12636/Target: Outsiders I

Target: Outsiders I
Date of Scene:	24 September 2022
Location:	Nottle Farm Campsite - Upstate NY
Synopsis:	The Outsiders briefly become the hunted, but the demon Volroxach hadn't counted on Flashbangs, Adamantium, and Conner Kent.
Cast of Characters:	Phoebe Beacon, Tim Drake, Conner Kent, Laura Kinney

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Phoebe Beacon has posed:
UPSTATE NEW YORK, CATSKILL MOUNTAINS
Nottles Farm's Hunting Camp, Early Morning

The camp was sheltered on three sides by granite ledges, which helps stop any wind from disturbing the campers most nights. A spring bubbles out of one of the ledges -- the same spring that fed the narrow, hand-crank well nearby in the tricorner hunting cabin that hasn't seen use since the mid 90's other than the occasional visit from LARPers and pets, four miles up a winding trail marked with tin-can tops that have been nailed to trees at shoulder-height (at one point), but have grown to just above eye-height. There are ledges nearby that overlook the valley, and the farm below where an old lady named Poppy Nottles had been gathering eggs with her grandson, who had come up from attending college in Metropolis for the weekend to decompress outside of a city -- the Gotham City native needed a break from the blaring of horns, and it was coming up on the traditional once-a-year Long Weekend for LARP that last year had hosted, accidentally, a new clearing in the woods (along with some very confused mole people). Nick made the hike up to make sure that it was cleaned up and no one had been using their campsite over the summer for parties (and that no weird spaceship set-ups had been constructed) -- and had never come off the mountain, after sending his friends in the LARPing group a picture -- inclusive of Tim Drake, AKA Tim Timmeneh, Mandservant to Lord Yappington Barksalot.

The picture was a red circle, outlined by figures -- or weird letters -- and written in dripping red beneath it CAVE OUTSIDERS. Accompanying the picture was the text "WTF guys, there's not even a cave here??? Who painted our ledge?!"

And then Nick Nottles disappeared off the grid.

Poppy had called Lucille, Nick's mother, to see if he had checked in with her when The Monster (a very large draft horse Nick borrowed to bring cleaning supplies up) had come roaring down the mountain, foaming and snorting a storm -- but sans Nick. Lucille had then sent texts to JayJay, who was still up in Massachusetts and hadn't ventured to the camp since the Spring; to Nate "Nacho" Patel who was at his great uncle's elephant sanctuary, and to Phoebe Beacon, who had remained in Gotham, asking if anyone had heard from her son.

Phoebe had sounded the alarm.

It wasn't a cave. It was a warning. Someone wanted the attention of The Outsiders -- and they were going to get it.

She was taking precautions, though, a text to another friend had been sent out, with the precise location of the camp in the Catskills.

On the transport up, Phoebe had been even more quiet and distant, absorbed in her thoughts with the name burned across her memories and bloodline:

        Volroxach.

She was shaking, her right hand over her left shoulder, pressing against the old injury.

Tim Drake has posed:
    Last year's LARP session was probably a notable thing in the Outsiders because their workaholic leader actually took a small vacation for it. The question is, though: did Tim advertise that he was going away on a LARP? Probably not. In fact, he might have carefully alluded to some sort of super secret mission he was partaking.

    Which is not technically incorrect, if you're willing to allow for his duty as Knight in service to Lord Yappington Barksalot (aka, Yap the dog) qualifying as a mission.

    Okay, look, Tim's a nerd. There's never been any doubt about that. He's not answering any questions about what they got up to last year (if only to keep the secret of the moles, which after making friends he had sworn to do) but he is gripping the controls of the jet hard enough that it's making his gloves creak. Whatever's going on up there on the mountain, it has him... concerned isn't even the word for it.

Conner Kent has posed:
Conner is actually not very sure what this is about. Okay, some dude is missing, there is an 'Outsiders' mention in a picture. And that is worrying because it was sent to Tim Drake, who definitely is not a Robin, much less involved with a mysterious super-team that maybe doesn't exist.

