Crazy_Dragon
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Quote:And feel those shivers she did, just as the cloud rapidly took full form and they soon disappeared in another blinding flash, the only thing left in its place being a momentary pocket of vacuum that the air around it began to rush into.Originally Posted by Rebel_Scum
"Sounds like a plan to me", Ildela replied, following her over to Derek and taking her hand. In her current non-physical state there was of course no actual force to her grip. The contact instead produced a warm tingly feeling that'd send shivers up the spine, but was otherwise harmless.
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On a rooftop close to where all the action took place, another cloud formed just on the very edge, spawning the trio in the flash of light that followed soon after.
Just in time to spot an oncoming explosion headed straight for them.
"GET DOWN!!" the Outsider and Derek yelled in unison. The Outsider complied with her own orders without fail. Derek, on the other hand, reacted differently. Rather than take cover he opted to make it. Swirling his longsword around in his hand so that the blade pointed downward to the ground, the wanderer brought himself to one knee, held the weapon out in front of him and started drawing power from the universe once more. Rather than build it up like before, though, he immediately release it through the blade, causing a thin and barely visible barrier to flicker into existence before it. A concave rectangle of Force large enough to - hopefully - keep the explosion from engulfing the three. -
Quote:"If only..." the Outsider sighed, waiting for a result from the phone. "This thing has a tendency to go Deus Ex Machina on me only when it pleases. Every other time, like now, it's up to me to work out how to use it. And it looks like I can only get -us- to -him- rather than the other way around. Did I mention I hate wizards?"Originally Posted by Rebel_Scum
The other Ildela on the other hand stayed right where she was, trying to pursue the fleeing Jacub in her current condition would be suicide. Almost unkillable she might be at present, but in about a minute and a half this was going to wear off and if she happened to be flying when it did she'd face a long fall and a very sudden stop. So instead she turned to the Outsider, who she suspected might already have had the same idea she was about to suggest but she'd suggest it anyway just in case. "Hey, that thing teleports, right?", she asked in a decidedly different voice. Like an old record that plays more static than actual sound, it was just barely understandable. "Think you could teleport that cop he ran off with back here?"
And then the device started bleeping.
"Gotcha!" she beamed. The smartphone had instantly begun drawing out a filled wireframe map of Kings Row, its appearance of glittery, wobbly lines looking as if the image was conjured by a certain popular teen wizard while speaking quasi-Latin. Then several golden arcs formed onto the 3D image to map out the burning man's path away from here.
"I hope that means we're going to leap to -him-." Derek growled. "The man's got to answer for incinerating a..."
"We are, Derek," the Outsider cut in, abruptly storming over to the wanderer and pressing the smartphone into his free palm before turning her attention back to Ildela, At that very moment the first signs of the dark cloud formed around their feet and then she offered a hand to her. "You're free to join us if you like. I think we could all use the help we can get stopping this nutbar before he winds up burning this whole area to the ground just fleeing us." -
Quote:The Outsider hand only just skidded past the van, extinguisher at the ready to blast the contents over the burning man, when he decided of all moments on a change of plan and leap away.Originally Posted by Pious
Having witnessed the absorbing woman electrocute herself into a living ball of energy and then survive his fire blasts, Jacub decided on changing up his play. He had now in his arms, a part of what he wanted anyway. Just then the back doors to the Pocket D van flung open but nobody was visible by it. He turned around and saw a man spouting prayer before flying at him, weapons at the ready. With police, fire crews and four maybe five people now joining the fray, Jacub felt the fight was fast becoming overcrowded. He leapt out of the preacher's collision path and leapt again onto the nearest building. With incredible agility and speed, he bounded away, flickering from rooftop to rooftop like living flames. He went on, escaping with the police detective singed and boiling under his burning arms.
Was she ready to let the man escape so easily with another hostage in tow, another life about to be taken for reasons still left unexplained? Was she hell.
With one hand still holding the extinguisher, she quickly pulled her smartphone from her pocket and launched what could have been considered an app via the magically-altered device's screen. Derek, feeling defeated when his opponent appeared to have decided it wiser to live to fight another day, slipped his scabbard back onto his belt as his partner carefully waved the phone's camera over the burning man's trajectory in the hopes of getting some kind of magical trail to follow, much to the wanderer's bafflement. -
Quote:And there's the Outsider hoping a fire extinguisher may have -some- effect on him.Originally Posted by Rebel_Scum
Personally I thought this WAS the OOC thread for the Crossing. Guess I was wrong?
