[ QUOTE ]
"They ask the Lost to guard this place, see? And I'm just here cleaning up the trash."
[/ QUOTE ]
"Hmm. Fine then, just stay the hell out of my way." With that the stalker sheathed her blade and vanished again, reappearing some distance away backstabbing another fishman before spinning around and laying into the one next to him.
And thus she continued for the forseeable future, practically ignoring the enforcer as though he wasn't even there. Until he did something to attract her attention, she paid him no mind at all.
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: STOP!
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: WAIT ONE SECOND!
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: WHAT IS A SEAGULL DOING ON MY THRONE!?!?
[ QUOTE ]
And thus she continued for the forseeable future, practically ignoring the enforcer as though he wasn't even there. Until he did something to attract her attention, she paid him no mind at all.
[/ QUOTE ]
He threw a clip into the horde of coralax and shot it with pin-point accuracy.
*boom*
"YOU stay the hell out of MY way, missy." He snarled, not particularly caring whether or not she had been hit by the blast. He continued on to the next group and started mowing them down with a never-ending hail of bullets, making every group he attacked impossible to sneak up upon if only because dodging that many bullets while cloaked was impractical.
Jameson slipped out the back of the bar, her steps light as she looked around. She couldn't see anything in the back, and unless it was nearby, most things wouldn't be able to see her through the psychic mask she was operating under.
Her widow claws snickt'd as she drew the potent weapons. Glancing around, Jameson started to circle the bar and its environs, doing a thorough search for suspicious characters.
"If this kills my buzz, I'm going to be pissed." she muttered.
Infinity
Sam Varden 50 MA/Reg Scrap
Doomtastic 50 SS/Inv Brute
Ceus 50 Eng/Kin Corr
Cinderstorm 50 Fire/Fire Blaster
He walked back to the bar and place the potato down on the bar. "Alright Doctor here's a Potato but the lab work I know would produce only a small amount of juice 1.5 volts. The Potato battery needs also copper and zinc."
"now Doctor mind telling me what you are afraid of?"
[ QUOTE ]
"YOU stay the hell out of MY way, missy." He snarled, not particularly caring whether or not she had been hit by the blast.
[/ QUOTE ]
The stalker's energy shield shimmered and flickered as bits of shrapnel rebounded off it, but aside from the lightshow and a few minor cuts from the bits that got through, she was fine.
[ QUOTE ]
making every group he attacked impossible to sneak up upon if only because dodging that many bullets while cloaked was impractical.
[/ QUOTE ]
To which Ildela's solution was simple. Pulling a small dagger from her belt (Which in itself was odd, since there hadn't been one there a moment before) she threw it with similar pinpoint accuracy at the offending weapon. She did no harm to the enforcer himself, but his gun would be most definitely inoperable now unless he had powers he wasn't showing off.
With the problem thus removed, she continued on her way.
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: STOP!
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: WAIT ONE SECOND!
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: WHAT IS A SEAGULL DOING ON MY THRONE!?!?
[ QUOTE ]
she threw it with similar pinpoint accuracy at the offending weapon. She did no harm to the enforcer himself, but his gun would be most definitely inoperable now unless he had powers he wasn't showing off.
[/ QUOTE ]
The enforcer looked at her with a seething glare from behind his mirrored glasses. He sat down on the ground, pulled the knife out of his uzi, disassembled the gun in a matter of seconds, removed and replaced a few components, and put it back together, good as new. All professionals in his line of work needed to know how to maintain their weaponry, after all.
But this time, he kept his distance and allowed Ildela to kill the coralax in her own time. He wasn't here to deal with them in the first place. So while he followed her through her rampage, he tossed on a Fedora, discarded his trench coat in favor of a swanky tux, and at some point holstered his uzi and brung out a Tommy Gun. He was now a spiting image of a member of the Family, and now he simply waited for Ildela to finish up so he could continue.
Outside the bar, the Cybernetic Tomato peeked in through one of the windows and hiding in the bushes. His massive, red frame accented by his cybernetic arms and legs, and the green sensor bulb on his head. Leaves wrapped his shoulders and legs.
