RP: Taking It Back [Phase II-A] Arming the Pack

While the ID-Sol on the back hatch suppressed Rennik's position safe behind cover, his beheaded compatriot was removed in favor of two more who quickly climbed down the side of the massive vehicle and scurried off towards Alexis' hiding place in the alley. Soon, they were joined by a third ID-Sol. This one looked exactly like any other one of the clones, excepting his mustard-yellow uniform. He strolled nonchalantly behind the two who scurried on ahead. When they reached the alleyway, the scurriers nodded to one-another and converged at the mouth of the man-made canyon, one of them bellowing, "Come on girl, put down your gun and get out of there. Nakai wants you alive."

The man in the mustard uniform leaned against one side of the alleyway and muttered darkly, "But she didn't ask for you to be unhurt."

-----

After a brief flight of stairs and a turned corner, Alex and Archie found themselves a few meters away from the churning transport which now held in its undercarriage a slow-rising cloud of smoke. Alex had since drawn his HHG to replace the shotgun and was taking this time to load explosive rounds into it. They could both see more ID-Sols departing the vehicle, coming towards them, from where they stood. The white uniforms stood out harshly over the dingy brown-gray of Funky City. Alex leaned over to Archie and withdrew something from his left pocket.

"I have a sporting bet for you, Wolf." He said, holding up a thick, coin-sized piece of Mishu chitin he'd silently plucked from one of Archival's smaller wounds as he was dressing it. "The man who dispatches the most enemy combatants between the two of us will recieve this intriguing leftover."

Alex boredly raised his HHG in his right hand and squeezed off a round that flew over Rennik's head and into two ID-Sol's gathering over his position. They scattered like bugs.

"I guess we can start now." Alex suggested.

-----

Lucas knelt next to the door and peeked inside from a lower position. This time, he managed to glance around a full two seconds before bullets whizzed around and kicked up more dirt. Lucas snapped his head back just in time to miss the main event.

"Hey, try one of these." A voice called from nearby. Lucas turned to see three men approaching. One was a tall Leutenant holding a white milk-carton with rags stuffed into its mouth. The other two consisted of the Cheif Inspector himself dragging a ragged looking criminal behind him. The Cheif Inspector held a glowing thumb to the rags on the milk carton as they approached, igniting the fragile fabrics. The Leutenant handed the carton over as they reached Lucas.

"It's a molotov milktail..." Lucas mused, almost flippantly tossing it through the doorway behind him. An orange glow and lapping flames skittered through the doorway for a moment before the screams came, and Lucas was quick to follow. The ID-Sol slid in on his heel, and fired three shots from his Gyro 500 before pushing further into the building and disappearing into a cloud of smoke.

Archie looked down at the small trinket and started loading his short barrelled "TV Remote" with shells from his pocket. He sniffed in quiet mirth "Barely a scrap, but very well." He said, then slammed the breach of his weapon closed " Challenge accepted."

Archie ran out and rode up the vehicles large tracks up on top of its hull, shotgun held ready. True to his nature, the old tiger was after the big game.

Alexis righted herself on the airbike, still woozy, with the bile taste at the back of her throat overpowering her normal sense of smell. It felt like vomiting chalk and it smelled really strangely. Her head was playing serious tricks on her, as well; it was like she couldn't feel her arm.

Wait, that was normal. Right.

She reached down into the bike's side-satchel, producing another grenade, which she weighed in the hand that didn't completely lack feeling. The metal was cold to the touch, but the edges were sharp; this ordinance had been sitting down in that submarine since it had been new, and that was saying something.

Gradually, Alexis refocused her attention on the combat; on the people who were standing outside the alleyway. She could just see an arm, peeking around the corner. Two, maybe three people, without any ready or adequate cover.

So, pulling the pin out of the ordinance and cocking back, she lobbed a grenade into the center of them. Then, she slid off onto the other side of her bike and took out her HHG.

Tink, tink, tink.

BLAM.

