Monsters and children and...more monsters, oh my!

[tidesnpc]

Characters: Everyone in the Badlands fighting!
Content: The Badlands is being attacked by monsters! And children!
Setting: Various places in the Badlands, plus the Convoy itself for gunners and powder monkeys
Notes: Remember, the Convoy and the Amestris are heading for the south, while Serenity is in the Garrettstown/mountains area. However, if you

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Convoy Gunners + Powder Monkeys

[tidesnpc]

Up in the sky, the Convoy itself was geared up for combat. An order had been given to man the cannons, and the gunners immediately went to their stations, taking their positions and the powder monkeys loaded the cannons, then stood ready to assist them. Few things, terrifying monsters or not, enjoyed being assaulted by cannonballs.

Tentacle-copter flight to the south~!

[ivy_girl]

Garretstown. Not the most interesting of locations, as far as Luppi was concerned, but who was he to complain? He stood out of the way of the confusion, surveying the increasing damage and trying to block out the screaming civilians as he figured out what to do. Usually falsely-jovial, or at the very least ready for immediate snarking, he looked oddly thoughtful and calculating -- very nearly predatory.

The smell of blood and fear was in the air and it roused the Hollow within him more than he would have cared to admit. Still, Garretstown was too closed-in for his liking. Streets were never his favourite places to fight -- they were too restrictive. He needed to get out of there and to somewhere more open if he was going to partake in a little of the violence.

[ooc: If it's not okay to make a new thread, let me know and I'll move it to where you consider it appropriate. c=]

[son_of_the_lake]

Hisoka walked out onto the dusty road that ran next to the airfield and looked right and left. It was going to be a long week, at this rate, but in spite of his fatique he was still restless.

Suddenly he spotted a slender young man with a jawbone-shaped hair ornament. He smiled. "Hey! Wait up, Luppi!" he called, hurrying to catch up with him.

[ivy_girl]

Luppi turned to the sound of the voice and spotted Hisoka. He couldn't help but grin a little bit. Somehow, every time they met, he seemed to look tired from a fight. He waited, though. Such fatigue wasn't altogether surprising in the current climate.

"Hmmm~?"

He put his hands behind his back and waited for him to catch up. He knew that flying would be the easiest way to get to somewhere where the action suited him better, but he hadn't got his tentacles out to do that just yet.

[son_of_the_lake]

"Heading out?" Hisoka asked, responding to Luppi's grin with a small smile of his own. On impulse, he lifted both hands, set the heels of his palms together, and wriggled all ten fingers gracefully, a quick, humorous representation of a calyx of tentacles.

Derps to the rescue! Or not.

[beforethescar]

Politics was happening. It hadn't escaped Isa's notice, although a lot of it went over his head. One of the doctors was running the ship, now, but that made no practical difference to Isa. They had a new captain, or didn't, Isa wasn't sure and didn't much care, and that was because the old one had run off because

[rascalflame]

Lea had absolutely no interest in the politics of the situation. Bad things were happening and that was enough for him. A giant snake had appeared and was threatening to squeeze the continent in two and now monsters were everywhere and Reial had gone to hell. Politics, weirdly, didn't factor into his view of the situation

[beforethescar]

Isa, when he'd seen Lea's choice in weaponry, had linefaced. Spiky frisbees were not, in Isa's opinion, much better than plastic ones, except for being heavier. Maybe Lea could give some monster a nasty concussion with them, but he couldn't see them doing much damage other than that.

On the other hand, Lea could really hurt with his frisbees when he wanted to, and at least they were familiar for him, even if they would be a bit useless at close quarters.

Not that Isa intended on letting anything get close enough to Lea for that.

It looked like the monster had seen them, which made Isa cringe a little, but he suppressed it. "You go for its face while I go for its legs, right?" He muttered, checking with Lea. Isa could stop it running about, while Lea could stop it from seeing what Isa was up to. They could work as a team.

Isa hoped.

[rascalflame]

"Yeah, sure," Lea muttered, looking at the monster unhappily. "Make me go for the face."

