5349/Money is the Root

Money is the Root
Date of Scene:	02 July 2017
Location:	The Tapestry
Synopsis:	Cultists for the Urban Breath hijack several money transport trucks to spread tainted currency through the city.
Cast of Characters:	Eryl Fairfax, 953, 1084, 20, 707, 1119, Kotone Yamakawa, Rebecca Chambers

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Eryl Fairfax has posed:
    Sirens shriek across the city, urging cars on the streets to pull to the side, only seconds before armoured money-moving trucks flash by them, swiftly pursued by police cruisers. "Pull over!" shouts an officer, leaning from the passenger window with a bullhorn to their mouth. The speeding truck does not pull over, but the rear loading doors open a crack.

    And currency flies from inside.

    Dollars and cents slam against the pursuing vehicles, cracking windshields, denting bodies. Bills are caught in the tailwinds and flutter to the asphalt, drawing pedestrians to rush the road and make police stop the chase to preserve life and limb.

    Overhead, police helicoptors observe the chases. Plural because five banks have been hit simultaneously in daring raids, the assailants described as 'clad in hooded robes and brandishing automatic weaponry.' They ordered back clients and staff to fill up all available money transport vehicles with as much cash as they could before piling in and driving off.

    Police have been chasing them for several minutes. Thus far, they're all driving dangerously, but randomly throughout the city. There doesn't seem to be any pattern to it, and they're all content with holding their current speed without trying to outrun the police. But, as a result of them shedding money, roads are becoming more dangerous. The bills obscure vision, the coins damage cars, and once it hits the floor, citizens are eager to make a profit for themselves.

    Luckily, the Paladins are on their way. As this city is a hotbed for paranormal and cultist activity, they have been maintaining a presence, which leapt into action the moment the robbers were described as having robes. Pilots and drivers have been ordered to man their vehicles and courier Elites to interrupt the chase by whatever means necessary.

    Seven trucks remain on the road.

Kutsuuko Shiratori (953) has posed:
    Being on-site doesn't mean being right next to each other. Paranormal activity in urban areas is something that segues decently into a certain God Eater's skillset. What she hears screaming down the street, however, doesn't really seem to fit the bill.

    The Paladins scanner had only just piped up about the robberies minutes before, so she'd only just gotten to the road. It's good timing, but something of an unfortunate situation, not being able to tackle it on her own terms. Obviously, she can't just walk around the city all day with her God Arc out. It'd get bored and hungry besides. Without it, she has only a couple of seconds to think of what to do. She chooses the best she can come up with on short notice.

    As one particular truck screams down the road past her, Kutsuuko leaps out in front of it, digging in her heels and reaching out to smash her hands into the grille (possibly through it, in the case of her left). As best she can, she leans into the speeding vehicle and keeps her feet firmly planted on the ground, liable to cave in the crumple zones and badly skid and zigzag the vehicle as she grunts and strains to maintain stability, instead of going under the wheels.

    At least it's not something she's unused to. The recoil on some of Scarlet Symphony's bullet types is pretty much just as bad, albeit shorter-lived.

Seras Victoria (1084) has posed:
Seras Victoria, upon receiving the briefing, has a hard time believing it. FIVE bank heists at once? THAT much firepower? And yet they're just driving around randomly causing chaos?!

    NONE of this makes sense...

    Unfortunately for her, it's not night time. She's grouchy as usual when operating by day, but Seras Victoria, fully in uniform, comes barreling forth from a warp gate and dashing onto the streets. She's not quite fast enough to outrun a car - not without being in top condition, and at night...

    But she does have a plan.

    Seras coordinates with the police for an update on locations of the crazy cars, and swiftly figures out a good place to go, where one of the money cars is almost certainly going to turn down soon...

    She can't CHASE them, but she sure as heck plans to ambush one.

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    As the trucks move through the city, it will soon become clear that it's not only the police that's chasing them. As one of the Paladin helicopters arrive on the scene, a figure leaps out from it... and crashes down on top of one of the vans, denting the roof slightly. Toph Beifong stands, keeping her balance as she feels the wind pulling at her. Okay, she's here and she's ready to act!

    The fact that they're throwing money out the back, now that's problematic in several ways. Let's do something about that! The metalbender slams her hand down towards the back of the truck, doing her best to bend the doors shut to prevent the cultists from tossing out more money. That ought to make it easier for the police chasing down these guys... But how to stop the truck?

    When she had last tried something like this, she had gotten in trouble for destroying infrastructure. Even /if/ she bended it back afterwards... ugh, it would be so easy to just bend the road and get this crud over and done with. But fine! Let's do this the proper way!

    Heading to the front, Toph raises her voice as she slams her hand down over the area where the driver should be. "Either you stop this thing or I will, buddy! And you won't like it if I do it!" Diplomacy might not work, but eh... at least she can say she tried!

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
While the option of getting a ride via helicopter or squad car was appreciated, Xiaomu's got her own pursuit vehicle, and her lightcycle is getting put to use once again - and she actually has some experience when it comes to high-speed chases. Experience that isn't from video games, even.

Rather than her usual qipao, though, the sage fox's basically-human form is currently outfitted in a green-and-black jumpsuit that looks an awful lot like leather and fits her *quite* snugly, even the reinforced panels which curve over her chest and along her thighs. A dark red scarf flaps in the headwind, and she's taken the precaution of donning a sleek-looking helmet.

(Please don't ask what it does to her ears or hairtails. She doesn't want to think about it if she doesn't have to.)

