15141/Young Avengers: Bubblegum Bandits

Young Avengers: Bubblegum Bandits
Date of Scene:	16 June 2023
Location:	City Hall Park, Manhattan
Synopsis:	On an outing as Young Avengers, Emiko and Bunny come across Belinda Gutierrez and Jane Roe (AKA Vermillion, Hacker) and Daniel Ketch (AKA The Ghost Rider who doesn't have an action figure, is not Post Apocalyptic Mad Max Johnny Storm). The quintet end up facing against a five-pack of Bubble Gum Bandits, expies made out of a polymer and controlled by remote! With Tommy Shepherd joining in and having a ball, the group manages to defeat the gummy types with the power of WD-40, Fire, Hell Cycles and... friendship, right?
Cast of Characters:	Bunny Macleod, Emiko Queen, Daniel Ketch, Belinda Gutierrez, Jane Roe, Tommy Shepherd

---

Bunny Macleod has posed:
    Friday Night, in the Park, Young Avengers meet-up. In secret identities!

    The night is cool for June, unusually so but nothing worrying. The promise of a summer storm later in the night hangs in the air as a bunch of motorcyclists and car junies off to one side have pulled up and are putting on an impromptu car show with some motorcycle tricks being done.

     Bunny had no issue with her cohort knowing her real identity -- after all, she's just the child of a single dad, middle of eight siblings all with names beginning with B's like some sort of lame theme Reality TV Family, and was currently wearing a denim jacket, yoga pants with rainbow space rabbit unicorns on them, her helmet with little wings on the side and happy mismatched rainbow colored safety gear as she skates backwards, excitedly speaking "-- and then Gabby went up the outside of the tower and and I went up the express elevator and anyway it ended with TONY STARK WANTS ME TO PLAY PIANO FOR HIM AND HIS DATE and I am SUPER PSYCHED because it has been *forever* since I did like a big show off piano recital for someone--" Bunny is literally hopping, up and down as she skates "and I've gotta pick up some new music and practice but I need a piano to practice and there's some public use ones at the mall and there's one at this piano bar that I can use when it's not busy and --" she pauses in her rolling, apparently stuck on something!

    "... eeeew I think I rolled in someone's gum!"

Emiko Queen has posed:
"I never learned to play a musical instrument," Emiko replies with a slight huff to her otherwise casual demeanor. "The 'group'" she's careful not to use 'clan of assassins' too loudly in public, "I grew up with did not believe in such passtimes. Frivilous distractions they'd call them." After a moment she shrugs it off, folding her hands behind her head. "By the sound of engines and shouting we're not the only ones enjoying a nice cool night." Though the gum is icky. Is it worse than stepping on gum if it's with rollerskates. ".. And this is why some cities don't allow gum chewing in public."

Daniel Ketch has posed:
A few years ago Daniel Ketch would have been here with his girlfriend, his buddies and maybe his annoying sister, talking about motorcycles, baseball, college applications and the last sightings of Spider-Man, the Spider-Menace.

That was when Danny had a life.

He still likes motorcycles, so he came to the show alone after leaving work. He even made a couple phone calls. But no luck at finding anyone else interested. The typical Ketch luck.

Belinda Gutierrez has posed:
Friday night! Same as Thursdays, Tuesdays, Saturdays... The same as all the other days ending in 'Y'! But still in the Park, and perfect, perfect, perfect for no other reason than the lack of city smells. The worst ones anyway. Belinda broods for a moment, considering: getting used to urban scents? Highly unsure how to deal with THAT thought!

Belinda glances to her compatriots, jogging along the skating Bunny and mysterious Red Arrow. Relishing the chance to stretch her legs, she strides half barefoot across the ground; clad in the unitard suit of a certain Werewolf working-to-hero, she occasionally takes the moment to jog ahead, slow down and return tothe group, stretching and testing various constraints and limits of her gear once again... And checking down every so often, one hand reaffirming that yes, the pride amnd joy (utility belt!) is still firmly attached.

"Tony Stark's Chewing Gum?" she asks, attention suddenly turning back from halfway gazing at the moon. "Que es? Is he doing Willy Wonka now? Chocolates and taffies come next?"