As for the need for lots of water, the fire crews will provide that if/when they show up. Magical fire not so much, though. Hence the desire to drain all his endurance (something elec/kin is pretty good at) so all they'll have to put out is ordinary fire without the magic keeping it burning.
Also, Derek and the Outsider's course of action brought to you by some likely unfitting battle music. ¬_¬
I could have listened the "Last Battle" from The Witcher on Repeat Track instead but that's only just over a minute long with an actual end rather than a fadeout and would have started to grate on me after the third repeat. o_O -
Quote:In spite of Derek's warning, that ever-expanding inferno forced Derek to back of a few paces in order to avoid being caught out by a stray flame. or five There was no way he was getting within meleé range of that thing, he figured, but the wanderer was far from out of options already.Originally Posted by Pious
Jacub's rage was made worse by the electric cage formed to contain him. It did nothing except fuel is anger more. The intensity of the flames had made him resistant to immobilisation and other such attacks. It burnt ever more ferocious, growing into an inferno so large the burning walls of the alley began to crumble, threatening to collapse. The religious soldier's infamous rage was now beyond his control. Mournful for his brother, vengeful at those who had killed him, annoyed by the sword-wielding meddler and frustrated by the woman who still refused to hand over his dead brother's arsenal, Jacub was now quite literally a live wire. His powers, fuelled by emotion were a danger to everyone around him. Now having surpassed his usual limits of capability, Jacub's fiery rage was fast becoming unstoppable. His hellish inferno now burning all of the buildings connected to the alleyway.
Interestingly, the magical fire hadn't caused Zero's van any damage, but smoke and fire had trickled through the Pocket D portal. Of course, it burnt nothing, but those inside with keen senses would notice something was wrong at the King's Row exit doors. Back outside, the sounds of sirens wailed from the distance. Clearly, someone somewhere inside the burning buildings, had rightfully called the police and fire department. First on the scene was a police squad car, and who should step out but Detective Dean Doyle, loyal and faithful police partner to the now dead Detective Mulligan. Dean was shocked and astounded by the magnitude of the fire before him but his expression soon turned to bitter grief at the sight of his partner's fedora and badge, laying half-burnt by a pile of bones.
If his life as an adventurer had taught him anything, it was definitely that one needed to be ready for anything. It was that very sound reasoning that lead him to acquire the silveresque ring that currently resided on his right middle finger at this very moment - the only finger not covered by a clearly customised glove - and had began to glow ever so slightly softly as he began to draw power from the universe around him and gradually channel it into his sword with the bare minimum of effort. That this power was also augmented by another force entirely hadn't gone unnoticed by Derek either, a fact that may be evident by the grateful smirk directed at Ildela.
Meanwhile, the Outsider had a plan of her own, assuming that the motel-like building beyond the alley and across the road had a recently-filled extinguisher available. Given the urgency of the situation, courtesy wasn't an option - once on the other side of the road she darted for the first visible door and promptly booted it open, paying the screaming occupants - who were only a second ago bickering like the usual navagationally-challenged married couple - little mind as she glanced around, grabbing the lone by the door.
Almost immediately after rushing back out of the door the Outsider then popped her head back in and apologised.
"Sorry about this. Mad pyrokinetic on the rampage just across the road. Thanks for understanding!"
Back at the scene of the continuing crisis Derek continued to channel power into his sword until a hollow metalling ringing sound briefly emanated from the blade itself.
"Alright," Derek called out to the burning man as he took a further step back into a smooth pirouette, midway finishing with "Don't say you weren't WARNED!"
