3921/Spare Parts No. 1

Spare Parts No. 1
Date of Scene:	17 March 2016
Location:	Techno Urbania
Synopsis:	A jetbike, a hovervan, and a heist gone very wrong.
Cast of Characters:	276, 368, Bahamut, 942

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Kari Wolf (276) has posed:
    The hovervan is fairly unremarkable, being the dark chocolate color of a multiversal delivery service, with golden yellow trim and logo. However, what it is doing is totally remarkable. Which is weaving in and out of the aerial traffic lanes of Techno Urbania like its tailpipe is on fire. The drivers are radio for police and assistance, saying that there is a woman on a jetbike chasing them and shooting at them!
    Meanwhile, the jetbike's engine ROARS above the much quieter sound of hover cars and smaller aerial vehicles, and is clearly a product of a Confederate Armed Forces military equipment manufacturer, with large saddlebags from which two smaller feminine figures are shooting lasers at the delivery truck.

Tesla Armadia (368) has posed:
    And if that isn't weird enough even by Techno Urbania's standards, just get a load of the driver of said jetbike. For one it has way too many arms to be human, even if the 'core' of the figure was a bipedal mechanical construct. She's got two 'normal' arms steering the jetbike, and two smaller ones resting against what would be the shoulders holding what appear to be guns. Though she's not shooting with them at the moment. There's also two larger mechanical forms folded up at her sides. If one looks really close they might notice that 'she' doesn't have a normal head, either. Because that's where the shinki sized cockpit is with another toy sized female figure sitting in.
    .. So it's a jetbike being driven by a robot, being driven by a tinier robot. There's some sort of joke about layers in there.

Kazuko Kawakami (942) has posed:
Despite losing her title earlier in the week, Kazuko's still been hard at work making sure she's in peak physical condition! Today has been no different, and she's just been jogging along Techno Urbania with her trusty running tire tied to her waist. No missions on her plate, no fights lined up... All in all, a nice stress-free evening.

     At least until she hears the sound of... Lasers? Those are lasers in the distance! And they're getting... Closer? Her body reacts before her brain does as she sees that delivery van coming straight for her, and she vaults right on top of the vehicle with a strained grunt! That shouldn't have been so hard, but the tire is still attached and waving in the air while she climbs onto the roof of the van to peer at its small... Or slightly bigger pursuers.

     "H... Hey! What're you doing?! Cut that out!" Big words, coming from a high-schooler in a gym uniform latching onto a van's roof for dear life with a tire swinging in the wind.

Bahamut has posed:
     As the chase goes on below, a dark form appears in the sky. It closes in, growing larger and larger, like some gigantic bird-of-prey. Until finally it is close enough for those below to see that it is the grey dragon known as Bahamut. He just happened to be nearby when the call for help went out.

     Now, he is flying above the street, following the chase closely. He lets out a warning roar easily loud enough for both pursuee and pursuer to hear, then moves in closer. "Whoever you are, stop this at once or be prepared to face the power and might of Bahamut!"

Kari Wolf (276) has posed:
    Kari, being one of the two figures in the saddlebags, points upwards towards Bahamut, shouting over the Confederate radio frequencies about a dragon. The tiny figure's large shoulders open up to reveal micro-grenade launchers, and a barrage of smoke grenades are launched out at Bahamut, attempting to obscure the dragon's sight lines. This is far more difficult than Kari expects since her master had built the Dire Wolf armor with more... human sized targets in mind. Not great wyrms.
    Meanwhile, the other saddlebag holds the much taller robo-rabbit sister of Kari's; Harriet. The ears of her fully enclosed helm are twitching as she reads the environment. The rapid fire assault laser on her shoulder moves in synch with the sensor ears, tracking the hovervan as short sizzling bolts of coherent light attempt to disable the hovervan's motive systems. The appearance of the girl on top is a bit surprising to Harriet, causing an interruption of the laser barrage as she re-assesses the situation. Probably shouldn't shoot the tire off, that seems to be weighing the girl down and she's at least as agile as Harriet if she can jump onto a moving hovervan like that. Hmmm... Harriet takes aim at the latches on the hovervan's rear cargo door and fires, trying to get enough lucky shots to break open the door. This is very difficult though, what with the wild motion of the jetbike and hovervan to account for. So really it looks like a random shooting of lasers instead of any kind of coherent attack strategy.

