Night 52: Rec Field

[tsunagari]

[from here]This was already further than Sai had gotten the past couple nights, which was saying something. It was getting over the wall that would be the real test, though. The actual act of scaling the brick would be simple, but the night had an odd way of ending before he'd gotten beyond that point. Hopefully the same wouldn't hold true this

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[its_the_mileage]

"I thought so," Indy replied tersely over his shoulder. But the cat and kid had both made themselves obvious, whereas this--

He glanced sharply to the left, where something had just moved again and was gone. Just because he couldn't catch anything didn't mean it wasn't there, Indy knew--especially at Landel's, where the laws of physics periodically took vacations. The chances that someone (or something) was onto them were pretty high. But he should look on the bright side. At least this would give them a chance to test that theory that the "test subjects" wouldn't follow you over the wall.

The three of them were reaching that wall now. Indy had just stashed his flashlight in his jacket pocket and was about to secure the machete when a loud noise echoed behind them. "What now?" he demanded with some irritation, and turned just in time to see some kind of huge purple blade being swung at them. Once Indy had finished leaping to one side, clapping his hat back on his head, and making sure he still had the right number of limbs--in that order--he sighed. As Marion would say, they never seemed to get a break.

The blade came back and struck at the foot of the wall right by his feet. Indy had a very good view as severed chunks of vine and small pieces of brick made a beeline for the grass. When he peered toward where the attack had come from, he got a somewhat more distant view of a lanky young guy with his hair hanging into his eyes. Even half the blade had a significantly longer reach than Indy's dog leash and made the machete look like a joke. He hoped Dent still had that gun.

"Are you the type trying to get us to go back to our rooms, or do you just want to kill us?" Indy called. It was always nice to know where you stood with the person trying to impale you.

[unheroed]

So it wasn't just him.

Harvey had been trying to tell himself that it was nothing, but when both of the other men brought up the fact that they were seeing things that weren't there, well... It was becoming more and more clear that this was another one of Landel's games. Thus far it seemed innocuous enough, but Harvey knew that was likely to change pretty soon. "We'll worry about it later," he said, since he didn't much like the idea of pausing in the middle of the field to have a conversation about this.

Still, they had already wasted too much time. Recluse was already most of the way over, but he and Jones were only just getting started on the climb when they were interrupted by...

A purple, extending sword that pretty much shot straight at them from the other side of the field. Great. "Guess it was stupid to think we'd get off that easy," he grumbled as he reached for his gun, just in case they couldn't outrun their attacker. He had been lucky enough to not have to make a leaping dodge like Jones had, but that didn't help his mood anyway. While the sword had missed, that first shot might have just been meant as a warning.

Moving to a part of the wall a bit further away from the sword, Harvey shot a glare in Jones' direction when he tried to reason with the kid. "You think talking to him is going to do anything? Come on!" And so he tried to climb the wall while also keeping an eye out for the Special Counseling patient, his gun trained behind him at least vaguely. The multitasking wasn't working so well.

[tartaros_avatar]

Recluse was just reaching for the top of the wall when he heard the sudden, metallic noise further across the field. He hauled himself up as quickly as he could, not bothering to turn and look, feeling an impact shudder through the concrete. Once he reached the top he turned, crouching, ready to launch himself from the wall and out of the institute's grounds if another attack came.

His gaze locked onto what had attacked them, letting out an exasperated growl as he recognized the lanky form and unkempt black hair. "He can be distracted," he hissed down to the other two, holding out a hand down to whoever could grab it first to help haul them up, before returning his attention to their attacker. "You said you wanted to fight sometime, Sechs!" he called out. "Why should I stay if you're not going to fight fair?"

[sixth_attack]

With the first two patients dealt with, Sechs turned his attention towards the three men struggling to scamper over the wall. He snorted at the sight. The field was just crawling with these dumb chicken shits! Where were the real warriors here?!

"Depends on how I'm feeling!" Sechs called back, lifting the one end of his blade from the ground, leaving dirt and grass to trickle off from its teeth. The other man's taunting certainly got Sechs' attention, and it wasn't the pleasant sort to be getting from him. There was a bright flare in his eye and his savage teeth glowed sharply in the moonlight. The Titan blade continued to rise into the air as its owner began a slow but menacing approach towards his new targets.

