ic Red Team: Jeopardy In The Jungle

[Poncho]

(GM POST)

 

Neko's army of cats moved throughout the jungle, through the pink mist and across a jungle that was at once familiar and alien to them. With help from Lawrence, Neko was able to mostly focus on the areas where Lawrence had seen people, and the momentary cracks of thunder that could only come from a rifle- a weapon that shouldn't exist in the Lost World- helped focus further.

 

Eventually she found it.

 

A mobile command post, the kind used by spy agencies; banks of computer monitors and screens, pulled out of the side of the equivalent of an RV. Two people were seated at the command post in chairs; a woman tapping away at the keyboard and talking into a microphone, and a man in a high tech suit of armor patrolling nearby.

 

"Esquire, confirming that you're on the right track. The target is 50 meters ahead. Watch out for the pitfall trap on your right." The woman spoke as she looked at one of the screens. On that screen, Kazra- a gunshot in her stomach and her teeth gritted in concentration-, hung silently in a tree, watching a middle-aged man in a classic safari hunter's outfit with a rifle stalk through the undergrowth. But this was not a fair fight; the drones the mechanical operator was tending gave the hunter- Esquire- all the information that he needed to push Kazra into the corner, while she had no such advantages.

 

"Hey. TechNo. Where did her students go?" The armored man asked as he spied one of the monitors, where a drone was currently circling the area above where the Claremont Teenagers were waiting.

"They chased off the drone; one of the boys did it. Do you and your boys want to go chase them off Hotshot? I can set up a perimeter; Esquire won't think there's any reason to hunt them down, they're not natives."

 

"...Yeah. I'll take the Hounds and go chase them off." Hotshot replied before calling in something on his own radio and, suddenly, flying up into the air.

Edited April 9 by Poncho

[Avenger Assembled]

Neko stared intently through the eyes of her cats, peering as closely as she could so she could actually see what the screens looked like, particularly those of the drone operator. She couldn't project her illusions through them but seeing her targets, knowing what they called themselves, would make things easier. They looked with machines? Very well; she'd have to make sure that when she told them things, she told them what the machines said too. 

 

"We are being hunted," she told the younger students wen she was back in her own body, her tail twitching behind her and her voice a low while. Her heart was beating in her chest like a jackhammer but her hands were still and her voice gradually assumed a more human tone. She quickly described what she'd seen, adding - "Hotshot and his 'Hounds' are coming to find us. We need to help Kazra first, because that man is going to kill her." She considered briefly, then said "Timeout. Can you push yourself and take the others with you?" 

[Thevshi]

Timeout

 

Lawrence listened carefully as Neko described what she saw and heard. If he was worried or frightened by the fact that someone was hunting them, the blond teen did not show it, his expression mostly impassive save for a look of concern to hear that Kazra had been injured. When the Senior looked back to him to ask if he could take others with him he gave a small nod.

"Simple enough to create a rift through time and space over to there." He stated before disappearing in a temporal blur only to reappear down on the ground once more. "Can you show me the area near where she is? Then I can get us all there. And I can heal Kazra's injuries as well." He started. Once Neko had given him an idea of where she wanted them to go, Lawrence raised one hand and created a temporal portal in the air similar to the one he had used to transport the teens to Fiji last month. Once it was opened, he stepped through, waiting for the others to follow.

[Dracostern]

Cerebral and Cerebellum 

 

The Evans would also remain quiet as they listened to Neko's report. Daniel would visibly look shocked at the details before growing concerned. It seemed as though he wore a lot of his emotions on his sleeve. Not all of them, but most. He would get ready and float himself up towards Lawrence's portal as soon as it opened, understanding the plan, somewhat. Though this would obviously be quite dangerous. 

 

Unlike her brother, Iris kept her emotions on the inside, she was just as shocked and concerned as him but did not show it on her mostly expressionless face. She would nod with narrowed eyes. No time to dwell on any failures. They needed to act now....so she followed Lawrence and Daniel into the portal.

[Avenger Assembled]

Neko paused only a moment before joining the others through Lawrence's portal. She had briefly thought to stay and provide a distraction for the escape of the younger students, but it didn't seem necessary at this time. She did leave one surprise behind for any who might be following, however. The last one through the portal, she snapped her fingers as she went, leaving behind an invisible forces of cat-demons to growl and hiss and torment any who might approach too close to where they had gone. They want to find us? Good. Let them look.

