SIEGE TO THE PALACE

[andaway]

Characters: Everyone involved in the player missions
Date: 18th May
Location: The Palace
Situation: It's been too long since Malicant took over the palace, and it's time the foreigners did whatever they could to take it back. They might find out more than they had expected to find in the process.
Warnings/Rating: Fighting and shit? Please poke me if this needs to be changed.


Maybe you heard Superman suggesting they met up on the radio, trying to get as many people possible together for an attack that might prove unsuccessful, but would at least distract Malicant enough to get some information. Maybe you agreed to meet up and were talked into an open attack. Maybe you were talked into it by someone, dragged into a fight you wouldn't normally be part of otherwise Maybe your friends and you decided to take matters into your own hands, get together to try to attack the palace yourself and get something out of it.

Whichever the reason, there is no going back now. There's a yell, and suddenly... the attack begins.

[OOC: An open thread for the initial attack and threads for each mission will be added to this log. The idea is for a big battle to start with, and the teams to be divided naturally. Like I said, everyone gets a chance to fight! I added a questions thread just in case, if you aren't sure about something one of us will do our best to answer.]

Comments

[deusrexmachina]

Down the way from a number of kedan guards standing before a door, Rex cautiously peered around the corner, eyes narrowed behind his goggle lenses. When the attack had initially started outside the barrier, it had been the hope that an opportunity like this would come up and that either individuals or small groups would manage to break though. That Bakura was one of the two others who'd made it that far alongside Rex was a bit worrisome, however. Uncertain as to whether or not they could trust him, Rex had already been eyeing him on and off. Still, that concern ended up taking a back seat given the current circumstances.

"Bunch of kedan guards, all in front of a door," he whispered as he shifted his stance and leaned back against the wall, gaze turning back to Bakura and Raine. "I bet we can take them."

[denyamenti]

Bakura was definitely not one for working in tandem with a team of people, but he also knew the benefit of joining forces when interests were aligned. Right now, exploring the palace was taking precedence. He didn't miss the suspicious glances that were being tossed in his direction but neither did he care about them either.

"That won't be a problem," he replied. "How much of them do you want left over? I have fiends to feed."

[ruinsprofessor]

"We likely can." Trust might be a strong word, but for the moment Raine was reasonably sure both of her companions had enough intelligence and self-interest to work together. "Can you handle all of them at once?" she asked softly, directing the question to Bakura. "If not, then a sudden, unified strike?"

It might not be fully strategically sound, to hold back an offer of the best spells she had available, but she'd like to see what Bakura had planned, and what he could do. Holy Lance was always an option if the situation got tight, after all, and her own abilities could be fully disclosed later if necessary.

[deusrexmachina]

"Whoa, hold up a second." Rex held up one hand to emphasize the words, one eyebrow arched, clearly unhappy as he turned to Bakura. "Two words in there I'm not sure I'm okay with. 'Fiends' and 'feed.' I know these guys aren't on our side right now, but seriously? The phrase 'unnecessarily barbaric' is coming to mind right now, not gonna lie."

Because really, when Rex had mentioned taking the guards out, he'd figured they could just all be knocked unconscious. At absolute worst, Rex could see needing to kill some of them, but as someone who had been swallowed alive before, the whole feeding to monsters thing was beyond gross.

[denyamenti]

"Easily," Bakura replied confidently to Raine's question. Ever since his bargain with Costigan, he hadn't had the opportunity to exercise any larger summons; like other skills, it was something that should be practiced regularly to maintain its strongest form. He was eager to pull out something impressive. "And if someone objects so much to fiends, I'll use something else instead."

That was, of course, completely and purposely missing the whole point about the potential of the guards getting eaten.

"And as for 'unnecessarily'," he added, turning to Rex and fixing him with an unimpressed look. "No one cares whether you are okay with it or not. What is important here to not be unnecessarily useless while we have an opportunity, having gotten in here. If you're weak of stomach, go back the way we came."

Then, apparently not caring to wait for a collective agreement, he stepped out from the corner so he was in full view of the guards and waited for them to begin to advance on him. Then, drawing on the Ring's power he called out, "Arise, Luster Dragon!"

An enormous creature appeared out of nowhere, its hide shining a deep and metallic blue. It lowered its head at the possessed kedan guards and snapped at them with large jaws, its heavy domed head catching the nearest one and knocking it hard into the wall.

[ruinsprofessor]

She might have been overestimating their ability to work together.

If Bakura had things under control, however, Raine wasn't going to actively get in the way. Perhaps the death of the possessed might not be the optimal outcome, but with a fight already brewing and no surety that those so taken by the enemy could be recovered, practicality had to trump idealism. If it came down to that.

