Scenario Entitled: The Militia Always Gets Its ThingCharacters:
Malleus, a mounted Militiaman on the track of a kidnapping suspect.
Rooke, friend of the kidnapped, on foot.
Location: Lazlo Avenue West, then the City Scrapyard
Date: Springtime, 107 P.A.
Galvo
This husky man is average-height, giving him a sturdy, compact look. However, the muscle seems to be running slightly to fat, as evidenced by the gut starting to overlap his belt, and the developing double-chin. A less-than-pristine white tee-shirt, and partially covered by a dull red plaid workshirt, is tucked into dirty faux-jeans of a faded blue. Also blue is a rather tacky nylon jacket over top of it all, with knit cotton cuffs, collar and waistband. It's not a very good fit, one of the many reasons why he shouldn't be wearing it, but moving right along...
His hair is in the bad stages of growing out of some new fad style, and is the color of dead grass. His stubble is dark on his chin and jaw and uneven, earmarking him as an unfortunate bearer of bad beard growth. Dark eyes within chemically-induced puffy pockets of flesh shift slowly and suspciously beneath perpetually knit brows, as a puzzled neanderthal. His shoulder holster holds a scuffed Wilks, and at his belt is a long knife, sheath coming apart at the seams. Beat-up runners on his feet take him around, his steps normally plodding. Just not very eager to take on the day, it seems.Night begins to wrap its blanket around the land, as the golden orb of the sun slowly dips over the horizon. In the coming of the darkness, the ley lines become more visible, glowing a bright and luminous blue.
Into the phone, Rooke seems to be distracted as she answers in small spurts. "Yeah.. I, uh.. wonder if you could.. help me with something.. Do you have anything description-wise on.. ah.. the blue-jacketed man, other than that he had a blue jacket on?"
From the phone, Malleus says "Gaudy sort of jacket. Girlfriend at Curiosities."
Into the phone, Rooke says uncertainly, "Yeah okay.. got a guy here who matches the jacket description, sort of-.. shit!" She interrupts herself. The sounds of the night street, traffic and pedestrian, seem to rush by in volume.
From the phone, Malleus says "Rooke! Where?"
From the phone, Malleus says "Rooke?"
Into the phone, Rooke doesn't answer right away, and there seems to be a longish pause, peppered by light breathing and voices interjecting, 'hey, watch it, lady!', before she speaks again. "Uhh..! Heading south on Wallside West, approaching Lazlo.. Malleus, he's running from me... he must be our guy!" She sounds a bit hysterical with excitement.
From the phone, Malleus says "...I'll contact Dispatch..."
[Militia] Malleus says, "Private Brandt here. I've got a possible locale on the Curiosities suspect from a third party. Wallside west, heading south towards Lazlo..."
From the phone, Malleus says "Alright; Rooke? I'm going to take Rainier out west down Lazlo. Are you on the radio band?"
[Militia] Dispatch says, "Roger that private. Personnal in that nearby area are tied up in altercation with elements in the NW sector and delayed. Please assist if able. Is the suspect armed?"
Into the phone, Rooke pants a little. "Yes... no... I can be.."
From the phone, Malleus says "Get on the Militia band.....he armed?"
Into the phone, Rooke pauses again, and a carhorn -blares- by awfully close to the receiver, followed by a Rooke expletive. "Kay.. kay... I-.. dunno. He's not holding anything right now.."
[Militia] Malleus says, "Unknown at this time, central. Am on my way."
[Militia] Rooke's voice comes through after a pause. "I'm on, Malleus.. he's heading for Lazlo.. what should I do?" Another car horn blasts.
[Militia] Malleus's voice is a bit jumpy sounding, and there's a metallic ringing in the background. "Keep him in sight, but don't get in his way. I'm riding west...on Lazlo."
[Militia] Dispatch says, "Roger."
[Militia] Malleus's voice continues in its faintly quavery tone. "Approaching Wallside west...I..." A short pause. "Whats the current status on our man, Rooke?"
[Militia] Rooke has been silent on the channel for a while now, and when she comes on, there's a cacaphony of sound, among which is a whonking transport horn. "..cut across traffic... not... heading to Lazlo, going to the... city scrapyard..! I've still got the trail.." *crackle*
[Militia] Malleus says, "Scrapya...Central; we may need backup. Anything you can muster, PAD classification preferred."
[Militia] Dispatch says, "Loud and clear. PAD resources are strained at a SN-containment site in the north. Backup will be delayed."Rooke buffets off a fenced alley wall as she gains the sidewalk and puts on a good burst of speed, weaving past a group of youngsters. She veers into the alley perhaps forty feet behind you, radio in hand. "Wait! Don't go there, it's dangerous!" she cries out as she follows you along the junk lined path towards the main yard.
Rainier darts out of the passageway formed by the two buildings, a cloud of dirt and debris in his wake. Malleus crouches in the saddle, eyes scanning ahead as his steed continues its sprint.
Galvo pumps his arms and legs as he doggedly jogs towards the Scrapyard. He flips his head around to view how his his tail is doing. He ignores anything 'that' woman has to say and continues towards the fence of the junkyard.
Rooke is past the wide alley and sprinting with raincoat tails flying along the trashpile-lined road, angling sharply to the right in pursuit of her prey, who's perhaps sixty feet ahead and reaching the junkyard fence.
Malleus draws on the reins and Rainier slows into a rolling gallop
The sight of the barbed wire fences surrounding the Scrapyard renews Galvo's dwindling energy and he puts all his might into reaching them. He launches himself against the fence and thrusts his fingers between the links. With a grunt he frantically attempts to heave himself up the barrier. He does at this moment take stock of his female pursuit and with horror see's another approaching atop a horse. This spurs him in his efforts to escape.
Atop the horse, Malleus slows his horse as he spies Rooke. He motions for her to get up onto the saddle as he catches up with her, saying "With me, I think. We'll need to keep together..." He glances up and sees the darting form of a man moving over the fence.
Galvo eaches the top of the fence and perches there precariously as he unsnags his clothes from the barbed wire. After he tears the fabric out of his attire he attempts to descend the other side of the fence.
Rooke is dropping a small portable radio into a translucent pocket of her coat, finding little purchase in the churned mud and slush of the used road to the scrapyard. She calls out again roughly, "Stop! -Don't- go in there! Dammit!" That last is a curse as she sees he isn't going to listen, and she shies away from Ranier as he gains her peripheral vision. "Malleus!" She gauges the the leap, and springs rather high to the side, grabbing for the saddle in both hands to boost her further up onto Rainier's back, behind the rider.
Galvo's eyes bulge as his right foot slips from a moist link in the fence. There is a loud tearing sound and his jacket rips in half, revealing a shoulder holster. He plummets to the earth from the top of the fence and produces a wet 'thump' as he lands onto the cold moist earth.
Atop the horse, Malleus glances over at Rooke, arching an eyebrow at her. He then turns to regard the fences encircling the scrapyard, and looks for any gate in or place that could be used for a rapid and somewhat off-the-cuff entry. He draws on the reins and Rainier begins moving at an easy trot.
Galvo winces and twitches his extremeties as he lays on the rutty ground. He groans and struggles to get himself to his feet while crawling towards the interior of the Scrapyard. Blood trickles down the side of his temple and he seems to be favoring his right leg more than the left. He claws with a stiff hand at his holster as he continues.
Rooke clings to the bouncing saddle as she hauls herself up behind Malleus and throws a leg over to Rainier's other side, then slips her arms around the Militiaman's midsection.
[Militia] Malleus says, "Suspect has fled into Scrapyard. Maintaining pursuit."
