The Preserve - Saturday Night (Group 1)
Quietly and discreetly, a group of students that had been dubbed 'Group 1' gathered at the edge of the preserve.
Kawalsky checked the zat gun one last time, muttering to himself
quietly as he shifted it to his other hand, the one that didn't have an
annoying plaster cast on it. His aim was going to be shaky at best, but
he liked to think that he was still fairly accurate with both hands. He
turned to face the others. "Okay, hold up and listen up. I'm no good at
pep talks, and most of you have faced weird stuff like this more than I
have. Some things never change though, no matter who the enemy is.
That's where tactics come in. Never go off alone. Always watch each
others' backs. Listen out for instructions if something changes. Avoid
the open if you can. All of you are good at what you do, so let's go do
it." He nodded and turned back around, leading the way into the woods
and indicating for them all to start fanning out in pairs.
Sam followed Kawalsky, zat in hand, scanning the woods for anything
unusual but also trying to keep an eye on him. The broken wrist bothered
her.
Tyler followed Sam and Kawalsky, crouching low to the ground. He
restlessly shook the can of hairspray he carried.
Alanna followed behind them, a small purple fire ball in her left
hand giving off a little light. Lightning was clutched tightly in her
right hand and Faithful was on her shoulder.
Parker had her gun out, silencer on, and was sticking close to the magic types, partly to cover their backs, partly to have someone with more distance weaponry cover hers. She glanced around her, hoping they'd see the mummies before the mummies caught sight of them.
A long groaning sound echoed through the trees as fog quickly rolled
in around the group.
Isabel flinched and kept one finger on the nozzle of the can of
hairspray with her other hand poised to ignite it.
Molly turned in place, trying to figure out where the sound had come
from and watching for movement in the trees.
Xander was working the aerosol flamethrower angle too, and at the
eerie sound, flicked the wheel on his disposable lighter a few times
just to make sure it would do more than spark if needed. An axe-handle
protruded from the olive-drab duffle over his shoulder, ready to be
grabbed if something came barreling at them too close or too fast for
fire.
Wand at the ready, Luna follow quietly along. She heard the same
things as the others, but she showed no outward signs of disturbance
than would be expected if she had simply got lost on her way to lunch.
The groaning sound continued to get louder. Shadowy forms moved in
and out between the trees.
Sam held up a hand and stood still while she tried to determine
position, a bit relieved that everyone was taking this seriously and
being quiet.
Tyler stopped short behind Sam, faltering a bit to keep from running
into her. He fingered the package of extra-long matches in his pocket
while he waited for a signal to move.
The ground shuddered beneath Tyler's feet. The upper torso of a
Mummy burst from the ground grabbing a hold of Tyler's legs.
Tyler kicked out hard, trying to get the hands off of his legs and
land a blow on the mummy's face. "MONSTER," he said, trying to keep his
voice at a level where it would be heard by those around him, without
attracting other mummies. "IT GOT ME."
The blows hit the mummy, sending some of it's rotted flesh flying
but it still rose from the earth by climbing up Tyler. It let off a long
and hollow sounding howl.
"Damn," Isabel said quietly into the mic. "We've made contact." She
pointed the can of hairspray towards the mummy but hesitated, afraid of
injuring Tyler with the flames.
Parker stumbled backward when the mummy rose from the ground,
unbalanced. "Oh, hell." She aimed her gun at it, but couldn't get a good
shot once Tyler started to engage with it.
Tyler shoved forward with his whole body, trying to shake off the
monster. With his hands, he pushed its forehead back, as if to break its
neck. He looked beseechingly at everyone around him. "DO SOMETHING."
The head snapped off the mummy's body like it was kindling and
rolled to the ground. The rest of the mummy's body began to thrash
around in all directions as though trying to find its target.
Coolly, ignoring the decomposing goo that spattered him, Tyler
pulled his flare gun and aimed it at the chunks o' mummy. He pulled the
trigger.
The mummy was hit straight on my Tyler's flare gun. It flailed
wildly as the flames engulfed its dusty wrappings, and finally collapsed
into a heap of smouldering ashes.
Hearing the howls the mummies begin to converge around the group.
One rushes forward and tries to tackle Isabel while she appears to be
distracted.
Caught off guard, Isabel let out a screech as she dropped the can of
hairspray and fell forward.
The mummy leapt forward at Isabel lashing out at her letting out an
unearthly scream.
Isabel hit the ground and flinched, feeling the rough ground scrap
her hands. Turning quickly, she tried to crawl backwards away from the
mummy.
Alanna saw Isabel go down and decided that the mummy needed to be
stabbed. She aimed Lightning for the mummy's neck.
The sword sliced partially through the mummy's neck, and its eyeless
head flopped over on to its shoulder with the bit of skin still keeping
it in place. The mummy let out a terrible howl and kept lashing at
Isabel.
"Just die, damnit," Isabel muttered as she kicked at the mummy and
frantically looked around for the dropped can of hair spray. Spotting it
just out of reach, she held out her hand and called it to her.
The mummy howled again as Izzy kicked it, and grabbed for her ankle.
Can securely in hand, Isabel started to spray it directly at the mummy. With a sharp tug, she pulled her ankle away as she used her power to ignite the spray.
The mummy let go as Isabel sprayed it, and was very surprised to
find itself on fire. It stared at her in shock for a moment before
failing wildly, and finally collapsing into a pile of cinders.
Isabel watched it collapse and then climbed carefully to her feet.
"You okay?"
"Yeah," she said. "I'm okay. Thanks." Isabel looked at her hands and
shook her head. At least she knew what she'd need to do to clean them
once she got back. Taking a firm grip on her can of hairspray, she
turned her attention back to the surrounding area.
Bridge, meanwhile, had picked up the energy trail of another mummy.
He started to head in that direction, motioning for someone to follow.
Xander, seeing that Alanna had the one attacking Isabel well in
hand, readied his makeshift flamethrower and headed after Bridge.
Noticing Bridge and Xander heading in the other direction, Cameron
quickly followed along, his sword at the ready.
A strange groaning sound was heard from behind a clump of nearby
trees.
Bridge unclips his sidearm from his belt and holds it out as he
heads towards the source of the noise.
A mummy jumps out of the bushes behind Bridge with a loud grunt. It
swings an arm at him, in hopes of catching Bridge off guard.
Bridge ducks out of the way of the mummy's arm and whirls to face
it.
The mummy moans and quirks its head to the side a little, dragging
its feet through the brush as it raised its arm once more, preparing to
swing it again at him.
Bridge fires off a few rounds at the mummy before it gets a chance
to swing again.
The shots hit the mummy, and its flesh chars with a very unpleasant
stink. It pauses and looks at its burning wound before once again
turning back towards Bridge and lumbering forward.
Bridge makes a face at the smell, but lunges forward, aiming a kick
at the mummy's midsection.
That was the last straw for the mummy. It raised its mummified arms
in the air, and, propelled by the mummified rage that came from being
burned, and then kicked in the aforementioned burns, it lunged at Bridge
kung-fu style. Lumberingly. In a way that might be slightly reminiscent
of a "putty" of some kind.
Bridge backs up and just starts shooting the hell out of the mummy.
The mummy stops as Bridge shoots it in a distinctly not Y-7 way. The
green fool damaged its beautiful bandages, and it was ready to
retaliate. It roars as the bullets rip through it, and pulls itself up
to its full height. One might even swear that it had grown a bit bigger,
as if hit by a magic stick-wielding overlord.
Bridge looks at the mummy and waves a hand at it, seeing the move
it's just about to make. Before the mummy can do so, though, Bridge runs
full-tilt at it, blaster firing.
The blaster shots finally cut through the mummy's midsection,
separating its top from its bottom half. The legs run a few extra steps
before tumbling over, while the top half drops to the ground. The mummy
makes a few more groans and wails, before finally giving up the ghost.
