Scrunching up her face, Shayera looks dubious. "I wasn't around when the law was passed, obviously, but that's the first I've heard of that theory. And believe me, we were never organized, so I'm not sure how they got the idea that we'd be a danger to them. Mostly we were at each other's throats. Or in the hospital."
Shayera’s reaction was...jarring. It reminded Shaun of the past, of things he’d done his best to forget, made them writhe in his stomach like worms in blackened soil. He took a deep breath and muttered the mantra under his breath: ”Na eagal bàs, agus eagal bàis thu.” Now wasn’t the time for those thoughts...
Still though, her reaction was odd. For someone so clearly used to being put together, it was an unexpected chink in the armor.
”Uh, I think I agree w’Herman. We got ta’ opportunity here ta’ make a difference f’people who need a difference made. And a team’s ta’ best way for that ta’ happen. Even if y’don’t have one (which I’m still not convinced y’don’t). Will ya’ at least THINK about helpin’ me out here? Even if ya’ wanna stay out of it, you’ve been here longer than I have. Ya’ could at least put in a good word for me with these suits.”
"Just what they want. Us fighting each other, or poor folks using powers to try to get enough money to take care of their families. We gotta rise above teenage drama and make a real difference."
Shayera nods slowly. "Oookay." I wonder how he'll feel once he knows I'm rich. Well, at least I'm not an old white guy.
1: She seems like someone who is pretty cool-headed in combat. She likely thinks you're too much of a hot head. Show her that you can engage without being enraged, she'll think you're ready.
2: She hasn't seen you in real action yet. Impress her in combat and you'll have influence. Alternately, do something selfless or heroic without concern for the glory or the 'likes.'
3: She seems intent on helping that other girl from the dance studio. That seems like a long-term project.
Shayera nods to Kilt. "All right. Sure. I'll think about it. If it looks like we're getting the band back together, I'll think about giving you a call. You've got one of the earbuds, so I'll be able to find you."
She gives both a handshake if they're willing. "Nice meeting you, Herman. Shaun."
Cassie finished her coffee, and sat back, and looked around, bored. Sighing, she got up from her chair and made her way back to the display areas. Sighing, she turned towards the Aztec area, where she wouldn't, at least, have to look at old classical stuff that would just remind her of her mother and the boring lessons that Gabrielle had been inflicting on her during their study sessions. Entering the smaller and less-crowded area, she was surprised to see a few other students around, including the Scottish idiot from that night, she turned left, keeping the row of glass cabinets between herself and the other group, and made a pretense of studying the artifacts as she tried her best to hear what they were saying - Things seemed a little heated, although she couldn't make out the details.
In front of her were a series of pots, small statues, carved stones and various other items. Something drew her eye to a small chipped stone - much smaller than the huge disks around it. The stone was carved with a series of intricate glyphs, above which was the image of a man in an intricate headdress - probably a priest of some sort, holding his hands up in front of another, somehow more,... stone-like figure. Forgetting her classmates, she bent forward to examine the glyphs. Something about them was fascinating - She could almost sense power emanating from them. She didn't know how, but she could almost sense the meaning of them, and the power of the words they recorded. She was sure that, if she could hold it, she would understand their meaning
"Hey Bronwyn. You look... nice." She finishes lamely. To try to distract from the fact that now she was being awkward with Bronwyn AND Alexis, she adopted a nearly perfect imitation of Shaun's Scottish accent. "Who ya all doll'd up fer, doll?" And without waiting for a response, immediately switched back to her normal accent and continued. "Have you met Alexis. Alexis, this is Bronwyn. Brownyn, Alexis."
"Oh yeah, we've met, I'm helping her get settled in too. I like your outfit today, Alexis, very chic." Why. Why bring up outfits. You could've breezed right past it if you hadn't brought up outfits. "I supposed I am a little dress-y today. But I'm not going to practice or anything and I just... I feel like I've got a whole closet full of stuff like this back home, and I'm so bad at ever actually wearing it out." She smiled with a blend of 9-parts warm to 1-part sheepish. "So I took the excuse."
"So, anything I should make sure to check out? I see the museum shares Mr. Holder's interest in the gladius taking a starring role, but I saw-"
Tremors ran through the floor, barely noticeable at first, but one by one the individual exhibit alarms began to go off as the rumbles grew closer, preceded by the sound of screams.
