5325/Undead Reckoning

Undead Reckoning
Date of Scene:	20 June 2017
Location:	Brimsteel Frontier
Synopsis:	Frontier Ghost Town in the most literal way possible.
Cast of Characters:	Corona Arclite, 770, 571, Leyanne Mace, 707, 1119, 750, Kotone Yamakawa

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Corona Arclite has posed:
Gaslight Gultch has become a ni literal ghost town. An eerie fog has drifted over the frontier town, enveloping it like a cold hug of death. Zombies and skeletons in tattered Western clothing shamble about the streets, while more ghostly sorts drift about the rooftops, or haunt the insides of various buildings. There's little surprise in the sizable numbers, a rough and hostile frontier world has plenty of damned and deceased to be brought back to walking the dusty land if one knows how.

    The former boomtown in itself isn't exceptionally large. A wide gravely round forms the main way through, with business and city buildings lining the sides of it, and more residential or smaller private operations spreading out behind those. Towards the end of the rows sits the local sheriff's office on one corner, with the town hall rising as the largest building at the end of the road, mostly due to the clock tower extending above it's peak. With the clock currently jammed between 12 and 1, as if someone was trying to make a 'thirteenth hour'.

    According to the one escapee of the town, most of the normal folk are bunkering down in the storm shelter beneath the town hall. So that's going to be a priority target... Once you get through the gangs of unliving, of course.

Like most of Brimsteel's frontier settlements the town also has a protective wall ringing around it to keep at bay the harsh weather and harsh wildlife alike. The recent band of heroes already found out how nasty Scaldamanders can be, and that's just one of the many damned beasts out here. The walls meet at the end opposite the town hall, locked shut with heavy gates--

*FWATHOOOOM*

--Or there was gates, until an abrupt explosion removes the obstacle. As burning splinters and nails clatter down in the street undead eyes (for those that still have eyes) turn towards the billowing plumes of smoke left in the wake of the sudden blast. Spurs clang against the ground as a familiar grey vixen walks out of the smoke clouds, still holding the trigger device in one hand. "Ah reckon Ah knocked a li'l too hard." She tosses the device over one shoulder, then pulls out her shotgun with one hand, spins it twice and grabs it by the action, letting the motion handle the matter of cocking it and charging up it's power core. "Don't matter, all ya undead are gonna be redead soon 'nuff."

Behind her Windrose catchs the device abit fumbling a few times between her hands before getting a grip. Shoots the gunslinger a somewhat sour look. "Was that really necessary to make such a mess??"

"Not really," Corona drawls back as she flips Forgesweeper back into a proper grip. "We'll just build a new one after we tidy up this hell hole."

Target Sparktail (770) has posed:
"Oh fer cryin' out loud, C'rona, we coulda just went over and saved ourselves the trouble later!" Height does not intimate the vex ranger walking in behind Arclite and Windrose, and he will, and has, make his thoughts known when he deems it necessary. Which is most of the time. "I'll jes leave it outta the report for yer own sake, not as if I don't owe ya anyway.." Beyond the gateway, Target pulls loose the shotgun at his back, starts to load it, but hesitates, ".. And jes what kinda ammo should I be usin' anyway? I really haven't dealt with anything quite this.. ri.. abs.. ... stupid."

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    "Well, this place sure went to hell in a hand basket." Maaka muses, toting an auto-shotgun over her shoulder, seeing as how Target and Corona are using them too it seemed like a good idea to carry one as well. At least shells are easy to share. Racking the shotty, she pops her neck. "I recommend three inch buck of slugs myself." She comments to Target, before she takes aim at the nearest concentration of undead.

    It's almost like cutting down wheat how calmly and indifferently she opens fire upon them, the shotgun kicking against her shoulder roughly.

Leyanne Mace has posed:
Leyanne Mace enters... at speed, on her Cavalry Charger... but this charger isn't a horse. Instead, it's an Arkadyne Combat Systems model 14 combat motorcycle, armed with two 20mm autocannons. Wide, fat wheels carry the squat vehicle over the rough terrain, eight powerful spotlights illuminating the ground ahead of Tiny as she weaves neatly around rocks. The terrain here isn't that different from home, though the Charger's gas turbine engine is much happier in the thicker, oxygen-rich atmosphere of an earthlike world.

Tiny twists the throttle further open and the bike rears up, hitting a ledge of rock at -just- the right angle to launch the machine up over the wall of Gaslight Gulch.

Unable to help herself, and with so much air-time to play with, the mouse casually performs a Nac Nac, before landing on a zombie and flattening it.

She slews the bike to a halt in front of Corona, showering the fox's boots with dust and gravel, reaching up to retract the mouthguard of her helmet. She gives Corona a cocky smirk.

"My mate rebound said there was a zombie problem... you look like the most competent person 'ere, and from what I saw it looks like you can make an entrance, so I'm betting you're in charge." She grins. "Where d'ya need me? Ain't much good 'gainst spooks, but zombies and skeletons I can blow into harmless chunks."

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
In the wake of Corona's blasting through the gates of the town, three words ring out over the sound of an(other) engine:

"HIGH SPEED XIAOMU!!"

This engine is higher-pitched than you might expect for a high-performance ... motorcycle? .... nope, lightcycle, as Xiaomu tears past the 'slowpokes' on her fast, sleek machine. Any zombies that don't get out of her way fast enough are going to simply get run over; any that try to make a lunge for the sage fox are going to get a faceful of bullet. At least, that's her plan. To the extent that she HAS a plan.

