2018-01-16: The Mountain Quakes
- Log: The Mountain Quakes
- Cast: Kent Hauch, Ambrosius, Elhaym van Houten, Riesenlied, Ida Everstead-Rey, Kalve, Fei Fong Wong, Shalune Amira, Dean Stark, Gwen Whitlock, Monster Mash
- Where: El Pazzo - Fire Quarter
- Date: January 16th, 2018
- Summary: Drifters converge on El Pazzo, in hopes of sealing the statue stolen by the Black Ties. Ambrosius and Kalve have gotten there first, however, with a plan they set into motion...
This scene takes place after 2018-01-14: To Do What One Must.
==============================<* Fire Quarter *>============================== Gentleman's Street terminates at one of the gates into the Fire Quarter, the only walled area permitted within the city - a tall barricade of black-scorched scrap metal wrapping around a collection of architectural nightmares. Three total gates control entry into the Quarter, though they are left open unless the Black Ties are given a good reason to hole up. The Fire Quarter is arranged in two rings around a central building fronted by a large plaza. The outer ring consists of the common dorms, ugly bulidings in various states of repair constructed out of whatever was lying around at the time. The bulk of the Ties live here in erratic, constantly-shifting arrangements, jockeying for rooms that aren't about to collapse almost as vigorously as they jockey for rank. The inner ring is composed of more permanent red-and-black structures; rooms for the Jackets, Ribaldy's ARM workshop, a few arsenals, the cafeteria, and a few halls used for meeting, training, and wasting time. Black Ties are always milling about the two rings, giving the place the feel of a demented academy campus. The large building at the Quarter's center has been given a few names. Undercity Hall. The Black Wardrobe. The Fire House. Kent Hauch just calls it home. A defiantly wooden building expanded time and again, it serves as New El Pazzo's administrative center, the inner sanctum of the Ties, and the personal apartments of Kent and his Suits. The huge plaza in front of the ersatz mansion is dominated by a massive firepit, lit entirely according to Kent's whims. It serves as a good indicator of when the boss is about. BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BZVfh6tQ-4
<Pose Tracker> Kent Hauch has posed.
It is easy to surmise where the Statue of Dinoginos might have gone. El Pazzo is one of the larger Plantless cities in the Badlands, and due to its widening circle of "protection", every merchant knows exactly where it is.
Drifters on the chase are afforded the opportunity to rest, maintain, and enjoy some farm-fresh vegetables in Old El Pazzo, a typical ramshackle Badlands town with the chaotic stone buildings of New El Pazzo growing off of it like a tumor. Many are afforded a meeting with the town mayor, a harried, stressed, sweating fat man who seems constantly sure that the Ties are going to boil into his streets at any moment. He is often seen calming the embattled citizens, who are less than thrilled with your visit until the Mayor gets them to relax.
The charge through the Gentleman's Street is best done in the dead of night, though New El Pazzo never truly sleeps. The citizens there, rarely innocent souls, know what's coming - the streets are unnaturally clear, doors locked and bolted, though the bonfires lining the streets are blazing.
The goal is the Fire Quarter at the end of the street. You are not attacked directly, but jeers and insults follow you, with the odd scrappy Tie deciding to arc a dangerous molotov before vanishing down an alleyway. It is easy to mark your destination - the enormous bonfire of the Fire Quarter crackles higher than the walls around it.
DC: Ida Everstead-Rey switches forms to Pugilist Ida! DC: Riesenlied switches forms to Rising Heart Riesenlied! DC: Shalune Amira switches forms to Girl of Blue Skies! DC: Kalve switches forms to The Mercury Method! DC: Dean Stark switches forms to The Daring Boy!
<Pose Tracker> Ambrosius has posed.
El Pazzo.
Ambrosius had heard of it before. It and its inhabitants made a good case for the necessity of Veruni rule. Up until just a short time ago, however, he considered them nothing more than nuisances, praying on the weak. A problem that could be dealt with at any time.
However, a contingent of them had managed to eliminate the drones he and his ally had put together for their mission. They had proven themselves a potential threat...
...but one that had whisked the Statue away from those that would seal it and jeopardize his mission. He could appreciate this...but it still needed to be destroyed.
And that is why he is here, in this Capital of Crime. It was time to pay them a visit, so to speak.
Ambrosius himself currently stands far atop a building, as is his tendency. He is dressed head to toe in dark red body armor, concealed behind a poncho. Different than his usual one, this one was darker in color to help blend into the shadows. The bright bonfires blazing complicate matters, however. Also present was a face-covered helmet, modified with Veruni technology. Still, he works, assembling a weapon - what appears to be a rifle of sleek, red metal with silver linings.
And then he speaks, in a frequency available only to one other.
"I am in position. When you're ready."
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Elly van Houten has kind of complicated feelings about this place.
On the one hand: El Pazzo is a place where a group of people have built a society and a culture that is growing and thriving well above the average for the rest of Filgaia. The future of the surface, if there is a future other than living in bee-hives in the sky, may be getting written here. The Black Ties have also been personable to Elly; leaving aside Ribaldy's immense dog magnetism, Fargo Foobach's valiance in Adelhyde stirred Elly's heart, and Kent Hauch encouraged her when she felt low to embrace who she was and what she could do, despite what everyone might say.
On the other hand: El Pazzo is where a bunch of gangsters live and they do a lot of crimes. (Hence the gangster part. Otherwise they'd be an ethnic group, or maybe a religion.) Also, they stole a Guardian Statue, and the 'Mother' entity seems to be real, strong, and not their collective friend. What would be the critical point at which 'Mother' could come back? Could 'Mother' be killed by Gebler military actions if necessary? Those are a lot of rhetorical questions with no good answers.
What is also a pretty big factor to Elly is -- well -- she doesn't explain it to anybody. It is like she is on a runaway train with no brakes, she thinks. She could stop... nobody would blame her... well, nobody who came back alive, anyway. Would SHE blame herself?
Would ANYONE come back alive?
Elly's main contribution has been speaking up when people are about to go in the wrong direction. She's been here before. Along the way, she, once, glanced up at a flying molotov and it froze solid before it hit the ground, the guttering flame of the rag sputtering, even as heat melts water and mixes with that alchemic potable the Black Ties love to use.
But there is very little water in the air here.
"It's going to be through here," Elly says, as the radiant glow of the looming fire quarter starts to wash with unwelcome force over exposed skin. She lingers for a moment, digging a strip of leather out of a pocket to tie back her hair.
"Be careful. They're fond of fire. ... I suppose you could have guessed that," Elly says, "but it bears repeating."
AND THEN, once people have gathered themselves momentarily, Elly, at least, is brave enough to proceed. ... If not brave enough to stop anyone who wants to blaze ahead of her.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied has come here to El Pazzo, in the wake of the battle at the Mountain Palace... alone.
Normally, this would have been terribly ill advised. But the Ebony Wings would have been a poor choice here -- far too obvious, known and would have stirred an all-out battle in which they risk the Mountain Statue being outright destroyed. Thus, it's under a soft cloak that she assumes the guise of a normal villager, keeping her head down as she steps along Gentlemen's Street and towards the Fire Quarter...
The bonfire is unmistakable.
It reminds her of Wayside's own bonfire, and yet it erupts with a menace that seems unsettling. In many ways, El Pazzo feels a strange reflection of Wayside -- a town that grew out of a ramshackle Badlands village, made of inhabitants that have migrated a long way and struggle to find their mark... yet there is a nervous energy here that makes things feel--
Unsettled.
"I understand..." Riesenlied speaks to Elly, her voice only above a whisper -- but as she glances up towards a particular building, she suddenly gasps.
"Keep-- keep going without me, Miss Elly. There is someone I must face."
Then she hurries in one direction, suddenly possessed of an urgency that was not there before. She finds a back door which has already been opened, hurrying up a fire escape and careful to not stumble upon her steps. It's hard work, but as she emerges through the final entrance towards the top floor...
"Ambrosius..."
She steps a little closer to the red-armoured figure in the helmet. She brushes a hand through her hair, her hood slacking back and letting her blonde hair spill.
She thinks back towards the tunnel at the Mountain Palace, and how much blood had been spilled. She shivers to recall the way the mechanical drones had battled against the Ties that they had observed...
"Please. Stop this... before you do something you truly regret."
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida's first encounter with the Black Ties ended with Jacqueline Barber and Riesenlied picking her out of the dirt, with an assist from Cassidy Cain. Faced with her first actual fight against other human beings, she choked up--and got sustained bruised, cracked ribs courtesy of Parbody. Riesenlied met her afterwards, while she was convalescing, and the two had something of a heart-to-heart.
Times have changed.
The Ida that meets with the Mayor of Old El Pazzo wears simple clothes, with a collar and long sleeves to hide a number of distinctive scars. She accepted the gracious offer of food and rest, stabled her horse, and took some time to make small talk. What she thought was some sort of symbiotic relationship with these bandits turned out to be much more complicated, because as it turns out, there are still people living here who don't like the terrifying arsonist gang and want them to go away. Once the talk was over, Ida tied a bandana around her mouth and nose, and took up position at Elly's flank.
The Ida that walks down the street beside Elly stands straight-backed, hands held at her sides. Her eyes flick over to the molotov, but she doesn't slow down, even when it looks like it's about to break on the street in front of her. Her gaze flicks over to Elly, and she gives her an appreciative nod. Ida has gotten very used to such displays over the past... God, has it been almost a year?
Ida walks onwards. An empty bottle rolls into the street in front of her. Riesenlied has vanished, but Ida has more important things to worry about. Looking weak around these people draws their scorn. That's not an experience Ida cares to repeat. She crushes the bottle beneath her foot without breaking stride.
<Pose Tracker> Kalve has posed.
Just this once, Kalve is nowhere to be found.
He should be on the approach, changing from strange drifter to ominous metal monster with every step he takes. He should be shouting a challenge, ready to do battle with the strongest men this place can muster. That would be what people should expect him to do, if he's here at all.
It isn't.
He's on the wall right now, a grey, blurred shape that blends in with the collection of blackened scrap. He moves from plate to plate like a spider, crossing it in the grotesque shadows cast by firelight clashing with jagged architecture. His camo cloak is around him like a weightless shroud; his too-many arms keep him in motion, only pausing when he sees a spot on the wall that looks suitable for his purposes.
Kalve perches like a gargoyle, blending in between jagged sections of upper wall. His feet warp, talons curling and biting into the metal surface. He holds perfectly still, a piece of ominous statuary, waiting for the inevitable arrival of those who would hope to thwart them.
Some part of him notes the burning anger in his chest with a clinical detachment. It holds the rest back. Wait for your opportunity. They're almost here.
A whisper sounds in his ear. Kalve replies, "A moment more. And then..."
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei Fong Wong doesn't really have anything against the Black Ties. What is he going to do? Get mad at them for adopting a child whose hometown he blew up? That's kind of ridiculous if you think about it. He also thinks Fargo was a pretty cool dude, if my cool we mean the opposite of cool really since he lit himself on fire, but he also has no idea that Fargo's a member here so that's not really on his mind right now.
Fei Fong Wong has no idea if 'Mother' can be killed by Gebler strike or not. He is certain she CAN be killed, but is similarly certain it would have to be at great cost if his dreams are any indication.
Hopefully...they aren't?
Unfortunately it seems that when tested his dreams tend to be, if not right on the money, in the right general direction. He looks towards Riesenlied who is chatting up Elly and says, "Hooboy." as Riesenlied says there's someone she must face. He can already tell there's going to be tears, fears, and tears for fears.
"And nice suits," Fei says, feeling this is important. He doesn't blaze ahead of Elly, though, he sticks by her as he makes his way into the eerily quiet (at least in terms of background music) arena.
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
Leaving Big Shal behind at the outskirts of the city doesn't seem like the best idea ever, if you ask Shalune - but at the same time she recognizes that the Golem is likely to draw a whole lot more in the way of undesirable attention as people seek to claim it for themselves. Not that she doesn't draw a lot of attention herself - this is not exactly the sort of place that a slightly short bundle of pink hair and well-loved bright clothing should be traipsing through, especially not with a temptingly large backpack on her back and a number of interesting-looking ARMs and artifacts attached to it.
Still, she's here, and stepping forward with a surprisingly resolute expression. As resolute as one can be while wearing a bobble hat, at least.
She's already determined not to go in fearing the worst. She doesn't know why the Black Ties stole a Guardian statue, and thinking about it didn't really provide any answers either. They might want to explode the statue publicly, but she can't imagine why - in contrast, she can absolutely understand why someone might want to steal the statue for themselves. Maybe its protective aura is proximity-based, or something. It certainly wasn't doing a whole lot of good down in the depths of the Mountain Palace, that's for sure.
She brushes some hair out of her face, feeling the heat of the flames as she trudges past. For once she's left her coat at home, though she's still in several layers - a faded yellow sweater over an orange-ish vest, and thick work jeans with a multitude of patches and nicks and scrapes.
The tension in the air isn't exactly helping her resolve, though, the mechanic growing dimly more aware that there's going to be a fight. She keeps pace with Elly and Fei, but does turn towards Riesenlied with an uncertain frown, and you can just see her open her mouth to offer to go with the Metal Demon for a moment before she firms up into a nod.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
Dean's never been to El Pazzo before! He's only somewhat aware of who the Black Ties are, at that. He used to assume they were just bad guys, but then he came to learn that sometimes good people can have bounties on their head, so he's somewhat more open to the idea that maybe they can't be so easily painted as black and white.
That said, he's also only vaguely aware of what happened at the Mountain Palace, the highlights being that the Ties took the Statue and brought it here, presumably to be destroyed, which strikes Dean as odd--why does it matter *where* you destroy a Statue, as long as it's destroyed?--and really only goes to show how little of the situation he really understands.
hat's never stopped him before, though. Especially since he has friends here, coming into El Pazzo to try to settle matters. He turns a nervous look between Riesenlied and Ida, wondering if they're going to break into a fight, but... then Riese says there's someone she has to face, then hurries away.
"Take care," he tells her quietly, before looking over at Fei, Shalune, and Gwen. Elly's there too of course, but Dean doesn't really know Elly. "Is it just me, or does the air feel really... *heavy*, for some reason?" he murmurs, wiping the sweat from his face with one sleeve. (That's probably the tension. And also the fire. Lots and lots of fire.)
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
In all fairness, Gwen *really* shouldn't be here. The concept of fire as a weapon, mixed with the concept of Black Ties in general *and* the fact that they'd be going into the core of the well-oiled machine that is New El Pazzo makes this especially dangerous. Well, perhaps not the core. Really, it's a rather well-built place, considering the sorts of places she's seen in the Badlands. They're able to keep this place moving and supplied without any need of a Plant or other obvious power source. Kent Haunch runs a tight ship.
But yes. Gwen really shouldn't be here. But the entire idea of 'common sense' and 'laying low' just seems moot when she sees some friends striding in, who probably also shouldn't be here. But seeing the woman (who is obviously not Ida, and Gwen's making sure to at least not say that name to her face) covered now in the clothing of someone trying to hide their body from prying eyes. There was a time when Gwen was the one who was embarrassed when Ida saw her scars. And now, barely even a year...
Gwen can't assume by clothing alone.
