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SpikeSpiegel
Swimming Bird
Registered: Jun 2003
Location: United Kingdom
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The Matrix: The way the wind blows
Please do not post comments in this thread, if you have anything to say please PM it to me.
KMC presents
A story by SpikeSpiegel
Based on an RPG by Ushgarak
The Matrix
The Way the Wind Blows
Starring
The crew of the Persepolis
SpikeSpiegel..........Cloud
Silver Stardust.......San
Trickster................Azrael
Ushgarak ..............Marduk/Finn
The crew of the Shehazarard
Besbin Bart............Mors
Tptmanno1.............Burn
Captain Rex...........Ares
Castor...................Castor
Dexx.....................Rade
General Zink..........Hephaestus
Ushgarak..............Dallas/Ariadne
Also starring
Ushgarak...............The crew of the Bounty
JediHDM................Coeus
Fire.......................Fire
Phoenix.................Virus
Kosta....................Celsius
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Last edited by REXXXX on Oct 15th, 2004 at 10:22 PM
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Aug 20th, 2004 03:41 PM |
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SpikeSpiegel
Swimming Bird
Registered: Jun 2003
Location: United Kingdom
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Capture the flag
It was time. Dallas, the captain of the hovership Shehazarard, had along with Marduk, the captain of the Persepolis of which Cloud was a crew member, had orginized a simple training mission in the Matrix. The objective: a flag located in the centre of a building of SWAT. The first team to get the flag from the room and to the other side of the building won. Cloud was part of team A, along with Coeus, who had been assigned to be team captain, Burn, Ares and Castor. Cloud didn't know any of them all too well, he had been free for about a month, maybe two, and yet he trusted them all with his life.
Cloud looked around at the city-type enviroment. He still had a little trouble getting used to the fact that it wasn't real. At his hips in holsters were two Walther CP88's, on a strap around his neck was an Ingram Mac 10. He hadn't really had much experience with guns, his strength was his martial arts abilities and his skills with a sword. He thought that this was the perfect time to try using guns.
Burn had already begun checking his equipment nervously. Coeus had signaled for them to come to him while he gave them his plan.
"Alright, i want Burn, Cloud and Castor to enter the building, take out the guards as fast as possible, then move into the next room and start on the SWAT. As for me and Ares, we will move around the building and take Fire and Rade out, then proceed into the back of the building."
Ares then spoke, giving Coeus his ideas in terms of a plan, "Coeus, I think you should send Burn and I in to handle all of the mundanes, aided by Cloud, Castor, or you so that, if a member of the opposing team gets to us, we aren't defenseless martial arts wise. And then we grab the flag and run for it!"
Cloud noticed Castor checking his gun and then put it back. He then told Coeus "Tell me where to go, and Ill do my job..." He sounded ready for this. Cloud on the otherhand was a bit unsure, he had taken out "mundanes", the name given to those who were not free from the matrix, before with no problem, but it wasn't just mundanes here now, it was others who were free, and that made them strong, agile, and equal...if not better than Cloud.
Coeus then turned and walked towards the central building, the rest of the team followed. Coeus and Ares split and went around the team towards the sides of the building. Cloud looked at the door, as a hand whose he didn't know whom it belonged to opened the door. Inside the tall room was three concrete baricades equally seperated along the floor, which was sloped upwards so each barricade was higher than the last. Cloud sighed, he knew that there would be guards behind each one. He could see their heads and guns pointing at them all the way around each barricade.
The mission had just begun
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Aug 20th, 2004 04:06 PM |
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SpikeSpiegel
Swimming Bird
Registered: Jun 2003
Location: United Kingdom
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Bullets roared from Burns Desert eagle and into the head of one of the guards. Their lifeless body fell backwards behind the barricade. Cloud ran forwards towards the barricade, towards the side opposite the guards. As he ran the guards opened fire. Cloud couldn't see what Burn or Castor were doing now. The bullets all either flew past him or hit the floor.
Now was his time to act, Cloud grabbed the top of the barricade and vaulted himself over it, his foot connecting with a guards chin. The guard reeled backwards. Another guards head exploded thanks to Burns sharpshooting abilities. More bullets came at Cloud. Spinning in the air he performed an airborne shell of the turtle, the bullets all flew past him once again and he landed safely on the other side of the barrier.
