Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Episode 6: Apes on a Train

A quick cellphone check confirmed that Jack Flash was in range. Before Torrent could finish the call, he was standing in the room with them. The team changed into their newly arrived uniforms, and headed for the runaway train.
Jack Flash scouted ahead, the rest of the team followed in the Osprey, piloted by Steel Dragon. Soon, the plane was flying above the locomotive, and Jack Flash was running alongside. He leapt up on to the locomotive without trouble. Steel Dragon awoke the plane's spirit and instructed it to wait for him to leave, take Marduk back to the end of the train, and find someplace nearby to land. He and Torrent jump down to the locomotive with varying levels of grace, and the planes drifts back with Marduk who deftly leaps to the last car.
The team quickly found individual tasks.
Steel Dragon set to work uncoupling the locomotive from the train full of armaments.
Torrent focused on keeping the well-armed apes away from the locomotive.
Marduk kept the apes in the back of the train busy, and started to work his way through them.
Jack Flash took a different tact, and once he removed the guard baboon from the locomotive he recognized the gorilla "engineer" as Daisy, the signing ape. Remembering some sign-language from somewhere, he tried to communicate the situation to the gorilla who seemed happily driving to "Freedom." Realizing she thought she was escaping from her captivity, he continued to use diplomacy on her.
Meanwhile Torrent was able to hold off the Ape assailants, and Steel Dragon was able to uncouple the locomotive from the other cars. Torrent pushed away from the coaxing cars with an expanding sphere of water, and the locomotive began to move faster without its burden.
Marduk was doign well fending off both bullets and club-like gorilla fists. Then one of the gorillas launched a tank-bustin RPG at him. This was a little more than he was suspecting. He was stunned and fell through the destroyed box car. When he recovered he found himself slowing down in a burning box car filled with ammunition and explosives.
Once he shakes off the effects of stun, he searches the car, spying four unconscious guards. He gathered them up as the fires spread to the ammo boxes. Leaping from the box car he rolls to safety as the box car annihilates itself in a huge explosion.
The rest of the train, the locomotive powering on, and the rest of the train coasting at 80 mph behind it slipped past the main Train yards on a track heading for Central Station.
The rest of the Immortals and Daisy are on a speeding locomotive. JackFlash convinces Daisy to stop accelerating the Locomotive, and Steel Dragon bypasses the ruined brakes and leaning under the speeding locomotive, he manages to get the brakes to activate themselves. As the locomotive begins to slow down, Torrent summons a massive wave of water and knocks the engine off the track.
The team feels a momentary sense of accomplishment until the coasting munitions box cars race towards them. Jack Flash runs down the tunnel ahead of the cars trying to find a potential turnoff. Somewhere in midtown he finds new construction where a new route leading to the the East of the city is being built. It wasn't complete, but there might be time. He raced back grabbed Steel Dragon and the two of them work a quick fix to move the tracks over from the main line to the new route. Jack Flash working at a lightning pace to remove debris, and Steel Dragon convincing the tracks to move over. They complete the switch just in time for the runaway cars to make the turnoff. Second later they heard the splash and boom of the box cars exploding into the river.
The team gets together and finds out from the recovered guards from the train, that the apes were following the command of a Mandrill, and that they may have disconnected the one car containing the brand new EVA weapons. Jack Flash heads out to scout for the missing car, and the rest of the team following in the plane. He quickly locates the missing car, and finds another missing link. Another quick search reveals a container truck, inside are a couple of baboons and a mandrill. A quick plan is formulated and Torrent washes the monkeys out holding them at bay in a watery prison. Marduk and Steel Dragon approach and examine the contents. There is a rocket and a DVD player. Steel Dragon can sense the excitement of the EVA particles in the rocket, and decides to try to defuse it. The attempt is valiant, but fails. The short fuse begins to burn quickly to the detonater.
Jack Flash grabs Torrent and moves to safety. Steel Dragon fearing for Daisy rushes to the Osprey. Marduk makes a grab for the DVD player and cradles it against his body. The blast goes off. Marduk is sent flying a hundred feet away, staggered and deafened by the blast. Steel Dragon is knocked down and out by the initial blast.
The two witnesses saw a white hot spherical flash, a whooping sound, and then nothing. The bridge, the truck... gone, the ground beneath it, fused like glass. The team recovers and is met by the police lieutenant Juarez, Mayor Campbell, and an unidentified airforce officer. After they explain the situation. The mayor invites them to a meeting the next day after they clean up and the party makes for the Academy with their DVD, their gorilla, and a small piece of EVA with them.
Epilogue - Steel Dragon, after seeing to Daisy, went back to the manor to mend Marduk's costume. Examining the damage he noted several places in the costume that seemed as if protected by armor plates. He took a couple photos of the costume, and repaired it for his teammate.

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