Life's Just A Drag(on) (IC)

[Quinn]

February 28, 2011

12:00 Noon

Weather: Warm, sunny.

It was a nice quiet day in the downtown area of Freedom City. The roads were packed with cars, people coming and going from their work or homes to their homes or work. The sun was shining, the clouds were fluffy and white. Some resolute bits of snow still hung on here and there, but the grass was making it's comeback with a vengeance. A buisnessman in a fine suit stood ordering a hot dog from a stand, making small-talk like he did every day with the owner. His eyes idly looked up, then froze. He dropped his hot dog, as an earsplitting roar filled the air, a huge winged silhouette moving between the great glass buildings.

Impossibly, improbably...a dragon landed upon the top of one of the larger buildings, peering down upon the small people down below. It's great golden eyes blinked. Then it roared again, and let rip with a gout of flame in the air before leaping off and diving towards the streets. The pedestrians scattered as globs of flaming dragon spit began to crater the streets. It landed on the pavement, whipping it's tail left and right and sweeping vehicles off the road, turning it's head left and right as it searched the crowd.

Without warning, it lashed out with a claw, closing it around a woman who screeched in terror, too slow to avoid it's grasp. Holding her, the great beast took wing again, it's takeoff kicking up a wind that knocked over anyone close and overturned any nearby vehicles. The woman screamed for help as the monster flew towards one of the larger skyscrapers...

[Dariusprime]

Mona zoomed over the open ocean, kicking up a tremendous wake. She loved little over-sea jaunts. Just one of the bonuses of having supersonic flight capabilities. Not to much she picked up a few little cooking items for Viktor and some high-quality paints for her. The reinforced bag hung by one shoulder as she gained altitude. Flying at 40,000 mph had a very disturbing habit of kicking up some major waves near the shore.

Suddenly, she wished a tsunami was the least of her concern. As she free fell through a lovely white cloud, the first roar reached her. By the time her vision cleared, Godzilla was already perching or preparing to land, snack already in hand. Or claw.

"A dragon. Damn."

[Darksider42]

For Rift, it had so far been a rather boring day. He sighed as he flew across the city, continuing to keep his ears open for the first sign of trouble. He was getting close to giving up and heading back to the Claremont dorms when his concentration was broken by a sudden roar that left him clutching his ears in agony. What in sweet Black Sabbath was that!? His brain didn't bother questioning that sudden line in his mind when he saw a mass of hard scales and a screaming woman flying past him. "...OK, now thats something new." He muttered in disbelief as he watched the mythical reptile was making a course towards one of the skyscrapers. "Well, sure as hell can't let him fly around. Especially when he is grabbing people off the street." He continued to mumble as he unslung his guitar and started making his way towards the beast. At a safe distance until he knew what he was going to do anyway.

[Quinn]

Lazarus tore through the streets in hot pursuit, Push's eyes focused on the flying lizard several hundred meters overhead. He'd just been out for a ride, letting Lazarus stretch it's tires, maybe check out this new sandwich place a few blocks over, then he sees this thing flying out of a bank of clouds. What in the name of all the deities up above was a flying lizard doing around here?

"Just once! Just once I'd like to go out, and not end up chasing something that shouldn't, by all rights, exist! Just once!"

He yelled his irritation to the air, wrenching the handlebars so the bike screeched down yet another street. As he turned the next corner, he hit the brakes hard, and stared at a long line of traffic in his way.

". . .Oh, come on!"

[GranspearZX]

Marcus didn't really expect what he was seeing. For a while, he wondered why traffic was so backed up, and then he heard the roar. Even then, he didn't believe it completely until he got out of his car and looked up at the massive dragon.

"...you're kidding."

With traffic the way it was and people fleeing the scene and abandoning their vehicles, no one would notice the teenager running towards the mayhem instead of away from it, shifting forms mid-stride. Getting around by leaping between cars was something he'd gotten a lot of practice at, eyes up as he bounded from one hood to another. Where the hell did a DRAGON come from?!

