Janet goes grey just long enough to get to the nearest cover. Then returns fire with her gun as best she can.
The men on the cliff top are silhouetted against the burning trees. They're easy targets, and Janet is pretty sure she hit two or three of them. Then, of course, she has to reload.
Michael stares at Richter taking more kanji for a couple of seconds before moving (while muttering about more kanji being a bad idea) to a better spot to shoot from, and opens fire.
His Tommy-gun chews up a section of shrubbery. A couple of men fall out of it, and the others scramble for cover. For a minute or two, no one is shooting at Michael and Janet.
Sonny-boy moves in closer, going from cover to cover as well as He can. When He's in range he fires his weapon, then pauses and blows up a tree. That scatters the opposition, so he blows up another one. And as He's going He thinks to Himself how much easier this without barb wire.
Between Sky, Michael and Janet's gunfire and the Boomer explosions, the enemy's fire has been almost completely suppressed. Most of the enemy are still alive, but taking cover.
Belle first tries to push away the smoke that the opposition is following, so it is not near them.
Then, she tries to hit the cliff with a series of twisty, gale-force winds, so anyone who is near it, on top, on the side, at the bottom but not nailed down, will either get swept off or smashed into it.
The updraft used by the Tattooed Man can easily be sustained and expanded into a gale battering the cliff. Men tumble away from the edge, and those few still trying to shoot are blinded by flying dust and leaves.
The burning airship rolls over and falls onto the cliff top. Men scream as the firey gasbag collapses on top of them.
Belle only has a small gun, so she can't shoot unless the enemy gets close...and she's not fazed, but she'll have it ready, just in case.
Kaze stays close to Belle ... and remains alert for anyone sneaking up and/or Traveling.
Somehow, a hundred troops have been neutralized by a few Grimnoir knights. Well, Belle really gets the crown here, but others were helpful, too.
Out of the fluttering dust storm comes a tall Japanese with bare arms and bare feet. He pounds with great effort against the wind, heading straight for the greatest apparent threat. Which, as far as he can tell, is Michael Bor, whose chattergun is ripping the heck out of the trees on top of the cliff. Neither Belle nor Sonny-boy's Power gives any clue to its source, although someone close to Sonny-boy would see the sparks on his hands as he aimed his Power.
Right behind him comes a smaller Japanese woman with massive gold bracers on forearms and shins. She is sticking in the lee of the big man, using him as a windbreak.
One of her hands is cocked to swing a fist. The other trails behind her ... and is pulling a stout silken rope. The other end is lost in the dust devils, but it seems to be pretty heavy.
Belle blasts a wind against the incomers (incoming folks?). She watches to see what is affected, who is swayed. (The lady? Those on the silken string?) Then she concentrates her wind power (so to speak) on that part trying to dash and bedazzle them...leaving those unaffected by winds to the others.
ReplyDeleteSky figures that whatever the enemy thinks is good, is bad.
ReplyDeleteSo, having no idea what is on the other side of that rope, he puts down his rifle, takes off his coat and hold it in one hand, draws a switchblade in the other hand, and runs toward the brute lady, yowling the famous Rebel Yell to which his own Jewish ancestry as the son of a New York pawnshop owner in no way entitles him. If he loses his hat in the gale force wind Belle is whipping up, he will buy a new one later.
As soon as either the massive guy or the brute lady sees him and turns eyes toward him, he will duck behind a rock or tree, or just hit the ground, and travel to a spot immediately in front of the massive, spits in his eye, then travels immediately behind the brute lady, throw the coat over her head, and cut at the rope with his knife.
Sky will expend his luck to duck out of the way should the lady reach for him or throw a punch. He just treats her hands and feet like bullets, and trusts to his Ace luck to get the heck out of her way.
And out of the brute's way. And to not get shot.
He runs away (or travels away) from her parallel to the rope, figuring that if she follows him, the thing on the end of the rope, whatever it is, will move backward if she moves backward. And he keeps hacking at that rope.
(By my count, that is three travel orders and one or two Ace orders, so Sky has burned through about half his oomph just in one moment. Right?)
Yes, that's right. But you have to spend magic to accomplish things ...
DeleteKaze is concerned by the screaming coming from the bootlegger hideout... but she knows the three or more actives coming their way means she'd better stay close to the weather lady. Close enough to keep her Faded. Tries to keep a cool game face as her old colleagues approach. Or don't approach, depending on how the Weather treats them. However, she briefly unFades to throw her sai to cut the silken rope.
ReplyDelete