5587/WANTED: The Conductor (2)

WANTED: The Conductor (2)
Date of Scene:	27 November 2017
Location:	Lumiere
Synopsis:	The Conductor appears.
Cast of Characters:	974, 513, Tomoe, Count Kord, Leyanne Mace, Staren

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Carna (974) has posed:
    Many of those here have been here before. They have journeyed to the Cavern of Death in the Four Caverns area, found the mound of bones surrounding a deep, dark pit, and taken the plunge through an endless expanse of black, falling for an interminable amount of time, but then magically alighting gently upon a vast plane of black marble -- featureless aside two pairs of great stone gates (one set gray, the other red). Those newer will get to experience that disorienting, confusing, frightening arrival for the first time, join up with others coming here, and receive any necessary explanations for the task that is to be performed: A call from locals of the Land of the Dead, to deal with a fiend that torments them.

    Those attuned to the element of Earth are likely to notice immediately that it is absent here. It is not that this is a place that does not use such an Element in its metaphysical framework, simply that it is WAS here and is now GONE.

    Those without such a connection remain oblivious.

    But they have much more to be kept apprised of.

    During a previous expedition in Lumiere, an out of control subway tram in the train tunnels of Barrowville was stopped, its perpetually-burning cargo of trapped souls freed, and it was rendered safe for use. This, in turn, lead to the discovery of a central transit station for such underworld trams, and the place where the newly-Dead once used to arrive in Lumiere.

    Also, the train drew the attention of a large number of Unlit -- the near-mindless creatures, somehow both lesser and greater than beasts, who operate not upon instinct but upon compulsion, to seek out the souls of others and consume them, whether by eating their bodies or simply by slaying them and then devouring what is released.

    But now Final Destination, and these labyrinthine tunnels, are reportedly mysteriously free of those Unlit. Or at least, no one else has run into them yet. And more mysteriously, the figure said to be responsible for the malfunctioning, soul-burning train in the first place, 'the Conductor', is still on the loose, as trains begin to move on their own, gradually leaving the platforms and stations they have sat unattended at for so long, and heading deeper into the Umberdark Tunnels.

Carna (974) has posed:
    New arrivals are unlikely to know the difference between this version of the Umberdark Tunnels and prior ones. They are unlikely to understand the significance of ancient tunnels in the land of the dead that have undergone a transformation from a near-lightless catacombs with creepy tunnels that issued strange sounds, to the almost charming locale that a little glowing shrine desposits them within. The mighty support pillars lining the platform, the brick walls beginning flat and straight but arching upwards into a vaulted ceiling, the clean-swept concrete beneath their feet, the clear and distinct moon imagery stylized upon almost every surface in crescent-shapes, and -- wonder of wonders -- electric lamps housed in ornate box-lanterns hanging from the walls, from hooks protruding from the columns, and from the ceiling of the tunnel itself.

    Light. Electricity. Signs of repair, or of regression to a state before the ravages of age and violence and supernatural decay.

    This is not the Lumiere old-hands are accustomed to. Lumiere has never before looked so friendly and welcoming.

    And look, just as they arrive, the sound of a magic-powered train echoes up the tunnel, humming on rune-covered rails, before coasting smoothly and quietly to a stop in front of them.

    Did they arrive in some other Lumiere somehow? Is this another vision of the past, such as has been experienced in Escher, or during the events of the past two Halloweens?

    There are many questions. But the task before them remains the same: There is someone causing trouble, and he, she, or it, must be dealt with.

Finna (513) has posed:
As usual, Finna arrives in Lumiere in her snow fox form. Why she seems to prefer moving about as the humble creature - currently sporting a sleek, grey-black summer coat instead of the fluffy white fur - is something someone might just have to ask her.

    But she paces lightly around the Shrine of Light in the Umberdark, waiting for the others to arrive after she did. But those who were already here she was quite willing to trot up to and give a big happy panting-fox look. Her tail's wagging much like a dog's too. The little vixen's in a good mood tonight!

    And after much sniffing around... she finally shifts back to human, leaning against one of the walls, arms folded. A mood shift to glum and suspicious, by a glance at her face. Her brow's furrowed into something of a scowl.

    "... Place is clean. Too clean."

