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

By the gods what bad luck, cursed the assassin when he was found out. He had stood where he was to see if the Not Luca would not notice him, since he was running on the assumption that drunks have a hard time seeing anything that doesn't move.

And how he came up with a reason that he wasn't Luca? Probably the fact he came alone, doubtfully leaving someone with a high bill on his head to be left alone.

However he heard something heavy coming towards the door, probably one of the ones that spotted him go in the room. Panther had only a few seconds to act, and he would charge himself right into the man in drunken rage and deflect the man's weapon with his own while his charge should daze the human long enough to get a good gripe on the man's arm with the knife and hold it tightly, while keeping a knife on the man's neck.

About the time he had disarmed his opponent, another breaks though the wall. Panther may have a human shield on hand, and if not would be running to the window.

Enzo was caught head on by the disarm and the come-along, his legs buckling as his arm twisted in front of him and his knife fell to the floor. He felt the cool steel of the knife against his neck.

"You moron," he spat, "I just met these guys, they don't give half a rat about me. You're going to get us both killed."

Enzo gained his footing again and lifted his right foot, trying to kick off of the dresser next to him and perform some kind of acrobatic trick to escape the hold. He clawed at Panther with his free hand while his foot struggled to make some kind of purchase, still in the assasin's grip.

After hearing the scuffle, and seeing Vincent get ready to fight, Luca thought that he'd open the door with the rapid application of a boot, knocking it off of its hinges.
He immediately moved in with his pistol up.

He assessed the situation, the man he was trying to bail out had a knife to his neck from an unknown assailant, and could get himself killed. He had to convince the assassin that it wasn't worth it, and he had the perfect idea and proof.

"There's a better way to solve this, because that ISN'T me," Luca told the assassin in deadpan as he used his other hand to reach for his communicator and pull it out, while maintaining eye contact with Enzo's assailant.

"You won't mind if I tell you a little story about who wants me dead and why before you try and kill me, or my crewmate? I figure if you ARE going to kill someone, you might as well get the full story."

He used the Communicator's media centre program to make a playlist of all of the moments in the spotlight that the crew of the Phoenix have found themselves in. Ranging from bringing in a killer Doctor, to taking down Vitriol, Cain, some of the Reds and the Mishhu on Tami.

He decided to back up his statement, "Hear me out before you act, I've got a trigger happy ID-SOL and the rest of my crew ready to back me up if you try anything interesting."

"You tell 'em!" John hollered from across the hall as he burped loudly. This made Luca's concentration break for just a moment.

The assassin glanced for a second at the struggling Enzo at his statement, only to strengthen his grip to insure he felt some pain. Moron, if your life was worth nothing, they wouldn't have busted down a door for you, the hooded assassin kept to himself.

Panther kept an eye for the ID Sol, while listening to Luca. Upon seeing Luca pull something out, he drew the knife closer to Enzo's throat, "I rather not, you could be calling for more of yours to arrive," replied Panther in a deep voice, "If you don't mind, I much rather kill you so I can continue to provide for myself, since the fleshling here isn't worth anything, just let me leave so I may attempt to kill you some other time."

I can attest to being smarter than the last assassin at least, Panther thought while waiting for the response, I am apparently in front of the Luca, escaping from his clutches would prove to be a greater challenge.

Uriel bade Luca and Sebastian goodnight as they left. On the surface he was calm, but inside there was turmoil at the thought of an Elysian going to such lengths. He thought he understood the logic behind it- flawed as it was: make them better. The fact that humans simply couldn't compare, physically speaking, to Elysians was common knowledge. The Patrician's guess was that something had led that departed and unstable fellow to the idea that he could "improve them." It was disconcerting to say the least, and Uriel was wondering just how many of them would already have negative feelings about his presence simply due to his being an Elysian.

No matter. There are more important things of which to take care: such as myself. On that note, he headed for the elevators and proceeded to the 49th floor like all those before him: conveniently, he too had his room on the 49th. Shortly after exiting the elevator, he heard troubled voices emanating from an open doorway. He approached with caution and curiosity.

Enzo started kicking harder and harder as the knife closed in and the grip tightened. He screamed like a deep-voiced, foul-mouthed child, "You dirty little bastard! When I get my hands on you, oh, I'm gonna pulverize you! I'm gonna puree your fuckin' eyes! Just gib me one reason not to split you in half you dirty, no-good, a sonofa--", he paused, a look of enlightenment crossed his features.

