1553/Getting On Track

Getting On Track
Date of Scene:	12 February 2015
Location:	Volcanian Plains
Synopsis:	A gang of Brimsteel's bandits get more than they bargin for when they try to raid a train site with Multiversal visitors.
Cast of Characters:	Kotone Yamakawa, 279, 411, 673, 684, Corona Arclite

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Corona Arclite has posed:
Brimsteel. The New Wild West. The Volcanic Frontier. Home of the Pulsarium Rush. It's caught up quite a few names for itself at this point. They are fairly indicative of what one can expect at hearing them at least. Or if you've heard Corona ramble about what the environment is like.

Stepping out of the warpgate is effectively stepping into another world, visually as well as literally. Sure it's got all the appearances of an arid plains borderline desert. But at a closer look there's an extra grittiness and yellow tint from the ash and sulfuric dust mixed in the sands, hot dry winds that occasionally blow through, and visible far in the distance what is likely volcanic mountains. Off to a side a soft churning sound comes not from water, but a bubbling flow of molten rock, heat from deep below generating more than enough to keep it a liquid stream of lava instead.

But sightseeing isn't what the Union is here for. What they're here for takes up much of the view from a several meters away, a massive engine at least twice as big as any typical 'steam locomotive' one might bring to mind, an assortment of cars trailing behind where it stands.

It's from one of the cars that a chugging steam-powered crane lifts a large steel beam and moves to lay it to the ground in front of the train. Several smaller steam-powered hammers are rolled in by workers afterwards to start pounding down the steel spikes to hold the massive rails in place. Farther back some supplies and other small machinery is being unloaded from the cars, to eventually build the small supply and monitoring station here to monitor traffic once Loadstar starts shipping materials out to the Union and other locations of the Multiverse.

And that is why we are here. Because this crucial point in making the juncture could use all the extra security it can get. Plus it's a good chance for the Union to get a look-see at what their new ally's operation is like.

.... Speaking of which, where -is- Corona? She's got to be around here somewhere. Likely half buried in a machine covered in grease which is normal for her.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone has been ahem using up a lot of Rory's supplies and other jobs have done the same so she had suggested they come out here to the Volcanic Frontieer to hunt for resources she knew it was somewhat risky but there would be a lot of easy to get to raw materials here she'd have to tag it for Rory's drones to pick up later, though if she got anything she could cart off her self. Also with Twilight asking them alonbg to help with another priject it was a good idea, right? Still man this place is alien and Kotone is glad she's honestly a cyborg right now, she's just be melting from the heat methporhically here. She pulls a mask up over her face and adjusts her gear a bit.

"This is quite the sight isn't it?"

Twilight Sparkle (411) has posed:
     Twilight heard about the atmosphere and culture of the area, so when she steps through the warpgate she is wearing a broad-brimmed cowgirl hat, a set of saddlebags, and a long duster that flutters in the hot wind. She looks around the area, probably standing out a bit as a horned pastel purple pony in western gear.

     "It sure is!" she says to Kotone, even as sweat already starts to appear on her brow. She wipes at her brow with a foreleg, then phews. "It's very warm, though." she says as she starts toward the train, looking around for whoever it is they are supposed to meet here and set up defense plans.

Brooklyn (684) has posed:
EARLIER:

    As the sun goes down over Manhattan, the clock tower is rocked by the roars of the awakening gargoyle clan. Their defacto leader, the red skilled gargoyle who has aligned himself with the Union, is the first to jump off of his resting place. He disapears into the clock tower before the others can even begin to fully wake up, "Lexington, you and Broadway are on patrol tonight. Hudson, you and Bronx stay here and watch the clocktower, in case Goliath and Elisa come back."

    Hudson scratches his neck a bit as he looks towards Brooklyn, "Aye, lad. And what'll you be doin'?" The younger gargoyle pulls something out of their storage space inside the clocktower, and grins faintly, "I'm helping one of my new friends with something tonight. Out in the Multiverse."

RIGHT NOW:

    The warpgate is opened once again, and out of it steps Brooklyn. He looks like he's watched one too many Clint Eastwood movies, because he's wearing a cowboy hat that has been modified to fit his horns and has a poncho wrapped over himself, with holes cut out of the back for his wings. With his getup prepared, he has arrived at the warpgate that Corona specified, looking out for her in particular.

