Rough and Tumble (IC)

[Thevshi]

Moving out among the other fighters who were starting to warm up for their coming matches, Freddy moved over to one of the speed bags and began hitting it with masterful speed and precision.  As he did so, he tried to glance around some at the other fighters nearby, looking to see if he could spot the young man they were there looking for, but did not see any sign of him.

 

As Lucy approached one of the rough looking guys in a cheap suit that was standing watch nearby, he looked at her appreciatively and then smile slightly as she offered the cigar.  "Thanks."  He said, taking the offered cigar.

 

As he lit the offered cigar, he gave Lucy a quizzical look at her question.  "And who might that be?  I know most of the fighters that have made it here, least the ones that are worth anything."

[Thunder King]

Crimson Tiger, upon shutting the lights in the hallway down, made her way to the stairs and began to carefully make her way down. She wanted to find that boy, or wherever the fighters were, or whatever useful thing she could find. She kept her ears peeled just in case she heard something. She hoped all that training would pay off.

Edited September 27, 2013 by Thunder King

[Thevshi]

In the building's main security office, the young security guard sitting in front of the bank of monitors was starting to look forward to the end of his shift.  Normally he was able to relax a bit and keep a general eye on the screens.  But right now, with what was going on down in the lower levels of the building, he had to keep a close eye out on things, knowing it could well cost him his job (or worse!) if he failed to notice a security breach.  So when the lights went out around the stairs and elevator in the underground parking area, he quickly focused on the screen showing that camera, and then called it up onto a larger monitor.

 

As he did so, he picked up a radio on the table near him.  "Hey, some lights just went out around the stairs and elevator in the garage.  The camera is still working, but I can barely see anything in there."

 

"We'll have someone check it out."  Replied a voice with a heavy Jersey accent.

 

The security guard continued to focus on the larger monitor, with occasional glances at the other monitors to be sure nothing else seemed to be happening elsewhere.  Less than a minute later, he was looking at the large monitor as she saw a bit of light reflect off the stairwell door as it opened and caught a brief glimpse of a figure that appeared to go into the stairwell.

 

Keying the radio again he said, "hey, have your guys gotten up to the garage yet?  I just saw someone go into the stairwell."

 

---

As Crimson Tiger entered the stairwell, she guided the door shut so that it made only the faintest "click" as it latched close once more.  The main lights in this part of the stairwell were out, but an emergency light just above the door had come on.  She then started moving down the first flight of stairs, listening for any sounds from below.  She almost immediately heard the sound of a male voice carrying up the stairwell.

"I can't believe we have to go check out these dumb lights.  Can't the rent-a-cops upstairs deal with this?"

 

There was the faint sounds of someone chuckling in response and then saying, "Yeah, well, don't want to…" but whatever else the other man was going to say was cut off by the muffled crackle of what sounded like someone talking through a radio.  "What is it?"  The second voice stated, and then things went quite down below…

[Supercape]

Freddy smiled at Lucy and stood up, all five feet of him. Despite his height, he looked like a force of nature with his physique. 

 

"Right, I'm going to get warmed up..." he said with a wink at Lucy. "I gotsya plan, babe" he said, giving her a thumbs up and fortunately not being too indiscrete with his plan. 

 

He walked off to seek out the other fighters. Partly, of course, his eye was sizing up the competition. His squat body could withstand an enormous amount of punishment from fists and elbows and knees - and any other generalised bashing and smashing, but he preferred, like any good fighter, to not get hit in the first place. And any good fighter liked to size up whom he was fighting - if nothing else, to psyche himself for what he was to face. 

 

Skipping and ducking and weaving in preparation, he kept his eyes open and ears flapping, heading in the direction of the grunts and pants of the fighters. 

[Tiffany Korta]

Lucy didn’t immediately answer instead she took a long draft on her cigar and blew the smoke into the air. She just hoped she pull of the whole Femme Fatale thing properly, she still wasn't quite sure she had what she took to be one.

“Some young kid an up and comer, I think his name was something like Benny... erm Benny, Benny Diaz yup that was the name.â€

 

She wince at having to butcher poor Benito’s name, but if she had rattled the name off perfectly first time it might have made him suspicious. After all she was playing the dumb blonde... well red head but the point still stood.

