Cirque du Scurra (Private ask before joining, Black Knight)

"GOOD MORNING CHICAGO!!!" Scurra said as she appeared on every single TV screen in the city of Chicago, striking a welcoming and happy go lucky pose bobbing from side to side in order to show her giddy mood to all of the people of Chicago. The skies of Chicago were still in the stages of morning, just barely past 10:00 AM. However, the time of day wasn't gonna stop Scurra from what she was gonna do. Scurra skipped along the top of the building, whistling to herself merrily as she began to broadcast her show. "It's my first time in Chicago so treat me well, I'm Giggles the Clown, but you can call me Scurra for short. And today we'll be showing you our newest act"

Scurra walked over to the side as the camera panned along side it. She motioned her hand like a show girl towards a man in a Black Box/Iron Maiden with the cover open. The man was tied and gagged and placed in a straitjacket in order for him to be unable to move. Scurra then motioned to the other side, which revealed to be a bus full of children, all scared and screaming for their lives, tethered to a rigged link.

"I was lucky to find a group of people "willing" to help me out" Scurra said as she made quotation mark gestures as she said "willing", then turned to the sign behind her which indicated which building she was on. "I've been hearing a lot about this place and I've heard of this Black Knight, they say he came from this town and that he is some sort of "hero" well I'm gonna see just how good of a hero he is"

Scurra pulled out a mysterious device and placed it onto her chest, the device looked to be some sort of malfigured timer. The time ticked at only an hour and a half and it wouldn't be long for the timer to do whatever it was meant to do. Scurra winked at the camera and smiled her classic smile.

"Now I'll be waiting for you Black Knight" Scurra said as she started juggling her knives "Don't disappoint"

((OOC: I chose not to immediately respond or find out about the broadcast because Elaine wanted to get involved; so it's not the best post. It's up to you, if you'd prefer for this to just be me and you, I can easily edit.))

William hadn't slept through the night, but the fatigue wouldn't set in on him, his body and mind had become used to it. It took days with out sleep for it to have effect on his super human body, he was still fully alert and prepared for anything. He spent the entire night fully geared up as The Black Knight patrolling the crime ridden streets of Chigaco, dealing with thugs and simple crimes like robbery's and mugging's. The Dark Avenger was perched atop one of the tallest buildings in the city, down on one knee as he watched over the crowded streets looking for any sign of trouble, but he was looking in the wrong place. He was completely unaware what was happening on the other end of the city. On a rooftop far from his position, there was an insane circus freak trying to get the legendary hero's attention, but he was no where near a television and would not be able to see the lunatic make her broadcast. Unfortunately he wouldn't know about her crazy antics until the authorities contacted him, and hopefully by then it wasn't too late.

Something in his gut didn't feel right, he felt as if something bad was about to happen, but he just couldn't put his finger on it. 'Perhaps I should contact Elaine and see if she's found anything.' He thought to himself as he raised his vision to the sky, staring up at the morning sun hidden by behind the clouds. It was a gloomy morning, it looked like it was going to rain very heavily later on in the day. Despite that, to him it was a beautiful sight to behold, he always appreciated the simple things, or at least tried to.

The Black Knight decided that he'd contact his new recruit shortly, but for now he'd just continue to watch over his portion of the city. He had instructed his new recruit to watch over the other half of Chigaco, a simple patrol to show her the ropes. They didn't know it yet, but this patrol would not be be simple at all.

The static buzz of a stack of televisions glowed on Elaine's face. Her first night on patrol and she didn't need to worry about fighting dullness or boredom anymore. "Hey." She tugged on the sleeve of a man next to her. "Where is that?"

"Downtown." The man stuttered through.

"I'm kind of a superhero, so..." Elaine rolled off with an air of superiority. "If you could give me directions, I'll go save the day."

"No, it's too dangerous; you'll end up like that guy." Elaine's brows dropped at the sign of disrespect.

"Anyone? Anyone want to tell me?" She sighed under her breathe and walked back, dropping her mouth piece out of her hat and placing her finger into the ear piece. "Knight this is Elaine." I need a superhero name, she thought to herself. "There's trouble brewing. A clown kidnapped a bunch of kids and a man. Now she's threatening to kill them unless you make an appearance."