Tomoe has posed:
The party had been hunting this being before nd tomoe was here, she was quite ready to end this she'd seen the souls put into the train used as fuel and tormented fror likely longer than her world had life upon it. She frowned a bit thishad to end this had to be set right. and he would be moving ahead wonding if it would be best The Slamander noticed signs of repairs and it makes her concerned what's going on? Is this anotehr place? A view of the past or had someone actually been restoring part of this region?

"It looks like it's been repaired it wouldn't be out of place back home, but ... here? I don't like this."

Count Kord has posed:
    Kord was already on edge. The being that was responsible for the bizarre corruption of the trains had been absent ever since their encounter with the burning train from before. They had stopped it only to realize their prey had long since fled, somehow evading their notice in the chaos. Freeing all of the beings within the train came up with no clues but freshly charred, traumatized souls that had to be brought back to shelter before something else got ahold of them.

    Kord stepped up to the train that stopped before them, and he stepped onto it. He would use it to locate the Conductor, or the Conductor would attempt to attack him while he was on it, and he would slay it. And that was that.

    The more clean state of the Umberdark Tunnels he chalked up to actual progress in undoing the rot that pervaded all of Lumiere up until they arrived. It is a spiritual location, and so active attempts to fix it and bring it back to its former glory were bound to have a palpable effect on the environment. So... he didn't feel uncomfortable about the change at all.

    That might've been a mistake.

Leyanne Mace has posed:
Leyanne Mace has once again BASE-jumped into Lumiere, arriving with the assitance of gravity. Then... well, she's got to ask the locals for directions. She has only the vaguest idea of what's going on with this subway.

She spots Kord and gives him a wave, looking over at Tomoe and Finna. "Too clean?" She asks, thoughtfully, flipping up the faceplate of her helmet. "Is that bad?"

Staren has posed:
    So the plan is to get on trains CONTROLLED BY a malevolent entity and hope that he chooses to bring them to him for a straightforward bossfight instead of just running the train off a bridge in a lava cavern or something.

    It's damn near crazy and suicidal.

    Staren arrives in different armor than he's usually seen in -- but still familair to most who know him as indicating he's in his robot body at the moment.

    As he reaches the train station, he sets down one of his tablets a little out of the way, as well as a radio relay. He's brought a gun that can just shoot little relays into the rock of the tunnel as they pass.

    The change to the tunnels doesn't really bother him. Honestly he can't keep it all straight. They found one tunnel with trains, this is another tunnel with trains.

    As he steps on board, anyone reading his expression through his faceplate might see some sorry. While he's reasonably confident he can escape a lot, he's uncomfortable with how much control over their environment today's opponent has.

    "...I can't believe the /cleanliness/ is what's bothering you, rather than that we're getting on a train controlled by someone we came here to kill and we know nothing about what else is in these caverns."

Carna (974) has posed:
    Once everyone is aboard the train, the only one definitively (hopefully) reclaimed for safe use so far, due to the repair (or reversal) of what was done to it, it does nothing until operated. From the last time it was used, the operating method should be known. Grab the metal thingy in the control booth, squeeze to go fast/faster, hold loosely to go slow/slow down, let go to stop. Focus on the direction you want to go or destination in order to change tracks.

    It works the same here the moment someone chooses to do so. As they pass through the enormous tunnel that opens up into an even bigger tunnel, various tracks start running parallel. Before they passed by many other boarding/deboarding platforms, some of them with Lanterns, some with Unlit, some with... Other things. Many just completely empty. The other platforms were darkened, for the most part, just as the one they reached via stairs leading down from City Limits was when they first entered it and found themselves facing a temporal anomaly of some kind where their past selves, slightly out of joint with their current time began to interact with each other, causing the separation of time to eventually collapse.

    Then, they killed a Shrine Mimic -- a monster masquerading as one of the transport mechanisms of Lumiere -- which in turn wound up being the basis of an improvised summoning device they used later to help fight the first Marble Guardian. After all that has happened in the scarce two years since Lumiere has been part of the Multiverse, the veterans may feel as if that was forever ago.

