olopi

“Alright. My base it is, then. “ With only a moment’s notice, the thrusters keeping the armour midair stopped, making it (and thus Diamondlight) drop down, picking up again to propel them northwards. She seemed to meet Auguste’s request as the altitude dropped ever so slightly throughout the flight, until the two once more reached an urban area. Probably Basel, although Auguste wasn’t entirely sure. First she rose up higher, once more creating a fair bit of distance between her and the ground. Then, shortly afterwards, she once more shut off her thrusters, dropping from the sky quite quickly and only burning to avoid a crash shortly before hitting the ground, not the most comfortable of experiences. They landed in front of what appeared to be one of the many warehouses in the city, probably holding some goods that would be delivered to the cargo harbour. “Go inside and immediately take the first door to your right, then go down into the cellar. From there follow the lights. “ “I need to take a different entrance, I should be there shortly though.”

First of all, Hakim needed to catch his breath. Now he was away from prying eyes so at least he could do that. Running really wasn’t his forte, perhaps it was time to look into that reduced gym membership cost WestRock offered. Assuming he could survive this day. Which still wasn’t all that certain. He turned to face Noose, sounding somewhat determined. “Now? Well, now I get to dispel a curse spoken out by a culture that was really, really good at making them annoying. “ Then, he switched to something more relaxed. “You don’t happen to have the name of the guy-slash-people responsible for this, do you?”

She flew upwards for what Auguste presumed was about 20 seconds, reaching quite a height in the meantime. They’d reached the height where people were only visible in groups, high enough that Auguste really didn’t want to slip at this point. Which was easy enough, the armour seemed to have been designed around somebody holding on. The woman controlling the armour didn’t respond to any of Auguste’s jokes, but she did humour him enough to respond to his question. “If my assumption is right, somewhere off the grid. I’ve got a place but getting there will take a bit of time. If you’ve got a suggestion, go ahead.”

Dex: 1d20+1 8 He's slow, but apparently slightly faster!

Judging by the armor’s slight head tilt, the woman was not amused. “This really isn’t the time. I’ll carry you, then.” Without hesitation she grabbed Auguste with her shield arm, the shield apparently didn’t need to be gripped to stay connected. She was careful about how she did it, but judging by her grip, she could exert quite a force if she wanted. “You’ll want to grab on properly, makes this next part a lot more comfortable.” And with that, she lifted off, flying pretty much straight upwards for a bit.

She sounded quite stressed, eager to get to the point. “This isn’t over yet. There wouldn’t just be one, and any second we spend out here we’re in serious danger. I’ll explain once we’re not. Do you have some way to fly? “ All the while, she was turning her head, probably scanning the nearby rooftops. Below her, the crowd had calmed down somewhat, panic at this point turning into surprise at seeing what quite clearly was two metahumans in one place. Something that Auguste was pretty sure hadn’t happened in public for quite a while. Some were holding up their phones to take pictures. From what Auguste could tell, from this height and while being obscured by the somewhat bulky armour, his face probably wouldn’t make it onto the videos, for better or worse.

If Noose was trying to get back through the portal, that meant something. Probably that he couldn’t really do his job on the other side. Which was exactly what Hakim had hoped. Of course, leaving a murderous ghost unattended in the middle of nowhere wasn’t the best idea either. So, really, he had to get through the portal and close it behind him before Noose did. And that meant running, because Sha’ir had to concentrate at least somewhat on keeping the portal open, no capacity to also augment his movement. So, he broke out into a sprint, directly towards the portal, all other caution thrown into the wind. He hated this. He wasn’t a sprinter. Or a runner at all, really. Especially not when tangled up in layer upon layer of magic. But perhaps he’d be quick enough….

Bonfire (24) Hot Shot (24) Barrier (1) Praetorians: The Eden Program (1) Bird of Arms (None) None Sha'ir the Spellsmith (9) Hung From the Neck (9) GM (9) The Cretan Connection (6) Freedom of Information (3) Allocation: 24 posts from Bonfire who is maxed to BoA GM posts: 1 to BoA the remaining ones to Sha'ir Ref point to Barrier.

Auguste summoning his weapons got an immediate response, as the suit (was it a robot or was it being piloted by a person?), raised its weapons too, holding up its shield towards him. It too was a defensive posture, but one that could strike forward at any point. “A sniper?” The woman was clearly surprised to hear, it was quite an outrageous to claim there was a sniper operating in the middle of a city in broad daylight, after all. But a quick glance to the side, towards the unconscious body, showed that Auguste was not lying. “This is bad. This is really, really bad.” At this point, her panic was quite obvious. “We need to get out of here immediately. Can’t waste any time, I’ll explain on the way. “ “Let’s go.”

