Summary:EXTREME VIOLENCE & GORE WARNING - this is not for the faint of heart: Armor, Beast, Domino, Hunter & Whiplash find the Kennel where the Nova Hounds were being trained, bred and in some cases cybered. It was not a good thing for anyone. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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Chalk's intel was hard won, but put to good use - the Hunter, Okhotnik, sometimes known a Amur Khatun immediately living up to her name and tracking down 'The Kennel'. Safely out of sight, the sniper studied the entrance and found it something fairly difficult to crack solo. She doesn't have too long to wait, soon enough Domino and Lexi approach together - yes, Hunter, Lexi /is/ coming to a dangerous place! As dreaded but expected. En route, Domino called for backup in the form of one Hisako Ichiki, aka Armor as well. Provided with the coordinates, Hisake is able to get to the place, fortunately the Disaster Zone is close to RESCUE's HQ…and this place is only a few scan miles away, which will be somewhat less welcome news to the brass there.
By the time the others arrive, Okhotnik - the Hunter - has been on-scene for a while. She is crouched low, laid flat, with a massive rifle across her back, a web belt and harness under that threadbare oversized olive drab coat of hers carrying visibly some grenades and other dohickeys, plus a sidearm or two and a collection of knives.
The most annoying thing is that she lays there, barely breathing, and identifies all of them from over sixty feet away without even looking. "Your friend does not walk very quietly, Domino." she murmurs very softly. "There are scents for nearly two dozen beasts in there, and at least six different humans have come close enough for me to catch their scents. I believe there are more that have not come to this end of things, and the drafts are limited."
And yes, the homeless vet with an arsenal's eyes are glowing warm amber.
"You think she's making noise now, wait until the action starts" Domino comms back with a thin smirk.
The guards are watched from afar through another set of lenses, the albino scouting out the entrance with a softly voiced "Huh." That is some -serious- power they're packing, buuut… There are few instances where Desert Eagles and automatic shotguns really become worthwhile enough to bring into the field.
"If you ask me these boys are feeling a little insecure about their operation. Big badass 'go away' guns, not very practical."
Glancing back to Armor, she inquires "You bulletproof? Got two goons up front and a big heavy door that'd look a lot better laid out on the ground."
Should be a good test for Hisako!
"I'm not feeling very patient tonight, ladies. Let's trash the place."
"Unless they're worried about those dog things gettin' out." Lexi murmurs, her golden eyes running over it, then ponders. "I could huck a car at it?" she offers, shifting to peer over at the two with her. "I mean, 'over', uh, Hisako while she's bullet proof. That'd distract 'em. Probably a wrecked SUV around here somewheres."
To Hisako's credit, she's *trying* to be at least somewhat sneaky - moving quietly, trying not to step on anything that'll shift or break, making her footsteps' rhythm at least a little erratic when she has no choice but to be audible. Stealth isn't her specialty, and she knows it, but that's no reason to go and draw an excess of attention.
How stealthy the *rest* of the party is being? That's another question, and out of her control. Still, she inclines her head politely to Okhotnik as she approaches, settling into a relaxed crouch while they're organizing.
At Domino's question, Hisako gives her a wry look. "Bullets, yes, as long as their bosses aren't paying for adamantium rounds." She takes a look of her own at the 'front gate,' pursing her lips. "And given what they may be keeping in …" She trails off, nodding to Lexi. "Yeah. It'd probably take the heavy rounds to even faze those beasts."
Her expression hardens as she reflects on what she knows about the 'Hounds,' and about those who made them. "No idea how much the guards know about their bosses," Armor admits, preparing internally to project her defense- and offense-boosting psi-construct. "Let's go a *little* easy on the mooks, if they give us the option." She glances at Hank, as if checking what his call is about the guards.
Having tracked Hisako's comms, Diya would certainly smell a sort of familiar scent - Hank, but…furred again, more primal, really…and then the Beast arrives, and hunkers down with the group. "Forgive me, all for my tardiness, I took a circuitous route to be sure that there were no enemy forces lurking." He offers Diya a genial and much fangier smile. "Hunter." And then Lexi…might be a bit surprised by his newly re-furred and extra furry state, Hisako of course and Domino are both up to date.
