Log:Forget Me Not, Scene 4

Forget Me Not 2014/06/19 	 Ellbeth Harlequin Physique Pendragon Enemy Ace Ruger Choukaizer Anthony Quinn|Quinn Paragon

4

Long, largely straight roads, often in poor condition, stretch across the low-lying farmland, interrupted by lines of tree delimiting fields and acting as windbreakers. Traffic is thin, most long-distance traffic preferring the major highways to the south and east. Small villages and isolated farmhouses hold the human population, while fields and hedgerows have the animals.

Pendragon enters from Outside Harrisburg.

It had been a quiet day in the farmland outside of the city, at least until the gunfire interrupted the silence. About a hundred meters from where the heroes had gathered, stands a farmhouse and a neighboring barn. Both of the buildings now have holes in them. There's a large man-sized (or so) hole in the farmhouse where a window used to be. Standing in the gap is Enemy Ace, who has fired upon one of the heroes moments ago. The hole in the barn is smaller, but revealed that Ruger is inside the barn, along with a technician. There are at least three gunmen in the house, though one is down, and presumably one more is injured. There has been no sign of Domina as of yet, but she is presumed to be in the house.

The heroes planned to approach cautiously, but when spotted by a now-downed technician walking between the buildings, they broke into a charge toward the villains...somewhat like Gauls might have charged the Roman lines. Choukaizer is now about 60m from the barn, intending to face off against Ruger. Physique is 25m from the house. Porter had just fallen off the roof of the house (by a method to be described shortly). Snow is 20m from the house. Q is 70m from the house, having fired twice at long distance. Ellbeth is a good 90-100m back, near the original starting point. Paragon is only 20m from the house as well.

There are two sets of portals. First, is a set of portals set up by Fox. One end of the portal is near the heroes' initial starting point. The other is on the roof. This was used by Porter, and is how he fell off the roof. The second is by Harlequin, and the means by which both Pendragon and Toby arrive, having been asked to come along by the mage in an attempt to bring in Enemy Ace before he can make good on his attempt to assassinate the mayor.

Physique had intended to leap at the gunman who fired on her, but Enemy Ace makes a more interesting target. She leaps as hard as she can at the villain!

Physique misses Enemy Ace, but goes through the hole in outer wall. Only to find an interior wall, which she plows through, creating a large hole in it.

Physique coughs amidst the dust of the disintegrated wall.

Portals are a normal sort of thing to someone who spends a lot of time dealing with Avalon. They are almost even -more- normal for Snowmane, who grew up on Avalon. So the two of them came striding through the portal, recovered their senses and looked downrange. "Right then." remarks Pendragon as she draws her sword and points at the house. "... So, we are charging pell mell, no concern for tactical approaches? Very well, a Cavalry charge it is." she remarks as Snowmane snorts a bit himself and steps a bit to turn left, then right, and then left again, facing the house. Then.....the charge begins... a few steps walking before the warhorse begins trotting. It is an acceleration destined to become a gallop fairly soon but... Snowmane is bred for war and so... to war he runs.

Physique thinks. o O (Wow, I didn't know I could jump that far. Also ow. Jumping that far is a bad idea.)

As Physique plows through the wall and Pendragon charges forward Quinn continues to close on the house and Enemy Ace, jets whining as they carry him through the air. As he waits for a better opening he holds fire for the moment.

There had been three automatic weapons firing from the house only seconds ago. But apparently Q's explosive charge silenced a couple of them. There's a delay, and only one weapon fires from the window on the left on the ground floor, firing at Snow.

Upon horseback, Pendragon narrows her eyes as she barely makes out the gun barrel poking out of the window. She stands in the saddle and hurls Excalibur with all of her strength. The sword flies like a missile and arrows in before Snow. Stopping there almost like Pendragon herself wielded it. There, it flashes left and right and intercepts the incoming fire before it vanishes.. and appears back in Pendragon's hand.

