2025/Airfield Assault

Airfield Assault
Date of Scene:	14 April 2015
Location:	Prohibition Chicago <PC>
Synopsis:	Eliot Ness recruits numerous people to assault an airfield owned by Capone.
Cast of Characters:	2, Arthur Lowell, 264, 357, 470, 518, Zero Kiryu, 572, 749

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Eliot Ness (264) has posed:
    Today's mission is the continuation of a mission from some months back. Everyone participating was given an emerald-green suit to wear as a disguise that had been freshly cleaned and pressed. People driving from Chicago, or riding along, were doing so in dark green cars that also looked cleaned, re-plated, and immaculate.

    The meeting was a WAYS out of the city, down multiple back roads and dirty pathways that seemed more designed for a horse and cart than a 'modern' automotive of the time. Multiple cars were parked just off the road at a clearing about a mile off the illegal airstrip that was to be the target.

    Ness himself is here, standing against one of the idling cars and smoking a filterless cigarette with his hat pulled down low.

    Vega, who is new here, has an easy hook in through either Syndicate missions, or this being the followup to a mission a Confederate (Ark Line) participated in months ago. Most other people have pretty obvious hooks due to involvement in this world by their faction-mates.

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    Arthur's here! He's not wearing his god-robes right now, nor his more mundane-jerk outfit. No, instead he's come with those stolen clothes, resized via alchemiter to fit him! It looks pretty goddamn dapper. He's a little young for the look, but that's not really something they'll care about while he's punching things.

    "AYYYY!" He calls out, enthusiastically! It's just loud enough to be boisterous and just quiet enough to be stealthy. "WHAT UP, Eliot? How's shit been HANGIN'? You still plannin' on goin' HANDS OFF today? Could be NICE havin' ya ALONG, y'know." He's doing all this enthusiastic greeting while he emerges from a floating green spirographic GATE formed just nearby, and immediately dispersed. Of course, those coming here by way of SYNDICATE HOOKS will have the chance to use it themselves.

    "You got any RECON to drop up ins, or can we just get right to bein' ALARM AS HELL?" He's already wandering over to a car. "SHOTGUN, by the way! I can't actually drive." He grins and gives a thumbs-up before leaning against the car. He's quite ready to get in and direct people to charge down there, though, unless Eliot has any briefings he needs to give the group or any reason to stay behind.

Vega (749) has posed:
     A couple men in pinstripe suits come up and case the area. They're carrying what look like old-school pistols tucked into their jackets, but clearly aren't, if one takes a few seconds inspection. Oh, sure, they pass at a glance, and most people from this era wouldn't be able to tell the difference. But people not from this era can plainly tell - those are laser weapons, cunningly concealed as pistols. And their hats are pulled down over their eyes, hiding much of the distinct parts of their faces, almost like a mask. And underneath those handsome black-and-red jackets? Kevlar. And...pinned to their lapels is a strange symbol, one that's un*questionably* new to the 1920s...but maybe not new to those who know Sagat well.

     The skull with eagle's wings and the lightning-bolt forehead.

     Leading the men is another fellow in a suit and tie, with massive sideburns and his hand on his head. Slung over his shoulder is a baseball bat. He walks with a spring in his step, like he just got back from seeing the game and bought a souveneir bat to celebrate. It's even one of those era-appropriate Louisville Sluggers, the kind that's all the rage, with the cork grip from 1914 all fresh and new. Unlike the others, his jacket is white, but the golden pin is still present. He sidles up to the car as the men in uniform case the area.

     "Hey." He says, in a thick, unmistakably American accent, "This is the place, right? You was gonna drive us to that field you was talkin' about. I even brought my own bat."

     "Name's Jack. Crackah Jack. Call me Jack."

     The man sticks out his hand to Eliot, then offers it to everybody else in turn. "My team's rarin' ta go."

Pinkie (470) has posed:
    Green suit. Check. Tail tucked away. Check. Ears hidden under hat. Check. Constantly playing around flicking a switchblade in hand? Check-flippity-check.
    Seated on the hood of the car by Ness is LUCKY CLOVER, green eyes and a mussy mop of red curls making her the apparent token Irish mobster, with the insignia of her Cutie Mark worn as a four leaf clover visibly embroidered on the handkerchief sticking out of her jacket pocket.
    She is, in fact, playing with a switchblade. Flicking it, twirling it, she looks like she wants to juggle the damn thing, but mostly sticks to nimbly making it dance in dextrous fingers.
    Without a WORD she simply hooks an arm right over Arthur's shoulder and flashes a wide cheshire cat smile.

Homura Akemi (2) has posed:
    Homura will have hitched a ride with someone else, not having a driver's license yet. If any further driving is needed, that'll be true for that trip as well. Either way, she's here on time, wearing the green suit given to her and, as usual, bearing no discernable weapons or oddities. Her hair's in a ponytail today, tied with that red ribbon, and she has her glasses on.

    The quiet girl has nothing to say or do right this moment.

    Arthur might get an idle greeting specifically, and Ness obviously, but beyond that she'll wait until plans are on the table to pitch anything in, as tends to be her usual.

Hana Umikazeno (357) has posed:
    If there's one person whose presence shouldn't be a surprise by now, it's Hana Umikazeno, the mercenary gunslinger who's been a regular hire for Ness throughout his campaign against organized crime. She's not above putting on the green suit, of course, but before doing so, she had to have it modified just a smidge; larger sleeves would be too obvious, so for once she's storing her twin magitech revolvers in shoulder holsters inside her jacket. It still makes her look a bit stocky, but 'a suit that makes you look stocky' is a lot better than coming underarmed or with her weapons too-obviously stored.

    Her arrival is smooth and simple, astride an era-appropriate motorcycle that looks like it's seen better days. She's cordial enough, reaching out to take Jack's hand in a firm handshake; her greeting is a calm, "Hana Umikazeno. A pleasure," and a quick tip of the hat. Just far enough to reveal the pair of horns on her forehead.

    The others, she knows well enough, so they get a polite nod.

Yuuki Kuran (518) has posed:
    In a car that could not posisbly be mistaken for a non-period car, because it really weirldly is, an antique style even in Yuuki's world, are a pair in nice green suits. Zero, the driver, is ostensibly dressed to the nines with a nice hat atop his white hair to match his green suit, but Yuuki...

