Executive Splashdown (IC): [GM]

[quotemyname]

Lukos let loose another snarl. "Fine then. You've had your chance." With yet another mighty leap, he sailed through the air, to the top of the container where the Soldier with the P90 was standing. Lukos delivered a vicious mid-air swipe to the man's leg with his claws as he landed, sliding on the top of the steel container. The soldier's leg gave out, a sizable chunk of it missing from the claw strike. Wasting no time, Lukos leaped again, quickly covering the distance between himself and one of the remaining soldiers on the deck. Charging the man, Lukos clawed the arm that was holding the gun. Wounded, the man fell to the ground, unconscious. Lukos sprinted to where the last of the soldiers was standing. He paused before the man, "You should pay more attention to those threats that are close by." he said before putting the man's lights out with another claw attack.

With the threats on the ships deck being taken care of, Lukos let himself relax momentarily. He released his hold on Wolf, allowing the beast to crawl back inside him until he would need to call on him again later.

Sweating with exertion, Lukos waved to Slipstream. They had neutralized what he expected to be most of the threats on board, if not all. The coast should be clear for the other hero to land now. But what of Tank? Lukos was puzzled, not having seen him since the fight started.

[Basarin]

Slipstream landed next to Lukos after the carnage had subsided. "Man. You don't play by old-school hero rules, do you?" Noticing the other soldiers swimming desperately for their lives, he just shook his head. "Well, I'll radio about those guys in to the people who can do something about them. Eight paramilitary types dripping wet running from a wolf man? Shouldn't be too hard to find."

Looking around, he said, "Wonder how the big guy's doing? Last I checked he crashed into the lower decks..."

[Starsign]

All the soldiers in the way of Tank's heroic charge came down like bowling pins, unable to even slow down the Elderri. Tank arrived at the deck to see the commotion there already cleaned up. "Oh, did I miss the fighting already?" he asked as he turned in surprise to see how many soldiers he knocked out to get here.

Looking back at the other heroes, Tank asked, "I didn't find anyone on the way up," or rather, Tank didn't try to, all he made was a straight charge to the deck, "What did you two figure out?"

[Basarin]

"You didn't miss out on TOO much," Slipstream assured him as he emerged from the lower decks. "Just that we blasted/maimed a few guys up here and the rest just started running for their lives." He jabbed a finger towards Lukos. "He did most of the heavy lifting, to be honest. I just fired one shot and dodged a bit."

"As for finding anything out?" He shrugged. "Beats me."

[quotemyname]

Slipstream landed next to Lukos after the carnage had subsided. "Man. You don't play by old-school hero rules, do you?"

Lukos gave a slight grunt at the AEGIS agent's comment. "I gave them the chance to run, and they decided to stay. So I made them run." Lukos turned and watched as Tank emerged from the belly of the ship. "Make no mistake, I am no Centurion. I am not nearly as strong, and I can not take the risk of hoping my enemies will drop their weapons when I ask nicely."

Looking back at the other heroes, Tank asked, "I didn't find anyone on the way up," or rather, Tank didn't try to, all he made was a straight charge to the deck, "What did you two figure out?"

Lukos turned his head up, sniffing at the air. They were close, he could smell it. He also smelled fear, and it made his blood run hot. Whoever had been captured wasn't having the best day. Stalk, prowl, kill. Wolf begged him. The captive's fear was like the smell of a scared rabbit to his nose. He could follow it easily.

"Then you did not look hard enough," Lukos scolded the alien, "They are below deck. Likely locked up, and scared witless from all the gunfire. Come. Follow me." Lukos led the pair down through the bowels of the container ship. Many of the passages were small and the Elderri had trouble fitting through. Slipstream was also reduced to walking, as firing his jets would have taken him straight into any one of the nearby steel walls of the ship. Finally after a solid minute of crawling through the ship, they were at the hold.

A large steel door stood before the heroes. It was a different color than the rest of the ship, shining the brightly polished shine of new metal rather than the dull luster of the old, worn material around them. It was clear that this was a new addition to the ship, implanted here by whoever was now its owner. The hostages were likely inside.

"Can you open it?" Lukos asked Tank.

[Starsign]

The ship's size irritated Tank, he made some marks on the walls as he squezzed through. While he could have dropped the weight on his body, he decided against it, thinking that he may be caught off guard in doing so.

Looking at the door, Tank simply responded, "Got it!" as he walked past Lukos and Slipstream to the door. Early in his building days Tank had made dents on the materials, or flat-out crushed them under his own strength. Tank tried jiggling the handle, only to find it locked. "Hmm... Oh!" It wasn't until now that he realized that Lukos was implying to smash the door.

