"Son of a- What type of plot armor bullshite ability is that! Are you f-" Magnus spends the next couple of seconds kicking the magical girls remains and letting out every expletive he can think of.
Sigh Alrighty keep beacon up a bit longer and ping the Soul Tracker we gotta figure out where this lady is asap before she pulls out any more shenigans
"Oh by the way Joe right? I know your kinda in major pain and all that but maybe you can transfer your wounds to what's left of that magical girl by touchin her body technically she is still living as far as any of us are aware worth a shot I say." Magnus shrugs
ping. advance cautiously
((Man, I never thought I'd be that good at slaughtering small magical girls while in a close combat mech suit.))
Whisperer searches for his soultracker, but cannot find it. Whisperer expected it to be on the magical girl's corpse, as he saw her telekinetically grab it only a moment ago, but it's nowhere to be seen. He even picks up her mangled body to turn it over, then looks around at the ruined forest floor, but he can't find anything aside from the girl's Crash. That's very worrying--if she collects all three of them, she'll be able to just leave, and there's not much the team can do about it after they've lost the trackers.
Fortunately, Magnus still has his tracker, and has pateintly been waiting for it to find her while Whisperer searched. When the tracker does find her, it points directly upward. He looks up. And sees Emine directly overhead, her scowling face peeking over the side of a branch. There's five Crash rifles levitating near her, aimed at him. Magnus doesn't really have the time to mentally process this fact, as a half-second after he looks up, the five levitating rifles open fire, each of them perfectly aimed at his eyes.
Now, the heavy powered armor Magnus is wearing is designed to be immune to such mundane firearms--but even advanced materials enhanced with magic have their limits. Fifteen bullets impact his helmet within a quarter-second, and though none of them penetrate, it's akin to being punched in the face. He goes reeling backwards, the bullets still flawlessly tracking his sudden jerking movements; by the time he raises his arms to defend his face, he's been nearly blinded by damage to the helmet's visor. He can see
three intact bullets lodged inside the transparent material, hanging centimeters away from his eyes. The gunfire only stops once the entire squad begins firing back.
Whisperer: [5]
The fire doesn't stop as Magnus falls backwards, redirecting to shoot at his neck, then his armpits, as he tries to defend himself. But it's concentrated exclusively on him, allowing Whisperer to draw his own gun and return fire without interference. He quickly lines up his sights on Emine's head, and pulls the trigger--only for her to jerk her head to one side just beforehand, dodging his bullet. He shoots twice more to the exact same effect, before he decides to switch to automatic and simply spray bullets through the branch Emine is on top of. The girl starts running down the length of the branch before he even thinks to do this, completely avoiding harm, though she doesn't stop firing at Magnus or so much as look away from him.
"It's not that deep, Joe. Just get over it! And yeah, I agree with Magnus."
Wait for the ping, prepare to use the magic jetpack and fly to the sky just in case there will be any attacks, shoot as well.
Wait for the people with the trackers to point out where she went, then either gun her down or press forwards.
"So is she dead or not?"
Wait until the ping happens and find out if she's dead.
You all wait patiently for one of the pings to go through, but it turns out to be pointless. Before anyone can tell you where Emine is, she announces herself by opening fire from directly above Magnus and Whisperer.
Vermilion: [1], [6]
Zultan:
[6] [5]Saki: [1]
((Yeah, Xan really
is with you.))
Reacting quickly, Verital opens fire before even taking aim, instead opting to walk his fire onto Emine, as she begins running down the branch she's on. She suddenly stops mid-run, then steps backward and
jumps over his stream of bullets. Verital tries to track her movements, sliding his aiming reticles around to lead her, but somehow she
always moves to just the right position to make him miss. Still, he holds down both triggers, growing increasingly perplexed as to how she's dodging two miniguns without even
looking at them.
Bob, in contrast, hesitates before opening fire, lining up on the girl. When he does shoot, it's in controlled bursts--each of which misses when the girl makes a sudden surprising movement. After a couple attempts, he just gives up on aiming, and holds the trigger down, chaotically sweeping his gun from side to side as the others fire. This, finally, causes Emine to look away from her target, as she begins a violent flailing dance in an effort to dodge all the gun-fire directed at her. A dance which soon fails, as she is grazed in her chest. The hit sends her off-balance, and immediately afterward she's hit by several other bullets--from who, it's impossible to tell. She falls off the branch, still flailing and trying to avoid bullets.
As for Kevin... he flies into the air, taking a flanking position... and his gun immediately jams the moment he tries to take a shot. Poor Kevin.
This seems like a good time to *Ping* where she is.
Still bleeding out, but knowing there's always higher priorities than surviving, you pull out your soultracker. Unfortunately, by the time it pings the magical girl's location, it's too late--she's already returned and opened fire. You are in no condition to shoot back, so you just lay down, play dead, and focus on not bleeding to death through your mangled legs.
[4]
It goes pretty well all told. You're still rapidly dying, but your vision's only going a
little black.
"A decoy," The Australian mutters over the comms. "It's possible that was never the real her."
Drop down and examine the unbulleted underbrush nearby. See if I can find a trail or other signs of activity.
You fire a grappling hook into the branch you're standing on, then jump off, using the grapple to lower yourself safely down to the forest floor. Your experienced eyes immediately start searching for signs of passage, but it proves to be in vain. The magical girl did not return to the ground. Somehow, she went
up.The others have the situation well in hand, or at least well in dakka, so you only spare a few seconds to watching the farce of a gunfight. The magical girl is, apparently, dodging bullets. As far as you can tell, she is doing so
before those bullets are even fired. Which is absolutely bullshit if it's what she's actually doing, but if it's a decoy...
