RP: ISC Phoenix [Interlude 5] - The Making Of

Naoko Aihara walked.

Casually.

Her miniskirt was black and gold plaid, and aside from that, there was nothing over her legs, and normally this would have drawn attention; Naoko had nice legs. Short socks, neatly laced combat boots - otherwise, nothing. It was a really short skirt.

The problem was that nobody wanted to tackle a Nekovalkyrja with a Handcannon, let alone two at once. This spared her most of the nonsense until she’d walked up just behind the Phoenix crew. The holstered irons swinging at her hips, brushing against her skirt, about as long as her forearm, deterred most smart people.

And when she drew them -

KRA-KOW

- it became readily apparent why. Somebody on the far end, crouched against a vehicle, died. He did not die because Naoko had good enough aim to skim the top of his skull, which had been showing over the hood ever-so-slightly, he died because Naoko shot through the hood of the van, and sent a hundred splinters of twisted metal through his body at several randomized points, spraying crap all the way into the next vehicle and sending the evil denizens of this world on to the next, which some people - particularly the Seraphim - believed to be hell.

Well, Naoko thought, let them burn brightly.

KRA-KOW!

Zeta still stood in middle of the street firing her gatling at anything that fired their way. As bad is she though of herself, she was enjoying this. Action is always nice, hacing adrenalin in her veins and all. She noticed Luca charing the enemies and swiftly dispatching them. Part of her though Nice! while other though Why does he risks to much?

Zeta was wondering why he took cover behind the car suddenly. His warning about sniper came too late as bullet hit Zeta's shields. Bullet was only slowed by shields, came through adn pinged of her shoulder guard.

"Yikes," Zeta said as she boosted into cover next to Luca. "Hey, boss. They are packing some serious heat! This is gonna be a lot of fun!" She said to him and peeked out. "THermal imaging Wesley please. Time to hunts us donw some snipers." She said to her AI.

Smith hummed to herself a devilish little tune as the rifle coughed - the back of a man's head exploded, showering the person behind him with gore. This horrified individual's chest then suddenly puckered as a hole appeared. More gore out the back. Match grade bullets out of a match grade gun was exciting! Her rifle coughed again as the large suppressor at the end fought the explosive force of the rounds into quiet modesty. "You know Mr. Pavone, you're best sticking to things like this." Smith pointed out to the man. She quickly relocated.

"I mean, you're great at this. Why bother wandering into lecturing?" she happily chattered over the comms.

Another cough. Another fell.

"I can't be a one trick pony my whole life, can I Mr. Smith?" Luca replied as he gave Seiren a nod and watched inadequate sniper bullets bounce off his armour. The bullets weren't enough to do damage, but they were giving Seiren a headache, "Seiren, you're a big target. You'd better open up before they start focussing on-" Luca heard the gunfire start to thin out and he popped his head out of cover.

Smith, Naoko and Zeta had done a good job in taking out the people on the ground who were keeping Luca pinned down. "Nevermind. Move, move, move!" He commanded.
There were still snipers on the roof though, but Luca found himself able to get out of cover and keep pressing his advantage while dodging sniper fire. A large crater scored the ground and kicked up a cloud of debris where Luca was standing just a couple of paces away to his left.

Someone had a gauss rifle, and they were smart enough to refrain from using an aiming laser. Luca's best defence was to keep mobile and unpredictable. He was vaulting over cars and concrete barriers, firing in the air wildly towards where he thought the Gauss-using rifleman was and made use of smoke screens and concealment that'd been kicked up by the warzone.

Luca could've sworn that a shot had whizzed between his legs as he dove.

Meanwhile, behind a slightly bullet-addled car, the Beta member looked at Uriel and was prompt to reply, "I'm calling reinforcements! An enemy of the Zeroes is a friend 'o the Betas, sir!" He then felt the need to justify his being in a gang to the Elysian, "Their brand of crime goes too far! We don't firebomb businesses and kill their families for not paying rent! We just stop supplying them with our stock, see?"

