Redemption Quest (Exalted/Worm) (Elements of Peggy Sue).

[SilverEagle2121]

[X] Skip to the first day of Arcadia and Vicky attacks!

 

[Aleh]

[X] Discuss more about the Youth Guard!

 

[gale]

[X] Discuss more about the Youth Guard!

 

[Ashley9469]

[X] The New Merchants decide that the Docks will be their bitches!

 

[the DragonBard]

[X] The New Merchants decide that the Docks will be their bitches!
Might as well get rid of them now.

 

[MageOhki]

Right: [X] The New Merchants decide that the Docks will be their bitches!

Won.

Off to thinking and writing, hopefully so it'll be up tomorrow night.

 

[tvo770]

[X] The New Merchants decide that the Docks will be their bitches!

 

[MageOhki]

Taking your product leads to bad choices!​

Late Afternoon
Dockyard, Docks, Brockton Bay

Taylor was reading a book when an alarm went off: a short, two-long-one-short blast. Her father and mother sighed and looked at each other.

"Who is it this time?" Shadowy Wings shook her head. "I mean… are there any real, organized gangs left?" She paused. "Not that I mind it, mind you, but I'm still annoyed you killstole." Danny looked at his wife with a long-suffering look.

Kurt strolled in, shaking his head. "Eh. I set off the alarm when I got a call. The moron that took over the remains of the Merchants… Skidmark?" He shook his head at the snickers from everyone else. "Anyways, he's about 10 minutes away. Apparently, the girl who called us stated he acquired a tinker a few weeks ago and has collected about a dozen technicals. Armored Technicals."

Danny and Shadowy Wings shared a look. "Anything else?"

Taylor shared a look with Emma and then both smiled. They turned to look at Kurt as Jean Paul leaned forward himself. "Yeah, apparently the girl thought a pair of them would be decent light tanks. Bit of a hassle to munch on, so I'm having Drake pull some LAWs out of where we hid them."

The Abyssal stood up and smiled. "I do love it when dinner comes to me." Danny just shook his head and sighed.

"Right. Kurt, get everyone to their positions." He turned and looked at the four teenaged Exalts. "No. Not against tanks. Grab some guns and snipe." Jean Paul nodded, though the pouts of the three teenaged girls made Danny chuckle.

"Let Shadowy Wings and us have some fun, kiddos?" Kurt snarked. Jean Paul raised a finger.

"Are we going to call the PRT and BBPD?" He was answered by laughter.

Ten minutes later.

Taylor and Jean Paul were behind big rifles which were poking out of carefully hidden snipers' nests. Sarah and Emma were next to them and as quiet, as Danny's voice came over the radio.

"Kurt, she said technicals, right?" Danny's voice was bemused as a pair of tracked vehicles made of thick scrap steel and having fairly big tubes sticking out of turrets came around the corner. "I'm going to have to quibble with that."

"Eh, she did say they had a tinker." Kurt's voice came back. "Vehicle one apparently?" Kurt's statement was phrased like a question, but his tone indicated he had seen the vehicles, and had already come to a conclusion.

"I'd not be that surprised." Danny's voice was dry. "Those LAWs we have… we have enough?"

The darkly amused tones of Shadowy Wings came though. "We have four." The amusement and glee in her voice indicated her thoughts. "Just means we get to tear them apart by blade and claw!"

"Right, if this goes bad, fire on the wheeled vehicles, people, my wife and I will kill the tanks." Danny then shifted to his 24 foot tall form, and loomed over the oncoming vehicles. "LEAVE OR DIE!"

Before anyone else could respond a trio of PRT armored trucks sped from another street corner, sirens blaring, and the turrets on the Merchant's vehicles screeched as they turned towards them, and the tanks opened fire joined by all the APCs at the PRT vehicles.

"HAHA, TAKE THAT CUNTSUCKERS! THESE ARE MY DOCKS NOW, COCKSWALLOERS!"