Look, if no plan of battle survives contact with the enemy, how much effort are YOU going to put into planning elaborate tactical deployments?

Besides, it's zombies, Xiaomu knows how to deal with zombies. And if regular bullets aren't enough, she has anti-spirit rounds for her handguns too. She's only using one handgun at the moment - she needs a hand to keep steering, after all - and she's not charging TOO far ahead; instead, she slews her lightcycle around (thereby adding 'vehicular assault' to her list of anti-zombie options in play) and tries to sweep out some more clear space for the incoming good guys.

Then, once the lightcycle's come to a halt, she DOES draw her other handgun and continues filling the air with bullets whenever she can spot and pop a zombie.

Josuke Higashikata (1119) has posed:
    All this started pretty simply enough for Josuke. Having newly arrived in the Multiverse, the teen is eager to explore; partially because he's curious, and partially because he wants to become familiar with any threats that could exist to his own world. With the nature of the Multiverse, he's heard, there could even be a world where DIO is still around. What a horrifying thought!

    So he's been doing some exploring. And it so happens that today he's ended up in THIS world. It's dusty here, so he's dressed accordingly -- a lime green, sleeveless mock-turtleneck under a light chocolate brown V-neck sweater, darker brown slacks, and gloves. He's still wearing those expensive shoes though, which he might be regretting, given all this dust and sand! Next time he'll look into a hood to protect his hair.

    Soon however, there are EXPLOSIONS! "What the...?" He turns in that direction and, not questioning it, starts running that way, avoiding the gas geysers on the way. Should he happen to encounter visible zombies along the way, Crazy Diamond will be employed to punch them out of his way. "MOVE IT!" Josuke crows, going THROUGH them if need be. "I don't have time for you!"

Rebound (750) has posed:
"Not overkill enough." Rebound notes, as she grins past Corona and into the piles of zombies in the town. Rebound is not dumb enough to fight zombies without any protection, so she's wearing a leather jacket and long pants.

Once the door has been opened, she plows straight into the pile of undead, shoulder checking the first one she comes across and then proceding to throw out as many punches and kicks as she can. Every time she gets in range, she strikes.

It seems like this is the kind of thing she has been longing for, fighting a lot of weak targets in an enclosed environment. She's enjoying herself.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Gaslight Gultch is an ghost town and Kotone seems to be on edge, even with her themotic cameo she wans't sure just how much goo it woudl do she was cloaked as she creeped into town but the mist and fog might reveal her location more easily as she moved. She kept moving for the gate but then they went up in a big damn explosion, and she mutter something to herself in a mix of English french and japanese before she moves ahead again trying to be sneaky b ut they are about to get dog piled sh suspects if there's anything hostile. She'll also make use of her mobility systme sbut as the undead pile out? Whelp there goes her being sneaky she'll leand on a building roof crunching it as she does nad open fire with her SMG from her perch hopfully trying to thin out the undead hordes.

"Stop trying to out zombie me!"

Corona Arclite has posed:
Corona Arclite doesn't even flinch as dirt and dead bits are scattered across her boots after the Biker Mouse street pizzas some zeds in her entrance. It's hardly an unusual occurance. The dirty boots, I mean. "Looks like we've picked up quite a posse.... Nice bike."

"Can we please not tear down the town in the process of saving it," Windrose objects, skunk tail flitching back and forth anxiously. Followed by a slow blink as another fellow with weird hair, and one more in some kind of crystal armor, come crashing through zombies as well. "And what the hell is that?!"

"Don't care as long as its helping!... She's right, solid's pro'ly best fer the physical undead. Don't worry 'bout the ghostlies iffen ya can't deal with em. The locals are hidin' under town hall at the end, so that's where we gotta go."

Assorted gunfire and punching roos do a good job at sweeping through the start of the horde, toppling zombies and shattering skeletons. But the street is full of them, the ghost gunslingers are swooping in.. and is that hoofbeats? Yes it is, because in response to the bike riders there's a couple of ghost cowboys riding in on skeletal horses. Don't ask how they're making hoof sounds when they're not actually touching the ground.

Corona shoots her grappler to get up onto one of the rooftops. As soon as boots hit the planks she starts running, much like she did in her old street orphan days. Just as she hops over a ledge she aims down and lets off shot with her weird shotgun. The pulsarium power blast slams into one of the ghost gunman and vaporizes its spirit energy, while the recoil helps kick Corona up onto the next rooftop as well.

Windrose.. promptly goes for cover behind some barrels. "THIS IS NOT WHAT I EXPECTED AT ALL." Clearly this is the skunk's first time being sidekick to anyone of Corona's sort.

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    Maaka can't help but stare at Leyanne's bike. It is a very nice bike, and she needs one like it. SOmething for high mobility like the Knight, but armed and dangerous to take out targets in high-speed pursuits.

    She makes a note to 'build a similarly badass bike' before going back to engaging targets. She gravitates over to Xiaomu just in time to avoid getting hit by HIGH SPEED XIAOMU! "Hey, back off of her!" She barks at the zombies, protecting her friend and battle sister with buckshot to spare.

    She stares as Pompador guy joins the fray, watching him glow purple before her eyes go fuzzy. "Ugh, what the hell!?" She wonders aloud, as her optic feed goes fuzzy and glitchy when Crazy Diamond does its thing.