Xiaomu glances up at a passing street sign, radioing her allies (and hopefully local law enforcement), "Heading north on 7th, lemme solo the pursuit from here in. If they don't stop in time it's their own fault." The lightcycle's engine revs further as she twists the throttle - and then a wall of blue-white light is left trailing from the lightcycle's rear wheel, occasional Chinese-derived ideoglyphs highlighted in the barrier. Accelerating as much as she dares, Xiaomu tries to slip past the truck she's pursuing on the truck's left ...

And if she can get ahead of it far enough, then she abruptly cuts right in a tight, somewhat square-cornered U-turn before zipping back the way she came on the OTHER side of the lane, leaving a jetwall behind her that's about four feet in height. Sure, it wouldn't be THAT hard to jump over - for a person - but unless these trucks have autojacks or a similar ability to jump, Xiaomu's probably just ended the line for one of them.

Josuke Higashikata (1119) has posed:
    The things you see when you haven't got your gun!

    In all seriousness, Josuke wasn't expecting THIS when he went out to explore the Multiverse! People driving around and throwing money out of trucks? Heck yes! Of course Josuke's first instinct is to grab some of it himself! But he's not about to fight in the middle of the street for it. He will, however, deploy Crazy Diamond for money grabbing. The Stand is super-fast, and as fast as it can punch, it can grab money!

    But let's be honest. He can see the trouble this is causing. Particularly when cars start swerving around the people. Besides, they're driving pretty fast, even if they're not trying to actually outrun the police. They might hit someone. There's potential for way too many people to get hurt.

    Stuffing his ill-gottens gains into his pocket -- er, he'll return it later. That's right -- he deploys Crazy Diamond again, to throw him up onto a roof. He rolls as he hits the roof and then gets to his feet. Running across them, he spots a nearby truck heading his way. He seems to have the same idea Toph does -- Crazy Diamond picks him up, and throws him at the truck. Josuke has to direct the Stand to throw him a little in front of the truck, to 'meet' the truck as it drives by.

    This actually HURTS a little bit, since he can't really roll on a moving truck. Not without rolling right OFF of it, at least. He has to just grab hold and soak the hit. "Ow..." he grumbles. Better, the drivers and passengers inside will doubtless hear him impacting with the roof of the truck. He's still flat on the top of the truck for now, getting his balance.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
So here we go again and Kotone was far more ready for what was lst time. She had made sure she was armed for crow control andwas fitted out with her. She had anotehr trump card she could use but it wasn't the time for that. She was ready to mov in she doe shave a plan to help with stopping the truck, even if they are old types without thigs she can hack? She knows ground craft pretty damn well, all things considered.

She's got a lead on one of the five cars she's gong to attempt to ambush them. She knows she's can also run far faster than a normal human she's not the flash but they shouldn't be expecting her to move like this. She's wait for just about when the car is going to pass and she'll end up making a powered leap for it attemping to land on it either the roof or the trunk and she'll call out if she pulls this up.

"We can do this the hard way or the easy way! Pull over and give up, or we can do it the hard way."

Rebecca Chambers has posed:
Meanwhile, a news helicopter is flying above yet another truck, only it's not really a news helicopter. At least Rebecca Chambers isn't a news reporter! She's just using the helicopter's appearance to disguise her true intentions. She drops down onto the roof quickly, then gestures for the pilot to fly away. Once she's atop the truck safely, she loads her Beretta and then attempts to move towards the cab of the truck. Once she gets close enough, she proceeds to make her presence known.

"This is Officer Chambers of the Paladins. Stop this vehicle and surrender immediately. If you do not, we will be required to use force! This is your only warning!" A warning like that seems rather futile, but Rebecca always plays by the rules.

Eryl Fairfax has posed:
    Kutsuuko leaps before one of the trucks speeding past the local mall. It's so fast tha the drivers don't have time to even try to brake, so she takes that impact fully. The crumple zone of the truck practically sucks her in as it collapses, her feet digging grooves in the road asphalt. Finally, she puts the truck to a halt, those driving having collapsed into the airbags that deployed upon impact. One has retained enough consciousness to croak into the truck's radio, "They're here... begin evasive maneuvers."

    Six trucks remain on the road.

    Seras gets on the horn with the police in pursuit. "One is about to turn onto your street ma'am! We're in hot pursuit!" shouts a rookie voice. Seras' street, one heavy with apartment housing, does get louder due to the screams of approaching sirens. And here comes the money truck... something about it puts her on edge, the same way as the ritual underneath the Animist Chambers did.

    Meanwhile, Toph slams into a truck roof, one that is driving along the industrial part of town. As she bends the doors shut, a cultist gets their hand caught mid-money toss. Even through the armour, she can hear the scream. As she goes up to the driver's cabin, the fellow in the passenger's seat opens the window to lean out and point a handgun at her! "Get off!" he demands!

    It's unclear if any of the cultists driving south on 7th have seen TRON, but they're about to experience it first-hand. As the wall erupts in front of them, they slam on the breaks, but it's too late. They plough into it, the momentum of the back driving them even harder into it before flipping over, tipping the truck over the wall to land on its roof. The loading doors open and someone tumbles from within, carrying... a t-shirt cannon? They begin stuffing it with wads of bills and launching them into the air to catch on the breeze. They don't even acknowledge Xiaomu.

    Five trucks remain on the road.

    Josuke nabs some bills for himself before launching himself to a roof and then onto a truck driving past a school. Kids attending an after-school game watch over the fence as he grabs on to the roof. The loud thud draws the attention of those inside, the passenger with he driver opening her door to lean out with a semi-automatic rifle. "Get the hell off you stupid kid!" she snaps, aiming the sights at him before letting loose three rounds!

