pullsneedles | New Pork City

New Pork City

With a great KSSSSSSSSH! the limo lands at the entrance of Master Porky's neon haven, New Pork City. The streets are lined with lively distractions and familiar faces, the people of Tazmily bustling about at the cinema or the arcade.

Boney nudges his owner's hand with his nose, giving him a comforting lick. Kumatora puts a hand near her eyes, scanning the area. Duster fiddles with a wall staple, itching to move but wanting to stay still.

Lucas soaks it all in, frowning faintly.

Where to?

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"When a Needle's pulled," Lucas starts. "Part of th' heart a'the person who pulled it goes to th' Dragon. An' he'll do what that person's heart wants."

He pulls himself to stand up, Duster, Boney, and Kumatora following.

Leder gives another firm nod. "I hear six of the Dragon's Needles have already been pulled. Deep in the earth, the Dragon is likely beginning to stir from its sleep now. Supposedly, the last Needle is somewhere here in New Pork City. Porky has been gathering everything that lives on these islands into New Pork City to prepare for the final Needle's pulling. It's possible that he's planning to hold one final, twisted party. But now is our chance to change this looming crisis into a golden opportunity. All things may come to an end...or new and bountiful things may begin. Wouldn't you like to help that happen?

"Lucas. You were once a weak, fragile boy, but now you've been given a tremendous role to fulfill. Now that you know everything, including everything I'm sure you'd rather not know, the time has come for you to save the future of all life as we know it."

He takes a moment, reaching out and gently putting a hand on Lucas's shoulder.

"'God won't make you bear more than you can carry.' I'm sure you've heard that phrase before. Know that you aren't fighting alone. Everyone-"

Leder looks at the assembled group, meeting his eyes to all the others.

"-and I do mean everyone, will lend you their support."

The extremely tall man takes his hand back.

"That was a long story, but that is the end of everything I have to tell you. Did you understand all of it?"

Lucas gives him one last nod.

"Only the Magypsies really know the Needles' locations, so I don't know where to find them. But, from the way Porky and the others have been acting, I would say they're now very close to reaching the seventh Needle. Please, Lucas. Be the one who pulls the final Needle.

"Porky issues his orders from the 100th floor of the Empire Porky Building. Start by jumping into the fray and storming the building. After that, you can start looking for clues."

Leder then gives a great, heavy sigh.

"It's been such a long time since I've spoken to anyone. And now I'm exhausted. This stinkbug should remember everything I've just said. Take him with you. That way, if you happen to forget anything I've said here, you can ask him to repeat it. Will you go with them, Mr. Stinkbug?"

The stinkbug hops a final confirmation and then hops his way over, deciding the best person to stick with would be Autor.

"Oh! Um," Autor says to Mr. Stinkbug. He tucks his notes away in his pocket and crouches down, holding out his hands.

Then he looks to the party at large. "Sounds like we have a job to do. Back through the sewers?" he asks, and then hesitates before nodding at the tall man. "Goodbye, Leder."

Enzo stands straight and tall and salutes smartly. "Thank you, sir."

She remembers standing behind J'Onn when he was connecting with the Appelaxians, taking the strain of the mental link. It's not the same, but it's the closest thing Dinah has to compare here. However it works out, she knows she'd do anything for Lucas.

But she's still not clear what this will mean for Lucas himself.

"Wait," she says, as she stands. "We need to free Leder first."

Leder begins to shake his head but Kumatora goes, "Oh yes, we are gonna free you, Ol' Beanpole. Sit tight and we'll get you downstairs."

She leads the way down, Boney following and Duster limping behind.

"Goodbye, Leder," Lucas says.

"Go," Leder says insistently.

As they head downstairs again, the group can hear Kumatora blasting off Leder's chains and a strange, mechanical commotion in the sewer.

After one last glance to Leder, Autor places Mr. Stinkbug on his shoulder and heads downstairs to join the rest of the splinter group.

"Everyone else hears that, right?" the music student asks, nervously adjusting his glasses. "Is it more of those trash things, maybe?"

He is really not looking forward to traveling via sewer pipe again, given how the smell clings.

"I think I know that sound," Duster says, heading out in front.

And on the other side of the wall separating them from the sewer is a faint, robotic, "Nwehehehehehehehehe!"

Yeeeeah, Enzo's gonna be drawing his sword about now.

