Scene #5189: Issue #3: A Council Of War (Clockwork Paladin)

Owner	Pose
Dr. Vahzilok	Kings Row is a sooty industrialized city zone within Paragon City, with plenty of cramped alleyways, older apartment buildings, and criminals of various stripes. It's one of the zones most heavily harrassed by the Clockwork robots as well. From scavenging any pieces of metal they can find (right down to disassembling cars where they're parked), to siphoning electricity directly from the power lines upon beams of lightning, these constructs are a menace. And lately, their activity levels have surged beyond their usual level, with a lot of Clockwork being spotted in the High Park neighborhood of Kings Row. As reports come in over the PPD radio, it seems that a gathering of Clockwork of such a scale that has never been seen before has commenced at a construction site in High Park. Several dozen Clockwork are amassed, a walking wall of metal, as other Clockwork frantically work to construct what appears to be an even larger Clockwork in the middle of it all. It's probably best that whatever they're building not be completed.
Athela Valemore	That these clockwork rabble are known antagonizors and likely up to no good cannot be ignored. Nor can the vague similarities between the constructs and the artificial pokemon used by Team Golem. Either reason would be more than enough to get the attention of the Knight of Keldeo and Athela Valemore was on her way as soon as word got out the ticking troublemakers were confinscating the construction site for whatever perilous purpose they have. ... Okay, normally Team Golem doesn't have such large amounts of their fiendish faux similes in one place. Undaunted by the numbers but certainly hoping she's got allies that are going to show up very soon, Athela stops at the edge of the location and draws her sword, Resolute Blade making an audible tinging sound as it is held before her dramatically pointed towards the amassing of amoral automatrons. "This be your one and only warning, you sinister simulations! Stand down now and return whatever it is you hath dare take from these hardworking people, or feel thine wrath of the Swords of Justice!" Dramatic pose, dramatic fluttering of cloak behind her. Do these things even understand the concept of surrender? Probably not. But as a knight she has to do things the honorable way and give her foes a chance to stand down instead of being forced to fight.
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone did make things like Motorcycle her pride and joy was the knight. She'd jacked in and had no Issue in giving Seras a lift, Kotone was aware of the Clockwork from her days in the Union, and it seems? That the fall of the eternal war had done nothign to stop them. She's going at a safe pace right at the speed limiut though as she finally pulls up to the site of troubl and calls out to Seras. "We're just about there Seras get ready for trouble thse things have bene causing trouble fo a very long time even before you arrived in the multivese." Kotone brings her Knight to a halt and moves to pull the cables out of the back of her head as she lets Seras get off the bike and her.
Dorian Pavus	Dorian may have learned his lesson from the last time he did something in this place. Because his appearance this time is subdued, understated. Instead of being obvious, he's keeping to the alleys and low-key places this time, as he heads to the site. Blue-white surges of magic are all that tell of his passage between buildings as he lets the Fade carry him forward on near-invisible waves of magic toward where he's supposed to be. And so, as Athela appears first, to give the clockwork baddies a chance to stand down, a silent frisson of magic comes to stand behind her and slightly to her right. It coalesces into a man wearing a simple black robe with a hood to hide his face, over a set of leather armor that, aside from being much darker than Dorian's usual set, is more or less identical to the lighter-colored stuff. And the staff he carries today has what looks like a human skull, sans lower jaw, on the top, nestled within a 'nest' of branches. Perhaps this looks more what would be expected of a budding necromancer. He says nothing, merely adds his presence to Athela's, a silent statement of solidarity with her against the clockwork horrors. His head is tilted down to hide most of it, though the bottom of his face is still visible. And the mustache is as well-groomed as ever. So anybody who knows that 'stache knows who it is.
Seras Victoria	"But what are we supposed TO do about- ... about a gargantuan machine put together by... mechanical pests?" Seras asks quite innocently, clinging to Kotone from behind with just one hand. Her other hand is holding onto a rather sizable weapon case through the straps... and it's longer than she is tall. Too big to strap to the Motorcycle, even. "It doesn't sound like the perpetrators here will listen to anything anyone says."
