Threat to Society (IC)

[Avenger Assembled]

As the soldiers ran for their lives, Harrier thought fast. He'd seen vessels of all kinds die in his too-long life, and knew that this ship was in trouble. This is no normal leak. Something aboard this ship is making it bleed to death. He faced down the zombie drone squarely for a moment, then turned and flew after the others, his implanted jetpack roaring and belching smoke and flame as he rocketed quickly through the increasingly chaotic corridors of the ship, passing by too fast for the sailors to react. Down one level, I think...or is it two? Time was of the essence. Luckily, Wave-Eye should have no trouble following the Omegadrone's path. He reached a sealed door marked EMERGENCY PUMPS and landed on the deck, armored feet booming against the steel deck before he raised his fist and punched the door as hard as he could. It gave, but not quite all the way, and he prepared to do it again. I must proceed quickly!

[Supercape]

GM

"My hands are clean...I have killed none for centuries."

"And what of those you have killed?" said Skull Face, from everywhere and nowhere. The undead revenant could project his voice anywhere, and pretend to be anyone, as Wave-Eye had found out on their last encounter.

Admiral Chambers over the intercom, the mysterious communication to Harrier....who else?

"Did you ever face justice for them? for my family? for the oceans of blood you spilled? The Red River, we called you, rivers running red with your victims..."

"And now, destroyer and murderer, you will face justice, just as you meted it out! kneel, your doom has come!"

Meanwhile...

The Zombiedrone lumbered after Harrier, not as fast, and much less agile. It was just as strong, and the firepower welded to the lifeless flesh of its left arm was as just as powerful. And it had a black, endless determination. It smashed through barriers, and gangways, dropping straight to the floor, and continuing its thundering charge. As Harrier ducked into the Pump Room, it let rip a ferocious blast of Terminus energy once more...

[Ari]

There was a brief moment where Wave-Eye stood perfectly still, head thrust forward, utterly motionless. Then, without a word or sign he charged forwards, bent into the run to reduce drag and increase his speed through the slick tunnels, harsh feet making thunderous booms as he hurtled down the hall...

...right towards the back of the zombie 'drone(Or whatever that miserable thing is he thought), and he realized with no inconsiderable nervousness that he would have to find the armory or whatever quickly before the more unfriendly drone caught up with the friendlier. Leaping down a nearby stairway, he ran furiously down the hallways, following the signs that indicated a place where weaponry was stored.

[Supercape]

GM

Fortunately the armoury was not far away. However, red lights and klaxons indicated the ship was at red alert however.

The main armoury was a busy place, where soliders were scrambling to arm up. There was however a High Security Armoury, clearly indicated, sealed with an sturdy steel door, and manned by two nervous looking guards, armed with assault rifles, sweat, and adrenaline.

"What the hell's going on Woody?" asked one guard, wiping a nervous hand across a nervous brow whilst the other gripped his weapon tightly.

"I dunno, all gone haywire ever since that Harrier came on board...and now we gotta guard that weapon of his. Hell, the way things are going I wouldn't mind having it for myself. Looks like we need some heavy artillery right now..."

[Avenger Assembled]

Harrier dug his armored fingers into the crack where the bulkhead door had slammed shut and pulled, his cybernetically-enhanced muscles letting him bend the door to the pump room further and further open. He wasn't surprised to find it empty, or as empty as far as he could see anyway, as he pulled with all his might; whoever or whatever was controlling the ship was surely taking steps to make sure that the humans aboard were unable to save the wounded vessel. And if the drone follows me in here...well, we will between us be able to do enough damage to stop the machines that drive the flooding. One way or another! And with that, as the doors slid open, Harrier hurled himself inside!

[Supercape]

GM

The undead omegadrone was slower than Harrier, but had a mindless determination that just slammed through everything, including two soldiers who bravely fired some small arms at the creature before it thrust them aside and entered the pump room.

The thing was not exactly intelligent, but it was not stupid either. It looked around briefly, water sloshing at its ankles, examining the room.

It looked straight at Harrier, and shook his head slowly.

Not for a second time... it was saying without words.

It lifted its arm, and a stream of oily blackness thrust forward to envelop Harrier, sucking at the brave heroes essence...

[Ari]

Taking a second to steady himself, a brief wave of recrimination rushing over him as shattered bodies stacked like cordwood and gold being weighed on scales flashed through his memory, Wave-Eye peered at the twitchy soldiers. Ah! They..might not be inclined to try and test me..might as well try to bluster through...

Walking forward, a task complicated by a slight shakiness in his legs from the long fall, the triton approached the guards with splashing strides, calling out harshly "You two! You want heavy artillery, eh? Then step aside, and let me get you some! Or try to stop me and..face the consequences!" he tried to pull a snarling, vicious face for a second, but it faltered almost instantly. Skull Face's furious words still ringing in his ears. What am I doing?

