Fifth Trial

[bathymetric]

[ There's a long while of examination before the Mayor speaks up. There's plenty of evidence to pick up yet again this week, after all. ]

Annnd that's going to do it. Wrap it up and head to the bathyspheres, kids, you've got some business to attend to.

[ The bathyspheres take you all down, down, into the now-familiar dome below the city. The similarly familiar red glow persists until the lights properly turn on - the projection of Fontaine's silhouette is gone, of course, replaced by that same flickering "please stand by" message. But your mayor's voice is still the one that speaks over the increasingly empty circle of podiums. ]

If you somehow need a reminder of why you're here, three of you are dead. Get away with it, killer or killers, and the execution room gets to really work overtime today. But I guess if you wanna live, you should find who murdered three people. Could be important for you guys.

[ Welcome to your fifth trial. ]

Comments

EXECUTIONS

[bathymetric]

Annnd ladies and gentlemen, we have a majority. Our two multi-dimensional weirdos, Jojo Chewbacca and Subtractive Mixer, are your culprits. Which means it's time for me to do my job and clean house for you.

[ The shutters lower. Projections on. You know the drill by now. ]

EXECUTION - Forever Green

[bathymetric]

[ Drakkon stands… well, where else would a Power Rangers villain end up but the middle of a quarry? He looks up and around at the walls of stone that tower above him, laughs a little. ]

Come on, mayor! Bring on your fake rangers!

[ And to his call, it seems, the Mayor obliges. In different levels of the quarry, row after row of costumed figures emerge - some from puffs of smoke, some out of the back of vehicles, some teleporting in from elsewhere though science fiction gadgetry.

Drakkon watches them all arrive with a look of slight amusement on his face. ]

This is what happens to the monsters, huh?

[ Behind them land rows and rows of similarly colorful giant robots. The near armada assembled before him is impressive in its sheer scale, back to the horizon. Though… something about it all does look a little cheesy and fake, huh? Guess that’s just part of the genre.

They all strike fighting poses, wordless. A few of them, however, step forward.

Two in yellow and in red are first, and Drakkon starts fighting them. It’s simple hand-to-hand combat. Showy, but no one’s getting anywhere. ]

Hey, kids. Yeah, yeah, sorry about pretending I raised you-

[ He’s still more than a match for them, with his powers. Then more step forward. Two more. Five more. Every ranger he killed, before the whole universe had to clean up after him. The lives he destroyed.

He’s almost relieved to be struck by the arrow, when it connects. When he finally sees the archer, he smiles. ]

Predicable-

[ Is all he manages to get out before the sword pierces his heart, through his back. He never sees himself as the blade is pulled from his chest. But he does see as each and every ranger here, save for the archer higher up, pulls off their mask to reveal another Tommy Oliver.

Lord Drakkon is dead, surrounded by his failure. ]

EXECUTION - Nothing, Nowhere, Never (cw car accident imagery, suicide)

[bathymetric]

[ Curtains up on… another tight scene, actually, much unlike the other execution. It’s just the cab of a small truck, and two figures within it, headed down a highway at night. There’s just enough room to see that the rest of the highway is empty. Joy - and it certainly is Joy now, isn’t it - looks over at the other figure in the truck with her. Evelyn looks ahead at the highway, not sparing her a glance. Typical.

Joy tries to escape the bounds of the seatbelt. It doesn’t give. Tries again, harder.

Nothing.

The radio turns on. ]

This is the story of a girl
Who made a bagel and tried to destroy your world
And while she looks so sad in this photograph
She can’t even manage
A real smile

[ Joy’s eyes widen with recognition. She struggles more against the seatbelt. Evelyn still doesn’t move. ]

How much poison in a cup?
Tried to kill Jon but then she fucked it up
And she can be so insincere
Claiming that she was attacked for real
As long as she stands there stabbing
In the theater she fights and she goes
Watching Hild disappear
Then she looks in the mirror
And decides this place blows

[ Looking very carefully, maybe, the lights of passing cars start to approach. One passes, then another. ]

Your clothes never wear as well the next day
Those scratches didn’t happen quite the same way
But you never run out of things to say

[ The lights of approaching cars get brighter, and Joy yells at Evelyn. To stab her, to punch her to death, to stuff her stupid hot dog fingers down her throat, to do something- ]

This is—

[ The song cuts out as Evelyn veers the van into the opposite lane, and almost immediately it slams into a truck. There’s a horrible screeching, the crash of metal against metal, and… a boring, ordinary death for one of the more extraordinary forces in the multiverse.

And softly, warbling, though the camera doesn’t linger on the body… ]

... the story of a- girl-
Who cried a riverrrrr
-sad in photographs
I absolutely love her
When sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee….

[ Joy Wang is dead. Jobu Tupaki is dead. ]

WRAPUP

[bathymetric]

And that's that. You're free to go.

[ The bathyspheres unlock! ]