3239/It's Playtime!!

It's Playtime
Date of Scene:	05 September 2020
Location:	Metropolis Savings and Loans, Metropolis
Synopsis:	The Titan's bare witness to Toyman's return to America, and to crime.
Cast of Characters:	Winslow Schott, Terry O'Neil, Karolina Dean, Donna Troy, Caitlin Fairchild

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Winslow Schott has posed:
Metropolis Savings and Loans was opened surprisingly late tonight. The only people in this small bank right now were two old ladies cashing in a check, a yuppie doing a late night withdraw, and three tellers and a slightly tired security guard. Little did theses individuals know that they were about to take part in the return of one of Metropolis' most infamous crooks, The Terrible Toyman. As the individuals inside the bank continued their business, they failed to notice the pair of headlight heading closer and closer to the bank. Suddenly a very loud BANG echoed across the block as a red ice cream truck drove through the front door of the bank and into the security guard, sending him flying into the air.

The doors of the truck flew open and four men wearing matching red lab coats came pouring out of the truck handling handguns. On the backs of their coats were large, blocky letters that spelled out "THE TOY FACTORY". The lead goon, a large, burly man with a beard and sunglasses shoots his pistol up in the air while saying,

"Alright ladies and gentlemen, this is a robbery! Stay down and you won't get drilled. Giggles, Bobo, you two stay out here and guard the hostages! Me and Ken will take care of the vault!"

The men then split up, with the leader and Ken hopping over the counter and towards the vault and the other two staying in the lobby, pointing guns at both the old ladies, the tellers, and the yuppie.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Terry O'Neil couldn't sleep. It had been a whirlwind week between getting the final draft ready for his article, and getting Paparazzied at the Themysciran Embassy under his superhero identity. To clear his mind, he thought it would be a good idea to go on patrol.

The Cheshire cat perhes atop a roof, watching the streets below as he indulges in his (very late) lunch break, a simple peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich being consumed slowly. Five more minutes and he'll try another location.

It's serendipitous, then, that just at four minutes and fifty seconds, a vehicle decides to drive through the entrance of Metropolis Savings and Loans!

"Holy-!" he springs bolt upright, his midnight snack forgotten on the cornice as he glances down. At first, his impression is that this is an accident- but when the red-coated maniacs come out of the vehicle, it's evident that this was no accident.

"Maniacs!" he mutters to himself and frowns at the guns. He's going to have to take this the stealthy way. There were hostages.

Vorpal opens a discreet Rabbit Hole to get himself on ground level, ducking for cover behind the cars on the opposite side of the road. Should he call for backup?

It's late, so there are hardly any cars parked on the sidewalk at all.. Hardly enough to get him from here to there without being spotted crossing the street... should those guarding the hostages choose to look his way. However, there's little time to lose.

He tries to move close to the ground, trying to keep the crashed truck between him and the henchmen's line of sight, if possible. His first priority was to make it to the truck, and then... well, he'd wing it from there.

Winslow Schott has posed:
So far your strategy appears to be working fine. As you get closer to the ice cream truck you could swear you could hear what sounded like a music box play Pop Goes the Weasel over and over again from within the refrigerated back of the truck. As you got closer and closer to the door of the bank you could hear one of the red coated maniacs say to his ally,

"Hey Bobo, ya think Mr.Schott is gonna do anything at dat Toy Expo? Considering dat they are revivin his toyline for da Third Generation or somethin like that."

The second man then just growls and says," Shut up and keep an eye on the hostages!"

Before you could ponder this, something falls out of the passengers seat of the truck. The object appeared to be a toy tank lying on it's back. Suddenly, the toy tank flips itself back up and turns around, aiming it's cannon at you.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Vorpal frowns, the name of 'Schott' makes a little bell go 'ding' in his head, but there's not a lot of time for the fax to arrive at the terminal when the little tank falls out. Impelled as he is by feline curiosity, he inches closer to see what the matter is.

When the toy flips itself upright, the Cheshire cat feels something- aking to a quivering in his whiskers. It takes a second for him to register the sensation of danger that emanates from his whiskers and onto the rest of his body, causing the muscles in his legs to bunch up when that tiny cannon comes to bear on him.