Night has claimed the city, and wraps its folds of blackness around the spirit and heart of Tolkeen. Beyond the walls, strange sounds begin to emerge, coming faintly yet unmistakably from the wilderness regions beyond. The streets are all but deserted, only a few lone travellers, and they move purposefully, taking no leisurely walks. The lines glow an intense azure blue.
Malleus speaks into his wristband for a moment as his eyes look over its edge, still searching for a way to follow Galvo's trail short of attempting a leap or breaking down a part of the fence.
The gates to the Scrapyard are locked up tight for the evening. In the distance, a gatehouse near the entrance of the yard can been seen. A flickering light eminates from inside.
[Militia] Dispatch says, "Be advised. The Scrapyard is considered very dangerous after nightfall. My advice is to await for backup. It should arrive in 10 to 15 minutes."
[Militia] Malleus says, "10 or 15 minutes? I...understood, central."
Rooke seems a bit uncomfortable bouncing along behind Malleus, and leans to the side a little in an attempt to keep visual track of the suspect. "I dunno," she says a bit breathlessly. "He's toast if he wanders around in there alone."Malleus
A little on the short side, build athletic, this human male looks to be in his late twenties. He has jet black hair, cut short and groomed well, with slight sideburns and a loose strand or two dangling over his forehead. Sharply defined, his features are distinguished by a hawkish nose, squarish jaw, and a pair of pale brown eyes.
He's dressed in a set of probably expensive and definitely well-tailored clothes. He has a white longsleeved shirt over his torso, with a navy blue, velvety vest buttoned up over it. Looking close, you may notice the embroidered designs on the vest are some sort of arcane symbols. Over this, he has a black deacon jacket with a short collar and tails. The pants on his legs are well fitted and black, the leather belt looped around his waist clasped with an ivory celtic cross as the buckle. An ornately decorated gunbelt is canted over this belt, with twin holsters and several loops for bullets. There's a pair of solid black boots on his feet, and a pair of black gloves pulled over his hands. Around his right wrist is a metallic bracelet with a glowing LED face on it. He wears a long black and immacuately maintained and slightly bulky duster over the rest of his outfit in most circumstances, and he wears a flat brimmed black hat with silver headband when he is out of doors. Prominently featured amidst the black fabric hanging over his left breast is a silver badge, emblazoned with the Tolkeen militia insignia and a Paranatural Assets Division crest.
His posture is straight backed and smacks of not completely forgotten gentility. Smooth in his gestures and precise in his manner, he seems confident and just a little arrogant in general. When he speaks, there's a faint hint of an accent that is definitely not from around these parts.Malleus' horse, Rainier
This is a sleek metallic silver steed, composed of cybernetic gears and synthskin that gives it an almost natural appearance. Its mane is a sold metal band of black, and the saddle on its back is hardwired onto its frame. The eyes of the silver cyberhorse glow a faint blue when it is operational, and there are a few even dimmer lights on the top of the saddle. It moves with a fluidity that belies its mechanical nature, and occaisonally even emits synthesized whinnes. A set of black leather saddlebags are attached to its saddle.Atop the horse, Malleus scowls bitterly to himself, saying "Could lead us to the nest of vipers that have Sgt. Townsend." He sits up a little straighter, and takes one of his pistols from the holster. He turns the chamber, checking the loads in sequence. "What do you know about this place, Rooke?"
Rooke shakes her head a little, squinting a little as she gazes through the fence. "I've never been inside the actual dump.. but that house.. uh.. the house that used to stand nearby," she gestures back down the path to an ominous pile of twisted metal and blocks of cement, now just a shadow on a shadow as night falls. "It.. it's alive. And the creatures from the rift activities.. some've supposedly taken refuge in this area." She pauses, peering over Malleus' shoulder at the gun. "Are we going in?"
As they come within close proximity of the gatehouse atop the horse, spotlights suddenly drench the area with illuminating light. A tiny beeping sound eminates from a small motion sensor. A face presses up against the gatehouse window and peers out at you.
Malleus holsters the weapon as the lights come on, and squints through the blaring beam, a hand held up to shield his eyes. "Private Brandt, PAD." he says, in a clear voice, directed towards whomever is in the guardhouse. "Suspect fled into there..." he points towards the ugly shadows of the scrapyard. "...we've got Backup enroute, but it could be 15 minutes before they arrive."
A series of loud clacking noises issue from the gatehouse door. After a quarter of a minute of this, a man in a motley assortment of body armor emerges from the interior of the shack. He carries with him a rather nasty looking modified shotgun and keeps it pointed towards the earth. He hollers, "P-Place is o-offlimits after five bells! Yer crazy if ya wanna go in there!"
Rooke shifts again and leans to the side on Rainier a bit more, waving out a hand, in hopes the man will recognize her. "Please.. it's an emergency. Open it up, sir!"
Malleus eyes the guardsman pointedly, leaning over a little, saying "The /Councilor/ here is right. One of our own's life may depend upon it." Rainier rears his head back, raising a hoof to clop anxiously at the muddy, debris strewn ground.
The gatehouse keeper snorts loudly at the pleas of the two atop the horse and walks towards the formitable gateway. "You're nuts!" He delves a hand into a bulging side pocket and withdraws a jingling set of mundane and electronic keys. "There's gonna be an empty place at the council table if you go in there." He says warningly and begins to open the gates slowly and warily. He peers into the darkness beyond the fance. "You're both young lookin, still got lots of life ahead of you...I'd stay the hell out!" His hands make the sign of some arcane ward and he pulls the creaky gates open. "...Youngin's..."
Rooke shifts a little behind Malleus, and scans the interior scrapyard through the fence alertly, saying slowly, "There's things in there, Malleus. You sure you want to go in there?" She shivers a bit, drawing back to regular seating to take hold of his waist again. "I still do," she adds after a moment.
Malleus smiles grimly over his shoulder at Rooke. "Guess we'll know if this is a bad idea in a moment..." He spurs the cyberhorse, and turns him towards the now opened gate. "If that backup shows up, tell them where we went. They can probably track us." With another jab of his spurs, Rainier clops ahead into the shadows.
The gatekeeper squints one eye and cocks his shotgun. He stands rooted to the spot just outside the entrance. He yells out shrilly after you. "I'm not standin in the cold all night! W-what? More goin' in later?" He bellows out after you with a final phrase. "You're nuts!"Towers of refuse and pillars of garbage. Rows upon rows of scrap lay heaped about. It looks as if there was some semblance of order planned some time ago, but now everything seems to be spilling into one another. Rusted chassis of cars stack upwards into a parody of skyscrapers, mountains of tires overflow into a collection of old refrigerators, and soggy piles of paper products meld together. Walking between the heaps produces sickening sucking sounds underfoot. The stench of the place is truely potent. It's as if one has crossed the boundary from the real world and entered a new dimension. But by the squeaks and other strange noises that assault the ears, one's more likely to disturb one of the more unpleasant residents of this place than meet another friendly face.
Ambiant noise inside the yard is myriad and irregular. Squeakings of rats, a mongrel dog barking from somewhere further inside the yard, the hum of distant generators, and the occasional piece of refuse becoming dislodged by something. The eerie thing about the place is the that the sound of night's crickets is strangely absent.
Malleus guides his horse through the corridors of ruin and decay, holding a gloved hand to his mouth for a ways into the place. "By the Light; what a stink. Smells like...well, I wouldn't like to say." He peers out at the surroundings from under his hat brim, and his retinas take on a faintly shadowed cast for a moment.
Rooke's breathing is shallow and a little ragged as she labours under the assailing.. aromas. She replies, "I have a sort of night vision, Malleus... I'm not seeing anything of what we're looking for.. but there're things... all around." She twists in the saddle to check back the way they've come.
The sheer enormity of the tons of junk and scrap has created a new landscape. Narrow corridors of garbage and steel, pyramids of twisted alloys and towers of rusty cars make this environment diverse.
