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

Upon reading the message, Uriel rushed from the room to find Vincent. He would want to know what's going on. He was at quite a loss, then, to find Vincent accompanied by... a robot? An intimidating robot, at that. He blinked a few times in his confusion, then shook it off and focused on the mercenary. "Luca and Enzo somehow managed to infuriate a bear so much it has decided to exact revenge. I'm going to aid them."

He desperately wished to ask just what that was there in the ship, but Uriel had no time to waste; besides, it couldn't be anything Luca would disapprove. That just wouldn't be in Vincent's nature.

Dra'Gil didn't bother to explain anything to Zeta. He didn't think she'd understand how Enzo wasn't going to get in his way, so the massive Kohanian decided to illustrate by example. The walking fortress swung the conman overhead like an enormous club and into Zeta. The force behind the blow was as powerful as could be managed with Enzo's lanky, limp frame.

As he swung, Dra'Gil Kahn belted out a terrible roar which echoed through the streets.

Zeta was ready, she was waiting for him to strike, she wanted to strike. Only thing she was not ready for was flying Enzo. But it was strike nonetheless and Zeta was prepared. Problem was that if she would dodged Enzo would be faceplanted into the pavement, which could kill him even. Zeta was not ready for death of one of the crew.

She lunged forward as Enzo was swung overhead and swung her weapon wildly at bears Knee with both hands striking him before Enzo would land. And Enzo will land, but on her and she will make his fall easier. Zeta was simply more fluffy then a sidewal. This is gonna hurt, she thought looking and incoming conman.

Uriel caught Vincent at a moment where things could have gone horribly wrong between ID-Sol and Type Four Automata. Vincent, confused about the methodology behind installing an HDD, was just about to brute-force the tiny chip into the chassis via a claw hammer and his fist when the Patrician wandered in and distracted him with a message from the boss.

"A bear?" Vincent wondered aloud, putting the HDD and the hammer down next to each other on the deck before looking up at his Freespacer comrade. "Echelon, you might want to come along for this. Either way, this does not sound good for the captain, and I could use the extra firepower."

Daxle vaulted over rows of chairs made an uncomfortable exit through the large double doors. He was jostled by the crowd, and he found himself on the floor.
He was still drunk, and the sudden panic from whatever was going on had left him reeling. He tried to crawl in a direction, tripping up fleeing movie-goers as he made his way across the floor. Daxle found a staircase and hauled himself onto it, groaning as he tried to stop the world from spinning in all directions.
Daxle reached for his medbag to get an anti-intoxicant...only to discover that he wasn't carrying it.
"I left it on the ship, didn't I?" he asked himself out loud. He reached up and fumbled as he tried to grab onto the stair rail, slowly hauling himself up to his unsteady feet.

In just about every cartoon and comic book that existed in the Kikyo Sector, using a person as a weapon, as in lifting them up and swinging them like a club or throwing them at the target was not only a spectacle, but also incredibly effective.

However, in reality, the person would have to be wearing a power armour and using both hands to be able to reliably hurt someone using some other poor sap. In this case, being a Freaking Bear would suffice!

Having lifted the conman over his head, the Freaking bear had left his knee open to Zeta's attack with a crunch, knocking the Freaking Bear down to one knee.

Enzo, however skinny he might've been was enough to knock Zeta back a few paces as she tried to roll with the attack and break Enzo's fall. She ended up on the ground in a heap with the conman on top of her, along with her summer dress ruined and the hat she was wearing knocked off of her head.

"HEY, FREAKING BEAR!!" A voice could be heard inside the theatre as the sound of something getting wheeled along could be heard, followed the sound of something metal being booted with considerable force.

The sight of a popcorn machine on wheels filled to the brim with steaming hot popcorn and scalding hot synthetic butter could be seen sailing through the air, shortly followed by a severely dishevelled Mr. Yamada, who without his hat and his sunglasses, was now very obviously Luca Pavone in top form.

