Log:Army of Darkness, Scene 5

Army of Darkness 2013/10/30 	 Alistair Dark Horse Expatriate Forge Harlequin Runic Ten Vajra 5

Halloween, Colonial Bay. Trick or treaters are out of the streets, dressed in various costumes. Over police band, a radio call goes out for Officer Down. Sooner the call goes out Officer Down, SWAT Units Requested. After that: Officer Down, SWAT Units Requested, Metahuman Assistance Required.

The calls for assistance are coming from the Battlefield District.

Vajra, who was happily wandering among the trick-or-treaters, stops as she picks up the transmission. . o O (OK! Time to go into action!) She leaps into the air, cuts in her flight boosters (small wings unfolding from her back for stability). Soon, she arrives at the Battlefield. "Ta~da~! Vajra ia here~!"

Ten swings hurriedly toward the battlefield. . o O (So much for the party - and different costume.)

Harlequin gates out to the Battlefield District from the old Revolutionary Cemetery outside Harrisburg. He thinks as he opens the gate. o O (Well, I guessed wrong on where this would start. Should have thought of a larger staging ground.)

Dark Horse happened to be fairly close by while working in disguise. He changes to his costume, and hoofs his way out toward the location that was referenced in the call.

Expatriate is out patrolling with Runic when she spots Vajra bounding like a woman with a mission. "C'mon," she says to Runic. "I fly fast."

Scaring people on Halloween is already fun, even before you're a half-demon. Alistair had been appearing behind people while they were trick-or-treating, scaring them, and then vanishing off. Because sometimes it's fun to be scared.

But now something is clearly going down that doesn't seem to be much fun, and if the cops are in trouble, Alistair better at least go check it out.

Runic nods to Expatriate and hitches a ride, easier than shot porting across town. She keeps her eyes open as they arrive, trying to figure out what is going on.

Considering all of the semi-cryptic warnings on and off HeroNet, Forge figured he'd stick to the general area of the largest staging ground in the area. When the police band lights up with calls for assistance, the metal man quite literally springs into action. His legs cover themselves in metal springs, launching Forge across the district toward the battlefield proper as his body ensconces itself in liquid metal.

The sounds of gunshots draw the heroes to a police roadblock where two police cars have pulled across one of the roads leading to the White Marsh Battlefield. Four police officer are firing freely on and approaching mob. The mob seems composed of warriors from various eras of conflict in Virgina history: Native America fighters, British Redcoats, American Revolutionaries, Union and Confederate Soldiers.

Ten has no doubt where she wants to position herself - between the police and the insufficiently dead people. Bullets don't scare her.

Runic after being set down by Expatriate Runic takes stock of the situation and then moves to the front of the cop cars. She lifts her pistol and calls out, "Flame Shot." and aims at the oncoming mob figuring since there were cops down she is okay to shoot. A flaming orb shoots her gun to explode when it hits.

Runic's blast of fire strikes an advancing Union skeleton. It catches fire, but keeps on advancing.

Dark Horse comes running up to where the roadblock is, staying on the 'safe' side of the cars, for the time being. "What's going...oh." He pauses as he considers his options, which aren't terribly many.

Ten swings in to a spot on the forward edge of the mob and starts swinging her staff about her. "I think you're taking this Halloween thing a bit too seriously...."

Ten's staff smashes in ribs, breaks arms, and knocks her target back and into the mob, where there are even more zombies to replace them.

The half-demon teleports several times until he winds up behind the barricade, where he spots the other gathered heroes, and then peers past them, to get a good look at what is approaching, "Man. Halloween in this city is so messed up." He mutters, though he doesn't just go sailing off into the horde yet.

Landing near the roadblock, Forge casts his visored gaze over the approaching mob of historical warriors. He rubs the back of his head for a moment or three as he regards them, then the cops, then the warriors again. Forge rolls his shoulders and twists his head from side to side with a *crack*.

"We're a musical interlude and a Vincent Price short of remaking Thriller," mutters Forge to himself as liquid metal streams from both of his forearms. A moment later, Forge launches forward again, wielding a pair of batons as he sails on a ballistic arc toward the Pastmaster's Army. The moment his feet hit the ground, Forge starts bobbing and weaving, lashing out at the three closest soldiers in a surprisingly speedy barrage of baton strikes.