Moments after he disappeared into the flames, Lucas poked his head out of a window, followed by a falling ID-Sol, who crashed spectacularly to the ground at the feet of Chrys and the waiting police officers below. Lucas shouted down to them from above, "Come on in, the water's warm!"

-----

"Whup!" The mustard-colored uniform stretched out to deliver a kick to the nearest ID-Sol, toppling him on top of Alexis' grenade. He threw a quick glance to his partner and dashed through the door of the building on one side of the alleyway, pressing his back against the cold brick wall beyond the threshold. The resulting explosion peppered the exterior of the building with ID-Sol shrapnel. A bone fragment pierced the glass of a nearby window and cut into the side of the mustard-colored coat. A loose elbow, charred by the blast, skidded to Alexis' feet with a trail of smoke behind it. Rocks and gravel rained down on her from above. As the smoke and dust cleared, the dusty mustard-colored uniform emerged from the cloud, clutching with a meaty arm the more intact of his dead comrades.

"We are taking you alive, girl." He said holding an HHG over the shoulder of his fallen comrade to level with her. "Step away from the bike and drop your shit, or I will blow off the other arm and drag you back to my commander by your pretty little hair. I could care less about your friends."

-----

Alex was quick behind Archie and up on the track as well. The vehicle itself had since stopped struggling. From where they were, they could hear the five ID-Sols shuffling around on the other side. Alex reloaded the recently emptied chamber of his cylinder and looked blankly back at Archie for just a brief moment before jumping in a sideways somersault and slipping through the entry hatch on the top of the transport. Gunfire rang out from inside the front section, seemingly from an orchestra of different weapons.

Rennik used the opportunity the Grenade presented to crawl away from his cover. There was smoke and death and fire (and some chewed gum on the pavement) everywhere, making it incredibly hard to see. It wasn't till he hit his against it that Rennik became aware of the stoop in front of him. Still seeing bright lights and a little dizzy, he lightly leaped over the rail and sideways tumbled through the broken door.
It was quiet in the building, lots of dust and broken things. He quickly made his way up the stair in front of the door, hoping to find another window to settle into. Sure enough, an empty room with a window facing the right way was available. He couldn't get a good view of the yards from this vantage, but for the immediate needs it was perfect.
He finished steadying himself just as the ID-Sol appeared in the building opposite and demanded Alexis's surrender.
"Not likely" he breathed as he lined up and took his shot

Chrys prepared to run in right after Lucas, but one of the cops caught her coat. Lucky for her, if she would run in just after Lucas, all thsoe bullest would probably make her look like Kennewessian cheese.

"Oh shit," she said. She then looked back at the cop and nodded in thanks to him. Lucas poked his head out soon after and joked as ussualy.

"Yeah I am right behind you," she said, holding her shotgun up and following him inside.

As the rubble rained down around Alexis, dust and bits of concrete and asphalt mixed with the splatter from Mustard’s human shield, the girl tried to steady herself for what came next, and the first thing she did was take her hands off her ears. That was very difficult. The arm laying nearby made her want to curl up further into a ball.

Suddenly, instead of some sport practice, this felt like a battlefield out of an old war movie, one of those movies where the brave soldiers were vastly outnumbered and holed up in a bunker, with mortar fire all around and planes and ships buzzing overhead like angry hornets. The difference was that this was real – that was really someone’s arm smoking next to her. It didn’t even twitch. There was really some soldier guy over there with a gun pointed at her trying to kill her, not some dummy at target practice. The cold iron in her hand was meant for killing and this was all real.

Well, it had seemed like a really good idea to sign up for it at the time.

She’d already done some pretty daredevil, death-defying things without a whole lot of fear or concern for her own personal well-being. But that had been with other people around who knew what they were doing. At most, Alexis had just taken some pot shots at some stuff that hadn’t been shooting back at her, with the exception of the shot that had taken off her arm. And of course there was the guy in the truck but that had been almost a complete freak accident – totally not her fault he’d been there.

She thumbed back the hammer on her own HHG. Alexis had not yet attempted to fire a pistol with the new arm, so although the revolver was double-action, she didn’t want to have to bother with much resistance from the trigger-pull.

