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"Actually, no." Cy stepped up behind them. "I launched that stone far away from us, HORIZONTALLY, before driving it up. They'll think we're fifty feet thataway," he motioned to his left, "if anything."

"Hardly a great difference," Swift replied with a slight smile, as he hopped over a large rotting log. "But this isn't the time to argue, let's just keep moving."

"Swift's right, we should move on." Knight said. The teams took a few steps untill they realised it was gradualy getting darker.

Knight looks up, and sees a mass of dark clouds covering the full moon. "Hmm... you think it's gonna rain?"

No one needed to answer... the weather did that for them - as drops of rain begun falling and quickly picking up into a rainstorm.

"You and you big fat mouth." Camden said.

"Hey, it's november and this IS a tropical island... This rain screws with our - already poor - visibility. And the noise from the rain disrupts the directional microphones froum our binoculars. We need to be extra carefull."

"Don't worry." Cy cut in. "I'm constantly psisweeping... We'll know if anyone is near us..."

"What's that smell...?" Justin wondered.

"It's sulfur from the volcanno." DL replied from above. "The humidity from the rain makes the scents that much more strong."

The forumers moved on...

North from there...

Leaning with his back against a tree, the white haired man was cleaning his twin guns. They were two custom made silver Tanfoglio handguns. As he stood up the rain started falling in full force wetting his exo suit, which was collored with the same Camouflage patterns in the shades of red and black, as the rest of the FLAME soldiers.

Walking to a nearby suitcase, he opens it and wears a red leather trench-coat. "Eat your heart out, Dante of Sparda!" The man said to himself with a smile.

"You still need a huge sword strapped in your back, to even contemplate of beating him." A voice was heard from above. Another HEAT jumps down from the tree.

This one wore the same outfit like the gunslinger. Only his was completely jet-black. In addition he wore a closed helmet with a reflective glass visor - like a mirror. A katana blade was straped in his back. "Not to mention that you dont have demon blood in you, Gunfire."

"Meh, at least I'm not some games character. Say, isn't that rain gonna be a problem for you sword?"

"Iie." The ninja replied, drawing his sword which was immediatly wreathed in flames.

"That's a nifty little sword." Gunfire smiled.

"Suki desu ka?"

"Ya, I do like it. I'm not generaly a fan of swords, but dude - who WOULDN'T love a flaming ninja-to?"

"Katana."

"Er, yeah. Ninja-to too small for a hardcore guy like you, huh?"

"Sou desu."

Gunfire nodded. "...I'm a bit worried about this..."

"Naze?" The ninja inquired as he sheathed his sword back to its scabard.

"Those guys we're supposed to kill. They already got Blaze, Cinder, and Thermal... It doesn't sound like amateurs to me."

An odd laughter came from the black-clad HEAT as he turned his back to his comrade. "Hot-Shoter wa doko desu ka?"

"I dunno, but she's late."

A bright searchlight was turned on over them, as a jet went out of Cloaking - its engines still on stealth and as such, nothing special could be heard over the rain.

A lithe, feminine figure slides down from a rope and lands next to them - wearing a HEAT exo-suit in proper camouflage patterns and having a huge sniper riffle straped on her back.

"Irrasshaimase, Hot-Shooter." Flame-Blade said.

"Uhh... sure... What did he say?!"

"He said 'welcome', Hots. You took your sweet time getting here." Gunfire explained with a smile.

"Better late than ever." The woman replied - her smile not visible behind her visor.

TBC...

OOC: I have more to post - but time is on me, so I'll have to ask you to be a bit patient till I post the rest later today.

RP if you want, but plz, let me set up the bossfight.

Cy sighed. "Listen. If I have to, I'll start broadcasting what my psisweep picks up to the rest of you so you can 'see what I see', as I don't think this rain's gonna let up. It'll eat at part of my concentration, but not by much." His eyes shifted around. "Strange though, I thought I'd pick up something by now...I'd go to telekinetic field sonar, but there's too much interference at the moment. The trees get in my way."

"I rather use my own eyes. I don't like people being in my head when they don't need to be," she informed Cy.

"I wish I had an umbrella right now as my hair is going to be a mess."

OOC: Sorry for taking this long, but finals season and RL alwasy pose a significant Time Eater! 😛

This will be a tad bit hasted... Sorry, all.

IC:

They were moving ahead for a few minutes now, Cy was pointman, with Knight a bit behind, and the rest of the team moving into a decent formation for an otherwise untrained unit. Exception was DL, who was on the Trees for the most part.

Cy suddenly stoped. "Hold it guys! I dont pick much on my 'tk sonar' of sorts, but I DO pick up a definite brainpattern. One signal. Just ahead."

With help from Cy who psionicaly gave a general location pointer to Knight, the SONIC agent coordinated the forumers in a circular move pattern around this single man.

"I know you are there, forumers!" The white heard man with the red trenhcoat yelled in the dark. "Circling around me in the trees and bushes..."

Knight had already pulled his F2000 and setting his scopes on infrared, he decided to snipe at their enemy from a distance. Fixing the targer sightings at the target's body, Knight moves the crosshairs upwards to aim his head.

The moment the crosshairs reach the target's head, and Knight holds his breath for a shot - the man ducks in fluid, extremely fast motion, pulling a gun and firing away a single shot.

Knight fell on the ground - amazingly, the man had just shot his riffle. It's a good thing the F2000 was of sturdy design, had this been a Vektor, the buller might tear right through it and hit him.

"I am Gunfire, of HEAT!" The man said pulling another gun. "Your mission ends here!"

"Yer WRONG, BUB!!" Thamior growled, doing an amazing vertical leap from his hiding place, directly towards the HEAT.

Gunfire leaped backwards - shooting at the airborne sword-wielder, but Thamior used his considerably wide blade as a shield. Landing in front Gunfire, the hulking forumer brings his sword down in an attempt to knock the ground below Gunfire's feet, but before the arc of his sword could be complete, something hits his blade from the side with such force that made him drop his sword and making his wrist hurt.

"Wha?! That guy didn't shoot me - it looked like a gunshot but it aint anythin' I've seen before!"

Even with these thoughts rushing through Thamior's mind, he was not distracted. He knew that he was now open to an attack from Gunfire and with a speed that belied his musclebound form, he leaped away immediatly to eveade more gunshots from Gunfire, but still one bullet nicked him a bit in the shoulder. Thamior ignored the injury, rolled on the ground, grabbed his sword and leaped back as the others were coming out of the shadows. He was about to renew his assault, but more gunshots apparently coming from an unknown direction kept him at bay.

"SNIPER!" Knight yelled running for cover. Justin however made an attack with his stun-gun, hiting Gunfire on the chest - but apparently it had no effect. Gunfire made a shot to the Mod, who ducked for cover, a bullet grazing his thigh. However, Blaze was now out of ammo.

DL knew an opening when he saw one, and as Gunfire was quickly reloading his guns, the Templar shadow-shifted behind the gunslinger in an effort to stab him from the back. But then a star-shaped edged instrument was hurled at him, forcing him to whirl back and block it with his sword. A ninja like opponent fell from the trees, with a flaming Katana in his hands. "Orei wa Flame-Blade!" And with that he charges for another attack.

As the two swordsmen battled, Thamior rejoined with the rest who excahnged shots with Gunfire, who in turn was using the trees as cover. The kid was very fast and extremely nimble. His reflexes were the most uncanny, often he dodged at attack before it even happened!

"Time for some desicive action!" Cy said over the comotion and steped forth from his cover. The barell from his minigun started spining for a few seconds and then fire begun to spew forth, as a hail of led was raining all over the place - forcing Gunfire, Flame-Blade, and DL - to run for cover.

Another gunshot was heard - and a small explosion in front of Cy made his telekinetic forcefield visible for a split second. Cy didn't care, and continued to fire away. A second shot came seconds after the previous one, but oddly enough; this one came from a completely different direction. A thrid one seconds after that - again from the completely opposite.

"More than one snipers?!" Knight wondered, trying to figure out the best place to take cover. The fourth shot wasn't aimed at Cy, but on a nearby tree, destrying it's base, and making it fall towards Cy, forcing him to stop firing and retreat.

"Listen up everyone!" Cy's thoughts were projected in everyone's head. "I'm only picking up the guy with the Guns telepathicaly, the rest seem to be psionicaly insulated. There is that Ninja weirdo that DL is fighting, and there is a Sniper. Probably Hot-Shooter. Apparently, she can teleport and that allows her to snipe at as from any direction - any ideas...?"

TBC....

HEAT Descriptions. Kinda short for now, I will expand with more details later, as I am HUGELY pressed for time...

GUNFIRE
Photo
Gunfire is a 25 year old master gunslinger. He is a wizard when it comes to firing, and he moves with grace AND restraint... Seen equilibrium? 😛 Think Gun-Katas. Otherwise just have him be a badass with guns. 😛
Otherwise, he IS a bit of a newbie. Also, he have no qualms to kill in battle, but doesn't like to kill defenceless ppl... So, if for istance he can shoot a cowering Vortex, he won't do it.

Finaly, his guns each hold 10 shots.

DANGER SENSE: Gunfire has danger sense. He can sense an attack before it occurs, and that enables him to be a master of dodging.

HEAT EXOSUIT (AKA: HEAT Mk.II BDU): All the groundbased bossfights we dealt so far (Blaze, and Thermal) didn't wear the Exo-suit (specificaly, Blaze only wore the pants, while Thermal was effectively naked). The exosuit is impervious to heat/cold, fire, electricity, and small arms bullets. They also grant heightened strenght and agility, so dont be surprised if you see Gunfire (or the rest) leaping over trees, or punching through walls.... well, there ARE no walls, so I guess I should say punching through trees ^__^

FLAME-BLADE
Fire-Sword's twin brother (Fire-Sword is the guy in knight armor and huge sword if you remember him from the intro), Flame-Blade is, duh, a ninja. ^__^
His main weapon is a flaming Katana, but very often hurls flaming Shuriken (ninja-stars). He probably has other weapons as well, the kind Ninja use.
He is actualy a native english speaker, but he is weird like that and prefers to speak in Japanese most of the time. 😛
VERY fast, and VERY agile.

NINJA-SKILLS: Flame-Blade is the UNREALISTIC kind of ninja... the one where you can hit him, and a puff of smoke reveals you actualy hit a tree-log. Basicaly, expect a lot of wierd mystical tricks from this guy. I'll have some fun with him later on.

HEAT Exo-suit: Like Gunfire, Blade also has the suit.

PSIONIC INSULATION: His helmet protects his mind from all MENTAL attacks.

Hot-Shooter
Pic
The snipergal. ^__^ Called "Hot-Hooters" behind her back by the grunts in FLAME, Hot-Shooter is a master sniper. Her Experimental Steyr ACR Anti-Material Sniper Riffle is, as its name sugests, an riffle designed to destroy solid objects and penetrate even light armored tanks. She hits, pretty much what she wants, and rarely misses.

SPATIAL FOLDING: ie: Teleportation. 'Hots' can teleport in short distances via devices in her scope and armor. Basicaly, she aims the point she wants to teleport to. She uses that to change places, and fire from a different angle.

PSIONIC INSULATION: Like Blade, she is immune to Mental assaults.

HEAT EXO-SUIT: The usual refinements.

TACTICS: Here is the tricky part. In THEORY, Hots can blow your brains out. But for SOME reason, though she does her best to make your life hard, she doesn't make killing shots. Also, she isn't even making direct injuries (a hit from her gun in your leg is likely to blow it off). Instead, she fires to keep you at bay, and destroys trees and other doodads to hinder. Like she will blow a tree to make it fall towards you.
She WILL fire dircetly at ppl who can defend themselves against her (like she fired at Cy, knowing he'd deflect it with TK field). Likewise, she will fire at Tham's blade and stuff like that.

-----

In closing:
I will add more thorough info tomorrow, but what I wrote so far should make due.
I dont want quick-kill tactics like Cinder (the rocketeer). I want a dragged out epic strugle.
HOT-SHOOTER: Do NOT engage her. Keep her one step ahead of you for now. I have special plans for her.
Be aware - these three employ Perfect Team Work. They move and fight in many ways like a sinlge entity. This battle is NOT supposed to be an easy one.

CAMERAS: Your characters are not aware of this, but several cameras are cloaked and hidden on the trees around you. As they get destroyed, their debris become aparent. So, in all likelihood you'll see several machine parts on the ground.

That is all...

**Shao Khan voice** FIGHT!

At the first sign of trouble Swift had hit the floor, as he climbed to his feet he'd watched as Thamior, Cy, DL and Justin had been the first to engage with Fame-Blade and Gunfire.