He's in full armored costume, though that leaves hands and feet unarmored. He studies the entry way. And once he's caught up on the discussion so far, he bares his fangs. "Armour - you're probably the most bullet proof, it seems unlikely they'd be packing adamantium, but they might have AP, which will penetrate my body armour. So if you'd run point…the rest of us can follow in your wake." He looks to Hunter. "You know your talents best…take out one of the guards when Hisako nears?" A sigh. "If possible - let us try not to kill the soldiers, but…don't risk our lives to do it, if they must go down, take them down hard and fast."
Approaching, Hunter can hear what sounds like a truck heading towards the Kennal. Using her scope she's dee what at first blush looks to be a SHIELD APC, but…no, those are not SHIELD agents. ETA about three to five minutes.
Hank's scent is /deeply/ angry, a low growl thrumming from him just outside the range a human can sense. Yeah. This Beast has more than a little beast in him.
"APC incoming." Hunter murmurs. "One-eighty to three-hundred seconds." the woman offers in her slurred speech. She gives Hank a rather dark look at the recommendation not to kill the guards, though. Who does he think she is? These people hunt her people; she will eliminate them with extreme prejudice!
Take it easy on the mooks? Grrrr. And yes, there's a rumbling growl coming from her throat. Not nearly what Amur Khatun would dredge up, and no roar at all, but … Hunter is not hiding her annoyance from those who have joined her. As for comms? Hunter has none, just the burner phone she sometimes carries - when she remembers. SHe gets by because she can hear everything, see most of it, and smell even better.
Hunter just points Armor towards the front gate and waits. .308 boat tails will make mincemeat of those idiots if necessary, even with tactical body armor.
Neena 'mmhs' softly with a slight dip of her head at Lexi's consideration regarding their weaponry. "Good point." Though to the idea of throwing a car the albino suggests "Hold that. We're trying to get inside, not keep them from leaving. Let's keep the door debris clear for now."
Hank's barely restrained fury actually causes the -albino's- nostrils to flare, soon voicing a faint sound of ..merriment? "Delicious" seeps out from beneath her breath.
Hunter's own restlessness gets an "Eeeasy, kitty. Let's make sure we have what we need first. We get the intel, I'll be right there with you."
Hold up. "An -APC?- These guys havin' a party or something?" A sidelong glance to Hank. "We can't let that transport leave. Feel like being a roadblock tonight?"
Putting the binoculars away and stretching which results in a sharp hiss and a flinch away from unexpected pain, Domino draws in a deep breath then pulls the charging handle on her belt-fed 5.56mm armor piercing wonder with a menacing *cha-CHAK!*
"Hank's right. Remember kids, dead guards don't offer as much intel. Don't let 'em die, don't let 'em leave. Hounds are fair game. Good hunting." Hunter already said she'd cover Armor so all that's left…
Neena turns to Armor. "Hit it."
Tendril is not usually a weapons kind of girl, most times. She doesn't really need it, considering she's mostly the sort to sneak past people and if they did find her, her natural strength and dexterity will win out in close quarters.
That said, there's a time to actually bring guns, and today, she's fairly well armed after a quick stop on the way to one of her stashes. The most obvious is the Super Redhawk in a thigh holster. For most people it'd break your wrist practically, but for her she's good. Alongside that is a Steyr AUG with a scope. Apparently she assumed range when shooting back at people. At the small of her back is a holdout HK P9S Hush Puppy, just in case.
She exhales, then sights down the rifle at one of the guard's legs as Armor is given her go. She figures that'll be enough distraction to get a shot or two off. And it'll only take one or two to knock him down, after all.
As Domino gives her the go, Hisako takes a deep breath, lets it out, and nods, then gets moving. She tries to put some (lateral) distance between herself and her allies before standing up and making herself visible, striding briskly towards the guards as she calls out - in Japanese.
"«HEY!! Your pet mutt hurt my little sister, you dumbasses!»"
She armors up after the initial shout, red-orange telekinetic energy forming into the protective exoskeleton - and by the time she's fully enshrouded in her armor, it's about eight feet tall compared to her five-and-change, not walking but *running*. If the barricades are only standard highway height, she can hop over them easily - but if the guards are still standing there when she reaches them, at least one of them is going to get swatted away *hard*. Getting shot might be the less painful option, compared to an angry Armor.
