(2018-03-30) Run, Cowards, Run
Log Title
Summary: The Lost of Port Angeles unite for a harrowing rescue operation.
Date: 2018-03-30
Related: http://darkwater.wikidot.com/log:2018-03-29-count-me-in
Player Characters: Audgrim, Bea, Denver, Finn, Mr. Quiet, Penny, Eddie

It's the night after a big party at the club house. Most of the "Gang" are all hung over inside. There's a few of the initiates and low ranking members outside picking up beer cans, bottles, and other garbage from the yard. The Gang may be a bunch of rich boy assholes but they care about the environment!

The club house is a four story square building, with balconies on the top three floors, and a pool on the roof. Out past the airport on the very outskirts of town. There's a large garage off to the side filled with fancy cars and SUVs— some of them in the process of being converted to being electric and more environmentally friendly.

The mechanic is an older man, who has taken the night off. Because who is going to deal with hung over rich boys? Not him.

Eddie looks up a the building, casing the place. He wishes he could smoke, but he's worried the cherry might give him away, if anyone inside were to look out into the dark. Finally he spits on the ground and rubs his hands together. "Right," he says, "I'm going up the wall to try one of those balconies. If you hear gunshots you'll know something went wrong. Otherwise maybe give me a minute before you kick off the festivities."

Bea nods, and does some hand-signals that look like a mix of bad silent military signals and bad baseball catcher signals. Probably Eddie can take that to mean she got the message. Hopefully. At least for the moment, she crouches in waiting, big ol' axe over her shoulder.

Finn isn't totally clued in to what they're doing or why, but as a Spring, he just goes with it amicably. He's here for ranged support, with his bow, quiver of various arrows, each with a different colored fletching for easy identification, and his archery gloves made for him long ago. He has his motor cycle leathers on, and his bowie knife in a leg sheath. The fairest looks like a green-haired Legolas in the annoying grip of a mid-life crisis. He squints at the clean-up crew being all environmentally thoughtful, before arching a green brow at Eddie. "Why are we after these guys again?" he asks Bea. Someone please fill grandpa in!

Audgrim hasn't said near a word on the ride over, and he's keeping close to Eddie - since he's joined the sneak team for this mission, if that's how it's going to go down. Dressed in dark clothes and black sneakers, he's about as ready as he can get. No equipment other than his eyes and his claws. He nods to Eddie and crouches down to wait with the others, eyes gleaming.

Denver glances around at the collected group, brows knit in concern. "No big guy? Is it just me? Because I had trouble against some apes the other day, so an entire group of potential loyalists might cause me a little trouble." Her skin is rocky and grey, that massive sword gripped between two hands. She's oddly reluctant at the moment, turning her eyes towards the building, then back to Eddie with concern. "Be careful."

"Hey, did you see something?" asks a voice from the doorway on the Balcony Eddie is waiting for. It's followed by another voice, "Huh? Maybe? That's probably just one of the Ducklings picking up trash down on the yard."

"Nah man, I thought I saw…"

The voice cuts off and a man comes out onto the balcony, "Huh, is someone there?"

Shit. Well, he did tell everyone to listen for gunshots, anyway. Eddie looks briefly up at the roof, thinking maybe he'll just keep going up the wall, but he's too slow. The door's open, and he has company. When the man steps outside there's that fancy gleaming gun that used to belong to one of his friends pointed at him, and a grave expression behind it. "Nope. Nobody out here at all."

It would have been FINE if Eddie had managed to take the guy out on the first shot. Except he doesn't. The man, a blonde man with a hint of feathers in his hair, lets out a scream as he's shot in the shoulder. Which causes his friend to rush out onto the balcony, "Bobby! What— Oh fuck! GUYS!"

He pulls out a gun of his own and takes aim at Eddie, firing wildly.

Eddie's never actually shot anybody in cold blood before, and it turns out he's not very good at it. He wings the guy and that's it, catching a bullet for his trouble, and then there's another one and he decides maybe he better be somewhere else. Back up the wall, hoping for the roof, but just a hair too slow. He catches a couple of bullets in what feel like some pretty important places, black blood raining down onto the balcony. He tries to stay conscious, but he mucks that up to, his last thoughts as he drops weightlessly into the night being that he maybe should have listened to Denver about that armor.

Both men manage to get their guns up— guns that don't have silences. So along with Eddie's little popping noises there's the sharp explosions from their guns. Three of them in rapid successions. Though he's moving both men manage to get shots off on Eddie, while foot steps pound from inside, and two more men arrive.

"What the fuck!? There's people down there! SHOOT THEM!"