And Tim looks tense, which he is... sometimes. But not often. "So, you two knew the missing person, right? Care to tell the whole story?" Because he has known Robin is a nerd since Tim was about 15. This is fine, he likes the D&D games too, although LARP is probably too much for Conner.

Laura Kinney has posed:
The more unusual missions are always something of a concern for Laura. Not because she's inclined to protecting the world from mystical or esoteric terrors, but rather because they tend to be caused by things which you can't just snikt to pieces. Give her a nice hate group or killer robot any day of the week.

Still with a missing person in the mix her nose could come in handy.

And hey it could be dangerous and she's kept out of trouble almost since her Birthday outing. Trouble that anyone has heard about anyway....

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Phoebe looks up to Tim, and then she signs.

    -Nick Nottles is one of my friends, since second grade. He's part of our Live-Action RP group, which is what Tim and I were doing in the mountains last year. It wasn't training. We were yelling Elf tongue at one another.- she signs to the group, and she breathes out.

    -Nick knows these woods like the back of his hand. Their horse came home alone. -

    She reaches and rubs at her shoulder again, where the Death Scorpion had hit her. And nearly killed her.

    The transport touches down in a meadow that has a very deep cut taken out of it; the loose dirt had long since been tamped down by snow and rain at least.

    Anything that required vocal explaination? She'd have to trust Tim on.

    It's a short hike to the site. The circle in red with SRDISTUO EVAC scrawled on it. There is the remains of a small campfire that's burning down, just the embers. Oatmeal was burnt inside of it. There are large hoofprints and the smell of a horse around, along with AXE Body spray (really you have to try not to smell it), and underneath the smell of sulfur, and rot.

    And Rose and Citrus and sand. The red circle, if scanned by tech or by olfactory, is very similar to Phoebe's blood.

Tim Drake has posed:
    There's probably some translating that has to happen during the signing, so Tim flips the switch for the autopilot to take over their descent and landing then turns the pilot seat around. And he definitely makes a face when himself-via-Phoebe outs their LARP adventures, but he dutifully reports the facts of the mission anyway.

    "My biggest concern, besides for Nick, is what kind of magic firepower is going to be brought to bear here," he says as he steps out from the back of the jet, pausing there to roll one of his shoulders and then wincingly prod at his chest, still sore from their mission the day before. "SB, you might want to stay in the back row for this one. Less chance of them targeting you."

    Once they're at the site, Tim of course lets Laura take the lead on the scent-based investigation, though he does circle around to make note of what can be found. His domino is, of course, recording live video feed, with him manually snapping photos at several points.

Conner Kent has posed:
"No, unless they have Kryptonite," replies Conner. "I can protect myself from most magic with tactile telekinesis, remember?" Magic usually makes him uncomfortable. But he is pretty sure the same is true for most people, including a few mages.

Once on site, he notices the smells, which feel like Phoebe's magic. But probably it is not. "Is that human blood?" He asks, pointing to the red circle. "And backwards spelling, that is how some magicians cast spells, right?" Here are the Outsiders, where is the cave?

Laura Kinney has posed:
At least until circumstances dictate otherwise Laura is going for stealth. Slipping out of the transport and immediately into a low tracking stance. Ideal for slipping through the bushes without leaving a trace, while still keeping low to the ground to sniff for trails.

And thanks to her enhanced physical abilities she can keep up a brisk pace for days on end.

"Horses are skittish as a general rule," she notes as she paces around the camp sniffing things. "It wouldn't take a lot to send one running for safety."

She's not come unprepared for violence but she has toned it down to avoid attracting undue attention from the locals. A pair of chunky pistols with silencers and some highly illegal bullets that fragment inside the target for maximum damage.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    The group is gathered in the campsite. There's a wind that's blowing, gently, through the pines and faded hardwoods, causing leaves to rattle and the remaining smoke from the campfire to eb and rise in waves rather than straight up.

