Just Another Class Trip (IC)

[Electra]

"Okay, we go for the big group first," Erin murmured, pointing to a group of ten aliens on a platform a hundred feet away. "Go in fast, while we've still got surprise. I'll land us in the middle of the group, and as soon as we touch down, you smoke 'em. Then we take out as many as we can, as fast as we can. Good?" She waited for his assent, then picked him up around the waist with one arm and made a perfect standing leap, right into the thick of the group of aliens.

As soon as the air filled with smoke, she started hitting, relying on her memory and an extremely acute sense of hearing to tell her exactly where the bad guys were. They didn't have a lot of of fight in them, and by making big sweeps with her bat, she took down better than a half dozen of the rank and file, and one she thought might have been a command type. She fought in silence, concentrating hard on listening to what she needed to hear.

[Gizmo]

"Hrrn, teleporting..." Midnight grimaced as the invaders appeared behind them. When Wander outlined her plan, he ran the index finger of his free hand along the brim of his fedora. "Back your play. Always."

As they touched down, the pair were rewarded with looks of surprise from the motley gang in the split instant before midnight mist rushed forth from Trevor's every pore, blanketing them all in darkness. Through the lenses of his mask, he watched as Erin make short work of the group in ruby tinted relief. Pulling the pin from one of the small orbs in his hand, he lobbed it forcefully at an invertebrate looking opponent. On contact, the matte black sphere burst with a sharp hiss buffeting the invader with explosively decompressing gas.

[Cyroa]

Chaos erupted instantly. Black mist blinded the first group, causing the raiders to panic and jabber in surprise. Of course they weren't talking too long as Wander decimated the small group before they could blink. Not that anyone could see but soon only two remained standing, a large Wolfman-like fellow and a 5' slug with arms and a ray gun. Thanks to Midnights chemical grenades however, the sluggy creature was reeling, doing its best to stay conscious!

[Electra]

"Good work!" Erin told Trevor, "let's do it again!" Orienting herself from memory, she leapt out of the cloud and dropped back down in the middle of a second group of bad guys. The second the mist released, she was on the move again! Once again, most of their opponents were not very tough, there were a couple who were quite a bit stronger and faster! How many of these creatures were there, anyway? And where was Dark Star?

[Gizmo]

Recovering quickly from the second leap, Midnight replaced his explosives in his belt in favour of emulating Wander's more direct approach. Twin escrima sticks made short work to the avian invader, which the lean youth was gratified to find had similar skeletal structure to birds on Earth. As quickly as their foes were going down, they were still too spread out. Withdrawing his grapple, Trevor switched the device to its snare mode in preparation.

[Cyroa]

The bird/lizard creature hissed in pain as the thing was clocked in the head by Midnight's attack. It had no idea where Trevor was though so it couldn't retaliate at all. The other group game to their senses, now that there were only two there, and did the smart thing of getting out. The 3rd group farther away watched with wary eyes/tenticles/feelers/etc. As the two teens bounced from one platform to another and creating clouds of mist. While the raiders couldn't see into the mists, they heard the sounds...and saw one poor fellow go flying up and out of the mists, totally unconscious.

The leader of that smaller group, a short fellow who looked almost human except for the purple skin, tail and four eyes, did waste any time. He barked an order and 2 of the 'men' brought a couple large devices to bear. A moment later twin blazes of light launched themselves into the cloud at Erin and Trevor to land with explosive force!

[Gizmo]

Focused on the fight in front of him, Midnight was caught off guard by the alien artillery. Just barely bracing himself against the first explosion, the tall youth had just enough time to curse his lack of awareness before the second detonation a split second later bowled him off of his feet. Ears ringing and shoulder aching from a sloppy impact, Trevor struggled to regain his senses and lift himself to his feet as an unpleasant combination of sharp copper and gritty soot filled his mouth.

[Electra]

Erin swore as she dodged one blast and was tagged harmlessly by another, the flashes of light burning away some of the mist as they went and bathing everything in a deep grey fog. It gave her just enough vision to see Trevor be hit, to see him fall down. With her heart in her throat, Erin scooped him up and leapt off the platform entirely, dropping to the ground far below the canopy and the invaders. She flexed her knees as she landed to cushion the shock to her passenger, then set him down against the massive trunk of the nearest tree. "Are you okay?" she asked, keeping one eye on the sky.

