empty_NA

Hmm...

clockwork

The horologist
Pendulum's Swing
Grandfather clock
Past-time
Hope's Mainspring

[ QUOTE ]

Blood blossomed like tulips on her shirt, jeans, dripping into her shoes. No one wound serious, but many....


[/ QUOTE ]

O'Neill grimaced as his suit shuddered under bullet impacts, and he answered them with a burst of neutrinos that made one of the hellions stagger.

The gas is working he thought, as he thought as he watched lesions open on the faces of the exposed hellions always charming to see

He was slightly surprised when the bulk of the hellions turned their attention from him, and toward the others. Some sort of black stuff was being thrown around, and hellions were faltering.. as were some of the vitals in his left peripheral vision.

which one.. the quiet girl with the dog .. ok

O'Neill moved a little closer. A close range shotgun blast knocked him down, splitting his lip, and causing more minor cuts and bruises. He staggered upright.

If blood gets into the breaker box again, Ryan will kill me.. she said so ... Probably close enough

O'Neill clenched his left hand, and more servos clicked, and the suit juddered as he and his companions were sleeted with more radiation. He felt the cut on his lip close..

Probably taking years off their life expectancy.... which at this stage should be measured in minutes

The mass of hellions was focused on the cluster of people to his left... he could now see another woman, in addition to the first 2, and another figure was visible too.. male probably.

Lets distract them a bit, and they can get organised

"Duck, you lot" he yelled, as a hellion fell, a small heel in his face illuminated by an x-ray laser strike.

O'Neill gave them a second, then flicked open a whole group of breakers. a violent explosion ripped through those nearby. He saw a couple of hellions fall.

alright, that got their attention, now what am I going to do

[ QUOTE ]

"I hit people and get beaten up alot, what do you do?" she asked.

[/ QUOTE ]

O'Neill snorted. "I'm a vet, and I get beaten up lot too. The suit plays silly games with radiation...."

He could see that 2 of the women had taken up fighting stances nearby, and had lost sight of the other...

Who is probably the loonie. I can expect a fist in the back of my head any second now. Oh well... what I need to do is examine these two with a med lab for 2 days before I do this, but I cannot do that, so we'll just hope they'll be alright. ..

"This may feel a little odd" O'Neill said as he trigged a subset of the suit's emitters. Immediately he, and those nearby, felt a rush of strength, and time seemed to dilate as a cascade of radiation stimulated them to high levels.

"They'll hit the top of the stairs.. now" O'Neill growled. As the first familiarly dressed ganger appeared, he perforated him with hard x-rays, and the second with a set of darts that released a noxious green and red cloud.

that gas mightn't do them much good either.. oh well, can't tell 'em to hold their breath

As the rest of the Hellions poured down the stairway, battle was joined; the corridor glowed green with an eerie light, and the air grew thick with gas as O'Niell tripped the suits offensive systems... and the Handel thundered on.

[ QUOTE ]
“If either of you hurt Canis lupus familiaris or her I can assure you that you won’t leave this building alive”

[/ QUOTE ]

Alright, we got Dorothy, Toto, and a loonie O'Neill thought.
Without consideration the pattern of finger movements that would flood the corridor with radiation sprang to mind.
Nah, Toto would be toast for sure, never mind Dorothy

O'Neill flicked his chin impatiently, and listened as Nolan's voice told him....

"Aural indications give 3 solid contacts in the vicinity, and probably 1 plus more..."

"Radiation emissions give CLUSTER 1 of living beings nearby, X +10, Y +0, Z +5.5. CLUSTER 2, indeterminate size, X +30.5, Y + 17, Z +10.7. CLUSTER 2 is in in motion, range decreasing"

Oh, THATS TROUBLE

O'Neill glanced toward the stairs, then turned back just as half the mist in the corridor dissipated... revealing a border collie and 3 women, one crouched against the wall, one in motion, and youngest one looking slightly surprised.

The collie's my 10 o'clock... if this is just a rescue so he doesn't get spayed, I'm gonna murder them

O'Neill looked for a moment, then made a judgment

"Look out you lot, they're headed for the stairs down" he snapped over the external speakers as he twisted toward the stairs, ignoring the people to his left.

"And get the collie out of the way, I'm a vet, not a miracle worker"

The whining as the X-ray emitters reached discharge power failed to drown either the suits hissing and groaning, or the crescendo of Handel's firework music.
O'Neill gave a wry grin
Oh well, I'll figure out how to turn it off later.... there are worse things I could be listening too.. Tatu is probably one of them, hope I get to find out

((btw I've not done this before, so please excuse any errors in protocol))

[ QUOTE ]

"Um . . . ah . . . um," the girl stammered sotto voce, "People call me Steel Pixie . . . um . . . can you play Tatu? I think they're really cool."

[/ QUOTE ]

The gentle whisper, in a young womans voice, came through the audio pick-ups.

