RP: ISC Phoenix [Interlude 4] - A Hard Day's Night

Here we go. Guy went out of an elevator with a bag in his hand. He tried to look casual but he smelled a like gunshot and was sweating profusely. That must be him. Zeta let him walk out and then she get behind him. Walked quietly to him, then caught his shoulder with her cyber arm and put her finger to his back.

"Move one inch and I will blast you freakin' assassin!" Zeta said to him, tightening her grip.
"Now you will slowly open that bag and show me the rifle inside and then we will go to meet my captain."

Seeing that the musician was safe, Vincienzo swung down the last few balconies and dropped to the ground. Not too far ahead of him, Zeta was heading into an adjacent building at a brisk run. "Didn't I see her back on the ship, one of Pavone's crew?", he thought as he took up pursuit, "She might've seen the lens flare on the scope or sum'n."

By the time he had reached her, Zeta already managed to somewhat subdue the sniper and was attempting to get him to open his bag. Enzo quickly drew his Type 29 and leveled it with the sniper.

"You heard the lady, punk!" he sneered, making downward motions with his free hand, "Drop your junk and let's see whatcha got, pal! Now!"

After a few silent seconds he added, "...and don't think I'm afraid dust you, pal. I've done it plenty times before. So don't try anything funny, or stupid."

Vincent stirred from his sleep immediately after hearing the gunshot. It was a hardwired, mentally-conditioned reaction for the ID-Sol to immediately go on edge at the sound of gunfire, and today was no different. Pulling one of his Hand Cannons out from the gun belt hung from one of the bedposts, the hulking mercenary sprinted out of his hotel room just in time to see Zeta heading into the elevator.

Taking to the fire escape (just as he had planned in case of an emergency), the mercenary sprinted down, down, down to the base floor before bursting through the emergency exit- and immediately being waylaid by a small knot of tourists standing directly in front of him. "Oh, you've gotta be fuckin' kidding me!" The mercenary shouted as he parted the crowd with his tree trunk-like arms and sprinted off after Zeta, just barely keeping up with the woman (she clearly had a headstart).

By the time he caught up, he noticed a new guy- probably the one from the shuttle he had stopped for- also pulling his gun. Vincent immediately raised his own Hand Cannon, adding significantly to the firepower on hand and pointed at the sniper's face. He said nothing, merely contorted his face into an angry stare, tombstone teeth bared, grey-blue eyes flashing.

Robert limped over to where his boss was laying on top of his latest cool move. "I just want to be there when you miss the balloon just to see what you'd do then Boss." he smirked as he offered his hand to the relaxing captain. "I don't think you need to worry about the sniper either. I hear a lot of screams from across the way. Vincent's probably already beating him to death in front of a crowd."

"Don't move!" Arin pointed her 'weapon' at the sniper and then pulled the trigger. Zeta, Vincienzo, Vincent and the would be assassin were all caught in the blast radius, a bright white beam washing over the area, which would not have occurred if the the thing used the more modern IF/UV image intensifiers as opposed to an antiquated flash system. She quickly fled the scene back to the adjacent building.

"Smile!" Robert and Luca were also both shot, twice.

There were a total of three shots, one of Luca riding the alligator, the three way holdup scene and lastly of Robert offering his hand to his supine leader. The antiquated camera had no onboard memory, instead it immediately printed out each shot in 3 1/4" x 4 1/4" film, the Representative quickly sealed these in a thin plastic wrap and then tucked them in one of her many pockets.

"What's a holiday without pictures?" She grinned to herself.

"Argh!" Was Vincent's initial reaction to the antiquated flash bulb going off in his peripheral vision, followed by his gun hand immediately retracting to paw manically at his suddenly stinging, blinded eyes. "What the fu-" Was Vincent's secondary reaction, once he had regained some semblance of sight and had immediately retrained his gun on the sihlouette of what appeared to the gunman that had shot at Luca. In reality, his gun was pointed at the other Vince, but he didn't realize this fact until about twelve seconds later.

His final reaction, a loud "DAMMIT!", came as he immediately turned back towards the sniper, swinging the back of his huge left hand at the sniper's head, catching him in a vicious backhand and throwing him to the floor. Sure enough, Vincent immediately put one size 17 boot on the sniper's chest and aimed down the sights of his hand cannon, blinking to get the blinking purple dots out of his eyesight.

As large flash of light appeared in front of Zeta. She instinctively closed her eyes. Unfortunately for sniper she also reflexively tightened her grip. Painful sound came out of his mouth. Then some big force took the sniper out of her grasp. By the time she could see properly again Big Guy from there crew already stood on hers catch aiming his mega-gun on its head.
When there was nothing in front of Zeta suddenly her finger aiming into the air.

"You know," she told to the Vince with irony in her voice. "If you shoot his head of it will make ugly loud noise and he won't also tell us anything. You know trivial information, like who hired him such."

Robert whirled around on his bad leg as the flash happened. But his leg gave out and he fell over as soon as he started to pull his boss up.
"What the mess was that?" He shouted from the ground.

