The Century Club ep02 : Spirit of the Century

06/25/2014

The Century Club
Spirit of the Century

Episode 2
"First Night In Paris"

The Centurions are welcomed by the Paris as they open the Century Club chapter house for the first time.  The government pulled out all the stops, hosting a huge gala dinner to welcome their arrival.  A massive banquet is held, with various military officials, political dignitaries and celebrities present.  The public level of the event makes Walter Le Frogge feel uneasy - and so he opts to stay hidden behind the pillars.  Though he is the leader of the chapter house, it is Sir Victor Knightfellow who takes the role of the face of the organization.  Kenji Katana and Cosmo mingle with the military officers while Svetlana Sol graciously welcomes all compliments thrown her way.  She keeps her arm around Victor's however, and occasionally he grimaces when she gently crushes it without realizing her own strength.  Cosmo telepathically talks to Kenji how much he doesn't like how the people keep tearing off pieces of bread and offering it to him.  "Cosmo does not like being treated as a pet." Kenji sadly admits to Cosmo, "As of this point of time, sadly, you are sort of one."

As Walter quietly fumes about the frog legs being served in the event, Victor Knightfellow stands in the limelight - given how in the past the same group had saved the Eiffel Tower from being pulled into outerspace.   Svetlana asks Victor if he has decided on a name yet and inquires if he has changed his mind about calling himself, "Fantomas."  He suggests, "Sir Night Knight" which elicits a surprising response from her.  "It can work, yes.  I am Sol.  You are Night."   

Walter remembers Elijah Frost's words to him, about Svetlana having not recovered from their breakup.  And how she does tend to fall for her commissar. 

"So Victor, how come Le Frogge is not with us?"  Victor reassures her that he is here, given everyone is here.  He scans the room and he sees the Frogge behind one of the pillars.  "He is not one for public appearances."  Svetlana sighs and shares she does not understand why he would be hiding.  "Water is such a good man.  Such a nice, slippery good man."  Victor does not know how to respond.  He admits he feels guilty and that he just tagged along for the ride, speaking in reference to the Eiffel tower incident.

The President approaches Kenji and the translator explains, "You are what they call Roboto?"  Kenji asks who calls him that.  The President asks if he is all gears and tubes inside.  He asks to touch Cosmo, but Kenji says no. Cosmo turns to Kenji, clearly unhappy with the dog-eating Frenchman.

Walter then notices a red-haired bombshell walk into the room.  The woman seems a bit out place, dressed in a heavy coat and a camera around her neck.   She draws out a notepad and reaches between her breasts for a pencil.  Then digs out an ID from the same place.   *A reporter*    He watches her for a bit and begins to notice a hint of agitation in her face.  Her lips mouth out, "gun?"  Walter throws his gaze to where she was staring and sees a group of eight waiters with funny hats entering the room.  They all have trays and spread out into the ballroom.  Walter investigates for any sign of a gun and fails to see anything.  He does notice that their funny hats are different from the others.  The woman hurries to the military men and tries to warn one of them, but they remain distracted by her breasts.  

Victor's otherworldly sense picks something wrong.  The waiters with the hats... they are collapsible masks.  "Kenji!" he yells out across the room.  Kenji motions to Cosmo and the dog immediately forms the Psychic Link to connect them all.  The telepathic link, however, confuses Victor!  Having not felt it before, he mistakenly assumes it to be a psionic assault.  "I am talking to the voices in my head!" Victor calls out mentally, "What do you want with me!  What entity am I speaking with?"

"Victor, this is Kenji."

"I didn't know you were psychic," Victor gasps, but their conversation is interrupted as automatic gunfire suddenly breaks the party ambiance.  The waiters reach up and drag down the hats over their faces to reduce them to men without any features.

"Normalists!" Kenji gasps telepathically.

"We request everyone to remain where they are," a man suddenly speaks up, catching the crowd's attention.  He is standing on the stage in an all white suit in stark contrast to the waiters, "Or we will be forced to Normalize your numbers."    Victor feels Svetlana's grip tighten further against his arm.  "Do we kill them now?" Svetlana asks telepathically.   

"There could be more of them outside.  We have to know their numbers first," Victor responds through the same link. 

"We should not let people get hurt," Walter agrees in the link.  

