Scene #5775: TPT: The Ghost of Maslow Peak

Owner	Pose
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons has gotten together one of the Psychonaut spy-jets for this expedition. Anyone who's coming along, such as those who responded to that mission posting, will have gotten picked up by the big fancy thing, which seems to be a sort of strange 70s-spy-fiction mess with painted whirls and a strange, glowing engine at the back, glimmering with shining purple light. Inside has self-stabilizing, oddly floating chairs in the same 70s style, and has plenty of room. This region looks sort of northwesternish, like maybe the very far north American regions. Forest, oddly-shaped mountains, and clear blue mid-day skies are visible as far as the eye can see. Parsons himself is tense. He's at the front of the thing, controlling it with a psychic cockpit interface, while he talks. "Ever since the Oblongata incident, I've not been one hundred percent capable of making sure an inquiry into Psychonauts business doesn't trip up a bad splinter cell." He explains. "So I don't have a lot to go on. I know that Maslow Peak was the sight of a few major Psychonauts projects from the late years of World War Two up until 1956, and one of them was Project Mystic. I know it's the site of a few pretty major psychomaterial deposits. It's been abandoned since the sixties. And I know the entrance is near the top, pushing into the core of the mountain." The approach towards Maslow Peak comes up, and now it's possible to see the mountain. Twisty, "gnarled" in the way one might expect a tree to be, and all leading up to one singular peak in an almost pyramid-like way, it looks like it'd be a hell of a hike to get up there. "That's about all I could get out of the files at my clearance level. I'm gonna try to find a clear spot to land near the top of the mountain." He says, and pulls in low. "Weird weather though. I'm not looking forward to that." Something is condensing in the air above Maslow Peak, a strange voluminous hemispherical cloud shape with pulsating, twisty protrusions, and an unsightly purple glow. Unnerving. Better ask questions fast, if you have them, before something inevitably happens.
August Kohler	August told Flamel he'd be there. It's only fair for telling Flamel what he had learned about the psychic. As such, August didn't hesitate to accept once Flamel started reaching out to the mission posting. It's just a matter of what they're going to find that concerns the redhead. Sitting in a chair, he's got a gun and a knife at his waist and a vest over his torso, wearing a hoodie. He still looks like he hasn't been sleeping well. Listening to the explanation, August just nods. "Alright. Well, this place looks fun, and by that, I mean ominous." He stands up to take a look at the weather. "Any idea what that is?" And then, approaching towards Flamel to ask him a question. "And more importantly, are you sure about this? Pretty sure whatever's in here, you tried to suppress hard. I know you're not going to turn back, but I'm asking anyways." It just feels right, to make sure Flamel's actually okay.
Flamel Parsons	"I can't have /suppressed/ it, I wasn't /there/." Parsons says, in a way that sounds like he's emphatic for the purposes of sounding extremely certain when he's not. "This place has been abandoned since the sixties, I wasn't born until 1995. Er-- Until 1996." He shakes his head. "There's too many things that could be there and too much redaction. The Psychonauts did a lot of work during the Cold War, back when mindset was even more dangerous than it is now, and there's too many projects from the early days when we were doing really drastic things. Lots of redaction on the files."
Staren	Staren is picked up! "Long time no see, Parsons, good to work with you again. Ooh, these chairs are ingenious!" He actually tries to figure ouut the design so he can copy it. "That doesn't look like a... natural mountain." He comments as they approach it. "Is the strange shape because of the psychomaterials? Is that cloud because of them too?"
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone had been hooked into this quickly enough and she was her eot help evne thing sometimes she didn't know where she sat with August she had siad she would help him with with the whole forst problem. This is connected to it, so here she is, she's clad in a stealth suit again, the light armour is pretty sleek and really it's a body suit with armour plating over vital areas she's also packing a Mater Maniplator on her hip likely carrying more materials for the operation ahead but at this time period she wonders how goof her hacking and other abilities are going to be. "Well thanks for being on the level about this, we need to check it out one way or another." She'll fall in with the others and doesn't seem botehred by the hike as they make their way to the site. "That can't be good." Magic? Psi powers? Always left Kotone a bit wary as she had few to no counters for such things.
Flamel Parsons	"Psychominerals make for odd shapes. Deposits do... Weird effects. We're still figuring it out. It doesn't change what's there, but it makes for, I guess, more options when it's forming under chaotic conditions! You know, towers can lean in weird ways, places that can sprawl a little more, stuff like that! I guess mountains can form strangely too." Parsons says, explaining brightly. "I think it has something to do with the hollow Earth!" He's still Parsons, still got that quirk of his.
Rory White	Another opportunity to explore a Different Earth, and strange supernatural phenomena! Rory White has sleeved up in her Synth, meaning, she looks like any other human... if a bit on the Unusually Picturesque side, as few people engineer appearances morphs that don't have an appeal. And blue hair might not be so normal around here. Nevertheless, she has come, and she's accompanied by what appears to be a large... robo-dog. Some kind of metallic mass covered in shimmery silvery disk protrusions, walking on four legs in an energetic but distinctly UNNERVING rhythm. She's brought her bags for the flight, it seems, and her bags have legs of their own. "I'm not very up to informed about the local politics or history. Your world seems to diverge a great deal from the scraps of history that remain about my Earth." She notes frustratedly. At the first opportunity though she glances out the window... and fixes ALL her attention on it. Which might be interpreted as alarm! "That is NOT natural weather! Meterological data has zero matches for it! What IS it?!"
Carna	Carna is here for one of the two reasons this 'new' Carna has been involved with a lot of things recently. Curiosity and Duty. In this case, definitely the former. She has no personal connection to this August person (she thinks), and doesn't recognize anyone else here. This is why she is studiously ignoring Staren and instead wandering around examining things. The red-haired, red-eyed woman is wearing some more modern clothing than the princely attire she has been, which is itself a major shift from leather armor, cloak, and hat of old Carna's. A white turtleneck sweater and sweat pants with furry boots is definitely not the image that one thinks of when one imagines 'soul-eating undead monster' but she isn't really acting much like one of those these days either. She runs a hand along the strange chairs, and admits, "I don't understand anything you just said. We are retrieving something? Should we be concerned about eliminating those in our way given how unstealthy this thing is?" She gestures around to the flying disco-themed UFO or whatever this is.
