Log:Forget Me Not, Scene 5

Forget Me Not 2014/06/26 		 Tali Timewarp Yushio Enforcer Devil Dog Don Simms

5

A small gun shop with barred windows. Behind bullet proof casings are the displays of various legal fire arms for sale. A small metal door leads behind the sales counter. It is always locked and bolted. Only the employees of this establishment have the keys to that. The owner works behind the counter and is shielded from danger with a thick bullet proof plexi glass. Purchase exchanges can be done via a mechanical drop box that slides goods to and from one side of the counter to the other.

Behind the counter is a large storage area of arms and munitions that is stocked for sale. Further back is a small work bench for the gunsmith to do repairs and modifications.

This once middle-class section of town has fallen into disrepair: the rows of two-storey homes are mere ghosts of the past. Some of the vinyl siding is cracked and faded from decades of neglect. Children play unsupervised in now weed-strewn vacant lots. Graffiti along brick walls mark the territory of various gangs trying to claim the neighborhood as their own. Harrisburg Elementary needs its tall security fence and guarded gate.

If southern Harrisburg is bad, the north is appalling. Many of the homes are boarded up, perhaps occupied by homeless squatters, and the gang graffiti is ubiquitous. Drug dealers and worse have brought their crime to the district. Few trees or shrubs remain, and lawns are weeds and broken bottles. Here dwell the destitute, the desperate and the homeless.

It's a quiet enough day in Harrisburg. Well...quiet at least for the area, since it's the middle of the day. That is...until a call goes to the police from the local gun shop. The claims are clearly hysterical. Guns floating on their own and attacking people nearby? But those in the area can clearly hear gunfire, of both the powder and plasma kinds.

Sasha walks around Harrisburg with Leonid showing his new little brother the sights. And informing Leonid of whom to avoid and whom trust. Sasha gets a call on his PDA from Nurse Sara that something is going on at the Gun Shop. With a sigh he kneels down to Talk to Leonid, "I need you go invisible and go back home, Little Wolf."

Leonid does so but not with a put upon sigh and grin.

Sasha steps into a trash strewn alley, changes into Harlequin, then step/fades as he teleports to near the Gun Shop.

Yushio is looking around the Harrisburg district. She's considering building some kind of Takaga Aerospace facility there to provide jobs and encourage regeneration of the area. She invited her friend Tali along, and Hunter if he wanted to come. If it's just Yushio and Tali they're in a flame red Ferrai. If Hunter joined them the vehicle is a Range Rover.

Tali isn't really paying Harrisburg, which she's seen before and doesn't seem to have improved much, as much attention as the Ferrari. "I said it before, this car is arid!"

Enforcer hears the police alert crackle in over his radio as he's riding atop a Maglev train. Harrisburg, eh? Other direction. As another maglev train starts to approach in the other direction, he crouches and plans his timing, then leaps onto the opposite train, which carries him off to Harrisburg. As he nears his destination, he fires off a grappling line and goes sailing for a rooftop. Some stealthy running across rooftops, leaping, and swinging later, and he's arrived on a rooftop by the disturbance without being seen or heard.

Unfortunately Hunter wasn't available to join Tali and Yushio. So it's the flame red Ferrai that gets the outing. With the convertible top lowered the sound of gunshots is clear from a distance. "I ought to go check on that, Tali. Do you want to take the car back?"

Upon hearing the weapons fire outside the Gun Shop, Harlequin takes a crystal and silver wand fom beneath his claok and with a wave of the magic wand: discs of silver and blue swirl into existence orbiting him.

Tali shakes her head. "I would, but I don't have a license! And I wouldn't want to risk crashing this car anyway!"

Devil Dog had been skulking through Harrisburg on business of his own when the sound of gunshots echo to him down the street. Snapping his head around to glare in that direction, the specter reaches up with black-gloved hands to tug down his stocking cap. Stepping back into the shadow of an alley he starts to pace quietly in the direction of the noise, keeping off of the main streets to maintain a low profile.

Ah, a pleasant afternoon. That means Porter's only just recently woke, had breakfast, and is now out for a stroll. When gunfire erupts. Porter just exhales a sigh. On the bright side, it wasn't pointed at him. On the other hand, that means it's probably poitned at someone else.He begins to walk towards the sounds. Quickly. While drinking his coffee. Also quickly.

Tali thinks. o O (I wonder what the guns are - just the usual Harrisburg violence, or....?)

