(Untitled)

[tanukipoint]

Who: The A-Team
What: A plan does not come together.
When: Forward-dated to final day of the draft
Where: Sirry Crags battlefield
Summary: His most powerful weapon is nothing more than leashed poison.
Rating: High-PG13/R

Comments

03 - The Chase

[tanukipoint]

[Everything is full of scent: the blood pooling around his hooves, the drips of sweat clinging to sheet-white skin, feathers lined with must and dirt. The air itself is stale; full of scent.]

[The Running each have their own smells. Its eyesight is filled with nothing gray blurs, but already he has pinpointed each one as they zig-zag and race between his feet like mice.]

[Mice are vermin. Bugs are vermin. Filth. Disease.]

[Cure it all. Cure all disease. Chase the Running.]

[sniperkingftw]

Damn it, Chopper- doing this again- [ This is Not Good. In fact, this is a million new levels of Not Good, even for a place like Luceti, and Usopp really regrets thinking that this draft thing might go smoothly. It's roughly around the time that Chopper's swatting another half a dozen enemies out of the air that he thinks moving is an appropriate course of action.

The river feels like a good direction. He'd like to say that he's immediately thinking ahead- river, water, Devil's Fruit, even if they have to try throwing it at him in buckets- but for now Usopp is more concerned with the forty-foot tall reindeer monster that wants to crush everything. There's time to take care of his nakama once everyone's at less risk of being attacked by their own teammate. If it wants to chase the Running, here's the first to take off with a lot of flailing at Brook and Sokka who will be making up the majority of the rest of this thread. ]

GET OUT OF THE WAY!

[skulljokelol]

But he only took the one rumble ball! I thought that you told me it has to be three- Oi, Usopp-san! Come back!

[markofthewise]

[It took Sokka a moment to get over the huge wtfery of what was going on. Chopper was huge. Not your typical everyday garden variety huge. Ridiculously and cumbersomely huge. He'd never fit in anywhere! He'd b ostracized, unloved, and unwanted. Oh, and he'd probably kill everyone too. Sokka only managed to catch a vague idea of what was going on with Usopp and Brook.]

Wait, wait. No, Usopp has the right idea! [With that, Sokka starts running after Usopp. But with less flailing and more reaching in his bag and throwing an explosive in front of Chopper.]

Big guy, this way!

[sniperkingftw]

Are you trying to get yourself ki- [ Wait. Wait. Logic is starting to catch up with his feet, now. Maybe Sokka's onto something. His running takes on a little more definite direction. ] A-ah, right, exactly!

[ He'll turn to add on an extra explosion and shout at Brook, too. ] It is supposed to be three, I don't know why this happened! I mean, he wasn't the one who made these, so maybe they got them wrong? [ It's a flustered guess, because he's never been really sure how those things worked to begin with. ]

[skulljokelol]

[My, this rage button is dusty. /PUSHES] They did what?!

[Could they have...? They don't have the time to wonder now, but it's far to easy for him to imagine this possibility.] If they've been tampered with, this isn't Chopper-san's fault at all, but we still need to stop him as quickly as possible. [Glance to the definite direction Usopp seems to be taking.] The river?

[markofthewise]

[Meanwhile, Sokka is doing his best not to get killed over here. But he's able to take in the discussion well enough. The river?

... water. Devil Fruit users can't swim. And at that size, the river is the only way they can get enough water.] We can lead him there! [Katara and Toph... they're too far away at the moment. He whips out his Shell Cell, quickly giving them the order to take the shortcut back to the river and be ready. As for him, Brook and Usopp...]

Brook, Usopp! Through the ravine. It'll be easier to guide him! [And those bombs can provide a few well placed landslides to prevent Chopper from doubling back on the others.]

[sniperkingftw]

[ He nods firmly. ] The river.

[ A sharp salute at the order, Sokka sir, and it's down to business. ]

[skulljokelol]

[While Sokka is telling Toph and Katara where to go, Brook uses the Shell Cells to explain to Raphael and the others what they're doing. After that, it's through the ravine they go.

He'll glance back at one point when Chopper's roars sound closer than before, yelping and picking up his pace just a little when he sees how much ground he's taken. There's at least one thing to be grateful for here; if they're outrunning a giant, they're just lucky it doesn't have the speed of some of Chopper's other forms. Brook turns his head to look up along the walls of the ravine. He can jump that. With another person or two? ...Not as high, but a second jump will solve that.

He turns to Sokka.] How quickly will you be able to use those explosives? If we're going to lure him without getting trampled, we'll need the height and the distance.

[markofthewise]

[The high ground. There's no clear path up there. So if Brook took one up there, that would leave one exposed. So it was him or Usopp, then. Well, that settled that, didn't it?]

Fast enough. [He tosses a smoke bomb, this time aiming it at Chopper's face.] Just hurry!

[skulljokelol]

No need to tell me twice! [GRAB. Hope you were ready for that, Usopp, because he's wasting no time in moving up the ravine walls now. The first jump sends them twenty feet, the second twenty-five, thanks to the momentum he built up. This seems like a good spot to let the sniper off.]

I'll try to run interference between the two of you as best as I can! Just yell if you need me - that tactic seems to work nicely, I've noticed.

[markofthewise]

[In the meantime, Sokka is left scrambling on the ground. He only has so many explosives before he runs out, after all. Trying to conserve what he can, he relies on his own legs to get him through. Unfortunately rough terrain impedes him more than it does the monster behind him. After avoiding a near hit from Chopper, he rolls a bomb behind him, enough to trip their furry friend up and give Sokka enough time to keep moving until Brook can get to him.]

[sniperkingftw]

[ Brook, that earns you a full trip of surprised shrieking, but he more or less recovers once he's back on solid ground. ] Okay, now go get Sokka.

[ And while he starts firing to cover you guys (aim for the feet, get a few to go off near his face), he'll add: ] And don't get crushed, idiot!

[skulljokelol]

[Salute! Then jumping back down into the middle of the ravine.

Naturally, Chopper really doesn't seem to like the explosives going off in front of his face, and it succeeds in grounding him to a halt for at least several seconds. He's roaring angrily now though, arms sweeping up and out though thankfully far from the bottom of the ravine.

Brook uses the distraction while he has it, landing in a crouch and searching for where Sokka has gotten to in the midst of all of this.]

[markofthewise]

[Sokka is the one that's running well ahead of you. Remind him to write Derek a thank you note for forcing him to do all that running back in the village. His position will be given away when a boomerang goes flying over Brook's head and hitting the ravine on Chopper's north side, causing a small landside that would bury him if he was half his current size. It's only a minor nuisance at this point.]

[skulljokelol]

[Really it is. By the time Brook's caught up with Sokka, Chopper is already recovering from Usopp's attacks and angrily bashing at the landslide in his path. Rocks go flying in their direction, and Brook keeps closer to the walls to avoid them.

Unlike Usopp, who really should just expect being hurtled several feet into the air by this point, Sokka gets a warning once Brook is close enough to make the jump.]

Sokka-san! Get ready!