RP: ISC Phoenix [Mission 1] - Feel the Pain

Makari was the last out the shuttle. He was a bit more reluctant than normal. Something just didn't FEEL right. Mayhaps it was the presence of Nekoes. He didn't trust them, let alone like them very much. Or mayhaps it was the sniper. He was more of a fan of the old tried-and-true, hectic close quarters fighting. Regardless, this was his job and he aimed to do it with style. Makari ensured his HHG was in working order, loaded his meager number of black shells, and stepped out of the shuttle. He adjusted his hat and asked aloud, "what needs doin'? I'm not much against a sniper."

In all honestly, he was uncertain as to what to what Panther was doing or was going to do, but nodded to him in acknowledgement of his presence.

In other words, he wasn't very mindful combat wise it seemed.

But, he was mindful of...whatever this ailment was. Voice slightly stifled by the mask, he cued the comms again. "I need to ask - what have you ladies seen? Have any of you started getting weird symptoms as of late?" Making sure he had everything he needed, he took off, following the footsteps he could see in search of victims and others of the team. "And did any of you eat anything? Echilon? Uh, Melisson?" the young Nepleslan asked them, uncertainly tested their names. Being the new kid, he only unknowingly erring with one of theirs.

Only.

"Well, you can get the big guys to go to the apartment 'cuz they're closer. I'd say the plant is our best bet for now!" The inventor chipper-ly responded to Zeta's query. His attention returned to the amnesiac at hand.

"Hey, uh. . . stay here, okay? And don't do anything stupid," He said, handing her communicator back.

Panther kept his senses sharp, even when he felt annoyed by the loud human talking with the others. Panther pulled out his communication device and quickly wrote out a short message.


He then placed it back where he had it as he checked out the area. Hmm, this reminds me of those movies humans watch. Outer Rim movies? Samurai? Hmm... some reason the thought of a room full of humans is making me hungry... Suddenly the hunter's stomach growled as he forgot to eat lunch today. It seems that he was too occupied with the poison research and now realizing he made a grave error.

On Bronzi's heads-up display, the ping that Echelon and Allison were sending was close to his and Enzo's location. Seiren could see this ping too.

"Flattery 'll get ya nowhere, blueballs." Melissa replied tersely over the radio to Bronzi.

"Keep givin me compliments an imma take yer sweet pink arse on a date." Bronzi snorted. Bronzi then flagged Enzo silently to let them now they had a way point to go and check out. Bronzi stood up and grabbed his weapon. Holding it gingerly he flagged Melissa with his indicating that he and his partner were on the move.

"Make sure ya don't shoot me in the arse."

"Get Enzo to cover ya, and I cover Enzo, roight?" She replied. "I can see the greens 'n reds in 'is eyes from here." She then radioed Seiren: "Oi, follow the jolly blue giant - if its tech, he'll smash it."

"Aw, naw!" Seiren's voice crackled over comms. "Can't you send the walking refrigerator to do it? I'm closer to the plant!"

"1 H34RD TH4T!"

"I know you did! That's the point!"

Bronzi hopped off of the roof top effortlessy. His bulk hit the ground with a thud but his reaction indicated that this was normal...and he fluidly started moving. Bronzi began doing a combat run. His hopping strides were deceptivly graceful, and he advanced towards the HUD's position. He slowed only to check corners, but trusted Enzo enough not to bother checking behind him. Not even missing a beat Bronzi ignored the fact that there was a door to the building, and plowed clean through the door with some effort, sending splinters and chunks of plaster sailing through the air.

"I dun' trust the big guy wiv Tech." Melissa replied to Seiren. "Now go! Zeta can catch up!"

"Sheesh! So pushy! I'm coming, I'm coming. Sorry Zeta!" Seiren sighed, shutting his comms off and beginning to run towards Bronzi's location.

He stood in the room covered in dust, sheetrock and paint ships with his gun ready. "At the way point." He called over the radio. Slow advance."

Bronzi lowered his stance, and began creeping through the building. As he passed a room his shot gun and helmeted head would peek in. "No movement on my motion tracker..." Each pulse from his motion tracker was coming up empty. Occasionally, he'd look around the room and see the occasional rat moving around in the open, giving the motion tracker a weak return pulse.

Blip! Then there was some motion behind him. Through the Bronzi-shaped hole in what was once a merely flimsy apartment door, Seiren stepped through.

"Eyo."

Bronzi could smell him. He did not flinch, but kept forward, and confident that if it was something hostile...Enzo would have dumped on it. "Babydoll." Bronzi growled cheerfully.

"Stay behind meh. Don't need a bandit er somethin takin you alive and makin you their woman."

"It's hard for me not to!" The Yamataian remarked, glaring daggers into the back of Bronzi's head. "And I can handle myself, thankyouverymuch!"

Bronzi's tail flicked. He then raised his shotgun to the ceiling. "Arite. So I reckin you won't mind if I let ya go on a head...alone? In the creepeh building...in a town where a buncha people got killed by some other probably well armed people?"

". . . You're a jerk, you know that? And as far as we know, nobody has been shot!"

"We don't know shit. Better careful den dead."

"Says the guy who didn't take a stroll through town."

"Naw, I just took a stroll through a recentally used camp in the middle of town."

Bronzi and Seiren could smell the clamminess hanging thick in the air before them as a place that merely looked like a tornado armed with spraypaint, beer and drugs had gone full circle and left nothing but wreckage in its wake, so to speak. Bronzi and Seiren were used to seeing the fineries of Nepleslian artistic expression such as 'Crude picture of a penis in blue spraypaint upon concrete #1953' and its many imitators on the wall.

Broken glass crunched beneath their shoes as they continued moving, their feet looking for bare patches of floor to navigate on safely without slipping or injuring themselves. A claustrophobic sense of dread came over them as they started moving and the moisture in the building got heavier.

