nyc ♔ everybody knows the rock leans over the town

[behindcloseddoors]

The Rock - Harry Chapin

WHO ||Deryn, Alice, Sara, Frankie [closed]
WHAT ||The Knights investigate a mysterious transmission...
WHERE || New York
WHEN || Late March 2016
HOW || Actionspam

[A garbled, static-filled transmission, encoded in a Shadow language, has made its way to the Knights attention, seemingly linked to a series of similar transmissions last year.  Equipped with a decoding program by the Dragon's Hoard, the Knights head to a set of railroad tracks that were mentioned, to try to see what this is all about... ]

Comments

[behindcloseddoors]

[ as frankie shoots out the tires, the car starts careening wildly as the driver loses control, and it weaves ... right towards alice and jaime, who she is not succeeding in budging at all. the sound of gunshots causes darryl to visibly flinch and duck down in his car as he swears, and jaime reacts instantly, diving out of the way of the oncoming car with a ref 20 and drawing his own gun, swinging it to point at frankie. ]

PUT THE GUN DOWN!

[ dipper notices that the driver of the other vehicle is a young African-American woman, whose eyes are wide as she struggles to get the car under control... reflex save for alice also! ]

[mabeljuice]

[THAT ESCALATED QUICKLY. Mabel stays put for now, holding onto her brother's shoulder.] This got cray-cray real fast, huh...

[canaria]

[Sara's also moving out of this car's way (ref 21) for now. At this point, she's not sure if not having her gun drawn at the moment is a good thing or not.]

[thetokenaussie]

YOU FIRST! [Frankie swinging her weapon to point at the man holding on her. Readying an action to shoot if he tries to fire on her. (Atk 20, 23. Dmg 10, 6 if it comes to that)]

Unless you wanted to see what happens when a train goes headfirst into a car?!

[theshadowspeaks]

[ His eyes are still aching but, Deryn kept the gun leveled. He didn't pull the trigger.]

Come on, just stop... [ He can't really see the driver so he's muttered his hopes. ]

[lowvi]

Sure did. [Dipper... still doesn't have much to do, but he frowns, looking from the woman to everyone who's waving guns at each other. It's not like he's never ended up in situations this bad. He and Mabel chase mysteries. Often those mysteries have guns. But that doesn't make it fun.]

I don't think she has control of the car.

[canaria]

[Now Sara's mostly just keeping an eye on the gun-pointing situation Frankie's in - if she's gotta do something like toss a baton at the other person to try to knock them out, she just might try it.]

[icouldbe_bess]

[ jesus christ. alice draws her chain in one quick movement and snaps it out toward jamie to disarm him because the last thing they need is a gun fight in the middle of this. (disarm atk 29?? with improved disarm so no aoo 4 u)

and then she tries to leap out of the way of the oncoming car. (reflex save 15) ]

[behindcloseddoors]

[ alice manages to snap the gun out of jamie's hand with a crack of the chain, taking him completely by surprise, as he recoils his hand with a wince. it does, however, slow down alice's attempt to avoid the car, and it clips her for 10 dmg, which does, at least, slow the car down to a halt before it gets to the barrier. ]

[mabeljuice]

[Mabel tears herself away from Dipper to run to the car to make sure the lady is okay. it's pretty bold, considering she has no idea if she's a friend or a foe, but THERE'S A LOT GOING ON.]

There's a train coming! I'm sorry! Things are a little cray-cray right now.

[canaria]

[well, holy shit, Alice.] Are you alright? Did you break any bones? [Because while scratches and bruises kinda suck, they're at least something that can be largely ignored, at least until later when ice packs are available.]

[lowvi]

Mabel! [Dipper rushes after her, drawing his stun gun just in case. His instincts say the lady is not an enemy. But his general paranoia has him not trusting the lady and being ready to yank Mabel out of the way if it turns out she is one.

He looks at the woman in the car.]

You okay?

[icouldbe_bess]

I'm fine, [ she says, clearly not fine because a car just freakin' hit her. but she's too busy crossing the distance toward jamie to scoop up his gun and drops the magazine out, shoving it in her pocket before she pops the bullet out of the chamber right into her hand (dex 20 total). then she offers the useless gun back to him. ]

I swear I can explain. Maybe... after I cry for a minute.