Ten shakes her head. "I don't know why I even try to improve my banter. This audience is dead."

Forge smashes and smashes and smashes through three of the advancing soldiers until they are piles of bone just barely held together by sinew.

One of the three spins down the street, flinging bones as it tumbles down the street.

As does another.

Expatriate says, "On All Hollows Eve, I'm not prepared to discount that I am seeing an illusion or mind controlled normals just yet. Somebody toss me a telephone pole if this doesn't work."

She flies forward after dropping off her charges, landing next to an uninjured undead near the front. She concentrates a moment, then swings so fast that her fist makes an audible "crack" as it passes through the air.

Vajra scoots forward and points her hands at one of the undead(?). "Excuse me, Shikabane-san, but please stay still and rest a bit, OK!?" Her wrist weapons reconfigure and spray pink adhesive ribbons at the Confederate, trying to wrap him up like a present!

The sound waves buffet the undead warrior, but don't do anything to deter it.

Expatriate grins at her confirmed experiment. "Have at them, guys!"

Harlequin steps out of gate in front of the barricade helfway between the barricade and the mob. Silver and blue disks whirl into existence around him as he gaze at the mass of undead soldiers then up and over them as if searching for something. He waves an ornate crystal and wood wand as he silently scans the scene.

Harlequin nods to himself. "The source animating the warriors is a quarter of a mile that way." He points pst the mob further into the battlefield.

[To Harlequin] Ten says, "Your department, maybe? I'm more use as human shield...."

The mob advances 6 meters this time, to within 20m of the barricade. Forge is entirely surrounded by them, and Ten faces four of them. A firing line forms to the left of the melee scrum. On the right side of the formation, the mob advances further. Currently they number roughly 50-strong.

Please enter an integer between 1 and 12 for the number of 3D6 to roll.

Expatriate says, "400 meters? Harlequin, need a ride? Or is somebody else here faster?"

Dark Horse moves out from behind the roadblock, running out toward where Harlequin is, figuring that at the very least he can run interference for the magic-type-guy.

Please enter an integer between 1 and 12 for the number of 3D6 to roll.

"Oh man, am I glad to see you guys!" One cop says to Dark Horse. "One unit went missing inside the battlefield park and a chopper went down a few blocks away. We can't get to either of them!"

Runic blinks as she watches them open fire on her too and she is just a little bit too fast for them, though one shot comes close it isn't close enough.

Dark Horse calls back to the cops, "We'll see what we can do!"

Expatriate is mobbed by the surronding undead, and avoids a pair of them before three more pummel at her ineffectually.

Vajra smiles, her face plate 'eyes' changing slightly (^ ^) as the shots ping harmless off her armor.

Ten smiles as the bayonets turn on her skin. "So, you're zombies? Undead? Or do you prefer 'metabolically challenged'?

Harlequin says, "I will open a gate as near as I can to the location and hold it open. People need go through and take out the source and its guards. Hopefully that will being down the warriors."

Ten says, "Hm - want me to go through the gate or stay on defence here?"

Whirling around after launching the third zombie across the battlefield, Forge finds himself face-to-face with a pre-industrial murderengine. The metal man bobs, weaves, and blocks for all he's worth with his batons. For the most part, Forge seems to be lucky, deflecting several attacks outright and turning aside enough of most of the rest that a shower of sparks rises from contact with his metal hide. One zombie, however, embeds a hatchet in Forge's chest, which causes a flow of syrupy bronze to well up and flow down his chest.

"Son. I'mma emancipate your teeth."

Vajra calls out, "I can stay here and play with these guys as long as it takes! They can't scratch my Kongou-no-Katchuu suit!"

Dark Horse finishes closing the distance to where Harlequin is, skidding to a stop. "Let's get that gate open, then. I can be a bit more useful there, I bet."

[To Vajra] Ten says, "Gesundheit!"

Vajra giggles~!

Expatriate says, "Ten, here. Vajra, I need your accuracy and senses there. You aren't built for crowd control."

