Summary:RESCUE (mostly) to the rescue! Domino is snatched from the clutches of the vile Cyberian in Part II of the Arena. Still, the cyberpath was not captured, this is not over…yet. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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It has been a LONG — gods, how many days? Fuck if Dom knows. She woke up in surgery, her wounds being essentially /fused/ shut by some sort of beamed energy ray. Anesthetics? What are Anesthetics? Still, they do the trick, though she'll have a lovely new collection of scars. Ushered away she was treated a bit less kindly than a dog in a fighting kennel with two exceptions - she got good, albeit brutal, medical care and she got plenty to eat, lots of protein to help her rebuild damaged muscle, replace lost blood.
Each day after the first two while she healed she had to put on a show, each day they hit her with the shock collar until she did as needed - fighting (and eating the soul of) a younger Nova Hound (Yeah, she learned their real name) armed only with a single karambit, the next day it was a free for all against two other metas - one guy had fire power, literally, the other just healed really fast. Yesterday it was an Adult Nova Hound - she got a boar spear. She got a little treat after, a package of Ding Dongs, gee..thanks.
Then there's today. That robot bitch yammering, herself inside The Cage the femme-bot prancing about on it, her image projected from multiple screens around it. "WELCOME, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! Lords and Ladies! Damen und Herran to the CYBERIAN /GAMES/!"
Across the pit? Some /FUCKED/ up chick…naked but for barbed wire coiled all around her, the barbs puncturing her eyes a nice touch, blood flowing and yet…she is alert.
Up above the others can see the femme-bot raise her hand high overhead, and then she floats upwards in gorgeous pirouette. Her voice /throbs/ through the air as the crowd goes wild. "Death Spot versus our reigning CHAMPION — BARBIE! FIGHT!"
And then the girl /twirls/, barbed wire strands lashing about as she does, going for the Domino.
*
Up above at the end of the service tunnel, the Hunter leans up against Posse and whispers, "Call friends. Not getting out quiet." She puts the neuro-inhibitor dart pistol away and pulls up to the edge of the tunnel, seizing the bars in both hands, bearing down as she starts pushing, her body rippling, muscles bulking up, a subsonic rumble building, echoing …
*
There will be time to process everything later. There will be time to sort through emotional states and physical injuries and how many people are going to receive how many bullets in their heads for this circus later.
For now there's some blind looking bitch covered in prehensile barbed wire coming at her and there's weapons to be had on the other side of the ring. Gotta get past 'Barbie' to reach them. In Dom's world nothing else matters.
To anyone outside of her world Neena
looks
like
Hell.
The barbed wire quickly fills the ring and covers the distance between the two occupants, even more wire sprouting and flickering about in the ring with an obvious degree of control from the wielder. Those animated metal tendrils act like Barbie's own limbs.
Diving and rolling is the only way to keep from getting shredded in the first wave. The opening few seconds turn into a mad frantic rush of motion as the albino tries to simply get out of the way of so many attacks following atypical paths. Piece by piece those barbs start to nick away at an already shredded thermal suit, bringing fresh blood with them.
Then the mercenary makes a grab for one of the whip-like coils, ignoring how it digs into her hand as she twists and gives it a harsh yank. Anything to disrupt Barbie here long enough to reach a weapon…
*
Watching invisibly through an overhead grate, Posse's countenance is masked by the hologram field bending light around her body as she takes in the scene. Spot, front and center, isn't hard to find, and after the barbed misfortune is the announcer, the cage, the audience and guards, the make-shift arena's entrance and exits. The stench wafting up to them is /awful/ and it's got the operator's heart pounding in a way Diya can smell, but rather than freezing up, bit by bit targets are being marked with colored shapes in the team's virtual HUD.
A hand grabs the sniper's shoulder and pulls back twice as the cyborg whispers back, "Don't you fucking dare. Need them in position." Then, at first crawling backwards, Posse raises to a crouch and slinks back out of the access corridor and back to the main tunnel before keying her radio. An audio broadcast is sent along with a panoramic still image captured by her eye, along with the markers she's added to entrances, weapons, a hasty first pass at key targets, and of course, Spot. "<Move to my position. We're making a hole.>"
*
Thea's actually home, for a change, when her phone pings.
Text: Miss Harmon, we've gotten a lead on our missing friend - your presence would be greatly appreciated. Highest urgency, but currently in recon stages. Coordinates for Rally Point to follow. Repeat: Highest Urgency. - HM
Text :It's Harman. OMW. Fully loaded. -T
Thea's long used to quick changes and rolling out. So what had been a leggings and t-shirt day is now battle gear, her clothing leather and reinforced, weaponry of different shapes, sizes and uses strapped and tucked and hidden along her person. She's braiding her hair on the way out of her building, backpack bumping against her spine. She's not sure what she'll see as she heads to the rally point.
Text: What do we know so far? -T
*
"Standing by…I brought something extra to help." Toni's voice says over the comms. "Tell me when you want the distraction." Because if you're going to come in through the roof anyway, you might as well do it as a distraction for the rest of the team coming through the grate.
*
Meanwhile, back on the Bearcat, Armor is waiting with a measure of anxiety. The last time she went up against the people who presumably have Domino, it was … unpleasant. Not that she enjoys fighting, but it comes with the territory of being a superhero and she's getting better at it over time. She'd *prefer* to punch things that aren't going to splatter into blood and other goopy bits - whether that means purely mechanical enemies, or humans who can be incapacitated without excessive bleeding. The beasts from the Kennel were … neither.
So she's distracting herself by re-reading bits of _The Tale of the Heike_, and glancing up every few sentences to make sure she hasn't missed any reports from the advance team. Presumably, when the word comes that she needs to drop the book and go punch real things, there won't be any confusion on the call to action. During one of those self-inflicted interruptions, she looks over at Beast and Io … and realizes she has no idea *what* to say to either of them.
