Celestia's Finest: Comrades in Arms

[DigoDragon]

silent Comm(Love &Brazen): 'Ok, we gotta act. I make a distraction to draw his fire, you two zap him unconscious.'

[Elbeyon]

Scomm (Rose/Brazen), "Alright, let's make a plan. Rose, how about you make that distraction. He'll be able to see the illusions are magic. Brazen and I will put flight on us. Everything will look magical. I try to jam up the place to cut off any remote signals. Him being remoteless. I can prep a timed Tangler grenade. Brazen and I charge in. Brazen gets all tricky with a," deceptive all-out, "grapple plus a splash of grenade. I fly in with him and if the anti-anti-tangler plan is working, apply some Tangler. If not, I can go for the grapple or get creative myself."

[D.KnightSpider]

Yeah. This was going to be 'fun'... in the full sarcastic sense of the word.

"No." Longshot provides no elaboration to Bristle's accusation. Extended comments would only provide distractions and snark fodder.

"We've some infiltraters that need ejected from the mental facility. Fire up the defenses and let's take our mind back."

[DigoDragon]

Rose preps some perfect illusions of herself, Love, and Brazen. The intent is to jump into the path like they're firing all together.


Spellcasting (3d6)[11] vs. 15

[Miltonian]

Longshot

"Oh is that all? I can't say I noticed." Bristle tosses the newspaper away and it vanishes. He turns and begins typing away at an invisible keyboard. "Alright, rebooting defenses. What have we got? Oh! Look at that." He looks up at Longshot. "Incoming."

"Incoming?" Rem repeats.

"Incoming," Bristle repeats, "Five seconds."


Party

The illusions are cast. It is time to rock and roll.

[DigoDragon]

Rose silently counts down from three two one... and she directs the illusions to jump the corner and open fire.

[Elbeyon]

Radar for traps.
Love casts Hawk Flight. Little wings pop up on her hoofs.
Love jams everything.
Love and Brazen are to approach with distance between them to avoid grenades (even starting spread out).
Love puts a grenade on a timer and hoofs it to Brazen's hoof. If he doesn't reach Longshot in time, he is to drop the Tangler so he doesn't bind himself.
Illusions first to draw fire. Random entry points into the tunnel.

Hopefully, Brazen grabs (or somethings) Longshot.
Love will be right there with him.

Spoiler: Rolls

Show

Hawk Flight
(3d6)[13]

Perception
(3d6)[13] vs 13 (Perception) +3 (Hyper)

Electronic Warfare (Love's Radio is Large; Longshot's should be Small)
(3d6)[12] vs 16 (Eletronic Warfare) +2 (Software)

All-out Attack

[userpay]

Possession? Brazen clicks his tongue. If they had simply swapped Longshot out that would have made things much easier yet possession presented some quandaries. "Ready when ya'll are." He says bringing forth the Hawk Flight spell installed in his armor. The grenade is in hoof then they're around the corner.

Wrestling (3d6)[7] vs 15

[Miltonian]

Main Party

Lasers rip through the illusions to no effect. Love jams the radio. Everything goes off almost without a hitch, save for one thing. When Brazen leaps onto where Longshot is hiding, the hijacked pegasus throws himself aside and barely rolls out of the way. However, he does not possess the same level of skill that Longshot does. And furthermore, in the confined space of the tunnel, he can't swing his weapon around and fire it immediately, so Brazen is spared getting lit up. Both Love and he are now in melee range and Rose has a clean shot at running up and joining them.

Then, the grenades goes off, catching Fakeshot in the blast. Love still has her action for this round and the next!

[D.KnightSpider]

"Oh is that all? I can't say I noticed." Bristle tosses the newspaper away and it vanishes.

Obviously not given the state of things.

"Incoming," Bristle repeats, "Five seconds."

"Better brace yourselves. Rem, if this gets nasty enough then get out of here." Longshot glances at 'Brazen'. "Better give me some help with this."

Longshot steps back to give himself some room. He concentrates on building a barrier around the control room so as to keep whatever is incoming...

Hmm...

Not so much as stop the incoming unknown so much as redirect it. Longshot attempts to reflect the 'incoming' so that it would reflect away from the control room instead of coming to a dead stop.

Spoiler: Roll-- If Needed

Show

Will
(3d6)[5][1][3](9) VS 13

[Elbeyon]

Love follows after the brazen Brazen rushing as he does across laser fire. She says out loud, "Longshot! We're coming for you buddy!"

A dodge from him. Not the best start. The Tangler seems to work! Instead of going to step 3b or 3c, she rushes in to grab the rifle in Longshot's hoofs.

[DigoDragon]

Rose turns the corner and moves to close in with the party.

[Elbeyon]

Love tries to get FakeShot to drop his weapon by squeezing his wrist.

Spoiler: Roll

Show

Drop Weapon! p. 370
(3d6)[11] vs 13 (Strength) +15 (Power Armor)

[Miltonian]

Main Party

Love rushes in and twists the rifle free from Longshot's hooves! Weaponless and caught in the tangler, he has no hope of victory now. A low chuckle comes from under his helmet. "Too late," he says, "Too late by far."

Then, he slumps over and goes limp.


Longshot

A shuddering impact shakes the control room...but nothing breaks though. A large dent is the only sign that something has tried to break in. A long, low laugh comes from outside.

"Today is your lucky day," the nightmare says, "It seems we no longer have a use for you. Besides, it's not like we had much of a chance of succeeding. We were only here to...delay you."

[DigoDragon]

Rose will eventually catch up. "Did you subdue him? I mean, looks like it, but...?" she asks.

