Boss Run, Round One

[revenancemods]

Who: A Nightmare and you!
What: BOSS BATTLE
Where: First district near the large doors
When: About two hours after this post
Warnings: Violence. On account of boss fights.

It's quiet. Much quieter than this area usually is - the fact that it's devoid of Nightmares might have something to do with that.

You've heard about the Nightmares Spellican summoned. Right now, all you can do is be on your guard and wait.

[OOC: Everyone gets the same prompt to start; the only difference is the location. Please reference this post for boss battle tagging rules. Once a good number of people have tagged into each prompt, we'll introduce the bosses. After a boss has tagged into a thread, no new characters may tag in. Ready? Go!]

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[lessabrasive]

Lin Beifong stood dead center of the plaza that made up the First District, eyes forward and attention seemingly on the doors around her. Stance wide, her feet were planted solidly on the ground as she waiting, arms at her sides. Beside her, her pricklemane fussed, while Azurite flapped uneasy circles overhead, finally coming down to land on top of one of the lampposts. So far, his scans hadn't picked up anything, and he didn't like it either.

[eveninglistening]

Cecil, meanwhile, sits on the curb and goes over routine gun maintenance. He's a little rusty, what with elementary school being such a long time ago (though how long, exactly, is a bit blurry), but thankfully his pistol is not.

"Nice night for the emergence of nightmarish beasts from the depths of our collective unconscious, isn't it?" he calls to Lin, maybe a bit more cheerfully than is entirely warranted by the situation. But it is an awfully nice night.

[allfunandgamesuntil]

It was always a nice night in Traverse Town, it seemed like. Nice temperature, nice people, and unfortunately full of monsters. York nodded to Lin and Cecil as he approached, Sparky and Max at his heels. The dream eaters stopped when he did. "I guess this is as good a place as any to make a stand. At least we won't bring a roof down on us."

[fromearth]

Sparks was pulling on his robot fists as he strode up, sending glances into the shadows. His Hebby Repp, Europa, paced in circles around him, tasting the tension and wholly on edge.

"Shaping up to be quite the showdown." The marshal glanced over the others; they looked pretty capable, and also Cecil.

[lessabrasive]

She turned to look at Cecil. "That's one way to look at it," but not necessarily what Lin was thinking when it came to Traverse Town. The sky around here never changed, bar a few shadows recently ahead of the arrival of the Spellican.

There's an almost resigned look for Sparks, Lin none too thrilled to see the space cowboy, but York gets a blink - and a friendlier nod. "Good to see you back."

"Now, it's a matter of waiting for something to come to us. And I can't say I'm not glad for the extra reinforcements."

[lessabrasive]

Given the close 'eye' she'd been keeping on the ground rather than the air around her, the harsh snarl-growl in their midst caught Lin by surprise. That the Meta simply materializes there, no warning at all, shouldn't have been - it was a Nightmare, after all, even if it was based upon a real person.

She let out a yell nonetheless. "Look out!" Leaping back, Lin drew back one arm, then snapped it forwards, a reeling sound following the action as a coil of metal was loosed from its holster on her back. She snapped it to one side, cracking a cobble, before the metal was redirected, lashing directly at the Meta Nightmare with intent to bind it. If it could be bound.

Her Pricklemane YOWLED, and spun at once, puffing out his tail with intent to hit the Nightmare, while Azurite hovered overhead, eyes turning white. Pale beams lit the surface below as he began to Scan their opponent. All the better to find a weak point with..

[wavesinherheart]

It figured that the Nightmare that showed up here would be one that she hadn't fought before. But there was hardly any time to dwell on that. Not when she didn't like the looks of that volley one bit, much less the fact that the Nightmare had been able to simply appear like that.

Still, she calls on her shields just long enough to block the incoming projectiles, as her Pricklemane launches itself at the Nightmare in what can only really be called a headlong tackle. Her Komory Bat, meanwhile, dives in with the intent of seeing how much of an effect a sonic blast would have on this particular Nightmare.

Aqua's own attack doesn't come until after she's relatively certain that she's weathered the worst of the Nightmare's initial volley. But she's not holding back either, as she sends a blast of lightning at the Nightmare.