Bridge stares as the mummy falls over, and then gives an
experimental kick to the top half to make sure it's really dead. Or more
dead. Or whatever.
As Bridge faced off against the mummy, a clacking, droning sound began to emanate from the bushes the mummy had emerged from. Seconds later, a stream of hand-sized bug-things skittered from the bushes and directly towards Xander and Cam.
Bug swarms, barring butterflies, almost never good. Xander gave a small
yelp as they moved towards him, then trained his can of hairspray on the
nearest ones and lit the stream.
Cameron had been moving towards Bridgey when the noise drew his
attention.
"Oh geez..." for a moment he stood rooted to the ground as the scarbs
scurried into their direction. He had no clue how he was supposed to
take those out with a sword. Stomping it was, trying not to wince as
they made a crunchy noise underneath his boots.
Xander joined in with the stompy on the ones that had been too fast
for his beam of flame to hit them, sice he wasn't about to try lighting
his boots on fire.
"No one said there'd be bugs!" Cameron complained as he tried to
keep moving so they wouldn't actually be able to climb on his legs. Not
that it worked as one got on his shoe and he frantically tried to shake
it off.
"Sooner or later there's always bugs," Xander said a little grimly,
kicking one off his own boot far enough away that he could at last use
the flame spray against it again.
"Yeah, I would have brought bug spray if someone had just told me,"
Cameron tried to futilely swipe the bugs with his sword while trying to
locate Bridge again.
"It's not Raid, but this'll do in a pinch." Xander shook up his can
of Super-Hold and lit the stream again, aiming it at one that seemed to
be making a bee...uh...beetle-line for Cam's leg.
It crisped nicely in the flame, though two more immediately took its
place. Not so crispy, these, because the aerosol can sputtered
unhealthily once or twice, then the flame disappeared as the can ran out
of hairspray. "Crap. Where's Angel when you actually do need
him?" Xander shrugged and threw the can itself at the chittering
insects.
"I'm thinking strategic retreat," he called to Cam as he scrambled back
towards where Bridge had been fighting the mummy. "Axe ain't gonna cut it with those things, pardon the pun."
"I'm thinking you might be right. Live to fight another day and all
that jazz," Cameron agreed as he started backing up as fast as he could.
Did they have to make that noise?
As Xander and Cameron back away from the scarabs, there is a loud
moan from behind them.
"Oh, that always bodes well." Xander pulled the axe from his bag as
he turned to face the sound, since his literal firepower had used itself
up.
Cameron turned towards the sound as well, trying to ignore the bugs
that were creeping up on them from behind. "At least we might be able to
actually hit this," he said as he raised his sword. "I hope."
Now behind them, the skittering of the bugs continued. Before them,
however, a much louder moan preceded a mummy making it's way out out from behind some trees. It lunged for Xander.
A few scarabs chittered from the ground by Cameron's foot.
Xander brought up his axe, but tried dodging and aiming for the
mummy's arm instead of swinging head-on at it.
Cameron was torn between jumping up to help Xander out and dealing
with the chittering going on near his feet. Until he looked down and
realised the chittering was a tiny bit more urgent and he stomped on the
scarabs, cursing about his lack of bugspray.
The mummy lurched back out of the way and took a swing at the ax,
trying to knock it out of Xander's grasp. It roared at him.
Xander pulled the axe out of the way in time, but stumbled backwards
towards Cam, almost falling on the scarabs.
Cameron was still busy stomping the scarabs and starting to realise
that it was pretty futile. He needed something bigger to scare them off.
Getting an idea, he tried to keep stomping while taking off his jacket
and not dropping his sword. "Dude? Lighter!"
The mummy roared again, still recovering from the lurch back and the
missed swing. It straightened up and approached more warily now.
"All yours!" Xander reached into his pocket for the lighter as he
backed away from the mummy. Then, remembering that he stuffed most of his survival kit from Shop into the side pocket of his bag (no, not the Twinkies), he dug in and grabbed the can of lighter fluid, tossing both towards Cam. "Makes little fires big. Puts hair on your chest. Builds strong bones 11 ways."
"I'll be happy with just some fire," Cameron said as he caught the
fluid.
He quickly stabbed his jacket on his sword, and started pouring the
fluid over it while trying not to stand still for too long. As soon as
the jacket was soaked, he dropped the can and set fire to his jacket.
"Let's see how you like this," he smirked as he swung the burning cloth
right into the charging swarm of scarabs.
Many of the scarabs caught fire and died as Cameron swung the
flaming jacket about. The rest back off and hissed, trying to edge in
whenever the flames swung away from them.
The mummy, seeing Xander was distracted, lunged for him again.
Xander swung for its neck, since most things either died when you
cut off their heads, or at least spared a moment to take stock of their
current life-goals.
The mummy straightened up, trying to get out of the way again, and
the ax struck him in the shoulder instead of the neck. The blade cut
deep enough that it stuck.
Xander yanked at the axe handle as he muttered, throwing his weight
into the backwards pull. "Okay, should've seen that com--"
The mummy struck Xander with it's other arm as it reached up for the
ax with the 'injured' limb.
The force of the blow, with his balance already off, sent Xander
tumbling sideways into the tree nearest him. He put up a hand to try to
break the impact, but hit hard, his fingers jamming and bending back
with a sharp, nasty jolt of pain. His shoulder still slammed into the
trunk with enough force to knock the breath out of him and send him
sliding to the ground, momentarily stunned.
With Xander down and Cameron still occupied with the scarabs, the
mummy had enough time to wrench the ax blade from it's shoulder with
it's free hand. The struck arm was barely hanging on at the point where
it had been sliced, but was anything but lifeless.
Having determined that the mummy he'd been fighting was well and
truly... well, maybe "dead" wasn't the best word- destroyed, Bridge
turns just in time to see Xander fall.
"Hey!" he shouts, moving until he's within firing distance.
Hearing Bridge's shout, Cameron glanced over his shoulder and
noticed Xander was down.
"Frak," he cursed as he made a wide swing towards the scarabs and prayed the jacket would burn just a little while longer as he started to back up towards Xander.
The mummy turned towards Bridge's voice and approached him wielding
the ax in its good hand. The other hand made grasping gestures, but the
whole arm was dangling oddly off its shoulder.
Bridge tries to fire his sidearm, but nothing happens. Seems he'd
used up all of the weapon's charge on the previous mummy. Seeing no
other option, he moves closer to the mummy and makes a grab for the axe.
The mummy swung the ax at Bridge when he got close enough. Bridge
got his hands on the haft and was able to turn the blade. But, there was
enough momentum from the mummy's swing that the flat of the blade struck Bridge upside the head.
Bridge crumples to the ground at the impact, unconscious.
Another swing and the last of Cameron's jacket fell off his sword
and to the ground. There wasn't much more he could do to keep back the
scarabs and as he swivelled around, he saw Bridge go to the ground.
"Screw this," Cameron turned and launched himself at the mummy, making a wide swipe at the mummy as the blade was still steaming from the fire.
The mummy got the ax up to block the blade, but the blow was enough
to knock the weapon from its hand. It backed off, out of reach of
Cameron's blade.
Knowing it needed a weapon with reach, it grabbed its injured limb just
below the cut and ripped it the rest of the way off and advanced at
Cameron again.
"Oh you've got to be kidding me," Cameron mumbled as he realised he
was going to get hit with a limb. Using all his strength, he tried to
strike at the mummy's other shoulder.
The mummy leaned back away from the sword before taking a swing at
Cameron with the limb. Since it was by no means dead, the hand at the
end of the detached limb clawed at Cameron's face as the mummy struck.
Cameron could feel the claws digging into his skin and decided that
this probably was a lot creepier than getting covered in zombie goo. He
could taste the iron tang of blood as it scratched open his lip, the
sting reminding him that he needed to move now.