    For those so accustomed to Lumiere that tiny changes are readily noticeable, while the familiar darkness and horror has practically become normalized, the sheer alieness of the subway train they are on probably doesn't penetrate anymore. For the newer, the very light-framed, streamlined row of cars with crystal-paned doors and windows, carved from some unidentifiable metal or stone or maybe well-chiseled and smoothed bone, may feel terrifyingly open and exposed as it flies down the tunnel, no heavy machinery to weigh it down, no seating, but somehow the speed they are moving at not affecting the interior at all.

    They can tell they're moving very fast, but there's little to no accompanying sensation. Just the jerking high-speed almost nightmare-like movements of something that should honestly not be working this way, but somehow is.

Carna (974) has posed:
    The previously seen platforms flash by, mere blinks of the eye and gaps for the wind of their movement to make hollow noises into. No sign of the hordes that had swarmed after the others here in the past. As they pass by Final Destination, the massive central hub where millions of newly dead souls could arrive at a time and then stand in lines or mill around waiting their turn to be logged, given a new name, and directed on their way out to start the process of reincarnation, it should be clear to anyone that Final Destination is not THEIR destination.

    This train, like others that start moving alongside of them, empty of passengers, are going somewhere else. The well-lit tunnels that had shown signs of repair start to be replaced by darkened and ruined ones, sparking with green lightning from dangling cords, and cables like bio-mechanical veins along the walls. Glimpses of things in the dark provide any relief at the lack of Unlit a kick in the gut, but ahead of them, on the tracks, somehow maintaining its relative position with them no matter how the train moves, the silhouette of a figure in a cap and uniform can be seen, but only in those moments where there's no lightning. Just floating there in the dark, head down, hands clutched like claws at its sides.

    With each series of ceiling lights they pass under, the figure moves closer to the front of their train, while still matching their speed. Eventually, they pass through a long section of tunnel with no lights aside from the faint glow of runes along the tracks the give a pale-blue radiance to the train interior.

    When they next enter an area with lights, a man is standing on the train with them, in the same position, grinning a wide, mirthless, slasher grin. His eyes still unseen in the shadows of his cap.

Count Kord has posed:
    Kord starts the train. He simply approaches the controls and begins their progress through the tunnels. He makes no sounds but to calmly breathe as he watches horrors and clean stations pass by them on either side. He keeps it fast enough that nothing can simply grab ahold of them, and he keeps himself calm. He is quite used to this by now.

    It's when the silhouette appears that he tenses visibly. Its nature is clear. It's a creature that exists beyond the logic of the beasts they've run into thusfar. He dips his head and peers at the figure as it gets steadily closer, and judges how many jumps it will take to enter the train. He waits for a prime moment to attack, and he simply turns to lash out at the Conductor the moment he manifests within the train itself. His claws go out to grab the man by the face without a word or hesitation, and he tries to slam him right into one of the walls of the train with enough force to crush a man's skull or bend the strange supernatural material holding the train car together.

    Kord doesn't do negotiation with Unlit, clearly.

Leyanne Mace has posed:
Leyanne Mace looks around uneasily as the train moves, although she stays calm. This is the Multiverse, and shit gets weird here. Lumiere's a world of the Dead, after all, it's bound to be a bit... morbid. "If I see Manuel Calaveras I'm gonna scream." She comments off-handedly into the darkness.

And the light comes back and the conductor is stood there, grinning. Before she can even consciously process his presence her left hand is already in motion, smoothly drawing the big-bore revolver off her thigh and aiming it squarely at the side of the Conductor's head. She pauses, opening her mouth to ask if she should fire or apologise, when Kord slams into the dude. "Phobos!"

Staren has posed:
    Staren moves between the cars (unless the windows can be opened) to periodically shoot radio repeaters into the tunnel walls. Because of this, he's not really looking ahead. Just nervously waiting...

    Until suddenly the Conductor is inside, and Kord is fighting him.

    This... isn't what he expected at all, honestly. He figured there'd be some kind of giant boss chamber, perhaps with a bunch of tracks going through it and the Conductor controlling trains to try and smash into them or something. You know, on the slim chance they weren't diverted to some kind of death tunnel.

    Which is still a possibility as long as the train is moving. Maybe someone should stop it?