It was clear from the gang goer's accent that he or his family were of richer, more refined Nepleslian stock, averse to direct confrontation and better suited to word games, burglary, cons, old non-destructive vices and coercion, but never a direct firefight or confrontation. However, if push came to shove, it appeared as though he and his kind could retaliate.

"Man, who is that guy out there in the shades?" He peeked over his car and pointed to Luca, "Is he your boss or something? He's like some sorta one man army who hates the Zeroes!"

His phone acted up, "Russel, Russel! Are you sure all this is true?!"
Russel responded, "I kid you not sir. Can't you hear the explosions?"

Russel's answer was too coherent to be anything but a pathological lie or the honest truth- and if it was the former, that would be soon discovered. Besides, it was very likely fact: after all it verified the words of a beggar this man had likely never met. So Uriel nodded, accepting this response.

"It's time to be quiet; the adults are speaking." With his free hand, the Archangel wrested the phone from the Beta. Simultaneously, he gave the Beta's skull a little nudge with the Tiger's Tears- a gentle reminder of who was calling the shots. "Russell's telling the truth. Now I have an inquiry of my own: who are you? Better yet, are you one of those hip, color-coordinated gangs?" Sarcasm gave the Elysian's severe tone a very unusual sound; clearly it was unfamiliar territory for him. "Because it'd be good to know who we should and should not be shooting."

Some would say recruiting help from a lesser gang was hypocrisy; Uriel considered it foresight. If he was an ally now, he would be presumed nonthreatening in the future- which, of course, would be folly on their part.

Naoko found herself next to the Seraphim. It was kind of a joke; a long time ago the two of them would be shooting at each other, instead of watching each other's backs. He had probably killed a lot of Nekovalkyrja. She knew she'd killed Elysians.

When a bullet caught her in the torso, plugging through her shirt and the flesh beneath it to exit out the other side - some high caliber round with a full metal jacket - Naoko staggered, but didn't falter.

KRA-KOW!

She fired, decapitating the man in the window on the second story floor of some dump across the way as the hemosynth blossomed beneath her clothing, creating roses wherever the leak touched her skin. The bastard who'd shot her took a lot of the wall behind him to the grave as well.

KRA-KOW!

Her arm buckled beneath the blowback, nearly - or had it just cracked? She let it drop to her side while the angry red and purple bulge denoting the break slowly began to knit itself back together. Unphased, the next shot came from her other gun, the one she hadn't even fired yet.

KRA-KOW!

A bit of blood trickled from her nose, but the son of a bitch near the front of the building was blown apart along with a large part of the entryway door. Only then did Naoko Aihara step for cover, one arm raised and ready, the other limp, and with blood on her chest.

"Taihen mo."

Seiren was about to respond, but a rather powerful explosion triggered by a haphazard bullet hitting a car knocked his LEAF off-balance, causing him to slam into the building backwards. He sat there, dazed, while regaining his wits.

"Big target. . . riiiiight. . ." He groaned, trying to understand the situation. While he was lying there, he wasn't a threat. Who would look at a slumped frame twice when there were far more dangerous one-man armies on the loose? So he took this opportunity to study the surroundings. Something flew at Luca - judging by the size of the explosion, a gauss-fired or HE round. But he couldn't quite pinpoint the location just yet.

To Luca, he pinged,

Zeta moved with Luca. It was not easy to run with large gatling but with her armours boosters she had no trouble with obstacles. Not to mention that she did not need to go around some, but she could go right trough.

"Beta is taking his sweet time. I will kick him into his bollocks if he comes late!" Zeta shouted. She stopped for a while to spray the rooftop with gatling fire. "Eat this wankers!" She shouted as she fired.

The way Smith had been taught was a simply more elegant way of playing sniper. It was almost cheating even.

After the initial opening shots, the Ori-Rep had gone silent and moved to another rooftop by traversing across fire escapes, ears perked and listening to the numerous gunshots. The glasses' datafeed was working hard and doing the very same thing with the inbuilt microphone of the earbud Smith wore. A familiar, heroic HHG barked. The more powerful 17mm followed suit with a sound holding the authority of a death-god. A gamma ray vulcan hissed and ripped the air with an insatiable hunger. A mechanized monstrosity thundered about with rage. He didn't hear a Tiger's Tears though - was Uriel busy, silent or dead? Didn't matter.

