4134/Surf Warriors: Stage 1
From Multiverse Crisis MUSH
Surf Warriors: Stage 1 | |
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Date of Scene: | 21 May 2016 |
Location: | Great Ocean - Southern Loop |
Synopsis: | SURF WARRIORS and the TEMPLE of TANGAROA:
Horror on party beach! The monster that came from the ocean. How many umbrellas will you break? |
Cast of Characters: | 165, 778, 942, 984 |
- Ren Tanaka (165) has posed:
"After what's been happening to me lately I could use a day in the sun."
Welcome, one and all, to the exotic Maluaka Beach, located on the island of Maui in Hawaii-91. It's 87 degrees out on the beaches, and everything's ready to kick off summer with a swingin' beach party.
You want it? We've got it. There's music, there's dance. There's a dozen barbeques, there's three beachside bars. The water looks a little green rather than crystal blue, but there's nothing wrong with that.
Off in the distance you can see the fabulous island of Kaho'olawe, practically less than five miles away. The smallest of the islands in the Hawaiian archipelago, it stands alone as a nature reserve, almost untouched by man except for a small native tribe.
But enough about that, we're here to have fun! There are more than fifty people here- it's a community celebration run by the Pohaku family, a group who Ren helped out in an unrelated adventure many years ago. Since he finally has friends now, they insisted he bring them to this year's party, so he has surely introduced each of you to the matriarch of the Pohaku family.
One member of them is sitting under a tree, on the edge of the party. A rather maudlin girl with short blonde hair and sea-coloured eyes, Tanya looks uneasily at the island in the distance, as well as the greenstone pendant on a string wrapped around her hand.
http://safebooru.org//images/1347/d64e47c77cbb2c96b8fa4894ec36228108aa2289.jpg?1677916
"Hey, I think we've got just about everything we need for the perfect party," Ren Tanaka says, sitting down next to her. "The sun's high, the tide's in, it's the middle of summer and everyone wants to have fun."
- Kyle Katarn (778) has posed:
WOO! PARTY AT THE BEEEEEACH!!
Kyle's definitely come dressed for the occasion. He's got a properly colorful and flowery shirt on, unbuttoned just enough to expose the briefest hint of MANLY chest, and kaki cargo shorts, the kind that double as swim trunks in a pinch. With him is Jan, who hilariously enough is dressed more or less the same, only her shorts are considerably more form fitting and stop at her thighs, and she has the hints of a dark blue bandeau-top bikini underneath her shirt. The two have been chitchatting with the other guests, enjoying the local food and drink as they share laughs and stories. "And so then Jan looks at the others, and she says 'Well now we're stuck, unless you wanna tickle the damn thing!'"
It's cheesy as punchlines go, but the two laugh regardless over a joke shared during less than enjoyable situations, making light of old escapades as usual. "I swear, I never have been more happy to be in the same room in my life." He grins, before Jan steals a light peck on his grizzly cheek. "Oh please, you're only laughing because it's me." "Maybe!"
- Kazuko Kawakami (942) has posed:
After several long months of working and training, it's good to have a break like this. Sun, water, friends, a lot of new people to see... Kazuko's looking pretty happy with her decision to have come to Maluaka Beach today. Like Kyle and Jan, she's dressed for the beach: A yellow two-piece bikini with a white star motif, a beige tank top to give herself an extra layer of clothing, and yellow shorts because they're comfy and easy to wear!
"Whoa... There's a lot of people here. So there's gotta be... Lots of food, right?" Priorities. Kazuko wastes little time in zipping around the beach, seeking out any and all snacks and (non-alcoholic) drinks she can get her hands on. A fried thing here, a baked thing there, an opened fruit drink there...
It's a good thing she's already done this hundreds of times before with festival food back home. She's taking quick nibbles and sips of each one as she scours the beach for yet more stuff to consume. Kazuko does stop before getting too far, however, turning to look at each person she actually vaguely recognizes. "Ren! Mister Kyle! Miss Jan! Want me to-mrmph... Bring anything over?"
- Karal Rei Lin (984) has posed:
Someone's here who wasn't originally going to be invited. They've certainly never met Ren before today.
It just so happened that, after getting her ass kicked on a job Lin came limping over to the beach and flopped over onto the sun-baked warm sands to recover. One thing lead to another and that...
