Group 1: The Search for Monty Python and the Eleventh Pillar

[secondcity_mods]

Characters: (1) Sora, Kaldur, Ninja-Style Dancer, Granny Weatherwax, Franky; (2) Eraqus, Fred Weasley, Agent Derek, Galahad, Linkara, Clare Edwards
Time: After the Bean meeting
Location: The forests of the Nevernever
Content: It’s time to find the eleventh pillar.
Format: Poster’s choice
Warnings: No tag order.

Comments

[thisoneis]

Granny scowled as the flare of Sora's magic drew her attention to the third unicorn. The damn fool thing was leaving. Running away so as to get at the other group of people and as much as Granny couldn't stand cowards* there was something else worse. When she extended her protection to someone, if by implication then they were damned well going to get it, and no unicorn was going to sneak past her, no matter what the thing looked like.

There were no grandiose gestures. Granny had never stood for the kind of flash that wizards seemed to think magic needed. Instead, she simply drew herself to her full height and stabbed an accusatory finger at the retreating unicorn. Mere seconds later, a flare of octarine** light split the air, leaving behind an unscathed, but very confused unicorn; now laboring under the fact that it thought it was a frog - and thus was a little uncertain as to just was, exactly, it was meant to do with its legs.

The cat resting across Granny's shoulders had no real comment throughout the whole affair, save to shift slightly at the flare of octarine that the magic had caused.

*No matter their species.
**Octarine, naturally, is the eighth color of light and is generally referred as the color of magic, due to the fact that only magic users are capable of seeing it. Attempts to describe its color are thus somewhat awkward, but the general consensus is that it's a sort of greenish-purple.

[barefootbadass]

Kaldur's eyes widened at the charging unicorn, but he wasn't going to back down. Instead of dodging Kaldur ran at the unicorn and jumped up at the last minute. He was taking a page from Sora's book and was planning on landing on the thing's back. Kaldur barely got over the flaming horn, but he twisted at the last minute and avoided it. He landed on the back of the unicorn and his tattoos glowed as Kaldur sent a surge of electricity from his arms and into the unicorn. If his water was not going to work then perhaps he could shock it down.

[bailarinja]

He barely evaded the unicorn's fierce hooves, leaping and grabbing onto its tail and clinging as it swayed back and forth as it galloped. Just out of the corner of his eye he saw Kaldur jump onto the beast's back. It was a bit too risky to attempt getting down now; he thought of a better idea. A contingency plan in case there was no way to bring them down from the top.

With no one looking at him, he pulled his mask down just enough to hold the knife between his teeth, and he swung forward on the tail, finding a handhold in the plated armor and grabbing it. Feeling around in the dark, tossed about in the horse's stride, he managed to climb a few paces onto the underside of the beast, where he held with one hand and both feet, raising the knife again and driving it towards the horse's stomach.

[itsasecretmecha]

With a grunt and a whoop, Franky grounded himself against the unicorn's thrashing and attempts to escape. If it had been so damn eager to rush the group, why should he let it back away so easily?

Giving the makeshift reigns of chain a good yank, the cyborg glowered at the screaming fae. "Whoa there, nelly." Every tug it gave against him was met with a hard pull and stern word. He had beaten more than enough animals into being his steed before, and this fussy little thing wasn't going to break his streak.

[fey_npc]

The unicorn that Granny had enchanted, utterly confused by the spell that had woven itself into its mind, trotted uncertainly over to a small patch of dirt near the edge of the forest. Shaking its head, it snorted a bit before seemingly finding itself content with just staying there for the moment.

While Sora and Franky attempted to tame the first unicorn (and somewhat succeeding as the first unicorn was unsuccessfully trying to make a break for it), the second one abruptly shuddered by the violent shock that rippled through its body from Kaldur's attack. It nearly tripped over its own legs and only the pain of the Ninja's knife slicing through its tender underbelly kept it from completely falling over. It had neither the energy to attack both young men at the same time nor the prowess, and it stumbled to its front knees, foam dripping from its muzzle and it whinnied piteously as the flames vanished from its horn.

Abruptly, the ground shuddered again, but this time, the quake was not centering from the immediate area. Instead, it seemed to be coming from the direction the other group had vanished in. All three unicorns' heads turned towards the source of the disturbance, but none of them made any attempts to actually go towards it - one because it thought it was a frog, one because it was currently being restrained by Franky and Sora, and the other because being electrocuted and stabbed wasn't conducive to chasing after anything.

