Where the rain gets in (Ch. 2: Day 12, pt. II)

Sheff · Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 12:26 am

Sheffer didn't even have time to blink as the bolt of electricity shot straight to him... and then proceeded to blast him back a few yards, right onto his back and into a puddle of rainwater. His body shook for a moment as the energy took its course, but soon, he had regained control, shaking his head. The hedgehog's clothes seemed a bit charred, but not greatly so, and one could swear a few of his quills were sticking out at odd angles.

That overly large spark had managed to jolt his fuming anger to an extreme, and it was evident upon his face immediately. Shaking lightly from the experience (and maybe some numbed muscles), he pushed himself onto one knee, his body stiff and soaking wet as he rose back to his feet. No words were said, but the look that he gave Seven said it all: I'm going to kill that kid.

On cue, his familiar covering of green crystal began to form as he flexed his limbs, trying to bring back feeling in some parts of his body in order to go pummel his target.

psikeout · Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 12:31 am

Rock had started to answer the various questions floating around—quite possibly with directions leading to violence, judging by the way his hand glode toward his belt, where his knife was. He didn't get the chance, however, before getting blown aside by a concussive blast of hot, dry air. It was an alarming feeling in the middle of the dankness and chill of the rain, and it sent him for a near tumble, staggering left and struggling to keep his balance, while the one eye on that side was rendered temporarily blind by the flash. He ended up falling on his hip on the wet concrete with a sold thud.

He had a number of options in the moment. Take action, but risk getting shot from about thirty different angles at once, and risk it happening to everyone else; direct everyone to run, but gain nothing from the encounter in the process; or hold ground without retaliation for the moment, and risk getting shot anyway, while not necessarily gaining any particular edge.

Just in case anyone was getting ready to retaliate, he shouted: "Easy, easy, let's everybody just chill th'hell out a sec," while picking himself up by his radio-clutching hand.

He was covertly mashing the button as he did, though, and he whispered something under his breath as his head dipped during his rise back to his feet. Once he was up, he looked at the kid—whose name he still didn't have.

"Could you at least tell us who it is you are before you start shootin', anyway?" he asked, with plenty of audible disdain, tiredness, and frustration.

Mie · Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 12:45 am

Aside from a clandestine flinch away from the hedgehog, Jam never moved from her spot. She wasn't about to go breaking her own advice because a teammate got blasted by... some odd representation of her former weapon. There was a surly mix of confusion and bitterness slathered on her face as she conspicuously eyed the clumsy-looking doohickey her lightning stone was wired up to. It wasn't that she didn't see how it worked; merely, she didn't understand why it was necessary.

Since once more, it seemed Rock was running the interrogation, the reddish girl stilled her tongue, wondering -- however briefly -- if she really cared who their attacker was.

NPC · Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 1:03 am

Seven eyed the group haughtily. From his position on the stairs, he was able to wield a good looking-down-the-nose perspective for just such a purpose. His focus dwelt on Rock for a moment, but he soon enough addressed everyone with his sweeping gaze.

"I don't need a name," he replied stuffily. "Everybody in the world's gonna know who I am before I'm done, name or no name. I am what I am. But if you can't wrap your heads around that and just neeed something to call me by, you may address me as Number Seven." He paused. "Or, 'sir,'" he added.

He let just enough time pass for that to sink in before proceeding.

"And I would tell you more about me, and my plans, and all that great stuff," Seven mock-droned, "but I'm afraid I'm not the monologuing type of hero, you know? I could tell you one important thing, though, if you ask nicely..."

Kazz · Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 1:29 am

He came with no introduction at all.

Walking up from behind the sheriff, barely heeding the griffin's existance, a relative newcomer entered the scene. Perhaps Sheff would be apt to recognize his previous boxing opponent, but to the rest, at least on a personal level, Rodolf was an unknown. Long white hair billowed around his head and neck; more noticeable was the lone, shiny black horn protruding from the center of his forehead, which had previously been seen encased in foam padding. Fists held clenched at his sides, tail flicking dramatically, the unicorn would likely have been at least somewhat imposing in normal situations.

However, considering that he was on the approach for Seven and the spectacle he was putting on, and the fact that most of the company may have been inclined to pay attention to said problem, the effect was lessened somewhat.

"What's this kid's problem?" he questioned, gruffly, of nobody in particular as he came up from behind, not yet joining the group, but well within range to make his presence known.