Yushio hesitates. "I shouldn't leave you along here, Tali. Unless... I could take you to the clinic first. That should be safe."

Tali says, "Don't worry, I'll be safe, I....."

As heroes get within sight of the gun shop, it becomes clear that it's a bit of a standoff, though an odd one. There are police cars set up like a barricade that a couple of policement are behind, cordoning off the area. Just outside the gun shop, there are a couple of floating guns at about shoulder-height on a normal human, firing toward the police cars where the officers are under cover. Inside the shop, the shouting of a man can be heard, "Don't come any closer!" Though it's unclear who or what he's shouting at.

Tali hesitates. She hasn't shared the secret yet, but not telling might cause deaths. Besides, Yushio is a friend and a hero..... "Um, can you keep a secret?"

Yushio nods. "Provided it isn't a secret that will conflict with my ethics. If you're going to tell me you murder people for a living, don't." Yushio says with a grin.

Tali says, "No and! No - you see, junk is, I'm a meta too!"

Yushio almost crashes the Ferrai as she turns her head to look at Tali, "No way! Really? Are you a hero too? We should go check it out together."

Tali says, "well, I'm not exactly a hero, I haven't had my power for long. But I bet I could help out!"

Enforcer studies the scene coldly from a nearby rooftop. Gun robbery went wrong with a telekinetic, maybe? With a swirl of his cape, he vanishes, then a moment later he's dropping into the alley behind the gun store behind a garbage bin for cover. He checks for the back door to the gun shop.

Remaining in the shadow of an alley one building down from the gun shop, Devil Dog stares out at the barricade of cop cars. For the moment the situation seems mostly contained, but he has the feeling it's about to become much less so.

From an outside point of view it would appear that a pair of glowing red eyes suddenly melt back into the shadow of the alley. In reality the Specter has wheeled about to walk quickly back the way he came, circling around the back of his building so he can try and approach the gun shop from behind. His booted steps make very little noise as he paces down the side of the alley, stepping over busted garbage bags and circling around dumpster's.

Yushio says, "Are you going to be safe, Tali? It could be dangerous. That's clearly gunfire."

Tali nods. "I'm pretty sure I can dodge bullets!"

Enforcer finds that the back door to the shop appears to be locked. Though there is definitely a door there.

Porter isn't sure what to think of all the floating guns. At first, Event Horizon and the psycho friends come to mind. But he'd be throwing cars, not floating guns. And speaking of cars, it's while looking at this that he's nearly run over by a red Ferrari swerving all over the road. Since he can't see anyone else heading there, he goes for the cops. "Uh ... what's going on?"

Yushio nods, "You dodge them. I'll bounce them. Let's go." she says cheerfully. Driving to the sound of gunshots she parks the Ferrai close to and behind the barricade of police vehicles. And then phases in her battlesuit.

Enforcer still concealed, he looks around for any security cameras in the back of the shop. Anything that the people inside may be monitoring.

Tali says, "Want me to run ahead and see what's going on?"

Yushio nods a bit hesitatantly, "Be careful, Tali."

A cop says to Porter, "Get your head down! We don't know what we're dealing with. It might be a telekinetic robbing the gun shop."

Yushio looks at the gunstore, activating her neutrino scan to observe through the walls.

Harlequin stands very still for a moment, then shakes his head. "Officers," he calls out. "The guns are being held by the spirits fo the dead. The spirits are controlled by someone else though." He starts to walk forward towards the shop.

Tali says "No anx!" Warping time about herself, she jumps out of the effectively stationary car and walks to the gun shop, having a look to see what's gone. If the door is open, she'll check inside too, otherwise just look through any window. Then she goes back to Yushio to report.

Devil Dog steps right past the concealed Enforcer without seeming to notice he is there. Maybe the hell spawn can smell him, but, it's likely that he can't. Regardless, he is taking a mostly direct line for the back door of the gun shop. Aside from moving quietly and sticking to the edge of the alley, the specter doesn't' seem to be making any real effort at stealth. About 5 meters from the back door there is a soft 'FWOOP' and a flash of orange hellfire, and between one step and the next the hell spawn has vanished from the alley to appear just inside the back door with another soft 'fwoop' and flash of orange light.

Tali gets back into the car and drops to normal time to tell Yushio what she saw.

Inside the shop, there are a good dozen guns floating around, all at about shoulder height. The owner is barricaded inside his office, but a couple of the guns are pointed toward the room, like they're trying to get at him or keep him in there.