As the sword was brought down in a near-flawless diagonal slice all the power channelled into it screamed from the blade toward the pyromaniac. To the naked eye it appeared to be little more than a controlled gust of wind shaped into a wide arc but anything it struck should have felt a far more tangable and excruciatingly painful lashing not unlike that from an expertly-wielded whip. Ideally. -
Quote:The unseen magical activity above Jacub soon gained a visible form - that of a dark cloud rapidly collapsing into itself almost as soon as it appeared, accompanied by a rawcous hissing sound not unlike that of a ship exploding in an 8-bit videogame, only longer and with each passing second rapidly lowering in pitch. After a few of those seconds had passed there was a sudden flash of blinding light and an unseen force quickly spread across a small few-metre blast raduis, only just powerful enough to gently rattle the truck, barely strong enough to push even the weakest of individuals.Originally Posted by Pious
Even as he looked up, his raging hot aura of fire only grew wilder, hotter and more uncontrolled the greater his rage. "I am Jacub" he sobbed, "and by His power, I shall bring vengeance upon you all!"
By the time the flash was gone and the cloud had returned to the oblivion from whence it came, The Outsider had already rolled across the roof of the truck and off the far side, putting something between herself and the walking fireball.
"Out of the frying pan..." she muttered to herself as she backed away from the truck , which she figured could explode at any moment near such a widespread flame, while keeping herself within the untouched safe spot she had fallen into among the raging fire. What she wouldn't have given to have an industrial-strength extinguisher on her right then...
In the meantime Derek had already acted upon teleporting as well, using the edge of the truck's roof to backflip over the walking fireball and land with a professional acrobat's grace in front of it. The wanderer then smoothly unclipped his sword - still in its scabbard - from his belt and swung it around to bring the sheathed blade across his back in one smooth motion, grabbing the scabbard close to the guard before drawing it out and bringing both the pristine steel blade and what appeared to now double as a secondary blunt weapon before himself.
"That's enough, demonspawn!" Derek called out. "Cease this madness now, while you still have that chance!" -
Quote:What little warning either the Outsider or Derek could have had was far too late for the duo to react and in no time they were left at Atlas to wonder what just happened before their eyes.Originally Posted by Pious
Suddenly, the stalker appeared right under the Detective, one hand gripped him by the neck, the other reached for the gremlin woman. Then they were gone.
Entrance to the Pocket Dimensional Nightclub, Kings Row
The van housing a dimensional portal to Zero's otherworldly nightclub bounced violently as a ripple in the air around it tore open to reveal a police detective captive in the hands of a long-range teleporting dark figure. If his grip reached the gremlin woman, then she too would follow, and later, any diving persons or shots fired.
"My quarrel lies not with thee", he began in a deep mournful voice. "But may God help you if you deny me what I seek. Those responsible for the fall of my brother Esua, I have tracked beyond this door. But between you two, his weapons have gone missing. I want them back, so that I may bury them with him."
The sudden turn of events, however, left the duo completely oblivious to the soft throbbing sounds coming from the ensorcelled smartphone in the young woman's pocket for the first minute or so before the barely audible noise suddenly crashed into a shrill alarm.
"Bloody hell." the Outsider snarled, already infuriated that either the fates or Lady Luck herself was hellbent on raining on their parade at every turn in this world. "What now?"
Once she fished the phone from her pocket the Outsider was greeted by the reassuring sight of whatever the magically-augmented device was running acting one step ahead: it had already begun to trace the teleport from point A directly in front of the duo to point B, wherever that may be. Of course the text right at the very bottom of the display only served to cancel out those reassurances almost instantly:
TRANSLOCATION UPON TRIANGULATION. PREPARE.
"Uh-oh." the Outsider muttered.
"Tell me that was a good Uh-oh..." Derek sighed.
"I wish." she groaned as she pinched the bridge of her nose. "Consider yourself warned, Derek. Scotty's beaming us up in a bit."
((If the trace manages to work out where the teleport leads to (I'll leave that up to Pious), there'll be a sudden increase of magical activity a good few metres above the captor's head. If Ildela managed to avoid capture I'll leave it up to Rebel if she gets dragged into the translocation as well.
))
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Quote:With that in mind, the two took their forms and got to work filling them in, the Outsider writing everything in clear block capital English that took very little, if any, effort to understand upon the first read.Originally Posted by Pious
"Not to worry er..." said the detective, glancing at the forms of the young woman and her male accomplice to try and peak at their names and alias. "They have technology that can decipher language, calligraphy, patterns in writing, stuff like that. You just do your best where you can, be honest and tell us everything. Powers, skills, weapons, combat efficiency levels, origins and a brief background on what you use your powers for. If it's to help people, which we hope it is, explain why. If not, tell us what it is exactly that you do. The three of you take your time and er, let me know when you're finished."
