Adventure! RPG: Heroes of Our Time - episode 5: Walking in the Valley

[Dr. Mystery]

John hurries toward Luqmani, ready to strike with his cane should there be an opportunity.

[Andrew Murphy]

Jameson nods absently as he moves aside for Rhada. He hardly even hears Winston as he moves towards the prospector. Cocking back the hammer on his revolver for emphasis Jameson speaks, his voice grating and cold, obvious that he is seething with anger.

"I ought to blast your hollow head open right now, but while that would make me feel better short term it would be at best a grave breach of justice. No I'm going to make sure you rot, you and your buddy Smoky Joe there," Jameson jerks his head toward the other prospector still lying on the floor smoldering.

"No, instead me an my friends are gonna hog-tie you like the swine you are and drop you off for the local sheriff. I'll see to it that you get put away for a long damn time." Jameson pauses, "Professor you got any rope in that bag o' tricks?"

[Winston Holmes]

Winston slowly lowers Adia and subtly shakes his head while keeping an eye on the prospector, "Wouldn't be a proper pack without it." He knows Jameson is really taking this one personally and it's probably for the best to help his old comrade work through it. And the sooner the better; these guys might have a few tricks left.

Swinging the Legionnaire pack to the deck of the car, Winston uses one hand to quickly tuck his Lonestar Locations book back into the pack while reaching for an old but stout length of rope. Adia is still waiting in his other hand, just in case something goes wrong. It sure has been a more interesting trip than he'd expected.

Rope retrieved in record time, Winston swings the pack back onto a shoulder with a motion he's obviously done thousands of times. Before continuing he looks over to Locky, "You alright, kid?"

[Locky McKenzie]

Locky can see the lips moving, but nothing seems to be coming out. All he can hear is a rather loud ringing in his ears.

"WHAT?!" he yells...

[Count Janos Rakozi]

Janos comes up behind Winston, glances quickly into the compartment then turns to look back down the car from whence they came.

"Were's Jozef?" he askes, followed by, "For that matter, where's Blaine, John, and Luqmani?"

[Andrew Murphy]

Jameson takes a length of rope from Winston, "Professor, why don't you tie this guy up and make sure he behaves. Smoky Joe doesn't seem inclined to give us much trouble."

Jameson backs away from the prospector a couple of steps, "Kate are you OK? Doc maybe you Kate and Locky should head back to our car? We'll take care of these buffoons ..."

"Janos, I'm not sure what the hell is going on here but we haven't seen Jozef, Blaine, or John. Hopefully they are dealing with Luqmani. I think the professor and I have got things covered here maybe you can try to locate the others?"

[Count Janos Rakozi]

Without looking toward Jameson, Janos responds,

"I sent Jozef with Kate, so I am a tad more concerned about my man. Mind you, Luqmani may be more than a handful for Blaine and John. He was certainly a unhealthy surprise out in the desert."

[Andrew Murphy]

"I'm sorry, no we haven't seen Jozef. Locky do you know what happened to Jozef?"

[Winston Holmes]

"I think Locky got too close to the gun blasts," Winston says while moving behind the prospector, "He's sounding like a soldier after a heavy shelling."

Sliding Adia back over his shoulder and into the pack, Winston starts to stretch out the rope to be used, "Someone needs to double back soon if this Luqmani is that dangerous. Once we've got these two secured."

[Alex Craft]

The surveyor remains fairly calm, providing no further resistance now that the odds have turned against him. Instead, he steadies himself and spreads his arms away from his body - placidly dropping his massive revolver to the deck at his feet. As he does so, he states flatly:

"I will not give you any trouble. I would like to attend to my associate before you 'hog tie' me. I have a medical license."

Meanwhile, Kate waves off Radha somewhat abruptly - getting to her feet superficially uninjured, explaining, "I'm fine, Jameson. Don't worry about it."

Locky's ears are still ringing, though he is just now beginning to hear what's going on through his temporary deafness.

The train shudders as the engineers put on more steam, rapidly accelerating. It is now creeping past its original speed - it seems that the engineers want to make up lost time. Them, or somebody else ... the doorway on the other side of the car is open (the door itself either missing or propped open), giving a glimpse of the coal car sitting between the stewards' car and the engine.

* * *

The increasing speed creates a wind of passage, dragging on Blaine as he lies exposed against the side of the rushing train. He slightly misjudges the intensity of these conditions as he lunges for for Luqmani.

