pulled off his idea of knocking out _one_ bad guy, dressing as him with super-speed, and seeming to "come back" from talking with Valteesha. But it was not to be, thanks to the former Shapechanger and permanent sneak.

What _was_ to be, was that Grey Eagle had mowed down all the armed men immediately threatening him, but at least three of their bullets had gotten past his defenses, wounding him in the stomach and legs. He had again telekinetically pushed those bullets out and frozen his wounds shut; but muscle damage nonetheless was slowing him down. He didn't see Skoltos; but he did see five robots with talons and buzz-saw arms barring his way into the chamber where the chemical bomb sat.

There was no way around them; he had to go _through_ them.

Before descending, he picked one buzz-saw robot to fire his remaining bullets at, seeming to disable it. Then it was down to the floor: sword drawn, telekinetic resistance slowing the claw attacks, and heat-power seeking vulnerable magnetic memory units. Hack and burn...hack and burn...a wound in the right shoulder from a steel claw...sword to the left hand... hack and burn...

And at last they were down. Dragging two of the wrecked robots half by hand and half by mind-power, he brought them with him into the bomb chamber. The door was made to open outward; but Grey Eagle telekinetically performed a "junk sculpture" job, using parts of the dead robots to hook and entangle the door, keeping it _mostly_ shut. It would at least be difficult for his enemies to get in here now.

The actual bomb was visually a disappoinment. Nothing like a futuristic weapon in movies, it seemed like a combination of automobile engine, scuba tanks, and stereo set. But the tanks made sense: the compressed gas would be inside them. Probably the term "bomb" was being used very loosely; if that stuff would seep up through the ground anyway, they didn't need explosives. He remembered from Navy submarine training that compressed gases, if escaping from their containers in a narrow stream, can penetrate flesh like a bullet; so if the escaping flow of gas just went straight up, it would be quickly on its journey AWAY FROM the center of the Earth.

What now? If he could freeze the gas, it of course would go nowhere. But he didn't know the degree of cold needed to _condense_ this gas, let alone freeze it solid. Maybe if he tipped the structure over on its side, then opened the valves, the upward movement of the gas would be slowed some, so he could be sure of getting ALL of it frozen--if indeed it even _was_ in his depleted power to freeze all of it.

But Skoltos, or some other evil bigwig, knew he was here; and they weren't waiting for the superhero to figure out the best move. Their own people, as Valteesha had said, were already immunized against the gas; that was why this room had not needed to be kept airtight.

NOW, therefore, the villains _remotely_ opened the valves, and the gas, faintly tinting the air pink, began shooting forth. Grey Eagle's first reaction was to make a force-barrier keeping the gas away from his lungs. He was on the side of his barrier _toward_ the door, so that more fresh air could reach him. From there, he did the only thing he _could_ do: he began trying to chill the gas enough at least to liquefy it.

 
The noises that Bat-Bat had heard at the reception were becoming now loud and clear. He heard a voice he recognized and immediately realized who was the person missing at the wedding. His superhero friend Grey Eagle!! Was it possible that he was in danger here? A series of complex subterranean facilities began to emerge and Bat-Bat began to see debris all around that told him a battle was going on. He zeroed in on his friend's voice, even a grunt or a small whisper will allow him to pinpoint his friend's exact location. Bat-Bat really hoped he was not too late.
 
Three sources of sound became audible for Bat-Bat.

In one place, the nearest by sonar ranging, there were mechanical noises--resembling the sounds made by the hovering, clawed robot he had fought inside the Caricature Church. Somewhere beyond that, a barely-human-sounding voice was saying, "What do you mean, the door's jammed? You need to get him out of there, or kill him inside! What if he _does_ succeed in stopping the gas?"

Farthest and faintest, there was a hissing like steam; and from the same location, grunts of pain which sounded like the voice of Copperfox.

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The poisonous gas wasn't condensing fast enough. Some of it was getting away from Grey Eagle, seeming to begin soaking into the natural-rock ceiling above his head.

