The Possums: The Superhero Years - Part 11: Musical Montage!

[flawedamythyst]

Music: I Need a Hero by Jennifer Saunders
(If you have this song, you should listen as you read. Because I said so, that's why!)

Where have all the good men gone
And where are all the gods?
Where's the street-wise Hercules
To fight the rising odds?

A dark alleyway, somewhere in Portsmouth.
A woman is walking down it, carrying a backpack and looking nervous. She glances over her shoulder as a shadow moves nearby.

Isn't there a white knight
upon a fiery steed?
Late at night toss and turn and
dream of what I need

An off-licence. A man turns the lights out and shuts the door. He hunts through his bag for the keys. There's a noise behind him, and he turns to find himself surrounded by four figures wearing hoodies and holding knives. He gulps.

I need a hero
I'm holding out for a hero 'til the end of the night
He's gotta be strong
And he's gotta be fast
And he's gotta be fresh from the fight

Back in the dark alley, the girl is suddenly grabbed from behind. She struggles and kicks to no avail.
The man at the off-licence steps backwards in fear, only to stumble over someone behind him, he turns to see Enchantress there. She smiles and he looks relieved. She mutters something under her breath and waves her hands around in a vaguely mystical manner. They begin to glow. The man turns back and sees the gang struggling against invisible ropes.

I need a hero
I'm holding out for a hero 'til the morning light
He's gotta be sure
And it's gotta be soon
And he's gotta be larger than life

The Hammer appears in front of the struggling girl, grabs the hands of her assailant and pushes him off her. She stumbles sideways and leans heavily against the wall, gasping, as The Hammer pushes the attacker to the ground. He doesn't get up.

Somewhere after midnight
In my wildest fantasy
Somewhere just beyond my reach
There's someone reaching back for me
Racing on the thunder and rising with the heat
It's gonna take a superman to
sweep me off my feet

A woman is cowering in her kitchen while her husband rants at her. He raises his fist and she flinches in anticipation, but a hand grabs his wrist before he can strike. He turns to see Mindmage and attempts to swing at her with his other hand. She ducks before he even starts to swing, then takes advantage of his unbalance to push him on to the floor. He bangs his head on a cabinet and looks dazed.

Up where the mountains meet the heavens above
Out where the lightning splits the sea
I would swear that there's someone somewhere
Watching me
Through the wind and the chill and the rain
And the storm and the flood
I can feel his approach
Like the fire in my blood

Two girls are standing at a bus stop, chatting. A group of three men and two women, all pretty drunk, are also waiting for a bus. They start picking on the girls and an argument starts. One of the drunken women rushes forward to attack one of the girls when suddenly a lightning bolt strikes the ground in front of her. She starts back in shock. The girls look round to see Tempest standing in the road. They relax.

Long Musical Interlude

An overloaded plug socket in an ordinary kitchen.

A woman turns on the vacuum cleaner and begins to hoover the carpet. Behind her, unnoticed, there's a crackle and a sudden spark from the plug socket. The spark leaps to a nearby teatowel, which begins to burn. The woman, occupied with trying to get all the dust out of the corner of the room, doesn't notice. The fire spreads along the work surface. When the woman turns round, the fire is already dangerously out of control. Suddenly, Blaze appears out of nowhere and the fire dies down to nothing immediately.

I need a hero
I'm holding out for a hero 'til the morning light
He's gotta be sure
And it's gotta be soon
And he's gotta be larger than life

Portsmouth and Southsea train station, late at night. An employee is talking to a man about the train delays. The man becomes aggravated and violent and pushes the railway worker into the wall. The Amazingly Healthy Woman of Health appears beside him and steps in front of him as he kicks out at the staff member. It lands on her knee, but she doesn't even noticed. He punches her in the face. Unfazed and unharmed, she kicks him in the shins as security staff arrive.

He's gotta be strong
And he's gotta be fast
And he's gotta be fresh from the fight
I need a hero

A man walks down Elm Grove, talking on his mobile. A gang of teenagers walking the other way down the road pass him by, pause then turn back. One of them runs forward and kicks him from behind. The man stumbles forward, dropping the phone, which another of the teenagers picks up. Suddenly, the weight of it increases and he is pulled down by it, till he drops it and it flutters gently down to earth. Gravita flies down to land in front of them, as they struggle to run away but their feet suddenly seem glued to the ground. The phone floats upwards into her hand and she gives it back to the man.

Newspaper headlines flash by:

LYCRA-CLAD GANG FOILS BURGLARY!
'SUPERHEROES' RETURN!
GRAVITA AND THE AMAZINGLY HEALTHY WOMAN OF HEALTH CAPTURE RAPIST
OIL DEPOT FIRE PREVENTED BY BLAZE
MINDMAGE REVEALS WHERE MURDER VICTIM IS BURIED
POLICE ADMITS CRIME RATE HAS FALLEN SINCE COSTUMED CRUSADERS APPEARED
ARE THE HAMMER AND TEMPEST ROMANTICALLY INVOLVED?
RACIST THUGS STOPPED BY ENCHANTRESS
VIGILANTES OR SUPERHEROES?

Lucy sang under her breath as she cut out the article and glued it in to the scrapbook.
"I'm going to need another one of these soon," she said, smiling.
"Well, we've been busy," said Louise, pouring herself some more wine.

However, she was not the only one collecting articles about the group. Not so far away, in a dark cellar, a figure swathed in black was pinning the latest article to a noticeboard. They spun round and gave a low, evil laugh.
"Soon, I will be the one dominating the headlines, and these fools will be forgotten!!"

Comments

[charientia.livejournal.com]

Ha! Excellent - I especially like the picture. Just in case we didn't get quite how overloaded the socket was. Plus, mmm... wine... and... TUNE!

[flawedamythyst.livejournal.com]

Glad you liked it.
And, I'll have you know, the picture was the result of minutes HOURS of research into common house fire causes.
And, how could I not have used that song? It rocks.
And the wine was inevitable, really. You are slightly obsessed - ooh, maybe that'll be yoiur next obsession after J&W - wine. Perhaps not quite as healthy, but possibly more fun.