Flamel Parsons	"Noooo that definitely doesn't look like any of the normal secret-agenda weather-control effects I've ever seen." Rory's question seems the same as Staren's, and they both make him worried. Parsons says, putting on a bit of a concerned frown. The gently shimmering cloud flickers with an abrupt burst of... Lightning? "I really don't like it! I'll try to keep us steady, but you guys might feel some turbulence."
Yuna Kagurazaka	Under normal circumstances, Yuna would probably be coming by means of her own resources - her cruiser, or possibly flying in the relevant version of her Light Suit. However, Elner saw fit to recommend that Yuna just take advantage of the ride; there was probably a reason why Agent Parsons went to the trouble of requisitionining a ride for the group. That also means it's just Yuna and Elner, with the rest of the Matrix of Light attending to other patrols or something. And as they fly into visual range of Maslow Peak, Yuna comes to the swift conclusion that flying in on her own might have been more messy than advisable. "So if this is a Psychonaut-related thing ..." Yuna begins, but it does sound like Staren just ventured a question closely related to what Yuna was going to ask. "What kind of hostile weather can this craft handle?" she asks instead, trying not to sound as worried as she actually is.
Flamel Parsons	"We're here to investigate something. I... There's something in my mind about Project Mystic out here. I don't know what happened, but somehow, a piece of it wound up in my head. We're just... Trying to get into the facility, that's all." Parsons says, gesturing very awkwardly to Carna. He seems, himself, unsure of what it's meant to be. "So, you know, we're just going to improvise a bit."
Flamel Parsons	Parsons also, of course has a very confident and positive response to Yuna. "Oh, it can handle pretty much anything! Hail, high winds, lightn--" The brain-like cloud ahead discharges a massive bolt of scything orange lightning that grazes one of the wings. "JESUS!" Parsons cries out, and the whole plane rocks with the stress of the recoiling motion he makes. For a fraction of a second, a short, thin figure with an odd, hunching silhouette can be seen just outside, standing at that wing of the plane. Long crimson hair whips by them in the wind of the plane's passage. Then the next crash of lightning impacts the plane directly, and the power within flickers as the cabin fills with smoke. "Aaaaaaaauuuuuh!!" Parsons calls out, as more lightning strikes. "Worse than any weather control! Much worse!!" Within, power systems explode. A fire has already started, a few panels along the walls are already overloaded, and there's a breach in the main cabin. In the back section, a wall shakes loose from another lightning strike, revealing engine components that have been jammed with shrapnel that needs clearing. Power starts flickering badly as conduits fail, and psychic energy starts to falter. Local magical energy needed! "Woah woah woah woah!! Shit, emergency landing, help out here!" Between the mechanical problems in the plane itself, the control problems, the debris needing clearing, and the power issues in need of magic or psychic energy, this might go down before Parsons can get a solid emergency landing trajectory. A dangerous event!
Rory White	Rory has seen this development in far too many simulgames by this point. Approaching FREAK STORM in a plane? She agitatedly turns about looking for parachutes! "Recommend we DO NOT approach through an unknown storm! Surely there is a safer approach!" She's quick to call out. Rory GRABS onto her LuggageMutt, which goes skittering across the floor but SOMEHOW keeps its balance without any prompting. This lurch onto a seat brings her to a different window, with her vision now out the side window and... A fraction of a second is enough for Rory's Muse to pick out and isolate the image in her XP recording and attempt to analyze it for any details. But Rory blinks, which is something she almost never does when in full-on analysis mode! The plane taking an even HEAVIER beating though has her grateful that she recently made a backup, but... THERE ARE OTHERS HERE IN DANGER. Sparks fly from a nearby panel, and Rory silently hops straight to it, followed by the ungainly LuggageMutt. She pulls the panel open -- and one of her hands SPLITS INTO FRACTAL DIGITS capable of operating on the circuitry and wiring. The only question is, can she figure out the engineering quickly enough to FIX anything?!
August Kohler	Well, not only is this storm bad, but lightning strikes right as Flamel jinxes it. August hadn't responded to what he said before, just sighing. If he's still repressing it, August isn't going to force it out, and instead suddenly starts to move as the cabin fills with smoke. Oh, shit. "Think, think..." This thing's running out of power. It's obviously psychic-powered. August is, as Flamel has said before, full of psychic energy. Perhaps he could be a conduit for it. It'd probably be both painful and draining, but it'll need to work. A mirrored bracelet on August's wrist is lifted up to eye level, as he rushes over to what appears to be the conduits and generator, and shouts out. "Persona!" In a flash of blue sparks and energy, the Tin Soldier is summoned. August's primary goal is to shove the Persona into where the conduits are, taking the pain of being literally drained of energy to try and power the ship if he can find an interface or some way to plug the Tin Soldier and himself in. He has no idea if it's going to work, and he hasn't trained as a psychic in any form over than 'shooting guys with robot bullets'. This is probably going to suck.
Staren	Staren is ready to abandon plane, but then he realizes that maybe not everyone else is so ready. Unfortunately, can any repairs REALLY be made fast enough, when you're in a plane falling out of the sky? With Rory here... maybe. Staren rips off the next sparking panel and starts fixing the connections inside -- he pulls off the gauntlets of his armor, and silvery armbands deploy tools much like Rory's split digits. Obviously, the entire point of whatever just exploded was to do that instead of the engines, but with the plane probably a goner anyway... Maybe they can get Flamel a few more seconds of control, or however long the next lightning bolt takes to come. "Someone get that crap outta the engine!"
