Session Start: Sat Mar 18 16:25:32 2006 Previously, on Hunters: The Ningyo have finally invaded in force, using a stolen nuke to flatten the Palace, and the Queen of the Sea's massive powers to explosively flood downtown Tokyo. Maya got a fragmentary order from the Queen - quite possibly Her Majesty's final act - to seek out and protect Princess. So the team trekked westwards into the Tokyo sprawl, away from the immediate disaster zone, to Elly's home. As they went, the city started coming apart around them as everyone with a smidgeon of good sense panicked and started to evacuate. The Hunters made it to Princess's house without much difficulty, but the girl had already left on her own, driven by her dreams to find, as she put it, "her destiny". [April 1, 2004 - 0240 local time] [just east of Princess's house] [session start] Well, we can guess where she's gone. * LadyRoyal grunts. Fine. Let's just go. * LadyMysteria lets herself be taken along for the ride, still wiping her mouth and spitting from time to time. * Lord_Darkmoon skates along, eyeing Mysteria worriedly from time to time, but mostly just grimly focused. * LadyRoyal bikes. * LadyNightshade runs behind the group, trying to focus. * Lady_MakeBelieve bikes close to Mysteria, trying to make sure she's all right From this deep inland, you can't see the dome of water at the center of the flooding, or even the bay itself. You can, though, perceive the glow created forty kilometers to the east as Chiba continues to burn. Hurry. We need to hurry. The twisting, overwhelming sense of the invading Sea Magic continues as well, though there's something about it that's... changing. It's so intense, it's hard to make it out, but the... shape of it seems to be different than when you left the IHA campus area. We are. It's hard to, with all this mess and the sea magic and everything... If you have time to talk, you can bike harder. Lets go! * LadyRoyal flanks Maya on the other side, though not crowding her. The larger streets are even more heavily packed with people, and the side streets are beginning to become a mess as well, but it's not hard for a bunch of teens on foot and bike to go east against the flow of traffic. ...though everyone is looking at you like you're insane. * Lord_Darkmoon ignores them. And keeps going. * LadyHeat wonders if the people suspect how insane. * LadyMysteria is finished cleaning the taste out of her mouth, and just looks stone-faced now. * Lady_MakeBelieve concentrates on not running into everyone and conserving her breath. * LadyHeat twitches as she rides. The team emerges from the housing district they had gone to and enters what had been a sleepy district shopping area. The main road here is just as busy as any, but there's something different happening here. * LadyMysteria coughs once, looking in the direction of the overpowering Sea- feeling. She shudders, then shakes her head. "Princess..." * LadyNightshade looks around for what's going on. * LadyHeat does not freak out. * LadyHeat mutters to herself "this isn't good... this isn't good... this isn't good..." The local constabulary has roused themselves to try to organize the chaos and direct the evacuation traffic. Even as Taki looks, one spots the team and runs in their way, waving his hands. * LadyRoyal looks around and narrows her eyes at the police. * Lady_MakeBelieve just keeps biking, unless they look prepared to shoot. Hey, hey! Where are you headed? Destiny. * LadyMysteria stares a hole into the cop. "Move aside." * Lord_Darkmoon flares his eyes purple. "Now." * TrafficCop plants himself firmly in the way, a radio gripped in one hand. * LadyRoyal looks the cop in the eye. "We're looking for someone. It's urgent. Please get out of our way." Whoa, kids, just because the city is being destroyed doesn't mean you get to do whatever you want. If you move, it needn't be destroyed. If you do not move, we will move you. * Lord_Darkmoon continues forward. He can't block all of them. * LadyRoyal continues staring down the cop. * LadyMysteria raises a hand, concentrates, and begins to move the man aside telekinetically. Gently, of course. "We're on a mission." * Lady_MakeBelieve just bikes right past him * LadyNightshade hops over him, still invisible, and keeps on going. * TrafficCop grabs Darkmoon with one hand, raising his radio with the - eeep! * LadyHeat keeps biking, then. ...Ladies? Yes. Yes. People, keep going. * Lord_Darkmoon looks at the man's hand. "Let. Go." * TrafficCop lets go, but... Is there anything I can do to