Autor blinks at Enzo and falls back behind him, tentatively raising his balled fists. He aligns his back to a wall and swallows, wondering not for the first time what he's doing here--and hopes to stay out of the way.

"Just so we're clear," he says, "this isn't a good sound, right?"

"It's a stay-on-your-guard sound, I know that much."

"It's worse than that," Lucas goes. "That laugh is too familiar."

"That's one 'nwe' and eight 'he's," the robotic translator explains.

Just outside of the doorway, a monstrous man with jetpacks and two great horns instead of a nose hovers by the ladder, the familiar feminine robot spinning down from the ceiling.

"'Oh, what a pleasure it is to see you again,'" the robot interprets. "No, wait. 'Long time, no see,' Fassad says."

Lucas and Duster groan. Kumatora throws her hands against his head.

"Dammit, why won't you just stay dead?!" she howls in frustration.

Unbelievably, Enzo sort of recognizes this guy from his prior visit. Except he had less brass about his person at the time.

"What do you think happens if we blow into him?" he murmurs to Autor out of the corner of his mouth, very much not lowering his sword.

Autor can't stop blinking. First of all, there's a man who looks like a flying opera singer who fell into an orchestra pit, and then a... metal woman?

"Er," he says, scuttling up closer to Enzo, for better cover, and looking around for Dinah. "My guess is one 'nwe' and eight 'he's. What is he?"

"An enemy. He used to be human." As far as you know, Enzo. "Code knows now. Some kind of trumpet-cyborg?"

"'I won't tolerate you ignoring me,' Fassad goes on to say," the Interpreter tells the group. "'I have been remade into an incredibly, fiercely powerful, and dangerous ultimate weapon. Therefore, I will be absolutely, unquestionably be victorious over you,' is what Fassad says."

"Shut up before I punch you in what little face you got left!" the frustrated Kumatora howls over the rest of his words.

It's just as well. Fassad swoops in with an off-key music attack shortly after.

Music attack?

Music Attack?

Dinah is stepping to the front the second he starts, and opens her mouth to sing back at him.

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Enzo, who has some experience with ladies with improbable noises coming out of their mouths, covers an ear with his free hand and gets as directly behind her as possible.

Edited 2013-10-26 20:44 (UTC)

It's a beautiful voice, one any soprano would be jealous of.

Autor drops to his knees and claps his hands over his ears with a quiet shriek of his own. When he can think again, he'll wonder where the hell she keeps all of that volume.

Lucas, familiar with Dinah's mode of attack, gets to work repairing any damaged eardrums

Fassad's interpretbot, however, is not nearly as fortunate to get such care as Miracle Fassad is more concerned with scarfing down a luxury banana.

"ERROR! ERROR! TOFU DRIVE DISABLED! DAKOTA SERVER NOT FOUND! FORCED SHUTDOWN!" she screeches before falling into the sewer.

"I like your friend," Duster tells Lucas with a grin before viciously throwing some wall staples.

After Lucas lifts the pressurized ringing in Autor's ears, the writer creates some potential hearing damage of his own. He hurls two grenades at Fassad--holding off on the flash bangs so as to not blind his companions--and lights a third.

Pop-pop-BANG! The boy's amazed that the trumpet-man appears completely untouched.

Edited 2013-10-26 20:06 (UTC)

When Dinah's breath runs out, she throws herself forward, leaping into the air towards him, grabbing the end of one of the horns and using that to swing herself around and plant both her heels into his side.

And just as Fassad had ripped through Duster's wall staples, too! Poor man can't catch a break.

Kumatora rushes forward and gives Fassad the punch she's wanted to give him ever since he reared his ugly head once again.

"Who else wants at him?" she calls back with a savage grin, getting out of the way.

Enzo slashes in with his sabre. "Anyone want any trophies?"

Statistically, Autor calculates that he has a very large chance of hurting someone else other than Fassad with his heavier ordinance. He tosses his third grenade back behind him, into the room where they'd come from.

He shoulders his bomb bag and watches the fight impassively, wondering if he should sketch it out while he has the chance. Well, there are always the flash bangs, he thinks. Blinding him could work.

"Eyes!" he shouts, and flings two below and in front of where Fassad hovers.

Enzo's ex-roommate used to weld in their room. He drops back and clamps his eyes shut instinctively.

Re: The Story

pullsneedles - 2013-10-26 20:54 (UTC) - Expand

Re: The Story

raptorcanaria - 2013-10-26 20:57 (UTC) - Expand

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