[RFC] [Sports] The Port Phobos Invitational

[firvulag]

I was reading the sports page on the wiki when I started thinking about the end of the Boskone war and what happened when WW2 ended. Specifically I was
thinking about what happened in my home town on VE day. While it wasn't the only reason, the authorities in Halifax managed to spark a riot by ordering
the bars closed, ostensibly to prevent a drunken riot. I figure the fen would handle things a little differently, but in the end there are going to be some
(friendly) tensions between the Pirates, Ninja and the OGJ space marines, at the very least. Thus I got the idea for the annual Port Phobos Invitational.

***

The Port Phobos Invitational is an annual 'sporting' event that started during one of the victory celebrations at the end of the Boskone war. A large
group of OGJ soldiers from almost every faction were celebrating in Mars orbit when someone, no one remembers, or admits to who, started a brawl.

It eventually degenerated into a two day long battle involving 'waved nerf guns, foam swords and every non-leathal weapon in the Fen's arsenal. When
it was all over the participants said, 'that was fun, let's do it again! ...Once the bruises heal.'

Little has changed since that first day. The Port Phobos Invitational is a multi-day war of shifting, treacherous alliances fought to the last laugh with the
silliest weapons in known space, where the last crew, or person (you expect Pirates not to back stab you when it's all in the name of fun?) standing wins.
With the exception of the personal quarters of those not involved and critical areas of the station there are no bounds, and no time outs.

***

F

--

Brain, n.:

The apparatus with which we think that we think.

-- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"

[Black Aeronaut]

*Snickers evilly* Oh, Ben and Gina are going to be all over that. And The antics that Jess will get up to... HEEE! ^_^

Gina: "Was that ball-pit trap your doing?"

Jess: "Yep!" ^_^

Gina: "Remind me never to piss you off."

[Feinan]

*cackles* OK, I must admit that this sounds like great fun. *snicker* And if some of my AI crew are willing to help - and if we can make a couple miniature
holoemitters for me to wear - well, there's all sorts of fun stuff to do. *grin* Break the brains of the ninja, for instance.

---

I grinned as I noticed a trio of ninja coming towards me. "You lot sure you want to do that?" My grin widened, going definitely predatory. "Have
you ever noticed how much Son Goku and Uzumaki Naruto are alike? And we Saiyajin have always picked up tricks easily." As they paused for a second,
blinking, I crossed my hands in a seal all-too-familiar to them. "KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU!" The air shimmered around me...and suddenly there were five
Jasons facing them. We all grinned in unison. "Hi there!" We cackled, and started forward, pulling Nerf bo-staffs from the holsters on our backs.

[Black Aeronaut]

BWA-HA-HA! Two can play at this game... Or should I say one-hundered-and-one? *Evil smirk*

---

Suddenly, all eight of them found themselves being rained on by full-auto nerf-fire. Tucked away in the nooks and crannies of walkways and balconies overhead
was a troop of Jess's. They all wore Rei's schoolgirl uniform, except that they also had jungle-camo headbands. Somehow, that in combination with the
realistic looking guns made them look very intimidating.

[Feinan]

*laughs* Oh dear....Fortunately, holoemitters allow fun things like genjutsu, too. And Henge. Remember, running away to regroup is always a good tactic.
Especially if you can leave your original opponents behind to play with the nice Nerf-shooting brigade.

---

I laughed, trying to dodge the fire as best I could. "Jeez! Overkill much?" I made a throwing motion...and disappeared into a puff of smoke. Pressing
myself back against the wall and letting an image of the wall cover me, I slowly sidled off towards the closest exit not bearing a Jess. Meanwhile, my four
bunshin all yelled out "Henge!" They vanished in puffs of smoke, to be replaced by four identical young men - late teens or so, shaggy blond hair and
dressed in what appeared to be green and brown SCA garb. Their bo-staffs had been replaced by stringless bows...but that didn't hinder them as they drew
back, and glowing arrows appeared on strings of light. "OK, we love you, bye-bye!" They fired the arrows straight up, where they burst into blinding
flares for a few seconds. After the light had faded, the four had vanished as well...leaving just the original three ninja. And the Jess-army.

[firvulag]

And here I was worried no one would like idea

---

"You!"

The shout rang out over the din of the fighting along the promenade and the individual battles began to taper off. Fen off all factions withdrew to the walls,
clearing a long space down Port Phobo's outer hall. At one end stood a young man in blue and white armour with an OGJ unit patch on the shoulder. At the
other an angry woman in a green-grey body suit with N.U.N.S. markings.