    The cyborg tries to shake off the glitchiness as a zombie grabs her, "FUCK OFF!" She brings her elbow to the zombie's face, caving it in with a gory display before she draws her sidearm, a Kimber Warrior .45. Her shotgun can hang off her back, while she brings the pistol up at a tilted angle in both hands, thumbs touching, while the pistol barks loudly while she blasts a few zombies point-blank.

Target Sparktail (770) has posed:
    "Are you calllin'-" cut off, Target doesn't bother to finish his thought in regards to what Leyanne said. Some of the other arrivals get a nod and an ackowledgement, but as carnage errupts in the streets via bike, bashing, or bullets, the ranger decides to go and see where the folks of the town are. "Ya'll distract'em! I'll see about gettin' to the townsfolk!"

    How? Well when the ranger's duster suddenly expands out, clockwork grinding sounding out through the air, and then he's rolling away in a ball that somehow is steampunk, clockwork, and small enough to duck and weave among the feet of the undead, heading for the town hall.

Leyanne Mace has posed:
Leyanne Mace throws Corona a salute and then guns her bike again, drawing her sidearm and leaning out of her saddle to take a few shots at the ghost cowboys. I mean, they're coming for her, and it might work, right? In some places, ghosts are more in it for theatre than malice, and will react when shot even if the shot does nothing to them. If the hollowpoint rounds do nothing... well... that looked good, right?

Tiny holsters her sidearm, hunkering back down behind the low perspex windshield and arming the cannons. As she charges towards a crowd of shambling undead and more agile skeletons. After a moment she opens up, hoping to open a gap for both herself, and for Sparktail, to make it to the town hall. After all, once there she can dismount one of the 20mms and then the fun can really begin.
If the Zeds don't get blown out of the way, she's quite happy to flatten them.

Josuke Higashikata (1119) has posed:
    Once he's inside the town, Josuke takes in the area. He looks at the people that are going to be his allies for now, it seems. There are... well, some of them look like anthropomorphized animals of some sort, but he's not sure. He's learning that with this Multiverse, it's better not to ask. Cyborgs, from the sound of the radio chatter. And someone with crazier hair than his, that looks like there's fox-tails coming out of her head? It's getting easier to deal with the weirdness at least, though he has to remind himself not to stare...

    And sees what the problem is -- there are dead things walking around. And running, and shooting, and -- oh jeez, are those UNDEAD HORSES?! "...Oh just <great>," he mutters.

    Also, going by radio chatter, there's some issues with cybernetic parts thanks to Crazy Diamond. "<<Sorry about that!>>" he apologizes, over the radio. "<<Stands are... weird like that.>>" And then he goes red in the face with an embarassed blush at Xiaomu's comment over the radio. "<<I-it... I'm not that kind of guy!>>" Get it together, Josuke! There's enemies around!

    The first thing he thinks? Cut off the dead things' escape, and make sure they can't get reinforcements in. So he runs to the destroyed gate, and the armored thing behind him follows. He stops at the remains of the gate, and then the armored figure punches the ground in the center of where the pieces of the destroyed gate lie, yelling a sharp, "DOOOURRRA!" The pieces of the gate are surrounded by an orange-gold aura, and begin to float up into the air... and then to reassemble themselves.

    That said, he's kind of... left himself open. He has to concentrate on the fix, not on the battle going on behind him, otherwise he'll mess it up, and then won't be able to fix the gate properly....

Rebound (750) has posed:
As Rebound plows through a multitude of undead, she suddenly finds herself face to, well, chest, with a massive hulking zombie. Looks like somebody took the undead monster and pumped it full of every kind of growth hormone they could get their hands on. She takes a step back and looks up at him. "You are one ugly son of a bitch."

Some of the other zombies actually are trying to close in on her, but the big guy swings and she ducks it, causing him to smash the others with his blow, "Okay better not get hit by that, then." She is staying quick on her feet, weaving in and out of blows from the big zombie, and trying to stick it with strikes where she can, but it's like punching a brick wall.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Xiaomu continues shooting zombies in their faces en masse for a bit while the rest of the party gathers; some of them are familiar faces, some of them aren't, but she's not about to be picky who she's fighting alongside. Besides, all of them are interesting and helpful from the looks of things, and the undead are, whether nuisance or genuine threat, a common enemy for a common reason - plus she's not going to stop and ask whether somebody is immune to zombie bites if she sees one of her allies in a tight spot.

Then one of her bullets goes through a head which is ghost rather than zombie, just before that handgun clicks empty. "Fooey," Xiaomu comments, emptying the other clip at the more solid targets, ejecting the empty mags and reloading, then focusing her fire on clearing up some more space immediately around and ahead of herself. Sure, she CAN just run over zombies if necessary, but she's gonna need a running start and a good bit of focus for what she wants to do next.

So when she re-holsters one handgun and bends over the lightcycle again, she has at least the *start* of a clear path towards the ghostly cowboys. Which is all she needs to not only race forward, but to start generating a trail-wall in the cycle's wake.