    Is also dressed up in a suit. Slacks, dress flats, a tie, black vest underneath, short-cut red-brown hair in a boyish short bowl cut, and a matching hat to Zero's atop her dome. She looks quite boyish, at least from a decent distance, but her dinnerplate eyes, slight frame, girly hips, and general feminity are a total betrayer close up. Clipped at her hip is a metal baton - Artemis - that shines with what sunlight filters down.

    Yuuki looks... Pretty tired, but happy to be here. There's a darkness around her eyes that the shade of her hat-brim somewhat conceals, and the almost lambent red of her red-brown eyes looks up at Ness, and the others around him.

    "Hey! Um, sorry. Did you still need help? You sent the suits, but... Well, I mean, we may not be the most useful. Oh!"

    With a glance back to Zero, she extends her hand to Cracker Jack. "We've not met, Jack. I'm Yuuki. That's a very nice pin. Does it mean something?"

Zero Kiryu has posed:
    It couldn't be plainer that Zero doesn't want to be here. He doesn't sense anything that is "his" to hunt, and he doesn't have a particular interest in fighting with regular people. It simply isn't done. So when he parks and accompanies Yuuki out of the car (however temporarily that will be), the aggravation positively radiates off of him. He isn't going to introduce himself unless deliberately prompted, and truth be told he's not certain he has any intention of actually being useful. As far as he's concerned, his only job is to make sure that Yuuki doesn't go completely off the deep end or get herself hurt in a serious way.

    Much like the person he's here to protect, Zero has a rather tired look to him. He'd really rather be sleeping right now, given the opportunity. Maybe he could just...

    Nah, that's fine at school, but not in a place like this.

Even with this suit on though, Zero doesn't really look like he belongs around here. If nothing else, his hair and his eyes look wildly out of place and foreign. The fancy suit and hat just don't cut it for somebody so outlandish-looking.

    "If you didn't know we could be of any help, why did we drive all the way out here?" He grumps at Yuuki.

Red (572) has posed:
    Red is here, as well. She's wearing something a little more period appropriate, though seeing a woman dressed in flapper garb out in the woods might be a bit odd. Still, she didn't get many odd looks, driving out of town. She gives Homura a lift, as well, her ride being a rugged looking Indian motorcycle designed a bit more for the rougher back roads. In hand is something definitely not fitting for the time or place, however.

    The mute woman's sword, designed like something Ness isn't likely to see for another sixty years, the Transistor offers a friendly greeting. "Hey folks. Heard you needed more help, figure'd we'd swing by, help smack some heads together."

Eliot Ness (264) has posed:
    Ness reaches out and tightly grips Cracker Jack's hand, "Ness. Eliot Ness." He says tersely, looking around at the others as they begin to arrive.

    "This is the place, alright. Good to meet some of you, good to see some of you again," He slowly exhales some smoke, tossing the spent cigarette to the ground and snuffing it under the toe of his shoe, "Today I'm hands on," Ness says seriously, going to the trunk of his car and opening it to pull out a Thompson and some stick magazines.

    "There is a saying. 'Si vis pacem, para bellum.' Popular in cops and soldiers. Sounds right fancy. Means if you want peace, prepare for war," He notes grimly, resting the gun up and against one shoulder, "Capone has declared war. So we will wage battle for Chicago."

    "The green outfits and cars mark us as one of his loose alliances, bunch of canucks brewing whiskey up North of the border. We're gonna hit him hard, make it look like we're muscling his territory. There's no elegance or nuance, just do as you see fit." The passive implication being that he's letting people exercise violence as they desire, but he's not explicitly stating that.

    "I appreciate all your help in this. If we succeed, it'll really put a bug in Capone's ass and disrupt his entire ops. Whole city of Chicago benefits from reduced squeeze out of his muscle." He says, hopping up into his car. He doesn't clarify much about the mission, though he DID thank Yuuki for showing up via a tip of his hat, "Any help you can give can be appreciated, li'l lady. But keep your head down when the shooting starts, please."

    In order to expedite this scene and get right to the fun, it's only a couple miles down the road to the secret airstrip in the woods. And it's actually a PRETTY huge setup. Sprawling out over a pretty decent chunk of cleared out woodlands, it's numerous cabins and buildings along with a hastily paved huge strip to serve as a landing spot for planes bringing in illegal cargo. The whole thing is surrounded by a tall fence with razor wire up at the top and guards swarming around the outside rim of the compound.

    Right now, a lot of them seem pretty suspicious of the cars approaching. Especially considering there's a freshly-landed plane with vodka being loaded off of it and into trucks. Because of this, a couple warning shots get winged off the hood of a car or two.

Red (572) has posed:
    Red gives Mr. Ness a polite nod, though she's well aware of what his words entail. Anyone who gets in the way, will have to go down. She knew what she was getting into, after all. So, when they ride out towards the airfield and they start shooting, Red lifts her sword and holds it under her arm. The Transistor, in turn, fires bolts of energy from the pommel, a few lances of orange light spitting out from it in rapid fire.

    "Boy, guys sure didn't take long to let loose. S'fine, though. Looks like we can't sneak inside, anyway. They got this place locked up pretty tight." The talking weapon remarks, as Red revs the engine of her bike.

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    Arthur seems too raring to go to be able to discuss much of the plan. He /came up/ with this plan! He doesn't need to discuss it more. "RIGHT! Yeah, guys, just, EVERYONE try to look like you're here about DUMB GANG VIOLENCE, and stuff like that. Get LOUD, get RUDE, get fuckin' AGGRAVATING, yo! Make 'em MAD and they won't be great at gettin' this shit SCRUTINIZED."

    And then he hops into the passenger's seat and gets rolling.

    And then, of course, here comes the warning shots. Arthur responds to that in his typical way. "HEY ASSHOLES." He calls out, popping his head out the side of the window. "Your guns are SHIT and BAD! I wouldn't use your BULLETS to SCRATCH MY ASS! Everyone GET OUTTA THE WAY or point a PIECE my way, 'cause here comes an ILLEGAL SMUGGLING of BEATINGS!" He pulls a simple broomstick from across his lap and sticks his arm out the window too, leaning out the car entirely. "WOOOO! DRIVE ME CLOSER, BOYS, I WANNA HIT 'EM WITH MY BROOM!" He continues shouting and being a general nuisance that will draw immediate attention and escalate things without much delay. He's hoping to charge the place down and immediately start getting in fights with people, applying bashings to whoever isn't running at the gates, either before or after jumping out the side of the car.

