308/A Trap in the Jungle

A Trap in the Jungle
Date of Scene:	30 July 2014
Location:	Summer
Synopsis:	Terek tries to set a trap in the jungle for Rhapsody, but things don't go quite as planned.
Cast of Characters:	272, 325, 385, 410, 490

---

Terek Kinslayer (490) has posed:
    The jungles of Summer have been known to have many dangers lurking within them. Predators of all shapes and sizes, small villages isolated from the rest of the Multiverse. It's inside of this jungle that an Izzet Observersphere has been shot down, having landed in dense brush and gotten caught up in the canopy of the trees. The two scouts that were within it have suvived the crash, but since neither of them is a dragon, have been left alive, although tied to the underside of the craft with a dense steel wire.

    The ship beeps it's distress signal and sparks now and again, the two men struggle against the cable holding them, and there is very little movement around the area, as the animals all cleared out when the ship came down.

    It's quiet...Too quiet.

Rhapsody (325) has posed:
    Izzet are in danger, he dared say Niv was dead, and the bastard even mentioned, in PUBLIC, the trouble Rhapsody had with her scales for basically her whole life. Sure, there were some overlapping scales over her head and tail but, well, those were only stuck in place thanks to Niv. Without a little magic? Even those wouldn't be ther. This 'Kinslayer' had pushed all the right buttons. Mentioning he had Izzet hostages was just the last straw.

    Rhapsody WAS at the top of Nivix when the conversation started. By its end, she had hit the elevator, went to the lower levels, eluded Sidonia's attempts to keep up, and then was through a warp gate and straight out to where the distress beacon had been transmitting from. As she comes closer to the crash sight she draws both spellblades, slows to a cautious walk, and keeps her finger on the 'trigger' of the blue spellblade. At least she KNEW it was a trap..

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
Nobody ever considers the chance of collateral 'damage' when waging psychological warfare, do they?

In Yuna's case, hearing the nature of the Kinslayer's 'powers' described - capturing the essence of other dragons - came VERY uncomfortably close to what she remembers about another Confederate, name of Kutsuuko Shiratori. She's dropped off the map since then, but the 'God Eater' hit a *lot* of Yuna's buttons just by what she claimed to be ... and then she hit one particular trigger even harder.

She killed one of Yuna's friends, and made that fact public.

Fortunately, Hina didn't *stay* dead - but the fact that Terek has gone to the trouble of baiting Rhapsody out to a location of his choosing, when his powers are *known* to revolve around capturing the power of other dragons, is the important part here. And Yuna, outfitted in her Flight Form armor and accompanied by the little robo-faerie Elner, is homing in on the Observersphere's beacon as quickly as Erina's thrusters will carry her.

Terek Kinslayer (490) has posed:
    Knowing it's a trap and being able to disarm it are still two different things. Rhapsody knows it's a trap. But she doesn't know where Terek is, just where his hostages are. There's a rustle of leaves here and there, something is moving around inside of the bushes. Then a voice, though it seems to be coming from several locations at once.

    "Hmmf. Self sacrificing. An admirable trait. But while your father died to save his whole world, you're going to die for what? To save two useless minions? Not quite the legacy he would have hoped to leave, I'm sure. Pity."

    For the approaching Yuna, the scene hasn't really changed much from her position, the jungle still sitting almost entirely silent.

Rhapsody (325) has posed:
    The Kinslayer's words get a loud snarl to errupt from Rhapsody. She did NOT enjoy being patronized, "You have no idea who my fater was!" she roars out, a random blast of her breath weapon going one way, then another. It's the same as before, small concentrated blasts of energy rather than fire. "COME OUT HERE, YOU COWARD!" What Ryxinel was true. While her scales ended up bleached while she was still in her egg, Rhapsody still has the temper of a red...