Inside the bar... "spiders." Doctor Von Krayzee looked across the bar deadpan. "No luck on the micro filament? Doesn't matter, does this place sell food as well? I've had a very troubling day, some food, maybe soup, would do me well."
"I'm fine, thanks," Spencer said to the Doc carefully, then turned quickly as he made the conclusion that the doctor was more than likely insane. As he turned around, wanting to return to his conversation, he saw her go outside to the back after Brian had said something. As she left, Spencer turned to Brian and raised his eyebrows. "C'mon man, you're messing up my game. Couldn't you have waited a couple minutes?" He sighed and smacked the top of the bar lightly.
Jay saw the newcomer enter the bar and studied him for a second. As the man lit a smoke, Jay walked up to him, a cigarette coming out of a pocket in his jacket. "Hey, can I have a light?" he asked, waiting for the fire to come. He didn't say anything else to him for now.
Jameson blinked. Twice. Then she rubbed her eyes and looked again.
There actually was someone sitting outside the bar, looking suspicious. Not terribly worrisome, but did it actually think that hiding in the bushes like that hid anything?
Two ways to handle it. Kill it and wander back into the bar, or find out if it actually was stalking the mad scientist and then encourage to leave--or kill if it came to that.
Bah. Stupid sixth commandment.
...and there went her buzz.
"You here for the kook in the lab coat?" she said, focusing her senses on to the red individual before her. She'd likely know what he'd do before he did.
Infinity
Sam Varden 50 MA/Reg Scrap
Doomtastic 50 SS/Inv Brute
Ceus 50 Eng/Kin Corr
Cinderstorm 50 Fire/Fire Blaster
The Cybernetic Tomato turned toward the noise. "Raaaaaaaaaaah." It responded, in a digitially produced voice without inflection or sufficient volume to indicate aggression. Like someone would state, "my bus hasn't come yet," but only if they were a giant cybernetic tomato.
Inside, Doctor Von Krayzee heard the noise outside the window and panicked. "Hear what? I didn't hear anything..." he looked around, suddenly aware that he spoke before anyone else. "Who's corpse does a scientist have to reanimate to get a drink around here?"
"George! what am I paying you for? Well Doc seems you got a red wine if you want something else just ask. Here's a menu nothing fancy but we got some good soups. The soup of the day is beef stew served with a slice of corn bread." He rubed his chin abit. "There are some things we don't have right now due to shipping issues but I got someone handling it."
[ QUOTE ]
But this time, he kept his distance and allowed Ildela to kill the coralax in her own time.
[/ QUOTE ]
Ildela chuckled quietly to herself as the man did more or less exactly as she'd expected him to do. After all, if she'd wanted to do anything more than deter him from interrupting her then that knife could have gone far more painful places than into his gun. The stalker left him alone as she continued forward, systematically wiping out every living fishman in the warehouse.
"Right then", she finally commented to him, wiping the blood off her blades and sheathing them as she spoke. "Just be aware that if your story about the Lost is a lie then I'll be back and you'll be the first to get stabbed." With that she turned and vanished, the sound of footsteps fading as she walked away before stopping entirely as she lifted into the air and flew away.
---------
Back at the bar, Ildela did much as she had the first time around and decloaked sitting on a stool at the bar, right opposite Brian. "Warehouse is empty", she announced simply, looking over to Tony next to his screens to see if anything interesting was happening. "Also, met another guy there. Claimed to be there on business from the Family, that they were hiring the Lost to take care of that warehouse for them. I can go back if that's different from what you've been told."
"...also, who's the crazy guy with the spud?", she added with a hint of curiosity, gesturing towards Doctor Von Krayzee.
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: STOP!
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: WAIT ONE SECOND!
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: WHAT IS A SEAGULL DOING ON MY THRONE!?!?
Ironically enough for Ildea, a member of the Lost had just been sneaking up on her when she had decided to vanish. The enforcer, now dressed as a member of the Family, looked rather sternly at the Pariah.
