Session 89: Looming Onion
With the heist a few days away, the Starfall became restless. The diversion plan was not set to leave for two days yet, and shore leave is less exciting when the ship itself is not regularly host to impromptu sword fights and runway modeling. While noodling around Machanon, Marina Zaharak queried Decker Avant’s bounties to see if there was anything worth directing the ship’s attention at, to pass the time in a more productive, profitable fashion.
There were multiple potential opportunities, but only one led to Celeste Meracydia storming around the ship brandishing the bulletin like a holy text, demanding justice, satisfaction, and “a body count to rival The Shattering.”
The Nanab Foundation opened a bounty for a group calling themselves the Big Lick Cavaliers, a pair of tonberry brothers named Ronde and Tiki Antananarivo. The duo have made a name for themselves in academic circles by claiming that every archaeological dig around the Itami region is theirs by right, as they were alive during the time of these digs. As such, any artifacts found are rightfully theirs, and though they have declined to present the Nanab Foundation with evidence of their claims, they have instead attacked multiple dig sites and caravans to “liberate” the priceless treasures found there. One could be more sympathetic to their plight if they did not immediately turn around and determine a price for the priceless and sell the artifacts to museums in Saron, Caerwyn, and Cardia, positioning themselves as scholars and men of high learning.
Both Antananarivo brothers are capable fighters in their own right, which gave them free reign to prey on academics in remote areas. Ever since the bounty was posted, they have hired their own mercenary, a mysterious sort known only as “The Onion Knight.” The loyalty of this merc is unknown, nor the terms of their employment with the Cavaliers. The bounty is solely for the apprehension (or death, and Celeste has made her preference clear, with visual aids) of the two brothers; the Onion Knight is not listed anywhere with a price on their head.
After extracting a promise that Celeste would “calm down and get down off of the chair,” Chmurka used her information network to locate the bounty target’s last destination, an airship dock near the very top of the Triad island of Phiro, where they can unload their ship in relative peace and quiet before planning their next trip to drain museums’ coffers dry. Due to the limited space, the dock is nestled in a grove of hundreds-foot-high galewood trees. High winds are expected, but the element of surprise will be on the Starfall’s side.
Good hunting, Marina encouraged. Celeste’s encouragement was far more colorful.
The Starfall is well away from the Triad, and the Meteor is docked in Phiro, well away from the Big Lick Cavaliers’ hiding place. Bast’s direction and Linnet’s aerial scouting has brought the party to the edge of the dock, and the precipice of violence…
**
“What’s the latest haul?” Tiki Antananarivo asks. The tonberry target is fiddling with the large wood-and-metal gauntlet strapped to his arm, winding a spring back into place as he sits in the shade of a tent tacked to the side of an ancient tree. His clothes are red and blue, with white flourishes helping the classic colors better contrast. “Some pottery, a pair of paintings, a bunch of knives, some weird axe, and the standard collection of arrowheads and various shards,” Ronde Antananarivo says, watching the last of the crates slide into place on the ramshackle conveyor belt leading from the edge of their ship, the Zegna, to an unassuming storage unit between two tall trees. “Not one of our better runs.” Tiki smiles. It’s a very warm, charming smile. “After the last one with all the items of ‘great cultural interest,’” he says, taking on the mocking tone of a university professor, “we were due for a return to normalcy, weren’t we?”
Ronde laughs. “Fair, fair.” A four-foot figure in red and white armor, sporting the puffiest sleeves you ever did see and a full-face helmet with a remarkable white plume erupting from the top, watches from the side of the ship, offering no input or banter, but keeping a close eye on the group. Linnet's ears are still ringing from their last conversation with Celeste. There was no real argument about the purpose of their trip, only about whether Celeste was joining the expedition with extreme prejudice. Convincing her to keep her own prejudice on the ship (and not to associate her name with murder, should it go poorly) took some shouting. Rather a lot of it, all around.