It's not QUITE like it would be on the Grid; Xiaomu's channeling her own chi through the lightcycle to energize the trail-wall - but on the plus side, that imbues it with supernatural force rather than merely physical impedances. She's used this for massive sealing circles before, but she doesn't need anything nearly that big this time - just big enough to enclose the revenant riders and their steeds, punctuated by a couple of anti-spirit bullets to discourage them from jumping the 'fence' she's made.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa cringes she forgot about hr wright and is going to ry and kee things more uner control fromt hen on, she keeps shooting the undead tyring to take the horrors down and she doe sno like zombies. Some of her earilest memories of the multivese involve the undead. She keep tabs on some of the other and she notices the non physicla undea and cna't do mcuh about it. Still seeing these things unsettles her, after all she's in a way undead as some might see it. he keps going trying rto bounce along and air trick to keep in the air she turns off the cloak for now as there's no mpoint the things are everythwere and she might need to save power during the fray.

Corona Arclite has posed:
Thunder cracks ominously across the sky, casting a strange illumination through the ghostly fog lingering around the town. The noise is second to the ruckus that rips through the beleagured frontier town. Solid attacks and munitions work best of shredding zombies and pummeling skeletons, while energy and mystical forces do wonders on the ghosts even as they try to shoot their haunted sixguns at the would-be saviors of the town.

Arguable how many of the shambling undead would be able to get out, but putting the gate back up might keep more undead calvary from showing up so it's still a good idea. It's enough to get the ghostly riders try to turn back around and swoop towards Josuke piecing the gates back together. But one gets his skeletal steed spooked by Tiny's shot whizzing too close to their heads and goes crashing into the side of a building. The others are coralled in by Xiamou's energy trail, the charge of spiritual energy preventing the ghostly riders from just passing through it. Though one of them tries to stop her by manifesting a lariet of hellfire and flinging it at the exorcist fox.

The saloon doors swing open as ragged, rotted looking miner tromps out, a stick of dynamite jutting from his bony jaw like a cigar. Nothing compared to the bundle of TNT he pulls out, and fumbles with a chunk of brimstone to ignite it.

Until a barrel is abruptly dropped over him, which *fwooms* dully and bulges outward briefly before settling back as smoke leaks out between the now warped boards. It rattles around a bit but doesn't move since Windrose is sitting on top of it to keep it down. "I -said- no blowing up the town!" Pause. "Or my friends. Not that, either."

And Rebound finds what happens when you make a zombie out of a cow that's had too many growth horomone shots. Her blows may not be doing much damage yet, but she's got its attention, and when the Impact Drivers charge up from the punches...

Corona skids down the rain gutter of a rooftop and off the edge, landing on the next roof and holding her shotgun up and snap off another blast. This one doesn't hit any undead... at first, as it rips through a support beam instead, sending a porch roof crashing down on another swarm that was trying to move in on Alexis and Kotone while the girls are getting full out bionically brutal on the walkers.

Corona Arclite has posed:
With the rest of ghostbusting calvary piling the walking dead back in their graves the kobold-ball has little trouble rolling and winding its way through the horde more interested in shambling towards the (mostly) flesh and blood targets rather than the metal sphere. Maybe make a speedbump out of a meandering corpse or two at the best. But just as Target is nearing the town hall the hellious whine of infernal machines can be heard screeching, followed by the upper windows of the hall's second floor shattering from a crashing force, as someone was clearly waiting for an attempt to rescue the folks hiding beneath the building. Midnight duster flutters behind a hauntingly familiar hulking form as it hits the ground right in the kobold's path, hissing from the unholy mechanization in his arms to grab onto the sphere, sparks flying from the friction as he tries to grind it to a stop.

One red eye-piece glows beneath the jet black stetson's brim, mouth of metallic teeth grinning as the grating voice rasps from between them. "Hello Ranger."

Steam screams like banshees out of the protrusions from his neck and shoulders as the hellpunked gnoll heaves the metal ball towards the nearest wall.

Leyanne Mace has posed:
Leyanne Mace takes a hit from one of the ghost-cavalry's sixguns, which sets up a speedwobble that the mouse doesn't have time to correct before the bike hits a downed zombie, slides on the gre, and then kicks out from underneath her. She tries to hold it but the rodent is thrown from the saddle in a tumbling crash. She and her bike slam into the wall of the town hall, not hard enough to do too much damage to either the wall, or herself, thankfully. THe bike, however, will need some repairs.
Tiny pulls one of the 20mm cannons from its outrigger, letting the belt dangle free.

At Sparktail's cursing, she turns to face the big, mechanical figure. "Woah! You are one ugly bastard aren't you?" She comments, swinging the big autogun around.
"OI! PICK ON SOMEONE YOUR OWN SIZE YOU C-"
At this point, she opens fire. Whatever else she's got to say, which is apparently quite a lot, gets drowned out by the big Oerlikon-built autogun. The recoil is considerable.. so much so that every few seconds, Leyanne has to shuffle back a few steps to keep her footing.

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    Maaka opens fire upon the zombies as things get much too close for comfort. CQB is useful in these situations; joint-locks, kneecapping, punches and kicks, grapples and footsweeps, all manner of advanced hand-to-hand moves are put to use in tandem with pinpoint shots from her .45. She eventually reloads the pistol once it locks back empty, and she power-strokes the slide back into battery.

    Of course, the murder-spree only goes so far as she sees something odd. This bizarre, ghostly figure near city hall. Advancing that way, Maaka spies the big mechanical figure, and she stares in confusion before swapping to her shotgun. "I dunno who or what you are, but you got fi-" Her threat and demands for explanations are cut off as Leyanne opens fire with high-calibre rounds.