So. Gwen is here, barely having a concrete idea of what exactly happened, her silk rag pulled over her nose and mouth. It won't hide her identity once her ARM comes into view, but it may help against the smoke and grit that may come later. It also hides the worried, nervous frown on her lips. The bottle thrown elects a flinch, a yelp, and a few hops back, nearly falling back into Dean, but Gwen quickly recovers. "Y-yeah, it's, uh, definitely... heavy." She clears her throat. "I doubt it's gonna be very easy for long. Be on your guard, okay?"
<Pose Tracker> Kent Hauch has posed.
The Drifter pack is convenient for Kalve. The Ties are completely focused on them. For there to be so little opposition, an order must have been laid down from the highest reaches of the gang. Things get even quieter, save for the roar of flame, at the gates.
The scorched, twisted-scrap gates of the Fire Quarter are closed, but not locked. Touching them with bare skin is painful - they absorb heat from the near-constant fires burning to either side. They shriek at the slightest motion, but then, most people here aren't trying to be stealthy.
The way forward is simple and obvious. The two rings of buildings surrounding the Quarter's courtyard leave a broad avenue up toward the surreal-looking Black Wardrobe, the Undercity Hall, home of the Suits and El Pazzo's Night Mayor.
You know about the Night Mayor. The actual mayor complained about him. A lot.
The Black Wardrobe's prominent balcony looms over the bonfire... and the Guardian Statue within. Dinoginos in its saurian form, hunched, looming grim and forbidden... in the wrong direction. The bonfire crackles around it like a prison, its overpowering stance looking more like one of supplication toward the balcony. The effigy of Dinoginos, unharmed by the flame, nevertheless made to pay tribute to Kent Hauch.
Black Ties are here. Vests and Jackets, more well-armed and well-dressed than the chaff, men and women, human and beastman. They cluster around the buildings and roofs of the Fire Quarter. Elly will notice a subtle change. They carry themselves differently. More steadfastly assured. These Ties in the inner sanctum are not quite disciplined soldiers, but they've become something a little more than a rowdy gang.
Three figures stand between you and the bonfire, but their silhouettes are easily recognizable to any who have encountered them before. Ribaldy, the dogman, Suit #3, in his combat armor with a flamethrower in each hand. The swaying form of the wild drunk Samuelh the Molotov, Suit #2, covered in bags and wearing a stinking overcoat, a bottle in one hand. Straight and tall, fingertips glowing, the immaculately dressed Fargo Foobach, Suit #1, the Man in White.
"'ello, Red."
Kent Hauch steps out of a shadow in his finest ash grey coat and sooty grey vest, cigar smoke swirling around his head, the huge tank of Red River hanging on his back, making the already large man look even more massive.
His eyes are locked on Elhaym van Houten.
Something is sparking there. Hot embers in an otherwise relaxed face. His teeth cut a dent into his cigar.
Apparently unconcerned, he looks out at the Drifters, meeting each of their eyes in turn.
"Did you bring me some bounties, love?" he asks quietly, taking one hand out of his pocket. His eyes flick back toward Gwen for a moment. "One of 'em's lookin' a touch white, innit. Someone oughta let her know."
Kent Hauch glares down at Elly. He holds out his other hand, palm up, while the index finger of his right twitches.
"You can trust fire."
<Pose Tracker> Kalve has posed.
Kalve detaches himself from the wall. He moves to the top and clears his throat. It triggers the transmitter again.
"I will begin. Good hunting."
Kalve raises his hands in front of him, cradling an etched metal sphere. The grey metal diamonds set into the palms alight, the yellow-white luminescence that follows the Silhouette Engine activation cutting through the shadows in which he lurks. It wraps around the sphere, bleeding into the grooves that cover the object. It twists and rotates, the complex puzzle-lock coming undone.
The inside is full of black liquid. Floating in the solution is a rough, uneven silvery object about an inch across. Kalve looks down at it for a long moment, and then very deliberately upends the container into the interior of the Fire Quarter over the wall.
The object hits the ground. The liquid splashes into the street and splatters, sticking like paint. It thickens, quivering, and then races off along the ground in every direction, leaving ink-black lines over every surface. One hits the walls and goes upwards until it finds a crack, and then disappears inside.
The object cracks. It bursts open, and a tangle of what looks like wire emerges. It roots itself to the spot and begins growing, expanding outward and upwards. The wire thickens to dense cable in fast-forward. A node at the top forms, round, developing seams. It splits...
...and a flower blooms.
Its petals are silver and bright, shining at the edges and at the heart of it. There's a gentle white glow from inside, an ethereal light that ignites as soon as it unfurls, glinting beautifically. It points skyward, big as a dinner plate. Leaves sprout up the 'cables,' revealed as metallic vines and stems, pointed and shades of iron-grey while the many smaller blossoms spreading all over it keep the silvery coloration.
And then the ones hidden in the walls bloom, too.
Metal vines begin to encroach on the Fire Quarter. Fields of steely flowers spring up in streets; underbrush like barbed wire starts to criss-cross alleyways. Larger stalks start to weave themselves on top of the outermost buildings, building upward into something like trees. The scrap metal of the interior side of the wall is beginning to look more like a wall of razorvine. Whatever the roots settle on is dug into and discolored, using whatever it can find for materials.
Someone screams. A razor-sharp leaf is bloodied, an unfortunate bystander's hand coming away quickly -- and the plant follows, lashing out to reach for the newest source of warm, living sustenance.
Kalve descends from the wall in a long leap. He begins pacing it as it grows towards the greatest meal it could ever conceive of:
The Guardian Statue.
DC: Monster Mash switches forms to Devouring Ferroflora!
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
"... If you're sure," Elly tells Riesenlied, helplessly. She watches her go for a second, but doesn't move immediately to follow. Fortunately Fei speaks, and it breaks some of the tension.
"Yeah," Elly answers Fei with the ghost of a smile. She then takes a deep breath and lets it out, before answering Dean.
"The fire's exhausting it... and it's possible the statue's involved, too..."
In they go. Deeper. Into the pits of Hell. Elly sweats for a while, and then she doesn't, because the fire is intense enough that her sweat vaporizes instantly, cooling her in the process. It's a dry heat, they say. And so it is, until you're dry too. But that won't kappen right away.
The statue! And surrounding it, Elly thinks, are approximately half the Black Ties. She gazes around them, seeing the crackling of the flames and the poised and assured stances of these men, these women, these beasts and these varlets. Her attention rests towards the Suits, and in front of them, the bald man in the gray.
i don't want to be here, Elly thinks.
but i am, aren't i?
Elly coughs once. She's too far for it to be the smoke, save from the fire, but at least it makes it a little less obvious she's clearing her throat.
"It's nothing to do with any bounties, Mr. Hauch," Elly says. "They're with me. We have to seal the statue. I can explain it in full if you want - it won't take but a minute, and the statue won't even seem any different." What?? Was this the plan all along??
She takes one step forwards, then another, separating herself from the group. Her own hands are held out, spread slightly. Nothing's in them, though Kent at the absolute least will know that means absolutely nothing in the grand scheme of things.
"There's something coming," Elly says, "if we don't."
At this point someone screams. "Oh no," Elly says, looking away from Kent, towards the source of that shriek. "What--"
Horrid metal undergrowth blooms towards them. Elly has little time to think, less to plan, and she sweeps one arm out thusly and picks the route you take when metal is the enemy: even if it is not perhaps perfect for something so grounded... using fire would be a little rude.
The sweating sky cracks, and lightning arcs down towards a particularly robust shoot. "Mr. Hauch look OUT"
GS: Elhaym van Houten has attacked Monster Mash with Anemo Bolt! GS: Elhaym van Houten has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Ambrosius has posed.
Ambrosius does not turn to face Riesenlied immediately. Instead, he finishes putting his weapon together. It's one she will be familiar with, from that fight with the Graverobber at the docks not too long ago.
"Thank you." It is not a response to Riesenlied, but instead to the individual at the other end of the communications line.
And then Ambrosius stands upright and turns to face Riesenlied, his form silhouetted by the flames and the devouring ferroflora as it begins to encroach on the Fire Quarter, and the statue within.
"It is too late to stop it, Miss Riesenlied. But I have no regrets. This is the path I have chosen." He replies. He shoulders his gun for a moment before reaching into his poncho, drawing out a familiar revolver.
"We both knew it would come to this someday. It is...a shame that it is so soon after our parting, but I must delay you." Ambrosius takes aim and fires with Conversator...once at Riesenlied, and another at Shalune, when she comes to aid her.
It is not a shot aimed to kill, but a shot aimed to make his intentions to fight clear.
GS: Ambrosius has attacked Riesenlied with Conversator!
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei Fong Wong smiles back at Elly. There's a lot going on, shortly. A monster plant thing, whatever is going on with Ambrosius, all these things, but Fei doesn't have any eyes for an evil plant monster, not really. With all the Black Ties around he doubts it's going to survive that long. Unless...it's a fire retardant plant monster? Is that even possible? It feels like cheating, making a plant monster resillient to fire.
Still, he blinks twice as Elly tries negotiating with Kent. He thinks it over and considers that's a good idea. It doesn't flippin' matter if it's in this town, does it? Not if it gets sealed. This is actually one of the nicer areas he's seen statues hanging out at. A distinct lack of primarchs. A few rowdy characters, but they dress up nicely. It could be worse.
He turns his attention to Fargo for a moment, pushing his hands in his pockets as he approaches him. There's enough going on that he's trying to focus. It's like the time with the dragon, but a bit more tightly focused.
"Hey." He says. "You gonna stop us from sealing it?"
Part of him hopes that Fargo says yes.
Because if he says yes then he can show Fargo what he learned. They can fight again. The other part of him is nervous that he's thinking like that, but he quashes it for the moment.
GS: Ambrosius has attacked Shalune Amira with Conversator! GS: Ambrosius has completed his action. GS: Riesenlied takes a glancing hit from Ambrosius's Conversator for 95 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied's eyes widen, as she hears that scream from below. She spots that flower as it blossoms outward, metal vines erupting through the streets. "Ferroflora...!" she gasps, rather familiar with it from when she met Kalve at his laboratory and at the artificial gardens in the Photosphere. She whips her head back towards Ambrosius, nervously.
"I do not believe that. You yourself have told me that you do not believe Mother is the path for your people's future--"
Conversator rings out through the air.
"I--"
Riesenlied's eyes widen as she clutches her side, where she starts to bleed. Red, through her gown, as she gasps and drops to one knee. "A-Ambrosius... please..."
She trembles further, gasping as she tries to hold strong. Incandescent motes start to erupt from her form, surrounding her by proxy even without her conscious thoughts doing so. A barrier starts to erupt around her...
GS: Riesenlied has attacked Riesenlied with Rising Heart - 'Seek the New World'! GS: Riesenlied has completed her action. GS: Riesenlied heals Riesenlied! She gains 200 temporary hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
It takes more and more effort for Ida to keep her back straight as the group moves deeper into Kent Hauch's sanctum. Part of it is that she's still trying to figure out what drove him to steal a Guardian Statue, sacrificing so many of his own gang members in the process. The Ties that hit Tumblus Town feel like they might as well be a completely different gang. Ida's eyes dart back and forth, taking in the general atmosphere, and the bearing of the Ties present.
And there's the Statue. It doesn't take Ida long to realize what Kent is doing with the Statue at present, even if his initial motive was different. This is a show of dominance, and an extremely dangerous one. Ida hasn't seen Kent Hauch in person, but recognizes the man instantly the moment he steps out from the shadows. Sweat starts to drip down her forehead, and not just from the heat. Elly seems to know the man, which is bizarre, because Elly does not strike her as the kind of person to socialize with gang lords.
Metallic rustling. Ida's eyes widen, and as Elly whirls around, so does she. Her brain seems to hit a snag, trying to process the sight of the oddly-metallic foliage where foliage absolutely should not be, much less bizarre metal foliage. And then, there's the matter of the figure striding towards them, walking alongside the swiftly-growing vines trapping the group in front of Kent and the other Ties.
Kalve?, Ida thinks. Her heart falls into the pit of her stomach. The dull, creeping dread she'd felt on the way here gives way to shock, then horror. No. Stop that. Those vines. Deal with them--
There's a barrel fire conveniently located just to Ida's right, a mass of oily rags and pitch contained in an old steel drum. Ida whirls around, landing a roundhouse kick against the barrel's side, knocking it over with a thunderous crash. A second kick sends burning rags spilling into the street, and the still-flaming barrel right at the cluster of ferroflora.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Monster Mash with Barrel Fire! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action. GS: Shalune Amira guards a hit from Ambrosius's Conversator for 104 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
"Huh..." Dean utters, looking at Elly when she responds to him. "I'd be exhausted from all this fire, too." He may or may not understand what she means, though he probably gets the spirit of it all the same.
Meanwhile, Dean's first impression of Kent is that he's a jerk. He can even pin down why he feels that way: Kent asks Elly if she brought him some bounties, while giving Gwen a pointed look. Dean frowns--but before he can tell Kent off, Kalve saunters onto the scene with a creepy plant-monster thing in tow, which thoroughly seizes Dean's attention.
"Woah, what is *that*?" he utters, staring at it. 'It' quickly becomes 'them,' as metal flowers bloom in profusion and seize nutrients from anything it can take. Kalve he doesn't recognize, not knowing him, but it seems obvious even to Dean "Dense as Lead" Stark that he's buddies with this plant thing. And also that the plant thing is bad news, especially when it cuts a bystander.
As Ida throws a flaming barrel into the ferroflora, and Elly calls down the thunder, Dean takes a much more direct approach: he calls Twin Fenrir to his hands in a flash of light, then charges towards the closest metal vines with a roar and hits him with his guns' combat rods as hard as he can in an attempt to knock them back into the flames and lightning.
GS: Dean Stark has attacked Monster Mash with Double Strike! GS: Dean Stark has completed his action. GS: Monster Mash guards a hit from Elhaym van Houten's Anemo Bolt for 63 hit points! GS: Disrupt! Statuses applied to Monster Mash! GS: Monster Mash critically Guards a hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Barrel Fire for 20 hit points! GS: Monster Mash takes a solid hit from Dean Stark's Double Strike for 96 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
Shalune's barely about to respond to Dean when the Black Ties make their entrance; despite the show of strength, the mechanic somehow manages to hold fast. She's-- reasonably certain they're not terribly bad people, per se, but then her window on that sort of thing has been battered left and right the last couple months. At the very least, there's a chance they took the statue because they wanted to keep it for themselves, not destroy it.
She keeps silent when Elly speaks, her mouth set in a thin line of uncertainty and worry. Even if they might not be despicable, this is still the group that briefly menaced the Caravan Kinship at an inopportune time. As it turns out, though, they barely even manage to get a word in edgeways before there's an awkward, dangerous sort of slithering noise - and her vision flicks fearfully across at the sudden blossoming of a metallic flower - one that's getting larger and angrier by the minute.
... funny how a couple of days can make you a real quick expert on the dos-and-donts of living metal. Instinctively, she backs away a couple of steps, not wanting the odd foliage anywhere near her, more than a little wary of what it might do to anything it chooses to wrap around. That it's here and present probably means Metal Demon, and if they hope to actually stop the metal - perhaps that means Metal Demon too. It might not have a soul or much of a mind to touch, but she knows someone who's pretty good at getting around that.
"--I'm going to get--" she starts to blurt, stopping dead after a moment. The Black Ties are right there, Shalune. Maybe don't yell the name out loud. "--her! Maybe she can help!" the mechanic finishes instead, and turns on her heel as she skids into a sprint in the direction Riesenlied split off, taking the stairs two at a time.