Carna	So they're just infiltrating. They don't know what's there and might not have to fight anything (all of her instincts call baloney on that possibility). It doesn't take long before Carna's instincts prove right. Unfortunately, she was dressed for fashion, not combat, to try out new things, and so when a breach appears in the side of the plane, and some weirdo appears on the wing in a flash of lightning, her crimson eyes lock onto the figure basically immediately, and she starts sidles through the opening quietly (in the midst of a storm it's even more quiet than usual). Black chains appear around her arm, from which blood seems to flow out in solid form, protruding into the shape of a large, curved blade that then stays that way. She decides to try diplomacy first. "Identify yourself and your purporse here, or remove yourself." she commands while pointing a the Chainsword of the Dusk Sun as the stranger.
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone Yamakawa will open a network connection to Rory and anyone ele whose willing to. She looks to Parson and her eyebrow twitches for a moment then coems the alien lighting. "Oh you ahve got to be kidding me!" There comes more, she catches sigh of the figure and passes the image to Rory hopefully she cna do something with it. "What is it then?!" she's looking really spooked. She jnangs on to something, for a moment and the plane is taking a hell of a beating. She'll network with Rory to help on the repairs true she works on ground craft but something she might at least be able to take directions on She mskes use of the maniplator and pulls some tools out. <<I'll try to do what I can...>>
Flamel Parsons	There's a port at the front! Parsons waves August -- or rather, his projected self -- over. Though as soon as the Tin Soldier slots that gun into the port and Parsons seals it, August is potentially going to find the experience... Draining. If it affects his mind the way it often does others, it'll produce that feeling of working hard on a project and urgently needing a break, and encroaching on his mental space through that sort of feeling. Looks like the de-powering systems at the front are flickering back to life, slowly. There's a bit of stability there... Not enough, but it's a step closer to surviving the impact.
Yuna Kagurazaka	The sound of Yuna letting out a startled shriek is almost but not quite drowned out by the thunder whose lightning prompted said shriek. Fortunately, she doesn't have time to keep screaming; they really do need to save their own collective lives here. "Elner, try to stabilize the control systems!" she calls out to the robo-faerie, and Elner flits over to the main console, beginning an attempt to interface with whatever control computer the plane has. That leaves Yuna herself casting about for what she can personally do to help. Rory is already trying to fix the circuitry, albeit somewhat blind in terms of what it should look like intact; August is going into 'psychic battery' mode, Staren is jumping in on repairs, Carna is trying to deal with the hostile on their wing, Kotone is assisting Rory ... "Here goes nothing," Yuna mutters, and moves to August's side. She's not psychic, but the Light Suit projects its energies around her and through her weapons, and as near as she's ever been able to tell? Those energies come from her - from her spirit, her heart and will. So it may not be much, and it may be nothing at all ... but she extends her arm next to the Tin Soldier's, and starts projecting what power she can, the Light Suit glowing brighter around her - and markedly more intensely so, around the gauntlet of her 'offered' arm than around the rest of her armored bodysuit.
Flamel Parsons	Rory and Kotone find that the wiring is... Surprisingly mundane to work with, and so despite the odd /charge/ that they carry, they're still well within all ability to actually repair. A quick patch job is going to be a necessity, but a valuable one. Faltering aspects of psychic thrust are restored, and auto-maneuvering is restored properly, causing the plane to stop listing dangerously to one side. Staren's own repairs ensure that some sort of emergency shield manages to come back online; a flickering aura of light surrounds the plane, hopefully something to brace the impact! Overloaded fuses can be swapped, failing systems hotwired, and other critical pieces of damage should be able to be bypassed.
Staren	Shielding is online! The plane had shielding?! "Oh thank goodness." Although he wonders if the shielding will do fuckall good against attacks with the plane's electronics in such a damaged state. Wiring restored, Staren hurries to the engine to pick out the pieces of shrapnel. "Come on, come on..."
August Kohler	As the Tin Soldier plugs the gun-leg in, August suddenly becomes kind of bleary, draining himself like that. He turns only ever so slightly to notice that it's starting to work, but concentrates on getting the power back on. "Focusing on the power! This is really, really uncomfortable, so get us to a landing /fast/!"
Flamel Parsons	The figure out with Carna wears ragged clothes. Their face is obfuscated by some kind of scavenged piece of metal, something that looks like a welder helmet? It makes their voice hard to hear. "He can't come here!" They shout in a voice that sounds feral. "He's not a mountain climber, he's not safe, he'll hurt himself, he needs-- He needs to deal with his problems the right way! The closer he gets, the worse it'll be!" They move to an all-fours position, their posture like a hostile wolf, and launches forward, raising some kind of tool -- a screwdriver? Who knows -- and trying to close in past the chainsword. It's unlikely they'll get past the Chainsword of the Dusk Sun before they manage to plunge that tool into Carna's body anywhere...! They're getting precariously close to the ground. Bad for the time they have left to restore the plane, but good because at least the brainstorm isn't striking Carna now, they seem to be below it.
Flamel Parsons	Elner is a sapient being, aren't they? If so, they should find the interface to their liking, albeit unusual. AIs are, apparently, quite compatible with psychic stuff, and they find no issue here contributing to the control. And Yuna's own energy is clearly converting as well! "Keep pushing! Almost... There...!!!" Parsons shouts, a trickle of blood emerging from his own nose as he strains to force the plane out of a dangerous dive. Yuna finds much the same drain, even as her magic is converted to psychic energies, and the drain on August accelerates badly for a moment... "Elner, pull up as hard as you can!" Parsons says, needing a break from this. He moves to help Staren, rushing to the back where he can work on lancing a beam into the shrapnel, letting the engines turn and churn in their mechanical complexity a little better. As this goes on, the plane begins to level out, as the energy from the group surges up and gives it a much safer emergency landing... They're skimming treetops now, heading for a damaging but survivable landing at the base of the mountain. Everyone hold on tight! Carna may need to dodge some shattering trees!
