2011-01-21: A Village Under Attack

Players:

Hilde_icon.jpg Hosea_icon.jpg Robin_icon.jpg Travis_icon.jpg

Summary: The Village in Africa is under attack again, Hilde, Hosea, Robin and Travis try to defend it.

Date: January 21, 2011

Log Title: A Village Under Attack

Rating: R


Africa - Rundown Village

The lush green trees of the rainforest hide the small village, with only one road that leads out. The road clearly doesn't get much use, high grass growing up the center. It's nestled next to a beautiful river, flowing with the clean source of water. Still, it is a good walk down a slippery slope to get there.
The village here is poor, but hardly unpopulated. There is one solid building standing at the middle of town, and that's the church, though even that is a roug stucco building. It also seems to double as a clinic. There is no steeple, it is a simple block building, but a cross stands high over the main entrance of the buildling. There are no white people who live here, a dark shade of black on the skin tones of each inhabitant. Though it is small, there are people who live and play. Children run amidst dogs, the women wash clothes and cook while men bring in the food. Some traces of civilization can be found, playing cards and checkers seems to bethe popular activities among the elderly, and they can be found in the shade of any of dozens of trees or around the large fire kept burning at the center.
The rest of the buildings in town are all the same. They are grass huts, and offer little privacy. None of the inhabitants seem to mind, content with their community life. This might offend some of the sensibilities of Americans, but they don't seem bothered by such things.


The mornings of the village are rather peaceful. People are usually up quite early, generally just after the sun sheds its first few rays of light. The sounds of the night life of the forest are all but a memory, replaced by the singing of a host of avian artists. While the foreigners have been encouraged to stay within the village, several of the small children play out in the forest themselves, with little fear. Of course, those children know the rain forest, and know what to look out for. They also don't wander far.
Down by the river, several men are spear fishing. It's serious work, the source of food for the village, but still a point of competition for them as they laugh at one another's failed attempts. Women work on baskets and pottery, gossiping no doubt about the men and their fishing antics. Some of the families are still working on the homes. The old ones have been torn down, and the new ones are in process still. That means lumber, something that certain members of the team might be well suited for retrieving. Hosea can be found among this group, currently hacking away at a log, trying to get it to the right size for one of the homes.

Travis has been helping rebuilding what he can being no stranger to working with his own two hands. He's brought some of his tools from home with him and one of the things he brought was a hand saw. He's not to far from where Hosea is working on cutting down down his own log as well. Once he's got the end sawed off he stops for a drink of water, remember to keep hydrated in his heat. "So, Hosea, is there were you grew up?" He asks trying to get to know the kid they're helping a bit.

A long tree-trunk emerges from the forest followed by Hildegarde, who is carrying it on her shoulder. She smiles to the men on either side of her who have been taking her in and out of the forest to collect building supplies. She waves to the women working on pottery and they wave back. She's been fairly popular in the villaige with her strength and she used some of the spices she brought to cook up some amazing fish this morning. The woman stops near one of the buildings under construction and sits down the log, clapping her hands together to dust them off.

Robin has found a place to sit cross-legged in the shade, her hands raised in the air and fingers twitching lightly. While she does respond to being talked to, her voice is emotionless in tone, since she controls Blank. The puppet is currently just doing unskilled work that requires a lot of muscle, something that the puppet apparently possesses: While not inhumanly strong like Hilde, Blank is about as strong as a human being can get, a useful tool.

"Ahh," Hosea answers Travis. "No. I first came to dis village three years ago," he answers the six-armed mutant, a bright grin on his face. The Nigerian wears only a pair of shorts, his muscular chest exposed. His skin is lighter than most of the others here, but then his mother is white, so that might help explain that factor. "Da village where I grew up was north of heah, mebbe…" he considers for a moment, and then shouts something to one of the other men in an African dialect. The man babbles for a moment, seeming to be thinking out loud, and then answers in the same tongue. "About thirty miles from heah." Hosea seemed to need help with the distance.
The African men with Hilde laugh as she puts down the trunk, prodding each other and speaking in their language. They look back at her and laugh again. "He wants to know how strong your husband would have to be," the one who speaks English says to her. "Because you are so strong, most men would not feel vedy manly around you." The indeed do appreciate Hilde, and she's white, so she's no doubt picked up a few admirers.
One of the little girls seems to be watching Robin closely, her eyes watching Robin's actions studiously. Inch by inch, she grows closer. The can't be more than four years old. She begins to copy the girl, trying to understand the value of her activity.