He hadn't tried to incinerate it, because he didn't think it even was flammable; or if it could burn, it might need so high a heat that the superhero would have to cremate himself to burn it. He didn't wish to die needlessly, so soon, even though he knew what reception committee awaited him above. But now the gas was escaping from his reach. There was only one chance now of stopping it.

ALL other use of his mind-over-matter powers must be discontinued.

One guard, already, had forced the muzzle of an automatic rifle in through the door-crack and emptied the magazine, counting on ricochet to nail Grey Eagle; and that was what would have happened if not for the hero's telekinetic resistance. But that shield must now be dropped...and the maintaining of the freezeover of his gunshot wounds must be abandoned.

In all of his Navy career, events had been such that he was never in a battle--never being fired upon in earnest. Only since receiving his Grey Eagle powers late in life, here in this overlapping space-time dimension, had he faced anything like this. There was a saying he had often reflected upon: "Having time to think makes cowards of us all." So it was good that he had no time to think. With a shout of "Ut Fidem Praestem In Difficultate!" (May I Be Faithful In Adversity), he shifted all his power to the one use.

Narrowed in purpose, his mind-over-matter force was broadened in its reach. The gas which had entered the ceiling was pulled back down; it, and all the rest of the escaping gas, began to liquefy at a faster rate.

But the frozen blood plugging his bullet holes was beginning to thaw. And he could hear someone outside trying to get into position to give him some more bullet holes.
 
Josh was then kidnapped by an army of priests. They preached at him, converted him, and got him baptized within an hour.

"So much for my evil schemes." he thought.
 
As he turned a corner, Bat-Bat saw some robots, the same kind as the ones he had fought before, trying to force open a door. One of them had stuck an arm through a crack and was clearly shooting blindly into the room. One of the robots spotted Bat-Bat and signaled to the others. They all turned to face the super hero.

All the robots opened up on Bat-Bat with their machine guns and other types of guns. However, they forgot that Bat-Bat had the natural ability (now enhanced even further by portable sensors attached to the back of his ears) to pinpoint the exact trajectory, velocity, and position of every bullet fired at him, and unlike those silly Quantum Physicists, he could even pinpoint the exact location AND behavior of particles of gunpowder. Bat-Bat was sort of a working, real, and living Heisenberg Compensator.

With this ability, Bat-Bat dodged all the bullets while at the same time he was able to send his last guano bomb in the direction of the metallic fiends. Pieces of robots scattered around with a great clatter and once again, Bat-Bat was able to dodge all the shrapnel. After he had cleared the door, he heard some grunts and whispers that clearly were the voice of his friend Gray Eagle.

By way the voice sounded, Bat-Bat clearly understood that his friend was under great stress. The door had been loosened by the explosion so Bat-Bat had not problem pushing it aside.
 
Joel Finney was torn between curiosity about Bat-Bat, and enjoyment of the party. But when a number of the boys near his age left with their families, he decided to slip out and look for Bat-Bat.

Some impulse urged him to bring along his .22 rifle, for which he still had three cartridges with him. On either hip, in addition, hung his Scout sheath knife and Scout hatchet, which his parents had let him wear as part of his uniform because he had always handled them responsibly. Outside, he soon found footprints Bat-Bat had left in the snow--before presumably taking flight. By the direction of the few fresh tracks, Joel's best guess was that the superhero was going to revisit the ruins of Caricature Baptist Church. Yes, Bat-Bat HAD remarked that he would like to study the mad-scientist equipment which had been buried in that church's collapse.

At the hulk of the unlamented fake church, the boy spotted what must be Bat-Bat's footprints upon landing; but he could not immediately determine whether his winged friend had found a way inside, or had simply gone elsewhere. So Joel began poking around the wreckage at random.

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OOC: I figure for Joel to be searching for Bat-Bat's way inside for some time. He probably will not have gotten into the tunnels before events underground reach a climax; but if it should happen that any still-actively-threatening bad guys come charging up OUT OF the tunnels, Joel will be there to see them and give some kind of alarm for the grownups.
 