"Nah! I'm just toying with ya!" he answered, his eye widening and his nostrils flaring at the challenge, "It's no fun trying to fight with a bunch of cowards crawling over the wall like ants!" Sechs paused once he reached closer vicinity from his prey. "So if you're not gonna fight me, then get your asses back into the rooms where you belong!" he barked, readying himself for another strike, "Or else--!!"

And then the blade fell again, this time it sliced out a jagged section from the top portion of the wall, its vicious movements akin to a high-powered laser cutting through metal. Bits of vines and concrete tumbled and clattered to the ground in its wake. The toothy blade came dangerously close to where the tallest man was perched, but it suddenly withdrew with a snap.

Holding the towering blade by his side with relative ease, Sechs glared at the men with a vindictive grin, waiting for the realization of what he had just done to fall over their stupid faces. The escaping patients may have been left untouched, but the section of the wall they were climbing was now suddenly very unstable...

[its_the_mileage]

"I'm just trying to figure out where you should shoot him," Indy rapped back, but he wedged the machete into one jacket pocket--it was a precarious arrangement, but he didn't have time to attach it to the whip--and started climbing nonetheless. Richter's comments gave him his answer anyway: one of the brainwashed patients. Having been brainwashed himself, Indy would prefer that Dent didn't kill the guy, but it didn't seem like that was going to be much of a problem. Even if Dent had been firing, the odds of his being able to hit someone that far behind him mid-climb struck Indy as slim.

The guy had started ranting as he got closer; Indy couldn't see what the weapon was doing, but he didn't want to find out from experience. He decided to refrain from pointing out the idiocy of anyone with a twenty-foot-blade's expecting anyone with half a brain to stick around and fight. Seemed impolitic.

Scaling this wall was a familiar task by now, and he'd almost reached Richter at the top when the blade struck the wall to one side of them. Indy boggled and desperately tried to maneuver out of the way. It turned out that the weapon wasn't aimed at him, though. He felt the motion as the wall was jerked back (perilously close to his arm), and was forced to duck his head as another small storm of debris pelted his hat and jacket. And then the wall started crumbling.

Indy half-leapt, half-fell back to the ground, landed with a wince on his backside, cursed, groped around for the machete he'd dropped and grabbed it, then scrambled backwards and to his feet again. His first thought was to crack the whip around the branch of the nearby tree and hoist himself up, then swing over the wall, but that seemed likely to get either the leash or his limbs--or both--severed. So he did the next best thing: tried to clamber as rapidly as possible over the crumbled section of the wall.

[unheroed]

As much as Harvey wasn't the sort that liked to accept help from someone if he could avoid it, he didn't hesitate to try and grab for Recluse's outstretched hand (though not before tossing his metal pipe and flashlight over the wall, to find later). Right as he'd gotten hold, though, the crazy kid with the too-long sword struck out at them again.

Harvey had been content with ignoring the kid's taunts, not seeing them worth a response at all, but now he was getting more and more tempted to just shoot him in the arm and be done with it. He didn't need to deal with this right now, when all they had been trying to do was climb one wall.

Instead, the thing was practically falling apart, and Harvey was forced to release his grip on Recluse's hand and fall back to the ground, almost in unison with Jones. He watched as the other man scrambled to his feet and started trying to maneuver over the weakened part of the wall, and realized that it was probably their best shot in this case.

Still, there was one thing he had to do first; the temptation was too strong, and he was pissed enough to not care about the waste of one bullet. He pulled himself to his feet with a groan and turned to face the kid, who was now significantly closer. Waiting for the lights to flicker on for long enough for him to line up a shot, Harvey fired his gun, aiming for the brainwashed patient's shoulder.

He didn't have time to see if the shot connected, though. Instead, he tucked the gun away and followed after Jones, navigating through the debris to try to get out of range of that sword.

[tartaros_avatar]

Recluse had only just started to pull Dent up when saw the blade coming, and making it absolutely clear the man wasn't going to make it. He pulled free as Dent let go, leaping to the side, just barely getting off of the collapsing rock.

Now the other two might be able to climb more quickly, but it wasn't exactly clear that they would be able to do so and keep all of their limbs intact. So, as much as he was loathe to do so, he had to play hero and distract the idiot until at least Jones got over the wall. He still needed a guide, if nothing more.