Hank cocks his head to one side, and after a moment he chuffs out a breath. "I hear a large vehicle too, APC yes." He looks to Lexi. "I will deal with the APC." He can't help but offer Hunter a smile, yellow eyes a big change from the old ones, and then he takes off at a lope, keeping mostly to cover and over the rocky terrain managing a bit over twenty-five miles per hour, which is not too bad.
When Hisako calls out in Japanese the guards just look a little puzzled, and then ready their shotguns. "Girlie, these are packing solid shot…" And then she charges. The guards brace, good form, and prepare to fire - and then she armors up. The guy speaking shuts his yap. "Fuck…incoming meta." A brief pause. "I say again…incoming meta, code violet." Whatever -that- means. Still, they fire…the solid shots hitting with incredible force, but not enough to get through Armor's psi field. One goes down when swatted, and then the young Heroine hits the door, rocking it and deforming the steel. Feels like the train wall has been backed up by a lot of concrete, dust rains down, and some of the razor wire with it.
Hunter was patient. She decided to let those guards fire, trusting in Armors forcefield to protect her. But the moment they fired, they sealed their own dooms. With the suppressor on, there's only a soft crack to human hearing, but Okhotnik hears it like a thunderclap, and a bullet slams right into the first guard's chest armor right at the collarbone with muzzle velocity enough to guarantee it shatters. That should be more than enough to disable him. The next shot, barely one-point-five seconds later punches against the second guard's helmet right above his right temple with equal force, twisting the head and slamming it into the wall they are guarding.
As soon as that is dealt with, Hunter repositions, slinging the rifle and leaping most of the distance to the wall as Armor tears through it, leaping again from there up onto another level as she prepares to take another position and continue her assault. She points Domino, as Spot comes through, towards where she can smell the dog creatures as the Hunter awaits those behind these crimes.
Let them pay.
Wow hey that is a HEAVY door! Domino can feel the impact ringing out from her spot of cover and the darn thing barely budged!
Well, too late to turn back now. These fools know they're coming in strong. Hunter's one-two punch takes out the guards, Hank's off to catch a ride, and Neena's —
Getting high..?
Not really. Eeexcept sort of. Only the most observant would notice and they're already elsewhere but the hellcat wants to play and Dom's body is still injured from the last hound attack. All she needs..is some dopamine.
Slipping inside of the complex seems to transform the pale mercenary into a half feral lunatic, eyes a-glow and stubby fangs a-bared, yelling "Bring it motherfuckers!!"
Even with a machine gun she knows how to pull her shots. Unfortunately for anyone who tries to get in her way. Death would be far, far kinder.
Welp, this is why they have a really, really skilled sniper! No need to kneecap the guard if he's down, so Lexi is up and charging after Domino as she heads towards the front door. This is probably where she should have asked if they wanted her to sneak in and open it from inside. She's good at that! Ah well. Hisako seems to be enjoying smashing her way in, at least!
Inside the doors is revealed the sort of thing that gives people nightmares. The main room is large enough for a couple of city busses to fit side by side, in the middle is a huge glassed in cage with two doors designed to hook up to something the size of a minivan. In fact there's two parked at it, and inside the cage are a pair of Nova hounds fighting with sufficient savagery to spatter the walls with red.
Off to one side another adult specimine is on an operating table, apparently paralyzed but not sedated, it is whining piteously as a team of what looks almost like a pitstop crew at a race track. Indeed, they're even doing some of the same things, though instead of removing tires they're bolting on exoskeleton. *KaCHUNK* *KaCHUNK* They're bolting armor to the brute's spine, they're also fitting the thing with a spiked helmet and collar, bolting /those/ to it. When it starts to twitch one of the horde hits it with another syringe full of that paralytic agent, while the front paws are /severed/, and weaponized cyber replacements installed.
All while the animal is feeling every last bit of the procedures.
The pens are another horror show - the animals showing signs of electroshock, the 'handlers' training the younger animals with cattle prods.
And then the mercs roll out, and with them two of the fully cybered hounds, eyes glowing red in their metallic helms with ocular implants.
If Armor notices the impact from the solid slugs, she doesn't let it stop her, or even slow her down. The door, by contrast, absorbs most of her momentum, enough that she 'walks' through the door rather than barreling onwards unchecked.
The sight *behind* the door is what stops her. Briefly. Hisako's brown eyes go wide with shock, then horror as she takes in the … can you even call it a laboratory?
