The Core Timeline is an insane world. All kinds of Fiction collide, struggle for some degree of supremacy.
And in Chicago, one more foe comes out of the shadows to attempt to steal the Iconic Item of Mari "Captain America" Makinami: the famous shield that belonged to her grandfather and predecessor.
His name? Wile E. Coyote.
The Flighty Shield
is a short story that occurs in the Coreline Shared Universe.
Currently under construction. Please add tropes as you see them!
This story has the following Tropes:
- ACME Products: Wile E. Coyote uses several of these throughout the story — a drivable rocket and tranquilizers among others. As is typical for him, they don't work right because of various bugs and bad timing.
- After one particular failure, the Coyote gets fed up and decides to buy stuff off of the black market and makes sure that he doesn't use anything made by ACME. It does absolutely nothing to improve his atrocious luck.
- Alas, Poor Villain: While someone trying to steal her shield is one of Mari's biggest Berserk Buttons, she decided to help the Coyote because, having seen the cartoons as a kid, she felt nothing but pity for the poor unlucky fella.
- The Determinator: Poor fella gets pummeled, blown up, stepped on by a giant, literally dragged through half of Chicago and hit by a freaking train and still doesn't gives up.
- Everyone Has Standards: The Coyote destroys a section of train tracks in order to get Mari into a position where he can keep her from moving long enough to trap her and steal the shield, but he honestly hoped that no one would be hurt. In addition, while he is a hunter, he hunts for food, and finds the idea of Craig Jones and Tex Blanc scamming toons and recording them in order to sell the footage to people sick enough to find the idea of people getting hurt entertaining horrific.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Craig Jones and Tex Blanc, a pair of guys that hire desperate Toon Fictions to perform assignments that will get them hurt and film the resulting mess as Snuff Film material through drones. They never appear on-screen but the story ends with them being arrested.
- Harmless Villain: The Coyote only wishes to steal the shield so he will be able to afford the best meal he's had in years. And even then, he's not really that much of a threat.
- Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: The Coyote. As is typical of him, his luck craps out so hard that he suffers all kinds of hell.
- Mysterious Mercenary Pursuer: The Coyote's assignment is to steal Mari's shield. It ends up being Played for Laughs, though, with his Epic Fail levels of effectiveness.
- Oh, Crap!: The Coyote's default reaction to his various plans going awry.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: In order to slip the tranquilizers in Mari's requested takeout food, the Coyote steals the uniform of the restaurant she ordered at and sneaks into the kitchen. The narration makes clear that he's an Unusually Uninteresting Sight.
- Pun-Based Title: "The Mighty Shield" being how Captain America's shield is called in the opening song of his The Marvel Super Heroes shorts.
- Read the Fine Print: "WARNING - NOT EFFECTIVE ON SUPER SOLDIERS", reads in an obscenely tiny print in the bottle of ACME-made tranquilizer that the Coyote dumped on Mari's ordered food. As is typical of him, the reaction is "Now You Tell Me!".
- Road Runner vs. Coyote: Or rather "Super-Soldier vs. Coyote". The result remains the same.
- Shout-Out: The Greater-Scope Villain duo, Craig Jones and Tex Blanc, are named after some major names in the western animation industry: Charles "Chuck" Jones and Mel Blanc.
- The Silent Bob: Wile E. Coyote spends most of the story not saying an actual word (except for some Talking with Signs and the narration mentioning him screaming a couple of times). Turns out that it's because he literally can't speak. Max Pegasus gives him the capacity to speak in the epilogue.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: After learning why the Coyote was trying to steal her shield and that he was being manipulated, Mari takes him back to the Mansion and has Hayate cook him a huge feast including barbecued road runner. He's eventually sent off to a Toon support group to get help finding a home, build a career, and is given some money to help him make a place for himself in the Core Timeline.
- Unknown Rival: For most of the story, Mari doesn't even knows that the Coyote is out to get her.