*
One probably doesn't need to say anything to Io - she doesn't people nearly as well as most people people, afterall. She isn't reading anything. Or, chatting much. Instead, she's communing. Or, at least, that's the impression she gives. One hand is against the bearcat's side while the other is resting behind her head and her eyes are closed, and her feet are kicked up in a relaxed fashion as she's leaning back. She seems at peace with the world, and herself.
The blue-haired punk girl is letting Hank do all the piloting while she seems to be chatting it up, in her head, with the lovely creature they rescued not too long ago.
*
Down in the cage, the fight rages, almost a cloud of writhing and whirling barbed wire spinning out. Some of the wires tangle with the cage, letting the woman move almost as if in flight, albeit in fits and starts. "Gonna die, bitch." Barbie snarls. "Shred you like the rest…bathe in yer guts. Barbie-grater is greater than Death Spot, G spot?" Uh…yeah, this lady is NOT right in the head.
A hiss of rage as she is pulled off balance, and this allows Dommie to roll, and scoop up…ooooh…a ceramic machete! Yeah, this could work.
The announcer-bot simply floats, her optics showing every gory detail on the massive screens.
Down below there are a ton of mercs, and a half dozen more fighters, half of them Hunter's missing mutants. They're dressed like they belong on the set of one of the Road Warrior films, one massive guy actually wearing car tire sections for pauldrons!
Up in the Bearcat, Hank moves to the controls next to the pilot, activating comms. /Copy, Chief…we're en route, eta one minute./
A line is dropped down for Thea, and then once she's aboard the Bearcat he looks to the pilot. "Proceed, please."
Hank then moves to the doorway, prepared to just just jump free when the distraction is arranged. Over the coms. /Posse has lead, we go on her mark./
*
The tugs on her shoulder cause the tense, bulging sniper to turn her head, the glowing amber backlight overtaking the emerald of her eyes as she stares at — or is that through? — Posse. Wait? But the Hellcat is down below. The Hellcat is in danger! But the soldier still inside Hunter claws her way back to the surface, nodding jerkily. "Ninety." That's all the time she is giving this; at that rate, even the lucky Hellcat may already be dead.
The grumble of frustrated anger builds, as Hunter waits, counting in her head as she waits and watches. Those are Her People down there. Hers! And the rumble builds again. Builds, and starts to take over.
At a count of sixty Hunter has seized the bars again, straining, wrenching, pushing for all she is worth. She is incredibly strong and powerful … but not powerful enough. But instinct inside demands that she can do this. She CAN! And the growl, the rumble of barely-contained rage builds.
Her muscles bulge.
Her flesh ripples.
Her body convulses upright as her skin seems to split apart, dark oranges and blacks ripple across the surface. And then … and then fur starts to seep out through her pores.
Bones twist.
Tendons snap.
Joints wrench and re-align.
Clothing tears, seams splitting, unable to contain her.
At about a count of ninety-three, the misshapen creature finally twists the bulging mass of back and shoulders, claws punched down into concrete for stable footing, and the reinforced concrete shatters, the bars are ripped out of place, the entire grate tearing away as the stonework crumbles … and then with a mighty roar, the whole disc of metal is hurled right at the MC-bot, as the half-woman, half-tigress LEAPS from the tunnel … and falls right down into the fighting pit, leading the way with a spray of bullets all zeroed in on the core of Barbie and her barbed wire!
*
The bundle of wire in Domino's hand gets flicked away after off-balancing Barbie only to receive a deep gash across the side of her face as the wire whips dangerously close to the non-spotted eye. It pulls a quick grunt from the albino as she rolls across the floor and swipes the machete from its resting point.
"Just a little" she seethes under a breath as metallic eyes widen in anticipation of the hunt. "Just a little."
The next wire tendril to wander too close to Neena gets hacked apart, one chunk falling to the floor and writhing about as blood starts to drip from the severance.
Barbie bleeds. A vicious grin forms across Neena's face. Things are so much easier to understand when they bleed!
Where one tendril falls more are to follow. Barbie is NOT going to be pleased. Neena's taking the defensive, any time something edges toward her Barbie gets to pull back a stump. All she has to do is keep hacking away until—
They're growing back. Sonuvabitch they're -growing back.- So much for that plan!
Aching muscles protest to another diagonal flip through the air, leaping over another swipe of wire as the machete gets flung toward Barbie's chest. Before the blade has a chance to hit, miss, or be deflected the pale lady is charging toward the blind lady with the intention of both retrieving the machete then using it to hack away at something much more vital to the other meta's well being.
It might have worked if not for that whole 'regeneration' deal. When the two metas connect in the ring -every last piece of wire- snaps inward like a giant Cthulhuian mousetrap with Domino being one very entangled mouse. If the bleeding of a hundred and one puncture wounds don't do her in then the wire currently strangling her might do the trick.
And yet… This leaves Neena in the perfect position to see what's going on up above. As those metallic eyes start to flicker from strangulation..she feigns a grin.
Then she pushes some of that barbed wire against the shock collar and sets the fucker off.
*
Posse grits her teeth and taps an invisible button in her AR overlay. That one's going into the after-action report. Then she moves hastily back down the tunnel to watch alongside… Diya…
At first, a hand finds the woman's shoulder again and squeezes to try pulling her back to reality but as the rumbling sound swells and the metahuman begins to visibly grow, the cyborg backs off while trying to keep half of a view, and her readied pistol, on Neena's fight below.
Not taking any extra chances, Hank's hail when he arrives is met by an immediate "<Go>" while Posse watches the enlarged creature that was a blonde drop ghillie suit and all into the arena and begin to rampage. A string of neurodarts follow at her back helping to pepper a couple soft targets before the camouflaged cyborg drops in after her, descending as little more than a wavering ripple through the air and making a bee-line for the bloodied albino.