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
The sound of a young dragon blowing her top is a pretty effective locator for Yuna to figure out where Rhapsody is - although she still doesn't have much more of a grasp on just where *Terek* is. And rescuing the Izzet 'hostages' is probably a higher priority at the moment - if only because it'll mean Rhapsody no longer has a reason to stay in the area.

"Shugoseiheki," Yuna says, cuing a kite shield's appearance on her left arm. Then she heads towards the 'sphere, trusting Elner's sensors to try and get a fix on Rhapsody and her (verbal, at least) assailant on her way down through the canopy.

Jeannette Thompson (410) has posed:
RTS /Atlantis/ the 'really-working-at-being-sprawling' Triancian naval station in Ravanica, had a steadily increasing number of functions. One of them was signals intelligence, and with the distress calls being on 'Izzet' frequencies, it didn't take long for the arrays their to piggyback off of Izzet towers and figure out exactly where Rhapsody might be headed.

The rest involved working through the right warp gate routing, and leaving a path for fighters to follow. It wasn't much more than a Rotocraft with a Squad of Royal Triancian Marines, because, politically, the Triancian government couldn't justify sending more. But it was still something that could do /something/. It just so happens that, in pinpointing their exact location, Jeannette, dressed for the tropics, arrives at the sphere's location first.

"What have we here..." She murmurs, before switching to her transducer. <<Warrant Officer, I beleive I have them. Please send your party to my coordinates. It looks... well. Violent.>>

Yunomi Stadler (272) has posed:
    Yunomi Stadler was rarely late to parties. She didn't like being late to parties, and even less so when the potential for harm to the Guildmaster was apparent. She floated above the jungles, feeling the steam through the leather and Mizzium of her new armor. She stretches her fingers, and over the Izzet bands, she speaks up:

    "Rhapsody is strong enough -- and angry enough -- that she might unintentionally strike anyone coming in to rescue her." she states. Pidge orbits her head, before shooting down into the jungle. "THe first priority is the recovery of the Observosphere and its crew as long as Rhapsody is... in such a state that it does not become an emergency."

Terek Kinslayer (490) has posed:
    The anger of the white scaled red is palpable, and Terek is enjoying every moment of it. And then the other members of the Union begin to show up. There's a snort of disdain from Terek, as he shifts his position again, "Of course you would bring others. Tsk." Comes the voice again. Then the dragon emerges from the bushes under the sphere, holding a device in his hand. He looks around at the gathered members of the Union.

    "I know you all want to assault me, and you probably have every right to. But I would recommend against it." He holds the device up, and twists it so the touch screen glints in the light of the summer sun. "You see, you wouldn't want the detonation cable that those men are tied down with to go off, now would you? That would be so terribly unfortunate if it were to happen. And none of us want to clean up the mess of two splattered scouts. Trust me, I've had to do it in the past, it's quite a mess."

Rhapsody (325) has posed:
    The instant Terek reveals himself Rhapsody is on the warpath, bringing up the red spell blade. It looks like she wants nothing more than to remove the Kinslayers head from his shoulders. It's only the detonator that causes the Guildmaster to skid to a stop, eyes narrowing as she looks between Terek and the device in his hand. Part of her wants to just electrocute him but there is no guarantee the magewrights tied to the sphere above would be safe, "You are a -damn- coward.." Broken record? Maybe, but she's angry enough to not be thinking very straight..

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
Oh, there he is. Yuna descends further, slowing to a stationary hover once she's emerged below the canopy and has line of sight on both Terek and Rhapsody. She's still got her shieled readied; however, she doesn't look to be armed.

Elner, on the other hand, is sticking close to the Observersphere, checking on the scouts' vital signs and general well-being. And when Terek shows off the detonator, Elner starts (at Yuna's outwardly-silent request) monitoring for transmissions that might be coming from the device - if it's a dead-man's switch of some kind, then it's PROBABLY putting out an 'active' signal so that any interruption to that signal, without a proper safety/shutdown code, would make the detonator go off.

