Breaking Wind Part 2
IC date:
OOC date: May 29
Location:
PCs: Blackbird Rusty-Gears
NPCs: Tarnish, The Wind
GM: AJ

When we last left our intreped invaders, they were getting their breath knocked out of'em by The Wind. The ex-Wonderbolt (…well kicked out of the academy anyway) was whipping up whirlwinds, blowing bombs back at Blackbird and Rusty, and generally being a pain in the pony posterior!

Naturally this gives him a moment to gloat. "Hahaha!" he thusly gloats, standing with his wings unfurled, just itching to spin another wind or two. "Woe be to any who thought they could sneak onto /our/ island! This is Dragon territory, and tresspassers will be torn apart! Muahahahaha!" Cue a lightning strike off in the background.

Blackbird, having been protecting Rusty, tries to pull himself free from her… only to find they're stuck. "…Oh for crying out loud," he swears. "This is going /terribly/!" Still, they're not dead yet! He grabs at a netgun on his belt, yanking at it and pulling it from its sticky goop shell. He aims, and … fires!

Rusty-Gears blinks, squirming a bit. GAH why did she go for tar tar is sticky and this was not as good an idea as she thought it would be uuuugh. Also, he's monologuing. She is not a fan of the monologuing, but at least it opens an opportunity. She rolls her eyes slightly and tries to twist around to get at the launcher again and send another tar rope after the fired net.

Nets! And tar! The Wind's laughter is interrupted by approaching traps! "Wha..HEY!" A fierce flap of strong wings sends more wind at the flung contraptions! …But, yeah. Wind. Through an open net. It isn't all that effective at keeping it from coming at him, forcing the unruly pegasus to ultimately hop back, letting the net fall at his hooves! "HAH!" He exclaims, pointing a hoof, "Take TH—"

*SPLAT*

Suddenly tar! Tar, gumming up his wings, and his face, and his hooves, making the would-be villain stumble, flap (or attempt to with gunky wings), and crash into the nearby mountain wall. "Oof!" An opening!

Blackbird squirms and bucks, trying to get out of the sticky tar he's trapped in with Rusty. Gah! Well, with that not exactly resolving in this instant, he roots around in his packs… Aha, a tranq dart!

He gingerly lifts the blowpipe, hoping he doesn't buck everything up, and… ptoo!

Rusty-Gears takes the moment to try and get loose from the tar again. It's not working so well, but she's trying! She's also pulled what looks like a little grenade from somewhere in the commotion, but she's holding onto it for now. Apparently that falls in 'last resort' territory.

Thunk!

Not as dramatic as a *SPLAT*, but potentially more effective. The Wind gets a dart in the flank! This earns a whinny of rage, and some fierce struggling with the tar! Fierce, for all of a few seconds, before it turns to a more sluggish stumbling, and…finally a futile flop onto the ground. A heap of tarballed pegasus, The Wind blows no more.

Blackbird looks grimly satisfied — even the hint of a smile — as The Wind falls. But then he looks down at the tar, and at Rusty. "So. … How do we get out of this mess?" he asks. "Any universal solvent?"

"I'm working on that," she mumbles around the mouthful of explosive device, fumbling to try and dig in her pack. There's a lot of rattling and clattering and she nearly drops /another/ grenade in the process, catching it precariously on one hoof and bouncing it back into the saddlebag.

Blackbird freezes at that grenade dropping but thank goodness she catches it. He lets out a breath, and then looks around to get his bearing.

Rusty-Gears eventually manages to withdraw a sizable corked bottle, and gets to work pouring out a bit here and there on the tar. "That did not exactly go as planned," she mutters around the bottle, tugging one hoof free, "but I guess it worked out."

"You're tellin' me," Blackbird replies, with a hint of a chuckle. He stays still for her, moving where she tells him, and then finally climbs out of the gunk. "Need a hoof?"

As for the bearing… The area, now with a Sleeping Wind knocked out in the pathway, black with tar and all, is a flat sort of transition between beach and forest. The beach lies behind the heroes. The forest line lies before them. A rock wall of the mountain lines one side of this strip, with a sheer cliff drop back into the ocean on the other.

The exits are: Back to the Beach, Into the Forest, Climb the Impossibly Tall Mountain, or Jump Off a Cliff.

"I got it." Rusty picks herself off and gives herself a shake, which would be more useful if tar wasn't sticky. She re-corks the bottle and sticks it back in the saddlebag. "So what do we do with this one?"

The Wind snoozes away. There's a tar bubble coming out of one nostril, even. That's how tranqed he is.

"I think we should tie him up and hang him from the trees," Blackbird comments, "so that when he wakes up, he still won't be coming after us anytime soon. After that, we should probably head into the forest and see if we can't find Tarnish."

Rusty-Gears nods slowly, though she does lay her ears back a bit. "Isn't she supposed to be the inside agent here? I thought we were taking the long way around."

"Well, I'm assuming the fact that they attacked her means that she's not really an inside agent so much as a captive at this point," Blackbird replies, shrugging. "I'm making it up as we go along right now."
Rusty-Gears sighs and glances around. "Well… let's get to it, then."

Blackbird nods and pulls out some rope from his pack, approaching the pegasus. "Le's ged dis guy tagen curr of," he says, nodding with his head.

When that's done, the Wind hogtied, muzzled, clipped, and hung upside-down by his ankles from the strongest couple of tree branches in a tall tree, he starts leading the way into the forest. "…So, do you think that was all a show, then?" he asks Rusty in an undertone as they walk.

