RP: ISC Phoenix [Mission 5.5] - Stormin' the Castle

When the elevator opened, Vincent had his handcannon ready to fire while Arin would stay in the ID-SOL's shadow with her ESG. Mitch hadn't exactly packed a weapon fit for a close quarters situation, but the Xaser he had packed had to do.

Luca, John and Mel were the first out with Luca taking head and the two taking flank. Sebastian and Hitori moved out but hugged the walls.
"...Huh?" Luca wondered as he looked ahead, a distinct lack of guards, or weapons pointed to him, or even something to put him on alert.

In fact, the open conference and throne room looked as though it'd been set up for a banquet dinner for 12 on a mahogany table with a white table cloth. Chicken soup, fine wine, a few large pieces of roast meat, potatoes, greens, and spaghetti were on the table for offer.
Dotted along the sides of the room were various pieces of art, tapestries depicting great battles in history, and tasteful statues of the human form.

Crowning a horrifyingly detailed throne of metal bones and skulls at the head of the table was none other than the antagonist himself, Cain.
Next to him was an Nekovalkyrja with crimson red hair and eyes to match with a bloodstained YSE uniform. Behind him was a glass window that overlooked the complex and the rest of the planet N-357.
It was a definite change of scenery, if not somewhat jarring.

"Indeed," A calm, yet ominously creepy Cain said, "You've arrived. I figured that you and your crew deserve a last meal before I turn myself and the Mindwrecker onto you," His voice suddenly changed to a much more sinister and rattling tone that echoed through the room, "YOU SORRY SACKS OF FILTH."

Luca blinked incredulously at the outburst, and lowered his weapon, but still had it pointed at him in case he tried anything funny.
"Excuse me, now sit with me and dine, and we'll fight on equal terms. You and your nine against me and my last Lieutenant is hardly fair."

"Why don't you just shoot him?" Sebastian asked angrily to his son, "Get it over with."
"I haven't eaten anything this good looking for 16 hours, pops," Luca turned around and beckoned the crew over to the table, "At least we can be polite - the guy's offering us a bite to eat."
"It could be poisoned," Mitch cautioned with a grumble, as the rather murderous (and sober) voice of reason pointed to Cain, "People like you, no matter how affable looking can never get rid of your underhanded bullshit."

"Nonsense." Cain deflected the accusation, "I wouldn't do that for a last meal, a man such as Luca, and you, his loyal crew deserve to die standing up rather than writhing on your knees. Now come... sit," He pointed to Luca, "You, at the foot of the table."

Luca was contested as to whether or not he should have a drink with his current arch-nemesis. He moved to the foot of the table, pulled a chair up, checked under the cloth on the table for any sort of traps, but found none under his part, or anyone elses. It looked safe, and the food was making his gut rumble...

Arin was conflicted as to what to think of this Cain person. After travelling halfway across explored space, dropping from the stratosphere, walking a few kilometers, over a rapid river, through the sewers, through a goon filled complex. Slashed at, shot at, poisoned. Made her really want to sit down for once to eat something other than field rations, but it was these same reasons that made her suspicious. Why would the adversity quit now at the finale when it should be most intense?

Nevertheless, she had taken things given freely by creeps before without reciprocating or seeing them again. Taking Pavone's lead, she sat down next to him for security resons... Her own security of course.

She wondered if that Neko was any different from a normal Neko.

D'oh shit!

Vincent's mind went on high alert when he noticed the Nekovalkyrja. A man with his... History with the SAoY's killer cat-girls was trained to kill first and ask questions later. With the hammer on the hand-cannon half-cocked, Cain spoke quickly- and Vincent, nervous, carefully released the hammer and half-lowered the gun. Looking at the bloody Neko- a string of profanities running through his mind, half-inclined to bombard her and half to keep himself occupied- he pulled out a chair next to Arin and eased his wounded but-tox into the seat. However, unlike his charge, he didn't make a move to eat. Instead, he leaned to his left and intoned to Arin:

"When the shit hits the fan, fabricate me a Black half-moon clip so I'm prepared."

Robert shuddered inwardly at the sight of the Neko. They had always given him the shivers, but to see a bloody one was nerve-racking. He decided that if he was going to die, it might as well be full. So he grabbed the seat on the other side of Arin, just in time to hear what Vincent said to her. "I wonder which one would be worse to be up against." He whispered to both Arin and Vincent. Then he grabbed up a plate of roast meat and started wolfing it down.