Tesla Armadia (368) has posed:
To be frank the whole 'random schoolgirl' appearance is pretty much dismissed by the fact that she jumped -onto a high speed vehicle-.

    And then there's dragons. Saiga has to lean back a little in the cockpit of her human-sized robot suit to look up. "Why the hell are there dragons in Techno Urbania?.. Oh, whatever!" Saiga cranks the throttle to full to keep the jetbike on the delivery hovervan's tail.

    As the bike moves closer the constructs at her sides unfold into a rather large pair of mechanical manipulator arms. "I think we're going to have to do this the quick and messy way instead, girls." Saiga tries to veer closer to the van and just grab the doors with the hefty manipulators, just in case Harriet can't get a clean shot on the lock at this rate.

Kazuko Kawakami (942) has posed:
That's a dragon. A dragon that is yelling at them. Or her. Kazuko's not sure which, but the mere sight of Bahamut is definitely enough to get her to shrink back against the roof of the hovervan quite a bit. At least.. Until she realizes that he's on her side. After that, she's feeling a little better about the whole situation!

     Until the lasers start flying again, anyway. She yelps in surprise as a few whiz by her, pulling on the rope keeping the tire attached to her and pulling the tire over as if it was some sort of life-line. "We warned you!" She shouts as if she's preparing to not just be hiding on top of that van, then...

     Starts spinning the tire by the rope. It's slow-going at first, but the tire's starting to build up speed as it keeps swinging above her. Is she planning on using that like a chain-sickle or something?!

Bahamut has posed:
     Yes, that is a dragon. And he growls as the lasers open fire again. He makes a gesture with one clawed hand, and a magical light barrier appears at the back of the van, attatched to the back doors. It isn't an indestructible barrier by any means, but it should deflect those lasers. And, as an added bonus, the lasers that hit the van are Reflected back at the source.

     "And you did not listen." Bahamut growls after Kazuko speaks up. He dives down and brings one of those big clawed hands in to slash at the pilot of the hoverbike, attempting to unseat or outright destroy the robotic rider. Of course, with how the two vehicles are swerving about, it will be hard to land an slash like that.

Kari Wolf (276) has posed:
    Harriet can't get a bead on the locks and latches of the cargo door despite her best efforts. To be fair, Harriet has not been in many combat situations compared to Kari. She points out the barrier of light to Saiga with a yelp!
    Kari holds on for dear life as Saiga swerves and jinks to avoid the angry dragon. Her own weaponry changes since the smoke grenades don't seem to do much, laser turret things popping out from her shoulders to shoot sizzling beams at the dragon. She yells about not wanting to be eaten.
    For the moment, the shinki sisters are ignoring Kazuko, more distracted by what seems like an impending crash and a giant angry dragon than martial artist atop a swerving and diving hovervan.

Tesla Armadia (368) has posed:
    The hovervan tries to juke away at the last moment, but Saiga still manages to clamp onto it's back bumper with one power arm and keep in position behind it, although the jetbike keeps veering from side to side from all the motion. And then dragon. Especially when the dragon comes after -her-. Saiga leans back all the way in her cockpit as big dragon claws swipe down the front of the robotic frame. "Hey I've got enough problems to deal with here!"
    She swings the arm not holding onto the truck up at Bahamut in return, trying to knock him away again. "Go away, you overgrown salamander!"

Kazuko Kawakami (942) has posed:
Kazuko's feeling just a little outmatched when she spots Bahamut swooping in to swipe at the assailants, although she's not going to let that stop her from trying to help out! That tire keeps swinging overhead as she ducks down on the roof of the van again, having quite a bit of trouble maintaining her footing when the hovervan jerks sideways suddenly. The martial artist is even forced to keep that tire swinging with only one arm while holding onto the roof with the other!

