Khellendrosiic

OOC: *pokes Essex* You control the thing now. I gave you enough info to have it put up a good fight. And let's call it a Zer- uhh.... Repling.

And Shadow. The situation is as this.

Nemesis in upper floor warehouse.
Arachnos is middle of the base. Circle of Thorns are near them.
Wailers, Rikti, and Malta are next to an elevator shaft fighting each other.
Tsoo are a little below base middle just outside of a security control room.
And everyone else I forget.

EDIT: Apparently the CoT are near to the Tsoo. Oh well.

There was a long corridor confronting Tarxus. Several doors lined each side and in the distance could be seen a four way intersection. The doors on the left opened up into an armory while the right most doors opened into a barracks. The armory doors were closed, locked, and could stand up to a rampaging Statesman for about a minute. Inside were charging racks, about half of them full of human-sized Invader class robots, and several rows of lockers containing various armaments from pistols to rocket launchers.

The barracks was a typical military barracks. Two long lines of bunks along either wall with bathrooms in the back. The room was in disarray, with clothes and personnel effects scattered all over the floor.

*******************************************

The first thing the Tsoo saw as they exited the mainframe room was a destroyed Longbow Guardian. Nothing much seemed amiss at the scene, despite the fact that the destruction seemed to be caused by claws, unless one payed attention to the sounds that were coming from the mechanoid corpse. The noise sounded almost like that of an animal worrying at a kill.

If the Tsoo came closer to the fallen mecha or made any loud noise, the beast that had assisted in the destruction of the Guardian would be alerted and attempt to kill all of them. The creature was shaped much like a dog, except instead of skin and fur it had scales and a boney ridge running down its back. It's arms looked normal until they reached the elbow, at which point they split into two different forearms. All four hands were tipped with three very long claws that could cut through steel. It's head was elongated and contained its jaw was full of needle sharp teeth.

OOC: Hope you like my little friend.

[ QUOTE ]
((Diagram of how I saw this:

Upper floors - Nemesis, Arachnos, etc...
[]
[]elevator of normal security levels
[]
[]where the Wailers WERE before they dropped down
[]where the fight is - also where door to highly secured elevator is
///[] where the Tsoo are
///[]
///[] OTHER elevator to more secretive levels
///[]
keeps going down

If I'm wrong, feel free to correct me))

[/ QUOTE ]

Sounds good. Though there are other high security elevators. One of which the Arachnos will soon reach.

OOC: Ok, first of all I need to ask a question or two.

Ok, good to hear that everyone is ok with the result. I guess you can continue then.

Everybody else is doing fine. I would have preferred if you all had waited for me, but once we fix the fight everything should be handleable.

Also, any questions about where you are, ask now so we can all get back on track at once.

BIC: "En-enemies detect-ected," groaned a mechanical voice from behind a bunch of crates. "Def-efend-end Port-tal Techni-nician Robertson-ertson."

With a screeching of metal against concrete, a damaged Longbow Guardian dragged itself toward the Nemesis. It's particle cannon was dangling down its back, hanging on by just a couple of cables. One leg was twisted and mauled like some sadistic child's plaything. The screeching sound was the leg being dragged across the floor. Deep claw marks were scored across its chest armor and a sticky black fluid dripped off its left arm. Since that arm had a big dent where the fluid was, it could be assumed that the Guardian had crushed one of the mysterious attackers.

A whirring noise accompanied the raising of its right arm and the subsequent firing of the photon cannon contained within.

**********************************************

Ahead of the Crey detatchment was a huge cargo door. The door was open and a host of debris lay scattered across the concrete on the other side of it. Some of the debris could be recognized as pieces of weaponry and, combined with the gaping hole in the ceiling, it was very likely that the thing that had opened the first door had also destroyed a defensive turret here. But suddenly a pair of slots opened up in the ceiling on either side of the door and six small hover drones floated down. They looked amazingly like PPD Police Drones but their armament was much more visible.

"State your identity and the proper passcode or prepared to be fired upon!" blared one drone.

