2051/And the Crowd Goes Wild

And the Crowd Goes Wild
Date of Scene:	18 April 2015
Location:	Gun Gale Online
Synopsis:	The appearance of a new World Raid Boss has the Gatecrashers scrambling to get the kill before other raiding groups can. But the appearance of a dark figure shrouds any victory celebrations with macabre horror.
Cast of Characters:	Kirito, Tomoe, 9, Staren, 215, 395, Karian Icefang, 631, 649, 707, 754

---

HK-47 (754) has posed:
HK-47 He hates this miserable simulation of a fleshy, imperfect body for this system. Why the superior designs of droids are prohibited from use in this world, he will never know.

Kirito has posed:
    Ominous winds hurry through the wastelands outside SBC Glocken. Roughly ten miles from the city some kind of storm's brewing! Dust churns on the horizon and lightning courses through the skies from time to time. This is the day everyone's been waiting for - the promised new event boss with loot that'll make ALL the Bullet of Bullets contenders drool!

    What the hell IS IT? That's the thing: Nobody's ever seen it yet. Nobody knows what it is.

    Going into a raid with a completely unknown boss is the work of insane people... the insane, or the top-tier pros. But there's no short supply of either in the badlands!

    "THERE! CHARGE!" Screams countless voices that begin appearing and gathering at the edge of the Glocken, hooting and hollering. Gunmen (and the occasional woman) of all shapes and sizes, outfits and armaments gather in squadrons and boast at one another. It's a hell of a ruckus, order kept only through the hard work of squad leaders. Everyone's after this thing - whatever it is - but only a few will win the true prize today.

    "Come on!" Thankfully, the Gatecrashers Union was waiting too, about a block away. The plan is quite simple! Buy Reker time to set a field of explosives and lure the boss straight into them for MASSIVE DAMAGE. Maybe even a one-hit-KO! Then get all the loot for the Gatecrashers Union.

    You've only got to keep about a hundred other players from getting there first.

    Easy, right?

HK-47 (754) has posed:
He does not understand why the superior form and build of droids is not allowed here - the oppressive prejudice of meatbags never ceased to amaze him. But he is here now... and it is time to relax, doing the best approximation of his favorite pastime that he can do in this order-dependent multiverse; flawlessly-executed murder. His avatar takes shape, and in spite of his dislike for the design, he cannot help but take some pride in what he accomplished.

@emit His simulated flesh-based body, coded with the username is roughly 5'10 and dressed in all-black fabric clothes, with rust-red combat boots and matching rust-red armor-plates at the shins, chest, forearms and shoulders. A series of mesh plates colored brick-red line his thighs, biceps and abdomen for lesser protection, but they are nothing a Kagemitsu G4 or the like couldn't cut - however, HK could have never afforded to plate his whole body in the armor. The head is obscured by a full rust-red metal helmet-mask with a slightly angular design and a triangular grate at the front, making it seem like a steel rendition of a tribal mask with two red lenses for eyes. A black cloak and hood is worn - a Metamaterial Optical Camouflage cloak that cost him everything but his last hundred credits. Clipped to his belt is a small satchel for equipment and the sheath for the two spare bayonets, as well as the holster for the secondary gun.
@emit HK takes a look around at his surroundings, drawing similarities to the deserts he had been in before, checking all passerby for signs of his first target.

Iria (215) has posed:
    Desolate land, almost like a wasteland. When you're a bounty hunter like Iria, you go just about to any lengths to catch your bounty. Meaning that a place like this is no surprise for a girl like her. But the fact she's encountering it in this online game makes it seem a little more different. Namely because instead of hunting a bounty, she's trying to reach the target alongside her allies and then take it down.

    "These games never cease to impress me with how crazy these challenges are. But I personally enjoy a little challenge in my life!" Iria says with a smirk as she checks to make sure her gun is at her side. She looks to the others and says, "We're gonna find that boss and kick it's ass so hard it'll be deleted!" Maybe not THAT hard, but Iria can exaggerate a little when she's motivating her allies, right?

HK-47 (754) has posed:
HK-47 Once more, HK-47 feels excitement build in his circuits. Even if the kills are false, the achievement - the thrill of outwitting and downing his adversaries - never awaits.

"Advisory - All meatbags in my way, abate in your efforts or prepare to die."

Karian Icefang has posed:
    Karian wasn't going to miss this for anything. It'd been too long sinse he got into a good raiding group, let alone was able to cut loose some. So, he set his big LMG up where he had a good field of view and fire. He then took a knee and waited for the enemy to walk in, and get introduced to how swiss cheese got made.

Sinon (649) has posed:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTb_5oPqCys
    Theme from 'Airwolf'

    The lightning flashes, and the people come. The Gatecrashers are among the people here, but there's a difference between the ground pounders and the high risers... and there's a difference between the people here for the main event and those who are here to see the sights... and see things THOUGH their sights.

    Sinon doesn't think she'll ever need anything more than the <<PGM Ultima Ratio Hecate II>>. Whatever weapon this boss drops, it doesn't interest her anywhere near as much as the people competing for it.

    Her eyes are illuminated by the lightning strike as she perches in a ruined tower, high and far away from the world, observing.

    Just watching.
    Just waiting.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Kanokon glances out around the corner of a convenient building, getting a rough initial estimate of how many other players are heading for the boss and how long it'll take them to get into range. She's outfitted much as she was for her Battle of Bullets match with Tomoe, a snug-fitting armored bodysuit with a tactical vest over it - a vest which provides some very useful extra carrying space for, say, extra ammo clips and some grenades.

She's getting one of those grenades ready now, in fact - pulling the pin but holding the spoon in place, and glancing out carefully again to see how close the players are getting. Besides the grenades, she's also got a pair of handguns (and plenty of ammo for them ... well, hopefully plenty.)

Reker (631) has posed:
    For the past several weeks, ever since this boss was announced, Reker has been working tirelessly on building stuff. Using the in-game crafing system, he has maxed out his Explosives skill, and has crafted a rather impressive collection of party favors. All of them are in his inventory, ready to go when the time is right. The problem, it seems, will be getting them all set up and getting the boss to come to where they are set up, especially with this many players around.

    At the moment he's checking the inventory on his truck, which is where the majority of the explosives are stored, "Okay. Looks like everything's here...I think I have enough time to build one more.." He pulls open his menu and swipes down to crafting, setting up to build another 155 IED. These things pack the biggest punch but it should be ready when he needs it, "So guys." He says, looking over at the Gatecrashers, "We all know the plan, right?"

HK-47 (754) has posed:
HK-47 He sets up shop, so to speak, in a nearby underhand of stone and rock formations, breaking off from the mob and moving to a flanking position as they run past, so that each shot will either spear multiple enemies from the side or behind when he pulls the trigger. He starts off activating the function of his cloak as he aims his rifle.

The rifle itself is nothing inordinately special, although it is equipped with advanced recoil and range. He could have sported for the silencer, but his resources were drained on the cloak.

Besides... he liked the sound and the kickback of his shots - the whistle as they soared through the air, meeting with flesh and bone in a crescendo of finely-executed precision.

Yes... he liked this world very much. And he reaffirms it by picking out a random straggler - arrogant and foolhardy - and pulling the trigger.

"Excited Statement - Time to get to work."

Amalthea (395) has posed:
    Amid the raiders NOT with the Gatecrashers might be an odd sight. Other than the immense weight of the heavy black ballistic shield, the FRENCH MAID is -completely- out of place amid all the men in fatigues, women in bikini armor, and various soldiery looking hunters out in the wastelands. Still, it looks like Amalie is here already, a sweet smile on her face as she serves DIGITAL TEA to members of a random party, while waiting for the action to start and the bullets to go flying.
    With the boss on direct approach, Amalie seems entirely unconcerned as she hands another man a steaming cup of tea from her inventory, before she hears over her radio that the Gatecrashers are here for the prize.
    As the man lowers his teacup with a 'Hey not bad, thanks!' to the maid, he's met staring down the barrel of a Heckler and Koch USP .45 aimed right between his eyes.
    "I'm glad you enjoyed it." Amalie replies as sweet as sugar before putting a bullet in his head. The resultant gunfire draws instant attention as she snaps her aim to double-tap the next member of the group to the center of mass, whirling to bring her shield up in a vicious slam it with bone-shattering force into the next party mate as she kneecaps the next and proceeds to crush the throat of another with fatal force.
    Within the span of 2.5 seconds an entire party on the Raid roster goes dark, listed as Killed in Action until they respawn later and too far to be of any help.
    A dusty wind blows as Amalie smiles at the next group nearby and slides a fresh magazine into her pistol with an eerie and mechanical menace as she starts to whistle.
    "Time to clean house again, I suppose~."

