ic Apex Predators

[KnightDisciple]

For several long moments the young man stayed silent, but did seem to slow (or stop, if necessary) to listen to Starshot. Finally, he spoke.

 

"Should at least get beyond initial "landing zone". Try to scrounge up weapons. Could strip a few branches for spears and staves. Use larger leaves to hold some food supplies for a few hours at least. Probably good to be able to fend off more big cats. Can't always kick them to sleep."

 

While there was just a hint of light teasing in that line, Vonnie could somehow tell that the grim young man was showing him respect.

 

"I'd prefer caves or shelter, but if we're in Brazil that's not likely. Maybe find some larger trees we can use as cover. Probably better to not set camp up. Can't panic.

 

Real question is how soon they strike. Hard to tell if they're impatient or if they want us to sweat a bit.

 

I just want gone from here."

 

He shrugged, but didn't move away from the others. Then his posture shifted, and he looked directly at Starshot.

 

"Appreciated if in future, familial relation not insinuated."

 

In other words he wanted the older man to stop calling him "son".

[Supercape]

"Sounds like a better plan" replied Starshot, easing up. 

 

"I do wear a mask. But not for the reasons you two do" he said, without giving too much away. There was precious little chance of anyone on earth recognising Oskar Otto. 

 

His fingers itched for his gun, and his eyes for his "mask". Where had his fallen comrades got to? Pale shadows of his men they might be, but they were his responsibility. 

 

"Lets find somewhere to set up our kill zone" he finished, stretching and heading off into the jungle. 

[Brown Dynamite]

GM

 

Sticking together they were able to find a cave to use as a makeshift shelter.  As there are no bears that are indigenous cave dwellers in the rainforest, the trio checked to see if there were any jungle cats lying in wait.  Once properly they circled up to discuss their next move.  Thus far, no open moves had been made against them by the Lords of the Hunt.  But the message made their intention perfectly clear.

 

The hunt was on...

[Supercape]

"I'm not sure I like Caves" said Starshot, quietly. 

 

Only one way in, only one way out, easy to get pinned down...

 

...at least its shelter...

 

He took a moment just to admire the scenery. The sheer life of the Jungle was worth drinking in, sweeping his eyes across the web of flora, ears attuned to the sound of insects, birds, and beasts. Nose alive with the richness of it all. It gave him an odd sense of peace, of optimism. 

 

"So. Spears, javelins, pits, traps. All these we can make" he said aloud. "We can even train a tiger or two, if we have the time" he said, half serious. Truth was, nobody knew how long they had got. 

 

"Then we have water and food to consider. Primarily the first" he continued, observing the sky. He doubted food would be a problem in the Jungle. Water, maybe. 

 

"And finally, our minds"

 

"We don't know how long we have, what is ahead of us. It is not terror that will fracture us, it is the waiting..."

[EternalPhoenix]

“Starshot, I’m a city kid. I’ve never been in a cave in my life.†Vonnie had managed to cool his temper while they had worked. “They don’t have this much…this in Brooklyn. Manhattan, either.†He was messing around with a fairly long stick of wood, tossing it from hand to hand while looking thoughtful. Length’s decent. Smooth enough. Dunno if it’s sturdy as oak or pine, though. “Either one of you know how sturdy this kind of wood is? Wouldn’t be a bad club.â€

[Supercape]

Starshot nodded. 

 

"Brazil wood, may be. Its been a while since I was...here...but this looks like South America to me. Either that, or someone is doing a very fine job of making it look like South America"

 

He studied the makeshift club. It would suffice, it would do, although for himself, the various drills, blades, spikes, and just plain weight of his cybernetic hand would do just fine in a fight. 

 

"A club, a spear, all good. What concerns me is that the Hunters probably wont come near us. Most hunting, even by primitive, is done from afar. Be it blowpipes and javelins, crossbows, rifles, or high powered plasma rifles"

 

"And we have nothing. Nothing but cover. We have to draw them in, make them feel confident"

 

He gazed out at the jungle. 