******************************************

As the Yellow Ink Crane typed away at the Logbow mainframe, he was amazed and amused to discover little to no security protocols in place. It seems that someone named 'Agent Rachel Strum' was still logged in. He didn't have access to some of the more juicier files (such as H-02 Development and Commander's Logs) but he could access things such as security camera footage, defense system specs, and lockdown controls.

************************************************

"Is he dead?" someone said.

"I hope he is. The [censored]'s missing his chest," came the reply.

"What the hell could have done this?" asked Farfield as he looked down at what remained of an unlucky Longbow agent.

"I hesitate to guess without more information," said Mu'Jurkan. "But some feral beast or particularly sadistic demon is most likely."

"But I thought these suits were proof against animal claws," said O'Hannien as she quickly looked at the corpse and then looked away again, scanning the fourway crossroad that the Arachnos soldiers were sitting in.

"Have you ever seen some of the monstrosities that the Devouring Earth has made?" asked Widow as she leaned again the wall. "And I bet an Arachnoid could claw through and do this sort of thing. Hell, there's no shortage of crap in this world that could do this."

"Ok troops, snap out of it!" order Farfield as he stood up. He longed for an actual rifle to hold onto but the reassuring weight of his armor suit would have to suffice. "There's something running around this base so we need to keep an eye out and maintain constant readiness."

"Let's hope blasters can take out whatever it is," Hardy muttered as he shifted from foot to foot.

"They will," Farfield said confidently. "Now let's get a move on. We have at least two more elevators to go and those droids we scrapped back there prove that the defensive systems aren't completely gone."

OOC: Did I miss anyone?

OOC: NO LONGBOW!!!!!!

I swear, my power goes off for two days and everything goes to hell. This is supposed to be a more story driven thread. Not another blind fight thing. Sorry Darkstorm, but the Longbow will only show up when I want them too. You can go pick another group, maybe CoT.

Burning, I told you to get rid of the Wailer Lord. No group should have an elite boss. Also, this is really, really not the time for an entire faction (or two) to get killed. I'd like to just rewrite the Wailer vs. Malta/Rikti fight to something where the Mentalist doesn't have to self-destruct.

Once I'm done with dinner I'm gonna come back and do a more detailed post. But for now, just consider all of you thwapped with a rolled up newspaper.

OOC: I'd prefer that you stick to one group at a time, but if you really want to switch, go ahead. Just post something about them all leaving. Also, post is back on the other page. And Shadow, since you're following the Rikti, everything you're seeing I've already described beforehand. Just look back.

OOC: I'd say you have a few too many Wailers there. An EB, 2 bosses, 2 lts, and 6 minions. Drop the Eite Boss and a boss and I'll let you keep the extra minion. And Devious, don't go so far ahead. I've still got stuff for you guys to encounter. >_>

BIC: What faced the Malta now were several flights of stairs going down. There were four landings including the one Marcus would walk onto and each landing had a door. The door on the 2nd to lowest landing was reinforced and had a red "Authorized Personnel Only" warning painted on it. If the Malta picked that door, they would have to trick their way past an ID scanner or blow open a door that laughs at C4.

The other upper two doors would lead to large rooms partitioned into cubicles with various other office equipment strewn about. The door on the bottom leads to a cafeteria. Probably some of the food is still edible but it wouldn't be that advisable to try.

And if the Malta did get past the blast door, they'd have to get through an identical, though less strong, blast door that operated on an airlock system. If the first door was open, the second door would stay shut. The small room between the two doors could hold four people, six if they squeezed.

*****************************************

Pretty soon the Nemesis came across what looked like a standard cargo drop-off. A large garage door up on a platform led deeper into the base. Luckily or not, the Nemesis had stumbled across an entrance that would give them the least resistence. No other turrets or hostile defensive systems waited for them down the next few corridors until they got into the warehouse. Passive defenses included an ID scanner to see if you were a Longbow employee and some security cameras. Not that the cameras would be much to worry about with no one manning the security room.

**********************************************

"Hostiles detected," intoned a deep, mechanical voice.