Asuna (9) has posed:
Speaking of swordsladies...

and not Amalie...

Asuna is, of course, a part of the Gatecrashers. Today, however, she is also working on infiltration. Her infiltration, however, is distraction. No one else can deny that in a red and white outfit, she is the Gun Gale Online version of teh Knights of the Blood officer she once was, with the design similiar to her undine form from ALO. Asuna has a sense of humor, the game has a sense of humor.

"So if everyone goes this way and loops around, you'll be able to avoid the crowds..."

Staren has posed:
    Staren is here, too!

    While he spent a lot of time in GGO atr the beginning of the year, he hasn't been playing it much lately. He's had trouble finding an effective build for PVP. A pistol is nice but it's not really devastating, you know?

    Still, there's an obvious thing he can do right now, at least: Look for groups of people, any foes bunched up, and throw grenades at them, while using smoke grenades to set up cover.

Tomoe has posed:
Eisen was here again in the wastelands near SBC Glocken, she was a bit on edge about what was going on. She ahs no idea what it is, she was thinking about a blind world boss raid? She knew you don't go in first you wtch the other guys attempt to run first screaming thier names like an infamous Paladin of yester year. That's how you do it.

She blows a stranfd of red hair out of one eye and looks to the gathering party she makes sure to start wrangling people for insight and she grins over at Kankon with a bit of a amused look. She also takes note of Reker, and she sees what he's doing.

"I Think I know the basics we lure it into explosives right?"

Kirito has posed:
    Observers like XIAOMU and SINON won't find it hard to figure out that there's enough players here to fill Glocken's main street for two blocks. A LOT. Many squadrons - there's definitely more than one Guild here. Probably 3 full raid groups, and that is saying something.

    Rather, they DID fill two blocks worth of streets. NOW it's an onrushing mob, a horde like no other Gun Gale Online has ever seen.

    And they're rushing... apparently... into their demise.

    Yes, DEMISE.

    HK-47 will learn exactly why some despise the Real Money Trading aspect of GGO, since his rather badass stealth setup lets him peg avatar after avatar. Well-placed shots to vitals - especially the head - from his rifle are enough to cut through even a pro player's health, after all! "No way!" States one straggler as he topples, bursting into colorful shards of light that quickly fade away... and leaving behind a handful of minor gear.

    Amalie has similar luck! In fact she's being doted, fawned over, asked out, and even (maaaaaybe jokingly) proposed to by a crowd that's looking at her favored squad with UNQUENCHABLE JEALOUSY.

    And then she kills them all. "Hey what--" Startled, disbelieving shouts echo everywhere from over a dozen voices as the air's filled with even more shattered avatar lights.

    STAREN and XIAOMU have the right idea! Grenades from hiding places into hordes are the best tactic one can use in a situation like this. Unfortunately they're not always fatal to EVERYONE, but they throw groups into chaos and kick up obscuring dust clouds to further confuse things!

    Meanwhile, nearby Asuna has two squadrons following her lead... a shining star like her can't be wrong, right?

    IN THE DISTANCE, the dust cloud gets closer and closer. The lightning crackling and sizzling's now close enough that every discharge brings a peal of rolling thunder! And a sound, faint, can be not only heard... but FELT.

    WHUGWHUGWHUG-WHUGWHUGWHUG-WHUGWHUGWHUG-WHUGWHUGWHUG-WHUGWHUGWHUG!

    It's not quite going in the direction Reker hopes. The path is slightly zigzaggy as it avoids some giant rock outcroppings...

HK-47 (754) has posed:
HK-47 He seeks out his targets with methodical precision from the protection of his cloak... and after a moment of methodical calculation, he pulls the trigger, shouldering the kickback of his gun as the round soars through the back of a target, downing him and the two directly in front of him as the sniper round travels through their chests, having interrupted what was apparently their 'group planning phase.' The next shot takes down one with a clean head-shot, and the one after downs the final member through his heart.

"Observation - Optimal Accuracy Ratio Achieved."

Sinon (649) has posed:
If I so chose, Sinon thinks. I could take out so many people.

    She is... finding it easier to recognize certain people. Kirito is there, standing out to her like a razor blade amongst shivs. Asuna, likewise, is a flash of flickering red-orange flame in the smoke and dust.

    But that's not all. She recognizes Reker, and it's impossible not to notice the dervish of destruction that is Amalie. There's that unmistakeable Eisen. She even recognizes Kanokon from a previous encounter.

    These people are becoming more than just targets to Sinon now; they're memories and important offers and values, and she's not sure how that makes her feel - well, for a while anyway.

    The Hecate II takes a shot.

    It blows through the head not of Asuna the Flash, but one of her persuers. Yes, that feels correct. Now, time to move position.

    As she picks up her weapon, Sinon considers the possibility lightning may strike the tower she's on.

    <<So, are you having fun?>> she asks Kirito, via private voicechat. <<It seems like a lot of your friends are here.>>

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Of course Kanokon isn't going to depend ENTIRELY on grenades to thin out the player horde; that's just to whittle away some excess HP and throw a carefully-organized formation into a ragged and tattered cluster of hurt-and-confused players.

Finishing them off is what her pistols are for - and as soon as she starts seeing players stagger into view from the mouth of the alley, she draws her handguns and dives out, opening fire with a seemingly bloodthirsty glee and a similarly-seeming disregard for lines of fire other than her own.

She's not THAT crazy, though; every roll, dodge, and flourish is meant to carry her body out of other players' lines of fire while exposing them to bullets from her handguns. One handgun clicks empty; she ejects the empty clip, catches it with her foot, and kicks it at another player's face before following with the last bullet from her OTHER handgun. Then she reloads while players are freaking out about explosive magazine-grenades, and makes her way to the next hidey-hole she'd picked out, covering her escape into it with another grenade.

"Heheheheheheheheheh ..."

Karian Icefang has posed:
    "Looks like it's time to get started." Karian says, voice dropping into a rougher tone. It seemed that Amalthia's roleplaying actually interested him enough to start doing it. So, his big LMG roared to life with deadly accuracy for a spraying weapon. Members of the opposing raid would find that if they tried to poke out from cover, a stream of lead was directed at them, and those running to cover got chased. Any who were too slow to move, they got taken down. "Sorry, kids.....Wrong place, Wrong time."

Iria (215) has posed:
    When Kanokon goes in for the attack with her pistol, Iria decides to follow her lead as well. "Ya-ha-ha!" She cries out, going in with her gun firing. "This is better than target practice any day!" She says as she opens fire on the targets, all while a big grin forms on her face. "This is gonna be fun!"

Staren has posed:
     Grenades are a good start indeed! As the crowd thins out, Staren switches to flashbangs to blind less-tightly-packed groups for the Gatecrashers to take out. When he's discovered, he has a chance to use his pistol, the trusty SIG-SAUER P229 that Tomoe got him for Christmas. He's pretty good with it at close range, but in a situation like this, there are probably a lot of other people that are 'pretty good' too. And it's just no help against someone wearing heavy armor unless he can score a headshot, which is harder. He's used to recoilless energy weapons with smartlinks, or using robotic armor to carry overwhelming firepower. Neither strategy is really viable here. He may need to find something new.

    If he's confronted by any heavily armored types, he'll just have to run and try to catch them in a grenade or crossfire.

Reker (631) has posed:
    "Son of a bitch that's big." Reker mutters to himself as he looks across at where the massive monstrosity is approaching.