He grabbed hold of the arm and tried to pull it loose while he swung the
sword blindly at the mummy's torso.
The mummy took a step forward as it tried to keep ahold of its
makeshift weapon. Having done so, it couldn't evade the sword this time.
As the blade cut into his side, he roared, tried to pull the limb
sideways away from Cameron and stepped forward to head butt him.
Cameron was more than happy to let limb go. He was less happy to see
a decaying face heading straight towards him. He tried to move aside,
but the mummy hit him in the shoulder instead and Cameron staggered back from the blow.
Xander, meanwhile, was blinking away his temporary daze. Bridge's
shout had registered that he was there, but it wasn't until he opened
his eyes and sat up against the tree, shoulder aching and fingers
putting it to shame, that Xander realized what had happened after.
"Crap," he muttered. Bridge, in addition to not moving, was right in the
way of both Cam's fight with the mummy, and another wave of
chittering beetles crawling across the ground towards him.
Using the tree for support, Xander climbed to his feet and half walked,
half stumbled around the clearing until he'd reached Bridge. Not
supposed to move an unconscious person, but... mummy. Giant scary-ass
bugs.
Xander braced his bad hand under one of Bridge's shoulders, got a good
grip with the other, and pulled him out of the way of both the fight
and the bugs, for now at least.
As Cameron staggered back the sword blade twisted out of the gash in
the mummy's side. He still had a hold of the detached limb, so he swung
at Cameron with it again.
Cameron tried to block, but he still buckled to his knees and lost
his grip on the sword.
The mummy finally tossed the detached limb to the side and reached
for Cameron's throat.
Cameron tried to pull back, but the fingers closed tightly around
his throat and as the mummy lifted him up there was nowhere to go.
Gasping for breath, he fought his instinct to futilely try to pull the arm
loose and grabbed for Winona which was still safely tucked away in his
pants. He blinked as sweat and blood ran into his eyes, but he was close
enough to not even need a decent aim.
The shot ripped a hole through the mummy's torso and started its
bandages smouldering. It roared out in anger again and threw Cameron away from him. Turning, the mummy searched for the ax it had dropped earlier.
Cameron gritted his teeth, but ignored the pain as he fell to the
ground. He wiped at his eyes and rolled to his side as he fired Winona
several times, hoping her blast would finally set the mummy on fire.
The blasts hit right as the mummy picked up the ax. Fire caught on
the dried wrappings in several places and it wasn't long before the
mummy fell into a burning heap on the ground. Soon after, all that was
left was a smouldering pile of ash and bones.
"Go, Cam," Xander said a little weakly. He'd pulled Bridge back far
enough that Xander could lean on a tree and try to at least stomp on
approaching bugs, but as the mummy disintegrated, the clacking beetles
just faded away.
Xander crouched down and grabbed Bridge's phone off his belt, because, well, he'd met Rory; if she didn't hear from them soon, she'd be climbing walls better than Peter Parker could. "Hey, Rory? Xander here."
"It's LC, Twinkie," said she who was set on the codenames. "Hi.
How're you holding up?"
Xander, who had memories both fake-real and movie-inspired of a thousand 'Gray Leader to Gray Goose' conversations, didn't actually mind the codenames; he just hadn't rememberd to use them because he hadn't planned on carrying a phone. "Bridge...ah, Ferretboy... got a mummy, but the next one clocked him." Xander wedged the phone in the crook of his shoulder and reached over to touch Bridge on the cheek with that hand, since the other was wrapped usuelessly in his shirt right now. No reaction. "Still out cold."
Xander's voice filtered through and Cameron was grateful to hear
Bridge was just knocked out.
"We should get him out of here," he piped up from where he was lying
near the heap of smoldering mummy remains. He wiped his face before
scrambling to his feet and locating his sword just in case another mummy
decided to come jump them.
"That's Cam," Xander said into the phone to Rory. "He just wasted
the one that knocked Bridge out. It slammed me into a tree and my hand
hurts like hell, but I'll live."
"How many of them are left?" came Rory's slightly crackled voice.
Xander might have heard some somewhat frantic typing in the background. "Is anyone else out? Do you need us to send backup or something to carry people home?"
At this point, Bridge starts to come to. He groans and mumbles
something under his breath, cracking one eye open to peer at Xander.
"Bridge?" Xander shoulder-lodges the phone again and reaches to
touch Bridge's arm. "You okay?"
"M'head hurts," Bridge informs Xander. "Also, you're all sparkly."
Xander winced. "I think we can put Bridge down for a concussion," he
said into the phone. "Or his non-wacky powers have gone wacky. Or both. But he's awake." He took a quick stock of what he'd seen before they separated from the group. "Can't see the others from here; think Tyler got a mummy and probably Isabel and Alanna finished another off. Dunno how many left."
"Okay," Rory replied. "Well, keep me posted, someone. Take care of
yourselves, guys, and remind everyone that if they come back safely,
they get pie."
There's a joke Xander could've made there, but he didn't. For the
sake of adorable wee clingy kittens, which is something else he could've
made...the same joke about.
"I'm sure with a motivating factor like that, we'll all come back
without a scratch," Xander said instead.
Cameron snorted at the scratch remark as he was a bit beyond that
already. He squatted down beside Xander and Bridge, sword in one hand and Winona in the other.
"Bridge? You alright to keep going?" he asked, wondering if they should
get him back to the clinic.
"I'll be fine," Bridge insists, moving to sit up. "We should find
the others."
Xander eyes him doubtfully, but says goodbye to Rory, drops the
phone into his own pocket, and offers Bridge a hand up.
"I'll be fine," Bridge says again, but flinches a little as Xander
helps him up. "It hurts," he mutters.
"Sorry." Xander winced.
"What?" Bridge blinks at Xander. "No, I meant *you're* hurting. Your
hand. Which... you probably already know because obviously you can feel it, but..." he trails off.
Xander flexed the wrapped-up-in-his-flannel-overshirt fingers of the
hand he hadn't offered, because... he's an idiot. Predictably, it
hurt like fuck.
"Ah, yeah. Sorry anyway? You probably wanna put your gloves back on once we find the others, or you'll get a lot of that around here."
Cameron had moved off a bit further to try and pick up any noises or
signs of the others, but there wasn't the slightest noise he could pick
up.
"I don't like this," he mumbled mostly to himself and turned towards
Bridge and Xander. "Think you can track the others?"
"Yeah," Bridge says, already scanning for the energy trails of
anyone else from their group. "This way," he waves. "Let's go."
Xander reaches down to grab his axe from the pile of mummy-crumble
-- and makes a face as the deja-vu hits him -- then follows.
Sam crept slowly through the woods, zat in hand.
Luna followed along, slowly, as that seemed the thing to do. After a
brief moment she asked, "Are mummies frequent visitors to the island?"
"We haven't seen them before, no," Sam said, pitching her voice just
above a whisper, and more than a little worried about working with Luna,
who she didn't really know.
"Pity then that I no longer have Professor the Tick's camera, Dad
would love a picture if not an actual mummy." Luna spoke softly but
didn't exactly whisper.
"You can take a picture later. Hell, send him a mummy, I don't care.
We just need to find them and kill them first."
"That is a most thoughtful suggestion, but I believe owls might
object to carrying a mummy carcass no matter how tightly wrapped."
And there was an image that was going to stay with Sam for a while.
"Owls?"
"How else would I go about sending my post? Kneezles?" Because in
the middle of a mummy fight, one naturally thinks of the postal system.
"Maybe we should just look for mummies," Sam suggested, having no
idea what a kneazle was.
An unearthly moan suddenly came from nowhere.
Sam stopped and popped the zat open, scanning the area.
The bushes parted and a large mummy suddenly rushed towards Sam with a shriek.
Sam fired the zat twice directly into the mummy's chest.
"Oh, that is no way to greet others, Mr. Mummy." Luna murmured
something and made a flicking motion with her wand at the mummy. A
purple light flashed out and hit the mummy's left arm.
