3492/A Bad Time to Travel

A Bad Time to Travel
Date of Scene:	07 December 2015
Location:	Avatar World <AW>
Synopsis:	Union forces under Pepper's leadership escorts a trade caravan for the Beifong family when mercenaries and Confederates strike. Also, dino-train.
Cast of Characters:	Maya, 20, 132, 204, 368, 513, 604, 754, 801, 824, 857, 903

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Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    Previously on Avatar:

    The interior of the Beifong estate, where Lao Beifong and Pepper Potts seem to be having a brief meeting. Lao himself speaks, his expression one of concern and worry.

    "The shipments have been stolen, people have been killed, wagons and beasts of burden destroyed..." Another sigh, and Lao forces himself to take another sip of the tea, as if seeking a way to calm his nerves. "It's pretty much clear that sending a regular escort is too dangerous, and more people will die." Here he looks at Pepper again, swallowing not only his pride. "We... need Elites to ensure the safety of the workers, the cargo and the future of the Beifong family."

    "I can't promise anything." Pepper replies quietly, and she sets her cup in her fingers, supporting it between them as they neatly steeple. She closes her eyes, and remains sitting ramrod straight.

    "You didn't endear yourself to the Union in general. Ordinarily, I would suggest putting a line out to The Syndicate for... mercenary work..." she dryly levels her gaze at Lao.

    "However." There's the softest of clicks as she sets the cup down, voice soft as a spring breeze -- and carrying with it the same chill malice of a spring snow at the same time. "I can understand your reasons behind what you did. I will find you protection for your caravan... on one condition."

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    Even in the southern Earth Kingdom the effects of the oncoming winter can be felt, especially along the coast. It's a treacherous route, but it's the better option for today. Considering the previous caravans sent up towards the Fire Nation colonies were ambushed by mercenary benders, the chances of it happening it again are rather high. So rather than settling for the safer and more commonly travelled roads further inland through the forests and mountain passes, today's band of wagons have begun on the coastal path. The winds are fierce here, and while it's a bit too far south to snow this early in winter, the rain is coming down rather heavily. The ostrich horses pulling the wagons are sturdy luckily, though they do protest. The workers inside the wagons aren't uneasy just because of the weather, of course. The previous workers who were sent up this way did meet an early demise after all, and the precious goods were destroyed or stolen.

    It had taken time to gather the necessary goods again, and not to mention convince potential workers to take the chance. But it does help when the Union is on security duty. Even so, Lao Beifong himself has joined the caravan, riding with some of the Elites who have been offered the opportunity to take turns guarding outside and taking a well deserved rest. It's been a long trek, after all. Several hours have passed, and the road isn't exactly the easiest to travel. Even the strong and sturdy ostrich horses has needed a break now and then.
    The Beifong patriarch has been quiet most of the trip, looking out of the window of the wagon with obvious concern. And his daughter is one of the Elites who haven't accepted the offer of riding inside the wagon for several reasons. Instead she is at the front of the caravan, clad in a cloak to help keep her dry even as she focuses on making sure that the road is stable and not about to crumble under the weight of the caravan, as well as keeping her senses open to whether this attack will be met by an attack like the previous ones.

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    Up on a cliffside overlooking the road below it should be even harsher weather conditions, but nonetheless the mercenary bender gang has chosen this spot to get a better view of the caravan when it arrives, themselves hidden behind rocks and trees that offer some shelter against the elements. And as the much awaited caravan approaches in the distance, one of the mercenaries turn to the others, as well as the hired Elites. Mostly Confederates, from what he was told. But seriously, they are a strange bunch. For one, there's the little talking fire ferret. It's more than a little weird. That's nothing compared to the big guy dressed in all black though, or the weird lady, the young fellow with the sword, the metallic mercenary... and a peculiar four legged talking creature unlike anything they've ever seen before.

    "Remember," he says to those gathered, "We need to make sure the caravan doesn't make it to Yu Dao one way or the other. Our employer has warned us that there will be Union Elites there, hired by the Beifong family. You guys handle them. Any questions?"

Teemo (801) has posed:
The talking fire ferret raises his little hand and pipes shrilly, "Is this gonna be a standup fight, sir, or another bughunt?"

Raine Arland (604) has posed:
     Raine is here...wearing a hooded jacket over his usual ensemble...to fend off the rain.

     Seriously, who wrote this scenario!?

     Choosing a well hidden vantage point from behind a tree, the swordsman peered out over the cliffside at the path below while listening to the mercenary and his explanation. Raine's ghostly companion seemed to be less interested in the job, and more interested in flipping through a comic book of some sort. The weather seemed to phase right through her.

     "Make sure the caravan doesn't get to it's destination. Simple work..." Beat. "Simple work made harder by the Union. What a shame, what a shame." Raine shrugged his shoulders in a cavalier manner, smirking all the while. "Well. I got no questions. Stop the target from reaching it's goal, waylay Union Elites, and I'm gonna assume we keep the cargo as intact as possible. Anything else?"

Beelzebumon (132) has posed:
     Normally, Beelzebumon wouldn't think to hire himself out as a mercenary, but things have been rather... slow on the homefront, and Beelzebumon has been getting bored since the end of the Worlds Martial Arts Tournament. Besides, he happened to be in the bar these bandits frequented when they came looking for talent to help them with a job... and hey, more money = more booze, and booze always makes Beelzebumon happy.

     Speaking of which, Beelz is current laying on his side on a rock, with his head propped up on one hand, while the other holds a bottle of booze that he takes a swig from. He is largely indifferent to the downpour from the heavens, "S'long as I get to pound heads, I really could care less."

Eve (857) has posed:
    Mercenary work is a little unusual for someone like Eve, but she's more likely to sign up for something like this than for something that's clearly and obviously a war thing. Here, she doesn't HAVE to fight, not unless the caravan is attacked. And if they're attacked then she's defending people. Yes, this is much better than something directly warlike.

    She doesn't, however, ride along with some of the others in the caravan. Horses are HUGE, and these giant bird-horse things are perhaps even more menacing than a normal horse. Not that she's scared of them or anything of course. Not much. It's just that if Toph can walk, she can too.

    Fortunately Eve's tough, and she's strengthened a fair bit over the last few months. Good nutrition and exercise make quite a difference, and she has no trouble keeping up. The little blonde remains behind Toph, closer to the wagons than the front lines. She's not quite antisocial, but she doesn't really contribute much to casual conversation out of a certain stoicism.

Tesla Armadia (368) has posed:
Realistically, the Confederacy could likely just give the raiders whatever supplies they wanted, on terms of their support at a later time.

But realistic is boring. Especially in comparison to when you could be taking those supplies from your enemies and breaking anything else that belongs to them

Besides, it was nice when ones allies could be at least somewhat self reliant, instead of running to you for help every time someone got a proverbial black eye.

"Mmmhmm," is Tesla's primary reply to the rundown, as she's watching the caravan through a telescopic viewer. "Considering the Earth Nation isn't on the sturdiest of terms with the Union, you've done well in disrupting them if they've been willing to go this far for support."

Fiora Laurent (824) has posed:
    Fiora has deigned to bring her own mount, in this case. A sturdy creature, that she purchased before leaving with the rest of the caravan. Marching is for soldiers, and she is not one of those. She has a feeling Garen would bend over backwards at the opportunity, though. She sighs lightly, drawing the hooded cloak she's wearing over her normal attire a little closer, every time the wind whips up the cliff face.

"Hopefully not much longer, now. Goodness, this cold is something." She lets out a sigh, but keeps her guard up. She knows bandits, especially those who have money, to be the well-prepared sort. Even more true, with the potential for a large take, such as the caravan she's guarding.

Teemo (801) has posed:
"Button it, furball," the merc leader snaps, and since that's just about the reaction he'd been going for, Teemo just smirks and hops down from the rock he'd been standing on, the greyish/greenish/brownish of his all-weather cloak making him difficult to see amongst the grass and mud and rocks as he surveys the road below and starts picking his way along to a better intercept point. What of his white fluff is exposed, is swiftly matted down by rain and mud, and when he does finally come to a stop, behind the bole of a lightning-charred tree to crouch down and swing his pack off his shoulders, he becomes nigh invisible to the naked eye. He hums a silent tune inside his head as he swiftly, surely takes out the implements of his trade and starts shaping the poison charges into forms most resembling the rocks and fungus to be found along this particular road.

Finna (513) has posed:
    WHY, why oh why did it have to be raining? Finna would have gladly flown and soared around as a hawk or something. Or in a lighter rain, maybe a seagull.

    As it is, she's currently spending her time as a seagull WITH HAWK TALONS instead of seagull feet, all puffed up and perched atop a wagon. Looking all over for any signs of trouble!

    She is NOT happy. She wanted to enjoy good food and chatting things up with the festive caravan fleas! This caravan is, well...

    It's impressive, but it's got nothing on the Guild's caravans that she's always happy to take advantage of. And short of caravan fleas there should be good food.

    Instead, there's a lot of rain. WHY is this such a problem?

    Because rain mucks with vision. It slows travel. It throws off scent. It is the PERFECT TIME to attack a caravan.

    That's why Finna has dutifully chosen to NOT follow her stomach's lead and is instead toughing it in the rain. "There better be good food when this is all over," She grumps.

    Today was supposed to be a fun day.

    She is in such a horrible mood that anyone using binoculars or whatever that might randomly spot the bird might find themselves gulping and blood running cold at the sheer waves of UNCANNY FRUSTRATION rolling from the seagull's ruffled feathers as it preens and peers about.

Maya has posed:
Maya was willint to help with the escort duty, and she'd been fairly prompt to show up. The Earth Kingdom also had terrain much like Maya's home shell and that made her feel a bit more at ease even if the wildlife was crazy. So many mammels and reptiles of various stripes rather than giant insects, arachnids and Helgak. Eitgher way it would be an adventure or at lest anotehr chance to see more of the Earth Kingdom itself.

Still given who it was Maya was shocked but well she's still here and even so she's now wondering just what to do here. Rain didn't bother Maya at all, she loved the rain it was a rare thing in Oasis and generally turned into a party when it happened she looked over to Finna for a moment.

"What's wrong Finna? I thought you would adore the elements and be dancing in the rain, Fates Know if I wasn't working I just might."

Ebon Ribbon (903) has posed:
     The strange-looking four-legged creature watches from the shadows of a large tree and the brush around its base, staying low to the ground to try and avoid detection. Only her tail moves every now and then, much like a cat lying in ambush. And she is not enjoying the rain. Her usually expertly styled mane and tail have both gone flat from the dampness, and she is desperately trying to hold her tail up out of the mud. Had she known it would be raining, she would have made proper preparations!

     But, Ebon Ribbon is dealing with it for now. But, she is unwilling to wait for long. Once the caravan is within range, she targets the lead wagon's beasts-of-burden. Her ribbons strike out with the swiftness of snakes, seeking to entangle the legs of the ostrich horses and start draining them of strength. If there are additional wagons, she sends out ribbons toward the second wagon as well. Her plan? To stop the forward progress of the caravan and make them a sitting target for explosives and benders.

HK-47 (754) has posed:
     It was likely plaintively obvious that he disliked the concept of 'Earthbenders' very much. More so then he did even for regular meatbags. The reason why was also, very easily, discernible to the naked eye - for his processor subroutines at least. Namely that they twisted the 'natural order' of things.

     Droids were, in every conceivable way, far superior to the common meatbag amalgam of frail flesh-sack container pulled grotesquely taunt over a jumble of soft, squishy liquidious components and supported by a fragile carbon-calcium skeletal structure. And yet... to think there were such creatures out there that could warp and rend durable polymers and hardened alloys as if they were the frail flesh-coverings of a meatbag themselves was nothing short of a gap in logic.

     It was illogical. It was not possible... and yet, he had witnessed it all too often to dispute the effectiveness of this. The outcome of when the natural order was utterly inverted - when simple, lumpen meatbags could rip apart droids with the same efficiency and ease that a droid could disassemble a meatbag.

     Yes... to say HK-47 had come to loathe the very concept of Earthbenders was a /gross understatement/. And this particular meatbag was one he now had something of a very personal grudge against. As close to a 'nemesis' as the droid could comprehend a meatbag becoming.

     One he would like nothing more then to leave as mere scatterings of ash by the end of the day.

     The droid is currently garbed in light clothes - a simple shirt and pants with bandages and cloth-covers on his arms and legs. All precautions to try and blunt his metal body from being detected easily - by Earthbenders or scanners - by using the cloth bindings on his feet to limit direct contact with surfaces. This is finished off by a waterproof cloak camo-patterend for the area to protect against the heavy rainfall. As a further precaution, HK had, upon breaking off from the group, decided to set up 'shop' so to speak in a treetop blind, finding a branch sturdy and large enough to support his metal body... and with the cold wind and rain, his plate-temperature was likely cold enough to avoid thermal detection or infra-red vision - at least until he started shooting.

