Scene #7341: Cranky Kong Is In Prison

Owner	Pose
Janine Liberi	New Donk City has seen some changes of late. The beloved Mayor Pauline has been deposed from her position by 'The Senator.' They have yet to make a public appearance, but their effect is already plain. They, and their 'Council' have made sweeping changes to the city, the biggest of which being the construction of a prison out in the bay. The prison's sole inmate; Cranky Kong, jailed for old kidnapping charges against Mayor Pauline. This arrest and jailing without trial has the city abuzz for sure. Some believe the act justified, particularly the elderly who still remember the terror the ape spread in his heyday. Others point out that the statute of limitations had long expired, that he was not giving fair trial, that he is an old ape and should be left alone. And yet, the sentence remains. But there was one more reason they should have accounted for. Desperate, panicked radio calls start coming from New Donk Port at the bottom of the massive towers that make up the city. Apparently, an ape of some description had stowed away on a barrel and was now making his way up. The city's new EnfarcerBots supplied by the Senator are immediately deployed around the elevator port that carries new arrivals and goods from the port to the city proper. From down below, reports grow more and more frantic, the crowd of civilians using their lunch break to gawk growing more concerned. "It's breached customs! We can't stop - swatted aside security like it was nothin - making for the freight elevator, close the d - HE'S ON THE ELEVATOR AND RIPPING OUT THE CAB -" A buzz of static cuts out the call. An old man in the crowd is trembling as the EnfarcerBots begin deploying strengthened shutters around the building to create a siege. "It's happening again... the lineage of that damned ape will destroy our city once again!" A great impact shakes the building as something slams against the door from within, knocking back the EnfarcerBots as they struggle to maintain the barrier. "Run! Hide! And hope! Hope against hope that he won't come for you and yours!" Another impact. One EnfacerBot is completely scraped. "IT'S HIM! HE'S COMING!" With one final, explosive impact, the Enfarcers are all knocked back, a great gorilla clad in a red tie exploding from the building and landing before the crowd, pounding his chest and roaring a challenge to the world. "DONKEY KONG IS HERE!"
Gawain	Among the crowd, as the reports come in, a motorcycle pulls up. The rider's cleared himself with the local authority - one Sir Gawain, Knight of the Sun, Warden of the Paladins. During his ride, he had the situation explained to him by the Paladins over earpiece. This is suspicious as it gets - a coup and an unfair imprisonment - but the focus has to be the rampaging creature. Pulling up with the custom motorcycle, Gawain tilts to a stop, dressed in a fine suit with a golden floral-printed tie. He's a big guy, probably been called 'gorilla' before. A strange sense of kinship with the literal gorilla. "Donkey Kong! I am Sir Gawain! Please stop your rampage immediately! If you have any concerns or need aid, you may levy them to me!" The gorilla could only be worried about Cranky Kong. That means he's sympathetic and someone to help, not just fight.
Karlan Nobles	A giant monkey hellbent on freeing his captive grandfather, a mayor pushing for forgiveness of her former captor, and a mysterious shadowy figure behind everything... That's more than enough to draw Pramanix's ire as she arrives not too long after the motorcycle rider, signaling to the driver of the black sedan she had arrived in before stepping away as it drives off to who knows where. She doesn't look happy, but she does at least look pleased with Gawain's plea. Pramanix is nowhere near as large nor in charge as the knight, although she does match in looking like someone that actually fits in between the fine blue coat with black accents, the fancy hat, and even the custom-made bag slung over her shoulder holding her bell. "Reasoning away the problem won't get us anywhere, I'm afraid. A problem like this requires direct solutions." She gives Gawain a gentle tap on the opposite shoulder as she steps closer to him, then turns to the chest-beating ape. "If someone's been sentenced without so much as a trial after making amends with even the victim, then the only thing left to do is free them. Isn't that right, Sir Kong? Do you know where he's being held?"
