trans_9 | The Wrath of Neutro

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The Wrath of Neutro

LAST WEEK, ON THE ADVENTURES OF PERCIVAL PHOENIX: The situation had gone from bad to worse. The rescue team now knew what had become of their colleagues, true --
BUT AT WHAT PRICE?

Sakura has been kidnapped! Anwei and Zouichi are convinced they're villainous henchmen!

Lash thinks she's A MAD SCIENTIST!

...

*in the audience, a man bursts into flames and runs off, screaming*

AND NOW, THE CONTINUATION.

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"Greeeat. Now we get to tangle with bad special effects and even worse acting. Just what I wanted to do on a rescue mission." Jaime slapped a fist into the opposite hand. He wasn't a big fan of guns except as recreation, but really they weren't shooting actual people, so he could deal with it.

"You do that. Kickass isn't heavily enchanted, but its got a little bit of extra magic to it, so might help ya' out a little. Ought to work on the dogs, anyhow. You got 16 shots there, so make 'em count." Yes, the gun has a name. All his weapons do - part of the way the enchantment works.

"As for the scenery, same as any other mission. Do what we need to do, we'll get our people back." he replies, moving to give Howard a boost up onto something a little safer before he readies his hammer again.

Her fingers clawing at the sky as though to savage out its entrails, the Blood Queen shouted, "ATTACK!"

A great baying arises from the ruins, and the sleek black shadows multiply, tight-muscled bodies slipping between stones, clawed paws thudding into the sand. But the beasts are not visible; only the scratching and snuffling and the sound of saliva dripping from fevered muzzles reveals their presence.

"I said ATTACK!" Her voice booms from the clouds overhead. "ATTACK!"

A questioning whine from the shadows.

A deep fluttering sigh comes out of the sky, and the Blood Queen's voice has a decidedly fretful air as she shouts, "Phoenix-Plucker! Blood-Breaker! Death-Dealer! Render! Tearer! Leaper! Creeper! Mopsy! Dropsy! Huggle-Wuggle-Woo and the rest of you! ATTACK NOW!"

The pack shows itself, forming a living ring of death around the intruders. Sleek beasts, with metal circuitry set into their legs and bodies; their eyes glow laser-ruby-red. Gold paint is traced along their ears and around their eyes, and their heavy wide collars - wide enough to be pseudo-armor - are set with ankhs between the spikes. The spikes drip green, clearly poisoned.

There are more than enough of them to take three normal Earthlings down. If they came forward en masse and swarmed them - but they do not.

Three beasts leap from the pack, each of them running hard, bodies low to the ground. Three black bullets tipped with teeth, aimed at Chase, Blue Beetle and Howard.

Unfortunately for Howard, the robo-jackals arrive just in time to cut him off from telling Chase 'actually, I don't think this will support my weight'. So, less than three seconds after those creepy dogs that would make Dr. Evil proud arrive, Howard's fallen with a shriek through the chicken wire and papier-mache tip of the obelisk and down into its base.

Which actually wouldn't be that bad a hiding place, except that one of the jackals hasn't forgotten that he's right there. He hears it throwing its metal body against the side of the obelisk, then sees more light as the jackals claws a hole into it. Thankfully the chicken wire holds it at bay long enough to find the shotgun, but not the clip. And honestly, if he shoots at the jackal, he could risk hitting Chase or Jaime outside, and friendly fire isn't something he wants in on.

But is that an electrical cable? And aren't robot jackals metal?

Howard grabs it, rifles through his med pack - which has thankfully followed him into the obelisk - and slaps gloves on. He grabs his pocket knife, takes a deep breath, slices the cable in half, and hopes for a lot of things. That it's plugged in on the other side, that these gloves will keep him from getting electrocuted, that the whole structure doesn't fall down on top of him, that the jackal isn't made of the same silicone in Anwei's brassiere.

He jams the end of the electrical cable into the chicken wire and the jackal's mouth.

The whole obelisk goes up in a brief spark before the electrical cable goes dead - and somehow, it seems like the sky is darker in one corner. The jackal drops, sizzling from its now-dull red eyes. Howard allows himself to breathe again.

Of course, he still doesn't know how he's going to get out.