    Staren's first reaction is to try and help fight, though: He drops the repeater gun in the car and pulls the laser rifle from his back, trying to get a clear shot at the conductor without hitting Kord. Hopefully the train car won't be too damaged if he misses.

    If he can't get a steady shot, though, then he'll head to the controls.

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe is on the train now and well she's not sure what horror to run into now, she's long got the idea she's in over her head agian. Still she can't just run away at this point? Whose even going to try to fix things here if she bails? Those who remain would still need help, right? So here they go as they take anotehr ride. She expects the dead her but this time it's Ghosts? That's not something that's so common here for her.

She will follow Staren up to fgive him cover though as she gets out his laser rifle at the conductor and she makes a rush for him as well drawing her sword as she does so. This may not be the best idea.

"YOU!"

Finna (513) has posed:
Finna hops on the train, but she's HOLDING ON TIGHT this time. She's PRETTY JUMPY around it as she gets on, and hangs on to WHATEVER solid there is to grab onto - seats, poles, whatever.

    She doesn't trust the dang thing, no matter what, and ALL of her hair's standing on end, beads of perspiration rolling over her brow...

    But she's got her eyes glued to the windows, and occasionally sweeping around... but out the FRONT windows...

    An almost feline hiss of displeasure at THAT development has her backing away from the widow...

    Unlike Kord, she does't go RIGHT for violence, but she DOES draw her bow and an arrow from seemingly NOWHERE.

    Testingly, she attempts to MIMIC the man's incredibly disturbing grin, showing an improbably wide smile full of sharp carnivorous teeth right back at him! Wait what how did she?

    "Like the grin. Tricky oe to pull off!" She exclaims, as if admiring the man's expression or attitude - or just trying to mock him and unsettle him, perhaps force him to change gears or rethink... whatever he's thinking.

    Psychological warfare, yeah. It helps.

    Then Kord goes BALLISTIC on the Conductor and Finna panics. She's seen how some of her allies fight. She knows how she herself fights. "Can't break the only vehicle we've got! Don't use any big boom stuff in here! Small weapons! Stop us somewhere safe and knock him out!"

    Finna backflips a few times and raises her bow, taking careful aim...

    Fires off a beastly little arrow that screams through the air, trailing silvery motes of light. It's subtle, but this thing will BURY itself in with a beastly twist and try to ravage vitals.

Carna (974) has posed:
    Kord strikes with superhuman speed and strength. Staren takes careful aim to avoid hitting Kord and fires. Finna shoots as well, aiming for localized damage rather than widespread. Tomoe backs Kord up, aiming to use her strength and melee skill to take on the enemy at close range.

    They all hit nothing. Because there is no one there. Some people may have to dodge their ally's fire if they're able to react in time, but for the most part they aimed with a mind for not hitting the people in melee range that all that really happens is their attacks may richocet off the walls or smash a crystal-paned window (which, yes, open. Though the nullification of the sensation of speed inside does not appear to translate to the immediate exterior).

    Just being able to smash and shoot a ghost would have been too easy for Lumiere. Especially a ghost that has existed this long and accumulated enough power.

    Even the fact that multiple people perceived and responded to him doesn't rule out the possibility of hallucinations, but it's more likely that the Conductor is screwing with them. Psychological warfare indeed.

    Then the ground, the floor of the tunnel, is gone. Their train is falling through empty space, plummeting towards a ruined city that has somehow appeared below them. Tall buildings, houses, businesses, all overrun with train tracks. Tracks going over buildings, through skyscrapers, cutting homes in half, going down into large bodies of water, and other bizarre configurations. Trains of all description, from old coal-burning ones to electric to mag-lev to the rune-driven subway trains like the ones they're on, can be seen going on the same routes, the same loops, or even just going back and forth endless on sections of track cut off on both ends from any destination.

    A bullet train shoots through a huge hole that has been punched through a skyscraper in order for tracks to be laid. There is also a massive central station winding its way up some other giant building, repurposed for the Conductor's use. Microphones, levers, switches, booths, and big glowing screens floating in the air showing a chaotic jumble of routes and train positions surround it.

    The Conductor's voice comes screeching over intercoms scattered throughout the ravaged city, still burning in some places.

    "THIS IS YOUR LAST STOP!"

