Log:Berlin Day Trip to the Museum

Rescuing the Wolfguard Kids 2009/05/05 	 Sable Silver Spider Gemini 1

German War Museum at Berlin. Panzer Display Building.
The Military Museum at Berlin Karlshorst has a StuG (SturmGeschütz) 150mm SPG that was part of a SS section embedded in the 73rd Panzer Division.

Chandrika turns to Regan with a grin. "Well, let's hope they don't mind a little chaos in their evening. Do you want to do a daytime visit or a nighttime penetration?"

Regan says, "Let's check it out during the day, then go back at night."

Chandrika nods. "That was my thought, too. Unless we can sit in the howitzer and mount a distraction. Can you fire a howitzer? It's just a question. Because I can't."

Regan smiles and shakes her head, :Not a skill I've dedicated a lot of time to developing."

Chandrika sighs. "Drat. By the way, you're in the lead, honey. I speak four words of German. Spaten, Volkswagen, Grolsch and Panzer. That's it."

Chandrika nods. "In we go. At least I'm not in the situation anymore where if I paid for this museum ticket, I'd be fried for two weeks."

Regan's shoulders lift. "I can teach you how to say 'my name is Chandrika, obey me or die." She smiles. "It's what passes fro polite introductions in Germany."

It's a pleasant day for a tour around the museum. The entrance is flanked by a pair of monuments to the fallen in the first and second world wars. The incriptions on the monuments dedicates them to all the fallen, not just those of a given nationality.

Chandrika nods to Regan. "You've got to be kidding." She cackles madly. "Does everyone in this country wear jackboots and have a world dominating cape?" She digs into the brochure for a map.

The ticket seller speaks English which makes the transaction easier. She offers a catalogue and guidebook.

Regan purchases both map and brochure, smiling and thanking the ticket seller in accented German. She then moves through the museum at Chandrika's side, paying close attention to the security system protecting the various exhibits, camera coverage and so on.

Chandrika turns to Regan. "Whatever you do, we cannot let them see us. It will look awful suspicious if we're here and they do. Fortunately, they're trying to do this without casualties, which means a night time approach, more than likely." She sighs. "Come on, let's look over the catalogue. We'll have to do a searcharound and make it look like we're not headed straight for it. This is Baron Butthead's territory. He's probably got goons everywhere."

Chandrika thinks. o O (It just occurred to me that Wolfguard could send people here too now that they know the Baron's game. This could get very messy. And the Wolfguard don't care about casualties.)

The museum is moderately busy, people strolling around the outdoor exhibits, buying snacks and drinks and icecreams from the vendors and looking at the items of military hardware on display.

As she meanders through the compound Regan smiles and comments softyly. "Do you remember how inconspicuous our friends could be when they wanted to be?"

To the knowledgable observer it's clear there are a few people walking around the building who don't have tourism on their minds. They try to hide it but they are too alert and are watching everyone. Really, they might as well have 'extra security' signs hovering over their heads.

* * BLAM * *

* * BOOM * *

Chandrika nods. "They're very sneaky. But like all tourists with cameras, they still take up space." She smiles a little bit. "What the?" Her eyes widen. "That sounded bad. We need to get to that gun." She looks around for a place to change.

Fortunately, this area is filled with tanks and other enclosed military equipment.

Explosions echo across the grounds of the museum. The public address system squeals and then a voice in badly accentuated German comes over the speakers, "War is evil. We, the Militant Anti-War Front of Oppressed People, have taken over the museum. No longer will we accept this glamorization of warfare. Leave now. You have five minutes to depart before we blow up every exhibit."

The site of the explosions is obvious from the plumes of smoke rising form two buildings. A storage building on the west side of the museum and the Panzer Display building.

Chandrika rolls her eyes. "The security booth. They're in it." She mutters. "We need to buy time and make a mess of things." She turns to Regan quietly. "Can you find someone with a cigarette pouch and a lighter? Light the whole box? Pick a pocket if you have to."

The fire alarms start ringing, adding to the confusion. There's shouting and yelling, parents screaming for their children to stay with them as the crowds start rushing for the exits.

Chandrika thinks. o O (The Militant Anti-War Front of Oppressed People, huh? I should beat the hell out of them just for thinking of that.)

Chandrika turns to Regan. "Change now, find the gun..." She says quietly. "They'll be looking for it too. Hurry." She keeps looking for a place to change and looking at the brochure and the map.