Rodolf seemed to think absolutely nothing of inserting himself into this situation. Rather, he had his eyes focused almost intensely on the human on the stairs, to the exclusion of all else. (If he so much as knew the species of one individual he currently stood near, it would be surprising.)

Sheff · Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 1:43 am

It had taken much of Sheffer's willpower to take Rock's advice for granted, and now disgruntled, he slowed the growing of his rock shell, yet still let it crawl up his body, just in case. He'd only offered the monkey a small, disapproving glance before retraining his eyes onto the kid, still agonized by his actions. At least the rain had dampened down his quills back to their proper positions.

Crossing his half-rock-covered arms, his eyes squinted as he listened to Seven's last statement. A huff leaving his nose, he was about to answer in more then likely cruel way when the newcomer cut him off.

The hedgehog's eyes instantly darted to the unicorn, and he near spontaneously recognized him. After all, the two had been beating their faces in only days before. It would be tough to forget so quickly.

"Hey... um..." A second passed as he recalled his name. "Rodolph."

His gaze returned back to the hoard of soldiers and their short leader, giving a nod in their direction, his voice a low mutter so the kid couldn't hear. "Mr. 'Seven' up there has been screwing with us for awhile now.... might be best if you avoided this. Could get violent."

The small explanation done and over with, he brought his full attention back to the boy in question, raising his voice a bit over the pattering of the rain.

"Kid, you lost any formalities from me a long time ago. For once in your life, stop being an aggravating little boy and just tell us what's oh-so-important."

Jahkari · Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 2:00 am

Mind racing, Key found herself incapable of doing anything but staring in shock for a few moments. The kid had just attacked Sheff with a lightning bold, and now a unicorn appeared on the scene as if out of no where. What was supposed to be a typical job, if a slightly more dangerous one than most, had taken a left turn at absolutely insane.

The kid's taunting, however, re-focused her thoughts from their whirling mass of 'what is this I don't even what is going on' confusion. Key was good with questions. Her questions, at the very least, almost always had nice, reassuring, factual answers.

"How about sharing how these things work?" Key asked abruptly, nodding towards the soldiers, her interest in them still present. Then, realizing there were probably significantly more useful questions to ask, she bit her cheek and backed up a bit, away from the kid and his army. "Actually, nevermind. I'm... I'm not good at this talking thing."

Wishing for some solid puzzle or riddle to distract her from this new, bizarre reality, Key resolved to keep her mouth shut.

Tony · Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 2:50 am

Hidden away from the quickly assembling group of baroque all-stars, a lone figure remained surrounded by the darkness in a lone alleyway, keeping an eye on the events beginning to unfold. Back by a keen sense of hearing, the fellow in question kept to himself at a distance, picking up on every detail from the conversation over yonder. Of course... he missed a few words here and there due to the fact that it was raining somewhat, something which he was not overly pleased about to begin with.

That large crackle of lightning and thunder nearby did little to satiate his already deteriorating mood.

Bringing a walkie up to his mouth, the raincoat-wearing fennec fox cleared his throat.

"Hey. Hey! Vince. Viiince! You might wanna know this! ... I think! Listen up! Heeey!"

The voice of the resort owner crackled through, the porcupine himself not sounded terribly pleased as it was. "If you wouldn't mind calming the $@!# down for a second, Vito, I would greatly appreciate it... My hotel's been given some rough treatment tonight, and I'm not particularly in the best of moods, you see."

The fennec fox huffed, and shook the communications device with slight irritation -- as if his partner was capable of feeling that. "Fine, fine! But, hey, listen, this kid that got the drop on yer safe -- with all o' those -weeeird- things that're followin' him around? Now he's shootin' lightning!" There was a pause on the other end, as if Vito had been expecting the news to catch the porcupine off-guard... "... Oh. And, uh, there's a hell of a crowd startin' to close in on him... I think some of these guys are yer boxing buddies! Ah man, you should get down here -- The real party's about t' start! ... I think!"

"As much as I would love to partake, my security detail seems keen on keeping me away from the hotel right now, and are insistent that I do not leave the northeastern portion of the employee quarters until the situation has been stabilized. ... That is why I sent you there in the first place. Remember?"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I get it! I kinda wish you told me the weather was gonna be absolute sh**, though! It's gonna be tough to knock their heads around in this beeee esss! ... I think!" He couldn't help but grin to himself, however -- at the very least, his choice of weather attire was keeping everything under it dry enough to be put to use, later... As long as that rain didn't pick up too much, he'd be fine.