Liza Grier	After the last 'job' had been a complete farce, Liza thought she would have to experience a lull in activity comprised of swiftly running out of things to do, stalking around her ship, listening to the scanner, staring at listings, and being generally agitated by the longer than usual gap between action. This turned out to not be the case when news reaches her of something so absurd that she can scarcely believe it. Not the raging ape part. The senator part. Amidst the clearing created by the fearful crowd, a bolt of fuchsia light drops from the heavens, striking the pavement, bouncing once and expanding into the shape of a person. The coherent light flakes off of a figure clad in black tactical armour fastened with bloodrate plates, helmet under her arm just long enough to glance back at the crowd, and Gawain, and say nothing. Looking at the giant ape instead, Liza strolls past towards the building and claps Donkey Kong on the bicep on the way, fastening her helmet on a moment later, and pumping a hefty breaching shotgun. "Come on. Let's go in, big guy."
Janine Liberi	Donkey Kong, in response to Gawain's plea, simply slams the concrete in front of him with both fists and bellows defiantly. This ape is beyond reason and due process. He's mad, and anyone who advises a way beyond 'smashing the city until his grandfather is free' is gonna catch those massive hands. However, it turns out that he has supporters. Liza gets a thumbs-up and a baritone "OK!" whereas Pramanix only gets an exaggerated shrug from the gorilla. So he can talk, but vocabulary seems limited. However, he immediately looks up at the nearest tallest building. Does he intend to scout things out? "ENFARCERBOTS, ROILING OUT." From the nearby streets and alleys, Enfarcers come pouring in to the plaza, surrounding everyone. They all stand and move upon a single wheel with an upper body consisting of a glass dome upon a metal cylinder (it almost looks like a repurposed trashcan). Within the dome are two 'eyes' and glow and bounce upon springs. But most concerning is the blasters strapped to either side of them. "SURROUNDER, AND LAY FACE DOWN ON THE MOUND." Donkey Kong does not 'surrounder.' Instead, he barrels into the ground, tucking and rolling and using his enormous bulk to crush and scatter the machines. With a single leap, he grabs and swings from a streetlight, launching himself from it to the roofs whereupon he begins making his way to that tall building.
Gawain	Donkey Kong rejects Gawain, who leaps back as the group is slammed with concrete. Negotiations with Liza go extremely downhill, and Gawain formulates a plan. He needs to get Cranky Kong released. Jumping back on his bike as Donkey Kong leaps away, he drives off into the streets. To Liza or Pramanix, at first, it might seem like he's fleeing. But after a few moments...they'll notice he's not headed for the warpgate. He's using local maps to find where the Senator would be located. He assumes the Mayoral Office, where he'll go to detain and safeguard the Senator. He puts in the call to inform the Paladins of what he's doing, as he drives as safely but quickly as possible.
Karlan Nobles	With things already getting heated between Gawain and Liza, it's up to Pramanix to try to cool things down! Barely. "If we're all in agreement on the goal, then let's focus on thatand just see where this all takes us." She replies with a light clap of her hands, glossing over the ideological conflict in favor of focusing on the Enfarcers arriving and already shouting orders. "Rounder...? That's not how that... Oh, whatever. There's no time for this." Opening her bag, Pramanix retrieves her bell and gets to ringing as she works her magic, a sudden gust of wind blowing through the streets towards the group and that tall building in the distance. The machines that didn't get smashed have the brunt of her magic focused on them, the gusts rapidly turning into unnaturally focused hailstorms barraging the Enfarcers with dense ice bricks. "Lead the way! The winds of Karlan are with you!" Pramanix shouts to Donkey Kong as she starts running with the wind at her back towards that tallest building, all while continuing her bell-ringing ritual to keep the wind billowing and hastening the group's approach without blasting them with hail in the process.
