[Nexus] Inside 52

[The Bushranger]

[Hodgepodge Street - H3]

Andy finishes her song, and pauses for breath.
"Unfortunatly, I can't let you play," she tells Tango, possibly to Laurali's relief. "Bagpipes have to be matched to the player, and they only screech when somebody else uses them."

She does, however, then launch into a second song of her own!
Probably to Laurali's horror!

[ThePhantom]

H3

"Good, cause we have more!"

And now the band moves on to War. I wonder how it will take before Aiden spots that's its his boss is the main performer of this band.

[Chaotic Bob]

EMBOH Vault



A whir of helicopter blades, the hum of engines, and the groaning of metal fills the air as the Bank-Robber shifts position, preparing itself to clamp down on the entire vault, and then lift it up into the air. It's not an immediate thing though, as the giant crane needs a moment or so to get a good grip on the room before it can airlift it and the mad thieves riding within.

"They can't kick anything if they can't catch me! Hahahahahaha!"

Magtok punctuates that laugh with a few lasers shot down the hall, not aiming for anyone or anything in particular. He should probably kick Mr. Snow out the vault too, come to think of it, but there'll be time for that later, probably.

[EMBOH Vault]

Covering laser fire, and the bank-defenders are still cowering away from the peculiar grenade.
This is going fantastically!

~Zip zip zip~

An almost unnoticeable blur seems to dart from laser shot to laser shot, defying physics at its best as it streaks towards Magtok.
With such speeds, it's only a moment before something diminutive, and only vaguely humanoid is leveling a boxer-worthy punch directly at the cyborg's jaw.

Oh look. A competent one.


Libby is doing...something over by Mr. Freezingly Unconscious. Who knows. Weird reaper stuff probably.

Spoiler

Show

[Slipline Airtime]

Once Dawn and Geneva have a hold on Lydia, Dawn begins to try to carry/pull her back up towards the roof of the train. She taps her face a few times with a free hoof if possible, trying to check if she's awake. Or even alive. "Lydia? Lydia! Wake up! C'mon, say something if you can hear me!"

[Riftline Ruckus]

Geneva certainly helps get Lydia safely onto the roof. Wouldn't do to drop her while traveling... however fast the train is going right now. That wouldn't be very healthy at all.

"Do you still have any of those healing potions or bandages with you?" Geneva asks, her tone bordering on frantic. "She looks really bad. I doubt humans are able to endure a lightning bolt like a pegasus or a griffin can."

Geneva leans down to lay her ear against Lydia's chest to check for a pulse. Hopefully human hearts are in about the same spot as the races that the hippogriff is familiar with.

Meanwhile!

Sunder darts back as the robot begins grappling with her elemental pal. While those two are busy thrashing about the pegasus begins to beat her wings fiercely while cocking back one of her forelegs and gathering magic for a few seconds.

"Nnnngggghhh! Hit the deck Bob!"

There comes a flare of brilliant silver light from her grieves announcing that all the energy the armor had absorbed and stored was just dumped into her next assault. The shore elemental suddenly becomes a slurry of wet sand and coral on the floor just in time to avoid Sunder launching an invisibly fast punch at the robot's center of mass that makes her previous arm-breaking attack seem like a love tap.

"EEYYYAAAAH!"

[Riftline Ruckus]

Lydia's heart is steady! Thankfully she only got kinda side-blasted instead of a direct hit like the unfortunate ithillid. She mumbles something vaguely disparaging-sounding about "fish" at Dawn's urging, hten seems to start to come around!

[More Riftlining]

Topside, people are dealing with consequences!
Insideside, Bob is being insubstantial and Sunder just punched her hoof through the robot like it was paper.

It seems likely she hit it too hard, breaking through the robot's shell before stress even had time to damage surrounding components.
Now it just has a hole in it. A hole with a pony-hoof inside.

This would be more disappointing, if it weren't for what was within the construct's punched-clean center of mass.

Which...would be a rather highly unstable mass of eldritch gel, contained and exploited by surrounding machinery, now broken and freed to do whatever arcana bids it do.
Namely...evaporate like a trace of alcohol upon a table.