The lights of the facility were still unbelievably painful, but he stood up on top of the wall, facing Sechs, lip curled back in a disdainful sneer, an entirely heartfelt expression. This overzealous thrall was cutting into his valuable time. "Or else...? I'm far from impressed by this performance, Sechs. I don't need to stay here confirm that."

[sixth_attack]

Sechs' mean-spirited laughter filled the air as he watched the two men scramble around the collapsing wall, only to tumble back down to its base in a dusty mess. If they could only have seen the looks on their faces! And despite their fall, they went straight back to crawling back upon the wall. Just like dumb little ants! It was so pathetic and amusing at the same time! Sechs would have found the whole thing almost cute as well if he hadn't been so disgusted by that word and its annoying connotations.

One of them seemed to have had enough with Sechs' teasing though, as he drew out a gun and pointed it right at the Replica. Sechs just stood there, his shoulders slouched forward like a great beast on the hunt; he eyed the weapon with no ounce of fear in his face, but with an expression of curiosity and a challenging curve to his smile. Then the trigger was pulled, and the night air was struck once again by another metallic sound.

The bullet hit its target, but Sechs barely even flinched from the impact. Only a tiny crack was left upon his armor. Sniggering, Sechs gazed down at the offending bullet and plucked it out from the grass, its mushroom-like shape now apparent in the moonlight as Sechs rolled the smashed bullet between his fingers.

"Hollow points?!" Sechs laughed, "Is that all you got? Shit like that doesn't even leave a scratch on me!"

A loud hiss snapped at the air, followed by a deep FWOOM as Sechs ignited his hand into a ball of plasma. With an electro-magnetic field to control the super heated gas, the smashed bullet instantly evaporated from the tips of Sechs' fingers and merged with the intense power ignited within the palm of his hand.

With the white-hot flame lighting up his metallic (and very beastly) features, Sechs gazed back up at the third man standing upon the wall, his toothy grin unwavering in the face of his taunting. Hmph! So the big guy with the deep voice wasn't impressed so far, huh? If he wanted to see a "performance", he was going to get one!

"Or else you're gonna hurt like HELL in the morning! That's what!" Sechs answered with a cocky tilt of his scruffy head, "And that's IF you survive!"

And with a blinding motion, Sechs threw his arm back and shot the ball of plasma off the tips of his metal fingers, its dangerous trajectory aiming for just below where the large man stood.

[its_the_mileage]

Indy paused in his climb to glance back as Dent fired a shot at the guy. It didn't work. Since "just shoot him" was Indy's preferred solution for grandstanding morons with sharp weapons too, he went back to climbing.

The guy didn't attack the wall again, so when the worst of the landslide subsided, Indy was able to haul himself up relatively easily. He edged over a couple of feet to get on top of a more stable section, where he'd be able to make a good landing on the other side. But Dent was still climbing and Richter looked like he was about to get--set on fire? Jesus, after the initial second of alarm, it was almost old hat--so Indy figured it was his turn to be the distraction. Hopefully Richter would be smart enough to get out of the way on his own.

He reached over to the broken area of wall and grabbed the heftiest chunk of rubble that fit easily into one hand. "Hey--catch!" Not much of a line, but Indy was less worried about scoring style points than about getting the guy to look his way, maybe even waste time picking the projectile out of the grass again. He wound up and pitched as hard as he could at the guy's head. Balanced precariously as he was on top of the wall, though, it wasn't an easy task.

[unheroed]

Surprisingly enough, Recluse was doing a good job of distracting the kid who was antagonizing him. The man had never really come off as a team player, but maybe he was the sort of person who agreed to work with others so long as it got him somewhere. And honestly, Harvey could understand that sort of mindset, so he wasn't going to question it overly much.

He had also gotten to the top of the pile of rubble, standing up next to Jones -- though the man was now drawing the attention to him. Harvey made sure to keep his head ducked down in case any stray bits of flame came their way (there seemed to be a lot of fire-breathing people or monsters in this place, come to think of it). He noted that his bullet hadn't done a thing, but he wasn't too surprised by that; just mildly annoyed. He also noted that Jones had a pretty good arm on him, but other than that, he didn't really have much to add to the taunt.

