Archivist Rescue

[beholding_archivist]

WHO: Jon is there, but YOU ARE THE HE-ROWS!
WHERE: Temba Shopping Center
WHAT: Cool Big Battle Scene aka Spider Smash Party aka That Action Mingle while Jon gets eaten by spiders. Tag one another, have fun and be awesome!
WHEN: Night #1 of the Spider Invasion Event
WARNINGS: Spiders. Violence. Injuries.

ADDITIONAL NOTE: [[ Given the setup of this log, Jon obviously isn't in any position to interact with anyone. This is for your characters to shine and fight alongside one another. So mingle and have fun and don't worry about actively dragging Jon out of there or taking him to safety. Someone will do it even if it's not played out and he ends up unconscious at the safehouse and will have a prompt for that in the log where he isn't being eaten <3 ]]

A loud, metallic clatter gives Jon away as he stumbles through a graveyard of what may at one point have been clothes racks, now devoid of any fabric to carry and left to rot along with the shelves and changing rooms of the store that used some sort of winged fish-creature for its logo. Cursing under his breath, Jon pushes the metal skeleton that has half fallen onto his shoulder away before casting a quick look over said shoulder towards the half-crumbled entrance of this particular store.

Outside, he can hear them, drawing closer yet again. Countless bodies, eight times as many legs and mandibles eager to bury themselves into his flesh again. Coming to the shopping center has been a mistake. He hasn't known more massive insects have built their nest here and now he's stumbling away from their growing number after narrowly escaping a single one of them surprising him two stories down. The bite in his leg still hurts.

The rubble blocking off most of the entrance gives a shudder and Jon freezes, "Shit shit shitshit shit!"

Hobbling deeper into the store despite the lack of light, Jon pulls out his phone and quickly posts a call for help on the network:

'someone help me please
i'm trapped
shopping center
second floor'

If anyone tries to answer to that text message on the network, they won't be getting a response, for as soon as Jon has sent it, the spiders break through the rubble and in what little light there is all he can see is a stream of large, swift but mostly silent bodies drawing inevitably closer. He turns back around and tries to run again, swearing and pleading to find another door out of the store.

Maybe he's lucky to find that backdoor. Maybe he's lucky to find that small corridor leading him back into the main part of the mall. Maybe he even believes that about as long as it takes for the first, dark, heavy and many-legged body hits him square into his back and throws him to the ground, quickly followed by many more. And while Jon's initial scream is cut off by the impact with the floor, but another is quick to follow when the first sharp leg stabs him into his side, tearing into flesh and skin as easily as the mandible of the next creature digging into his shoulder when he tries to struggle his way out from the growing mass of legs and bodies. He winces audibly when a leg narrowly misses his head and knocks his glasses off, sending them clattering to the floor and out of sight.

What Jon can vaguely see, however, when managing to peer past those creatures pinning him down, is that by now the entire mall is crawling with these beasts...

Comments

[doubled_speed]

"No fucking clue. Not the city."

Tommy moves, stepping up to one and kicking it which sends the thing flying into a distant building.

"We need to get to a better position."

[on_repeat]

"Upstairs?"

Echo swings the blaster at a jagged leg that instantly fills in the pocket of empty space, pulling the trigger on its attached body shortly afterward. He starts moving back, giving a quick sideways glance to Tommy. "Better vantage point, at least."

[doubled_speed]

"Also leaves us trapped if they can climb. But I can get you up higher."

It's an offer as he swings past Echo and punches another creature out of the air. His hand then thrusts out before him and another few creatures explode.

[on_repeat]

"Good point." Sidestepping as Tommy swings past, Echo spins and shoots another twice in the eyes. "Where? And how?"

Which means he's open to the idea.

[doubled_speed]

"Pick a place you wanna go, and I'll get us there," Tommy offers.

Another thrust of his hand, another few pops.

[on_repeat]

"Second floor's where Jon is. I don't know if there are any other areas that won't make us open targets." Echo shoots, then elbows another beastie, bodily shoving it to the side as he looks back at Tommy. "If we can block off some of the more obvious entrances, it'll stave off some of their ugly mugs for a while."

Two more shots ring out as he gets back to the part where the speedster said something about getting them there, doing a double-take after recalling what he did earlier. "–Can you even– "

[doubled_speed]

"Gravity and I have an understanding. She doesn't ask, and I don't laugh at her," Tommy answers. Then he's moving to catch Echo up in his arms.

"Try not to lose your cookies!"

And if the man doesn't immediately struggle out of his arms, Tommy moves immediately, putting on a burst of speed to get them in the building and, instead of straight up the stairs, up an internal wall to an overhang, which he flips over the edge of to put Echo down. There. Time to plan.

[on_repeat]

All of this happens faster than he can process it. Little struggle takes place as Echo loses his feet beneath him and the world suddenly blurring into murkier colors until they come to a stop.

The edge of the overhang could have proven to be a terrible spot to land, but he manages to stabilize himself in the haze of what just happened, kneeling, then pressing his back against the wall.

"Okay," he exhales, voice dropping to a whisper as he fights some degree of sickness at the corners of his vision. "That'll work." Getting the range finder on his helmet down over the right side of the visor takes some doing, but once it's set he gets a better sense of where everything is.

"There's a mass of them coming from the other side, but there's no sign of a specific entry point."

[doubled_speed]

Yeah, speed was always an issue for other people. For right now he mostly smiles.

Still, he nods at the information offered and stretched a little.

"How do you wanna handle this?"

[on_repeat]

"We bring down that walkway." The ARC Trooper nods his head at the nearest bridge connecting both sides of the shopping center's mezzanine. "It's messy, but it'll be effective for a while. Think you can bring it down faster?"

[doubled_speed]

"Yeah, but I don't see there being a point. Walls, ceilings, they've got other routes."

Still, if it's needed of him...

"If we're certain there's another way to this floor from a different point, then I'll blow it."

[on_repeat]

Tommy has a point, which doesn't make any of this any easier when it comes down to having a backup plan.

"Okay. Fine by me." Echo pushes the range finder back into its upright position. "We'll wait on it. Jon's safety is our top priority."

[doubled_speed]

"Alright. Come on, let's find the nerd," Tommy answered, smirking to himself.

"Mount up and roll out or whatever."

[on_repeat]

Echo also smirked beneath the helmet, nodding as the speedster agreed to their current course of action.

With that, he leapt off of the overhang, landing straight onto one of the spiders below, shots fired outward. Back into the fray with them!