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Summary: A massive battle erupts in Times Square over the life of a captured mutant girl.
Date: June 8, 2020
Title: The Warzone
Rating: R (LV)
The Future - NYC - Times Square
Once a central hub for humanity, little remains of Times Square but broken storefronts and disintegrating buildings. Stretching as far as the eye can see, the entire area is littered with crushed cars and skeletonized bodies; leaving little to be found without taking a chance inside one of the many crumbling facades. For the lucky, scraps of a bygone lifestyle can still be uncovered in the form of clothing, canned food, and supplies. Albeit amidst the occasional threats of wondering gangs and roving Sentinels. With literally innumerable hiding spots to choose from, there is little doubt that either could be laying in wait.
Scene
Two AM over the big apple, and the stormy skies from earlier in the evening have finally cleared up some, leaving only a murky sky for which a passing Sentinel patrol receives a rather eerie backlight. Passing by over the shambles of a row of former restaurants squashed between business centers, their spotlights play and scatter a gang of flatscans dressed like they should be on the set of Escape from LA. Up on the fourteenth floor of a building across the way, one of those old multi-use complexes that's retail on the bottom and office on the top sits Volk, two corpses of young men in similar clothes to the gangs that can be found below. In his hands is their weapons… a couple pistols, some stolen assault rifles, and a rather beaten up looking machete and chain combo that looks as unwieldy as it is unique. Shaking his head once, the merc kicks at one of the corpses, one eye flashing a look of disdain towards it.
The sound of a Sentinel stomping its way down the street can be heard coming from the North. The robot appears around a corner with a figure riding on its shoulder and another in its hand. The woman is none other than the Hound Envy, clad in her usual leather pants, boots and tube top. The other figure is a woman with blue skin, probably a mutant the two came across on patrol. It is difficult to tell if the captured mutant is alive or dead. Envy appears to be speaking into a headset right now, "Yes, two mutants. I captured one and shall be returning with it shortly. I wish to do a scan of Times Square first."
Annalisa was inside one of the destroyed buildings, doing her best to stay fairly hidden. She was searching through the rubble for cloth, or clothing, as she was the source of a great deal of it disappearing from their stores. Dressed in what had become her normal attire for the moment, she wore a tattered brown skirt, rips ran along it, making it seem silly to even wear it at all. Her top was covered with a tank top in a similar condition, and her back could be seen, which was covered in awful burn scars. She wore no shoes, and upon closer examination, it could be easily seen under her tattered clothes, a small bit of green and white material, the remainder of her Alpha Squadron uniform, just enough to cover her private bits.
Moving quickly behind the Sentinel is an extremely tattooed woman; her black clothing having been tailored to show off most of the work. Both arms are covered in what at one point among the hipper populations would consider full sleeves; starting at both wrists and rounding off at both shoulders. Her back is also completely covered. Her face, though would be recognizable by any of the former Xavier students, is covered in a strange white, red and gold mask. As does the other hound, a headset is wrapped around her left ear. "I'll hold my back position for now." Occasionally she glances over her shoulder, getting quick views of either side to keep any eye out for anything unexpected.
When the Sentinel comes into view, Volk immediately brings up his cloaking field, his outline blurring out into the barest of forms in the fashion of The Predator, or Ghost in The Shell. Pulling back from his original position, the merc reaches back behind him and takes a rifle-launched armor-piercing charge, the type made to crack tank armor… or in this case… a Sentinel's armored carapace. Shouldering his assault rifle and aiming, he flips up the covers for the short scope and takes aim, angling his shot to hide the initial attack, and give him room to maneuver. When the head steps into view… all can hear the rifle report, the single shot, and suddenly a sharp-ended projectile is whistling through the air to strike the Sentinel, ready to penetrate and send a cone-shaped blast into the sensitive insides!
Envy stands patiently as the Sentinel stops to do a scan of the area. The machine seems to pick something up, but as it is in the process of announcing that it had detected a mutant the head seems to explode. Envy seems to have heard the gunshot and jumped off of the machine, landing on a balcony not too far from the machine. She glances around for the source of the attack and presses her ear-com. "Sounded like the Sentinel picked up a mutant in the area. Do not allow them to take the captured mutant. Kill it if you need to and keep alert for further targets." She watches the headless Sentinel fall to the ground. Bullets, most mutants don't use bullets. "Watch for the one they call Volk. He tends to use projectile weaponry. If we can bring the Master his head we are sure to be rewarded."
Annalisa ducks her head instinctively, before realizing that the shot was nowhere near her. She dove under the large window of the store, keeping her back up against the wall. She peeks up just enough to get a view of the area, seeing a downed sentinel, but nothing else, she ducks back down, waiting for a further signal to act.
The tattooed hound dashes to the side in reaction to the sentinel's head exploding, showers of sparks and parts falling all over the spot she was just standing. She's crouched down, one knee and opposite hand touching the ground, her head tilted to the side as she attempts to visualize all the spots the bullet could have came from, but there's really only one that makes sense. Not wanting to be find herself the next target, the tattooed hound darts off to the side, finding a blasted out building to take momentary refuge inside.
"I would guess that shot was fired from the high rise directly in front of the downed sentinel." She says into her headset, taking a quick peak at the now defunct sentinel standing with the captured mutant still held in it's hand. "Should I pry that mutant free and drag down over here?" She questions, knowing having the captured mutant closer would make having to kill it much easier.
With the Sentinel's head nicely cored and collapsing against the far building, Volk stands up and calmly begins to calmly walk back towards the hole in the windows that was left from a previous fight. Looking down… it's Eris. And what cannot be seen is the smile that spreads under the balaklava. Fishing into another pocket, out comes another grenade, this one a standard thrown model which he cracks and leaves on a short timer… just dropping it down near the former supremacist-turned-drone. Perhaps a bit of arrogance in it, perhaps anger… but ten feet above Eris the merc appears, complete with his one faintly glowing blue-green eye. Then he releases the grenade to fall right down in her lap. As he lets go, he offers an almost jaunty little wave to her.