Howling, the mummy spun in place, pushed back by the multicolored
flash, and staggering back from the zat blast. It fell back on its side,
then started to crawl forward on its hands and knees. "Grrr...."
Sam shot it again with the zat, hoping that it would kill it dead.
Er, deader.
The electricity surged through the mummy, making it twist and turn.
It seemed to hit the mummy's right buttons, because it found renewed
strength and lunged at Sam. "Gaaaar," it screeched and tackled her.
Sam was thrown back against a tree and felt a brief spike of pain as
she was sandwiched between the mummy and the tree. "Augh! Help!" She kicked out with her feet, aiming for its knees.
Luna's first objective was to provide assistance to Sam and so she
gave a swish and flick and shouted, "Wingardium Leviosa!"
Thus causing Sam to shoot up away from the mummy and land a few paces to his left. It also caused a few feathers to waft through the air with her.
The mummy, after taking a moment to figure out what had just
happened, reached out and grabbed Sam again, this time hurtling her
through the air.
Sam landed on the ground, putting her hands out in front of her to
break her fall. More pain shot up her forearms and she bit her lip to
stifle the scream. She had no idea where her weapon was.
She rolled over on her back and prepared to kick the mummy with both
feet if it approached.
The mummy staggered after Sam, seemingly fixated on her. It stopped
short of her reach and dodged left and right, trying to get to her. In
the end, it grabbed her leg and flung her around hard enough to get her
airborne again. She would have landed quite hard.
Sam hit the ground hard and the impact knocked the breath out of
her. She may have lost consciousness for a minute.
"That's quite enough, sir." Luna growled as she took aim with her
wand. She went so far as to scowl as she shouted. "Incendio!"
The mummy was now nicely ablaze. Unfortunately, there were no
marshmallows to be had. Instead Luna knelt by Sam's still form, "Sam?"
She groaned and sat up slowly, shaking her head to clear it. "I'm
okay."
The pain in her side and her wrist could be ignored. There was no other
option.
Hairspray can in hand, Isabel carefully studied the surrounding area
watching for mummies or any other creepy crawlies that might be around. A sudden rustling noise from a nearby brush drew her attention.
"Oh you have got to be kidding me." Reflexively she drew back as several oversized beetles skittered towards her. Isabel hit the nozzle on the spray can and ignited it, aiming the makeshift torch towards the beetles. Thirty seconds later, they were charcoal.
One escapee was making its way up Tyler's pants leg. He shook it off
them stamped on it viciously, watching the goo spurt out.
"These? Are gross."
"Extremely," Isabel agreed. She kept watching the ground and the
bushes, waiting to see if there were anymore.
There weren't any scarabs right then, but there were scorpions as
large and black as Tyler's shoe. Moving carefully, he reached for and
reloaded his flare gun. "Izz? Fire."
"Fire's good," Isabel said, aiming the can and setting the stream
alight. "Nasty little buggers."
And then the hairspray ran out. "Crap."
Dropping the can, she reached into her bag and pulled out one of the
homemade flares Greg had given her. "Tyler? Do you have that booze you mentioned earlier? Because I think they need a drink."
Tyler reached inside his jacket and pulled out a flask. "Vodka. I
brought my own victory party," he said. "We can invite the scorpions."
He dumped about two thirds of the flask onto the creatures, then offered
a swig to Isabel. "You want?"
Isabel lit the fuse of the flare and tossed it into the midst of the
scorpions. "Go Greg," she grinned as the flare caught the vodka on fire.
Wrinkling her nose at both the smell and sound of dying scorpions she
turned towards Tyler. "Thanks but no. Weird alien metabolism. I'd be
plastered. Immediately." She looked around warily. "And that would be
bad right now."
"Drunk in the middle of a battle? Yeah. Bad," Tyler agreed.
He watched the scorpions writhe for a moment, seemingly fascinated, and sipped at his flask himself. "Want BBQ scorpion for lunch?"
"I'll pass," Isabel said. "I prefer my lunch a little less blackened."
"And I'm not much for insects," Tyler said. "So it'll go to waste."
The scorpions seemed to be very, very, dead by then.
Parker turned away when Tyler finished killing his mummy, hearing a sound behind her and expecting another mummy-- then her eyes widened as a burst of scarabs came out of the ground, spreading in a dark wave of skittering insectoid threat. "Ewwwww!"
Quickly holstering her gun, she grabbed the can of hairspray and the
butane lighter she'd picked up at All & Sundries the day before.
*wwwhoooooosh*
"Fricassee scarab, yay!"
Isabel came over a few minutes later after helping having her own
bug barbeque. "Nasty. Very nasty."
A low groan came from somewhere in the trees.
"Uuuuuugh." Parker shuddered, and shook her can of hairspray. "I
love action, but I am not an exterminator by trade. Napalm, we need
napalm." She looked around for more bugs, then froze at the groan.
"Crap."
"Napalm would be good. Napalm would be very, very good." Isabel
agreed. "Here we go again."
The mummy stumbled out through the trees, making no effort to be
quiet as it lunged towards its prey.
Isabel spun around at the sound of the mummy and tried to reach into
her bag for the extra can of hairspray.
Parker already had her lighter up, but the hairspray spluttered as
it came out. "Damnit!" She dropped the can, and went for her flare gun,
firing off one shot as it got within arm's reach of them. "Run!"
The mummy shrieked as the flare hit it in the center of its chest,
igniting the bandages. It stumbled towards Parker and Isabel, arms
outstretched, claws at the ready.
Isabel screamed as the mummy grabbed her about the neck then jerked
back trying to get away from the flames.
*schwing!* "Back!" Alanna hacked at the mummy's legs, trying
to get a good angle from which to hit it then wound up for a swing at
its neck. "Isabel, down!"
Parker fired another flare into the mummy's side, but it's wild flailing
meant the shot ended up igniting the end of a bandage instead of burying
itself in the torso.
The mummy fell to its knees, but didn't release its grip on Isabel's
throat. It shrieked and flailed, afraid of the fire as pieces of flaming
bandages started to fall.
The fire was hot against her face as Isabel fell with the mummy. She
struck out with her elbow and finally managed to pull away, wincing in
pain as the mummy's claws cut into her skin.
Alanna swung her sword at the mummy's arms, while Parker rushed
forward, firing again.
"Isabel, down!"
The mummy backed up, let out a roar, and tossed Isabel roughly to
the side as it advanced on Parker. Alanna's sword sliced through the
mummy's arm, and it fell to the ground, moving forward towards her on
its fingers.
Parker re-loaded, then shot the flare gun toward the head and torso
of the mummy as it advanced, her legs braced, shoulders set. Exhausting
her last shot, she reached for her lighter and lit her last flare, then
threw it in the face of the mummy as it lunged for her.
The mummy reached up to bat the flare down to the ground, but used
the arm Alanna had sliced off by accident. "Nnnnnnnnnn," it groaned as
the flare lit more of the bandages, shambling forward.
Parker spun out of the way, and watched it go up like a sparkler,
then turned back to check on Isabel.
Isabel winced as she pushed to her feet, feeling battered. "Good
job," she told Parker as she felt her neck gingerly. Drawing her hand
away, she grimaced at the blood. "Damn thing needed a manicure."
"You're definitely going to need a tetanus shot," Parker said,
wincing. "I hate to think what that thing had on its nails. Gah." Alanna
came up, looking exhausted. "Nice job on the arm."
Alanna held up her sword, upon which the arm still twitched a little.
"Light it up?"
"Definitely." Parker opened the lighter, and set the thing aflame.
After it was gone, Alanna turned to Isabel. "I've got some bandages
here. They should keep that form getting worse for a while."
"Thanks," Isabel said as she reached for the bandages. "I don't
think they're particularly deep. But they're owie."