[Thevshi]

As Lucy spoke a variation of Benito's name, the thug's friendly expression faded as the look on his face and stance became much more guarded.  "Diaz?"  He repeated, as if to confirm the name she had stated.  "I don't know who you heard that from, but he ain't no up and comer."

 

Moving out among the other fighters who were warming up, Freddy had a chance to look them over some as he warmed up himself.  Similar to the night before, there was a mix of more traditional boxers (like himself) and mixed-martial arts fighters.  On average, the quality and skill of the fighters here was better than that of the fighters from last night.  While Freddy was pretty confident on his chances with anyone of the fighters here, there were certainly a few that could give him a bit of a run for his money.

[Supercape]

Freddy sidles up to a punchbag and gave it a full on one - two with quick powerful punches. Despite his height - barely over five foot, he was as strong as they come, even without his turbo powered blood souping up his muscles. His arms were thicker than most men's legs and many men's chests. The punchbug crumpled under the force of his hammer like fists. 

 

He gave what he hoped was an intimidating confident smile to the fighters around him. 

 

He caught the eye of the nearest fighter and cracked his knuckles. 

 

"Yo, man!" he called out, not to loud, not to soft. 

 

"You heard of a guy called Benito? up tonight? I got word he might be the guy to beat..."

[Thevshi]

Freddy's impressive display certainly caught the attention of several of the fighters near him.  Most tried to focus back on their own warm up, but when Freddy spoke up to one about Benito, the other fighter gave a slightly surprised look before glancing around.  Seeing that no one else seemed to be paying attention or have heard the question, he focused back on the short pugilist.

 

"Benny?  He was pretty good."  The fighter responded in a low voice.  "But he decided he did not like the stakes here and tried to back out."  He paused a moment before adding, "there is a rumor they plan to make an example out of him."

[Supercape]

The Mess paused a moment, pondering the fighters rewards. 

 

"Making an example of him? That don't sound too good..." he said, stating the obvious and giving the punch bag another half hearted whallop. 

 

He creaked his head from side to side contemplating the ominous implications of the rumour. "Guess that means we don't back out, huh?" he said, giving another couple of jabs to the poor punchbag. 

 

"This Benny guy, you know where he is?" he asked bluntly. He couldn't think of a classy way to ask - he was sure Harry or Lucy could have done a better job. But he was Bloody Mess, and he did things more bluntly. 

[Thevshi]

"Yeah, well, I believe that is the point isn't it."  The other fighter replied to Freddy's comment about what was planned for Benito.  When Freddy decided to be even more blunt on the subject, the other fighter stopped his warm ups a moment to look over at the stocky private eye. 

 

"I think they have him locked up down here somewhere, not sure where though."  He replied in a low voice.  He paused a moment, and then added, "it is probably not a good idea to show too much interest in him, you know?"

[Supercape]

the Mess gave the fighter a fierce grin. Despite his rough past, the Mess had all his own teeth. Possibly as a result of his mutant adaptation to the pounding he took as a kid fighter, they grew back. He certainly had lost a few. 

 

"Locked down here?" he said, slowly. 

 

"That ain't right, my friend. In the ring, I gotta give what's due. And that means lefty and right get to make dough outta whatever's left of your face. But that's the rules of the ring" he said, levelling hie eyes and crunching his fists. 

 

"That's what gets you respect. And you gets that. Thats your due. Locking a gladiator up, when he earn's that respect. That's not right. See, when I get's to smash a fighters teeth in so he is passing them out of his backside for the next week, he has earned the right for my respect. So I let him get away with just that..."

 

He grin turned nasty. 

 

"But when someone don't respect my fellow gladiator. Well, I wont let him get away that easy..."

[Tiffany Korta]

Lucy pulled a frown and did her best confused face, then resolving to a faint hint of anger. Whilst outwardly she player the upset ditzy inside her brain was whirling considering her options, to say the wrong thing could problems and put everyone in danger.

“I knew the guy wasn’t on the level, he sounded far too keen on getting to flutter a bit of cash.â€

She paused and took a puff on the cigar, wonder not for the first time how she could do that without working lungs.

 

“Don’t suppose you know what happened to kid? Is he still fighting or did he upset the wrong person?â€

[Thevshi]

The other fighter had taken a half step back as Mess gave his nasty grin and comments, but then stopped and snarled back at Freddy.  "I never said I thought what was going on with Diaz was right, but I also don't want to end up dead with him either."  He commented before turning away and stalking off towards another part of the large room.

