RP: ISC Phoenix [Side Job] - Chasing Rabbits + Loosin' Mine

[Luca]

THIS TAKES PLACE BETWEEN THE PROLOGUE AND MISSION 1

And if you go chasing rabbits
And you know you're going to fall
Tell 'em a hookah smoking caterpillar
Has given you the call
To call Alice, when she was just small
Jefferson Airplane - White Rabbit

Bronzi sat in the bar far longer then anybody else, but it was only his biology. He was a creature of the magic hour. He seemed to come most alive during the dusk and twilight hours. Right now he sat at one of the shambling bar tables in full gear, though his helmet and face mask were off, and it looked like he was assembling a weapon of sometime and from the sound of it, Lina was starting to take a shine to him.

"Don't you have a home?" Lina hissed from over the bar top, her comely features showing a hint of disdain.

"No, I just like looking at yer chest." Bronzi snorted back looking dead at Lina's cleavage.

This action prompted the older woman to cross her arms over her chest. "Or not." She said scowling back at the stocky Gartagen.

"Awwww. did I make you blush?" Bronzi said with a smile on his face as he snapped in the barrel to his new Machine gun.

Lina shuddered. "No...you are making me nauseous."

The exchange continued in this fashon for some time. Never once did Lina tell Bronzi to leave however. Those who knew the woman would say she was probably enjoying the company. It was the most company she'd had in months with the arrival of the Phoenix crew - they were stimulating the town whether they knew it or not.

Luca was sitting on the roof of Lina's, by the man shaped hole and watching the sun's last rays of the evening disappearing slowly beneath the horizon. He never drank to get drunk since it'd require quite a lot thanks to the Yamataian biology, but he was suitably buzzed and in control of his facilities. He poked his head through the hole and looked at Bronzi. "Well, you do have a face only a mother could love!" He taunted from his roof perch.

Bronzi and Lina both looked up at Luca. Bronzi's face drew into a smirk, his gruff, but full face looking almost forced into the smiling position. To look at him, a stranger would not guess him to be as cheery and pleasent(though crude) as he was in disposition. "That's what my mother used to tell meh. I never got what she was trying to say..." He said shaking his head.

Bronzi paused from tinkering with his new weapon, to take a puff from another one of his stoogies. 'But she kept me fed and clothed...my ma was alright. Speakinga which, where is your pride and joy. She looked all pumped up for the action we may have coming our way."

Bronzi then quickly set back to assembling the weapon. He finished it up, peicing it back together and then locked and loaded the gun with minimal effort. He gingerly pushed the gun aside, and then set removed one of his revolvers from its holster on his hip. Her started delicatly disassembling the weapon.

His pride and joy, his ward, his protectorate - his daughter. There were many ways to define what Vitalia was - but to him it was a reminder. A reminder not to get caught up in what destroyed her mother and nearly killed her father. "She should be at the apartment. I left some dinner there." It was probably Yamataian take away from that place a couple of stores down. "She'll probably watch some telly and go to bed - we've all got a big day tomorrow." She was a big girl, despite being only a couple of months old, able to take care of herself.

Bronzi snorted in amusement. "Good kid." He said more to him self then to luca.

"I am suprised she is ain't in here lookin fer trouble...she gets that gleam in her eye. The one I saw in you when we first met...damned if you weren't kin, because she has it."

"She has a few friends. This little punk called Nathan G. she likes to hang out with." He had a measured opinion of Nathan, and trusted the kid as long as Vita remained safe.

"Oh, Nathan's a little devil." Lina piped in, leaning in with her arms concealing her cleavage. "Great graffiti artist though."

Bronzi attempted to get anothe view of Lina's breasts, but failed in his attempt. 'Aye, I caught him tryin ta put the moves on the girl. Threatened to put on in his arse if I caught him again..."

Bronzi let out a laugh, but he was not joking, he would probably shoot Nathan in the ass if he caught him with his hand's down Vita's pants out back again. "Not that Vita was'nt into it...she found the event funny...girl can laugh too."

"I never told you about her mother, did I?" Luca said from his afar perch, before the sound of the grapple stunner could be heard clicking to the roof and lowering himself down to the floor on a tether, dropping down and the grappling line retracting. He could've floated or jumped down - but this was much cooler. His expression was berift of joy.

