New York In The Time Of Monsters: Chelsea Piers

[gone_byebye]

Ray and the troupe on the West Side Highway managed to force the monsters' mastermind to show herself. Dr. Mary Mezga of the Museum of Natural History has been a very, very naughty scientist, it seems. Conjuring the dead into life is NOT GOOD SCIENCE AT ALL. Especially not when it involves modern-day humans getting hunted down like rodentia.

It's a bit worse when you know the motive...

At any rate, Ray caught her announcing her final target and broadcast it to the NYPD. Anyone with a portable radio on them knows, now, exactly where the crazy lady and her animals are headed: to the entertainment complex at 24th Street and the river, Chelsea Piers.

Comments

[sighteddancer.livejournal.com]

Cre'hktdi balances for a moment, taking in the scene; the pyode amedha she may not hunt, the potential prey she may, the Unblooded from the bar.

Spoon shifts, and she crouches a little to lessen the drop and give him her armor to grip as he descends, moving in a businesslike manner towards the prey he's chosen; then she moves for higher ground. She wishes to get a better idea of the weak points of the very heavy creatures.

[there-is-a-me.livejournal.com]

Spoon, down from his Christine-back-ride, starts heading for the nearest auroch.

And is accosted by an EMT who does not like the bloody-rag-with-burnt-meat-smell that is his right arm. "Get off! There are COWS out there, woman! COWS! Great, bloody, giant, prehistoric COWS!"

[gone_byebye]

Well, yes, he's screaming, but the thing is? This is an EMT in New York City. They get screamers like this all the time. "Sir," says the woman without much surprise, "calm down. Sir. SIR. Either CALM DOWN THIS INSTANT or I'll have to do something for your own- oh hell."

Cue rather large injection of awfully strong tranquilizers. It's the dose they use for suspected PCP cases.

[there-is-a-me.livejournal.com]

Spoon...falls over. Because part of a werewolf metabolism means that things hit you hard, too.

The EMT blinks down at him in surprise, "It wasn't supposed to work quite that fa..."

And Spoon sits up again, "You sedated me!" he says in a wounded tone.

"Or wear off that fast! Sir, just sit still and let me deal with your injury."

He sits while the action goes on around him, but he's not quiet about it.

[evil_koala_626]

Under normal circumstances, Stitch was a fan of high speed vehicular mayhem. Months of living with a family who enjoyed surfing had likewise lessened his displeasure at getting wet. Careening down the a choppy river on an unfamiliar vessel being piloted by an obvious novice? Not his idea of a good time. Stitch had spent the majority of the trip clutching gunwhale, black eyes the size of dinner plates in an expression of horror.

And he had lost his hat. It had been jarred loose at some point and now rested at the rivers silty bottom. Or, given that this was the Hudson, there was a chance that it had already melted.

Wet, sore, and hatless Stitch sourly surveys the scene. Growling under his breath the entire time.

[gone_byebye]

"Stitch," Ray says, igniting his saber, "we need to get the car and the police through the line to drive the big grey one back to the river. Split up the other animals- knock them out or make them run into the river themselves."

Then he looks over to the other Ghostbusters, who're splitting up into groups along with some of the cops. Peter flips him a thumbs-up. "All right, guys," Ray says. "We're good. Let's bust some prehistoric heads!"

[calderon-crow.livejournal.com]

Tavi nods to Ray and pulls his sword from his side. He raises it high and stares at the animals before his voice thunders out. It's times like this that you can believe he'd stood against sixty thousand giant wolfmen and led an entire legion.

"CALDERON FOR ALERA!"

he bellows.

And then he moves.

[gone_byebye]

He'll be meeting with something eight foot high at the shoulder, with the sort of bones growing out of its nose and over its eyes that haven't seen daylight in uncounted ages of the world here. The sound of rumbling thunder fills the air as the beasts' front line charges- the cops have their guns, yes, but there's so very, VERY much bone to penetrate on any of these creatures that it's going to have to be a damned lucky shot to the eye or through hellishly thick hide.

Rhinos are modern nature's siege weapon. Titanotheres were the siege weapons of the world before man.

[sighteddancer.livejournal.com]

This is not how hunting is done. This is not how dueling is done. This is aliens running at a herd.

Cre'hktdi sort of follows along. Maybe they'll anger the most spirited creature and she can intercept and duel it while they're dealing with the others.

[gone_byebye]

The herd is running right back now, although animals being animals it's not a particularly unified run. Some of the animals are faster than others- such as the one, somewhat younger than the rest, that lengthens its stride to start running at the human who smelled, vaguely, of piglike things.

That would be Alex, for those of you who're playing along at home.

[jokerswildwest.livejournal.com]

Alex is grinning, that cocky little grin that he gets onto his face when he's about to do something that involves guns and possible explosions.

