[Log] The Heist of Big Ben [1/3]
Who: Alicia, Balthier Bunansa, Cammy White, Carmen Sandiego, Diva, Ferham, Inspector Gadget, Kazuma Torisuma, Meredy, Nightwolf, Para-Dice, Sarah Jane Smith, Superman, Tepet Inatera
Where: Mundane Sector - Victorian London
When: 06 December 2007
What: Carmen Sandiego plans on making off with the four faces and arms of Big Ben, backed by Syndicate power and her personal henchmen. Balthier Bunansa, sky pirate extraordinaire, attempts to sneak off with them while the IPA keeps the sticky-fingered dame in red busy. Various mayhem and foolishness and the occasional fiddling of shirtcuffs ensues.
Watch For: A whole lot. Balthier swoops in to contest Syndicate thievery (and try to make off with the prize), Carmen Sandiego does that which she is best at, Frozen Heart crash-lands on a rather unsuspecting guest, and Tepet Inatera adopts a new horse. All in the streets of Merry Auld London. Oh, and lots of shameless (yet amusing) puns on time, on account of that dame in red.
Victorian London
'Ello Guvner, welcome to the cap'tol of Jolly Ole England. It's The Year of Our Lord Eighteen Hundred and Eighty-Eight it is and Victoria sits on the Throne. Long Live the Queen.
Heavy fog hugs the dingy cobblestone streets, barely penetrated by the gaslight given off by the lamps at every corner. The damp streets are filled with an interesting mix of characters. Here the rich and the poor make their livings one barely aware of the other. Ladies and Gentlemen of wealth and privelege go about their business in elegant horse drawn carriages while beggars plead for a measley day's wage and bagtails offer dubious pleasures from the streetcorners of Whitechapel. Careful there luv, they say Gentleman Jack's on the prowl they do and he's liable to give ye a second smile if ye're not careful.
So, welcome to London and enjoy yer stay. Oh and remember to leave a bit of the happiness you bring.
Contents:
Ferham
Cammy White
Kazuma Torisuma
Carmen Sandiego
Nightwolf
Meredy
Tepet Inatera
Diva
Sarah Jane Smith
Superman
Alicia
Frozen Heart
Diva switches armor modes to Chevalier.
Inspector Gadget says, "Wowsers! A kidnapping!"
Victorian London. Stuck up. Prudish. Utterly boring at first glance. At least that was Kazuma's view of the place - he had seen a few Londons during his time, and this was probably the most straight laced of them all. On the other hand, 'boring' often meant that there was something else going on out of sight, and London often had a teaming and seedy underworld that was always good for business.
Today, they would be here for much, much more than simple black market goods. Today - they were here for a piece of one of Britain's most well known landmarks. Kazuma stands on the lintel of a building nearby, recalling the last time someone had wanted a piece of Big Ben, and that had been some masked loon with a one letter name who had approached the Syndicate for help with blowing one to pieces.
The reddish-brown haired enforcer turns around, looking to those Syndicate members who have chosen to arrive with him. "Well, there it is folks. Big Ben - and we're here to clean the top off. Face and hands are what we were paid for - if you can nab the bells as well, that's just a bonus," the Alter User explains. "And I'm sure that our red clad master thief will be making her grand entrance any moment now..."
Inspector Gadget says, "And I, Inspector Gadget, cannot let someone's Big Brother Ben be taken away! Go Go Gadget Copter!"
Carmen Sandiego switches armor modes to Henchmen.
The hooded, masked Abyssal knows little about Victorian London. His past few visits have given him the impression of a city with a large number of working poor, smoggy skies, and some delicious pastries and roasted chestnuts. He'd been stalking the city out earlier in disguise, simply to get an idea of the area. Which is why he has a bag of roasted chestnuts hidden in the pockets of his deep, billowing robe.
He dare not speak aloud to protect his identity, but the former-and-current Frozen Heart gives a little nod to Kazuma's orders. He also reaches out to offer him, or other awaiting members, a cinnamon roasted chestnut.
The Phantom stood silently in the shadows, keeping his right armor under his cloak which blew lightly in the wind. He scowled to himself, his fist clenching and unclenching repeatedly. Having to lower himself to common thievary?! The idea made him want to murder the first IPA agent to come near him.His visable eye twitched, blood shot and wide. If his beloved Diva didn't ask personally, he'd be still be in Vietnam the school or dealing with THAT woman. The thought of killing Saya was what kept him going.
He pushes some hair from his face, looking at the people who just had to steal a clock this size.
Welcome to the streets of Victorian London. Enjoy your stay, and try not to get soot on too much of your clothing.
The air is a choking mix of soot and smog; legacies of the Industrial Revolution, and the polluting aftereffects that people didn't quite think to consider. Everything for business, though, and the sake of progress, science, and the other elements society's beginning to shift towards.
"It isn't much, is it?"
Conversational, the sky pirate comments to his copilot and partner in crime, the once-warrior of the Viera. It's just as well they're coming in from above, riding the hover - the strange little motorcycle-like contraption with glowing bits and other oddities that would be out of place even in a modernized Earth.
...The Viera, of course, doesn't answer. By the lack of response from the sky pirate; Balthier Bunansa wasn't expecting one.
"Right, then. Towards the clock." He points with his old-fashioned looking rifle, leaning back in the hover's second seat. The Viera shows no acknowledgement, ears pressed back a bit from the wind. Balthier reaches back, patting a leather satchel of tools. "We'll get this done as quickly as possible. Swoop in, claim the merchandise, and take our cut."
"The sooner, the better," Balthier adds under his breath, rifle tucked under an arm as he fiddles with a cuff. The hover speeds towards Big Ben from behind its face, silent, though the bright lights of its glossair rings are like to be a dead giveaway. "This place is absolutely filthy..."
When it comes to pulling off fancy heists, Carmen Sandiego is not one to slack off. While the Syndicate's lurking around nearby, the woman in red is doing what she does best, drawing massive amounts of attention with flair and showmanship.
She stands at the topmost steeple of the clock tower, the tails of her red trenchcoat fluttering in the wind with two massive spotlights focused on her; visible for all the world to see. "Welcome Detectives!" She announces proudly from her spot as she straightens her gloves. Her goons are nowhere to be scene. "I would love to stay and chat with all of you, but I just simply don't have the time."
She flashes one of her winning smiles and pushes a button on her wrist. Just as she does, all five bells of the Palace begin ringing at once and the clock hands begin to speed up, the minute hands moving like seconds and the hour hands moving like minutes. It looks like her goons have gotten into the mechanics of the clock. But what are they planning on doing?
Well national theft is not exactly what shamans usually do, they are mostly concerned with the affairs of nature, the welfare of animals and that their people are en tuned correctly with the land, occasionally however they are also concerned with scalping and that might be what drew Nightwolf into this heist. "Hmm....if thievery is what the Great Spirit asks, then it shall be done" He is still quite unsure what those higher in command are planning, the environment that now surrounds them feels rather dead to him and he idly wonders if this great building is corrupting the land. But then again there are certain liabilities of being a grunt, one being that you don't get to know what you are doing until you are actually commanded to. So the kombatant simply waits in silence awaiting order, there will be surely someone that might try to stop them
Nightwolf resets his buff status to neutral.
"My jove, look up in the sky!"
"Lord Habadasher, I do believe that is the common continental breed of the red crested water thrush. Really, no need to fly off the handle."
"Sydney, you fool! That's obviously the Earl of Sussex's worldy daughter Lucy, again showing her disrespect for her father by gallavanting about in that flying machine of hers!"
"Mlords, I believe that is a man in tight pants flying overhead to save the day!"
"Don't be stupid, Rodney."
"Can't win 'em all." Superman, whom it actually is, reflects to himself as he soars overhead, twisting around in the air so as to better hover over the incoming Syndicate clock...stealers. There needs to be a better name for that, Clark reflects, as he puts his hands on his hips and bellows down at the forces of crime. "Halt, villains! This is Superman! Put your hands in the air, step away from the clock, and no one will have to get hurt!"
When the news feed launches, Cammy White is among the first to respond. The silver-clad Street Fighter makes her way into the area via the gates. She's not the flashy type. (Unless the somewhat reflective nature of her outfit and leg paint counts.) She's here with a singular goal in mind. To stop the forces which threaten to steal...an entire clock?
Well, okay, there are stranger things in the world than that, one supposes. And so Cammy puts that entire concept out of her mind. The primary situation now is to STOP the attempt.
Her first thought about the city into which she's gated into is...well they tend to mirror those of Balthier. The place IS pretty bad off in the cleanlieness department. But it could always be worse.
Cammy's appearance is not as blatant as usual. Most of the time the criminals refuse to listen to her command to surrender. So this time, she simply moves forward, attempting to find any criminals she can and take them down. Hard. But who will be the first to run into the former Shadaloo Assassin once known simply as Killer Bee?
