Pulse and Aegis both hit the same snake at the same time, one with a hypervelocity quarter and the other with a giant tree trunk!
The snake's skin cracks in a couple of places, showing blood, and it recoils and shakes it's head and hisses angrily!
Violet chews her lip, obviously not happy about the idea of leaving Pulse up in a tree, but nods.
"Much more of this and I'll be a snack, and not in the good way. Get your sniper on."
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END TRACK: 50 - 4 (Force Field) = 46 - 4 (Force Field) = 42 - 4 (Force Field) = 38
END RESERVE: 60 - 4 (Flight) = 56 - 4 (Flight) = 52 - 4 (Flight) = 48
STUN TRACK: 35 - 4 (3, 1) = 31 - 2 = 29
BODY TRACK: 13 - 2 (1, 1) = 11 - 2 = 9
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::Blaze, Aegis... Mud if you can. Keep pounding diamond! On my mark!:: Pulse calls out from her crow's nest, waiting for her portable gauss rifle to recharge, ::Go!:: she calls out, just before firing, lightning arcing behind the assault once more, but she's left panting after the new round of fire.
Mud tries to get to and coordinate on Pulse's mark.
Aegis would try to synchronize her attacks in tune with Pulse's orders as she swung another metal fist towards the oversized pool noodle.
Pulse's quarter misses by a few feet, blowing a hole in a tree. But the pink lightning lances out and strikes the snake in the snout! Blaze's wind sickle slashes into the creature, and both Aegis and Mud slam it with fists, causing the snake to shudder and collapse.
Pulse, knowing that she has a moment, allows herself a moment of respite. Her forcefields stop glowing brightly as the gaps in her armor reappear beneathe, showing that she's still worse for wear. The acid wasn't affecting her at all, but the same forces that were mending her wounds were threatening to tear her apart. There was no opportunity for the others to aid her with this next attack, so it was much better to bide her time until they could move into position.
The fight is short, bloody, and painful, but the group manages to put down both of the new snakes. Pulse can feel more snakes in the distance, but they seem to be keeping their distance for now. Circling whatever has managed to take out 3 of them so far. Unfortunately, this means that her radar and all comm systems are overwhelmed as the snakes circle as if trying to figure out what to do with the tasty but dangerous morsels.
::Still can't detect a fracking thing. They're circling us like scaly vultures.:: Pulse says from her crow's nest. ::Any ideas on where we're meant to be going at this point? If those snakes are someone's pets, I think we're gonna have a bad time.::
Pulse lowers her hands down below her from her sniper nest and focuses on creating a barrier between herself and the snakes, disrupting signals that are coming from below and hoping to get a clearer signal straight up.
Pulse immediately looks annoyed and sends another pulse, creating a thicker cushion of jamming energy.
Just as Pulse is about to send out a suppression wave, Ping suddenly hangs up, and crashes hard, giving her the mental equivalent of a 'Blue Screen of Death' and a piercing headache.
She then slowly topples over and falls from her perch in the tree...
Mud attempts to catch her.
Once the snake had been killed, or at least knocked out, Aegis would immediately try to get Mud to help her bury this one like the last.
::Try to put this one underground like the last-:: She cuts off her message as she sees Pulse plummet without warning. She starts to jump after her but seeing that Mud was already moving to do so she resigned herself to helpless watching from fear of getting in the way.
::Pulse, what happened?:: She asked, not even attempting to hide the panic in her 'voice', hoping Pulse was at least conscious even if injured.
Mud misses his attempt to catch Pulse, who bounces off a limb or two before slamming into the ground with a heavy thump sound.
There's an audible groan drawn out into an expletive from the base of the tree. ::Not so loud.:: came the response after a slight delay, ::S'like that time Violet made fun of me for not eating my Honeycomb after I matched you drink for drink. And before you argue, two drinks counts as matching. Brain broke. Body hurts. Something whammied me, and everything slowed down. I think I overheated Ping.:: she responds in staccato bursts with long pauses, as if breathing slowly between each line. There's another audible groan-turned-expletive from the ground.
"I need a breather... then we really need to get moving." Pulse says, not bothering to get up.
Blaze kept his elevated position. ::I'll see if I can find us some high ground. Maybe at least that can give us some better options than being on their level in the open, right?::
Mud waits around. His form is somewhat distorted from all the acid damage. He would be in pain if he felt any.
Blaze sees nothing but jungle as far as the eye can see, this part of the continent is pretty level. Even higher ground wouldn't be much of a deterrent for snakes that can reach up that high.
Violet worries over Pulse until such time as she's sure that Pulse is going to be okay, then drops down to the ground to walk beside Pulse (and save some Endurance), as the group pushes through the jungle.