Malleus nods steadily, glancing mostly towards the dirt and mud. "...he was dragging a leg. No tracks?" He rests his hands on the pommel of the cyberhorse's built-in saddle, squinting.
Rooke leans down to peer at the strewn ground, frowning to herself. "Uh..."
Atop the horse, Malleus pauses, a shudder running up his spine. He slowly turns his head at an angle, peering upwards towards the pinnacle of a pile of discarded metals and plastics. "Ah...something's watching." he mutters, guiding Rainier on ahead. "Up there!" he hisses.
Rooke jerks in the saddle to follow up the sight of Malleus' arm, tensing and drawing up a leg at the knee to brace against Rainier's hindquarter. "Careful! Get down!"
<<INIT>> Rooke rolls initiative, and receives a natural 20!
<<INIT>> Galvo rolls initiative, for a cumulative result of <10>.
<<INIT>> Malleus rolls initiative, for a cumulative result of <15>.
Outlined in the moonlight atop a tall pyramid-like pile of garbage stands a slightly hunched over figure of a man with tattered clothes. A beam of moonlight glances off his pistol as he draws a line of sight on you both.
Rooke curls her leg under her and grates out, "He's gonna fire, Malleus..! Watch out!" before springing off Rainier's back into the foot of the slope of trash leading up to Galvo, and reaching inside her raincoat for her own firearm.
A silver plated handgun appears in Malleus's right hand, his other glove gripping the reins of his horse. Aimed up the slope, the gun bucks with a loud crack as he fires off a shot at the gunman.
There's a thick thumping sound to the left of the gunman's form as the psionically accelerated slug rips through the side of a discarded refridgerator.
The shot rattles Galvo's senses and also the garbage which he stands upon. He fires wildly as he looses his balance atop the refuse. Laser bolts streak from his pistol upwards into the night sky as he falls backwards.
Rooke flinches as she draws out a small dark pistol from her hip holster, and yells out, "Quit it! We don't want to hurt you!" Bracing against the steel drum wedged in impacted trash underneath her, she pistons off and leaps high on an angle, to gain nearly twenty feet along the sharp slope of the plastic mountain. Her greenish raincoat streaks out behind her like a cape.
Rooke sets down a little precariously on a thick flat board that pulls out from its moorings a little, but otherwise stays put.
Malleus dismounts, produces his other revolver as he hits the ground, and moves in a crouch towards a Studebaker's half disintegrated framework at the base of the heap-mountain. His eyes lock on where he last saw Galvo, mouth set. "Give it up!"
Galvo screams at you both as he scrambles on all fours down the other side of the pile. "Fuck you! Leave me alone!" Loose trash jostles looses in his wake as he tries to flee.
Rooke glances over her shoulder hectically to check Malleus' progress, then progresses more cautiously towards the peak of the hill on foot, gunarm folded with the pistol nose pointing upwards. She remains quiet as she peers over the pinnacle in her area, reaching up with her free hand in order to draw the hood of her raincoat over her head.
Malleus moves back to the side of his horse as Galvo moves out of view. He leads the horse by the reins in a slow canter to the edge of the 'mountain', stepping lightly, moving around to the right of the base of the enormous trash heap.
There can be no mistaking where Galvo is going. The noise he's making is quite loud and consistent. He half-slides down the other side of the pile on his ass, leaving torn pieces of jeans and fabric in his wake. He howls as he makes his painful progress towards the ground.
Rooke tugs her hood up and over her head as she straightens up in a reckless pounce that brings her over to the other side of the mountain in a scattering of smaller plastic parts, giving a little cry of startlement as she skates down a little of the way, and disappears from Malleus' line of sight.
Galvo reaches the bottom of the hill in quite a horrible state. Bleeding palms and knees as well as other more sensitive areas coupled with the state of his clothes make him look like he belongs amongst the junk. He raises his pistol up towards the female pursuing him and warns. "Come closer and I'll put a hole through your damn head! I'm warning you dammit! Whatever it is it's not my fault!"
Malleus continues his circling, still a ways from seeing Galvo or Rooke. Rainier trots along at his side.
Rooke risks another small leap to a likely looking spot farther down the scrap mountain and somewhere to the left of Galvo, gunarm snapping out to point at the man, but not firing. "Glad to hear it! Listen to me, I just wanted to- ahhh! .... ask you some questions!" She comes down a bit hard on a warped metal sheet and slides off it on grunge-encrusted boot-soles, hitting her fanny as she fetches up against it and finishes her short explanation.
Halting as he comes into view of both Galvo and Rooke, Malleus aims both of his revolvers in slightly outstretched arms, about chest level. He levels them both in Galvo's direction, saying "You shoot, I'll kill you. You run, something out there..." he tilts his head towards the piles. "...will kill you. Give it up, and we can talk."
Galvo doesn't appear to want to hear reason from either Rooke or Malleus. "Piss off!" He makes a dive behind an old sub-compact automobile for cover with his weapon clenched in hand.
As soon as Galvo disappears, Rooke sidesteps along wobbling crates and a tangle of metallic patio chairs, towards an overturned, rat-chewed sofa, on which rests a two legged table., for cover. Her boot breaks through the rotting surface of a wooden box, and she simply falls over behind the makeshift shielding with a small curse.
Malleus moves to the side of his steed, weapons readied. He frowns coldly towards the small automobile, and says "You're in an awful hurry to get hurt, friend. Mind if I ask why?"
Galvo screams from behind his cover while handling his weapon nervously. "You're chasing me! Don't come any closer or I'll blast you to pieces!" He ducks his head around the side of the car to try and see where Malleus and Rooke have positioned themselves.
Malleus looks warily at Rooke, then at Galvo's direction, his face still bearing that chilly sort of calm.
Rooke kicks the crate off her leg and gets back on her feet, peering over the edge of the table and adding, "I chased you because you ran! I wasn't going to hurt you.. come out of here with us, it's dangerous here...!" She keeps her pistol out and poised, glancing over at Malleus, and hissing, "Dammit, what's his name again? ..Flavo? ..Volvo?"
Malleus mutters out of the side of his mouth "It escapes me at the moment."
Galvo laughs jaggedly. "Yeah...right." He pokes out from his cover and peels off a shot at Rooke.
<<INIT>> Initiative reset by Galvo.
<<INIT>> Rooke rolls initiative, for a cumulative result of <20>.
<<OOC>> Galvo says, "Holy moly."
<<INIT>> Galvo rolls initiative, for a cumulative result of <5>.
<<INIT>> Malleus rolls initiative, for a cumulative result of <17>.
Rooke seems to see the intent behind Galvo's words before he even moves, and weaves on a downwards angle behind the table and couch, bringing her sleeved arm up and across her face for extra measure. "Look out, Malleus!" You know, just in case it's not for her.
Malleus's eyes flare for a moment at the first motion of the gunman, and his retinas dilate, shadows playing over them like a puppet show. There's a hissing sound in the air as he concentrates on the hood of the car. There's a sound of a rusted spring popping and then the hood flies up, up at an angle in front of Galvo.
Galvo grunts in surprise as his vision becomes obscured by the appearance of the hood. He growls and fires wildly through it without benefit of where he's shooting exactly.
The bolt travels right through the hood of the car and sinks into a tower of stacked automobile chassis. They groan alarmingly and begin to topple off in the distance. Galvo sits behind the now gaping hole as he looks around wildly.
Rooke cautiously peers up over her arm at the sound of searing, then crashing metal, and casts a glance to Malleus. Seeing him still standing, she straightens up a little and brings her pistol over top the table's edge, straight-armed. "Mister.. Volvo! We've got more folks on the way. Surrender now before you dig yourself deeper!"