"You have ruined Mr. Yamada's holiday, and you have pissed me off!"

He pulled out the ODM 10mm pistol he'd been withholding and started firing at the popcorn machine as it sailed towards the Freaking Bear. The systems that regulated how much butter and how much popcorn was made in the machine were set to overdrive without any way to vent the extra pressures, and dangerously so. With some observation, you could also spot a stun gun jammed into the internal mechanisms and short-circuiting everything.

The way the popcorn machine exploded was from the bottom upwards, first with the butter reservoirs bursting open from high pressure and a direct hit proved to be akin to being splashed with scalding oil, while the rest of the machine exploded in a confusing shower of yellow and white fluffy movie treats. The weight of the remains of the machine also helped sell the deal as it made contact with the bear.

There was one thing Luca had neglected to consider. By performing an act like this, chances were that he just blew his cover.
Oh well, hell of a way to tell people you're back, Luca contemplated as this realisation caught up with him as popcorn landed around him and Zeta and Enzo.

He then blinked upon seeing Enzo on top of Zeta, but that was the least of his worries relating to Enzo, first and foremost being whether that bear was still alive.
Luca cautiously approached the Freaking Bear with his ODM 10mm raised and ready and with a scowl of concentration as he looked at all parts of the Kohanian for any signs of movement.

A stir was elicited from beneath the the bear's coat. The large Kohanian pulled himself to all-fours and huffed a massive sigh. His fur was dark and matted with sticky blood and formerly delicious butter. One eye he kept squinted shut with cracked skin and dried blood as he rose to his feet. One paw he clutched tightly over his stomach.

One shuffling step closer to Luca Pavone, to get a look in the mercenary's face. There was no hostility in the bear's demeanor as he looked the shorter man in the eye and uttered his last freakin' bear breath.

"You are ... the Pavone. You are... a.." The deep growl trailed off with the impending absence of life in the massive body. The single open eye rolled upwards and the breathless Kohanian stood silently over Luca Pavone for just a few seconds before tumbling forward in death.

Ring of metal could be heard right when Freaking Bear was done talking. And living. As he turned his head he could see that Zeta was standing again. Slowly walking to angry, angry Luca. She was dragging the pipe over the ground as she walked and looked mighty pissed off. Her left arm was simply haning next to her torse, its shoulder possibly dis-located or broken.

She stopped next to Luca and send a looke towards the Freaking Bear, that gave shivers even to him. Or it would, id it were still alive, "Boss." She said with voice cold like death. "He. Ruined. My. Dress!" Word after word was coming like a knife, slicing through the air.

She was heavily breathing and hurting all over. Pipe ringed as it fell on the ground. Seeing that he bear was dead, there was no need for it anymore. "Boss you should get you costume on again, before someone sees you." She said starting to look around for more danger. Maybe The Fraking Bear had buddies.

"Worse still, Zeta," Luca panted as he blinked and looked for his headgear. The hat was intact, save for a few butter stains and the sunglasses were in one piece save for a slightly bent frame, "That ursine bastard ruined our chances of a peaceful holiday!"

It was always common knowledge that anything ursine or bear related signalled the doom of something. That was the reason economists coined the term "Bear Market" - although they never quite envisioned the metaphor being taken literally by an anthropomorphic bear. Now that the dust settled and the popcorn stopped popping, the Dead Freaking Bear's post-life options would be either a Kohanian fur coat or a rug.

That's when Luca looked to one side and noticed someone with a communicator in hand, pointing it in the general direction of the crew. He was very obviously recording, and looked to be no more than eighteen years old.

"That," The bystander said as he noticed Luca's gaze meeting him, "Was awesome."
Luca blinked, almost complimented when he resumed his Mr. Yamada voice without much thought: "What? Who you? Get camera away! Nothing to see here!" Although, a dead ursine Kohanian, a bodyguard with a metal arm and a rogueish rogue standing over an exploded popcorn machine was something to see.