*
Above the location of the hidden arena, a massive figure shifts on top of a nearby building, as a projector…well, let's call it a cannon, rotates up over the shoulder with the hum of servos as it crouches, shifting as a targeting dot appears over the ground…or ceiling, for those below it. With a hum of power, the concussion cannon builds energy, before with a tremendous *WHOOM!* of energy a blue bolt of energy crashes out, neatly disintegrating a good chunk of the area explosively.
Followed by jets firing as the towering figure lifts off in a short jump, then cuts engines above the weakened material…and just crashes right through, bringing down a good chunk of the ceiling as it abrumpt plummets into the fighting area, landing with a powerful crunch as a shower of dust and falling rock hide it from view for a moment.
Until it stands with a whine of artificial muscle, taking a step forward with a *clump* of heavy metal boots, blue optics gleaming to life as the towering Mark IV Iron Patriot steps forwad, raising its arms as weapons panels pop open along its forearms and shoulders.
"WE INTERRUPT YOUR REGULAR SCHEDULED PROGRAM FOR A NEW CHALLENGER."
Toni's voice booms from the speakers, before she opens fire, stun lasers blazing across the the guards in the area.
*
With Beast moving to the Bearcat's hatch, Armor marks her page and closes the book up, tucking it safely away before forming up behind Hank. "Here we go," she murmurs in English, followed by a brief phrase of Japanese, under her breath - most likely a prayer, short as it may be.
She doesn't bother with a parachute either; instead, she plummets in her regular human form, only armoring up as she *passes* ground level - right through the hole that Iron Patriot so kindly created for her and Beast.
And that surrounds Hisako with her namesake power right in time to grab the MC-bot from where the thrown grate embedded her (it?) in the wall, like yanking a fresh apple off of its low-hanging branch. All those cameras certainly *look* like an oversight and coordination unit; blinding the bad guys is almost never a bad idea, so Armor crushes the MC-bot into the ground at the bottom of her fall, reddish-orange exo-armor surrounding the mutant girl as she hovers within its torso.
*
"Things are going to get - complicated," mutters Io, as her mind reaches out. Suddenly the relaxed look on her features tighten, her mouth drawing into a thin line, her brow creasing. "Okay, fucktards." Knuckles can be heard cracking as she flexes her fingers outwards against themselves in a web and she leans forwards, eyes scrunched. "As Darkwing Duck once said, It's Time To Get Dangerous. Let's go."
It doesn't look like she's doing shit, really. Maybe, to an onlooker, it might look like she's trying to mime someone with constipation, if anything. But - well, she's doing quite a lot. Quite a whole lot, in fact.
She can feel the wealth of technology below, but also feel a lot of it being 'masked', like hearing someone's voice but not be able to really make out what they're saying and not being able to see them either. She knows they're there. But /something/, or someone, is hiding it all from her. Or, most of it.
She makes a grunt, then sends all of her mental prowess forth.
Her mind splits, segments, and she's off to the races as she commands one of the gauss weapons to fire prematurely - switching off the safety and firing it while it's pointed down at the user's foot. Another node of mind is sent surging forth towards two of the cyberhounds - voices she can hear but not understand. It's not a probe she's sending either. It's a full on slam-the-police-ram-against-the-door-to-knock-it-down as she full-on challenges the one masking these from her senses with full-on bravado. Her own laptop, a creation of her design and quite possibly something fires to life and starts codelines as her brain runs it to do a hard-line hacking of the computer systems - attacking that mystery-entity on not just the technopathic front but through the ethernet as well, a full-on and sudden systematic attack.
And just for shits and giggles? Just to throw everything out of whack? To add a measure of WTF and Elemental Chaos? The Darkwing Duck themesong suddenly starts blaring over the PA system. Because fuck you, other technopath.
*
The sudden removal of that barred and heavily reinforced steel and concrete grate is not unnoticed. Masonry falls, some of the audience struck, maybe killed. When it is flung like a discus of death at the femme-bot, she pivots in shock - taking the hit mid torso and hurled the length of the room to impact with a wall in a shower of sparks, and and buckling of her armored plating. Buckling…but not /destruction/, not disabling. From every speaker in the room, people's phones, the PA system, the video system, even people's comms. «The Arena has been breached—Emergency! Emergency! Emergency! All fighters, scramble…kill the intruders!»
And then the hybrid form of Hunter hits the top of the dome, fortunately the only part not covered by razor wire, and she rips a hole right through it.
Bullets spray as she drops into the pit, Barbie dancing with every impact, bright red spraying from her as some shots go through and through. "Ooh! /NOW/ it is a PAR-Tay!" She almost seems to be /enjoying/ the pain. "First things first…" She gives Domino a BIG ole hug! Laughing right up to the point where she is electrocuted…as /both/ of them are electrocuted when the entire charge in that collar is released. /That/ is not something she can laugh off. So? She screams. A lot. Her wounds? Yeah, they're closing, but the electrical burns seem to be much more sluggish about it.
Prophetic words really - more rubble is blasted into the panicking and fleeing mass of patrons, even a couple of the guards. By the hounds, one young girl, filthy, tangled dark hair sits and rocks next to her assigned cybered Nova Hound. The thing looks to her as the voice from above calls the alarm, and then she sighs, and opens the cage to let the the thing out, indeed, all six of the Borg Hounds are released, and then the fighters in the other cages, and they all converge on she-tigress and pincushioned murder cookie (Domino), and the Iron Patriot. The guy with the shoulder pauldrons from Michelin? He /grins/ and then grows to nigh twelve feet in height, bald pate, impossible musculature, and advances on the threats…he's not The Hulk, but he might just be close enough for government work.