The guard whom Cloud had kicked now tried to pistol whip Cloud. Arching backwards Cloud dodged the punch and saw Burn vault the barricade and hit another guard, the guard stumbled backwards, hurt but not out. A bullet flew past Clouds face and another skimed his leg. His first instinct was to grab his hurt leg, but doing so would surely cost him the fight, he bought himeself up again. More bullets came at him and all missed, flying into the concrete as had so many others shot at both him and Burn. For a moment he wondered where Castor was, thinking he should be with him and Burn on the other side of the barrier. Unfortuantly this gave the guards enough time to open fire again. A bullet clipped him on the shoulder causing him to consentrate on the fight at hand. The guard that had tried to pistol whip him before now lay KO'd on the floor, he must have been somewhere else entirely mentally. Maybe he wasn't cut out for this sort of thing after all...no there wasn't time to think like that, least of all at the present.
He ran to the next barricade and leapt over it, coming face to face with more guards. Again Cloud's foot came down on the guard closest to him. Such was the power in his attack that the guard flew backwards and into a crumpled heap on the floor. Cloud looked behind him at a guard that was pulling his gun around to face him. Cloud smiled and raised his foot, hooked it around the guards arm and kicked the gun out of his hand with the back of his foot, the front of it then flew forwards into the guards face, stunning him. Now CLoud bought the back of his fist to his face, but the guard managed to re-couperate and dodge the blow. More bullets came at Cloud, this time he moved fluidly and correctly, as he had been taught by the download program, using a sacred dodge technique known as the willow step.
Now as quick as he could manage Cloud performed a backhanded strike of the subtle, a move for catching opponents off guard, the guard tried to dodge, but instead got his head caught between Clouds fist and the barricade, knocking him out.
Cloud then ran towards the third barrier and leapt that as well. Landing he turned towards one of the guards and bought his fist up in a powerfull tiger-claw shaped blow, the blow sent the cop back, but didn't kill him.
"Damn Glocks, how the hell do they expect to do anything with this damn gun." He heard Burn shout out.
A shot from Castor dropped another guard. Cloud smiled and performed a grasshopper kick, spinning his hips at just the right time to forcfully send the guard back into a wall dead. Bullets flew past Cloud as he looked back at the three remaing guards.
Three guards, three of them...easy.
Cloud leapt, spun and kicked the guard closest to him time seemed to slow down. The move was a modified version of trinity's special move. The download computer had helped him find ways to modify his attacks. The guard leapt over the barrier as Clouds foot passed over him. Another guard flew backwards from Burns shot.
Castor grabbed one of the guards, burn shot the other. Cloud smiled Castor had made sure the last mundane wouldn't be able to dodge. Clouds fist flew at the cops face and knocked him out. Cloud looked back at the dead bodies and grabbed his Ingram. It was time to take the flag.
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Aug 20th, 2004 06:35 PM |
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SpikeSpiegel
Swimming Bird
Registered: Jun 2003
Location: United Kingdom
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"Team, remember, nearest person, whether mundane or otherwise..." Came Coeus' voice from the other side of the room.
Cloud looked at the room. It was large, with a balcony on the walls and a ladder up to it. In the centre of the room was a pile of crates and above them attatched to the celing was the flag. Clouds eyes then came down from the flag and looked at the carnage unfolding before him. Guns blazed everywhere and guards fell to the floor after a few seconds of shootout.
Both Castor and Burn, each of whom were standing next to Cloud opened fire at the guards. Cloud couldn't see if their hits connected or not, he had to worry about himself now. Clouds shots went nowhere, completely missing his targets, he relised he should have kept to his sword and fists.
Cloud tried again, firing three bursts at one of the guards. The bullets flew past his cover and into the armour. Blood splattered out of the holes as the guard fell back. Cloud then performed another willow step, dodging the bullets that came at him.
Cloud, now under the north side of the balcony turned and shot at a guard on the south side, the bullets hit but didn't pierce the armour.
The SWAT's all in almost perfect unison reloaded their weapons, giving Cloud time to shoot them, but he didn't. Instead he threw the ingram to the floor and drew his twin pistols, ran towards the boxes and kicked off them, pushing himself up to the North balcony.