help? Let us through. * LadyRoyal starts biking again. * Lord_Darkmoon pauses, and looks back thoughtfully. "Have you seen a little girl coming this way?" * TrafficCop frowns. "I don't think I have, but could you describe her?" * Lord_Darkmoon shakes his head. "Thank you, but we've no time. Good luck. ...hm. Actually..." He pulls off his radio, and looks to Mysteria. "It would be useful if we could talk to the police, and they to us." Of course. * LadyHeat realizes that she should probably stop biking now. * Lord_Darkmoon nods, and hands his radio to the officer. "Keep us informed; we'll return the favor. Officer...?" * Lady_MakeBelieve has realized nothing of the sort. Takahashi. Seriously, if there's anyone that can do something about this, we want to help them. Thanks, Officer Takahashi. Put it on; the others'll hear you. *turns and skates off at a sprinting pace, to catch up with the others* Good hunting! * TrafficCop gestures to the street. "We can keep our own little corner of this under control, but... um, okay?" * TrafficCop blinks as the team heads off, then puts the headset on. I just talk like this? * LadyHeat restarts biking. It sure has been a while since the team had food. Yes. * LadyNightshade grumbles not into her mike about having to share with someone she doesn't even know. Seriously, if there's anything we can arrange for you... * Lady_MakeBelieve pulls an energy drink out of nowhere and downs it. Hurry... Haruko, can you make me some food? It's been a really long time since I've eaten. Traffic is moving slowly here, but very smoothly. There's less panic in the streets, and the local busses are even working. Unless you can get us to Tokyo Tower any faster... Sure. Energy bars ok? "Anything else would be hard to eat and ride with." That's fine. * LadyHeat bikes over to Haruko in anticipation. * Lady_MakeBelieve hands them over after slowing down a bit. * Lord_Darkmoon finally catches up, and slows down a bit to avoid tripping over the ground. * Lady_MakeBelieve also hands over an energy drink. Thanks! * LadyHeat somehow manages to eat, drink, and bike at the same time. * Lady_MakeBelieve goes back to just biking. * LadyMysteria returns to looking intensely jumpy and perhaps a bit ill, if only from stress and exertion. As you move, you hear the cop discussing things with the other policemen in the streets. It sounds like this district had fairly robust emergency plans and a good budget for implementing them. * Lady_MakeBelieve takes the time to ask if anyone else needs an energy boost over the radio * LadyRoyal pushes on. As you get to the far end of the commercial section, the radio signal begins to break up a little. You must be getting out of range. Too far. Ah well. Too far? * LadyNightshade tries to gauge how much farther they have left to go. It wasn't a bad idea. The streets here are beginning to get dark again, but they also seem strangely familiar. * LadyHeat wonders how much longer it will take. What's... oh, the radio. MakeBelieve, can you make radios that tap our network? We can leave relays. Do what needs to be done, but we're still on borrowed time. I can do that, yeah. I'd like one, please. And we need to find volunteers. Something in the air changes, and the sounds of sirens and buildings collapsing carries to you from a kilometer ahead. ... the flooding's got to be eroding the landscape. * Lady_MakeBelieve concentrates and hands Darkmoon a replacement headset As you get closer, the Sea Magic seems to increase even more, and you realize that there's something directly ahead of you that is radiating it. So what, are we hoping that Princess is there? * Lord_Darkmoon takes it with a quick "thanks," and dons it. That’s the idea. I hope to God she is. It's probably the Queen of the Sea or some awful. If so, that's likely where Princess has gone. * Lord_Darkmoon keeps pushing forward as fast as he can. The immediate source seems to be in the middle of an apartment block. As you watch, you see one of the ten-story towers buckle and collapse wetly. And we're going to fight that? No, we're going to find Princess. If it's just a Ningyo, we will destroy it later. Water gushes out of a side street into your path. A couple of cars hydroplane out of control, rear-ending those ahead of them and bringing the flow of busses and cars to a complete halt. I don't think we're going to bike through that. Darkmoon, can you find out how Nike is doing? Only if I stop. Biking is probably not going to be possible anymore, no. Damn it all. ... The flow