"But if we leave, how will he know where we went from here?!" Garnet called back at Orion, only to stomp her foot in frustration as he just drove off. "Well fine, go running if you all want! I'm staying right here to wait for Emerson!" she said determinedly, putting her hands to her hips.
Flyer, since he had followed Red and Sophia back, looked to Garnet. "Come on Mindy, he's a smart little buggar; he'll figure it out, right" Flyer said, trying to convince her. Garnet just scowled back.
Meanwhile, when Pyro turned to speak to the Mexican girl, he'd find that she was gone; she'd followed Goldilocks, Rafaella, and Counter, after all.
Harry wouldn't see any of the zealots on the way to the church, but on the plus side, unless someone else (Read: A Player Character) decided to interrupt him, he would get back to the church shortly without incident.
Goldilocks and Counter looked over towards Orion, Counter slightly confused and Goldilocks having to quickly hide some annoyance. "Just give us a minute!" Goldilocks called in a playful, friendly voice. Unless there's demons about to attack right now, it can wait that long Goldilocks transmitted in a much less friendly tone to Orion's head. Then she turned back around, quickly looking through the boxes to see more specifically what spells the trader had. Something was missing.
"... Don't you have any fire spells?" Goldilocks asked him, realizing those were absent from his elemental spells. Finally, the trader's expression changed, the smile turning over to an equally wide frown- no, a scowl.
"I don't like fire" the trader said simply in a low tone. A few moments later, and the smile returned, as if nothing had happened.
"Uh... Okay" Goldilocks muttered, and continued on picking out spell boxes for herself. She also cast a slightly worried glance to Israfel.
edited 14th Oct '14 11:14:59 PM by FirockFinion
You are reading this.Israfel was about to say something, but Goldilocks took the initiative, so she left it be. Her telepathy though, activated once more towards Goldilocks. Well, I agree with you. Given what the zealot did, we know this guy is at least, not a demon. Wether it's a Cthulhian, fae, a coven member or a cultist we do not know. Although, if the ingredients are sound, we'll discard anything that we're being sold that is neither the ingredients nor the circle formula in the unlikely case it's a tracking device.
"Too bad. We could really use fire spells. We've seen some Cthulhians lurking about." She said to the trader, her gaze set on him, gauging his expression. "Also, do you know what this is?" She added, feigning some ignorance as she showed the trader the feathers she had plucked before from herself.
Meanwhile, Chiquita waited, bidding her time.
edited 15th Oct '14 1:36:48 AM by AtomicNut
Near the Trader
'Goddammit woman, I know you heard me!" Orion hollered at Goldilocks, though since no one had spoken to him it was anyone's guess who the 'woman' was. He honked the horn once for good measure. "This town ain't safe. I saw one of them Knights Templar sayin' somethin' bout there being demons'' in town that he's huntin' for, and I sure as shit don't wanna be here when he finds them. It ain't safe to be near a monster mash with all that magical demon shit, collateral damage up the ass."
Vehicles
Max walked back to the fire truck, and briefly wondered where that El Camino had gone before getting distracted by a far more pressing matter.
"Who's a good boy?" he said, rubbing Thor's head and patting his belly. "You are!"
"Hope he wasn't too much trouble," he said to Garnet.
Sophia ran of the truck when she saw that Garnett was refusing to come - causing Red to swear as he was trying to start up the truck.
"Come on Garnett! My dad said to get on the truck!" Sophia pleaded with the mechanic, tugging on her hands to get her newfound sister figure to come with her. Meanwhile Red popped his head out the truck window.
"SOPHIA! GET BACK IN HERE!" the boxer shouted. His kid paid him no attention, causing him to sigh. Honestly, it seemed like Sophia was causing him to grey more and more these days. After sighing, Red noticed Max had arrived.
"Hey Max! I'm taking the first driving shift for the truck. Can I have the keys?" he asked.
Once again, the trader's smile turned upside down almost immediately. "I don't like fire" the trader muttered again, with more emphasis this time. It took a couple more moments than the first time, but once again his smile returned, as if nothing had happened. Because of his goggles, it was impossible to currently see his eyes clearly, so a full measure of his expression couldn't be taken. As Israfel showed him the feather, he stared at it for a few moments, his smile unchanging. "... A feather?" he asked, still smiling as he turned his head to Israfel.