As DL took on Flame-Blade Swift already had his own weapon out to start firing at the grey haired Ginfire, but the nimble man leapt between the trees using them as cover. Cy on the other hand was pulling out his minigun.
Seconds later one of the larger trees was collapsing ontop of the psionic, and they all felt his warning.

Meanwhile, Gunfire and FlameBlade had recovered. The Ninja was leaping over the nearest log and charging towards the rest of the group, Gunfire stepped to the side and started shooting ahead of his companion, providing covering fire to stop any of them shooting at the ninja as he attacked. Swift dropped the floor as bullets started flying over his head. Moments later the Ninja appeared above him, having just leapt over the fallen tree and his flaming sword at the ready. Swift rolled to the side as the Ninj plunged his weapon where his chest had been moments before, dropping his gun as he rolled. The Ninja raised the katana ready for another strike, but was intercepts by DL who had just teleported in out of nowhere. "I just saved your ass Swift" Dl informed him matter of factly, kicking the gun that Swift had left behind towards him.

With the ninja and the Templar engaged again Swift retreated away from them, already thoroughly annoyed about the fact he didn't have any super powers. What was he doing here, he was like a fish out of water.

Though he didn't openly express it, and in fact his face was set in a teeth-grinding grimace, Justin loved this kind of action. And it had exploded out of nowhere, with bullets racing through the air every which way as the battle began in earnest.

Dang, that stings! thought Justin, down behind the rock he used for cover. He looked at where the bullet had grazed his thigh, and fortunately it wasn't as bad as he had thought. His own danger sense had kicked in soon enough to help him dodge, but it was clearly nothing like what Gunfire was capable of.

Okay, sniper in the trees, those other two on the ground. If Cy's right about a teleporting sniper, then they've got to go down first.

Justin wasn't much for tactics, but even he could see they were in a bad spot if they kept getting shot at from above. He tapped hidden buttons on his shoes and his gloves, then dashed from his hiding place as he ran for the nearest tree with low branches. He glanced at the battle and saw that DL was keeping Flame Blade busy, though the scientist soon vanished in that shadowy way of his. Gunfire was also slightly preoccupied with the others, which Justin was thankful for as he stayed to the side of the main battle and jumped up to grab onto a low branch, swinging himself up into the tree.

Huh, three of them against all of us, but they're holding their own, thought Justin as he continued to climb up into the tree. Okay, I gotta focus on that sniper. Where is she?

He reached a sturdy-looking branch and squatted down on it, holding on with one hand while his other clutched the stun gun. Not sure this'll work, but that sniper can't possibly have as much armor as those guys if she's bouncing around up here. He looked left and right, up and down, but there wasn't a sign of the sniper. Now where is-

"Yow!" he cried reflexively as a blur zipped by from his right, smashing into the branch near its base and cutting it out from under him. Justin reached out and grabbed onto another branch, wincing at the jolt it gave his arm, but he hadn't fallen far. He looked up through the branches and leaves to see someone in the foliage.

Hey, looks like I was right about her armor, thought Justin as he started raising his gun. Geez, that armor's impractical, I could just zap her with-

That thought was also interrupted as the woman shot out the branch he was hanging from, and it was all that Justin could do to keep from panicking as he plummeted toward the ground. Thinking fast, he slapped his feet together, and the feet of his sneaking suit burned away as his sneakers emitted thrusting energy to break his fall to the ground below.

She's gone, thought Justin as he looked back up through the trees, trying to track the sniper. Dang, and she's good too, that was a monster rifle to wrestle around with such good aim. But, why didn't she just take me out? Makes no sense.

Justin threw himself behind another tree, and he nearly bumped into Cookirini. "Fancy meeting you here," he said with a casual smile as he winked at her.

OOC: Hope that was okay to prove the futile-ness of trying to go after Ms. Hotshot there. 😛

The moment that the gunfire began, DL was trying to wrestle his own positioning so he could dive from above. But when Gunfire left himself ridiculously open, Dl could not let that slide.

Until that metallic object singed his coat slightly, and caused him to look to the side in question. The appearance of a ninja made him smirk with witty interest. Seeing how fast this guy could move made DL all the more wiser that his coat was not going to cut it.

That's all he was counting on.

He had saved up his energy, and since the guy wanted to throw shurikens, that was fine and dandy with him. But there was still the element of Gunfire. That would be taken care of by the works of Cyk, Tham and Knight currently. But that left 5 other potential fighters. With Hot-Shooter taking pock-shots at them, they could be down 5 people due to the side effects of shooting down trees!

Not being one for commrodary-right now DL had to switch his ways. They were not going to get anywhere if they did not at least give everyone some way of aiding. Honestly, 3 against their numbers should be a cakewalk.

But first, the ninja. He knew that his handheld computer would be of no use, there would be no reliable data. His DNA was going to be needed...but getting it would be the problem. He thought this out as he barely engaged the flame-wielder, merely because he was testing out this guys strengths. His sword skills were uncanny. Pinpoint accuracy...calculated strength...and then they clashed backward, avoiding a tremor caused by Swift's falling body.

They both had just studied each other. And while they had both been working to try and disable members from the opposing forces, their intent on each other was still amateur at best.

Until right now. The battlefield emptied for the both of them, as they collectively disappeared from the immediate area. Both forms merely took to the sky for a moment, flipping past each other before descending. The ninja would stick its sword out, increasing his speed. The target happened to be OTB, and DL knew that he could not teleport there in time without risking himself to be impaled...

Not to mention his sword was just shot twice, almost causing him to drop it. Whomever was in the trees was now starting to tick him off. He couldn't have a "fair" fight with this ninja with that sniper bouncing all around. He slammed into a tree branch, but kicked off it and flipped back to the ground. Hair rustled and he hissed heavily-this was getting heated. But OTB would come through once again.

He slammed that incoming pointed flameblade directly into a frying pan that was emitting..water! How convienent. It was akin to falling into the ocean at 30 mph. OTB's swing would be completed, but Flame-Blade only reversed direction, and landed, sweeping OTB and rolling forward to impale him. However, as random as it seemed, his sword would almost be knocked from his hand by the cunnning Vortex, whom was lookig for a place to hide now.

The hedgehog had kicked up some dirt and a rock flew out slamming directly into the Ninja's hand. Had it not been for the suit, that sword would have dropped. Unphased, Flame-Blade would turn around, katana flaring backward to block the incoming head swipe. He would then dart to the left, passing Cyk with uncanny speed. The hail of fire that was headed toward Dl now would be dodged as he fell backwards. Hitting the ground, the energy of the bullets slicing the wiund was intense, causing him to focus.

Damn spray. Going to have to take this ninja on with everything I got. Been a long time since I've done that...but if we keep doing this, we're going to end up hitting each other..

TBC {I am so pressed for time. x_X}

Giant rifle, eh? Good to know, Tergy. Keep her busy for me.

Cy stopped firing for a moment to conserve ammo. Then he psionically levi-dashed to where Gunfire had vanished to and swung his chain gun like an angry hockey player swings the stick. "Nice tr-UNGH!" *WHACK* Gunfire WAS behind Cy, but got caught as Cy brought the gun full circle behind him, catching him in the side and throwing him a good few feet away. "Joke's on you, foo'. Try not to think. It'll help." He then started firing again, but Gunfire had recovered and was doing that matrix thing again. "So...you have a qualm about killing innocents, eh? Then why'doya work for a maniac like Pyroclad? He wants to burn countless innocents alive! Talk about hypocritical." The stun was enough for his next trick to work. Cy's eyes met Gunfire's for a split second...long enough. Images appeared in front of Gunfire's eyes...not even images...he swore he was in a burning city.

OOC: for those of you with weak stomachs or who cry easily, you may want to skip the rest of this post.

IC:A small cry came from nowhere. "Momma? Where are you momma?" A tiny child stumbled off a pile of cinders and fell on his face, but got up easily enough. His arm and other parts of his body was blackened from the burns he had gotten, some with the smell of rotting flesh already, but he was searching for something hard enough to ignore the pain. He winced as he got up and coughed out a little blood. "Momma? Is that you?" A sickening smell-burnt human flesh-filled Gunfire's nostrils as he turned around...to see the dead burnt corpse of the child's mother, and the child weeping, shoulders heaving, over its body. The child then looked at Gunfire. "You did this." It suddenly spoke with Cy's voice. "You're responsible for all this! All this...death! Because you couldn't let us through, all these innocents had to die by your master's hand!" The child had now run up and was clinging to Gunfire's clothes and was screaming in an unholy tone, its wounds and burns now sickeningly realistic and expanding. It then got shot through the head and fell back. A flash of flamethrower later, and the child turned to charcoal and was crushed under the heel of a FLAME trooper. Gunfire clutched his head. "No...this is an illusion." He shook his head, focusing. Slowly, the fight scene came back into view. Just in time to see Cy with his left arm in swinging position. "Ya damn right it was." *WHACK*.

OOC: Just for reference, to anyone watching, Gunfire would have fallen into a trance right up until Cy said "ya damn right". They wouldn't have seen the little spectacle Cy made Gunfire's eyes see.

OOC: Sorry for not posting forever. X_x

IC: The ninja was going around slcing at people, and Cosmic was trying to from a plan.

"Well, how can I-" he was cut off when he barely dodged a shot from the sniper.

"Dang it, how can I hit them now? I keep getting sniped... I got it!". Cosmic ran around the area and would shoot laser blasts at the opponents. Then he heard something.

"Ya damn right it was" and then Cy punched him. Cosmic ran over.

"Alright! Go Cy!" he said as he started to use his super strength to pound into Gunfire.

"That'll teach you to try and kill people!" he said, with a serious look on his face.

OOC: I hope I didn't get anything wrong...

"good work, Cosmic!" *chk-chak* Cy aimed the minigun point blank at Gunfire. The barrells slowly began to spin. "Now think about what I showed you...in hell." Cy pulled the trigger...

OOC: someone else decide if Gunfire lives or dies.

OOC: Everyone was saying 'sorry no time' or 'sorry rushed' and i was not rushed in any way. so... well... i think 'sorry i wasn't rushed at all' is in order. Apologies everyone. Have fun reading it. (pssst, it's long.)

IC: A jungle without birds sparkled with flashes of light. From above it was a surrealist painting. Splashes of brightness that faded slower then they should, hints of movement, hints of anything, everything that mattered obscured by the trees, and everything that didn't held no movement. As if everything that had ever happened, and ever would happen, was there and now, in those bursts of light.

What was beautiful from above, was hell below. Everything was happening at once, it was a fight. A real fight. It was not a fight as anyone who had grown up on movies would have known it. There was grace to be seen, images of almost liquid motion flitting between trees, others of terrible power, and the snap of gunfire and shattering of wood was every ware. It was so alien though, that the movie watcher would not have understood. Used to fights of momentary fury, or drawn out glory, ware every important moment was highlighted perfectly on a screen larger then life.

Those involved in this struggle were as colorful as any that appeared on any silver screen, but they were not larger then life, for they were life, and they fought for lives, there own. That was a struggle, no matter the characters, that when played out, when honest, when there was no play acting, and crimson could truly arc through the air at any moment, that was always the exact same size as life. That was honest. Nothing was more honest then the fight for life.

It was that honesty, and the ferocity that no movie watcher would understand. Unable to accept a conflict that didn't fallow a preset succinct pattern. Unable to accept sound that was loud enough to feel like a physical blow and leave one deaf and dizzy. Perhaps the most bizarre though, was the smell. There was no wind, and so it would be some time before the unpleasant burning scent of gunpowder replaced the fresh wet smell of the undergrowth.

Vortex was lost. He was amidst a tornado; it seemed directly in the eye. He couldn't keep up, there was too much to see, and he was used to movies. He got glimpses, a single frame, a few seconds. A moment was all he ever saw of the whirling about him.

The metallic clink drew his attention to the two shades, silhouette on the backdrop of clustered flashes, dull greens and thick browns. One a creature of shadow, the other a creature made of shadow. Blades twisting, flicking at each other in the air. In the space of a few seconds, both combatants nearly died ten times. Yet there was something reserved about it, that despite each strike being true, deadly, skilled beyond compare, they were both holding something back, trying to feel the other out...

Red caught vortex's vision, his head snapping about to see a single pistol aimed right at him, Vortex's hand sank deep into a wet pile of mud, he didn't notice, his attention was singularly absorbed. Strangely not on the gun, from the duel pistol slinger, but on the man's face. He wasn't close. He was a ways off, but vortex knew if he pulled that trigger... and his stomach fell out. That feeling of true terror, dulled, only by the fact that no being can truly accept that it might die, and won't exist anymore. He waited, frozen in his tumbled, one hand in mud position. Watching the face of the man who could with a twitch, a movement that took no effort... but he never pulled the trigger. The moments slid by, and Vortex could have sworn he saw a slight nod of the pistoliers head before the man had to leap back, avoiding some attack moments before it was made.

