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Post by Rodimus Prime on Apr 20, 2010 22:23:58 GMT -5
At Perceptor's warning, Rodimus first looks, and then springs into action, sparing no more moments for further conversation, and instead charging right for the trolley that's rolling towards the other. Without any hesitation he steps on the tracks themselves, braces himself, and turns towards the oncoming train just as it smashes into him. He leans against it, struggling to stop it before it impacts the other trolley and sandwiches him between the two, smashing in the nose of the one in his attempt to prevent even greater disaster as it continues to push him forward. His efforts seem to have an affect - he does slow it.
But will it stop in time?
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Shanodin
Major
The Chamberlain, Her Chivalrous Immensity, Lady Botanica. The Unyielding Vanquisher of Weed Killer
This is NOT her field of dreams
Posts: 700
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Post by Shanodin on Apr 20, 2010 23:06:26 GMT -5
Perceptor is sulking. Botanica's lips purse in a frown. Such unbecoming behavior is surprising from someone such as he. Oh well. Everyone has their faults.
Then Perceptor is shouting, Rodimus is moving, and metal is shrieking in protest as the Prime attempts to stop sure disaster.
Botanica is moving too, vines flowing like water out into the street. She takes in the sagging line, the filling bottles, and the stopped trolley. But just sending a vine up to snatch off the bottles could be a bit...illuminating.
After all, just because she can summon the lightning doesn't mean she can ride it.
"Perceptor! There! Can you shoot one off so that the other falls away? If the car can make contact again, it might give Rodimus some time to stop the other."
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Post by SceneMod on Apr 22, 2010 22:18:32 GMT -5
The slickness of the rain makes stopping a trolley a difficult task, even for someone who can pitch Galvatron out of the gravity wells of moons and planets.
Being able to exert force is meaningless when there isn't enough friction to properly apply it.
But the trolley, full of screaming passengers, seems to be jerking to a stop - violently.
There are no seatbelts inside.
What are the chances someone goes flying out a window?
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Post by Perceptor on Apr 23, 2010 18:27:06 GMT -5
Rodimus is quicker - obviously! - but Perceptor had seen the impending tragedy first, and so is not far behind him. He is already at the jugs, in fact, by the time Botanica manages to shout her idea.
On one hand? Perceptor doesn't have the same restrictions as Botanica, having no organic parts to need to protect from an unexpected jolt. On the other... these aren't human power lines. They're considerably bigger. Alas, Perceptor doesn't even factor that into his next actions, between needing to act to assist in averting the crash, and simply not even thinking in the midst of action that a larger scaled world than Earth would probably have correspondingly larger scaled energy requirements... and transport grids.
For being a genius, he's remarkably stupid sometimes.
Nonetheless, he's already reaching up to bat one of the jugs up and over it's wire with a quick slap, even as he registers Botanica's shout. Hopefully he doesn't end up tangling up Rodimus or anyone else in the process.
Or end up crispy fried for his troubles. If he doesn't, well, his momentum might even put him in the right spot to catch anything - or anyone - unexpectedly ejected from their conveyance.
That's probably too much to hope for, though. This is Perceptor, after all.
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Post by Rodimus Prime on Apr 23, 2010 19:29:41 GMT -5
Rodimus cycles air through his coolant system as the trolleys finally slow to a stop. He slumps for a moment, then straightens and looks around, expression one of deep concern as he starts to walk around the front of the damaged trolley.
"Is... is everyone all right?" He steels himself for the possibility that not everyone is - even with his help, that was a rough stop. But the youthful defender of life cannot help but be hopeful, unable to completely harden himself.
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Post by SceneMod on Apr 24, 2010 21:21:12 GMT -5
As per Botanica's request...
Perceptor might well get shocked by some high voltage electricity, if he isn't careful. But he also might catch that woman who has just gone flying out the window!
There is screaming and crying and an awful lot of cursing from the travellers on the trolley. Most of them rush out and a few smaller passengers are trampled in the struggle. Some of the wounded, aside from the trampled, have broken bones or exoskeletons, and whiplash seems common. Some sprains and scrapes, too.
