Genre Clash

[Springer]

Springer falls quiet once Nightbeat snaps, standing up with his hands up and palms forward. He watches, though. The sand flies odd, and Springer levels an arm-mounted gun, and fires off a few rounds.

Well, they never said Springer couldn't participate, did they?

However, it's probably polite to at least ask. "Mind if I cut in?" It probably should've been done before he shot, though.

[Nightbeat]

There wasn't a fire extinguisher or a lake handy, or Nightbeat would have used those to try to reveal your outline, Mirage.

The detective hears Mirage's feet move over the ground, feels the swish of air as his leg lashes out, but without his sight, still isn't quite fast enough or certain enough to stop Mirage's kick from connecting. He does make a grab where he thinks the spy ought to be as his knee buckles and he falls forward.

Then he closes his eyes.

[Mirage]

One of Springer's shots clip Mirage's shoulder. Had the spy not dropped his body lower with the kick, more would have connected. As it is, one is enough to irk the spy of considerably.

//Springer, this is not a firing exercise!// Mirage snaps at roughly the same time that Nightbeat's arm closes on the spy's own wrist.

Mirage lets himself be pulled forward with Nightbeat's fall, tumbling- still invisible- over the detective's body. As Mirage clears his opponent, a thin blade drops into his hand, blade pointed backward. Flicking his wrist back, he tries to stab he blade into the thin gap between wrist and arm. It isn't likely to do damage, but it may be a sudden and sharp enough twinge to force the detective to let Mirage go.

[Nightbeat]

OOC: Skipping Springer due to time-out.

Nightbeat has shuttered his optics, so Mirage's invisibility doesn't matter all that much. Of course, now he can't see anything at all, instead of just being unable to see the tricksy spy. Whether or not this will prove to be a good decision remains to be seen.

Mirage's blade is swift and sharp enough to cause the detective to let go, biting down a cry of pain as he reflexively draws back the hand. His other hand, however, jabs out for a quick punch where Mirage's torso may or may not be.

[Springer]

"Sorry 'bout that. Force of habit, and all."

Springer doesn't seem to be too sincere, though. He draws his sword out, stepping out to try and gauge where Mirage is - which seems to be up against Nightbeat, if the detective's reactions are any indication.

[Mirage]

//Right. I'll take that apology in the same spirit in which it was meant.// Mirage responds dryly.

He takes Nightbeat's punch and rolls with the motion. Mirage has thinner armor; he long ago learned that not fighting the movement of a blow does him less damage. Swiftly getting his feet under him, Mirage twists left and starts to slam an elbow into the base of Nightbeat's head; just before he might connect however, Mirage remembers Muzzle's condition, and the spy pulls the blow, aiming more for the between the shoulder blades equivalent on the detective. Sure, it's the sim room, and the damage would be "healed" once the sim is done, but Mirage would rather not risk it.

This move, however, puts him dangerously close to Springer and his sword.

Now Skip!

A short while later, Mirage is still invisible and fighting two opponents. However, he has several dents from Nightbeat's fists, and a stab through the torso from Springer's sword. Mirage had kept the blades he picked up on Pz-Zazz in play, and he's not merely been on the defensive, so possibly his opponents are in similar shape.

He grabs a broken pipe from a pile of debris and tries to slide it between the legs of his nearest opponent, hopefully tripping them up.

[Nightbeat]

Nightbeat would thank Mirage for pulling his blow to the head if he knew he'd done it. As it is, being hit between the shoulders is entirely too close, and it feels like the spy is ignoring his request not to aim for the head, or else deliberately mocking his injury. Yet another of the misunderstandings that seem to plague Mirage.

...

Nightbeat is still fighting blind, but his other senses, already ridiculously sharp, are compensating. He's even appropriated a piece of rebar and started using it like a cane to make sure he doesn't bump into things. So far it hasn't worked too well, what with being in the middle of a melee and having to dodge and such, but the theory is sound. Speaking of sounds, the telltale scrape of the pipe being dislodged from its pile is like an alarm klaxon to Nightbeat. He takes a step toward the sound when he hears it, lashing out with his own improvised cudgel . . . and accidentally stepping right on top of the broken pipe.

[Springer]

Springer isn't faring so well. He wasn't really that good to start with with said sword, and that one stab is more than likely a stroke of luck than anything.