Later, if she lived – she thought – she would test it out and adjust it as necessary. This was no .22 caliber. It was heavy .45 iron. She checked the ammunition in the cylinder again, just to make sure. The casings were red.

Alexis waited for the sound of boots on gravel, like she imagined his boots might make in the remains of the sidewalk, not making a single sound in reply. Alexis knew if she even tried, she’d squeak.

But if he moved …

Mustard’s head was just a blank target. Her bike was the line. She’d swing out and fire and then it would be over, top in region, perfect grouping. Alexis thought that, and wished for it, and hoped for it, and maybe if she’d been God-fearing she would have prayed for it, too.

She heard the bang from Rennik's rifle, and it was like a duelist's handkerchief had dropped; mustering her courage, Alexis stood, swiveled, and fired one-handed with only a glance.

Archie was left momentarily shocked by the younger man's speed. “It's not my age, he's just fast.” he assured himself in whispered encouragement. He heard the chorus of gunfire from within and decided there was a strong chance his employer was dead, but with a person like Alex you could never be too sure until you saw the body, and then made doubly sure.

He readied his Remote and his Origin made 10mm in each either hand and hoisted himself over the hump of the alien-like vehicle, guns ready to lay waste to the shuffling Id-Sols on the other side.

Two shots, almost simultaneous. They both struck the mustard-colored uniform and the soft flesh beneath it with no trouble whatsoever. A blood seeps from his wounds, one high, the other low; he started to mouth something. Before he could speak; however, he was cut-off by the seemingly dud red-shell from Alexis' HHG exploding in his throat. There wasn't much more than a pile of him on the ground afterwords. Wind swept into the alleyway, softly pressing at Alexis' hair.

As the pause settled over the bloody pavement, both Alexis and Rennik would hear a new voice, far too close to them, telling them, "That was a bad idea."

In the emptied office, Rennik found a thick hand gripping the barrel of his rifle and a sidearm leveled at his temple. As his eyes adjusted, another yellow uniform faded into view, along with a smiling face.

Below, Alexis would also feel an arm on her shoulder, gripping tight from seemingly beyond existence. The mysterious technology used to camoflague the new ID-Sols slowly revealed more mustard colored uniforms and identical smiles all around.

"We were trying to be more discreet." One said, dusting off her shoulder.

"But you didn't want to come quietly." Said another, his hand wandering to her waist.

"Wouldja like to try shooting me again?" A third was toying with her air-bike. "Or do you wanna be nice, now?"

Upstairs, Rennik would find himself in a similar situation, surrounded by identical clones of the same guy with the same terrible sense of humor.

-----

As Archie crossed the threshold of their line of sight, five ID-sols dashed for cover from the high ground. They fired assault rifles high, but with the aim of a drunken ape, Archie was completely untouched by their fire as they stumbled towards the gate of the prison yard. Underneath him, he could hear Alex talking. It sounded like he was holding a conversation with a rock. That is, he was speaking and responding, but to whom was unclear.

-----

In the world of Alexis, that really shitty feeling she'd been having about her chances against a real soldier had returned with a vengance. Seriously? There were so many of these guys, it felt like they were cheating. Hell, they were cheating, the bastards. Alexis jerked away from both of the guys trying to touch her and ended up tripping over her bike's stand and falling on her ass.

One member of the trio looked down at Alexis while the other two moved to block any escape she could try to make. He knelt down, chuckling lightly, and gripped a perfect handfull of fabric from her coat. Then, he hefted her towards his face. "Hello, little girl." He said, with a voice full of mirth fit for Louis Pasco day.

He got a pretty heavy handgun upside the head for his trouble.

Temporarily freed, Alexis scrambled on further into the alleyway. It wasn't hard; for the most part, the alley had been untouched by the fighting, and at worst she had to swerve around a trash can that seemed to jump out at her. She had five shots left, and there appeared to only be three more of them. But with the fucked up way they were doing business, who's to say she wasn't just running into another trap?

