Logs:Holiday in Genosha

Holiday in Genosha
cn: violence / death
Dramatis Personae Akihiro, Ion, Mystique
In Absentia	2024-05-15 "I fucking hate technology."
Location Ridgeback Mountains - Genosha
At the moment, it's quiet, here. It's been quiet for some time -- not an alarmingly long wait, just yet. Their rendezvous time is only just creeping up on them; Mystique simply wanted to arrive a bit early to scout the location. It's seemed somewhat unnecessary -- despite the high levels of security and anti-mutant detection in the city not so far away, out here it's been largely deserted. The day is beautiful and sunny, a slight breeze, high visibility; a serene landscape little touched by the human luxuries or mutant suffering of the capital. Mystique hasn't relaxed much, for all that -- though she looks casual enough where she's leaning up against a cave mouth with a good vantage point of the paths up and down in both directions, her eyes (dark brown, today, to suit her Totally Not A Mutant Here getup, looking at the moment like a leanly muscled Black woman with neat small locs dressed in comfortable pants and tee) keeping a keen alert watch on the approaches. For all that it's almost certainly Akihiro who is likely to clock their approaching quarry first -- four people's scents, still well out of eyeshot but carried on the wind, one of them a particularly noticeable blend of human-and-civet-musk that matches the profile of one of the three mutants they are here to whisk away. Akihiro doesn't look up from reassembling his 1911, refitting the recoil spring plug and giving the handgun a once over to make sure he's satisfied with his work. "Four incoming, one of them is for sure one of the people we're waiting on." He doesn't seem as worried about sticking out, wearing a white silk lamba draped over a blue cotton shirt, a pair of black trousers, and a wide brimmed hat making him look more like some sort of bounty hunter or old western gun slinger. "Have a feeling they're about to make us actually work today." He doesn't seem bothered by the idea though, instead there's a sense of anticipation and he moves the shawl aside and holsters his pistol at the hip. "{Work? This a vacation, friend}, I ain't been tear-gassed all damn day." Though as soon as he has said this Ion is dropping his hook to his side, rapping twice quick and firm against the power-line-supporting wood pole he's leaning up against. He's in jeans too, boots, a lightweight grey tee under a plain black jacket. There's a handgun holstered at his hip, too, though he's yet to draw it. "You smell some trouble with 'em?" "The entirety of this godsforsaken hellpit is trouble and it would do you well to remember it." Mystique has straightened, at Akihiro's heads-up. "If you are hurting for a vacation we can find you one that would not see you in chains. Be prepared for a quick evacuation when --" But now she's stopped, paused, her head tilting just so. Their actual quarry is still a short ways off, but there's a very familiar humming closing in on them, fast. Mystique does not waste time with orders, just gestures to the others and sets off at a sprint in the direction of the incoming group -- can they run faster than a group of Sentinels? They can try, anyway. Akihiro starts to say something, but quickly falls silent at the humming. "Can never just be paranoia, can it?" he mutters to himself, starting to jog behind before quickly picking up the pace and transitioning into a full sprint. "I'm going to assume the other people I noticed are the sentinel's handlers," he warns the others between breaths, "shouldn't be a problem for us though. Just stay frosty." "-- shit next time I keep my mouth shut," says Ion, who almost certainly will not. On foot he's not nearly as fast as the others but so it goes; with no clear picture of where he ought to be coming out the other side, he is just sprinting in their wake. Coming into sight around a bend in the road are the trio they were looking for -- three people, one very obviously furry, the other two just looking frightened as they hasten to keep up with the guide who was leading them to the rendezvous. Their fright is only growing starker as a half-dozen Sentinels bear down from the sky -- the robots, though, are not directly heading toward the would-be refugees. They're veering past them to cut off their escape, blocking the path to the Brothers and turning their attention toward the interlopers. They're hovering high, three of them fanning out to pincer Akihiro between them as they open fire on him, a mix of actual bullets and depowering darts. Another pair have targeted Mystique, the last veering past to aim for Ion. Somewhere behind the Sentinels are a pair of -- people, presumably, heavy-armored humanoid and moving slower in their clunky armor suits than the more agile bots. They're planting themselves in the road -- behind the Sentinels, between the refugees and their escape. "{All mutants must report to the Magistrates for processing.}", states a pre-recorded voice from one of the suits, first in Genoshan but then French and then English. "{Surrender or be terminated.