Regan's lips purse as she quickly glances left and right, assessing her surroundings for a second or two, eava as she backs toward a nearby tank.

Regan smoothly bends and slips under the vehicle, and quickly changes, using her balance and flexibility to quickly don her armour and emerge at the rear of the tank.

Chandrika allows herself to be pulled along with the crowd for a little bit. When she passes by something with tracks that can be rolled under, she slips aside as a security camera turns and rolls underneath it so she can change.

The museum officials, and the security people you spotted earlier, are trying to keep the crowds orderly. They have no time or attention to spare to notice people trying to duck out of sight.

Silver Spider rolls out from under the tank on the other side and extends a webline. "No time to do this fancy..." She mutters. "They probably set the distraction and are already making their way towards the gun. And they can lift everything in the building..." She mutters. "Terrain favors them. Come and get me, kids. In a rematch without rules, this is highly unfriendly..."

As Silver Spider and Sable approach the building they can see there's no obvious damage from any explosion. In fact smoke is pouring out of upper floor windows but there's no flickering light from flames visible there.

Silver Spider swings forward towards the building. "Well, they're certainly going to a lot of trouble to convince people that they're being attacked by terrorist comedians." She mutters as she swings forward. "We have to get that armor piece. If we have it, and can rescue the kids, both sides have to come to us."

Sable switches to Cantonese. << I'm going to leap in through the upper window.>> With that she springs skyward, twisting while in mid-air to swing her booted feet to smash through the window she has chosen as her point of entry.

Silver Spider swings forward and smashes through the window nearest the gun. o O (They like distraction and deception, and I'm not fazed by the smoke, so let's play this live...) She plants her boots forward and hurtles forward, punching through the glass at the last minute.

When Silver Spider crashes through a wondow into the ground floor she finds the entire ground level of the building is a single chamber with exhibits on display. Many vintage panzers of varying sizes and models from the center-piece, a King Tiger, down to two man armored cars.

Silver Spider curses and looks around for 150 mm guns, keeping her eyes peeled as she stalks through the exhibits. o O (Oh, god, it could be a mobile one. That would be bad.)

The ground floor is free of smoke. And shows no sign of any damage. The StuG is on a display stand on the east side of the hall. Sitting on top of it is one of the twins in activated force armor. There's the sound of tearing metal coming from the open topped gunner's compartment.

The twin has weapons in hand. A wenergy whip, except the device in her hand is larger and glowing more brightly than the one you've seen her using in the past. In her other hand is a short crystal rod also glowing.

Silver Spider stays low, flicking her gaze to the displays, trying to see what matches the picture she saw on the screen. o O (This could be so bad. Our research is bull!@#$!, there's little hope, except to hit her.) "You don't want to do that." She calls out. "Because if you do that, I'm going to have to fight you. And without your sister, you're toast. I need that piece. I suggest you stop robbing museums. Please don't give me the "Don't try to stop me" speech. You could have easily just asked me and said "Help me, Silver Spider, I need a plan."

Amber nods. "You're right. I don't want to do it. But I have no choice. Hi, Silver. I guessed if anyone would figure it out it would either be you or Jade." She looks poised and ready, "You're going to try and stop me and I cant let you. Wish it didn't have to come to this but I guess neither of us can back down."

Silver Spider shakes her head. "That's a mistake. You sacrificed an optimal plan for a suboptimal one, and you didn't even see it. Now I'll have to take it.

Sable rolls smothly through the window, tumbling back to a low crouch and swiftly picking her way to a stair well or observation platform that will give hera view of the floor below, all the while making good use of the visual cover on offer.

Amber swings up the glowing crystal rod into line with Silver Spider as the dexterous heroine swings towards the self propelled gun. A rippling wave of pulsed energy emerges speading in a narrow cone as Amber fires the weapon.

Silver Spider thinks. o O (Dammit. I didn't think the Baron would arm them. That was a mistake.)

Silver Spider looks up. "Nice toys. Did the Baron give you a free hairstyle job and some jackboots to wear too?" She rolls to her feet. "This is going to be a little harder than I thought."

The pulse of energy passes Silver Spider as she dives clear and goes on to impact against the side of a armored car, the vehicle is hurled violently back against the wall of the building.

Silver Spider thinks. o O (Great. She's got a pulse gun. And there's two of them. I need to think this through. Get the pulse gun away from her, or bring the tank to me...it's got treads. This could work.)