"God-damnit!" Voices called from behind her. "We should've waited longer! What are you assholes waiting for?!" Footsteps pounded hard on the pavement and the trashcan behind her caught a bullet which might have crippled her all over again.

They weren't gaining, but they weren't far behind, either.

-----

Just as Chrys entered the Precinct Station, she would discover Lucas dragging an unconcious ID-Sol down the stairway at the opposite corner of the room. Littered around her was the corpses of two others, and one injured who moaned under the weight of a desk that had fallen during Lucas' dynamic entrance. Lucas himself smiled at Chrys as she came in, and police officers filed past the two of them and made their way up the stairs. Loud voices could be barely heard as they did their job and cleared the upper levels. Most of the ID-Sols surrendered up at first, only to be killed. Muffled gun-shots could be heard as a small firefight broke out for control of the roof, but the whole affair was over quickly.

Lucas started interrogating his prisoner, shoving the slumped over form into an office chair and slapping lightly at his face.

"What's your name, buddy?" He asked, pulling at the ID-Sol's cheek.

"Brown." The response was low and slow, more of a groan.

"Just Brown? C'mon, you gotta have more of a name than that."

"We're all Brown." His prisoner clarified, "Each one of us is based off the same guy."

Lucas frowned, and continued, "That's depressing. What're you all doing here?"

The prisoner looked up at Lucas with a puzzled expression. "How the fuck is that any of your business, you pissant?"

Lucas pressed his Gyro 500 to the Brown's temple and pressed beck the hammer with a blackened thumb. The prisoner didn't even wince.

"Really." He reaffirmed, "You're going to kill someone who's just going to be replaced with a fresh clone at the end of the day anyway? And you think I'm going to give you any information. The nerve of this guy."

"Just answer the question, dipshit, or I'll send you back to the squids packed into a helmet. All of you will be in the helmet." Lucas tried the quip. He glanced over to Chrys for just a moment, to make sure she wasn't laughing at his awful interrogation techniques. That moment was all that this particular instance of Brown needed.

The prisoner reached out for Lucas gun and pulled it past him and out into the room, his free fist colliding with Lucas' jaw. Within a matter of seconds, he held Lucas in front of him as a human shield facing towards Chrys.

"Now, you keep your hand off that shotgun, you fat c***, and don't go shooting up your pretty little boyfriend, yeah?" The prisoner suggested; squeezing Lucas' neck tightly. Lucas slumped forward, seemingly unconcious.

Chrys listened to Lucas interogatin the ID-Sol and she thought that Lucas was just making plain threats. She would start with breaking few finger to show that NMX bastard she was serious. Then Lucas got careless and became hostage. Mr. Brown then told her to ditch the shotgun. Chrys frowned and shook her head.

"Okay Mr. Shithead." She replied, lowerin her shotgun. She had other plan. Well if Brown does not shoot her head of right now. Chrys let the shotgun fell to the ground and slowly took out a pack of ciggaretes, lightin one.

"Want one?" She said extending her hand with pack of fags to the Id-Sol. "Now listen to me asshole. I am bloody pissed off. We can do this two ways. First with you dead, cause upstairs and outside is bunch of cops who want you to dies in very painfull way. Second was is you and me deal with this with our fists. If you win, Lucas will make sure you can go. Am I right Lucas?" She said looking into her new boyfriends eyes. She was deadly serious.

Archie kept his cool as he dropped down the other side, sliding on his back down the hull of the vehicle and dropping down to the road as bullets pinged off the metal around him. Only when he was well and truly ready did he pull the trigger on his shotgun, one of the hammers dropped and there was a roar as Archie felt his wrist try to tear itself off. A slight adjustment to cover the rest of the retreating Id-Sols, and the other hammer fell.

With that, Archie stood up and advanced, breaking the breech of the shotgun and replenishing the two barrels with fresh buckshot from the speed loader on his forearm with some spare fingers from his other hand still gripping the 10mm.

Done, he snapped it back closed as he continued firing with the pistol. "Blasted girl was right about the kick." he grumped angrily to himself as he got to work.