At sometime in the fire-fight Cloud had been hit again, a bullet had torn through his leather coat and his t-shirt cutting his side. The adreniline from the battle had kept the pain from getting to him and prevented him from noticing. Cloud then shot at the guards who leapt to the floor to avoid the shots. Time to switch to fists to deal with the cops. He slid the guns back into their holsters. As he did so he didn't notice the guards finish reloading and aiming at him, their bullets came at him. Most missed, but one hit him in the thigh, wounding him. "All right now I'm pissed!" He shouted advancing on the guards.
One of the guards stood near Cloud's body flew back, riddled with bullets. Cloud looked down for a second and saw Ares at work.
Cloud then kick-jumped off the side of the wall and waited until he was high enough to kick a guard in the face. Time seemed to stop for a second as Clouds foot smashed into the guards face and sent him tumbling over the balcony to his death.
"Team A!!!! Fall back!!!! We have to make that flag count!!!!!" he heard Coeus yell, he looked and saw Castor grab the flag from the roof, "Ares, GET TO THE DOOR. Cloud, get down here, we need your help. Burn, its up to you, i know you are hurt, so either way i won't hold it against you."
Cloud smiled at the guards as he grabbed the balcony and threw himself off, into the pile of crates. He landed next to Rade, who had jumped down to try and catch Castor, but he was a few seconds late as Castor had already moved off the crates and was running towards the door. On one side off the room, Cloud's sense of direction was off slightly from the jump, he saw Virus shoot at Coeus and then Coeus' body vanish.
"ARES!! CLOUD!!! Someone needs to cover me!!!!" Castor shouted.
"I have been overtaken, but Burn is still alive for now, he is west side lower, successfully fleed. People, do whatever you can to allow Castor to get through that door. Ares, i hope you are near the door, in case Castor is attacked and needs to hand the flag off to you. Castor, Ares, i wanna see one of you make it through that door with that flag. Good work, people, we're almost there. Keep it up." Coeus' voice came through the simulation from the real world.
Above him, Cloud saw the SWAT's look at their weapons, out of ammo. They were now out of the picture. Cloud scrambled to his feet and ran towards the south side of the room, towards the door that Castor had run through. It had to be south, team A had to come from the North and head South.
Everyone was now in the south section of the room, Cloud saw Ares stand in the doorway, trying to take any fire away from Castor. Bullets and punches flew all over the place. Cloud turned and threw a punch as fast as lightning against Fire, who tried to dodge the blow but couldn't. Ares slammed the door closed, even more protection for Castor.
Burns body disappeared as Fire attacked him. Rade leapt up and kicked the door down, his hands then went for his gun. Fire then disappeared also from the punch Cloud had given him, the wound had taken it's time to inflict.
As Rade was about to shoot at Castor Cloud leapt at him and punched him, it stunned him for a second, but he still got the shot off and Castor dissappeared dropping the flag. Luckily the punch had stunned Rade for long enough that Cloud could run past him, into the third room and towards the flag.
Yet as he ran someone behind him, he guessed it was Hephaestus kicked him around the back of the head. Cloud stumbled forwards dazed and with his vision blured. Cloud's hand managed to find the flag as his grip tightened around it. He could just make out the door that he had to get to ahead of him. It was going to be close, but he thought he could do it. He began to move as fast as he could, but the bullet in his leg suddenly caused pain to rush over his body slowing him down.
Looking behind him he could see Rade come through the door behind him, "Oh s**t, this is not good." Cloud said turning and stumbling on towards the door.
"Sit still!" came Rades voice from behind him as he took aim at Cloud. Behind that he heard Ares dissapear from the matrix, finally beat from the fight. He was all who was left.
Cloud heard the bullets from Rades gun go off and felt a sharp pain all down his back...
...and he was out, looking up at the roof of the Persepolis.
"So......close....." he said as someone took the plug out of the back of his neck, "so....close...."
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Aug 22nd, 2004 10:01 AM |
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SpikeSpiegel
Swimming Bird
Registered: Jun 2003
Location: United Kingdom
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Cloud looked up. Finn, the opperater, and Marduk, the captain, were looking at him. They knew how he felt.
"I want to go back in, back to the dojo." Cloud said looking at Marduk.
Marduk smiled and then turned to Finn, nodding, "That seems to be quite a popular idea at the moment. You ready now?"
"Yes sir" Cloud said, lying back in the chair and closing his eyes.
