Scarlet Shocker vs the Carnival of Shadows

"Eff. Eff. Ess!!!!" Scarlet Shocker blinked, and stepped out of the base medical transporter. Instinctively she stuck a finger in her mouth and checked teeth, and breathed a little easier. She was fit and healthy, thankfully but it had been a close call. Her most recent memory had been the Carnie bucket head crashing down on her face. The Carnival of Shadows, in Ouroboros, handing the might of Heroes and Villains their collective backsides.


She winced and felt her nose - and needed to get to a mirror. Damn, it confirmed her worst fears. After all the years on the job her rockstar looks had never been tainted but now her aquline note was splattered and crooked. That was going to take surgery that the medi-sporters in the base couldn't handle.


She breathed, and struggling to gather thoughts filled a sink with cold water. She was in the medical facility of the Shock Tactics base. To say it was Spartan was an understatement but it had most of what the crew needed. A quick splash of cold water helped remove the traditional "fug" of the meditransporter and she grimaced at the mirror again. Her nose was bulging and twisted. It would take a while to get that sorted... and inevitably would leave a trace, like the scar under her left eye and the kink in the little finger of her left hand. She'd been lucky. Several years on the job, and she was still standing, largely whole and if she walked away now, not many would be any the wiser.


But walking away was the last thing on her mind. In an hour her world had been turned on its head. It was always meant to be Arachnos, the Rikti, the Council or Nemesis; one of the big players. Not some two-bit wannabe witch with a grudge that would suddenly hand all the heroes their posteriors - and also raise serious questions about how heroes (and villains) plied their trade. More... how the hell could anyone now trust the mysterious Menders to keep the end of time safe? Sure, everyone in the hero community knew Vanessa deVore wasn't to be trifled with, but not many had her high on the global threat level list. But suddenly things looked different. Mender Silos has seemingly been usurped.


"Carnies? Running Ouroboros? That's like the Redcaps taking over Portal Corp," she muttered to herself and struggled out of her outfit. It was mostly shredded and needed to be recycled but fortunately the city paid for replacements. Good job too... they weren't cheap.


She changed quickly, into her reserve (but still highly fashionable) outfit, for the sake of preserving decency and headed swiftly to the base Comms centre. The General Alert had failed to bring any of the Shock Tactics team in, but then she guessed she only had herself to blame. Poor leadership. Even the coalition teams, Wonder League, Generic SG, Karma... no response. She checked map status... Steel Canyon glared red, by Pandora's Box. Several markers for heroes blinked, but red dots indicated they were outnumbered and more red dots were arriving by the moment.


She opened the Shock Tactics group channel. "This is a recorded message. Check the status and the base log. Carnival of Shadows attacking Steel Canyon - overwhelming. If you get this tomorrow and can't raise me, expect the worst." She hit the date-stamp button and then sped to the teleporters - her friends and colleagues were relying on her.


It's always tempting to overstretch when flying and your buddies are in trouble - and this time she gave into it. No good arriving fit and late when you've got friends in the front line. She got there, panting and every muscle aching, a mass of Carnies and a small band of heroes in a tightly packed circle. She focussed and sparks crackled out, replenishing her energy reserves - at the same time she had a moment to idly consider how similar this was to an old Western movie, wagons in the circle beset from all sides. She aimed at a bucket head and zapped him to oblivion, then scanned the area - to spot some blue pointy ears and a few Seneschals with a mood on for them. From her height it wasn't too hard to flop down next to the ears and shock everything in a radius, buying time at least.


"You ok?" she gasped. This was mayhem


The Rabbit looked at her and gave a buck-tooth wink, then smacked back at an Illusionst. "Never better. Thanks for the save."


"Welcome! Don't waste it." Scarlet spiralled out, piling on attack after attack in a rare fury, alternating range and point-blank attacks. She didn't have to choose her target, just reach out and the sparks would do the rest, but the odds where overwhelming. Something caught her in her lower back and threw her meters across the road - to land beside a scaly creature and an unmistakeable piscine odour. She rolled over on to hands and knees, noticing that she'd trashed a car door. She was feeling that one.


"You ok Scarlet?" A large bulbous eye gazed down at her and a webbed... hand? fin? claw? reached out to help her to her feet.


"I'll surivive - for now," she panted. "Knew you'd be here, now duck!" She gave it a second and then exploded in an electrical fury and the hair of every creature around stood straight on end in a static burst but plenty of the Carnival either collapsed or staggered about senseless.


The ?s swung by, Mr and Mrs side by side as ever, fists swinging in a righteous rage, clearing a path but more Carnies filled the gap. A Carnival mage, robes swirling hovered up to Scarlet, ghosts attending her to ward off attackers, and reached out gently with a long finger to touch Scarlet on the cheek and a deadly whisper: "You cannot see or hear. It is painful," said the mage. Scarlet reeled in agony as her senses were overloaded in excruciating pain. She dropped from her hover and fell to floor, holding on to the asphalt for dear life.


Someone put an hand under her armpit and lifted her up, and snapped fingers in front of her nose. "Ok you're fixed. You ok? See me ok?" She looked at the golden-garbed figure and nodded, feeling fine suddenly.


"Thanks," she grinned and clenched her fists, powering her electrical armour. Right in front of her, an unknown hero took an horrendous blow from an Attendant and toppled. Scarlet stepped over his body and whirled with her fists, connecting with someone who wasn't going to feel much more for a few hours. An ally, unnoticed, cast a spell and the fallen hero slowly climbed to his feet.


This... this was what she was here for. Never mind tomorrow, when questions would be asked about how the Carnival of Shadows managed to dupe the Menders, or how Vanessa deVore managed to break out from the Zig or all the other questions. The moment was now and it was here, in this electrical maelstrom, this was why she was in Paragon. This berserk fury was what Scarlet Shocker did best and whatever happened from now on, this was her moment!


She grinned and aimed... However this ended, in the face of one of the biggest challenges of her career, she was always going to be Defiant!


*Thanks to everyone involved in making this happen. This was seriously one of the best events I've ever been involved in during the almost four years I've been in this game and I didin't know how else to say thanks to everyone who was there.*

"You got to dig it to dig it, you dig?"
Thelonious Monk

....wut?

Did you intend to put this in the RP section and just goofed?

What event?

Bravo!

Glad you had fun, Scarlet Shocker.