"«*ENOUGH!!!!!!*»"
Only an empath (or full-fledged telepath) could tell for sure whether Armor's scream is one of horror or rage, but she wastes *no* time in starting to lay about her. There are literally *too many* targets for her to decide who to go after first, so she sticks with order of proximity: the closest humans to Armor are the first to get flung or swatted against the wall.
And for all her own words about taking the bad guys alive … well, most of them may not be intact enough to question, at least not without a trip to the emergency room first.
As the one mook working the surgery lifts the needle, his hand explodes in a shower of gore and the needle and its contents are lost.
The engine blocks to the vans attached to the fighting pit are shattered to ruin as they are punched through by two more shots.
And then the Hunter starts in on the mercs and the cybered hounds as they charge out to meet the advancing team. She feels bad for what has been done to them, what they may have suffered; but the dogs are on her 'better off dead' list, so they are her primary targets. Those helmets make standard headshots difficult, so she is limited to shots straight-on through eye sockets, or having to take out throats and leave the poor things drowning in their own blood.
It's cruel. But allowing an ally to be mauled by one of these things would be worse. Hunter sees and smells no sign of her people here. Not yet.
Oh.
Holy.
Shit.
The rush of emotions and -anger- that hits the albino upon seeing the horrorshow waiting for them all is too much for her to process. More than enough around this place triggers her PTSD even while the hellcat sees so many more of those nova hounds and -hungers-…
It's enough for -Armor- to scream. Hank lucked out by not having to deal with this.
Domino is just pleased as punch to have remembered the electronic earmuffs.
It's a belt two hundred rounds long in a gun about the weight of a manhole cover (and almost with ergonomics to match.) She barely aims. With a gun like this she doesn't have to. With her luck it's doubly so. She picks one end of the space inside and starts walking the LMG to the other like a goddamned 80's action hero, spitting out AP cored slugs, brass and steel links like they're going out of style. The muzzle flash causes the silvery sheen of her eyes to light up like wildfire and her yell is much closer to something born of the abyss than anything of this world.
Hunter's getting into the sweep as well, though every time she doesn't get a clean kill on a hound the hellcat takes notice…
The sudden surge of gunfire violence seems…okay, well beyond what Lexi usually deals with. Between Hunter murdering the vehicles and taking out the dogs, Armor rampaging and Domino seeing how many head shots she can pull off, she doesn't feel nearly as participatory, as the best she manages really is shooting one of the scientist looking guys in the knee.
Because she saw the poor dog being bolted onto and fuck that shit.
hat said, she sees Hank sprinting off by himself towards the APC, then growls and follows at a sprint herself. The other three totally have the base, right? Right. APC…maybe a bit more difficult by yourself.
Hank is pretty damn fast, but this is rough terrain, and he is making a small effort to stay out of sight. Regardless, he can smell Lexi's approach, the wind carrying her scent to him, so he slows just enough to let her catch up. "Can you take out the front tires? Once it is stopped I'll crush the engine compartment." His voice? Thick with growl, nostrils flaring, yeah…this is a lot different than his old manner, also…his claws are MUCH bigger and fully extended to three inches.
Nova Hounds are extremely tough, extremely powerful animals…the cyber hounds even more so between armor and cybernetic augmentation. Still, a shot through the eye is going to play merry hob with their brains, one hound goes down at that point, but the bigger, it literally grabs one of the mercs escorting it and uses the man as a screaming meat shield, to get closer…and then both the broken merc, and the Cybered hound goes down when a particularly well timed shot punches through the thing's throat. The gurgling, wet choking lost save for perhaps to the Hunter.
Domino's spray of bullets literally shreds several of the staff, one round deflecting off a girder to take out a woman in a lab coat working frantically on what looks to be a laptop.
Armor's frenzy leaves broken moaning bodies slumped against the walls, many of which will never move again.
And then from overhead a voice, a woman's voice. "Emergency override archimedes." One of the mercs gets a wide eyed look of horror. "Oh..fuck!" And then ALL the doors in the place open wide, and lock open. A far chamber shows a glimpse of hound pups being weaned…and here is where Hunter will finally smell one of her people…a mutant named Vitae. He's a kid, about fifteen, and though he's blind and deaf he has a powerful gift…he regenerates, a lot. In truth he doesn't even have eyes, but he can feel…and they are weaning the pups on him.