The world around him was that of a japanese dojo, there were paper walls and a wooden floor.
"What do you want?" Finn asked.
"I just need to blow off some steam. Give me a couple of cops" Cloud said looking up at the roof. Looking down he saw that they had appeared in front of him.
Cloud ran to one of the guards and attempted a backhanded punch. The guard ducked it. Both he and the other guard closed in and each attempted to hit his ribs, one the left the other the right. Cloud leapt over their weapons and rolled along the floor, turning to face them. His eyes poking out above his shades. He hopped to his feet and dug his foot into one of the guards ribcages, sending them staggering back. The other guard swung his nightstick towards Cloud's face. Cloud grabbed the guards wrist and threw it away past him. Cloud drew his hand back and punched a punch so fast that the guard it was aimed at didn’t even have a chance to dodge. The guard flew back and disappeared. The other cop aimed for Cloud’s kneecap with his nightstick. Lifting his foot Cloud stepped on the nightstick, braking it. However, the cop brought it up and scratched Clouds leg slightly. Cloud spun, lifting his right foot and performed a roundhouse on the guards face, knocking him out and into a crumpled heap on the floor, he two disappeared.
“That was too easy!” Cloud said, “I’m ready for something a bit more challenging, slowly build my way up to being able to defeat people of my own strength, give me a couple of SWAT’s!”
“Sorry bud, came Finn’s voice over the program. We’re going to have to hold it there for now, we’ve just found something interesting out. We’re going back to Zion, our surveillance has finally paid off. Just try and stay away from people as strong as you for now, I'm sure you'll get your chance to battle some real SWAT soon enough though."
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Aug 22nd, 2004 05:53 PM |
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SpikeSpiegel
Swimming Bird
Registered: Jun 2003
Location: United Kingdom
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Codecracker
Cloud sighed, he was stood in his usual Matrix attire facing the airport. They hadn't returned to Zion, instead they had passed on the data and asked for backup on their assignment, there was no time to go to and come back from Zion.
Ahead of him, he saw a number of security guards walking casually into the airport from multiple areas. Seemed like their survalence had been correct. Near him stood Celsius, the ranking officer from the Percy, and San, another of the Percy‘s crew..
Together they walked into the lobby, Celsius sat down and rang the Shez, he put the phone down. They weren't at broadcast depth yet. They were going to cut it a bit fine. Celsius then looked at his watch, he seemed to be thinking the same as Cloud. San had moved on in and taken a seat in a café.
Cloud's part in the theft was to be a bodyguard and lookout. The plan was to steal the machines code from a courier, download it onto a PC and then replace it. It would provide a strategic advantage for the resistance that wouldn't come by again for a long time.
BRING, BRING.
It was Celsius' phone. The Shez was at broadcast level and was about to come in.
"Cloud, lookout/bodyguard in the lobby, and as we move to the train, you'll be a direct bodyguard to me, arm yourself to the teeth, and try to keep yourself focused." Celsius told him. He then looked at his watch and said "This isnt like them to be late."
"I'd rather just use my most dangorous weapon, if that's alright with you Celsius. I'm not too good with guns." Cloud admits, "I wonder what's taking them so long."
"Perfectly alright, I know you can handle yourseld without the need for guns." Celsius replied picking up his phone and calling the Shez.
"I can hold.” He said over the phone, then to Cloud, “Something’s wrong.”
Cloud looked worried, "Are they all alright?"
About ten minutes later the crew of the Shez pulled up in a car and walked into the airport. Cloud walked into the airport lobby and leaned against a wall looking at the arrivals gate. Looking around Cloud had to smile, there weren’t to many security guards, but there were plenty of plain clothed anti-terrorist officers. They always tried to look inconspicuous, but they would never be able to with those earpieces and wrist-mikes. Near a couple of them sat San.
"Lots of people...let's hope nothing goes wrong or they'll be a lot of Agents..." Heph said on his cell phone to the others. "We'll make this quick."
Cloud and the others entered the main airport, they had tickets to Hawaii. Across from him came the courier. Looking around he saw Celsius moving towards the courier, Burn had headed off to someone who looked like they were part of the team, but Cloud didn’t recognise him. Both Celsius and Rade were moving in on the courier. Rade bumped into him and picked his pocket swiftly and inconspicuously. They had the device! The problem was Rade was moving away from the train, that the courier was going for. Cloud and the others who had been assigned to be lookouts moved in.
