Super‌ ‌Star‌ ‌Bowling‌ ‌Alley‌ ‌|‌ ‌Early‌ ‌Evening‌ ‌

[knife_bender]

This wouldn't have been Diego's first choice in meeting spot. He had stubbornly refused to put on the bowling shoes that everyone (sans Luther) was wearing. He had lost his house, his mother and one of his mentors today, he was not wearing stupid shoes.

Luther	Luther didn't know what possessed him to have everyone meet at the bowling alley. The Super Star had been the first thing to pop in his head after the house was destroyed. Whatever, they were here now and paid for a lane. It was a pretty discreet place to hold a family meeting, if a little loud. "Look, I hate to be the one to say this, but everyone needs to prepare."
Diego	"Prepare for what?" Diego asked. Other than the apocalypse, obviously, he knew he should be prepared for that.
Luther	Luther crossed his arms over his chest. "To do whatever it takes to stop Vanya."
Allison	Allison couldn't say anything in her sister's defense, but she could hit Luther with the notebook she was using to communicate. That conveyed 'don't be an asshole', right?
Luther	"We may not have a choice, Allison." Why was he the only one thinking logically here?
Diego	"Bullshit," Diego said with a glare. "There's always options."
Five	Luther wasn't the only one thinking about all their options, but none of them were the greatest. "Yeah, like what?" Five asked.
Diego	How dare you call him out, Five. "...I don't know."
Luther	"Look, whatever we decide, we have to find Vanya," Luther said. "And fast, okay? She could be anywhere."
Klaus	"Or here," Klaus said, holding up the newspaper of imminent doom that Five had brought them to show an ad for the concert of that orchestra that Vanya was in. It was honestly surprising he remembered this was the correct one.
Diego	"That's right," Diego said, remembering the same ad on Harold Jenkins' fridge. "Her concert is tonight." A bowling alley worker who looked absolutely thrilled with their life choices approached the group. "Hello. I hate to intrude but my manager says if you aren't going to bowl, you're going to have to leave." Diego rolled his eyes. "Whose turn is it?"
Luther	"Oh for the love of--" Luther picked up a bowling ball and tossed it over his shoulder. Happy, poor bowling alley employee who made minimum wage? Are you happy now?
Allison	No one was allowed to be happy here! Allison held up her notepad, pointing aggressively at the, 'She's our sister' written on it to make up for her inability to speak.
Luther	"We're the only ones capable of stopping this." And even that seemed like a longshot at the moment. "We have a responsibility to Dad."
Diego	"To Dad?" Diego asked. "No, I've heard enough about--"
Luther	Luther held up a hand to stop Diego before he could get going on another Dad rant. "He sacrificed everything to bring us back together." The dude was a total narcissist and killed himself to do it, that had to mean something.
Five	"I'm with Luther on this one." Don't get it twisted, he didn't care about doing it for their father. "We can't give her a chance to fight back. There are billions of lives at stake. We're past trying to save just one."
Klaus	"Hey guys, maybe I could help," Klaus chimed in.
Luther	Ugh, Klaus. "Now's not the time--"
Diego	"Hey, let him finish," Diego said, feeling brotherly for once. "He saved my life today."
Ben	"Really?" You know, being dead was bad enough, but not getting credit for saving your brother was a whole other thing.
Luther	That didn't seem right. Maybe Diego hit his head while the house was falling down. Luther raised an eyebrow at Klaus. "Is that true?"
Klaus	"Yeah, yeah I did..." Damn it, Ben, don't look at him like that. "...take credit for it. In fact, the real hero was Ben." He beamed at his sibling incredulous looks. "Today, listen, listen--today, he punched me in the face and earlier at the house? It was him who saved Diego's life." So, that was new, right?
Luther	Luther did not look amused in the slightest. "You're unbelievable, Klaus."
Klaus	"You want proof, is that it?" Klaus asked, getting up to pick up one of the bowling balls and maybe giving that one, poor employee hope that they would actually bowl here. "I'll give you proof. It's showtime, baby. Catch!" He chucked the ball to Ben to catch, only to have it just thud to the ground.
Luther	Was he going to have to kill and/or seriously injure two siblings today? "Is there any way to silence the voice in your head that screams out to be the center of attention?"
Klaus	Rude! After they had bonded over partying before and everything? "You know, I liked you better before you got laid. Which was a complete--" Ohhhh wait, Allison was here and she was not looking happy about this conversation. "--it wasn't his fault," he amended quickly. "'cause he was ridiculously high, right? And the girl? She thought he was a furry!" Oh yeah, totally made that better for everyone listening.
Luther	Holy fucking god could this day get any worse? Well, yeah, if the world ended, but right now Luther was going to be a little dramatic. "Klaus, stop."
Klaus	"Okay," Klaus said, very carefully taking a seat next to Diego. You know. For safety reasons.
Luther	Well, it was too late. Allison was (rightfully) flouncing and Luther was following after her to have a very awkward conversation. "Allison, wait!" Did they have time for this? Probably not.
Five	Did they ever have time for their familial drama? Though the very large, very scary man leaving meant a pudgy woman felt safe approaching their lane with a pre-teen in tow to address Klaus and Diego. "Excuse me? It's my son Kenny's birthday today and wouldn't your son be happier playing with kids his own age?" she asked. Then had to show she was totally cool with their non-traditional family by adding, "Assuming it's okay with your two dads." "I would rather chew off my own foot," Five answered for them. Well, that hadn't been fully expected. "Let's go, Kenny," she said quickly, dragging her son away as the shoosh-thud noise of a pnuematic tube sounded over the noise of the bowling alley. Which pulled Five away from the lane to investigate and not complain about being mistaken for a child again.
Diego	Diego would have been more insulted if this wasn't, like, the fourth time he had been mistaken for Five's dad. However-- "If I were going to date a man, you'd be the last man I'd date." Everybody knew Steve would be his number one choice. Either of them.
Klaus	"You'd be lucky to get me," Klaus replied. Because he was a damn catch, got it?
Five	Five looked around, but found the pneumatic tube rather easily, having practice with them and how they would appear. "How the hell did she find me?" he muttered under his breath. Then patted his pockets for the candy he'd taken from her office, quickly unwrapping it to find a blinking tracker very much like the one that had also been in his arm. "She's good." That much he had to admit as he stomped on the tracker and opened up the tube to find a fortune cookie. Cute. And within that a slip of paper with a hotel and a room number. Looked like he had some things to clean up first.