"Isa, want to projectile in on them while we have the element of surprise?" Yves, for his part, started muttering something about 'archeological context' and 'destroying valuable data, even in one of the fuzzier fields of science' and 'poor understanding of what laws are meant to be flexed and what laws are there for a reason' about halfway into Celeste's first rant, and has prepared for this particular bounty with a spring in his step, a gleam in his eye, and freshly shined-up ear jewelry. Possibly the better to come off in any portraits drawn of the victorious bounty-hunters afterward. Bast rechecks every piece of his equipment for the third time, paying close attention to a few new pieces in the mix. He tops up what looks like a concealed fuel tank, caps it again, and looks up at the rest of the group. "Everyone set?"
Isa shrugs. "Are we going to ask them to turn themselves in?"
Linnet snorts. "Do you want me to try that before you plunge in?"
"I mean, normally we at least ask," Isa says.
Orrey shrugs as he checks the safety on his gun. "No point, really."
"Didn't hear anything to suggest that we have to, or that it would work. In a negotiating mood?" asks Bast. Yves blinks repeatedly. "...ask them to... Oh, really, if they were that reasonable surely they would've listened to someone with a proper doctorate in the field, or at least a dig chief. Why would they start listening now? Though I suppose it would be more, what's it, ethical? Hm. Maybe we should."
"Normally we didn't get an hour-long harangue by Celeste before we left about bringing back their heads," adds Linnet. "Yves, you talk the academic talk. Come with me?"
"The kind of lowlife scum that robs tombs doesn't really deserve that kind of respect." Orrey checks his watch. "Is it time?"
"I will attempt to ask them to surrender," Yves allows, at Linnet's direct request. "For the sake of, uh, virtue and stuff. Ethics. Morals? I don't know, probably one of those."
"We're breaking up an extortion racket here. People involved in something like that, they're generally past being talked around to seeing the error of their ways. I'm for leading with Isa's pointy end for an introduction." Bast brushes off some quite possibly hypothetical dust off a nozzle.
"Right," Isa says. "You've got about fifteen seconds to talk them down, then." With a cloud of dust, she is airborne. Orrey, knowing of the impending battle, has prepared a wonderful surprise for everyone. A tornado of swirling light vortexes around him as he checks his watch calmly. He blinks a couple times slowly as the world around him seems to slow down. Four rapidly circling clock faces burst out of the purple and green tornado, launching themselves out under the feet of each member of the Starfall. Everyone sees that slowing down of everything around them as the magic settles into their bodies. The figure by the ship twitches at a sound from the perimeter of the forest, and straightens up.
Tiki spots this. "Company?"
The figure nods, just once, as they draw their single short sword.
Ronde grabs a double-headed axe from the top of the sliding crate and grips it in both hands. "You want to die for no reason, come on out!" he shouts.
"You know the terms, Knight," Tiki says, pointing at the Onion Knight. "You're with us! As long as we're up and fighting, you are fighting and dying for us!" Bast strolls up the dock, drawing the attention of the trio. "Gentlemen? It has come to our attention that you are engaged in extortion, robbery, and obstruction of scientific pursuits. If you'd like to resolve this peacefully, please drop your weapons now, or this will be resolved after you get beaten badly enough to forget the concept of numbers."
He presses a button, and rises slightly off the ground on twin pillars of flame. Tiki sputters. "Are you -- who the -- who's this guy?!"
Ronde brandishes his axe eagerly.
The Onion Knight raises their sword, and then points the tip at the ground.
The clouds split apart to allow for the sudden appearance of a barrage of comets, hurtling down toward the treeline and everyone pouring out of it to engage the smugglers in battle. Bast bares his teeth in what doesn't pass for a smile in any sense of the word. "Very well." "If you properly documented your finds, you can still surrender without--" The rest of what Yves meant to say in that line was eradicated in the comet barrage, so those tonberries may never know what their options are in this regard. If the Onion Knight is surprised or disheartened by the lack of success with the comets, they do not show it. Tiki and Ronde, on the other hand, wear twin expressions of disbelief. With a sudden blast from the jets, Bast launches himself into the air - nothing quite like Isa's leap, but a creditable imitation. Crossbow bolts come raining back down. "I can do that too, you're not so special!" a shrill Tiki screeches.