[Avenger Assembled]

The sizzling black fire poured across Harrier's armored body, but he shrugged it off with a momentary hiss of pain. The lash of the Terminus, even this sort of finely-tuned beam that sucked at the very essence of his soul, was something he had felt before. He turned his impenetrable gaze upon the other drone, the urgency of the moment letting him fight past the demons of what had once been. There are far more important things than your old ghosts. And far greater terrors than your doom. "Come. Down here, where you can hurt no one else!" And with that, armored arms outstretched, Harrier went for the zombiedrone!

His fists skidded off the armored body, but the bulky drone moved fast: he kicked off the wall as his jetpack roared, flames searing the air as he swooped back through the open door. Like this, eh? He raised his hand and made an unmistakeable beckoning gesture towards the zombiedrone. "Come at me!" he called challengingly. It wouldn't have worked on a drone, not with no one else's morale around to break, but perhaps the programming in this bizarrely resurrected unit was different. Modified by an army of humans, designed for a human battlefield...it could work!

[Supercape]

GM

The guards at the amoury looked at each other. One started to raise his gun, but thought better of it.

"Don't shoot!" he yelped, in a high pitched, terrified voice, as he backed away and dropped his gun. His comrade was no braver, but faster, shooting down the corridor as fast as he could.

Inside the armoury were weapons of all shapes and sizes. Bazookas, grenades, flares, machine guns, smoke and stun grenades, and...yes...Harriers Pike in all its glory.

Meanwhile...

The Omegadrone was strong. Slower, but just as strong if not stronger. It moved with a tedious but effective deliberation, with no grace but formidable control. It shrugged off Harrier, battering the massive hero to one side, and again firing a dark beam of necromantic power towards its target.

"Dee....stroy....all....drones...." it murmured with a chilly voice, blurting out its primary, and perhaps only, function.

[Ari]

Wave-Eye managed to keep up a fearsome look for as long as the soldiers could see him, dropping the assumed facial contortions with a sigh of relief as they rounded the corner. Entering the armory with all speed, his eyes flicked around the room, taking in the dizzying array of implements humans had recently perfected for the task of obliterating each other. It was easy to pick out the Omegadrone pike, its design and technology a radical departure from everything else in the room, not to mention how the blade glowed dully with entropic power. Taking it with care from its place, he briefly marveled at the balance, and fought the urge to try a few swings as he dashed up the stairs, taking the flights in leaps of his powerful scaled legs, heedless of the danger from the dripping water as he charged to Harrier's aid!

[Avenger Assembled]

As he heard Wave-Eye coming up the stairs, Harrier turned and roared down the corridor, only his expert skill keeping the big Omegadrone from slamming into the nearest bulkhead. He bore down on Wave-Eye, a living incarnation of horror and suffering as the spike-bodied cyborg scooped up the pike from the undersea creature's hand as he roared back towards his enemy, jet scorching the air behind him into black and red fire. The pike erupted into life in his hands, Terminus steel building on Terminus steel until the small rod Wave-Eye had been carrying transformed itself into the mighty instrument of an Omegadrone.

Harrier was silent as a drone as he brought the shrieking, buzzing blade down across the zombiedrone's face, digging deep as it cut through steel and flesh to the being within.

"Wave-Eye," he called down the corridor, gesturing to the room at his side and the pried-open door. "The pumps! Destroy them!"

[Supercape]

GM

The force of Harriers mighty Pike drove the Animated Drone back a few steps, sparks flying from its chest piece, and burn marks on its unliving flesh. It stumbled into some pump equipment, which crumpled under his weight and sent a funnel of water spraying over the zombie and Harrier.

Its dead eyes gazed impassively at Harrier, water dripping from its bald head and brow. It felt no pain, no remorse, no anger. All it was there for was to kill Omegadrones, and nothing was going to get in its way.

Despite the force of the blows, which would have shredded any normal drone, the thing pushed itself up from the crumpled pipe, unsteady but still fighting...

[Ari]

Wave-Eye almost slipped when Harrier burst into view, his slackening grip on the rod at first born of an intent to try and bring it to bear, only for him to realize who it was in the next half of the second and release it fully, flicking it up into the air a bit to make it easier for the freed Omegadrone to grab. Ducking against the wall to evade the wash of fire from the jets on Harrier's armor, he watched as the man rocketed out of view, sighing as he hurled himself into the ascent, feet pounding and denting the steps as he went upwards.

Throwing himself out of the stairwell, he growled under his breath at the weight of terrestrial gravity that made his legs feel like lead. Rounding the corner, he saw Harrier's gesture and heard his command, nodding emphatically and searching for the conch hung at his side as he continued his dead run for what he hoped would be the last of their troubles.

It could scarcely get worse than this he thought hopefully.

[Avenger Assembled]

Harrier slashed upwards with his pike, shifting his grip forwards along the gleaming black shaft to fight in close quarters. The blade dug deep across the zombie's faceplate again, cutting a wide X over what would have been the face of a normal humanoid. Look at that. Have I become an artist now? He faced his opponent down squarely and shook his head, realizing the lie of that in a moment. No art here. Only horror and pain. I will make this as fast as I can. "You will never be violated again," he finally spoke aloud, his voice a low murmur amid the din of battle. "This is my promise to you, my brother in steel."

