tushanshu_logs | Possession is 9/10 of the law

Entry tags:

Possession is 9/10 of the law

Characters: Anyone helping Wan attempt to counter-possess Asti; Malicant
Date: Sat. 10/25
Location: Various TBD
Situation: Wan is attempting to possess Asti; others are acting as distractions/helping power boost
Warnings/Rating: Will post them in subject lines when/if needed

The log is going to be broken up between the following Event 'points' just to manage them easier:

Pre-Possession Power-Up (Mingle for those powering up Wan before his group heads to the Turtle's Head)
Pre-Distraction Meet-Up (Mingle for the distraction teams to finalize tactics or throw caution to the wind)
Possession Attempt (The actual possession attempt)
Distraction Group One (Headed up by Dante, this group is going to be dealing with the cultists directly)
Distraction Group Two (Network distraction group and/or different group of cultists)
End of the Day (for people to deal with the fallout of the event if they want to do so in this log)

ANYONE can tag in and take part in any of the threads except the Possession Attempt itself - that's closed to Wan, Valdis, Zuko, and Katara so the group is small and less easily noticed.

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Dante had been left in charge of the front, which basically means he recruited everyone who could hold a weapon properly, and gave them very specific instructions: Their goal was to goad the enemy, not defeat the enemy, and their lives came first. From there, he assumed that his teammates had the sense to change their approaches accordingly.

He made his first move with their goal in mind, choosing to shout at the cultists from atop a lamppost, rather then charging straight in. He kept his pistols in his hands, and both his sword and Lucifer on his back, and started by getting everyone's attention using the one method he knew would work.

"Hey there, you must be Malicant's cronies!" Last time someone said the enemy's name, nothing major happened, not that the consequences would have stopped him. At the very least, he just got these cultist's attention on him.

Edited 2014-10-25 20:24 (UTC)

Since there's not much Tony can do to help Wan with the Asti's possession, he'd volunteered to help Dante with the distraction side of things. So while the serious work gets done at the turtle's head, he's walking around the city looking for trouble. Until they run into some, he's wearing the armor folded down into the antigrav backpack.

Trouble does not prove difficult to find. At first, Tony's not sure what to do when they spot the large group of cultists. He's used to fighting one-on-one with supervillains, not... harassing groups of unarmored maniacs. This is a little out of his comfort zone.

But Dante saves him from from having to make the first move by clambering up a lamppost and shouting at the cultists. Huh. Okay. That's one way to get their attention. Tony shrugs, and hits the button on the backpack straps that activates the armor. The suit folds around him as the cultists begin to approach.

"Well, this should be fun."

The cultists, who were milling about and generally celebrating Malicant's victory while searching for uninfected to harrass and bring into the fold, had their attention easily caught by Dante's shout. Almost as one, the group turned with manic smiles and started for the foreigners. 'Cronies' wasn't an insult that got them riled simply because they were, at this point, more than happy to be his hands. Every one of them had poisoned knives and a few had poisoned arrows.

Three of them held back to notch their bows and take aim for Dante and Tony. The rest advanced with a confident fervor. They would destroy the foreigners or turn them to Malicant's side before the day was through.

"That's the idea."

The insult got their attention, but it didn't rile them up. Obviously, Dante wasn't trying hard enough. He would have to try a bit harder. He needed to keep the cultist's attention on him, and, more importantly, what was going on at the turtle's head. If he can't cripple these guys, he would least be enough of an ass that the cultists will want him dead. He was still thinking as if he was acting alone, even though he knew he shouldn't be.

He knew what his mission was, and he knew what he needed to do. He kept his distance from the cultists and fired back, starting with a spread of fairly weak bullets aimed at about shin level. Enough to to make them recoil and hopefully drop their weapons.

Edited 2014-10-26 03:41 (UTC)

Dante's taunt doesn't seem to bother the cultists much, but it does at least get their attention. Of course, that means all their attention is on Dante, and that's just not fair. Time to spread the love around a little.

"Hey, you freaky weirdos!" Tony shouts, and fires a repulsor beam at one of the archers.

The first line of cultists managed to jump out of the way of Dante's bullets save one. She let out a sharp cry but didn't drop her knife. It only managed to slow her down as she tried to keep up with the others, limping on her wounded legs. If anything, the attack made them more determined. Obviously it must mean two men were afraid of them.

The archers were more stymied by Tony's attack, forced to scatter to avoid getting hit or having the one who was shot at jump into one of the others. It stopped them for a few moments as they found cover behind the walls of some of the nearby buildings and took aim once more.