The lively energy in the robot evaporates alongside it, and now Sunder has a rather heavy, inanimate block of metal wrapped around her hoof.

[Devixer]

H3

Aiden is stil listening to Andy on the bagpipes, despite the sudden appearance of annoying ponies. He hasn't paid much attention to the Vikings, beyond recognizing their first song.

[OrchestraHc]

[Steele Street - Above the Fog]

With a resounding CLONK! the mining implements plow into the metal bird's left wing, sending it spinning and tossing a spray of broken cogs every which way. The damaged contraption loses what tentative flight ability it had from the damage and plunges down through the fog leaving a greasy trail of black smoke behind it.

...

Well.

Looks like it's gone.

That seemed a little too easy.

[Steele Street - Above the Fog]

The halflings have learned, after years of construction, repair, and adventuring, that sometimes it's best to take things at face value. The chances are that if things looked or felt a little too easy, it's probably because they are awesome and metal birds that shouldn't be flying in the first place better learn their place before they get put there.

The two have no fear that the metal bird may have gone down a bit too easy. Of course it's easy, they're Da Crew haflings. It's with either a hearty dose of ignorance or arrogance that they continue their trek across the green bridges.

[Morcleon]

[Atriol]

There is no need to tell him. Right when yuki speaks he may got grabbed by MDM and draged by with the robot crawling out of the elevator. Mia will follow soon, quiet for now.

[Atriol]

"Eh?" Yuki gets dragged off, glaring at Mia with a resigned look. "...you're doing this on purpose, aren't you?"

"A-Anyway... we're almost there, so if you could tell your robot to stop, that would be much appreciated."

[Lost_Deep]

[Hodgepodge Street - H3]

Well. Now the poor unicorn filly just seems confused.

"I... umm..." she fidgets a bit at all the sudden attention. More or less how someone might expect a young child to react to becoming the center of attention from some adults she doesn't know.

"Hey!" her friend comes the the rescue! The earth filly is a bit larger and more heavily built that her friend with a cream colored coat and a mane the color of orange sherbert swirled with lemon. "Stop bugging Eostre! She's really shy!"

The little unicorn is hiding behind her mane and manages to squeak out something that sounds suspiciously like 'No I'm not...'

The Silvery Extraterrestrials apologize and greet and scan this new pony! And now they're asking more questions. This is not going smoothly at all.

[Deathkeeper]

H3

Mist's ears drop in a frown. He wanted to be low-key, but he'd expected someone to notice. That's it. Time to show off. His next song is significantly faster than his last one.

[Rebonack]

[Hodgepodge Street - H3]

Grumbling about children being childish at a family friendly event? Seems reasonable.

Laurali manages to pry her hands away from her sensitive elf ears long enough to grab Tango again and begin hauling the protesting pegasus toward the other children. "Come on Tango, you and your friends need to stick with the rest of the group. It isn't safe for you to all go galloping off on your own."

"Aaww..." Tango whines.

Looks like she's rounding them all up! That means the SETs are going to have their subject of study taken away! Oh no! "I'm terribly sorry if they've been bothering you, sir and miss," Laurali apologizes to the SETs, offering them a sheepish smile. "But kids will be kids."

Meanwhile!

The fox has a visitor!

A little elf girl with a dark, earthy brown complexion skips away from a small group of other kids being herded by several adults and listens with rapt attention. She has her hands laced behind her back and she's gently rocking back and forth to the music.

Once the piece is done she offers, "That was pretty. And you're really cute! I'm Shindara! What's your name?"

[Steele Street - Above the Fog]

To the Cloud Castle!

The inside is...

Actually really simple.

Just a big empty room made of clouds with a floor of those weird brown blocks. Sitting on a raised pillar in the middle of the room is a six foot tall golden harp busy singing away.

That is so totally worth something.

[Deathkeeper]

H3

You can call me Mist. And thank you. You shouldn't wander alone around here, though.
He abruptly realizes that the girl being an elf she's probably thirty or something despite looking half his age. Still, the point stands.

[Rebonack]

[Hodgepodge Street - H3]

Oh HO!

Who says she's thirty something? Maybe she isn't a DnD elf. Maybe her species doesn't conform to the usual elf stereotypes. Maybe she matures just as fast as any human does.