    Ducking from the fire, the rest of Maaka's words are cut off as she shrugs and fires at the gnoll with her shotgun. "Fuck it, shooting you now!"

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Okay, the lariat was unexpected, and maybe Xiaomu SHOULD have been prepared for some kind of lasso or the like ... but even anti-spirit bullets aren't going to do a whole lot of good against that, hellfire or not.

Fortunately, the sage fox has other options. Her lightcycle comes to a halt as she pulls the staff off her back, handgun discarded for the moment as she grasps the staff's ring-bearing headpiece - and from the staff, she draws a long, straight, single-edged blade, a trail of mist following the arc of her swing as she slices at the hellfire lariat with Suiren, her ice-elemental sword.

"Cowboy or not, THAT was just rude," Xiaomu snaps at the spectral rider, bending over long enough to retrieve her dropped handgun. "You want me to send you back to the great beyond, or have you got anything *useful* to tell us while you're treading in the world of mortals?"

Her lightcycle's trail-wall is still there, sustained by Xiaomu's will and power, even though the lightcycle is now at a standstill. She's also keenly aware that her comrades have other problems they're working on, but she doesn't want to leave the cowboys to possibly break loose while her attention is elsewhere.

Josuke Higashikata (1119) has posed:
    It shouldn't take but a few moments for the gate to seemingly fix itself. Josuke gives a relieved sigh once the gate seems secure. It's the noise from the town hall breaking that catches his attention first, and he turns just in time to see the ghostly riders bearing down on him! "Gah!" He does get fired on, and a couple of shot hit him in the arm before he can bring Crazy Diamond to bear. It's not that the Stand has any particular form of armor against it, no.

    It can however PUNCH BULLETS OUT OF THE AIR! Which it does, with a loud, ascending, "DORARARARARA!"

    These things are ghosts. Josuke isn't going to chance not being able to hurt them with his own fists, not when they have guns. The horses are ghosts too, right? Josuke waits. Crazy Diamond is a short-range Stand, and while six and a half feet is a pretty good distance, it's further away than they are now. He waits until the riders are too close for him to dodge shots from, having the Stand punch bullets when they get too close...

    And then suddenly Crazy Diamond jukes hard to the side, apparently leaving Josuke exposed.

    But if the riders stop to take the shot, they'll find a surprise. Crazy Diamond surges forward, with a flurry of superspeed punches, trying to just sweep the riders out of Josuke's path. Ultimately he's trying to physically nail them to a wall. Or the ground. Literally. As in, trying to fuse them with a nearby wall with a purposely botched fix/heal.

    Either way, that will hopefully get them out of his way so he can go help at the town hall. Because that giant thing loooks NASTY.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa is trying to keep with Maaka as they open fire on more of the undead. <<Why did it have to be undead?!>> She keeos moving as the fight goes on and there seem to be no end to the undead hordes that asailt them all. Soon things get too up close and Koeon is forced to go hand to hand, her SMG is replaced with a combat knife, and soon she' putitng all her body's strenghht o work. She's not as well trained up close as Alexis, okay she has none really. Still she's got enoguh strenght hat she coudl tear some od thes thigns apart with her hands, though the knige may work a lit better. She also seems disturbed from the look on her face, Kotone doesn't fight up close like this often and it's showing. THen comes fire and she's foced back to try and take some cover but she's exposed...and the enemy mith get a good hit on her.

Rebound (750) has posed:
Rebound has been dodging around the tank zombie, hitting it with shots, but she's getting tired of this thing not going down, "Okay big guy, playtime's over!"

She rushes towards it, and then drops down and slides between the big guy's legs, kipping back up to her feet when she's behind him. She reaches out and grabs him by the waist, hauling back through the air, and using her tail for extra leverage.

She hauls the big zombie through the air, and slams him head and neck first into the ground, slamming him down with enough impact that he explodes, because zombies are wont to do hat with enough impact force.

Target Sparktail (770) has posed:
    Welp, someone heard him! As sparks fly all over, and into the hand of the gnoll, but before the momentum stops, a whole lot of firepower is sent into mecha-gnoll's form, the sound of gears turning can be heard again. This time, the VEX unit settles in across his form to enhance his abilities, agility, and strength.

    "I'm going to dig a new canyon just to toss you into it!" Target roars out, despite his size, before throwing himself to one side of the massive creature. Every shell in his shotgun is unloaded at the Gnoll's face before he surges in, ducks, and lunges upward. While he secretly hopes the gnoll has a glass jaw, he knows it's probably made of sterner stuff then that.

Corona Arclite has posed:
They could of been heading for a hanging, but the intervention of enchanted ice blades leaves the offending lasso of fire no more than some limp smoldering. The specteral riders look at Xiaomu, look at the remains of the hell lasso, look at Xiaomu again... and slowly back their ghost steeds up a few paces before turning and apparently remembering they don't have to stay on the ground and the ghastly steeds leap over the energy-wall!

... and right into the path of Crazy Diamond as it charges through the rest of the riders that had been charging Josuke. Normally they'd just phase through the other surface to save themselves from harm, but the purposely botched 'heal' does a nasty trick of instead trapping them in the wall instead.

