2594/Radio mission: Zigursky Break-out!

Radio mission: Zigursky Break-out!
Date of Scene:	08 July 2015
Location:	Paragon City <CoH>
Synopsis:	Heroes and villains work at cross-purposes when it comes to the prison for super villains located in Brickstown!
Cast of Characters:	560, 692, 769

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Demetrios Vasilikos (769) has posed:
    Klaxons wail at Zigursky Penitentiary. Not an unusual occurrence, unfortunately, but the problem with putting a bunch of super-powered criminals together in one place is that they tend to wind up working together (when they aren't trying to shiv each other). Villains from all walks of life, all ages, ethnicities, and criminal elements, make up the escaped Prisoners who now roam the Yard and the streets around the Zig, in their orange jumpsuits and utilitarian shoes. Some have managed to obtain basic street weapons, like pipes, knives, or even stolen revolvers, while others have nothing but their fists. Most of them have no appreciable super powers, though one or two might have belonged to one of the empowered gangs that have started to pop up of late.

    Brickstown's prison is not very effective, sadly, despite being designed to keep prisoners with powers on lock-down. This is simply because there's so many other villains all over the city that want to spring their buddies out of jail.

    Someone organized this most recent break-out. And that person needs to be found and stopped, in addition to as many escaped Prisoners as possible. With the one behind it all back under lock-down, maybe answers as to how the break-out happened in the first place can be discovered, and further escape attempts prevented!

Mission Objective: Arrest and question 10 Prisoners about their leader!

    The guys outside are chump-change. Small fry. Sure, maybe someone went through the trouble to arrange a break-out for them, but they should have gone after the REAL villains that are still locked up tight. The guys outside? Not important. Not really. There's an opening in the defenses here somewhere, and that opening is what let the nobodies escape. But somewhere in there are people who might be a boon to an enterprising villain. Super villains who might wreak havoc with their powers, even if they don't agree to help the one who freed them. And there's never a bad time for chaos and destru<span class=" bold_bg_r fg_n ++ tion.

chr">Mission Objective: Find the opening and defeat the Prison Guards to get inside.</span>

Razer (692) has posed:
     No, there's never a bad time for chaos and destruction and /hate/.

     Razer, in his red and black armored finery, arrives on the scene. For a few moments he mills about in the local area, blasting anyone who gets too close and seems to want to take a swing at him. It's the worst idea they've made since taking their freedom back, probably. All in all, it's simple enough and hardly a test of his abilities. After the first few, the rest might get the picture.

     No, something's not right here. Razer frowns. He can tell that the people here, the ones who are already out, aren't major players. They're not worth his time, as either a source of reward, favor or fighting skill. Anyone who might actually fulfill those criteria is inside.

     And so the Red Lantern takes to the air, levitating himself in a scarlet haze. He might be able to catch a glimpse of whatever opening it was that allowed this whole thing to occur from on high.

Emiya Shirou (560) has posed:
    On an emergency call, Shirou doesn't have much time to prepare. He comes bursting from one of Paragon's artificial warp gates on a muddy, rusty old motorcycle, dressed in street clothes! With the guidance afforded by his Union-issue PDA attached to the handlebars, he has little trouble reaching the prison's outskirts. And from there, well...

    Orange jumpsuits are about as visible and obvious as it gets. So he swerves to a stop on the street side, hops off, tucks his keys into a pocket and stares at a group of nearby jumpsuited troublemakers.

    He is not armed - or at least, doesn't look like it - but in this city, what does that mean? Well it might mean more if he was DRESSED like a superhero and not a random civilian, but either way...

    Either way he speaks up. "You know, this city being full of heroes means your chances of getting very far aren't even worth mentioning. Now you're roaming around with weapons! Tell me how this doesn't end up making things WORSE for you guys."

    Because he really is baffled by this logic.

Demetrios Vasilikos (769) has posed:
+Red Side

    Among the other fires that might have been started by the Prisoners, and the smoke from factories and industrial buildings in the area (most of them owned by Crey Industries), the huge stretch of open ground between the 'the Zig' and the multiple layers of fences, and even a modern-day 'moat' of sorts, seems to have a bit of a smoke trail separate from anything rising from a blaze. Razer might be able to track the line of smoke after blasting away Prisoners who mistake him for a Hero or who just want to hurt someone. The thinner, more-dust-than-smoke trail seems to be emanating from a low alcove on one side of the prison.