Two other scents are familiar, not nearly as powerful, but they're there too, Mink…who, you guessed it, has fur, that's it. That's her power, soft fur. She's minus a leg, and just sort of shocky…the last scent, mercifully, is dead. Loner, that's actually his name, his power was uncontrolled empathy…he felt everything around him, he couldn't stand to be around people for more than a few minutes.
Mercifully…here…he doesn't feel anything anymore.
The override /does/ free all the hounds, some eighteen or so beasts, not counting the dozen pups in the weaning room. There's still plenty of targets, and tucked away in a closet, a young man just hiding from the booms and the blood and the screams.
By this point, there's not even a hint of orange left in the energies which surround Hisako's real body; her armor is simply a blazing, brilliant red, and the armor itself has gotten significantly bigger since she busted in the door. Hearing the override announcement, seeing the doors lock open, seeing the additional hounds released …
The roof almost isn't high enough for her armor to fit. Not any more. She just hunkers down for the clearance she needs, alternately snarling and shrieking as she meets the newly-unleashed hounds, riding the crest of her anger and trying to bury the beasts underneath it.
Physically, she's mostly relying on simple and blunt brute force - trying to crush the monsters' skulls or necks with the force her armor can exert, be it pure psychokinetic pressure as she squeezes one in her armor's hand, or using a wall or the floor - or even, at one point, the *ceiling* - as an anvil to her hammerblows.
But she can only focus on one or two at a time, and there are well over a dozen beasts loose now. The faster they're extinguished, the better for everyone concerned.
There are no words. Just suddenly a bellowing roar torn from a throat not meant to carry it: the war cry of a tiger. The sniper's rifle is left behind as Hunter leaps from her high perch towards the cage that has been opened. Long, serrated, vicious knives come to Hunter's hands as she leaps into the fray, throwing hounds out of the way or slashing out throats with blows far more mighty than one should be able to gain with only the leverage of a human form.
The Hunter has come for her people. Let the chaff fall where it may.
You know the phrase 'short controlled bursts?' Yeah, not happening with Domino. This here is an all-out 'cook the oil and melt the barrel' fire sale.
Besides, it's not her gun!
As the first wave goes down a whole lot more start to emerge. Having four on the loose in the DZ seemed like a big enough crisis, this is totally bonkers!
When the LMG falls silent and falls to the ground something is amiss, though who would stop in the middle of such a fight to realize that Domino had dropped a gun that still visibly had ammo in it?
As it falls with a clatter she's switched out to a karambit, hacking into the nearest felled hound to a burst of crimson, more than enough to run her other hand through. Then the bloodied hand slides down her face, leaving a thin vertical line across forehead to nosetip with a little more swiped across the tip of her tongue.
The same blade quickly nicks open a line across each of her palms before the angry mercenary-turned something else sets both palms to the floor and snarls in a -most- inhuman way.
But Hunter and Armor are busy with their own problems, aren't they? Would they notice the woman who had fallen out of sight behind one of the operating tables or hear a sound which blends right in with everything else taking place?
Would they notice the thinnest wisps of what seems like white smoke trailing through the air, leaving the dead bodies to converge on one side of the room?
"Tires? Yeah, got it!" Whiplash shoots back to Beast as a pair of tendrils curl out from her upper arms, sliding down to draw the knives at her thigh and small of her back. As she gets close, both shoot out like scorpioin tail, driving the blades into the wheels with a good ton or so of force behind them…so hard that they likely cleave partway through before Lexi loses her grip on them as she dodges to the side to avoid the careening APC, two more tendrils sprouting from her back as she leans back and uses them to push herself into a high backflip.
Hank rather likes Lexi's style! Extra points for dramatic backflip. Even as she flips back, and the APC comes to a grinding halt, Hank is leaping just under Lexi, hell…she could probably hand spring off his head were she feeling saucy. Back arched, legs curled behind him, and massive fists upraised and behind him, he scissors his entire body into the blow when he lands, both fists /hammered/ into the engine compartment with all that momentum, and his considerable strength and mass behind it. The results are — to say the least — unpleasant for the guys in the APC as the entire vehicle is flipped, end over end to crunch between Hank and Lexi. From inside comes a low growl, and then the back doors are shattered as a Nova Hound, an adult with old battle scars, but no cybergear crashes through the buckled doors to land in a low snarl as Hank straightens. Out of the APC three heavily armed mercs emerge, and one obviously 'borged man, his exit impressive as he punches out the armored glass of the windshield and emerges, a red line in the kicked up dust tracking to Lexi, painting just over her heart with a trio of dots.