[Supercape]

GM

The Zombie Drone took a few steps back with the blistering attack from Harrier, scorch marks and dents peppering its steel and lifeless flesh. It thrashed about, ineffectively, sprawled against the pump machinery. Its mighty limbs, crashed into the machinery, denting it and sending more water and sparks flying through the room.

All the while, it displayed no emotion or feeling, just a fixed dead black glare on Harrier.

Menwhile

Doctor Chambers hurried through the laboratory, the water now past waist height, and took up a sealed plastic box, about a foot in each diameter, like a square.

She popped the lid open, to reveal the shiny dome of a human skull.

"What have you done?" she demanded. "You helped us with project Lazarus...to create the reanimated drone....but what else?"

"I'm just doing what you asked!" blabbered skull face "I helped you! the arcane ritual, the magic ceremony? remember? and now you have a walking, fully obedient, heavily armed Omegadrone to fight for you!"

If it could have smiled, it would have.

DOctor Chambers slammed down the box hatch and dragged herself out of the watery laboratory...

[Ari]

Almost sliding into the room, Wave-Eye observed the fight for a fleeting moment, deeply glad he wasn't called upon to fight that monster. Harrier was holding it back admirably, so he turned his glistening eyes to the pumping mechanism, dredging up everything he had learned over the years about such things to see what was wrong with it.

Now...which one of these things is the trouble spot...that one? No, no. That isn't connected to the main...ahhhh, there we are! his face suddenly lit up with a fanged grin, and he tore open the conduits, preventing them from pushing more water into the beleaguered carrier, paying no heed to the brief gushing sprays that would have sent any human cough and spluttering backwards from the cold "I will do what I can to help get the water out!" he called to Harrier, flinching as the zombie-like drone's blood splattered onto him with the pike slash. "Do you want any help?"

[Avenger Assembled]

"Help the crew evacuate the ship!" called Harrier as he slammed his pike into the fracturing face-plate of the zombiedrone again, trying to crack through to the vulnerable neural material within. How many times have I fought this war? How many times must I free one of my own from the hands of those who would use them for evil?"If the ship does sink, we must not allow any of the crew to be trapped aboard!" Harrier was tense as he returned to the battle, waiting despite himself for the other shoe to drop. He had kept this creature from attacking the crew, but the ship was threatened with sinking, and some secret threat lay behind it all seemingly unknown even to most of the human crew...What's next?

[Supercape]

GM

A bedraggled Doctor Chambers appeared at the door to the pump room, out of breath, soaked to the skin, with ruffled hair and glasses hanging off her nose.

"What are you doing? Skull! Stop him! He's destroying our weapon!" she shouted.

In her hand she was carrying a small open perspex box, inside which sat a jabbering disembodied skull. A perfectly animated one, who was speaking with velvet and iron tones despite his lack of tounge. The Centurion had indeed found something lying else at the bottom of the ocean. Something left their by Wave-Eye, an undead creature that had centuries and aoens of resentment brewing inside it, all waiting for revenge.

"Harrier!" it called out, in a subtle and insidious tone.

"The drone is rigged to the nuclear reactor of the ship! if you stop it, the whole place will blow!" it said - not exactly in a shout, but in a crystal clear voice that pinged right into the ears of the hero.

[Ari]

"Skull Face! How dare you try this?!" Wave-Eye growled furiously, hurling himself at the box from which the voice of his tormentor emanated. "What was this all for? How long did you think you could last with this? Why would you help bring those wretched weapons of entropy into the hands of these humans?! Your OWN people?" he snatched the box neatly out from Dr. Chambers' arms as he spoke, shoved brusquely past her with a vicious glare, and began to race down the hallway towards where he felt the splashings of water into the ship, snarling his conclusion "You cannot imagine how much I do not care! You are getting off this ship if I have to throw myself into the great abyss to do it!", his heavy feet slapping and sloshing through the invading Atlantic.

[Avenger Assembled]

With his attention divided between drone and skull, Harrier aimed blade at the first and barrel at the other. "I have experience with skull-faced creatures from beyond the depths," said Harrier flatly. "I have better things to do than listen to your whispers, and I find it unlikely that even the designers of this vessel would have been so foolish as to tie their ship's lifecycle to this monster. Surrender yourself or evacuate the area, so that I may concentrate on the more important of unholy abominations." This was a very confusing day for Steve, but even amid a sinking ship and maddening foes he was determined to be true to what seemed right.

[Supercape]

GM

Right at the portal, held by Wave-Eye and suspecting he would soon be falling to the sea bed again, Skull Face managed to whip out one more taunt at Harrier.

"It doesn't matter what has happened to me, killer!" he laughed "You are finished! finished! the world knows what you are now! a cold-hearted destroyer, murderer, forged by the war! Nobody will ever trust you again! Omegadrones are killers!"

As if to emphasise his point, the Animated corpse of the drone Harrier had been fighting sprang up, his face jumping right into Harrier's view. With a snarl of fanatical fury, he lifted up his attatched weapon, and once again a blast of horrible blackness streamed forth...