"I realize that," Vincent said back, lowering his voice to an almost indecipherable rumble. "But do you really think I was going to shoot him?" Turning back towards the captive sniper, the ID-Sol scowled, bared his teeth and cocked the hammer on his Hand Cannon. If he was going to intimidate the poor sucker, then by god he was going to relish the occasion.

"How could I know?" said Zeta. "I don't know you at all. You can shoot his head off as of what I know."
Big guy seem a little strange to Zeta. Why the hell he grabbed the sniper. She was alredy holding him. He didn't know she had no gun in her hand. Maybe taht hulk just like to intimidate others. Yeah big guy boasting his ego. I bet he is compesating something with that big gun of his. That thought made Zeta smile a little.

But that wasn't important anymore. Zeta looked around for her a captain, relieved that is okay. He is okay and he just did the craziest thing she ever saw.

Enzo lit another cigarette and walked towards Vincent and the sniper with a twinkle in his eye.

"We're getting nowhere like this, guys," he said, "and I've got an appointment to keep with Luca. So, let me take over, if you don't mind."

Vincienzo leaned in and tapped ashes into the sniper's hair. He smiled one more time before he started talking to the sniper, his voice taking a higher pitch. "I've got a littly story to tell you, my friend. It happened, oh, six years ago. A small group of pirates boarded me. You might be suprised, but I managed to pop half of their heads before they held me down. (He thrusted the barrel of his gun against the sniper's temple to emphasize his point.) They thought I was quite the marksman, you see. Do you know what some pirate groups like to do with marksmen?" He looked at the sniper expectantly for a moment before continuing, "They like to cut their eyes, buddy. They tried to cut out my eyes, they did indeed try. See this scar right below my right eye? They sure came close, didn't they? But they didn't manage to, no they didn't."

Vincienzo snickered as he leaned in and placed his forefinger and thumb on the sniper's eyelid, peeling it open. Then, he took the cigarette from his mouth and slowly slid it along the would-be assasin's cheek, leaving a minor burn. To finish his act, he leaned in one more time and whispered in the sniper's ear.

"But they didn't have a big giant ID-SOL holding me down, either."

Enzo winked at the sniper the way a used car salesman would wink at his customer if he were making him a special deal.

"When I get back from my appointment, I'm going to put a cigarette out in both of your eyes if nobody has heard what they want to hear from you."

With his last scentence he holstered his gun and patted Vincent on the back, giving him the universal sign for 'have fun with him' as he turned around. Before he reached the door he turned suddenly and said, "Oh! Big Guy, my name's Vincienzo Bortelli, by the way. Call me Vinny, Vince, Enzo, or whatever you like. Sorry to ruin my dramatic exit, but I've got to be polite!"

With that, he left the building and made his way across the sand to Luca and Robert. "Hey, Cap'n Pavone, still up for a trip after all that excitement?", he asked as he came withing arm's reach of the two.

Look like all is done. Snipers in custody and no one was hurt. Not bad not bad. With that in mind Zeta walked behind the shady coat guy, or Vince as he introducted himself. He looks like okay guy but Zeta will kep an eye on him to be sure. Who knows where he is goin to lure the captain and captains safety is her responsibility.

Vincienzo looked over at Zeta approaching him and the rest of the group and smiled, the cigarette turning up in his mouth. "You're the lady that bagged the rifleman, aren't you?"

His eyes crossed her up and down , taking stock as he did with everything. After he appraised her equipment, he looked back at her eyes before asking, "So why'd you poke the guy in the head with your finger with that cute little pistol at your hip?"

Without waiting for a response, he turned to Luca and said, "This cute little number here pokes the guy with her finger when she's got a real gun right there on her belt!" After an awkward silence he smiled at Zeta again and chuckled.

"I'm just joking with you, lady, you did good!", he said, slapping his leg.

"Yeah I caught him and I disn't need the pistol because he was in reach." replied Zeta to Vince.
"Plus I had my magical gun." she said with a little smirk and pointed her forefinger on Vince.

Then she turned to Luca. "Are you okay Captain?" she asked him.

"Plus I had my magical gun." she said with a little smirk and pointed her forefinger on Vince.

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"Indeed." Arin nodded sagely, this was coming from a woman who needed tools, manuals and other aids to get even the simplest job done. Going into a firefight without carrying anything (already a heresy by itself to the Representative) with the exception of one pinky and winning was, in Nepleslian street slang, 'Pretty Fucking Cool'.

While she looked away from the interrogation both Vincents were giving the wannabe Sniper, she did not not completely condone it. "Hopefully the other bounty hunters will get the idea and quit, we can't have people shooting at us all the time!"

Vincent didn't wait too long after Vincenzo left. He responded to the conman's introduction with little more than a low grunt, then bent down, grasped the sniper's collar firmly and jerked him up onto his feet, then off his feet and into the air. Supporting the man easily with one hand, Vincent delivered a blow to the sniper's torso with his free hand, followed up by a knee to the groin, before holding the man's collar.