When she hears the ganger call out for others, Denver's head jerks up in the direction Eddie went to. All of that concern that she's not strong enough is gone as the overprotective mamabear instinct kicks in. "Looks like we're going in through the front door insteadd," she growls. But then they're about to start taking shots. "Move!" she tells the others, gesturing for them to duck as she takes cover behind some bushes opposite the rest of them. Her flames start to flick faster, anger stretching on her features. "New plan. Can you get around and get to Eddie where he fell? I'll try to keep them distracted?" She starts to move away from the others, making noise to try to draw the guys on the ground towards her instead.

Finn grunts as he hears the gunshots and sees Eddie fall. "I got Ed, keep em off us for a few." The Fairest leaps into motion, dashing across the area towards the spot he saw the Fly Guy fall. "Shoulda brought Jamie," he mutters to himself. His beastly buddy is a paramedic. He goes into a baseball diamond worthy slide for home, grabbing Eddie by the trenchcoat, and trying, badly, to get the other Lost and himself under cover.

Finn grunts as he hears the gunshots and sees Eddie fall. "I got Ed, keep em off us for a few." The Fairest leaps into motion, dashing across the area towards the spot he saw the Fly Guy fall. "Shoulda brought Jamie," he mutters to himself. His beastly buddy is a paramedic. He goes into a baseball diamond worthy slide for home, attempting to grab Eddie by the trenchcoat, to get the other Lost and himself under cover. Instead he misses Eddie's coat by an inch and winds up right in the open to scramble to get back to the injured Changeling.

When Bea sees Eddie fall, she can't help herself, she's up and yelling, "Eddie no!" She starts to rush headlong toward her buggy friend, but adjusts course when she sees Finn grabbing him, instead heading for the nearest 'bad guy', screaming at the top of her lungs as she, very poory, swings her oversized axe at him, giving him a bit of a hair cut more than anything.

"What the fuck is that?" Calls one of the mooks from the top, "How many of them are out there?! Get that midget!" And then they open fire on Denver, all four men, firing at her from above.

Audgrim has apparently decided to stay quiet. Very, very quiet. Watching the chaos start up he just slinks further into the dark- not quite disappearing from view, but melting into some shadows. Branches seem to move to his advantage, bushes grow a bit taller as he zooms right for the building, aiming for the balconies where those shooters are.

A sneak team is not what Mr. Quiet agreed to. Let's be honest; any stealth mission involving the big guy is bound to fail. That is perhaps why he didn't join the others in their "ride" over. Also perhaps unnoticed before, is that there is an older black Lincoln SUV parked further up the street, purposefully located out of illumination of any streetlights. No lights, no engine, no sign of life.

Until the festivities suddenly kick off.

On the opposite side of the lot where the other Changelings are, the SUV kicks into life, and backs up until it's blocking the driveway to the clubhouse - braked, parked, and not going anywhere. The door pops open, and out comes Mr. Quiet looking like some oversized extra of the Sopranos - suit, tie, nice shoes. If only he had a fedora and a tommygun too. Instead, he lumbers to the other side of the SUV, opens the door and pulls out an axe that is so comically large, it looks like it came straight out of a World of Warcraft lockbox.

Marching up towards the clubhouse from the opposite direction of the other Lost, Mr. Quiet hollars out "HEY! FELLAS!" Perhaps the most frightening thing with the ogre's approach is…. every heavy step he takes, he gets bigger. And bigger. And bigger. By the time he gets to the clubhouse, he's twelve feet tall. With a roar, he raises a ginormous hand and sweeps across the balcony, smashing three of the four gunmen clean off the raised platform!

Oh god, so much panicking going on. The three "ducklings" turn onto Bea. One of them blind firing at her since she axed him. The others taking more careful aim. Meanwhile, the two men that stepped out the front door see fucking GIANT man… and start firing on his kneecaps.

Finn scrambles back over to the very bleeding Eddie and he lays his hands on the Windwing's chest as he concentrates. His mantle flares, the smell of the deep woods blooming in Spring, the clean bite of pine mingled with the earthy richness of the soil. There is a rush of that scent and the feeling of the presence of the forest that rushes into Eddie, and lessens his wounds. They still ache, but he's no longer bleeding like a stuck pig.

"What the hell did they just call me?!" Denver lets out a sharp growl, a bullet digging past her armor as she stalks through the yard. That massive sword shifts grip in her hands, bodyweight moving behind her swing as she lops off one of the men's heads clean from his shoulders. "I'll show you midget!" The fire kicks up around her as she surveys the fight, brows furrowed as she looks for the next mook on hand.

