Riverside 17

[DoomITP]

By The River

Desulus tilts his head, utterly confused by what future Jinkei had said.

That makes absolutely no sense what so ever.

[Cyber Punk]

By The River

Jinkei laughs. "Depends on perspective, dear Desulus."

BRIIIIING! That's an alarm clock going off in Jinkei's robe.

She takes it out and looks at it. "Well, time for me to go back. Various reasons, one of which is that you might want to replace young-me with me-me; to which I'll say 'patience, dear'."

She pockets the clock and begins to fade away. "Oh, how could I forget? I thought my memory problems were a thing of the past." Then her gaze turns serious. "Apologize to Alex for me, will ya? I only know of her existence from time-hopping, so young-me will have no memory of her existence."

Before she fades into nothingness, she waits for an answer.

[DoomITP]

By The River

Des just nods to Jinkei before he turns into a massive swarm of bats before her eyes and flies off towards his home.

[Lady Serpentine]

[River]

Lion. An odd name for one so quiet... Still. When a pretty girl sits down by him, he should at least say hello. Even if she does have four arms and a stingered tail.

[Cyber Punk]

[River]

Lyov the doll-like gentleman cyborg turns his head and appraises the pretty girl beside him.

"Top of the morning to you, lady." He looks at her two extra arms for a long moment, then resumes watching the river.

[Lady Serpentine]

[River]

"Top 'v th' mornin' t' you too, mate," Tirya replies, stealing from her Aunt to reply with a strong Scottish accent. "What brings y'out 'ere today?"

[Cyber Punk]

[River]

"Nothing in particular. Seeing as man is derived from nature, a man must appreciate nature now, mustn't he?" Lyov replies with his strong upperclass British accent. He turns his head on his thick cord-like neck to face her, his one human eye and his electronic orb of an eye looking at her again, especially focusing on that stinger.

"That's quite a stinger, young lady." He absentmindedly adjusts the monocle over his robotic golden eye, not that he needs to, it's fixed in place, much like his hat.

[Ashen Lilies]

[Westside]

The ankh isn't itself enchanted and it's components and the materials they're made of are unimportant to it's function. Instead it's meant to symbolize a pact with some type of outsider and the cultist. This entity is now acting through the ankh, rejecting all other outsiders nearby. Destroying it or heavily altering it's form would probably break this pact.

[Westside]

The stray demon ponders this information. Interesting. It would have to gather more information later. 'Later' being in about 15 seconds. Of course first it would have to solve the immediate problem of removing the ankh. Thankfully, the demon's skillset is rather well-suited for this task. The cloud of crystals whirls around, forming a geometric lattice above the fallen cultist, with the largest crystal in the center. Said crystal glows briefly, and a ray of intense heat shoots out of it, attempting to melt the ankh. This could be a little painful, of course, since as far as I know contact with molten metal tends negatively impact the structural integrity of human flesh.

[Darkcomet]

((I HAVE BEEN FAR TOO DISTRACTED BY THIS SHINY NEW COMPUTER AND GAMES, AND APOLOGIZE FOR THE INCONVENIENCE))

[EI Headquarters]

"Possibly. You'll have to do that, the system was devised to draw out energy and has some mild conversion of it, but there's a limit to how much we can store. So, I think my team should start with the withdraw while we work on connecting it to a portal so we don't have that transfer problem. Does that plan suit you?"

Archibald turns to look at his team, who has just finished putting the device, now the size of a small desk together.

"Uh...if you can't get it linked to a portal, we do have some parts lying around. Basically rechargeable batteries without the power absorbers. Might be able to link them into your system and give it more capacity." The technician is kind of out of his league here, but he's trying to help all the same.

[Power Plant]

Spoiler: All The Power Plant Stuff

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As they fly over the beacon of the false sun, the stranger guides his bat forward alongside Szzy, raising his voice above the wind as he gestures to the space in the air where the nearest gunship is hidden. "Get inside as quickly as you can. I will attempt to weaken them for when we must escape." And at that he kicks the spurs again, driving the ridge of the saddle forward to push his stead into a sudden drop towards the craft below. He slides himself forward to perch upon the stead's back with only his feet, remaining impossibly balanced as he tugs sharply on the reign, twisting the bat until the beast is forced to ignore instinct and twist into a rolling dive -

In the moment he crosses overhead the craft, whatever force holds him there vanishes, and for a brief instant the Harlequin is visible as he tumbles down towards the helm. The monowire blades spring out in a thin glitter of metal, one, two, three, his rolling fall allowing them to score a triangle out upon the armor below, each lash as powerful as a gunshot. As he rights himself in the air he draws his weapons, and brings the blade crashing down the weakened segment. The bare metal is wrapped in a forcefield, lending an impossible force to the blow, just as his belt allows him the perfect balance to land crouched within, gun already turning towards the nearest of the pilots.