[grifshot]

Fuck. Everything.

The moment the Meta appeared Grif was running for cover. Goddamn he hated that thing and several years distance from it hadn't changed that opinion. He dove behind a random box before leaning to the side to unleash a hail of bullets.

Granted knowing this asshole, it wouldn't be effective, but he didn't have a cliff and a warthog so this was all he had. His hebby repp curled beside him, launching the occasional fireball.

[defrostingicequeen]

"You - " Elsa gaped at Jack for a moment, before striding forward. "You're Jack Frost!" Her tone wasn't exactly the childlike awe of someone meeting a figure of legend. If anything, she sounded like she wasn't sure whether or not to be shocked or angry. "You - how did you even - "

Seeing Jack had completely distracted her from the original reason they were all out here, and the Meta's sudden appearance made her gasp. A thick wall of ice shot up in front of her as she threw up her arms, hopefully shielding both her and anyone nearby from the explosives.

[frostyfuntimes]

It wasn't quite the reaction he'd been expecting. He looked puzzled, "Uh...yeah...guess you've heard of me then."

Jack wished he had the chance to speak to the girl with the winter dress a little more. However, the mood was immediately killed by the sudden rumble. "Huh?" Jack looked up and launched back into the air just as missiles flew at them. This must be the Meta. He knew the other Dreameaters had a more animal appearance and one was an alicorn.

Right. Time to show everyone what a full-fledged Guardian can do. He spun in the air, rising above the woman's sudden ice wall, and flung ice out towards the attacking Nightmare.

[lessabrasive]

Azurite hooted loudly, the bright lights projected in the Scan from his eyes vanishing as the effort was completed. Just in time to see Lin yell, as the blast of lightning from Melody rushed not into the Meta's armor, but instead along the cables she'd bound him with, shocking his human. The cables slackened at once, allowing the Meta to shake them free, and Lin staggered back a moment as steam-like smoke rising from her metal armor.

By Aang's beard, why did everyone have to use electricty of all things?!

The owl dropped, swooping briefly at Melody's ears and scolding her with fierce hoots to be more careful. That was his Person, and now look what you did! Then he flew in fast circles, sweeping with his wings, hoping to perhaps connect above with the invisible something. Tanzanite huffed furiously, spikes getting spikier, before extending his tail and spinning about; bird above and cat-thing below, surely one of them would hit something?

Once the rounds started again, however, Lin shook herself back to awareness, and one hand formed a fist, dragged up and forwards, summoning a slab of earth and stone to form a wall of defense in front of her. She needed to catch her breath a moment, and wouldn't be going to anyone else's defense until she'd shaken off the effects of the electric shock she'd received.

[wavesinherheart]

Well, it's at least not as bad as could have been under the circumstances. There haven't been any unexpected explosions of magical energy, and although she can't say she much approves of the idea of an enemy that can voluntarily turn itself invisible there's not really much that she can do about it. That kind of magic isn't one that she's terribly familiar with and even if she's heard things about spells that can undo that sort of thing she's fairly certain that isn't going to be of much use.

Unfortunately there isn't a lot else that she can do, and short of having something marking where the Nightmare is, she's not about about to try another attack, lest she hit one of her allies. But that doesn't mean she's entirely out of things to do. It just means that it's going to be a lot harder to manage anything meaningful, and she calls up her shield once again as she turns to her Pricklemane. "Do you think you can find it?"

The Pricklemane squeaks back an answer along the lines of it can certainly try and bounces in to do its best to track something that can't be seen. Aqua, meanwhile, figures she might as well go the safe route, and lays down a line of magical mines, on the off chance that the Nightmare should happen to draw close enough to set them off.

[grifshot]

Oh that's hot.

Grif's hatred for everything is rising exponentially. This is not his job. He drives and he infiltrates and he hates that he misses his squad right now because he could order them to do shit rather than do it himself.

And now Wash wants him to get Church out of here? Fuck all of this.

Grif scans the battlefield for Church while his hebby repp keeps up a volley of flame.