    It seems someone managed to bust their way out through solid concrete somehow, leaving a broken wall and a tunnel that probably took months to dig leading up into the structure. A few Prison Guards are hanging around outside in their distinctive blue uniforms. One is shining his flashlight up into the tunnel, while the other two stand by, helping to watch out for any more escapees. If Razer gets close enough, he may overhear two of them conversing.

    "How many spoons do you think they went through digging this tunnel?"

    "They probably didn't use spoons, Chuck."

    "Yeah, but how many do you think it'd take?"

+Blue Side

    Unfortunately for Shirou, approaching them like he did is almost an assured indicator he's not a normal civilian. Normal civilians tend to run away. Unless Shirou is just foolish! Which he might be! Either way, one of the named Prisoners, a Lieutenent-level enemy named 'Mac', responds to Shirou with, "Yeah, well, we're out NOW. Might as well have fun! And I'm gonna' have a lot of fun putting a hole in your stupid skull!"

    He then raises his revolver as his buddies, who paused in trying to smash a parked car to pieces, pull out their own weapons, or simply... Throw rocks at him.

    Yes, rocks.

    Not everyone found a convenient handgun to steal.

Emiya Shirou (560) has posed:
    "Trace on." In a state of heightened awareness brought on by danger, Shirou finds it very easy to calculate the trajectories of the incoming rocks. It's like second nature by now to duck and weave around the first few. But the final rock coming in? his hand comes up neaby it, a flash of magical power flows out...

    There's a sharp CLANG and the ungodly sound of steel cleaving through stone - effortlessly. A white chinese shortsword's appeared in his right hand. A black one follows in his left soon enough.

    "Are you kidding?! If that's all you've got you might as well just turn around now!" Shirou blurts. "The jailbreak's over either way. You guys are headed right back in. Who staged the breakout?"

Razer (692) has posed:
     "Precisely seven," Razer says and, with a quick movement of his hand, directs a red beam of energy into the guards, knocking them aside and hopefully unconscious. Well, whoever decided to break out of here was certainly persistent, or desperate.

     He looks to the guards again. If they're still moving, he blasts them again for good measure. They should get the picture. Otherwise, into the tunnel!

Demetrios Vasilikos (769) has posed:
+Blue Side

    Angered by Shirou's defiance (and high Defense), the Prisoners charge into melee with yells and threats, unheeding of his words and warnings. A pipe is swung at him, Mac the Lieutenant shoots at Shirou's leg to try to slow him down, and one of the Prisoners tries to circle around to get into a good position to knife him in the back, while a couple others juke left and right trying to find and opening to attack from the front and sides while the pipe guy stands in the way. This isn't going well! But it's probably going to go a lot worse for these escapees! A bit more of a show of force is needed probably, to get answers out of them. With only these five here, maybe another group will be more talktative.

+Red Side

    The Prison Guards, like most other combat-capable individuals in this city, seem to be slightly more resilient than one might expect. Though scattered and injured by the blast, two of them struggle back up onto their feet and start shooting at Razer with their revolvers. They aren't very accurate weapons though, and a small caliber, so even if they hit they probably won't do much damage. Their riot batons are kind of out of usable range unless Razer gets in close. "Oh, no! A Villain!" one of the guards yells as he fires. Razer's second attack knocks both of them back down again, their unfortunate status as mere Minion-level opponents meaning that while they don't generally go down in a single hit, they don't have a real chance of winning against an Elite in such small numbers.

    Whenever they're finally dealt with, Razer's flight up into the tunnel leads up on a twisting but short trip up into one of the lower floors of the Zig, where the sirens are even louder, and red-and-white lights spin in the ceiling, while more Prison Guards try to restore order. There are reinforced doors in the walls, and power-dampening fields are in place inside of them, along with teleport-blockers. The moment he's spotted by the half-dozen guards in the immediate area around the hole in the floor, one of them yells, "A Villain! Someone call for back-up!" and rushes in to try smashing the Red Lantern in the face with his Riot Baton. The others draw on Razer and open fire, while one of them reaches for his radio!

Razer (692) has posed:
     Razer turns away from the guards, and gets a series of bullets impacting the back of his armor for his troubles. They're mostly stopped by his protective forcefield but they still stumble him and, of course, they make him mad.

     "Oh, will you just-!" Razer snaps, snaring the minions in bands of red energy and simply slamming them into each other. Fine. There. Case closed.

     And then he's through the tunnel and into the prison, the whole place bathed in red light. It feels almost like home-

     -maybe more so like home when the Lantern almost takes a baton to the face.

     Snarling, Razer takes that man's wrist in one hand and aims his ring at the one reaching for his radio. That man gets a considerable blast of power. "I don't think so," Razer remarks, before slamming his ring hand into the other guard's abdomen.