[Cyroa]

Erin jump, energy blast flying every which way as the functional aliens tried blasting her out of the sky, and did a tactical withdrawal. Her sudden move caught them off guard and she landed safely in the foliage below. They could hear yelling FAR above them now as well as some movement down here with them (though it wasn't in their immediate vicinity).

[Gizmo]

"Like I said," Trevor managed in response, a wet thickness in his filtered voice, "veritable goddess." Bracing himself against the tree trunk, the lanky youth pulled the bottom of his featureless mask up over his chin and spat a mouthful of viscous liquid onto the ground. The slick glob of blood was the oddly dark red of black cherries and a thin thread of stygian smoke rose from it, curling into the air. The mist dribbling from the corner of Trevor's mouth was cut off as he replaced his mask over a wince. "Feline. Pixie," he said suddenly. "Shouldn't have sent them off... Have to get back, protect others."

[Electra]

"I know," Erin told him, crouching down to try and assess his injuries through the mask. "I'll go back up there in just a second. Right now the bad guys will still be trying to regroup, they'll be safe for another minute. I'll come back and get you when it's safe, okay? Are you going to be all right?" She didn't want to leave at all, but she knew he was right and someone had to fight off the invading force before they found the other teens. If only Alex or Faith had come along on this trip!

[Gizmo]

Midnight snorted, his gas mask filter turning it into a harsh, grating noise. "Not likely." Righting himself, he brushed some of the dirt of the forest floor off of his costume and cracked his neck once before stepping forward to place an arm firmly around Erin's waist. "Just needed to catch my breath." It was mostly true; although the blasts had knocked the wind out of him and he'd be feeling his injuries the next morning, he was more than ready to reenter the fight. More importantly, there wasn't a chance on whatever the Mai'yoa's world was called that he was going to let Wander leave without backup. Looking back toward the canopy, he narrowed his eyes. "Let's go."

[Electra]

Erin looked at him for a long moment, wishing she could see more through the mask. She really wanted to leave him down here where it was safe, and she could certainly break his hold and take off, but all that would do was make him mad. He'd find some way back up to the canopy, and she wouldn't be in a position to protect him if that happened. But her history was not good in terms of keeping people she cared about safe when it counted, either.

She shook the thought aside, looking up into the canopy and bringing the layout of it to mind. "Okay," she told Trevor, "we're going to angle through the trees, till we're above them and a hundred yards or so to the north. Then we'll drop in from above and hope they're not expecting us to come at them that way. As soon as we reach the apex of the second jump, make with the mist. Otherwise, keep your arms over your head in case of branches. And... don't get killed, okay?" She hoped it didn't sound like the plea it was. Before either of them could say anything else, she tightened her grip around his waist and took off.

[Gizmo]

Love it when she talks tactically, Trevor mused, dryly deadpanned even in his own thoughts as they soared through the air. At the apex of the prodigious leap, he released a fresh cloud of midnight mist, the inky gas creating an expanding trail behind them like a dark comet streaking to the crash into the canopy platforms. A surge of energy pushed the aches and pains of his injuries to the corners of his mind, and he dimly recognized a primal desire to acquit himself well in front of Erin after the momentary show of all too human frailty. On a more conscious level, he was too pragmatic to be bothered, but so long as that nagging instinct was present, he could use it as fuel.

[Cyroa]

Wander and Midnight managed to get back and up into the treetops without being seen, the thick foliage providing cover. Above them and through the thinning branches, despite the daylight, they could see faint flares of light like stars blinking in and out erratically. Whatever was going on up there, it was putting on an interesting, if faint, light show. Below them, things were not quite as chaotic as they had left them.

The wounded (read: beaten into unconsciousness) were all gone. There were roughly twenty aliens left, in two equal groups. They were about 150' apart and on very high alert. All many of weapons were pointed in almost every possible direction. They were nervous and on edge, obviously searching for the pair that had decimated half their numbers in a matter of seconds. Getting the drop on them was not going to be easy...

[Electra]

With the tactical situation being what it was, Erin drew up short before making the final leap that would take them back into the fight. "We need a distraction," she murmured, kneeling on a branch and keeping a hand on Trevor's arm as she watched the invaders group up. "It looks like they're not paying much attention to the place where we put the other students, but that could change. If you can rig something distracting to let me get in there, I'll go in and clean up the bad guys, and you can make sure nobody goes after the students and the whatever-their-names-are, the sloth people."