Malleus grimaces, sidesteps, his revolvers cocking with a quick thumb motion, firing into the windows of the car, aiming for whatver he can make out of Galvo's shoulder or arm.
Both shots go wide, emitting high wines as the bullets bite into dirt and metal behind the cornered gunman.
Flinches as explosions of sound erupt around him. "It's Galvo! Don't you fucking assassins know my name yet?! Keep still so I can blow your stupid heads off." He flexes his fingers around the trigger of his Wilks and wavers it from Rooke to Malleus.
Rooke raises her eyebrows, flickering a glance off to the side where Malleus stands, then protests in a yell over the sounds of falling debris, "We're not assassins! I'm Council, he's Militia! We're looking for the mage Celaeno!"
Malleus holds one smoking pistol up, but keeps the other one level, aimed at whatever he can make out of Galvo's laser pistol. He doesn't say anything, feeling a little awkward in any attempt to negotiate with a man he just tried to shoot. Assuming the role of bad cop, he thumbs the hammer on his revolver, but does not shoot.
Galvo's eyes bulge and he pushes his back up against the cold surface of the car. "You're not from the Guild?" Silence and then he blurts out, "How do you know Celaeno?"
Rooke immediately replies, still keeping her voice in a register above the ruckus around them, "Not important! If you know where he is, you'll tell us if you want to see the light of day from anywhere but a prison cell!" In the relative darkness, the blue streaks on her face glow sharply.
Malleus keeps his weapon level, saying nothing, body tensed, eyes cool and almost indifferent.
Galvo flexes his bleeding hands and winces at the sharp shooting pains that ache all over his body. He eyes his dim surroundings and finds it extremely hard make out any avenue of escape. He stammers, "I'm not going back to prison you bitch!" He chokes out an exhasperated groan. "Fine! Put me in prison. I'd rather be in there than get strung up by the Guild. They don't give a shit about me anymore!" In anger he squeezes out a volley at a lump of refuse 30 feet from him.
Rooke frowns in the darkness at the man's violent behavior and sinks down a little more behind cover, although she keeps her gunarm out straight over the edge of the table. "Uh... you used to be in the.. their Guild?" she chances, attempting to get him in more of a conversational mood.
Malleus slants an eyebrow upwards, keeping his gaze on the desperate man's location. He maintains his psionic scanning for forces of darkness as Rooke tries to draw the man out, knowing all of this ruckus could mean mutual trouble for all three of them. "We need to take this conversation elsewhere..."
Galvo seems to be getting more and more agitated with each passing word. He fires off another searing bolt of energy into a refrigerator two car lengths away. "Bastards! Not my fault 'Laeno got all the talent and I got nothing!" He grits his teeth and the pistol in his hand begins to shake.
Rooke glances with alarm at Malleus, hearing the tension mounting in Galvo. She peers over the table in his direction, seeking out his current suspected position, then slowly slips away from the table, picking her way down the rest of the slope to the muddy littered ground.
A unbalanced carton of misshappen metal bolts teeters, then tips, as Rooke's leg brushes by, scattering its contents in a shower over items that allow the ensuing sounds to resound nicely.
Malleus winces noticably, and looks in Rooke's direction for a moment. He then turns back towards Galvo, saying "You want to a chance to get back at the cult? You want to get protection from them? Come with us." He lowers his aimed revolver, keeping it in a loose grip.
Galvo clenches his teeth and seethes. "Goddam reading said I had power! Where is it?!" He shrieks. "I can find it! Shouldn't have thrown me out!" He squints his eyes shut and smacks the hilt of the weapon against his temple very hard. "I can find it!"
A rumble reverberates through the ground like thunder. Scrap and refuse begins to shake in the immediate area.
Rooke doesn't have time to be embarrassed as hell over her botched stealth, and crouches down to stabilize her balance on the shaking ground. She looks wildly over at Malleus again, and reaches down towards the knife sheathed at her calf.
Malleus grits his teeth, eyes widening. "Just fantastic..." he mutters, glancing around, shifting his weight with the rumble. Looking back over a shoulder at Galvo, he says "What is it you were seeking? What? We may not have much time, and Celaeno's laughter will be the only reward if you don't help us. Now." Rainier neighs in reaction to the tremors.
Galvo stands from behind cover and his mouth stretches to an outlandish circumference. He presses his hands against his temples and howls, "Celaeno would never laugh!" A horrendous gut-wrenching roar follows from his throat and his body goes into spasms. What remains of his clothing rips apart. Welts start to split his skin open revealing the steaming innard of his body.
Galvo's eyes invert and then flare amethyst in the darkness as his body contorts.
Rooke breathes a helpless, "Jesus Christ D-Bee...!" and mindlessly reholsters her little pistol, her left hand coming up near her face with the long blade of the ornate knife pointing out and to the side..
Malleus's mouth opens, dry. He squints in horrified fascination at the terrible destruction of Galvo's body, and begins to back away. "A..summoning of the pit...?"They both sense a rapidly growing evil directly in front of them. A slightly smaller malignant force seems to be coagulating nearby as well from beneath the layer of refuse.
Pieces of trash and metal begin to rattle and shake. A vortex seems to be forming to the right hand side of the transforming Galvo. The vortex is actually swooping up ambient debris and twirling in around in one spot. As more pieces collect they begin to slap against each other and fuse.
Rooke backs off as well, although it brings her farther from Rainier and Malleus, shuffling a bit to maintain a good balance, then makes a short backwards leap onto the bumper, then hood of a badly rusted shell of a pickup truck, standing poised there, staring at the odd magnetic and growing structure. She makes a couple of hitching sounds, then shouts to Malleus, "I think...! We'd better get the -fuck- away!!"
Several small pieces of debris tremble, then launch off the ground in a manner similar to the other scraps building the structure, but they pick up speed instantly, becoming blurs as they fly straight into the midst of the forming mass.
Malleus nods very slowly. "You're right, I think..." he mutters, though his words are likely drowned out. He then moves to Rainier, holstering a pistol and pulling himself up into the saddle.
Galvo's body continues to writhe like it's on fire. His body pulsates, slowly growing in size. His skin, unable to contain his growing form completely separates into pieces that cling to various areas. Fleshy inner parts burble around where skin used to be. Odd protrusions poke out from many different part of his body like quills. His glowing eyes become much like searchlights as they play about the area.
The whirling vortex is hit dead on by the glowing pieces of debris. From the center of the howling whirlwind comes a roar of pain. More pieces of garbage are sucked into the vortex and you can very plainly see the formation of a humanoid body taking place.
Rooke watches the entity take the damage and crouches a little, twisting as she directs her spring, then abruptly stops herself, glancing back at Galvo with an expression more frustrated than terrified. The glow from the facial paint lights up her eyes from below as she mutters something to herself. Chips of glass and brick clatter off the hood of the truck and streak across the space between herself and Galvo.
The chips of brick and glass pelt into the scrapyard golem and its left side blows out in a spray of unrecognizable parts.
Malleus motions to Rooke, shouting "Come on!" He guides Rainier towards Rooke's position, turning a little in the saddle to look back at the paranormal display with open fascination.
The thing that is Galvo seems to have stopped growing but is throbbing and rooted to the spot. The weapon that was clutched so tightly in his hand makes twisting sounds as its hilt is slowly crushed. The entity inside the vortex is completed but is for some reason, missing a foot. It's 12 foot tall composition is made up totally of what can be found in the Scrapyard. It grabs a handfull of metal and garbage, hurling it towards Rooke.
Rooke barely glances at Malleus in her determined focus on Galvo, shouting out against the confusion of sound, "I can't!! He's the only one who can lead us to Will!" as she leaves the hood of the car in an upwards leap, trying to clear the sideways rain of deadly junk.