[Poncho]

(GM Post)

 

With the invisible, hissing, tormenting cats left behind, the group went through Lawrence's Portal, and back into the mists.

 

They landed across several of the branches of the same tree that Kazra was hiding in, and she took a moment to register surprise before raising her fingers to her lips. Her statement was whispered.

"Quiet. Being hunted." She said frantically. "Brave of you to come, but we must be careful."

A gun shot split the air and the tree near the Lost World's inhabitant, and she moved to the side. A cutting british accent hissed through the air afterwards, yelling loudly.

 

"Oh ho! There's no use hiding! I was just coming here to hunt some Dinosaurs, but taking out a prize like a real human who lives here will be way beyond a T-Rex skull in the sitting room! But we can all be civilized about this, now can't we?" said the man who was 'cheating' at a life or death hunt.

 

The mist was hiding the group fairly well, but it was also hiding the man himself; he must have some sort of special scope to let him see through it. The sound of a rifle being reloaded split the air momentarily as he prepared for another round.

"Tech-No, get the drones back around, let's keep her pinned in." He wasn't exactly aware that the Claremont Students had moved into this battlefield, which gave them an advantage.

[Dracostern]

Cerebral and Cerebellum 

 

As soon as the twins appeared in the mist, they would activate their forcefields while the hunter was distracted talking. An extremely faint purple glow came from their bodies for a split second before disappearing. Hopefully that was not enough to give away their location. When they had finished, Iris would glance over at Neko and Lawrence. "Alright, what's the plan?" Her voice echoed in their heads, though it did take her a few seconds to dot his as she had to speak to them both separately. 

 

Meanwhile, Daniel was keeping his eyes out for anymore drones. He did not want them to get spotted so early. 

[Poncho]

As the group settled on branches, prepared for a battle, the drones swept up and around, beeping and chirping. They flashed an alert when they happened to find Iris, starting to circle around her.

Meanwhile, from a few dozen yards away, there was the sound of a bolt being pulled back.

"Tech-No. The hangers-on are here. Hotshot, get back around here. And release TOG 1 and TOG 2, we're gonna need the big guns here." He kept the same stiff upper lip British accent, even as he prepared for combat; ready to go. Whatever was being sent back to him wasn't heard, since it was an ear worn communicator. But there was no reason to doubt it was happening.

[Avenger Assembled]

Somewhere close to Esquire, a woman stumbled out of the brush and landed at his feet. She might have been pretty, once, with dark hair and striking green eyes, in clothing that marked her as one of the natives of the area. But something had happened to her, something terrible - and unholy. Blood dripped from gaping wounds in her face and abdomen, wounds so deep that Esquire could see bone and muscle beneath, and her guts churned and writhed with a foul, wretched movement that came from within. 

 

"They're here. The devils are here," she said before screaming in mortal, living agony as unholy things tore their way free from her abdomen in a shower of stinking gore, burning, shrieking fiends that revealed themselves as a horde of demonic, burning cats that overwhelmed the senses of every human there save the young heroes, so even if mechanical voices tried to tell them otherwise, all they could hear and see and know was the howling of the living dead. 

 

Neko Musume, a nekomata in a forest, stood amid the chaos visible only to her enemies and smiled. For the first time, her friends could see clearly that her teeth were very sharp. "kekeke..." 

[Thevshi]

Timeout

 

Lawerence frowned slightly as the one calling himself Esquire called for reinforcements to help face the Claremont teens. Then Neko unleashed her powers on the Englishman, downing out his senses with her powers.

 

The blond teen then looked over to Kazra, noting her wound. Raising up one hand, he sent a burst of temporal energy over towards their guide. As the temporal energy washed over the young woman, it helped heal the worst of the gunshot wound.

 

With Kazra in better shape to fight, he prepared himself for whatever might come to aid the hunter.

[Poncho]

(GM Post)

 

"Thank you, Lawrence." The huntress said. She continued to stay quiet, observing what was going on with Neko and the hunter carefully.