The ID-Sols Archie tore into fell with relative ease, only to reveal two more ducking from the sides of the vehicle to throw potshots his way. A bullet sliced a tiny chip from his pith helmet just to drive the point home. From inside the vehicle, Alex's muffled speech could still be heard.

-----

The Brown that held Lucas smacked his hostage unconscious and stepped forward, reaching out to grasp Chrys' shotgun.

"You're gonna regret giving me an opportunity like this one." he said, giving the shotgun a sharp yank and throwing the first punch of the brawl with a smile on his face.

-----

Behind her, Alexis would hear the footsteps start to grow softer as she made some headway on the phantom NMX troops. As if to offset good news with bad, Alexis would be able to hear the roar of an approaching vehicle growing louder as she reached the end of the alleyway. Sunlight flooded the path in front of her, blindingly obscuring any chance to find

Rennik's first and only thought before springing into action was "good lord run!!!!!". However, what he did could hardly be considered running, seeing as he only took two quick steps before vaulting out out the window into the air

Chrys expected something like that. She was thinking about stepping back, pulling her pistol and shooting him, but that would be bad. This will be important for her. She was a brawler, a warrior. She already lost once to Mr. Brown. She must win here now, without any brass-knucleks, knifes or anything. Just her fists, legs and little deception.

CHrys took half-step back to not get too far and send her left hand to block incoming fist. He seemed to be very straightforward going for her shotgun and punching her first.

Chrys had ace in a sleeve of herself. The lkit ciggarete in her lips, suddenly flew forward as she spit it out, directly at Id-Sols face to distract him, while she send her knee at his guts, her right hand ready to block his left.

Successfully blocked but not discouraged, Brown caught the flying cigarette perfectly clenched in his teeth and loosed a wicked smile at Chrys in the second before her knee collided with his stomach. The cigarette found itself flying across the room as Brown hacked and coughed, stumbling backwards. He didn't wait for long, though, before moving in again, this time throwing a double-hammer to either side of Chrys' head, moving to box her ears.

Archies head was jerked sideways as the bullet nicked his helmet, he changed the direction towards the vehicle and towards the two Id-Sols, still maintaining his walking pass. He raised his 10mm in his left hand and fired twice for effect more than accuracy.

Blam-blam

Just before he was about to mount his way back onto the vehicle he fired his TV Remote from the hip, a single barrel spraying buckshot to the same spot.

Bam

With a heave he hauled himself back onto the vehicle and worked his way to the hatch he'd seen Alex vault into. Rather than jump right in as his employer had, Archie peered upside down through the hatch, shotgun at the ready, eyebrow cocked in preparation for whatever was making Alex so excited.

"...the situation from a logical perspective, it would be wise if you were to just..."

Alex's voice was muted and coming in and out from the back of the second car, behind a door from Archie and the hatch at the top of the vehicle. Below him, an ID-Sol was slumped over the controls of the vehicle, leaking blood all over the panels and monitors. On either side of the sliding door leading into the next car, were two more. One with a large gaping hole in his chest, and the other with a liberal scatter of smaller holes over his face and neck.

"...then why are you here? If that is the case, you should be on the South Side. Your lies will only end up killing us both at this rate..."

There was another trail of blood, overlapped by the door, leading off towards the back of the vehicle where Alex's muffled tones could still be heard in bits and pieces.

"...not a very good way..."

"...course not, that is a preposterous..."

Eyebrow still cocked, Archies pith helmet retreated back up the hatch. He sighed as he reloaded his weapons. He knew his boss was strange, but this was getting ridiculous.

Snapping the breech of his shotgun closed he swung through the hatch and lowered himself surprisingly easily for his apparent bulk. Touching down on the floor with nary a sound. Taking care to avoid to puddles of blood for hygienes sake he mentally tallied the bodies around him.

"Good, I'm still ahead by one." he thought to himself as he readied his shotgun in case Alex had meet something he couldn't handle. Archie peered through the crack in the door.

