tushanshu_logs | SIEGE TO THE PALACE

Entry tags:

SIEGE TO THE PALACE

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.]

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There was a nervous excitement that buzzed through him before they even made it inside. It was the unknown and the fact they had helped to bring this together that caused it. Everyone had been split into teams, each with a place to go, taking matters into their own hands.

At Hayley's tug he quickly wrapped up what he had to say keep out of sight. They could afford to get seen in the Palace, not when they didn't know the full extent of...well everything. They were going into this partially blind. He followed after Hayley, still a little behind her where he felt okay to look at her back where her heart would be. Not looking through her, but he didn't need to do that to know where it was given it was basic biology. That and the sound of it was enough.

Kon touched the wall as they went down the hallway, using his TTK as an early warning system. If anyone approached within 20 feet in the hallway, he'd know about it. He had no weapons except for what CADMUS had given him when he was created. He had no need for anything like that, but he had kept a hold of the specs that had found their way here. They remained back in his suite and his brow furrowed as the months caught up with him here. Kon quickened his pace and with a free and reached out to touch Hayley's shoulder, leaning in so he could talk in a hushed voice.

"So this isn't exactly the best time, but you said your birthday was comin' up. When is it?"

There was some part buried in the back of Hayley's mind that was nervous having Kon behind her, knowing his powers, knowing how those powers had been used against her by Hannibal, Kal, and Jor-El on different occasions. The fact that it was Kon was what allowed her to bury that thought, but it was still enough for her to tense and freeze when his hand touched her shoulder.

"We're-" She began with a sudden anxiousness when he leaned it. But then he was saying something and- And Hayley realized what he'd just said. The tension flowed out of her and she rounded on him in the close quarters, whispering. "You can't seriously be asking about that right now. We're almost there."

The girl then turned again to continue on their path, though she intentionally moved at a pace that allowed Kon to keep with her, hand on her shoulder and everything, so they could continue talking.

Kon had to stop himself from taking that step forward and walking right into Hayley as she turned. His eyes had widened because he had honestly, naively thought she would have answered and kept walking. Despite the fact he knew the situation was a stupid one to ask the question during. So when she called him out, he tried not to back peddle and dig himself out of it. He'd just look even more stupid if he did. So he tried to keep a cool demeanour and simply offered a slight grin.

When she turned, Kon moved and kept close, shrugging a shoulder as if he wasn't fazed by this whole thing at all. As if right now was the perfect time to ask, because he certainly wasn't giving it up.

"I mean, giving a general month is a bit of a stretch, right? I mean how are people suppose to know if you don't give a date? So c'mon, when is it?"

He had kept close so that he could keep his voice low as well. Nothing was coming up on the radar, but that didn't mean a thing when it was only a certain distance that he was checking. But then he was frowning again, because while they had picked this destination, Kon had never been this far. He wondered if this had been just as grand before the corruption as the antechamber and the...pool room.

"How do you know"

Kon always continued to surprise Hayley. Where Bart was considerably more straight forward and apologetic after the fact, Kon seemed more likely to be caught off guard and more likely to play it cool. Hayley and Kon were similar in that respect as well. She shook her head lightly to dismiss the idea and then rolled her eyes. He was like a dog with a bone.

"Today," she answered finally, glancing back at him before continuing forward. Hayley halted suddenly as she came to a corner, putting a hand on Kon's chest to stop him and removing it as quickly. Kon had told her about how he could sense if people were coming and so she turned to look at him again.

"I don't. But the doors up there," she pointed to the end of the hall and a set of elaborate double-doors, "totally say luxury. Do you want to check this hall?"

She gestured toward the intersecting hall they stopped short of, careful not to be seen.

Edited (icon) 2014-05-22 18:12 (UTC)

Today. Kon had expected another day to be mentioned. Not today. Today was an awful day to have a birthday, especially given that they were sneaking around in the Palace that the enemy currently occupied. He'd wanted to give her something but under much better circumstances than this but he filed the thought away to concentrate on what they were doing right now.

He looked at the doors and noticed them, agreeing with Hayley that they definitely said luxury. He wondered what the room was going to look like inside. Would things have been left the same? Would the enemy have gotten in there somehow? There was more pressing matters at this moment however and Kon brought his hand away from the wall and crouched down, placing his hands on the floor spread out. He pushed out further with his TTK, not so much behind them but ahead in each direction. He looked up at Hayley and nodded to the other hallway.

"Someone down there. Heading away from us but probably on patrol so the might turn around. About...60 feet away?"

She was grateful that he let the subject of her birthday go. Hayley knew age was important, but she wondered how much it mattered when their bodies aged differently here and there wasn't exactly a lot to celebrate in the last year on the turtle.