Jane Roe has posed:
Friday night in the park is perfect time to hang around, carry an oversized ghettoblaster (retrofitted to actually be a proper stereo with better quality soundboard and ten dozen sensors), listen to electrosynch music and slip through the rows of modded cars and cycles. Just anouther electrohead, punk or whatever, right?

"Try some ice on the gum, that should make it crumble and easy to get rid of." she mentioned to the hyperactive, offering a smile. "Good to see you again, rainbow skater bunny. Did the creep stay away after that?"

Bunny Macleod has posed:
    "You really should..." tug "... maybe look into..." tug tug "... learning a couple hobbies, Emiko. I mean, not that /I/ can judge I have like eighteen that I gave up at one point or another and --" she pauses "VERMI! HEY! Nice to see you -- this is my cohort Emi, Emi this is Vermillion, an' I WOULD try ice, but unless anyone's secretly hiding any freezerpowers -- oh hey, what if someone has both ice and fire powers, does that make them Freezerbu--" Bunny begins, and then there's a sticky situation unfolding!

    The bubblegum that'd caught hold of her (that was certainly not Tony Stark's bubblegum!) rises from below, stretching, unfolding and breaking apart into a crowd of FIVE sticky, matte pink girls that look weirdly like multiple cartoony Power Puff Girls with antenae in their heads, and slings the skater through the air!

    "CITIZENS OF TOWNS -- NEW YORK CITY! SURRENDER YOUR VALUABLE ITEMS OR YOU WILL BE -- STUCK!" one of them cheers out.

    The second one lobs a ball of gunk and goo at Emiko! The third at Belinda, the fourth at Jane, and of course because everyone's gotta play Ketch-up, the fifty grabs a sculpture and lobs a five hundred pound glass and concrete construct of the visualization of the words 'Homeless Archetecture' at Daniel Ketch!

Emiko Queen has posed:
Emiko Queen gives a nod towards the other at the introductions. And starts to make a suggestion to go find a drink vendor at the car show to get some ice, but then the gum starts to act weird and more animate than dried discarded bubblegum should be. Her sharply trained situational awareness kicks in, quick enough her reflexes react before she even finishes thinking about it to duck and roll away from the lob of gunk in her direction. She comes back up from the maneuver on one knee... and there is already a small, crematic blade throwing knife whipped in the direction of the gum girl that tried to stick her up.

Don't ask where she hid that knife. Or if she has more. She does, and you don't want to know where. Concealed weapons is an assassin artform of it's own.

Daniel Ketch has posed:
Lacking ninja training, Daniel stares in disbelief at the sudden appearance of the bubblegum muggers. For a second, he is quite sure this one has to be a joke or a publicity stunt.

And then someone throws a five hundred pounds thing at him. Which wakes him up from the disbelief status. Getting bone-breaking things tossed at him is slightly more normal than bubblegum people robbing New Yorkers, so he makes a valid effort of jumping out of the way, and the statue only brushes his shoulder, sending him spinning on the floor.

Stunned again for a second, Daniel struggles to stand up, and to check if someone else got hit. Just because it is possible, a certain flame-head is pushing to get out, and Daniel is pretty sure it is a bad idea.

Unfortunately, pretty intense pain from his shoulder is not letting him to concentrate in keeping the Ghost Rider in.

Belinda Gutierrez has posed:
Beneath the domino mask, Belinda's eyes widen in surprise. "Que?!" she exclaims-- struck in the breast by the flung ball of gunk! The diabolical mixture expands briefly, the warm lavender of her torso masked by the silly, frilly pink texture of the substance; eyes on the oncoming artwork, she spends less attention than she should on the sticky smear attached to her, diving to one side instead. Instinctive reaction-- but diving to the ground leaves her with a second problem.

"...this Chiclet Chewing Girl just *stuck me to the ground!*" she yells out in protest. The gummy mess holds to her stubbornly; prone on the ground, she growls as she presses up, arms quivering as she heaves against the sticky strands connecting between her and the earth.