And then Kim met Tori Amos
and then the world was saved
and everything made sense again


And the peasants rejoiced....:D
 
"BACK!" exclaimed Grey Eagle hoarsely, from where he lay on his back in a pool of blood. "Wait just...a minute more...almost got...all of it...condensed."

"You mean gas? The chemical weapon Smerdyakov had clues about?" Aware of Grey Eagle's temperature-control power, Bat-Bat understood what his fellow crimefighter must be doing.

"Yes...Not instantly...fatal, but shortens...life, and...alters the mind. Almost...yes, now I'm sure...I got it all. Wanted to freeze it...solid, but not enough...strength left. I'm soaked with it now...don't know if works...through skin contact...know that their guys...have antidote...don't know if any...kept here. Drag me out."

Bat-Bat was carefully doing as asked--assuring his friend that the Bat-Bat costume was permeated with broad-spectrum anti-poison treatments--when bullets he _wasn't_ ready to track were fired at him from behind, with a super-silenced gun. His tough uniform stopped most of the momentum of the shots, but they penetrated a little way, inflicting minor wounds.

Whirling to face his assailant, Bat-Bat saw a tall man sitting on a hovering robot as if it were a horse. The man seemed to have clouds blowing across him, as if his whole body were a TV screen showing The Weather Channel. One hand held the gun which he had just fired, while the other held some kind of curved blade. As soon as this enemy knew himself spotted, he created a cloak of darkness around himself, and closed in still riding his quiet-flying robot.

But Skoltos--for of course this was he--didn't realize that darkness was no handicap for the sonar-equipped Bat-Bat. Thus the blow of his machete or whatever it was, was evaded; and the gun was struck from his gun hand. Now Bat-Bat would have delivered a disabling blow, to enable taking this villain into custody after seeing to Grey Eagle; but Skoltos was no slowpoke either, and he in turn evaded Bat-Bat's counterattack. The robot whipped around, and Skoltos fled on it into the main tunnel, the one leading to the oddball bookstore in Boulder, Colorado.

No one else was threatening for now. Crouching again and bringing forth his Bat-Bat first-aid kit, he re-plugged all the bullet wounds with special Bat-Bat skin-substitute. He could tell ultrasonically that no bullets remained inside the wounds; Grey Eagle must have telekinesed them out. But this did not change the fact that Grey Eagle had lost plenty of blood.



OOC: That's all here from me for tonight.
 
Emmett couldn't resist to kiss his wife again. While kissing her he grabbed her garter and threw it without looking. The kiss was asking all his attention. Ghost unaware what was going on looked up and suddenly saw the garter flying his way. He grabbed it. Everybody started to applaude.

" Trinity got the bouquet and Ghost the garter! This means we are going to have two people going to get married next. And this means tw weddings!"

Ghost looked surprised and then he started to laugh.

" Now wait a minute! I don't think Jake will allow me to marry Trinity".

" No I wouldn't allow you indeed but this means you will have to find someone soon to get married to. You catched the garter".

Ghost who was usually not thinking about things like this looked at the garter.

" I don't believe it is going to happen. Just a strange coincidence".

Jessica the bellydancer gave another demonstration and now people wanted her to teach them the basics. Nessa walked forward and took the Rabbit at his arm.

" Jessica.....I think it would be fun to see the first Rabbit bellydancer in the world. Can you teach my little friend some of the basics?"

" No...not me! Nessa...you should bring Eric forward and not me".

But Jessica was very delighted and she worked together with the Rabbit who soon started to dance like a real bellydancing rabbit. Then the Hatter was next and soon everybody was ready to give the new couple a demonstration about what they learned. Emmett and Queenie were laughing. Especially when Jake showed his talent to them.

" My dear lass, he's doing better than I would ever do".

Queenie clapped her hands. It was so good to see this former evil sorcerer had changed completely. She enjoyed the little things so much more than the big things. Then Trinity grabbed Ghost's arm and wanted him to be taught how to do a bellydancing performance. Jessica enjoyed it and was also going to have a tough time because Ghost wasn't picking it up easily. So the lovely bellydancer took her new student aside and taught him the basics in private. There were so many people singing and dancing and a lot of people wanted to learn more so Jessica took some time for Ghost.
 