When she bursts through the doorway with a cry of "Miss Riese!"-- it cuts off immediately into a stunned yelp as she dives forwards into a roll, feeling the bullet cut through her sweater and glance off of her; a warm pain spreads through her arm, and even if she's dimly aware the projectile didn't go through her she's still forced to grit her teeth for a moment, off-balance and needing to push herself back up to her feet.
Luckily, she and Riesenlied aren't strictly alone - because suddenly drawing up from the side of the building they're on, the form of a certain twelve-foot Golem lifts into view. Even with its eyes consisting only of two headlights, it still manages to look angry. Maybe it's the hammer blow that drives down into the rooftop, looking to knock the Veruni off.
GS: Shalune Amira has attacked Ambrosius with Who Needs Gear Forms Anyway?! GS: Shalune Amira has completed her action. GS: Ambrosius critically Guards a hit from Shalune Amira's Who Needs Gear Forms Anyway? for 21 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
Honestly, Elly's plan is as good as any. Seal the statue, and leave the nice man and his friends to the nice bonfire they are having. Especially when she feels Kent's eyes upon her in his sweeping gaze across the whole motley bunch of them. She summons her best 'aw shucks' sort of smile and rubs her neck, an effect that is partially lost by the cloth covering her mouth. "I was kinnda hopin' you'd overlook that in light of the fact that it was somethin' to do with the Prime Minister of Aveh. You really want his stink gettin' on this fine city y'built?"
She pauses, giving Elly more room to speak, to reason with the man who deigned to even give her a nickname, even slightly holding a hand up when she glances back over towards Dean, somehow sensing the young man's possible ire.
But something else steals the show. Something metallic, and yet organic, all flowers and vines that would look downright beautiful if they didn't invade so viciously, with Kalve in tow.
Kalve. Yes. Riesenlied even identifies him, as well as Ambrosius. The former is certain a surprise, but Ambrosius as well? "Kalve." Her teeth clench. Ida's here, and Kalve's doing this? "This is a dead end you're pursuin'. But if I gotta fight you to make sure you understand that, I will." She bares her right ARM with a jerk of her sleeve against the garter, a few bullets already loaded for just such an emergency. "Here's your warnin' shot, just to show I ain't kiddin' around! Y'better come up with a real good reason why you're doin' all this real quick-like!"
GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Kalve with Crackshot! GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Monster Mash has posed.
The ferroflora is invasive and dangerous. It is not, however, invulnerable.
Lighting strikes one of the uppermost stalks. It spasms, blackening, and the entwined metal comes apart, unfurling lifelessly. It looks more like a burned weeping willow, now. The threads wave in the hot wind made by the innumerable burning fires spread throughout the Quarter, the half a stalk tilted forward over a building it had yet to spread to. It looks like it's been held at bay there, for now.
Dean takes the very straightforward approach of treating his leafy opponent like a practice dummy. He hits a cluster of yet-to-bloom plant pods, uprooting them and launching them back towards the rest of it. It starts to overlap, becoming more dense in that part of the mass of it instead of overrunning where he's standing. And then --
Fire! The barrel rolls into the mass of ferroflora, spilling burning material into the mass. It blackens, burns and melts the weaker parts of it, but the material is wicked up by the rest, recycled until there's a blacked and burned space around the now-stationary barrel. It seems to linger, blossoms tilting towards the source of light and heat.
Wire-like growths race along the walls of buildings towards the intrepid gardeners. Flowers bloom, and the motes of light inside them brighten and burst with a crystalline chime, casting drifting, glimmering dust all over the place. It seems to strengthen the encroaching mass -- but it has a very different effect on those fighting it, making thoughts cloudy and limbs heavy. Maybe it's time for a nap... right in the path of the hungry foliage.
<Pose Tracker> Kent Hauch has posed.
As soon as Elly says 'They're with me.', Kent's face starts to rock over. Tobacco trickles from the corner of his mouth as his teeth pierce the rolling paper.
The injured Vest - for there are no bystanders here - screams, and screams again as the vine catches her arm before she can pull back. The camera mercifully cuts away as the grave atmosphere around the Ties there cracks and they scatter away. Flames start to jump through the air as Ties start firing at the vines.
Kent doesn't flinch. He doesn't look over. Elly sweeps one hand out, casting lightning, and his burned left hand lashes out to grab her wrist, rough and terrifically strong.
Fei addresses Fargo. The Man in White glances at him in brief acknowledgement and then back to Kent. Samuelh is looking around as things begin happening as though he doesn't quite understand why people are shouting. Ribaldy has started to move toward the initial screams.
The gangleader knows how to cause pain. He twists Elly's wrist painfully, using his height advantage to drag her up onto her tiptoes. "You brought them into my 'ome. Drifters. With my people." He steps forward. "After I fed you at my table!!"
The earth around Kent throbs as he drags on the power of the Medium worn against his heart. The ground cracks under him. "You think I give a bloody toss about this statue? If the Guardians are so damn worried an' so damn important, then either they fix this mess..."
Kent plucks Red River's gun from the bottom of its tank, still holding onto Elly's arm. The weapon rises toward her midsection, barrel splitting into two, glowing an angry red.
--
The Ties move to some unspoken command. Ribaldy fully breaks away, crouching and hurling himself onto a rooftop with powerful legs, slamming his visor up with the back of his hand and watching the spreading vines. He starts firing signals in the air with his flamethrower, guiding the gathered Ties out of its reach.
Samuelh, meanwhile, stumbles a little, letting out a shrill, ugly laugh through broken teeth as he starts digging bottles out of his bags, throwing several in an arc... downward. The various exotic chemicals and fuels do not ignite. The drunk starts wandering toward the encroaching ferroflora - leaving a trail that might possibly speed its approach to the statue.
--
Fargo Foobach makes a small nod before removing his hat, dropping it onto the ground as he faces Fei. "It seems so," he says calmly, betraying no personal opinion on the matter. The Man in White spreads out his arms. "However... this time... I can face you in better conditions.
A tendril from the bonfire separates away, all the fires in the area leaning toward Fargo as he draws on their heat, suffusing his pale skin until it becomes bright red. His long hair catches an updraft, whipping upward wildly as the air around his body violently heats and rapidly rises.
He moves, the air between himself and Fei blurring as he crosses it in a heartbeat, one hand rigid, the fingers glowing bright red as he strikes for the center of the man's chest in an assassin's blow.
--
"... or they step aside and let someone who can take the job."
Kent fires a spray of glowing rock shards at nearly point-blank range at Elhaym van Houten, a woman he had treated something like a friend, with no hesitation, with no remorse in his eyes. Only anger. An anger borne of a pain that rests thorn-deep in his soul. You can hate Kent Hauch. You can try and kill him and he will later accept you into the highest levels of his trust. You can quit the gang - they'll even let you get away from their pursuit, eventually.
But every Black Tie knows, through example or anecdote, that you never, ever, ever betray the leader of the Black Ties.
GS: Monster Mash has attacked Dean Stark with Soporific Pollen! GS: Monster Mash has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Soporific Pollen! GS: Monster Mash has attacked Elhaym van Houten with Soporific Pollen! GS: Monster Mash has completed its action. GS: Kent Hauch has attacked Elhaym van Houten with Scream Stars!
DC: Kent Hauch switches forms to White Suit Fargo!
GS: Kent Hauch has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Thermal Lance! GS: Kent Hauch has completed his action. GS: Elhaym van Houten takes a solid hit from Monster Mash's Soporific Pollen for 0 hit points! GS: Slow! Statuses applied to Elhaym van Houten! GS: Elhaym van Houten takes a solid hit from Kent Hauch's Scream Stars for 98 hit points!
DC: MISS! Ida Everstead-Rey completely evades Soporific Pollen from Monster Mash!
GS: Dean Stark guards a hit from Monster Mash's Soporific Pollen for 0 hit points! GS: Slow! Statuses applied to Dean Stark!
DC: Fei Fong Wong switches forms to Martial Artist Fei!
GS: Kent Hauch has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Thermal Lance! GS: Kalve takes a solid hit from Gwen Whitlock's Crackshot for 93 hit points! GS: Fei Fong Wong guards a hit from Kent Hauch's Thermal Lance for 67 hit points! GS: Kent Hauch has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Ambrosius has posed.
"...It's true. I believe she is dangerous and needs to be dealt with. ...However. Lord Volsung is no fool. I trust that he has a plan to deal with her when the time comes. If our survival requires her to be unsealed, even temporarily, then I shall follow his wishes." Ambrosius replies, returning Conversator to its holster. He had used it to make a point.
Though not visible behind that face-concealing helmet, he does flinch slightly at the sight of the red stain beginning to appear on her gown.
He had fought her the other day, but his attacks had been directed toward her mount. This was the first time he has made her bleed.
"...Miss Riesenlied, I-" Before he can finish his sentence, he sees a shadow looming above him. The Golem. He recognises it. It aims to deliver a crushing hammer blow down on top of him.
...But Ambrosius meets it head on.
He rears an arm back and meets its strike with a punch. The resulting force of the collision is enough to put a crater in the rooftop they currently stand atop.
...It probably won't hold for much longer after this, and who knew how long the building itself would last. Not to mention, the fact that this would not go unnoticed.
And so he jumps backward, off the side of the roof. As he falls water swirls and converges around one hand, eventually coalescing into a whirling aquatic blade that would be all too familiar to at least one of them. It is sent flying at Riesenlied first, before Ambrosius deters its path toward Shalune.
Ambrosius finishes his descent in full view of the others, even as the battle heats up in the distance. Ambrosius spares a glance in that direction, but soon returns his attention to Shalune and Riesenlied above.
"I do not want to hurt you, Riesenlied...but if I must, I will." He calls up. He notably says nothing of Shalune.
GS: Ambrosius has attacked Riesenlied with Aqua Cutter! GS: Ambrosius has attacked Shalune Amira with Aqua Cutter! GS: Ambrosius has completed his action. GS: Riesenlied takes a glancing hit from Ambrosius's Aqua Cutter for 71 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Elly has no idea if it matters but if you're a Do Bee and do things, then the hive gets built and things take care of themselves. That's what she was taught, along with exactly where you get hit so it doesn't leave a mark.
And speaking of which.
Kent Hauch grabs her wrist and she is hoist up like a rabbit's carcass. Her face tightens with pain at the grip; she is less soft than her doe-eyed face suggests, but she isn't a hard man tempered in flames. "I -- can't do it myself -- they came from the stars --" you're hurting me, she thinks, but if Elly has learned anything it is that damn few people who do that, will care to hear it.
"The world -"
But Kent probably doesn't care. The gun is pointed and it fires and there is a BANG and her face tightens, eyes watering in tears. Tears that drip down. Drip down low - and instead of vaporizing, they crystallize. The stones crack and steam as they fall away from Elly's stomach, sheathed in... ice?
don't throw up don't throw up don't throw up don't throw up Elly thinks to her body even as she says aloud with misery, "The world barely fought - her off - I'm sorry -"
Her gripped hand curls tightly. Her other hand comes up and with a desperate fury she hoists herself up full off the ground and twists to try to KICK KENT UPSIDE THE HEAD, her boots metal-tipped as she uses his own body as a pivot point. "Let go of me!! There's - hgckh - no time -"
GS: Elhaym van Houten has attacked Kent Hauch with Cyclone Kick! GS: Elhaym van Houten has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
"I have met Lord Volsung. His hate runs just as deep as Lord Siegfried's," Riesenlied struggles to get to her feet as she stares up towards the helmeted Veruni. "Do not listen to his word unchecked, Ambrosius... you risk making the same mistake I made..."
Her voice is starting to run ragged. She's profusely sweating from where that bullet had landed into her, unexpectedly painfully... but then again, she hasn't got any particular defence against ARMs.
Miss Riese!
"S-Shalune? Don't come here, it's dangerous--"
Her eyes widen as she sees the twin blinkers of Big Shal's face, its fist raising up, up and about--
"Wait--"
Big Shal strikes, and the roof just about shatters underneath the tiles that they're on. There's a yelp as Riesenlied tumbles down and lands on shoddy wooden flooring, silently glad there aren't any Black Ties in this particular building.
She doesn't get any respite, since a disc of aquatic power is aimed straight at her-- and she twists and narrows her profile, hiding behind a wall and a dresser as she lets it skim past her and her barrier. The photons erratically thrum upon contact, the razor-sharp force of water forcing it to cave inwards.
"Shalune! Tell the others-- use the Guardian's power upon it! Summon them! It is made of living metal, and thus--" she swallows. "It ought to find a Material summon anathema to it!"
Months ago, that might've been just the most blasphemous thing she's ever said. She turns and peeks out the window, gasping further as she unsteadily holds a hand up--
The Dragon's Tear in sight. She gathers power...
... and with a weave of her fingertips, she creates motes of incandescent light, dancing upon the palm of her hand. Willing them forward, they chase around corners and pursue Ambrosius, seeking to stun him.
GS: Riesenlied has attacked Ambrosius with Rising Heart - 'Spiriting Away'! GS: Riesenlied has completed her action. GS: Ambrosius guards a hit from Riesenlied's Rising Heart - 'Spiriting Away' for 93 hit points! GS: Shalune Amira takes a solid hit from Ambrosius's Aqua Cutter for 145 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei Fong Wong sees Elly seized up by Kent. Does he even hear Kent's words? As he glances over to Elly and sees her hoisted up, suddenly--that little bit of restraint, that divided nature, that was the difference between Fei and Fargo--the difference that lost him the match...it vanishes in that instant. Fei's body temperature cools as he shifts the attribute of the chi coursing through him. He isn't even entirely sure how he learned how to do this just once, while fighting Ramses--it just happened. He kept doing it, and it kept happening. And eventually, he grew to understand some of the principles behind what he was doing. It wasn't too dissimilar from what Fargo was doing, was it?
Fargo smashes Fei in the chest, far more experienced in manipulating fire than Fei is with ice, but the chill surrounding Fei dissipitates the strike somewhat, preventing it from being an INSTANT KILL BLOW as the body temperature qualizes.
Fei wants to rush over to help Elly but he knows what Fargo is capable of, less than what he is capable of, and what he knows is dangerous enough. He snaps a trio of quick kicks for Fargo, trying to force him back so he has time to work his chi again.
"Guess...that's true too." Fei says with a grimace, placing a hand where his wound is. "We don't care that you have the statue, we just need to seal it...!" But it doesn't seem like that's likely to change matters, but he just feels like he needs to say his piece--for his own sake.
<Pose Tracker> Kalve has posed.
Kalve strides down the street. He still looks mostly human, but the red lines that cross his eyes like glowing brands and the shape of too many arms beneath that cloak betray that to be a lie.
"Gwen," Kalve says flatly. It's the best greeting she's going to get from him right now. He scans the crowd, seeing familiar faces. None are the traitors he expected to see. One is the last he had hoped to. "This is none of your concern. Take Ida and go before you become a casualty."
The warning shot is a good one. It grazes his right arm, sending sparks flying as it pings off into the distance. He jerks from the impact, but his stride only slows for a single stuttering step. "I am here for the Statue," he says. "The people here are of no concern. They are in danger only if they remain."
He shrugs the camo cloak back. Two of his metallic sub-arms slide out, bearing wide-barreled launchers of some kind. "Here is your warning shot," he echoes, "just to show I am not kidding around."