The man dropped his foam sword and lazily turned to face his challenger. His hand dropping down to rest on the butt of his holstered pistol. The woman glared
at him, her entire posture radiating anger. "It's time we settled this, once and for all," she ground out.

From somewhere among the shops the lined the hall the first strains of a familiar old song began to play. On the side lines two pirates glanced at each other, and
grinning, tossed their hats to the two fighters. The man caught the hat and settled it on his head. He tugged the wide, broad brim down and smiled. "I
reckon it is," he said, and began to advance down the cleared space.

The two advanced on each other, their pace slow and measured. They stopped, fifteen feet from each other, hands poised over their hostlered pistols. The
music reached its climax and high above them the great Counter Clock struck '21'. Two hands snagged their weapons and brought them up with blinding
speed.

--

"And if you can't tell the difference between a shoggoth and a

nightgaunt, you shouldn't be working here. And you _definitely_

shouldn't visit server room 3."

[Black Aeronaut]

Benjamin and Gina had their hands full. While they were busy playing a game of sniper-vs-sniper, they were picking off any fen who thought they could get the
drop on them.

Gina had an overall advantage. She had been able to tap into the Port Phobos security cam network and presto! Eyes everywhere! Benjamin, however, had a means
of a speedy, if overly flashy, egress.

Case in point - Gina took a shot at Benjamin's head, but due to the interference of one of the other fen the shot went a little wild. Benjamin took
immediate notice of the nerf-pellet ricochetting off the wall by his head.

"Shit! SHOCKING FIRST BULLET!" *BOOM!* And he went airborn and out of sight. Gina cursed in German and began to find herself a new hiding spot. She
stepped on the offending fen that had made her last shot go wide last time just because he deserved it. He was probably a perverted Asuka-fanboy anyways.

---

And this will eventually culminate to a final battle which ranges all over phobos until they somehow wind up inside their hotel room... With the door locked
and a warning sign posted: "Do not disturb upon pain of death."

[Shinkaze]

This is perfect! Just the kind of thing I can see the Fen doing to de-stress after the war.

[robkelk]

"You realize that we're dangerously outnumbered here," whispered Kohran.

The two others nodded. "But we do have a few tactical advantages. Our archer, for example."

Safety smiled, readied her bow, and flew up into the support struts above the other girls' heads. "I'll pick off anyone tha-OOF!" She fell back down into Takami's hands.

"What happened?"

"Got hit... by a car... Tell Noah... and the others... to avenge me..."

"You're a miserable actor, Safety."

The smallest of the humaniform androids frowned. "I'm not designed to mislead people. Sorry."

"That's all right. So, somebody who uses toy cars as weapons is after us - that probably means either Dee, Azu Squadron, the Jason, or Fate. So why are we standing here?" Takami stated rollerblading away from their current position, only to be stopped by Kohran.

"Because it's still safer than being out there. I left a package in the main hall." Just then, there was a muffled explosion. "That would be my kaboomite bomb."

"Your what?" Takami and Safety both screamed.

"Shut up, Safety, you're 'dead.' Okay, it's just an oversized pompom grenade, but it says 'Kaboomite' on the pompoms. I figured we should clear out all the slower thinkers at one go."

"Great. Now we just have to worry about the smart opponents." Takami dodged as a toy car passed by her head. "Like whoever that is..."
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Ebony]

Ah, reminds me of the old summer camp massive Capture the Flag game that covered the whole camp and involved all of the campers.

----------------------

"What's he doing?"

"The crossword."

"What?!"

"Blackstone is sitting at a sidewalk cafe, doing the Kandor City Beacon crossword. In pen."

"Any sign of the others?"

"Not one."

"You sure? J. is a Ninja Rockstar Firefighter, you know."

"I'm telling you, the only people around are the waitstaff and a guy picking up the recyclables."

"Okay. Move up. He's gotta be ready for ambushes, but if we rush him, we can take him before he can get out of there."

I was working on a seven-letter word for "Spider-Man villain" with an L as the second letter, when the three Browncoats that had been watching me for
the past ten minutes made their move. As they closed to short range, I capped my pen, stood, and held out a hand, halting their forward movement. "A
question," I said. "Do you know how many people are members of the Banzai Institute Blue Blazers?"