Maxine Sandberg (279) has posed:
Corona wasn't kidding when she mention the area was volcanic. Maxine's a bit warm from all the heat present as it's clear from the red on her face. She's not really used to overly hot temperatures being from Maine. Still she was curious about the planet and the best way to do so was to go in person. She nods and waves to Twilight Sparkle and Kotone upon seeing them. "Has anyone seen Corona yet?" She hasn't noticed the foxgirl herself.

Rory White (673) has posed:
    "Wow! The machine lays its own tracks!" Rory cannot say for sure whether that is really so unusual or not, having only stepped out of the warp gate about half a minute ago, but she's impressed nonetheless. "A clever innovation! This place though..."

    A glance left, a peer right...

    Is that LAVA bubbling around here in streams? "Molten rock at the surface, this close?! Who would build in such an unstable location...?"

    Her confused gaze sweeps from Twilight to Kotone. Sure, this trip serves a double-purpose, but like always the AGI's easily confounded by things she finds in the Multiverse.

    exactly when did her adventurous spirit turn so hesitant though?

    As soon as she's realized that this has been a problem recently she makes the weirdest looking shame-filled grin. "So he was right... I do like to shelter myself."

    She's in her fancy labcoat attire and nothing else, but she's brought a few large empty bags.

    Strangely enough, she's not sweating at all either. Well, looking closely she's not even breathing, but...

Corona Arclite has posed:
Off to the side and away from that lava stream the beginning of a small building is being put up. The idea being that goods can be shipped out here, then transfered through the warpgate to whatever means of transport are waiting, delivered goods can be loaded up, and then the track layout will be curved to head back towards the rest of Brimsteel's rail network. Loadstar Depot was providing much of the work force being the closest settlement, but the general access was for the world as a whole. As long as people behaved, at least.

The unicorn gets an odd look or two from workers... but it's more for her unusual colors than the fact that she's a small talking horse. Maybe even a whistle or two, but the worker that does is quickly smacked upside the head by one of the others and shoved back towards work. The other arrivals are given the occasional glance, but since no body is pulling guns or yelling they mostly just go back to their business. Considering the various laborers are a mix of humans and other anthros, seeing different kinds of folks passing through just doesn't strike them as a big deal.

The arrivals do however get the attention of a stocky beaver standing atop the engine with a megaphone shouting orders at various groups. When he sees them he turns and yells in it "HEY CORONA, YER FRIENDS ARE HERE!"

"Dangabbitall!" Corona clambers out of an access hatch in the engine, reaching over to shove the megaphone aside, her ears slicked back in that way a dog's does when they've heard a loud pitched nose. "Bucksaw, I told ya not to use that thin' near me!"

"Ehe. Shorry." Meekly he hides the megaphone behind his back and waves down at the gathering.

"Howdy y'all! Sorry fer the lack of greetin', I was doin' a bit of fine tunin'." The foxgirl hops down a series of pipes running the side of the engine like a sort of ladder to get to the ground and walk over. She smirks a bit at seeing familiar faces in Maxine and Brooklynn. To the rest she tilts her hat off her head in lieu of a bow in greeting. "Iffen yer lookin' for Corona Arclite, that's me. Glad ya folks could come out and see for yourselves."

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa grins at Rory however.

"Still isn't is a sight and I could see mining operatiosn working here it would be intersting given the heavier metals the magma might bring up with it, right?"

She falls in at this point and also gives Twilight a nod and a grin. She doesn't know her too well but she does consider her a friend. BEfore turning haer attention to their host as it were.

"Just what are you wiorking on out here? Corona? Also I'm Kotone."

Twilight Sparkle (411) has posed:
     When Brooklyn shows up, the pony greets him with a friendly smile. Maxine appears and Twilight greets her as well, and Kotone and Rory get a similar greeting. Kotone gets a little extra attention though. "How are you feeling, Kotone?" she asks before she winces as that megaphone is used. Her ears pin down similarly to Corona's before perking up again when Corona approaches.

     Twilight Sparkle blushes a bit as she actually gets whistled at. That hasn't happened before! She giggles a bit self-consciously. When Corona approaches, Twilight smiles warmly. "It is pretty impressive! We could not build around lava flows like this in Equestria." she says to Corona, then tips her hat. "I am Twilight Sparkle. It is nice to meet you."