That's why she's here, flitting from gathering to gathering and exchanging some spirited, friendly words, but...
There's only so much you can do to fit in and make merry with people you know nothing about. In the end she's feeling like a third wheel and this brings her to wander to the only person who seems ALONE on the occasion:
Tanya.
At about the same time that Ren does so, by chance.
Lin's wearing a two-piece of relatively modest design, matching her hair color perfectly.
With a huff she flops down, her back to the tree at a 90 degree angle to the girl. "Great place to be, no mistakin' that!"
- Ren Tanaka (165) has posed:
If it helps: very few people here know other people here. The reason so many people are here is that friends told friends who told friends who told other friends, and at the end of the day the Pohakus don't care so long as everyone has a good time and things don't get rowdy. It is supposed to be an oppurtunity to meet new people, but there's always gonna be someone who ends up feeling like a third wheel. As it so happens, here we have three third wheel, and now we have to figure out what kind of vehicle has five wheels.
Kazuko, Kyle and Jan meanwhile are definitely part of the first two wheels, so perhaps to stretch this metaphor even further than it should go that makes them... uh, fancy stickers from out-of-state that have been applied to the hubcap? Yeah, that's where the metaphor falls apart. They have a bar adjacent to some of the barbeques, and funnily enough it's actually one of the places with most people clustered around because everyone wants to hear interesting stories from the out-of-...worlders? It's going pretty well- everyone's interested to hear what Kyle has to say and to offer Kazuko whatever she can carry.
But briefly peoples' attention is drawn away from that- the sun is beginning to go down, turning the sky orange, but casting a fierce reflection on the sea between the two islands. Everyone is quite surprised at the shadows moving around- it looks like a pod of dolphins, but it's a strange time of year for such things. There are some splashes in the water, so people are getting their cameras.
Meanwhile, back at the tree: Ren waves Rei Lin over. "If you've come over here I'll try and come up with reasons to pull you back to the crowd like I'm doing with her."
Tanya makes a quiet rumbly sound, massaging the pendant with her fingertip.
Ren sighs. "Where did you get that thing, anyway?"
Tanya rubs her thumb over the piece of greenstone, made in the shape of a tiki. "I thought this was just a little souvenier from a gift shop over on that island."
"What, the island with only one building on it, made a thousand years ago, populated by people who've followed the old spirits of the islands, for centuries? The gift shop they run?"
Tanya sticks out her tongue at him, then goes back to looking out to sea. "Every year when this big party happens, I always feel like I don't belong. Every year I get the urge to just swim out to that island and spend the whole day there instead. This year more than ever."
"It feels like something's calling me..."
- Kyle Katarn (778) has posed:
"Sure, bring something over!" "Something with sausage, I'm starved!" Jan and Kyle say to Kazuko cheerfully, grinning as they wave the girl over. Really, it's not the worst party they've been to. They're getting along fine with the locals, and vice versa. The drinks and food are good, the music's exciting, and the weather's amazing thus far.
Kyle does glance behind him every so often, looking at Ren and Tanya briefly. Huh.
- Karal Rei Lin (984) has posed:
"Well. Maybe it is." Lin exclaims jovially, as if this is nothing to worry about. "Why not paddle over in a boat and say hello? ... Or are they the unfriendly kind of tribe?"
She ends up grinning at Ren the next moment. "You're welcome to try. Karal Rei Lin. From the southeast regions of Creation... pretty far from he--... here...?"
Her voice cracks uncertainly for a moment. For she'd turned to enjoy the sights of the setting sun, but... something's wrong?
Splashes? "Something out there?"
Lin stands suddenly, leaning against the tree with one hand... and FIERCELY FOCUSES her gaze out there at the disturbance. "What's that about...?"
- Kazuko Kawakami (942) has posed:
Kazuko's certainly mingling easily enough, although she doesn't spend too much time eating her own stuff. There's people waiting for her! After finishing her own helpings of already-bitten food, she gets second servings of too-many-things and hurries back towards the more familiar faces. She slows down as she notices the oddly setting sun, however, blinking slowly at the curious sight and holding the food out towards Kyle and Jan (grilled sausage included).
"Whoa... That looks kinda cool. Is that a thing that happens out here in the Hawaiis?" She doesn't look at anyone in particular as she asks that, although her attention does linger on Karal, Rin, and Tanya as their reactions range from suspicious to ominous.
