hellburger | (no subject)

Miller guffaws at the wizard's blatant egotism. Pot calling the kettle black? Maybe.

He does, however, take Naugus' suggestion. Kaz moves into a position where he can easily take cover behind machinery should things go horribly awry. "Ready when you are."

And here comes the fireworks.

The wizard looks over the symbols he's scratched into the floor one last time, ensuring that they're accurate. Then he straightens his back and stomps his foot down once. Those symbols and circles suddenly fill with crystal, shining and green, a few errant slivers twirling into the air with the abruptness of their appearance.

Stepping forward once more, Naugus uses the tip of his claw to begin drawing in the air itself, the images and rings described in glowing purple streaks. He works quickly, the craft something he's gotten plenty of practice in as of late. Soon, something that looks remarkably like the 'satanic' imagery on the floor hovers a foot off the ground, shining and shimmering. Then, Naugus holds out hand and claw alike, arms length. Concentrating a moment before he slowly spreads them apart, making the primary circle of his invocation expand. Gradually increasing until it fills the frame of the loading bay doors. He closes his eyes, concentrating once more.

And then? Naugus claps and the circle flares bright, the air crackling with arcane activity that's sure to make hair stand on end. The wizard looks over his work with a smile, soon turning to where ever Kaz has snuck off to smile at him as well.

In the absence of his sunglasses, Miller raises a forearm against the burst of light. Even his his mundane, human senses pick up on the lingering energy in the air. If he were pressed to say something nice about magic, he might grudgingly admit that it's very spectacular. Very much unlike anything he's ever seen. But really, for all its pomp and circumstance, magic still has some basis in science, right?

Kaz takes Naugus' smile as an invitation to approach. Albeit cautiously. "So that's it? I can walk through and Costa Rica's gonna be on the other side of that thing?"

"So long as you have these, yes!" Naugus bends down to take those sunglasses in the pinch of his claw and offers them to Miller. "The portal opens up to someplace sunny, tropical, a decent ways into a...forest? Jungle? So that it's away from prying eyes. So hopefully this is your Coastal Rico." Is he really still messing it up or is he doing it on purpose now? It's so hard to be certain.

"Care to step through and see for yourself? Adjustments can be made if it's the wrong location, of course."

"You're coming with to guarantee your work, right?" Miller squints at his sunglasses and cleans them off with his scarf before sliding them back on. Much better.

He takes a deep, almost centering breath before cautiously sticking a hand through the portal. There's definitely some warm, muggy air on the other side. He extracts his hand and looks it over. Feels a little tingly, but no harm done?

"You could warm up a bit. Make some waves in cryptozoology circles?"

"What? I was under the impression your world was one of only Overlanders. How am I to know that you're not just going to cage me and turn me over to a zoo once I step through?! Or I'll just end up full of bullets and I'll have to go home VERY cross over the matter." Because he's confident he'll walk away from any manner of harm. And THEN Kaz'll be sorry.

"A powerful wizard like yourself? Worried about some humies?" Kaz must think Neko's term is universal.

"Just a quick step through to make sure, then back you go. Trust me -- I don't want to try to explain what the hell you are, because I honestly don't know." Chupacabra would be an easy one, but they're not invented yet.

"Hum-...Right, you hang about with Nekomata. Worried isn't the word! I simply don't care to bother myself with such matters as dealing with your warlike and hateful race. Why put yourself in that annoying position? But fine! Fine."

After rolling his eyes, Naugus clamps his claw down onto one of Kaz's shoulders. "By all means, lead the way."

Miller doesn't argue against 'warlike and hateful'; Naugus' assessment is perfectly valid, but that doesn't change the fact that he wants the work guaranteed.

The claw contact gets a frown, but he allows it as he steels himself and steps through the portal. A chill runs up his spine and he's swept with a feeling of stomach-turning vertigo, but he's not missing any parts?