     "Th-that's it... Okay! Kawakami Kazuko original technique: Ishitsubute!" And with that, she gets back onto one knee before lashing out with the makeshift morning star, swinging her tire out in a wide arc at the front of the jetbike!

Bahamut has posed:
     The smokescreen totally worked! The dragon missed, after all. But, at high speeds and beneath the flapping of wings a smokescreen is only effective for a few moments. Of course, the dragon actually hitting them at all with a slash is pretty unlikely. A bike is fast and agile. Bahamut is only fast. Shifting all that metallic bulk around isn't easy, so quick back and forth movements are beyond him.

     That doesn't keep him from trying, though! As those laser shots impact him and leave craters in his metallic hide, Bahamut keeps swooping in at Saiga and slashing. "I will if you will!" he says, words punctuated by grunts from being shot. After getting smacked by Saiga's robot suit, Bahamut goes spiraling away for a moment before he regains his balance and keeps after the bike.

     Seeing that his slashing and diving are getting him nowhere, Bahamut tries something else. He makes another gesture, then points at the bike. The air suddenly feels charged around it before fingers of electricity appear around it. And in the next instant, a roughly 3 meter area around the bike explodes in a ball of lightning. The orb of energy lasts only a few moments, but those few moments would be very uncomfortable.

Kari Wolf (276) has posed:
    The electrical explosion causes the jetbike's engine and contra-grav to sputter and whine, and forces a system reboot for Kari and Harriet as their armors are knocked offline. Fortunately for them, they're in the saddlebags and largely protected from falling out.
    There's a surprised yelp from inside the hovervan as the drivers watch their control systems go slightly haywire. Sparks fly as the hovervan rear up and takes off into the air, battering itself against traffic that isn't quite able to swerve out of the way fast enough. Both drivers curse to express their surprise, one of them yanking uselessly at the controls as the vehicle begins ascending among the spires of Techno Urbania.

Tesla Armadia (368) has posed:
Good thing Saiga's robo-suit is insulated! Which keeps her from going completely blue screen like her companions. Unfortunately, the jetbike isn't so lucky. Or maybe it's because it's magic lightning. Either way, the digital gauges all flicker on and off as the current screws with the bike's systems, which ellicits a cuss out of Saiga as well.

    About the only reason they don't lose the van entirely is because one of Saiga's large arms is still holding onto the back of the van. And she's not letting go!

Which would of been the easiest way to dodge the tire being swung around. But we're not doing that, so said tire whams against the front of the already sputtering jetbike, causing it to swing around even more due to it's own propulsion system still sputtering on and off.

"Hold on girls!" Even though they can't actually hear her at the moment. Oh well. Saiga manages to get her other arm grabbing onto the van's bumper to try and keep from swinging around so much. And to keep up until the bike reboots. So she finally puts those blasters in the upper arms of her robo-suit to use, popping a couple of shots at the crazy kid atop the van with the tire with one, and turning the other to shoot more lasers at the dragon! "You girls are real lucky I'm use to multiple arms, betcha no other shinki could pull this multitasking off!"

Kazuko Kawakami (942) has posed:
Kazuko oohs quietly at that display of magical lightning, although she can't enjoy the view for very long. She yelps as she feels the hoverban going even higher, holding onto the roof of the vehicle with both hands now as her tire dangles free once more. She's holding on for dear life and screeching each time the vehicle bangs into another, focusing all of her efforts on not getting thrown off the thing.

     Of course, with all that focus on trying not to get thrown off the hovervan, it's not really all that practical for her to try and avoid Saiga's shots at the same time. Even with her swinging from arm to arm to try and make herself a harder target, Kazuko still yelps painfully as several of the shots hit their mark. One of them strikes her square on the shoulder, and she can feel her grip on the hovervan slipping with only good arm!

     Well. Shit. She claws at the roof as she feels herself slipping further back, then just outright starts flailing her arm (and possibly the tire inadvertently) to try and catch onto something as she tumbles right off the top of the van!

Bahamut has posed:
     Bahamut watches for a moment as the hovervan go out of control, then chuckles at himself. "I shall have to practice controlling the spread of that attack." he says before he follows it upward. With Saiga hanging on to the van, she makes a tempting target. After all, she either has to hang on...or take a hit from his huge claws!