In the darkroom of his mind, some evidence is being put up on the developing reels, the pictures quickly fading in: the red coats, the toyline, the toy tank. The fourth image is starting to fade into view, but he doesn't have time for that, because the implications indicate he /has/ to get out of the line of fire.

His legs release the tension and he leaps upwards, to seek shelter on the roof of the truck.

Which might get him out of the line of tank fire, but it announces his presence to...

Winslow Schott has posed:
As Vorpal leaps up into the air, the toy tank finally fires. While it misses it's mark, the tiny artillery shell still hits where Vorpal used to be, causing a small, but very loud explosion to ring across the bank. The two thugs turn towards the explosion and see Vorpal on top of the truck. The two men then let out swears and immediately begin to open fire on the cat. meanwhile, the toy tank starts to aim for you again.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"OH Cra-" Vorpal tries to roll off the truck's roof and onto the other side, for meager cover. In the process, however, he feels a flash of pain as one of the bullets graces his arm. It's enough of a distraction to get him off his groove and cause him /not/ to land on his feet, violating the eternal feline code.

Bullets. He hates bullets. He's allergic to them.

Instinctively his hand taps the T-Comm, tapping out the emergency pattern to call for help. The shooting would attract the goons in the vault, so he has to lea-

The hostages.

With as much resolve as he can muster, he sprints forward, trying to make it to where the little old ladies and y, the yuppie and the tellers were.

"Go through, quickly!" he calls out, and summons a Rabbit Hole. Because of the current high-stress situation, he can't summon one that spans vast distances... but he will try for across the street, which should be far enough. He knows he only has seconds before the other two round the truck. Or that little tank decides to blow up the truck....

Karolina Dean has posed:
    Karolina gets around like one would expect your average citizen to. Her feet, or the hyperloop. It's both today, though she's happily paying a visit to Metropolis, picking up some study materials from a friend. She's got a bookbag, rather full of things, when the ruckus near the bank is heard. She's not in the immediate vicinity, but the crash of a truck through a wall is distinct enough, and she winces. "Oh... no..." she frowns, racing down the street as fast as her feet will take her.

    "Oh no..." she nearly trips as she skids to a halt in front of the bank, catching herself and staring at the devastation as the gunfire inside begins to erupt. Her blue eyes dart around, and she takes a long breath. She hasn't been doing the hero thing regularly, but there's a crisis, so she curls her fingers into fists, and does the brave and silly thing. She just marches in, lower lip sucked between her teeth so she can at the least assess the situation. Maybe one of Metropolis' heroes has it well in hand already. Though the gunfire seems to indicate otherwise.

Winslow Schott has posed:
As the hostages make their way through the rabbit hole, the two men finally make it to Vorpal, seemingly unaware of Karolina's walk-in. One of the men laughs sadistically as he pulls out his pistol and says,

"Well, look what we got here, a little puddy tat."

The two men then laugh as the lead thug pops his head out from the vault area and says, still seemingly unaware of Kar,

" Crap, a Hero! This turning into a Goddamn fiasco! Ken get out there, i will get into the vault myself!" The man then disappears back into the area while Ken, a tall, blond muscular man starts to hop the counter to get back into the lobby.

As the two goons menace Vorpal, the toy tank move towards Karolina and aims it's little cannon at her before firing a tiny artillery shell at her.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
As the costumers make their way out of the area through his dimensional rift, the Cheshire cat turns to take in the scene. He's being menaced by guns, and a tall, muscular man...

He pauses for a second. Then he looks at the goons, and says "Sorry. He's kinda distracting."

And as Ken hops over the counter, Vorpal tries to open a Rabbit Hole under his landing spot, which (if successful) would lead to Ken landing his tall, bulky mass on top of the two goons threatening him with guns. It's not a permanent solution at all, but it's hopefully a way to temporarily mess up the ranks while he makes a dive over the counter, so that he can get to cover and come up with a plan of action while the goons untangle themselves from getting Kenned. Of course, if it doesn't work, he's as good as Swiss cheese...

