Log:Remember Where the Flying Carpet is Parked, Scene 2

Remember Where the Flying Carpet is Parked 2013/06/19 	 Anthony Quinn Elsewhere Ghost-2 Scrapper Sukeban Titan 2

As Scrapper arrives at the front door with a struggling rolled up invisible flying carpet, it only takes her a moment to see the damage caused to the house while she was around to the side. The water sloshing across her boots was probibly a good hint as well. "What the ...?" she says eloquently.

Sukeban runs her hand through her hair, scattering embers, "Uh, maybe I got a little carried away. What's that English sayin'? When all ya got is a hammer, everythin' looks like a nail?"

Scrapper shoves the carpet against Titan's chest and yells, "Quick! Hold this. I think somebody just found out it was missing!" then flies at full speed under the flying house looking for the falling scream her sensitive ears just picked up.

Titan walks over to the woman who just put the fire out, and glances over his shoulder to Sukeban. "She mentioned something about a tome? I wonder if the broom brought us here to protect something magical?"

"You think?" Quinn asks. Due to all the smoke, not to mention the inhuman racket outside he has not yet opened the faceplate of his helmet. "Because I was thinking that this was looking less like a nail and more like a flaming house that could drop out of the sky so that someone could one-up the wicked witch of the East's obituary."

Sukeban coughs and covers her mouth, "Uh, yah. I didn't think about that. Or much of anythin' else."

Titan rolls up the carpet, "Uh...what the heck is this for? Looking to decorate someone's house?" He clearly hasn't made the connection that it's a flying carpet.

Sukeban flies outside to see what's going on.

Quinn leaps from the doorway, jets flaring brightly as he dives after the radar image. "See, this is the second problem with invisible vehicles," he says as he tries to catch the falling target. "You forget where you parked it or if it gets towed and you'll never find it again."

Titan feels the edges of the carpet, "Huh..." He still goes about rolling it up anyway, though it takes him a bit longer.

Going into an intercepting dive Quinn scoops up the invisible thief rather neatly. "Sir, before you can check out any books I'm going to have to ask to see your library card," he says as he begins to swing around to return back to the house. "And the rest of you as well," he adds.

The grabbed guy(?) makes a sort of hissing noise.

Scrapper summons an aerodynamic bubble to fly faster than Q, but is soon flying in spirals as she tries to locate the falling person by sound. When Q uses his radar to fly straight to the target, she grins up at him, then follows from below. "I wouldn't struggle," she advises. "It is still a long way down."

"Sssseechissa hi sa'aai!" calls out out the invisible person.

There are still some flames in the entrance hall, but enough of the place is drenched they're not likely to spread quickly.

Titan kneels, and takes a closer look at the fallen mystery woman.

Quinn returns to the house carrying the invisible man. Between him and Titan it looks as though there's been a sudden outbreak of mimes, though in Quinn's case there's also a floating book accompanying him. As the person hisses at him Quinn advises, "You have the right to remain sibilant. Anything you hiss can and will be made fun of," before looking at the rest of the people. "Does anyone have any mystic powder of Ibn Ghazi, by which those things hidden to the eyes of mortal man can be made manifest?" he asks, "or baring that some flour?"

Scrapper catches up to Q and reaches out a force arm to grab at the tomb. "Lets keep this and Mister Invisible apart, shall we?"

The ancient tome is snatched from the invisible being's hand. Not without some tearing of paper.

Scrapper tucks the book under her arm, having read too many Cthulu stories to randomly start reading magic books. "If this was valuable enough to steal, I would have let go before anything tore."

Titan goes ahead and removes the mask on the woman to take a peek.

The woman vanishes in a flash from where she is to appear a short distance away before Titan can do that. "What are you doing?!"

Whoever it is hisses as the book is taken away from him but doesn't seem actually to be struggling while his life remains at risk.

But once back in the house he struggles to get free.

Titan blinks. "Wanted to see who you were. You know...in case you were a villain?" He still has his arm curled, as he's carrying the carpet under one arm.

Scrapper sighs, stops smiling and says to the struggling snake man in an almost bored voice. "The man holding you is your friend. I am not. I am going to start questioning you. As you know, torture is a precision art with death as the common result of bungling. I suggest you drop whatever invisibility you are employing so we can avoid that unpleasant conclusion."

The woman says, "You could just have asked. In English I am usually called Elsewhere." And suddenly she's not wearing a black costume but a brightly coloured, largely orange one (though her face is still obscured).

Quinn had kind of figured that might happen once the risk of plummeting to his doom was no longer in play. Fortunately his artificial musculature is much stronger than Mr. Tall, Invisible, and Furry. "Easy there, Cobra Commander," he says. "You might not be in danger of falling any more but where exactly do you think you're going to run to? It's not like you can just call a cab."

The invisible creature just hisses.

Titan raises a brow, "Because you know...villains don't lie, right?" He smiles slightly, and stands slowly, not making a sudden move. "The others apparently caught the thief." He motions to Scrapper and Q.

Sukeban flies back in, "Ya want me to burn him a little, O-Chibi-chan?"