"Guys, what's goi-" the end of Bronwyn's sentence was cut off by an earsplitting roar, too loud and too deep to mean anything other than "You. Are. Prey."
Kaoru's eyes go wide. "Oh my god. AGAIN. You have GOT to be KIDDING me! It's my THIRD FKING DAY. Hey Bronwyn, I don't suppose you want to actually finish that sentence you started to tell me on my first day before running off to be a hamster, do you?" She didn't really expect a response. And based on those noises, whatever this was sounded a lot more dangerous than some dude with a powerful kick. But at least I'm prepared this time! Or...well, *more* prepared. Maybe.
She quickly reached into her backpack and pulled out a small drone, which she promptly turned on. Pulling out her phone, she started up the control app and sent the mechanical device in the direction of the noises. And screaming. Using the front-facing camera and its ability to fly, it was easy enough to navigate it above the crowds of people. "Hey guys, where exactly do you think the sound came from? Oh, nevermind. I guess I should just look for fleeing people."
In place the drone turned on its axis as Kaoru attempted to find the best direction to head in next on her small smartphone screen. Unfortunately, the speaker was still busted since her new phone hadn't arrived yet, so it would be visual only. It took a few moments, but eventually, she found where everybody seemed to be trying to get away from. It looked like the dinosaur exhibit? Why would someone attack there? She didn't think fossils were typically that valuable unless they were especially rare. Which, maybe they were? Not like she would know. She sent her brave little drone into the room. All color drained from her face as she saw the giant, animated t-rex skeleton roar yet again. "What the...THAT DOESN'T EVEN MAKE SENSE IT HAS NO LUNGS!" Because, y'know, that was the part that made the least sense. "We should...ah...get out of here probably. And find security. I'm pretty sure I saw their main office around somewhere." She looked at her two companions, kind of hoping one of them would actually inform her that she was halucinating and it wasn't an animated t-rex skeleton she was seeing.
"We have met. She doesn't look that nice." Alexis lied as she looked over Kaoru's shoulder. Bronwyn looked amazing to her. A total transformation from the athletic gear she normally wore. Not that she'd admit so out loud that she thought the other girl was prettier than her right now, even with Alexis' new clothes and make up.
And Kaoru was enjoying Bronwyn and her classy look. Somehow that gnawed at her. It was an unfamiliar feeling that she disliked. It drove her to push out and engage in petty comments. But she also didn't want Kaoru to sour on her. And Shayera liked Bronwyn. And she sort of liked her when she wasn't feeling like this around the other girl.
"...Sorry. I was still a little upset. I shouldn't be so mean," She berated herself. "But, um...do you like war history? I was taught it a lot at..." Not barracks, Shayera had coached her. "H-Home school," She said. Shayera said that would help people understand her awkwardness.
"...I wish I was better at reading, though." She sulks a bit, looking over at some of the artifacts. "Big words are hard to read. I know what they are, I just take too long to read them and people think I'm dumb or slow because of that."
She wanted to say more, except sudden things started to get chaotic. She heard roaring and screaming and the hair on the back of her neck raised as she looked around, trying to figure out what was going on.
"Yes!" He pumped his arm in success. "Thank ya'! Y'won't regret this, I'll show ya' what I can do!" He shook her hand with gusto. "Great meetin' ya' too, ma'am. Seriously, please, hit me up if there's ever any-" He was cut off by the roar and screaming. Before even consciously thinking about it, his switchblade was ready in his off hand. "...trouble. That came from inside the museum, let's move!"
He didn't stop to see if the other two moved as he started sprinting towards the origin of the sounds, nearly bowling over some random dark-haired girl looking at fancy dishes in a cabinet. "Sorry mo neach brèagha, hero business, get to safety as quick as you can!" he turned back around and kept sprinting, the oddest sense of deja-vu at the edges of his senses, as though he'd just run into an old friend...
He turned the corner into the dinosaur hall, and was simultaneously stuck with confusion, surprise, and pure joy. It was a super villain, and actual super villain! He took a breath, and took in his surroundings...
At the sounds, Herman looks to Shayera and Shaun. "You got secret identities, right? Can you switch up while I distract whatever this is?"
"Or ...he could just do that." Herman races after Shaun. Those sounds seemed to call for an indestructible dude.