Yuna Kagurazaka	"Roger~!" Elner calls out, 'leaning' into the controls. It was already trying to pull up from the plane's potentially deadly dive, but as the systems are repaired, that task becomes much easier. But it doesn't become any less desperate. As for Yuna - the drain on her power as the plane starts using it alongside August's is just barely shy of overwhelming, but she stays on her feet, stays conscious, and keeps it up. Now that she has a sense of what she's doing, she can do it more deliberately - like when she's focusing power into the Matrix Divider, except that she's feeding the plane rather than one of her weapons. Light sparks and crackles around her offered arm, not just the gauntlet but all the way back to her shoulder; she's trying not to overextend herself, but as long as the plane keeps needing energy, she'll keep giving it. And she does NOT want to see August keel over because he 'spent' too much, especially if her efforts can share the load so that he doesn't get pushed past the point of exhaustion.
August Kohler	August's nose starts to bleed as the drain accelerates. However, Yuna's assisting in sharing the load, so he's able to keep himself upwards, nodding to her. "Alright, we can do this. Brace!" August grabs hold of the nearest thing, moving to not get sent out the cockpit during the crash landing. He'll allow Yuna to brace on him, if necessary.
Carna	It is indeed difficult to get past this sword, because it's a sword with a trick. "I am amenable to passing along a message if you feel this is a priority, but as you have failed to identify yourself and your reason for being here, I must remove you." The moment the figure starts making sketchy movements, the sword reveals why it's called the chainsword. Carna throws it, practically launching it, and it remains attached by an infinitely extending chain linked with her arm, trying to simply cleave the all-fours figure's limbs out from under them and send them toppling to whatever lies below. Best of all, the quick, deadly strike has a convenient follow-up to it. It rapid-action returns to her, the chain magically drawing the blade back to her hand after it's thrown. Of course, this figure might be more nimble and skilled than he appears. His attire actually looks like something that would be found in Lumiere. Even a screwdriver as a weapon isn't out of the question. Some people wield planks with nails. But all in all, she tried her best to talk first. That's more than her old self would have. And the reduction of lightning and rain and storm blasting her can only improve her chances here, because honestly, she's more worried about falling off than actually being defeated. According to that other Carna's journal, she has died from falling a LOT. However, continuing the pursuit of the prey she has locked into may prove impossible as there are huge impacts, and Carna has to start using her sword as a grip to hang on by stabbing into the plane's wing, using the supernaturally sharp edge to let breaking trees cleave themselves upon it, and enduring the skeleton-jarring impacts, while looking for an opportunity to finish the job. Yes, even now, she's more focused on the one she has designated as an enemy than on the imminent threat of environmental damage. Lantern predatory instincts can lead to terrifying, Terminator-esque single-mindedness... Even to their owner's own detriment.
Flamel Parsons	The plane impacts the ground harshly, though not without buffering. The shield that came back online due to the combined efforts of Staren, Rory, and Kotone means that much of the crushing impact is slowed and distributed, though it winds up so distributed that the entire top rips off of the plane's cabin. August and Yuna managed to keep the thing afloat enough that its angle left it a lot of speed, which is a blessing (they weren't crushed by gravitational force) and a curse (they're now going very fast). The plane slams through rows of evergreen trees, then impact a rock face with such force that the rock face loses the fight instead of the plane, though it crushes out half the cockpit and takes off the wing that Carna isn't currently on. The small ghost that has assaulted them has suffered a heavy bit of damage, but it gleams a golden red, and refuses to bleed. They clutch at it, wincing, before they stumble from the impact against the rock face, fly forward, and grab onto the wing of the plane, swinging to its underside for an ironic sort of protection against the barrage. The plane slowly comes to a halt... And lists badly as it finally stops, shutting down after that main power fails. The drain is gone from Yuna and August, and it should be well possible to disconnect and disengage from the survival now. Now it's just a matter of dealing with their uninvited guest! The little feral figure with the ragged clothes and the heavy welding mask leaps off of the plane, screaming in the new silence that is broken only by the fires in the jet. "You have to /go/! You can't let him reach the top! You don't know what's /in/ there! He's doing this wrong, all wrong-- He's not a mountain climber, he'll /fail/ if he does this, and he'll /fail/ his friends! Even if he doesn't care about his wellbeing, what about his /friends/!?" Taking that all-fours posture again, the small, wirey figure gleams that golden-red color with a burning aura around their head. A challenge from... THE GHOST OF MASLOW PEAK
Rory White	"Very glad I studied the older styles of electrical circuitry after the LAST attempt..." Rory's not at all used to such primitive constructs. ACTUAL METAL WIRES used for such critical systems all over the place?! But at least things have been... somewhat repaired. There is, however, NOTHING more that Rory can do, so she decides to brace herself. The LUGGAGEMUTT, meanwhile, operating on some kind of signal, curls itself up into a compact oval shape, the legs just telescoping inwards! The crash is JARRING to say the least, throwing Rory clear against a wall despite all attempts to brace. Sparks fly from a badly bent arm as she crawls on the lopsided cabin floor, recalibrating after the thunderous crash. She doesn't feel pain, but her voice is clearly warbling with stress as she calls out, "Damage report! Is anyone injured badly?!"
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone Yamakawa has managed to make a few repairs longide Rory and STaren enmough so they don't likely end up dying.THough they will not be holding up for long. They are skimming the tress but it's far better than it could have bene before the repairs. She's trying to find a place to get ready for the landing. It's harsh Kotne is thrown about pretty hard but it could bve worse, she's a bit ratteld but otherwise unahemed she moves to get up and call sout. :Is everyone all right...wait what's that?!" "Good thing you did Rory your still faster than me at that and other than my pride I'm fine."