The crackles and pops of many different guns sounded, but they were nothing that Luca and Co. couldn't handle on their own. Just as Smith believed they could do fine without, a new sound cracked across the killzone, an alert popping upon the glasses' display. The Ori-Rep got ready. "A shipwright who fancies himself a soldier is in for a world of hurt, and a soldier who fancies himself as a shipwright is going to get a lot of people killed Luca."

The gauss rifle cracked again, prompting Smith to rise, aim and fire.

As though following a trail like a dog, Enzo pulled his air-bike slowly up to roof level. He peered over the lip of one of the buildings to catch a glimpse of Smith taking fire at the big gun. His eyes darted to the next target, a sniper who'd stopped to reload. Enzo grinned a smoky grin and gunned the accelerator on the beast beneath him.

The air-bike shot forwards in an arc over the street. As he sailed through the air on the back of the beast, Enzo threw fire from his own Tigers' Tears into the firefight below. The power of the weapon jammed his wrist hard, nearly spraining it. Adrenaline kept this furthest from Enzo's mind.

The cigarette peeled away from between his teeth as Enzo's bike completed its arc, pointed just to the left of the sniper, who took a mighty hook to the chest. The bike swooped around so Enzo could deliver a boot to the sniper's back-- and send him tumbling to his death on the street below. Enzo didn't waste time looking and gunned the throttle again, darting off before one of the other snipers could get a bead on him.

He searched for his next target from above Smith's roof, a new cigarette finding its way almost magically to wind-burned lips.

"Why do Elysians always feel entitled to push us around? We didn't plague you, you didn't plague us, y'know?" Russell asked himself before answering the Elysian's question, "The only person I allow to push me around is Beta, and no - we do not colour co-ordinate. Its three piece suit and tie all the way."

He then motioned to some of the Zeroes - nobody had been paying attention to what they were wearing previously because nobody wanted to pay attention to them: Tight leather clad and masked with only the most rudimentary of covering.

The Zeroes that had bothered to wear body armour looked massively overdressed. Splashes of hot pink and black could be seen in their colour scheme, whilst Russell was in an infinitely more conservative black three-piece with a blue tie - although slightly mussed by the combat.
"That said, shoot the gimps," Russell pointed out.

Meanwhile, Luca was finding his present company rather pleasant in the midst of the firefight - but they were getting injured - Luca didn't know just how durable Naoko was, and this weighed on his mind, causing him to lose his focus for a moment and take a bullet to the chest - thankfully embedded in the stone-thread backing. Still - it hurt like hell, causing Luca to stumble before continuing his pace.

"Ngh!" He grunted.

Smith's hunch had paid off - Simply wait for the other guy to fire and he'd give himself away since the sound could be triangulated in space relative to where Smith was. The Gauss-Gun wielding sniper was nestled on the roof of the casino inside a decorative spire - the barrel of the rifle barely protruding out of one of the windows. Smith took his shot, and the barrel receded into the tower. The Sniper had been sniped.

With the Gauss gunning sniper out of his hair, Luca was able to focus a little more. Enzo's very mean right hook and airbike acrobatics had not only knocked his target sniper off balance, but the force of the punch and the weight of the gun she was carrying (amongst other things) caused her to fall off the edge of the building she was standing on - falling to the ground below and putting her out of the fight.

That said though, Enzo had attracted some unwelcome attention as bullets bounced off of the bottom of his airbike, one big bullet impacted with the engine block and cracked it. He was notified of such an occurrence by how the bike handled funny.

"Luca, I have good news," Echelon's voice sounded in his earpiece.
"Wonderful," Luca said as he temporarily eschewed his HHG in favour of his bare fists to deliver a devastating right hook followed by a knee to the face - then punctuated by firing a RED bullet into the door of the casino, blowing it open, "I'm hankering for good news."
"The Zero Casino appears to have rudimentary robotic servants. I have reprogrammed one to work with you from within."

