savetheearth | town meeting, alien breaking hoa rules

"Whatever is in its path" happens to be Sophie at the moment snake number two comes out of the floor. She turns, but doesn't sidestep - instead she twists one foot, bringing both of her hands straight up in front of her; as she does this, the floor breaks a little more in order to slam a wall of rock straight up in front of the snake. She totally plans to put it back to normal later, if she survives.

Really. Honest!

Hopefully someone's ready to drag her out of the way if that slows the snake instead of stops it, because she's not fast enough to dodge it herself.

Goddamn it, and he's here without a weapon. Okay, so his sword wouldn't be terribly useful against these things anyway, but the point stands. He's under-prepared, is the point.

And while Sophie's ability seems to be buying them a few seconds, it won't take long for that defense to crumble. Sophie might not be fast enough to dodge it, but he is. He doesn't have particular time to think of his actions; he just moves, knocking into her at a high speed to get her out of the snake's path.

The snake misses her as a result, but an impact slams into his leg before he's fully out of the way. He lands a little roughly, leg throbbing from the pain, but nothing feels broken. So obviously, he's okay.

It doesn't occur to him that he probably shouldn't be after a hit from one of these things.

It happens all too quickly, Sophie brings up a giant rock wall at the snake to do stop it, and Toushiou came and threw himself at Sophie.

For all intensive purposes, Henry was scared. But, not about to run either. He's already getting between the two and the snake as they recover with a sturdy metal bat he just created. Capturing this thing would be a benefit. If only to figure out how to stop the rest later.

Belief power would stay on the back burner.

Edited 2014-01-26 04:34 (UTC)

Luke's attention is immediately drawn to the snake, and when he sees an unarmed Toushirou take a hit he doesn't spend another second thinking before he's got his sword in hand. He's not the only one with this idea however, and Henry makes it to the scene a second before he does.

With a yell that will hopefully draw the creature's attention to him instead of the other shorter combatants, Luke charges full speed at the creature, launching into a jump strike once he's in range. The snake recoils slightly, but there's no sign of damage whatsoever on it. Luke adjusts his grip, but holds his ground, standing protectively in front of the other kids.

He feels an echo go through him, and his stance changes. His footing becomes more solid, and there's a readiness in his limbs that wasn't there before.

The rate at which this meeting had descended into chaos was unsettling to say the least (though, Gerald would really just like to say "what the fuck" to all of this). He'd seen snake statues before, on a mission that could've cost him his job, and he'd got a really handy visor out of the deal.

A visor that he hadn't brought with him because seriously who the hell would've thought that what was supposed to be a planning gathering would turn into a night of mayhem? And how the hell were they going to make sure that the police didn't find out about this.

(And just when he thought that he was getting over it just a little, he's once again asking himself: What is my life?)

But, all those worries are put on the back-burner when he sees a group of kids (and one teenager_ "fighting" (quotation marks needed) that second snake. Seriously... that visor really would've come in handy. But, thankfully he still has his handgun on him. Still... first thing's first.

"Back away slowly kids, and get out of here!"

He draws his gun, taking aim at the snake.

If he could hit it at just the right angle, maybe he'd be able to create a distraction.

"Thanks," Sophie manages, even as she's trying to keep up with what's going. Calm down, focus...ignore the other snakes, because the one right here is sort of your main concern, girl. She gets up from where she'd been knocked out of the way, and she knows enough about what was going on to know she just narrowly avoided being knocked out. Or worse. Luckily for her Toushirou's flashstep appears to be in full working order.

Let's see - feels like Henry, some kid she doesn't know, and - "Rumbles?" There's a note of disbelief because hey, how are they going to get out of there anyway, before Sophie slams one foot down on the ground.

Ten feet away, a spike shoots up out of the ground at the snake. "Yo, I hope you're not planning on taking the snake on alone with a gun, man. I've never heard of anyone taking down one of these things alone." She'd try to impair their visibility or something, but do the snakes even see normally...? And everyone else needs to see, so that's a pointless train of thought.

Toushirou could get away. But he's not doing that by himself and he can't pull everyone along with him at once. There's no immediate recognition of the teenager in front of them, so he proceeds to be annoyed at the adult who seems to think they either can't or shouldn't be doing anything because they're kids.