"Class 2 auto-turret in section A-5 destroyed," came another.

"Deploying counter-measures," said the first.

*******************************************

A quartet of Longbow Guardian robots detatched themselves from their wall mounted charging racks. As with all the other equipment, these defensive mecha had been left behind but their duty was still clear. Of the same model as the similiar PPD models, the Guardians were painted in Longbow white and red and had a pair of motorized skates built into their feet for greater speed in this smooth floored environment.

The Guardians crouched down and activated their skates. The devices let out a high pitched wooshing noise as the Guardians sped along. Standard protocol had the Guardians opening up with a linked blast of their arm mounted photon cannons at one target before engaging seperate targets. The only warning the Rikti would have would be an odd, high pitched whine.

*****************************************

The Wailers had found a fifth entrance into the base, but it was one of the more heavily guarded. The secret door hidden behind a rock led almost immidiately to a large room full of pillars. At the far end was a pair of Class 1 turrets, their weaponry comparable to a tank's cannon. Next to the turret on the right was small panel with a big red button on it. This button would turn the turrets off. But the moment an enemy entered the room, it would be under fire.

************************************************

Farfield tapped in a code on the pad in front of him and the heavy door slid open. This took a few moments, because the door was large, well armored, and looked like it was protecting something worth checking out.

"This is going to be so much better than some damn offices," said Hardy as he shifted from foot to foot in excitement.

Then he paused for a moment and looked around to see he was the only one standing directly in front of the doors any more. Farfield was gesturing angrily at him to get his [censored] behind cover; something Hardy did just in time. The doors finished opening and a large robot clanked forward. It looked to be about three times the height of a standard Crab Spider armor suit and the cannons built into its arms showed that it was clearly capable of handling itself. It's cylindrical head swiveled back and forth, the camera built into the center of it like a cyclopic eye whirred as it focused.

After a minute, the robot stepped back from the door which shut a lot faster than it had opened.

"I guess we're not going through door #1," said Farfield a bit shakily as he stepped out of the office he had taken cover in.

"We shall need to bring back more forces to completely subdue this base," said Mu'Jurkan as he descended from the ceiling.

"Amen to that," muttered Widow as she dropped her cloak. The robot had been looking right at her before it left and she was not feeling very well.

"Le- let's move on," Farfield said and motioned toward an elevator set into the far wall.

OOC: Side note: You guys control the things that you fight. That's why I'll give overviews of the things that technically your characters wouldn't know. However, there will be some things that I'll control directly. I'll warn you if that is the case.

OOC: *rubs hands together* Ok, folks. Let's get the party started.

BIC: "You know when I said that I hate trees? Well, I think I hate caves more. They're too dark and damp and they look creepy and things could be lurking behind every corner and-"

"Shut your trap, Hardy!" Farfield shouted, banging his fist on the back of the Slicer's armor for good measure.

"Would all of you shut up back there?" hissed Widow from up front, her skills and camoflauge making her nearly invisible. "I feel like I'm babysitting a bunch of Wolf Spiders."

Now, every Crab Spider had his pride. They may not be higher up on the totem pole than the Bane Spiders or have the mad skills of the Mu or Fortunata, but they were the best of the regular forces and they were certainly better than any wet-behind-the-ears Wolf Spider thug. This insult resulted in complete silence from the Crab Spiders and a much more professional air between them all. Widow shook her head slightly, Boys.

"Were almost out of these caves, anyway," Widow added after a while. "One last door up ahead but I think it's covered by a pair of auto-turrets. Any chance you guys brought along a rocket launcher?"

Farfield walked up behind Widow and peered around the corner to see a well lit door with a pair of bulges flanking it on each wall. His HUD lit up as it analyzed each object and projected a 90% chance that they were Class 2 defensive turrets. Powerful enough to punch through Crab Spider armor with a few seconds of continuous fire but with relatively antique targeting AIs, meaning that they would be slow to react.

"We may not have a rocket launcher, but we have the next best thing, a Mu."