Staren	A regular, repeating sound approaches. Like dozens of metal feet hitting the ground, over and over... Could more clockworks be coming to join the group already assembled? Well, there's a group of SOMETHING approaching. Two dozen metal ponies lead the pack, behind them walking a half-dozen cases, simple humanoid robots wearing something armored vests and helmets and carrying various kinds of guns, and behind those is an animate, roughly humanoid shape 10-foot-tall of walking concrete, carrying a kanobo and with Staren riding on its shoulders in his armor. "What are you waiting for?!" Staren asks the assembled heroes. "If these guys are STILL menacing the city after all these months, you haven't found a way to shut off the control signal yet, so there's nothing to do but fight! Whatever they're building can't be good!" Staren points ahead and gives the order: "ATTACK!" The metal ponies charge. They can ram things, but that's about all they do. Really their main use is distracting a bunch of the enemies so that the elites don't have to fight them all at once. Two of the cases are armed with assault rifles, the rest are armed with SMGs, all using armor-piercing bullets. Staren sure hopes those actually DO something to the clockworks. Staren hops off the kanobo-wielding construct as it charges into the fray, attacking constructs with his armor's beam cannons. "Come on, guys!"
Dr. Vahzilok	The scrap metal constructs with their churning clockwork keys respond to Athela's announcement of her presence, and the arrival of heroes in the way one might expect. With blasts of lightning discharged from what for all appearances seems to be just random junk held together by unknown, but non-magical, forces. As Staren's drones run into the fray, bolts sizzle past and at them, from both humanoid constructs of varying shapes and sizes (some carrying their tin-can heads under their arms), as well as stranger versions with spinning rotors and a wheel in place of legs. These latter ones are apparently capable of flight. The enemy is not shy about rushing to meet any threat, and soon enough the Sprockets, Cogs, and Oscillators are in full-fledged battle with the heroes. More powerful versions of the Clockwork seem to be guarding the work-in-progress in the middle of the construction site, but they will no doubt join in if provoked. They don't demonstrate much in the way of self-preservation, though they have been known to run if it honestly just serves no purpose to keep fighting. It only takes one Clockwork to build an army. That one that gets away can start it up all over again. Staren's cannons seem to work just fine on the enemy, though their sheer numbers means that a fight of attrition is probably not in the favor of the heroes. The Clockwork constructing the huge armored... THING are taller than most other Clockwork that have been seen, and seemingly completely ignoring anything other than their goal. But the sound of metal foot falls and grinding gears in the surrounding area, and the cries of electified Clockwork voices yelling things like, 'ZZZT WE MUST STOP THEM.' indicates reinforcements are already on the way. This might be an even bigger battle that it appeared it was going to be.
Athela Valemore	Athela Valemore lets out a yelp as the robots start shooting electricity, and it's only by the virtue of her divine guidance for combat that she manages to step back and use her magic sword defensively to deflect several of the sparks arcing her way. That's going to make things annoying, if they have electrical attacks she can't readily bring either of her Water type pokemon into battle. But considering the sheer number of foes, they are still going to need all the support they can get. "Just once, I would love for someone to actually listen." But today is not one of those days. "Slurry, I need ye. Come forth to battle!" A squishy squashing sound can be faintly heard as something rummages around in her adventurer pack. Until the small pink and purple slug-looking creature squirms its way out onto her shoulder. Though after taking one look at the approaching swarms of clockwork he burbles a bit and ducks farther behind her head. "I know, there are many. But you need to be brave." Athela attempts to give the small dragon-slug a pep talk. "Remember what we practiced for dealing with Toy Pokemon?" Slurry warbles in what may be some kind of head nodding. "These are also constructs so give that a try." It seems to be enough, as the Goomy slithers up on top of her head, puffs up a bit, and spews out a spray of his stickiest slime at the nearest Clockworks. Goomy slime is highly adhesive, surely that will be enough to slow down the machines by gunking up their gears and joints. "Yes, like that!" Athela lunges for the nearest slimed machine, thrusting forward hard with her sword for it's midsection to impale the criminal contraptions. "Blast the ones that are stuck down!", Athela adds, in case any of her allies happen to be listening.