The first one looked confused at the apparent nonsequitur. Right up until the waiter refilling my tea shot him with a dart gun, and the Recyclables pickup took
out the other two. "Apparently not," I continued, returning to my seat. "Thanks, guys."
Ebony the Black Dragon
http://ebony14.livejournal.com

"Good night, and may the Good Lord take a Viking to you."

[Foxboy]

Dee blinked in confusion across her drone force. "How did she do it? She's just one person, and a biologic at that!" Grumping, she opened up a research channel and looked up the person who had eliminated her in toto.

Code:

Thomas R. Dobbs
Gunnery Sergeant, United States Marine Corps
Medal of Honor (Details Classified)
Silver Star
Bronze Star
Purple Heart with two clusters
Service Ribbons for Second Iraq War, Afghan Conflict

Honorable Discharge

''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''

-- James Nicoll

[ECSNorway]

There were days when I really wished I was a ninja. Then there were the days when I indulged that wish. Like today. Sneaking along the corridors in thermoptic
camoflage (thank you, TSAB), nerf-gun in hand. I paused at a cross-corridor and stuck a dental mirror around it at knee-height to check for ambushes. Seeing
nothing, I waved Major O'Connell and Rei forward and covered them as they crossed...

And that's when the horde of rampaging Rei's in camoflage headbands came out of nowhere down that cross-corridor and ran me down.

Groaning, I let off a couple of weak shots in their general direction, and caught Jess's laugh. "Try again next year, Rockhound!"

Taking Rei's hand, I stood up with her help, dusted myself off, and glared down the corridor the horde had come. "You could have at least shot some of
them." The two girls just smiled, and Amy laughed. She has a nice laugh. I like it. Rei... doesn't laugh. I've tried enough times to get her to.

"So, then. Am I dead or do we go on and seize the station in the name of Mom, Apple Pie, and Floating Space Rocks?"
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.

[Black Aeronaut]

The Jessica currently at the lead shrugged in reply. "Eh, what the hell. I may have about a hundred extra brains to think with, but it's still only
one persona. Having another perspective is a nice thing. Besides, last I saw Ben and Gina they were going at it with boffa daggers."

"Bad, was it?"

Jess grinned and shook her head sadly. "Let's just say that I pitty the poor souls that tried to get between them."

OOC: In other words, have fun! ^_^

[firvulag]

Jess slid to a stop by the hatch, taking up firing positions on either side. She triggered the control and swung her nerf guns around to cover herself as she
charged through the now open door.

The Rockhounds team was bringing up the rear and were startled by when the nearest Jess swore. The raced into the room, intent on backing her up, and stumbled
into a scene of utter devastation.

The large room was littered with the remains of a fierce battle. Nerf darts, 'waved silly string, the strange lumpy formations of creme soda/epoxy bombs
and the remains of various other weapons were everywhere, along with the unconscious bodies of many fen.

O'Connell did a quick survey of the room. "It looks like there's only two factions here. They must have eliminated themselves."

"I don't think so," said Jess. She was clustered around something in the center of the room. As the others approached she stepped back,
revealing a shell shocked R. Takami Sakuragi who was doing a very credible impression of a thousand yard stare. "Takami-san, can you tell us what
happened?" she asked in a gentle voice.

Takami blinked and focused on Jess, seemingly only now realizing there was someone else there. "I... I got separated from Kohran... there was an
ambush... and these cars... and... and I ran in here to escape." She started sobbing. "They... it was horrible... they wouldn't stop and...
they... I... I had to do something... I had to..."

Takami stopped speaking and returned to staring at the bulkhead, rocking back and forth.

"I can't even begin to imagine," O'Connell said, staring down at the fort, hastily improvised from the room's furniture, where the fen
had made their last stand. Unconscious bodies in the hard white armour of Stormtroopers lay mixed with those in the red uniforms of Starfleet Security.

OOC: I haven't seen Geobreeders Rob, but I figure it works with the combat paralysis, and there are some things
no one should have to see

--

For Sale: Parachute... only used once... never opened... small stain.

[Black Aeronaut]

Okay, is there some reference about the cars that I'm not getting? I've got an idea in mind to take care of that little plague, but I don't want to
do something stupid.

[Feinan]

Things were quiet aboard the Fateful Lightning, with a good portion of her crew and those of the Yggdrasil playing in the war. The only sounds to be heard were the quiet laughter of an old woman...and the Beach Boys playing in
the background - 'Little Old Lady From Pasadena.'