     Only half a dozen or so more to go. Time to stretch his legs - metaphorically speaking.

Emiya Shirou (560) has posed:
    "Montauban!" With three coming after him, and still sore from the recent beatdown at the Caverns of Death, Shirou doesn't throttle down at all. A transluscent white suit of armor with a texture like that of marble walls - more a work of masonry than steel - forms around his body. It's short-lived, but it absorbs the gunshot and knife before dispersing, leaving him free to HURL Bakuya for the gunman and cleave the pipe in two with Kanshou. Bakuya will return eventually... probably.

    "Back to jail for you guys!"

    He does take the fist blows head-on and this sends him staggering.

    Physically, Shirou's not terribly powerful. Using those weapons he can be, but without magic a single knife is quite threatening. Four or five prisoners with a bit of organization is infinitely more threatening than a few dozen zombies.

    So after rolling to recover, he ditches Kanshou.

    "My body is made of swords," the boy mumbles to himself.

    When he rises, more magical energy gathers in his hands. It congeals into a single longsword of black metal, an ancient design. A blade found in the remains of a mighty legendary beast. The blade of Japanese royalty, KUSANAGI.

    With a sound much like a jet engine spinning up, wind gathers around the weapon as Shirou twirls it... then SWINGS.

    A howling, cutting gale with enough power to bowl men right off their feet and send them flying is the result, at the cost of nearly a quarter of his prana!

Demetrios Vasilikos (769) has posed:
+Red Side

    Proportionally tougher though these guards may be, they are still the heroic equivalent of minion level opponents, and Razer blasts the ones that attack him away. There may be a bit of a scuffle as he deals with the remaining guards, but at the end of it, he should stand triumphant, and ready to start busting down one of the power-inhibiting cell doors that no doubt holds a fearsome super villain behind it!

    ...Though there's several of these cells, and they look pretty sturdy. So Razer probably doesn't have a lot of time to decide which to break down and which to leave alone before swarms of heroes show up. Decisions, de<span class=" bold_bg_b fg_n ++ isions...

chb">+Blue Side</span>

    Shirou's wind sword attack takes out the minion level enemies and throws the lieutenant, Mac, into a nearby car, denting the door with his body. He's been in prison all this time, and he doesn't appear to have powers, just that slightly-above-base-street-thug-level durability that so many goons seem to have in this city. These guys wouldn't have been locked up in the Zig though if they didn't have SOMETHING to show for it, no matter how minor their 'powers' may be.

    Mac struggles back to his feet, but he's clearly unsteady despite his enhanced resilience. Then another group comes along from the opposite direction. Shirou may hear someone yell, "A Hero! You're not sending us back!" right before another five escaped prisoners come running at Shirou from behind! ...Again, only with knives and pipes, and Shirou seems plenty strong enough to face them, even if he's not special in that department relative to some other heroes. 'Strong enough is good enough'.

Razer (692) has posed:
     Hmm, all too easy. Razer flexes his hands as he glances over the fallen bodies of his opponents. Still, one of them might have gotten off a distress call, so, Razer is keenly aware of the fact that he might have to get a move on.

     Decisions, decisions. Razer raises his ring-hand and points his glowing ring at each door in turn, trying to figure out which one he should knock down. Eventually, it comes down to random choice and Razer takes aim at the second furthest door from him, unleashing a terrific blast of red energy to tear it from its housing! Even so, he probably has to hold the energy on the door for several seconds to break through entirely. What's behind door number two?

Emiya Shirou (560) has posed:
    With his minimal stores of prana, Shirou can't waste anything. Spamming Kusanagi might be possible at this level, thankfully, and he's relieved to see that this choice paid off. Oh sure he's got much nastier things, but there's a limit to how lethal he can get and have SURVIVORS. "That's exactly where you're going!" The young man yells back, resolute. Kusanagi once again howls with wind... and this time he changes his stance, swinging it out around and covering BEHIND him. the Advancing thugs are faced with another wave of wind lik the first!

Demetrios Vasilikos (769) has posed:
+Red Side

    The reinforced door is battered, blasted, and eventually wrenched free. And within is... Some asian lady in a costume with low-cut top, veil over the lower-half of her face, and a katana! Her eyes are pure white, as well. The ninja-ish looking woman jogs out of her cell quickly, looking to Razer and announcing, "I would have escaped on my own eventually. It was only a matter of time." So much for gratitude! "Even so, know you have the good will of Silent Blade for your efforts. You will have my aid if we meet again. For now, I take my leave."