A sleazardo and a robot that just might be Lithonese are bickering and head toward the engine compartment, instead of just running in fear and panic. The sleazardo is old, even grandfatherly, and he drawls, "Look, son, I've worked on engines my whole life, and I'm telling you, now ain't the best time to open that compartment."
The robot insists, in a snobby voice, "Perhaps, if you are an inferior organic." With long, fine fingers, he pries up the cover on the engine.
But it's still raining.
The engine shorts and explodes.
They're both incinerated almost instantly.
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Shanodin
Major
The Chamberlain, Her Chivalrous Immensity, Lady Botanica. The Unyielding Vanquisher of Weed Killer
This is NOT her field of dreams
Posts: 700
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Post by Shanodin on Apr 24, 2010 22:39:43 GMT -5
The trolley finally halts, and Botanica is for a moment at a loss. She is no doctor, or organics or the otherwise, and she does not wish to do more harm then good here.
She is careful enough not to get caught in the exiting crush; she is after all still smaller than the average citizen. But she does try to use her vines to keep some of the smaller folk from being completely trampled, lifting them up and setting them gently off to the side. She notes that there is at least one individual who also appears to be a plant-based organism. Perhaps she can compare notes on hardiness, if they can get this mess sorted out.
Botanica is trying to create a rough sort of triage area when the engine compartment explodes. She curses. This is not going to make things any easier.
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Post by Perceptor on Apr 27, 2010 5:41:01 GMT -5
As macabre as it may sound, perhaps it is fortunate for Perceptor that someone is ejected from the trolley which Rodimus is attempting to halt. The scientist catches the motion of the woman's body flying through the air out of the corner of his optic, and he does not even have time to truly process the image; he simply aborts his attempt to dislodge the bottles and acts.
The slick pavement actually assists him when he turns on one foot, his momentum carrying him forward in a sideways slide as he reaches out to pluck the terrified woman from the air. He is still a being of metal, though, all hard planes and angles, with his own physical forces to account for. Rapid calculations flash through his processor more swiftly than thought, and as soon as his hands close about the woman's body, he begins to absorb her momentum as gently as possible before allowing himself to tumble backwards, pulling her in close to his chest and shielding her from himself and the ground with his arms and tucked head until they both roll to a stop.
"Are you all right? Where are you injured?" he asks gently, trying to ascertain how badly she is damaged. Behind them, the trolley grinds to a halt with Rodimus Prime's help...
And then the engine compartment explodes, and Perceptor is huddling around the woman again, trying to protect her from any flying debris.
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Post by Rodimus Prime on Apr 27, 2010 15:36:26 GMT -5
Once he's sure the trolly is stopped, Rodimus steps around from to the side to help sort out the exiting crush. "Everyone! Calm down and exit slowly!" he demands in his best voice of command, a tone that most people in most places tend to be hardwired to follow.
He's more than a little annoyed when its effectiveness here is minimal, but not particularly surprised. He mutters an exasperated, "What is wrong with this place?" And in truth, he means the question on more than one level, though he doesn't expect any level answered here and now as he starts to carefully wade into the crowd, doing his best to try to relieve the crush and moving some of those with lesser injuries out of the way before the stampede has a chance to worsen said injuries.
This all is why he's no longer near the front when the engine explodes.
Rodimus crouches, doing what he can to shield any nearby, but as soon as it's over, he turns to look back towards the front, then glances between Botanica and Perceptor. "Wasn't there someone up there?"
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Post by SceneMod on Apr 27, 2010 22:15:54 GMT -5
The wail of sirens can be heard now, emergency vehicles slowly making their way through the congested traffic.
The smaller folk helped by Botanica seem torn between being grateful to Botanica and between screaming, "Tentacle monster! Run!" (Perhaps more unsettling, there is one person on the street who does a double-take and asks, "Tentacle monster? Where?")
The woman Perceptor has managed to grab is also wearing a lab coat, but hers is a lot more finely crafted than his - honestly, it looks like it is perhaps woven from silk, and it is tucked to fit her hourglass figure. Underneath the lab coat, she has on a tight black tube top, a black miniskirt, and a holstered pistol at her hip. She looks more or less like a Transformer-height human, but red-skinned, with a mane of black hair more equine than human, and bright blue eyes like a Siamese cat. She reports coolly, "Cursory examination would suggest minor hematoma of tissue at site of impact and perhaps ligament sprain, though physical examination would be required for a proper diagnosis. And ah," she checks herself over a bit, "I seem to have broken a heel."