"What? But we are here," Svetlana protests telepathically.

"This may not be all of them," Victor explains, "I'll try to see if there are others outside."

The man in the white suit has a tray in his hand.   Walter hisses in his thoughts, "Are those... frog legs?!"

"Now, it is good to see you are all obedient, as expected.  Mister President?"  The man in white addresses the President, "We have terms.  Please come forward."  His wife shoves him to step forward.  Victor's eyes scan the room and he quickly notices a woman with a Persian cat on her lap.  Her hand with the teacup is trembling, and the cat eagerly awaits to catch whatever falls out of it.  "The cat is distracted.  It's mind is mine," Victor smiles.  He projects himself into the cat a second after asking Svetlana to hold him.  She feels him faint in her arms.  

"I think our leader is cowardice..." Sveltana telepathically muses.

Victor-Cat stealthily makes its way outside without anyone noticing.  

"Mister President, will you please come up the stairs to my side," the leader of the Normalists calls out.  The President hesitates.  One of the military officers calls out in anger, "This is outrageous!  This cannot happen!"  The Normalist leader commands one of the waiters to shoot the general.  Walter tries to stealthily head up to the chandelier, but he loses his grip.   The gun is fired and the military officer is struck!    Blood sprays upon Kenji.  The gunshot startles Cosmo enough to break the telepathic link.  Walter falls to the ground beside the President.  People gasp upon seeing the human frog! The Normalists turn towards Walter and stare at the aberration before them.   Cosmo quickly reestablishes the link during the distraction.

"I know you," the Normalist hisses.

"Well, I think I know you too," Walter hisses back.  He gets back to his feet as the Normalist leader approaches him, "Yes, it is you. The Monster we should have killed.  Interesting to find you here."

"You're the Centurions!  Do something!" the President calls out at Walter.

"The Centurions?  Even more interesting," the Normalist leader spits out.  It dawns on the group that the Normalists did not come here to attack them!  They had no idea the Century Club was here!  Victor-Cat telepathically tells Svetlana to drop his body.  But Svetlana asks instead "Why?"

The Normalist Leader lifts the tray cover and reveals a bomb inside.  He asks Walter Le Frogge to hold it for him, but Walter refuses.  The President is told to hold it instead.  Victor tells them he's taking a quick look outside and that he will be back.  Victor finds the eight real naked and tied up, and a female Normalist keeping watch with a semi-automatic weapon in her hands.  Victor-Cat closes in, hoping for an opportunity to try and charm her.

Back inside, Cosmo keeps the link maintained, but admits to the others that while he can use his telekinesis to pull the bullets out, it will break the link.  Svetlana complains as the others start throwing ideas that she does not understand who is the leader.  Victor-Cat tells them he will handle the one outside.  The President is pulled close and the tray with the bomb is balanced on his head.  "Now, Mister Frog, I wonder how tasty your legs are," the Normalist admits.  He asks why Walter is in the city, and Walter deflects the question suggesting that they have no clearance for such information.  He asks how many more aberrations are present and Walter lies and says only he is present.  The Normalist admits he doubts he can trust him.  He tells the rest to search the grounds.  "There are other freaks about."

Svetlana drops Victor's body, worried that them seeing a woman carrying a man would raise suspicions.  Svetlana comes up towards the Normalist leader and surrenders.   Cosmo turns to Kenji and telepathically asks, "Act now, yes?"

Kenji begins stealthily dispatching Normalists nearby.  Using the Iaijutsu stance, he strikes down a Normalist or two, then returns the blade to the sheathe.  The other hostages would then quickly drag the bodies out of sight.

Walter launches his tongue to snatch the bomb from the President's head.    The Normalist leader, unaware that the bomb is no longer on the President's head, continues to taunt the crowd about bomb having new technology: it is detonated using remote control.  "On a single signal, my associate with cause the bomb to explode."  He hides it behind him. The Normalist leader laments at how much the world has degenerated into a terrible place, with inter-racial mingling and with women who have forgotten their place in society.  The demands are simple.  "We want the French Government to apologize.  Mister President.."

Victor-Cat tricks the woman into picking him up, and he tries to investigate the woman for this "denotator."  She picks him up and flings him away.  He lands on his feet.  Her blonde wig drops to the ground, revealing her dark hair.