     For the moment though, he was training sights on the caravan, lining his rifle's scope up with the cloaked, hooded figure that held the lead for the group... honing in on where her head would be.

     Just a bit closer... that would be all he'd need. And then the Earthbender would be nothing more then a memory.

     And woe to any meatbag that tried to get in his way.

Pepper Potts (204) has posed:
    LIstening to everyone over the shortband, Potts was above the caravan in flight. The red and silver of the RESCUE armor gleaming on what was an orignarily peaceful, rainy day. Down below she keeps her tabs on the caravan, not yet hyperventilating.

    WHyw ould she be hyperventilating? This was the first real mission without Tony. Her daughter was involved /AND/ the elder Beifong had also decided to partake. This could be bad.

    Very bad.

    She comes down, closer to the caravan and hovers neatly above it, keeping an eye on Toph, whose ground progress was setting the pace for everyone involved.

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    Whatever the fire ferret is talking about doesn't seem to sit well with the mercenary leader, and he lets out a huff as the creature heads off down towards the road. As long as it doesn't alert the caravan to their presence he doesn't care. Instead he turns towards Raine. "The goods are worth a lot, the workers however are expendable." He glances at Beelzebumon before he continues. "Pound their heads in for all I care, as long as the job gets done. Otherwise we don't get paid." Which is kind of why they are here. When Tesla mentions the fickle bond between the Earth Kingdom and the Union, he chuckles. "Well, the earthbenders are stubborn and got thick skulls, I don't blame them." In response to that one of the other mercenaries lets out a huff of obvious disapproval, which causes the merc leader to glance at him. "What? It's true." Sure, there might be firebenders, earthbenders and even a waterbender in the group, but they are still getting used to working together after a war that lasted for a century.

    It had been a bit strange with how Eve had declined to ride in the wagon, but Toph hadn't pressed the issue and only shrugged it off when the younger girl had decided to instead follow closely behind her as she walks ahead of the caravan. Eve isn't a tough earthbender, and she's a bit on the small side, but it would be hypocritical of Toph to push her aside. Maybe she will learn and toughen up from this, who knows? Instead she focuses on the area around them, only speaking up in response to Fiora. "Yu Dao shouldn't be too far away from what father said during our last stop." The other Union members should easily have noted how tense the situation had been between Toph and her father, and they had barely exchanged words during the stops they had taken on the journey today. "And I'm sure we can eat when we get there," she assures Finna.

    Suddenly Toph halts however, and her eyes widen as she's already moving into a bending stance. "Behind the trees!" she calls out. Perhaps it would have been easier for Ebon Ribbon to blend in if she had resembled any of the local fauna, like Teemo who goes unnoticed for now. Ebon's ribbons do manage to strike the lead ostrich of the first wagon, and the large bird lets out a startled sound! There are many of them though, two for each wagon, and they are far apart, so it might take time to get them all. Not to mention that the earth underneath the pony reacts, and a series of earthen spikes shoot up, an attempt to knock the pony back or the very least disrupt her in whatever she is doing.

    As HK-47 isn't on the ground it's impossible for Toph to see him, and if he's far enough away she can't sense the metal in his body either.

    When they realise the caravan has been alerted, the mercenaries head on down the slope, the earthbenders sliding down on earthen plates, and the firebenders and the lone water bender are close behind.

Beelzebumon (132) has posed:
     ""Welp, looks like it's time to cause a little chaos." Beelzebumon says with a shrug as he polishes off the last of his booze and gets up, then swaggers over to where Behemoth is parked, before climb on board.

     One settled onto his machine of war, he takes a moment to fetch a rather nasty looking chain and hook from the stowage compartment, then guns the throttle with his other hand as he releases the brake pedal... and with a sudden roar, the biker demon tears off down the hill, swinging his chain over his head with a wild war cry.

     Then as he comes into range of one of the lead wagons, he heaves his arm forward and hurtles the hook towards the wheels of one of the wagons as he aims to snare the wheel spokes with the intent to tear it clear off as the chain goes taut.

Fiora Laurent (824) has posed:
    "Ah, that is a small comfort, at least." Fiora replies, urging her mount forward with a light kick of her heels. She draws back on the reigns, however, when she notices Toph's very sudden change in demeanor, and quickly draws her sword. "To arms!" She calls back to the other wagons behind, and anyone else, Elite or otherwise, who might not be immediately aware of the situation. There are several calls for such, in fact. But, in this sort of situation, it pays to have your attackers come to you. So, Fiora wraps the reins around her free hand, her sword in the other, as she awaits the bandit's charge.

She also makes note to circle back around to the wagon that Toph's father is in. "I see them. Let them come to us."

Tesla Armadia (368) has posed:
Now the fun begins.

The unicorn manages to at least slow down the beasts of burden with her attack, which is all that is necessary. The stall will be enough time for HK-47 to get his shot while Teemo and the mercenaries move in. Likely Beelzebumon will just follow their lead and start destroying whatever. The raiders likely won't fight too long if they prioritize the stealing of supplies though.

Unlike the more... ethusiastic members of the raiding party Tesla takes her time to calculate her options, even as the magnifier slides away from her usual battle visor. Her sights are already set on a specific wagon after peering through its windows.

A pulse from her kinetic boosters are enough to launch herself off the cliff, down to the caravan, and land with a hefty thud atop the wagon. The technopath's gauntlet glows briefly, and then she slams it right into the roof of the wagon. A very specific wagon. Forget the material resources, as appropriate for someone of her rank and infamy Tesla Armadia has gone directly for the elder's wagon, and the prime political target within.

Needless to say, someone probably wants to get her down off that wagon before she breaks through it entirely.

HK-47 (754) has posed:
     And there is the opening! As the Earthbender is distracted by the ribbons... HK-47's disruptor rifle charges and discharges, a bolt of purplish-white disruptor energy lancing out of the trees like lightning for Toph Beifong's center of mass.

     As a disruptor rifle, it could bypass energy shielding... and was was lethal so long as it struck head-on, so he did not ned to focus on the head as opposed the easier-to-target torso. The odds were not in the meatbag's favor.

     Toph will likely recognize the effects of the disruptor rifle... if she survives the opening attack.

     He takes note of the form of the Rescue armor - one of the meatbag Metalbender's parental units.

     How befittingly perfect. She would be able to bear witness to her surrogate successor-unit's death-by-atomization.

Eve (857) has posed:
    Eve has plenty to prove, at least in her own view. She's new to the Union side, and hasn't fought much in open battle. Training, sure... but at some point the training wheels need to come off. The irony of course is that no one else has any reason to think Eve has something to prove. And the one she most wants to impress, the one she considers her own personal rival because she's a young and skilled warrior, has no reason to even consider her in that way.

    Eve doesn't look like much, to be sure. Dressed in a long rain-cloak, her hair tucked away, she looks like nothing much at all. The only thing that might make her seem at all intriguing is the metal umbrella she carries. It glistens in the rain and does a fine job of keeping the wet from the girl beneath. Why anyone would carry such a needlessly-heavy implement as a metal umbrella is the question however. Either she's stronger than she looks - which wouldn't be hard - or the umbrella isn't entirely what it appears.

    Eve is quick to respond at the cry of alarm. She turns her head, studying the attack for a moment, then breaks into a run. Her cloak streams out behind her, her umbrella held before her, still serving to keep the rain from her. And... acting as a shield as well? It does look vaguely shield-shaped, should anyone be paying the girl any heed.

    Between the Earthbender and the wagons, Eve is in good position to respond to the attacks on the lead wagons. She studies the snakelike ribbons for a moment, then collapses the umbrella and slashes away at them. The metal pole grows edges, somehow turning seamlessly into a sword. It doesn't fold and extend, not like a mechanical transformer. The tool flows and expands, shaping itself seemingly organically into a weapon.

Raine Arland (604) has posed:
     "Heh. Got it."

     That said, once the cue was given, by way of Toph noticing their overall presence. "Well, looks like the party's started. Time to dance." Grinning, Raine conjured up a sword of black and red, hoisting it onto his shoulder. "'ey, Fragarach! Time to move!" He called back behind him to the ghostly girl floating in the air and flipping through a manga.

     She sighed and gave him a sidelong glance before quietly glaring and floating after him, the book tucked away into some manner of portal. Raine then slid down the cliffside with the mercenary benders, red energy gathering over his sword. "Annnnd we're gonna need you to stop moving!"

     Gripping his weapon, he lifted it and swung inwards, sending a volley of energy bursts hurtling towards the wheels of the rear caravans, aiming to break them and force immobility. He didn't immediately look to engage any specific Union Elite yet.

Teemo (801) has posed:
Teemo freezes for a split second as the caravan leader suddenly looks and shouts in his direction, and then the earth erupts a short distance away at Ebon's hiding spot. He swears softly under his breath, makes sure his prepared charges are secured to his belt for easy access, and then dashes out from behind his tree, keeping to the cover of the rocks and brush along the side of the road as much as possible. To the untrained eye, between his camouflaged cloak and muddy fur, probably just looks like a wet, filthy animal spooked and fleeing blindly for its life. An illusion bolstered by the crowd of small birds that spook up out of a clump of tough grass where they'd been sheltering, flying up and every which way in a cone of flapping wings and chaotic cawing as he runs through.

What he's really doing, of course, is taking as much advantage of the initial surprise as he can -- since he's evidently not to be allowed to do his customary leisurely ambush from behind -- to dart suddenly between the dancing legs of the ostrich horses, and dive under the lead wagon. He takes in the construction of the undercarriage at a glance, and one little hand lashes out to stick what looks like a clod of mud to the front axle, just left of center. It's a swift, practiced maneuver, his thumb depressing the timer on the charge as he speeds past without breaking stride. He dashes out from under the opposite side of the wagon and dives for the grass on the other side of the road.

Ebon Ribbon (903) has posed:
     Ebon expected a quick response from the targets, but did not expect to be targeted so directly and accurately from her cover. The pony lets out a pained cry as those earthen spikes explode upward, knocking her upward and back. Her ribbons are disrupted by the attack, and Ebon lands on her back in a mud puddle, which of course splashes all over her.

     When Ebon rises, she looks more like a chocolate pony than a normal one, her eyes blinking away a bit of mud before she wipes it off with a ribbon. "Ug...why is there so much mud around here?" she snorts in annoyance, then gallops toward the lead wagon.

     Even after the attack, Ebon Ribbon doesn't target a person. Without the ostrich horses, moving those wagons will be difficult, so she continues targeting them and leaves the destruction or commandeering to others more capable of such things. As she closes in, she extends all five of her negative energy streamers, banking on the likelyhood that the members of the Union and Earth Nation will be focusing on those who are actually attacking them. Three ribbons wrap around one of the lead horses, and two wrap around the other, focusing on their legs and necks. The binding is bad enough, but Toph knows first hand how sapping the ribbons are. The already tired bird things are sure to succumb.

     At least, that is Ebon's plan.

Maya has posed:
The caravan has come under attack there's a number of dangerous feds here but she only knows a few. Tesla is quick to mak herself known even as the rain comes down she's bursting into an attack leaving Fina behind, she knows the Lunar can handle her self for now she plans to keep Tesla off the caravan and she's moving in. She would find a Blurr of motion coming towards her and the roar of a rifle opening up as Maya closes in on her.

"Armadia, it seems I was right to come here. If your involved the Confederate are doing more than just a smash and grab!"

Also when HK is noticed it makes it doubly so.

Fiora Laurent (824) has posed:
    "Merde!"

Fiora curses, letting go of her mount and quickly jumping up onto its back, pushing off with her feet and hurling herself at Tesla, as she spots the incoming attacker. She's not seeking to stop the aerial assault, but if she can knock it off center, she can at least spare Lao Beifong from being crushed by it. The wagon, unfortunately, might not be so lucky.

Fiora also has to adjust for where she's going, now, too. Which is into the back of the wagon behind that one. She can't do much more than brace for that unpleasant and likely painful experience. Thankfully, it looks like Maya is moving in to handle that particular angle, so Fiora rolls out of the back of the wagon, sword still in hand. Just in time to catch glimpse of something darting around beneath them. ".. Oh, gods, I hope to King Jarvan's name, that's not who I think it is.." She mutters, followed by another curse, and some sort of foul word that's further followed by 'mushroom'.

If that IS who she thinks it is, now there's two assassins in their midst.