Karolina Dean has posed:
    Well, someone is here helping, but in over his head somewhat? Karolina just kind of blinks, taking in the situation, seeing the customers managing to escape through some kind of portable hole. "Well, that makes lift easier.." she says with a smile. "Hey! You ok over there?" she calls out to Terry, maybe her superhero name is Captain Obvious. But that little toy tank is so cute, too, and she watches as it trundles closer to her. "Is this thing for--"

    She's cut off as it fires, and reflexively, she swings her bookbag at the incoming shell with a surprised squeak. The weight of knowledge shields her fron the brunt of the explosion, though there's a book that's never going to recover in there now. A few shards of tiny shrapnel pepper her bare arms though, and she grabs at the silver bracelet on her wrist. The breakaway clasp on the medic-alert bracelet pops free, and it falls to the floor with her books.

    "Oh come on...! What kind of dangerous toy is THAT?" she huffs, the small holes in her arms bleeding... wisps of glowing light that resemble solar flares. With the bracelet gone, though, her body is engulfed in rainbow light, from head to toe she just shimmers like a radiant polychromatic beacon. With the thrust of an arm, a beam of focused sunlight explodes froim her palm and into the toy tank. The way it explodes seems to surprise her, though, as the heat cooks off the ammunition magazine inside of it. "...very dangerous..." she frowns, hovering a few feet over the bank floor now.

    "Is there anyone else in here in danger? Anyone hurt?"

Donna Troy has posed:
"Play time is over!" a loud, thickly-accented voice calls out across the bank. Flying through the hole left by the crashing van comes Donna Troy, carrying Caitlin Fairchild - the Titans answering Vorpal's call for help.

    Donna puts her fellow Titan on her feet as she lands. The fact that she was carrying the sizeable figure of Caitlin with little sign of effort might seem concerning enough to a typical maniac mook, but just to make sure, Donna follows it up with a punch that puts a huge dent in the side of the van, then raises her arms, bracers held out ready for bullet deflection duty.

    "Are you going to surrender now," she asks the mooks, "Or do we get to have some fun first?"

    For now, at least, she's paying little attention to the toy tank - they hadn't arrived when it fired, so there's no particular reason to be alarmed. Right? Right?

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin's feet are treadmilling before she hits the ground; she builds on the momentum Donna had and breaks into a sprint that leaves deep divots in the asphalt behind her. Right behind Donna's punch, Caitlin launches a shoulder-strike that on merit alone would get her a walk-on to any NFL team. With her superhuman strength and low center of gravity it utterly smashes the frame *and* knocks the truck around.

"It really does go easier for you if you surrender," Caitlin chimes in. "I show up at your trial and do a witness statment and everything."

Shots ring out and smack into Caitlin's skin like so many airsoft pellets; the leave tiny ragged holes in her lightweight athletic gear, and provoke nothing more than a scowl at the offender.

"Ow!" Caitlin says-- and stalks over to slap the gun from his hand. It's crushed in her bare phalanges. "See, that's just *rude*."

Winslow Schott has posed:
As the toy tank explodes into a million pieces, Ken lets out a brief scream as he falls into the rabbit hole, and onto the two other goons. As the three scramble to get untangled, Vorpal has plenty of time to escape and leap behind the counter. Once the three men get untangled, Troia and Caitlian make their appearance and start their intimidation game. Two of the men look one, their eyes widened in fear, but Ken, perhaps not being the brightest bulb in the box, immediately begins to fire at Cait, only for the bullets to have no effect on her whatsoever.

The second the gun is slapped from Ken's hand, Ken immediately turns and tries to flee from the area, along with the two other goons. As the three men flee towards the hole in the wall they have made, a very loud noise erupts in the air. It sounded like a war bugle, and was soon followed by a loud explosion as yet another portion of the bank's wall get blown up.