 

"Unless you can make us bows?"

[KnightDisciple]

"Never been good at fletching or bowmaking."

 

Wait how did he get behind both of them wasn't he just standing over there?

 

The terse young man is sitting on a rock in the cave, looking over a couple of shorter sticks and one longer one. All of them are blunt.

 

"Caves aren't so bad, though. Good shelter. If we stay back from the entrance, hard to spot us. Should probably work on making lots of rope; going to need it for navigation and snare traps."

 

He suddenly looked up at both the older cyborg and the younger hero.

 

"No lethal traps."

 

He went back to judging the weight of the makeshift...the way he handled the shorter ones, probably was treating them like escrima sticks. The bigger piece, a quarterstaff.

 

"Need to decide what time to be out and about. Probably best to not go out during the night or high noon. Latter too hot. Former too dangerous. They'll probably hunt in the morning, evening, or night; doubt they're the type to enjoy sweating buckets for fun."

[EternalPhoenix]

“Bows? I don’t know…the wood’s plentiful enough, but something that’d work as a bowstring? I mean, I’m good, but lots of people are better. I’m not a miracle worker, but I can try. Don’t be mad if they don’t work, or break easy.†Vonnie leaned against a tree and thought. “Ropes would be good. Ropes I can do. It’s anything sharp that’s the problem. I don’t have a knife. Can’t whittle without a good sharp knife.â€

[Supercape]

Non lethal?

 

Starshot doubted very much that the lords of the hunt were interested in such niceties. He had no wish to kill. But he wasn't going to hold back either. Not if it meant his life, or, if it came to that, the lives of the two youths. 

 

The surly one seemed set on that notion however, and he didn't want further conflict. Instead, he looked away, neither confirming or denying that notion. If he had to kill, and he hoped he did not, then he would. Such was the realities of life, war, and hunting. 

 

"If it comes to sharp points, I can whittle something down" he explained, as a blade extended from his cybernetic hand, only two inches, but enough to shave off some wood. "Some pointy sticks can't hurt"

[Brown Dynamite]

GM

 

Starshot was able to whittle down two sharp sticks.  One or himself an another for Alek.  Seeing as the boy proved true to his word of not being the most skilled woodworker in the cave.  Vonnie took a more careful approach.  Using a sharpened rock, twine, and a thick piece of wood he was able to create a makeshift spear.  a weapon that could be thrown like a javelin or used in close combat with a reach advantage.

 

.And Alek?  Well Alek scouted out the whole in their defense for the possibility of a sneak attack.  His caution payed off as Alek was the first to notice the fragmentation grenade slip into the cave.  No sooner had yelled 'Grenade' than Vonnie and Starshot had clear the distance and made it out of the deepest part of the blast radius.  Knocked further outside by the concussive force of the explosion and battered further by pieces of earth and shrapnel.

 

Alek, wasn't so lucky.  He was outside of the lethal blast radius, using the environment to his advantage and mitigating as much damage as he possibly could by holing up in the cave wall.  However, the youth known as Nevermore did not react quick enough to escape what followed.  The entrance caved in as a consequence of the explosion.  

 

the cave was completely sealed up separating the three.  Vonnie and Starshot took  moment to adjust to their surroundings.  Looking around it was evident that their assailant had run off. 

[Supercape]

A tightness gripped Starshots thread as he saw the grenade. It flung him back decades, to World War II. Those reflexes and instincts had not faded. He was moving before anything happened. 

 

Jumping aside, he felt the concussive force, he heard it. And then he was rolling ungraciously in dust. 

 

"Got in Himmel! What was that!!!!" screamed Hand. Starshot did not answer, coughing the dust and looking around. No sign of any enemy, but...but they had got the better of them. 

 

Last time we get pinned down in a cave...stupid...I should never have let those kids...

 

He cut himself short as he realised one of those very kids had not got out, at best, trapped behind the fallen rocks. At worst, crushed beneath them. 

