And the steel rails are cold and hard (Ch. 5: Day 2)

Seafarinhare · Posted: Thu Mar 29, 2012 1:08 pm

Archer looked up at Casey as he yelled his warnings about this being a danger zone. He forced a smile in response. "Yeah, so I.."

He was interrupted mid-sentence as some rude green hedgehog brushed by him. Though he wanted to respond by shoving him over the railing, Archer surpressed it. He was a mature adult, after all. He grumbled, before finishing his thought, looking back at Casey, "...I noticed."

As he mulled over what to do, things started to get even hotter up there as the fight raged on, guns blazing and even some kung fu jumps were being impressively displayed atop the high-speed transport.

"Hey, big guy. Can I count on you for some cover fire?" He asked as he hopped back over to the baggage car, and started to climb the ladder, looking back as he climbed, peering over the top of the freight car so as to not get his head shot off. He pulled himself up with one hand while pulling out a small instrument, which expanded into his trusty bow.

He would have to make due while Tracer took her lovely time getting to the scene. Women.

psikeout · Posted: Thu Mar 29, 2012 3:51 pm

"Urr. No?" answered Casey with what was actually genuine befuddlement, but could have come across as sarcasm.

He was still hanging there on the ladder, peeking up once in a while, but he didn't seem as inclined as Geoff to jump into the fray. When your main means of assault is shooting people with a big machinegun, it's best to make sure you know who you're shooting and why.

Seafarinhare · Posted: Thu Mar 29, 2012 5:24 pm

"Alright, cool." He replied back. Now this was most definitely sarcasm; albeit the playful kind. He wasn't really expecting a complete stranger to provide backup anyways. As much as he wanted to just...slip into the hatch, now did not seem like the most opportune time to do so.

Sheff · Posted: Thu Mar 29, 2012 9:56 pm

An inner debate rushed through Geoff as he stood there atop the train car, his failure of an attempt to subdue another one the thugs already lingering behind him as he questioned who was really on the "good" side here. Of course, this conflict was probably nowhere close to black and white, the hedgehog himself not feeling fitted in either or as he watched the bear simply vanish from sight. The thought of how he was the prime cause of that didn't bode entirely well with him, even if the thug would have turned around and potentially did the same exact thing if roles were reversed.

Now, though, one side's numbers had already dwindled down to a single man. Conflicted, Geoff glanced between the remaining people atop the car or still approaching, trying to come to some sort of conclusion on how to approach the rest. Aggression might as well be the only way to deal with them, but a certain unsureness gripped at him now.

Instead, he opted for a stiff walk forward, his face mostly concealed beneath a mask of rock as he approached the one with the bandolier, waiting for whatever reaction that would come.

Rachel · Posted: Thu Mar 29, 2012 10:57 pm

The whooping noise the blades made cutting through the air as she narrowed in on her target was all but muted under the roar of the wind and the clicity clank of the train itself. By the time the noise of her own machine was too loud to be background buzz she was almost on top of the train.

The medium sized, twin-engine military helicopter wasn't far at all when she breached the clouds. The pilot, a plum colored Llama in gear matching the white and gray paint job the craft itself had, pointed the helicopter at what was roughly the middle of the train; that being the car everyone seemed so keen to get onto.

As she flew over the train she opened fire, the twin guns on either side of the copter loosed several rounds in short well aimed bursts at the green hedgehog shaped geode on the roof of the car.

Greens · Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2012 2:30 pm

Ace didn't waste any time chasing after, but the instant he'd summarized his opponent as a runner, he knew better than to try and beat him at his own game if he had an open opportunity. He lunged forward again, but stopped just short of the door out of the freight car and gripped his hand over the doorway. No matter how fast this guy was, he'd have to be psychic to expect the ranged offense that Ace possessed. No other way could he have known, that when Ace snapped his arm down and whipped his arm up again in a vertical slash, the trio of playing chaos-charged playing cards he'd produced from the pouches on his wrist could be classified as genuine projectiles.

Hit or miss, though, he leaped the gap all the same, ready to take him on as personally as either of them cared to.