    The Monster's Bombproof. All four of us -- Nick, Jayjay, Nacho and me used to ride him into town to the general store for candy. He wouldn't just leave Nick. Phoebe replies, her domino going text to speech. It sounds like Ellen McLain, better known as GLaDoS. She gets closer to the markings, hopping over the little spring as she reaches up to brush her gloved hands against it. There aren't many trails -- Nick and The Monster in. Sulfur. The Monster out.

    It's Latin. Cave means 'Beware' she states.

    Where was Nick? What had happened?

    There was a soft 'bang!'. Laura would recognize a gunshot immediately. THe bullet whizzes in the air, aimed for the joint in Red Robin's left shoulder!

Tim Drake has posed:
    "So long as you see the magic coming," Tim replies. He straightens up from where he'd been crouched down near the campfire, and turns to look over at Conner so that he can offer up a shrug of one shoulder. Maybe Tim's being overly cautious. Not like it's the first time.

    Magic always puts him on edge. Honestly, it seems the more he learns about it, the more wary he is with each encounter.

    The Latin realization happens pretty quickly, and Tim exhales out as he mutters "Cave Outsiders" with the correct pronunciation and inflection, arms crossing over his chest. "So it's a--."

    Rude of whoever it was to interrupt him as Red Robin was, no doubt, about to expound on some theory of his as to what REALLY happened here. And because this isn't a movie, when the bullet hits Tim doesn't fly backwards. That is, indeed, not how physics works. He's also been shot enough times (oof) that his first reflex is to fight through the pain long enough to throw himself to the side, a good... let's say three-fourths of the way towards where Conner is, since they're in the middle of a clearing and Superboy is basically his only option for tactical cover at the moment.

    Then Tim says "Ow." Because he's been shot. And it hurts.

Conner Kent has posed:
"I got my forcefield up," mutters Conner. "Anyway, do you got any the..." and then there is a bullet. Too fast for Conner to catch, rifle. The sound of the shoot actually comes -after- the bullet, which came at over match two.

Maybe Bart could have caught it, but Conner is not fast enough yet. He is moving to cover Tim a fraction of second too late. Good if there is more bullets, but too late for this one. "Balm! Behind me, heal him," he looks for the shooter, but mostly leaves to Laura the first response.

Laura Kinney has posed:
Laura instinctively snaps her head round to look in the direction of the gunshot. Keen senses picking up on every environmental clue to narrow down where the shooter is firing from. Her pistols raise as if to return fire but for now at least she holds off.

Supernatural forces don't generally carry a .375 rifle. That's more the domain of wilderness hunters. Perhaps the missing friend? Did the briefing mention Nick being an experienced marksman?

Besides she might be an excellent shot but that doesn't mean her pistols can match the range of a rifle...

"Up there," She points in the direction the shot came from with the pistols. "Want me to pursue?" She blinks a few times and then adds "You okay RR?"

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Tim is not permitted to quote a certain Mon Calmari admiral, and thus takes a bullet to his shoulder for his trouble.

    The sound of the barrel discharging the case gives up where the shooter is.

    Balm brings her own shield up, her hand raising to defend when she realizes Red Robin's been hit. She breathes out, feeling her chest tighten. Her fingers release the shield and she moves to go to him before the woods turn topsy-turvy for her, hit with a bout of severe vertigo.

    She stumbles and nearly gets taken out by the campfire looping over top of her to her perception.

    The amount of magic filling the area increases, as does the acrid smell of dry sand and rotting rosepetals.

    Laura is the next target of the shooter. BOOM!

    The ground shudders beneath the quartet, and the granite ledges open slowly, yawning like a cat coming to take a chomp out of the ground in slow motion.

Tim Drake has posed:
    Half-sprawled on the ground, Tim struggled to right himself but only manages to get up on one knee. Still, with Conner at his back (and also, you know, having his back) at least he's not in immediate danger of getting shot again. "Clean through," he reports after a quick (and very uncomfortable, as one would imagine) tactile inspection of the new hole in his body. "Rifle? Not Nick."