Or so one would hope.

It would be less impressive if he bounced off, fell down, and went splatto.

[The Skies => The Power Plant]

Sszinyon maneuvers his bat down and around the shuttles, relying on the bat's echolocation to spot and avoid them. Once below their level of flight, the drow puts the false sun above them and turns his bat into a tight spiral, aiming to land on the roof of the central building. There he will quickly disengage from the saddle and jump to the roof, landing on silent feet. A few clicks should calm the bat and keep it immobile while the others disembark. The drow's free hand has drawn his repeating hand crossbow, and holds it ready against any unexpected enemies who might interfere before the others are off of the bat.

[Power Plant]

"Ooohoho," says Caesa in Sszy's ear as they descend, "Is his grace not lovely, devouring spirit?" Her eyes flick to the eldar as he begins playing havoc with the sky.

Once they've made ground, or roof as it may be, Caesa disembarks with no great haste. She slides down the bat's side on her bum and slaps the concrete with her bare feet. She wiggles her toes, and enjoys the last of High places that she'll likely find occasion to travel for a short while. Even a few minutes inside the houses of Men (though this place was a house of power, not people) would be utter misery, but she would stomach it nevertheless.

The witch raises her hooded head to look about. Whether she's already under fire or not may make some difference in how quickly that occurs. The staff Splinter steadies her stature as she sways in the wind.

Power Plant

The cat slides softly off the bat as it lands, looking around for any entrance on the roof that might be gotten into.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Hope I'm not cutting anyone off - it's getting a tad confusing with everyone here.

Okay.

That happened.

Let's...split this into two for clarity.

[Power Plant - Jump The Shuttle]

This is what many would call impossible. The coordination, agility, and precision required to jump off a moving flyer, hit an aircraft with three knives tossed with the force of gunshots, hit the weakened area of armor with a power sword after the drop, when both the flying creature being jumped from and the aircraft are in motion, in the air, and the individual attempting the feat CANNOT NATURALLY FLY are inhuman to a vast degree.

It is good, then, that such absurd feats of graceful acrobatics and agility are the hallmark of every branch of the Eldar species, from the most haughty Craftworlder to the most twisted child of Commorragh, and especially the strange, theatrical Harlequins. The antigravity tech helps too.

The Harlequin lands in the middle of an oddly large compartment, the shuttle's layout holding the troop compartment directly behind the pilot. As the troops have already deployed, fortunately this doesn't end up with him in the middle of a bunch of angry megacorporate commandos with lasers, not that dealing with angry commandos with lasers would likely be new to him, and perhaps not even angry megacorporate commandos with lasers if he'd dealt with Rogue Traders and their private armies before.

That being said, the pilot inside seems remarkably unperturbed by this development.

"Boarded by single unknown assailant. Activate the autopilot and lock out my controls."

He doesn't even look back as he's about to be shot.

[Power Plant - Rooftop]

People are on the roof! Nothing jumps out at them yet. There's a helipad up here and an entrance as well, yet it's seemingly unguarded. This should come across as bizarre to anyone with half a brain-if there's a helipad here, it's perhaps the most valuable point for the Syndicate themselves, since it's ideal for evacuation if they decide to leave. They wouldn't just leave it unguarded.

Yet, as far as the normal cloak-piercing here can tell, there is no one up here, and definitely no shuttles.

Proceed with caution.

[Artemis97]

[Power Plant - Rooftop]

"Something is not right here." Sszinyon says quietly to the others. He scans the roof, looking for a ladder or stairs leading down, though he could simply walk down the side of the building without trouble, he did not wish to leave his companions behind. "This should be guarded by someone." Was it that his spells couldn't pierce their tech? Wouldn't the echolocation pick up on them? The drow closed his eyes for a moment and honed his other senses, scent, sound, feeling, to search for what should be there. If nothing is found, he'll move forward to descend from the roof. If there were people up here, well, things were about to get bloody.