The first vehicle exploded in fire as almost all of the merchants focused fire on the armored truck. The occupants were dead before they realized they had engaged. Fortunately for the PRT soldiers in the back of the other two, they were able to hunker and get out as the vehicles lost their engines and their drivers. One truck slammed into a barricade while the other tilted on its side and skidded.

It was testament to the training of the PRT that the eight survivors of the ten men in the back were able to escape the vehicles that began burning. A bearded man, with a golden half disk on his forehead, rallied the PRT troops to get under cover and protect themselves. However, there was no cover on the docks that could withstand 25mm fire.

When the Exalted and dockworkers opened fire, the merchants lost a vehicle as a LAW slammed the ancient-seeming Bradley in the side and transformed the occupants into a fine paste. Several others lost their heads, only belatedly realizing that it might be smarter to close the hatches and top covers of the vehicles.

"YOU FUCKING NUMPTYS GONNA PAY FOR THAT SHIT, YOU COCKSUCKERS!" The voice was amplified above the gunfire from all the vehicles as an third fucking TANK came around one of the corners and joined the fray.

"HEEEERE, DOCKY, DOCKY, DOCKY! Fuckin' Cunt!" The tank fired as it accelerated, shell slamming into Danny's silver chest and transforming the dockworkers around him into a fine mist.

"That's a fucking tank. The rockets aren't going to breach that!"

"Where the fuck did these assholes get an actual tank?" "What the fuck, man?" An explosion caromed off the plates of the vehicle in question, missing the tracks and hitting the skirt of the sides. "LAW ain't gonna cut it!" The radio was erupting with voices.

"I can!" Taylor ignored her orders and simply dropped from the window and ran forward as her father came up roaring. The orca-man charged the nearest APC in a fury, simply opting to tear the front glacis plate off completely before smashing the vehicle to scrap.

Taylor's mother darted past him, swinging that black-iron sword that was more akin to a sharpened car door, slashing through three of the four wheels of the salvaged LAVs before jumping up on the roof and using the unholy sword as a prybar sending the turret flying. She hopped right into the vehicle with an adroit grin. The screaming began as it suddenly went out of control and off one of the empty berthing piers into the water.

Taylor used her father's distraction to her advantage as the cannon blasted him sprawling off of his feet again. A slight trickle of blood was coming from his nose to mar his silver skin as the Lunar was under constant fire from all of the surviving vehicles. He was the largest and most obvious threat on the field, and his ability to avoid such massed fire was limited.

The Zenith didn't realize that Sarah and Emma were beside her as she made a beeline to the nearest vehicle. She came around the back of one of the eight-wheeled, amphibious transports, and her panic over her mother and father made thought irrelevant as she smashed through the armored back hatch, tearing it away to several shocked faces inside. One of the Merchants was mid-line of coke as Emma went caroming into the vehicle, claws out and yowling like a spotted wildcat.

One of the Water Blood Exalts was shearing a hole in one of the APCs when the turret of the next one turned, and suddenly one of the supersoldier Dragon-Bloods disappeared in a spray of blood as a 25mm Bushmaster cares not if one was chosen by the Gods or not.

Taylor let Emma rip and tear, rushing for the tank again as the gunfire focused on her father again. As she made ready to charge the next vehicle, Sarah sheathed herself in pure gold, flesh transmuted to armor as they prepared to attack.

Colin, Armsmaster, had rallied his troopers and they were maneuvering around one of the LAVs they had immobilized by blasting the wheels on one side, as he shattered the rims with a massive, electrical hammer.

As the battle continued, the merchants finally wised up and debarked, the surviving LAVs disgorging the "Infantry" they carried to fight. The drugged up gangers started shooting wildly as some of the heavy guns turned from Danny to other targets…

[] The Merchants are deeply outclassed and it turns into a rout
[] Danny is put out of the fight by massed fire finally overwhelming him
[] The merchants discover the "Surprise"
[] Reinforcements arrive
[] Tragedy happens
[] Write-in

AN: Current dead allies: 2 unnamed Dockworkers, 1 dead Waterblood (The one who exalted popping Lung, alas Mr. Drake…) 6 PRT troopers. Welcome to what can tear even essence 4 exalts a new one. This is a for real threat and even Celestial Exalts can and will die.

