Evil's Return Chapter 6: Road Rage

[Truce]

"Guns, Trish? Since when have guns ever helped us? Too many demons can't be hurt by bullets, you know," he said, as he tried to climb through the window. "I mean, sure they look cool, but we don't really have access to the high power stuff that actually could be useful."

Pulling himself up to the roof of the car, Troy settled into a stance, activating a sigil to keep himself from flying off. They were approaching the demons fast, and he needed to act even faster.

They were still too far for plushies, and he couldn't throw them either. When they did get in range, anything powerful enough to be effective would end up catching them as well. He only had one option.

"You said you wanted to fly, right Trish?"

As Troy threw his hands outwards a golden wing appeared on each side of the car. Plush feathers fluttered almost seemingly in rhythm as the wings spread themselves out across the lanes and, with a mighty flap, sent Duncan's car flying into the sky, over the heads of their enemies.

Well, most of them anyway.

"Hey, Trish, can you get up here? I can't exactly fight back like this, you know, unless you feel like dropping out of the sky like a stone."

[Astral Harmony]

The Mustang picked up speed when Laurella got them through the barrier. It looked like a few of the demons caught on to who was behind the wheel, because two Striders broke away from the barricade and began chasing her, slowly but surely gaining ground. "How the hell can something that big move that fast?" Laurella groaned, careful not to overheat the car. "Two big 'n' uglies on our six."

[mauve]

"Show-off," Trish muttered. She fumbled around, trying to recover the spear which had slid under their seats when the car rose into the air. Finally her fingers wrapped around the haft and she managed to free the weapon from where it was stuck between the back of Troy's seat and the underside of the driver's seat. "All right, all right. I'm coming."

The girl slid out of the window and climbed carefully onto the roof of the car, planting a similar sigil near her feet to keep her from falling off too easily. She hooked the naginata into a special sling across her back to hold it in place as her hands went to her reserves of darts.

"Heh. You probably just gave Duncan a heart attack, you know," she said to Troy with a grin. "But then, we've always been surprisingly unsubtle for a pair of ninjas."

A creature Trish vaguely remembered from some book as being called a Leaper appeared suddenly behind them, jumping up from the ground and almost hovering a few inches behind the car. Trish hurled a dart at the strange-looking thing. The sudden impact, although far from fatal, took the creature by surprise. It slammed into its intended target-- the trunk of Duncan's car-- but was too stunned to actually grab a hold of anything in time. Trish was upon it the moment it hit the car. She booted the thing in the head and it slid off the smooth painted metal of the trunk, plummeting back to the ground with a disappointed screech as gravity regained its hold on it.

"Oooh. Duncan's not going to like it if we scratch the paint job on his nice car," she said as the afterthought hit her. "Looks kinda spendy."

[Sir Pinkleton]

The car grumbled and coughed, desparate to keep up with the other nicer cars. It burst through the blockade of enemies, shaking as it hit bodies.

"Methinks now would be a good time to kill something," Jacob said aloud in the car over the sounds outside. He sat in the passenger side seat, so he rolled down his window and slowly switched his position to look behind him. He leaned outside the window with his rifle out, the strap wrapped around his arm in case he should lose grip. Jacob aimed quickly, and fired at a Strider in the distance, his three burst shot hitting it in the stomach. 'Damnit' Jacob thought quietly to himself. He fired again, this time hitting the strider in its knee, sending it toppling. Being sure not to give Jacob the time to relax, a Leaper jumped forward quickly towards the car from behind, almost catching Jacob off guard. Jacob was able to shoot the Leaper, though barely. The car swerved a bit as the Leaper collided with the back of the car.

"Feel free to begin making your own death count, Rick," Jacob yelled over the outside noise. He grabbed one of his grenades and pulled the pin. "Glad I don't have to pay for collateral damage," Jacob chuckled as he tossed out the grenade, it's explosion later sending two or so enemies into the air.

[Loki, The Fallen]

Rick dug through his backpack, grabbing his Duct-Tape. He took quick stock of his ammunition. Looks like 3 Dozen arrows. You think we can stop at a sports store on the way? I’m okay with fletching, but I prefer arrows made by professionals…

"Feel free to begin making your own death count, Rick,"

All over it, sir! Rick took a newly wrapped arrow, and took careful aim at a Leaper. He waited until it made it’s leap. The arrow flew, impacting into the demon, igniting the sigil, which melted a rather large hole into the creature.

Nice! One down!

A gunshot startled Rick, the bullet ricocheted off the car door where he had been hanging out. He ducked back into the car. What the heck, now I have to deal with guns too? Rick dug through his pack. I know I have something here that can help… How about some fire?

Rick tied a handful of cards to one of his Duct-Tape covered arrows. Heh, lets see how you gunners enjoy this! Rick leaned out the window, pulled back the arrow and released. The arrow flew toward one of the Undead Motorcyclists, striking the bike’s front tire. As it did, a bright light and some small fires ignited under it, causing it’s rider to loose control and slide backwards, now without a front wheel, knocking over a few others.

Well, no more confirmed kills, but I think I bought us a few seconds. Wish I had requisitioned a Flash-bang before I cut my leash, with my help we might knock down a fair amount of them...