He's trying to watch the ground for signs of Mirage's movement, but he's not faring well there, either, so he's kind of absently swinging the blade about when he thinks Mirage is nearby, and trying not to hit Nightbeat in the process.

[Mirage]

Mirage, if he were as much of an aft as some consider him, would certainly be laughing a bit at his opponents. However, Mirage is certainly not undamaged in this simulation, and silly-looking or not, he respects them. Mostly.

Though Springer and his pinata-stick style swinging of his sword is a bit silly.

He jumps back, hopefully out of the way of a tumbling Nightbeat. Mirage slips around some debris, hoping to come up on Springer from behind. If he can take down the Wrecker momentarily too, then Mirage will be most pleased with himself.

---

OOC: Tune in for the special guest star appearing next episode after this post! Patience will be rewarded! Excelsior!

in other words, please hold on posting 'til someone else can.>_>

[Kup]

Mirage's plan, however, counts on no interruptions.

It's interrupted.

It's not that Kup doesn't bother to check that the sim room is in use. He sees that it is, and he's curious. He's been spending a fair amount of time here himself lately, after all. Unfortunately for Mirage, the simulation lets him in more or less in the spy's way. He may not have the advanced senses of Nightbeat, but proximity and experience count for a lot, and Kup's instincts alert him that something's near.

Without hesitation, Kup twists, grabs that something, and throws it over his shoulder. Then he straightens up and snorts. "Invisible enemies are such a pain in the skidplate. I remember this one time on Scarlos Five, we ran into a pack of Land Octipii. Problem was, no one believed me when they saw me fightin' 'em, idiots thought I was overcharged or something. Least until another one got its suckers around Hammer." Kup shakes his head sadly. "Poor ol' Hammer."

OOC: Mirage-tossing with permission.

[Nightbeat]

Nightbeat falls down, flat on his back. If he was human, the air would be knocked out of his lungs with an audible 'oof!' He is a robot, though, so the 'oof!' is for some other reason that we shouldn't think too hard about, and has nothing to do with lungs.

He takes a moment to reactivate his eyes and just stares at Kup. Is there a bit of venom in that stare? Nightbeat, super-detective with super-senses, is doing his best to fight Mirage, doing his best Daredevil impression, and then Kup comes in here and plucks the spy out of thin air on Old Man Mojo alone. Yeah, he's a little ticked.

"Alright, I'll bite. How'd you do that, Kup?" he asks, attempting to lever himself to his feet. Hopefully no-one will stop him.

[Springer]

Springer laughs a bit, shouldering his sword before attempting to fist-poke/playfully punch Nightbeat in the arm. "Well, he's Kup, that's what he does." He might not be the Kup who trained a huge chunk of Autobots that Springer knows, but tossing Mirage like it's nothing hints at enough skill that Springer's hero worship is not without reason.

"But yeah, care to share, old-timer?" Springer's wearing his best dashing grin as he asks.

[Mirage]

Mirage drops his cloak finally. The spy is lying on his front, his chin propped in one hand while the fingers of the other hand drum upon the floor. The spy looks rather unamused.

"Blast it, Kup, I was winning. You have the worst possible timing." Of course, now Springer and Nightbeat can actually see the effects of their various hits.

"And I am certainly going to have words with the room for randomly dropping you in nearly on top of me." he grumbles.

[Kup]

"Eh," Kup rubs the back of his head, a bit embarrassed at the praise. "Actually, Mirage has it. Sim room dropped me right in front of 'im and he damn near bumped into me." So yes, Kup just got lucky. While he is genuinely awesome, it's not unheard of him to get an advantage through sheer good fortune.

Then he shrugs. "I'm figuring you guys already know the basics of fighting blind opponents, anyway. Especially you," he nods towards Nightbeat. "Listen close, watch the ground for footprints or plants being pressed down, be ready to take a hit to get a bead on the direction, and of course, there's always things like the dust trick. Or paint trick. Or water spray trick. Things like that. Depending on how they're going invisible, those might not work, but it doesn't hurt to try 'em."

[Nightbeat]

Nightbeat hoists himself to his feet and dusts himself off, letting out an amused/disgruntled snort. "Lucky old coot," he gripes, dusting himself off.

"I tried the dust trick, but it didn't work. That new cloak of yours is something else, Mirage. Shame about how you got it. I'll save you a piece of the next Quint I see, eh?" He looks Mirage over. "At least we got some hits in. At this rate we could've knocked you out in a year or so."