It's like walking into a sauna after the biting chill of the Nexus. Kaz lets out a relieved sigh and spares a glance back at Naugus and the Costa Rican side of the portal. Looks like it found an equivalent "frame" between a pair of formidable trees and their moss-laden boughs.

"¡Oye! ¿Quien es?" a female voice calls through the underbrush.

"Shit," Miller hisses, turning to look for the source.

"¿Commandante? ¿Es usted?" A woman emerges, clad in camo BDUs and carrying an assault rifle. Despite recognizing her commander, her eyes go wide and she keeps the gun trained on the utterly horrifying creature next to him.

"Yeah. It's me. Lower your weapon, Snail," he orders in English.

Naugus, meanwhile, spots that angry human aiming a weapon and reacts immediately. (You learn to have sharp reflexes when you spend a lot of your time contending against very fast, blue rodents.)

He lets go of Miller to step forward and sharply raises his claw in a swinging arc, hissing threateningly. The ground beneath the soldier's feet rumbles and follows the wizard's gesture, jutting a sudden spike upright, intent on launching the 'Overlander' flying into the air.

Snail suffers a moment of conflict: obey her superior, or take action against the monster's aggressive maneuver? Clearly self preservation rates higher than Kaz's orders, because she fires off a burst of shots before being LAUNCHED backwards into the jungle. The whole exchange startles the surrounding fauna. Birds screech and take flight, insects swarm around the disturbed earth. In the distance, there's more shouting -- from Snail's patrol unit, presumably.

Miller has the wherewithal to dive out of the way of any stray bullets, but doing so jostles his sunglasses off and skittering into the brush. He turns to level a glare at Naugus. "Hey! HEY! What the fuck do you think you're doing?"

Dodging a hedgehog is one thing; bullets are another. Though Naugus has more important things to think about. He wheels on Kaz, teeth bared and claw snapping. Two bullet holes dribble blood from his left shoulder and collarbone like a sloppy imitation of a vampire's bite. Ouch.

"HHHHSSSSSSSS!! Just as I said! JUST AS I SAID! Lying in wait! Guns at the ready! Overlander plot! I'll rip you to shreds!"

Miller rolls onto to his feet, draws his pistol and levels it at Naugus. He has at least a few bullets left, but he's not confident that'll be enough stopping power. Maybe better to use reason?

"Look, Naugus, more of my men are going to be here any second."

As if on cue, there comes another shout: "Snail! ¿Qué está pasando allá?"

"I'm not going to be able to talk them down if you pull more stupid stunts like that. You look for the sunglasses. I'll deal with them."

"YOU DARE TO THREATEN ME!?" Which is totally what Kaz was getting at with that mention of more men coming on their way. He doesn't even bother to look afraid of that gun; he's too mad to remember guns are anything more than an annoyance, a stupid Overlander annoyance. One that he aims to swat away with his claw once he closes the distance between them.

He's too mad to take in anything Kaz is saying? Sunglasses? What sunglasses? Who cares!

Well, so much for diplomacy. Miller sidesteps away from the claw and does his best to maintain a safe distance. Sounds several yards off indicate that the rest of the unit has found Snail and there's renewed shouting in mixed English and Spanish.

Without taking his eyes off of Naugus, Miller shouts at the top of his lungs. "STAND DOWN! DO NOT ADVANCE! THE SITUATION IS UNDER CONTROL!"

There's the sound of more rustling, and through the underbrush one can make out soldiers forming a watchful perimeter, but keeping away as instructed. Thank god.

Miller keeps his tone level, conciliatory, although he's still not lowering his gun. "See? There doesn't need to be anymore violence. I'll even call in a medic to look at your wounds if you want."

Naugus is high alert now. While Kaz is trying to talk calmly, the wizard is only increasingly aware of how there are others coming. Already here! Watching just out of sight, ready to pounce, clearly! They want him dead, or worse! What else could you expect on a world full of Overlanders!?