From her perch on the rooftop Corona has a clear view of the hellforged form that leaps down to intercept the Vex-balled Target. For the briefest of moments even she looks slightly off-put. Though it's less at the mashed together gnoll and more at remember what -else- was around last time. If that fucked up thing is scratching around herer.... no, pull it together, gotta help her friends first. Worry about the other weird shit that's possibly behind this later. Though she still gets out a "Shaft me sideways," utterance.

A shotgun blast impacts with the hellpunked gnoll's frame, breaking his grip on the Ranger and giving him a chance to slip away to shift forms. Followed by the hurricane of rounds from a martian's autocannon, sparks flying as hit after hit ring into his body. And then Target bets back onto his feet, yells something, and unloads a fury of his own. Topped off by Corona tossing one of her homemade grenades into the mix and engulfing the monster in the, compared to her entrance at least, small blast.

Okay, that thing was freaky enough that even Windrose isn't going to complain about the use of explosives. This time.

And while everyone is gawking at or shooting the... thing, Rebound is dealing with her own monster. By suplexing it's rotted head into the ground, the force of impact from the mutant's strength enough to violently rupture it's disgusting form apart.

Then from admist the lingering smoke and ash from the insane amount of firepower and explosives used, a grating laugh crackled. If you could somehow combine the howl of a hyena with the grating and grinding of a machine collapsing, it would be that.

The hulking form ambles out of the smoke, though not without suffering from the assault. Duster and body is tore up, if only to show the unearthly mechanical bits and tubes that are, for lack of better words, practically stitched or fused into what remains of his flesh. The blasts to the face have burned off what flesh remained, showing the inner workings to those metal teeth and mechanical jaws intergrated to the skull. Considering his face was literally punched in, little surprise it's fixed up with more metal than bone now. Hellish steam hisses out of a few joints as well as the actual exhausts, but goddamn over all he's still standing.

"I barely remember my past. Barely remember who I use to be." Despite everyone else raining fire on him his glowing eye is focused on Target. "But I remember what you did to me, now revenge is my only destiny."

"My body fixed with hellfire gears. What have I become?" The machinery in his arms shift, turning them into to two hellpunk driven gatling-gun style weapons. "Your worst fears. An unliving steampunk nightmare..."

Which he swings up and just unloads across the entire street. "Bare your souls for the GRIM WRANGLER!"

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    Maaka keeps firing on the gnolls Steampunky frame aggressively. Things get -weird- after she runs out of ammunition, and she frantically tries to reload the shotgun as the Grim Wrangler (yes seriously) is revealed to be mostly fine. "...I'm sorry, what's this about people doing things to people?" She looks between Target and the Wrangler, before suddenly things go to hell.

    Literally.

    And then mini gunfire. Maaka makes a break for the nearest building, a saloon no less, taking cover behind a bar after she dives through the glass window and waits out the storm of lead headed down the street. "FUCKING HELL!"

Leyanne Mace has posed:
Leyanne Mace seems satisfied as the big bore autocannon slams into the Grim Wrangler. Though her expression changes to grudging respect as the bastard turns out to be still standing.

And now there are gatling guns. Isn't that just fucking great?

Tiny drops the autocannon and sprints for cover, diving first behind a horse trough... when that's shredded, she scrambles and sprints for something else, chased by fountains of dirt as she dives through the window of the sherriff's office... smashing the bars in the window out of the way.

It's probably one of the few substantial buildings here, yet the railroad sleeper walls still won't last -that- long under sustained assault...
"Running away running away running away now..." she mutters, to the tune of 'give it away' by the chilli peppers

Josuke Higashikata (1119) has posed:
    Ha! That did it. Riders handled, Josuke heads to the town hall where the abomination of flesh and machine seems to be rather thoroughly being dealt with by the others. "Good one, everybody!" he encourages. Surely that explosion, with all the other damage, would take care of it. So he begins, "That should do..."

    Aaaaaand then suddenly it rises up out of the settling dust, still moving. Josuke's eyes go wide, taking in the sight with shock. "...Seriously?!" he grouses. "...Just <great>..."

    Suddenly the thing is firing across the whole street. Josuke deploys Crazy Diamond in front of him, and as the bullets start flying, the Stand begins to punch at the bullets wildly, punching as many of them out of the air as it can. It can't get them all, and Josuke jerks to the side as one hits his uninjured arm, doubles over as another hits his leg. But he's not backing down now.

    No, he's... advancing!

    From behind the wildly-flailing Stand, Josuke says loudly, "This isn't gonna stop me! I'll just part this sea of bullets! And then I'll take you OUT!" And yes, he's going closer, though it's slow going thanks to having to punch the bullets out of the way.

    But it also looks like the kid is just badass-walking through the hail of bullets, jerking to the side and wincing whenever one happens to get past, and then still going. Stupid kid! Fortunately Crazy Diamond is protecting his center pretty well, and it's only the edges where the bullets are getting through.

Target Sparktail (770) has posed:
    All that firepower, all that help, and this 'Wrangler' is still coming! Ok. "C'rona! Usin purple!" he hollars as he backs up a step or two, "Listen, bud, you was stealin' a whole damn bridge and I'm not 'bout to apologize fer what I did. So.--" Pause. "... Where the hell didja get that name? It's awful!" It's an attempt at a distraction as his shotgun gets loaded with a single bright purple shell. He actions the thing, puts it into his shoulder, takes a deep breath, pulls the trigger... and goes -FLYING- backward as a massive purple blast *KRAK-THOMS* out of the barrel of the shotgun.