    The man himself can be made out as a tiny humanoid silhouette against the light of one of the big glowing screens, a hand pressed to the cracked glass of his booth. Details are hard to make out, but he is probably grinning as he announces into a hand speaker, "NO GODS, NO KINGS, ONLY TRAINS!"

Carna (974) has posed:
    The train crashes down on one of the tracks safely, somehow. And now Staren's expectations can be fulfilled in the worst way possible.


            EMBODIED WISH FORGED IN MADNESS (Power: Chaos)

                THE CONDUCTOR


    The track they have landed on is on top of a building. There's a rather large black train pouring flames its smoke stack coming up the ramped rails behind them.

Staren has posed:
    IT WAS AN ILLUSION THAT JERK

    And then they're falling. Now THIS is what Staren expected. They're probably hurtling towards lava or something. He hurries to a door-- and it's locked. He hurries to a window... and can see that, below is... 'or something'. A... ruined city? Full of trains. Ah, yes, the train boss arena hypothesis. Less likely than instant death, but still expected.

    This body will probably survive a crash. He braces for impact...

    And the train seems to land okay, somehow.

    This just means the Conductor is confident he can kill them in other ways.

    The door are open. Staren hurries out, taking to the air. Trying to get a view of the area, watching for angles of attack. He doesn't assume he's safe in the air, but at least he's not CONFINED and should have room to dodge. Other trains could fall from above, or hell, maybe go flying off one of those ramps.

    Now, the conductor APPEARS to be in the booth, and Staren could attack it... but once he's played a card, the conductor will know, and he won't be able to use it again.

Hetaren decides the most straightforward action is to play a card already played, and see if the booth is an illusion too: He fires his laser rifle at it.

Count Kord has posed:
    Kord didn't expect him to simply vanish. And there they are, plummeting down into the dark in a train, the only train they managed to wrest from the horrific apparition's control, while he weaves out of the way and tries not to get stabbed or shot. The train slams into the tracks atop a building, and it's an immediate and incredible shock that they didn't all slam into the ceiling from the sudden stop. Kord is crouched like an antagonized animal, his tail visibly lashing behind him, eyes wild and focused on his hand, which was seconds from crushing the Unlit like an egg.

    "Damnation," he hisses as the train they're on soon has another screaming toward it, billowing flames. He isn't going to wait for it to hit them. This train is the only one he knows isn't controlled directly by that man, as they've used it in the past to make their way through this realm. Kord reaches out to grab ahold of the controls, and he then looks dead ahead. Once they're going at a speed where he can react fast enough to oncoming threats, he glances over his shoulder, and does something creative.

    He creates a ramp for the burning locomotive using solid shadows shaped to do so, and tries to send it flying through the air at the Conductor's booth instead. He is not skilled in redirecting enormous hulks of metal moving at lethal speeds, though.

    "Open a window and shoot the demon in his face!" Kord barks to the others, as the windows have been demonstrated to be openable at the very least.

Leyanne Mace has posed:
Leyanne Mace yelps and holds on tight as the trail goes on its wild fall, holstering her pistol and grabbing onto any rails she can find, just in case there's something resembling a landing at the bottom.

And there is. For that, she's grateful. The train screeches to a halt and Leyanne is half-way to the door when Kord gets the machine moving. "I hope you know what you're doing!" the mouse comments, hauling the door shut and unslinging the big rotary cannon on her back. She pushes open a window, frowning. Not the best firing position she's ever used, but not the worst, either. It takes her a moment to get a good firing angle, but when she does...

"GOING LOUD!" the mouse warns, before the gatling gun in her hands lets out a flatulent blurt of firepower at the Conductor's booth.

Tomoe has posed:
It was an illusion nothing of substance here but then there is. She sees the sight before her like a mad child's train set, it's everywhere. There's so many trains, so many lines i it's pretty much the idea of trains all on display now. "Did you seriously go no god no kings only trains?! Wait ..."

Is he the train somehow is what they are seeing only the a projection again? She's got some ranged spells but its' not her main focus she will head for the side of the train and will either open or break it, which ever is quicker for her then she'll start to chant and golden runes dance about it.

It takes a moment but the rays of light come seeking out trying to get the Conductor in his booth maybe she'll be able to at least rattle him up but she's not going to assume she can breach it at that range and with her magic stats.