Unless you want to do something about it, we should probably just take what we're paying for and go Goldilocks transmitted back to Israfel in the meantime, picking out of her twenty boxes, ten elemental traps, five healing spells, and five camouflage spells.
"I can't, not yet!" Garnet said as Sophia tried to tug her towards the firetruck. The young mechanic looked to Max as he asked why they were leaving. "I don't know; our new trader guy suddenly started freaking out and insisting that we leave right away. But I'm not going anywhere until Emerson shows up!" she told him, taking a step back.
"We will want him, where we're going" Jacob suddenly cut in, leaning against the side of the firetruck with the disguised cherub still on his head. "But I know you won't care much what I say" he added, shrugging slightly.
As Gunslinger and Harry entered the church, they could see Father Don talking with one of the zealots. "-ou certain?" they'd hear Father Don finishing a question as Harry opened the door.
"Not certain Father, but I saw enough that I'd like to double check" the zealot responded, before looking back at Gunslinger and Harry entering. Father Don stepped forward just past the zealot.
"Paladin, it is good you are back so early. Zealot Wigmar was just telling me that he thinks he saw an afflicted1 walking among the populous in town" Father Don told Harry, then paused as he finally noticed Gunslinger. "Who is this?" he asked, glancing to the mercenary.
(Footnote 1: A term the NCC sometimes uses for Humans-turned-monsters)
You are reading this."Alright y'all. Sounds like we're about ready to head out so I'd suggest wrapping up your business here so we can get outta here." Earl radioed to everyone after he'd finished cleaning the gun. Meanwhile, Sophia saw that Garnett wouldn't move until Emerson came back.
"Fine! I'll stay with you until you come!" she said stubbornly and sat on the ground. Red just put a finger to his temple and closed his eyes in frustration.
"Hmm." Rafaella, added. That is weird. Anyway, I'm sure we can trade the feathers elsewhere. She transmitted to Goldilocks. "Do you have anything for stronger healing effects?" She added.
Meanwhile Chiquita gripped her weapons tightly underneath her clothes. She was getting tired of tailing the couple. She decided for a more aggressive approach, as she unsheathed her knife, hiding it in her sleeve, and began walking towards the couple, with the intention of poking them with the flat part of the blade and see who would react to the blessing. She'd test that "Lisa" first.
edited 17th Oct '14 2:27:01 AM by AtomicNut
Father Don raised an eyebrow, giving Harry a quick glance. "We've already heard of the Deceiver nearby" Father Don said, taking a small crucifix from his pocket and placing it into Gunslinger's hand, making sure to get skin contact so he knew there wasn't a second layer of illusion gloves. "We are about to go investigate its last known whereabouts" he added, taking the crucifix back.
"So unless you meant something..." Father Don trailed off, holding up a hand to signal for silence. There, distant but audible from somewhere outside, was a sound that NCC members couldn't mistake; Gunslinger probably couldn't mistake it either. It was an unnatural, angry, double-voiced screeching. "A demon!" he announced, drawing his sword and motioning the zealot towards the door; the zealot didn't need further prompting, and went sprinting out with his weapon at the ready.
"We will continue this another time!" Father Don stated determinedly, making his way after the zealot.
"I still don't get what the hurry is!" Garnet said in frustration, still standing her ground.
"Something to do with that NCC guy going off with Recon, I'd guess" Jacob guessed, having mistaken Gunslinger for his son.
"Guys, I thought the plan was that we're waiting here for Emerson" Goldilocks' Human voice came through over the radio in response to Earl.
"I thought that's what we were doing too. What's going on?" Clark's voice asked through as well.
"Oh yeah, and we might not want to leave with so many of our party still out shopping" Jacob pointed out, turning to look at Red and Earl in the truck. Then there was the unmistakable sound of Goldilock's demonic, angry, double screeching coming from down the block, getting Jacob to whip his head around that way; it was followed by plain old Human yelling. "Oh no" he muttered, and took off running down the street towards it.
