The blip travels out over the water for a while, and, then, stops. "If we're trying to pass as beach advertising, I can put the banana hammock on and get out on the banana skis," Flex says after getting Verge her ice cream. "That way, I can charge the fuel to my expense account. I mean, if that's a concern at all."
Regardless of whether you take Flex up on his generous offer, at some point the Big Banana has to fly out to sea. Flying low over the ocean , Nissa gets fairly close to the small cargo ship before they spot her ... close enough to see the ship has gone onto the wrong side of a buoy and run onto some sand. A half dozen crew members are looking over the side of the deck as they try to get the ship off of the sand. Those are the ones who see you first. More pour out of the cabin. Half of them grab weapons while the other half start lowering a smaller boat into the water.
☀️
Nissa flies toward the enemy, intent on hovering above so the team can jump out. Additionally, nobody wants to shoot down a helicopter if doing so will drop a helicopter onto the shooters’ heads!
She watches the tracker, hoping to figure out which part of the ship L.C. is being held.
As she approaches, she asks Flex, “There some kinda loudspeaker on this thing?”
☀️
Nissa flies toward the enemy, intent on hovering above so the team can jump out. Additionally, nobody wants to shoot down a helicopter if doing so will drop a helicopter onto the shooters’ heads!She watches the tracker, hoping to figure out which part of the ship L.C. is being held.
As she approaches, she asks Flex, “There some kinda loudspeaker on this thing?”
Flex hands Nissa the banana shaped microphone and shows her the button for the loudspeaker.
☀️
Nissa swivels her head to face the World 12 guys. “Before I start making threats over this banana phone, I need to know how close I gotta be before you can blow one of these creeps to bits.” She shudders at the thought of killing anyone, but goes on, “The fate of the world’s in our hands, and I’m just hoping they don’t know how very dear their hostage is to me. I’m hoping to play this so they won’t expect we’re the types who care about hostages at all.
“In other words, I’m saying f!#% wholesomeness. F#&! my ideals. Pick the meanest looking bastard out there—one unlikely to surrender. Aim at him, but don’t fire. Let me talk first. But so ya know, when I tell ’em they’ve got seconds to comply, my threat can’t be proven idle.
“Let me know if that’s a problem.”
The masked man pulls a rifle out and says, "It's going to be harder from a chopper, but I could probably make someone die."
Nissa swallows. “Okay. I’ll try to be close enough and keep this thing steady.”
She gets a little closer, being a trained gunner herself. Once close enough that the enemy might be almost ready to fire, she speaks into the banana phone.
“Gentlemen…”
“Sorry we left our black flag on our other stolen ride. But there’s a reason we’re brazen enough to fly at ya despite your obvious state of alarm. I’ll give a hint. Your guns only confirm there’s precious cargo aboard. I’m sure it’s not as precious to you as your lives, right?
“Think it over. But quick. If I don’t see every gun tossed in the sea, the first of you will die in five seconds.”
If the enemies comply before she gets to ‘one’…
“Four…“
…she asks the masked man to hold fire…
“Three…”
…else, she keeps counting, dreading the inevitable outcome:
“Two…”
The loss of my innocence…
Verve snatches the barrel of the soldier's weapon and says "There's no need ot murder people. We have to be better than that."
Nissa is actually relieved Verve is keeping the blood off her hands. She removes her hand from the comm and quickly asks Verve, “Can ya fling a man into the sea then?”
The ship is quite large. Large enough to land a helicopter on even if you decide. It's probably to heavy for anything Verve has in mind, but it is stacked with smaller containers of different sizes.
At this point they've neither complied nor fired upon the chopper. They've lowered the boat into the sea and are beginning to congregate on that side of the stranded ship.
Nissa sees the men are off the ship. She doesn’t count one.
“Well, getting yourselves off the ship is an acceptable alternative. Behave yourselves, then.”
Nissa lands the banana bus…
…then uses the tracker to figure out where L.C. is being held. “Maybe she’s in a container?”
Charles finds himself wishing he had wings... though the thought is fairly quickly followed by thoughts of how much trouble they would be and how much sprouting wings suddenly might hurt and hopefully the mad doctor didn't hide something in his genes that makes his body respond to thoughts like that...
But then Nissa starts taking the bus down. Charles comments, "I guess it's time to get my game faces on?" and shifts to chimera form.
Nissa says, “They let us board. I don’t know if it’s a trap or the pirate ruse actually worked. If it did, these guys are just peons.”
She prepares to disembark, tracker in one hand, gun in the other.
Verve could definitely lift the boat they are lowering.
Nissa says, “They let us board. I don’t know if it’s a trap or the pirate ruse actually worked. If it did, these guys are just peons.”
She prepares to disembark, tracker in one hand, gun in the other.
The ship was running right up until you attacked, but they seem to have cut the engines when the decided to abandon ship.
While Nissa lands the helicopter and Charles changes form, Verve seems to be up to something.
…then uses the tracker to figure out where L.C. is being held. “Maybe she’s in a container?”
When the helicopter is directly over the ship, the locator says they're beneath you, but that could mean in a container or in a hold below deck (although this ship doesn't have much of a below deck.)
Nissa feels her heart racing as she tries to figure out exactly where L.C. is.