"That's lovely," Luca said as he looked inside the doors of the and the first thing he saw were hanging chains from the ceiling, cages and the implements of debauchery and savagery strewn about - looking as though they were just left on the floor in a hurry, "How will I know which one to not shoot?"
"I changed the colour of its after-market lighting array from #FF80FF to #FF8000." Luca wasn't even going to touch that one. He did not speak machine, "Otherwise, I do not think it can fight effectively enough to be a threat."

She had made a slight assumption. The Ernie in question had a .45 calibre pistol on itself, and a wakazashi. It also had an extra 'appendage'.

-

Meanwhile, a ball was rolling. In secret and from a concealed location, a single, unassuming truck drove out of a warehouse and out towards the bay. The truck parked backwards, and the doors flung open to reveal a dingy boat with an outboard motor and a considerable cargo on it. Other boats from different ports and marinas started following it, convening at an artificially made island...

-

Luca was the first to move inside the Casino, and he was greeted with the stench of meat and terrible love. He looked around at the 'implements' on the walls and mumbled something indistinct. He looked up at the ceiling to notice an elaborate fresco of nihilistic, wanton sex, flanked by hanging chains, cages and their pulleys.
Even when he looked ahead, the banisters of the two grand flights of stairs that merged at the top balcony had been carved into blasphemous and improbable positions. Even the one-armed bandit poker machines and slot machines weren't safe from sexualisation, nor the decks of cards. There was a pinup on each card, and then some.

Nepleslia did have an obsession with sex and testosterone and it was something excusable in polite conversation, but this was simply an excess of an excess to the captain.

"So that's what they mean by the Yamataian Triple-Twister..." Luca mumbled before hearing the sounds of doors flying open. He immediately looked to the Grapple Stunner on his right arm, pointed it straight up and fired at one of the empty cages - the piton grappled on and reeled him up. The crew watched him disappear from view in the doorway.

Six men clad in Demon M1's moved out onto the balcony from either side of the balcony where the walls concealed the insides of the casino, scanning the casino floor, but exchanging a glance upon seeing that he was not in the obvious area.

Luca attempted to stay as quiet as he could as he clung to the cage, trying to prevent it from wobbling around or its chains clattering, "Move in quietly," There were no windows, or he would've directed his team to go through them, "Six Demons, not sure if there are more..."

"There he is!"
"Fucksocks."

With the phone silent, Uriel could only assume the line had been disconnected. Rather than be polite and hand it back, he set it on the concrete next to Russell's ear- and blew it to pieces with his magnum revolver.

It's not like the boy listened very well to begin with.

That settled, Uriel strode away, headed for the entrance. He relayed his findings to the team, "Apparently Betas are en route. Three-piece suits, all of them, so avoid shooting the Smith clones if you can." The Elysian smiled at this. He was starting to enjoy this sardonic speech. "Aim for the... what did he say? Gimps. Leatherbound men and women, I guess."

From his classical education of the Nepleslian language, and what little time he had spent learning firsthand, the definition of gimp had always been derogatory for a debilitated person; any sexual connotation was lost on him.

Then bad news: Power Armors in the casino. Uriel couldn't take them head on, so he needed a new plan. He figured one out quickly enough: after several great strokes of his wings, the Archangel was airborne. With great effort, he would rise to the rooftop and seek entrance there with intent to back-stab his heavily armored enemies.

As if word 'fucksocks' was some kind fo singnal, small blast could be heard back in the streets. As everyone was looking on the doorway, they could see rocket flying in the doors from the street. It flew right under the balcony and exploded in bright fireball.

"That should keep them busy," rather rough voice could be heard. It belonged to the quite tall black man standing in front of large black car. He was wearing very expensive black suit with striped and fedore. His face was clean-shaved and half-smoked cigar hang from his lips. Over his shoulder was RPG launcher.

"HEY! MR. PAVONE YOU STILL ALIVE?" He shouted into the doorway. He turned back and picked SMG with drum magazine from the car. He then started walking towards the casino not being bothered by anything. "MY LIL'SIS CALLED ME TO HELP YOU OUT. IT SEEMS YOU SURE NEED IT!" He then added and grinned as he moved forward towards the doorway.

