RP: ISC Phoenix [Mission 5] - Anger Management

Arin, who had a microfilter handkerchief handy, walked over to the other side of the room to hit the warehouse ventilation switch. Instantly the sounds of running fans filled the air and more importantly ventilated it. As the gas cleared she re-positioned near Betrand with empty gas-tank at ready to bash him in if he tried anything funny. The sight of his laughing battered body gave the representative 'courage' to stand that close, the courage to hit a wounded man however came from the determination to protect her friends in any way she can.

Robert sat down and looked at the scratch on his arm. It wasn't too deep but still bleed freely. "Arin, do you have any bandages in that techno-bauble filled pack of yours?"

"Ohhh..." Bertrand groaned as the pain returned to him, "At least I can die in a slightly more dignified circumstance..." He shook his head a little and sighed, a few drops of blood from his mouth.

"It all started when I was a child. Nobody ever took notice of me. I was... to say the least, excluded. I decided to... disappear ... then everybody took notice of me. It was euphoric - the attention I got afterwards. I decided to use this to my advantage, but they grew weary of my disappearances and accepted it. I had to cry out more for attention... It started with my old teacher..."
He glanced away with a cough, "They knew I did it - but they could never find me. It amused me how their futility... I knew couldn't hide forever from my fates until Cain... he granted me a new life to indulge my desires... needless to say - I was lost in my murderousness. But you found me..." He stared into Luca, "You found me... I feel like I should repay you..."

"Anything you have won't feed my hungry heart," Luca said as he gave him a pat on the shoulder, "That fight we had. Underhanded as you were - I admired your fighting."
"Wait," Bertrand said with a splutter and a frown, "Hitori..."
Luca's eyes widened and he leaned forwards, "What happened to Hitori?!" He shook him violently, "TELL ME!"
"Taken... by ... the dove... Michael ... seek him ... fortress ... save ... her ... hero..." He then fell completely limp, finally at peace.
Luca stood up and bowed deeply at the man he'd just killed.

"She's been captured!" Luca announced in a frenzy over radio to the other group, and to Jim, "I repeat, Hitori has been captured!"
John's voice crackled up on all channels, "What!? Oh, perfect. I knew she wasn't who she said she was!"
"Shut up! We have to find her!"
"It might be a trap, that bitch might have double crossed us!"
"Oh, fuck you!" Luca was angered by John's lack of sensitivity towards the issue.

"Both of you, calm the hell down," Sebastian's voice rung with a grunt, "Paranoia will not get us anywhere."
"Okay, you're right. We'll discuss this later..." Luca turned off his radio headset and searched for an exit. A door lead out along a suspended walkway of steel and glass that lead towards the fortress.

"Guys, little message for ya," Mel's distinctly rough, yet feminine voice could be heard over Radio for Arin, Robert and Vincent, "We've run though the fortress and we're on our way to the southern facility - we have no current clue as to its uses, but we'll keep you posted. Over 'n out."

"Affirmative," Vincent said, deadpan. Hitori's dissappearance had no effect on him; other than the fact that it was yet another free factor of the mission he would have to solve before the end of the operation. He sighed, shutting the door to the room he was in and stepping into the hallway, along the way flicking on his mic.

"I hear you, Mel. You keep going; the Reds still have radio silence and without logistics they're blind as bats with guns. I'll look around the base for Hitori. Luca, take Robert and Arin and search the base for Cain." He briefly looked up to see a Red approaching the sabotaged logistics room. "Gotta go."

The radio headset dissappeared from his head just as soon as the Red drew into visual range. He looked Vincent up and down.

"Soldier, what's going on with the radio in there?"

"Uhm... I... Err..." Vincent started a rebuttal and then promptly punched the man in the face. He quickly sprinted into the hallway and joined with the crowd, heading in a direction he (hoped) would lead him to Hitori.

Arin tossed a coagulant-infused bandage she found amongst the medical supplies towards Robert, while it would be very easy for her to manufacture a very ordinary bandage for this purpose, there were some advantages to be had using purpose built items.

