Round and Round in a Magic Spell

[kitchen_maid]

By the time they reach the far side of the lake, there is no sign of Amy on the shore, save the boat she had crossed in, tied up to a dock that's the twin of the one they departed from.

There is, however, music coming from the castle in front of them, and it's easy enough to see through the windows of the brilliantly lit ballroom.

The path from the dock leads up to a grand, and apparently unguarded, doorway. Still, it's with a fair amount of caution that they make there way up the path and into the castle.

The door opens onto a small square room, lit by towering iron candelabras in the corners. Tapestries hang on either side of the door in the center of each wall. The door to the left is obviously the ballroom -- it stands ajar, and the host of clockwork guests and serving people move easily around, unconcerned about their observers (at least at the moment).

The door to the right conceals, improbably, a small storage cupboard, with brooms and mops and buckets. Parker, who has opened it, closes it again with a bit of a shrug.

That leaves the door straight ahead, which leads to a long, torch-lit hallway. "That way, I think," Scorpius says, nodding at it, after un-shrinking Sir Harold's book and consulting something in it.

"You go. We will keep Amy safe," X says, to Scorpius and Parker. There's a beat, and then she adds, "Yell if anything is trying to kill you."

"Oh, that's a given," Parker promises. And on that dreadfully encouraging note, they start down the corridor.

Bruce and X move into the ballroom. Around them, clockwork footmen and serving girls carry trays of glasses and plates, clockwork musicians play notably mechanical music, and clockwork noblemen congregate in corners and along the edges of the brilliantly candlelit room.

In the middle of the room, Amy is dancing with a clockwork figure, around and around and around.

Comments

[master_bruce]

Bruce stops at the edge of the dance floor, and watches Amy for a moment, through the...things. She seems OK physically, but she's obviously not awake.

The clockwork...he doesn't know what to call them, are not exactly the prettiest things he's ever seen. They're eerie, and he gets the definite impression they won't just stand there to be removed.

He glances over at X.

'If we go straight for her, we might be able to get her off the floor before they - do whatever they're going to do.'

Her safety is the thing. He doesn't want her getting caught by so much as one flying nut or bolt.

[cutting_edgex23]

"It is possible."

X's agreement is swift, though her gaze is continuously flickering around the chamber, looking for the most defensible position.

If they can convince Amy to stay in it, of course.

"And if it is not, I will watch your back."

He's better equipped to bodily move Amy, simply from a leverage perspective. Or so X's assessment suggests.

[master_bruce]

He nods, and looks back to Amy. It makes sense.

'You ready?'

It won't take her long to pick a spot, he knows.

'I'll go where she goes. Just - leave me some, OK?'

His grin can only be described as cheeky. He has no doubt she could clear the floor on her own, if she chose.

[cutting_edgex23]

X's nod is a small, quick thing, accompanied by a longer look at an alcove sheltered by two pillars.

It will be more defensible than most places, but there remains some room to fall back.

If it is necessary.

"You will have to hurry."

She makes no promises about any being left standing if he takes too long.

snikt

Then X is darting forward, neatly bisecting the first of the clockwork creatures -- this one looks like it might be a footman -- and using the severed halves to attempt to trip up several of its brethren.

For the next minute or two, the name of the game is buying Bruce time.

[master_bruce]

'Of course.'

He pulls a round object from his belt, and presses a tiny button. Two wings snap out of the side, making a small bat-shape. Without seeming to aim, he whips it, underhand, to the thing nearest Amy. Something severs, and its head tilts to one side.

He's already running, sticking a hand out to catch the returning boomerang, and diving into a forward roll to avoid the machine that's just turned towards him. As he comes to his feet, he executes a neat pirouette - without having planned to, but whatever - and keeps going towards Amy.

[cutting_edgex23]

X would look with approval on this except --

Well --

She's been in combat with Bruce before, both sparring and in the actual field, and the pirouette --

That is new.

X pauses for the barest fraction of a moment, which means her current maidservant opponent actually has an opportunity to take a swing.

But being that this is X, her response is to merely slip underneath an out-thrust mechanical arm, complete with dagger, and neatly sever said limb at the elbow.

But that slight frown-line between her brows has not gone away.

This is not helped, of course, by the fact that a second influx of mechanical servants is moving to cut between Amy and Bruce.

Maybe going through is less efficient than going over, provided X can get herself positioned effectively.

The pillars can only help.