On the other side of the hole is a literal army of toy. You see over 5 dozen toy tin soldiers modeled after French Napoleonic Soldiers, and apparently more toy tanks. The toy soldiers raises their muskets and begins firing real bullets at the Titans as the tanks begin to shoot their artillery rounds at the Heroes. To make matters worse, as the army marched into the bank, a loud buzzing filled the air as toy biplane's flew into the bank and began to fire machine gun rounds as well.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Vorpal looks over the counter when Donna and Caitlin arrive. And there seems to be another person mixed in. The cavalry is here! He's not bullet-proof, so he always approves of people who are. "One of them's going for the vault, I'll head that way-"

And that's when the scene inside the bank turns into something that just begs to be orchestrated by Leon Jessel. Toy Soldiers. Tanks. And little planes.

"We're in toyble, kids, this looks like the work of the Toyman!" of course he can tell the handywork. After a certain point, you have to be completely oblivious to miss it, and Gar was the team receptacle of obliviousness, not Vorpal.

Searching frantically behind the counter for something to fight back he stumbles upon the box of office supplies. It looks like someone was in the middle of restocking, close to closing time. He figures the planes are the biggest issue...

He opens the lid, and sees row after row of neatly-stacked pens. "Eureka!" He proceeds to do the Laying of Hands, and a purple glow envelops the large box of pens.

"Time for some anti-aircraft fire!" he shouts and steps back as the Chaos Wave ripples through the box.

A few seconds later, a steady stream of anti-aircraft fire is launched into the air, in the shape of the bank's inexpensive, logotyped pens, as the magically-animated writing implements make their best attempt to hit passing airplanes.

Karolina Dean has posed:
    Things seem to escalate a lot quicker than Karolina had been prepared for. The Titans come in, the thugs are mopped up, and everything is all fine and good and the cops can come and she can go home and have dinner, right? No, the wall comes down and there's an invasion of toys. It would be adorable if the bullets weren't live. Metropolis is so... extra. New York has its fair share of troubles, of course, but Karolina's head swims for a moment before gunfire erupts.

    SHe reacts faster this time, bringing both of her arms up, sweeping a half-shell of warm light in front of her, deflecting the shots but leaving her unable to shoot back, as it were. But she flies forward towards the soldiers, seeing if she can tank the fire by being big and bright and shiny. If they're shooting at her, they're not shooting at anyone else! And the hero that had already been there was taking care of the planes, too. "Oh thank goodness, more of you~!" the rainbow girl calls out to Caitlin and Donna, sounding quite pleased.

Donna Troy has posed:
    "Civilians, take shelter!" Donna yells out as soon as the miniature army appears. With Vorpal having rabbit holed most away already, she's mainly talking to Karolina here, though Karolina soon puts an end to that misapprehension.

    "Vorpal, cut off the goon's exit," Donna continues calling out.. She's already on the move, darting forwards with her bracelets raised, her arms a blur of motion as she moves across the face of the army, deflecting incoming fire. There's simply too much of it to even attempt redirecting the pellets in a useful direction; she's just aiming knock as many pellets out of air as possible.

    "Cait! I think they forgot their van, why don't you give it back to them?" Donna suggests. Caitlin responds with a nod, and grabs hold of the broken frame of the van. With a mighty yank she spins around and hurls it across the floor straight into the mass of toy soldiers.

    Donna glances at Karolina, but doesn't have any suggestions for this new hero on the scene. Donna doesn't know her or what she can do, so she contents with flashing the unknown hero a smile. "Hey," she says. "We're the Titans."

Winslow Schott has posed:
Half of the toy soliders take aim and fire at Karolina while the rest continue to fire at the rest of the Titans. Vorpal's attack with the pens seem to work as the toy planes start falling out of the sky and exploding on impact. Meanwhile, the three goons make it through the hole on the wall and begin trying to flee down the street. Cait successfully tosses the van into the toy army, crushing half of the toy soldiers, and few of the tanks. The tanks suddenly aim at Donna and fire their artillery shells at her.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"Heading to the vault now!" Vorpal calls out, as his anti-air attack seems to be having an effect. He turns around and runs, keeping himself low to the ground, and alert. It was likelky that the vault-bound goon was armed, and his bulletproof fur is in his other pair of tights.

If only he had a way to blend into his surroundings or... become invisible. Now that would be an advantage.

But alas.

