Participants:
| Scene Title | Imprisoned Muse: Bunch of Bull |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | The Scions continue their search for the kidnapped woman and encounter a metal guardian that doesn't want them poking around. Vette STed this scene. |
A bunch of abandoned subway tunnels.
"Oooh, I'm going to write that down right now." Vette gets out the tennis shoes and then writes down Johnston and Murphy, ONLINE! :D Fortunately, they're there and she can't be distracted by shoes /too/ much longer.
The subway entrance is covered with warnings that this terminal is no longer in use, scheduled for demolition, and is generally unsafe. There's some sort of air blasting up from it in a hot, unpleasant roar. It is unusually dark and yawning, and there's some sort of smell issuing from it that will hit each Scion as they get out of the car. Moreover, those with Subliminal Warning will begin feeling goosebumps prickling up and down spines and hairs rising on the back of their neck. Something about this place seems to whisper to the Scions; caressing the skin unpleasantly. There is one of those old vending machines with the clown inside that gives out fortunes, and it seems to watch the group as they arrived.
Step into my parlor, said the Spider to the Fly?
Parking his car, Scrivner turns off the engine and silences Mick Jagger. Will it also bring an end to the pain of the shoe conversation? He shall soon see. The Englishman glances out of the window with narrowed eyes, and he quietly says, "I do not like the look of this at all." Pulling the sword case from his back, he goes ahead and pulls the sheath out, then slips it and the belt around his waist once he steps out of his car. Something tells him he's going to need it fairly soon.
"Yeah. This is going to be good." C.W. mutters to himself when he realizes exactly where they have arrived at. From within the safety of his car, he scans the surrounding area with piercing blue eyes, before focusing on the entrance of the subway altogether. The door to the Chevelle SS opens soon enough and Conrad steps out, though he looks more warily around, while his brow furrows and a hand lowers to reach at his firearm without drawing it out just yet. "You're telling me." Is his comment to Scrivner.
Dion has by now replaced his shoes and his coat, though it hasn't exactly improved his mindset about going at all. His flask is tucked into a pocket, and his microphone is in his hand. He certainly looks like he agrees that it doesn't look good. He sighs, then says "Madelyne and Terrance are going to be so upset that I didn't bring them, but I'm worried they'd just get hurt."
Lin walks over to the Subway entrance, looking down. He scrunches his mouth at the feeling come from it. "This is definitely the right place." He says to himself. He looks to the others. "This way." He says before bring up the flash light as he starts to go down.
As they step closer they find they are descending into the dilapidated remains of a mini-mall. It's darkalmost too dark to see, though Lin's flashlight cuts narrowly through the muurk. One faded yellow sign reads, "Coffeefastfood." The group then passes by a "Unisex Salon" with a barber shop pole. The rather dead remains of a dancing schoolbecause you need a dancing school before you go to work, don'tcha know—is here, as well. As the last of the light fades they pass beneath a serifed "Subway" marker that appears to date back to FDR's administration. The dark, damp smell grows stronger and stronger with every passing step. At last their feet hits concrete flooring. They hear something that sounds like a huge airconditioning; in and out and in and out, rattle rattle rattle rattle rattle rattle in and out…
Walking slowly, just behind and off to one side of their fearless leader, Scrivner casts his eyes here and there to watch the shadows with the paranoia of someone who's seen things jump out of the dark to rip heads off of shoulders. For the moment he doesn't speak, doesn't point out the obvious - the thing sounds /close/ now. Granted, Vette is pretty damned oblivious to the obvious sometimes. He steps back just enough to touch her wrist with his fingers, silently warning.
Idly, Conrad rubs at the back of his neck for a moment as they continue forward through these ruins; his left hand now drawing out his gun slowly. Very much like Scrivner and perhaps the rest of the group, he doesn't say much. Instead, he uses up his energy to listen to anything that can be heard and at this time, it's that odd machinery sound like an air conditioner that is hard to ignore. While his posture and even his gait may be considered mostly casual, it's obvious that he's more than wary of his surroundings, that feeling of unease creeping up on him as his eyes dart from one shadowy area to the next.
Dion doesn't really know where to look, since it's pretty much all dark, and he is visibly nervous. Well, it would be visible if it weren't so dark. He's very quiet as they go, trying to not be either first nor last.
Lin keeps the light ahead of them, keeping their path illuminated for all the see. He glances back to the others. He opens his mouth before stopping himself and shaking his head. He continues on. He continues to follow the music; the trail. Nothing scary about this, nope. This is like a movie. Hellboy? That was good. Dad's from Hell! See, no problem. He continues to lead them on.