Look! Up In The Sky! It's A Bird! It's A Plane! It's...
"WOOOOOOWWWSSSSEEERRRRRRRS!" Inspector Gadget. The screaming bionic detective of Metro City is flying in, wildly, with his hands on the handles coming out of his hat. He's definitely not flying too straight, probably because of some WINDY turbulence or just the fact that he can't fly. At all.
He sails around and around for a moment, circling the area like a drunk vulture, before he finally starts to stabilize himself. "Ah! There we go! Much bett-"
Nothing seems to work right for the Inspector because the blades of his Gadget Copter just stop working. As they fold up on themselves, Gadget pauses in mid-air, just long enough to bug out his eyes. And then, well, he's dropping like 324 tons of bricks down to the streets below! And falling and falling and falling...
Inatera had to dress up for the occasion!
As she steps out of the Gate, she takes a moment to look around at the gray, dingy, suppressed land around her, eyes shaded by red jade steel: Is this some sort of a shadowland? she wonders, before seeing Cammy hasten forwards.
She doesn't run, instead striding up to a hansom cabbie and gazing up at him, dark face and blue eyes burning at the toothless, rickets-afflicted man. She produces a small insignia in a black leather wallet, before sliding it back away: "Your horse," she says, passing up two jade obols: "One is yours; the other is for your trouble!" With that, she slashes through the restraints on the hansom, leaping bareback up onto the cabbie's horse and coaxing it forwards, stroking the back of the indifferent horse's neck as she goes.
Hopefully, she thinks, two ounces of jade will cover the lending and perhaps the price of a new mount.
Alicia does not know how to ride and certainly is not going to jack someone's carriage.
Instead she is on foot, which means it is taking a while for her to get here. Alicia is relatively fast on her feet, but there's only so much a normal human can do to keep uptheir best speed for quite some time. She is using one hand to hold her headband in place while doing this.
This place reminds her very heavily of some of the bigger cities she's been to, though, so there really isn't much surprising in it.
"... Holy cow, it really is Carmen Sandiego." Mercade looks up in excited shock. "I love being out here." He laughs, running down Westminster Street past the Palace towards the Clock tower. He's still dressed in typical clothing, hitting it at top speed as he leaps up towards a nearby fence and flips, launching himself over it to land in a three-point crouch. He doesn't stop, however, bolting forward along the wall of the Palace to leap up and cling to a jutting windowsill. He clambers along, scaling up the walls rapidly so he can get to a door. He can't wait to see what the plan is... And then stop if, of course!
Knowing Carmen's tendency towards not only wanting to steal things, but wanting to actually show up the authorities in the process, Kazuma was expecting that there would be some sort of IPA response. Which was why he had gone out of his way to bring along a good number of Enforcers, as well as whatever resources that the Syndicate's allies were willing to send their way.
But first, Kazuma nabs a roast chestnut from the Abyssal Formerly Known As Frozen Heart, and pops it in his mouth. "Thanks Nigele," he says, before turning to watch as the IPA response begins to arrive.
And Kazuma actually grins as he sees the man he's referred to as 'that damn blue boyscout' actually on the field. "Well well, looks like this might be fun after all," he says with a grin - and turns. "Nigele, if I get too far out, you're in charge of getting people off the field if things go downhill," he says. And he glances over at Nightwolf and the strange man who had down up, claiming he was with one of the new Syndicate members. "Give em hell, gentlemen. I'll deal with the big guy."
And with that, Kazuma jumps straight off f the building. Huge chunks of façade and masonry from both sides of the street vanish as he passes by them, collecting mass to transform into his Alter - and Kazuma strikes the ground, encased in his heavy, full body Alter. Grinning from behind his mask, the long, bladed tail on the back of the Alter User's shoulders snaps down, the force of the strike propelling him up into the air - right at Superman. "Hey boyscout!" he shouts, bringing one fist back. "Here's what I think about your 'thanks!"
Yeah, he's been waiting to hit that smug, chiseled chin for a while now.
Kazuma Torisuma switches armor modes to Third Stage.
Kazuma Torisuma critically strikes Superman with his Payback? attack.
A BIT LATE. But then, Para Dice isn't the most important member. Nor is she the most dependable. BUT SHE SURE IS SOMETHING.
And the sight of a large, green and white catball head flying in the air, bobbing about the Big Ben. She can't fight OUTSIDE the thing. Well, okay, maybe she CAN but still she's far more preferring to stay within the machine and fight where it's SAFE and where she's not getting punched in the face by men who are super.
Thus, everyone wins!
Flying about the Big Ben slowly, the neon face is happy! It made it. And it's NOT going to be useless! ^_^ Unfortunately, if anyone wants to just stay within the clock tower, Para-Dice can't STOP them! Perhaps another reason she's currently bouncing on the DDR pads! "Meoooooow. So we're here for a silly clock? Oh that seems so so soooo tacky!"
Frozen Heart fully heals Frozen Heart with his oopth action.
Alicia fully heals Alicia with her Oh Yeah, That Would Be A Good Idea action.
Nigele merely nods, the black cloaked Abyssal still remaining oddly silent in the presence of so much IPA opposition. He expected it, of course; this high profile a target wouldn't be an easy catch. Still, that seems to be what Carmen and Kazuma are hoping for, isn't it?
He pulls out his bow and starts dashing forward, quietly chanting a spell beneath his breath, when he notices one of those officers flying-
No, Superman is flying. What Inspector Gadget is doing can better be described as falling. That's what catches Frozen Heart's attention as he skids to a halt, making a slightly disturbed face as he attempts to shoot the falling detective-cyborg in the helicopter-blades with a steel-tipped arrow. His ice arrows would be too obvious.
Yes, that whole halt villains pretty much would have alerted anyone that there might be something going down pretty soon. So even if he is a grunt the orders were not all necessary, though being the loyal warrior that he is Nightwolf gives a single bow of his head at Kazuma's command "None shall pass Chieftain" He says in a dead pan as he scans his allies and enemies alike. He is not all that well prepared for all the flying individuals that have come to stop them and so he hopes that his teammates are better prepared for it
Leaving those to them, his dead eyes stare at ground level to see what infantry has enemy gathered to do kombat against them "Leave the hand to hand combat to me" He issues to his team mates as he rushes in into the fray! It's about time that he finally had to have some fun, all those blood lusting spirits raging inside of him demanded some kombat and now he finds in the form of...a woman in a tight one suit body suit?
"Huh...their uniforms really are odd..."
No matter! It is time for some kombat and so as he reaches Cammy, the shaman starts glowing green all around and charges at her with increased speed as he tries to elbow bash her in the face with his rhino charge attack as he yells "You!! I CHALLENGE YOU TO MORTAL KOMBAT!!!!"
Nightwolf hits Cammy White with his MK tiem jab.
Who ordered the T.Hawk Sandwhich?! Wait, what? Yes, that IS an indian. But it's NOT T. Hawk. Not that Cammy would even know who that IS right now given her current state of amnesia. All she knows is that she's just been slammed facefirst by someone's elbow. Ow.
Skidding back a bit from the force of the shot, Cammy stares at Nightwolf askance for a moment. Then simply replies in the language most people like herself...and Nightwolf too honestly, understand: Violence. In the force of a Reverse Spin Knuckle to the jaw. This basically revolves around her leaping towards Nightwolf at an angle, spinning around, and then trying to smash his face in with the back of her gauntletted hand!
Cammy White misses Nightwolf with her Reverse Spin Knuckle! attack.
THe Phantom continues to watch the IPA agents start to gather from his perch. Now to choose who looked appettizing. The "boy scout" was claimed...perhaps alittle too quickly. He leeps down, landing several meters up the road from the woman on the horse. He grins widely,displaying his sharp fangs as he raises his right arm from under the cloak. The arm was a grotesque green color and much too long and thick for the body of the man in question. It also had a large red tip in the palm which was now elongating and firing off like a large red javilon at the head of the horse. He cackled to himself.
Diva misses Tepet Inatera with her Killing your Horsey attack.
And falling and falling and falling and...
CLUNK! Apparently, the steel tipped arrow of doom has collided with the body structure of the great Inspector Gadget! The Inspector looks down at the arrow that's embedded in his arm and frowns. "Hm. Someone's been littering! I'll have to find the culprit and make sure to give them a proper warning!"
Finally, the Inspector gets close enough to the ground for his legs to SPRING into action, literally! As they do, he springs back into the air and bounces off in the general direction of Frozen Heart. As the helicopter blades fold back into his hat, he tries to step with his crazy extended legs, but is not doing too well, because of the chaos going on around him. He can't seem to stay focused.