    Silent Blade then throws down a smoke bomb and vanishes in a flash of light! She's probably some kind of dangerous assassin or something. With the power of... Ninja, or something? Some people are probably going to die because of her.

    Should Razer break out more villains or get while the getting's good? It's up to him, but there are yells as a new wave of prison guards starting heading his way!

    "Stop right there!"

+Blue Side

    Shirou's wind attack takes out the injured Mac and the other escaped Prisoners, scattering them every which way. As Mac falls to his knees in defeat, he says, "W-wait! I'll tell you what I know!"

    Clue Found!

    'Mac takes a moment to catch his breath, and then unless he is knocked out before he can talk or something, he says, "I don't know who he really was. Just some guy calling himself 'Sands', with some kind of military outfit. Black body armor, helmets... I don't know who they were with. I overhead one of them say something about a 'test run'. We were supposed to head for the sewer entrance under the road to the south... But I didn't trust those guys! I'll go turn myself in! I'm not going to spend the first fresh air I've had in months coughing up blood!"'

    With that, he does exactly that, running towards the nearest bunch of security guards! The location of the meeting place was marked for Shirou on a navigation device if he got one from City Hall, or else just described in detail otherwise.

Razer (692) has posed:
     "Wait-!" Razer begins, before he realises he's shouting into a cloud of smoke. Now, that's frustrating! He lets out a harsh sigh, exhaling hard and turns away-

     -right into the newest, biggest and probably meanest pack of guards yet. They give him an order to stop and Razer takes a pointed, defiant step forwards. "I really don't think so."

     Focusing on that momentary frustration, Razer turns it in on itself, creating something of a feedback loop. Frustration becomes anger and anger becomes rage, and Razer lets that rage burn out through his hands, letting the red tide of energy wash ove the newest wave of prison guards - and probably a fair bit of the prison infrastructure behind them. Oh well.

Emiya Shirou (560) has posed:
    Shirou does have his gear from City Hall, and he hops on his bike to REVV OVER THERE as soon as he can. All the while he relays the information he just got to the police in case others can make use of it. "... This is so stupid," he mutters to himself. Why would people who didn't want to be caught be PARADING OUT OPENLY?!

    Oh well. ON TO THE SEWER ENTRANCE. Ewww.

Demetrios Vasilikos (769) has posed:
+Red Side

    Razer's fearsome blast of rage-energy damages the walls and defeats the enemies approaching. Still just minion-level good guys, but there's a lot of them. Thankfully, with Razer Charging Up his attack, and its own innate area-effect, it's enough to knock them all out in a single shot. But while these guys may be relative push-overs, they're using up valuable time that could be used to either free more villains or to escape. Razer has the promise of aid from an assassin. Is that good enough? Or does he want to risk a run-in with an entire city full of heroes?

+Blue Side

    When Shirou arrives at the sewer entrance, he finds some suspicious guys in smooth black helmets and light body armor of some kind hanging around, wielding assault rifles of a grade that is probably not civilian issue. Is one of these guys Sands? There's someone noisy sanding on some boxes near the sewer tunnel, giving a speech to some of the escaped prisoners who came with the promise of power and opportunity in addition to their freedom.

    The police have been notified. Maaaaaybe Shirou could leave it to them? But the police don't quite seem equipped for super-menaces. Can they assemble a strong enough force before the bad guys escape?

Razer (692) has posed:
     If Razer was thinking more clearly, and not channeling as much rage and frustration as he could get, he might think that help from one assassin is good enough. But it's not. It's not help - it's a possible promise at a later date, and that means nothing to a Red Lantern! No, he'll need something concrete!

     Still simmering with frustrated indignation, Razer turns his attention to door number four - and lashes it with whips of red energy, aiming to simply tear it free!

Emiya Shirou (560) has posed:
    Puttering to a stop far from the escapades, Shirou has no doubt he's probably been spotted. Working in his favor, these guys... probably won't know what hit them until it's too late.

    Because the boy takes a deep breath, then...

    As his hands rise, he's projecting a bow and the crimson blade, HRUNTING, as an arrow. TWO hruntings, in fact. He first nocks and fires one, then the other. The two 'arrows' glow slightly, each aimed at a different target. Each... will MOVE within a certain amount to keep on target if someone tries to dodge. But it's not full power, so there'll be no loop-de-loops of relentless pursuit!

