Subway Madness

Participants:

josh_icon.jpg nike_icon.jpg scrivner_icon.jpg

Scene Title Subway Madness
Synopsis A huge worm attacks the subway, threatening lots of squishy mortals! Oh no! This scene was STed by Vette.

Subway System

Just another subway station beneath New York City. Tiles of a grimy off-shade of white make up the walls until about shoulder level for your average man, then above that it shifts to a dark blue. Neither color does much to hide the graffiti that youths tag up and down the walls of the platform, stopping only when a glass case for an adverisement gets in the way.

The subway trains run almost twenty-four hours a day, generally off their schedule by a few minutes, screeching to a halt at the platform with just enough time to allow the waiting mobs to try and surge both on and off the train, before it starts off again for the next stop. Each arrival and each mob brings forth more hustle, bustle and noise, but such is New York City.

Occasionally you'll find a starving musician or a religious group playing their instruments up against the wall, trying to make a buck or a convert. This thins out when darkness sets in above, however. Most of the crowds then disappear to their homes or clubs for the night, allowing punk youths to wander the platforms and bums to try to sleep on the benches, or in the trains themselves.


In New Atlantis at 7:30 am in the morning, the strange highly electrified, super modern subways run silently and smoothly. They are never late, they are super fast, and if you can't take your car because you're a wanted criminal or terrorist or whatever, they're great. They're also great if you don't have a car, or if you can use your car but the entire island is still getting traffic jams, superpowered ultra modern uninvited overlords or no.

Having been caught on the other side of New York-Atlantis when the sun rose, Rufus Scrivner had two choices. He could either /walk/ all the way home, or he could ride the subway. He's carrying his sword, but that armour he receieved the other week is sort of conspicuous, so he had to leave that behind. It's a very, very vulnerable feeling, being mortal thanks to a curse Odin laid on him. Sitting on the subway, he twists a black ring around his finger and stares down the subway car with an unreadable expression, waiting for his stop.

Of course, Josh 'Triple' Syx is on the subway. He's from New York/New Atlantis, so he's home right now, on a bit of a vacation from his job of being a world famous pro wrestler and action movie star. He signs off on some little kid's McDonalds napkin or whatever it might be, and then ruffles the kid's hair.

There is a slow, angry rumble beneath the train. It starts increasing, and increasing, and people start to get alarmed, screaming, holding on, staring wide eyed…trying to keep their feet as the speeding train suddenly stops speeding—suddenly tilts at a crazy angle.

That same kid who just got an autograph gets caught as he flies through the air by Josh, who's holding on to one of the hand rails with his other hand, "I gotcha, little dude." He says, as he waits for the train to settle back down. This is definately not a good thing, whatever it is, "Everybody stay calm!" He calls out, trying to get people not to freak.

"Bloody Hell!" Rufus snarls. He should have known. He /should have known./ Standing hastily from his seat, he staggers forward and reaches for a plastic loop affixed to a ceiling rail to steady himself. What the Hell is it this time? He surges forward, towards the side of the train that's tilting upwards, in hopes of getting a look out of a window.

There is a sudden unholy shriek of metal. Then the floor shatters. Shrapnel goes everywhere, narrowly missing Scrivner's face and flying past Josh's head without hitting either them, yet slamming into the windows of the train and shattering things. There's a seriously unpleasant electric smell. And this white, pasty pale segmented thing bursts it's head through the hole with a shrieking, blind roar. It's mouth has opened to reveal three rows of serrated, black teeth. The thing is about as far round as a huge oak tree, and it's body waves for one horrified moment. Mortal screams fill the air.

Of course, Josh tosses the kid back to his father just in time to duck out of the way of the thing bursting out of the floor below him, "To hell with that." The wrestler grabs ahold of his shirt and rips it off, leaving him completely shirtless as he stares down whatever this thing is, "You think that you can just bust in here, and put these people in danger, and not pay for it? You're /dead/ wrong!" He can't help it. He's a wrestler. He has to get those lines in, "Now you're gonna pay. Come get some!"

Josh takes two steps forward and then throws himself through the air, and aims to slam his fist square into the monster's 'face' or whatever amounts to one of those. Of course, trying to avoid all of those teeth at the same time. This is probably going to be pretty close.

The wurm roars as Josh slams his fist into its…gaping mouth region. And then its jaws close down on Josh's wrist, sharp teeth trying to rip the wrestler's hand off right at the wrist before they let go again. The massive, ugly segmented creature suddenly leaps up into the air and slams down through another section of train. The thing's tail is now visible as it makes its second hole, and the train makes this massive KER CHUNK! as it goes down, like a seesaw suddenly going flat and then shooting up on the other side. More shrapnel flies!