"Hmmm. Now. I must find this Big Brother Ben. I wonder if there's anyone around here I can ask..." Gadget seems to be pondering this while his legs shrink him back down to normal size. "Go Go Gadget People Locator!" And his hat opens up again, a robotic hand extending out and swings itself around wildly as if looking for someone in particular! The bad news is that the metal arm might clothesline Le Frozone Hart.
The horse is a dumb animal, used to the stink of soot and ashes and sweat and perfume and sewage. It's ears flick, only the supernatural might of its new rider keeping it from panicking. As it strides forwards, the crowd parting in mild confusion at the sight, it wonders in the back of a mind meant perhaps for greater things than pulling a cart in the Four Mile Radius: What is going on? Fate has decreed that this animal shall die; it has a faint sensation of wind as that javelin of hate and blood and unnatural strength flies towards its skull.
Steel flashes, and the missile is thrown aside, clattering against the cobblestones as Inatera immediately disregards it as unimportant. "Ha!" Her head tilts up, staring towards the would-be dismounter.
She smiles at him, before rattling the sun-and-moon brasses still around the horse's neck. "Come, then! Let us see how well you fare!" With a light kick from greaved foot to the side, the horse rears up, showing vulnerable belly for a moment -
Then it slams both hooves down with brutal iron-shod force towards the Phantom.
Tepet Inatera misses Diva with her *trombe* attack.
Kazuma. The Man of Steel's eyes narrow as the chaotic alter user sizes him up. Superman crosses his arms, frowning and waiting for...
Ah, here it comes. As fast as Clark is, he can't move quick enough to block Kazuma's shot. The psychicly enhanced fist slams into Superman's face, his chin flying back and his body shaking as he struggles to maintain his personal gravity. The Man of Steel grunts, shoving his shoulders forward in order to keep in the air while saying, "Nice...to see you too...'Rainbow Man'..." Superman grins at the crystal-armored criminal, pulling his arms up in the air, "...but if that's the best you've got..." and bringing both of them DOWN on Kazuma's head in a massive hammerblow!
"...you're better off walking away from this." Superman whipes his face off, steeling himself for the fight that's to follow.
Superman gets a glancing blow on Kazuma Torisuma with his A Little Grounding attack.
No Nightwolf is not T. Hawk perse, but why yes, he does understand violence in fact, a lot even. Sure one would first wonder if it is all that gentlemanly of him to be elbowing a woman in the nose but he did challenged her to glorious Mortal Kombat first and thus he finds himself excused of anything that might happen further. The shaman will not be held responsible of the loss of mind, limb or life to those that face him...or in the case of Cammy, her nose.
He is sure that she's a tough woman however, she is dressed as a soldier after all so it doesn't surprise him that much when she staggers out of his attack and immediately goes to return it! Good thing too because that would have probably hurt a lot "What? No flashy come back? Even Scorpion said something after being challenged" Muses the shaman as he bobs his upper body down like a boxer to avoid the slug and now has the killer doll's body all nice and open for a counter "Fine! Fist cuffs it is!" And so using a little boxing maneuver, he twists his upper body to attempt and deliver a right hook to Cammy's pancreas!
Nightwolf hits Cammy White with his Injun Vale Tudo jab.
It really makes Carmen's day when she realizes that she's gotten such a huge party of people. When Superman calls out his challenge, all Carmen does is look up and lightly tip her hat at the man in blue before a golden lion streaks out of the air to attack him. "Oh dear," She mumbles with faint humor before going back to scanning the sky.
There's a... flying robot man? Curious and... a giant balloon thing with neon lights? Okay, that's a little strange. But what really catches her attention is the hovercraft coming in with two individuals. She tilts her head slightly. Unlike the rest of the people who have shown up, the two on the craft of the air of thieves. Yes, it does take one to know one.
Carmen makes a face as she faces Balthier and his bunny girl, "Stop right there," She states. Challenging them directly. "What do you think you're doing?" Because they're definitely not fellow Syndicate members.
Mercade continues to infiltrate the Big Ben, making use of his impressive athletic skills in order to clamber up the wall. He glances around on the rooftop, eyeing the Enforcers running D. "Well, this is going to be... Interesting." He mutters to himself, and begins shimmying along the edge, trying to evade them and slip in the door while they're not looking. He doesn't want to get slowed down dealing with the random Syndies... The interesting stuff has to be going on inside!
Fast. Faster than Cammy would have believed. Still, this at least establishes that this man is no slouch in the physical department. She still says nothing, even as that bodyblow finds it's mark. But Cammy is tougher than she looks, and responds with a vicious spin kick aimed with her left leg, aiming for Nightwolf's NECK. Subtle, she rarely is. And in a Street Fight, subtltey (sp?0 goes out the door!
The cloaked man grins widely as the woman talks. All the Phantom can do is giggle alittle as the gall of this one. A human talking as if she could do more than buy time? This was amusing. Too amusing. He is laughing even as the horse is reering up...even as it is coming down. And only when the horse throws its hoves down to trample him is the Phantom not there. Gone from view. Behind Tepet in fact, raising his arm with a new composure which wasn't there before. "Die." The fingers on his hand pull back and the large red nail comes out again, firing straight at Tepet's back this time.
Cammy White gets a glancing blow on Nightwolf with her Spin kicking revolution attack.
That odd man in the coat didn't react with any pain at all to being shot with an arrow? Either he has superhuman pain tolerance, or that arm is-
Well, Frozen Heart had a vague idea after seeing Gadget's legs expand and collapse like telescopes, but he doesn't have much time to ponder it as he's clothleslined in the back of the head by a large hand. A large, steel hand. "Ugh...! That was a cheap shot," he mumbles, turning around quickly to glare at Gadget through the face-obscuring hood. Clearly, even if this person does seem like a goofball, he can't be underestimated! He's trying to get the Abyssal to let his guard down, isn't he?
He shouts out a command in an unintellegible language, being sure to distort his voice slightly, and slams a barrage of ice crystals into a nearby lamp-post. This causes the lamp-post to snap in half and go tumbling down towards Gadget-it may not be very effective, but maybe he can judge the man's reaction time this way!
Diva hits Tepet Inatera with her NAILING YOU! AYUK! AYUK! attack.
"Hmph, stop it with all the buddy buddy talk," Kazuma replies with a smirk. He spins around, and as Superman brings his hands together for an overhand blow, Kazuma brings both of his heavily armored fists up, crossed over his head and absorbing the majority of the impact. "After you and your people spent a crapload of time protecting some murdering Invader from me, and then you went and attacked me after I helped take it down - we've had this coming for a long time!"
The Alter User drops backwards for a moment, but instead of falling away, as one might expect, he simply hovers in midair for a moment, grinning. "Besides, are you scared of a fair fight, boyscout?" he asks, clenching both fists.
With that, Kazuma rushes forward, bringing a one two combination towards Superman, before flipping over and driving one foot upwards towards the Man of Steel's chin, trying to drive him back and upwards. No point in letting this fight drop down into the busy streets below.
Kazuma Torisuma critically strikes Superman with his One, two, three attack.
"I'm going to go ahead and guess that that-" Balthier frowns, swinging his rifle around to point at the face of Big Ben, "-is not normal. Let's take a closer look, shall we?"
The Viera obliges, swinging the hover down and towards the face of the gargantuan clock. Thankfully, the fact that the heist is something this ridiculously huge means it's easy to find and locate; the bad news is the fact that it's difficult to manage. Especially with all these people hanging about.
It seems about then the sky pirate notices that the clock isn't entirely unattended. Red catches the corner of his eye. He glances up, just far enough to notice the flapping red trenchcoat of Carmen Sandiego.
"Well, isn't that something? It isn't every day you have competetion for a world-renowned clock face and its arms." Balthier smirks, shouldering his rifle, positively sprawled on the seat of the hover - he trusts Fran's piloting skills not to land them both flat on the pavement, hundreds of feet below. He trusts it a lot, evidently.
"What do I think I'm doing? What does it look like I'm doing? I'm stealing this clock. Or, at least, its important parts." Balthier leans forward, crossing his arms over his knees in a lazy hunch. The rifle points at Carmen, unwavering. He's got good aim. But, he doesn't fire it. "The question is, what are you doing?"
Fran glances towards the side, expertly handling the hover's controls. It responds immediately, dipping them low enough for Balthier to take a potshot at the steeple. He isn't aiming for Carmen, but hopefully it'll be cause enough for her to... loosen her grip, a bit.
"Now, let's leave this to the professionals, shall we, ma'am?" The sky pirate isn't smiling any more, and he's staring, quite pointedly, at Carmen. The rifle's also staring at her - and ready to fire again.
You hit Carmen Sandiego with your Potshot~ jab.