Rather than respond like a normal person, Naugus opens his mouth and hisses again, loudly, before turning and charging off into the underbrush, his footsteps quickened with gusts of wind magic. Great. Now there's a proto-chubacabra loose in the jungles of Costa Rica.

"Son of a bitch," Miller breathes, before immediately switching into high gear. "STOP HIM! NON-LETHAL FORCE ONLY!"

The patrol unit breaks off into the jungle after the cryptid, leaving Snail behind with Kaz. She still looks stunned -- both from being thrown and everything that's just transpired -- but she's at least regained her feet. He checks over her equipment and relieves her of a rifle and some tranq rounds before patting her shoulder. "Stay here -- near those trees -- and look for my sunglasses. Somewhere over there."

Orders given, he charges off to follow Naugus' and the patrol's obvious trail of broken and wind-whipped undergrowth.

Jungles are places with a surplus of organic material and little else. Trees, bugs, plants, fungus, animals. The earth has to be reached for and work gets sloppy when he has to worm past so much matter he can't bend. He got lucky with the first one! He needs to get someplace where he has more room, more material to work with!

He can't drain the air from the lungs of his attackers; too many of them. Focus on three and another five sneak up on you. Water thick in the air is a good bet. Transform humidity to heat, set fire all around him. Burn it, burn it! Burn it all! Their soft, Overlander hides can't withstand the heat, but you can! You can!

He's panting heavily from anger and panic, drool hanging from his lower lip. He looks around frantically. Where are they coming from? Where could they approach? They know the terrain, he does not. The sound of a snapped twig occurs to his right, making the monstrous mage whirl that way and hiss as he shoves a gout of flame towards whatever assailant is there, imaginary, soldier or otherwise.

There are only five soldiers (and Kaz) following Naugus, but it's probably difficult to tell through the surroundings and, well, panic probably. One of the soldiers has managed to keep pace with Naugus, a slender guy who must have been a marathon runner in a past life. Unfortunately, this puts him quite literally in the mage's line of fire, but not before he had a chance to line up and squeeze off a tranquilizer round.

Antelope (as his name happens to be) howls in pain when he's hit with the unanticipated fireball. Luckily the flames don't fully catch on his damp uniform, but his skin has been scorched by the intense heat. Not to mention the gunpowder in a few spare rounds ignites and explodes, including one flash grenade. Oof.

Miller redoubles his speed when he spots the light and sound through the trees. What a fucking mess.

Naugus spares a moment for a manic smile, pleased at the mayhem his magic has caused one of his attackers. He continues charging headlong into the foliage, crashing through it loudly and with no care for being covert or trying to sneak. He glances upwards a few times, wonder if he can take flight, but determines the canopy to be too dense. He'd get tangled in the vines and then that'd be the end of him!

There's options for hiding, for proper escape, but the panic is too thick and too frantic to occur to him just yet. Slide into shadows, turn into mist; adrenaline's pounding much too free that there are no options other than running and attacking what attacks him first. Or at least what he perceives as an attack.

Another burst of flame is unleashed, now in just a halo around him, trying to plunge it deep into the dead foliage underfoot, to anything dry and suitable as tinder. Burn the whole forest! Who'll mourn a mess of war-mad Overlanders?!

Kaz pauses to check on Antelope and the soldier who stopped to assist. He looks up at his commander with wide eyes. "What is that thing, sir?"

"No time to explain. Give me your radio." The soldier, Iguana, immediately complies, disentangling his radio from his gear and pushing it into his commander's waiting hand.

Miller wastes no time pressing on, dials into the patrol's frequency and issues an order: "Maintain a visual, proceed with stealth, but do not attempt to engage the target. Await my further instructions."

Three confirmations crackle in response, and Miller feels slightly more at ease. These soldiers certainly aren't equipped for wizard suppression, whatever the hell that entails. It's not as if he is, either, but he's got a slightly better chance of dealing with the Mobian.