She watched as Kon seemingly tapped into the floor. It didn't really make sense to her, how his ability worked, but she trusted him to be honest in its limitations and strengths. When he gave her the report, she glanced toward the doors and then back down to him again.

"You can move fast, right? Now that we can see the doors, can you just like, run us over or is there some risk of being seen?" She tilted her head up and looked at nothing in particular, trying to listen down the hall. It was pretty unnecessary, knowing Kon's hearing far outweighed her own. "I don't really want to fight if we don't have to."

Kon kept the distance spread out as he stood so that he could hopefully tell if the kedan got closer. He brushed his hands off on the legs of his outfit, leaving his usual bright costume in his suite and going for a more casual look with darker colours. He kept his jacket on though.

"Yeah I can go fast. They won't really see anything but a blur if they're even looking. It's better than trying to creep closer."

Fighting wasn't something he liked the idea of either and if it was unavoidable, he'd choose that route over any other.

"So, what are you waiting for?" She flashed him a small grin. Even though they were in a horrifying place on her birthday snooping around and in a real likelihood of dying, Hayley wouldn't let a chance to give him a friendly hassle go by without taking advantage of it. It was the system their friendship had fallen into in the day-to-day, teasing to mask the real similarities.

Still teasing, she added as quietly, "I don't even know why I'm here, except that you're stubborn and keep insisting I'm involved or something."

Hayley had wanted to go. She had pushed to be included, though there had never been a need to push, and was the first to admit, when being honest, how much she wanted to be involved and to be there. Particularly with Kon- since Bart and Mark were relegated to fighting.

"Aw c'mon, you can't tell me you're not super excited to see what we find out here. And I put my hands up and admit the whole stubborn thing. You can be just as bad though."

He smiled at her, knowing she wanted to be a part of something. Be a part of this and what they were all doing. He was glad she was, she had stuff she could offer and she was part of them team. Kon was a heavy hitter and better suited for being part of the team out there right now. But it always helped to have someone like him inside in case anything went down.

Kon took hold of Hayley, lifting slightly in the air and held onto her tighter as he moved closer to the door, closing the distance quicker than what they had already done. Kon stopped and looked at the wall, seeing the smeer as he let Hayley go to get her footing.

"What the hell is that?"

"Maybe," she agreed. Even knowing it was coming, Hayley still tensed a little when he picked her up. She lifted her hands to his shoulders, her arms pressed against his, to help hold onto him. It made her feel more steady to have some part in the contact, rather than to simply be at his mercy. Not a moment later, they were in front of the door and she used him to steady herself for a split second before stepping back into her own space. It was strange to her how that kind of speed was becoming easier and easier to recover from.

"Ew." She frowned up at the mess. Hayley reached into her messenger bag and pulled out a pen, then used the end of it to poke at the mess. Watching it flake to the ground, she then turned back toward Kon and the doors. "I think it's blood."

That was as much as she wanted to do with that. She moved forward to the doors instead, dropping the pen back into her bag. There was some small fear that opening the doors was what caused that blood on the wall, but she wasn't willing not to open them just because of some mess she thought might be blood. She grabbed hold of the doors' handles, but then waited, glancing over at Kon. "Ready?"

Kon didn't mind that she felt the need to hold on to him as well. It was an understandable reaction to suddenly being held and moved without doing the action yourself. Being gripped onto was something he had just expected people to do that weren't use to this kind of thing.

"I wonder whose blood it is."

Turning away from the blood, he could tell that who ever it was had tried to get in to the room and met a nasty fate. If the door did that, would it do it to them as well? Was it possible to actually get in the room without something happening? His own fear mirrored Hayley's but they couldn't just turn back now. Kon looked to her and nodded, hoping that if anything did happen, he'd be quick enough to get them both out of the way.

"Let's do it."

Hayley tugged hard on the doors and was surprised to find they opened with relative ease. She was even more surprised to find that nothing else happened besides the quiet swoop of the doors. Gently letting each door go, ensuring it wouldn't swing closed or open and make a bunch of noise, she then glanced back to Kon with an awkward shrug.

Looking forward again, she tentatively stepped forward once, then again, until she was a few steps into the chamber. Then her eyes darted about in an attempt to take in everything in the room, somewhat relieved to see some beauty and pristine conditions after so much rot, darkness, blood, and dirt.

"It's beautiful," she remarked, expecting Kon to be right behind her.