    Once they're in proper range, of course, he'll be leaping out to do his usual brawling broomstick beatings, but until then, he'll dangle out the window and go for any skulls he can find. He does not seem to be interested in dodging any bullets.

Vega (749) has posed:
     Jack takes careful note of the horns, pushing his hat up slightly (and yet revealing no eyes. Maybe he just doesn't have them?) like an impressed 1920s streetman. The girl with the switchblade just reminds him of home.

     "Charmed, I'm sure," he replies earnestly. Jack's own grip is, indeed, the grip of a baseball player, or of a boxer - or maybe both. It's the kind of grip that a man gets when the most-used muscles in his body are there to clench his fists and hit people. He also shakes Yuuki's hand with the same thing.

     "Yeah," Jack says, "It's our team pin. It means we all play on the same team."

     "And tonight we're playin' for you guys. Coach's orders."

     Eliot Ness's name elicts a low whistle from Cracker Jack. "No foolin'? Wild."

     He'd known this was something big from the way Vega'd planned for it - you didn't trot out period dress and disguised weaponry just to look pretty and play games in Shadowlaw - but Eliot Ness? Al Capone? Man, that was wild. Moreover, the pieces were coming together in his head, and that was even wilder.

     Jack is quiet through the rest of the briefing, with the bearing of a professional who's been around the block before in this kind of situation. He doesn't ask stupid or undue questions, he doesn't waste time with chatter, though he does offer a fairly genial bit of discussion about baseball in the 1910s, on which he appears to be an expert. The Shadowlaw boys have brought their own car, and they pile into it for the scene transition, checking heavier gear (disguised as period-appropriate tommyguns) as Jack drives. They offer a ride to anyone else who wants in - they've got multiple cars.

     There's a lot more goons than just the five who were waiting with Jack.

     And, indeed, as the shots come winging off the car, the Shadowlaw goons start firing back. And they do not fire back with bullets.

     Sunroofs open upwards, turning into bullet shields. Shadowlaw goons raise tommyguns above the roof, firing blasts of red light with cartoonish 'brr-zaps'. The lasers aren't exactly high-power, but there's like three machine-gun's worth from each of the three Shadowlaw cars, as the crowded little group of goons saturates the air with laser fire. The way Jack figures, it can't hurt, and it might just land a hit.

     Jack, meanwhile, is driving the lead car. He approves of Arthur's wild desires. Jack, too, wishes to drive closer so he can hit them with his heavy wooden object.

     He's not called 'cracker' for no reason.

Homura Akemi (2) has posed:
    Given Ness' plan, Homura wagers this'll go a lot better if things don't just mysteriously blow up. Gotta leave witnesses, and gotta make it plain as day who did the deed. Kind of a bummer for her usual style, but ah well.

    With greetings out of the way and people going for the target, and them coming under fire, Homura glances out the window of the car she's riding back-seat in and then just flings the door open.

    "Don't mind me. Keep driving."

    The girl swings out of the car, gracefully landing onto the roof. A 9mm appears in her hand, and then she leaps off the car-- disappearing completely. She reappears within the cargo hold of the plane, ideally behind a crate or something that'll make it look like she was hiding in there and not coming out of absolutely nowhere. Get a look at how many people are in there first, how many shipment crates too.

    A few 9mm rounds will appear out of nowhere to help support the people still with the cars, but it's nothing all that showstopping. Maybe one or two dead gangsters' worth of lead all in all, at most.

Yuuki Kuran (518) has posed:
    Yuuki, before the ROLL OUT happens, looks back. "See? We've got sports stars now! People looking to make a difference. I know you don't like hurting... people, though, so, here." She offers, drawing the metal rod off her hip and handing it to Zero. "I know Bloody Rose won't work on these guys, but Artemis will work for you. And if Mister Jack thinks a baseball bat is good enough... We're gonna /help/ these people, by stopping... monstrous criminals. Right?"

    She looks at Ness.

    Who nods back at her in confirmation at this fact.

    "See? Monstrous criminals. We're hunting monsters. People who deserve what they're... getting. People who /prey/ on the /innocent/. So... Just maybe rough them up a litte?" She urges, before sliding into a car with the others.

    She is an entirely unarmed girl in the middle of a warzone with a grim little smile on her face.

    Yuuki is HELPINGGGGGG.

Hana Umikazeno (357) has posed:
    Well, what's this? A plane full of vodka being unloaded. Interesting.

    Having hopped in another vehicle rather than bring her motorcycle, Hana seems fairly heedless of the bullets being fired on approach. This heedlessness, however, continues once she opens a door and acrobatically swings herself up onto the roof. A hand goes into her coat and comes out with a fancy, high tech-looking double barreled revolver. Rather than stand straight up and make a target of herself, however, she drops to one knee, using both hands to steady her shot and taking a moment to line up her aim for once.

    The cylinders on her revolver rotate themselves slightly as if of their own volition, and then she takes a series of single shots, one after another. Each is carefully placed with superhuman accuracy; each is aimed at one of the engines on the plane; and each is a round that will pierce right to the middle of the engine before exploding forcefully.

Zero Kiryu has posed:
    "No. We're engaging in a false flag operation on behalf of a foreign government intending to incite internal problems within a criminal organization we have little knowledge about." Zero replies to Yuuki, pushing Artemis back towards her. It crackles on contact. Technically he can use it, but it isn't completely cooperative to him like Bloody Rose is. And he doesn't want to use it, regardless. If anything, Yuuki's insistence seems to make him more aggravated. It's certainly true that they might be criminals, but the dilemma of all members of the Hunter's Association is similar.

    It's very easy to fall into a habit of killing that goes far deeper than simply killing sanctioned targets. This particular 'mission', unrelated though it is to anything to do with Zero's world, skirts a little too close to that issue. Particularly for someone like Zero, who experiences plenty of instinctual bloodlust with everything that he already does. Just being here makes him feel sick to his stomach, even when the locals start taking potshots at their cars. He pulls off to one side of the runway and parks, letting everybody else start the chaos just as quick as they can.

    Zero leaves his car without a weapon in hand or, even, really a plan. As a matter of fact, he just leaves the door open and leans up against the hood of the car, surveying the surroundings and trying to decide exactly how he wants to deal with this. His personal obligation is low. These people can't actually hurt Yuuki meaningfully.

