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

NPC · Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2011 11:12 pm

In the midst of all the girder-throwing, Seven smiiiled.

See, he had a sadistic sense of humor (not at all even slightly inherited from the person playing him) and had apparently been waiting for a certain noise: the piercing whine of a spindash.

He'd seen that the hedgehog really enjoyed using it down below, and knew that it was only a matter of time until he tried again, and good ambush attacks they did not make. The flying beams fell loosely as they were released, their momentum still carrying them on a dangerous tumble, mostly at Rodolf. During Sheffer's inevitable spin-up period (made just so crucially longer by the weight of the crystal), Seven jumped back a good ten yard leap, reexamined the floor and its seams at a glance, and with one mighty, hair-frizzing jolt—

—magnetically tore the edge of the corrugated metal up into a much bigger ramp than the blindly-spinning hedgehog would have ever wanted just as he launched.

Some unforseen act-of-god aside, Sheffer's trajectory would almost definitely carry him over Seven.

... over the edge of the observation deck.

... ... probably out over the trees and cottages.

The snotty boy had not yet been given a reason to stop smiling. (For what it was worth, if it all worked out as planned, he'd probably at least give the appearance of a nice opening by watching the spectacle aaall the way to its end.)

NPC · Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2011 11:32 pm

Down below, the pyromania-exhibiting soldier was grabbed in a tackle from Wild Badge.

As the costumed super-hero's hands closed around the shoulders of the creature, it stumbled and began to fall backwards.

It turned, as it began to fall, reaching back with one flailing arm and grabbing at the raccoon's shoulder.

(Cut point: assuming Ben lets any of this attack follow through.)

As it made contact with the raccoon's shoulder, the creature grabbed on tight, using Hoji's body weight as an anchor as it twisted around, delivering a sharp, flaming jab to whatever part was nearest—in this case, the side of the raccoon's head.

psikeout · Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 12:04 am

Rock was... awake. He had the thousand-yard stare until Jam got in his face, and he focused (poorly) on her, but he was awake, and alert, yet still not moving.

That was one of the things about him—one of the things that made him the kind of bulldozer he normally was, who just wouldn't stop. Be it in his biology, his raw willpower, or something supernatural, he refused to involuntarily lose consciousness for almost any reason short of clinical death (and he had been there once before). However, in that moment, he... probably wished he could. Consciousness was of no use but to feel awful.

He shook with jitters and starts, and he tried to move. He could only curl himself up more. He seemed unable to make his incomprehensibly battered body comply. Before Jam could get much more worrying in, though, he actually replied, his voice choked, but audible.

"M'not alright," he admitted straightforwardly, the brows of his dark, wet face flat, eyes focused downward. "Gonna be. Not now. You gotta do it."

"Do what?" she sputtered aghast, practically before he could finish his sentence. Jam shook, now, too, but for entirely different reasons that had nothing to do with the rain or wind. Her hands wrung and fumbled at the air, indicative of her desperation to help -- to do something, but wrought with the helplessness of knowing there was nothing.

"I- I can't -- C'mon, Laz," she pleaded in a weak, unusually high-pitched voice on the verge of hysteria. "I'm not-- I'm support, you know that, I just -- it's you, it's always you. I can help, but-- what am I even supposed to do? How d'you expect me to lift a damn finger against that guy like I am now?!"

He hacked a wet cough; it wasn't spit that came out. His head stayed anchored against the damp floor even as he tried to push himself up with one arm. It was like watching a cloth puppet decide to try to pick itself up. He didn't get far.

"You don't— you don't need your ring anymore. Use the emerald. Make your shield again. Outmaneuver'm."

He slumped momentarily, tired of struggling. He just gazed up at her instead.

"Take control, keep control, don't— answer— him," he advised as firmly as he could. "Don't let'm get to you,... or th'emerald's gonna magnify it, feed off it; ... you'll lose control. Keep control."

With one last heave and several bony cracks, but a refusal to show any pain in his expression, he lifted his cheek off the floor, sat up on an elbow, looked her straight in the eyes, and with full voice and volume, blurted: "Go."

Kazz · Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 12:37 am

Rodolf, in his charge at Seven, wasn't fully observing his surroundings. In this context, "not fully observing his surroundings" meant "got blindsided by a flying girder". Knocked flying off his course and skidding across the deck, the only thought the unicorn could coherently put together is a profound gratefulness that he stopped before he crossed the threshold that would send him plummeting back to the ground.
... at least, narrowly.

He attempted to get up. The key word was "attempted"; his head spun like it was in a whirlwind, and he stumbled and fell a moment later. He held his head carefully, one eye open and fixed, full of hatred on the boy; the other was scrunched shut from pain.

Mako let out an audible whine as he saw, in his peripheral vision, the unicorn go down. Not knowing what the situation with the monkeys was at the moment, the fish came to the absolutely horrible realization that he was closest to the boy and, for all intents and purposes, alone against the kid.