"Now what?" Arin curiously peered out of the door to look at the fortress and any immediate threats. She evidently wasn't listening to Bertrand's self-eulogy and instead took the time to ransack the shelves, while the various machinery and parts still looked intact and untouched, anyone using them will soon realize (possibly even post-posthumously!) they were missing important and valuable internal components valued enough to pay off at least half a year worth of college loans!

Worth a lot more was something she held in a bell-jar shaped object which she intended to share with the rest of the group once the mission was over. She hoped she wasn't too late, sawing off Betrand's head with her vibroknife took longer than she thought... Curse this place for not stocking MEC Type B's with the auto cutter!

Robert nimbly caught the bandage and quickly applied it. He first looked over at Luca. "How are you doing Boss? You took just as hard as me. Do ya need any help?" He then looked over at Arin and grinned, ransacking was one of the many things he had done when he ran with the Scorpions. It was his preference to murder. "Want some help carrying all that gear Arin?"

"I-I'll walk it off," Luca was evidently trying to keep a bold face in spite of his obvious injuries, including multiple bruises, possibly a broken bone and a blood nose. Even with Yamataian hemosynthetic regeneration, it'd take weeks to sleep this amount of injury off, "I've got stuff to do!"

He got his radio out and called his group, "Vincent, Robin, Arin, regroup with me and we'll storm the fort together. I'm going to need all of your help." He coughed a little as he continued down the walkway, stumbling over himself from injury yet maintaining a running pace, "Hitori, the rest of the Nepleslia and Yamatai can't wait for us! We'll have time to strip the place bare afterwards!"

MEANWHILE...
"The kid has guts, I won't deny that..." The captain of the Guard was surveying from a camera which was watching as Luca moved closer and closer to the fortress, "It's admirable... why didn't you try and recruit him?"

"His family wronged me, I was denied the pinnacle of my work, to make the ultimate bioweapon that'd rival the Yamataians," Cain's spindly hand clutched his seat, making indents, "His bloodline denied me of my destiny and for that they shall pay..."
"Really, man, you should just drop this," The captain of the guard argued with the safety of his men in mind, "If you've got a personal beef with this kid's parents, how come you're going through all this trouble? Why not just confront him yourself and shoot him!?"

"I'd like to see that. If he does manage to get this far! The boy boasts too much!" Cain considered the possibility, it amused him, "If the boy attests that he can fight a legion tirelessly, then I shall test his mettle!"
This was all a completely different language to the guard captain, who just shrugged and said, "Fuck it. Let's end it now and just call the alarm on him."

And that's what he did.

BACK WHERE LUCA WAS...
He'd managed to find a place where he could hide until his cohorts caught up to him. Behind a grey shipping container near the northern entrance to the fortress, with wooden supply boxes dotting the immediate area to serve as cover. He slumped down against the container and behind a box, now feeling the full force of the pain.
He looked at the supply boxes, and none seemed to be for medical supplies.

However, that wasn't before the alarm bells sounded and the sounds of soldiers could be heard swarming to his position.

Seems like Luca's luck had just run dry.

He just swore under his breath and got his shotgun ready as he heard them come. He'd hope that the cavalry would arrive in time to rescue him!

However, what the moving soldiers didn't seem to notice was that, one by one, the rear guard of the Red forces were being silently picked off. A snapped neck here, a crushed sternum there, a punctured lung once in a while... Someone was back there picking the guards off. And none of them had noticed.

The rapidly dwindling force quickly approached Luca when Vincent finally broke from the ranks and rampaged straight through to the Mercenary's position, along the way grabbing his Hand Cannons and plugging several guards before having to move to his boss' position.

"You alright sir?" Vincent said, pulling a small medkit off of his belt and handing it to his boss, thumbing a reload of shells into his Hand Cannons. "Sorry about not getting here sooner; I was heading towards the detention block when all of thse soldiers started running this way, and I followed. You seem to be a magnet for trouble."

"Sure! Take care of your sparring partner, would you?" Arin tossed the MEC containing Betrand's head at Robert, it was already in one of her spare duffel bags but there was simply no room to sling it over her shoulder thus was instead hand-carrying it before the gentleman offered his help.

When the shit hit the fan she was following right behind Vincent, having opted to hide first due to her encumbrance and then only later chasing after Luca when the horde of guards passed her by. She zig-zagged to avoid both the bodies that were dropped infront of her by the mercenary and the bullets that were zipping past behind her from enemy reinforcements.

