3870/IFOS: Jumping Jack Flash

IFOS: Jumping Jack Flash
Date of Scene:	02 March 2016
Location:	Amarillo-8 <A8>
Synopsis:	Mike's got a chip on his shoulder and a voice in his head telling him to ROLL INTO TOWN and CRUSH ALL OPPOSITION. He's bringing some real fury to the road, and it's up to the heroes of the day to go on a car crushing saga.
Cast of Characters:	Staren, 165, 411, 782, 942
Tinyplot:	Invaders From Outer Space

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Ren Tanaka (165) has posed:
    Welcome back to Amarillo.

    More specifically, welcome to more or less where this whole thing started- the Big Texan restaurant, located on route 66.

    In this city of weird and unnatural things falling and drifting into a normal, desperate city in the year 1970 that just wants to curl up and ignore the world, it seems as if the pain train never stops. There's always something just a little distance away, always something that needs to be averted and pushed away at the 11th hour.

    There's a storm comin', and it's not coming from the sky. Someone sent in calls- a LOT of calls- to the police, saying that there was something huge making its way down the big road, thundering towards the city from the east in a straight line- of destruction.

    There's only one choice- meeting it head-on.

    So here you are, with a massive, rolling dust cloud coming at you about a mile off, chewing up the road, not close enough that you can actually pick out what it's made of but close enough that you can see that it's unquestionably dangerous.

    Your mission, if you choose to accept it?

    Stop it from reaching the city.

Kazuko Kawakami (942) has posed:
     "That's gotta be a big one..." Kazuko sounds mildly awestruck and quite excited as she watches that cloud in the distance, naginata slung over her shoulder while her other hand cradles a sandwich that she's been nibbling on for the past five minutes. It's not that the sandwich is bad or anything, but rather...

     Well, how else is she supposed to keep herself from choking on it while she's riding in a freaking rocket car? A girl needs to be careful with her food! The martial artist might look a little out of place with her distinctly un-American weapon, but at least she looks dressed for... Some sort of part! Instead of that pink sweater with some sort of French writing that she showed up in, the area's adjusted her clothing to look a little more... Flashy.

     Namely, a multi-colored jacket with a lime green blouse and flared pants. It's not the most inconspicious outfit, but at least it's... Sort of fitting? Not that she seems to mind, at least.

     "So! What's the plan for this thing, anyway?"

Twilight Sparkle (411) has posed:
     And racing to meet it head on is a somewhat familiar sight. At least, to the racing gangs. The Twilight Express! A rocket car with what look like old time train wheels for its wheels, a long oval body with a cutout for people to ride in, and a tall engine behind the cab that has a pair of rockets at the top, one on each side. Those rockets are currently spewing a trail of magical fire and sparkles as they push the car and its passengers toward the dust cloud at an incredible speed for a car.

     Twilight Sparkle is driving, a determine expression on her face. Her main and tail might be smothering someone in the back seat with how it is fluttering about since the car has no roof, just a windshield that protects the passengers from the worst of the wind and whatever might come flying at them from the front. "Do we have any idea what this thing is?" Twilight says as the car comes to a stop a short distance from the approaching destructive cloud and whatever is within. The pony hops out quickly and her racing uniform disappears to be replaced by her Harmony Armor in a shower of sparkles that coalesce around her to form the armor.

Staren has posed:
    Staren's given up all pretense of hiding his nature -- he's wearing his futuristic armor as he rides in the rocket car. But hey, he's racing along in a rocket car with his best friend, who is also his girlfriend, as well as a couple of allies, and they're going to save the city, so this is a pretty good day!

    "Hmmm. Since the gang said something about using it to make special parts for their cars, I'm guessing that it's going to be a giant amalgamation of super car parts. /Why/ someone would build such a thing, beyond just because, is beyond me. I doubt they have much of a plan beyond showing it off... but they might be planning to show it off by running it through the city, who knows? That's why we gotta find 'em and talk to them..."

    Fortunately, despite his closed helmet and the wind, his armor has speakers that make sure his voice is heard by his allies no problem.

    After they dismount from the car, Staren gives Twilight a quick hug, then activates his energy wings (best magic item ever) to fly ahead and get a look at this thing!