    Of those five words he was really hoping to communicate more about the shooter, but here's to hoping the rest of the team can interpret that as the go-ahead to engage.

    Because Red Robin certainly won't be. At least he's stable for the moment, holding a wad of gauze from one of the pouches on his belt to help slow the flow of blood from his shoulder.

    Which is of course precisely when the ground starts to shake and he topples to the side, ending up bracing himself with one hand that sends a shock of pain up his arm to the wound. All Tim does is grit his teeth through it and push himself to his feet, though he's wobbly. Finally he manages to get out "It's a trap!" followed by "Run!" which would probably have been a more officious command for them to fall back and regroup if not for, you know, the whole getting shot thing. Side note: this is why there are established mission protocols in place. Like when you have to evacuate for a fire alarm at school and have a meeting point where the teacher can do a headcount.

Conner Kent has posed:
"Can you take care of the shooter, X?" Asks Conner, glancing at Tim. "If Balm can't heal him..." he was going to fly Tim back to the Batplane, but then a granite ledge opens with an ominous rumble.

"Oh, it is always a trap," he comments, then reaches down to try to grab Tim and Phoebe and flies to put a few yards between them and the ledge. Like a hundred, give and take a couple.

Laura Kinney has posed:
Laura Kinney doesn't dive for cover or do any fancy moves. She just stands there and takes the bullet. The only sign of the impact a slight gritting of her teeth and a hole in her dark green woodland stealth gear that's healing shut almost as soon as anyone notices it's even there.

The ground opening up is a whole different matter. Not even Laura wants to heal through being buried alive. She holsters her handguns, pops her claws and bursts into a sprint.

Arms (and claws) raised infront of her.

Any more incoming rounds will find themselves meeting a whirl of adamantium. Not that the shooter will have much time to fire again before she's upon them. If the uneven terrain is slowing her down it's not by enough for anyone to notice.

Nor does the order to run really change her course of action. Her first instinct is the run /at/ the danger after all... Poor Tim. Sometimes his job must feel like herding a lot of very deadly cats.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    #-1 INVALID ANSI DEFINITION: +52 Run, run, run Outsiders... a voice echoes through the woods. #-1 INVALID ANSI DEFINITION: +52 I have something that belongs to you. Someone who is crying out for help. Don't you want to save them?

    Phoebe hitches her breath, and she reaches out before Conner grabs at her, and she wriggles against him.

    Nick's down there. Nick is still in danger. And it's all her fault!

    She reaches up and gives a solid 'whack!' against SUperboy's shoulder!

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Run, run, run Outsiders... a voice echoes through the woods. I have something that belongs to you. Someone who is crying out for help. Don't you want to save them?

    Phoebe hitches her breath, and she reaches out before Conner grabs at her, and she wriggles against him.

    Nick's down there. Nick is still in danger. And it's all her fault!

    She reaches up and gives a solid 'whack!' against SUperboy's shoulder!

Tim Drake has posed:
    If things weren't so dire at the moment, Tim would probably have managed at least one put-upon sigh. But ultimately, his team can take care of themselves. And of course Laura is chiefest amongst them in her 'taking care' skills (taking care of business as she is).

    "We're not leaving him," Tim grits out, trying to calm Phoebe. Even though Conner is probably the easiest person to hitch a sky-ride with on account of his tactile telekinesis, there is no amount of movement that is going to be comfortable when you have a hole in your shoulder. Just breathing hurts. "Need to neutralize whatever magic this is. Balm, what is it?"

    In the meantime he's tracking Laura's progress towards the shooter through the limited range of the telescoping lenses in his domino mask. It's good that she's not going far, and that really begs the question: how well could this person know the Outsiders if they thought it wise to engage while still in snikting range?