More screeching follows. ...the screeching continues. More of a shriek, really. The sort of noise that something moving an appreciable fraction of the speed of sound makes. In this case it's not a comet, it's a Cardian. When Isa impacts Tiki the shockwave is visible in the detritus of the camp, and the tonberry is slammed backwards in a tumble. Isa is left behind and as she rises, she points her spear towards Yves. A ray of white light links them for an interval just long enough to leave an afterimage in the eye, then fades as she takes up a defensive stance. Ronde watches his brother careen back towards the storage unit, grimacing at the bounces. After neatly sidestepping a falling rock, Orrey kneels down beside the still-smoking stone and uses it to steady the Ultimate Armageddon, firing out a floating purple and gold sphere marked sparsely in glowing green glyphs that rises above Ronde and Tiki. He and the sphere simultaneously fire at Ronde, Orrey with the gun and the sphere with a bolt of blazing Holy Light. The Onion Knight's head turns to regard the sphere, and then turns away as the shooting starts.
Ronde, whose day has gone incredibly poorly in just the span of eleven seconds, brandishes his axe and swings wildly at the closest target, which at this moment happens to be Bast.
The axe goes wide, missing the moogle by less than a centimeter. Bast bends rather improbably in the air to avoid the swing, and leaves Ronde with not much besides the smell of burned jet fuel for his efforts. Linnet whiffs a snowball past Tiki's left ear, but the one she lands on Yves' shoulder bursts in a familiar sparkly cloud. The viera looks somewhat less singed. "If you do decide to surrender, shout it very emphatically, or people might not realize," Yves calls helpfully toward the high-intensity, high-clamor action in the center of things. He himself is not in the center of things. No, he's hanging back at the edge of things, sketching out his intentions with flicks and snaps of his fingers across a single plane of the air--an imaginary screen, as it were--before all those invisible drawn lines snap out into a roar of thunder. Which comes just after the bolts of lightning. They really will need to speak up to be heard over that kind of noise. Tiki slams his fist into the side of his gauntlet, which does nothing. A swear and a slightly better-aimed thump, and then the world erupts into a brilliant flash of light.
The Onion Knight turns their attention away from the springing moogle and the crashing dragoon, instead focusing on the healer. They cover the ground between them and Linnet in less than a blink of an eye, and the short sword flashes rapidly through the air. Orrey sees the Knight heading for Linnet and tries to get up to stop them, but he trips over the Armageddon and falls to his knees instead, redfaced. Bast bounces back into Ronde's personal space with a jet assist, one hand encased in some sort of whirling mass of metal unpleasantness.
The drill screeches shrilly as it skids across Ronde's armor, doing only cosmetic damage; with a muttered curse and a blast of fire that envelops the tonberry's head, Bast triggers the jets again to get out of retaliation range. Any mockery coming from Ronde vanishes on the other side of the flames as the tonberry (slowly) rolls away. Isa wipes a hand across her eyes as she recovers from the flash, but from her squinting expression she doesn't seem sure of her surroundings. She does seem sure of her anger though, and a short dash across the battlefield is finished with a series of jabs at her foes...
And a look of shock when the second jab lands and she feels it in her own side instead of Yves's. Orrey uses the gun to raise himself up to his feet, then jumps up on the stone in front of him, unleashing a Barrage of shots from the Armageddon, following by a single focused shot. Spherey bobs and weaves in circles around Ronde, adding in two bursts of Holy bolts. Ronde takes the shots in the chest, grunting in agony with each one, and then charges the shooter, swinging wildly, swinging desperately, trying to save his brother, trying to cut someone down, however he can. Knowing he'd be assaulted eventually, Orrey quickly focuses his magical energy at Isa, sending a burst of light at Isa that suspiciously looks like a target being painted over her. The Onion Knight slips through Linnet's dancing and weaving and whacks her in the knees, knocking her to the ground. Her head's still up, though, so she can see Isa's stab coming and duck underneath it, whipping her braid so it doesn't even snag on the spear.