"Fucking shit-" Clark's voice came through again but cut out, letting go of the transmission button before finishing his statement.
Garnet meanwhile, realizing that shit was about to get really real in the next couple minutes, decided to change her stance on the whole leaving thing; though she did take her own route of doing so. "On second thought; Sophia, we should really go now" Garnet muttered, concern in her voice as she turned and started to move back down the road they way they'd come into the town.
"I'm afraid not, sorry" the trader said in that squeaky, low voice of his, still smiling.
Hearing Earl's voice on the radio, Goldilocks pulled out her own. "Guys, I thought the plan was that we're waiting here for Emerson" Goldilocks said into it, not paying enough attention to see Chiquita coming. Counter did though, but unfortunately did not see what she was doing until too late.
"I thought that's what we were-
"Shit!" Counter exclaimed, cutting off Clark's transmission on this end and going for Chiquita's arm, but again, too late; the flat of the blade made contact with Goldilocks' upper arm before Counter grabbed Chiquita's arm and pushed her away.
Goldilocks let out a momentary and instinctive double voiced yelp as the blade burned her arm, the illusion of her vest vanishing. She also dropped the boxes she had picked out, some of which came open and spilled their contents onto the ground. And a couple of them had the cardboard piece inside come out as they hit the ground, spilling the contents of what was hidden under the advertised contents. The trader finally dropped the smile for something that wasn't a frown either, just a neutral, if still somewhat wide, mouth. Other people on the street were looking over with some shock in their expressions, wondering if they had just heard what they thought they heard; the trader just looked confused. "A demon?" the trader muttered, raising an eyebrow. Goldilocks wasn't paying attention though; she was staring wide eyed at what was on the ground.
On the ground, slowly squirming about the various ritual ingredients, was a few black slugs; after a few moments they stopped squirming... Then darwin bugs started to emerge from the dead darwin slugs. And just like that, Goldilocks expression flipped over to fury. "THE ENEMY!!!" Goldilocks shrieked, and continued to just screech angrily, not too unlike Essy's earlier, but double-voiced and more constant. She quickly drew her rapier and speared the closest one through, whilst conjuring a fireball in her free hand. Now people on the street were panicking, with lots of yelling and running.
"Fucking shit-" Clark's voice came through again, though it was easy to miss in all the chaos.
"Oh. Well" the trader stated, like someone noticing it was going to rain when they had to walk somewhere. "Too bad" he added in the same tone, drawing a knife with one hand and thrusting his other hand into the air where it... Did... Something. Whatever it was didn't look physically possible in three dimensional space, and was kind of brain twisting to even look at. Fortunately he stopped a moment later; unfortunately not a moment after that, darwin bugs started to burst out of all the other boxes. The trader then suddenly lunged for Rafaella, aiming the knife for her gut.
edited 17th Oct '14 3:07:20 AM by FirockFinion
You are reading this.Rafaella gasped, still wide eyed at the trader lunging at him. Her wondering demeanor had been suddenly replaced by barely contained anger. An anger which unlike Goldilocks she was able to channel. All those who consorted with the Enemy had to die, though. And so she waited until the last second to reveal her dominion reflexes and attempt to parry the knife, bringing her own dagger in a counterattack towards the trader's throat. It was then when she sent her telepathic command towards the demons. You, bugs. I, trader. She curtly channeled to the demon.
"¡Cojones!"Trans Chiquita exclaimed, staggering a couple of steps from the sudden reveal. So it was true after all, she was a demon... but things didn't make much sense as the events unfolded around. Quickly thinking, she reasoned that whatever could make a demon flip their shit like that was probably no good, and she holstered her knife before drawing her twin pistols and start shooting the myriad of creepy icky bugs that were appearing.
edited 18th Oct '14 2:00:07 AM by AtomicNut
Gunslinger drew rifle immediately, running outside.
"Another time then," he agreed softly as he ran, disappearing into the crowd and heading for the magic trader shop he had seen before, where the scream came from. His mind processed the entire thing.
The demonette was friendly. Something had made her scream in not only pain, but rage. Recon had told him about how she reacted to cthulians, and indeed he had personally witnessed angels reacting in a similar fashion. The magic trader he had seen seemed a bit too familiar with his wares, and Gunslinger was quite familiar with magic himself.