Golden (782) has posed:
    The small metal ball doesn't fit the seat-belts, whether they be for pony or human, and is holding on for dear life with his one hand to the seat in front of him, getting a face-full of Twilight's mane as he tries not to rattle about the rocket car. He simply shouts above the roaring wind. "We could just blow it up!"
    Oh, the rocket car has stopped. He hops out, hoping his death grip didn't damage the upholstry too much, waiting for some kind of sign or call to action.

Ren Tanaka (165) has posed:
    'A big amalgamation of car parts' is an entirely correct estimate of what's coming right at you, sure. The only problem is... well, they're not all in one piece, so to speak?

    Also, there's music playing.

    "I was born in a crossfire hurricane!
    And I howled at my ma in the driving rain!
    But it's all right now, in fact it's a gas!
    I'm Jumpin' Jack Flash, it's a gas, gas, gas! aHAHAHAHA!"

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQSGw0hMd_I
    Jumpin' Jack Flash - The Rolling Stones
    Mick Jagger and Keith Richards - 1968

    Here, you will see a Ford Falcon, a Valiant Charger, a Chevy, a Plymouth Fury. There, a half-dozen rolling vehicles with yellow eyes in their headlamps and a mouthful of jagged teeth in their grilles. Over there, about seven rusting cars of various makes entirely moving by glowing energy alone, reanimated automobile cadavers. And right in the middle of it all... there's Mike.

    He's on the back of an enormous truck loaded down with dozens of speakers, standing on a platform with an electric guitar, all of his boyhood rock and roll dreams fulfilled. There are unnatural, glowing spirals in his eyes, and he seems to be having the time of his life.

    https://gyazo.com/345304f6ddc440fe84e24ca6a9ba5035

    A floating breadbox-like object quickly turns into a sort of jewel-studded cylinder, before seeming to merge with the truck, sending a blaze of flame out of its multiple exhaust pipes.

Twilight Sparkle (411) has posed:
     Twilight's is about to return Staren's hug when...holy Celestia?! What is that?! Twilight's eyes widen and her ears fold back when she sees the possessed and customized cars rumbling toward them with a Mad Max guitarist bringing up the rear. Twilight quickly hops back into her rocket car, suspecting the speed and durability might be needed. "Okay, the first priority is to lead those things away from the city! Next priority is to stop them! The only method I can think of to stop possibly possessed passenger vehicles is to smash them or to sever whatever source is feeding their possession."

     Twilight watches Staren fly off to scout, then looks into the back seat. "Do you guys want to ride along, or do you want to hop out and start the smashing?"

Staren has posed:
    Staren transmits what he's seeing to Twilight's tablet, although she'll see it too soon enough. "Oh my god, did you make ZOMBIE CARS?" he shouts. <<I'm gonna try to talk to him. We need more information on what these things are -- with any luck, he'll monologue it to us!>> he radios to the others, before coming in for a landing atop the truck. They're zombie cars, but they're still cars -- what're they gonna do, /jump/ at him?

    "HEY! HEY THERE! WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?" he shouts over the music.

    He knows /nothing/ about what this man has done. Has he made flesh-eating zombie cars? car-eating zombie cars? /Living/ cars of some new type of life that he's going to order to attack the city but which don't need to do anything bad to survive? Or is the glowing energy moving them just giving them the /appearance/ of unlife?

    That's what he needs to find out!

Kazuko Kawakami (942) has posed:
     Stepping out of the car with the rest of the group, Kazuko's still not quite sure what to expect even after that prediction from Staren. "Car parts... Hmm. then I'll have to be careful with how much I put into each hit." She sounds confident, at least, and a broad grin crosses her face at Golden's proposed solution. "I can go after the softer parts, then! Um... You think there's gonna be any seats on it?"

     Of course, when those cars actually start showing up, the martial artist looks a little less than enthused. How's she supposed to fight a freaking car?! Breathing in slowly, she gets back into Twilight's car and hangs half outside of it, keeping her naginata brandished. "I'm with you, horse-lady! If we can get close, I can lop something off!" Maybe. She's brought her bladed naginata today, so maybe she'll actually have a chance!

     Probably not a great one, but still.