Vortex felt a rush of heat leave him, as the thousands of incredibly itchy spots that had sprung up all over his body, and he could move again. No longer afraid any twitch would end him. His first move was a stumble backwards, tripping and rolling, for a moment his eyes falling on knight, who already had another gun out. Of course, he was the kind of man who always had another gun, and soon Vortex probably wouldn't be able to see him, he was even more of a specter then the two swordsmen.

Everything was so loud, they screamed out, as if expecting their words to be understood over the gunfire and shattering wood. As Justin plummeted from a tree, the branch he was on exploding far more spectacularly then wood ever should be able to do, he was falling and...

But once again his attention was diverted, back to the gunman, who this time seemed to be in a very bad situation, flat on the ground, the barrels of Cy's mini gun beginning to spin. That same gunshot that Vortex had been hearing constantly throughout the battle, so regularly it had become just another one of the background sounds, rang out another time. Cy's telekinetic shield became visible for just a split second. He only lost sight of the pistol wielder for a moment. In that moment though, he had started to move, flipping, twisting. For a human the fastest anyone can ever hope to react was a tenth of a second, a time that is infinitely slow to a bullet or a sword swing, or even a punch. Whatever Cy might be, and how fast his reaction time was, it wasn't fast enough. His gun began ripping through nothing but air as the red gunman disappeared behind a rock that seemed to be taking the bullets with minimal complaint.

Again the dueling shadows drew his attention, a stream of water coming from OTB's Frying pan, but the shadow Vortex didn't know tripped him easily, rolling to drive that flaming sword strait through the oddly weponned man. Vortex didn't pull his gun, something told him the only reason he was still alive was the fact that he looked for all intensive purposes like a non com. The rock was already in his hand, and he hadn't remembered picking it up. He remembered throwing it though, and then diving away, not even looking to see if it had found it's mark, whether it had deflected the sword, beaned the ninja, or if OTB would be gasping as the ninja yanked his sword free of a soon to be corpse.

Crawling along the ground he saw the red clad pistol wielder another time, and he could have sworn he got another almost nod, as cowering behind another large rock cropping, he did something Vortex could not even begin to fathom. Ejecting both clips from his guns, he then tossed one in the air letting it spin, and quickly slammed ammo into the other one, catching the first one mid rotation, and then repeating the process... reloading two guns faster then Vortex had ever seen anyone reload any single gun...

Vortex continued to crawl. He needed a cave or something. Or maybe just a really shallow ditch.

OOC: Vortex, you rule. 😉 Keep in mind that this trio supposedly works as a team so as long as the sniper lady is around (who we're not allowed to engage yet) there's basically zero chance of actually killing the other two now, unless I'm mistaken and I don't usually read TBlood's mini-notes wrongly. ;p

IC:

As the fighting commenced, RB and Camden had each used two nearby trees for cover.

"It's impossible to see someone up in the trees," RB, who had been covering eyes to look up, commented as she gave up trying to find the sniper. Up close and personal combat is not her style, but she realized that she might be able to help with these. There was a chance she could knock someone off balance with a well placed wind gust, if anyone was sent her way.

As Cy turned to see what had happened to Gunfire, muttering something under his breath he was suddenly occupied by the sniper. His telekenetic forcefield glowed as shot after shot billowed into it, obviously Hot Shooter had noticed that the telekenetic with the minigun was their biggest threat and reacted accordingly.

Soon all of the trees next to Cy started collapsing towards him, she was repeating the same trick she had before but this time there were four trees all falling towards him. Cy paused for a moment, before raising his hand and blasting one of the nearer trees away and diving through the opening that that tree had caused.
Dirt started flying into his face as the sniper took pot shots of the ground near to him, she expertly followed him around keeping him distracted.

Swift watched from behind a rock as gunfire approached Vortex, reloading his weapons. Vortex was starring at the grey haired man with wide eyes, but continued crawling onwards. Without thinking Swift crocuhed down, taking stance on top of a large log and taking up a sniping position, Flame Blade and Hot Shooter were both busy with the others, he would have a clear shot. He watched as Gunfire opened fire on one of his clips, showing off for some reason...
Why wasn't he shooting Vortex, was he playing around? What the hell was he doing.
Never mind, he needed taking down before he stopped playing around and shot Vortex. Holding the weapon Swift took aim, he was only two feet away, point blank range. This would go straight through his chest....

His finger tightened on the trigger...
As the bullet fired Gunfire suddenly leapt to the side, somehow he had heard the shot coming or something. Whatever had happened the bullet neatly missed the chest where Swift had aimed, Gunfire swinging sideways and the bullet slamming into his right arm. "ARGGGHHH, you *******" Gunfire yelled as he dropped his weapon.
The bullet had only grazed his arm, and theexo-suit had protected him from most of the damage, it would probably only be a deep graze but he'd felt the pain quite cleary.

Suddenly the snipers attention was off Cy, and Swift watched with horror as the log he'd just crouched on collapsed and Swift felt himself falling forwards, preventing him from taking another shot. As he rolled of his feet he could see Gunfire collecting the gun he'd dropped, "Thought you'd beat me huh? No-one's EVER hit me before, what's your name?"
"Swift," he replied climbing from his feet, trying not to sweat.
"Right Swift, you're gonna pay for that. Nobody can keep up with me, I am the master here." Gunfire roared, checking the clips in each of his guns. "Stand me and fight..."

Swift was only half standing, trying not to show the fear in his eyes, but it was no good. If he didn't control himself he was gonna start crying, he was no good on his own.
Why did he have to go try playing the hero, Gunfire hadn't even pointed his guns at Vortex, besides, that hegdehog had 'stange powers', he could look after himself...
Right?
Oh, damn it all, he was in trouble, no matter what he did. "KNIGHT, CAMDEN, ANYONE, HELP, PLEASE."

OOC: You said that he was a newbie, so I figured I'd just play around with the, "RAWR, I am the master, i am the best, nobdy can beet me" attitude.
Also, I'm not pressed for time either, so, might as well run with it.

Catching his breath, OTB was amazed he was still alive. After that little encounter, and his pan actually dong something right was a little shocking, but his recovery time was cut short by the sniper taking a pot-shot at him.

"Damn, until that sniper stops shooting, there's no time to stand still..." Blu thought

"Knight, Camden, anyone, help, PLEASE."

Blu turned around to hear Swift's cry for help, so without a second thought, he ran straight at Gunfire and aimeda good aerial kick at his face.

Gunfire of course, easily avoided the attack and countered it by knocking Blu straight onto the floor, this however, had given Swift just enough time to get out of Gunfire's sights.

"...Ow." Blu thought. "It seems this guy can avoid danger pretty easily, but I wonder if he can avoid two or three attacks at the same time..."

"Cooki" flashed a quick smile at Justin as he ran off to fight. Then, she hid under a tree, her head in her knees, as if to effect fright.

Of course, Ginger wasn't frightened at all. She was contemplating.

GINGER: Ok....let's see what makes these guys tick.

She decided to try electricity. Making sure no one was looking, she closed her eyes, brought her head up and concentrated on Gunfire's chest.

Nothing.

GINGER: ....Damnit. Insulated somehow. Don't make me do more.

She paused for a moment at this. If she did more, she could attract the attention of the others. As she could draw her energy from the ground, from everything around her, it would be difficult to do anything without notice.

Unless.....

GINGER: A ha! The snipers.

Of course, whoever they were, it was obvious the snipers were going to be cowards and not engage yet. So, Ginger would have to compromise somehow - poke fun of the snipers and whoever else was shooting at them....

-

As the bullets flew from Gunfire towards Swift, all of them suddenly disappeared seconds before they hit him.

GUNFIRE: ?
SWIFT: ??
GUNFIRE: What the...

He fired again, this time with more bullets. Again, the same thing happened.

GUNFIRE: .....Damnit....UUURGH...

This gave Swift time to escape. Now it was up to Swift to do so.

-

Several sniper bullets began to fly towards Cy as he again went to assault Gunfire.

CY: Hah. Like they'll-

Then, they disappeared.

CY:.....Get.....to....me?

-

Flame-Blade went to get shiruken. He took up three in his hands and was about to fire at his opponent, DL.

Suddenly, in the next second, the three stars were gone. But he hadn't thrown them.

FLAME: ....? Nani?

It didn't matter. He didn't have time to ponder. He drew his sword.

-

Hidden under the tree, Ginger let out a tiny burp. Some smoke escaped from her mouth.

GINGER: Lead....yum. Some good energy there.....heheh....

-----------

Inirikooc decided to do something a little different.

INI:....ERNIE!!!

She threw it towards Gunfire, in hopes of turning him into a psychotic rubber duckie. How easy he would be to kill then!

???: .....qua?

Inirikooc's face fell at this. On Gunfire's shoulder.....was a tiny rubber duckie where a piece of his exo suit had been.

INIRIKOOC:.....This is a joke, right?

She did it again. This time, a piece of suit on his knee turned into another tiny rubber duckie.

INIRIKOOC: What the hell?

An image sprang into her mind. Gunfire, smothered by a rubber duckie exosuit....

INIRIKOOC: YIPE!

A bullet lodged into the ground in front of her. With a growl, Inirikooc shook her fists at the trees.

INIRIKOOC: HEY! IF I COULD SEE YOU, YOU'D BE DEAD! COWARD!

OOC: Awesome awesome. Now I have time...

IC:

Was this guy speaking Japanse. When the shurikens evaporated, he would raise his blade again, canting his head to the side.

Ore wa Dereku-san.

The fight began with those little words to link Flame-Blade and the Templar. A jump back was matched by a jump forward from the assailant, as Dl raised his sword to block. A low swing would cut the ground where DLs foot used to be. That same spot would be stepped upon as Dl sliced vertically and to the right, trying to gain an inward momentum. FlameBlade leaned back, his sword igniting just then to weaken the blade of his attacker. A parry of hits was exchanged, before Dl stepped forward and attained a sideward stance while he swung. Flame ducked and shot for an ankle swipe, leaving Dl to jump over him, performing a split in midair. Sword was thrown downward for a strike to Flames back.

The shining firelit object alighted Dls coat once again, as his sword was knocked back up to him. As the shuriken impaled itself into a tree, Dl would land and lean to the right, swinging in short strikes, odd for a sword of 62 inches. Flame darted toward the swings, and use his sword in a Figure 8 pattern, bringing it up to hit every strike of DLs up instead of down. When they collided swords for the 6th time, Flame would spin twice and then jump, bringing the sword over his head to try for a full powered strike. DL would spin twice as well, but instead fell to his knees, leaning back with his sword across his chest to counter that fireladen hit. Pushing the blade back up before Flame could apply his weight, he would kip back up onto his feet, and lean forward. Left leg was extended backward so his reach could be enhanced. Flame would use his sword as a staffmaster would just then, flat edge pushing DLs stabbing motion to the left as he sidestepped to the right, to swing out his right foot at DL.

The foot would be avoided as DL knelt, and jumped forward, gliding toward Flame with heightened precision. Flame spun backwards, flames circling backwards in order to block the blade strokes as they came in a fierce flurry. Stopping in his retreat, the ninja would swipe upward, before performing an odd action. Upon completion of his stroke, he let the sword continue upward, his own heightened skills allowing him to run up and use the sword as a ledge to speed off from. DL stopped his lateral glide and jumped in pursuit, unsure just what FlameBlade was accomplishing. But in all honesty-he was finally having some fun with this.

Flame Blade would let his sword wreath in flames as he threw a shuriken down upon the assailant. Dl was able to parry the blade, but his throw had so much power that Dls hand had to snap downward in order to deal with the strike. Taking the momentum of the shurikens deflection of his blade, he would perform a floating backflip, and try for a trio of Z-Slashes. Flame Blade would fall back to DL, sword grasped from midair in order to collide with DL. A sharp flare of light and DL would be forced to close his eyes as they both landed.

They landed back to back, swords linked against each other above their heads. Almost instantly though, they looked to their respective fronts, to spot Justin and Cyk aiming their weapons. Knight was rolling out of the way to recover and possibly strafe Gunfires current area. Gunfire was reloaded for the moment, and shot a volley of 4 shots at Tham and Cky. Tham was prepared to block the bullets, as he was shaking his hand from an injury Dl had not noted. However, it was the minigun that Cy had that would prove just how in depth the fight between DL and FlameBlade was.