They fire with hollow thumps. The shells inside airburst when they get near her, detonating with concussive bursts sufficient to catapult someone backwards. It's like a shove away -- one he repeats by way of swinging one around to the ferroflora and dropping a second volley in Dean's face. Kalve must not appreciate the interference.
Ida, perhaps not so mysteriously, is left alone.
GS: Fei Fong Wong has attacked Kent Hauch with Hoten! GS: Fei Fong Wong has completed his action. GS: Kalve has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Concussion Launchers! GS: Kalve has attacked Dean Stark with Concussion Launchers! GS: Dean Stark guards a hit from Kalve's Concussion Launchers for 72 hit points! GS: Gwen Whitlock takes a solid hit from Kalve's Concussion Launchers for 98 hit points! GS: Kalve has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
"Yeah! Take that!" Dean cheers when he hurls some of the ferroflora pods back, clustering them together for Ida's strike. Elly's lightning spell did great, too! But... it's not gone yet. For a metal plant, it sure seems to like fire... even as fire melts it, at least in part. Flowers continue to bloom on the shining vine, and light within them bursts out in a shimmer of dust. It hits Dean in the face, and he can feel himself growing sleepy, limbs heavy, thoughts sluggish. Slowly he blinks, hands and ARMs lowering, as the vines circle around him, set on devouring him perhaps whole...
BLAM. Just before the vines can envelope him, Dean manages to fire off a shot from his Burning Booster ARM cartridge, sending a bullet wreathed in flame towards the plant. Those flames may well spread to the weaker foliage. Either way, it looks like while Dean might be wobbling on his feet, he's not *quite* ready to get put to bed.
This is right before Kalve unleashes his concussive shell at Dean, knocking him right off his feet and sending him sprawling backwards, ears ringing as he struggles through that and soporific pollen to rise back to his feet. On the plus side, that hit put him out of the ferroflora's immediate range. Silver lining?
GS: Dean Stark has attacked Monster Mash with Burning Booster! GS: Dean Stark has completed his action. GS: Kent Hauch takes a glancing hit from Fei Fong Wong's Hoten for 64 hit points!
DC: Kent Hauch switches forms to Firebug Robber Kent!
GS: Kent Hauch guards a hit from Elhaym van Houten's Cyclone Kick for 121 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
The Veruni's fist impacts with the golem. On the face of it, it might be a risky idea even for someone many times stronger than the average human; Big Shal has proven to be a sturdy opponent, and it's still a machine twice the size of Ambrosius. On the other hand, if you've had time to study Big Shal, you know that its sturdiness is only applicable in very general terms - compared to the finest Veruni arms and armor around, its individual components are sometimes held together as loosely as porridge.
And so, the golem's arm simply tears itself apart temporarily as it takes the hit, the impact of it sending the Golem off-balance and crashing down onto the rooftop. Even supported by one hand, the fall is enough to send the rest of the building groaning as its rooftop lists precariously, Shalune forced to scrabble for purchase or risk falling down towards their aggressor. "--I can-- look after myself!" she blurts in opposition to any available evidence - though at least she's fumbling in a pocket as she feels herself finally start to slip. "I can't just leave you to take them on alone--"
She slips for a moment when she realizes there's a twisting blade of water angling for her; she puts both hands up to try to defend against it, but falters as the sheer force of it crashes against her, pinning her against the rock for a moment. Any hope she had of staying in place is dashed when the surface ends up slick from the attack, the weight of fatigue and the water in her clothes pulling her downwards; she slips from the rooftop, automatically curling up to try to brace herself as she plummets down a storey, ready to roll away.
This is an improvement, kind of. She's taken bigger falls from the Little Dipper, even if it was in more comfortable surroundings, and more importantly it gives her time to focus on the Medium clasped in her fingers. Channeling it feels easier this time, as if she'd opened up some kind of capability she never had before, and she feels the power start to swell behind the Medium, just about managing to get out the cry before the fall knocks the wind out of her lungs. "--Dinoginos!"
... this is not Dinoginos' domain, and Shalune is far from an accomplished summoner, having had much less time to prepare and loose the power in her Medium. The Guardian doesn't even make an appearance this time, which might be for the best given what it would do to poor Kent Hauch's sanity to see the ground of his home reform into the shape of a hated enemy. Nevertheless, the Guardian does respond - and a swell of its power waves through Ambrosius, tearing through part of the metallic plant.
GS: Shalune Amira has activated a Force Action! GS: Shalune Amira has attacked Ambrosius with First Turn Material - Dinoginos' Mild Poke! GS: Shalune Amira has attacked Monster Mash with First Turn Material - Dinoginos' Mild Poke! GS: Shalune Amira has completed her action. GS: Ambrosius takes a solid hit from Shalune Amira's First Turn Material - Dinoginos' Mild Poke for 109 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
"Dean! Stay back!" Ida heard that scream, and it is largely why she didn't close to melee herself. She hears Kent Hauch bellowing at Elly in the background, but she's chosen her target, and--she hopes--Elly can handle this herself.
Please Elly, Ida thinks, please take care of this yourself.
Fire didn't work. The ferroflora start to bloom. Ida breathes in, and her head starts to spin as something flows into her lungs, a soporific. She lets the breath out in a hacking cough, and redirects the flow of her lifeforce, shoring it up where it's starting to ebb. The initial panic seems to be crystallizing into something else. "Kalve," Ida says. She looks up, meeting his eyes from across the street. "I know." Her throat starts to constrict. No mistakes. No weakness. You don't want to let the hardened gangsters see how weak you are, do you? Especially after that last time. No weakness, even though part of her wants to curl up in a corner and cry, even though she knew this would happen, didn't she?
Ida takes one step forward, then another, before breaking into a run. Golden motes rise out of her footsteps as she blurs across the last dozen or so feet, rushing at Kalve with frightening speed. She swings high, opening with something of a testing strike--a blisteringly-fast punch to the sternum. Hit or miss, she settles into a defensive stance, fists raised, interposing herself between Kalve and Dean and Gwen.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Kalve with Body Blow! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
Gwen's exchange with Kalve was successful, and brief.
The amount of time it took, unfortunately, was all the time that was needed for a tense, but hopeful situation to turn upsidedown like a table being suddenly upended at a poker match. Kent was not one to be simply handled by placating words and appeals. A number of panicked words that pass through her mind at this point, one or two probably taught to her by a very young Janus Cascade. They are not very nice words.
Gwen wishes she was brave enough to directly shoot at Kent, but with the front divided between three different factions, this wouldn't be like that meeting at the supplies store back east. Which, come to think of it, ended with Gwen having to be carted away by Emma and Rudy, so that's actually another good reason not to shoot the Black Ties leader in what is essentially his own den.
The other reason is that Elly proves herself to be much tougher than Gwen may have given her credit for. "... Holy cow..."
... But before Gwen can realize a bit of admiration for the fellow redhead, she notices the drugged Dean, almost about to fall to the mercy of the vines. "Dean! Wake up!" A shout, and another shot to allow it, Gwen swinging her ARM and locking it temporarily at its outstretched length to fire a powerful shot at the glimmering foliage.
There's also a Kalve to deal with, on her end. "Gh-!"
The airbursts catapult Gwen away to crash a distance away. A few moments pass, and Gwen groggily sits up, the sounds of the firey backdrop reduced to a dull ringing in her ears. If she wasn't so focused, she might've been pretty damn frightened, right? Silver lining!
.... as long as she ignores just how scared she is.
But the fact that Ida has placed herself in front of her and Dean scares her a whole lot more. "Ida!" If she gets up quickly enough, maybe she could-
GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Monster Mash with Coil Cannon EX! GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Kent Hauch has posed.
It would probably be worse if Kent were emotionless, but this close, she can see the blazing anger in his eyes, all other emotions he may be feeling being shoveled into the furnace of fury that is Hauch. "I know what they're doing to these things," he growls. "I watched 'em in the gardens. But I'm not like to let a gang of Drifters do anything in my home without the proper. Fookin'. Resp-"
Elly twists. Despite being a gun-user, Kent made his bones in punishingly close combat. He flinches away from the oncoming foot, throwing Elly's arm away to try and take her kick off its arc, bringing one arm up. Steel toe cracks against armbone. Kent grits his teeth.
"...respect."
--
Fargo feels the cold around Fei leaching away his heat. Even through the gunfire, the raging flames, the raised voices, Fei can hear the sound clearly.
"Tch."
Fargo shifts away, the red returning to his hands. He gently shakes his head. "The boss has determined that this is a final crucible. The last chance for the Guardians to prove themselves worthy of our aid. I believe he was quite clear."
He moves into a sweeping kata, settling into a stance, his fingertips once again white hot. Fei charges in after. Fargo attempts to brush his fingers against his leg, a move that would normally simply ignite his clothes, but the cold around Fei keeps it from working.
The first kick connects with Fargo's shoulder solidly. The second glances against his side. At the third, Fargo reads the pattern, stepping in and reaching for Fei's leg.
"Survive or be supplanted."
He draws in a breath, fire dissolving into his body to maintain the heat of his fingers as he grabs at Fei's knee joint, trying to burn at the muscle while simultaneously overextending the limb with his other arm.
--
"You see that?" Kent shouts, pointing over Elly's shoulder with his gun. "That girl's even calling the big bastard, and still he doesn't move to do anythin other than what he's told! Issa cosmic joke!" He spits his cigar away as he flicks Red River. The barrel extends outward until the weapon resembles a shotgun.
He fires. It's only meant to punctuate his words, but it's still a nearly point-blank blast of molten rock. "I'm feelin' good! I'm feelin' generous! You got one las' chance, one las' road away from betrayin' me!"
The veins in Kent's head are standing out all around as he flails his gun in a wide gesture. "Start helpin' me shoot these nosy, self-righteous Drifters outta my city, an' it's all water under the bridge, innit? We wake up tomorrow in a brand new day, an' our bosses don't have to hear a word about this! Think it over!"
GS: Kent Hauch has attacked Elhaym van Houten with Lava Burst!
DC: Kent Hauch switches forms to White Suit Fargo!
GS: Kent Hauch has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Furnace Lock! GS: Kent Hauch has completed his action. GS: Monster Mash critically Guards a hit from Dean Stark's Burning Booster for 22 hit points! GS: Monster Mash takes a solid hit from Gwen Whitlock's Coil Cannon EX for 115 hit points! GS: Monster Mash takes a solid hit from Shalune Amira's First Turn Material - Dinoginos' Mild Poke for 121 hit points! GS: Elhaym van Houten critically Guards a hit from Kent Hauch's Lava Burst for 27 hit points! GS: Fei Fong Wong guards a hit from Kent Hauch's Furnace Lock for 52 hit points! GS: Cripple! Statuses applied to Fei Fong Wong!
<Pose Tracker> Ambrosius has posed.
Ambrosius hesitates for a moment.
"...I understand your concerns, and I cannot deny them. But, Riesenlied...you of all people must understand. I cannot abandon my people. In the time it takes to look for another path, there may not be any of us left. I cannot allow that." He replies. He listens to her as she speaks.
This was sounding...bad. It might be for the best if he finishes this quickly. For her sake, but not necessarily his.
"...Can you even fight in your condition, Riesenlied...?" There is some concern in his voice...but his eyes narrow slightly, however, as she calls out for the assembled Drifters to call upon the power of the Guardians. Before he can make a move to attack, he sees a series of motes rushing out from the building. Very quickly he moves to make a series of water-based barriers to absorb and displace these lights...but many of them get through regardless.
It is a very peculiar feeling. The incandescent lights cause no pain, but everyone time one of them makes contacts with him, he feels more and more fatigued.
He was on a time-limit here, then.
He holds his hand out and the water barriers return to him, conglomerating in the form of a sphere. And then, with a push, it shoots out in the form of a high-pressure beam. Everything between him and Riesenlied will most likely be cut through completely. Riesenlied herself, however, will likely avoid that fate, but it will be far from a pleasant experience by design.
However, in this time, he has been completely ignoring Shalune. He soon regrets his mistake, as he can feel the power of a Guardian flowing through the area. It does not appear, even as an image, but it does send him down to a knee as the power strikes him, and on their instrument of revenge.
For a moment, anger overtakes him. He shifts the Veritas Varia into firing position and aims for the source of that detestable feeling, unleashing a bullet of sickly green energy toward Shalune. It is not an ordinary energy bullet - upon contact, it instills in one a feeling of discomfort and nausea.
"...Do not test me." Ambrosius comments.
GS: Ambrosius has activated a Force Action! GS: You have activated the Force Action Full Clip! GS: Ambrosius has attacked Riesenlied with Pressure Beam! GS: Ambrosius has attacked Shalune Amira with VV-VENENO! GS: Ambrosius has completed his action. GS: Riesenlied takes a solid hit from Ambrosius's Pressure Beam for 177 hit points! GS: Shalune Amira guards a hit from Ambrosius's VV-VENENO for 76 hit points! GS: Poison and Disease! Statuses applied to Shalune Amira!
<Pose Tracker> Monster Mash has posed.
The Ties are keeping the ferroflora at bay by way of massive and literal firepower. The encroachment is worst around three spots on the wall and one in the outer ring, but finding them and keeping it from spreading too far into the dormitories is doable. It's not pretty nor pleasant, and the number of injuries is going to mount... but it's doable.
So is leading it on. Samuelh's chemical cocktails get its attention, insofar as anyone can get the attention of living metal plantlife. It seems attracted to the potent potables, using the chemicals as fuel for its own expansion... in the direction of the bonfire with the statue inside of it. Just as planned...?
Dean's shot rips into the plantlife, but the flames don't spread very far. They keep the newly-developing tendrils from expanding, but mostly it doesn't seem to be hurt by flame except at new growths or when using huge amounts of it. He, luckily, doesn't stumble into the mass of slicing plantlife... but it reacts like an injured beast, lashing out with a tendril to swipe at him and then anchor into the ground nearby. The razor-sharp vines start to spread again from the point of impact.
Another, heavier-caliber (or at least higher-powered) shot from Gwen rips through the mass, puncturing pods and tearing away glinting metallic foliage. Silver-black fluid oozes into the road from the injured stalks. It creeps towards her along the ground, slithering like a serpent and trying to loop around one of her legs, tightening a noose like razor wire -- and then pulling, intent on dragging her into the mass of cutting, hungry plantlife.
A swell of power, a flicker of a Guardian's might, rolls through the plants. They spasm suddenly, a swath suddenly dying on the leading edge of the burst. On the outer wall, one of the deeply-rooted seeds blackens and dies, quicksilver running out of a gap between two plates and pouring down the exterior like a deadly wound. The spread is arrested from that side. It's extremely effective! There's just... a lot of it.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
The good news is that Elly is released; the bad news is that given this angle her blow strikes bone and then she kind of falls down and lands on her belly. It hurts. It hurts, of course, a lot less than having her wrist grappled, but she quietly throws up while in this abject position, even as Kent speaks.
She hears him nonetheless. Her eyes open and misery swims before them. She can see the shining expanding plant metal of whatever unnatural sort, and she wonders if that's what all the plants were like on Hyades, because, of course, it has to be a connection. From where? Riesenlied? No; she would not betray them here if she had not done so before.
Who? She can't say, doesn't know.
Kent keeps speaking. Elly pushes herself up enough to get her knees under her and doesn't look at him. To add insult to injury, or perhaps the other way around, he shoots again. This time Elly rolls over, scrabbling to regain what purchase she'd had, her breath coming with a pained squeak in it as his offer, grand and generous as it is, hangs in the air.