Golden (782) has posed:
    Golden holds up his gun arm in response to Twilight's question, after seeing what they're up against. "I got a nice energy bomb cannon, so I'll ride along!" Yeah, there's gonna be a lot of explosions, he figures. He hops back into the rocket car and fusses with the seatbelts again, trying to figure out some way to strap himself down. Eventually he figures /something/ out involving knotting the two lengths of seat belt around him. He won't bounce quite so much now. Important for a steady aim!

Ren Tanaka (165) has posed:
    Mike Yates, for those of you playing along at home: previous second-in-command of the amalgamated gangs that various Union members raced against and steered away from wreaking chaos in the city. Son of a father arrested for counterfeiting, issues with paranoia, surly and rude. These are all things that have been found out from experience and Ren's social research, but who knew he could play a guitar like that?!

    "Huhuhuhu, so looks like Pigs can fly after all!" Mike shouts as Staren gets close to him. "You don't like it? Well, you can shove it! Yeah, I shoulda used the old gang's magic box to do this weeks ago! I'm in the driver's seat of my own private army, and we're gonna roll over and rule this city!"

    Please remember: fasten your seatbelts when in a moving vehicle.

    Admittedly, enough of these vehicles have stable, flat tops that it's entirely possible that some jumping and vaulting could be done. And hey, you never know how much metal you can crush until you try, right? Maybe rusty cars break more easily.

    In any case, Mike's swarm of animated cars can definitely tell when there's a prospective meal- and a powerful one at that- heading right for it. So much so that they're going to start trying to envelop the rocket car, stopping their headlong barrel towards Amarillo to start cycling around the elites and getting ready to start attacking. Any moment now, they're going to strike!

Staren has posed:
    "...We didn't have to fight, you know..." Staren crosses his arms and complains when Mike assumes he's with the police -- although, he's forgetting about the disguise effect, maybe he /does/ look like a policeman -- "But I can't let you terrorize those people!"

    Since Mike is /standing on top of a truck playing a guitar/, Staren tries to just... grab him! And then if that works, fly with him over the cars and threaten to drop him. "Now tell us how to stop them, or you're gonna be their first meal!"

Twilight Sparkle (411) has posed:
     Evasive maneuvers! Twilight lets out a startled 'eek!' as the cars actually turn toward her and her rocket car, but at least this will make luring them away from town easier. "Hang on!" she calls out to her passengers before she puts the pedal to the metal. The rocket car lurches, then explodes forward as she tries to dodge incoming cars by heading off road. If those are anything like normal cars, the rough terrain will be difficult on them. If they are -not- like normal cars, well...at least the rocket car is fast!

     With Twilight driving the car, it will be hard for her to actually go on the offensive without jeopardizing her car, which she thinks would be a bad idea given these are apparently zombie cars and her rocket car could become a zombie car. That would be bad! Still, with Kazuko and Golden volunteering to work as the car's weapons, she has to try. So, while she doesn't play chicken with any zombie cars, Twilight does try to maneuver close enough for Kazuko to slash at things or Golden to fire at things. But, the purple pony maintains her course away from town, trying to lead the craziness away from the city.

Kazuko Kawakami (942) has posed:
     "... Ohh, they're coming they're coming!" It's not quite clear whether Kazuko's startled or excited about fighting the cars as they approach, but the adrenaline is definitely starting to kick in for the young martial artist. Gripping the inside of the car with her legs at that warning from Twilight, it takes her a moment to adjust to the speed.

     "H-hanging! Alright, I got this one!" Finding her balance even in that awkward position, Kazuko channels ki into both her naginata and her legs, the former to give it more striking power and range, the latter to make sure she doesn't fall right out of that speedy vehicle. She lashes out at the cars as they draw closer, trying to use her ki-augmented slashes to cleave right through the zombie cars !

Golden (782) has posed:
    Golden tries to hang on for the evasive manuevers, but his knot-work was not very secure and the seat-belts come lose! He grabs at the interior trying to find something to hang on to, shouting "SORRY!" to Twilight a lot because of the clawing her seats are getting from the metal blades on the back of his hand. And out he goes, flung towards the zombie cars as chance would have it.
    He's a lot less worried about damaging the zombie cars though! He tries to stick out his metal claw to catch hold of one of the beastie's hoods or flat-tops.

Ren Tanaka (165) has posed:
Staren rushes towards Mike! Unfortunately, well, you know how a common nickname for a big electric guitar is a 'battleaxe'?