She tossed Luca a few auto-injectors she hastily picked off the guards as she passed him by, hoping that at least one of them was some kind of painkiller. A few meters later she noisily nosedived behind a generic metal crate to avoid the steadily increasing stream of lead being fired her way.

"Bleh," was all Robert said as he caught the head and put it in his pack.

(When the alarms went off...)
He kept his head down as he pulled out his pistol and Vincent ran up. "How's it goin there big guy?" He popped up real quick and squeezed off a few shots at the guards.

Robert's SMG sprayed pellets of 10mm lead-death into a the crowd of 30 guards, four fell over before they were able to launch an attack.
Vincent's less subtle approach to getting rid of his adversaries reduced the force down to 14 men, all of which surprised by Vincent's apparent 'defection'.

The needles that flew towards Luca courtesy of Arin were two vials of Emrys Industries Endurance, one Vigour, an InstaDrunk and two vials of Rage. He didn't know which needle was which, and hastily snatched up the vial of Vigour and pushed it into his arm.

((This was determined with a D6 roll! The dice want me to be a pervert! D)

He immediately stood up with his shotgun raised, he looked confident if not somewhat lecherous since he remembered that he had a girl to save. Little was going to stay between him and his girl, especially not a platoon of Reds or a few bruises!

He leaped from cover with his shotgun pointing towards the surprised platoon, firing once, hitting two guards with lead pellets and injuring them. He landed on his side and fired again, hitting another unfortunate goon.

When the 11 remaining guards saw that he was on the ground, they took shots at the captain, only one hit, but it hit his weapon, bending the barrel and screwing up the mechanisms. His shotgun would need some fixing.

Noticing this fact, Luca stowed his shotgun in a smooth motion and drew his pistol and fired wildly as covering fire, making sure the guards kept their heads down as he retreated behind cover and looked at Arin with a bit of a grin.

"What was that stuff you gave me?" He asked Arin over the sound of gunfire hitting the box he was sitting behind, "It had one hell of a kick!" He was also suppressing the urge to grope him/her to answer that niggling question in the back of his mind.

"I DON'T KNOW!" The ex-representative was clearly distressed, the entire base was coming down on them and the most capable member and leader of the group was starting to look like an undesirable leery male specimen, many of which she encountered (and avoided!) back in Funky City. Besides, she honestly didn't know, as her capability of identifying drugs came from reading the label instead of memorising the effects and symptoms.

Was this the end? Arin was extremely disappointed as that joining the group was her first major decision, and this was her first mission, and this was the first time BOTH her bags and Fabricator stores were full. Wait, full Fabricator stores? Something crossed her mind, something she developed but never did due to the exorbitant consumption of both energy and materials. 'Better now or never!'

Unslinging her backpack and Frabicator, she set it leaning on the crate and then punched a few buttons on her Datapad. Instantly the onboard display of the machine lit up showing all green in all categories before a large text flashed across the screen.

*HOT POTATO MODE ON!*
*NEXT POTATO IN 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0*
*POTATO OUT!*
*NEXT POTATO IN 5_

A chugging noise later a deformed and yellow colored ball the size of a fist rolled out of the dispenser and bumped into Arin's shoes. Fresh out of the Nanolathing chamber, it was hot to the touch and very very dangerous... It was a simple grenade, so simple that it lacked the traditional pin and handle, precisely because the 5 second fuse was already counting down the moment it came out. Picking this up quickly, she flung it over the heads of the group and into the center of the enemy formation.

Robert shrugged as his boss broke cover and took down a bunch of the guards. He glanced around looking for a way to flank them.

Meanwhile, Vincent- who had finished reloading- gapped two crates and sprinted across a stretch of open ground, shooting at the guards as he went. He eventually arrived at Arin's position and kneeled behind a crate.

"Do you still have my jacket and duffel? I need some heavy firepower here!" Vincent implored Arin for an answer, punctuating the statement by switching pistols and capping another Red.

In-between her current potato and the next, Arin quickly unloaded Vincent's jacket and duffel bag from her backpack. Suddenly she felt like she could run across the crossfire and out of the base in half a second, but that would be because she had gotten so much lighter. She suppressed an urge to return to the warehouse to 'collect' additional materials.