Maxine Sandberg (279) has posed:
"It's alright, I guess you're used to the heat. I don't think I could stand living in a place like this. It's pretty much the opposite where I'm from. where I live." Maxine wipes the sweat from her brow. "Yes, from what Corona's told me there's plenty of minerals, though I'm sure this a rather dangerous place to work." She looks at the lava below as she says that.

Rory White (673) has posed:
    "Rory White, of the Argonauts!" The bluenette's looking happy today at least. She's smiling pleasantly, albeit looking around like a somewhat shy kid worried about the surroundings and all the strange people.

    Being cut off from the Mesh is so discombobulating. Sometimes it feels like, in moments of not thinking, Kotone's the only actual person around here...

    Not true, of course, and she knows it.

    "Twilight Sparkle brought us along too. A pleasure to meet you!"

Corona Arclite has posed:
Corona Arclite points a finger at Kotone and the other one at Maxine, who also gets a smile for remember. "They're exactly right. For all it's badlands Brimsteel is rich in that sorta resources, plus we have ways of takin' advantage of that geothermal heat as part of our forging methods. Plus it's the only place so far that they've found Pulsarium, which is used as a power source. But more n'that later." The vixen turns, waving for the others to follow her, and starts to walk around one side of the giant train.

"To answer Miss Kotone's question, we rely on these mega-sized engines for transporting of such materials and the goods made from 'em." She reachs up to give the side of the machine a resounding thump with the metal guarded knuckles of her work gloves. "The windstorms get too strong for larger aircraft, and just clob up their engines with the soot and dust. These big boys are shielded and sealed from it and the mass helps keep 'em down on the rails even in heavy storms. So if we're gonna make use of the gate there for trade, we had to build up part of the railway out here to reach it."

Twilight Sparkle (411) has posed:
     Twilight nods as she listens to Corona. The energy and minerals that are dredged up by magma are certainly something to think about. Twilight however is glad she is not a miner. She is much more at home among books and towers. But, as they approach the locomotive, Twilight's eyes widen. It is certainly big! And looks very sturdy! "It is an impressive vehicle! How much can it carry at a time?" Twilight says as she walks up and places a hoof on the hull of the train.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa is not as depeant on having a net connection, well mentally as her friend but she has to wonder if she's feeling a bit off put being out here. Kotone seems to be looing over Twilight for a moment and then looks over at Brooklyn arrival. She takes a moment to look him over.

"Generally we avoid them wher eI'm from as well."

She listens to Kotone's reply to her eariler question.

"Okay I think I get it now, and I'm a bit jelous!"

Brooklyn (684) has posed:
"How'd you even find the warpgate all the way out here? Brooklyn asks, smiling at Twilight as she gives him a smile, "Howdy." He offers, tipping the hat to her. He has seen way too many westerns. Him and the others were particularly fond of Showdown until the incident with Broadway and Elisa. For now he lets Corona tell everyone what's up, though he heard it all when he talked to her a few days ago.

Rory White (673) has posed:
    "Jealous?" This is worth investigating, thinks Rory. She leans forward, hands folded behind her back, with a smile for Kotone! But she soon enough turns her attention Corona's way.

    "An impressive feat of engineering for the conditions. I'd worry about volcanic eruptions and earthquakes.. what kind of goods do you trade in? And what's this Pulsarium?"

Maxine Sandberg (279) has posed:
"So what kind of measures are in place to protect the miners?" Maxine's pretty certain they would need heat shielding. Not to mention the soot and dust would be an issue as well. She follows Corona feeling a bit uneasy about about being on a train above lava. "Yes, this area seems to have a history of those too." She points to Rory. Hopefully neither of those would happen while they're on the train.

Corona Arclite has posed:
"That's why the Depot has a good machinist on hand, Maxi, to go 'round makin' sure defenses are in order and machinery is kept up," Corona replies to the scientist. "... But, not to point fingers at no one, but not every operation is as concerned with its workers, sad to say. Some business' put all their attention in what they're gainin'. But out here, we ain't got the fortifications to rely on. I've hidden a few things here and there, but it's wide open space." To which she adds to answer Brooklyn's question with a bit of a smirk, "Like a lotta important things! ... By which I mean, by accident."