He wasn't aiming to get targeted, after all.

"First chance we get," he told the two other men, "we all just jump onto the other side. He probably isn't going to keep after us once we're out of sight." Harvey was testing a theory that had held true thus far, but at this point it was really their best shot.

[In MMO parlance, we would call this “drawing aggro".]

[tartaros_avatar]

Recluse very slowly raised an eyebrow at Sechs’ reaction to the bullet, maintaining a façade of unimpressed observation. Well, frankly, he was still unimpressed, but he was gathering himself to dodge further along the wall as discretely as possible.

The sudden burst of light hurt, his already narrowed eyes closing shut with an irritated snarl, turning his head to look away. Even beyond his peripheral vision, it felt almost scalding to his senses. If only he had proper control over his own eyes!

Despite the near blinding, he was still able to keep a sighting on the direction he intended to dodge, and when the painful glow moved, he waited until the last possible moment and leapt to the side, separating himself further from the other two. If he could continue to draw fire, then they could escape without too much of their time wasted.

"Then get moving!" he hissed to the other two as quietly as he could. “In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve been waiting.” He then turned his attention back to Sechs, intent on continuing the taunt until the other two got done talking about escaping and actually did.

"You expect me to be impressed by something I have seen thousands of times before? I first faced a man who could do that almost eighty years ago!" The sneer was back, voice slipping into a sort of theatrical patter that he usually avoided, unlike some other archvillains he could mention. It usually just ended up distracting yourself, but if you needed an eye-catching performance, then it was a natural fit.

"I see that there haven’t been any advancements since then. How disappointing," his voice was dripping with condescension, starting to wander almost casually further down the wall, wanting to allow himself the option to dodge in more than one direction and still remain a viable distraction. "Are you trying to tell me that I should be intimidated by that kind of threat? I’ve fought gods before. You are nothing." Take the bait, you idiot.

[sixth_attack]

The colossal weapon whipped forward, its solid form almost bending from the high velocity of its speed, and cracked through the air, rending the thrown boulder useless and cleanly sliced in half. The two pieces fell to the grass with a dull thud before Sechs' feet as the Titan blade shot up again, this time its owner struck its end into the ground, propping it like a mast close to his side. "Close but no cigar!"

Sechs' wolfish grin viciously twitched at the persistent taunting. That big guy was really asking for it, wasn't he? He may not have sounded impressed by Sechs' attack, but his pained blinking told the Replica a different story.

"So you've seen that before, huh?" Sechs said, jerking his head to the side to throw out a wad of spit to the ground. "Then tell me, have you seen this yet?!"

Allowing his Titan blade to stand by itself, Sechs raised his gloved hand, fingers outstretched in front of his wild, metal-plated face. A wave of power rippled through his body, sending an energetic tremor to resonate off the ends of his limbs and into the very air around him. The hissing of growing plasma grew stridently loud, followed by an overwhelming flash of light, and then--

"ELITE PLASMA BOOST!"

Within an instant, the Replica became engulfed in raging white fire! His entire body now transformed into an incandescent being, every detail of his form now perfectly emulated by the tightly controlled plasma! If his first plasma ball was bright, the whole field would be lit by his show of wild power now! And it only got worse; another second later, and the luminous android instantly split into a dozen copies of himself, each one making a vicious leap towards the three men, most of which had the largest one as their target.

"Let's see if you can dodge my plasma decoys, you big stink'en blowhard!" Sechs shouted within another fit of wicked laughter. Each doppelganger resembled a blazing ghost of their original, leaping and bounding and soaring around the men and the blockade they struggled to clamber over. Parts of the wall suffered more damage while nearby trees were suddenly set ablaze by the decoy's flight. Their scolding presence sizzled the air and banished shadows as they made teasing swipes and punches at their prey. Throughout the sudden chaos, most of them swirled around the tallest man, striking at him from every direction, some just feint punches to torment him, while other attacks were made to leave a more lasting impression.

Meanwhile, the real Sechs was busying himself in the shadows of his attack, lifting the severed block from the wall with just one hand, readying to toss it at the escaping patients...