Bronzi snorted a smile and went back to taking point. He observed the art and decor carefully. The stench of back wash still hit him in the face. The noise he was making would be obvious if any were waiting in ambush so he slowed his steps and avoided anything that would give away his position. "This place was a home...after..it was somebody elses..."

Bronzi spoke over the radio, over the sound of running water into a puddle. "This whole set up is off."

Bronzi switched his radio off. A finger shot up that indicated he wanted Seiren to linger behind him.

Seiren sighed and stayed silent, his GP-13 sliding out of his right sleeve. Of course it had to be in a creepy, dark, partially abandoned apartment complex that hadn't seen a plumber or painter in weeks. The ping on their radars had come from one of the rooms in here, but this place didn't look like it had been lived in for a long time. You couldn't tell if the rubbish on the floor and lining the walls was made a year ago, a month, a couple of days ago or just now.

Bronzi pushed on. His motion tracker had not given him anything to worry about, but if anybody was here they could be sitting still. Bronzi's hand reached up and touched his helmet. A visor slid down and he switched to thermal imaging as the slowly closed in on the waypoint.

"So, uh. . . Found anything yet?" Seiren asked, wanting to break the eerie silence that surrounded the place.

And then Bronzi's nasal motion detector could make something out amongst the gloom and the moisture that pervaded the building. It smelled pink. Seiren, meanwhile would notice that there were freshly installed wires on the ceiling, running through their floor - not branching out to other apartments, and just going into one. Bronzi would recall seeing a dish on the roof of the apartment, but wrote it off as just another piece of the Nepleslian cityscape.

"Yea." Bronzi whispered.

"Uh, tall, dark, and stupid. Look up. New wires. In a place that's kinda. . . run down. Strike you as odd?" Seiren pointed out, tapping Bronzi on the shoulder.

"Yea. Explains the dish up top."

They were insulated from the elements, and of excellent quality. Seiren guessed that anyone using them would probably have a ping of 5 if you played NSS Deathwish with anyone else in the building, and 25 for anywhere else on the planet.

Bronzi pushed forward and eventually followed his nose to a room. Still silent. He had no idea what to expect when he came around that corner. He indicated to Seiren that this was the place. He paused for a moment. Then like a viper he snapped around the corner finger on the trigger and ready to fire. Bronzi delivered his foot into the Hinge area of the door. The Kick was a snap, but his powerful legs sent the door tumbling off of it hinges and into the room.

"HANDS UP!" He barked.

Seiren decided it was in his best interest to use Bronzi as a shield and did so promptly.

It was the room of an artist. Plastered on the walls were pictures, pictures of people, of places, and of faces. So many happy, smiling faces on the walls, disrupting and breaking the gloom. Seiren would recognise one of the faces immediately as the girl that he was talking to just a few moments ago. Bronzi could see someone sitting cross legged in the middle of the room, wearing headphones that were threatening to be swallowed by the curly pink hair.

She didn't seem to pay them any notice as she continued typing feverishly, as though she was attacking the keyboard itself. "No, no, no." She could be heard whispering to herself.

"Welp, I recognize one of those pictures. And she's got pink hair. Either she's a conveniently pink-haired mass druggist, or she's that pink-haired girl that Zeta saw," Seiren remarked upon seeing the girl.

Bronzi just shrugged. Then pulled the trigger on his gun. There was a crack of thunder, and a set of holes appeared on the girl's computer screen as it fizzled, sparked, and popped.

The girl's fingers were still typing for a couple of moments on the keyboard as she looked towards Bronzi: "Oh - its you. Guess what, you just fucked us all over you blue idiot." Her face was twisting into distaste and disgust.

'Yea. Its me. Yerr data drive is fine, we can get ya a new imaging device if you play nice." Bronzi reached into his back and tossed a flat rectangular device in his left hand. "I'll give it to ya

"Just for the record, I don't lay any sort of responsibility for this moron's actions!" The inventor piped up, peering around the side of Bronzi's bulk.

"That water plant started doing something, I was trying to stop it." She growled at the gartagen. She then put her finger into the VGA port of the laptop, and she closed one of her eyes. She still had a visual on what was going on.

"Go to the apartment, Mel says. More important, she says. D'you know I was just about to head there? One of my friends is still en route, tho'. And I met one of your friends, I think. Aoi, was it?"

"I am Aoi." She said, keeping one eye closed and the other on the two, still sitting on the floor. "You were probably speaking to Yuuka. She had black hair, shoulder length, hoodie jumper with a pocket on the chest?" She described the girl Seiren had been talking to earlier.

"That's the one! She was all. . . amnesia-ey."

"So are Tanaka, Taro, Hiroyuki, Misha, Wakamoto, Chiyo, Annata, Mai-" Her voice was beginning to break as she listed each name. "-Shiko, Kikyo, Billy, Hotaru, Hanako, Reiko, Genno, Sasaki and Morimoto. I remember them because they can't."

Bronzi Turned his Radio back and spoke to Melissa and anybody else on the band. "We made contact. Name is Aoi. Non-hostile."

Bronzi Turned to Aoi. "That is all good an gravy...but what the hell happened to this place? Who did this?" Bronzi looked at the pictures, and it was as if the wheels in his head started turning.

Bronzi was brutish and blunt, maybe even to the point of being seemingly cruel. He leaned in to Aoi. "What are you doing here?" He said with a snarl.

"We came here to party, but now I'm here to fix whatever the fuck's gone wrong with this town. It's destroyed my friends' minds, but it hasn't mine yet."

"I dunno what it is...but somebody put IT here...." Aoi shook his head at him - she didn't put it there.

Bronzi handed Aoi the extra moniter. "Here. Show Babydoll what you know. He is smawt. Knows shit."

"Well, just out of curiosity, how'd you do the volumetrics so well?" Seiren asked, fully emerging from behind Bronzi.