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    The shooter might have noticed X23 incoming, but they locked another case into place, and are taking aim at the rapidly increasing distance of Superboy and his two passengers.

    It appears to be just a normal huntsman. His eyes are glazed over and reddish, and the reason why Laura couldn't smell him? He's both wearing the same brand of Axe as Nick, and he reeks of deer urine.

    Hunters are weird man.

Conner Kent has posed:
"Yeah, yeah," replies Conner. "But Tim is injured and you gotta heal him, without falling in a bottomless magical pit before." Priorities! He gently lets the pair go on the ground, but keeps his feet a few inches from the ground, so he can move faster as needed.

"Okay. It was a trap. But hardly a very good one," he points out. "Maybe good if you two had been alone, but X and myself can't be stopped by bullets. And whatever is in under the ledge seems slow moving."

Laura Kinney has posed:
The trick to cutting bullets out of the air isn't being faster than a speeding bullet. It's being faster and more precise than the person firing it. Figuring out exactly where they're aiming and getting your blade into the path before the bullet has even been fired.

Or just bull rush the shooter and chop the barrel to bits. Whichever comes first.

Seeing the glazed look she doesn't strike to kill when she gets up close. Claws sweeping to defend against (read destroy) guns and bullets she uses a sweep of her legs to floor the hunter. Rising up to follow with a stomp down on the chest. Attempting to break ribs and hopefully cause enough pain to snap the poor guy out of his trance.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Phoebe's optics on her domino flicker.

    They're just outside the clearing from the Subterrain's erruption, from where they met the mole people. She is visibly shaken, and her body is on high alert, but yes. Priorities.

    And this time she's trying to keep herself steady.

    Voloxach. She dragged the Lady in Red to Hell. She has my larynx.

    She holds her hands up, the rose-old glow around her hands as she goes to place them on Tim's shoulder.

    She's shaking harder now. Her armor was hit by the campfire and has ashes on it. She has burns that are healing on her chin and cheek where the embers kissed it.

    Laura chops the barrel of the rifle, the metal slicing off neatly as the huntsman turns, dully, withdrawing a hunting knife, and instead of going after X23, he stops, his head tilts, and the vision clears.

    "H-huh...whyaaat..." he grunts, and attempts to shake the influence off. Mild possession. His stomach will flip out in about three minutes.

    Meanwhile, around Tim, Conner, and Phoebe, the air begins to fog, like someone's released very, very slow smoke pellets.

Tim Drake has posed:
    Back on the ground, Tim's slightly less sure on his feet than before. Blood is still steadily leaking out of him, and there's only so much that stubborness can do to keep you on your feet once you start losing all those important fluids. He nods to Conner, which is as much of a thank you he can manage at the moment for the gentle landing.

    Then Phoebe casts Lay Hands, and he allows his chest to expand fully for the first time since that initial gunshot. "That's both worrying and kind of gross," he says, head on a swivel to keep watch around them while Phoebe tends to him. "Sounds like X-23 might have our rogue shooter handled, at the moment."

    His boots scrape against the ground as the fog rolls in, his stance shifting into something slightly more defensive. There's nothing he can do except pull out his staff and look back at his teammates. "Keep that forcefield up."

Conner Kent has posed:
"Oh yeah, now the creepy Mist, watch out for monsters," grumbles Conner, trying to see past the clouds. But of course, it is magic, it won't work. "Want me to fly us up? Or are we heading to the pit instead?" He asks Tim. Not Phoebe. Phoebe thought falling into the hole was a good idea.

"This friends of yours, did he know magic? Because the scents back there felt like Pheebs magic," he notes. And no one answered when he asked if the red paint was actually blood.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    It's really goss. And that was either my blood, or my cousin's that was used on the ledges. Phoebe confirms as she patches Tim up. There's still some surface damage, but it's clean. And he's no longer bleeding. That's a plus, right?