Straight-up offense isn't something that's in the cards for him at the moment, but damned if that means he's leaving. He'll find a way to contribute.

"Not gonna be able to take it out on your own with just that gun. Don't stand there and assume we can't do anything."

He can be bratty and think of strategies at the same time, okay?

The wall had done its job in stopping the snake short of Sophie in time to ensure her extrication from the especially-immediate danger zone was as neat as it could be through pseudo-teleportation.

It hadn't stopped the snake dead, exactly, but it did wind up breaking down and chomping on a mouthful of rock which it spat with one swing of its head aside and the buzzing sharpening to a near-hiss. Another clamp and another swing and another and another to bring the obstacle down into chunks and gravel later it made the most of its re-opened reach to take a swing toward Luke, all right.

The spike catches it on the underside of its neck and it reels back with another sharpening of the buzz that flattens back out as it changes direction with a wide sweep of its head toward a new target.

Why were the adults so insistent on kids not getting involved? If they could do something to help they should be allowed to stay and fight. Sophie and Toushirou already said their pieces about staying so Henry's not going to add to it. He didn't feel like he needed to.

So when Gerald comes in at the scene telling the kids to go, Henry isn't moving. Instead he stares directly at the snake, unmoving. He wasn't frozen in fear, but locked in concentration. He needed to believe this snake into something else. To believe it was just a harmless snake toy.

But, this time around it was harder to do that. Probably because the thing was somewhat alive and attacking them. He had to force that out of his head though. Make himself believe the thing was just a toy and not a killer statue.

Believe, believe, believe.

Luke ducks when the snake lunges at him again, crouching to the side then springing up to hack at the beast's neck again. He can feel the force from his strikes reverberate in his arms, and he can tell his sword is only hardly better than a golf club in this situation. He knows it won't break, but all he's doing is stalling for time and keeping the thing from advancing, he wasn't doing any damage. Toushriou's still standing and apparently still okay enough to be defensive and grouchy, and Sophie seems more than capable of keeping herself safe...

But out of the corner of his eye he can see Henry, rigid and frozen and a giant sitting duck for the angry marble serpent. Luke's not one to underestimate someone because they're small, but he is one prone to protective urges if someone looks like they need it. He keeps his attention on the monster before him, but shouts over the sounds of hissing and cracking rock.

"Henry, get back! Your bat won't do anything! Stay behind everyone else!"

Rumbles. Immediately, it clicks in Gerald's head that it's the girl from the network. The one who wanted to know if turians could fly or jump (and you know right at this moment he sorta wished that they could). And then there was that other kid refusing to listen to him (...which would probably be the second time in a week he'd had bad luck with children). He knew that it was probably a stupid (okay, it was definitely stupid) idea, but...

"It's less of 'taking it on alone' and more of trying to create a—" But when those spikes go up, the word distraction dies on his tongue.

RIP "distraction", we knew ye well.

But, he didn't quite have time to process what exactly it was that Sophie did, or what their strategy should actually be (because he could really use some more of those spikes to go after that snake, even if she was still a kid). Because, on the bright side, the snake had changed targets. On the negative side... one of the kids was just standing there, doing nothing. If he had more time to think, he might've come up with a better strategy. Unfortunately, he didn't, and he needed to act quick.

Looks like the "distraction" just might've been resurrected.

Go for the eyes, Vakarian. He shoots straight at the statue's head. After all, why else did he become a federal agent if not to protect those who couldn't protect themselves?

...Even if some of them might've just proved themselves more capable of fighting it than him.

"Distraction? Sure thing." Sophie will just assume he was asking for help in making one, although for her "distraction" equals "make the thing hurt as best you can". She's not sure what the hell Henry's up to, but teenager-she-doesn't-know seems to be trying to snap him out of standing there doing nothing, so.

The spike thing seemed to work - the snake went reeling back, and the buzzing got sharp, so clearly that was an "ow, what the hell" in evil snake statue speak - so let's just do that again. Trusting that Toushirou will be an escape route again if she has to move fast - or hey, she'll try to dodge, but mostly she's keeping back and fighting at a range for the moment - Sophie slams her foot down again, bringing up one palm as she does so.

