3836/Black Bart's Holdup

Black Bart's Holdup
Date of Scene:	16 October 2020
Location:	Mel's Rodeo, The Outskirts of Metropolis
Synopsis:	Toyman and the Blue Beetle clash with Toyman showing off his robotics genius
Cast of Characters:	Winslow Schott, Ted Kord

---

Winslow Schott has posed:
Winslow Percival Schott had done it again. It was almost no secret for anyone with even a slight interest in the toy industry that Winslow had been the guiding force behind the revival, and subsequent sucess of the My Precious Unicorn toyline. Schott had always had a attachemnt to the toyline, and to the character he had created and used to bring joy to so many children. In fact, he was so attatched to them that he had started to bring them to life and what was his most sophisticated robotics project yet. So far, he had created King Flare, the benevolent Unicorn monarch, and his three daughters, Astra, Prisma, and Midnight. They proved to be a rousing sucess, both in design and in intelligence. They mimcked their cartoon counterparts sucessfully, and were very intelligent, much to Schott's delight. This success encouraged Schott to bring more of his favorite characters to life. His latest success was Black Bart, the villainous Western Outlaw that plagued Flare's benevolent kingdom. Schott had built Black Bart to hopefully be much more combat capable, and he sought to test these capabilities with a crime, and he knew the perfect place to do it.

Shots rang out in Mel's Rodeo, and it wasn't blanks. This rodeo, which advertised itself as the return of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, has had a rather profitable season this summer, and was doing it's final show for the year in Metropolis. But now, chaos filled the festive event as paniced patrons fled. The shots came from the main tent, though no word on who was responsible yet

Ted Kord has posed:
Ted Kord was in attendance as... a Steampunk Cowboy and drawing odd stares and few rude remarks. Whatever. With a blue black stovepipe hats, goggles and dude's outfit he was about to bite into a corn dog as the sound of the shots reached his ears.

Not blanks! His engineer ear was attuned to knocks and pings and easily told the difference. To be honest the few screams were a big clue too.

"Hey keep this warm for me, okay?" He hands the corn dog back with one hand. The other gloved hand grabs the front of the suit and pulls it away and off to stand revealed as...

"Who the Hell are you now?" the vendor asks.

"Blue Beetle, man of action and /passion/ hold onto that dog!" He turns and kicks the breakaway clothes aside then runs towards the tent, pushing through the citizens running away from the tent. At the last moment he remembers to doff the stove pipe hat.

Winslow Schott has posed:
As you push the flaps of the tent you would be greeted by a very bizzare sight. You would see a group of what looks like cowboys standing in the middle of the rodeo tent. All of them were big, burly, and intmidating. However, the man who stood in the middle of them all looked different. He was tall, thin, and almost scraggely looking. He was clad in all black from his cowboy hat all the way to his black leather boots. He had a pencil-thin mustache and a mean glare on his face as he said to the gathered desparados,

"Alright pardners! Start gatherin as many horses and livestock as ya can. Show them city folk why da name Black Bart is ta be feared!"

The name, along with his appearance would sound familiar if you watched the My Prescious Unicorn cartoon or were familiar with the Toyline. This was Black Bart, the fiendish outlaw and one of the many villains that terrorized the benevolent King Flare's kingdom. But, how was he here now? Was is a impesonator or did he some how find a way to come to life. However, before you can ponder this, one of the outlaws notices you and immediatley fires his six shooter at you, followed by the rest of the outlaws, except for Bart, who jumped up and down goofily while saying,

"Git dat varmint boys!"

Ted Kord has posed:
Ted Kord begins singing, "Hey there," a bullet spangs near him. "You with the stars in your eyes..." He draws his own weapon and returns fire with his concussion blast. The goon, well he's laying a god 3-4 meters from where he was standing. The spot he occupied is now marked by a pair of empty boots. He begins a rapid fire as he moves away from the entrance and the people, drawing additional shots away and hoping to dodge them.

He's actually fairly decent at ducking. Chalk it up to being a fat little dork in middle school, then a couple years of Parkour and being shot at. "Y'all draw on the Beetle, ya best put him down... holy crap! You're from My Prescious Unicorn! I had the whole set!" Yet another reason for him to get beat up in school. Most off-the-tracks show and tell ever.

Winslow Schott has posed:
As the goon goes flying into a nearby pile of hay, the rest of them continue to shoot at the Blue Beetle. As another man is sent flying, this time into a conviently placed cotton candy stand, Black Bart sneers at you as he reaches into his holister. He then says in his thick, Texan accent,

"I have no idea what y'all are talkin bout pardner! But, from yer get up and fancy footwork I know exactly who ya are. You are one of King Flare's blasted knights! Y'all ain't stopping this caper!"

Bart then fired his goon, sending a huge jet of fire your way. That was something that you don't remember from the cartoon. As this is happening, a rather hefty looking cowboy charges at you, swinging his fists angrily.

Ted Kord has posed:
Ted Kord says, "Let's agree to disagree. My concussion blast uses compressed air. Allow me to pass some wind your way!" The BB Gun blast hits the fire, Beetle trying to deflect it in a neutral direction.

Fire is the priority here. This kind of leaves Ted open for at least one cheap shot from the outlaw charging him but burning down the tent is a poor showing indeed. Plus people are still fleeing.

