Log:Gridlocked!, Scene 2

Gridlocked! 2010/10/24 	 Bard Imaginary Girl Michelle Phoenix 2

Imaginary Girl lands, carrying an ambulance with her down out of the sky... which she then sets down on the ground in front of the hospital's ER entrance, as gently as she possibly can. Stepping aside and out of the way, she watches as the paramedics climb out of the back of the vehicle and take a pregnant woman into the hospital on a gurney. She then walks over to a police lieutenant, asking a question of the man, to which he replies with a shake of his head. It seems that there's not another emergency about that needs her to go flying off, again, right away... but the ambulance crew's already been replaced by another paramedic team, just in case.

Phoenix is sitting on the curb in front of the hospital, taking a breather in between sorties. She looks up as Imaginary Girl brings the ambulance in for a landing, following with her gaze as she drinks from a water bottle.

Walking over to where Phoenix sits, Imaginary Girl says, "I wish you were strong, like me... it'd be better if there were two of us ready to carry emergency trucks around, just in case." Her tone of voice isn't complaining, though, and she goes on to ask, "How's the scene at that fire? They need more help over there, or they got it in hand?"

Bard comes hustling up. he's not as fast as the otehr people here, but he does have a cop who had broken his leg on his back. "Hey guys." He nods to IG adn a smile to Phoenix. "Here you go, Officer Jefferson." He states placing a man into an offered wheel chair who bares a resemblance to Diane's room mate unbeknownst to Bard. "It's a hell hole right now. good to see you're here." He is obviously tired, having been doing more than what he normally does in this situation.

Phoenix rises up to her feet and dusts off her leg with her free hand. She offers a shrug. "I may not be super strong and bulletproof, but I can manage... I managed to put out the fire. Fortunately there was only one injury."

"Good... I guess the firemen'll call for me to go bring them and their truck back here, once they've made sure everything's safe there", Imaginary Girl comments, then looks over at Bard, lifting a hand from one of her hips, where both were resting a moment ago, to wave at him. "How'd the officer get hurt?", she asks of him. "Is there trouble somewhere?"

Bard looks as officer Jefferson is taken away. "Nah, he's a bit accident prone, well atleast his other brother teh officer says." hE shrugs. "I'm sorry, I can't really stop any of the fires or big emergancies. HE states looking around tos ee if there was a nurse around he could ask for coffee, but they were busy and he was tired.

Phoenix waves to Bard, a smile coming to her lips. "Heya..." Her eyes shift to the injured officer, and she watches the policeman get helped away. "Who was that?" She looks a little confused, trying to figure why Jefferson looks so familiar.

Michelle finds herself stepping into the world after a long journey far far away... Yes she's been out of reach for quite a while and with little warning too. She pauses for a few moments "Well atleast this seems familiar" she admits to herself as she gets her bearings.

Imaginary Girl glances back at the officer being helped into the hospital by the nurse with the wheelchair. "Well, I hope this stay as quiet as they've been, for the whole city being a big traffic jam... it could be LOTS worse, right?", she comments, hands back on her hips, though she floats up just a bit, so that her feet come off the ground. She just sort of lazily floats in the air that way, glancing over at the police lieutenant - the one with the radio who's coordinating emergency rescue needs - every so often, just in case he gets a call that needs her attention.

Bard looks to the officer. "That's officer Jerry Jefferson." He looks to diane. "He says that the place that left their garbage out front causing him to trip and break his leg is in for trouble... I think his brother is a lawyer or something, not sure." He notices Michelle pop out of a portal. "There's a face I haven't seen for a while." He states plainly.

Phoenix looks over at Michelle as she steps in from nowhere. "Hmm. You know her?" she asks Bard. When she's looks over to him, her eyes are glowing bright with eyes for just a moment. Her eyes return to normal after she realizes that Michelle is probably not a threat. She gives Michelle a second look.

Having looked away from the direction that'd have let her spot Michelle's portal for just a moment, Imaginary Girl's the last to notice it - but notice it she does. Her hands come up off her hips and ball into fists and she actually darts a few feet forward towards the skunk-girl... then stops, relaxing. "Oh, yeah... wow!", she says, returning to hover back where she'd been. "I thought, just for a second, there was another one of those demons coming from somewhere else to try and conquer the world, or something..." She, too, apparently recognizes the skunk-girl.

Bard nods. "Diane, IG, this is Michelle." he smiles, not really knowing if Ig knows her or not. "Michelle, Phoenix, aka Diane, and Imaginary girl." he does introductions. "Also are you aware what's going on? It'll take a bit to explain if you don't."

