Log:Never Count Me Out, Scene 4

Never Count Me Out 2010/12/29 	 Bard Guardian Imaginary Girl Kihzra Mesmer Rakshasa 4

Artists' Quarter

This district is bisected by Pennyroyal Lane, which runs southwest to northeast, winding down from Colonial Heights then continuing on the level to Golden Sands. And "artistic" flare permeates the whole district, but its nature varies greatly, from the truly (or pretentiously) artistic in the housing, cafes and galleries east and south of the road, through the showy, even garish, commercialism around Pennyroyal Lane, to the more suspect pleasures of the red light district in the north and east.

Scene Start

It's early morning, but not so early the commuters haven't left for work. That leaves the artists, never-do-wells, and kids. Bard is doing whatever he does at such times in his apartment. Let's not pry any further into that. Let him have some privacy. Not peace though. To have peace it helps if a slingshot pebble misses the aimed for window rather than impacts into it and shatters it in a flying cloud of glass splinters all across the floor of his living room.

---*** crash!!! tinkle!!! ***---

Bard peeks his head out of the bathroom, in a tank top and some fleece pants. Not a flattering look for him but he did just get out of the shower and was planning on spending today inside. Toothbrush still in his mouth slowly cleaning he peers around the bathroom corner, leans back and spits into the sink. He starts moving towards the broken glass, barefoot, cautiously.

Through the now empty window frame comes the sound of rowdy kids, several of them, probably outside in the street. A moment later the -twang- of an elastic slingshop followed by the tinkle of another window, not one of Bard's, being broken.

Bard thinks. o O (Damn it. I'm going have to pay for this.) He climbs out of the window and jumps down. it is rather cold, but he'll have to put up with it. "Hey! Stop that, guys." He says to the kids. Rakshasa hears Bard's shout as she strols out of the Elvis Presley Diner, having just had breakfast.

She saunters toward the musician and the mischievous minor miscreants.

The kids are between about ten to twelve years of age. The youngest looking is spray painting graffiti on a parked car. The oldest is the one with the slingshot, the middle aged of the three boys eagerly pointing out suggested targets for the slingshotter. The boys look at Bard, the middle aged one giving Bard an upraised finger. but are starting to turn ready to flee. But before they can do so... BOOM!!! The apartment Bard just exited goes upwards as explosions merging into a single sound echo around the street when several upward directed claymore mines detonate under the floor of Bard's apartment.

Rakshasa sighs wistfully, "Ah. Childhood. It's so wasted on children." She quickens her pace.

The three boys are knocked off their feet but seem uninjured. There's a look of utter shock and terror on their faces.

Bard swears in Phylixian. He's now instrumentless, moneyless and homeless. And let's be honest, not dressed for the weather, and these kids are a lead. He starts towards the child who pointed up before the explosion, trying to catch him. He may know more than he's letting on. That said Bard's feet are now FREEZING. and worse come to worse his gift for Diane went up in smoke. Well... this bites.

Up at the buttcrack'a dawn. That's what they called it in Basic anyway. Guardian wanted a bite to eat that wasn't something she had to make herself. She doesn't mind cooking but her idea of the act is like... oatmeal or Mac 'n Cheese. So the Elvis Diner called to her and she was really not looking for trouble -before- she's had a chance to get coffee and eggs. But... of course, life has other plans. She cocks her head to one side and raises a single brow. Claymores? Downtown.. well that's not a good thing. She was already drifting over the rooftops of the city. What good is it to be a publicly known superheroine if you drive places and don't show up using those powers you're supposed to be acquiring good PR for. So she dips down and lands on a rooftop to get some recon done of the area before just charging in.

The boys are shocked into immobility, their mouths open and hands clasped over ringing ears.

Claymores inside an apartment. Anti-Personel weaponry being used like that only means one thing. The person who set the charge wasn't trying to damage the building so much as kill someone inside. She narrows her eyes and crouches down up there to observe a bit more. Until knowing what more is going on there's no way she's planning to stand up and say 'here I am!'....