[D.KnightSpider]

"Then cut the chit-chat and get out of my head." Longshot uses a drill seargeant's tone: authoritative, aggressive but not uncontrollably angry. "And take your little nut-job cultist with you."

Assuming that the Nightmare spoke the truth, then any Q&A would only increase the delay and help the Nightmare obtain his goal of delaying them.

[Elbeyon]

Love scowls at the taunt. "We'll chat later."

She yells back to Rose, "He seems to have gone unconscious!"

The sling on Love's chest relaxes as Love drops her rifle. She grabs a spraycan out of her bag and aims it at Brazen. She sprays his hex down with Anti-Tangler to free him while leaving her prisoner trapped.

She starts to fiddle with her jam so she can check her BotNet.

[Miltonian]

Main Party

Love frees Brazen and Longshot from the tangler without any issues. He, however, does not awaken. Love's BotNet returns in full force , just the way she left it. And it reports that not much has changed. This tunnel is still the way to go. However, they cannot just leave Longshot here. They will have to wake him somehow.


Longshot

"As you wish," the Nightmare says stuffily and fades away. The scene fades with it, leaving only him and Rem standing there, alone in the void between dreams.

"Well," Rem says, "Now you just have to...wake up, I guess."

[DigoDragon]

"Gone unconscious? Guess whatever possessed him delayed us long enough."

Rose will cast an Awaken spell on Longshot. "Someone hold him, just in case it's still not Longshot that gets up."


Awaken: (3d6)[10] vs. 15

[D.KnightSpider]

"Looks that way..."

Longshot takes a deep breath and exhales. Quite the wild ride, this was.

"Rem, thank you for being here. There probably would have been a very different outcome otherwise."

[Elbeyon]

She Scomms (EDF) while holding him, "That's what it looked like anyway. Brazen trapped him. I got his weapon away from him. We didn't harm him. Subdued, maybe."

Love SCANS him.

Love Scomms (EDF), "Good job, Brazen. Rose, that distraction was exactly what we needed. He said we were too late for something. BotNet isn't showing anything different. Maybe, he meant something deeper in the cave."

Love will put him into a proper efficient pin.

Love will start the slow tedious process of changing the security so that they're secure again. She is going to have to burn all the BugBots again.

[Miltonian]

Rem gives Longshot a warm smile. "Anytime. Just keep out of trouble in the future, hmm?" she says as she too fades and Longshot returns to the waking world.

---

Love's problem with security notwithstanding, for now the breach is sealed. Longshot will reawaken as himself, restrained but in control of his own body again. The SCAN confirms it, though whether or not it would have detected the body-jacker is unknown. It might have always said that Longshot is Longshot.

[DigoDragon]

"So... how do we know for sure it's Longshot?" Rose asks.

[Elbeyon]

Love keeps Longshot pinned to the ground. His limbs locked in her powered grip. Scomm (EDF), "That's a good question. SCAN didn't say either way." Love makes sure to thank her little AI helper! "He might have had access to Longshot's memories. That doesn't make him proficient with those memories. It's the different between reading a book and performing surgery. We need something we can test quickly. We don't have time for chess." Love chips in, "Oh, I know! He can punch me! I should be able to recognize his fighting style!" There are probably a few other skills they could test instead...

[DigoDragon]

Rose raises an eyebrow in Love's direction. she Silently Comms Love, 'Maybe ask a personal question instead?'

[D.KnightSpider]

"I'm not punching any pony." Longshot grouses. "I'd think you'd know better by now. And since some pony else had possession of my mind for a while, you can't reliably validate me any more than I can fully determine that you're you."

He covers a wince. Who had done what to his cybernetics? Everything was all off now.

[DigoDragon]

"Hmm... you know, the sad thought in my head is that I might tell if it's you by the way you kiss. But... not forcing that test."

[Elbeyon]

Love raises a hoof, breaking the pin, and rubs the back of her mane while hearty laughing. Scomm (EDF), "Who says I was going to let you punch me! I'll win a spar yet!" She turns her armor transparent and looks to Rose, "Alright, that sounds like Longshot."

Love frowns at Rose's suggestion. Scomm (EDF),"Alright! Enough of that! We may not be able to reliably validate anything."

She looks to Longshot, Scomm (EDF), "I'd like to try something that may reassure you that I'm Love!" She raises her hoof and claws snap. A hologram appears! The group appears in the tunnels, they cross in the correct order, and bugots begin spreading through the tunnels. Love asks Brazen to confirm that the order is correct to signify that the hologram is 'post published.' The bugbots continue through the tunnels. The background fades away until only the bugbots remain. Their outlined movements become more exaggerated, glowing, and twisting into a colorful orange flower. The hologram doesn't last long.

Spoiler: Roll

Show

I give you art!
(3d6)[7] vs 13 (Artist (Holoprojection))

[D.KnightSpider]

"Hmm... you know, the sad thought in my head is that I might tell if it's you by the way you kiss. But... not forcing that test."

Longshot drops his head to the ground.

"Some pony shoot me now."

Love frowns at Rose's suggestion. Scomm (EDF),"Alright! Enough of that! We may not be able to reliably validate anything."

She looks to Longshot, Scomm (EDF), "I'd like to try something that may reassure you that I'm Love!"

Longshot watches the display and then nods.

"I'm willing to take it on faith that you're you. We need to get moving. The more time we spend squabbling, the more time the Nightmares have to finish what they've started.

"Just so you know, the cultists are allied with literal nightmares. Like Rem. Just a lot less loveable."

[DigoDragon]

Longshot drops his head to the ground.

"Some pony shoot me now."

"I think that establishes us both as who we are," Rose states with a tone of gentle satisfaction. She shoulders her gear and holds up her weapon. "I'm ready to be fashionably late to our party. Let's go."