York (badlocksmith) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2017-08-01 18:16:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, agent carolina, agent york |
Who: Agent York & Agent Carolina
When: May the Fourth
Where: Disneyland
What: Separatist droids vs Project Freelancer
Rating/Warnings: Fighting droids and such
Status: Complete!
When packing a bag to take to Disneyland, there were many things that could be considered essentials. Sunscreen, for one. Bottled water was another. Snacks, ponchos, and phone chargers would also make the list. Everything a person needed to be comfortable standing out in the hot sun for thirteen hours, and to be fair, all of those things were likely to be found in Carolina’s bag. Along with a few items that would definitely not be on the typical tourist’s packing list.
Dual plasma rifles, for example.
She had originally wanted to arrive in armor, but she had been informed in no uncertain terms that cosplaying was strictly prohibited for those above the age of 14. Debating the difference between military armor and cosplay would not have helped the cause, either. The only bright side to all of this was that Carolina had managed to somehow convince the worker that the futuristic weapons were parts of a complex high chair for Roger, York’s nephew.
Slipping the strap back over her shoulder, Carolina shot a look at her XO from behind her sunglasses. “I’m assuming you have a plan of attack already.” For the rides, of course. The plans if they were attacked by stormtroopers were all hers.
“Of course I do. What, you think I'm an amateur?” York was happy to lead the way through the ticketing gates and toward main street.
It was early in the morning, but there were already crowds. That was May the 4th for you. York's brother and his family were set to meet them around 11, after Roger’s morning nap. Before they arrived, York was planning on taking Carolina on all the scarier or faster rides.
“Indiana Jones first. Then Haunted Mansion and Splash Mountain.” he explained as they made their way down the west side of Main Street. It was already hot and getting hotter, even so early in the morning. That was Anaheim for you.
“You’re many things, York.” Carolina gave him a wry look out of the corner of her eye. Her focus was still on the building crowd in front of them, searching for anything that didn’t belong. Like stormtrooper helmets. Or the telltale glow of a lightsaber. Her eyes studied the park behind mirrored sunglasses. Nothing yet, but the gates had barely opened.
Her shoulders carried the relaxed tension of a martial artist ready to move at a moment’s notice. Based on the map in her hand, the Indiana Jones ride was on the opposite side of the park from Tomorrowland, where the invasion had begun last year. She was loathe to put too much of the park between them before they were certain that nothing was going to happen.
“What about…” Carolina trailed off, searching the various ride names for something that might convince York to head in that direction instead. Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage! Urgh. That sounded like a painfully boring trip in an enclosed space with no way to get away from the olifactory smorgousboard that inevitably ensues from packing too many humans into an enclosed space. York would probably love it, though, which meant it had likely made his list of ‘must ride’ rides. Hyperspace Mountain? Was that like the new and improved version or the Space Mountain people were always talking about? It was worth a shot.
“...Hyperspace Mountain? Work our way around that direction instead?” Carolina turned from the map to her companion, expecting her suggestion to be met with at least a bit of resistance. (She didn’t know the rides or what they entailed, so she would obviously not be ‘up’ or ‘in the know’ about which lines would be the longest.) She was still searching for a reason when she spotted the first droid making its way through the crowd.
York knew exactly what she was on about, and what she was getting at by trying to direct them to Tomorrowland. Just because there was a weird time last year didn’t mean there was going to be one again this year, did it? And he thought she was crazy for bringing all those weapons and everything. They’d just had a crazy, alien attack not too long ago. There couldn’t be another one right away, could there?
“I see what you’re on about,” York said, frowning. “But I think you’re being paranoid. Sure, we’ll head over there. Toward Star Tours and Buzz Lightyear. Roger can’t go on Star Tours, anyway.” He was too little for the 3-D ride. York was looking at some guy wearing a Goofy hat, and didn’t see what had caught Carolina’s attention.
“I’m not being paranoid.” Carolina scowled. She was being practical, dammit. This was the OC and the only way to not get knocked on your ass was to try and anticipate what you could. The droid in question stopped beside a funnel cake cart, head swivelling as if looking for a specific target or confirmation. Carolina narrowed her eyes. This was Disneyland. It was entirely possible that they had created specific animatronics for the holiday.