"Its my trade. I'm an artist. I spent more time drawing and creating than killing people, so much so that I wanted to make a career out of it and keep the body." She answered. "I can assure you though, everything in this room is real."

"So you're a ne- waitaminute, not the problem here. So, uh. . . got a communicator hookup for your computer?" She pointed to a wireless signal on the laptop. The communicator picked it up. He pulled out his device and began flipping through settings until he found the right signal. It was the strongest one broadcasting, obviously. She typed a couple of commands in with one hand, while her finger was still in the VGA port of the laptop. One of her eyes was still closed, so it was safe to assume that she could still 'see' what she was doing on the computer.

"Who are you guys anyway?" She asked.

Bronzi Looked at Seiren then to Enzo. "ISC Phoenix II. We're the Crew.-"

Seiren cut off, "-of the phenomonal Luca Pavone! Otherwise known as the world's coolest guy! I'm Seiren! And this walking wall is Bronzi!"

Bronzi nodded, but lowered his weapon. He figured Aoi was not hostile, because Aoi had not shot him yet.

"Wait." Aoi's eyebrow raised. "The Luca Pavone?" She divided her attention for a moment to look out the window, and narrowed her eye out into the Oil Derricks. She could see three figures, a car, a motorcycle and one of the figures was getting angry with their communicator. "So that's who that is."

"Yep! There we were, reuniting in a bar, then all of a sudden a guy crashes through the ceiling with a smushed nose! He was from here, but he didn't seem all amnesia-ey!"

She was ignoring Seiren as she looked over to a suitcase, popped it open and produced what looked like some sort of tube and a rocket that looked like it came from a fireworks shop. "Oh, him?" Aoi replied as she slid the rocket into the tube. "He didn't stick around for long, and I think he misses his old town. My friends still had their minds back then."

Bronzi had taken to inspecting the room. He sniffed around but continued to silent while the two yamataians bantered. "So what took their minds. Where did yer friends go? Runnin off nekked into da sunset?"

"If I knew we wouldn't be here." She said as opened the rocket and placed a communications beacon in the shape of a sphere into it.

"Uh. . . What exactly are you doing with that rocket?"

"Helping your friend." She said as she pushed the rocket into the tube from the breech. "There's no phone reception where he is. Shit coverage in general. Gonna give him a helping hand." She pointed tube at the window, opened it, and rested it against the windowsill as she tried to get her aim. "Someone light the fuse for me, please?" She then kept her arms completely still.

Bronzi looked at Seiren. 'i'm sure ya get this a lot Babydoll...but you got some pretty eyes."

"Uh, yeah, sure. One sec."

Seiren searched his person, going through many pockets until finally a lighter was found. Simple rectangular metal thing, but handy to have. He lit the flame and stuck it next to the fuse, holding his arm out so he didn't get burned.

Tttssssssssssssshhhhhhh...

Pchooooo! Guided by the tube, the rocket flew out and started spiralling through the air towards the oil derricks, stabilising and making an arc across the skyline of Handler's reach. Melissa had been listening in to what was going on, but didn't expect what she saw to be that drastic. "Crikey!" She yelled, taking her eye off the scope.

-

"I pay top dollar for-" Luca grumbled before hearing the distinct sound of fireworks and looking to his left. "-Oh look at that!"

KABOOM!

From the smouldering piece of fireworks, a more solid looking sphere landed by Luca's feet, he wondered exactly what it was, but he felt his communicator vibrating. He flicked it open to see what it was bellyaching about this time. He grinned.

"Communication is back!" Luca stated happily as he watched the communicator's signal indicator glitch out upon having so much signal. "So, did I miss anything?"

"SH1T'S H4PP3N1NG. SM1TH 4RR1V3D. W3 H4V3 4N0TH3R FR13ND T00."

"Was she responsible for the fireworks?"

"Yeah." Melissa chimed in.

"I ain't go no idear what just happened...but uh...how are things Melissa?" Bronzi said over the radio. "Still up fer dat hang n bang we talked about?"

"Wot, 'as yer right hand gotten some sense into it 'an left?" She replied teasingly.

"With yer looks...I dun think bitchy is the way to go...HUR HUR." Bronzi said, clearly in gest.

"Scott, Panther, hop on the network and tell us, and our new friend what's going on to the best of your knowledge." He then sent Scott and Panther the photos of the medical and perhaps chemical waste he took earlier. "Vita, Ellen and I are closest to the Water Plant, if anyone wants to help me storm the place, be my guest!"

It was a short drive to the water plant, and there were lots of unattended cars with their keys in the ignition. Such was life in any good city in Nepleslia - and even moreso here.

Ellen's attention was taken away from the pile of junk by the sudden explosion off to one side, which caused her to jump in surprise. for a moment She felt the sensation of losing control of her body, and watched as it jumped into a ready stance, an almost aggressive defensive posture, hand on one of her pistols. It took just a few moments for her to regain control, with the supposed threat identified as simple fireworks. You scared the shit out of me! Ellen berated the other occupant of her body, trying to straighten out and relax- She had suddenly become so tense that she didn't know what to do anymore.

Sorry, I've been a little on edge lately after everything that happened. Sudden explodey noises are usually a bad thing although, Ellen's head turned, semi-autonomously, toward Luca, it seems Luca now has reception.

"So, did you find anything out?" Ellen asked, looking at the once and perhaps future hero in front of her.

Smith listened over the comms as his words were swept away by a tide of chatter - something was definitely up, but, by the sounds of it, the area seemed safe enough.

The well dressed Nepleslian peeled off the gas mask after listening in, making sure it wasn't airborne. "The way he says it, it almost sounds like he ate the shit or something," Scott muttered to himself in thought. That was impossible of course - nobody would be stupid enough to actually eat food that was likely contaminated...would they? The young man stood there for a moment as the bright sun shone down onto his shoulders and wind blew by with a lonely, desolate sound.