Mu'Jurkan sighed and drifted up to Farfield and Widow. Farfield gave the mystic a quick summary of the targets and the mystic nodded in response.

"I believe I have a spell that can handle them both. But I will need cover as it takes several seconds to cast," he said in his typical mono-tone.

"Got it. Hardy, O'Hannien, give the Mu some suppressing fire."

O'Hannien, one of the few female Crab Spiders, was good at her job and quick on her feet to boot, so she was most likely to avoid taking damage. Hardy he just wanted to get to shut up and nothing did that like a good threat to your own mortality.

About ten seconds later the turrets were annihilated by a surge of electricity and Hardy was being helped to his feet by O'Hannien. The kid had taken a couple of rounds right around the top of his chest plate and seemed a little dazed. No permanent damage but at least he'd shut up for a while, which was all Farfield asked for.

"Let's hope that noise didn't clue anyone in on us," said one of the other Slicers.

"Let's hope there was no one to hear it," growled Farfield as he followed Widow through the now open door.

*********************************************

After about a minute of patient chirping and beeping, the code breaker gave one last BLEEP and shut off. Aaron grabbed the device as it fell off the door and tucked it away. The heavy blast door slowly ground open to reveal a large turret sitting on the ceiling a few meters inside the long corridor, which looked as though it was meant to recieve heavy vehicles. But thankfully the turret remained motionless. Whether it was merely biding its time, was broken, or had someone mistaken the Nemesis troops as allies was unknown.

******************************************

In front of the Rikti infiltration group was a long corridor lined with doors that looked rather flimsily made compared to the rest of the base so far. If the Rikti were to look inside they would see small offices that looked like the kind of places that minor functionaries would use. Cogs in the larger machine that is the Longbow organization. At the end of the corridor was a wall with an open door which the lead drone was poking its nose through.

[Two targets approaching!] called out the lead drone. [Requesting orders!]

The targets that the drone had sensed had yet to come around the corner that was a little ways past the door. They were a pair of cleaning droids that looked like mobile trashcans. One of them was actually moving along the ceiling while the second was puttering across the floor, vacuuming up bits of dust and irritably poking at larger debris that it couldn't get rid of. Not that the Rikti could probably tell the difference between a non-combat droid and something dangerous.

************************************************

Raider intelligence had located an entrance to Base Alpha 13 in the basement of the building that Jones and most of his men were currently on. The door would be a bit small for the Wing Raiders to fit through but they could manage. The only difficulty they would have by going through that door would be breaking the code and getting past the electric defense field.

Of course, they could always follow after the Rikti and see what the aliens were up too.

**********************************************

The door that Marcus and his men entered led into a small cave complex that, although complicated looking, had dim guiding lights leading the way after a turn was between them and the entrance. Nothing really eventful happened until something under one of the TacOps's boot went squish.

It turns out that a small group of Vahzilok had found this door before the Malta and had attempted to force their way in. Judging from the bullet wounds and long trail of blood behind the Reaper which the TacOps had stepped on, there were some defenses up ahead.

In fact, there were defenses up ahead. Four Class 3 defensive turrets in fact. Strong enough to chew up lightly armored targets and quick enough to track a Rikti drone they had torn apart the group of zombies with ridiculous ease. But the Vahzilok had caused some damage. Acid scoring on all four turrets made them more susceptible to damage and one of them was having trouble rotating its light machie gun.

OOC: So we've got Arachnos, Nemesis, Sky Raiders, Rikti, and Malta. A nice all star line up. All we need is a magic group.

OOC: This RP is another all out fight thing with a bit of story thrown in to give it an end. But it is also a lot different than the other RPs in this section. Instead of a single hero or villain, you must use a small group of characters from a villain or hero group. For example: You could have a squad of Longbow with the squad leader as the main character or a pack of Vahzilok led by a head Reaper. Try to keep the group down to at most one boss, a couple of lieutenants, and several minions. And remember that things aren't always as they are in the game. Meaning a Night Widow can be taken out by a lucky Hellion and a Crey Power Tank can be felled by several people working at once.