Concentration: 1d20+14 19

Toughness: 1d20+10 20 And that's a Daze!

Well, that had worked. Somewhat. Not really. Who knew what was out there. But lower population density probably meant less people to shoot, right? It still only delayed the problem, but for now that was probably the best Hakim could hope for. There had to be some way of dealing with this Noose guy. These curses were annoying, but there had to be some sort of condition on them, right? He’d just have to find it. Of course, these were all concerns that assumed he survived his current encounter. Which became a bit more doubtful as Noose’s bullet pulled some magic tricks of its own, breaking Sha’ir’s Forcefield and actually hitting him. It had been slowed down a fair bit, but it still hurt. This didn’t look good.

GM Bonfire seemed somewhat surprised at leviathan’s acucsations, if latter was reading his body’s signals correctly. Which wasn’t quite that easy without any facial expression to go on. “Hm, hadn’t considered that before. But now that you mention it, you’ve got a point. One sec….” He took out both of his phones, immediately taking out their batteries. “Probably a bit late for that now, but it might buy us some additional time. If she was tracking the phone, we gotta hurry, so let’s get moving and I’ll get you what you need to work on this.” Roughly 20 minutes later, Leviathan’s Lair Travelling back to the underwater HQ was simple enough, getting to water form the airport was slightly more difficult than from most of FC, but fortunately it was late enough that running along the streets didn’t cause much of an uproar. “Alright, now let’s see what we … uh, you I guess … can do about this entire thing.”

Standard Action: opening Teleport 7 (Extras: Accurate, Portal; Feats: Change Direction, Change Velocity; Progression 3 (Size); Flaws: Action (Standard to Open(-2))) [26/26PP] to some uninhabited area (forest, a farm, something along those lines)n outside town, behind Noose Then readjusting the VP to a Trip 8 (Feats: Improved Trip, Accurate 3; Flaws: Range (Touch)) [Wind] to attempt to knock him into the Portal. Using a HP to Surge for this, of course! Attack: 1d20+12 28 I'll assume that hits, so if he's not immune here's the opposed power roll: Power Check: 1d20+8 16 he goes against that with the lower of his str/dex

Somehow that worked both better, and worse, than expected. On one hand, Sha’ir had actually managed to close the distance and get a hit in. On the other, it really didn’t seem to do much. In fact, it didn’t really do anything. And going by what Noose told him, which of course was likely to be a bluff (much like Sha’ir’s entire existence), this approach wouldn’t work too well long-term. At least it meant he was pointing his gun at somebody who could take it. This time, he was expecting it and could knock the bullet out of the way with a quick mage-hand, thus neglecting any chance of additional strain on his forcefield. But he had to be proactive…. As it stood, he couldn’t fight this guy forever. The second he’d take his attention off of him, Noose would go around murdering people again. Perhaps there was a way, as something crossed Hakim’s mind… His left hand moved in a circle, creating a rift in space – a portal - behind Noose. It was the normal portal that Sha’ir used most of the time, an inky blackness with green energy dissipating at the edge. “Speaking of knocking, catch!” With that, he pushed forwards his right hand, and along with it, a wind blast. If everything went according to plan, that would push Noose right into the portal, and thus away from any area where he could do real damage. Of course, only if everything went according to plan.

A glowing ladder suddenly appearing out of nowhere certainly didn’t calm the crowd down. While the panic was more lingering than imminent now, people still backed off hastily when they saw the ladder appear, while Auguste could hear some unspecific yelling behind him. Either way he climbed up the ladder at a rapid pace, soon standing next to the sniper who was now slumped onto the ground fully, knocked out and probably staying that way for at least some time longer. He was wearing what appeared to be quite specialized gear. Not military issue, but some sort of High-tech that Auguste hadn’t really seen before. He could only get a glace at the rifle when something else required his attention. He could see a flash off in the distance, and by the time he’d turned around, it was already quite close to him. A suit of metal armour at about his height, holding a spear and a shield with the swiss flag painted onto it, with a red cape to top it off. Then, a female voice addressed Auguste in German. “[What is your purpose here?]