Cassie's attention was suddenly drawn away from the Aztec artifact by someone, erg, the Scottish idiot again! pushing past her and muttering something about 'hero business'. Finally noticing the noises coming from somewhere in the museum she realized that there was something going on. Something BAD! As quickly as possible, she moved over to the hall's doorway and peered around the corner. It couldn't be her mother. Could it? She had to find a way out!
Alexandra had been smiling as she watched Kaoru, Bronwyn, and Shayera's little shadow... Alex, maybe. interacting. she was also friggin' burning to jump in on the super's convo, but she couldn't... no matter how agressively wrong Herman was being.
Then, the weird noises started. She grabbed her pack, and ducked into the lavitory, exercising her ability to change quickly.
Okay, so giving up on the facade that we aren't all students at Halcyon High, you two are already on sight and powered up, right? or do you need support for a change? Alexandra says into the communicator. And, tell me someone already pointed our resident flying Brick at the enemy.
Shaun dashed into the next hall over, face lighting up as he took in quite a sight. Throughout the hall Every skeleton and fossil was on the move. The scattered fossils that lay separated in displays were rattling and shattering their glass barriers, forming into awful frankensteined constructs, or simply into whirlwinds of bone fragments. More complete skeletons were already loose, ghostly images of their former selves flickering around them as they moved.
A pair of stegosauruses and a trio of triceratopses were stampeding straight towards him! But behind those titans of epochs past loomed the source of the roars that still echoed in his ears, one of the largest carnivores to ever walk the earth, a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Straddling its neck and having just the time of his life was an extravagantly, but impeccably dressed man, his dark skin had been covered over in paint to mimic his skeletal creations, but it had clearly been carefully applied, since his vibrant purple coat was unstained. "Go! Go! Hunt!" he cried, "Go an' find what Bone Daddy want!"
Up in the Hall of Gratuitously Pointy Objects, rather more to-scale problems were manifesting. Mummies from an adjacent wing on the preserved dead had begun to walk in, smashing cases and seizing weapons. Whether preserved by the cold, dry heat, or bogs, their wrappings and lingering skin sloughed off them as Bone Daddy's magic restored them to a more proper state for corpses.
Puñeta!
Bronwyn leapt into action, trying to shepherd as many people as she could towards the security office "Good idea Kaoru,
"Alexis, you don't have to fight here if you don't want to. But if you do," she leaned over and smashed a glass case with her elbow to pluck out a helmet, "mask up."
This is so cool! Shaun adjusted his duffle bag as he quickly backpedaled. "Herman, need some strength over here lad!" I mean, totally out of my weight class, and I don't have a sword, but still!
MEANWHILE...
The others in the weapons hall were more than a little panicked by the sudden rising of the undead, but this was Halcyon. This wasn't anything new. Even before she finished the command a few of the other students were guiding folks towards the nearest emergency exit. The ones closest to Bronwyn nodded in agreement, clearly afraid but keeping their wits for the moment, and followed as she led.
Cassie gasped at the scene and at the feeling of mystical energy gathering all around her, the sight of undead dinosaurs, Dinosaurs! Charging through the hall. For a moment, she considered doing what that girl from the first day, Bronwyn?, was shouting and following the other students, but she knew that the man riding the dinosaur would just get more powerful if he was allowed to get whatever it was that he wanted. Besides, this almost certainly didn't involve her mother. Undead dinosaurs in a public museum was not exactly subtle.
Closing her eyes, Cassie concentrated and let her senses fill the area. Whatever it was that the dinosaur-riding man wanted, it'd be best if she could, maybe, get it first.
Cassie had thought it would be something that the actual necromancer had, but as she probed further, a terrible sense of absolute unmoving cold flooded her senses. She tried to narrow down the artifact before she was forced to break off her spell, but every time she tried to get closer, her magic turned back on itself, until she finally broke her divinations off early with a hiss, only able to unveil its location. Still, it seemed like the Hall of Heroes before Capes was worth a visit after all...
Shayera was slightly taken aback by how excited Shaun was about maybe joining a nonexistent team, but decided to let him hold onto his dreams. She starts to give Herman a smirk when their whole exchange is interrupted by the deep vibrations of something big and heavy moving through the museum.
"That way," she points, and she instantly runs in the opposite direction. She sprints towards a door that reads, "Authorized Personnel Only" and bursts through it. Once inside the back room storage, Shayera pulls off her top leaving just a plain black tank top and yanks her pendant free, revealing her metallic wings.