Tossed back and forth by the veering of the train, Rufus is having a hard time keeping his balance. Once, this would have been so easy. He's almost sure he recognises what that thing is. As people scream and panic, he can be heard shouting at the tops of his lungs, "Stay calm! Stay back against the walls and hold on tight, people!"

And then some kid is ripping off his shirt. "…. What the bloody Hell."

Somewhere in the back of his head, Rufus can hear a bunch of synthesisers and electric guitars pounding out an awesome rock ballad to an 80s action flick. So some might think him a wee bit mad as he barks a laugh and charges forward, having ripped his sword free of the heavy casing he'd been carrying across his back. He tries to leap up into the air and strike a downward swing on his landing, aiming to slash at the creature's segmented tail.

Having sat down in the next car back from the current chaos, Nike had thought this was going to be a nice, peaceful ride - a lovely change from the past few weeks. Not so. As the wurm dives in and out, the whole train rocks and rattles on the rails, disturbing packages and terrifying passengers. At one point, Nike sees the thing dart into the carriage just ahead of her and then waits. As soon as there's a lull in the rocking motion, she breaks just about every rule of riding the subway; setting her bag on one of the seats, she grabs Mavros and, holding him under one arm, reaches for the door handle and then the doorway of the next car over. A single swerve almost knocks her to the tracks and when she finally does stumble into the right car, it's flat on her stomach and white as a sheet.

That damn thing just bit him! Now Josh is pissed off. He rips his hand out of the wurm's mouth, and then glares straight at it, "You think you can hurt Triple Syx?!" Now he's mad. This thing doesn't have a body in the normal sense, so he can't just plow it's face into the ground time and time again in order to knock it out like he'd do in a normal fight. So instead he just tries to jump right on it. He's pretty sure he saw someone else just attack this thing, too, "Get back! I got this one!"

Assuming that he's actually able to get on top of the wurm, Josh is going to do what he can to put the thing in a combo of a bearhug and a headlock, and try to get it to stop thrashing around, "Come on! I'll make you tap out, even though you don't have any arms!"

For a second or two Rufus is tempted to get back. He knows he's vulnerable, and while he's not exactly weak, he's… squishy. Just as squishy as everyone else on this train, excepting the two other children of the gods. Still, as he watches the kid boldly leap on top of the wyrm and more or less stop it from going anywhere, he cannot resist. He cannot fall back. He falls back just one step before he goes dashing forward again to take advantage of the situation, yelling like a mad, psychotic heathen.

With the godchild holding him, the Lindwurm thrashes with all of his might. But that split second is all Scrivner needs to cause it a mortal wound. Black blood comes spurting out, and the thing gives one or two last frantic jerks before it slumps, dead in Josh's arms and leaking all sorts of nasty crap all over him—because it's fun to be the hero.

Josh holds the thing down when Scrivner comes in and aparently stabs the thing to death. Josh gets covered in goo, and then jumps off, and is still shirtless, "Well, that was fun." He says, as he wipes some goo off of himself.

It's the work of but a moment for Nike to stand up and ready herself for…whatever. Unfortunately for her, that moment is all it takes for Josh to grab, Scrivner to stab and the wurm to squirt out some seriously foul black goo that she doesn't even want to think about. "What in Zeus' name was that?" she demands, wiping the gunk away from her eyes, nose and mouth.

Stabbing is fun! Scrivner hacks and slashes too. The blade sinks in deep, though it takes all of his strength to do it, and grimacing, he turns his head as black blood goes fountaining everywhere. He gets coated in it, and the stink has him gagging on his own breath. "Augh," he growls, as he pulls back his blade and staggers away from the dying worm thing. "Bloody Hell," he snarls, wiping his hand across his mouth. It doesn't help. "/That,/" he says, pointing his sword down at it, "is a lindwurm, if I don't miss my guess." He squints up at Josh a second, and he quirks a wry smile. "Well done. Thank you for keeping it still. Very effective."

Josh gives a thumbs up at Scrivner as he finds the tattered remains of his shirt and uses it to wipe off some of that gunk, "Yeah…Well, it's a good thing you killed it. I didn't know if I'd be able to hold onto it forever."

"And what, precisely, is a lindwurm?" Nike hears a pitiful coughing sound and glances down to see Mavros trying to get the goop out of his own fur. Oh boy. This is going to be a fun night. "And if anyone says 'that'," she points at the wurm. "I might have to…to slap you." Because it has been that kind of week.

Meanwhile, the mortals are staggering to their feet. There is a lot of crying, and screaming, and the pale looks are half admiring at the two men—and half frightened out of their wits. A few fall down on the side of quite a bit more than half. A woman who had been protecting her baby with her own body suddenly starts trying to yank the doors of the train open cause it's sure as hell stopped. Thing is, they are still electronically sealed.