The bullets headed toward Gunfire. HotShooter had took a shot at Thams sword to make him lose his grip, so Gunfires shot wouldnt miss. However, instead of teleporting away from either party, they each thought within the same time frame. Both blades spun past the others head while each teleported to catch their hilt upon the other side of the swing. Since they werer directly in the crossfire; the bullets that reached DL and Flameblade would be blocked, but in a most peculiar manner. They had begun their fight again, but were exactly a swords length away. This was so they could deflect the bullets that were coming at them at the opposing party, only to have those bullets blocked as well. After the gun strafe stopped, both combatants would swing at the other with an outward swipe, each slicing the last bullet out of the air. At that point, the sword tips would connect, but Flame would intensify the flame on his sword. However, DLs sword did not deteriorate.

Incredible. Your blade does not melt.

Nor does my concentration

Both combatants would resume the fast flurry that was accompanied with the fight, DL now lunging to start this turn of events. A kick in the air would be blocked by the flat of Flame s Sword, throwing DL off balance. A shuriken was thrown, as Flame side-cartflipped over DL, to try and land at the same time DL would. To avoid being impaled in his head by the incoming ninja, DL would turn partially and toss his sword vertically. The length of the blade was enough to cause Flameblade to hastily switch hands-allowing both to land, and DL to shadowphase away. Stabbing the ground, Flame would look behind him and block the incoming swipe with a downward block, followed by two single swipes. Dls Blade would strike again, but now it would appear that the ninja was fighting himself. It was only for a moment, before DL reappeared behind FlameBlade- and successfully kicked him in the head. Flame would let the sword flare up and swing backward in a circular manner, DL caught off guard. Both flew in opposing directions, but stopped and headed back toward each other. Dl this time glided, and Flame dove low. Whilst in their midair passage, flurry of blows were exchanged, before Flame broke DLs blocking sequence, and went for his heart. DL used the hilt of his sword then, barely blocking the tip of the incoming weapon with that diamond protrusion. He pushed his arm down toward Flame, as they both landed on their feet and held their stance. With very little leverage since his blade was not the part in contact with the flaming weapon, DL would jump upward and spin his sword as he released, right when Flame broke the standoff and swiped low. The blade swipe would clash with the spinning weapon, causing Flames blade to rotate in the opposite direction, and ultimately liberate itself skyward.

Swift would have a moment to watch this part of the exchange, almost like a Kung-Fu action flick. He was reloading, but a whoosh of wind would alight him to the current situation. Dl would spin in the air once, and grasp the upward flying handle of Flames sword; at the exact moment Flame grabbed DLs drilling No-Datchi. Without so much as a hitch, they both resumed the fight for a moment, swiping each other for a sequence of telefighting. Blades would merely appear out of the ground and the air, as they met and blocked, sparks flying off with every cinderladen hit. After a minute of the teleporting blades moving away from one area to another area; they would both reappear, locked in a odd pose. Dl was leaning low, blade held in an outward palm stance over his head. FlameBlade was balanced atop DL's borrowed sword, standing upon one hand, but unable to inflict damage since Dl was using Flame's Sword to act as a fire platform

Within this moment, Dl fell backwards before clashing blades and causing both combatants to release the swords. At the collision, the blades would bounce over each other, heading back toward their respective masters. Upon reclamation, both swordsmen would raise their blades at each other and twist their grasps so the swords would be inversely held at the hilts. This was due to the tree that was now falling upon them.

"Hot-Shooter..." They both mumbled, before they jumped at the tree, but while Flame ran along the falling trunk, heading toward Camden and RB, Dl Teleported. Camden rolled for cover, but RB would utilize her powers to create a gale force wind that blasted the trees falling path back from whence it came. Her real target was the ninja that ws headed her way, but Flame would leap from the trunk just then-aiming for a fatal strike to the girl. Out of the corner of his visor, he would swing backwards only to be met by a dark blob hitting FlameBlade, and dissipating within a plume of smoke. RB moved backwards, looking around for either swordsman. She did no like being in a war-raged area, and with two swordsmen that seemed to like fighting in weird ways that left them hidden from sight-she felt none the safer. In an instant, Dl sprinted out from under her shadow, eyes flaring with a deep rooted hatred of this individual now. He stopped and threw his sword at RB, RB instinctively ducking in order to dodge being impaled.

What are you She rose hastily; but paused when a heated wind passed over her head. The ninja reappeared almost instantaneously, flipping over the Mod and would have taken her head off had Dl not reversed the motion on his blade and stopped the fires from hitting her face and burning her pretty little hair right off. Both blades evaporated with their masters, RB left with a plushie of Flameblade that was torn apart by whatever Dl had thrown at him.

"..I don't know whether to be thankful or worried.." She stated loud enough as she reassumed cover.

Thamior had to think fast. In the midst of a battle, there was no time for error, no room for patient calculation. Fortunately, while Thamior was never the brightest bulb in the box, he was fast in his feet when it came to quick desicions.

From what he could gather, Gunfire was in trouble, and Hot Shooter was too far away to deal with. He'd already tried ripping a tree from its roots to throw at her, but she'd simply fired at the large trunk and splintered the thing.

However, it occurred to him; she could have killed any of them easily, and yet she hadn't. This meant she wasn't necessarily a lethal threat.

Tossing the tree stump aside, Thamior looked around for the third foe; Flame Blade. He was busy fighting DL, apparently, the two of them fighting alone as if the rest of the battle wasn't happening. Typical. Give them each a sword and a limited Japanese vocabulary and they thought they were Shinobi or something. Well, he'd put a stop to that. He just needed...some help...

Then it occurred to him. A wicked grin spreading across his face, Thamior made a mighty leap into the air, high above the forest canopy. Just as he'd expected, the island's defense systems activated, launching a barrage of missles his way. Still grinning madly, Thamior twisted in mid-air, actually dodging one or two missles. But that wasn't all. As he dropped from the sky, landing heavily on his feet with an thunderous crash, Thamior held in each hand...a long, red-tipped missle, the miniature propulsion jets still burning away.

Taking careful aim, Thamior put all his might into the throws, hurling the missles towards the ninja. Of course, the ninja was swift, dextrous and downright fast, but Thamior wasn't planning on hitting him...

"Nani?!" cried the ninja, as he could feel the missles' approach. Spinning around, the ninja swatted the explosives aside with the flat of his sword, which he had temporarily extinguished so as not to detonate the missles.
"Hmmph," he said, not impressed. That was when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"You shouldn't have let yourself get distracted," said DL...

"You shouldn't have let yourself get distracted...but I appreciate your idea, as I am slightly fatigued."

Said the shadow to the warrior. Glint in his eye would be noted by Tham, as Tham looked to DL's hand pointing up. While Tham looked to the sky currently, unsure what he was talking about, DL would suddenly run up Tham's body, sticking his sword right above his shoulder. The clang of steel would be heard, as Tham looked back with a concerned look on his face. Again, used as a platform, both forms would jump off of Thamior, and take the fight airborne. But Tham then figured out just what DL was referring to.

Flat side of the blade would be used as a large paddle, mainly to smack Flame-Blade with. That was successful, as the fast ninja wasn't ready for a slap to his midsection that was combined with the force of a steel slab of considerable weight. The ninja would be floored, as DL fell directly on top of him, going for a beheading. The moment of success was lost again to DL, even though Flame-Blade was decapitated.

"..Good job..." Tham said, looking away from the body. However DL was seething at the teeth.

"Damn it! That's twice!" A glare came from Dl as he took a step toward the nearest shadow, that being Tham's.."The speed of his teleportation only comes out in his trickery..."

"What?" Thamior looked back at the body, only to see a log sitting there, wearing what seemed to be a grey jumpsuit. In short, Tham was in disbelief. A second to turn to DL, but he had already disappeared to find his appointed target again. The object that was cut was a circular piece of wood, knocked back a good 4 feet.

"Ok, those two have got to stop that."

OOC: I am SERIOUSLY impressed with what everyone has done so far. Good job, peeps! ^__^

IC:
Thamior didn't need to start looking around for the swordsmen, as both of them fell seeminly from the trees, to the ground. However, it was fairly obvious that Flame-Blade's latest trick had him a bit phazed, in fact, DL had managed to deliver a few minor slashes, and had him on the defensive.

Thamior wasted no time. Realizing that the Ninja would be fully battle-ready soon, he knew he had to make his move while they still had the upper hand.

The Ninja was just about to mount a counterassault when he felt a strong hand griping him from behind and lifting him in the air.

"Blade!" Gunfire yelled, noticing with the corner of his eye what was going on. Cartwheeling away from his position, he unleashed a volley of fire towards Thamior.

When your plans get messed by unforseen events, it is always handy to have good reflexes. Granted, Thamior is nowhere near as fast as Gunfire and Flame-Blade, but he IS fast enough (and experienced enough) to instictively react and use Flame-Blade's body as a shield to protect himself from the bullets. And then, he immediatly punched Flame-Blade.

It was not a pleasant experience for Flame-Blade. He was slashed a bit from DL. The bullets didn't penetrate his armor, but they still HURT a lot. The punch was probably the worst. It's possible he might have cracked a rib or two. And he was now flying in the air, aproaching Gunfire at high speeds.

Gunfired cartwheeled away, just in time. Normaly, he could evade such an attack with ease, but with parts of his exo-suit warped into rubber masses that looked like ducks of all things, the suit didn't seem to function properly.

Flame-Blade crushed on the tree with his chest, but Thamior wasn't letting go. Allowing DL a few moments to catch his breath, the massive man drew his sword and performed a vertical jump to the Ninja who jumped up to the tree to evade. Thamior's strike was enough to tear the tree, but Flame-Blade jumped away, while still in midair throwing a single shuriken at Thamior.

Thamior WAS expecting an attack from behind, which is why he twirled around with a circular slice of his sword. Unfortunately he now realised his error - as the attack was ranged and his enemy well out of reach. But more importantly, a flaming shuriken was heading right for his face.

In car-crashes it is documented by researchers that the rush of adrenaline to the driver is such that the brain overworks and gives the impression that time slows down. The whole "life flashing through my eyes" thing is attributed to that effect, since the brain works at such tremendous speeds that the person can actualy go through the most important parts his entire memory in seconds.

Thamior was too focused to get that trip down in memory lane. The event was also too fast to even get that chance. He still saw that shuriken moving slowly towards him, becoming larger and larger overwhelming his view. His thoughts were very fast though. "Can't dodge. Can't block. I'm dead..."

But then with the corner of his eye, and just as the shuriken was milimeters away from his forehead, a single, long, large bullet skimmed through the drops of rain.

A bright flash and the sound of metal striking metal, as well as the sound of a bullet speeding through at supersonic speeds.

When Tham opened his eyes, he was on the ground from the shock, and a nearby tree was falling down on him. Rolling out of harm's way he realised that the tree was shot by Hot-Shooter. Was it an accident? Did he got lucky? Or did she just save his life?! No. No one is good enough to make such a shot... He then noticed something odd.

The ground was littered with small parts of machinery. Most of them were around the trees that were shot by Shooter. He was no tech expert, but it didn't take him long to recongnise the remains of a few dozen wireless cameras. The broken lenses were proof enough of that, and some of them were still in one piece, despite heavily damaged.

He looked to the front. He saw the fight in all its chaotic glory. Knight had finaly made a decisive move by teaming-up with Swift. With Swift providing supressive fire to lure Gunfire into corners, Knight was moving in trying to get a shot at the enemy, or better yet, CQC him to submission.

Meanwhile, Flame-Blade had resumed his sword duel with DL. Everyone else was franticaly exchaning opponents, running for cover, firing, hiding. It was all logical chaos. But he managed to pick a pattern. He was still, Shooter could finish him off. But she didn't. Instead, the next shot was to a tree - one aimed to plummet down on Tergonaut. As the tree fell on the ground, camera unhinged from a the top, loosing its cloaking field, and crashing on the ground.

"What the blazes is goin' on around here?!" He thought.

(OOC: And now time to actualy do something with my own character! :P)

Knight didn't have the abilities to take on someone like Flame-Blade. And though he would probably be able to aproach an actual sniper, the teleporting thing was enough to keep him at bay - in fact he tried to hunt Hot-Shooter, and actualy managed to get a bit closer than Justin once, but still it wasn't enough, and it only made Shooter teleport even greater distances away.

He decided to concentrate to Gunfire for now. The young gunslinger was fast, and it had become obvious to Knight by now that he seemed to predict danger ahead of time. That made him conciderably difficult to shoot - and you can't CQC someone who can predict your movements ahead of time.

But he was not untouchable, Cy nearly killed him, and he didn't exactly seem to break a sweat about it.

Be that as it may, Knight had a plan.

Directing his thoughts towards Cy, the telepath quickly mentaly-projected the plan to the minds of those who would be involved. HEATs weren't the only ones who could use team tactics, Knight figured.