Pepper Potts (204) has posed:
    Potts had seen the attack start in. She wasn't the leader type, she didn't bark orders, but she did see a familiar form pop up on her HUD.
    "It appears that the charge in that riffle may contain antiarmor proporties, Miss Potts -- it is doubtful that the shields this suit is equiped with will withstand--" Jarvis begins, but Potts is already on the move, activating one of the heavy-duty energy sheilds in her wrist armor. The woman in the armor then digs down into the dirt, casting up a rain of rocks, roots, boulderish debris and creating a deep trough in the earth, trying to disrupt the blaster before it could reach her daughter.

    And she sternly looks, the disapproving, waspish face of her suit taking in the chaos of the battlefield.

    "In lieu of Tony being here... waste 'em." Potts replies, giving a look over to Toph.

Finna (513) has posed:
    "Dancing in the snowwwww, dancing in the SNOW!" Finna counters sing-songily, only to whip around at the strange sound of BAD THINGS happening. A lot of bad things! Disruptor rifles going off and - "That's my cue!" Finna yelps at Maya.

    Cue for what?

    There's no time to ASK because she just dives into the woods as if that is that.

    And... well... really... IT IS.

    Because Finna is not seen again anytime soon.

    Instead....

    WHUMP-CRASH-THUNk-RAAAAOOOOOOOOOOOSHCRK!! TREES Are felled and toppled and the ground rumbles and shudders. As if some great drill were bursting up towards the surface. A colossal, muffled bellow echoes from the woods, the path parallel to the road...just slightly diagonally heading towards it... and in no time at all a corridor of foliage is smashed clean through by SOMETHING moving at PRODIGIOUS speeds. The source of this rumble must be MIGHTY for EVERYONE can feel the ground shake. That's when the head of a TYRANNOSAURUS REX breaches the tree line, toothy maw wide open and bellowing an eardrum-shattering ROAR at the road ahead.

    Seated cross-legged with dignity, arms folded, right atop the very head of this beast... is LAO BEIFONG. Stalwart and sure of himself.

    As the mounted TYRANT LIZARD breaks free of the trees and comes crashing onto the road it becomes quite clear that the attackers may have made an atrocious tactical error. This two-legged beast's harnessed and chained to a wagon. A wagon of bark-colored wood and enrusted with rich jade decorations. But not just ONE wagon.

    As it goes barreling down the road at galloping speeds - making no small amount of HORRIFIC bangings and the rattlings of wheels and craking wood - THREE MORE WAGONS EMERGE, each connected to the last like train cars. It is a WAGON TRAIN full of riches, being pulled by a GREAT AND MIGHTY LIZARD that only a MASTERFUL MERCHANT could hope to purchase or tame, let alone ride. Looking more carefully, these wagons DO look like train cars, albeit covered in mud. Mud, mud, and more mud.

    Mud is kicked up in their wake in huge, sloshing torrents.

    And this creature isn't stopping for ANYTHING. It has one speed setting: CHAAAAAARGE!

    Oh dear.

    The 'real caravan' is leaving the attackers in the dust.

    Nobody's getting paid if those riches get away!

Eve (857) has posed:
    While Eve could cheerfully cut ribbons all day, she's not particularly sure it's doing any good. The horsebirds seem to be entangled, but it seems a rather minor problem. There are other threats, and she isn't about to be side-tracked opposing just one relatively minor threat!The boy with the red-glowing sword, for example, is a much more obvious threat. Eve, looking grim, turns towards him and breaks into a fleet-footed charge, her silvery sword held before her. "Why don't you try picking on someone your own size!" she cries out, pointing the blade at Raine as she charges. This is, of course, completely illogical. For one thing he's attacking wagons bigger than he is. For another, she's not his size. Probably far from it. Hopefully it at least gives him something to consider and to focus his attention on.

    As she charges, Eve forms up her left hand before her, spreading silvery metal out from her fingers until she holds a small shield before her as well as the narrow-bladed sword. No point in being an entirely defenseless target if he's got some kind of magical ranged laser-blade attack right?

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    Inside the third wagon Lao Beifong can't help but notice the disturbance outside, and he leans up close to the window, only to let out a startled gasp as /something/ rushes past. And he's even more shocked when the wagon in front of his is broken as one of the wheels is torn off. The wagon drivers and the workers are easily panicked, sticking to the wagons and afraid to rush off into the forest. With the ocean cliffside behind them there's nowhere to run. When Tesla lands on the wagon, easily the most luxurious one, the people inside startle and gasp, turning their heads upwards. Only to scream when Tesla slams her gauntlet into the ceiling.

    Up at the front of the caravan Toph's head jerks slightly to the side as she hears a familiar voice crying out, shock on her face. "... father!" Man, there are many of them approaching, and Toph silently mouths a 'thanks' under her breath when she hears Maya engage Tesla. Which means that her father isn't left unprotected. Which means she can focus on the incoming benders. Though idly she wonders why that silly fire ferret is running /towards/ the caravan. Stupid animal.

    Speaking of which, the ostrich horses are easily affected by the ribbons as they are mere beasts, easily falling prey to the attacks, not to mention unable to get away considering they are fastened.

    What's surprising to Toph is the fact that Pepper... is digging up dirt? Though she hears the order from her mom, even if she technically outranks Pepper, Toph isn't about to disobey a command like that. Perhaps she's glad to not know just what Pepper intercepted. "Already on it!" Toph calls out, then throws her arms forward, causing an earthen explosion to happen just as the mercenary benders reach the bottom of the slope. One of them cries out as he sails through the air and tumbles down the cliffside into the waiting water of the ocean, and the others fall roughly down to the ground, momentarily stunned.


    Stunned is also the reaction that the workers and caravan crew has when the tyrannosaurus roars its mighty arrival, and they stare, mouths agape.

    "It's a dragon!"

    "Wait, isn't that...?!"

    As the unusual dino train advances down the road, Toph just stands there, looking mighty confused, frozen in a bending stance. The comments on the Union tactical band doesn't help either, and some people nearby might hear her let out a loud 'WHAT?!' as she speaks into her radio. Finna's distraction has certainly worked, and not only on the Feds it seems. Of course the one who looks the most confused is Lao as he stares up at the large beast... and what looks like himself sitting on its head.

    Meanwhile some of the workers spot the pony, and one of them cries out. "That thing is hurting the ostrich horses!" Well, turns out that some of them are earthbenders, which should be made clear as some of them kick into the ground and launch several rocks in Ebon's direction.

Beelzebumon (132) has posed:
     Beelzebumon cackles as the wheel tears away, then gives his wrist a flick and sends a snap running through the chain that throws the dislodged wheel off, before reeling his chain back in for another go.

     And then... a god damn /T-REX/ goes charging past, with a snooty looking rich guy perched on it's head and a train of wagons hitched to it.

     With a loud screech, Beelzebumon skids to a stop and just stares, gobsmacked as the Dino-Train crashes away through the woods, before throwing his arms up in the air, "/THE FUCK?/"

     Then he grabs onto both handles and guns his engine as he wheels about, before tearing off in pursuit of the T-Rex, because seriously, how often can you say the words 'And then after I chased down the T-Rex'...

     "GET BACK HERE YOU GIANT HANDBAG!"

HK-47 (754) has posed:
     The droid feels frustration mount within his behavior core as the disruptor shot impacts the torrent of earthen debris, sending a blast of immolated stone and roots scattering outwards in a micro-explosion as the disintegrator-shot's power is diffused.

     Then... for some indiscernible reason, the trees exploded outward as an immense creature that they /should/ have been able to detect well beforehand suddenly emerged out of the woods... carrying what looked like Lao Beifong and four jewel-encrusted wagons out with it.

     ...

     What a confounding display.

     Was this supposed to be the true caravan? If so... why draw such attention to it? Why encrust it in gemstones and advertise it as having supposed monitory value? Why have the head of house sitting atop the creature's skull in the rain and wind when meatbags were so very /timid/ of so much as a light twist of the joints?

     No... in all likelihood, /this/ was a decoy - it was too flamboyant and grandiose a display to be anything but... and he would not be indulging in it. Perhaps the fact that he doesn't reflexively chase the caravan will clue others in... but he doesn't take the time to access his radio.

     To him, the caravan was more of a secondary goal - one he preferred to let his 'allies' handle. His primary objective was more... personal. Namely, the extermination of that miserable meatbag Earthbender... only now he had her parental unit to focus on.

     Well... it seems he would have to Already, he's charging up another shot - again, he aims for the Earthbender while she is distracted by the chaos herself; it seems that distractions can work both ways.

     And this time... the droid decides to rub salt into the wound as, after firing - which has likely already given his position away to rescue - HK-47 takes the time to reply to Pepper's 'waste 'em' comment and taunt Toph at the same time... with a recording of Toph's own voice.

     An angry, panicked shriek that Toph will likely very well remember the circumstances of which she said the following words - "SAY THAT TO MY FACE ON EVEN GROUND, YOU LILY LIVER!"

Raine Arland (604) has posed:
     Raine smirked as one of the wagons loses wheel functionality. "Heh. That's one down. Now for the next!" He mused aloud, flippingg his sword and gripping it in reverse as it began to glow red again. But right as he was about to let loose another burst of energy fire...something distracted him.

     'Why don't you try picking on someone your own size!'

     "Whuh-" Raine paused. A brief moment of stillness setting in as the rain pattered over his hood. "That's weird. I could /swear/ I just heard someone tell me to pick on someone their own si-" Fragarach sighed again, coming to a stop a short distance behind the swordsman. "Look ahead, fool." At her behest, Raine did just that, finally seeing Eve.

     "Oh. ...Ohhhhh. It's you!" Pointing at her with his free hand, he made an expression of clarity. "But wait...what?" And then reality kicked in. "Wait, wait...you said 'your own size, right?" Beat. He looked her up and down, despite the blade being pointed at him. "Uh....So what does 'own size' entail here? 'cause you don't seem to be three thousand pounds to me." He brought a hand to his chin at that point, grinning mischievously.

     "I mean, like...unless you ARE. But hey, appearances can be deceiving, yeah?" At that point, Fragarach rolled her eyes. "Get serious. She means you harm." Raine sighed and shrugged following that. "Right, right. Fine, fiiiiiine." Shenanigans out of the way, the black clad youth took a stance. "Sorry girl. Business is business. Try not to hate me too much." And then he dove forward, not directly at Eve, but aiming to pass by her. And in the process, he let loose a quick slash from his sword, gripped in reverse and cloaked in crimson energy. "Now then, let's get down to work!"

     As that T-Rex barreled out of the treeline and off ahead, it took a supreme force of will for Raine not to stop and just gape. But let it be known, his ridiculousness quota has just been reached for the day.

Ebon Ribbon (903) has posed:
     Ebon, having downed the lead ostrich horses, or hostriches as she has decided to call them in her head, wonders what else a pony might do that doesn't involve getting any more dirty. Then...T-REX! Ebon doesn't know exactly what a T-Rex is, but she knows it is big, it has very dangerous looking teeth, and it is far too large for her to stop on her own. Draining something that large could take forever, and it would be nearly impossible for her to trip it.

     So, what is a pony to do when encountering a huge predator that is apparently pulling the real wagons? Well, Beelz seems to be after the dino, and there are still wagons over here.

     "Ow!" Ebon suddenly cries out in what to the Earth benders must be a surprisingly human voice. Their thrown rocks pummel her sides and one even catches her in the brow, drawing a trickle of blood. Ebon blinks as she feels the trickle, then bears her teeth at the benders. "You will regret that." she says with a grin, then her sinister streamers lash out at the workers. Instead of grabbing them, she whips them with the ribbons. Each blow would be like a bullwhip, not to mention the dose of life energy it would take with it.

Teemo (801) has posed:
Teemo crawls on his elbows into a taller patch of grass, the clock in his head counting down from the moment he depressed the timer on the explosive charge. Three... two... one...

There is a sudden loud WHUMP! from the underside of the lead wagon as the front axle snaps, dropping the wagon's nose into the mud with a great crunching thud, the vehicle's own weight compounding the damage to itself. A haze of choking miasma spreads upward from beneath the wagon, causing the ostrich-horses, driver, and anyone else who passes through it to cough and gag from the eye-watering, stinging vapours. It diffuses relatively quickly though, pounded back down into the dirt by the driving rain.

The Yordle grins to himself and makes his way further down the caravan line, keeping low (an easy task when you're barely three feet tall), and pauses by a bush to lob another of his little gifts toward the second wagon. A small, compact object about the shape and size of one of the local mushrooms bounces once and rolls toward the wheels of the vehicle before coming to a stop with an almost inaudible click as it quietly arms itself. It's right in the path of the second wagon! And quickly becoming indiscernable from the terrain around it, as dirty water sloshes over it.