The whine turned to a scream of sheer horror, but perhaps a testament to something about the shark, he picked up the pace and rushed at Seven, screaming like a sharky banshee.

Seafarinhare · Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 12:53 am

Badge was expecting some flailing and fighting back to be the soldier's reaction, and had reacted accordingly. The flailing arm managed to deflect Badge's arms away from his shoulders, and even managed to find his own shoulder to grab.

"Nngh!" Badge reached up to grab the forearm of the flaming fist just in the nick of time, however. Then pulled him back as he fell over backwards, tucking a leg between them, planting the sole of his boot on the soldier's stomach, the gem on his boot glowing as he focused energy into it. All of this taking place in a matter of two seconds and some change.

If he got that far, upon landing on his back, Badge would kick out with his leg to throw the soldier up and over his head, and into the air, thanks to the additional force from the chaos energy around his foot.

"Wild Launch!"

Sheff · Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 5:38 am

It didn't take long for Sheffer to realize his mid-air trip was taking waaaaaay too long.

Pulling out of the spin within the air, he found himself rolling and tumbling along, nearly out of control, but through the blur, he could tell he was nowhere near the kid in his flight pattern. The large screeching of metal must have something to do with such a predicament, but seeing that he hadn't made contact with anything yet... he knew where his new destination was.

But by now, it was far too late to make any action, and already he could sense the vast drop that awaited him far below. In muted hopelessness, he tumbled through the air as his spin slowly died off from the lack of his own will to continue it, and in a slow arch, gravity reached up with its gripping hands and tugged him earthward.

It wasn't long before he just simply vanished into the darkened landscape below.

Rachel · Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 5:40 am

Jack sat up slowly on the support beam and watched the eagle fly away, starring after him even when he was gone from her line of sight. the griffin was slow to process just what was going on so there was a long pause when ember tried to talk to her. Jack just let the girl pull her arm and she came quite willingly.

"Uh.. no I'm good." she said finally.

"Who's tall, dark, an' hansom?" She asked without expecting a response. But sheriff didn't get much opportunity for Ember to respond when the whole structure lurched with scraping and groaning of metal bending and twisting. The sudden instability sent her flopping into Ember right off the support.

Jack free fell for a few agonizing moments before she caught herself (and Ember, if she actually knocked or dragged her down wither her.) The soppy law women flew back up to the broken window.

"Well this don't look good. Maybe I was better off tryin' to fight Seven again, that's always worked out so well."

NPC · Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 12:17 pm

It was funny that, as Jack was contemplating misfortune fighting Seven, one could look just a camera pan down and see the boy watching Sheffer plummet.

There was certainly no one within range to save the hedgehog, but Seven seemed intent on making sure he dropped sufficiently far to not be a nuisance anymore. However, his own fervor actually almost cost him in a very embarrassing way:

Mako, of all people, got the drop on him.

Seven spun around at the sound of the shrill battle-cry just in time to get tackled from behind. His crackling shield would certainly give the shark a jolt, but not as strong of one as might have been expected--it was in fact vulnerable to that kind of directly-applied force, and quickly dissipated, sending the boy toppling head first off the platform, shark and all.

"WHUH."

He hung on to the edge by his fingertips (very possibly with a shark hanging off his shoe or pants-leg, who knows). It was taking a second for him to build his charge properly again, and for that moment, let it be known he held a tight seat. Once he did, though, he gave himself a little magnetic tug upward, and flopped back onto the roof.

"Why didn't you idiots... help."

It was just then that he realized all of the troops that had been accompanying him before were scattered, some barely conscious, some trapped under steel beams. Oops. Friendly fire.

Kazz · Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 2:27 pm

Mako was still clinging to Seven's pant leg, and was all but bear-hugging the boy's leg, even as he returned to the deck. His eyes were very, very wide. He had just managed to tackle Seven, been electrocuted, and had temporarily been very much dangling by his enemy's leg who-knew-how-high. It was profoundly difficult for the shark to process this, even disregarding how fast it had happened. To put it bluntly, he was shocked (both literally and figuratively).

"Mommy."

Only after a moment did he come to his senses-- and continued clinging to Seven's leg with all the might he could muster. He almost considered biting him, but decided he had had enough of that tactic for the night when he had bitten the rubbery soldier in the crowd only so short a time ago.

No plans, no idea of what to do afterward, but he clung like a (still in-shock) barnacle.

Mie · Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 4:05 pm

There was no gasp of surprise, or expression of shock; only anxiety and concern painted the girl's face, as she watched the felled primate's struggle to communicate with her. That wasn't to say his counsel fell on deaf ears, but none of it seemed to allay her anxiety. To the best of her abilities, she assumed a mask of focus, determination, and confidence, as she nodded to affirm her instructions. Swallowing a dry gulp, and she rose to her feet, Jam smiled weakly in parting, offering the only honest comfort she could give; "Rest up, Laz. It'll be over, soon..."