"Alright," the mercenary grunted, "now unless you want us to grind your bones into a fine paste I suggest you listen." Jerking the man's face close to his own, close enough so that the sniper could smell Vincent's breath- booze, saliva and the remains of his breakfast- the ID-Sol spoke in a barely audible growl. "Who sent you here, and why does that person want Captain Luca Pavone dead?"

The assassin knew that he was royally in over his head. This was exacerbated as two law enforcement officers drew their hand-cannons and moved towards the standoff. Nearby civilians were steering clear of the situation.

"Okay sonny, you'd better do as these nice people say," One of the bigger policemen said, "Or we'll do it to you much worse."

"Some guy called Cain, some angry bitch, and some other guy who called himself Dove, or something!" The would-be-Assassin splurted out as he fumbled with something in his mouth, "I've fucked up reaaally bad, I'm die now."

"Wait, what does he mean..." The other, slimmer policeman asked himself as comprehension flashed across his face, "Oh, shit!"
He dropped his gun and dove towards the assassin, thrusting his hand into his mouth, "He's got a poison pill!"

The policeman tried to wrestle the capsule out of his mouth, "Don't bite down!" He continued to fiddle and fumble as best as he could without getting a finger bitten off, but the assassin begun to shake and tremble violently. Foam begun to spurt from his mouth as his eyes rolled into the back of his head.

The policeman shook his head, withdrew his hand and let the body drop to the floor with a thump.
"Call base, get a body bag." The slim policeman lamented as he turned to Vincent, "We were in the neighbourhood, heard the shot, came to investigate..." He introduced himself with a nod of the hat in Vincent's direction.

Meanwhile, the Inflatable crocodile had made a landing on the beach, with the two other band members of Balloon gathering the crocodile and rolling it all back up for that night's performance.

Luca got up and dusted himself off. He gave a nod to Zeta, then noticed the body on the floor of the building over, still convulsing.
"I'm feeling a lot better than he is," Luca observed wryly as he pointed to the corpse, "That's the guy who tried to kill me?"

As the policemen dragged the body out of the building, Enzo followed behind them to gather the evidence. For himself, that is. Dragging the bag around a corner, Enzo cackled mischeviously as he examined his loot. A disassembled sniper rifle, and a custom made one, too. A bottle of pills, small doubt they were a tranquilizer of some sorts. In the off chance that it was more of the suicide pills, he decided to leave them behind. There was also a black beret bearing the insignia of the Red faction.

Enzo chuckled as he put the cap on. "Now this is contradictory," he said, still laughing, "a green faction coat and a red faction hat. Now alls I need is a pair of Yammie pants."

He continued his search through the duffle bag and found a communicator, another pack of smokes, and last but certainly not least, a custom made holdout pistol with an extra clip. It looked to nice for the sniper who was carrying it. It had silver plates crossing the slide, engraved with the name "Fred Duncan" and an extended magazine protruding from the clip. Vince slid the chamber open to look at the bullet inside.

"Forty-five? Ohohohooiyeah, I'm keepin' dis!"

After a fair appraisal of the items inside, he stuffed the pistol into the back of his pants like he had with his Type 29 before he had rigged its new holster, further arming himself. He then gathered the rest of his newly aquired wares under one arm and walked out of the building, making sure to keep out of the policemen's sight as he crossed the sand back to Luca and the others.

When he reached them, he laid the items out in front of him and sat cross-legged, puffing smoke in a thick cloud as he went.

"Here," he began, gesturing to the items in front of him with open hands, "I managed to gather some evidence for processing and a little bit of personal profit. There's the communicator, you can probably ring some info out of that. The rifle, which we could sell or just use, depending on what you guys like to use. It's pretty nice, either way. And there's this hat; which I like, but I'm willing to part with anyways. Not to mention a pistol, but that one's off limits. I like it way too much."

He adjusted his hat and finished his cigarette before continuing: "This guy had stuf that was way to nice for his level on the totem pole. Let's not forget that poison pill of his either. I think he went and spent his bounty before he collected it. Any of youse got any ideas, here?"

Zeta was quite relieved that Luca was okay. She was no actress and relief could be seen on her face.
"Yes captain. That was the man who tried to kill you. Luckily he didn't succeed." replied Zeta to Lucas question.

"So Captain I can assume this happens quite often doesn't? I mean assassination attempts, not croc-riding." she then asked him.
"Anyway I believe we should move around the city in car. Should I fetch on of the off-roads from Big bird?"
That was the last of Zetas question. She meant it with all of her heart but to tell the truth, she also wanted to try that car out! She loves off-roads and other tank-like built cars.

Jim arrived on the scene, dripping wet and completely out of breath. He had obviously ran all the way from the beach to the site of the gunshot. "What the hell just happened?!" He yelled, as he advanced upon the rest of the crew and the two policemen. "Do you people even know the meaning of Rest and Relaxation?! It means not getting shot at! Now let's see what we can do about sorting this all out, because honestly, I'm fuckin' tired of dealing with shit like this when we're just here to relax!"

Interestingly, Jim's voice had started to take on subtle nuances not found on Yamatai. From being with Luca for a while, as well as the rest of the crew, Jim had started to talk like a Nepleslian.