Save the Chocobos

[mindofathief]

Who: Everyone that signed up for the UFO stakeout
Where: Aqures Ixen, Chocobo Ranch area
When: February 19th-20th, nighttime
Summary: The Heroes of Light hide out at the ranch and wait for the mysterious animal kidnappers to appear.
Warnings: Three comment starters. Final thread will be locked until the end of the stakeout.

[The excitement of Valentoine's Day has passed, and with more news about the UFOs, Duster brings his focus back to the planned stakeout. The night was chillier than any midnight stroll he experienced in Tazmily, and he wears a thick coat that only covered his body above the waist. He pulls his brown hat's earflaps down to better keep the warmth in.

The inside of the stable is warmer, but not by much. It's not much of a savior to Duster, who remains outside, keeping watch as long as he's awake. Staying up late is easy; all it took was fixing his sleep schedule the past few days to his old night owl tendencies.

He takes a seat on a pile of hay by the tables and waits.]

((OOC: Welcome to the final UFO Stakeout log! You can still talk with NPCs during the mingle thread, and you are welcome to put up your own starters under the main event thread. The final phase of this event, however, will be a single thread))

Comments

[neverfirstclass]

Considering the fact that he was a ranch hand, Cloud had to suppress the urge to call out to the approaching strangers. If he spooked them and chased them off it would be a momentary reprieve but the point here was to stop them once and for all.

He hunkered lower, repeating over and over in his head to be patient. He glanced off in Spark's direction, trusting in the Marshall to take the lead on this. He had the arresting authority here anyway.

Zack wobbled a bit, resisting the urge to boop the bat on his branch with his beak. The chocobo probably would not have the stamina to keep this up much longer.

[zodiac_brave]

Ramza took a single stone from his collection and placed the bag holding the rest of them on the ground as quietly as he could. They could sit here all night, or they could attempt to talk to the strangers and get this mess sorted out. And then sleep.

He stepped forward, armed only with a small rock. "Hello? We are Heroes of Light, here to protect these chocobos. Please come forward and identify yourselves."

[unyieldingspirit]

K'pandolu pressed her fingers to her forehead, suppressing a groan. Reaching out was all very well, but was this the time?

She waited to listen for their movements, meaning to use the sound to mask her own steps as she made to try and flank them.

[mindofathief]

The figures in the forest froze, and the noises stopped. Lydia could see them turn their heads to each other and to the area behind them as if deciding whether to continue forward or retreat.

They decided on standing still at the moment. And then ever so slowly back away without making a noise. They would never leave the forest until next week at that pace.

[deadlyvu]

That seemed as good a cue as any for Lydia to move. Dropping from the 'honestly, really, this is a tree' chocobo's branch, she flitted around to get behind the figures. A swift change back from bat-form to her normal form, and she even pulled her cape up dramatically.

"I wouldn't! We're here to talk, for now. You won't escape."

[rialynn]

Apparently the other Heroes had much better night vision than Rialynn did. She could hear their voices, but she still couldn't see what was happening out there. Carefully she lifted her head, craning her neck to see if she couldn't glimpse at least something, but it was no good. Maybe excellent eyesight was something that came with having Jobs added to their crystals. As much as she wanted to sneak closer to someone else's position to see if they could tell her what was happening, she didn't want to compromise her position. Just in case she was needed, she stayed put, and willed herself to be patient.

[fearlessherosheart]

Well, apparently they weren't fighting yet. Tazendra tried to see in the darkness, waiting for the moment and leaving the diplomacy to the diplomatists.

[red_planet_blues]

Sparks did want to get the element of surprise on these invaders, but that was a lost cause now. He'd gripe, but he had wanted to talk this out anyway, so it shouldn't matter.

No, it doesn't. He'll gripe anyway, later. He lowered his weapon for now.

"That's right. Just come on out all slow-like, and we'll settle this face to face. Okay?"

[mindofathief]

Apparently, the two thieves didn't agree with Sparks, because the moment Lydia appeared behind them, they jumped up and ran away from the ranch for their lives. One drew a short blade and struck at Lydia during his escape in an attempt to slow her down with injuries.

[neverfirstclass]

Cloud's eys went wide as they started to run, but the obvious move to attack Lydia made him move. "Zack!"

The chocotree shook most of the the foliage off of itself and ran to his human's side. Cloud was already up and running as the chocobo came up alongside and he vaulted himself up onto the bird with practiced ease. These two were on foot, and that meant they wouldn't be able to outrun a well trained bird.

Even if these weren't the strange thieves, he wouldn't let them get away so easily!

[unyieldingspirit]

A snarl tore from K'pandolu's throat, and she forewent any attempt at stealth in favour of speed, caring only enough to try to ensure she didn't catch her feet on something. If she could get close enough to grab one, she would.

[zodiac_brave]

Well, things seemed to be working out about as well as anything Ramza did. The thieves had not responded to attempts to reason, and had struck out at a Hero of Light, so Ramza felt no guilt when he lobbed his rock in the direction he could hear them running. Between the moving targets and the fact that he could not actually see the thieves in the darkness, he was not likely to hit them, but there was a therapeutic aspect to throwing a rock at an evildoer.

Rock thrown, Ramza took off in the direction of their fleeing suspects. Hopefully, there were no more lurking around.