The debris hurtles past Rooke's last position and buries itself into the pyramid of refuse. It howls unintelligently in frustration and almost loses its balance.
Malleus wheels Rainier, frowning inwardly. "I hope you know what you're doing..." he shouts towards Rooke. With that, he levels off his pistol, and snaps off a shot at the midsection of the garbage golem.
The creature growls in what sounds like pain and flails its misshapen arms madly, a well-sized hole now residing in its torso.
Rooke rises up from the jump an improbable fifteen feet. As she reaches the apex of her parabola and starts sinking then plummeting downwards, legs unfolding and arms flung out from her sides for balance, it looks like she'll end up fairly closer to Galvo and his pet entity. When she hits, she folds up to roll even closer with the impact while Malleus draws the monster's attention.
Galvo has still made no motion aside from what his undulating body is doing. The entity however is clearly enraged and a headlight where an eye might be flickers to life. It seems about to advance on Malleus but stops, loping towards Rooke when she becomes a closer target.
Rainier rears back for a moment, then lands heavily, holding his position while Malleus draws his second revolver in a flash. He fires two more psychically charged shots at the metallic monstrosity, eyes narrowed balefully as the pistols sound off.
The two shots impact with tremendous force into the eerie construct and the huge thing howls out in anguish. Great chunks of its torso get blown to smithereens in a dramatic display of destruction. It's midsection looks like a piece of swiss cheese and looks like it threatens break off. It's one eye-like headlight sweeps from Rooke back over to Malleus and marks him for extinction. The creature reaches down and grabs a huge industrial sized gear. With a great heave he sends it towards Malleus and his steed.
As the large gear is pulled from the earth with great force, the creature's whole arm bends at where an elbow might be. The gear, his hand and his arm go hurtling up into the air and land in a pile of tires some distance off with a resounding clatter. The thing looks towards where its appendage went and issues out a low moaning sound.
Rooke comes out of her roll in a low forward sprint, knife arm out from her body and cocked back, straight and tense. Even as a small surge of bemused pity for the hapless thing colours her growl of effort, she launches herself up and to the armless side of its torso, sweeping her knife out straight in her fist to slash across some of the precarious bits holding its midsection together.
The knife slices cleanly through the remaining mid-section. It's upper body crashes to the stinking landscape while is lower body continues to stumble about stupidly.
Malleus spurs Rainier to move a bit to one side of the remains of the golem. He levels his two Colt Navy pistols at the thing, aiming at its ugly, massive head. His lip curls back contemptuously as he pulls the triggers.
The impact of the two bullets is quite astounding, annihilating the thing's head entirely in a spray of metal. A scream eminates from deep within the remaining fused debris.
What remains of the lower torso hobbles falls forward crazily, attempting to ram into Malleus and Rainier in some last ditch effort.
Malleus manages to pulls Rainier into a tight run around the torso as it pursues him and his steed. With a wary look in Galvo's direction, he inwardly notes that he only has three shots left in his pistols all told. And there's a demonic being to be dealt with.
Malleus fires two more shots into the golem monster. "Not very sporting..." he mutters as the revolvers boom.
The upper torso is completely demolished as both of Malleus' shots crash into what remains of the scrap entity. The lower half stumbles about chaotically in a great fury.
Rooke had landed from her swipe at the thing in a crouch, pivoting on one foot to track the progress of the fall, then the charge at Malleus. The battle has her in a heightened state of being, eyes gleaming hectically from the glow of the facial paint. Once again, small loose pieces of junk tear off from a nearby heap and hurtle downwards towards the mindless rushing lower torso, from an angle that hopefully won't hit Rainier or Malleus.
The pieces slam into the ground as the torso stumbles in a patternless course off to the side, and create a crater in the ground, debris flying up in a hazy cloud.
Galvo froths a pink substance from the mouth, his amethyst glowing eyes seem to widen in their sockets. He shakes and trembles.
<<INIT>> Initiative reset by Galvo.
<<INIT>> Malleus rolls initiative, for a cumulative result of <5>.
<<INIT>> Rooke rolls initiative, for a cumulative result of <19>.
<<INIT>> Galvo rolls initiative, for a cumulative result of <12>.
Rooke grimaces at the miss of an easy target, and bounds up into a trot forwards, knife at the ready. She darts past the foaming and helpless(?) figure of Galvo on her way to help Malleus finish the golem off.
Galvo begins to jiggle and a half tittering half clicking sound cackles from his grotesque form. His midsection bloats, expelling what looks to be bones onto the ground. His palms also expel their carpal digits and dripping holes appear in his palms from whence the bones came.
The lower torso of the entity attempts to stomp its way into Malleus and Rainier.
There's an electronic whinny, and the sound of metal meeting with metal as Rainier is rammed by the golem creature's demonic remnants. Malleus is thrown from the steed, and skitters across the hard ground. He does manage to instinctively roll to avoid either being crushed by the falling cyberhorse or being overly hurt by his impact with the potentially dangerous, trash-laden ground. He comes to a stop against the side of a broken steel beam, hat off, a few cuts on his face visible. Rainier neighs and falls very heavily on the ground.
Rooke gasps an expletive at the disastrous turn of events, and bits of shrapnel are snatched from the still roiling cloud of debris from her last unsuccessful strike, pelting towards the shambling entity.
The hit cleanly enters the hip and shatters the remains like the loose trash it is. As debris scatters in a wide arc, a gutteral sigh can be heard from the area. Something spectral permeates the air, a shapeless mass of dully glowing ectoplasm that bunches together in a struggling mass of rage and disappointment, then courses in a wave towards the muddy earth, 'tunnelling' into the ground and seemingly evaporating from sight.
Galvo raises the hand not still clenching his Wilks up to chest level. Twisting the hand around so that the palm faces outwards. His jaw disconnects and wiggles as a deep throaty howl bellows forth from a pit darker than night.
<<OOC>> Galvo says, "Save vs. HF 16."
<<DICE>> Malleus rolls 1d20 and gets 1.
<<OOC>> Malleus says, "!"
<<DICE>> Rooke rolls 1d20 and gets 11.
Malleus starts to get to his feet, but kneels there in the dirt, staring eyes out of his slightly marked faced locked in utter terror as the sound that Galvo makes. He turns away, instinctively, feeling his stomach turn and the shame of his own fear.
Rooke had turned to face Galvo after the spectral sight fled, but goes down on one knee and cringes back as the howl buffets against her sensibilities and freezes her on the spot in repulsion and fear.
A putrid carrion smell is carried on the wind towards you both. Galvo's back arches and four ropey tendrils laced in green slime wiggles out of his palm. His glowing eyes roll into their gaping sockets and the tendrils split off into pairs, advancing on you both. An audible moist clicking sound eminates from the tendrils and as they get much closer you can see they are made up of an almost chitinous interlocking material.
Years of training haven't prepared Malleus for the true horror of the monster facing him now. He's utterly in shock, face pale save for the small red streaks on it, mouth agape.
Rooke's breath hitches violently at the approach of the tentacles, but her throat locks and no scream emerges. JC D-Bee, they should have beat the hell out of here when they had the chance. She shrinks away in reaction and falls on her backside with a flat smack, one leg folded under her.
Copious amounts of dark green foam burble up from Glavo's throat and eat away at his remaining teeth like acid. New teeth, jagged and akin to stalagtites push through his rotting gums in a violent eruption. The two tendrils by now have reached you both and hover menacingly, as if trying to decide which tasty bit of flesh to dig into first. They bend into an arch and a high whining noise buzzes from them as they rear back to strike.
<<INIT>> Initiative reset by Galvo.
<<INIT>> Rooke rolls initiative, for a cumulative result of <11>.