"Ey youse." He snarled. "We give you this joint an' what happens? Eh? It gets filled with fish. You the last one standin'?" The Pariah nodded demurely. "Well git dis." The enforcer spat on the ground. "The Lost an' the Family. We're through. We don't want your second rate goods or youse stickin ugly faces in our business anymore.We're gonna be EVICTIN' you from Dockside." He hoisted his tommy-gun and opened fire...
***
[u]Right Outside[u]
One of the warehouse's windows shattered as the Pariah was thrown through it, covered in bullet-wounds. The mutated creature struggled to its feet and started limping away as fast as possible.
"That's right! Youse better run!" The enforcer shouted out the window, sending the occasional hail of bullets the Pariah's way. "Go and tell your hotshot friends, we're gonna put em on pikes and feed em to tha fishies if we sees them! As in we'll kill em with bullets, not actually feed them to the Coralax. Had some appeal. BUT THEY WERE ALL JUS' KILLED. We don't want your kind no more, trash!"
Satisfied, the enforcer leaped out the window himself and walked in the direction of Marconeville, ditching his stolen clothing and tommy-gun as he went...
Sighing, Jameson shook her head, "Saints preserve us..."
It wasn't hostile, but it wasn't very helpful either. Dropping her mask and trying to talk to the thing would be a poor tactical decision in Jameson's opinion. So, she relied on her training.
With a flex of her wrist, her widow claws extended into the long blade segments, the poison running down the edges. Taking a moment to carefully find the most obvious vulnrable point on the creature, Jameson plunged her blades into its neck at the base of what would be a human's skull, hoping to seperate the head from its neck.
Hopefully it was a robot, and she'd just have to clean her weapons instead of go to confession afterwards.
Infinity
Sam Varden 50 MA/Reg Scrap
Doomtastic 50 SS/Inv Brute
Ceus 50 Eng/Kin Corr
Cinderstorm 50 Fire/Fire Blaster
"Red wine... yes, this will be fine. Let's all just sit in here and drink, while nothing strange goes on... out there..." Our friend the disturbing smile was back, though this performance was less convincing than previous ones. Sort of phoned in, really.
Meanwhile... Jameson's blow struck the Tomato's defensive shield, making it briefly visible, then plunged deeply into the side of the beast, making pretty good headway past the skin. The blow did two things, one it enraged the Tomato, and two it allowed the targeting computer to get a picture of Jameson.
"RAAAAAAAAAAAH!" cried the Cybernetic Tomato, as it turned and swung toward Jameson, it's cybernetic fists now glowing brightly with tomato red energy.
Inside, Doctor Von Krayzee laughed nervously. "I didn't hear that either... will you excuse me?" He poured his wine into a small container and stirred it in, then ran out the front door, leaving a wad of cash on the bar.
"Well, this looks like the place," Alvin muttered to himself "brand new bar too"
Alvin Morris, better known to the general public as Claws and Effect, took stock of the situation before deciding on a course of action. There was what appeared to be a large red cyborg engaged in combat with a Night Widow, he watched them for a moment and decided to ignore them. The sounds of gunfire and breaking glass from a few doors down caught his attention for a second, but his interest waned when he realized it was just a Pariah being shot to pieces.
His contact had told him Tommy Haverson would be at the Den on the night of it's grand opening. Tommy had information he needed.
Alvin gave his pneumatic shocks a second to charge up and leaped from the top of he building across the street to a point a few feet from the door of the bar. At almost the same instant as his landing a frantic man with a bad comb-over came barreling out the door, almost slamming into him. The man didn't even glance at him as he rushed off down the street.
Stepping through the door Claws took a look around at the patrons, running each one through his heads up display in an attempt to determine which one was Tommy Haverson. While he was scanning the crowd he noticed several of the villains in the room reaching for their weapons. Yep, they recognized him alright. Not too surprising really, when a known hero walks into a bar packed full of villains he is bound to attract some attention.
"Relax," he said to no one in particular "I'm not lookin' for a fight. I just need information, and I was told the man who has it would be here. Not official business either....this is personal."