Yuna scowls a bit as Terek lays his hand out, such as it is. "Uh huh. So your master plan was to lure Rhapsody out here, stack the deck so she *couldn't* fight back against you, and ... do what? Kill her in cold blood and add her powers to your own? Is that still your plan, with her friends showing up like we are?"

Jeannette Thompson (410) has posed:
Jeannette takes that time to stand out of cover, as well, walking almost calmly forward, her hand lightly on her blade. Her Marines would take time getting here (if she could guess, they would arrive just too late to help anything. So... she would be the only support she could offer. That and bluffing. "You have a little leverage, I'll give you that..." She says, as she moves to take up a flanking position with the other three on the ground. "But considering those two lives their are the only thing keeping you alive at this moment, I would hope that you wouldn't pull the trigger. Whatever your plans, you certainly haven't calculated for all of us."

Yunomi Stadler (272) has posed:
    ... well. OK. No, he couldn't have calculated for all of them. He also might not have calculated for Yunomi's presence.

    PIdge shoots through the jungle, zeroing in on the signal from the sphere. Yunomi herself flits down, skimming along the canopy as she brings herself down into the tops of the trees, and then she disappears.

    Dropping down, curling up as she arches over a branch and gliding soundlessly through the trees as she brings herself closer to the sphere.

    THe more flashy (and angry) members can keep his attention for a brief moment.

Terek Kinslayer (490) has posed:
    "A coward?" The dragon lets out an indignant sound in response to that, "I'm not the one who refuses to face a challenge to my honor alone."

    Terek turns his head towards Yuna as she speaks, taking in her words, and then he grins ever so faintly, "Originally? Not entirely. I was going to give her a fighting chance, and /then/ kill her and absorb her power." He says, "Of course, you guys are quite the wrench in my plans, yes. Which is why I go with the fallback plan."

    Jean gets his attention next, as he shifts his position a bit to look at her and the arriving Marines, "Oh no, you are absolutely right. I wouldn't pull the trigger and give you every reason to destroy me. No, I'm going to leverage their lives against my own. I will walk out of here, and you can save your precious scouts."

    He's not aware of Yunomi's arrival, since she wasn't revealing herself outright. She was able to get above him, to the sphere itself, at least for the time being. If he notices her or not has yet to be seen, though. For now, she remains undetected.

Rhapsody (325) has posed:
    The guildmaster is still looking pretty upset about all this. And honestly? She didn't ask anyone here to come! They all came of their own free will. At least some part of her would appreciate that later on, but right now she was irritated. She -wanted- to punch this guy in the face. Repeatedly. And now she couldn't! Grr. "What honor?! You have MY magewrights and MY vehicle wrapped up in explosives! There's NOTHING honorable about that! If you wanted a duel you should have ASKED for it rather than making me angry!" Every word, every movement of her jaw, reveals a glow in the back of her throat. Every part of her wants to just blast Terek to bits...

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
"More accurately," Yuna says mildly, "you didn't have friends to back you up when you called out Rhapsody by blatantly playing with her psyche. *She* does. And she didn't ask us to come out here; we made that decision ourselves - but there's one other mistake you made, maybe the biggest mistake *anyone* could make."

Still weaponless, Yuna descends towards ground level as she continues: "You threatened her life ... and worse than that, you threatened to turn our precious and irreplaceable friend into a 'thing' that belonged to you. Rhapsody doesn't belong to anybody - except in the sense that, as our friend, she 'belongs' to all of us in the Union who've known her father and fought beside him, and hope to be of as much aid to her as we tried to be for her father. Maybe moreso. The fact that you took a couple of hostages to try and force our hand just makes your mistake that much worse ... so if you really want to walk out of here? This is probably as good a time as any to start walking."

She pauses briefly. "Or maybe running is in order? You probably should release the hostages first for good measure, just so you don't have anything left to hold over our heads ..."