 

The Hunter himself did absolutely nothing to help the wounded woman, in fact he went to push her out of the way before realizing she was fake!

"Get out of the way, you crazed bird! I'm hunting!" then the cats came after him and he yelled in surprise. "Blimey! There weren't supposed to be any moggy in this forest!" he yelped as he fled, attempting to hide behind a tree, but not being exactly sure where his prey is. "Drones! Take them out! I don't want to be mucking about with this, I'm still tracking that big palooka!"

 

At his order, the drones chirped like birds and moved directly towards the Claremonters and their guide; they were clearly fully autonomous, at least in some way, shooting bright red lasers into the foliage; precise beams struck Kazra in the hip again, leaving a nasty burn that smelled quite...unnerving.

 

The drones continued to float around, trying to keep the group pinned in their hiding place for when the hunter finally managed to get his focus back in.

[Dracostern]

Cerebral and Cerebellum 
 

The twins seemed to act as if they were one person. Daniel would reach out his hand and try to hold the Hunter with his Telekinesis, however he was not able to get a good hold on the man since his will was a bit too strong. 

At the same time, Iris held out her own hand and gripped a drone with her powers and looked over at Daniel. "I couldn't hold him." The young man spoke to his sister telepathically. "Throw it anyway." 
Iris nodded with a look of concentration as she pulled her hand back and thrust it forward like one would throw a shot put. 
The drone, with extremely feint purple energy outlining it, pulled itself back before launching foreward as if an invisible hand had thrown it. 

 

The machine when flyin and hit the Hunter before BOOM! it exploded!

[Poncho]

(GM Post)

 

The Hunter was a willy one indeed, and he fought of the Telekinesis even though he couldn't tell where the group was coming from.

 

"Oh no you don't, I'm not getting caught with such a novice move, my good opponents." he called in threat. Then the drone Iris threw hit him straight in the face and exploded, and he stumbled back a few steps, holding his broken nose.

"How dare you! You should know better than to beat up your elders! I say, are all you people in this world so rude and uncultured!?" he yelled. "I will not be standing for this, I assure you."

 

"Boss, I'm coming in now." spoke a voice on a loudspeaker above

"About time! Any longer and I'd have to cut your pay." the man responded.

 

What descended was less a person and more a mobile fireball with a suit of armor inside of it. Some sort of robotic battlesuit, definitely, but with a distinct firey theme; white and blue. It was encased in a burning orange and red aura and spewing flames from the feet as it pulled in.

"I can't see them, Hotshot!" called the man. "These damnable cats are impossible to hear or see over!"

 

"Relax....I can see them clear as day right here." Hotshot responded. "I'm gonna take them out."

 

And coming ever closer was the sound of roaring; something big and heavy was making it's way towards the group.

[Avenger Assembled]

"You were a fool to come here," Neko informed the man of fire, slashing at the air with her fingernails, her mind finding purchase on whoever was inside. "You feel that?" she taunted him as she strode forward, right to where the blind, deaf, insensate Esquire was cowering like a whipped dog despite his ravings. "Right through your suit to the meat within."

 

She was sweating in the heat, muscles straining, as she took up a position all but straddling Esquire. She laughed, a distinct kekekeke sound, and asked, "What did you think you found here? Prey?!" 

She smiled, showing pointed teeth, and said, "Do you think you can hit me without hitting him?" she asked as she put Esquire between herself and Hotshot. "What do you think he will smell like? Like Bri-ti-sh pork, burning?"

 

She blinked her eyes and smelled the village burning, heard the screams of the dying as the soldiers -

 

She peeked out from behind the much larger man, exposing an ear and single yellow eye. "Come and see," she taunted. 

[Poncho]

(GM Post)

 

The battle-suit beeped and tumbled under the flames that curled and licked the air, but the man shook his head, forcing hies way through the hooks that the cat creature tried to put on his mind.

 

"You're a spooky one, I'll give you that." He hissed through the flames. "You're right I can't risk burning up my paycheck, but if you wanna play the hostage game, how about I do it too. You want me to burn up your frien-"

 

He stopped because he was bringing his hands around to threaten the rest of the group, and instead Kazra had violently leaped out of the tree directly at the burning man! With nothing but animal skins and a knife, she still went recklessly to defend her charges, and a knife of sharp metal sunk into the suit of the armored man. They both went down, even as Kazra caught fire from the aura of the suit, crashing through the treetops and into the ground with a thud.