Harlequin falters in his step as he watches Pendragon, while at full gallop, manage to deflect the bullets that might otherwise have struck Snow. The mage shakes his head as he says in a quiet amazed tone, "Go Team Excalibur."

Choukaizer gets back on his feet after being sent flying and taunting Ruger. "Different ammo? Seriously, someone still uses ammo these days?" Getting back up, he brings himself around so he is facing Ruger before the star on his chest slides open again, "Chou Release: Electro Blazer!" Electricity blazes forth from the projector in a line aimed at Ruger himself.

Choukaizer's blast blows another fist-sized hole in the wooden barn. Ruger laughs, "I may be using ammo, but at least I can hit something other than a barn."

Harlequin takes in the various enemies present then takes a step forward. Between his foot rising and his foot coming down, his body glows silver, fades frm sight, then fades back into sight closer to the barn. He then crooks his left hand in an odd gesture as his eyes glow a sooty red and a similarly colored bolt lances from his forehead towards Ruger.

Ruger growls as he's hit by Harlequin, getting the armored man's attention. "Alright...the chump in the armor can wait, clearly."

Paragon pulls herself up to her feet and out of the soil. "Not bad, not bad," she comments casually as she stands in the dug up trail she created when Enemy Ace's punch ploud her into the ground. She curls her right bicep as she brings a hand up, plated fingers curling tightly into a face with an effort that makes the knuckles crack. She grins behind the faceplate as she eyes her fellow cyborg. "My turn." Two steps and a powerful lunge forward sends her sailing at Enemy Ace, her fist cocked back.

Paragon's leap carries her past Enemy Ace. He laughs, "You won't stop the Fifth Reich from coming into being, you know. I've foreseen it."

Ellbeth is juggling almost her maximum capability of mana usage as she maintains her Shield spell, blinks forward some ten metrs and then strikes at Enemy Ace's mind with as strong a mental attack as she can manage.

Enemy Ace winces visibly as Ellbeth's spell touches his mind. He glances out toward the field to try to pick out who managed to hit him.

[NPC]Enemy Ace shifts to the side so that he doesn't turn his back on those outside, but so that he's also facing Paragon. He then raises his hands and fires another plasma blast at Paragon at point blank range.

[GAME] Half move, Blast vs. ED.

Enemy Ace's arm is knocked aside as he brings his hands around, and the blast goes off mid-block, ripping through the exterior wall like a cutting beam.

Paragon is still half crouched from the attempted tackle. She turns around and with surprising speed, throws up her forearm, knocking Enemy Ace's hand aside just as he fires. "Didn't foresee *that*, did you?"

As Paragon knocks aside Enemy Ace's arm Quinn opens both palms and lets fly a pair of neural blasts aimed at the old Nazi.

Enemy Ace laughs, and says in German, <>

Q's blast sails wide, hitting the wall next to Enemy Ace. Perhaps it was PAragon's proximity which made it a tough shot.

Snow takes stock of the situation. She moves a bit closer on her slide. Frost forms around her hands and then a big ray of frost blasts from her hands to fly right at Enemy Ace.

Snow misses Enemy Ace, but takes out two interior walls and the fall exterior wall, blowing a person-sized hole clear through the building.

Toby blinks at the plasma blast, and gulps. Note to self: Do /not/ get hit with that. Shaking her head, she thrusts herself into the air, surrounding herself with pink telekinetic light, which is simply growing intesnity. She heads towards the house, moving relatively slowly as her kinetic light builds in intensity.

[NPC]Ruger moves out of the barn, his footsteps making 'THOOM' sounds in the earth. He spins the cylinder on his arm, setting a different shell type. He ignores Choukaizer, who can't seem to hit him. Instead, he fires upon Harlequin who can clearly hurt him.

Harlequin is knocked back a good distance by Ruger's shot. It seemed though that the shell was slowed by his defenses so while the mage is flat on back, he is not unconscious. Well, if the multilingual cursing is any proof that is.