 

"Hey! Hey! Can you hear us?" he shouted through the rocks, hoping that the kid could shout back...

[EternalPhoenix]

There was a blank spot in Vonnie’s memory. Something…exploded, maybe? He’d moved, fast. Then…he bolted up right. The rocks had fallen and buried the entrance to the cave. Starshot had leaped clear, but the other boy hadn’t made it out. Vonnie dropped several Spanish curse words in rapid succession. He didn’t know much more of the language than that, but for letting off steam that little bit was more than sufficient. A quick glance with his spatial awareness revealed the grenade thrower was long gone. So, faster than should’ve been humanly possible (though not by all that much, granted) he was at the cave in with Starshot. He didn’t wait for the other boy to respond to the older man’s pleas. He just started flinging rocks out of the way with a strength that belied his mediocre build.

[Supercape]

The kid was stronger than he looked. Starshot had never seen such strength. The Kid looked stronger than he was, even, and with all of Zaul's generic "improvements", Starshot was in peak condition. 

 

Still, throwing rocks around made them sitting targets for the next grenade...or worse. 

 

He jumped down to the Jungle, making his way through the twisted trees and plants. 

 

"Chop Chop!" quipped his hand, blade extended, as he slashed through some of the Jungle. 

 

He looked around...with all the thick flora around, somebody, somewhere, must have left a trail, a mark...a something. Unless they were truly lords of the Hunt...

[KnightDisciple]

It took Nevermore a few moments to shake his head and let his ears get back to something approaching normal; being in that space when an explosion went off did no favors for your hearing.

 

'Good thing Boss Lady's got friends who have cutting-edge med-tech. At this rate I'm gonna need some new eardrums.'

 

That sardonic thought got him up and moving, and he went over to the new wall of the cave. He was just able to make out the old German man's voice. He raised his own, somehow exuding calm despite the situation.

 

"I can hear you. I'm intact. Going to try clearing a path from this side."

 

With that, he applied his fit but not super-powered muscles to the task of attempting to clear away some of the debris in front of him. Perhaps between his own efforts and Vonnie's, it wouldn't take hours for him to see the sky again...

[Supercape]

Damn...caught between the bulls of a horn.

 

If I help clear the rubble, our assailant will get away...

 

If I follow the trail, we are divided and weakened...

 

There would be no decision that would sit well. And no decision would be a decision. And the worst of the lot. 

 

On instinct rather than judgement, the instinct of a hunter rather than the hunted, he sped into the jungle, spear in hand, to follow the trail. A dangerous, bold, and no doubt foolish ploy, and one that would not sit well with the fiery temperaments of the youths he was with. But if they sat tight, being picked off, weakened, injured, they would surely perish. 

 

"Fortune favours the bold!" he said aloud, wondering if the kids could hear him, hoping they would, and they understood. 

 

And then he was off. 

[Brown Dynamite]

GM

 

Starshot's expert tracking allowed the man to follow his quarry into the thick forest expanse.  The ambush may have caught them unaware.  But their hunter seemed to make absolutely no effort in hiding their trail.  Making it practically child's play for Starshot.  All until the man found himself in the middle of.  There was a silent twhip noise nearby.  As if a blade had been stabbed into a rope.  

 

Followed by a large tree trunk with a sharpen edge finding its way towards Starshot's side.  The log clearly positioned to try and hit the man.  The chase a set up so that the hunter could try and pick them off with their numbers diminished.  Though, it wasn't clear if the cave in was expected to trap more of the heroes within.  It was clear that the cave itself was not the planned endgame.

 

Meanwhile, Alek and Vonnie managed to clear the rocks together.  Vonnie may have done most of the heavy lifting, but Alek was no slouch either.  The amount of time it took the boys to clear the cave entrance was long enough that Starshot was no longer immediately in view..