((Type out the form on here too if you like, or PM it to me, for Mulligan's sake IC. Besides, would be interesting for us OOC, to see what's been written
))
Derek, however, wrote in his own language system as advised, which appeared as if someone somewhere has taken Perso-Arabic and Japanese Kanji scripts and merged characters from each writing system together. On top of that, he needed his partner's assistant in read the actual field titles themselves, which were printed in a way that seemed as nonsensical to the wanderer as his own writing would likely appear to the detective.
"Well," the Outsider said as the duo placed their pens down and pushed the finished forms back to the lady. "I think we've filled in everything, though I do have a problem with one of the fields and a good reason as to why."
Quote:Originally Posted by The Outsider's formReal Name: Unknown
Hero Name: The Outsider
Powers: None
Skills: Traceur, puzzle solver.
Weapons & Equipment: Enchanted smartphone, known functions so far being "magic satchel" attributes and semi-intelligent long-range teleportation.
Combat Efficiency: Minimal, defensive purposes only.
Origin: I woke up in a strange world with no memory of my own past nor my own name, only the knowledge of the world I actually belong to. These days I help others in need while I search for a way back to my own world and for a means to shifting this amnesia that plagues me every single day.Quote:Originally Posted by Derek's formReal Name: Metrenom Derek of Laskaster
Hero Name: Derek the Aimless
Powers: Basic force magic
Skills: Longswordsman, practised brawler
Weapons & Equipment: Longsword, magic ring
Combat Efficiency: High?
Origin: I was born into a noble family, which grew stuffy and boring as I entered my teenage years. It wasn't until a few days before my 20th year in the world that I had an encounter with a wanderer and discovered my true calling, and now I travel the world, offering my services as an adventurer and a sellsword myself. -
Quote:Upon hearing the question the Outsider glanced at Derek, who merely returned something of a slight gurn. Almost as if to say "is this chick for real?"Originally Posted by Pious
The lady agreed and invited the trio inside, leading them to the main desk where piles of forms and paperwork laid waiting. "I assume y'all read and write?" asked Mulligan.
To be fair, Derek was far from illiterate. On more than one occasion he had mentioned being raised within nobility before he found his true calling as a wanderer and that he studied at one of the Empire's finest academies since he reached the age of compulsory education. For a man whose life revolved around combat, coin and cleavage for most of his days, Derek could read and write with the best of them.
Of course there was one little problem.
"Hmm," the Outsider sighed, turning back to the lady. "The good news is, we can read and write perfectly well. The bad news is that my friend here, as much as he speaks a language very similar to English, barring a few very insignificant differences here and there - slang and whatnot - I'm afraid he writes in a completely different system, so he may need a little help with the paperwork." -
Quote:"Strikes me as a little strange, don't you think?" The Outsider commented, maintaining an casual even pace with Ildela while Derek kept up behind them with a face like the back end of a bus. "He's trusting all three of us not to just run off without so much as taking one step inside City Hall."Originally Posted by Rebel_Scum
"You did, and that sounds like a plan to me... if only so I can get these off", Ildela answered, looking around. If this dimension was similar to the one she came from, then they'd need to go to City Hall which would be... "That way", she told the others with her, gesturing with both cuffed hands to the building in the distance. After making sure they understood, she headed in that direction around the base of the statue.
"Yeah," Derek grumbled. "The Empire would have a full regiment of gear knights marching us at gunpoint all the way to the nearest cell, even if it was a week-long trip to the nearest town they controlled. Still, I wouldn't want to risk breaking the man's... trust. Those weapons they had back there looked a lot more sophisticated than your average clockwork rifle." -
Quote:"Aside from an inflated ego, declaring himself the big bad guy around these parts and openly confessing to a number of attacks on the city aside?" the Outsider responded, leaning to the side just a bit to answer the detective, much to Derek's discomfort. "Not much, I'm afraid. Most of the people drawn here seem to have their own ideas as to what they should or want to be doing by the looks of things, even if it's not exactly the wisest course of action in our current predicament."Originally Posted by Pious
In the meantime, anything useful you could tell me about what happened with Mechano? What he said and why he might've been shunned?"