    Getting on the roof is a popular thing these days, as Kotone ambushes a truck driving through the suburbs. Thankfully, the nice lawns are clear as the person driving looks out the window and laughs. "Make me, pig!" He starts swerving, left to right to try and dislodge the cyborg, driving along lawns and coming dangerously close to houses in doing so!

    Rebecca drops down onto the truck, which failed to notice her thanks to the cunning camouflage of her news helicopter. As she begins to move towards the driver's cabin, a hand grabs her leg! Someone in the back who was throwing money is climbing after her, a cruel smirk on his face as he tries to drag her off!

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Well, that stopped the truck, at any rate - and Xiaomu can let the trailwall dissipate. This both lets her swing back around to follow up, and spares her the energy of trying to *maintain* the trailwall. IT's hard to call which one's more important, but the sound of the T-shirt cannon doing something it wasn't designed for definitely is worth investigating closer.

She suddenly wishes that her suit was as bulletproof as the sort-of-real thing she modeled it on. Oh well, she'll just have to not get shot. That *is* why she's got her vest over the bodysuit - not so much to not get shot at, but so that she can shoot back.

"Okay, gents, hands in the air and drop what you're holding!" Xiaomu calls out as she approaches the flipped truck at a fairly sedate speed. "Nobody likes taxes, everybody likes more money, but this ain't a smart way to try redistributing wealth! Or whatever you guys think you're actually doing."

If any guns get pointed in her direction, Xiaomu's going to take advantage of the lightcycle again and pull as tight a donut as she can manage - to use the trailwall as a bulletproof barricade to hunker down within.

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    Upon hearing the scream Toph can't help but wince. But she has to stop the truck and prevent even more people from getting hurt! With the passenger up front moving, Toph focuses on that, already moving her hand when he leans out and points the gun towards her. Part of the roof of the armoured truck peels off, wrapping itself around her even as it gives the two a better view of the Paladin above them that's now the armoured one.

    "I'm not getting off, I told you guys to stop the truck first!" she states firmly, all while she reaches out to bend the gun away from the passenger. "If you don't comply I'm authorised to use force! You've not only made yourselves thieves, you're breaking traffic laws and putting peeople's lives at risk!"

Kutsuuko Shiratori (953) has posed:
    Kutsuuko finally breathes out as the truck fully grinds to a halt, standing up straight, pulling her arms out of the engine cavity, and shaking them off like she'd just tried to deadlift too much. "This is Shiratori." she speaks into the radio, turning sidelong. "I've eliminated one of the vehicles. I'm not really set to apprehend any of these idiots, so I'm calling the police over and moving on to the next target. Over and out~"

    That done, she turns back to the totaled armored car, wrenching the battered door off, and dragging the driver out to drop on the asphalt. "I'll be taking this, this, aaaand this." she says, snatching the automatic weapons and shouldering them via ballistic slings. It keeps them out of their hands, for when she stops briefly to radio the police on the pickup point, but more importantly, it gets her a little more firepower than just her sidearm.

    Soon, Kutsuuko is chasing sirens across the city, running the way one only can without two tons of God Arc on board, and cutting across buildings to try and make up the difference, leaping from fire escapes and bounding off walls, even changing direction mid-air with flashing 'double jumps'. The next truck she aims for is nebulously in Seras' direction, where she leaps down to snatch hold of the open back doors, aiming to pull herself in. The fact that there are probably armed men inside is of little consequence, in her mind, to the impending beatdown, severe enough to visibly rock the truck on its axles.

Josuke Higashikata (1119) has posed:
    Josuke's eyes go wide when he sees a gun pointed at him from the passenger's side. There's no time to ask questions, he just deploys Crazy Diamond in front of him. The first two bullets are punched out of the air by the fast fists of the Stand! Which may be slightly confusing to the shooter, since Stands are usually invisible to people who don't have some degree of telepathic or psychic abilities (or Elites; Elites tend to be able to see them nonetheless). If the shooter's unable to see it, it'll just look like the bullets abruptly were diverted from their course in midair.

    But the third shot? That hits its mark. The third shot carves deeply into the Stand's extended left arm. But it's not the Stand that bleeds. Josuke's sleeve splits, and a spray of blood flies into the air from the identical wound that opens on his arm. He emits a choked sound of pain, and winces hard, closing right eye briefly. That hurt! But again, possibly odd for the shooter, because that bullet wasn't anywhere near his arm.

    However, this is still close-range. At Josuke's behest, Crazy Diamond surges forward, arm shooting out to try to grip the barrel of the gun in a crushing grip. Should the Stand be able to grab the gun, it will try to bend the barrel of the gun upwards. "This is dangerous!" Josuke declares. "People are gonna get hurt on the streets! I know you wanna stick it to the man--" Why else would they be throwing money into the streets? "--But this isn't the way to do it!"

Seras Victoria (1084) has posed:
"This isn't that crazy. I can do this, I CAN DO THIS!" Seras chants to herself over and over again like some kind of mantra as the insanely heavy car, moving FAR too quickly, comes barreling down the road. She places herself near some parked cars... and waits until just the right moment even as her Third eye sense starts... basically tingling.

    The Draculina's irises contract, glowing red as she steels herself for action and bolts out onto the street. In no time at all -- "HRAAAAAAHHH!!" She's bursting out to match speeds as closely as possible with the truck. and... LEAPS like some kind of crazy spider.