[KnightDisciple]

The terse young man gave Vonnie a nod as he emerged from the darkness and rubble. He shook himself a bit, to get rid of the worst of the dust and gravel sticking to his body. He then looked down again. When he met Vonnie's gaze, there was...well the skull-mask made it hard to tell, but it looked like a slight smile on his face.

 

"Paint got smeared. Sad, don't you think?"

 

He looked around, and the almost-smile was gone.

 

"Of course the old man ran off. Come on, shouldn't stay split up for longer than we have to."

 

He took a couple steps and tried to get his bearings. As he did so, he spoke over his shoulder.

 

"Name's Nevermore."

[Brown Dynamite]

GM

 

Starshot was unable to avoid being hit head on with the log.  His body sent flying the expert tracker landed some ten feet away.  Just as Vonnie and Alek had finished clearing their way through the rainforest to find the man.  The sounds of monkeys howling through the treeline.  Violent shaking from the branches above and the hanging log nearby only served to further emphasize how erratic the environment was.

 

The branches continued shaking with rigid fervor.  The monkeys weren't the only thing nearby.  But, whomever had set up Star Shot kept their distance.  Possibly waiting to spring another trap on the youths.  Even the bits of sunlight that broke through the leaves did nothing to make their foe easier to track.

[Brown Dynamite]

GM

 

What did make their foe easier to track was the sound of cackling. Then with a quickness a figure dove down.  Flying between both boys before riding back up into the treeline above.  It was a dirt covered brunette woman with brown skin wearing a camouflaged military like vest covered in compartments to store various weaponry.  Her gloves these long talon like claws.  She used a flight suit with such expert precision it was nothing short of flying.  

 

Swiping by she moved to try and scratch Vonnie in the face.  But, he stepped out of the way of the attack.  A second passing and she came again.  And once again Vonnie avoided.  This repeated one last time before she retreated by continuing to fly around the tree line.  Only this time staying low enough to be in reach.

 

"Ka Ka Ka.  One down two to go.  No prey has ever escaped the grip of the Seagret."

[EternalPhoenix]

No. Just…no. Vonnie was not amused by the Seagret. Not in the least. The resemblance to the the woman that killed his girlfriend’s father did NOT help. “Really? Going with the bird woman theme? Really?†Vonnie sprinted up the nearest tree and leapt at the Seagret. “Do you know what the last bird woman that f***ed with me is doing?†He wasn’t quite fast enough, his kick sailed wide. He landed easily, though. “She’s enjoying her coma!†It was safe to say Vonnie was no longer the picture of calm. The frightening thing was, he seemed like he was still in perfect control of himself. Edited March 20, 2015 by EternalPhoenix

[KnightDisciple]

A frown of distaste came onto Nevermore's face as the woman emerged.

 

"That's just...tacky."

 

Speaking as the sidekick of a bird-themed crime-fighting woman vigilante, he has at least a bit of authority on the subject. Either way, he begins moving, following close behind Vonnie. Just as the super-tough youth landed on the ground, he felt a pair of hands on his shoulders for a moment.

 

"Thanks for the assist."

 

Nevermore had used him as a platform to propel himself those precious few feet into the air to reach Seagret. He actually managed to get one hand on her ankle...but she was quick to shake him off. He'd touched her, but only for a moment, and with no gain.

 

A growl of frustration left his throat as he landed on the muddy ground in a crouch.

 

'Really wish I had my suit right about now.' he thought uselessly to himself.

[Brown Dynamite]

GM

 

Seagret touched down on the ground a short distance away from Nevermore.  Her gliding coming to an end.  While crouched down she kicked backwards with her heel.  A sharp kick aimed at Alek's abdomen.  But, the boy was quick.  Jumping back before the blow could connect.
 
However, Seagret left nothing to chance.  Taking off into a dead sprint dodging around trees to create some distance between them.  "Tacky?  Birdwoman?  I am the greatest hunter in the air...or ground.  You will not live to see another day children."

Her feathery cape fluttered behind her as she moved.