 

[Ashley9469]

[X] Danny is put out of the fight by massed fire finally overwhelming him.

Even a druggie knowns to shot the biggest thing on the field.

 

[thewhiteraven22]

[X] The merchants discover the "Surprise"

Always have a plan B. And C through G, at least.

 

[J.G.]

[X] Tragedy happens

Am I that guy?

Yeah. I am that guy.

 

[SilverEagle2121]

[X] The Merchants are deeply outclassed and it turns into a rout

 

[Aleh]

[X] The Merchants are deeply outclassed and it turns into a rout

 

[caspian1a]

[X] The Merchants are deeply outclassed and it turns into a rout

 

[MageOhki]

No one wants to see what the surprise is? Boo, hiss.

 

[Aleh]

No one wants to see what the surprise is? Boo, hiss.

Click to shrink...

It's not mentioned in the chapter. As such, it's something of a non-sequitur to voters.

 

[MageOhki]

It's not mentioned in the chapter. As such, it's something of a non-sequitur to voters.

Click to shrink...

Not... true. The surprise is hinted at in the above chapter.

Hinted.

 

[Aleh]

It's not mentioned in the chapter. As such, it's something of a non-sequitur to voters.

Click to shrink...

Not... true. The surprise is hinted at in the above chapter.

Hinted.

Click to shrink...

As I told you on IRC, there's an important distinction here. The thing "the surprise" refers to may be hinted at... but "the surprise" itself isn't, even by another name or indirectly. The mention thus lacks context to a naive reader.

 

[MageOhki]

Winner: [X] The Merchants are deeply outclassed and it turns into a rout

Will be up when it's up

 

[Krule]

Well this is interesting, and awesome as Exalted should be, you have my attention.

 

[Ashley9469]

I just realized, but you forgot to threadmark ediolon getting his ass reamed.

 

[MageOhki]

I just realized, but you forgot to threadmark ediolon getting his ass reamed.

Click to shrink...

Fixed, next bit to editors.

 

[Krule]

So, the Slaughterhouse 9 triggered an Infernal, since this is several years earlier than Taylor's canon trigger, I believe that means Riley just got a reprieve, and instead of Bonesaw, we're getting someone much more terrifying, as a Demon Princess. I sort of hope her Unwoven Coajuator background is significantly high, cause Riley with a demon guide and advisor bound to her soul is fitting. Defiler is a good fit, since SHLIHN didn't get Colin, but I could see any Infernal Caste fit Riley just fine a this stage.

 

[MageOhki]

So, the Slaughterhouse 9 triggered an Infernal, since this is several years earlier than Taylor's canon trigger, I believe that means Riley just got a reprieve, and instead of Bonesaw, we're getting someone much more terrifying, as a Demon Princess. I sort of hope her Unwoven Coajuator background is significantly high, cause Riley with a demon guide and advisor bound to her soul is fitting. Defiler is a good fit, since SHLIHN didn't get Colin, but I could see any Infernal Caste fit Riley just fine a this stage.

Click to shrink...

Uh.... Um, Question: How did you get *the SH9* triggering an infernal?

Also: Riley triggered in 2005. So, no, not her.

 

[Krule]

Exalted grok Politics​

"More importantly, one of the members of the Slaughterhouse Nine triggered the exaltation of an Infernal. I can show you the chatter. If they're even remotely as quick on the uptake as the local circle, you're likely to get reports of a new endbringer as he or she figures out and masters their first battle-shintai." Dragon paused. "And the Infernals invariably are born from angry individuals who failed to make a difference. If you think the Nine aren't about to have nightmare fuel level problems, you are sorely mistaken. An Infernal can kill anything that exists… including the Siberian."