Five	It was going to be a trap, that much was obvious. But of course Five went anyway. Even with that in mind, it wasn't exactly what he'd expected with the woman from the donut shop gagged and tied to a chair, perched precariously over a hot tub. "You must really like donuts," Five remarked.
The Handler	The Handler's voice was warm, though her smile very much did not reach her eyes from where she was lounging casually near Agnes, cigarette holder in hand. She also had an angry red line of scarring tracing up along her jaw to her be-lipsticked mouth, the only sign that she had perhaps recently been quite injured. "It's been awhile."
Five	"Three days," Five replied. Though he knew it would be much longer for her.
The Handler	"For you, maybe. But for me it's been a lot longer since I've seen those adorable little shorts." The Handler managed to make adorable sound both vaguely flirtatious, and vaguely threatening.
Five	You know what? Five expected nothing less from her. "Well, you've had time to heal." And not be here for revenge when he was busy with more important things.
The Handler	"Luckily, for both of us," the Handler said as she rose and started to cross the room towards him, "time is the one thing my organization has an abundance of." If you were looking for it, she was a little unsteady on her feet. She'd found a railing for her hand to rest on, and it wasn't just for show. Being exploded was a bitch to come back from.
Five	Well, unfortunately for everyone that she survived it at all. "Got your message, by the way," Five said, watching her move and taking mental notes in case it came to that once again. "Nice packaging, but so much for Commission protocol."
The Handler	"Hm." The Handler paused, trying to mask how slowly she was moving by selecting a morsel of something from the romantic table set for two here in the middle of this hotel room. (Hot tub, candlelit dinner for two -- someone sure had been putting all their eggs in the sex-with-donut-lady basket, hadn't they?) "There have been a lot of changes since you left the Commission," she said, coming to a stop at her usual distance of roughly three inches too close to Five. "You really did some damage. The briefcases were all but destroyed, to say nothing of the highly trained personnel you killed. After all, what is an institution for if not --"
Five	Five seriously did not care about the damage he'd left behind. "What do you want?" he cut in, not letting her intimidate him.
The Handler	"To be happy." God, Five, it was like you didn't listen. "To have a simple, unfettered life. To do the work my superiors require." The Handler held her hands up, helpless, as she wound her way over to take a seat on the couch. She was just so tired of all this, Number Five. Why play these games? "But...your being here, well, it complicates things."
Five	Well, because it was her. "Billions of people are about to die tonight," Five replied. "You can change that."
The Handler	"Tonight, tomorrow -- so little difference in the scheme of things," the Handler replied dismissively. "Don't you remember the Commission's raison d'être? What's meant to be is meant to be, or as I like to say -- que será, será." Another shrug. Get over it, Five.
Five	"It's bullshit in my language." Someone had grown a heroic backbone, hadn't they? "Why did you call me here?" Oh, Five. You already had to know the answer to that, right?
The Handler	The Handler fixed him with a look. Again, was she covering for how she couldn't really get back up off this couch? Who could say. "I wanna offer you a choice. Everyone's going to die tonight, but...unlike the rest of the world, you have a way out. You can abandon your family and skip ahead to the apocalypse, take a walkabout for a few decades, wondering if I'll come back and offer you a job again." Oh, shit, there was champagne in a bucket here, too. Don't mind if she did. "Or," the Handler continued as she grabbed the bottle, "you can stay here, with your family, and...die a horrible death." She giggled as she twisted the wire off the cork, and across the room, that poor donut lady gave a whimper through the tape covering her mouth. "While you weigh your options," pop! went the cork, "just know that your siblings are fighting for their lives without you."
Five	And there it was. "You brought me here to pull me away."
The Handler	Duh. "It's been nice knowing you, Five," she remarked as she poured champagne into the pair of flutes on the table.
Five	Well then, he wouldn't be drinking champagne with you! Five made face as he took off, teleporting as he ran to go find his siblings before it was too late once again.
The Handler	"Cheers," she called exasperatedly to his retreating...teleport...bubble thing. And now she just had no choice but to drink both of these herself, did she?