Taking flight within the narrow but high-ceilinged storage area, Wingblade slices her way between the drop ceiling and the ventilation system and makes her way into the main exhibit hall.
Appearing above the mayhem and weaving among the ventilation pipes and the hanging exhibits, Wingblade gasps as she sees animate skeletons of giant dinosaurs stomping and roaring in the museum while students scream and flee toward the exits. Well, most of them anyway. A few are directing traffic and a select few seem intent on engaging the enemy.
She catches sight of the man riding the T-Rex, and hears his orders to have them go after some sort of objective. Diving toward the lead dino, Wingblade puts her weaponized wings to work, slashing as she flies by and distracting it from the students lagging behind.
Wait, is there a dude on top of the t-rex? That's...well, that's actually kinda cool. But seems super uncomfortable. Especially for a guy. It was then Kaoru looked up from her phone to notice the undead rising around her. "S$@@, dinosaurs AND a zombie apocalypse? What is wrong with this city?!?" Next she notices that Bronwyn was shepherding people towards the security office. Well, there goes my plan to lock myself in and borrow their security cameras... And...now she was breaking a glass case and handing Alexis a helmet? Odd since Bronwyn had seemed like too much of a goody-two-shoes to go for the looting. And judging from Alexis' response to her, they two didn't seem to be on the best of terms possibly.
What to do, what to do, what to do? The thought of trying to amp up Bronwyn's voice came to mind, but the people actually seemed to already be listening to her. Well, at least *they're* used to this bullsh*t. Really, what she needed was a better idea of the situation. The museum was too big for her to really have a good idea what was going on. But...she didn't actually have to go to the security center to get access to the camera. If she could just find a hardline to one, she might be able to get in that way. She quickly sent a signal for her drone to hover near the ceiling before dashing off in pursuit of a camera hardline.
Doing her best to dodge the rising dead, she quickly looked around. Too high. Too many enemies around. Ah, there! She pulled out her pocket knife (yay for not having to deal with metal detectors today!) and cut into one of the wires connected to the camera above her. Plugging her computer in, she attempted to gain access to the security network remotely and turn them into her eyes and ears.
Right before she slices into the wires, Kaoru hears a crackle of elecricity and instinctively freezes. "Drop the knife and back away from the computer." The voice came from behind her, where a wide-eyed security guard stood, hands clutching a taser. "Not gonna let you blind us for your buddy in the hat!"
Meanwhile, Wingblade carved a bloodless line down the flickering ghostly side of the lead stegosaurus. It gave an odd bleating groan, momentarily visible eyes rolling back in its head as it flailed its thagomizer at the fleet-winged warrior, missing her entirely, but quickly opening up a new exit from the hall.
The other dinosaurs behind it mostly stalled; one triceratops bulled its way through the new hole, but most of their momentum was stopped, for now.
Alexandra waits or anyone else ont he Comms... She isn't immediately successful. Maybe they weren't active yet. Maybe they just didn't want to talk.
then she saw someone holding Kaoru at Taser-point. D+!$@*#, you're gonna hold the student, rather than focus on the... whatever, no time.
Really sorry, but Kinda need him. the Silver shadow says, popping a dart into the guard's neck.
Not sure what you were doing, but I feel like you should keep doing it! She says 555-8943. keep me posted. she says, holding up her phone, on the off chance Kaoru didn't catch her meaning
Threats all around her. Grabbing whatever weapons that they could get for themselves. Alexis gripped onto the spangenhelm that Bronwyn gave her, thinking about it for a few moments. In a minute, she had pulled off her belt and the union jack shirt, since they were more readily identifiable, tucking them away before fitting on the helmet. It thankfully fit her without restricting her vision, as she turned, facing the horde unarmed, wearing only leggings and a borrowed sports bra of Shayera's that was too tight around her chest.
She didn't have to hold back if they were already dead, did she?
The room was exploding. Mostly because she was punching warriors so hard they smashed through display cases, their weapons scattered as she did. She grabbed one aztec warrior, and slammed her knee so hard into its head it burst into bone dust. She grabbed a viking attempting to strike her with an axe, and threw him through the conquistador display. And when the Qin warlord attempted to stab her with its dao longsword, she snapped off its arm, and slashed him in half with its own weapon.