    She SLAMS hard against the truck's side but somehow holds onto the metal and swings herself up and onto the roof. The harsh winds aren't capable of blowing her off...

    Moving with lightning speed and both rage and worry clear on her face she moves to RIP at the cabin's roof with a pure show of strength. Peeling it back line a tuna can, that's how she HOPES this will go...

Rebecca Chambers has posed:
Unfortunately, Rebecca wasn't expecting someone to grab onto her ankle. Granted, zombies may, but someone in a truck like that? Rebecca's finding herself a bit held up right now. "Ungh, let go of me!" She attempts to break free by twisting her ankle a few times, but unfortunately it doesn't seem to work. In desperation, Rebecca grabs her stun baton and turns it on.

"I hope I don't end up shocking myself, but here goes!" Rebecca attempts to crouch down in an attempt to drive the stun baton into the hand(s) of whoever is grabbing at her foot. "Get off me!"

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa is quick to find the truck is Analog, no system she can remotely highjack and she's gong to have to get in and take control directly. She digs her hands into the roof of thet ruck hanging on and attemping to rip into the roof it self.

"Ah so this is a can of spam? I get it."

She moves to attempt to rip through the cab's roof intending to get in She hangs on and really wishes she had Overclock still right now. There's no helping that, she can't shoot out the engine either as the speed they are going? She's going to ahve to get in and she will pull, but an better idea comes to her. Even as she fights to hanf on she moves to the passenger door and will work her strngh /there/ there the joints would be asier to rip /free/ and get in if she's lucky. If she can get in she darn well knows what she's gong to do. Though now she's at risk of being ground into things along the side of the road...

Eryl Fairfax has posed:
    As Xiaomu approaches, those up front come around back to meet her, weapons raised and fired at her! As she spins her lightcycle around her to block the shots, the other person in the back comes out. He also has a t-shirt gun, and he thrusts a bag of bills at the first. "Continue the plan!" he barks, before sprinting away with his own bag. The other nods, running the opposite direction as the drivers try to keep the fox sage pinned down with gunfire.

    As Toph rips the roof up for some body armor, she can see into the back of the truck. There, cultists (including the one with the slammed hand) are weaving some kind of magic on a bag of money. A hostile light spills out, not that Toph can see it. But she can /feel/ it, on her skin like a nettle bush was rubbing against it even through the metal. As she bends the gun away from the passenger, the driver begins to swerve wildly to try and dislodge her!

    Those in the truck that Kutsuuko stopped groan as she disarms them. The police pull up and move along to secure them, shouting their thanks to the girl as she leaps away for the next one. She strongjumps to the back of the one barrelling towards Seras and begins pounding on the back doors. They warp and dent, but the truck drives on.

    But Seras is here to stop that. She slams into the side with all her vampiric strength, making the truck wobble fiercely before she manages to cling to the roof. It peels apart under her, letting her see what's happening inside. She observes the same awful ritual that Toph does, until one of them breaks it to aim a shotgun at the vampire's face and pull the trigger!

    As Crazy Diamond deflects two of the three shots, the woman smirks, until that invisible force bends the barrel of her gun. She scowls, leering at Josuke. "You think this is petty rebellion? Boy, you have no idea what you've involved yourself in." At this point, the truck drives into a tunnel, plunging the two into semi-darkness. Her smirk deepens, and she begins to chant. It's an awful, gutteral incantation she utters, but the effect is immediately apparent. Bricks rip themselves from the tunnel walls and roof, launching themselves at Josuke!

    BZZT! The stun prod finds the man's bare skin, causing him to scream and clench up. The grip doesn't break for a moment, but once the stun prod comes off, his body instinctively relaxes after tensing so hard. He topples back, and lands on the windshield of a pursuing police cruiser, bringing it to a halt. She could now either enter the vehicle from the back as the doors swing open, or get to the front from the roof and try to stop it.

    Kotone clambers down to the passenger side as the truck swerves. It's a good idea, the door comes free easily with her augmented strength. But then the driver does something ridiculous. He swerves, and drives towards the narrow gap that seperares two houses, blasting through the fence that marks the line between properties. The truck absolutely cannot fit through that gap. Until suddenly, the house on the driver side /shifts/, bending to the side to give it just enough clearance. Now Kotone has to contend with the house on her side coming her way!

Josuke Higashikata (1119) has posed:
    Josuke frowns at the words the woman says. "Then tell me!" he calls out. And then suddenly... bricks start flying at Josuke! And he can't see that well to deflect them! Crazy Diamond is deployed again, trying to punch the bricks away. But if Josuke can't see them all, he can't be aware of them all. And if he's not aware of them all, Crazy Diamond can't punch then all away. But he's doing his best! He'll doubtless get battered and bruised, but he's not giving up.

    While trying to keep as many of the bricks off him as he can, he calls out agin, "Tell me what's happening! I'm not with them! I'm just trying to keep people from getting hurt!" Notably, he hasn't actually tried to attack her yet. All he's done is try to defend himself from HER attacks on HIM.

Rebecca Chambers has posed:
"I sure hated to do that, but he asked for it!" Rebecca says with a smirk as she puts her baton away, making sure to turn it off first of course. Then she looks between the front and the back. She has two possibilities, which one will she go with? Should she try to get into the back and see what's there? Or should she try to make her way to the front and stop the truck personally?

After a moment, Rebecca decides to make her way to the front and attempt to drop into the cab of the truck. Hopefully there's no one there to stop her from stopping the truck. But if there is, she's got her Beretta drawn just in case.