    While everyone else from the Gatecrashers has been causing panic, running roughshod over the other Squadrons and generally making a nusance of themselves, Reker has been driving back and forth, creating a veritable minefield which he needs to lure the boss into. The detonator is nearby, on a rocky outcropping, camoflaged at the moment, but the boss isn't headed the right way.

5t"This is a terrible idea." He mutters to himself, as he finishes planting the very last 155 artilery shells hooked up to his explosive rube goldberg machine. Now that the trap is fully set, he just needs to get the boss' attention.

    He summons his truck back up from the realm of digital nothingness, and begins to drive TOWARDS The thunderous sounds eminating from the distance. He throws a block of C-4 onto the hood of the vehicle after kicking out the winshield, and mutters to himself about bad ideas.

Amalthea (395) has posed:
    "Oh non non non, I'm sorry, but I am a taken girl~." For all the doting and proposals, Amalie had been taking it like a blushing and coy maid. Up until she turned into an unstoppable murder machine and utterly wiped out her first party.    Pip pip.

    >>> AMALIE HAS LEFT THE RAID GROUP.

    With this sudden announcement, and the maid's name stricken from the roster, no doubt further adding to the confusion and outrage.
    "Hold this for me please?"
    She simply hands a confused player a claymore mine before GRABBING HIM, using her overwhelming STR stat to hold him facing another group as she holds up the detonator and thumps the button, blowing it outwards in a conic hail of shrapnel and death, STILL holding her hapless victim as a human shield for when the return fire inevitably starts. Meanwhile...

    KIRITO YOU HAVE A MESSAGE!

    PIP PIP!

    AMALIE WOULD LIKE TO JOIN THE GROUP!

Asuna (9) has posed:
"It's not moving right. Okay, y'all need to go, now, now, now. I'm going to get up high and see if I can get a clear view on this thing, alright?"

Asuna phrases it like a question. It's not a question. She is well used to figuring that they're going to follow her orders, as she holsters her gun and heads towards a recent outcropping of what looks like ruined metal, aiming to use it as a visual sight spot. When the group has rounded a corner, Asuna idly tosses a flashbang behind them, probably scaring the crap out of them.

Asuna shoots a thumbs up in the air for the nice shot of one of her guys briefly. It's weird. Only Sinon will get it.

Tomoe has posed:
Eisen sees just how crazy things are getting at this point, yes they just had a freaking mob, she watches everyone moving in she watches the set up notices someone is also sniping other players. She takes notes of this and wonders if their favourite battle maid is somewhere in the mix. There's no real time to worry about things at this point. She's keeping to reker het shotgun ready at this point.

"Eh could be worse right? This is a game so sometimes things that shouldn't work do."

She's keeping watch for the moment and has planet a few charges of her own, she also seems to be eager for this whole mess.

"Man we're going to get some major hits from the FRAPS of this while battle, right?"

She wanted to be in on the PVP but well she can hold of there will be other chances right?

Meanwhile in that computer room somewhere.

"So they are here?"

"Yes Subject Gamma is with them as well."

"Good this should be a good test."

"It will be, we just need to find one and this entire project is paid for in spades."

"I know, is the AI scripts loaded?"

"Yes, so we just need to sit back and watch."

Kirito has posed:
    Everyone's efforts are thinning the crowd. A hail of bullets, a cloud of smoke, dust, and glittering voxels, thunderous noises on the horizon and everyone screaming at once amidst the biggest gamer adrenaline rush since the last BoB is a recipe for the thickest CHAOS SOUP imaginable.

    Behind the rock he's hiding behind, keeping an eye on the progress of everyone (SOMEONE has to do that...), Kirito grins. He can only imagine what it would be like to be on the other guys' team right now.

    Idly, he approves Amalie's request with a press of a finger into the air. But it's Sinon's sudden message that catches him by surprise!
    <"We've got some plans of our own."> Comes his confident answer. <"You'll see pretty soon!"> Yup. heeee's having fun. The boy's tone is full of it. IN fact he's trying hard to NOT get overboard with the feeling of triumph that's bubbling up so far. <"Help us screw over the raid group and get a share of the loot?"> ... Okay now he's just getting cocky. But he sounds so sincerely trusting, as if certain that Sinon won't just peg him in the back of the head or something. He doesn't even know where she is, really!

    KANOKON has little trouble evading hails of bullets. After the first few seconds, a few of the better players caught on and started shooting back, shouting orders to each other - and got silenced by FLYING EMPTY MAGAZINES TO THE FACE! She makes her way into safety, but a half-dozen players are now angrily scouring the area and taking cover... except in comes Iria, pelting some of them before they can do so. She takes fire from energy bolts though!

    Another group runs afoul of KARIAN, who opens fire with the last thing anyone was expecting on a PvE Mission: HORDES of bullets. Down goes the front wave and others trip over them, causing a good fifteen players to stumble before five of them burst into colorful fragments. "What the hell, guy! You can't have that all to yourself!"

    The remaining ten get their weapons and start shooting with... energy weapons. Which are easily shielded against.

    STAREN's flashbangs are an effective strategy against such tightly-packed groups. He leaves ten players blinded and scurrying around, yowling and easy prey.

    HKiller47 will find that his stealthy cloak is completely overkill here. The group leader is DOWN and the rest of the group starts scattering into cover, yelling curse words!

    ASUNA has siilar results. Nobody's expecting a traitor like that, and a flashbang to the everything gets them all screaming. "BLINDNESS! I can't see! Who's got the recovery items--" Yeah, it's chaos.

    AMALIE finds one stupefied player easy prey, and decimates half a squad! Her opponents, however... start falling back. What few of them are left.

    By now at least half of the assembled raid group members are KO'd and in the middle of a respawn timer. What's left of the horde that isn't on the front line of all this chaos is pulling back towards the Glocken, howling a hundred curses to what few of their assailants they can see.

    It's about this time that Reker, fastest moving one on the battlefield, gets sight of the boss. The first thing to clear the dust cloud is a GIANT LEG with a footprint the size of his vehicle. It ain't the only one. There's three or four visible depending on the dust. he'll also catch sight of SHARP MANDIBLE-like extensions arranged like a grinder in the front, and an eerie blue glow shining through the dust cloud.

    And then he comes under fire from a hailstorm of energy bolts.

    Turning around might be smart.

HK-47 (754) has posed:
HK-47 looks across the field as he sees that player lineup is thinning - the fodder wearing away to reveal the true query. The skilled veterans.

Then he sees the truck heading straight toward the impressively massive boss-type enemy, taking note of the explosives... and an idea pours into his mind. Re-Adjusting his aim, he points his rifle toward the truck, picking out the key targets - fuel tank and the bomb up front - as he lines up the shot, intending to down both a ranking player and the beast to claim the credit for the kill, waiting until the truck to get as close as possible... and pulling the trigger.

Karian Icefang has posed:
    Karian smirks softly as so many fall to his burst fire. As for the energy weapon fire coming at him, he does shield up. Though what he does next might be a surprise. He stows his LMG and takes off running. He darts towards the group, and at the last second drops to a slide, drawing a pair of high power pistols. He opens up on the remaining 10 enemy players, before moving close to amalie. "Amalie....how about we show them a little bit of...bangkok rules, sans the can?" He asks, a grin emerging into an evil smile. He hoped the maid would remember their past match, and the true badassery they demonstrated...and join him in the gunshow.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Kanokon finishes reloading her handguns again, glancing out once more to see that the survivors from outside the Gatecrashers are fleeing back to the safety of the city ...

And then she glances the OTHER way to see a kaiju-scale leg through the swirling dust and smoke. She looks up as well, glancing briefly at her handguns - and ducking BACK into the alley to eject those clips and load some heavier ammunition. Say, something armor-piercing, maybe with explosive tips or the like for good measure. Standard anti-personnel don't just seem like they're gonna cut it here.

Once she's finished with that, she moves back out to form up with her allies. "Somehow I don't think Plan A is gonna bag us the big boss ..."

Sinon (649) has posed:
    Sinon considers this for a moment; Kirito's offer. There's something intense about the boy, even though his words are joyful... a magnetism that Sinon doesn't even know she's being pulled up in.

