Starring:
Shemri (as Megumi), Itami, Yuuto, Tsurure
Date: December 23, 2013
Summary:
A malfunctioning machine is assigned as a mission objective to an equally defective team of Suna genin.
Poster's note: foul language filtered in obvious places.
"Runaway Reaper"
Fertile Plains - Eastern Desert [Land of Wind]
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The Fertile Plains are a part of the Eastern Desert that regularly receives deposits of silt, nutrient-rich soil, plant seeds and, most importantly, water. These 'gifts' originate from the Land of Rivers, to the east. The Land of Wind shares a border with the Land of Rivers, and the Fertile Plains are the southern-most crossing point between the two countries. Though farming occurs here, it is still not enough to support the entirety of the Land of Wind. Still, it alleviates some of the burden of hunger and thirst for the Wind Country's residents.
To the north lies Fort Zaru, a watcher of the borders and a safeguard against local bandits and foreign invaders both. To the west lies the Sandy Expanse. To the east is the border with the Land of Rivers.
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C-rank: An eccentric inventor has created a self-sustaining machine which harvests wheat, burning part of what it collects as fuel. There's just one problem: he neglected to include an off switch in the design. The machine quickly exhausted the small wheat field it was being tested in and is now cutting its way through a prairie towards a much larger agricultural center. A team is needed to disable the machine, preferably with as little damage as possible. Be wary, the machine was designed to defend itself and its cargo against wild animals.
Things just don't go as planned sometimes. You come up with this great idea for an invention that'll make everyone's life easier. You ponder and you plan and you build and you tinker. You unveil your creation for testing, give your baby a pat for good luck, cross your fingers, and start up the machine…AND WONDER OF WONDERS, IT WORKS! 8D But does anybody thank you or praise you or pat you on the back? Noooo, all they do is whine because it has a few side effects and you haven't gotten around to incorporating frilly details like an off switch yet. :P
Well, Megumi for one can sympathize with that sort of problem, so she's intently studying the blueprints of that runaway harvester as her team travels along the trail of cut grass to catch up with the thing. Unfortunately the workings of the contraption are largely beyond her novice gadgeteering skills, so she only has a few vague ideas on how to shut it down without significant damage. c.c "Immobilizing it would be a bad idea," she remarks, peering at the engine diagram. "It would probably explode from the strain if it couldn't turn its wheels. Anybody have any other ideas to make it easier to work on?"
Itami knew some things, but not all things. This is one of those all things that she didn't know about. Engines and cogs and such was just outside of her league, but if it was anything like trying to put a wagon together then yeah, she could work with that, but… "I don't have any ideas right off hand…" She offered. "But I'm certain something can be figured out among you all." She had no idea what that was, but some collective thought should help, she figured. "Is there a way to stop it without harming the wheels?"
Adorned in his rather creepy armor, Yuuto walks with the rest of the team as he ponders. "Well, this thing uses what it harvests for fuel, right?" he asks as he ponders. "If we swing blades in a wide enough angle to drop the wheat on the ground and out of its pickup range, it should just burn itself out, right? We just have to chop it down faster than the machine can move and try not to get shredded alive."
"Blow it up and let the village pay for it."
That was Tsurure's favorite option. He was trekking cross country to catch some homicidal farmbot to prevent it from cutting up all of the Land of Wind's and who knows who else's produce. And all because some guy made it self sustainable /and/ without an off switch. "Doesn't put an off switch on it but wants us to stop it. But don't stop it because that might break it. Damage is bad. I say he'd be lucky just to get refunded to make a new one." He looks over to Yuuto, "And I don't want to run in front of something trying to cut me to pieces for hours. Days. However long it takes for that thing to shut down." The Sasaki scowled. Nothing was ever easy.
"Yeah, that was a good thought, but no, it'll take way too long for it to run out of fuel," Megumi agrees. "It's already 'eaten' a small wheat field and all the grass from here to wherever we catch up with it." Megumi gives Tsurure a little scowl. "You don't have to jump straight to blowing it up, though. Don't you have any imagination? Or is violence all you think about?" >P Yeah, those two are off to a sour start, though probably neither of them wants to tell the grownups why. X) "Well, if that's all you have to offer, you can leave the thinking to others," Megumi sniffs, looking at the diagram again. "Anyway, we might be able to get away with doing something to the wheels, if it doesn't cause the mechanisms to stick. As long as the axle can turn freely, the engine will run without strain."
Pretty soon the contraption comes into view, chugging steadily across the prairie, cutting down the tall grass with a pair of scythes and feeding it into its maw. Also within sight are the farmlands which the team is supposed to keep the machine out of. o.o; "Uh-oh, we don't have much time! We need to stop it or turn it away somehow!"