Envy presses her com again, "I'll contain the mutant, just give me a moment to get down…" It is at this point that the grenade appears in her field of vision. The woman does not move her body, but a spire of sapphire erupts from the building beneath her, lifting her twenty feet before stopping. The grenade goes off beneath her toward the base of her spire, causing it to quake slightly. Envy is now about ten feet above Volk and looking down at him. "Target acquired. Volk." She shows no emotion as she takes action, causing a series of crystal spikes to erupt from the floor and walls of the building around the attacker, sending out new spires when he moves to dodge them.
Annalisa finally notices the mutant tied up, and sighs. She didn't -want- to get into a fight, but how could she just leave one behind? With that, her green eyes start to glow a dark blue, and her entire form literally bursts into flames, vaporizing her clothes, aside from the squad uniform pieces. She flies through the glass, the window melting around the fire, and bursts forward towards the scene, seeming to abandon stealth completely. She flicks her arm upward, and a large wall of fire appears in between Envy and the captured mutant, and Annalisa starts flying towards the detained one.
The tattooed Hound dashes back out from her momentary sanctuary, arms dropping back to pull out both swords tattooed starting just above each shoulder blade. Both span about the length of her back and are opaque with a strange blue glow. She skids to a stop as a new mutant, covered in blue flame comes crashing through a window. "Shit, we got another mutant down here." She spews into her communication unit, eyes narrowing in on the being. "I'll subdue her." Moving rather quiet and fluid like as the water pattern tattooed also on her back is concentrated on, the Hound heads straight for Annalisa, swords drawn and ready to strike from behind.
There's no time for Volk to be impressed with the display of Eris' increased ability to use crystals. He's too busy skid-dodging free of the crystal storm being made to erupt around him, having to leave and tumble free of some of them as a lucky one catches his thigh, scoring a shallow cut through the kevlar-lined BDU pants. Coming to a still, he immediate spins his weapon behind him and scythes automatic fire on the main pillar under Eris to take out her support and send her down to earth. Twenty plus rounds spew out of his weapon towards the crystal tower… and the moment the weapon clicks empty, he's gone… teleporting to another spot within the wreckage around him.
In the past, Envy would have laughed at the man's brazen attempts to shoot down her Sapphire spire, but she just stares at him emotionlessly as he shoots at her support column. Her column can withstand impacts up to 15 tonnes per square inch, and bullets tend to just ricochet off of her constructs. It is for this reason that the woman appears temporarily confused as her spire cleaves and begins to fall. It would appear that one of the bullets struck her spire in exactly the wrong spot. She'll have to upgrade to diamond while fighting this one. The woman lands down where Volk was a few moments before and surveys the scene.
Envy glances down at the flaming mutant below. The captured mutant is a bit out of her range, and the flame wall has her blinded as to what's going on down below. "First target missing, sending down projectiles at second target. Vision impaired, watch out." That's all the warning she gives to her fellow Hound before chucking three of her signature ceiling fan sized ruby shurikens into the fire storm. She's not too sure on the temperature of the fire, but her Ruby can withstand 3500 degrees. Even if the flames are twice that they should be able to survive for the second or two it takes the crystals to pass through the barrier. After throwing the shurikens she shoots up a couple of diamond walls around her, just in case Volk
Annalisa turns her head almost on instinct, seeing the tattooed woman leaping at her, she does a fancy aerial maneuver, flipping about and swinging her arm, she sends a wave of blue fire barreling towards her. She didn't notice the shurikens flying, but her fires did exceed 5800 degrees, so it was unknown if they'd travel through or not.
The tattooed Hound is quite thankful she hadn't committed into any full blown attack just yet, is just barely able to dodge the blast of flames sent out in her direction. Tumbling to the ground, the heat accompanied with the fire has caused all of her exposed flesh to bead up with little pellets of sweat and the buttons on her moccasin's to melt into the leather. "Don't terminate captured mutant. This one won't be able to touch them as long as she's burning." The hound says into the headset, dashing off to garner a longer distance between herself and Annalisa.
On the other side of the room, Volk watches Eris for a moment, and then once more a grenade is fished out. This one a flash-bang instead. The spoon pops off and dings to one side while the grenade rolls out towards Eris… where her diamonds will only make the situation worse by refracting the blast-flash everywhere. Done with that… he rolls up into a sprint, and goes for one of the windows, shooting it out with a reload before he actually leaps! Fourteen floors up, and the madman merc takes it in classic action hero fashion… only to vanish mid-leap and land at a dead-run on street-level… which puts him right into view of Chezlie. This makes the merc stop… and stare… because she can see the familiar blue-green eye… and he can see the familar tattoo pattern. From the red-eye piece is a whirr-click as it adjusts, but as before… no sound is made.
Envy feels her crystals break apart in the fire storm. It would appear that even her most heat resistant weapons cannot penetrate that wall of fire. She presses a few buttons on her watch and glances around for Volk. The sound of the flash grenade causes the woman to look down. She quickly covers it with a diamond shell, but this only intensifies the light further once the grenade goes off. She covers her eyes and tries to rub the blindness out of them. It will take the woman a few moments to see again, but she has already done what she needed to. A few of the patrolling Sentinels in the area change course and begin heading toward the battle.
Envy presses her earpiece and blinks a few more times, still seeing spots. "Kill it. Kill the captured mutant. If you can take down the fire one do so afterward." As she finishes speaking three sentinels land in the street a short distance from the fight. Two others appear to be on their way and will arive shortly.
Again that effigy of Death made her appearance. The war was still raging and the gods had out their big guns and were practicing their skills in a deadly manner. This was something that could be heard blocks away and from behind a fallen wall Sabina leaned and dropped her joint to the ground. This was gang land and there was some to be found. When house, food and everything else was provided and you got a paycheck one could afford *a* joint. Keyword *A*. She had to ease down the nerves a bit and with a press of her back against ehr solid cover she pushed to tip toes and peered over the top in enough time to know to duck when the bomb went off.
"Jesus on a pogo stick, they take no fucking prisoners. Thought that was the point." Moreso talking to herself as she adjusted the hem of the cowl of her hood back into place around her face, keeping her concealed in her own way. She was not the only one hiding it appeared. Bystanders were there, three hiding behind another bit of wall, huddled with their dirt smeared faces tucked. If they can't see it it wont get them or sin't there, right? Wrong.