    She recognizes people. They've offered to be her friends.

    She can't swallow the lump in her throat that this causes, the feeling- the fear, almost, that Sinon is betraying something essential.

    But on the other hand, when was the last time she had fun for a day?

    <"...I'll accept that offer,">> Sinon declares.

    She's agreed, and so a shudder goes through her from top to bottom- but she isn't paying attention to it, really. Shino Asada can sort out her feelings later.

    She's moving up the staircase, corkscrewing, preparing to snipe the enemies of the Gatecrashers and daring the lightning to challenge her.

    It feels so interesting to take a taste of a different purpose.

Amalthea (395) has posed:
    With half the squad annihilated... Amalie is not satisfied. As Karian comes SLIDING on over, the eyepatch wearing maid flashes quite the devious grin.
    "The perfect maid never leaves a job half done." She replies before pulling a grenade from her satchel, and pulls the pin.
    She proceeds to shove it into her human shield's pocket and KICKS him to follow the runners, with a cheerful wave.
    With that accomplished, she unholsters her USP again, back to back with Karian now, covering his back with her ballistic shield as she starts pot-shotting any remnants.
    "Let's sweep the rest of them under the rug and help out with the boss after, yeah~?"

Iria (215) has posed:
    Iria grins a little as she finds her backup is working, only to be hit by a few energy bolts, knocking her back a little. "Dammit, I got ahead of myself again," She says with a sour frown as she reloads her gun. "Who else is there? Huh?" Unfortunately, Iria may not want to have an answer to that question just yet. Because that huge thing is really getting her on edge. "Damn, and I thought Zeiram was bad!" She says, following Kanokon into the alley and checking her weapons to see if she has anything more powerful. Unfortunately, she doesn't have that liberty, unless you count the rifle she's got.

    "More powerful than my pea shooter," Iria thinks as she loads a clip. "Hopefully it can at least leave a mark!" She pops out and fires a few shots, hoping that it can at least do some damage.

Staren has posed:
    Concerns about his lack of a good build matter less as there are fewer opponents... well, he's managed to survive, at least, and sow chaos the whole time! Really, dodging bullets is easy when they add /lines/ that show where they're going to go...

    And now the boss is here. Some kind of giant robot? He draws his laser pistol and fires several shots into the dust, then decides that maybe it would be better to find a better vantage point instead! So he starts making his way up the stairs of the building he's in, trying to get higher than the top of that dust cloud... so he'll be in a good vantage point when it finally clears. And maybe out of the range of any melee attacks it has.

Asuna (9) has posed:
Asuna pings Kirito as she notes a name join the group. "<<Who in the world?>>" She asks in private.

Her own group down, Asuna finishes scaling what she is scaling, trying to play spotter with the boss. She inhales sharply, noting the legs. Dear lord, what is it? Are they fighting an AT-AT? She throws herself to the ground after lobbing another grenade at a nearby group, flattening herself to it to make herself a near invisible target. She likes being high up, it allows her better sight, so she's trying not to leave.

Tomoe has posed:
So everythihng semes to be going all right all things considered. She looks about uneasy she is keeping an eye out for trouble. She knows someone's been sniping people and suspects it's a squadron trying to vulture the raid boss kill or just a grifer. She also take ssite of the boss and she looks at the huge thing it's feet are nearly as big as the ride.

"umm Renker...!!"

She hears the gun shot and is already moving to bail fromt eh high speed moving she leaps calls out.

"SNIPER!"

She's gong after them she has no idea where the sniper is. The red headed and body suit clad woman however is fast, in this world on par with somer things HK's likely seen force users or some high speed combat droids pull off. Sither way she's seemingl tyring to make for hte source of the shot before the sniper can ... move.

Reker (631) has posed:
    Turning around is not Reker's plan, Reker is all ready to go for his plan. Which means he's gotta throw himself at the big boss to get it's attention. Unfortunately for him, he's managed to get the attention of one of the other players. Reker spots the bullet line pointing at the explosives on his hood, and decides that if he's making bad decisions, he may as well keep making them. He guns the engine and speeds up, the round entering the door of the truck and hitting him in the side, but not blowing it up. Thankfully that part comes later.

    Now bear in mind that the truck is pretty much a throw away. Reker can respawn a new one when it gets destroyed for a bit of in-game cash. So spotting a rocky outcropping, he aims for it, and then dives out of the truck. The vehicle hits the outcrop and takes to the air, sailing right at the big battle fortress.

    The explosion will be minimal, compared to what awaits this thing, but Reker has the attention of it now. Those blasts are coming in hard and fast, but now that he's on foot he makes a much smaller target. He scrambles towards where the detonator for his explosive trap waits, managing to evade blasts whenever he can thanks to the wonders of the Bullet Line. He's surviving, if only just. This is a thing designed to be taken on by a massive group of players, and he's running from it solo.

    Ducking around a boulder a moment before a missile hits it, Reker climbs up to where he had placed the detonator and waits. It won't be long now. It's still coming after him, and it'll soon be in the perfect place. X marks the spot.

    The huge beast lumbers into the top of the X, and Reker pushes down on the detonator.

    The explosion that results probably rocks the Glocken to it's very foundation, and will most likely send players all around flying to the ground from the pressure wave that results from the massive blast. It's a huge fireball and what basically winds up amounting to a mushroom cloud rising up from the center point of the explosion. Reker just hopes he got the thing with that blast, because he doesn't have a lot left to deal with it if he didn't.

Kirito has posed:
    Indeed, STAREN. Firing shots from this far away results in nothing at all happening. Too far out of range! The energy shots dwindle before they reach the boss.

    Video game physics.

    Lightning does INDEED strike the building that Sinon's on! ... it strikes the tallest spire. Were this reality Sinon might be in deep trouble but she only gets a slight jolt and loses a sliver of HP because of being too far from the point where it struck.

    ...Video game physics.

    AMALIE plants a grenade that leaves a hapless and hopelessly bewildered player flailing and panicking instead of doing the samrt thing like taking the grenade from his pocket. A few moments later...

    BOOOM!

    Whole bodies go flying through the air at weird angles and smack into buildings, shattering into sparkly lights.

    .....Yeeeeep. Video game physics.

    KANOKON is correct. Iria's peashooter doesn't seem to be having any effect on the legs. Either it's too far away or the armor is too tough.

    <"Your guess is as good as mine. She's a friend! Just.. kind of weird."> Kirito answers Asuna, but in the same motion whips around to spot what Reker's up to... and gawks.

    HUUUUUGE LEGS. And a very daring attempt by Reker. "Come on... just a bit closer...!!" Kirito's watching with grit teeth and also scouring through his friends list. Friends -> Sinon -> Invite to Group!

    Back in Glocken, there's a hell of a lot of chaos unfolding as raid guops attempt to reassemble, but it'll take them several minutes to get most of the reorganizing done with and adjust their plan for 'CRAZY GRIEFER AMBUSHES.'

    Then the dust cloud and those massive legs finally reach Reker's trap and--

    *BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!*

    Not only is there a mushroom cloud as MORE EXPLOSIVE POWER IS UNLEASHED NOW than possibly the entire last year of gameplay, but... the WHOLE GAME MOMENTARY LAGS. That's a rare thing on a Seed game. But for one brief moment it feels like time skips a heartbeat. And...

    Whatever that thing is? It gets sent SKYHIGH. A massive metal monstrosity with eight legs goes spinning skywards, easily hitting a mile high at UNTHINKABLE velocities. It -should- take close to half a minute for it to drop back down but that's not quite what happens. The machine eclipses the sun briefly, starts falling again...and...

    ...****ing VIDEO GAME PHYSICS! Reker just broke the physics engine.

    Anyone not bowled over by the FIRST shockwave probably will be by the SECOND one. But the machine's incredible charge has been halted. The sound of servos whining and metal grinding against metal is deafeningly loud, but the dust eventually settles when the machine lets loose billowing jets of steam from its joints!

    As for what it is...