"The neko, probably. Bastards're tough enough already." Vincent whispered across the table to Robert. "And with threads that look like what those have been through? She's probably some sort of experimental version."

"She's probably some sort of experimental version."

Click to expand...

"Most probably." Arin replied, keeping a wary eye on the Neko as she bent forward to sip from her spoon. She remembered the crash course on Neko identification that Melchoir gave her prior to her posting to the Yiggdrasil.Those red eyes... I'm almost certain! While her left hand was holding the cutlery, her right hand went under the table to hit a few buttons on her unshouldered Fabricator, keying in the instructions for the HHG Black bullets and a potent coagulant, both would take a while to assemble.

Relieved that she got her bases covered, the hungry, weary and dirty Representative attacked the spaghetti that she heaped on her plate, almost forgetting the gravity of the current situation.

Robert stared at their host. "I don't know, I heard somewhere that looks can be decieving. And that Cain dude is giving off some serious vibes." He looked around the table at the other team members. "I can't take this tension much longer guys. I know everyone wants to draw and shoot at this guy, but nobody's doing anything."

Sebastian sighed, "I'm not hungry, you can all go forward and eat, I'll keep an eye on Cain." He frowned, leaning next to a statue against the wall and with his revolver by his side.
Mitch nodded in Sebastian's direction and stayed back with his crossbow pointed at Cain from across the room.

Luca was sitting down with his pistol on the table. A few pieces of roast lamb with red-wine gravy were on the plate before him, with a side of herb-mixed mash potatoes and steamed vegetables.
He picked up a fork and knife and prodded the food cautiously, which yielded little. He cut himself a bit of the lamb, and took a bite. chewing down on it and savouring the meat flavour.
"Not bad," Luca said, nodding as he swallowed the food, "You do know how to make a guest feel welcome."
"I didn't think a blunt object like yourself would be able to appreciate the finer things in life," Cain said, almost mockingly, "I suppose you're savouring this last refinement. Let your crew come and enjoy it too - for it may be their last."

Mel and John sat down reluctantly, with their loaded sidearms on the table in similar fashion. They had a rich, creamy spaghetti cabonara with white wine sauce on their plates. Arin, too, had this dish.
The only chair big enough to fit Vincent's massive frame was next to John. He had a serving of lamb on his plate. Hitori sat on Luca's other side, eating roast lamb too. Where Robert would be sitting was serving spaghetti as well.
"This is truly awkward," Hitori told Arin as she took a sip of wine, "I can't believe Luca has this much trust in people..."
Mel overheard the conversation and nodded in her direction.
Luca didn't seem to be paying any attention, busy eating his meal.

Cain was enjoying a bit of both meals, as was his last lieutenant, Mindwrecker. They didn't say a word to the crew after that and let them talk amongst each other.

"This is truly awkward," Hitori told Arin as she took a sip of wine, "I can't believe Luca has this much trust in people..."

Click to expand...

Arin was momentarily distracted from her food by the statement directed at her. "Sebastian doesn't, and only he and Cain go way back." She said, her own statement only sunk in a few moments later, and she paused, distracted by the possibility that there is poison in the food. But after a few seconds, she continued eating.

((OOC: Somewhat unsuitable yet still awesome music to listen to!)) said:

Sweet - Ballroom Blitz (1973, RCA)

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"Might be onto something there..." Mel said as swallowed a forkful of carbonara.
Cain overheard this, "Sebastian," he said from the throne, "How's the arm? Still functioning, I hope?"
"Arm?" Luca asked quizzically as he looked over his shoulder to his dad, "You got your arm replaced by this guy? I never noticed!"
"Wow, that's history." Mel commented.
Sebastian nodded his head slowly, and with some shame, "It's ... not important."
The dinner continued without much talk about anything important.

Luca put down his knife and fork, satisfied with the dinner presented to him.
"You've finished early," Cain observed, as he'd finished early as well, "Are you ready?"
"Yeah, let's get it on, right now." Luca replied with his normal grin.
"Huh?" John said as he poked his head up and put a spoon of spaghetti into his mouth, he looked at at Luca, then Cain, then Luca again and swallowed his mouthful with a frown, "Uh oh."
"What?" Mel said, then she realised the brief exchange between the two perpetual forces, "Ohh bugger."
The friendly foes stared at each other for another passing moment - and it all became a blur.