Michelle is definately not a threat... in the conventional sense anyways. She smiles some at Bard "Heh you dont seem to happy to see me" she teases Bard some "Yet you always seem around when I return... and nope, if I wanted that I could just step over to an empty mostly lifeless world and declare myself Supreme Queen Michelle of Everythingland" she jokes

Phoenix waves at Michelle quietly as she continues to watch her, content to keep her distance for now. She does move over to Bard's side though. "Your friend has picked an interesting time to return to the city," she says to Bard.

Imaginary Girl nods. "I think I've met her before", she says of Michelle. "Way back, like, almost a year ago or something, at the coffee ship", she adds, waving one hand in the air, as if trying to emphasize just how long ago that was.

Bard chuckles. "Yeah, my friends do tend to appear at awkward times, don't they." He jokes. "And it's always nice to see a face that doesn't want me dead." He looks to IG. "That's good, makes this a little less awkward."

An RN comes out of the hospital with a tray full of coffee cups. She's a woman in her forties with short cropped blonde hair, with a coat on over her blue hospital clothes. "Hey," she says, "We were thinking that you all might need a cup... looks like it's going to be a long night."

Michelle smiles some and hrms "Yeah, really a year's passed already here? I musta been spending some time in some temporally slow areas since it only feels like a week to me" the skunk lady admits "So whys it interesting anyways?"

Imaginary Girl shakes her head to the nurse. "No thanks", she says... then flits over to the police lieutenant who's playing services-coordinator, when he waves a 'come over here' gesture at her. After a moment, she darts up into the sky and away to another part of the city...

Phoenix answers, "A supervillain froze all of the cars in the city." She points out to the street, there cars are abandoned, bumper to bumper. "He's demanding a ransom, or else he'll leave it like that."

Bard thanks the RN, and takes a cup. "Well, long story short, get rich quick scheme where they locked up all the cars. We've been on double time until it gets resolved." He was too into his coffee to realize Diane just answered this

Michelle hrms and ponders for a bit "Ok so why arent big strong types and such picking them up and taking them back to peoples houses then?" the skunk lady notes "The worst part of an epic traffic jam is not the start of it, it's the fact that noone can get anywhere unless everyone shows up at the same time"

Bard nods. "Yeah. they're doing that but they have to do it in ordered fashions so people can get their cars back after this is over."

Phoenix takes a cup off coffee herself. She nods a thank you to the nurse before turning back to the conversation at hand. "Have you heard about this 'Merlin'? Has he shown up in Colonial Bay before?"

The nurse says, "Take it easy, guys," before she takes the tray of coffee over to a couple of police officers stationed outside the hospital here.

Bard thinks. "Off the top of my head, he was last seen in the early 40's... so I'm not all that aware of what he did other than get rich quick things.

Michelle shrugs some "Unless you're talking about some old kid's story... I dont believe I know much about any Merlin person" the skunk lady admits "So he's shut down all the cars or something then... what's wrong that they wont go?"

Bard says, "emergency locks were engaged." He takes a drink. "The same tech that prevents teh cars from starting when stolen or dangerous driving."

Not too long a time later, a fire engine comes into view... flying along over the street. Imaginary Girl can be seen underneath the big truck, pretty well carrying the big vehicle on her back, shoulders, and hips as she flies along at what some might recognize is a very sedate, careful pace for her.

Phoenix nods. "So far things aren't so bad," she begins. She rolls her shoulders once, trying to loosen up. She closed her eyes and starts to rolls her head slowly, from left to right and back. "But if things continue like this for a long time, we'll be looking at some serious problems."

Bard nods, "Yeah if we have this for weeks like he said, I'm afraid someone in teh meta community on our side might go berserk.

Michelle cant help but laugh "Hehe... go figure a pseudo totalitarian device being turned against it's masters" the skunk lady shrugs for a moment "Take control and choice out of the hands of the individual and it will only lead to problems"

Imaginary Girl lands the big firetruck, in which firefighters are holding on as securely as possible, in addition to being strapped into their seats, in an open area that's apparently been set aside for the vehicle. With the high wheel-base, she just sets it down while she's still completely underneath it, then flits out from beneath. She heads back over to where the others are standing about, while the firefighters begin a crew-change, to let rest those who were just out at the scene where Phoenix put out a blaze.

Bard nods to IG. "Well, I need sleep, I've been up way to long." He states. "I'll see you all again. I promise." he looks to Diane as he says this and nods to IG and michelle before poofing away.

Phoenix waves and wishes Bard goodbye in Mandarin.

POOMPH! POOMPH! A whooshing sound of rushing air emits from two small explosions along sections of the elevated maglev track, one along the Harrisburg Line and the other from the Stardancer Line track. The explosions cause 2-meter wide bursts of dark smoke which dissipate quickly. When the smoke clears it's possible to see that something is eating through the tracks -- if left unchecked, 10 foot sections of the two tracks could fall to the street below.

