3936/The Search for the Lair

The Search for the Lair
Date of Scene:	25 October 2020
Location:	Tenderloin District
Synopsis:	Clock King and Spiral meet and Clock King finds his old lair
Cast of Characters:	Temple Fugate, Spiral

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Temple Fugate has posed:
"Damn it! I can plan a heist years in advance down to the last second, but I can't locate a lair i built for myself!"

Temple Fugate, AKA The Clock King thought this bitterly to himself as he made his way through The Tenderloin District. It has been exactly 4 months, 3 days, 2 hours, and five seconds since he escaped prison, and know he was a fugitive on the run. He had managed to arrive in New York exactly two days after his escape, but not before alerting his ever loyal Second Hands that he had returned. Now, he was trying to locate his NYC lair to resume operations. So far, his search had been more than fruitless. He did not know how he forgot where he placed this lair in particular, he found the Metropolis one without much problems. He let out a little swear as he continued his search.

After what seemed like an hour of searching, Clock King slumped down onto a nearby bench and let out a swear. This was getting ridiculous! He had a schedule to keep to and this was seriously cutting into it! As he sat down, he lifted up his sleeve, revealing five wrist watches, each set to different time zones. If anyone were to walk by, they would see a man dressed in a brown tuxedo jacket, a white dress shirt with black tie, brown formal pants, brown shoes, and a brown bowler hat looking at five wrist watches on the same arm.

Spiral has posed:
The people here don't really know it, but Spiral considers this place her turf these days. She keeps an eye out for do-gooders like annoying mutants wandering around, having learned her lesson. Betsy already smashed up her things once, she doesn't want it to happen again. Humans are useless so she patrols herself, invisible, and paying attention as best she can for any weird mutants.

Temple Fugate isn't a mutant, but he's a man in a tuxedo in the worst part of town, and ... many many wristwatches. The watches amuse the Time Dancer, so settles down next to him on the bench, the slight bump of her 162lbs striking it betraying her presence before she cuts the invisibility and suddenly appears next to him - six arms, samurai helmet, spandex, swords, unkempt hair and all. She even looks a crazy mess. "Hello." she announces.

Temple Fugate has posed:
Clock King was snapped from the time-induced trance when he felt a jolt. He looked up in shock, revealing a pair of glasses with frames that resembled clock faces, complete with painted-on arrow hands. Once Spiral appeared before him, he let out a audible gasp and clasped his hand onto his chest, as if he were having a heart attack. He then said,

"Where did you come from!"

Spiral has posed:
"I was right here." Spiral replies. "I was merely hidden. You looked quite unusual, so I decided to reveal myself." she says... even as arms slide all over her lap on the bench. There's really not enough space on her lap to hold them all, so they slip off her spandex clad hips onto either side of her.

"You looked like you were searching for something." she observes, and her white eyes narrow. Searching for her, perhaps??? "And I was wondering if I could help you.". She smiles brightly, but it's not exactly a pleasant smile.

"So, what are you looking for?".

Temple Fugate has posed:
Clock King's brows seemed to rise in shock when Spiral announced she was invisble. How long was she following him, and did she know about his fugitive nature? This train of thought lead to an even more terrifying prospect, was she a hero messing with him? So, when he asked what she was looking for, he seemed to hesitate for a minute. He then sighed as he said,

"Alright, first let me ask you something. Are you a superhero?"

Spiral has posed:
Spiral laughs, and shakes her head. "No." she says simply. "I am many things. But, lately, mainly a body witch, tormenter of mutants, and government black ops agent.". And she laughs again. "Oh, and another one, but they made me sign an NDA. You would've thought the government would too but I don't remember signing anything.". She shrugs. "Go figure.".

"Anyway, I have something valuable near here, and I don't want some fool coming in and wrecking it again. It's quite expensive.".

Temple Fugate has posed:
Clock King seemed to show no emotion at this reveal, though inside he was still slightly apprehensive about talking to this six-armed freak, especially when she brought up her lair and a past fool. What if she deemed him a threat and ripped his head? Suddenly, he looked down at his watches again, and sighed heavily. It was exactly 10 minutes and 45 seconds before his next duty for the day, alerting his NYC based operatives of his return. So, with another heavy sigh he turned to Spiral and said,

"I am looking for my HQ. I had one built here 5 years ago and I can't seem to remember where I left it. I am quite in a hurry to find it actually, have a busy schedule and all of that."

Spiral has posed:
"What does it look like?" Spiral asks, reasonably enough. "And are YOU not a superhero then?" she asks. "HQ? You're not in the Mafia are you?" she wonders, her blank white eyes looking him up and down. There's something a bit off about him... like he's a robot.

She gets up off the bench, and peers at him. "You're as much a human as I am." she says, accusingly, and laughs a little, dancing slightly, fingers twirling. "But if you throw some others off the scent, I don't mind, I suppose.".

Temple Fugate has posed:
Clock King slightly scoffs at Spiral's first question and says,

"If i knew what the outside looked like I wouldn't be wandering out here about to get behind on my schedule!"