Liza Grier	Gawain wants to use diplomacy and negotiation. Liza categorically refuses. It ends with her saying "As expected of a knight. We're done. I know what a knight exists for. You can line up for a bullet too." Given that he does the opposite of get in her way, instead biking off in the other direction, there's no initial need for it (though her finger does tap the trigger guard thoughtfully for several seconds) and so she heads on without bothering. Though, 'not bothering' doesn't prevent her from blasting several of the Enfarcerbots on the way. Perhaps slightly too-used to extremely slipshod and poorly planned robotics, she doesn't remark on their mangling of basic call phrases with much more than "Who did that bastard contract to make these things?" between bellowing blasts of the shotgun, firing shot designed for piercing ship doors. Donkey Kong already did plenty of work out front, so her work is practically that of clean up, and so it doesn't take long before she's braced the stock against her chin, begun loading in a few fresh shells (glowing bits and all) and flashed a thumbs up at the great ape starting his climb. Not possessing a cool space motorbike, Liza primes and throws some tiny, beeping something deep into the urban mess, and then begins climbing herself, activating the gravity emitters in her boots and sprinting up the side at top speed. She's looking to reach a high vantage where she can spot the prison building out in the bay, taking the opposite side from the Kong himself.
Janine Liberi	As Gawain peels off to find the Senator, he doesn't actually have far to go. A few streets away, an EnfarcementBot lets out a shrill whistle at him. "CLEAN THE STREETS CIVILIAN. THE SENATOR IS COMING THREW!" A whole cavalcade of them are escorting a hideously yellow super-long limo with purple tinted windows. Abruptly, the roof opens up, letting out the stench of garlic as something from within rises out. It's a short, fat man sitting in a hoverchair, wearing an ill-fitting yellow suit with purple tie. Embroided on the breast pocket is a purple W. He runs his hands through his slicked brown hair and adjusts his crooked mustache. "Eeeeexcellent. Everything according to pla-wha?!" He spots Gawain and mumbles to himself, "Ah yes, one of those 'heros' from beyond here. Time to put on my patented charm. Ahem!" He then shoots Gawain a crooked grin and a thumbs-down. "Don't you worry citizen! I, SENATOR WARIO, shall deal with Donkey Kong! Wahahahahahaha!" And with that, his hoverchair blasts off, heading towards the tall building. The EnfarcerBots crumble easy under Pramanix's icestorm. DK up above utilizes some kind of silly-looking spin with his arms out to maximise airtime with the wind at his back. He winds up crashing through a window of the building, and starts making his way up from within, clearing a path for Pramanix to follow. Eventually, he smashes through the roof and climbs the flagpole at the very top. From here is a brilliant view of New Donk. However, much of its cheery vibe seems dimmed, no doubt thanks to the Senator. In the distance is the 1981 bridge that spans the bay below. And down below near it is the newly built Battery Prison. That's where Cranky is held. DK points to it dramatically, but before he can jump down, something slams into him. A squat, fat man in a hoverchair, surrounded by a barrier that arcs with electricity on contact with DK, sending him plummeting. "WAHAHAHA! Never fear citizens! I, SENATOR WARIO shall defeat this menace with my indestructable Elect-O Barrier!"
Gawain	Gawain doesn't make it to the Senator in time, because the Senator comes flying forward in a hoverchair out of a limo. Gawain just parks there and shows shock as he thumbs-down him, and then watches him fly away. It takes Gawain a few moments before he realizes. "Wait!" He speeds up the motorcycle, turns around, and starts rushing for that tall building. Right at the apex of his ride, he suddenly stands up, and moves to leap up to part of the building's exterior, going through a window if he has to, calling out to his bike below. "BRAKE!" The motorcycle's speech-to-command initiates, which he had installed so he could do cool video game-like stunts, yes. Using the sunshine superspeed he has, Gawain moves to reach the top of the building, and confront both the Senator and probably Liza as well. "Senator Wario! Sir Gawain, Warden of the Paladins. You're under arrest for this coup. Please surrender peacefully!" He shouts to Pramanix nearby. "Help Donkey Kong!" While that's happening, Gawain summons his sword and armor. He realizes this is gonna be a fight.