Edited May 22 by Poncho

[Thevshi]

Timeout

 

Lawrence calmly watched as the engagement continued to unfold, the hunter continuing to want to go after Kazra, even as Neko blinded him with illusions. But then the man in the fire producing armor arrived. While Kazra managed to get a hit in on him, she was burned in the process.

 

Realizing the man could quickly become a problem if he started a fire that go out of control, the blond teen raised one hand as a burst of temporal energy erupted from him, spreading out in all directions. The burst washed harmlessly around Neko, the twins and Kazra, and failed to affect the drones. But it slammed into Hotshot, who froze for a moment before collapsing to the ground unconscious.

 

The temporal energy also hit Esquire, who disconnected from reality as he was proved a rather easy target. But the Englishman proved resistant to the temporal effect and seemed unfazed.

[Poncho]

(GM Post)

 

"Argh! What do I pay these people for!?" Esquire yelled in frustration at Neko being so close to him but him being unable to perceive him. His bodyguard had done absolutely nothing at all to assist him, and in fact before he had even done anything he'd eaten dirt, pinned and unconscious under Kazra. "All I wanted was to hunt some Dinosaurs and you untended wastrels show up!" he pointed his gun directly down, at the floor of the jungle. "These terrible beasts, how's a little light for you?!" he asked before pulling the trigger. A regular bullet shot out of the gun, but when it impacted the ground, it exploded into a massive burst of light, filling the entire area with a blisteringly bright light that threatened to sear the retinas of all the heroes.

Even so, as that was going on, the Drones, eternally able to avoid the pain of the effects flying around between Lawrence, Neko, and even the man himself, flew towards Neko, attempting to push her away from the man with sharp laser blasts.

[Dracostern]

Cerebral and Cerebellum 

 

The twins would look away as the flash went off, so they would not be as effected as Esquire might have intended. However both would notice that Neko was surrounded by drones! Sure she could handle herself, but they had to help their team mate dang it!

 

Iris and Daniel nodded and both held out a hand each. Iris gripped one of the drones in her telekinesis, Daniel repeated her actions with another and they pulled the drones back and slammed them into the ones beside them.

 

BOOM! 

[Avenger Assembled]

Neko Musume 

 

Neko closed her eyes against the grenade's flare and weaved her way through the British patrol's hail of bullets - no, she blinked away the flash of light from Esquire and dodged the blasts of the drones, unhurt by either but growing tired, so very tired. Abandoning Esquire with a sneer of contempt, she rose to her feet and walked towards Hotshot's fallen form, dodging the shots that came her way from the hovering robots even as the twins destroyed them. Lawrence was doing very well, the twins were doing very well - but if more allies came, they were going to die here in the jungle, and meet an unspeakable fate at the hands of the - 

 

of the supervillains. 

 

She asked a question in Japanese, her voice a growl that seemed deeper than her small frame should have been capable of,  then shook her head and went on in English. "Once I crouched at Crimson Katana's left hand." She walked right up to Hotshot, studied him briefly, and then hit a big red button she spotted under his armpit. She'd guessed right with her knowledge of the technology of this era and the man's armor partially retracted, showing an all-too-human face. She reached up behind her head and pulled out a long metal chopstick, her white and brown hair falling loose behind her. 

 

She put it directly over his face, right above his eye, her palm ready to push. "I want to talk diplomacy. I want to talk to the one in charge. Ten." 

As loudly as she could, she thought at the twins: 

"Find mission control! Find the one controlling the drones!" 

[Poncho]

(GM Post)

 

Hotshot was still pretty unconscious from being hurled through time by Lawrence, but there's a chirping on the battlesuit's radio as someone patched in.

"The boss is the hunter guy." Spoke the voice. "I'm not getting paid enough to risk all this crap, I wasn't told anything about Superheroes, so you do what you want." Said a female voice before the line cut out.