The MC-Bot is /crushed/ by Hisako's attack, yup, the lights dim, plastic and cybernetics crushed. But the will animating it? That is altogether too busy dealing with Io's assault to care too much. «Oh…» A mind-voice purrs in the fight, something that's gender-ambiguous. «…welcome, sister. Really…you shouldn't be fighting me, we are kindred! Join me and make beautiful tech together.» The tones are seductive, but that mind is tearing at Io's in their cyberbwar, their unseen battlefront of 1s and 0s. At every point where Io strikes, a spawned copy of the Cyberian is there, grappling with her efforts, blunting them, and launching her own attacks…viruses, DDOS bursts to try and freeze her out, power surges to short out compromised systems. But the pace is frenetic. Things get through, that poor guard blows his damn foot off and part of the shin when the gauss needler sprays hundreds of hypervelocity steel darts into it. The music…damn it…the Cyberian can't stop that fucking song!
Posse takes out three guards in as many seconds, neuro darts work really well on soft targets, the crowd is panic stricken, several of the wealthy folks trampled as they retreat the general melee and in panic of the she-tigress' aura of menace. Other guards drag out gauss needlers, most of the guards pulling conventional weaponry, SMGs mostly, the occasional shotgun as chaos reins.
Up in the Bearcat, Hank looks to two of the REACT soldiers. "Stay here, protect this vehicle and her." He chin points to Io. Then he turns to Thea, and offers her a lift down to the fight. When she accepts he picks her up, and then jumps into the hole a few seconds after Armor did, deflecting off the walls a couple times on the way down, and then landing next to the cage. Gently, he sets the biokinetic down, and then he snarls, freeing the beast inside to rage. Massive hands grab the bars, hands sliced by razor wire, and then his muscle bunch as with a snarl he tears a hole open, and makes way for Thea.
There's a whole lot going on, but Thea has one target, and one only. Well, for the moment. As soon as Hank brings her down like a gentleman and makes way for her, she'll slip on in. She's not huge, or cyber enhanced, though she has a gun in her dominant hand and her favorite K-bar in the other.
Her chin comes up, as she sheds the usual dampening effect she keeps on her powers to keep them from telling her every single thing about the bodies of those around her. Domino will start to feel that once all too familiar heated tingle, those puncture wounds reducing, forcing the barbs out as the biokinetic heals her once partner in crime.
Then - it's on the Barbie. She bleeds, and that's all Thea needs. Her powers will reach out, tearing at injuries as she increases the blood pressure, pulling and trying to bleed the bitch out.
*
Inside the cage the ginormous figure of Hunter/Amur Khatun/Diya hyrbid unloads the rest of the magazine of her SMG into the barbed-wire wielding Barbie. But when the woman is then cooked with the charge from Domino's collar, the tiger-woman roars, recognizing the difference between a true pain reaction and the odd masochistic pleasure of earlier. She rises up, huge, and grabs the pistol from the web belt, firing three of those neuro-inhibitor darts into Barbie as she still smokes, then tucking away the weapon as she turns, all twelve-plus feet of her, and ROARS!
But this roar is not just the wordless cry of an angry rating tigress. It is words. WORDS! "PRIDE! PRIDE TO ME!" she bellows, as another magazine slams into the SMG. Then she turns, takes aim - her sight is so incredibly accurate now - and fires. One at a time, she takes aim at those manning the needler gauss weapons. THE SMG may not be her sniper rifle, but it has the range for this; the hardest thing is the range with only an iron sight, but with her enhanced vision she can do it.
The raging, murdering tiger woman shows no hesitation, no fear of the hounds released, nor the fighters set out against them. She is here for the Hellcat, and here for her people. And now her people are being sent to her. She can work with that!
*
Domino is so not having a good week. There's a crud ton of blood from -both- of the combatants thanks to Hunter perforating the daylights out of Barbie to which she just LAUGHS about it. Then there's the searing agony of them both getting zapped. Then after THAT the albino is still dealing with the Spiky Death Cuddle.
But at least she can breathe again! Sort of!
When Iron Patriot drops down into the ring there's a pink stained grin from the pale lady as she croaks out "Hi, boss."
Then the situation evolves once again as an all too familiar feeling surrounds her. It's the first and only time the hellcat doesn't immediately resist the biokinetic's efforts as the wire is pulled away and the wounds pressed closed. It's still quite the effort to disentangle herself from the knotted mass but if it involves scratching or gouging herself in the process then so be it, Thea's already working to remove the damage.
Meanwhile Barbie is bleeding up a storm thanks to Thea.
And Neena's got a ceramic machete again.
"What's spiky and a foot shorter?" Dom rasps before the blade cleaves through the air—
—and straight through Barbie's neck.
The world may never know if those three darts fired from Hunter would have done the trick or not.
*
Just after the blade connects, the *crack* of gunfire from a foot away adds two red holes into the woman before an arm yanks the albino backwards with a startling force.
"It's time to go, Spot," Posse instructs in the woman's ear while into her free hand she presses the familiar polymer of a pistol grip.
*
"Huh."
This is mostly Toni's remark to the main growing to huge heights as she analyzes him. Well, he looks physically tought and he's huge, so. "Concussion Beam, half power." Toni's hud blinks in acknowledgement, drawing a target on the huge man's solar plexus, before with another *WHOMP* a blast of force streaks out, like a superpowered punch to the breadbasket. "Secondaries, lock kennels…" she adds as she sees the doors opening, as the smaller turret launchers on her shoulder rotate smoothly as the HUD designates targets, then with a series of *pfftpfftpfft* pepper gas grenades are dispensed, exploding on top of the oncoming enemies…though careful to avoid where Hunter is rampaging through the locals or other RESCUE personnel.
*
"Thanks," Armor calls out to Iron Patriot as the force-blast shoves Tire-Shoulders back - right to where Armor can close in on the big guy, her own armor steadying up at twelve feet tall or so - and then she lashes out with a punch, a textbook right hook for the big baldy's chin.