[master_bruce]

He sees the way they're turning to come from the edges, ready to cut him off. He's about to sprint and slide, and hopefully get between them before Amy is separated from them, when one he's passing suddenly spins, much faster than they've previously moved, and there's a sword coming at his neck. He bends back and holds his breath as the silver whooshes an inch over his face, then plants a hand and kicks the thing's base out from underneath it.

By the time he's spun to his feet, there's a wall of clockwork between him and Amy. He taps his foot while he assesses them, and moonwalks backwards to create some space - and also leave enough room to launch another missile at the thing coming at him from his right.

[cutting_edgex23]

X, meanwhile, leaps up onto the shoulders of an inrushing stableboy, using one claw to pierce the motor inside its skull.

As it topples, she leaps off in the direction of one of the larger pillars, using it as a springboard to land in a crowd of clockwork halfway between Bruce and an adjacent pillar.

A repetition of this maneuver, with a few adjustments, should let her get close to the currently-waltzing Queen. Or, if she alters her strategy just enough, she could help Bruce cut a path through the ever-increasing crowd.

A quick glance at her partner-in-defense is what X chooses to rely on at this juncture.

Very few decisions are made in a vacuum. Especially when that vacuum involves moonwalking.

[master_bruce]

Bruce may be throwing the odd glance at his feet. He's pretty sure he never incorporated moonwalking into his fighting repertoire. There's no time to worry about it. He has to stay focused.

X is taking care of a group of them, and he can see that she's likely to repeat the move. If she does, and makes a gap, he'll go for it. Until then, crowd control is the name of the game. He spins...and stops with his head down, a knee bent in, while a hand stretches to the ceiling. For a second he holds it...and then remembers that actually, there's a job to be done.

So he hits a button on his belt, and two darts fly forward at forty-five degree angles. They bury themselves in two pillars further down the hall, and he joins the ends, effectively creating a waist-height tripwire for the clockwork creatures. It won't hold them for long, but hopefully just long enough for them to be disabled before concentrating on the ones around Amy.

One jerks its head 'round to look at him. He gives it some jazz hands, and then takes its legs out.

[cutting_edgex23]

X's frown deepens at the strangely-held pose from Bruce, but that is followed by the improvised tripwire, so she chooses to keep her concern centered on Amy.

For the moment.

Thus, in order to take advantage of said tripwire, X darts three steps forward, drops low, and sweeps the legs out from under another footman. He topples into a neighboring butler, who wobbles and starts to fall. And since that's the moment X timed her leap for, she takes advantage of it, catapulting feet-first into the butler's head, using it as a pivot-point to launch herself toward Bruce.

And once there she has no compunction in taking apart everything clockwork in her path.

All ruthless efficiency and little grace, that is X to a T.

[master_bruce]

He starts on another, but then X is there and yeah, she's got this.

Bruce spins once more.

'I'm going for Amy!'

He doesn't wait for a response. He shoots another wire upwards, and when it connects to the ceiling, he uses it to fly up over the heads of the clockwork princes gathering around the queen. Of course, it means that they then turn and focus their attention inwards, towards Amy instead of outwards.

Though perhaps they don't see him as a threat just at the moment. As soon as he lands near her, he finds himself sweeping her into his arms, and waltzing her round in circles.


...this is new.

[cutting_edgex23]

. . . Well, that is one way to get Amy from one location to another. And in a way that is very sneaky, using the bounds of the curse to get close to Amy without drawing any negative attention.

And at the same time it is miles away from what anything X has known Bruce to do before.

Which means that, as the attention of the clockwork servants inevitably turns toward one of the only people in the room not dancing, X chooses to ask --

"Bruce. You are okay?"

And then she triples her efforts to make sure the clockwork beings concentrate on her.

Largely by doing as much massive damage as quickly as possible. Defensive moves, as faintly present as they had been thus far, are most definitely a relic of the distant past now.

[master_bruce]

'Yes!'

He smiles at Amy, and executes a rather graceful turn, twirling so that the two of them are in the cape position, stepping together facing the same way.

'...no!'

He tries to remember exactly what he was doing here. The clockwork dancers are turning away, their attention focusing elsewhere. He shakes his head, turns back into classic hold, and thinks wait, clockwork...

He pulls another boomerang from his belt, and snaps it out, taking out the wires in the neck of a footman ten yards away. It stumbles and topples forward, and Bruce swings back to Amy, trying to move her toward the back of the floor.

'I think I'm OK.'

For now.