"HRRG!! YES! Show me your strength warrior!" Is Nightwolf actually enjoying this!? It appears he does, because those pupil less dead eyes of his start glowing with green feral fury. That attack to his neck hurt quite a bit though and it would have hurt a whole lot more of he hadn't shrugged his shoulders up so as to absorb some of the blow, still he knows that in order to land some more decent hits he will have to take some of his own and that was pretty nice, Cammy is now left in a compromising position, what with her leg all the way up the shaman's face, so he aims to take advantage of that. "HRUAAA!!" The kombatant tries to grab the killer bee's leg and hoist up to then try and shove her down to the ground so as to make her hit the ground head first with a wrestling take down!
Nightwolf hits Cammy White with his Krushed. attack.
The nail stabs out and towards Inatera's armor, slamming into the lamellar plate with a noise like a hammer smashing into a particularly ill-fated turtle. Inatera says 'hrk' and jerks forwards, feeling a rib snap from displaced pressure; she breathes in deeply, part to force it into position and part to clear her mind.
Then she laughs. It is short and sharp. "What a stunning conversationalist you are! Are you truly one of these locals, here to abet the theft of this great clock, or are you a mere opportunist brigand?"
The long sword in her hand whirls around, once above her head as she pulls the horse towards the side, the animal whinnying in surprise as Inatera MAKES it move; she then swings the razor-like blade down overhand towards the fast-moving phantomlike being!
Tepet Inatera misses Diva with her Make Your Own Sweeny Todd Joke attack.
Somewhere in the multiverse, Tony Schivone is having a markout, as Cammy gets slammed with a Japanese Legdrag. It's lucky for her that she was able to roll with the attack, or it may have caused severe damage to her leg. She wrenches hereself free from the grip, and tries a move of her own, also taken out of the pagebooks of pro wrestling, darting behind Nightwolf and lockign her hands around his waist, and trying to lift him up and drop him onto his head with a German Suplex!
Just as the rifle fires, Carmen takes a single leap backwards. It's a miracle how she can remain standing on the slanted roof top with her high heels. They must be some shoes. She makes a distasteful frown when the where she once stood shatter. "Unfortunately, I've already claimed it. Didn't your mother ever tello you that ladies come first?"
Now, Carmen might be a pacifist, but her goons are not. She snaps her fingers and suddenly VILE Henchmen Henry "Boot" Black and Black Jackson climb up the steeple, behind Balthier and Fran's hover (but still on top of the building. Not in the air like the sky pirates). Boot lifts a piece of loose stone and throws it at the hover, "'ay! You leave da boss alone!"
Seeing her reinforcements, Carmen flicks out her wrist and embeds a cable into the top of the steeple. Once the cable is secure, she proceeds to repel down the clock tower towards her goal. The clock hands and faces.
Carmen Sandiego misses Balthier Bunansa with her Time to clean your clock! jab.
As Mercade climbs up the wall, aiming to shimmy about the edge and then slip in the door, Mercade's BRILLIANT plan is cut short because something is now floating INFRONT of him, a few feet from the Big Ben, and is smiling at him. It's also round.
Did we mention smiling? >:)
"Hiiiiii agaaaain~, meoooow. I remember you, because YOU stopped me from getting the Brain puter and I was NOT very happy about that you know!" Para Dice thinks she has him on the ropes, and isn't above causing mindless property damage!
"Sooooo. I think I owe you something alright, and just to prove I'm not a bad sport, I'll deliver it RIGHT now! Meooow!" And a few hopes, left, right, up, down, the ship, floating in the sky at the side of the Big Ben, has it's ears open up.
"I got you A WHOLE BUNCH of missiles! Byee byee mousey! Meooooow!"
And that's about when Mercade begins to be pelted with ALOT of SMILING MISSILES. Of course, they explode, but they're also pretty easy to avoid because of how long she takes to do it! But the single point is, she's trying to blow Mercade RIGHT off the side of Big Ben. Even if she has to take it all out!
Alas. Poor Inspector Gadget! He's paying too much attention to looking around the area for someone that he can talk to. He looks around and the People Locator zeroes in on Frozen Heart. Which causes Gadget's head to spin right around on itself. He has to pay attention to what's going on. "Aha! A citizen! Hi, I'm Inspector Gadget! And I'm looking for a man named Ben! Apparently, he's pretty big."
Apparently, he's not really paying attention to the frozen light pole and the breaking and the slamming of the pole into his skull. He doesn't even feel it seems, because he just looks up. Of course the loud CLANG was probably telling the tale, but all Gadget seems to think of is, "Hmmm. Rain? We can't have that, now, can we?" He looks up. "Go Go Gadget Umbrella!"
The hat opens up again and springs forth with an umbrella, which opens up wildly, launching the light pole off his hat and likely sending it back into the air, where it may just fall back down onto FroHeart. Depending on Gadget's luck.
Cammy White stuns Nightwolf with her Angle Eat Your Heart Out! action.
Para-Dice misses Mercade Alexander with her >>>===(:D)'s AWAY attack.
"I'm not the one stealing a giant clock, criminal." Superman scowls down at Kazuma, refusing to rise to the man's stream of bile. He does rise, however, when kicked in the face by his fancy float-fu, flying into the air and through a fluffy white cloud. Was it that simple?!
There's a creaking, cracking sound, as though the ball of air and water was somehow....freezing, mid air. There's a grunt, and suddenly the whole cloud, flash-frozen into a giant ice block, is being hurled at Kazuma!
"What I'm afraid of isn't any of your busniess, Kazuma." Superman says, crossing his arms and scowling at his enemy, "But I assure you, you're not on the list."
The blade hits empty air yet again as the Phantom reappears on Tepet's right. He fires several spikes into the horse's stomach to put it out of it's misery...life. The black haired man remains there for the moment, his eye focused through his mask at the woman. "I'm neither, human. However if you can strike me, I might bother to fight you like someone worth my time. I prefer my dinner to have atleast drawn some of my blood before I take all of theirs." He grins widely, licking his fangs suggestively.
Superman misses Kazuma Torisuma with his That Great Old American Tradition: Throwin Stuff attack.
Diva critically strikes Tepet Inatera with her Horsey Fall Down And Go BOOM! attack.
*CRUNCH!* Yes! That is more like the Mortal Kombat he knows and loves, though Cammy is considerable a lot more light weight that the kombatants he is used to, Goro anyone? That guy needs to go on a diet. Either way, down goes the Killer Bee and Nightwolf is moving in to follow up the attack with something, quite unaware of the chaos that is around him until.. "Huh?" He feels arms around his waist and makes him arch an eyebrow for a moment "Surrendering? WOA!!!" *SLAM!* Maybe not, looked like the good ol' German Supplex and now it's Nighty's turn to go down as the kombat moves into grappling. He rolls back with the grapple though and rolling backwards trying to put some distance between himself and Cammy he uses the momentum to pull himself back to his feet. Is he seeing stars now!? Well that is inconvenient, he tries to shake it off by smacking himself a few times
Nightwolf successfully targets Nightwolf with his Snap outta it action.
The blonde isn't about to let up now that she has an opening. She launches herself at the Kombatant, feet first, and her body spinning, sending her pigtails whipping about her. She speaks her first words of the fight thus far:
"CANNON DRILL!"
Cammy White critically strikes Nightwolf with her Cannon Drill! attack.
Nightwolf has been knocked out!
One thing Sarah Jane learned about when travelling with the Doctor was that she learned that it's far easier to be in the right place at the wrong time. Or even vice versa. But whichever the case this is, she doesn't know. What she does know is that something is going on. As a result, it's probably strange to see the victorian dressed woman, hurrying along towards Big Ben.
She watches for a moment, looking upwards, then she ducks into a door. This is where she had been gone for most of the time- BUT...
Eventually, the older woman is working her way across the rooftop in her heeled boots and Victorian dress. It's not a sight you see everyday. But she was fortunate to be carrying a parasol, as it was quite sunny today. As such, the parasol is being used to help her maintain her balance as the winds whip around her skirt and clothing.
To be honest, she looks like a random bystander who has tried to sneak her way up Westminster just to see the insanity. As such... she might stand out quite a bit. Especially as she comes near enough to catch sight of Mercade and...
Narrowing her eyes, the reporter tries to get a good view of whoever he's dealing with... or whoever is trying to attack him.
So, Gadget's endurance tested! Conclusion-that man may be daffy, but he has the pain tolerance of a tank.
Frozen stares and then leaps aside, narrowly avoiding the tossed-back lamp, and scowls. This man clearly isn't aiming for him. He's just bumbling around! But it's an immovable object vs. a very stoppable force. Gadget must be some kind of automaton, and thus regular weaponry won't work. Trickery, however...
"...Oh, a fellow named Ben? A big guy?" He speaks in a hoarse tone, as if he has a cold. "I think I saw him thataway, down that alley." That alley, of course, is a dead end. He'll trap the man there, and then confront him where he'll have no way of evading sorcery! Yes, that's the plan, anyway...