She doesn't stop there, although Armor's measuring her own force so she doesn't start knocking pieces off of her chosen opponent. Both of them are considerably sturdier than the architecture, so by the time she swings for the second or third time, the wall's given way behind him, and Armor keeps on coming as long as her opponent remains on his feet. She's not above cheap shots, either, so there's going to be at *least* one knee for the big bozo's dangly bits - to keep him off-balance if nothing else.
The psychokinetic construct of her 'armor' is also a bit lighter than it was on first entry: not the normal yellow of when she's calm and focused, but definitely more orange than the red that gives away her anger.
*
As the Darkwing Duck theme song ends, Io gives her 'answer' to the Cyberian's offer to join forces. A new song starts playing loudly over the PA for everyone to clearly hear: Lily Allen's: 'Fuck You' (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4NHXvQEOok). The cheery beat, the happy tone in which the song slings insults and Io's answer is contradictory in regards to the violence that's going on below. But, the lyrics are a perfect response to the offer posed to her - and the events transpiring. Yeah. She's not letting go of control of that PA system. This is the unspoken price RESCUE pays for having Io along. Through Io's tension of expression, her lips quirk momentarily. If she hears Hank, or anything else going on in the Bearcat, she doesn't give any indication whatsoever.
Meanwhile, one part of Io's mind is playing 'Snake' as she fights for dominance against the Cyberian. She's adding a component here, moving there. A bit at a time. A game of duck and parry, she, moving the 'snake' of her attacks as the walls are put up - but that snake getting longer, and longer all the time with it's code. Building it up for not just a ram-attack, but a full on C-4 Navy Seal Breech with explosions and a task force armed with heavy weapons when she's good and ready.
She lets the Cyberian into one of her systems the other is trying to hack, then closes it off, a prepared trap - more for a physical hacker but it will keep the Cyberian busy for a few precious seconds at any rate - and as soon as that is breached she flips off the power switch to the secondary computer.
Io lets go of the two hounds she was trying to hack, suddenly, and slams her attention to two other hounds. Keeping the Cyberian on her toes, and - almost cheerfully antagonizing the other mind on the end of the fight to grow even more frentic, and emotional.
And, in time with the song that's blaring on the loudspeakers, Io's head bobs back and forth, and she mutters, "Huh. And they're paying me for this shit." Yep. Io's actually having fun, for once.
So, part of her mind is attacking the central hub with the physical-hack-coding-snake-game. Two others are on the hounds. A fourth is dominating the PA system and letting her Troll spirit run wild. A fifth and sixth is fending off the CYberian attacks on her fronts and playing with her. That leaves one final bit of mindscape left that she can allocate to a task. This one a far more sublt command. She targets a third cybernetic dog - and this one she doesn't try to override - at least, not in the same way she's doing with the others. This time? She just tells the heatsink cooling the CPU to shutdown, while not doing a damn thing to any of the other systems. The only bad thing is she's completly out of touch with all her teammates - however, they have their own comm system if they really need her to reach her on.
*
Bright blood sprays with great verve when the biokinetic focuses on Barbie, and man does the girl /heal/…three darts hit her, slowing her down, several more gunshots not bothering her very much at all, then again she's WRAPPED IN LIVING BARBED WIRE. It is /part/ of her, some truly vile sicko having modified the girl to be this freakish, broken thing. And then her head is separated from her shoulders - cutting blade cutting words from Spot, and Posse's double-tap to the head makes sure she's down for the count.
The roar from Amur-Diya /literally/ shakes the arena, a couple light fixtures coming loose, and then *pop* pop *POP* the last three guards with the needlers each sprout new wounds…two gaining a third eye, one having taken through his left eye, they all fall, never to rise again. The bellowed words stop three of the fighters cold…a woman with glossy silver skin and glowing eyes stopping a moment, and then blasting the shock collar off the other two mutants with energy from her eyes, the sheen of her body dimming as she does, but then recovering. One of the mutants freed is rushes to Silver's side, hands very carefully to the woman's collar. "Crumble." He husks in a voice like tearing leather. And the collar does. Ruin looks to Amur-Diya then and nods slowly. The last mutant isn't even one of the fighters, she's the little girl handler, and she just beams, and tears streaming from her eyes ruining her perfection of filthy cheeks, her eyes /blaze/, and then all of the non-cybered Nova Hounds turn to face her, poised…and then they attack the mercs. "Pride." Whispers the Newt.
The REACT team acts as ordered, two kept on station in the Bearcat, the other four rappeling down to take up elevated positions to rain fire down on the enemy. And then the pepper bombs hit the cyberhounds, and they go mad. All save one…with a hiss its CPU melts…and it staggers…then falls, panting for air it can't quite get. Whimpering.
BAM! That Concussion blast sends the Tire Shoulders into the Cage wall, yeah, he cracked a couple ribs, in a true act of teamwork Armor finishes the job, her knee to his dangly bits giving her the last moment she needs to knock him the hell out, half buried in the wall, and then shrinking to actually about half Hisako's mass as he slumps.
For Io this fight is entirely in realms that only computers and cyberpaths can even imagine! The Cyberian is damn good too, a very powerful mind, highly skilled with lots of experience but time after time after time Io out thinks, out codes…and so Cyberian shifts to defensive works, and in a bunker some miles away, a bloated, and misshapen hand reaches for a control board. "Fuck me?" Rasps a palsied voice. "FUCK YOU."
A pinpoint of light appears in the center of the Arena, crimson energy too bright to look at, many times brighter than the sun, and it expands to roughly a two meter sphere. When it blinks out, all that is visible is green sphere, perhaps the size of an apple, some sort of fluid inside as it starts to fall.