Karlan Nobles	"That should help us get a better idea of where the place is...!" Pramanix follows Donkey Kong's lead, hopping over debris and dramatically mantling over parked vehicles that she really doesn't need to on her way to that massive building. As serious as the situation is, she still takes that moment to enjoy herself in her new surroundings, but the sight of a strange yellow man in a chair propelling towards the ape pointing at the bay area prison has her thoroughly confused on what she's even looking at. Wario zaps Donkey Kong, and the monkey goes down. That, at least, is considerably easier for her to process. "I'm on it! Watch your heads, friends!" Leaving the Senator situation alone for the time being, Pramanix instead focuses all of her efforts on summoning and redirecting more of that gusting wind. Somewhere below Donkey Kong now, she starts blasting that wind upwards to slow his descent. "I've got you! Just don't land on me!" She shouts up at him, all the dense clumps of ice follow in the wake of her winds, blowing past the junior Kong and Liza alike with a wide berth. The snow starts gathering at multiple points along the side of the building, forming into packed platforms providing a convenient method of ascent for herself, DK, and Liza should she need a break from climbing.
Liza Grier	"I see it." Liza says to Donkey Kong upon working her way up the icy platforms and reaching the top, noting the direction of his gesticulating. The distance is pretty extreme, so after adjusting her optics to the maximum zoom, Liza decides to call in for something else. There's a clack-clack-clack not unlike the loading of shells from earlier, having to do with the heavy PDA integrated into the inner surface of her suit's wrist. Tapping several buttons in quick succession, there's an approval-sounding beep, a glassy crunch, and another bolt of red light drops from the sky -- this time from another direction -- and directly into her arms. Crimson crystals, cracked and dull, are spat out of the computer. The flash of teleporter light peels away from a massive anti-materiel rifle, theoretically used for shooting through the interior corridors of space ships, but perfectly good for its original role of long-distance sniping. Taking a knee, then sliding to a prone position on the roof, Liza throws down the bipod, cozies up to the stock, and links the software in the scope with her helmet HUD, gaining the benefits of hugely enhanced zoom to scope out the building, and ideally find some entry and egress points, quickly detail the security, and find some heat blobs roving within. She is interrupted before drawing conclusive plans by Senator Wario, of all damn things, and almost bowled over when DK is launched from the building. She glances quickly over the side, then sees Pramanix has the heroic ape handled, and thus turns back to the floating Senator, snatching up the rifle and rolling onto her back. "Let's see how invincible it is." she says, only after already firing the first shot at dangerously close range, liable to deafen herself if she didn't already have the helmet on. "If the name is anything to go by, it should be easy enough to compromise." she then adds, much less sarcastically than would be witty, between slamming the bolt and firing another into the hideously tacky, yet apparently still very dangerous vehicle.
Janine Liberi	DK widens his profile as he is caught by Pramanix's winds, ensuring his fall slows and he lands with only a modest thump, rather than a wet splat. He throws the leopard girl a thumbs up before rushing into the building again. Rather than following the path he made previously, he immediately starts carving a new one. For a living wrecking ball like him, both of those are probably equally quick. Up on the roof, Gawain confronts the Senator, who swivels his flying chair to look at him? "Eh? Nonono, that won't do. Senator WARIO does the arresting around here!" Another thumbs down. Is that like, a campaign symbol or something? In this moment, Liza gets to shoot the barrier with a round designed for breaching tanks. But despite her jab at democracy, the Elect-O Barrier holds firm, though it shifts from electric blow towards a slight yellow tint. Maybe if she had a few uninterrupted minutes to pump rounds into it, it'll break. But now Wario turns and begins orbiting the building, still wearing that toothy grin. "Ahh, WARIO sees now. You want to bust out that wrinkly ape I arrested! Well, let good ol' Senator WARIO save you some time!" He taps some commands on the armrest of his chair, and a holographic projection is played. It depicts Cranky Kong himself, a far sight from the massive ape he was when he did the crime he has been imprisoned for. He is suspended off the ground by chains that wrap around him, all locked together with multiple padlocks. Suspended by him, also held up by chains and a lock, is his cane. The projection has no sound, but his furrowed brow and flapping lips imply he's far from pleased with current circumstance. "You see those chains? Those padlocks? All made from Referentium! The strongest, heaviest material known to man! You can break in all you like, but you won't break him free, and you won't be able to carry him away by collapsing the prison around him!" He laughs at his brilliant, probably unethical imprisonment technique. "If you want to save him, you'll need the keys for each lock! But WARIO knows better than to keep them all in one place!" The live feed of Cranky vanishes, replaced by a map of the city, and seven different profiles. "I have split them among my COUNCIL! If you want the keys, take it up with them! Until then, Cranky Kong stays locked up! WAHAHAHA!" SECRETARY TO THE SENATOR: MONA PRISON WARDEN: 5-VOLT TREASURER: ASHLEY CHIEFS OF POLICE: PENNY AND DR. CRYGOR PUBLIC WORKS DIRECTORS: DRIBBLE AND SPITZ PLANNING DIRECTORS: KAT AND ANNA PARKS AND RECREATION DIRECTOR: JIMMY T "So go on! If you're going on a rescue mission, go bother them!" And with that dismissive line, Wario flies away, just as DK bursts through the roof once more and bellows after him.