Since Travis has gotten to the village he's been keeping busy and being around the people here and helping out has lifted his spirits a bit. He can't help but admire those that live here. "How different was it in the other place you used to life. And I can see how coming to America has probably been quite a bit of culture shock to you." Just like this has been for himself. "And if it's not weird to ask, what language to you speak here? Just, I'm not sure if it's called Nigerian or what name there is for it."

Hilde puts her hands on her hips and laughs at the man speaking to her. "Yes well, I guess that men around the world act the same around women. I've never been able to keep a boyfriend. They're all afraid of me." She shrugs, seemingly not bothered by the thought. In truth she was having issues feeling so lonely, but coming to Xavier's has helped her to connect with other people like her. She turns her head to Hosea, "Here's another tree for you. I'm going to hold off on wood collecting for a little while. I don't want to take more from the forest than we need."

Robin's expressionless eyes move to regard the little girl (the young woman completely oblivious to how incredibly creepy she can appear while taking control of her puppet). "Hello, there," she says to the girl, not honestly expecting her to understand the words, but still wanting to be friendly. The puppet, more distant, continues with the labour under Robin's control.

Hosea stands up from his work, "Dat is Igbo," Hosea says. "We have many languages in Nigeria, but I only speak four of dem." He takes a moment to regard the progress on the house. A young man jogs up to Travis. An English speaker that also lives in the home where Travis has been staying. Token translator for the family. His name is Abasiama. He has a few armloads of thin sticks, generally used for the usage construction of the walls of the home. "I have been able to get much," he says eagerly, putting his material on the ground. It's clear that the boy thinks Travis is the very coolest thing since sliced bread, and has made himself at his beckon call at almost all times.
TOnochie, Hilde's english speaker, laughs, clapping his hands. "Yakubu would be your husband!" he says. "Yakubu would not care. He likes his women strong!" He points at the intended over by the fishing group. A big belly, and large loops are in his ears. He seems to have not been from the same tribe originally, given his appearance from the rest of the tribe.
The little girl next to Robin grins widely. "Hello there," she echoes. Could she only be mimicking? Apparently not, since she continues in English. "I am Shura." Her words are careful, and accent is thick. Clearly she doesn't use her English skills often outside of a classroom setting. "You are much pre'e. What is you name?" She inches a little closer.
Everything seems to be going well, the change is abrupt. A horn sounds from one of the trees, a small boy blowing it. The villagers begin to scatter like leaves, grabbing their small children and rushing for cover. Most of them are heading for the rainforest. "Da horn, soldiers are coming!" Hosea announces to the rest. "We must take — " That's all that can be heard, because Hosea's voice is overridden by the sudden eruption of machine gun fire. It pierces through the leaves and bushes, filling the air around them. It's amazing how fast the tone of life can change here.

"Thanks dude." Travis says to Abasiama as he's been getting to know him a bit. He's about to get to work on the sticks, the way the villagers showed him to in regards to rebuilding their homes, when the sound of gunfire breaks out. "Get down!" He says to Abasiama and if he hasn't run to the forest yet, Travis pushes him down and forms an energy shield with his upper right arm to shield himself and Abasiama from cover as much as possible.

Hildegarde looks over at the river and smiles at her translator. "Oh? Well tell Yakubu that if he can best me in arm wrestling I'll let him take me on a date, hmm?" She laughs and dusts off her dress before turning to see where that sound is coming from. She seems a bit alarmed when Hosea mentions that they're soldiers. "Where did they—?" But then she ducks down to avoid the gunfire as well. Hilde turns quickly and picks up the tree trunk she was holding earlier. She determines approximately where in the jungle the gunfire is coming from and javelins the trunk into the forest.

"My name is Robin. It's nice to meet you, Shura," says the young woman, smiling emotionlessly in return. That is, until, the guns fire. An expression returns to her face momentarily as she realizes that there's gunfire. She teleports the puppet next to Shura and says, "Blank will take you to safety." She figures it's a safe bet that the others fleeing know where to go and, if not resisted, scoops up the girl and runs where to go. Robin stays low to the ground in her shaded spot while this occurs, sure to keep Blank between the direction of the gunfire and the little girl.

