((Just something explaining the events - albeit probably very badly - of Crazy Dragon's first encounter with Second Shot since her death, and to maybe get a little plottage going. Or maybe not. :\))
Richie Stacker, the Crazy Dragon, was an idiot. Following up on the mysterious letter he received informing him of a drug deal taking place in a warehouse somewhere in Constellation Row, Galaxy City, the former street-fighter turned hero didn't even have the sense to bring help in case things got nasty. He had allies, but he just didn't want any of them with him, not even teen genius Molly Longstaff, who could have assembled a small squad from her own security forces to come down on the place like a ton of bricks. But Richie preferred not to put anyone in any unnecessary danger. The idiot.
Remembering the last time he checked the place out with his girlfriend, he expected the place to be locked up like a vault. No unlocked doors, windows or shutters. Not even a crack a pane of glass. Richie was still in his casuals as he approached the front entrance of the warehouse, his mix of blue jeans, black jacket and that white T-shirt of his with the red bomb emblem adorning the front of it making him appear about as heroic as half of the passing civilians. He then pushed his glasses back up before carefully trying the first door. No luck. Already a frustrated Richie was not looking forward to trying the other doors, each one proving to be locked like the last. No way he was getting in that way. Sighing quietly, he then teleported up to the roof, hoping for a way in there. Again.
Richie was in luck. Unlike the last time he checked, one of the skylights was smashed in. Chalk it up to some superjumper misjudging his landing, he thought to himself. Not that that even mattered. It was a quiet way in regardless. Teleporting down to the walkway below, Richie then became engulfed in a dark cloud in an effort to conceal himself while he looked around. The warehouse was like any other. Badly organised, turning the whole place into a maze of crates, containers and boxes.
It took a while for Richie to cover most of the place before he finally heard some sign of life.
"Alright, here's the stuff." The woman's voice sounded familiar, but Richie couldn't quite place his finger on it. It was a local accent, but you could tell that she really didn't want to be here. "Now make with the money already."
Richie followed the voices to their source, keeping to the shadows as they grew louder with each step.
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Regina Stacker, aka Sting Star, was getting frustrated. The magically created clone of the Crazy Dragon just wasn't feeling very crazy and she staggered to the nearest wall, leaning against it to rest for what seemed like the 500th time since she left Kings Row.
"Ack! Stupid Clockwork... stupid... flamin' Clockwork..." Reggie rubbed the back of her neck in an effort to alleiviate some of the aching, but it wasn't having much effect. "Why the hell do I even bother with this?"
Reggie then looked around for a moment, before letting out a quiet sigh as she pulled herself back to her feet. Glaring at another group of of the annoying robots, she then held her white-bladed katana, Ivory Star, above her head, and charged at them with complete disregard for her own safety.
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Molly Longstaff was a busy girl. When she wasn't running Longstaff WarTech Rhode Island, she was out fighting crime, and when she wasn't fighting crime, she was busy with one of her inventions. This was the case right now, as she kept her attention focussed on her rifle, dismantling the weapon piece by piece, giving each part a quick blast of compressed air to safely clean them. She'd been working on improving the cooling system within the rifle for some time, something she wasn't having too much luck with in recent weeks, but she was determined.
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Richie, still shrouded in a dark cloud, stared in shock at the sight in front of himself. As the blue-haired woman in front of him continued to bicker with her Skull 'customers', completely oblivious to the Durham lad's presence, several thoughts passed through his head. Is that really her? How? She didn't fake her death, did she? Oh come ON, Richie, that's the dumbest thing you've ever asked yourself!
Richie then screwed up by facepalming. Hard. It was the simple "Ow!" that Richie failed to contain that alerted both the woman and the Skulls to his presence. Both the woman and the Skulls turned to face Richie's direction, forcing him to remain very still, hoping that his magical shroud and the shadows of the warehouse kept himself out of sight.
"Meh. Must have been hearin' things." Announced one of the Skulls. The woman merely rolled her eyes.