"... Heeey. Maybe we could swim over there." Kazuko, of course, is not cautious at all.
- Ren Tanaka (165) has posed:
Just remember, Kazuko! Everything you take a bite out of and don't eat all of, you gotta pay extra for at the end... nah, I'm only kidding, they wouldn't be that cruel.
Someone tells Kazuko and Kyle that this is actually not common, but not unheard of- it's rare for a pod of dolphins to be in water that's this shallow, but he remember five years ago when..... etc etc here comes another story. You'd better pay attention to this one.
"They're fine, the place is just a protected area. They don't really like contact with the outside world, the government enforces it..." Tanya explains to Rei Lin.
"...maybe I could go over there in a canoe. I made one of my own a few months ago. It was supposed to be part of a coming-of-age ceremony..."
Something breaks the surface for a moment, something with a long body but with tendrils as well. Karal Rei Lin will notice that for a dolphin, it's got a few too many limbs... and way too many teeth.
That's when the ocean starts to bubble.
Not just a couple bubbles in one tiny spot- there's a front of them moving in, stretching in patches across the whole beach--
And then something jumps up. Something /evil/.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=al3mhUGhLiQ
Skull and Crossbones - Konami
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in Time - 1991
http://imgur.com/a/XVon7
Abruply standing up out of the water comes a half-dozen shapes, humanoid in silhouette but made entirely of plants and wood! They silently stalk forward onto the sand, and the people immediately balk and back away! Splashes and rushes fill the air as even more of the strange creatures begin to come ashore, some of them big, some of them small, some with four legs or more!
And they immediately begin smashing umbrellas and grabbing people trying to run away! They're coming ashore by the dozen!
"On second thoughts," Ren says. "Don't go swimming today."
Welina!
M�kaukau?
STAGE 1: START
- Kyle Katarn (778) has posed:
Dolphns, shallow water, not common and all that. Kyle and Jan listen to the story, the latter munching on another hotdog brat hungrily as Kyle enjoys his beer. He glances back at the dolphins again, looking as though they might just be harmless. They ARE dolphins after all, they're cute right?
Well not whatever just showed up, that's for sure! Kyle and Jan whirl around to face whatever everyone's yelling at, before suddenly they make a break for the pool bag without a beat missed. Thankfully a blaster and Kyle's lightsaber were stashed just in case, and the two go to work without hesitation.
Kyle charges one of the creatures as it tries to grab one of the guests, slashing to sever its arm and slashing again immediately after. "Get away from her!" He calls out, while Jan fires upon the horde.
- Kazuko Kawakami (942) has posed:
Kazuko might not look it, but she's a fiend when it comes to devouring snacks! She'll just make it up with more exercise and vegetables later. Although from the looks of it...
She might be getting the former sooner rather than later. "Whoa... What're those?" The martial artist gawks a bit when those odd non-dolphin creatures and the plant-like humanoids start to emerge from the water, standing a bit more defensiely when it's starting to look like they're not exactly friendly.
"We can swim later, right Ren?" Priorities. Alas, she didn't bring her naginata today, but Kazuko's no stranger to fighting with her fists. It's time to pound on some bad guys! Or... They might be guys, anyway.
It's really hard to tell. Either way, she gets right into the thick of things, lashing out whatever she can reach with rapid punches and kicks!
- Karal Rei Lin (984) has posed:
"Well, don't do it right now. Something weird-lookin's comin' this way!" Weird enough that Lin's sense for danger's screaming at her. "AWAY FROM THE WATER! AWAY FROM IT NOW!" Her urgent demand echoes every which way over the beach just moments before the creatures emerge.
"Geh... figures I'd drop by a place to rest and enjoy some food 'n THIS would happen." She's speaking casually enough, but her bravado tone's not entirely masking how UNNERVED these things' appearances has her.
Still, Lin takes a flying leap down to the beach, weapon suddenly in hand. WHERE it came from... well, that's anyone's guess. It's as though she ripped it out of the sunset. She holds the mouth of the scabbard in her left hand, right hand hovering near the group. "Hands OFF the people or I'll take 'em off of YOU!"
And oh, that's not an idle threat at all. Lin sinks into a deeper stance, breathes iiiiin.... then...
Fwoooooosh.