Bard looks at the kids. "What's going on?" He asks slowly and several times trying to get them back to hearing normal things. He wants to figure out what kind of danger they're in. This isn't good, he'd have to say it's a hit on him. Been quiet for some time.

Windows in the buildings lining the street are opening and heads being stuck out so courious, if maybe unwise, onlookers can see what has happened.

The kids give every indication of being in near shock. It would be an incredible feat of acting for any of the three to have had foreknowledge of the attack and appear so stunned by events.

Rakshasa flickers and appears behind the stunned children, "Hi Kids! My name is Rakshasa, I'm a high school teacher. You wanna tell me where you got those slingshot balls?"

The boy with the slingshot just pulls out a half dozen pebbles from his pocket and shows the pebbles to Raksasha and Bard, The pebbles are water smoothed, probably picked up on the beach. They look like perfectly normal pebbles.

Rakshasa pats the kid on the head, "Ok, thanks. Not metallic, so it seems unlikely you guys were set up to set off the explosion by chucking in some sort of trigger for a magnetic sensor."

Bard looks to Rakshasa and looks around. "They're in shock. They probably don't know what's going on, but get them to some place where they can be held. they're witnesses, and something tells me, they'll be needed." He starts looking and listening for people about, sure they're not alone, and more sure they're after him.

Guardian looks around with tactics in mind. If you were planning the attack there's two good vantage points. However one has a line of sight to where Bard is standing and since he isn't hurt you could assume he wasn't in the apartment at the time. But if you knew that why set off the claymores? So likely the other location is the spot, the upper floors or roof of a higher building on the opposite side of the street slightly further down.'

Rakshasa nods, "Ok kids, let's not stand next to Mr. Target here. Let's go over behind those cars."

The kids start to move where Raksasha indicates. But one, his balance temporarily disturbed by the shock to his ears of the explosion, slips and begins to fall backwards with his skull heading down to the cast iron of an old fire hydrant.

Rakshasa grabs the falling boy by his shirt and lifts him safely off the ground, "Hey now. No taking the easy way out Kid." She continues to herd the children toward cover.

As Raksasha bends suddenly to catch the falling boy before the boy splits his head open on the fire hydrant... the side of the car next to her makes a --spnunk-- sound as a hole appears in the plastic, not to mention the hole appearing on the other side of the car and the hole in the sidewalk.

Bard continues looking around, not directly challenging, but his hands show he's ready for something anything. He moves away from the kids and most others, motioning for people looking out of the apartment to get back inside.

Rakshasa scowls, "OK kids, take your friend here and get into this building. Sparks arc down her arm as she hurls an energy spike into the door, blowing it off its hinges, "GO!"

Bard thinks. . o O (Why did they attack the kids...) He tries to trace the shot in the car back using a rough area based on bullet entry.

The boys hurriedly scramble into the building, terrified by the activity going on around them. If nothing else, it will be a LONG time before those three are naughty again.

Up there on the rooftop, Guardian just shakes her head. She looks about for a rooftop access stairwell and plans to head inside the building where she can have a more covered location to observe the one spot she -thinks- is the important one.

Bard looks around waiting for another shot be be fired. He wants to find this guy. Hopefully emergancy response units will be on their way shortly. >>Dammit, this isn't good.<< He mutters, looking in the general area he expects the next shot from. >>Where are you, where are you!<<

Rakshasa walks back to the middle of the street, her hands on her hips. She shouts, "Hey! You morons shooting at me! Listen up! In case you didn't get the memo, I'm Rakshasa, Demon of the Night, Bane of Men, Devourer of Souls, The Great Deceiver! Which means you guys, if you know what's good for you will either surrender or save me the trouble and put a bullet in your brains, 'cause once I get through with you, you'll wish you had!"

Imaginary Girl's flying along overhead, doing her usual patrol-thing... when she 'skids' to a stop in the air, having heard something that /sounded/ kinda like an explosion in the distance. Changing direction, she zips over to the Artists' Quarter, where the explosion happened...