After the gunfire stops, there's only the broken monsters that Hisako felled, human and canid, the weeping and groans of the injured that cling to life. The stink of blood and death in here is nauseating. Diya's berserk attack kills a full dozen hound pups, three 'trainers' with shock-prods, and finds her kneeling by the catatonic Vitae and the shocky and weeping Mink. Her severed leg stump having been charred…probably with the shock-prods. Clearly, the handlers died to fast.
And then there's the Domino, she just happens to see a reflection off a piece of shattered glass as her senses start to return…it looks…yeah, there's a room near by, and there…shit, is that a timer counting down?
The most frightening thing is that … Hunter is not berserk. She is not wild. She is furious, it is true, angry beyond works even if she were willing to use them. She is just coldly, lethally intent. Trainers die first; shock prods aren't made to go in those places, but she can and does make them fit. The pups would have been fine, but they couldn't tell she wasn't food. They bit, and she had to do what she had to do. Most disturbing might be the whimpering one, hurt by its brothers and sisters and not yet put out of its misery. She turned its head away … permanently.
All of that done, the knives are shoved away. They can be cleaned later, damnit. "We go." she growls at Vitae and Mink, scooping up one in each arm and then bounding out of the caged area, sprinting — sheebus, she's fast when she wants to be - as she calls out "Vakuumirovaniye" with incredible volume.
As always, that Diya, a woman of few words.
Hey. Wasn't Diya wearing a backpack earlier?
Heat. Energy. -Warmth.- Domino hasn't felt this warm since having returned from the Abyss! If her face could flush it would, though she still perspires while reeling from the experience of a 'soul buffet.' The wounds on her hands aren't noticed while pushing back to her feet and stumbling a step or two, abruptly catching the edge of one of the stainless surgical tables with a light spatter of freshly drawn blood. She could just drop to the floor, curl into a little ball and sleep for the rest of the day.
But there's something else of interest. Something nearby. With her head hanging forward that chunk of glass lines up at the perfect angle to see some numbers silently ticking down. It draws her attention toward the room, the motions which carry her closer feeling more like she's sleepwalking. Everything just feels fucking -Fantastic.-
But what's this little thing, now..?
Then the pieces come together.
Hunter is calling for an evacuation but -she's not here.- It doesn't take a genius to realize that she would want to level this place all on her own. What happens if the energy of two bombs gets mashed into one?
"Prekratit', prekratit'!" Neena yells back while stumbling into the side room, frantically trying to find what it is that she's looking for. She does find it but it's NOT where the door is… The cover's flipped open and the button is pressed which results in a heavy blast door *slaming* closed with an unexpected abruptness. An instant later there's the tell-tale sound of numerous bolts exploding outward to lock the massive door into place, completely sealing up the lab.
The same lab which Neena is currently inside of.
A look of concern crosses the albino's face. "Nu…Der'mo."
The dust doesn't have long to settle in the wake of the frantic, mayhem-heavy melee; as they run out of enemies, Armor winds up panting for breath, still enshrouded in her crimson exo-armor, looking around. "Is everyone —"
Even if she had time to finish, it's clear enough that 'okay' or 'all right' aren't applicable to much of anyone, bad guys or good. Particularly given the way Hunter abruptly grabs two of the former captives and bailing out with a Russian exclamation. Domino disappears into the vault and closes its door behind her - intentionally or not, Hisako *really* can't tell.
Emergency override. She racks her brain briefly for what Archimedes was famous for, even as she reassesses who's still here and who might need rescuing and how much of a hurry she needs to do it in. The smartest merc in the bad guys' contingent bailed out of the room and survived …
They DO need somebody to answer questions, don't they? Armor calls out, "Anyone not out yet better *get* out!" and scales down long enough to dash through the door - and then scales up MUCH taller than the 'garage' is built for, bracing and grunting as psychokinetic force slams up against improvised architecture. A moment later, Hisako's armor is 20-plus feet tall, and she grabs the APC before legging it *over* the remaining building and back to where they were prepping for this very raid a couple of minutes earlier.
