4493/A Late-Night Christmas Shopping Spree

A Late-Night Christmas Shopping Spree
Date of Scene:	26 December 2020
Location:	Caverton's Department Store, NYC
Synopsis:	The Golden Eagle meets The Clock King
Cast of Characters:	Temple Fugate, Yaretzi Acama

---

Temple Fugate has posed:
Christmas Day is usually a time of festive joy and being with ones loved ones. Normally, one would never associate it with crime. This, of course, is a mistake. Every Holiday Season there are those who would take advantage of the festive season to commit crimes, Temple Fugate was one of those people. Tonight was a night that he had been planning for weeks, the robbery of the Caverton's Department Store in Midtown. Caverton's was a three story building and was considered one of the fanciest department stores in the city, with only the highest grade items being sold inside. Normally, robbing this place would be a fools errand, but tonight was different. Some fool in the store's HR department decided to give the physical security the night-off and rely soley on the very advanced security system to protect the store, something Fugate was about to take advantage off, and no doubt cause the mass firing of the HR Department after Christmas Day.

At exactly 9:05 PM, an alarm clock started to ring inside the store. This clock was left behind by one of Fugate's men, who hid it behind a tin trash can to avoid it being discovered. As the clock continued to ring, it suddenly started to release a blue electronic aura that quickly spread across the store. Every piece of electronics that touched the EMP immediately got fried, including the security system. As soon as the ringing stopped, an explosion rocked the store and a group of over 10 men flooded into the store through a hole in the side entrance. Each of these men were clad in matching black sweaters decorated with the image of a clock's face, black slacks and shoes, and a flat black cap. These were the Second Hands, Clock King's henchmen, no doubt on a fiendish mission for their boss. Suddenly, a final figure scrambled through the hole as well. He was 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. He was wearing a pair of glasses whose frames resembled that of a clock face. His face with neutral and calculating as he observed the room around him. Suddenly, he pulled out a pocket watch from his jacket pocket and looked at it intently. He then placed it back in his suit pocket and said to the gathered Second Hands,

"Second Hands. This is the Caverton Department store. Three floors of the finest luxuries in Manhattan. Take as much as you can carry but remember, we must be out of here in exactly 10 minutes! Now, begin!

The Second Hands immediately charged into the store and began to loot it while Fugate himself, accompanied by one of his Hands began to walk up the stairs towards the managers office, and the safe within.

Yaretzi Acama has posed:
It's Christmas Night. The Acama family had a few friends over for dinner and gift-giving. The 'party' lasted a few hours, then the guests departed and Yaretzi's parents had a few drinks before retiring to bed. Yaretzi's a teenager, though, and she had a good time at the party and is still a bit keyed up even as her parents are assuming that she, too, is going to bed.

When everything quiets down, though, Yaretzi sneaks out to the rooftop patio that's a part of the apartment in which her family resides... and calls out "Cuatli!", transforming into Golden Eagle. "Mom and Dad are asleep... and what better way to spend Christmas Night than by patrolling a little bit, in case someone's trying to make it a less happy night for someone else?", the heroine thinks to herself as she flies off into the night, over the city she calls home.

Golden Eagle, flying along at a somewhat sedate pace, just happens to be over Midtown when an explosion ruins the somewhat quiet night. (It's only somewhat quiet... this -is- NYC, after all!) Pausing to hover a moment, she looks in the direction of the sound... to see a hole, with figures scrambling through it and dust still settling around it, torn into the side of the Caverton Department Store -- and she assumes, rightly so, that the explosion she just heard created the hole. Just as she thought might happen, some ne'er-do-well is trying to commit a crime on Christmas Night!

The heroine dives down out of the sky and down to the wall with the hole in it, slowing and coming to a hovering 'rest' just outside the hole as she looks in, to get an idea of what's going on inside -- before just going in 'guns blazing', so to speak.