Zeta meanwhiel continued firing upon upper floor of the casino, making sure not to hit Uriel or Enzo. She was rather covering them. She gave one look the man and if she did not wear her helmet, others could she her smile wide.

As the dust settled on the scene, a lone woman slid down a fire escape ladder before leaping off a good few meters from the ground to land, a rifle slung over the back. As Smith walked, shoes echoing a sound of authority, she watched as everyone seemed to briefly float off and do their own thing as the leader of the group, Luca, headed off right into the maw of the beast. The Ori-Rep shook her head as he bit off more than he could chew. Again.

Soon enough, Seiren found an unfamiliar voice filtering through the external feed of the modified LEAF. "Mr. Isbala, are you going to use your frame anytime soon?"

Robert started for the door as he heard that there were Power Armors. He held his Fatboy in one hand and in the other, he extended his claws. He slowed as the rocket went off, but picked his pace back up as soon as the debris stopped flying. "I'm coming, Boss." he said over the comm.

Loading...

Unknown Network Connection Authenticated

Primary Buddy Established

Luca Pavone

Reboot Complete

In a dark storage room deep inside the casino a small case stirred as a hatch was slid back and a small circular sensor cluster with powerful orange LED lights fitted around it perceived the world. Quickly the case did something else most other carry cases don't do. It unfolded by itself and stood up revealing a robot, but not like a person robot, this was a midget robot. Looking at most like skeletal decapitated dwarf to try and compare it to a human.

The little robot flexed its hands and tested its joints experimentally, then noticed it had an extra attachment on what would have been its pelvic region. A three digit mechanical hand tweaked the appendage experimentally, causing the thing to wobble around floppily. Two lines of LED lights activated with the movement, creating a display that seem to even unnerve the little robot as its sensor cluster shifted side to side awkwardly.

Probably deciding there was nothing to be done about its previous owners bizarre taste in accessories at this very moment the robots brightly lit sensor cluster took one last sweep over the room before it walked on two stilt-like robot legs and reached for the door handle. It was a bit of a stretch, but the little robot managed it, shutting it closed behind it out of politeness.

In the returned darkness of the storeroom, suddenly half a dozen pink LED's peeked out of identical cases scattered around the room.

The deep-throated report of the handcannons stopped as Naoko lowered her other arm, and sauntered into what could loosely have been described as a 'specialty bar.'

Her right arm knit together again with a pop. The swelling was going down - slowly the purple was receeding.

A little bit of blood did escape the edge of her mouth when she coughed; splattered, a bit, but not too bad. That, and the wet red trail down her front, was pretty much it. A creature that could make weapons out of its own blood did not need a doctor to kiss a bruise and make it go away. Or to reset bones. She sniffed, wiped her nose on a sleeve - her motions still fluid.

Then, the gun was out again, and she was walking heedless of the powered armor - some impossibly unlikely Yamataian gunslinger, out of place in a Nepleslian cinima, wearing a skirt instead of jeans, walking into some desperado cantina.

She took a running jump, slammed the roulette wheel in front of her with a booted foot, and lept the whole way to the balcony, jet-colored hair streaming behind.

Crouched on the balls of her feet on the balistrade, her guns came up, and began their deadly barking.

Krakow! Krakow!

Battlefield kurosu.

The engine of the LEAF roared straight back to life as Seiren regained proper thinking. A message drifted in to the small console, to which he replied, "Naw, I'm good now. Just give me a minute to get in there."

His options were somewhat limited. He could attempt to smash through the wall like a certain drink mascot, but that would accomplish nothing now that the fight had already moved inside the casino. The only other entrances were one or two mirrored-glass windows and the main door. He opted for the civilized approached, and motored on through the door.

Upon entering the place, Seiren immediately noticed the severe lack of Luca on the floor, and the rather abundance of Demons up above.

"Demons versus Origin. Why does this all sound familiar?" The inventor mumbled, leveling some rounds from his Mancannon arm at the nearest Demon.