The Abyssal snickered. "Be accurate, Dragon. Any Celestial Exalt, hell, any Exalt can kill anything. How we go about it differs… and I was coming to tell Danny it appeared that a Solar also lit off. Clear Anima display or so PHO video shows." Dragon sighed and nodded.

"... Another one?" Piggot scowled. "How many are there?"

Dragon shrugged. "I don't know," She lied bluntly. A bolt of light had landed next to Eidolon and was remaining quiet.

"I do!" Shadowy Wings' expression was pure evil. "There were three hundred Solar Exaltations made. About a hundred of them were corrupted into the Abyssals, and another fifty were altered in ways that would make you cry by the creators of the universe they rebelled against to make Infernals… three hundred lunars, a hundred Sidereals, as many Alchemicals as the Maker chooses to light up, and Dragon-blood exaltation spreads by breeding!" Her cheerful, evil smile absolutely lit the area with Piggot's despairing sigh.

"Fuck me running." She shook her head. "But… there is one thing that makes me happy." Everyone who was listening turned to her. She smiled. "You aren't parahumans, and with the possible exception of the… Infernals?" She received a nod from Dragon. "And maybe Abyssals, by your own documentation…" She smiled. "You're sane -- high energy, high tempo, driven to do things… but not broken." She looked at Shadowy Wings dead in the eye. "And you wouldn't believe how happy that makes me. Do you do murder requests?"

"Nope!" Shadowy Wings smiled. "I'm no one's assassin. Buuuut if you ask very nicely, I might consider teaching the occasional lesson on why it is unwise to shit in the collective Wheaties of the city."

Piggot smiled cruelly. "I'll get the kill order and bounty on Nilbog set up if it's not already there."

"Director, if I may? I just sent you markers to identify an Infernal. While they can be just as human as you or I, and just as willing to help as we are, until they prove they haven't lost their humanity, treat them as a First Contact with alien life from any morality standpoint you understand." Dragon looked at Piggot seriously. "Figure out what makes them tick and come to an arrangement, and you suddenly have a very high amount of firepower working for you rather than against you."

Piggot raised an eyebrow, then nodded. "Understood, but I doubt we'll get permission to at least try…" She shrugged. "But worth a try."

"This is not a choice we get to make, Director," Shadowy Wings responded. "If we get an opportunity to get one on our side, we cannot afford to piss away that kind of firepower. I've SEEN the memories of the battle shintai of things dead before Rome was a wet dream in Romulus's mind. If we can come to an arrangement, it's the equivalent of turning an endbringer on an endbringer. And if not? They are exactly what the Exalted were created to bring down.".

Click to shrink...

From there, also, maybe Fate shifted things around and it is Riley anyway. *shrug*. I suppose it doesn't matter, I just think she be a great Infernal.

 

[MageOhki]

... Oh, I *didn't* catch that on my edit. Vertdammit.


*facepalm*

*goes and edits since he made a mistake*

Fixed: Three guesses *who* the confirmed Infernal is.

 

[Krule]

Ah, that makes more sense I suppose, and I don't need three guesses. Hmm, the circle lacks a Night caste, we're you looking to fill that slot with a knife happy Scourge?

 

[MageOhki]

Ah, that makes more sense I suppose, and I don't need three guesses. Hmm, the circle lacks a Night caste, we're you looking to fill that slot with a knife happy Scourge?

Click to shrink...

A: Not a knife happy one...
B: Also No. I'm still pondering who the night's going to be. While I have plans for most of the Undersiders... Haven't figured out everything yet.

 

[MageOhki]

Ferrets end up in the Strangest Places!​

Taylor ducked and dove for cover instinctively as one of the APCs disgorged drugged out junkies who were firing wildly. These 'infantry' were using a motley collection of weapons to target anyone they thought was an enemy, with little success. The rest of the vehicles followed suit as the restored tanks began thundering fire at Dockmaster again.