Vincent's shooting from the hand-cannons had managed to cut the guards down to only 8. Their morale was getting visibly shaky at this point as the bodies hit the floor.

Meanwhile, Arin's hot potato sailed through the air and towards the goons, one of them, possibly their leader, gaped at the sight and ordered them to do the following: "HIT THE DECK!!"
What was left of the platoon immediately scattered, making 4 guards run away, and 4 to remain, and they didn't seem too keen to fight, exchanging glances and looking at the body count, and the firepower presented by the crew.

"OKAY OKAY YOU WIN!" One of them said as they all scattered and ran for it, they'd had enough.
"SEE YOU NEXT FIGHT!" Another one taunted as he made tracks.

Luca stood up, noticing that the battlefield was empty.
"Where'd everyone go?" Luca frowned as he moved past Arin and performed a stealth crotch-grope. His perverse question was now answered, even in spite of all the armour she was wearing, Yep, she's a girl.

He bent down and looked at what he'd injected into himself and presented the empty needle to Arin, while tilting his head slightly to get some semblance of a 'view'.

'Uh, They are gone?' Arin wondered. Unfortunately her deliberation was interrupted when Luca decided to find out the answer to his question literally firsthand. The representative instictively bought her knee up the adventurer's groin so hard, only someone used to running with an 80 Kilogram encumbrance could. In addition to that, she dropped her current hot potato down his shirt. Shock therapy.

"Ooop," Luca said as he clutched his crotch, now remembering that he wasn't a Casanova who could just crotch-grab other girls at random if he thought they were androgynous! He was just a guy, armed to the teeth and extremely brave, but still just a guy, "Thatwasawakeupcall."

Then came the grenade down his shirt, an extremely uncomfortable experience.
"FUCK!" 5 Seconds left on the fuse, "SOCKS!"

He put his hand up his shirt... 4 ... and plucked it out with a tug ... 3. He took a stare at Arin - 2 - unsure as to whether to thank her or punch her - 1 - then threw it across the room as far as he could. It landed near a staircase heading downwards, towards the Holding Cells...

0 ... BOOM!

Luca then proceeded to stare slackjawed into the explosion, as it mangled the staircase downwards. The experience had flushed the influence of the Vigour out of his system.

"Label your stuff next time," Luca cautioned to Arin as he rubbed his groin area.

"Its not my stuff!" Arin yelled back. She couldn't believe that her 'leader' could be so careless as to randomly inject things into his body without finding out what. Picking up her Fabricator, she angrily moved away from Luca and positioned herself a little behind Vincent, at least she was wrong about this guy in a 'good' way.

"Okay - we can argue about naming conventions later," Luca had his calm back on as he picked up the needles and inspected them one by one, looking for some sort of a label or marking, "I think it's time I moseyed-on-down to those holding cells - See if we can release Hitori, and anyone else we find."

He found that the two needles of Endurance had been crudely labelled as 'Painkiller!', the InstaDrunk was labelled 'Instant Drunk' and the Rage was labelled 'Anger Enhancer'. He took note of all of this as he put one needle of Endurance into his arm. He could feel the pain wash away, and he felt ready for more.

"Let's move out. After this - we storm the castle and-"

Suddenly, the sound of a large explosion came from the southern building, about a kilometre from the Fortress, the main lights in the corridor flickered, then went out completely. It took a moment for the backup lights to kick in, dousing the corridors in a pale red.

Luca, Robert, Arin and Vincent's radios crackled to life:
"That's my handiwork." Mitch's voice could be heard. The gruff mercenary seemed to have a tang of satisfaction in his voice, "We destroyed one of the major power generators." The sounds of shouting in the background and wild shots being fired could be heard, "If you'll excuse us, we have some unfinished business..." The sounds of violence, plasma, a melted forehead could be heard in that order before the radio fizzed out.

Luca just shrugged and made his way carefully down the mangled staircase. The corridor was strangely empty, devoid of soldiers who were willing to wield a rifle in his direction. The explosion must've distracted them, Luca rationalised as he continued forwards with his pistol raised.