Throwing a hard left straight, Tank's hand pierced right through the door, any people that were on the other side may have been surprised by the sudden strike. Wasting no time, Tank started tearing the door from the wall, piece by piece until there was just an open hole there. He ran in first to see where the hostages are. "Anyone here?" He cried out.

[Basarin]

Slipstream's engines were idling again, though his pistol was kept at the ready at all times here; they might have taken out most of the threats, but he didn't want to get surprised anywhere. Still, walking in the cramped hallway of the lower decks did not suit too well with him; not enough room to really maneuver.

Still, he made sure to step to the side as much as he could when Tank started to rip open the steel doors, which he also did note were more recently added than the rest of the rusting hulk of a ship; if shards of the door started to fly, he didn't want to be right there. "This is only getting weirder by the second," he grumbles. "We took out all of the flunkies, but where's the one in charge?"

[quotemyname]

"Perhaps they too ran away when they heard my howl." Lukos theorized as he entered what looked to be the ship's brig, "They would if they were smart."

The room they were in now was really no bigger than any other they had passed through. It was long an narrow. Small individual rooms were offshoots of the main hallway in which they stood. Each was sealed with a section door. A small, barred window allowed them to see inside. Even at a quick glance, they could see that they had found what they were looking for.

Lukos pushed past Tank and strode about halfway down the hallway. He laid his hands on one of the section doors, and the two other heroes saw him grow claws once more. "Rhaaaagh!" Lukos yelled. With a surge of effort, he tore the small door away from the wall, then tossed it to the side. "Mae, did they hurt you?"

"Yes, but I am fine." Came the meek response. "You should go check the others."

"Tank! Help me get the rest of these doors open!"

[Starsign]

Tank looked at the hallway, then at Lukos who tore the door open. Tank looked at the hero and the female hostage. "Are they friends?" he thought, "They don't look related in species..." Upon being told, Tank nodded and walked to the nearest door, grabbing one of it's bars and tearing it off without effort. The door handle followed, then the entire door itself.

Tank went through each door on the right side, some of them he recognized. "Derek! Alex! Keith!" He sprouted off the name of each worker he knew as he opened the door. As he freed the hostages, he turned to Slipstream, asking, "Hey, can you take these people outside?" Tank wasn't quite sure which one was the one Slipstream was looking for.

[Basarin]

Slipstream quickly glanced at the assemblage of prisoners, but his stance stiffened as he seemed to identify someone. He then activated his radio. "HQ, Slipsteam here. Target has been ID'd, and is currently safe. Requesting extraction of all prisoners from my location, over." He then turned his attention back to the others. "Hopefully AEGIS'll have 'copters and/or ships to get these people out of here. And I'll take them up if you want, but shouldn't we at least make sure the coast is clear before we send these folks up? The last thing I want to see is us having rescued them only to have whoever arranged for this come swoop in and take them right back."

[quotemyname]

Slipstream's radio fizzled back to life. The voice of his contact at AEGIS registered in his earpiece, "Negative, Slipstream. There will be no extraction. Progressive scans are still displaying possible hostiles near your location. Either eliminate all enemy threats, or move the prisoners to a safe distance for extraction. One click west to the end of the docks should be sufficient."

"There's someone else here still." Lukos chimed in with seemingly psychic timing. "I can smell them."

"Me too." Mae told the group. "If you took out the guards, then their boss is likely still around. He has two personal guards, but I don't know where they all are."

"I can't get a fix on their location either. There's too much wet and metal on this ship to pinpoint any other smells." Lukos turned to the rest of the group. "I say we split up. We can each take a small number of the captives. If we separate, it will be harder for them to corner us. We can regroup on the deck, then try to get the captives to safety. Mae," He turned to look at his pack mate again, "You go with Tank. He might need your nose." The girl nodded, and moved quickly to join the other prisoners.

[Starsign]

Tank made a nod and went out the door they came in, bringing a few workers along with Mae. There was a long hallway from where they entered, followed by a fork that went forward, or to the left. Tank went left, climbing the stairs as he went. He had already forgotten the way they came in, so he may be walking in circles within time.

With curiousity welling up in him, Tank paused a moment to ask Mae, "Excuse me. How well do you know Lukos? There's something about him that is rather alien..." The Elderri had not a clue about other species in Freedom City like vampires and werewolves.

[quotemyname]

"I've known Lukos for about two years now," Mae responded, clutching her left arm with her right hand. The gesture meant something. Tank could tell that it was her way of sending messages, of communicating. However, due to his alien nature, he was unable to grasp its meaning. "We're like family, but that's the best I can tell you."

The two came to another hatch door with a wheel on it to seal it shut. It was shut and locked at the moment, but in good condition. It would be easy to open. Another passage led down yet another hallway to the left. "I think we can get to the top if we go through this room." Mae told tank, with a knowing look, "Call it women's intuition." Mae looked at Tank with an expression he did recognize. She was waiting for him to make a decision. The other captives did little more than mumble and shuffle around behind them.