[ThePhantom]

(Oh, I have done that before myself. Don't sweat it, DC.)

[EI Headquarters]

"That will be good. Looks like we are ready to link in, so if you can find those that will be good. Also, can you point out where the cables are exactly, we want to connect into them well. A direct connection works better."

The team takes out a cable from the device, a drill-like attachment on the end of it.

[Gullara]

Fourth Tower Complex

"Just some stupid fear demon holed up in Eastside. It must be feeding off of the populace's emotions here. I had been waiting for Malechenar to give Sticks the resources to fight it, but apparently they're extremely slow to meet threats. Let's go." Tep says, waving a hand towards the entrance they came from.

Fourth Tower Complex

"To be honest? This entire city strikes me to be like that. Just... doesn't respond promptly."

Kate, of course, doesn't really know what all is going on inside of Riverside, so she has improper information. Kate will pack up quickly and follow Tep if he leads.

[Fourth Tower Complex]

After they've left, Vax returns! "I talked to-" She cuts off as she enters the room. Hm, now where did they go? She pokes around the rest of the building, but turns up nothing. Oh well, she will just have to go back to being bored.

[Murkus]

[Power Plant - Roof]

A rather swollen murder of crows flits and wheels around the facility, moving from place to place as they scout guard positions. They should at least be able to warn the witch Caesa if someone is about to climb over the roof's side or appear from further below the edge.

Unfortunately, they cannot help her inside. She looks at the door on the edge of the helipad with distaste and a curl of her lip.

"Walk warily, o demon," Caesa intones, walking a bit behind with her hood dipped low over her face. She glances down at their friend the cat as they move, but doesn't strike up a conversation. Hardly seems the time now, doesn't it?

Provided nothing explodes, opens fire, or jumps out at them, she'll proceed through the doorway second in line, sparing one last glance toward the sky for their friend the court jester.

[Shadowcaller]

[Malechenar Castle - The Gardens]

Archie and his big mouth!

Ezra nods and looks at the heads apologetically. "I intended to tell Lihana, oh my, yes! I'm in an open relationship with two human women. I-- please, just let me see her, I'll explain everything, oh my!"

[Westside]

The stray demon ponders this information. Interesting. It would have to gather more information later. 'Later' being in about 15 seconds. Of course first it would have to solve the immediate problem of removing the ankh. Thankfully, the demon's skillset is rather well-suited for this task. The cloud of crystals whirls around, forming a geometric lattice above the fallen cultist, with the largest crystal in the center. Said crystal glows briefly, and a ray of intense heat shoots out of it, attempting to melt the ankh. This could be a little painful, of course, since as far as I know contact with molten metal tends negatively impact the structural integrity of human flesh.

[Malechenar Castle - The Gardens]

Ekene seems to consider this for a moment. "What about this, she probably needs to be left alone a while. So if you promise to leave her alone, I'll promise she'll talk to you in a number of days. Depending how she feels."

[Westside]

Under those 15 seconds the cultist have attempted to slowly drag himself towards the backdoor of the building. "Maybe we can make a de-" The cultist is about to say when the beam suddenly hits the ankh which melts in a instance and causes the cultist to scream loudly in pain as his hands.

There is another notable thing happening at the same time however. One of the dead cultists seem to... shrink underneath her robe. Soon disappearing completely as the robe slowly sinks down to nothing. That's odd.

[Fourth Tower Complex]

((I'm not sure what to do here now. I was gonna post but now... ))

[Cyber Punk]

[Malechenar Castle - The Gardens]

"Of course, oh my. I'll give her as much time as she needs. And... tell her I'm sorry."

Then Ezra leaves to go run his bar, spending his free time doing some more research and macking with his ladies.

[Deathkeeper]

Parking Lot

Krayger will arrive as Dipsnig requested, armed and ready. He isn't entirely sure what to expect, but well, here he is.

[ThirdEmperor]

[Power Plant - Jump the Shuttle]

He plants a shot in the pilot's back, the pistol sheering off a razor thin segment of crystalline plastisteel and flicking it forward via magnetic rail. It glitters like a sharp little rainbow scything through the back of the seat and the flesh beyond. He lifts his arm and the monowire whips spring out, rending open the left side of the shuttle and tearing the wing away. Three more shots, into the heart of the control panels, aiming to break the connections by which the craft is being remotely piloted.