    Because that's entirely what Staren might just find connecting with his chest in response! Mike swings hard, that same eerie glow that's in the cars and his eyes creeping around his arms as he delivers an unnaturally tough strike with an unnaturally sharp guitar!

    "Dude, you're funny! These things are like my toy cars! They do what I tell them to! I'm the one in control here!"

    He wiggles his fingers on a free hand. "Lemme show you!"

     Meanwhile, it's time for a frightening game of vehicular homicide, as the other three elites face off against the horde. With Twilight in the driver's seat, and Kazuko and Golden as sord and goon. Thankfully for them, at least some of the cars are definitely going to be impaired by driving offroad, and if Twilight's really good at driving - and she no doubt is- she can absolutely hamper the effectiveness of some of the rustier, zombier cars by cutting them up and steering them into rocks or shrubs. Just be careful of that one car that's COVERED IN SPIKES. Kazuko takes the top off of the Fury, and Golden manages to start whacking the hoods off of not one, not two, but three miscellaneous cars. If this is like a zombie movie, do you have to destroy the engine to kill 'em?

    As Mike moves his fingers, one car or another subtly moves in the same way. When he points his thumb forward- well, that's when the truck with the big, nasty goblin face on the front rushes headlong towards the rocket car!

Staren has posed:
    Fortunately, swinging an axe is a pretty telegraphed motion, and that glow is suspicious, so Staren has time to activate his forcefield -- the axe cuts a chunk out of it before it vanishes as Staren backs off. "Alright buddy, you asked for it! Those are my friends you're attacking!" The missile launchers behind Staren's shoulders pop up, and he rains hell down on the swarm of cars below!

    Three missiles from Staren's shoulder rack rain down on the back of the pack, exploding into 30ft-wide superheated fireballs without much force. Staren hopes to partially melt them or something.

    A half-dozen smaller missiles from launch ports in his arm armor fly away, turn low to the ground, and then target wheels and tires from the side, their warheads firing a tight beam of plasma at point-blank range on impact. Unfortunately, damage in a tight line isn't much help for disabling something like this that doesn't depend on its internals to work, but they still need wheels and tires to roll, right?

    Right?

Twilight Sparkle (411) has posed:
     Twilight actually isn't really good at driving, just pretty good at driving this car. She understands it, knows how it moves, and knows what she can do with it. So, she leads the convoy on a merry little chase, full of lots of slicing and dicing by Kazuko and Golden. She does occassionally cut a car off and cause it to crash, but that's really just when she's trying to avoid some -other- car that is trying to get them. Forcibly crashing things into rocks and walls would be Rainbow Dash's or Applejack's technique. Such a thing just doesn't occur to Twilight Sparkle. She is just trying to keep her rocket car from being destroyed.

     "Golden!" she calls out as he is thrown from the car by her crazy driving. She starts to turn to try and get him back, but he seems alright on the tops of those cars and Twilight does still need to keep leading them away from town. And then, there is that giant truck barreling after them, somehow keeping up with a rocket car and possibly even gaining on it! "Th-that thing being so fast defies physics!" Twilight exclaims as she dodges rocks and things herself.

Kazuko Kawakami (942) has posed:
     "This guy's... Really crazy!" Kazuko lurches on the window as she pulls herself in a bit, still recoiling somewhat from cleaving the top of one of those cars right off. Although she's grinning excitedly with the adrenaline of the strange fight coursing through her, she still looks ready to jump right out of Twilight's rocket car to catch up with Golden. "But we'll take him down! We just need to..."

     Kazuko trails off as her gaze shifts from the Digimon to the truck aiming right for them. Unfortunately for her, her courage seems to be translating into stupidity today as she continues hanging out of the side and starts spinning her naginata outside of the rocket car.

     "If we can... If we can get one good pass...!" As she keeps spinning that polearm, yellow energy starts to gather and flow off of it, the aura growing larger and brighter as her ki pools into it to power up her next attack! And if that truck actually comes close enough...

     She's going to stab it. Really, REALLY hard. This couldn't possibly go wrong.