of water slackens momentarily, then individual cars begin to get crushed by a precisely-targeted hypervelocity column of water. Well. *stops, and lets the girls debate for a moment while he tries to contact Norcliff and exchange updates* * Lady_MakeBelieve sends out a cry to Norcliff "Are you there?" I can do something about some of the water... I don't think we want a wave of steam rushing at us. I'd rather have the water. * Lord_Darkmoon shakes his head. "Ack. Hate it when I hit a Pet/Master barrier." * Norcliff blinks, miles away, as Haruko speaks straight into his head. "Uh, hi there?" I've got him! * Lady_MakeBelieve thinks at Norcliff "How are you and Nike doing. Did you find Squeegee?" People begin to scream. The dumber ones evacuate their vehicles, and get swept up in another surge of water, which continues even as the car- smashing blast keeps moving. * Lord_Darkmoon looks for a decent way through this. Failing that, for a good place for Mallet to bring the building down on its water-slinging occupant. * Norcliff consults with Nike briefly before replying. "It's a lost cause - I'm not sensing any Princesses here, and we're having to dodge Ningyo. And the studio is a kilometer into the flood zone now." *Why don't you meet up with us, we're at , we think Princess went to TT, and you can help us make sure if she's there or not.* It looks like you might be able to backtrack a bit and circle around a few blocks away... and the Ningyo is not in a building, really, so much as around the corner. ... we need to move, and we need to move now. This way isn't going to work. Kill her. Then we continue hunting Princess. Okay, we'll make our way back there. * LadyMysteria looks to the people and cars as they're smashed about, and her fists tighten. * Lord_Darkmoon shifts his Tessen in to Katana form. * Lord_Darkmoon starts advancing towards the source of all this water. Guys, I got ahold of Norcliff, he and Nike are having no luck finding Squeegee. They're going to meet us up back here. * LadyHeat prepares for some boiled ningyo. Good. A blur of motion catches your eye, and you spot two young women running up towards the mess on the other side of the street. Hey! It only takes a moment to recognize one of them as Fuka - Lady Wrench - only not transformed yet. The other one looks like she could be a model with long black hair and a lean, toned musculature, though the overalls that both girls are wearing spoil the effect. * Fuka turns, and skids to a stop as she spots her unexpected backup. Well, if we want to fight the Ningyo, looks like we have help. 'Want' has little to do with this. This one's foolish enough to be in our way. I wonder if all the surviving MGs are heading towards Princess. * Fuka waves, and makes creeping gestures towards the corner. Darkmoon, if I summon the Kirin, will you be able to control yourself? Might as well... it'll slow the flooding. Strange crunching noises come from around the corner, then rubble spews out across your street along with the rubble. I cannot become the Feral Beast at the moment, anyway. I'm out of energy. So fine are we fighting ningyo now? Yes. ... so it would seem. I think we're sneaking towards Fuka first. * LadyMysteria pulls out her wand and looks at it. Fine. The wand seems to have put itself back together when she wasn't looking! * LadyNightshade stays invisible and makes her way towards the ningyo, jumping on stuff if she has to. * LadyMysteria pauses to... hug the wand tightly, almost possessively. * LadyHeat prepares for boiling. Taki gets a view around the corner, and sees that there are two Ningyo there. Not one, but two! Looks like there's two of them. Not good. Heat. Boil them. * Lady_MakeBelieve gets ready to send out a call for the Kirin if this looks like its not working. One of them is actively destroying stuff, while the other seems to be summoning as much water as it can. * LadyHeat sneaks to look around the corner. * Fuka smiles as the team approaches. "Good to see you're still alive." Same for you. * Lord_Darkmoon nods. Are you guys ready? * LadyNightshade prepares to leap and attack the Ningyo. Yeah. My transformation is a little noisy, so... I'll do it when you attack. Alright. Going in. The other girl shimmers in a cascade of white frothy bubbles, then reappears in a amber fuku. Let me go first, they'll be too distracted to notice your transformation. I should help you start the attack. I can help you keep it... uh, disoriented. Whatever works. Alright... * LadyMysteria twirls her wand, eyeing