The trains also all run on a highly organized schedule that did not apparently build in a Lindwurm alarm in.

What's that distant sound?

His clothes are already ruined, so Scrivner just wipes off the blade of his sword on his jeans, cleaning it as best he can before hurriedly slipping it into its scabbard and the carrying case across his back. "That…. ah yes," he starts to say to answer Nike. "Well, it's rather a large and monstrous worm of Titan origins," he explains rather hastily. "Bent on mindless destruction, able to burrow and tunnel through the earth as easily as water. I've faced one like it before." Again he glances over at Josh, and stepping forward, he offers his hand and briskly says in self-introduction, "Rufus Scrivner. Pleasure to meet you." He doesn't recognise the kid, though a lot of others likely do. He doesn't exactly follow the wrestling circuit. Then he goes quiet, peering off to one side. Did he just hear something?

It's about that time that Percy pulls himself out of the pile of people that were lumped together during the stop of the 700 oclock train. Percy stumbles out from the door that opens itself with a groan. The Aussie steps down on shakey feet only to meet with the dark tunnel. "What the hell…." He offers with a grouchy demeanor.

Of course, Josh nods to Scrivner, "I'm Josh Syx and.." He trails off a bit as he suddenly gets this weird mental image, "Fuck me. Something else is coming." He says, as he looks to all the mortals that are still scattered around, "We need to get everybody off the train. Right now!"

Everyone off the train; Nike can do that. Squelching to the door she came in from, she opens first it and then the one to the next car. Returning to the doorway of the first, she whistles loudly to get everyone's attention and closes her eyes a moment to gain the proper amount of focus. Putting that weight behind her voice that she's used in the past with recalcitrant mortals, Nike shouts so that both cars can hear her. "Everyone needs to move towards the back of that car, now!" So saying, she steps to one side and assists those who need help getting across.

The mortals /start/ and move to the back of the car as one, a dazed herd moved by the force of Nike's divine command. Again they hear that sound. The lights sort of flicker eerily overhead, giving hope for one moment that the electronic locks on the exterior doors might disengage. No such luck; they don't. There are of course two giant holes in the floor though; that might be worth something. They can see the tracks under that. And that eerie sounds again…

Kind of like…

A train whistle.

Lowering his hand, turning towards the sound…. that rumbling, low noise that is quickly crescendoing. He blinks a few times, and then realisation hits him. "It's the 7:30!" Scrivner hisses. "Oh /shit!/" He stares at the two for a moment, wetting his lips. "Can you two get these people safely off? The next platform can't be far. If you can get them to the platform, they can make a break for it. I'll make a break for the engineer and see what's happened. We've got to get this thing moving or that other train stopped before there's a collision."

Josh is just doing his best to try to help get people off of this damn train before the other train goes and plows into it and kills everyone that he just worked so hard to save, "You'd think they'd have GPS or something so they'd know one of the trains was stopped!" He grumbles as he helps an old woman up from her seat, "Can't they stop that other one?" Then he wonders. If they could slow it down, maybe he could stop it..

When Scrivner figures out just what's coming at them, Nike whips out her cellphone and dials the emergency number for New Atlantis Police. "I need a full stop on all subway trains ASAP. We've got one broken down on the tracks with the exit doors sealed and another unit heading our way fast. Estimated 30 passengers in this car and 25 in the one behind. Dunno about the rest."

That'll actually do it. Sometimes, the mighty art of communication goes a long way! If there are GPSes they seem to be malfunctioning. But as it happens, there is a sudden horrific SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! from far behind them. Or…glorious; since the trains are stopping and not, say, plowing into one another at 90 mph.

When the lady just whips out her cell phone, Rufus … blinks. "Well, yes, that works too," he says with a bark of a soft, raspy laugh. "Still, I'm going to check on the engineer. Be careful, you two." And with that, he turns to go darting out of the train, to run along the side in the dark of the tunnel to make his way up to the engine compartment.

"Well.." Josh says, as he looks at Nike, "That was a lot better than my idea." He says, laughing a bit, "While you're on the phone with them, tell 'em we need medical crews. Got a lot of bumps and bruises, maybe a couple of broken limbs, but nothing too serious.."

Nike relays that information into the receiver before touching fingers to the speaker holes and calling out a "Good luck!" to Scrivner before he's too far out of earshot. Mavros is still sitting on his bench, trying unsuccessfully to clean wurm guts out of his fur before they dry there. Every so often he sends the dead creature a violent glare that you know is questioning its parentage in a very rude manner.


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