Town of Enberch, Glacian Midlands (Saturday evening, Fandom Time)
Long before the notice was hammered onto the doors in town, the people on the other side were discussing the contents. It was no secret, they'd been warned it was coming. That didn't make the conversations about it any gentler
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"Samantha! The building is a lost cause! Just keep it from going to the other buildings!" She watched Kirt and Mark working to put out the small flames that had already escaped. "And keep an eye out for the boys!"
Luckily the sour look that Samantha was giving Momoko had no Craft in it. A small shimmer around Mark showed that the whole reason Samantha was having the trouble with the flames was because she was already shielding her two Landen companions.
"Riiight." She'd apologize later... or give Samantha a hug or something. Promotion? Whatever. Right now she needed... "OW"
She needed to be shoved into a wall, apparently. "What?"
"Get the hell out of here! We got enough problems!" A large man with small yellow flicker still left on his hands, reached out and sent a push of craft at her again. Momoko was expecting it, this time, though, and didn't budge an inch.
"We're here to help, sir. Just calm down." She spoke in a calm and authoritative tone, like she'd been taught.
"You're here for her! You can't make us do anything! Not anymore! This is our town! We take care of our own and if we can't, well. We'll damn well go our own way!"
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"Damn right we do!" Someone with a hoe in hand called back.
"This is just going to make Hobart mad." Boos and catcalls, and more angry muttering. "If he even bothers to notice, when you're all starving and out of your homes." This got some confusion, a bit more milling around, and more yelling from the edges of the crowd. Because, this was to show him, or the Queen, and if they weren't even watching...?
Dinah ducked as a timber gave way and fell into the street, still flaming. Lifting it with her TK, she dumped it into a water trough, steam hissing upward.
"ENOUGH." Seriously, this wasn't a debate. "Everybody who wants to burn down the town go home." More yelling, and then Dinah telekinetically grabbed one of the torches, raising it out of the owner's grasp. "Everybody who wants to help-- HELP, DAMNIT."
She hopped down from the cart and shoved one group back away from the line of silos again, to more yelling and outrage, but what the hell. How stupid were these people? No, no, not stupid, angry, frustrated, lashing out... and yes. Stupid at the moment. Not thinking straight.
How the hell to get them thinking again? Maybe there wasn't a way to do it.
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"I'm afraid!" The smaller of the two girls was still crying. "Where's father?"
It will be all right, child, Swift sent to her and the others as they trotted away from the scene, hoping that she was able to receive his Thread. We are going to safety and will meet with others shortly.
Ulrich meanwhile was doing his best to stay alive against the men who'd necessitated the evacuation of the children. They were blasting carelessly, angrily, and Ulrich finally had understood what Lady Momoko meant. The men had already taken out a store clerk (Ulrich hadn't found a pulse when he'd dragged him outside) and destroyed two stores before he and Lord Swift had finally found them.
"Hey! What do you think you're doing?" He called out to them. Uhm. Okay. How was he supposed to stop them?
A shot of white struck him in the shoulder and he hissed, falling back. "Darkness, I hate pain."
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Samantha was desperately shielding the two buildings closest to the grain silo now; the fire had burst through her shields, too hot to be contained at the source. The best she could do was try to keep it from igniting the next set of silos, adding to the damage.
A woman wielding the White was stubbornly trying to light the grass in front of them, the doors, anything else that would burn. Samantha licked dry lips, and called out, "Mark? Could you please stop her?" Then went back to shielding, wondering how long she could hold out.
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Kirt threw another punch, knocking the second man to the ground, just as he was rushed from behind by a third. He broke free and sent the... okay, the woman, to the ground as well, and then stood there huffing.
"You're not getting in here!" he shouted as soon as he could catch a breath. Sure it was easy for Lady Momoko to say they shouldn't fight back, but trying to keep this angry mob at bay was not happening without some violence.
There was shouting again. Accusations, slurs, threats. Both within the mob and directed at him. Again more things were thrown at him, though it seemed to Kirt like some of the people were maybe trying to talk sense into the others now? But they were all armed, whether with Craft or with actual weapons, so he didn't move or get involved unless they tried to get past him and he kept a sharp eye on them all. That was something Lady Momoko had been right about. This whole riot thing was very similar to a bar fight... or like watching his brother in a bar fight back in the days when he'd been relegated to the role of keeping anyone else from joining in.