Suddenly, he rather wished that he had considerably longer weapons. Making the guy with the short, spiky wheels go for the face was a bit on the mean side, but he was determined not to wimp out and run away.

As if he could. They were saving the world.

Well. A little bit of it.

immediately-post-battle thread for Justin and Ulquiorra, since there's nowhere better to put it...

[scaredbrilliant]

Justin had elected to stay with the ship and help in the infirmary. He'd promised Ulquiorra he wouldn't take risks, and he meant to keep that promise, even if most of the crew had found more direct ways to help. Ulquiorra was out there doing far more to aid everyone's survival than he ever could, and he knew what it would do to him if he came back to find Justin hurt... He would not let that happen. He kept himself safe and out of the way of trouble.

When he heard Prime's message calling everyone back to the ship, he ran up the stairs to stand on the deck and watch for him. He hadn't expected him to come back as long as there was still something to fight, but he desperately hoped he would now. Please be all right, he thought, knowing there was nothing he could do if Ulquiorra didn't make it back soon. Trying not to think about it. Please...

[murcielago]

The decision to go and fight what were, in no uncertain terms, the forces of evil, had not been an easy one for Ulquiorra. He had not heard from his primary employer in rather a long time, but he knew that he had ties with Denouement. With the knowledge that it was that group that were heading the illogical attempt to destroy Reial and the tangentially related realisation that, despite this, neither him nor any of the other Arrancar had been forewarned, there was little option but to assume outright obsolescence in the eyes of his 'maker' and default to his secondary employer -- Justin Warrick

[scaredbrilliant]

Justin was the only one on the ship who'd seen Ulquiorra in his released form. In the chaos of their hurried departure and the absence of a captain to make fast decisions, it took a good deal of effort and pleading to convince the people in charge that the black-winged shape following them was not a danger. Eventually, they believed him. Unlikely as it sounded, what motive could Justin possibly have for allowing an enemy to catch up with them

[murcielago]

The flight took its toll.

Even though he had to carry his own weight, he could keep it up indefinitely -- under ordinary circumstances. Unfortunately, these circumstances were anything but ordinary. Given the energy and muscles that flying required, doing so after a long string of fights and after sustaining a chest injury made it more difficult than it usually would be. He was losing blood and he was exhausted and both physically and spiritually drained.

Still, he made it to the ship. He didn't miss Justin's presence on the deck, but he flew past him, aiming for somewhere clear to touch down. When he landed, it was heavily. His clawed feet scraped the deck and his momentum carried him a little way before he stopped. He landed upright and remained that way, his wings outstretched -- but only for a moment. His strength gave out and he dropped, his breathing laboured.

AND SOME OF THE MONSTERS ARE HUMAN ONES

[son_of_the_lake]

[This takes place after Kaoru and Bright are retrieved, but before all the battles come to an end. Also before Before Bradley’s death.]

Hisoka and Gus Metonic left Serenity and returned to town. There was still a ruckus going on, and they had to run for it more than once. It wasn’t just the kids shooting dark energy or lightening at people. There was something gathering in the air that hadn’t been in it a few hours before, and Hisoka could not put his finger on what it was, but it was certainly ominous. It felt like the very clouds over the mountains were striving against each other. There was a dark, dangerous smoke hanging over the plains, far to the southeast, on either side of the mountains. Hisoka realized with a start that he was seeing it with the eyes of his spirit, not with the eyes in his head. To his earthly eyes, the sun was still shining, even over the mountain peaks

[tidesnpc]

There was a brief flash of shadow, but other than that, there was nobody there. The room was empty and silent, with no other soul besides Hisoka himself. The only sign of past visitors were a couple boxes of ammunition, set askew.

[son_of_the_lake]

Gus would not have left a box out of place; he was a tidy man. Hisoka turned towards the shadow, swiftly.

[tidesnpc]

The shadow was gone completely, and there was nothing in front of him, other than what was to be expected in the back of the room. However, there was the soft sound of feet against the floorboard right behind him, and before he could turn around, there was cool, sharp metal at his neck and a low, feminine whisper against his ear.

"I suggest you put your gun down."