[barefootbadass]

As the beast buckled and went down Kaldur leapt back off of it. He hadn't realized the ninja had attempted to gut the horse and was surprised to see him down there. It was not his first choice of dealing with the unicorn but it was very much subdued now at least. It appeared that the others had also succeeded in taming the steeds in one way or another. The glow from Kaldur's tattoos began to fade just as the ground shuddered beneath his barefeet.

Kaldur looked up, at first thinking it was more unicorns coming. However, this shaking was of a different sort and didn't appear to be the type accompanying large hooves. "Was that the direction the others went in?"

[skylit_torch]

Sora was only a little confused when the unicorn his Blizzara attack had spiraled off to suddenly seemed to have a change of heart. He wasn't able to watch it for too long since the unicorn that he was still having trouble holding on to was determined to shake off its rider, and he had to dismiss his keyblade in order to grab hold of the unicorn's mane with both hands.

It seemed to finally be calming down as Franky reined it in - although "calm" for this thing still seemed to meant trying to bite Franky's arm off.

He was so distracted with trying to keep the cyborg from losing a body part, he didn't notice the minor earthquake at first until Kaldur said something. Snapping his attention to the direction the others had gone off to (and just managing to keep from falling off the irate unicorn), he said, "Yeah, I think so. Do you think something happened?"

What if there were even more dangerous creatures than the unicorns protecting the pillar? What if the others were in trouble?

"We need to go!"

[thisoneis]

If Granny had had any particular faith in the younger generation's desire to see a think through, it would have promptly atrophied at Sora's words. This was exactly the reason she hated dealing with heroes. They always were too shortsighted; too willing to leave things half-done to go rushing in to save people from something they might have been perfectly capable of taking care of on there own. Besides, couldn't the fools see that running off now was only going to lead the creatures right to whatever they were supposed to be keeping them from?

"Ain't never seen a group of people so willing to lead their enemies to a thing that was supposed to be protected," she spoke up, her voice carrying easily over the crowd and the assorted circumstantial noises despite the fact that she didn't seem to have raised her voice at all. "But if you lot are set on bein' fools and riskin' the last chance we got in this world, I ain't going to be the one to stop you. I just got to say I expected more, that's all."

And if she was getting another spell ready even as she spoke, well, no one needed to know that she was prepared to make sure that nothing left the area until the unicorns were dealt with to her satisfaction.

[itsasecretmecha]

"Don't be such a crab, y'old coot," Franky shot back at her, though he was grinning as he patted his half-tamed steed, seeming to be completely ignorant of any attempted gnawing on his arm. "Can't see why us going and bothering them'd make any difference in whether or not trouble finds 'em. Stuff sorta tends to go that direction anyway, y'know?

"And b'sides. These guys ain't putting up much of a fight, anyway." He shrugged, then punched his captive unicorn in the neck. "Cut that the hell out, asshole!" It spit out his hand, and he huffed.

[fey_npc]

With the three unicorns otherwise occupied and a mild argument breaking out between the group, it would have possibly been easy to miss the sound of the approaching group of the woods.

At least, until the unicorn that was still standing suddenly bent low on its knee as if bowing its head in the direction of the noise, stopping its attempts to bite Franky's arm off.

[barefootbadass]

Kaldur looked between the older woman and then to Sora. He thought about the members that went and shook his head. "I believe she may have a point. We should make sure things are secure here first. The others are not defenseless and can probably manage for themselves if things come to that." He hoped so at least. They had survived in Chicago for this long, surely they could spare a few more moments.

He was about to start his way towards one of the weaker unicorns when it's behavior suddenly changed. Kaldur's attention immediately was drawn in the direction the unicorn was bowing in. He narrowed his eyes. He wasn't sure he wanted to meet whatever power the unicorn found respectful enough to bow to. He raised his water bearers again, the water contracting and forming a sword and shield. "Something approaches."

[mythicmagic]

They emerged from the shadows of the trees, a tall and thin man who had not been with the group previously leading the way. Despite his youthful appearance and the sureness of his movements, there was an ancient look in his eyes that told of far more stories than anyone in the clearing could have imagined. The smile he gave them was genuine but strained, especially when he saw the unicorns that they had (mostly) tamed.

"We'll return to the city," he said and although he couldn't have raised his voice above a casual murmur, it seemed to carry throughout the clearing. "The remnants of the spell will begin to wear off the moment we return." He bowed his head briefly in the direction of the others by way of a greeting, glancing only momentarily at the cottage.