The Outsider glanced at the growing frustration on increasingly squished partner's face and opted to sit back before he decided headbutting her was totally worth the penalties it would carry and added: "And I don't think anyone took too kindly to being told what to do by a man that brushes off antics that have put at least one of this world's heroes into a coma as 'harmless pranks' either." -
Quote:Originally Posted by Pious
With that, the detective headed towards his car, beckoning over the temporally displaced unlicensed crime-fighters. "Come along now, we haven't got all day."Now that they were out of the pit, the both of them willingly followed the detective to his car, though Derek wasn't all that approving of the idea.Quote:Originally Posted by Techbot Alpha
Hauling himself out of the hole, along with helping the other two out, had left MacKenzie a little red in the face.
"Are you sure about this?" Derek muttered to the Outsider. "I mean, they -did- look ready to open fire on us all without a second thought."
"Will you relax?" the Outsider hissed. "Look around, will you? These people are police officers, not some Gear Knight death squad, okay?"
"Same difference, if you ask me." Derek grumbled.
"Really, now?" the Outsider responded, rolling her eyes.
"They're still trigger happy, don't you think? More so than the empress herself, if I'm allowed just a teensy bit of exaggeration here."
"To be fair, if you were running a city, what the bloody hell would -you- do if a disorganised band of vigilantes ended up tearing up your public transport network just to stop one bloody maniac? Let's just get this over with and pray everything goes smoothly, can we?"
"And if it doesn't?"
"We'll cross that bridge went we reach it, like we've done in the past." the Outsider smiled.
"Pfft." Derek answered, simple and to the point. "Yeah, that always works, I guess. Let's just hope we don't have to rebuild it from scratch like the last time you said that."
"Ye of little faith..." she joked at the very moment they reached the car, and within earshot of the detective just as she said it, though her tone was entirely light-hearted and bereft of suspicious intent. -
About the "pit".
Is it just a plain round wall of earth or is it a ring of closely-packed spikes? -
The Outsider, who was at the time still taking a few seconds to consider her options after mention of the detective's 'plan', stayed right where she was the whole time, as did Derek. The main difference between the two of them being, in their reactions to everyone simply opting to leg it, couldn't have been more different.
The Outsider, for a start, could only gawk at the sheer idiocy of everyone's actions. Where they -trying- to get themselves killed? It certainly seemed that way to her, at least.
Derek, on the other hand, simply smirked. It was almost as if he was enjoying the show of what could have equally have been considered both bravery and stupidity.
"It's days like this when I think the whole of reality has a vendetta against me." the Outsider groaned before turning to the detective. "If that offer's still open, I'll take it. Just cuff me and my friend with the sword and we'll co-operate."
"Wait, what?" Derek protested.
"Just shut up and surrender your sword, will you?" she quietly snarled back at the wanderer. A clear sign that her patience was wearing thin. Derek had little choice (unless he wanted to get himself ventilated on the spot) but to comply, picking up the sword by its scabbard and carefully offering the hilt to the detective.
"I hope you know what you're doing." he muttered as he awaited the cuffs. -
At the rate Mirel's going, I can see the detective just grabbing a shotty and going for the face. @_@
-
One palm struck the Outsider's forehead, an act making clear her frustrations with Mirel. Her other free hand was then quick to make an attempt at gently pushing the bigmouth to one side.
"Okay, just disregard what she just said for a moment," she sighed, cracking a nervous smile to the detective. "Basically, most of us here, if not everyone, aren't from this world, okay? Something... happened and we all got dumped into this universe without any obvious way of getting back to our respective homes and without so much as a single pointer as to how one should be conducting oneself, case and point, Miss Holier Than Thou here."
As she said this, the Outsider jerked a thumb in Mirel's general direction.
"We've been thrown into the deep end here and unfortunately someone keeps tearing down all the signs pointing to the shallow one. Look up and you'll see what I mean. None of us - bar myself to a very small degree and maybe a couple of others at the least - have a damned clue about the laws and customs of this city alone, never mind the rest of this world. So I'm of the opinion that throwing a bunch of multiversally-displaced individuals into the slammer would be counter-productive and may cause more harm than good for everyone. If anything, these people need to return to their homeworlds as soon as possible. That's not going to happen in a prison cell, okay?"
