revivalproject | [OPEN] The Day Grandfather Invaded

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[OPEN] The Day Grandfather Invaded

WHO: Tommy Shepherd
WHERE: Sh'Ka
WHAT: Shadow Fears in the Storm
WHEN: During Storm Event
WARNINGS: Possible Violence

I. Stone Leaf Issues | Storm Day 1

Going out into the fog wasn't something Tommy had intended to do. Tommy hadn't even realized it was a storm when he woke that morning, not at first. Tommy had a migraine, sure, but he didn't associate it with the storms. Which was stupid. He had been through so many now that he should know the warning signs.

As it was, This was a busy time of the year for Tommy. The last rush of harvest and prep of food for the winter was serious. He split his time between Temba and Sh'Ka, bringing in all he could, loading up the train, and riding back to get it all stocked up. That was the plan. That was why he was in Sh'Ka over night, working in the greenhouse. That was why he was walking outside now with a crate of harvested food that felt heavier than it should have been, and stepping into fog.

Only then does he realize what he'd failed to notice before. The weakness in his arms, the lack of his mind racing, the fact that he couldn't FEEL the energy in his body.

"No," he whispered to himself, but then froze when he saw a flash of movement. Tommy's eyes went toward it. He knew better than to chase things in the storm but this was...

Shit, it looked like Shiro. And fuck if Tommy wasn't going to run after someone he KNEW was here.

"Shiro, hold on!" he shouted, putting down his box and then racing off at human speeds after the shadow. He was so focused on the chase that he missed the sound of a branch swaying, a snapping, and then a harsh whistling of a leaf falling.

II. Killer Robot Attacks | Storm Day 2 On

He got lost. That's the only explanation for Tommy still being out the next day. After all the issues he'd had with the fog the day before, all he could do was find shelter in a mostly fallen building that evening. And, without his powers, well... Simply put, it was one of those instances where sleep actually held sway over Tommy for a lot longer than normal. He slept the whole night through, as if his body was angry for years of what a normal human might consider insufficient sleep.

Since he wasn't in Temba he wasn't affected by the screaming of the moon. It meant sleeping without his powers going on the fritz again (he didn't want to experience that once more). And since he slept through the night, when he woke it was with a crack of lightning. A flash of crimson lightning. Tommy yelped as he jerked awake, and soon his eyes were casting about in the shadows.

Turned out there was another downside to being a superhero here other than the stress of being powerless. Tommy had heard tons of stories over the years of things that had attacked the Earth. Was it really that shocking something should manifest now of shadows and memory? Something that already had crimson eyes? Something that wasn't one something but a whole wealth of them starting to land behind him.

"shit," he said before scrambling to his feet and running into the thick fog. "If anyone is near, run AWAY from my voice."

Because it turned out Tommy's other grandfather was here, and he was hardly friendly.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Approaching is bad. Especially as one should be heeding his warning and avoiding Tommy's approach. Something perhaps illustrated by the way that something exploded in front of him, damaged by a blast issued by one of the leading Ultrons chasing him.

"Oh come on, I thought Thanksgiving is when your old ornery grandfather is supposed to be a particular asshole. It's probably not Thanksgiving yet!"

Even as a 'mere' human, Tommy couldn't help sassing the killer robots.

That blast is certainly one way to ramp things up. Felwinter pumps his shotgun, watching as shapes finally manifest through the fog.

"What are they..?" They were more Exo-like than frames, although in terms of numbers they swarm like the latter. "Thomas, get behind me," he says as he swings his shotgun up and squeezes the trigger the moment he can make out faces behind the glowing eyes.

"They are probably something to do with the storm. But, uh, more specifically? My grandfather. Ultron-drones, Felwinter. Felwinter, I don't know that a stand off is wise."

The drones do stop to consider Felwinter though. Silent, contemplating, hands raised as if they would shoot at him with said hands. Then one spoke, it's voice clearly synthesized but decidedly male.

"Surrender the human."

"Your grandfather?" Was he like Clovis Bray, the creator of Exos who sought an immortal body of metal?

Felwinter's attention remains on the constructs in front of them. Unseen, his optics narrow behind his helmet. If he could access the Light he was confident he'd make short work of them. Still, surrendering anyone is not an option.