Bea screams in pain as she's shot multiple times, falling to her knees. But she's never been one to give up on a fight, and so she forces herself back up, baring her teeth and screaming as she once again launches herself, axe raised high, at the nearest mook.

The one mook still on the balcony lets out a scream when there is a giant RIGHT THERE. He lifts his gun and takes a shaky aim, firing right for Quiet's left eyeball. While the two still alive on the ground get up and start looking for their guns.

Audgrim is following the plan as he was told by Eddie - he's in party Sneak, the others are in party Beat People and make Noise. The plan, all along, was that some would try to go in and find Sophia. Looks like he's alone, for now - he literally darts up the wall to the first balcony and enters the house. Even so, he's not quite ready for giant Quiet who sweeps people off the balcony above him - he ducks down for a split second - and then when it's clear, he shoots up the wall, finding handholds in tiny cracks before gripping the edge and swinging up and then ducking into the house, all in a few seconds.

Two of the mooks are busy getting up off of the ground, and searching around themselves for their guns. But then there's … the last one, on the balcony still and jesus fuck there's a giant! He lets out a scream and immediately shoots Quiet in the eye.

Penny steps out of the car with Mr. Quiet, moving behind him and taking advantage of his bulk, and growing bulk, to hide. Quick, to the shadows of the building. And, strangely, she clambers up the side like a certain uncanny arachnid man. Over to the balcony, where she lands on the landing to engage the nearest mook. With her baseball bat. "Hey, asshole!"

Eddie is alive? Eddie is alive. Color him surprised, and blackish red, from all the blood. He's not sure how he feels about that, given all the pain he's still in, but there's an awful lot of gunfire still going on so he'll wait and process that later. He takes in the scene and spots what's going on with Bea, and flips over onto his belly to take a shot at one of her assailants. He's still not great at it, but he connects, at least.

What's scarier than a literal giant wiping people off a balcony? A giant with blood exploding out of his eye socket! There is a horrendous roar from Mr. Quiet as the gunfire tears into his left eye, causing him to stagger a step in pain and surprise. On top of that, there are goons peppering him with gunfire on the lawn; such is the downside of being an obvious target.

Gathering the Wyrd and his rage, his eyes glow a bright yellow for a moment as his Red Rage flares up. Swinging his gigantic axe, he slashes at the henchie shooting at him, but the guy backpedals just at the right time so he's not immediately cut in half.

It's been a long time since Denver has faught with another Ogre, and that roar from the giant ogre brings a noticably dark glint to the eye of the tiny one. She echoes the noise as she shifts her stance, putting herself between Bea, the bullets, and the man who she's been attacking. She slices across his chest, managing to add to the already significant beating he's taken from Bea and send him toppling to the ground. "You okay?" she asks of Bea without looking backwards, checking for her next target.

Finn's pointed ears seem very attuned to the sounds of the battle, and Bea's scream has him clambering to his feet. "Get under cover Ed," he tells the PI, before he starts dashing across the impromptu battlefield to find queen bee. "Walker Mobile Clinic at your service, Ma'am," he says as he reaches to touch her. Again that foresty sense emerges and flows into her, sealing some of her wounds.

Bea barely notices Denver, and doesn't bother to answer her. Finn only gets her attention because he touches her, and nearly loses his head for the effort, her battle-rage making her a bit slow to detect friend from foe. But when she sees that pretty face, she immediately turns around and flies at the nearest enemy, finally seeming to have gotten into a rhythm, as she cleaves the man's head right off.

Mr. Quiet takes a step, then another, giving chase to the Henchy as the bleeding man continues to shoot at the giant. A swing of the axe misses the lucky guy, but the back sweep slices across his chest and sends the man screaming to the ground. Meanwhile, three of the mooks continue to fire at the giant, but the bullets bounce off him like some Godzilla movie.

Audgrim begins his search for the mystery memory queen inside, slinking from shadow to shadow, sniffing and listening to see if he can find out where they've hid her. The chaos outside is distracting and worrysome, but he's confident they can handle themselves.

Eddie just got shot again, and that makes four times tonight. He decides he'd better listen to doctor's orders, and he scrambles off for a tree or a car or something he can hide behind for a little while.

With Bea off doing a Viking rampage of buzzworthy proportions, Finn finally raises his bow, nocking a broadhead arrow and drawing it back, the fletch just brushing the top of his cheekbone. He lets it fly, skewering one of the gang members and dropping him, the green fletching quivering in the night breeze.