    "Do what you please." He asides to Yuuki, rifling around in his pockets and withdrawing a packet of pills. He pops a couple into his mouth, sure he'll need it by the time this is through.

Pinkie (470) has posed:
    Ah there it goes. Lucky Clover was getting all cozy in the back seat of one of the cars, hat brim tipped low, looking like she was dozing off on the trip. But once the warning shots start spanging off the hood, her eye opens, and an almost manic grin forms on the woman's face. The car door pops open in transit, reaching into her jacket and pulling out a mask of green porcelain. Smooth and polished, faceless and featureless save for the leering grin slashed across where the mouth would be, she slides it on in the same act as leaping right out the door and landing in a tumble.
    Just like that she's gone, the masked woman slinking her way through cover, still twirling that switchblade in her hand, darting from shadow to shadow in a manner that is just too fast.
    She's actually ignoring the gun toting guards and begins working on breaking and entering one of the compound's buildings, checking for open windows, or just picking a lock in the ensuing confusion.

Eliot Ness (264) has posed:
    Right off the bat, a couple of the guards are cut down via blasts of energy from Red going right through their chests. The wounds cauterize from the heat of the energy and they fall over backwards against the fence, guns clattering to the ground below them as they slump over. More guards move to set ranks, the entire base scrambling. Several drop to their knees and try to take pot shots at Red with bolt-action rifles.

    Both the car carrying Arthur and the car carrying Jack manage to SLAM through the front gates of the compound, taking both men into striking distance with their respective hard-wooden instruments of choice. Arthur and Jack can both crack a couple dudes in the dome if they want, dropping em into puddles of blood on the ground. The flurry of laserfire from the rest of Jack's cars also cuts down more than a couple guys, several scattering as they duck behind buildings for cover and fire back against the incoming swarms of cars. There's shouts of confusion as forces try to rally.

    There's three or four guys IN THAT CARGO HOLD, but they don't notice Homura because they sweeped the plane and there were no stowaways. Their backs are to her and levelling rifles at the ramp near the back of the plane, expecting people to come in and try to steal the shipment. They're jostled, however, as the entire plane and many of the crates in it are rocked from the explosions of their engines via Hana's bullets. Several break open, spilling broken bottles of vodka and filling the cargo hold with a godawful smell.

    Yuuki is a girl standing in the middle of a warzone, for all this entails. If she doesn't move fast, she will wind up taking about a half-dozen shots from a Thompson that is aimed at the Shadowlaw Party Van. A stray Pineapple grenade also lands near her due to her poor proximity to all the wrong places in the fight. Zero, for the most part, runs a similar risk of cross fire. Neither of them seem to be the direct TARGET of anyone's fire, but the criss-cross of bullets and lasers are causing strays to migrate in their direction.

    All of this confusion means Pinkie has a really easy time making her way to a building. Judging by the radio equipment, this one seems to be a pretty important one. And it has an easily climbed in window. Once she finds her way inside, there are a couple of guards braced near the doors in and it appears she's in a control tower.

Vega (749) has posed:
     Jack can crack a couple of dudes 'if he wants'.

     Jack wants.

     As the car comes barreling in, one of the Shadowlaw men takes the wheel, leaning awkwardly over in a most dangerous position. Jack himself tilts out the window, his Louisville Slugger tight in hand. Well, they ain't in Louisville, but it's good enough for him.

     KEEEE-CRAK!

     The reason they call him 'Cracker' Jack becomes immediately, and painfully, apparent to at least one person. Jack does not, unlike many people in his position, seem to take much JOY in the process of doing this - he does not, for example, giggle with sadistic glee as a bat smashes into a man's skull hard enough to surely shatter it to pieces, nor does he laugh happily, nor anything else. No, Jack is a working man - he has a job to do, and he does it, and how he feels about it is something that's between him and God, and maybe the bottle, depending on what sort of fellow he really is.

     And he is a damn fine working man. Jack, unlike the Shadowlaw goons, is clearly a little bit special. He's not quite up there with the living gods and ninjas all around him, but the man stands out from the pack by sheer example and force of personality. His bat seems to take on a life of its own in his hands, leaping from goon to goon like a sword as he dangles out the side of the car irresponsibily. Unlike a sword, of course, people hit by it die *much* more painfully - though perhaps not. It's probably just about as instantaneous.

     What's really impressive is that the damn thing hasn't broken yet.

     As Jack goes about his business, the Shadowlaw soldiers know exactly what to do. The cars FROM THe FUTURE swing into a position, forming a makeshift barricade for the rest of the team - a barricade with bulletproof glass. The goons file out and continue raining suppression fire on Capone's men in order to buy time for the rest of the team. The less gunshots coming back, the better.

     Jack, once he's done with his work, moves to join the main team as well. He doesn't seem to be carrying any firearms. He does roll up a smoke, however, popping it in his mouth and lighting it with a lighter bearing the same logo as the pin.

     He takes a puff, idling, ready to follow the leader.

Hana Umikazeno (357) has posed:
    And the plane's engines are down for the count; that means the primary concern now is taking down the gunmen. The cars crash through the gate successfully; in that moment, Hana simply hops straight forward, letting her own momentum take her far beyond the vehicles when they inevitably slow down on the break-in. Even if it's just a smidge of speed lost, that's more than enough for her.

    And when the oni in green hits the ground, she drops into a roll from which she emerges in a crouched stance, with /both/ revolvers drawn... and, somehow, her hat still in place. From here, she levels both the Girls and begins pulling the trigger, over and over. Each pull of the trigger unleashes a single bullet that splits just five feet from the barrel into a spread of 24, all of which are endowed with the armor-piercing effect that will let them go right through most cover. Her plan is to simply spray the front ranks with a ridiculous amount of armor-piercing ammunition, thinning them out enough to make an approach viable.

Pinkie (470) has posed:
    Important building is important, and as soon as she's creeped in, and spies the guards, the first thing Pinkie does is... Reeeeeaaach over and flick out the light switch. In the resultant shadow and darkness she's upon the two men, a rattling chuckle of a giggle filters through the slit of her killer grinning mask, and the mirthless jester's knife flashes in the darkness.
    When the lights flick back on, she'll make sure to leave her green hankie stuffed in the pocket of the man strung up by his necktie around his ankles, to dangle upside down from the ceiling, grinning red from ear to ear, as she leaves them to investigate the kill, and sliding into another room like a shadow.
    She's going to do what any break in sneak thief does best after that. Begin RUMMAGING for anything that looks IMPORTANT. Documents, papers, cases of loot, the usual drill.