"I'll letcha know what else he says! But I'm gettin' antsy, so I might not stick outta sight for much longer -- This may be the last y' hear from me tonight!" Upon the porcupine's acknowledgment, Vito stuff his radio away, and resumed his eavesdropping duties, keeping an ear out especially for that Seven kid.

NPC · Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 3:16 am

"How about," Seven started in a loud voice, holding his hands out in front of him as if steadying the excitement of an applauding audience, "... you twits meet me at the HEXAeco TV Tower, and I'll tell you everything you wanna know."

He took a step back, holding his hand out to one of his troops. The troop stared a moment, then hastily dug out what looked like crumpled mess of black fabric from his pack and gave it to the boy.

"A'course— I don't want it to be too crowded, but I also wanna keep my troops here fresh, sooo..."

Seven took off his headset, unfurled the mass of fabric and plastic, and pulled it on over his head. It was a gas mask. At that very moment, a continuous rain of smoking canisters came tumbling down from the sky with the distant "toomp, toomp, toomp" noises of a grenade launcher. Seven's AI-piloted assistant was pouring down tear gas grenades on the entire vicinity.

"Whoever survives BIU-D can come see me!" he proclaimed happily, muffled by his mask. "Good luck!"

And with that, Seven and his entire platoon took in unison, scattering with all of the mayhem of a swarm of cockroaches under bright light—but not before the boy launched another blast of electricity at the group, this time the entire group, with little concern for who it hit. So, between the stinging gas (which would make every nose, mouth, throat, and eye that stayed in it feel like they were literally full of pepper juice, lit sparklers and fire ants), the electricity, and the sheer amount of motion, it'd probably be hard to tell which way Seven actually went. Furthermore, it didn't help matters that they were just seconds away from the boy's UFO-shaped companion swooping down and opening fire on them with its plasma cannon and other assorted weaponry.

Tau · Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 3:56 am

If Rock had kept his com unit in audible range he'd hear a brief comment a split second before the following explosion. "You may wish to take cover."

If not for the sound of the rain one might have a slim chance to to hear a single 'thuonk' sound from the roof top moments before a well aimed shot and calculated (to account for wind influence) would hopefully make its intended target. Should the fragmentation grenade find its mark, BIU-D would be hit with an explosive welcome-to-the-fight 'gift' near, or in, one of its propulsion system intake or exhaust ports. If not, an un-welcomed shrapnel ridden explosion nearby those on the ground would be the opening for the fight against the flying drone. Either way things would start, or (hopefully) end with a bang.

NPC · Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 4:41 am

BIU-D barely got to finish its first volley of the tear-gas grenades before it was intercepted by... lo and behold, a grenade.

Perhaps there was some justice in the world. The pinpoint grenade easily struck the stationary-hovering AI-controlled drone and sent it spiraling down to the ground in a fiery mess. It hadn't been built to take a hit in the slightest. It was intended to stay out of view and support its operator from afar, not launch a head-on assault. That misuse led to its fantastic, bouncing, rolling, cartwheeling crash landing not far away.

Smash.

... And there went the parked monorail train. Oops.

Seven, who happened to be sprinting right by said train (still within view of all the others he'd been harassing, if distantly), numbly slowed to a staggering jog, staring at the mess. His jaw hung agape, his upturned hands clenched claw-like at the air, and his eyes darted between the machine and the people he'd just left behind in an incredulous kind of what-is-this expression. That wasn't part of the plan.

He hardened his face again and continued running.

"Didn't need that stupid machine telling me what to do all the time, anyway," he reassured himself.

Kazz · Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 3:05 pm

Rodolf had turned to the hedgehog, only looking from the side of his eye; after a moment in which he recalled who Sheffer was, he got a clipped "I'll stay" out before Seven made his flashy departure. In leaping away from the immediate assault, he completely lost track of what was going on (aside from perhaps a bit of "oh god the stinging") before BIU-D found itself soundly decimated.