::Great, we're in the equivalent of Florida,:: Blaze (currently Scirocco?) sent to the group. ::Flat as far as the eye can see. At least I can provide some early warning, now that we have an idea of what to look for.
They had come to perform a mission. Now he was worried that they might not make it out of here alive. If he had still been Torchy McTorchface, he might've been able to set some of the trees ablaze (even though he didn't want to really start a forest fire) to form a barrier.
What a time for him to suddenly change elements! He didn't even know that was possible…
With no where else to go, the group continues on in the general direction they were originally heading. Pulse is continually blinded and pounded by the radio jamming signals given off by the other snakes. The wave after wave of pounding growing stronger as more snakes begin to gather around the group, maintaining their distance for now, perhaps trying to analyze what this interesting new prey is. Pulse isn't sure how many snakes there are now, other than 'lots'.
After another hour or two trekking through the jungle, the group stumbles across a clearing that looks like a minor war zone occurred here. There are multiple bullet holes in the trees, the trunks torn up by lead. There are shattered tree trunks, and crushed vegetation.
Mud also finds a rotting human arm still holding what looks to be an MP5 sub-machine gun...
"Good news... found the good guys. Bad news... found the good guys." Pulse says after they make their way into the circle. "Wonder how long the fear we put into them will keep them away." she says almost absentmindedly. "I wonder how many snakes attacked in this area." she says, grinding a quarter between her fingers and thumb.
After Aegis shakes herself out of the shock of seeing Pulse fall she would rush over in a panic to make sure she was all right, or at least not dead. Hearing Pulse back on the Mind-link helps calm Aegis quite a bit but she's still clearly shaken. It would take a lot of convincing from Pulse not to abort the mission and get Pulse medical attention ASAP but once talked down she would reluctantly agree, if mostly because she didn't know any quick way out of the jungle at the moment. Once the team started moving again Aegis would offer to carry Pulse while Blaze was scouting but if Pulse refused she would be content to just staying close to her and Violet.
Once they stumble on the battlefield Aegis would volunteer to take a look around, "Violet, will you stay here with Pulse so we can get a closer look?"
Assuming Mud shows Aegis the weapon she would examine it, trying to find out anything she could that help them figure out what they were dealing with, besides Reptiles of unusual size.
Aegis looks over the MP5, and quickly determines that it is not now, and has never been, military issue. It's a cheap knock-off that no self respecting military would ever use. It's more like the weapons that are commonly found on the black market.
"Ewww." Mud comments about his discovery.
"He's dead, Jim." Pulse adds, deadpan, from the edge of the clearing, not being helpful in the slightest.
With Ping back awake... ish, Pulse sets to work trying to analyze and separate the different radio blasts sent at her by the snakes... because she was pretty sure it wasn't just random blasts, maybe they were like bats... so she has Ping record clips for her so they can go over it in slow clips, and begin tugging the data apart, hoping to figure out how to yell 'not food' at them before they dove in for an opportunity at redigesting her.
Mud is guessing it was bitten off, as the ragged edge is not cleanly cut, and the bone is broken as if crushed.
Ping is unable to record anything, the blasts are literally overwhelming her receivers to the point where they just ache in pain.
Finally giving up on drowning out the constant barrage of radio waves through willpower alone, Pulse growls and clenches her fist, creating a bubble of suppressing energy around herself.
After looking over the weapon for a while, Aegis would try to figure out their next move. "Cheap knock-off fire arms, so whoever is using them either has no money or a s@#!-ton of people they need to arm." She pauses to take another look at the clearing. "Don't think that was much of a mystery though. Blaze do you see any kind of trail we could follow?"
For her part, Violet remains quiet and helps keep Pulse upright, keeping her energy on reserve in case an opponent she can affect decides to pop up. She keeps her eyes and ears open, and her head on a swivel.
Pulse slowing herself down and concentrating on keeping up the field helps with the headaches, although it doesn't do much for being able to gather information from her heavily abused senses.
Blaze is unable to see any trails, the jungle swallows them up rapidly after a rain, and there's been several since then.
Finally, continuing on at a slower pace to allow for Pulse's condition, the group moves on. Pulse feels the snakes slowly gathering closer as they move. The pounding growing stronger slowly, like heavy drums pounding harder and harder against her brain.
Then she begins to notice a slight bulge ahead, from the direction they are going, as if the snakes were avoiding something and going farther away from them in that direction.
About that time, Blaze notices a small break in the trees about half a mile ahead.
::Oy, there's a break in the trees about a klik ahead,:: He sent to the others. ::I could go forward for a closer look.::