Silver Spider thinks. o O (Two bodies, one mind.)

Silver Spider thinks. o O (Hopefully, Sable was close enough to hear me when I taunted her about the gun.)

Sable's knees flex to spring her in a graceful arc from the head of the stairs to the top of the tank's canopy. While in the air she cocks a gloved fist, using every last ounce of her weight to lend energy to the impact.

Amber goes flying back off the top of the StuG.

Amber slams into another exhibit with a thud. Disorientated by the impact but fully aleart and conscious she grins, "You're getting better, Sable. I didn't expect you. Silver never normally calls for backup."

Sable's fist strikes powerfully at the twin's centre of mass, thumping solidly against the force webbing but hitting hard enough to throw Amber off her feet.

Silver Spider shakes her head. "The plan was to steal it, find a local tech expert, and make a quick dummy so that you would take it back to the Baron." She said fiercely. "If you had come to see me first, we could have run that scam on him all day, and then he would come to us. Sadly, we no longer have that option."

Azure is crouched in the open topped gun compartment. She was engaged in tearing up the floor of the vehicle. Now she looks up at Sable, "Hi." Her energy whip lashes out, and past Sable's head. It curls over to the tank that stopped Amber's knockback and curls around the main gun barrel. The StuG's tracked suspension creaks and groans with excessive load as Azure's whip *lifts* the other tank into the air and then, almost gently, lowers it down on top of Silver Spider.

The tank is lowered onto Silver Spider. Not slammed down, just lowered carefully. But Silver is now under 65 tones of vintage but still impressive main battle tank.

Silver Spider looks up at the tank. o O (They're getting smarter. I can't move up....oh, well...better than destroying a priceless artifact...This museum is going to hate me. They're SO gonna hate me.) She turns her hands down against the ground and charges up her hands. "Sable, hit her again! Just keep after her! Don't give her a moment's pause! Everything's still on schedule!"

The floor of the exhibition hall is BLASTED away by the tremendous power of Silver Spider's bio-energy. She's free to fall to the basment floor. Unfortunately, such is the sheer power of the blast enough of the floor is damaged and weakened that the tank is starting to follow.

Silver Spider thinks. o O (Eep? I must have hit a pillar support)

Silver Spider begins falling downwards towards the basement floor, plummeting into darkness.

Sable's lips purse slightly as the twin in the tank displays nearly incredible strength but she leaps after the one she hit previously, her fist once again curling into a tightly clenched fist that swings in a vicious arc toward the fallen twin's solar plexus.

Amber slides on her butt several meters back along the floor from Sable's blow.

Sable's weight dips, knees flexing slightly to lend more fore to the impact, her hair bouncing on her cheeks from the force of the blow.

Silver Spider drops into a three point stance below the creaking, listing tank, and looks up as the massive weight begins splitting the floor above her. o O (Chandi-girl, you are !@#$#!ed!)

Amber looks at Sable, "You're getting pretty good. Too good for me to take chances. I'm really sorry, Sable." She shoulder springs back onto her feet and brings up the truster rod keeping it set to narrow cone as she fires it at Sable.

Azure lashes out with her energy whip a moment later at Sable, the lash curling up and around to strike at Sable as she is slammed into the self propelled gun. The end of the whip is curled away from Sable though, ensuring its the side of the lash and not the sharp tip that will strike.

Sable adjusts her footing slightly ahead of the blast from the first twin but takes the impact which hurls her slight form bodily backward, thumping her like a ragdoll into the side of the tank. Despite the force of the impact Sable however rolls to her feet.

Just in time to be smashed by the blow from the other twin which, despite her best efforts, catches her fair in the chest and crushes her backward against the floor.

Sable's inert form skitters across the floor and lies utterly still.

Silver Spider leaps out of the way of the creaking, falling tank, and takes aim at the spot where the gun is supposed to be, praying it hasn't moved. o O (I hope she's all right up there.) She lifts her hands and fires at the floor under the tank, trying to keep herself in a position where she can't be easily reached through the hole. She sticks to the wall and fires a blast at the already weakened floor.

Behind Silver Silver 65 tones of main battle tank smashes down into the basement floor where she was stood a moment before. Bits of basement ceiling blast away from the spot Silver Spider targeted. The floor of the exhibition hall is reinforced but with the damage that's been done, plus the 55 tones of StuG sitting on it, the weakened ceiling/floor gives way. Down comes self propelled gun, Azure, and Sable, in a mass of broken rubble and twisted reinforcement beams.