Now that that's all said and done, kick back, invent some dudes, and enjoy the party.

BIC: Base Alpha 13 was to be abandoned.

No one in Longbow had any advance warning before sirens blared in the large, underground base and the order was issued for all personnel to evacuate. Men and women fled in some amount of order, the majority of their equipment and their uniforms left behind because an evacuation of such proportions meant that they had no avaliable transportation to ship such things in secrecy. As soon as the last clerk, rifleman, and nullifier exited through one of the six doors leading up to the Paragon City streets, Warden Einrichson punched in the lockdown codes and fled in disguise, looking like any other citizen trying to get home quickly from a long day at work.

Base Alpha 13 sat abandoned for only one day before its status was noted and plans were mobilized. For you see, Base Alpha 13 was one of the larger Longbow bases underneath Paragon City. It contained armories full of advanced equipment and its own fair share of labrotories were Longbow's newest tech was cooked up. It was even rumored that several of the proto-type Heavy units were stowed in the base. To further add to its desireable factors, the base was in very close proximity to a powerful ley line that ran mostly undetected through Perez Park. It was a mystery as to why Longbow had suddenly left such a valuable location, but the one thing any group strong enough to survive in Paragon is is oppertunistic.

***********************************************

"I hate trees. They're too green and leafy and big and...uhhh.... tree..ish...Yeah."

"Shut up already! We've already heard about that crap about a hundred times!"

"Sorry, sir. I just really don't like trees."

If Captain Farfield of Lord Recluse's Crab Spiders hadn't been in enemy territory and hadn't been under direct orders not to injure any of his men, then he would have kicked that rookie's [censored] straight through the canopy and into a war wall, heroes be damned. As it was, the Webmaster could only tap a few more commands into the codebreaker he held in his hands while waiting for the damned thing to hurry up and break the code on the camoflauged door he and his men were camped out in front of.

"I cannot hold the stealth spell much longer, Captain," said the annoyingly red and floaty Mu'Jurkan.

"If you can't hold it up, then we will all be dead, Jurkan," snarled the other unorthodox member of his squad, the Night Widow who insisted on being called Widow.

"You have no appreciation of the limitations of my art, woman," snarled the mystic right back at her. "But if perhaps you would be too strained to learn such things, your mind being quite strained enough remembering how to talk and move at the same time."

Farfield was forced to stick out a foot and trip up Widow as she attempted to rush the hovering Adept, who seemed quite pleased at the reaction he had gotten.

"Will you two shut up?" Farfield asked exasperatedly. "As commander, I have leave to execute any one of you that proves to be a liability, got that?"

He didn't really, but neither of those two or the other four Crab Spiders he had with him knew that. And so thankfully Widow pulled herself to her feet and contented herself pinning insects to the nearby trees with her throwing needles. Mu'Jurkan returned his focus to maintaining the spell and time seemed to crawl by under the barely restrained tension until the codebreaker beeped and the rock disguised door slid open.

"Score," Farfield said as he stowed the device and flicked on a head lamp, the immidiate area beyond the door being as black as pitch. "Alright people, we'll do this by the numbers. Widow goes in on point followed by Hardy, followed by me, followed by Mu'Jurkan with the rest of you rookies bringing up the rear."

"Yes, sir," chorused the Slicers as they readied their equipment.

Mu'Jurkan gave Farfield a nod while Widow silently stepped through the door. Corporal John Hardy followed her in and then it was Farfield's turn.

"Once more into the breach," he said quietly.

OOC: Remember folks: No controlling other people's units and TAKE DAMAGE.

OOC: Shadow. Reply to the damned PM I sent you already.

OOC: If you would like to comment on my work. Please send me a PM instead of replying to this thread. Thank you.