Porter gets up, taking some souvenirs with him from the manure pile that softened his fall from the roof. Not intentionally. There's crashing and shooting coming from the house, but not where he can see. So he starts moving along the wall to try and get where he can see.

Physique rolls effortlessly to her feet, despite the collision with the wall. Deciding a more tactical and less brute-force approach might be required, she approaches Enemy Ace, open palm extended, and reaches out invisibly even beyond that, for his nervous system, hoping to numb his senses.

Enemy Ace(#1632TOn)

His face is partially metal. And he appears to be in a sleek outfit of ACRO-designed power armor. The suit looks quite aerodynamic, with decent sized shoulder pads, gauntlets, and boots.

Commandos(#2404TOn)

These are three individuals dressed in black fatigues and carrying automatic weapons slung on their shoulder. All male, and in their 20s and 30s. One is Caucasian, one is Hispanic, and one is African-American. And they all look like they're in good shape.

Ruger Mk. III(#1803TOnp)

This is a tall suit of power armor, entirely the color of gunmetal, aside from the black letter 'R' on the left side of the chest. It's relatively form fitting, but still quite solidly built. The helmet covers the wearer's full head, and has a blackened visor, as well as several slits in the front where the wearer's mouth would be. The feet are large metallic boots. The left gauntlet is similar to the feet...but the right forearm looks like a large revolver cylinder, with one of the holes at the top.

Enemy Ace isn't quite quick enough to avoid Physique's touch. He swears in German as he can no longer sense things...though he can't even hear his own voice.

Charging forward, Pendragon points her sword at Enemy Ace. "C'mon Snowmane. Let's get at'em..." she mutters even as the trotting horse increases pace to a gallop. "We need to get in there."

Quinn continues his approach to the house, trying to close to optimal range. As Physique suddenly blinds Enemy Ace Quinn lets fly with another pair of neural blasts, hoping to score a hit on the wide open villain

Enemy Ace growls as he's hit with the neural blast, but he can't even tell where it came from.

One of the commandos...the one in the room with Enemy Ace and the two heroes, opens fire at the group in what might be considered a panic. The other maintains his cool and fires out the window at the best target he can see from his vantage point, which is Pendragon charging forward on horseback.

Charging forward, Pendragon is up in her saddle. It's easier to ride at a gallop when your backside is -not- on the saddle, and your legs and knees can absorb the impacts of the movements. Her sword flashes out as fire comes in, and once again, bullets strike the sun gleaming blade of Excalibur and the charging warrior keeps coming.

Physique looks at the one who shot her. "Really?"

The automatic gunfire sprays the area, bullets ricocheting into walls. The targets all appear to be unaffected. Even Enemy Ace who gets plugged solidly in the chest.

Paragon tries to block with her arm, but is too slow to react to the attack. Instead, the bullet impacts her forehead with a harmless spark.

Choukaizer gets a grin on his metallic face as Ruger steps out of the barn. Apparently, the robot was waiting for something like that. Running forward to get closer, the robot brings it's arms up, ready just in case as he opens fire again. "Chou Release: Magnetic Beam!" This time whatever is mounted in his chest fires off what looks like glowing purple rings of some sort in a beam at Ruger.

Ruger doesn't seem to react to the blast that hits him square in the torso. He looks at Choukaizer and shakes his head slowly. "Seriously?"

The robot gives a shrug in response, "It's not my best weapon. Got your attention, though."

Harlequin tries to an impressive acrobatic kippup but, sadly fails. He gets halfway up but then must just slowly stand. He then looks over where Ruger stands and says, "Thank you for coming out from under cover, Ruger." the mage then twists his left hand in that complicated gesture again as his eyes glow sooty red. A bolt of the same sooty red flashes from his forehead at Ruger.