The foxgirl turns and grabs the handrails to hoist herself partway up to the engine's cabin, then glances down to the others. "Who wants to see what this baby runs o--" But stops herself abruptly, lifting her head as her ears stand straight up and she looks off towards one of the low hills of the area, sharp ears honed to listening to various machine sounds picking up something in the distance. "--Anyone else hear that?"

Sure enough if anyone with strong enough hearing or other means of senses listened, they just might pick up the sound of something engine-like just past the hillsides.

"Son of a flip switch!" Corona jumps back down to the ground. "Reckon we might have company soon... Knew this was goin' too quiet!"

Rory White (673) has posed:
    "I do--" Rory's already just about ready to jump after Corona when she halts. Were it possible, a question mark might just be hovering over the Argonaut's head but this isn't a cartoon.

    She does, however, glance about with bewilderedly widened eyes... eyes that quickly fill with worry.

    "Trouble?" She fumbles around in her labcoat and pulls out something that looks like a frisbee, only to hurl it high into the air with more force than any human should've been able to manage....

    It doesn't come back DOWN, either. The thing hovers HIGH overhead...

Twilight Sparkle (411) has posed:
     Twilight is just about to hop up onto the train when Corona goes on alert. Twilight has pretty good hearing herself, being a horse. "Perhaps they are just move visitors." Twilight says, though she moves to take cover behind a rock formation and watch the incoming vehicle.

     Twilight peeks around the edge of her cover to see what is moving toward them. It is always possible they don't want to hurt anyone, right? Not to mention she hasn't seen anyone yet.

Brooklyn (684) has posed:
"If you think they're going to be hostile.." Brooklyn says, as he moves towards the engine and hops up onto it, moving to the very top as quick as he can, "We'll have to be ready for them." The gargoyle says, as he moves back to the edge of the train and crouches.

    He tilts his hat back to try to peer at the direction that the noise is coming from, trying to get a good look at what might be coming. If he can get an idea of what they're up against, he'll be better prepared to deal with it.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa gets all the information she needs o so she thinks at that point she thinks for a moment.

"That can be a problem with large companies or even small one..."

She pauses for a moment as she does hear something. She didn't come unarmed and she snakes a pistol out of her clothing, though someday she needs to get some heavier firepower.

"Let's get to it."

Maxine Sandberg (279) has posed:
Maxine doesn't hear the noise herself but it sounds like there's going to be trouble. Still it doesn't too smart to try and attack a train under these conditions. There were too many things that could go wrong. Still, she removes her tranquilizer gun from her lab coat. She doesn't usually carry lethal weapons around so it would have to do if they do run into trouble.

Corona Arclite has posed:
At the first sign of trouble from the foxgirl Bucksaw scrambles back to hop down in the cab of the mega-train and yank hard on the whistle line. At the blaring alarm most of the laborers drop what they're doing and rush back to the train to climb into one of the heavily armored cars. Some of the tougher looking workers simply drop their tools and pick up weapons. Or like the one rather burly bull-man, picks up a heavy wrench to use -as- a weapon.

"I wish," Corona murmurs to the others as she grabs her goggles and pulls them up over her eyes. "My mentor taught me to reconize any machine ya work on by the sound it makes. I know the tune of every engine runnin' out of the Depot from workin' on them, and those ain't one of 'em."

At first it's just a large dust cloud that rises from the hill, but it's not long after the cause of it rises over the crest and charges down the other side. A sizable group of men in neo-western style dress, notibly that every one of them is wearing a black hat, with a matching bandana pulled up over most of their faces, riding on slightly oversized, steam and clockwork powered motorcycles.

"Shit, it's the Blackhats! They steal tech and supplies to sell on the underground markets." Corona scampers over to one of the supply stacks and kicks the side of a large crate sitting next to it, causing the sides to fall apart. She yanks the lever on the machine inside and smirks at the others at it unfolds. "Told ya I hid a surprise or two." Steam belchs out of a side smokestack as it gets the gatling like turret spinning to speed, and then spewing out a wide but not extremely accurate barrage of fire at the incoming bandits to force them to scatter apart. Some of the workers that took up arms also open fire. A few wipe out as their bikes are hit, but they're on the feet again a few moments after.

The bandits still on their bikes try to regroup, splitting off to the sides to form a circle around the train, several drawing clockwork firearms and shooting off shots. Most of them just rattle off the train's thick exterior, but the gunfire and noise is enough to make Corona duck for cover behind the stack of materials.