Just beyond, Archie could see a single unattached tentacle twitching about on the ground, sort of looking up towards him. Further in, under flickering lights, he'd be able to make out a few more of the lonesome appendages slithering in no particular direction. There was Alex's voice, still echoing in the room.

"...is why I think it would be better for both of us if you just let me go." He said, as a shadow shifting at the back of the room, "After all, you can no-doubt smell that one of my compatriots has entered the vehicle."
Archie mentally swore to himself, this was going to be a rough day. Subterfuge gone, there was only the hard way. Archie threw open the door and advanced half a step into the room. "Avast, ye!" Eyebrows cocked and loaded for whatever the scene happened to be at this point, bracing for the worst, like seeing Alex getting done by tentacles or the like, the thought would give a man nightmares for years. As back up, he still have his TV Remote and 10mm in either hand.

And so there it was. Alex and the Mishu both looked up at Archie like they'd been caught sleeping in his bed. The two were entangled in some sort of strange hold, Alex with his remaining HHG and submachinegun pointed directly at the creature's face, while the Mishu itself, clung its few remaining tentacles tightly around Alex's legs and arms, pinning him to the bulkhead.

"I HAVE YOUR MASTER." Rang into Archie's head. The Mishuu seemed to writhe a bit as Alex shoved at it with his foot.

"Whatever. Just kill it, Archival." Alex said, not even looking up from his position.

"Gladly." Archie replied leveling his guns. "I got your little hellspawn out there too, by the way." he told the Mishu before firing both guns. At the same time, Alex also let fire fly from his guns, and the cacophony of nearly musical gunfire peppered the already damaged shell of the Mishuu. It wobbled about for a moment, throwing Alex towards Archival's form on the other end of the room before rolling over in a spray of goo-like squid-entrails. Alex removed himself from Archie and started dusting at his shoulders.

"I got four of them." He said, wiping blood from the exposed implant socket on the left side of his face.

Archie was slower getting up, wiping whatever Alex was covered with, Archie had no desire to know what, from his ghillie shirt. "Was the last one you or me?" he asked, referring to the gooey remains in front of them as he stood up.

"There is not enough information to determine that." Alex replied, ejecting the spent magazine from his submachine gun. "I would say it was a unified effort."

"Agreed." Replied Archie, opening the breech of his own shotgun and shunting two more shells into the barrels, as well as restocking his quick loader. "I claim five, perhaps six. The final fellow was crouched behind one of the tracks." he snapped the breech closed.
"Fair enough." Alex stuck his fist into his pocket.

"Found any actual prisoners aboard this mess?" Archie inquired out of interest.

"Not that had boarded yet. Examination of the vehicle's computer revealed that the orders had been wiped upon arrival. They were most definitely coming here for pick-up, though. Perhaps the precinct will be more revealing." Alex explained, pulling not just the tiny piece of Mishuu chitin from his pocket, but a full claw. He handed both to Archie with a awkward semblance of a smile, obviously faked for performance-sake.

"An enhanced reward." He said, holstering his HHG and producing his pack of cigarettes.

Archie caught both, admiring the claw for a second before putting it into a pocket. "I suppose it's time we went to collect the others."

Chrys made sure not to smirk, talk ro do anything that would distract her from combat. She had to focus on beating that bastard. He seemed so angry, so sure of himself. Chrys could take advantage of that, but he could also have good reason to be confident.

Attacking with both hands hovewer makes his defenses week, and those wide swings of his were not so impossible to dodge. Chrys lowered herself to evade his fisty, while throwing two fast jabs at his belly and then stepping back, her fists raised in defense again.

Rennik began questioning his decision to jump almost as soon as he had cleared the window. Now that he thought about it, the ground was a lot farther down than it seemed from inside the building. Also, come to think of it, it probably wasn't entirely the smartest idea to leave behind his rifle either, though it would hardly help him righ---
WHAM!
He landed mid-turn on top of the transport he had been firing at earlier, the impact putting nothing but pain into his mind and forcing several cries of anguish from him as he rolled off the top and landed on the far side onto the pavement.