"That's a good way to stay a Genin for a long time," Yuuto comments with a glance toward Tsurure. "I almost wonder if our Kage didn't assign you to this mission for you to learn how to improvise without causing too much damage." Looking back to Megumi, he ponders a bit while they walk toward it. Beneath his mask, he closes his eyes for a moment, opening them again as they turn red with a pair of tomoe spinning out of them. "Anything that burns fuel has to have a supply line of some sort, right? Where is the one for this thing?"
"Footing bills is not my idea of a mission. This is something you get paid to do and whatever would come out of the village would not go to you," Itami remarked to Tsurure with a sneer. "Anyway, I suppose you all may be able to generate ideas as you go along. Might be easier. Perhaps you all should look into the machine and see what makes it tick. Perhaps that way, you may have a better idea of what may be able to stop it. I understand we have a schematic, but perhaps the working machine may provide more insight," she offered. Attention was thrown towards the machine as it started its way towards the farmlands again. "Better get to working on that thing now," she pointed out.
Tsurure's scowl was directed to the girl. "I'm not sure how you got to feel superior, mouse, but big airs don't suit small creatures." He felt almost insulted to spend the time quoting his Dad to Megumi. Probably just a waste of a great man's wisdom. "If you've got such a good plan, go ahead and do it. It's right there." He points to the machine Megumi had spotted. "Go ahead and remove the wheels without stopping it, damaging it, dying, and putting the rest of us in danger."
And then Yuuto's words only cause his teeth to clench and glare at the man. "From what you've offered, I don't think you'll be up for promotion any time soon either," he snapped. "Run in front of it, get tired, and die sounds like a pretty springy plan. And the power source is obviously /internal./ It runs off of the grass it pulls in. It's like you didn't even listen to the mission brief." He started running forward, going towards the thing. "If you don't want to break it, then fine," he said with an annoyed glance back to Itami. "Let's just make a hole it can't get out of and push it in. The guy can collect it whenever it runs out of fuel."
Megumi doesn't have the time or wits to come up with a decent comeback for Tsurure, so she just sticks her tongue out at him. >P Unfortunately, he's right about the power source. "The, um, fuel supply is processed and distributed in an entirely, um, interior fashion," she says, trying to answer Yuuto's question without sounding like she's echoing Tsurure. "And no, if it's in a hole it can't get out of it'll have nowhere for its wheels to carry it and it'll jam up and explode!" 3P Megumi jogs up to within a short distance of the machine. "We gotta figure something out soon though, so I'm gonna take a closer look!" Megumi aims her gauntlet at a jutting pipe and fires her grappling hook at it. It latches on and jerks her onto the contraption's metal carapace. Immediately as her feet thud onto the vehicle, though, a slot opens up and out slips a heavy metal rod! Megumi shrieks as the rod flips upright on a joint and then swings around to try and knock her off.
"What about elemental manipulations? What do you all specialize in that may be of some usefulness in this particular mission?" Itami inquired, hoping to see how this issue could be resolved. As Megumi went to go take a closer look at the machine, she ended up being…attacked by it? This thing is self aware? She began to run over to see more about this machine, but more importantly to see to Megumi being alright. "You all should head over here and see about this thing. While we're at it, see how your elements can help in this situation. If need be, possibly as a final resort, we could possibly scorch this field, but that's the last and least wanted of our options," she called to the group.
"Huh," Yuuto says, pondering a bit more as he looks the contraption over. "This country really isn't big enough to fit all the crazy it contains." With that, he would reach to his back, retrieving a scroll and quickly penning out two copies of himself that fly off the page to dart over to where Megumi is doing battle with the odd machine. "I'll test it out on ink first since it's a bit more expendable than a body part," he says as his clones encompass the machine, trying to figure out the best way to disable it.
"Hey. Wait!" called Tsurure, reaching for Megumi as she starts flying past him towards the farmbot. "It's made to fight off animals! Don't get that — ugh," he broke off, just running faster. This is what he was talking about when he said her plan involved getting everyone else in danger. It'd be from trying to save her. Which he did.
"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that," he growled to himself after actually hearing Itami talk about burning fields. Which would cost much more than losing this mission, in more ways than just monetarily. But he saved his breath for running forward, trying to… Breathing pretty hard, he leapt forward, trying to tackle Megumi off of the harvester before the metal rod could hit either of them and before those surprise ink clones did whatever those things could do to them.