You set to scanning around her surroundings, for any hint of a true position. You don't find anything, but you're not certain if that's because there
isn't anything to find, or if you've just missed it.
Everyone's in about the same location, or close enough:Name: Gerald Verital
Armory:
Comms with the team. Biometric locks disable them for anyone except you, so you don't need to worry about children spying on your chatter.
Basic Crash assault rifle. Very lightweight and maneuverable, without being as weak as a submachinegun.
Black patrol uniform. Provides no armor, because anything cheap isn't really gonna help. Optionally comes with face concealing gasmasks or balaclavas in case you want to hide your identity; the press seems to dislike us for some reason.
Woodsman Minimech: A three-meter tall bipedal mech armed with miniguns instead of hands. Has the best armor available to you, including a fair degree of magic resistance, and the dual miniguns allow you to make two attack rolls per turn. However, it is slow, bulky,
limited in close quarters, and tends to instill a false sense of overcondidence.
Magic: Determination. You are an inspired, brave, and happy individual, full of indomitable hope and optimism! Nothing gets you down; you're totally immune to fear and sadness! You don't need any fancy magic to win this, you'll do just fine with your issued equipment!
Name: Duncan Long, better known as "The Australian"
Power: Mobility
Gear:
High-Grade Firearm: Sniper Rifle (Sniping, Very High Damage Ammo)
High-Grade Firearm: Shotgun (Close Quarters Combat, Wide Spread Ammo)
Wrist-Mounted Grappling Hooks
Comms with the team
Basic Crash assault rifle
Black patrol uniform
Name: Kevin
Gear
Comms with the team.
Basic Crash assault rifle.
Black patrol uniform.
Two rocket launchers
Magic jetpack
Heavy powered armor
Magic
Sixth Sense
Name: Joseph Martins
Armory
0: Comms with the team. Biometric locks disable them for anyone except you, so you don't need to worry about children spying on your chatter.
0: Basic Crash assault rifle. Very lightweight and maneuverable, without being as weak as a submachinegun.
0: Black patrol uniform. Provides no armor, because anything cheap isn't really gonna help. Optionally comes with face concealing gasmasks or balaclavas in case you want to hide your identity; the press seems to dislike us for some reason.
3: Tactical nuclear backpack bomb: These generally are much more effective against us than against magical girls, but we have a lot in stock, so... here. The casing is heavily armored and extremely magic resistant. comes with a dead man's switch.
Soultracker (Activate to ping magical girl's location)
Magic
Triage: Touch one or more living people. You may transfer any or all wounds one of them has (including yourself) to any other person you are in contact with (including yourself). ANY wounds work, including loss of limbs or bisection.
Injuries: Shot repeatedly in the legs. Oopsie!
Name: Big Bob
Gear:
Comms with the team
Basic Crash assault rifle
Black patrol uniform
One rocket launcher
Resistor
Heavy powered armor
Light Machine Gun, Advantage at medium range, scores multiple hits
Magic:
Determination
Name: Magnus Victorinus (Really its Allen Leopold but he would never admit that)
Magical Power:
Beacon: Causes you to glow with an inspiring light. Provides all nearby allies with strong resistance to magical debuffs, and makes it difficult for an MG to target them rather than you. This power always alerts the magical girl to your position.
Gear:
Comms with the team. Biometric locks disable them for anyone except you, so you don't need to worry about children spying on your chatter.
Basic Crash assault rifle. Very lightweight and maneuverable, without being as weak as a submachinegun.
Black patrol uniform. Provides no armor, because anything cheap isn't really gonna help. Optionally comes with face concealing gasmasks or balaclavas in case you want to hide your identity; the press seems to dislike us for some reason.
Heavy powered armor. Weakly antimagic, and makes you very resistant to harm without slowing you, but the weight and strength of the powered system just about cancel out. Purely defensive.
Neurally integrated Exoskeleton: Makes you strong enough to fight toe to toe against any child, and improves your speed and reflexes to boot! Comes with a heavy melee weapon of your choice to utilize your new strength. DOES NOT offer any real protection, but works well with powered armor.
Resistor: An improved version of the standard issue suit which grants you very strong magic resistance, and has a woven-in kevlar vest. Does not interfere with your own magic. Magic resistance can be impaired by damage.
Sledge Hammer: My weapon of choice for the Neurally integrated Exoskeleton package not much else to say.
Soultracker (Activate to ping magical girl's location)
"Wounds": Mostly blinded by visor damage.
Name: Whisperer. That's all he answers to.
Magical Power:
Close combat: You have advantage in melee combat, and have moderately heightened physical strength and reflexes.
Gear:
Comms with the team. Biometric locks disable them for anyone except you, so you don't need to worry about children spying on your chatter.
Basic Crash assault rifle. Very lightweight and maneuverable, without being as weak as a submachinegun.
Black patrol uniform. Provides no armor, because anything cheap isn't really gonna help. Optionally comes with face concealing gasmasks or balaclavas in case you want to hide your identity; the press seems to dislike us for some reason.
Heavy powered armor. Weakly antimagic, and makes you very resistant to harm without slowing you, but the weight and strength of the powered system just about cancel out. Purely defensive.
Neurally integrated Exoskeleton: Makes you strong enough to fight toe to toe against any child, and improves your speed and reflexes to boot! Comes with a heavy melee weapon of your choice to utilize your new strength. DOES NOT offer any real protection, but works well with powered armor.
Resistor: An improved version of the standard issue suit which grants you very strong magic resistance, and has a woven-in kevlar vest. Does not interfere with your own magic. Magic resistance can be impaired by damage.
Dual Blood Warglaives: A pair of Warglaives. They seem to always be dripping with blood.
Injuries:
Left leg armor destroyed. Left leg crushed in armor. All other gear intact.