---

*grin* At least some toy cars in the war are from Atropos getting into the act. Fate is busy doing other things....as I'll write up tomorrow. She's one
of the crew helping the Jason.

Edit - as for cars - check out the latest Jason's Logbook (III) for the use of those. The Fates use toy cars as drones...and as weaponry.

[robkelk]

OOC: I haven't seen Geobreeders Rob, but I figure it works with the combat paralysis, and there are some things no one should have to see

OOC: Well, it wasn't how I was going to invoke her CP, but it does work with her character... (More story later - have to cover for someone at work and attend a half-day course today.)
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Black Aeronaut]

No one really knows how it got there, except there was a neat hole punched through the window of the hotel room in the shape of a toy car.

Immediately following this intrusion, a string of curses in English and German made the air itself into a weapon for anyone who was the least bit innocent as
their ears began to smoke.

Moments later inside that hotel room, Benjamin and Gina were going over the remains of a toy car.

"Well, can you get anything off of it's wireles?" asked Benjamin.

Gina smiled. It was not a nice smile. "Yes, I did."

Benjamin's trademark mischievous smile appeared. "I take it somebody's going to either die or wish they did."

"Why, whatever gave you that idea?" replied Gina, her grin-o-doom still plastered on her face as she began to arm herself once more.

"Oooooh, nothing!" said Ben in a sing-song tone as he got up to help her.

The responsible party could run. They could possibly hide. But no matter who it was, AI or Human(oid?), there was no escaping The Wrath of Regina
Langley(tm). (This is why Gina never really needs a sledgehammer named 'Reason'!)

[Feinan]

*laughs* Not sure if that'd be Atropos or not, Ben. Admittedly, she's the more aggressive of the three, which is why she's the weapons officer, so
I can't rule her out.

Now...what Fate's been up to...

---

I slipped into the room, keeping an eye on the holographic display floating just to the right side of my vision. Nobody showing up so far, but that wasn't
necessarily an assurance of safety. Once in position, with a good view of the room and the elevator banks, I leaned back against the wall and sub-vocalized,
just enough for my throat mike to pick up, "OK, Iris. Hide me." The air shimmered around me, and the wall now had one more column than before.

Looking over the map a bit more closely now, I tried to see who would be coming this way shortly. This level was fairly quiet at the moment, but I saw a few
good prospects. Fortunately, most of the icons were easy to read: brown for Browncoats, Blue Blazers in blue...little Jolly Rogers for the pirates, ninjas in
orange....It made keeping track - and choosing fun targets - a lot easier. I smiled, watching a pair of red dots coming this way. Soon, soon...I spoke softly
again, "Fate? How're things on your end?" Her voice rang in my earbud. "Fairly well, father. Samantha and Junior are a big help in here.
We're not the only ones in the system - Gina is in here, too - but so far between the three of us, we appear to have successfully masked our own presence.
A few signs that there might have been others here, but nothing current. Unless they're hiding themselves even better than we are." I nodded. "Be
careful. The map's really appreciated though." That got a chuckle. "Thought you'd like it. I've been in here enough over the years that
this is old territory for me. We're also attempting a masking program for you, to erase your presence from anyone else attempting to use the system. No way
of knowing how successful that will be until someone trying to use the system reacts to it or you, however."

I shrugged. "Not a big deal. Nice if it works, if not...." Another shrug, then I grinned as I saw the two red dots almost to the room. "Just
about showtime. Let's see how the new toy works, hmm?" I settled in quietly, waiting.

A pair of Trekkies entered, wielding Nerf guns.They peered warily around the room and started towards the elevators - to set up an ambush maybe? About
halfway there, I sent off my little surprise. When they caught movement out of the corners of their eyes, they whirled to cover it with their guns...and froze
at the sight of a little green anthropomorphic duck, dressed in a diaper and sucking on a huge baby bottle. It waddled towards them, giving them huge, innocent
eyes. Why they didn't fire just on general principle, I have no idea...I would've. Nothing that looked that cute could be up to any good right now. The
little duck peered up at them. "Me Plucky. Who're you?" One of them actually gave his NAME. I bit my lip, hard.

