Poughkeepsie Attacks!!!: Team Smith Brothers

[gone_byebye]

The Smith Brothers were once upon a time considered the Beards Who Made Poughkeepsie Famous. In many a world, their old factory has long since shut down and their product is now manufactured in Chicago. Not so here; the same factory continues to operate, churning out lozenges by the gross.

Or they do during the day, anyway. Tonight the place is crawling with security. Who knew that non-prescription cough drops needed so many guardians?

Comments

[precocioustilda.livejournal.com]

...See icon.

"Define not good," she says around the oopsface.

[stilljustandrew]

Not the tripwire one, that one --

*He points.*

It's a power-circle, it's supposed to divert energy along particular lines, like if you wanted to gather all the local ambient energy towards one purpose? Except he hasn't got it grounded anywhere I can see -- that diagram looks like it would just send the mojo ricocheting in a totally random direction --

*His voice may be getting just a tiny bit louder.*

[precocioustilda.livejournal.com]

"...Will it stop working if I blow it up?" is the first question she thinks to ask, raising a finger to her lips at the same time because the last thing they need is for both of them to attract attention needlessly.

[stilljustandrew]

I can't -- *He catches her quieting gesture and subsides back to the barely audible whisper.* I can't tell. It's totally nonstandard. Whoever designed that circle was either a complete ignoramus or an absolute master.

They haven't finished it yet, maybe we should just, I don't know ... distract them?

[gone_byebye]

That may not be necessary, if the amorphous shape slowly gorbling its way out of the shadows is anything to go by. The PKE arcs found a place to earth themselves when the tripwire circle went off- the first vats of cough drop mixture to be poured out on the morrow, waiting silently in lidded slumber. Spirit energy pouring through such a medium has interesting effects, like creating a drive to come together with more of the same substance and really cut loose on everything in sight.

"Hey, Will," says one of the men kneeling on the floor to the other, "is it just me, or do you suddenly smell a lot more cherry in the air?"

"Huh?" says Will.

"GRAAAR," says the cough drop monster.

[precocioustilda.livejournal.com]

"...Really," Matilda comments, staring, "I'm not sure whether to let them be distracted by that or start throwing fireworks. The creature seems to have impeccable timing for a blob of animated cough remedy."

[stilljustandrew]

*Andrew's staring too.*

... yeah that'll work.

[gone_byebye]

There's a small clatter as Will's paintbrush falls to the ground, followed by his written instructions. Of course, Andrew might not hear it over the "AIIIIIGH!" that Will's companion lets out. Or over the cough drop blob monster's second mighty ROAR, or the oozing sounds it makes as it shluckshluckshlucks towards them at a disconcerting clip- anyway, you get the picture. The two men are running in the space of heartbeats as the cough drop monster comes at them.

It bellows again and whips a couple of pseudopods this way and that in search of other presences. One of them seems to be growing upwards, possibly to get a better look at high places?

[precocioustilda.livejournal.com]

Matilda yeep!s.

And, because she's sensible that way, tugs on Andrew's arm to get them both out of sight of the door.

Also, she's going to be looking for a way down off that roof that doesn't go through the building, now. All things considered she'd rather be solidly on the ground if and when she starts letting loose with the explosives.

"I think we had best get to ground level," she explains lest Andrew not follow this train of thought. "In case I need to blow things up, and one of those things happens to end up being this building."

[stilljustandrew]

Right there with you--

*He's looking for a fire escape.*

[gone_byebye]

And he finds one- old, and a bit rickety, but still up to code and eminently capable of supporting one person at a time.

Which is good, because the pseudopods are shlucking swiftly towards the stairs.

[precocioustilda.livejournal.com]

Tilda thinks quickly. It's a talent.

"You first," she says, motioning to the ladder. "In case I need to throw things at the medicine monster."

Of the two of them, Matilda surmises she makes the better rearguard.

[stilljustandrew]

*He shakes his head.* You first. Always send the lightest member of the party first to cross a rickety structure. And if I get stuck up here you can levitate me down --

*As he speaks, he's rummaging in his coat's capacious pockets.*

[precocioustilda.livejournal.com]

"Right."

Finding his logic acceptable, she nods and starts for the fire escape.

[stilljustandrew]

*Tranq gun, no. Smoke pellets, no. Crossbow, no. Holy water ... eh, it's worth a try, even if it only makes the thing stickier.*

*Andrew stands braced at the top of the fire escape, waiting to see if the thing will come for them.*

[precocioustilda.livejournal.com]

Matilda is a six-year-old girl climbing down a ladder in a hurry. It's not much more than three-quarters of a minute before she thumps to the ground and peers anxiously up at Andrew. She will be highly put out if it turns out she should've stayed back to guard him after all.

[stilljustandrew]

*He's dividing his attention unevenly between the door and the ladder, and sees the gelatinous red pseudopod questing around the doorframe with Matilda still a few feet from the bottom.*

Go, go, go --

*He throws down the glass bottle of holy water just in front of the door; it shatters very satisfactorily, spraying glass and water everywhere, just as Matilda thumps to the ground.*

*He swings himself over the edge of the ladder, and pauses for just a split second to gauge the effects of the holy water, if any.*

[gone_byebye]

There's a little hissing, a little splurting- and then the pseudopod buds off a sizable sphere of its own mass and the holy water. The sphere is pushed away by the rest of the creature's oozy central structure, toppling to the ground below.

Then the mass of medicine resumes its former course.

[stilljustandrew]

*Andrew stares, and it cannot be denied that it's a stare of fascination.*

Wow. Like a lizard tail!

*...Possibly he isn't retreating as fast as he should, in the face of the common geek frailty of Oh Hey Look At That.*

[precocioustilda.livejournal.com]

All right - point the first: cast a worried glance to the dropped blob to make sure it really isn't moving. (It's not. Good.)

Point the second: whatever's happening up there, get Andrew the heck away from it.

He'll find himself being lifted as though by an invisible hand and thrown towards the ground, making the same descent as Tilda did only about six feet further out from the building and about ten times faster.

It's perfectly safe, of course. Matilda's control is exacting; when his feet are a few inches from the ground he halts abruptly and drifts the rest of the way with measured gentleness.

[stilljustandrew]

*Nobody gave Andrew the memo about it being perfectly safe!*

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...

[precocioustilda.livejournal.com]

"Oh, hush," she says exasperatedly, patting him on the elbow. "You're fine."

[gone_byebye]

The blob of oozy gelatinous cough mess had been aiming for anything warm and moving before. Andrew just moved a whole lot, and he's decidedly warmer than his environment.

One pseudopod that had been extended to search tuuuuuuuuuuuuurns to follow the arc of Andrew's screaming flight, and then the whole mass lunges up as prelude to gorbling its way down the fire escape towards the landing point.

[stilljustandrew]

*Andrew stopped screaming when his fall slowed; he's trying to catch his breath now.*

Would you say we've got what we came here for and running for it might be advisable?

[precocioustilda.livejournal.com]

"Eminently," she agrees, casting a glance to the cough drop monster.

Quarter-second pause.

"--Though possibly I should blow it up a little bit first, so it has a tougher time following us?"

It's amazing how rapidly she can deliver such long-winded sentences.