Enforcer unhooks his linegun from his belt as he affords a peek at the door. Security camera; probably giving anyone inside, including the hostage taker, a preview of what's coming. That just means he has to avoid the door directly. Disabling the camera may alert an already paranoid robber jumpy. Or a firey demon could. That would definitely do it. But he can't exactly let another vigilante do this alone. He raises his linegun to the roof and fires a silent line, and then...before you know it, he's dropping down silently in the shadows behind the door on the inside of the store.

The two guns that were firing upon the police cars pivot and fire upon him. Neither seem to need reloading for some reason...though it's unclear why.

The two firearms are an assault rifle and a plasma rifle on full auto. Harlequin manages to avoid the vast majority of the firepower, though.

Could be a telekinetic... or it could be spirits of the dead? Porter has only what he's told. He also starts heading for the shop. When the guns open fire. He reflexively ducks before he realizes they're still shooting at someone else.

Enforcer steps up to the back door on the inside and turns the lock with a quiet, slow movement and the barest of >snickt< sounds. May as well leave it open for other heroes who don't move through ventilation systems quite like he does.

When the guns fire on a live target rather than at the police cars Aoi hurriedly exits the Ferrai and goes over to the police cars so she can deflect any further shots.

Tali also moves into action - someone has to stop those guns! She goes into accelerated time again.

Both the bullet and plasma bolt that strike Harlequin seems to be slowed by the silver disks around him as they dart in front fo them. The blue disks block them as well but they are forced back into contact with harlequin chest. He grunts softly as he is driven back a few meters but with an acrobatic little hop and skip, the mage stays on his feet.

The guns outside remain trained on Harlequin. Inside, the guns that are floating around seem slightly aimless, so to speak. Though a couple of them point at the newly arrived Devil Dog, who is...quite noticeable.

While Devil Dog has the gun's attentions, Enforcer tries to slip around another direction to find what or who is controlling the guns.

"Hrrrm." Devil Dog grumbles hoarsely as he appears in the back of the gun shop. His glowing red eyes take in the scene at a glance. Floating guns, two covering someone locked in another back room.

Well, first thing's first.

Stepping away from the back door, the masked specter paces out from behind a rack of guns into plane sight of the...guns. Making his way at a quick walk towards the guns covering the office, He starts to slowly pull more and more hellfire into his body, his core body temp rising and eyes blazing up with sudden ferocity. There are bound to be heroes here soon, he might as well distract as many guns as will pay attention to him.

Tali actually runs, not walks, up to one of the guns that just fired, examines it, figures out how to take it apart, and proceeds to try to do that. She then hurries off to a safe distance.

Tali grins, as her first effort of stripping down a gun works well. At a safeish distance she catches her breath - and is slow enough that she can be seen, and maybe even hit, for the moment.

Enforcer decides to take advantage of the confusion and distraction created by Devil Dog to find out what's going on behind the closed door that the guns are so interested in. Should be too hard to find a way to slip in unnoticed. And it isn't for someone of his skills.

Timewarp keeps moving enough, however, that her features are an indistinct blur.

Enforcer finds Don Simms hiding behind a tipped-up desk. He has a holster on his hip, but no firearm in it. The door is apparently locked, it looks like. And the guns haven't been able to get in. Apparnetly that 'shooting the lock' trick doesn't really work well.

Enforcer drops the stealthy act as he stands by the wall behind Don and his tipped desk. "Looks like you have an unhappy customer," he says in a grim, only slightly amused voice. "I think it's time we got you out of here."

Don screams as Enforcer appears, clearly badly startled.

Enforcer doesn't seem as concerned with Don's scream as he sweeps his arm out. His cape parts, revealing the hilt of a blade. He says nothing to assure or calm the man down; he doesn't quite understand this man's fear or how to assuage it. He spins about to face the wall while drawing his blade with the soft sound of metal gliding along the scabbard. A series of blindingly fast slashes, and he reverses his grip on the blade and slides it back into his sheathe. He steps up to the wall and gives it a push with a firm front kick. A squarish, man-sized chunk of the wall falls outwards, and Enforcer steps through without a word to Don. But he does stop after he passes through and looks over his shoulder at the scared man, waiting expectantly.