Mr. Yamada sent a few choice words to Enzo: "Enzo, I know I liked to be surprised every now again - but with a freaking bear while me and the team are trying to relax warrants an explanation." He shot the rogue a venomous glance, "You should've bought a cat instead. That would've been fine too."

Mr. Yamada then looked over to Mrs. Yamada and said some choice words: "Let's go home before the animal control shows up. I don't want a medical scrubdown," He then looked over to Daxle and sent a quick message: "No offence to you, doc. I think Enzo might a rabies shot."

-

Some time later, Luca reconvened with the ship proper with Enzo firmly in his grip, he looked dishevelled, distressed, pissed, and his choice of socks and sandals were the least of his worries apparent.
"Alright team, meeting time," Luca said as he put Enzo down on the couch and stared daggers into him, "Enzo, you'd better start explaining why a bear started following you and crashed one of the few opportunities for us to get a day to ourselves."

A television that was turned on nearby was reported the incident at the theatre, with a mashed into an unrecognisable mess found nearby alongside the corpse of a serpentine Kohanian, died by bleeding out. Witnesses reported seeing another shuttle stop for a moment and watching someone get out and the shuttle flying off without him.

Said shuttle was in the landing bay.
"Bortelli-Fleshbag left earlier," Echelon reported, since her connection with the ship unconsciously allowed her to monitor what went on, "His shuttle returned without him. I am unsure of where he went."

Luca then stared Enzo down long and hard, with a scowl, "So where were you, then?"

"Psh. Some kind of gracious atitude yous gots." Enzo moaned. The conman was covered in a liberal mixture of his own blood and Dra'Gil Kahn's. His normally perfect hair was askew and matted to one side of his face, presumably the side that'd made forceful impact with the ground when Zeta'd removed him from her person. There was a new scar along the ridge of his chin where Dra'Gil Kahn had knocked him out cold with an open paw. His broken cigarette dangled uselessly from a bloodied lip.

"The most ruthless Kahanie's bounty-hunter dis side of Nepleslia Core goes after yous, an' ole Enzo's the guy at faults fors it, even after he trieds to saves yous skins. Figures you'd blame me." Enzo ran a hand through the clean half of his hair and replaced his cigarette with a new one before holding the candle-like flame of a lighter up to his face and tossing his broken revolver on the table in front of him.

"Yeah, I was getting to that," Luca said, "It just seem a little too fortuitous that he'd show up, with you right on his heels... or was it the other way round?" His eyes narrowed, "How'd that revolver of yours get bent anyway?"

"You couldn't have done it yourself, you must've been close to that bear before you got to the cinema since it was bent when you came in, he could've easily done it," Luca then grinned, "Did a negotiation go sour, he grabbed your gun as you pulled it, and he bent it before chasing after you and heading to the cinema?"

He then touched his lip and sucked on his teeth, "Then again, I never told you where we were going to go specifically, so maybe it WAS pure dumb luck that you ran into us at the movies," He shrugged dismissively, "So maybe its just an unfortunate series of events, but that cloud about your revolver still hangs."

"C'mon Enzo, tell me the truth and we can fix this over and collect Dra'Gil Kahn's bounty together, maybe we'll split it and you keep the lions share," His eyebrow raised at Enzo over the mention of money before he concluded: "I might be a good guy, but I'm not an idiot."

"You wanna hears about it, yeah?" Enzo asked. The prospect of money made his eyes flash with the eagerness of a child. He'd already prepared an exceptional story, too. One of the things that was so great about his story was that it was partly true, and all the monitoring systems available would back it up.

"Y'see, thissere' incident wasn't entirely nots my faults, yeah?" Enzo began, "I hads dis' meeting with Drajil an' his little pets lizard 'bouts some money they oweds me. The saids they seen me on TV with yous, see? Said they'd kill me if'n I didn't tells 'em where you was stayin', see?"