One spike hurt? LET'S TRY FIVE, SNAKE-GUY.

While there's the run away whisper in the back of her mind, Sophie's doing an admirable job of trying to ignore the hell out of it. It probably has something to do with being contrary; the more her mind says run the less likely she is to do so. It's probably one of her more annoying traits, really.

"Hey, Frozone!" Oh look, there's another annoying trait. "Got a plan?" Another reason she's more or less keeping her head is that there are several people she trusts running around. Toushirou's smart and fast and ice magic-y; Sophie can hit things with rocks. Surely with that basis and adding in random sword guy, Henry, and Rumbles, there'll be some sort of plan that can win out. Right?

She's apparently willing to take direction if anyone comes up with a plan more elegant than step 1. hit the snake and step 2. continue doing that, at least.

He's distracted for just a second when the teenager shouts out Henry's name. And then he notices the ears. And swinging a sword with some measure of skill.

... Luke?

Whatever. No time. Worry about it after.

He yanks on the back of Henry's shirt, mostly just to get his attention, since he doesn't expect to be able to actually pull him back without more momentum. "Back!"

His brain is still working, trying to process what they can do. Or what he can do, anyway. Maybe mess up its mobility. Ice is good for that. He's used it that way before. By now, he's well-accustomed to the snake's intrusion on his mind and he can fight it. That the message gets partially drowned out by the more constant presence in his head is helpful, too. Something about that rumbling voice is incredibly grounding.

When the snake's head whips around again, he shoots one palm out, sending the air crackling into ice, forming around the snake's neck and straight down to the ground. With any luck, that'll halt any attacks for a minute.

"Can't go and outright destroy it. It'll explode."

Luke's sword rebounds off the snake's neck with a scraping shhhang!

He did well to extricate himself from harm's way, however.

By the time it regains balance and stability, one of Gerald's bullets balances ricocheting off - just under and beside one of its eyes, which does, indeed, distract it. It turns its head to the man and sweeps toward him, and anyone else who might be standing near or on the way to him - it's caught by two of Sophie's spikes, interrupting its course to be cut off fully by ice crystallizing in the air snapping around its neck and anchoring it.

It breaks free with a good hard heave of its head with a shattering. Sophie and Toshiro have, between the two of them, bought the group about five seconds.

Why wasn't it working? Why couldn't this thing just do what he wanted it to do and just turn into a toy like he was believing it to?

He would've stood there for another couple of seconds just to try and believe it away still, but getting grabbed by Toushirou made him realize that the snake wasn't just going to wait.

Henry moves back, take a few good running steps backward by the guy with the gun. They couldn't make this thing explode, Toushirou made that pretty clear. "Still working on just believing it away!" frustration pretty clear in his tone.

And yup. He's just going to hide behind Gerald still concentrating on that stupid statue and use his power to Believe into a tiny snake toy.

Luke sees Henry's no longer an unsheilded target on the front lines and takes his opportunity while the snake is distracted to back up significantly. He wasn't doing any damage, and Toushirou and Sophie seemed much more effective at keeping the snake occupied than him. And with all the rocks and ice and bullets involved, he figures it'll probably be better all around if he just gets out of the way and lets them work.

But now that he's not right up in front, he's fairly useless. He doesn't have any ranged attacks, so standing on the sidelines here means he can't do much of anything. He looks over to Toushirou, making sure one more time that he's up and unharmed.

"All I can do is hit it! I'm going to help people get out!"

Luke waits for some kind confirmation that they don't need him anymore. A word or even just a nod, before he turns and heads towards other areas of the basement, looking for somewhere he's needed.

Under normal circumstances, Gerald might've been somewhat impressed with himself for hitting such a small target (and without a scope no less), but these weren't exactly normal by any stretch. Not to mention, now the snake had decided that he made a good target. Just as planned.

Too bad that he hadn't quite thought of what the plan would be after that.

Thankfully, Henry was out of harm's way for the time being, and it looked like that other guy had gotten out of the way. But, they didn't have a lot of time. And, to be perfectly honest, Gerald had never exactly seen himself as a leader. But someone needed to step up here, and as the adult in the situation (and the one who the snake was currently eyeing like a tasty treat), he was going to figure out the best way to contain it.

