No More Monkeys Jumping On the Bed [Open]

[revenancenpcs]

Characters: An unwanted guest...and you
Content: BOSS BATTLE
Location: Fifth District Greenhouse
Time: Evening
Warnings: Violence. It’s a boss battle, guys. C’mon.

My, the Fifth District is nice this evening, isn’t it? Whether you’re just passing through or going Nightmare-hunting, you can’t deny that that greenhouse is a lovely feat of architecture. It might even distract you from the fact that you haven’t been attacked by Nightmares at all since you entered the district; an oddity, given that this area is usually very Nightmare-prone.

The peace and quiet doesn’t last long, however. There’s a rattle and an unholy screech undercut by the cacophony of shattering glass, and the greenhouse roof explodes outwards. You cover your face and turn away, waiting for the glass to settle before heading towards it. No matter whether you jump down from the broken roof or head in via the doorway, you’re greeted with the same sight: the upper half of a giant multicolored monkey. It screeches again; obviously it’s not happy to see you, and it’s about to make that known. Rearing back, it takes a swing at you with one massive paw.

Good luck.

[OOC: Welcome to your first boss fight! This is Hockomonkey and he doesn’t like you. Hockomonkey will be controlled by the mods, who will also determine (via dice roll - we’re kicking it D&D style) whether attacks land and how much damage they’ll do. We’ll keep the technical stuff on the back end - just write like you normally would. There is no tag order in this thread; however, we do ask that you keep up a relatively quick tagging pace, especially if your character teams up with any others for joint attacks or strategies.]

Comments

[defrostedpride]

Even took one step into the Fifth District, got a good look at the brightly-colored who-knew-what wreaking impressive quantities of havoc, and nearly turned right back around and left on the spot.

What stopped him was a glimpse of Aeleus and, next to him, Ienzo. He was moving toward the thing, of course, instead of staying well back like a sensible magic user. Even facepalmed with one hand while summoning his shield with the other.

His Pricklemane bounced up to Aeleus, squeaking in greeting. Even followed somewhat more slowly.

[skysmirror]

Out on a Nightmare hunt of her own, Xion hadn't been close enough to hear the crash, but she'd caught Ienzo's message. Finishing off the last couple of Nightmares in the group she was fighting, she hurried over to the Fifth District, Axel and Barkley close behind. Hopefully she wouldn't be too late--she knew Ienzo wasn't the best at hand-to-hand combat, and if he didn't have any help...

She almost breathed a sigh of relief when she arrived and saw that a whole group had formed to take on the unwelcome visitor. Well, it shouldn't be much more trouble than a giant Heartless, but it looked like everyone was keeping their distance. Probably best to do so herself, and not get in the way of their attacks.

Axel looked like he had other ideas, though. He was ready to charge in, and Xion had to snatch him up before he could. Once he was secure, she decided Luna had a good idea and hit the Hockomonkey with a Thundaga.

[usedrapidspin]

Spinning his tails rapidly as Blaze darted into the fray without a thought, Tails lifted off and hovered near the broken ceiling. He couldn't attack that monster head on without a plan, but maybe he could spot a weakness or help if someone got hurt.

He frowned a bit. If only he had his dummy rings here.

But he spotted Xion nearby and quickly moved over to her. "Xion!"

I WALK AWAY FOR TEN MINUTES, JEEZ

[revenancenpcs]

Looks like the Hockomonkey is spot on with its first attack; the hand slams into Wash, bowling him over backwards. Luckily for everyone else, that's all it manages to do before a slew of counterattacks head its way. It screeches again as Luna's magic strikes its side, listing to the right. It recovers well enough to see Bolin's boulders coming and dodges those, only to put itself right in the way of both Sora's Fire spell and Xion's Thundaga. It screams as the two spells hit and falters for a moment, shaking itself off and taking in all the newcomers to the battle.

Unluckily for everyone else, now it's angry.

Those two floating hands detach entirely and multiply until there's more than enough hands to go around. Some slash at the combatants with claws; some go for heavy openhanded blows; a few even tear palm trees and large rocks from the ground and float over to hover over the fighters, attempting to smush them into the ground with their newfound weaponry.

TEN MINUTES IS ALL THAT'S EVER NEEDED FOR MAYHEM

[dork_of_keys]

Of course Sora would get one of the hands swinging a tree around like a club. Did Riku really end up fighting this thing before?