[Quinn]

The monster alighted on the top of one of the largest skyscrapers, and it curled up on the roof. The heroes lost sight of the young lady, but judging by the sounds of the screams for help, she was still alright. Turning, it grasped the edges of the roof in it's claws and looked down. The heroes could see it's eyes focus in on them, being the only ones running towards the scene rather than away. With a glint of cunning in it's bestial eyes, it began firing globs of fire from it's maw, raining shots down upon them. As they connected with the pavement around the heroes, they scorched and burned, a couple even hitting nearby empty cars and causing them to explode.

[GranspearZX]

Arc had read too many books, expecting a stream of fire rather than multiple shots. He skidded to a halt and suddenly switched directions, backfiipping onto the hood of a car as a fireball slammed into the pavement where he would have been standing. "Oh, I'm gonna make a HANDBAG out of you, lizard," Arc muttered, eyes narrowed as he took another prodigious leap, right over the flaming asphalt and into a full sprint for the building, zig-zagging his way around even more ignited debris. He couldn't fly and he certainly wasn't going to climb the building when there were perfectly good stairs to take. The woman's screaming was a definite motivator on top of everything else...

[Darksider42]

Rift floated there wide eyed as a mass of flaming dragon spit was heading towards him. With a very quick strum of his guitar strings, he managed to blast himself upwards and out of the way before he was roasted alive. His shoes did feel uncomfortably warm just behind so close for a second near the flames though. "That would he a huge Handbag you are planning on making!" Rift shouted down below just before he was surrounded by his Sound Barrier. He looked back at the Scaled monstrosity looming before him on the skyscraper. ...Should have brought a camera. That thing does look pretty awesome.

[Dariusprime]

Fulcrum was just as surprised as the others by the flaming spit wads instead of cone breath. Not to mention how fast the balls of fire flew! Thankfully her natural resilience kicked in, leaving only a slight, slimy residue all over her costume. Unfortunately, her non-Morphic bag wasn't so lucky, and the carrying strap burned almost instantly.

Well enough, all considering. As she zoomed for the monstrosity, she dropped pack on a rooftop and hovered up next to Rift. Not like it mattered if they were close or not, having balls of dragon fire instead of breathing it. She glanced to Rift and nodded in greeting, "Hostage."

"Alright, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. Surrender now and hand over the woman," she addressed the massive beast.

[Quinn]

The monster stared at Fulcrum, bestial eyes meeting hers. For all the effect her words had, she might as well had been talking to a brick wall. With speed surprising for a creature of the dragon's size, it seemed to lunge forward, and both Fulcrum and Rift had the distinctly unpleasant sensation of staring into a gaping maw full of razor-sharp teeth and a fiery glow from deep within it's gullet...

And was promptly nailed in the side by what could only be described as a bolt of pure energy, slamming into it's head with a truly remarkable amount of force. While it seemed uninjured, it's head was jolted to the side as a gout of flame erupted harmlessly into the air, and a loud whoop came from above the heroes. Zooming by on what appeared to be a flying cycle that would make any spy movie hero envious, Push's coat and scarf whipped up behind him as he swooped around them and over.

"Hah! I love these new upgrades! No more traffic!"

[Darksider42]

Rift cringed as he covered his ears. His own enhanced hearing experiencing a close up roar from a dragon would be agonizing if he hadn't diverted some of the sound away from him. He was ready to move the hell out of the way before he would be covered in a torrent of fire...

...When Push appeared and diverted the monsters breath away with a well aimed shot. "Thanks man!" Rift shouted as Push flew past on his motorcycle. He made a mental note to make one of those at one point. He kicked himself up into the air and flew above the giant monster of myth. He quickly strummed a note and sent a blast of sound directly at the Dragons eye. No way could Rift penetrate that mass of scales directly.

[Dariusprime]

Fulcrum's eyes went wide as the beast lunged at them. Her instinctive response was to push Rift out of the way. After all she could take the fireball, or if unlucky, the snapping jaws of the beast. Rift she was unsure of and didn't want to see unduly injured. Thankfully her push proved unneeded as another Push intercepted the attack!

"Alright!" she yelled to Push, accentuated by a thumbs up, as she recovered from the close call. As Rift zoomed up to the beast's face, Fulcrum wound up and launched herself forward, zipping around the dragon's chest at hypersonic speeds. For a second or two that appeared to be the extent of her tactic until a thunderous BOOM! echoed from under its' shoulder, causing the scales and muscle to shudder from the impact.