He remembered his uncle, Frank, hovering over him with medicine and bandages when he had been beaten up as a child. Uncle Lucco looked over Frank's shoulder the whole time; giving young Vincienzo tips on fighting. Lucco was telling him to be more intimidating.

"You really got to sell it to 'em yous abouts ta whoop deys hasses, Vinny!", he'd say, "Yous gots ta be calm, relaxed-- aloof.

Back in the hotel room on Nepleslia Prime, all those years later, Enzo relaxed. He turned limp, sagging in his holder's arms. He lowered ever so slightlyl the perfect space he'd been needing to reach the dresser with his foot. Casually, almost as if kicking a can, Enzo lifted his leg...

And brought it down with full force onto the dresser, stiffening again as he did so. This propelled the two entwined upwards and over, smashing into a wall as they flew. Enzo felt the knife dig into his skin as he slid out of his opponent's grip. He swung another kick leveled at Panther's shins as they tumbled over the dresser and desk, knocking over the TV with great clatter. Without seeing if he had properly stunned or subdued his opponent, Enzo made a break for the nightstand: Whose drawer held his gun.

Panther noticed his captive going limp, at first he thought the idiot finally decided to calm down before kicking the dresser and attempted to get away. He jumped back while throwing his knife toward the ID Sol full knowing that without some sort of distraction the giant would begin firing full force, then rolled for cover drawing out a handgun. He fired at the window then jumped off the balcony, falling a few floors down stopping exactly where he had entered in the first place by grabbing the railing. His hood flew back during all this revealing his ears, but it was hard to see with all that just took place.

Sitting on the balcony out of sight from above, he lamented a little for losing the throw away knife that he will have to now steal again from someone. He would wait about 30 minutes before scaling down the building one balcony at a time, and leave undetected.

Enzo wasn't far behind Panther as he jumped out the window. As he gathered his things, Vincienzo turned to the crowd behind him and said, "Don't worry. He's in my domain, now. As long as he sticks to the roofs and the alleyways, I got him."

Once he had grabbed his pistol and his knife, he hurried out the window and took a flying leap across the alleyway to the adjacent building where the sniper had been not twelve hours earlier. Enzo clambered up the fire escape and crouched on the roof guard. He raised his pistol in one hand as he scanned the rooftops for Panther. His eyes darted across the balconies quickly, not detecting any movement as Panther lay still in the shadows below. His eyes had began to clear up, the negative effects of the booze and the drowsiness wearing off in favor of the adrenaline pumping through his veins. In an effort to stay calm and precise, Enzo opened the sniper's pack of cigarettes from earlier and lit one. His legs dangled casually over the edge of the building as he sat down, trusting the fire escape below him to catch him in the event of a fall.

"I know you're still out here!", he called to the night, speaking to Panther, "You can't run away from me, this is my domain! As soon as you move, I'll spot you. If you run, I'll catch you. You caught me in a bad mood, and I lost control. I'd like to apologize for that. Try me again, and I won't be so rash."

At least, he hoped he was speaking to Panther. In truth, he was slightly bluffing. Although his eyesight WAS good, and he WAS rather fast, Enzo simply did not know if Panther had time to escape or not. So, he called out in hopes that Panther would move to fire at him, calling his bluff.

As the crisp night air mingled with the cigarette smoke, Enzo hummed a tune and kept an eye on his surroundings. From the rooftops around him to the alleyways and the street below, and the balconies in between.

Luca was not enthused at the fact that Enzo, while being able to escape, drove Panther away, and pursued him. The knife that flew towards Vincent hit him, but only nicked his large frame, causing tiny damage. It hit the wall behind him and fell to the ground. However, it did cause him to lose focus.

"I'll be back in a moment, shoot to wound if you can, not to kill," Luca said as he jumped out of the window and took an extended leap thanks to the in-built Gravity Control. He landed on the roof with a roll, near Enzo. He turned around and scanned the buildings.

"Damn it, I know you're desparate to not have a blade on your neck, I've had the same thing, but driving him away wasn't what I had in mind," He told him worriedly as he scanned the buildings and projected his voice, "HEY, IF YOU'RE OUT THERE AND YOU'RE INTERESTED IN SOMETHING TO KEEP YOU OFF OF THE STREETS, GIVE ME A--"

He felt someone grab the back of his jacket and pull him back with enough force to propel him through the air and drop him about 15 metres away from where he was kneeling over.