Temple Fugate has posed:
As you peer into the hole you would automatically hear a hum of activity, mostly chuckling, cheering, and the sounds of smashing glass. If you were to peer inside you would see the Second Hands all over the store, looting it. Some were running around with boxes under their arms. Others were smashing jewelry display cases and stuffing the items inside. Others were forcing open cash registers and stealing the money inside. ;luckily, they did not seem to notice you yet.

Yaretzi Acama has posed:
Golden Eagle puts her hands to her hips momentarily, then looks out away from the store, thinking to herself, "This many goons... they -gotta- have some kinda getaway truck or something." She floats to the street to look for the vehicle she's presuming will be nearby, before just going in to... waste some time.

Temple Fugate has posed:
As you start to fly over the store and around it's perimeter you would eventually see a black van parked off in a nearby alleyway. If you were to investigate you would see that the driver was one of the Second Hand's, as evident fron the Black Sweater. He appeared to be listening to music on his phone and was completely oblivious to your presence.

Yaretzi Acama has posed:
Golden Eagle flies over to the van and punches through the driver's side window (even if it's closed), aiming to simply knock out the driver.

Her plan is knock out the driver before scooping up the van to fly it away and around the the far side of the block, away from where it's supposed to be waiting for the robbers. There, she'll pull open the hood... and rip out a few pieces of the engine in the hopes of actually disabling the vehicle, hopefully all without any warning going out to the guys inside the store.

Assuming all goes as planned, she'll just fly back to, and into, the store through the same hole they blasted into the wall -- and start knocking out bad guys.

Temple Fugate has posed:
The Driver lets out a pained grunt as your fist impacts his jaw, hard. He then collapses onto the steering wheel, beeping the horn in the process. After disposing of the car you, of course, fly into the store. The Second Hands are completley caught off guard by your arrival, as evidenced by their panic-filled faces as you send one of them flying into a perfume display. You managed to KO two more of them before a whizzing fills the air. If you were to look up you would see a pocket watch flying towards you, a pocket watch with an explosive surprise

Yaretzi Acama has posed:
Golden Eagle eyes the pocket watch coming her way. Her superhuman reflexes let her simply snatch it out of the air, actually trying to not damage it -- she's assuming it's a piece of the 'loot' the Second Hands have been gathering, thrown her way as an attempt to distract her, and she's trying to not damage it.

This assumption, of course, is going to blow up in her face (LITERALLY!) as she opens her hand and glances down at the watch she just caught -- hoping she didn't accidentally crush it as she caught it.

Temple Fugate has posed:
From within the clock you could hear a fain ticking noise, as if it were counting down the seconds. Suddenly, you hear a beeping noise and the clock explodes in your face, literally. As this is happening, a nasally, calculating voice cries out from the third floor,

"Just what my time table needs, another hero! Just Brilliant! Hurry up boys, we need to leave now!"

This voice was, of course, The Clock King, and he was holding a duffle bag full of what can only be assumed as money.

Yaretzi Acama has posed:
Golden Eagle's eyes widen as she hears the ticking, and she hurries to try and 'pull a Superman', closing her fist and covering it with her other hand to try and contain the explosion from the watch.

It -kinda- works.

She's not quite as strong as the Man of Steel, so she can't squeeze down hard enough to completely contain the explosion. She is able to localize it, however, so that it doesn't cause as much collateral damage as it otherwise might've.

It does, also, knock her back and away, sending her crashing backwards into a display case of jewelry behind her. The heroine, her face smudged dark by the explosion, gets to her feet -- her eyes searching for the sound of the voice; after all, the way that person spoke makes him clearly the 'boss' of the bad guys. More importantly... she's not been blinded by the brightness of the explosion having happened right in her face.

She's also shaking her hands, which took the brunt of the explosion. She's tough enough to have survived it... but the skin of the palms of her hands can be seen through what little is left of her gloves, and it's raw and reddened after her hands absorbed the brunt of the explosion.

Temple Fugate has posed:
As you look up you will catch a glimpse of the source of that voice, the Clock King, still clad in his brown tux and glasses. He looks down at you impassively as he pulls out another pocket watch and starts to twirl it. He then says,

"I was hoping this crime wouldn't have any delays. But, you heroes seem always interested in vexing my schedules!"

