Duck Hunt

[unrecovered]

Who: Anyone who wants to take down Spellican
What Taking down Spellican! Or so Wash hopes.
Where: Plaza, Second District, Traverse Town
When: Not long after this post
Warnings: Standard Freelancer warning applies.

Wash hadn't been waiting for too long. He still flinched every time that damn Nightmare flew by overhead - he still wanted to go for cover, even though it hadn't attacked yet and that pattern seemed to be holding. It didn't help that Melody hissed every time it happened.

With any luck, they could be rid of it today. It all depended on who showed up and whether they could work together.

Comments

[seasaltkeys]

Roxas wandered over, giving a nod to Wash.

He was all for getting rid of the Nightmare honestly. He was in a bad mood and spoiling for a fight to do something with his emotions. Bouncer trotted beside him, occasionally bumping into his leg and Sparkle was on his shoulder.

"So how are we fighting this thing?"

[raisethemoon]

"I can attempt to drive it from the skys," Luna offered, arriving by hoof rather than by wing. She had been flying about since the Spellican began its circling, and evidently it did not take attacking other flyers as a priority, but she would still prefer not to ruin the ambush by drawing undue attention.

[4letters4ninja]

Ziva leaned against one of the walls, Gibbs resting next to her, Fluffy sitting on his head. She'd been mostly grounded since the Spellican had been around, although she'd snuck a few flights in when the Spellican didn't seem to be paying attention. Low to the ground too, which didn't make Gibbs very happy.

"I can help Luna with the sky."

[letteropener]

"With coordination, I do not think the sky will be a problem." Celestia, not far behind her sister, offered an amused smile to go with her statement. "Between Spirits and us, it should find no further haven there."

[timeywimeyorb]

"The real question is what are we going to do with it once we get it out of the skies," Setsuna replies as she makes her presence known. She was glad she wasn't the only one wishing to press forward with events. She just hoped they could actually do it. Maia and Phoebe were certainly eager, having recently recovered from the other Nightmare battle.

"I hope there is more of a plan than to simply throw missiles and magic at it until it explodes. It will fight back I imagine and we'll need a coordinated plan to make sure it doesn't merely disappear."

[brodakota]

Fun fact: Nightmares were still as active as ever, so it took North a little longer than he thought to get to the little gathering.

"That plan has worked in an enclosed area, if we could get it into one of those," He suggested, before looking at Wash. "I'm gonna guess you have a plan though."

[unrecovered]

Good to see that that call for arms over the network had been good for something. Melody hissed again as the shadow passed by overhead; Wash silenced her with a short hand gesture and looked to the group that was starting to gather. "I have a plan," he told them, deciding not to touch Ziva's comment about helping clear the sky - at least, for now. "I'm just waiting on someone else to arrive."

Which was about when North showed up. Finally. "Yeah, I do." He checked the timer on his HUD. "In about eight minutes, Spellican will swing around again. When it does, everyone who has any sort of lightning magic will use it. Light up the goddamn sky - just make sure you get a good hit in. Once you knock him down, North will trap him in the shield. From there, we coordinate our attacks. Theta can disrupt the shield enough to let them through without letting Spellican escape. We kill it without giving it a chance to counter. Any questions?"

[fromearth]

"Yeahhh, your plan include a way to keep it from bringing back more reinforcements?"

Some would call Sparks late, he would call himself waiting for the opportune dramatic moment. He had been here, like, ages ago, but he'd been sort of hoping more people would turn up. Then again, the population had sort of plummeted since last time something like this happened.

"Because, I mean. Rather that don't happen again. Good to have a contingency plan, and whatever."

[hiptobe_eraqus]

Eraqus was not far behind the rest...he'd had enough dealing with the large Nightmares that had popped up here, and if this was the cause of them all, then it was time to deal with it. In this case, he had both Shikara and Linka with him.

He noted those present, and it didn't seem as if they'd have any problems...at least so far. "If it has to use its hands or its spell book to summon other Nightmares, then a binding spell or anyone with a similar ability may prevent it from summoning once the shield is up around it." On that front, he could help. He figured at least one other person had similar abilities here, too.

[dork_of_keys]

Sora had arrived just in time to hear that the plan included trapping the Spellican so they could hopefully finish it off without giving it too much chance to retaliate. It sounded good, though there was the issue of preventing it from summoning other help.

He honestly hadn't considered sealing its book or anything like that, although he didn't know how to do that either. So it was probably a good idea to leave that to anyone who knew how. There was another possibility, too.