"We all heard it, you moron." She said, drawing one of her pistols and pointing it straight at Richie. She couldn't seen anyone there, but she was certain that someone -was- there, and unfortunately for him... she was right. One shot was all it took for Richie to let out a short sharp yelp as he dodged her bullet, revealing both his presence and his position. "Quit it!"
"I'll stop when you show yourself long enough to let me stick a cap in your face!" She barked, drawing her other pistol and pointing it in Richie's general area. If and when she opened fire, Richie would be screwed for sure. "Show yourself, punk. I could kill you now, buuuuut I'd rather see who I'm putting out of their misery." Richie dropped his spell and revealed himself, hands held in the air, to either side of his head. The sight of Richie took her by surprise, although nowhere near as badly as Richie upon seeing her. "...Richie?"
"...Sunita?" Richie returned the woman's question with one of his own. "That really... you?" The woman remained silent. "Because if it is... well... how? I mean... I thought you were dead!".
"That's because I -was-, idiot!" the woman snarled, resisting the urge to shoot him so that she could finish what she had to say. "And... it's all YOUR FAULT! My death... the time I've spentin hell over in the Isles... everything that's happened to me in the past five months... YOUR FAULT! YOUR DAMNED FAULT!"
"Woah woah woah woah WOAH" Richie yelled. "First off, I got the message the first time! Secondly, I didn't know! I'm sorry, okay, but I didn't know Divider was gonna go after you! In fact, it wasn't eve-" Richie was abruptly interrupted by a single warning shot.
"Shut the hell up!" Sunita screamed, starting to sound a little hysterical. "I don't want to hear it! I've waited five months to make you pay for what you did! FIVE MONTHS, DAMMIT! And now, I've got you right where I want you... staring down the barrel of my guns." Richie gulped. Not that he could do much else at this point.
"Uh, yeah..." One of the Skulls piped up "I'm sure this little reunion you've got going is all nice and everything, but... can we get this deal over wi-"
"SHUT UP!" Sunita snapped turned sharply at the two Skulls and promptly shot them both in the head. Richie took his only chance of getting away alive, yelping "Bye!" as he charged as far away from the psychotic gunner as possible. Darting around a corner to avoid the shots fired from Sunita's pistols as soon as she realised.
Richie had to keep moving. He didn't have time to change into his costume, even if it was a change of outfit assisted my his magic skills. Besides, it wasn't like it mattered in this case. As Richie attempted to haul himself up the nearest container, Sunita yelled one word that sent a shiver down the unfortunate hero's spine.
"BOYS!"
Richie seemed to be screwed. That one simple command unleashed a four-man army of thugs into the warehouse, each one stepping out of a different container. Two of them carried a revolver in each hand, another opted for sub-machine guns, while the fourth one was clearly someting of a pyromaniac, armed with several molotov cocktails strapped to his belt. As he scrambled onto the container he heard one more order: "Get him. Keep him alive, though, I want to kill him myself!" The thugs were quick to find Richie, opening fire on sight on the man, who reacted in a panic by teleporting away. Fortunately for him, the spell developed a strange side effect that forced him to become invisible to the naked eye for a couple of minutes. Richie put that to good use by searching for somewhere to hide. Opting for the nearest open container, Richie rushed in and started to get his bearings on the situation. For crying out loud, Richie, he thought to himself. You've dealt with worse, what the hell is wrong with you?
The thugs themselves frantically searched the warehouse, and Sunita herself joined them in the search. "Dammit!" she blurted out in frustration at the possibility she may have missed an opportunity for 'revenge', "Don't tell me he got away..." One of the pistol-wielding thugs was eventually alerted to a strange sound coming from one of the open containers and clambered up to reach it. Peering inside was a mistake.