Yuuki Kuran (518) has posed:
    Yuuki is an unarmed girl standing - sitting - being driven around - in a warzone. She looks very confused after disembarking from the car, looking around. Okay. How... to... help. Shipping containers, luggage... She looks at a big pile of suspended shippage over a some guys - bags and crates - and thinks very hard at it, which is accompanied by a loud metal groan as stuff... Falls on some guys. They probably don't die, but it sucks to be under luggage and stuff. You know, it's heavy!

    YEAH HELPING!!!

    Then, well, crossfire happens. Barely registering the first hit to her back, the Totally Normal Girl (with faintly glowing red eyes) takes a faltering step forward, reaching up to touch the dark, wet stain on her nice suit. And then a few more. Soon enough she's leaking like Jim Carey in the Mask, staggering around listlessly.

    And then a grenade lands near her. A brief moment of uncomprehension passes her face, and then an explosion rocks her world and sends up a cloud of dirt and concrete dust.

    She lands in a pile, groaning lightly. A light pool of blood gathers under her, but she manages to uncharacteristically peel herself off the ground, crawling over to Zero.

    "Z-zero, they shot me. I'm dying, they even used a... bomb thing? My ears are ringing, everything's going dark."

    Yuuki falls to her side, looking up distantly at her bodyguard.

    "You... you need to avenge me... on these bad men... who did bad things... uuugh... goodbye, Zero. I... I l-..." She frailly whispers, before her eyes close, and she slumps over.

    After about a minute, one eye opens, even as the blood trickling from her has long sinced stopped even despite the greivous wounds she had sustained. "... Aren't you going to avenge me?" She whispers harshly at him, expectantly.

Red (572) has posed:
    Uh oh. Rifles. This is a bit different, from last time. But, Red's been shot at before, and well.. it was scary, sure. But she seems to be a level-headed gal, even though this was never her line of work. She weaves her motorcycle back and forth, and once she's close enough, she slows it down, enough to take a leap into the grass. She lands cleanly enough, and there seems to be a 'pause' around her. The red 'eye' of her weapon glows, the gold circuits flowing with energy.

    With a breath, she's several meters away, and then again.. and again..! With a swing of her sword, a ball of energy is shot from her weapon, bouncing from a couple of the rifle toting thugs, exploding each time. Then she fires a bright, blue beam of energy that lances straight through the legs of the watchtower nearby, causing it and the men inside to topple to the ground.

Homura Akemi (2) has posed:
    Whoa, rocking plane.

    That's what she gets for disregarding Hana's warning. Well, better get to work. Homura's 9mm disappears, replaced by a shock grenade, standard-issue Confederate gear. Stuns, doesn't kill, unless you hit people twice with them. An awful reference.

    The lobs the round, white orb on the ground of the plane towards the four guards, remaining well behind cover herself. It'll detonate in a flurry of lightning bolts and arcs, likely illuminating the cargo hold of the plane from afar for a few seconds.

    If that works, she'll start stuffing the crates wholesale into her hammerspace. Before the plane blows up or more of them break. Gotta have at least three or four to give to Ness, if they want to follow up on that at all.

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    Arthur will leave people bleeding and dazed, but he's not planning on killing people. I mean, for one, he can't, but for two, that's not why they're here. "EVERYONE OUTTA THE POOL," He calls out. "This place is OUR TURF NOW! Anyone wanna FIGHT ABOUT IT? C'MON! Point a GUN AT ME! It'll make ya FEEL BETTER!" The gunfire raining back at the cars is noticed; some of the stuff slams into Arthur's body, wounding his enhanced form with heavy bruises or piercing impacts.

    "YEAH. That's the STUFF! YEAH! FEED ME MORE OF YOUR BULLETS, SHITHEADS!" He dives out the side of the car, through the window, deftly flipping onto the roof, and as soon as it stops, launches forward towards the men firing at the oncoming cars. With Shadowlaw soldiers handling ranged stuff, he tries to chase down the mobsters going into cover. "Did I say this was YOUR TURF? We drawin' LINES in TAPE, gonna have our own SIDES? FUCK NO! Fucking BOOK IT you SHITS! GET OUTTA HERE!" He's going to try to go in close -- tanking more shots to his squishy caster body -- and flush them out of cover, hopefully making them take a run for the exits and get out of the clearing that holds the airfield in the first place!

    He is also screaming the entire time, as he continues to try to smash people up with his broomstick. Going more for breaking arms now, to keep people mobile.

Zero Kiryu has posed:
    Zero is about to go kick that grenade off into the woods when Yuuki decides to get caught in it. He watches her get filled with shrapnel without the first hint of concern. Too many people have seen her regenerate at this point for her abnormality to go unnoticed. Those loaner clothes are probably goners, though. He looks down at Yuuki as she tries to play-act a dramatic death, rather uselessly. This doesn't actually do a whole lot for him, for fairly obvious reasons. On a personal level he's done worse to Yuuki himself, although it does aggravate him a little that it happened to her.

    On the other hand, there's a hell of a lot of blood around here now. That fact alone prompts Zero to shovel the entire contents of his medication pack into his mouth like some candy-hungry toddler. He doesn't dignify Yuuki with a response, instead simply tracing the path of the gunfire coming their way. Personally, he can't actually come back from being completely riddled with shrapnel, so he'll have to actually try and be quick about it.

    Fortunately, that's something Zero is good at. He can clear a dramatic amount of space in very little time, and so he does, approaching the gunmen and grenadiers that appeared to direct their fire most clearly towards himself and his charge. When he gets there though, he doesn't attack. Not directly.

    He grabs at one of their guns and pulls it away to inspect it, as if he was simply being offered it for a looking-over.

    "Go home." He says, plainly.

    After a moment of reconsideration, he adds, "Put your guns in a pile, go apologize to the woman out by that car, and then go home."

