Shadows of Sandfield RP Thread

Seeing as his teamate's were taking care of the incoming barrage, he rushed over to the downed dragon. In her state Heather was a liability, especially since the mechs pilot would undoubtedly capitalize on their weakness. But she had gotten wounded fighting for their same, if they had to defend their downed ally for the rest of the battle then there was no question that they would. Hopefully they wouldn't die trying

"How badly hurt are you?"

Down But Just Barely Not Out

The dragon managed to roll back to its feet with a pained sigh as the barrier blocked any further attacks aimed at it.

"I can stand, mortal. There's... Wounds easily patched. Damnable machine... Am I a hindrance? I can give her back if I'm being a hindrance..."

Well that didn't sound like Heather's voice but then again it is a voice coming out of a dragon body it'd be weird to expect it to sound exactly the same.

Tom for his part stood by and listened - hearing the conversation play out between Heather (or at least he was pretty sure it was on some level Heather) and James. He didn't exactly have the time now to be nervous about it, but he would need to bring it up that going by the phrasing, the terms, and the way this thing presented itself...well. He had reason to doubt it was entirely Heather in there. Or on the other hand, there was some element of the mind becoming a plaything to the body at least.

Pablo's gale force spell promptly not only deflected the missiles incoming, but also caused a few of them to fall back and explode against the chassis of the giant mechanized monstrosity. This prompted several more curses in Russian as it seemed their opponent was increasingly realizing to his consternation that this was not simply fighting a bunch of kids...

But fighting people with actual experience, who could and were pushing him back. "Die...die die die, you miserable western little brats! Godless little punks!" He seemed to become even more frustrated as he saw the remaining amount of his attack fail due to Mina's intervention, the grenades exploding against his machine as well...

"Fine, everything dies in that direction so long as you're included!"

The giant mech leaped backward and propped itself up against the wall, four anchor-like prongs emerging from the hips and shoulders, gripping the wall.

The center of the machine lifted up, the view of the Russian's visage shifting a bit as a massive chest mounted energy cannon began charging. Streams of harsh light collecting around the emergent barrel, swirling in a vortex. These were far from harmless gathering energy lines however - they raked the floor and ceiling, ripping holes in the walls as the Russian readied what was probably intended to be an attack deployed on a fortress or some other manner of fortification...

Mina Parker

"One last push, Sandfield! Give me your saltiest, bluest swear streak! I have an idea!" Mina said, as the birds were thankfully able to disengage and return to service. Now, as her fans hopefully heeded her call, she chucked her earthen shield straight up in the air, having her bird drones spit the words around the concrete core to form a construct of foul language that looked more and more like a hand flipping the bird by the second. Then, she telekinetically hurled the fist with middle finger outstretched to plug the barrel of the mech's chest cannon Bugs Bunny-style. "Everyone! Help reinforce my finger as much as you can!"

Edited by JumpingFruit on Jun 20th 2023 at 2:14:52 AM

While they had countered the mech's previous attacks, it was clear to James that this one wasn't one they could just walk away from. If he had to guess, getting hit by that beam wouldn't even leave a body behind. In addition to that, the bastard piloting that thing would almost certainly fire at Heather, currently immobilized as she was. "Turn human now Heather, Tom if she can't move you'll have to carry her out of harms way."

James doubted that any direct attempts to stop the beam would work, the mech had more than a few hits left in it, and if it that beam really was for breaching walls, he doubted sticking some rock up the tube would do too much. The main weakness of this form, as far as James could tell, was that it needed a significant amount of support while it was charging. If he could destroy the wall it was anchored to, he might be able to disrupt it. Calling upon the majority of his remaining mana, James condensed his flames into a massive spear overlapping his actual implement. He fired the projectile not at the robot itself but at the center of the wall to which it was attached. Hopefully this would work, otherwise, they might not live to regret it.

Pablo flinched at the giant laser charging up, if that hits them, they might as well forget the funeral, hopefully he left enough good pictures of himself for his mom to use...

But Mina's call made him react, pulling the dagger he got. He didn't know the kind of power he will unleash, but if he did this right... His power is in his hand, whether it's his fist or a weapon.

