savetheearth | town meeting, alien breaking hoa rules

Rachel had been hanging back for most of the scuffle with the snakes, trying to aid in support and getting people away. This, though? This was unexpected.

And she knew she could do something.

"Azarath, Metrion, ZINTHOS!" Her eyes turn white, as her power focuses Rachel takes the opportunity to fly upwards just a bit, hoping to put some distance between herself and the beast. She casts her arm downward in a slicing arc, launching a wave of small projectile-like shadows towards the snake.

That ought to get its attention, surely?

Edited 2014-01-27 07:18 (UTC)

While the rest of the snakes have been engaged, Harper's done everything she can to stay out of chaos's path and make herself as small as possible. Which meant wedging herself beneath one of the tables still left standing in the basement, completely terrified. Giant snakes, people with powers... it was true, all of it. She had just long enough to shoot a text to Luci — Went to this stupid meeting, SNAKES, WHY ARE THERE SNAKES — before another explosion has her ducking down and clamping her hands over her ears.

With the sixth snake's entrance, and the ensuing blast to fend it off, the table she's taken refuge under blows back and splinters itself against a wall. Harper pries her eyes open in the plume of debris, catching sight of a woman levitating first, and the snake last. Realizing she's now completely defenseless and about ten feet away from the line of fire...

...she lets out an ear-piercing scream.

When Russel got Lily's text, he rushed into action immediately. Cure Love costume on (that was very important!), Dad's truck borrowed, soundtrack ready to go, and he was there as soon as he was able. He almost stopped to join the fight outside, but when he heard the scream--well, his fellow Precures seemed to have it well enough in hand. There was obviously somewhere more useful for him to be.

Harper would find a masked, green-clad figure rushing over to put himself between her and the line of fire. His appearance was accompanied by sufficiently urgent background music (coming from the speakers hidden in his lapels, of course). Russel threw an arm out as though attempting to shield her or hold her back, but his gaze remained locked on the snake and the ones engaged with it. "Stay behind me!"

It would've been cool if it wasn't so ridiculous.

Waiting at the bus stop to head home after an outing with Ez, Luci got the text. At first, she figured that it was her mom, making sure that she was heading home and would be back on time, and the urge to simply ignore it was high. But something told her to check, and when she saw Harper's name come up, she was a bit surprised. It wasn't that the two didn't constantly message each other, but she had informed the other teen she was out--maybe she wanted to see how the date went?

Checking, she immediately went pale. No. No no no, this was bad, Harper was completely defenseless! Luci might have sworn under her breath, it was hard to say. No, this was the last thing she wanted to have happen. Where? Where was she? Dead District? No, she would be out of her mind to go there. Wait, hadn't Luci heard about some kind of meeting going on? Quickly archive-diving on her phone, she found the location, which was thankfully not too far. She immediately messaged back — Are you by yourself? Hide if you can or try to find someone who can fight. We're on our way! — before breaking into a run. She didn't look whether or not the other blond would be following her; she just assumed, even expected him to get there first.

Rachel's magic definitely catches the snake's attention. It swings around and stands on its two tiny feet, intending to knock her out of the air with its upper body. Its tail inadvertently knocks a metal folding chair, which just so happens to sail Russel and Harper's way.

Edited 2014-01-27 09:06 (UTC)

Harper can't decide where to direct her attention first, with her phone going off, the snake rearing back, and an... arm? For a moment, she follows said arm suddenly thrown in her line of sight along the silhouette of its owner. Her expression twists.

"Wh-what are you supposed to be?!" What it sounds like she means, despite herself, is 'Are you qualified for this?!', if only in tone. "Is that background mus — watch out!!"

Her warning comes as the snake's tail cracks against the chair, forcing her to shrink back again.

"The He--" Oh wait that sure was a chair sailing his way. His poor introduction! He had such a good delivery for it and everything!

Knowing he was superhumanly durable didn't mean he was used to being superhumanly durable. He had some experience by now with shrugging off football tackles during games that should've taken him down, but things flying at you when you didn't expect it...that was another matter entirely.

He brought his arms up to shield his head and face, which may not have been very encouraging, but when the chair hit him it bounced off harmlessly and clattered to the floor. And it didn't hurt any worse than getting tackled, so, hey. Pleasant surprise!