Where was Fulcrum? Long gone perhaps. Disappeared into the maze of skyscrapers, circling around to see if the next step of her plan would see fruition. The arm she hit: the one holding the hostage. With luck the numbed arm would release the victim and she could pick her up on the return.

[Quinn]

A deafening screech of pain filled the air as the dragon's arm buckled and was hurled back by the impact. The crack of bone was audible as the strike struck home, and for a moment, where the heroine had struck her mighty blow seemed to...shift, but only momentarily. As for the hostage, she screamed in horror as the claw opened up while in mid-motion, and the young lady went flying through the air over the building's edge!

A blur of chrome, black, gold, and scarf went speeding by Rift, racing to beat the clock towards the hostage...

[Darksider42]

OK, Think. Flying motorcycle guy seems to be close to getting the girl. Fulcrum has the Dragon on the ropes...Lets hope I can soften him up a little mo- His thoughts were interrupted as he quickly noticed the wound of the dragon. He was pretty sure Biology did not work that way. Then again, the way most heroes work shouldn't either, at least on the surface. What I wouldn't give to have a magic expert here. He thought as he flew forward until he was floating a foot or more above the mythical monstrosity's head. He focused his mind, taking the roar that still echoed through the air, any ambient sound his ears could pick up and combined it all with yet another blast of sound right into the beasts open maw. "Shut up already!" Starting to give me a headache

[Dariusprime]

The living missile zoomed among the skyscrapers, banking around to intercept the hostage. She nodded to herself at seeing the hostage's release. Just as planned. Diving in to catch, Fulcrum realized the hero with the motorcycle (the coolest she'd ever seen!) closed for the woman as well. A sharp climb brought her up and around the dragon once more. Last thing they needed was a mid-air collision.

"Wow! That's not normal!" came the shock as Fulcrum noticed the bizarre property of the wound. Suddenly she was very glad for returning to the beast. "We'd better move this out of downtown!" she exclaimed to Rift before diving down dragon's back.

Wrapping two great arms around the tail, she threw all of her might into a tremendous pull, bodily dragging the dragon off the roof and out towards the bay! The mass of the monstrous thing made for slow going. She hoped she could pick up speed and clear the civvies before it regained composure!

"$%#@ you're heavy!"

[Quinn]

The dragon remained dazed, taking a weak swipe with it's paw as Fulcrum hauled and tugged it into the air. Soon it was dangling beneath her as she struggled, but it didn't look as if it would remain that way for long...

In the meantime, Push swept his bike down and under, slowing down and swooping up just in time to catch the lady in his arms. He turned his head towards Rift, pumping his fist in a victory sign, with a wide grin the sonic controller could see even from that altitude, and drove the flying cycle downwards towards the ground.

[GranspearZX]

Arcturus couldn't be sure what was going on. Neither could anyone around him really; the fact that he was running TOWARDS the danger rather than away from it was shocking enough. Compounded onto that was the fact that it was a huge bear doing the running--and saying 'excuse me' while doing it. Rather than slow down for the door leading to the stairs, the shapeshifter lowered his shoulder and launched his bulk into the door, bursting it right off its hinges. Without missing a beat, he launched himself up the stairwell.

He felt the building shake more than once as he leaped up the stairs. Running would have been tiring, even with his increased endurance, but making prodigious jumps seemed like a far better use of his energy. It was something he'd only briefly tested during his 'skill assessment' upon entering Claremont. Despite his massive size, Arcturus was surprisingly agile, though he could definitely start to feel a faint ache in his legs as the climb went on... At this rate, it'll be over before I get up there. Times like this, flyin' wouldn't be such a bad idea...

When he arrived at the top, the door do the roof was locked--a problem quickly solved by taking the knob in hand and driving his shoulder into the door. Three good shoves later and the padlock snapped off and the door swung open, giving the bear a full view of the hostage-less dragon, with Fulcrum snaring it by the tail and preparing to toss it off the roof entirely.

"...holy hell."