From the old road that leads into the camp, a land rover bursts into the camp, a man on a turreted machine gun. The driver doesn't seem to have noticed Robin, even though the jeep stops just next to the girl The machine guy starts spewing all over the village, cutting down some of the slower runners, mostly elderly. On foot several more soldiers leap from the bushes, just before Travis and Abasiama. The other teen cringes backward, and starts shouting in Igbo. He tugs on Travis, trying to get him to run with him rather than just abandoning him. The boy is perceptive enough to realize that Travis is keeping them from the gunfire.
There are screams from the place where the log landed, but it doesn't stay there. A moment later, it is picked up as easily as Hilde took it up, the weilder leaping into the village from high in the air. He's huge. Taller than Hosea, and enough muscles to make Mr. Universe cry, the superhuman man holds the log as if it were a baseball bat, and swings at Hilde, trying for a home run, no doubt.
Little Shura screams, covering her ears as Blank scoops her up and makes for the crowd.
Hosea rushes forward, quickly engaging the first soldier he sees. While the enemy fires at him, his phasing ability renders the attack useless, and soon he meets the other soldier head on, throwing him through the side of a hut and rending the assault rifle from his grip.

Travis sees the fallen man and looks at Abasiama and the man on the ground and isn't sure what to do. In a split second he decides it's bettter to keep one person from getting shot then run after the older man and have two people potentially shot. He keeps himself between the teen and the soldiers as he follows behind, keeping the shield up. "Just run, I'm right behind you." He says as his heart starts racing a bit. Travis is definitely scared but he's trying not to show it.

Hildegarde turns quickly as the truck pulls out from the jungle. She begins to run toward it but stops when the other mutant leaps down in front of her. She looks up at the man with great surprise and opens her mouth to say something. Before she manages to speak the log connects with the woman, splintering into a million pieces and sending her flying backward into one of the huts. There is an immensee sound as Hilde strikes the ground, but she lands underneath a pile of rubble.

Once Shura is brought back to relative safety, Blank starts running back to try and protect the villagers. Robin remains completely motionless, hoping her shaded position will afford her some protection from notice. This close to those men, it's her only hope. Running would be insane. After far enough, the puppet leaps up into the air, seeming to defy gravity with the jump, operating on the principle that people tend not to look up. The targeted landing point is to try and strike the man on the rover.

Several of the soldiers begin shouting to one another, pointing at Travis. Six arms seems to make him a priority target. A second vehilcle comes barreling up behind the Jeep. This one is an old army truck, with another mounted weapon on the rear of it. A net gun. They point out Travis and Abasiama to the gunner, and he looks to spot them. There is a swivel, and with a *KCHTHOW* the net launches from the back of the vehicle.
The turreted gun peppers at the group of fishing men as they come up from the water, striking two of them. Yukuba, the strange looking man, has his spear in hand, and though he is a good thirty yards away, he hurls the spear as if he were firing an arrow. The fishing spear spirals toward the superhuman grunt in the back, and he roars with pain, ripping it out and flinging it back at the tribesman. Fortunately for Yukuba, Mr. Muscle doesn't have very good aim.
Robin's puppet goes largely unnoticed, the machine gun keeps firing away right up until Blank lands on the man mounted at the turret. "Aaaaaaah!" he yelps, knocked down from his perch and onto the ground. The soldier swings wildly back at Blank, caught by surprise. It might be noticable at this range that the turret operator can't be more than about fifteen or sixteen years old.
Hosea takes his assault rifle, and quickly takes aim. The old habit comes back all too easily. Short bursts are fired from the AK-47, each with an intended target, and each striking true. It draws more attention to him, but the counter attacks seem ineffective, given that he is phased. One might call it cheating the way he presents no target, but Hosea's only concern is winning, not fighting fair.

Noticing the net gun and the men pointing at him Travis takes a deep breath and reaches out with all six arms to shove Abasiama out of the way so he's not in the line of fire. Doing this causes him to lower the shield but not like it wouldn't have stopped the next from ensnaring Travis and bringing him to the ground. "Run!" He yells to the teen. "Just keep running!" He says as he tries to grab a spot on the net with his middle left hand to start burning through the net. "Come on.." He grumbles to himself.