Bea lauches herself at the last of the gangsters left standing, axe swinging as she cuts him through the stomach and brings his innards to the outside. She whirls around, ready to hit something else, then stops, taking a few heavy breathes, and finally reaches down to her stomach, where she's still rather badly bleedy, and whispers, "I think I got shot." She looks a little pale and woozy, like she might retroactively pass out from the whole affair.

Another sharp slice with that massive sword, and another of the mooks drops to the ground at her feet. Denver doesn't even bother to look down as she surveys the yard, doing a body count and a head count. Everyone accounted for? No. Not everyone. You can almost see the panic start to flood into Denver's eyes as she glances towards the house, realizing now that Grim must have gone in alone. "We need to get in there now," she growls, starting to stalk towards the house. "Anyone who is able bodied still."

When Bea seems to swoon, Finn rushes over to catch her, and concentrates on closing some more of her wounds. Man, he is gonna need SUCH a nap after this. "Easy there honey bee. I gotcha."

Audgrim does notice that it's getting more quiet out there, but he's found a half eaten pizza and is nibbling on it as he's poking around at things inside. Should he hear someone, he'll duck and hide and wait till he can stealthily move onwards. Where IS that woman?

Penny is already up on the balcony, so she attempts to enters the room on that floor, carefully making her way towards either Audgrim or trouble.

Mr. Quiet is a rampaging monstrosity in front of the clubhouse, roaring like some Kaiju attacking Tokyo. After knocking down that gunman, he reaches down and grabs the guy in one giant hand. Growling at the bleeding man, he squeezes — then in a half whirlwind swing, smashes him into the front door in a messy explosion of wood, blood and splinters. He finishes the turn and back towards the lawn, looking for any remaining enemies and letting out a roar. Behind him, a banner falls down to the ground, across it prints "Jurassic Park: When Dinosaurs ruled the Earth". >.>

Eddie comes out of hiding looking like he just crawled out of a tar pit, covered in that dark ooze he uses for blood. "Jesus," he whispers, surveying the carnage. When he sees that all the bodies are from the other side he heaves a sigh of relief, and rushes over to Finn and Bea. "Thanks," he says to the former king, with unusual sincerity- more for helping Bea than for saving his own sorry hide, knowing him. "Bea, you got any blushberries before we head inside? You could use one, it looks like, and I'm still a little sore."

Bea smiles a little at Finn as her wounds begin to heal, and murmurs dopily, "You're real good at that catching thing, Finn…" And then Denver is calling for the able-bodied, and she rousts herself, pulling away and grabbing her axe by the handle. She can still walk, so she's able-bodied in her mind. And that healing /did/ make her feel a lot better…mostly. Her wings are abuzz as she follows after Denver, pausing only long enough to hand Eddie a few squished blushberries.

The sound of doors and cars starting up can be heard… Cars speed off from the outside of the club house. Apparently there WERE others there, but they were fucking cowards (or smart, you take your pick) and fled for their lives from the rampaging monstrosity.

Leaving the changelings to comb through the club house.

Where they find a silver haired, lilac eyed fairest. She's in the kitchen, calmly drinking a cup of hot cocoa.

Audgrim wanders into the kitchen and upnods at the lady. "Pizza?" he offers, giving her a grin.

"My pleasure, Miss Bea," Finn says, with a tip of an imaginary hat, "Anytime, Ed." Then he follows the others in.

Eddie eats the berries and feels a little better, aside from the deep weird troubling pain every time he takes in a breath, and the weird clicking noise his collarbone makes every time he lifts his arm higher than his ribcage. Fine. He'll be fine. He turns and follows the others, happy for a deal he made with Smoke keeping all his blood from sticking to everything.

Denver stomps her was through the house, sword at the ready, eyes and fires blazing around her. Only to find a grinning Grim and a hot cocoa drinking… hostage? "Weren't you supposed to be kidnapped?" The tiny ogre growls it out as she surveys the woman, searching for binding or any signs that she's been kept here against her will. Because that's not what she expected to find at all.

Penny comes upon the calm cocoa drinking woman not too long after the others. "Hey Audi, Denver…uh." She peers at the silver haired woman. "What she said. Are you hurt? Damaged? Scared? I hope there are marshmallows in that cocoa."

"Do I know you?" asks the fairest of Denver, sipping her cocoa. A shake of her head is given to Audgrim. "No thanks." Penny gets a serene smile and she says, "Oh they tend to forget I'm hear, as long as I'm in the house. As soon as I leave they all possey up and drag me back. I stopped running away and now enjoy their hundred dollar hot cocoa."

Finn scrambles inside, skidding to a halt, trying to look heroic and there to save the damsel in dis-.. "Is that hot cocoa?" the Fairest asks, perplexed.