BIC: To the entity known as Toy Dispenser,

I, along with several other powerful fgures in Arachnos, have been watching your rise to power with great interest. Your constant displays of forethought and ingenuity frequently amaze us, especially when one considers your background. It is with great pleasure that I extend to you and invitation to come and visit Grandville, the capitol of Arachnos, and gaze upon the arena of your newest challenges. For there are many in Grandville who would wish to hire a mercenary of your skill and tenacity and almost as many who would attempt to strike you down the moment you lower your guard. Grandville is a harsh proving ground, despite what efforts I have made to the contrary.

But my troubles are not important here. Instead, I wish to consult with you personnaly about a matter which closely concerns you. I speak not of something potentialy fatal, but about something which could serve to increase your might. I have read a report that Kalinda penned regarding your attempt at unlocking your potential as a 'Destined One' and I have also read about your encounter with Statesman after the ritual and the phenomena that resulted from it. In three days hence I would like to speak to you in my private offices in Spider Tower. Perhaps there we shall decide upon your future in Arachnos and discuss the next plateau of power you have yet to reach.

Fair winds,
Scirocco

Fair winds my metal [censored], Toy Dispenser thought as he looked up at the giant statue of Lord Recluse situated just outside the seat of Arachnos power, Spider Tower. Damn magic flinger probably thinks he can get me to do a job cheap. Probably try to buy me off with some cheap parlor tricks.

But he knew this was unfair of him to think so. Everything the mastermind had learned about Scirocco pointed to the fact that he was an upstanding guy. The sort of villain that kept honor alive among the upper echelons of villainy and Toy was pretty sure that the mystic meant what he was talking about.

Now then, to just figure out exactly what he was talking about.

This was an interesting conundrum, and the techni-colored android allowed himself to slip a bit into past files to summarize what had happened between him and States on that fateful day about two months ago as he walked around the giant statue and toward Spider Tower's entrance.

It had been another of Kalinda's special jobs. Bust the carnies, steal some of their stuff, and then perform some hocus pocus ritual that was supposed to unlock the power of the Destined One. Well, as can be expected from a robot working magic a whole lot of nothing occured and Toy was forced to try and slink back out of Paragon City where the Carnival of Shadows group had been. It was just his bad luck that Statesman himself was chasing a couple of Circle of Thorns mages right past the door that Toy had just exited from.

It was even worse luck when the hero saw through Toy's camoflauge of brightly colored paints to recognize an up-and-coming villain of the Rogue Isles that he had undoubtedly been briefed on. What followed was the most painful experience in all of Toy Dispenser's career. The only high light of that whole bungle was that he was able to knock States around and surprise the big lug a couple of times. Not that it prevented his emergency trip to the hospital barge at the edge of US territorial waters, but it helped assauge his battered ego.

But the real curious thing about that fight was that afterward, Toy had gained this odd...thing, about him. Due to power cell damage, energy leaked out from his body in harmless amounts and played over his armor like miniature red lightning bolts. Even after the power cell was repaired to full working condition, the random energy discharges stuck around. Since they didn't hurt him at all and looked damn cool, the mastermind had decided that he'd just ignore the aura and leave it at that. Of course, Kalinda had said that that was the outcome of the ritual but since Toy had emperical evidence that it was Statesman that had done it, he had ignored her ravings and left on his next contract.

And now I wish I had talked with her a bit more about this, Toy thought as he nodded to Arbiter Rein and passed through the annoyingly circular Arachnos doors.

Inside was yet more statuary, this time including Recluse's four lieutenants, a huge line of civilians, and numerous harried looking Arachnos functionaries. Toy spent a moment lingering by the statue of Scirocco, impressed by the image of strength the pose of the rock put out, before he stepped past an arguing couple and into an empty corridor. Almost sighing in relief, until he realized that he had forgotten once again that he couldn't sigh, Toy followed his internal map to the nearest elevators and took them up.

And up.

And up.

And finally the elevator stopped, dinged, and Toy stepped out. A quick glance out a nearby window showed that he was already a good eighty stories up and a significant chunk of the building left to go up. But that wasn't where he was going and the android made good time down various halls and passages before arriving at a door guarded by a pair of high ranking Mu mystics. Toy paused for a moment and then reached into his belt pouch for the letter.