the water-summoner. * Fuka tenses up. Say when. Water surges once more, clearing that last rush of rubble out of the way, and pushing Lady Heat back. ... when. * LadyNightshade leaps from her purchase, attacking the nearest one of the pair. * LadyHeat grins, a little bit too creepily, and boils the heads of the ningyo. Taki gets the drop on the Ningyo which was blasting the scenery and smacks it around enough that it seems slightly dazed. * LadyNightshade gets her hits off in mid flight before landing safely out of the water on a chunk of rubble. She gets out of the way just in time before Heat starts the water around the fish-girl steaming. She turns red and scoots out of the sudden cloud, cursing horribly. The tide of water in the street starts to slow somewhat, allowing people to step around the corner into full view of the mermaids. * LadyMysteria raises her newly-rebuilt wand at the Ningyo Heat attacked, eyes hardening and arm trembling. "... you... all of you... I will not rest..." With a jerk, a Star Gun bolt streaks out towards its head, crackling through the night air. The battered and scalded Ningyo suddenly has a hole punched through its head. What's left of it collapses, flopping and twitching in the wet street. ... until you are all destroyed. * Lady_MakeBelieve pulls out her phone and makes a quick call to Dani * Fuka raises her arms, and hundreds of metal objects fall out of the sky around her. They bounce off the sidewalk in an enormous ringing clatter and you can see that they are all wrenches for a second before they disappear. * LadyWrench emerges from the racket, with a meter-long wrench in hand. The remaining Ningyo can't see what made the noise, doesn't know what boiled its colleague, has a hard time spotting what blew her brains out... but there's this Lady right in front of her, so... "Tidal... BLAST!" Unfortunately her aim is a little off, and she misses Taki. The rubble Taki was standing on is washed away, though. * LadyNightshade easily leaps away onto another nearby bit of rubble. "Way off." * LadyBeer finally gets herself around the corner and calls her attack. "CHUG!" Bubbly brown liquid cascades from nowhere, soaking the second Ningyo, who begins to wobble as she hovers. * Lady_MakeBelieve finishes up her phone call with Dani, then moves her hand in a large circle. A sparkling field appears in there, and when the circuit is completed, Sailor Sunbeam is standing there in front of you. * LadyMysteria eyes Sunbeam's appearance, then looks to Haruko almost curiously. "... huh." * Sailor_Sunbeam looks more impressive than the last time you saw her. The material of her fuku now shimmers, and she seems to have acquired a pair of wings I'm here and ready to go! * Sailor_Sunbeam poses * Sailor_Sunbeam then unleashes a cone of blinding energy pulses at the Ningyo with the cry "Star Tranquil Ovaries!" The Ningyo twists out of the way, and is only mildly singed. * LadyWrench runs around the corner, but finds herself wading through the street and can't quite reach the Ningyo. Lady Nightshade leaps for the second Ningyo and gets knocked about by a few pink-flashing fists, but then smacks the Lady away with a casual backhand blow. This one's tougher! She's not drunk! Actually, the Ningyo is wobbling about a bit - maybe she knows drunken fish boxing? * LadyRoyal steps in and lets a flurry at the Ningyo. * LadyNightshade splashes down into the water and growls up at the Ningyo. The mermaid and some nearby rubble are bounced around by the explosions, and she comes out of it looking somewhat bruised and bleeding. Finish the damned thing! * LadyWrench is knocked over as a suddenly mindless Lady Heat bowls her over on the way to the Ningyo. * LadyHeat leaps up to the bleeding mermaid and practically shoves her hand through the rather surprised mermaid's chest, pulling out some tasty internal organs. The girl shoves them in her mouth in a frenzied hunger. When this is finished she cracks the ningyo's head open and eats the tasty gray matter inside. * LadyMysteria pauses... then decides that it's the perfect time to puke again. I *knew* she was becoming a Vampire! * LadyHeat , still covered in blood and brains glares at Haruko. "At least I'm eating the ENEMY." ...well. That takes care of that. For *now* ...EEEEEEEEEEEWWW! ... WHAT THE FUCK!? What happens if one of us starts bleeding!? * LadyWrench stands up, having missed it. "What? What?" I don't want to eat people! The thought makes me want to vomit. * LadyHeat drags the body off somewhere slightly