Lin's light manages to fall on something shining and metallic. A bovine face, statuesque, with long, curving, /sharp/ horns. For about 30 seconds it looks just like a statue. And then? Bright green eyes open sharply, and the thing /charges/.
"Stay behind me!" Rufus roars the moment that thing's eyes snap open. In the span of a single heartbeat, he's drawn his sword and stepped forward. Within his blood, the ichor wells up and seeps through his skin, slicking over his body and his clothing, till he appears to be a moving statue of pewter. Knees bend into a brief crouch, and springing forward, he darts forward to meet the charge of the minotaur with one of his own. He draws back his arms, then he lunges and strikes a thrust at its body.
A shot rings out in the night, but the bullet ricochets off the bull's massive, armored body and goes sailing off in some other direction. There's a loud, "SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!" that sounds like Scrivner just successfully keyed a car when it comes to the motion of the sword on the bull's body. Tossing it's massive, sharp horns, it does it's level best to gore someone, but so far the thing is just being wildly ineffective. Still, those things look dangerousexcessively soif they should hit.
Lin drops the flashlight, letting it light this particular spot. He sees the eyes and feels the thudding ground. He attempts to move to the side, moving to let it just charge out of control so he can behind it.
Dion needs absolutely no reminding to stay behind Rufus. And anyone else that wants to be between him and the thing charging them. His eyes are wide as he steps back and to the side quickly, just focusing on not being gored. Yes, that would be ideal, not being gored.
Being the last in line, Conrad's eyes survey the darkness once more only to hear all the commotion coming from the front and that God awful sound like someone's keying a car. Even in this darkness, he can hear the rough footsteps of something large and heavy hoofing around and immediately he gets into defensive mode, (Turning on Untouchable Opponent), in his attempt to keep out of the path of the creature or anything else, for that matter. Through the crowd of people before him, he can make out the bull's form, quickly raising his firearm to fire off a couple of shots at it — no matter that Vette tried that same thing just earlier.
The bullet just sort of plinks off the bull again; and it rears back, kicking backwards with massive hind legs. It knows Lin is back there; it just isn't judging the distance so very well. It misses, but Lin will be able to feel the sheer /force/ of the things that's coming his way just by the amount of air that suddenly woooshes towards him.
"Keep back, keep back!" Rufus is yelling at the top of his lungs. With that bull charging off towards Lin, the Englishman is doing his damnedest to get between the other man and the creature. He snarls as he brings his sword about, and when it sweeps its flanks around for a kick, he leaps up in order to go jumping onto its back like some sort of cowboy in a trenchcoat gone so wrong. It's a vantage point that'd give him a better angle for a strike, or so he hopes as he draws up his arms and twists the blade downwards, thrusting as hard as he can.
The thing about sitting on the back of a massive metal bull, Scrivner will find, is that the bull /bucks/. And all that bucking makes his sword find air twice as he stabs and stabs. Vette kneels to the concrete to try to do her favorite trick, but the sudden hardening BLORP of concrete gets /shattered/ to dust by the rampaging bull.
Lin leans back as he feels the air move from the lethal bull kick. "Whoa there." He watches as Scrivner goes in for a swing. "Let's help him out." He says as he grabs out at the leg. "Come on, don't fail me now." He says as he grabs to wrestle with the bull..man.
"Looks like people are going bull wranglin'." Conrad murmurs with some amusement, because really, an uptight Englishman on a bull is quite humorous! His arm raises and once more, he directs his gun to point towards the bucking bull. This time he takes aim (Using Trick shooter). "Don't let that baby go."
Lin has the bull. Lin has the bull. Lin has the bull clear up until Lin /doesn't/ have the bull. Like some sort of wild thing at the rodeo, the bull lets out a snarl and rears up. The thing is /strong/. Insanely strong, and he not only breaks Lin's grip with ease but he also tears back in a run to slam the cop against the concrete wall. Somehow Scrivner stays on this bucking bronco, but Lin's about to be in some pain.
This is not going so well. Most of Scrivner's strength has to go to clamping onto this bull with his knees, and being whipped around so viciously is making it damned difficult to get his aim just right to pierce through the metal body. Metal… As he gets thrashed around, and as he reaches out his left hand to snatch at a horn for some hope in Hell of getting a grip, he yells hoarsely, "Get back! All of you! Let me keep him busy! FIND SOME OTHER WAY TO KILL IT! It's metal! Come on! You're all brilliant enough to figure something out! Help me!" He shifts his grip on the hilt of the sword, sucking down a hasty breath, and he /thrusts/ with all of his might at the bull's back. Come on!