Bronzi looked up at Luca with a bit more serious of an expression on his face, he puffed his cigar. "naw. I never bothered to ask...figgered it was...something for you and just you or some shit..."

"She was just like me - a deadly force of nature. She was no ordinary woman." He then put his fingers above his ears and made a downward curve and back to the bottom of the ear, indicating Neko ears. "One of the older models too - from before the Yamataians got soft."

He then sat down at the bar and snapped his fingers as bitter memories flowed back into his consciousness. Lina passed him a drink of beer. "She died consumed by battle rage. I almost followed the same suit - and I don't want history to repeat with this second chance I've got."

Lina's face was concerned for the mercenary, she stood back, frowning as he watched Luca slam the drink down in one go. Bitter memories indeed.

"Eh, we have a sayin." Bronzi said knowing he was not good at this kind of shit. "Live by the sword, ya die by it. It is simply the way the universe works...can't run from it, so I always chose to face it." He said continuing on.

"But your girl has it in her blood. That much i've seen. An I ain't the brightest coin in the cup."

Bronzi considered it though. A female warrior. His wife was no warrior, at least not with a gun. But he never discouraged any of his spawn from following in his rather bloody and filth encrusted foot steps. "It's in her nature."

"But I want her to enjoy life first before she comes wading into all the blood and chaos." He exchanged a stare with Bronzi, his right eye examining him closely. "Its the least I can do for her, considering that she was born buried in her mother's corpse and under six feet of sand - and clawed her way out."

"She's had the instinct to survive and kill from the start." Luca's grip on the bottle was starting to overwhelm the vessel, and a crack could be heard.

"Battle born." Bronzi said knowing the term his people used to describe such a situation. "What you want may differ from what she is. It is in her nature...and she see's you. To deny her this...you'd eventually loose her i'd reckon. You'd put her in a safe hide away, but eventually no matter where you went she would go out seeking it. I ain't no father to envy mind ya, I am just sayin nature verses nurture. She can't fight it and you can't neither."

Another puff of his Cigar and Bronzi had flipped his revolver's cylinder off and was cleaning it with a fine brush. "Now what I'd do...keep her as close as possible...and If I am wrong about her.."

Bronzi shifted a sincere look to both Luca and then to Lina. "I HOPE I AM."

"She will find her own path...but if she chooses the red path well...there ya go."

He took a sip from his mug and drew silent, he closed his eyes and muttered something in his native language. "But lets all be honest, People like me and you Lewks...we exist for a reason. Space is a dark and dangerous place filled with monsters...the galaxy needs guys like us to kick the monster's teeth in when they start trying to hurt the innocent and the meek. Some one has to fight back the darkness...its shit, yea I know but it is the way it is."

"And it's something I'll probably never escape." He sighed for a moment. Then he grinned and eased his grip on the bottle - which fell apart outside of his hands. "But it isn't a bad thing. The world does need people like us, whether we like it or not - simply because nobody else is willing to." Lina then passed the two a drink each.

"Need? Guys like us are always needed...we always end up dead!" He said with a morbid haughty laugh.

"And yet here I am living up to my namesake - I came back for more!" Luca chuckled.

"One day you won't be. Then who will save the universe? Because the bad guys, they won't be quitting anytime soon. So what becomes of the Great Warrior Luca Pavone and his deck of cards? Will we fade off the face of history? Or will his mighty spawn take up the cause and start a legacy?"

Bronzi looked over at Lina. "You should be writtin this shit down by the way...would make one kick ass holo-book."

The legacy was already there. Luca Pavone was the son of Sebastian Pavone. The next person in line to inherit the mantle was Vitalia. "I don't know. My father probably didn't see any of this coming either." His dad had made no effort to contact Luca after he announced his return. Luca knew that he was on his own now.

"Eh, my dad was a mean sombitch." Bronzi said in response to it. "He used to strike me and my ma down when I was a boy. One day he got fuckin plastered, and came home...put my mom's head through the holo screen cause she did not have enough money for proper food.."

"I waited till he slept and clawed his eyes out in vengence for my ma."

He took a deep swig from his mug and continued on.

"So don't ever think that ya failed as a dad...not for a moment." Bronzi snorted once more and took another puff of his cigar.

And that was all the assurance he needed. "...Thanks Bronzi." Was all he said as he put his bottle up close to him to clink them together in cheers.