Jane Roe has posed:
Suddenly assaulted by... half portions of goo girls, Jane ducks, darting to the side, the stereo ending on the ground as she evades the ball. Too bad, some fo the pink gunk ends on the speakers! While she dodges away, a hand reaches under the jacket, pulling out a pair of keychain self defense sticks. Each isn't longer than about the hand's width, but they do have a pointy side, and after tossing one to the other hand, those fists of Jane are actually quite armed. For the moment.

Skidding to a halt, Jane's face shows a frown. "You just ruined a hundred dollar speaker, you brat," she growls, making a fast two-step forwards as she fully got the balance back. She doesn't use the two implements as impactors... no, they are lobbed airborn, one after another, trying to pin the bratty chewing gum girl to the ground for damaging her stereo,

Tommy Shepherd has posed:
    Tommy, who has been off in the distance for this entire time getting some refreshments from a nearby hotdog cart, returns just in time to see all of the chaos erupt. And because Tommy is Tommy, he wolfs down both 'dogs he'd been technically bringing back for Bunny.

    So that his hands are free! It's hard to run with your hands full. That's his excuse and he's sticking to it.

    Unfortunately he's also stuck to the ground, because he's stepped into a heap of gummy ickiness that's landed on the ground. Possibly because someone dodged it! Sadly Tommy was not paying enough attention to do the same. "What the hell is this stuff?" he asks, incredulously.

Bunny Macleod has posed:
    Ka-THUNK. The knife hits, right between the eyes! ... and stucks there.

    The matte pink plastic of her eyes rolls towards the center of her head. And she gives an absolute SCREECH.

    "MY PERFECT LITTLE CURL!" she cries out "You low-quality Big Lots Brand HAWKEYE! I'm gonna give you something to stick about!" she snarls, and the gum girl focuses in on Emiko, slinging another two globs of pink grossness at the younger Queen!

    Daniel is, unfortunately, wrong about this being a joke or publicity stunt. It is actually five cartoonish women with antenae sticking out of their heads and one just slung a piece of Modern Art at him.

    He's struggling to stand up as people around him flee because he just took a five hundred pound statute to the shoulder from a thixoquipic menace that is surely going to be blamed on the Spider Peoples, and really, no one wants to mess with that. A couple people are recording though from the safety of behind some concrete traffic barriers!

    Que, the wolf asks. ANd the gunk girl answers!

    The pink substance hits Belinda, and the loba buena is stuck to the ground! The strands try to hold Belinda down, beligerantly!

    Jane's speaker box is broken. There is zero hope for the love below. A hundred bucks doesn't go very far these days either, The girl stops as she looks at Vermillion taking out the keychains, and with a double THUNK the two bits sink in.

    "oh... huh..." the gum girl questions, and then returns fire! "You dropped these~" she calls out, the two sticks now covered with gum.

    And Tommy is now both hot dogged and hotdogless as he wolfs the dogs and everything about that laste statement sounds so horrible.

    Bunny lands in the fountain. Not the Splash she intended to make today.

Belinda Gutierrez has posed:
Struggling against the groundf, the gummy morass, she presses up, gritting her teeth as she struggles, heaving----!

--the pink strands are relentless, and unlike regular gum-- snap back like elastic bands, slamming her back to the earth with an 'mmmph!'

"--get them!" she calls out, snugly pinned to the ground by gum and torso, seething in embarassed frustration.

At least a full costume now. Nothing embarassing!

"...I swear someone shall pay...!"

Emiko Queen has posed:
"And you are foolish enough to repeat yourself," Emiko snarks back. Even as she bolts in the opposite direction, because standing still in a fight is never a good idea. She jumps, grabs the back of a park bench, and flips herself behind it for cover as good splats against it's surfaces. How ironic.

Emiko leans back a little as the gum gunk squooses between the bench panels. Ick. "So, anyone have any ideas? Just hitting them doesn't seem to do much good." She peaks over the bench, trying to find something in the vicinity she can use.

Daniel Ketch has posed:
Broken shoulder? Or at least dislocated. Hurts like hell and Daniel's control is slipping. Which must be why he burst in fire and... probably makes the New Yorkers around him run away even faster.