Conrad winces slightly when the bull goes on to gore Lin, but not enough that he doesn't pull the trigger. "Ahead of time. If I hit either of you, man." He is speaking to both Scrivner and Lin, "My bad." After those words are said, he lets out several shots directed at the bull in general. It must have a big body even if Scrivner is blocking the way.
"Gahhh!" Lin cries out as he is gored by the metal bull. "Gods that hurts." He tries to stay focused. Metal. Pain. Pain. Pain. Metal. Metal is conductive! Third rail! He holds onto the bull as it holds on to him and shoves with all his might to the third rail.
Dion actually looks tempted to do something, when the bull is briefly kind of almost sort of immobilized. From his body language, he might have the thought to hit it with his stick. Er, microphone. That temptation doesn't last long enough for him to move though, and then he's doing his best to not be noticed as the thing does its own rendition of Stomp. he looks around them as though that might magically make something useful appear, but when nothing does can only offer "If you can keep it still again, I might be able to make it less fighty? Maybe?" Anyone want to guess how? No? Likely for the best, if it involves the microphone.
The bull now turns its attention on Scrivner. In point of fact, he sort of barrels sideways and tries to ram Scrivner into another wall. Sadly, the man on his back is controlling it with his knees. A pool of liquid concrete appears where the bull /Was/ two seconds ago, bubbling and boiling before it solidifies again. Vette can be heard swearing in the darkness beyond.
Thoughtfully rubbing at his cheek with the pistol in hand, Conrad considers the situation. "You heard the man, guide it to the third rail." This is called out to the Englishman. Apparently, C.W. was paying attention and now he simply secures the pistol to its holster, before taking up his steel telescopic baton in place of the gun. While he doesn't rush forward, since he figures Scrivner could use the excitement of bullriding at some point in his life, Conrad does join the fray, weapon in hand and looks as if he's trying to help coax the creature towards this rail, himself. With a flick of his wrist, the baton elongates as he tries to tap at the thing, all the while making his way towards the appointed hot spot, the third rail, as he walks backwards.
Dion edges along as the others try to move the beast towards that rail, but he certainly doesn't get very close yet. The thing's got all sorts of pain it can bring, and he's awfully squishy. Of course, if he does get a chance to tap the thing with his rod, he'll try.
Well this gets interesting quickly. Between the group they halfway have the bull herded onto the full rail when Dion just taps it with his little microphone. Now—this is a mechanical bull, and god knows what a mechanical bull might find euphoric. But because it was created with the magic of Gods it still responds to the magic of Gods. All of a sudden the thing starts twitching. The song, "Hallelujah" starts issuing from the voice box that produces the snarls and sounds. Harmless little fireworks start spouting off in dozens of different colors. And it stands there as it's evil green eyes turn a sort of rosy red. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
"Oh ugh," Vette mutters. "It's leaking oil fluid." In a nice rainbow line beneath it, too.
Getting it to the third rail to fry the thing? Cake.
In truth, Dion had no idea what would happen, if he managed to touch with thing with his microphone. It isn't a normal creature, after all. When it does react as it does, he just stares, looking a bit dumbfounded. Though, he also can't help a bit of a giggle. "Well. It is less fighty…" That is what he said he'd be trying to do, right?
Lin just looks up as the Bull seems….happy. He slowly slides away, holding his stomach as the rest of them move to handle the bull. He looks up at it. "Is he are friend now? Maybe he can help us….ow." He groans. STUPID HORN!
When he's no longer thrashing about and getting nearly unseated, Rufus flops over for a second, momentarily weakened. That's… when he realises that there's something very wrong, and he's seeing a puddle of rainbow oil on the ground. So …. much…. leakage. He's bewildered by what's going on, but he's not going to waste this opportunity. He'll contemplate WTF later. Seizing one of the horns, he leaps off of the bull's back to help the group lead this thing to the third rail to fry the Hell out of its systems. And once it's on the rail, he lets go quickly, lest he be fried with it. And as he steps slowly back, he turns to look around at the others. "That is perhaps the most unsettling thing I've ever had the misfortune to witness." Then he blinks, and he looks over at the cop. "Ah… Bloody Hell, Detective, are you all right?"