Kutsuuko Shiratori (953) has posed:
    Okay, it turns out people weren't kidding about the actually armoured parts of these things being ridiculous. Most of Kutsuuko's experience with cars can be attributed to the decades old hulks of them still sometimes found on the streets of former Tokyo. This one is considerably more punchy.

    She takes a second to make sure nobody is looking closely, then, still hanging tight to the back bumper and railing, she pulls back her left hand (the one heavily gloved) and clenches it into a fist. The air around her fingers ignites, and roiling red and gold fire shapes itself into a kind of abstract punch dagger shape, radiating in spokes from her fist without quite touching it. She plunges it into the metal of the back door, and rips away at it in molten chunks, tearing it apart as if with a very messy lightsaber.

    She gets a view just in time to see the man lift the shotgun, and in that second, unslings one of the compact automatics from over its shoulder, jamming it through the window she'd carved, and firing into the inside of the cabin. She doesn't particularly have time to aim for Robin Hood-esque trickshots. There's a realistic chance she might kill someone, opening up on full auto, though much less than if she'd actually aimed to kill, rather than spraying to distract and wound.

Seras Victoria (1084) has posed:
"What the--" Seras doesn't have much time to think too clearly about the magic gesturing and occult nonsense because the moment she does SHOTGUN BARREL POINTED RIGHT AT HER EYES--

    With a panicked yell she ducks to the side with all the speed she can manage--

    *BAAAAAAAAAAAAANG!

    Most of the buckshot goes wide, but a good splattering of the stuff digs into her chin, a few pellets strike her neck and stops a few centimeters into the skin, and a HELL of a lot of burning is inflicted from being this close to the muzzle.

    But the all-important vulnerable point, her head, has not been destroyed. Blood splatters on the men below from the wounds inflicted and Seras recoils back and away - almost losing her grip, but now fear mixes with plain instinctive fury in her eyes... a hungry response that she exerts everythign she's got to clamp down on.

    Her body's SCREAMING to reclaim that lost blood... but she just yells wordlessly in defiance of that and once again has her composure.

    This is really bad. A shotgun is actually quite a threatening weapon... but in the adrenaline-pumping hyperspeed thoughts she develops in this state of panic she reaches out swiftly to take advantage of its main drawback.

    Shotguns are kind of bad regarding reloading.

    All she'll need is a good second to get a gloved hand on that barrel to SQUEEZE THE METAL into a crumpled, useless mess.

    "One more chance to surrender! Stop whatever you're doing and pull over! Don't make me.. don't make me use lethal force!!"

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    It's easy enough to tell what's going on in the truck, even if she can't see in the regular sense. It's mostly made of metal, after all! While she can't see the light, she can tell that the cultists are doing something to the money, and she frowns, crushing the gun in her metalcovered hand before she throws it aside.

    Since they aren't about to stop the truck Toph sees no other choice, she has to stop them. The fact that the driver tries to swerve the vehicle... that makes her yelp, though she doesn't get dislodged. Mostly because she's covered in metal that she bended from the roof of the truck. It's an easy feat to make sure her feet stay connected when it's metal to metal, though she does stumble, leaning back a bit as she has to focus on regaining her balance.

    "... you can stop with that!" she grumbles, then she kneels down and slams her hand into the side of the roof. Time to bend the metal around the wheels and force this thing to stop!

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
So they're also *smart* cultists, which should be illegal, thniks Xiaomu. Then again, they ARE actively breaking the law - grand theft auto, grand larceny, discharge of probably-not-legal firearms, assault (which is legally just the *threat* of violence and/or injury) and battery (actual violence and/or injury), reckless endangerment ...

There's a brief lull in the gunfire - not a total cessation, but enough of a hiccup for Xiaomu to drop the trailwall and go tearing off again. This time she actually drives around the flipped truck itself, possibly making it look like she's trying to get away ... only to loop back around on the truck's other side (sans trailwall) to try and kick the gun-toting cultists in their respective noggins.

A Rider Kick it ain't, but it's the fastest and least lethal option she has for taking these dumb goons out of the equation.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa hangs on for all she's worht and she sees the driver. Okay this should be simple enough to pull this off. She sees the houses she curses inwardly but it's not going to do her one lick of good. Kotone is caught on the building, were she still flesh? She'd be pretty much done at this point. CLothing is ripped apar and then comes her own body synth skin ir ripped off interals are exposed on her back as Kotone lets out a cry of pain, pulling herself inside of the cab and she leaps for the driver now. She will have to wait a moment for them to pass by the house, and the driver will see sparkuing coming from her ravaged backside, she's clearly not the human she appears to be.

"Are you going go give it up now or do we have to keep...doing this?" Once they are clear o the houses that's when Kotone will strike, she prays she's not messing this up further and the pain is not something she's enoying...either.

Eryl Fairfax has posed:
    Crazy Diamond's fists fly, punching bricks from the air to protect Josuke. Several find their way through though, smashing against him to bruise, the occasional corner drawing blood. The woman smirks and levels her gun again. "They're going to die either way, doesn't matter when it happens. Sorry kid, you'll not live to see the grand awakening. Your hair would offend the Urban Breath anyway, you rockabilly wannabe."

    Rebecca crawls to the front of the truck and swings down to the driver's side. He's clutching the wheel, knuckles shining white through his skin. His eyes are fixated on the road ahead, and he doesn't even see Rebecca out his window. Luckily, he has no passenger to shoot her down, so now the only issue is... how to get a man in this state to pull over?