Ducking through the doorway leading to the inner stairwell, Guardian makes her way towards the edge of a hallway where she crouches to peek out of a window towards the building she believes the assassins are using. The plan is... to find a way to avoid being seen while performing recon. That's a standard tried and true tactic to use....

The shot impacts Rakshasa in her shoulder. A thin bluish liquid with sparks of gold-colored energy oozes down her jacket. She touches the wound and looks at her blood on her hand, "You shot me!? Nobody makes me bleed my own blood! No more Ms. Nice Guy!"

Imaginary Girl, as she dives down out of the sky, turns in the air to... head for a rooftop nearby! "Hey! Stop shooting! There's /kids/ down there!", she calls out as she dives down to land on the rooftop right near where she saw that movement. Of course, then there's another suppressed shot.. and instead of merely landing, she comes down and tries to grab at whoever/whatever that unseen shooter is, aiming at where she heard that clicky sound as the shot was fired.

As she grabs the unseen shooter, Imaginary Girl can hear him saying, "Ich bin Hero heren."

Imaginary Girl's grasping hands find purchase, and she lifts up... someone who's covered in a camo-cloth that looks like it's supposed to match the rooftop on which he/she/it was laying a moment ago!

Caught by surprize the shooter doesn't have time to activate his defensive force armor, which he couldn't use before as it would have revealed his position. He 'ohffs' as Imaginary Girl squeezes his ribs.

Rakshasa, wings of energy sprouting from her back, takes to the air to get a view of the roof. As she does, her body becomes slightly translucent, like an image reflected in a window."

The door of the elevator house on the roof is thrown open and two men dressed in black uniforms with silver buttons and insigna burst out onto the roof. They are carrying H&K suppressed SMGs which with they fire upon Imaginary Girl. They don't seem too bothered about aiming towards the grabbed shooter.

With gunmen suddenly shooting at her (and the man she holds), Imaginary Girl... turns to put her own body between the shooters and the sniper she grabbed up. He's a bad guy, but she's still protecting him with her own body!

As soon as the subguns are fired, Guardian shakes her head and using her casual strength, she lifts the window before pointing a hand and letting loose with a ball of plasma which is intended to erupt right betweent he subgun shooters.

The two submachine gunners are staggered by the blast. The elevator house is demolished, construction plastic going in every direction, revealing another two people who were inside when there was an inside. These are females and dressed in skintight black leathers. They look like a pair of identical twins.

Sword Dancer comes running up the street toward the sound of the explosions, hoping for some action, having been a bit bored lately. It being winter, she's dressed for the cold: i.e. she's wearing boots.

Rakshasa sweeps forward on wings of light and lands on the rooftop next to the twins.

One of the twins turns to face Raksasha, moving so she also faces the direction where IG and the shooter went over the edge of the roof. The other twin retreats out of immediate sight down into the elevator shaft.

Sword Dancer, seeing the bad guys are on the roof, runs to the side of the building and starts clambering up the outside, at speed. It's nothing compared to climbing the mountains back home... [Game] Running 18m, Clinging (super-climbing).

The female on the roof holds herself ready to act.

With a spray of bullets flattening against her back as she turns to protect the man in her arms from what is to him 'friendly fire', Imaginary Girl gets staggered forward and off and over the edge of the roof. She keeps a hold on her 'prisoner', just the same, saying, "Wow... they actually shot at you! Some friends, huh?", before her descent to the ground stops, with her hovering in place... as she again squeezes on the guy she's holding, trying to render him unconscious.

The shooter in Imaginary Girl's arms goes limp as he is squeezed, a couple of ribs cracking under the pressure but no serious harm is done.

Rakshasa resolidifies and her wings vanish. She shakes her head as sparks arc down her right arm and form into a glowing mini-Rakshasa standing on her palm. She flings her mini-me at one of the SMG wielding goons, "Hey you, Faceless Minion #34, dance with your hand in the air like you don't care."