Tesla Armadia (368) has posed:
Someone still has it in the decency of their heart to rush to the aid of the Beifong patriarch, even if he tends to be a callous jerk to outsiders as well of his own family. Or make it look like he wasn't in the wagon at all, but we'll get to that a few lines down.

Perhaps the only mistake Maya made in doing so was call out the technopath's name. It's just enough of a forewarning for Tesla to look up, and brace herself for the Junker's charge.... Except Fiora comes at her while Maya is shouting at her. Tesla manages to hop back out of the way of Fiona, but it does get her off of the wagon in doing so. She can't dodge both would-be attackers in the same limited span of time even if she knows it's coming though. Maya's lunge is enough to plow into her even as she digs her heels in to arrest the recoil and keep from skidding too far away as she grapples with her attacker.

At the accussaion of her presense? Tesla just smiles smugly, an added bit of ominousity from the rain splatter trickling down her visor. "What can I say? Harassing the last world got boring when Defiant retired."

Of course that is when an extremely more awesome enactment of 'Dinosaur Train' comes barreling out of the woods and down the path past the first caravan ... and sitting upon the dinosaur's head was... wait, was that possible? Had the Union actually thought to utilize a decoy? It wasn't out of the realm of possibility, the Beifong elder riding personally on the caravan was.. hmmm....

Back to the matter at hand. "It would seem your allies are prehaps more devious than anticipated." .. Wait, did that sound like a compliment? Maybe a back-handed one; Tesla isn't unknown for at least appreciating an effort. It was an impressive effort.

There's only one way to find out if the wagon she originally attacked has the authentic occupant or not. Namely, break it open.

Which she does by picking up Maya and throwing HER at the Beifong's wagon. Two birds with one stone and all that.

Fiora Laurent (824) has posed:
    Fiora knows, right away, the telltale sound and sight of the all-too familiar cloud of noxious gas of one of the Swift Scout's weapons of choice. "Stay clear!" She calls out, quickly rushing to the location she saw that second mine tumble towards. It's very difficult to spot, if you didn't see it set there, but thankfully, she caught a glimpse of it. Carefully testing the wet ground, she feels something and thrusts her sword at it.

There's a weak little 'PUFF' of that violet mist, but not at all the same conflagration that erupted from the other one, when it exploded under the other wagon. "Now then, my little friend.. Where might /you/ be?" Fiora turns in a circle, sword at the ready. Particularly, the bushes and grass are areas she pays more attention to.

Pepper Potts (204) has posed:
    Inside the helmet, Potts' eyes narrow. Her HUD lights up as she straightens. "All right." she says, and she prepares. She brings her arms up, shield emitters powering up before she brings her hands up, and she leaves Toph's side. The suit moves fast enough to rouse dust in its wake, coming up upon HK-47.

    She tries to get face-to-face with him, the robotic scowl of Rescue, the bright yellows of the glowing "eyes" flaring blrightly as she powers up.
    "Waste 'em." she replies to his challenge, and unleashes a bright blast from the repulsers in her hands.

Maya has posed:
Maya is more than happy to help Fiona is catpable Maya knows that much from her being involved with the minstry of war on her world, and she's thankful for the help as well. Maya is very muych now intent on dealing with Tesla and keeping her from Mr. Beifong even if she's very not fond of the man. He'd suffered enough after all and now it seems TEsla is on her a game today, maybe it was a mistake but Maya's not one to often go for the back stab. Only a few have ever pushed her that far and most have wandered off fromt his secotor or are long dead. EIther way she's closing now andf catches Tesla for a moment.

"So looking for new stimultion? Is that it for you? Your just so bored you turned to things like this? Pitty, the things you could build if you put your mind to it."

the pauir grapple a little bit longer but it looks like Maya' gong to get launched at the wagon, and she is. However she grabs something about her neck, mutters and wings form from her back made of ewnergy and she darts upwards.

"Catch me if you can Tesla!"

she then launches a burst of flame as she pulls out a single fate card.

Eve (857) has posed:
    Perhaps unfortunately for Raine, the little blonde has no practical understanding of buffonery and jokes. She understands them intellectually, at least somewhat, but the nanowielder simply lacks experience in japery. She just scowls at him in a manner of annoyance, readying her blade as her reply.

    She's caught only slightly off-guard by Raine's dive, but she's trained against a number of agile foes. Thanks to Zephyr Windstar and Yunomi, she's at least somewhat used to both speed and deception. Eve dives forward herself, turning a neat one-armed somersault using her shield as the pivot, coming up out of range of the slash.

    Eve sizes Raine up, also giving a look at Fragarach. If the ghost girl isn't going to do anything though, Eve'll be content to leave her as a noncombatant. "Just business?" she asks, holding her blade steady before her. It begins to change, thickening, rounding, shortening... and gaining little studs. "This should be easier then. I just have to thump you until you decide it's not worth what you're paid." she states, perhaps a bit optimistically. Still, that bone-crushing club is at least somewhat intimidating, right? Perhaps not as intimidating as an elegant sword, but Eve seems to think the tradeoff worthwhile. She darts forward, trying to take advantage of her small size to get inside quickly and begin delivering the pain.

Finna (513) has posed:
    Handbag?

    HANDBAG!

    If that was really a T-Rex it would be offended.

    After all, it is worth at least a hundred giant handbags. AT LEAST.

    The T-Rex picks up the pace though! Somehow it's capable of pulling that WAGON TREE at speeds that ALMOST exceed Beelzebumon's bike. Even in this mud. There's something WEIRD about the tracks it's leaving though. One would expect footprints and wagon wheel grooves. instead there's no proper tracks at all. Even the T-Rex prints are mostly squashed inside oddly shaped sideways trenching and zigzaggy patterns in the mud.

    The closer Beelzebumon gets though, the weirder this arrangement gets. The encrusted jade decorations are far too leafy. the wagon construction is covered in bark. Every exposed wood surface is barky...

    Hey, now that he's really staring at it, he's chasing a tree. He's right behind a HUGE tree that was just RIPPED FREE OF THE GROUND. The torn roots are off to his left and up ahead are three more trees. There's no wagons here! Just trees. Trees and a T-Rex.

    A T-Rex that isn't harnessed or chained to anything. The chains and leather tack is... HUGE OCTOPUS TENTACLES. There's no noble on its head. Just an uprooted bush held down by some stones.

    The T-Rex turns its head as Beelzebumon closes in... and GRINS. It's a downright EVIL look no T-Rex could possibly maange to do.

    It doesnt' STOP though. But one of the massive TENTACLES sprouting from its back lets go. The furthest tree comes to a screeching halt, RIGHT IN BEELZEBUMON'S WAY!

Teemo (801) has posed:
Teemo's mouth thins into a flat line and his eyes narrow as Fiora thrusts her blade into his second gift to the caravan and neutralizes the ignition mechanism. Otherwise, however, he doesn't move, as her sharp gaze passes over the spot where he's crouching. Movement draws notice, and it's bad enough she knows he's around /somewhere/. He knows all to well that if she spots him, he's as good as skewered.

The thing is, he doesn't really /dislike/ Fiora. In League matters they've been assigned to the same team as often as not, and he has a great respect for her skill. But it is a narrow skillset. She's a duelist, and fights best when she has but one opponent at a time to face. Sooner or later, he thinks, she'll have to turn her attention to some other more immediate threat lest her companions accuse her of not carrying her own weight.

Slowly, agonizingly slowly, his hand creeps to the blowgun holstered at his belt.

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    Distracted as she is, both by the chaos and the heavy vibrations from the large animal that drown out the smaller ones, Toph is at a disadvantage as she still is unaware of the danger lurking. However she hears something from the direction of the forest, and she feels it too as one of the earthbender mercenaries has gotten up, and he sends a rock her way. An attack that the earthbending master easily avoids as she steps to the side, simultaneously summoning up an earthen pillar that soots out of the ground as she throws her arm forward, knocking the guy back. Perhaps it's pure luck, but with the earthen pillar there HK-47's attack doesn't hit Toph directly. Instead she lets out a pained cry as the the shot strikes the pillar, utterly destroying it as the pieces strike Toph and pushes her back, knocking the air out of her. When she hears the voice - her own voice - calling out, her eyes widen in obvious surprise and horror.

    Crud.

    As Tesla tosses Maya into the wagon the people inside scream, though luckily it seems that Maya avoids the wagon, not inflicting damage on herself, the wagon or the people inside. Perhaps the crew on the other wagons are less fortunate. They let out cries as the first carriage drops down in front, and then they cough as the nasty miasma rises. Likewise, the workers who opted to go against Ebon have no idea what they're in for as the ribbons repay the damage they inflicted with their rocks, adding in a little extra pain. They cry out as the ribbons lash, and some of them stumble and fall down, easily weakened by an Elite. Yes, it seems they are already regretting it. It doesn't stop two of the workers from continuing the attack in tandem however, determined to help their colleagues. Ebon has to deal with an earthen wall shooting up towards her from the ground!

    Meanwhile Toph launches another attack at one of the other benders as they rush towards her, only to get knocked back as well. Honestly, they aren't what Toph is concerned about at the moment. She hears Pepper's voice, and well... if that is where the damn murderbot is, then she will have to deal with it! Toph takes a deep breath, spreads her arms, palms facing the ground... and then she begins raising them, all while the earth around the general area of the tree that HK-47 is in begins moving, threatening to topple the trees. Better watch out!

Beelzebumon (132) has posed:
     "Wait... what the..."

     Why is the T-Rex pulling trees and not wagons? And why did the man on its head become a bush? What gives! Beelzebumon was really looking forward to fighting some badass Dinosaur-riding Kung Fu Grand Master.

     I mean, this IS the world where people can create tsunamis or uproot the earth with martial arts! Surely there must be a Martial Art for riding atop a trained dinosaur into battle!

     Beelzebumon is disppointed.

     He's also heading RIGHT FOR A TREE HOLY SHIT!

     With a loud crash, the Demon Lord is pitched from the seat of his hellish ride and skids through the mud face first for several meters, before coming to a stop... and then he pushes up off the ground and glares in the direction of the fleeing Octopus/Dinosaur/Illusion thingy as he wipes the mud from his face.

     "Okay, fuck the mission. I am gonna beat your ass on /principle/ now."

     With an angry growl, he pulls himself to his feet and yanks Behemoth back onto its wheels, before settling in the seat once more. Then with an angry growl, the biker demon peels off in pursuit once more with fury in his eyes.

HK-47 (754) has posed:
     HK's photoreceptors pulsate with a paradoxical mix of irritation and anticipation as the Rescue suit streaks towards him, tearing into his cover until the wasp-like design of one faceplate meets the vaguely deathmask-like design of the other, yellow lenses meting red ones.

     As his attacker's hands come up, HK triggers the activation for his energy shield, a blue aura enveloping his form to diffuse the attack - but, sadly, not the kinetic force, which propels the assassin droid backwards several feet and off the tree branch he was perched on, the machine crashing onto another branch further below. It also, if nothing else, charrs the front of his cloak with the attack.

     It is here that he returns to using his own voice - "Acknowledgement - As you wish, meatbag" - and levels his left arm upwards to fire off three darts filled with corrosive acid at the armored form, attempting to start burning holes in Pepper's armor.

     However, the terrain starts shifting rather noticeably; the results of the Earthbender coming to start focusing on him, causing HK-47 to back up a step an anchor himself to the tree for the time being - if only to steady his shots, hopefully before the armored meatbag intervened.

     Opting for variety, the droid fires his last three acid-filled darts for Toph, intending to try and sear the skin of her feet or legs and limit her ability to fight.

     After all... what good was the Earthbender going to be if she could no longer see him or the world around her?

Fiora Laurent (824) has posed:
    Fiora, though, does take her time. She scans the brush quite thoroughly, but once she's convinced that Teemo isn't there, she pulls back, and starts trying to make sense of the actual situation with the caravan. Firstly, fighting off the non-Elite bandits, and keeping them away from the wagons, which.. for a woman like her, is quite the simple task. Martial artists, benders, or no.. Someone with reflexes and skill like hers is likely to leave them wanting for some medical attention.

Additionally, she's directing and assisting others with getting the convoy pieced back together, again. There's one big goal in mind, with this. The convoy cannot remain here. It needs to keep moving, or the damage will render it unable to continue.

Raine Arland (604) has posed:
     Whoops. That's a miss. Raine skid around, turning to face Eve again. He flipped his sword back around, holding it normally. "Fast, aren't you?" He smirked, hefting his weapon onto his shoulder. "Guess I'm gonna have to try a little harder." She didn't respond to vocal jabs either, so mental warfare was out. As Raine sized up his options, he was rather surprised to see her weapon change shape...to something less blade more club.