---

Sure enough, the remainder of the squad (all five of them, now) didn't give the green man any time to mourn-- the moment they noticed him emerge, no less than three of them kneeled over the edge as well as they could in the harsh conditions, and opened fire on his outstretched hand, or whatever else he felt obliged to show to them. As far as they were concerned, all that man had lost was his shield.

The other two, the supposed leader among them, immediately took the opportunity to examine Geoff. Of course, 'examine' here means pointing their guns at him and shouting in a garbled mess of foreign language he couldn't hope to understand, keeping a safe enough distance throughout. For better or worse, though, they weren't given much more of an opportunity to 'speak' with him before the roar of a military grade helicopter hid their voices. While they didn't seem to recognize the chopper as a threat at first appearance, that changed when they saw its barrels spinning.

They were polite enough to give the hedgehog some personal space for the time being.

Zaka51 · Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2012 3:30 pm

As soon as he saw his pursuer, a small click and a shnk produced a blade from the handle he had been holding. He raised the shiny metal in front of him in the most defensive pose he could muster with only a little blade for protection.

He was mentally kicking himself for stopping at all. A tight, narrow, shaky area and an opponent who was obviously stronger than himself, and all he has is a dinky switchblade? This plan could have been thought through better, but he would just have to roll with it for now, he thought. The mouse mentally raised an eyebrow when his yellow opponent drew a few playing cards. What could he possibly do with those, he wondered? Was he some kind of strange urban street magician? Whatever it was, it didn't matter as long as he took him down.

Immediately as the cards were thrown at him, the cream rat ducked purely out of reflex two steps to his right, as far as he could go without falling off the train. The cards barely missed him; he still heard the sound of air being sliced uncomfortably close to his face, and he heard how hard they hit the train car. Those weren't ordinary cards, and this wasn't an ordinary thug that he was fighting, he realized.

But he couldn't let himself be distracted. Soon as he regained his balance from the quick dodge and saw his pursuer leaping the gap, he switched the position of the knife in his hand with a smooth, practiced motion, leaving the blade pointed downwards. As soon as he heard the sound of Ace's feet hit the metal floor, he made a low, short lunge and swung it in a wide horizontal swipe, aiming to embed the blade right into one of his pursuer's legs.

NPC · Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2012 4:26 pm

The pointy-eared green thug who clung to the side of the train did not do so for much longer; just as soon as his pursuers could point their weapons down over the edge at him, he was gone in a flying, suicidal-looking leap right off the train, off the trestle, off the mountain. It was hard to tell if any of the shots hit him; with that many bullets in play, some had to have, but he appeared to be a goner, anyway.

If they watched, though, they'd see the shrinking dot shed his fluttering piece of fabric—his coat—before spreading his arms, catching air under them, and gliding free off toward where his comrade had fallen. A flying squirrel? A flying something? Hard to tell, but he'd live to see another day, even if it wasn't on that train.

Nothing stood between the troops and that top hatch anymore except for Geoff, but even then, he seemed to be getting machine-gunned by a helicopter. (Maybe it was safer to say nothing stood between them and the hatch except a stream of bullets for the time being.)

Sheff · Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2012 8:06 pm

Geoff hadn't even stopped when he found himself staring down the barrels of the thug's weapons. A bullet (even a multitude of them) versus rock would only lead to the latter being favored, something the hedgehog knew well by this point. Then again, he wasn't fully aware of the much larger weaponry aiming towards him.

Amongst the constant din of noise around the train cars and his focus primarily on the troops before him, it finally took the thugs' distracted glance to the helicopter for Geoff to finally take note of it. He paused then, like a deer caught in the headlights, peering at the chopper as if questioning its presence. Soon enough, the logical side of him kicked in, but the hedgehog was only given a brief second to take a jerking step back before—

CHNK CHNK CHNK CHNK

Chunks of crystal flew as the crystal figure was introduced to a wave of bullets, starting to expose the green hedgehog center to both the elements and, more importantly, more bullets. Geoff, in a sort of panicked state at seeing his trademark armor getting chopped to bits so easily, stumbled back from the force of the onslaught, almost losing his balance. The rock regenerated as fast as possible, but give or take a few more seconds, there wouldn't be much left between him and grievous injury . So, without much thought put into it, Geoff was soon found going into a hasty roll backward, attempting to avoid the gunfire and...

...unexpectedly falling right through the open hatch.