Or maybe she's ten thousand years old.

Who knows!

Shindara looks back at the group she had snuck away from. They're listening to a rather rousing instrumental piece nearby. "But... Sister Tabitha is right over there. I'll be just fine! Can you play something else Mister Mist?"

[Deathkeeper]

H3

Actually he said thirty-something because it would be twice his age, not dnd rules. And admittedly elves have the highest chance of being the race that outlives humans.
Well, just don't lose track of them, okay?
Then he'll gladly go into a few lively tunes, although being careful to make sure he doesn't keep the girl there when her group starts to leave. The last thing he needs is guiding a kid around.

[Jacklu]

Outside Trog's

Phew! For a moment there, Ez'Bezel was genuinely worried. If Zeke had just bolted him a few more times, or stabbed him in the chest, or anything effective, he wouldn't have had a chance to recover. Luckily, though, Zeke went for the gloating, dramatic, in your face approach.

As Zeke reaches down with the dagger, Ez'Bezel lies there unresponsive. Right up until the last second when, with inhuman swiftness, his hands dart from the ground. With one he grabs Zeke'z dagger hand, clutching Zeke's entire fist and holding it in place. With the other, he grabs the paladin's face, his hand grasping with crushing force. Pouring all of his strength into his arms, Ez'Bezel heaves, lifting Zeke off his feet and sending him flying across the street to land wherever gravity directs him. In an instant the demon is back on his feet, grabbing his sword and shield before Zeke can get up and fire off another bolt.

Alright, then. The games are over. You wanted my full attention? You've got it. I don't even want an apology. You can tell all your Morrow buddies that you smote my face off, for all I care. Leave now and that will be all. Push me and I will not hold anything back from here on out.

[Gullara]

Mystique Physique - Kirin and Xavier

Kirin walks back over, as she is done with the papers. "Looks like this would cost me somewhere in the ballpark of a few month's expendable income... but it's magical instead of surgery, so there's next to no recovery time or what have you. A real solid choice if we can't find some way to do it ourselves."

[Mystique Physique - Kirin and Xavier]

"Oh dear. That is a lot. Well hopefully we can figure something else out instead." Xavier says, though not too loudly. It'd be impolite to say that so the employees here could hear.

[Lycan 01]

[Riftline Medic Time!]

Once they land back on top of the train, Dawn positions Lydia flat on her back, making sure she's stable and able to breathe without obstruction. She begins to fish around in her saddlebag, before pausing. "Geneva? I don't know if pony potions will work on humans as well, or if it'll have adverse affects," she says fretfully, biting her lip with concern. "Plus she's got some sort of magic stuff about herself; I saw her tattoo on her hand glow earlier. I don't know how well her own body and magic would react to our alchemy..."

She looks back and forth in concern, listening to the sounds of battle in the train beneath them. "Geneva, you go on ahead, rejoin the others," she nods. "I'll stay with Lydia until she comes around, and then figure out what to do from there. If I need to use our supplies, I'll try the bandages. You just go help the others. I've got this under control," she says with a meek little smile.

[Rebonack]

[Riftline Ruckus]

Geneva seems...

Uncomfortable.

To say the least.

"But what if more of those things come out here? What if they try sneaking up on you like they did to Lydia?" the hippogriff asks. "I... don't think that's a good idea. Bob and Sunder seemed like they do this sort of thing a lot, don't they? I'm sure they're be fine for a few minutes."

Hopefully those words don't come back to haunt her.

Meanwhile!

Aaaand down the robot goes.

With a gross slurping noise Sunder pulls her leg out of the machine's torso and shakes her limb vigorously to fling as much of the scuzz off as possible.

"Nicely executed, my friend," Bob rumbles.

"Heh. Smooth sailing," Sunder replies. "Neh. I think those three newbies are still up there. Hope one of 'em didn't get brain-sucked. I'll zip out and see what they're up to. Don't be goin' and havin' any fun without me."

With that said Sunder will quickly wing her way up to the roof!

"Hey! You guys all still have your brains?"