Oh now this just wouldn't do at all. This kid was outperforming him, both in battle and in getting their attention. He would have to step up his game, big time.

"Well, aren't you the talkative types? What's the matter? Your master doesn't let you socialize that much? And here I was hoping we could be friends." He gleefully shouted out over the sounds of fighting. He lept back again, this time taking to higher ground.

Spread gunfire wasn't working, and single shots would probably be worse, so he'd have to use a flurry of concentrated shots. He took aim for one of the archer's shoulders, as far away from their chest or heads as he could get without missing, and started to fire away.

Edited 2014-10-26 06:06 (UTC)

Tony grins behind the armor's faceplate. Finally, someone else who appreciates some good wisecracking. The problem with villains is that they don't usually banter back, which takes a little of the fun out of it (unless they're Blizzard, in which case they only respond with atrocious cold puns, and that's even worse).

"Yeah! What do you say, guys: we all go out and get some ice cream, talk out our differences, and then have a big group hug?"

As Dante heads for high ground, Tony stays on the street to divide their attention, firing his repulsors in short bursts at any cultists who get brave and venture forward out of the pack.

"You will learn the freedom Malicant brings!" One of them finally yelled back as she raised her knife above her head. While Dante and Tony had been focused on the group in front of them, a few of their friends had come up the street behind the two, following the sounds of a fight. More were surely on the way.

The three new attackers announced their arrival with frantic screams of loyalty to Malicant while the first group broke cover to try and hit them from both sides at once. Arrows were sent flying to try and keep Dante from getting too high up and the street-level attackers rushed in to attempt a group tackle of Tony. Numbers were in their favor, after all.

"You can say that, but we're not the ones in uniform right now, buddy." The cultists were getting smarter and more organized, but that was just a sign that it was working. More cultists here meant less cultists at the turtle's head. "But hey, at least you look like you have plenty of friends."

Dante had to quickly retreat back to the ground, but not before an arrow could graze his arm. Shit. He'd have to get that looked at later, but for now, he had a job to do. If he turned into a raging lunatic, then even better.

From what Tony had told him, he could easily handle being tackled, which meant that his focus needed to be on the archers. He continued to try to pick them off non-lethally with his pistols, while keeping a close eye out in case any of the on-ground attackers decided he was a more tempting target.

More cultists appear and join the fray, and a group of their newly-emboldened enemies tries to dogpile Tony. Tony waits a few seconds, and once he's got a sizable gaggle clambering on him, he activates the boot repulsors and launches into the air.

The result is exactly as hilarious as he'd hoped. His attackers, abruptly lacking a target, all tumble over themselves in an awkward, flailing knot. One screeching cultist manages to hang on to Tony's leg for a moment, but Tony shakes him off, and he falls back into the group, flattening two more cultists who had just managed to get up.

"Oh, did I mention?" Tony asks gleefully, as he hovers in the air above the cultists. "I've got boot jets."

Meanwhile, the arrows have forced Dante back down to ground level. Tony can't pass up the opportunity for a friendly taunt. "Need any help over there? It looks like they're putting up a little more resistance than pine trees."

Dante's pistol work was getting better results now. The cultists weren't giving up, but bullets to the arms and shins made moving -made fighting - difficult. The reinforcements helped on that end by switching targets with the archers. Now that Dante was back on ground level the group that could no longer reach Tony turned and attempted to swarm Dante, knives slashing wildly in an attempt to land a hit. Even a small scratch would be enough. The archers, in turn, took advantage of Tony's smack-talk to send a volley towards him as they moved into better cover positions.

A third group of cultists, also drawn by the noise, could be seen by Tony heading up the street towards them. They were a still a good five blocks away, but they were bringing more archers.

"There's more to fighting then having fancy toys, kid."Dante saw what Tony was doing out of the corner of his eye, and couldn't help but smirk. Even if he was being beaten at his own game by a kid, the plan was working, and that was actually pretty funny. Besides, he was drawing the archers' attention, which means he can focus on his current problem.

In a move of stunning hypocricy, he switched to Lucifer at the first sign of trouble. It was a bit harder to aim with the clawed backpack, but he needed crowd control. He fired off summoned swords towards the same areas- knees, shins, and arms. If any of them hit, they'd give off a small explosion a few seconds later. It was a bit more brutal then he would have liked to do, but it was a war, and they'd live. Most likely.

Okay, having more toys helped.