I glanced over the map for a second, noting another open room three levels up that was empty, and murmured softly. "Fate. Send an elevator to the
bottom to get it out of the way...and bring in the cloud, just down the corridor." Off to the side, the little duck was still peering up at the two
Trekkie redshirts. It spoke again, "Wanna hear a secwet?" It got a little closer, then squeezed its bottle tight...before grinning. "Fire go
down the hoooole." It vanished with a poof of smoke to reveal a grinning image of me, holding a canister. Even as the pair tried to target me, the grenade
exploded, coating the hapless redshirts with a rapidly expanding, foaming mixture of marshmallow cream and maple syrup. A mixture that was quickly starting to
harden as well. I bit back a snicker. It wouldn't harden completely, but that made it worse. It was some of the stickiest, most uncomfortable goop
ever....and the pair were covered. The image of me vanished, the empty grenade falling to the ground as I got treated to some of the most imaginative cussing
I'd heard in a while. It was getting harder and harder to stifle laughter.

I nodded. Time to run, and see what else I could get into. I'd always considered myself Chaotic Good, and it was fun to let the Chaotic side out to play
now and then. I subvocalized, "OK, bring in the cloud. We're going up three levels, to the empty atrium up there. Got the doors?" I received an
affirmative from Fate, and just before my ride appeared, I let my holographic disquise go and whistled loudly. "Kinto'un!" A yellowish cloud
rushed towards me and I jumped into the air. It swooped under me and as my feet hit its surface, I felt the gravity field and force field clamps and braces
kick into place. "Hit it!" We were accelerating towards the elevator banks even before I'd finished speaking. The two Trekkies were watching me -
they couldn't fire, their guns were far too gooped-up for that - cussing and shaking their fists at me. We were already doing seventy when I blew past
them, laughing and heading straight towards the bank of elevators.

Just when it looked like we'd hit, the doors of one elevator snapped open, revealing an empty shaft. We were in and the cloud did a nearly right angle
turn up, still accelerating. Laughter rang down the shaft, the last thing the Trekkies heard before the doors snapped shut again.

Three levels up, a pair of elevator doors whooshed open and my cloud and I flew out. I grinned, doing a couple rolls for the hell of it, and then headed off
towards the emptier parts of the Port to get some food before going back to the battle.

---

Why, yes, the Jason IS enjoying his second childhood, why do you ask? We were never this healthy/fit the FIRST time around, and we've got even more energy
now. And when you consider that we like Coyote and the more positive portrayals of Loki, well...creating mischief is a lot of fun.



The Jason's Kinto'un



It's not a true magic cloud, of course - though the Jason would have gone that route if he could've thought of any way to do it. This was the next best
thing he could come up with. It's a VERY fast hoverboard, with a lawn mower engine waved to serve as a speed drive. There's a gravity field set up so
that the board's surface is always 'down', and force field clamps and braces ensure that the Jason won't fall or get knocked over, no matter
what speeds he hits. Since he's taken the thing up to nearly two hundred mph in atmosphere (and faster in vacuum), this is a good thing. The board also has
a force screen - not a full shield, but enough of one to give protection from wind and particles at higher speeds. The final component is a small dedicated
holoemitter, one that gives the board its 'cloud' appearance.

[robkelk]

No time to rest - we had a trio of ninja on our tail, and they were gaining on us. Time to show them why you don't bring empty hands to a gunfight. I spun, pumped the shotgun, and fired off another spiderweb. They didn't get out of the way in time.

Now we could rest. I brought my commwatch up, then thought better - if Kohran's, AC's, or Kagome's teams were waiting in ambush or hiding from superior forces, I didn't want to give away their positions with an ill-timed comm beep.

"Right," whispered Yayoi, "bad idea."

"Tell me again why we're taking part in this?" Leda asked.

"I really want that near-mint copy of the Liber Canticorum the SJGames staff wagered on winning this. They still haven't converted that one to PDF, and it's the only In Nomine rulebook I don't own."

"Can't you afford to buy one, Noah?"

"Yes, but it's the principle of the thing." Metal scraped metal behind us, and I turned and fired off another spiderweb... to catch a nine-year-old child in the net. Assuming he wasn't a youthened biomod, like the Jason.

"Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You're a bad man!!!!!"

He's got the lungs of a little kid... "Good, bad - I'm the one with the boomstick."

Somebody in a shadow we hadn't yet checked complained, "That's not how the quote goes!" I shot my last spiderweb round in that direction, catching three more weekend warriors. Fivers, from the look of their outfits.

"Thanks for letting us know you were waiting there. If this was a real skirmish, you'd be dead now."