The Egyptian dives forward, fetching up against the outer wall of the opposite car as Blaine overshoots - nearly taking a nose-first dive off the other side of the landing. Luqmani kicks out, but does so confusedly, missing Blaine by a mile as the he (Luqmani) sprawls against the door of the next car.

Blaine regains his balance on the edge of the landing as the door Luqmani came through opens again. Blaine isn't immediately certain if someone passed through the door or not, but rapidly works out what's going on as John suddenly comes into focus - striking downward at Luqmani, who is fallen to the decking.

Luqmani continues his dive away from Blaine's charge, rolling across the platform. He is, however, unable to fully evade John's abruptly visible cane, which nicks him on the shoulder, flicking away a tiny spatter of blood as John's arm continues a slashing motion.

[Blaine]

Blaine shakes his head to clear it a bit from the confusion. "Sonuvabitch!" he snarls. He tears down the aisle after him and dives for him, wrapping his arms around Luqmani's body to bring him to the ground.

[Andrew Murphy]

Jameson rocks on his feet but maintains his footing as the train accelerates. Tying the prospector up he says, "I think our doc can check out your pal, you understand that none of us here are going to be much inclined to trust you."

Finishing the tie Jameson remarks, "What is going on with this train, first Luqmani, then these two and now the engineer is pouring on the speed to outrace the devil! I'm going to check out up front..."

[Winston Holmes]

Winston shakes his head, snatching Adia back out of his pack, "Hold on, Cowboy, I've always had luck with machines and the Beginning and the End might be a little better for the inside of a train than Adia. Unless you think the others can handle Luqmani on their own, assuming they even caught up to him."

[Andrew Murphy]

"Hold on, Cowboy, I've always had luck with machines and the Beginning and the End might be a little better for the inside of a train than Adia. Unless you think the others can handle Luqmani on their own, assuming they even caught up to him."

Jameson stops and turns around nods, "Yeah, you're probably right. Just be careful, thsi day has gone from bad to worse faster than a jackrabbit fleeing a pack of wild dogs."

Walking back toward the rear exit Jameson again pauses next to Janos, "Let's go see if we can't find Jozef, and maybe get caught up with an old Egyptian aquaintance?" One of Jameson's tardemark grins begins to pull at his face, "What's the worst that could happen right?"

[Count Janos Rakozi]

"Wait one moment, please," Janos mentions to Jameson. "We are charging around blindly."

Looking down at Kate,

"Kate, what happened here? What was the cause of this altercation with these two men, and did you see if they had any other associates?"

[Alex Craft]

Blaine doesn't quite reach Luqmani. The Arab comes out of his roll in a crouch and - seeing Blaine diving for him - expertly kicking out at the oncoming detective. Luqmani connects, knocking Blaine's feet out from under him and sending him falling flat on the landing's deck.

Dodging away, Luqmani gets to better ground, putting Blaine between himself and the nearest edge while keeping an eye on John.

* * *

The surveyor is quite compliant, cooperating fully with being sat down and tied up. The two stewards don't seem certain of whether or not the team is an improvement on the two surveyors, and they might do well with reassurances on that part.

Kate glances at Locky (who is now able to hear acceptably, though sounds are still a little dulled) before responding, quickly summarizing:

"I have no idea - we stepped in and they started shooting. It looks like they were holding those two [indicates the stewards] prisoner, so I assume that there are others. If you're going to hold up a train, this car isn't likely to be your target."

[Blaine]

Blaine gets up slowly and deliberately.

"...OK, now I'm mad." he growls as he stands to his full impressive height. "You wanna play?" he asks as he cracks his knuckles, making a sound like crumbling gravel. "Let's play." Blaine walks warily toward Luqmani, hands coming up in a boxer's guard.

[Dr. Mystery]

John drops a flash pellet, vanishing in the light as he circles around Luqmani, looking for another opening.

[Andrew Murphy]

"Forward or backward Janos? We're getting nothing done standing here ..."

[Count Janos Rakozi]

"Forward. We have Blaine and John somewhere behind us and the engine is the key part of the train. You take point, Jameson and Winston, if you wouldn't mind, take up the rear. Let's go."

Janos' voice is full of confidence and authority, though he still favors his old wounds from the slaughterhouse.

[Andrew Murphy]

"Right!" Jameson quickly checks the cylinders of his twin revolvers and reloads as needed. Snapping the cylinders into place with a twitch of his wrists he moves up toward the front of the train staying out of a direct line of sight with the window in the door between compartments.