Yuna Kagurazaka	Even after 'detaching' from the plane, Yuna's battlesuit is still crackling and sparking from the channeled overload; it'll take a while to settle down - although it would likely do so faster if she had a chance to sit and gather herself. It's a chance none of them seem like they're going to have, though. Yuna looks at the 'ghost' on all fours, her gut twisting uneasily. "We don't know what's inside the mountain, or the facility, or whatever it is you mean," she admits. "Is there anything you can tell us besides that we have to stop 'him'?" Oh right, Rory was asking something. "Think I'm okay at the moment," Yuna replies. "... hopefully that won't change without warning." She starts levering herself to her feet, eyeing the glowing figure, trying not to let herself get creeped out. That's going to be an ongoing effort.
August Kohler	As they finally have given it enough power, August desummons his Persona, taking a deep breath as he wipes the blood off his face. And as he does so, he turns towards Yuna. "You alright?" And then, the ghost is shouting more close towards them, as August draws his pistol and points it at the ghost. "Hey, you, calm the hell down and explain who you're talking about. Do it fast." August does not think this thing is friendly, and its words spook him. Are they about Flamel? They have to be, right? That hole in his heart that they're rending open can't be actually related. The fact he's fearing he'll fail his friends as he does this...the fact he doesn't care about his well-being, it's a coincidence, right? If the ghost takes any hostile actions or maneuvers, August begins firing the pistol into its center mass, hoping to fill it full of a few holes so he can resummon his Persona. Just give himself and the others some breathing room!
Staren	Staren has a forcefield of his own, but it's better at absorbing energy blasts an d protecting from sharp stabs, than sheer kinetic energy transfer. He ends up slammed against the crunched-up front of the plane, bruised and a bit dazed inside his armor. He groans, struggling to get to his feet before the medichines kick in. Once out of the plane, he questions the ghost. "You're worried he'll get hurt in the climb so you try to kill him in a plane crash instead? Start explaining instead of repeating yourself, or we're done." He raises his arm with the beam cannons to aim at the ghost.
Flamel Parsons	Parsons is looking a little wounded, he could probably use a little of what Rory is offering. Wounds on his body glow a gleaming orange, and he looks like he's suffered his own barrage of intense contusions as he was thrown out of the back of the plane and off to its side. He groans and winces in disoriented pain, unable to focus.
Carna	Carna is a bit banged up from where trees and such didn't conveniently fall into the path of her blood sword and struck her at an angle, but aside from some slow-to-form bruises and contusions on non-living spirit-flesh, when she extracts her weapon from the relatively intact one between the two plane wings, and leaps down to face the 'ghost', she still seems to be in fighting shape. When others barge in to try diplomacy, her sword has already been drawn back into her hand and she is looking for an angle to attack from. She already tried talking and they came at her with a screwdriver. She is no longer engaging on the level of conversation with someone clearly as mad as the Lanterns of her own world. But she isn't attacking yet. She'd rather counter than leave herself open by repeating the same tactics.
Rory White	Rory regards her sparking, disjointed arm warily, and starts about fixing it with the same fractal appendages her fingers split into before. Considering the Synthflesh this is probably going to look awful, and Rory doesnt' seem to realize that whatsoever as she sets about repairing the arm while walking out of the plane... She's not terribly concerned with the flames, but the STRANGE FIGURE that appears on her senors and starts screaming at them-- "PARDON?!" Rory is quick to BOMBARD that figure with all of the active sensors she's GOT. Thankfully, that's quite a lot, as LuggageMutt hops out of the wrecked plane and deploys those Saucery protrusions... they are recon drones equipped with all kinds of sensor gear! Once its payload is launched, the LuggageMutt waddles along the length of the plane on Rory's wireless directives, following grunts and moans... and coming across Flamel. This oblong, mechanical 'mutt' is not the best idea of a healer one has ever seen. It really can't accomplish much besides unfolding two manipulating arms to hoist Flamel up on top of itself - carefully - and apply a Nanobandage. Thankfully, that has both painkillers and a bunch of medichines that will go through the body and try to staunch wounds and combat infection, or at the very least keep him from dying. Whether it can get him back on his feet is another story...
Flamel Parsons	Parsons stabilizes. He won't be on his feet for this fight, but he'll be okay. Thank goodness for nanobandages. "You don't /understand/!!" The Ghost shouts, brandishing now something that looks like... Like some kind of scavenged power-tool? Their brilliant crimson hair waves in the sudden rush of wind as they yank the ripcord on some kind of saw-like contraption, holding it towards Yuna. "It's not what's in the mountain! Maslow Peak is harmless, what's dangerous is /you/!" In the general sense? "You don't know what kind of pain will happen if he tries to get to the top!" Staren's point (entirely valid and probably true, albeit made without full knowledge of the situation) seems ignored, and August's plea for the Ghost to calm down gets disregarded with a shout. Rory White finds many energy readings from the Ghost. It seems to have generally human-analogous biological processes, though its energy signatures all match up with a powerful psychic. A spectrometer erroneously reports their body as being composed of metal and unusual minerals, though. They seem little in the mood for more talking, though, and intent on chasing this group off. When they take off, they leave a tiny crater in the earth behind them during their rush. The spinning saw begins to emit flames, and the creature goes for a heavy series of swiping slashes, half of it meant to scare someone off with territorial bravado, and half of it meant to plunge its spinning blade into a body, or wash flesh in the gushes of flame. The gunshots plunge into their thin body, splattering golden-red gleaming wounds and slowing them down, but they still have superhuman speed bringing them into slashing range far more quickly than expected. "You're not mountain climbers! You're not Psychonauts! You're not even /psychologists/! You can't fix any of this or any of /you/! There's nothing worth the pain of coming here! Go! GO!! GO BACK!! He has to solve this the right way! He has to solve this by dealing with himself! You can't just force this problem to the side and hope that ignoring the feelings is going to make them work out when the only way to get what you want is to grow past all this!!" So much screaming and ranting from them.