"Asshole," the pedant muttered.

I grinned. "No, I'm a son of a bitch. Says so on my business cards."
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[robkelk]

(OOC: This is highly unofficial. Really. I mean it. If you don't like it, pretend it doesn't exist; I won't mind. But it insisted on being written, so I'm adding it to the story in its own, stand-alone posting.)

Something shimmered into existance five centimeters above the floor. It was two meters in diameter and had exactly zero thickness. At least, it did in this universe.

(Aboard the Epsilon Blade, the ship's DQS alarm sounded. Pity there wasn't anyone aboard to hear it.)

Five women jumped out of the circle and quickly took up defensive positions. The albino turned to the raven-haired youngling. "Are you sure this is the right place?"

"Of course I'm sure. I'm not limited to four-dimensional geometery, remember? And we have time for this now that we've dropped off everyone else in their home worlds, or the worlds they want to stay in."

"And we have to take part... and lose?" asked the tall brunette. "I don't like losing."

"Nancy says we did," the asian blonde mentioned.

"And she'd know," said the remaining woman as she stripped out of her designer clothes and held a pocket-sized gadget to her chest. The others who could also transformed in preparation for the upcoming action.

Lisa, Skuld, Rei, Makoto, and Mirai smiled - predatory smiles. The Girls were taking part in the First Annual Port Phobos Invitational without an invitation.

Twenty-three minutes later, after they had been seen by seven other groups (enough for Nancy to be happy, hoped Lisa), avoided three more groups who would have recognized them immediately, and been defeated by a group of Fisherbots, they found an unmonitored corridor and continued on their way through the infinite realities. No point in overstaying their welcome, after all.

(OOC: We now return you to your regularly-scheduled improvfic, already in progress.)
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Bob Schroeck]

<chortle>
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Black Aeronaut]

Nice one, Rob, on both counts...
Feinan, just because The Jason can see them on a map doesn't mean that camera footage isn't being spoofed. Gina very good at that since the entire collection of Ghost in the Shell: SAC (plus 2nd Gig and Solid State Society) happened to be on Ben's hard drive when she awakened. Of course, Ben's gotta work double-duty to keep her in touch with reality when she's actively working on her network dives.
Besides, it's whoever's responsible for the... interuption... that she's after. As long as The Jason avoids them like the plague, he'll be fine. ^_^
Funny thought. If Gina had entered that room when his holo-cloak was up, she would have pulled off an admirable rendition of Megatron from the (new) Transformers movie...
"I SMELL you, BOYYIEEE!!!"
Now, if hearing an utterly enraged version of Asuka do -that- doesn't make a grown man piddle himself, I don't know what will.  Bonus points if snarled in German, maybe?

[firvulag]

Auger wandered up to Callahan's and stuck his head inside. The bar was mostly filled with fen, almost all of them wearing arm bands to indicate they'd
been eliminated. Near the piano a karaoke machine had been set up and two miniature women were signing a duet. Their audience, which seemed to consist mostly
of drunken copies of the one with out glasses and angel wings, seemed quite enthusiastic. Turning his head to sweep the room, Auger spotted a familiar hat in
the opposite corner and headed over.

F looked up as Auger dropped into the chair next to his. The pilot's normally spotless scarf was singed and the faint odor of caramel corn clung to him.
F grinned and pushed a spare shot glass forward, before filling it from the bottle sitting next to him. "Well," he said, "you lasted longer
than I did."

Auger chuckled and drew a cigarette from the package in his pocket. He placed it in his mouth, and left it unlit. "What happened to you? Last thing I
heard your squad was headed for the docks," he said.

"We were. Ran into a bunch of pirates and ninja fighting on the way. Had a nice little running battle with them 'til we chased the pirates out into
bay 5. Someone had a mortar team dug in out in front of Raven's Garage. We didn't notice until the pom-pom rounds started landing."

Wincing in sympathy Auger took a sip of his drink. "Got all of you did they?"

"Most of us. When I left the survivors had overrun the mortar pit and were taking fire from down the north corridor," said F. "How about you
and Grey? If you're here I'm surprised our resident cat girl isn't along to complain and mock us."

"Well, we ran in to a couple of squads of senshi on level 2," Auger said.

"Ah, and Grey stayed behind to give the rest of you time to escape." F was smirking.