((Claws is a relatively well known hero with a reputation for not working well with others. People often wonder why he is a hero in the first place because his personal agenda doesn't seem to mesh at all with the goals of Freedom Corps. He has recently been reprimanded and temporarily suspended from duty for "conduct unbecoming a licensed hero." The villains present would likely know about this, as it was on the news.))
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison See, it's gems like these that make me check Claws' post history every once in a while to make sure I haven't missed anything good lately. |
Ildela looked around as the Doctor ran off, muttering something probably very unfriendly about mad scientists under her breath. She started to turn back to Brian to see what he had to say about these Lost, but stopped as the one she recognised as a hero came in. Almost reflexively, she shimmered out of sight.
If the hero had any sense at all, he'd be expecting what came next. Assuming he didn't act to stop her, he'd end up with the same sword across his throat that the enforcer had gotten earlier. "Mind telling us what a hero's doing in a bar full of villains?", she asked, sounding more curious than threatening.
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: STOP!
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: WAIT ONE SECOND!
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: WHAT IS A SEAGULL DOING ON MY THRONE!?!?
Morgan headed over to where Blue-eyes was sitting "Hey there care for anything?" She leaned abit foward as she spoke.
Brian turned to Spencer "Sorry about your ... um Game but buisness and all." He looked as the Doctor left "She should be back by now I just asked her to look around."
[ QUOTE ]
"Also, met another guy there. Claimed to be there on business from the Family, that they were hiring the Lost to take care of that warehouse for them. I can go back if that's different from what you've been told."
"...also, who's the crazy guy with the spud?", she added with a hint of curiosity, gesturing towards Doctor Von Krayzee.
[/ QUOTE ]
"That was diffrent then what I was told after all most of the time the Family has gunmen on the roof tops in that area. Thought The real owner ... like myself I pay for the right to own a buisness in Family terf. Might have hired the Lost. But really the Lost are a bunch of nut job mutated homeless folk they arn't really the Hire for a Job type. Something smells fishy about this and it not the decapitated heads now at the warehouse."
In scanning the room, Alvin made a note of the stalker's position as she faded from sight and assigned his targeting drone to monitor her movements. He rolled his one good eye at the stalker's question, making no attempt to block the sword's path.
"I already said I'm not here for a fight," he stated matter of factly. "I'm looking for someone named Tommy Haverson, I was told he'd be here tonight. He has information regarding the whereabouts of the person responsible for this."
As he spoke the opaque face shield he had never been seen without slid upwards into his helmet, revealing a network of scars crisscrossing his face and a cybernetic eye replacing his missing right one. At the same time a crackling hiss could be heard coming from the vicinity of his forearms.
"Once I get the information I need I'll be on my way, and you can all get back to..well, whatever it is you were doing. I'm not doing the hero thing tonight...this is personal. When I find the man responsible for my condition here I intend on strangling him with his own intestines or something equally graphic, and I would prefer that Longbow didn't find out about it."
((Note: Claws's body is obviously largely cybernetic, with both arms and his legs below the knees being artificial. He is a regenerator stemming from nanomachines that repair both organic and metallic materials, and has energy claws than emanate from his forearms. He is, for most purposes, immortal. He can be killed, but nothing yet has managed to keep him dead for more than a few minutes.))
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison See, it's gems like these that make me check Claws' post history every once in a while to make sure I haven't missed anything good lately. |
When the large green and red...thing struck her, Jameson cursed again the point of being able to see three minutes into the future if it never came true...
Rolling with the blow across her jaw, the nightwidow reduced her circle of attention, focusing more attention on the guy in front of her. In five seconds, she'd have her opening.
A quick wave of her hand and a bit of psychic power would numb the thing's memory of the past 10 seconds, allowing her to get another good hit in during its disorientation.
Jumping into the air in a small backflip, she arc'd her claws out and hoped this would disable the thing.
