Wizards vs. Muggles (Free-form)

Jay reacted before she thought. As soon as she saw the knife and the man moving foward she qickly said, "Incendio". A ball of fire lept from her direction and flew towards the man's chest.

Jamie reacted at the same time. Pushing the man backwards, she raised her own wand and cast a spell.

"Expelliarmus!" she cried.

There are too many toasters in my chimney!

Lita, who'd been more than at a loss for words when she saw her Herbology teacher giving out military orders, and absorbed in thought as she tried to figure out what would happen, snapped out of it when she saw the knife.

"Great." She looked at the man in the floor. "Look, if you just calm down, everything will be fine."

She glanced at one of the kids, trying to make him get the others in the station. "You" she said, pointing toward platform 9 3/4 with her head.

edited 18th Mar '11 10:35:09 PM by Faramir

Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, you can't sell him fish anymore. http://thoughtfulspurts.wordpress.com/

First to arrive was the flash of red, which pushed the assailant backwards only slightly. His knife flew out of his hand, hilt-first, towards Jamie's free hand. Then the fireball, which was almost pure heat and had little force. In a moment the man's coat was blazing, but the spell had arrested the momentum of his swing not at all. Even without the knife, the unaimed blow connected squarely with Jamie's waist.

And now the station was filled with screaming, panicking passengers. The few Ministry men deployed in a protective semicircle; the leading two students had sensibly begun their dash towards the barrier when one of them was silhouetted in a red flash and crumpled, tangling the other with him. Longbottom whirled around in rage, only to catch a second Stunner square in the chest. It was enough to fling him down; faster than she looked, Umbridge snatched up his wand.

"Official Ministry business, dear," she whispered, before disappearing into the brick barrier. The Ministry cordon collapsed as the Aurors rushed to Neville Longbottom's aid.

Streamers of smoke arced overhead, filling the air with a nauseating stink. Where they landed instant billowing clouds burst into existence — Ministry smokebombs. But within the smokescreen several figures were closing: shabbily-dressed youth, not policemen, with tattoos and shaved heads and brandishing an assortment of street weapons. A brick smashed against the floor near the platform.

edited 8th Jan '11 1:59:38 PM by SabresEdge

Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three.

Jamie fell to the floor, gasping for breath. She retained enough presence to keep a hold of the knife, though.

Looking up, she tried to aim her wand at one of the approachig Muggles. Trying to think, she cast a Banishing Charm at the approaching figure.

There are too many toasters in my chimney!

Lita swallowed and looked at the gang members or whatever they were. Crap.

"Hey You!" She said, Closing her fists and moving away from the rest of the wizards. "You really willing to go to jail for fighting a bunch of girls and children? Not that you can win, of course." The panic was already set, so aparating behind them wouldn't matter. She did.

"Over here you overgrown monkeys" This would cost her a lot. And it wasn't part of the plan. "Hey! This way! You scared to fight a girl?" Time for a new plan.

edited 8th Jan '11 3:08:12 AM by Faramir

Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, you can't sell him fish anymore. http://thoughtfulspurts.wordpress.com/

Several of the goons turned around, clearly surprised at Lita's presence. One of them leered as he dropped his empty bottle. "D'you think that because yer a freak and a foreigner you're so much better than us?" With a flourish he whipped out a snub-nosed revolver from a jacket pocket and began firing at a range of eight feet. He was only mildly discomfited when one of his allies—caught by Jamie's Banishment Spell—was pushed backwards through his line of fire.

Strobes of multicolored light lit up the smoky air; fire alarms shrieked into life. In the panic, wizards and witches fired at targets half-glimpsed in the smoke. Spells went wild, and redoubled screaming came from the civilians caught in the crossfire, and now the incantations were punctuated with popping noises as Aurors Apparated in to reinforce the sagging perimeter.

---

In the midst of the interminable London traffic snarl, Price frowned as the radio started chattering. He leaned forward to adjust a few settings.

"Suit up, lads," he said without turning his focus. "There may be trouble ahead. Disturbance at King's Cross. No idea what, no idea how. Whiskeys might be involved."

They were still ten miles away over congested roads.

Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three.

"Well, hell... You said our stuff's in the back right?" Alex said, unbuckleing his seatbelt and getting to the back. Unworried since the vehicle was pretty much at a standstill now.

You are reading this.

"OK, how're we going to play this; Light, or Heavy?"

"Yup. That tasted purple."

"There are still plenty of civilians around...we might just have a hostage situation on our hands," Price said quietly. He leaned forward and frowned.

"Technically, the military can't do much until we're requested to. Civilian territory. The calls will be going to SAS and Rainbow right about now. The trouble is, they're in Credenhill, it'll take hours for them to arrive." His tone changed slightly; with a few more presses of the buttons Price lifted the microphone to his lips. "This is Unicorn, calling Rainbow. Unicorn, calling Rainbow..."

Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three.

"Gotcha."

James detached the pistol belt from his plate carrier, along with the radio. Already attached to the belt was his sidearm; a SIG-Sauer P226 Tactical fitted with a weaponlight and laser-grips. He clipped the radio's pouch onto the back of the belt, threaded the earpiece up under his shirt, and then fastened the belt around his waist, hiding it underneath the shirt.