Bronzi accepted the cheer, and polished off his mug. He perked a brow and looked over at Lina. "I'll give you twenty creds for a tear soaked handy J with your hand covered by a sock."

"Oh, dream on!" She retorted to the gartagen.

"Hell, if i'm dreamin, then we've already fucked."

 

[Luca]

[Side Job] - Loosin' Mine

THIS TAKES PLACE BETWEEN THE PROLOGUE AND MISSION 1

While the rest of them dudes were makin' their friends
Boy, I beg your pardon, I was loosin' mine
Mountain - Mississippi Queen

Rina glared at the door way. Her young face looked as though it had been aged beyond her years. The purple skinned girl was wearing thick heavy robes over her form, and she looked dwarfed by the larger Gartagen male infront of her. She let out a grimace, her caricture resembling that of a stone carved gargoyal. She held a baby in her arms and snarled. "What are YOU doing here."

"I am." Bronzi paused.

His hard face and head covered by his black bandana. He had his shot gun and heavy rifle accross his back. Bronzi was a big son of a bitch when all things were considered, but as he stood before this young mother he looked much smaller. His body language was no longer that of the confident gusto his peers had gotten used to. "I found a job." He whispered looking at his feet.

"I am going to send you an yer little on the pay.." He said looking down.

Rina's gaze grew intense. "You know you do not need to do that." She said pulling her body away from Bronzi, hiding her child now.

She turned and walked away from Bronzi. "Well close the door...you are letting all the heat out."

Her apartment was spartan. There was a dirty bed on the floor with a small chair and a video screen. Next to the small kitchen area was assorted child gear, and RRF armor and weaponry hanging from what appeared to be a home made coat rack. Rina walked with a severe limp. When she turned away it the left half of her face was scarred horribly, her eye was little more then a hole in what would have been a very beautiful face.

"I came ta give ya what I made so far...an to say that I am sorry about Noshan..."

"I ain't never been good at this...but he was like a brother to me...and you--"

"NO! DON'T YOU DARE MENTION HIS NAME TO ME!" Rina roared.

"YOU COULD HAVE SAVED HIM!"

Bronzi advanced into the house despite the shouting of the woman. "I tried to. I tried to save all of ya. It is my fault. Because I could not get to any of ya in time. But you cuss me fer failing...and yer right. I don't regret much, I regret failing him, an you...and all the others. I dunno what more ta do."

Rina huffed. "I think you are lying about your new job. All you do is drink, and get fat." She said softly.

"If you want to do something...PROMISE ME YOU WILL FIND THEM! I want them dead Bronzi! The whole lot of them dead!"

Rina then threw a glass of water at Bronzi. "Now get out." she said with clinched teeth.

Bronzi dropped his credit chit on the floor. Then turned around. He walk out of the apartment door and closed the door behind him. He showed no emotion, no tears, just stone silence. "No such thing as a cliche when its real and personal, right?" A figure standing beside the door said before moving with Bronzi's shadow. It was his handler and employer for the time being, Luca Pavone.

Bronzi turned his head. "Making sure I am not a spy?" Bronzi grunted as he removed a Cigar from his belt pouch. Luca snapped his fingers and a spark flew from finger to finger and lit the cigar. Bronzi leaned forward and put the end of the cigar to the spark. He bit the end off and took a few puffs to get the cherry started.

"How much of that did you hear." Bronzi said looking at Luca.

Luca remained quiet as he moved alongside the Gartagen. He'd heard heartache in the past, but he didn't wish to mull it over. They were Bronzi's problems, not his. "Some of it. My Gartagen language isn't that good." He'd learned a couple of words from Bronzi in the days, but the conversation that Rina and Bronzi had were beyond his comprehension.

Bronzi nodded as he spoke. "It is. I took the job with you, because it was hard to get hired on this world. I am honor bound to help that woman. She was with me on Ether. Lover of my blood brother. My other blood brother killed him. Can't go home we'd be dishonored well - she don't deserve that. She is just angry because she tried ta warn me, begged me to help. I did not want to see." He said, taking a deep puff of his cigar and inhaling.

"But who wants to think their brother is really a monster?"

"I told you once guys like us exist to stop the monsters. What I did not say is what happens when we fuck up." Bronzi then nodded at the apartment door. "They pay the price."