        At least it didn't ruin the gun. Corona made it!

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Honestly, Xiaomu had THOUGHT that would be enough to keep the ghostly cowboys from escaping - but she didn't have the maneuverability to make the 'wall' much tighter, and to be fair, she completely overlooked the possibility of the horses pulling a VTOL air-climb to get out of the encirclement. Fortunately, Josuke and his Stand are able to wall them in MUCH more effectively than Xiaomu did, and she's starting to give the Japanese kid a thumbs-up when the bad guy goes all Gatling on everyone he can spot.

The sage fox does not repeat the phrase 'High Speed Xiaomu' this time, just stashes her weapons as well as she can in a *hell* of a hurry and guns the lightcycle's engine, trail-wall zeroing out behind her as she puts all her efforts into not staying still to get shot at.

Or, y'know. Getting shot DESPITE being in motion.

She has a long-standing and mutually beneficial relationship with her pelt and sees no reason to get holes shot in it, okay?

Fortunately, the ill-named Grim Wrangler is taller than she would be standing, and seems (at a quick guess) to be aiming more or less horizontally rather than angling downwards. She thinks. If she can just circle around behind the big undead steampunk cyborg whatever while he's preoccupied shooting at less-dodgy targets ...

Well, a fire-elemental grenade or two exploding between the Wrangler's legs ought to make his prospects a lot more grim, shouldn't it?

Rebound (750) has posed:
You know Rebound is not bulletproof, at least not yet. So for now she needs to take cover. She dives for cover behind the leftover hulk of the huge zombie she just killed, figuring that if it can withstand her blows, it should be able to withstand bullets.

She activates the Impact Drivers and places them in front of her for some extra protection, waiting for the hail of gunfire to stop before she gets up.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
things are not going so well as she'd like with the hellpunk gnoll and she's now looking petty pissed off at this as she looks at the hell punk thing and she'll just follos Maaka as she moves to take cover. "I could think of stronger words to use Alexis!" She shouts out as she too dives through the door of the salloon face planting intot he floor, she leaves an Kotone shaped impression there and rolls to the saide as quicklya she's able to.

"We need a bigger gun!"

Leyanne Mace has posed:
Leyanne Mace pokes her head up over the parapet of the jailhouse window to get a look at the Grim Wrangler. She reaches around her backpack to feel for something, closing her eyes in silent relief as she discovers that her beloved old Mk-2 Bren gun hasn't been knocked loose.
She's got the old light machine gun braced up against the window frame on its bipod just in time to see a bright purple flash from Sparktail's massive cannon shell. She watches him fly, trailed by a little wisp of purple smoke, before hunkering down behind the ancient, but loved gun and turning towards the Wrangler. She doesn't pull the trigger, however - waiting to see if he gets back up from this one...

Corona Arclite has posed:
You might think that being on a rooftop away from the street is safe for Corona. She certainly did.... And oh boy, was she wrong. Gunfire shreds the storefront, ripping apart several support beams, and instead the vixen has to quickly run the other way to avoid the roof collapsing beneath her feet.

That or she heard Target say he was using one of -those- shells. Maybe a bit of both.

It's a good thing Maaka actually dove behind the bar. It's a lot more sturdy, being made to take the barfights and saloon shootouts that are a common pasttime on Brimsteel, unlike the rest of the building partially collapsing around her. Everyone else is pretty much getting the hell out of Dodge.

Well everyone save Josuke. Thanks to Crazy Diamond living up to that crazy part and -punching bullets out of the air- despite how many and how fast they're coming. Impressive in its own right, more so when it lets the guy do a Slow Badass Walk towards the gatling-gunslinging monster.

Bigger Gun? Well that purple blast from Target is at least close, considering it launched the kobold halfway across what remains of the town to fire it. That and a few grenades make for yet another explosion to rock the town, this time in plumes of thick purple smoke that billows through the street and around Josuke looking badass in the middle of it all (thanks to CD's protection).

When the haze finally swirl away though, the hulking half-dead steam-borg is gone.... though one gets the nagging feeling it wasn't by being blown up to bits again.

But none of the beaten undead are getting back up and that creepy fog is starting to lift, so clearly him being here had -something- to do with what was going on... Might be something to the 'Grim' in Grim Wrangler after all...

Leyanne Mace has posed:
Leyanne Mace takes her Bren down off the windowsill and advances on the town hall, keeping the spot where the Wrangler was firmly under cover until she's sure he's not going to get up a second... or is that third... time.
Then she looks over at her bike. The damage isn't critical, but he'll need repairs before he can get back on the road.
"Don't worry mate, I'll patch you up."

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    Phew. Maaka rifles through the bar after the bullets stop flying and things cool down. She searches the bar out of curiosity, finding some liquor of mid-quality and an old gun a very unlucky man ditched during the outbreak. "Hmm." She decides not to overflow her inventory, though she does take a bottle of hooch to drink from as she climbs back out.

    "He gonna be okay?" She asks Leyanne, approaching her while she croons over her damaged bike. "Name's Maaka, by the way. Never did give you my name." She produces a card containing contact info in some fancy hologram interface. "If you wanna talk bikes sometime, give me a call."

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
And it seems to be over. As Xiaomu puts it on the radio, 'I don't hear him laughing or shooting, and *we* aren't dead yet'. All of which is true.