Coughing up a storm, he held up one arm to shoddily shield his face. Whether it was gone or not, the tear gas still remained lingering in the air, rain or no rain. "Though I am beginning to doubt if I should," he ammended his statement under his breath, hardly audible over the activity around and the rain. He puncutated this thought with a fierce coughing fit. During this, he peered around cautiously at the company into which he had so... well, rudely invited himself. (Monkeys and a hedgehog and a koala and a cat and a mole, oh my.)

Well, the unicorn had definitely chosen an interesting time to be on patrol. He stood tensely -- he hadn't seen where the boy had run off, and likely didn't fancy simply taking off. He almost seemed to be waiting to see if the gathered were going to do anything.

psikeout · Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 3:56 pm

With the sinking dread of unwanted familiarity, Rock's face slowly drooped into a long, disbelieving frown as he watched the bullet-shaped gas canisters clank and bounce across the ground. Could have made a run for it? Probably, but at the same time, he didn't want to risk leaving anyone too slow to react. Still, by his count, this made the third time he had been tear-gassed (first in basic training, second by the SSD, and third now), and it ticked him off. Actually, maybe it wasn't so much the fact that it was happening so much as his particular natural response to irritants. As soon as the burning vapors hit his face, he silently blew a gasket inside, and went half-stumbling, half sprinting around, stutter-stepping and football kicking the things as hard as he could. This exposed him to it worse than anyone else, and sent the increasingly red-and-watery-eyed primate into hacking fits that sounded more like guttural roars and growls, but still, by some masochistic, adrenaline-and-fury-driven rage, he kept his eyes open enough to see where he was going, and one by one punted or grabbed and threw downwind every one of the hissing, sickly-greenish-smoke-spewing things he could get to. And the hyper-tasing-lightning-stone action that had been launched in the midst of it all? Didn't help matters any. Worse yet, even as he reeled from that, in yet more tingling and searing pain, there wasn't much of anything he could do about it before the kid was gone, and he couldn't see clearly enough to pursue.

He was spitting mad (or at least just spitting), but between the strong wind, having some of the canisters scattered farther away, as well as having the rain wash it out of the air and out of the groupmembers' eyes, it wouldn't be as bad as it could have been. The stuff never worked particularly well outdoors, anyway; it still didn't keep it from being a real pain in the ass, though.

"We need to go to that tower," he rasped in a low, barely-interpretable, irritant-stricken baritone, "and kill him."

He probably could have said something a lot more clever or relevant than that, but at the moment, that was pretty much the entirety of his sentiments.

Greens · Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 4:16 pm

The serval hardly said a word throughout the boy's soliloquy, but couldn't help but echo an incredulous "Hero?" aloud. He hardly knew the guy, but with his especially anarchic means of attaining what he wanted, haughty disposition, and army of henchmen following his side, Ace seemed genuinely surprised at his word choice. But just as annoyed.

However, his irritation quickly snapped into something like dread the moment he saw Seven's mask. With an unceremonious, but booming cry of "GAS!" he turned heel, grabbed at Caz's arm and hauled butt in the opposite direction.

The mole, who was only too happy to oblige, still had to keep herself from tripping over herself and the wet ground when everything started getting crazy. She spared a look over the shoulder to her comrades and beyond, but found something else, too. "Wait, Ace, it blew up!" she cried, halting the both of them. "The gas thing blew up...!"

He turned around again with an stare both impressed and puzzled, but he wouldn't question the results. Furthermore, he noticed all of Seven's troops dashing away along with him-- the factor he was most concerned about. And knowing the rain would pat down the gas before long, all his woes... for the moment seemed to be put at ease. His gaze met the roof, and his radio met his mouth. "Tau. If that was you, you're awesome."

MuffinUnsane · Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 4:19 pm

The bird's eyes were now as red as her feathers once were and hacking coughs were coming from her body. It had taken a second for the familiarity of the gas being dropped and that second was just enough for it to hit her. The water did help though and for the second time she was soaked.

Her question was answered it seem about the kid. It no longer mattered who he was. The fact remained that he wasn't all that nice.

"Oh jes-hack-the hell is tha-hughhack-arugh!" Giving up trying to speak for the moment Ember settled for wipping the tears from her face. Shaking her head to get some of the water droplets off her feathers she hoped that at least getting wet helped wash the dye out.

But that kid. Obviously he knew that monkey and they weren't on good terms from it. Though she could see why now. Kid needed a good slap.

Where the rain gets in (Ch. 2: Day 12, pt. II)

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