    Easily half as tall as the ruined skyscraper Sinon's using for her antics, a spider-like thing towers high over the assembled group. Supported on eight gunmetal grey multi-jointed legs is an enormous rounded body with grinder-mandibles in the front-lower portion that approximates a head. Further up, a metal exoskeleton-shaped armor section splits open and retracts to show once again the blue glowing segment that, on close inspection, appears to have MOVEMENT going on in there... whatever it is.

    When the knees are position straight, they unveil rocket launcher tubes. Dozens of gun barrels on swivel mounts cover them like fine hairs.

    In a forgotten age of war, mankind engineered unthinkable automated and semi-automated weapons platforms. This is one of them.

    The boss' status window finally comes up now that it has entered attack mode.

    NAME: IRONCLAD THE ANCIENT ARACHNOID
    TYPE: MOBILE BUNKER

It has 12 health bars.

Ten and a half of them are empty.

Sinon (649) has posed:
    Sinon feels it.

    It's video game physics to be sure, but it's close to real life as possible, as you will all know... so she feels the electricity coursing through old metal and countless wires and the intricate, intensely detailed virtual building.

    She dared the environment to strike her, and it did so. Is that something she needs to take into consideration? Does Sinon believe in fate?

    She believes in getting a job done, that much is for sure. The thunderclap hitting the building blows dust cloud swirl away in a flash- always look for an upside in any bad situation. That'll help her look for the people the... huh, Gatecrashers, they're called? Need her to disaaaaaaaa

    Lag is something Asada Shino's never experienced before. The second of missing time is stunningly perverse.

    Almost as much as ...



Sinon mouths something silently, something about becoming death, destroyer of worlds...

    And as fire fills everything she sees, eyes filled with the vision of annihilation, Sinon-- reaches a hand out like a reflex to hold onto some rebar, her STR enhancing an iron grip, and she--

    Stands in the fire, braces the shockwave.

        This, too, shall pass.

    She slowly, silently lies down, utterly not paying the worldboss a single moment of attention. A bullet destroys the head of another player.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Fortunately(???) for Kanokon, it was the first shockwave - from the explosions actually going off - that sent her flying head-over-heels; you'd need to be a pretty beefy tank type to actually keep your footing through that, and since she's kind of the opposite of that build, yyyyyeah, she's not holding her ground against a blast like THAT. She's just thankful she wasn't any closer to ground zero.

On the plus side, being flat on her back gives her a reasonably good view of the event boss at the peak of its unintentional leap; she stays down, actually pressing herself against the ground so that the shockwave from landing (just because she's SURE there'll be one, realism be damned) won't send her flying even further. Once that happens, THEN she gets back to her feet and regains a combat-ready stance -

Only to start running like hell for one of the neaerby buildings as she spots KNEE-MOUNTED ROCKET LAUNCHERS. Oh, and she's already shooting at the boss again, trying to aim for said rocket launchers. If she can detonate some rockets IN the launchers, it'll reduce the amount of damage Ironclad can dish out, right? Not to mention reducing what's already left of its HP.

Karian Icefang has posed:
    Karian looks over at the explosion, marvelling for the moment. He then quickly moves behind the ballistics shield and grabs Amalie, trying to hold her in place, or if that fails take the brunt of the force. High strength builds help out much. Once the force passed, he marvelled again. Never had he experienced lag, and it reminded him of the warp powers of the sorcerors. Anyway, he swaps to his LMG again. Loading in what amounted to armor piercers, he took aim and cut loose at a leg joint.

Iria (215) has posed:
    Being small means you're easy to be bowled over. Unfortunately, Iria's acrobatic skills do little to help her. Meaning that once all is said and done, Iria can only look up and stare in disbelief. "Holy hell!" Iria yells, before following Kanokon's lead, running and firing occasionally herself. "If this isn't the new boss, then I'd hate to see what is!"

HK-47 (754) has posed:
HK-47 has rarely missed his target before, but at the moment he is more impressed by the enemy's tenacity then he is angry at the fact that his shot didn't hit it's mark. He also cannot help but hope that, if not HK himself, it's his wounded opponent that gets the kill so that HK can credit himself to taking him down by matter of 'food-chain law.'

Then he sees the oncoming fighter - red hair, purple body-suit - jump from his targeted vehicle after the initial shot and he doesn't bother trying to stick around, falling back on the protection of his cloak to make for the city.

His efforts however are stymied by the shockwave, and he is forced to take cover behind the outcroppings to keep from being blown away. r
% He is then nearly bowled over by not just the immense secondary-shockwave, but by the lag in the game, with his cover being the only thing that shields him. However, as a droid, his linkup to the game is far more stable then his organic counterparts, and he recovers fast enough to presumably continue his pullback toward the buildings.

He hadn't had a real chance to use his Jedi countermeasure tactics since coming to the Multiverse... and today seemed like a very good day to start.

Staren has posed:
    Since shooting it isn't working, Staren rushes to a closer building and hurries up the stairs, so that he has an excellent vantage point as Reker sets off ALL THE EXPLOSIVES. Instead of a literally ear-shattering boom, there's that... the sound of a bunch of overlapping explosives.

    And LAG. Kind of a surreal experience in a VRMMO, he can't recall ever encountering it. He gets up from where he fell, rushes to the window... the machine is gone? No... he looks up. What the...

    He's knocked over again.

    His ears should be ringing, if not his body outright pulverized by the shockwave, but... videogame physics. So, he aims his laser pistol down at the machine and just repeatedly fires, trying to chip off health.

Amalthea (395) has posed:
    With the Raid Party thoroughly handled, Amalie can change the focus of her attention. Just in time to see Reker's fireworks display at work. She's just barely in time to brace herself; slamming her ballistic shield to the ground and bracing behind it, putting both her STR AND Karian's to the test in a combined attempt to mitigate the pressure wave. She grits her teeth, her high STR stat is tested to the limits of holding on, while watching the metal monstrosity go FLYING and--
    Her game chokes with lag.
    When it clears and the slow motion passes, and the second shockwave hits, scowls and re-sets her grip. If not for her fellow heavy gunner helping out, chances are it would have launched her and her shield, and pulled Karian with her, end over end. But she withstands it. Even if holding out against the force caused her HP to steadily drain, when it finally ends, she wobbles to her feet and draws her MG-42. The old WWII era machinegun is lugged ONE HANDED as she braces the heavy weapon on the upper lip of her shield, tilting her head and holding Karian's gun up and steady by providing her shoulder as a firing platform as the aptly named Buzzsaw in her grasp starts unloading hundreds of rounds per second.
    She's going to help whittle that boss HP down for Reker.

Asuna (9) has posed:
"<She, huh?>" Asuna asks teasingly over her com to Kirito. "<Well, we take who we can, we're a group of misfits here in gatecrashers, so she must fit in well.>" Asuna laughs.

Then Reker sets the bombs off, and Asuna inhales sharply. she's already on the ground, and is promptly shook right across the metal plating, rolling around with a groan. When she's stopped shaking, she pauses.. and pauses. Huh. Lagged. That's unusual. Sort of... when she unlags, she takes a moment, then politely applauds. That was amazing. Reker should be honored.

Asuna then pops back up to her feet, and takes off towards the boss.

There is a blitz of white and red and chestnut brown. Asuna is in her battle inventory as she goes, pausing momentarily. There is a small line of grenades in her left hand, and as she nears the boss, she nips the pin out, and launches it at the boss... without stopping.

We can't stop here, it's /boss/ country.

Reker (631) has posed:
    "Hah! Suck it! You peice of scrap metal!" Too bad the thing soon comes screaming back to earth. And it's not dead, "Well fuck." Reker mutters to himself as the thing manages to survive the fall to earth after the massive explosion. He rubs the side of his head for a second and then tries to head for the rest of the Gatecrashers are, so they can put focus fire up onto this thing and finish taking out those last couple of health bars.

    As he comes skidding up next to Kirito and Asuna, he motions towards the boss, "Guys, take whatever explosives you have and aim for the joints on the legs. If we can take one of the legs out this thing'll go down like a rock."

    Reker then runs off from where Kirito and Asuna are to grab something else he had stashed before the fight started. Reker tries to always be prepared for these sorts of things.