What Frozen is experiencing now is the form of Resonance in which reality just kind of hates you.
Where: Mundane Sector - Victorian London
When: 06 December 2007
What: Carmen Sandiego plans on making off with the four faces and arms of Big Ben, backed by Syndicate power and her personal henchmen. Balthier Bunansa, sky pirate extraordinaire, attempts to sneak off with them while the IPA keeps the sticky-fingered dame in red busy. Various mayhem and foolishness and the occasional fiddling of shirtcuffs ensues.
Watch For: A whole lot. Balthier swoops in to contest Syndicate thievery (and try to make off with the prize), Carmen Sandiego does that which she is best at, Frozen Heart crash-lands on a rather unsuspecting guest, and Tepet Inatera adopts a new horse. All in the streets of Merry Auld London. Oh, and lots of shameless (yet amusing) puns on time, on account of that dame in red.
Victorian London
'Ello Guvner, welcome to the cap'tol of Jolly Ole England. It's The Year of Our Lord Eighteen Hundred and Eighty-Eight it is and Victoria sits on the Throne. Long Live the Queen.
Heavy fog hugs the dingy cobblestone streets, barely penetrated by the gaslight given off by the lamps at every corner. The damp streets are filled with an interesting mix of characters. Here the rich and the poor make their livings one barely aware of the other. Ladies and Gentlemen of wealth and privelege go about their business in elegant horse drawn carriages while beggars plead for a measley day's wage and bagtails offer dubious pleasures from the streetcorners of Whitechapel. Careful there luv, they say Gentleman Jack's on the prowl they do and he's liable to give ye a second smile if ye're not careful.
So, welcome to London and enjoy yer stay. Oh and remember to leave a bit of the happiness you bring.
Contents:
Ferham
Cammy White
Kazuma Torisuma
Carmen Sandiego
Nightwolf
Meredy
Tepet Inatera
Diva
Sarah Jane Smith
Superman
Alicia
Frozen Heart
Diva switches armor modes to Chevalier.
Inspector Gadget says, "Wowsers! A kidnapping!"
Victorian London. Stuck up. Prudish. Utterly boring at first glance. At least that was Kazuma's view of the place - he had seen a few Londons during his time, and this was probably the most straight laced of them all. On the other hand, 'boring' often meant that there was something else going on out of sight, and London often had a teaming and seedy underworld that was always good for business.
Today, they would be here for much, much more than simple black market goods. Today - they were here for a piece of one of Britain's most well known landmarks. Kazuma stands on the lintel of a building nearby, recalling the last time someone had wanted a piece of Big Ben, and that had been some masked loon with a one letter name who had approached the Syndicate for help with blowing one to pieces.
The reddish-brown haired enforcer turns around, looking to those Syndicate members who have chosen to arrive with him. "Well, there it is folks. Big Ben - and we're here to clean the top off. Face and hands are what we were paid for - if you can nab the bells as well, that's just a bonus," the Alter User explains. "And I'm sure that our red clad master thief will be making her grand entrance any moment now..."
Inspector Gadget says, "And I, Inspector Gadget, cannot let someone's Big Brother Ben be taken away! Go Go Gadget Copter!"
Carmen Sandiego switches armor modes to Henchmen.
The hooded, masked Abyssal knows little about Victorian London. His past few visits have given him the impression of a city with a large number of working poor, smoggy skies, and some delicious pastries and roasted chestnuts. He'd been stalking the city out earlier in disguise, simply to get an idea of the area. Which is why he has a bag of roasted chestnuts hidden in the pockets of his deep, billowing robe.
He dare not speak aloud to protect his identity, but the former-and-current Frozen Heart gives a little nod to Kazuma's orders. He also reaches out to offer him, or other awaiting members, a cinnamon roasted chestnut.
The Phantom stood silently in the shadows, keeping his right armor under his cloak which blew lightly in the wind. He scowled to himself, his fist clenching and unclenching repeatedly. Having to lower himself to common thievary?! The idea made him want to murder the first IPA agent to come near him.His visable eye twitched, blood shot and wide. If his beloved Diva didn't ask personally, he'd be still be in Vietnam the school or dealing with THAT woman. The thought of killing Saya was what kept him going.
He pushes some hair from his face, looking at the people who just had to steal a clock this size.
Welcome to the streets of Victorian London. Enjoy your stay, and try not to get soot on too much of your clothing.
The air is a choking mix of soot and smog; legacies of the Industrial Revolution, and the polluting aftereffects that people didn't quite think to consider. Everything for business, though, and the sake of progress, science, and the other elements society's beginning to shift towards.
"It isn't much, is it?"
Conversational, the sky pirate comments to his copilot and partner in crime, the once-warrior of the Viera. It's just as well they're coming in from above, riding the hover - the strange little motorcycle-like contraption with glowing bits and other oddities that would be out of place even in a modernized Earth.
...The Viera, of course, doesn't answer. By the lack of response from the sky pirate; Balthier Bunansa wasn't expecting one.
"Right, then. Towards the clock." He points with his old-fashioned looking rifle, leaning back in the hover's second seat. The Viera shows no acknowledgement, ears pressed back a bit from the wind. Balthier reaches back, patting a leather satchel of tools. "We'll get this done as quickly as possible. Swoop in, claim the merchandise, and take our cut."
"The sooner, the better," Balthier adds under his breath, rifle tucked under an arm as he fiddles with a cuff. The hover speeds towards Big Ben from behind its face, silent, though the bright lights of its glossair rings are like to be a dead giveaway. "This place is absolutely filthy..."
When it comes to pulling off fancy heists, Carmen Sandiego is not one to slack off. While the Syndicate's lurking around nearby, the woman in red is doing what she does best, drawing massive amounts of attention with flair and showmanship.
She stands at the topmost steeple of the clock tower, the tails of her red trenchcoat fluttering in the wind with two massive spotlights focused on her; visible for all the world to see. "Welcome Detectives!" She announces proudly from her spot as she straightens her gloves. Her goons are nowhere to be scene. "I would love to stay and chat with all of you, but I just simply don't have the time."
She flashes one of her winning smiles and pushes a button on her wrist. Just as she does, all five bells of the Palace begin ringing at once and the clock hands begin to speed up, the minute hands moving like seconds and the hour hands moving like minutes. It looks like her goons have gotten into the mechanics of the clock. But what are they planning on doing?
Well national theft is not exactly what shamans usually do, they are mostly concerned with the affairs of nature, the welfare of animals and that their people are en tuned correctly with the land, occasionally however they are also concerned with scalping and that might be what drew Nightwolf into this heist. "Hmm....if thievery is what the Great Spirit asks, then it shall be done" He is still quite unsure what those higher in command are planning, the environment that now surrounds them feels rather dead to him and he idly wonders if this great building is corrupting the land. But then again there are certain liabilities of being a grunt, one being that you don't get to know what you are doing until you are actually commanded to. So the kombatant simply waits in silence awaiting order, there will be surely someone that might try to stop them
Nightwolf resets his buff status to neutral.
"My jove, look up in the sky!"
"Lord Habadasher, I do believe that is the common continental breed of the red crested water thrush. Really, no need to fly off the handle."
"Sydney, you fool! That's obviously the Earl of Sussex's worldy daughter Lucy, again showing her disrespect for her father by gallavanting about in that flying machine of hers!"
"Mlords, I believe that is a man in tight pants flying overhead to save the day!"
"Don't be stupid, Rodney."
"Can't win 'em all." Superman, whom it actually is, reflects to himself as he soars overhead, twisting around in the air so as to better hover over the incoming Syndicate clock...stealers. There needs to be a better name for that, Clark reflects, as he puts his hands on his hips and bellows down at the forces of crime. "Halt, villains! This is Superman! Put your hands in the air, step away from the clock, and no one will have to get hurt!"
When the news feed launches, Cammy White is among the first to respond. The silver-clad Street Fighter makes her way into the area via the gates. She's not the flashy type. (Unless the somewhat reflective nature of her outfit and leg paint counts.) She's here with a singular goal in mind. To stop the forces which threaten to steal...an entire clock?
Well, okay, there are stranger things in the world than that, one supposes. And so Cammy puts that entire concept out of her mind. The primary situation now is to STOP the attempt.
Her first thought about the city into which she's gated into is...well they tend to mirror those of Balthier. The place IS pretty bad off in the cleanlieness department. But it could always be worse.
Cammy's appearance is not as blatant as usual. Most of the time the criminals refuse to listen to her command to surrender. So this time, she simply moves forward, attempting to find any criminals she can and take them down. Hard. But who will be the first to run into the former Shadaloo Assassin once known simply as Killer Bee?
Look! Up In The Sky! It's A Bird! It's A Plane! It's...