She's gone in a cloud of kicked-up sand.
The very next instant she's going skidding past some of the creatures and struggling to sheathe her weapon. Apparently she's unused to the sandy footing so the movement's kinda clumsy, but she maintains her balance pretty well.
It's pretty difficult, trying to chop off about four offending limbs at once without hurting the caught people... so of course her follow-through suffers!
- Ren Tanaka (165) has posed:
Tanya makes a squawk of surprise, and before you know it she's hiding at the top of a tree. And there she will remain for the forseeable future. Her pendant is glowing, but she doesn't even notice it.
Some people begin moving forward to the shoreline to try and take pictures of the 'dolphins' until Rei Lin shouts a warning, making most of them stop in their tracks and back away. That means that when the shoreline thrashes and explodes, there are only a couple of people close enough to be grabbed by branch and stem-
Not that that's much of a consolation for those people. What certainly IS a consolation is Rei Lin barrelling right into the middle of them- this first group of creatures is mostly humanoid in appearence but with some visible 'eyes'. Eyes which naturally get covered in a sluice of sand, which allows Kyle to move straight in and fend off the creature attacking a nearby person.
Jan ends up giving covering fire to Kazuko- and Ren as well, who is surprisingly enough running right next to her.
"Yes, that is definitely something we will be doing later!" he shouts, and kicking a grass-covered wolfy thing a distance away.
These humanoids are intelligent enough to grab the beach umbrellas that are nearby to use as blunt weapons- not to mention kicking ice-filled water coolers and a coal-filled barbeque at everyone.
The entire shoreline is being filled with monsters of all shapes and sizes, who begin moving onto the land to terrorize and destroy!
- Kyle Katarn (778) has posed:
Jan yelps in surprise as a cooler of ice is flung at her. She narrowly escapes being smacked full on by the container as Kyle stops it with the FOrce, returning to sender with the speed and velocity of a cannonball. He himself leaps over the coals flung his way, knowing he doesn't exactly have shoes on right now.
"Augh! Seriously!? DOn't hit the feet!" He calls out, before he lands well away from the coals, charging towards one of the wolf things and unleashing a Force Push to knock it back into the water a good distance away. He also aims to sever a beach umbrella in half with his lightsaber, denying another humanoid the use of a blunt weapon while Jan opens fire upon it.
"We're getting overrun here, anybody got some sort of game-changing secrets, now might be the best time!" Jan says, firing aggressively while she takes over behind an overturned table.
- Kazuko Kawakami (942) has posed:
Beach umbrellas as weapons. Why didn't she think of that?
Well, now the idea's in Kazuko's head, too. Good job, sea plantmen! Now there's a martial artist brandishing a parasol like a freaking bo staff now. Sure, it might not be as properly balanced as a real staff, and it might not be as sturdy or designed for hitting things, but...
Well, it sure does blur colorfully while she's swinging it around. Plus, she can even open them up as one-use shields against the coals and ice!
"I hope so! Geh... Has this sort of thing ever happened before?" She hurls a parasol length-wise at one of the plant-wolves before getting right back to punching the shit out of their sea-based adversaries. Of course, with so many beach chairs around...
It can't be too surprising that she'll even try picking one of those up to swing around, right? Right. Alas, those things probably aren't the most aerodynamic, and it's back to punches, kicks, and a few frankensteiners for variety. "Just how many of these things are there?! Mm..."
Maybe using a few specials won't hurt too much. Grabbing another parasol, Kazuko starts channeling her ki into it while spinning the thing rapidly and charging back into the horde with her powered up spinning strikes!
Good thing she's got sandals on.
- Karal Rei Lin (984) has posed:
"Game-changing secrets, huh?!" Lin blurts, frustrated beyond belief already. She was here to RELAX, dammit. Which means...
"You CREATURES are pissing me off!" If any of 'em have turned their attention on Lin following her immediate rescue attempt... well.
They've really stirred the hornet's nest here.
No longer showing good cheer and friendliness, Lin's countenace has become a frightening mask of ferocious rage. Lips peeled back and teeth bared, grinding together, her blue eyes seem to burn with inner light.
As the moments pass and she deepens her stance again, the ferocious air about her becomes... something substantial.
