aaaaaaaagh_sky: (marked up)
[personal profile] aaaaaaaagh_sky
The door opens on the interior of the remains of an ancient office building. Most of the walls and parts of the floor are missing, allowing for a fine view of the rubble covering the ground two stories down, but there's just enough exterior wall remaining to provide some cover. Ellen has taken the liberty of hanging a portable chalkboard on that wall; it's got a painstakingly hand-drawn map on it. "This is where we're headed," she says. "We're a little ways north of the canyon; from this floor or what little there is of the next floor up, we have line of sight as far as this bend, here. Note the catwalks on either side of the canyon walls. They're there because the canyon has a railroad track from before the War running down the middle and the raiders who occupy the place have planted land mines on either side. The raiders patrol the catwalks on a regular schedule."

"About here, just before the canyon takes its turn and we lose line of sight, there's a tripwire connected to even more explosives. It's not a very sophisticated mechanism and it could be disarmed without too much trouble if it weren't in plain sight of every raider who could hold a gun. There's another tripwire after it, but since the canyon takes a turn at that point, anyone trying to disarm that one won't have covering fire unless they brought a buddy along."

"Over here is where the minefield stops. The railroad track splits at this point and the canyon widens out. Tracks go off to the left; that area's got a couple of tin-roofed open-air equipment shacks and a lot of old railroad cargo cars. Plenty of cover for the raiders, not to mention most of the railroad cars have some means of climbing up on top for a vantage point. The canyon wall on this side is too steep for them to scale, and there don't seem to be any openings or outcroppings, so there's that, at least."

"To the right the catwalk terminates in a tin-walled guardhouse. That tends to have one or two people in it or in front of it, probably because it overlooks the slave pens, here. I counted five or six slaves when I got in but wasn't able to make contact with any of them. There's a supply shack at ground level past the slave pens and then about five or ten yards of space before the canyon wall."

"This round object here, on your left as you pass the slave pens and supply shack, is the Behemoth's pen. The walls are a good twenty-five feet high and electrified. There's a generator just next to it that looks like the raiders could switch it off pretty easily if they needed to let the thing loose. The mutant itself is eighteen feet tall and doesn't seem to be armed, but there are motorcycles and substantial chunks of metal lying around the area that it would be perfectly capable of picking up and wielding or throwing. I've fought a few of these things before. They've got hides as thick as armor and pain tends to just make them mad. Slowing them down pretty much requires doing enough damage to physically cripple one or both legs, and even then they've got enough rage to them to keep trying to come after you just for spite. The neck in particular is ridiculously thick and tough. Wonder Woman had a hard time snapping the spine of the one we fought in the Capitol building's rotunda."

"To the right of the pen is the main factory, which has wire fencing and sandbags out front. It's built with its back up against the canyon wall. Given that this is the same rock formation that Vault 112 and Vault 87 were built into, and that Lamplight Caverns aren't too far away, I'd be really surprised if there weren't significant underground areas of the place. There are two other outlying buildings past that, further down the canyon. They're smaller and don't look like there's more than one floor to them. I wish I could give you more information than that but I wasn't able to get past the Behemoth pen without it roaring because it could smell me."

"As for the raiders themselves, there's a pretty fair number of them. I don't have an exact count. Most of them are armed with 5.56 millimeter assault rifles and twelve-gauge shotguns. A few of them are carrying disintegrator rifles of alien design- they're all but guaranteed to take apart a man-sized target on the first or second hit. The disintegrators are silver and shiny and fire blobs of energy, so they're pretty easy to recognize. I'm trying to get the slaves out of here and get those disintegrator rifles out of these people's hands before they become a threat to the rest of the Wasteland... anyway, I think that's probably about it. Any questions?"

Re: In From Above

Date: 2013-03-16 08:28 pm (UTC)
mjolnir_retriever: Thor, mid-battle and mid-swing (hammer in motion)
From: [personal profile] mjolnir_retriever
Invincible's got the high ground, and he's doing fine with it. There's no need for them to get in each other's way when they can be working as mutual distraction.

So: structural damage, Ellen said.

Thor whips Mjölnir around by its strap once, twice, dropping to a low half-kneeling crouch, and then flings himself hammer-first through the motorcycle wreckage and towards the nearest green knee.

Re: In From Above

Date: 2013-03-16 09:06 pm (UTC)
1nv1nc1ble: (Default)
From: [personal profile] 1nv1nc1ble
(Kneecaps are, after all, a privilege.)

