⇨ AGENTS HAVE ARRIVED [CLOSED PLOT]

[ringleaders]

Who: Tamaki, Childermass, Carly, Susan, Peridot, and Sherlock. And AGENTS.
Where: Inside The Matrix.
When: D28
What: The Agents have been watching your activities over the last week, and they’ve decided it’s time to act.
Warnings: Violence and most likely body horror.

THE ABDUCTION↴ The visitors have not be subtle in their intrusions, and for a time the Agents have held back, analysing the true effects of these new entities before deciding to make a move. But now, their patience has run out. The source of this infection must be found, and eliminated, or else the whole system could be dragged apart. These aren’t just the rebelling humans. These are something else. [OOC: Tamaki, Childermass, and Carly were selected from the danger raffle to be fully abducted by Agents. Susan, Peridot, and Sherlock will be attacked by Agents, but will escape when Resistance members intervene. Please make a top level below with your characters doing something in the Matrix that is relatively secluded from big crowds of people, as that is when the Agents would most likely strike. You can bring other characters along if you like for the initial confrontations, though only the selected characters will actually be captured by Agents. Any injuries sustained in these fights will equally damage character’s real physical forms, no matter how damage resistant they may normally be. Unless they are bending the Matrix to use their powers or to alter it with One powers, they will be as vulnerable as a normal human. Agents and Resistance members will be played by the mods in this log.]

Comments

[periphrasing]

Wow. Buzzkill.

Peridot jerks to face them, and takes an uncertain step backwards towards Steven, speaking without taking her eyes off the agents.

"Steven... Do you know these two eerily identical humans?" She's getting a baaaaad vibe here.

[starseedling]

Steven freezes as well, grouping towards Peridot protectively as the two men close in on them. Are they trespassing? If not, the only options here are bad. He remembers talk of the conflict going on here, and he immediately wonders who they've ticked off.

"If... If you want us to go we can go, but we're not going with any strangers, okay?" He glances at Peridot. "R-Right?"

[npcarnival]

The gun comes out. It all happens so quickly. One Agent takes aim with their pistol while the other comes forward to grab a hold of Peridot and drag her away from Steven, the implied threat of the gun meant to quell any resistance.

By now, they've seen what some of these people can do.

[periphrasing]

She doesn't answer. She's kind of frozen in her tracks, eyeing up that gun. THAT, RIGHT THERE, IS DEFINITELY A WEAPON.

It's like in slow motion, that hand is reaching for her, and she can't seem to move at all. And then, at the very last second, when it's millimeters away...

Her fist curls. She swings up and uppercuts that sucker right under the chin with an absolutely brutal amount of force.

[npcarnival]

Holy shit.

It's not as bad as it could have been, because at least in part the Agent was expecting some kind of resistance. But, boy howdy, they weren't quite expecting this shrimpy Canadian teen to plow them quite so hard, and while it may have pulped a normal person's jaw, it sends the Agent staggering back with a sound like cracking bone.

For a moment, it looks like their neck has been jammed into the wrong position, so that they are incapable of lowering their chin. Did she break their neck? It's not totally clear, but its enough of a problem that the Agent is occupied with cradling their skull and trying to pull it back into position.

Of course, that flurry of motion reflexively triggers the other Agent's trigger finger. They take a few steps back and flat out unload their magazine at Steven and Peridot, deciding that they'll focus on winning first and capturing second.

[starseedling]

This is something new.

Is it weird that what makes it so intimidating is how human it is? He's thrown himself in front of massive gem lasers, he's thrown himself in front of Garnet, but something about a man just pulling out a gun and shooting them is not really something he's been trained to anticipate. Fighting monsters is different. Fighting gems is different.

There's only one real reaction he can have, though. He tries to bring up his shield, lunging forward to get both him and Peridot behind its radius. At first, it feels natural and reliable, but then he remembers that things aren't the same here as they are back in the carnival.

Still, the pink disc flickers into existence, like it's being torn into this reality by sheer force of will.

[periphrasing]

Again, she finds herself frozen in shock, but this time it's mostly out of some combination of horror and awe over what she just did to that man's neck. She doesn't even have time to get a horrified "ew!" out, though, before Steven is launching himself in harms way.

The bullets ping off of the shield's surface, ricocheting haphazardly around the alley way. All Peridot can do for the moment is cower behind Steven, which feels a little silly when she just punched a man so hard that his head nearly did a 360.

When the magazine's empty, and the Agent has to break to reload, Peridot grabs Steven's arm and screams, "Come on!"

Without even really thinking about it, she jumps into the air with Steven in tow, and lands on one of the surrounding rooftops.

[starseedling]

Even with his shield up, everything seems to slip off the rails so quickly. He's not using his shield strategically like he's trained to - he's not watching for opportunities, or figuring out a direction to escape. Once the shield is up he just finds himself cowering behind it, his arms braced behind the shield defensively, his eyes shut tight as his whole body seems to seize.