Sirens erupted into the silence. Now, she was in business. She took off down the sidewalk in pursuit of the flashing lights. They stopped in front of a large building, too afraid to do anything. Negotiators and other high ups from the police department were summoned to deal with this new menace, but they all waited for the Black Knight. "I'm at the building." She looked for the street signs around her to give him proper knowledge of where the clown set up her devious trick. She rattled off the address of the building into her mouth piece.

Police held a perimeter behind a wall of barricades and yellow tape. She couldn't just stand around her; she needed a way in. She gazed around for an entrance into the building, or a hole in the barricade. She darted for a side street to get close to the building. "Woah, miss, you need to stay back." An officer made a grab for Elaine's arm, but she spun out of his grip and proceeded as quickly as she could to the building's outer wall. She counted the trajectory of the jump she would need in her head, only a few more feet and she could get inside the building. Johnny Law tried to step in front of the sprinting girl, and held his arms out to grab her. As she came into physical contact with him, she made her shadow jump and landed safely inside the building.

The Black Knight remained perched high above the city, moving his vision from the gloomy morning sky back to the busy streets below. It had been dull for the last several hours, no sign of crime or any danger since the night before. Sometimes he really wished he could just have a drink or a smoke while waiting like this, but he couldn't risk clouding his thought process in any way if something were to happen. The Black Knight barely ever had time to himself, especially recently. He started to trail off in his own thoughts, thinking about his plans for the future, and a part of him couldn't help but feel empty. It was something that always bothered him, but he shrugged off his emotional distress and pushed it aside so that he could deal with the bigger problems. His thoughts were interrupted by Elaine's voice coming in over the communicator, "Knight this is Elaine." he quickly responded to her in his deep voice. "Knight here. What is it Elaine?"

He listened to her describe the dangerous and life threatening situation before speaking up again. "Understood. I'll start moving immediately, but contact me before you approach this clown. I need an exact location." He wasn't sure exactly where to go yet, but he knew he which general direction he had to move in. He pulled out his line launcher gun, intending to use it to quickly zip himself across roof top to roof top. This was the quickest way to maneuver through a big city for him.

A few minutes passed, and the Black Knight had covered a lot of ground. Elaine contacted him once again, telling him she was in front of the building the clown had prepared her scheme at. His new recruit quickly gave him the address and luckily for him he was not far from there at all. "Wait to go in together Elaine. We don't know what this 'clown' is capable of." He moved towards his destination as quickly as possible, continuing to use his line-launcher to zip through the city.

"Go in together, got it." Elaine's voice echoed through the stairwell, as she ascended to the top floor. She knew the clown probably accessed surveillance cameras and would cut off any elevator movement. Her legs lunged forward through taking the stairs by two until she reached the roof.

Brief exhaustion came into her legs as she reached the top floor of the building. The handle of the door to the roof remained stationary to Elaine's attempts the throw it open. Needing to gain momentum, Elaine rushed back to the top of the stairs and jumped into incorporeal limbo.

The rooftop opened up before her. Swivel cameras surveyed the roof top, keeping watchful eye over the black box and the bus. Warnings to wait for Black Knight fell from her mind as she saw victory so close to her hands. Disabling the box presented her with a challenge she felt she could overcome. Elaine crept along the rooftop and looked over the black box. Rigged, she though to herself. She removed the knife from her boot and examined the rigging mechanism.

She couldn't stay hidden for long with the camera staying focused on the box. Hopefully the clown would stay focused on the rooftops and not on the interloper. She could grab the man and jump out of the box, but it could set off a trap that would cause the bus to fall. All this thinking got her now where. Time for action. Action that didn't end in fatalities she hoped. She pulled out her lasso and pistol and walked into the open.

"Carnivals over, clown." Her lasso sat ready to grab the man out of the box. She examined the rooftop to see where the clown would come from. "Isn't taking hostages a little cliche?" She watched her words to avoid anything that the clown would twist to mean drop the bus or slam the door shut. "Can't we just do this in a civil manner. Two girls just shooting the breeze, and by breeze I mean clown?" Elaine kept her gaze surveying the rooftop for all the danger that awaited her.