When nothing happened to Hayley, Kon suddenly felt a wave of relief, not realising just how tense he had been about the whole door thing. He followed close behind but when he walked between the doorframe he felt a strong force shove him back and slam back against the wall. The only reason he hadn't ended up as a bloody smear was because he'd been cautious about walking in. Well that and the obvious fact that he had his TTK. That didn't mean it didn't hurt though and he let out a grunt as he'd slammed back. His vision swam for a moment as he sat slumped on the floor after sliding down. His head hurt from the contact and his chest and limbs ached.

Kon brought himself forward, reaching up to hold his head and close his eyes tight to push the pain and discomfort down. He considered it lucky he could get to his feet and frowned as he looked to the door in front of him. He took a few steps and reached out to see if his hand would go through. No such luck, his arm jolted back like he'd just touched something that gave him a shock.

"What the hell? I can't...I can't get in."

Hayley spun around anxiously with the sound of the slam. Seeing Kon slumped there, her eyes immediately searched for the cause of the threat, darting around the doorway and down the hall to find.. nothing. She slowly, hesitantly crossed through the threshold again, wanting to look over him and make sure he didn't have any surprise horrendous gashes or the like that he was too in shock to notice.

"Are you okay?" She whispered with a frown. Her eyes glanced nervously over toward the intersecting hall, hoping the possessed guards hadn't heard her. In looking back to Kon, she frowned at some of the dried blood that had flaked off onto his jacket and she lifted a hand to quietly brush it off whether he protested or not.

"Well, it makes sense that whatever's on the wall probably had the same problem," she muttered. "So.. why would it let me in but not you?"

"Fine." For the most part he was fine. Just with the pounding head and the sensation that was slowly returning to normal in his arms and fingers. He clenched and unclenched his right hand and looked back along the hallway as Hayley wiped away the dried blood, which he had no complaints about her doing.

Kon frowned back at the mess.

"I'm just glad I wasn't going fast of anything of there might have been a Kon shaped splatter."

As he looked back, he inspected the doorframe again. Some forcefield was keeping him out but letting Hayley pass through it at will and he had no idea why. Shaking his head, he didn't even attempt to try again, knowing that the same would happen.

"I dunno, you're a girl? It could be anything."

They didn't have time for this.

Hayley wiped her hands on her jeans with a frown, realizing some of the flakes had stuck to her. Then she gave him a very disapproving look when he mentioned a Kon splatter. True or not, she didn't want to hear it.

To test that she could, she slipped inside the door again, her mind running over everything that differentiated the two of them as quickly as possible. "The kedan aren't really the same gender though.. It could be the energy from the plasma rifle, but I don't think the kedan have plasma."

She flipped open her bag, digging through its contents: rope, taser, gloves, pen, paper.. all the usual fare. Hayley looked back up to Kon with the same frown before she had a sudden thought. "Wait. What about the charm? Remember how you were trying to give me that charm when-"

As the memory surfaced, she cut off. They didn't have time to go into that. Instead her hands lifted up to fetch the necklace she was wearing beneath her shirt and slid it over her head. She then slid her messenger bag off as well and moved to hand both to him.

"It's either something in there and you can get in or it's not and you can at least use the charm to go invisible."

Saying that the Emperor hadn't been one of the kedan was something he almost said until he quickly understood her meaning and it scratched off a possible reason. Same with the rifle. Kon reached up to scratch his head and then brought his hand down as she mentioned the charm. Before they were friends and after the attack on Kal. He remembered it and how they had argued. He offered a small smile though there wasn't much behind it. He was glad they'd moved on from that.

Kon took both the bag and the necklace with the charm before, gripping tightly as he readied to step forward. He wasn't eager to feel the force pushing him again or to be slammed into the wall. Sure he'd had worse, but being tossed into a building he expected when he fought. Being slammed into against a wall from trying to walk through a door? Not so much.

He took a breath and closed his eyes as he took a few steps. There was nothing pushing him back and he opened his eyes slowly seeing that he was in the room now and felt the same relief he had when Hayley had first gotten through. Thank god.

"Was worried for a second."

He held out her bag and necklace as he took a moment to look around from where he stood. It felt odd that the room gave him a little hope that they could do something, change things just because the room was untouched by the corruption setting in to the rest of the Palace. Kon felt a smile tugging at his lips as he looked.

"This place looks amazing."

Hayley didn't realize she was holding her breath until he spoke from beside her. Then she had to work to settle her heartbeat again as she took the charm and bag back from him, sliding on one and then the other. She was awkward only for a second as she reached back through the barrier to swing the doors quietly closed behind them. Hopefully it would buy them more time.

"Start looking," she replied. Again his smile inspired her own, though she tried to hide it as she moved past him to open the closet doors and begin flipping through the various robes, dresses, and other beautiful clothes. Everything in this place was beautiful and some part of her had to force herself to move quickly through it, lest she dwell on the luxury of an Emperor in wartime and become bitter.