Meanwhile, Elner flits out to where Yunomi can see the robo-faerie, and 'waves' to get her attention - or more accurately, wobbles back and forth, since Elner lacks arms. "It's just wire they're bound with, but we should probably get them loose anyway ... I can teleport them to the warpgate, but their injuries might need attention."

Jeannette Thompson (410) has posed:
Jeannette motions to Yuna, as the Marines occupy the cover around them. They hold their distance, from the looks of it; they've dealt with hostage situations before. "I am so glad to have incovienced your plans, sir. No one is killing the Guildmaster today. If anyone here should die, it will be you. But Rhapsody here would not part with the lives of her scouts." She motions to Yuna, as she hovers down, "She explained it better than I could. I detest dishonorable murderers. Slavers have a special place in hell, as well, esspecially those who use your means to do so. But I think my collegues counter offer stnads the best." She says, holding up her hand to the Marines. "I shall give you one chance. Release your detonators, and remain here so we may get those scouts free. When they are free, and clear, you shall be granted parole and allowed to leave this site without molestation. Those are my terms. If the Guildmaster wishes to alter them, that is her right, but I suggest you start hopping to, lest the dragons temper complete your transformations into ash and glowing coals."

Yunomi Stadler (272) has posed:
    Slipping beneath the canopy, Yunomi hovers a moment, pushing a little beneath the observisphere herself, putting her fingers to her lips as she looks up to the two scouts. Her armor plainly marks her Izzet, and she's pretty unmistakeable as Niv's 'pet project' or 'protege' -- depending on who you ask -- with those ears and her tail. Her fuzzy tail flicks as she exmaines the sphere itself for a brief moment, while reaching up to take the hands of the scouts.

Terek Kinslayer (490) has posed:
    "But making you angry is oh so easy, it seems. Maybe not so much for your friends," A quick glance between the gathered group, taking in their faces, "At least, not yet. But don't worry, you'll remain one of my primary focuses, Rhapsody." The dragon replies, as he turns his head back towards Yuna. This one, she was the main source of his current predicament. And worst of all, she's called his bluff.

    "Anyone in the Confederacy would have been more than happy to assist me, I simply did not think I would require it. An issue I will rectify next time, I assure you. As for your offer to retreat, I will take it, in due time. But I'm not quite finished yet."

    He lifts his thumb off of the pad on the controller, and at the same moment, throws his wings open. Up above the gathered group, the Predator, which has been hovering silently with it's cloak engaged, emerges from the bright blue sky, the sleek black body of the ship materializing. As Terek flies away, the ship's main cannon fires, a plasma bolt lancing out from it, aimed directly at the Observisphere. He might not get the fight he wants, but some carnage is better than nothing.

Rhapsody (325) has posed:
    A ship! Terek flies! All hell breaks loose! Seriously the moment Terek turns to run he'd have Rhapsody's breath-blasts chasing after him. It probably doesn't help her anger when he actually FIRES on the observersphere! "NOOOOOO!" And a moment later its just not small blasts, it's a single massive pillar of energy racing up after the Kinslayer. It'll probably hit his ship, too! "GET BACK HERE YOU COWARD!" Record. Again. Angry dragon is angry. Someone should probably keep her from --- Nope there she goes. Her wings are baaaaaack! "I WILL RIP YOUR FACE OFF AND FEED IT TO YOU!"

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
Yuna was not expecting that Terek had brought a stealthed ship with heavy firepower - or at least, heavy enough to potentially obliterate the Observersphere. But between the sound of the plasma cannon firing, Terek bolting, and Rhapsody going into an absolute fury, what was 'expected' is kind of beside the point.

Of more immediate import, at the moment, is that Terek is getting exactly what he wanted - Rhapsody is pursuing him in a blind rage. Given what the 'Kinslayer' *said* he wants to do, there's really not much of a choice at all; Yuna flies after Rhapsody and Terek, beam-pistol materializing in her free hand; her priority is VERY much on making sure Rhapsody doesn't get ignominiously ganked, so Shugoseiheki is more important in Yuna's mind right now than offensive firepower. She has to catch up with Rhapsody first, though ...