Which is fine, the Ghost Rider prefers the guilty ones running away from him, and New York is mostly made up of sinners. If he was more proactive Daniel wouldn't have a minute for himself.

But on a normal day, the Ghost Rider focuses in immediate problems. Like... what? The Bubblegum people actually give the vengeful spirit a pause. "You!... what are you? I feel... no souls." He states, his voice a growling bass.

"No matter. Construct or elemental. If you threaten innocents, the Spirit of Vengeance will stop you!" With fire, as he breathes a jet of flames towards the closest bubblegum woman.

Jane Roe has posed:
flinching as the metal keychains are thrown back, Jane ducks under them as she ducks back, taking about twenty feet of retreat to a guy's toolbox - and picking up a can of the good old Water Displacement Formula 40. Armed with the little blue can... she storms back towards the half sized gremlin, trying to blast a heavy dose of the oil at the pinky. Why? Because the stuff not only is highly flameable, ice gold when sprayed but also a terribly good solvent for all kinds of organic things

Tommy Shepherd has posed:
    Tommy is well and truly Stuck. He tries for some time to free himself, both hands gripping his leg for added leverage, but it's a no-go. Of course this is all done at super-speed so it happens within the blink of an eye, but he *does* try.

    And then he immediately resorts to drastic measures. Which in this instance means an outstretched hand, a brow furrowed in concentration, and then finally an extension of his power to the ground below his foot.

    Hence why the ground promptly blows up. Even as it begins to explode beneath him Tommy is on the run, dodging flying bits of grass and dirt as he makes his way towards the fountain.

    "Bunny! Are you okay?"

Bunny Macleod has posed:
    Bunny surfaces, spitting out water, soaking wet and VERY uncomfortable as she squeaks out "I THINK I GOT THE WATER IN MY MOUTH -- and swallowed a penny -- urrrp --" she winces, and reaches for TOmmy to get outta the fountain! "Are you okay!?"

    The keychains are returned, the toolbox taking the brunt of the pink goo and metal, leaving two holes and a sticky issue for the next guy.

    However, the WD-40 is a good answer.

    "--no no No no NO NO NO -- THEY'RE USING CHEMICAL WARFARE!?" the girl cries out, and attempts to disappear back into the giant crack that they had errupted out of, but catches some of the spray as she begins to squeal out "Molecular stability is dropping -- what did you design this stuff with?!"

    Well. The Ghost Rider sets the WD-40 spray on fire, causing another girl to cry out in surprise -- thankfully not pain!

    "SIgnal drop is reaching fifty per-cen-cen-cent!" it garbles its speach, and then turns and picks up a park bench to try and strike the Ghost Rider with!

    "What the heck are you, Post-Apocalyptic Mad Max Johnny Storm?! ... no wait really is there an action figure for that coz Daddy WANT." the figure perkily replies!

    And to Emiko, the girl threatening her attempts to stick her with a sticky situation and that phrase is just going to get used for the rest of the scene.

    "MWA HA HA HA HA! EAT GUM!"

Emiko Queen has posed:
Oh, WD-40 and fire. That's perfect.

"Idiot girl, you're not suppose to swallow it!" she snaps back to taunt the gum girl, even as she bolts from her cover.

Grabbing a stick off the ground as she does so. While no super speedster she is extremely quick and agile for a non-super human, zigging one way to throw off her opponent's aim. Then zagging back to sweep her stick through the fire started by the WD-40 and Ghost Rider.

And then planting her heel, turning, and hurtling the now flaming stick at the gum girl chasing her like a javalin!

Archery may be her specialty, but she was trained to be lethal with ANYthing she can improvise a weapon out of. Specifically for times like this.

Daniel Ketch has posed:
Yes, there is probably a Ghost Rider doll -- pardon, action figure, somewhere. But likely, it is Johnny, not Danny. Also, not receiving royalties from it. Totally unfair.

Receiving a park bench to the skull, instead. But that is okay, the bench shatters against a very hard skull, and the Rider barely flinches. "I am the Spirit of Vengeance!" He declares, deciding the question deserved an unapologetic answer even if it was rhetorical.