He smirked as he readied his gun. It was not going to be the demon he was aiming for today.
edited 17th Oct '14 10:54:44 AM by gameknight102xx
((OOC:Had work induced writer's block when I got home; really should have anticipated that in retrospect.))
Gunslinger couldn't disappear into the crowd. The only people running towards the commotion were those interested in being involved in the fighting; everyone else was running away. (Not to mention that his outfit was too distinct to really be mistaken for anyone besides his son.) Nobody cared about him running towards the commotion though. As he and the two NCC members rounded the corner, they'd see the hectic commotion down the street; specifically they were looking at the suddenly emerging swarm from the opposite side of the group immediately fighting it.
In that fight, Goldilocks seemingly ignored Israfel, and continued to simply attack and attack in a blind rage, flinging her fireball to ignite one of the bugs before shifting her free hand into a mess of claws to swipe back and forth, keeping the majority of the darwin bugs at bay while she made stabs to actually kill them with her sword; all the while still screaming like an angry banshee. (Killing a total of 6.)
Beside Chiquita, after letting go of her arm, Counter followed her action with his own dual revolvers. Together, they made a lot of noise and made the bugs focus partially on scattering rather than immediately rushing them, but unfortunately didn't actually get that many kills on them. (Chiquita got 2; Counter got 4.)
To their side, the trader's lunge at Israfel got caught way off footing, as he clearly hadn't expected her to be able to react so quickly; he was probably banking on her being too bewildered by the events in fact. Instead for his troubles, the right side of his neck got sliced open, which started spilling blood profusely. Dropping his knife, he clenched at the wound, but at this point death was a forgone conclusion. "Damn, two of you" the trader gurgled, in that same mildly disappointed tone he had before. He then fell sideways, hitting the ground in a slump, dead.
This did not stop the darwin bugs however, of whom it looked like there was now about forty scrambling about right in front of them. (37, to be precise.) Though they did not try engaging Goldilocks directly yet, a handful of them scrambled around her reach to start rushing Israfel, Chiquita, and Counter. A few straggler bugs at the other side of the group started to peel away, chasing after some of the people fleeing the street. Almost directly to the group's left, two more of the NCC zealots emerged from an alley, and brought their guns up to ready at the swarm; well, until one of them realized Goldilocks was a demon, at which point he brought his aim over a few degrees to her. Behind and to their left, Jeff came sprinting around the street corner towards the scene, though he didn't have his weapon ready just yet; a bit after, Jacob emerged from the other corner, though stopped as he realized something important.
He didn't have a weapon at all... Well, time to improvise. Abruptly, he attempted to grab Shinespark from his head, and throw the disguised cherub towards the fight with a prompting of, "go help them you shapeshifting light bulb!"
edited 19th Oct '14 10:20:12 AM by FirockFinion
You are reading this.Gunslinger made a tch sound in the back of his throat as he took aim at the swarm and began to pump out bullets at an amazing pace, lining up and firing with a speed and accuracy was almost inhuman.
At the same time, he began to maneuver away from the NCC zealots he came with, shuffling to the side until he was directly opposite of the zealot that was firing at Goldilocks.
Red swore as Sophia and Garnett ran away from the truck when they heard the sounds of commotion. The adventurous part of him wanted to investigate what exactly made Lisa scream like that but his paternal side wanted to stay by Sophia's side and make sure nothing happened to her.
Earl saw the boxer's hesitation and decided to take advantage of it. He most certainly did not want to investigate and put himself in harm.
"Go! I'll make sure they get into the truck!" Earl called to Red. The boxer gave a passing look to Sophia before nodding at Earl and rushing to the sounds of commotion.
When he got there, he'd start axing the Darwin bugs. Meanwhile Earl hopped into the driver's seat and drove the truck towards Garnett and Sophia.
"Hey! Get in the truck! You can't go running off like that!" he called to them. Sophia looked at Garnett - ready to follow whatever the young mechanic decided to do.