Swift and Cy, both used their weapons to direct Gunfire backwards. Just then, the they stopped firing so Justin could move in and punch him with those flashy gloves of his - an attack that, as expected, Gunfire eveaded by jumping ahead, to the point that Knight was aming his F2000 riffle and fired with the attached grenade launcher. It was close, but Gunfire leaped high up in the air just in time to avoid the blast. And the he hit his head in an invisible wall - courtesy of Cy's telekinesis.

Falling on the ground, dazed, he saw Camden who runs, leaps... and hits a falling tree that was just taken out by Shooter to block the sailor's path.

"DAMMIT!" both Knight and Cy spat as they ran forward to finish the job. But Swift was closer - or at least at a better position. Noticing Gunfire was about to move again, he shoots, managing to hit his arm, forcing the HEAT to drop his gun. Swift couldn't do a second shot, as the sharp pain from a shuriken striking his back made him drop his weapon in shock. The ninja-star was lunged in his back near the shoulder. The fire would spread, had it not been for Justin who quickly moved in.

"This is gonna hurt you!" Justin quickly warned as he pulled the shuriken from Swift's back, his gloves protecting him from the fire.

Meanwhile, Knight had droped his riffle and had managed to grab the fairly dazed Gunfire with an elaborate move, making him throw his other gun. Alas, Gunfire was vastly stronger, and stoped the next part of Knight's move - broke free, and punched the soldier in the stomach, making him slam to a nearby tree and quickly moved in for the kill.

A well placed, realy strong punch in the head with that armor, was likely to kill Knight who was on his knees, clutching his stomach and grasping for breath - and that's exactly what Gunfire had in mind.

"YOU WILL NOT KILL!" A childish voice was heard, as Cosmic moved just in time, blasting Gunfire away - who by now was so fatigued that he was unable to dodge most of the attacks from the boy.

Hurled backwards, with his suit largely damaged, Gunfire was hit with the barrel of a minigun, as Cy slamed him to a tree. Barely concious, Gunfire was pressed against the tree from the minigun.

"Dodge this." Cy said with a chuckle and pulled the trigger...

Hephaestus Control Center

Magma was watching the battle in the Video Wall - which was filled with several monitors. Most of them now had static.

"We've just lost Gunfire! Sir, we are constantly losing footage." One of the technicians reported the blatantly obvious.

"It is to be expected." The HEAT wizard replied. "This battle is too fierce to not expect damages to the surrounding area - or losses to our operatives. Hot-Shooter!" He yelled at a nearby microphone. "Stop fooling around, and KILL THEM!"

"... Will do, Magma." a female voice was heard over the speakers.

The Battleground

Hot-Shooter materializes again and falls on the ground to take aim. "11 cameras left... Gotta be quick if I am to do this right! What the?!"

What Hot-Shooter was seeing through her targeting scope, was DL falling on the ground from a very fierce attack. As he was picking himself up, the ninja stood above him on a tree branch. Sheathing his sword he quickly made several odd handgestures in rapid succession and then yelled. "KAGE BUSHIN NO JUTSU!"

Several explosions of smoke littered the area all around the battleground. And from each explosion, a copy of Flame-Blade manifested. Over 20 Flame-Blades had surrounded the forumers.

"Guys?" Cy's voice was heard in everyone's head. "Those things aren't illusions..."

And with that the Flame-Blades attacked at once...

TBC...

OOC: Naruto fans may now chuckle. ^__^

Shadow Replications: Blade's clones are not illusions. If they hit you, they cut you. HOWEVER, they are not as skilled as he is. They are not as strong as he is. In fact, they are pushovers through and through. But their numbers make them dangerous. However, one hit, by whatever weapon - even single well placed punch, takes them out, making them vanish in a gust of smoke. Killing or knocking the Original Flame-Blade (who makes himself mingled with his clones) will dispell them all as well.

Have fun! ^__^

Oh, and OpComm Page reminder.

Inirikooc clenched her teeth as she saw the twenty ninjas surround them.

INIRIKOOC: Well, hopefully, these guys will be easier to tame...

She threw her hand out.

INIRIKOOC: ERNIE!

The one in front of her turned into a rubber duckie.....

NINJA: QUA*POOF*

....then disappeared.

INIRIKOOC:....Well, that's better than before, I guess.....

Then, several shurikens flew at her. Inirikooc ducked them in order to get away from them, then was slapped in the face by another clone.

INIRIKOOC: ARGH!

She punched the ninja, who also vanished in a puff of smoke.

INIRIKOOC: Cheap clones, these are.....

------------

"Cooki" let out another burp, and grinned evilly. Little did the idiot clones and snipers know that they were actually powering her with every bullet, every star, everything they were throwing.

GINGER: Idiots.

But she'd let the others battle. Why should she sully her hands when others were more than capable of doing it? Especially while she powered herself up to blast the island to pieces?

It would be fun....

::The moment which seperated the victor from the loser was still undecided to the swordplayers. Currently-the clones that littered the area left DL as confused as the rest of the group-until he looked to Knight and Cy. They could figure out the original from their exceptional skills. He could as well, but he was now preoccupied with the shining surfaces on the ground.

Camera lenses? Some were bevelled, some were merely smooth. There was no real reasoning behind them. A blink, as one recently destroyed camera still sparked with life, its red light dimming into the night. He did not take long to get irate at the situation. A look up, was he that engrossed that he could not see it?

The canopy was opening now, due to the trees that were being liberated from their roots. The ground was now level. He hissed to himself. Why not clear an area to assess skills of your opponents? He looked around, as the clones began to run amok around the group. Eyes darted to everyone-Flame Sniper forgotten about.

His mind blinked, and he hissed. While the cameras may be disguised in the trees, his eyes caught sight of the bevelled lens of a scope? Camera? He could not tell. But it was still.

It hit him. Hot-Shooter had paused in her roundabout attacking. Was it because of the fact that they were noticing these camera shards? Or was it because of her comrade? He thought the latter, and immediatly moved, knowing she could have killed him had she not paused.

That thought-left him imbalanced.

I saw you. You saw me. We're still alive.

He was going to utilize this outcome, immediatly jumping instead of sinking downward. She lost her chance currently, as he clenched his fist. Flame-Blade would now divert his attention to hindering everyone, so it might be easier to weaken Hot Shooter...

--

He placed his hand on RB, to recieve a warm welcome in the form of a fearful backhand. It was unskilled, but painful nonetheless as he held his face, raising his pointer finger to his lips. This was war, and he finally got an idea on how to compensate for Hot-Shooter.

"..We're going to bag Hot-Shooter. Everyone will get what I'm thinking once I start, but it really rides on you."

"Explain? I'm all ears right now-if it means not being shot"

--

The teleporting snipestress would relocate her position, and refocused on Cyk. He would be perfect to remove from the equation. Her focus undaunted, her hand relaxed on the trigger...and froze.

He was gone. In his place, was dust. Tree branches. Bark. Any and every sort of debris began to kick up. Even the shards from the metal was utilized. She relocated her position, and while she could see everyone, that wall of debris was moving about, and would perpetually block her...

--

"Don't see how moving dust around is going to help?" RB stated, as she continued.

"I'm sure you see the immediate plan-to try and obscure her view of us. We also need to fence her to a position that can be exploited by everyone-hence the open spaces she created herself. Less trees means either you move farther out or risk being spotted."

"What's going to stop her from teleporting again and shooting us in the head?"

"Us beating her to the punch. Not saying its fullproof. I'm saying it gives us a chance to dampen and fence her resourcefulness. If it fails, we move on to Plan B." He looked around, and saw a trio of Flame clones attacking Knight and Swift's location...Which once was the real one...

"Plan B?"

"Don't ask until that time comes."

Swift and Knight had backed up against each other, surrounded by the ninja clone thigns from all sides. With each other looking out for the other ones back none of the Ninjas managed to get close to the duo, but with every puff of smoke as each one dissapeared, another reapeared elsewhere.

And then to top it all Swift's clip ran out. His back was already killing him from the boiling hole that the shruiken had carved into it, in fact all he seemed to be doing on this trip was collecting scars. When he was older Knight would be able to say "look at my battle scars, i was a good soldier" but Swift was, to all intents and purposes, a librarian.

"Knight, I'm out of ammo," Swift groaned, having just checked the rest of his pack. He'd wasted too many shots on Gunfire. Groaning he raised the gun and charged forwards, taking a swing at the nearest two clones who dissapeared. Coughing through the smoke Swift lobbed the useless weapon towards a large group of clones, and as the first few moved to the side to dodge it the gun caught one square on the forehead. "OOOhhhf," the real ninja moaned as he fell backwards.
Suddenly all the other clones paused to glance back at their creator, but he was fine and already leaping back to his feet. "He's here, he's that one," Swift pointed having now spotted the real ninja.

Except for the fact he had no gun, or indeed any ammo left to use it anyway....

INIRIKOOC: I got him!!

She held out her hands.

INIRIKOOC: ERNIE!

(Will it work? Did he already change positions? Oh nos!

I leave it up to TBlood. :p)

::Watching the clones all around the area was too time consuming. With RB undergoing a truce of sorts for their collective survival, he would keep an eye out for her safety. Back to Tham, whom was holding his own on a few clones that was around the area.

Cyk was reloading that minigun, possibly to layer the area in a hail of bullets to mince the clones down. That would work, but everyone would have to find cover as well.

His eyes caught sight of Gunfire's bullet ridden corpse-and comprised an idea.

--

Swift would shout the magic words that would aid DL's prospect. A sprint would make Cy wonder if DL had lost a bit of cohereny in the mission.

"DL, he's done for."

"No, he's on our side now..."

The body of Gunfire would be attacked, exosuit cut apart in order to retrieve three items essential of his mission. The most mysterious was a piece of viable flesh needed for his own tests-which was stuck in a tube in his coat-aptly labeled. A piece of the exosuit, conviently shaped like a rubber duckie was also sliced off and held in his hand. While he was seemingly defacing the body of Gunfire, he grinned, knowing that he would grasp his third "item": the attention of Hot-Shooter.

Justin heard Swift's cry as well, and took aim, firing a dart that would sail high. He did not stop motion though, as he let loose another dart to give Swift cover. One clone blocked the dart, but the second dart did itself in-disappearing in a puff of smoke.

Keeping low, Swift moved over to the right, trying carefully to not agitate his wound. Adrenaline or not-the pain was real and he wished it to go away. Eyes would catch sight of DL waving toward him, before an object was hurled at Swift.

"What the?" Swift exclaimed, as the object headed toward him, in a most obvious manner. He seemed entranced by it, and all at once, things fell into play.

--

The sniper had moved her position, eyeing the playing field once again. She had her motives to take everyone out, but it would be too easy to remove some of the components, such as Vortex and OTB. The ninjas made thngs a bit strange, as they liked to jump to and from her vision, allowing for a slight moment of discrepency. She did not want to shoot the real one-but in honesty-FlameBlade could dodge those bullets if he wanted to. But her view was suddenly obstructed by a plume of dust-completly random. She moved immediatly, watching as that plume made it hard for her to see Knight currently. No matter, she would note DL throwing something at Swift. No need to allow the team to gain weapons now...

--

One breath

One flick of the wrist, vertically

One trigger pull

And the flying object exploded in midflight, small pieces of rubber flying about. Swift crouched from the proximity of the explosion to his hand, but as he ducked, he would be hit in the side by a set of blunt objects. He fell on his side, looking for any signs of blood nearly immediatly.

Instead, he would find a pair of guns, loaded and ready to go. Scrambling backwards, he did not second guess their holder-but instead how did they reach him without being shot.

Mainly because he could still see DL standing there in the same place; watching him intently for a moment.

--

DL sighed, glad that the "oldest trick in the book" worked for once...and now that Swift was armed, he could help Knight and Justin out with the Flame Clones.

"Never thought Irinikooc would be useful...." he stated aloud, darting over to Tham to remove the oncoming threat of a few more clones. His mind was considering his options however...

The random dust cloud would still be appearing for moments about the area, and it seemed that the area would attain a more debris laden outcrop, optimally giving people more cover to utilize. But he wasn't sure how long RB could keep making random dust plumes in random locations around the area-in fact, he'd imagine she'd get annoyed with this and stop.

"Science man-any more bright ideas?" Tham alluded as he forced a ninja backwards into another cohort, causing them both to conk heads and fade away.

"Sure, leave the thinking to the intelligent one..." DL joked, leaning forward while in motion to deflect a blade and take off a copycat's arm.

--

Knight, Swift, Justin, Cy-all over there to the left.

Vortex and OTB are consistently moving, Inirikooc is acting as well...Cosmic is holding his own.

He blinked, and darted in a zigzagging manner, reaching Cy as fast as possible. He thought loud enough for Cy to pick up on, without physically distracting him.

Hey buddy-can you tell where Camden and our dear Cooki are. Wouldn't want her to run off now, would we?