There is an angry shout of what sounds like German before the hut that Hilde landed in explodes upward. Hilde stands up and shakes the straw out of her hair, looking around quickly for her asailant. She catches sight of him when he is speared, charging forward and then leaping several stories into the air before slamming back down at where the man is standing. The impact of her strike will cause a crater fifteen feet in diameter and seven feet deep. People standing ten feet outside of the crater may be knocked down from the ensuing shockwave.

The turret operator is fifteen or sixteen? The puppet moves to headbutt and knock him out with her unusual strength. There is no point in having a moral quandry here. He was just /killing people/. Worry about his age later, when figuring out how bad his concussion is. If successful, the puppet moves on to trying and tear the driver out of the vehicle and onto the ground. Like on the plane, the puppet seems not to be destabilized too much by the shock wave.

Travis' shove is no in vain. Abasiama sprawls to the ground next to Travis, but he doesn't run as he's told. The other teen turns around, and makes a dive for the net to try to rescue the six-armed young man. But at this moment Travis will feel the tug as the wench starts spinning back, dragging the net toward the truck at a remarkable speed. From above, the man at the net gun takes a rock to the head, falling back into the army vehicle. Another soldier steps up to take his place, and a second net is fired, catching the boy in the tree who had the horn. He likewise is quickly tended to, a second wench dragging him to the truck. It's pretty clear what the purpose of this truck is.
As Hilde lands, the muscle head is slammed into the ground. He absorbs a good bit of the impact, causing the crater to be a little smaller than normal, but it's clear that he wasn't expecting such a significant return. Unfortunately for Hilde, it gains the attention of some other foot soldiers, who begin to open fire on her with their rifles, eager not to let their colleague go unavenged.
The boy is knocked unconscious quite deftly by Blank's headbutt, but the driver isn't quite so easily taken down. He locks the door, reaching through the window to try to fight back, attempting to take Blank by the throat. He doesn't know how effective choking the strange blue creature will be, but it's better than not doing anything.
Meanwhile, Hosea seems to be doing quite well, until the man he wrenched the gun from gets back to his feet. He pulls a flare from his belt, and ignites it, plunging it in at Hosea. The soldier seems to know exactly what was necessary to hurt him, and Hosea yelps in pain, falling to the ground, clutching his ribs. That hurt a lot.

Being pulled in Travis knows he has to act quick. He burns a hole in the rope but the problem is he's not immune to fire so it does burn a bit, but he doesn't let that stop him. He grabs a hold of more of the next with his middle left hand and tries to burn thorough more rope. While he's doing this, Travis is thrashing about quite a bit with both legs and five of his arms trying to stop himself from being pulled in.

Hildegarde stands up and glares down at the man underneath her, limping slightly as she turns to survey the situation. She reaches out an arm and calls out to Travis before a few bullets strike the woman in the shoulder. "Oh!" She falls into a kneeling position and clutches the wound before standing back up, picking up the man she knocked out, and hurling him at the men with guns. The woman then begins to limp toward the truck pulling in Travis, hoping to reach the vehicle before Travis is reeled in.

Choking the puppet seems to be ineffective. Not only because Blank does not need to breathe, but because the puppet is strong enough that it wouldn't be very effective anyways. The puppet just attempts punching the man chocking it, right in the face, until he falls asleep. If this should prove effective, she calmly unlocks the door, opens it, pulls him out and gets in, steering it right towards the truck that's shooting nets. Plan: Collision course.