Demetrios Vasilikos (769) has posed:
+Red Side

    Behind dour number four is... Some crazy looking lady who is nearly bald except for a mohawk of green spikes! She's wearing red goggles a silver body suit with large silver gauntlets, and charges up with sparking red electricity moments after leaving her cell. "AAAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!" she laughs insanely. "The name's Shock Treatment, rescuer! And you've just made a toaster VERY happy! I cant wait to get home and see him! Let's demolish these clowns on the way out!" She moves to follow Razer wherever he may go, crackling with crimson lightning, just as another ambush arrives, along with a super hero.

    "That's far enough, Razer!" a male voice calls out. A guy in high-tech looking gear comes running around the corner, followed by a couple of security guards. "I'm Gyromancer, and I'm not going to let you spring that lunatic!" As the guards start shooting, Gyromancer tries to slow time around Razer, reducing movement speed, attack rate, and even reducing healing rate! Assuming it works anyway.

    Shock Treatment responds by hurling a sphere of contained electricity towards the trio, which explodes on impact, electrocuting the guards AND the hero! For a crazy, she's already proving her worth!

+Blue Side

    As Shirou bombards the soldier-types, they get off a few bursts of semi-automatic fire, but the bombardment comes too fast, and too hard for them to defend against. The prisoners scatter, and the guy on the boxes jumps down, interrupting his speech about why they should come to the Rogue Isles.

    "Wait, come back!" Then, after looking after the fleeing prisoners, the guy turns on Shirou and goes, "Aw, nuts. Only one way to fix this problem..." He pulls an odd spiked mace off his back and shoots some kind of... Toxic red energy at the Hero of Justice! "JENKIIIIIINS!" the soldier yells.

Razer (692) has posed:
     Sparking red electricity? Now, that's something Razer can get behind. "Let's tear this place apart," Razer mentions to Shock Treatment as she falls into step with him. The Red Lantern leads the way, stepping over the bodies of fallen guards and ignoring the growing pandemonium of the jailbreak. It always feels so good to just give into his rage and let off some steam.

     When someone - some interfering hero - calls himout, Razer pauses. The security guards don't get another glance from the Red Lantern. "Funny," Razer comments, "I don't think your permission has any chance of affecting anything at all."

     But his slow time field might. For a moment, Razer is convinced that everyone is just moving faster - but, as he raises his arm, it becomes clear that he's just moving /slower/. It works. It definitely works.

     Razer focuses on his bond with his Red Lantern ring, the terrible anger that binds it to him. The rage-borne power boils over in moments - and hopefully, in concert with Shock Treatment's shocking strike (hah) will cut through the time field, the guards, and Gyromancer himself in one huge crackling explosion!

Emiya Shirou (560) has posed:
    "What the--" A MACE that's able to fire weird red power isn't at all cool. Shirou's blown straight off his feet by it, the projected weapons dissipating. Coughing up blood, he nevertheless gets to his feet, scrambling. "Don't tell me that guy's this 'Sands.'" He doesn't exactly look military by Shirou's standards.

    No, he looks like a menace.

    Flowing prana forms into a giant golden lance, one that SHirou uses to RETURN FIRE with lightning bolts from the tip!

Demetrios Vasilikos (769) has posed:
+Red Side

    In the interests of expediency, and because Razer and Shock Treatment are tougher than the low-level hero who came to stop them, even if Gyromancer has managed to pull out some kind of beam rifle, he doesn't get to shoot more than once, scoring a burning line across Shock Treatment's bodysuit, before he and the injured guards are taken out. Gyromancer might not be TOTALLY out of it, but he's stunned for now, and fairly injured. The crazy lightning user and the Red Lantern are free to rampage around for awhile before more hardcore heroes show up, or get out while the getting's good and cause chaos somewhere else. Eitherway, their mission has succeeded!

    "For my toothbrush!" Shock Treatment calls out as she starts shortcircuiting security systems all over the place. That's... Quite a victory cry?

    Dunnnnn DUNNNNNN DUN DUN dun dun dun dun DUN!

    MISSION COMPLETE!

+Blue Side

    Jenkins manages to get out, "Hah! I'm a trained soldier of Arachnos! Like you're going to get me to reveal the identity of Arbiter Sands THAT easily!" Then Shirou's attack pulverizes him, because he's still early in his career, and just a newb Wolfspider. "Aw, nuts!" he repeats as he falls to the golden lightning that sears through his armor and leaves him defeated. It looks like this Arbiter Sands guy isn't anywhere around right now... Either he was never here, or he left when his job was done. But at least the operation has been put to a stop!

    Dun DUN dun... DUN!

    MISSION COMPLETE!