 

The thug considered Lucy for a brief moment before he replied in a rather flat voice, "I would not worry your pretty little head about Diaz, could bring trouble you don't want.  Best to get back to cheering up the fighter you came here with." 

[Thunder King]

Crimson Tiger groaned inwardly. Of course they were searching around. She was in a tough place, but made a snap decision. She began walking, quietly as she could, up the stairs. She wanted to reach the next floor and, once she got there, wait patiently for the men to do what they were going to do, and either ambush them or let them pass and make her way downstairs.

 

She really, really wished she could just floor them, but that would be more trouble than it was worth. Tigers were strong, fierce and powerful, but also capable of staying low until it was time to pounce.

[Thevshi]

Crimson Tiger quickly reached the next landing, coming to a halt and listening down below her.  She could hear the footsteps of whomever it was that had been coming up as they reached the landing to the garage level.  There was a pause and she heard a whispered voice speaking, likely into a radio, "no sign of whoever you saw coming in, they must've gone up.  We’ll check it out." 

 

She then heard footsteps coming up the stairs…

 

Down below in the room where the fighters were all gathered, Harry was still seated where he had been directed by the guys running the place as he noticed Lucy making her way back over towards him after speaking with one of the guards in the room.  The rumpled private investigator noted the suspicious look on the guard's face as he watched Lucy go for a moment and then started towards the door they had come in through from the hallway, glancing once over his shoulder towards Lucy again as he went…

[Thevshi]

Deciding that she no longer wanted to try to run from whomever was down below, now that they apparently knew she was here, Crimson Tiger turned and started back down the stairs.  She only got a short distance when she came across two guys dressed in cheap suits with pistols in hand that were on their way up.

 

The one in the front turned out to have pretty good reflexes, as his eyes went wide and he quickly leveled his pistol.  "What the $&@#?"  He exclaimed as he fired off a round.  As quick as his reflexes were, his aim left a lot to be desired, and the bullet sailed well over Crimson Tiger's head, hitting the wall on the landing above her.

[Thunder King]

She knew she couldn't let him get another shot. She slammed an elbow into his sternum and sent him sprawling to the floor. She turned around and immediately delivered a vicious snap kick to the side of the other man's head.

 

She grumbled inwardly and started descending the stairs again. Before she did so, she plucked their weapons out of their unconscious hands. With practiced ease, she disengaged the clips and removed the upper portions. With the guns completely disassembled, she pocketed the receivers and clips, intending on disposing them as soon as she found a trash can.

[Supercape]

Harry panicked. 

 

This was no big story. Harry panicked a lot. He was no stranger to fear. He was good at panicking. So good, in fact, that it barely showed. He was pretty much always nervous and on edge, so turning up the dial didn't really show. 

 

He felt it of course. Some primal urge to run and hide. He blamed it on whatever strange heritage he left him with his canine affinity. But he knew that was just an excuse. Really, he had decided that fear was an excellent way of keeping alive. 

 

What the hell am I doing here? Neck deep in trained killers all ready to rip my head off...

 

And now, some guard seemed to be making for the exit after speaking to Lucy. 

 

"Excuse me folks, nature call's!" he said to the folks around him, perhaps passing on too much information. 

 

It wasn't entirely a lie. The adrenaline surging through his anxiety soaked body was indeed stimulating his bladder and bowels. 

 

With that, he started slouching off after the guard in what he hoped was a balance between speed and innocence. 

[Tiffany Korta]

After her failed efforts to collect any more information she had returned to Harry and taken a seat next to him. Whilst she did she went over what little she had discover which lead to some rather unpleasant possible outcomes. They would have to do something soon, but first they’d have to get together to compare notes. WHen Harry suddenly decided to leave she knew it would be best to join and protect him.

“It’s it nerves they get to him sometimes. I better make sure he’s taken his pills today.â€

She quickly caught up with Harry, but not as quickly as she could, and slipped her arm round his own. Then she whispered in his ear.

 

“So what do you have in mind? I think we should think about breaking up this party soon.â€

[Supercape]

"Party? Party?" mumbled Harry nervously, his eyes shifting left to right. 

 

"Some party. Its a goddamn lunatic asylum full of trained killers!" he blurted, his anxiety threatening to raise his voice to a dangerous level and pitch. 