Alas poor stilettos, she knew them well.
Some people do listen to Rodimus Prime and at least make an attempt at being orderly and calm. There are not a lot of them, though, but by now, most that can exit the trolley under their own power have.
Rodimus is correct - there is a very charred corpse of a sleazardo, stinking of burnt meant and a less-damaged but still badly burned corpse of a Lithonian, thrown into the asphault by the force of the explosion.
The very first responders on the scene mostly seem to arrive by accident, in a black, unmarked vehicle, save for its government tags. The chauffeur bangs on the back door and insists, "Sir, I do believe this is in your job description."
Hesitantly, the door lurches open, and a snake-like alien that would give Titanoboa a run for its money oozes out of the vehicle. The snake is wearing a collar and tie, and pinned to the collar is a gold badge that reads "Dr. Rio Dan, Chief Medical Examiner". While his natural colour would appear to be yellow, his 'face' area is flushed quite red, and he seems quite unable to so much as slither in a straight line if he wanted to. After a few moments of Rio Dan bonking into the side of his vehicle, the chauffeur grabs him by the tie and tries to lead him to the scene.
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Shanodin
Major
The Chamberlain, Her Chivalrous Immensity, Lady Botanica. The Unyielding Vanquisher of Weed Killer
This is NOT her field of dreams
Posts: 700
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Post by Shanodin on Apr 28, 2010 0:56:32 GMT -5
Tentacle monster? What tentacle monster?
Rattrap and she may have gotten a little kinky with her vines, but he never showed Botanica his special video collection.
Well, not all of it.
Botanica looks up from trying to tend one of the injured when Rodimus asks his question, "Yes, I'm think so. Are you two all right?" She looks back toward the trolley engine and grimaces, "However, I think they are beyond help now."
The doctor slithering toward them draws her attention- and her critical eye. Doctor or no, that snake doesn't look fit to tape a paper bag back together.
Though given the title on that badge, he probably isn't here to help the living.
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Post by Perceptor on Apr 28, 2010 9:11:33 GMT -5
Perhaps if Perceptor were someone more like Mirage, or Rattrap, or even Kup, for that matter, he might have noticed that the woman that he'd caught has a generally aesthetically pleasing appearance. Her looks, however, have nothing to do with his sudden desire to embrace her tightly, and hopefully, that flash of relief and joy in his optics doesn't frighten her.
Someone who speaks his language! An appropriately developed vocabulary! One which seems to indicate an elevated level of intelligence! Someone he can speak to without getting sighed at or ordered - with an exasperated tone - to clarify for laymen! He would kiss her, if he were inclined to such a thing.
Instead, he shifts enough to run a swift, external diagnostic, nodding. "I am detecting elevated temperatures and increased capillary dilation, indicating medium depth soft-tissue insult. It is fortunately confined to a relatively restricted area. Given the nature of the ejection, however, I would advise a full medical evaluation at the nearest trauma facility to rule out significant internal injuries, particularly insult to the primary nerve functions."
Exploded engine compartment? What exploded engine compartment? Perceptor has a fellow geekscientist/medical-type person to converse with and fuss over! The approaching reptiloid medical examiner barely gets a glance.
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Post by Rodimus Prime on Apr 28, 2010 11:32:28 GMT -5
Rodimus shakes his head, expression pained as he spies the remains of the two by the engine compartment. "Wasn't enough," he murmurs miserably, and for a moment, just a moment, it looks like he might fall into a bit of a funk.
He pulls himself out of that quickly enough, however - there's still work to be done, and this is not time for that sort of self-indulgence. He schools his expression into one of sober confidence and looks to see what there is still to be done.
Since the press inside the trolley seems to have cleared out, Rodimus takes this time to climb aboard. Everyone who can exit under their own power may already has, but perhaps Rodimus can help those who haven't, those who are, unlike the two near the engine compartment, beyond saving.