"There are no quiet fuckups in our line of work." Luca admitted, recalling Delsauria.

"Ya, ya got that right." Bronzi said.

"Now, why'd ya follow meh?" Bronzi said cutting through it and now getting into the heart of the matter. It was obvious Luca did not tail Bronzi to make sure he was okay. In truth Luca hardly knew Bronzi, and for all intents Bronzi litirally dropped out of the sky into Luca's lap.

He shrugged at the Gartagen. "It's just how I roll. I can't solve the universe's problems until I solve the ones closer to home." He nodded and looked ahead of him in the apartment complex, and raised an eyebrow. His left hand shot for the HHG in his holster subconsciously. He disengaged the safety and the Grapple Stunner crackled with life. "I smell trouble."

Bronzi snorted, and immediatly had his scatter gun in his hands. He rolled his wrist around the strap, so that it was tight around his shoulder. Holding his Cigar in his teeth. "Its Funky City, I smell trouble all the time..."

The alien quarters of Funky City bought with them their styles of life, their smells and their ways of life - and their criminal elements large and small. The apartment they'd just left was probably an old carryover from the original inhabitants who moved further into the city after making money - and left it behind for whoever wished to take it by hook or by crook.

A series of yells went through the building from down below in Trade. Luca leaned over the ledge of the railing and he could see a gang of some description looking to do a shakedown of this building's inhabitants for protection money or to give them a simple message: 'You are not welcome.'

Fortunately, two guests to these apartments were happy to be reciprocal. Luca licked his lips, and vaulted over the edge of the safety rails and into the void with his right hand curled into a crackling fist.

Bronzi jumped over the safety railings and went straight down to the bottom. His bulk landded less then gracefully but brutally. His feet slammed into the rockcrete and shattered below his feet as he tensed his powerful leg muscles. He crouched for a moment and then moved. A crack of thunder reveberated through the facility and one of the thugs who was attempting to storm this builting was hit all over his body with a collection of knives and forks. He howled in pain and fell to the ground rolling around in agony.

"That's right boys show 'em what we can do, we're makin' our message right clear 'n-" The loudest one in the bunch would've continued talking were it not for the fact that a thunderbolt had collided with him. His body was used as cushioning for Luca's fall as the force of his fist smashed into him and electrocuted the miscreant. Luca then stood up over the ringleader's charred corpse and grinned to the other gangsters, who were moving up the stairs and ladders.

Not wasting any time, the first thing those gangsters did was start firing upon the duo. Luca started moving, holding the HHG with both hands and firing. Cracka-THOOM, cracka-THOOM, each shot amplified by the mass driver slammed into criminal and concrete alike with incredible prejudice. Bullets of panic ripped towards Luca, but only managed to hit the wall behind him.

Another came around the corner of the the building's main walk way, and Bronzi rushed forward taking out his axe. The boy could not have been more the sixteen years old when Bronzi's blade was introduced to his face, cleaving it off. Bronzi smirked. Flicking the axe and then doing a flourish with it. "Good weapon." He snarled with a morbid chittering laugh.

A seventeen year old who obviously knew the recently deceased was making a retreat as he was firing his machine pistol at Bronzi. The recoil of the pistol meant that the gun was pointing upwards further and further the longer the trigger was being kept down.

A crack of thunder reveberated through the court yard and Bronzi held his shot gun with his right hand. He aimed the shot at the boy's feet. The barrages of i'll fired rounds from the hit Bronzi's armor, but were only deflected harmlessly

Meanwhile, someone on the balcony was grabbed from afar by Luca's grapple stunner. They shrieked as they were pulled over the railing and collided with the ground before Luca fired again to bring himself up to their level. A shot was fired from a carbine and the projectile hit Luca in the chest - but it was met by a durandium plate insert.

The shooter's jaw dropped as he watched the Luca grab one of his friend's longarms, disarm them of it, crush them in the groin with its buttstock and smash their temples open with it before he cradled it under his shoulder and started firing from the hip, emptying the magazine. "How's that shit feel?!" He asked their dead, twitching bodies. When he was met with a gurgle for an answer, he threw the empty weapon away.