To be honest? Damnit. I haven't swept in a time. Let me check. Cy imemdiately performed a psisweep.

Well, Gi...er, Cooki's goofing off behind a rock nearby, and Camden, well I don't know. Every time I try to read her I get feedback. I'm thinking it may have something to do with that psi explosion we all felt earlier.

He finished clicking the new canister into place, but let the gun hang to his arm's side, rather than opening up again. He held up his hands, the sleeves falling away, revealing his arms now aglow with psionic energy. He levi-dashed at the clones, himself splitting into two or three after-images which followed close behind him. As he cut into the clones, it looked as though the after-images were clicing into the clones, as that's around when their bodies reacted to having a large blade of energy cleave them in two. He levi-dashed around, slicing in this fashion. He'd find the real one eventually...

OOC: Don't worry, this post adds nothing to the action, my heart isn't in the game at the moment, plus I'm pretty damn busy arranging for the MoFo Meet-Up this weekend, but TBlood insisted I post, so here's something.

IC: 'Damn it!' Camden growled, as she was once again forced to press herself behind a tree, to avoid sniper fire, throwing stars and fire.

She had tried to get stuck in at first, but the moment battle started it was like a tidal wave of force, as each team member, besides the girls and Vortex, rushed clashing into the fight.

It scared her how alive each of them was, how fueled they each seemed, especially those who had remained silent and apathetic before hand.

Wait, no, that was what she thought later on, in retrospect. In the present, in the moment, it was just pure fear, in a life or death situation you are presented with unbareable terror, if you rise above it, the adreneline and determination would help you to succeed, if you fled, you died.

Another shot from Hot Shooter plows through the tree above her, she jumped out of the way and rolled out, into the open, then begin to crawl backwards rapidly as stars decended upon her barely missing, the ninja was about to go for the easy kill when someone else opened fire on him.

'THATS IT! He can't focus his attention on all of us!' a male voice shouted above the chaos.

'Damn it, damn it, DAMN IT' Camden hissed, feeling like she was going to have another panic attack.

-

'Yo, Bomb. Your friends are having a bit of trouble, I'm going to check it out, you get better. I can teleport back here now I know where "here" is. Get better, champ'

-

Camden crouched, panting behind a rock, the sounds of battle echoing louder and louder in her head. Her heart pounding, the feedback sensation in her head going on overdrive.

'Aaaaaaah!!!!' she clamped her hands to her head, it was too much, all too much, she wanted to be home, she wanted to be in the Sailorness bar, arguing with Vickie, laughing with Orange, fighting with Tomboy, listening to music with Canada; anything but this hell infested piss hole.

A familiar buzz came to her head, fizzing up to the top like a shock up cola bottle, a sneeze, or other such functions which you feel rise up inside of you and try to fight off, in futility.

-

With renewed focus, and glaring eyes, with the pupils barely visable, Camden got back up. Her head was clear, her thoughts were focused, and she wasn't afraid anymore.

"What?" Bomb asked but it was too late, Stressed was gone.

What did they mean by trouble, and how did Stressed know. He didn't have an Opcomm, seeing as he'd asked to use Bomb's...
It had to be some kind of link with Camden, or something... Well, it was conceivable, possibly.

And they were in trouble, brilliant. What kind of trouble, more members of HEAT? That team could look after themselves, Bomb was sure.
The question was would Swift standing with them. The arrogant git had no training, he had had practice with using firearms and had become a good shot, but he had no ground experience, how to react to trouble or strategic maneuvers. He'd either turn around and run or throw himself in and end up getting hurt, surviving with pure dumb luck and sheer determination to keep trying.

"How long till this machine let's me go," he groaned, trying to shift around in the bed to have a look behind him.
He was growing more and more restless....

Justin had seen some pretty wild things in his time, but seeing a ninja separate into lots of ninjas - and real ones too! - was something new. And it was also something he found he didn't like as he got knocked around by a pair that had focused on him.

"Eat this!" he shouted as he jabbed his fist forward, the knuckles lining up vertically from the ground as was his style. The ninja he was aiming for stepped aside the clumsy attack and grabbed a hold of his arm, simultaneously tripping Justin up and dropping him onto his back, still holding the arm as another ninja leapt into the air, his sword thrusting down at Justin's chest.

Reflexes kicked in as Justin knocked the sword away with his free energized fist, and it fortunately stuck itself into the ground next to him rather than into the ground through him. Justin thrust his shield-amplified toe into the ninja's gut and launched him backwards into his buddy, who finally let go of Justin's arm as the two ninjas dissipated.

If that had been the real one aiming for me, I don't think I would've gotten off so lucky, thought Justin as he kicked himself up onto his feet and looked around for his next combatant. Good thing these extra ninjas seems to be half-rate.

Not wasting a second, he crouched down and checked the power levels in his hand and foot shields. Getting a little low. Can't keep fighting like this, that last one was way too close.

He looked up again, and just as a small duststorm dissipated, he could see Cookirini crouched behind a rock, only a little of her tan head showing. And a little further behind that, he could see one of the faux-ninjas creeping quietly behind her, raising his sword to strike.

"NO!"

There wasn't any thought put into it as he ran through the raging battle, his sneakers firing off periodically to lengthen his stride. He flipped forward through the air to dodge a pair of shuriken being thrown at him from both sides, which still ended up causing small cuts on his arms and tearing up his sneaking suit somewhat. As he landed in a crouch near the rock, his hand flashed to his stungun and he recklessly fired off three shots at the ninja. The electrical burst from the three rounds dissipated the ninja completely in a flash of light.

"Are you okay?!" asked Justin as he came around the rock to see Cookirini huddled there.

She looked up at him with those lovely purple eyes, scared yet relieved. "Y-yes, thanks to you."

"No time now, but I need to talk to you after this is over," burst out Justin before he thought about it. "Just stay down, I'll be right back!"

"Okay. Good luck, Mr. Hobbes!"

Justin smiled, his heart bursting with pride and honor. "You can count on me, Cookirini!"

And then he was off, joining the fray once again. He did not see the evil grin that splayed itself across "Cookirini's" face.

Thanks to Swift's lucky throw, the real Flame-Blade was revealed. Of course, it would be a piece of cake for him to lose himself among the crowd of clones - but he couldn't do that, since his left shoulder-pad was shaped like a rubber duck thanks to Inirikooc.

DL now was all over the ninja, and the two were duking it off, as the rest took on the clones.

Knight by now had fully dived into battle. One could say his mind now worked on a dual mode - a multitasking of sorts. His concious cognitive works were ones of strategy, as he tried to organise his teamates, yelling orders here and there. Some, like Cy, didn't need orders; they were skilled and experienced enough to know what to do in such a situation, but eitherway Knight's tactics raised the efficiency of nearly everyone involved.

His subconcious was all about reactions, insticts, and reflexes - as he battled ninja after ninja after ninja - first with his riffle, and after the ammo ran out with his gun and knife - occassionaly performing some rather brutal CQC moves - something natural afterall - CQC, being a soldier's "martial art" was one designed for war. It wasn't meant to be one to teach you "mind over body" or some kind of inner strength. It was all about quickly and efficiently eliminating the enemy by all means necessery.

Knight was, in all the ways that mattered, an instrument of war. Everything he knew, every skill he had mastered, was one meant to be exploited in the field of battle. So it wasn't realy any big surprise that he excelled in that department. His every move, dodge, hurl, slash, and triger-pull, was a puzzle of mayhem methodicaly designed on the go. Minor injuries were inflicted on him - he ingored them. Sniper fire hitting trees around him - he lured ninja-clones to the trees and let them do the work.

No, all these werent impressive. What WAS impressive however, was Camden. Or at the very least, Knight was impressed. Because not only she was holding her own - she was actualy keeping up with him.

Sure, the girl HAD displayed some bouts of efficient fighting, but still - she was an amateur. Her main strengths lied in her impressive agility and her average knowledge of some VERY basic kung-fu like moves. Not to mention a leg injury that would normaly prevent her from reacting and moving so quickly.

Punching, kicking, and dodging her way through the ever increasing numbers of ninja-clones, one might think she every bit as well-trained as Knight. She was now next to Swift, who in turn was probably impressed with his OWN tenacity in the fight.

It was strange. Some of the people who involved themselves in this battle had never been in a similar situation before. Yet, something the need to survive, something the knowledge that the fate of a city may rest on their shoulders, something the sheer rush of andrenaline caused by the Combat High, and the knowledge that their opponents were not living beings - and almost everyone was now in some ways, a fighting machine in their own right. The ninjas' unorganised movements versus Knight's tactics were also a major bonus - enhanced even further by Cy's telepathic transmission of said tactics.

A ballet of physical and mental conflict, deep in a cloud of dust and smoke highlighted by bullets coming from a sniper that still remained as the untouched, unknown factor.

"All this dust blocks our visual data - and we are constantly losing cameras! Hot-Shooter, we cant see a thing, what is going on?!" Magma's voice was heard in the sniper's earphone inside her helmet.

"Everything is progressing normaly." The woman replied calmly. "Blade's killed half of them, I'm finishing up the rest."

The wall of dust wasn't much of a hindrance - she had simply switched to thermal vision. Of course, she was lying. The Ninja-clones were being massacred, and DL was winning his duel with the real Flame-Blade. She counted her blessings that her scope and visor's visual data weren't being transmitted back to the base. Luckily, the only way HQ could see what was going on, was via those cloaked cameras, which she could spot and shoot down all too easily.

Bringing her target scopes on another camera, she pulled the triger. "I just killed another forumer." She lied again.

"I think you also shot down our last camera."

"Dammit. Looks like the camera was behind him. Flame-Blade's not looking too good. I need to concentrate - I'm signing off, I'll contact you after every last one of them is dead." She said and pushed a button in her helmet. Teleporting on the other side, she waited for the right time to act.

DL was too engrossed in his own battle to notice that the constant hail of sniper-fire had now dissipated. But he was winning. Flame-Blade was tired, his blocks were weak, and clumsy. They were now on top of one of the last remaining trees of the immediate area.

This was his time to act with the most decisive way. Fatigue had nearly overwhelmed him as well. He too could not carry on the fight for much longer. He had to finish this now. With a vertical slash, he pushes the ninja's sword away, wirls, and with all his remaining strength he stabbed the swordsman in the chest - the sword going out from the back.

Flame-Blade was skewered. His hand relaxed, droping his sword on the ground. He looked downwards towards his chest. A grimace of disbelief was on his face - not that anyone could see it through his visor.

DL pulled his sword away and the ninja fell to the ground. In succession of puffs of smoke, every ninja-clone vanished and DL too fell to the ground overfatigued.

"Now!" Knight yelled. "Get that sniper @#%$!"

Everyone scrampled for cover, and in an effort to see where she was firing from.

DL was on his knees now - strugling for breath. Stamina was never one of his better attributes - in fact if it weren't for the Templar nanomachines on his bloodstream, he would have passed out from exaustion minutes ago.

As such he could barely react when the green-camo-clad sniper materialised before him and raised her riffle towards him.

It was HIS turn now to experience 'car-crash speed'. But his teamates didn't all react to her, but the ninja behind him, was on his feet, drawing a knife a jumping towards DL.

DL closes his eyes. Hot-Shooter aims. And pulls the triger.

The next thing the DL feels is warm liquid splattering him - blood - he could smell it... But it wasn't his!

He opened his eyes. He was unharmed. Looking behind him he saw Flame-Blade's corpse a few metters away - his head was in pieces all around the place. Everyone else had frozen. The sniper still stood with her riffle aiming forward, smoke comming out of the barrel. She slowly lowered her weapon.

"Ninja are masters of deception." She spoke. "And one of the best deceptions one can make, is making your enemies think you're dead."

Everyone had their weapons trained on the woman. She slowly placed her right hand on her helmet, and pressed a button.

"Magma. It's me. The forumers are all dead. Unfortunately so is Flame-Blade..... I'll be in Hephaestus soon. Hot-Shooter out."

"What the hell?!" Knight said. "Alright, sniper. From the distance you can bet I can shoot your exposed chest before you can take a shot at me - so I sugest you start talking."

"Oh, you can relax, Mr. Knight. I am on your side."

"Like hell you are!" Swift yelled. "Is that why you were shooting at us?!"

"I dont see anyone of you harmed by my shots. I was just aiming the trees with the cameras. Only in order to make it look less conspicuous, I was mostly shooting the ones near you, and used them as weapons of sorts. I knew you could dodge them."

"And why should we believe you?" DL said slowly picking himself up.

"Ah, the Templar... always suspicous of treason. Well, I'm sure you've realised by now that this helmet I wear is the thing that blocks your telepaths. So..." Letting her riffle on the ground she unfastenes her helmet and takes it off, revealing a strikingly beautiful woman in her mid-20s, with green eyes and purple hair. "... what does this tell you?"