Focusing his own power, he let it flow into the dagger, biting his hand to make a cut on his other hand and letting the blood fall on it.

"Taking some inspiration from Heather on this one" He said, lending some blood to Mina's weird construct to give it some more of his own thing. Flipping off someone to death... What a live "The power of man and beast mix to create the sword that cuts through heaven and hell, Beast King Excalibur!"

He took a dash and a swing, not knowing what he made this time...

Welcome Back

Saying nothing more, the dragon manages to shuffle just enough to locate and toss the coin into the air. Once more, the attention of the universe follows the coin just enough for the dragon to come offscreen and when it comes down it's Heather's hand that catches it. She looks unharmed, practically (one may say precisely) in the same state as she was at the start of the fight.

"... Huh. Guess the Totem didn't work."

She looks up at all the charging lasers and attempts to block using a stone gesture and raises an eyebrow.

"Whoakay, breaking out the biggest guns first? This battle's going quick... Uh... Go team!"

Heather waves her arms as if cheerleading because it's not like she has any other magic to use.

"...What!?" That was about all the response Utgin could give as Mina literally generated an enormous middle finger directed at Wagner and the Militia writ large, and began throwing the massive construct directly into the way of the energy cannon still gathering force... which resulted in the construct pressing in and clashing against the frantic attempt at firing early.

Bright flashes of rogue force rained down around the mech fastened against the wall as Mina's display of defiance pressed in further, steam beginning to be let off.

Pablo and James however proceeded to tilt the scales in Mina's favor - the former creating a massive leonine roaring face crafted entirely of Mana that emitted a proud roar before shapeshifting into the form of a maned sword, a lion's maw design seeming to exist around the mana construct sword's hilt, "hair" in a way forming the mane on the hilt.

The sword was launched in tune with James unleashing a spiraling glowing spear of pure burning hot fiery Mana. The spear landed with a blazing explosion against the wall and before Utgin could give any response to this, the spear exploded at once and dislodged around half of the mech's anchors. It began to lean forward, against Mina's giant finger-construct...

And then Pablo's sword hit home and carved right through a spot weakened by repeated strain, ripping right through the shoulder joint, burning the interior pieces and armor in the severed arm bubbling first before the whole severed limb exploded shortly after falling to the side.

Only a few anchors left...and Tom decided to go for it, seeing as Heather seemed out of danger and out of draconic form. Darting through the fire and damaged floor, he reached the legs - and severed the remaining anchors in a sweeping slash that sent Utgin's mech reeling forward.

"No...no no no! I am not losing to—-to children! This cannot happen! I—-I drank too much vodka last night—-!"

One last push.

Mina Parker

"Then sober up, coward! This is what is going to happen, and keep happening, until Sandfield is freed!" Mina paused briefly from her channeling of Sandfield's bitter diatribes to grunt as she began to make the middle finger dig in forcefully, the phallic symbol gaining even more of a resemblance to the real thing as glowing veins appeared. Shoring the cracks up with her quickly depleting store of Mana, Mina pushed the construct forward with all of her might, knowing that it could mean all the difference between a hilarious boost in morale and a devastating breaking of spirit. "And with all due respect—that is to say, none..."

"GET FUCKED, GIBBS!!"

Edited by JumpingFruit on Jul 3rd 2023 at 12:10:23 PM

"Catastrophic system failure...oh fuck, fuck, Prigozhin will have my—-oh, boss!" Utgin's panic and dramatic reaction to his mech's imminent defeat was short-circuited however as he realized something. Something or - more to the point - someone had arrived to literally put the fear into Utgin.

Though the Investigation Team didn't exactly have time enough to see who or what that might be - because shortly after, Mina's middle finger ruptured the internal components of the mech, and the whole thing sparked, flashed and exploded in a flash of sheer energy...

Sending the ruined tv screen that had previously showed Utgin's face rolling right at the Investigation Team's feet. Even as the smoke cleared, the doors unlocked and cleared the way to the room holding the dossier...