Golden (782) has posed:
    Golden hadn't been trying to /destroy/ the cars.
    He had been trying to stop his unintentional flight by the friction of metal claws on metal panels.
    That hadn't worked /quite/ as well as he had hoped, bouncing and skipping off three cars, peeling away hoods for his trouble. Finally he lands on the roof of one car, denting it with his mostly metal body. He hangs on by punching his claw through the roof and then grabbing the sheet metal with his gloved hand right. Then there's a whine from his gun arm as it spools up and starts glowing. He unleashes a barrage of energy bombs at the cars that are focused on Twilight's rocket car. He almost loses his grip when one of Staren's missiles whistles right over him. That was pretty close!

Ren Tanaka (165) has posed:
    To be fair, a lot of things defy physics. It's stupid Exalted bullshit at work.
    Oops, spoilers...

    Now, because every mad desert vehicle brawl is always even better with fire everywhere, Staren adds the requisite stormy inferno to the proceedings. And while the good thing about 30 feet wide fireballs is that they'll definitely catch more than a few cars- heating bits of their bodywork to orange-hot and making them a lot easier to destroy if you could get in a good whack or blast, the downside of course is that when you're in a rocket car, you've got to make very sure to evade all of those yourself!

    Twilight is definitely doing a good job of being the mobile weapons platform- when you only have to concentrate on dodging and driving, I suppose it becomes a little easier. And some of the vehicles aren't going to make that easy- the truck, at least, doesn't have an actual working mouth, but the toothy cars certainly do. They make aggressive honking noises and snap their teeth, trying to either bite or drive Twilight's vehicle into the flames!

    Also, speaking of the goblin truck, Kazuko is aiming to stab it with a ki-charged strike- and, picking her moment, she drives it in, crumpling the front of the truck like a concertina! But Mike, as if in response to her and Staren's assertations, sweeps his energy-wreathed arm out, and the struggling truck lists to the side to try and drag Kazusa away! Watch out for explosions!

    "You're gonna be roadkill!" Mike asserts, his voice starting to flange. "And nothing's gonna stop me! Pff, being on fire's just gonna make these cars EVEN SCARIER! When we roll into Amarillo, everyone'll panic and scurry!"

    And now Golden's got purchase on a Buick 8 (careful for the nasty energy trailing from the back), he can start taking potshots- helpfully, at the cars which Staren's missile barrage has already weakened. He can definitely start thinning out the horde this way, blowing engines into scrap and possibly even knocking some teeth out of the cars snapping at Twilight's... heels?

Staren has posed:
    Staren's falling behind. The fleet of cars is going /fast/, now! Fortunately, he still has three missiles in his other shoulder rack... which he now uses, instead of as an attack, as propulsion! It's tricky since they're off-center, but with his wings and that trick Kirito told him about controlling the speed (he based them on ALO's wings), he's able to roughly maintain control, flying towards Mike again. "You just want to make people scared and unhappy! We're fighting for all the light in the world! If your only desire is to snuff out that light..."

    Staren's wearing armor. He doesn't care if he takes a few hits before he can get good leverage. Because once he has hold of Mike, not only is he probably too close to effectively use the axe on, but he's going to start crushing the man's arms with his armor's superstrength. If he can't use his arms, he can't swing the axe /or/ order his cars around, right?

    "Then there is no place in the future for you!"

Twilight Sparkle (411) has posed:
     Twilight continues dodging and swerving, but she is starting to get boxed in by all the aggressive cars! So, what does one do when one is a magical unicorn in a rocket car getting boxed in by cannibal cars? Why, you cast a spell that creates a force shield around the front of your car so you can ram those nasty cars and send them flying, of course!

     Twilight's horn glows brightly as she casts that spell, and a purple shield of light forms at the nose of her rocket car. "Enough is enough!" she says as she finally actually joins the demolition derby. The progress away from town may stop now, but they must be miles from town by now so Twilight feels it is safe enough to turn and confront the attackers. By bashing them in the grill with a force shield backed by the power of rockets! Now it is more like bowling than a derby, as any car that is hit by Twilight should be severely smashed and possibly sent flying through the air!

Kazuko Kawakami (942) has posed:
     "Got it! Uh..." Although Kazuko perks up a bit as her naginata strikes home inside that truck, she's eventually lifted right out of Twilight's car once Mike gets that truck turning! She hangs on for dear life with a startled yelp, almost hanging off of the long weapon like a monkey as she tries to regain her bearings.