Sabina lowered to all fours and scuttle crawled over to them, pushing back up to a stand and dusting off her cargos before lifting the low hanging line of hoody hem, revealing the thigh holstered Ruger's. Both were drawn as she looks out at the melee and then back to some of those dirty upturned faces that now turned eyes on her. "You here to help?" One voice whispered from the elderly male.
Sabina says, "In a way." Sabina's voice was dry, her face deadpan as the guns were levelled on the huddled three that shrieked and did what they could to gain footing and run. A sporting chance was not given, this was war afterall and they were gunned down with three shots ringing out in the air. She needed them dead."
Annalisa quickly flies between the captured mutant and the sentinels. She -really- didn't want to fight these things, but what choice did she have? She wasn't going to just let the captured mutant die. She didn't react to much else around her, but thrust both her hands forward towards the sentinels, causing, literally, a sentinel high wall of fire to burst upward, and surround the robotic beings, trapping them in a circle of flames.
With the flames raging towards the robotic beings, and surrounding them, a large gust of wind surrounds the flames. Feeding them air to make them grow more powerful. Dropping down from the sky, and landing near Anna would be Kael. "Seems you've found some fun," he says in an amused tone of voice. He scans the area a bit, his eyes falling on Chezlie before he lets out a curse. "Great." His eyes flick towards the captured mutant, and a dome of wind bursts to life around it.
The tattooed hound practically comes to a sliding stop as the one called Volt appears straight ahead of her, the glow of his blue-green eyes finding a distant memory far in the recesses of her mind. This is easily over-ridden by the mind controlling effects of Ahab, as that split second recognition found deep in her eyes is replaced by a vicious snarl. She knows this Volk is a high priority, but there's no way with their distance she'll ever catch him before being gunned down. The Hounds are suicidal, yes, but there's also a common sense to it. So she begins to bolt towards the headless sentinel again, flinging one of her swords at he gun held in Volk's hand in a hopeful attempt to at least distract him so she can begin to scale the sentinel body, now leaning against the body, to get to their captured mutant, which should proved harder due to the wind dome now protecting her.
The expected fire… never comes! In fact the weapon is slid on it's shoulder-strap behind him, and there's the familiar hiss of steel being drawn as the thrown blade is parried with a pair of long knives. With a steely glint in his eye, Volk goes chasing right after the younger of the two hounds. Situational awareness… GONE. Tactical thinking… GONE. A sense of predatory murderous rage enfolding the former team-mate of the running Hound, and heedless to the consequence he goes on the hunt! The sound of a boot tamping down on the hull of the downed Sentinel is the only clue to Chezlie that in mid-stride he's ported and is taking a hard swing at the back of her neck!
Envy regains her sight and looks down to see that a third target has arrived. This one appears to have some form of wind ability. She creates a downward sloping crystal slide to make her way down to ground level. Once down she charges toward the captured mutant and presses her hands to the ground, causing a diamond shell to encase the captured girl. Sure the fire mutant can destro the diamond, but the heat would likely kill the trapped mutant inside. She immediately spins and throws three more of her massive shurikens, this time aiming at the wind user.
Murderer! What did we do to you? We just wanted to live! The wails filled her head along with the ringing of her own gun shots and what was going on around her. "So do I" We'll avenge this.. "Get in line with the rest of the dead." She thumbed over he shoulder at that, apparently she had plenty of angry spectrals at her back, and that metaphysical door was closed. Though if anyone else caught this, she was just talking to herself.
The guns were holstered quickly and her hands rose to pull the hood free, the long ebon hair falling to frame where the hood had once been, the reach continuing to the back of her head and lower to the nape of her neck, sinking into her own hair and gripping to come free with the machete on one hand while the other worked the sleeve off her arm. "Seems our side needs to up the ante." A swift stroke of the blade down her arm and the incision is made, dropping blood over the bleeding corpses with gaping wounds out of their skulls that were left to meat.
"Rise my pretties rise!" Her eyes shifted back and forth, as if someone would be watching.."I always wanted to do that…" But really…From her hand a soft green glow began to press forward and like spears sparks of life dropped from her blood upon the corpses and they began to shift, pushing from the ground to a stand with lifeless eyes. There was no need to rejuvenate them, the less blood and focus required the better right now. "Fall in.." And they did. Her eyes hunted. There were two of those rebels right? A count again and a third joined them. "Great." Reaching down she unholstered one of her Rugers and took aim at Kael while issuing her orders. "Detain the blue flamed one, the one with the red eye, and the one with the wind." Kill? Why no Sgt Hartman, this was not Vietnam, they wanted the scum alive! With that the three zombies now moved with an ease, not shambling like in the old movies they were moving with the mission in mind while Sabina took aim at Kael and pulled the trigger. One way to get a bird out of the air.
Annalisa takes in a deep breath, and starts to concentrate on the trapped sentinels. She lifts her arms, and then twists. The walls of fire grow higher, and then start to twirl and twirl, closing in on the sentinels. Normally, they'd adapt to a mutant's power, but they simply didn't have time, as they melted together into a husk of useless metal. The fire finally started to dissipate, leaving behind a hole of burned wreckage. She turns about, and starts to fly down towards the captured mutant.
Faced with the fact that some woman just threw shuriken the size of ceiling fans, Kael couldn't do much else than get back up into the air. Where he most likely reigns supreme. For now. There's a gust of wind going upwards as Kael takes to the sky and /fast/. The shiny spinning blades of death passing under him before he looks down at the woman who threw them. If there's one thing that Keal's learned, it's to now stay still in the air. The aerokinetic is swerving back and forth at random intervals as he keeps his eye on Envy.
The sound of footsteps hitting the metal sentinel from behind Chezlie causes her to immediately dart off to the side. The ditch effort in not getting her back sliced open results in a rather sloppy landing, causing the tattooed hound to go tumbling into the ground. She's surprisingly quick to reorient herself, holding out her now empty hand in the direction of her sword while crouched low to the ground. The sword shakes for a couple seconds before lifting up and returning to it's owners hand, where she prepares herself for another attack. There's a strange glow around her right arm, covering from her wrist to her shoulder with a mountain scene tattoo.