"We're going to subdue this bastard." Okay, maybe he shouldn't have sworn in front of the kids (with magical powers), but...

"Frozone!" That had been what Sophie had called him, right? "you think you can coat the snake a bit more? Sophie! You think you can surround it with like a spike cage or something?" Christ, he was giving orders to kids to fight, but desperate times called for desperate measures, right. His gun is still drawn, but he's pretty sure that's not going to help him.

Seriously, if this doesn't work, he's so screwed.

"I can break a hole to outside if you think we could get it out there to blow up," Sophie offered to Toushirou, in response to the exploding comment. That was a thing she could definitely try to do. Wasn't like the basement was doing so hot anyway, from a quick glance around at the other battles. Though if it did explode at them, she thought she could throw up some sort of shield, or at least keep the ceiling off their heads.

Or maybe that was she hoped she could. Random Sword Guy had darted away, so he was getting out of her immediate range of concern, and hopefully wouldn't get himself squashed or something.

Believing it away...? Oh, right, hadn't he said something on the network about that...? Well, whatever, as long as he didn't get hit by the snake she was cool with it. Gerald's words were a lot more immediately relevant; assuming Toushirou would go along with this plan long enough for her to do what was asked - if it was frozen a tad, it might stick around long enough for it, Sophie tried to do what was requested. She jerked her palm down at an angle, hard, and then the other up, and...

Sophie sent spikes out of the floor, trying to surround the snake as asked.

"Nobody's exploding anything!"

Is he the only one that understands that? It's not just about it being in the basement. It's that the explosion could be bigger than any of them can handle, or might cause a chain of explosions when the other snakes die. Which would probably wipe out anybody who doesn't have some kind of immortality going for them.

He glares up in Gerald's direction for a second. Did the guy seriously just call him that? Ugh. But whatever. No time to worry about that kind of stupidity. His idea is as good as any that's been thrown out, and they need to act fast.

It's a more concentrated effort this time, and he tries to make the ice as cold and rigid as he can. And it crackles further down the snake's body than his previous effort. If only he can get this thing properly fused to the ground.

Both the spikes and the encasing of ice keeps the snake blocked and weighted to the ground - from halfway along its body down at the moment. It makes use of what of its neck is free to swing into a good enough position in which to reach around or between the stone not-bars around it and take another swing - at Gerald and the lad behind him.

Mouth open - limiting its reach some.

Still not working. Still not working. At this point Henry's given up on the whole believing thing on the snake and is taking full cover behind the man. The man had the gun and Henry had a bat. So, if ANYTHING Henry's just holding his bat up and ready to swing away if that Snake just got past Gerald...or worse.

Well, on the bright side that sorta managed to put the snake's plans to a bit of a halt. On the minus side, the snake takes another swing at him, and Gerald barely moves out of the way, with the snake ripping a hole in the sleeve of his shirt.

(If the situation had been less urgent, he might've lamented that he'd liked that shirt)

The worst part of it was that now the snake had a clear view at Henry. He debated on firing another shot with his gun, but they were almost past that point now.

No, he needed the guys that could actually slow it down. The ones that had already proven themselves.

"Hey, Sophie! I need some back-up over here, stat! And Frozone, get the other kid out of the way while the snake's slowed down."

Damn it. He was supposed to be protecting the kids, but here he was, leading them straight into the fight.

Did someone say backup? ...And haha, he totally just called Toushirou Frozone. Sophie gets the feeling that's going to come back in the form of will you knock it off already when they're no longer in immediate danger. But since they're in immediate danger, she doesn't spare more than a second on that fleeting thought, before starting to move.

Feeling pretty sure he wanted help re: Henry, Sophie brought her hands up, trying to build roadblock walls in front of the other kid as a stop-gap measure. Toushirou had pointed out blowing the damn thing up was a bad idea, so...

"Hey! If I open up a hole to the outside, think we can get it out there?"

Where, you know. Blowing it up would be more of an option. If they...also got it away from this place.

town meeting, alien breaking hoa rules

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/slides in?

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he can be interuptted

btw nvm about Luke's echo he doesn't get one from this whoops

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god i apologize for the lateness

not as much as I do

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