Karolina Dean has posed:
    The bullets 'chip' away at Karolina's shimmering shields, but the majority of the fire is halted by Donna's charge and Caitlin's truck. She lowers the barrier for a moment, blinking, seeing that smile. If her body wasn't engulfed in a coating of scintillating rainbow energy, she'd probably be blushing. "Hi... I'm Karolina... you're really pretty..." she kind of just lets the words roll out, unbidden, before she snaps into focus as things keep shooting and exploding.

    "The Titans?" she asks, redirecting her power from protection to a wide-angled beam, a blast of bright concussive force to send the tanks toppling or tipping or flying to halt their barrage. She's still leaking a little of what looks like solar energy from her arm, almost like a containment breach on a star.

Donna Troy has posed:
    The burst of incoming fire from the tanks is more of a threat than the pellets of the soldiers. Though Donna's bracelets can take the impact, the repeated explosions are enough to push Donna back. She drops to a crouch to make herself a smaller target, arms crossed in front of her.

    "Uh... yeah. The Titans," Donna repeats, under the barrage of fire. "You know, the team?" She's slightly nonplussed; normally people have heard of them. It's actually kind of refreshing. "Uh... focus!"

    While Donna braces against the incoming tank fire, Caitlin runs towards the wall by the van, leaps onto it and springs off it again, crashing into the side of the van to shove it into the mass of remaining soldiers and tanks. In the moment's respite Donna gets from this, she unslings her shield from her back, holds it out in front of her to deflect incoming fire, and unslings her lasso. She leaps suddenly into the air, coming down with force onto a couple of the mini tanks, then springs off them into the air again. Her lasso starts to glow golden.

    This time she doesn't come back down, but instead flies out the hole in the wall in pursuit of the fleeing felons, her lasso whirling ready to lash out and catch them up before they can escape too far.

Winslow Schott has posed:
The rest of the toy soldiers and tanks are crushed by the van. As Vorpal sneaks into the vault, he would see the final goon looking at one vault box in particular. He then laughs sinisterly as he pulls out a super soaker from his jacket, the "TOY FACTORY" letters seemingly glowing in the dark vault as the man sprays the vault with liquid from the gun. The vault then begins to melt, revealing that the gun was filled with acid.

The three goons see Donna coming and continue trying to flee, but are lassoed for their efforts.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Vorpal frowns. A squir from that gun would pretty much be a 'game over' scenario. and he wasn't sure if the 'nine lives' thing was a thing or not. On the other hand, he couldn't just let this goon get away scott-free, right?

He ponders for a second, and then decides to be bold. He opens a Rabbit Hole under his feet, with its twin opening over the Goon's head, to try and get a drop-kick in on him and, hopefully, kick that gun away from him.

Getting splashed with acid would be the worst-case scenario. Following a severe scolding by Gar, probably. And then Lois. And then April.

Karolina Dean has posed:
    Then it hits her. "Oh! Right! You guys fixed Bushwick!" Karolina laughs, "Sorry, I've been absorbed in my studies, and..." she trails off, her colors starting to waver. "Oh..." It's a good thing Donna and Caitlin finished off the army, and Terry's taking care of the last one, because the rainbow girl needs to sit down. "...right, sun's gone..." she laughs, and snatches up her bookbag. "Is everyone okay though?"

    She sounds concerned, even as her rainbow aura seems to cling tighter to her body, and she's walking instead of flying. There's no risk of her passing out, she's not moving sluggishly or anything, but she does hop up on the counter, hair sort of billowing supernaturally behind her. She kicks her sandled feet a bit, sighing at her devastated bookbag and the one tome that didn't survive the artillery strike.

    "Ow..." she mutters, finally taking a moment to examine her arm.

Donna Troy has posed:
    The poor goons outside don't stand much of a chance faced with someone who can fly a lot faster than they can run, and who has an unbreakable magic lasso and knows how to use it. The glowing golden cord lashes out three times in quick succession, taking one by the legs, then yanking one into the air, and finally wrapping the last around the torso and pulling him in for a moment's instant justice. Donna returns to the bank with all three held upside-down, tied together by one leg and dangling from the end of her lasso. One is unconscious, the other two are whimpering.