[Basarin]

He nodded, and muttered something about "well some support past this'd be nice," but outwardly he shrugged it off. "Got it. C'mon, folks, with me. We'll get you to the deck, and we'll see about getting you outta this popsicle stand." He lead the captives towards the deck as best as he could remember (and failing that, he supposed he could always just blast his way out of the walls).

He made a few wrong turns (including one to the ship's rec facility, though he quickly made sure not to linger too long around there), but he seemed to have some rough idea of where he was going. However, as he was the one with the force field, he made sure the prisoners remained a somewhat healthy distance behind him so he could absorb the first shots if something did happen.

[Starsign]

Tank mostly understood what Mae meant. "So they are related?" he thought, not understanding her gesture of communication. "Is there something else she is hiding?"

As they looked at the door, Tank saw Mae's gesture, this time knowing it's meaning. Tank made a nod and yanked at the door with little effect. In frustration, Tank grabbed the entire door and tore it up like he had with the previous doors here. The sound of the tearing could have been heard all across the ship, and Tank knew that well. "Oops." he said, "Let's hurry up."

The quietness bugged Tank. "Mae, how long have you known Lukos?" He wanted something to talk about in the meantime, get to know the human's some more.

[quotemyname]

"I told you already," Mae said to the big green man as they strolled easily into the next chamber. "I've known him for about two years now. He started hanging out with our -- Um -- group when he was finishing college."

The chamber in which they now stood looked to be the ship's second cargo hold. It likely lied beneath the deck of the ship. There seemed to be a large hatch in the ceiling that could open and some of the equipment that was lying around the hold could be used with things on the deck. Tank saw some things he recognized here. There was a crane for moving very large objects, and a station to control it. Though he didn't recognize the rest of the machinery, he assumed it was for a similar purpose. The room was about 80ft long and 40ft wide. Across the mostly empty expanse, there rose a stairway made of steel that double backed on itself until it reached the roof. Unfortunately, the cargo doors were still shut, and the stairs would not serve as an escape route until it was opened.

From somewhere in the large room, there came a loud metallic clang. Followed shortly by a dull roaring sound made by metal rolling across metal. In seconds, Tank was able to see the source. From the side of the room, a large 40 gallon drum was rolling his direction across the metal floor of the ship. It wouldn't take long to reach him, either.

---

Meanwhile, Lukos had been leading his group of captives through the ship. He took a few wrong turns here and there, but eventually he found a path that he thought would be leading him to the top. He wasted no time speaking with the captives. He knew that they could be attacked at any moment, and he wanted to get them out of here so that he could make sure the others were safe, especially Mae.

Lukos finally made a turn down one last hallway. The end of the hallway had a ladder attached to it. The ladder was about 10 feet high, and led to a small hatch. It could only lead to the deck, Lukos knew. Lukos quickly scaled the ladder, and made sure the coast was clear. With nothing above the deck, Lukos slid back down the ladder. "Quickly. Go." He commanded the assembled captives, stepping out of the way himself.

A new smell touched Lukos' nose. It was pungent, and stung slightly. The smell of cologne. Lukos turned down the hall to witness a man in a suit leaning up against the far wall. "I'm going to have to ask you to stop right there. I can't let you get away with them." The man drew a pistol from his jacket, and cocked it. The pistol was aimed straight at Lukos.

"Run!" Lukos screamed at the captives. Fur shot out of his skin all the way down his arm. Lukos readied himself for a fight.

[Starsign]

The area Tank entered was not the deck like he'd have hoped. It did look familiar in some ways to his company area. The stairs would have led to the roof, if the cargo door was opened. Tank had a look around, asking, "Anyone here know how to get these doors open?" He asked, pointing to the cargo door that led to the roof.

The group split up in the room to figure out what would open the doors. Tank checked the crane station, with little success on any progress. As he went to check another machine, he noticed a barrel coming towards him. It simply knocked against his feet and stopped there. Tank looked where the barrel came from, a rather difficult-to-see area, which the Elderri started walking towards...

[quotemyname]

As Tank took his first step over the barrel, he hear the answer to his question, "I can tell you." A small man emerged from the shadows where the barrel had rolled from. "Hell, I'll make you a deal."

The man emerged more from the shadows, and finally, Tank could get a better look at him. He wore long silk pants, white in color, with small, tight fitting cloth shoes on his feet. He had a large red sash around his waist, but his chest and arms were bare. Around his head, he had a piece of cloth wrapped. It obscured all of his features, save for a small lock of brown hair that protruded from underneath one of the folds of cloth, and his eyes which were also brown in color.