<<INIT>> Malleus rolls initiative, for a cumulative result of <8>.
<<INIT>> Galvo rolls initiative, and receives a natural 20!
The tendrils hovering over both of you strike simultaneously and dive towards any exposed flesh. For Rooke they attempt to impale her in the leg and for Malleus they attempt to whip around his neck.
Malleus manages to bat the tendril away as he snaps out of his frozen moment of paralysis, eyes wide as he sees what the thing is trying to do.
The ropey tendrils that darted towards Rooke's leg strike like vipers into the stinking layer of garbage beneath her legs.
At seemingly the very last moment, Rooke snaps out of her trance, and voices a shrill scream, knife arm sweeping out in a blur of motion at the tentacles (about three feet down from the tips), while she twists her lower torso away from their darting clutches.
The whip-like tentacles rip from the soggy ground lightning quick and attempt to evade the viscious swing of the knife.
One of the two ropey apendages that attempted to dodge is cloven in two. It spurts some caustic looking substance which causes the ground to sizzle where it drips.
Malleus stumbles backwards, clawing for Rainier's rifle sling with one searching blind hand as the horse begins to get to its metallic hooves. He fires his last chambered revolver bullet at the face of what was once Galvo as he backs away, his face still pale, his eyes still wide. "...Of all of the vile arts of the Pit..."
Galvo's head pincushions for a split second as the bullet enters his face. As the charged projectile exits his head a plethora of glimmering matter follows suit and drenches the ground for many yards behind him. Galvo moans which causes his face to fold inwardly. His jaw starts to flap like an avian's wing, "Sasasasasa..." His head wound leaks profusely and he continues to strike out at the two humanoids with his apendages.
The two tendrils that were so easily parried by Malleus now seek to enwrap a leg while the remaining tentacle near Rooke once more dives for her thigh.
Malleus attempts to kick a tendril away, but ends up leaving his leg open to the grab.
The ropey slimey things wrap around Malleus' leg and try to drag him towards Galvo. Rooke's clumsy assailant once again buries itself into the ground and is stuck for a few moments.
Malleus manages to catch a hold of the butt of his Ithaca 12 guage shotgun in one hand as he's dragged across the ground. An absurd thought enters his mind as he realizes his suit is going to be utterly ruined.
Rooke brings her right leg up and over the tentacle, bringing the sole of her boot down heavily on the tendril just beyond its entrance into the ground, hopefully holding it there, whilst she cocks back her knife arm, squints, and then flings the knife across the space that separates her from Galvo, aiming somewhere near the palm that houses the tentacles.
Cool move, but it wasn't meant to be. Sweat and mud greasing her palm, she makes the throwing arc, but finds the knife squipping out of her hand plenty early, flying pretty much straight upwards into the air, pausing comically at it's peak and catching a lovely beam of moonlight, then plummeting down strike her squarely on the head, but... strangely enough, bouncing off after a squeak of shock and pain from its owner.
Malleus brings the lever action shotgun to bear, aiming at the tendril that's current got him in its grasps. He squints through blood and sweat, clenches his jaw, then fires. A blast of psychically charged buckshot fires out from the end of the longarm with an explosive sound akin to a cannon in a culvert.
The two tendrils release their grip on Malleus' leg as the charged buckshot splinters them into ragged strips. The ruined tentacles writhe and spray fluid all over his leg as they retreat back towards Galvo's palm. The lone tendril buried just beneath Rooke's foot emits an even higher whining pitch and zigs out from the ground upwards.
The armor on Malleus' legs saves him an unspeakable burning from the acidic blood substance, but the fabric of the pants that cover the armor plates melts away, ruined.
Rooke yanks her foot away as she hears the ominous buzz but the snaking tendril catches her halfway up the calf, on the outside, and drags up the length of it, to mid thigh, splitting the leather of her suit there in a smokey explosion of fabric. It leaves a trail of bright red, torn flesh, that immediately wells up and spills blood onto the greedy earth. Rooke makes a choked, ill sound, face going as pale as chalk underneath the vibrant blue paint, and she grabs up her knife from the ground, chopping at the recoiling tendril.
The vicious tentacle is sheared in half and it flops to the earth, spilling foul slime and acid in great hissing dollops. The remaining stalk begins to wriggle its way back towards Galvo's palm.
Malleus whips the lever on the shotgun, and fires from his half-dragged position, up at the midsection of the demonic beast. He shouts a wordless scream as he does so, the ejected shell popping off and rolling from the shotgun's smoky chamber.
Galvo's form is picked up and carried a span of five feet and forced into the sub-compact he used as cover earlier. The automobile crumples like a tin can as his demonic body bulldozes into it. The body lies still and the palm-tendrils snake back into their slimey housing. Odd sucking noises can be heard from inside the dilapidated wreck.
Malleus lets out a long breath, lowering the shotgun, and taking a few turgid steps across the trash strewn ground to Rainier's side. The cyberhorse shakes its head a few times reflexively as Malleus opens a pouch on the side of the saddle.
Faint bone-popping noises and the sound of knuckles cracking issue forth from the dissolving body of Galvo. While his defeated monstrous body bleeds away, his old 'human' looking pieces of skin begin to fit together like a crazy jigzaw puzzle. The painfull looking transformation is accompanied by moist organic sounds. Slowly but surely a smaller humanoid bone-structure fills out his deflated naked body. His skin fuses together, containing his various organs once more. But this process is far from precise. Large fault-lines of welts cover his exposed flesh like a net. His chest rises and falls raggedly and he looks completely unconscious.
Malleus crouches on the ground, his face turned towards the wreckage of the car and the demonic creature. Keeping the shotgun raised, he gets to his feet. "Rooke...?" he says, still looking in the Galvo-thing's direction.
Bubbling pops and sizzling can be heard from where Galvo lays. The tendrils have retreated inside the chassis of the car. A horrible smell like rotting fish is filling the area with its pungent aroma.
Rooke makes another Oh-god-I'm-gonna-be-sick sound, and rolls onto her unwounded side, pushing against the filthy, stained ground and hobbling up into a standing position. She turns and makes her way closer to Malleus, favouring her right leg. "You.. you got him?" she asks a little breathlessly.
Green ichor and grotesque looking matter, that no doubt came from your demonic combatant, stains the ground near the automobile and seems to be the source for the awful smell. The ambiant noise inside the Scrapyard is absent. It's as if anything living inside the yard is holding its breath, not daring to make a sound.
Malleus makes a pained face as he steps forewards, eying the thing down the gun barrel. "I...think..." he says, face still drained of color. "I think whatever influence possessed Galvo has passed back to its lair." He doesn't sound terribly positive.
Rooke stares for a moment, breathing shallowly, then murmurs, "Or maybe he did have some power in him after all.." and steps a little to the side (away from Malleus), then forward. Just a little, mind, trying to get at an angle by which she can look into the mangled interior of the car which houses Galvo. Glistening fluid marres the twisted metal that houses the fallen Galvo. Occasionally a jet of green fluid sprays out in a high arc. His two malformed feet have the tendancy to twitch ever so often.
Malleus covers Rooke, moving a little closer as well, eyebrows raised and his mouth slightly opened in exaggerated attentiveness. "Why would anyone do _that_ to themselves?" He watches the spurting goop with open disgust.There is something moving at one of the windows of the overturned wreck. You'd swear its a stalk of somesort...did it just blink?
Rooke limps closer to the car, posture coiling as she first flicks the long exotic knife blade to the side, throwing off excess ichor, then draws the flat of her knife against her left hip underneath the raincoat, clearing away the muck and filth. Her head cranes forward as she replies in a hush, "He.. seemed nearly as surprised as us about it.. I think." She draws back sharply, then. "What the hell.. was that? Another... snake-thing?" She steps back abruptly and winces at the pressure on her leg.