Meanwhile, Invincible moves in, hammering at the grimacing, snarling, caricature of a human's face. He's not skilled enough to pick a point and work relentlessly, like some Caped Crusaders, but the face itself is a suitable target for the novice hero, and he drives in and lands blow after blow, aiming to flatten the nose and shatter the cheeks.

The motion of Thor rushing in catches his attention briefly, and he tries to time the impact of his next punch. Invincible is fast, but he's not used to teaming up with another in a fistfight, so the left-handed hook that he uncorks into the behemoth is a second or two behind Thor's blow to the knee. But it blurs with speed and the impact is jawbreakingly hard.

If Voodoo is watching, he might find that left hook a bit familiar. But that's unlikely; after all, he has his own dance partners at this shindig.

Re: In From Above

Date: 2013-03-17 03:48 am (UTC)
mjolnir_retriever: Thor mid-battle, spinning very photogenically with his cape swirling around him (let your body move to the music)
From: [personal profile] mjolnir_retriever
Thor did not swivel out of the way. He's a bull straight through kind of guy in general.

Which means that the Behemoth's knee is now in substantially, and visibly, worse shape. But it also means that Thor is going flying backwards.

The enclosure is small enough that he doesn't have time to fling his hammer round and catch himself before he hits the wall, either. Good thing enormous jolts of electricity don't bother him! And, uh, here's hoping the wall is sturdier than it looks.

Re: In From Above

Date: 2013-03-17 04:00 am (UTC)
1nv1nc1ble: (Bloody)
From: [personal profile] 1nv1nc1ble
Invincible becomes aware of the slaver with the rocket launcher only peripherally, when he notices a rushing noise and then a sudden, loud, bright impact slams into him. Many Viltrumites (Nolan for example) have mastered the ability to brace themselves in such a fashion that weapons shatter against their skin without staggering them; Invincible hasn't quite figured that trick out. The explosion sends him cartwheeling away from the behemoth at an angle, and he impacts the fence shortly after Thor is kicked into it. However, unlike the Asgardian, Invincible pitches straight through the wall of the pen in a cloud of sparks and ozone, and slams into the side of one of the buildings along the canyon wall opposite the slave pens. It crumples under his impact, leaving a vaguely Invincible-shaped dent in the side.

Invincible frowns as he extracts himself from the side of the building. "Ow," he remarks, mildly. "That stung." He is, generally, unhurt, but his uniform has been blackened and is a bit torn. One goggle has been cracked, but Art the Tailor makes good clothes, and nothing's shattered yet. Pulling himself to his feet, he looks back across the yard at the behemoth pen. That explosion went off right under the beast's nose; it can't be happy about that.

Re: In From Above

Date: 2013-03-17 04:42 am (UTC)
mjolnir_retriever: lightning striking (calling the lightning)
From: [personal profile] mjolnir_retriever
These things really are resilient!

Which, of course, just makes things more exciting.

Unfortunately, the wall was not. Between the Thor-shaped hole and the Invincible-shaped one, there's now plenty of room for the Behemoth to get out. And it's not just the physical structure; the electrical circuit is broken. Thor can feel the gap in front of him, the background fizzing gone from that space.

Well. Electricity clearly harms it, or it wouldn't be caged by a net of it.

Thor pushes himself back to his feet, with an anticipatory slice of a grin. (He doesn't know how much family resemblance there is in this moment.) Instead of dodging aside or charging in again, he stands his ground, and thrusts Mjölnir to the sky.

Black clouds billow, spiraling out of nowhere into a looming thunderhead that covers most of the camp, and a wind rises to lash at hair and clothing. Lightning stabs down to hit Thor's hammer -- and, though spare electricity crackles along his arms, most of that white lance bounces right back out to hit the charging Behemoth.

Re: In From Above

Date: 2013-03-17 04:50 am (UTC)
1nv1nc1ble: (Default)
From: [personal profile] 1nv1nc1ble
"Whoa." Okay, that's impressive. Invincible pauses, taking the display in. Thor clearly doesn't do anything by halves.

After a second, he shakes his head and looks back at the behemoth. Time to put this thing down.

There is a blue-and-yellow blur as Invincible charges across the canyon and drives both fists into the monster's sternum, somewhere in the general location of the solar plexus. If its breastbone doesn't break on impact, the behemoth will certainly have trouble breathing.

Re: In From Above

Date: 2013-03-17 05:25 am (UTC)
mjolnir_retriever: Thor in armor looking shiny with a dramatic sky behind him (Thor Odinson of Asgard is shiny)
From: [personal profile] mjolnir_retriever
The clouds dissipate, as quickly as they appeared. Thor follows Invincible -- if in a slightly more leisurely fashion. The kid seems to have things in hand!