    "Who's out there?" Nicholas Nottle calls out from the fog. There's the sound of metal on metal, and a soft 'THUMP', followed by an 'ow, damnit'. "Jayjay? Nacho? This isn't funny!"

    And then, creepily, there is an answer. The voice is slightly garbled. Underneath there is the tone of the demon's voice, and then layered over top of it, Phoebe says,

    "Shh, Nick, she'll hear you!"

    "This is some Stranger Things level crap, Peebles. I can't see anything."

    The metal rattles again.

    "Shh, Nick!"

    The smoke clears. They're at the edge of the clearing, with the Outsider's transport there, and between the trio and the transport, there's a dark-haired guy in his late teens, dirty, with a cut on his cheek. His eyes are visibly clouded, to keep him from panicking, but the sound of chain was not coming from any bindings.

    The chains are attached to spikes on the back of another figure. It rises ten feet to their first face... the first face, because subsequentially, going up, there are others. Porcelin masks, Braided hair and beautiful glass baubles. Some faces sneer, others grin maniacally, others are frozen in screams.

    Six arms errupt from thick shoulders, leading down to a blackened torso and the lower body akin to that of a leach, including a mouth that opens and closes there.

    And in one of the hands, blood-covered, there is tissue. From that does Phoebe's voice come:

    "It'll be all right, Nick. I called Tim."

    A grinning mask focuses its attention on the trio.

    He'll Be Here Soon.

Tim Drake has posed:
    Surface level damage is basically nothing. Definitely within the realm of what the famous Bat stubborness can shrug off when faced with dire situations that require focus, and... whatever the hell that is? Yeah. This counts.

    "Priority is getting Nick away from whatever that is," he says, voice lowered so that it doesn't travel. He side-steps around Conner and looks up at the creature, mouth set in a grim frown. But what is a carbon-steel alloy telescoping staff going to do here? At best he can hope to distract, and as he turns on his heel to adjust his stance, the fall of his cape gives him a second to palm a flash bang.

    The warning word he gives for the team's benefit is "Eyes," subvocalized so that it only transmits over the Outsiders comms (though still definitely audible to superhearing) before he tosses it directly at one of the creature's faces, picked at random.

Conner Kent has posed:
Conner winces at the monster appearance. "Man, aren't you a beauty. At least it can talk despite the mime masks," he babbles. Not freaked out at all, mind you.

He nods at Tim. When in doubt, go for the eyes, right? It is the Minsc thing to do. He waits for the flash bang to go and then jumps forward, aiming a kick to the monster mid-section, trying to topple it over, but mostly so he can grab Nick and get him back to Phoebe. That thing is still between them and the batjet, and it is not as if they can leave without Laura.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Phoebe stiffens. This is the point where she wants to run with her tail between her legs, into the safety of the woods. She can't bind the demon with what she was taught; she needs her voice for that, and she was sure her 'cheating' with someone else providing the words wasn't going to cut it with an actual demon. She does, however, bring her brilliant, light-up staff out, its sunlight and warmth coming into play.

     The demon shifts its weight, the mask turning into an even larger, Joker-esque affair, eyes settling on the preparing trio as it looks, gathering itself up to make an attack -- and then there's a flashbang! It gives a snarling cry out, scrabbling to try and get purchase. NIck is thrown to the side, landing bodily with a grunt and a sharp cry.

    The demon was going to try and take on Conner when Conner kicks the monster mid-section, sending the demon careening off to the side, knocking into a couple of trees before Conner returns, Nick in tow.

    Phoebe reaches over, grabbing Conner, who's holding onto Nick. She grabs Tim by his good shoulder, she closes her eyes, and she concentrates. There is a large BOOM, though inverted. Like an explosion audiably occurring in reverse as she tries to pack all the magic, all that supernatural energy inwards and then --

    The fog and the demon are gone. The transport is right there.

    Laura is probably out in the trees.

    And a gentle autumn wind is blowing as Pheebs floods the area with as much Light and Holy energy as she can -- and then promptly topples to her knees.