August Kohler	Well, the ghost isn't friendly. August spares no more time trying to negotiate, as the pistol unloads, and then his bracelet is brought back up to his eyes. "To me, Tin Soldier!" In another flash of blue, the Persona reemerges, though having just been drained, August seems sort of dizzy, the Tin Soldier taking several moments to gain balance. The spinning saw cuts into the Tin Soldier's metal torso, fire burning against it as August screams in pain, the Tin Soldier silently writhing and miming a scream. The gun-leg is raised upwards and pointed straight at the ghost. Despite the horrible pain, that's not what's throwing August off-guard here. No, it's the ghost's words. While it's clear the spirit is talking about Flamel...those words hit close to home, and August's tolerance for it is low. He takes a breather, holding in the rage that suddenly wants to bubble up and explode outwards, the prodding he feels to unleash the flames everywhere, and offloads a set of the Tin Soldier's rifle bullets, much stronger than that of August's pistol. "Take this, you freak! Don't get in our way!" Obstacles need to be dealt with.
Kotone Yamakawa	It's funny to think of your body having a price tag in most worlds, Kotone's isn't one of them and there's a good deal of cash invested in in it. It's a goo thing she doesn't have a civilian grade body anymore she brings up an arm to ptoect her face, there's a horrible creingf noises, synth wskin and other interals a cut though but Kotone pulls away before it gets too deep, she looks at the Ghost for half a second and she's got a wepon out. Will it even work? She doesn't know but she can use the pistol to take shots at the weapon the Ghost is using. That has to be solid right. "Ho are we dangerous, and who tries to get to the top?! Wait are you saying that? We have one with us! I have helped him before heal a mind!" She does not stop shooting though trying to take the Ghost's weapon out.
Rory White	Rory's focused, which means she might seem cold. Really thouh she has a lot of things flashing through her mind right now. Priorities. Ensure the group's survival. Keep a half-eye on Flamel as the LuggateMutt waddles him away from the flames and to somewhere safe. Keeping all the sensors she deployed actively scanning for anomalies and ambushers... Watching everyone's status. And ALSO IMPORTANTLY, NOT getting in that woman's way. Rory decides to exercise some of the tactics she learned with the XCOM operations and take cover, leaping behind a tree that still stands while pulling out her plasma pistol. "This escalated FAR too quickly and HER mental state is clearly unstable. Psychics are prevalent in this world..." The strange readings she's getting and the discussions just had about psycho-powered metals have her wondering... "... Some sort of psi-cyborg who lost their sanity...?!" She isn't, yet taking aim to fire, althogh she DOES take aim. In fact Rory studies the woman carefully with all her sensors. Even her supernatural movements and freakish displays can be studied. And if she displays and quirks or vulnerabilities, Rory's ready to pounce on them!
Staren	More crazy ranting. Staren just opens fire, then grunts as he starts to run after in pursuit, stumbles, takes a moment to take a breath, and then flies into the air, a bit unsteadily at first, then opening fire with the beam cannons and some of his missiles. Plasma warheads that usually burn everything close to them to ash. They can airburst close by, he doesn't have to actually hit. Staren opens his mouth to argue further, then decides there's no point. This guy is crazy. He should save his breath.
Yuna Kagurazaka	"SHUGOSEIHEKI!!" For most of the group, that sawblade is something to be avoided as desperately as possible. For Yuna, it's a threat to be guarded against - aggressively guarded, so to speak. And to that end, she calls out the name of her kite shield, and as it materializes on her left arm, she does the opposite of Rory - throwing herself into the "ghost's" path and pushing the Wall of the Guardian Star against the sawblade. If she can lock up this supposed ghost's weapon, she can keep it from hurting anybody else in the group. That's the theory, anyway. Yuna's inner reserves have already taken a hell of a drain, and even when she's tanking threats on Shugoseiheki, that still takes its toll on the Light Suit's defensive field. At least it's channeled through the arm that wasn't channeling so much raw energy into the jet's systems earlier ...
Flamel Parsons	The unload of bullets from the Tin Soldier's leg rips into the Ghost's body, launching them back with the impacts. The bullets slam through their body and even out the back in a spray of gold-red light, but leave no blood behind. The Ghost screams out in pain, and rolls over the ground in a brief spasm of pain, before it seems to overcome that with a snap. The Ghost CLANGS oddly when struck. It's strange. The noise it makes next, though, is more important. It's... Unnerving. There's a sound like a scream in reverse, several converging on a single aural point, and a translucent psionic construct that looks like a welding torch assembles just over the Ghost's shoulder, before blasting a gush of high heat in his direction, a lancing, sweeping beam meant to cut through him and his Soldier, before continuing its melee rush!
Flamel Parsons	The weapon cracks, crackles with sudden bursts of electricity and light, and sputters when Kotone focuses on it. With a desperate roar and a shockwave of heat, the strange spirit restarts it, though its speed is clearly far reduced now, taking its cutting power down after that impact. "Because of who you /are/! Because of what you /do/ with the things you /feel/! Why would you ever think you're /not/ dangerous -- HOW could you not think you're dangerous -- if you can't even look at yourself or deal with who you /are/!! How can you be so /afraid/ of something /harmless/?! It /isn't harmless/!!!" Kotone's brought down the offensive power, but that still leaves a lot of damage when the little ghost pounces on them and actively tries to disassemble bits of her arm before they backflip and re-engage the others in combat!
Flamel Parsons	Quirks and vulnerabilities? Rory's analysis is able to find one. There's a stumble on one of the Ghost's legs, where their ankle doesn't seem to be functioning right. An old wound? A broken piece of a cyborg body? It's not clear, but what is clear is that they keep using all fours as a position because when depending on that leg, they have just a bit of a stumble, a bit of a limp...
Flamel Parsons	Plasma warheads do well. The Ghost is limited by its topspeed, and while that's considerable, it's not faster than an explosion of expanding plasma, so the leaping, darting, jumping, dashing little warrior seems to be struck badly by them. But in flying, Staren finds himself running into a different hazard. The brainstorm gathers again above him! It looks like it responds to anything going above a certain altitude from the mountain face itself, and so Staren is going to have to deal with aggressive lightning from a brain-shaped hemispherical cloud trying to blast him to the ground!