Power drifts from her skin, forming a shining aura of golden-white light. The mark of the sun shines upon on her forehead. And again she iiiiinhales, focusing. "Single Point Shining into the Void Style!" The young woman announces the name formally, taking on an almost reverent and more respectful tone of voice... before she leaps into the fray again. This time she's dashing in low for the creatures, swooping left and right with incredibly quick and nimble footwork.
Seems it didn't take her long to adapt to the sandy terrain!
When foliage-laden limbs strike she turns them, away, smoothly diverting the strikes with her sheathed weapon. And every time they do so her counterattack comes like a bolt of lightning! Her free hand grips her sword and draws it directly in a striking path. Slice slice slice!
She's like a whirlwind across the beach leaping about from creature to creature, never staying in one place long enough to make pinning her down an easy thing to do.
After a bit of this, she turns towards another creature and leaps forward, somersaulting dizzyingly with her blade at the ready. Her momentum inexplicbly ALTERS in midair, bringing her straight down upon the creature - "Shining Starfall Execution!"
- Ren Tanaka (165) has posed:
Well, you know how it is. You're bound to use weapons better than these guys: when it comes to combat, they're all still a little green.
The best part of a parasol is they are indeed multi-purpose! Well, unfortunately this is a cheap polyester umbrella, so it'll probably light on fire when it tries to block the barbeque. On the plus side, flaming umbrella! On the downside, these plants are all too waterlogged for that to make a difference, but it will probably make you feel ten percent cooler.
Unless you light yourself on fire, then you'll feel about ten percent hotter.
"No!" Tanya shouts from the top of the tree. "Absolutely nothing like this has ever happened before!"
An angry flaring of energy from Rei Lin- actually gives the creatures pause, as although faceless they may be, mindless they certainly aren't. Part of them shrinks away from something that is almost familiar to them-
Things get interesting in a hurry.
As Rei Lin counterattacks against a reaching attacker, she knocks it into Kazuko's frankensteiner swing. Ren grapples a creature by the legs and pulls it, causing it to crash into the floor where it's crushed by a falling stab attack. Kyle knocks the quadrupedal creature into the air- it bounces along the shoreline splashing as it goes- and ends up being hit for a home run by one of Kazuko's swings.
Ren pushes himself up out of the sand. There's an awful lot of four-legged beasts between them and one of the tiki bars, which is in the middle of being torn to bits by some more human-shaped creatures and a swarm of lesser creatures.
"Nothing else to it," Ren says, the golden ring beginning to show on his forehead too as he strides into the charging dogs. "We're just going to have to make firewood out of the lot of them!"
Yeah, he's pissed off today too.
- Kyle Katarn (778) has posed:
Who ISN'T Pissed at the interrupted party? "I could've been at a barbecue!" calls out Kyle, before he joins Ren in the horde of dog things. He dropkicks one of the dogs, before slashing at another with his lightsaber.
He goes to cutting through the humanoids next, mantling over the tiki bar to kick one in the chest, impaling it immediately after. Jan follows, swiftly shooting another of the humanoids in the head. She's got his back, always has, so it doesn't even need to be said here as she covers him and Ren now, deftly popping off blasts where she can.
- Kazuko Kawakami (942) has posed:
Even with Kazuko busting out her own techniques, she still can't help but gawk at what her companions are doing out here. Between Kyle making things just topple over with hand movements and slicing them apart with a freaking LASER SWORD, Jan shooting holes into everything, and Karal cutting so many things apart in rapid succession...
It's enough to make a girl feel insecure about her own moves. Still, she's determined not to fall too far behind, and Kazuko kicks up her own attacks a notch! More yellow aura pours from her into the parasol, the cloth all but torn to pieces as she's really just swinging the pole around now and clobbering as many of the plant beasts as she can.
"Hehe... Think we can make a big bonfire out of 'em?!" She thrusts her parasol pole into another creature, trying to outright impale it and use it as a sledgehammer! It's probably not going to work all that well, of course, what with not being a power-type fighter, but it doesn't hurt to at least try new things!
- Karal Rei Lin (984) has posed:
"Don't think. DO! DO make a bonfire out of 'em!" Lin exclaims angrily, leaping backwards and knocking away an incoming umbrella with her scabbard, then striking deep again with the blade! Yet so many remain... that she's getting impatient.
