Some Sorcerer's Apprentice

Summary:
January 10, 2015: In the middle of Central Park, dinosaurs oddly begin appearing, almost out of thin air. A rag-tag group of heroes deals with the problem.

Central Park

It's a real big park in the middle of Manhattan.


Characters

NPCs

  • <Name of NPC or "None">
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Mood Music:
[*<http://insert.video.or.music.link.here>]


It's a lovely day, if cold in New York City. Though there has been a week of cold weather, there is a lack of snow in Central Park. Denizens of the Big Apple flock under the crisp blue sky. The only imperfections are a pair of puffy clouds and westward wind that whips between the skyscrapers.

Things are normal, things are grand. A problem arises, however when people begin to shriek. Well that's not the problem in and of itself; of course not! The real problem is the purplish and orangish tyrannosaurus rex that is creeping out from behind a hill. Hundreds of people, including some wayward ice skaters, make a bolt for it, trying to outlast and outrun the cagey beast. Or at least outrun the slowest of the fellow flee-ers.

Carol Danvers was totally joking when she told Jess they should go dinosaur punching. Or drunk. It might have been more drunk than joking. Damn alcohol. Unfortunately, she said it out loud, so it was bound to happen eventually. And of course she heard about it. To be fair, she keeps news networks and a scanner running in her office at the Daily Planet pretty much full time, so she was bound to hear about it. At which point she was out the window and speeding through the sky toward Central Park.

New York wasn't a bad place for David, all things considered. Aside from the housing costs, and Superman, it was almost perfect for somebody like him, based upon what he had seen. Still, he wants to get the know the place a little better, which means touring all the important places. Of course he has his Ripper costume with him as well, because when you are paranoid like David, you just expect bad things to happen.

Admittedly, even he wasn't expecting a dinosaur. He had already found a spot and changed into his costume by the time he first laid his eyes upon it, having donned his outfit more or less the moment he saw people running and screaming. "Well now," David says to himself in a whisper. "That's new." Outwardly, the now masked man heads closer towards the rampaging and peculiarly colored beast while trying to decide which strategy is most appropriate for an enemy this size: there's too many idiots running about for most of his plans to work.

Unfortunately, it's not just the tyranno that seems to be a problem. Shortly afterwards, the small hill becomes overrun by all of the dinos of your childhood: Stegosaurus, Triceratops, and the ground shakes with the thunderous footsteps of the Brontosaurus. In all, well—there are more dinosaurs than can count, and they're creating havoc. Like eating trees and smashing picnic tables, and OH NO! That T-rex has a big fat dude in his claws!!!

High above New York, Mr. Fantastic is flying the Fantasticar trying to get a better look at the situation. He'd heard the reports, but has failed to believe them right up until a pterodactyl nearly takes out his right wing.

"Dear heavens!" The leader of the Fantastic Four leaps into evasive action as his scanners pick up several of the flyers. Looks like it was true.

"I said one dinosaur cage match," Carol grumbles from high above the park, eyeing the chaos below as she tries to figure out just where to start. "Okay, universe. I should really make just a little bit of money. And it'd be great to have a little bit of peace." Which is sufficient commentary on the situation, things are apparently about to become critical for one man.

"Hey!" Carol shouts toward the tyrannosaurus, aiming an energy blast at its eyes as she darts in close. "Over here, you oversized chicken!"
Didn't science disprove the existance of dinosaurs or something? David can't remember exactly, but he thought it turned out that like 99 of them were fake or just improperly assembled. Maybe if he had spent more time in school he'd know about such things. Though it's doubtful he would have learned any critical weaknesses they possess, so it's probably just as well. A quick tally of resources comes up with: flying energy blasting girl, water fountains, and street lights, or whatever you call street lights that go inside parks. Probably something else people learn in school. He doesn't have time to do anything fancy though, as somebody is about to become a snack. In case Carol's energy blast isn't enough, Ripper launches a trio of throwing knives into its mouth. Not enough to actually injure it, but maybe sting it and further distract it.