Perhaps it was good she was wearing a mask, because she'd forgotten just how much fun it was to let loose!
Mercy's vicious onslaught easily clears or distracts a wide swathe of the Undead Horde, freeing Bronwyn and Kaoru to act unimpeded.
But simply crushing their bones to powder isn't enough to stop them permanently. The shattered skeletons begin to piece themselves back together, mixing and matching electic or ill-fitting parts til their flickering remembered-selves clearly differ from the new monstrosities that surround Mercy, just weapons broken and reforged into new shapes, not even allowed to die.
Wow. Behind Mercy's line of destroyed soldiers, Bronwyn darted back with quick precise steps, surprisingly nimble in her heels. "Kaoru? Come on, what are you doing? It's dangerous out here!"
Sh*t! The guards! How could I forget about them? Kaoru was just about to yell some obvious lie about there being a monster behind the man when Alexandra Silver Shadow jumped out to her rescue. God I hope this doesn't become some kind of recurring theme... She raises an eyebrow at the phone. "You intend to carry that around next to your ear waiting for intel?" Nevertheless, she dutifully typed the number into a phone dialing program on her computer.
Her eye twitches slightly as Alexis proceeds to destroy everything around her. Ugg, is *everyone* a superhero? What, am I some kind of hero magnet now? Then to make matters worse, now Bronwyn was yelling at her that it was dangerous and she should get out. I'm not some fking damsel in distress!
"Do you really think I'm that dumb that I can't see that? I'm trying to get us some freaking info so we can come up with some kind of coherent plan." This was some stupid freaking museum. She had hacked into a government agency to put her ex-boyfriend on a terrorist watchlist. She wasn't going to let some freaking skeletons make her look like some idiot who didn't even know the difference between WEP and WPA2. Only one person had been able to stop her thus far, and they weren't here. So what if she couldn't punch everything to death? Apparently, Alexis could. Herman could. For all she knew, everybody in this freaking school could. But she'd be willing to bet not one of them knew their way around a computer system like she did. And she was going to get access to the freaking cameras.
Do I just thump him and hide him somewhere?
No, he's right. This is crazy and we don't know what's going on. If the Silver Shadow thinks it's worth having him do this, she thought, noticing the dart in the security guard's neck, then he's not just messing around.
"Okay. I trust you. I'm gonna be right here til you crack that thing, so you don't need to focus on anything else, okay? Just do what you're doing, Kaoru. You can trust me too."
Bronwyn gave Kaoru a quick pat on the shoulder, "Alright! Don't get too zoned in though. If they look like they're going to get past her, you run, okay? I'm gonna find somewhere safe to stash dart-guy, and see if I can find any more help."
Alexis had a lot going for her in this battle. Certainly the skeletons didn't get tired. But it would take a lot before she ran out of steam. Fatigue was a state she'd surpassed thanks to her strange body, as she used her borrowed dao broadsword to keep thinning the numbers of these ridiculous monsters. They were beginning to look not like their ancient counterparts but amalgams of hastily put together bone, rasping and hissing as they eschewed their broken weapons for claws and grasping hands.
She considered how she was going to contain all of these things until they stopped moving. Unfortunately she'd smashed apart most things that were useful in this room, and the rest was out of reach. That was what happened when she didn't think ahead. She never really had to think, just follow orders.
Oh. Right. She wasn't alone anymore.
"Bronwyn! They won't stay down! I need to trap them somewhere!" She shouted, looking around to see if there was anything she could use that would do the task. In the meantime, she played defense and hacked off any bony parts that came to close to her.
Cassie shrank backward, doing her best to avoid being seen. Maybe the stupid charm wasn't so bad after all? Some idiot 'heroes' seemed to be dealing with the dinosaurs for now, but they didn't know about whatever it was that was in the next room. Cassie cursed under her breath and, waiting for a gap in the fighting, scurried through to the Hall of Heroes before Capes, Looking around the space for something that might be what the T-Rex-rider was after.
Cassie knew it was hidden, so she needed to be closer to sense it through its wards. She didn't know what it looked like, so she had to examine them all. But as she grabbed a winged rod of aged bronze, and felt a surge of recognition and satisfaction, she was all too aware that those emotions weren't hers.
The snakes wrapped along the length of the rod didn't move, but their eyes glowed with all the promise of the first lie. Do not worry, Little Witch. Everything will be jusst fine.