Emmett suddenly ran to the restaurant's office computer to check something. Sure enough, his flinging of the garter had already been reported to The Dancing Lawn. The Mods had given in and allowed it to be said that Emmett's hands had gone to a place on his bride _lower_ than her shoulders! With a boyish grin, Emmett rejoined Queenie; and when they next were dancing together, his hands went where they had been really really wanting to go. After all, goldang it, they _were_ now lawfully married!

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

"Have you...got cellphone...works down here?" the severely injured Grey Eagle groaned.

"Yes, and I already called for a medical helicopter to meet us when I get you out," Bat-Bat informed his friend.

"Have to call...someone else first...since you say...Skoltos got clear." Grey Eagle told him the number, adding, "Let me talk...to gatekeepers." He put out a trembling hand for the cellphone once the number had been dialed.

Bat-Bat handed the phone to him, but said, "What gatekeepers?"

"Explain...later." Grey Eagle gathered his willpower, to make his voice sound normal. When someone responded at the other end, he said, "Bush is Hitler, and Cheney is Dracula. This is Valteesha's friend who came through yesterday with her. Choice and change, choice and change. I need to warn you about something. Death to capitalism. You know Skoltos was working down at the target end of the tunnel? Only white people can ever be racists. I'm afraid those reactionary, male-chauvinist, non-Gaia-worshipping superheroes got to Skoltos. Children belong to the state....Yes, that's right, he's been infected with right-wing conspiracy. I saw for myself that he now _favors_ gun ownership! One world, global village....You're welcome. Down with America!"

Acccepting his phone back, Bat-Bat said, "Wow, you did that really well."

"I am a linguist, after all; and _their_ language can be heard everyplace these days. Anyway, Skoltos will never get past that bookstore alive now." The pain returned on Grey Eagle's face. "Let's get upstairs."

Bat-Bat carried Grey Eagle on his wings, which he had contorted into a horizontal attitude to form a sort of stretcher. No one opposed them on their way to the Caricature Church exit. Bat-Bat went as fast as he dared, anxiously noticing that Grey Eagle spoke less and was looking weaker.

When they emerged, Joel Finney was there waiting. Seeing Grey Eagle's condition, the Boy Scout and Preacher's Kid loaded his rifle. "Any bad guys after you?"

"Not for now," Bat-Bat replied. "But that's good how you're prepared." This compliment, which treated him like a young man rather than a little boy, pleased Joel even in the midst of worry for their friend. Bat-Bat continued: "Grey Eagle is stable for the moment, I'm pretty sure. I want you to watch him while I guide the medevac chopper to this place to land." Then Bat-Bat spread his wings and shot into the sky.
 
"Don't touch me!" Grey Eagle told the boy. "Possible...contact poison...soaked me. Got...into my bloodstream besides... through the wounds. No, wait, I...don't need your kerchief as...a bandage; Bat-Bat already...stopped the bleeding...but that...was good thinking."

"Can I do _anything_ for you?" asked Joel. Tears of concern for his friend suddenly sprang uninvited to the boy's eyes. He was furious at himself for this; but then he remembered that in Narnia, no one thinks any worse of you for weeping out of a loving motive.

"Sure, you can...listen to this." Grey Eagle gathered his will again, and recited:

"Take up our quarrel with the foe!
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch--yours now to hold it high.
If you break faith with us who die,
We shall not rest, though poppies blow
In Flanders Fields."​

Joel's eyes were wide now, as well as wet. "Are you _dying?_"

"No, no, that's...just one of my...favorite poems. It _doesn't_ tell us...to respond to losses...by appeasing evil...and surrendering to it...kids ought to learn that...I'll tell you, though...I do sense that...the poison IS working...in my blood...Only one way...for me NOT to die now...and that's...to let go of...my superhero personality...let THAT do the dying...Better step away, son..."