[Hodgepodge Street - H3]

The little elf girl listens for a few minutes more, but it isn't very long before her group begins moving off. She offers a wave to the little fox person before scampering off to rejoin her friends.

Away!

[Lost_Deep]

Hodgepodge Street - H3

The Female scans the new person while the male takes notes. They don't seem to be annoyed... in fact, they seem quite happy about this entire situation. The male asks some questions about something or other, perhaps pertaining to why this bipedal being is in charge of a large amount of quadrupedal beings.

Mystique Physique - Kirin and Xavier

"Well, it's not as if magic is ever cheap," Kirin shrugs. "Now let's find a phonebook or directory or something."

Red Zone-Park

A woman is walking tall, like she's not afraid. She's not; you can tell from the fact that she has the gall to wear a kilt in public. She's dangerous and she knows it... as does anyone that can see her, given her left arm is a cybernetic metal thing ending in a large buzzsaw.

There's somewhere that she wants to go, a ways away from here. She knows she has to stay out of the more populated areas, so that will probably-huh. There's a park here. Looks empty and poorly-maintained... a good shortcut.

She heads into the park, figuring that it's a good way to shave off a few minutes of travel time.

[Deathkeeper]

H3

A nice girl. At least someone heard him. Deciding to give his chops a rest Mist stows his flute in its case and the case in his coat, and promptly shapeshifts into a very ordinary looking fox and wanders off to see some sights. He's much more likely to enjoy himself if he watched other people do work. Plus being a cute fuzzy animal makes it much more likely to get free food and ear-scratches.
Okay, maybe that last part is just the animal thinking. Oh, well. He's off!

[Slii Arhem]

Red Zone - Park

*Pomph!*

Two trees, framing the path she'd just decided to go down, suddenly invert and catch fire briefly before turning entirely to ash as the soft noise she just heard (assuming she did hear it) happens out of nowhere. The compressed ash sculptures of anti-trees, their branches and leaves all sticking through the trunks they once sprouted from and pointing downwards like weeping willows, begin to collapse under their own weight.

*Pomph* *PomphPomph*

The ground behind her ripples and heaves upwards, possibly splashing her ankles with liquid earth and concrete as a section of street turns into mush and begins spreading out because of its lessened density. Nothing else seems to have changed about it besides its composition, and if she choose to look back it will seem like a hyper-realistic water-color of the intersection had something spilled on it, causing it to run.

[Lost_Deep]

Red Zone - Park

What- okay, this is odd.

She begins to look around (her combat boots getting some liquid road on them) looking for some person or thing around that could be causing this. If she's hit by whatever is causing this... it'll likely hurt.

A lot.

[Slii Arhem]

Red Zone - Park

There's nothing that visibly causes the noises and strange changes of state of the world around her. There are a few seemingly-harmless animals in the park as surprised and distressed as she should be, but no wizards or malicious godlike beings to be seen.

Isn't that just the way of things?

*Pomph!*

Unless she has something to prevent spontaneous alchemical transmutation in her vicinity, all the air around her head in a rather large sphere will be converted to helium instantly, timed as she takes her next breath.

[Lost_Deep]

Red Zone - Park

GAH! She dives out of the area, after realizing that she can't breathe the stuff.

She revs up her saw, after taking a few breaths, and looks around a bit more.

"Allright come out here you little-what is wrong with my voice?"

Heh, it had to be helium. After a moment, she decides that this is a good place not to be and charges past the ashes of the trees.

[Slii Arhem]

Red Zone - Park

Ooooh look at the pretty moving thing. It'd probably move a lot more better if it was smooth.

*Pomph!*

The Pomph, because what else would you call it, tries to change the state of the blade's teeth into fine iron and carbon dust that will be flung everywhere if the transmutation is successful.

And since this person wants to run, why not help that? The ground begins sliding backwards like a treadmill, dirt forming a continuous ribbon that folds over itself from one side of the park to the other and moves as fast as her legs can carry her. Yay exercise!

[Lost_Deep]

Red Zone - Park

Kilt quite suddenly looses her pointy bits in a spray of carbon and iron, and a moment later tries to come to a screeching halt as she realizes that the ground is moving under her.

She looks at her saw. She is angry.