The sage fox circles around - actually driving a loose perimeter around where the 'Grim Wrangler' went down, combining the exegencies of maneuvering back to rejoin the others with a quick sweep to make SURE the restless spirits have all settled down or retreated - before driving up next to Leyanne, de-rezzing her lightcycle, and settling into a walk next to the big mouse woman. "So we hit the town hall basement and give 'em the all-clear, and ... what else, anything?"

Josuke Higashikata (1119) has posed:
    Oh good -- big, bad, and undead is gone. Though there's no evidence that he's actually been made re-dead, but still. Gone is good enough for now. Once he's no longer being shot at, Josuke lets Crazy Diamond pause, though keeps the Stand near him for a moment, just in case. He can feel the environment somehow... lightening. The air is less oppressive, not as heavy.

    Josuke releases Crazy Diamond then, when he's more sure that things are, at least for the time being, dealt with. He's quite out of breath, and he's been hit a handful of times by gunfire, both from the riders and by Grim Wrangler. His outfit's showing where he's been hit, dark stains around the fabric.

    But he has other concerns. Namely, the others. "<<Did anyone get hurt?>>" he asks over the radio. "<<I can fix you up. I'll also stay to fix up what was broken.>>

Corona Arclite has posed:
Corona Arclite climbs over what remains of the building that had nearly collapsed under her. "Bit bruised up. Been worse... And yeah. Let folks they can come out, start fixin' up." Tilts her head in Josuke's direction. "Dunno who ya are but reckon they'll 'ppreciate the help."

Then she pauses, glancing off in the other direction. "Speaking of the locals, anyone seen Windrose?"

A hand shakily pokes up over a stack of barrels that got riddled with holes. "I'm... I'm fine, I think..." The skunkgirl teeters a bit as she steps out. "I have -no- idea what in the hell just happened though! The zombies were horrible enough!"

Corona pats her on the back. "Oh, ya kinda get use to it after awhile." Then starts walking to the hall.

Cue exasperated groan. "I'm not sure I -want- to get use to it..." But Windrose follows the fox, as she hasn't seen anyone since she snuck out of town to look for help.

Leyanne Mace has posed:
Leyanne Mace looks over at Maaka then nods. "Oh, yeah no worries. Mostly superficial, but it'll need to be fixed before he can get out on the road again. Might need to call in a truck to get him home... the fender's all buggered into the tyre." She takes the card. "Will do. If you're ever out Alaska way, I got a nice little shop in Hoonah, come check me out. I do customs, repars and upgrades."
She suddenly realises something, perhaps upon spotting Maaka's drink. Hanging the bren on its sling, she reaches around under her pack and pulls out her thermos. She pours herself a cup of tea and has a sip, listening to the radio conversation.

Rebound (750) has posed:
Once the gunfire stops, Rebound peeks up over the remains of the zombie, "Nice shot." She whistles, as she picks herself back up to her feet, brushes herself off, and then starts to head towards the town hall,

"You said they're in the basement, right Corona?" She asks, as she takes out a couple more zombies on the way there, but there's fewer and fewer to worry about with each passing moment.

Target Sparktail (770) has posed:
    On the other side of town.. Target is taking a breather. The gun survived, he survived, the VEX survived, but oh dear heavens is shoulder doesn't feel like it did. "I'mma .. just stay here a minute er two.."

Leyanne Mace has posed:
Leyanne Mace blinks at Xiaomu, smilng "Nice lightbike." She comments. "I think that sounds like the plan... anyone actually know the locals?" She asks, offering her cybernetic arm to the fox-sage for a fistbump.

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    "Right on." Maaka grins, before taking another swig of delicious liquor. It's not -great- but she needs a drink and it's there. In any case, she just takes a breather. It's eerie out here, now that the fighting's done. Just full of dead zombies and wreckage.

Josuke Higashikata (1119) has posed:
    Corona's statement to him makes Josuke realize something. "Oh! That's right, I didn't say who I was. There wasn't time. Sorry about that. I'm Josuke Higashikata." He bows. "Pleased to meet-- ow." He winces when he straightens his leg to bow, the movement agitating an injured muscle. He stands straight again, and tries again, "Pleased to meet you."

    He's near where Corona and (presumably) Windrose are, and is following them to the hall. He's also trying to fix a few things on the way. Now that he's not fighting, he can spend the concentration to do that more easily, more easily deploying Crazy Diamond and using its repairing abilities.

Leyanne Mace has posed:
Leyanne Mace really is not very tiny. She stands over 8ft tall

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
"Name's Xiaomu," the Chinese foxgirl introduces herself casually, waving to Josuke in particular. "Dealing with rogue and rowdy spirits is pretty much my job in my home world, so pitching in elsewhere with similar situations is just kinda a thing I do. Good to meet you, Josuke, everyone."

Leyanne Mace has posed:
Leyanne Mace looks over at her bike. "I'm gonna be organising a ride home for Skrat if anyone needs me"

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa looks out at everything as she pulls her self out from the bar looking at Maaka for a moment and dusitng herself off.She's looking a bit baned up and he suoit's wrecked in a few place also there's a streak on her face where the synth fglesh has been torn away fgrom her date with the floor.

"Geeze ie everyone all right? What the heck was tha and oh Kotone Yamakawa and hello Josuke was it?"

She looks over to the Foxy Shinra agentand smirks a bit.

"So who wants to get something to eat!"