Traveling Fast

Sonny-boy rolls to the side, trying to get out of the path of the rod. Unfortunately, it’s coming as fast as a bullet. It doesn’t hit him squarely, but takes a leg out from under him, dropping Sonny-boy on his back. His leg doesn’t hurt yet, but it’s numb, and may well be broken.

Sonny-boy raises his hand and blows the Shard up in mid-air. Since the Shard weighs about one ounce (thanks to his Heavy partner), he is blown spinning across the valley, flipping like a poker chip. He hits hard, and rolls to all fours, clearly dazed. Then he slumps over, with a bullet in him contributed by Michael Bor just before Sonny-boy blasted him.

So quickly is the Shard blown away that Sonny-boy can’t even get one shot on him.

Sky fakes left, dodges right, travels left, and gets a burning tree between himself and the Torch. 

Then he reaches for his handgun, and then remembers he left it in the pocket of his coat, which he left over the head of the brute lady. 

"Luck, be a lady this fight!" he mutters. He draws his switchblade, and decides to switch partners. A Torch is the last person he wants to fight. 

Hoping he still had enough oomph left for three travels and a lot of luck, he tries to put some distance and some cover between himself and the Torch. 

Kaze Fades in and throws 3 shuriken in rapid succession at the Mover, the Torch, and the fellow in the green tunic. Two strike home; the Torch is annoyed, the Heavy seriously distracted by blood in his eyes. The Mover stops the shuriken in mid-air and throws it back along its line, but Kaze has already Faded again, and it goes through her harmlessly.

Sky falls supine. He imagines a straight line running from the Torch to the Massive to a point within arm's reach beyond that, call it one foot. To that point he travels. He is lying on his back nearly underfoot. 

His crazy-stupid-genius plan is this: timing it perfectly burning up his last bit of luck, he waits for the Massive to raise a foot or raise a fist to smash down and crush Sky flat. As soon as the limb, whatever it is, is descending, Sky travels to a spot right above the descending limb, and Travels, carrying himself and the Massive in the direction of moving nine inches or so toward and into the ground, hoping the foot or fist will reappear inside the ground itself, stuck in place, and pin the Massive painfully to the spot. 

Rock, the Massive in question, does indeed punch downward at Sky. He gets his fist and forearm painfully embedded in the soil. He howls.

At that point Sky runs for cover. Unfortunately the Torch has caught up with Rock and can see Sky. He’s about to incinerate Sky when a shuriken appears half in and half out of his upper arm. The Iron Guard are supposed to be able to ignore wounds, but that’s not an easy thing to practice. It appears Sky’s luck has indeed run out, as the Torch steels himself and directs the fire from the top of the cliff to gather into a seething ball of incandescence and dive right down on top of Sky Masterton. Fortunately (a word frequently associated with Sky’s adventures) Belle’s windstorm keeps the fireball from descending fully. It washes overhead, searing Sky’s face and arms with oven-like heat, but not actually causing any serious damage. The fireball then plows into the ground near the moonshiners’ hideout, sending the brush and trees up in a scorching rush that claws at the clouds, causing very serious damage indeed. Christine Tane and Ronald Richter are still in the hideout, which is inaccessible, unobservable, and on a great deal of fire.

Michael will go to the nearest person he sees that seems to need help, or if he can't see anyone that he can help, he will try to find a better spot to shoot from.

Kaze (which means “wind”, incidentally) moves with Belle to another position so the enemy cannot triangulate their position.

Belle keeps the wind blowing hard as she can, concentrating on those who seem the most affected and trusting her companions to handle the rest. Rock and Yurasu are hanging in there (indeed, Rock seems anchored against the worst of the wind’s effects) but the softer Iron Guard are very wind-vulnerable, and the Heavy and Torch go tumbling away. The Mover anchors himself to the ground and diverts the wind around him. He opens his fist to reveal about half a pound of needles … dozens of them.

Belle considers diverting a gust to bring Sky's hat back to his head, but decides it would be tragic if someone died because she was showing off. Besides, who knows where Sky's head will be next.

She can't help showing off a tiny bit though. She causes one tiny tendril of winds to blow Sky's hat to a place where it can easily be retrieved, just short of the burning hideout.

To review: The battle can be divided into left, center, right, and rear.

LEFT: Voinovich has not done anything since the Mover clobbered him with his own rifle. The Mover is preparing to do something terrible with his handful of needles. Sky is lying on the ground, still feeling the heat on his skin, with his hat landing in the dust a few feet away.

Gunfire has resumed from the top of the cliff.

CENTER:   Rock and Yurasu are both anchored to the ground, one voluntarily, one painfully not. Kaze and Belle are near a stand of trees which are bending in the wind, but so far, no enemy has spotted them.

RIGHT: Sonny-boy is down, hurt. He’s got a tungsten rod available, if that helps. Michael is near him, covering him with his Tommy gun. The Torch and Heavy have been blown off their feet and are far away in the pines.

REAR: The hideout is on fire, with Christine and Richter presumably inside.