Jeannette Thompson (410) has posed:
Jeannette wasn't expecting a stealthed ship, either, much less an armored one. And the fact that it attacks the ship in blatant disregard of their agreement makes Jeannette angry, as well. Unlike Rhapsody, though, Jeannette has had a lot of practice controlling her rage... by translating it into what one could call action. She snaps her fingers at a Marine. "YOU! Interceptors toward this position, now! Cut him off before he gets to the warp Gate!" She says, before turning over to the dragon as she jumps. She can't fly in this form, and doesn't exactly have anyone with goddamn jetpacks, so she does the only thing she can do. Bellow with the Commodore voice she had very little practice with. "NO SCALES! GET YOUR TAIL DOWN HERE /NOW/!"

Yunomi Stadler (272) has posed:
    She knew those energy readings were weird, even if she couldn't /see/ the ship with the eyes. The

    ANd she had to choose between she sphere, and its precious live cargo. She reaches, grabs the two, closes her eyes and focuses. There's not much time to think about an 'ideal' location other than 'anywhere but here!' -- ESPECIALLY when Rhapsody opens fire on the ship!

    And Yunomi disappears, with the duo in tow, teleporting to the ground and a hundred feet away from the blast, putting herself between the plasma-shooting hidden ship, angry Dragon, tailing Galaxy Maiden, and a very angry military leader.

    "It's okay." Yunomi states gently, "I'll keep you safe." she states to the scouts, and behind her her Prismatic Shield lights up, to protect against the flotsam and jetsam.

Terek Kinslayer (490) has posed:
    At the moment, the main plan for Terek is simply escape. He has a very enraged (and now wing equipped) Rhapsody after him, who can fire off beams of breath weapons. He manages to evade the beam, though it tears into the ship, sending the shields into a frenzy as they begin to flare up. Terek has to make her back off, and so he flips over in midair, and fires his own breath weapon back down at her. His isn't a beam, but a concentrated ball of explosive plasma. Assuming it does the trick of making her break off pursuit, he will continue to his ship.

    The ship itself is more than fast enough to make a break to the warpgate, though it will undoubtdly take fire from those arriving Triancian interceptors before it makes it. Thankfully the ship is well armored and equipped for it's size.

Rhapsody (325) has posed:
    MORE BLASTS. MORE. RAAAAAAAAAAH-What? Something, literally, causes all of Rhapsody's rage to suddenly deflate. IN the air she just turns, -stares- at Jeannette.... then she hears Terek behind her. Her finger was still on the 'trigger' of the blue spell blade. The Mizzium skin spell shimmers to life across her frame as the blast impacts! The dragoness slams into a nearby tree, slides down, and then the spell fades. She seems to be alright but.. well, rage defused. All of it. "Nngh.." .oO(Did she really say that..?)

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
As Yunomi teleports herself and the scouts to safety, Elner blinks away from the pod as well - and then teleports once again, relocating to rendezvous with the tanuki ... or as close as the robo-faerie can get, not wanting to try and go through the prismatic shield without a chance to check what it DOES with Yunomi.

As for Yuna, when she sees Terek blasting a ball of plasma in Rhapsody's direction, she brings her shield up, trying to get into position to tank the breath weapon - but she can't interpose herself in time. The Wall of the Guardian Star *does* still help protect Yuna against the portion of the detonating plasma which heads in her direction, though.

And then Terek's getting away, as Rhapsody's temper gets quenched by Jeannette's yell. Yuna just flies over to where Rhapsody hit the tree, trying to help slow the young dragon's descent and make it a more controlled landing ... although much more importantly, if Terek tries anything *else*, Yuna's ready to protect her friend.