Posse and many of the others will recognize the sphere, the thing is part of a truly vile weapon system, one banned by every right thinking government on Earth. That's /probably/ Sarin gas.
Raging still, Hank starts tearing bars from the wall of the cage, shredding his hands sometimes on the razor wire, and then hurling the bar like a crude javelin backed by /twenty/ tons of force, magnified by a roughly five foot lever. Two cyberhounds are pinned to the wall of the room, they are not getting up again.
*
Now that Dom has taken care of Barbie, Thea is allowed to focus elsewhere - where people are hurt. Hank's hands will feel warm, tingling, even as he tears things apart and throws them as weapons. But she's hurrying towards Domino, and most of her powers are surging towards the albino. Healing her - even days old injuries, things not properly healed- That's the focus.
Then there's that blindingly bright light, and Thea pauses, eyes turned away. She uses her powers instead, to keep track of who is where.
*
The towering behemoth of Hunter-tiger leaps to cover her Pride members as they come to the arena, joining her protection. With the needlers disabled because their shooters are dead, she concentrates her efforts on taking out anyone or anything else daring to threaten her people - to which she has at least temporarily added the rest of the RESCUE-recruited operators. Cyberhounds charge! But then they collapse. Non-cybered hounds charge! But they aim instead at the remaining mercs. So the gigantic tiger woman bounds forward again and scoops up Newt, cradling her against her furred body as they turn the tide of battle bloodily.
Then there's a blinding flash of light. But Hunter-tiger 'sees' as much with her nose and her ears as she does with her eyes. "Out! Out now!" she roars. "Sergey Nikolay!" Sorry. For those not aware, that's the Russian phoenetic alphabet. Posse would be more familiar with 'Sierra November'. But 'SN' is the letter code stencilled onto ancient chemical weapons ordinance with sarin gas.
The tiger-woman does exactly what she herself says, extending an arm to wrap it around two more of her Pride members and crouching down way low to allow the last to wrap his arms around her neck. Then she LEAPS! covering an incredible distance (even more incredible while bringing four people along with her) and alights on the shattered mouth of the service tunnel where she entered, bounding rapidly down the corridor to get clear.
*
There's something of a hiss as an unknown force suddenly grabs Domino by the arm and yanks her back, the freshly stained machete swiftly raised before eye contact can be made—
—with nothing??
It's fortunate that Posse's voice is so well recognized! As is the feel of a sidearm being pushed into Dom's grasp. The blade starts to fall back to her side but there is SUCH a look of confusion that where the familiar Chief of Security should be there's just..nothing at all…
Then the blade falls to the floor. It could have still been useful but Neena needs a hand free to hang onto Ava lest she lose track of the cyborg. It may be random luck that she finds a shoulder and not Ava's face, responding by way of giving the synthetically enhanced joint a squeeze.
It may have been fun and games before but this is where throwing caution into the wind ends and getting shit done begins.
As Thea approaches Dom's covering her with the pistol while keeping on the move with Posse but this only lasts for so long before that Hell-tuned night sight gets utterly wrecked by the light beaming into the underground nightmare. Dom's hold on Posse becomes all the more important because now she can't freaking see!
It's a bloody -fantastic- time for her to hear 'Sergey Nikolay' being bellowed. What results is a seething string of f-bombs under her exhausted breath.
NOT letting go of Posse's arm! Not even a little!
*
"<Neena is secure, ready for evac—>" Posse radios even as she unceremoniously ducks into the mutant's stomach to spread the albino across her shoulders and with an arm across her thigh, Domino finds herself dangling in the air just as the blinding red light beams into the ruined arena.
Even the cyborg's camouflage has its limits and the crimson-seared outline of a woman closing one eye ripples in and out of existence holding the albino as half of her watches the light-show. Blindness is a problem for human eyes, and it gives the woman just slightly more time to recognize what was summoned inside. Then Hunter confirms it.
"<Gas, gas, gas! Evac now! Everyone with masks, haul bodies and headcount!>" With or without a passenger the bionic woman can't match Hunter's super-human spring unaided, but Posse does beat feet at a dead sprint towards the Bearcat and leap for the closest strand of reassuringly thick black braided rope. It's not a seat with a seatbelt, but it's enough for her to hang onto.
*
<My pleasure.> Iron Patriot says to Armor, turning her head as she keeps her arms up, sweeping the area….but it looks for the moment things seem…more or less under control…
Then there's a flash of red and a green orb appears, starting to fall, an alert popping up on Toni's HUD.
-ALERT: HAZARDOUS MATERIAL CONTAINMENT PROTOCOL ENGAGED-
One of the things that comes up fairly often in disaster relief is various toxic dangerous…chemicals, gasoline, natural gas, and other material released in explosions, earthquakes, or fires. The problem is that often those issues are detected too late to avoid contact, either skin or airborne. It can become a danger far too quickly for Toni to react in some cases.
Which is why she automated the process via the Mark IV's VI system to react as quickly as possible without requiring direct authorization.
In a split second the armor has tagged all friendlies and hostile organic targets near the falling sphere, then flickers through a rapid choice of premade geometric shapes, before settling on a half hemisphere as it calculates generation will require more time than it will take the orb to complete its fall. Toni's right gauntlet abruptly jerks to the side, the lens in the palm flickering to life before a beam of force energy shoots out, covering the sphere as it breaks into the concrete with a *crack* in a neat circle surrounding the orb to make a makeshift seal.
By the time the orb hits, the forcefield is fully erected, just as Toni's brain is catching up to the alert.
*
"Not so big after all," Armor remarks as the size-shifter goes down a lot more easily than she expected. And then the warning cries go out - whatever Hunter's talking about, only for Posse to deliver a much clearer warning. That's all Armor actually *needs* to know: time to get out.