She'd found the artifact, and it was old, and it was strong. There was the ancient death she had smelled out there within it, and life too, and everything in between. She could sense that someone else old and strong had hidden it, but in her grasp she could feel it thrill to be found, and strain never to be hidden again.
Cassie managed to slip past the rampaging undead, helped more than a little bit by the swathe of destruction left by the girl who seemed to have gone mad. Mad, but effective!.. Entering the Hall of Heroes, she ducked behind a display cabinet and looked around. The hall was dominated by a series of ancient statues. The ancient greek section alone included. Achilles, Odysseus, Aeneas, Jason, Archimedes, Socrates, and more, each of which she recognised from her studies with Gabrielle. Doing her best to stay hidden, Cassie poked her head upward and scanned the space. Something drew her eye, from the next display cabinet and, staying low, she made her way further into the room. Drawing ever closer to,.. something,.. something that resonated with her.
As she drew closer, Cassie felt a hunger, a desire, overtake herself, and she raised her eyes to see a winged bronze rod entwined with two snakes - a Caduceus. Almost before she had time to think, she found herself fumbling at the display case's lock, for some reason, she felt a need, a compulsion to open it. The glass, however, was bulletproof, and the lock was strong. Magic, that was the only way. With just enough presence of mind to remember the warnings, she ripped her charm from her neck , and stuffed it into her pocket. Quickly, desperately, she touched the lock and concentrated, letting the accumulated years contained in her surroundings infuse the lock. Seconds later, rust had spread over the mechanism and she easily broke it open. Without a thought, she reached forward.
As her hand drew closer to the object images flashed across her vision. Circe, of course, but also a long-bearded man wearing white robes, a dark haired woman with an ornate green dress, an old woman wearing peasant clothes, a short man and a black-robed, bearded man, both with startlingly intense eyes, and many more... . Somehow, she knew that, just by drawing close to the object, she had drawn their attention, and that each of them was far more powerful than herself, and yet, she couldn't help herself. She grasped it.
Shaun grinned like an idiot as Wingblade cut down the dino. "Badass...!" He vaulted over the skeletal remains to the hole the flailing monster had just put in the wall. It'd make a great escape route for folks, provided he could get the smaller bits-and-pieces tornados off their tails.
It was all happening so quickly. Wingblade and some super strong girl seemed to be doing some real damage to these skeletons, but they didn't stay down long. Must be something powering them. But the museum was filled with innocent bystanders. "Everyone, supers are here to take care of this mess! Exit calmly! I'm ...well, I'm Go's son! I'll protect you!" Herman puts himself in between the retreating crowd and the monsters.
Fk, it wasn't working. Had she lost her edge? Silver Shadow had helped her out because she thought she could do something useful. But here she was thwarted by some dumb hick security system. She was worthless. She should have just let the guard take her somehow. And now Bronwyn was trying to be all supportive after she had snapped at her. She felt sick.
Nevertheless, she took a deep breath and tried to calm her trembling fingers. And...surprisingly it worked. The images from the security cameras started to pop up on her screen. "Got it!" She wasn't sure what hurt more: that she was so clearly out of her league in this city, that everybody kept needing to save her, or that she just honestly wasn't worth their effort.
Bronwyn then dashed off. And Alexis was calling for ideas on how to trap the stupid regenerating skeletons. Of course. Because clearly if she wasn't smart enough to hack the system, she wasn't smart enough to help find ways to trap monsters. "You could try tying them up with those security cordons they use to keep people away from exhibits? Or if you could get them all into a room, we might be able to barricade the doors." With the way things were going for her now, she wasn't sure she'd be able to get the door locking mechanisms to work. Why hadn't she just run to the security office? That would have made things easier. Or at least let her run away.
Herman interposes himself to give the other students plenty of time to evacuate, trusting that his invulnerability will keep him safe, which it nearly does. One of the bone whirlwinds engulfs him. It's unable to simply shred him, but it packs around him, cocooning him in bone shards too tightly to move!
"There!" cried Bone Daddy. With an imperious gesture he beckoned not forward, but off to the side, straight towards Hex's discovery, "C'mon now, no need pretendin' that we need to use a door," he chuckled. The behemoth he was riding responded instantly, smashing through the wall, even scraping at the ceiling as it reared up.