     "...Okay. That's a thing." He pointed loosely at the girl's weapon, an incredulous look on his face. "That is definitely a thing-WHOA!" The swordsman narrowly avoided getting whomped in the head by that dangerous looking club, the wind force cutting lightly at his cheek and drawing blood. He jumped aside meanwhile, and in mid-jump called. "Fragarach! Do the thing!" The ghostly figure in question sighed boredly raising both arms from where she floated some distance away from the two combatants.

     Raine meanwhile landed, skidding back a tad before leaping forward into a run. What happened next was...well, Eve would feel a cold chill beginning to emanate from beneath her. Suddenly ice would rapidly gather and grow, attempting to encase her feet at the ankles to keep her in position. And at the same time, Raine jumped into the air, blade raised high before coming back down with an overhead slash aimed right for her.

     So this is how they worked.

Tesla Armadia (368) has posed:
"When you've dealt with the things I have my dear girl, it can become ... difficult to find an appropriate challenge." Tesla grabs one side of her labcoat to pull it partially over herself as she turns aside to Maya's flame spell. It wasn't her armor but it was far from unprotective either. Considering what her normal workload is one shouldn't be surprised that it's at least got some manner of chemical or flammable resistance to whatever material it is made of. Because getting your best work clothes stained in acidic alien saliva or radioactive mutant shit is just such a bother.

All the same it doesn't go without harm, and when she lets go of it to stand up after the attack it swishes behind her with an obvious burned, smoldering edge. Not to mention the burns on her arms from the sleeves burning up almost all the way to the shoulders. If it wasn't for her thicker inhuman hide they would possibly been incapacitating in pain alone.

Maybe she should of wore her full armor. But she didn't want to run the risk of being easily incapacitated if she had been the one to have to deal with Toph's metalbending abilities.

"Now if you don't mind." Tesla clenches her hands into fists, and the gauntlets start to glow again as she amps up the kinetic energy flowing through them. "I have someone of importance to make a very bad day for." She fires one amplified blast at Maya to knock her away.

"And no, I don't mean you." Because she turns and the blast from her other gauntlet is aimed at the wagon again. It's simple really. If she stops being a threat to what or who they are protecting, there is no reason to engage her. So one has to make sure that pressure to act is still there.

Teemo (801) has posed:
Of course right when you decide that 'Teemo can't be here' is always when he pops up out of nowhere and whips a dart at your head. Which is exactly what he does the instant Fiora's back is turned and her attention shifted to instructing one of the caravaneers. He leaps up out of the bushes in a great arcing John Woo slow motion lateral dive, placing the blowgun to his lips and spewing one of the deadly projectiles in her direction at the apex of his jump, before twisting and reaching out with his hands to catch himself as the camera speeds up again and he hits the ground in a tumbling roll.

He's not banking on that buying him more than a few seconds, but that's usually all he needs to distract the enemy and lose himself in the chaos again. He sprints for all he's worth away from the second wagon and draws near to the third, dodging between the legs of the bigger folk thrashing around.

Ebon Ribbon (903) has posed:
     Ebon Ribbon smirks haughtily as the Earth workers are taken down by her ribbons. Until that wall of earth pops up beneath her. She is popped up into the air, flailing. Her ribbons disappear quite suddenly as she flies through the air, then extend from her horn once again to wrap around her and move into a spider-like formation around her, cushioning her landing.

     When she lands, Ebon looks like someone who just got off a roller coaster they did not particularly like, but when she realizes her plan worked, she laughs triumphantly. Her ribbons disappear again, then she lashes them out at the remaining workers, draining them of their energy as she walks toward the lead wagon again. She gives her wet, muddy mane a toss, then turns with her back toward the left front wheel of the wagon. Then, she winds up with her back legs before delivering a powerful double-hoofed kick to the wheel, trying to dislodge it and make it even harder to get the wagons going.

Fiora Laurent (824) has posed:
    Fiora immediately reches as that poison dart hits her shoulder. Enough time spent taking these, you learn what they are. Fumbling for a few seconds as her vision blurs, she at least knows that it's a temporary effect. Or, well.. the vision issues are. She's going to need something soon to take care of the actual poison itself. And she can't afford to take many more of those. She does manage to catch a hazy glimpse of her pint-sized opponent, and takes off after him, leaping up and onto one of the carts, then over it to the next one. If she can cut the fuzzy little imp off, he's definitely done for.

Or so she hopes. Chasing a Teemo with no vision isn't the greatest of plans. But it's the only one she has, at the moment.

Eve (857) has posed:
    It's hard to get a significant reaction from Eve since she so rarely shows what she's feeling while in battle. That annoyed glare is about all the emotion she cares to show when she's serious and trying not to appear vulnerable. She's far from invulnerable, but she's at least difficult to taunt to the point of unthinkingness. Eve is almost never unthinking.

    When Raine calls out to his partner, Eve turns her shield to Fragarach almost reflexively. She'd have preferred this to be a one-on-one fight. Perhaps she's a match for Raine if he's alone, or perhaps even his superior in single combat. With the spirit attacking though, she's in trouble. The shield (of course) does nothing to protect her ankles. By the time she realizes the true form of the attack, it's too late. Eve's ankles are well caught, and she has Raine coming down on her from above.

    Desperately Eve throws up her club and shield, blocking the downward blow. The attack drives her practically to her knees however. She's stronger than she looks, but even so she's not strong enough to take such a blow without harm, not if she can't get away or fully absorb the shock or impact. She cries out in pain but is quick to retaliate, swinging the club down at Raine's shoulder and then spinning it back, trying to sweep it across his knees. Mostly she's trying to drive him back, to get a bit of room so she can work to free herself.

    Taking advantage of a moment, Eve SLAMS her club into the ice around her, shattering it. She staggers free, bringing the club up once again to swipe warily at Raine while she tries to recover her equilibrium.

Pepper Potts (204) has posed:
    Jarvis compenstates for the changing landmass around her, and Potts has HK in her sights. The grim frown of Rescue's helmet, its top hissing with a splash of acid, looks especially threatening. The acid darts explode around her, and the hissing sound fills her ears. An integrety warning as the acid compromises her joints and armor.

    But Potts is in The Zone. "I am going to rip you apart." she states, extremely calm, and she flies forward, bringing one armored hand up to try and grab at HK's weaponry, uncharacteristically uncautious of the redhead as she presses forward. "I am going to see you scrapped for what you did to her. I am going to incinerate every diode and wire and connector and spread the ashes to the winds. I am going to reform you into tiny little flowerpots and give you to sick children in the hospital."

    And with her power armor humming, Potts is reaching to do precisely that to HK!

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    It's hard to fight HK-47 when she can't properly see him, but Pepper is in danger! Sure, Pepper is telling her to focus on other things while she fights HK-47, but... that thing is intensely experienced in killing, and it's threatening her /mom/. What would Tony do if Pepper got hurt? No, she doesn't want to imagine that. There's no way she can leave Pepper alone to fight that homicidal rust bucket!

    So Toph isn't leaving. Which she might regret as she feels something hit her foot, causing her to yelp in pain, stepping backwards and barely avoiding the two other darts. Not that it will matter much as searing pain quickly spreads, and the earthbender winces, stumbling as she throws her arms up. Immediately the earth around her reacts, covering her in rock. It ought to help her in this fight and offer some defense, even if it might not be perfect against the deadly droid. For now Toph rushes forward, gritting her teeth as she aims to crash through the tree trunk, anything to get that damn thing down to the ground. "Let me tear /your/ outer layers off and see how /you/ like it!" she calls defiantly, shattering the tree trunk to bits as it falls down, and Toph does a turn, ready to come barreling down towards HK-47 again. She does sense some metal there!

    Meanwhile, the caravan isn't faring any better, especially not when Tesla fires at the third wagon, tearing a hole through the woodwork. As a result some of the items inside, including the people, are thrown out. One of the workers is bleeding profusely from the stomach, another is knocked unconscious, the others are scampering to get to their feet, and Lao Beifong himself winces in pain as his landing is rough.

    At first the two workers left standing let out a triumphant cheer when they launch Ebon up sky-high. They did it! But their triumph is short lived when she uses that same weird magic to attack them to soften her landing with. A second passes as they stand there, eyes wide in shock and dawning horror that they are in fact screwed. And they go down easily with a cry of pain as they too fall prey to the ribbons. This leaves Ebon open to unleash further damage to the already downed front wagon.

Finna (513) has posed:
    Yup. Finna was right. That guy chasing her is SCAAAAAAAARY. And she highly doubts that he's going to fall for THAT trick again.

    Also, dragging the trees is REALLY TIRING. RUNNING this fast is ALSO tiring. What good is leading this guy away FOREVER if it just leaves her so completely cut off from everyone, alone with this guy way off in the middle of nowhere?

    Not a whole lot, unless he's vulnerable to alternative tactics.

    So ALL THREE remaining muddy trees are hoisted with a great HEAVE of those tentacles, and HURLED at Beelzebumon on the bike. At the same time the ginormous lizard slaps its tail against the ground hard enough to propel itself a few yards into the air. With the grace of an ice skater the colossal beast spins about... and SLAMS back down. Both feet sink into the mud and brake its momentum. A HUGE mudwave is scoured up from the road, leaving deep trenches. At the end of its skid the creature leans forward and BELLOWS at the top of its lungs.

    Which actually has the side effect of KICKING UP ANOTHER wave of mud, scoured up by the beast's voice alone. It SLAMS a foot forward in a style that looks vaguely (and ridiculously) kung-fu'y, tiny little arms going through the motions of taking a battle stance.

    BEELZELBUMON vs the SIFU LIZARD

    Round 1: FIGHT

    ... wait, what?

Beelzebumon (132) has posed:
     This time Beelzebumon is ready for tree flinging shennanigans, and isn't distracted by illusion fuckery... so with frightening grace, he serves from side to side to dodge the trees as they are hurtled towards him, then suddenly yanks hard on the handlebars of Behemoth and goes into a sideways skid towards the swelling wave of mud.

     As he slides, he hops up and plants both feet into the seat of Behemoth, then /launches/ himself high into the air and over the waves of muck. Then he tucks his arms in and does an aerial piroette, before snapping into a flying kick on his downward arc.

     CHALLENGE ACCEPTED.

Maya has posed:
Maya says "I won't lie I do know what you mean."

Maya's been around in the multivese a very long time and she too sometimes does hunger for a chllanege but she's not about to go looking fo rit in the same fashion as Tesla does. She's also just trying to keep the infamous inventor from succedind ing getting past her. She is just trying to keep the other on their guard for a moment.

"I intend to not let you do that."

Maya is already moving back down while she does do flying combat on occasion she's generally a far better ground fighter too.

She's flitting back down but this might be a mistakd as the blast come ehr way they do force her back hard but it's not enough to stop her. Maya now doesn't attack she's trying something else to lay a curse of weakness on Tesla there's a sick green glow from the card she has in hand and should the curse stick? Tesla might not feel so well.

Teemo (801) has posed:
Shitshitshitshitshit-- Teemo can sprint like a madman but only for short distances. And he's about to hit his limit. He keeps his eyes fixed on the wagon ahead, huffing in short, sharp breaths through his mouth. If he can just reach the cover of one of the wheels, maybe he can play the juking game with Fiora before she catches up and drives the point of her sword between his shoulderblades.

And then the side of the wagon explodes outward with the force of Tesla's shot, scattering goods and... people unceremoniously across the road. As one of the wagon's occupants sprawls into the mud nearby, the Yordle changes tactics abruptly, cutting over to grab the man by one of the folds of his robes and haul him up to a half-sitting position as he whips out another dart and holds it menacingly to his neck. Panting, he looks up wide-eyed for Fiora's oncoming rush and bares his sharp little teeth. "Back off or fancy pants gets it," he warns in his little soprano, as Lao Beifong swallows nervously and tries to pull away from the deadly toxic point pressed against his skin.

Raine Arland (604) has posed:
     There is a clash as blade and club collide. Using his downwards momentum, Raine pushes Even further, until she breaks the disavantageous deadlock. "Whoa-!" The overhea blow aimed for his shoulder is parried, but the side swing hits it's mark, bowling the swordsman over. "Crapcrapcrap!" Raine rapidly cursed as he landed on his side.

     But he didn't stay there for long. Seeing the next swing coming, he lurched upward and aside, planting a hand onto the ground and then launching off of it in a rather acrobatic fashion. He sailed back a short distance, creating space between the two of them. Fragarach's ice was broken meanwhile, and the spirit did nothing to try and stop Eve. Raine said 'do the thing', not 'keep the thing going'.

     Details.

     "Heh, well how about that. You're pretty damn strong despite your size." Raine mumbled, keeping ready, but not making a move yet. Hmmm, what to do... As it is right now, Eve was stronger between the two of them. Raine didn't think himself an unskilled fighter, but he certainly lacked strength on his own.