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone Yamakawa says "If it ignores the warning? We deal with it them. These things are just ... constructs far as we know I'd not worry about it too hard." Thankfully the local laws were actually friendly to behavior more akin to the old union with more oversight namely take a law class, get at least two to three other heroes to vouch for you if your keeping your identity secret and generally things were good to go. Given an incident back in the 1930s which let off a massive crime lord? Public outrage had a lot of things ... changed here. Kotone is now getting her weapons ready as she looks at the clockwork she now gets ready to spring on them she looks to Seras. "Come on kid, shall we?" Yes Kotone is enjoying this given she's normally /miss/ rookie but she's got more experience here than the possibly future no life queen. 5R Staren goes on in and she feels much the same way that Athela does, maybe someday, someone will /listen/. Still she has to give warning. "Stand down this is your only warning." the then weapons fire comes, whelp that's their answer it seem and The cyborg is springing into the fight with super human speed. She's not yet pulled her rifle, no she's just using her cyborg body's strength to clobber the clockwork for the moment, maybe even goign to rip one or two apart.
Dorian Pavus	Lightning is fired at Dorian. His response? Barriers. He'll cast a Barrier over as many people as he can possibly hit while still defending himself. With the bombardment from the clockwork things, that Barrier won't last long, whoever gets one, but it's good for momentary defense. Dorian falls into the role of crowd control pretty easily. He raises a hand into the air and aims over a group of the clockwork abominations. An orb of lightning appears over the group, connected to Dorian's hand by a 'thread' of lightning. When Dorian pulls his hand down and away, the 'thread' snaps, and the orb pulses. The trap is set, now who will wander into the net? Well, it's more like 'who will wannder OUT of the net?', because that's how Static Cage works -- as long as the enemies stay within the perimeter of the spell, it won't hurt them. Once they start wandering outside it, though, it'll start shocking them. And those shocks will start chaining to other nearby enemies, too. So all of the clockwork abominations in the area will end up paying for it if one or two of them start wandering outside the perimeter of the spell! He is, however, leaving the Static Cage and the others to deal with the small fries. Even now Dorian is heading past as many as he can. Dorian dissolves into a blue-white smoke and tries to run past, to the larger clockwork beings. He's aware that all these smaller ones are just a distraction. Whatever the bigger ones are guarding, that's the important bit.
Staren	"Should have brought a bigger army..." Staren mutters. His constructs can keep some of the enemy constructs busy, but there are just so many... He directs the metal ponies and the concrete construct to move away from the areas others are focusing their attacks, while the cases supply a hail of bullets. As for Staren himself... Seeing that something is coming and the constructs in the middle won't stop working, he finally says, "Fuck it!" and pulls a missile launcher out of his bag, firing plasma minimissiles on high arcs over the horde at the thing being built in the center. They detonate in balls of superheated fire that will hopefully melt it and the surrounding constructs somewhat!
Seras Victoria	"Hyeeeek!" Seras' response to LIGHTNING being hurled around just after she hopped off and started following Kotone is to backpedal at gale speeds and ALMOSt fall on her tush... but she somehow keeps her balance. Real fear and PURE confusion flicker on her face, but she steels herself with a fresh (and totally unnecessary) deep breath. With a whunk-a-clunk-CLANG she flips open the case and speedily assembles her Harkonnen Cannon, hoisting the sizable weapon in one hand with seemingly no trouble at all. "I don't think they're going to listen-- oah?! ..." And there goes Kotone. Seras is left a bit gobsmacked, unsure what exactly to do just yet.
Staren	Also: Lightning! The metal ponies conduct it well, not taking too much damage from it, though some get their cameras and radios fried, which makes Staren have to start shouting commands verbally. The concrete construct's kanobo attracts the lightning, possibly starting to melt -- when lightning hits its body, chunks get blown out -- this will probably eventually take it down. The cases keep their distance. They're robots, not golems, and lightning could seriously screw them up.