Both knives are flipped from a forehand to a backhand grip, pinky fingers going into the knuckle-guard rings. For a long moment, Volk just squares off with Chezlie, dropped into a martial fighting stance but otherwise remaining still. The rest of it is completely ignored for some reason… as after the tableau seems to cause the rest of the world to go into slow motion, Chezlie hears a growl… it's a low, feral thing from deep in his chest, under the balaklava there is a slight twitch of the lip into a sneer. And like lightning he moves… rushing in for a long and deadly serious of quick slashes, breaking the pattern with stabs and feints. Close enough, that the pair look like they might just be dancing.
Envy glances up quickly as the wind mutant takes flight. Her left arm erupts with long green spikes which she flings at the man by flailing her arm at him. She shot out about six of them at Kael, though they were poorly aimed and may not travel high enough to actually hit him. She turns suddenly as she sees movement behind her to find the flame mutant appears distracted by the Sentinels she melted. "Oh Master will not be happy." She snaps her fingers and a large quartz spire jets out of a nearby building toward the fire mutant. If it strikes her it will likely knock her unconscious. Around this time the other two Sentinels arrive, landing somewhere near Kael.
"Tch." Sabina's miss only got that one reaction. She still held the Ruger in one hand, aimed up and out, seeking any others she could get a decent aim on while Kael took to the skies. The wind he was pushing out likely would make shooting a bullet at him pointless and she was not up to wasting.
The first zombie was paused beneath where Kael once was, turning its head back and one good eye lifted to his air borne form, the second one was headed for Volk and Chezlie atop the Sentinel's fallen form, clamoring up the side and lunging for him while he was in that dance of combat, and the thrid was approaching Anna swiftly in the move of an interception between her and the captured mutant.
Sabina on the other hand, was staying back, she was facing them now, no longer hiding behind the wall but with her back pressed to it, waiting for a moment to get her shot in. Just.Sit.Still.Ya.Shits.
Annalisa turns her head just long enough to gasp as the pillar smashes up against her, slamming her into a nearby building. The flames surrounding her melted enough of the spire to keep her from being crushed, but the strike did in fact, knock her unconscious. She went toppling down towards the ground, the blue flames disappearing from her, and leaving her almost completely naked. What was left of her old Alpha Squadron uniform managed to cover her chest, and most of the important bits down below. Her body popped against the ground limply. She wasn't too hurt, just knocked out.
Kael causes a spiral of wind to swirl around him, knocking the lone spike that was actually high up enough to strike at him. His eyes flick over towards Anna, the aerokinetic putting on a burst of speed to get to her in time before the zombie. The man sliding along the ground as he looks up at the zombie coming towards him as a blade of wind just slices through the air; aiming to cut vertically, and going at a rather nice clip. With the addition of the Sentinels, the aerokinetic gulps a bit as he causes wind to wrap around him as he stands next to his unconscious comrade. Faster and faster before they resemble a near tornado. But no where near the destructive power of a real one. He lets out a breath before winds start to slowly swirl around his wrists and forearms.
The tattooed hound is quick to rush straight into Volk, engaging him with blocks, slashes and feints of her own. Her right arm, now taking on the hard qualities of rock, is often used for blocking and blunt swings itself. She sustains two slash wounds; one across her right thigh and the other to the left shoulder. Blood has already begun to flow down both limbs as she grinds her teeth together and pushes forward. Then that hopefully helpful zombie is noticed, and Chezlie begins to strike and plunge to twist Volk in a way so he's back is to the creature at the moment it attacks.
The shallow thigh cut gets a pair of brothers in a crease along Volk's side and another long cut down the arm, but it hardly seems to slow the man down. As Chezlie begins to force him back the student-turned-merc doesn't even look, instead in mid-twin swing he vanishes, the zombie's grip clawing against his back and digging into his kevlar, but not cutting through the armor and harness. Reappearing behind Chezlie, he aims a kick right at the center of her back, attempting to turn the trap right on it's head. Another raspy growl escapes the armored and red-eyed form as both the blades in his possession are surrounded by a thin but intense blue-green nimbus.
Envy nods to the two Sentinels and points to the swirling tornado. That is not something she intends to chuck sharp projectiles at only to have them deflected back at her. The robots move in on Kael as Envy darts toward the sword fighting duo. She watches the two and waits for an opening. After Volk has teleported she hurls three pencil sized crystal spikes at him.
Sabina's hand that held the machete moved to resheath it down her back beneath the large hoody. When her hand withdrew it drug the hood back up and into place, the cowl shadowing her scarred features. With that motion alone she visibly relaxes. Nevermind the fact that she was taking aim at Kael, lifting her head to feel for the direction of his gusts of wind, compensating, and once again pulling the trigger in hopes to wound and end the gusts, one of which had successfully severed one of her zombies in near half. But it kept moving, clinging to rubble that was solid to try and get at Kael, dragging along what was left of it. The one that had leapt for Anna found nothing and took its tumble down the side and was slowly coming back to a stand with some major road rash.
"Why do I do this again? Oh yeah, money…and something else." After the shot aimed at Kael was taken her eyes darted to see how her other minion was fairing with Volk. It had managed a small catch of him but then nothing. A moment of pause, perhaps dead confusion before it had bloody arms full of Chezlie. She was not its orders, its arms dropped the woman and made another lunge for Volk.
As appropriate for this new and grim hipster future, Deadpool's new outfit is very stylish and sleek ever trendy red and black his lean sinewy muscled body chiseled and obscuring the ruinous looking cancer scars etched across it. His appearance was heralded by a loud snap, teleporting in with a flicker of lighting and show that gave way to the manifestation of his physical form, crouched up on one of the Sentinels shoulders, the one actually nearest to Kael sent after him by Eris, "A fight and no one told me! I am very unhappy with you Alpha 37, and here I even named you Cody3. Ne-ow lets see what we have he-ah. " Both white orbs roll downwards, one squinted the other widened into a larger orb as they level on the nearest resistance fighter which of course was the one surrounded by a swirling mass of air and debris.
From the peak of the remains of Astor Plaza, a half-dozen pale-blue lights flickers into view, swirling like a cloud of oversized, *very* annoyed fireflies as they dive downward toward the melee, their path rising and falling in an almost random fashion. Between their lack of real illumination, and the general darkness that shrouds the remains of New York at night, the cloud is above the funnel of the tornado, before its creator can be seen; a very upset, *very* armed Rashmi, hopping and swinging from sphere to sphere, plunging straight down into the heart of the swirling winds to land atop the crystal shell. Even before she recovers from her landing, the redheaded Rebel opens up on the Sentinels with one of the two Scorpion machine-pistols slung over her shoulder, her spheres slamming full-force against the crystal shell again and again, seeking the faults that can break the prison down completely.