     Maybe he should work on that sometime.

     Wait not the time or place! "Fragarach, do the other thing!" He called over to his inhuman companion again, giving another vague order. And after saying so, Raine flipped his sword, gripping it in reverse as her charged up another volley of crimson energy. From where she floated, Fragarach raised her arms again, pointing them towards Eve.

     Suddenly, several small, white portals opened up from all around her. And then what followed where pure white chains, hurtling forth and attempting to wrap around her arms and legs to bind her. "NOW!" With a roar of exertion, the black clad youth swung his weapon forward, unleashing a blast of red that burst through the air, heading right for Eve. But before it actually made contact, it suddenly broke apart into multiple, smaller laser-like rays of energy, twisting through the air and attempting to strike at her from multiple directions with searing, raw magical energy.

HK-47 (754) has posed:
     The acid begins weakening the armor's integrity it seems, but not enough to dissuade Rescue as she charges HK-47, grabbing at his weapons.

     Something that HK, feeling his grounding start to give as the Earthbender smashes through the tree, makes a snap-decision about... and, in a swift movement, de-anchors from the tree and /grabs/ at Pepper in turn, attempting to latch onto her as she flies by, jamming his ion-projectile against the Rescue armor and trying to discharge it at close-range - if she would only /stay still/ long enough for him to fire it off into her armor.

     He would try to bring Rescue to the ground with her... or at the very least try to keep airborne on her. Provided, he could no longer use his rifle or grenades this close to her, but at this point it seemed that ranged assault was no longer a viable method of attack.

     Pepper's threat actually has the droid reeling mentally for a moment at the magnitude of her horrific threat - flowerpots for ill juvenile meatbags?!? Was such a response really called for?

     ... not that it wasn't creatively cruel for a meatbag to conceive of. However... if there was a way for the droid to go out, such a benign end was /not/ it.

     "Approving Statement - I commend your viciousness, meatbag" he replies, though hints of clear venom is present in the mechanized retort. "Chiding Retort - However... I would advise against making promises you /cannot keep./"

     If the acid dart in Toph's foot isn't quickly removed... it will /explode/, splashing a very corrosive acid across Toph's foot that will start burning the skin away. She won't loose the foot, granted, but it will likely hurt a /lot/.

     "Musing - Tear away one's outer layers" - the droid starts glaring dubiously, if not outright murderously, at Rescue - "What a novel idea."

     The intent at this point is likely very clear.

Finna (513) has posed:
    Yep. She was right. He's not falling for that one again. He's quick witted. Tough. Fast. And, as she suddenly finds out, VERY STRONG!

    The blow is a bit too quick for her to accomodate for in this form. The huge creature takes a blow right atop its snout with tremendous force. DOWN it goes, whole body SLAMMED front-first into the mud with a guttural SNARL in protest. yet It still has four huge tentacles and that tail now. All four of those tentacles LUNGE OUT, STRETCHING BIZZARELY and coming in at unusual angles for Beelzebumon through what Finna HOPES will be his descent period. All with intent to PIN HIM in place and wrap around. All four of them at once.

    And she's not sure even that's gonna be able to restrain him. This is just an attempt to buy time for her to think. Even if only five seconds!

Ebon Ribbon (903) has posed:
     It might take her a few kicks, but once Ebon dislodges the wheel from the wagon, she looks around at the scene and smirks lightly. It seems their plan has gone quite well. Now, they just have to get the items out of here. Then, she realizes...she just broke the wagon. Pulling wagons is usually below a pony such as herself, and in truth she isn't sure she would have the strength, but unbroken wagons would be much easier to steal.

     With her many allies holding their own for now, Ebon calls for any bandit mercenaries still standing and helps them start taking the supplies. They must have had some idea of where they would take the supplies if they were planning on stealing some. While the bandits do that, Ebon starts throwing whatever she can lift with her ribbons into the ocean. They can either be recovered later or they will be ruined by the salt water. Whichever happens, Ebon considers such a thing to be mission complete. And, the prissy pony is more than happy to let everyone else get dirty while she works, allowing her to claim all the credit later.

Tesla Armadia (368) has posed:
Tesla Armadia tilts her head a little to the side as Maya seems to be keeping her distance now. No, she isn't the sort that would just stop attacking, she had to be considering something.

However her attention shifts to the side when she hears Teemo speak up, and with a glance through the holes made in the wagon can see the Yordle taking the Beifong elder hostage. Isn't that an interesting turn of events. "Looks like you're too late, the elder is our grasp now. Best consider the consequences of your next choice in actions very carefully."

Tesla had probably intended to just off the old man, but this would be much more interesting to see. Especially with both Lao's enstranged daughter and one of her surrogate parents present...

But Tesla has been in this game long enough to know that even the classic hostage scenerio is only going to keep certain heroes at bay for so long. Instead she capitalizes on the moment while it is there, and that Ebon Ribbon has done a wonderful job of keeping the convoy crippled in the meantime, snapping her attention to the rebel benders they came with. "Forget the fight, seize your ... oh." She realizes Ebon is already on top of that too. Wonderful. "See to it they depart with their aquisition safely!", she shouts to the unicorn instead.

Maya has got plenty of time to play her curse card though. Tesla is too busy making sure the actual raid gets in order to stop her. Though she probably won't notice until she has to actually act again, either.

Beelzebumon (132) has posed:
     Finna's hunch proves correct, as the tentacles catch the Demon Lord as he backflips away from his last blow and snag him out of the air, before putting the squeeze on him... yet even as he strains to break free, there is a bit of a smirk on his face... for he knows something that his opponent might not.

     Namely that Behemoth has a mind of its own.

     Despite being riderless, the hellish motorcycle comes tearing out of nowhere and launches itself off a nearby rock, before hurtling itself wheels first at Finna in defense of its master.

Fiora Laurent (824) has posed:
    Fiora's expression sours, and while she doesn't sheathe her weapon, she lowers it. Respectfully so, knowing that poison would not have very good effect on a normal man. Nevermind one as unconditioned as Lao. "A hostage. I thought better of you, but.. if this is the route you want to go.. What terms do you offer, for his safe handling?" If there's one thing a Demacian noble is not a stranger to, it's talking out of a bad situation. Swords can only cut so deeply.

She has her attention focused completely on Teemo, now, however.

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    First his caravan gets ambushed, somebody that looks exactly like him rides a dinosaur past in the strangest way, he hears his daughter cry out in pain, he gets blasted out out of his carriage... and now he's being held by a... talking fire ferret?!

    Lao looks absolutely stunned where he sits, not daring to move. "W-what are you doing?!" the noble gasps, trying to turn his head away.

    As Toph didn't remove the dart, she gets a nasty little surprise as she feels something explode on the inside of the armour, and she lets out another cry as she stumbles. The hurting left foot raises, and the earth crumbles away as Toph quickly uses her hand to bend some of the ground there into mud, which she promptly stomps her foot into, anything to remove the burning sensation and the acid! And while she heaves for breath, the earthbender hears HK-47's threat. Which does /not/ sit well with Toph, who raises her head, doing her best to ignore the pain.

    She throws her right arm out, and her rock covered hand closes into a fist that she yanks up, intending to bend HK-47's arm upwards, anything to give Pepper an opening!

    But Pepper isn't the only one who needs help, as Toph realizes what's going on with her father... "LET HIM GO!" she roars, though with Teemo holding the dart close to Lao like that...

    This has gone from bad to worse. The damn pony is helping the benders toss the goods out to the ocean, stealing them...

Eve (857) has posed:
    Eve knows a moment of frustrated annoyance as Raine calls out to his ghost girl. Can't he even SAY what he wants so she knows what to expect? Still she's not going to get caught the same way twice! She immediately moves, trying to be sure she isn't caught in ice. This isn't ice though. The small portals appear, and Eve flails. She spins, dives, dodges. While her agility isn't supernatural, she's a practitioner of waif fu. Her speed, and more importantly her reactions, almost completely keep her safe.

    She's not fully bound up by the chains, but they do manage to catch her prominent weapon and shield. Which, of course, was Eve's goal. By flailing them out, she kept her own body protected. She only has to reform the nanomachine weapons to free herself. Only, her eyes widen as she sees the red glow of Raine's sword. Realizes that, as dangerous as it is to be caught by spirit magic... it's even more dangerous to leave herself vulnerable to the true enemy.

    Eve's weapon and shield don't simply dissipate in a gentle manner. They SHATTER as Eve breaks them down, willing the nanomachine bonds to disengage and to return to her. The items break like crystal, cracking and shattering into tiny pieces which dissolve in a faint electric blue flash rather than fall to the ground. It's enough to get Eve free, to allow her to dive, but too late. Crimson bolts of magic sear into her, scorching flesh and clothing. The girl collapses to the ground with a pained cry, apparently badly wounded, curled in around herself in apparent agony.

    After a moment though, Eve comes up in a half-crouch, one free arm moving in a blurring arc. Metal gleams from where the laser struck her, from a patch where the mud doesn't cling. Damage was done, but Eve has tricks up her sleeve. Or... well, metal up her sleeve, and elsewhere. Her attack is a short curved blade, shaped and styled like a wing. Likely it wouldn't have the range to hit unless Raine came in either to aid Eve or to finish her. Fortunately Eve's attack won't be aimed to kill or even maim. She has no qualms about disabling an opponent however. She's perfectly okay with rendering someone unable to fight for the present. Hamstringing is fine in her eyes, while dismemberment isn't.

Pepper Potts (204) has posed:
    Potts is grabbed. She sees the weapon come out, and manages to wip to one side or the other as she takes off, flying higher and higher into the sky, and away from Toph as HK tries to hit her. She manages to turn her suit just in time to avoid most of the blasts -- though there is marks in the metal now, deep marks. Integrity of the armor is falling, and that droid is clinging to her... and she doesn't like the way he suggested removing layers.

    "Oh. No you don't." Potts begins, and the armor stops short, and then she hears Lao's captured.

    She grits her teeth, and reaching with the better armored hand, she tries to rip HK From her and fling him off to let him fall from a thousand feet up.

    "Jarvis, what do I have that can pinpoint that scruffy little shit on the grund?"

Teemo (801) has posed:
"Not my usual thing, no," Teemo agrees, as he gives Lao's shoulder a little warning pinch to stop him from squirming. "Careful," he murmurs quietly, fuzzy lips right by the man's ear. "I wouldn't want to slip and get any of this into your bloodstream. It'd be a bad way to go."

He looks back up at Fiora. "--But, when life hands you dragon eggs, might as well make an omelette." His beady eyes dart back and forth across the chaos of the disrupted convoy. "All of your people disarm, and we'll let you retreat without any fuss. When we have everything we want here, we'll set the old man free as well. No one else has to get hurt."

He has zero authority to negotiate like this, but the dart pressing into Elder Beifong's neck dares anyone to contradict him. Really, he's just stalling for time.

Finna (513) has posed:
    THWACK! All four tentacles have come together and THIS gets Finna grinning evilly again. But it's one helluva strain to keep those things ON him. Her grip is slipping fast! Apparently though... not fast enough for Beelzebumon. She sees the smirk and hints of surprise flicker in the Tyrant Lizard's beady eyes.

    And then it looks down, comically. Only to get RAMMED in the leg. The tentacles lose their grip and flail while the beast staggers!

    But it takes only a second for it to just ENDURE the assault of that bike and spin away. Kungfusaurus ROARS DEFIANTLY again. And... oddly, light covers its body. A strange, silvery-blue halo exudes from every inch of its flesh. Streaks of shadows swirl through it along with a few shades of purple. The beast's forehead lights up with a silvery-white display too. A 'crescent moon' mark's right there between its eyes.

    And now its claws, talons, teeth, and tail all change. The teeth and claws grow sharper while the tail simply HARDENS.

    Weirdly though, the tail also seems a bit FUZZIER. And white. Just the same the enormous T-Rex has... white ears? Fox ears? Huh?

    Just like THAT the creature spontaneously SPINS IN PLACE - not around, but actually a FRONT FLIP - at lightning speed and that glowing tail is coming DOWN at Beelzebumon with titanic force!

Beelzebumon (132) has posed:
     With the timely intervention of Behemoth, Beelz is able to break the hold on his body and leap back, skidding as he lands on the ground before snapping his arms up in a fighting pose. Then he pauses.

     Okay, why the hell is the T-Rex getting fuzzy? ANd growing fox ears? DON'T TELL ME IT'S SECRETLY A FURRY COSPLAYING T-REX! Jesus christ how horrifying!

     Not expecting the T-Rex to flip the fuck out and get acrobatic on him, all Beelz can do is raise his arms to guard as the tail comes /slamming/ down on him and drives him to his knees... but he endures the titanic blow and twists his arms around to grab hold of that tail before it can pull away.