Eliot Ness (264) has posed:
    The barricade of bullet proof cars and armored transports is RIDICULOUSLY effective. It gives most people in the field operation a point of cover of fall back, because the small arms that the gangsters had, and even many of the rifles, would bounce off and simply crack the glass or deflect off the armored panels of the vehicles. People who were hasty and stuck their heads up over cover might be in danger. And there is the occasional grenade that flies up and over their barricade. Elsewhere and in the sidelines, there aren't many actual mobsters that can stop Jack. A few unload shots into his vest at close range, which HURT and are likely to bruise nastily, but won't penetrate the vest he showed up in earlier.

    But they're being thinned out by Hana, who sends a vicious spread of fire towards the frontline ranks in the wake of grounding the plane permanently. A good amount of men are turned into swiss cheese as the bullets punch through them and they keel over. Others are returning fire, but the ranks are definitely thinning out. A few of the more cowardly mobsters are diving under trucks for cover and pretending like they were never here in the first place, hoping not to be found. But Hana is receiving return fire for her efforts.

    Some of the other guards are getting blown to hell by Red's attacks. Every time the ball bounces and detonates, one of the mobsters goes flying backwards, end over end, and slamming into the ground. They do not get up from these. Nor does anyone crawl out of the tower she sends toppling to the ground. The debris and rubble clatter and there's no motion from that.

    Yuuki and Zero? Well, Yuuki renders a couple dudes unconscious, disarmed, and buried under piles of boxes and debris. It's unpleasant, painful, and awful, but it's definitely survivable. The guys Zero runs up to? One of them looks shocked that he gets his gun taken away. One of the others simply goes, "Nah." And then lifts up a double-barreled shotgun. He attempts to drill both barrels of buckshot square into Zero's chest. This should be absolutely trivial for someone of Zero's caliber to mitigate either by dodging with his speed or however he sees fit to do so. A COUPLE OF OTHER GUYS, though, are putting down their own guns because they saw him just appear. They're backing away from the fight and want nothing to do with the young guy.

    Arthur is in an arms race with no one but himself, and he's breaking all sorts of records. Like many people here, but not all, the fire is going to be trivial to his actual life. Slightly painful, maybe, but not life threatening. MORE Painful is all the elbows and arms he's shattering like so many treebranches against a baseball bat-like Broom. Men are crumpling to the ground in pain and crying out.

    Inside the grounded plane, four guys all fall over at once, spasming and convulsing as the electricity hits them in waves and bolts. They cry out and their teeth chatter from spasms. Then they go limp, unconscious from Homura's shock grenade. She basically has zero resistance stopping her from taking all the crates she wants. There's about a half-dozen, most filled with vodka but two contain rum and one contains wine.

    The lights go out inside the control room and people are panicking. When they come back on and one of the guards is left upside down, men are panicking MORE. They're bursting OUT of the control room, screaming in fear and trying to avoid the firefight outside. This leaves Pinkie to find something very interesting and useful. On one of the desks of the command area, there's a map of Chicago with various shipments and schedules from the airfield marked. She has a guide to the location of several major Chicago speakeasies.

Hana Umikazeno (357) has posed:
    The numbers are thinned down enough that Hana is finally willing to rise from her crouch; and she does so rather quickly for that matter, because after the first couple of seconds crouching there, her chance of being shot rises dramatically. So as soon as she finishes the initial barrage, the oni is running at full sprint. And with her physical strength, her sprint is pretty damn impressive.

    But a straight line over open ground with a bunch of men at the other end willing and able to shoot you, is suicide. Which is why the instant they start to draw a bead on her, she suddenly lunges forward into a roll that brings her into a one-knee crouch again. Both the Girls fire in unison, still using the same spread of armor-piercing rounds, and then she pushes down with all her strength to perform the humanly impossible feat of leaping up from one knee into a front flip that puts her right on her feet. Her entire advance is similar; move just far enough that they think they'll draw a bead on her, then suddenly tumble, spin, or leap in an unexpected direction that leaves her in a perfect firing stance.

Vega (749) has posed:
     Being shot, Jack decides, hurts.

     It's not like he's never been shot before. It's not like he's never been shot at close-range before. When you work for an organization like the one Jack works for, you get used to being shot. Hell - part of Jack's training regimen for the new soldiers is taking a bat to their backs and hitting them regularly, to get 'em used to pain.

     One of the bullets catches him in the chest, and knocks the wind out of him. Another cuts past his cheek, narrowly avoiding blowing his brains out. A few inches up, and it would've. Another whizzes just under his arm, and another catches him right in the shoulder and sends him spinning off his axis, saving him from a shot that would've gone right through his neck by mere inches.

     It's a dangerous life in Shadowlaw. Apparently, in this big, bold new world, you can be a drill sergeant one day, the next, you're getting shot in the 1920s by Al god damned Capone's gangsters at the height of it all, surrounded by people who throw lightning and kill dudes with brooms.

     Sure, it wasn't THAT weird, but it's DANGEROUS.

     Well, alright. Even by their standards, it was a little weird.

     Jack decides to take things personal. He moves up, climbing atop the barricade to draw fire as lasers scream around him. The acrid smell of the ionized air is heavy and thick thanks to the sheer amount of saturation that's been going on, and while one or two of the Shadowlaw goons has already gone down thanks to sheer probability, there's enough that they more than make up the numbers. As the bullets come screaming in, Jack decides to try something he's never done before.

     But he's always kinda wanted to, in his heart of hearts. And, surrounded by gods, heroes, and historical figures, Jack decides there's no time like the present.

     The smooth criminal takes the bat in both hands atop the bulletproof barricade. He brings it back, his eyes (under his hat) fixated on the prize. He takes the stance, spreading his feet like an old habit on a new rug. The car's unsteady, but he'll make it work.

     The bullets come flying.

     Jack swings the bat.

     KEEEE-RAAAACK!

     One bullet lodges itself in the bat. The next catches and pings off, narrowly missing Jack and lodging itself in a tree. But the third? The third does just what he wanted it to. It goes up, up, up, and then down, down, down, physics taking hold. The bat, split along its axis, is wasted.

     But Jack has a solution for that.

     He holds out his hand to one of the goons. They oblige with a nasty-looking grenade. Jack works his bruised shoulder carefully as he fiddles with the weapon - the Shadowlaw emblem on it, too, glinting silver in the light.

     "Bases loaded," Jack observes, tugging out the pin with his teeth. He bounces it off the car roof and swings.

     The bat splits from the sheer force of it, and the bullets, and everything else. Splinters go flying every which way, harmless, but impressive, as the top half of the bat explodes.