"Oops... wow, I hope I didn't squeeze too hard!", Imaginary Girl says, at the cracking sounds of the man's ribs. She shifts him, too, out of 'bear hug' and to a 'carried' position in her arms, looking upwards to the edge of the roof...

The agent Rakshasa targeted dodges out of the way with martial skill if little grace.

The Wolfguard agent who didn't dodge pulls a grenade loose from his belt and hurls it in Guardian's direction.

The canister of the grenade bounces off the wall near to the window where Guardian is stood and starts dropping towards the street below.

Seeing what's coming, Guardian's mind races... that grenade could kill a -lot- of civilians. God... this is gonna suck.... she reaches out the window and catches the grenade after it bounces off the wall, and then drops to the floor while pulling it in against her torso and curling herself about it. . o o O O (And I love this leather jacket...) she thinks sadly.

Smothered by Guardian as she grabs the canister out of the air and curls around it, the air-fuel is unable to expand significantly and the detonation is little more than a damp squib.

From the female out of sight in the elevator shaft a hissing energy whip lash snakes out striking at Rakshasa.

Rakshasa is knocked down, "Hey!"

Sword Dancer clambers onto the roof. "What is happen? Who are bad guys?

One thing about ionized plasma.... it's highly energetic. Guardian directs a plasma thrust outward and lifts off the ground even as the fuel spread across her torso and arms ignites. Talk about being rather... -obvious- about things here. Guardian soars across the street and angles upwards as the flames lick over her and start to consume her jacket. "Stand down right now!" she calls out in her snap of command voice.

Imaginary Girl flies back up, where she takes a moment to -carefully- lay the unconscious 'stormtrooper' down onto the rooftop. "That's not nice", she says to the others who're up there, "shooting at me when I was holding your guy. You coulda hit him, too, you know!" Then she spots the woman with the whip. "Hey! Jennifer, is that you?", she calls out. "Why're you working with these guys?"

"Oh, wait... you're not Jennifer or Jessica... how'd you get one of their whips?", Imaginary Girl says as she realizes that the woman she sees is NOT one of the twins she knows.

The female looks at Imaginary Girl, "Jennifeer? Who is this Jennifeer?"

The second comment from Imaginary Girl provokes a reaction, "This Jennifeer. She is younger, ya?" the female asks Imaginary Girl with an intense tone of voice.

"These are Wolfguard assassins, sent by the Count to start whittling down the Hero population of Colonial Bay. They are going to stand down, or be forced to do so." states Guardian as she hovers there in plain sight, flames licking over her jacket.

Imaginary Girl looks momentarily confused, then Guardian speaks up. Eyes narrowing, the flying heroine says, "Oh... she's someone who'd kick your butt from here to Sunday", to the black-clad woman with the whip. "But she's not here, so we'll just hafta kick your butt for her!"

The female seems to be speaking to herself as she says, "Ach! Da Generation Third." The next comment is addressed to the agents in German, "Stand your ground until the last man." Then the female spins and dives down the open top of the elevator shaft. Imaginary Girl can hear both females falling down the shaft, and some clicks coming as the females pass certain points in the shaft.

Sword Dancer decides to go after the agents - she recognises the guns and grenades,and that they can be a threat. The other woman retreating confirms her decision.

As Guardian follows the fleeing females she manages, somehow, to avoid the blast patterns of the first set of claymores as hundreds of high velocity steel balls blast outwards

By an amazing turn of luck, the firing circuits for some of the following groups of claymores and the demolition charges intended to bring the building down to block the tunnel dug at the bottom of the shaft is damaged by falling wreckage. The tunnel is blocked, but the building remains upright. The females make their escape however.

Smoke and dust pouring out of the shaft preceed Guardian's voice as she curses a few times. "I bet they're in the sewers already, which means they could be going -any- direction." she mutters.