     Well, that is until Kazuko comes tumbling off the top of the van! Bahamut blinks, then quickly spirals down to catch Kazuko. He has to break away from the van, but he figures saving a cute girl is worth having to catch up with the badguys. He grins as his powerful arms wrap around Kazuko, and as quickly as she was falling she finds herself moving upward again. "Hang on, lady warrior. We will not allow those fiends to escape!" he bellows as he flaps his powerful wings, rocketing back up toward the hover vehicles.

     It isn't a lot of time, but the dive and the following ascent by the dragon give the shinki a few free moments. They better move fast!

Kari Wolf (276) has posed:
    The hovervan continues to barrel its way skyward, finally above the layers of traffic that define the sunless streets of the spire-filled urbania. The red and golds of the sunset glint off the windshield of the vehicle, illuminating it as a strange point of light amidst the super skyscrapers. Hanging from it is Saiga with a Confederate jetbike. And honestly it is a beautiful sight to behold, the entirety of Urbania silhouetted against the sunset spread out before the three shinki.
    Then reality comes crashing back in as the bumper creaks and groans, breaking slowly away from the hovervan it is attached to. With a screech of dying metal and a lurch, it comes loose, putting Saiga, Kari, and Harriet into freefall with a dead jetbike.
    "WE'RE GONNA CRASH!" screams Kari as they begin plummeting groundward. Harriet thinks quickly and thumps the jetbike's engine with her tiny fists trying to get it to restart. Realistically, the only person who can restart the bike is Saiga, however.

Tesla Armadia (368) has posed:
*screeeaaak*

Saiga's little eyes widen at the all too familiar sound of metal being stressed upon it's limits dragging them around. "Oh crap crapcrapcrap!" Sure enough the bumper breaks loose, and the stalled jetbike tumbles away, and starts to fall back towards the streets waaaaaay down below. "Maybe we should of stuck to the plan of sneaking into the truck before it left!" The van and it's cargo is a lost cause at this point. More important to save themselves. Thankfully 'worse case scenerio for villainous plot failure' is something both Tesla and Stratos insist she keeps in mind.

"Get back in the bags!" Saiga retors as she grabs Harriet and stuffs her back in with Kari, shuts the saddlebag, and pulls it off the bike. And then jumps off!

Then punchs the powerful large arms into the side of one of the many towers of Techno Urbania, digging into wall and emitting more horrible screeching sounds as she drags robotic claws and feet down the surface to keep from falling too quickly down the building.

Kazuko Kawakami (942) has posed:
Is this how she's going to die? Falling off a flying van and becoming an unidentifiable smear on the pavement? Kazuko's not quite ready for that, though, and her faliling becomes even more drastic! Surely she'll catch onto something, right?

     More specifically, something catches her! Her savior of the day just so happens to be that dragon dude that's been doing most of the work here so far! She blinks slowly at first, not knowing quite how to actually react to Bahamut at first, although she does eventually break into a broad grin once the threat of falling is negated.

     "Right! Let's take 'em down!" She certainly sound confident, at least, even though she's not in much of a position to do anything just yet. She has that tire, sure, but how's she supposed to swing it around while she's behind held like that? Maybe what she needs to do... Is get on Bahamut's back!

     With a bit of effort, she does just that, and the shinki (along with anyone paying attention to the sky above) would be able to see that there is now a girl in bloomers riding a dragon while twirling a tire over her head like some sort of weird lasso. She's still focusing on building up speed and power in the tire for now, though, especially with Saiga sliding down the building. It'd be dishonorable to attack her from behind, after all, and collateral damage comes out of her allowance!

Bahamut has posed:
     The bumper breaks away, the jet bike is falling toward them, and the badguys are now sliding down a building. So, what does Bahamut do? He does a barrel roll! Spiraling through the air, he avoids the falling debris, then grunts. "Great." He looks up to make sure the van is still going, then he banks quickly and dives down again. He swoops in like a falcon to catch that falling bike, letting out a growl with the effort of holding onto it and taking it with him.