Contributing seemed prudent, at least. Raine picked one of the outlying guards and began to cast, her usual circle appearing for no more than a few seconds. A golden coalescence of light burst against the guard, knocking them back and down. "Photon. I believe the objection was to unnecessary cruelty, rather than the use of force." She slanted a quick, questioning look at Rex, to confirm this, and added, a little quieter, "A fight just became unavoidable. Mitigation of damage may still be possible."

[deusrexmachina]

That woman from the hospital definitely had not been exaggerating when she'd put out that warning. Feeling more than ever that he would have to keep as much of an eye on Bakura as their surroundings for traps and potential enemies, Rex gritted his teeth as the attack began.

While the sudden appearance of the dragon was enough to make Rex hesitate a second, he knew he was going to have to get past his irritation with all this magic and summoning business long enough for them to break through...hopefully without every guard in their way ending up as food for Bakura's menagerie.

"Seeing as how use of force is something I'm good with, yeah, you got that right," Rex responded in clear annoyance, though his frustration was not directed at Raine.

Extending both his arms, Rex built out as he charged into the open, leaving Raine to her casting. Both arms converted into the Smack Hands, Rex launching his right, giant metal fist into a guard several feet directly ahead of him, sending them flying backwards. It was a quick one-two punch assault, his left slinging forward like a battering ram as soon as the right withdrew, crashing into another guard and sending them back against a wall.

[denyamenti]

Between the three of them, the guards were rather quickly dispatched and they even remained uneaten, Bakura releasing the summon hold of the dragon before it could actually begin a meal. The thief silently readied a Trap just in case, before peering down the crudely hewn tunnel that sloped downward.

"Someone was determined to get down there..."

[ruinsprofessor]

Raine waited a moment to make sure no more of the guards were stirring, then picked her way toward that which they'd been guarding. She stopped at the entrance, took a moment to run her hand along the stone and frown a little. "Indeed. This seems like fast work, not careful. We should find out what they were after-- any idea where this might lead?"

She looked fully prepared to go investigate herself, regardless of the answer.

[deusrexmachina]

Once the guards were down and out, Rex shed his builds and moved to investigate the tunnel entrance with the other two. He eyed the side walls, then the ceiling before turning his gaze toward the depths down and ahead of them.

"No clue on my end," he was forced to admit with a small shrug. "The last time I was in the palace was when I first arrived. I'm all for doing a little spelunking, though."

[denyamenti]

"I never bothered to come here," Bakura commented. "I thought I'd had my fill of Palaces in the past but apparently, there's at least one more to cause trouble. We should be careful of more guards at the other end of this tunnel," he added before stepping into the hewn corridor. For all the attitude he gives, he apparently has no issue putting himself in the potentially dangerous position of being first in line.

[ruinsprofessor]

Raine had absolutely no objection to falling in toward the rear of their small group. She cast glances behind them every so often, just in case, but as reinforcements failed to appear, she turned her attention more to the tunnel itself, and where it was going. "We definitely seem to be heading farther down, at least-- I'm no expert on palatial structures, but I can only really think of one thing commonly set below the main level which would be important enough to break into so enthusiastically. Prisons, perhaps?"

[deusrexmachina]

Seeing that Bakura is willing to go first... Well, that did say something for having guts, especially since they had little idea of what they were walking into and in an area with not a lot of room to maneuver, no less. Rex did have to hand the guy that much.

Ending up between Bakura and Raine as they began their sloped descent, Rex reached out as they walked and let his gloved fingertips drag along the nearby wall briefly, picking up on the bumpy texture of the rough cuts.

"A prison or maybe a vault. Whatever it is, I hope there's something we can take or get information on that'll help our side out. Or, at the very least, ruin The Big M's day. It'd be some payback after dealing with all those bombs."

He just hoped all this wouldn't be for nothing, as he wasn't sure if they'd get another chance like this again.

[denyamenti]

"The entrance to the prison was through the Throne Room," Bakura said, the surety of the statement seemingly at odds with his previous one that he'd never been in the Palace before. There was an ache building in the back of his head, like a rising pressure trapped inside the skull and his ghosts were noisily agitated; Rex and Raine may not have been able to hear them, but it was clear and distinct for the thief whose soul they were attached to.

The tunnel widens, the slope decreasing and coming up level and the trio emerges into a long, elliptical room with heavy barred doors set at regular intervals, many of which were hanging open. Yet there were no guards down here and no, from cursory glance and near-deafening silence, prisoners either.

"Prison it is," the thief said dryly. "How anticlimactic."

[ruinsprofessor]

"But you've never bothered to come here." Raine's tone was neutral, no accusation, just a request for clarification. "It looks like they sought the prisoners, then."

In the absence of guards or any other obvious danger, she went to look over the cells, looking for some sign of confirmation that there were people there. The prison might not even have been in use, for all she knew. "The only reason they'd need to tunnel in is if the primary entrance was impassable. Perhaps the palace isn't completely compromised?"