Luther	Luther came back from his phone call with Allison and Claire and noticed they were one short. "All right, where's Five?"
Diego	"He left," Diego said distractedly. His phone call with Annie had been...it had been the worst, really.
Luther	"Oh for the love of--" He was going to put a bell on that kid. Old man. Whatever. "Where did he go?"
Diego	Diego shrugged. "Didn't tell us." Look, they had more important things to worry about. Five would show up whenever he felt like it, like always.
Luther	Luther sighed. "Well we're not waiting around for him, the concert starts in 30 minutes."
Diego	Diego stood up, happy to have the distraction. "All right, what's the plan?"
Luther	Oh shit, he was supposed to have a plan. Right. "Well, uh, I think we go to the Icarus Theater."
Diego	Diego gave Luther a look. "That's a location, not a plan. Is that all you've got?" God, it had been too long since they've done this sort of shit. "Look, you wanna be Number One, fine, but you're going to have to get us all on the same page because right now, we're all over the place." Wow, that was a good pep talk coming from Diego.
Luther	Luther nodded. "You're right, we need a plan." Of course that's when a group of dudes wearing gas masks and assault rifles started filing in. Luther had the feeling they weren't here to bowl. "Get down!"
Klaus	Diego ducked down just as the guns started going off. "Who the hell are these guys?!"
Klaus	Klaus had his hands over his ears, gunshots bringing up more than a few bad memories. "Maybe they're here for Kenny's birthday?"
Luther	Luther sighed. "No, I'm pretty sure they're here for us." Because that was their lives right now.
Diego	Diego grabbed a knife and threw it at the first thug he saw. He got the guy in the neck and he stumbled back into the DJ set. That's when the disco lights and Bay City Rollers got going.
Luther	Well he always did like a soundtrack when a fight was going on. Luther started grabbing bowling balls and chucking them at the guys with guns, looking for a way out of this at the same time.
Klaus	Klaus meanwhile, grabbed poor Kenny's birthday cake and used it as a projectile. "They're blocking the exit!"
Diego	Diego threw another knife, already knowing he was running low. They needed to get out of here. "What's the plan, Luther?"
Allison	Allison waved her hands to get the guys' attention. She pointed frantically at the bowling lanes.
Luther	Luther nodded in understanding. "The lanes, let's go!" He waited for his other siblings to take off before running after them, down the lane and under the pins. It was a tight squeeze, but he managed it. They were out the back door before any of the thugs could follow.

[NFI, NFB, OOC is great! Preplayed with apocalypsehow and defenderofdesmoines. Taken from 1x10 "The White Violin". One more post to go!]