Kael lets out a grunt as a bullet whizzes past his arm, giving him only a scratch due to his thickened skin. The tornado explodes outwards, the winds just blasting away as Kael points one of his arms towards the Sentinel that has Deadpool perched atop his shoulder. The ones near the aerokinetic can hear soft crackles and pops coming from him as the winds spin faster and faster. "Rashmi, might want to stand back." Is all that Kael says as a bolt of lightning lances from his hand towards the Sentinel. The winds around that wrist dissipating seconds later.
The kick works quite perfectly, as the tattooed hound is kicked straight into the grasping Zombie, who luckily has been commanded to attack Volk and not her. This still causes the problem of now getting away from the Zombie and facing forward before another attack, but luckily the sudden lunge towards Volk's new position helps her a little with that. Once Chezlie has repositioned herself to facing the Merc again, she leans back on her haunches, preparing to leap forward and strike, but for the moment holds, waiting for the man to probably make quick work of the corpse. Despite all the new developments happening behind her, the Hound's attention remains on Volk.
The zombie seems almost like an afterthought to the whole situation, but it seems to be in Volk's way. The knife in his hand, still glowing, he releases so that it's just held in his pinky-finger, dropping the hand right to the SMG at his hip. Coming up he just unloads on the undead person before him, tearing into the thing with high velocity ammunition. This in itself would not do much damage until the skull pops, leaving the corpse headless and unable to perceive it's target, the splatter of gore getting on both himself and on Chezlie. The weapon drops back to it's appointed space on his person and the blade is flipped back into a forward point. The end levels with Chez' nose… and he then he turns the blade sideways, and motions at her. 'C'mon' Somewhere under that mask is that still-feral grin… and those intensely glaring aquamarine eyes.
The Sentinel being shot at by Rashmi turns its attention to her, shooting out a beam of energy toward the girl. It is then struck by the lightning bolt and hesitates for a moment before continuing to shoot beams of energy at Rashmi. Its aim is now off and it is moving in a jerky fashion. The second Sentinel continues forward toward Kael and also begins firing energy beams.
Envy takes a moment to decide what the best course of action would be. She has five targets, three allies and two Sentinels. The outcome is getting to be a bit too unpredictable and she cannot guarantee the safety of the trapped mutant. If things begin to go south she will be forced to kill her captive. For now she will content herself to hurl some of her fan shurikens at Rashmi. She throws five of them in rapid succession, aiming for the girl's gun.
From another direction rounds pelt the omnium armor of the 1st Sentinel some overlapping to the 2nd Sentinel *pings* and *tangs* loudly rattling off of it as Deadpool hops from one foot to the other on it's shoulder. "Eee HEY! Someone's going to lose an eye!" Dual HK-MP5's in each hand he leaps into the air off the Sentinel's shoulder as it was hit with the windgust to lightning bolt now spiraling like some Olypmic diver towards the earth with both arms out one aiming a weapon at Rashmi, the other at Kael. The rapid burst of 9x19mm rounds shot off at each, his accuracy was ridiculous even with such an acrobatic feat in progress, fortunately for them each weapon only hosted 30 round clips each of them was fired upon center mass. His shots accompanied with Sentinel energy beams.
More, there was more, and Sabina had to take a deep breath. Calming herself as a familiar face appeared as well as a strange one. Her focus now turned towards Rashmi as she tried to find a weakness in the crystal casing that held the captured mutant. She was not going to get too close to all of this, her distance was close enough but not too far as it was, with a solid wall remnant at her back. Lowering down her hand sunk between tanker boots and the tucked in camo pants, pulling out a throwing dagger, turning it in her hand and aiming it for Rashmi's hip. She would have gone for the shoulder had it not been for the weaponry in the way.
The remnant of the zombie that was waiting for Kael was dragging its body along beneath him, pacing [with just its arms] back and forth beneath him, waiting for the man to be downed. The winds had picked up and shooting him was useless, Sabina knew this and was hoping Deadpool could fix that small issue. "The calvalry arrived.." Deadpool and his…selves.
The zombie on Volk drops, there was one howling sound before it went to choking and then was reduced to an explosion of bone, meat and its hands were left grappling at nothing. Sabina's hand that just released the dagger, aimed towards the zombie, though there was nothing between them the corpse dropped even after it still tried some feeble attempts to grapple and slap at Volk's perceived direction. Lifeless as it should be.
"Damnit, they're falling." The one that had been aimed for Anna was taking up its fallen comrades position. Rashmi was not in their orders.
The moment the barrages angle toward her, Rashmi is off her feet again, kicking backwards to drop behind the crystal dome. The theory that presents itself, if her goal is to break through the rock to the soft helpless innocent center, it can't hurt to let the enemy do the work for her if possible. Telekinetic spheres whirl madly around her, knocking aside the knife, a few of the ridiculously visible oversized shuriken, but even blown off-course by the winds the redhead manages to be grazed by bullets and energy beams, knocked spinning to the ground behind the cover of the dome, the sound of crushing impacts rising from behind the shell to say that while she may be down, she's most definitely not out.
Kael curses loudly as the lightning bolt doesn't do as much damage as he hoped it would. He ducks down, grabbing at Anna's body to hoist her up. He closes his eyes and a strong blast of wind crashes into him; coupled with him lifting himself into the air and the gust of wind. He's knocked out of the laser's way, but into the path of some of the bullets as they graze across his back and shoulders. He lets out a mutter as he runs into one of the empty buildings to drop Anna off someplace safe.
Covered in the blood and gore that once was a walking corpse trying to help the tattooed Hound out in her fight, she begins to rock from side to side, getting the correct weight distribution just before commencing with her attack. Her eyes narrow in on the Merc as she lazily rolls out her tongue across her lips. There's no verbal response, just a sort of grunt before she charges forward, both swords poised for strikes. She darts in, stabbing, then immediately feigning to the side, expelling all her energy into this last bout of slashes, her hardened arm used to both block and bluntly strike.
