Participants:
| Scene Title | Road Trip: A Slight Detour |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | The D-List are sent off-roading in an attempt to avoid another encounter with a Divine Police Office. Unfortunately, combat with Mechano-Centaurs ensues. |
A dirt road off the side of I-97, under an overpass.
There are 12 members of "The Horsemen." gang. 6 of them appear to be different versions of the same idea…hybrid men mixed with motorcycle parts. The others are human, but they are armed, even the youngest. A dirty blonde girl who is carrying her own hand cannon, even though she aims it shakily…. she doesn't seem much older than the kids in the van.
"Sorry kids." offers, Crank, the leader of this cell as he pumps the action on his mossberg and levels it at the first out of the car…probably Aillen. "We got orders to take you out….So. Nice to meet you 'n all but…Bye." And with that….lets just say….THERE WAS A FIREFIGHT!
The bullets fly past, and instantly Hopper slides out of the car, keeping the door open to provide him cover for half a second. The amulet around his neck lights up like the freakin' sun, the rabbits foot radiating a light blue. He then rolls in the mud, leaving a fading trail of Hopper's behind him as he matrix's along the ground and then at the last moment, pushes off his with legs, sending his body flat as he sails through the air, bringing his gun up to fire off a shot before he lands hard on the hood of the van and rolls off and back onto the ground on the other side.
Jocelyn crouches low in the van as the bullets fly during the initial assault, watching as Hopper makes short work of the biggest and nastiest. She glances back at Aillen for a moment before she slinks out the back of the van, her sword clenched in her hand as she darts quickly towards the front. She charges forward, sword slashing in the direction of the second nastiest hybrid. A gust of air travels along the length of the sword, slashing through the falling rain and making a bee-line for the target.
Get out of the van? Not Dion's first choice. Not even his second or third choice. Once the bullets start flying he is about as useful as a Prius at the Indy 500. As at first he drops to the floor of the van, making a face as he fears what he's getting on his clothes, he yells, "Don't kill them all! We need information!" Yeah, because at twelve against three they're focused on taking prisoners… he realizes though what he just said, and grimaces.
Don't kill them all? What kind of a person is he? As loathe as he is to do it, he forces himself out and very… himself, triggering all sorts of things to try not to be the one dying. Untouchable Opponent was started when they saw what was coming. Now, Center of Attention, Crowd Control, Pied Piper… All designed to stop them from killing them all as he utters those time-honored words "Can't we all just get along?"
Aillen dove out of the back door of the van, coming to a roll in the wet road as he came to a skidding halt in the puddling surface with a small splashed wave. With an enemy dropped and another injured, Aillen’s eyes passed over them a moment with a wicked grin. His weapon dropped down low in his hand as he clung almost to the end butte of the legendary spear for greatest leverage as he let out a roar into the falling rain as he swung the barbed blade into the neck of the motorman.
Chaos fills the air. Hopper is blown clean back against the roof of the van, from the force of the shot from the knuckle buster, which while causing a little bruising on Hopper's end, ends the life of the Centaur. His eyes get large as suddenly the bullet hits and he just explodes into black oil like blood, body parts and mechanical components. Another is sliced right across the chest, causing it to start spewing oil-blood from the streak of sharpened air via Jo's sword. Another is stuck right through the chest by Aillen's spear, grips it in his hand and then just keels over.
The mortals, and the 3 remaining Horsemen all turn their attention to Dion who seems to be the centaur of attention…get it? Centaur of attention? no? Moving on….The mortals drop their weapons and the young blond woman and a greasy but handsome looking young man start in his direction, smiling softly and needing to be around him. The centaur are not happy. The 4 remaining active ones, focus on Dion….Bang Bang Bang.
THUD, roll, *SPLASH* Hopper hits rolls and then lands in the mud, quickly scrambling to his feet. "I'm ok!" He announces as he hefts the hand cannon up once more, narrowing his eyes and turning his attention on one of the bad guys shooting at Dion. "Hey! Knock it off!" he yells as he attempts once more to pull the trigger, as he does so, he is once again lifted up and off his feet and knocked about 5 feet back and onto his ass.
Jocelyn ducks slightly as more bullets fly around the van, wiping the rain out of her eyes with the back of her hand and eyeing the remaining foes. She is quite relieved that the mortals are getting out of the way of the battle, not really wanting to be responsible for injuring them. Jo lunges again, slashing through the rain at the nearest uninjured centaur-bike-man-creature, a visible burst of air leaving the edge of the blade and displacing the rain as it travels, heading straight for the chest of the hybrid.
