6873/Retribution Railway - Hellion

Retribution Railway - Hellion
Date of Scene:	10 October 2019
Location:	Brimsteel Frontier
Synopsis:
Cast of Characters:	Corona Arclite, 7099, Staren, 1103, Kotone Yamakawa
Tinyplot:	Retribution Railway

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Corona Arclite has posed:
It had been another typical day for the Gateway, the area around Brimsteels primary warpgate that had been developed recently to help protect the precious gate and handle the logistics of trade and tourism it brought to the frontier world. Folks had gone about their business, pitchmen of various degrees of snake oil hocked their wares from the small shops or caravan wagons while laborers handled larger cargo that had been recently delivered or was being prepped for shipping out.

Then a horrendous whistle, like the shrill shriek of a chorus of banshees, shattered the calm. It blasted again, and the weaker willed civilians scattered for shelter, while several Rangers emerged from their lodge.

Just in time to gawk with everyone else as a massive black locomotive roared past the settlement on fiery rails, moving too fast for anyone to clearly count how many cars passed. One Ranger ran back inside to grab the dispatch device and started shouting into it. "Mayday mayday! This is Brimsteel Gateway; we have a potential Code Long Black Train in progress! Any able bodies, please assist!"

The whistle screamed again as the end of the train passes, the only thing left in the wake being a lone figure upon a stallion standing opposite of where it had passed. The problem was the figure was a ghastly pale, clad in red and grey cowboy duds, while his steed was as pitch as night with blazing fire for a mane, while its tail and lower legs decayed off into bleached bone and embers.

As the hellion trotted his hell horse down the main throughway the Rangers scrambled, but before any could draw a weapon a whip of hellfire lashed from the fiends hand to snare one around the waist and yank him to the ground. The gastly palor looked down at him, muttering something about falsifying evidence under his rasping breath, and the flames encircling the Ranger flared and left him howling in torment.

Its about then that Corona comes parkouring across the buildings from the main Depot, only to skid to the stop at the edge of a shop roof, ears going immeadiately flat back. "Shit." Code Long Black Train indeed...

Hopefully someone responds to the dispatcher's call for help.

Rosa Borrasca (7099) has posed:
After they'd met, Corona had given Rosa a communicator and told her to keep it on just in case. She didn't think much of it, until the thing went off in the middle of the night. She'd been sitting on her motorcycle monitoring a house where a bail jumper had been hiding out, but now it seems that she'll need to track him down another day.

It took a bit of navigating to get from her home city to get to the Brimsteel Gate, but once she reaches it, her motorcycle roars out of the warpgate and she skids it to a halt once she spots the fiery cowboy down the street, "Hell. That ain't good."

She doesn't know who this guy is, but if Corona's people think it's important enough to call for help, she'll help out as best she can. She swings one of her legs over the motorcycle, and plants her paws on the ground, "HEY!" She roars out at the ghastly figure, "Grim grinning ghost time isn't until the end of the month, jackass. Pack it up and go home."

Staren has posed:
    Staren flies out of the warpgate, armored and on a broom. He takes a brief look around -- someone is attacking and possibly torturing the local police, and they look tough enough that he probably won't kill them by accident. He puts his broom away in the bag at his side that's clearly too small for it, then raises his right arm as if to point at the guy, and...

    Fires, twin beams of high-energy particles blasting out from the cannons built into his gauntlet.

    Only then does he speak: "You heard the lady. I'm not sure what all this is about, but maybe if you run now and make it too much trouble to catch or kill you, this won't end too badly for you. Torturing random police officers just for being here is no way to go through life, guy."

Theurgus (1103) has posed:
    The Mad Magician was out and about, looking around the various sundry stalls, haggling with some of the vendors for trinkets and baubles, when the emergency call goes out. She politely excuses herself from the obviously panicking store owner, and pulls a small crystal from her inventory. As she walks to join the growing gathering of Rangers, and Multiversal allies, she presses this crystal into her chest and speaks a single imperative. "Access" She transforms in a pillar of light, and out of it, floats the form of Diamond Soul. Her Processors unfold around her body, the gemstones set into them sucking in all light, seeming like pitch voids rather than physical objects. "Halt your advance and come no farther Virus. You shall find that the Mad Magician shall brook no trespass to this place. Begone!"