The Outsider paused for a moment to catch her breath. Rambling on can be hard on the lungs, she noticed.
"I know, some of these people just killed a guy and disrupted part of the city's public transport network in the process, but they didn't know any better and I'm guessing that they certainly didn't have anyone around at the time a certain giant crab paid a visit to teach them." -
Derek, still resting on his sheathed sword, peered at the detective for a moment, appraising the man's outfit out of pure curiosity more than anything. Then he spotted the cops behind him arming themselves. Not good.
"Erm," the wanderer turned to the Outsider, "I'm getting the feeling this place is getting a lot less friendly by the minute, if you know what I mean."
The Outsider glanced behind her, curious to know what fate had ultimately decided to drop on her head this time. What she saw was a little, disconcerting to say the least.
"Oh, no." she muttered as she turned to face the detective. "Oh no no no no no!"
Derek remained where he stood, raising an eyebrow at his partner, who was now storming over to the detective with determination.
"Excuse me!" the young woman then yelled out to the detective. As she approached the man, she waved at him in an effort to grab his attention. "Detective? Excuse me, sorry, but if you'd kindly give us a few minutes before you start foolishly waving your guns about, I'd be more than happy to explain, in full, the current situation we all seem to have found ourselves in."
A quick glance at both the amassing cops as well as the strange braggart attempting to speak to the detective herself led her to add: "Though I can't speak for everyone else, mind, but I think whipping out the shotguns so rashly might cause more problems than we all need right now." -
Quote:"Short of a board game, in all likelihood." The Outsider joked, her eyes fixed on the mess above. Thinking of the initial radio chatter concerning the mad gunman and bringing back to the front of her mind the haphazard manner in which everyone engaged the giant crab earlier, she then felt the desire to ask: "Why do I get the feeling that this mess could have been... well, easily avoided?"Originally Posted by Techbot Alpha
Silver arched an eyebrow at Mirel.
"Hate to break it to ya, Dorethy, but we ain't in Kansas anymore," he quipped, slipping for a moment into a slightly more texan accent. "But, needless to say, I don't think any of the places or people you're talking about exist around here."
Derek, having finally reached ground level, unclipped his sword from his belt, though it remained firmly in its scabbard, and used it to rest upon like a cane and observed the gathering for a moment.
"Just my opinion here and everything." the wanderer commented, offering a slight smirk in Mirel's general direction, "But as strange and bizarre this world is, I think it's safe to say that we're all in civilisation right now. I suggest we find to competent hands -here- to pass this junk onto, if at all, yeah?"
"That's the most intelligent thing I've heard from you all day, Derek." the Outsider complimented, glancing at her partner with a gentle smile before returning her attention to the track damage. "And as much as I distrust this Mechano guy, sticking together might be the prudent course of action right now. For all of our sakes." -
Quote:"Correct me... if I'm... wrong," the Outsider grunted, now approaching the end of the chain dangling from the remaining car still stopped on what was left of the tracks. Once she saw that there was no more chain to descend, though, she ensured that the drop between where she was and the ground below was safe to simply fall down and just... let go, landing on both feet with near-expert grace not unlike that of a professional gymnast. "Oof! Where was I? Ah, right. That wouldn't happen to be the same Doctor Mechano that unleashed a living weapon upon a gathering some months ago, would it?"Originally Posted by Dr_Mechano
"And yes, my father, Doctor Edward Johnson better known as the supervillain Doctor Mechano, does occasionally issue villainous threats against Paragon, though so far nobody has ever been hurt..they're more...pranks than anything else."
Meanwhile, Derek was a little ways behind his partner as he crawled down the chain with somewhat less skill behind his descent. Back on the ground, the Outsider casually folded her arms in wait of an answer from the pink automaton before everyone. -
Kings Row, back on the stopped tram...
"Hoo boy," The Outsider commented on the large drop below them. And a large drop it was, guaranteed to turn one's skull to mush or one's legs to a mess of torn flesh and shattered bone if one attempted to simply jump from it. "Well, there's no sense sitting up here helplessly."