Rade walked into a toilet and soon came out, he took as long as was normal for someone to go to the loo. Cloud stepped on the train along with the others, he kept an eye on the courier to make sure that he hadn’t noticed the switch yet. Rade was moving towards Celsius to copy the device. Celsius took the device and began to type away at the laptop…after a few seconds he looked up. The device was blank…
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Sep 4th, 2004 04:59 PM |
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SpikeSpiegel
Swimming Bird
Registered: Jun 2003
Location: United Kingdom
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"I knew this wasn’t going to be easy." Celsius said picking up his phone "Its a decoy."
Before Celsius could dial his phone rang. "What?" Celsius snapped down it. "Ok, Celsius," says your Operator, trying to stay calm.
"Um... here's the thing. Basically, we have about five dozen SWAT guys who seem to have turned up at the airport inside the last few minutes waiting for you at the platform you are heading to. Oh, and two Agents. I guess I should mention that too. So, not trying to put too fine a point on it, that train is taking you to certain death. So if you guys can, err, kind of NOT just sit there until you all die, we'll work on some kind of solution for you..." Cloud and Rade had put their ears next to the phone to hear it too.
“Why don’t things ever go according to plan!?” Cloud asked in a slightly raised voice. There was no point in hiding now.
Celsius had hung up and was on the phone again saying "I need a pickup, fast."
"Oh shit!" says Rade, "we have to stop this train. Now!" Rade then started to advance towards the front of the locomotive...running towards it.
"I need an Exit NOW. What’s the nearest you can get one. Also Contact the other ships operator, and tell her to start hacking some exits." Celsius was saying. Rade had found an emergency stop lever. Rade pulled down on the switch making everyone jolt forwards.
"Come on!” Celsius shouted jumping off the train, Cloud pushed some people out of the way and leapt off. Rade came behind him, as did Castor, Coeus and Heph. They all began sprinting to the car-park.
Cloud was beginning to wish that airports didn’t have metal detectors, it had prevented him from bringing his trusty sword. It had prevented any of them from bringing weapons. What they did have was in the car. Behind them came four or five jeeps, each containing SWAT members.
Luck was with Cloud as shots from the jeeps flew past him, others weren’t so lucky. Rade Celsius and Castor were all hit.
"We need to get these bastards out of their cars!" Celsius yelled.
A bullet flew through Cloud’s leg causing him to stumble. He managed to keep going, even with a limp. He was slower than the others but he had to keep at it. Coeus turned and leapt onto a jeep disarming and hitting one of the gunners.
Both Celsius and Heph turned and leapt onto the same jeep that Coeus had. They quickly disposed of the gunners inside, leaving only the driver. Behind the five jeeps came three more. The body of the driver fell out of the door, dead. Celsius had taken over driving. Still Cloud, Castor and Rade ran.
Ahead Ares and Fire came driving through the fence, Ares at the ready to shoot at and jeeps that came his way. Bullets had stopped coming at the three who were still running, concentrated mostly on those who had leapt into the jeep. Cloud had stopped looking behind him, his eyes solely on the Yukon.
Ares opened fire from the Yukon, behind him Cloud heard a jeep skid to a sudden halt. He must have taken the driver out.
The Yukon pulled up. Cloud skidded over the bonnet and hopped into the back. Rade and Castor also jumped into the car.
Ares looked back to Mors fighting the Agent, for a moment. "Good luck to ya…” He then turned and shot at another driver…another kill. "Alright, Fire, let's get out of here..." he said shooting at the last driver, he saw too late that the driver was dead, but that didn’t matter as his shots hit the gunner behind him.
They then screamed out off the airfield and over a barrier into the city streets. The vehicles continued to chase them, and more police cars vectored on them, but the pursuit was less vigorous than Cloud might have imagined- and no Agents.
Soon, they dumped the vehicles and escaped into the city streets, directed by Ariadne and Finn. Twenty minutes later, everyone was out, having retreated to separate hardlines.
Back on the Percy, "Sshh, my friend, don't try to talk," said Captain Marduk, as he tended to Celsius’ wounds. "Finn," he ordered, "pull everyone else off their stations; they are to leave the Matrix at once. The Machines will almost certainly do a security sweep on all sensitve areas now."