    While she speaks, she floats up into the air, then begins to chant a spell. "Great Process. Superior Protector. Grace upon us the ROMs of thine code, as we unto thee. Sunder the virus's advance, stymie their offences. Rend the Null. Divine Cage!" Brilliant lances of pure white rain down, aiming to impale the ghost rider.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa had been mostly been working behind the scenes on Paladin jobs or even working on her bike building business. Today was none of that for Kotone she's back on Brimsteel for the first time in quite some time. She would be suited in not in her stealth gear but her more common field outfit which consisting of a sleeveless coat and pants and a shirt. She just beams down from her ship. She forms out of the pillar of light and is no. 5R
She has now just arrived to see the horror that is standing there and it hits her what time of the year is it.

Kotone says

"This is going to be the hard way isn't it?"

She will have to ask what the heck Code Long Black Train is later. With inhuman speed, she draws an assault rifle from somewhere and has it ready.

It clear it's not going to end well and with others opening up she levels her weapon and opens fire sending a spray of bullets at whatever this horror is.

Corona Arclite has posed:
By this point the remaining Rangers have gone into disaster mode, and as offworlders appear responding to the dispatch they back off and focus on getting the citizens out of the street.

From her perch Corona lets out a sigh of relief as friends and familiar faces arrive. "That damned train releases hellspawn to punish the corrupt and wicked.. But they usually just terrorize folks in general!" Or minor infractions like the now collapsed and burned Ranger. There's your helpful exposition for the time being.

The ghastly cowboy looks at Rosa and her taunting, but then his attention is distracted by Corona's shouting. "What's this," his voice rasps. "The last of the Vaportails. You'll make an interesting catch." He snaps his flaming whip up and lashes it at her, which Corona snares around one of her gloved arms, at the same time whipping out her own weapon with the other hand and firing. The shot hits the hellion right in the chest with a few sparks and his form crackling a bit. "... Was that suppose to do something?"

"It charged your negative presence with overly positive energy, fully presenting you to the mortal plane," Corona replies as she yanks her arm free. It takes a moment for it to sink in what that means.

Right as Staren's powerful beams rip across where he stands. His ghastly form doesn't bleed or anything, but there's energy rippling off his form from the intense power being tore across him. Quickly he spurrs his nightmarish steed in the sides, bolting forward a bit and turning to weave one way, then another, and another. Though it's not enough to avoid all the spikes dropping from the sky or the bullets, one of the lances even stabs right through the steed's side and out the other, but being whatever demonic hellspawn it is that as much furiates it farther as it does hurt.

"You will all burn for interference then." The hellish horse rears up, more of a demonic howl than a whiney, and then slams its hooves back to the ground. A wave of hellfire rolls out from the impact and surges around the point, directly primarily at the two Concords that headed the assault while Rosa and Kotone are only peripherial damage for the time being.

Rosa Borrasca (7099) has posed:
What the heck. No playful banter. No back and forth jabs. Just right to the shooting. Rosa sighs a little bit, "What's the point of trying to be witty if people are just going to come out of nowhere and ruin the moment."

Of course Corona does her thing, apparently this creature knows who she is. Rosa will have to ask about that later. Now's not the time. The jaguar pushes off of her back foot and throws herself forward, flying towards the now quite corporeal cowboy. It's a flying knee, after she covers the distance between her and him. He's obviously distracted with the ones that started shooting at him, so it's easy enough. Or at least she would think so. She clearly is still new at this whole thing. So the flames lick across her body, but she pushes through with the knee strike.

Theurgus (1103) has posed:
    Diamond Soul notes the interaction between the phantom and the fox. She files that away to investigate later, there's hellfire to dodge right this moment. She gathers herself up, forming a platform of iridescent light under her feet, and launches herself clear of the flames, the edge searing at her foot processors, causing their defensive field to flare brightly... but fire isn't Dark, and the shield doesn't exactly work as well.

    She flares the clockwork wings, does a roll out then jabs her staff head at the phantom. "Ye Lords, mask of bits and code. Truth and temperence, ye who bear the name of Program. Upon a frozen kernal, delimit, decompile. Shift and become Null. Way of Destruction, number 86. Glacial Torrent."