"And how, may I ask, are we supposed to get down there, anyway?" Derek asked, to which the Outsider answered with mere silence, instead pulling her smartphone from her pocket and tapping away at the screen for a bit. Upon the last stroke a bright, though not blinding, flash filled the entire tram and once it had finally diminished his ally was once again in direct possession of the very chain she had originally intended to use on the giant crab earlier, one end still wrapped around the gearblade.
"I knew there was a good reason to keep hold of this." the Outsider cheerfully commented with a slight smirk. She then proceeded to wrap the gearblade end of the chain around the base of a pole near the doors of the tram at least twice before then looping the sword around the chain just once. Once that was over with, all that was necessary was to slip the blade itself under the chain and lay it down on the floor flat. "Hopefully this'll hold my weight. Yours too, Derek."
"I see..." Derek answered, seeing the eventual method in the young woman's apparent madness the moment she tossed the remaining length of chain out the door. "Well, ladies first, as I always say!"
"You never say that." the Outsider argued. "Mind you, every opportunity to do so was more often than not a life-threatening situation. Anyway, okay. Ladies first. Can't risk such a remarkable gentleman such as yourself making a bigger mess of things after all!"
"Lords dammit." the wanderer complained. The Outsider ignored his complaints in favour of getting on with the task at hand and sat down on the lip of the doorway. This brought her within reach of the dangling chain without the risk of stumbling over the edge trying to grab it, enabling her to then push herself out of the tram once she had gained a tight grip on her makeshift 'rope' and begin a careful descent back down to street level.
Derek took one more glance at the chain's 'anchor' to ensure that, as intended, its new-found burden ensured that the gearblade remained firmly pressed down flat on the floor, never given a chance to loosen any of the loops that kept the whole thing tied to that pole. -
Quote:"Derek?"Originally Posted by DeviousMe
Kings Row - On a Rail
...
A thunderous detonation cut her off then and there, not to mention rocked the cab like an earthquake. The automatic brakes immediately locked down, and had the civilian passengers not already been bounding about, they probably would've done so then, for the tram ground to a ferociously quick halt. Ahead, not too far away, smoke rose and flames licked, the previous car swallowed by the hole that had rather unexpectedly appeared along the track.
On a nearby rooftop, a nervous-looking Sarkh cringed. The Captain was going to kill him...
The wanderer gradually opened his eyes to, initially, nothing but blurriness beforehim. That and borderline crippling backache something horrific.
"I hope someone get the registrar's code of that cart..." he murmured to nobody in particular.
"Derek..."
"That wild horse too." he added before shaking his head and squinting in the hopes that his vision would return and his pain would subside.
"DEREK!!"
"Whu?"
"Be a dear and get the bloody hell off me, could you?"
It took a few more seconds for Derek to eventually realise that he had somehow been thrown by some unseen force onto his ally, the Outsider. After this embarrassing revelation, he quickly shot upright and gave her a little breathing room to drag herself up and start asking questions.
"Okay," she groaned as she pulled herself to her feet with a nearby pole. "Somebody care to enlighten me as to what just happ..."
One involuntary glance out to the front of the car answered everything, though it took a bit of a double-take to let it sink in.
"...ened?" -
Quote:"Sounds good to me." The Outsider answered with a smile, ignoring the slightly irritating grumbles behind her. "And my friend here meant 'translocated', by the way. We both... -somehow- managed to teleport from one end of this city to another. But, that's a story for the train ride, I think!"Originally Posted by DeviousMe
Kings Row - Crabbage Crater
The armored soldiers looked at one another for a few seconds on that one, the first finally turning back to Derek and the Outsider, "I'm sorry, our familiarity with English doesn't cover that term. If it'd make you more comfortable though, there is a public rail station right over there we could use."
"Dare I ask what a train is?" Derek enquired.
"No, you're best off just waiting till you can see it for yourself, Derek." she responded. "So... yeah. I'm good to go when you guys are." -
Quote:"Oh, no." the Outsider answered. "We're fine just heading straight for City Hall... -aren't- we, Derek?"Originally Posted by DeviousMe
Kings Row - Crabbage Crater
"A perceived lack of the size of his genitalia, yes." the armored figure stated flatly, "I've heard of the erratic behavior this can cause among humans. But regardless - as I said, should you wish to engage this man, feel free. I just don't think that there'll be anything left of him to actually fight by the time you get there..."