"That means thowing away a lot of work," said Finn.
"It's lost already," said Marduk. "It is too late to worry about that." He turned to the others of his crew, including Cloud, that were there. "Well... that did not go well..." he said.
"Ughh, I cant believe my unatentiveness.........I lost my focus..." Celsius said, disobeying Marduk’s order.
"It was a very brave thing you did," said Marduk, not seeming to mind "Were it not for you, I doubt if Coeus and Hephaestus would have made it."
"Thank you captain...Is everyone alright?" was the reply.
"A lot of people aren't well, but everyone will live. We shall have to return to Zion." Marduk answered.
"Somehow....I don’t think *cough* URGH!......I don’t think they will be happy with our progress...." Celsius said almost passing out.
“The failure was not ours," said Marduk. "Interesting..."
"There were others......a blonde woman......"
"Yes, we saw," said Marduk. "I have a bad feeling about them."
"Were they sent by Zion? I dont think I know them."
"Why would Zion have sent them?"
Cloud stood listening to them, unsure if they even knew he and San were still stood listening. Virus was in her quarters packing, she had requested to leave the Percy for a quieter life in Zion.
"Good question.....So they aren’t ours, I didn’t see what the did? Were they friendly? Were they after the same thing as us?"
"I think we can most definitely conclude they were after the same thing," says Marduk.
"The blonde one was a rebel, definately. Dont know if they were on our side, but they werent rebels." Celsius finally passed out.
Cloud then went to the mess hall area and got a drink, it was strong, and that was an understatement. After the drink he went to his quarters. there he wrapped a piece of cloth around his leg wound.
"Why does no-one believe me when I say I'm unlucky?" He muttersed, "There's no such thing as luck cloud. I've seen worse Cloud. Yeah you're not the one with a hole in your leg…"
When he finished it he went back out. Celsius had woken up. Marduk and Finn had finished checking the records.
"Medea?" says Marduk. "That can't be right... are you sure, Finn?" Finn nodded his head. "One of Jericho's men..." says Marduk. "That's... damn it, and the man was Loomis..."
"Contact Zion now, and find out what the hell is going on, this is too serious to wait, they directly jepordised a serious operation, and almost got half of us killed." Celsius said to Finn.
"Celsius," says Marduk, unsure if the near-death experience had meant that he had lost some of his memory. "Jericho's ship was the Bounty, remember?"
“Oh god, youre right. But how?.....It was definately them.”
Cloud really had no idea what they were on about, he hadn’t been free for long enough to know about what had happened to the bounty.
Marduk looks thoughtful "I don't know..." he says. "Jericho was... hmm..."
“The Bounty was blown to pieces, the Hammer had checked it out and there were no survivors” Finn said to cloud noticing the anguish on his face.
This wasn’t possible, there was no way they could be alive…none…
The Persepolis glided on towards home, towards Zion.
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Sep 4th, 2004 06:49 PM |
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SpikeSpiegel
Swimming Bird
Registered: Jun 2003
Location: United Kingdom
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Zion
Cloud stood at his door, he and the rest of the crews from both the Shez and the Percy had been fully checked for injuries. Clouds leg would be fine, although he would have a limp for a while. His hands were fiddling with the lock, somehow it always managed to get jammed. Thinking back he remembered the last time he was in Zion, before the Percy had gone out for its surveillance mission.
“Damn door, why does it always stick!?” Cloud shouted as he kicked it again.
“Always a problem when you are in Zion, Cloud, is that not only do you have to pay for stuff you break, you also can't seem to punch through solid objects in the Real World...” Mors approached slowly with a grin.
“Oh, hello Mors,” Cloud responded, ending his boxing match with the door. “Yeah, it’s kind of stuck...”
“I can tell.” Mors had always favoured the Cheshire grin that Morpheus had put into use. Morpheus had once been his friend and had saved him when his ship was destroyed. Then he moved on to find the One. Maybe now that he was content with the One he would redevelop old friendships...
The blonde youth wiped his brow and dropped his bag on the door step. “Well, since I can’t get into my apartment open, what do you say about going to hunt down Neo? I want to get a closer look...”
“If you insist. Lead the way.”