It was almost too easy, and Taylor shut out the brutality of the combat. Her golden beamklave flashed, ending several lives as she hopped onto the vehicle her victims had just exited and speared her blade though the top hatch of the turret, melting the armor and killing the gunner. Moving on, she did the same to the driver and his hatch, and looked for more targets.


Sarah, with her golden skin, roared a Kiyai and kicked the nose of one of the APCs up. The vehicle impossibly flipped lengthwise, landing on the Merchants it had just disgorged. The young exalts were beginning to fully cut loose as Emma, the humanoid cheetah, darted between the merchants, tearing them to ribbons with her claws.


Everywhere around them the battle turned, hard, against the Merchants as the dockworkers suddenly had targets they could shoot at and kill. The sad excuse for "infantry" deployed by the gang began to get slaughtered as by disciplined fire from veterans and hardened workers trained by them sluiced through the Merchants' Ranks.


Corsair's Jade revolver thundered once, and pierced a hole through one of the LAVs' glacis plates, killing the driver before the young Dragon-Blood blasted several holes through the turret and the gunner.


Shadowy Wings reentered the field, systematically dismantling one of the smaller tanks. She blasted one set of tracks off the vehicle and carved the other off with the sharpened car door she used as a sword. As she climbed to the top of the immobilized vehicle, she wrapped her hand in black lightning that erupted and began dissolving the hatch with a thousand years of corrosion before dropping in to the sound of screams.


By the time that Taylor charged the largest tank, the battle was already over. All that was left of the mop-up. She leapt on the last tank, her blade sliced though the barrel, then though the commander's hatch, and she ripped it off, expecting to find more people.


What she wasn't expecting was the sheer concentration of laced smoke and enhanced weed that overtook her after she tore apart the crew, and the cursing British man that screamed, unintelligible in the noise of the battlefield except for his scream of pain. Black and gray material quickly flowed around the tank. A female scream was cut off, and a thud was heard, indicating the end of that tank crew.


Shadowy Wings found her daughter in the commander's seat of the tank a few minutes after the battle, her eyes glazed with a red tinge as she stared at the sky above. A silver-marked ferret that was equally stoned out of her mind rested in her hands as she absently cuddled it.


"Young Lady, you are grounded." The Abyssal gave her daughter an annoyed look. "So are you, you, and you." She pointed at Sarah, Emma and Corsair.


"What did I do? I actually stayed where you told me to!" The Dragon-Blood protested


"You didn't stop them," the Abyssal stated as if it was obvious.


"You can't even stop them, so you don't get to blame me for it, and I'm not grounded." The blue-haired man shot back.


The Abyssal formerly known as "Mom" glared at the young man.


"Hi, Mom." Taylor waved up at her. "I found a ferret in the box here. She was locked in." Taylor had never been stoned before. She also had never contemplated weed with enough concentration of THC to overcome a battalion of marines simultaneously. She was well and truly mellow.


Shadowy Wings reached in and hauled Taylor and the ferret out and away, already feeling lightheaded and pleasant as the smoke billowed out, threatening to incapacitate her with the contact high as well. Shadowy Wings shook her head and muttered. "Poison resistance training. We need to do that.." She shook her head as her caste mark flared.


Dockmaster strolled over, his steps shaking the ground slightly. "I'd say so." He turned and snarked. "Late, always the PRT is…" The groans from everyone indicated the joke was successful as people spread out to treat the wounded, leaving the Merchants, some still screaming or moaning, for last. The tall Orca-man's frame was dotted with holes and seeping wounds that were closing one at a time, clearly showing intense healing.


Kurt strolled up, keeping his white and rocky anima away from people. "We lucked out. Only three dead, Danny." Danny looked down and seemed quizzial. Kurt sighed. "You drew all the fire, even when they spilled out of the APCs and started shooting wildly. Some more wounded… But."