"That assassin is not wothy of killing you, I shall collect!" Said a Nekovalkyrja woman who'd seen her eight years service.
Luca immediately kipped up and assumed a fighting stance, "Try me, she-bitch!" He taunted while thumping his knuckles together.

She immediately charged him and attempted to kick him, Luca countered by grabbing her leg and kicking her in the chest and knocking her over.
She rolled over and lunged forwards grabbing his legs and clawing at them. She then made a handstand and kicked him in the chest, staggering him.

"You are only a man!" She taunted as she stood up and laughed. Luca, who was already wounded and tired, knew that he couldn't keep up with her. He was going to need a hand, "You're entirely inferior!"

Enzo looked back and forth between the balconies on the face of the hotel and the angry cat-woman in frustration. He watched every blow with his brow furrowed. After seeing Luca receive a kick to the chest Enzo shouted, "Enough!" into the air.

He charged the Neko at full sprint, hopping onto an AC unit in mid-stride. As he neared the cat girl, Enzo leaped from the AC unit and made an arc over his opponent, firing three shots from his handgun as he came overhead. When he landed, Enzo was ready to go again, pointing his handgun level with the new assasin's head.

Jim was in the room next door, sleeping off the stress of the night, hoping that there wouldn't be anyone trying to kill them all while they slept. After the stress of the day so far, Jim fell asleep almost instantly. He slipped into a dream of his home on Yamatai, with his parents and sisters all around him, wishing him good luck and to stay safe in the military. At the time he was secretly relieved to be away from them, but at the same time, the smile on his face was a facade. He was sad. Leaving his family left him with such an empty feeling inside.

He was inside a ship, and everyone was running around, panicking. The ship jolted to one side as the gravity control flickered on then off quickly. Once again, he was blasted to one side, as the floor came up to meet him. Jim opened his eyes to see the hotel floor, blankets strewn about his body, dripping with sweat. The sound of gunshots echoed from the room next door, as well as furniture being smashed around.

Leaping up from the floor, only to slam into the ground, being trapped by the blankets. Quickly disentangling himself from the blankets, Jim quickly grabbed a bathrobe, only wearing his boxers, and rushed out the door, remembering to grab his rifle before sprinting into the next room, only to see it nearly empty. "What the hell?!" He shouted into the vacancy.

Poking his head out the window, he yelled, "Oy! What the fuck!?"

Panther with his hood back over his head and tightened the brown cloth around himself again. However he stopped heading to the door when he heard Luca's yell. It was enough to bring curiosity to Panther and walked back on the balcony to look up, only to see there was stuff going on up there.

Off the streets? To think of it he does own a ship... as he thought of this he began climbing back up the 10 floors he fell from by jumping upward one floor at a time, and at one point jumping onto an air duct in a display of Parkour.

He did seem rather odd, this Luca, his mind had to pause since the pipe buckled under his weight and about to drop him to the ground. So he leaped off the pipe across to the other building, and grabbed a convenient air duct then climbed up on the nearest balcony. While trust in humans is impossible, I cannot deny the challenge of working for this Luca. Even now another is trying to kill him before me.

He stood on the 47th floor balcony, he still had about a minute climb to go. The assassin didn't particularly liked climbing like this as it was a waste of energy, but it was better than running into the bodyguard again.

"Hesitation," Is all the Nekovalkyrja assassin observed as she grabbed Enzo's arm and flipped him onto his back with one arm and a silky motion. His gun flew into the air and she caught it, pointing it to Enzo, "Terrible thing."

"Distraction!" Luca called out as he drew his pistol and let out the last four 10mm shots into her head. Even though a human had the good sense to fall down after one headshot, Nekovalkyrja were a little more stubborn in regards to this complication.

She staggered for a moment and dropped the pistol by Enzo's side with her hand at the wounds, attempting to regenerate them quickly and rebalance her mind. Luca then charged forwards and followed up his head shots with a very mean Right cross to the Neko's head, which just about did it, sending her into a spiral and flooring her.

"Bitch!" He called out for emphasis. He turned around and lifted up Enzo and returned his pistol, assuming his job in cat-disposal was done, "There are some very nasty people out to kill me. I'm not sure who I've pissed off by killing the local megalomaniac."

