Re: Piracy on the Seven Skies (Sky Pirates IC Thread)

Senshuken Mon Oct 16, 2017 12:54 am

Shaking his head in order to get himself back into the here and now and refocusing after feeling his mind drift into the waters of memory, Apollo darted forward to scoop up the sack that Frisky was trying to drag along behind her... or at least help carry the damaged stone artifacts so that they could move faster!

Hopefully Purse Flower was intending to run with them because he wasn't sure if he could carry her and the stones at the same time again... and he really hoped that dress of hers didn't slow her down.

Dice Rolls:

**Paper Shadow** Mon Oct 16, 2017 5:14 pm

Mori does what he does best and, as soon as he identifies what's being unloaded from the jet-ships, legs it...

(Acrobatics Check: 6 (Roll) + 8 (Skill) = 14)

AleneShazam Tue Oct 17, 2017 2:20 am

"Is a broken artifact really worth slowing down? It's not like you're gonna get paid for a pile of rubble," Trigger muses out loud, before sighing and stepping up to the two attempting to carry it. She looks away from them uncomfortably as she pries her chest open, revealing the inky black emptiness within. "Come on. It should fit. Get it in there and let's go."

Preemptive Athletics:

Faege Tue Oct 17, 2017 3:20 am

"Damn, they're faster than I thought..." Vulcan growls, clicking his claws together in frustration. As he runs, he pulls down his mask, and exhales a stream of thick, black smoke - hopefully it'll disperse under the canopy and give them some cover to work with. "Everyone, stay together! They'll pick us off one by one if we split up!"

Pyrotechnics:

Acrobatics:

Espresso Thu Oct 19, 2017 5:22 am

Having crammed the sack into Trigger's storage, the group takes off, running through the forest. Mori and Purse Flower don't seem to be doing so well, the dense undergrove hindering their passage. However the rest make good speed, and Vulcan's smokescreen provides good cover as well.

As they run, though, Mori soon realizes he can hear panting and the rasping of breath from behind, and a quick look confirms that multiple armored ponies are loping through the forest, their gaits oddly lupine as they hound the rear of the group, snapping at Mori and Purse Flower with cast-iron jaws. The group still has a significant lead, but it's obvious they don't have the element of stealth on their side - this is going to be a race.

And unfortunately, the Black Sky ponies on their tail seem to have quite a bit of speed on their side. Slowly, but steadily, they start to gain on the group.

Senshuken Thu Oct 19, 2017 7:01 am

As they ran through the forest, Apollo glanced over his shoulder briefly at the sound of pursuit in order to get an idea of what was coming for them; It would seem that the Black Sky had decided to risk coming into the forest on foot in order to chase them like the rapid dogs that they were. They were gaining as well... They weren't going to outrun the bastards if things kept going the way they were.

If the circumstances had been any different, Apollo would have gladly charged the pursuit and slowed them down to try and buy time for the rest of the group to escape but there were a couple of factors stopping him. The first was that the people around him were currently professional associates at best and considering the business they were in weren't worth dying or worse for, but he had family at home counting on him as well... dying here simply wasn't an option.

...Could he live with himself through if he cut his losses and abandoned the slower members of the group to die through?

A plan quickly came to mind.

Taking a deep breath, he turned his jetpack on in order to lift off... and darted over to Trigger in order to grab her and fly straight upwards. The plan was to arch upwards and backwards in order to come down on the top of the lead pursuer (and hopefully break something) before flying forwards to rejoin the fleeing group... and hopefully leave a few 'presents' behind for em. "If you have anything left that explodes, now is the time!"

Actions and Dice rolls:

AleneShazam Thu Oct 19, 2017 2:00 pm

"Boy, do I?" Trigger grins as she's lifted up. She works quickly, rummaging around inside her and pulling out a large bundle of tied up dynamite. Lighting the fuse, she chucks it out at the incoming Black Sky pirates, cackling as she does so. "Happy birthday you ugly bastards!"

Faege Thu Oct 19, 2017 10:34 pm

As the black sky pirates gain on them, Vulcan grits his teeth angrily, before roaring out in desperation, "Black Sky! We are of other Skies, with no intentions but that of self-preservation! Why do you hound us? If you want something we possess, speak so we can negotiate!"

He hates negotiating with the scum of the Black Sky, but he hates dying even more. His scales crawl in disgust at his own words, but he'll do what he must to survive.

Persuasion for ceasefire:

Espresso Fri Oct 20, 2017 4:56 pm

The Black Sky hunter which Apollo targets crumples under the impact, but none of the other hunters even look at them as they continue to chase the party, swerving smoothly out of the way to avoid the cluster of dynamite Trigger throws out. The explosion catches the backmost few hunters, collapsing trees on them and pinning them to the forest floor. But still the hunters run, and now they're only a few meters behind the party - particularly Mori and Purse Flower, who're lagging behind.

The hunters don't seem to respond to Vulcan- they howl, with an almost animalistic savagery, and keep on their dogged pursuit, gnashing their teeth with rabid fury.

jaguargamma Fri Oct 20, 2017 5:45 pm

Frisky's horn lights up again, and eight stone discs form a ramp in the air in front of her. As she runs up the ramp, the lower discs circle around one by one to the top of the ramp, leveling it out into a flat path. As she continues to run, each stone continues to circle around to the front, creating a conveyor-belt effect to act as a sky bridge.