    Caitlin yanks the now very battered remains of the truck out of the way, scraping it across the nice marbled floor of the bank. That'll be expensive. She tears the bumper from it and uses it as a bat to smash any remnants of the army that's still moving, giving Karolina a cheerful grin as she does so.

    "You have defeated Napoleon's Armee du Nord, Cait," Donna says with a broad grin. "They have met their Waterloo. I think you can stop beating on them now." She looks over to Karolina, head tilting with curiosity. "You seem to be leaking light. Also you appear to be injured. Do you need first aid? Also, where's Vorpal?"

Winslow Schott has posed:
The final goon gasps in surprise when the water gun is kicked out of his hand. He looks out to the lobby in the minute, only to see the other three goons be brought back in via Donna's lasso. He then throw's his hands up in the air and suddenly shouts out,

"I give up"

As Vorpal seemingly handles the surrendering goon, a large, horned, Unicorn-like figure fills the hole left by the Army, covering the moon. The figure trots in, revealing a large, gallant, almost real looking Unicorn doll. It seemed unconcerned with the carnage around it and looked straight at Donna, as if it could sense if it were the Leader. It seems to smile at her and says with a bow of it's head,

"Lo stranger. I am King Flare, benevolent monarch of the Unicorns, and I wish to give ye a message from our resident Toyman.

As King Flare bowed it's head, it's horn seemed to glow. If one were familiar with toy brands, they would recognize King Flare as a central character in the famous "My Prescious Unicorn" series, a very popular series created by the Henderson company in Reno. The glowing suddenly grows brighter as the horn starts to project a hologram. The hologram is the image of a short, fat, middle-aged man with slightly-long brown hair and wire-rimmed glasses. He was wearing a blue and purple-stripped three piece suit and had a almost comically large black bow tie. He appeared to be holding a kettle of tea as he chuckled a bit and said to the gathered heroes with a thick, British accent,

"Well, good evening young women. You new generation of heroes might not remember me, so i figured it would only be proper to give a introduction. My name is Winslow Percival Schott, better known as "The Terrible Toyman".

Terry O'Neil has posed:
As Vorpal brings the last goon out into the lobby, after handcuffing him using handcuffs extracted from his apartment via Rabbit Hole (and it is none of your business where he got them originally Donna Troy), he arrives at the scene and his jaw drops a little. But then he quickly gathers his wits and points, "It /IS/ the Toyman!" he grins, feeling pleased at having been right, "I mean, it's obvious. Your work is unmistakable." Is that a compliment? Perhaps. Any clown can go around squirting people with acid from a lapel flower. It took a certain spoonful of whimsy to make a murder doll go down in the most delightful way. Of course, he knew of the Toyman- there were some clippings about him in the scrapbooks he collected as a kid obsessed with Superman and the likes of him. His files were nowhere near as extensive as those at the Planet, but they were not shabby, either.

Karolina Dean has posed:
    "It happens..." Karolina says with a lopsided smile at the 'leaking light' comment. She sighs, sliding her bracelet back on, carefully re-latching the special clasp. It's just a silver medicalert bracelet, nothing special, it seems? But the moment she slips it on, her rainbow aura fades, and only the wisps of smoky rainbow starlight drifting from her wounds remains to be seen as any proof of powers. "I just need to lounge in the sun for a little while, that's all... I over-extended myself a little! I can't do the hero thing after dark.." she laughs, smiling radiantly at Donna. "Vorpal?" she asks, just in time to see him drag the other thug into the room.

    Just in time for there to be a talking pony toy. "OH! It's King Flare!" she calls out, pursing her lips at the monologue, "...why are the toys evil?"

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna's instant reaction to the arrival of a talking unicorn is to turn and raise an eyebrow at Vorpal. No, there are no immediate congratulations at him tackling the bad guy - no, she's too busy blaming him for the unicorn.

    It's a /unicorn/. A talking unicorn. Come on, this has Vorpal written all over it! But no. When the unicorn gives way to hologrammatic Winslow, she shifts her attention back that way, tilting her head to the side.