[OOC: Pre-played, no room for interaction, but OOC comments welcome. This is post 1 of 2. Continues here.]
Kawalsky checked the zat gun one last time, muttering to himself
quietly as he shifted it to his other hand, the one that didn't have an
annoying plaster cast on it. His aim was going to be shaky at best, but
he liked to think that he was still fairly accurate with both hands. He
turned to face the others. "Okay, hold up and listen up. I'm no good at
pep talks, and most of you have faced weird stuff like this more than I
have. Some things never change though, no matter who the enemy is.
That's where tactics come in. Never go off alone. Always watch each
others' backs. Listen out for instructions if something changes. Avoid
the open if you can. All of you are good at what you do, so let's go do
it." He nodded and turned back around, leading the way into the woods
and indicating for them all to start fanning out in pairs.
Sam followed Kawalsky, zat in hand, scanning the woods for anything
unusual but also trying to keep an eye on him. The broken wrist bothered
her.
Tyler followed Sam and Kawalsky, crouching low to the ground. He
restlessly shook the can of hairspray he carried.
Alanna followed behind them, a small purple fire ball in her left
hand giving off a little light. Lightning was clutched tightly in her
right hand and Faithful was on her shoulder.
Parker had her gun out, silencer on, and was sticking close to the magic types, partly to cover their backs, partly to have someone with more distance weaponry cover hers. She glanced around her, hoping they'd see the mummies before the mummies caught sight of them.
A long groaning sound echoed through the trees as fog quickly rolled
in around the group.
Isabel flinched and kept one finger on the nozzle of the can of
hairspray with her other hand poised to ignite it.
Molly turned in place, trying to figure out where the sound had come
from and watching for movement in the trees.
Xander was working the aerosol flamethrower angle too, and at the
eerie sound, flicked the wheel on his disposable lighter a few times
just to make sure it would do more than spark if needed. An axe-handle
protruded from the olive-drab duffle over his shoulder, ready to be
grabbed if something came barreling at them too close or too fast for
fire.
Wand at the ready, Luna follow quietly along. She heard the same
things as the others, but she showed no outward signs of disturbance
than would be expected if she had simply got lost on her way to lunch.
The groaning sound continued to get louder. Shadowy forms moved in
and out between the trees.
Sam held up a hand and stood still while she tried to determine
position, a bit relieved that everyone was taking this seriously and
being quiet.
Tyler stopped short behind Sam, faltering a bit to keep from running
into her. He fingered the package of extra-long matches in his pocket
while he waited for a signal to move.
The ground shuddered beneath Tyler's feet. The upper torso of a
Mummy burst from the ground grabbing a hold of Tyler's legs.
Tyler kicked out hard, trying to get the hands off of his legs and
land a blow on the mummy's face. "MONSTER," he said, trying to keep his
voice at a level where it would be heard by those around him, without
attracting other mummies. "IT GOT ME."
The blows hit the mummy, sending some of it's rotted flesh flying
but it still rose from the earth by climbing up Tyler. It let off a long
and hollow sounding howl.
"Damn," Isabel said quietly into the mic. "We've made contact." She
pointed the can of hairspray towards the mummy but hesitated, afraid of
injuring Tyler with the flames.
Parker stumbled backward when the mummy rose from the ground,
unbalanced. "Oh, hell." She aimed her gun at it, but couldn't get a good
shot once Tyler started to engage with it.
Tyler shoved forward with his whole body, trying to shake off the
monster. With his hands, he pushed its forehead back, as if to break its
neck. He looked beseechingly at everyone around him. "DO SOMETHING."
The head snapped off the mummy's body like it was kindling and
rolled to the ground. The rest of the mummy's body began to thrash
around in all directions as though trying to find its target.
Coolly, ignoring the decomposing goo that spattered him, Tyler
pulled his flare gun and aimed it at the chunks o' mummy. He pulled the
trigger.
The mummy was hit straight on my Tyler's flare gun. It flailed
wildly as the flames engulfed its dusty wrappings, and finally collapsed
into a heap of smouldering ashes.
Hearing the howls the mummies begin to converge around the group.
One rushes forward and tries to tackle Isabel while she appears to be
distracted.
Caught off guard, Isabel let out a screech as she dropped the can of
hairspray and fell forward.
The mummy leapt forward at Isabel lashing out at her letting out an
unearthly scream.
Isabel hit the ground and flinched, feeling the rough ground scrap
her hands. Turning quickly, she tried to crawl backwards away from the
mummy.
Alanna saw Isabel go down and decided that the mummy needed to be
stabbed. She aimed Lightning for the mummy's neck.
The sword sliced partially through the mummy's neck, and its eyeless
head flopped over on to its shoulder with the bit of skin still keeping
it in place. The mummy let out a terrible howl and kept lashing at
Isabel.
"Just die, damnit," Isabel muttered as she kicked at the mummy and
frantically looked around for the dropped can of hair spray. Spotting it
just out of reach, she held out her hand and called it to her.
The mummy howled again as Izzy kicked it, and grabbed for her ankle.
Can securely in hand, Isabel started to spray it directly at the mummy. With a sharp tug, she pulled her ankle away as she used her power to ignite the spray.
The mummy let go as Isabel sprayed it, and was very surprised to
find itself on fire. It stared at her in shock for a moment before
failing wildly, and finally collapsing into a pile of cinders.
Isabel watched it collapse and then climbed carefully to her feet.
"You okay?"
"Yeah," she said. "I'm okay. Thanks." Isabel looked at her hands and
shook her head. At least she knew what she'd need to do to clean them
once she got back. Taking a firm grip on her can of hairspray, she
turned her attention back to the surrounding area.
Bridge, meanwhile, had picked up the energy trail of another mummy.
He started to head in that direction, motioning for someone to follow.
Xander, seeing that Alanna had the one attacking Isabel well in
hand, readied his makeshift flamethrower and headed after Bridge.
Noticing Bridge and Xander heading in the other direction, Cameron
quickly followed along, his sword at the ready.
A strange groaning sound was heard from behind a clump of nearby
trees.
Bridge unclips his sidearm from his belt and holds it out as he
heads towards the source of the noise.
A mummy jumps out of the bushes behind Bridge with a loud grunt. It
swings an arm at him, in hopes of catching Bridge off guard.
Bridge ducks out of the way of the mummy's arm and whirls to face
it.
The mummy moans and quirks its head to the side a little, dragging
its feet through the brush as it raised its arm once more, preparing to
swing it again at him.
Bridge fires off a few rounds at the mummy before it gets a chance
to swing again.
The shots hit the mummy, and its flesh chars with a very unpleasant
stink. It pauses and looks at its burning wound before once again
turning back towards Bridge and lumbering forward.
Bridge makes a face at the smell, but lunges forward, aiming a kick
at the mummy's midsection.
That was the last straw for the mummy. It raised its mummified arms
in the air, and, propelled by the mummified rage that came from being
burned, and then kicked in the aforementioned burns, it lunged at Bridge
kung-fu style. Lumberingly. In a way that might be slightly reminiscent
of a "putty" of some kind.
Bridge backs up and just starts shooting the hell out of the mummy.
The mummy stops as Bridge shoots it in a distinctly not Y-7 way. The
green fool damaged its beautiful bandages, and it was ready to
retaliate. It roars as the bullets rip through it, and pulls itself up
to its full height. One might even swear that it had grown a bit bigger,
as if hit by a magic stick-wielding overlord.
Bridge looks at the mummy and waves a hand at it, seeing the move
it's just about to make. Before the mummy can do so, though, Bridge runs
full-tilt at it, blaster firing.
The blaster shots finally cut through the mummy's midsection,
separating its top from its bottom half. The legs run a few extra steps
before tumbling over, while the top half drops to the ground. The mummy
makes a few more groans and wails, before finally giving up the ghost.
Bridge stares as the mummy falls over, and then gives an
experimental kick to the top half to make sure it's really dead. Or more
dead. Or whatever.