As the captain tended to Enzo, the Nekovalkyrja, silent as could be stood back up and stared at the two, and was taking a moment to catch her breath before tearing into them again.

Panther got an eyeful of this, as did Melissa, who was standing out on the balcony, attracted to all of the ruckus. She was getting the braces of her rifle set on the balcony in order to get a clean kill.

"Your head better not be too attached to your neck..." Melissa mumbled under her breath as she fiddled with everything on her rifle, including giving it a few moments to power up and be used to its fullest potential.

Panther jumped up to the 48th level balcony when he saw the cat girl thing began to stand up. He felt a thrill coming up from within as he rushed to the side of the balcony while drawing his gun to fire. He fired three not-too-well-aimed shots before throwing away the weapon, he himself wasn't well versed in gun weapons and probably would have scored a good hit if he still had a usable knife.

After he reached the end of the balcony he jumped up to the balcony which the party was taking place. Unaware of Luca's friendly sniper he would attempt to get in close and use his own claws to carve a hole in the Neko's midsection then breaking it's neck. It was his hope that the gunfire during this short amount of time would unbalance the thing until he got to it, but wasn't sure if it was enough as he was up against a Neko.

A great ruckus erupted from the room, culminating in the sound of shattering glass, gunfire, and more shouting. When Uriel made his way into the room, only the ID-SOL and Jim- who'd beaten him to the room- were present with the latter leaning out through a window. Carefully and calmly the Patrician made his way to the opposite side of the room and peered up through a window that had remained intact throughout the struggle. On the building across the way, another fight had erupted. More gunfire and more very impressive displays of skill were given by all those involved. The elder Hisshana received that much more certainty that he'd made the right choice.

"I'll cut the weaklings like a roll of -" The Neko was mouthing to herself while she let her proverbial claws out, glistening with her blood. She then heard the sounds of gunfire and turned around.
A shots whizzed past her, but one hit her in the chest while the other struck the lower area of Luca's right arm, hitting the hidden iron plate with a clang.

"Who-" Luca turned around and pulled Enzo up to notice Panther leaping forward with his claws out and Kohanian visage in full view. Luca felt the need to make a correction, "What the?"

The Neko did not anticipate what was coming next at all as the Kohanian's claws tore into her torso and attempted to dispatch her. He was able to score a lenghtly gouge into her, but breaking her neck was problematic, as she was resisting with every bit of effort left in her.

Meanwhile, Melissa was watching this from the scope of her rifle, and kept her focus on the Nekovalkyrja in spite of the tussle. She was able to get a clear shot of her upper chest, and took the opportunity quickly.

A stream of crackling ionised air was left from the trail of the bullet with a loud report to accompany its travel. As for its target, it went right through the Nekovalkyrja's chest and destroyed the upper torso and head, barely missing the other combatant. What was left of her was a red stain, a pair of legs, a waist and two arms.
It would've been an understatement to say that it was dead, or at least it'd take a days to regenerate a wound that bad, enough time to get a policeman onto it.

"Hey!" Melissa called out with a wave to the combatants, "Thanks for keepin' her still, mate." Then it struck her just how different he was, and realised that there was something that looked like a big cat you'd find somewhere in the drier parts of Kennewes, but standing upright, "Wait... what is he?" She asked herself as she raised a pair of binoculars hanging on her neck and focused it on Panther, hard pressed to determine what he was.

"Thanks Mel!" Luca called out, but then focused on the Kohanian, who had no idea just what he was, but was drawn to him from sheer curiousity. He took a few steps forward, ignoring the bloodshed around him.

"So, uh," He said as he raised his hand, "You're having a hard time getting money and employment since you, well, look really different to everyone else, right? You're unable to do what you want, so you have to resort to doing other people's wetwork just to get a meal?"

He turned around to look at Enzo, then looked at Panther again while pointing his thumb to him, "My friend over here is just like that - he had everything he owned stolen from him by Pirates. I've taken him in and I'm going to do what it takes to get him back on his feet. I think you two are very similar like that."

Sebastian, meanwhile, getting a view of the Kohanian. He saw that his son was okay, the assassin, while familiar, was not attacking him. He figured his son had talked him down.
What is he? He mused to himself, Where did he come from? Why do odd people and things just gravitate to my son?