    "I've been with the Titans from the beginning, Toyman. How could I forget you and your toys terrorizing Metropolis? I thought we had seen the last of you."

    Donna turns her back on the unicorn and projection for a moment, stepping over to Karolina to check her out. When the bracelet goes on and any wounds appear to heal by themselves, she looks up questioningly at the young woman. "Come back to the tower after," she says. "We'll give you a quick medical, okay?"

    Donna turns back to the hologram. "Back like a bad penny, Toyman. You brought happiness to millions of children before you turned your back on them. Now you convert their dreams into nightmares. How can you do that?" She gestures towards Karolina, obviously a fan of King Flare of old. "How can you betray them like this? It's not too late, Toyman. Give this up. Use your genius for good, not for this."

Winslow Schott has posed:
Toyman ignore Vorpal's comment and focuses soley on Donna. Upon hearing her comment about being with the Titans from the start, he smiles warmly and says while pouring himself a cup of tea,

"Ah yes, i remember you now, Troia was it?"

His smile was quickly replaced with a saddened look as Troia accuretly described his past. He remebered clearly all the millions of Children playing with his little Unicorn toys, the smiles he brought upon their faces, the imaginations he ignited. But, upon being told to give up this life and use his abilities for good, he suddenly smashed the tea kettle onto the ground and shouts,

"That's what I wanted to do from the start! I became a Toymaker to bring to children the joy and wonder they deserve. But, the world had to come and stomp on me! That bastard Dunhill sold my technology to LexCorp and other Arms Dealers. He took advantage of a grieving widower to sell the innovations of a innocent toymaker and the results?"

At this point, Toyman freezes, his anger evident as tears started to appear on his face,

"They used my designs to spread death and misery! I never intended on ly life's workj being used to crush the innocence of children! So, i blew Dunhill to hell,and I would've done the same to Luthor if it wasn't for Superman! Now it's far too late for me to do any "good" with my toys. If the world wants deadly toys, then who am i to refuse?!"

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Completely ignored, Vorpal listens to the Toyman's monologue and glances over to Donna. Finally being able to look at Karolina without all hell breaking loose around them, he gives her a little wave before turning his attention back to the murder unicorn. The man's expression says everything, really. This Humpty Dumpty has come apart.

Karolina Dean has posed:
    The wounds are still there, kind of. There's the colorful wisps, tendrils of light rising up, but they're not as bad. "Huh? Tower? Wait, you want me to come back to your base?" she asks. Her last 'base' was a crumbling mansion. It's gone now. Lots of things are gone now. But now it's the Toyman's turn to talk. And she listens, perhaps with sympathy, perhaps with worry. But the expression on her face is one of sadness. "...you can come back to the world, you can make people smile again... the world doesn't truly want deadly toys, does it?" She looks to the other three in the room for some kind of validation. "...does it?" she asks again.

    She sighs, "You're going to make a lot of little kids cry if you hurt people! Those people are teachers, or doctors, or parents...!" Karolina gives her own little impassioned speech, though the mention of parents makes her deflate a little. "...not ALL of them are bad.." she adds quieter.

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna shakes her head sadly. "It's never too late, Toyman. Your toys were misused, but that doesn't mean you have to misuse them too! If you listen to the ideas of those few dark and twisted lunatics who tried to misuse your inventions, then you end up dark and twisted too."

    "Nobody condones what happend to you, Toyman. We... We're the Titans. You remember us." She gestures around at Caitlin, and Vorpal, and somehow Karolina too, because she's there. "We fight to make this world a better place for everyone. A world where people can live in peace and enjoy their dreams. A world where children can play without fear. We fight the kind of people you hate, Toyman. But also the kind of people you have become!"

    She shrugs her shoulders, turning away from the hologram for a moment. She gives Karolina a quick nod. "If you like. It's not far, and you should get those wounds checked... I mean maybe?" They're pretty odd wounds, and Karolina is leaking light not blood, but better safe than sorry, right?

    Donna circles and turns back. "Is... /this/ what you really want? Violence, destruction, fear? The toys you make, used like this? Is this the man who came up with those unicorns and that puppy, toys that taught a million children the value of trust and friendship? It doesn't have to be this way. If you keep trying this, we'll stop you. But if you let us... come to us, we can help. We'll help you remember who you were."