    From the staff's head, emerges a giant lance of green-blue ice... then another. A third. Four... even more. They begin to emerge from small spell circles that appear in the air around her. And then, as she speaks the spells name, they lash forward, aiming for the phantom, but avoiding those that have to get in close... the spikes stab into the ground, altering the landscape to become more hostile to a mounted target, while giving those on foot more cover from those ranged abilities.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa says "So they have about as much sense as my nation's leader who got us into WWIII?"

Kotone makes a face a very unhappy face there and she will keep on the move this is just going to be one of those Octobers it seems. She starts to get on the move as she's got the things attention the hellspawn seems pretty angry at them and then comes the hellfire Kotone is fast enough to avoid a direct hit? Yet Kotone is still caught with he heat that leaves some of her synth skin sizzling from it.

"You need to learn to target the actual problems there are some mole men well overdue for a visit!"

Kotone now keeps on the move firing another burst from her rifle, a second before she backflips away jumps again while in mid-air and comes in for a landing even further away.

Staren has posed:
    Hellfire washes over Staren. His forcefield comes up, but after the fire pashes it's diminished, and his armor is blackened. "Right?" He responds to Rosa. "It's just 'Ooh, last of the vaportails, I'm some kind of evil hunter, burn for your interference.' Please. I'm just getting warmed up. Heh. Well, if it doesn't want to talk, I guess it can just die. We can keep this up all day. Can you?"

    As soon as the beam cannons are cooled, he blasts the horseman again, wearing him down with a steady, unwavering application of repeated force!

Corona Arclite has posed:
Corona Arclite doesn't know if anyone present will get what hell's wrangler is going on about. Maybe Kotone, don't remember if she's been told, right now isn't important. Especially when the wave of fire unleashed by the phantom's demonic steed starts one of the buildings folks are hiding in on fire. "Now that's just fightin' dirty!" Instead of opening up on him as well, Corona turns and fires several shots at the nearby water tower. Fortunately it's an old wooden one, easy enough to shoot holes in and unleash a surge of water to dowse the flames. And maybe inadvertantly add to the ice spell being spread across the ground.

The flying knee catchs the Hellion right in what would be his center of mass, and not being -use- to being completely tangable, is knocked off his mount and rolling across the ground. He stands only to get pepper by more gunfire from Kotone and laser beams from Staren. He just sort of stands there under the assault, then shakes out his tattered duster and the various spent bullets clatter to the ground, leaving multiple gunholes and exposed ribs of his midsection bare. A disconcerning eye might note that not all the calibers that fell out of him are the ones Kotone shot. A few are glowing to represent the lasers.

The nightmare, between losing its rider and the falling ice, starts to frenzy. As it bolts about it manages to avoid the ice chunks hitting the ground, but is soon flailing more than thrashing as it starts to loose traction. The ice is magic, so the hellish heat of its hooves is not melting it to keep stability, and even a beast spawned from hellfires is panicing a bit.

The jacket is straightened back out, and in a poof of brimstone ash the ghastly cowboy disappears, reappearing atop his mount once more. But instead of trying to calm the hellspawn horse he jams his spurs into its sides, increasing the frantic pace of it's deadly dervish. The nightmare bucks and bounds bad enough to put any bronco to shame, kicking out with hooves left and right and spewing flames from it's mouth and nostrils as it thrashes around the street, putting everyone in danger even with the ice preventing it from getting steady traction to really brace those kicks.

Theurgus (1103) has posed:
    Large spells are wonderful things, but when they don't put a target down immediately, they become a liability. As the Nightmare starts to frenzy and thrash about, she's caught in one of its flame breath attacks, and gets knocked out of the sky, trailing smoke and looking really battered with streaks of broken red code across her body. She slams into an abandoned merchant wagon, demolishing it and taking time to emerge again afterwards.

    She doesn't incant this time. Instead she just starts to twirl and flourish her staff, using the movements to lash out with a fussilade of mixed elemental bolts. Flame, Ice, Lightning, Wind, Light and Dark... She's aiming to keep up the pressure, but is clearly hurting.