"Hey guys. I've got an invitation from your boss here and-"

"Scirocco has been expecting you, Toy Dispenser," said the Mu on the right.

"You may enter, or not, as you please," said the one on the left, not missing a beat.

"Fine with me," Toy said nonchalantly as he slid the letter away.

Nodding politely at the mystics, Toy tapped the button that opened the door and stepped inside.

OOC: Geez, guys. What a lot of bloodthirsty maniacs you are. All they were doing was running away. Anyway, I'm washing my hands clean of them, you can kill them off like normal minions. I've got bigger plans in store for you anyway.

"The commander's down!" shouted one panicked non-com. "Retreat! Pull back! Get your [censored] [censored] out of here!"

The soldiers started to fall back by numbers, retaining their disipline even while under attack by at least three supers. They streamed out the front door and then sealed their exit with several well tossed grenades.

"Get to the trucks!" shouted the 2nd in command as the soldiers continued falling back.

They were soon joined by the Cobra light tank and the pair of detatched squads. The Cobra covered their retreat while the survivors snagged the vehicles that had brought them here and pulled out.

"[censored]," cursed the tank commander. "I didn't join the army for this crap. Blow the house."

"Yes, sir! Re-loading grenade launcher with tactical explosives."

"Fire in three."

"Two."

"One."

"Cover your eyes and fire!"

The Cobra fired a specially designed shell that, upon contact with a solid object, would release a miniature fusion reaction, anihilating everything within fifty feet of the contact point.

"One target has left the building."

"Did he take out Ramsey?"

"No, teleportation."

"We got him in range?"

"Yes, sir. He is currently hiding in some trees on the edge of the estate."

"Good. He'll make good target practice for the grenade launcher."

"Yes, sir!"

With a whir and a thump, the turret of the Cobra spun around and fired off a rocket propelled grenade at Shinji's position.

************************************

"You're all the same," the commander cursed as the soldier fell to the ground under Ryan's attack, his back layed open.

Reaching up and flipping a small device from his helmet over his left eye, the commander activated the IR vision mode and took aim at Ryan once again. The rest of the soldiers did the same, although a few switched over to different viewing modes in case Ryan was untrackable in the more mundane ways.

They opened fire again as the soldiers nearest Ryan scrambled away from him.

One squad was hastily evacuating the civilians while the remaining troops were staring at Ryan down the barrels of their guns. The soldier closest to Ryan looked back at his commander in silent plea and the older man spat on the ground and leveled his pistol at the fake agent.

"Protocal stands. You and your kind are marked, super," he said as his eyes narrowed and he pulled the trigger.

A second later the rest of the soldiers opened fire.

****************************************

"This sucks, man. I want to be in on the action. Not guarding some [censored] hole back he-" whined one soldier before he was cut off by a terse whisper to shut up.

The voices came from just outside the basement door. It looked as though Feliks had at least two men to fight through if he wanted out this way.

[ QUOTE ]
(OOC: Why are people ignoring the two hairpins and cufflink gas-bomb flying through the air...?)

[/ QUOTE ]

OOC: Cause..... they flew over Donald's head as he died due to the poisen?

EDIT: I'll reply to Ryan after Commie posts.

OOC: Darn, not even a chance to pull out my cool weapon. Oh well, another day perhaps.

BIC: Donald choked and tried to spit out as much of the poisen as he could but he was too disoriented from what had happened and couldn't clear his head. Weakly moving his arms as the overdose of poisen began to take effect, Donald found only one thing circling through his mind.

Protect the codes.

Not even considering that all those goverment sponsered hypno-lessons had finally paid off, the agent slapped his hand down on his watch and pressed a small button hidden in between two other buttons. This both erased the bomb codes that were hidden on the second chip inside the watch and alerted the soldiers out side that something had gone horribly wrong.

************************************************

BREEP BREEP BREEP BREE-

"What the hell was that, sir?"

"It means this operation is now officially [censored], son. Call in the patrols and hit up the active radar. Have Ramsey's squad cover the rear entrance and put Smith on crowd control. Tell everyone else to pull out their anti-meta gear. The least we can do is try to capture one of thoses bastards and find out who ordered this hit."