    As Seras has a shotgun pointed at her face, Kutsuuko fills the truck interior with gunfire. The bullets bounce around, cutting down the cultists and halting whatever ritual they were in the middle of. However, the one with the shotgun still manages to squeeze off that shot that Seras manages to avoid the worst of. The back is secured, but the driver is still going!

    Toph bends metal to cut into the wheels of the tyres. There's a harsh scream as the hubcaps grind against that metal and the road at once. Immediately, the vehicle loses speed and comes to a stop. There's a furious scrabble as the cultists attempt to evacuate, taking bags of money with them!

    Xiaomu speeds off! At least, that's what the two with guns think. They're about to make themselves scarce, when the fox comes speeding back to deliver hard boots to the head. They go down hard, guns clattering to the floor as the police pull up to put them in cuffs. Now she just has the two with the money and t-shirt guns to deal with. They split up, and in the directions they went, there is... cheering?

    Kotone is grinded against the other house, clothes and false skin peeled from her body. But in spite of it all, she crawls into the cab, scaring the life out of the two inside. The driver slams on the breaks instinctively, bringing the truck to a halt in someone's backyard. They both try to escape, as do those in the back. But the ones in front have Kotone to navigate around, and that sparking is intimidating!

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Good, those cultists won't be going anywhere. Well, other than the clink. Assuming the cops here are clean.

Xiaomu unslings her staff and wedges it along the lightcycle's body before taking off again, trying to follow the sounds of cheering. Her staff isn't going to be the most convenient weapon for smacking anyone over the head - but she has something else in mind at the moment ... specifically:

"XIAOMU BLIZZARD!!!"

As soon as she spots one of the cultists, she conjures a massive chunk of ice with the cultist at the middle - and most if not all of the money currently in the cultist's possession frozen inside the ice with him. It's the fastest way Xiaomu could think of to keep the cash out of civilian hands, and in a fairly literal sense.

She keeps pouring on the ice magic, trying to lock down any loose cash she can spot, as well as putting the other cultist on ice as soon as she can *find* him.

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    A triumphant grin spreads across Toph's lips behind the metal covering her, pleased as the truck is forced to stop. And with the cultists trying to exit the truck? "Oh no you don't!" the blind teenager states, reaching out to bend pieces of the truck off and towards them, aiming to restrain their arms and legs. "I have no idea what you're doing with that money, but I will find out! I mean, throwing it away like that...?" They got to have a serious reason for it, right?

Kutsuuko Shiratori (953) has posed:
    Kutsuuko lets out her breath as the bulletproof walls do about what she expected them to do, then ejects the spent mag, letting it probably tumble down a drain somewhere. Not her credits. Following that, she reaches in through the hole (with a totally normal hand) and grabs hold of the locking lever, swinging the door open so she can climb inside.

    She could, in theory, climb up to the driver and point the gun at his head, demanding he stop, but instead she steps over the wounded cultists, reaches through, and hooks her arm around his throat, crushing him into the back of the seat and snapping its supports so she can pull him out of reach of the pedals and the wheel, only for her to twist around him and yank the e-brake herself.

    She doesn't even think of Seras' poor sense of smell with all the blood in the back. Not to mention whatever her own is like.

Rebecca Chambers has posed:
Rebecca sees there's nobody there but the driver, who's got his eyes focused on the road. Unfortunately for him, he's gonna wish he had eyes on the side of his head, because Rebecca's swinging in quickly from the passenger's side and is pointing her stun baton directly at the driver's head. "This is your only warning. Pull your vehicle over and surrender immediately. If you don't, you're going to get electrocuted!"

And if the driver thinks she's bluffing, Rebecca's definitely not. The baton is humming with electricity, ready to deliver a shocking surprise to the driver if he doesn't do as he's told.

Josuke Higashikata (1119) has posed:
    Josuke's really trying not to get upset. He's trying not to hurt anybody. Trying to keep others from being hurt. He's battered and bruised by the bricks flying, corners breaking the skin, and still he doesn't attack. Because he wants to know why. He wants to try to end this without hurting anybody. For all he looks like a Japanese delinquent (possibly from about thirty years ago, thanks to that hair, yes), he really doesn't want to hurt anybody.

    ...And then she had to go and press the button.

    Sure, it comes off as dumb. Why would a kid be THAT concerned about his hair? But nonetheless, he freezes at the comment, his expression growing hard as diamond. "...What did you say about my hair?" The words are almost unheard over the rushing wind. Gun is leveled, and Crazy Diamond is suddenly deployed, surging forward at the gunner. The Stand punches quickly at the hand holding the gun, with great force. If it hits, that's probably going to be a broken hand.

    But Josuke is not done.

    The Stand opens up, on the gunner's FACE this time, with a barrage of super-speed punches, an ascending, "DORARARARARA!" rising from its open mouth. Presuming the Stand can catch the woman in the barrage of punches, it will conclude the barrage, only after several long seconds, with an uppercut and a loud, "DOURRRRA!" Hopefully this will knock the woman out of the truck completely.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa has got them to stop and the look on her face isn't a /very/ happy one either. Thre's a surge about her hand like something powering up and Kotone will reach out to grab both of the ones up front to taser the hell out of them both. She knows there's more she needs to go after, b ut first things first. Get who she can, she stopped this truck from moving. She will go after the others but for the moment she has to dea with what's infront of her.

"You are under arrest for robbery and theft and more. I am not a happy woman!"

Once they are disbale she'll quickly move to zip tie the two. She does have cuffs but not enough for this many, so once again she's owes the old Flotilla one for teaching her this trick.