Mina Parker

"And with this, I've reached my limit in recording capacity today," Mina announced, having the shot linger over the ruins of the destroyed mech. "But by God, feel free to make this moment a meme and doxx some invaders with it, and I'll see you all tomorrow, citizens of Sandfield, with more hopeful news in store—circumstances allowing, of course! That's all, folks!" There was a brief scuffle as she turned her equipment off, and then she turned to the others.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" she asked the rest of the party, exhausted but basking in victory. "Let's go get that dossier!"

Edited by JumpingFruit on Jul 3rd 2023 at 12:10:58 PM

James felt like leaping for joy. After months of hiding, of doing nothing while Gibbs and his bastards defiled their city, they had struck back. Now there was nothing between them and what they had been sent to retrieve. He was quite drained however, the toll expenditure of mana took upon him feeling strangely similar to simple physical fatigue, so he settled for grinning ear to ear.

"We fucking did it. Now let's get those documents before reinforcements arrive."

She Doesn't Know

"Well, good job team. Sorry I was useless but hey the fight was over quick."

Heather shrugged and pocketed the coin.

"All that flash and my Totem does nothing. Typical failure for me, 'ey?"

There's a hint of acid in how she says that, an anger without direction.

James gave Heather a quizzical look. Something was clearly wrong with her recollection, her totem had very clearly been functional as all of them, including their opponent could attest. Could it be possible that her new form had an entirely alternate identity? She had said some strange things while transformed, but he hadn't paid them much attention; he was fairly acclimated to Heather saying things he didn't understand.

"Heather do you not remember the fight at all? We all saw you turn into a dragon."

Tom for his part crossed his arms - he was at first of course overjoyed having trashed Wagner's latest toys and while Utgin of course was a coward keeping away from the fighting... Things had now been taken to a different dimension. He'd moved toward the door leading to where the dossier was kept, but then stopped, hearing the goings on. He remembered what Heather had said in that other form...or, was it really Heather?

She'd called them mortals, and offered to "give her back" - talk that brought to mind the demons of the Umbral Horde. What exactly had Heather done when she made that Totem? Did she even know?

"...This speaks to me of possession." He crossed his arms and contemplated, sighing after a moment, "We got it done, but I'm gonna need to let my higher ups know. Archmage Lanefordt might be able to ascertain what's going on and why this happened, and the exact nature of what's going on here."

Pablo placed his new sword on his shoulder, taking a moment to get his breath back. Later he should check himself out, mixing his power with some weird entity is bound to get himself in some hot water if he did it wrong or whatever.

"Well, been feeling like smashing some shit for a while" He said "Should have punched more people, though, still got something done"

He looked at Heather, concerned.

"A dragon took your place, you sure you feel alright?" He said "Let's get that thing and bolt out before it gets more complicated" He said, starting to move forward.

She Knows

"What? I flipped the coin, it did nothing and then Mina fingered the guy's laser cannon."

Heather took a few steps around the place, counting out where she was currently standing and where the doors of the arena were.

"Oh come on. I finally get a cool big powerful Totem and I don't get the objective experience of using it!? I'm gonna need to like, set up a conversation with it when we get back to the safehouse. For explanations, yaknow?"

James was frustrated but not particularly surprised with how lightly Heather had taken being possessed by a being of unknown nature. None of them had any idea what sort of forces the were dealing with, a certain degree of caution was called for.

"You really should be careful with that totem, we know absolutely nothing about whatever you've tapped into."

"Story of the last few months, really" Pablo commented. Even with training and explanations, the feeling that they get tossed into the deep end is something that remains on him.

"If you figure out how to speak with that dragon, figure out some way to leave quickly. He has an attitude problem"

"Let's just get this thing, head out of here, and figure out what's next...after." Tom stated and led the way into the room, even though he was still thinking at this point about the whole scenario. It was rather unsettling how...blase... Heather was about the whole thing. She didn't seem to be that alarmed about what her own magic did to her, the fact nobody knew what the nature of the entity possessing her was - and she just wanted to have a chat with it to figure out what was going on.

