nyc ♔ the devil has my ear today

[dragonsclaw]

♬ Broken Glass - The Blank Theory

WHO || Failboat and more... [closed]
WHAT || The Knights move on a warehouse in NYC to try and save Jeanne Gar & Rafael Giovanni
WHERE || New York City, New York
WHEN || Summer 2016
HOW || Actionspam or prose

The plan has been set, and the Knights are on their way to New York City once again - this time with the desperate hope fueling them that they can save two of their own, instead of simply endangering them further.  Jack and Buffy have greater stakes in this than anyone - as it is Jack's fiancee, Gar and the love of Buffy's life, Rafael, who are currently in the grip of the vile villains that have plagued them for the last four years.  Knowing fully well the risks that are inherent in potentially facing down the dangerous Mind Master, who shattered Myri's life in an instant by breaking Finnick Odair's psyche, their plan is to divide and search the warehouse as quickly as possible - knowing that every second counts, when an alerted team of bad guys could take the lives of their captured friends.  

It's an unparalleled gamble, but may be their only opportunity before Rafael and/or Gar are moved from the facility.  To that end, they converge at a nearby hotel...

Comments

[slay]

[ She nods, even though he can't see it, and takes it upon herself to pull open the back door, not too hasty to be quiet about it (move silently 29). She slips in and takes a good look around (spot 39). ]

[chessing]

[ the handle turns, but the door stays rooted firmly in place beneath her grasp, clearly locked. jack stops short beside her (move silently 19), watching the handle's movement and giving her a moment to deal with it as she sees fit. ]

[slay]

[ Buffy isn't in the mood to slow down, so she gives the handle a firmer shove (str 24). ]

[dragonsclaw]

[ there's the very audible sound of the lock snapping as the door comes open beneath her grip, echoing a bit in the large warehouse room beyond, where only a few very low lights illuminate a landscape of crates stacked high, a few forklifts visible here and there. ]

[slay]

[ Clear enough! Buffy swats a hand for where she presumes Jack roughly to be so she can hopefully give him some indication beyond the sound of her footsteps that she's heading inside. No more talking, though, because who knows what's in there. She stops to pry the lid off one of the crates (str 18). ]

[dragonsclaw]

[ there's the added sound of wood splintering beneath her grasp as the crate lid comes off in her grasp. what's inside appears to be metallic, pieces of some kind of larger equipment that aren't very identifiable on their own, but appear to be painted a clinical white. ]

[slay]

[ For good measure, she snaps a picture with her phone of what's in the crate. Gar might have some idea, when they find her. Then she starts circling the edges of the room to try and find some kind of door to a hallway or a separate room beyond the storage area (spot 41). ]

[dragonsclaw]

[ no sooner has she clicked the photo, then she hears something, from a few rows of crates over. there's not an easy way to cut through the rows - she either has to climb over, move crates, or go the long way around, but that sound strikes her as a combination of a few things - the clacking of nails or claws on the cold warehouse floor, and a low growling noise that is remarkably inhuman and clearly threatening.

in fact, there are more of those guttural noises, some barely audible, coming from a multitude of directions towards the edges of the room, and prowling down the lanes between boxes. ]

[slay]

[ The sound unnerves her. She has no real way to know that Jack is following, if he is. Cautiously, she climbs up to the top of the crates, doing her best to keep quiet as she does (move silently 24). Then she peers over to get a good look at what's making it. ]

[chessing]

[ passion and the opera - nightwish

buffy hoists herself up onto the large crate lid beside her, and draws close to the edge, looking down into the row beyond. what lurks there is huge, bent over on four legs and moving with strange erratic movements, weirdly exposed muscles on its grayish-green back visible as it comes to a coiled stop and raises its gigantic, elongated head towards her. rumbling curls from its throat, as yellow eyes narrow at her, sinewy jaw opening to reveal a nightmarish row of fangs. near the crest of its ridged skull, there's a strange translucency through which she can actually see its brain pulsing. as it unfolds onto two legs, it comes to tower over the box, coming much more than eye level with her - it might stand around twenty feet, its acrid breath clouding the air, some sort of yellow-ish substance dribbling out of the corner of its mouth as its nostrils flare... and two tentacles unfurl from its back, swishing up behind it so that she can see the barbs that line the inside of them.

time for init! ]

[slay]

[ Buffy

kicks it in the face.

She doesn't even hesitate, or think about the invisibility, or consider anything else. See demon, kill demon. Simple logic.