Flamel Parsons	Yuna manages to prevent further damage, though; while the others suffered wounds on the initial encounter, Yuna manages to get a shield on the weapon, and because the weapon's been damaged by Kotone, it locks in place, and prevents the burned, shot-up Ghost from continuing their momentum. There's a clang as the first strike stops, and then grinding and sprays of sparks as they try to slice through. "Come on... Come onnnnn...!! Damn it...!!" They cry out, held in place by the defense. "RrrrrrrRRRRRRRRRRH!!!" Their voice flares up, and fire blasts through their body and into the sawblade, trying to gush flames into the shield and overheat Yuna while they're stuck in place like this.
Rory White	Rory doesn't miss this. For Kotone and Staren if they're accepting tacnet, her support software comes up as she tags that odd movement and the ankle as a suspect spot! It's tagged 'Injury? / Poor Footwork?' The rest of the AR overlay is a complete blank, because Rory's still trying to figure out what exactly to categorize this woman as! "I think it's clear this woman is in the grips of some madness... we should subdue her if we CAN!" Rory starts HURLING things across the battlefield. Little metal spheres that look like grenades. However, there's no obvious pin or detonation mechanism, and they just hit the ground with rough thumps. <<Lure her over one of these! But don't get on top of it.>> She's setting the stage, because the lumps are in fact, riot foam sprayers. Certain to encumber even in low quantities!
Staren	Staren's top speed isn't faster than lightning. On the bright side, the forcefield is better at taking lightning than impacts. But sheer quantity has a quality all its own, and lightning is a lot of power. Staren's blasted to the ground, and a few of the discs on his chestplate explode in a shower of sparks. It takes him a few stunned seconds to realize what happened, then... "Oh, COME ON!" He changes tactics. Staren will hide behind the plane for cover, and fire missiles at the ghost using Rory and Kotone's tacnet data. "Subdue HOW? If you got any ideas, I'm. listening! With everything going on, I don't think a dazzler or flashbangs are gonna work! And shocking someone who FLIES THROUGH A LIGHTNING STORM is no good either!"
August Kohler	"Shut the hell up!" August shouts at the ghost, as the Tin Soldier begins fuming in both pain and anger. The beam tears forward, and the Tin Soldier dives in the way of August, soaking it for both of them, but they both feel it. August stumbles backwards, as the Tin Soldier's body is warped from the heat. The flamethrower is pointed upwards...and August entirely ignores the 'subdual' mention, because his heart is pulsing and the words are inflammatory to him. This might cause a problem as the riot foam sprayers are thrown forward and the others start luring her... Because the Tin Soldier starts firing a massive rain of bullets and fire, in bursts, at the ghost. August is trying to destroy it. "Take this, you piece of shit! Burn in the ground where a ghost like you belongs! You, move away!" August shouts to Carna, trying to hit the ghost without hitting her...aiming for the head with the flames and bullets. Carna might get some strays if she's not careful!
Carna	Carna retreated into the shadows when the 'ghost' went on the offensive, and hasn't made any more moves since then. She's allowing her team mates on this operation to serve as bait, to draw its attention, while she observes and waits. But now, waiting for Staren's missiles, to either work or not, she times her ambush for when the enemy is in the open. Being driven and coralled by August's flames and bullets, surely there will be window of opportunity, where the foe is more focused on getting out of the kill zone than on their surroundings. And then, right at THAT point... Carna drops from above like a ghost herself, silent as a shadow, to try to pin the enemy to the ground through the simple expedient of impaling them through the torso with her sword, and planting it deep into the terrain, and relying on her superhuman strength and to try to keep it there. The alternative was to take potshots with a crossbow, and she's not as good at that as she used to be, it seems.
Yuna Kagurazaka	Yuna grits her teeth and keeps leaning into the Ghost's now-fiery saw. Fortunately, her shield is relatively fireproof - but the raw heat being put out by the sawblade DOES have to go somewhere, and physics being physics, Shugoseiheki is being heated up - not only by the fire, but from the friction of a rapidly-spinning blade against a relatively-durable object. And then you add the pressure being exerted on both the shield, and on Yuna herself, by the 'ghost' ... She does manage to keep pushing back, but it seems like Yuna's tiring in a hurry, as she falls back a step. Then another. "Heads up, guys ... !" she calls out in warning. She did catch Rory tossing things around, although she has to rely on Elner to track where they landed and guide her in a useful direction - And suddenly Yuna goes down with a cry, the last of her energy focused into trying to steer the 'ghost' towards one of those traps. She might land on another one of them despite her efforts, but she's willing to take that risk.