She probably doesn't want to smell the APC's interior at the moment.
Yeah, Predator-style dots over the heart, pretty bad news generally! Whiplash lands on the toes of her right foot, one hand coming up as the Aug in it sprays fire towards the emerging mercs as she shoots forwards, darting back and forth as the tendrils at her sides shove off on the ground to provide randomness to the movements as she bobs and weaves.
Her other arm hangs back, a third tendril curling out from her forearm, before with a snarl she plants both feet and side tenrils at once and shoves off in a coordinated, powerful spin, the lash at her arm cracking out like a battering ram as she sweeps it at the mercenaries and cyborg to try and knock them flying.
Even as Lexi is confronted with the 'borg and mercs, Hank is confronted with the last of the four Nova Hounds that RESCUE knew about, the Male. It growls low and throaty, spiked hackles raised and hide going red-black as it snarls. Hank's hackes raise in response, eyes gleaming as his blood surges with the -need- to defend, to rend, to tear. He /bellows/ a challenging roar, Diya will hear it easily, as will poor Lexi as she's closer, and then and the brute are grappling, Hank's clawed hands gripping massive jaws and forcing them wide.
The normal mercs are felled swiftly by Lexi's tendril's sweeps, one hitting his head on a broken piece of concrete leaving him bleeding and unconscious. The second cracks off a three round burst vaguely at Lexi, kicking up dust with ricochets of 5.56 AP badness, but little else before he is spun ass over teakettle into the side of the APC with bone breaking force times a lot. Number three /tries/ to dive for cover, his ankle snagged if Lexi wants, and she can give him the 'Puny God' treatment is so desired. The BORG, however is another matter. His arm is not even vaguely human formed, the 'hand' more of a claw like you'd see in heavy machinery. Mounted on it is a full fledged SMG, belt fed from a bulky backpack his cyber enhanced body can support. Fortunately the girl is very spry, and he's still a bit off kilter, blood from a head injury running into his remaining natural eye. Still, and SMG fires a lot of bullets with a deafening roar, tracers tracking closer and ever closer to the purple Haze.
Diya's satchel charge is already primed, and she has two wounded, HER people, horribly and cruelly tortured…no, no time to abort, sorry Domino. She does manage to get her fellows out even as super acute senses can surely hear the fracas outside. Vitae is /sobbing/ with relief from /not/ being eaten alive…nose running, convulsed with relief and agony both. Mink is just…still, quiet.
And then Domino is sealed into that side room, 'well…shit' indeed!
Rearing up and tossing that APC, Hisako is able to get the /smart/ merc out, a chance stomp opening a sealed up supply locker, and dumping out a kid, looks like a trainee, who scrambles out in terror.
Time seems to slow as the building is evacuated…and then a huge compressing wave, two in fact, one spewing death and ballbearings, the other just fire and judgement itself. The building is /leveled/, it actually sinks several feet, and it seems there's little chance of /anything/ save maybe Hisako surviving it.
In the clear, if only barely, Diya gets Mink and Vitae back to the rally point, then kneels and cradles them against her body as she awaits the others. She has no idea - yet - that anyone was left behind. She told everyone to run. She checks first on Mink, making sure her heartbeat is strong despite the wound, and yanks off a belt to apply a torniquet. They must find the powers behind this operation. Hopefully the others found some measure of evidence; all she found was evidence of spreading misery.
The last few seconds are a blur for the albino. Muscles feel disconnected from her brain which feels disconnected from HER. Maybe there's an override to the countdown, maybe there's a hatch or something she could use for shelter, hell maybe she can -damage the system- somehow —
Or maybe Domino can go down with the proverbial ship.
A quick pat proves that she still has her RESCUE ID badge in all of its bright orange glory. Okay, there's that. Maybe someone can find the signal and dig out whatever —
"Whup!"
Neena trips over something.
Then her world ends in fire.
There's a yelp from Armor as the compression wave sweeps her off her feet; the psychokinetic armor may be big, but it's not *heavy* - Hisako herself is on the petite side, and while she's carrying an APC, the explosion would have sent *it* flying too, in one piece or several. Fortunately, Hisako has done this often enough to recover from the unintended boost, landing a little ways past the point she'd meant to touch down, and placing the APC down on its wheels, rather than dropping it along the way.