With any luck, that'll leave it crashing towards the courtyard below.

But the Harlequin has his own ride. Grabbing hold of the ragged edge of the roof, he jackknifes himself up in one neat motion, landing atop the shuttle as it begins to lurch groundwards. His eyes scan the skies for a second - for the bat, turning faithful circles in the air above as it waits for him to return..

Another leap and he's gone from sight, covered by the beast's cloak.

[Ashen Lilies]

[Westside]

Under those 15 seconds the cultist have attempted to slowly drag himself towards the backdoor of the building. "Maybe we can make a de-" The cultist is about to say when the beam suddenly hits the ankh which melts in a instance and causes the cultist to scream loudly in pain as his hands.

There is another notable thing happening at the same time however. One of the dead cultists seem to... shrink underneath her robe. Soon disappearing completely as the robe slowly sinks down to nothing. That's odd.

The Stray Demon does not notice this development, being more preoccupied with reshaping its 'material form', the metallic humanoid figure rising up intimidatingly through the ground in front of the cultist. It attempts to grab the cultist by the front of the chest, lifting him bodily up to face it, glassy black eyes pushing through the metal to resurface on the front of its head, gleaming like mirrors.
"What manner of being were you attempting to summon, mortal? Whom do you serve?"

[Morty]

[Parking Lot]

Once there, Krayger will see Dipsnig approaching the parking lot slowly. Viima is doing the same, from the opposite direction. He'll also receive a text message.

Approach from the other side. We need to box them in. I don't think they know we're her yet.

[Shadowcaller]

[Westside]

The man is still screaming in pain as his whole body shakes as the demon lifts him up. His hand clutching the damaged hand. "Fiends! We were summoning fiends! Suns! It's Malechenar, we're trying to save the city!" He claims.

A lump underneath the empty-looking poncho on the floor which previously held the cultist suddenly starts moving.

[Stick's Shop]

There is a knock on the door and if it's opened it's not only one, but three ladies outside! Zhareen waves. "Hello! Sorry to burst in like this but we're in a bit of a hurry." She grins widely.

[Deathkeeper]

Parking Lot

Krayger gives an "understood" hand-signal to Dipsnig, and backs up onto the street around the lot, heading around to the opposite side nonchalantly.

[Gullara]

[Stick's Shop]

Behind her is Vax, and for once she looks actually concerned. "We have some matters of importance to discuss." She says to hurry things along. She'll let Zhareen get around to the actual topic at hand, however.

[Ionbound]

[Stick's Shop]

And behind Vax is Kanya, who peers nervously forwards and asks, "Is this the place, Zareen?"

[Ashen Lilies]

[Westside]

The man is still screaming in pain as his whole body shakes as the demon lifts him up. His hand clutching the damaged hand. "Fiends! We were summoning fiends! Suns! It's Malechenar, we're trying to save the city!" He claims.

A lump underneath the empty-looking poncho on the floor which previously held the cultist suddenly starts moving.

[Westside]

"Hmm." Says the Stray Demon, considering the cultist's claim. "Unlikely."
It flexes an arm, casually tossing the man against a wall with considerable strength. Several crystals hover towards the dropped sword, lifting it and bringing it back towards the Stray Demon as it turns, done with the cultist. Of course, now it notices the moving lump underneath the robes of the other cultist.
"Hmm..."

[Murkus]

[Stick's Shop]

A voice will instead echo from within, beyond the decorative door, beside which gleams the viewing window that occupies much of the shop's front. The window is emblazoned with the words The Toy Tinker in wavy red and gold.

"The door is open."

The shop is a small place, occupying just the majority of the building's first story. Three shelves lie parallel with the doorway, each laden with an endless variety of clockwork amusements. Similar animal toys, startling in their lifelike appearance, dangle from wires over the ladies' heads. The place has seen a shred of trouble recently, it would seem. There's still remnants of a dent in the lefthand wall, and strange orange stains in the floorboards that have yet to fade.

Sticks, he of dark skin and glass eyes, sits very quietly behind his small counter at the opposite end of the store.The tall man is dressed in a simple sleeveless work tunic and trousers, his bruise-blue, runeworked arms bare to the light and the eyes of his patrons. His left arm gives way at the elbow to a steel appendage, ending in a vicious clawed hand.