"... I won't lecture you," Elly finally gasps out. "I don't have... any right. You've built so much." She makes herself breathe in and it is HERE that she has a swimming interaction with the lingering pollen of that alien plant, which is enough to make her cough in a tubercular way.
"But," Elly continues, scooting one foot under herself and pushing herself upright, "if I did what you said... I'd be disrespecting what you took... the time to tell me." She does not look stable at all, and she fumbles to wipe her mouth with her sleeve. This would be a great time to dramatically finish her thought, wouldn't it? To announce the thesis of her heart. There is no announcement to speak of, beyond this mute defiance, and also, the ice.
Ice? Yes. Ambrosius's casual use of water attacks in this fire-laden zone produced, as such things inevitably do, a high level of water vapor - which rose upwards. Elly knew full well that it would be stupid to try to gather her power in the middle of a blast furnace, much as it would be foolish to try to gather all the tiny gas bubbles in deep rock into a single cavity when you were buried alive. You might be able to, in theory, but it isn't worth the trouble.
And so there had been a supercooling turbulent loop, a second-year ether structure really, up about fifty yards above. Now it has ripened, or at least, now Elly has to use it.
The ice comes down like javelins from the sky. Three or four of them descend towards Kent, a stochastic problem EXCEPT that they come pre-cracked to erupt into jagged fragments. The balance vent themselves down onto the overgrown wildlife. Elly, for her part, closes her fists and raises her face.
GS: Monster Mash has attacked Dean Stark with Bleedvine! GS: Monster Mash has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Bleedvine! GS: Monster Mash has completed its action. GS: Elhaym van Houten has attacked Kent Hauch with Thermo Barrage! GS: Elhaym van Houten has attacked Monster Mash with Thermo Barrage! GS: Elhaym van Houten has completed her action. GS: Kalve guards a hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Body Blow for 74 hit points! GS: Gwen Whitlock takes a solid hit from Monster Mash's Bleedvine for 79 hit points! GS: Poison! Statuses applied to Gwen Whitlock!
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
... Can you even fight in your condition, Riesenlied? ...
Riesenlied senses the attack before it even comes, and with good reason at that -- Ambrosius' high-pressure beam is more than formidable enough to just utterly crush the studio apartment that she was hiding within, thus creating a little bit more demand for affordable housing in premium El Pazzo as supply diminishes. As debris and flooring fly off into the air, however, a shimmering image bursts through the cloud of dust and smoke--
It is Riesenlied, as Kalve and Kent can now also see. The latter may remember her from a long, long time ago when she helped repel the bank robbery on Tindus Town, though she's certainly seen much better days. And the former...
Well, it is about to become awkward very quickly, isn't it?
She hasn't escaped unscathed; her barrier is now gone, shreds of ephemeral gold glass crumbling around her wings as gossamer feathers molt within the path of her flight.
"I am just like you, Mister Ambrosius," Riesenlied replies. "It is not a matter of whether I 'can'... it is a matter of having to. Because I am convinced that if we do not protect what we have left..."
A point of light has come into sight where she's obscured it behind her profile. Incandescent and gold, she brandishes the sphere high into the air above her head.
"Then no matter who we are -- human, Hyadean, Veruni or Guardian -- we are all forfeit!"
An emanation of power reverberates throughout the area, white-gold specks of light withdrawing from the very air to gather at the very point of her power... as it manifests into a crest-laden blade of ephemeral energy. It is at least ten feet long in size.
She glimpses Kalve in the midst of the battle, where he battles Gwen, Dean and Ida. She bites her lip, a knot wrenching in her stomach as she thinks of how he must react to her presence here. But she has to push through.
"I am sorry, Kalve... to do this to your--!"
Riesenlied wrenches her body forth with an overhead toss, lowering the gigantic blade to simply CRASH in the area around Ambrosius and the Ferroflora both.
GS: Riesenlied has activated a Force Action! GS: Dean Stark guards a hit from Monster Mash's Bleedvine for 51 hit points! GS: Poison! Statuses applied to Dean Stark! GS: Riesenlied has attacked Ambrosius with Rising Sword - 'Illusory Dominance'! GS: Riesenlied has attacked Monster Mash with Rising Sword - 'Illusory Dominance'! GS: Riesenlied has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Ambrosius critically Guards a hit from Riesenlied's Rising Sword - 'Illusory Dominance' for 43 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
Shalune's instincts are good enough to send her rolling to one side as she lands; she avoids sustaining much in the way of injury from her fall, though the water blade likely did more than enough damage as it is, especially combined with the pulse of fatigue she feels from channeling the Guardian's power, and it takes her a moment to struggle back up to her feet. Dimly, she's aware that she needs to get moving - but she's moving far too slowly to avoid the bullet that picks her up and tosses her backwards.
The world is suddenly swimming around her, and she clenches her jaw as she tries to see through it, only vaguely aware of where her opponent is; part of her mind is yelling to throw herself to one side and get out of the firing line, but her legs aren't quite listening to her. "--why's it always gotta be test, test, test--" she mutters bitterly in defiance, reaching for her staff to extend it outwards. Random, unfocused fire is still fire, and that seems like a great idea right now.
Fortunately for her - because she's finding her fingers fumbling and not reacting how she'd like - she doesn't have to go that far. The wall nearby suddenly gives way, heaving inwards as a twelve-foot Golem gets fed up with the way the building is blocking its path, deciding instead to go straight through it.
Brick and wood heave as the machine breaks through the wall - for all that it lumbers, the twelve-foot golem Big Shal is faster and stronger than it looks, and the fist that sweeps in Ambrosius' direction is part and parcel of a running charge that blocks the path to Shalune, giving the alchemist time to choke out a couple of coughs and fumble for some medicine.
GS: Shalune Amira has attacked Ambrosius with Rusty Sky! GS: Shalune Amira takes 8 damage from Poison! GS: Shalune Amira has completed her action. GS: Ambrosius guards a hit from Shalune Amira's Rusty Sky for 60 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei Fong Wong figures this is going to be a long day. Unfortunately, Fei only learns AOE at much higher levels than he has right now. He can focus on the people in front of him only.
Fargo explains Kent's goal here and Fei still doesn't actually get exactly how this is a crucible testing the Guardians but he supposes it makes sense to Fargo and Kent and the Black Ties. Maybe if he lived in the Badlands rather than a happy eden of a farming village, he'd understand it better.
Which is a shame. He doesn't really dislike them.
"Arright." He manages. "Crucible away."
Maybe he should not have said that because Fargo snatches Fei's leg as Fargo pushes heat into Fei's joint, into his muscles even. Fei howls in pain because this is a gruesome way to survive. Feeling the heat around his leg he swings back his hands and channels more of that chilling chi around his fingers and slams both hands forward for Fargo. An eruption of ice spills out from Fei's hands though--thanks to Fargo's heat--it's unlikely to be as effective as it would be from neutral and pushes outward, threatening to envelop the other martial artist. More relevently, Fei can cool off his leg with this so he doesn't completely lose the limb!
It's still pretty awful though.
Elly said something, Fei thinks distantly. He can't check it against his own experiences but he smiles anyway. He can sense the determination, in spite of the circumstances. He has to do his best to match it.
GS: Fei Fong Wong has attacked Kent Hauch with Suikei! GS: Fei Fong Wong has completed his action. GS: Kent Hauch takes a solid hit from Fei Fong Wong's Suikei for 121 hit points!
DC: Kent Hauch switches forms to Firebug Robber Kent!
GS: Kent Hauch takes a solid hit from Elhaym van Houten's Thermo Barrage for 118 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Kalve has posed.
Kalve's launchers are released. They hit the ground, flicker and vanish. He keeps walking, though the ferroflora is out-pacing him now. He has to slow down, because as dangerous as the plants themselves are, they aren't going to help him against the very real dangers that his sometimes-allies pose.
Ida gets in his path. Kalve stops entirely. He squares off against her, back straight, and bows low. She knows. She knows why he has to do this. Why they have to be standing across from one another here. The angry heat in his chest is replaced with a gnawing pain. She should be here with him, not standing against him. But the stakes...
A gold-tinted blur comes at him, and Kalve's body becomes momentarily semi-solid. Ida's punch connects, and his midsection ripples, the force dispersed to make him stagger and rock back -- and then snap forward, two hands swinging inward, bearing short, heavy blades that slash horizontally across her body. A third hand snaps down to his side, and a heavy-barreled pistol that looks made of fused shards of broken glass gets snapped up from a compartment at his side.
"Show me!" The coilgun booms.
GS: Kalve has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Method I - Unity of Tool and Hand! GS: Kalve has completed his action. GS: Ida Everstead-Rey takes a glancing hit from Kalve's Method I - Unity of Tool and Hand for 66 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
Dean shakes his head in an attempt to shake off the sleepiness. He hears Ida shout at him to get back, and he looks up, focusing hard to see her get in between him and Gwen, and Kalve. "Gwen? Ida!" he calls with decreasing grogginess. "We gotta--ugh--" He manages to push himself upright. "We gotta do something about these weird plants--" After all, he heard that scream too. Though he doesn't know that it intends to eat the Guardian Statue, its route is clear and so are its capabilities.
Unfortunately, his last bullet didn't do a lot. It seems like Shalune's Dinoginos summon was more effective, so Dean turns his sights away from the plants and over towards Kalve. "I've got your back, Ida!" he calls. "So you--" This, address to Kalve as he attacks Ida-- "don't you dare--hurt her!!"
He dashes to one side, just far enough to put Ida out of his sides and Kalve fully into them. Then, with the help of the power of his copy Sword Medium, Dean's vision sharpens and zeroes him in on the Metal Demon. He unloads a cracking blast of bullets, one, two, threefourfivesix--a full load of bullets from each pistol's chamber, fired fast and furious.
GS: Dean Stark has attacked Kalve with Twin Fenrir - Sonic Vision! GS: Dean Stark takes 6 damage from Poison! GS: Dean Stark has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
Dean shakes his head in an attempt to shake off the sleepiness. He hears Ida shout at him to get back, and he looks up, focusing hard to see her get in between him and Gwen, and Kalve. "Gwen? Ida!" he calls with decreasing grogginess. "We gotta--ugh--" He manages to push himself upright. "We gotta do something about these weird plants--" After all, he heard that scream too. Though he doesn't know that it intends to eat the Guardian Statue, its route is clear and so are its capabilities.
Unfortunately, the ferroflora, as if hearing Dean's words, lashes out and slashes at him, striking true against his side and coat. Dean screams in pain--while the attack was fortunately not too deep, it *is* long, and it'll keep bleeding for a while, compounding to his already existing sleepiness problems. However, the pain helps him focus for the time being, and he grits his teeth and looks back and forth between Kalve and his creation.
His last bullet didn't do a lot. It seems like Shalune's Dinoginos summon was more effective, so Dean turns his sights away from the plants and over towards Kalve. "I've got your back, Ida!" he calls. "So you--" This, address to Kalve as he attacks Ida-- "don't you dare--hurt her!!"
He dashes to one side, just far enough to put Ida out of his sides and Kalve fully into them. Then, with the help of the power of his copy Sword Medium, Dean's vision sharpens and zeroes him in on the Metal Demon. He unloads a cracking blast of bullets, one, two, threefourfivesix--a full load of bullets from each pistol's chamber, fired fast and furious.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
'I am just like you, Mister Ambrosius.'
God, Ida thinks, stop talking. Just stop talking you're making this so much harder than it needs to be.
Ida shifts her weight back, rebounding from the blow as efficiently as she can. For all Jackie's style emphasizes raw force, there's hints of something else here and there--a sort of fluidity that keeps it mobile. Ida steps backwards, almost twisting out of the way in time as Kalve steps forwards with that slashing strike. One of the blades cuts a shallow gash in her shirt, across her stomach, and a line of red blooms against the plain linen. She spins on a heel, and suddenly she's at Kalve's right flank. The coilgun booms, but its slug slams into the dirt.
"I know," Ida repeats. Her voice wavers, a little, as she leans in to speak into his ear. "It has to be this way." It's funny. Even after all this time, after knowing that this would happen, why does it feel like her heart is breaking all over again?
Dean. Ida's head snaps up, and she leaps away from Kalve, tumbling into a combat roll. She comes up behind a crate (on fire, of course), jumps to her feet, and leaps away (because cover shouldn't be on fire. Her mouth moves. "Kalve--!" is all she manages to get out, as Dean opens fire. Didn't Ida mention that name? "Dean, the plants!" Icy dread mixes with the heartache as she sees just how far those damned things have gotten. "Now!"
Ida rushes forwards. She's suddenly back in melee range again, her right fist clenched and held up close to her chest. She does another of those spinning pirouettes, just like Kalve taught her, except this time, her fist comes snapping out, rushing towards the Metal Demon's jaw. That part isn't the open-hand strike the form calls for.
GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has attacked Kalve with Steel-Breaking Fist! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey has completed her action. GS: Monster Mash critically Guards a hit from Elhaym van Houten's Thermo Barrage for 20 hit points! GS: Monster Mash critically Guards a hit from Riesenlied's Rising Sword - 'Illusory Dominance' for 31 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
Gwen struggles to her feet, trying to get to Ida's side. Dean proves to be the quicker of them, intervening to provide the necessary protection. His show of protective enthusiasm comes from a good place, but Gwen finds a wince wrinkling the lines of her hidden mouth. "Dean, they..." Her thought trails off. They're... what?
Ida has some level of feelings for Kalve, doesn't she? Why do this, when the two of them were getting so close to an understanding?
And that's when the plant loops around Gwen's right leg, painful razor leaves drawing jagged lines. Gwen is pulled back to the ground with a grunt, the impact briefly stunning her. Dirt smelling and tasting of gasoline and smoke fills her nostrils, shocking her back awake as effectively as any sort of smelling salts. She turns her head towards the deadly mass of ferroflora, alarm lighting in her eyes as clear as the glint of quicksilver.
A bullet won't cut it. There's too many to shoot. She needs to attack the entire entity, and possibly Kalve himself, to protect him and Ida from making a grand mistake.
Turning over, Gwen's left hand claws at the ground while her right ARM arcs behind her, beginning the process of charging up, with a momentum that feels like, to Gwen's beating heart, as painfully slow as molasses.
The longer she holds it, the stronger it'll be. She just needs to hold onto that charge for a few.... more... seconds, and--
Riesenlied's attack provides the needed time for Gwen to unleash her own with a scream, right on top of the aftereffects of it. An echoing ring blasts from the Mockingbird, echoed by a visual ring of crackling pyrite yellow light.
If this doesn't work, well, she'll feel pretty good as she gets diced up by the pretty metal flowers, right? Silver linings all around!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has activated a Force Action! GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Monster Mash with St. Elmo's Fire! GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Kalve with St. Elmo's Fire! GS: Gwen Whitlock takes 5 damage from Poison! GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Monster Mash guards a hit from Gwen Whitlock's St. Elmo's Fire for 50 hit points! GS: Disrupt, Jam, and Jam! Statuses applied to Monster Mash!
<Pose Tracker> Kent Hauch has posed.
The plants lash out toward Samuelh the Molotov and his 'delicious' line of explosive liquor. He pivots, bonelessly rolls away, and sprints into a building with pouches, coat, and arms flapping, shouting, "Can't catch me, I gots piss for blood!"