"Where are you you stupid blue?"

[fromearth]

Sparks stumbled out of his mess of a dodge, grunting from irritation. "Europa!" He looked to the wounded creature, which gave a weary croak. He can handle some poor coordination, but getting other people in trouble for it doesn't sit so well. It was dawning on him he hadn't been in a fight with this many people involved for quite a while, and it was going to take some adjusting.

"Come on, buckaroo, you're too tough to let this guy get the better've you." He scooped up the Spirit, dodging and shooting down what of the explosive rounds he could.

"Croach, you okay?" Yeah, Croach was okay, but it was polite or whatever to ask. "I do not like this guy not being trackable."

[journaldesignated]

This. This was not good. This was, in fact, incredibly painful. It turned out that being struck in the chest with an explosive round was not a good life decision, whether it was intentional or not. It would, however, explain why Croach was currently flat on the pavement with what could only be described as a small crater in his chest.

"Human dreams are terrible," he declared as soon as his vocal cluster had repaired itself well enough to accommodate speech, "and I do not want to be a part of this one anymore." He paused for a moment. "I am healing - praise Nah Notek - and I find the ability of the Nightmare designated the Meta to evade my senses disturbing. Nonetheless, I shall do what I can to track him." Just as soon as his chest finished healing.

His meow wow made absolutely certain that its person was going to be okay before casting a cure spell on Europa. There you go!

[lessabrasive]

"Thanks," Lin managed, snatching the potion from the air when Wash threw it her way, and she'd popped the cork to take a mouthful when the Meta's missiles hit. While it's not the sort of success she was going for, Lin's wall works well enough in that being showered in rocks and dust was certainly better than getting thrown off her feet again. Or electrocuted.

Tanzanite was already rolling back up onto his paws, hissing and spiking up into a red prickly tantrum, but Azurite wasn't moving at all. Huffing a curse under her breath, Lin kept one eye on the Meta as it came under attack from the others, sprinting away from the ruins of her defense to scoop up her bird. The other half of the potion was tipped down the spirit's throat, while green eyes fixed on the Meta while the Nightmare was tossed up and down and up and down by the mines.

It would have been hilarious, had the situation not been so serious. But when the shield went up, the Earthbender froze, startled. "Washington! Is that..?!" The pink-purple light and the barrier itself was all too familiar, but North wasn't here. So how..?

Later. Though the barrier was still in place, keeping things out, the Meta stood on solid ground. And Lin could make use of that. Keeping Azurite tucked into the crook of her arm, the other hand extended, fingers stretching out, before her palm slammed down on the pavement beneath her. With any luck, the cobbles would shake, break apart, shooting up in small blocks to knock the Nightmare off his feet once more, if not cause some damage within the bubble.

[grifshot]

Grif flings himself to the ground to avoid getting hit, but it doesn't quite work and it's probably a good thing he's wearing armour. Wash is so going to owe him for this.

But all the more reason to grab Church and get out of there. The stupid thing's got AIs it seems and that's never a good thing. Out of all the enemies he's faced over the years, Grif can safely say that the Meta is the worst.

"If I die I'm killing all of you!" he shouts, running towards Church.

[wavesinherheart]

Well, that's certainly one way to find the Nightmare. True, Aqua hadn't quite expected her mines to end up working that well, but it does answer the question of where it is, and so she offers a nod to her Pricklemane. It most certainly had found it, even if she'd rather hoped the finding to come with a little more attacking. But still, she isn't going to fault her Pricklemane for that.

She isn't going to ignore the opening left either, and while the shield seems to be fairly well set to avoid any attacks from any of the usual directions, Aqua is willing to bet that it isn't going to much about attacks from below. With that in mind, she points her keyblade at the sky, and the ground beneath the Meta freezes. Moments later, a series of ice crystals all but erupt from the ground underneath the Meta and then shattering.

Her Pricklemane, meanwhile, makes its way back over to Aqua's side. There's not much it can do about that shield, after all, and its job of finding the nightmare is over for the time being.