Vajra says, "OK~!"

Runic decides to stay where she is for the moment and aims at the mob again. This time she tries to place her shot where it won't hit any of the others but still try to get as many as of the mob as she can as she calls to her gun, "Flame Shot." and shoots a flaming missile that explodes when it hits.

Harlequin says as he begins to move the wand in a complex series of movements, "Remember, there are at least three meta who may be undead undead as well. PLus whoever is animating the dead. That one is powerful necromancer if not the Repaer itself."

Dark Horse nods to Harlequin, "Yeah, yeah. Got it. Dangerous people. Check." He motions with his hand to try to encourage Harlequin to work faster.

Boom! Runic's fireball strikes the center of the mob's formation. Several of them a tossed through the air.

Whump. A burning skeletal warrior drops from the sky onto the hood of a police car.

Runic's blast leaves about 20 of the husks in burning, ruined piles.

Ten steps deeper into the (remaining) mass of advancing zombies, whirling her staff aggressively, making sure they don't reach the police.

Fwak! Fwak! Ten continues to smash heads and break bones, but the skeletons are still advancing.

Ten tries to make sure the undead are advancing on her rather than the police.

Reaching up with one hand, Forge knocks the hatchet out of his chest and the flow of bronze seems to slow to a crawl in the following seconds. He cracks a dark smirk as he regards the zombie responsible for the lone truly successful attack on his person. Forge whirls his batons around rapidly, throwing whirling strikes at the one zombie before he drops low. Sweeping rapidly, Forge abruptly swings a baton upward in a sort of uppercut aimed at an American revolution soldier nearby. At the apex of that strike, Forge whirls again, attempting to use a backhand baton strike on a zombie behind him.

Forge smashes one of the undead to bits and does grievous harm to another one.

Vajra kicks in her flight boosters again and skips back out of the morass of undead to land nearish to Harlequin. "Vajra is standing by~!"

Expatriate hops out of the fray, snatches a telephone pole and flies back, holding the pole sideways like a waist high lawn mover, smashing those farthest from Ten first.

Unfortunately, the lamp post snaps on the body of the first zombie and Expat tosses the snapped balsa wood tree aside in disgust. .oO (Cheap American products...)

Alistair is of course, not going to stand around and let these undead monstrosities tear up his fellow good guys, or the cops, so he quickly teleports out into the middle of the horde. His demon skin should keep him relatively safe from their claws and teeth, as he hauls back to punch one of them square in the face, to hopefully knock it's head clean off.

Alistair smashes a zombie down to the ground. It writhes and tries to get up again.

Harlequin makes a few last passes with his wand. He then tucks it away and stands stock still for a second. He continues to stand still as rock as he says in a chipper British accent, "Now boarding. Two at a time please, no shoving, no pushing, tipping is encouraged." A small silvery blue dot appears to the sinister side of the mage that swooshes into a 2m wide silver blue edged portal that reveals (a scene to be set by Angstrom).

On the other side of the gate, it looks as through the earth has opened up, it's spilling undead onto the surface from the wound. Standing over the opening in the Reaper, with its towering frame. There looks to be hundreds of undead on the other side, and the portal opens into their midst. A caped meta hovers over the formations as well, close to the Reaper.

Dark Horse hurries through the gate, despite recognizing Invincible. The adrenaline just spurs him on, despite being horribly outnumbered and overpowered.

Vajra, having no idea what she's stepping in, cheerfully skips through the portal as well. On the other side, she poses, "Vajra is here~!"

Zoomp! Speed Demon is in front of Dark Horse in the blink of an eye. She tries to grab him.

One the police side of the gate, zombies surround Ten, Forge, and Expat.

Dark Horse's reaction time is impressive, even if it's aided by slipping on the turf, making his movements that much more unpredictable. He twists away from Speed Demon, just out of the woman's reach.

On the other side of the portal, the Horde advances to surround Vajra and Dark Horse.

Forge keeps whirling both his body and his batons. Bayonets, hatchets, fists, and rifle-stocks smash against Forge's batons, sending up sprays of sparks and variably toned *CRUNCH*es. One zombie manages to ram its bayonet into the metal man's back, but to no avail beyond forcing a grunt out of Forge's steel lips.