Rosa Borrasca (7099) has posed:
It's not the first time Rosa's been smacked by a horse. But it is the first time she's been hit by one made out of anger and hellfire. The feline gets sent for a loop, landing with a heavy thud on the ground and rolling over a couple of times with a groan, "Ugh. That hurt.." She takes a moment to pop her neck, and then pushes herself back up onto her feet.

That horse is a major problem. Plus it appears to be a major part of the big bad's abilities. So if she can take it out, maybe she can save everybody a whole world of hurt.

She moves in again, weaving past the other fighters to close the gap, but instead of going high and trying to hit the rider, she goes low, a club in her right hand pulled from her tactical gear, as she swings for one of the horse's joints. Sure it's a magical hell horse, but bones should still function like normal, right? Either way she's sliding under its legs so this could end poorly.

Staren has posed:
    Somehow it stopped the energy weapons like bullets so they didn't go through it, huh? Interesting...

    Before Staren can try something new though, horse and rider are reunited and kicking all over the place! Staren tries to dodge but he's too slow, and the horse bucks him in the chest, sending him flying backward to land in the dust. "Rrgh..." Energy wings briefly appear on his back to pull him to his feet, and the missile rack on one of his shoulders flips up into position and unleashes a salvo of tiny missiles, which airburst just over the cowboy's head rather than try to hit him dead-on. Can he use the same trick on explosive force? Let's find out! This is a science experiment.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa has done a lot of things and even with her memory she has to know when to look and other things can still come into the forefront of things. She has a Hellion very angry at her and it's going to hurt be she flesh or metal. She moves she does not stop moving never stop moving is her motto in combat and this saves her from an even worse hit. The attack connects to her still and she's caught several times the beast limbs meet her synthetic body and there's the sound of damage also pain from Kotone as she skids across the ground having avoided narrowly her head being caved in.

She's back on her feet now and then will leap for the Hellion why she's trying to tackle him as she puts a high amount of power through her body's built-in taser system to see if that will have better luck than her rifle.

"BACK TO YOU'RE GRAVE!"

Corona Arclite has posed:
Even with the hellion on it's back once more there is no control to the beast's thrashing. It's unbridled, uncontained anger and fury. It kicks people around, sets them on fire, smashes them into things... and they all get back up for more. Wounded and exhausted sure, but they're still on their feet and fighting.

Rosa takes advantage of the icy ground to brave the steed's brimstone hooves and smash one of it's legs. Bone shatters and a stench not unlike brimstone is left in it's wake, an unholy sound emitting from the beast as an attack that would of normally been minimal is excruciating thanks to being forcefully manifested to this plane of reality.

Kotone leaps in, her body surging with electrical energy, as the nightmare is staggering from the lost leg and slams into the hellish wrangler to knock him once more off the beast. Electricity arcs between them, putrid smoke whisping out from where his ghastly body is burned by the intense current.

At the same time the combination of magic and real missiles detonate, engulfing the nightmare in their combined fury, and the resulting explosion sends a huge cloud of gristly smoke billowing into the air.. As a burning horse skull and few other smoldering bones clatter to the ground.

With a gruesome growl the hellion seperates himself from Kotone, though sparks continue to crackle around him. Curse that vixen, curse the damned Vaportails and their scientific trickery. He can't just demanifest to slip away, either. He may not bleed by the phantasmic vapors seeping out of his form are a clear sign he's weakening. "Hmph. Don't heed the Warning then. Even if the grave reclaims my damnation, the sorrow of the Railway has only begun."

The Hellion is about to face his last roundup for the night, but he's not going down easy. It's a reminder he's only the first of the demonic train's spawn. With a fiendish crack two fiery pistols appear in his hands, which he holds out and up to pull the triggers and the weapons belch with fire and sulfur. Each only fires once, but it results in a barrage of blazing brimstone bullets bombarding the entire area in little splinters of hell. Even Corona is sent scrambling for cover, cussing the entire time about something under her breath.

Staren has posed:
    Bullets from hell rain into Staren as he stands steady, preparing a counterattack. They smash open the front of his forcefield, and pockmark the front of his armor. "Oh, you wanna play that game, huh?" Staren reaches into his bag and pulls out an oversized, chrome-plated revolver, patterned after a Colt Peacemaker. He takes aim and cocks the hammer...