The two men walked side by side, other ship crews occasionally waving to them as they passed. Mors stopped briefly to buy an apple that had been grown in the small underground orchards, which used extremely powerful lamps to simulate sunlight. He bit into the juicy fruit, still walking. Well, that’s one flavour that the Machines got right...
Eventually the approached the massive throng that had been following Neo ever since he left the ship. Women approached him, telling him of family members lost during the war, asking him to avenge them. Others were trying to make him promise to pray for them or make their lives better. Neo continued vaguely promising to help in whatever way he could.
“Poor guy, he’s going to get mauled...” Cloud chuckled. He elbowed Mors in the ribs. “I suppose good ole Captain Mors should help him out...”
Mors rolled his eyes, smiling. Something similar had happened to him before, though it was less positive. It had been after his ship blew up. But he knew how Neo felt, and began shoving his way through the throng. He pushed himself between Neo and the crowd.
“Fair citizens of Zion! While he may be the One, he can still be weary!” Mors shouted, gathering their attention. “He will help you when he can, but now he would like to sleep.” He repeated his message a few times until the mob began to disband. He turned to Neo. “Welcome to Zion. I’m Mors of the Shehazarad. Sorry about the mob, but it is quite exciting to think that Morpheus has finally found The One. I’m not sure what to make of it myself, but I have not yet heard about your arrival in the Real World. Apparently you did something extraordinary...”
Trinity pushed herself between Neo and Mors. She nodded with a sign of regard for Mors, but stood as if still defending Neo from the throng. “He did his job like everyone else here, Mors. So let him enjoy his shore leave like everyone else.”
“My apologies, Trinity.” Mors made a small bow as Trinity pulled Neo away to show him his quarters.
“Lucky guy...” Cloud chimed in.
“Indeed...” Mors watched after the couple as they turned a corner.
“You seem to know Trinity. What’s the story behind that?” Cloud asked.
“I’ll tell you another time.” Mors sat and rested, finishing his apple.
Cloud looked at the door, and hit it with his fist. “I wonder if Mors is ready to talk to me about Trinity now?” He dropped his pack to the floor by the door and limped off in search of Mors.
Limping along for a bit Cloud caught a glimpse of one of his crew-mates, San. He limped to catch up with her, but was just a few seconds too slow and ended up on the other side of her quarter doors. His first instinct was to open the door, after all she had only gone in a second or two before him. Then he remembered what tales he had heard of her. She got annoyed if people came into her room without her permission, apparently she had thrown a shoe at one of the crewmates of her previous crew for doing so. He moved his hand up and knocked on the door, waiting for an answer. The door opened a few second later.
San stood before him, she pushed some of her black hair out from in front of her eyes to behind her ears. “Cloud? What are you doing here?”
“I came to see how you were, and to ask if you had seen Mors anywhere.” Cloud asked.
“Mors? No, last I knew he had gone down to the hospital to be checked for injuries.” She noticed Clouds leg, “Are you alright? You really should come in and sit down, take some pressure off that leg.”
San grabbed Clouds arm and helped him into her quarters, moving a chair for him to sit down on.
“I’m fine. Doc said I’ll be back to normal in a week or so. I should still be fighting fit in the Matrix.” Cloud looked up at her, “You never answered my question.”
“I……..I was just thinki…..remembering something……something that I would rather forget…..”
“You’re old crew?”
San nodded, a knock came at the door. Just as she was about to answer it swung open. San grabbed the nearest object, a bowl, and threw it at Finn.
Finn grabbed what he had known would be coming, saying “We’re ready to head out…” he looked at Cloud and grinned, jokingly adding “…when you two love-birds are done.”
San looked around, “Finn, pass that back so I can throw it at you again!”
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Last edited by REXXXX on Oct 15th, 2004 at 10:23 PM
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Sep 27th, 2004 06:26 AM |
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SpikeSpiegel
Swimming Bird
Registered: Jun 2003
Location: United Kingdom
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Ghost Hunt Part 1: The oracle
Half of the Percy’s crew had gone back to observation duty. Cloud was one of the few who had chosen to go on the assignment. Cloud had gone in with Celsius and San. They all stood by the doorway to the apartment building where the oracle resided.
"Are you OK man?" Cloud asked Celsius, concerned about his well-being, "You almost died before. We can't lose the Percy's first mate now can we?"