There's supposed to be a spell to break her out of this, Linnet remembers. She also remembers putting that book back on the shelf and thinking "when are we ever going to need that?"
Muttering at her own foolishness, she throws down double fistfuls of ice at Tiki, missing with one, smacking him right between the shoulder blades with the other. The deck ices over around him as the tonberry struggles to maintain his balance. Yves has been wobbling since that flash went off. "No one! Ever! Listens! When I try! To explain! SURRENDER." He shouts this angrily at... some sort of blurry shape in front of him, bopping at it madly with the staff he brings along when he actually knows there'll be some action in the immediate future. Perhaps it's for the best that, given his usual habits in the aforementioned habit, he has absolutely no ability to even lightly bop someone who's put a little effort into avoiding those wild swings.
Orrey ducks under the first swing, then just barely leans out of the way and shakes his head as he stares directly into Yves's swirling eyes from inches away. And then the fire comes, courtesy of one of the metal parts of Tiki's gauntlet, spraying fire at Isa primarily, everyone else just a bonus offer.
That fire is followed by another blast of fire, this one much larger and much more targeted, searing in on Isa. Isa throws her gauntlet up, wards glowing and flaring against the flame, damping but not extinguishing them. She's furious. Bast banks hard with the jets and manages to avoid the blast of fire from Tiki. He leans into the tight curve of the return, his speed adding to the power behind his bolts.
The added power seems to come at the cost of accuracy; the bolts quiver in the wood of the dock, and the gust of flame intended for Ronde doesn't trigger until Bast is already a couple of moogleslengths past him. As the flame and black smoke from uncombusted fuel clear, Ronde isn't given the luxury to reflect on Bast's near miss before Isa charges him, screaming out a wordless battle cry as her spear sweeps and stabs and sends long arcs of blood spraying out over "items of cultural significance" Orrey ducks around Yves and fires at Ronde again in another Barrage. Spherey continues whirling around and blasting its bolts of Holy vengeance at Ronde as well. Orrey then concentrates and opens a tiny portal that rips at Tiki's existence. Ronde drops. Less than a second later, Tiki does as well.
The Onion Knight immediately sheathes their sword. Isa falls to one knee, leaning heavily on her spear.
Orrey calls Spherey back, patting it on its...top before dismissing the intrepid Holy Warrior Orb. Yves is still flailing at blobs for the moment. He'll stop. Soon. Probably.
"Yves...YVES...damn it." Orrey whacks his friend on the arm.
Linnet sizes up Isa and does some quick math. "Well, I don't think I can carry you, but we'll get you back somehow." In lieu of an Esuna, she takes Yves by the shoulders and gives him a very clinical whack up the back of the head. "One of you two want to see if the little guy needs a ride somewhere?"
Orrey grins at Linnet as they co-administer some shock treatment. Bast cuts the jets, landing on his feet between the rest of the group and the Onion Knight, and sizes up the diminutive mercenary.
Orrey slings his gun on his shoulder and heads over to the Onion Knight, saluting a worthy opponent. "That was some fine clustering on those comets." The Onion Knight dips their head forward slightly.
They then gesture to the side, where the two tonberries are face down in the dirt, and then quite clearly step aside to indicate there will be no further quarrel from them. "Understood." Orrey says. "We'll be taking these two into custody. If you don't mind my asking, how'd you get mixed up with such a nefarious duo?" "...I... feel weird," Yves says. "Ugh. But also fine? But weird. I think I need whatever the opposite of a drink is." "I need to actually study the make-Yves-and-Isa-not-be-mind-controlled spell, rather than relying on a smack," Linnet explains apologetically. "But welcome back." The Onion Knight regards Orrey for a moment, and then gives something between a bow and a curtsy, turns, and walks onto the airship the Big Lick Cavaliers have docked. A moment later, the engines whir to life. Linnet turns at the sound of the engines and waves a solemn farewell. "They were not very informative. Polite, though. " Orrey shrugs at Bast. "Ever heard of that one before?"