Tilting his head back a little, Malleus said "Possession of some sort...?" He shakes his head, and says "We should destroy the remains and make sure whatever taint took control has faded." He lowers his gun now, glancing at Rooke, then her wounded leg. "But first; you need to get at least a bandage for that." He suddenly raises his gun again, shouting "Rooke! Back!"
Rooke looks a bit wildly at Malleus at the misunderstanding, and blurts more loudly, "No..! I mean.. another one.. now! Get back!" She feints towards him in an odd-looking dance-type move, raising her knife as he simultaneously shouts out, gaze flashing back to the car.You feel a tug at your clothes as the air around you is sucked towards the interior of the overturned vehicle. Two seconds later the vehicle crumples in upon itself only to explode in a brilliant plume of violet-white light.
Rooke raises her knife arm half across her eyes as the first sparks of brilliant light flare up, then find herself heaved back by the force of the eruption, twisting her body in mid-air and curling into a ball as she hits the ground again with a splash of disgustingly filthy water. She comes to a painful halt on her belly, raising her head out of the muck in the next second.
Malleus falls back, closing his eyes, short hair bristling, duster flared out in the explosion of light and heated air. Sliding along a shoulder into the dirt and a loosely packed pile of tin plating, he emits an "Unf!" as he finally stops.
Pieces of plasma-lit debris come down in an area roughly 80 feet in diameter. A horrible wailing sound echoes from a crater in the ground where the wrecked auto used to be.
Malleus looks towards the smoldering crater over a smoking shoulder, and then Rooke. Rainier starts to stand again, four hooves regaining calibration for a second time, his silver side scorched very slightly by the backwash of superheated matter.
Even through the layer of mud and stench, Rooke's skin seems to flush feverishly, as if slightly baked. She spits to the side with an expression of utter distaste, and struggles to her feet, gazing quickly about for Malleus, while weaving away from falling chunks of melting debris. "You.. you okay?" She stumbles her way over like a creature from the pit, herself.
Malleus motions to Rooke, saying "I'm fine. We'd better keep away from that...hole...the presence has not left, and may take another form." Looking at the shotgun lying in the muck nearby, he moves to pick it up, and scans the mess around the area for his revolvers.
Emerging from the pit like a creature from hell, Galvo's form slowly rises. His body shows obvious signs of wounds and lacerations, body fluids pumping into the pit he arises from. He howls in anguish, twitching and convulsing spasmotyically. His arms hang loosely by his side and his feet dangle. His shoulders are hunched over while he rises, perhaps looking much like a kitten being lifted by the scruff of the neck. The only part of him that seems moving is his head which sways from side to side and emits wailing sounds.
Rooke reaches up to squeegee the mud from off her face, and draws her vaguely charred hood back over her head. "How long till backup? Maybe the force needs to be.. driven out," as she keeps facing the pit while she backs up along with him. Her hand flashes up reactively at the sight of Galvo rising, hitting at Malleus shoulder in warning, even as stones and hard bits of debris shiver and start to move on the ground before her.
Within a microsecond of the prodding from Rooke, Malleus's eyes widen and his hands move, the shotgun blasting once more, fired up at the rising horror as he appears out of the pit. He snaps the lever again.
Malleus's emphasis on speed costs him accuracy, and the buckshot goes wide, putting a large number of smoking holes in the side of a few pieces of discarded furniture.
Rooke ducks down to give Malleus' shot wider scope, shifting in front of him with a showy and unnecessary spurt of blood from her flexing leg. The shattered pieces of debris from the ground launch off a split-second after Malleus' shotgun blast, hurtling through the air towards Galvo, taking on a slight glow and leaving faint trails of light.
The pieces of hurled trash remove hunks of pulsing flesh from Galvo's body. His head shakes and vibrates frantically until its only a blur of motion. His eyes widen until they almost pop out of their sockets; they unleash twin gobs of super-heated violet plasma towards Rooke. The previous head-wound delivered by Malleus spurts out a few chunks of goo from the strain.
Rooke coils to spring away at the crackling emanation from Galvo, falters, then bolts up ramrod straight, still in front of Malleus, pivoting to face him and spreading her raincoat wide against the attack, her face pale and set with the knowledge of impending disaster upon herself.
The bright-white gobs streak through the air, lighting up the surrounding scrap landscape grotesquely and hitting Rooke full in the back, splashing in a wave across the spread raincoat. It melts away almost instantaneously even as she's thrown bodily forward into Malleus with bone-jarring force, sending them careening across about fifteen feet of ground into a pile of old mattresses, garbage cascading down around them.
Rivets of liquid plasma leak profusely from Galvo's eyes from whence his attack came. His hovering body suddenly drops a few feet and he seems to take great pains in attaining altitude again. Like a sickly hummingbird he rises, drops and rises again while his appendages jerk to life in aggravation. He attains forward motion and begins to hapazardly float slowly towards you both.
Malleus curses in Euro, pushing over out of the garbage, rolling once, and shooting up at the advancing creature. One more shell is pumped into the chamber with the rapid action of the shotgun's lever.
Galvo's bobbing and weaving form actually attempts to sidestep the oncoming blast. His head rolls loosely on his neck like a limp noodle.
The floating thing fails on dodging the charged buckshot and is spun around in mid-air. An aura of blue energy trails after the blown away pieces of his flesh and the hovering form drops to the earth where it begins to flop about like a fish on land.
Rooke rebounds limply off the mounds of rotting fabric and rusting springs, and flops into the foot of the trash hill, steam rising from her back where the leather suit has corroded away, leaving raw and cooked skin. That must have been some raincoat; bits of it still remain, melted into her hair, suit, and clinging to her skin. Rolling haphazardly onto her back, she looks dazedly up a the demon-man as he takes the charged hit and pitches into the earth, and flails weakly out with a hand, searching for something solid to haul herself up with.
Galvo continues to writhe on the floor like a man set ablaze. Azure glowing energy leaks from his chest like the smokey tendrils of a cigarette. It bellows like an tortured beast and sends out a trio of plasma bolts from its eyes into the sky above. It's palms smack against the ground and shoot out spaghetti-like strands of a milky-white substance.
Malleus keeps relatively low to the ground, aiming his last shot from the shotgun a bit more carefully now, targeting the already gory skull of Galvo, his eyes narrowed in concentration, trying to keep the icy grip of fear and disgust out of his mind as he pulls the trigger.
Galvo's head disappears in a spray of blood and gristle. His back arches like a bow, collapsing into a fleshy heap a few moments later. The outer layer of his form begins to run like hot wax, seeping into the trash ridden ground. His body goes still and a gurgling hiss gets quieter and quieter until finally it abates in silence.
Rooke grips the edge of an iron girder jutting from the pile and drags herself halfway up, eyes scanning the base of the scrapheap for her knife, although she doesn't look too terribly interested all in all. She closes her eyes and clings there, as the foulness departs from nearby.
Malleus lets out a long breath, lowering the shotgun, and taking a few turgid steps across the trash strewn ground to Rainier's side. The cyberhorse shakes its head a few times reflexively as Malleus opens a pouch on the side of the saddle.
Faint bone-popping noises and the sound of knuckles cracking issue forth from the dissolving body of Galvo. While his defeated monstrous body bleeds away, his old 'human' looking pieces of skin begin to fit together like a crazy jigzaw puzzle. The painfull looking transformation is accompanied by moist organic sounds. Slowly but surely a smaller humanoid bone-structure fills out his deflated naked body. His skin fuses together, containing his various organs once more. But this process is far from precise. Large fault-lines of welts cover his exposed flesh like a net. His chest rises and falls raggedly and he looks completely unconscious.