He broke into a frantic, desperate run.

Scott knew he needed samples, so it was only a matter of time until he found - there! The dusty orange gravel and dirt crunched underfoot as he skid to a stop in his leather dress shoes, quickly changing direction over to a passed out man laying face first in a small puddle of...blue. It was just what he needed. Pulling out gloves and a few bits of equipment, Scott quickly took a sample and put it into a scanner for work. As the handheld machine whirred away, he removed his gloves before pressing the earbud closer.

It was in the water too.

"We don't have much to work with right now - all we know is that it hits neural pathways in the brain. With the samples we had, we were lucky just narrowing it down to that!" Smith admitted over the comms. Holding up a hand to shield his eyes from the scorching sun, he spotted the water plant they mentioned off in the distance and made off for the next bit he needed. "Right now, I'm collecting ones on site and putting them into a field scanner - I gotta hit up a medical facility or clinic or hospital!" he panted over the comms.

Making sure the case he had with him was secure, Scott tossed it over a wire fence and clambered over. He quickly picked it up and slid down the cement slope, coming right up to the edge of an aqueduct or canal or...whatever it was called! Bottom line, when he held up the photos Luca sent him, the foul liquid flowing through it matched! Grabbing a vial and another set of clean gloves, Smith hurried to take another sample and plug it into another field scanner - linking both of them to his glasses, he packed them away again as they worked, hoping they'd send him the results soon.

"Heading for where ever I can find - I'll tell you about whatever I find. Wish me luck yeah?"

His hair was standing higher than the last time Panther was thrown into a pool one mission long time ago. The fireworks had gotten his attention, as the sound and smell of the explosion made him jump a little thinking he might have been sent to the spirit plane. Fate only played a joke on Panther, as he calmed down enough to receive Luca's call and began to climb a building to see where the water plant was.

While he was on top of the building he mentally mapped out a route to take. He glanced back at Scott who was doing his science thing and made the decision to head out, believing he's done all he could and is going to let the proper person work on the antidote.

Panther began to jump building to building on his way to the water plant. On the way he called Luca's number, attempting to explain in between leaps, rolls and climbing, "This is Panther. Do not eat or drink. Poison needs to be digested."

For as much as Bronzi had trusted Enzo to check behind him, it was really a bad move in the end. The criminal had, at some point, wandered off in search of profitable ventures in the seemingly abandoned town. At this point, having witnessed the fireworks show, Enzo considered flicking on his radio and contacting the group for an explanation. After a cursory consideration of having to explain his own activities, however; the vagabond took it upon himself to maintain radio silence for the moment-- instead focusing his energy on going one-by-one through the empty cars littering the silent city streets. At this point, he sat in the passenger seat of a sportscar, rifling through the glove compartment. He held dangling in his cigarette-free hand a silver bracelet into the light, testing its weight and its sheen to determine its approximate value.

The doors on the side of the driver suddenly opened and figure clad in WIND suit sat next to him. She opened her visor and he could see some stray hair and Zeta's face. She looked at him with a raised eyebrow, but then she decided to not comment what he was doing. Fishing a pack of DEATH cigarettes from one of the pockets on her belt, she lit one.
"Yo," she said with a small smile. It was a while since she and Enzo worked together. Or even talked.

"Hey, if it ain't lil Zeta." Enzo commented, dropping the bracelet into one of the pockets in his coat. "What brings yous out in the open? I hear that alls da fireworks is happenin' indoors."

"That is where I am heading," she replied to him, puffing on her deathstick. She offered open pack to Enzo to takeo ne as well. "I borrowed a car and head to the water treatment plant, but Alyson told me you were nearby so I stopped by to say hi and ask if you want to go with me. Plus this car you found look much better then the crap-heap I found." Zeta patted the steering wheel.


"Yeah, I do got good taste, baby." Enzo declared, seemingly more to himself than to Zeta, all the while tossing one of his cigarettes out the window to take one of Zeta's. After lighting his new smoke, Enzo pushed the door open with one foot and reached over to grab a pair of shopping bags he'd left next to the door. Filled with all sorts of loot from the cars behind him. Well, all the nice ones, anyway. After he'd secured his newly acquired belongings into the sportscar's tiny backseat, Enzo pulled the door closed again and reclined the seat a little to make himself more comfortable. "Alright then! Let's go fer a ride, yeah?"

Zeta watched the bags which were not stored in the car. "You know, we came here to liberate the people, not their belongings." She said, but then she laughed a little to show she was not that much serious. She knew damn well, that there was no way of making Enzo stop stealing. He was a thief and a crook. Zeta knew that, but somehow she was fine with it. Enzo was not... evil after all.

Zeta quickly looked if there were keys in the car and sadly there were none. Not even when she flopped the shader. Owner of this vehicle was careful or non-trusting sort. Not that it would help him. Zeta whistled as she pulled off covering under the steering wheel. She fished out cables and went to her work, whistling. In a minute the engine started roaring. It was a strong engine. Zeta smiled and holstered knife, she used to expose the wires.

"Hold onto you pants," Zeta said, pushing pedal to the metal and rocketing from the sidewalk. She speed up and rushed into the streets. "So what do you think about all this buggery?"

"I think I better not get shot at too much." Enzo replied, whipping a pair of sunglasses from under the visor over his seat. He examined them for all of a second before casually plopping them onto the end of his nose and adding, "Should I really cares? I just want somethin' to pass the times... So longs as I don't gets killed or whatevahs."

"I imagine dying would be bloody annoying," Zeta replied with a chuckle. She hit a break and took a turn. Very sharp turn. Tires scream on the tarmac. "I do not plan on finding out myself. But hey, at least we don't get bored. So what do you think about this 'new' Luca?"

"What?" Enzo quipped, "He don't get your shit wet anymore? You know, dey gots creams fer dat."