"I'm not sure, but I think it needs some time to concentrate when it summons other Nightmares. So we might be able to keep it from doing that if we just don't give it a chance to."

[seasaltkeys]

"So we just bring it down and bash it until it's dead," Roxas said with a shrug. "Seems simple enough."

Although if there was a shield involved, he was probably going to have to rely more on magic than on physical attacks. Not his favorite way of fighting, but it would have to do.

[timeywimeyorb]

Setsuna listens to the plan laid out. She knows it is probably not complete in terms of there are probably tricks up the Nightmare's sleeve that can work against them. However, it's more than what they started with and it sounds reasonable enough.

"It sounds promising enough. We just have to prevent him from focusing to summon. Hopefully that will be enough to prevent additional Nightmares from coming to its aid."

[unrecovered]

And this, Wash reflected, was the goddamn problem with a public call to arms. It gave some people the idea that they should show up. "I'm pretty sure a constant barrage of unavoidable attacks will be a good enough distraction," he said, helmet tilted towards the cowboy, voice dripping with sarcasm. "If it manages to summon something, you can just lasso it." The events of the past week had far surpassed any level of bullshit Wash was willing to put up with, and he wasn't too concerned about keeping that fact hidden.

"Okay, so Eraqus has a binding spell and North has the shield." Back to business. "Everyone else pair up. Find someone with a similar fighting style to you, and do it quickly. Ranged attacks only."

[raisethemoon]

"Pray do not cast any large metal implements at it until after the lightning is done." Luna well recalled what had happened with Lin in the last fight. Taking off, she hovered just a bit above the streets, "Sister, shall we make a storm just yonder? It should pass below, if the patterns hold. Where will you be, Agent David?

[brodakota]

"Seems like a solid plan to me," North said with a nod. "Theta are you up for it?"

The AI appeared and nodded. Though he was worried. During the fight with Queen Buzzerfly, things hadn't been very smooth. North had checked the equipment as best he could with Theta's help, so hopefully they'd do a lot better tonight.

Otherwise, North wasn't sure what he was going to do.

"I'll need someone to cover me while I've got the shield up, since it'll be holding the Spellican and Theta'll need to focus."

And if they wanted this to be effective, North couldn't exactly be in two minds about the situation.

[letteropener]

"I believe between a storm and the many of us, we can harass it till it realizes it has no opportunity to summon," Celestia said with a nod. She hadn't taken to the sky, but as soon as they moved, a sweep of her wings would launch her.

[hiptobe_eraqus]

Eraqus nodded in agreement with the plan...although couldn't help noticing that Wash seemed irritated with something, or someone. Probably just more business he'd missed, as long as it didn't lead to problems right now. The Nightmare was enough as it was.

"I'll stay by North to cast Bind once his shield is up...and can offer my own firepower from there."

Now to just get the thing to come down here.

[dork_of_keys]

Sora wasn't so sure that he would have worded it quite the same way Roxas did, but that was the gist of it. Hopefully their attempts to keep it from being able to retaliate would work. If not... well, if not, Sora knew how the Nightmare fought.

If only he could remember which spell it was that he'd found to be particularly useful. Had it been Collision Magnet? Well, he'd try it if trapping the Spellican failed. For now, they needed to get the bird down here...

[brodakota]

North nodded at Eraqus as thanks.

"Since we sort of have a strategy, we might want to put it into effect soon. According to Theta, the target's on his way, and if we miss it, it'll mean waiting while he does another loop."

[timeywimeyorb]

"Let's get started then."

There wasn't much for Sailor Pluto to do until the target was in range and the others had trapped it. She moved out of the way and prepared herself for an attack.

[revenancenpcs]

It goes a lot better than you could have hoped, really.

Given everyone’s track record with large planned battles tends to end in some form of grievous injury and friendly fire, it’s something of a miracle that, for once, the plan goes off without a hitch.

Spellican swings back around, exactly on time, completely caught by surprise when Celestia and Luna bring down the combined wrath of the gods in the form of a raging thunderstorm down on its head. It shrieks and tumbles to the cobblestones, stunned, making it an easy target for Eraqus’ binding spell and North’s shield. After that, it’s only a matter of time and a constant barrage of attacks before Spellican shrieks again and collapses into a mound of munny and treats and dream pieces, all contained within the shield.

(Kudos to Theta for timing the shield opening with attacks, by the way. Sure, a few bounced, but everyone got damn lucky with the recoil. Spellican sure didn’t get any attacks out.)

All that’s left now is to divide up the loot. Fancies for everyone!