}" Mystique does not waste breath on a response to this. She's still running, reaching for her waist and tugging free one of the skull-shaped explosives there to fling it high and true at the nearest Sentinel. Akihiro changes his direction suddenly and dives in a shoulder roll to dodge the shots, drawing his 1911 in the same motion. Without slowing down or missing a beat he adjusts his aim and squeezes the trigger several times in rapid succession, the bullets slamming into three separate sentinels, the hei smashing into the armor and exploding violently. Ion is not drawing his weapon, though he is hissing sharp and irritated as a bullet grazes him in the arm "{-- fucking again}." In the next moment he's flung himself straight into the air, though; only a few drops of blood splattered on the road where he'd been standing to tell of his recent presence. He's gone, and the Sentinel that hit him is gone. "Move faster," Mystique suggests, but by the time she does, Ion is already gone. Her words are somewhat swallowed anyway by the boom of the explosion, and the Sentinel she's exploded is scattering in pieces across the road. Unfortunately, those pieces are pulling themselves back together in short order. Mystique is flinging herself into the air, far higher than any normal human could manage, to leap and grab onto the second Sentinel that's been shooting at her and hurl it towards one of Akihiro's. The two Sentinels collide, falling to the ground in a tangle -- though the tangle itself it starting to mesh into a Bigger Sentinel. The one Akihiro has shot has careened out of the air, a few of its pieces dropping. Its legs rearrange even as it steadies itself, and it is wheeling back to continue firing at Akihiro. The armored soldiers are tromping steadily nearer. “Fuckin’ robots.” Akihiro spits, readjusting his aim to fire off four more rounds into forming bigger sentinel before holstering the now empty weapon. His course shifts towards the approaching humanoids, he isn’t as careful as he should be though and takes one bullet between the ribs and another glances off the metal of his skull. “Might need to fry these fucks.” "{Fuck I gone three seconds and you out here making the damn robots bigger?}" Ion has just reappeared in a sizzle and a blip, bloodied but grinning fierce when he lands. He's leaving King Sentinel to Akihiro, though, shoulders rolling as he faces the oncoming soldiers. "You want a barbecue, Abuelo, I ain't gonna let my brother down." He's flinging out a bloodied arm, hook glinting bright at the end of it with a warning shiver of sparks. It's not very much warning; a moment later there's a fierce charge of lightning that crackles ozone-tinged in the air and shivers bright and ferocious around the oncoming pair of soldiers. The soldiers are crackling, clunky armor jittering as the lightning flickers over it. From inside one of the suits there is an agonized scream, though not so the other. The suit that had been screaming falls open, a burly solder burned and wide-eyed but still having the presence of mind to draw his gun and shoot at Ion. The other suit just goes still and silent, the scent of charred flesh now souring the air. The FrankenSentinel is losing several more limbs at the blasts, but these are freely picked up by its smaller companion. The legs the smaller Sentinel is reattaching to itself are shifting, twisting somewhat inside-out, their outer edges sharp and knifelike now. It spins in the air, whirling around and around Akihiro like some kind of giant throwing star with its own malicious volition. The bigger Sentinel, meanwhile, is spewing a hefty amount of some kind of adhesive all through the road at Akihiro and Mystique's feet. Only once the ground is liberally coated with this does it resume shooting. Mystique is stuck, if only for a moment. She's hurling another explosive -- this one toward the Sentinel that has been trying to flay Akihiro. One of the FrankenSentinel's shots hits her as she does this, but in the next moment her whole body has shifted -- legs shrinking down, huge batlike wings sprouting from her back; she doesn't take flight but one powerful beat gets her out of range of the ooze, at least, in time to regrow her lower limbs. Akihiro dodges, ducks, dips, and dives his way around the sentinels and the incoming goo, at least until the grenade comes in. Taking the opportunity he pops his claws and rushes in to face the growing sentinel, lashing out with a flurry of slashes in an attempt to dice up the robots extremities. Ion has vanished, reappeared on the other side of the still-upright and charred armor. There's still a sharp crackle of energy around him, lending a wild-bright gleam to his eyes and clenched bared teeth. The arm that he lifts shivers sharp and ominous with energy; he's gesturing sharp and dismissive towards the soldier on the ground like he's trying to shoo away the bullets. "Pretty sure you want to stop that and get the fuck home, pig." He's rolling his injured shoulder with a wince, breath whistling to his teeth as he turns to the terrified mutants the actually came here for. "Buckle up." They don't really get a chance to -- they'll have to deal with the shock on the other side, because in the next moment he -- and the mutants they'd come to retrieve -- have disappeared. As Akihiro rushes at it, the large Sentinel explodes, several of its borrowed limbs flying out as shrapnel. One spears Mystique in a newly-regrown leg; she's snarling, tearing it out of her limb to huck it dagger-sharp and bloodied into the neck of the soldier who had been shooting at Ion. "Yes, go home. I'm sure the other Hell will be glad for your return." She straightens, limping nearer to Akihiro. "Be ready. Our ride should be back soon." Akihiro let’s out a barely audible gasp as the limb shrapnel strikes true, taking out his lungs, but with one sharp tug he pulls the metal free. “Yeah.” He finally answers once the wound knits closed. “I fucking hate technology.”