Gawain	Gawain doesn't move to strike, after seeing how durable the Electo-Barrier is, resisting Liza's fire. Instead, he moves to pay attention to the map and Cranky, snapping pictures with his radio as he does so. Seven keys... Gawain hms, and nods. He turns to Pramanix and Donkey Kong (he completely ignores Liza, because she's not who he's addressing). "I'll round up some allies. We'll get those keys!" Assuming Wario fully escapes, Gawain has no way to battle someone flying through the city, and apparently, they need to go through the full council to solve this, so he doesn't bother. Instead, he leaps off the roof once Wario is gone, in case Liza decides to shoot him or push him off. He'll land near his motorcycle and mount back up to work on getting a rescue team.
Karlan Nobles	Multiple paths up, but only one can be chosen! By the time Pramanix gets up to the roof, she's already forgotten which one she picked in her haste to get to the offending Senator. She arrives just in time to see just what kind of holding facility the elder Kong is, grimacing at both the sight and the lingering stench of garlic. Once again, she's left staring in utter disbelief as flying Senator makes his exit, following up not too far behind the angry ape. "This is so needlessly complicated... All this for one monkey?" She asks with her tone matching her expression, tapping on her forehead after a few moments. "I'll have to ask around, too. Our contacts should get riled up easily enough by this situation..." Indeed, Pramanix herself sounds rather peeved already, but she holds it in to turn to Gawain just in time to see him hurtling off the roof. There's a brief moment where she looks shocked, but that fades almost immediately as she instead turns to Liza. "... Do you think we'd survive that if I called up some more wind?"
Liza Grier	"Wouldn't be that easy." Liza spitefully mutters to herself when the barrier holds firm. "Like a goddamn docking shield." She pulls the bolt to eject the sharpie-sized casing, but doesn't fire again. She brings up her PDA-- But Senator Wario doesn't seem to care. He is so unbothered, sitting behind the ridiculously tacky yet frighteningly practical fruit of his vast stacks of money, that he outright shows her where Cranky is, how he's held there, and the sheer convolutedness of the only way to get him out of it. Well, not the only way, but seven individual hits are easier for her than the alternative. She suddenly tosses the rifle to the side. The seal on her helmet pops and hisses with the flow of air flooding in. She throws it too. Her eyes are on Wario, scarlet as fresh blood. She extends her arm, curling her fingers, gritting her teeth. An eerie kind of mad science glow exudes from her pupils. But the whole process is too long. The Senator has gotten fed up and left on his high speed flying chair-mobile and exited her range. Liza exhales and lets down her hand, slumping over slightly, seemingly calm-- right before turning and firing on Gawain with a smooth draw and triple tap from the bandolier at her waist, narrowly missing him with three heavy handgun shots. She frowns. "Fat bastard is somehow competent enough to plan and pull off all of that, but still tells us exactly where to find them all." She holsters the gun again. "Well, I would have found them eventually anyway. Does he think that we'll see how difficult it is and give up? Or does he think it'll make it easy to prepare a reception once we go through a few and he knows which one we're coming for. Or does he really just not care?" She picks her helmet back on, re-fastening it. "No use trying to make sense of the rich and insane." Liza says, shortly before picking up Pramanix, throwing her over her shoulder, and descending the skyscraper, and teleporting back down to the locator she'd thrown at the foot of the building.