Pealing thunder (Ch. 2: Day 12, pt. III) [Finale]

Sheff · Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2011 9:51 pm

Sheffer felt no surprise at Seven's appearance, knowing his climb would eventually bring him back to face him, and for once, he kept his mouth shut, yet maintained a glare that could cut through the steel that surrounded them. His muscles ached from the climb and all the other hardships he'd toiled through in the last week, but he still had enough in him to finish the night off, either for better or worse.

Already the hedgehog protected himself with a shell of crystal, the flashing lightning burnt into his mind. He refused to be disabled yet again that night, and soon, all but his face was nearly covered. Sheffer's stance lowered, ready to move at a moment's notice, and hearing Jam's words, he looked at Rock expectingly, perhaps ready to go by his own order as well.

Seven wasn't going to slip from their grasp again.

psikeout · Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2011 10:28 pm

Rock looked... grave. His water-flattened hair hung coarsely, his bruises looked all the darker in the low artificial lighting, and his mismatched eyes belied his fierceness, but in a way that only seemed barely sufficient to defy the very exhaustion that threatened to drop him on the floor where he stood. The boxing matches had taken it out of him; the training, the running; fighting Coop; fighting GUN, running from GUN; fighting Blaze; the tear-gas-and-electricity mess before the fight; the several mile run there; the fight; the climb; and everything else in between had added up.

Ultimately, he shook his head in response to Jam—presumably both to part about directives as well as the part about the emerald. "You don't need me to tell you what to do here," he answered lowly, inaudible to Seven through the static of the weather. "Let's just... make sure it's done."

And with that, he started forward one heavy step at a time.

NPC · Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2011 10:53 pm

"Are... all of you so single-minded?" asked Seven bitterly, just loud enough to be heard. He sounded genuinely incredulous. "I expect this from him," said the boy with a flinging, disgusted gesture at Rock, "and her," he added with another at Jam, "but I don't even get where the rest of you come in."

His troops swayed up next to him on either side. There appeared to be about six left, not counting the one holding the metal case, which hung back.

"Is it money? Are you freaks dooming everybody for money? Is it just adventure? Why are you even here?..."

Kazz · Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2011 11:12 pm

After a moment or two of delay -- refusing to take the aid from Rock, and even without that likely after Key -- Rodolf had hoisted himself onto the observation deck roof. He breathed out heavily through his nose, looking at the boy. He had no past with Seven -- at least not directly. He was beginning to wonder, of course, if any of the events that had been going on recently had anything to do with him.
That aside, he had been a right prick when he had turned up on the scene of disaster only so short a while before, and his actions at the tower. More than enough, the unicorn decided, to get involved. If this kid was being a nuisance and a trouble, it would only be right to confront him; such went Rodolf's logic.

However, he wasn't about to give this in a speech to the boy; he merely stepped up alongside those who had already reached the deck.
"Because," was all he said.

Leave the speeches and the declaration of motivations to others.

Somewhere below, Mako continued screaming.

Jahkari · Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2011 11:21 pm

Key was exhilarated. She knew she was probably the only person on the deck who felt that way, but she couldn't help it; the climb had been excellent, and the height was wonderful. The kid, however, was not.

Like Rodolf, she had no past with Seven, or with any of them, frankly. She had no idea what was truly going on here, and that, more than anything else, bothered her. Key hated not knowing, hated being talked down to as if she knew nothing, and hated those that withheld information from others for no reason. Rolling her eyes at the kid, Key said flatly, "I have no idea what you're babbling about. I'm new to this. But. Guess that's why I'm here- to know. And right now, from where I'm standing, you're the one dooming people, not them." She shrugged, glancing down towards where the insanity was taking place, then added, almost with a hint of mockery. "And, well. The height's a nice perk."

She had no idea what had gotten into her. That was more than she had said in a couple of weeks.

Sheff · Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2011 11:32 pm

Sheffer just couldn't believe Seven's question when it passed through his ears.

"Kid..." he began, shaking his head a bit after the others had spoken. "You tried to drown me under an ocean, have electrocuted me multiple times, and even managed to force me to enter some tournament to get a few gloves slammed into my face all for nothing, not to mention all the $%@& you've brought down on everyone else."

The hedgehog joined Rock with the slow, menacing steps forward, rocky fingers clenched tightly. To the kid, he appeared ready to just toss him right off the tower itself.

He glanced to monkey, eagerness and anger mixed into his voice. "Let's just finish this."

NPC · Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2011 12:21 am

Seven's face twisted up in disbelieving disgust at Rodolf's answer, then even more at Key's. Sheffer's recollection of his many woes, however, set the boy on edge in a potentially unexpected way. He didn't grin or mock the hedgehog for once. Instead, he thrust a finger violently, and lunged forward a single step, shrilly yelling, "Don't you dare say it was for no reason!"