Like, seriously, surprise. Because Russel wasn't used to this sort of thing yet, and it still left him momentarily stunned every time it came up. He shifted one arm away from his face just enough to peek out at the chair, confirming that yes, it had hit him, and yes, he barely even felt it, and wow this was a part of who he was now, wow just wow.

But he couldn't let himself dwell on it for long. There was too much going on that he needed to pay attention to.

He straightened, half-turning to look back at Harper. "...I'm the Hero of Love--Cure Love!" YES HE EVEN GOT TO FINISH HIS INTRODUCTION

"Shit--" She flies back down to the floor in an attempt to dodge, but it isn't quite enough on its own. When the snake is about to make impact, she turns dark, melting into a nearby shadow. Once it passes, she reforms. What the fuck? Ugh. She shakes her head. Dealing with a new power could wait. Looking towards Russel and Harper, she scowls.

"Get her out of here!" It's sharper than she intended, but under the circumstances? To hell with it. Back to the snake. Her arms spread outwards, a great shadowy mass forming and spreading out in front of her. Rachel flings it forward, aiming to wrap and immobilize the thing.

Oh forget the background music, would you? People need to concentrate here.

Along with the pain, now, words and emotions flow into her mind. She doesn't know what this is going to do but as the pain subsides she starts to sing this new, unknown song. The air comes alive with dread yet pleasant music of isolation and loneliness. Miranda's voice provides not only the melody but the backup as well, as if an invisible chorus and band were supporting her.

Meanwhile, a ball of writhing purple-black energy manifests over her head.

The snake doesn't have melty shadow powers, so it keeps falling with the weight of its own momentum, right into the wall with a dull crash. Before it can even try to regain its lost footing, Rachel's magic wraps around most of its body.

But not its feet! Tiny little feet struggle to right the rest of its body -- and in that struggle, whatever furniture, whoever is nearby, is in danger of being thwacked by its tail.

Behind the group, another voice can be heard.

"Haaaaaaaa!"

A crescent shaped blast of energy emerges, flying through everyone without harming them and slicing toward the snake. Upon hitting it, it will pass through the snake as well, but not before doing some damage to it and any hostile creatures that might be lurking behind it.

Flying alongside the crescent shot is a trail of prismatic light, directed right at the snake. Should it hit, it will be snared in place, for a time. Rushing in behind it is Luci, looking around for someone.

Looks like your ride is here, Harper.

Harper was almost certain that'd be it when the chair came careening at her "rescuer", who looked no more prepared for the hit than she did. So it's just as surprising when the chair bounces off the flats of his arms and goes clattering to the side. And that's where her minimal understanding of what was going on ends, between Cure Love, harsh orders barked at her from a woman who'd just melted, and a song echoing in her head, making fear grip her tighter than anything else ever had.

For a moment, instead of moving, she's focused on Miranda, on the impossibility of the sound she's emitting, but it's quickly dispelled by the two blasts of energy meant to help in slowing down the snake. It's then that she sees the source, or at least one of the sources.

"Luci!" Harper darts to her feet. While she's still not sure she should move out from behind this "Cure Love", she has never looked so happy to see her best friend.

Harper's voice rang through the chaos and cut into her deep. Instincts kicking in, the other blond rushed in front of her, giving her a reassuring smile and giving her hand a quick squeeze. "Sorry it took me so long. I'm so glad you're okay. We're going to get you out of here, okay?"

That warmth quickly fell away as she assessed the scene. She wasn't sure about the other girl, but Rachel at least had a fair bit of firepower, if she wasn't mistaken. "Rachel, Cure Love, can you clear us a path out? Ez, can you rush her out? I'll keep this thing off you two." Shifting between commanding to nurturing again, she looked back to Harper. "Ez is gonna get you out, I'll be right behind you. When he tells you to, grab his hand, close your eyes and just run. It's less disorienting that way."

Harper nods, teary-eyed, repeating those directions over and over in her head to give her something concrete and stable to focus on. Luci knew what she was doing, and she trusts in that. Without knowing what's going to happen next, she waits for those exact instructions...

Save one brief moment where her attention strays — was that something twinkling? Glancing over, Harper catches sight of something white and jewel-like, floating next to her. On impulse, she reaches to snatch it right out of the air.