Imaginary Girl darts forward through the air at one of the gun-toting bad guys, bringing her fist up from near the rooftop up into his helmet-covered chin with a sharp *CRACK* as the uppercut connects!

The agent is obviously shaken by the uppercut but his force armor protects him from harm and keeps him from being stunned.

Rakshasa mutters to herself where she lies on the roof. Then she vanishes and reappears behind the dodging agent, her energy claws materialized around her hands. "I'm starting to get kinda annoyed now."

Rakshasa snarls as the man's erratic movements throw off her aim.

Sword Dancer charges to the midpoint between the agents and attempts to disarm them both!

Sword Dancer sends one of the men's guns clattering across the rooftop.

Imaginary Girl snatches out with one hand, grabbing the barrel of the submachinegun held by the man to whom she just gave some chin-music... rather that rip the weapon out of his grasp, she squeezes on the barrel of the weapon. When she releases it, the barrel is squashed, warped and bent to the point where the weapon's now very /clearly/ useless. "Give it up, guys...", she says to the men.

Dispite being disarmed the fanatical agents show no sign of yielding, falling into martial arts stances.

Sword Dancer keeps up the assault so the agents have to keep dodging - of course, it's not long before someone connects anyway!

Imaginary Girl, with a roll of her eyes as her opponent looks to keep fighting, waits until Sword Dancer's whirling blades make him zig instead of zag... and then grabs hold of him and bear hugs him to unconsciousness, like she did his buddy, before. That done, she lays him down on the rooftop, too.

Coming up out of the elevator shaft, Guardian's jacket is burnt and has several holes in it. She at least isn't on fire anymore since the blast in the shaft blew out the flames. She sets herself down upon the rooftop and mutters a bit. "They collapsed the shaft enough to block passage. Odds are they split up and fled in two different directions. Now..." she looks about and asks, "Do we have prisoners to interrogate?"

Rakshasa fumes, grating her energy claws against each other, "I only have one question: which of you @$*ers shot me!?"

"Uhm... I think it was him", Imaginary Girl says, with a gesture at the unconscious sniper - the one she hugged out cold, first off, even as she's laying the newly-unconscious guy, whose gun she mangled, down onto the roof.

Sword Dancer asks the agents, "WHy you are here?" She could ask the heroes the same, having no clue what was happening.

[Speaking German] The agent says, "No questions will be answered."

Sword Dancer says, "Cha, don't understand!"

Rakshasa walks up to the conscious one and points at him with one claw, "Speak English @$&*!@*^@!$er!"

Shaking her head, Guardian steps forward, "I know someone who might be willing to help us... extract the information from these guys... bypassing any language barrier." she offers, giving them a cold yellow glowing stare. "Thanks for the help people.... IG.." she adds, only knowing -of- that other one.

Sword Dancer says, "Cha, what we want, vey say?"

Rakshasa waves a claw off-handedly to Guardian, "Rakshasa, Demon of the Night, Bane of Men, Devourer of Souls, The Great Deceiver. Also a teacher at Colonial Heights High School. Nice to meetchya."

"Right, let's not devour here.... " offers Guardian. "Major Abigail Hearns, codename Guardian.." she offers before looking towards Sword Dancer. She pulls out her cellphone and finds a ball bearing from the claymores in it. "Wonderful. Does anyone have a phone I can use?" she asks.

Imaginary Girl floats right up into the last man's face, hands on her hips. "Talk... I can't guarantee that these others'll go as easy on you as I would", she says to him, with a gesture at Rakshasa and her claws.

Rakshasa probably looks slightly less threatening than she should, since she's dressed for work in a skirt and jacket. Unless you're a highschoool student, in which case she's very frightening.

Raising a brow, Guardian places hands on her hips and repeats, "May I borrow someone's phone so I can call someone who can help us to interrogate these prisoners?" She sounds a bit miffed, but the fact that she's been burned and blown up might explain that.

Rakshasa sighs, "Bah. I don't have time for these morons. I have to get to the school. My kids are starting rehersal for A Midsummer Night's Dream 2: Bottom's Revenge."