Things are going relatively quiet on the lawn, and Mr. Quiet calms down a bit now that no enemy is visible. He briefly reaches up to wipe the blood away from his left eye, but also hears the noise of cars speeding off. Reaching back, he grabs the nearest object available — in this case a barbecue grill on the lawn, and tosses it after the fleeing vehicles. Fortunately he's only got one eye; his aim is bad and the grill lands noisily on the street, nearly missing the last car, but close enough to make the driver panick and the car veer out of control for just a few seconds.

Run, cowards, run.

Bea frowns a little, struggling to catch some memory, "Oh…You're the pretty one, that Lilian was saying about." She smiles and slips closer to the woman, wondering, "Will /we/ remember you enough to get you out of here?"

Audgrim turns a stare at Denver, pizza in his mouth. Is he guilty? No, not really. "Told ya," he says lazily. "Everything will be alright." He eyes that chocolate.

"Sophia, I presume," Eddie says, finally catching up with the others. He's remarkably composed, considering what they've all just been through. Given all the blood on the outside of him instead of the inside, and finally coming face to face with someone he's been looking for for months, he might be in a little shock. He looks her up and down appraisingly, trying to figure out if he feels anything. "I hear we've met."

"You don't know me. I'm just part of the goon squad here to free you," Denver assures. A dark look is shot towards Audgrim for a moment before she looks back towards the Fairest again. "I'm glad you weren't mistreated. But we should probably get out of here before police arrive? Gunshots and dead bodies and all that." She glances at the others, seeing that they have this part of things handled. "I'll wait by the door to make sure none of them come back in," she mutters, turning and starting to walk back to the front door.

"Yes, the most expensive artisan mexican hot chocolate you can get." She waves to an EXPENSIVE looking pod-using-coffee machine in the corner, and a spinner full of expensive pods of coffee and chocolate and tea. A shrug is given and she says, "Oh, probably. If you've seen Lily, then probably. Which is unfortunate since your remembering me makes Ka-Hu stronger. But not can be done about it."

She sets her mug down and says, "And yes, Eddie, we've met."

It's to the windwing (male) she wanders over to, pressing a kiss to his cheek. "Shall we go?"

Finn grunts as Eddie gets smooched by the pretty lady, and he wanders outside to go heal Godzilla, like a mouse pulling a thorn from a lion's paw.

Penny looks around for a bag large enough to hold an EXPENSIVE looking pod-using-coffee machine in the corner, and a spinner full of expensive pods of coffee and chocolate and tea. Because it's not like these goons are going to use the stuff anymore. "Hey Audi, help me out. Something for your apartment…"

Bea suggests, a little too hopefully "My van is close, we could toss the bodies in there real quick, that'd be good for hiding from the cops." She will defer to whatever the group wants though, really. She does frown a bit at the cheek smooch, but instead heads out to start getting at least /one/ of those bodies into her van. Because a girl's gotta have fertilizer to grow that many blushberries.

Soon as Denver has turned around from him, Audgrim's expression shifts to something pained. He barely notices the kiss Eddie gets, staring after the lava ogre - until Penny calls out to him. He mooches over to grab things, finding some plastic bags to pack things in. "Nice," he grins at Penny. "Everyone alright?"

Mr. Quiet has calmed enough that when Finn touches his hand, there is no reflexive attack on the Fairest. He turns his head and looks way down at Finn, feeling some of his bruises fading. "Finn." He rumbles, again reaching up to wipe at the blood leaking from his left eye. "Need lotsa food before I goes back ta normal. This…." He points a thick finger at the eye. "…is gunna be ex-tra-or-di-narilly painful if I don't eat first."

Finn nods solemnly to Quiet. "I have some steaks in my fridge I was gonna bring over to Tyla's. I can get them to you to bring back to the theater big guy?" he offers. Because come on, the guy did a hell of a job.

As Bea rolls up with her van, she waves toward the back, "There's ice cream and stuff back there, Quiet, if that will help you, but just bring one of these guys with you when you go. And you can come back to the shop with me if you want, and eat out of the freezer." And open invitation to whoever wants to binge on ice cream to console themselves after this horror show, offered rather cheerfully despite some wincing and obvious pain, as she drags a body toward the back of the van by the foot.

Penny finishes helping Audgrim pack up the coffee stuff, then goes right into helping to move bodies. "I guess we need to move quick before they come back with more people. Or the police. Or both."

Eddie slowly reaches up and touches his cheek, definitely in shock, now. He stands there a while, wobbling a little. He looks like he might fall over for a moment, but he doesn't, just turning mutely to leave before the cops show up. The rest of it will have to wait.

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