In the midst of all this, he was ducking and weaving through the knives, but it was too close quarters to evade everything, and a few knives grazed him. By the time they went through his trenchcoat, they were just shallow cuts, but still problematic. He may be able to treat the poison by Devil Triggering, but he was still under the impression that he could win this battle of showing off without using any demonic powers. Besides, he'll be fine. Probably. As long as he dispatched these cultists attacking him as soon as possible.

"But having the coolest toys sure doesn't hurt," Tony replies, with smirk of his own that is, sadly, lost behind the armor's faceplate.

The archers lay off of Dante to focus on Tony now that he's made himself a target, which is exactly what he was going for. And the arrows ping harmlessly off the armor, which is exactly what he expected. He shoots a focused repulsor burst at one of the archers, hoping to bust up his bow or at least knock him on his ass.

Tony glances over at Dante again to check how he's doing, and sees him pull out those magic red sword things again and start flinging them at cultists. A couple of them land, and when they explode, it's... not pretty. He suppresses a shudder, losing his focus for a second.

He's got plenty of experience fighting, but he's still not used to gore. At home, almost all of his battles happened in power armor, and were mostly bloodless. Not that nobody ever got hurt— but seeing unarmored people getting chunks of them blown off is... different. And not in a fun way.

Tony pushes that to the back of his mind, and tries to just keep his attention on the fight. Dante looks like he's getting a little swamped, so Tony flies closer and shoots off a broader repulsor beam, aiming to knock back a handful of the cultists trying to swarm him.

Akito shows up late. Late, because someone told him the wrong time and district. Which means that someone will have hell to pay once the cultists stop being more annoying than wasps at a picnic.

Gore like this isn't something he's seen in-person, but Akito has always had good focus when it was necessary. So cultists get their feet frozen to the ground whenever he gets close enough to manage it, and if any get too close to him, they get their eyes frozen shut. Knowledge of human physiology comes in handy in terms of knowing where to find water in a pinch.

He kicks of a Fang to clear a path, then points at Tony and gives him the biggest, broadest, most terrifying smile he's probably ever seen in his life. Or not. Who knows? Either way, it's still quite frightening.

"Thank-you for giving me the wrong information for such an important event! I don't know what I would have done if I didn't need to check in on two other districts first!"

Akito's knowledge of human physiology only gets him so far. The kedan weren't human despite the resemblance. Their eyes were frozen shut but new ones opened quickly after the others folded into their head, the ice now harmlessly freezing 'normal' skin. Their reactions to Dante's new approach with the swords were a little slower but enough of them got their flesh to harden in time that only a few of them were taken out by the explosions. Feet that were frozen to the ground shifted into hooves that were smaller and could be pulled out of the casing or kick it away and break free.

Their bodies shifted further, some growing larger and elongating as they ran forward. Others thickening as they got smaller, more squat and able to entrench themselves. The archers held off on their next volleys while their hands grew claws to help them grip the buildings they started climbing for a better vantage.

Tony and Dante got a single reinforcement, but the Cultists were getting more than just one and it was starting to become a steady stream of bodies. If the three didn't get out soon, they'd be trapped in the small crossroads they'd put themselves into.

Dante couldn't afford to hold back anymore. He would have almost certainly been killed already if not for Tony's aid and the new distraction that Akito provided. Or well, as close to killed as these cultists could manage, anyway. Either way, it doesn't look like he's keeping his hidden trump card hidden anymore.

The taint was starting to affect him already, and they were about to lose this little fight. A small jolt of electricity surrounded his body, and he took on a more demonic appearance. With his wounds now starting to take care of himself, he could focus on bolting around and dispatching the cultists. He moved in and immediately targeting whatever limbs the cultists didn't enhance and firing another round of swords, this time near the same general area that Akito and Tony had started to clear.

"I don't think I need to tell you, but they're trying to surround us." A harsh voice called. If they could get outside of this crowd, things would be a hell of a lot easier.

Suddenly, out of the blue, Akito shows up ~~fifteen minutes late with Starbucks~~. After he hadn't made an appearance at the planning meeting, Tony had assumed he'd decided to lie low for the big event, or maybe help with the healing at the end of the day.

But apparently not. "Uh— sorry?" Oops. Had he told Akito the wrong info? Oh... yeah, he guesses he did. Gene had had to correct him about the meeting time, but he'd already told Akito, and he'd forgotten to pass on the correction. "I was a little distracted," Tony says pointedly, in Dante's direction.

