A City Falls: Start

[voidtreckermods]

Preparation

Just after light on the seventh day of the month of Bassoon everyone’s SCA glows with the colour of the void before showing a message. A briefing for the mission to come.

Anyone who goes to investigate the dressing carriage will find all the cupboards and drawers open. They may need to battle through spider webs but soon will find an array of clothes. Trousers, skirts, dresses, shirts, robes, cloaks. Everything they will need and plenty of choice. All the clothes have accents of team colours in more muted hues than the normal bold hoodies they wear.

A few hours later there is an announcement over the speakers. "Arrival to Planet #25768 imminent. Prepare for exit from Void. Drop order: Purple, Orange, Red, Blue. All passengers are to wear their Safety Control Apparatus and are reminded that emergency evacuation protocol is three short taps."

The train shudders and jerks. It is time.

Purple

"Purple Team to doors. Drop in two minutes. Purple team to doors."

The train flies down through the air before coming to a stop between two rocky outcrops. The doors hiss open, it’s a bit of a jump down to the ground and anyone who looks back will find the train hard to see. Not invisible but definitely cloaked, shifting to blend in with the rock.

They can hear the sound of many footsteps and the high sound of young voices. It is easy to hear where they need to be.

As they move down the rocky slope they will see the main pass. A large group of children are walking. Spirits are high even if it is clear they are on their guard. Older teens are wearing weapons, swords, the odd axe, a few daggers. Nothing expertly crafted but they all wear them with ease. Slightly younger children carry the very young, toddlers and those too young to walk and keep pace.

There’s a sound from in front of the group. From around the corner a girl, about thirteen years old, runs towards them. Her braids bounce against her shoulders, her eyes are wide with fear and she waves her hands at the others. “Run! Run!”

A shadow looms behind her, a winged wolf, gaining speed towards her. Sat on the wolf is a spear wielding goblin.

From all around them a growling of many more wolves, in the hills, close and ready to pounce.

Orange

Once Purple Team are gone the train flies again. "Orange Team to doors. Drop in two minutes. Orange Team to doors."

The train seems to be still concealed as it hovers at the city walls. There’s a bit of a jump onto the walls but at least they are near one of the staircases down into the city.

Also luckily no one seems to have seen them appearing out of no where though that has more to do with the general chaos rather than anything else!

There is a lot of chaos! People evacuating, animals everywhere, people looking lost and bewildered. Get herding or helping and encourage people up that cliff path!

Red

The train flies onward. "Red team to doors. Drop in two minutes. Red team to doors."

The train makes a slightly bumpy landing on a rocky slope. Scrambling up the slope red team will see a group of fighters, perhaps eighty in total. There are some supplies to the side, not yet allotted. Some horses and weapons. All the fighters are currently focused on a tall woman who is on horseback, facing them from the front.

“… Say those that stand here, as few as we may be were the ones who end the goblin menace on our lands for good. For our children and our families. We fight!”

The end of what was clearly a rousing speech, the fighters cheer. They begin to move over the slope, towards the goblin camp below. If you are joining this battle the time is now!

Blue

The train flies low, skimming over the lake. "Blue Team to doors. Drop in one minute. Blue Team to doors."

Jumping down off the train they will land in the shallows of the lake. It’s not deep enough to go over their boots and now too far to wade to shore. The shore is rocky, loose rocks and pools of water to avoid. The tower stands before them. Three goblins, riding wolves perch on the walls high above them. The sky above crackles with lightning that is not at all natural.

The doorway to the tower is open, there are a lot of stairs to get up. The howls of the wolves fill the air as the wizards fight them off above. Time to climb!

Comments

[runs_on_batteries]

He rolls his eyes. "It's been a couple years since I was up-to-date on popular video games." Not unless they had My Little Ponies or Dora the Explorer on them. That sounded pretty cool though, so he might have to look at those when he- oh.. never mind.

He nods, finding that answer completely valid. "I'd recommend leather then. There's a reason motorcyclists wear it besides to look like they're outlaws. It's protection and can take the wind resistance when driving. I think I saw some leather pants in there- obviously not like ours nowadays." He went over to the container with all the pants options. He holds up a pair and eyes it then her and back. "I think this might fit." In fact, he might want to find a pair too, it was better than the cruddy fabric these trousers were made of.

[afterburner]

"So long as they're not like...assless chaps. Who knows what the hell you're gonna find in there?" Things Renee didn't want to think about, take one! Or more like one thousand.

"These might actually work, though. Thanks!" Hopefully there's a curtain or something she can duck behind, because there's absolutely no way she's gonna drop trou in front of Tony Stark for any reason. Not if she can help it!

[runs_on_batteries]

Tony laughs and shakes his head. "Only for my wife, thanks." Tmi? Tmi. He didn't care, she started it.

He glances at the dressing room that she just went into and down at another pair of the leather pants. He shrugs, kicks off his boots, and yanks his own pants down. What? He had on a pair of black boxer briefs. It wasn't like he was showing anything. Of course the first ones don't fit, so he has to rummage around for a yet another pair.

Whenever she comes back, she gets to see him standing there sans boots and pants. Everything she always wanted, right?

[afterburner]

Nope. Nope nope nope. What's worse is that she can't nope out hard enough--it's all she can do to get her boots on and work on tightening up the bodice she's in as best she can.

"Man gotta warn the kids there's a nasty old man on this train! Jesus Tony!" It's not like it's anything Renee hasn't really seen before, but those were her brothers and that was different. This is...well, it's weird.