"Yup. That tasted purple."

"Well, no automatics at least then" Alex said, keeping the P90 with the rest of the stored equipment. He checked his colt 1911, made sure it was fully loaded and topped with an extra round, then put it in his belt holster and grabbed a few extra magazines to hold on to.

"Should I leave the kevlar?" Alex asked, unsure if he should grab his light kevlar.

You are reading this.

"Hey! What're you amining at? The roof?" said Lita, "I'm still standing!" if only she could rely on luck. If she was lucky, the old frog woman wouldn't have been there. If she was lucky she wouldn't have entered the bar for free drinks, and it would've been a nice cool day instead.

"Bet you can't catch me 'cause your asses are so heavy!" she started running " And I don't think I'm better than you, I know it. I'm smart enough not play with guns. You could hurt someone with that, you know?" If she was going down, she was going down as a smartass. She wasn't made for running and had a killer headache. She was probably going down.

"The A team has better aim!" Lita tried to think of a plan, there were few options in which she didn't get killed. She had to keep running.

Lita stopped for a second to catch some air and figure out where to go next. She could hear thousands of footsteps around her, people hiding and running, leaving or entering. Her head hurt too much to figure out how far they were behind her without looking. She figured her back muscles stood a better chance of receiving the bullet, and if she was hit in the spine she could always go to the wizard hospital, there are no wizards in wheelchairs.

She bent over a little, took a deep breath, and tried to calm down. What now? She couldn't think well with that headache. "Santa madré de un gato muerto. "

edited 9th Jan '11 8:31:41 AM by Faramir

Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, you can't sell him fish anymore. http://thoughtfulspurts.wordpress.com/

"Sounds like they're playing our song" warren said, while looking over at Price fiddling with the radio. "Low key then?"

He reached back into his bag to extract a few more mags and a suppressor; looking at his M4 with longing before sliding back into his seat. After all these years he'd be going back to Kings Cross; nostalgia began to wash over him while he attached his radio to his hip. The gravity of the situation finally hit him as he listened to the radio chatter coming from the console in front of Price. Gunfire in a train station,wizards, children and civilians involved; not long ago it could of been his brother or sister down there.

Hell of a homecoming.

Most of the shots went wild. Most. Two .38spc bullets struck home: one crashed into Lita's left shoulder; the other hit her in the thigh. It was enough to bring her crashing to the floor.

Dropping his handgun, the thug ran towards Lita with mad triumph in his eyes. Before he was anywhere near the witch somehow flew through the air as if flung by an invisible force; the next thing she knew, Lita was peering up into a rather cross-looking female face.

"I hate Summoning casualties, but it's better than being shot at. Hold still—ferula—don't struggle, no matter how it hurts," the Auror instructed. "Ferula, again. And hold steady, open your mouth. I know the potion tastes terrible but it will stop you from going into shock, we really don't want that..."

The force of Aurors by the barrier was considerable, a mixture of around a dozen plainclothes and fully-uniformed wizards and witches. Several were deploying portable swampland around the perimeter; more had set up an impromptu aid station. Aside from the single gunshot casualty, most of the casualties had been hit by brickbats earlier on. Against the determined opposition the thugs' resolve wavered and broke, and the silence returned briefly.

"Quandary," announced the witch who had rescued Lita. "We can't just Apparate out. If we just leave them anybody with a jackhammer and a stick of dynamite can smash through platform 9 3/4. We have to hold our ground until the Hogwarts Express has left and the Ministry has sealed off their command center. Whatever you have, deploy it now. Drake, Prester, take the children off to the platform. It's the safest place around." She looked around and with a single motion loosed a spell upwards. "If you see any more security cameras, take them out...yes?"

"Er, Miz Granger, you mentioned jackhammers and dynamite...what are they?"

---

"...thank you, sir. Will advise." Price set the microphone down. "Nice and fast. Since we are officially attached to Rainbow, we're up. Right man, right place. The Metro Police are sending a helicopter to pick us up—it's not Nikolai's gunship but it'll do. You can keep your SM Gs and rifles. Light machine guns and RP Gs would be frowned upon, though."

Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three.

James slapped a forty-round magazine into the grip of his MP7, pulling back the charging handle to chamber the first round, and extended the stock and forward grip. He kept the safety on though, at least while they were still in the van. Normally he would have used a HK417 battle rifle, but the large number of civilians meant that wasn't really a good idea.

edited 9th Jan '11 1:04:31 PM by Deadbeatloser22

"Yup. That tasted purple."

Warren slipped out of his jacket and started to strap on his body armor; taking care to stow a few extra magazines in it's pouches. "So much for low-key" he thought as he pocketed a few grenades "Price, there are going to be children there; you sure the cops are up for this?"

He moved to the rear of the vehicle and proceeded to double check the contents of his aid-bag; re-adjusting it's contents to suit his needs; after a moment of hesitation he threw in some extra IV bags and zipped it up.

Slinging the bag onto his back and over his body armor; he grabbed his M4 and took a seat next to Price. Reaching into his back for his net-book, Warren began to go over the layout of the station they would soon be assaulting.