Zeta raised an eyebrow, looking at Enzo. It took several seconds befoer she looked on the road again. "No, the sex is fine," Zeta responded simply. Enzo was just like that. Blunt. "I mean... he seems to think that he is saviour of the universe. What is your view on this? You are around him as long as I am, though I imagine he does not get your shit wet."

Enzo reclined his seat further in response, his shit not appropriately wet enough to comment adequately on the subject. He sat staring behind his sunglasses into the sky for a moment before eventually spitting out a simple, "Whatevahs. I'm not sure I oughta stick around anymore. But I kinda wanna get it on with that Melissa broad... Or just eat by her or somethins. She's the kinda broad my ma woulda wanted me to hooks up with."

With a nodd Zeta smiled. "Well for that you actually have to approach her and talk with her ya know. I mean I am no expert on relationships, but you never get 'her shit wet' if you watch from afar. That much I know." Though for her, it acutally sort of work as in the end Luca just hooked up with her.

"Yeah, well," Enzo started, donning a sort of frustrated grimace, "I knows how to talks to a lady, alright? Geeze. Na, it ain't likes dat. I gotta makes myself honest for her or some shit."

"Yeah," Zeta nodded. "She does not seem like a lady you can woe just by some sweet compliments. You need to get her trust mate," that was at least what Zeta thought.

"I think I'm well beyond bein' trusted by anyone around here... I mean..." Enzo took a tug of the cigarette and propped his hands up behind his head, "Wouldya let me watch yous shit while yous was gone on vacation fer a week?"

"No," Zeta said. "You would have sold it. BUT! I would have let you cover my back when going into the fight. Which is what I am doing right now. Actually I am glad I have you and not Seiren with me." It was simple explanation.

"What, the little Yammie girl? Or the other little Yammie girl? Or- Wait!" The was a shuffling of cloth as Enzo raised his hand and started counting his fingers with a sideways look, "Does we-- Does we has three little Yammie girls now?"

"Seiren is supposed to be a bloke," Zeta reponded with a shrug, speeing towards the plant. "At least he says so. I have no interest in checking his junk. Feel free to do so yourself. And well other then that there is Allyson, I think. What about that chick that picked up Vita? You think she is a Yammie as well?"

"I dunno, prolly?" Enzo replied, now propping his boots on the dash in a cloud of gray smoke. "Vita... Vita.. That's the brat, right?"

"Luca's daughter," Zeta said simply. She froned a little at the word 'brat'. "She has a good head on her shoulders."

"Doughta!?" spat Enzo, his cigarette nearly flying out the window, "When did that happen? She's like... Like, fuckin' fifteen an' shit."

"Ask Luca, he will explain it better," Zeta responded. "Luca will tell you, just get alone with him, with no ears around. It is not something he wants to blurt out just to anybody you know." There Zeta gave chance Luca to explain Vita to Enzo in anyway he wants.

"Sounds stupid." And Enzo left it at that.

Zeta shrugged and spit her ciggarette out of the window. There was not much to say to that. Either Enzo will talk with Luca or not. Zeta was not a mum of either of them, they had their own heads and can make their own decisions. Not saying a word she drove on. After letting the silence hang until it bored him, Enzo finally let loose an agitated, "Are we fuckin' there yet or what!?"

"We are," Zeta simply responded. She closed her helmet and drove the car into the yard of the Water Treatment Plant.

The sun was beginning to set as Enzo and Zeta found themselves passing through the rusted outer gates of the water plant. An aerial view of the location would've yielded a large, open area with a series of bodies of water, some contained within man-made structures, and each body of water representing a different stage in the process of making drinkable water. From where they were standing, framed in the sun's golden rays and shaded in hues of blue they could hear the machinery working away around them.

First of all, you'd pump it from an unclean source through a screen filter to remove sediment and into the biggest lake that the duo could see. The water would then pass through a series of processes to do the following things in order: Adjust its acidity until it got to pH 7.0 (safe, neither alkaline nor acidic), perform coagulation and flocculation procedures to remove suspended particles and bacteria.

It would then be passed into a calmer pool of water to allow the sediments and sludge created by the coagulation and flocculation procedures to settle to the bottom or float to the top, and leave clean(er) water between them. It would then be passed through more filters to get finer sedimentary particles out of the water.

Then disinfection could occur properly now that you weren't drinking a mouthful of dirt. Nepleslians preferred chlorine dioxide and UV light to destroy bacteria. Depending on the area, they'd add fluoride to the water to give Nepleslians a winning smile and pump it through.

And somewhere in this complicated chain was the problem - the question was where exactly - and who had to gain from it? Was the system even functioning properly after being neglected by its owners? The grounds of the water treatment plant was still, but Enzo's eye caught something in the water, in what he guessed was the storage pool where the dirty water came in.

It was floating on the still surface and flanked by patches of neon blue algae on the surface, wearing a glossy orange safety vest and a a flannel shirt face down in the putrid water and bloated from decomposition. Zeta, meanwhile, looked ahead, and swore that she saw a flicker of movement coming from the chemical storage tanks - just as though someone was looking at her and running.

Looking over to one side, Enzo could spot a large pole nearby and a doughnut-shaped floatation device for use in case of emergency - on living people. Enzo guessed that it'd be good for reeling in the dead too.

Meanwhile, Panther was going from building to building, eventually running out of cityscape to traverse as the sprawl thinned out, and forced to foot it towards the water treatment plant. Zeta could see him on the horizon.

-

Scott moved into the city, weaving past cars left neglected in the streets and looking at the desolation. They were united in their search for a place to put what they and the others knew to the test.

It didn't take long for him to consult a map using their communicators and finding a medical clinic. Approaching the door and finding it unsurprisingly open and to the breeze, he moved inside to see that the place had been investigated within the last few days, judging by the loose records on the reception table. Some loose strands of pink hair near the keyboard. They were difficult to miss once you noticed since they stood out against the beige plastic of the keyboard and monitor.