Seras Victoria (1084) has posed:
Seras is just about to dive into the cabin and take control but then-- BANBANGBANG! Kutsuuko's efforts bring down her suspects... all except the driver. This leaves her staring down horrified at all of the spreading blood. Horrified... and, despite herself, hungry. Again she RECOILS from the impulse. This is a terrible time to have a crisis of identity and needs, all things considered, but...

    She finally gets a view of Kutsuuko going right for the driver. "You... you just shot everyone!" She can't quite believe this just happened. All her police instincts are thoroughly screaming at her about how wrong that approach was.

    But with Kutsuuko yanking the brake, there's not much more for her to do here than hunker down and stay frosty...

Eryl Fairfax has posed:
    One moment, a cultist is disseminating large sums of money to a crowd via t-shirt gun, the next, he and his bag of cash has been frozen. The crowd rapidly disperses, taking the money they picked up with them. Considering the talk on the radio, letting them get away with it might not be good... but there was that other one with a sack of cash to deal with.

    Toph lashes out with metalbending, ripping armour from the truck and using it to restrain the fleeing cultists. None of them have an answer for her, but one does spit in her general direction.

    As Kutsuuko rams an arm through the wall separating the cab from the back, the driver kicks and squirms, hand finding the handbrake and pulling it! The car slides to a stop, and starts to tip, going for a tumble! There in the back, the two Paladins and the wounded cultists are about to tumble very badly if nothing is done!

    Speaking of pulling handbrakes, the driver that Rebecca threatens turns a wide, unblinking eye in her direction. A slow smirk begins to creep across his face, as his hand dips to the handbrake and pulls it, without slowing down first! The truck begins to slide and tip, with the medic on the side! This could be bad.

    BAM! Crazy Diamond shatters the woman's hand, causing her to scream in pain. Said scream is immediately muffled by invisible hands slamming into her mouth, pummelling her so hard she is ejected from the cab and slams against the tunnel wall, hard. "What the hell?!" the driver shouts, looking out the window at Josuke.

    BZZT! Kotone lets loose her eelware on the two in the cab, immediately stunning them. Once they're down and out, she has little trouble in catching up with the others that flee. They are not exactly survivalist cultists, and Kotone is a cyborg. They grumble as they are bound, but say nothing.

Rebecca Chambers has posed:
The driver wants to try to take Rebecca out by tipping the truck over, huh? Well, too bad for him that Rebecca's gotten a glimpse of him reaching for the handbrake. By the time the truck has started to tip, Rebecca's opened the passenger side door and, while somehow slamming it shut, jumped out of the truck and landed on the ground! Well, she doesn't quite land, but instead she does a roll as she hits the ground. Unfortunately, she rolls a bit more than one might thing. She lands on her side, rolling like a log a few times, before coming to a stop.

For a moment, there's nothing but a groan of pain. Then, Rebecca starts to get up and dusts herself off while applying a First-Aid Spray. She spots the truck up ahead and whoas. "I almost got flattened there!" Rebecca says to herself.

Seras Victoria (1084) has posed:
The car's skidding does NOT go as planning. No simple halt this. The moment that the thing starts sliding and spinning off its center of gravity... Seras's face goes ash-white. "It's tipping--!!"

    She rolls of the roof and brings her legs down to slam into the pavement while bracing her arms up against the car's side.

    The thing is DAMNED HEAVY, certainly on the upper end of what she could hope to lift in her present state, but thankfully KEEPING IT FROM FALLING OVER is easier than doing a dead lift...

Josuke Higashikata (1119) has posed:
    Sadly, that was sort of the end of Josuke's mercy. Perhaps kind of silly, but there it is, nonetheless. So now he's looking for ending this the hard way. Or maybe the easy way. He was trying to avoid violence before. Now he's just looking to bring this to an end. With Crazy Diamond's help, Josuke climbs forward a little more, trying to get to the cab of the truck. And there's the driver, looking out the window!

    "Well, hi there!" Josuke chirps, with false brightness. Then he reaches down and tries to grab the guy, however he can. Possibly by the hair, possibly by the back of a shirt. He's trying to pull the guy out. However, he's counting on the guy not wanting to be pried loose. Because while Josuke hangs onto the guy, Crazy Diamond is trying to peel back the top of the cab.

    "So!" he says. "You gonna be any nicer than your lady friend? Gonna tell me what's going on here? Or are you gonna be a pain, too?"

    Josuke is clearly not the law, not after the vicious beating he just delivered to the female passenger. He's got plans to go back and heal her, but right now he's trying not to get flung off into the wall himself!

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Two cultists on ice. If they're left frozen for too long, there may be lasting or even permanent damage.

Xiaomu just pours some extra ice magic into both of the cultistcicles, to make sure they don't thaw out until they're effectively in custody. And finding out just WHICH cult they're part of - well, she won't really be unhappy if there *is* long-term injury.

After offering up a suggestion to Eryl via radio, she takes off to try and intercept some of the civilians who are making off with their ill-gotten (and very possibly, ill-*getting*) gains. And (Eryl approving) when she catches up with anyone carrying more cash than they have any right to be on a Sunday night, the sage fox calls out, "Hey! I know you like extra cash that can't be traced, but those guys are trying to spread an artificial virus with those dolla-dolla bills they were throwing around. You're gonna need to come somewhere safe, turn the money in for decontamination, and let us inoculate you against the contagion. *Maybe* you can get a reward for your cooperation, that's not in my bailiwick, but people are gonna be awfully happy to have that money off the streets ..."