As the group stepped into the room, they'd find it empty and littered with a variety of ledgers and books - and one, located prominently on a desk, was left open - a variety of files available on figures of note from across Sandfield's history. People who fought Matthew, fought alongside him, noted people who'd passed through, events and those involved with them...

This was it. The Dossier that Gibbs had wanted so badly.

Tom for his part picked it up and looked around the room. There was a way out here, it seemed, a door leading out to a back exit along a fire escape kind of set up.

Of course, this was hardly it. Hardly the end. They had a whole city to win back.

Pablo took a moment to enjoy the mission being accomplished. After all this time being locked out, winning feels even better. But things are just getting started, and all that intel was somewhere between concerning and disturbing.

But as things were, they still had a lot to do. First, he needed to see what became of his old neighborhood, and then start finding anyone who got caught up in this situation, and as soon as possible start trying to bring down that damn wall. Ending up with a prayer, they needed to plan what to do, even if it took him in a different direction from everyone else.

Ending his prayers for the fallen, Pablo decided it was time for some carjacking...

Mission Basically Complete

"Well, when we get back somewhere safe I'll try and do an interview mkay? Anyways woo we have the dossier! Which is hopefully the only copy and they haven't made it into a database on cloud storage already."

Heather shrugged and looked at the fire escape exit that Tom had noticed.

"While that would have been convenient to know about before we had to fight a giant mech, it's probably only openable from the inside and reinforced in such a way that we can't somehow break it down from outside. Yaknow, like how the fast exit from a dungeon always works. Anyways, let's get back to base and celebrate a little. Maybe the pizza place is still running and we can get takeout!"

As Tom led the way out of the fortress through the exit, he found himself smiling, letting his hands rest on his neck. Walking out into the quiet of the post-battle zone with his friends by his side, they would be able to see raging flames and destroyed militia vehicles outside. But the flames would eventually die down, and the vehicles could be cleared away. Tom looked out from the side of the fire escape exit, over the town of Sandfield that had changed so much - but which he had hope could one day return to its days of peace.

These folks he walked with had gone the distance for him. Rescued him from that hellspace, brought him into that secret world they'd all found... One day he would be proud to return to the days of peace when he and they all gathered in that distant classroom to play tabletop games, treating it all like the biggest drama they had during the day.

It felt so long ago now, even though it was just a few months back.

And it felt like such a long trek to get back to. A Sandfield that they could walk through at sunset, enjoying the orange lights cresting the world they knew.

Even though it was so far off, it was a motivator. Something to return to once the fighting was done. And even though the foes they would be fighting were going to be tough... "I think we can handle it."

And so the friends, tested but remaining strong, walked off into Sandfield, toward the now imposing structure of what was once a school in the distance. Not a whit of hesitation...

Meanwhile...

Jayden Gardner would find himself called to the main area of Green Wall's accommodations for him and his family. It was not however for any kind of discovery on the part of the militia, or any sort of suspicion on their part. Indeed, by the time the teen would arrive at the large central area, just opposite a hallway leading to the elevator from which the Gardner Family had arrived it seemed like Elijah wanted Jayden to meet someone.

Standing just by the side of Green Wall's militia leader was a young man about Jayden's age but abnormally tall. Six foot eight inches tall, in fact. He was dressed in a light grey long sleeved t-shirt and jeans, which fit his lean and somewhat lanky frame quite, though it still led to his wrists and ankles showing a bit much, his military boots both facing forward as he stood stock still as if waiting.

The young man's black hair was thick and curly, somewhat messy in appearance in contrast to all the polished military men. His eyes were every bit as coal black as his hair.

Though the moment Jayden would enter, a closed smile crossed the young man's face. Elijah enthusiastically stated, "I figure that a young man needs others his age to help in his development. You must've felt so socially isolated! Allow me to introduce my adoptive son. He was given a...regrettable name by his mother and I only wish to give him a better—-"

"Now now, father," The young man spoke in a somewhat jovial, awkward tone, "I believe I can introduce myself - and no need to explain away. Hi, Jayden." He extended his hand, "My name's Caine Dekeren. It's lovely to finally meet you."