Chiquita snorted. There were too many bugs for the guns to handle. She would run out of ammo at this rate. After the initial scare, the damn things did look more annoying than dangerous at first glance. Plus they were closing into melee. Shooting could become much more problematic. The mexican girl didn't hesitate in putting her guns away and drawing her knife once more. Her stance also changed, to something resembling knife fighting and muay thai.
"Come to mama! I'm going to serve you all in my next enchilada!" She yelled, followed by a stream of assorted spanish insults, while she started to deliver a flurry of stabs, kicks, knee hits, punches, and elbow hits to the bugs who dared to close her in.
Meanwhile Israfel watched the blood on her knife for a mere second, giving a slight smirk as she did so, before the slight reprive of her compulsion of killing cthulhians reigned her in even more. She had to kill them all, but going in a frenzy like many would be up to no good. And the NCC were closing in. Damn NCC. Still, there was -one- thing she could say to try and stop them. The only one standard reply of Dominions to meddling humans. Of course, that would mean breaching her disguise a second time. But it was worth to keep the demon alive, it could be a key witness.
Do not interfere, mortals!. The angel transmitted to the NCC troopers nearby, in her most imposing telepathic voice, while she began kicking and stabbing more bugs. With enough luck that her message was transmitted at the same time that a certain robin cherub was being thrown into the arena, and in a flash of light, became a bowling ball which then proceed to roll around, ramming into the beasts like a demented pinball of hell, a blue trail following its wake.
edited 20th Oct '14 12:45:38 AM by AtomicNut
The NCC zealots and priest all stopped, looking around with some bewilderment. The zealot near Father Don turned to him. "Did you hear that? It sounded like an angel!" the zealot said to him.
"It could be a demon trick; do not lower your guard!" Father Don reminded him, then held his sword up high. "On me!" he called out, and the two zealots down the street lowered their weapons to run to Father Don's position; the one already there kept his weapon aimed towards the combat, watching the scattering darwin bugs which were coming in their direction.
Gunslinger now couldn't get opposite the NCC zealot, though he hadn't been able to get opposite of him before then anyway; there was too much ground to cover for that and the little issue of all the darwin bugs in the way. As he tried to maneuver away from the other NCC members and shoot at the scattering bugs down the street simultaneously, he ended up only killing three of the bugs before his rifle clicked empty.
In the thick of the fight, Counter did not follow Chiquita's idea, instead falling back a few steps and reloading while the three women fought the bugs directly. Israfel and Chiquita both quickly found that Goldilocks' hand of claws playing keepaway was an important part of her strategy and why; getting right up to the bugs themselves meant the bugs could get to them. Israfel was doing better, and the bites she took to her arms and legs didn't mean as much, being a dominion; she got five of them taken down quickly. Chiquita however did not do so well, and only took out four before ending up in trouble; a darwin bug clamped onto her right arm, biting its mandibles in fiercely while two more each took up the same tactic on one of her legs, leaving her with only one limb that didn't have a large alien bug on it.
Goldilocks herself kept moving forward, but the darwin bugs knew to keep away from her, letting her only get a couple of them on her own. Then Shinespark came rolling in from behind the group, and after giving it a quick glance, Goldilocks came up with her own plan for it. Shinespark would find itself suddenly scooped up by Goldilocks' clawed hand, which shifted into a shape to hold the angel-turned-bowling ball more securely as she pirouetted forward, keeping the little angel's momentum intact as a sort of wrecking ball/mace attack. Six darwin bugs were squashed and swatted aside before Goldilocks lost the momentum and let go of the cherub, dropping it with a thunk onto the ground; the darwin bugs currently ignored it, as they saw it as nothing more than an inanimate ball.
At this point in time, Jeff arrived and drew the handgun he still had borrowed from Israfel, and started firing into the swarm, firing a bit slowly as he tried to make each shot count, and getting four of them in total at this close range. Red also arrived, (Since Fantasy didn't get to post last "round" I'm letting Red play a bit of catch up.) and with an axe swipe took the darwin bug off of Chiquita's right leg; unfortunately he then found himself in a similar predicament as Chiquita, as one darwin bug latched onto and bit his axe arm while another started biting into his side with its mandibles.