Giving Dante more grief about breaking into his house and interrupting him and Gene will have to wait, though. Tony's not having much trouble, but Dante is being surrounded. He hates to leave Akito unprotected, but the tiny little kid actually seems to be holding his own, for the moment, so Tony goes to help Dante. He lands next to him and fires unibeam on its widest spread and lowest power, which bowls over an impressive swath of the cultists.

"You're looking a little freakier than usual. Is that supposed to happen, or should I be worried?"

Of course they could shapeshift new eyes, and melt the ice around their feet. It figures. Akito is annoyed enough to take a picture out of Agito's book and flip Tony off with a huff before putting distance between himself and the cultists. Moving to higher ground is easy when you can basically fly, though less so with so many enemies around.

Either way, at least he can continue firing off blasts of air pressure. To the cultists it should feel like something exploding right in front of them when they're hit.

Tony and Dante's combined efforts to clear a path through the bodies was working better than Akito's attempt to stay in the air. The archers had the high ground now and there were a good ten of them now spread out across the surrounding rooftops. Their bodies had shifted to allow them to shoot faster and even if they could't hit Akito, they could keep the air filled with too many arrows for Akito safely navigate and get above. With as many of them as there were on the ground, they were satisfied with forcing the foreigner out of the air.

On the ground, the cultist that Dante and Tony were double-teaming had to take a moment to recover and get back on their feet. Their brothers and sisters filled the spaces between, their skin and bones changed, hardened so that Dante's attacks did no damage. They couldn't do anything about being blasted back, but they were not going to be harmed by the current attempts to assault them while they attempted to overwhelm the two.

"Hey, it's not my fault you were feeling up your boyfriend instead of listening." He dodges the question about his appearance while pointing fingers along with everyone else.

With his attacks not doing any damage and his devil trigger unable to hold out, he switched strategies, and therefore weapons. He quickly grabbed his sword and swung in an attempt to trip the remaining cultists that stood in his way. If he couldn't damage the cultists anymore, that just made things easier for him to dispatch them nonlethally.

"And it's not my fault you broke in to my house to give me the info like a huge creep," Tony replies, returning the taunt with good humor. The banter is almost automatic: he's much more concerned with the cultists right now than giving Dante grief about his socially inappropriate information dissemination methods - or pestering him further about his dramatic change in appearance.

The kedan have started to use their shapeshifting abilities to toughen themselves against Dante's attacks. Way less creepy than the shifting eyeball thing they did earlier, but very effective. Tony comes to the same conclusion Dante does: now that they're not likely to be pulped by a poorly-calculated repulsor blast, he can turn up the power on his repulsors and start firing more indiscriminately. So that's exactly what he does.

Tony hits the mob of cultists with a rapid-fire round of repulsors, aiming to clear the field for just a moment to give Dante a chance to recover. Of the three of them, he's getting hit the hardest.

The cultists' attempts at keeping him grounded are annoying, but not infallible. Compared to dodging machine-gun fire it's laughably easy to dodge arrows, and there isn't as much of a worry over how many magazines of ammo they have to use. So he sticks to the walls - quite literally, grinding vertically as easily as he would horizontally. Whatever arrows he doesn't dodge are knocked off course with an easy kick of the wind. Arrows that he does dodge, he aims to try and have them hit the cultists below.

Coming up with a better idea for Tony and the other guy to try, Akito sends a mental message to Quintus to pass along to Tony. Aim for the heads. Try to knock them out so they can't adapt.

Unfortunately for Akito, the Cultists toughing their skin to avoid being damaged by Dante's attacks made it equally difficult for their own arrows to pierce their skin. They mostly bounced off and were otherwise ignored. The group on the ground were focusing on a finding a way to counter being knocked down by Tony's repulsor blasts and Dante's more powerful attacks. They left dealing with Akito to their fellows on the roofs.

With most of the archers focused on keeping Akito below the roofline, one of their members - all long and oddly jointed limbs - put her bow down to jump on Akito as he passed by. His path easily anticipated from the last few passes. She landed hard on his back and side, attempting to use her weight to drag him down and force him to fall into the crowd below.

"Well, I'm so-ree, but it was kind of an emergency." He's not really trying either. Something about keeping himself alive.

In the meantime, he can focus on trying to clear the area around himself. Between Tony's help and the fact that he didn't have to hold back, he was having a much easier time keeping the situation under control. He stuck to wide sweeps and anything that could trip up large groups of them at once.

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highprofilerichkid - 2014-11-19 20:11 (UTC) - Expand

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Possession is 9/10 of the law

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Cultists

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