     He sees Kazuko climbing about him, much as he expected she would given her dexterity, then grins. Perfect. As she winds up, he takes off after the Grapprap. "You dropped something!" he roars out as he soars in toward them, then...throws the useless bike at Saiga and her tiny passengers. The proximity should give Kazuko a chance to use her tire swing, but whether the shinki are disabled or not he banks upward again and goes after the van. Who knows if it would ever stop? And he is sure there are trapped drivers and possibly passengers aboard. Saving them is more important than catching the villains.

Kari Wolf (276) has posed:
    Kari peeks out of the saddlebag after Saiga has lept to safety with both Kari and her sister Harriet, just in time to see a swooping dragon and a crazed tire-wielding martial artist coming in. In response she unleashes a volley of micro-grenades at the tire! It's the thing coming in the most quickly and is pretty scary!
    The ruined jetbike goes flying towards Saiga, Harriet and Kari! AND THEN. AND THEN. It ceases to exist. For reasons unknown. It is no longer a jetbike. Some hiccup of reality, possibly thanks to some kind of cosmic coin-flip, has replaced it with an equal volume of multicolored gelatin. This quivering mass breaks apart in mid-flight and spatters the side of the building and the trio with the blobby snack. UGH. That is going to take forever to clean off, honestly.
    Harriet realizes that they're on the side of a building and that she can use her ricochet ability to a limited extent! She hops out of the saddlebag, the assault laser on her shoulder whining as it fires barrages at Bahamut, sliding down the building herself in a zig-zag pattern to make it harder to track her descent.

Tesla Armadia (368) has posed:
*splat*

Well that was less painful than the bike crashing into them... but arguably more embarassing. "This is why jelly cans STAY in a can!" Saiga complains, though more at the absurdity of what happened. She doesn't might being dirty, this is just... bizarre.

Saiga does get herself to a stop on a ledge, and while Kari and Harriet are shooting things, she switchs one of her laser pistols to a laser cutter, and uses it to slice open a maintenance access door. On the side of the building. Because Techno Urbania has weird pointless 'cool' futuristic architecture like that. "Com'n girls, we can ditch them inside. This vanjacking is a bust." Pause. "But at least they took us as a serious threat?" The shinki controlling the robo-suit gives a little shrug.

Kazuko Kawakami (942) has posed:
Kazuko's holding onto Bahamut tightly during that barrel roll, although it's not nearly as frightening as it was with the van going out of control. That's not to say it isn't scary at all what with only having one good arm to work with, but once the dragon's no longer spinning and even starts moving closer to the shinki to throw that jetbike-turned-gelatin...

     She should be questioning that more. A LOT more. But... Well, Kazuko's still new to the multiverse. Maybe that's just the dragon's power? To... Scare evildoers with what he could have done? That's the only logical explanation the martial artist can think of on such short notice. Alas, her swinging tire isn't all that effective offensively with the lack of a second arm to really put some oomph into it, but it does serve another purpose!

     Namely, as a makeshift shield. As slow as it's going, she's trying to use it to deflect some of Kari's micro-grenades away from herself and Bahamut, then again at the lasers being fired by Harriet! She can't get all of them, though, and she can ust hope that the micro-grenades and lasers don't blow her (or her clothes) up too much!

Bahamut has posed:
     Bahamut blinks as the bike suddenly winks out of existence, then again as that gelatin appears and splooshes all over the shinki. Then...he bursts out laughing. His laughter bounces off the buildings, easily heard by anyone within a few blocks of them.

     Of course, that stops suddenly when he is hit with those grenades and lasers. He growls as pieces of his armor break off from the hits, and blood flows in a few places. He wonders a moment how such small creatures can hit so hard, then he thinks back to his own world. Some rather small creatures there can down even the most seasoned adventurer. He starts chuckling again as he thinks about the gelatin, even as he spirals to keep Kazuko from being hit by the incoming weaponsfire.