Bast frowns. "Yeah, but they're said to be more about protecting the poor and whatnot. Seems odd."
"A mysterious bargain? Blackmail? Fascinating." Orrey muses.
"I've heard there might be an entire town of them in Caerwyn," Bast adds. "Don't know about that, but the stories go a ways back."
"Protecting the whatnot from weirdos like these guys?" Linnet muses, hauling Isa into a standing position and turning back towards the Starfall.
"That's more what I'd expect, yeah." "Odd. Back to the ship, captain?" Orrey asks after helping to tie up the beaten thieves.
"Yeah." Bast looks down at the trussed-up tonberries. "...so what did you two have on this one?"
"Oh, and can I try out your jetpack sometime?" Orrey asks.
"Wonder why they picked onions." (Linnet's still thinking out loud.) "If they were going for layers, there are many more pleasant things with layers. Like cake. Or parfaits! Everyone loves a nice parfait..."
**
“What’s the latest haul?” Tiki Antananarivo asks. The tonberry target is fiddling with the large wood-and-metal gauntlet strapped to his arm, winding a spring back into place as he sits in the shade of a tent tacked to the side of an ancient tree. His clothes are red and blue, with white flourishes helping the classic colors better contrast. “Some pottery, a pair of paintings, a bunch of knives, some weird axe, and the standard collection of arrowheads and various shards,” Ronde Antananarivo says, watching the last of the crates slide into place on the ramshackle conveyor belt leading from the edge of their ship, the Zegna, to an unassuming storage unit between two tall trees. “Not one of our better runs.” Tiki smiles. It’s a very warm, charming smile. “After the last one with all the items of ‘great cultural interest,’” he says, taking on the mocking tone of a university professor, “we were due for a return to normalcy, weren’t we?”
Ronde laughs. “Fair, fair.” A four-foot figure in red and white armor, sporting the puffiest sleeves you ever did see and a full-face helmet with a remarkable white plume erupting from the top, watches from the side of the ship, offering no input or banter, but keeping a close eye on the group. Linnet's ears are still ringing from their last conversation with Celeste. There was no real argument about the purpose of their trip, only about whether Celeste was joining the expedition with extreme prejudice. Convincing her to keep her own prejudice on the ship (and not to associate her name with murder, should it go poorly) took some shouting. Rather a lot of it, all around.
"Isa, want to projectile in on them while we have the element of surprise?" Yves, for his part, started muttering something about 'archeological context' and 'destroying valuable data, even in one of the fuzzier fields of science' and 'poor understanding of what laws are meant to be flexed and what laws are there for a reason' about halfway into Celeste's first rant, and has prepared for this particular bounty with a spring in his step, a gleam in his eye, and freshly shined-up ear jewelry. Possibly the better to come off in any portraits drawn of the victorious bounty-hunters afterward. Bast rechecks every piece of his equipment for the third time, paying close attention to a few new pieces in the mix. He tops up what looks like a concealed fuel tank, caps it again, and looks up at the rest of the group. "Everyone set?"
Isa shrugs. "Are we going to ask them to turn themselves in?"
Linnet snorts. "Do you want me to try that before you plunge in?"
"I mean, normally we at least ask," Isa says.
Orrey shrugs as he checks the safety on his gun. "No point, really."
"Didn't hear anything to suggest that we have to, or that it would work. In a negotiating mood?" asks Bast. Yves blinks repeatedly. "...ask them to... Oh, really, if they were that reasonable surely they would've listened to someone with a proper doctorate in the field, or at least a dig chief. Why would they start listening now? Though I suppose it would be more, what's it, ethical? Hm. Maybe we should."