[Gizmo]

"Mai'yoa," Trevor replied absently, pulling a trio of small cube shaped devices from his belt. Without preamble he threw them in a wide arc, landing in a semi circle around the tightly grouped invaders. The instant the cubes connected with the platforms upon which the village was built, they burst with jets of midnight mist, quickly surrounding the motley warriors with small, inky clouds.

Midnight raised the cuff of his jacket to his mouth, and his words emerged from speakers built into the smoke bombs he'd just thrown. The microphone was wired into the same rosetta stone algorithm he'd used to translate the native's speech earlier. Triggering a button, he switched to another speaker, creating the illusion of being in multiple places at once. At his cue, his flat, chillingly emotionless voice came forth from the third cloud.

[Cyroa]

The gas bombs erupted midway between the two groups. Quickly they turned and focused their weapons towards the cloud. However, neither group fired negating the risk of hitting one another, showing a rather significant amount of fire support training by doing so. Another clue was that despite the majority of them facing the cloud, each group had 1 alien looking the other way and expecting trouble. It wasn't perfect, but it did show they had more training than a motley group of alien pirates.

[Electra]

"Nice," Erin murmured to Trevor, then sprang into motion. Little more than a blur of color in the air, she was on the one alert man in the first group in half a second. This was an ugly boar-like creature with a squat head and large tusks, which Erin punched him right in between. Without a chance to fire his weapon, he went tumbling harmlessly to the platform. With him down, it was the work of just moments to disable the rest of the group, who were less trained, confused, and frightened by the inexplicable things happening all around them. They certainly seemed to believe that death was all around them.

[Gizmo]

Lobbing another trio of smoke bombs into the center of the remaining group of invaders, Midnight took the opportunity to blend effortlessly into the surrounding foliage, becoming a mere flicker of a shadow across the verdant backdrop. Making his way swiftly to the hut Halo had disguised, he paused to check on his less capable classmates before looking for some sign of the remaining students. The black clad youth had a nagging feeling that if he didn't locate Kid Alchemy, Feline and Pixie as quickly as possible he was going to regret it.

[Cyroa]

Midnight could see the second group was edgy and just itching to shoot something. But they couldn't see due to the Midnight Mist could that blocked their view. One seemed to be talking into a communicator quickly though with the sudden appearance of yet more Mist, Trevor lost sight quickly. Trevor easily stealthed his way down without anyone the wiser. Peeking through the illusion, he could see the others hiding where he left them, some more fearful than others. Faintly, he could hear more sounds of battle...

[Electra]

As soon as Trevor threw his smoke pellets, Erin took a second to memorize the location of the invaders, then leapt across the open space between platforms and came down swinging in the darkness. It was a shock when he bat encountered only air! Every muscle tense, she made herself hold entirely still for several seconds, listening for the slightest breath of motion that might alert her to the presence of her enemies. But as the smoke began to clear, it was apparent that she was alone. The invaders must have used their teleportation technology to vacate the area. Immediately, she began swinging through the trees, looking for Trevor and for any more of the bad guys.

[Gizmo]

"Almost done; stay put," Midnight commanded the hidden students in a tone which failed almost entirely to be reassuring. Ducking back out of the illusion, he fired his grapple in the branched of the surrounding trees and dove downward, swinging toward the sound of fighting below. Stupid, stupid, stupid, he berated himself silently. If anything happened to the missing students, it would be on his head.

[Cyroa]

Midnight swung as fast as he could, moving through the foliage and hoping he wasn't too late. In only a moment or two, he had left the area of the village and to smaller trees. He came across what was likely a clearing at one point. Now though, there was a massive machine there. The ground was all turn up and turned over where it's multiple arms and attachments had been digging and drilling furiously. It was obvious this is where the trouble was. From the half a dozen large aliens in what appeared to be armor and wielding heavy weaponry to the fact that one of the machine's arms seemed to be made of tinfoil, this was where the action was.

[Electra]

With the fight at hand taken care of, Erin could hear a battle coming from further away. She took a look at the sky to see whether Dark Star was coming back, but it remained stubbornly empty. Leaping from branch to platform, she headed in the direction of the fight, figuring that was where Trevor had headed. She didn't bother to be stealthy. If the invaders heard her coming, so much the better. She was an excellent distraction, and would hopefully buy time for Trevor to find the others.