[Surya Lanadhra]

Radha looks over Kate one more time before nodding and stepping into place by Winston's side. "I assume we wish to take this Luqmani alive? If so, I know much about a unique style of kung-fu that permits holds."

[Alex Craft]

Blaine shakes the afterimage from John's flash paper out of his eyes as he stalks toward Luqmani. He can no longer see the magician, but John is presumably near.

Luqmani's figured this out, too, after a couple of exposures to John's talents, and he reacts accordingly - uncomfortably eying his surroundings as he circles to get up against one of the two cars framing the tiny landing. There isn't a lot of space, so John's angles are limited, but he does have the advantage of attacking a basically blind opponent - he steps out of nowhere, his cane whistling through the air.

It cuts through little else, however, as Luqmani dodges with devilish speed, ducking below John's sweeping weapon. It rings against the side of the train car Luqmani is backed up against, the black wood striking sparks as it runs over riveted metal.

Blaine hopes to take advantage of John's attack, but Luqmani shows him up as well, dropping in a practiced fall as the detective's fists lash out - one catching only air, and the other glancing off the car's outer wall, booming against the metal.

The Arab returns to his feet in a blink, leaping across the platform (toward the rear of the train) and catching the ladder fixed to that side's car at the apex of his jump.

Darting up a couple of rungs, he kicks off and jumps back across the landing like an acrobat, landing on the top rungs of the opposite ladder (now on the car that leads toward the front of the train), and beginning to climb the rest of the way onto the car's roof.

Neither Blaine nor John is really up to a chase over the tops of the cars, so both hurry to stop the Arab's retreat - John snatching at him (feebly, admittedly) with a telekinetic hand while Blaine scrambles up the ladder far enough to get a more solid hold on him.

Blaine lays a gnarled fist on Luqmani's ankle and jerks the criminal off of the ladder, showing little care as he pulls Luqmani into falling back down off the car. As the Arab sprawls on the floor, Blaine gets a better hold - the Arab struggles after a brief moment (regaining his breath after the fall), but Blaine successfully manhandles him into immobility.

* * *

A small coal car is situated between the steward's car and the engine up ahead. Jameson steps through the open doorway out of the steward's car, discovering the door to be removed and laid out on the platform.

The coal car is a little trickier to navigate than the rest of the cars - it is simply an open bin on wheels, with a ladder running up this side to a catwalk over the coal. Jameson goes to the ladder and begins stepping up, cautiously peeking over the top before ascending to the catwalk.

There is nothing worrying to be seen, so he climbs the rest of the way up and starts to make his way over the catwalk - a great mound of coal piled up below. The steam, smoke, and simple radiant heat of the engine is pouring backwards over the coal car, slightly stinging Jameson's eyes and making a fresh layer of sweat spring up on his skin.

He makes his way slowly, edging up to the point where he will be able to see the back of the engine. When he gets there, he spots another of the 'surveyors' standing in the doorway, another of those guns in hand as he watches for trouble (anyone in the engine must have heard those gunshots earlier).

Jameson ducks back down on the catwalk atop the coal car - he doesn't think that he was seen.

[Blaine]

Blaine is breathing heavily as he levers his left forearm underneath Luqmani's chin in a vicious crossface. He raises his other fist high, giving Luqmani a perfect sight of it; he can rain punches onto his face or gut, whichever he needs.

"Alright! Now goddammit hold still you snake! If you want to be able to eat solid food this month you better cut it out!" Meanwhile he maneuvers his body weight onto him to make sure he's got him right where he wants.

[Andrew Murphy]

Jameson slips the End into it's holster, the quiet rasp of steel on leather inaudible over the noise of the engine and the grind of metal on metal below.

Jameson makes his way back towards the previous car and catches Janos' eye. Jameson signals through simple hand gestures that he saw a single man up front. He motions for Janos to join him, knowing full well that Janos is the best of the group at close quarters fighting.

Making his way back toward the engine again Jameson crouches at the edge of the catwalk and peeks over the edge once more. He sees the "prospector" standing gaurd and withdraws slightly indicating to Janos to take a stealthy look below.

[Count Janos Rakozi]

Janos takes a careful peak at the surveyours location and ducks back down.

"Once more Over the Top", he mouths to Jameson, though he smiles.