"Normally we didn't get an hour-long harangue by Celeste before we left about bringing back their heads," adds Linnet. "Yves, you talk the academic talk. Come with me?"
"The kind of lowlife scum that robs tombs doesn't really deserve that kind of respect." Orrey checks his watch. "Is it time?"
"I will attempt to ask them to surrender," Yves allows, at Linnet's direct request. "For the sake of, uh, virtue and stuff. Ethics. Morals? I don't know, probably one of those."
"We're breaking up an extortion racket here. People involved in something like that, they're generally past being talked around to seeing the error of their ways. I'm for leading with Isa's pointy end for an introduction." Bast brushes off some quite possibly hypothetical dust off a nozzle.
"Right," Isa says. "You've got about fifteen seconds to talk them down, then." With a cloud of dust, she is airborne. Orrey, knowing of the impending battle, has prepared a wonderful surprise for everyone. A tornado of swirling light vortexes around him as he checks his watch calmly. He blinks a couple times slowly as the world around him seems to slow down. Four rapidly circling clock faces burst out of the purple and green tornado, launching themselves out under the feet of each member of the Starfall. Everyone sees that slowing down of everything around them as the magic settles into their bodies. The figure by the ship twitches at a sound from the perimeter of the forest, and straightens up.
Tiki spots this. "Company?"
The figure nods, just once, as they draw their single short sword.
Ronde grabs a double-headed axe from the top of the sliding crate and grips it in both hands. "You want to die for no reason, come on out!" he shouts.
"You know the terms, Knight," Tiki says, pointing at the Onion Knight. "You're with us! As long as we're up and fighting, you are fighting and dying for us!" Bast strolls up the dock, drawing the attention of the trio. "Gentlemen? It has come to our attention that you are engaged in extortion, robbery, and obstruction of scientific pursuits. If you'd like to resolve this peacefully, please drop your weapons now, or this will be resolved after you get beaten badly enough to forget the concept of numbers."
He presses a button, and rises slightly off the ground on twin pillars of flame. Tiki sputters. "Are you -- who the -- who's this guy?!"
Ronde brandishes his axe eagerly.
The Onion Knight raises their sword, and then points the tip at the ground.
The clouds split apart to allow for the sudden appearance of a barrage of comets, hurtling down toward the treeline and everyone pouring out of it to engage the smugglers in battle. Bast bares his teeth in what doesn't pass for a smile in any sense of the word. "Very well." "If you properly documented your finds, you can still surrender without--" The rest of what Yves meant to say in that line was eradicated in the comet barrage, so those tonberries may never know what their options are in this regard. If the Onion Knight is surprised or disheartened by the lack of success with the comets, they do not show it. Tiki and Ronde, on the other hand, wear twin expressions of disbelief. With a sudden blast from the jets, Bast launches himself into the air - nothing quite like Isa's leap, but a creditable imitation. Crossbow bolts come raining back down. "I can do that too, you're not so special!" a shrill Tiki screeches.
More screeching follows. ...the screeching continues. More of a shriek, really. The sort of noise that something moving an appreciable fraction of the speed of sound makes. In this case it's not a comet, it's a Cardian. When Isa impacts Tiki the shockwave is visible in the detritus of the camp, and the tonberry is slammed backwards in a tumble. Isa is left behind and as she rises, she points her spear towards Yves. A ray of white light links them for an interval just long enough to leave an afterimage in the eye, then fades as she takes up a defensive stance. Ronde watches his brother careen back towards the storage unit, grimacing at the bounces. After neatly sidestepping a falling rock, Orrey kneels down beside the still-smoking stone and uses it to steady the Ultimate Armageddon, firing out a floating purple and gold sphere marked sparsely in glowing green glyphs that rises above Ronde and Tiki. He and the sphere simultaneously fire at Ronde, Orrey with the gun and the sphere with a bolt of blazing Holy Light. The Onion Knight's head turns to regard the sphere, and then turns away as the shooting starts.