     "What are you even getting out of this, you crazy... Crazy?!" Climbing on top of the naginata and sliding down to where it's jammed in the truck, the martial artist braces her feet against the vehicle before kicking off, launching herself and the naginata towards the nearest zombie car. She starts using the cars in the impromptu derby as spring boards, bounding from car to car (and even using Twilight's for extra speed) while aiming for her main target: Mike!

     "If you're not gonna stop being crazy, then we'll just have to take you down!" With her boast finished, she springs into the air and takes aim at Mike, trying to time her movements with Staren's as she aims a missile dropkick straight for the necarmancer!

Golden (782) has posed:
    The energy bombs start being aimed at the (more) damaged cars, the orange energy spheres exploding violently upon contact with anything solid. Golden is not /extremely/ familiar with how cars work; he knows they go, but not how or why. He's just aiming for the fronts since there seems to be faces there, and there isn't a lot that he has encountered that enjoys explosions to the face. HOPEFULLY, it works.
    As for the digimon himself, the Buick 8 swerves and bucks, trying to get him off. Finally the small digimon loses his grip and is flung off into the wastes around this Amarillo.

Ren Tanaka (165) has posed:
The cars are decreasing in number, but almost as if the horde can sense it they're starting to speed up- rather than circling and swerving back and forth, they're resuming their rush towards the city limits. This sudden burst of speed and direction is going to mean some definite sharp steering will be needed by Staren and Twilight to slip through them, and it may well end up taking Golden by surprise sufficient that he loses his grip and takes a spill. But he's done enough- more than half of the cars are out of action by now.

    "I want to RULE this city! Like we SHOULDA DONE! I'm gonna be the ONE- ON- TOP-" Mike barks back at Staren and Kazuko, puncuating his words with swings of his supersharp guitar- until, that is, the power-armored future boy sweeps in to give Mike a spectacular bear hug! He drops his guitar in the process, too!

    And then, as Kazuko goes from car to car- and with her ki-charged movements, and the fragile, heat-stressed bodies of some of the vehicles, she even ends up crushing some of them underfoot- she eventually makes it to the man himself. And the kick is gooooood! It even knocks that perpetually placed band-aid off of his face, causing Mike to go flying off of the speaker-laden truck.

    Now, normally, hitting the ground at the speed that these vehicles are going would do havoc to an unarmored man, but all that happens is Mike gives off nasty bursts of that weird energy when he hits the ground.

    He gets up slowly, glasses cracked.
    "I'm... gonna..." and again, his voice is so flanged and weird. "This city needs one good flame of fear to set it all off, and make a light that burns so bright that nobody can look away from the spectacle. All eyes on me... all eyes on /me/..."

    And it seems as if Twilight has, well, had enough indeed. When all else fails, well, you're a unicorn: and if there's one thing a being with a spike on their head does well, it seems, it's charge headlong into things when the chips are down. At great risk to herself, Twilight is just slamming the remaining vehicles this-a-way and that-a-way, even knocking some of them right onto their backs!

Twilight Sparkle (411) has posed:
     All alone in her car now, Twilight has even less to worry about! But, when the cars all start back toward town, Twilight gets a little worried. Hopefully it isn't one of those situations where if even one makes it to town it will be disasterous! Of course, with them all making a mad dash toward town, she can follow them and unleash magical mayhem! She leans her head around the windshield of her rocket car and her horn glows brightly before she starts firing beams of pure energy designed to punch through the cars and their gas tanks or engines. If that doesn't slow them down, she raises her magic to form barriers right in front of the cars so that they will smash into them and hopefully total themselves.

     And if THAT doesn't work, well...she might have to cast an even more powerful spell. But, hopefully it won't come to that. "Good work you two!" she calls to Staren and Kazuko as they unseat Mike. But...it doesn't seem to have that much of an effect. "What is that strange glow? Is that from the magic box?" she asks aloud, though she likely won't get an answer.

Staren has posed:
    Staren's on top of the truck now, at least, so with magnetic boots he doesn't have to worry about keeping up with the flock (herd? derby? What's the collective noun here?)

    "No! Dammit Kazuko!" Staren shouts as Mike is kicked free before Staren can crush him... although, given how he survives the impact, maybe he couldn't have been crushed after all.