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Post by SceneMod on Apr 28, 2010 22:41:23 GMT -5
The woman seems rather calmly unflappable and doesn't seem frightened that a rather happy-looking robot has caught her. She's used to most males and some females and others of nonbinary gender looking pleased to see her, as a basic sociocultural response to her appearance, though she doesn't usually get it from the robots so much. Fascinating!
Looking rather curious, she inquires, "If you do not mind my prying, what are the make and specifications of your sensors? Clearly thermal tissue imaging coupled with appropriate software for calculating volumetric and flow readings, which is unusual, insofar as most sapient robots seem to be limited to the so-called 'visual spectrum' or monochrome, due to inherent species-biased shortsightedness upon the parts of their creators."
She reaches for the snapped off stiletto heel, examines it, and mutters, "I had some cyanoacrylate in my bag, but the only reasonable conclusion that can be drawn at this point is that I should cancel my lines of credit post haste, directly after seeking a proper medical examination." She tosses her mane and sniffs a bit in the direction of the trolley, where her bag presumably once was but is no longer, due to Pz-Zazz's healthy population of pickpockets.
One of the aliens inside the trolley is indeed plant-based, as Rodimus will discover. The alien is, in fact, an azalien and looks uncannily like an azalea with roots for legs and canes for limbs. Looks rather trampled, with weeping stems. There are a few others who could also use some help, of sundry species.
Dr. Rio Dan slowly slithers his way over to the corpses, led by his chauffeur. Once at the bodies, the chauffeur hands him a clipboard with a stack of neat forms on it. Dr. Rio Dan half slurs, half hisses out, "Sssooo, loohksss like a nine yhear old female Orb, chaussse of dheath: ahct of Ghod." A dead elderly male sleazardo, really, really does not look like a nine year old female Orb. "An' a mhorbidly ohbessse fhemale Nharliphant. Chasse of dheath: dhiabhetesss."
Act of God miiiiight make sense as an explanation for 'died in an explosion', but diabetes? really? And who mistakes a Lithonese for a Narliphant? Narliphants aren't even robots! Or bipeds!
Dr. Rio Dan scribbles down these explanations on the paperwork, and the chauffeur sighs, but before he can do much, the snake is off slithering toward the triage, and he slurs, "Hey, hey. Tink ahny of thessse are ghonna dhie sssoon?"
Bedside manner? What's that?
The woman with Perceptor looks rather vexed, her ears pin back, and her decidedly carnivorous teeth peek out from behind those full lips. Glaring those Siamese blue eyes in the general direction of Dr. Rio Dan, she growls, "If he was not possessed of decidedly illicit and nepotistic connections to City Hall..."
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Shanodin
Major
The Chamberlain, Her Chivalrous Immensity, Lady Botanica. The Unyielding Vanquisher of Weed Killer
This is NOT her field of dreams
Posts: 700
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Post by Shanodin on Apr 29, 2010 1:11:01 GMT -5
Botanica has two of her hands pressed hard to the limb of a multi-appendaged squid-like creature, bright red liquid oozing out from beneath a wadded up cloth. The man...woman...person is breathing heavily, but seems lucid, if in pain, and has actually offered a couple of suggestions specific to his own physiology. He may also be trying to flirt with Botanica. Badly. This does not change the fact that if she can't get the bleeding stopped, he may not last long enough for her to tell him he hasn't got a snowball's chance. She doesn't like sushi.
She's close enough to the snake to hear his declarations, and she looks up, eyes flashing angrily.
"Of all the incompetent, useless, idiotic...why don't you take your obviously drunken self back to your vehicle and get out of the way of people actually attempting to help these people!" she snaps, "It was a bloody explosion that killed those two, as anyone with eyes and the sense their creator gave them can see! Useless!" She turns back to Mr. Squiggly, who looks...a bit frightened now, and he is looking nervously back toward the snake.
At least the bleed is slowing to a crawl. Good, maybe nothing vital was cut after all; he could just be an easy bleeder. She binds the wound up tightly and says, tone now reassuring, "You should be all right 'til paramedics get here, just don't move overmuch. It'll start the bleeding up again."
She's starting to feel a bit sick herself again. It's still raining poison rain, after all. But her comfort isn't important right now.
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