"I have no intentions of a standoff." He raises his voice then. "Let me consider." And with that, he fires.

"Run."

"Yeah, paternal if you'd believe it," Tommy answered, definitely putting himself behind Felwinter. Except... Fuck, no, he started a mess.

"I know!" Tommy shouts as he runs. At unfortunately human speeds. Because that's all he is right now. A human whose grandfather wants him dead. Fun shit.

The Ultron fired at does fall, head mostly blown off. That does nothing to stop the other Ultrons behind it from giving chase, hands raised and shooting at them with bursts of energy.

"I've seen Hydra grunts shoot better!" Tommy shouts. He should really stop making trouble.

So far as he's concerned, it was a mess as soon as all these had appeared. Felwinter shoots again before he takes off after Tommy. His shotgun's really only good for close-quarters where it does the most damage, and he'll make full use of it while he can.

"Must you aggravate them?" Like shooting a couple of them in the face wasn't adding to that. "If these are manifested of the storm, how real are they?"

"I don't think I am obligated to harass them, but I am pretty sure I am in the moral right for calling out racist old man relatives at this time of year," he answered as he ran.

Ran and tripped over an uneven bit of road. Which he amazingly recovered from without damage.

"As for how real..."

The trip had slowed him and there was a burst of crimson energy that struck the road near him, small fragments of stone and dirt rising from the hole.

"Real enough it seems."

That...served as a valid enough proof. Felwinter turned to fire again, expending his remaining shots so he could reload as he nudged Tommy to continue to move.

"I do not recall this ever happening in the previous storm," he said as he slid shells into place, snapping the barrel up with a satisfying click. "What should we do?" He asked merely because Tommy seemed to be well acquainted with these robots. Hiding never worked well in his experience when it came to such opponents.

Well, there's that. It's happening the best way i can and TOmmy's having to run and think at the same time.

"I'm not the heroics nerd like Billy is. Hold on. I need to think."

And that wasn't going to help them. But he needed a moment or two to think.

"Shit I need to know this city better. Stupid fog."

"Are they capable of tracking us? What if I try to draw them off?" At least these robots could be destroyed and having the means to fight them made all that much of a difference.

Felwinter glanced back before looking frontwards. "The fog is a hindrance, but I believe I know where we are. If we keep going as we are, we may find the quarry the hard way," he warned.

Huh, that's a super good question.

"I, uh, think so? But you could get hurt. Not sure I want my gramps hurting you, man."

If he knows where they are, though... Oh god, the Quarry.

"That's a great plan. The metals they're made of, it's not like they're overly durable. The advantage Ultron has is in numbers, and those are easier to make if you don't do the absolute strongest metals. What if we can trick them into falling in?"

"I am more durable than you are," Felwinter said. He could tell Felspring wasn't very impressed with the idea, but she knew they wouldn't have much options either way so long as the killer robots were still after them. "Also, I have a weapon whereas you do not."

He looked ahead, not that he could see that far beyond the fog, but perhaps that was key. "Do they not fly? But that may be possible if their visibility is limited as ours, and they are focused on us. ...we just have to make sure we do not fall as well."

"At the moment," Tommy conceded. He wasn't certain if that was always true. His mutation seemed likely to make him rather durable. Gotta be, if you might crash at mach three.

"I mean, some do, but none of these seem to have, so maybe we'll be safe?"

They have to try something.

"I'll stall them." In this fog they couldn't hope to keep a safe eye out for the quarry's edge while simultaneously running. "Find the quarry and bait them. At least you'll be able to see them coming."

The warlord skidded to a halt then, turning as he primed his shotgun to greet the wave of androids with a face full of Lies.

Alright then, it's a good plan.

"I'll try not to fall in. Once I find the edge. Please don't get killed before then, bro."

And he almost seems hesitant to leave.

"I don't die easily," Felwinter reassured him, glancing over his shoulder. He gave a jerk of his helmeted head. "Go."

Looking before him again, he watched as they myriad of glowing eyes became visible in the fog, and he lifted his shotgun. As soon as he was able to make out faces, he pulled the trigger.

