ROCK 4: A Dustland Fairytale

"'I saw The Devil wrapping up his hands; he's getting ready for the showdown.' -A Dustland Fairytale, by The Killers"

A Dustland Fairytale is the fourth episode of Eidolon ROCK and the tenth episode of Eidolon Playtest Season 1. It covers the Alta Drive Jawbreakers high-jacking a car and taking a kidnapped Dead Pharaoh Legbreaker to an unknowingly illusory Pretzel Crate, fighting both him and two members of The Killers - Dusty Collins and Mason Norman.

Summary
On a highway an hour outside Las Vegas, Cecilia Citadel injects a vial of Eidolon and gains Fortune Teller (Original), an old-fashioned large fortune telling machine with an animatronic Cecilia puppet. It is heavy and needs to be moved manually. It produces the fortune "A STARVING MAN WON'T NOTICE A DIRTY PLATE" and when Harvey D. Godlove asks about his love life, says "ASK AGAIN LATER". Chris Masters determines two people can lift it safely, and Virginia Valentine notes that its unlikely non-Eidolon users can see it.

Virginia deals in as the Inhuman, becoming one with Only The Good Die Young and taking the form of a stained glass shadow with the faint outline of wings. Virginia can now refract light into beams. While determining that Virginia is still there, the group realizes that they are now all able to hear Chili (this is due to a change in the game rules). Virginia's clock dings and lights up as it reaches 70 hours, but the noise is attributed to Harvey's phone. Harvey pretends to turn it off at the group's request.

A red Sedan with a woman and a man inside it drives down the highway, stopping when Virginia generates an illusion of cop cars blocking the road. Harvey and Chris wander over to the car and pose as plain clothes police officers. As Chris moves to the other side of the car, he hears a knock from the car boot. Opening it with Ironspy, he finds a man bound and gagged. The woman inside the car shoots at Chris, and Harvey knocks her unconscious with Here It Goes Again. Chris unties and ungags the man from the car boot, and then zaps unconscious the other man who had been driving the car.

The man who had been bound asks why they were using Eidolons and introduces himself as Will Price, a member of the Bonanza Road Legbreakers branch of The Dead Pharaoh. He does not know they are on the run and assumes they were sent by the organization to rescue him. Will explains he drove out to Salt Lake City to intimidate two people who owed money to the organization. They managed to knock him out and tie him up, driving him to Las Vegas for an unknown reason. Chris drags the two unconscious people into the desert and leaves them for dead.

Will Price is unable to call a taxi to take him back to Las Vegas, so he hitches a ride with the Alta Drive Jawbreakers in the Sedan until the next rest stop. They enter Arizona, the Gateway State and soon after pull up to a Pretzel Crate rest stop. Its distance from any other civilization is perplexing. Harvey, Chris, and Virginia get a table. Virginia bends light into an illusion of her normal self to sit at the table. Chili dives into a crate of pretzels, but is not fulfilled by what she eats.

Will meets them at the table and is frustrated that the phones out here are dead. Chris flags down a nearby waitress who explains that road construction accidentally cut the lines. Virginia's illusion fails, and is suspicious when no other customers notice. A tall older man in a black duster with a limp arm enters and sits down. Chris looks closely at the patrons and notices that they are following an animation routine - all except the man in the duster. Everyone moves to leave, but Chris gets shot at from a distant rocky outcropping outside.

Eidolon Battle
Chris Masters hides behind a booth, but the man in the duster moves behind him and launches a rib out of his mouth. Chili catches it and starts chewing on it. Virginia goes outside and obscures the sniper's view with blinding light, but the sniper shoots again and hits the man in the duster. Lady Luck appears. The man in the duster collapses into the ground and his skeleton escapes his body. A waiter tells Will Price that the Alta Drive Jawbreakers are traitors to The Dead Pharaoh, so Will summons Take Me Out to join in.