    Staren looks at the rapidly receding Mike, but before chasing him... may as well sabotage this truck! Maybe the animating artifact is inside, right? Staren blasts a hole in the top with his beam cannons, widens it with his armor's strength, then just leans over it and drops the three missiles out of their rack. "Get clear!" he shouts if Kazuko is still on the truck, then jumps off before the missiles detonate -- the same fireball kind as before, but now three of them concentrated inside the truck!

    Staren doesn't hit the ground, though. He uses the energy wings again, first to brake and then to fly back towards Mike.

    No more playing around. Staren is done.

    He pulls the RAISER rifle out of his pack, aims at Mike's feet, and fires all of its energy in one shot, which detonates on impact with the energy of half a ton of TNT.

Kazuko Kawakami (942) has posed:
     The one thing Kazuko didn't plan for after kicking Mike clean off that truck: Landing. She tumbles around a few times on the dirt as she rolls to a stop, getting banged up a bit on her own just from trying to spread out the overall impacts from the high-speed landing. Picking herself up as Mike does, the martial artist shakes her arms off before picking up her naginata again, keeping her eyes open for the cars still speeding about wildly around them.

     "What?! We just need to finish him off!" She shouts in return, breaking into a run towards Mike with that bladed polearm trailing behind her. Thankfully, she's far enough from the truck that Staren's missiles (probably) won't blow her up, but.. Is she trying to race his rifle shot?!

     Nope. She's not /that/ crazy! Instead, Kazuko stabs her weapon straight into the ground before hopping on top of it, using the handle to springboard herself high into the air just as that shot explodes. "This is what happens to bad guys, you jerk! You and your weird glowing... Box?" That's what Twilight mentioned, right? She's not quite sure where that box is any more, but her focus is on Mike as she starts falling straight towards him, aiming another post-explosion kick at the carmaster.

Ren Tanaka (165) has posed:
    With barriers too, and the damage Golden and Kazuko already did, for Twilight- even if she is alone- it's mostly a case of cleanup now. Although these cars look fearsome, the truth of the matter is that they're MEANT to look that way- and as we've found out, some are all bark and no bite. These are designed for terror... the question may well be, why?

    But that might be something to think about later. Right now it's time to go hog wild on what remains of them, and Twilight with her barriers, beams and bashing turns them into scrap metal.

    And as for Mike... well, things ... get a little excited.

    Staren is really going wild. The sound of these explosions will be the sort of thing the citizens later today will desperately blame on a gas leak or a petrol tanker. There's a salvo of attacks- first missiles, and then the RAISER rifle.

    Mike's spiralling eyes tighten as he sees the approaching attack, and he opens his hand- for a moment, that strange, jewel-studded cylinder that was the 'magic box' tears its way out of the truck and flies towards his hand-

    And then the detonations, shaking the air, tearing the shrubbery, scorching the ground. Kazuko goes sailing through the shockwave, and she could swear that her foot connects with something, something that feels and shines like hot brass--

    But there's nothing there when she lands. Just scorched ground and the ruins of cars, which are crumbling into rust and dust and the broken, hollow wrecks they once were.

Staren has posed:
    "Wha--?!" Staren starts to exclaim as, while his shot approaches Mike, the man calls the box...

    But after an explosion like /that/, it's hard to tell if Mike was blown up or not. At least all the cars are falling to junk. Staren glances at Kazuko, then flies over to Twilight to check on her. "Are you alright?! I'm sorry it came to that, but he just wouldn't listen... I wouldn't be sure I killed him, though. He might've just teleported away or something, who knows...

Kazuko Kawakami (942) has posed:
     Skidding to a stop as she kicks through something or another, Kazuko, stays in a crouched position as she looks back at the distinctly un-face-like thing she kicked through. She blinks slowly with a confused look as she spots... Well, nothing. Where's Mike? Just a lot of rubble and wrecks, but no sign of the guy controlling any of it.

     "... Hey! Where'd you go?" She calls out as she starts scurrying about, her naginata tucked under her arm. With no sign of him, however, she turns her attention back to Twilight and Staren. "Ahm... (Mission clear), then?" The adrenaline's still pumping, but not enough to stop Kazuko from speaking in broken English and hurrying towards where she last saw Golden. It's a bit of a hike, but she'll get ot the Digimon eventually! Someone's got to make care the little gold ball guy's okay, after all.