"Me and that mutt have very little in common," Enzo spat, wiping blood from his face, "I gots half a mind to jump ship right now, Pavone. This is the guy that just tried's to kill me! And he presumably did it to kill you! If I didn't owe yous my livelyhood and smell a whole bunch of money involved in all this, I'd leave you here right now and go back to liftin' bozes for a living."

After a brief moment, Enzo approached Panther with an angry look on his face.

"I do gotta admit," he continued, "You got some good moves, mutt."

Suddenly, it exploded.

It took a while for the Panther like Kohanian to register what just happened, his sense of smell did return him to his senses, with the smell of blood everywhere.

However he first looked up where the sniper was yelling, then proceeded clean himself with his cloth wrapped around himself. He would have to clean himself in greater detail later, hopefully before the blood stained his black fur. He then threw away the cloak figuring he didn't need it anymore now that he was found out.

He was still wearing his jacket with the hood, but probably seemed a little strange that what was left on him was a while muscle shirt, and a pair of worn navy blue boxers. He did have a makeshift holster close to his chest where his gun and blade were, and his curved dagger holstered at his hip.

He took slow careful walked up to Luca as he made his offer with his arms at his side and in full view, though he also heard Enzo, thought it would be better to introduce himself first. "My given name by this world is Panther, I am a Kohanian as you see," he said with a deep voice while not pronouncing the Trade Speak correctly, "I was given Panther not because I was a Panther, but because I could not act human."

He looked up at Enzo and seemed to chuckle, "I have doubt it was similar, human. However it was harder to gain respect when treated not human myself. Also I am a feline, not a mutt." His cat like left ear twitched as to make his point as he looked at Luca again then placed his right arm on his chest and bowed slightly as he said, "Luca, if you accept what I am then I shall work for you."

Jim jumped from the 49th floor, out into the open air. As he started to gain speed, he started to affect the gravity around him, slowing his fall and sharply affecting his trajectory, so that he was headed for the other building, one floor down. It didn't take him long to reach the balcony of the 48th floor of the other building, still only dressed in boxers and a bathrobe. As he couldn't hear anything much from where he was standing, and nothing at all as he was falling. As his feet gently touched the floor, he tromped up the stairs to the group, his face set in a frown. "What the hell guys?! Why do these things always come up when I'm sleeping or wearing nice clothes, or anything ready to fight!?"

He finally noticed the Kohanian. Turning to look at him, he yelled, "And who the hell are you?!"

"Don't worry," Luca said as he shook hands with the Kohanian, "Everybody is a person, the way they decide to be doesn't matter. Now, I'd say we better skedaddle and leave the cops to clean this up. I feel sorry for whoever's drawing the chalk line."

Luca looked around for any sort of way to get back up to Floor 49 without going via the ground. "I think there's a spare room somewhere on my floor," He mentioned as he stood at the edge of the opposite building and keened himself for a jump, "Maybe you can stay there the night while the heat dies down - ALEZ-OOP!"

He made a standing leap, and managed to grab the rails of the Forty Five Star Hotel. He was able to grapple onto a balcony on Floor 43, holding tight and catching his breath.

However, he'd failed to realise that all of the noise had woken up some of the guests, and he was staring at two of them on the balcony who were trying to have a secluded evening.
The Yamataian couple were more surprised at Luca's intrusion than he was at what just happened previously.
"Sir, may I ask why you're performing feats of derring do at this hour?" The husband questioned the captain in Yamatai-go.
The woman chimed in, "It is entirely silly to perform such acts."

"It's not really that important, do continue, and sleep well!" Luca sheepishly apologised in the same language as he lifted himself up onto the rail, then jumped up, grabbed the next balcony, lifted himself onto the rails, and repeated the process until he reached the 47th floor. He wasn't used to this sort of climbing, and it tired him out quickly.

He took a moment to breathe. Meanwhile, on the 49th floor balcony, Sebastian and Anna leaned over.
"I'd like to have a word with you when you get up!" Anna scorned her son for his reckless behaviour, and segued into an Italian rant only a truly ticked-off mother could produce.

Luca found the strength to hang by one hand and bury his face in his spare hand.
"What? Yer mummy doesn't like ya line 'o work?" Mel wryly observed, giggling to herself as she put her rifle away.