Sukeban's right hand ignites with white hot flames.

"You know, we really have to do something about this unreasonable fear of fire you have," Quinn says to Sukeban.

Sukeban nods, looks at her hand. Her eye widens in shock, "Ah! My hand's on fire!

Sukeban waves her hand frantically for a moment before snickering to herself and running her (still burning) hand through her hair.

Scrapper suddenly stops playing with the snake man, and turns, inhaling deeply mouth open like a hound with a scent. "Welcome to the party," she says to empty air.

"Oh come on," Quinn says, "you're trying it again? That trick never works. Titan, hold tight to the carpet. We've got a couple more invisible people."

Sukeban sighs, "Should I just set everything on fire again?"

Sukeban flames lick out from Sukeban's skin and swirl around her protectively. She frowns, "Huh. Is it hot in here?"

Ghost hears the impact of dart into flesh(?). She looks at the other heroes, "If they were friendly they wouldn't be hiding, right?"

There's a thud as something hits the wall. If that's not a ceiling. No, wait, floor. Maybe.

Titan nods to Ghost..."In theory. Whoever you are...you might want to come out of hiding."

Ghost says, "Two more."

Ghost says, "I mean, there's two more of whatever they are."

THe one Quinn is holding tries again to escape.

... but fails. The other two try to clobber Titan, since he's got firm hold of their escape route. Maybe these guys aren't the brightest.....

"Really?" Quinn asks as it struggles. "Are you really going to make me neural blast you? It's about the most non-lethal attack I've got and even it isn't a lot of fun."

Titan get buffeted slightly by the two invisible assailants. "Seriously?"

Sukeban turns to face Titan, "Oh, they're by ya? Thanks!" She takes a deep breath and breathes out a gout of flame that washes over Titan.

Two figures can vaguely be seen as the flame washes over them. Several flaming doors collapse from their hinges revealing libraries beyond the blackened walls.

Titan turns toward the two assailants, and does his best to look like he wasn't even affected by the attacks at all, including the flames that just washed over him. He uses his acting voice, which booms a little bit in the room, "You can't hurt me. My friends can see you. You're not going anywhere without our help. And you're not getting this carpet back. Surrender now, if you want to see the ground in one piece."

With the other heroes attending to the remaining three (now two) invisible opponents Quinn just continues to maintain his grip on his own charge, not applying any pressure but holding him in an implacable grasp. "If you would like I could put you back where I found you," he offers.

Titan guesses where one of the two invisible folks is, and takes a swing at him.

Titan's blow misses - just. He can feel how close he came!

Scrapper flies to the edge of Sukeban's flames, plants herself and shoves with both arms. As she pushes a horde of purple force arms (swirling with black and purple like usual) appear and repeat Scrapper's action in a wide forest of limbs

THe two are pushed back against a wall. Which of course is also a floor. THose who can perceive them find that they regain their feet rapidly, now standing on the 'wall'.

Scrapper's forest of arms stretches out but she seems a bit surprised when she runs out of 'stuff' and the pair are shoved back out of her reach before they impact the wall... floor .... whatever.

Ghost says to Sukeban, "Could you please stop shooting fire at the libraries full on unknown and potentially dangerous magical tomes. In fact, if you have any way to put the fires out it would really be a good idea right now."

Sukeban has the decency to look vaguely embarassed, "Juff a seffond, haff fu fefth myf breff."

"We are so taking away her Talking Heads CDs after this," mutters Quinn.

Sukeban inhales, ending the gout of flame. She crossed her arms and looks annoyed, "What the heck am I supposed to do! This is why I said I suck as a team member. I'm dangerous to be around."

Titan shakes his head, "You're not a bad team member. Everyone has a weakness."

Ghost fires again at another of the unseen creatures. "Sukeban, you have been the most effective of us all on occasions. But inside someone else's house when it's full of flamable materials is a time to let your team deal with things."

 Scrapper says, "But sometimes things need destroying. Don't sweat it, Suke."

Sukeban grumps, "Maybe we should all just go outside and wait for these morons to get hungry or fall asleep."

 Sukeban says, "Heh. Yeah. Destroyin' stuff, that's what I'm good for."

Ghost says, "Drat. My smart link targeting is being thrown off by the weird geometry in here."

THe unseen creature tries to relieve Scrapper of the book!

Because Scrapper can hear it coming it fails to knock the book from her grasp.

Scrapper slides the force arm holding the book around behind her back and under her tank top, the 'shoulder' that the arm is connected to not needing to stay where a real shoulder would be. Her remaining arms, both real and purple, reach out to grab the assailant manhandling her.

Scrapper's arms find something solid to grab onto and promply squeeze it like an octapus with a clam.

The remaining unheld one again tries to get the book off Scrapper!

The books is kicked(?) free of Scrapper's grasp and lands on the floor.

The third one again attempts to free itself.

Scrapper yells as her tank top rips, "Hey! That's my favorite shirt!"

 Sukeban says, "Why doesn't one of us just take the book and fly outside. These morons were dumb enough to try to steal somethin' from a floatin' castle without bein' able to fly."