Right, well, he didn't have much choice. So there was Tommy, running forward. Not far. Soon he was forced to move to a simple walk, and then to get down on his hands and knees and feel about to find the edge.

"Felwinter!"

The man must have been busy too, given yes, one Ultron-bot fell from the shot, another staggering from being clipped.

"My conflict is not with you," the machines that approached said with one voice as they approached Felwinter, raising their hands again to shoot at him. Their aim was... flawed almost. None of them were truly good body shots.

There was something eerie about being addressed by multiple robots as one. At least the frames he'd fought back home didn't speak, but then it didn't make it very clear as to why they'd been after him either.

"You make it with me by pursuing the boy. You want him, you go through me," Felwinter replied. He heard Tommy's voice, echoing in the fog. And then he saw the blazing shots from the Ultron-bots as they flew his way, not before emptying two more rounds in their direction. He slammed a fist into another's face, grabbing at its arm to turn its wild shots at the others. And then he was spinning, his shoulder clipped by another shot. At closer range it made it more difficult to miss him. Time to go.

The warlord shoved himself to his feet, feeling the ground just beside it fly apart with another blast as he pushed forward and made a run for it. "Felspring..." He caught his Ghost as she decompiled, holding her close as he continued to run. "He's close," she said as she picked up Tommy's position. "Ten feet, slow it down."

Really, Ultron seemed quite confused by this statement that they made conflict with Felwinter. Yet this did not halt their advance, even whenever Felwinter took another down. The good news was that their numbers seemed limited, and so Felwinter was making progress. Though seeing all of them through the fog was miserably hard.

Tommy, meanwhile, was doing his best to try and make the whole thing more dangerous for the Ultrons. So he was trying to haul what loose rocks he could from nearby to the edge of the cliff, hoping that the rocks would coax the machines into falling.

Well, the evil ones. Not Felwinter.

It would be easier if his helmet's HUD was working, but Felspring couldn't patch through to it. This would have to do, as loath as he was to bring her out in such dangerous conditions.

Another shot seared past his side the moment he slowed down, and he could just make out the movement of Tommy ahead. "Incoming," he said, hoping the young man would get the message as he closed in.

Tommy curses when another shot is near his head. Well, this was a mess. Wincing he stood up. Yeah, he could do this.

"Hey! Tin for brains! Seriously, why does Pym allow you to fucking walk around, you box of bolts? Did you know Jan fucking hates you?"

The machines were definitely not pleased with these pronouncements, and their attention was clearly for Tommy now, and they continued forward, lowering their laser hands and raising others. Apparently he'd provoked them enough for a more face to face violence.

Felwinter wasn't sure how this was better. He coaxed his Ghost to slip back into her subspace again as he shifted the grasp of his shotgun in his other hand to pump it singlehandedly, readying the last shot.

Even with the fog being stirred by their movements he could only catch the briefest glimpse of the quarry just past Tommy. Looking to Tommy himself, Felwinter made ready to move as the robots closed in towards the other.

The bots were closing indeed, and soon they were nearing Tommy and the edge. Now he just had to, you know, act. Tommy waited for the first one to grab for him and instead ducked to the side. The off-balance machine took a step forward. A step over the edge. And fell.

One down. Looked like seven more to go.

"Damn," he hissed. "Sorry, seems like that didn't go well."

"It would be more effective if we could lure them without risking ourselves," Felwinter murmured. Unfortunately with his powers went his ability to glide. "We'll just have to help them."

With the bots focused on Tommy, Felwinter moved in and intercepted another as it tried to flank the powerless mutant. He hauled on its arm, flinging it over him and down into the pit. At least as an Exo he was still by default stronger and sturdier than a human.

Well, with that murmuring Tommy couldn't protest that normally he moved faster than thought, so it wasn't like he had much he could do otherwise. Still, Felwinter was succeeding on a plan, and the Ultron-bot sailed into the quarry before crashing below.

Meanwhile another one was reaching for Tommy, and this time he went down to the ground, crawled between it's legs, and kicked it in the metal ass to send it toppling down.

Five more.

"Your old man candy sucks!" he shouted. Hey, they can't all be good insults.

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