Right thought O'Neill, I got a girl, and a dog.. All I need now are flying monkeys

"What's a Tatu?" O'Neill asked curiously. "and what's that big black fog thing, while you're at it?"

"You still need to come out where I can see you"

[ QUOTE ]

"The first was the one that set them off. It was hard to tell, exactly what it was, but it was definately coming closer, and it moved with a sense of purpose that implied it knew exactly where it was going."


[/ QUOTE ]
O'Neill paused in the reception area, looking around quickly. The place was empty, and even messier than usual.

"Cleaning this up is going to make Tom even angrier than the St. Bernard incident" thought O'Neill, supressing the thought that Tom might not be in a condition to clean up anything.

"Alright", he muttered, "I hate these damn things, but it beats trying to see in this helmet".

Trying to remember the instructions he had been given a month ago, and cursing furiously when Dr. Nolan's cheerful recorded voice said to him "Eamon, We'll get to the help text REAL SOON" he managed to twitch his chin in the right manner to relace his outside view with a wireframe graphic of the building. On it glowed a bunch of radiation sources, some of which had tentative identifications next to them.

Useful ones. Like "Possible Dog". Of course, there was a bunch of other glowing dots....

"Uhm... corridor near the kennels.. something there.. just a ... blob ... and something looks like its.. dying on the stairs down". A constant stream of muttering issued quietly from the suits speakers, quiet enough to be barely audible over the hiss of hydraulics that was produced, interestingly enough, even when the suit was stationary.

"Riiiight then, lets go see". With surprising speed, the suit lumbered down the corridor. As he moved forward, O'Neill trigged the reserve power cells, putting all the LEDs in his helmet at red, and Nolan's cheerful voice said "150% capacity, you'll have about 2 minutes, Eamon".

"Two minutes, I'll probably be in bleedin' hospital. Why'd I have to wear the stupid suit? Bloody physicists." A twist of his chin brought up the outside view again, slightly green tinted as the vision enhancers activated.

O'Neill slid around the corner sideways, and stopped himself against the wall. Despite the hissing and jerky movements of the suit, there was no clumsyness. And saw, where he expected to see a group of living things.. A wall of shadow. And a dog barking, close.

"Aw, this looks less than good...". The suit's speakers faithfully transmitted his mutter.

"Right then, the warning". Yes, he need to warn them first, they had said in city hall. What number was the prerecorded warning again? The "I am Curie's Dream, a registered hero, please identify yourself" one? 56?

Suddenly Handel's "Music for the Royal Fireworks" issued from the suits speakers.

Shortly afterwards, a voice, clearly under some strong emotion, tightly controlled, accompanied the music.

"Probably wasn't 56 then"

"Right then, whoever yez are. Come out quietly, or I'll make it be Abba instead. I'm sure there's some Abba on this iPod somewhere..."

[ QUOTE ]

Sliding back out the door, he saw two cars in the parking lot whew, Mrs Fields has moved across the street and a bike in the bike rack outside.


[/ QUOTE ]

Mrs. Fields was watching the building nervously, clutching the phone, when a horrible grinding noise made her jump. She gasped, turned, and... saw a wreck of a car pulling into the parking lot.

From the noises the car was on the point of self destruction. Before the final catastrophe, it pulled to a halt in a "staff" parking slot, and the engine coughed to a halt.

A door squealed open, and a rather short man carrying a gladstone bag emerged.

He looked at the broken door of the building for a moment, and then said "Ah, JAYSUS .

Mrs. Field shouted over "Are you one of Crochet's friends?" She thought it was unlikely, but it was best to check.

"Er.. chrochet? No, ma'am, I don't sew. I'm a vet; name's O'Neill" said the short man, still staring at the building in apparent exasperation. He had a noticable accent, but Mrs. Fields could not place it.

"Oh" cried Mrs. Fields, "something bad is happening in there and my neighbour Crocket went in there to help ...."

" Sucre " muttered O'Neill. He flung open the boot of the car with a load bang, and threw his bag in. Then, grunting with effort, he dragged out something yellow and heavy, and dropped it on the tarmac.

"Ma'am, can you give me a hand here?", said O'Neill. The yellow object was revealed as a heavy looking suit of armour, its matte yellow and black paint scarred by many burns, patches, and scrapes. " I need help with the legs." O'Neill muttered apologetically as Mrs. Fields approached; "I can never manage the legs"...

Moments later, Mrs. Fields withdrew as O'Niell managed to seat his helmet.

With another alarming sequence of groans, hisses, sparks and clunks, accompanied by a series of words Mrs. Fields could not quite make out, O'Neill started his armour, and moved into the building.

The last thing she heard as he disappeared into the entrance was... "

"I cannot see a bleeding thing in this bloody helmet."

Mrs. Fields could not help thinking she now had someone else to worry about....


((Curies's Dream is an level 11 Rad/Rad defender. He does have Mutate (rez) if we need it.. and I hope you do not mind a newb butting in... and I assume that the red guys was not in the car park, or MRs. Fields would have legged it long since))