"WOOOOOOWWWSSSSEEERRRRRRRS!" Inspector Gadget. The screaming bionic detective of Metro City is flying in, wildly, with his hands on the handles coming out of his hat. He's definitely not flying too straight, probably because of some WINDY turbulence or just the fact that he can't fly. At all.
He sails around and around for a moment, circling the area like a drunk vulture, before he finally starts to stabilize himself. "Ah! There we go! Much bett-"
Nothing seems to work right for the Inspector because the blades of his Gadget Copter just stop working. As they fold up on themselves, Gadget pauses in mid-air, just long enough to bug out his eyes. And then, well, he's dropping like 324 tons of bricks down to the streets below! And falling and falling and falling...
Inatera had to dress up for the occasion!
As she steps out of the Gate, she takes a moment to look around at the gray, dingy, suppressed land around her, eyes shaded by red jade steel: Is this some sort of a shadowland? she wonders, before seeing Cammy hasten forwards.
She doesn't run, instead striding up to a hansom cabbie and gazing up at him, dark face and blue eyes burning at the toothless, rickets-afflicted man. She produces a small insignia in a black leather wallet, before sliding it back away: "Your horse," she says, passing up two jade obols: "One is yours; the other is for your trouble!" With that, she slashes through the restraints on the hansom, leaping bareback up onto the cabbie's horse and coaxing it forwards, stroking the back of the indifferent horse's neck as she goes.
Hopefully, she thinks, two ounces of jade will cover the lending and perhaps the price of a new mount.
Alicia does not know how to ride and certainly is not going to jack someone's carriage.
Instead she is on foot, which means it is taking a while for her to get here. Alicia is relatively fast on her feet, but there's only so much a normal human can do to keep uptheir best speed for quite some time. She is using one hand to hold her headband in place while doing this.
This place reminds her very heavily of some of the bigger cities she's been to, though, so there really isn't much surprising in it.
"... Holy cow, it really is Carmen Sandiego." Mercade looks up in excited shock. "I love being out here." He laughs, running down Westminster Street past the Palace towards the Clock tower. He's still dressed in typical clothing, hitting it at top speed as he leaps up towards a nearby fence and flips, launching himself over it to land in a three-point crouch. He doesn't stop, however, bolting forward along the wall of the Palace to leap up and cling to a jutting windowsill. He clambers along, scaling up the walls rapidly so he can get to a door. He can't wait to see what the plan is... And then stop if, of course!
Knowing Carmen's tendency towards not only wanting to steal things, but wanting to actually show up the authorities in the process, Kazuma was expecting that there would be some sort of IPA response. Which was why he had gone out of his way to bring along a good number of Enforcers, as well as whatever resources that the Syndicate's allies were willing to send their way.
But first, Kazuma nabs a roast chestnut from the Abyssal Formerly Known As Frozen Heart, and pops it in his mouth. "Thanks Nigele," he says, before turning to watch as the IPA response begins to arrive.
And Kazuma actually grins as he sees the man he's referred to as 'that damn blue boyscout' actually on the field. "Well well, looks like this might be fun after all," he says with a grin - and turns. "Nigele, if I get too far out, you're in charge of getting people off the field if things go downhill," he says. And he glances over at Nightwolf and the strange man who had down up, claiming he was with one of the new Syndicate members. "Give em hell, gentlemen. I'll deal with the big guy."
And with that, Kazuma jumps straight off f the building. Huge chunks of façade and masonry from both sides of the street vanish as he passes by them, collecting mass to transform into his Alter - and Kazuma strikes the ground, encased in his heavy, full body Alter. Grinning from behind his mask, the long, bladed tail on the back of the Alter User's shoulders snaps down, the force of the strike propelling him up into the air - right at Superman. "Hey boyscout!" he shouts, bringing one fist back. "Here's what I think about your 'thanks!"
Yeah, he's been waiting to hit that smug, chiseled chin for a while now.
Kazuma Torisuma switches armor modes to Third Stage.
Kazuma Torisuma critically strikes Superman with his Payback? attack.
A BIT LATE. But then, Para Dice isn't the most important member. Nor is she the most dependable. BUT SHE SURE IS SOMETHING.
And the sight of a large, green and white catball head flying in the air, bobbing about the Big Ben. She can't fight OUTSIDE the thing. Well, okay, maybe she CAN but still she's far more preferring to stay within the machine and fight where it's SAFE and where she's not getting punched in the face by men who are super.
Thus, everyone wins!
Flying about the Big Ben slowly, the neon face is happy! It made it. And it's NOT going to be useless! ^_^ Unfortunately, if anyone wants to just stay within the clock tower, Para-Dice can't STOP them! Perhaps another reason she's currently bouncing on the DDR pads! "Meoooooow. So we're here for a silly clock? Oh that seems so so soooo tacky!"
Frozen Heart fully heals Frozen Heart with his oopth action.
Alicia fully heals Alicia with her Oh Yeah, That Would Be A Good Idea action.
Nigele merely nods, the black cloaked Abyssal still remaining oddly silent in the presence of so much IPA opposition. He expected it, of course; this high profile a target wouldn't be an easy catch. Still, that seems to be what Carmen and Kazuma are hoping for, isn't it?
He pulls out his bow and starts dashing forward, quietly chanting a spell beneath his breath, when he notices one of those officers flying-
No, Superman is flying. What Inspector Gadget is doing can better be described as falling. That's what catches Frozen Heart's attention as he skids to a halt, making a slightly disturbed face as he attempts to shoot the falling detective-cyborg in the helicopter-blades with a steel-tipped arrow. His ice arrows would be too obvious.
Yes, that whole halt villains pretty much would have alerted anyone that there might be something going down pretty soon. So even if he is a grunt the orders were not all necessary, though being the loyal warrior that he is Nightwolf gives a single bow of his head at Kazuma's command "None shall pass Chieftain" He says in a dead pan as he scans his allies and enemies alike. He is not all that well prepared for all the flying individuals that have come to stop them and so he hopes that his teammates are better prepared for it
Leaving those to them, his dead eyes stare at ground level to see what infantry has enemy gathered to do kombat against them "Leave the hand to hand combat to me" He issues to his team mates as he rushes in into the fray! It's about time that he finally had to have some fun, all those blood lusting spirits raging inside of him demanded some kombat and now he finds in the form of...a woman in a tight one suit body suit?
"Huh...their uniforms really are odd..."
No matter! It is time for some kombat and so as he reaches Cammy, the shaman starts glowing green all around and charges at her with increased speed as he tries to elbow bash her in the face with his rhino charge attack as he yells "You!! I CHALLENGE YOU TO MORTAL KOMBAT!!!!"
Nightwolf hits Cammy White with his MK tiem jab.
Who ordered the T.Hawk Sandwhich?! Wait, what? Yes, that IS an indian. But it's NOT T. Hawk. Not that Cammy would even know who that IS right now given her current state of amnesia. All she knows is that she's just been slammed facefirst by someone's elbow. Ow.
Skidding back a bit from the force of the shot, Cammy stares at Nightwolf askance for a moment. Then simply replies in the language most people like herself...and Nightwolf too honestly, understand: Violence. In the force of a Reverse Spin Knuckle to the jaw. This basically revolves around her leaping towards Nightwolf at an angle, spinning around, and then trying to smash his face in with the back of her gauntletted hand!
Cammy White misses Nightwolf with her Reverse Spin Knuckle! attack.
THe Phantom continues to watch the IPA agents start to gather from his perch. Now to choose who looked appettizing. The "boy scout" was claimed...perhaps alittle too quickly. He leeps down, landing several meters up the road from the woman on the horse. He grins widely,displaying his sharp fangs as he raises his right arm from under the cloak. The arm was a grotesque green color and much too long and thick for the body of the man in question. It also had a large red tip in the palm which was now elongating and firing off like a large red javilon at the head of the horse. He cackled to himself.
Diva misses Tepet Inatera with her Killing your Horsey attack.
And falling and falling and falling and...
CLUNK! Apparently, the steel tipped arrow of doom has collided with the body structure of the great Inspector Gadget! The Inspector looks down at the arrow that's embedded in his arm and frowns. "Hm. Someone's been littering! I'll have to find the culprit and make sure to give them a proper warning!"
Finally, the Inspector gets close enough to the ground for his legs to SPRING into action, literally! As they do, he springs back into the air and bounces off in the general direction of Frozen Heart. As the helicopter blades fold back into his hat, he tries to step with his crazy extended legs, but is not doing too well, because of the chaos going on around him. He can't seem to stay focused.
"Hmmm. Now. I must find this Big Brother Ben. I wonder if there's anyone around here I can ask..." Gadget seems to be pondering this while his legs shrink him back down to normal size. "Go Go Gadget People Locator!" And his hat opens up again, a robotic hand extending out and swings itself around wildly as if looking for someone in particular! The bad news is that the metal arm might clothesline Le Frozone Hart.