     Then he forces himself back onto his feet and yanks hard on the tail as he twists, dragging his foe around as he begins to spin. And he doesn't stop there as he spins around faster and faster, whipping his foe around in a cyclone before finally releasing his grip and sending Finna hurtling away.

Fiora Laurent (824) has posed:
    Fiora doesn't even need to think about it.

"No. He leaves with us, either way."

She seems to be contemplating something else, for a few moments more. Honestly, it's easy to miss. Fiora does it constantly, because it's part of her fighting style. Her free hand and her arm, tucked behind her back. She smoothly pulls out the parrying dagger she has tucked into a sheath there, and with an upward flick of her wrist and arm, throws the weapon not at Teemo himself, but the dart. A risky shot, but one that may at least get that dart out of the way.

Out of the way is where she needs it, for now.

"Do not think because I am a rigid Demacian, that I am not without a trick or two, up my own sleeve."

Teemo (801) has posed:
Teemo sees the dagger flip up into Fiora's hand and reflexively twists his face away from what he assumes will be a lethal attack -- only to be taken by surprise as the blade *snicks* neatly past his fingertips instead, slicing the dart he was holding in half, the deadly point dropping loosely into a fold of Lao Beifong's robe. The Yordle takes half a startled step back, reaching for another dart from his quiver...

Maya has posed:
Maya knows to keep fighting might make things even worse she does not want to make Toph lose her biological father even if he's made some /very/ questionable choices. She had to see both her parents die infront of her she doesn't want Toph to suffer anything like that or and she move sin on Tesla she doesn't seem to like the idea of killing Lao and she does know Tesla has her own plans she looks for a momnt at her like she thinksing something.

with Tesla cursed it does give her an edge.

"You know I could breka the curse at any time Miss Armadia it's only going to get worse, you'll strengh will sag, your energy will sap, I could make it stop if your open to neoiiate hummm?"

Maya's been stalling here for the Teemo situation here but she's also left herself open to Tesla on purpose to boot, Tesla would have to see the opening that's bene left here.

Ebon Ribbon (903) has posed:
     As Ebon continues helping fling the goods into the ocean, she blinks as she comes across a bag of apples. "Oooh~" In the midst of a titanic dino vs demon battle and all the other fighting, Ebon show complete disregard for the situation by pulling one of the apples from the bag with a ribbon and holding it up so she can take polite little bites of it. While she nibbles on apples, she continues throwing supplies into the ocean and watching the battles around her.

     Once the supplies on the first wagon are tossed away, she moves on the the second, still nibbling on apples, clearly not caring much who lives or who dies in this chaotic attack. And given the light smirk on the pony's face, she is rather enjoying finding out who will be victorious in what battle.

HK-47 (754) has posed:
     The droid's shot lances wide, only scorching Pepper's collarbone-plating as HK-47 continues to grip to Rescue even as she begins swerving and flying to try and dislodge him.

     And as they climb, the droid brings his faceplate to hers and hisses out it's threats - close enough for them to echo on the radio if it's been left on.

     " Eager Announcement - What you have planned for me will pale in comparison to what I will /do/ to you" he responds coldly, his tone and wording suggesting he sees Pepper's words as a threat and his own as impending fact. "I would very much enjoy the chance to eviscerate you, meatbag. I will peal away the armor that gives you your falsehood-droid appearance to expose the squishy, frail form within... and then I will peal away your flesh-sack form, disassemble you component by liquid-based component, and record every moment for posterity."

     HK draws his Vibroknife to try and stab into Rescue's chest plate, but Toph's sudden exertion of power against him throws his aim off, causing the blade to become lodged in the thick shoulder-plate of Pepper's armor instead of hitting anything vital or piercing through to her. An infuriated glare is given to the Earthbender down below, the droid's cold triage of threats continuing - "Addendum - I believe after you had ceased functioning, I would have sent your disassembled base-components to your surrogate successor-unit Earthbender and your companion unit Stark along with my recordings..." he turns to glare dead-center into Rescue's faceplate "... and I then recycled your armor into a new HK unit, having it make them review those images in /unerring/ detail as it repeats my disassembly process on them in your own visage."

     At this point, HK's own arm comes up and locks against Rescue's shoulder... or rather, the object in his hand.

     The object filled with devices that are now glowing brightly in a rapidly-decreasing countdown to detonation as ten different grenades lay armed and activated on HK's now-removed munitions belt, the droid's voice smugly satisfied even as Rescue's hand slams into HK's torso. "Musing - But it seems that I have little time for such gratification. I suppose that your extermination shall suffice instead."

     A swift repulser blast thus tears the droid off, sending him free-falling to the ground... but not before the droid's belt is left wrapped around Rescue's armor, the timers soon clicking down to /zero/.

     There are many ways a droid can die... but if HK were to be terminated, he would prefer to be terminated in a blaze of glory.

     The destruction of Tony Stark's lifemate with the simultaneous detonation of incendiary, adhesive, cryo, poison, fragmentation, sonic, plasma,, ion grenades, concussion and thermal-detonator grenades may very well suffice for that - or at least this is the last thing that runs through the droid's processor before the sharp impact with the trees causes it's systems to temporarily black out as HK-47 crashes through multiple branches and hits the ground harshly, casing severely dented and damaged and core-unit momentarily stunned.

     Something many Union members would no doubt cheer at, if not for how satisfied he was with the last act he did before falling.

Raine Arland (604) has posed:
     having let loose his barrage of magic, Raine.....stayed where he was. Without bothering to move in and capitalize, he just lifted his sword back onto his shoulder in a lazy manner. Once the smoke cleared, and Eve looked ready to strike with that curved blade, Raine just raised his free hand in a placating manner. "Hey, hey, calm down, girl."

     Grinning while taking a step back, mostly as a show of mercy, he took no further offensive action. "Like I said, this was just business. It's not in my contract to be killing you." That said, he took a glance about to get himself up to speed with the current state of the mission. "...Looks like I did my part."

     The swordsman turned back to Eve and offered the girl a two fingered salute from afar. "Well. Seeya, kid. You did good. If I was alone, we'd probably be in a reverse situation right now." Pause. "Here's my advice; get yourself a Fragarach." Bonk. That was the sound of said spirit knocking Raine over the head. "Ow, ow, okay, I'm out!"

     And with that, he waltzed off. Or more like dashed off in case help came for Eve. Fragarach remained, and she turned to Eve once all was said and done. "....." Silence ensued as she stared for several moments.

     And then with a wordless shrug, she produced a manga from some portal and began to flip through it, lazily floating on after Raine's retreating form.

     ...Well, that was a thing.

Finna (513) has posed:
    WHAT.

    The moment Finna feels a squeeze put on her tail, she knows she's going to have a bad time. It's a GUT INSTINCT. The Tyrant Lizard's beady little eyes widen with very human shock for the brief moment and then...

    "Graaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwrgh!!"

    A waily, growly yowl of protest is the only thing the creature can manage to do. Faster and faster it's swung around and WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!!

    Right into the trees. The creature just CRASHES through the forest like a wrecking ball. Tree after tree simply smashed to splinters, bent horribly, or uprooted by its titanic weight and girth. Some of these manage to spear into its flesh quite nastily, for broken trees can actually make for very good spears. When it finally comes to a halt it's wounded terribly. But it's also... shrinking.

    The silvery-blue halo kicks up a notch, growing like a fire that just had extra fuel poured onto it. Simultaneously the creature SHRINKS. Thick lizard hide is exchanged for pale northerner human flesh tones and tiny clawed arms are exchanged for hands. The huge size melts away. In a matter of seconds the huge beast has reverted to a lithe, athletic girl wearing jean shorts and a blue tank-top, midriff bared. She's bleeding here and there but also covered in a very visible swath of swirling tribal tattoos. These tattoos gleam strangely in the aura-light, reflecting the surroundings in VERY strange and wrong ways. Things just aren't reflecting from the direction they should be.

    The girl's wounded, short of breath, and staggering forwards. Her white hair's muddied and full of twigs and leaves and she's clasping one hand across her body and onto her opposite shoulder. "Ghahh-hah..." That, and she has a tail. A white fox tail, matching the ears that break past her really mangled hair.

    "You're... a bit too much... man for me!" She complains, although her tone sugggests she's giving up. "Too much for... three or four of me, maybe! Hwagh..."

    And she goes toppling sideways, leaning against a tree that's already been bent over sideways and almost cracked in two. Sort of woozily eying Beelzebumon.

Tesla Armadia (368) has posed:
A faint warning flashes in one corner of Tesla's HUD. Normally a biometric scanner would not pick up such afflictions, but Tesla has had plenty of time and experience to modify her equipment to read magical sources as well. The downside being it is little more than a notification of presence, as it is already in effect, confirming that Maya is not merely attempting to bluff her farther.

"Well, that's amusing." Tesla huffs deeply, but for the moment is managing to focus on the matters on hand before the curse creeps too far through her body. She levels one arm in Maya's direction, the dual bolter barrels sliding into firing position from the back of her gauntlet. "Your presumption that because my pervuse are in technology I have no means of dismissing your arcane contaminations." Well not on her personally at this juncture, but that's not the point. The augmentory systems in the body piece worn under her labcoat will at least temporarily detain the cursing, until it reachs the limit of their parameters. Which is just a few more moments to do what needs to be done.

"It is a shame this scenerio did not progress farther. But the purpose of our allies has already been fufilled." Between the bandits raiding and Ebon tossing stuff into the water to make it unusable. "So now it is time to let the endgame take its final course."

To which Tesla abruptly switchs her aim, twisting to fire the double explosive rounds into what remains of Lao's wagon. The resulting detonation will hopefully give Teemo a chance to get out of his sticky situation, if she can distract Fiora and maybe even Maya too with the reminder that Lao and his collapsed men are still in danger from the explosive wreck.

Pepper Potts (204) has posed:
    She wanted badly to interrupt him. She wanted to curse his name and threaten and rip him to shreds until her bare hands bled and her perfect nails were destroyed beyond repair... tot o Potts, it would have just bene wasted breath. She gives a cry that echoes over the shortband radio of the Union as the vibroknife slices through the shoulder, the lesser plating giving way. Integrity of the area dropped to 15-percent. 13-percent. The pressurization was failing. The HUD lit up, and Pepper felt pain course through her body like electricity.

    This mission. Her mission. The one she promised Lao that she herself would oversee had fallen apart around her ears. Toph was hurt. The other volunteers were hurt,a nd the Beifong products were being cast into the sea.

    She felt the blood running down her arm. She felt it coat her fingers, pooling in the bottom of the fingerwells as HK Spoke, threatening her.

    And she turned, and reached out again as he eacuated, trying to catch him, firing a repulsar blast after him -- and when she looks down, the hud picking up and closing in on that count down.
    JARVIS translates as the zero is reached, and the grenates explode. Sparks and fire and a shockwave split the air, explosions following to the ground, kicking up a dust cloud, Rescue's helmet plumets, part of it broken off, rattling to the ground as the remaining yellow eye flickers, and the power fades.

Beelzebumon (132) has posed:
     Welp, Beelzebumon just successfully tossed an acrobatic, kung-fu fighting T-Rex with tentacles. Never thought that would be something he'd ever do... but this is the Multiverse, and there is some weird ass shit in the Multiverse.

     After taking a moment to admire his handiwork, the Demon Lord of Gluttony straightens up and glances over towards the convoy, before shrugging his shoulders, "Eh, that's good enough. Time to go get drunk. Or, well... drunker." He turns his head and whistles sharply, before yelling out, "HEY BEHEMOTH! Let's ride!"

     With a hearty rumble, the motorcycle drives up to where Beelzebumon is standing and allows the Demon Lord to mount. Then with a rev, rider and cycle tear off down the road away from the ruined caravan.

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    Whatever Lao is thinking is probably easy to read off of his face. Though when it appears that a dagger is flying at him, he lets out a startled gasp, closing his eyes... and expecting pain. That doesn't come. When he feels something tumble into the front of his robes he opens his eyes, and he notices the tip he quickly moves his arm with the intent of elbowing the vicious critter in the abdomen, anything to get away from danger!

    After some brief messages on the radio, Toph grits her teeth, awaiting her chance to strike HK-47. He has to come tumbling down sooner or later...! Though when she hears the explosion up above, Toph's face drops behind the earthen armour, her eyes wide in absolute horror.

    "No..."

    Breathing becomes close to impossible as she feels her legs give out underneath her, and not just because of the pain due to the acid. Her in turn goes mind blank as there's no connection to Pepper's radio. No. That damn piece of scrap metal didn't...! She promised Tony...!