He feels hot, suddenly, like he's opened an oven, and his mind is running on loop. He just keeps thinking, over and over, how his shield is going to break, it's going to break, he can't hold it, until finally... it does.

Only a moment or two before Peridot takes the opportunity to flee, his shield dissolves beneath the force of a bullet, shattering the pink light into shimmering fragments. At first, it's not clear what happened first - did it break, or did Peridot jump? He feels like someone punched him in the shoulder. Then it doesn't seem to matter, because they're flying, and then they're falling, for that moment the gunfire has stopped.

The landing is sort of rough, and after he hits the rooftop he feels too disorientated to get up again. He tries to reach for Peridot, to get a hold of her and to ensure that she's still there.

"Peri-Peridot? Are you..." He trails off, wavering.

[periphrasing]

"Steven?? Steven!!!" Peridot scrambles immediately to his side, bordering incoherent with terror. Why is he just laying there like that?! Did she hurt him somehow? Or did those two weirdos in the alley cause this? She looks at his wounded shoulder and sucks in a sharp intake of air through her teeth, hissing.

She's... She's too panicked to think straight. Performing under pressure from behind a console or a screen is one thing, but she's not used to being in the thick of the action like this. All that confidence from that stupid showy jump she did earlier has just evaporated, and she's having a hard time even getting it together enough to pick Steven up and flee. Still kneeling, she protectively pulls him closer, even though she's shaking with fear. She needs to focus, needs to tap into that unnatural physical strength so she can carry him again and make a break for it...

[npcarnival]

Before Peridot can pull it together, another figure has arrived. A woman in a white, hooded coat hurls herself up onto the roof more than she climbs onto it, moving towards the two of them quickly. She's holding a gun, but it's pointed back and towards the ground, the other hand raised in an attempt at pacification. She can see that one of them is hurt - and it's a kid, of all things.

"They get him? Ugh." She spits out that sound in disgust, surveying the area warily. "Don't have time to get into it, but we're the ones fighting against those guys that are trying to shoot you to death right now. So if you wanna live, take the help, ok?"

[starseedling]

He's still conscious, but he's confused beyond function, and after the initial blunt paint of the gunshot wound, the burning of torn skin and muscle is starting to come through. Did he get shot? He can barely believe it. He sees Peridot kneeling over him, but everything feels so weird and bad.

He was still wearing that stupid trenchcoat he's been wearing into the Matrix to look "mysterious", and so while that conceals a lot of the blood, it's visibly soaking through his shirt and down his front and back. One part of him is becoming desperately aware that he needs help, while the other takes easy comfort in the idea that Peridot has him. He barely reacts to the newcomer, still trying to get his bearings.

"I think it hit me," he says deliriously.

[periphrasing]

Oh- Oh that's not. That's not good. Peridot's no expert on organics but, THAT STUFF'S SUPPOSED TO STAY ON THE INSIDE OF YOUR BODY, she's pretty sure!!!

"Blood -- That's definitely blood, he's bleeding, HE'S BLEEDING -- Help me, I don't know how to deal with this!" she yelps at the strange woman in the hood, pleading, hysterical. She's probably squeezing Steven a bit, too, which is definitely the opposite of helping.

[npcarnival]

Okay, well, apparently these mysterious rule breakers are far from hyper-competent. The woman huffs out a breath, and then kneels down to carefully wrap her arms around Steven, passing Peridot her gun in exchange.

"Yo, we gotta go, man. I got a right for you down there - cover me, and I'll escort him all the way." She starts to lift Steven up, ignoring how the blood immediately stains the whiteness of her coat. "Move it!"

And then, just like that, she's running away with Steven - straight for the edge of the building, like she's intending on swan-diving right off of it.

[periphrasing]

There's a lot to process here, and a lot to react to. She doesn't want to hand Steven over to some stranger, but she's also too shocked to put up much of a fuss about doing so. The gun in her hand feels heavy and utterly foreign; it's not like she's unfamiliar with the concept of a gun, but the thought of having to exert the mental effort required to take aim and fire seems like a monumental stretch at the moment.

In the end, it's the command that finally snaps her out of it. Being told to run is all she needs in order to get herself to do so. She scrambles to her feet and hoofs it after the woman and Steven, never even looking back in the other direction.

[npcarnival]

Only a few moments after they finally start running, the Agent who didn't get his block knocked off ascends the side of the building in an absurdly effortless manner, stepping onto the rooftop as if he had simply taken an elevator up.

His gun is already drawn and ready. Pew pew.

[periphrasing]

Peridot just. Wails. When she sees him. Wails and stumbles, staggering around to face him and try and shoot back like was instructed to do, but she fumbles with the gun, fails to draw in time and then there's bullets flying in their direction --

She puts her arms up over her face and flinches, as if to shield herself, and then the bullets stop in midair, hanging for a split second before they clatter harmlessly to the ground.