Luca immediately snatched up the Lorath Hand cannon and jumped out of his chair, using the chair as his springboard. Cain immediately reacted by throwing off his red, formless robes - revealing a muscular, heavenly figure with brilliant white feathered wings and a hand-and-a-half sword by his side.
"THIS DAY, YOU SHALL PERISH!" He yelled in a deep, booming tone not before heard from the apparently powerful megalomaniac.

His next action was to shove the four-metre long and ton-heavy mahogany table towards the Luca, sending wine, spaghetti, lamb, mash potato, tablecloth, cutlery and candelabra flying while those who were still eating were unceremoniously knocked aside.
Sebastian and Mitch immediately dove for cover behind statues in awe of what was going on - and the fact that a TABLE was sliding in their general direction.

"Damn!" Mel said as she tried to recollect what just happened.

This didn't bother Luca as he sprinted along the table as it flew further towards the back, threatening to crush him against the wall. He aimed the handcannon at Cain while evading a flying fork and fired with a massive thud-BOOM!! - It hit Cain in the shoulder, unbalancing him for a moment but he didn't seem to care. The wound was regenerating in front of his eyes. He sniggered in Luca's general direction.
"Your baubles cannot harm me, for I am invincible!" He scoffed as the wound closed up completely, seemingly absorbing the bullet harmlessly.

Luca wanted to test that theory by firing again, but with one hand. The shot hit the top of the throne, knocking off one of the skulls.

Mindwrecker was a bit slower to react, but snatched up a cylinder the size of a thumb from her pocket and pressed a button - the device immediately appeared to burst into a purple psychic blast (through holograms) and threw it towards Luca, who twisted out of the way as he performed a front flip off of the last metre of the table and with the handcannon pointed at Cain when he landed in front of him.

The purple ball hit the table and exploded behind him, cleaving the table in two. The first half stopped in the middle of the room and a couple of metres away from the throne. The second half continued its path, slamming into the elevator, shattering into large, shards of mahogany, evading most of the combatants.

"We're fighting on equal terms - got it?" Luca breathed heavily as he pulled the hammer back for the handcannon.
"Impressive..." Cain commented as he brandished the claymore sword in his direction, he swung it at Luca, knocking the handcannon out of his grip, "But you shall die anyway!"
Luca drew his 10mm pistol and unloaded all 8 rounds into his chest, but they didn't seem to hinder the massive megalomaniac at all. He holstered it and stepped back with his fists up.
"Not if I have a say in the matter," Luca said as he assumed the stance of a pugilist with a smile, "C'mon guys, let's show this pompous son of a bitch who's boss!"

The crew picked themselves up amidst the confusion and had a chance to fight back and make this moment count! The adrenaline was pumping, the world seemed slower, pains seemed duller and other sensations more vivid and intense.

Robert kipped back up and drew his pistol in the same motion. As he stood up, he took aim, and unleashed the entire clip at the Neko, who seemed distracted with the holographic blast. Then, just for good measure, He threw the pistol at the Neko, while following it up with a quick dash and a powerful punch from his cybernetic arm.

"Whoaa!" Arin tipped over her seat when the spit hit the fan. Luckly because no-one was targeting her yet, she ungracefully rolled off the upended seat without any complications. On her belly, she scoured the room not to see the points of action but for her Fabricator, which was previously under the table, and was now missing. She hoped it was still under whats left of the table undamaged. Crawling, she tried to keep low as possible as she shifted through the rubble.

"Oh hell no, he did not just knock my hand-cannon away!" Vincent shouted as he recovered from the wreckage of the smashed table. As he had finally convinced himself to eat, he had gripped one end of the tablecloth. Just when he brought the fork to his mouth, Cain kicked away the table, dragging the table, Vincent, Vincent's chair and everything else into a nearby wall.

"That son of a bitch is gonna pay!" The merc shouted as he hefted his disassembled chaingun onto his back, quickly inserting the pieces into their slots, securing everything and feeding the end of the belt into his gun with a satisfying ka-klatch noise before proceeding to draw a bead on Cain and pummel him with supressing fire from the big deadly weapon.