Cy blinked rapidly. "Whoa! OK, THAT was unexpected!"

"What?!" Knight wondered. "What do you mean? Who is she?"

"My name..." The girl responded instead of Cy. "... is Rachel... But you mostly know me as..." activating a voice altering module her voice becomes masculine. "Mr. X!"

Pushing another button in her suit, she turns and looks at Vortex, who in turn hears the familiar bleep of a text message. Taking out his OpComm he quickly reads the message.

"Told you we'd meet soon.

--Mr. X"

"Whoa!" Vortex exclaimed. "You're a woman?!"

TBC...

Inirikooc stared at Hot Shooter, aka, Rachel, aka Mr. X.

INIRIKOOC: Huh.

She turned and saw "Cooki" behind her, smiling innocently.

GINGER: Oh yay! We're saved!

Inirikooc glared at her. She was obviously hiding something....

--------

Heheheh. My power has significantly increased in the battle. With it, I could rip the exosuits apart.

But that's not what I want.....I want this island.....gone.....heheh.....that'll be easy.....

OOC: I'll take it the "woah that was unexpected" was Cy scanning her brain. If not, only pay attention to the first bit.

Well, eating all that lead would explain a few things about you. I bet you loved those paint chips back in the abyss. Hee hee hee.

Cy stepped forward. "All right. My scans indicate nothing. All I want to know is why you're helping us."

The moment of realization always came with a moment of pain. The pain that dictated when the truth was being spoken. It was usually followed by a relaxation period-that being known as understanding-compliance with teh notion or fact you were presented with.

But when you spend your life trying to ascertain truth for your own betterment, you begin to question those very feelings, for they too can be invoked artificually. They can harm minds into creating false identities, false memories, false lives.

That's all this "Rachel" was to him. He was never one to look at the outward beauty of a feminine form, to him she resembled as much beauty as Thamiors socks. Instead, it was the intellect she possibly possessed that would prove both her beauty and her worth toward anything ths team could utilize. The mental message Cy recieved would clue him in to this puzzle.

"What this tells me...is nothing at all beside the fact that many a male might want their way with you-to be blunt. Too bad I don't care. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer, and all.."

He threw that sentence out, forcing himself up into a standing position. His sword was still stained with blood from the end of that duel-he would clean it later. Right now, he would turn away from the group, walking with a fatigued look on his face to where the corpse lied.

"Wow, so you're Mr X. but since your name is Rachel does that mean you are a hermaphrodite? Because then we could call you Mr Rachel X. Or X Rachel. I never met anyone with the first name X." Vortex commented

"Well, how about you all just call me Rachel for starters." She commented, still wary of the weapons being pointed at her.

"Ok Rachel-Hot-Shooter..whatever. You telling us you're on our side?" Justin asked as he moved up for a better shot-should he need to.

"Don't breathe with relaxation until she's dead in a ditch." The body of FlameBlade would be dragged away by the shadowman, into the nearby bushes. Glint of steel could be seen in the moonlight- as he went to work hacking the body apart. He continued hacking, not willing to believe the fool was dead. He had successfully duped the Templar twice, what was stopping him from doing it a third time? Once he was satisfied, a piece would be stuffed into a vial, and thrown into the coat. Following suit, that sword would be taken, tossed in the air to test its durability, and nodded at.

He just acquired a new blade. As such,he'd take a seat in the bushes, halfway sinkng into the darkness now. He needed time to relax, so if they left he really wouldn't care to follow them.

"wait wait wait wait? You're a woman? I mean... I got the man part. I believed that. Heck I never even questioned that. But Wo? Sense when did you have any Wo prefixes?! I mean come on! Wo? you are not a wo! Well you are now. But you weren't. You were woless. Why did you go adding wos onto your mans?"

The smallish orange ball of energy pacing around and ranting continued to do so.

"And if you were always a woman, why did you chop off the wo for our communications? Think Im sexist or something? Because I find that offensive! Why assume Id treat you differently if I thought you were a girl? Unless you were afraid Id find you out. Because we all know that we really suspected the randomly tree destroying sniper to turn out to be Mr. X. I mean... come on I thought you were a guy as a sniper because of my own sexist tendencies before you came down here. Not that I am sexist, just that being male and part of modern society I have a tendency to assume man ness as the natural gender for undecided and combat oriented things. Just like I naturally assume that cleaning and house care like things are female, this isn't on purpose, Im just a product of the world. YOU CAN'T BLAME ME! FOR GODS SAKE YOU ARE GOOD AT CHANGING YOUR VOICE!"

Rather then calming down the small orange pacing energy bundle seems to be getting more... uh... energized?

Swift clasped his hand over Vortex's shoulder, "That's not important, what I want to know about is Swiftbomb. You said you'd moved him, where too?"

The woman who had been watching Vortex with a strange ironic smile laughed, and then looked Swift up and down. He had the same height, same build, same hair colour. Same eyes, roughly, same voice but Swift had added an extra determined edge to his. She grinned, "You two really are alike aren't you."
"Yeah," Swift replied defencively, "So where is he, what have you done with him?" His voice had taken on a steeley tone and probably gone up a notch in his determination.

"You're not as cute as he is. You're both defencive and clueless, but at least he has tact and subtelety when he wants an answer." Rachel grinned, watching Swift's eyes narrow even further. "Ha.... Look, don't worry, he's safe... Or about as safe as he can be at the moment."

OOC: Special announcement!
This GM has reached the same number of posts as GM: Herland, in half the time! Yay everybody!!

IC:
"Hate to be rude to a lady," said Justin, "but you're not being very specific. Straight answer now, where is he now?"

Justin remembered that this was Swift's brother they were talking about here, and he could tell that no matter what else was in Swift's background, he was determined to get to Bomb. Justin wished he had a brother or a sister to grow up with, and even though it seemed rather simple-minded, Justin wanted to help Swift keep the brother he had.

"Calm down, he's in there," said Rachel as she pointed. Everyone followed the path her finger pointed, and their eyes fell onto the volcano.

"I guess you could call that 'safe,'" admitted Justin with a shrug and a smirk. "At least, unless the volcano erupts."

"Don't worry, Hephaestus is safe." Rachel smiled.

"Hephaestus?" Justin wondered.

"Hephaestus Base. That's what the volcanno is called."

DL smirked. "The Greek god of fire and armorsmithing. A fitting name. His Roman counterpart is known as Vulcan - the god of the forge and volcanoes."

Rachel smirked. "I think it's possible he did it to spite WB. I hear there is a statue of Vulcan in his hometown on his Earth. Now, I'd love to share more info, but having guns pointed at me when I'm being nice is not my idea of having fun."

Knight lowered his weapon, and motioned that the rest should do the same.

"Much better." The sniper smiled. "Bomb is located in Hephaestus's medical facility. He is fine, or should be fine any minute now. I can lead you to him if you want. Near here there is a secret entry to an underground tunnel."

"The tunnel leads to the volcano?" Knight asked.

"No, but it leads straight in the middle of the air-strip. That's where you were headed, weren't you?"

"How do you know that?" Knight asked again.

The woman smiled and approached Vortex. "Stay still, honey." She said and leaned over the orange hedgehog. She placed her hand in his back, fiddling in his spines.

"That's rude." Vortex commented. "I dont like being touched without being asked for my permission, first."

"You'll get over it." The woman said and took her hand away, showing to the rest a tiny mechanism.

"You had him bugged!" Knight exclaimed.

"Yes. I did it when I met him in the press conference back at the Tower."

TBC...

EDIT - Oops, I forgot something... ^__^

Hephaestus Base

Bomb was annoyed now that he was alone again. The soldier was apparently outside, and still waiting for Stressed. What did Stressed mean about the rest being in trouble?

A bleep was heard from the monitors - almost imediatly Bomb felt an odd sensation over his body.

One after the other, UV tubes, and other intravenous cables were disengaged, and module after module, the life support system raised from his body.

Bomb slowly raised. His body was still feeling numb, but he could feel it better and better by the minute.

He was free again... Or as free as you can in the middle of an enemy fortress...

TBC... (for real now)

The first thing he did was to retrieve the gun from beneath the bed, checking the ammo.

He was right, Rachel had been telling the truth, this would be perfect. Actually, no, he'd prefer something slighty weightier with more rapid fire, but this was more than adequate.

His knife had been taken along with the suit, so he'd just have to settle with whatever he found. He wondered what Stressed would mind with the guard outside, he said that they were going to keep him alive. As pointless as it was Bomb had no reason to piss off his only ally so he would have to find some other clothes to nick.

"What the hell am I going to do now?" he wondered out loud looking for anything about the room he could use. Damn Rachel, some people should keep their sense of humour to themselves...

OOC: o.o

IC:

"Cookirini" couldn't help but smirk as Rachel felt up Vortex. She really wished that Mr. X would just kill the stupid yellow midget and get it over with.

GINGER: Annoying little...

-------------

Inirikooc listened to Rachel with great interest.

INIRIKOOC: I guess we're going to the fortress, then.

With that, she gave a whistle, and the five rubber duckies that she had created flew to the purple echidna. They all were covered by exosuit, as that is what they were creadted from. They surrounded her as the flickies surrounded Super Tails in the Genesis games.

Inirikooc could almost hear her sister groan. She grinned.

INIRIKOOC: I'm ready when you folks are, Heheh...

OOC: My keyboard is messed, so the post is short and crap. I would have avoided posting until I got back to wrk, but TBlood insisted.

Stressed appeared sitting next to Bomb on the bed. "Ready to get going, then?" he asks

-

Camden stood at the back of the group gawking at the sniper, half because of the shock of her being the mysterious informant, and half because a deep buried part of her, from the times when she was Craig. Was finding this purple haired Aphrodite to be unbelievably attractive.

Needless to say, she wasn't comfortable with this, one bit.

A general air of disconent hung aboutthe group, even after she had revealed all of this pertinent information. With all that just happened, everyone was still on edge, nerves ran high.

He allowed his head to loll back and forth trying to place something about Rachel and Mr X. Though she said it was her, and that all teh clues seemed to add up, there was something still odd about this. Willingly deciding to help when the rest of Heat were still out there-there was a side agenda here.

Or possibly...the only agenda, segregated to each member so as to keep each member keen to each other. He opened his eyes, convined of his own motions, and sat up.::

"So we're just going to waltz right on the Airport Runway? No security?"

"I didn't say that. You'll have to be careful. But I'm sure that you guys can take care of yourselves." Rachel stated, winking over at the bushes.

"I still go with the ditch resolution." He hissed, and resumed lolling his head to try and relax.

"You wonder why no one likes you." Tham shot at DL playfully to allow Rachel a moment of relaxation from his harsh outlook about her. His guard was still up though-as he still was unsure about anything here either. Never the thinker, he looked to those that usually made the plans, that being Knight Cy and now Justin.

Cy looked over at Rachael. "I have an idea. From what I've probed, you've got FLAME grunts standing back and staring at you out of fear or lonliness. None of them would probably ask twice if you, say, had a large group of," he made little quotation marks with his hands, "unconcious prisoners. And with your level of skill at firing that behemoth," said the man holding a chain gun to his arm, "I don't doubt for a second you could carry at least most of us. With the com tower down, they won't be able to call and double check...and if they did, I could easily trick them. What do you say?"

The end of the fighting enabled her to relax her nerves and to concentrate on something in the back of her mind, "I think this makes 11 now that I've seen."

"She's still too convenient even if at the surface her story makes a lot sense," she thought after listening to Rachel's story. She shook her head at Darkest Light's continued insistence of putting Rachel into a ditch, "Nice to know that someone's openly wary. Too bad the 'option' he's suggesting adds to the body count."

Cy had an idea, but it didn't make sense to her. While pointing out Gunfire and Flame-Blade, "What prisoners? She said she and her 'partners' had killed us all. Wouldn't the fact that we're all supposedly 'dead' be our cover?"

Vortex stumbles a bit away, rubbing the part of his back she touched uncomfortably, grumbling about personal space and how he doesn't like to be touched and plenty of other things. Other then that, he really adds nothing to the situation.

You know, except his natural charisma and amazing almost glowing, nearly blinding beauty.

Yup.

Rachel squinted her eyes at DL, in an obvious annoyance.

"Alright, why dont you bar that bone-box for a sec and listen up, berk!"

DL slowly turned his head to the sniper. But back on the HQ Tower, as the admins were monitoring the discussion, TBlood lifted his gaze from his own terminal and turned to his peers. "I wasn't paying attention, did she just say 'berk'?!"

Back on Hinoke, Rachel continued on with her rant.