Imaginary Girl can't help but catch the repeated glances at Phoenix from Bard, and pouts just a little bit. "I think my ex-boyfriend likes you, Phoenix", she says. "But he cheated on me and dumped me like a rock... and still tries to talk me into bed with him", she adds, hands on her hips. "You prolly oughta think twice before you let him set you up to break your heart, too."

FOOSH! Phoenix burst into flames. "You're right -- he does like me. And I like him, too." She rockets skyward towards the decaying section of the Stardancer maglev line before she can receive a reaction from Imaginary Girl.

Imaginary Girl shrugs... and darts off through the air towards the other maglev line. "Just remember... he /already/ wnats to cheat on you!", she calls out as she flies, not really worrying /too/ much about being heard - there's hero-work to be done, after all.

Michelle hrms and watches Bard go away then listens to the conversation "I wish I was more useful given teh current situation"

Phoenix floats up along side the the decaying section of the track. She places her hands together and shoots a tight jet of flame at the track, heating the exposed metal to red-hot temperatures as she attempts a quick weld job to keep the tracks in place. She calls out, "I don't believe you... it was over between you two, before we started dating!"

Phoenix thinks. o O ( That's what told me, at least... )

"He dumped me for you!", Imaginary Girl calls back as she gets her shoulders up under the falling piece of track, bracing it to keep it from falling. "And he /still/ tries to get me into bed... only a week ago, even, he asked me to sleep with him!", she calls back as she does her best to keep it from falling.

"What?!" Phoenix shouts. She turns towards Imaginary Girl, and her beams of fire strays slightly of target, scorching an undamaged section of track. She catches herself before she does too much damage, and she refocuses her attention on the task at hand. She curses at her stupidity in Mandarin.

"I'm telling you what happened... but hurry and fix that part so you can come fix this part, too... all /I/ can do is hold it up and wait for you", Imaginary Girl calls back at Phoenix. "We can talk about Marcus later, if you want to, okay?" Then, all at once, she loses about three feet of altitude as the section of track she's trying to hold up comes completely loose... and she does her best to lift it back into its proper place, a grunt of effort escaping her as she takes the weight fully onto her shoulders.

"Almost... got it..." Phoenix says. She puts a second weld onto the tracks to secure her section in place. The track is damaged by the explosions to the point that it's unusable by the train, but at least it won't fall and damage anything. She stretches arm arm out and float overs toward IG on her side. She takes a moment to assess the situation.

Imaginary Girl can't see how level she's holding the section of track she's carrying, being as she's underneath it. "Can you fix this one, or should I just find a place to put it down?", she asks. She's able to hold it up, but it clearly takes at least some effort on her part, from how her voice has a little strain to it.

Phoenix gestures with her left hand. "Up... about half a foot." She holds her other hand on target, ready to release fire from her palm.

Imaginary Girl pushes upwards on the chunk of train-track, trying to get it up to where Phoenix needs it. "Just so ya know", she says, grunting a little as she shifts the weight of the mass a little, trying to get a better balance on it. "I'm not mad at you at all... just don't wanna see him hurt you like he hurt me."

FOOSH! Phoenix unleashes a blast of fire, welding one side of the damaged track. She uses her left hand to simultaneously fuse the other side. "Right now, there's one only person who I want to talk to about this, and he just left." After a few seconds she says, "There, you're clear."

Imaginary Girl slowly eases herself out from under it, as if unsure if the welding will hold... but eventually comes out from under it completely. "He told me he hasn't slept with you, too... but I honestly dunno if I can believe him", she says. "And I heard other people saying that he cheated on me with you, too... so I don't know what to believe, really", she adds. "Once I found out you're his girlfriend right now, I thought you deserved to know, is all... especially the part about him trying to get me to sleep with him, again. That's just not right."

The sections of track are secured, but the damage has already been done. The bombs seem to have spread some sort of corrosive material out over the tracks, rendering them impassible by the maglev. This bode poorly for emergency services and police, who were using the maglev to get around the city.

Michelle waits for the others to return to where she is as she ponders things "Hrm... maybe this is worse than I thought"

Phoenix studies her handiwork with the tracks for a moment. She loops over the track and under under, ending up beside Imaginary Girl. "That ought to hold it..." she says, eyes on the train. After a pause she turns to IG and says in a normal speaking tone. "What Bard and I do together is our personal business. I'm not certain who these 'other people' are, but they should probably shut their mouths... " She begins to drift away backwards preparing to zoom off.

"Well, I'm telling you what I've heard, and what happened. I don't know if you're sleeping with him or not... but whatever on that... he's trying to cheat on you. With me. You needed to know that", Imaginary Girl says, before turning to fly back to the hospital to report to the police coordinator about the tracks, so that he can make sure trains to crash by trying to go over those ruined sections.

FOOOOSHT! Phoenix rockets off into the sky, trailing fire and a plume of smoke.