He actually looked mad.

"You put yourself in those situations!" he continued to shout, mostly at Sheffer. "You did it without even knowing what you were fighting for! You, Jack, those stupid 'superhero' wannabes—you're all pawns and you don't even know it! Pawns for the Phoenix... and the Chimera."

He glared pointedly at Rock as he said that part. Rock froze on the spot.

Seven couldn't fully bring himself to settle down yet. His voice was actually shaking.

"See, I know what I've done, but I also know why I'm doing it. There are powers at work to kill us all that tools like you aren't aware of, and won't be aware of until it's too late. That's why I'm not risking letting anybody get away today. That's why those emeralds you wanted so bad are locked in a case, strapped to a bomb upstairs."

Even in his present mood, smugness crept onto his face and into his tone as he added with finality:

"You have about three minutes to get your facts straight, and start fighting the real enemy, or your... purposeless, brainless 'adventure' ends here, along with this whole island."

Seafarinhare · Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2011 4:09 am

Wild Badge watched from behind his shell shield as the fires dissipated, revealing the soldier now, having stopped his attack. He rose again as the remains of what was his motorcycle collapsed on it's side.

The armor that the soldier wore had been broken apart in places, and now was probably the best time to attack -- or the worst; he took note of the emerald he held. Not particularly familiar with the alternate dimension from wince it came, but he knew about them by association with the Chaos Emeralds, and Eggman's project of merging the two. Wild Badge clenched his fists, "Power Mask. We need a plan. He has an emerald."

Rachel · Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2011 4:09 am

Jack finally spotted Mako admits all the chaos and dove down, sweeping through grabbing him around the middle as she once more circled the tower for lift. She didn't ask where he needed or wanted to go this time. She headed right for the lower observation deck as quickly as her wings could take the two of them. Finally she reached the peak of the building just before Seven seemed to loose his cool. Jack released Mako into the group on the building, be remained hovering there (in her wobbly sort of way) while Seven went on about something that made no sense to her.

"No." Jack said in barely a whisper, her eyes wide. Cold rage and fear gripped her, she looked up again. No matter how badly she wished she could unleash this rage on that boy she ignored the urge and rocketed upwards towards the special observatory at the top of the tower, which was what she assumed he meant by upstairs.

If there was ever a moment Jack wanted to kill someone it was now. When she reached her destination her eyes stung with tears brimming at the edges from both the rain water getting in her eyes as she flew and her seething anger. She didn't even know what she'd do with the bomb, if she found it at all, but that didn't stop her from shooting out the windows on the top observatory.

Target peeked out from behind the pillar she took as cover, the things back finally displayed to her. The little robot sighed a bit; she didn't want to lose her nice new body fighting over another emerald, but she didn't want the tower to fall down on all the squishy people that came with her here either. So she started to slink out behind the cyborg-emerald-toting-fire-monster-thing, once in position she ran and dove towards the things back. Target was a fan of direct attacks (no surprise there) and thought the best course would be to rip the whole bracket off the things back. So She tried to dig her metal fingers into its fleshy body to get a hold on the part she wanted to remove.

Jumping on it would also be a rare opportunity for the robot to yell 'yee-haw'.

Kazz · Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2011 11:23 am

Mako sort of collapsed to the floor of the deck in the way that was, by now, his specialty; he flailed a little on the way down and yelled a little "Thanks, Jack!" to the sheriff; from there, he remained listening to Seven's little shpiel, and a look of horror and confusion spread across his face. It seemed he had leapt from the frying pan and into the (line of) fire, so to speak, and he was only getting more confused.

"I don't know what I just missed," Mako said slowly, standing up and easing his way into the group. "But I thiiink this kid may be crazy."

Understatement of the century.

Rodolf all but ignored the air-dropped shark, and looked at Seven with an unreadable expression. He stepped up alongside Sheff, and he spoke in a disconcertingly even tone.
"I haven't the faintest idea of your past with these people," he said, "and I have no idea what on earth you're talking about." Phoenix? Chimera? The unicorn was completely at a loss (ironic as it might have seemed out of context). "But you'd damn well better start explaining."

He seemed to be tense, ready to lunge forward and tackle the boy at the slightest provocation, and he seemed loathe to wait. Regardless, it seemed it wasn't his place.
(He'd leave the indescriminate tackling to the hedgehog.)

"Please please please don't do anything stupid..."

Greens · Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2011 3:11 pm

For the past precious few seconds, Ace was practically soldered to his seat on the first arch, merrily picking off targets one by one. As he'd checked earlier, he had a full magazine at his disposal-- likely because the soldier wasn't smart enough to fire a shot in the first place-- and he was making every bullet count. Shifting from target to target with machine-like accuracy and record time, it nearly seemed like Ace was born and raised on the shooting range. At long last, the crowd of henchthings finally started to die down (although their corpses regretfully didn't clean themselves up), but it was clear the threat was far from over.