less visible to devour more of it. ... Maya? Maya, can you order her not to eat people? She ATE THE NINGYO! * LadyNightshade eyes Maya in an I don't want to be anywhere near Kyouko anymore way. ...oh. Um... good? * LadyNightshade backs way the hell away from her. I'M NOT GOING TO EAT PEOPLE. * LadyMysteria gags a few more times, then spits heavily. "It's dead. Let's keep moving, we'll sort things out later! TOWARDS THE CENTER, NOW!" * LadyRoyal gives Haruko a Look. "You're unbelievable. Heat's given us no reason to think she's going to eat people, any more than Feral would." * LadyMysteria seems to have put what little remaining power she has in her voice. Whoa, wait, wait! You think she *wanted* to eat that Ningyo? Who says she wouldn't do the same to a person? You're the one who made her like that so you deal with it! * LadyHeat shoves some more in her mouth and swallows, then head to the middle. Am I going to... have to give an Order? I had nothing to do with it. It was the Vampire Queen If I wanted to eat a person, Haruko, I would have eaten that policeman but I DIDN'T. Right. And *she* ate people, so how do we know what Heat's becoming won't? The policeman wasn't bleeding. Neither were the ningyo when I first saw them! * LadyRoyal firmly puts her hand on Kyouko's shoulder in a gesture of support and hands her a cloth from her bag. "Here." Fuck it. Let's just keep going. You didn't start eating them until they were though! * LadyMysteria snarls, the Queen's Order pulsing in her head again. "SHUT UP AND FIND PRINCESS! That's a *Order*!" * LadyRoyal glares at Haruko. "Because unlike some people, Heat actually works *for* the team instead of against it." Yeah, because I couldn't help myse-- Okay. Our petty little arguments can wait! Princess? Princess who? The Queen's little cousin. * LadyMysteria scans around for a way to continue. "Just stick with us. We'll need the help." She's probably the next Queen. I think she means Princess Princess, Fuka. Remember her? * LadyRoyal nods curtly. Oh. Huh. That's probably a good idea, though I'm thinking maybe we should stay here and protect our district. ... if you feel you need to, go ahead. * LadyNightshade goes back to moving towards the big water bubble, going invisible. At least no one can see how sickened she is right now. Do you know what's happening? * LadyRoyal leans in and whispers to Kyouko as they continue. "You feeling any better?" * LadyMysteria starts moving, even before she can make out a direction to go. "We don't. Pray it's a good thing." We heard that Chiba got nuked, but we were asleep when it went off... * LadyHeat whispers back. "I'm not hungry anymore. I really don't want to eat people." * Lady_MakeBelieve gets back on her bike, sending out another call to Norcliff as she does so. Norcliff can't talk, he's too busy not-puking while Nike is running. Is the Palace okay? * LadyRoyal nods again. "Good, that'll help you with energy. And I believe you." She climbs onto her bike. * LadyMysteria pauses. "It did. We're in serious trouble... just take out what Ningyo you can, and look for more Magical Girls." * LadyHeat climbs back onto her bike, hoping Haruko doesn't decide to be a bitch and vanish it. They said - they implied the Queen was dead, didn't they? * LadyNightshade lets Maya answer all the hard questions. That's what they pay her for. She likely is. Don't panic, though. Please don't. We'll make it, but we have to hold on until we can regroup. * LadyHeat mutters. "Feral's eaten way more enemies than I have." ...oh. Crap. Wasn't Princess at home? We went there first She had already left. I mean, you seem to be coming from- ouch. She doesn't have any powers, not really. Which is why we need to go find her. So we've got to run. Hold the line here. * LadyBeer grabs Fuka's hand. "Come on, we need to get organized." She *didn't* have any powers Hopefully she has some now. Good luck... She was stronger transformed. ...yeah. Um. None of us know how the Queen thing works anyway. * LadyMysteria turns back around. "Team... sorry for the iron hand, but we have to move. Let's go." She continues, scanning for a point to continue inward. * LadyWrench turns to Beer. "You think the police would work with us?" No apologies, you did what was needed. Well you did talk with them that one... The two Ladies walk off, back towards the district center. I just hope Princess is alright. * LadyRoyal nods. * LadyHeat mutters. "I'm still not going to eat any of you." [end session] Session Close: Sat Mar 18 19:49:07 2006