Somewhat amused by all of this, Conrad wonders aloud to the music blaring, "If I knew this thing had a radio, I would've turned it on (NOT IN THAT WAY) and fiddled with the channels earlier. Though the cop's suggestion gets his brow to furrow more, "Yeah. There ain't nothing worse than a bull scorned and this bull, no matter how flowery it's getting, I don't trust one bit." In fact, he isn't sure what the hell happened to it. "Looks like the thing like Englishmen." There, he maneuvers himself so that while he isn't exactly standing on or in or along the third rail, the bull would still be lured to the tracks anyway. He looks out towards the dark tunnel and though this place hasn't been used in a while, he has to wonder if a train will be heading this way out of the blue.
Vette stands up and brushes off her pants. Today was her day to be excessively useless, it seems, but she doesn't say anything. The bull gives one last…"Lay Lu!" which…yeah. Don't go there. And sparkles. And finally goes still; a worthless hunk of metal on the tracks. Nobody will hear anything to indicate that subways still run down here, live third rail or not. The whole electrical system of the subway system powers that; with or without individual trains.
Dion studies his rod for a moment, fascinated. "I didn't think that would work, but it was very cool." When Dion finally pays more attention to the others, he also looks alarmed at Lin's condition. "Are you going to be alright?" he asks.
Lin looks up at Dion before nodding his head. "Yeah, I will live." He says. "Just need a second or two to heal." He says before looking to the others. "Shall we keep going?"
"…." That's Scrivner's initial reaction. Eugh. He steps up and away from the tracks, and with a spin of the blade he sheathes it back in the scabbard at his hip. Coming to stand near to Vette, he crinkles his nose in disgust. He doesn't want to think about… any of this. Not anymore. So he does the only thing he can do. He turns his thoughts back to the mission at hand. His eyes flicker back to Lin, and with some concern he frowns, but he nods. "We should, if everyone is all right. Obviously there is something down here, something that warrants a guardian. We will need to be more cautious from here on out. We are likely to encounter worse things."
Conrad rather enjoys the sparkler show, though unlike some of the others, he has nothing against the bull. It didn't attack him at all. Making his way back to join up with the others, he doesn't crowd up around the cop and instead keeps his distance as he continues to look the place over for any other threats or just anything of interest. "Can you still hear that music?" He questions the injured cop.
Dion's forehead wrinkles again at the prospect of worse things, but he continues on with the others. He's quiet again now.
There is a hole through the back subway wall, one that leads on in to still darker spaces. From there, they will leave the comfortable society of familiar dark and guarded subway tunnels in favor of something…else. Vette sticks her head in, just to see, and pulls back. "West, and East, " she reports. "We've a fork in the road and a decision to make, it seems." No further music is coming from the bull.
Lin walks over to pick up his flashlight before rejoining them at the hole in the wall. "Hmm. I can't get us any further. The trail, the music is everywhere now. I can't localize it." He says with a friend. "I guess I must have lost it in the fight." He looks to the others. "Sorry."
Hearing that, Rufus reaches his hand into his pocket to draw out his silver pocketwatch. It glows in his hand, as he concentrates, and then he slips it back inside and says, "There are two ways to handle this that come readily to mind. If our cell phones are working, then we split up. The first person to find anything of interest calls the other party. The other way is to remain together, which may take more time to explore the subway system, but obviously affords us more protection should something go wrong. I am comfortable with either option. What would the remainder of you prefer? Unless, of course, someone has a /third/ option."
Dion replies quietly "I vote for not splitting up." That's as much input as he has to offer at the moment, though.
Conrad hears out the options given, then eyes each person in the group in the case that they do split up. He doesn't look overly impressed nor amused by this selection for the most part. "Do we even have a good solid group if we're doing the splitting up? I mean, this isn't some cartoon where we're facing goons in masks, bringing out the spooks to hide their crimes."
"I think we should stay together," Vette murmurs, still peering in the hole. "I think that all of our skills and abilities are needed here, and it would be a mistake to ignore the fact that we were all brought together for a purpose. Just take Dion here. He didn't want to come at all but I'll wager we'd still be wrestling cattle if he hadn't been here, and nursing more injuries. It took a team effort, and I believe it will continue to take a team effort. Further, Lin is hurt, and in spite of his ability to heal quickly, I do not think we should ignore the fact that he is."
Lin shakes his head. "I suggest we stay together. We were all brought together for a reason. It is best we stay together for what is to come." He looks to Conrad and shakes his head. "I suggest…right." He says, pointing in the direction.
"Very well then," Rufus says, nodding his head to the idea. He glances off to the right, presumably the east, then he looks back at Vette and the others. "Well, let's be off. No sense wasting more time."
Vette STed this scene.