It also deserves something else. And since fire is slow to consume the creature, and not even the Rider wants bubblegum in his fists, he grabs the statue used on Danny and attempts to smash the bubblegum bandit with it.

Jane Roe has posed:
As WD-40 seems to work perfectly fine to fight gremlins, Jane tries to get the stuff on the next, puffing out the little flame that had lingered on the nozzle from the sudden torching of the plume.

"They're from some kind of organic residue. Turpentine, WD40, Gasoline..." Yep, Jane advocates to torch em and smoke em out....

Tommy Shepherd has posed:
    After all that effort to save his shoe from the gum-goop, Tommy goes ahead and steps into the fountain. "Why wouldn't I be okay?" he asks as he climbs back out of the fountain while guiding a sopping-wet Bunny to her feet, safe and sound. Relatively speaking. Who knows what's growing in that water.

    He looks over to where the others are engaging in heated (literally, you know, because of all the fire) battle with the gum girls, and then turns to Bunny. "So uh... should we like, help out?"

    The fact that he's even asking is a big sign of character growth! Really!!!

Bunny Macleod has posed:
    "AAAAIIIIIE NO NO NO STOP STICKING THE STICKS IN MEEEEE you're going to upset my surface cohesion!" one of the girls cries out as Emiko begins to throw fiery flaming sticks at the gum girl, who is flailing and gooily running from Emiko with a >.< face.

    The park bench does NOTHING to the Ghost Rider. Not even a notable flinch. The gum-goo girl blinks a moment with an auidable 'poik' sound.

    "... soooo you're *NOT* Post-Apoc Mad Max Johnny Storm? BUMMER!"

    ... and then attempts to goop the Ghost Rider's shoes to stop him, apparently, from chasing after her as she makes her way *AWAY*.

    The WD-40 works pretty good. There's fire. There are now three out of five gum bandits on fire and they are flipping their shit, with the antenae at the top beeping and flashing -- it appears those are the only items that are not maleable.

    Bunny looks at the Speedster, then looks at the bubble gum girls.

    "Na, na na, na na na na na?" she asks, in tune to a familiar and very famous silly game about rolling things up.

Emiko Queen has posed:
The only problem is the gum burning is taking time. So they've got to keep the gum girls focused on anything but putting themselves out. Not hard, but not as easy as it sounds, either.

Note to self, see about getting a fold up bow or something for when she's out of costume.

For now, she picks up a few rocks, and chucks them at the gum girl now scared of her. They won't burn, and probably just get stuck, but she wants to keep the goo's attention on her being a threat and not thinking about burning up or putting out flames.

Daniel Ketch has posed:
The flaming skeleton sweeps with the glass statue, but misses, and then he has gooped boots. Annoying. And he doesn't even know who Mad Max or Johnny Storm are! See if he cares!

What he does is trying to move closer to the bubblegum woman. Which is just not possible due to stuck boots. "You annoying creature," he grumbles. Then sweeps with a hand, forming his flaming motorcycle, and leans on it, trying to use it to free his feet and also run over the bubblegum bandits.

Jane Roe has posed:
Making sure the WD40 is well used by Jane, chasing off one of the gremlins before she tosses the can to Daniel. "Liberate your feet!" she notes, slipping back a little to try and cath a breath

Tommy Shepherd has posed:
    If not for the fact Bunny has played that game in his presence, Tommy would not get the reference. He wasn't a video game kid growing up, and now he doesn't have the attention span for it. The important thing, though? He gets what she means.

    Hence why there is suddenly a rainbow-bubbled Bunny is being pushed around at faster-than-normal speed like you do in a certain very famous silly game about rolling things up. And the aim for today is to roll up a bunch of gummy-goo girls!

    They ping off of park benches and fire hydrants in a way more similar to pinball than Katamari Damacy though, admittedly. Tommy does a good job of not colliding with any of the other Young Avengers or randos, but they do criss-cross the park leaving a speed-trail of rainbow-colored oilslick sparkles as they go.

Bunny Macleod has posed:
    Doot doot doot dot, doot doot de doot doo -- NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA KATAMARI DABUNNY!

    The sparkly oil slick rainbow bubble of Bunny shield pings and rolls around the park, powered by Tommy pushing the bubble.