Once at her new vantage point, Frisky's horn brightens, and a ball of fire launches from it, sears through the air on a carefully-calculated trajectory, and explodes on the roots of a tree on the side of the trail, leading far enough ahead of the Huntress crew to land behind them when it falls.

As Frisky uses her unicorn magic to do all this, the pink covering her body seems to shrink, revealing more of her skeleton and internal organs.

**Paper Shadow** Mon Oct 23, 2017 9:15 pm

Almost tripping over winding roots and dense shrubbery for the last time, Mori dives his head into his satchel, pulling out his crystal-holding string, holding it high triumphantly until his body begins to turn translucent. With a laugh, he pulls himself off the ground, his wings and body ignoring any trees they collide with, and flies forward, still close to the ground, but completely unhindered by any obsticles in his way...

(Phase Step (1/2 Uses Remaining))

Espresso Tue Oct 24, 2017 8:29 pm

The fireball streaks forth from Frisky's horn, and Mori manages to grow intangible and fly ahead just in time to avoid the fiery bloom that blossoms out from the impact, which once again forces the hunters to scatter - but once again, not slow. If any of them fall, none of the others even spare a second look, continuing to hound the party with frightening intensity. One is on fire, but doesn't even flinch as it unyieldingly chases after the fleeing Huntress crew.

There's a scream suddenly, and a quick look reveals that Purse Flower has been pinned to the ground by one of the Black Sky pirates, her face planted firmly into the muddy floor as she shrieks and struggles to no avail.

To make things worse, there's a buzzing overhead, and suddenly the forest canopy is turned to swiss-cheese as metal shots blast through the dense tree and smash into the forest floor all around the party. It's perhaps only thanks to Vulcan's smokescreen that the party isn't riddled with bullet holes yet.

The hunters don't seem to react to Vulcan's demand - rather, they seem to not understand it, simply snarling and growling as they rush after the party. However, they do snarl the words, "Stone, stone, stone", over and over with guttural animalistic fury.

AleneShazam Tue Oct 24, 2017 9:58 pm

"They know we have it!" Trigger shouts at Frisky, who thus far has been the most adamant they take the stones along. "Who gives a shit about the damn rocks? Let's just dump them and run!"

Senshuken Tue Oct 24, 2017 11:24 pm

Hearing Purse Flower cry out in panic and pain seemed to make the world slow down for Apollo as instincts long ingrained started to take over. He had been willing to justify becoming a pirate for the greater good, but abandoning a mare to the monsters of the black sky? He... he couldn't do it.

Letting go of Trigger and trusting that the mare would be able to hit the ground running, he turned around and fired up the jetpack once more. His target? The black sky beast that had pinned down Purse Flower. He was tired of running...

Dice Rolls:

jaguargamma Fri Oct 27, 2017 12:30 am

But they might be important! Frisky is about to snap to Trigger...but then another voice cuts in.

"She's right, you know."

Frisky follows the sound to its source to find another Frisky Risk flying along beside her. In almost the same instant, this second Frisky loops around to the first Frisky's other side. The first Frisky is drifting toward the edge of her stepping-stone sky-bridge, so the second gives her a corrective bump back into the middle.

"Eyes forward," says the second Frisky. "Don't wantcha fallin' off."

The first Frisky takes a moment to get back into her rhythm before addressing the second again.

"I don't remember doing this after the Grandfather Timeclock."

The second Frisky chuckles and replies, "You haven't done it, yet. Or you are doing it now, but later..."

The other Frisky trails off in thought...then the sound of gunshots and explosions snaps her back to the present.

"Oh! Right! Stones! Yeah, let them have the stones. Even if the Black Sky does know what they are, they can't know any more about how they work than you do, right? Especially if they're all busted up like that."

"But..."

"Besides, if they are important artifacts, it wouldn't be like the Celestial Princess to not know about them and have a backup plan for retrieving them. Just let them go. They'll be fine."

Frisky (the present one) can't argue with that. She's worked in the Princess' arcane vaults, where the amount of contingency plans for every occasion was mind-boggling. Frisky's knack for boggling them back was about the only reason she wasn't banned from the archives, since it kept the archmages busy figuring out how to unboggle them and make them boggle-resistant to boggling from Equestria's more boggling bad-guy bogglers.

"Ugh! Fine!" Then she calls down to Trigger, "Do it!" Then back to her future self, "Any tips for what's coming up?"

Future Frisky shakes her head. "Sorry. Time paradoxes and all that. Besides that, I kinda bummed a ride with a couple wild stallions on a most excellent adventure, and I gotta go meet up with them before they take off without me. Catch ya later!"

And then Future Frisky veers off into the woods, shouting "PARTY ON, DUDES!" behind her as she disappears.

Present Frisky rolls her eyes at what just happened, and lines up on another tree with a fireball.