Scurra smiled to herself when she heard the voice behind her, the one behind her was obviously not the one that she was looking for, but an, unexpected surprise. Well, not unexpected, but a less probable event to occur. However, the one who now should have a weapon at Scurra's back, which by Scurra's guesses was a girl of younger age, had made a grave mistake, not shooting Scurra when she had the chance.

"Well Sweetie, for an old fashioned girl like me, the cliche is a must" Scurra said as she turned around to face the other individual, who was in fact just as Scurra predicted. Scurra's smile would be unnerving to most, being completely calm and smug when being face to face with a gun pointed to her. "And Honey, you just 'closed' your window of opportunity"

The moment Scurra finished her sentence, the do to the Iron Maiden slammed shut on the man within, causing him to scream in pain and horror before the silence of death could be witnessed and the pool of blood began to pour out of the bottom. Scurra laughed as the man's screamed grew still, the girl had done something expected, so Scurra had to do the same. When Scurra finally managed to stop with her laughter, she looked at the girl with her twisted smile.

"Well... That was fun wasn't it?" Scurra chuckled "Now, if you wanna shoot the breeze..."

Scurra pulled out a revolver and pointed it at the girl, smiling as the barrel elongated into an even more lengthy barrel, giving it a ridiculous look.

"I got a good six-shooter right here" Scurra said with a smile "Let the fun begin"

Instantly, Scurra began to open fire, unleashing a shot straight for the girl, her arm blowing back from the recoil of the immensely powerful gun.

None of her training prepared her for what she witnessed. The gagged mumbles of the man died into silence. That death was her fault. Her muscles felt dead,

Before she could recuperate her stature a bullet flew towards her. Her foot moved to the side granting her a slight reprieve from the trajectory of the bullet, but failed to save her from the full magnitude of its force. The bullet's velocity flung Elaine to the ground and forced her shoulder into the hard concrete roof. She felt a pop, but could still feel rotation in her arm.

The clown didn't wait for Elaine, so she saw no reason to wait for her. She threw the lasso around the black box and made a quick jump behind Giggles, delivering quick leg blow that if successful would knock her back over the taut rope.

Elaine felt the trauma return to her head and her vision blur before her. A strangely dressed man stood before her operating a camera. Sick, twisted, little demons she thought through a lens of hatred. The blurred vision of her jump distorted their faces even more, showing their faces as fun house mirror images of themselves. Her mind could hardly hold up anymore. Her fingers slid from the gun she held. The harsh concrete deflected the impact of the gun, causing it to bounce before spinning with the chamber facing down Elaine.

"Knight. Trouble." She gasped into the pick up in her hat.

((OOC: To be clear, at the end of my post I am still gliding in the air towards the building. I have not landed yet.))

The Black Knight moved as swiftly as possible towards the building Elaine was waiting for him at; or so he thought. He sprinted from roof top to roof top, leaping across the gaps when they were small enough, and using his line-launcher or grappler when they were not. The Black Knight landed on one knee after leaping an extraordinary gap, he looked up at the massive skyscraper that was before him; it towered over this portion of the city. He withdrew his grappler once again, aiming it at the roof of the tall building and pulling the trigger. The device made a quiet clicking noise, and a moment later he was quickly ascending the building. He pulled himself up onto the rooftop and quickly walked towards the opposite end. He was drawing very close, the building Elaine had instructed him to go to now in plain sight.

The Black Knight stood extremely close to the edge, staring down at the situation below. Both the Police and Swat team had the entire building surrounded, but they would not be able to do anything; only provide support. From here he could the rooftop this ‘clown’ was apparently on, but he was not using his cowl to advance his sight so the situation was still unclear to him. He planned to scan the rooftop from here, but that was quickly interrupted when he heard Elaine’s voice come in over the communicator. It was obvious she needed his help and quick, he quickly spoke up in his deep voice. “Hang in there Elaine.” He was a little upset that she didn’t listen to his instructions, but that didn’t matter right now, he had lives to save.

He scowled beneath his mask, moving to leap off the edge of the skyscraper. He glided through the air, soaring down towards the rooftop the two were apparently on, intending to do everything in his power to save those threatened by this psychopath.