[deadlyvu]

The attack did surprise Lydia, but she's used to sudden moves from her time on Crystallis. It's a clumsy-dodge, but she manages to duck out of the way with a slight yelp. Then she's reaching out one hand, calling on one of the spells that came with her chosen Job. Absorbing some of the vitality and energy of one of the fleeing thieves. Taking it into herself, before drawing rapier and moving to keep them in her sights.

Nighttime was prime for when she was at her strongest, after all.

[OOC: Absorb-stats is what she cast. :) If she gets a chance, she might try to charm them. ]

[mindofathief]

"Damn!" The thief that was smart enough to run without attacking dashes into the depths of the woods, zigzagging between trees in an attempt to throw off the faster Heroes chasing him. If his partner was killed, it was his fault for wasting time with a fight.

Said partner was too shocked to make a move as Lydia drained his power. He may as well have given up if the sound of a rock hitting the nearby tree didn't alert and remind him that there were more after him. He stuck two fingers in his mouth and let out a loud whistles before running after the other.

Duster by now had jumped out of the haystack and joined the others in the chase. The thief that was closer to the ranch seemed taken care of; his focus was on whoever else was in the forest.

[red_planet_blues]

Sparks merely grumbled to himself as this scene broke out, before letting out a whistle that summoned Mercury from his nearby hiding spot. If the thieves thought they could outrun the gang, or Cloud on his chocobo, they certainly weren't outrunning a rocket steed. Or the marshal with a lasso, for that matter. He followed Duster on the chase for the other thief, with aims to rope him up.

[neverfirstclass]

Cloud had the same thought as Sparks as he chased the thief into the trees. Catching Spark's eye he gave him a nod before letting Zack cut his own path. There was no need to oversteer here. He wasn't using his Chocobo Knight job but he trusted his companion enough to make the decisions himself.

The blonde Hero chuckled as he glanced down at Zack's plumage. He almost hoped that the man would try to use a river or something to try to lose them. Boy would he be in for a surprise.

[fearlessherosheart]

Tazendra had joined the chase. Her long legs meant that she could cover ground quickly, but she was still being outpaced by the people who had actual mounts. Not that it was important -- she could bring up the rear and see what there was to find. And, at the moment, there was no point in using a spell if she couldn't be sure she wouldn't hit an ally.

[mindofathief]

The closer thief barely had time to run before the horde of Heroes closed in on him, K'pandolu knocked him to the ground, and he instinctively slashed his knife across her face in self-defense.

Sparks and Cloud had outrun Duster by this point, but the running thief was a good distance away, running between trees and taking sudden turns to throw them off.

An arrow flew out of a tree, aiming at Zack.

[zodiac_brave]

The thief K'pandolu had tackled seemed well in hand, so Ramza weaved around the mass of Heroes to keep pursuing the other one. The especially fast one. Ramza intensely disliked him.

Even if he could not catch the man, the continued pursuit would not afford him time to launch a counterattack.

[red_planet_blues]

That thief might be fast, but he's probably not rocket fast. There's also a lassoing being thrown his way by an experienced cowboy, who's confident that if he can manage to lasso an entire flood, he can catch one supposed absconding alien.

[deadlyvu]

Since no one else was attacking her, Lydia took the opportunity to change once more into a Bat. It allowed her better maneuverability, and better senses in the dark. That whistling signal had her wondering too--were there more besides the two they'd found?

Time to start flitting between trees, keeping the one thief and other heroes in earshot and sight, but looking for any other bandits.

[OOC: Are there others besides the two being persued?]

[neverfirstclass]

Zack was swift enough to duck his head out of the way of the flying arrow, but it left Cloud in the open. He winced as the arrow impacted his shoulder, shattering as it struck. His armor kept him protected from the attack, but it was still a high velocity piece of metal and wood hitting him. The blonde grunted in pain and Zack slowed down to keep him from losing his balance. They were still in the chase but it'd be up to Sparks for now.

[mindofathief]

"We got one of them!" came a voice from the trees. A small, very human figure slid down from the leafy ceiling, grabbed an overhanging branch, and hung for a second before letting go and rushing at Cloud and Zack with a knife. Without even a yell, he jumped at the Chocobo, preparing a fatal strike.

Unfortunately for the other thief, he did not expect an actual cowboy to be running after him, much less a rope thrown at him that would tighten almost immediately. "What is this...?" Lassoes were an uncommon sight in Crystallis, and he wished he had known that Sparks Nevada had this kind of trick up his sleeve. "Boy! Out! Now!"

Lydia would have heard multiple, possibly ten men up in the trees, and the trees furthest from her shook as the thieves ran across the branches to a safer location.

[unyieldingspirit]

K'pandolu jerked back, the knife still making its mark across her cheek. She snarled, making to knock the knife out of the man's hand and pin his arms, teeth flashing. "Who are you?" she demanded. "Where did you come from?"

[zodiac_brave]

More in the trees? Of course there were more in the trees. In the trees, running all around in these wee hours when honest folk were a-bed. Ramza lobbed another rock at the shaking branches above. He didn't care that gravity would bring the rock back down. He was awake, running around, in the forest in the dark. That might as well happen too.

"Surrender now!" he barked out, though he could not see who he was addressing.