"Oh, right then" Alex said. In short order he fitted the light kevlar over his shirt and strapped on the elbow and kneepads. Then he loaded up his FN P90 LV. "I think I'll keep this thing on semi-auto" he muttered to himself as he finished loading magazines onto his vest and belt.

Once that was done, he also began looking at the building layout, not wanting to be caught completely unaware of the combat zone.

edited 9th Jan '11 2:15:56 PM by FirockFinion

You are reading this.

"I guess we're going to find out. Right now their focus is on evacuating the station; If they're going by the normal contingency plans all the inbound trains have been terminated early and civvies are being evacuated along the tracks as well as through the emergency exits. Our best bet for point-of-entry would be the west-side entrance off Cheney Road, behind Platforms Nine, Ten and Eleven. The entrance itself opens into the main concourse, here." He indicated the point on the schematic. "We can't use the main entrance on Euston Road because it's prioritised for evac, so this is the only real option."

"Yup. That tasted purple."

"You're familier with the area? I'll trust your judgement then" Alex said, still looking at the schematic.

You are reading this.

Jay approached the woman, who she recognized from lectures several years earlier. "This one," pointing to Lita. "Is a student. She has to get on the train!"

Jamie stood gingerly, rubbing her stomach.

"Right," she muttered. "Are we expecting an attack before all this happens?"

She didn't wait for an answer before continuing, slipping the knife she was still holding up her sleeve, attaching it to her bracelets with a Sticking Charm, like she did with her wand.

"Alright," she muttered. "We should set up some defences, real quick. I suggest Disillusionment Charms at the vary least, with perhaps some area defences."

There are too many toasters in my chimney!

"First off" Lita said, trying to sit up, that potion tasted like crap. "Thank you, thank you so much" She took a deep breath and did sit up.

"Second, yes I'm a student, but doesn't seem that anyone but us knows what a security camera looks like." Man that hurt, she still had the headache and it was driving her nuts.

"um, so here are the options: you throw me in the train, and then give the people who don't know what a jackhammer is complicated instructions, or you order me to go with a couple, and I'll help get those little annoyances" She pointed at one camera a little far to the side of them " Outta the way, then I apparate in the hogsmeade station and join in with the crowd. Your pick Captain "

She turned her head to another person who was actually thinking when she said to put up defences. "Use fire. A big wall of fire will scare most of them off easily."

edited 9th Jan '11 7:31:33 PM by Faramir

Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, you can't sell him fish anymore. http://thoughtfulspurts.wordpress.com/

Granger looked alarmed at that. "Don't sit up! You still have two bullets inside of you. Those bandages are a field dressing, not permanent first-aid."

Longbottom, who had recovered from his near-stunning, looked up from deploying a Portable Swamp. "Good luck getting onto the platform," he said bitterly. "That old hag closed it off, good and tight. And the hell of it is we can't open it up again. The train's leaving soon, and the command post is in the middle of packing up. We can't unseal the barrier once they're in the middle of taking it down...Hermione, I'm not too keen on shooting it out with policemen in a crowded station."

"With any luck we won't have to," said Granger. "We just need to seal off this little bit for long enough. If we can negotiate with the police to leave us alone for the next ten minutes or so, we'll be fine. We need to extend a gesture of good faith. Any mundane civilians who aren't wounded, let them go."

There was still the issue of Muggle casualties: several had been hit by stray spells, fortunately nonlethal. The goon who had attempted to knife Jamie was also in the aid station; he was being treated, after one of the medics had lost her patience with his resistance and Stunned him, for burn injuries. More worrying was the man who had unluckily been hit by stray bullets from the gunman's revolver; he was lying outside the perimeter, bleeding heavily, and two wizards were attempting to patch him up while looking around nervously.

---

Task Force Unicorn, as they were now known, had just pulled off to the side of the road; a blue-painted police helicopter retrieved them and flew towards King's Cross, only a few minutes away. Price, still connected to his high-tech radio, relayed instructions. "We are to link up with the CO19 teams at their CP in Saint Pancras," he said. "Apparently things have settled down a bit in the station—nobody's shooting, and the whiskeys are letting civilians go. The bobbies are securing a perimeter around the station." His tone suggested that the "bobbies" could not secure the perimeter of a football pitch. "There's still civilians in there, and the opposition's intentions are unknown. The police are going to try and negotiate..."

edited 9th Jan '11 7:44:52 PM by SabresEdge

Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three.

"Fine" Lita said, laying down again. "Can I at least say that there's no need to destroy the security cameras? You can just throw some non-see-through material on them. Cloth, paint, swamp mud, anything sticky that'll blind them. That, and fire. Muggles don't like to burn."

She took another deep breath. "Accio wand" Once she had her wand in her hand, which was miraculously unharmed, she pointed at the wounds.

"Ughm... Tergeo." That should clean up some of it, sure it wouldn't HEAL her, but it would stop some bleeding and clean up the blood on her.

edited 9th Jan '11 7:59:02 PM by Faramir

Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, you can't sell him fish anymore. http://thoughtfulspurts.wordpress.com/