Kon hadn't seen a room like this before, where everything was a fine detail and luxurious to every sense. He knew they had to be quick, but part of him wished they could take the time to look over everything because he knew he wouldn't get this kind of chance again. Not to see something like this. Not even back home. He moved over to her bed and tried to forget that a women had slept here. Had lived in this room and ruled. That she had been killed here. Kon touched at the posts of the bed, and the curtains that would drape if undone.

He looked at the night stand and pulled the drawer open, taking the items out and placing them on the bed. A few things and none that he really found interesting though he took the time to look at each one. Holding up a fountain pen he then glanced over to Hayley.

"You ever worked out how to use one of these? I tried once and ripped through the paper."

Hayley had finished with the closet, making a very deliberate and painful choice not to take anything. She wasn't vain, exactly, but she appreciated how delicate and ornate many of the clothes were and it's not like a shawl would go amiss. But no. Now she was working her way through the dresser, from the bottom drawer up. When Kon spoke, she glanced over her shoulder to look.

"I've never used one that nice. I could try, I guess? But do you seriously want to do that right now? Just take it with you." She returned to her search, paused, and looked at him again. "We shouldn't take too much. It feels weird. Maybe just like.. one thing each?"

Like a shawl maybe.

"I wasn't suggesting we try anything. Just that I've never been able to use 'em is all. Besides, it's a pen, what's so fancy about it?"

Kon just rolled his eyes and dropped the pen back onto the bed with his interest lost in it. He spread things out a little and in doing so say something that caught his eye. The feather changed colour when he moved it so Kon picked it up and twirled it in his fingers. The thought of taking something from the room felt more than a little weird to him but they weren't being used and they wouldn't be missed...would they? Kon kept a hold of the feather and moved it this way and that.

"See this is fancier than the pen."

"A fountain pen? I don't know about you, but where I come from, a nice pen like that is literally hundreds of dollars."

She rolled her eyes. Hayley supposed everything in this room was probably worth a lot of money, come to think of it. And while a fountain pen was nice, it wasn't exactly her style. She continued her searching, finishing with the top drawer of the dresser and moving on to the gilded box on top. Curiously, there were only a couple pieces inside and only one that drew Hayley's eye. She plucked out the black ring and turned to show it to Kon in exchange for looking at whatever he had found.

"A feather?" She asked incredulously. "I mean, I guess I haven't seen that many birds around? But it seems like they wouldn't be that hard to find. Look at this ring."

"Well yeah, but I don't really need money here? I mean not loads any way."

Back home he would have sold such a find but he guessed that here more question would have been asked if he showed such a luxurious item around. Well, if he went through proper channels any way.

"It shines differently in the light. Wonder what it came from." The last part was muttered to himself as he put the feather back down on the bed next to the pen and went over to Hayley to look at the ring better.

"Hey, that looks pretty sweet."

Edited 2014-05-25 22:05 (UTC)

"Maybe it's a magical feather," she teased. Count on the two of them to continue jesting even in the middle of dangerous situations. Unperturbed, Hayley slid the ring onto her finger and lifted her hand for him to get a closer look, as if showing off a wedding ring - though on her index finger instead. "Perfect fit."

She slid the item off and set it back on top of the dresser, outside of the box, so that they wouldn't forget it. As cool as the shawl was, the ring was equally awesome and there was a serious lack of plain jewelry in this place. Besides, maybe it would help her necromancer persona, or so she mused to herself.

Hayley looked around at the room, which held little that they hadn't already investigated. "I feel like there should be some.. I don't know.. notes or something? Maybe a secret diary? Did you try under the mattress? Or maybe the rugs?"

Following her own advice, she moved over towards the far rug and began lifting it to look for any papers beneath. Then the other half. Uninterrupted, she intended to systematically work her way through all of them.

Kon almost playfully shoved Hayley back at the magical feather comment. He didn't think much about it being a perfect fit for Hayley, ring sizes weren't something he knew much about but he thought it was cool since it meant she could wear it. It looked better on her than what he'd imagine something ornate to look like, besides she didn't come across as someone who liked fancy jewellery.

He shook his head when she asked about looking under things and went back to the bad to try and see if he could find anything that would be useful. He knew what she meant that something seemed to be missing, especially given the usual places people hide these things. As reached the bed and touched the mattress, his knees hit against the frame he straightened up as the best as a whole moved. He didn't know if he had just imagined it so he never said to Hayley, but to test it he touched one of the frames and gave it a slight shove. One that would normally not do anything.

"What the...Hayley...try move the bed."

SIEGE TO THE PALACE

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sorry this one is short.

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