And to her surprise, she feels it move. Little arms, and legs. Cupping the creature, she lowers her voice, even in the chaos, "You have to come with me, okay?"

Between Rachel's black magic and Luci's white snare, the movement of the snake statue is, indeed, restricted. Thin lines begin to crack where Ez's energy attack passed through it, as well as where Rachel's black shadows had initially hit it -- though perhaps some may be difficult to see if the black magic is still ensnaring it.

Just as he was about to acknowledge and implement the order from Rachel, suddenly chaos and two new heroes on the scene.

"H-hey!" he protested, as Harper ran out from behind him, but when he saw who she was running to, he understood. Finding safety in her friends wasn't something he could fault her for.

One thing Russel was very good at was rolling with hectic circumstances. It was an important skill for a football-player to have, and even more important for a hero. He immediately shifted gears with Luci's order, calling back, "I'm on it!"

Clearing a path, in this case, meant removing any obstacles between them and the stairs. People, broken furniture, snakes--well, he probably wasn't going to be removing any of the snakes that got in his way. Finding a way around them, though, that he could do.

He kicked a chunk of the broken table aside and turned back to motion for Ez and Harper to follow. He was going to do this escort style and take the front.

Ez grabs Harper by the hand.

"Sorry Princess, this is gonna be a bumpy ride!"

Harper and Ez blink out of existence and appear a ways behind, closer to safety.

"C'mon! Let' go!"

"Don't call me — ah?" Any other protesting she might have done on account of this being Luci's no-good weirdo boyfriend is quietly smashed away to a distant corner of her mind. She'd just been over there. Now she's here. Freezing, she keeps one clamped over the little jewel like a lifeline to all that was sane, and the other tightened around Ez's. Because that's the less insane option, right.

...

Wow, she is so done with this. "Fine, let's just get out of here!"

Miranda, admirably for someone so new to her power, has been continuing to sing all this time, but her capacity to wield such a powerful emotion is running thin, and she draws to a reasonable enough conclusion of the spellsong. As it stops, the black ball, now slightly larger than when it first appeared, flies straight at the snake before emitting a dark wave around it and imploding, giving off a final burst of quickly-fading waveform rings of the same dark-looking energy.

Mentally spent, she holds her position, panting, "...I don't think I can start that again so soon..."

She did warn you, didn't she Harper? Luci spoke from experience, and knew exactly what the other blond was going through. Harper at least took it a lot better than she had the first time.

With that loose end being taken care of, she directed her attention at the snake, and to making sure that their exit route was secured. Taking a hold of the prism necklace around her neck, she sent out two spells--one, spinning toward Harper and Ez, to act as a shield, surrounding them in a warm, shimmering light; and the other a prismatic orb of light between her and the snake statue. Beginning to expand and rotate around itself, Luci left it there, breaking into a run after them.

Russel continued to clear a path, shoving aside debris and forcing his way through the mayhem. He mainly kept his focus on the stairs ahead of him, but checked back over his shoulder periodically to ensure Ez and Harper were following.

So far so good, but--

DID LUCI JUST THROW A SHIELD AROUND THEM.

WHY DIDN'T HE GET A SHIELD.

LUCI THAT WAS NOT FAIR.

He ground to a halt, somewhere between impressed and indignant. Just because he was super durable and part of the rescue team didn't mean he couldn't use the protection too!

Of course that meant he'd stopped doing his job for the moment, and all three of them had the opportunity to catch up with him, shields or not.

Luci's magical snare wears off of the snake just in time for Miranda's magic to hit it. The impact is considerably loud, accompanied by the definitive sound of stone cracking. Shards of the snake statue crumble, soon accompanied by larger chunks falling away from its body.

Better be careful, folks. Any more dire hits and this statue may explode.

Rachel tries to maintain her hold on it, hoping to keep its structure together. She moves it away from the orb of light and further away from the escaping group. A shadow casts up around the orb, blocking out its glow and forming a shield to contain it.

Simply destroying this snake was not a good idea, not when they didn't know what effect that might have. She had always been a bit too cautious.

"Guys, we should really get out of here," Ez shouts, dragging Harper along at a run.

town meeting, alien breaking hoa rules

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