Tomoe has posed:
Eisen does take note of the massive Arachnoid, it's like some kind od twisted super robot. It's the best way to think about it, the boss has had good chunck of health taken out in the opening attack by Renker but damn it had a hell of a lot more to worry about, she's also got that freaking sniper top deal with. She rebonds of what terrain there is as she tries to place just where the shot came from. She's got to find it she's not ecatly on the bottom of the food chain here. Shje's not really a jedi but she is moving like one in this world. She's calo caugh by the lag dor a second but she gets lucky. She now fires a few shotgun blasts where she thinks the sniper might be, he might still be recovering from the lag, right?

Kirito has posed:
    Small arms fire tends to bounce off IRONCLAD, doing very little damage indeed. A few slivers, barely visible, are the best one can get unless it's with some kind of Called Shot!

    In that regard, there are lots of targets. The individual turrets have plenty of weak points. Shooting them gets small explosions ripping through legs, pinging more health off.

    <"No denying that."> Kirito retorts, a bit chagrined upon thinking about it.

    But just a little.

    With Sinon pegging the occasional group leader who swings into view and forcing the distant groups to manuever through cover just to advance, the Gatecrashers have plenty of time for their assault.

    Occasionally someone gets unusually lucky and a bullet goes DOWN A BARREL of those hair-like turrets, shredding it from the inside-out for CRITICAL DAMAGE.

    In no time at all, the machine is down to just half a health bar left.

    With a squealing mechanical groan of protest the machine revvs up its locomotion and hurries over to the Skyscraper Sinon's at, slams those GRINDER-MANDIBLES against it and begins EATING THE SKYSCRAPER.

    The entire building shakes most unpleasantly.

    ANd with every turn of the grinders, small slivers of the health bar begin refilling.

    That's when it HUNKERS DOWN to expose all its knee joints to the sky. A barrage of mini-missiles - enough to massacre whole squads - flies up in zigzag criss-cross patterns, then arcs DOWN for the ground.

    Letting those hit is a really, REALLY bad idea.

    On the other hand, letting it keep healing itself is a sure lose too... this group is way too small for a prolonged encounter.

    Then a miracle happens.

    KANOKON's bullet strikes a missile as it's just existing the chute, setting it off in a glorious explosion. Twenty or so more explosions follow, the entire leg ripping off and the machine getting bowled over. The THIRD, BADLY TIMED WAVE OF MISSILES detonates into the ground, bringing the boss down to only an eighth of a health bar left... and it's on its back.

    It was not programmed for dealing with the assault it's been given, clearly. The AI decision-making is faltering.

    And a bunch of NPC gunmen - a variant of the Wasteland Outlaws - are now COMING OUT of the blue glowing slit that was in the thing's head, hopping down and running like hell.

    At this point, the machine's fate is sealed. Everyone's combined fire mulches down what's left of the healthbar in about twenty seconds of sustained fire and LOTS of ammo.

    With a final, colossal groan, IRONCLAD's body glows brightly then explodes into a massive burst of shimmery pixels!

    The entire Guild's windows start popping up with loot windows. There's an INORDINATE amount of Credits -including- gift certificates for the Real Money Trading. Rare crafting materials by the boatload. Plenty of rare small arms drops and a few rifles - all real bullet weapons.

    A certain someone might get something really special.

    The boss might be down, but now the real trouble's brewing. About two dozen players in very high-level gear and uniquely tailored appearances arrive by the twos and threes at the battlefield's outskirts, looking VERY unhappy.

Sinon (649) has posed:
    Mistakes were made.

    Sinon is in the unique position of standing directly in the path of the colossal Ironclad and being entirely unrelated to the actual conflict with Ironclad. That said, she's cold and collected and /smart/- so when the boss is bearing down on her she picks up Hecate and steps lively. The building shakes and she rattles and rolls!

    She's got to use that tower as a shield now- she scrambles, down a rusting railing, skidding and fleeing and now there's MISSILES and discretion is always the better part of valour--

    She's not scared.
    Sinon is never afraid. She's just going to make a tactical withdrawl.

Reker (631) has posed:
    GLOBAL ANNOUNCEMENT: REKER HAS FOUND <<"Devastator" HCAR>>

    Indeed, Reker has just gotten himself a new drop. And boy is it something spectacular. Of course first he has to worry about the missiles that are still coming in, but he manages to get behind another big pile of rocks and save himself from the explosions that are raining down. At least that's that, right?

    Now he probably just hast to fend off any pissed off players who might want to take their revenge on him gaming the system.

Karian Icefang has posed:
    Karian watches the Ironclad go up into pixels. It was...a satisfying sight. Sure he's taken out mobs before, but this was different. Then, the missiles are spotted. The 'old man' of the group moves quickly, diving behind some cover to shield himself, or at least mitigate any HP loss. Then, he spots the other players. "Figured this wouldn't be so easy.." He mutters to himself.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
As far as Kanokon's concerned, Reker is totally entitled to the rare drop - the minefield was his plan, and he took off so much of Ironclad's HP with it that everything else was basically finishing what he started. The cascade of loot windows is just icing on the cake - although the remaining swarms of missiles are an additional form of icing in that respect, and a much less appetizing version.

Kanokon's reaction to the missiles it's still raining is simple enough: run like hell into one of the buildings that's still intact enough to take some highly-explosive hits, deal with her loot window(s), and get ready to hightail it back to Glocken without going THROUGH the aggravated players who are starting to show up.

Asuna (9) has posed:
Asuna finishes the boss battle with a single trio of grenades in hand, and missiles coming after her.

Hey, this is hilariously familiar to her. Boss battles are fun like that. The lithe leader looks up at them, and considers her position... and then books it. Towards the rest of the other groups. She's fast - she's not called the flash for nothing, after all, and on her way, she's going for the rest of the battle groups... and their nearest cover, threatening them with a grenade on her way.

Is she trying to /bluff/ them?

Iria (215) has posed:
    Kanokon's got the right idea. Sometimes discretion is the better part of valor, even if that means retreating instead of going in for the kill. Iria follows after her, not worrying about loot right now. She's also concerned about those missiles, namely since the blast from one of them grazes her, sending her tumbling a little before she recovers. "Damn it, are they even playing by the rules?" Iria wonders aloud, referring to whoever created that boss.

Kirito has posed:
    MISSILES RAIN! ... And a few people shoot them, the rest take cover. Asuna distracts one of the groups with a grenade, blowing them out of their own cover and providing other targets for the missiles to go after.

    It's easy to catch them by surprise, because...

    The sudden announcement distracts ALL of the gathered players. Shock, awe, jealousy, and a myriad of other feelings are plainly visible on the faces of those, who, well...

    Those who aren't wearing masks. Or mummy wrappings. Or any number of odd fashions. It's an MMORPG and people like their distinctive appearances!

    There's even one dude in a brutal-looking lion costume. And behind him some dude in a black robe with a metal skull-like mask. Glowing red eyes. Creepy as it gets.

    But the first to speak is neither of those.

    It's instead a broad-shouldered muscular guy in a military getup and armored vest. He's unarmed but has a finely-chiseled face and thick blonde hair.

    "... Magnificent. You completely outfoxed the very best raid groups this game had to offer. Such brightly shining souls. You have all entered the BoB?"

    Nearby, a guy in a weird white, brown and green camo-pattern outfit - covering him from neck to toe - with a white full helmet that sports a green plate that's PRESUMABLY see-through on his end... stands tall, silent, judgemental.

    It's like a tinderbox, but there's no actual hostility here...

HK-47 (754) has posed:
The clouds of lingering dust work to the droid's advantage as, between it and his cloak, HK-47 is able to reach the first building - the first one in range that was left standing from the triad of blasts, that is, maneuvering into it to shelter himself from the explosions. From there, he stops in the earstwhile hope that his attacker is caught in the blast - or at least so distracted by it that she gets caught in the remaining missiles that are raining down as he hunkers and takes aim.

He knows that he must wait for the missiles to stop falling, and until then focuses on targets... and his eyes fall upon the Red-head.