Devil Dog notes a flicker of motion out of the corner of his eye, and one of the guns falls to pieces. So, the heroes are here. Good. The specter takes two more quick steps that put him in range of the guns covering the back office. As he hears the voices of Enforcer and Don in the back, he turns toward the gun nearest the front of the store and lashes out, attempting to grab the barrel in his right hand. if he can get hold of it he will give a sharp jerk to try and pull it free of whatever is holding it, take hold of either end of the rifle in his gloved hands, and snap it over his knee.

Harlequin shouts out as he spots other metas. "Find the necromancer doing this! He, she or it should be nearby!"

Devil Dog bends the barrel of the gun over his knee into a neat crescent shape, then flings it to the side with a contemptuous backhanded motion. AS the gun clatters across the floor, now harmless, he turns to glare toward the next nearest floating weapon.

Aoi moves into a more central location and continues to stand ready to deflect any shots fired by the guns in front of the store.

Porter isn't thrilled about all the guns. Sure, it's a gun store, but still. Guns are dangerous. Some of them, like that imported plasma rifle, could even be unstable. And unstable high-energy sources are usually a bad thing.

The plasma rifle whines...and explodes, much more effectively than intended. The facade of the shop is rocked and cracks...the door blown inward and off its hinges. The cops by their cars duck down, and various car alarms in teh area go off, filling the air with 'whoop whoop' sounds.

Harlequin stands his ground as the plasma rifle explodes. He seems unharmed by the explosion but his cleak whips back in the super heated air.

Harlequin sighs at the lack of targets outside. He waves his eand in a lazy manner and then steps forward. In between his foot rising and falling, Harlequin fades away into a blue silver mist then reappears as he sets his foot down insode the shop. The mage take a careful look around once he arrives seemingly paying no attention to any threats to himself.

Harlequin spots what the others have not. There is a large pistol in a glass case on the wall. The gun itself is not alive, hence why hte others have not noticed it. But...it's the source of the magic. The weapon itself looks like a cross between a late 1800s revolver and something from the imagination of H.R. Giger, with organic lines to it.

Harlequin's attention seems arrested by something on the wall.

Harlequin seems almost unaware of the shots fired at him. In any case they do not force the disks that intercept the shots back into his body. His attention stays focussed on the case on the wall.

A storm of bullets tear into Devil Dog as several of the guns open fire on him. Drops of steaming, superheated blood hiss as they spatter across the wall and floor, the immortal hero staggering and falling to the ground under the hail of bullets. However, the specter immediately slams his left fist against the ground with a loud 'thud!' that throws him back to his feet, his flesh visibly knitting back together through holes in his coat.

Timewarp decides there are so many guns she'll maybe have to take a more brute-force approach and try to do things quicker. Almost faster than the eye can see, she runs over, grabs a chunk of rubble left by the explosion, and uses it to batter all the remaining guns multiple times.

Timewarp breaks two of the guns and damages 3 more before the rubble is reduced to dust and her hands are sore. Slowing somewhat to catch her breath, she says, "That's hard work!"

Enforcer doesn't quite understand Don's fear or how to assuage it. He looks impatient as the man wastes his time with screaming, saying curtly, "Tell me what's going on. Make it quick, and make it good." After the explosion can be heard outside along with shots to the door between the guns and them, Enforcer studies the door, trying to estimate how long before the guns break through. "What makes you so important?" he asks distantly. He grabs a cylinder from his belt and presses a button with his thumb. The object expands into a full-sized staff.

Don yells, "I dunno! The guns just started floating on their own! When some took shots at me, I hid!"

Enforcer frowns lightly. Not helpful at all. Don is safer in here for now, but he has to do something about those guns. He tosses a smoke pellet on the ground, and vanishes once the smoke has cleared. Out in the main room, a cloud of smoke appears in the middle of the room, and when it clears, Enforcer is standing there holding his staff upright with the bottom of it resting on the ground. He takes a second to take in his surroundings, then lifts his staff and twirls it with a flourish, falling into a readied stance.

Timewarp thinks. o O (Showoff!)

Enforcer moves through the area like a whirlwind. His staff swings in an arc and bats away a gun, breaking it on impact. He side kicks another and sends it smashing into a wall. With a back handspring, he lands, turns, and draws his staff in a downward arc to smash another gun to the ground. He spins back to his starting position, rotary spinning the staff and taking out two more guns, which clatter to the floor in pieces. Now gripping the staff with both hands and holding it perpendicular to his body defensively, he looks for his next targets and prepares for retaliation.

