Raveled Posted June 18, 2011 Author Posted June 18, 2011 GM The spatial distortions hit the dragon square in its expansive chest, passing through and clearly distorting something because the creature began coughing painfully, firing short gouts of fire into the night sky. It tried in vain to stay aloft, flapping pathetically, but after a moment the huge creature plummeted like a stone, landing with a literally earth-shaking impact. It lay there, swinging its neck around and crooning; it was almost a pathetic sight -- if one ignored the burning village not a hundred feet away from the monster.
Fox Posted June 18, 2011 Posted June 18, 2011 Dragonfly's heart wasn't quite as cold as she typically liked people to think, but she didn't have a lot of sympathy to spare for creatures that incinerated villages. Still, if she hadn't been planning on killing the dragon, she certainly wasn't now; she had to admit that the creature had a certain beauty to it as she launched a spatial shockwave straight down into it. should probably make sure villagers don't kill it - don't care what it's done - don't want to be responsible for its death - just as long as it's not responsible for mine
Raveled Posted June 18, 2011 Author Posted June 18, 2011 GM Dragonfly's blast caught the mythic beast square on its horned brow, slamming the creature's head against the ground. It went nearly cross-eyed at that, its wings moving ever more slowly and weakly. Dragonfly hovered over the creature, watching it for any tricks. What she saw instead was a line of villagers marching out towards it, waving pitchforks and sickles and makeshift clubs. Apparently they had given up their homes for ash and were intent on making the creature responsible pay for it while they had the chance.
Fox Posted June 18, 2011 Posted June 18, 2011 Not for the first time, Dragonfly found herself wishing her suit had some capability or another that it simply didn't have, in a situation where she wasn't in a position to do any tinkering. She pushed designs for spatial capacitors and energy buffers out of her mind, though, as she saw the villagers marching her way; that promised to make a bad situation worse and her second volley's poor result certainly wasn't helping anything. [bg=#555555]"Think I'm going to need a new plan."[/bg]
Raveled Posted June 18, 2011 Author Posted June 18, 2011 GM The dragon shook its massive head with a sudden new vigor. The villagers' march stumbled to a halt as it rose to its haunches. As it turned on them and exhaled a breath of flame, they broke and fled, some back to the burning village and some going wide around the monster. It snapped at them a few times but quickly raised its head to the sky. Fixating on Dragonfly the creature let out an ear-splitting scream and flapped its wings, trying to gain some momentum and get airborne.
Fox Posted June 18, 2011 Posted June 18, 2011 [bg=#555555]"Trying to take you down before villagers can kill you,"[/bg] Dragonfly explained, not that she really expected the dragon to listen or understand. [bg=#555555]"Would be much easier if you'd lay down and let me knock you out."[/bg] Both gauntlets flared, and she launched two blasts in rapid succession...and then swore when they didn't seem to do much. With the beast back up on its feet she put some distance between them, still trying to lead it away from the village. going to kill that Quirk - and then design something for taking down dragons
Raveled Posted June 18, 2011 Author Posted June 18, 2011 GM Once more the dragon hauled itself into the air, defying all physics or logic. It flew straight up at Dragonfly, roaring and charging, bullying through the air with brutal conviction. The scaly beast got far too close for comfort but the heroine managed to twist and evade its car-sized teeth. The monster roared in frustration and rage, shaking the air around Dragonfly with its lung capacity.
Fox Posted June 18, 2011 Posted June 18, 2011 Dragonfly's suit had some rather ominous things to say about large objects in her proximity; she wasn't entirely sure why she'd bothered installing that warning, since every object big enough to trip it wasn't likely to be very subtle. She gave the creature another distortion to the face before shooting up into the sky above it, wings adjusting a bit as she climbed as high as she could before it had a chance to turn and attack again. come on - chase the dragonfly - just need to get some height
Raveled Posted June 18, 2011 Author Posted June 18, 2011 GM The dragon bullied its way through the air after Dragonfly, roaring and chomping after her. Eventually it sucked in a deep breath and spat out a long gout of flame, but the nimble heroine saw it coming and easily dodged to one side. It made the temperature sensors in her armor peak, though; getting hit by that would certainly be less than pleasant. Worryingly, the beast was keeping pace easily, apparently unaffected by the higher altitude.
Fox Posted June 18, 2011 Posted June 18, 2011 Dragonfly hadn't been idle as she climbed: the plates on her gauntlets had lifted away a bit, mechanical pieces inside turning, sliding, and adjusting as she fed instructions and math into her control systems. When they finally had enough height she spun in mid-air, charging back down at the dragon....and missing, whatever strange distortion she'd been building up dissipating only a few feet from her hands as she was forced to turn to the side to avoid fire and gnashing teeth. That got a few new choice words across a couple different languages, but if she could just not get eaten in the few seconds it'd take to build another charge....