The guns come out, and Alex immediately recognizes the fact that he can make a run for the lone beast and try and get it taken out while he can.

This is however hampered by the fact that they have really thick skills, and it's not falling down like the smaller beast from earlier.

And when it runs into him full force, and knocks him back onto the ground, he manages to avoid getting run over, but man, that hurt.

Alex responds by emptying his clip into the beast and watching it dissolve a few feet away.

[gone_byebye]

He's lucky he got one of the younger ones. The older, bigger ones? They're destroying cars with the force of their attacks.

... they're not very bright.

Fortunately, the NYPD members have ranged weapons, as do the Ghostbusters. Winston and Egon and Peter are putting their proton packs to excellent use; the animals seem deathly afraid of the streams and are crashing into one another in their efforts to get away. It's not helping the aurochs line any, either. Those are letting out bellowing noises that relate to 'moo' in the way that a real pig's "GHWRAAAAARRNK" noise relates to "oink" and trying not to break their legs as they turn to flee.

In all of this there is a small problem. When the critter storm was spotted coming, they evacuated everyone from the Piers, including the kids of the high school alumni who were conducting their reunion on a boat out in the harbor. They thought they got everybody. They were wrong; one of the kids, a four-year-old Asian-looking girl, managed to hide in the complex so as to play in the ball pit alone. She's outside now- she was wandering along by the river's edge, but turned in the direction of all the chaos and noise.

The titanothere at the furthest edge of the line veers out of the way of a terrified aurochs. This draws off part of the line- well, by 'part' we mean 'a lot'- and the girl freezes in her tracks. When you are four, anything looks big.

Anything the size of THESE things looks even bigger.

Very shortly there is going to be a small child clinging for her life to the nearest lamppost and screaming at the top of her lungs.

[sighteddancer.livejournal.com]

Oh, for--why can these aliens not get out of the way properly? What mother is this careless of her offspring? But she understands this sort of thing cannot be predicted, and the careless parent has probably already learned her lesson just by the creature's vanishing. Christine kicks down a fence that was blocking an alley, cloaks and rushes towards the herd, swings up the lamppost--snatching up the child in her wake--and pauses atop it to fire a plasma bolt into the ground behind the separating line. That should get them out of the way.

Now she just has to find a nice, quiet, safe spot to pry the little alien off her mask. Christine grits her teeth, clacks her mandibles in a very patient manner despite her sensitive hearing, and tries to see over its hairy head.

[gone_byebye]

The plasma bolt was very effective! A chunk of the herd veers off from the rest, thinning the front lines. The cops approve!

The Winchesters might not, as there is a full-grown aurochs bull in the lead, headed straight for their position- and them's big. That's two thousand pounds of angry pot roast.

[gavemea_45]

There'd been enough time on the ride down from the terminal for Sam to hastily go through everything they have with them -- and also to scavenge a few other potentially-useful odds and ends from the ferry itself, in light of the kind of trouble they'd found when they first arrived.

He's glad of it now. Really glad. The Taurus pistol is one thing, but for something like this-- it's not big enough. He's not sure anything short of an elephant gun would be, unless they have something to give them the advantage.

There's a metallic clanking sound as Sam pulls a length of chain from the satchel and begins to swing it around in a looping circle, preparing for a throw.

"We're only gonna get one shot at this, Dean-- cover me!"

That's all the warning he's got time for, and with the next motion Sam sends the chain rattling through the air toward the bull's legs, aiming to tangle its feet and bring it down.

[hopeitsworthit]

The biggest advantage to working with someone for a really long time is you get to know how they think.

Which means that even before Sam starts yelling, Dean's reloading his shotgun and taking aim.

The first shot hits the bull before Sam's chain does, but the sudden loss of independent coordination in its front feet means that damn thing goes toppling over.

That's when Dean reloads and shoots it again.

It's gonna stop moving eventually.

Meanwhile there's other shit to take care of. He does spare a second to grin over at Sammy.

It was a good call.

[gone_byebye]

It topples, and its fall shakes the ground in its immediate vicinity very briefly- but then the flesh falls away in another shower of powdery bluegrey dust. That's happening all over the place, in fact, as the cops take the beasts down and the Ghostbusters drive the surviving animals back, forcing even the giant Belle to begin moving.

This doesn't please Dr. Mezga at all. Oh, no no no no no. "Terry!" she cries, pointing at one of the larger titanotheres. "I know you're better than this- SHOW ME WHAT YOU'RE MADE OF!"

Terry, who's already an extremely cranky titanothere, whose ears are ringing with gunshots and whose eyes are dazzled with too many moving targets, lowers his head and snorts.

And charges for Tavi, the nearest of the bedamned puny humans.