[cutting_edgex23]

X does not have time to settle her expression into one of dubiousness. (If she did, however, that would very much be the look she is sporting.)

She slides down beneath the halberds of a pair of clockwork soldiers, cutting through the weaponry with the claws on her feet.

Then she springs up, taking off the heads of another set of footmen.

"Do not be stupid," is the contribution X decides to make to Bruce's apparent quandary.

"And do not let you or Amy get killed."

X catapults into another clustered formation of maids and stableboys, dropping most of them within the first ten seconds.

"I will take care of crowd control."

She is learning the best way to function as a distraction in this scenario. Now to employ strategy.

(X is not bad at that, either.)

[master_bruce]

He's humming a tune under his breath. Three beats, steady, and on the sixth he steps out and throws a small black object at the far edge of the dance floor. At least twenty feet from X, and Amy, but there are still a concentration of creatures over there.

'Cover your ears.'

It'll be a small explosion, but an explosion all the same.

'And duck.'

He turns so that his back is to it, shielding Amy from any flying debris.

[cutting_edgex23]

X drops flat, hands pressed against the floor, careful to keep her legs free.

And as the footmen and maids swarm around her --

They really do provide a nice wall to take care of any debris that flies her way.

As for the noise, well. Her eardrums will recover. Fast.

And now there is a second cleared space to start driving the remaining horde into.

A clear space that does not contain Bruce and Amy.

It helps.

[master_bruce]

Bruce is all about being helpful. He'd like to be more helpful, but he just can't seem to make his feet behave.

He looks into the face of his dancing partner, and wonders if she can hear any of this. She gave no indication that the blast bothered her.

'Amy?'

Nothing.

He takes a breath and forces himself to let her go. She just carries on dancing, up near the edge of the dance floor. He pirouettes once more, and quicksteps over to help X.

'Move them a bit further away, and use another bomb?'

He'd normally just do it, but yeeeah, not the most reliable right now.

[cutting_edgex23]

"Yes," X says, without nodding.

She's too busy trying to herd a vast swathe of clockwork servants in the direction she wants them to go.

Which is the other side of the ballroom, far enough away from the pillars to keep them from impeding Bruce's field of view.

"I will tell you when."

Likely when she's got them as tightly clustered as possible, while still providing an avenue of retreat for herself.

It seems sensible.

[master_bruce]

He can see what she's trying to do. And OK, maybe there is a way to help.

The tripwires shoot out again, this time to one side of most of the things. A few tight spins, another tripwire to the other side of them...now they're stuck in an avenue. They can only go forward or back, unless they figure out how to use their weapons to cut the wires.

'How's that?'

[cutting_edgex23]

"Acceptable," X says, darting into what constitutes the 'front' of said avenue.

There's a 'thank you' implicit in that.

This makes things simpler, if not exactly easy.

But those that get felled trying to get around the tripwire are very easy to put down permanently.

And that buys X a moment or two to push the rest back.

After a few more minute of back-and-forth, they seem to be in what X considers 'the position'.

"Now," she says, sharp and clear over the clanging noise of clockwork.

"Please."

And then she's diving backward, trying to quickly move out of range.

[master_bruce]

Bruce...may have been lulled into a tap-dance routine while she worked. He can't even swear about it' it feels like the most natural thing in the world.

'What?

Oh, right. Yeah.'

One small black bomb is flicked out, closely followed by another. And then he rouses himself enough to run in Amy's direction, in case flying bits reach that far.

[cutting_edgex23]

At that second hint of uncertainty, X spares the time to flick a quick glance in Bruce's direction.

Calling her 'concerned' may be becoming an understatement.

Then she starts moving in his and Amy's direction, pausing only to drop low to keep any stray debris from impacting on her body.

"I think you are compromised."

There's no time to sound uncertain.

Amy is still entranced, after all.

[master_bruce]

He catches a few bits in the back, but it doesn't matter. It pings harmlessly off his body armour, and as soon as he's within reach of Amy, he sweeps her back into their waltz.


'Don't know what you mean.'

[cutting_edgex23]

"Yes," X says, spinning left and taking out another soldier.

"That is the problem."

At least she can keep his and Amy's pathway clear.

You know.

While they dance.

[master_bruce]

He's humming the tune under his breath, and for someone with no dance training whatsoever, he has remarkably good posture. Maybe it's the magic.

But even the magic can't stop him being distracted when the floor starts to shake, and the chandeliers rattle above them.

'...X?'