Volk charges in as well, twisting himself a bit at the last moment to evade the first of the psi-created katana, but the second one goes right into his right side, perforating into him, and out the back with a splash of blood, crimson staining the blade and then drooling down onto the carapace of the dead Sentinel below. But the Hound is not unscathed, because as he takes the wound through and through with the potential to recover… Chezlie does not have time to block the backhand slash of his off-hand blade that leaves a razor cut through the bridge of her nose and pops her eye in a splash of pain and glimmering ichor against the backdrop of energy, flame, and death. Locked together for that moment, close to each other… she is the only one who hears a voice unused to talking for the last few years whisper into her ear in a deathly rasp… 'Die…'
The Sentinel that was struck by lightning begins firing laser beams in a random direction. That random direction? At Sabina's fully intact zombie. It appears to be heavily malfunctioning now, stumbling slightly as it moves. The fully operational Sentinel continues to fire a few beams of energy toward Kael.
It would appear that one of the diamond shurikens Envy threw was knocked off course and struck her diamond shell. The impact causes a stress fracture to cleave the dome down the middle. Envy notices this and takes immediate action, deciding to cut her losses on the downed mutant so that she can focus fully on taking out the others. The dome shatters from the inside out as an eruption of spikes burst from beneath it. It is probably safe to assume that the blue skinned mutant inside is no longer alive or in one piece. Envy charges forward, materializing a scythe out of Emerald and rounding the spines to charge Rashmi with her weapon.
Somewhere up above the buildings, a boom can be heard as Hellion comes out of his supersonic flight. A telekinetic just coming out of a supersonic flight crashes through the chest of one of the sentinels above. Julian quickly tossing off the bits that used to be in the sentinel. Even with the situation as it is, Julian still has a flair for theatrics in his fighting. Given the speed he was flying at he didn't see the others, only that there were two sentinels attacking something. Which usually means a mutant. The Resistance member looks down quickly and assesses the situation as fast as he can.
There had to be more than one way to try and get this to work and the winds were causing too much of a negative impact on their aims. Her eyes focused on Kael and the building he went into once he departed the scene. Hooded head shifting and she pushed from the wall, lowering and moving smoothly on the outskirts, flattening to the ground as her eyes captured one of the ricocheting shiruken's that whizzed over top of her. "Greed, that's my sin, that's why I do this, and after tonight, these bitches are paying me more."
Her one bloodied arm reached up and gripped the wall, pulling her weight up after and she bolted to the entry of the building Kael went into, pressing against the wall that bordered the door to remain unseen by him. Both her Ruger's were drawn then, one lowered down to take aim and be on the ready for when he came back out. Not to mention, the zombie was in slow pursuit, dragging its torso along the ground to follow after Kael, not having yet made it to the doorway before pausing. It was waiting too. "Good boy!" If it "lived"…Do zombies eat biscuits? Hmm.
The zombie the Sentinel hit was cooked, if anyone wanted spare ribs or bar-b-que there it was. The energy from him was drained that instant by Sabina who was now tensing her jaw and readied to pull the trigger as soon as Kael showed himself. Yes she liked her little minions.
(One was sprinting for the building and the other was down behind a dome. What other targets could he play with? A girl was being carried by target A where as target B seemed intent on the crystal dome. Decisions decisions,Deadpool's left arm would rise up and spray the rest of that weapons clip at Kael's retreating backside, yelling "Thats for breaking wind without apologizing! Manners damnit manners!" Whats this? A boom and now his buddy Sentinel B was going down, the weapon in his right arm shoved into his holster, three short-timed grenades were drawn free and hurled upwards at Julian "Catch!", each had a blast radius of about 3 to 4 meters, while they sailed Deadpool was already leaping towards the still intact Sentinel getting ready to take a bead on another target or plot something disasterous plus get out of the radius of those explosives, they were short-timed for a reason, reason being sometimes mutants figured they could hurl 'em back. Too many to pick from, he was having a blast. Literally.
Rashmi scrabbles to her feet as the dome explodes outward, slicing clothing and skin, opening a dozen bloody lines on her visible skin… and very probably more beneath. Somehow, she manages to pull together the strength to move, to fight, and as Eris charges, the redhead ducks to one side, naked fury in her eyes at the life taken with so little thought. "SHE'D DONE NOTHING TO YOU!" Rashmi screams, punctuating her accusation with a burst of gunfire, spheres looping around on defense and attack, slapping at the scythe on one side, a trio coming from underneath to arc upward. Gut, chest, jaw are the targets, and within her zone of awareness, the spheres are precision weapons indeed.
The bullets from Deadpool's guns and the lasers from the sentinel slam into the building, and there's silence from within. As if all the air in there went dead still. Slowly, there's a soft howl of wind rising from the inside. Before the front door has a blade arching out of it. Intent on slicing that zombie in half and telling what else is out there to go away. If Sabina looks inside of the building, Kael's not inline with the door. But, he can still see it. If Sabina even sticks her head into the doorway, there'd be a blast of air aiming for her face. The aerokinetic is on the defensive right now.
The screech that emits from the tattooed Hound's bloodied lips is loud and piercing. The gap that use to house her right eye is now oozing with a red river of blood, staining the entire way down her cheek and falling from her chin in little droplets, staining everything they come into contact with. As she's still holding onto her psi-blade buried into Volk's side, there's a sudden flash of things from the past. The eyes of the man before her, the subtle recognition in his voice, and suddenly, her only remaining eye softens. "Connor…" She whispers quietly, but the mechanisms set by Ahab are quick to over-ride and the hate returns. She starts by slamming her body into his, hoping to knock him free of her sword so she can make a quick escape and get her eye patched up. "About time for me to exit." She spits into her communication system, voice beginning to sound a little weak.
While it's true that no one wins with a headbutt, Chez's bodyblock is met with the aforementioned maneuver, and both of them are seperated now by the bulk of the dead Sentinel. Volk on his back and gritting his teeth against the pain and the blood seepage coming from both sides. Looking up affords him a view of… the original Merc With a Mouth. The Sultan of Sarcastic Slaying. The King of Pun, Gun, and Run… the list goes on, but somewhere in there is a dead ringer for Muriel Hemingway. As the man himself would say. Don't ask. The haze of pain resolves itself back into a fresh growl as 9x19mm fire from those SMGs gets a return present. Twin MP7s rebarrelled for 5.7 FN ammunition. The chatter of Deadpool's SMGs hear the short barking cries of both of Volk's weapons as he begins staggering after Chezlie, in too much pain to visualize the other side of the Sentinel to give chase.