She turns her head back to the others, smirking a bit as she reachs for her own gun. "They ain't got no idea it ain't just the usual folk here. I reckon y'all can make em regret that."

Twilight Sparkle (411) has posed:
     Gunfire! Twilight will never get used to it. But, as shots start bouncing around, Twilight's horn starts to glow. The sand and rocks all around the attackers start to float upward. Nothing huge, just rocks about the size of marbles to disks. Which start to pelt the blackhats mercilessly with the speed and force of a fastball. And the dust swirls around them, clouding their vision, but from far away where the defenders are shooting, it is quite easy to see the blackhats.

     "Ah reckon these varmits'll regret th' day they ever came near this little project." Twilight says, getting a bit too into the atmosphere here.

Rory White (673) has posed:
    MORE VIOLENCE.

    "... Th-this happens anywhere I go!" Rory complains, only to drop down and... go to hide behind the massive train.

    But it's not like she's decided to do NOTHING. High in the sky, a little saucer hovers.

    This one's not like the others.

    A tiny emitter hole on one end HAS LASERS TO OFFER.

    ... And this is a much more realistic laser than the sort you'd see on a spacefighter. Meaning...

    It's completely invisible, it travels at the speed of light...

    And it's rapid firing at weapon barrels and triggers to melt them into unusability!

    Rory's not a fighter in the traditional sense. She's a TACTICIAN.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Well things seem to be getting pretty serious, then agian she considers all combat to be such. She hears note of the bandits. Okay so tech theives huh? She's now wondeing if she should be breaking otu the arc thrower which she thinks the answer is a r3eouncing yest as the gun fire gets going she dives for cover, waiting hoping for a moment to strike...

Maxine Sandberg (279) has posed:
Hackers combined with cowboys? Maxine should have expected something like that given this world. Still, Maxine sees no need to kill a bunch of thieves. She takes cover as well. Still, she might want a weapon more suited for this fight. The scientist puts her tranquilizer rifle and takes out what looks to be a couple of grenades. She tosses them onto the tracks at the motorcycles. A few seconds they explode leaving a sticky residue behind, which would likely cause problems for the clockwork.

Brooklyn (684) has posed:
Make 'em regret their attack? Brooklyn can do that for sure. He spreads his wings and then takes off from the top of the train. Man, Corona wasn't kidding, it really is easy to fly out here with the heat rising off of the ground. He swoops over that lava flow to gain some altitude, and then dives down at some of the Blackhats that are on the bike. His plan is pretty straight forward. Grab them off their bikes, haul them up into the air and then drop them.

    Not enough so it'll kill them, he's not trying to end their lives. Just enough to scare them away from the fight, send them running back to whatever rock they crawled out from, and make them rethink their chosen line of work.

Corona Arclite has posed:
The rocks may not be very large but they hit fast enough to knock a few bandits off their steam-cycles. One takes a clonk upside the head and loses his hat... but doesn't fall over because he's got a metal plate bolted to the top of his skull! Okay that's kind of weird even by the standards they've already seen. He turns his attention in the direction of where the rock came from, and doesn't have the time or likely brain power to try and figure out how a horse threw a rock at him. He just sees a horse. And reacts in kind, whipping out a lasso and trying to throw it around the unicorn's neck.

"Yeeow!" Pistols are dropped as their triggers become too hot to hold. A bandit sneers as the barrel of his clockwork rifle melts, then compensates by flipping it around and raising it like a club. Only to have that shot out of his hands by one of the workers, leaving him staring at empty hands in befuddlement.

Brooklyn probably didn't even need to pull them off the bikes. Just his winged appearance overhead is enough to be intimidating. Getting yanked from their rides and thrown aside just seals the deal, as soon as they're back on their feet those blundering bandits are running for the hills they came from.

Several of the Blackhats are still on their bikes, coming around from their circling formation... only to see the rest of their gang in a disorganized mess. A moment of surprise is all it takes to not see the small objects thrown in their path, and the sudden explosion of adhesive snaring the wheels of their bikes sends them tumbling over the handlebars. Followed to a wrench to the head for one of them courtesy of the bull-man.

Another comes around in a wider arc to avoid the goo trap. Corona cocks the Forge Sweeper and takes aim as she stands up, firing a burst of plasma scattershot that riddles holes in the boiler tank of one steam-cycle, sending it veering into another. The bandits manage to fall off before the bikes skid off into the lava stream and sink away as they start melting.