Ronde, whose day has gone incredibly poorly in just the span of eleven seconds, brandishes his axe and swings wildly at the closest target, which at this moment happens to be Bast.
The axe goes wide, missing the moogle by less than a centimeter. Bast bends rather improbably in the air to avoid the swing, and leaves Ronde with not much besides the smell of burned jet fuel for his efforts. Linnet whiffs a snowball past Tiki's left ear, but the one she lands on Yves' shoulder bursts in a familiar sparkly cloud. The viera looks somewhat less singed. "If you do decide to surrender, shout it very emphatically, or people might not realize," Yves calls helpfully toward the high-intensity, high-clamor action in the center of things. He himself is not in the center of things. No, he's hanging back at the edge of things, sketching out his intentions with flicks and snaps of his fingers across a single plane of the air--an imaginary screen, as it were--before all those invisible drawn lines snap out into a roar of thunder. Which comes just after the bolts of lightning. They really will need to speak up to be heard over that kind of noise. Tiki slams his fist into the side of his gauntlet, which does nothing. A swear and a slightly better-aimed thump, and then the world erupts into a brilliant flash of light.
The Onion Knight turns their attention away from the springing moogle and the crashing dragoon, instead focusing on the healer. They cover the ground between them and Linnet in less than a blink of an eye, and the short sword flashes rapidly through the air. Orrey sees the Knight heading for Linnet and tries to get up to stop them, but he trips over the Armageddon and falls to his knees instead, redfaced. Bast bounces back into Ronde's personal space with a jet assist, one hand encased in some sort of whirling mass of metal unpleasantness.
The drill screeches shrilly as it skids across Ronde's armor, doing only cosmetic damage; with a muttered curse and a blast of fire that envelops the tonberry's head, Bast triggers the jets again to get out of retaliation range. Any mockery coming from Ronde vanishes on the other side of the flames as the tonberry (slowly) rolls away. Isa wipes a hand across her eyes as she recovers from the flash, but from her squinting expression she doesn't seem sure of her surroundings. She does seem sure of her anger though, and a short dash across the battlefield is finished with a series of jabs at her foes...
And a look of shock when the second jab lands and she feels it in her own side instead of Yves's. Orrey uses the gun to raise himself up to his feet, then jumps up on the stone in front of him, unleashing a Barrage of shots from the Armageddon, following by a single focused shot. Spherey bobs and weaves in circles around Ronde, adding in two bursts of Holy bolts. Ronde takes the shots in the chest, grunting in agony with each one, and then charges the shooter, swinging wildly, swinging desperately, trying to save his brother, trying to cut someone down, however he can. Knowing he'd be assaulted eventually, Orrey quickly focuses his magical energy at Isa, sending a burst of light at Isa that suspiciously looks like a target being painted over her. The Onion Knight slips through Linnet's dancing and weaving and whacks her in the knees, knocking her to the ground. Her head's still up, though, so she can see Isa's stab coming and duck underneath it, whipping her braid so it doesn't even snag on the spear.
There's supposed to be a spell to break her out of this, Linnet remembers. She also remembers putting that book back on the shelf and thinking "when are we ever going to need that?"
Muttering at her own foolishness, she throws down double fistfuls of ice at Tiki, missing with one, smacking him right between the shoulder blades with the other. The deck ices over around him as the tonberry struggles to maintain his balance. Yves has been wobbling since that flash went off. "No one! Ever! Listens! When I try! To explain! SURRENDER." He shouts this angrily at... some sort of blurry shape in front of him, bopping at it madly with the staff he brings along when he actually knows there'll be some action in the immediate future. Perhaps it's for the best that, given his usual habits in the aforementioned habit, he has absolutely no ability to even lightly bop someone who's put a little effort into avoiding those wild swings.
Orrey ducks under the first swing, then just barely leans out of the way and shakes his head as he stares directly into Yves's swirling eyes from inches away. And then the fire comes, courtesy of one of the metal parts of Tiki's gauntlet, spraying fire at Isa primarily, everyone else just a bonus offer.