    When HK-47 crashes into the ground Toph's head jerks in said direction, and then the blind girl gets to her feet, lumbering before she /rushes/ forward with the momentum of a freight train, her hand swooping down to /grab/ HK-47 before she brings her head back and /headbutts/ him so hard that the front of her rock armour crumbles, and even more when she slams him down into the ground, towering above him, her expression one of pure fury as tears run down her cheeks. Sure, HK-47 has seen the earthbender angry and scared before, but this is the first time he's ever seen her /furious/. There's pure rage visible on her young face, and she's not holding back as she reaches down to grab the droid by the legs, the rock around her fingers falling off as she grips the metal there tightly. All before she tears them off, looming above him. "Is /this/ what you wanted to do to us...?!" she demands, her voice cracking but otherwise calm.

Pepper Potts (204) has posed:
    Potts, however, is not dead yet.

    From out of the dust cloud, several targetting missiles, full of seddatives whizz their way through the air, catapulted by the last entered command from Rescue's helmet before it went offline. All heading for Teemo. All eighteen headed for that ratbastard little munchkin with Lao at his mercy, and as the dust clears, Potts is kneeling there, bleeding and bruised and slightly breathless. THe armor is cracked, and her left arm hangs at the side, but her right arm raises, and the repulser in it glows blue.

    "/Who Else/ wants to piss me off today?" she snarls.

Teemo (801) has posed:
Lao's flailing elbow catches the already off-balance Yordle off-guard, slamming into his ribcage so that the nerves all along his arm seem to jump with a static shock. He fumbles for the second dart, but with Fiora looming over him he knows he's lost the moment. Instead, with Tesla's command to break from engagement coming in over his radio, he turns to FLEE.

...Only to get machine-gunned by targeted tranquilizer darts that thup-thup-thup into his back and almost immediately overwhelm his tiny body. He *spluts* face-first into the mud and lies still.

Eve (857) has posed:
    Eve loses some of her fierceness when Raine completely fails to try to finish her off. With that scowl gone, she actually looks kind of pathetic. Small, wet and muddy, breathing hard and apparently in discomfort if not real pain. Without that glare, she seems just a child. If, that is, she weren't holding a wing-shaped scimitar poised to strike.

    She watches Raine as he turns to leave. She doesn't strike at him, instead turning to lock gazes with Fragarach. The ghost girl ... doesn't seem hostile. She doesn't seem like she was particularly interested or harmful at all, besides doing Raine's bidding. And besides, Eve has a certain feeling of kinship for anyone who can pull out something to read as she withdraws from the field of battle.

    After a bit Eve staggers to her feet, one arm wrapped around her burned side, no longer sheathed in metal. There are others who need help, most likely.

HK-47 (754) has posed:
     Processors whirr to life. Crimson photoreceptors flash back online... and HK-47 reactivates-

     Only to be grabbed by a fleshy limb that should have been far too small to lift his metal form and abruptly has a hard stony form /smashed/ into his faceplate hard enough to shatter one of his lenses, half-blinding him as a metallic shriek of surprise and feedback-'pain' tears out of his vocoder.

     Then his back-armor is heavily dented further as he is slammed into the earth hard enough to crater it... forcing the droid to stare back at perhaps the most vindictively furious expression he has ever seen a meatbag wear upon their features.

     A hint of supreme satisfaction worked it's way through HK-47's core processor at the sight of Toph's eyes leaking fluid in large quantities... along with the smoking remains of Rescue's helmet not far from him. "Observation - It seems I have outdone mys-"

     Anything further is compromised, along with HK's structural integrity, as the Earthbender potentially elects some form of satisfaction of her own as HK screams in the droid equivalent of agony as her fingers bury themselves into the joints of his knees, warping the metal plate painstakingly slow from his perspective as she becomes more acclimatized to bending the immeasurably-sturdy Mandalorian Iron-

     -and finally shears them off from the knee down, leaving him incapable of trying to flee as the machine writhes, sparks and conductor-fluid spilling out from the gashes where his shins used to be attached.

     ... and yet, when Toph speaks to him... the droid's vocoder crackles to life again, speaking with a degree of satisfaction he doesn't deserve even though the feedback caused by his damaged circuits. "Affirmation - /Yes/. It is."

     Going for broke, the droid activates his flamethrower and tries to immolate Toph, even as one arm scrabbles to try and push himself away from the enraged Earthbender - to put up as much as a fight as possible for her, either until one of them was exterminated or until Confederate reinforcement evacuated him.

     He did not fear destruction in combat... but that did not mean he would simply /let/ himself be destroyed so easily. Or at least... not without taking that damned Earthbender down with him.

Maya has posed:
Maya knows her curse can't last forever but if she can keep Tesla talking and in a stand off all the better. THough the Confederate is mashing some of the worst ones. The loss of innocent life right now is all that's holding her back fright now. She stares down at Tesla and listens as her green eyes narrow at the otehr woman.

"You don't say."

Maya's tone is icey as she knows just how things are going right now. She can't stop her forever but she's got to stall.

"The end game is that how you put it."

She now turns and launches her self at Tesla aiming to takcle her to the ground and punch her in the face if she can with everything she's got!

Finna (513) has posed:
    Lunars have one good thing on their side. Regeneration.

    About a minute's worth of regeneration is enough to restore her limbs to MOSTLY full-working order... if still sore. And still covered in bruises. And a few wounds that have stopped BLEEDING but are still quite THERE...

    And she's still very, VERY dizzy. Further examination may reveal a concussion, but...

    Nevertheless, she comes bounding back into the caravan with even MORE speed than she left it. All but SKIPPING over the mud in human form. It just... doesn't seem to hinder her as it should. She ends up leaping atop one of the wagons but this leaves her winded and glancing about for any more trouble as well as getting a feel for what's HAPPENED back here. "Whew-awgh..."

Ebon Ribbon (903) has posed:
     After finishing with the last wagon, at least what was left of it, Ebon Ribbon hears HK call for extraction. After the spectacular explosion and his resulting crash into the ground, she is surprised to hear him at all. After a bit of prodding on the Confederate channel, she moves to assist her fallen comrade. She may be in a particularly advantageous position to rescue him, given her long reach and the swiftness of her ribbons.

     But, she can't really turn it off, so when she suddenly lashes out with her ribbons to snag HK and pull him quickly toward her, he would feel the power drain that Toph and Tony have felt before. Ebon reels HK in, then sets him on her back and takes off at a full gallop. "I do hope our other allies are able to extract themselves!" she says as she runs for the nearest safe haven or warp gate, carrying the dismembered droid with her.

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    Outdone himself?! Toph continues crushing the parts of HK-47's legs that she has torn free, seriously tempted to hit the droid in the face just in an attempt to /shut it up/. How can it possibly enjoy doing such things? Because tearing its legs off did not make Toph feel any better, not when...

    Her radio is still making noise in her ear however, and she speaks up, trying to keep her voice calm. "He-... he blaster her a--"

    That's when she notices that HK-47 is moving, and her eyes widen. So when he fires the flamethrower she is luckily already falling to the side, otherwise she might very well be dead right now. Instead she only has to suffer the flames licking at the side of her face and severely scorching her skin, the fire catching in her hair as she drops and rolls, slamming her fist into the ground to send the top layer of earth around them flying up in a rain of sand. She does scream however, reaching up to the side of her face which is now burning as badly as her leg is.

    That's when she feels something dragging the droid away from her, and she curses under her breath. Only one thing stops her from running after Ebon and HK-47 though, as she freezes when she recognizes a familiar shape. And Jarvis reports in on the radio. Her breath catches in her throat, and she stumbles around, heading off in the direction of the caravan.

    Some things are more important than fighting, after all.

    "MOM!"

    In the meanwhile Lao gets to his feet, looking down at the fallen Teemo with some fear in his eyes, and he looks around at the caravan. Most of the trade goods have been stolen and dumped, but none of the workers seem to have been killed. The Elites seem to be okay, and... he halts when he sees Toph rush off towards Pepper.

Tesla Armadia (368) has posed:
Although her support tech was keeping the curse status from becoming incapacitating it wasn't keeping it from having an effect on Tesla's physical effectiveness, just delaying it's effectiveness. It's enough that, as she was focusing for the moment on giving Teemo some cover to escape (which, you could say, went to Potts anyways) that she doesn't react fast enough when Maya rushes her again and

*CRUNK*

A busted visor clatters across the wet muddy ground. Ejected from Tesla's face from Maya applying her fist to it. That is definately going to leave a bruise thanks to her weakening state. "Hff." Telsa took a moment to recompose herself, but doesn't bother retrieving the visor. "It would seem I have hit a nerve. An appropriate response." Her unusually colored eyes focus on Maya for a moment, and despite the bruised cheek still manages a faint bit of a smirk.

"Keep in mind where that got Alexandria..."

On that note she fires a concealed grappler at Teemo, fortunately the small furball is light enough for her to reel in to her. As soon as he's in her hand the pulse jets in her boots fire, launching her up and away from the wrecked caravan with post haste.

Pepper Potts (204) has posed:
    Potts looks at the carnage and ruin around her. Her shoulder's still bleeding. SHe feels a bit fuzzy from bashing her head against the burning, acid-dripped helmet. She breathes out, and slowly brings herself to a stand. Her left arm swings uselessly, and a pained expression croses her face as she searches over the ground, looking for that flash of green and -- she hears her.

    "/Toph/!" she whispers, leaning over and offering her arm for a hug. She wanted to make sure she was all right. Above anyone else.

Fiora Laurent (824) has posed:
    Fiora lets out a sigh, as things start to wind down, though she keeps herself busy as she continues to direct what's left of the convoy, as well as dispersing what few bandits remain. It doesn't take exceptionally long, but it's enough to keep her occupied until assistance arrives.

Maya has posed:
Maya knows thus is delaying action she just hopes it works she might have some idea that Tesla is also delaying for her allies but it might be for the best, she's got popped off enough that she has decked Tesla. She does sock Tesla one good and it's distracted her well enough for a moment.

"Don't make a threat you an't carry out!"

The two have disengaged and she's backing off tohelp with people in the Caravan as best she can as that's more imporant at the moment still Tesla has clearly got under Maya's skin.

HK-47 (754) has posed:
     Sand and mud pours down with the falling rain, intermixing with the flame to create pellets of glass, charred patches of burnt mud and wisps of steam as HK-47 is almost buried by the attack.

     Then... something starts draining his damaged reserves. Thankfully, his capacitor armor might mitigate the charge a bit, but it is still very much an unwanted effect.

     However, it was still an acceptable trade-off in favor of an evacuation, as Ebon Ribbon pulls him away from the enraged Earthbender.

     And so it seems he would cheat certain destruction yet again.

     ...

     Something that seemed frustratingly /commonplace/ for /all/ elites as Rescue, lacking her protective helm with one arm left useless, is left standing in the aftermath of the explosions with severe charring, ruptures and chemical burns all across her suit... and yet no damage to her actual underlaying meatbag body aside from her damaged arm.

     If there was one thing to say about Anthony Stark, it was that he seemed annoyingly superb in the creation of armored suits.

     The sickening sight of Toph and Pepper embracing even after all he did to exterminate both was so revolting to him that he felt the instant urge to fire at them again - and yet... if he did so, he would likely endanger his comrade. An action that jeopardize both their escapes and likely damage future cooperation with Ebon Ribbon.

     ...

     There was a time for conflict, and a time for retreat. This, sadly, was the time for retreat.

     However, at the very least, as he lets himself be carried out on Ebon's back, HK-47 shoots the mother and daughter a glare out of his one intact photoreceptor, regardless of if they can or will see him or not.

     A silent promise that this had now become somewhat /more/ personal for him... and that he was going to make the Earthbender /regret/ not having been able to finish him off.

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    There's relief on Toph's face aside from the bad burn there and singed hair when she hears Pepper call for her. And she's not slow to wrap her arms around Pepper's waist, hugging tightly into her. "... don't do something that crazy again!" she demands, sniffling against Pepper's side. Sure, Toph is clearly injured, but nothing that medical can't fix. What matters now is that people are all right, which includes her father, who has headed over. Sure, Lao Beifong is shaken and disturbed by the events, but at least he got off easy besides a few scares and a rough tumble. "Toph!"

    Immediately the girl turns, only taking a few seconds before she hurries over to the man and hugs him too, not saying a word. In response the man rests his hands on her shoulders, letting out a sigh of relief before he looks back at the utter chaos. It's a good thing Yu Dao isn't too far off. "Get everybody into the last carriages!" he commands the workers, then points. "Prioritise the wounded, they need treatment!"

    Toph pulls back slightly from Lao, then reaches a hand up to her eyes. At least she's calmed down by now.