Lin executes a few quick backflips and lands in a blade-drawing stance, eyes flicking back and forth rapidly to get a bead on just how many THINGS are left.... she can't possibly get ALL of them, and yet...!
"Here goes..." The scrape-grind of a sword being drawn rings clear, then... she's off. A rush of crimson through the plant horde. Light flashes off the polished steel of her blade as it arcs and slices dozens of times in a clear path through the horde... but blink and you'll miss the show, easily. A wave of sand's kicked up by the ferocious SPEED of that charge, parting a rut in the beach along her path. Karal Rei Lin skids to a halt, swings around to face the group again... and sheathes her weapon again, holding it chest-height and horizontal for just a little more show.
"I've had it with nonsense like this! Give me two days of break!"
- Ren Tanaka (165) has posed:
That bar's not a temporary set-up, either! It's beachfront property! And sure enough its owner likes it enough to keep trying to protect it, fending things off with a stick. He's not going to be able to do that for long, though so-
So it's a good thing you're going to be able to cut through them quickly, right?
With Ren at the forefront of things- he's got a little pent-up aggression to work off of so he's just bodily picking monsters up and throwing them into other monsters (and hardly the kind of finesse the others are showing)- you can meet them with a strong head-on push. Or kick, depending, bringing Kyle right up to the bar and its owner.
Or ... improvised... hammer?
It's strangely gruesome but surprisingly effective as Kazuko picks one of the huge, shiny-hided creatures up and uses it as a hammer head- the pole's going to creak and break after a few uses, but she's easily able to smash several of the bulkier creatures, crushing one big one with every blow.
And Rei Lin- well, if Kazuko wants a bonfire, she's ready to make the kindling, as she breaks into a run and rushes along the shoreline, a rainbow forming behind her through the setting sunshine. When that fades? Almost fifteen of them are torn into pieces.
"Never thought I'd see the taniwha comin' out of the ocean for real," he comments, back-to-back with Kyle.
"I *whack* doubt *whack* it?" Ren asks back, hitting something planty repeatedly into a wall.
"No..." Tanya replies, looking at the greenstone pendant in her hands, although it's almost to herself as no one can hear her from here. "He's right..."
A section of barbeques and the propane tanks fuelling them are knocked over and explode, spilling fuel onto the beach to burn.
There aren't many plant creatures left, but...
Well, those aren't plant creatures.
Wiry muscles and covered in patches of fur, these creatures have greasy skin and chunky teeth. They've got bushy eyebrows, hair on their arms and backs, pointed ears- to Rei Lin they look a little like Blood Apes; to the others, perhaps a little like goblins.
They've got blades made of sharpened gossamer. One's fur is orange, one's is red, one's is sea-blue and one's is purplish-grey.
"Of course I'd recognize them," Ren says.
"Amanojaku."
- Karal Rei Lin (984) has posed:
All that exertion's stoked Karal Rei Lin's anima even further. The skin-tight aura's expended further in the wake of that last assault, becoming a billowing bonfire of brilliant golden-white light - bright enough that NOBODY here will have any trouble figuring out where she roughly is. There's now TWO sources of sunlight sufficient to illuminate the world.
Lin's also breathing a bit harder. She's broken a sweat and her legs wobble a bit. Seems that manuever might be a bit more than she's ready to handle yet...
"Look kinda like Blood Apes... or Brine Curs... or a few other things.... now that I think about it..." She gets out while gathering her breath and focus again.
- Kazuko Kawakami (942) has posed:
"Amanowho?" Kazuko pants slightly as she comes to a stop at the quartet of furry chunk goblins, discarding her now-destroyed parasol pole. "Whatever they're called... They're not gonna get away with messing up this place!"
She's certainly ready and raring for the fight to continue, at least, as she grabs a somehow-untouched plate of grilled sausages and bites right into one of them. HEALTH UP! "These things have too many names. Let's just beat them up!" Setting that plate aside and looking mildly rejuvenated, KAzuko goes back to her default/only strategy:
PUNCHY PUNCH. Or rather, KICKY KICK. She springs off the top of one of the still standing parasols to give herself some height, then aims a diving ki-powered kick right at the red creature! Somehow, she hasn't come up with a name for that one yet.