    "...Nah. You're not worth using this." He lowers the weapon, and both shoulder missile racks pop up and discharge the rest of their payload, over a dozen tiny missiles aimed to crash into the cowboy from hell and explode!

Theurgus (1103) has posed:
    Diamond Soul is running empty. She raises a shield against the incoming hellfire bullets, maneuvering out of the hailstorm, but some still pierce her defenses, punching holes clean through her body, showing no internal organs, only more of that angry red of damaged code. Manuevering manages to get her some reprieve, however fleeting, and she readies a spell. There's no incantation with this one, but the end result would make a TSAB mage envious. She twirls her staff, doing a little 'dance' that gathers energy in the marble embedded in the staff-head. Once she brandishes it at the hellion, all that energy unleashes in an unaspected torrent of raw power. "Shiverbeam."

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa will have to thank a certain old Pokemon trainer later for giving her the idea the next time she sees them. For now, she's caught fighting this hellion and she seems to have done quite the hit on it.

"So you are just getting started?"

October in the multiverse, seriously what the hell?! This is only the start which means a whole pile of paperwork for her with the Paladins when this is over. For now she's got her rifle again even as she's moving she's shot again this time it's a bit worse cathing her in the flank there's signs of wiring and some sort of red fluid that isn't blood but smells nasty if one were to get a whiff the brimstone smells nicer honestly.

She's got her rifle up again and lays down fire trying to empty the remainder of the magazine at the Hellion.

"Then we will have to be ready for them."

Rosa Borrasca (7099) has posed:
Bullets flying everywhere. Not normal bullets, no. Why would they be normal bullets when fighting an evil ghost thing? Rosa does her best to take cover, still managing to take several hits from the attack, but she stays alive, so that's gotta count for something.

She jumps out from behind cover, and then rushes in again. With everybody attacking the same target, she has to be fast, but she drives forward, evading just as much danger from her compatriots as the hostile, before she strikes.

She swings a wild punch as she dives past, lands and rotates, and then drives forward again, striking out with a foot as she sails past. This attack is inspired by the very same one Corona used on her when they were training. Multiple strikes from multiple directions, to try to land as many hits as she can.

Corona Arclite has posed:
At first it looks like the hellion might catch a second wind, as he manages to sidestep and the rushing punch only grazes his shoulder.
Until Rosa wheels around and, using the same trick of misdirection from multiple strikes that was once used on her, to smash her foot HARD into his back before he realizes the first attack was a feint. There's a sickening crunch as his forced physicality means there's an actual spine to be brutally busted by the jaguar's Predator strength.

The blow sends him staggering and disoriented into the center of the street, face to face with Staren's impressive gun... that he doesn't use, instead snubbing the hellspawn with another barrage of missile fire instead. Outer layers of tattered leather clothing and whatever passes for skin in his state are burned away by the explosive ignitions.

The magic beam rips through the air next, shearing across one side of an already ghastly face, practically obliterating it even with the caster's weakened state. Whatever hellish force that holds the hellion's form together was crumpling under the constant assaults and couldn't resist her strange style of magic any longer.

It's appropriately ended with gunfire as Kotone empty the rest of her weapon's magazine into the pummeled phantom. This time there's no trick of depreciating damage, the bullets go in one side and out the other, tearing the remains of his chest and ribs apart fully this time. Ghostly flame spews from his mouth as his eyes dim and a hellish howl escapes.

And then all at once there's a POOMF and gristly smoke erupts out, dissolving into nothingness as the supernatural force is dispersed and nothing remains but a hat that falls to the ground near the horse skull. And even those slowly crumble away to dust blowing off in the wind.

Corona eventually sticks her head out from under the wagon where she'd taken cover. "No wonder muh folks hated this time of year so much."

Theurgus (1103) has posed:
    Theurgus, once she's certain the creature is gone and not just using some trick, releases her transformation, stumbles against a wall, and summons a can of Doc P to take a sip from.

    Corona emerging from hiding gets her attention next. "That creature appeared to know you. Explain." she says, demanding rather than asking, though she's mostly just tired and snippy than being purposefully obtuse.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa lowers her weapon as the Hellion goes down it's clear she's been hurt but she's on her feet, there are sparks coming from some of her wounds though and hse makes a face.