Afterwards Corona reloads and fires off another shot, sending chunks of sand pluming from the ground as she aims at the feet to make some of the bandits that got back up back off and start rethinking what they got themselves into. "As ya boys can see, my pardners here don't take kindly to tech rustlers. Ya might wanna rethink yer options here."

Twilight Sparkle (411) has posed:
     Twilight gives a hoofpump as she knocks rides from their bikes. Then, that rope lands around her neck. She blinks in surprise, then looks along the rope to whoever is holding it. "...ohmy..." is all she can say before *yoink* the rope's slack is pulled taut and she is yanked off her feet and dragged through the dirt! "H-hey! Eeek! Let go of me!" she shrieks as she is pulled along, leaving a cloud of dust in her wake.

     It is pretty hard to concentrate on spells when you are being pulled along, not to mention how your hat goes flying away. But, she is a pony of action, not a damsel in distress. She grips the rop with her forehooves and pulls, lifting herself so she is skiing on her hooves across the sand. That allows her to concentrate on the blackhat who is pulling her along. "Hey! Metalhead! Did you know that metal is a wonderful conductor of electricity!" Her horn starts to glow again as she is pulled along, then energy arcs over it before a strong bolt of electricity arcs from her and right into that metal plate.

Maxine Sandberg (279) has posed:
It seems that the glue grenades weren't quite enough to deter the Black Hats. Maxine's got plenty of other options though as she draws another gun, this one is more pistol-like. "I think you should reconsider what you're doing." She aims at another of the clockwork motorcycles firing a few electric rounds into it. They're more of a deterrant to try and get them to stop following the train.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone's managed to not get her hide shot off so far and while the bandits are busy with the others? Kotone springs into action the XCOM issue arcthrower in hand, she's only got two shots but hey it iwll help. She's closing in on one of the bandits. However she's moving a good deal faster than a normal human she slides in turns up with the arc thrower in hand.

"Say cheese."

She then fires enough of stun bolt to drop a muton into the bandit. That should have them down hopefully.

Rory White (673) has posed:
    "Charging straight at a situation you know nothing about is a terrible choice." States Rory the moment the bandits seem to be getting discomcobulated.

    Her kind expression's gone. She instead extends a hand out towards the bandits. Flesh peels away from the palm, blossoming open like a flower to reveal what looks like a weapon barrel... albeit a small one.

    *FEEEEEEEEEEEWT!!*

    They're somewhat sizable bullets that she's firing. And there can't be many available, but...

    For her vision, each bandit's movements are being calculated, predicted, hashed down and rendered into targeting data. She fires with mathematical precision, sending smart bullets at their targets.

    The bullets use nanite-restructuring to alter their own trajectories with miniscule tweaks to their shape, ensuring remarkable accuracy even in terrible conditions!

    But these aren't your typical slugs either.

    Moments before impact they burst open like popcorn, spraying globs of rapidly-expanding and hardening foam. The stuff sticks like glue and holds like cement, but it's porous and breathable. Completely non-lethal...

    But if it grabs hold, well, that's gonna suck.

    "I've become tired of the constant violence, everywhere I go!"

Brooklyn (684) has posed:
With the crooks he snatched up running scared, Brooklyn none the less swoops back up into the sky and then swings around. His presence in the air makes him a formidable force just because it doesn't seem like anyone in this world knows how to deal with airborne threats. This benefits him immensely because he's able to swoop down and pick off targets one after another.

With his wings giving him an extremely unfair advantage over the Blackhats, he's gonna keep picking off any that he gets close to. Anyone who's close enough to get snatched up is going to get grabbed and thrown off their gear. Probably be lots of scrap bikes left for Corona after Brooklyn's done with them.

Corona Arclite has posed:
That was going to be weird to explain later. The only guy Corona knew that had any sort of implants was one of the Brimsteel Rangers, and his were pretty big and obvious. A metal skullplate like that was new, mainly because she has no idea what was done that he'd -need- such a thing. But before anyone can ask if the unicorn needs help Twilight uses MAGICAL SCIENCE to fire an electrical arc into that metal plate, causing the thug to drop his rope as he spasms for several minutes. Smoke rolls off the head plate once it stops, and he glares at the unicorn... only for his eyes to roll back and he collapses on the ashen desert.