He then shakes his head at the second question, no he was not mafia. Then, when he was accused of being less than human, he suddenly stands up and says rather defensivley,

"I am 100 percent human thank you very much!"

Spiral has posed:
Spiral shakes one of her metal arms in front of him. "As much life as this." she tells him accusingly. "But not a robot if you forgot, I suppose.". She shrugs, and looks around. Burnt out cars, ruined buildings, safe to say it's not the pleasant part of town. "Is it underground?" she asks, amused suddenly. "That would explain why you can't find it up here. I know this part of town quite well, I've not seen any... robot HQs.".

Temple Fugate has posed:
Clock King's internally growled, this woman was getting on his nerves very, very quick. Suddenly, when she brought up the possibility of the lair being underground, his eyes seemingly widened, as if in realization. He then looked down at his watches again, only to have his eyes widened in surprise. He only had 5 minutes and 5 seconds left! So, he suddenly started to sprint down the street, while saying,

"I think I remember where I put my HQ. Must hurry though, I am almost late!""

Spiral has posed:
Spiral watches him sprint off - and sprints off after him. She's curious now. "Late for what?" she asks. Is there going to be a bomb going off or something near here? In which case it's probably better she stays next to him. She can't think of many reasons to be late. "Your boss got a deadline or something?" she asks, and twirls. That's the only reason to fear being late, really.

Temple Fugate has posed:
Fugate, who seemed much more focused on getting to wherever he was getting to, did not even look at Spiral as he said,

"I have almost every single aspect of my day written down on a very strict, very tight schedule, and I do not like diverting from it."

Eventually, after what seemed like a minute of running, Fugate stopped at a chained up basement hatch door of what appeared to be an old clock store. He tried to open it, but found it to be locked. The man than let's out a savage swear and begins to kick at the door, trying to get it open while frantically checking his watches every five seconds

Spiral has posed:
Spiral follows along, because why not. And recoils a bit at him. "That sounds like worse torture than anything ever done to me. By me.". And she laughs again, this time a bit more strained. Watching the heaving, and the constant checking of time, proves too much, and for once she actually HELPS someone.

She nudges him out of the way with three hands, while her metal arm grasps the basement hatch door. The cybernetic arm is a bit stronger and tougher than the other arms. Then she gives it a mighty heave.

Temple Fugate has posed:
The door opens with a sickening crunch, but miraculously does not break. Fugate rushes past her, without even a thank you and disappears down the hatch, letting out a whoop of joy that quickly fades away, only to be replaced the loud sounds of a generator buzzing. Yep, he found his lair

Spiral has posed:
Spiral makes an unimpressed noise. She helps people once in a blue moon, on a whim. And no wshe does it and barely even gets any acknowledgement from Mr Schedule. She wanders in after him, a bit less enthused than he is, though she teleports to the bottom of the hatch rather than climb down. She's lazy like that.

Then she walks into his lair, curious. Every villain needs a lair. Will he have a soundproofed torture chamber, is the question.

Temple Fugate has posed:
As you enter the man's lair, the first thing you will be hearing is the sounds of ticking, lots of lots of ticking. If you were to follow the noise, you would eventually come into the main part of the lair, and the source of the ticking. There were clocks all over the place, seemingly over 100, possibly even more. They were on the walls, standing up against the wall, even on display via monitors. Next, you would see a mahogany desk with a leather office chair. The desk was decorated with a small electronic clock, a sundial, and a Newton's Cradel. Sitting at the desk was the man, who appeared to be watching his watches and clocks intently, not making any moves at all. Suddenly, all the clocks go off, announcing the hour. The sounds of loud, chimes, beeps, cuckoos, and other clock related noises echoes defeaningly around the base, but yet the man seemed to enjoy it, almost like music. Then suddenly, the second the chiming stoped, he pulled out a laptop and frantically typed into it. He then set it down gentle while muttering to himself,

"Just in time, as always. Now that my operatives in NYC have been alerted to my presense, it is now time for me to write up next weeks schedule."

He then opened his laptop again, typing away faster than you have ever seen anyone type.

Spiral has posed:
As she approaches the inner door to his lair, she can hear the sound of a large number of clocks ticking. All in perfect unison. She actually reaches out for wall with one arm, feeling ill - normally her perceptions are all over the place, seeing into other times, other dimensions, and it took her a while to even learn how to keep track of the present.

Now there's a thousand metronomes ticking in her ear, focusing. She pushes open the door weakly, feeling sick, eyes wide, very focused on the present for a change. And after so long... she doesn't like it. It's like suddennly being half blind, after going from seeing too much.

She looks over the room - the clocks, the odd man typing away on his laptop, now completely ignoring her. He doesn't look like he's going to be a problem for her at least.

She backs away from him, then. "Well... enjoy. Schedule Man.". Ugh. If Mojo is a tyrannical tv executive, this man is a tyrannical project manager. Even worse. She's stifled in his mere presence, especially with this infernal ticking, and wants out, so she backs away, and climbs back up into the street.