--
Kent Hauch stands over Elly. The fire illuminates him from behind, casting his rugged face in shadow. Glowing lava drips from the barrel of Red River as it shifts back into pistol form with a hiss and a click. Smoke gathers around his legs, slowly climbing its way up his body.
Solaris says that the [Lambs] are brutal, violent people who savagely grab at things that don't understand, who destroy themselves and the land around them. Lesser beings that need to be guided like a herd of animals. Elly has likely learned this to be a simple version of the truth.
And yet... this of all people is the [Lamb] that has been risen to the status of favored tool, the one allowed use of their facilities, the one growing fat off of their resources. The very picture of the stereotype, and so much more on top of that.
The chamber of Red River begins to glow blinding white after Elly stands, casting Kent's face into sharp relief. He shows his teeth like a predator. "At least you won't die weak. Thass somethin'." The barrel tracks toward her center mass.
--
Fei and Fargo lock together. As Fei forces out the ice, Fargo is forced to expend more of his heat to counter it. Steam and mist curl around the both of them as their fight moves completely out of the physical for a moment.
The martial artist of the Black Ties forces his fist into the ice, glowing white hot. His sleeve ignites in places, unable to fully burst, char spreading out. The fire everywhere continues to leach into him - even as the fight is knocking lesser flames away, the grand bonfire is almost untouchable.
But even it may not last forever. Fargo is draining hard to sustain himself within Fei's chi.
Ice coats one arm, strange holes appearing in it as it begins to melt through almost instantly. With the other, the Man in White steps forward, reaching his hand for Fei's face, the blazing-hot fingertips suddenly fading. He's felt this before, but what can the heat sink do when the young man is empowered by cold?
"For what its worth, I hope the gods succeed tonight. I do not wish to believe a green Filgaia relies entirely on the bloody hands of man."
If he touches... he does not draw heat from Fei. He instead pushes it in, flooding his body with a counter-chi. Flame spirals into his back as he does it, illuminating him with a hazy corona. The heat does not burn - it is not a physical but a spiritual force at this moment, giving Fei a potential instant of knowing what it feels like to be Fargo, containing a furnace in your chest, holding it as close as you can.
Then - THEN - it leaves, ripping back into Fargo. He's gambling on the power destabilizing Fei's focus. Testing him.
--
The ice crashes down into Kent the instant after he fires the Core Bullet. There is an enormous wave of steam as the superheated lava hits the ether-generated power, steam that billows out over Elly, but it's a far better fate than what could have come.
Kent roars in frustration, staggering back from the spot he's stood on since beginning this confrontation, leaving the cracked cobblestone behind. The ice has ripped at his clothes, leaving him bleeding, exposing the Medium strapped over the flame-shaped burn over his heart.
Red River's chamber is cooled and dull. He holds it up as he pushes himself out of the shattered, bloody slush, making sure Elly sees it slowly glowing back into an active red. "Well, Red," he says. "Don't turn back on yer decision, now. Flame can't unburn."
<Pose Tracker> Kent Hauch has posed.
Then, near one of the hearts of the ferroflora, a window swings open. "Bring me a bottle or two, boy... bring me a bottle or three..." Samuelh the Molotov leans out of it, nearly going over the edge, pulling from a huge clay jug. Fumes visibly rise out of it, distorting his face as he places the lip between his massive, broken teeth, knocking back a slug. His skin flushes and his body jerks with the power of the brew.
"For we've a long road to go..." He stumbles back into the building. "An' Gods to bring low..."
The jug comes hurtling out in a high arc, spilling some of its contents as it crashes right down for the metallic plants. "And you'll need anoth'r stiff drink in, uh... theeeeeee. Hyeah... let's aaaaall see what this Mother can do."
Samuelh slaps the shoulder of the other Black Tie in the room, a man who stumbled in here to hide from the plants, dead from having one of his legs mangled off. "Didn't wanna die alone, anyway!"
DC: Kent Hauch switches forms to White Suit Fargo!
GS: Kent Hauch has attacked Fei Fong Wong with Hot Body - Heat Sink!
DC: Kent Hauch switches forms to Drunken Samuelh the Molotov!
GS: Kent Hauch has attacked Monster Mash with Special Blend - XXX Jug! GS: Kent Hauch has completed his action. GS: Lock and State! Statuses applied to Monster Mash! GS: Kent Hauch heals Monster Mash! It gains 200 temporary hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Ambrosius has posed.
Ambrosius watches as the dust and rubble begins to clear from his attack, with a concerned frown. He had tried to regulate his power somewhat, but had he overdone it...?
...No. He sees the silhouette of Riesenlied, her barrier shattered...but she still stands strong. He doesn't see the sphere of light until it's too late to stop it. He watches it fly into the air and aims at it with Veritas Varia...but quickly reconsiders as it takes the shape of a massive blade, crossing his arms in front his face to protect himself. It comes down, the sheer power sending him flying backwards...
...leaving him open for Big Shal's follow-up punch, which sends Ambrosius crashing through the side of a building.
There's silence for a moment.
But then, Ambrosius sits up. His face is clearly visible, with a line of blood traveling downward. The fragments of his mask lay on the dusty road where he had been standing before.
If it weren't for the durability of Veruni armor, they might very well have been able to incapacitate him with those attacks. Indeed, it takes no small amount of effort for him to get back to his feet.
"...I apologize, Miss Riesenlied. I did not mean to insult your resolve. I could feel it through your blade." He replies, then extends his hand outward.
Even in this sweltering town, the water comes forth at his command. It seeks to surround her like chains, dragging her to a certain point and making it more difficult to defend herself. And unfortunately for Big Shal, Ambrosius does not need to reach Shalune to affect her if he knows where she is. The tides roll in for her as well, attempting to push her to the same location he was sending Riesenlied.
He wanted them both in the same location. But why?
GS: Ambrosius has attacked Riesenlied with Troublesome Tides! GS: Ambrosius has attacked Shalune Amira with Flood Warning! GS: Ambrosius has completed his action. GS: Riesenlied takes a glancing hit from Ambrosius's Troublesome Tides for 48 hit points! GS: Jam! Statuses applied to Riesenlied! GS: Shalune Amira guards a hit from Ambrosius's Flood Warning for 74 hit points! GS: Fei Fong Wong takes a solid hit from Kent Hauch's Hot Body - Heat Sink for 147 hit points! GS: Kent Hauch drains Fei Fong Wong! Kent Hauch gains 146 temporary hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Monster Mash has posed.
The plants continue their seemingly inexorable approach. They're getting into the inner parts of the Quarter, now. The bonfire is within sight. The Statue... well, whatever effect invoking the power of the Guardians had on it, the mere presence of a Statue isn't enough to deter it. Not when that seems to be what it's hungriest for.
Ice falls from the sky. Javelins of cold fall among the stalks, pinning expanding roots to the ground and shredding metallic leaves as they explode into fragments. Flecks of razor-shrapnel get scattered all over, joining the dangerous undergrowth as it continues to expand. It doesn't seem to avoid the cold, despite the attraction to heat...
Riesenlied's blade slams into the middle of the street-bound root structure. It cleaves through the tops of two high stalks that look something like trees, sending hollow branches dropping towards the earth. The edge slices clean through the outermost shell of the layered vines, and cuts deeper still... but it doesn't make it all the way through, to the heart of it all. It exposes it --
-- and Gwen capitalizes. The yellow blast rolls across the surface of the metallic plantlife and gets to the heart of the cluster, doing... something... to the core of it. A tremor passes through the cluster on the ground, and it slows, obviously impeded by whatever happened to it. It's moving sluggishly, reacting poorly.
It does not stop its ancillary parts from retaliating. Thorns like metal darts eject from some of the larger flowers, carrying a toxic payload that spreads inert metal at the point of impact. It'll have to be cut out... or you might end up with some very floral additions to your anatomy.
GS: Monster Mash has attacked Elhaym van Houten with Ferrovenin Injection! GS: Monster Mash has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Ferrovenin Injection! GS: Monster Mash has attacked Riesenlied with Ferrovenin Injection! GS: Monster Mash has completed its action. GS: Riesenlied takes a glancing hit from Monster Mash's Ferrovenin Injection for 0 hit points! GS: Kalve critically Guards a hit from Gwen Whitlock's St. Elmo's Fire for 17 hit points! GS: CRITICAL! Kalve critically Guards a hit from Ida Everstead-Rey's Steel-Breaking Fist for 39 hit points! GS: Kalve critically Guards a hit from Dean Stark's Twin Fenrir - Sonic Vision for 32 hit points! GS: Gwen Whitlock takes a solid hit from Monster Mash's Ferrovenin Injection for 0 hit points! GS: Disease and Weaken! Statuses applied to Gwen Whitlock! GS: Elhaym van Houten takes a solid hit from Monster Mash's Ferrovenin Injection for 0 hit points! GS: Disease and Weaken! Statuses applied to Elhaym van Houten!
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Creating the colossal blade had taken much of her energy -- and herself, literally, sapping away at her life to manifest such an effect. She only regrets that it did not have more effect -- it is a testament to how far Kalve's research has come. It will make it that much more difficult to evade the next attack from Ambrosius...
...such so, that when the water comes to surround her, Riesenlied jukes to attempt to evade to one side-- and a snake-like tendril grabs her leg and seizes her downwards. Her wings stretch and flex as she attempts to escape, to no avail. The water feels crushing, constricting away at her and inflicting more pain than she'd already endured before.
"It is not a matter of insults, Ambrosius... and more--"
And then she's gone.
Gone, Ambrosius has noted before, turned into ambient photons that float in the air. She drifts along the fire-stoked air, feeling herself screaming in pain as she tears her body apart into fundamental particles--
--to reappear by the Statue's side, where the plant begins to choke at the base of Dinoginos' likeness. Her recovery is slow, and the plant stabs at her side and causes her to gasp--
A new blossom of pain flares through her thigh as she feels what should be welcome living metal... yet to this Tainted demon, rejected by both Filgaia and Hyades both... The poison spreads through her scales, forming ferrous lines that cascade in vine-like patterns. "Agh--"
It stops. The toxin does not seem to spread far... did it not find a rich bed of substance to thrive upon?
She looks shocked-- but doesn't dwell on it long, since time is of the essence.
That same crystal sword as she has held is at her side. In a single flash, it erupts with white-gold light, further and further enflamed as she routes all that she is into her blade.
"Simply what I must do to ensure our future...!"
There is another wrenching swing as Riesenlied risks going extremely close to the bed of the ferroflora, driving Laevateinn in with a singular arcing blow that should... should hopefully give them just a little more time...!
GS: Riesenlied has attacked Monster Mash with Rising Sword - 'Laevateinn'! GS: Riesenlied has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Elly van Houten lives. Some part of her is obscurely surprised, but it is the kind of thing you tend to accept easily, in the moment. Later, it will be harder. As steam rises and Kent speaks, Elly's lips purse, her jaw working as if she wants to speak but can't quite find the words.
She's torn his suit. He's bleeding. Elly feels a tightening of guilt. "... I decided what I was going to do before I set foot in your town," she tells Kent. "My decision hasn't changed. ... I don't want to hurt any of your people. Or anyone here..."
Elly's head turns slightly. Kent might spot that she's spotted the vines heading towards the statue. "The Guardians don't seem that different from anybody else here on the surface... they're spirits, I suppose, but they're struggling just like everyone else. I can't just stand by when I see someone who's hurting like that, struggling... I couldn't live with myself if I did..."
Elly's focus remains on the vines and she breathes in, breathes out, sharp short power breath. Her eyes flick for a fraction towards Fei -- and in that moment darts rake forwards, hitting her laterally, giving her a nice spike of agony on the side that had been less brutalized. She sways, scoots one foot forwards to end in a half crouch, and turns her head again.
For the first time, and probably the last time, the thought crosses Elly's mind: I wish I had the drive with me.
"I'm going to stop it--!!" Her eyes widen.
Heat radiates out from one of the vines. Yes, it is palpable, even here. The 'cube' that Elly has produced on occasion is back, and bigger than ever: the square centimeter from before is more like a 2-cm square cube - which those who are of engineering inclination might think is at least twice as much. It is more like eight times the volume of superheated quasi-stellar plasma and Elly aims to sweep it up the vine, 'tossing' it like the die of fate back upwards, and towards wherever it might have come.
The plasma shrieks and burns like a star, a stripe of molten white in this hell of cherry red. Elly breathes things, says words in the language Kent's probably heard in the middle distance more than once. She doesn't look back at him, not right away.
GS: Elhaym van Houten has attacked Monster Mash with Thermo Cube! GS: Elhaym van Houten has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
"Huh? They what?" Dean says to Gwen, before looking back over at Kalve and Ida. Ida shouts a name, and it seems awfully familiar until he realizes-- "Wait a second--*you're* Kalve?" Dean stares at the Metal Demon in open astonishment. "But then why're you doing this? Why're you hurting Ida?!" Still, Ida shouts at him to focus back on the plant, and when he turns around he's aghast to see how far it's gotten in just the moment since he turned his attention Kalve. "O-okay, I'm on it!" he calls, because this at least is a simple matter.
Now, a more rational, forward-thinking individual would realize that there's really no stopping the ferroflora. Not at this point. It's not as though any of them just *let* the plants have their way, but it's just growing too quickly. There just isn't any way for the group to take out the plants in time. It's impossible.
However, Dean's personal philosophy is 'anything is possible as long as you don't give up.' If they *do* end up failing to protect the Statue, it won't be because he didn't give it his all. While his attack from earlier might not have been all that effective on Kalve, it might be a different story on the ferroflora. As he runs towards it, he reloads his ARMs, then skids to a halt. Once again, the power of the copy Sword Medium sharpens his perceptions, giving him insight on where the creature's weak points might be--and then he *unloads*, firing with every bullet from every cylinder from Twin Fenrir, in his best effort to take it down with Riese and Elly.
GS: Dean Stark has attacked Monster Mash with Twin Fenrir - Sonic Vision! GS: Dean Stark takes 5 damage from Poison! GS: Dean Stark has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei Fong Wong's talent is pressing up against Fargo's experience. How long has Fargo had his mastery?
Fei is hoping to take advantage of the ice he's putting forward. He sees Fargo going for his arm and figures pain is going to be hitting him very shortly. Fargo isn't the type to do that kind of maneuver unless he has a way to punch through the chill he's emitting. Unfortunately this comes back to bite him because he overestimated just how much chill he had to resist, and what exactly Fargo was doing.
...changing his 'flavor' of chi into another flavor entirely. Fei doesn't comically burst into flame or anything like that, not immediately. He stumbles backwards, clutching at his chest, trying to contain it--
--and Fargo draws it out, turning it back into him.
And it works! Unexpectedly perhaps, though, Fargo draws out more of Fei's chi than he might have imagined. Despite Fei's lesser skill at the martial arts, there's a power within him--too much--too much that he doesn't even USE--
--and it erupts out of Fei's chest, exploding around him and into Fargo and around. Of course, considering who Fargo is, this might be to his benefit, or maybe the flames will be hotter than he expected.
But either way, Fei drops down to the ground, writhing in pain.
He can see Elly hurting here, his chest is thumping, but she's still okay, he reminds himself, she's still okay. He screams periodically, or tries to, but his throat is too dry.
GS: Fei Fong Wong has attacked Kent Hauch with Kakei! GS: Fei Fong Wong has completed his action.
DC: Kent Hauch switches forms to White Suit Fargo! DC: MISS! Kent Hauch completely evades Kakei from Fei Fong Wong!