Julian did see those grenades coming towards him, a flash of green energy surge through his eyes as a shield goes up around him. Not even messing with that shit. Still, time for some fighting. And the one that pissed him off most recently is Deadpool, on that other sentinel. His face sneers as Hellion flies to dislodge him from his perch with a telekinetic hold, and then to slam him back to the ground. Still worried about another sentinel, but first things first, dammit.
The remaining Sentinel switches targets, its defective counterpart having just been destroyed by this new enemy. It begins firing random beams of energy toward Julian.
Envy's scythe is knocked aside during her initial attack. She shows no emotion as she begins to raise her weapon again but is distracted by Chezlie's scream. The burst of gunfire strikes the woman, causing her to get several bullets lodged in her left arm and shoulder. She extends her crystal spikes in an attempt to block at least some further gunfire, but is met instead with a barrage of spheres. The woman is knocked back several feet and lands with a horrible screaching noise as her crystals rub against the concrete. She lays there for several moments before hearing her comrade on the earpiece. Envy presses her comlink. "Make for the building behind you, I'll follow. We'll send reinforcements when we can." A massive wall of crystal crashes through the ground between herself and Rashmi, extending twenty feet in each direction and fifteen feet high. The woman follows the other Hound into the building and seals the entrance with another diamond wall. They'll make their way back to the base and send any available Sentinels to help the Hunters here.
The zombie was already in half! He meant to quarter it now? Poor zombie, what'd it ever do to Kael? Nothing yet. The blade pushed through the door and Sabina flattened against that side where she had been waiting and commenced her waiting. The silence would have made her go in, but the build up until that told her not to and to just wait. Kael wanted out right? He had to go through something and right now there was a zombie pushing forward despite the fact that now it had a smooth line cut that nearly severed one of the arms off. One arm left and it was dragging itself into the building.
Sabina loved her cannon fodder but those three she had to kill to even use, there was nothing left in this area and if the final zombie went down the ante that was once upped was no longer present and from the shriek of a voice it was apparent this fight was now moot save for just the shits n' giggles of it, and that brought a smile to hidden lips, tightening the scar tissue on her jaw.
Sabina's mind changed then, this was fun! It's why she was here right? Ah…She forgot. Both Ruger's were brought up and she pushed from the wall, rotating her body in front of the door and with the swing of her body the barrage of bullets fanned the room inside in an arc. She may not have seen him , but she was skirting it with melee just above the crawling zombie before she was met with the blast of wind that sent her back and skidding across the broken street with momentum. Did she move from where she lay? Nope. Both guns in hand she just stayed there on the street, looking rather prone. Just catching her breath, really.
Once more, confusion resolved with violent intervention. Volk pegs a few rounds at Deadpool who replies in kind while springing to the side, a clip being slammed back in and fire was produced from the muzzle as Volk was shot back at the steady *brrap* interrupted mid lunge as a telekinetic hold produces itself on him. his other arm wrestles itself up and takes aim that weapon earlier holstered back in it, a large spray dealt to Julion before the ground spiders underneath Deadpool from a TK crunchy slam. "DDR moves failing me." Comes a ragged whimper from the earth. Yet where he lands, a ring of smoke canisters are already rolling out. Not having heard anything Envy said the impact of skull to concrete muffling anything beyond his own special inner voice friends.
Changing direction mid-stride, Rashmi focuses on Sabina, guns drawn and charging after her old school friend and his unconscious cargo. The gun is slung back over her shoulder, as she leaps to catch hold of a sphere as it passes overhead. Flinging herself into the air, she starts to hop from sphere to sphere, not even looking down to make sure there'll be something beneath her feet, eyes locked on the necromantic Hunter. Once close enough, the redhead sends a trio of spheres arcing toward Sabina, streaking toward her target's back with only the whistle of displaced air to signal their flight.
Endorphins surging, pain blocked out from training, and too much trying to worry about not adding more perforations to the wound already in his side, Volk just one-hands over the Sentinel's leg, and then rolls under the second to evade Deadpool's reply. Something in the back of his head noting Hellion has it well under control. As he comes up, panning empty weapons toward where Chezlie ran off. But nothing… already evaded by his foe… with just causes a silent howl to erupt from him, that aggression losing it's edge in the face of his current injury. Slumping behind some street wreckage, the SMGs are reloaded, and holstered, and the assault rifle is taken off his back. A couple long breaths and a hand to check the recent wound… and the young merc brings himself around to fire from cover. But even Eris seems to be retreating… so all that's left is the remaining Sentinel and Deadpool.
The randomly firing robot is beaded in on… and then a stream of teflon-coated armor piercing ammo starts ripping through one of it's firing arms through the ejection port. Most of the bullets are vaporized by the shots, but a few get in, and soon there's an internal explosion that goes up the arm, and knocks the last of the largest foes onto it's side, sparking and reporting damage in a slightly warped monotone.
The bullets flying towards the telekinetic are enough to have the Resistance member start flying away for now. Deadpool's on the ground, let the others deal with him. Next up the sentinel still standing. The different energy beams get a little too close for comfort and his uniform shows the damage, and so does his left leg. No time for seething though. A quick lunge of a hand towards the fallen sentinel's arm and a yoink later, someone has an arm to use! Hellion quickly uses his impromptu weapon to knock the sentinel upside it's head.
As the bullets spray into the building, Kael drops himself low to the ground, a dome of wind erected over him and Anna's body, which is mostly unscathed for the most part. The bullets hit the wall behind him as he growls. Another blast of wind bursting out of the door to knock the zombie away from the building. There's a silence from the building. From behind the building there's a blast of wind as Kael takes to the sky with the unconscious Anna in a fireman's carry as he heads back towards the base.
Sabina had been laying there, the initial impact having knocked the wind out of her and she was regaining her focus one breath at a time with her eyes closed to keep her head from outspinning what kept that remnant of a zombie still after Kael in the building. What brought her eyes to open was the impact of Deadpool that rattled the ground beneath her a bit, awareness springing them wider and her surroundings taken in enough to catch Rashmi in her tinkerbell-esque dance from pixie ball to pixie ball while she attempted to "dust" Sabina.