[its_the_mileage]

Fine. If Richter wanted to play the hero, with the high chance of getting killed that implied, Indy was prepared to let him. Leaving people behind never sat well with him, but he'd done it before with people he knew better and liked more than Richter. The rock trick hadn't worked anyway. He motioned for Dent to give it up and jump down on the far side with him.

He didn't quite make it before the fireworks show started, rapidly followed by...well, if he'd had to give an objection description as a scientist of what had happened next, Indy would've been forced to admit it looked like the guy split into ten or twelve identical guys who then lunged at him and the others, but obviously that couldn't be it. Even after the physics-breaking girl in the nightcap the other night--Jesus, you had to have some standards of rationality!

Real or not, the doppelgangers were coming after them. If he didn't jump soon the choice would be made for him, and not necessarily on the right side of the wall. Indy leaped down to the far side and landed in a crouch, then immediately craned his neck upwards to see if anything was still attacking him. Hopefully all three of them would make it over, but he was at least going to wait for Dent.

[unheroed]

The second that Recluse took on that tone, Harvey was pretty much finished with waiting around for him to get done with the taunting match and get moving. He wasn't sure if he and the brainwashed patient had some sort of history or if he was just that interested in mocking dangerous people into attacking him, but...

Harvey couldn't judge too much. He could have been a lot worse off if Recluse hadn't been there, after all.

For now, he was going to listen to the man's words. He knew when a fight was out of his league, and this had dipped into that territory the second that he'd seen that elongated sword, to say nothing about the optical illusions that were now flitting around the area and attacking Recluse.

Jumping down after Jones, Harvey startled when a nearby tree caught on fire. He was pretty sure illusions couldn't start fires, and yet he was feeling the heat pretty definitively.

Glancing up to Recluse (it was hard to tell what he was doing when considering the darkness and the flurry of movement), he tried to wave the man down with a sweep of his arm. "Come on, let's get the hell out of here!" If there was a time to run, it was now.

[tartaros_avatar]

[Wow, Sechs. You have part of a powerset that is among the most annoying to fight in CoV!]

This is just wonderful. The least desirable side-effect of drawing the ire of an attacker was of course the distinct possibility that you were going to get hurt. But seeing how damned long it had taken the other two to climb the wall, he really had no choice. It was that, or directionlessly wander around the woods while the other two burnt to a crisp.

He didn't even try to hit the decoys, bringing his arms up to protect his face, snarling as they burned him, portions of his clothing catching fire. This was as far as he could take the distraction. Too much longer, and one might hit the gun he was carrying, and that carried a risk of the gunpowder cooking off inside the pistol. Whether the others had finally made it or not, he couldn't tell, he was absolutely and painfully blinded by the light from the doubles. But if they hadn't, he was going to leave them, consequences be damned.

He launched himself off the wall, unable to see the ground to land, he kept loose so that when he hit the ground hard, he rolled. It was undignified and still painful, but it put out the flames on his clothes. "You took your damn time!" he roared at the other two, the pain of the burns and the whole sorry situation putting him well past the point where he cared enough to maintain any sort of selfless façade. He struggled to his feet, still blind. "Now point me in the right direction, because I cant see!"

[sixth_attack]

Once the flaring decoy's victims tumbled down the wall, their glaring forms gradually evaporated and melted back into flying streaks of plasma before their energy dissipated into the night like a cluster of rogue fireworks. The plasma's vanishing presence ignited the night sky one more time and fell back into the shadows, leaving scorched dents in the wall and flaming patches crackling away in the nearby trees.

Sechs was nearly beside himself with barbarous mirth as he watched the tallest man catch fire and plummet off the wall. So much for being some guy who fought gods before! That ought to teach that big blowhard not to mess with a warrior like Sechs! The Replica's display of power may have been finished, but he still had one more treat for the escaping men...

As his own skin of plasma burned out into the cool air, Sechs lifted the enormous slice of concrete over his head with a single hand. "HEY ASSHOLES!" he shouted to the prisoners on the other side, "Got a parting gift for ya! CATCH!"

With very little effort on Sechs' part, the immense block was then catapulted over the wall, its huge form spinning dangerously in the air before crashing to the other side with a deafening CRUNCH!

As the rectangular boulder heavily rolled to a sluggish stop, Sechs' laughter echoed throughout the institute grounds, reverberating in the night like a triumphant beast's roars to the moon.