[calderon-crow.livejournal.com]

For someone who's supposed to be completely human, Tavi's moving awfully fast. Part of it is training, part of it is terror, part of it is irritation at his own slip up that keeps sending shooting pain from his hip to the rest of his body, and part of it is the gifts given to him by his connection with Kitai.

The gladius flashes out as he moves amongst the animals and while he's avoiding the fire, it's not so much a conscious thing as a lot of luck and an almost sixth sense that tells him when to move and when not to. He knows what happens to them now, so he makes adjustments in his style for it but...

He's doing some damage.

[gone_byebye]

He is indeed. The beasts that've already been injured, whether by gunfire or by crashing into one another, don't take much slashing. A man of Tavi's experience and Tavi's world knows where the great vessels run, and where the tendons are. Terry falls to the ground and dissolves into dust and bone. Other creatures don't die so swiftly, but it takes little more than a glancing gunshot wound or a scorch of atomic fire to push them over the edge.

It's not going well. Dr. Mezga's lips thin out; she looks out to the harbour, and spots a sizable boat bobbing uncertainly up and down. It's running out of fuel, but to dock here, now, would be suicide. It's just going to hover a little ways off from the dock in the hopes that the chaos will clear soon.

Mezga reaches into her pocket, pulls out a pair of binoculars, squints at the ship- and crows aloud. "Bastards!" she shouts. "I have you now- move it, Belle! Move move move MOVE!"

The Indricotherium turns with surprising grace and lumbers to the water's edge.

[evil_koala_626]

"Aggaba!"

The remains of the herd are being seen to by everyone else. No one appears to be paying attention to the strange lady or her giant pet... whatever that is.

Stitch rushes toward the Indricotherium, attempting to cut it off before it presumably escapes into the water.

[gone_byebye]

The Indricotherium stops before it reaches the water. It may not be able to see directly under its head, but it knows that SOMETHING was moving down there, and it doesn't want to get tripped up- so it stops.

"Dr. Mezga, what is it you want?" shouts Ray, who's displaying his usual truly sterling survival instincts and following Stitch.

"The same thing everyone who ever had to suffer at the hands of people who put more value on muscle and coordination than mind and study wants," Dr. Mezga answers. "To teach them all a lesson they'll never forget."

Her right hand flicks outward, two small brown fragments of something solid hitting the water and disappearing into the river's depths. She's making some very complicated gestures almost as soon as they leave her hand, despite the fact that now one or two of the police are shooting at her (and missing- all the sharpshooters in Manhattan were tied up at the UN or the Dalai Lama's thing in Central Park). "I abjure thee, o great beast of the Deep," she calls in a voice the people on the boat can hear, "obey my bidding! Or, to put it in terms all of YOU lot can understand-"

History! Show us again and again, how Nature responds to the folly of men!!"

And the river foams, and trembles, and shakes, as something huge begins to well up from the depths...


"Ohgod," Ray says as the muck-covered, serpentine, armored heads erupt in a shower of Hudson froth.

[hopeitsworthit]

"Dude. Blue Oyster Cult?"

Dean's looking pretty pissed right now.

"You did not just--"

Nevermind.

She's going down.

Some stuff just wasn't meant for use by evil villains intent on world domination by prehistoric mammals.

Like kickass rock music.

[evil_koala_626]

...

Well that's certainly unexpected.

The great beasts come to earth with a tooth rattling crash, Half resting on the ruined remains of the pier. After the spilt second's hesitation due to shock, the Indricotherium and its rider are forgotten. Stitch leaps forward and lands a punch squarely on one of the new arrivals' snouts.

[gone_byebye]

These beasts are Basilosaurus. They're ancestral whales, huge snakelike things, monsters of the deep a good sixty or seventy feet long, full of rage and tooth and awful magic.

Stitch is a scientific experiment by a mad genius who may be as crazy as Dr. Mezga.

"AYIIIIPE!" cries the Basilosaurus, thrashing frantically. Its flailing starts kicking up the Hudson's waters, throwing the docks into upheaval and sending waves out that give the boat a hell of a time staying upright. One more good punch from Stitch and it's likely to turn tail and run.

The other is another story. Ray's baiting that one, running back and forth in front of it with his saber, shouting at it about its utter failure to develop an organ of echolocation and its inferiority to a common dolphin and its primitively pathetic stubby little legs. "RAY!" shouts Peter. "Quit taunting the sea monster!"

Ray turns to see what Peter's talking about. The whale senses its opportunity and lunges with its jaws open-

"Daddy!" screams Ecto. There's a noise, as of something mechanical going to pieces and reforming itself in a matter of seconds.

And Ray is swept out of the monster whale's path by one of his suddenly-upright daughter's hands.

Observant ears will note that it's now Dr. Mezga's term to say, "Ohgod."

[calderon-crow.livejournal.com]

...Tavi will need lots of explanations.

For right now, though? Staring.