A deep roar was heard from behind Bronzi. It was a large ID-SOL man wearing blue jeans. His rippling muscled body was clearly build for brute force, but he barreled down on Bronzi with the speed of a raging bull. His massive ham fist smashed into Bronzi's armored chest and sent him into the wall. "COME ON ALIEN!" The ID-SOL roared with his deep bass like voice.

Bronzi grunted, and landed on his feet. He smiled and shouldered his shot gun. The ID-SOL bared down on Bronzi again. But this time Bronzi was ready. The ID-SOL's fist snapped out and was caught by Bronzi's free hand, and re-directed into the wall. The building shuddered, and the ID-SOL grunted in fustraition.

Luca, meanwhile was dealing with people as they came in hand to hand combat, making unpredictable dodges, making use of the hard surfaces and the drop afforded to him - and his inability to be tossed over the ledge permanently. Bronzi would see the occasional screaming man land face first into the ground with a splat, followed shorty by their smoking weapon. Someone tried to shoot Luca in the face - they missed and found their legs swept up from under them and shot in the chest by a HHG as they were falling down. It was cold and brutal, but it worked.

The ID-SOL struggled with Bronzi and brought his other arm around and grabbed Bronzi's axe hand by the wrist. The ID-SOL roared, but Bronzi matched him. He clinched his teeth as he went from brute strength to brute strength. Bronzi's enhancements were showing their merit here, but the raw power of the ID-SOL was not something that he was just dealing with. Clinching his cigar in his teeth Bronzi spoke. "Fuckin' strong...problem is...you pinkies are...SOFT!"

Luca would hear a loud crunch of bone from below. Bronzi head butted the taller ID-SOL in the nose. Blood hit the ground along with the muscled man. "Get up!" Bronzi said still holding his axe. "I'll not killa yer on yer ass."

The ID-SOL clutched his face and then did a Kip up. He smiled and attacked again. This time it was like a dance. The ID-SOL was boxing bronzi. Bronzi was shuffling his feet. Dodging blocking. The Alien martial art looked odd. Every ham fisted punch was deflected. Bronzi displayed agility that betrayed his bulky and overweight appearance. Finally it was clear Bronzi got a lick in. His left hand struck with the Axe prompting the ID-SOL to reach out and block Bronzi with his forearm. It worke. Bronzi free hand lashed out in a low strike accross the ID-SOL's belly. The skin looked ike it had been unzipped by the Gartagen. The ID-SOL's intestines spilled out at his feet.

The unfortunate man realized what had happened and clutched his wound. The ID-SOL fell to his knees shouting in horror. Bronzi silenced his shouts by cleaving his head like a mellon with his axe.

Still ready for a fight, Bronzi held his axe. "NEXT!" He yelled.

And then a silence fell over the apartment blocks. Bronzi could hear his voice echo as it bounced off of the hard surfaces and concrete. Luca hopped down and landed on his feet next to Bronzi, looking down at the ID-SOL and giving his corpse a punt out of disrespect for his motives, and because it was all over. The world around him started to fade back into normal time. No longer could he see the writing on the bases of the spent cartridges as they flew.

Bronzi heard panting. The 17 year old boy he shot was laying on the ground clutching a stump ofr a left foot. He was crying. Bronzi turned and saw him. "What about that one?" He said growling, yet smiling maliciously.

"Let him learn from his mistake." Luca sighed as he flicked the cylinder of his HHG open and discarded the spent cartridges, replacing them with new ones. "If he repeats it, it might be more than a foot."

Bronzi approached the boy. He used his boot to push the severed foot away from the boy. "You hear that boy? You just got fuckin luckeh. But yer foot belongs to me now."

As things drew silent, the doors to the apartment building started opening. Kohanians, Lorath, Iromakuanhe, Azoreans, and a vast plethora of other aliens poked their heads out and slowly came to the edge of the railing to see what had happened. They saw two figures standing in a battlefield, as though they were inspecting the dead and wounded.

Bronzi looked about. He saw kids, women, innocent people. "Did not fuck up today though." He holstered his axe, and held out his right hand into a fist in an effort to bump Luca.

"And that's why I love this job." Luca replied as he returned the bump with his right hand - though it was somewhat tingly to the touch thanks to the errant arcs of electricity dancing along the knuckles. The occasional cheer or holler could be heard from above as Luca looked up at the sorts of people he was protecting. Luca didn't share the language with most of them, but he did get the gist of what was being said.

>OFF!