As Bridge faced off against the mummy, a clacking, droning sound began to emanate from the bushes the mummy had emerged from. Seconds later, a stream of hand-sized bug-things skittered from the bushes and directly towards Xander and Cam.
Bug swarms, barring butterflies, almost never good. Xander gave a small
yelp as they moved towards him, then trained his can of hairspray on the
nearest ones and lit the stream.
Cameron had been moving towards Bridgey when the noise drew his
attention.
"Oh geez..." for a moment he stood rooted to the ground as the scarbs
scurried into their direction. He had no clue how he was supposed to
take those out with a sword. Stomping it was, trying not to wince as
they made a crunchy noise underneath his boots.
Xander joined in with the stompy on the ones that had been too fast
for his beam of flame to hit them, sice he wasn't about to try lighting
his boots on fire.
"No one said there'd be bugs!" Cameron complained as he tried to
keep moving so they wouldn't actually be able to climb on his legs. Not
that it worked as one got on his shoe and he frantically tried to shake
it off.
"Sooner or later there's always bugs," Xander said a little grimly,
kicking one off his own boot far enough away that he could at last use
the flame spray against it again.
"Yeah, I would have brought bug spray if someone had just told me,"
Cameron tried to futilely swipe the bugs with his sword while trying to
locate Bridge again.
"It's not Raid, but this'll do in a pinch." Xander shook up his can
of Super-Hold and lit the stream again, aiming it at one that seemed to
be making a bee...uh...beetle-line for Cam's leg.
It crisped nicely in the flame, though two more immediately took its
place. Not so crispy, these, because the aerosol can sputtered
unhealthily once or twice, then the flame disappeared as the can ran out
of hairspray. "Crap. Where's Angel when you actually do need
him?" Xander shrugged and threw the can itself at the chittering
insects.
"I'm thinking strategic retreat," he called to Cam as he scrambled back
towards where Bridge had been fighting the mummy. "Axe ain't gonna cut it with those things, pardon the pun."
"I'm thinking you might be right. Live to fight another day and all
that jazz," Cameron agreed as he started backing up as fast as he could.
Did they have to make that noise?
As Xander and Cameron back away from the scarabs, there is a loud
moan from behind them.
"Oh, that always bodes well." Xander pulled the axe from his bag as
he turned to face the sound, since his literal firepower had used itself
up.
Cameron turned towards the sound as well, trying to ignore the bugs
that were creeping up on them from behind. "At least we might be able to
actually hit this," he said as he raised his sword. "I hope."
Now behind them, the skittering of the bugs continued. Before them,
however, a much louder moan preceded a mummy making it's way out out from behind some trees. It lunged for Xander.
A few scarabs chittered from the ground by Cameron's foot.
Xander brought up his axe, but tried dodging and aiming for the
mummy's arm instead of swinging head-on at it.
Cameron was torn between jumping up to help Xander out and dealing
with the chittering going on near his feet. Until he looked down and
realised the chittering was a tiny bit more urgent and he stomped on the
scarabs, cursing about his lack of bugspray.
The mummy lurched back out of the way and took a swing at the ax,
trying to knock it out of Xander's grasp. It roared at him.
Xander pulled the axe out of the way in time, but stumbled backwards
towards Cam, almost falling on the scarabs.
Cameron was still busy stomping the scarabs and starting to realise
that it was pretty futile. He needed something bigger to scare them off.
Getting an idea, he tried to keep stomping while taking off his jacket
and not dropping his sword. "Dude? Lighter!"
The mummy roared again, still recovering from the lurch back and the
missed swing. It straightened up and approached more warily now.
"All yours!" Xander reached into his pocket for the lighter as he
backed away from the mummy. Then, remembering that he stuffed most of his survival kit from Shop into the side pocket of his bag (no, not the Twinkies), he dug in and grabbed the can of lighter fluid, tossing both towards Cam. "Makes little fires big. Puts hair on your chest. Builds strong bones 11 ways."
"I'll be happy with just some fire," Cameron said as he caught the
fluid.
He quickly stabbed his jacket on his sword, and started pouring the
fluid over it while trying not to stand still for too long. As soon as
the jacket was soaked, he dropped the can and set fire to his jacket.
"Let's see how you like this," he smirked as he swung the burning cloth
right into the charging swarm of scarabs.
Many of the scarabs caught fire and died as Cameron swung the
flaming jacket about. The rest back off and hissed, trying to edge in
whenever the flames swung away from them.
The mummy, seeing Xander was distracted, lunged for him again.
Xander swung for its neck, since most things either died when you
cut off their heads, or at least spared a moment to take stock of their
current life-goals.
The mummy straightened up, trying to get out of the way again, and
the ax struck him in the shoulder instead of the neck. The blade cut
deep enough that it stuck.
Xander yanked at the axe handle as he muttered, throwing his weight
into the backwards pull. "Okay, should've seen that com--"
The mummy struck Xander with it's other arm as it reached up for the
ax with the 'injured' limb.
The force of the blow, with his balance already off, sent Xander
tumbling sideways into the tree nearest him. He put up a hand to try to
break the impact, but hit hard, his fingers jamming and bending back
with a sharp, nasty jolt of pain. His shoulder still slammed into the
trunk with enough force to knock the breath out of him and send him
sliding to the ground, momentarily stunned.
With Xander down and Cameron still occupied with the scarabs, the
mummy had enough time to wrench the ax blade from it's shoulder with
it's free hand. The struck arm was barely hanging on at the point where
it had been sliced, but was anything but lifeless.
Having determined that the mummy he'd been fighting was well and
truly... well, maybe "dead" wasn't the best word- destroyed, Bridge
turns just in time to see Xander fall.
"Hey!" he shouts, moving until he's within firing distance.
Hearing Bridge's shout, Cameron glanced over his shoulder and
noticed Xander was down.
"Frak," he cursed as he made a wide swing towards the scarabs and prayed the jacket would burn just a little while longer as he started to back up towards Xander.
The mummy turned towards Bridge's voice and approached him wielding
the ax in its good hand. The other hand made grasping gestures, but the
whole arm was dangling oddly off its shoulder.
Bridge tries to fire his sidearm, but nothing happens. Seems he'd
used up all of the weapon's charge on the previous mummy. Seeing no
other option, he moves closer to the mummy and makes a grab for the axe.
The mummy swung the ax at Bridge when he got close enough. Bridge
got his hands on the haft and was able to turn the blade. But, there was
enough momentum from the mummy's swing that the flat of the blade struck Bridge upside the head.
Bridge crumples to the ground at the impact, unconscious.
Another swing and the last of Cameron's jacket fell off his sword
and to the ground. There wasn't much more he could do to keep back the
scarabs and as he swivelled around, he saw Bridge go to the ground.
"Screw this," Cameron turned and launched himself at the mummy, making a wide swipe at the mummy as the blade was still steaming from the fire.
The mummy got the ax up to block the blade, but the blow was enough
to knock the weapon from its hand. It backed off, out of reach of
Cameron's blade.
Knowing it needed a weapon with reach, it grabbed its injured limb just
below the cut and ripped it the rest of the way off and advanced at
Cameron again.
"Oh you've got to be kidding me," Cameron mumbled as he realised he
was going to get hit with a limb. Using all his strength, he tried to
strike at the mummy's other shoulder.
The mummy leaned back away from the sword before taking a swing at
Cameron with the limb. Since it was by no means dead, the hand at the
end of the detached limb clawed at Cameron's face as the mummy struck.
Cameron could feel the claws digging into his skin and decided that
this probably was a lot creepier than getting covered in zombie goo. He
could taste the iron tang of blood as it scratched open his lip, the
sting reminding him that he needed to move now.
He grabbed hold of the arm and tried to pull it loose while he swung the
sword blindly at the mummy's torso.
