One of the fascinating things about Nepleslians was their single minded love for weaponry of all sorts ranging from brass knuckles all the way to military grade ship shearing lasers and everything else in between. It was practically common knowledge that kids were weaned on .22 before graduating to higher calibres and improvised axes made from lead piping, circular sawblades and duct tape.
This fact made Luca consider something that could make the odds go his way in spite of the fact that there was a Freaking Bear in the theatre. (On technicality, it was a
Kohanian bear, but it was still a Freaking Bear.)
"You just a man in a fursuit with bad temper!" Mr. Yamada yelled as he turned to start bolting away. He sent a telepathic message to Zeta: "
I hope you know what you're doing! I'll be coming back sans disguise and with something to tip the-"
His phone rung again, distracting him and causing him to run like hell back into the cinema, of which most of the patrons had managed to evacuate, with popcorn and drinks dropped and trampled, as well as an unlucky person who eventually picked himself out and continued on his merry way, screaming his head off too.
Luca jumped behind the counter and looked for
something, anything that'd be of use in a fight against the Freaking Bear that'd outclass his ODM 10mm popgun. Surely, the cinema industry of Nepleslia faced enough adversity to pack iron?
-
Meanwhile, back at the Crimson Kestrel, Echelon was waiting for Vincent in full view in the workshop down in the cargo bay. To describe Echelon's physical appearance after her transplant in Drift would be spindly, spiderlike and motherly.
It appeared to be a large, feminine humanoid robot at least eight feet tall and weighing a tonne, with a large spherical area in the hips/belly area.
Its right shoulder had a Fingale's Revenge rifle protruding from it, with wires and connections to load and fire it properly. Its hands had two fingers and an opposable thumb-claw. It also had a compliment of thrusters around its body, allowing it to move around in zero gravity environs, or climb short distances.
A single, glowing red eye on the head provided sight, but the effect was very unnerving. For some reason, a rainbow pattern scarf was draped around it's neck, along with childish scribbles and glyphs of Freespacer 'heraldry'.
"If you would be so kind as to assist me with making a shell more... presentable, swift and terrible..." The eye of the machine looked at Vincent, and glanced about him, making minuscule movements, just like a real eye would. However, instead of appearing more human, it'd only set the ID-SOL on edge, "I would terribly appreciate it, fleshbag."
-
"For the love of crikey," Luca groaned upon realising that the cinema industry was relatively unchallenged, and came up with a stun gun - it wasn't even lethal, "If this can't slow a person down, I seriously doubt it could scratch the paint on that Freaking Bear."
He looked about frantically for something, anything to assist his return and attack. As he pondered this he flicked his communicator open and checked Uriel's message at long last.
Luca's Reply said:
Uriel, that's wonderful. Sorry for the late reply, things have gotten interesting at the cinema. It involves a Freaking Bear and Enzo seems to have something to do with this. We'll talk more when we all regroup.
With that he sent the message and snapped his communicator shut, then his eyes wandered over to the popcorn machine on wheels, "That'll do nicely," He grinned as a plan formulated in his head. All that had to happen was the Freaking Bear to come along and fall into whatever Luca had in mind as he got behind the controls and inspected them with a maniacal smile and itchy fingers.