Ruger grunts again...and looks a little wobbly, having been hit with mental attacks twice now from the magician. He definitely will be focusing on Harlequin rather than Choukaizer, based on his glare.

Harlequin murmurs, "Just imagine how much Hell pains one, Ruger. This is just a foretaste for you."

Ellbeth says, "sees the slight wobble that Ruger did after Harlequin's attack. So she switches targets and after running forwards a little reaches out to strike at Ruger's mind."

Fox enters from Outside Harrisburg.

Ruger tilts his head, looking at Harlequin, "Foretaste? What's that mea...." And then he's hit by Ellbeth's follow up attack. He keels over, landing on his back with a clang.

[NPC]Enemy Ace can't sense anything around him...but he knows there are enemies in the area. He grits his teeth and vents open up on his cyborg body, starting to vent the plasma from his generator into the immediate vicinity.

[GAME] 4d6 NND. Def is Force Field or Immunity to Heat.

Snow is going to try to hit Enemy Ace again since it seems that he might not see it coming. She raises her hands and frost forms then the blast of frost energy flies at Enemy Ace.

Physique thinks. o O (Yeow! Stupid human body....)

Paragon winces as it gets very hot in her armor. Almost scalding, with no real ventilation to relieve her. It's not long before sweat drips down her face inside the armor. . o O (What I wouldn't give to have some cooling fans installed right about now...)

Enemy Ace is slammed into by the blast, knocking him clear through the next interior wall, landing on the ground on his side.

The two remaining commandos surrender upon seeing Enemy Ace getting plastered by Snow. The heroes hit him a couple more times, making sure that the master villain is out.

Domina is nowhere to be found. She may have fled prior to the fight starting, or shortly thereafter.

Both Ruger and Enemy Ace are taken into custody, though. Ruger's just a mercenary, presumably working as a literal hired gun.

Porter ... well, whatever was going to happen either didn't happen or was really, really subtle. Which would be a new thing for Porter. At least he got a good view of Enemy Ace getting iced?

Physique says, "No Domina. That sounds bad...."

Ellbeth says, "Enemy Ace is custody. That sounds pretty good to me, Physique."

Physique nods. "Psychics make me nervous, though."

Ellbeth grins at Physique, "Present company excluded I hope." she says a little pointedly.

Physique says, "Right, sorry. meant, you know, psychic villains."

And so, the Cavalry arrives. Snowmane decelerates, not doing a full speed blast through or past folks. When she sees that Ace is down, Pendragon wheels the horse about and slows to a stop, sword still out... gleaming still like noontime sun shining upon it. "Well, that went better than I expected. However, perhaps next time... we be a wee bit more organized on our approach?"

Paragon steps out of the house after the battle is over and fans herself, tugging a little at her neck guard as if that would somehow relieve her of the heat. The frosty blast at least cooled most of her armor to tolerable levels. "Great work, everyone. Two out of three isn't bad," she says cheerfully.

Long, largely straight roads, often in poor condition, stretch across the low-lying farmland, interrupted by lines of tree delimiting fields and acting as windbreakers. Traffic is thin, most long-distance traffic preferring the major highways to the south and east. Small villages and isolated farmhouses hold the human population, while fields and hedgerows have the animals.

Snow cocks her head to the side, "So we got two down." she says and shakes her head a bit. "Anything else I can help with?"

Physique says, "Let's just make sure Domina doesn't spring them. Psychics are notorious for that sort of thing."

Toby floats down to the ground, landing. "Wish I could've got here sooner, might've been more help." She offers, shrugging. "Why do I get the feeling that this isn't you guys' first encounter with these villain?"

"Actually, it's my first time encountering these guys. Does anyone else know them?" Paragon asks as she looks around at the others.

Quinn shakes his head to Paragon. "Not me. I think Harlequin might know them, however," he says.

Physique shakes her head. "I'm new around here."