Jeannette Thompson (410) has posed:
The interceptors come in for the Warp Gate, and they will give it the old college try, thrust vectoring having them stop almost in mid air, as they swing around for pursuit vectors. Even with multi-aspect missles and electric cannon, however, there's simply not enough time between contact and when the ship would reach the warp gate for them to do much. After which there could, tectnically, be no pursuit.

Jeannette winces as the blact hits Rhapsody, and is already moving toward the dragonness as she falls from the sky, feeling slightly guilty, as she might have been responsible for the attack hitting. A sigh of releif whne she meets her and sees her all right.

"Hate me if you wish. But that anger, that /rage/ you let control you, would have done much worse than hurt your feelings. I'm sorry, but I will be /damned/ if I let you throw yourself into a woodchipper." She notes, her own anger clipped and bottled.

Terek Kinslayer (490) has posed:
    Well that distraction by Jeanette was enough to allow Terek to reach his ship. He boards it, and is off in a flash. The interceptors score several hits, and seeing as the Predator was never really meant for in-atmo maneuvering, it is lucky it has the speed it does to reach the warp gate without sustaining too much damage.

    So unfortunately, Terek Kinslayer escaped. But the hostages were rescued, and the damage to the Observisphere can probably be repaired at some point.

Rhapsody (325) has posed:
    Slumped, sitting at the base of a tree, breathing, in out, in out, it SEEMS the anger is fading, but its hard to tell. She's not really saying anything. Her hands are tearing into the ground a bit, but besides that? She's still. Even her tail is just laying out to one side of her. The wings she had used a little earlier have vanished once again. Did she hear Jeannette? She doesn't react if she did. No wait, she's actually getting up. Her weight is pressed against the tree, she works her way up, then, for a moment, it seems she starts to turn to leave, turning her back to Jean.

        Oh wait no, she wasn't leaving at all.

She was partially turning, when she turns back there's a balled fist coming around, and fast, right at the Commodore's jaw! "Don't you EVER CALL ME THAT AGAIN!"

        Somewhere, Sidonia just sighs. "Damnit.."

After throwing the wild punch, Rhapsody resumes stalking off, hit or miss, the way it looked like she was going before. She's still not at all pleased about ANY of what just happened.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
Yuna offers a hand (or an arm) to help Rhapsody get back up ...

She wasn't expecting the first thing Rhapsody did once she was on her feet to be attempting to deck Jeannette, though. "... you okay ... or is that a stupid question ..."

She's not sure if she should try to stop Rhapsody or not; after a moment, though, she just quietly takes to the air and shadows Rhapsody towards the warpgate. After making sure the rescued scouts are okay, Elner follows suit, sticking close to Yuna again.

Jeannette Thompson (410) has posed:
Jeannette watches Rhapsody slowly stand up, her hands working through the ground. She does seem a bit.... concerned at her silence, but doesn't say anything herself. She simply waits. She had opened a wound, she knew, nessecarily, but a wound none the less. And she would have to deal with it. Or-

Jeannette's cybernetics, her brainware, allowed her to react quickly, /think/ quickly, and enough experiance fighting in bars at her youth kept the knowledge of when someone might decide to make the first punch. She sees it coming. She could try blocking it, and have a decent chance of success. Or avoiding it, and take a glacing blow.

She does neither. There was consequences to actions you take, and that meant the fist of the dragon slammed against her jaw, with a crack, causing her to stagger back, even as her hand goes up to still her Marines. And after that punch, she just works her jaw around, feeling the pain, and spitting out just a bit of blood. Landsakes, but she forgot how it /hurt/ when you didn't do anything to mitigate. "My word as your friend." She says, quietly, even if Rhaps couldn't hear it.

She won't accompany the dragon back. That wouldn't have been right. Instead, she looks back to one of the Marines behind her. "Call a surgeon and our conveyance. We're returning to /Resolve/."