The notes strewn across the desk told him he wasn't alone in trying to figure out just what was going on. However, the notes before him were frantic, without reason or rhyme. The investigation done here was by someone who knew nothing about medicine.

-

"Guys, I need to get my friends to safety. Its getting dark." Aoi relayed to everyone on Team Phoenix as she walked past Bronzi and Seiren. "Cover me." She asked politely as she moved outside the apartment.

-

Peering further inside, the facilities were standard for any decent Nepleslian clinic that dealt mostly with gunshot wounds and physical injuries rather than ongoing diseases that often.

-

"I hope the rest of you guys are packing heat." Aoi was walking down the stairs and watching the corridors carefully like a cat trying to steal a goldfish from a bow. "Some people affected by the virus..."

-

Smith had turned around and was looking at the door to the operating room, hoping to find a pathology when the doors burst open and a man in a bloody apron brandishing a bone saw dashed towards the nearest humanoid in the room. He looked to be in his fifties, there was a blueness in his eyes and his voice gargled with rage.

-

"...are affected differently by whatever the hell's going on here." She finished her sentence and headed out into the open streets, looking at the empty buildings nervously.

"My friends aren't showing it ... yet." She swallowed a lump in her throat.

-

To Scott, this was someone that'd broken through the spectrum of apathy, stack overflowed and bent all the way back around into rage. He only had seconds to pacify the man.

-

Luca checked his communicator and noted that Zeta and Enzo were at the water plant. "Thanks for scouting ahead. I'll regroup with the others in the city and we'll all head in. Keep me posted."

"What have you done since you got here, dad?" Vita asked her father.

"Organising people, that's what." He nodded. "Its an important skill, moreso than being able to leap through the air with two pistols and shoot the bad guys." He moved back over to his motorcycle and jumped onto it. He gave Vita an upwards nod, "We need to get back to the others."

She hopped onto the back seat of her father's motorcycle and wrapped her arms around his waist.

"B0SS W3 G0T 4 PR0BL3M." Echelon sent out to the others.

"Talk to me." He replied tersely as the engines sprung to life and the motorcycle leapt forth form the derricks.

"Just - Trying to -" The sound of something heavy and made of metal could be heard impacting against a bone and breaking it. If Luca were to hazard a guess, it would've been that heavy monkey wrench Allison kept by her side. Who was she swinging it at?

"TH3 P30PL3 H4V3 4W0K3N! TH3Y'R3 FL1PP1NG TH3 FUCK 0UT!" The sound of one of Echelon's fists could be heard knocking someone out for the count.

"Makari! Seiren! Bronzi! Cover Aoi! Keep casualties minimal, disable if possible first - kill if you've got no choice!"

Indeed, Bronzi could hear frenzied footsteps in the apartment. Makari, meanwhile would hear a gargling yowl from behind him. Turning around, he'd spot a Nepleslian woman, eyes mad with violence, and brandishing a kitchen knife.

As Luca was approaching the town, he had to swerve to avoid someone dashing towards him and skidded out, making a doughnut to face his pursuer. Grabbing his ODM-10mm from inside his jacket and aiming at the runner's knees, he fired a single shot that took out his knees and put him on the ground, still crawling after Luca.

And then patches of the city erupted into howls as the gunshot and motorcycle echoed through it. If Luca were to hazard a guess, there was at least 100 to 200 people spread throughout the town after his team's blood. At least it wasn't about twenty thousand - which would've been the entire town's population. "Hell's bells. Tough crowd." Luca commented dryly as Vita clung to his side. "We have to keep them distracted! Hang on!" Luca yelled as he made a wheelie and started making the motorcycle traverse the parked cars and stretches of road. "GOTTA PUT ON A SHOW!" He yelled over the comms.

Vita was not leaving his side, clinging for dear life. She could be heard gasping as she watched the group of five disgruntled, diseased people chasing after her father's motorcycle.

Melissa could be heard cursing over the communications before a loud crunch could be heard. "Fer fuck's sake, one 'o them wanted me - they got me boot first." She relayed as she watched the assailant fall from the perch she'd found and landed on the ground, sending a butterfly of red onto the pavement. She could be heard attaching a suppressor to her rifle.

"Keep it quiet!"

"Aoi."

Bronzi said as he watched his motion scanner light up.

"Aoi. You got a gun?"

He said once more as he Began pulling a small cylinder from his tactical belt.

"Baby doll, shit's hittin the fan. Aoi stay close. I'll protect ya." He said with a snort as the sounds of a frenzy began drawing closer. Bronzi had little to fear.

Bronzi sounded off on the radio. "I got Aoi and Babydoll with meh. Were ya wanna meet up?"

Frustration - that was what Scott felt when he got to work. Whoever was here before him, a girl by the looks of it, had only made things harder for him! He had to get things out of the way, figure out what was useful and what wasn't...and god, assuming the old asshole was real, forbid he completely overlooked a key piece thanks to this! Scrambling to get set up, Scott almost didn't notice the incoming bone saw!

He only had seconds to pacify the man.

Unfortunately for the younger Smith brother, those seconds were drawn out into a small eternity. Yelling at the top of his head like a lunatic himself, Scott ran around and around a table with the psychopathic man hot on his tail like a chicken without its head! Up stairs, down stairs they went, crashing through door after door, peeking in and out of hallways as they played cat and mouse. It was utterly absurd.

'Wait a F@#$ing second, I have a gun!' a light bulb went off in his head. Drawing, turning to fire, he brought his gun to bear right at the Surgeon. Scott went straight back to running about. 'I can't shoot the surgeon! That'll screw things up even worse!' Scrambling into the ER room, the young Nepleslian did the next best thing without a less-than-lethal shock device.