The mummy took a step forward as it tried to keep ahold of its
makeshift weapon. Having done so, it couldn't evade the sword this time.
As the blade cut into his side, he roared, tried to pull the limb
sideways away from Cameron and stepped forward to head butt him.
Cameron was more than happy to let limb go. He was less happy to see
a decaying face heading straight towards him. He tried to move aside,
but the mummy hit him in the shoulder instead and Cameron staggered back from the blow.
Xander, meanwhile, was blinking away his temporary daze. Bridge's
shout had registered that he was there, but it wasn't until he opened
his eyes and sat up against the tree, shoulder aching and fingers
putting it to shame, that Xander realized what had happened after.
"Crap," he muttered. Bridge, in addition to not moving, was right in the
way of both Cam's fight with the mummy, and another wave of
chittering beetles crawling across the ground towards him.
Using the tree for support, Xander climbed to his feet and half walked,
half stumbled around the clearing until he'd reached Bridge. Not
supposed to move an unconscious person, but... mummy. Giant scary-ass
bugs.
Xander braced his bad hand under one of Bridge's shoulders, got a good
grip with the other, and pulled him out of the way of both the fight
and the bugs, for now at least.
As Cameron staggered back the sword blade twisted out of the gash in
the mummy's side. He still had a hold of the detached limb, so he swung
at Cameron with it again.
Cameron tried to block, but he still buckled to his knees and lost
his grip on the sword.
The mummy finally tossed the detached limb to the side and reached
for Cameron's throat.
Cameron tried to pull back, but the fingers closed tightly around
his throat and as the mummy lifted him up there was nowhere to go.
Gasping for breath, he fought his instinct to futilely try to pull the arm
loose and grabbed for Winona which was still safely tucked away in his
pants. He blinked as sweat and blood ran into his eyes, but he was close
enough to not even need a decent aim.
The shot ripped a hole through the mummy's torso and started its
bandages smouldering. It roared out in anger again and threw Cameron away from him. Turning, the mummy searched for the ax it had dropped earlier.
Cameron gritted his teeth, but ignored the pain as he fell to the
ground. He wiped at his eyes and rolled to his side as he fired Winona
several times, hoping her blast would finally set the mummy on fire.
The blasts hit right as the mummy picked up the ax. Fire caught on
the dried wrappings in several places and it wasn't long before the
mummy fell into a burning heap on the ground. Soon after, all that was
left was a smouldering pile of ash and bones.
"Go, Cam," Xander said a little weakly. He'd pulled Bridge back far
enough that Xander could lean on a tree and try to at least stomp on
approaching bugs, but as the mummy disintegrated, the clacking beetles
just faded away.
Xander crouched down and grabbed Bridge's phone off his belt, because, well, he'd met Rory; if she didn't hear from them soon, she'd be climbing walls better than Peter Parker could. "Hey, Rory? Xander here."
"It's LC, Twinkie," said she who was set on the codenames. "Hi.
How're you holding up?"
Xander, who had memories both fake-real and movie-inspired of a thousand 'Gray Leader to Gray Goose' conversations, didn't actually mind the codenames; he just hadn't rememberd to use them because he hadn't planned on carrying a phone. "Bridge...ah, Ferretboy... got a mummy, but the next one clocked him." Xander wedged the phone in the crook of his shoulder and reached over to touch Bridge on the cheek with that hand, since the other was wrapped usuelessly in his shirt right now. No reaction. "Still out cold."
Xander's voice filtered through and Cameron was grateful to hear
Bridge was just knocked out.
"We should get him out of here," he piped up from where he was lying
near the heap of smoldering mummy remains. He wiped his face before
scrambling to his feet and locating his sword just in case another mummy
decided to come jump them.
"That's Cam," Xander said into the phone to Rory. "He just wasted
the one that knocked Bridge out. It slammed me into a tree and my hand
hurts like hell, but I'll live."
"How many of them are left?" came Rory's slightly crackled voice.
Xander might have heard some somewhat frantic typing in the background. "Is anyone else out? Do you need us to send backup or something to carry people home?"
At this point, Bridge starts to come to. He groans and mumbles
something under his breath, cracking one eye open to peer at Xander.
"Bridge?" Xander shoulder-lodges the phone again and reaches to
touch Bridge's arm. "You okay?"
"M'head hurts," Bridge informs Xander. "Also, you're all sparkly."
Xander winced. "I think we can put Bridge down for a concussion," he
said into the phone. "Or his non-wacky powers have gone wacky. Or both. But he's awake." He took a quick stock of what he'd seen before they separated from the group. "Can't see the others from here; think Tyler got a mummy and probably Isabel and Alanna finished another off. Dunno how many left."
"Okay," Rory replied. "Well, keep me posted, someone. Take care of
yourselves, guys, and remind everyone that if they come back safely,
they get pie."
There's a joke Xander could've made there, but he didn't. For the
sake of adorable wee clingy kittens, which is something else he could've
made...the same joke about.
"I'm sure with a motivating factor like that, we'll all come back
without a scratch," Xander said instead.
Cameron snorted at the scratch remark as he was a bit beyond that
already. He squatted down beside Xander and Bridge, sword in one hand and Winona in the other.
"Bridge? You alright to keep going?" he asked, wondering if they should
get him back to the clinic.
"I'll be fine," Bridge insists, moving to sit up. "We should find
the others."
Xander eyes him doubtfully, but says goodbye to Rory, drops the
phone into his own pocket, and offers Bridge a hand up.
"I'll be fine," Bridge says again, but flinches a little as Xander
helps him up. "It hurts," he mutters.
"Sorry." Xander winced.
"What?" Bridge blinks at Xander. "No, I meant *you're* hurting. Your
hand. Which... you probably already know because obviously you can feel it, but..." he trails off.
Xander flexed the wrapped-up-in-his-flannel-overshirt fingers of the
hand he hadn't offered, because... he's an idiot. Predictably, it
hurt like fuck.
"Ah, yeah. Sorry anyway? You probably wanna put your gloves back on once we find the others, or you'll get a lot of that around here."
Cameron had moved off a bit further to try and pick up any noises or
signs of the others, but there wasn't the slightest noise he could pick
up.
"I don't like this," he mumbled mostly to himself and turned towards
Bridge and Xander. "Think you can track the others?"
"Yeah," Bridge says, already scanning for the energy trails of
anyone else from their group. "This way," he waves. "Let's go."
Xander reaches down to grab his axe from the pile of mummy-crumble
-- and makes a face as the deja-vu hits him -- then follows.
Sam crept slowly through the woods, zat in hand.
Luna followed along, slowly, as that seemed the thing to do. After a
brief moment she asked, "Are mummies frequent visitors to the island?"
"We haven't seen them before, no," Sam said, pitching her voice just
above a whisper, and more than a little worried about working with Luna,
who she didn't really know.
"Pity then that I no longer have Professor the Tick's camera, Dad
would love a picture if not an actual mummy." Luna spoke softly but
didn't exactly whisper.
"You can take a picture later. Hell, send him a mummy, I don't care.
We just need to find them and kill them first."
"That is a most thoughtful suggestion, but I believe owls might
object to carrying a mummy carcass no matter how tightly wrapped."
And there was an image that was going to stay with Sam for a while.
"Owls?"
"How else would I go about sending my post? Kneezles?" Because in
the middle of a mummy fight, one naturally thinks of the postal system.
"Maybe we should just look for mummies," Sam suggested, having no
idea what a kneazle was.
An unearthly moan suddenly came from nowhere.
Sam stopped and popped the zat open, scanning the area.
The bushes parted and a large mummy suddenly rushed towards Sam with a shriek.
Sam fired the zat twice directly into the mummy's chest.
"Oh, that is no way to greet others, Mr. Mummy." Luna murmured
something and made a flicking motion with her wand at the mummy. A
purple light flashed out and hit the mummy's left arm.