"YOU [explicative deleted] I WILL HUNT YOU DOWN AND [graphic violence deleted] AND THEN [you really don't want to know] AND THEN DIG UP YOUR BODY AND CLONE YOU BEAT YOUR CLONES TO DEATH WITH YOUR SPINAL COLUMN!"

The helium voice runs out halfway through the rant, but she neither notices nor cares. HATE.

[Rebonack]

[Hodgepodge Street - H3]

Assuming their questioning involves a whole lot of pointing at Sister Lauralie followed by pointing at the foals? She figures that one out eventually.

"Ah, I'm not their mother if that's what you're asking?" the elf replies, sounding quite uncertain with her interpretation of what's going on. "We're from the Church of Cunningham Children's Home. These children are all orphans and we're taking them on a field trip."

Taking kids on field trips is a great way to keep them busy. Provided of course they don't go scattering in all directions and start getting into things.

Sort of like what the foals did.

"Ah..." Sister Lauralie gives the SETs a questioning look. "I'm sorry, but I can't understand you."

Tango continues wriggling in her grasp. "Come on Lauralie, lemme go!"

"Sister Lauralie. You should be respectful," the little blue colt fires back as he trots over to the rest of the group. If he had managed to convince any of the vikings to part with a viking hat he would be wearing it.

Tango sticks her tongue out at him.

[Meanwhile!]

Shindara gives a loud "Psssssst!" at Mist and motions him to follow her and other other children. A group of kids is an amazing place to get lots of ear scratches and free food. Especially if the adults tell them not to feed the animals so they can continue feeding the animals when they think the adults aren't watching.

Shindara's little band is composed mostly of human, dwarf, and elf children. With a lone orc boy who believes himself to be very tough and is trying really hard not to seem interested in the dumb music festival.

They're being led by one Sister Tabitha, a middle aged human woman wearing... Jedi robes and a wizard hat? Weird.

[Slii Arhem]

Red Zone - Park

Well that wasn't very nice. It lost some (or likely all) of its bite since the entity responsible for her woes doesn't really understand language.

In fact, it really only understands one thing.

*Pomph!*

Deciding that she just doesn't look right with only one shiny arm, it tries to change her other one into the same material as the first. Of course, in order to do that it needs a bit of extra material, so some of the piles of ash attempts to swirl towards her right arm to add the necessary density.

If it works, she'll have a mobile (don't ask how) synthetic metal arm that's identical to her old right one. Form isn't really the thing's specialty, but composition certainly is.

[Deathkeeper]

H3

Mist goes over to say hello to the kids, copper-brown tail waving.
Hiya. he says softly, not wanting to draw too much attention to himself.

[Rebonack]

[Hodgepodge Street - H3]

The greeting manages to draw some giggles from several of the children. Talking animals are always a lot of fun! And talking foxes certainly rank high on the list of adorable talking animals. They're like the perfect medium between a dog and a cat!

One little boy surreptitiously dropped a bit of the hot dog he was eating for Mist while making sure that Sister Tabitha has her eyes elsewhere.

Like on that group of humans doing some really amazing acrobatic dancing to some lively music played predominantly on a set of steel drums.

It's a real toe tapping beat and calls to mind sunny celebration! Perfect for the music festival.

[Zefir]

[Atriol]

"Eh?" Yuki gets dragged off, glaring at Mia with a resigned look. "...you're doing this on purpose, aren't you?"

"A-Anyway... we're almost there, so if you could tell your robot to stop, that would be much appreciated."

[Atriol]

Mia shrugs in confusion, not the played way. She is as suprised as Yuki is.
MDM will drop yuki right after reaching the goal. It really seems that the robot got a mind on his own.

[Deathkeeper]

H3

Mist catches the dropped morsel, his sharp teeth biting off the part the bit hasn't been chewing. What? Even as an animal he has some standards.
He keeps up with the kids, ears and tail sometimes matching the rhythm. He doesn't show any more physical talent. Despite the name of his workplace he can't dance at all. He also does his best to keep out of sight of the adults, even though it means giving up begging for pets to some degree. Harmless as he is he knows some people get suspicious of animals sniffing around kids, even ones that clearly bathe regularly.