The robot gives a shrug as he approaches the rest of the group. He looks up at Pendragon. "Stealth was compromised possibly. Better to charge than let the surprise go." He frowns. "Psychics. Hm. I am not sure if my robot form would give protection against them or not, else I would volunteer to keep an eye out." A hand moves up to his robotic chin. "I've not encountered them before. The power suit packed a pretty good punch, though. Wish my systems were more online than before now."

Harlequin says, "Ruger is an armored mercenary. There have been a few versions of his armor. Enemy Ace is a former German fighter pilot from the Great War, now a cyborg. Domina...is a mentalist who had been incarcerated in Tranquility along with Enemy Ace and Mortua. All three were sprung from the prison a couple of years ago by ACRO."

Physique says, "From Tranquility? Wow."

"What I mean is... everyone charging at different speeds puts everyone in more danger than necessary, when assaulting a fortified position full of prepared defenders. It put each individual in reach of all of them at different times. I know there is a temptation to get there as fast as you can but.... staying together makes it easier for each of us to defend the others." suggests Pendragon, "and then we arrive in force, less depleted."

Physique says, "We tried being sneaky. They saw us!"

"I am aware. But... if everyone advanced as a unit... that would have made it easier to cover one another is all." says Pendragon.

"One of them saw us," Quinn corrects.

Toby looks confused by the others, but then nods towards Harlequin, "I see." Toby hmms at Pendragon, shrugging. "Tactics aren't really my strong suit, but, cover eachother? What do you mean? Wouldn't travelling together like that just give them a nice target to hit with an explosion or some such?"

Physique says, "Fine. But we were being so slow probably would have got the drop on us if we waited any longer. Tactics are fine, but we should have been more decisive."

Paragon folds her arms over her chest and looks over towards Enemy Ace. "If you ask me, I think he's got a few screws loose. He was talking about the rise of the Fifth Reich. There hasn't even been a Fourth one! His internal systems must be buggy for a miscalculation like that," Paragon's mechanized voice says in a critical tone.

Porter belatedly adds, "Yeah, we got spotted. Things pretty much went out the window, then." He shrugs. While he wasn't very useful, most of the bad guys were caught, and no one got hurt, really.

"Decisive, yes... and as for explosions... I did my best to cover others on my way in. We can all help each other." Pendragon looks to Paragon and shrugs, "Perhaps he was a part of a group that tried to operate -as- a fourth reich and just failed so decisively that you weren't even allowed to hear about it."

"Hm... okay, we done with the whole tactics bit yet? Seriously, we're missing a villain. That's a concern now. Anyone able to find a trace or track her somehow?" Choukaizer grumbles a bit, folding his arms over his chest. "Ah... Quinn, right? You got some place I can stop by later? I have a few questions for you since you're familiar with some of the designs."

Quinn nods to Choukaizer. "Stop by the Wayland Foundation," he says to the robotic man. "It's in Quinn Tower. Just tell reception that I'm expecting you."

Porter doesn't know a whole lot about tactics, or reichs. He isn't a cop to wrangle up the ones in custody. And since Domina being gone probably means she isn't here, he doesn't have anything to look for, either. "Well, I'm gonna head back to the city. Good job. Glad they got got and nobody got hurt." He turns and starts walking baywards.

From an unforeseen direction, Fox pounces on Porter, being less... gentle than she might normally be. Also excited. And not in her monstrous form, thankfully. "Yay!" she exclaims.

Paragon's eyes flick from white to red as she scans the fields and surrounding area for an extra heat signature they may have missed, hoping to see where Domina ran off to.

"I'm going to head back, too. This heat isn't very comfortable." Toby offers, before turning back towards the city herself, and levitating into the air.

"I am not trying to preach. I am just hoping that in the future, things might work out better when small units are brought together." suggests Pendragon. "As for the one that got away.... I am sure that we will come upon her once more."