Infinity
Sam Varden 50 MA/Reg Scrap
Doomtastic 50 SS/Inv Brute
Ceus 50 Eng/Kin Corr
Cinderstorm 50 Fire/Fire Blaster
Jameson faded to a soft outline for the Brutish Tomato, who's fury was growing with every strike. For a moment, the combination of obfuscation and backflip made it seem like Jameson was breaking contact, then the claws struck home, tearing through the shield and ripping his soft, juicy skin and scraping on the metal chassis underneath. A new wave of rage overtook the Cybernetic Tomato, and it put it's hands together over its head, bringing them down like a giant, red glowing mace, following it hard upon with a series of powerful swings, each boosted by the monster's anger and cybernetics.
Doc Von Krayzee came around the side of the building with his thermal mug full of chemicals and stared at the battle. "No no no no no! STOP!" As the doctor screamed, the Tomato took a single step back, to see if his attacker was going to press.
Before she even landed on her feet, Jameson knew the next few seconds were going to hurt. Dropping prone on the ground to avoid the heavy handed swing from the robot, she evaluated the next three seconds with great care. Dodge to the left, take a gut shot, dodge to the right and get popped in the face again.
She sprung to her feet and took the jab to the gut, kicking the large cyborg to provide some space. Her right widow claw contracted as she loaded a poison dart. She aimed it at the robot when the mad scientist came around the corner.
Watching the thing stand down, Jameson sighed and rubbed her jaw. Shouldn't bruise to badly. "So I'm going to take a wild guess that this--" she gestured her head to the cyborg, "is not what was freaking you out?"
Infinity
Sam Varden 50 MA/Reg Scrap
Doomtastic 50 SS/Inv Brute
Ceus 50 Eng/Kin Corr
Cinderstorm 50 Fire/Fire Blaster
[ QUOTE ]
"Once I get the information I need I'll be on my way, and you can all get back to..well, whatever it is you were doing. I'm not doing the hero thing tonight...this is personal. When I find the man responsible for my condition here I intend on strangling him with his own intestines or something equally graphic, and I would prefer that Longbow didn't find out about it."
[/ QUOTE ]
"Well your put me in a bit of a bind. Orders from Lord Recluse himself any Hero spotted in the islands should be reported. Even those that aren't in the good with paragon anymore. Manticore trick got Old eightlegs underware in a bind you see." He scratched his chin. "thought if you say show unquestionably your not in the Hero work anymore..."
"Pffft, only reason I'm even a hero is because it lets me go where I need to go to take care of my own interests without too many questions. I'm not quitting because I need to be able to operate in Paragon without being bothered, I give em some punks and take down a villain here and there and they leave me alone. You can go ahead and report my presence to Arachnos, by the time they put together enough of a force to actually stop me I'll be long gone."
Claws gestures toward Tony. "I imagine your bookie over there has made quite a bit of money taking bets against me. Only reason I don't want a fight tonight is it would be inconvenient, any other time I'd oblige y'all. Pretty sure I can't be permanently killed, but if I have to take the time to resurrect and get everything back in working order my target might get away, which would be annoying. Besides, I wouldn't take it as a given that I wouldn't win."
He smirks as much as his facial scarring will allow and steps sideways, letting the stalker's blade slice through his throat as he does so. There is a quick spurt of blood that stops almost instantly as the wound closes behind the blade.
"Ouch. As you can see, I'm difficult to take down. All a fight would do is trash your bar and a few of your patrons...and slow me down."
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison See, it's gems like these that make me check Claws' post history every once in a while to make sure I haven't missed anything good lately. |
Blue-eyes casually looked around the bar, taking careful mental notes of the establishment's patrons and with whom they spoke to, while a lit cigarette was slowly being placed between the man's lips. Taking a deep breath, his eyes focused upon the cloud of white smoke as he exhaled, watching it slowly dissipate into the surrounding air with mild interest.
There was truly nothing remarkable about him. He bore an average frame, tended to keep quiet, and had been seen in The Den on multiple occasions. Typically, his dark hair would be impeccably groomed, but this day it was a tangled mess. His facepaint, however, was the same as always. A dark blue, covering the upper-half of his face in what he believed to be the likeness of a serpent.
Once he was satisfied with the smoke's disappearance, he set his gaze upon Brian and Jameson as they conversed, though he could not hear anything audibly, being out of earshot, and watched them enter the kitchen with a pang of curiosity.