Uriel's wings were able to take him to the roof of the building, whereupon he was greeted with a blank rooftop - there wasn't even a sub building or stair access, or even a hatch. If Uriel had been a safety inspector, he would've lamented the place's lack of proper escape routes in case of emergency - but his main problem was entrance.

However, that problem was rectified quickly when a hole suddenly opened itself up in the ceiling, caused by an explosion from inside.

A MOMENT AGO...

The first thing Luca did was maintain a grip on his cage, and look to a cage hanging above one of the Demons. In particular, he looked to the ceiling. He pulled his M'cel from his belt and loaded a simple explosive grenade into it - and was promptly interrupted by a rocket came soaring through the middle and knocked out the Demon he was aiming to crush under a cage!

Luca just shook his head and fired at the cage's support anyway. The cage and the ceiling surrounding it came tumbling down on top of the bruised Demon, well and truly disabling it. He had little time to savour his victory though, as one of the demons aimed a Panzerfaust at him. One of the old, single shot tubes.

Luca let go of his cage and dropped down to the casino floor below as the rocket blew the cage into shrapnel. He landed on his feet amidst the cover of the poker machines to see another friendly face in the fight. He didn't recognise Beta for a moment but smiled as he saw the smoking rocket launcher in his hands.
"Its always nice to have cavalry," He remarked, his tone dry as he loaded another grenade into the launcher and fired at the balcony, not hitting any of the demons, but restricting one of the corridors into the bowels of the casino.

Seiren's Mancannon was punching large holes in the armour, and Zeta's Gamma Ray Vulcan rifle had picked two of the Demon armours off in one volley. However, just as they were giving fire, they were receiving it too. A Panzerfaust was inbound on Seiren's position, whilst a blast of fire from the 35mm guns of a Type 1 Rifle impacted with Zeta's Impulse, rattling the shields and depleting them.

Naoko's decisive one man army impression was short lived - while she did her leaden dance of death and planted bullets into one Demon's skull and knocking it over - his two cohorts didn't agree with her, and fired a grenade at her. She could see it spiralling into her at such a close distance.

The remaining two Demons were playing on the defensive, now moving back into the bowels of the casino while laying down suppressive fire from the balcony.

"They really don't want us to move!" Luca mentioned over the Comms as a grenade blew up near his position, knocking over a row of slot machines and their payloads. Luca idly picked up a few coins and pocketed them before continuing, "It's like they're keeping us busy... keeping us busy for something..."

Something clicked, and he looked to Beta, "Beta, have any of your men reported seeing something odd that's not happening right here?"
Beta would recall seeing reports of boats heading to an artificial island, but the significance of that wasn't conducive to the present situation.

-

Meanwhile, in the halls of the Hotel, the little Ernie droid could see two men in Demon Power armours walking backwards down the hall and laying down covering fire from his right. They were oblivious to the little, dutiful droid.

To the droid's immediate right was a door labelled "SECURITY", and to the left was a metal door labelled "BOARDROOM", which had a keypad on it, and opaque windows which were bulletproof. Immediately behind him was the storage room from whence he emerged.

The little robots sensor cluster surveyed its surroundings in jerky motions. The boardroom was a no go, and the Demon's were both three times the robots size and very scary so it decided on the door labelled Security. The robots primary directive was to find and assist primary buddy Luca Pavone, perhaps the security room would allow it to find him.

It skittered across the hall on its short metal legs, searching its database for what was on the other side. A man named Harvey permanently resided in that room, if Ernie's data was correct. Harvey was not very nice to any of the robots, either.

As Ernie arrived at the door it saw its first obstacle, and a clear sign of Harveys petty dislike. The door hand was up up, well above what Ernie could reach. Looking around it spotted a well-sized potplant for its needs. The pot of the plant was fashioned in the forms of various parts of human body not normally displayed in public.

Ernie grabbed one of the variety of protrusions erecting from the pot and used it to drag the pot and plant over to the door, just as it finished there was a snap as Ernies handhold broke off, sending the robot sprawling backwards. Slowly it righted itself, examining the length of pottery in its mechanical fingers before awkwardly shoving it into the pot with the plant.

It heaved itself upon it's new vertical enabler, and turned the handle, opening the door slowly to peek in.