Standing atop the boxes, it's near enough that she can unload on it and catch it off guard, at least. So she unleashes a flurry of punches and kicks (atk 38, 38, 40—which is a nat20—, and 30; damage 29, 32, 58, 36). ]

[chessing]

[ the creature snarls in pain as buffy's hands and feet basically rip through muscle and skin, tearing literal holes in its hide.

buffy can hear a commotion as another of the creatures lets out an angry screech back in the row she'd just exited, where it pounces over the crates at jack (atk 27, 34, 25, 24, 34, dmg 71). one of the tentacles wraps around his waist, but he manages to grip it and push it off with a nat 20 opposed grapple, drawing his sword and filling the air with bright light as he fills it with divine energy (atk 44, dmg 26).

the creature near buffy isn't finished, however. after a second of recovery, it shakes its hideous head once as if to clear its thoughts of the pain, and then lunges its jaws forward (atk 28, dmg 18) and ripping towards her with its claws (atk nat 20 & 30, dmg 50 & 17), its tentacles slamming down to assail her as well, although a crit fail leads it to miss and slam its tentacle into the crate she's standing on so hard that it breaks it in half. the tentacle gets stuck in the wood, but buffy must make a jump or tumble check DC 15 or fall on her ass.

to add to the fun, there's the sound of another one leaping over the crates and landing in a crouch just a little ways up the aisle from them. ]

[slay]

[ This is some straight bullshit! She glances back wildly to get a look at Jack, but the quicker she puts this one down, the quicker she can help him out, so she just gives it the old college try and decides she can do anything she sets her mind to, just like she can never remember her mother telling her.

Buffy catches herself easily (tumble 22) jump-flipping to the next box down to keep the higher ground. She goes at the beast again (atk 46 (crit on 18), 39 (off-hand), 43 total (nat 20), 33, 18; dmg 40, 22, 41, 21, 19). ]

[dragonsclaw]

[ i think she just ripped its spine out of its body. suffice to say, it is less than alive now and this warehouse floor is covered in blood. she's too low now to see what's going on with jack and the creature he's fighting, but it... doesn't sound good. she has plenty to worry about on her own, however, as the third monster leaps towards her immediately, biting into her shoulder (atk 32, dmg 23), digging claws into her (atk 40, dmg 22 & atk 39, dmg 28) and slashing towards her with barbed tentacles, which seek to wrap around her (atk 37, grapple nat 20, total 52, dmg 7 & atk 22) ]

[slay]

[ well, that denies her two-weapon fighting. that's inconvenient. more inconvenient is the damage she just took, which causes her to barely muffle a cry of pain (will 30). ]

Oy with the tentacles already!

[ she wrestles a hand free and just … keeps pounding her fist into its face idk it's not graceful but it just has to work (atk 39, 34, 25, 31; dmg 26, 20, 24, 61 (with hella penetration wtf??? not even a crit just like 4x penetration). ]

[chessing]

[ with a nat 20 fort save, the thing looks extra enraged by the copious amounts of damage being done to it, rather than about to pass out from it. rage fills its alien looking eyes, and it constricts around her with the tentacle (dmg 12), lowering its maw towards her to take a devastatingly large bite out of her (atk 34, dmg 27), as hideous talons sink into her skin (atk 31, dmg 15 and atk 35, dmg 19). its free tentacle whips through the air towards her with a stinging blow (atk nat 20, dmg 18). ]

[slay]

[ With a fort save of 25, Buffy stays conscious despite the serious sap on her physical reserves. She's dropping to critical status pretty fast, covered in blood and assessing the status of the bones she suspected broke with the creature's constriction.

It would not be an easy exploration of the facility from here out, but hell if she was going to let this thing stop her.

Buffy cracked her head against the creature's teeth and reached forward with her fist to pound them into powder as best she could with a series of repeated blows (atk 49 (crit), 45 (nat 20 crit), 38 (crit), 17; dmg 31, 47, 58, 23). I'm sure the last one doesn't hit, but allow that damage roll to represent my hope. ]

[chessing]

[ her fist repeatedly slams straight through the creature's skin and bones, until she's basically elbow deep into it with each blow. suffice to say, it quickly shudders around her, the tentacle finally losing its grip as the creature collapses around her. ]

[slay]

Jack?!

[ Buffy climbs back up on the boxes between aisles to try and search for him on the other side. ]

[chessing]

[ she's just in time to watch as jack, who is held tightly in one coiled tentacle, the other punched through a box, as the monster struggles to pull it free, swings his sword down and manages to cut the binding appendage clean through. so much dark blood floods out that the creature gives one last howl, before shuddering in its death throes, and jack slips loose into the puddle of blood and guts as it expires. ]

[slay]

[ Buffy's expression contorts with minor disgust, despite the blood running all the way up her arms from punching into the monsters, as Jack slip-and-slides into its guts. ]

Yuck. [ But more to the point, she drops on the ground beside him. ] You ok?

[dragonsclaw]

[ he grips the edge of a box to pull himself up, looking her over with equal concern ] Quite. And you?

[slay]

Honestly? Been better. [ She's holy. As in full of holes. But she's standing, regardless of the sway in her step. ] Mostly worried that means they were expecting us, or some alarm's been sounded. We need to move faster.

[chessing]

[ it's at that point that their comms ring out with felicity's "If anyone has eyes on Rafael, it's not him. Repeat: it's not Rafael. We have eyes on Gar." jack's eyes widen a bit, relief and some fear there for a moment, but then he looks over to buffy, tempering his expression as the meaning of the other statement sinks in. ]

[slay]

They know.

[ They must, to have set up a decoy. But why now? How? She doesn't stop to wonder and instead starts striding down the aisle further into the facility, forgetting the not-demon corpses. ]