"The Case of the Flaming Four" episode 1

contributed by The Coalition's Deacon

It was around 9:45pm. It was cold and raining--a bad combination. It had been a long time coming but Kenneth Lee had finally made the move to Gotham 2 weeks ago. Once he arrived in town, he quickly found a job at Robinson Park Diagnostics, a local computer diagnostic repair shop located right outside of Robinson Park. He also found residence within about 30 minutes of where he worked. But this isn't why Lee came to Gotham. In the southern states, super heroes weren't looked upon as kindly as they were up north and the calls for his alter ego, Deacon, to leave Memphis, TN had come to a fever pitch and he felt like he could probably do more good in a place that "accepted super heroes", Deacon thought to himself as he was sat perched on a stone gargoyle high above the city.

Deacon: Whoa! It's freaking cold! Maybe I should go drop down on the streets and go to a Star Bucks and get something to warm myself up.

 (He dived off the gargoyle with thoughts of delicious hot cocoa dancing around in his mind. As he dropped down the side of the building he heard an explosion and a window shattering. He looked up and eyed a late night office worker hurdling out of the broken window. Deacon immediately rebounded of the side of the wall to the office building where the worker was falling to his death. He clung to the side of the building and caught the young man just as he was about to fall past him)

 Young man: AHHHHHH!!!!!

 (Deacon screamed back at him)

 Deacon: AHHHHHHHHH!!!!

 Young man: Who the hell are you?!

 Deacon: You can call me Deacon but I don't think that's really important right now. What the hell happened up there? Were you playing with matches or something?

 Young man: Are you kidding me?!? No! Some morons are in the upper levels setting everything on fire. He shot some flame thingy from his hand and hit a barrel of ether and blew up the entire 32nd floor!

 (Deacon kicked out the window below him and tosses the young exec in)

 Deacon: Stay here and dial 911. I'll go up there and have a talk to those guys about all the noise they're making.

Young man: Are $#*@ing crazy?! It's like 4 of those guys up there with flames shooting out their hands! Who do you think you are? Batman?!

Deacon: Whatever, smart ass. Just call the police and the fire department!

(Deacon scrambled up the building to face the assailants. As soon as he made it to the 32nd story, one of the guys shot a stream of flame which Deac deftly dodged by quickly twisting out the way)

 Deacon: Okay, okay! Lets just hold on for a sec guys!

 (Deacon started flipping and darting out the way as all four men shot flame at him)

 Deacon: You guys can shoot flames out of your hands and the most you could think to do is to burn down an office building? Why don't you guys open like an open flame, bar and grill?

(Deacon flipped in front of one the thugs, swept-kicked him onto his back, and when Deac turned around from the strike, he did a backflip as more shots were being taken at him and stomped on the guy's chest that was prone on the ground)

Thug #1: (Spits up blood) Ughh!

Deacon: My bad man! Looks like you've got some cracked ribs there! I bet you think I'm some kinda fat kid for jumping on you like that, huh?

Thug #2: Jesus, H, CHRIST!!! Do you always run your jibs like this?

 (Deacon launched himself forward, rolled onto the ground, and used his momentum to kick the ankles of the second thug. As the thug fell to the ground Deacon sprung into a back-roll and kicked the thug before he hit the ground, launching him up into the ceiling)

Deacon: I'm only chatty like this when I'm nervous.

(Thug #2 slams into the ground and Deacon quickly placed his foot on the guys head and looked at the last two thugs)

Deacon: Sooooo..... are you gonna give me a reason to cause some more collateral damage with your bodies or are you gonna give up and let me take you in?

Thug #3: Oh my God! You really don't shut the hell up, do you?

Deacon: Nope.

Thug #4: Don't worry, we can make that happen.

Deacon: Yeaahhh.... like you've been doing a good job so far?

Thug #3: Take a look around you! Some of those shots were meant for you but we were also aiming somewhere else just in case we found ourselves in a spot like this. Heh, heh!

Deacon: ????

(Deacon confusingly spun around and took a look around quickly noticing that some containers of marked RDX and Ether were slowly being burned through)

Deacon: Oohhhh. I can't believe I.....(interrupted by the containers exploding)

(The enormous explosion sent Deacon flying through the cheap plaster of several office walls and back out of a high rise building window. As he is fell, he slipped in and out of consciousness. Then his smoldering body suddenly fliew through the adjacent office buildings' window and he slammed into a desk with a sickening thud)

Deacon: (speaking weakly) Okay, that is not what I envisioned when jumped into that fight....

(He finally passed out as a mixture of dirty water and strewn office papers lightly landed on him from the perforated wall with and severed pipes within it)