"Yes, she was attempting to 'engage the enemy more closely' when we were forced back to the lifts. I think she knew the senshi in the first
squad, so we probably won't see her for a few days at least."

They both grinned at that, and after raising their glasses to salute their friend and, after draining them, sent them sailing into the fire place to join the
large pile of shards already there.

[Cobalt Greywalker]

Well, I wasn't going to get involved. But then Rob conscripted A.C. Given that it seems as though this is the first official one...

---

There were times Greenpeace wished A.C. wasn't such a stick-in-the-mud, but now things were calmed down that meant a lot of work fitting new cybernetics. Still, the rest of them could let off steam.

She lined up her Nerf-magnetic Accelerator Rifle on her target from where she was floating near the roof of one of the open areas, and plugged her right between the eyes. Goddess did she love these goggles as the mixed bag of Warsies and Colonials wondered where the hell the shot had come from. Especially when the Tachikoma stationed to the side fired a webbing grenade into their group.

She 'murmured' via the wireless neural interface A.C. had installed as a Christmas present.

Eddie's voice came through.

The Tachikoma snickered over the link as the two of them re-engaged their camo. The thought of The Jason being subjected to Marshmallow Hell tickled their funny bones.

***

A platoon of Stormtroopers marching in parade formation can be impressive. Said platoon engaged in synchronised fleeing is eye-boggling. It didn't help as ahead of them what looked like a Hunter/Killer drone from the T3 movie sideslipped on its tilting jets and opened fire with its nose mounted web-pellet gun.

Their temporary allies from the Starfleet Marines came up behind it and fired some beanbags at it. It dodged and returned fire with its tail-mounted web-pellet gun. The assembled soldiers glared as the drone BOWED to them before flying off, and it took a minute for one of the Stormtroopers to realise what had been painted on the nose.

"Was that a gold cricket bail? With DEVIL HORNS?"

***

"Come out Inspector! We have you surrounded!"

"Don't mind me, the Sailor Senshi with the actual NAME." Muttered Sailor Atalante, causing Utena to shoot her a 'NOT helping' look.

"Mary, hush." The pink-haired inspector hissed, gripping her boffa sword tighter.

"Well EXCUS-" POOF! THUD! "EH!?!" Atalante looked up, to see the twelve strong squad of Browncoats literally snoring on the floor. "What for Jupiter's Sake?"

"That, Lass," A Scottish brogue said to the side as a man appeared, "Would be me."

"Adonis." Utena said happily, before noticing the fact that the camouflage suit Adonis was wearing showed off his body VERY well and blushed. Atalante had her jaw hanging open and was drooling.

"Now what would your wife think?" Adonis chuckled, before throwing Atalante over his shoulder. "Come on Lass, Lebia's opened a corridor back to your group. I'll get you to the lifts, then you're on your own. You ken?"

Utena nodded sharply, then the two of them quick-timed it out of there.

***

Lebia was getting a bit bored, so she figured she'd end the stalemate in a fun fashion.

The Spartans looked over their barricade, to see the Landmate and its two Tachikoma companions quickly stack ten washing machines 4-4-2 style, toss something into each of them, turn them on to full spin and push them rapidly towards them.

The misgivings were realised as each of the doors EXPLODED open with a geyser of brightly coloured foam, covering everything.

Then the Disco started, and they couldn't stop dancing.

***

A.C. had intended to stay out of the whole thing, and in fact had returned the invitation as 'Not taking part' (although that didn't stop the blue-haired frenzy of new tricks she'd put together as she sponsored the rest of the Forge crew). In fact she was currently running a series of lectures on the installation of the latest generation of cybernetics to the Phobos medical department. She was even wearing the Red Cross armband designating her as medical personnel (and thus off limits, as was the medical department).

Thus when a mixed bag of Senshi, Supers, and Starfleet invaded, she wasn't the only one extremely annoyed.

"HA! Your little trick with not being publicly involved was pretty clever, but WE have seen through it!" The lead Senshi exclaimed.

"Alcohol poisoning?" One doctor asked.

"They have all the signs." Another agreed.

"We have the room at the moment to treat them." The chief orderly piped up.

"They ARE armed though." The first doctor pointed out.

"It's only Nerf." The second shrugged.

The invasion force started to get nervous, before a cloud of bandages engulfed them.

"Right." The chief orderly clapped her hands together after a brief gape at the now mummified group. "Ward 3 everybody."

"Fen." A.C. snorted, as she turned away from the supply trolley.