Grabbing a pair of shock pads, he used them like boxing gloves as the machine whined to life - he just needed a good hit, bonesaw or toe, that'd end it!

"Stop calling me that!" Seiren grumbled, popping his Little Killer out of his left sleeve. He'd prefer using Bronzi's girth to his advantage, but if push came to shove he had one cardinal rule for these people: Aim for the kneecaps. And, if worse comes to worse, feed 'em a few Phoenix candies. That'd set any sane being's mind ablaze. With spice.

Bronzi tossed his slung his scatter gun across his back. He then reached across his chest and drew one of his revolvers. "Alright, gonna aim low. Hit em in the legs, these people are victims..." He growled.

Bronzi was not dual wielding his revolvers as he had done, in fact he was holding a single revolver with both of his hands and held it up in proper aim stance. Precision was the key, rather then snap shots at center mass.

He snorted a soft chuckle. "I'll stop callin' you babydoll when you stop bein' so damn precious."

Bronzi then brushed up against Aoi and delivered a soft pinch to her left butt cheek with. "We'll discuss yer payment options when I get dat badee outta here."

Makari frowned at the restriction to casualties; his HHG was loaded with red shells. So instead he whipped out his slightly less damaging Peashooter just in time to hear a yowl from behind. As he spun around he spied a Nepleslian woman with a knife. Makari took aim and fired at the knife, disarming the civilian. "Behind us! I've got this one. Dammit, why do we have to fight crazy civies? They're not very much fun." Makari sprinted towards the civilian and pistol whipped her in the side of her head.

With gunshots echoing in the distance, Enzo gave Zeta only the briefest of glances before taking the people-gaffer in hand and beginning a sort of tight-rope walk out over the offending pool of water-- his feet knocking sand and silt off of a pipe that stretched over the blued up corpse. The pole's center of balance was easy enough to find, and holding it only helped the already acrobatic conman stay perched on the pipe. When he was just over the corpse, Enzo took a brief look down and dropped to a saddle-mount position on the cylindrical metal.

With the sun's warmth seeping from the pipe to his pants, Enzo drew his trusty and beaten snub-nosed revolver and lowered the gaffer pole with one hand, leaning back against its weight. He and his pistol watched the floater end press up against the bloated corpse for a moment, before pushing it towards the edge of the pool.

Once the body had found purchase on the surface once more, Enzo shoved back a little to keep from falling into the water and dropped the gaffer against the pipe to begin his journey back to shore to investigate, flicking a cigarette into the algae behind him.

"I saw someone," Zeta simply said and took off. With a flick of a button, her WIND suit locked up. Its power turned on and Zeta could now use all the abilities it had. Like enhanced strengthy. With long steps, more like little jumps Zeta started sprint-jumping the way of the movement.

"Panther I am pursuing someone," Zeta shouted into comms. "Get into water plant fast and back-up Enzo!" But then it was not time for words. She steadied her breathing and took off.

Once Panther ran out of things to jump from he increased his speed by running on all fours. He heard what Zeta had said and kept moving into the building, standing up as he reached the entrance. Compared to the excitement of getting into the building it seemed eerily silent inside, which had Panther's senses on high alert as he moved further inside.

Bronzi, Seiren and Aoi turned a corner to head down the stairs and into the foyer. Bronzi was ahead of the others and he was the first to see what was going on in the foyer. If you had just walked in, Bronzi would be seen at the top of the right staircase with his revolver in both claws, gripped tight.

The first thing he could see on his right across the balcony and towards the opposite staircase was a person with that shade in their eyes, and gripping a bat. This man appeared to be an unenhanced Nepleslian about six feet tall and brandishing a baseball bat. He was wearing a miner's uniform, similar to the miner that crashed through Lina's roof a few days ago.

The Miner sprinted towards Bronzi with his bat high and looked to be making a swing for his midsection, ignoring the fact that Gartagens were particularly resistant to blunt objects.

Then there was the sound of a gunshot. Bronzi could feel specks of burning gunpowder by his midsection as the crazed man stumbled and fell to the ground, having being shot in the calf. Aoi was holding a smoking Ketsurui Zaibatsu 10mm pistol, an old Type 28 model.

Those old things were better as collector's items compared to contemporary guns, but they could still put a bullet in someone. Beneath the stairs there was a yell, and bullets ripped through the balcony the team were standing on from beneath. A line of of exit-wounds flew from the floor, starting near the downed man and running towards Bronzi. A pair of bullets struck him in the chest from beneath.

-

Makari could hear the shooting inside the building Bronzi, Seiren and Aoi were in. Looking through a glass window, he could see two figures standing beneath the balcony that Bronzi and company were standing on. One of them had a sub machinegun and he was ejecting an empty magazine, searching his pockets for another.

They both had that ugly shade of blue dripping from their mouths. The one with the machine gun was grunting as they tried to push the magazine in while the other was making a beeline for the stairs and charging up them with a meat cleaver.

-

Scott raised the makeshift stun gloves up and tried to intercept the bonesaw, but the first blow glanced off of the paddles without touching the metal. He had to duck under the doctor's backhand strike as he was recovering from that parry. The crazed surgeon made another swing, and placed the business end a paddle close to his right bicep.

Because that's where a bonesaw would've gone. However, the metal saw touched the electrified paddles, and Scott squeezed the trigger. THWOOMP! The bonesaw darted out of the surgeon's hand in a flash of light and his arm recoiled involuntarily. Scott followed up by pushing the other paddle into the surgeons chest and firing. THWOOMP! The surgeon was knocked backwards and found himself lying on his back, electrified with his hairs on end, writhing in pain and very confused.

The threat had been neutralised, and Scott recalled that during the chase, there was a pathology lab that was just waiting for some able hands. He could now compute his work in relative peace.