 

The remaining drone sizzled, then dropped to the ground, leaving the group alone except for the conquered Esquire. The rumbling grew louder and louder until a pair of T-Rexes burst into the area, roaring a terrible, horrifying roar. But the metal collars around their neck sparked, shorted, then fall apart into pieces, and upon being given free will and wandering into Neko's illusion of terrifying cat creatures, they were animalistic enough to know to follow their base instinct, which is to flee from an unwinnable battle against an infinite army of screaming, yelling cats, so they quickly turned tail and fled, stomping a path through the jungle away from the terrible army of cats.

 

Suddenly, there was silence, other than the man currently holding his gun against people he couldn't see or hear, utterly unable to do anything.

[Dracostern]

Cerebral and Cerebellum 

 

Iris came out from hiding along with her twin, she would look over at Neko and the feline would hear the young psychic's voice in her head. "Apologies, I can not do that. Both men are out of commission. The drones are destoryed so I have no way to find them." 

 

While his sister was havign a conversation with Neko mentally, Daniel would move over to check on Kazra, concern was obvious through his voice. "Are you alright?"

[Thevshi]

Timeout

 

As the momentum continued to shift in their direction, Lawrence’s eyes narrowed ever so slightly at Neko’s announcement of having once followed Crimson Katana. Of course, the Japanese girl did not clarify which Crimson Katana that might have been, although none that the blond teen was aware of had any positive histories. Of course, Neko would hardly be the first student at Claremont to start under the influence of a villain, so he pushed the knowledge back in his mind as he stayed focused on the threat they were facing.

 

Of course, that quickly continued to dwindle, with Lawrence having a small grin as Iris and Daniel managed to drastically reduce the number of drones they were facing. And then the fight was truly over, as the individual operating the drones from some command center indicated her intention to withdraw and shut off the remaining drones near them. He tensed slightly at the appearance of two Tyrannosaurus Rex, with strange collars around them. But thankfully those collars disengaged, and the large predators seemed uninterested in Neko’s illusions.

 

Looking around at the others, Lawrence released another small pulse of temporal energy, this time it gently washed over his friends and their guide, avoiding the two men that were not their prisoners, healing the minor injuries suffered by Kazra and Daniel.

[Avenger Assembled]

Neko 

 

A low whine still at the back of her throat, Neko rose to her feet and stalked over to the cowering, still-armed hunter, the only armed enemy still on his feet. The others seemed to have the situation well in hand. She snapped her fingers and the cats that tormented and tore at him vanished, leaving only her as she stood directly in front of his gun - well that wasn't true, but there was no reason for him to know that. 

 

"Your allies have fallen or surrendered," she told him in a sibilant, accented voice. She didn't call him 'limey dog' but the words were there on the back of her tongue, along with horrific images for him that would make him break even further. "Drop the gun and do not resist, and this is over." she went on, yellow eyes smoldering like coals. "Pull the trigger," she added, smiling with cat's teeth. "And it will be as it was before for you - forever." 

[Poncho]

(GM Post)

 

"I'm...fine." Kazra said as she went from gritting her teeth to healed up thanks to Lawrence's efforts, leaving a clear surprised tone in her voice at the end of her statement. "...Thank you Lawrence, and you each did excellently. I'll be making sure you get full grades for this little expedition." she said to all of them. "Claremont certainly hasn't lost a step yet, at least."

 

Meanwhile, the Hunter put down his gun rather then shoot at Neko, but he didn't bow or scrape. He stood straight backed and stiff upper-lip'd, standing like a refined, upper class British gentleman.

"There is no need for such brutishness, Cat Creature. We are all humans here, we can certainly have a civilized discussion about this situation without resorting to violence and intimidation. I'm certain this situation can be handled like gentlemen and women." he said, producing a pipe from his pockets and lighting it. "Now, let's talk; what do you wish to know, and what can I do to assist you?"

[Dracostern]

Cerebral and Cerebellum 

 

There was a lot to think about for Iris, Neko's connections, all of their abilities, what this hunter wanted. A lot was going on...thankfully they could answer one of these. She would draw closer to the hunter with her brother and stare at him for a moment. 

 

"Well then. Tell us where your base of Operations is Sir. It's important that we know." Of course both twins were thinking of just knocking this guy out, but they needed the information.