[Rhiya Ravenwing]

"... so everybody IS out to get us...Zack, was it?" Alicia called over her shoulder to the man clutching her waist tightly to avoid being swung off.

"Be a darling and try to shake those two leapers off my back will ya?"

Alicia's bike swerved some more as one of her hands reached for her alpha crossbow, but the leapers' agility matched her red bike's pace. Up ahead, a strider tried to cut them off from the others.

"Screw you, bastard demon," she uttered before aiming and firing, the lightning sigil glowing.

*BZZAP*

The strider's legs gave way beneath it, a crossbow bolt through one of the forelimbs. There was the sickening crunch of bones as its forward momentum carried it across the ground in an uncontrollable skid.

Alicia reloaded rapidly, tucking the crossbow under her arm for easy access while steering with her bandaged arm. The wound had closed (she thanked the medics silently), but it was throbbing now.
"Christ, I forgot to make more of these bolts..."

[OOC: i think Alicia's down to 13 bolts]

[Astral Harmony]

"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon, leave-me-alone-you-sons-a-bitches-"
Laurella had help. Skeleton Riders, in spite of her Mustang having mowed one of them down, were converging on the Striders chasing them. One of them rode around and met up with the driver of the Mustang, cackling.

"Oh, hi there," Laurella said, smiling sweetly to the skeleton. "Did I miss paying the toll back there?"
The biker pulled back...and his buddies started coming up. "Eh, it could be worse: the police could be getting involved."

...And then came the sirens.

"Jeebus fuggin' christopher, man." Laurella groaned, then spared a glance towards the siren's direction. "Oh, it's SECA," she said, recognizing the style of vehicle. "I wonder if they know which car I drive?"

[PyrosNine]

Task decided to make sure by reaching over past harm and dangling over the back of the vehicle. With the knife he had been given, he proceeded to pry the license plate off the back. He put away the knife and returned to his seat, carefully, lest a bump or leaper knock him off.

"This should make it harder...although the fact that our driver is visibly a young woman, and the fact there are only 3 women present in our 'convoy' and you are also visibly the weakest one, it shouldn't be too much an upgraded difficulty. It's like going from Easy to Normal, except in Normal you have infinite rockets for your rocket launcher."

Task hurled the license plate back at one of the pursuers, piercing their tire and causing a bit of a buildup as they crashed to the road, bringing down leapers, Striders, Skeleton Riders, and at least smashing a SECA car's window.

It was only minimal to lessen the pursuers, as most were quite skilled at their driving and just plowed through, while the leapers could leap over most things that got in their way.

"Oh well. When one of them gets close, I have a much more risky gamble that might clog them down a bit better."

[Sir Pinkleton]

"Damn!" Jacob yelled as the bullet hit the car. Jacob looked out onto the highway behind him, trying to spot just how many enemies there were.

It was about that time when Rick fired one of his arrows out the car window, striking an Undead Motorcyclist, and sending him back into some others.

"Well, no more confirmed kills, but I think I bought us a few seconds. " Rick said.

"No problem, really, any detterant for them is more than fine." Jacob replied.

Wish I had requisitioned a Flash-bang before I cut my leash, with my help we might knock down a fair amount of them...

Jacob looked at his supplies. 'One more grenade, a few more clips... Nah, we'll be fine.' Jacob grinned to himself. He leaned out the window, although with less of him showing now. He looked upwards and saw a gunship, loaded to the brim with a powerful arsenal, and a few other enemies on the ground, a large demon among them, catching up to the Protectors' convoy. Jacob unclipped his last grenade, and pulled the pin.

"Begone, demons!" Jacob laughed as he tossed the grenade out the window, its detonation killing two striders and an undead motorcyclist. He aimed once more out his window, taking aim at the closest enemy.

[Toastburner B]

"Would you guys be kind enough not to taunt the demons when they still outnumber us 50 to 1?" Martin barked. "Whoa! Hang on!" He cranked the wheel hard left to avoid a rocket launched by a nearby S.E.C.A. van. As if in reply, a trio of skeletal riders moved towards the van. From the other door, a machine gunner sprayed the oncoming riders.


From down the highway, the Road Rex was starting to gain. One of the gunships flew past it, slamming it with a pair of rockets. The Rex didn't even slow down, and vented it's anger on a S.E.C.A. SUV that was too close. With a half-hearted kick, it sent the vehicle flying, forcing Martin to avoid the wreckage.

"Okay...I have decided that being in the back of the group is a bad idea." Martin muttered, "hang on."

Martin floored the gas on the old car, and it jumped forward.

Up the road a little ways, Nathaniel wasn't having a easy time of it, either. He couldn't fire his rifle while driving his bike, so he was reduced to his pistol and his machete. A leaper leaped at him, but Nathaniel saw it coming, and used the handle of his machete to knock it from the air. Looking behind him, he saw a Strider coming up fast. In response, Nathaniel held the blade out to the side, and slammed on the breaks. The Strider ran right into the blade, and Nathaniel followed up with a hack to the demon's hamstring, causing the beast to collapse, which at the speeds they were traveling was was often fatal.

Martin's car sped past Nathaniel, before he could build his speed back up. "Hey! Watch where you're going!"