AleneShazam Sat Oct 28, 2017 1:16 pm

"Damn... idiot amateur, can't even let a pasty Canterlot noble bite the dust..." Trigger grits her teeth, and brakes, turning around to face the hunters - and Apollo. "Here! Take the damn stones! Leave us alone!"

Trigger unlatches her chest and reaches inside, pulling out the sack of rock shards and throwing it at the hunters.

Espresso Sun Nov 05, 2017 3:13 am

Apollo hits the pirate like a tonne of bricks, throwing the earth pony off of Purse Flower and slamming them into a tree. The armored hunter smashes into the wood with a sickening crunch, and something clearly breaks, spatters of blood leaking out from between the armored plates. But just as quickly as Apollo has attacked, a few of the other pirates converge on the griffon, one of them pausing to snag the sack before turning to join the others. A tree collapses with another fireball, blocking off the path.

Another volley of shots punch through the canopy. One of them passes through the intangible Mori, casting up a shower of dirt as it thuds into the forest floor. The others go wide of the party, but the buzzing seems closer - the jet-ships have homed in on the party, and are approaching.

(Roll initiative if you want to engage the pirates - otherwise make a round of athletics/acrobatics or do whatever to try and throw off the jets)

Senshuken Sun Nov 05, 2017 6:43 am

Prepared to stand and fight, Apollo simply growled at Purse Flower "Go! Now!" before turning his attention towards the attacking monsters. They had long given up the right to the name pony when they threw in their lot with Reaver and his ilk.

Actions and Dice rolls:

Faege Sun Nov 05, 2017 11:39 pm

"Idiot!" Vulcan grumbles, braking mid-way and looking back at Apollo. He turns to the others, and growls "Keep going, and don't stop for anything."

He clicks his rune-inscribed claws together, triggering one of the magics his old master had invested into it, and disappears in a shower of sparks, reappearing in front of Apollo and immediately throwing down a fireball that explodes into a blinding flare.

"Run, you dumb turkey! Don't pick fights you can't win!"

Actions:

AleneShazam Tue Nov 07, 2017 4:02 am

"Don't need to tell me twice, boss man," Trigger says, as she quickly takes off into the shrub. It seems she's accepted Vulcan's authority - he seems like he's got a good head on his shoulders anyway. They must be fairly deep into the forest now - the jet ships shouldn't be able to maintain their flight much longer so deep into the Everfree no-fly zone.

Athletics:

Senshuken Wed Nov 08, 2017 8:46 am

There was something deeply satisfying about driving the black sky earth pony into a tree, breaking the feral beast that it was and putting it out of everyone's misery. The victory however was short lived as Apollo prepared himself for what was likely to be his first and final battle in order to try and protect ponies who either didn't deserve such a heroic sacrifice or who wouldn't care that someone of their crew had died for their benefit.

As the pack descended on him, Apollo was just as surprised as anyone else when Vulcan appeared in front of him in a shower of sparks... and let off some kind of blinding flash that he didn't suffer the effects of due to being behind the dragon with an insult and an order to run. Seeing that now wasn't the time to look a gift dragon in the mouth, Apollo nodded his head before turning and silently taking off... with the intent of picking up Purse to carry her if she was still trailing behind. Hopefully Vulcan's teleport trick wasn't a one time deal...

Actions and Rolls:

**Paper Shadow** Wed Nov 08, 2017 10:48 pm

The words "don't stop for anything" gave Mori excuse enough to dive below the ground and just keep going in the same direction. He won't be able to see anything happening from below the surface outside what faint noises he could pick up, but there's no way the jet-ships could find him now...

jaguargamma Wed Nov 08, 2017 11:25 pm

Frisky scans the trail ahead, then ramps her skybridge down to put herself within range of the crew.

"There's a cave up ahead!" she calls down.

She picks a spot aligning toward the cave like a compass, and the first sound to pop into Frisky's head bursts forth...

We're talking away/I don't know what/I'm to say/I'll say it anyway...

"Follow the catchy music!"

Faege Mon Nov 13, 2017 4:44 am

Once he's sure his makeshift crew has made their way to safety, Vulcan snaps his claws together again, and once more disappears in a shower of bright sparks. Taking advantage of the blindness of his pursuers, he quickly makes his way to where the rest are hiding out.

Flash Teleport again:

Espresso Mon Nov 13, 2017 4:49 am

Frisky makes for a cave - really more of a hole in the ground than a cave, though it's much the same in terms of cover against their pursuers in the sky - diving inside just as a line of gunfire strafes across behind her. Vapor Trail and Trigger follow close behind, and then, Purse Flower and Apollo. By sheer coincidence, Mori phases through the cave wall as well, ending up in the same chamber as everyone else.

After throwing down the flare, Vulcan buys enough time to teleport again, losing the pursuers and ducking for cover as well.

The cave, as it turns out, isn't terribly deep, but it does bend around so that the party isn't immediately visible from above. As the group hunkers down in the shadows, Vapor sighs, obviously unhappy. "Well, there goes my 2000 bit reward."

"My late husband's entire collection has been lost..." Purse Flower murmurs. "Oh, what a terrible shame..."

Overhead, the buzzing of the jetships slowly fade off into the distance.

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