Glaring in the wanderer's general direction, she quickly spotted the poor man pouting of all things.
"Fine, fine." Derek grumbled, sheathing the sword that was still in hand and being used to rest upon the whole time he was standing there. "City Hall it is as long as we don't get transmogrificated there or whatever."
The Outsider simply rolled her eyes at 'transmogrificated'. -
Quote:The Outsider sighed as everyone who rushed off to take on this city's next big problem disappeared before she could even get a word in.Originally Posted by DeviousMe
Kings Row - Crabbage Crater
"Well." the armored individual who'd been doing the talking continued as the bulk of the gathered departed in quite a hurry, visor looking over those remaining; specifically Ethan, Derek, and the 'Outsider'.
"Since you're still here, I think I'll take the time to answer your questions then." was the judgment, as the others had left without giving that chance, "These buildings are mostly row houses and apartment blocks, so I'd not suggest intruding on those who live there. If you need a place to stay, you're welcome to join us. I'm undecided on whether we'll be booking a hotel or just setting up camp somewhere, so we may be doing both."
"As to law, yes." came the confirmation to Ethan, "Unfortunately, its enforcing is a little...ineffective. Still, the judicial authority here is technically the Paragon Police Department, as well as its attached bureaucracy. The decision makers care called mayor and city council. They tend to reside in City Hall. That will be our next destination, should you care to join us."
"Though if you'd prefer to jump into this other situation first, there isn't very much of a hurry." an armored arm indicated the direction from which Awesometastic Girl had come, "It's likely one of the people here calling themselves 'supervillains' on what they have termed a 'mayhem mission'. Yes, it's exactly what it sounds like. As I said, the enforcement of the law here is not very effective. However, it is only one, and with the number of people on their way to engage him, I severely doubt he will last more than a minute..."
"Welp," she piped up. The young woman smiled at the armoured newcomer and shoved her hands into the pockets of her leather jacket. "I think getting to bottom of how Derek and I got here sounds more sensible than taking on a mad gunman with nothing but a couple of swords after this mess. Lead the way, kind sir!"
"Hold up a second!" Derek cut in. "I've managed just fine against a whole regiment of riflemen before. Why would this guy be any different?"
"Because, Derek." The Outsider sighed, glaring at her eager-as-ever wanderer friend. "Unlike that -one- time, you were morbidly drunk after only a couple of tankards of ale and somehow managed, by pure accident, to collapse the whole tavern on everyone."
The Outsider looked up once more to the armoured guy and smiled again.
"Sorry about my friend here." She apologised. "He's kind of eager to compensate for... something right now. I'll leave that something up to your imagination, shall I?"
"HEY!!" -
Quote:"You were all gunning to take out that thing, weren't you?" The Outsider pointed out. Literally, as it happens, since her index finger was somewhat forcibly directed toward the remains of the crab. Then, upon glancing at it herself once more, her face warped into a fearful cringe. "I dread to think of the damage it -could- have caused when it popped, you know?"Originally Posted by Rebel_Scum
"You seem to be under the impression that we're all actually a team", Ildela pointed out. "I don't even know any of these people."
"I think the smart thing to do right now would be to wait for the authorities to turn up." The Oustider sighed, brushing her hair out of her face. "Because, -something- needs to be cleared up with -someone-, by the looks of it. THEN we can all find ourselves a pub afterward. There's got to be one around here."Quote:Originally Posted by _Fea_
She looked around at the rest of the group, "So, anyone know what to do next? I don't know about you, but I like to have a general idea of where I'm sleeping tonight..."
As she glanced around and noted the individuals around her, Derek cautiously stepped out of the alleyway, his attention devoted more to the crab remains more than where he was going until he was within speaking distance of his partner.
"Yeah, uh..." Derek uttered on his approach. "I couldn't find a way into any of these... towers or whatever they, err, are? But, guessing from that look of frustration on you, I guess whatever you were planning's out the window, huh?"
"Quite." the young woman grunted. Someone was bound to be feeling the daggers she was staring at the wanderer.