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone Yamakawa is glad to be on the tac net right now she make use of the data that she is getting from her friend and will make use of it tyhe good new is the Ghost is getting pushe dback and the attacks are seeming to be working. With the wepaobn out of play she'll turn her pistol on the ghost herself. She fires off controlled bursts of fire at it. Like she would a living thing tryhing to take it down she's also glad for the help she hears August fury and honesly she's pretty pissed off too and she'll keep on shooting at the damn ghost. "We gave you your chance!" The warning is caught though as Rory is tossing thiung and Yuna is giving uot a warning of her own or it is about Rory's own actions. <<I don't evne get how we're able to hurt it and I'm not going to question it.>>
Flamel Parsons	Yuna's resistance lasts a long time, however hellish the experience may be, but it can only last for so long. Staren's heavy blasts drive them further into the bad territory, and it's getting worse and worse for them with that wounding glow when they break Yuna's shield and go for a kill. Thankfully, Rory's foam traps seem to have a little of that covered, and she could barely manage to set one off under their feet the moment that the Ghost looks like they're about to take a heavy overhead swing on Yuna, interrupting the strike before it can impact them. This leaves them vulnerable to Kotone's gunfire, and especially to August's rain of bullets and Carna's aggressive sword strike, which leave the Ghost pinned to the ground, screaming and in pain. They let go of the saw, damaged as it already is, and begins emitting wave after wave of intensifying heat. "You can't... Do this! The mountain will be the end of him like this! Everywhere else in the world there's something to hold it back, everywhere else in the world there's something to resist and something to block it out -- but when you're stuck with just you and your own head there's /nothing/ that can keep all the painful parts of you from coming to the surface! You can't fight them like this because /you/ don't have strength against /you/! How can the tiny pieces of him that his friends hold up last against a whole soul full of nothing but pain?!" The ghost's broken welder's mask splits apart after all the sustained damage, revealing the feral, youthful face of a girl only barely reaching college age. She raises a right hand covered in a sprawling web of burn scars, and clouds form above; despite being pinned down, her body shimmers and moves in inhuman ways. With a flicker and a flash, gold-crimson lightning blasts out of her hand up into the cloud, and then she flows "into" that lightning, leaving only the tools behind... And what looks like some deposits of some sort of crumbling purple rock, with a crimson glow that fades as the rock turns a deeper black. Parsons is on his feet by now, staggering and limping out of the wreckage of the plane. "Wow! Looks like you guys took down a UPE all on your own. I have nooooo idea what any of that was, since pretty much every UPE is a totally unique thing, so I really hope that was the last of it. Crazy thing too. Uhhhh... Shit, it'll be a long time before anything can get to us to pick us up..." Whether the Ghost of Maslow Peak is dead, or "banished", or what have you, they haven't left much behind of a body. The crimson lightning sparks within the clouds, and the strange weather disperses, leaving a clear blue sky. Now it's just a matter of finding somewhere to call in transit. A quick scan might reveal the smoke of a fire somewhere -- a campsite or a cabin or something -- just a small ways up the mountain.
Staren	It's gone from Kotone and Rory and Elner's sensors? Staren peers around the plane to visually confirm while they talk on the radio. <"Unknown... psionic... entity?"> He guesses at Flamel's acronym. He spies something where it was, and approaches. "What are these rocks?"
Yuna Kagurazaka	With the fight over, Yuna ... just kinda lays there where she landed, letting her shield vanish back into her 'inventory'. Between powering the plane for that last desperate handful of moments, trying to withstand the 'ghost's' incendiary saw assault, and the general emotional strain and stress of their catastrophic approach and slightly less catastrophic fight, she hasn't even got enough left to sit up - at least, not until she has a chance to rest up, catch her breath, and all that kind of good stuff. And hopefully there'll be an overland trek down the mountain to wherever Elner finds that the Mike-maru-go can fly in, touch down, and take flight from once everyone's on board. Given the size of the existing storm, it's not going to be a short or easy stroll. She does, however, have enough energy to talk on the radio, and does so. Whatever that apparition was, it REALLY didn't want Parsons climbing the mountain, and that makes her worry further about what's going on - what might happen if Parsons does climb to the mountain's peak. Maybe the 'ghost' was in the right of it ... ?
Flamel Parsons	"Iiiii can't tell, looks like they were glowing. Can I get a spectroscope here, Ms. White?" Parsons says as he joins Staren, limping to the rocks and examining them. They're crumbling a bit, but in no danger of blowing away in the wind or anything. They've sort of settled into a black-purple low-energy-looking state. Looks like a post-igneous metamorphic, and the sort of material you'd expect to see in a meteor.
August Kohler	As the ghost falls, August huffs. The words are seriously getting to him, and he just collapses into sitting down. The Tin Soldier disappears once again. The hell was that thing, and why did the words it was slinging hurt so much? He's just going to sit here and wait, for now, though he does speak to Flamel. "Did that thing remind you of /anything/? Anything at all?"
Rory White	YES! Rory would cheer but she doesn't have those kind of physical impulses. Just a strong sense of satisfaction spikes through! The bomb goes off, spraying foam and entangling at just the right moment. Exactly as planned! "... The behavior... the delusional ranting and supernatural nature does match some properties associated with ghosts... but..." She, unlike Staren, is CAUTIOUS, so one of her Saucers descends to get a closer look at the rocks and scan them. Rory? Rory is just peeking out from behind the tree. "... But NONE of the phenomena here are normal. It is clearly a locus point of unknown energies. Presumably psychic, given the world... is everyone alright?"
Flamel Parsons	Parsons looks to August, and his eyes assume a look of profound strain in only a single moment. "I could only hear her, couldn't do much fighting. I... I don't know, honestly. She reminds me of something I don't know. Does that make sense? Like a test I studied for last year but now I don't know anything about it anymore. There's something about... I don't know. I feel like I'm supposed to know what happened to her." He shakes his head, trying to clear it. "But not... /her/. Just what happened."
Flamel Parsons	Rory's scan of the material doesn't have any matches for the material in the databases for her home world, but by scanning multiversal networks... A match! It matches an alloy of depleted psitanium and psilicon. The former is a depleted form of a material usually used in structures or vehicles for psychic amplification and the latter is a common semiconductive material in psychically-conductive electronics. There's also traces of carbonized material, and various trace metals.
Staren	Staren shrugs and turns to Flamel. "Who knows? These memories are from before you were born... maybe one of those government conspiracies, or someone trying to fight them, put those memories in your head." He glances back at where the 'ghost' disappeared. "Maybe the 'him' she was talking about is whoever did that to you? Who knows..."
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone Yamakawa is able to gun down the ghost but she hears it's final words she hears the warning and she looks at the ghost as they keep pouring more attack upon it and she finally goes down but she's left looking haunted and worries about this. The warning is this mountain someone's mindcapoe made manafest like some crash stuff fromt he Imperium of Man's neck of the woods? Kotone looks concerned and she's clearkly hurting with the fight over she finally, turns off her pain receptors so she doesn't have to feel the injury for the moment. 5R "No nothing is normal and I have a bad feeling about this place's nature..."