Raveled Posted June 20, 2011 Author Posted June 20, 2011 GM The dragon did something Dragonfly wasn't expecting; it kept breathing. Specifically it kept breathing fire, an elongated tongue of napalm-like jelly spearing into the night sky. The massive reptile swung its neck around and sprayed it onto the heroine. Rather than simply washing over her though, it clung to the armored inventor. She could feel the heat distantly though her protection, like she was bundled in an oven and being cooked. More disconcertingly, she couldn't see; the flames covered her helmet and her outer sensors had been overwhelmed with it, turning her armor into a hot, blinding coffin. While the heroine burned and spun, the dragon beat at the air furiously. It rose apace with Dragonfly, then passed her and took up station above her. The monster breathed deeply, but when it exhaled it was just wind -- but wind in such quantity that it tumbled the young inventor like a leaf in a hurricane.
Fox Posted June 20, 2011 Posted June 20, 2011 Dragonfly regained her senses just in time to see the dragon inhaling; she didn't know if that was the ever-classic fire breath or just a big gust of wind, but neither one was going to work in her favor. Her shield wouldn't be back up for a few precious, vital seconds, she wouldn't be able to fight the blast...so she didn't: she rolled, using the force of the wind itself to slide out of the way rather than thrust back toward the ground. Only then, of course, her suit informed her that her shield was available again. always half a moment too late Her suit was also informing her of the damage it had taken, both from being knocked around and from her own somewhat ill-advised improvised stunt she was pulling - or, at least, was trying to pull, as once again she rushed up toward the dragon and once again couldn't quite hit him with the extremely short-ranged distortion she kept generating. If she spoke draconic she'd have sworn in that; as it was, she had to make do with a couple less fantastic languages.
Raveled Posted June 20, 2011 Author Posted June 20, 2011 GM The dragon roared at the short superhero, apparently unaffected by either its sudden burst of speed a few moments ago or her attempts to bring it down more directly. The monster snapped its jaws and flapped its huge, membranous wings in Dragonfly's face, but neither seemed to have much effect on the plucky inventor.
Fox Posted June 20, 2011 Posted June 20, 2011 Somewhere in the small parts of her mind not occupied with surviving a fight with a fire-breathing lizard, Dragonfly was happy she'd designed for maneuverability over sheer durability. She could have done either, but couldn't do both - not with the resources she'd had at the time, anyway. But a close look at those jaws certainly reinforced her opinion that not getting hit was better than enduring hits. Though being able to actually hit the dragon would have been nice, too: the flapping and thrashing let it evade her strike once again, and she made some terribly unkind accusations about the dragon's maternal lineage as she let herself drop to a slightly lower altitude. just need to hit you once - not that hard - and preferably need to not get bitten in half in the process
Raveled Posted June 20, 2011 Author Posted June 20, 2011 GM The dragon roared and followed her, folding its wings close into its body and dropping through the air. While it rushed downwards, the beast exhaled another tongue of sticky, dripping flame, somehow propelling it ahead of its quickly-dropping bulk. The monster came close to hitting Dragonfly this time, actually forcing the inventor to impose her spatial shield and bounce the jelly-like substance off at an angle.
Fox Posted June 20, 2011 Posted June 20, 2011 Dragonfly was getting more than a little sick of something the size of the dragon twisting out of the way of her strategy; rather than try to duck around it as usual, she held her ground (or rather, held her air), flame streaming in all directions off the circular shield she was projecting with both hands until the dragon came close. Then suddenly her shield collapsed into a large twisting distortion that was launched right into the body of the beast, rippling across its body and distorting the very air under its wings. The heroine barely had time to pull far enough sideways to avoid the effect herself, but at least she'd finally hit the stupid thing....
Raveled Posted June 21, 2011 Author Posted June 21, 2011 GM The air under the monster's wings warped oddly, pockets of vacuum and compressed space making it lurch in the air. At the same time, Dragonfly's distortion ripped through its body, twisting its organs and internal space and causing the dragon obvious distress. The combined assault was too much for the beast and it fell from the air, falling fast until it struck the ground. Unlike the first time, though, its eyes closed and it didn't seem likely to get up anytime soon.
Raveled Posted June 21, 2011 Author Posted June 21, 2011 Ironclad wandered down more metal corridors, adding them to her slowly growing internal map. The complex was massive; she'd walked nearly five kilometers so far, and all she'd discovered were broken-down robots and the chitinous, leaking husks of things with far too many legs for comfort. When she finally did find what looked like an elevator, it was stone-dead and sealed. Anger and frustration rose up in Ironclad, and in a fit of pique she directed power to her suit's musculature and dug her fingers into the metal doors, forcing them apart. To her surprise, as soon as she broke the seal on the doors all the air in the corridor whistled out, leaving the hallway in vacuum. There wasn't a car inside the elevator, but the emergency lighting showed two sets of handrails on opposite sides of the shaft. Disdaining those, the heroine rose up on her own power. One of the elevator doors was missing at the top, and the young woman was only half-surprised to see stars through the opening.