The loss of one robo-jackal isn't going to make the others flee. They circle, waiting to see how the other intruders will react to their attackers.

Chase heads right back towards the pack, slamming the hammer down... and... huh, there's no magical mini-quake and stunning thunderclap... well, that's not helpful, but he should have guessed that bit of magic would be gone too.

Recovering quickly, he swings the hammer about to buy himself some room, assessing how wolf-pack like their tactics are.

"@$% %&*&$!"

They are fast, robot-fast. They go for the tendons, lashing out at his legs with gleaming fangs. Their eyes weave trails of red in the air as they swirl around him, yipping and giggling. They expect him to tire, to falter; expect him to stop swinging the metal-tipped stick and collapse of exhaustion. If they can only keep him fighting until he falls...

While three menace him from the front, one swerves past him, turns and leaps for his shoulders; if it can get a hold there it can rend his face to the bone, hopefully blind him, or open his throat for the others to slake their thirst.

Nuon slipped out from the shadows, immaculately polished boots clicking as he walked along the surface of the ruined scenery. A robo-jackal bounded up to him and snarled menacingly; he looked down his nose at the creature, cutting his gaze back to the rescue team even as it leapt into the air, intent on tearing at his throat.

His hand came up without a thought; he hit the jackal with a swift, brutal backfist, sending it flying back through the air with a surprised yelp. It impacted a nearby wall, found its feet, then ran off at a limp, whimpering all the while.

Perhaps the rescue team saw him; perhaps not. In any case, he strode off in the direction of the Blood Queen's garish gazebo. He'd have front-row seats to her imminent failure.

Jaime spun and dove, one hand forming itself into a hefty club. Lashing out, he backhanded the jackal going for Chase as the young hero swooped over the melee.

"Bad dog!" Okay, that quip was pretty groan inducing. But it's totally the planet's fault, not his.

Bought a moment to recover, Chase backpedals enough to give himself some space, then smashes aside the next lunging jackal with Truck Stop.

They've told him what he needs to know, robots or no, they still act like dogs. He intentionally leaves an apparent opening, focusing one way, then turns into it as soon as he senses movement out of peripheral vision, swinging the hammer. He knows how this works, and can exploit it, now that he knows he can't rely on magic tricks.

The wounded robo-jackals yelp and take to their heels, dashing into the ruins; the trail they leave behind (of footprints, motor oil, and perhaps a gear or two) is quite obvious.

The remaining robo-jackals were divided now; some of them focused on the obvious menace of the giant human with the stick that hits and hurts them; others circle, staring upwards at the blue flying thing. Their ears twitch randomly as they try to decide how to attack the flying one. They must! They must defeat the enemy! They must bring back blood and bone for their Queen!

One of them even sits and raises one paw in the air, as though offering to shake hands. Finger-long claws extend from that paw, lacquered gold. Shake hands? its black stare seems to ask. Fight?

But it's up to our heroes to keep the robo-jackals occupied, before one of them goes snuffling around and finds Howard.

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The Wrath of Neutro

Re: SPELL OF THE BLOOD QUEEN! (Anwei, Zouichi, rescue team)

Re: SPELL OF THE BLOOD QUEEN! (Anwei, Zouichi, rescue team)

Re: SPELL OF THE BLOOD QUEEN! (Anwei, Zouichi, rescue team)

Re: SPELL OF THE BLOOD QUEEN! (Anwei, Zouichi, rescue team)

Re: SPELL OF THE BLOOD QUEEN! (Anwei, Zouichi, rescue team)

Re: SPELL OF THE BLOOD QUEEN! (Anwei, Zouichi, rescue team)

Re: SPELL OF THE BLOOD QUEEN! (Anwei, Zouichi, rescue team)

Re: SPELL OF THE BLOOD QUEEN! (Anwei, Zouichi, rescue team)

Re: SPELL OF THE BLOOD QUEEN! (Anwei, Zouichi, rescue team)

Re: SPELL OF THE BLOOD QUEEN! (Anwei, Zouichi, rescue team)

Re: SPELL OF THE BLOOD QUEEN! (Anwei, Zouichi, rescue team)

Re: SPELL OF THE BLOOD QUEEN! (Anwei, Zouichi, rescue team)