Scurra skillfully dodged out of the way from the girl's attacks flipping over the girl in order to avoid all attempts at her well being. Scurra made another series of flips as she turned to face the girl. Scurra smiled at the girl, looking at her with sadistic and amused eyes.

"I guess you aren't used to this sort of thing aren't you?" Scurra said with a smile "You shoulda killed me when you had the chance Honey, now it is gonna cost ya"

Scurra pulled out a large assortment of knives from her belt and other places in her clothes and began to juggle them. Scurra had very little to care about in this current situation and now she had something to do that was above the simple killing, now she could capture a superhero and use her as a hostage for this Black Knight.

"Alright now Honey, you killed my last hostage so you gotta take his place" Scurra said with a smile "So don't waste too much of my time, we gotta finish this before he gets here"

Scurra began to throw her knives towards the girl with deadly accuracy, and then proceeded to charge straight for the girl with her large daggers, which were linked by chains. To that effect, Scurra span the chained daggers around insanely, at every moment potentially killing herself and the girl at the same time.

A sinister smile intruded upon Elaine's dazed vision; the macabre carnival came back into focus. A quickly fainting sun disappeared behind Scurra's head, presenting her menacing face in a sadistic silhouette. Her film crew gazed upon their ring leader's prey with a silent remorse. They hid whether it was contempt or pity.

Knives flew towards her head, triggering her reflexes to respond to the attack. She kicked up the pistol at her feet and drew out her off hand, firing shots with both hands at the chain wielding clown. Her chains flew with an improbable accuracy, slicing the air around the rooftop with an uncanny insanity. Elaine darted to her left to avoid a severe slash aimed for her head. As her head moved the back end of the chain wrapped around her arms, pinning them to her torso.

The situation grew grim. Elaine backed her boot up against the floor trying to angle her pistols towards the clown. The leverage imposed on her wouldn't allot her much room to display her finesse. She squeezed off five rounds from each gun towards the Scurra's film crew and equipment.

The Black Knight tightly gripped each end of his cape in his hands, gliding through the air and slowly descending closer and closer to the rooftop. The winds pummeling against him were fairly light and gave him little resistance. His ally and this psycho ‘clown’ soon came into view, and things did not seem to be going well for his new recruit. He refused to let any harm come to her! His vision darted back and forth between the two women and the bus full of children; it was a difficult situation. He knew what he had to do, and he had some tricks up his sleeve. He wasn't about to settle for one or the other, at least not that easily.

He skillfully glided down onto the rooftop, landing upon one knee and immediately drawing a gadget from his utility belt. He held the net-gun in his right hand as he pointed it towards the ‘clown’; wasting no time he fired it off with perfect accuracy. A weighted net hurled towards the psychopath, and if she were caught in it, getting out would prove extremely difficult. The Black Knight’s eyes darted over to the school bus full of children. The bus had been hanging over the edge of the building and held up by a strong wire. He assumed that it was rigged to fall when ever the psycho commanded. If that were to happen, he already had something planned. However it would require Elaine to fight the clown alone while he saved them.

At the moment it wasn't a concern. If he could deal with this crazy woman quickly enough, saving the children would be simple.

Scurra managed to dodge all of the bullets with a greatly timed back flip which allowed her to escape the main barrage. She was vaguely impressed by the girl's ability to adapt, it was unnatural for one so young to have such experience. It made her smile on the inside when it came to what she could possibly do, all the fun she could have. But the fun was cut short when Scurra knocked off of her feet by an unknown projectile. It was revealed to be a net, fired off by the Black Knight. Scurra smiled as the net hugged against her barely dressed body, the net digging into her skin. However, this wasn't unexpected, Scurra guessed that this girl she was fighting was a partner, a distraction while Black Knight arrived, though he had tons of time to manage it without her.

"Well if this isn't a surprise?" Scurra said with a smile "I've gotta say, you don't really try and play fair do you?"

Scurra attempted to wriggle her way out of the net, but even with her superior strength, which was surprising. Now it was 2 vs 1, Black Knight and the girl vs Scurra and Scurra had no place to defend herself. However, all was not lost, Scurra had back-up plans. However at the current moments, Scurra was at the mercy of Black Knight and his young partner.