Ozymandias was relaxing to music, when he heard the commotion that was going on in Central Park. At first he thought it was some sort of prank, but the reports have kept coming in so he dons his uniform and weapons. He leaves his penthouse and bounds across the roof tops until reaching Central Park.

As he lands near the Cleopatra's Needle, he uncollapses his bow with a smirk. Ozymandias uses his superreflexes to quickly fire and aim at the eyes of the T-Rex that has the fat dude. "This feels like old times being near this obelisk, not the dinosaurs.

The T-Rex is attacked at all angles. His eyes get smacked something fierce by Carol—the knives get sent straight into his mouth, which he promptly swallows (that's gonna hurt on the way out), and then he's shot with a bow! The beast is definitely in disrepair, but most urgently, it drops the fat guy from super high!

Meanwhile, Reed fires cargo capture nets at the three dinos in the air, snaring them in a non-lethal manner. With those in tow, he begins to descend in the Fantasticar, looking at what's causing all this mayhem.

Carol dives low as the T-rex makes its drop, snagging the falling man out of the air and neatly reversing the typical hero catch. "Easy, sir, time for you to get out of the way here," she says, flying him over to the edge of the park and dropping him off. Run away, little man, run away. There are a lot of other people here, though, and a lot to worry about, so there's no lingering after the rescue for Carol. She's back into the air, searching for some of those troublesome dino-birds.

Status and resource update: a weird airplane and an archer are on the scene too. Also David was NEVER getting those knives back. On the plus side, the T-rex seemed to be the only one trying to eat anybody. The rest of the dinosaurs are just… being large dangerous nuisances. He throws a couple more knives at the giant predator, just to keep it distracted, but leaves off further attacks in favor of trying to get around the hill and see where all these dinos are coming from, carefully navigating through all the lumbering beasts.

Ozymandias begins to scan the area and quickly recognizes the herbivores from the carnivores. He decides to collapse his bow again as he grabs some knock out gas bombs from his pouch. He surveys the area to make sure their are no citizens that are downwind of the bombs and hurls two bombs in the direction of a Triceratops that is munching on some plants.

Carol finds herself in a good old fashioned dogfight, but instead of enemy fighters or, well, dogs, they are flying dinos hellbent on doing her harm. They slash at her menacingly, easily considering her a threat.

Ozy's smoke bombs do a good job to put out the Triceratops, but that doesn't stop the stegosaurus who is trying to get close enough to swing it's spiky tail at him.

Using his unbelievable powers of bendy, Mr. Fantastic puts the Fantasticar in neutral about two stories up, and bounds out of the ship and onto the ground, right near David. As the pair meet up, they can see this purplish, blackish orb, that every so often spits out a dinosaur. Look! There's one of those cute little tiny ones!

Carol Danvers might be having a little bit too much fun.
It has been, after all, several years since the last time she was able to get involved in a solid dogfight. Or in a fight with things that are just the right size for punching without completely crushing things. She zips through the sky, doing her best to keep the pterodactyls as interested in her as she is in them, firing off an energy blast at a wing tip or nose whenever it looks like one might be interested in wandering off in search of easier targets.

The nature of the mask means that Mr. Fantastic can't actually see Ripper's eyes or facial expression, but the white mask definitely turns his way when he steps down from the sky, and Super Stretchy can likely feel the young vigilante just staring at him for a couple of seconds. Briefly the mutant considers borrowing that power but decides it would likely be more trouble than it's worth. So instead he just walks up and kicks the cute little dinosaur in the chest with steel toed boots. Not too hard, he hopes, having no desire to inflict any serious injury upon it. But there's a good chance it's a baby, and hopefully he can attract the group towards him - albeit with deadly intentions - instead of letting them wander out further.

Then, as if kicking tiny dinosaurs was an everyday activity, Ripper glances over at Mr. Fantastic again and says, "I vote we employ violence until the problem stops," pointing at the orb.