Honestly? Paying off civilians, oh, fifty bucks per person for their cooperation in getting this under control? That really oughta be worth it on both sides, and it's cheaper than leaving however much money loose the cultits WOULD have done. Not to mention how much the cult's *plot* would cost if it isn't nipped in the bud.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa has them bound and she looks down at them for a moment she'll call in where they are and she's going after the remaining one. She does not seem happy tough she looks at the cultist one more time before she'll attempt to go after their fellows. She moves, hoping by some luck she can /track/ them down. She's moving but god she's in pain she could turn off her sense of touch but that could lead to /worse/ damage.

Eryl Fairfax has posed:
    Rebecca counters a dangerous gambit with a simple one. If they're going to flip the truck, just don't be in it. She rolls to the road as the vehicle turns onto its side and lays there, wheels spinning. At this point, it's easy to arrest the driver as he flops from the cab with a groan.

    Seras leaps from the tipping truck and gets under it, pushing back with all her strength. She arrests its momentum and lets it tip back onto its wheels, keeping the occupants as safe as they could be. Their leaking blood is still a problem, in more ways that one for the vampire, but at least they're not battered!

    As Josuke rips the cab roof off, the driver looks up at him with wide eyes. From his point of view, he made his partner just ripple before going flying hard into a wall, then tore up his roof without touching it. The fear of the unknown trumps whatever orders he was given, and he puts on the brakes. The normal breaks, not the handbreak. The truck comes to a stop, and the police swarm it.

    It's hard to plead to a crowd to not hand over free money, but many do stop and listen. As Xiaomu mentions a virus, most of them do stop and reconsider. They come back over to the fox, suddenly handling the loose cash as if it were some kind of explosive. Some were too far out of earshot, or are willing to take the chance, but this should be a start.

    Kotone sprints after the other two, and catches up easily enough. They're not the fastest, both are pretty doughey. As she shambles up, all exposed machinery, they both cry out in surprise and stagger, allowing the cyborg to take them down.

    No trucks remain on the run.

Rebecca Chambers has posed:
Odds are the driver flopping out of the cab won't be in much shape to resist, but either way Rebecca has her gun drawn as she approaches him carefully. Once she gets there, she proceeds to handcuff him and read him his rights, before signalling for a pick-up. After that, she goes to look over the other cultists who might still be alive. They may be the enemy, but Rebecca knows they need to be kept alive in order to answer questions about what happened. That, and also the fact that they don't deserve to be left to die just because of what they did.

Kutsuuko Shiratori (953) has posed:
    With the truck unlikely to come to a crashing tumble, Kutsuuko finally pulls her arm back, steps back out of the armored car, and tosses the guns, surveying the site around her; mess of money, cars, and pedestrians that it is. "Shiratori again. Two down. How are things on your end?"

    She starts doing her best to try and warn the civilians away from the site, and this time calls for an ambulance as well as a cop car. Hopefully it won't be too difficult to get her to back off, after coming out of a shot up truck with a pile of weapons and a badge.

Josuke Higashikata (1119) has posed:
    "Good choice," Josuke replies, as the driver puts on the brakes. He does, however, hold onto the guy until the police get there, because he doesn't want to chance the guy running away. Then he slides down the side of the truck, wincing as he hits the ground. He took quite a beating, and his body is reminding him that it doesn't much care for the abuse.

    He needs to heal that girl. How far back was she? He starts to walk, hurrying away before the police can concern themselves with him. Hopefully. Besides that, he does have some money in his pocket, and he needs to get away to count that--

    "HEY! KID!"

    Josuke hunkers down as he hears a rough call from behind him. He considers running, but knows that's a bad idea. He won't be able to stop in time to heal that woman he had to hit. So he stops, turning. "Is... is there a problem, officer? I'll fix the car if that's..."

    The officer extends a hand, palm up. "C'mon." Again, Josuke winces, but he reaches in a pocket for a handful of bills, meekly putting them on the officer's outstretched hand. "All of it," the officer says, frowning.

    Josuke sighs, his shoulders slumping, and digs the rest of the bills he'd picked up out. "I was gonna give it back..."

    "Suuuuure you were," the officer says. "Appreciate the help, though. Get on outta here, get some medical attention. You look like hell."

    Once more, Josuke sighs, and then goes to heal that woman who got punched out of the truck. And possibly other things (or people), if they're brought to his attention. See? He's just trying to do the right thing!

    ...Mostly.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Sure, hand all the cult-cursed-or-contaminated cash to the foxgirl who doesn't actually have proper quarantine gear to put the returned money in. Heck, she'd settle for one of the classic dollar bags, or a proper lockbox-bag where the zipper itself has a lock on it.

No point in complaining. Xiaomu collects all the cash that's being returned to her, taking names and contact info on the fly as best she can so the city authorities can follow up. Hopefully one of the police has a proper ... bag, or something, to put the stuff in.

*Damn* that Urban Breath cult. She's gonna keep calling them Urban Blight, unless she thinks of even worse insults, which is going to be an ongoing project for her. Once she finishes up, she needs to head back to her native Tokyo, take as hot a bath as her skin will withstand, and curl up in front of the TV with a cup of tea, a package of fried tofu, and the latest issue of Jump Square.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa sees what she has to do she plays off her nature as she moves in. She'll make use of her eelware again to knock these ones out and secure them rapidly with more zipties. She may need to look into geting a better ways to restrain people. Either way Kotone will be quick about it as she might evne heft the pair up and carry them /back/ to the armore scare so she can secure it until someone else arrives to deal with it.