The horse is a dumb animal, used to the stink of soot and ashes and sweat and perfume and sewage. It's ears flick, only the supernatural might of its new rider keeping it from panicking. As it strides forwards, the crowd parting in mild confusion at the sight, it wonders in the back of a mind meant perhaps for greater things than pulling a cart in the Four Mile Radius: What is going on? Fate has decreed that this animal shall die; it has a faint sensation of wind as that javelin of hate and blood and unnatural strength flies towards its skull.
Steel flashes, and the missile is thrown aside, clattering against the cobblestones as Inatera immediately disregards it as unimportant. "Ha!" Her head tilts up, staring towards the would-be dismounter.
She smiles at him, before rattling the sun-and-moon brasses still around the horse's neck. "Come, then! Let us see how well you fare!" With a light kick from greaved foot to the side, the horse rears up, showing vulnerable belly for a moment -
Then it slams both hooves down with brutal iron-shod force towards the Phantom.
Tepet Inatera misses Diva with her *trombe* attack.
Kazuma. The Man of Steel's eyes narrow as the chaotic alter user sizes him up. Superman crosses his arms, frowning and waiting for...
Ah, here it comes. As fast as Clark is, he can't move quick enough to block Kazuma's shot. The psychicly enhanced fist slams into Superman's face, his chin flying back and his body shaking as he struggles to maintain his personal gravity. The Man of Steel grunts, shoving his shoulders forward in order to keep in the air while saying, "Nice...to see you too...'Rainbow Man'..." Superman grins at the crystal-armored criminal, pulling his arms up in the air, "...but if that's the best you've got..." and bringing both of them DOWN on Kazuma's head in a massive hammerblow!
"...you're better off walking away from this." Superman whipes his face off, steeling himself for the fight that's to follow.
Superman gets a glancing blow on Kazuma Torisuma with his A Little Grounding attack.
No Nightwolf is not T. Hawk perse, but why yes, he does understand violence in fact, a lot even. Sure one would first wonder if it is all that gentlemanly of him to be elbowing a woman in the nose but he did challenged her to glorious Mortal Kombat first and thus he finds himself excused of anything that might happen further. The shaman will not be held responsible of the loss of mind, limb or life to those that face him...or in the case of Cammy, her nose.
He is sure that she's a tough woman however, she is dressed as a soldier after all so it doesn't surprise him that much when she staggers out of his attack and immediately goes to return it! Good thing too because that would have probably hurt a lot "What? No flashy come back? Even Scorpion said something after being challenged" Muses the shaman as he bobs his upper body down like a boxer to avoid the slug and now has the killer doll's body all nice and open for a counter "Fine! Fist cuffs it is!" And so using a little boxing maneuver, he twists his upper body to attempt and deliver a right hook to Cammy's pancreas!
Nightwolf hits Cammy White with his Injun Vale Tudo jab.
It really makes Carmen's day when she realizes that she's gotten such a huge party of people. When Superman calls out his challenge, all Carmen does is look up and lightly tip her hat at the man in blue before a golden lion streaks out of the air to attack him. "Oh dear," She mumbles with faint humor before going back to scanning the sky.
There's a... flying robot man? Curious and... a giant balloon thing with neon lights? Okay, that's a little strange. But what really catches her attention is the hovercraft coming in with two individuals. She tilts her head slightly. Unlike the rest of the people who have shown up, the two on the craft of the air of thieves. Yes, it does take one to know one.
Carmen makes a face as she faces Balthier and his bunny girl, "Stop right there," She states. Challenging them directly. "What do you think you're doing?" Because they're definitely not fellow Syndicate members.
Mercade continues to infiltrate the Big Ben, making use of his impressive athletic skills in order to clamber up the wall. He glances around on the rooftop, eyeing the Enforcers running D. "Well, this is going to be... Interesting." He mutters to himself, and begins shimmying along the edge, trying to evade them and slip in the door while they're not looking. He doesn't want to get slowed down dealing with the random Syndies... The interesting stuff has to be going on inside!
Fast. Faster than Cammy would have believed. Still, this at least establishes that this man is no slouch in the physical department. She still says nothing, even as that bodyblow finds it's mark. But Cammy is tougher than she looks, and responds with a vicious spin kick aimed with her left leg, aiming for Nightwolf's NECK. Subtle, she rarely is. And in a Street Fight, subtltey (sp?0 goes out the door!
The cloaked man grins widely as the woman talks. All the Phantom can do is giggle alittle as the gall of this one. A human talking as if she could do more than buy time? This was amusing. Too amusing. He is laughing even as the horse is reering up...even as it is coming down. And only when the horse throws its hoves down to trample him is the Phantom not there. Gone from view. Behind Tepet in fact, raising his arm with a new composure which wasn't there before. "Die." The fingers on his hand pull back and the large red nail comes out again, firing straight at Tepet's back this time.
Cammy White gets a glancing blow on Nightwolf with her Spin kicking revolution attack.
That odd man in the coat didn't react with any pain at all to being shot with an arrow? Either he has superhuman pain tolerance, or that arm is-
Well, Frozen Heart had a vague idea after seeing Gadget's legs expand and collapse like telescopes, but he doesn't have much time to ponder it as he's clothleslined in the back of the head by a large hand. A large, steel hand. "Ugh...! That was a cheap shot," he mumbles, turning around quickly to glare at Gadget through the face-obscuring hood. Clearly, even if this person does seem like a goofball, he can't be underestimated! He's trying to get the Abyssal to let his guard down, isn't he?
He shouts out a command in an unintellegible language, being sure to distort his voice slightly, and slams a barrage of ice crystals into a nearby lamp-post. This causes the lamp-post to snap in half and go tumbling down towards Gadget-it may not be very effective, but maybe he can judge the man's reaction time this way!
Diva hits Tepet Inatera with her NAILING YOU! AYUK! AYUK! attack.
"Hmph, stop it with all the buddy buddy talk," Kazuma replies with a smirk. He spins around, and as Superman brings his hands together for an overhand blow, Kazuma brings both of his heavily armored fists up, crossed over his head and absorbing the majority of the impact. "After you and your people spent a crapload of time protecting some murdering Invader from me, and then you went and attacked me after I helped take it down - we've had this coming for a long time!"
The Alter User drops backwards for a moment, but instead of falling away, as one might expect, he simply hovers in midair for a moment, grinning. "Besides, are you scared of a fair fight, boyscout?" he asks, clenching both fists.
With that, Kazuma rushes forward, bringing a one two combination towards Superman, before flipping over and driving one foot upwards towards the Man of Steel's chin, trying to drive him back and upwards. No point in letting this fight drop down into the busy streets below.
Kazuma Torisuma critically strikes Superman with his One, two, three attack.
"I'm going to go ahead and guess that that-" Balthier frowns, swinging his rifle around to point at the face of Big Ben, "-is not normal. Let's take a closer look, shall we?"
The Viera obliges, swinging the hover down and towards the face of the gargantuan clock. Thankfully, the fact that the heist is something this ridiculously huge means it's easy to find and locate; the bad news is the fact that it's difficult to manage. Especially with all these people hanging about.
It seems about then the sky pirate notices that the clock isn't entirely unattended. Red catches the corner of his eye. He glances up, just far enough to notice the flapping red trenchcoat of Carmen Sandiego.
"Well, isn't that something? It isn't every day you have competetion for a world-renowned clock face and its arms." Balthier smirks, shouldering his rifle, positively sprawled on the seat of the hover - he trusts Fran's piloting skills not to land them both flat on the pavement, hundreds of feet below. He trusts it a lot, evidently.
"What do I think I'm doing? What does it look like I'm doing? I'm stealing this clock. Or, at least, its important parts." Balthier leans forward, crossing his arms over his knees in a lazy hunch. The rifle points at Carmen, unwavering. He's got good aim. But, he doesn't fire it. "The question is, what are you doing?"
Fran glances towards the side, expertly handling the hover's controls. It responds immediately, dipping them low enough for Balthier to take a potshot at the steeple. He isn't aiming for Carmen, but hopefully it'll be cause enough for her to... loosen her grip, a bit.
"Now, let's leave this to the professionals, shall we, ma'am?" The sky pirate isn't smiling any more, and he's staring, quite pointedly, at Carmen. The rifle's also staring at her - and ready to fire again.
You hit Carmen Sandiego with your Potshot~ jab.