- Kyle Katarn (778) has posed:
Kyle is confused by the arrival of these big goblins, flourishing his lightsaber as he and Jan face off with the boss monsters. He's got his share of bruises and scratches, but a randomly untouched hamburger happens to end up in his sights as he reaches over to nab it. Nomf. HEALTH UP! Might as well enjoy SOME food, right?
He goes back to the fight, doing the same as Kazuko as he leaps and bounces off one of the umbrellas as a platform, falling atop of the orange creature as he slashes down upon the possible Blood Ape. "Whatever they are, we'll kick their ass anyways!" Jan says, firing upon the purplish gray goblin thing.
- Ren Tanaka (165) has posed:
So it's technically six against four right now? Well, there are a fair number of small-sized bitey squirmy planty things left for Ren and the bar owner to deal with (hint: stomping on them doesn't work very well when done in sand), so it's more like four on four.
"Be careful!" he shouts off to the side, busy as he might be. "They're the lowest of the low, but they're still bad news from the Wyld! They'll pack a lot more of a punch than anything else so far!"
Indeed, each of the amanojaku's silvery blades glow weirdly, and when Kyle takes a slash at them he'll find that whatever they're made of they can even block a laser sword. Be careful not to get hit or you'll find out what they're like on the offensive too!
Indeed, these four are definitely more intelligent than the plant creatures, heck they might even have actual brains in their heads. Like, literally. The orange one of them definitely is smart enough to try pushing Kyle off of the blue one when Kyle lands- and then start grappling him- and the purple one quickly picks up a barbeque lid to use as a shield (even if it might not hold up well to blaster bolts in practicality).
Meanwhile the red one tries to run straight for the winded Rei Lin with his best blade forward, only for Kazuko to take a note out of Kyle's book and use the umbrellas as a bounce platform. It'll definitely hit, but watch out! By the time the sand Kazuko's kicked up has fallen, it's taken to using the same tactic as well- and is beginning to indiscriminately divebomb everyone, trying to slash them in the vitals with that gossamer blade!
- Kazuko Kawakami (942) has posed:
"Wyld... Amano-someting... Brine Apes... These things have too many names!" Kazuko shouts in response, sounding just a little frustrated at even attempting to memorize all those names at once. She's got bigger things to worry about, however, when she notices the resilience of those creatures and their blades.
"Wha... These things are fast, too!" Is that an observation, or a challenge? Either way, the martial artist shields her eyes from the sand that the red monster has kicked up, only narrowly avoiding a nasty slash through the everything by flinging herself backwards! She does take a nasty cut to the leg, however, grimacing at the hiss of blood coming from her leg. "Sharp... But we'll just have to be sharper!"
With no bladed weapons on her, even. She waits until it comes back down with another one of those dives before running in, sliding under a slash to deliver...
"Kawakami Style: Sasori-Uchi!" ... A kidney punch!
- Karal Rei Lin (984) has posed:
"GHYAAAHH!!" Lin just needed about fifteen seconds to get her second wind the hard way, but she's denied that! Instead the raging red creature brings its claws about with a weird divebomb manuever. She's not QUITE good enough at deflecting the second assault - the first having been thwarted by kazuko. She turns the claws away but they still rip into her side and across one leg, piercing into muscle and other things. It's an injury that would get MOST people screaming bloody murder over. Heck, the gash to her side would be fatal for most people... except...
It ain't really bleeding very much. The initial few spurts is all that stains the claws and the sand.
Looking furiously across the battlefield, she picks her target: one of the furthest ones. Because confusing the crap out of Red here would be a good idea. "Hey!" She calls Kyle's way. "Orange! Match my timing!"
... that would be a tall order for most people, but a Jedi will have little difficulty reading the way Lin shifts her focus and takes him in the instants she has to aim and break away from Red here.
Once again she LURCHES forward, jetting straight across the beach like a missile. Her blade draws a shining trail within the bonfire of Solar radiance that's spreading out even FURTHER.
The instant she INTERSECTS with her target, aiming to cleave into and PAST him...
The area EXPLODES with a new lightshow. Harmless sunfire gathers about her, curling up and forming into an animate... flower? Yes, a great flower. A lotus to be exact. many times larger than her, its sunfire petals spreading out across the battlefield. Where the petals come to rest the sunfire congeals, coaelscing into images of blades, spears, clubs, strap-on claws and assorted other weaponry. Everything's drawn in blazing gold and white with a bit of red thrown in for good measure. The air's full of swirling molten scale, sparks from a forge... and it smells of hot metal.