Moments later a vaguely familiar helmet (yet all too familiar scenario) appeared from the other side of the street. Sure, it could be someone in a costume, but with their luck? Not likely. “York.” One hand reached for her cell phone to make the inevitable call while the other nudged her XO’s arm. She only had two plasma rifles. One for each of them. Which meant she was going to have to improvise a second weapon if this was going to go down the same way. “I think we need to-”
She never finished her sentence because at that moment the droid had spotted the trooper and had begun opening fire. Everyone around them reflexively ducked at the sound of an exploding popcorn machine, giving Carolina a better view of what was going on. Her jaw set determinedly. That droid was most definitely not alone. There were a lot more droids marching in from Future Land or whatever it was called on the damned map. She reached for the first rifle to pass it over to York. Paranoid was she? Well, at least she knew what was coming next. “I’ll give you the distraction. Get the people out of the way!”
“Aww, man.” York groaned when he saw the droid and whatever else. Then the shot went off and the public ducked down. Carolina thrust a blaster into his hands and instantly York was in protection mode. This was something he could do. It was something he was trained to do. But was it something he wanted to do? God Damn It.
“You know,” he called out to Carolina, “This is not how I was picturing today!” But then he stood up straight and tall and started to motion where the panicked Disneyland Guests should be heading. Funnel them out and away from the action.
“Rain check!” Carolina called back as she relieved a plasma-shot droid of its blaster. Part of her wasn’t sure that it was possible for her to go to Disneyland without something going wrong. Usually, the other part of her would be relishing the thrill of the fight, but today it felt like it was cementing the fact that she would be pulled away to fight in a far off country all too soon. She was leaving all of them here to deal with these kinds of things without her and it frustrated the hell out of her.
Carolina grit her teeth, channeling that frustration and rage into disabling the next droid that tried to turn the corner and point a blaster at an unsuspecting couple. The droid’s mechanical cry was cut off in a shower of sparks as she used its own blaster to beat it out of commission. Tossing her bangs back out of her face, Carolina ignored the residual blue sparks as she took cover behind a nearby trash can to finish her call.
Plasma rifle in one hand, blaster in the other, Carolina dove headlong into the fray, searching for clones and XO alike. She could be angry later. Right now, she needed to get to the clones and coordinate a proper counter attack so that the good visitors of the Happiest Place on Earth could survive the invasion from a galaxy far, far away.
York was really, really good at crowd control. He’d created a funnel out into the main plaza, between Star Tours and the Buzz Lightyear ride. Every time he looked up at it he may have whined a little. Damn this stupid day. Why this day? Or all the days? Why couldn’t it be some other day?
Then Carolina’s hair appeared amid the crowd, and York headed in her direction. There was a massive crush at the entrance to Tomorrowland, and York wasn’t sure they could get through it even if they wanted out. No, the only way for them to go was in.
By the time York caught up to Carolina she had organized the various clones she had run across into teams of four and send them out to cover the evacuation route York had set up. It really was nice to be working with professionals again. Her lips were set in a grim and determined line, but her eyes told the real story. Fighting was in her blood and she was damned good at it. This was the perfect way for her to take out all the frustration that stupid letter had given her in the last 24 hours.
“They give you any trouble?” She called out to York as he came within earshot. Back before the accident, Carolina would have tossed her second plasma in his direction and taken up a second weapon from the droids. Now, she knew better. She also didn’t trust Delta to be able to compensate for the lack of spacial awareness. So she waited until she could hand over the rifle instead. If that meant she had to deal with an extra droid or two in the meantime, all the better.
York jogged his way through the rushing crowd to catch up with Carolina. It wasn’t easy. People were a little panicked, crunching together as they rushed out of Tomorrow Land. He accepted the rifle by hand, the former stowed carefully in his belt. “No trouble. There are a lot of people trying to go through a small space, though. It’s pretty bottlenecked.” But they had more important things to focus on.
“How’s it going over here? What are we up against?” York lifted the rifle.
Carolina wasn’t surprised to hear that there was a bottleneck. As long as they were still heading out of the park, the two of them and the clones could buy them time. “Copy.” It didn’t take her long to relieve another droid of its rifle, putting a two shots into its metal body for good measure. They had better aim than the stormtroopers from last year, but then again, the clones weren’t bad either.
“Few hundred making their way from Tomorrowland. Damn things seem to still be able to function without a head, so aim for the body.” Now that York was back, Carolina adjusted her stance to put him at her back. It was done without a thought to what she was doing; it was just how they worked.
York fell into routine pretty quickly. The rifle felt good in his hands, actually. Really good. The Dreams must have done good things for him, even if they gave him some weird, military, PTSD-related, whatevers. And Delta. Delta was a plus. Oh, on that subject, York turned on the AI so that he could benefit from the logic, the calculating. It was comforting for the AI’s voice to come back into his head. Disconcerting how comforting it really was.
Carolina’s stance adjusted, and York took his place behind and to the side. He lifted the gun. “Let’s get to it, then.”