"HRRG!! YES! Show me your strength warrior!" Is Nightwolf actually enjoying this!? It appears he does, because those pupil less dead eyes of his start glowing with green feral fury. That attack to his neck hurt quite a bit though and it would have hurt a whole lot more of he hadn't shrugged his shoulders up so as to absorb some of the blow, still he knows that in order to land some more decent hits he will have to take some of his own and that was pretty nice, Cammy is now left in a compromising position, what with her leg all the way up the shaman's face, so he aims to take advantage of that. "HRUAAA!!" The kombatant tries to grab the killer bee's leg and hoist up to then try and shove her down to the ground so as to make her hit the ground head first with a wrestling take down!
Nightwolf hits Cammy White with his Krushed. attack.
The nail stabs out and towards Inatera's armor, slamming into the lamellar plate with a noise like a hammer smashing into a particularly ill-fated turtle. Inatera says 'hrk' and jerks forwards, feeling a rib snap from displaced pressure; she breathes in deeply, part to force it into position and part to clear her mind.
Then she laughs. It is short and sharp. "What a stunning conversationalist you are! Are you truly one of these locals, here to abet the theft of this great clock, or are you a mere opportunist brigand?"
The long sword in her hand whirls around, once above her head as she pulls the horse towards the side, the animal whinnying in surprise as Inatera MAKES it move; she then swings the razor-like blade down overhand towards the fast-moving phantomlike being!
Tepet Inatera misses Diva with her Make Your Own Sweeny Todd Joke attack.
Somewhere in the multiverse, Tony Schivone is having a markout, as Cammy gets slammed with a Japanese Legdrag. It's lucky for her that she was able to roll with the attack, or it may have caused severe damage to her leg. She wrenches hereself free from the grip, and tries a move of her own, also taken out of the pagebooks of pro wrestling, darting behind Nightwolf and lockign her hands around his waist, and trying to lift him up and drop him onto his head with a German Suplex!
Just as the rifle fires, Carmen takes a single leap backwards. It's a miracle how she can remain standing on the slanted roof top with her high heels. They must be some shoes. She makes a distasteful frown when the where she once stood shatter. "Unfortunately, I've already claimed it. Didn't your mother ever tello you that ladies come first?"
Now, Carmen might be a pacifist, but her goons are not. She snaps her fingers and suddenly VILE Henchmen Henry "Boot" Black and Black Jackson climb up the steeple, behind Balthier and Fran's hover (but still on top of the building. Not in the air like the sky pirates). Boot lifts a piece of loose stone and throws it at the hover, "'ay! You leave da boss alone!"
Seeing her reinforcements, Carmen flicks out her wrist and embeds a cable into the top of the steeple. Once the cable is secure, she proceeds to repel down the clock tower towards her goal. The clock hands and faces.
Carmen Sandiego misses Balthier Bunansa with her Time to clean your clock! jab.
As Mercade climbs up the wall, aiming to shimmy about the edge and then slip in the door, Mercade's BRILLIANT plan is cut short because something is now floating INFRONT of him, a few feet from the Big Ben, and is smiling at him. It's also round.
Did we mention smiling? >:)
"Hiiiiii agaaaain~, meoooow. I remember you, because YOU stopped me from getting the Brain puter and I was NOT very happy about that you know!" Para Dice thinks she has him on the ropes, and isn't above causing mindless property damage!
"Sooooo. I think I owe you something alright, and just to prove I'm not a bad sport, I'll deliver it RIGHT now! Meooow!" And a few hopes, left, right, up, down, the ship, floating in the sky at the side of the Big Ben, has it's ears open up.
"I got you A WHOLE BUNCH of missiles! Byee byee mousey! Meooooow!"
And that's about when Mercade begins to be pelted with ALOT of SMILING MISSILES. Of course, they explode, but they're also pretty easy to avoid because of how long she takes to do it! But the single point is, she's trying to blow Mercade RIGHT off the side of Big Ben. Even if she has to take it all out!
Alas. Poor Inspector Gadget! He's paying too much attention to looking around the area for someone that he can talk to. He looks around and the People Locator zeroes in on Frozen Heart. Which causes Gadget's head to spin right around on itself. He has to pay attention to what's going on. "Aha! A citizen! Hi, I'm Inspector Gadget! And I'm looking for a man named Ben! Apparently, he's pretty big."
Apparently, he's not really paying attention to the frozen light pole and the breaking and the slamming of the pole into his skull. He doesn't even feel it seems, because he just looks up. Of course the loud CLANG was probably telling the tale, but all Gadget seems to think of is, "Hmmm. Rain? We can't have that, now, can we?" He looks up. "Go Go Gadget Umbrella!"
The hat opens up again and springs forth with an umbrella, which opens up wildly, launching the light pole off his hat and likely sending it back into the air, where it may just fall back down onto FroHeart. Depending on Gadget's luck.
Cammy White stuns Nightwolf with her Angle Eat Your Heart Out! action.
Para-Dice misses Mercade Alexander with her >>>===(:D)'s AWAY attack.
"I'm not the one stealing a giant clock, criminal." Superman scowls down at Kazuma, refusing to rise to the man's stream of bile. He does rise, however, when kicked in the face by his fancy float-fu, flying into the air and through a fluffy white cloud. Was it that simple?!
There's a creaking, cracking sound, as though the ball of air and water was somehow....freezing, mid air. There's a grunt, and suddenly the whole cloud, flash-frozen into a giant ice block, is being hurled at Kazuma!
"What I'm afraid of isn't any of your busniess, Kazuma." Superman says, crossing his arms and scowling at his enemy, "But I assure you, you're not on the list."
The blade hits empty air yet again as the Phantom reappears on Tepet's right. He fires several spikes into the horse's stomach to put it out of it's misery...life. The black haired man remains there for the moment, his eye focused through his mask at the woman. "I'm neither, human. However if you can strike me, I might bother to fight you like someone worth my time. I prefer my dinner to have atleast drawn some of my blood before I take all of theirs." He grins widely, licking his fangs suggestively.
Superman misses Kazuma Torisuma with his That Great Old American Tradition: Throwin Stuff attack.
Diva critically strikes Tepet Inatera with her Horsey Fall Down And Go BOOM! attack.
*CRUNCH!* Yes! That is more like the Mortal Kombat he knows and loves, though Cammy is considerable a lot more light weight that the kombatants he is used to, Goro anyone? That guy needs to go on a diet. Either way, down goes the Killer Bee and Nightwolf is moving in to follow up the attack with something, quite unaware of the chaos that is around him until.. "Huh?" He feels arms around his waist and makes him arch an eyebrow for a moment "Surrendering? WOA!!!" *SLAM!* Maybe not, looked like the good ol' German Supplex and now it's Nighty's turn to go down as the kombat moves into grappling. He rolls back with the grapple though and rolling backwards trying to put some distance between himself and Cammy he uses the momentum to pull himself back to his feet. Is he seeing stars now!? Well that is inconvenient, he tries to shake it off by smacking himself a few times
Nightwolf successfully targets Nightwolf with his Snap outta it action.
The blonde isn't about to let up now that she has an opening. She launches herself at the Kombatant, feet first, and her body spinning, sending her pigtails whipping about her. She speaks her first words of the fight thus far:
"CANNON DRILL!"
Cammy White critically strikes Nightwolf with her Cannon Drill! attack.
Nightwolf has been knocked out!
One thing Sarah Jane learned about when travelling with the Doctor was that she learned that it's far easier to be in the right place at the wrong time. Or even vice versa. But whichever the case this is, she doesn't know. What she does know is that something is going on. As a result, it's probably strange to see the victorian dressed woman, hurrying along towards Big Ben.
She watches for a moment, looking upwards, then she ducks into a door. This is where she had been gone for most of the time- BUT...
Eventually, the older woman is working her way across the rooftop in her heeled boots and Victorian dress. It's not a sight you see everyday. But she was fortunate to be carrying a parasol, as it was quite sunny today. As such, the parasol is being used to help her maintain her balance as the winds whip around her skirt and clothing.
To be honest, she looks like a random bystander who has tried to sneak her way up Westminster just to see the insanity. As such... she might stand out quite a bit. Especially as she comes near enough to catch sight of Mercade and...
Narrowing her eyes, the reporter tries to get a good view of whoever he's dealing with... or whoever is trying to attack him.
So, Gadget's endurance tested! Conclusion-that man may be daffy, but he has the pain tolerance of a tank.
Frozen stares and then leaps aside, narrowly avoiding the tossed-back lamp, and scowls. This man clearly isn't aiming for him. He's just bumbling around! But it's an immovable object vs. a very stoppable force. Gadget must be some kind of automaton, and thus regular weaponry won't work. Trickery, however...
"...Oh, a fellow named Ben? A big guy?" He speaks in a hoarse tone, as if he has a cold. "I think I saw him thataway, down that alley." That alley, of course, is a dead end. He'll trap the man there, and then confront him where he'll have no way of evading sorcery! Yes, that's the plan, anyway...
What Frozen is experiencing now is the form of Resonance in which reality just kind of hates you.