"If I wanted you bloods on the dead-book, I can guarantee you that MOST of you WOULD be there by now, and I'd give the survivors the laugh tens of minutes ago. I would most certainly not bother to report you dead to Magma, destroy all the cameras, AND save your life in the process! I wasnt realy expecting any thanks for going way out of my way and risking my neck for YOUR city by giving Vortex a heads up about things before you guys had even figured out about Pyroclad's involvement, providing you with Intell on the island, giving you explosives for the Comm Tower, AND rescuing one of your comrades from a psychobitch that wanted to torture him to death. And even after all this I dont find it the least bit odd that a Templar is all peery and suspects me of cross-trading - but actualy sugesting an idea like 'the ditch resolution' is way out of my tolerance levels!!!" The last words were almost yelled at DL.

Knight lifted his eyebrows and attempted to hide a smile. He then turned to a puzzled Swift who asked him in a whispered tone. "What's with her?!"

"I dunno... I guess it's PMS." Knight whispered back with a smile.

"So, anything else you'd like to add?" Rachel said to DL.

"Your accent's all over the place. And the lingo is odd. Where is it from?" DL asked, unfazed by the verbal assault.

"It's the 'Cant'. From Sigil." a voice was heard in everybody's headphones.

DL was slightly surprised and placed a finger in his headphone. "TBlood...?"

"It's 'Cant'. Sigilspeak. Planewalker talk. She's from Sigil if the accent and lingo is of any indication." TBlood replied over the OpComm.

"Lemme get this straight." Rachel replied with a raised archbrow. "You can't tell a Cager from his accent.... And you call yourself a TEMPLAR?! OK, that's pretty pathetic."

"Yes, it IS actualy kind of pathetic, Dark." TBlood added over the common channel. "You spent two months in Nexus, I would expect you to do some, actualy useful, research instead of holing yourself in the Temple of Science all day long."

"Anyway, if the Greybeards back home didn't tell you over that radio of yours, I come from a Planar City called Sigil... The MFW is not the only planar hub of the multiverse, although in terms of prestige and variety Sigil far outclasses Sega City."

"Must be an interesting place." Knight said.

"Actualy, it's a cesspool. And the technological level is at a very low level compared to Sega City."

"How did end up with Pyroclad?" DL asked.

"Most of us HEATs are planewalkers grouped together by Holocaust and Magma. But Pyroclad saved me from entering the dead-book once - so I have been on his army since."

"So, you feel you owe him?" Knight asked.

"If that question translates to: 'Do you intent of holding back against him when the time comes?' then the answer is no. I'm not a supporter of his vision of a 'New City' - especialy one built over the ashen corpses of thousands. Which is exactly what's gonna happen if we dont make haste. There is a secret cloaked hatch near here - which is the entrance to that underground tunnel I told you about earlier. We take it all the way to the Airstrip - it leads EXACTLY in the middle of heli-ports. We grab a ship, fly inside Hephaestus, and then blast our way through."

"BLAST our way? I though we are supposed to be dead." Knight wondered.

"Well, ya. That buys us some time and if we move fast we can grab the jet before anyone even notices us on the Airport base. I'll tell 'em over the radio we are moving inside the Volcanno, and no one will bother us. But once inside Hepheastus, it won't be easy to sneak part the Heliport without being seen - and besides, the stealth aproach would take up too much time - which is something you guys dont."

"I dont see the reason for needless bloodshed realy." Rad Blue offered an unexpected opinion. "It would be a lot easier, and simple if.. Cy here, used his powers to make us invisible like he did before. That way we can just walk around."

"Sounds like a plan." Knight replied. "But before we start, I need some answers. Where exactly is Pyroclad on Hephaestus? And what exactly is that MIF Projector thing?"

"Pyroclad's not on Hephaestus. Magma, a HEAT, now commands the base. I dont know WHERE Pyroclad is, but he is planning an offensive against Sega City. My plan is basicaly going in, get Bomb, beat Magma, and hack inside the mainframe. The whole ruckus should be enough to drag Pyro back to the base. As far as I know he is still not ready to invade - wich means we can still set a trap for him on the island."

"It makes sense... And it also emphasizes that we are running short on time." Knight scratched his chin.

"As for the MIF Projector... It stands for Molecular Incineration Field Projector. I know that it is a devise that, as its name implies, projects a field on a vast radious that practicaly inflames matter and air. Basicaly, think of it as one giant molotov - or a realy powerful Napalm bomb. Not realy sure how exactly it works, but I know that it was designed by a group a VERY good scientists, AND it also uses a lot of Magma's magical studies on the magical properties of fire. From what I gather, Pyroclad's plan is to invade the City, and use the devise to literaly set EVERYTHING inside the city in fire. And I'm talking scorching within seconds kinds of fire. I hear it can generate over 700 degrees Celcius of heat."

Meanwhile back on the HQ Tower, Vector was already typing furiously on his keyboard, trying to calculate how such a devise would work and possible ways to counter it.

"Alright, can you guys me? Vector's voice rang over the OpComm. "You should start moving towards the Underground Tunnel, now! Give me Hot-Shooter's frequency, I'll have to ask her some questions while you are on your way."

After being asked, Hot-Shooter gave her frequency (one that was not known or tracked by her comrades in FLAME and HEAT) and led the forumers inside the secret hatch - which was about 3 minutes run away from their current location. Descending into the tunner everybody started running towards the north, with Rachel being pointman... erm, pointwoman.

Vector called again (the tunnel wasn't deep enough to distort the communications) directly to Rachel.

"Miss Rachel, I am Vector, co-master of Sega City. I have some questions that I'll need you to answer me, so I can better discern the nature of this devise."

"No problem." Replied Rachel while she ran (OOC: I'm assuming that injuries were tended - painkillers were given, etc - on the go while the previous chating was progressing, and that everyone took the items he needed that were lying around, etc). "I dont know much about the dark of it, but I'm guessing a greybeard like yourself would do better."

Vector shook his head in puzzlment, put his hand on the mic and turned to TBlood. "Greybeard?! Did she just insult me?!"

"No, she called you a 'learned intellectual'. And the 'dark of it' meant the truth and secrets of it." TBlood offered quickly.

Vector blinked rapidly and then turned back to the mic and begun with his questions.

"I'm guessing that the devise requires massive amounts of energy which is why they needed the Portable Reactor, correct?"

"Correct." Rachel responded.

"What kind of flamable materials, if any, does it use to ignite the flames?"

"None that I know. It only uses nuclear power as an energy source. Aside from that, it basicaly ignites matter and air - like a huge sphere of flame that grows and evelops everything in its path."

"So the devise itself generates and projects that field... It does kind of remind me of Anti-matter anihilation. Does it use any specific materials to manifest and control the inflaming?"

"I'm not sure. I also dont think they used Anti-matter with that. I remember them going about that way at first but they couldn't find a way to produce anti-matter effectively - or store it for that matter, plus Pyroclad wanted something more fiery-like than matter anihilation. But I DO know that the devise was devided in three parts: the power generator, the devise, and the focus item that would ultimately project the field. About that last thing I know very little, save that any number of objects can be used for that. What kind, I have no idea."

"Rule of Threes..." TBlood chuckled back at the Tower, now more interested on the happenings. "She mentioned a wizard co-designed the devise?"

Vector nodded. "Why?"

"Nothing realy important - just explains the division into three. Only a planewalker wizard would think of a weapon that required 3 parts to operate. It's not anything important, I was mostly curious, continue on." (OOC: Since TBlood is ALWAYS suspected of ulterior motives, I'll just clarify this: No, he WAS actualy just curious, it's not realy important. Just flavor in the dialogue and the things TBlood finds interesting in general.)

"Anything else that you can tell that might help me?"

"Not realy. Sorry, I'm not very tech-savy. But I know that Magma has more files about it, that you could use."

"Right! Jack's voice now cut threw the OpComm. "All operatives, make your way to Hephaestus! I'm moving Bomb's rescue from Optional to Secondary objectives but MAKE SURE you dont waste time. I believe now you see first hand what we are up against. Take the jet! Infiltrate Hinoke. Deal with this Magma and get those files regarding the MIF Projector. Once that's done we'll update you with more, and hopefully, a way to get the fight directly to Pyroclad himself!"

TBC...

OpComm Database Updated. New stuff are in bold to make it easier for you to tell.
I've also added a reply there, with something not directly relevant, but interesting never the less. ^__^

::As everyone ran toward the passageway, DL took teh rear, taking the time to walk leisurely. While Rachel's rant seemed to leave everyone feeling a bit better about their current state of affairs-in the sense that this seemed to not be a double cross effort-he was now ever more cautions.

Mainly because she got angry for her own actions, and ranted them on him. He could laugh at that. He was also, unsurprisingly, happy that he ticked her off-gave him the leeway of leeching the truth from her through anger, if anything else was needed to be known.::

She's led them underground. Don't see anyone following us, so I suspect we can be happy for that. ::He smirked, and looked back one last time, before pulling out the capsules he had of the HEAT members so far. With the exception of Cinder, all the viable capsules were still whole, and would stay that way. They would be redeposited swiftly, and headed inside the tunnel, quite a ways behind.::

--

::He could hear the footsteps ahead of everyone running, and they were fading fast. They really wanted to apply speed now, after all that lollygagging. But he was reflecting on what TBlood said. Rachel's comment was undoubtedly ignored; but TBlood pissed him off-to be frank. Channels were switched until TBlood would be the only one to hear this message. It would come out of nowhere actually, as the signal to alert TBlood that a message was coming in was bypassed.::

"That's funny you stated that TBlood-oh great omnipotent one. Your inference was close-I was there in the Temple of Science during the "nights". During the "days" I actually was out. I didn't meet anyone from Sigil, albiet ANY real advanced Multiverses. It's only been 2 months, and I'm not one to reach out and touch everyone so I can know everything immediatly. That's not the mentality of a scientist-but of a czar or tyrannical monarch. I am a novice, I'll take that title with pride currently, but DON'T act as if I'm some damn baby needing to be walked. She can think what she wants, I don't need you to amplify her opinion of me because of my own shortcomings!"

"Well, then you should have realized that before you allowed Ryan to open your mouth. We aren't enemies Gabrielle." ::The channel was silenced, and DL sighed. Seeing that he was quite a ways behind now, he could talk to himself in order to picture his thoughts clearly.::

"There is the MIF Projector-the Device that needed the power source in order to work its magic upon the City.

There is the missing Nuclear Reactor, obviously the power source-since they would not waste a reactor as a component to complete the reaction...

So where is the object that is needed to begin the chain reation? ::Eyes squinted, as the tunnel warped due to his mind stretching, shadows beginning to lean forward into a disappearance.

Already a theory would flare in his mind. A theory in which the thought of the reactions happening throughout the air was flaring up and about in a msss of concertic spirals, riveting the sky with its immaculate display of raw energy. A sonic Boom of superheated plasmatic waves that would slow down into concentrated flames, temperatures rising over the natural levels that fire usually stars under. Enough to melt weak silisiclastic rocks, and rebons quartz from its non-pressured form into its denser form that led to a quartzite composition.

Buildings stood no hope, as the sheer force of the recombination of atoms would be enough to continue the spark. Their compositions changed within seconds, they would reform into puddles of goo. Humans, animals, those caught in between would all suffer, all disintergrating as most organic components that have carbon would burn almost instantly. Bones would weaken, blood would evaporate. Minds would boil and thoughts would truly be on fire....::

"....There dosen't NEED to be a third object, if the reactor is used as the power source. Splicing atoms can be the actual actions-the Celsius scale can be affected in rocketing proportions due to activation energy...A block of plastique...a sheet of cellophane wrap, hell even the sound wave from a gunshot placed over the reactor's area can start the reaction...in theory."

::He sighed, wiping his brow.:: Ridiculous. Saved from death, so you followed the minds of those that saved you. That dosen't dignify anything...That just makes you a wiling slave to their motives. Even breaking away, you're bound to mess up and meet your end.

You both are getting soft...

"Yeah, I'm ready." Bomb grinned checking the ammo in his holster, "Just wish I had some clothes." He had managed to procure a bedsheet from a side drawer and tied it around his waist, but it was semi transparent and resticted his leg movements. He'd have to ditch it iff he had to do any running. "What happened to them?" Stressed asked mildly amused, "If you kept the gun then..." He raised his eyebrows, he'd obviously worked out that Bomb had had help getting the gun, so he might as well be told.

"This woman had sick sense of humour," Bomb replied with a slight grimace. "First stop's going to be the laundrette then. Do you want to deal with your pet guard or shall I do it?" He pointed out of the doorway, his hands hovering inches away from the handle.

"I had plans on letting my little pet fly free. Life shouldn't be restricted to a cage" Stressed said cryptically "I've installed pure fear into him. When I release him he'll run for the exit. We can tail him and escape"