Enzo took a breath to smoke and stretch out on the couch before going on, "So, I told's 'em a lie you was in the city somewhere's, an' they lets me go. I chases after 'em and blasts their ship to smithereens! I uh..., musta' forgot 'bouts Dra'Gil bein' bulletproof an' all that."

"Hmmh..." Luca murmured, evaluating the not-entirely honest conman. It occurs to a lot of people that you can trust a dishonest person to be dishonest. Or, if they appear to be, sometimes they're telling something, but not all of it. It seemed fitting enough that he did indeed have contact with the notorious Kohanian mercenaries, but the details of which still seemed a bit hit-or-miss.

Still, it was a good idea to get in Enzo's good books, the truth might come tumbling out at a later date if he believed that Luca had bought his half truth.
"And with them thinking you'd shortsheeted them, they got mighty pissed off, didn't they?" Luca shrugged, "You send 'em on a wild goosechase, they come up empty, it escalates, you bump into me by accident... Yeah. Figures." Luca nodded along, scratching his chin and raising his eyebrows for a moment, No it doesn't.

Luca then looked to the others and gauged their reactions before glancing at the TV screen, which had cut to a grainy, slightly blurred photo of Mr. Yamada standing on the steps of the cinema, without sunglasses, without a hat, pistol in hand, popcorn in hair and looking pissed off.
"...the identity of the man who eventually put the Kohanian down by means of an improvised bomb was not discovered. Witnesses say that he was a 'Badass' and had 'Nice Sideburns'."

Well at least they had that right, Luca shrugged before the report continued.
"Questions of the appearance of famous mercenary Luca Pavone have been raised, as he still stands to account for his actions on Drift, Dawn Station and Tami to the world at large."

"Hm. Guess our holiday might have gone from five days to three if the press is trying to shadow us, which they aren't doing terribly well," Luca speculated before remembering that Uriel had a few words to give him, "For now, we'll try and clean up, get our disguises back on, and continue as normal," He then gave a nod to Uriel before heading towards the showers.

Alright, I'm all ears Uriel. Just follow me.

Robert spoke up for the first time since the movie theatre. "To account for? I don't like how they said that, Boss." he said aloud. "Maybe if we're going to stay around for a bit longer, You should change up your costume." he suggested. "I think Mr. Yamada is a little....comprimised." he glanced at Enzo, with a look that said he wasn't nearly as convinced as Luca seemed to be. He knew that Luca had some crazy coindences but that was too much for Robert to believe. He started idly flipping his favorite knife across one hand. Not in a threatening way, but in a more old habit dies hard way.

"Yeah, Raggsie's right, Cap'n Pavone." Enzo nodded along, ignoring the knife tricks and the worried looks, "Yamada's gotta be a hot tickets arounds here, right now. I'm prolly betters off stayin' back myself dis time. Unless, o' course, there's money in it."

Enzo kicked up his feet on the coffee table and leant back, the cigarette twirling loose between his lips and teeth. "Maybe I'll does a mail order er' somethin's."

Zeta was back in her regular attire. Her dress were ruined anyway, but at least her new hat survived. She also took the pipe with them. Mainly because it was full of her fingerprints but also because it was a pipe she used to hit a bear. Nice memento. Zeta's back was sore from landing on the pavement and her front was sore from being hit with Enzo.

WHile Enzo and Luca was chatting, she stayed quiet. It seemed Luca can handle it good enough. Thing was Enzo always tried to persuade others what a scumbag he is. That made Zeta doubt his story, but it was probably worth stirring up trouble in the group. "Well boss, seems like we need new cover story. Why don't we all buy groucho-glasses and promenade around like idiots. No one would notice us then, cause everyone would thing what a loonies we are." She then said and laughed.

The Elysian was right behind Luca as soon as the word was given, despite its unnerving delivery; Uriel would never get used to that. Ever.