Kirt's own anger and hatred towards Hobart and the false Territory Queen were swirling and mixing with the things he was hearing the townsfolk screaming and complaining about. Which meant he was struggling to keep his own head, here. Weren't the Blood supposed to be better than this? And where was Enberch's Queen? Why wasn't she dealing with this?
There was a sudden roar from the crowd as someone fell to the ground. Kirt tried to see, but managed to get only a flash before the crowd broke out in a rash of fighting with each other. Again.
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Mark was holding onto a woman who'd been near the silos a minute ago; she was thrashing and sending out sparks, but Mark was big enough to hold her off the ground from behind, and pure leverage meant she wasn't getting down. "Nice one!" Dinah called, as he used the woman as a club on someone else trying to ignite more fire.
Fight fight fight, and no, she was not getting in the middle of that bit. Jesus, these people.
Instead, she concentrated on trying to keep people separated. Would letting off a Canary Cry here be a bad idea? Probably.
She heard a horse scream; then heard Swift: *Help! These houses are burning and not all the children are out!*
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Swift could only do so much from outside, trying to dampen the fire, pacing back and forth.
Dinah got over there and looked up, seeing the problem. "No exit?"
*None*, Swift confirmed, mind-voice thick with anxiety.
"Then we make one."
*How--? Oh!* The second floor was just wood, and stones, and not all that solid.
"ULRICH. PULL EVERYONE BACK A MINUTE!" Dinah yelled upward, then waited until he yelled, "Clear!"
Together, she punched holes in the wall, and Swift caught the building material before it could hit anyone, lowering it down. Smoke poured from the openings, and Dinah yelled, "Get out and we'll catch you!"
... Part of the crowd by the silo were now heading somewhere else. Samantha had thought they were giving up, seeing reason; but they hadn't put the torches down. She caught a snatch of conversation: "--yeah, no one there now, it's perfect--" And another, "It's her fault anyway!"
Darkness, what now?
"Mark! You need to follow them!" she called to him. "See where they're going!"
"On it!"
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She'd been flying all over the town, sending more than one of them flying off into the snowy fields on the outside of the town in the hopes that removing them from the rest of the people would help calm them a bit.
It wasn't working. At least not judging by the number of people she was still flingin...
Wait! Was that a group skulking in the shadows of that alley? That was... weird for a riot. They almost seemed to be planning something.
She flew closer, landing a short distance away to sneak up on them and try to listen in.
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"We got it," Ulrich confirmed, then yelled, "Hey! Where do you think you're going?" as one of them started to wander off.
Dinah didn't stop to hear the answer, but raced back to the main crowd. Which didn't seem to be calming down-- just thinning out and spreading out. One group seemed to be headed into the tavern, another were stomping down the streets--
"There's a group." Mark ran up to her, panting for breath, then stopped to gulp for air. "Heading for the Queen's residence. Think they're going to... start something."
"Oh, crap." Dinah looked around, saw Sam still trying to keep the fires under control, and Kirt with her; but no sign of Momoko. "Right, we're going to have to catch up to them, and... I have no idea." At the top of her mental lungs she yelled, SWIFT! SAM! Going to the Queen's house! The riot's heading there! Get the others to meet us there!
She saw the part of the crowd that had had Mark worried after a half mile-- definitely heading toward the large-ish manor near the center of town. Carrying torches.
"Do we have a plan," Mark muttered quietly.
"Workin' on it," Dinah whispered back.
"Oh. That's good. I was starting to worry."
Dinah stuck her tongue out at him.
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"I've been with you up to now, Richards, but this... this is going too far!"
An argument ensued, and more people pulled off and left the alley way. What started as a group of about ten or twelve men and women, soon dwindled down to four. Three men and one woman. None of them looked nearly as tired or angry as the rest of the town, and Momoko could almost swear they looked pleased when one of them pointed out a group of teenagers angrily blasting Craft as they ran past and through the town. These were not people who were in on the rioting. These were people plotting!
"The time has never been more right. Moving now will make sure no one suspects us. It will all be blamed on them and we'll just be ready with the solution."