Danny looked at the three fallen. "Richard, Lewis and Jackson aren't going home." His voice was sad and a bit angry. "Do you have locations for their stashes?" Kurt simply nodded.


"Already on it, and we'll… interrogate Squealer, who your daughter left alive, to see if we missed any. Good payment for their families." The Earthblood looked sadly at the bodies as well.


"Good." Danny didn't shrink as a PRT sedan stopped a few feet away from him.
Emily Piggot, still the Director of ENE, stomped out of the Sedan, a bit gray. "Do you have to slaughter a gang a week?"


Danny looked down at the sickly stubborn woman who was glaring up at him. "... well, if they didn't attack…"


Shadowy Wings interrupted as she held the stoned Ferret by the scruff of the neck. "Change to your warform." The Ferret tried to play innocent only to get tapped on her silver markings. A sigh and a huff, and as the ferret was released, suddenly 7 foot tall weasely-furred young girl stood in front of the Abyssal, staggering slightly and still clearly stoned.


"How did…" The lunar was cut off by the Abyssal.


"We have two lunars, now you're the third.… I knew more would show up.… Just how did you get caught in an ammo box?" The dark woman looked up at the furry menace.


The Lunar seemed to stare off in space, then focused on the woman in front of her. "I snuck in, planning to well… rip and tear at a right time… then they closed the box…" She paused, trying to explain.


"You're a Lunar." The Abyssal wasn't impressed. "Why didn't you just change?"


"... couldn't." The girl admitted.


Shadowy Wings just looked at the Lunar. "How?"


"I don't know!" The Ferret girl looked embarrassed.


Taylor broke in. "They had a lock on it! I cut it off!" Still quite high, she sounded cheerful. "I was curious why it was thumping around." The Ferret girl growled at the Zenith.


"You nearly cut me." The girl shifted out of her warform, revealing a black preteen with straight hair. "That would have hurt."


The Abyssal hung her head, muttering something too quiet for anyone to hear, then looked at the newest Lunar. "Your Name?" She noted Cosair's green glowing finger poking first her daughter, who began to sweat profusely, and then poking the Lunar.


Emily Piggot broke in, clearly unamused. "Aisha Lebron, I presume. Reported missing two weeks ago." Aisha shrugged, the drugs clearing her system via her sweat.


"Call me Blackfoot!" Anything else she'd have said was cut off as she froze at the sight of the pretty boy Eclipse helping to treat the rest of the wounded. "Wow…"


[ ] Aisha attacks Regent!
[ ] Aisha pounces and hugs Regent.
[ ] Skip to the first day of school (Tomorrow morning) at Arcadia with exalts!
[ ] PRT throws a bitchfit and wants the Dockworkers to stop looting the new Merchants stashes.
[ ] Write in.



Vote for path of Training for Taylor/Emma, pick one
[ ] [T]Path of the Dawn (Physical attributes/Dawn Caste Ability, combat)
[ ] [T]Path of the Zenith (Social attributes/Zenith Caste Ability, Social/Defense)
[ ] [T]Path of the Twilight (Mental Attributes/Twilight Caste Abilities, Knowledge/Crafting)
[ ] [T]Path of the Night (Physical Attributes, Night Caste Abilities, Stealth and Athletics)
[ ] [T]Path of the Ecisple(Social Attributes, Ecisple Abilities, Social/Vehicles)


Vote for 2nd training area for Taylor/Emma, pick one
[ ] [T2] Martial Arts
[ ] [T2] Sorcery
[ ] [T2] Melee (For Emma this is warform training)
[ ] [T2] Essence Training

 

[MageOhki]

Status of gangs in BB:
ABB: No capes, about 80% normal strength, but cohesion is collapsing.
Empire88: Disorganized, facing IRS. About 60% normal strength, a few capes still active
Merchants, Mk II. Pretty much *gutted* no capes (Squealer captured, not killed), about 25% field strength
Coil: Gone.

No cape lead small gangs active.

Exalted make a *splash*.