As the Stegosaurus tail moves against Ozymandias, he is able to remove his shield so that part of the blow is caught by the shield, but the rest rips through his chest. The blow tosses him a few feet in the air, but to land without suffering even more damage. He spits out some blood on the ground in disgust with being taking by surprise, "Come on, old man. Get moving!"

The wound is his chest is already healed by the time he has stood up to face to the Stegosaurus again. He hurls two smore knockout bombs at the Stegosaurs head, "Catch!"

Carol continues to fight the birds up high, easily disposing of them with her powered blasts.

Meanwhile, the knockout bombs seem to be working now on the stegosaurus as well. But every time it looks like he's gotten one handled, two more come at him. This time it's a pair of velociraptors.

Reed looks to David with a raised eyebrow, "Perhaps a better choice is if we can figure out what's powering this orb, and then deconstruct it in order to have as /little/ violence as possible." Seems like David and Reed don't see eye to eye on heroing, nope nope.

"Any time would be great," Carol calls back to Reed and David as she flies past, locked in a roll with a pterodactyl. "I'm running out of clear places to toss these things." This one ends up in the lake when she's finished with it, and the fires off a quick shot at one of the raptors going for Ozymandias.

"THROW THEM AT THE PREDATORS YOU IDIOT!" Oops, he didn't mean to include 'you idiot' out loud in his response to the flying superheroine. As a rule he tried not to insult potential allies more than necessary. Which is why, when he glances about and sees that the dinosaurs are continuing to rampage, he doesn't then turn back and insult Dr. Reed's intelligence.

"My way is quicker," is instead his response, and that's Richard's only warning before Ripper draws his sword and tries to slice into if not through the orb with both hands and all his strength.

Velociraptors are very dangerous ancient predators, but so is Ozymandias and he is a lot smarter and he has lot more tools in his arsenal. As he quickly performs an acrobatic jump backwards, he throws two concussive bombs at the feet of the charging Velociraptors.

Realizing that might not be enough to slow them down and the fact that more dinosaurs keep appearing, he has withdrawn his shield and assegai from his back and lets out a war cry as the bomb explodes. He prepares to charge the raptors.

Once Ripper starts, well, ripping into the orb, he'll feel the sensation of heat, electricity, and pain. His body begins to shudder and shake, all in front of a raised eyebrowed Reed Richards. "Ms. Marvel! See if you can get a large supply of water, somehow. I believe it's powered by heat." Well, heat and magic, but he can't prove the latter.

Elsewhere, the concussive devices explode, stopping the velociraptors in their tracks. Though every so often, more come, Ozymandias seems to have the upperhand as he bumrushes them.
"Yeah, rather not," Carol says to Ripper as she zips back. "These things start fighting each other and they're going to be all over the place." At Reed's words, she points toward the lake, arching a brow. "Lake. But I can take care of heat," she says, moving toward the orb and holding out her hands. "Pull enough of the energy out and it ought to die out like a battery?" she asks before she starts.

Ripper is helping with Science! Every scientific experiment needs a lab rat, after all. His mutant power cuts out a fraction of the power, but it still is a serious health hazard. He breaks contact as soon as he can, needing a moment to recover. He wants full control of his voice when he audibly sneers and replies, "Oh yes, let them chase the humans instead! Good plan!" Lunair was right: he really needs to work on his jerkitude. "You have fun with this," he tells Reed. "Imma go kill a t-rex." Because bragging rights. He's not sure how he can pull it off, unless… He glances over at Carol. His mask tilts down, to about waist height on her. And then he slaps her on the butt. Hard. And it's quite possible his hand lingered there for a second.

The muscle memory of tens of thousands of battles guide Ozymandias movements as he engages the raptors. He blocks their claws with his shield, while stabbing at them with his assegai. A few ancient Egyptian curse words are spoken when one raptor claws rips his shoulder, but the hit it met with with an assegai to the ratpor's face.