His objective now basically the acquisition of items, with the boss-type enemy defeated... however, nothing was stopping him from cleaning out the enemy along the way, as he takes aim at the target's center of mass from his vantage point, bidding on the pseudo-Jedi to take just a few more seconds longer to reach him as he pulls the trigger.

Karian Icefang has posed:
    Karian narrows his eye as he rummages through his new rifle's stats. A Winchester rifle. Somehow he seemed to also get a few rounds for it too. He steps out from his rock, rifle resting on his shoulder. "I have. Why do you ask?" He replies, voice in his roleplayed rough state.

Tomoe has posed:
Eisen is now trying to keep in mind about the massive raid boss, while there's a sniper on the loose who might end up well ganking people working 2ith her. She didn't want to tiend that, the things massive HP bar and how much it's taking now? Shows just how effective Reker's stunt was wearing down a bar and a half of it's HP was.

She says a few things over the come but she now attempts something as Renker finds an item what the hek did he just pick up? She has no idea she's huntiung an actual Killing machine whose actually just taking a some time off to get training she would guess? The first sniper shot has gone, the lines are showing up now unfontantely for HK but it's fornate for Tomoe it manages to avoid it but where the hell is he? She tracks the shot and attemps to lob a grenade there, it won't do much she thinks but it could make the sniper move.

"Damn it who is this guy?"

Staren has posed:
    They finish it by everyone shooting it. It was only a matter of time.

    Staren sees a notification about loot pop up, but there are people coming for... revenge? That's not quite the right word. He hurries to the ground floor. The missiles rain down at the top of the building, fortunately.

    As he peeks out at the approaching crowd, he stops and decides to see what new item appeared in his inventory:

HK MP7

    Okay, he can use that. He rezzes it and holds it, but... Man, he sees no point in fighting all of them either. He runs, deciding not to wait for the part where this ends in everyone trying to gank a now weakened-and-worn-down raid group.

    It just wouldn't do to defeat what apparently was meant to be the hardest boss in the game only to get ganked by punks afterwards, right?

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
It doesn't sound like a whole lot of actual combat is ensuing with the aggravated bunch of players, does it?

The quiet - or rather, the sound of conversation via WORDS instead of via high-caliber munitions - is enough to draw Kanokon back out of her hidey-hole, her reddish-brown gaze sweeping over the non-Gatecrasher players. There's something about skull-mask dude that makes Kanokon feel twitchy, but he's not doing anything hostile ... and the guy who praises the Gatecrashers sounsd downright friendly, although his mention of 'souls' seems out of place in a few ways.

Kanokon makes sure the grenade she had in hand isn't going to lose its pin by accident or mishap, returns it to her vest, and sidles back out into view, folding her arms casually over her chest.

(Which just happens to mean she won't have to reach very far if she needs to draw down on anyone. Juuuuuuuust in case, y'know.)

Iria (215) has posed:
    Iria holsters her gun and follows Kanokon out, also watching carefully. She too has her arms folded, although there's also a sharp scowl on her face. Seems somewhat normal for Iria, but in this case she's really feeling suspicious about this whole thing. She doesn't need to keep a hand near her holster, since she's a great quick draw she'll have you know. For now, she's just listening and hoping that there's nothing to be afraid of.

Reker (631) has posed:
    Well nobody is shooting anybody yet, that's a good sign. Unfortunately who knows how long that'll last. Reker recognizes a bunch of them from the BoB last year. Not all of them, but most of them. Reker frowns as he looks at the group, "We beat you guys fair and square. You'll just have to suck it up and deal with that fact." Reker says, mostly looking at the guy who's talking.

    That's when he pulls the Devastator out. It's a big weapon by even GGO standards, heavy looking and Reker hmms a bit, as he pulls the magazine out of the weapon and swaps in a new one, switching the weapon over to explosive rounds, indicated by the orangeish glow around the muzzle, "Neat."

Kirito has posed:
    "That is how it works. Being a sore loser is for children." States the man whom a few might recognize as SUBTILIZER, first winner of the Bullet of Bullets tournament... using nothing but a knife and handgun.

    By now, Kirito's rejoined the group. He hasn't done much fighting beyond shoot down some missiles and coordinate efforts because SOMEONE has to keep track of all this.

    "You. Beat them. In one show... of... power." Echoes a thick, murky, almost tinny voice from the red-eyed stranger in the robe. The stunted japanese is more than a little unnerving, to say nothing of those red eyes.

    What follows is just plain bone-chilling.

    He slowly and smoothly draws out a black pistol. A type 54 'Black Star' to anyone who really knows guns - it's of chinese make. It's held across his chest in a hand thickly wrapped with bandages. Yet it's not brandished at one, just held at the diagonal...

    With his other hand, the strange man makes a strange gesture. A strike of his hand vertically, a strike of his hand horizontally... forming a cross?

    THEN he fires after slightly re-angling the gun to point at the man in front of him's shoulder.

    That being, the guy in the lion suit.

    BANG!

    Felidae Z staggers forward, health dropping only slightly. "You're paying for THAT, RIGHT NOW!"

    The cloaked man hops back, almost gliding on the ground to dodge a BACKHAND. Meanwhile, all the others have turned to watch the freakish event.

    Because although Felidae Z goes for his weapon... the arm never reaches it. His whole body seizes up briefly, going straight and rigid with shock. In the next moments he's toppling over, both hands clutching at his heart. "He...lp..."

    And again that tinny, doomspeaking voice comes forth, along with a jet of steam from the skull mask. "Judgement. is. passed! This is power. The power. To. KILL! Know the name of this gun, whose name I share. DEATH GUN! This is only. The. BEGINNING."

    And then he leaps back, yelling, "IT'S SHOWTIME!"

    If anyone's wondering what just happened? It is actually very confusing.

    Felidae Z's still on the ground, going nowhere. A link-dead icon's blinking by their health bar... common for soul-less logouts in the field. Also happens to people who suffered an AmuSphere disconnect.

    But by now?

    All the gathered top-notch fighters are roaring in outrage and confusion and giving chase to the cloaked man, who's dashing as if his sprinting level is -really- up there...

Karian Icefang has posed:
    In that moment, anyone who knows Karian knows what's about to happen. The old man EXPLODES after Death Gun, screaming a litany of curses. "Damned Coward! Get back here!!!" He roars out, bordering on his own version of insanity. It was one thing to hear what his gun can do, but the warrior behind the avatar found nothing to respect. He takes aim and fires with his rifle when he can at Death Gun, but come hell or high water, the Wolf Lord was bringing him down.

HK-47 (754) has posed:
In spite of himself, HK-47 - or HKiller47 as he was identified as here - could not help but feel elation creep through him as he sees the red-eyed man down his target in a grandiose show of both precision and showmanship, ignoring the pointless flood of curses directed at the self-identified avatar 'DEATH GUN.' After all, the link going dead like that did not seem to be a coincidence... yet it had not reduced the enemy to Zero.

A puzzle that he would enjoy figuring out... when he had the chance. In fact, the only thing that took precedence over this interesting event is the Red-head moving to lob a grenade. A sight that, if he'd had a mouth - a real one, and not the virtually-generated one beneath his avatar's helm - he would be smiling at right now.

"Advisory - Die."

With that, he aims for the oncoming grenade as it's thrown, his 'Bullet-Line' zeroing in on the object and piercing it with a single round, eagerly awaiting to see if the premature detonation has succeeded in terminating his enemy.

Reker (631) has posed:
    "The fuck?!" That would be Reker's reaction to whatever just happened. And then it dawns on him, after the comments. That's the guy. Death Gun. The one who's been killing players. And he just killed another. Reker feels anger welling up inside of him, as he dashes after Death Gun.

    Reker doesn't get the Showtime comment. He's not an SAO survivor. But that doesn't matter, because Death Gun is still right there. They have to catch him. Reker swaps ammunition on his rifle again, the muzzle glowing blue, as he raises the weapon to his shoulder and fires a burst. Stun rounds, designed to bring targets down non-lethally. Even one can usually be enough to drop all but the most heavily armored targets. He just hopes he can hit Death Gun with the guy bounding around like a mad-man.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
"You son of a bitch!!" Kanokon yells as she sees Felidae Z getting murdered - REALLY murdered from all appearances. She explodes into a run, yelling even louder, "/HIGH SPEED KANOKON/!!!"