During all this, Kenji takes down a few more Normalists, striking quickly and barely moving from his place.  Cosmo laments wanting to help the General who had been shot, thinking he could use his telekinesis to draw the bullets out and staunch the bleeding.  But he realizes the group needs the telepathic link more for now.

Svetlana realizes she needs to distact the man.   The leader of the Normalists gets distracted by Svetlana's beauty.  "You are one of them, aren't you?  What sort of aberration makes a woman like a mountain?"  Svetlana still keeps the man occupied as Le Frogge opts to take advantage of the situation.  He considers bringing the bomb outside.  But Svetlana telepathically tells him not to.  She worries if the bomb does detonate, Walter will "go kaput."  Victor-Cat via the link suggests he just throw the bomb somewhere.  But Svetlana calls him cruel for being willing to threaten the people of Paris.   Cosmo reminds them the general is dying and someone HAS to make a decision.   Victor, surprisingly takes the lead.  He tells Cosmo to cut the connection and that he will handle the woman outside on his own.  "She cannot push the button while I harass her.  If I cannot get rid of the button..."

Victor-Cat goes silent.  The others do not see the woman reach for the detonator.    "You naughty cat."  Angered, the female Normalist rips open her blouse to expose the detonator to the bomb, which she had strapped around her bare chest.  Victor-Cat realizes the danger is too great and uses the last trick up his sleeve; he focuses his gaze upon the woman's eyes for his own reflection.

Kenji engages with the Normalists now, as the other officers pull the civilians to safety.  Bullets fly and find themselves parried by a well thrown katana, which spins back into the hands of the living man of steel.   The attacks a Normalist at the nearby door, startling the woman staring at Victor-Cat's gaze.   The man finally introduces himself as Warner Hardings, a man who has devoted himself to bringing back Normalcy.  "And I believe that-" but Walter grabs the Normalist leader's shoulders, turns him to face Walter, and smacks him in the face with the bomb.  Svetlana gasps at Walter for his action.  "What if bomb go boom boom?"  Cosmo extends his telekinesis to pull the bullets out of the man's body, then spreads the golden light to apply pressure on the wounds.

With their locked gaze, he reaches out to speak with his Spirit Companion.  Time moves ever so slowly as the Demon teases him about having a horrible name.  He muses how Crowley and the other have an awesome name.  Victor should have one.  Victor-Cat stresses that is not as important right now and tries to make a deal with him to distract the woman.  "For a Normalist, she has a lot of abnormal ideas."  The Demon finally agrees after Victor-Cat agrees to owe it.  Time resumes and the woman is suddenly overcome by images of her uncle raping her.  The impetus of her joining the Normalists becomes the distracting force that gives Victor-Cat the moment he needs to lift the detonator from her bosom through sleight of hand.

The four remaining Normalists close in on Walter Le Frogge, firing their weapons towards the stage.  Kenji, using the sword he is destined to wield, slashes at one of the men.  Blood sprays outwards.

Warner snaps the whip at Le Frogge even while blinded by the bomb that smacked into his face.  Le Frogge leaps out of the way leaving the bomb smacked on his face.  The whip bites into Le Frogge's chest, ripping his clothes open and some purple blood sprays out.  Le Frogge leaps upwards, maneuvering into a more tactical position behind Warner Harding.  The whip is smacked blindly towards the President, who dodges left and right from the blows.  Le Frogge leaps back up onto the chandelier and considers his next move.  Warner starts shoveling the pie bomb off his face.  Svetlana runs forward, snatches the pie and bomb and using her immense speed and strength, leaps through a window away from the banquet at top speed, searching for a safe place for the bomb to detonate.

With the detonator, Victor-Cat runs back into the room.  A Normalist soldier sees the cat and begins firing at the cat that is running with some device in its mouth!  Not Normal!  The man opens fire!  The bullets do not find their mark, however.  The cat dodges past the bullets and suddenly are deflected by something golden.  Cosmo growls at the soldier.