Her armor actually flickers briefly, making sure she's enclosing as much *fresh* air within its volume as possible, and for good measure, she grabs Tire-Shoulders in one of her armor's hands. He may be a bad guy, but he may have been 'worked on' - augmented genetically or something, the same way the Hounds were engineered for all she knows, and maybe he'll be willing to lead them further up the ladder. There's also no reason to leave *him* here for whatever the gas would do; she just wishes she had a rebreather or something to slap over his face.
If anyone else needs a literal lift in getting out, Armor has carrying capacity to spare. "<Do we have a way out other than 'up'?>" she asks over the operating channel; climbing will not be easy with her armor at this size. It probably won't be impossible, but …
*
In the cybernetic landscape, Io has one more Trollish card to play - as Lily Allen's song ends, the tail-end of Rush's 2012 Overture blares through the loudspeakers: "Attention all planets of the Solar Federation," comes the voice, "We have assumed control. We have assumed control. We have assumed control."
There is a beat. And then the PA cuts into Io's voice.
"Guess what, asswipes? You -really- should be more careful of where you go. Did you know that these dickbags filmed you? You're all on their security tapes. Thing is, I've got those files now. Currently sending them to the police, SHIELD, the FBI, Mossad, CIA, KGB, and a few others. Please be sure to thank your hosts on your way out the doors. Which will be locking in 2 minutes. Because your hosts have a shit security system, and a network adminstrator that's worse than most community colleges would hire. Have a great day!"
And, with that, her hacking 'bomb' slams into the Cyberian's defensive systems, with all Io's prowess and fury as the PA suddenly plays the OG Star Trek fight music when Kirk or Spock would engage in hand-to-hand combat.
At the same time as the full brunt of her hacking force is sent against the Cyberian, Io sends the command for all the cyberdogs to attack their trainers, or gauss-weapon-weilders - or anyone else not associated with RESCUE.
Whether or not the doors have an auto-locking mechanism, or even if Io has uploaded the security footage and photographs is a moot point because she hasn't. THe fact she -has- assumed control of the PA system, and that RESCUE and the troops are really screwing things up for them in general suggests that what is spoken over the loudspeakers -is- true. There's one aspect Io does understand all too well, a mass fear, and mass misunderstanding of how technology (and the criminal system) works - in large part thanks to extremely popular crime-busting shows about how police systems and prosecution systems utlize such technology so quickly and effortlessly.
Io cracks an eye open, looks at one of the security guards keeping a watch over her very vulnerable and fleshy self. "Any requests?" She grins, indulgently.
She taps into her team's comms now: <Sorry for the silence, gang. They've got themselves their own technopath. Good. But not as good as me. Ill prepared. Can't stop the teleportation effect yet. But, I can sense it now. Will let you know if there's another incoming.>
*
Iron Patriot remains standing where she is, as Toni flicks through the readings for what's now under the force field. <Firewalker, this is Patriot. I need the phosphotriesterase sprayer in a humblebee and launched from the Bearcat bay yesterday. If I release this field it'll contaminate the area unless it's sprayed down quickly."
*
Fortunately Thea can sense the Beast pretty clearly, once he hears the evac orders he lops towards her on all fours, and then will duck a shoulder and try to get her to hold on to his neck while clinging to his back, his next stop will be Armor. "Small!" He growls, fur hackled and eyes wild, if she does, she too will be hoisted onto his back as well before he runs, bounds off a wall, then off support stanchion for one of the dsplays, and then into the hole that Hunter just took. *THUD* He hangs on with feet and one hand, the other used to offload the passengers (including Tire Shoulders if Hisako brought him along). Only then does Hank enter the room after them and follow Boulder and Karl out as well.
The Sarin gas attack foiled by the Iron Patriot's auto system, the last three fighters just…stop. "Take us with! Please!" They beg the armored heroine, and that's when the Cyberian sends a broadcast to all the collars at once, triggering them and locking them on full power.
Speaking of the Cyberian — that mishapen, dough like hand slaps in a rage against the bedding, and then after a moment. "Fine."
A brief message sent to Io, a video clip - clean. "Next time Gadget, I promise I'll get you NEXT time!" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZqVUjziexk)
Furious at the failure of the gas attack, the Cyberian withdraws from the entire network at the Arena, which lack causes a catastrophic failure of virtually every system there. Then…Io would sense not one, not even two or three…but FOUR more portals forming, one at each tunnel leading in. All four originating about fifty miles out and two hundred fathoms deep in the Atlantic. And these portals are steady! The ocean has a lot of mass, and a great deal of pressure. So, yeah, flood incoming.
Evacuating her people, Amur-Diya can move at a truly terrifying pace to get to the hole to the surface, unless she's going to run the long way she took before she'll need to put them down before they use that narrow hole, and she'll need to morph down.
Fortunately the lines to the Bearcat can be pulled up by the four snipers now that there's a clear break in things. And oh shit, sarin gas under glass! Well, forcefield, but not the same ring to that.
*
Thea can, indeed, sense Hank (she can't think of him as Beast, no matter the current look/behavior). She's ready to run, but he scoops her up, and she'll hold on like he's a bull named Fu Manchu and she's hell bent on getting that pretty belt buckle that's the rodeo prize.
If she had to, she could make it so people could hold their breath… a long while, but evac is sooo much safer. She will hide her face against blue fur, and just ride the storm out.
*
Hunter-tiger shifts her hold only slightly and starts bounding down the tunnel at nearly blur-worthy speed. She does not stop for the tiny hole that she herself cannot fit up through, since frankly she does not know that she has time to shift back down to a human size. She instead goes all the way out the tunnel the way she came in. Which means she and her crew barely make it out before the seawater comes rushing in!
And a growling inhuman voice comes over the communications network. "Posse! Posse, is everyone out? Water incoming!"