     Once he reaches the van, Bahamut latches onto it with his powerful claws, possibly punching holes into the sides, then he looks to Kazuko. "If you can, get inside and try to guide this vehicle back to the ground. If not, simply cut the engine and I will bring us down." he says, then slams an open palm into the driver door and rips it away. "The pilots are our priority now."

Kari Wolf (276) has posed:
    The hovervan has slowed its ascent. The drivers inside are unconscious, and the airbags have clearly been triggered and deflated. Fortunately the safety regs on these things mean the drivers are nice and secure in their harnesses. /Unfortunately/, the vehicle was designed for stopping sudden descents, not ascents. And so the emergency drag parachutes never deployed. The controls are easy enough to understand, and have rebooted themselves into something resembling normal, except for the fact that the headsup display is all garbage and fried from the electrical shock the hovervan took. Should be easy enough for Kazuko to take control of it... right?

Kazuko Kawakami (942) has posed:
Kazuko's had a lot of lucky breaks today, hasn't she? Getting saved from a splattery death by a dragon, getting to ride on that same dragon's back, getting protected from lasers and explosions by the dragon again...

     It's probably not too surprising that her luck had to take a dip somewhere. "Back to the ground? Uhm..." She winces as that door is yanked right off, climbing along the side of the hovervan (and possibly Bahamut's arm) to get into that door with her tire still dangling outside. She puts on her seatbelt, takes the wheel, pushes some airbag out of the way, checks the mirror, and starts praying internally.

     Would this be a bad time to mention that she hasn't learned how to drive yet?

Bahamut has posed:
     This would actually be a good time to mention that, because once Kazuko is in the driver's seat...Bahamut lets go. The van and Kazuko are now under their own power. Of course, Bahamut will escort them to the ground and intervene if needed, but he figures just about everyone knows how to drive. Why wouldn't someone know how to drive? It's a basic skill where he comes from.

     Of course, where he comes from is a very specific area. The rest of his world only knows how to drive things like horses or handcarts. "Just take it easy. I fear my Thundaga may have damaged the craft. I underestimated the blast range." he says to Kazuko as they start down.

Kari Wolf (276) has posed:
    The van's engine cuts as Kazuko fusses about with the controls. There's an eerie feeling for a moment as there is that space in-between where gravity simply doesn't apply and all sorts of weird things just... float. It must have been much the same for the shinki just as the bumper came off the hovervan, honestly. And now, just as then, gravity asserts its mastery over the floating object. Down the delivery van goes.

Kazuko Kawakami (942) has posed:
It is a very good thing that Bahamut's there. Otherwise, who knows what kind of damage Kazuko could've done with that flying deathtrap? Probably not that much on her own, considering that the van's engine just died, but still! At least nobody can blame her for the hovervan not working even if she wanted to!

     Not that she wants it to. "Uh... I don't think this car's working!" She calls out and messes with the various switches and levers and whatnot, trying to will the vehicle back into not-falling.

     Kazuko's not having a very good time now. She also probably isn't going to be getting her license any time soon after this.

Bahamut has posed:
     Bahamut raises an eyeridge as the engine dies. "My lady, you might want to-" Aaand...there goes the van again. Bahamut sighs softly before diving again. Despite the situation, there is an amused smirk on his face. The van is fairly easy to catch up with when diving, thanks to Bahamut's naturally aerodynamic design, and once again his claws dig into the hull of the hovervan before he spreads his wings wide and starts leveling off. "Are you alright, my lady?" he says, grinning as he peeks in through the windshield.

     The van is presumably quite heavy, so Bahamut is even -less- agile while he is supporting it. They eventually make it back down to the ground, where Bahamut sets the van down carefully before holding a hand out beside the driver door in an offer to help Kazuko out. "It is alright. We are safe now."

Kazuko Kawakami (942) has posed:
Kazuko's looking mildly... No, incredibly freaked out by that brief time the van is free-falling. Even after Bahamut gets them all on the ground without any sort of splattering or explosions, her knuckles are still white from holding onto that steering wheel as hard as she did. She mutters something incoherently as she looks towards the Aeon, having to will her hands off that wheel just to take his and climb out of the van.

     Poor girl's going to need a vacation after all this.