If any of the thugs listened carefully over the helicopter, they would have definitely heard a rocky crunch a brief second later.

psikeout · Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2012 9:08 pm

"Hngk!"

Casey's eyes bugged a little as a chopper showed up and started opening fire on the train. Nevermind the fact that he'd just gotten to watch and discover that the hedgehog kid was some sort of superpowered crystal-armor guy. There was a lot going on for the hog to digest, and in the end, all he could do to cope with it was... well, what any confused and threatened man worth his man-card would do.

"Latika! Get my ammo!" he shouted urgently as he trundled back into the baggage car. "Bullets! Bullets!"

Stomp-stomp-stomp he went toward his heap of luggage. Along the way, he caught a glimpse of Ace fighting some guy in a suit just out the other door. "The heck's even— no, no, bullets," he refocused, refusing to deeply question anything until he had plenty of ammo to shoot everything, should it come to that.

Seafarinhare · Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2012 6:14 am

As the turn of events unfolded, and the mysterious guardsmen-of-the-freight car was whittled down to zero, it wouldn't be long until Archer received the distraction he so desired. He pulled himself up onto the baggage car as the helicopter pulled into view. He watched as the pilot open-fired at the armored hedgehog. He was surprisingly resilient. Once the stream of bullet-hail ended, Archer lunged toward the freight car. It was an easy jump, given that the train was in motion in the opposite direction.

He landed with knees bent; stumbling forward into a clumsy yet somehow smooth run toward the hatch and dropped into a slide with feet forward into it, grabbing the lip as he fell through so he could swing in without landing on the hedgehog.

How thoughtful.

Sheff · Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2012 12:01 pm

It seemed the "generosity" the deer showed wasn't going to be shared by the hedgehog.

The second Archer's feet made contact with the floor, a blur of cracked and damaged green rock leaped forward. Geoff, having returned to his feet upon his arrival inside, seemed to have every intention of slamming the deer right into the nearest wall of the train car, hands grasping for the bowman's shirt in the process.

Seafarinhare · Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2012 2:10 pm

As he swung into the car, he saw the hedgehog get up and begin his tackling attempt. Upon landing, however, he had no time to react, and was spine-checked by Geoff, dropping his bow in the process. He did have time to brace himself, though, which he most certainly did. When the wall came up, he kicked up the wall, with the intent of flipping backwards over the hedgehog before he could get a grip on his clothes. Instead of a reversal, however, he just backed off.

"Well. I see you're okay." He said with a grin. Either the hedgehog had a clairvoyance beyond his oafish exterior, or he was just so oafish that he just attacked anyone who was not already acquainted with him because this was the first time he had given the Deer any acknowledgement that he existed and it was to tackle him, "I assume that's a no on the ticket, then."

Nuzlocke Griff · Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2012 2:32 pm

Not entirely thrilled by the collection of gunman firing at eachother, Desmond laid in the shadows looking on at the mysterious deer who, as he guessed, was more than what he let on to be. "..the hell are you doing..." he murmured as he looked on at the, now armed, deer.

In only a moments notice, things became a bit more complicated as a helicopter suddenly appeared, firing at someone on top of the car. Apparently the cease fire was some sort of signal as the deer bolted as soon as the sound of machine gun fire silenced momentarily.

Following behind in pursuit, the ferret dived in after the archer with a grasp on the mouth of the opening to not fall on his back when he would land. When he finally made contact with the ground, he noticed Geoff and the ticket guy in a brawl of sorts, with the hedgehog apparently on the offensive. Noticing the bow on the ground he reached for the weapon while keeping his eyes on the deer for safe measure.

"Had a feeling something wasn't right with you" he called out to the archer as he picked up his weapon with a firm grasp while pointing to it with his other hand. "Doesn't look like a ticket puncher I've ever seen."

Rachel · Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2012 2:58 pm

The helicopter pilot wasn't simply going to let another person run across the roof the train car. The guns immediately started firing again when Desmond poked his head over the side of the train and then ran right into her sights. She continued firing at him as he moved, with the sort of accuracy you'd expect from the experienced pilot. Perhaps following the deer was not the best move for the definitely not bullet proof target.

And the steel rails are cold and hard (Ch. 5: Day 2)

Who is online