"GET STUFFED!" Richie quite literally unleashed the fury on the unfortunate punk, who found himself on the recieving end of a flurry of cuts and slices from the Talsorian Blades the hero had earned from Vanguard before being sent flying back across the stack of containers screaming in agony, alerting the rest of the gang. Sunita gestured to the arsonist, then to the container. The arsonist hopped up to the container, pulling a lighter from his pocket and using it to ignite the cloth in one of his bottles. Richie was forced to teleport out of there when the bottle smashed inside the container, turning it into an oversized metal fireplace. Richie, once more invisible to the naked eye then dealt a swift punch to the thug, his blades curiously absent. As the thug staggered backward, falling off onto the floor in the process, Richie found himself under fire again, this time from the remaining two thugs as well as Sunita herself. The moron only managed to forget about his spells which kept him protected by a painfully obvious cloud of dark fog.
"Dammit, Sunita!!" Richie screamed as he made a break for it, leaping down off the stack of containers back onto the floor, "It wasn't my fault! What's it gonna take to get that into your damn skull!?" The arsonist, meanwhile, caught him making his escape as he picked himself up from the floor pinching his nose in pain.
"Don't let him get away!" screamed Sunita as they all opened fire on the hapless hero, the recently slashed up thug included. His aim, however, was somewhat off. Not that you could blame someone who just survived what felt like a thousand cuts. Most of the bullets missed Richie, slamming into the wall or piercing a few of the barrels lined up against the whole wall. Barrels with carried worn "Flammable" warnings on them as they leaked their contents onto the floor. The bullets that hadn't missed merely felt like minor scratches to Richie, who was still shrouded in his protective cloud as he tried to get his distance from the bloodthirsty gang. Turning round the corner in a hurry to get away, Richie found his path blocked by the arsonist, who poured as much of his cocktail into his mouth. Richie raised a brow as the arsonist then lit another match and held it to his mouth.
"Uh-oh." Richie blurted as the thug then spat the fluid out at him, turning himself into the equivalent of a human flamethrower. "That's not good at all!" he screamed as he quickly teleported behind the arsonist, pulling his blades seemingly out of nowhere and dealing a swift downward strike to him. The thug staggered forward for a while before turning to Richie again. At the same time, the rest of them caught up to Richie, just in time for the arsonist to realise his mistake in hurling fire in the direction of the pool of flammable liquid pouring from the barrels.
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Reggie leaned against the wall outside of the warehouse, completely oblivious to the chaos taking place inside. Right now all she wanted to do was get to the station and head home, because she was getting a bit sick of fighting the Clockwork in Galaxy. As she took one more look around herself, she almost threw her katana across the street as she jumped at the sudden sound of a large explosion behind her.
"What the hell was that!?" Reggie yelled to nobody in particular. Turning to see where the explosion came from, she then rushed to the warehouse entrance, shoulder-charging the door down.
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Molly was had just finished reassambling her rifle when all of a sudden, her police radio lit up like a Christmas tree, a holographic PPD logo hovering above it.
All units, an explosion has just been reported in a warehouse in Constellation Row, Galaxy City... before the rest of the alert could play out, Molly immediately shut off the radio and stood up from her chair, picking up her rifle before heading for the nearest window.
Constellation's not far, Molly thought to herself as her blue jersey and skirt switched to her trademark pink nanotech suit within a few seconds. And I need something to test these mods out, so...
Molly then climbed out of the window, diving into a freefall toward the streets of Freedom Court before the rockets in her boots and the gravity nullifiers in her belt kicked in, preventing her from pancaking onto the street and sending her hurtling toward Constellation Row.
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Richie found himself staring at the floor when he finally came to, still dazed from the explosion which had knocked everyone down, Sunita included. As he looked around, he realised his glasses were gone, probably knocked off his face by the explosion or the fall. Richie wasn't certain, but a quick spell sorted his sight issues for the time being.
While Richie looked around at each of the injured thugs and the flames brought about by the blast, Sunita had regained conciousness a little earlier and already had a gun pointed straight at Richie's head before he could even realise. "I've got you now, Stacker." Richie sharply turned to face Sunita, noticing the pistol aimed at him, it's laser sight keeping a red dot on his forehead. "Goodbye, Richie Stacker!". As she began to squeeze the trigger, a sudden scream - like a battlecry of sorts - could be heard behind her.