Of course, with all that said and done, most of the darwin bugs were actually dead now, with only a dozen remaining. Eight were still facing the group, (with four of those being directly on Chiquita and Red) while the other four were moving the other way down the street, chasing fleeing civilians and coming towards Gunslinger and the NCC group.
Garnet looked a little surprised when Earl drove over to her and Sophia. "I thought you'd take the truck to go help the others" Garnet said, hastily helping Sophia up into the truck before climbing on herself. "Do you have a plan?" she asked Earl while making sure Sophia got a seat belt on.
edited 20th Oct '14 7:29:06 AM by FirockFinion
You are reading this.Chiquita winced, the pain of having three limbs trapped in the mandibles of the bugs was taking her toll, numbing her senses and tunnelling her vision. She thought she had taken too much of a risk to be stingy with her ammunition. But then her training set in, and without twitching even once, put away the knife and brought one of her guns once again. Since the bugs were clamping on her, they wouldn't move and at point blank, they would be easy targets. Without hesitation, she lined the shots for each limb bug, one bullet for each one, and if she could, one for her sudden helper's attacking bugs.
Meanwhile Israfel stopped stomping as she jumped out of the bugs reach, eyeing shinespark quizically. She resisted the urge to kill the fleeing bugs, as they were running towards several visiblely armed forces. She eyed her hands once more and limbs, before wincing. Those would take a while to heal. Reevaluating the situation, she put her best gameface as she struggled the imperative to fight and started to limp. "Ack, I need a gun!" She spoke in her Rafaella voice, as she tried to get out of the bugs reach. Running into Jeff, she hid behind his back as he had a gun.
Meanwhile Shinespark started to glow, and float...elevating itself from the ground and propelling himself to Goldilocks hand once more. Once More. Fun. The cherub transmitted towards Goldilocks in a giddy tone.
edited 20th Oct '14 9:30:36 AM by AtomicNut
Gunslinger stopped and put his rifle back into its holster before drawing a huge revolver out of his coat in the blink of an eye. A cascade of gunfire followed, one shot for each bug, the four bullets coming out in incredibly rapid succession.
At the same time, he allowed himself to use a bit of magic, slowing down Red's senses and allowing him to deal with the bugs more effectively. Hopefully he would make use of it.
edited 21st Oct '14 12:01:30 AM by gameknight102xx
Battle
Unfortunately, Red didn't put on his football pads so those bites were starting to hurt. So he decided to hit the ground and begin rolling intensely - shaking his arms as he did so. While it certainly looked silly, it would (hopefully) knock the bugs away from him. If that didn't do the job, Red would start swinging his fists at his insectoid attackers.
Firetruck
"Um..." Earl stuttered as Garnett asked him if he had a plan. Honestly, he was staying in the truck to avoid a direct battle. That didn't exactly sound noble when verbalized so Earl decided to improvise a bit.
"Well...I'm supposed to guard the noncombatants and that means you two ladies." Earl explained to them - causing Sophia to giggle when he called the eight year old a "lady." Earl gave the kid a smile. She was kind of cute, after all.
"So, we'll just sit in this here truck. I'm sure Lisa and Red and all them can handle whatever's making that noise."
Pyro paused, he was sure of it now. Gunfire. Grabbing his rifle, he hauled ass, following the sounds of gunfire. The girl and Goldilocks were dealing with bugs and...whatever the hell that was, Pyro saw the father seizuring on the ground, bugs biting into him, well, that's what was important, drawing his knife, he began to slash and, grabbing his pistol by the barrel, swing at the insects feeding Red, if any Zealots decided to open fire, Pyro would shift into a crouch, take aim for about a second, and if possible, fire at their center of mass. "What happened?!"
edited 20th Oct '14 10:32:27 PM by TroyandHawk
Good to be back

Harry was pleased that he hadn't been forced to 'convince' Gunslinger to come with him. Though suspicious of the man, Harry removed his hand from the pommel of his sword and said "Excellent. Let's head somewhere with fewer eyes on us, eh?" That said, Harry began to lead Gunslinger towards the Church.
If he happened to encounter any Zealots on the way, Harry would ask that they bring Father Don to the Church.