The Neko shrugged off some of the 10mm unloaded into her, and Robert's punch hit true as she attempted to rebalance herself from the barrage. She swung back at Robert with a kick which would shove him back a couple of paces. She went for her pocket and pulled out another holographic grenade.

Arin was able to find her fabricator, and it had just enough random junk nearby to make a Hot Potato. The fabricator itself was a bit banged up, but it still worked just fine.
Yes! She thought to herself. She also found Hitori amongst the wreckage, a bit hurt from blast, but she got up and took cover behind a table, firing .22 at Mindwrecker, which did middling damage.

Meanwhile, Sebastian was moving along behind cover, keeping close to the walls and getting closer to Luca while Mitch focussed his fire on Mindwrecker, the Xaser pistol doing some good damage to her frame.
John and Mel had been knocked into each other against a statue, and were having some trouble getting up, but they were using their sidearms to also lay down suppressive fire for Mindwrecker.

Mindwrecker threw two holograph coated grenades, one between Vincent and Robert, and the other was heading towards John and Mel's position, they immediately split up and jumped behind statues when their grenade hit the ground, causing the tiled floor to be cracked by the small explosion.

Vincent's suppressive fire had caused Cain and Mindwrecker to put their heads down, albeit temporarily. The 30mm bullets made holes in the throne, gaping through like the crew would see in a cartoon.

While Cain was coming back up and raising his claymore above his head, Luca had found an opportunity to punch back! He'd come through with an uppercut, followed by two kicks to the chest and a mean right hook.

"Oough!" Cain was beginning to feel some pain, but he wouldn't let it get to his head now, not in his shining hour, "Die, cur!" He raised his claymore high and brought it down on Luca, who rolled around him and performed a dazzling uppercut.
"Aiigh!" Cain cried out in pain for once, and this surprised the crew.
Then Luca noticed something about Cain.

He had something on his back, it was made of metal, had three tubes full of glowing liquids that were being injected into him, and the key thing was that it looked important.
However, before Luca could attempt to tamper with this, Cain turned around and swung his claymore in a lateral strike, attempting to hit Luca along the chest. Luca fell back in an attempt to dodge, but it still struck him, leaving an unhealthy amount of slash across his chest.
"LUCA!" Sebastian called out.

This left his back, and what was on it exposed to the crew.

"See, if I slash you, do you not bleed?" Cain mocked Luca as he tried to get up, but the slash across his chest didn't allow that to happen easily, "If you are poisoned do you not die?" He laughed out loud, thinking that he'd wounded Luca mortally. This was not the case.
"So - if I am wronged," Luca said with a cough as he rose unsteadily, like a punching bag in front of a boxer, with fire in his eyes, "Do - I - not - seek - revenge?"

With what strength he had left, he lashed out with his left fist, hitting Cain squarely in the chest, then with his right, then left, right, left, right and it flowed into a rhythm, increasing in speed and intensity as Luca began letting more and more strikes pummel the megalomaniac down.

"Holy shit..." Sebastian was surprised at his son's quick recovery and equally amazing beatdown.
"Whoa..." John and Mel were surprised at the sight too.
"Fuck me blind..." Mitch hadn't seen this side of his captain before.
"Cain!" Mindwrecker cried out as she watched her employer and master get what he had coming to him, she figured she could make a run for it, out the window, turning away from the fight and fleeing, "Screw you, ISC Phoenix! Screw you all!"

"He's..." Hitori could see what was going on, and the thing on Cain's back, and fired at it with the last shot she had loaded. It shattered one of the three tubes on it, and made Cain shrivel in pain - which was only multiplying from Luca's unrelenting beatdown, "Aim for the thing on the back!" She commanded.

"ISC Phoenix screws you back!" Vincent shouted after Mindwrecker, stowing his chaingun and sprinting off after Mindwrecker, out for vengeance, out for blood. He reached the retreating Neko in a few strides and delivered a mule-kick aimed to the middle of her back.

Robert grunted from the punch, and recovered in time to dash after her, after the massive counterattack from Luca. He threw himself grabbing at her legs, hoping to at least tangle her up a bit for the big ID-Sol to catch up.