"And the others? They'll know..."
"Who will believe them? And besides, things can always happen in a situation like this."
Okay. Momoko was fairly certain she'd just heard a murder threat. This was totally not good.
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"Burning down the Queen's house is sure to get all of them in trouble," Mark murmured, as he and Dinah kept about half a block back from the rest of the group. "Her Circle is probably there, the ones not trying to put out fires."
"Great." Dinah scanned the side-streets, looking for any other help, but everything was random, chaotic, no one seeming ready to challenge the group in front of them. "Right. I think we better cut around, get there first. Maybe get the Circle out the back."
"Ah. A plan." Mark was smiling as Dinah elbowed him.
Swift came galloping up as they veered off to a sidestreet. *Someone is attacking the Queen?*
"Her house, anyway. If she's not there, well..." Dinah grinned and climbed onto Swift's back, holding a hand out to Mark to join her. "Think we can get there before the mob ahead of us?"
*Of course!*
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When the group finally stopped moving again, it was in a neighborhood surrounding a rather large residence. A residence Momoko had learned from her travels in Glacia to be the home of the village Queen. Though they appeared to be simply standing around and chatting about the state of the town, glances between the four towards the Queen's residence had Momoko's left-over cop-senses tingling.
"They're not going to do what I think they're going to do, right?" Surely they weren't planning to attack the Queen?! Momoko was trying really hard to come up with another answer but with no luck. The four she was following all wore jewels and seemed to be fairly well-to-do. They weren't acting like people rioting - people acting solely on emotions. The earlier argument seemed to imply that they had a plan, had one for a while and were just now implementing it.
She decided to wait until they made a more definite move. Maybe they were just going to do some damage to the house or something? Steal a Wind coach?
"Please let them just be wanting to steal a Wind coach."
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Mark was circling around to the back, calling up. "Hellooo! Could the Circle come out?"
Someone, male, wearing a light gold jewel, came out on a balcony. "Who are you? What authority do you have? The Queen is trying to rest!"
"There's a mob on the way to burn the residence!" Mark called back.
Dinah joined him to yell, "You have to get out of here! Look, We're with Karla's Army, we've been trying to stop the mob, but there's too many of them!"
The man looked uncertain, and then Dinah heard something crash from the front lawn.
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This was totally not good. Momoko was debating just stepping up and putting an end to the plot before it began when the four took off running into the manor. Momoko pulled out her phone as she followed, making a quick call to report her suspicions. A call that was cut short by a sudden shout and a few screams. She turned a corner and found the woman of the group she'd been following now holding a small group of what appeared to be household staff within a shield of some sort.
"Let them go and surrender," Momoko called to the woman as she exchanged her phone for her yo-yo. "Stand down."
"Who and what the hell are you?" the woman replied, looking at Momoko with more disdain than Momoko had seen on anyone's face since Sidra. "Go to hell."
Momoko easily dodged the blast of rose coloured craft sent her way, jumping into the air to spin and let loose her yo-yo out after the woman.
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Then, she saw the group they'd been following set fire to the ornamental bushes--
Then, a few guys in fancy dress were yanking a woman and a man out the front door, followed by others trying to stop them--
"Help the Circle inside," she told Swift, then started running toward the people on the front stairs going up into the mansion, who were blinking at the mob headed toward them.
"Hey, losers!" she yelled, running forward and hitting the two men holding the women with a blast of TK. "I don't think you were invited to this party!"
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She was hanging Plotty!Rose from a butcher's hook high on the wall when Lord Swift came into the room... swiftly. Momoko nearly dropped Rose, she was so surprised at Lord Swift calling her name into her mind.
"Lord Swift?! What are you doing here?"
*We've followed some of the townsfolk who were intent on mischief. Lady Dinah and young Mark are here as well!*
Momoko frowned as she finished securing the Rose woman. "You'll keep there," Momoko quipped as she patted the bound woman now dangling like a salami from the wall, "until we get this settled."
"I thought these four were acting separate from the rioters? They seemed more organized." She turned back, listening to try to determine where she was needed next. Lord Swift was apparently communicating with the staff on Threads she couldn't hear, judging from the amazed looks they were giving the horse.
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