Juxtaposed between the laughter of a clown and the drowned cries of a dying man, Elaine found solid remorse within her pistols.

Maddening remnants of a voice rang in her head. "You should have killed me when you had the chance honey." The net ensnared Scurra, keeping her tied down for the moment. Ridding her of her reflexes and incredible feats of acrobatics. Links of chains fell to the ground with Elaine's reposturing, giving her the range to turn the tables on the vile clown. The evil little creature that drove daggers into her mind.

Sunlight gleamed off the barrel of her pistol. Anger twitched through her nerves and into the mechanisms of the pistols. Her off hand emptied her clip at the camera Scurra used to exploit the fear of the populace. An ever strong hand held the main pistol steady and aimed down the incapacitated clown. "I won't neglect the favor this time. I'll take full advantage of the situation and the gift given to me, clown. Maybe I should have left the camera on." Her feet moved ever so closer to Giggles. "Maybe I should have let the world watch you squirm in pain as I push my fingers into bullet holes I put in you." Her pistol steadied itself out and Elaine's gaze cast down upon the clown. "Maybe I shouldn't enjoy this. But clearly none of those things are true right now." Elaine's finger began to pull the trigger.

His sneak attack was a success, the psychopathic clown woman was easily wrapped up in his net. The Black Knight returned the net-gun to his utility belt and stood still for a moment. He looked to the left to view the Iron Maiden surrounded by a large puddle of crimson; he was far too late to save whoever had been in there. He immediately felt guilty, but he couldn't let it bother him right now. He simply scowled from underneath his mask as he moved his vision back to the clown. The sounds of gunfire rang through his ear, his ally had destroyed all of the psycho's recording equipment; she beat him to it.

Elaine spoke coldly down at the restrained clown, and he immediately became suspicious of his ally's intentions. He began slowly walking over to the two women, and after her next statement her intentions became clear. "Elaine!" He barked boldly at her, but she ignored him and aimed her pistol down at the helpless psychopath. If he did not stop her, she would kill her in cold blood, and he would not stand for that! This was not acceptable by any means, the actions of his fellow Phantom disappointed him; that was not how his team worked.

The Black Knight quickly picked up his speed and closed the small distance between them just in time. He aggressively bumped into her, gripped her wrist, and pushed her firing arm up just as the shot was fire. The bullet went flying into the air instead of into the clown. He did not release his grip on her wrist and moved to hold down the loaded gun in her hand with his free one. "What the hell was that Elaine? You nearly killed her! Psychopath or not, no one deserves to have their life stripped from them. You would be no better than her." He released his grip on her wrist and glared at her; out of the corner of his eye he made sure to watch over the clown. Couldn't risk that psychopath getting loose.

"Hahahahahaha..." Scurra began to chuckle, which transformed into a sinister and sadistic laughter "AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!"

Scurra looked at the girl, who she now knew as Elaine, with amused and sadistic face. Though Scurra didn't manage to kill or capture Elaine, she had managed to do something else. Scurra looked at Elaine with her intuitive eyes and thought of the fun she could have with Elaine. But it was time to poke and prod and make her escape.

"You're becoming just like me, maybe next time you truly will give into your urges" Scurra said "Or maybe you and I can work together someday, I look forward to what you become Elaine"

Scurra looked at the Black Knight next, he was nice and muscular, toned and his voice was powerful and it intrigued her. Scurra could tell that while being strong, he was also smart. Which made her even more excited.

"Well Puddin" Scurra said in an amused tone at Black Knight "You shouldn't be worrying about me, those kids need you more than I do. They could fall and hurt themselves. Catch them if you can"

Scurra smiled as she heard the clicking sound and the explosion as the holder blew and the bus began to plummet towards the unforgiving concrete. The screams of the children could be heard, and it wouldn't be long before they died. Scurra remained trapped in her net, but she managed to sneak in some of her Dragon's Breath formula in her mouth by pouring it onto her breast and collecting it into her mouth with periodic self licking, taking advantage of her position and her contortionist capabilities, saving it for the right moment.