Suddenly, he hurls the pocket watch at you before suddenly making a run for it, grasping the duffle bag tightly as he did.

Yaretzi Acama has posed:
Golden Eagle flies over, snatching the new watch out of the air and balls herself around it, pressing it against her middle with her forearms in an attempt to smother this explosion, too.

At least she's ready for it, this time, when it explodes.

She's left with some of the cloth on her midriff and on the inner part of each lower arm blown away, the revealed skin left reddened, like that of the palms of her hands -- but she was able to keep herself from being flung about by the explosion, this time, avoiding more collateral damage.

The 'snuff the grenade' bit done, she lifts her eyes and simply flies into the nearest of the bad guys, aiming to bodily tackle him into as many others as she can manage.

Temple Fugate has posed:
The Second Hand you plow into cries out in pain as he collides into five other Second Hands. Meanwhile, Fugate sighs in frustration as he pulls out a alarm clock from his suit pocket and winds it up, he then tosses it at Eagle. However, instead of an explosion, it would release a bright flash of light and echo with a loud bang.

Yaretzi Acama has posed:
Golden Eagle sees -another- clock of some sort being thrown her way, and, as she's letting the Second Hands fall in disarray, catches it, too... a moment before it also goes off in her face. She blinks her eyes afterwards, but looks right -at- Clock King. She wasn't blinded at all... deafened, yes, but blinded? Nope.

One of the Second Hands, though, has the presence of mind (after he managed to avoid being blinded, too, by virtue of having another Second Hand laying over his face) to reach up and grab at Golden Eagle's ankle as she's starting to float towards Clock King.

The grabbing of her ankle has the desired effect; it makes her stop and turn to reach down and clonk the Second Hand on the head to KO him, after which she takes the time to clonk the others who are still conscious. With the mooks KO'd, she turns to look towards the hole in the wall, intent on catching the 'boss' bad guy, now.

And, the theme of the event, with all the clocks on the sweaters of the mooks, the exploding pocketwatches, the exploding alarm clock... she's finally recognized the villain for who he is. "What's the Clock King doing in Manhattan?", she thinks to herself, as she flies towards the hole earlier blown in the wall of the store.

Temple Fugate has posed:
Unfortunately, the ankle gave gave Fugate more than enough time to slip out the same hole in the wall he created. As you emerge you would see Fugate's silhouette standing on a nearby rooftop. He turns to stare at you, his eyeglasses seemingly glowing in the dark as he did. Suddenly, he smirks and waves at you before hurling himself off the roof to his seemingly gruesome demise. However, there was no sound of a body hitting concrete, not even a thud.

Yaretzi Acama has posed:
Golden Eagle flies up, spots Clock King just as he falls, and her eyes widen in surprise that he's, apparently, just throwing himself off the roof. She freezes for a moment, and then rushes through the air to that edge of the roof and looks down... and fails to see the villain on the roof of a bus that's driving away, as she's looking down instead of across.

Confused, the heroine does finally looks back and forth, up and down the street, but the late-night bus is already rounding a corner, carrying the bad guy out of her line of sight.

Her feet touch the rooftop, and her puts her hands on her hips, pouting. "How the heck did he do -that-?", she says, then lifts one hand to the side of her head as she realizes she's still deafened from the flash-bang alarm clock. Pursing her lips, she steps away from the edge of the rooftop and flies back into the broken-into department store, where she sets to pulling the belts of the mooks and using those to bind them up... to leave them, all tied up in a bundle, for the police to find when they do finally arrive to the crime scene.

Eventually, she does fly away and back to the Acama residence, where she lands on the rooftop patio and transforms back into Yaretzi -- who seems completely unmarked as a result of Golden Eagle having soaked up the brunt of two pocketwatch grenades. Still, the 'action' of the night was definitely what the teenager needed; she heads for her bedroom, to get herself to bed!