Howling, the mummy spun in place, pushed back by the multicolored
flash, and staggering back from the zat blast. It fell back on its side,
then started to crawl forward on its hands and knees. "Grrr...."
Sam shot it again with the zat, hoping that it would kill it dead.
Er, deader.
The electricity surged through the mummy, making it twist and turn.
It seemed to hit the mummy's right buttons, because it found renewed
strength and lunged at Sam. "Gaaaar," it screeched and tackled her.
Sam was thrown back against a tree and felt a brief spike of pain as
she was sandwiched between the mummy and the tree. "Augh! Help!" She kicked out with her feet, aiming for its knees.
Luna's first objective was to provide assistance to Sam and so she
gave a swish and flick and shouted, "Wingardium Leviosa!"
Thus causing Sam to shoot up away from the mummy and land a few paces to his left. It also caused a few feathers to waft through the air with her.
The mummy, after taking a moment to figure out what had just
happened, reached out and grabbed Sam again, this time hurtling her
through the air.
Sam landed on the ground, putting her hands out in front of her to
break her fall. More pain shot up her forearms and she bit her lip to
stifle the scream. She had no idea where her weapon was.
She rolled over on her back and prepared to kick the mummy with both
feet if it approached.
The mummy staggered after Sam, seemingly fixated on her. It stopped
short of her reach and dodged left and right, trying to get to her. In
the end, it grabbed her leg and flung her around hard enough to get her
airborne again. She would have landed quite hard.
Sam hit the ground hard and the impact knocked the breath out of
her. She may have lost consciousness for a minute.
"That's quite enough, sir." Luna growled as she took aim with her
wand. She went so far as to scowl as she shouted. "Incendio!"
The mummy was now nicely ablaze. Unfortunately, there were no
marshmallows to be had. Instead Luna knelt by Sam's still form, "Sam?"
She groaned and sat up slowly, shaking her head to clear it. "I'm
okay."
The pain in her side and her wrist could be ignored. There was no other
option.
Hairspray can in hand, Isabel carefully studied the surrounding area
watching for mummies or any other creepy crawlies that might be around. A sudden rustling noise from a nearby brush drew her attention.
"Oh you have got to be kidding me." Reflexively she drew back as several oversized beetles skittered towards her. Isabel hit the nozzle on the spray can and ignited it, aiming the makeshift torch towards the beetles. Thirty seconds later, they were charcoal.
One escapee was making its way up Tyler's pants leg. He shook it off
them stamped on it viciously, watching the goo spurt out.
"These? Are gross."
"Extremely," Isabel agreed. She kept watching the ground and the
bushes, waiting to see if there were anymore.
There weren't any scarabs right then, but there were scorpions as
large and black as Tyler's shoe. Moving carefully, he reached for and
reloaded his flare gun. "Izz? Fire."
"Fire's good," Isabel said, aiming the can and setting the stream
alight. "Nasty little buggers."
And then the hairspray ran out. "Crap."
Dropping the can, she reached into her bag and pulled out one of the
homemade flares Greg had given her. "Tyler? Do you have that booze you mentioned earlier? Because I think they need a drink."
Tyler reached inside his jacket and pulled out a flask. "Vodka. I
brought my own victory party," he said. "We can invite the scorpions."
He dumped about two thirds of the flask onto the creatures, then offered
a swig to Isabel. "You want?"
Isabel lit the fuse of the flare and tossed it into the midst of the
scorpions. "Go Greg," she grinned as the flare caught the vodka on fire.
Wrinkling her nose at both the smell and sound of dying scorpions she
turned towards Tyler. "Thanks but no. Weird alien metabolism. I'd be
plastered. Immediately." She looked around warily. "And that would be
bad right now."
"Drunk in the middle of a battle? Yeah. Bad," Tyler agreed.
He watched the scorpions writhe for a moment, seemingly fascinated, and sipped at his flask himself. "Want BBQ scorpion for lunch?"
"I'll pass," Isabel said. "I prefer my lunch a little less blackened."
"And I'm not much for insects," Tyler said. "So it'll go to waste."
The scorpions seemed to be very, very, dead by then.
Parker turned away when Tyler finished killing his mummy, hearing a sound behind her and expecting another mummy-- then her eyes widened as a burst of scarabs came out of the ground, spreading in a dark wave of skittering insectoid threat. "Ewwwww!"
Quickly holstering her gun, she grabbed the can of hairspray and the
butane lighter she'd picked up at All & Sundries the day before.
*wwwhoooooosh*
"Fricassee scarab, yay!"
Isabel came over a few minutes later after helping having her own
bug barbeque. "Nasty. Very nasty."
A low groan came from somewhere in the trees.
"Uuuuuugh." Parker shuddered, and shook her can of hairspray. "I
love action, but I am not an exterminator by trade. Napalm, we need
napalm." She looked around for more bugs, then froze at the groan.
"Crap."
"Napalm would be good. Napalm would be very, very good." Isabel
agreed. "Here we go again."
The mummy stumbled out through the trees, making no effort to be
quiet as it lunged towards its prey.
Isabel spun around at the sound of the mummy and tried to reach into
her bag for the extra can of hairspray.
Parker already had her lighter up, but the hairspray spluttered as
it came out. "Damnit!" She dropped the can, and went for her flare gun,
firing off one shot as it got within arm's reach of them. "Run!"
The mummy shrieked as the flare hit it in the center of its chest,
igniting the bandages. It stumbled towards Parker and Isabel, arms
outstretched, claws at the ready.
Isabel screamed as the mummy grabbed her about the neck then jerked
back trying to get away from the flames.
*schwing!* "Back!" Alanna hacked at the mummy's legs, trying
to get a good angle from which to hit it then wound up for a swing at
its neck. "Isabel, down!"
Parker fired another flare into the mummy's side, but it's wild flailing
meant the shot ended up igniting the end of a bandage instead of burying
itself in the torso.
The mummy fell to its knees, but didn't release its grip on Isabel's
throat. It shrieked and flailed, afraid of the fire as pieces of flaming
bandages started to fall.
The fire was hot against her face as Isabel fell with the mummy. She
struck out with her elbow and finally managed to pull away, wincing in
pain as the mummy's claws cut into her skin.
Alanna swung her sword at the mummy's arms, while Parker rushed
forward, firing again.
"Isabel, down!"
The mummy backed up, let out a roar, and tossed Isabel roughly to
the side as it advanced on Parker. Alanna's sword sliced through the
mummy's arm, and it fell to the ground, moving forward towards her on
its fingers.
Parker re-loaded, then shot the flare gun toward the head and torso
of the mummy as it advanced, her legs braced, shoulders set. Exhausting
her last shot, she reached for her lighter and lit her last flare, then
threw it in the face of the mummy as it lunged for her.
The mummy reached up to bat the flare down to the ground, but used
the arm Alanna had sliced off by accident. "Nnnnnnnnnn," it groaned as
the flare lit more of the bandages, shambling forward.
Parker spun out of the way, and watched it go up like a sparkler,
then turned back to check on Isabel.
Isabel winced as she pushed to her feet, feeling battered. "Good
job," she told Parker as she felt her neck gingerly. Drawing her hand
away, she grimaced at the blood. "Damn thing needed a manicure."
"You're definitely going to need a tetanus shot," Parker said,
wincing. "I hate to think what that thing had on its nails. Gah." Alanna
came up, looking exhausted. "Nice job on the arm."
Alanna held up her sword, upon which the arm still twitched a little.
"Light it up?"
"Definitely." Parker opened the lighter, and set the thing aflame.
After it was gone, Alanna turned to Isabel. "I've got some bandages
here. They should keep that form getting worse for a while."
"Thanks," Isabel said as she reached for the bandages. "I don't
think they're particularly deep. But they're owie."
[OOC: Pre-played, no room for interaction, but OOC comments welcome. This is post 1 of 2. Continues here.]