Ten grins as the undead swarm about her, attack her in vain, rather than advancing on the police.

Vajra laughs merrily, "You're not trying hard enough~! Maybe in a million years you can get through my armor!"

Alistair spies the horrible portal to the underworld. It's hard to miss. The sight of the Reaper through it is clear as day, and Alistair is going to do what he can to try to get to the demon, and maybe see if he can figure out a way to close the portal from inside of it. That seems like a bad idea, as he thinks about it, teleporting towards the portal and jumping through it.

Expatriate barely pays attention to the zombies that swarm her, a nudge of an elbow is more than sufficient to move a zombie a meter back, but (like Ten) she stays among them instead of simply flying up out of reach so that attention is on her instead of policemen who are not bulletproof.

Runic did well the last time she used her explosive shot and so she does again aiming to try and get just skeletons, and little or no of the good guys.

Runic blasts 3 of the skeletons, though they are still standing after the blast.

Invincible floats until he's directly above the portal. He fires his eyebeams downwards and tries to walk the beams across Dark Horse, Vajra, and Alistair, where they've emerged from the portal.

Expatriate considers the metas on the far side of the portal.

Expatiate asks Ten and Runic, "Do you two have this? I think I'll do more good over there."

Vajra shines as the beam strikes her, refracting off her harmlessly. She covers where her mouth would be with one hand and laughs! "Ohohohohohohohoho~! Is that the best you've got~!?"

Ten says, "Should do, these guys are slow."

Electric Bill fires a giant arc of electricity between his hands, building the intensity until he's ready to fire a giant blast at Vajra.

"Just for the record, I've got a hand on this too," calls Forge to Expatriate. He waggles a baton over a Native American zombie head in her general direction.

Dark Horse vaults over the undead in front of him, attempting to get closer to Reaper, "Seriously? You're like...a second rate Fearmonger. Come on over here and fight!"

Ten keeps on whirling her staff, trying to take down as many of the half-dozen zombies about her as she can.

Ten takes out four of the undead about her, giving her some breathing room. They go flying, landing at some distance and not always intact.

With one baton in the air, waving, Forge quickly whirls his other baton around. The metal man whips a few strikes at one zombie that bears a passing resemblance to Odo from DS9 before he finally gets serious again. Forge swings his formerly waving arm down, attempting to ram his baton through the top of a zombie's skull before using that as a pivot point to swing himself up and around to perform a double baton strike on yet another Revolutionary War zombie.

Speed Demon zooms up behind Vajra and tries to grab her.

Vajra's arms move on their own accord and casually sweep Speed Demon's arms away from her. "Oh~!? I'm sorry, but only my fiancee gets to hug me~!"

Forge shatters several parts of the first zombie's body, limbs and ribs crashing to the ground after his series of one-handed strikes. His second target fares much better, in spite of the baton getting rammed into its skull, though Forge's third animate corpse victim fares worst of all. The metal man arcs over the second zombie to get at the third, plowing one baton through its shoulder before following up with a similarly crushing strike that sets the zombie to crumbling to the ground in a heap of dry bones and a cloud of tissue dust and hair.

Expatriate nods to the trio fighting zombies and zooms off to the portal, accelerating the entire way. As soon as she clears the event horizon of the portal she turns sharply straight up toward Invincible, fist first.

Invincible sails skyward with the force of the impact. He turns and levels his red laser eyes at Expat.

Vajra spins and angles her arm in the way of the mighty blast, deflecting it past her. She grins (^ ^) at Electric Bill. "Silly boy, if you take that long to get charged, no girl will ever be satisfied by you~!"

Expatriate smiles when Invincible's skyward tumble comes to an end nearly fourty feet away. "Hi. Not feeling so 'invincible' now, are you?"

Harlequin glances into the portal then at the remaining heroes on this side. "They need your help over there. Let me handle this." He raises a hand then sends a grey light streaking into the undead warriors.

Dark Horse continues moving in the direction of Reaper, vaulting and tumbling through the crowd of zombies.

Harlequin's magic scorches 3 of the undead, leaving them barely able to stand.