Carna (974) has posed:
    Staren ditches his allies, assuming they're going to jump off a building just because he did. Ever the team player, that Staren! Thankfully, Leyanne manages to get the doors closed in time for Kord to get them going. See, the same safety precaution that keep the doors closed when it's in motion also keep it from moving when the doors are open. So for a few pulse-pounding seconds, Kord's use of the controls results in... Nothing but some synthetic, ambient voice announcing that the train can not move when passengers are boarding and deboarding.

    As the flaming train about three times their size comes zipping up the side of the building like a hellish, steel-and-fire caterpillar with nitro boosters, Leyanne manages to get the doors closed again, and the train immediately takes off, following the new course that Kord set for it via ramping.

    Thanks to both Staren's shot that causes a distant explosion as metal vaporized, and Leyanne's gatling gun riddling the control booth with shots, it's confirmed that it's real. As the glass splinters and shatters under the flurry, Tomoe's magic light beam streaks inside, hitting something and sending an explosion blasting out of the booth, in a rain of burning paper, broken machinery, and other miscellaneous objects.

    But no body.

    The Conductor appears to have run over to a different booth a bit higher up and is pulling levers, even as the train of the Elites comes flying along a high arc towards the structure. It may not be accurate, but if it hits, it will probably do some damage. And... Probably also to the people inside. Hey, wait, isn't this a really bad idea? There aren't exactly airbags in here!

    Meanwhile, a section of track appears right next to Staren in the air. Then more sections appear, above and around him. They all begin falling, the metal cross-bars, the rails, the parts of train tracks, when they reach the right elevation, just falling into the correct placement at the direction of their maker, and freezing there like they had been built there all along.

    Rapidly, new loops and ramps and layers of track are being added, towers of steel, roads for great machines, building up towards Staren's level supernaturally quickly. A bullet train comes shooting at Staren almost the moment there is one on the same general 'plane', already redirected from its prior tracks and coordinated so that when the new tracks were laid, and the switch flipped, it would make the sudden turn, derail, and then go flying through the air at him.

Carna (974) has posed:
    Likewise, as the subway car the rest of them are on flies towards the central station building, tracks fall into place, building on top of each other, until they land on a new set of tracks that turns them away and off in a different direction, on a loop around the exterior of the tower.

    It can safely be said that the Conductor is very good at conducting.

    It is also safe to say that damaging that control tower is something that works, and possibly the key to ending all this.

Leyanne Mace has posed:
Leyanne gives Kord a thumbs-up and then holds on tight with her tail, pouring as much fire into the conductor's tower as she can manage. The amount of casings she's leaving in the train are sure to become a slip hazard before long, raining down around her ankles from the cannon's ejection chute. Other than that, Leyanne keeps on the fire, getting ready to redirect towards any threats the conductor might throw at them. Surely, he's not so distracted by Staren that he's forgotten about them?

She ducks involuntarily as a piece of miscelaneous trackside equipment slams into the front of the train; the severed semaphore board of a British-style signal clattering off the windowframe and then bouncing off her helmet, dangerously close to one of the mouse's antennae. "Shit!"

Staren has posed:
    The door closes behind him. "What are you DOING?!" Staren shouts as the train drives off, swiftly followed by another train.

    So, there's probably nigh-infinite booths here. Destroying every single one might be possible, but will likely take forever and risk wearing them down. Could there be another way to fight...?

    Now he has to deal with the 'penalty' for being out of the train though: Tracks, and a bullet train coming after him! He's... SORT OF... ready? Tracks and trains have to be near him to be a threat. He tries, at first, to keep changing position so that no tracks are pointing at him, but it's harder than it sounds as the layers of track build up in the air. He doesn't dare just fly up -- eventually, he'll run out of space and be trapped, and it will also mean losing sight of the conductor -- and being even further from his allies.

    So when the bullet train approaches, he can see it coming and make sure not to be right in the way.

    He doesn't actually have adrenaline or a heart, but the parts of his cyberbrain emulating such processes give him an echo of the sensation of his heart pounding as the bullet train FLIES past. One train's not too hard to dodge, but Staren can already see the potential for the conductor to have several trains swirling around him on too many courses to track. The conductor has a way to finish him, and he still doesn't know how to finish the conductor. Maybe, just maybe, Staren is at least splitting his attention somewhat.