Winslow Schott has posed:
As the man punches Kord hard in the side of the head, he would fail to notice something horrific. Black Bart was caught in the flames! The smell of burning latex and oil immediatley filled the air as Black Bart's figure suddenly emerged from the flames. Black Bart, instead of being horrifically injured, was now seemingly melting on one side of his body, revealing a robotic skeleton underneath. Black Bart was a robot! Black Bart immediatley stomped towards Kord, who was no doubt distracted by the big cowdboy, and threw a very hard punch at Kord with his metallic fist.

Ted Kord has posed:
Ted Kord takes the crack to the head rolling with it a little stunned. Not so the blow from the smoking 'Blackened' Bart. The automaton's fist is like a pile driver sending the hero into the seats with a crash!

Oddly getting thrown into folding chairs is sort of like a cold shower to people in Ted's profession. As Punchy the Cow Puncher closes on Beetle he throws a side kick into the thug's solar plexus and watches him go down.

A shadow falls over Ted as he stretches the kinks out.

"Oh crap yet again!"

Winslow Schott has posed:
As the thug collapses onto the ground in pain, clutching his solar plexus, Black Bart stomps over to Kord, his shadow looming over him as he stares at you blankly. It would seem that the fire had damaged whatever powered his personality. Suddenly, a light buzzing filled the air as a toy biplane flew in over the crowd's head and hovered over Black Bart. The plane's cockpit opened and started to project a hologram. The hologram was 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 looked around the area, before sighing at the sight of Bart. He then grips his nose in frustration as he says,

"Oh bother! I should really make my newer robotic models fire=proof."

This was, of course, Winslow Percival Schott, or The Terrible Toyman as the media called him. Now Bart's existence outside the small screen now made sense. Toyman suddenly turns to you and says ratherly surprised,

"Blue Beetle! I thought you were retired!"

Ted Kord has posed:
Ted Kord stays in a defensive crouch, ready to jump in one f six directions. BB Gun aimed at the robot. The crowd gets a quick glance. Ah, snapping shots with their phones. Of course.

"Apologies, Mr. Schott. I take no joy in trashing such a fine piece of robotics. Can I maybe convince you to stop endangering these people further? I think you made your point for today. Also you want to avoid the Halberstram processors, not very heat resistant. I amguessing Halberstram because of the number of cooling fans... Why are you doing this?" The last is not a ploy or stalling but strangely heartfelt, almost wounded.

Winslow Schott has posed:
Schott actually seems to smile at Kord's compliment and puts a finger to his chin, as if in thought at Kord's criticisms. He then says in a thick, British accent,

"Ahh yes, i have been thinking about swapping out the Halberstram for something much more heat resistant young man. May i say that your Beetle is also quite a feat of enginering. I have been trying to built a flying machine similar to it for years, but never could."

Yep, you have triggered the inner enginner within Schott. However, that does not last as withing moments of you questioning his reason for doing this crime, Schott turns stone-faced as he said,

"Toys cost money Blue Beetle. These horses and cattle were worth a fortune. This was Black Bart's test run, and it appears that he needs work done to him. Now, let my chaps take the cattle, or else!"

This last pharase is said with a glare

Ted Kord has posed:
Ted Kord narrows his eyes. "Why do you guys always say 'Or else'? And what makes you think I'm letting your blackened Cajun man 'bot get away? I mean I'm not Batman or Power Girl but I've had some small measure of success... like the Atom! Bwahaha!"

The cowboy squatting on the ground holding his belly is used as a stepping stone, the Blue Beetle vaulting into the air and with a twist landing on Black Bart's shoulders, legs straddling his neck. He makes a grab at the toy plane.

Maybe he should have made a pun about steer-ing him wrong, that's more on topic but hey the Atom is cool!

Winslow Schott has posed:
Schott yells out in surprise and begins to frantically reach into his suit pocket as Beetle uses the thug as a stepping stone and lands on Bart's shoulders. However, before Kord can grab the plane, you would hear a beeping noise as Schott suddenly presses a button on a remote control. If you were to grab that plane now, you would be greeted with a very painful electric shock

Ted Kord has posed:
Ted Kord does grab the custom toy plane and gets a painful shock indeed. Not incapacitating but it hurts. He gets shocks all the time working and his costume insulates to a degree. he was going to simply crush the plane, but as the voltage course through him he jams it into the joints of Bart's neck and fall away, still spasming.

"ResistWeave... new from Kord Co... every hero should have it... " Ted mutters. His glove is smoking.

Winslow Schott has posed:
"NO!"

This is all the Schott hologram has time to say before it abruptly disappears. As the plane is driven into the Neck Joint, Bart begins to spasm very hard, and shake hard as well. Suddenly, his head explodes, leaving Bart's headless body, which crumples onto the ground, lifeless

Ted Kord has posed:
Ted Kord gets shakily to his feet. "Yeah Halberstrams have also been known to explode." He takes note of a little boy eating cotton candy and watching him intently and says, "Don't meet your heroes kid, you'll be disappointed. I'm sure Nicola Tesla was a jerk too." He pulls his goggles off and his hood down. He ponders if there is a discrete place to throw up or pass out? Gotta improve the gloves obviously, tell Spidey to watch out for jolts.

Sometime later at his penthouse, Ted sits alone, still in his uniform, but his goggles and hood off. His gloved hands hold a boxed Black Bart figure, that had been carefully stored. This was his third. The previous two had been lovingly taken apart and reassembled over a couple years and analyzed thoroughly. At one point he wanted to make toys too. Looking at a photo of the Bug he wonders if he has and this is all still a game?