His patchwork cloak hangs from a hook to his right, within arms reach. Vax and Zhareen will have seen him with it before.

Sticks turns his thin nose and wide gaze upon the trio. "Oh my. I had hoped for some word of your coming," The tall man doesn't move from his stool, but places the wand he was tinkering at on the counter before him. The ladies have his full attention. "Vax, Zhareen... and..." The tall man shifts a little uncomfortably. "A young lady I am afraid I'm unfamiliar with."

[ThirdEmperor]

[Museum Lot]

The Burglar sniffs at the air - and suddenly he's grabbing for Cybil's arm and trying to pull her back, between the concrete bulwark of the sunken parking lot and the fender of a parked car. He crouches there, pressed to the wall of the ramp that leads down, as Dipsnig comes rushing by on his wolf and the stomp of Krayger's hooves follows on the street above. Not a breath. Not a sound.

And he's well-acquainted enough with guard dogs to be masked beneath a good scrub of scentless antiseptic soap.

He glances to Cybil, and nods his head to the sound of voices, an unspoken question. He's not going to fight them.

[Darkcomet]

[Power Plant - Jump the Shuttle]

The other aircraft still don't seem able to see where the Harlequin is, thanks to the cloak, but they did get to see where he was going, which is why the air is suddenly filled with heavy, rapid laser fire from one of the other shutles, sprayed indiscriminately in the general direction where the xeno-clown-ninja went.

"Was that some kind of..."

"Cloaking shuttle-killing clown?"

"Yes."

"...Yes."

"They can't blow that thing fast enough."

[Power Plant - Rooftop]

This is the part where it gets weird. Nothing is initially sensed on the rooftop, and the others are much more focused on the chaos unfolding with the party's friend the elf clown. But as they head inside, a single Syndicate commando spontaneously materializes right behind them, utterly silently, where one would be pretty sure they weren't there before at all. And indeed, perhaps they weren't, based on the party's failure to detect them, though that would be extremely odd considering the standard defenses against teleportation and the like here.

As the soldier is about to fire, a telepathic warning suddenly blares in the team's heads, as if another were watching, assuming their minds are open to telepathic messages, anyway.

Behind you.

[EI Headquarters]

"The plant's been disconnected from the power grid in preparation for the switch to the new system, so you won't be able to do too much based on that," the technician explains, even as others run by to go try to rig the device they're working on with the empty batteries to give it more storage capacity.

[Shadowcaller]

[Stick's Shop]

"This is Kanya, she's a firath, a 'fire vampire'." Zhareen introduces her. "And she needs your help. But first there are more urgent matters at hand. The hospital demon has broken loose and has uh, taken over the compound. And if it can move there it's safe to assume it could appear pretty much anywhere in the city. I don't think I need to tell you how serious this is." The merperson smiles nervously.

[Museum Lot]

Cybil is dragged to the Burglar, giving him a confused look as their gazes meet. She points up and whispers. "Gobling, capture?" To be fair, Cybil has never met a goblin before. She doesn't know how to pronounce the name properly!

[Westside]

The cultist is thrown into the wall and sinks into a heap on the floor. He doesn't scream so he at least fell unconscious by that hit. He might be dead though.

As for the bundle on the floor, a tiny black creature with horns and a big nose that looks remarkably like an wing-less imp sneaks out from the cultists poncho and towards the door. It isn't until it suddenly stops and looks back that it notices the demon looking at it. "Uh, can I help you?" It asks in a feminine voice with a nervous smile, standing completely still on the floor even if it's eyes are clearly darting around looking for a way to escape.

[Morty]

[Museum Lot]

Dipsnig pushes the visor of his head-gear into his right eye, and closes the left one. He scans his surroundings in heat-vision and picks up two signatures hiding behind a car. Yes, that's them. He circles around the car in a wide arc, finishing his movement in a long leap - surprisingly long, given his short goblin legs - and firing twice. The bolts fly true towards Cybin and the Burglar. Upon striking a solid surface, they'll explore into an ooze that will harden on contact with air.

[Gullara]

[Stick's Shop]

"Serious enough that we shouldn't bother with making this toy for Ryhe and let us handle this mess." Vax gives Sticks an irritated look. It's not really his fault, but he gets to be the object of her ire anyway. "We could handle this situation just fine otherwise."