     The grenade goes sailing into the enemy fortifications like a fly ball into the outfield.

     Jack puts on a satisfied grin and grabs at his shoulder.

     "Pretty sure I just heard somethin' pop," he mutters.

Red (572) has posed:
    Red, deciding the property damage is enough, for the moment, decides to make for Mr's Ness' position. She's able to Jaunt() her way around, dashing between several stunned mobsters, who in attempt to shoot her, accidentally point their tommy guns at one another. It's one thing to give a thug a gun. Trigger dicipline and common sense have to be taught. She figures with all the action, he's probably going to be relatively safe to be around.

    "Sure is a mess, huh, Red? At least we're doing our share. Still, dangerous stuff. Keep your head down."

Homura Akemi (2) has posed:
    Maybe she lucked out on the entire plane not exploding. It only occurs to Homura now that the lightning grenade in a plane full of alcohol was probably not the smartest move in the book. Homura pretty much takes every last crate, and then takes another moment to drag the guards out of the vehicle about thirty feet away (this may take some time, that's why this pose mostly consists in that).

    She'll then take one last look inside the plane (cockpit, etc.) to see if there's anyone else in there or anything else of value. If there isn't, it's time to leave a gift (hint: a bomb) behind and let the thing go up in flames.

    It's boring, it's straightforward, but god damnit Homura gets the job done at least. Maybe if she had a wand or something it'd look fancier.

Pinkie (470) has posed:
    A tug of her hat right off lets loppy ears flit and perk to better listen to the delicious sounds of chaos and panic, and, beneath that mirthless mask of hers, Pinkie lets just the slightest of grins crack as a result of her handiwork before twirling her hat one last time and donning it while she rifles through everything.
    On finding that map though, she's given pause. It looks like the masked clown has struck paydirt, vivid green eyes dancing over the markings as she holds it up for better inspection, before deeming it worthy of folding very neatly and sliding into the breast pocket of her jacket as she slips out the nearest window and just starts completely casually walking out into the wilderness, ignoring the rest of the firefight, while whistling merrily.
    She'll slide that Ness' way later.

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    Arthur finds a plentiful harvest of elbows.

    After trying to scare them off a while, he tries to get them back to moving! "Fuckin' SHAKE A LEG that's all you ASSHOLES got left! I want you punks OFF OUR TURF! If I come back and see you LAZY FUCKIN' BUMS still lyin' around here it's your TEETH NEXT! YEAH!" He dives out of here as soon as he hears the warning of grenades, though!

    And then he's booking it. He's here, in fact, to be REALLY awful, and further pursue the men trying to get away from Pinkie. "HEY! Hey, WHERE YOU GOIN' HUH?! WHAT'S UP?" He's brutally swinging that broom around, just enough to be dangerous and scary, but not enough to actually wound them so much they won't be able to get away! "You gonna GET THE FUCK OUT, punks? You gonna RUN?! Tell the SHITCLOWNS in charge of you PUNKS, this is OUR TURF! It's OUR RULES! You want OUR PLANES and OUR DRINK, you best SIT THE FUCK BACK and PLAY OUR GAME, MOTHERFUCKERS! YEAH!" To accentuate that, he's going to go for a leaping kick into the back of whoever's lagging behind too much. And as soon as he's done with all that, he'll be pulling away, and heading for... HANA! Or, rather, heading in to yell at Hana's targets. No obnoxious insults this time, just a screaming, distant "aaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!" As Arthur tears ass in, trying to draw some fire off of her as well as flush some jerks out of cover with more broom-beatings! But it's hit and run; all it's done for is to make the hardiest, more mentally resilient ones who aren't cowering get even more overwhelmed, and then rush back away!

    He's coming back for the Elbow Harvest, to see if they're up and moving yet. He intends to be as intimidating as possible in getting them to MOVE THEIR ASSES.

Zero Kiryu has posed:
    Zero doesn't actually wait for the gunfire to come when the man delivers his quick rebuttal. He skirts to one side of the barrel and steps in so that the length of it is pressed against his side. He feels the blast go off, but he's just not there by the time it fires. A fit of bestial fury briefly threatens to overtake him, the smell of blood -- her blood, especially -- dominating the surroundings. He manages to reel it in, but not before he takes an action that is a particularly brutal resolution of the situation with the shotgun-wielding mafia fellow. He grabs hold of the shotgun and TWISTS it over, while the gunman is still attempting to hold onto it.

    Taken far enough, it might have been sufficient to twist the gunman's hand into a bloody mess. As it is, it might remove his trigger finger, and it will DEFINITELY break it. That's all the restraint Zero has in him in those few seconds of time.

    "Apologize. And go home." He reiterates, glancing towards the pile of discarded guns from the gunmen who had a little bit of common sense to their name. Maybe Yuuki was right about these people, and he shouldn't be quite so reluctant to hurt them.

    "Hey. Useless!" Zero calls over towards Yuuki. "These men have something to say to you."

Yuuki Kuran (518) has posed:
    Zero goes off to AVENGE Yuuki! And, for her part, she lays on the ground, smiling a little to herself. She even sits up a bit, arranging herself against the bulletproof-ish green car with her nice suit all torn up in shojo-appropriate places. And since she's from one of those, like, romance-y prettyboy ones it's really tame.

    So, arranged with all her bulletholes bloody but closed, and shrapnel sort of sticking out of her skin almost cosmetically, she is ready to hold VA-erm, TOTALLY NORMAL PRINCESS COURT.

    Slumped against a car.

    "Uh, they do? I thought you were going to avenge me! For... dy...ing... " Yuuki looks annoyed. "You don't bring people in to apologize to the dead girl, jerk, you're supposed to sally forth in my name!"

    She looks to the gangsters. "No hard feelings. Just stop your life of crime and evil!"

Eliot Ness (264) has posed:
    Hana 'Dark Souls Roll Till You Win' strategy is immensely effective against the PVP arena of 'untrained mobsters'. And she keeps managing to catch a couple gangsters each time with her powerful shots, sending them to the ground in a heap with each volley as she advances. There aren't many left by the time that she reaches their lines.

    And moments later, there's next to none left as Jack's grenade comes in and blows up a swarm of guys not too far off to her right. A group of five or six guys all go sprawling to the ground, landing in bloody heaps and not getting back up again. By this point, forces are starting to withdraw, if not outright retreat. They're laying down covering fire for themselves, but several guys are trying to just pull out and escape via the back of the airfield.