Kenji drops to one knee and check's the General who was shot earlier.  The glow of Cosmo's telekinesis is keeping him stable, at least for now.  As the bullets continue to be deflected by the golden light, the soldier looks up to see an angry man of steel.  "Do. Not. Touch. My. Dog!" Kenji howl and charges forward, deflecting all the bullets, the rushing through with his blade gleaming in a single motion.  At the end of his charge, Kenji sheaths the blade and the Normalist's gun falls down in equal sized pieces.  The Normalist is pushed then into another guard and the two hit the floor.

Warner turns to see the Normalists are defeated.  Even the civilians have come to help out, using plates, chairs and the like to fight the other still standing soldiers.  "You have not heard the last of this!" he howls at the Centurions and begins fishing for something from his breast pocket.

A second detonator!  all exclaim in their thoughts.

Le Frogge jumps down at the perfect moment and uses slight of hand move to snatch whatever he was planning to pull out of his pocket.  The two pull the detonator out, and have their hands both on it.  Harden swings his other hand to try and smack the single button on it.  But Le Frogge then twists his other arm, using his Brotherhood Training and being the First Human Frog, he realizes it would be more effective to launch instead his tongue!  Entangled together, Le Frogge successfully prevents the bomb from being detonated.

Cosmo giggles.  Kenji sees the two entangled together and then hears a scream by the door.  It slams open as a woman with dark hair leaps into the room with a semi-automatic weapon.  "Enough!" she screams and trains the guns at others.  Victor-Cat throws the detonator at Cosmo (who catches it easily with another telekinetic bubble), and drops the link formed by the Talisman of the Wylde.  The cat looks around, stunned and confused.  The woman fires at the crowd with her semi-automatic weapon, but thankfully, most take only superficial wounds.  "Enough of this," the woman growls at them, "You realize what you are doing?  You are allowing France to not suffer for the atrocities they have done to the English."

"I'm British," Victor mutters as he stands to full height, "And I don't take offense of what happened before.  I am Scion of Merlin and I have no anger towards the French for anyone."  Le Frogge is confused.  "I'm... French and yet I'm friends with him?"

"A Scion of Merlin," the woman gasps.  "A wizard."

"Yes," Victor proudly replies.

She raises the gun.  If there was any other aberration worse, it would be a wizard.  For they look like you, but their blood is not human!  The bullets are about to fire.  Kenji flings the katana into an arc towards Victor to block the bullets, hoping the hurled blade does not strike any of the other nearby people.  The blade impales into the gun, rendering it useless.

*Click*

Warner screams, angered at his loss.  Victor begins mesmerism to calm the man down and make him stop fighting.    Warner stares, caught in the hypnosis.  Victor uses his mindshadow training to take away memories of the last hour.  "You could have never done these things.  You probably just dreamed this all up."    What Victor does not realize is that the mesmerism affects Le Frogge as well.  He tells them to drop the detonator.

Everyone else in the room screams, "NO!"

Victor corrects the command.  "Set the detonator down slowly.  Right side up."

*

The police have apprehended the Normalists.  The President thanks the Centurions again and the Parisian Guard escort the Normalists away.  The woman is hissing at Victor, "This is NOT the last of us, we will find you... you wizard!  You might be the boy who lived, but we will find you!"

But even Warner apologizes, not understanding why she is so angry.  Cosmo tries to explain to Walter what had happened.  That they had just saved the President of Paris.  That they are at a party. But Le Frogge does not recall any of this.  Cosmo considers trying to undo the mesmerism somehow using his telepathy.  The President commends the group, telling Kenji he was pretty good "for an oriental."  Kenji allows his steam to rush out to calm down.  He just tells the President not to touch his dog.

"We are so grateful that you are all here.  We are very blessed to have you all here," the President thanks Victor.  The others are eating bread and just leaving Victor to handle talking to them.  "There is something to be learned here.  It is our diversity that makes us strong! No man, or machine, or half-man half-beast, or animal is better than the other."

"Hey friend!"

They turn to see Warner in the van, about to be carted away to prison.  "Where is the woman earlier?'  The group realizes none of them have seen Svetlana.

*

Svetlana is at the top of the Eiffel tower.  Being what she felt was the tallest structure away from everything else, she had clambered up to be ready to fling the bomb skyward  had it been detonated.

"Cosmo?  Is it safe?  Hello?"

She sighs, wondering if someone will eventually tell her if it is safe to head down.