Megumi shuts her eyes tightly and feels herself struck by the hard — no wait, it's something a little softer than metal, and bigger than the rod. c.c She opens her eyes to find she's on the ground with Tsurure clinging to her. "…Hey, leggoame! Who asked you to butt in anyway?!" >.<; Stupid boys, always thinking a kunoichi needs rescuing. Didn't hurt much less getting hit by that bag of bones anyway. Ow. Meanwhile, Yuuto's ink clones are quickly dispatched as soon as they come within range, one by a circular saw, the other by an accordion-arm with a wooden weight on the end shaped almost like a boxing glove. o.o The machine isn't really self-aware, I mean it couldn't be, but…it does seem like its maker was crazy-prepared for contingencies, especially for somebody who didn't think to include an off-switch. c.c It's like something out of one of those Waanaa-Burazasu anime with the talking rabbit who says, "Eh, what's up, Sensei?"
Megumi gets up and dusts herself off. "I don't know any elements, Watanabe-sensei. I've just learned some taijutsu and basic ninjutsu so far. I guess if anybody here can make water, we could try flooding the engine, but it'd be risky, and even if it doesn't blow up it'd probably be really hard to repair later." Not that they have much more leeway to try and save the machine. c.c The wheat fields are only a minute or so away at the harvester's current rate.
"Got it," Yuuto says, grinning slightly underneath his mask. "Time to use some of the skills you taught me, Coucilwoman." With that, he would run through a quick series of hand seals before planting his hand on the ground. In front of the harvester, a series of stone columns would rise up from the ground, making a road for it to ride up on. As it gets to a point about five feet off the ground, it would become parallel with the ground, except it would narrow down so that the wheels would fall off the ramp on each side, as well as a single pole that rises higher than the rest in the center, enough to halt momentum without being wide enough to stop the wheels from turning. If successful, Yuuto's plan would make the machine continue to work as it should while remaining stationary for hours on end until it finally runs out of fuel.
"Don't need elements. I just suggested it as a medium since I am more familiar with them," Itami remarked. When Yuuto stated he was to use the skills she taught him, she smirked, though she does know that the skills she utilized could be equally destructive as scorching a field. She wasn't sure what was going to come of this, really. Thankfully, the field wasn't torn up. It could take some stone columns, she thought. "Lift it off the ground," she remarked. "I see," she hummed. "Considering how this thing behaves, though. Is it likely that it'll try to get itself down?" It attacked Megumi and the clones. "Is it possible to dismantle the…err, attacking mechanisms it seems to have? The rod and saw, at least?" She questioned.
"Stupidity talks," spat Tsurure out at when Megumi proved to be ungrateful. "And yours was saying that you needed help." He looked away from her as she got herself up, doing the same himself and turning his eyes to the machine. "Alright." He started back after it, saying, "Let's try and…." He broke off once stone columns sprouted from the ground in front of it, and he could only hope that it worked.
Ohhhhhh…yeah, that's a good idea. o.o Didn't even have to break the wheels off or anything, just take them out of contact with the ground. :D The machine, being highly reactionary, doesn't 'think' about the fact that it isn't getting any closer to the next patch of consumable vegetation; it just spins its wheels and waits for the grass to come closer, not smart enough to realize it never will. "Perfect! Yuuto-san, can you put a groove in the track? I wanna get underneath it!" Megumi reaches into her ninja pouch and pulls out…A SCREWDRIVER! What kind of stuff do you expect a gadgeteer to carry around? ;) Megumi goes up the ramp and prepares to crawl under the harvester.
"Whatever the girl can do that will be safe and keep it from rocking itself off the track," Yuuto says with a nod to Itami. At Me game's request, he would give a nod, going through a hand seal to make the groove big enough for the girl to fit in to do her work without throwing the machine off balance. "Be careful."
The team dynamic here appears to be strangely functional and dysfunctional at the same time. She thinks some time needs to be invested in training that will aid in this sort of thing. None of them appear to fit together and that can make or break a team depending on how they get along. "I think I'll have to meet with the one that designed this thing. It's dangerous and I may need to cite him on this," she shook her head. While looking at Megumi handle this machine, she began to prepare herself should anything happen that may place her in danger."
Tsurure shrugged his shoulders a little, stretching them out as he watched Megumi run towards that grindy contraption. He nodded, looking to Yuuto. "Not too bad earthwork," he told the artist before just watching the girl make her way to the harvester. Nothing better to do, really. And he wanted to see just how she'd end up breaking it and ruining their mission.
Megumi shifts underneath the running vehicle, pokes her screwdriver up, AND — ! Starts unscrewing stuff. :P Yup, nothing terribly dramatic at this point. Megumi manages to safely remove a few plates, then finds the collector/fuel tank and opens it. Grain and grass pours out of the side of the harvester, piling up beside the stone track Yuuto made. Soon the tank is empty, and after a few minutes, the harvester finally sputters to a stop. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!