"Damn it..."

She took a moment to deal with what she could of it and would go to join the others.

"Why do I feel like I run into something like this before. Welcome to October in the multiverse..."

Staren has posed:
    "This time of year..." Staren looks at the gun in his hand and sighs. He swings out the cylinder, pulls the trigger to decock the hammer, swings the cylinder back in place, and stows it in his bag.

    "So. What's this about punishing the corrupt and wicked? Seems to me we need to go deal with whoever SENT that guy. And who's your friend? I don't believe we've met." He nods to Rosa, who he assumes is a local. "Staren Wiremu. Hand of the Concord."

Rosa Borrasca (7099) has posed:
Rosa brushes herself off a bit once the badguy has been dealt with, "Wait you mean that wasn't the big bad? Well damn." She mutters a little bit to herself, before she takes the offered hand from Staren, "Rosa Borrasca. Concord, huh? Heard a lot of stuff about you guys so far." She wouldn't admit that not everything she heard was GOOD, at least not to his face.

Corona Arclite has posed:
Corona Arclite is unphased by the snippiness. If anything she's probably expecting that sort of 'What The Hell Fox?!' train of questioning. She just gets to her feet and dusts herself off with her hands, a few burned shot holes in her gear but nothing too severe. "My parents -- The real ones, not the one that adopted and trained me engineering -- were investigators of this sort of bizarre activity, paranormal or otherwise." That would explain why the Hellion was calling her by a different surname. "Ah'd reckon they'd been to Brimsteel before when that damned train manifested, considerin' the manifest stabilizer round plans were in muh pa's notes."

Her tail twitchs a few times with annoyance as she peered at the hat and skull turning to dust and blowing away. More likely dematerialized and dispeled than actually destroyed, alas. "The spawns of the Retribution Railway, the 'Long Black Train', are suppose to punish the wicked and collect the souls of the damned... But the world is so thick with corruption and greed and all of it ain't obvious so they tend to more often just run amok doin' more harm than good with their wyld hunt."

The vixen shakes her head. "Hellion's only the first. The 'Warning' as he put it. No idea which ones will come out this year, an' it'll take time to track down the damned train itself."

Staren has posed:
    Staren gives Rosa a look that says he knows full well many think ill of the Concord. "Have you." He then looks to Corona. "Sounds like maybe your pa figured out this train was actually evil the whole time, huh? Maybe there's something in his notes about how to track it?"

    And back to Rosa. "If you have any questions, I'm happy to explain. Sometimes people draw their own conclusions without even talking to any of us, and they can get rather the wrong idea."

    Staren glances at where the skull and hat were, then back to Rosa. "I just want to help people."

Corona Arclite has posed:
"Ah can scan from muh ship in orbit, but it'll take fer me and Windrose to recalibrate proper arrays to do so. In the meantime, keep yer ears open for any more dispatches when another fiend shows up." She specifically says when, not if.

Corona peers from Rosa to Staren and back again. Even she doesn't agree with all their methods even if she is friends with members of the various factions, but that's not important. "Brimsteel ain't pickin' sides when it comes to dealing with supernatural shit like this, 'kay?" You all just need to play nice long enough to beat up more evil things.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa deep breaths "So there's is going to be more got it I'll be here to help if I can. I'd also check atound the net from various sources too." She notes to Rosa

Rosa Borrasca (7099) has posed:
"Hey I wasn't saying anything bad." Rosa replies to Corona, before she looks back over at Staren, "Sure, I'm sure we can sit down and have a coffee or something and you can give me the pitch. I'm actually curious. Though you know what they say about curiosity and cats." She grins with those sharp teeth of her's, before turning back to Corona, "Well, just keep me in the loop when you track down any of them ghouls. I'll show up and whack 'em around."

Staren has posed:
    "It's fine." Staren waves off Corona's concern. "I'm not tryin' ta start a fight."

    Then, to Rosa: "Curiousity killed the cat, but satisfaction and the knowledge of how to obtain immortality brought it back?" He smiles behind his visor. "I can explain someplace near or at the Bar and Grill, if you like. Or over the radio."