Weaving through the crowd was not easy as many ran quite wrecklessly, probably too concerned for their lives to try and watch out for others. Of course, being invisible didn’t help, and multiple times somebody lightly bumped into Auguste. It didn’t slow him down, but it probably left some people quite confused. Getting up on the roof would prove to be more of a challenge, however. There wasn’t any conveniently placed ladder or something similar, from what Auguste could tell from an on-the-fly assessment, there were two options. He could either attempt to climb the distance, which, with the various windows and other things to hold on would probably be doable if he was careful, or he could attempt to make his way up through the building. Which did include getting into a locked building and some additional trespassing.

Alright, using the VP again (I know, how horrible!) This does mean that he gives up the Affects Insubstantial on the Snare though! Conjuring a Spear: Damage 9 (Feats: Accurate 3, Affects Insubstantial 2) (piercing) [14/15PP] and attacking (with +11 in total) Attack: 1d20+11 31 Huh, that's a crit. Assuming that hits, I'll take Added Effect: Snare 0 to represent him trying to grab the rope and tie Noose up again.

Rope, eh? He probably had some emotions related to that. Cause of death and all, that made sense. Chances were most people would be quite upset by whatever killed then. And while it wasn’t exactly effective, it did draw his attention. And his wrath. And getting hit explained a lot. Whatever gun he was using, it wasn’t one of his contemporaries. That thing packed enough of a punch to seriously strain Sha’ir’s forcefield. The way Noose shot did give Hakim an idea however… The lasso didn’t work, clearly. And at this range, Noose had the advantage. But he didn’t seem like the fastest of people. Sure, Sha’ir wasn’t either, but he wasn’t a rotting corpse. He slowly walked towards Noose, holding his right hand out into a small portal he’d just created, and drawing a shot spear from it. Then, he launched himself forward, into melee range. The spear would find its target. That was when he realized the police were still shooting at Noose. Ah well, more scratches…

Toughness Save: 1d20+10 27 Makes it

Time was of the essence. Sha’ir couldn’t spend it dealing with the police. They couldn’t help and it didn’t really fit the image he saw himself envisioning. Maybe he was stressing that second part too much in his decision making, but it meant not being recognized as who he really was. “A vengeful spirit, one who kills those who have killed. I am on it.” With that, he walked away from the police, following Creek. “I can, and I will. “ A few adjustments needed to be made to the Bindings of Baluur. It was a nice and simple spell, so those were usually simple enough. Grab the part of the Sprengler Proton that affected ghosts, pluck it into the Bindings. Add in the Kid’s Lasso for that proper *spazazz*, and hope the three didn’t have some sort of unintentional interaction. And then, he just had to throw the lasso and not miss…

Using the VP to add Affects Insub 2 and Precise 2 on AP: Snare 10 (Feats: Reversible, Tether, Obscures Senses (Visual, Auditory, Mental)) [26/26PP] and then attacking: Attack: 1d20+10 26

Vengeful spirit, yeah. Quite vengeful, at this point Hakim was actually sick inside. Dealing with death had never been his strongsuit, and he’d just been a witness to multiple murders. Creek, or Noose, he supposed, had to be stopped. Immediately, and with whatever Sha’ir could draw upon. There were onlookers, but at this point it was about damage reduction. Perhaps he could coax Noose a bit. And if not, he could always bust out the bigger spells. One of the old masters must’ve had to deal with these kinds of ghosts before, there had to be some American in the early 1900s who came up with something. But for now, classical. Maybe it’d be enough, even if Hakim doubted it. “Well, here I stand. And as I see it, we’re in a nice empty street here.” A spectral, translucent green cowboy hat began to manifest on Sha’ir’s head, as did a holster on his side. “It’s approximately noon, so let’s settle this the traditional way.”

The reaction was immediate. Before the laser had even hit the sniper, there was already mass panic at the plaza. Seeing powers be used in real life was still an absolute rarity in Switzerland, which featured next to no metahuman activity. What this meant, mainly, was that as soon as people saw something happening, they ran. Some pulled out their phones, but most ran for cover. Of course, in a crowd like that, in a comparably tight area full of chairs, that meant chaos. And people falling, stumbling over one another. There were a few people there, recording the scene with their phones. As far as Auguste could tell, none had managed to capture him directly, only the laser and the ensuing panic. At the very least, the laser had done its job. The sniper attempted to dodge but couldn’t, and his current position suggested that it had probably been powerful enough to knock him out temporarily.

That his, thus knocking the guy out