The bones aren't causing Herman pain, but they're preventing him from helping out. He couldn't just punch them off, he had no leverage. He tries to figure out what to do. What the f++*, what the f*~%, what the f#@+! The others need me!
But nothing comes to mind!
Enemy one, some squat, four legged thing with a head like a a triceratops, but minus the horns. One good cut with the switchblade and a hard yank and the thing was now missing its head.
Enemies two and three, a pair of bipedal suckers, looked like the small ones from Jurassic Park. Chuck the severed head at one, breaking its whole upper half off, slide under the other and sweep its legs. Few cuts along the hip and now it was missing its back half.
Enemy four, bigger one now, heavily armored and swinging some kind of club tail. No way the switchblade was gonna punch through that. Let it charge, drop prone and kip up as it passed over, passing through its ribs an into its chest. Clamber up to the head and start yanking vertebra out. Outside, the best started veering wildly, crashing through a few other fossilized freaks. Head finally comes off, slip out before the thing collapses in on itself.
Shaun stood up, a sizable armored dinosaur skull in one hand and a the switchblade in another. he expected to have been cut or bruised, but to his surprise he felt pretty fine. Better than fine even, great! Holy s$+% that was badass! He spared a glance up at Wingblade, more than a little eager to see if she'd seen how awesome he'd just been.
Kaoru quickly scanned over the images on screen. Still lots of people running away. Quite a few people attempting to hide one place or another. Some girl with her back to the camera attempting to loot some staff. Herman and...Shaun (?) and some girl with wings (??) fighting the skeletons. And then the dude on the t-rex was pointing somewhere and telling the t-rex to go. Whelp, don't know what that is, but probably not good. She quickly pulled up the museum's floor plan and did some quick calculations. She then dialed Silver Shadow on her multi-platform video chat software.
"Hey, I got into the security cameras. Looks some the dude on the t-rex in the ancient fossil exhibit-" She sent the image to the Silver Shadow's phone where 3 people were busy trying to take apart the various dinosaurs as the t-rex loomed over them. "- is heading towards the greek section where there's some girl and a staff." She switched the view to that feed. "I've found you on Camera 3, so just let me know where you want to head, and I can send the relevant camera feed to you, so you're not running in blind. Also, gonna try to patch in someone else, so, y'know..." Don't obviously out yourself. She then dialed in Bronwyn's number.
"Oh, no you don't!" Wingblade shouts when she sees that the apparent mastermind and dino-rider is going through the wall towards some sort of objective. She stops flitting about the stegos and the sauropods and beelines toward the man dressed in a voodoo bone motif.
"Please don't touch the exhibits, sir! The museum staff get veeery annoyed," she quips as she tries to get the man's attention and engage with the bone T-Rex he's riding.
"Tie them up and throw them in a room," Mercy repeated the plan as she rushed around and grabbed as many of the security cordons as she could. They were already attached to each other, so wrapping them around the crowd of undead former warriors (and one old priest, it looked like) was easy. There was a maintenance closet here that she threw open, before she grabbed the ties she had made, and pulled.
The thick woven bands around the skeletons held, and in a shocking feat of strength, she crammed the whole group into the small closet, smashing them up as they crowded inside. Then she slammed the door and punched the doorknob off to prevent it from opening. They rattled inside, but were now contained thankfully.
Mercy looked through the masked helmet she wore at Kaoru. "Others need my help. Don't let them out," She asked her, heading off to find something new to fight. This felt good. Better than training. She was fighting with purpose to protect people. It gave her joy to be so useful to the others.
Shaun had the perfect angle to see that the winged heroine had completely missed his rush through the skeletons. He also had the perfect angle to see that the t-rex was going to barrel right into her. Thinking fast, he buried his switchblade in the floor, sprinted forward, grabbed a loose leg bone of some variety, and hurled it like a javelin towards the impending fray. "WINGBLADE, INCOMING!"
A quick slam of the T. rex's head knocks Wingblade to the ground. It bellows in triumph but as its massive jaws swing lower to crush her to paste, Kilt tosses over a sizable femur that she's able to jam into its jaws, preventing them from chomping down. Enraged, it tosses back its head, sending her tumbling down its gullet!
Up in the supply closet, Bronwyn was already reaching for Gae-Dearg on her bracelet, when the world seemed to bend around her. Instantly in her mind's eye she could see Cassie holding up a Caduceus. She could feel the rush of the world around her, and she could feel Bran take note, not from within her, but from an Elsewhere that was much closer than it should be.