"Ugh, can't unsee." She rubs an arm across her face.

[runs_on_batteries]

Tony looks back at her and rolls his eyes. "How old are you again? Twelve- no, eleven. Everyone on this damn train is eleven."

He tries on the next pair. These will work alright. They were a little long, but he could handle it. Actually.. "Do you have a knife or some scissors?"

Anyway..

"I came in here to talk to you, by the way. Stop doing that and listen!" He tosses something at her- he thinks it's a codpiece, which is just extra funny given their conversation. "Come on, I need you to be on the look out for the others. Do you have memorized all the other teams are going to be?"

[afterburner]

"I am twelve. Farts are fuckin' funny. So is belching. My humor is refined, damn it." The hell it is, but Renee will at least pretend to object for the spirit of the thing. Besides, who's the one rolling his eyes??

"Not...exactly. Hang on. It ought to cut, at least." She concentrates, a red glow coalescing around her fingers as a single kinetic knife forms between them. Renee then hands it over, still staring at the blade like it's important.

As gross as it is, and even with being fixated on the blade, she bats the codpiece out of the air before it can smack into her. "I'm listening, but my knives are supposed to explode when they come in contact with something that's not me, so pardon me if I keep a hold on it in my head. I don't actually want to blow you up, especially when the mission's important. But yeah, I've got a vague idea of where the areas are. The wizard tower and the city proper are easy to pinpoint--at least Culin'e'ai. I figured you'd be with Red, so less important for me to be sure where you are, but I know that fight's on the city outskirts."

Of course she knew about her own damn team, especially since she'd be dropping with them shortly. (Not that she'd actually stay dropped, since Renee planned to fly as soon as she could!)

[runs_on_batteries]

"Farts and belching are funny," Tony agrees. Just to mess with her, he turns his backside to her. "Okay, but do these make my ass look hot or what?"

Oh, now there's some kind of red glow knife. "They explode? Can I touch it? Where did it come from? How come this is the first time you're telling me you can make exploding blades from nothing?!" Someone was totally geeking out over this.

He looks down at his pants, trying to stand still so she can cut the excess length off. "Is it burning the edges or just cutting them? Can you make anything else?"

[afterburner]

"Makes your ass look like a pair of meat loaves under a blanket of bacon. Ugh." Renee shook her head at that, then when Tony started geeking out, Renee blinked.

"Dude, what--wait. Pete said you didn't have mutants where you came from. Yeah okay, that's one of my powers--it's not nothing, it's kinetic energy and I absorb it. So like my footsteps, punching the train, you know. I store it like a battery and then when I want to, I can do stuff with it. Like make those knives I can throw and they go boom when they hit something. But right now they're just kinda like...hard light, I guess? So it's got a blade."

Renee shakes her head at that. "There's a guy the Institute knows about who could charge cards and make them explode, but I can just make knives right now. And shields. I might be able to do more stuff with more practice, they hadn't exactly found a limit to what I could do while I was there." But man, that felt uncomfortably like bragging, and Renee ducked her head a little.

[runs_on_batteries]

Tony laughs at her response. He'd been hoping for that kind of reaction. They could both use a laugh as tension was mounting over the mission.

Tony was listening carefully as she explains how the knives work as he examined it in her hand. "Why would you want to make cards when you can make knives? Is there a way for you to re-absorb the knife so it doesn't explode?" How exactly was she going to do this now that it was created? He raised his eyebrows, impressed as she continues. "I do something very similar with my armor. I can generate a shield but I haven't created anything else besides the blasts." Hmm. Could he make exploding knives? "How much time do they have once created before they explode?"

[afterburner]

"Nah, he just has cards and charges them. Similar to what I do, but different. I think it's a mental hangup but I've never actually met the guy." Renee shrugged at that. "So I can't tell you. I don't need to charge an object, I just make knives."

"It's still kinetic energy, so yeah, I can absorb it back in so it doesn't explode." She gave a light snort at his next words, though. "Just 'cause you haven't doesn't mean you can't, big brain. Don't play me! And this one? I could hold it forever, probably. Or at least 'til I went to sleep or got knocked out, but once I lose consciousness it's probably gonna act like an Illudium PU-36 Explosive Space Modulator, so you better run 'cause there's gonna be an earth-shattering kaboom."

[runs_on_batteries]

Tony nodded, finding all these details very curious. He'd have to experiment more with this when they got back. Who knew what that kind of power could be used for? Fortunately for the passengers, he was focused on the ways they could get home or have some control over their existence here on the train and not something nefarious.

"And we're using an Illudium PU-36 Explosive Space Modulator in the shape of a knife to simply cut my pants." Science could be so amusing. It was like using some kind of high tech machine to pop popcorn. "Have you tried siphoning off other types of energy?"

[afterburner]

"No, but Hank--Dr. McCoy--he thought I might be able to, someday. Just kinetics right now. And I can reverse motion and use that to inertia lock someone. Probably might come in handy some day, too." Though Renee wasn't sure she liked the ramifications of what might happen if she had to do that.

She shrugged, then. "I mean, I suppose I could try? They weren't sure I was done expressing powers yet...but I had kinda hoped I was, you know?"

She was scary enough as it was...at least to herself.

[runs_on_batteries]

Renee was turning out to be surprisingly powerful. It would be unsettling if he didn't fully believe she was on his side.

"If you wish, we could try and continue. However, that is for another day. I don't want to cause you to lose any focus on our mission. Your job is to come back in one piece, understood?"