Robert and Vincent had managed, together, to bring Mindwrecker down before she could reach the window. Her back had been hit pretty hard by Vincent's donkey kick, which was the first step to knock her over, followed by Robert's combat pragmatism to ensure it.
She writhed to escape Robert's grab, but couldn't, thanks to all of the bullets riddled into her. Vincent was free to do as he pleased.
"Go ahead, make my day!" Mindwrecker taunted Vincent, she knew she'd been beat.

Luca was still smashing Cain into even less than the consistency of skittles, Cain's 8 foot tall, Herculean body was crumpling under the onslaught. Sebastian had slinked behind Cain and snatched the claymore that he'd dropped.

"ORAAA~!!" Luca snarled loudly as let out his final punch square in the chest, smashing Cain's sternum, leading to a grand total of 72 punches unleashed, "Don't ever get on my bad side."

Suddenly the sound of a loud metal SMASH!! could be heard, as Sebastian swung the claymore, with one hand, into Cain's back, and the devices and mechanisms, on it, shattering tubes of fluids and liquids that were coursing through his body.
"And I'll make sure you never prey on my son again!" Sebastian said as he threw the claymore down onto the ground with a clang.

"No!" Cain scowled as he stumbled towards the window overlooking N-357, "You fools, you've stopped my... inhibitor... chemicals... I... nnnghhh!" He agonised as his body began to wretch, muscles rearranging themselves, wings crumpling and expanding themselves erratically, skin even going patchy in places.

He finally threw himself through the window, having too much pride to let the attacks of the ISC Phoenix take his life. He fell, presumably towards the hard earth or a bit of the fortress with a satisfying thud.

Luca could then be seen with a notepad and pen, he was writing something.
"What are you doing?" Sebastian asked curiously as he looked at the notepad. It appeared to be like a receipt, but for all of the injuries sustained to the crew, to Luca, and his movie schedule, in that order.
Luca tore the note off the pad and threw it out the window, the wind letting it blow away.

"There's your bill." Luca smiled as he watched the note drift away, "Don't forget to-"

THOOOOM...

The lights in the room flickered and died completely, leaving only the night sky to illuminate the throne room, sending eerie shadows of the statues on the walls and floors.
Luca paused to think of what may have happened, Sebastian was equally surprised. Mitch, John, Mel and Hitori were also left to wonder what had happened.
Even Mindwrecker stopped writhing about to contemplate the noise.

"What ... the hell ... was that?" Mindwrecker asked Vincent, curiously, almost playfully. She figured her last words would be a question.

SCRYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!

An ungodly screech which could be heard for miles...

THOOOOM...

Luca's eyes widened as he heard something smash into the building, "V...Vitriol!? It can't be..." He said to himself, "Didn't screech that loud last time I saw it..."
"You mean that big black thing?!" Sebastian was surprised, "You ripped it to shreds!"

Luca squatted down to pick up Vincent's handcannon, pulling hammer back, "Ladies, Gentlemen, this is gonna be one hell of a night."

Meanwhile, the sounds of marching, and stumbling footsteps could be heard from the elevator and stairwells.

Seeing that both Vincent/Robert and Luca/Sebastian didn't need that much help, Arin rigged the elevator to continue on past their floor and jam somewhere out of sight. As for the stairs, she figured rolling down a hot potato being a little too cruel, she instead took her pre-made coagulant together with an extremely generous helping of carbonara sauce to form a sticky and viscous goo. This she wrapped around a not-so-hot potato and rolled that instead towards the advancing guards.

She intentionally withheld the Black Bullets she made, the Neko was beat and helpless. But if they wanted to end her misery, it would be best if she tossed it over just so that it would be quick and clean.

The loud wail made her wish she tossed the potato after Cain instead.

Vincent, meanwhile, was pre-occupied with fulfilling the ultimate goal of his creation: Killing Nekovalkyrja. He lifted Mindwrecker off the floor in one hand and delivered two straight punches to the woman's gut with his right before flinging her into a corner of the room like a discarded ragdoll. He then strode over to the Neko and proceeded to stamp both of her legs, shattering them like someone taking a hammer to balsa wood.

"Robert, keep an eye on her. If she tries to attack us, kill her. Otherwise leave her be; she's no threat to us now." The ID-Sol merc said to his thuggish comrade before moving to join the rest of the group.

Robert nodded dumbly, still stunned from the loud screech. "Did it sound like that last time ya'll fought it?" he asked as he retrieved his pistol, reloaded it and stood by Mindwrecker, with his back against the wall.