Once the landing is complete, Nissa pays attention to how the blip has shifted. She pans her gaze along the stacked containers, suspecting that’s where L.C. will be found.
They needed her alive, she tells herself.
"They might have found the tracker," Charles's jaguar head growls. "This could be a trap."
Verve gestures and groans, her face a mask of intense focus, as her nose begins to bleed. Slowly at first, the escape craft begins to rise into the air until it is level with the flying banana.
"I believe..." Verve said, her eyes starting to bleed power "You were asked to surrender by the nice lady. Seems like a sensible thing to do, yes?"
The armed sailors, once level, respond by spraying the helicopter with bullets.
☀️
Nissa turns, and fires.
“You had your chance,” she says coldly. “Now you die.”
"I can't believe you shot the only person keeping you from falling to your death! How stupid are you? Now DROP YOUR WEAPONS OR I'LL FLIP OVER THE BOAT!"
She was not lying.
They really don't want to surrender. They begin leaping into the water from the boat, which is about 40' above the water.
☀️☀️
Nissa flies the bus to run all of the bastards down!
Verve moves the boat off into the distance, then drops it. Turning to Theo, she says "Give a girl a ride down?"
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Perhaps Nissa didn't mean to hit them with the blades, but what happens next should probably not be described.
"Let's never discuss this," says Enyo, wiping some grey matter from her hair.
Everyone on the smaller boat is either dead or in the water. Verve has moved the boat further away in the distance. One of them seems to be swimming for it. Another is swimming for a buoy.
☀️☀️☀️
“Uh…”
Nissa’s eyes moisten with remorse. She turns on the windshield wipers. The wash button doesn’t seem to help much.
“…someone kindly arrest the ones getting away?”
She lowers the bus to let anyone who wants to jump out and apprehend the survivors.
The bear leaps into the water and swims after two of them.
"Always with the water ... he's not even a good swimmer," says the masked man.
Nissa just nods. “Uh… Flex? I think maybe you should drive now.”
Nissa holsters her gun, leaps out of the bus, and uses her more form to fly onto the ship—minding the propellers and their ability to suck people into their deadly vortex!
Once on deck, she becomes her human-ish self, whips the tracker out of her purse and seeks L.C.
Verve moves the boat off into the distance, then drops it. Turning to Theo, she says "Give a girl a ride down?"
"Sure thing", Theo smiled, as he swept up the telekinetic and jump from the ship.
_
Did Nissa take Damage? The roll vs her < 17 (her armor), but I don’t know if there’s a DEX penalty for being in the cockpit.
Nissa trusts her teammates to handle what apprehensions are left to do. She systematically checks the crates once the tracker narrows her to as few choices as possible.
“L.C.?! Bang on a container so I know where to find you!”
Despite the emotions swirling through her, Nissa’s well trained in calling attention to herself. If L.C. is in one of these crates, she’s sure to hear Nissa’s call!
Charles has no good way to get down, and no ranged weaponry to speak of, so he stands and watches from above.
"Uh... shout if you need me?" he calls to the others as they leave.
L.C. does not bang on a container. You hear what sounds like a laser rifle from inside one though.
Nissa shouts, “Trouble inside!” and points to the container where the laser was heard. “Find a way in! I won’t last long by myself!”
She shrinks to subatomic size to pass through the wall of the container where a laser was fired. Nissa will be imperceptible, but unable to perceive except that air will be distinguishable from solids. No harm can come to her subatomic self, but she is also harmless.
Thus, once Nissa passes through the wall, she’ll grow back, brazenly lighting the room with her glowing gown. She’ll draw her gun, but whoever fired that laser will have time to react first.
☀️
Charles jumps down on one of the containers with a heavy thud.
His six-footed form lands nimbly in spite of its weight, though said weight might not be good for the container itself.
Theo leaps off the ship unto a nearby container, holding Verve in his arms, while she used her telekinesis to dampen the fall. Setting Verve down, Theo draws his sword.
As she's still channelling telekinetic lightning through her body, Verve gestured and the container she and Theo landed on had begun to move. Using it as an elevator, she moved the container so the top of it sat flesh with the top of the railing. Once Theo disembarked, she returned the container where she found it and then opened it using her telekinesis before leaning over to look in.
As you land on the ship and climb down from the containers, Nissa calls out to L.C. and the sound of laser fire comes from one of the containers. Nissa slips out of sight and into the container.
Those who can't slip between molecules would have to open the container door.
Standing guard outside said door is a large cargo-bot with four legs for additional stability and huge clamps for arms. It doesn't say anything as you approach, but it definitely sees you.
The Olympian jumps down to the container door, and tries to open the door.
Charles watches the cargo-bot warily as Theo approaches the door, ready to pounce if it tries to harm him.
Greer… is he…?
Nissa’s eyes flare. She doesn’t even waste time getting her gun out!
She races across the room and leaps onto the tripod!
If leaping on it tips it over (so it can’t point at anyone), she does the same to the camera (so it... well... can’t point at anyone).
Else, she does whatever she must to prevent the gun from aiming at another person—even if that means standing between it and Moore. (I assume she only needs to take such a risk if the tripods are bolted to the floor and she can’t just grab the rifle off the tripod.)