That fire is followed by another blast of fire, this one much larger and much more targeted, searing in on Isa. Isa throws her gauntlet up, wards glowing and flaring against the flame, damping but not extinguishing them. She's furious. Bast banks hard with the jets and manages to avoid the blast of fire from Tiki. He leans into the tight curve of the return, his speed adding to the power behind his bolts.
The added power seems to come at the cost of accuracy; the bolts quiver in the wood of the dock, and the gust of flame intended for Ronde doesn't trigger until Bast is already a couple of moogleslengths past him. As the flame and black smoke from uncombusted fuel clear, Ronde isn't given the luxury to reflect on Bast's near miss before Isa charges him, screaming out a wordless battle cry as her spear sweeps and stabs and sends long arcs of blood spraying out over "items of cultural significance" Orrey ducks around Yves and fires at Ronde again in another Barrage. Spherey continues whirling around and blasting its bolts of Holy vengeance at Ronde as well. Orrey then concentrates and opens a tiny portal that rips at Tiki's existence. Ronde drops. Less than a second later, Tiki does as well.
The Onion Knight immediately sheathes their sword. Isa falls to one knee, leaning heavily on her spear.
Orrey calls Spherey back, patting it on its...top before dismissing the intrepid Holy Warrior Orb. Yves is still flailing at blobs for the moment. He'll stop. Soon. Probably.
"Yves...YVES...damn it." Orrey whacks his friend on the arm.
Linnet sizes up Isa and does some quick math. "Well, I don't think I can carry you, but we'll get you back somehow." In lieu of an Esuna, she takes Yves by the shoulders and gives him a very clinical whack up the back of the head. "One of you two want to see if the little guy needs a ride somewhere?"
Orrey grins at Linnet as they co-administer some shock treatment. Bast cuts the jets, landing on his feet between the rest of the group and the Onion Knight, and sizes up the diminutive mercenary.
Orrey slings his gun on his shoulder and heads over to the Onion Knight, saluting a worthy opponent. "That was some fine clustering on those comets." The Onion Knight dips their head forward slightly.
They then gesture to the side, where the two tonberries are face down in the dirt, and then quite clearly step aside to indicate there will be no further quarrel from them. "Understood." Orrey says. "We'll be taking these two into custody. If you don't mind my asking, how'd you get mixed up with such a nefarious duo?" "...I... feel weird," Yves says. "Ugh. But also fine? But weird. I think I need whatever the opposite of a drink is." "I need to actually study the make-Yves-and-Isa-not-be-mind-controlled spell, rather than relying on a smack," Linnet explains apologetically. "But welcome back." The Onion Knight regards Orrey for a moment, and then gives something between a bow and a curtsy, turns, and walks onto the airship the Big Lick Cavaliers have docked. A moment later, the engines whir to life. Linnet turns at the sound of the engines and waves a solemn farewell. "They were not very informative. Polite, though. " Orrey shrugs at Bast. "Ever heard of that one before?"
Bast frowns. "Yeah, but they're said to be more about protecting the poor and whatnot. Seems odd."
"A mysterious bargain? Blackmail? Fascinating." Orrey muses.
"I've heard there might be an entire town of them in Caerwyn," Bast adds. "Don't know about that, but the stories go a ways back."
"Protecting the whatnot from weirdos like these guys?" Linnet muses, hauling Isa into a standing position and turning back towards the Starfall.
"That's more what I'd expect, yeah." "Odd. Back to the ship, captain?" Orrey asks after helping to tie up the beaten thieves.
"Yeah." Bast looks down at the trussed-up tonberries. "...so what did you two have on this one?"
"Oh, and can I try out your jetpack sometime?" Orrey asks.
"Wonder why they picked onions." (Linnet's still thinking out loud.) "If they were going for layers, there are many more pleasant things with layers. Like cake. Or parfaits! Everyone loves a nice parfait..."
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