The symbolism is clear enough to people who might recognize the symbols, but in this confusing MESS nobody's likely to care much about it.
- Kyle Katarn (778) has posed:
Kyle struggles in the orange one's grip, before giving it a swift kick in the sternum before slashing downward on the goblin thing. He has no idea what these things are, and doesn't care. He kicks again before he hears Karal. 'I got it.' He says through the Force, speaking to her directly mind to mind briefly, before he grins a little.
He flings the Orange creature away, before he lunges forward to strike just as Karal does, moving quick as lightning as he inflicts a nasty slash on the Orange goblin thing's side, cutting deep within the beast as he streaks past.
- Ren Tanaka (165) has posed:
"I'LL EXPLAIN LATER!" Ren utters, the immortal line, as he tries to get a vine snake off of his shoulders.
If their jumping attacks weren't bad enough the amanojaku seem to have little regard for the damage they're taking from the flames, running in and out of it and one of them even intentionally setting himself on fire so that he can be more of a danger to everyone around him. Throughout all of this they're clashing blades with those who have blades to clash, but eventually they manage to get good hits in on not just Kazuko, but on Rei Lin as well. These hits feel just like being bitten by an aggressive, hungry beast, even if it was just a sword-
And as tends to happen, the moment you draw blood on a hero tends to be the moment when they get really serious.
Before the amanojaku can react to Rei Lin, she's got Kyle's attention and the two of them intersect at JUST the right moment, not only slashing through one of the four but creating a huge blossom of energy-
And as the energy of Essence and the Force intersect to create that enormous glowing flower, Kazuko's ki-enriched punch succeeds in not just striking one of the four but smashing him flying like a cannonball.
And that third blast of energy is enough to ignite the flower and the energy into exactly the kind of bonfire that they wanted- a brief but spiralling cyclone, that picks up the goblins and sends them flailing and scorching off into the ocean!
Ren finally takes the snake's head off and reaches for a fire extinguisher. And a first aid kit.
"Again."
- Kazuko Kawakami (942) has posed:
That went much better than expected. Kazuko watches the big flaming cyclone as the goblins are carried off to... Wherever she doesn't really care, but at least the threat is gone and dealt with! The martial artist lets out a satisfied sigh before dropping flat on her back. Her leg's still bleeding quite a bit, and clothes are in tatters, but at the end of the day?
She got to beat up a bunch of weird sea plant monsters and eat a lot today. Speaking of eating...
"... Do we still have any food left? Uh... And some bandages? Like those sausages from before, or the crab cakes..." Anything to keep her mind off the pain, really.
- Kyle Katarn (778) has posed:
Kyle looks satisfied with the results, before he clutches his side. Jan immediately goes to help him with his scratches, dressing his wounds with bacta before she looks over to Kazuko. "Stay right there, let me help you with that scratch on your leg." She says, heading on over and kneeling down, beginning to put together a makeshift bacta patch. "Hold that on there, and your leg should mend in a few hours tops." She says.
- Karal Rei Lin (984) has posed:
HUUUUUUUUH. For whatever reason, Lin's Iconic Anima proves surprisingly useful in this battle. She wasn't expecting that. The Solar blinks a few times at the display... but her sense of wonder quickly turns to a heavy grin. Weird things are afoot here.
"Good timing!" She compliments Kyle. "Gotta ask you about that weapon later..."
Concerned, she calls out to Kazuko, "I've got some bandaging in my pack! Arh... where did it GO in all of this mess..." She'll probably find it dangling from a tree branch of something soon...
- Ren Tanaka (165) has posed:
There may be some food remaining assuming you don't mind brushing some of the sand off. Or eating some of the stuff one person took a bite out of before running away. Or if you're willing to examine the ice cooler for whatever's inside.
"Great," Ren grumbles, kicking the sand (and only doing so since the others are tending to Kazuko). "Again, another thing from my world here to cause trouble. Just running into everything I get involved in."
"That's... not the only thing," Tanya says, having got down from that tree.
She holds up the greenstone pendant- it's glowing all on its own.
"...something is calling me to the island," she says, indicating Kaho'olawe in the distance. "Something terrible has taken root there."
"I can hear a tiki spirit... calling out for someone to save them."