Naugus might begin to get the impression that they've given up. It's certainly a lot quieter now -- at least in terms of things that are not Naugus himself.

It's a few more frantic bursts of flame before he pauses, casting wide looks around himself, teeth bare and breath coming between them in ragged hisses. No sound. No tremors. (Because now stealthy steps dampened by plant life can't reach his sense for it.)

He needs to go back. He has every intention of finding the man in the glasses and making him pay for this, but he has to go back first. He can't run forever on an entire planet populated by war-crazed Overlanders. He can take so many with him, oh yes, but he knows he'll fall in due time. Not without a plan. With a plan, with time to think straight, it could be different...

But he can't go back. Despite his prowess with portals, Naugus still needs an item from where he wants to go. And everything on him is from his native planet of Mobius. Any portal he tried to open using his personal effects as a keystone would just lead to the blank that was left in his world's erasure. He has nothing that would take him back to the Nexus.

This only occurs to Naugus after he's already sunk to his knees, ripped up handfuls of foliage to get at the bare earth beneath, already scratching symbols and sigils from muscle memory. Then he just stares at it, mind racing.

Think. Think. Think. Think.

Miller continues to follow the trail at a more leisurely jog. His radio crackles to life with a hushed voice. "In position now. Target's stopped. It's ... digging? Is... is it wearing a cape, sir?"

He rolls his eyes. "Affirmative. Keep a bead on him and maintain your position."

Similar reports come in from the two other soldiers, equally incredulous now that they've had an opportunity to get an eyeful of the thing they've been pursuing. The three soldiers coordinate and carefully triangulate their positions, weapons aimed.

"Got eyes on you, Commander. You're close," the radio whispers again, in concert with a flashed signal from a nearby rise in the terrain. Kaz waves an acknowledging signal and slows his approach to place his steps slowly, carefully.

Naugus' purple cape stands out against the lush greens of the forest, and Kaz freezes at the sight of it. He takes a moment to observe the wizard and consider the best course of action. Preferably one that won't start the chase anew.

Naugus has stared long and unblinking at the unfinished sigil in the earth and no answer has come to him. One way portal. Keystone is on the man trying to kill him. Kill him first and get it back? Kill all his soldiers in the process. They're organized. This place is remote but they were ready. More will come. How quickly? All of this was a trap. How could he have been so blind? All of this was a TRAP!

Hide? He should hide. But his own pride rails against the idea. Hide? Like a scared rodent? Hide and quiver in fear of a bunch of Overlanders with their outlandish tech and reliance on guns? To slip into the shadows or the soil or the air now wouldn't be tactical retreat, it would be cowardice! Another insult to his primacy!

Think. Think. Think. Think.

Naugus pushes himself back up to his feet, still breathing hard, furious at his quandry. When was the last time he did battle in a jungle? Not ever. He ran right through it to find a location better suited for his magicks last time he was in a place like this. Pushed on right to the Southern Tundra. But he doesn't know what lies beyond this place. The situation of the continents in this unknown world.

"YOU'RE MISTAKEN IF YOU THINK ANY OF YOU WILL LIVE TO SPEAK OF THIS INDECENCY!" He roars into the trees, sending birds from the branches in noisy flight.

Edited 2016-03-12 08:54 (UTC)

"This is Snail. I've found your sunglasses, commandante."

"Nice work. Hold your position. We'll circle back shortly." Hopefully.

"Switch to normal rounds. Lynx, line up a leg shot. Take it if it looks like he's about to run again. Dromedary, Wolverine -- headshots. But ONLY at my signal." With that, Miller sets both rifle and handgun at the base of a tree and emerges from cover.

He smiles and raises his empty hands to make it abundantly clear he's unarmed. "Look, Naugus, just you and me now. I even left my Overlander weapons behind. How about you take a deep breath, stop acting like a cornered animal and follow me back to the portal. Nice and easy."