Sword Dancer says, "Is not midsummer!"

Mesmer appears in the air above the building, glancing around before landing on the top, he glances back and forth between the heros, then punches into his watch, "Missed all the fun?" it says in response to his typing.

"It's a play... the name of a performance piece." offers Guardian with her yellow eyes narrowing. "Fine..." she adds as she looks up and says, "I don't suppose you have.... oh, well your ears must've been burning." she adds before gesturing towards the captured prisoners. "They have information we need, and are only speaking German. I don't suppose.....?"

Rakshasa grumps, "It will be at the rate my kids are learning their lines." The fact that she's bleeding what looks like antifreeze mixed with gold glitter from a shoulder wound doesn't seem to be bothering her too much, or she's too angry to feel it yet.

Imaginary Girl remains hovering in the air near the one conscious 'prisoner' the heroes have taken, arms crossed over her chest as she 'guards' him. Glancing over at Rakshasa, she quips, "You're bleeding, by the way..."

[To Rakshasa] Sword Dancer says, "You are hurt?"

Mesmer turns his head to the last standing thug, his swirl of a mask, a perfect hypnotic twirl. Before sending a probe into the man's mind, his fingers punching, "What information do you need?" The watch asks as he delves.

Rakshasa stretches her shoulder, "Ow. Yeah. They used some sorta special bullets or something."

Sword Dancer says, "Vat is your brood? You need bandage?"

Mesmer sends the thoughts,  The voice in the man's head is harsh, quick, the images associated with the message imply never ending pain, torment and darkness, locked away in his mind while his body wastes away into nothing.

The agent's surface thoughts are ones of hatred and defiance. On a subconscious level though he cannot help but think about the answers Mesmer demanded. He was here to kill the heroes the leaders instructed him to and it's not his place to ask questions about why.

Rakshasa shurgs, "I'm not sure what my blood is. I guess I should try and bandage it or something."

"We need to know where they got their orders from the Count, and if it was through an intermediary, who that was... also who their next targets are." offers Guardian as she stands there, looking burnt, blown up, shredded... well her jacket at least.

Mesmer cocks his head to the side as if considering,  His questions are designed to force the person to think of the answers, most people aren't trained in mental deception enough to avoid it.

Rakshasa hmms, "Well, they tried to kill Bard I guess, and me."

Sword Dancer says, "Tried for kirr Bard? WHere is Bard?"

Mesmer nods his head, 

Mesmer taps into his wrist watch, "Identical twins, Theory: Wolfguard? On a mountaintop, large birds. Targets were, Bard, Lorelei and Spirit." The watch says.

"Defense is a losing strategy." offers Guardian. "We need to find out how to take the fight to them, where to attack them." She shakes her head, "Simply trying to prevent them from succeeding will give them multiple opportunities to continue to try. So see if you can focus your probe on learning where we can find any of the leaders of this... "

Mesmer flashes an image of the mountain to the man, 

Mesmer taps into his wrist device, "Twins, multiple sets are his intermediaries, in a base in Northern Brazil." The watch echos, while another thought is sent to the man, 

"Northern Brazil. Okay that'll be a start. I'll have to talk to my superiors and see about.... you know." Guardian smirks a bit and pulls a card out from her jeans pocket... Jennifer Markham, with a phone number, "Now, does anyone have a phone I can use? Mine got blown up."

Mesmer taps on his wrist, "This is my only phone. It is in the Andes mountains. Received his orders in person." And then he sends, 

Mesmer taps into his wrist, "They used diplomatic Brazilian passports, through the transmat, should be easy to track them. May be able to head off others?" He also sends a request through his contacts to do just that through the MIA.

A shake of her head, and Guardian says, "I need to contact someone... a few someones." that said, she puts the card away and walks over towards the prisoners, hefting one in each hand, "Colonel Knox will have holding facilities for these two." she adds as she starts to lift into the air, her skin and eyes seeping yellow energy.