<Pose Tracker> Kalve has posed.
Kalve hears Ida's voice waver. He closes his eyes for a brief moment, fighting down an awful wrenching sensation in his chest. He breathes deeply, a hissing inhalation.
She withdraws. His eyes open again. The sensation does not lessen.
His eyes flick to the side, regarding Dean. They narrow fractionally. "I wouldn't dream of it," he tells him, sincerely. "But she knows --"
A firearm of a sort he hasn't seen before erupts. Kalve's eyes snap wide, red lines like a third eye tattoo suddenly manifesting on his brow and intersecting with the marks in his eyes. His main hands come up, and the wide-bladed short swords flash, edges connecting with crackling blades. The first two are cut from the air, split rounds striking the wall of the building behind him; the next two hit the flat of the blades, woven back in the other direction, and the crackling shots shatter the weapons.
Kalve releases them as he steps through the cloud of shrapnel. The fifth grazes him just below the ribs; the sixth catches one, a little to the right, as he advances. It flattens against his armored body, but he can feel the fracture the instant it's made. He closes in three long strides through ferroflora that doesn't touch him. The last carries him into the air. He descends on the Drifter with a shout and a brutal axe kick, intending to finish what his creation started.
The scent of ozone, next. Kalve leaves the ground and dances to the left just as Gwen fires. The rippling shot passes him, grazing one of his sub-arms and sending a shock of pain up through his shoulder. That arm goes limp. The others do not. He pivots on one foot and presents two arms on the other side, both wielding the forked lightning guns he so enjoys. They spit blue-white arcs of thunderous power back at Gwen -- enough, Kalve thinks, to put her off from continuing this fool's errand.
Ida comes back. Kalve's two gun-wielding arms rise. One blocks her fist with the gun, the other intersects her forearm with its own. The gun explodes, bursting into a sizzling cloud of yellow-white light that turns to drifting motes in the span of an eye-blink. The other arm is jarred badly, the joint strained and wrenched by the force of the swing.
Kalve pirouettes with Ida's strike. He drops low suddenly, swinging a leg out to sweep hers out from under her. He glides smoothly back to his feet, and then backsteps and swings his upper arms' hands over one another in a wheeling motion, a staff suddenly materializing in his hands and whirling downward towards her midsection.
"-- how important this is." His voice is hollow.
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
Shalune might be shielded from view by the lumbering form of Big Shal, but-- it's not like the golem can stop a tide of water, and as much as Shalune instinctively dries to dig her staff in to the ground as a handhold, she can't stop herself from being buffeted backwards against an outcropping, wincing in pain before the next smashing flood sends her sprawling into the street. Even then, she was-- evidently not entirely kidding when she told Riese she could look after herself; a hand quickly finds purchase on the cobbles, levering herself upwards as she grits her teeth and hauls herself back up.
She hasn't been idle as she skids across the ground, it seems - because as she rises she tosses out a flat, white sheet of too-clean metal, a sign of Veruni engineering. Stolen, found, or given? Who can say, but Shalune leans on it as a set of handlebars fold out of it, as the base of it expands into the familiar form of the Little Dipper. Her legs are shaking slightly, but-- it's not like she needs her legs to be able to move, what with Big Shal and this craft around.
"... it's not just Miss Riese who ain't gonna stop," she mumbles lowly to herself - and rather than try to escape, even given the extent to which she's wounded, Shalune is instead gunning the craft forwards, sweeping suddenly around the back of Big Shal to abruptly appear on a crash course right for Ambrosius. It's a reckless and desperate sort of attack, but the alchemist holds her ground in the odd game of chicken, bracing for the impact. It's faster than it was - however she came across her inventory, it's clear that this engineer's taken to improving it, as well. "Haa--!"
GS: Shalune Amira has attacked Ambrosius with Soaring Clouds! GS: Shalune Amira has been weakened by Disease! They take 0 hit points of damage, and burn off their temporary hit points! GS: Shalune Amira takes 8 damage from Poison! GS: Shalune Amira has completed her action. GS: Kalve has activated a Force Action! GS: Kalve has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Method II - Force As Instruction! GS: Kalve has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Method II - Force As Instruction! GS: Kalve has attacked Dean Stark with Method II - Force As Instruction! GS: Ambrosius takes a solid hit from Shalune Amira's Soaring Clouds for 194 hit points! GS: Kalve has completed his action. GS: Dean Stark guards a hit from Kalve's Method II - Force As Instruction for 109 hit points! GS: Monster Mash critically Guards a hit from Riesenlied's Rising Sword - 'Laevateinn' for 48 hit points! GS: Monster Mash critically Guards a hit from Elhaym van Houten's Thermo Cube for 32 hit points! GS: Monster Mash critically Guards a hit from Dean Stark's Twin Fenrir - Sonic Vision for 32 hit points! GS: Gwen Whitlock critically Guards a hit from Kalve's Method II - Force As Instruction for 63 hit points! GS: Ida Everstead-Rey takes a glancing hit from Kalve's Method II - Force As Instruction for 151 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Dean Stark is a shining beacon of optimism, someone who doesn't give up until he's exhausted every possible avenue--and usually, not even then. Ida's own optimism is balanced and tempered by an education in strategic thought, an education that encouraged more pragmatic behavior. She suspected they'd lost this one the moment Kent Hauch got hold of the Statue, and this is looking increasingly correct. There's too much to keep track of, so she only catches little snippets of Riesenlied explaining her resolve, and Samuelh dumping plant food exactly where plant food does not need to be.
'I can't just stand by when I see someone who's hurting like that, struggling... I couldn't live with myself if I did...'
Tears well up in Ida's eyes. Kalve's leg sweeps her feet out from under her, knocking her backwards. She hits ground hard, the impact jarring the air from her lungs in a hwumph of breath. Both of her hands snap up as something comes down at her, a quarterstaff made of glowing golden energy. She catches the very end, and it slams both hands backwards into her chest in another painful impact. Ida looks up, which amounts to tilting her head back. The Statue is almost completely engulfed in the vines. She's watching it through a haze of pain, gasping for breath.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
Gwen manages to free herself from the plant's painful grasp in the time it laid there, stunned. Glancing back behind her as she gains some distance, Gwen lets out a triumphant whoop, until she sees....
Wait. What's that.
Who is that pouring the what.
Why is he... pouring... what
oh hey, gwen knows this guy
"What the HECK, SAMUELH!"
Gwen remembers the long look Samuelh gave her, that month or two ago, after she gave him that electric punch to the face. The way his eyes looked. Memorizing. She groans, a hand rubbing at the upper hand of her miserable face. "I need t'know when to not shoot off my goddamn mouth..." Granted, with Samuelh, who knows if it was really just to spite her, everyone here, or if he really wanted to see what 'Mother' could do?
Thorns shoot into Gwen's side, causing her to cry out in pain as the living metal begins to dig into her skin. She tries desperately to claw it out, but, for now, there's not much she can do, beyond that.
Oh wait. There is something she can do: punch Ambrosius.
Because she hasn't forgotten about him, at all.
So, while Ambrosius is trying to be fair in his dealings with Riesenlied and Shalune, Gwen... is a little more violent, attempting to shove a metal fist into his face.
"What the heck are you tryin' to do, Ambrosius?! N' who the hell is this Molesong or whatever the flyin' frick that's made you think this was a swell idea?!"
She stands there, tears in her eyes, and metal flower venom still bringing tears to her eyes. "Give me a good reason why I shouldn't try to punch you again!"
GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Ambrosius with Special Delivery! GS: Gwen Whitlock takes 8 damage from Poison! GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action. GS: Ambrosius guards a hit from Gwen Whitlock's Special Delivery for 74 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Kent Hauch has posed.
Ribaldy, directing traffic, watches the XXX Jug sail out of a window and crash into the scary plants. His ears wilt.
--
In the battle between souls, Fargo believes he should have the advantage. Since he was a child... they aren't memories he runs from. His father. The basement. Sparring in outrageous temperatures. Bones broken, to heal back stronger. Pathways of his mind torn open. An art, brutally passed down - the only way it can be. Fargo understands this. He believes his soul has been forged.
He scrapes against a dam he doesn't know is there within Fei on his way out, and is forced to learn - there are forces in this world, things moving unbeknownst to them all, beyond simple human comparision.
An outrageous rush of chi erupts from Fei upon that misaligned Contact, an energy field larger than Fargo's head. It engulfs him, dragging him back and up in the air. The Man in White rarely shows strong emotions - his wide eyes and slightly parted lips are akin to a look of horror.
No. Control.
Control!
Fargo's arms shake as he goes through the kata of gathering, a wide circular motion ending with his fists pressing together. He holds that pose as the edges of his white suit fragment apart, hair whipping, skin burning bright as the sphere of power drains into him.
He drops onto the ground on his hands and knees and just lets go for a moment, the air around him smearing as the heat rolls away from him.
Slowly, Fargo pushes to his feet, limbs shaking. He reaches up to his chest and pulls on the wrecked clothing, peeling them away in a cloud of ash.
He looks at Fei. Wary.
--
"Beggin' to be saved. Aye, that's some sort of struggle." Kent spits into the melting ice around him. "Anythin' that puts isself over others cannot show weakness, or the people lose confidence, right? These people! These men an' women, they got nothin' outta this world! Kicked around an' pushed aside an' they come to me!"
He pounds a fist on his chest, teeth bared. "They give over alla their responsibilities! Alla their hopes, their fears, their bloody pain and their bloody pleasure, an' they say, 'Kent Hauch! Life's too hard for me to make it! I need you to do it right for me!' An' I DO! Everyone's 'appy, innit? Everyone's got a united purpose!"
Kent levels his warmed up gun at Elly as she casts a flaming star at the all-consuming plants.
"ISS THE SAME!" he bellows, firing over and over, globs of dull lava that cool to tephra, trying to weigh her down with clinging rock and force her to her knees. "This world is fallin' apart! Nothin' these Drifters have ever done over all these years has helped fer shit! Now it's MY turn t' build, innit? T' cultivate? An' so what if I get rich on the side? Get a little comfort for me an' mine? These shites you've spat in my face for! They can barely look forward a bloody week!"
Something within Kent throbs. Something that continues to grow in his heart, fat and dark.
DC: Kent Hauch switches forms to Firebug Robber Kent!
GS: Kent Hauch has attacked Elhaym van Houten with Tephra Shackle! GS: Kent Hauch has completed his action. GS: Elhaym van Houten takes a solid hit from Kent Hauch's Tephra Shackle for 58 hit points! GS: Slow! Statuses applied to Elhaym van Houten!
<Pose Tracker> Monster Mash has posed.
The ferroflora has it in its grip. The vines tighten, beginning to glow cherry red against the surface of the Statue. They drag sharp, biting surfaces over something that should never be marred. It looks hopeless.
But there's always hope, isn't there?
Riesenlied's sword strikes true. It cuts cleanly, hacking away the masses of growth coming for the statue. More arrives, though, creeping in from the other side, forcing her to shear through them to keep it away. The ones on the opposite wall have finally reached it, too. She's slowing it down, keeping it at bay, but it's fighting back, turning what attention it has to her -- and that leaves an opening.
Rapid gunfire picks through the ferroflora with uncanny accuracy. Bullets neatly sever arterial root systems and pick apart one of the masses as it further encroaches. Dean's weapon sings fury, and each note is joined by another sound of metal puncturing, ripping, tearing. He drills the nearest cluster in the same spot, over and over again, pounding through it until a bullet explodes out the other side and the expansion slows to a crawl.
A two-centimeter cube of the stuff of stars ascends mere seconds later. It utterly annihilates the vines it touches, the immense heat too much even for the Hyadean flora. It leaves nothing behind but scorched earth as it passes, and it goes up, up, up -- and slams into the wall with a white streak, boring a tiny hole clear to the outside, where a light like a flashbulb suddenly goes off as it reaches the core of that root cluster. Another mass has been found and halted.
But it's already got the statue. It's grinding it down, tightening, tightening --
A crack forms.
The Guardian Statue fractures, splitting along hairline cracks carved into it by the alien life. It comes apart in four slices, beginning to part and then shattering entirely as if a force under pressure inside of it had just escaped. There's a sensation of pressure that rolls off of it, a spiritual shockwave that drives men to momentary silence even without the sensitivity needed to know what really happened.
The planet's protest, seconds later, is sudden and obvious. The world shakes, a small, localized tremor rolling through the Fire Quarter. The ground beneath the Statue's fragments cracks and splits, a fissure yawning open. The bonfire tumbles into it like a flaming meteor, taking red-hot and gleaming silver roots and vines down with it. What's left of the Statue falls.
The ground grinds shut with an unsettling sense of finality.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
Gwen manages to free herself from the plant's painful grasp in the time it laid there, stunned. Glancing back behind her as she gains some distance, Gwen lets out a triumphant whoop, until she sees....
Wait. What's that.
Who is that pouring the what.
Why is he... pouring... what
oh hey, gwen knows this guy
"What the HECK, SAMUELH!"
Gwen remembers the long look Samuelh gave her, that month or two ago, after she gave him that electric punch to the face. The way his eyes looked. Memorizing. She groans, a hand rubbing at the upper hand of her miserable face. "I need t'know when to not shoot off my goddamn mouth..." Granted, with Samuelh, who knows if it was really just to spite her, everyone here, or if he really wanted to see what 'Mother' could do?
Thorns shoot into Gwen's side, causing her to cry out in pain as the living metal begins to dig into her skin. She tries desperately to claw it out, but, for now, there's not much she can do, beyond that. Kalve's lightning blasts only add insult to injury.
Oh wait. There is something she can do: punch Ambrosius.
Because she hasn't forgotten about him, at all.
So, while Ambrosius is trying to be fair in his dealings with Riesenlied and Shalune, Gwen... is a little more violent, attempting to shove a metal fist into his face.
"What the heck are you tryin' to do, Ambrosius?! N' who the hell is this Molesong or whatever the flyin' frick that's made you think this was a swell idea?!"
She stands there, tears in her eyes, and metal flower venom still bringing tears to her eyes. "Give me a good reason why I shouldn't try to punch you again
<Pose Tracker> Ambrosius has posed.
Ambrosius takes aim with Veritas Varia and fires. A bolt of energy, angry and red fires out toward Riesenlied...but before it can hit her, she is already gone, and instead flies on past her into the distance. It will collide with something and detonate in a burst of crackling crimson energy somewhere in the distance...
...But not on anything important.
And then comes to the matter of the girl and her golem. Ambrosius turns to face her, and watches as she mounts some sort of vehicle. He levels Veritas Varia and waits as she flies about...
...but underestimates just how fast she can move. The adjustments Shalune has made to the device serve her well, and she barrels into him roughly, bowling him over and simultaneously knocking the breath out of him and causing him to drop his weapon.
But it takes more than that to put a Veruni soldier down for long.
"I can accept your appropriation of our technology. I can tolerate the way you profane it. But to use it against us...!?" He seethes. He forces himself back to his feet and one hand lashes out, seeking to grab Shalune by the head...
...but before he can reach her, Gwen comes flying in, slamming a metal fist into the side of his face. It elicits a grunt from him and sends him recoiling back into the wall of the building. Even so he hauls himself back on his feet, though he is clearly on his last legs, and stares at Gwen.
He regards her quietly, watching her tears.
He wanted to tell her. She deserved to know. In a way, this affected her more than anyone else here. But his orders were clear. She was the last person who was allowed to know.