Until then, he hadn't given any special attention to the firetrooper out of jotting down a mental 'Holy s**t, that thing has fire powers', though that would soon change. Looking down with his eagle eyes, it wasn't hard to see that blue little gem hiding in its little girder. Such a sight made him peel away from the sights in a sudden anxiousness, if only for a second, before again aiming with much more intensity.

But before he could even pull the trigger, it seemed Power Mask had decided to come out of his shell-- literally-- and throw himself at the creature's blindside like he was still in a vacuum with the thing. With a speed almost unmatching his size, he moved to lock his arms around its waist, and, should he be successful, hurl it up and over and down in a graceful, wickedly destructive German Suplex.

(And of course, he would only cry "POWER SUPLEX" if it landed, as well.)

Tony · Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2011 3:20 pm

While Vito was listening to his buddy, he looked over just in time to notice the thing from before had not fallen down yet, and, given the hell it had been put through already, the fact it was still moving was simply ludicrous. However, he took note of that particular jewel that was so blatantly within view at this point, and his eyes widened considerably. "Say, that's..--!"

And then his mouth fell agape as a giant turtle arrived and proceeded to beat the ever-loving tar out of it with one devastating suplex that was surely not of this world.

"..."

NPC · Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2011 4:42 pm

Seven didn't listen to what they were saying; it looked like his train of thought had been derailed utterly. His eyes followed Jack as she flew up to the top observation deck (another hundred or so meters up, almost) and started... shooting at it.

"Hey, guys?" he blurted to the threatening group, outright interrupting Rodolf in the middle of his threat. "Whichever one of you can climb fast—you'll wanna go tell your dumb hick friend to stop before she touches the bomb. It has shock triggers."

He paused a second, and, in case they didn't understand, clarified: "That is to say, if she moves it, you guys all die now. Worst part is, I kinda left it out in the open, so, yeah. Go."

Unfortunately, the rest of the tower from this point was too steep for Sheffer's spindash trick to work, so whoever went to take deliver the message would have to do it the old-fashioned way. While the group either took action (or didn't), the troop carrying the metal case began unlatching it and producing its cylinder-shaped contents.

-------
OOC: I don't normally drop tips like this in OOC since I like to let RP go freely in whatever direction, but what's happening now is very serious. It was planned well beforehand that the bomb would go off if its case was unskillfully tampered with. If Jack is shooting out windows to get into the top-level observation area, she's planning on doing something, and it would be unrealistic to just ask Rachel to make her spontaneously stop on her own. That said, take Seven seriously on this one, or who knows what will happen. Plot shields are officially off.

Mie · Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2011 5:10 pm

It may have been difficult to tell what the pinker primate made of the human's -- if nothing else, -- insightful claims. She stared with an unaffectedness that belied her curiosity until the outlandish story turned into an imminent threat the moment Seven dropped the bomb. Jam's eyes narrowed, not at the armored instigator standing opposite her, but thoughtfully, amid the cries of the growing assembly behind her. Her right thumb and forefinger nursed the bridge of her nose, as she waited for everyone to have their say, but for better or for worse, she wouldn't have to wait long.

As Seven divulged the pitfalls of Jack's proactive-ness, Jam expectorated an obscenity loud enough to be heard by the entire group, and possibly Jack, herself.

"Whoever's fast -- I don't give a damn who -- get to Jack, now! We don't have time t'dick around with this!"

With that barked order, she turned back on the boy, advancing forward a step or two.

"You made your cryptic-ass point," she called over the rain. "We get it. You somehow really think you're the good guy. So if you want us to 'figure out who the real enemy is,' we need more information: Who're you saving, and from what?"

Diluss · Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2011 5:34 pm

A large shadow unfolded itself from the above of the mid-point tower room, and took off into the air.

The same winged shape that had been following the group since they had left Grand Metropolis had materialized among the tremendous girders that made up the structure, and was now soaring upwards on the thermal rising from the melted pavement below.

Silently, apart from a faint thrumming—the leading edge of its wings slicing through the air—the shape wound up to the height of the rapidly ascending Sheriff, before cutting into a sharp bank that became an aerial tackle.

(snip point: assuming Rachel complies with the previous attack and everything else, this is what happens)

The shape collided with the Gryphon, carrying her laterally into a beam below final observation deck, and pinning her there with the mass of its body weight. The gryphon would find herself staring into the bright, slightly crazy, fuschia eyes of a tremendous black eagle.

"No," he said.

Pealing thunder (Ch. 2: Day 12, pt. III) [Finale]

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