Azure says, "Yikes!"

Twisting as it falls, one track catching against the side of the hole in the floor, the StuG slams down inverted trapping Azuve under the gun.

Amber moves over to the hole in the floor and looks down. "Ouch. That hurt. I never expected that. Nice move." she calls down to Silver Spider.

Silver Spider blinks. "Sabe?" She looks over at Sable, and then at Azure and Amber. "This...needs to end. Soon." Her eyes turn narrow, and her muscles tense. It's liquid and roiling rage locked into a single point. "You...you CAUSED this. You didn't LISTEN. You didn't trust your friends. Pray, pray to every god you know that she's okay. Because if she's not..."

Azure holds her action for now to see what Silver Spider's next move will be. . o O(Commit and then I'll take advantage of your restricted combat options).

Amber says, "If you want to see how Sable is I'll not attack you. You can leave. But I don't expect you to do that. And this is /why/ I didn't tell anyone. I didn't want any of my friends involved on this side of the business."

Silver Spider shakes her head. "Teamwork wins. Loners lose." She says fiercely. "We'll see the truth of that in about four seconds, I think...Let's play ball..." She runs over to the tank and punches a hole in the bottom, grabbing for the piece inside. It's a risk, but she's got to try it, and the tank is probably already damaged from the fall...

There's a sound of ripping tearing metal from inside the gun as Azure rips at the floor with her whip.

Silver Spider can see a hole in the floor of the gun from Azure, and a larger hole from her own blash. And inside the compartment is a secondary power unit for a battle suit. Not an essential part but one that would dramatically increase the power and effectiveness of the battle suit for which it is designed.

Silver Spider curses. "Not a helmet." She mutters. "I really could have used the helmet." She extends a webline. "You know, I really ought to thank you girls. Because you told me something about how you fight, and that means that this is totally, and completely winnable. Because I don't have to fight you, and I know you won't hurt Sable. o O (Using my own girlfriend as leverage to win a fight. If they knew, they'd appreciate this in some sick, twisted way.) She shoots webbing out of both hands, trying to snag Sable with one hand and the component with the other, and slingshot herself out of there with the goods, as far away and around a corner for cover as she can get...

. o O(The power supply first, then Sable, in a 20" swinging grab-by. They told me how to beat them. Just stay out of range. And if they can't catch up to me, they lose the component.)

Silver Spider whips upward, leaping as she extends a webline to the corner of the first floor of the museum and turns, shooting out two weblines at the power supply and Sable and reeling them in as their weight stretches her downward for a moment. Then, like a springlike, monstrous yo-yo, the whole thing snaps backward. She takes the component in her hand as she catches Sable around the waist, and whips around the corner in a smooth, liquid motion. "See ya!" She calls out. "Tell the Baron I have something he wants!"

Amber reacts as fast as she can but it's simply slower that Silver Spider. The truster rod comes up and fires at Silver Spider but at that range she has to set it to narrow beam and hitting a moving target at range has never been the twin's strong point. A section of wall gets punched out near the retreating heroine but Silver Spider is untouched. "I'll pass the mesaage on, Silver. And tell Sable I'm really sorry." For someone who's just lost the entire purpose of their visit here Amber doesn't look unhappy. In fact she's grinning with delight.

Silver Spider thinks. o O (And I'll tell Wolfguard I have something the Baron wants. I'm choosing this battlefield. And we're going to win.)

Silver Spider vaults away, extending a webline as she struggles with her burden. "This is going to be a colossal brawl..." She mutters. "We need to do this in the Ozarks. That's the only way..." She murmurs under her breath as she swings away. "We have ninjas and martial artists. And the only thing I want these guys to see...is each other..."

Silver Spider shakes Sable as she leaps and swings away. "Hey! Sable? Sable?" She gives her a little cuddle and a peck on the cheek. "Look what we got..."

Sable is unresponsive for a disturbingly long time before finally she starts to recover her senses in. She raises a hand to her forehead, her eyelids fluttering but barely opening. She just groans.

Silver Spider turns to Sable. "Now, we have our plan, and our distraction. Now a lot of those Wolfguard people will have to leave." She grins. "Because we're going to tell them that we have this, and then when they come to get this, that's when the team will go in to rescue the kids."

Sable nods weakly, though even that movement seems to hurt and she looks from Chandrika to the part and back. "You won." She says weakly.