He's mildly impressed that there are still things to have in hand, after the amount of damage it's taken. Either its healing or its stubbornness are pretty credible.

If it's still moving when he gets there it's gonna get a hammer to the face, though.

Re: In From Above

Date: 2013-03-17 04:38 pm (UTC)
1nv1nc1ble: (Default)
From: [personal profile] 1nv1nc1ble
Invincible, due to the natural balance of a bipedal body, ends up beneath the collapsing behemoth briefly. He hoists it up and rolls it off of him, so that it's lying on its back. "This thing smells worse than the dumpster at Burger Mart," he comments. He steps back and lets Thor deliver the coup de grace, but if the thing is still moving after that, he's going to pop its head off like a bottle cap.

"Somebody shot me with a rocket," he notes, looking around. "I kinda want to have words with them."

Re: In From Above

Date: 2013-03-17 07:29 pm (UTC)
mjolnir_retriever: Thor grinning cheerfully (cheerful floppy puppy)
From: [personal profile] mjolnir_retriever
"I have no objection," Thor says cheerfully.

Fighting humans seems kind of unsporting as a general rule, when they're so fragile, but you make yourself an exception when you go around shooting people with rockets like that.

"Then we shall see if any of our companions need aid."

Re: In From Above

Date: 2013-03-17 08:23 pm (UTC)
1nv1nc1ble: (Default)
From: [personal profile] 1nv1nc1ble
"Definitely," says Invincible, nodding. He looks around. Somewhere, there's a slaver with a rocket launcher. Where is he hiding? Invincible rises up into the air to get a better view of the canyon floor. Surely, he wouldn't be stupid enough to shoot at him again!

Re: In From Above

Date: 2013-03-18 05:06 am (UTC)
mjolnir_retriever: Thor, hammer in hand, staring upwards. (incoming target)
From: [personal profile] mjolnir_retriever
The young warrior is doing very well, but he is young -- well-trained and with good instincts, and plenty of strength, but small details tell his inexperience, and he's armed with only his fists. And the last rocket knocked him a good ways.

And the raider's aim isn't very good anyway. And if it hit Invincible that hard, this missile shouldn't be allowed to hit any innocent targets.

So.

"Leave the rocket to me!" Thor calls, and tosses himself skyward.

Batting it hard enough should either destroy the thing, or at least knock it over into a distant uninhabited-looking hillside. And Thor's good at this kind of interception.

Re: In From Above

Date: 2013-03-18 11:18 am (UTC)
1nv1nc1ble: (Bloody)
From: [personal profile] 1nv1nc1ble
Invincible is totally okay with that. He's focusing on the flare of ignition and the streak of white smoke. And a certain green-haired idiot.

The blur of blue and yellow crosses the canyon in almost no time, and Invincible doesn't even pause to say something witty before he punches the slaver in the face. It's honestly hard to say what kills the poor fool; the broken neck from the punch or the impact with the side of one of the metal buildings as his body pinwheels away. Either way, any regrets that he may or may not have had about his life choices are now irrelevant. This is an ex-slaver.

Invincible shakes the blood off his fingers as he scans the rest of the melee. Time to clean up. He looks to see if there are any massed groups that are putting up any resistance. There's plenty of large, metal objects around here, some of which aren't fission-powered. Let's see how they like having a building thrown at them.

Re: In From Above

Date: 2013-03-19 03:13 pm (UTC)
mjolnir_retriever: Thor in armor looking shiny with a dramatic sky behind him (Thor Odinson of Asgard is shiny)
From: [personal profile] mjolnir_retriever
Thor tosses himself upwards again, scanning the battlefield. There are raiders in sight, but scattered in ones and small clusters, and none visibly armed with the same sort of weapon as the green-haired fellow had. They're nearly all running for the main factory.

Sure, they could kill a bunch of them, but they're helpfully grouping themselves for greater efficiency anyway.

"Let us seek their destination," he says. "We may rejoin our comrades there as well."

Odds seem pretty good.

Re: In From Above

Date: 2013-03-19 05:42 pm (UTC)
1nv1nc1ble: (Flying)
From: [personal profile] 1nv1nc1ble
"Works for me," says Invincible. He takes off and heads for the entrance that the slavers have pulled shut behind them. Getting that open should be cake; going in after the slavers out will probably be a bit of work.

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Ellen Park, the Lone Wanderer

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