"If you can beat me, I'll tell you how to open the doors. Hell, I'll even let you leave with the captives." The man's eyes scrunched together. Tank had the feeling that if he could see the man's face, he would be doing what the humans called smiling. "I'm just going to be warning you right now." The man drew a long, wicked looking knife from behind his back, "I'm dangerous!"

[Starsign]

The man was strange to Tank. The issue wasn't the motive however, it was that there was an unwelcome guest. A guest who had put the hostages in a rather dangerous situation. Seeing as a fight here may cause unneeded injury, the Elderri decided for a more 'peaceful' resolution.

"Better idea," Tank said slowly, trying to put up an intimidating pose. "" He spoke in Grue language, maybe to show that the Elderri might in fact be in league with the alien invaders that came and went (which he wasn't, Tank would be disgusted if he ever had to). He pointed to the cargo door that was blocking their way out as he spoke.

[quotemyname]

Tank and Lukos were not the only ones in trouble. As Slipstream steadily prowled toward the exit, he hear a sound that made him stop. The steady clank, clank, clank, echoed towards him through the bowels of the ship. Suddenly, the open hatch that led to the deck of the ship was obscured. Slipstream could no longer see the light of the moon which had guided him to this exit. "This is as far as you go." came the metallic sounding voice.

The figure leaped down through the hatch and landed with a solid ringing Kerthank! Finally, in the dim light of the ship's passages, Slipstream could see what he was up against. A large metallic suit of armor stood before him. With his experience at AEGIS, Slipstream could tell exactly what this was. There would be a man inside there controlling it. But that didn't mean it would be an easy fight.

A panel on the suit's shoulder opened, revealing a small missile. Slipstream readied himself to dodge, but the missile fired elsewhere. The explosion rocked the ship for a second or two, and when the smoke cleared, Slipstream saw that the hatch to the outside had been sealed. "I won't let you leave this ship." He was trapped in here with the man in the suit, and worse still, so were the captives.

[Basarin]

Slipstream cringed slightly as the missile blocked off their path of escape, but he motioned for the prisoners to get FAR back (as it was the option that involved not getting shot in the face, he hoped they'd see the wisdom behind it) and braced himself. "Fanboy says 'awesome!' fighting a powered armor, practicality says 'crap' about it instead," he grumbled as he made ready to fight and began to consider his options.

"So what's your game? Why'd you all corral all these people in here?...and where'd you get the suit?"

[Basarin]

Slipstream idly noted that the prisoners did indeed disperse while he wasn't looking, though they likely scattered all over the ship. Well, not my problem for now, he thought as he raised his blaster pistol and fired at the powered armor before diving behind whatever cover he could find.

With how cramped the space was, this fight looked to make him feel like he was fighting as an infantryman rather than as the pilot he had trained to be. In some far corner of his mind, he deeply resented that fact. The rest of his mind just focused on trying to get through the fight; it'd be more than happy to complain about it after Slipstream wasn't getting shot at.

[quotemyname]

"Gah!" The man in the battle suit yelled in his metallic sounding voice. The shot from Slipstream's gun hit him hard in the chest, and looked like it fried a few of his circuits. The chest plate of the battle suit fizzled and crackled, but that was all. Slightly stunned from the attack, the man was forced to step back and steady himself, unable to return fire.

---

"Let the games begin!" The Crimson Sash drew a dagger from behind his back. He flipped it over in his hand so he was holding the blade and with a flick of the wrist, sent it sailing in Tank's direction. Tank did not have to move, however, as he recognized that the blade wouldn't hit him.

As the blade traveled through the air, the captives that were behind Tank scattered, many even found their way back through the door. Others just ran for the walls.

The knife finally landed with a clink in the side of the 40 gallon oil drum at Tank's feet. A small spray of oil sprayed through the puncture the knife had made. Tank was relieved he could go another few seconds without being injured. And then he heard a steady, "Beep, beep, beep, beep," coming from the knife. He examined it closer and could see that there were small lights on the hilt. Lights that were dimming one by one. The last light went out and then,

THOOM!

All at once, the dagger, and the oil drum exploded at Tanks feet in a blast of fiery destruction!

[quotemyname]

The gun in the suit's hand fired. Lukos felt the bullet bite into his shoulder. Then he felt the stinging. Silver. This was going to be trouble.

Not wating around to see what happened, the man took off down the hallway.

[quotemyname]

Lukos felt the silver burning his blood from the inside. Damnit! How did he know?!

"Get somewhere safe!" Lukos growled at the people climbing the ladder. He tore off after the man as fast as he could. Lukos rounded the corner so fast that he had to place two feet on the opposite wall as he made the turn. Thankfully, he managed to close the distance with the man quickly. Though the silver was throwing him off, he still made an attempt to pounce on the man.

Lukos roared in frustration as he felt his claws dig into the cold steel of the ship's floor. He had missed his target if only by inches.