 

"I'm going to die here aren't I? they probably got giant mutant pit bulls that are going to tear me limb from limb..." he gulped, grasping on to Lucy's hem. 

 

"I don't wanna die! I don't wanna die! I mean...I'm not like you..." he gulped, grasping on to some vestige of politeness. "..I'm not differently alive...I'm proper...er...normally alive...and I wanna stay that way...." he whispered, unable to look Lucy in the eye. 

 

"Oh how did I get here! and how do we get out? That guy...Bernito! we have to find him..." he said, still grabbing onto Lucy like a life jacket. 

 

"He will know how to get us out of here, huh? Yes! we just gotta find him! I guess he isn't with the Fighters, Freddie would have found him if he were. Is he even still here?" he said. "And some guard was following you...they know something! they are onto us!" he looked left and right, half panicked. 

 

"Can't you do some superhero thing?" he pleaded with Lucy "Go and ask someone, threaten them! No! Wait! Don't leave me!" he added. 

[Thevshi]

As Harry and Lucy opened the door to follow after the guard that Lucy had talked to, they were surprised by a group of guys in similar cheap suits that rushed by them with guns in their hands.  But they were clearly focused on something else, as they hustled down the hall back in the directions of the elevator that had brought the three down to this level.

 

The two were no sooner out the door and turning to look the way the guys in suits had come from when they found the way blocked by two large figures.  A pair of muscular men dressed in black, sleeveless bodysuits with red details stood with their arms crossed in front of them.  The man on the right was a large African American with a bald head and well trimmed goatee and mustache.  On his right forearm was a high-tech looking metal bracer.  The man on the left was Caucasian with buzz cut blond hair.  On his left forearm was a metal bracer identical to the one worn by his companion.

 

"Hi there."  Said the one on the right.

 

"Going somewhere?"  Asked the other.

 

 

After dealing with the two thugs sent up to look for her, Crimson Tiger quickly moved down the stairway until she reached the bottom of the stairwell.  There was a heavy door out of the stairwell, but without windows to see what lay beyond.

[Thunder King]

They knew, they knew she was here. That was all there was to it. Stealth and subtlety were good tools, but it was time to set them aside. There was no longer any point to sneaking about, not when the person they were looking for might be in danger. Plus, she had to assume that if they knew she was there, they might have reason to suspect the others.

 

So, when she spotted the door, she simply slammed her foot into the top of it as hard as she could. The force of her blow knocked the door clean off it's hinges, sending it flying and scooting along the floor. A lot of noise, she knew, but that was helpful.

[Thevshi]

The door slammed onto the ground a good ten feet away from its frame, causing a loud BANG that echoed down the corridor and up the stairwell Crimson Tiger was standing in.

 

The teenage heroine found herself looking into a long hallway with high ceilings.  The walls appeared to be cinderblock, painted white, and the area was brightly lit.  A number of red, metal frame doors were spaced along the hallway.

 

She also found herself facing four more of the guys in cheap suits who had been running down the hallway and came to a halt at her sudden entrance.  Each had a pistol in hand.  Further down the hallway, Crimson saw Harry and Lucy standing near one of the red doors on the left hand side of the hallway, and standing just beyond them were two large male figures in black bodysuits with red highlights.

[Tiffany Korta]

Lucy gave Harry a little squeeze and a comforting smile

“A hero is someone who when scared but does thing anyway. And me being un-dead isn’t necessary a permanent thing, remind me to tell about the time someone managed to make me mortal for a while...â€

She fortunately paused at that point so they weren't completely surprised by the two thugs. And that good fortune meant that she could attempt to con these two. She hug Harry close in an apparently loving way.

 

“My Harry here he’s gets all worked up with the fighting, I tell him that it’s bad but he insisted on attending. He felt a little queasy so I would taking for some air, I haven’t taken a wrong turn have I?†again she dropped into her broad Freedom City accent.

[Thevshi]

Both of the two men smirked slightly at Lucy's comments about Harry getting queasy.  "Well, that's just too bad."  The blond haired one replied.

 

"Don't have the guts to handle watching the fights?"  Continued the other.

 

"Once your down here, you stay till the event is over."  The blond went on.

 

"Now get back in the room, as you can see, we have a small situation here."  The second finished as he and his blond companion pushed past Lucy and Harry, edging them towards the door they just exited, to move in the direction of Crimson Tiger.