    The Ghost Rider's thrown statue was bendy-dodged by one girl, but caught by a second, one who was not on fire and was observing the situation. That hits her head on, splattering the physical form and revealing a nervous system made of wires attached to the metal antenae at the top of their heads. The flaming goopy covered-in-sticks girl's form was beginning to break down, and then is RUN OVER by the flaming Hellcycle!

    As is another goop!

    And a third goop!

    And then with the goop all surrounded and clinging to one another with Bunny's shield active, and Bunny hanging upside-down in the hamster-ball made of energy, she cries out "NOW WHAT DO I DO?!"

Emiko Queen has posed:
The Katamari maneuver seems to have worked... but Bunny has a very good question. "I've heard of gumballs but girl, that's something else." Emiko has to think about it for a moment. "Dunk them in something that will completely break them down?" Then after a moment adds "Maybe try to grab one of those little antennaes to get an idea of how these things worked even?" She noticed the little doodads but there wasn't much to do about it in the more intense moments, and risk getting stuck in the bigger mess. Literally.

Jane Roe has posed:
Jane Roe blinks at the rainbow hamsterball, sighing as she picks up the WD40 can to try and assist. "I think this stuff works good enough, unless you got a proper solvent. What's in those things? Electronics? Or just... stuff?"

Bunny Macleod has posed:
    "I can't keep this up for too much... muh... long...er..." Bunny wheezes. "Speed, I don't feel so good -- think I swallowed too much fountain water..." she bleehs, and with a sudden cut of her powers, the goos all tumble together, the energy field they were sticking to gone, and Bunny disappears behind a handy bush as the Ghost Rider laughs maniacally in the background, riding off to chase down more sinners of the not-so-gooey type, with one of the goo girls being dragged by the antenae and screaming on her way:

    "MY ELECTROPOLYMER EXTERIOR IS RUUUUUIIIIIIIIINED!"

    The other goos appear to be deactivated, melting together and solvent used to degrease the nerves end with antenae and a bunch of wires.

    "Well... if someone knows a good person with computers..." Bunny re-appears, looking rather green about the gills and teetering "... urrp... maybe they can... help..." she looks up and over to TOmmy.

    "The penny returned. I think we're good. I need some asprin and gatorade."

Tommy Shepherd has posed:
    "I definitely don't," is all Tommy says to the question of computers, but then he looks Bunny over. "Let me run back home and get you some dry clothes." He disappears... but don't worry, he'll be back soon!

Emiko Queen has posed:
"I'm sure between the lot of us we can find someone with enough technical know-how to examine them." Emiko makes sure to pice the antenna doodags up while Tommy is helping Bunny deal with her... nausea. At least she dropped the hamster bubble forcefield now, before she potentially... lets not think about it.

While Tommy provides an example of why every team can do with a superspeedster or two on it.

Jane Roe has posed:
Searching her pockets, Jane offers at least a hand as Bunny is cared for. "Sorry, all I got is a kleenex..." she offers with a wry smile.

"What the F was that anyway? Goopy things... Wait, it's friday and those are just the regular invasion from somewhere for the week, right?" Yea, a little goofy.

"At least it's all good again. I hope... Everything allright, Bunny? And you... Speedster?"

Tommy Shepherd has posed:
    "I'm good," Tommy reports as he reappears, handing off a small backpack to Bunny. Whilst his other hand is occupied by two hot dogs.

    Though at this point he doubts Bunny's still hungry! The hot dogs are for him, again.

Bunny Macleod has posed:
    Bunny accepts the tissue, still soaking wet but... it helps. She accepts the bag that TOmmy brings her, and digs immediately into it for gatorade.

    "Sorry, sorry, if I push my power too hard I get really awful muscle tension migraines and it feels like my sinuses are trying to flee my body through the back of my cerabellum." she explains, and she takes a look at those hotdogs, and gives a soft 'urp'.

    "... same time next week, Gang?" she asks, and fingerguns at everyone, holding the gatorade bottle carefully, before her skated feet finally give out, and she lands on her butt.

    ... right in some og the gum.

    "... eeew."