Devil Dog Watches as guns are smashed and battered by nearly invisible blurs and what appears to be a ninja, or something, with a staff. Not really caring if it is or is not a ninja, DD waits just long enough for the whirling staff to swish past his head and out of his danger zone before he takes a couple of quick steps toward the last of the two guns that had been pointing at the gun shops's office. Left hand snapping up, he attempts to repeat his previous actions by getting a good hold on the barrel to yank it free of the ghost holding it, then take it in both gloved hands and bring it down hard on his knee. He could try to take all the remaining guns out with hellfire, but, there be gunpowder in this room.

Another gun is bent into a useless half moon over Devil Dog's knee, then flung away to clatter harmlessly across the ground. At this point the Specter is starting to wonder if he needs to remain here. The heroes seem to have it in hand.

Aoi flies forwards into the shop now the guns outside have been dealt with, rather explosively in fact. Angling to the side to bring all three remaining floating guns into the arc of her pulsed ion beam she leaves the targeting to her combat computer. And fires.

One pulsed ion blast misses the targeted gun and carves a notch out of the wall behind it. The onther two blasts strike true and slag down the floating guns.

Porter blinked when the BOOM from the plasma rifle was just a WEE bit bigger boom than expected. At least now he doesn't have to knock? Or mess with a doorknob as he runs for the shop entrance. Slowly.

Harlequin stands where he is and intones something in the cadence of a prayer. In Russian, he says, "Veles and Peklenc, hear me! Break this object's hold on the dead! Let the spirits return to their decided fates!" As he finishes speaking a healthy green light rises about him as the scents of Nature fill the air. The green light then zips towards a glass case on the wall holding an exotic looking pistol.

The spirits which only Harlequin can see...all disappear. The one remaining floating firearm clatters to the floor in one piece without going off again.

Timewarp says something that probably only someone with ultrasonic hearing and rapid auditory processing could follow. Then remembers she'll have to slow down to be understood. Then remembers she's not wearing a mask. Accordingly she runs, "borrows", some clothes, including something she can tie about her face as a mask, and reappears. "That wasn't so hard. But don't guns normally have people firing them?"

After things quiet down, Don Simms pokes his head out of the office. "Holy..."

Enforcer remains in a readied stance for a few moments after the last gun drops. That seems to be that, he draws himself up into a tall, rigid posture as his staff collapses down to hand-held size. He slips it beneath his cape and slides it into its holster on his belt with a click.

Harlequin murmurs as he walks over to the case on the wall, "They did have people firing them. Dead people. Dead criminals likely." He looks over at Simms. "May I have this gun, Mr Simms? It is haunted after all."

Don blinks, "I paid good money for that gun. But...I can give it to you for what I paid for it."

Don looks around again, "Especially if it caused this to happen."

Porter gets inside just in time to see... nothing. "Uh... what happened in here?"

"hrrr." Devil Dog grumbles quietly as the last gun drops to the floor. Standing beside the office door where Don has just poked his head out, the specter stares across the room with glowing red eyes toward the gun he watched Harlequin's green magic hit moments ago.

"huh." The specter vocalizes again from behind his mask, gloved hands taking hold of his coat and pulling it a bit more tightly around himself, ignoring the holes torn through the right side. Sweeping his blazing red gaze over the heroes gathered, he seems to decide that they have things under control.

'FWOOSH!'

Hellish orange flames roar out from where the specter had been standing, sending a blast of hot, rank air in all directions. Once the flames have cleared there is no sign of the hell spawn.

Timewarp says, "Dead people firing guns, not mild. Especially if they make more people dead."

Harlequin chuckles. "I could pay you two obols, Mr Simms. Charon will be happy to take them from you for the trip when this gun raises more spirits."

The chuckle is full of dark humor.

Aoi strolls over to Don Simms, "It seems to me that you ought to pay him," she points at Harlequin, "to take it away. Otherwise this is likely to happen again.

[To Harlequin] Timewarp says, "Who's Karen?"

Harlequin chuckles again, "The Ferryman of the Dead. He transports you to the Afterlife."

Don clearly has no idea what an 'obol' is. He looks to Aoi, "Yeah, well...I have a business to run. And clearly an insurance company to call."

Timewarp says, "Oh! Oh right. I remember now."

The police make their way into the shop, and more sirens can be heard in the distance as the backup starts arriving.

Aoi asks Don Simms, "What is your business worth? Property and stock and goodwill?"