He'd have to ask later. Right now, he had to avoid being a splat on a tree sized club. This called for no small amount of acrobatics as he seriously doubted he could block or deflect such a strike. Jelly Bean and Bruce were similarly occupied, at least until Jelly Bean cast Vanish on them both. Sora waved Jelly Bean off when it went to cast the spell on him. With its targets disappearing on it, the hand might go after someone else. Since everyone had a hand to deal with already, that wasn't a good thing. And where the hell had the body gone?

"Crap." Spacious as the garden was, it was a little two cramped for giant hands plus the people they were trying to crush to move around it. Sora considered trying to lure the hand he was fighting with outside, but somehow he doubted that would get him anywhere. Attempting to get it to hit another hand might not be out of the question, but he'd have to make sure the target hand's opponent didn't get hit too. Crazy, but possibly worth a try. And he had an idea as to how to protect whichever ally he dragged into this screwed up scheme.

The nearest person to him at the moment was Wash. This would be insane. Sora dashed over to the other hand, stopping underneath it and tossing a Fire spell at his own opponent to get its attention. When it swung at him again, he dodged as best he could while also tossing a Reflect in Wash's direction to hopefully mitigate any damage if the agent couldn't completely avoid the attack.

[raisethemoon]

Well, whatever Luna had expected, it certainly wasn't a disappearing body and a seeming multitude of independently floating hands. The alicorn banked sharply as one zoomed up towards her, but her larger wingspan made her rather less nimble than an ordinary pegasus; she wasn't sure she could turn quickly or sharply enough to evade the blow. Shooing Noctis away, she beat her wings furiously to gain altitude instead, directing a small storm of lightning bolts towards the approaching hand in an effort to deter it.

[shadearchivist]

Ienzo took stock of the situation and tossed a cure spell at Wash before casting reflect to dissuade the hand that was following him. Luckily it was not one of the ones that had taken up a tree, but he'd clearly have to destroy it if he wanted to make any progress. Judging by the number of hands, perhaps having more people present wasn't a real advantage.

[buymedumplings]

Apparently the elemental onslaught had not been as effective as Bolin had hoped. He cursed under his breath as soon as he saw the boulders miss.

Of course, then he had an even better reason to curse as the hand suddenly came at him out of nowhere. "Woah!" Bolin pulled up a rock wall to block with while Mako Jr leaped forward to shoot out bursts of fire at the attacking hand.

[earthshatter]

From what little Aeleus could make of the battle, it wasn't necessarily an advantage to have more people. It simply made the battlefield more cluttered. Everyone else, however, would need to deal with their own problems; ensuring Ienzo's safety in the long run was far more important.

A single swipe of his blade was enough to dissuade the hand that was following him long enough for his Spirits to grab its attention. It wouldn't keep it away for long, of that he was certain, but it gave him just enough time to move in on the hand that had been menacing Ienzo. If the Reflect hadn't been enough to dissuade it fully, no doubt the following blow from Skysplitter would help ensure that Ienzo had the space he needed to work effectively.

[bumbling_baku]

Tumble hadn't gotten the message, but had simply wandered into the area and heard the ruckus. Concerned, because he had met so many nice creatures and people here already, he bounded into the garden to see what had happened.

Slamming into the railing as he came to a stop, he tried to make sense of the chaos. Hands...slapping, swinging things around, generally hurting people. Not good.

Running for the closest person, he tried to dash attack the hand.

[skysmirror]

Fortunately Xion had gotten her spell cast before Tails could get caught by it. Then again, Thundaga was hard not to notice and her version of it was pretty localized. At least he knew enough not to go rushing in when he didn't know an enemy.

The help wasn't unwelcome, either, and she managed a smile. "I'm okay, Tails. Axel just wanted to jump in before he should."

Any further conversation was cut off by the Nightmares next attack. "Watch out!"

She jumped to doge, summoning her Keyblade. Fortunately this hand didn't have anything in, but she narrowly missed getting slammed into the ground. Axel jumped from where she was holding him in the crook of her arm, spewing fireballs at the new attacker, and Barkley huddled behind her, avoiding the fire and ready to Vanish them if needed.

[usedrapidspin]

Tails was faster than the hand swinging a tree at him and managed to keep out of its way, though he currently had to way to attack it unless he could get close. And he wasn't reckless enough to try without good reason. What he needed was to make it drop the tree. Maybe if he could make it swing too close to the wall...

Blaze came running back, spitting his own fireballs to help the fox out.