[fromearth]

Europa positively cooed in amazement. Golly, his person is amazing! No wonder he gets to be Boss of Bad Guy Shooting back home, he's got to be the best Bad Guy shooter in the universe! Did everyone see that? Did everyone see how cool he looked?! He shot the guy when the guy hadn't even been there! Gosh that's just neat!

Yeah, it was pretty neat. He looked pretty hard-boiled at that moment, lit by the explosions, laser pistol smoking, fists lifted in the air as he proudly proclaims:

"WINNER!"

If you can't gloat about a pure luck shot, what can you gloat over, right? The celebration can't last too long (or at least not as long as he'd like), as he has to line up another (awesome) shot. Obviously he can't get through much with those shields up, but if that breaking ground disrupts the shields he'll be the first to let off a shot.

[defrostingicequeen]

Well. That certainly was an impressive amount of explosions.

And also yet another person using ice magic. Elsa is briefly distracted by simply staring at Aqua. She looks so...in control.

At any rate, she's probably got the whole "attack with ice from the ground" thing covered much more handily than Elsa could have managed. The queen fully intends not to taint Aqua's use of magic with her own, but the mere thought of it sends a few sharp icicles lancing out of the ground towards the Meta, even as she turns to sprint in the other direction, skirts flowing around her.

She draws to a halt near Cecil, dropping into a crouch and hovering awkwardly, as if she'd like to reach out to him but is afraid to. Oh, someone told her something about this...the potions! Having been avoiding the Moogles somewhat, she doesn't have many, but the people around here are very generous; she draws one out of her pockets and offers it to him, holding it carefully at arms-length. "Drink this. They say it helps."

[lessabrasive]

So much for that.

Lin's gaze narrowed at the Meta, before faint hoots at her elbow had her looking down. "You, stay out of the way," she told Azurite firmly, before the owl spirit vanished in a puff of smoke - dismissed, for now.

Tanzanite resumes spinning, still hopping mad and spikey-red, tail held out straight to maintain that momentum and hopefully slip him past the fire wall being cast. Lin herself summons up a thick block of earth before her, then steps back, and lashes out with one foot, sending said block FLYING towards the Meta itself. With any luck, the stone column would catch any flames in her direction as well.

[wavesinherheart]

Well, that hadn't quite gone as expected. Still, there'd been nothing for it but to try, and they know for the next time, now. Which doesn't really mean that it's going to be particularly easy to deal with the fact that it's so well shielded, but there's always ways around that. It's just a question of which one will happen to work best under the circumstances.

But that can be something to deal with the next time it comes out. Right now, there's the fire wall to deal with and she calls her Pricklemane to her side before bringing up her shield again. With any luck it'll keep the Pricklemane safe as well as her; her Komory Bat flies above the fire in the hopes of dodging that way.

Once the fire has passed, she sends her own attack heading the Meta's way. This time, it's another blast of lightning, as her Komory Bat comes down from above, offering a sonic screech of it's own.

[grifshot]

Grif has finally reached Church and yanks him towards an alley.

"C'mon, you heard Wash! Let's get out of here!" he shouts at the Blue and like hell he was sticking around when the Meta was there. That guy was a grade A asshole as far as he was concerned. Granted that probably applied to Church as well. And most people in the vicinity.

[fromearth]

"Really... probably should have seen that coming, retrospect..."

It was more a grumble at himself, but hey, they'd all maybe hedged their bets a little too early on an all-too-easy answer. Let's all share blame where appropriate.

While Sparks whirled up his lasso and tossed for a parapet high on the gate, Europa growled over at the Meta and threw up a Fire Screen over his Person, where he still perched on one shoulder. With a strong enough hold on the rope, Sparks could try and swing clear of the fire and get off another shot. It would probably look really cool. Again.

[frostyfuntimes]

"Oh come on!" Jack protested. He'd been sure that Lin and Aqua's trick would work. It doesn't seem fair that it doesn't. Then again, what are you going to do about it now?

Well he can fight back now that the stupid shield is out of the way. "Woah!" Jack gasped as the fire came his way. He flew up higher to avoid the flames and then swept his staff across the air in front of him. A heavy rain of ice projectiles flew at the Meta.