When given the go-ahead, he explained quietly. "To be perfectly blunt: I met a homeless man who explained to me that the mafia, if that means anything to you, tortured him with the death of his family, and stole away his business because he could not adhere to their fiscal demands." He took a deep breath, stifling his emotions.

"I skimmed over the ugly parts, but that's not important. You and these people that gather around you- myself- we have an image. There is so much we could do, if we would make the effort. Forget your nick-knacks and garbage souvenir peddling. Your opinion and concerns matter to the ordinary people. By speaking out, you can force the rest of the galaxy to take initiative, and it can start right here, right now, with this mafia." It was clear the way he spoke that Uriel didn't fully grasp the size or nature that the mafia entailed, but he was also passionate and his expressions severe. There was no doubting he was deeply invested in this endeavor.

"And I am compelled me to inform you that if you do not wish to help me, I will still carry through with this; unfortunately, it would also mean we part ways. I'm not trying to coerce you- this is something I must do."

Luca entered the showers, got into a cubicle and casually stripped down to his essentials and put them on the shoulder-high privacy barrier before turning the water on and getting inside. He was covered in blood, sweat and the water would calm him down. He decided to take a cold shower to staunch the bleeding by making his blood vessels contract due to the cold.

"So," He said, looking at Uriel over the barrier, "Even though we're trying to lay low, we're going to take on the local mob, bop them in the nose and turn them upside down?" He turned around and lathered shampoo through his hair, "That'd be all well and good, and the advertising campaigning can take a backseat since its a long term plan that doesn't need attention at the moment..." He washed the shampoo out and shook his hair, which looked a lot longer when it was wet.

"You know, this is a golden opportunity to stretch my legs, because I think I've forgotten how to take time off like a civilian does." He turned around and grinned as he looked up cheekily, "The healthy human mind doesn't contemplate how he's going to break the Mafia's legs for kicks..." He then rested his elbows on the barrier and looked to Uriel, frank as he could be, "Is there something wrong with me, Doc?"

He turned off the shower and grabbed a towel sitting on the barrier, drying himself off, shortly before wrapping it around himself and exiting the shower booth, "Either way, count me in. I think my cover's been blown - might as well confirm everyone else's worst fears."

He got his underwear back on under his towel, then his singlet, pants, jacket, dried off his feet and put on his socks, "And I think knocking down one mob won't do much bad for my reputation - most criminals have already given up on killing me since I've sent every one of them home in a box."

This was not a hyperbole, "So, just you and me or do you want anyone else in on this? Zeta's a damn good shot and tough as nails, Robert's handy too."

He then scratched his chin and blinked as he realised something, "Wait, you haven't seen Naoko or Mr. Smith anywhere, have you?"

-

Meanwhile, Echelon was assembling her new robot with Vincent's help, "Excellent, if I just input this command," She said with her bandsaw voice before commanding the robot to raise its right arm, then its left - and then putting them down by its side, "Excellent! Some more programming and I'll soon have complete control."

"Isn't this wonderful?" She said to Vincent, showing some emotion for the first time in weeks, "I will be mobile again. I will be able to move, to live, to be, to fight."

"Taking down a local mafia?" Robert's scarred face flashed a quick smile. "That sounds a bit more like the boss I started working for." he flipped his knife up into the air and caught its tip between his thumb and pointer fingers. "You can count me in."

Daxle was hungover, plain and simple. While Enzo giving an account of some bear or another (he really wasn't paying too much attention), Daxle was busy rummaging around for an anti-toxicant specifically made to deal with alcohol. It took him a little while to remember that, as a Nepleslian, he didn't carry such things on principle, and was hence forced to continue feeling like an unwashed pair of socks.
"I agree with everything" he said weakly once the meeting looked like it was about to come to a close. He slowly got up and began to hobble to his quarters, where the rest of his Ice Vodka was stored.
He was going to solve this hangover the only way a man can solve it...