The mechanical wench shows little effect as the net continues to be quickly dragged across the dirt, and as it reaches the truck, the soldier jumps out and lands on the ground with rifle in hand. While Travis has been meeting with success, the African soldier decides that a quick blow with the butt of his rifle is the best way to solve this situation. It's aimed right at the side of Travis' head. A third soldier leaps from the truck, grabbing the boy who had been caught in the second net, and throwing him into the back of the vehicle, screaming and kicking helplessly inside of the net.
The man in Jeep takes the fist to the jaw. It takes a couple of blows before he's dazed enough to be removed from the vehicle, and crashes to the ground. The truck lurches to a stop. It's a manual transmission. The triver wasn't fully unconscious, though, and tries to get back to his knees, drawing his side arm. Blood runs down the side of his head, and he looks for a target.
A few of the guns go silent as the large mutate lands upon them, and they start to fall back.
Hosea turns and sprays a few rounds at the man who knocked him down , placing a bullet in one of his arms and his chest. The attacker falls to the ground, writhing in pain. The sound of an air horn suddenly pierces the morning. The attack is failing, and the attackers begin retreating, still firing at the largest threats they see, namely Hilde. They want to make sure their friends in the truck can escape with the two prizes they've managed to capture in this debacle.

It feels like Travis is making success with the ropes burning away. He's finally about to start seeing if he can work his way out when he notices the soldier with the rifle and freezes for a split second which gives enough time for the butt of the gun to connect with head. There isn't a sound from him as he fall unconscious on the ground.

Hildegarde ducks down below the rim of her crater as bullets continue to spray in her direction. "Damn it! HOSEA! Get Travis out of that net!" Moving toward the truck with all of the guns trained on her position would be pointless. She'd die before she got more than a few feet. The woman had managed to twist her ankle when she came down on the giant, and it has left her unable to jump quite as high as she did before. The woman thinks for a moment and faces the wall of her crater. She tries to estimate the direction of the truck and slams her fist into the side of the crater. The result is a small fissure extending out 25 feet from her in the direction she thinks the truck is in.

Annoyed, Blank starts the truck back up vvv and drives towards the net one, teleporting immediately before collision. If nothing else, it should damage their vehicles (hopefully making the one Blank's driving inoperable) and buy the others some time, but risking Blank's 'life' here is not Robin's goal. The puppet teleports next to Robin and, noting that the man from the truck still seems like he will be a threat, approaches quickly to try to kick him back down.

The two soldiers hoist Travis into the truck, then hop back into it. There's a knock on the back of the cab within, and the truck quickly pulls out, spinning around and heading out toward the road and evading the Jeep. The fissure is almost successful, catching the edge of the truck and upsetting the progress, but the durable vehicle has been through far worse, and continues over the gap.
Machine gun fire sprays out the back of the truck, hauling their bounty away. One of the tribesmen leap from the side to grab onto the truck, but his rescue attempt is in vain, as a quick bullet to the head sends blood and brain matter across the ground, and the body of the man drops from the truck, rolling to a helpless stop.
Hosea, unfortunately, is still reeling from the flare burn. He turns to spot the truck pulling out, and makes his best effort to teleport into the truck. He misses the moving target, landing behind it and landing face first into the floor of the rain forest, knocking himself silly and gettinc covered in vines.
So the truck rolls on, soldiers jumping on the sides as it passes them, rolling off until it is no longer seen. As for the driver of the Jeep, He points his gun at Blank, but the kick from the puppet knocks him back to the ground, and sends his gun off to the side.

Hearing a significant decrease in gunfire, Hilde climbs out of the crater and takes a quick look around. She reaches down and picks up a few small stones, hurling them with great speed at the remaining gunmen. One of them is struck in the leg so hard that the stone passes through him like a bullet. The other decides it is time to leave and runs toward the forest. Hilde continues out into the clearing, limping slightly as the blood stain on her shoulder continues to grow. "Hosea!? Travis!? Robin!? Are you all ok?"

After all the men are gone, Robin rises to her feet slowly and comes out of her shaded spot, still in control mode. Her motions are very deliberate and zombielike, since Blank is gathering up the injured men from the attack party. Her glasses rest crookedly on her face and she says to Hilde, "I'm okay. But… I think… they have Travis."

Hosea climbs out of the foliage, head still ringing from the crash into the foliage. He's hardly able to answer, let along continue his pursuit. He doesn't speak, but the look on his face tells all. He just missed. He missed and now Travis is in their custody.
An odd opposite, the people of the village start to work their way back from the other side of the village, returning cautiously. They are amazed that the fight is already over. What seems like a defeat for the Americans is a great victory to the Nigerians, who have previously had very little ability to defend themselves. They are beginning to cheer, and they start running to their heroes. The village has losses as well, and there are people tending to those injured. Still, the village is safe.

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