And then she REALLY pours on the speed, demonstrating the Sprinting and Acrobatics skills that have served her so well in normal combat - and she's even parkouring over slower individuals if she has to, but she is *NOT* going to relent in her chase as long as she can move and the guy in the mask is ahead of her. 'Greased lightning' is one good description for her, and she moves like the 'greased' part is almost literal ...

Iria (215) has posed:
    Iria's also rather swift on her feet as well, just like in real life. And unfortunately, when that Felidae Z gets taken down, Iria's really peeved too. She grits her teeth and her scowl deepens, indicating that unlike before, she really is angry now. She takes off behind Xiaomu, fists clenched, ready to assist Xiaomu in whatever comes next.

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe is trying to keep the sniper busy, she really is however there's something else going on now which has got her attrition she breaks off from the fight with HK-47. This is what saves her from going up with the grenade he sniped. She's too busy moving ahead to realize just how close it was and ducking to cover.

What made her break off? There was something going on with the main raid so to speak. She tied them up long enough or so she hopes right? She might pay for it however, but for now she catches just in time to see a player shot and start to seem to go down in a way that isn't /normal/ then it hits her.

She hears the phrase It's Showtime just after she calls out something on the radio channel. Her eyes go wide the sense of showmanship and that phrase. The phrase It's showtime will always have a certain association in her mind. That of suffering, death and sadism.

She takes a moment to get her head in order and then is moving to chase after the guy she's fully focused upon them too. There's no shouting, no boast the look on Eisen's face is one of abject fear and rage.

Asuna (9) has posed:
Asuna physically, visually, balks at the phrase.

Then she snaps her fingers. "YUI!" She cries, a name that no one will be surprised to hear, even as Asuna toggles back onto the Gatecrashers radio. "Chrysheight, where the hell is he?" She can be heard nearabout yelling into her comms.

Staren has posed:
    Maybe running is an exageration. With the calm attitude of things, Staren is... nervously walking away.

    It /is/ just a game, but, in a VRMMO... it's hard to completely remember that, sometimes. This situation feels like one about to go very bad, and he has little power.

    There are words. Commotion.

    A man is dead. Death Gun is /here/.

    And his allies are chasing an /avatar/, as if it will mean anything.

    He considers ways to save the man. But he doesn't know where he is. He considers ways to find Death Gun. He doesn't know where he is either.

    But somewhere there is a game company -- a /game company/ -- has data that can lead to them both.

    The path ahead is clear, Staren thinks, as he watches the chaos unfold.

    He begins to plan.

Kirito has posed:
    While Kirito's face goes stark white with what might be utterly childishly frightened panic for a few moments...

    Death Gun makes one hell of a getaway. An attempt. Anyways. An outraged crowd is chasing him. Bullets fly, but he zigs and he zags with tremendous agility out of the path of most. A few clip him on extremities but he seems to be either extraordinarily skilled at his footwork or extraordinarily LUCKY. Perhaps both.

    Karian's roaring charge clips him in the arm, getting him to stagger back.

    BUt as he passes between a pair of rocks... he pulls out a small device, presses a button...

    KABOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!

    It looks like Reker isn't the only person who can use pre-planted explosives in a plan. It's only one or two bombs going off, but it's enough to kick up a HUGE cloud of dirt and bowl over the front wave of chasers on foot. Not KANOKON or Eisen, but...

    Even being able to leap around debris, maintain balance, and outrun the others doesn't help in one critical area.

    Pass through the dust cloud, and there's simply no sign of Death Gun.

    Did he lead everyone that direction on PURPOSE?

HK-47 (754) has posed:
It's always a pleasure to see others who take pride in their work, simulated as it is.

It's even more of a pleasure to see them take such abject pride in the showmanship of a well-done execution. Just by looking... HK-47 realizes that he has found an interesting organic. One that enjoys the black spotlight - the infamy of being known, yet unknown. One that enjoys being feared.

Thus... he feels something of an obligation to assist... if not to simply learn more about what strange and effective technique he utilized on the avatar of Felidae Z.

As such, he takes aim, ignoring and even finding a bit of amusement in the torrent of hateful slurs as HK-47 lobs a plasma grenade to cover his movements and then DEFENDS the avatar of Death Gun as the latter makes his getaway, taking aim at the avatars known as Kanokon and Iria and firing at them from behind, his shot on a trajectory that will take the bullet straight through both their backs as they line up for a perfect double-kill, banking on the two not being able to see his 'Bullet Line' while they're distracted by their emotions.

Karian Icefang has posed:
    Karian keeps to the chase. He was essentially like a dog locked onto it's prey, but the explosions do disrupt him. He stumbles forward but recovers and pushes forward. He roars out of the cloud and looks around. He roars in anger, rage, fury, and frustration, punching the ground with PURE rage, likely with enough force to shatter rocks underneath. "I swear, on the Allfather and everything pure in the Multiverse, I will find you Death Gun.....and may the Emperor have mercy on you, for I will not." He says, an oath given in the honor of the fallen player. But for the moment, he DESPERATELY needed to calm down as an 'old friend' was clawing for freedom.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
The day is suddenly not going so well for Kanokon. Topping that list is the explosion which Death Gun sets off; she plows through the dust cloud (thanks to her running start, mostly) and scampers up the collapsing rubble, but to no avail, and she pauses at the top to curse (in Cantonese).

Which is when a bullet from HKiller47 blasts her in the shoulder.

Thank goodness for decent quality armor, but the impact is still enough to knock Kanokon off her momentary perch, hitting the ground on the other side with a FURIOUS shriek. That's the last sign of her ....

Because she's back in 'skulk around and don't get noticed or shot at' mode. She has a vague idea of where that shot came from, so she needs to find her way back around the edges and try to ambush her ambusher.

Tomoe has posed:
Elsewhere

"What the hell?! Something's gone wrong with that players vitals."

"The hell his vitals are going nuts it looks like a heart attack."

"I'm dialing 119."

"Wait that's Japan's 911 right?"

"Yes, we can't not act on this."

"Right I'll leave you to it and I'm starting to log data here. Damn there's way too many players in this region due to the raid boss. We'll have to go over the logs later, the higher ups are going to want to see this."

The woman gets off the phone and looks to the man for a moment.

"It's done the paramedics are on their way."

"What a god damn mess."

"*Sigh* You know the big dogs are going to be salvating at the indication we might have another...whose not beem scooped up by anyone."

"I know just ..."

"We got out jobs to do."

"For God and country..."

HK-47 (754) has posed:
The avatar of Xiaomu seems to have taken off into hiding, as has the avatar of Iria. However, there are no death-markers, so HK can only assume that he injured either one or both of the pair to the point that they had to retreat. Granted, he only registered an impact off of Xiamou, so perhaps the other one turned tail... or perhaps the avatar of Iria was injured by the sudden bomb-blasts and thus forced into pulling out. Ultimately though, it doesn't matter - Death Gun has successfully retreated... and perhaps will remember his effort to defend him.

But now his focus returns to a more pressing matter - rewards. Most of them had been forgotten by Death Gun's display, and thus the droid was now using the chaos to great effect - even with the avatar of Tomoe chasing him, the debris gives him ample cover as he weaves amid the rubble caused by Ironclad's destruction, working to claim as many credits, items or both as he can... one of which seems to be a Savage 110 BA.

With that... he finally pulls away, tossing out a final plasma grenade to cover his escape as he falls back, starting his journey to the nearest safe-zone.

"Observation - It did not go as planned... but I just say, this was a very stimulating experience. I do believe I shall come back here again very soon... and perhaps, when I do, I shall learn more about these 'avatars' - Tomoe, Xiamou... and of course, this 'Death Gun.' Meatbags that they are... they certainly have proven worthy of my skills. I can say with a measure of certainty that I shall enjoy our next encounters."

With that, the droid's avatar fades into the desert, already eagerly making the plans for his next excursion.