Malleus speaks into his radio as he starts reloading the shotgun a shell at a time, eyes somewhat dazed, his breathing shallow.
Rooke holds her position for a while longer, then her arm muscles flex weakly and she manages to heft herself into a semi-standing position, staggering out from the foot of the hill in a scattering of plasti-glass plates, and limping badly towards clearer space. She turns a dully curious gaze towards the.. reincarnated Galvo, then casts about a little more determinedly for her weapon.
Malleus rests the shotgun in the sheath again after he finishes reloading. Speaking once more to the radio, he glances around, kneels and picks up his two pistols.
Galvo becomes conscious and groans pitifully. He croaks and attempts to mouth words.
Rooke picks her way along a blood-streaked trail and crouches by a pool of inky filth, drawing her blade from it. She goes to her knees after a moments struggle to rise again, and spends the next minute picking shards of unrecognizables out of her leg wound, her eyes narrowed to dark slits. When Galvo stirs, she startles and attempts to crawl closer to him.
Malleus holsters one of the revolvers, then snaps the breech of the other one open, the barrel 'breaking' and hinging downwards as he takes a handful of bullets from his belt loops. He says "Militia's on its way." in a low voice. He frowns pointedly as he slides shells into their prospective chambers, looking towards Rooke as she crawls. "You need to rest and let me try and bandage that leg."
Rooke approaches Galvo's position with the air of one on their last legs of strength. "Galvo... where's this Guild.. where is Celaeno?" she rasps. "Tell us where the hell he is, damn your soul.." Two tracks of relative cleanness are created down her face by tears as she starts feeling the pain of her injuries full-force.
Galvo blinks his bloodshot eyes, sloppily healed eyelids fluttering while he attempts to grin. The result only causes his facial muscles to twitch painfully. He winces as he speaks. "Y-your fault. You took it...away from me...took away my power." He struggles to breathe and then spouts more words laced in venom. "ce-ce-Celaeno will get you...for this."
Malleus closes the revolver with a metallic snap, and holds it loosely in his hand. Walking over towards Rooke, he looks with a very haggard expression at Galvo's sneering face. "He's not going to tell us anything now, Rooke. We'll have to wait til we can get him back to headquarters. And after you stop being a stubborn fool and relax so I can help you with your wound."
Rooke shakes her head a little violently, sending droplets of muck flying to either side. "He's.. he can't get the chance to.. t' compose himself.. t' decide t' shut himself up..." She gasps out the rest in a wheeze, and slumps back on her heels, shifting her gashed leg to the side to straighten it a bit, and releasing pressure.
A rhythmic 'thupping' sound grows in strength and a chopper crests a nearby hill. It's position is a little far off from you. The helicopter's landing lights strobe and a few globes of daylight emerge from a hatchway to light up the sky around it. Also, a great raucous of sound is coming from the direction of the Scrapyard gates. It sounds like more than a few all-terrain Vehicles plowing through a sea of refuse.
Malleus looks at his ruined suit pant legs, and tears a strip off of the few scraps below the right knee above his armor legging. He shoots the gun into the air to signal the helicopters (trying to not hit any, obviously) then kneels, looking at Rooke's gash, and says "Hold still for a second."
Rooke subsides and stares wordlessly at her leg, as if just now seeing the horrific state it's in. Other than the scattered burns from the plasma fire, however, she's unmarked, just very..very dirty. Sinking into some form of shock or other, she sits watching Malleus' work.
The Helicopter shifts sideways after seeing the signal and swoops down to hover about 15 feet off the ground. It disgorges six armored figures in mid-air which slowly levitate to the ground. Four rush without further ado to create a perimeter around the area while two rush over to Malleus, Rooke and Galvo. One of the two asks frantically, "How bad is it?" The ground support still has yet to arrive but by the sounds of it are definitely getting closer and ramming through anything in their way.
Malleus gives his modest bandage a critical look, then stands heavily to look at the guardsman, saluting, and saying "The Councilor's got a deep cut in her thigh. Probably lost a lot of blood too." He looks over at Galvo, motioning to him. "This here is our suspect. Or whats left of him. I want a psychic overseeing him and guards posted. Can't explain in detail, but there's possibly more to him than is apparent to the eye."
One of the armored men nods and walks over to Galvo, picks him up easily. He stalks quickly towards the hovering Helicopter. The other whom asked for the situation on the Councilor says to Malleus, "Better get her into the Chopper as well. If you could help me lift her and carry her over there we'll get her onboard."
Galvo yells shrilly as he is carried off, "I had it!...You t-took it!" He gasps. "Celaeno will get you!" He shudders and breathes in unsteady shallow breaths.
Rooke reaches up a trembling arm to swipe at her eyes, closing them, then attempts to sheathe the knife in a calf-strap that's no longer there. After a few failed tries, she gives up and goes limp, letting herself be hauled up and wherever. Probably trying to catch a few winks of beauty-sleep before having to face the hordes of press.
A beam of yellow light shoots from the side of the awaiting Helicopter, bathing Galvo and his ride in light. They both get pulled up into the sky gently and levitate towards the open hatch.
Malleus moves over to Rooke. He picks up her knife, and picks her up by the armpits, letting the other Councilor handle her legs while they move across the shattered landscape towards the chopper.
The armored figure assists in hauling Rooke over towards the awaiting beam of light. He says to Malleus, "You can hitch a ride as well if you don't want to wait for the Trucks. And as if on cue, five 6-wheeled Military vehicles come to a jarring halt around the demolished surroundings. They also spew out Infantry to secure the area while the wounded are in the process of being air-lifted.
[Militia] Dispatch says, "All secondary units please be advised that the situation in the City Scrapyard is under control. Councilor Del Reyhart and Private First Class Brandt have been successfully retrieved and are enroute to the Medical Center."
Malleus releases Rooke hesitantly into the light, passing her her knife to the guardsman. "Take good care of this. Its hers." With a last half-admiring half-morose glance at Rooke, he turns, looking to his somewhat battered cyberhorse, and crossing the space around the edge of the crater towards him.
From all around you come yells of warning and the perimeter guards begin to unload their weapons into the surrounding darkness. Railguns deafen the sound of the Helicopter and grenades create a fireworks display in surrounding mounds of garbage. Squeals and roars of beasties out of view sound out amidst the sounds of weapons fire.
Rooke and the armored figure are pulled up into the chopper like UFO abductees and get tugged into the hatch. The craft's nose inclines downward and it streaks off overhead.
Malleus gets onto his horse, glancing quickly towards the sounds of conflict. He grimaces, ready to ride on out of there at a moments notice, but also wanting to wait for the helicopter to get airborne. "Come on, come on..." he mutters.
The ground troops are falling back now, unleashing hoards of ammo into the surrounding area as they scramble to get back into their vehicles.
Malleus spurs Rainier, moving ahead of one of the APCs, waving a hand. Spotting his forgotten hat across the way, he rides over to lean over and scoop it up quickly, then prepares to hightail it.
One of the heavy ground vehicles is almost tipped onto its side by an unseen force. It rights itself and its tires spin in a blur. Traction is made and it rams through a collection of old plastic crates on its way out of the area. The four other vehicles all prepare to follow suit while pelting the Scrapyard with grenades and short range missles.
Turbine engines roar as a jet whines overhead.
[Militia] Dispatch says, "Incoming on Scrapyard area. Carpet bombing has been requested and the order has been cleared. All personnel must evacuate the area."
Atop the horse, Malleus looks upwards, ludicrous in expression. He spurs his steed, grimacing...Rainier races along through the scrapyard, darting between piles of junk and shadowy shapes. He rushes out of the gates and further onwards, hoping to put plenty of distance between himself, his rider, and the explosion.
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