As the book is kicked free Quinn glances over to it. "How important is that book?" he asks. "As in, is it more important than holding onto this guy?"

 Scrapper says, "Good plan. You do that."

 Ghost says, "If one of them does get hold of the book, where does the creature go. They don't seem to be able to fly and Titan has their escape in his grip, no?"

Scrapper says, "Torch it for all I care."

 Sukeban says, "Maybe the book has a flight spell or somethin'."

 Titan was debating grabbing it myself.

Given that the book seems to be the priority here and that Quinn is fairly certain that the only effect of one more invisible opponent will be a bit more destruction to the house as the heroes take him down Quinn releases his grip upon his quarry and scoops up the book, preparing to make a run for it.

As soon as Q leave with the book, the creatures (as some but not all people can tell) throw themselves prostrate on the flooe, presumably in surrender.

Scrapper watches Quinn fly off.

 Scrapper says, "who gave him a communicator?"

 Titan says, "Not I."

Scrapper continues to squeeze her opponent, her multiple arms reducing in number but growing in strength.

 Ghost says, "I assume if he has a communicator it must have been the Princess who gave it to him. Nobody else as any to spare do they?"

The squeezed creature whines.

Titan looks around, "Can anyone tell waht they're doing? I can't really see them."

 Scrapper says, "anybody speak snake? I'm not sure how durable this guy is. I could be popping his head off or about to lose him for all I know."

 Ghost says, "We should take at least one of these to the castle. They are invisible to Second Sight. Fae mages will want to study these creatures."

 Scrapper says, "as in... autopsy?"

Elsewhere stands. "You seem to have things in hand. I'll go now."

Scrapper says, "Not if you want this book to remain whole, you won't."

 Ghost says, "I can't see them either, but I can hear them. No, Scrapper. If the creature is dead the mages won't be able to devise a spell allowing them to see the creature."

Quinn is no fool. Well, that's probably not true but at least he recognizes that when keeping ancient tomes of unspeakable power away from people you don't do it by flying outside and waiting. Instead he flies and keeps flying until he is nearly a hundred kilometers above Colonial Bay. He figures that if they somehow wrestle the carpet away from Titan or make an escape on their emergency Moped version of a flying carpet they will still find the lack of atmosphere to be rather inhospitable.

<Guard> Scrapper says, "I smell them. Whew."

Scrapper says to the mysterious Elsewhere, "Give me one reason to leave that book whole."

Titan looks to Elsewhere, "If you can see them...or make them appear, that would be quite helpful."

She shakes her head. "I cannot. Fortunately I'm trained in fighting what I cannot see. But it seems I am not the only one."

Scrapper pulls a real arm out of one of the force arm's holdering her opponent and says into her 'wristwatch' "Quinn, prepare to destroy that book."

Titan raises a brow, "If it's a mystic book of importance, don't you think destroying it might be a bad thing? At least not in the appropriate way? At the volcano where it was written, or whatever?"

Elsewhere says, "As to whether the book should remain whole, I cannot say. It's not my field. I only came to stop the theft. Because whatever *they* want it for cannot be good."

<Guard> Ghost says, "I can take it to my quarters in Undermoon and store it there."

Scrapper stares at Elsewhere incredulously a moment, shakes her head, then asks, "And who owns that broom?"

"I don't know. The owner of the house, I would guess."

Elsewhere says, "And now if there's nothing more....."

Scrapper says, "Who are they, then?"

Elsewhere says to Scrapper, "I wish I knew. A group of magicians, or some of them are, scattered across half of Asia. But I've only ever identified one - who didn't live to talk."

Elsewhere continues, "They prefer to work from the shadows, often through their minions, like these creatures."

Scrapper sighs, "And based on just that, you figured that whatever they want must be bad?"

<Guard> Scrapper says, "This is like pulling teeth"

"It usually is," Elsewhere replies. "That and I have... advice from people who know more."

Scrapper says, "Such as....?"

"I'm afraid I cannot name them - at least without their consent."

Scrapper says, "Of course not. Which leads us back to 'trust me, stranger, because... '"

<Guard> Ghost says, "Nope. It's like talking to mages. Well, pretty much the same I guess. What do we know, as opposed to what we've been told. Those creatures were trying to steal the book. I'd say that puts them in the wrong. Doesn't mean the woman is a good guy. But the creatures are definely bad guys. And what's with this guys word. She's a woman. How come my translater program is saying guys?"

<Guard> Scrapper says, "Because English only has male and female and a scarcity of neuter words so tends to use male by default."

And she laughs. "I'm Elsewhere. Look me up, newbie." And with that she's suddenly, presumably, elsewhere.

Scrapper smirks, "I walked into that one, didn't I?"

Titan raises a brow, "Huh. Well, that was...interesting. What do we do with these guys?"

Scrapper pulls off the remains of her tank top. Underneath, she is wearing a black swimsuit two-piece. "Find out if the owner wants to press charges against them or us?"

The prisoners seem to be staying mostly quiet. Perhaps afraid of upsetting you.

Scrapper says, "Lets take them all to the castle until somebody human presses charges against them."