Reggie brought her katana down with more force than you would think was necessary, striking Sunita as she picked the wrong moment to turn around. The blade sliced through her right arm like melted butter. Reggie then shoulder-charged into a shocked Sunita, sending her to the ground as she took in the horrific sight of her severed arm.
"My... my ARM!" she screamed. "You cut my ARM OFF, DAMMIT! WHAT THE HELL?" Reggie kept her blade pointed directly at Sunita as she tried hold the stump in a pitiful effort to stop the bleeding. Richie slowly picked himself up while Sunita was kept down.
"Aw aye," Richie piped up, "It's okay to try and kill me but when someone chops your flamin' arm off, that's not fair, huh?" Richie then pinched the bridge of his nose. "You know what, Sunita... I don't give a damn anymore. I'm not even gonna waste my time even TRYING to flamin' well convince you to stop tryin' to kill me!" Sunita merely winced. "Instead, I'm just gonna send you to the Zig and forget you ever existed, alright?"
"The hell you are!" She screamed as grabbed the nearest pistol on the floor with her remaining arm, firing a few blind shots at Richie before swinging round to fire at Reggie as she attempted to being her sword down on her again. Reggie, despite being an almost direct clone of Richie, had forgotten almost all of his spells when she was separated from Richie and found herself with a bullet wound in her shoulder as well as her hip. As Reggie fell, Sunita pointed the pistol at Richie again, who seriously wasn't in a good mood anymore. Richie didn't think to cast any of his own spells at the time, leaving him somewhat... screwed. "No way in HELL I'm going there! Never! Got it?"
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That's not good, Molly thought to herself as she hovered over the warehouse looking at the smoke spewing out from its shattered windows. As she pondered her next course of action, the sudden sound of gunshots within the warehouse instantly informed her that she needed to act fast. Which she promptly did by darting straight for the nearest skylight. Entering firing range, Molly raised her rifle which let out a short whine before launching a grenade.
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Aw man, I'm screwed aren't I? Richie thought to himself as he stared down the barrel of Sunita's. Reggie was face down, bordering on passing out from her wounds.
"This time," Sunita piped up, so focussed on wanting to kill Richie that she had already begun to ignore her severed arm. "Time to die, Richie." Once more, she lost out on her chance when another explosion shattered the skylight above them, sending shards of broken glass raining down on them both. Richie took his chance to teleport to Reggie, leaving Sunita to cower under the glass shower, screaming in agony as some of the shards kindly reminded her of her missing arm. During all this, Molly darted through the newly-made entrance, flipping upright as she shut off her boots, keeping her rifle aimed at Sunita as she landed.
"You." Molly barked while Richie checked on Reggie. "Up. Now." When Molly meant business, she really meant business. Sunita, still in agony from the shower of glass, complied, dropping her gun and picking up her severed arm, wincing in disgust at the thought of having to pick a part of her own body from the floor.
"Reggie doesn't look too good, Molly!" Richie announced to the pink-clad gunner. "Looks like her mediporter's busted, too."
"Give her yours, then." Molly suggested. Richie then raised his hand, holding his own mediporter and answered. "Uh, that's busted too." Molly groaned as she unclipped her own mediporter and tossed it to Richie, making the mistake of taking her eyes off Sunita.
"So long, suckers!" Sunita suddenly made an impressive jump from the ground straight out of the hole where the skylight used to be, leaving her men behind like discarded trash. Molly looked back, realising her mistake.
"Dammit!" She blurted out in frustration, lowering her rifle before turning to Richie and Reggie. "Okay, you worry about Reggie, I'll deal with these goons, okay?" Richie nodded as she turned and made her way to the injured thugs. As Richie set away the mediport and watched Reggie disappear Molly added, "What the hell happened here, anyway?"
"It's a long story, okay?" Richie answered as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "I'll explain later..."
"Sure." she sighed as she zigtagged the arsonist first. "Look, while you're still here could you help me out here?"
"Aye, alright." Richie groaned as he approached the injured thugs left behind, facepalming hard when Molly piped up "Ooh... doubt they'll take too kindly to receiving a dead one, huh?"