Chris hides himself and Ironspy inside the bullet that shot the man in the duster. Take Me Out removes Harvey's skin, and in response Chili throws the rib she was chewing at him with Little Lies as Virginia blinds him with light. The waiter runs and hides. Harvey is at severe risk of losing all his fluids, so rips open the jugular of the man in the duster's boneless body with Here It Goes Again to shower in his blood. Blood also hits and dissolves the furniture and guests.

Will Price appears from behind Harvey and moves to attack him again with Take Me Out, this time removing his brain. Virginia takes temporary command of the Eidolon and diverts it to attack a nearby fake waitress instead. Chris, still inside the bullet in the man in the duster's body, launches it like a rail gun using Ironspy's electricity straight into Will. This knocks over Will and kills the man in the duster, and Harvey's skin returns. Will launches a final attack by biting the veins on his own wrist, causing a similar wound on Take Me Out. This cuts the wires that run down its wrist, and it starts spraying fluid that causes any organ it touches to turn intangible.

This also starts dissolving the restaurant, so the waiter summons Dustland Fairytale and turns all the dust into a giant dragon. Chili starts attacking the waiter, and Chris puts Ironspy inside Here It Goes Again. Harvey throws it through the dragon, and Chris discharges electricity from the pinball to force the dust to lose its form. The entire illusion fades and they're in an abandoned warehouse. Take Me Out is still spraying fluid, so Virginia shoots it with a laser, killing it and Will.

Everything fades to black, and Virginia, Chris, and Harvey seem to wake up in their apartment. Chili is with Chris. Everyone still has access to their Eidolon, so quickly determine it an illusion. Harvey pelts the door in his room with Here It Goes Again and accidentally knocks himself out. Virginia slingshots through The Undertow and teleports outside the abandoned warehouse. Inside is a dust tornado. Chili is able to move Little Lies outside Chris' locked bedroom, and finds two Harveys laying unconscious on their bedroom floor.

Ironspy uses static electricity to make the dust forming the illusion cling to her, dispelling it. Both Harveys are still on the ground. Each has a pinball, but Ironspy is only able to vanish inside one of them. As she does, the other Harvey sits up and turns back into the waiter, pulling out a gun. Chili rips out his throat, killing him. The entire illusion dispels - including the parking lot and road. Virginia shakes Harvey awake, and Ironspy removes the bullet from his leg. Cecilia wakes up in the car from her nap and asked what happened. Chris explains, and a skeleton arm holding a sniper rifle falls over from behind the nearby rocky outcropping.

Harvey checks how far they are from the highway on the GPS on his phone, revealing it was never turned off. He suggests stopping off at the Grand Canyon at the way, but Virginia reveals they're on a time limit.

After-Credits Scene
Martin Niles and a panicking Frasier Lilith are together when Michael-Valentine calls to inform them that Mason Norman, Dusty Collins, and Will Price failed and are dead. Michael-Valentine reveals he has his own way of tracking the Alta Drive Jawbreakers and knowing what's going on. Martin is frustrated, saying that Mr. Brightside won't be here till tomorrow and he's hesitant to send more assassins just to die. Michael-Valentine suggests instead inviting them to be Killers instead, since they've proven so capable at murder. He's already sent a Neckbreaker out to someone they trust to invite them to sit down.

The scene cuts to a knock at a door as an unknown female voice asks Jack Stern if he's ready to leave.

Appearances
● Cecilia Citadel // Fortune Teller

● Chili the Fox // Little Lies

● Chris Masters // Ironspy

● Dusty Collins // Dustland Fairytale (First & Last Appearance)

● Erin Tanner (Original) (First Appearance)

● Frasier Lilith (Original)

● Harvey D. Godlove // Here It Goes Again

● Jack Stern

● Josh and Emily Brown (First & Last Appearance)

● Lady Luck // Poker Face

● Martin Niles (Original)

● Mason Norman // Bones

● Michael-Valentine

● Virginia Valentine // Only The Good Die Young

● Will Price // Take Me Out (First Appearance)