    The ones brave enough to still fight aren't that well-trained. And Red's strategy of making them accidentally shoot eachother is somewhat effective as they sweep their firing arcs right into one another in a bloody mess. Trying to catch up to Ness has her meeting up with him as he comes out of what seem to be a barracks. He's using a hankerchief to clean a combat knife of some blood and then drawing a gun with his other hand, "Miss. I'd suggest we get to leavin'."

    Homura finds a leather-bound book in the cockpit. If she opens it and looks inside, she hits the jackpot. It's a list of map coordinates and times. The pilot has been logging his flight times and air strips he has to be landing at to make illegal pickups. Homura has enough evidence to escalate Ness's offensive massively, if he can arrange proper travel. Or to turn Federal Agents across the country onto illegal operations.

    The Elbow Harvest is moving. Arthur is successfully continuing to drive combatants off the field and into retreat. They don't want to be sticking around the airfield after everything that has been happening and Arthur is very effective at getting them into a retreat. They're slowed down a bit by clutching shattered elbows to themselves, but definitely moving.

    Zero takes a finger straight off a guy, who screams in agony and bleeds profusely, "AUGH GOD. CHRIST AND MARY, I'M SORRY!" He screams towards Yuuki, clutching his right hand to his chest as the blood soaks into his suit. Flash forward five years and this man will actually become a successful enforcer under the leadership that replaces Capone. A trusted advisor known as John Friulione, a quiet and cautious man. In the four years and 364 days between then and now, he will be known as 'Johnny Nine Fingers' or 'Lefty John', two nicknames which will piss him off endlessly. He retreats from the field for now, clutching the hand in a hankerchief.

    All in all, battle is basically stemming to a halt. There's a few last guys to pick off, but the survivors are hiding, retreating, or clutching their wounds in piles on the ground. This was pretty one-sided.

Hana Umikazeno (357) has posed:
    With the mobsters in full rout, Hana takes a moment to finally pause. To huddle in cover. To let the men who are going to retreat do so; and, most importantly, to listen for those who are foolish enough to stay around and keep trying to fight.

    And to, y'know, /not be shredded by a nearby grenade/. That's kind of important. Just a bit.

    Her dealing with the stragglers is almost lazy by comparison to her entrance, though. She pops out of cover, levels a revolver, and pulls the trigger, firing off a simple armor-piercing round. If they should try to dodge, the bullet simply changes its course to guarantee a hit, under Hana's personal control. She also makes a point only to fire on the ones who are still firing at them. Anyone that's fleeing, is allowed to go unscathed.

Red (572) has posed:
    Red nods in agreement, and makes her way back to her Indian bike. Still running, even, when she tries to start it. Gotta love these beefier rides, they don't make them like this, anymore. Or, at all, in this case. Either way, the redhead tucks her weapon back under her arm, and is ready and waiting to leave, as long as she sees the others come back out.

Vega (749) has posed:
     Jack stands, admiring their handiwork. This is a real efficient group of folks. The Multiverse is a big, nasty place full of big, nasty people with big, nasty powers, and here he was, a guy from Vegas right in the middle of it. He hops off the car, adjusts his hat, and looks back at the rest of the group.

     "You guys stay here," Jack tells the Shadowlaw mooks as he climbs into the car, "Help these guys get this all mopped up. I..."

     Jack pats a briefcase under the seat.

     "I gotta see some men about an airfield."

     Jack turns the key and drives off the lot as the Shadowlaw goons move in to help sweep up the remaining criminals. Laser tommyguns are extremely efficient, after all.

Homura Akemi (2) has posed:
    Oh, logbook. Into a pocket it goes.

    Homura finishes the plane business off; since Hana already blew the engine off, it's not like they could have confiscated the vehicle. And Capone could always get it fixed, so. You know.

    Bomb.

    But she's not staying behind to enjoy the fireworks, so much as abruptly reappearing by Ness to hand him the logbook, and make sure he's alright. "Here, this was in the cockpit. I don't recognize the locations but I have a vague idea of what it might be. I have the crates of alcohol on me--" That feels kind of odd to say. "-- so we can drop them somewhere else once you figure out where is best."

Arthur Lowell has posed:
    Arthur Lowell isn't the kind of guy that demands that all work be big work. He's quite content with making the most of small work too. Which is to say, when stragglers are all that's left, he'll still get in fights with Stragglers. Screaming, shouting, and saying extremely tasteless things about their genders or sexualities that should never be written here due to respect for taste, Arthur harries and harasses anyone not wearing the green the group is wearing until they leave, shouting and swiping with the broom and bleeding all over them a little bit.

    He's probably the most wounded person here, in a sense, but only because he simply does not give a fuck.

    He will continue this essentially until there's nobody left or someone stops him.

Zero Kiryu has posed:
    There's no sense in waiting on Zero to go after the remaining stragglers. He's not going to. Instead, he collects up all the guns dropped by the men he intimidated into retreat, except the obviously worthless stuff. Any redneck farmer can dig up a shotgun, he doesn't need anything like that. On the other hand, off-world pistols and rifles? Oh, hell yes. There might actually be too much for him to carry. Try as he might not to -harm- other humans directly, he feels no great compulsion not to rob them of their tools of murder when they're so obviously causing problems.

    He pauses next to Yuuki, who may in fact still be complaining that he messed up her act.

    "Carry some of these, would you?" He asks, pushing half an armfull of guns off on her. Then he carries on back to the car, depositing the firearms in the back seat.

    Jerk.

Eliot Ness (264) has posed:
    Not much left to cleanup. Hana can easily pick off a few stragglers still shooting in order to create the 'almost no survivors' effect. A lot of guys are injured and limping off under coercion from Arthur and whoever else. Red has a pretty clear shot back to her bike.

    The plane obviously explodes. It's pretty awesome, with the whole thing just busting apart on the runway like that. Shadowlaw will have to clean it up after they buy this and zone it out for their new import-export business, but it shouldn't be too hard to do. The book that gets handed to Ness has him looking through it, "It's a flight log. We can find his suppliers to this air field through this. Interesting. I may need to take a few road trips in the future."

    This mission is easily rated as an undeniable, if very messy, success. Zero also has no trouble looting whatever he wants. Pretty much anyone can.