Maybe she really is Ceridwen.
Okay Bran, you'd better behave. People need us.
Bran was almost gentle as he emerged from the closet, trying to make certain that no untoward attention would be directed towards the unconscious guard.
I just had to give my comm to Kilt... What a great choice *that* was. Okay,
His footfalls unconsciously mirroring the much larger stomps of the dinosaurs, Bran returned to the Hall of Weapons to see Alexis finish securing the skeletons. "Well done indeed, but I fear greater threats still await us."
Down in the hall where Hex stood enthralled by the Caduceus, the objects around her stopped responding to Bone Daddy's will, but they began to stir nonetheless, whispering threats and promises in languages familiar and dead. Bran looked around, aghast at the freely mingling flows of magic. I don't have any idea what this could do. Why is she doing this?
"Hold! You have no idea of the forces with which you meddle. Weave no enchantments, and prepare no misdirections. Do you seek this power of your own accord? Or does something hold you in its thrall?"
Wingblade suffered the briefest moment of indecision as she couldn't decide whether to go after the bone man she had just taunted or the giant T-rex skeleton he rode. It was enough hesitation that the surprisingly fast ancient carnivore snapped her out of the air in its jaws. It had clamped down on her wing which bore the brunt well enough, but its instincts had it tossing her up for a vicious bite.
"WINGBLADE, INCOMING!" she hears which draws her attention to an ancient femur thrown to her from the Kilt. She snatches it out of the air and uses it to brace the dino's jaw open. Did I see this in a movie once? she manages to think before the skeleton lifts its head, causing her to tumble down its gullet.
It occurrs to Wingblade that swallowing her wouldn't be a very good move on the part of the swallower. But when the dinosaur doesn't have a stomach, esophagus, or other internal organs for her to shred, there's surprising little for her to do.
She grabs the bones of the T-Rex's ribcage like they were the bars to a cage and pulls helplessly. Well, this is embarrassing.
Oh s*!&! Wait how the hell did it just swallow with no throat!? Shaun darted back and retrieved his switchblade. Okay, new situation summary: two teammates restrained, bad guy on the move, the best weapon I got is a dino skull, and I still haven't gotten a chance to change. He looked back and forth from the rex and the fossil cocoon, then broke for the cocoon. Herman can bust Wingblade out, gets priority.
As Cassie's outstretched hand made contact with the staff, she felt a spark of mystical energy shoot through her body and she pulled her hand back in shock. Hesitantly, she reached forward again unconscious of the stirrings of the objects around her, and immediately felt a wave of raw energy wash over her. Eyes glowing and hair streaming as if in a high wind, she stood and turned to face the doorway. Cassie heard strange, unknown words coming from her own mouth and, at the behest of the whispering voices, she lifted the staff. The caduceus, began to glow brighter and brighter and then, when it seemed it could glow no brighter, released a series of bolts of mystical power, which grounded themselves in the large, life-sized statues that dotted the hall and then dissipated as Cassie collapsed to the ground.
For a moment nothing happened and then, one of the statues’ arms twitched and its head swivelled to face the door. A moment later, the movement was matched by a second statue, and then a third and a fourth, until seven of the eight statues were facing the skeletal dinosaur and its rider. The eighth statue, an armoured man holding a spear, unlike the rest, had turned to face Cassie. ”I see you, Cassiphone, daughter of the witch! You summon me to do your bidding? As if the death of my son were not enough? I will fight these creatures for you, vile enchantress, but when they are defeated I will find you, and I will kill you. You and your cursed allies!”
Who was the giant again? Shayera had said they were a friend of hers and Bronwyn. Alexis figured they didn't recognize her in the helmet at least. It seemed odd though that he didn't ask who she was, since Bronwyn thought she'd be disguised in this helmet.
She noticed him talking to a noticably pretty girl in front of a rather odd display, a Cadences in hand. She was in the place where she'd gone to calm down, near the weird statues. Which were now moving around, and one of them was threatening 'Cassiphone'.
He also looked like one of the meaner drill instructors. The one that had broken her neck multiple times.
She really didn't like his face.
So she broke it. Leaping straight at him, her foot coming up in a flying kick to his arrogant, bastard face. And taking the whole head with her as she flew right past, smashing through the adjacent wall into another exhibit.