-

Zeta and Panther caught up to each other and they caught a glimpse of a running person. They appeared to be moving just as quickly as the armour-assisted Zeta and the naturally athletic Panther were. Whoever they were would probably not have been entirely human.

They found themselves darting between a pair of water processing tanks, the sounds of machinery filled their ears as they wove through the churning cylinders adorned with gauges and valves. Amongst the array, something stuck out like an ingrown toenail from one of the large processing pipelines heading towards the final processing stage. One of the observation ports facing directly upwards had been broken open.

Something had been jammed into it, like another filtration mesh that was ahead of where it was supposed to be dealt with. Peering into it, they'd spot an accumulation of that algae upon it, and poisoning the water. The final filtration process in one last tank that distributed it to the rest of the town was not operational, but something was still making it take the unfiltered water from that process and distributing it. Some sort of hack, and disconnected form the rest of the power grid.

Panther could see a control kiosk amidst the grass twenty yards away, and he saw someone leap out of it, and they landed on the floor, stumbling for a precious moment. With a clear view, the duo were able to determine their target's race. It was a Lorath, with long, animal-like pointed ears.

-

Meanwhile, Enzo's cigarette fell into the algae and it didn't sink under the surface of the water, rather it remained on top of the algae, continuing to burn for a few moments.

As Enzo was dragging the sodden corpse ashore, flipping him over and inspecting him, a flame caught on the algae behind him. An acrid stench filled the air as fire started spread through the algae, occasionally leaping from clump to separated clump to spread the flames.

The stench reminded him of that half-eaten hot dog he'd finished off, and his headache was beginning to intensify as he was closer to the flames. Whatever it was, it clearly wasn't good for the brain in any form.

The dead man in his grasp, if he were to hazard a guess could've been some sort of water plant worker or valve monitor judging by the keycard on his lapel. The poor bastard was just an acceptable casualty in poisoning the water supply of this town.

A piece of the puzzle didn't fit - there was still no ringleader responsible that he or the others could pin down, nor was there much of a motivation to inflict this on a town.

-

Finally, Luca was still motorcycling through the city when he made a glimpse behind him and spotted smoke. He swallowed a lump in his throat and readied his radio. "Ellen," he radioed to the diminutive teenager who was still at the Oil Derricks with her car. "Head to the water plant. I think the others need..."

The smoke was getting worse. "Yeah, I'm sure you see it. Go!"

He then made a call to everyone as he realised that there was a cloud of at least forty people behind him trying to run after his motorcycle. "Everyone, report in! What's the hell's going on with that water plant?"

"F1R3!" Echelon remarked, watching from a distance. "1TS N0 3XPL0S10N, BUT 1 W0ULDN'T T3MPT F4T3!"
"Crikey!" Melissa added, looking at what was going on through her scope. She spotted the Lorath that Zeta and Panther had seen, and she fired a warning shot. Crack!

It followed an arc along the sky and the ground three feet to the left and two feet in front of the target. Either her milling was off or she hadn't adjusted her scope and the range card for subtle changes in this planet's gravity at long distances properly. It gave Zeta and Panther a wider window to apprehend the Lorath suspect.

He found that he was getting closer to the docks, and swiftly realised that he was about to run out of road. He made a bootleg turn, putting the handbrakes on and pulling a very hard right turn, leaving a black streak across the concrete. The tyres screeched and Vita screamed.

The wheels spun as the drop into the water behind him came closer and closer, and he knew that the water for drinking wasn't safe, so the water for swimming was probably suspect too. When the smoke cleared, he was only a few inches away. He pushed himself and the bike forward a few inches, put the kickstand down and looked around, taking care to let Vita down.

The smell of fish hung in the air, and he could see children. Three of them. Two were in some sort of strange word game, while another was curled up. Luca looked ahead to the incoming crowd, and gave Vita an upwards nod to defend the kids while Aoi was on her way with Bronzi and the others.

"Aoi, I've found some kids. I think they're yours." He told the Nekovalkyrja over radio. "I'll try and hold the fort and keep the casualties to a minimum." He cracked his knuckles beneath the Grapple Stunner.

"Dad?" Vita asked as she tried to get the girl's attention. Luca turned around. "What's come over everyone?"

"That's what the others have found out together. They all probably know more than me a few times over." He turned back around. "All I'm good for is what I do best." He raised his right arm and the Grapple Stunner crackled into lightning life. "Hurry, hide the kids."

She did so, trying to break up the word game between the two boys and direct all three of them to safety. She looked inside the warehouse and found all of the other children that were in Aoi's care. It was a bunker, safe from outside attacks and able to keep all of them safe.

Vita was now with Yuuka, Tanaka, Taro, Hiroyuki, Misha, Wakamoto, Chiyo, Annata, Mai, Shiko, Kikyo, Billy, Hotaru, Hanako, Reiko, Genno, Sasaki and Morimoto.

If only they knew their names.

Luca, meanwhile was making a phone call as he waited for the crazed people to catch up to him and for the fighting to start. He was calling Aiesu Kalopsia, or at least, the one he knew resided in Sargasso.

Ring ring... Ring ring... "...hello?"

"Hey Aiesu, is this a good time?" Luca asked through his headset as he assumed a fighting stance. "I think I need your input on some stuff I'm sending over."

The communicator started sending footage and information gathered from all of the team mates, including Allison and Echelon's network grid data, Scott and Panther's medical findings, Bronzi and Enzo's firsthand experience with the substance and Aoi's scrambled findings on it all, along with photos from everyone of what they'd seen.

"Stay on the line, things are about to get messy on my end."

"Bronzi, take out the cleaver guy! I'm gonna do that thing I've always wanted to do!" Seiren declared, dashing by Bronzi and meeting the stairs. Instead of taking the stairs like most reasonable people, he hopped onto the bannister and slid down, hopefully dodging the cleaver-man's strikes. Once he landed, two shots would be fired, one at each leg of the sub-machine gunner.