Winslow Schott has posed:
Toyman just looks down sadly for a moment, but suddenly lets out a brief, scornful, almost mocking scoff as he says,

"Help?! How? By locking me away in Stryker's Island or Arkham! Where do you think I have been for the past two years. I tried to change, I tried to go back to what makes me happy. I was retired in a little island paradise in the Caribbean, making toys like my Golden Years. But what happens? The cruelty of the world happened. My beautiful toys were being used to smuggle poison into The United States, poison that ruins families every where. Poison that leaves innocent children lying dead in the gutters!"

Schott looks more and more infuriated as he continues his rant. Suddenly, a second hologram pops up, showing Children at play at a playground. Toyman, who seemed to be calmed by this, smiles Fatherly as he says,

"The Children are the only ones i can trust now. They have yet to be coruppted by the cruelty of the world. I still seek to preserve their innocence, no child deserves to have that taken away." Toyman then turns to the gathered Titans and says rather sadly,

"I'm afraid I must leave now. I have much work to prepare for. No doubt Metropolis will soon learn that The Toyman has returned, as well as it's caped protector. I hope to see you Titans again soon, this has been a most invigorating playdate."

The Hologram then suddenly turns off as King Flare suddenly sprouts wings and flies off into the Metropolis' night.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"It's hard to stay on the straight and narrow when you'vve got the Jabberwock snapping at your soul like that," Vorpal comments, making his way over to Donna and Karolina once the murder unicorn has flown away. "Being the watchman of your soul isn't really child's play."

To Karolina, he says "Good job out there. I got to see very little of it... but Troia is right. We can hop over to the tower for a quick medical and then we'll follow up with the obligatory pizza."

He looks over at the toy massacre, and the subdued goons, "Well, I know what the morning edition of the Planet is going to feature, at least," he mutters quietly to Donna.

Karolina Dean has posed:
    Karolina sighs, a bit of a defeated sigh, really. "...people like him... won't... ever get better, will they. They'll just keep going and going until they eventually die... usually before they can truly be helped... it's tragic..." she rambles on softly, then looks up as Donna and Vorpal talk to her. "Mmm? Oh, no, I couldn't possibly impose. I should be just fine when the sun comes out, I just need to get some food and some rest and--" she pauses.

    "Pizza?" she asks, though purses her lips. "...you know they've made some really crazy breakthroughs with vegan cheese... is it vegan pizza?" she asks, eyeballing Vorpal though leaning in Donna's direction.

Donna Troy has posed:
Donna watches the unicorn depart, shaking her head sadly. "In some ways that's the worst kind of villain to fight, you know. He's not really a bad person." She glowers down at the Toyman's captured crew. "Unlike these reprobates!" Caitlin starts cuffing the lasso'd trio with zip cuffs, and Donna retrieves her lasso.

    She turns, sighing. "He's just... well you saw. Sometimes life can turn people around. It's sad to see someone who used to bring such joy turning to this. He's sort of right though, he doesn't need Ryker's Island. He needs help."

    Donna puts a hand on Vorpal's shoulder, giving him a grin and at last the congratulations he deserved for dealing with the situation. "Good work, Vorpal. You're really becoming a fine member of the crew." She leaves her hand on his shoulder as she turns to Karolina. "This is Vorpal," she says. I'm Troia. Or Donna, if you prefer. And my tall friend over there is Caitlin. There is always hope for people like him, as long as there are people like us... and I guess people like you too, willing to try. We can ask them to add a vegan pizza to the order without a problem. And we have plenty of space you can rest up. It's no imposition at all, it's practically what we do. Besides, I think I can speak for everyone when I say we're kind of curious as to who you are. A new hero on the scene is always of interest. Vorp, wanna whip us up one Rabbit Hole back to base and show our new friend an interestingly colorful way to travel?"

    Leaving Vorpal to his portally task, Donna sidles over to Caitlin. She looks askance at Karolina a moment, then whispers up to her tall friend "How does vegan cheese even work? Man's World is strange."