"Yes, sir!"

Donald crossed his arms and leaned back on his heels, he was getting a little impatient.

"I'm assuming that we're comprimised. Radio the nearest base and get a chopper down here. Also, tell the guests that the sewer main has backed up and we must leave the building. My contact will know that this means we've been found out. I'll meet up with him at our secondary drop off point," he said, completeing ignoring the prescense of Alex in the room.

OOC: Does Alex look like a girl? As in, is she still a woman but looks like an underaged girl?

BIC: "Sorry, agent," said Donald as he moved Alex over to a chair and sat her down. "I got your message and then that dead body was discovered. I figured it'd be better to bring this girl with me. She won't know what we're talking about and her parents can come pick her up after this whole problem is dealt with."

Patting Alex on the shoulder with a smile on his face, Donald looked over at John.

"So, what's the problem? I assume we've been comprimised."

***************************

The elevator was empty. As far as Feliks could tell he hadn't yet been discovered.

OOC: I'm waiting on Prodiguy. I need his dude to talk to my dude.

OOC: Hold it hold it! What the hell are you doing, Servant? You just effectively killed MY character without so much as a 'by your leave'! I'm going to have to back track things to the point where you made Donald take you up to his room. And Shadow? If you have a problem, send me a PM and we'll clear things up there.

BIC: Donald smiled as the young girl grabbed onto him in fright but his smile paled a bit as he saw the dead body that had been found. Considering that his first duty would be to comfort this scared little girl and his second to get up to the temporary command center, Donald patted Alex on the head.

"It's ok, young lady. I'm sure security will be able to handle it."

"But... can't we go somewhere quieter?" she replied, looking up at him with her big round eyes.

Donald chuckled as he replied, "If you want you can come with me. I've got a friend that wanst to talk to me anyway and he should be somewhere quiter."

Donald gently prised the girl's arms off of him and took her hand.

"Just this way and then you can sit down and get a Coke or something."

Donald set out toward the location he was supposed to meet the senior agent at during an emergency.

***********************************************

"Sir?"

"What is it now?"

"Meta-human readings inside the building. Two of them and an intermittant third."

"Intermittant?"

"I think it's that stealther again."

"Crap. Inform internal security to go on high alert. Get the patrols tightened up as well. We may need to make an emergency evac."

"Yes, sir."

*******************************************

The soldier whistled a cheery tune as he went about his business in the bushes. The other two guards were bickering about the results of last weeks baseball game and seemed to be wholey occupied. All of them were out of sight of the nearest check point and the next patrol wasn't due around for at least a minute or two.

"[censored]! Sir! You migth want to see this!"

"What is it?"

"That blank space, it vanished into the roof of the building."

"[censored]! Jones! Get the internal guards on the line, we've got meta-human penetration! Tell them to expect a stealther!"

"Yes, sir! Transmitting information now!"

"Got something odd on the scaner, sir."

"What is it?"

"A big blank spot on the thermal detector. Looks like an abscence of....well, anything."

"It's most likely a meta-human. It could be a hero but keep an eye on it regardless. Alert me if it comes inside the containment zone."

"Yes, sir!"

*********************************************

A trio of soldiers walked past Feliks's location chatting to one another.

"Man, this guard duty sucks, you know what I mean?" said one.

"Yeah, but we gotta do it or the higher ups will have our heads," replied the other soldier.

"Shut up, you two," growled what appeared to be the patrol leader. "We've got enough trouble hiding these damned bright uniforms of ours without you two blabbing all over the place."

"Sorry, sir," the two chorused and shut up.

The laptop clicks on and some words scroll across it.

[Some new info. Seems that the bomb guy got some beefed up security. Along with the regular house guard, slobs the lot of them, there happens to be a UN security team on site. They've got a vehicle with them but my guys weren't able to figure out what type. These Army guys looks serious. Tell the new guys to be wary, Shadow.

-Editor]