Porter gets 1.37 steps before he's collided upon by a pouncing Fox. And knocked to the ground. "Ooof. Hey!" He was wondering where she snuck off to. Since she's sneaky.

Physique nods to Pendragon. "You're right, we could have been a lot more organised. But given we weren't, sometimes going in hard and fast is the next best thing."

Physique says, "Anyway, I've got to get going too..."

The police can be heard in the distance...sirens wailing. They're at least on their way.

"Thank you." Choukaizer says to Quinn. Then turns to look to the others. "... so, how did she escape? Back door?" He turns to walk towards the house to check around there.

"Do we know everything about what she can do? Perhaps she flew away, perhaps she telekinetically folded space. Hard to say.." suggests Pendragon. "But, if anyone needs transport back to town, I can assist." she remarks as she slides down off Snowmane and pats his flank. The horse looks almost... disappointed that he didn't get a chance to run someone over.

Quinn shakes his head. "I'm guessing she wasn't even here," he says. "Maybe she was out getting groceries or picking up the kids from daycare or something."

Fox helps Porter rise to the stand, though remains in hugging kind of contact.

Toby turns around to spot Fox appearing out of...somewhere, and to actually take note of Porter. She giggles a little towards Quinn, not entirely sure if he's joking or being serious.

But Toby turns back to Porter and the Fox, deciding to land again. "A fox girl?" She asks, looking between the two.

Paragon's eyes switch back to their normal white glow. "I don't see anyone running off in the fields. Maybe she really was never here as Quinn suggests."

Fox hides behind Porter, mock-fearful. "Where?!"

"Didn't someone make a projection of her?" Choukaizer asks, then eyes the house. He shrugs and reaches down to check and see if there's any foundations built into the ground of the house.

Porter chuckles as he's helped up. Mostly by being picked up. Then he looks over at Toby and starts to nod, then belatedly turns faux-curious and he glances around. Of course, the really big grin kind of ruins any deception. "Huh?"

Toby giggles, and grabs Fox's tail, pointing at it. "This fox girl." She smiles, looking back to Porter and Fox. "Who might she be?"

Quinn gives a shrug of armored shoulders. "Someone folded spacetime to peer through the veil of creation and saw her inside the house," he says. "It's always possible they got the wrong address. Maybe a slightly different time or a neighboring reality."

Fox glances at the table, shrieks! "Run!" she runs around Porter and Toby.

Paragon supposes, "If she's a mentalist, maybe she could just block her presence from our minds." Paragon's eyes flicker a few times as she glances around suspiciously.

Porter was pounced, hugged, and now is circled. And Toby is giggling. He can't help but laugh, too. "She be Fox." He tries to point... for about a half a second, and stops trying since Fox is running.

Choukaizer walks inside, then comes back out a minute later, "There's a body inside. The basement. Not sure who he is. Did anyone bother to check and see if they had plans or something laying around?" He looks annoyed. "You guys going to just stand on the lawn all day or at least give a hand at that? I'm curious what they were planning here."

Paragon's eyes dim at Choukaizer's news. "Not another commando?" she asks solemnly, starting to walk towards the house.

Quinn gives a nod toward the recumbent forms of Enemy Ace and Ruger. "Thought I would stay with them until they got them to the jail," he says. "If they wake up before the police can finish they'll be hard pressed to hold them."

As if arriving on cue, the police roll up to the farm to take a look at the damage and arrest the miscreants.

"Right, I helped her the other day, right?" Toby asks, "The quicksand?" Toby nods, remembering her now. Toby blinks at Chou, her attention now captured, and looking a tad embarrased. "Uh, right. Though I'm not skilled in things like that. I'm more a mechanic, electrician, and a telekinetic than I am an investigator." She shrugs.

Paragon makes her way down to the basement to see the body Choukaizer was referring to, her mouth set in a grim line behind the faceplate.

Q leaves Countryside Northwest of Colonial Bay and enters Sky Above Harrisburg.