[defrostedpride]

Even seldom had occasion to regret his choice of weapon. This was not one of those occasions. He appreciated the ability to block the incoming hand that seemed determined to slap him into a wall. Unfortunately, turning to face it properly kept him from reaching Aeleus and Ienzo.

His Pricklemane leapt at the hand, worrying at it fiercely. Even focused his magic on the air above the hand, and a hail of icicles poured down on it. That should give it second thoughts, if it had thoughts.

[colorbymemory]

Namine had seen the warning on the communicator. If it really was dangerous, then she should stay home. None of the others would blame her if she did. They all knew she wasn't much of a fighter, and wouldn't want her to get hurt. She knew all this, and so logically should have settled for waiting until it was safe.

The less logical side of her (and possibly the side that proved Sora's assertion about Nobody's developing hearts) worried about the others. She knew that Aeleus wouldn't be far behind Ienzo and would help, and all the others could take care of themselves, but...Deciding not to let logic rule in this case, she picked up a few potions she'd bought and hurried out the door, Batty and Spot hot on her heels.

It didn't take her long to reach the Fifth District, and then she followed the sound of the fight to the others, ignoring the smaller Nightmares as they appeared. Batty and Spot took care of those that bothered them. Once in the greenhouse, she almost immediately had to dodge a flying hand.

Unfortunately it kept coming back, and while she could dodge and Spot helped with Vanish, they couldn't keep it up forever.

[unrecovered]

It looked like Wash's luck was going to hold. Unfortunately for him, his luck with this sort of thing was extremely terrible, and that being the luck that held meant that he hadn't managed to dodge fast enough and the hand hit him full in the chest, knocking the wind out of him and leaving him to impact hard on the ground near the door. He gasped and forced himself to roll, trying to regain his breath, his vision, his feet, anything to keep from suffering another hit like that.

Several things happened at once after that: his vision cleared and his breath returned quickly, almost as though he'd never been hit in the first place; the monkey-thing screamed; and he found himself looking at a separated hand over him with a large rock clutched in its grasp. He rolled again, this time to his feet, only to see Sora luring another hand towards him. What- Why- "What the fuck!" he gasped, throwing himself out of the path of the approaching hands. Eventually, he'd get to draw his gun and actually get into this fight. He just wasn't going to have that opportunity when people kept attracting goddamn extra monkey hands towards him.

That opportunity came sooner than he'd imagined when a quick glance around while he recovered from his latest dodge told him that Namine was here. It took a split second to process that - why the hell was she in the middle of a combat zone? She could be hurt! Something in his stomach twisted unpleasantly at that. No. That was not happening with him around. He sprinted the few short feet to where she was, pulling the rifle off his back. "Find cover!" he called, skidding to a stop and firing a short burst at the hand that was coming after her.

Can whoever tags next please start a new thread?

[revenancenpcs]

Oddly enough, Sora's crazy plan actually works, and the lower hand is obliterated by the tree crashing down on it. Unfortunately for Sora, that hand is still in action, and it turns swiftly in an attempt to smush him between the tree and the ground.

Luna has no such luck; the hand takes a different path to reach her, avoiding the lightning bolts. When it gets within striking range, however, it all but misses, dealing her a glancing blow. It regroups quickly and comes after her again soon after.

The hand chasing Bolin stops short at the earth wall he pulls up. With that distraction, Mako Jr. is able to destroy it in its barrage of fireballs. That doesn't put Bolin out of the woods just yet, as a hand behind him turns and closes in, looking for an opening to attack.

Despite Aeleus' best efforts, the hands evade him and continue to attack both him and Ienzo.

Tumble manages to pick off one of the hands that wasn't attacking anyone specifically, preventing anyone nearby from being ganged up on. He doesn't escape notice, however, and another hand turns to attack him.

Xion may have escaped attack, but Axel isn't that lucky. His fireballs miss, and the hand dodges and delivers an open-handed blow that lands solidly on the Hebby Repp.

Tails has similar luck: Blaze's fireballs miss, and the uppermost branches of the tree catch Tails in a glancing blow.

The hand manages to dodge most of Even's icicles, but enough hit home to do some damage. Unfortunately for Even, hands don't have thoughts, so it continues to harry him.

Wash's aim proves to be true, and the hand heading for Namine is destroyed in the gunfire. This doesn't stop another hand from turning in its course and heading for him and, by extension, her.

Overall, the number of hands has lessened; there are no longer enough hands left to double-team anybody, effectively parsing out to one per person. Hockomonkey's body proper is still nowhere to be found.