*Then* she de-armors, letting out a deep breath as the field of energy shrinks around her, then dissipates into nothingness, leaving the young woman on her hands and knees as she pants for breath. Adrenaline's a marvelous thing for Keeping On Going in a crisis, but it still exacts its toll on the back end …
Lexi drops in a crouch, her tendril hurling the last merc over her head to smash into the ground then go end over end towards his companions before she's scuttling along the ground, diving for cover behind a rock as a spray of SMG fire pings into the rocks around her, her AUG coming up empty as the clip runs dry. She pauses behind her cover to switch it out, eyeing a neat hold through the side of her leg. "…ow." The injury slowly cease to bleed as her body tightens off capillaries and flexes around it to act as a compression bandage. She gets on her toes, gripping the rock with her tendrils as she pulls, propelling herself over and forward like she's fired from a catapult, another spray of fire coming at the cyborg as she tries to close with him….
Just in time for the concussive wave from the massive explosion to bat her out of the air as she goes flying end over end, landing heavily.
Debris rains down from the remains of the building, the cyborg actually able to hold his ground as metal taloned feet dig into the ground. "Hah!" He crows…and then a section of wall lands on him with a wet crunch of broken bones and a minor explosion as the plant powering his cyberlimbs detonates. Hank and the other beast rip and tear at each other in a savage contest of 'who's the bigger monster'…and then the compression wave hits and sends them both rolling across broken pavement. The pain drives Hank into the background, his fury fully unleashed, and *CRACK* just like that the creature's jaws are broken with enough violence to separate the lower jaw entirely from the thing. Battered, howling and whining in agony, it has time to look up as the Beast's foot stomps down on its head to pulp it with a moist splatter of brains and bone and gore.
Utterly feral, he turns, bleeding wounds and battered by the fight and tumble, then turns to see a mauve form that smells of blood and pain. Hank lopes over, eyes barely sentient…and then slowly his awareness returns, for a moment though…pure savage, it was a very close thing. "Here…" He husks. "…let me help you…" He bends to help Lexi, stumbling to a knee, and then checking her for injuries.
Timidly, from inside the APC, a voice. A very very small voice. "May I come out please?"
And no, there's no sign of Domino. Everyone else is accounted for, even the kid who was hiding…but not Dom.
Once she can assure herself that Mink will live, Hunter leaves she and Vitae with water to drink under cover, and then goes loping back into the devastation, looking for the others. The armor girl, Lexi, the Beast, and Domino. She expected everyone else to come out with her. That they have not is worrisome.
Hisako looks up - carefully NOT looking towards the burning, smoking ruins that used to be an unauthorized, illegal, and insanely unethical laboratory - and stares at the recovered APC for a moment, then gets to her feet, a little shakily. "You're not going anywhere, except with us," she replies raggedly. "If you surrender and you promise to assist us - considering your bosses just tried to kill you too - then yes, you may."
Lexi is just coming back to her feet as the cyborg brings his weapon around and….splat.
Well. Not exactly the epic fight she was imagining, but she'll take it!
She straightens up, wincing a bit as Hank, all gory, wanders over. "'s fine. I won't bleed out." she says, flexing her fingers as she shoulders her AUG, tendrils swirling back into her body to leave dark purplish swirls behind on her skin. "Just went through the meat." Yeah,s he's acting brave, but when the adrenalin wears off, she's going to be feeling that…
Hank nods, just a bit, and then chin points to the Kennel's former location. "You want a lift?" If she does, he'll set her on a shoulder, either way, he lopes a bit raggedly back to the rest of the group.
The merc is quiet inside a few moments, and then the door opens, and his weapons harness and weaponry, ammo, everything drops to the ground, and then he follows after, kneeling with ankles crossed and hands behind his head. "I don't know much, but what I know…is yours." On his fatigues can be seen a name patch 'T. Herman'. "I…surrender."
Later on, some nebulous while later, Domino's eyes open to darkness, a hood over her head, her body an aching mass of bruises, cuts, scrapes, and burns. Of course…she woke up, that's a HUGE step in the right direction, AND she can feel everything…so she's intact, has a couple of cracked ribs, maybe a hairline fracture of the ulna, but…hey, beats being dead!
A voice in the darkness. "Ah…a mutant, good." A cultured sounding feminine voice devoid of humanity. "Fit her with a shock collar…" And then the touch of a hypo-spray, and oblivion follows.