She was in and out of three of the opened cells before she paused, focused on the graffiti on one of the walls. It did not prove to be something she could make sense of by staring longer. "Can either of you read this?"

[deusrexmachina]

As they entered the prison, Rex broke away from the other two momentarily, using the infrared setting on his goggles to make sure they were truly alone. As he shut it off and turned back at the sound of Raine's voice, however, he thought he saw something out of the corner of one eye. Glancing back revealed nothing of interest, so he shook it off as a trick of what little light was present and went to join Raine.

Entering the cell, Rex built up the Block Party and refrained from activating its shield. Instead, he held up one of the gauntlets, able to concentrate the glow emanating from the disc on the back so that it better illuminated the wall.

His eyes narrowed as he examined the dark marks, which looked like they'd been put there with a less than steady hand. "I can't, but I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that's not written in ink or paint."

[denyamenti]

"Not once," Bakura answered, with a flash of cheekiness; despite everything and their surroundings, he was actually in good humour. He shook his head at Raine's question of whether he could read the kedanese graffiti, he could identify certain gang symbols simply from having spent many a night in their territory but none of those were present down here.

"It's blood," he confirmed needlessly, putting voice to what Rex and Raine probably already knew. "The smell gives it away. It's damp down here, that's why it hasn't fully dried."

He moved towards one of the other cells to examine it and the cacophonous chatter of his ghosts grew more insistent. They didn't speak in words so much, even to him, so he scanned the prison ward for what might be upsetting them. Like Rex, he thought he saw something from the corner of his eyes. Unlike Rex however, Bakura had dealt with ghosts and spirits and apparitions for nearly all of his exceedingly long existence and realized, even without being able to pinpoint anything visually, what was going on.

"Just as a point of interest, we're not the only ones down here."

[ruinsprofessor]

She'd really been hoping to be wrong in this instance. Blood didn't speak well to what had been being done down here.

Bakura's statement that they weren't alone set her on edge, but no sense of gathering mana and no immediate sound of footsteps or shifting metal stopped her from immediately starting to cast. "...All right, what do you see here that we don't?" Raine asked instead, wary, and moved out of the cell she was in. If he knew things about the area despite never having visited, and there was no real reason for him to lie about that, and if he was also suggesting company that was currently imperceptible, it seemed likely he had more senses available than the average human.

She halted in what passed for a central area, her staff half-raised, and glanced around again, just in case.

[deusrexmachina]

Hearing Bakura's warning, Rex followed Raine out, though he stayed closer to the cell they'd just exited. That none of them could read the graffiti was a problem, especially since it was written in blood, a detail that made knowing the meaning that much more important. He had a possible solution to that issue, but before that could be further dealt with, it might be wise to figure out just what Bakura meant.

Standing by the door, Rex tilted his head, listening carefully. He couldn't pick up anything aside from the sounds his companions made as they moved about, however. His infrared hadn't picked up on anything earlier, either, so what was the deal?

"I thought I saw something out of the corner of one eye a minute or two ago, but it was probably just a trick of the light," Rex said with a shrug as he glanced in Bakura's general direction. "Sure that wasn't the case with you?"

[denyamenti]

"Very sure," Bakura said dryly. He hesitated only a brief moment, head turning slightly to one side as though to either listen or check something and then he summoned another card: "Activate Spell... Dark-Piercing Light."

A brilliant flash illuminated the dark prison, and in the afterimage that scalded their sights there were outlines of people crowded in the cells, chained to the walls, pressed against the doorways as though the bars still blocked their path. Many moved as though they were struggling against figures that could not be seen or distinguished. However this particular Spell revealed all 'face down' or otherwise hidden things, so Rex and Raine would also be able to see the dozens and dozens of skull-like apparitions that clustered around Bakura, though some had broken off to drift through the enclosed prison space.

The light and its afterimages faded, leaving the prison dark and seemingly empty again except for the three of them.

[ruinsprofessor]

Raine's breath caught at the sudden illumination of the ghosts in the prison, and her gaze flickered rapidly around the prison, taking in everything thus revealed.

The ghosts around Bakura seemed different from the rest. She took a mental note of the anomaly, but didn't press the idea. Time enough for that when they were not in hostile territory. Instead, when the ghosts faded, Raine moved to one of the far corners and bent over, briefly calling light to her fingertips. When she straightened she had a dagger in her hands, and was turning it end over end, studying it. "Do either of you recognize this? It's more than a simple weapon; the mana around it is a little different."

In the flash, if Bakura and Rex glanced over at her instead of the multitude of other spectres, they might have caught a glow at the base of her neck, anchoring the faintest ghost of another person's silhouette. It was much dimmer than the rest, almost nonexistent.