He shrugs nods and judges the distance for that deadly rush that will probably end up with one of them dead.

Janos prepares himself for rush with a feint half way there, just in case.

[Dr. Mystery]

John brings his cane to the ready, sneering fearsomely at Luqmani as he glances down at his shoulder for a moment, the more recent patch on it is quite apparent.

"Would you mind telling us what exactly is going on here? Or will Mr. MacAllister and I ｈａｖｅ to beat it out of you? Personally, I am hoping for the latter."

[Surya Lanadhra]

Radha followed the men, knowing that someone had to keep them out of trouble.

[Alex Craft]

Luqmani sighs and relaxes.

"Uncle?"

He awkwardly shrugs, craning his neck to look his captors in the eye as best as he can.

"Pretty simple, really. Standard protection contract, with an counter-interference clause requiring me to keep the K.I.S. field team busy. Which would be you chaps. [sighs again] If I'd known that little tidbit, I'd've charged more."

[Winston Holmes]

Adia firmly in hand, Winston accompanies Radha through the cars leading up to the coal bin. His attention is divided between watching the rear and waiting for the next thing to explode at the front of the party.

[Andrew Murphy]

Jameson nods to Janos, and gathers his feet beneath him. Jameson steadies himself with his left hand, waiting for Janos to signal the charge as it were. Jameson raises the Beginning in his right ready to deliver a pistol whip to the man below.

[Blaine]

Blaine grunts at the response, it didn't surprise him all that much at this point. Luqmani didn't strike him as someone that worked alone, though this was a bit more mercenary than he expected. "Don't move." he says as he levers Luqmani onto his stomach and begins to thoroughly pat him down, one knee placed at the small of his back, his left hand forcing his head down onto the floor of the train.

"You're pretty uptown to be knockin' over trains Luqy. Who hired you? What were you and the other others after?"

[Alex Craft]

In a bored voice (his manner heavily implying that this isn't the first time he's been manhandled and searched), Luqmani points out that he is armed, which Blaine finds to be the case as he pats the mercenary down. The gun is a heavy pistol of unfamiliar make - a British piece, to judge by the manufacturer's stamp on the butt.

Blaine also discovers a razor-sharp boot knife against Luqmani's right ankle, which Luqmani did not mention.

The shoulder of his suit jacket is wet with blood, oozing from a wound left by John's cane, and Blaine finds that an unexpectedly large portion of the man's shirt and vest are soaked through and stained red. He would guess, though, that this is mostly due to Luqmani's exertion - the injury doesn't look life-threatening.

John hangs over Blaine's shoulder, glowering down at the Arab. Aside from grimacing at Blaine's handling, he doesn't demonstrate any particular worry at any of that, speaking into the metal flooring:

"I don't know. The other fellows handed me the money, and whoever they work for paid the extra forty percent for full anonymity."

He attempts to shrug, but finds it difficult with Blaine pressing him against the floor.

"They're planting some kind of equipment on the train. The idea was that I cover them until we reach San Angelo. It looks like they've moved up the timetable on me, since they've already unpacked."

"I suspect that they mean to kill everyone on the train, and they'll try to include me in that just to make sure nobody outside their little group knows anything about what happened. [sighs] Of course, backstabbing is a hazard of the job. Nobody ever thinks that I might actually hold a confidentiality clause, no.

* * *

Elsewhere, Janos and Jameson silently climb atop the coal car - any sounds they might accidentally make easily covered by the clatter of wheels below and rumble of the engine ahead. Crouched there, Jameson nods at Janos - he's been in trench warfare, so he knows to let the guy with the bayonet (or sword) go first.

Janos agrees, stepping up out of the coal and onto the narrow metal catwalk, where he'll have somewhat better footing. The train is rocking and vibrating more than ever, now that it is moving at increased speed, but he nonetheless keeps his balance, put vaguely in mind of ocean voyages ... or possibly of leaping between cars in Cairo.

The charge is over almost before it began. Janos rises from a crouch and runs the length of the coal car in a headlong rush, leaping off the end to land on the back landing of the engine. The surveyor reacts far too slowly, and Janos' blade licks out before the man even raises his gun.

The surveyor drops like a sack of potatoes, sprawling in the doorway as another thunderous gunshot roars from within the engine. Janos and Jameson (just now dropping down from the coal car) both duck for cover - plastering themselves against the wall on either side of the doorway - as the round slams against the side of the coal car and ricochets off into the desert.