"...I am sorry. I cannot." He replies quietly. He doesn't make a move to retaliate.
Besides...he could feel it. It was as he said to Riesenlied. It was already too late.
GS: Ambrosius has completed his action.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied's face drops as she continues to thrash and cut with a franticness that is very much against her character. But the ends of her power have come, and the light of Laevateinn dims as the crystal sword in her hand not so much fades as-- shatters, into a thousand little ebbs of glass, flown away on cinder-flecked air into nothingness.
"No... no--"
She shakes her head as she holds onto her hand, feeling the rip course throughout the Planet; she has sensed it once before, when the Primarch shattered the statue underneath her village, but it is still a deeply unpleasant sensation.
She drops onto the floor and seizes at the plant at her thigh, growling as she-- forcefully rips it apart, sending blood flowing through her marred, deformed skin.
For a moment, she could hear the rattling, wrothful voice of Mother, as whatever anchor that sealed her within the statue races free.
There is a moment of silence... then...
Riesenlied frowns deeply towards Kent, and plants her hand to her chest. For once, her voice is actually rather angry, as Kent punctuates the pinpricks in on how they do nothing. Her eyes flash with a fury that has been canned from weeks upon weeks of frustration.
"Is this your idea of a new world?! Fragments of a statue that held the ancient threats of the world at bay?! You say we cannot gaze a week forward, yet you cannot even fathom the bed of thorns that you make your nest upon!"
She thrusts her hand to one side, her gloved hand shaking towards the apartnments. "Is this your idea of rule? An anxious fistful of men and women whose fears you do nothing to dissuade, save for what Narrative you feel fit to feed them?! Is that any way to live!? You create no utopia save a cult of personality... a culture founded on uncertainty and weakness, that will fester past your lifespan! You are a false ruler, no more wise or beneficial for your followers than Siegfried!"
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Venom sinks into her body, and that tephra lands on her, clings to the probably-completely-cashed-now blouse she's wearing. Elly struggles as the ferroplants sprout and coil and spread, and she cries out, "It's --"
One particularly well aimed hit gets her in the back of the knee. This one makes her shriek. Why? (Because ballistic nylon has a melting point that Kent ALMOST hit accidentally, and the back of the knee was not a place Elly expected a blow.) It does make her sink down, looking back to Kent now with her teeth set and her lips pressed together.
She is avoiding crying by effort, not by natural instinct. It seems Kent has made his point, enough that she's looking at him and she is not trying to throw more Ether at the plants. "-- You're not looking ahead yourself!" Elly cries out to him then. "If you had gone around the block, then we would have sealed - we would have helped you stop this - this -"
Elly coughs again violently, and in this period she is at least spared seeing the statue of Dinogenos rent asunder. When she opens her eyes, though, it is abundantly clear to her in a dozen subtle ways - as well as the obvious one, viz. a gaping hole in the ground - that they have failed.
Elly feels the sick proximity of a dry-heave. She doesn't get up right away even if it means Kent kills her or throws her in the hole. Riesenlied's voice comes out, high and clear, and she gives Kent the business. Elly feels no triumph in it. Instead she cries out, voice wavering, "Riesenlied, get out of here!"
Her eyes squeeze shut.
A sudden twist of semicircular light appears and defies the natural flow of things to create a cresting wave of ice in the space between Elly and Kent. It sucks the thin water out of the air, hungry and violent. It is somewhat easier with the bonfire also gone off to join Dinoginos in the bowels of Filgaia. Also, it will probably fall on him.
The real purpose is to give Elly space to try to get up, or, possibly, Kent something to get hot about that will not leave orphans behind.
GS: Elhaym van Houten has attacked Kent Hauch with Ice Wall - Coming up! GS: Elhaym van Houten has been weakened by Disease! They take 0 hit points of damage, and burn off their temporary hit points! GS: Elhaym van Houten has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.
Dean is basically D: right now in light of the Statue's shattering.
He'll snap out of it to help the others get out of dodge as needed.
GS: Kent Hauch takes a glancing hit from Elhaym van Houten's Ice Wall - Coming up for 14 hit points! GS: Elhaym van Houten takes Cover! She gains 50 temporary hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Kalve has posed.
Kalve stands over Ida with a staff in his hands that resembles yellow stained glass. She holds it at bay, but he doesn't push downward. He stares off towards the middle of the Fire Quarter instead, towards the source of the weird pressure wave.
The ground shakes. Kalve swings the staff wide and plants it for support. He lowers his stance, watching. He can see straight into the heart of it all. He saw it happen. He knows it happened.
The awful sensations he's been wrestling with suddenly give way to a feeling of welcome catharsis. He feels the tension leave his body all at once. It worked, he thinks. It actually worked. For just a moment, he is possessed by another, fleeting feeling: a sense of hope.
"Maybe we can be saved," Kalve whispers.
The staff disappears. Kalve draws himself back up. He looks down at Ida, his expression inscrutable. "I'm sorry," he says. The awful feeling comes back the longer he looks at her. This wasn't a lesson that needed to be taught. "I..."
He doesn't finish the sentence. Kalve steps back, turns, and retreats through the gleaming leaves without another word.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
And somehow it's over.
Not the fight between Fei and Fargo, but the reason to fight in the first place. The statue is destroyed--the monster too strong for the drifters who tried to take it down. Fei didn't expect victory, not with so many threats arrayed before them, so many surprises, not enough intel. The words 'not thinking past a week' hit him. Could he be right? It's not, of course, that Fei can't literally think past a week but his personal problems, his personal foibles--were they stronger than the demand to save Filgaia?
Perhaps. But he doesn't feel guilt over it, rather...there's a kind of exultation there, that what is truly important to him, more important than anything, need not strictly be torn asunder by self sacrifice.
But...Elly is still fighting. She still wants to fight even after losing. No, not exactly that, Fei may devote his mind to this cause, but Fei only has his head in it. His heart lies elsewhere.
It's always been that way
There's plenty of chi left in Fei, in spite of everything. Frankly, it feels like there's no limit. No wonder Fei can't control it like Fargo can. With less training than Fargo, and yet a reservoir that deep--it's frankly more surprising it doesn't erupt out of his own body and consume him.
Still, Fei may seem strange as Fargo watches him warily. The expression on his face isn't dissapointment, or anger, or sorrow, or even fear.
It's relief. "You're..." He manages. "Thank god," Not that he believes in gods. He barely believes in the Guardians, though Elly's words on them makes him give it a second thought.
"Not gods at all." He considers. "...Just other living beings..." He smiles. That's also very like her.
He stands up, unsteadily. "Elly--we gotta get outta here. I'll cover--" He wobbles. "--you?"
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
The impact is rattling, and Shalune nearly unseats herself; she kind of expected the strike to be more final, and for a moment the mechanic winces as she sees the hand descend towards her-- before the wild punch sends Ambrosius sprawling in a different direction instead, and leaving the pink-haired girl relatively safe.
Relatively safe. They're in a bandit city, watching a parasitic Metal Demon plant tear apart a Guardian's statue and succeed. Relatively safe. She turns a little, feeling another spike of pain blossom in her side as she looks towards Ambrosius, letting out a rough sigh as her eyes glint with anger.
"... I didn't appropriate anything. It was stuff you threw away, forgotten," she retorts, some element of understanding starting to crystallize in her mind that perhaps there's another faction she never knew about. "Just sat in a dump for the rest of it's years and left there, just like Granny. So I fixed it, learnt from her, gave it some new life. It's better than having them just waste away."
Her jaw sets for a moment as her hand goes to her throat, fidgeting with a piece of leather cord there; something gold glints just for a moment as she clasps it in her hand.
* * *
The ground shakes near to Ribaldy as something steps closer-- and the rounded, kind of friendly-looking form of the twelve-foot Big Shal swivels its head to regard the henchdog for a long moment. One hand moves, and slowly wrenches some debris aside to create another path for the fleeing Black Ties.
The other swivels with a creak, offering an understanding sort of thumbs up.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
The ground trembles. Ida watches as Statue fragments, plants, and bonfire fall into the earth, and her tears turn the sight into a blurry, dream-like scene. For a few moments, the grief and pain are secondary to an aching sense of failure--but it's not the blind fury she experienced after the last Statue was destroyed. Was it because she assumed this one was lost? Was it because Kalve came for it? Was it because this one was one in the eye to Riesenlied, again? You petty, childish little girl. Do you even know what's at stake here? Or perhaps you're glad this happened, because it makes him happy, regardless of how much pain it causes others. That's how it is with you, isn't it? Everyone you love takes primacy, while everyone else--
Ida looks back up at Kalve, meets his eyes. In the background, Riesenlied finally--finally--loses her temper, but Ida isn't paying attention. "I know," Ida whispers. "If anyone can save them, it will be you." Ida rises to her feet. Her chest still aches, but the bleeding has slowed. She manages a weary smile, but it doesn't reach her eyes. She turns on a heel, and without so much as looking back, makes her way down a side alley, towards the city outskirts.
<Pose Tracker> Kent Hauch has posed.
As the statue begins to crack...
...Kent Hauch spreads his arms wide, sneering. "They can't even pass one simple test. Can't show up. Can't even arm these Drifters well enough to tip the scales. Can't give you lot the proper respect to do these things correctly an' not stamp yer feet on my carpet without fookin' wiping."
"An' now yer all gonna pay the price fer their incompetence, innit? An' I'll have to swoop on by and save this world. My way."
Riesenlied sets in, shouting at him. Kent looks at her flatly.
The jeers start as soon as she shakes her fist at the nearby apartments. Once the fight had gotten remarkable, the Black Ties had mostly taken shelter - but that's standard operating procedure. Something they've been drilled on. Once Riesenlied starts including them, they get rowdy. Faces start to pile toward windows, shouting cusses at Riesenlied, at Elly, at any Drifter that happens to be near. A molotov comes spinning out, splashing wide of the Demon but near enough to be felt.
Kent points his gun. "This? This is proof we need a new world. This one sure ain't bloody working. You're tryin' to hold together scraps with yer fingers an' it's gonna cut you all to ribbons! At least I'm lookin' for somethin', yeah? Tryin' something bloody well new!"
His eyes get dangerous.
"But then again, a'course you'd stand with her. Two lit'le peas in a betrayin' pod." The gang leader's finger tightens on Red River's trigger.
With the bonfire gone, Elly's magic finds much more purchase. The wall of etherically-generated ice shoots up, clipping the end of Kent's barrel, causing him to mutter an irritated curse as it takes his aim up and away before he manages to fire.
His silhouette can still be seen behind the ice as he yanks a cigar out of his damaged coat with a sharp movement, lighting it with the chamber of Red River, smoke swirling around him.
--
Sure enough. As the statue falls, so does Fargo's hair as he releases his excess heat. He believes Fei will not press the fight with no reason.
"You are..." he mutters, before stopping, turning away and walking toward where he left his hat. He stops. The ferroflora had grown through it, shredding it in half, rendering it completely unfit to be worn. He taps a finger on his lip.
"Tsk."
--
Ribaldy gets to see a giant robot. It's a good day for Ribaldy.
--
The Drifters find it a little more difficult to leave than to enter. The Black Ties have been riled up by the disappearance of the grand bonfire. A few even try their luck at the tired Drifters - but these are just Shirts and the odd Vest. All it really does is make a bad night a little worse.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
It's too much.
Gwen finds herself looking to Dean for some modicum of hope, of positive motion, of anything other than the emotions she's feeling right now. The shudder of alarm at Kent's speech, almost seeming to bleed into the impact of the bucking ground and the coiled throb of pain in her side.
At some point, all Gwen has is anger, and poor Ambrosius is right there to receive it all. "Stop standin' there n' _tell me_! Or at least put up a fight, so I don't feel so bad about pummelin' your head into the ground!" Her focus is blinded to the fact that she may have intervened in what may have been a very painful moment for Shalune. She reaches over, as if to plant another fist against his face.
It lands with a hand flat against his body, turning into a light shove as she turns her head away. Shalune's words confuse her, making a muddled mess of her thoughts. Veruni technology? But they're supposed to be...
Though, if Metal Demons exist now, why not Veruni? Why not have everything nasty exist, and just close in for the kill, and END IT, because there's nothing-
Gwen grits her teeth.
They need to get out of here.
She draws on the stone tablet in her vest, drawing on the spirit of Rigdobrite and she moves away, going over to clasp at Riesenlied's hand. "C'mon... we gotta get outta here..."
Healing energy begins to splash like stardust on the tired group, as Gwen's mouth clenches in a hidden grimace.
"Not gonna give anyone the satisfaction of dyin' from shame..."
In the end, there's a little piece of Little Twister always there with her, like a persistent thorn in her side.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied scarce hears Elly's shout at her to escape, even as everything goes to hell. The jeers and screaming of the Black Ties sets her on edge -- it reminds her too much of the fervent faith of those that follow Siegfried, and the elders, above the Gutter.
The molotov explodes near her feet, nearly setting the hem of her gown on fire. She gasps a little, still in her trance. She nearly steps forward, but Gwen yanks back at her. "I--"
She grits her teeth, shuddering as she looks back to her. She slumps and turns-- hurrying out with a deep grievance in her heart. "This is not a vision of the new world that I seek... not at all..."
<Pose Tracker> Ambrosius has posed.
Ambrosius studies Shalune. It is still something he finds difficult to tolerate. His eyes find that glint of gold for a moment before returning to her face. ...Yes, she had spoke of that 'Granny' before.
"...You can do better than to root through garbage. Most of it was discarded for a reason." He replies. Ever since Gwen arrived, he seems a little more...muted. Melancholic.
His attention turns to Gwen as she shouts at him.
...Even still, he cannot answer her. And he does not make an effort to defend himself when it looks like she's about deliver another punch to his face.
It never comes. She pushes him away, and it is as easy as opening a door. He cannot apologize to her. He knows that it would only hurt more.
And so, he starts to walk. He walks over to where he dropped his weapon and picks it up. He dismantles it and returns the pieces to the bags beneath his poncho. He pauses for a moment, glancing back to Shalune...but whatever he was about to do, he reconsiders, and moves onward.
Outside, he strolls over to where the fragments of his helmet lay on the ground. A stray vine of ferroflora has snuck over here in the time he was distracted, and was presently utilizing it as a snack.
...This was fine with Ambrosius. It meant the humans would not be able to reverse-engineer the technology within. And it does present an opportunity. Very carefully he kneels down, generating a small blade of water to cut into it, taking a sample with surprising delicacy.
And then, unless someone stops him before he does so, he disappears into the shadows.
It will likely be quite some time before he is seen again.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
"Even if they hurt me," Elly says to Kent, "I can't let go."
But it seems that the ice wall was a good call. Whether through simple desperation or the fact that she's remembering that supercooled lava is in fact a rock, and she ALSO has certification in Earth Ether, Elly manages to get upright enough to see Fei.
She tries to smile at him but it's wan. She also staggers. "Did you," Elly says, getting closer - to throw her less injured arm over his shoulder. She finishes the thought; "Did you ever do, a three legged race? I think this should be... easier."
From there she moves, though she does not run. She can't. She can't heal people; she can't save statues; she can't build a new city; there are a great many things she can't do.
What she CAN do is knock over Black Ties who come towards them with ice barriers. Embarrassing, perhaps injurious, but she has no stomach for killing strikes.
I thought I was like them.
... Maybe I am, but I just couldn't handle it.