    In the moments before more trains come and he has to go completely on the defensive, he looks around desperately for something that sticks out, some clue to the way to actually hurt this boss insetad of blowing up obviously redundant towers.

    He prods at that connection he once felt, too, reaching out for anything, if the mysterious computer system can help here...

Count Kord has posed:
    Kord has no empathy for those inside that train car that he just had launched toward the Conductor's tower. Its alien mechanisms and levers and machinery go blasting out of it from all the damage inflicted on the booth the Conductor was in a moment ago, but he can only glance over there for a brief moment. He growls softly to himself at the being's apparent ability to appear anywhere in the structure-- but realizes it's probably the structure itself that is the core of the creature's being when he really gets a look at the mass that makes up the control tower.

    That's right. All of the powerful Unlit, without exception, have been enormous in some way. Even the Marble Guardians have been Unlit of enormous scope. At least that's consistent.

    Kord points his hand out of a window he opens with some quick shadow magic, the other holding the controls at a consistent grip strength to keep them moving at a constant pace. Then he simply fires a blast of dark magic into the structure, aiming for whatever point appears to be holding it all together, below where the Conductor would be standing. It takes him a second to get a good vantage on the screaming, swerving rail path they're on, but even the Unlit have rules they follow to some degree, even the ones embodying some form of chaos.

    Kord grins behind his mask, because the challenge is exhilirating. A monster stands before him and his goals, and all he has to do is find a way to kill it before it kills him. Nothing could be simpler than this primal battle of wills.

Tomoe has posed:
There is no body, they didnt' get him but they did force the Conductor to move, right? That's an imporant thing they are making him react to them. Which may give them some time to act, she needs to get the hell out, but now is a hell of a bad time to do so, so she's going to hunker down for the moment and ready another spell but that will take some time she will have to wait for a good shot. In she'll just have to wait then, for a better moment but it could be worse right?

Carna (974) has posed:
    The Conductor, whatever freakish powers he has over trains and their trappings, does not appear to have any special ability to protect against bullets. As Leyanne shoots out all the windows of the various booths they pass on this loop, the Conductor is forced to abandon his position, running from one location to another, flipping switches as he goes, trying to stay ahead of the hail of rounds destroying his base of operations.

    The tracks laid to enable a train to hit Staren also prevented any trains from hitting the tower. Instead it appears to have collided with another train, sending both burning hulks toppling down in ruins to the destroyed city below.

    Given the control he has over the tracks, that he would have put them down in such a way to bring the team opposing him closer, into easy firing range as they now are, and subject himself to this deadly hail, might be worrying. Why make it easier for enemies to attack him?

    Staren's attempt to prod at the system in his mind results in a distinctive electronic pinging noise, and a display superimposing itself over his conciousness.

    Log-In Attempt Detected. User Name and Password?

    Well, he knows the name he got to use last time, but... It didn't ask for a password then, did it? What's this Solaren guy's password!?

    As shadow blasts shoot into the exposed booths from Leyanne's barrage, things scatter and burst out in a wave of dark power, more wreckage, more internal damage to the structure itself, fewer places for the Conductor to hide. Then something sleek and silver and futuristic-looking comes arcing its way up over the top of the tower. It is glowing from in-built panels, seems to have some kind of repulsors or something on its underside, and... Yes. Yes, it's a flying train.

    And it seems to be ignoring the placement of the tracks in order to zero in on the predictable loop of the good guys' current course. Apparently having a stable circle to bombard the tower with isn't entirely to their benefit. It also means that until they derail, they are stuck on a single path. Though with Kord's shadow manifestation, maybe he can make new tracks for them like he did the other train before.

    But how long can such a chase last? Trying to redirect the train to dodge a flying one against someone who can continue to send other trains and lay new tracks of his own and is really experienced at doing so? The tower is in flames in many places now.

    Will they be able to do enough damage to stop all this befoe they are outmaneuvered, one way or another? Can Staren access the Lumiere system and try to alter the situation through hacking the world? The pressure is on for all involved parties, and there is a time limit before all available space is part of the Conductor's web.