Rusty-Gears shrugs one shoulder, ears twitching alertly as she follows him. "I'm not sure. Went down easier than I expected. Had an advantage and didn't press it. Gave us a pretty easy opening. Could've been show… or could've been an idiot. Hard to really tell."

"Fair enough." Blackbird ducks under some leaves and then steps aside to lift them for Rusty, without consciously thinking of it. "I guess we should keep our eyes open, and keep an ear out. We're treading treacherous territory."

The forest! Closer to a jungle than a forest honestly. Vines, and trees, and plenty of dense brushland. It's also relatively quiet, with nary the wingbeat of pegasi to mar other jungle noises. Like jungle animals. Or mosquitos… The outpost Tarnish spoke of in the boat briefing is around here! Nearby even.

It's right there. A tall tower, painted in green camoflage. Surely this was where Tarnish was supposed to meet up with the plucky pair.

That might explain why it's so quiet… Or why there doesn't appear to be any ponies /in/ the guard tower outpost. There's a convenient ladder leading up into the small building.

Rusty-Gears blinks up at the outpost, then casts a glance around. She's looking a bit suspicious, scanning the area for any signs of a set-up. Too easy? Maybe, or maybe she just doesn't trust Tarnish as far as she can throw her just yet.

As they near the building, Blackbird slows and looks at Rusty with an expression that somehow communicates 'stealthing? Stealthing.' And how great is it that their respective colors are green and brown, anyway? He slips into the trees, moving swiftly, silently, and stealthfully: the three S's of eSpionage.

There aren't any signs of a set-up. There are, however, signs of a scuffle. Namely how the ground is messed up around the ladder, and several imprints around the ground indicating where the impact of something heavier than a leaf landed. Vaguely pony-shaped even. There may have been a fight here at one point recently. But now? There's no sign of anything up to the ladder…

Rusty-Gears is not quite the stealth master that Blackbird is, apparently. She's focusing more on the 'silent' and 'stealthy' and kind of losing something in the 'swift'. Also the loaded saddlebags made it a bit trickier. But she does passably, slinking after him cautiously.

Blackbird peeks from a hiding spot, pointing to the indentations in the ground. Eegh. He looks to Rusty, and gives her a (probably unnecessary) let's-be-cautious look… and then he carefully moves to the ladder to climb it. … There's really no way to be stealthy on a ladder.

It is true. Ladders are hard to be stealthy on, what with the metal rungs and horseshoes and hooves and such. But nothing seems to happen! Nope. Not until someone peeks over the top of the ladder to the railing, and the darkened building at the top. Where a pile of bodies has been stacked up inside of the building, visible through the doorway the ladder led up to. That explains the scuffle! Partially.

Rusty-Gears peers up the ladder after him, one hoof on the bottom rung, looking halfway to grabbing one of those grenades should anything go wrong.

The part of Blackbird that's gone soft and gotten used to a nice comfy educator's life recoils in horror at the bodies. The rest of him merely grimaces. He pauses at the top rung to pull out a small vial of something in his teeth, and then he climbs into the building. It's still kind of hard to be stealthy, but he sure tries, skirting around the bodies but trying to get a handle on identities, if he can.

They each wear a uniform bearing a dragon-head insignia. They may very well be soldiers! A point that's confirmed by the voice of Tarnish coming from a corner. "You're late. I thought you'd be here sooner."

The mottled pony steps out next to the pile of bodies, her expression all too grim considering the situation. "You missed all the fun."
Rusty-Gears waits a moment longer at the bottom before moving to climb about halfway up the ladder, so that she could call up, "Blackbird?" without being too loud about it.

Blackbird turns at the voice, about ready to throw the vial… but it's Tarnish. So, he drops the vial into a(n easily accessible) pocket, and calls, "Come on up, Rusty." Toeing one of the bodies, tall, grim, and silent approaches Tarnish with a grimace. "What's the situation?"

Did that body just twitch?

Tarnish stares at the two infiltrators. Blackbird, and Rusty (halfway up the ladder). "It's not too bad actually. Despite appearances." she says, sitting her flank down on the floor of the small building. "It seems everything's going according to plan. I'm glad you two survived."

Rusty-Gears looks a bit relieved at this, hauling herself the rest of the way up the ladder. She gives the pile of ponies a sideways glance, then looks over to Tarnish. "This is the plan? Because I was under the impression the ship wasn't supposed to get shot at."

Blackbird nods a little. "It got a little sticky there for a while," he comments, and inwardly he's snickering at his pun, even if outwardly he's totally straight-faced. Dad-humor is sort of his vehicle for living. As for the ship getting shot at, he glances to Rusty, and then to Tarnish. Hey, good point.

There's a brief glance given to Rusty, then Tarnish squints at Blackbird. "Aside from that hiccup." she clarifies. "It couldn't be helped. These guys are paranoid of everything, you know?" She then glances past Blackbird and Rusty both, towards the door. "It doesn't matter. The rest of the plan should proceed smoothly."

Rusty-Gears raises an eyebrow but doesn't push the matter, sitting back on her haunches and straightening one saddlebag. "Let's hope so."

"So what's next?" Blackbird inquires, sitting as well.

"Next is the fun part." Tarnish says, cracking her first smile. For the briefest moment, her eyes take on a faint, greenish glimmer.

"Next I take you to see Big Hoss."

The pile of ponies suddenly kicks into motion! One great whoosh of air, as held breaths are let out in the same motion that a good half-dozen soldier-types attempt a good ol' fashioned ambush of two sitting ponies!

"…And we interrogate you and your little friend. Doesn't that sound fun?"