There was definately something up with some of these Blackhats, as one of them has been advancing on a group of workers even as they fire repeatedly at him. Several of their shots burn holes in the front of his shirt, only to reveal some sort of deflective plate underneath, though it's hard to tell if it's a part of the shirt or somehow attatched to his chest.... Which becomes a moot point when Kotone leaps out of hiding and shoves him with some crazy ass cattleprod as far as he can tell from behind, which isn't protected. He even collapses on top of the guy that Twilight kerzappled. That's two bandits that are gonna be sitting in a jail cell by morning. Actually make that several, as Rory quite aptly disables several with the hardening foam, trapping legs or sticking arms to their sides. One yanks down his bandana to yell something, but gets globbed in the face before he can, and after a bit of choking decides to just turn and run.

Maxine electrocuting one of the toppled steam-bikes and causing it's boiler-engine to explode sends several more running for the hills from the cloud of steam and bits of shrapnel. Though as she's doing so one of the bandits that got up on foot has been sneaking around through the fracas to come up behind the scientist, raising his rifle to take aim .... and then stops with a yelp of surprise as the barrel of his gun is sliced clean off as Corona chops through it with one of plasma cutters projected from her work gauntlets. He whips around to throw a punch at her but the smaller foxgirl ducks, and by firing the other glove's torch like a flamethrower sends him running, swatting at his backside now aflame with his hands as he does.

Add to that the ones that just outright flee from Brooklyn's swooping presence, and the gang has been either run off, or incapacitated and ready to be shipped off to jail. Once it's clear the fighting is over it doesn't take long for a flurry of whoops and cheering to come from the workers sheltered in the armored train.

Maxine Sandberg (279) has posed:
Maxine turns around hearing as she hears the gun getting cut apart by the plasma cutter. She starts breathing a bit deeply after realizing how close she was to getting shot. "Thank you, Corona." She would have likely have been trouble if the fox-girl hadn't react when she did. "Is everyone else okay?" She looks around at the others for her any signs of injury.

Brooklyn (684) has posed:
The gargoyle comes in for a landing near Corona and the others once he's finished taking out his share of bandits, "I'm fine." He replies to Maxine at her question, "I don't think those guys have much experience dealing with aerial threats, because they seemed more scared than hostile at that point."

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa stands up, dusts her self off and looks at the gallen theife for the moment. She readies the arc thrower again should there be more of them but it looks like all these guys are turning to run at this point or been caught. She looks like a very pleased cat for lack of a better term whose just dropped a mouse at the foot of it's owner. She however seems to be n a good mood.

"Don't think they saw any of us comming, so I take it we can turn these guys over to some local law to deal with?"

Rory White (673) has posed:
    Rory's strange barrel retracts the few inches it had extended, and the split flesh (bleeding only slightly...) seals itself back up. In moments the 'seams' of that split even vanish as if they never existed. Whatever the heck was up with that... well, not a problem now.

    She doesn't waste time on the distant, disabled bandits. Instead she takes stock of the situation using her eyes in the sky...

    The eyes she had used to calculate those shots with extra precision.

    It takes her only a few seconds to verify that everyone's alright.

    "Violence or no violence... we handled that well!"

Twilight Sparkle (411) has posed:
     One thing about shocking the guy who is pulling you along? When he stops pulling, it is hard to stay on your feet. Twilight eeps, then stumbles before tumbling a short distance and landing prone on her belly. She groans softly as she gets up, then dusts herself off and smiles. "Well, I think that does it." she says as she clops back toward the others. "Is everyone alright?" she asks, looking around at the others.

     After making sure everyone is alright, the pony goes to get her hat. No westerner can just leave their hat on the ground! "Good work, everyone! Those bandits will not mess with us again!"

Corona Arclite has posed:
Corona Arclite dusts off her gloves after deactivating the plasma cutters. "Ayup, they had no idea what they got themselves into." Then jabs a thumb over her shoulder at the mega-train. "We can toss 'em in the boxcar 'til the Rangers can send a paddywagon out for 'em. Sure am glad y'all came out so I didn't have to clean up this mess myself." She grabs one of the bandits by the leg and starts dragging him back towards the cars. "Then we can finish tourin' the rest of the rig iffen ya like."