Joel withdrew a little--and saw Grey Eagle seeming to burst into flames. He would, very bravely, have sprung forward again to try to extinguish them; but they vanished at once with no intervention required.

And there before him lay, not Grey Eagle, but Copperfox--no longer seeming to have any wounds.

Still too weak to rise, the old sailor sighed. "I'm going to miss being Grey Eagle."
 
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The sinister gatekeepers in Boulder had ways of dealing with conspiracy members who strayed off the plantation. Because they believed Grey Eagle's "deceptive-comms" ploy, and thought that Skoltos was deviating from hard-leftwing lockstep...his body was never found. There was, however, an organic herb garden in Boulder which was destined to be especially fertile in the next growing season.

Valteesha, on the other hand, had in the end NOT strayed off the ideological plantation. She was given credit for exposing Skoltos, and was rewarded with a Change Party appointment to the Department of Education. Her first highly-acclaimed project there was to commission the writing of a public-school history textbook; this textbook would say that George Washington was not simply BORN INTO the wealthy slaveowning class--he personally INVENTED slavery, because he was a bitter American and hated everyone different from himself.
 
Then Kakomer son of Grakomer, Lord High Keeper of the Seven Ancient Spells, Guardian of the Eternal Mystery, and Chairman of the School Board did smite Karovag son of Barovag, Evil Knight of the Dark Horsemen, Barron of Morals, and lay him low even as he vowed upon the slain body of his childhood friend Chaucer who lay slain, and utterly dead, in a pool of his own blood which stained the otherwise impeccable snow, for said Karovag the Disgusting had slain him utterly dead, Chaucer that is, not Kakomer.
 
An enchanted purple duck then waddled up to Kakomer and said, "Hail and well met, sir! I hope, and the Fox of Copper hopes, that you will put in future appearances on the 'Monologues TWO' thread. For in consideration of averting forum choke-ups, once the Emmett-and-Queenie plot arc is completed, the Fox of Copper will invite the Mods to bestow the Yale lock upon THIS thread, not in malice or censure but because the second Monologues thread will take over the function of this one, restoring the goofiness.

"Quack!"
 
"I'm back!!" Abby said, running from the other thread. "I got lost. Confusing stuff," she said again. She looked around. "Where's Bat-Bat?" she aksed.
 
OOC: Note that Abby's bridesmaid character IS assumed to have done her part normally at the ceremony. Any of a number of things can be imagined as having distracted her after the photo session; but now her question allows for another step in the action.

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"Why, y'know what? I _don't_ know where Bat-Bat got to!" admitted Emmett, who had been understandably preoccupied in snuggling with his bride. "He's got lotsa information sources; maybe he found out something about where squid-boy went to."

For a moment, the groom found himself avoiding Queenie's gaze. But then she kissed his neck and said, "Sweetheart, you don't have to hold back from what a man's gotta do on my account. At least, not when it's a dear friend of yours like Joseph who's affected. I'll trust Aslan not to let any harm come to you on our wedding night; after all, He Himself practically _commanded_ us to get married!"

Emmett nodded, kissed his beloved on her sweet mouth, and then pulled his favorite sheepskin jacket over his green tuxedo and went outdoors, taking with him his pump gun and his new Bowie knife.

Happily, he didn't have to fight anyone on this occasion, nor search long for his friend. The medical helicopter not arriving as quickly as Joel had expected, the Boy Scout was just then deciding he had better signal for more assistance. Accordingly, he fired his .22 caliber hunting rifle in the air. Emmett knew exactly what kind of gun had fired that shot, and he followed the sound to the Caricature Church ruins.

Joel had done well, spreading his own coat over Copperfox (who was no longer soaked with poison), and propping his feet higher than his head to combat shock. Seeing no current danger, and being hastily told by the Parson's son that Bat-Bat had mopped up those bad guys Grey Eagle hadn't gotten, Emmett fired his own summoning shot to bring the others to the scene. Then he let Joel reclaim his coat, and Emmett's coat went over Copperfox instead.
 
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