"I hate faeries!" She rolled to the side swiftly as the three orbs pinged off the concrete, one burning through the right sleeve of her arm, the pain was ignored as she aimed the Ruger up and fired the remaining two rounds from her weapon at Rashmi, pulling until it clicked and lowering to reload both of them swiftly and snapping the clips back into place, rolling again, whether she was targetted again or not until she came to her feet and was alert again. "Shake it off…" Backing up one step at a time closer to Deadpool.
Target zone acquired. Sentinels online. One by one a row of armored titans stepped out, a unit of four already acting on Envy's call were beginning their stormtrooper march towards Times Square, no doubt following behind them would be more. The tremors emitted by their feet were increased as rocket like blasts erupted each of them taking to the skies simultaneously this would shorten their trip considerably. Inbound units Alpha 49 through 53.
Smoke plumed up around the area Deadpool had been grounded, a 40' radius covered in it's screen. His target being picked out before smoke fully obscured his vision, that plume would roll out even covering Sabina as she had backed up intowards him. His bones had already began to work themselves back into place, a few heartbeats later he was moving through the concealment, imagining possible blood-loss and injury should be taking it's toll on the remainders by now if not soon unless the mutant resistance was now handing out free healing factors on sign-up. The next flicker of light would go unseen as he was apparently not done with Julian, appearing in the air some several feet away from the man, his submachine guns having been holstered (one dropped) a blade in each hand, one would aim for an open expanse where flesh was seen, the other slicing out at the extended hand. This done of course before Deadpool would plummet downwards or telepot again. "He slices he dices he purees, he'll also do your hedges for an economically affordable price!"
*More* Sentinels. Terrific. Dropping to the ground, Rashmi crouches, pausing for a moment to catch her breath, mind racing for options. Nearly all combatants wounded and tiring, enemy reinforcements on the way, *Deadpool on the scene…* Settling on the only one likely to end in survival, she raises her head, filling her lungs, she shouts for Julian to hear; "BREAK! BREAK! BREAK! WE…" A sphere slams onto the edge of a nearby sewer lid, "ARE…." A second sphere spins around behind, slamming into the lid to launch it skyward. "LEAVING!" …The chances frankly suck that the lid will hit the Merc with the Mouth (and many many guns) but if it does, it's heavy, and will annoy him. Following up on her declaration, she plunges into the open hole, seeking to make her way out via the sewer tunnels.
With Chezlie having vanished from the field, and pain overriding the rage that clouded the good, tactical judgement of the young merc finally banished, Rashmi's clear command is caught in the middle of a reload. Getting up to move, there's a quick flash-step from Volk as he makes a thirty-foot step to the sewer entrance, looking down at the grungy water and his own wounds. No dramatic exit. Just a hop down and grabbing onto the rungs as the FAMAS painfully swats into his side. Rashmi can see the cuts that penetrated the jacket, and the stab-wound through and through, the the still mobile student has enough left in him to set up the Resistance fighter's exit point. And there's a strange blue-green glow down in the underbelly of the city, apparent from the open manhole where a portal has been generated for the disparate forces of mutantkind to make a hasty and safe exit.
Deadpool had managed to catch Julian by surprise. The telekinetic barrier was still around him though. It was enough to knock Julian away pretty good. Though the sight of four more sentinels approaching made him want to dart off fast alongside the others. Though he'd not jump into the sewers along with Rashmi and the rest. Jumping off and darting towards the air, Julian took off, retreating. Most likely he'd be safe to get home after some good speed. He was too small to be tracked using conventional means.
The smoke was concealing but also got in the way of vision, this gave her a moment to pause and listen, utilize her other senses for any sound of enemy or friend arrival. The sound of the arriving Sentinel's by air had a momentary exhale of relief, her tongue pushing against her sheek again as one hand came back and fingers gripped the hem of her hood, putting it back in place to cover her face in shadows. She needed a strap or something, a bow…no too cliche, and cute made her vomit a little in her mouth.
She'd hug her Sentinel later today though! The rebel's just didn't seem to go down at all and she wanted an invite to their Hawaiian Punch parties, but before that she had to take one out and steal their invite. This was what she was waiting for and it didn't come. In fact her shots didn't hit, the voice ringing out told of that when the rebel shouted for their departure.
"Well damnitall. Fun's over." She looked up through the slightly thinning smoke to try and find Deadpool and the other, raising one of the pistols to aim for Hellion if the need arose for her aid. It wasn't.
Holstering her pistols she pulled the hoody back over them and reached her left hand over to poke at the hole in her right sleeve and the wound beneath with a "tsss." Sounding. This process was repeated as she moved down the street and away.
Sentinels were airborne, all of them sailing in to land, two of them gave flight after Julian but would lose him after a chase. Deadpool would twist in the air after his failing blades of fury attack on the retreating mutant, a giant… cookie? Came sailing at him, yes it was a cookie! Chocolate chips and all. The largest one he had ever seen! His teeth inside the mask would spread into a grin as even falling he manages to open his mask up mouth prepared only to be met with a loud disturbing *CRACK* white's and blood splattering n' shattered in all directions, it was obvious to those on his side or really anyone who knew him he had one of those hallucinatory moments. Head snapshotted back and he was now doing a falling pinwheel from force alone only to smash into the ground in a heap, seeing two Sentinels sail over head in their hunt, "… yEs FlY FlyY I wAnT thosE RubY slIPPeRs Most OF ALl!!" His hand slapping down to the ground as his body began to remeld. "Sabi Sabi…. " His voice turning into a quiet whisper "Help I've fallen and I can't get up."
One foot was in front of the other, and mid walk she just froze. Slow motion came like the moments in football games they like to replay of the epic tackle - her head turned to peer over her shoulder at the sound that drew her attention. Deadpool did it again. Turning she walked back over to him, her covered head tilting back and forth in almost a bird like motion before she snapped down to a crouch beside him and poked his side. Still alive, good enough. One hand snapped out to grip his upper arm, then another to pull him up as best she could and use her body as temporary leverage. Five minutes and he'd be all good, until then she would drag him along like new found roadkill. "Golden Girls again tonight I suppose."