Another shot rings out, and the wall just over Jameson's left shoulder suddenly sports a fist-sized hole - the slug the produced said hole whistling off into the air. Just on the other side of the car, Winston, Radha, and Locky hear the two shots, as well as the heavy ringing sound of the first shot bouncing off the other side of the coal car.

[Count Janos Rakozi]

Janos gives a quick eye-brow raise to Jameson and smiles wildly. Either he is insane, or he is one of those rare men who puts all thoughts of death behind him when in combat. With a quick series of hand motions, Janos tells Jameson to shoot low after he does a quick head-bob in to draw the fire.

[Andrew Murphy]

Momemtarily phased by the obviously massive solid slug that the weapons are tossing out Jameson stare wide eyed at the massive bullet hole. Quickly snapping out of his daze Jameson tosses himself into a roll coming up with guns firing.

[Kirby1024]

Locky's head cocks towards the sound of hand-cannons.

"I hope they've got some sort of ear-protection if they're going to fight those guys - those things are loud..."

[Surya Lanadhra]

Radha puts on a burst of speed and dashes for where she heard the shots. She hoped they remembered that they needed someone alive to question.

[Winston Holmes]

A resigned sigh shakes Winston's shoulders: just like old times, eh? "Could be worse," he shrugs at Locky, "They could be getting hit by those things."

With that same experienced motion, Winston starts to swing up the coal car to make his own way forward. Adia is already up and ready again and he scans forward for any targets, paying particular attention to not hit any of his new allies that get into his zone of fire and looking for cover just in case someone starts trying to shoot him with one of those guns.

[Alex Craft]

The man inside the engine may not be a good shot, but he has an engineer's practicality - Janos' feint is pretty much ignored, and the next shot punches through the wall just about where Janos' upper body should be.

Janos, fortunately, was smart enough to keep moving after poking his head around the corner - throwing himself backward toward the edge of the landing (and catching hold of one of a stair rung to avoid tumbling off the side of the train).

The slug plants itself in the front of the coal car, this time lodging in place - a mass of squashed metal about the same weight as a heavy-gauge shotgun slug.

Jameson comes up in the doorway, laying down suppression fire while getting a look at the inside of the engine's cabin. The railroad personnel are flat on their stomachs, trying not to get shot, while three of the surveyor-types respond to the situation.

One of them levels his gun at Jameson. He might not have made the shot anyway (his aim was pretty sloppy), but the gun blows up in his hand as he pulls the trigger - it doesn't hurt him much, but he dives for floor, cursing explosively.

The second surveyor would seem to be the man who just shot at Janos, and his reflexes would not appear to be good enough to track Jameson as well - he begins to bring his gun to bear, but Jameson can easily get a shot off, first.

The third man isn't firing at all, instead kneeling on the floor at the far end of the cabin doing something with a steel box (about the size of a shoe box).

Jameson would seem to be in the clear at this very moment, so he picks his shots, one each from the Beginning and the End. The man on the floor doesn't seem to be armed, so he picks off the other two, trying not to kill anyone too badly.

The surveryor with the working gun tumbles back, stumbling over and falling atop the engineer. Jameson may have hurt him a little worse than particularly intended - he got shot in the shoulder (to disable the gun), and the angle of his arm suggests a shattered joint.

The man in the back falls as well, his left leg going out from under him due to the mercies of the End. He was crouched there, and he now crumples over the box he was messing with. He hadn't drawn his gun, so the oversized revolver is presumably still on his person.

Radha leaps to the top of the coal car and runs across the catwalk in record time - reaching the end just and Jameson and Janos cautiously peer into the cabin, Jameson's guns covering the scene to insure that nobody goes for their fallen weapons.

Radha drops to the platform just behind the two men, and Winston comes up behind, standing atop the catwalk and overlooking the platform.

[Andrew Murphy]

"Reach for the sky gentlemen and I won't have to shoot you again, reach for the guns, and I won't hesitate to discourage you." Jameson begins to raise from a crouch taking in his surroundings. Rhada and Winston arrive on the scene almost immediately and he turns to them.

"Doc, they may need some help but I think I avoided anything leathal, at least in the immediate. Professor, sorry my friend but it seems that you're getting slow in your old age, there's not much left here but clean up."

Jameson smiles broadly though he does not look back at his companions for more than a brief glance, his eyes and weapons instead focusing on the would be criminals.