"Pardon me, 'scuse me, coming through -- HEY! OUTTA THE WAY!" Katy planted her fists on her hips and glared at the confused Hellions staring
back at her.
"Hey, it's a... cape?" one of them remarked doubtfully.
Katy looked at her watch and sighed, then keyed her comm. "Sorry, Terrence, you're going to have to try again. The LZ is cluttered, I won't get
a clean distance from this."
The Hellion who'd spoken cocked his head, puzzled. "What're you -- OOOF!" The words -- and consciousness -- were snatched from him as a
blur impacted him at about chest height, driving him back across the street to impact a warehouse with a sickening crunch. The blur, once it stopped moving,
turned out to be another Hellion. Katy trotted over to the pair, ignoring the other Hellions standing about, and dropped arrest beacons on them.
"Ready?" came Terrence Knights voice from her comm. She glanced around and nodded.
"Yep! I think you oughta try increasing the arc if you can. Say, another... two degrees, maybe. That last one wouldn't have cleared the warehouse,
even if one of his buddies wasn't in the way."
"Roger." There was a moments pause, then: "FORE!"
"You might want to move," Katy repeated to the still-confused group nearby. "You have about... eight seconds, I'd say, before he
lands."
This time, the projectile was conscious enough to be screaming, the noise Dopplered beyond regular pitch. It sounded like an incoming bomb, almost. The
Hellions standing around glanced at each other, then at the diminutive schoolgirl who was shading her eyes and peering up into the cloudless sky, then up at
the sky themselves...
... and scattered.
The incoming Hellion hit, cracking the sidewalk and bouncing across the street to fetch up against the fence next to the warehouse. Katy tagged him, then
raised Terrence on the comm again.
"Still not there, Terrence. Your trajectory is still too flat. If you're going to break the five-hundred-yard mark, you need some -lift-. Did you
read the Aerodynamic Properties of Hellions paper I prepared for you?"
"FORE!" was the response. Katy sighed and looked to the skies again.
--sofaspud
--"Listening to your kid is the audio equivalent of a Salvador Dali painting, Spud." --OpMegs
back at her.
"Hey, it's a... cape?" one of them remarked doubtfully.
Katy looked at her watch and sighed, then keyed her comm. "Sorry, Terrence, you're going to have to try again. The LZ is cluttered, I won't get
a clean distance from this."
The Hellion who'd spoken cocked his head, puzzled. "What're you -- OOOF!" The words -- and consciousness -- were snatched from him as a
blur impacted him at about chest height, driving him back across the street to impact a warehouse with a sickening crunch. The blur, once it stopped moving,
turned out to be another Hellion. Katy trotted over to the pair, ignoring the other Hellions standing about, and dropped arrest beacons on them.
"Ready?" came Terrence Knights voice from her comm. She glanced around and nodded.
"Yep! I think you oughta try increasing the arc if you can. Say, another... two degrees, maybe. That last one wouldn't have cleared the warehouse,
even if one of his buddies wasn't in the way."
"Roger." There was a moments pause, then: "FORE!"
"You might want to move," Katy repeated to the still-confused group nearby. "You have about... eight seconds, I'd say, before he
lands."
This time, the projectile was conscious enough to be screaming, the noise Dopplered beyond regular pitch. It sounded like an incoming bomb, almost. The
Hellions standing around glanced at each other, then at the diminutive schoolgirl who was shading her eyes and peering up into the cloudless sky, then up at
the sky themselves...
... and scattered.
The incoming Hellion hit, cracking the sidewalk and bouncing across the street to fetch up against the fence next to the warehouse. Katy tagged him, then
raised Terrence on the comm again.
"Still not there, Terrence. Your trajectory is still too flat. If you're going to break the five-hundred-yard mark, you need some -lift-. Did you
read the Aerodynamic Properties of Hellions paper I prepared for you?"
"FORE!" was the response. Katy sighed and looked to the skies again.
--sofaspud
--"Listening to your kid is the audio equivalent of a Salvador Dali painting, Spud." --OpMegs