Reed exhales just in…well…surprise. He's been doing this sort of thing for a while now and it never ceases to amaze him what the new generation finds as cool, normal, or heroic. He looks to Carol as her buttocks is slapped, and he's just flummoxed. When Carol takes the orb, she begins to siphon off some of its energy, and the orb begins to dim. As it does so, the dinos begin to start disappearing.

But that doesn't stop Ozy from stabbing, but also getting knocked himself by the dino. SLAM The raptor's face kicks back and lolls a bit on his neck as it falls away, victim to the strike

What the- Did he really just-

Orb in one hand, Carol turns at the slap and swings one hell of a right hook at Ripper's jaw. It doesn't have any energy added, and she keeps herself from unloading the full force of super strength that the dinosaurs were getting, but that's about as much as she's holding back. "Hands to yourself, asshole!"

If somebody were paying very close attention, they might notice that Ripper was readying himself for the attack before Carol even swung. Which doesn't mean that it doesn't HURT, mind you. Or that it doesn't actually dent his mask. It does mean that he seems to take it quite well - and between the pair of physical exchanges, it gives him access to a chunk of Carol's superstrength (and potentially other abilities) for a brief window.

And then the dinosaurs start to disappear. Which means that he doesn't actually NEED the superpowers. So yeah, he just alienated an ally for nothing. "You have a very nice physique," he adds sincerely, in an attempt at damage control.

The raptor's face kicking back does indeed slam Ozymandias to the ground. Since the area of his uniform that would have cushion him from being slam had been shredded away by the raptor, he feels the distinct sharp pain of multiple ribs cracking. He knows the ribs will heal even before a minute passes, but it does not keep him gritting his teeth in pain. "It has been awhile since that happens. I think some organs might have been damage too."

The dinosaurs all begin to disappear now, and Reed takes advantage of the commotion between Carol and David to inspect the orb. "Fascinating. This orb it looks was enchanted somehow. Perhaps by a magician of somesort. I wonder…" His voice trails. "My hypothesis at the haste this was done…I think it was a young magician, not knowing what he or she could do and simply was experimenting. It looks as if the experiment got away from them.

"My very nice physique is about to be disassembling your hand from your wrist," Carol snorts, shaking off her hand and looking to Reed as he inspects the orb. "I'm sorry, did you just say we've got a sorcerer's apprentice thing going on here, only instead of semi-sentient broomsticks, we got dinosaurs?"

David tries to recall everything he knows about women, hoping he can do a better job of mending fences…

Nope, he's got nothing. Time for him to get going before he does something else to antagonize somebody. "I think I left my oven on," he informs nobody in particular. Then, after pausing to look over and evaluate and memorize Ozy's appearance and weapons, he heads off in a brisk yet very casual manner.

Ozymandias peers around the area and make sure no civilians are in need of any first air until paramedic arrive on the scene. Ozymandias walks over to the Carol and Mister Fantastic, "Do you have everything else covered?"

Reed nods to Ozymandias and Carol, "Yes I believe so." He lets Ripper go, uneager to spend any more immediate time with the young man. "And yes, Ms. Marvel, that is my implication. These animals weren't any different from what we'd expect scientifically, except for their odd cartoonish coloring. And it wasn't as if they were doing anything other than what they did millions of years ago." Reed shakes his head, surprised at the situation, "It smacks as a child's understanding of the dinosaur kingdom. And honestly, what child sorcerer would not want a bunch of dinosaurs as pets?" He tilts his head, being able to empathize

Carol grimaces after David, then gives Reed a long look. "I was always more into spaceships than dinosaurs," she finally says. She's known enough geniuses to know when there's nothing to be gained from having a certain conversation. "And hey, I was just saying I needed a good dinosaur-punching workout, too." She nods to Ozymandias, then again to Reed. "If you've got this covered, though, I'll take your word for it."

Reed nods, "Yes, I'd love to take it and experiment upon it." Over his shoulder the Fantasticar begins its descent. "It's fascinating."


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