[theshadowspeaks]

[ Deryn rubs at his eyes a second, before moving over after Dipper and Mabel, because even if one of his team mates just got clipped, that lady in the hummer might be hurt or danger. The gun was still in his hand but lowered.]

Is she alright? [ He asked as he approached the twins.]

[behindcloseddoors]

[ whatever the woman wants to say to dipper and mabel is drowned out by the loud whistle of the train that barrels past just then... not hitting anyone thanks to their intervention. she leans her head back against the seat, closing her eyes and murmuring to herself - they'd realize she was praying when the sound finally dies out.

jamie turns to looks at alice indignantly, snapping the gun out of her hand angrily. ] What the fuck is going on?

[icouldbe_bess]

[ she crumples slightly, hands going to her knees. this is gonna leave so many new and exciting bruises. ]

I don't know, okay? We got word of these weird transmissions in various and sundry Shadow languages and last time it led us to you and the that stupid ty, which turned out to be a weird spy camera. This time the garbled crap specifically told us to stop a Hummer before you crossed the tracks, presumably because otherwise you'd be smooshed like a Jamie shaped pancake.

[ she looks up, shrugging with a pronounced wince. ] Maybe you've got a guardian angel or something.

[mabeljuice]

[Mabel nudges Dipper while the woman says her prayers, not really... wanting to interrupt her religious experience here.] You should probably pow-wow with them since you have the whole message, Dipdop.

[that said, she turns back to the lady, beaming sweetly.] Don't worry, ma'am. We're the good guys. [wow she... crit failed her diplomacy so maybe that just sounds SUPER UNCONVINCING. like ben linus levels of unconvincing. goddammit, pines. get your shit together.]

[lowvi]

[Ugh socializing. He rolls his eyes, especially when Mabel gives the worst explanation of them being the good guys ever, and leaves her to it, turning towards the others.]

I don't think was about you two, actually. Judging from the timing and speed of the other vehicle, I think she's the one who was in danger here. I mean, if we hadn't stopped you, you'd probably have made it across before the train did. Though the fact that this has involved you before is... interesting.

[He looks over at the Karthur Institute crew.]

Do you have notes on the last time? I'll need to see them. Also do you have signal tracking gadgets? You seem like you should. I want to know who's sending this stuff.

[behindcloseddoors]

[ the woman looks uncomfortably out at mabel, before reaching for her cellphone.

"I'm calling the police," she informs her. STAY AWAY.

daryl slowly emerges from his car, looking this all over like what the actual fuck, as jamie frowns deeper. ] You're honestly trying to tell me you have no idea who's behind all this?

[mabeljuice]

[BACKS AWAY FROM THE CAR.] Never mind. Made it worse.

[she's just gonna join her brother so she can whisper.] She's calling the cops, Dipper. I don't know if she's our girl.

[icouldbe_bess]

Do I really strike you as someone who knows what the hell they're doing? [ come on, jamie, she's in such a constant state of winging it on missions that if she spontaneously erupted into feathers, she wouldn't even be surprised. ] We couldn't trace the transmission last time, but they'll have better luck this time.

[ she eyes mabel for a moment before returning her attention to jamie. ] You should go before the cops get here. I'm sure you don't want to deal with them.

[lowvi]

You really don't. [Dipper says dryly, though she definitely wasn't asking him. He turns back to Mabel.]

I don't know either, but we should make our next move. I'd rather not deal with cops either.

[thetokenaussie]

[Frankie re-holsters her weapon, moving closer to the others and making matters with the second driver even worse as... she too crit fails her diplo..]

Sorry about the tires, yeah? I'd help you fix 'em but bullets and rubber don't really mix ya know.

[Such fail. Wow... Nodding at Dipper.]

If you think you can help? Stick around we'll... make sure you're alright. I mean you figured out the last code, so. [Yeah she's pretty damn sure they need him and she figures these two are a package deal.]

[behindcloseddoors]

[ "STAY AWAY FROM ME!" the woman shrieks, pulling a can of mace out of her glovebox. y'all scary tbh.

jamie reaches for alice's arm. ] Where do you think you're goin'? You're gonna tell me what you find out.

[icouldbe_bess]

I am not going anywhere. They are. [ she gestures to the rest of the them, not making an effort to tug herself out of his grasp. she's already proven to be way weaker than him. ] For Pete's sake, everyone leave that poor woman alone. Get back to the hotel, I will meet you there once I clear this up with the cops.