Turning to the would-have-been comical scene unfolding behind her, the deep red monkey's hands balled into fists at her sides, while a hard, ominous gaze swept and locked onto the child she advanced toward with measured, even steps. In an explosion of light, a nearly opaque orb of electricity surrounded her, and with a clean snap of her forearm, she pitched an underhanded ball of pulsating lightning right at the still shark-encumbered boy. She didn't expect it to do anything, to be frank. If it collided with his own shield in a spattering of momentary light and sound, it'd do all it was meant to; she just wanted his attention.

psikeout · Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 4:23 pm

Rock deflated and slumped flat again almost as soon as Jam was away. He was officially beyond the limits of his endurance. Could he have dragged himself away, maybe propped himself up against some structure, or behind some cover? Possibly. He sure didn't feel like doing it, though. He just laid there, breathed deeply and deliberately, collected himself, and... waited.

NPC · Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 4:47 pm

When Jam came his way, Seven was still in the middle of reluctantly shoving at Mako's head and shaking his leg around, trying to rid himself of the shark. There as a look of mixed confusion and perturbation on his pleading face.

"Just let go," he urged exasperatedly. "You don't wanna—"

And, Jam's attack indeed bounced off his shield, drawing his attention back to the matter at hand. With a cold glare at the reddish primate, he raised his hand, contracted his shield into a spitting, fiery lightshow of spark and plasma around his gloved hand, and then lowered it in front of Mako's face, giving him a scary look and a couple seconds to decide his own fate.

Once the shark was removed, either by his own will or not, Seven started forward, his own barrier extended once more.

"So, wow. That's innate, now," he observed of her lightning shield, mocking the notion that he was impressed. "A little late, though, huh?"

He idly shot back a ball of electrified plasma like what she'd sent at him, as if a reply to test the waters, all while continuing to stroll and circle.

"I mean, you've got, what, a minute left? You reeeally wanna spend that time failing so hard, too?"

Kazz · Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 5:07 pm

Mako really needed no second bidding to dislodge himself. He scrambled away from Seven post-haste, trying very hard to figure out a course of action. Preferably, one that didn't involve being electrocuted again.

At a loss for one, he simply backed off in a hurry, his eyes maybe finally returning to their normal, non-widened state. He'd leave this to Jam-- she, at least, stood some actual fighting chance, and he wasn't really itching to try to tackle Seven again. So... he'd wait.

At a safe (?) distance.

NPC · Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 6:35 pm

The creature flew over Wild Badge's head and landed on its back behind the super-hero. It had not stopped holding on, however—even though its grip had slipped down the length of Wild Badge's arm—and this had directed it's flight in a tight, short arc down to the ground, where it hit with a sharp krang.

It lay there, awkwardly supported by the cylinder sticking out of the back its helmet, for a fraction of a second before curling up and kicking its legs out into the air.

The momentum brought it up and around—still balanced on the cylinder sticking out of its helmet, and arced over to land back on Wild Badge, knee first.

Greens · Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 7:14 pm

Tank of course, was not one to stand idly by and watch his teammate be pummeled by a pyrokinetic zombie. In fact he was not one to stand idly by regardless. When the trooper moved to Ace, he moved to the trooper, already thinking of what to do next. Grapples obviously wouldn't work, so what did he have with some range to it?

While the soldier's knee was soaring down on Badge, Tank had already produced his very own spring powered grappling hook, and fired it at the thing's torso. Such a device was not usually intended as a means of offense, but if it could support 236 kilograms of man-muscle, it was no doubt very strong regardless. Should it land, it would undoubtedly throw him off his teammate at least.

Yards above, it wasn't hard to be alerted to the presence of the tower's shape groaning and morphing above him. ("Oh, crap.") Even as the pyro soldier initially charged at him, Ace couldn't help but turn his head skyward to find that things might have been more desperate now than they had seemed, and whatever it was Seven was doing was strong enough to bend the tower's very foundation. He needed to be there, but this damn thing was keeping him. If only he had something to vent all that frustration on.

With a shout of "That's it!", the serval flung himself off the arch and went to the fight all on his own, a handful of cards in each hand. And with no further warning, he fired one after another at his foe until he was either stopped, or certain it wouldn't get up again. If it was thrown off Badge by the grappling hook? Awesome. If it was still on top of him? Whatever. He could try to push him off himself with his cards, but he'd live.

And out there at the edge of it all stood Caz, anxiously wringing her hands. Once things seemed to be dying down enough, she managed to slide along the edge, and make her way to the small crowd off to the side where the rabbit gentleman was. She didn't say a word, though.

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

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