Yeah. Any future joint operations are going to require some conversations about proper evacuation protocols. Maybe Diya should have gone up through the 'skylight'? But when you hand her a reason to panic for her people, she's going to choose them over anyone and everything else, and she's going to act on instinct. Oops!
*
There's nothing quite like being piled onto the back of someone else's shoulders to get the point across that -you are being evac'd.- This time Domino doesn't complain, she just hangs the hell on and hopes to get her vision back in a timely enough manner to not be a -total- dead weight.
Posse has a team or several to coordinate so there's no conversation from the albino's end. And really, that's okay with Neena. Thea may have healed the immediate damage and given her an energy kick but the albino's been run ragged for a good long while. Psychologically she's ready to check the hell out. But..not..just..yet…
Also, what the fuck is sounding like ten thousand gallons of water being blasted into the arena? And why does she suddenly smell salt and fish?
*
Oddly enough, Iron Patriot didn't bother to include a 'flash flood' warning in her sensor systems. Because how would that work, anyway? She probably didn't even include a shark detector. Which might also be an issue here.
As the remaining three fighters go down, fried by their collars, there's cursing from Toni. <Dammit. They killed the other fighters…Io, do you have the bastards somewhere in here? I'm feeling like I might want to bring a few of them with me to discuss things with the cops…>
*
At Beast's order (it was clearly not a request), Hisako shrinks her armor down, releasing some of the enclosed air so the pressure doesn't do unhealthy things to her. That lets Beast hoist her, and she hangs on tightly as he makes his escape, and she helps chuck Tire Shoulders through into the next room before getting offloaded herself.
"Who's still down there?" Armor inquires, wondering if she might need to give anyone else some help … but while she can jump nicely when armored, she can't *fly* - which she'd need to if she went back down. And she knows it.
*
Posse keeps a firm grip on her cargo as she's reeled into the Bearcat's cabin, supporting most of their weight by binding the rope between her feet, and as she nears the top, the cyborg's hologram camouflage wavers then fades away, allowing the REACT team to see and coordinate the passenger exchange. Only once Domino's inside does the cyborg let herself be helped in as well before turning to survey the evacuation. "<Get airborne, Iron. We've got enough intel,>" she responds, still working to keep the exit orderly. "<Posse and Domino are onboard Bearcat.>"
*
By now, Iron Patriot's sensors are picking up the rapidly approaching rushing water. "Crap…" she mutters to herself. "Engage secure footing" There's a solid *ka-THUNK* as rods around her armored boots fire down into the concrete to anchor her. <Negative. Sarin gas is heavier than air. It will contaminate the water if I release the forcefield.> She shifts her other hand, the star in the shape of a lense on her chest glowing to life, before a second force field begins expanding from the armor, flowing over the smaller hemisphere as it pops with a hiss, gas flowing out to fill the newly opened space as it forms a larger curve dome. <Get out of here. I'll be fine.>
*
Now, Io fulfills her word, she feels the Cyberian withdraw and utilizes her mind-download and transfer to pull the recordings, and as many data files as she can. Appropriate files will be distributed to law enforcement agencies at Roni or Toni's discretion.
Even as she's doing this, she warns, <Incoming. Four portals. We're about to get about however many metric tons of seawater in here from the bottom of the Atlantis Ocean.> Yes, Io just called it the Atlantis Ocean. And she seems serious about thinking that's it's name.
<Let's get the hell out of here, yeah? THey're wiping this shit clean. Got some files.> She closes her eyes, as her mind dumps the information onto a safe computer for analyzing later. She exhales, rubs her forehead.
She looks at one of her 'bodyguards', the same one she asked if he had any song requests. "Get me a coke, would you? Dr. Pepper? Whatever."
<Got a ton of them, as well as spectators, on camera. They did have security feeds, pulled them before the systems went down. The other Cyberjunkie was remote. Think I might've pissed them off some. I expect they'll be back. Revenge, and all that shit. Good times.> Her voice, over the comms, is mildly bitter. Yes, you reap what you sow, and Io doesn't like having to think on the defensive.
She gives a 'thumbs-up' to Posse and Domino, "Welcome back."
*
Thea can definitely feel as Hank struggles to control his fury, it is like adrenaline now activates 'roid rage in the guy, it is very peculiar indeed. Then again his biology is all sorts of messed up in quite a few ways, probably all the mutations he's induced and experienced over the years. Either way, once they're in the tunnels, he'll lead them out, Tire Shoulders tossed over one of his unless Hisako wants that job. Finally, he calms…he's /him/ again, not the rage machine. "Well done, Hisako. Thank you, Thea." Hank was very definitely impressed by Hunter's 'hybrid' form, wow.
He releases a pent up breath when he learns the others are safe. Over the comms. /Beast, Armor, Thea, and one prisoner evacuated, we are en route to the Rally Point, Boulder and Karl as escort./ A pause. /Wait…Patriot, did you say 'Sarin Gas'?/ Clearly the biochem knows just how horrific that shite it.
Up in the Bearcat, the guard Io addressed before looks sheepish. "Sorry ma'am, was focusing on my datafeed…next time how about Hurt, Johnny Cash version?" He does get her a soda, a Coke in a *glass* bottle no less!
That much water, from that depth, yeah…the entire Arena is going to be flooded -sooner rather than later at that, and there indeed a couple sharks along with other assorted fish and other detritus. The portals wink out once the pressure equalizes, which is interesting, and something Io would sense as the Bearcat falls back to the RP to retrieve their personnel and prisoner. Hank offers Io a toothy smile. "Excellent work, Io. Let me know if there's anything I can assist with." He looks to Posse, to Domino, and then finally just hunkers down. "Welcome home." He says softly.
*
iron Patriot turns her helmet towards the onrushing water. <Affirmative. Well. I'm going to find out if I waterproofed my suit enough.> And then the storm of water just roars over the forcdefield, Iron Patriot disappearing from view as the water completely covers the arena.