Yes, Dion is a bright light in some otherwise dismal, dreary lives. Even in all this rain, he's just radiant. Or something. He smiles to those that drop their weapons, and smiles more brightly to the two coming over to him. Of course, the others are less impressed and there's more bullets. This time, aimed in his direction. His eyes become saucers as he flinches back. "Duck!" he yells to those between him and the shooters, though there's little chance they'll listen. They'll want to protect him, after all. Poor dears. He shouts to the ones still fighting "Please don't! We don't want to hurt you anymore!" He's not entirely sure that's true, but he can't bring himself to go with 'My friends are just aching to make you smears on the asphalt'. Not that he really thinks that's true, either. They're the good guys, after all.
Aillen placed his foot on the Centaur and pulled out Gae Bolga, the wicked barbs hooked on the internal organs and bones and nasty bits which followed the weapon out as the barbs retracted into the spear head leaving bits and peices on the wet concrete to let the rain wash it away.
The 2 remaining look at their fallen comrades and the mortals who have dropped weapons and changes sides. They look like they are ready to rip the heads off of the foursome of teenagers, but self-preservation is at the forefront of their brains. Live to fight another day and all that. They wince and collect as much of their friends pieces as they can before transforming and riding off without another word, making very quick tracks. The mortals that are left behind seem to mill amongst themselves, offering apologies to the group before making tracks themselves. Only Tony and Debbie stay…. and they stay very close to Dion.
Now that that battle is over, Jocelyn glances up at the overpass, checking to see if the Officer and the red car were still up there, squinting through the rain, sword still clasped in her hand out of habit. She looks over the mortals that stick around, raising an eyebrow and chuckling at Dion, "You really do collect people." Jo ultimately lets her sword fall from her hand, the weapon vanishing before it hits the ground, and climbing into the back of the van to get out of the rain.
Dion looks incredibly relieved as the fighting stops, and breathes out a sigh. He wishes the other mortals good luck and a hope they'll stay safe before they go, then turns his attention to the remaining two. They're busy fussing, making sure he's not hurt or otherwise traumatized. Sweet, huh? He smiles at Jo, then takes out his flask. It turns into its goblet form, and wine is offered. "You say that like it's a bad thing. They're just a couple kids like us that got into some bad stuff. That's all." Proper introductions are done, and Dion fetches an oversized umbrella for them.
The car and cop are both gone, like they were never there. Hopper for his part, begrudgingly picks himself up out of the muck and mire and turns to look at the car, frowning visibly. "Oh….my god….my parents will kill me. I'll have to tell them it was like this when I got it…." he scratches his head and then looks around to some of the pieces left on the ground and opens the hood to look down at the engine which is full of bullet holes. "Fuck me sideways with a rusty sledgehammer…."
"So how long before we're back on the road there Hopper? Or do we need to get the car dragged to a mechanic?" Aillen sighed as he didn't look forward to being the one to have to drag it. "Weird ambush set up though." He glanced around the ground for the centaurs cell phone, figuring it might be useful if they could find it and it wasn't too waterlogged.
"Huh. Guess they both didn't think we'd survive that. I don't know if I'm happy they're gone, or insulted that they thought so little of us," Jo harrumphs slightly, crossing her arms over her chest and sitting halfway out of the van, apparently not minding the rain. She gives Dion a look, shrugging slightly, "Not saying it's a bad thing. Just stating."
She looks down at her phone, re-reading the text message she had been sent earlier, frowning at it, "I don't think the original text I got was meant to run us into an ambush. Dunno," she frowns, glaring at the phone as though it were keeping something from her, "The message came from the red car, not from centaur's phone." Jo shrugs and continues glaring at her phone.
The umbrella is huge, so at least it'll spare a couple people more drenching. On the other hand, it's a little late to not get wet. Dion hands it to Tony, who is happy to hold it for them. He looks over the van then, before frowning too. "That bad, is it? Any chance you can get it moving again, or should we start walking?" he asks, echoing Aillen's question. Then though, his attention turns more to Tony and Debbie. "So… what was all that about, anyway? I mean, why'd you and your friends do that?"
Debbie looks pretty embarrassed about the whole thing. She is the young one, though. Tony does too, but he answers with "It was this cop that told us to do it. Officer Juno. Said she'd lock us up in some jail if we didn't. Somewhere called…" He has to think for a moment, to remember. Debbie fills it in, though. "Tartarus. That was the place. I remember cause it's named after someplace Greek or something." Their reply does not make Dion pleased, and they both promptly start apologizing.
… To be continued
//The second installment of the Road Trip series. Preceded by: Road Trip: Getting Underway. Followed by Road Trip: Waffle House of Fate //