Raveled Posted June 21, 2011 Author Posted June 21, 2011 Once she got over the initial shock of being in outer space, Ironclad was able to take in more of the details. She was very obviously on a space station, orbiting a planet that burned like an angry coal, filling most of the sky. The 'walls' of the station continued above Ironclad -- for whatever value 'above' had in zero-gee -- for another hundred meters or so, in a perfect cylinder. Near perfect, anyway, because the top of the station and part of the wall had been ripped away and their entire section had apparently been gutted. The heroine was standing at the bottom of an empty can. Well. Not entirely empty. Crouched near one wall was a red, chitinous, segmented thing with a huge, triangular head. As soon as Ironclad started pinging it with her senors, trying to get some sort of reading on the thing, the creature stirred and turned to stare directly at her.
Fox Posted June 21, 2011 Posted June 21, 2011 Dragonfly panted, looking down at the dragon in its unconscious heap. She wanted to gloat, she wanted to crow, and she wanted to go take a nap and a shower (and do some repair work)...but a quick glance in the direction of the village gave her pause. She bit her lip, fidgeting for a moment. Finally she sighed, making a frustrated strangling motion with her hands as she flew down to save the stupid creature. And barely, at that: as she put her hands (very very carefully) on the dragon's side and started to fold him away, the process was slow and uneven; her suit had some very ominous things to say about how much mass her dimensional pocket was actually capable of holding. Still, pushed to its limits or not, eventually the dragon disappeared and Dragonfly took to the air again, trying to figure out her next move.
Raveled Posted June 21, 2011 Author Posted June 21, 2011 GM Dragonfly's gauntlets trembled with the mass of the dragon, trying to contain such a huge beast in the inventor's personal dimension. They held though, and for the first time she was able to take to the air and survey the land itself. The village was situated in a river valley, and as Dragonfly rose higher she could see that the land all around was a series of hills and valleys, all more or less indistinct from the others. As the heroine buzzed over the landscape, a smudge on the horizon resolved itself into a rising column of smoke; she half-expected another burning village, but it turned out to be a sizable country estate, with a stout defensive wall and several thatched cottages within the grounds. The sun was just peeking over the eastern horizon, but several guards in chain-mail and carrying halberds patrolled the grounds. It wasn't an inviting sight, but it was the only sign of civilization she had seen since the villagers fled the dragon.
Raveled Posted June 22, 2011 Author Posted June 22, 2011 Ironclad retreated back into the elevator as the segmented alien reared up and spat a long stream of something green and viscous at the heroine's face. She managed to intercept it with her armored arm, but even as she floated down the shaft she could see it bubbling and eating into her armor with distressing speed. She banged onto the lower level, boots ringing against the floor -- No, on a space station. Naval parlance. Decking. -- as she came under the pull of artificial gravity again. She glanced at her armor again and sighed in relief; either it wasn't evolved for use in vacuum or maybe it was just a short-lived compound, because it was already evaporating. Her armor was pitted, but there didn't seem to be any lasting damage. Ironclad's calm evaporated when the head of the alien beast burst out of the elevator and took an opportunistic snap at her. The heroine retreated further down the corridor, thinking furiously. Would've bet anything that it wouldn't be able to make it down that shaft. Stinking flinking video game logic.
Fox Posted June 22, 2011 Posted June 22, 2011 Dragonfly made her way toward the estate, trying to make good time without spooking the guards. not that they could hurt me - probably? - probably not a reassuring sight anyway - flying woman in a metal suit - would be hard to explain - magic? - wish I knew more mythology She pulled up short within sight and speaking distance, but hopefully far enough away that they wouldn't be able to panic and attack her shy of throwing a polearm at her head. [bg=#555555]"...hello. Would be helpful if you spoke English. ...modern English, maybe.
Raveled Posted June 22, 2011 Author Posted June 22, 2011 GM Either the sight of a metal woman buzzing across the landscape wasn't so peculiar for this area or the guards were more stoic than Dragonfly had anticipated. Either way they held their ground before her, though they did level their halberds at her. The guard on the left looked the younger of the pair, and though he went white under his pot helmet he managed to stammer out, "Stay there! Be thee friend or foe? Stand, and unfold yourself!" The right-hand guard was rather more grizzled than his companion and stood firmer. "What art thou that usurpst this early hour," he demanded. "What sort of spectre be ye that do not flee at the rooster's crow? Speak! I implore thee to speak, on the gods' names!"
Fox Posted June 23, 2011 Posted June 23, 2011 She just kind of hung there in the air for a moment, wings occasionally readjusting by a fraction of an inch to account for wind (or unseen effects of whatever was holding her up), trying to figure out how exactly one responded to accusations of spectrehood. She sort of regretted not playing more fantasy games, to be honest. wouldn't understand the truth - don't want to be seen as an evil creature - would lose any leads I could get here - approximate? [bg=#555555]"I am...the...great wizard Dragonfly,"[/bg] she began, though her voice was a little more droll than impressive or resounding. [bg=#555555]"Brought to this land from another by...great magics, and seeking a way home. Mean you no harm; arrived here by chance. First major settlement I saw."[/bg] that wasn't on fire [bg=#555555]"Would appreciate information on where I am, at least."[/bg]
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