"I'll be fine, Cloud, thank you. Keep yourself focused on the mission at hand." Celsius replied. He straightened his long, black trench coat and rang the buzzer.
“Hello?” Came a voice over the intercom.
“Hi…This is Celsius, first officer of the…”
“I know, you are expected.” The voice cut Celsius off and the door opened.
The three of them went up the stairways towards the Oracles apartment. Behind them, they all heard footsteps. Cloud’s hand went down to his katana. Celsius had grabbed his gun and spun around, pointing it down the corridor. Cloud and San both spun a split second after Celsius, San had her gun at the ready too. A tall man, with long brown hair, covering his face darted past. The footsteps could be heard for a few seconds more, then a door opened and slammed shut.
Beside him, Celsius dialled up the Percy. “Info on the tall Hairy man that’s been following us along the corridor. Keep on the line and tell me what he does” The three of them all moved down the corridor. A few seconds later Celsius said, “The man at the end of this hallway, he was following me. He took off around the corner. Tall, skinny, hairy man. Who is he?". Then, “"Dammit. I don’t want any god damned thing screw this one up for us. Please keep you eye out for a man with long black hair covering his face. He didn’t look to friendly"
Celsius then turned to Cloud and San, dialling Ariadne “We’ve hit a slight snag. We’ve been followed, Nothing that ruin the mission SO far, but it means we may have to set up more people as security. Tell Fire when u get the chance. However small a snag, its still a snag, and I don’t want to take any chances.” Then after what Cloud assumed was a reply “Nothing major at this point captain, just need to keep an eye out, can never be too safe."
Celsius put his phone away and walked off towards where the long haired man had gone, Cloud and San followed close behind, each fingering their weapons. The door was ajar, Celsius moved towards it slowly. Cloud slowly pulled his katana out of its sheath ready. Celsius turned towards Cloud and San, who both nodded to signal that they were ready. Celsius pushed the door open.
Inside…nothing, except cold darkness.
Celsius fumbled around for a light switch, finding it after a few seconds. Now that the lights were on Cloud could see what there was in the room…nothing…nothing but a pile of black sludge. Celsius moved closer to it getting his phone out again, Cloud walked around the room checking all of the adjoining rooms. Toilet, bedroom…neither furnished at all and both empty.
“Cloud, come on,” Celsius said moving out of the door “I’ve got Finn watching that sludge…” he stopped to think of how absurd it sounded “maybe I should call him up, they’ll think I’m going crazy”
“I’m sure it’ll be fine” Cloud said, pointing his index finger at his head and rotating it, while Celsius wasn’t looking. Causing San to chuckle a bit.
Celsius knocked on the Oracles door to be greeted and let inside. Cloud waited outside in the corridor in case the hairy man came back.
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Jan 10th, 2005 04:44 PM |
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SpikeSpiegel
Swimming Bird
Registered: Jun 2003
Location: United Kingdom
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Ghost Hunt Part 2: The fun begins
Half the group had gone up to the Oracles apartment, only a few of them going to see her, the others keeping watch. Cloud was across the road with the other half of the group in a small café. Cloud had just finished his diet soda (something he had always drunk since he was a boy) when the rest of the crew came down.
They had been pointed in the direction of a man named Ni Zahn, at the Lon Wa restaurant in Chinatown. They got into their three black hummers and headed there.
In the car, Cloud shook his shoulders, looking out the front window. He had called Shotgun and got the front seat. He had a bad feeling about this Ni Zahn, but whatever happened he would be ready for it. They arrived a few minutes later, The two crews got out and headed inside.
Waiters bought food back and forth around the place. There were several floors above the ground floor they were on. A large bar was in the middle of the room and several people were trying to order drinks from the single bartender. The others were off collecting glasses.
Cloud took off his glasses, "Woah, look at the size of this place"
Celsius and some of the others approached the bar, asking for a meeting with Ni Zahn. Cloud took the chance to look around the place for any signs of trouble, before going up to the bar.
The barman was replying to a question as Cloud approached "…ot speak to people he is not expecting,"
"Tell him that we need to speak to him about Jerico." Burn replied getting slightly angry.
"What do you people know or Jericho?" the bartender asked, Burn had got his attention.
"We knew Jericho he was our friend, now I understand that Ni Zahn knnows something about him. Do you think he would have time to discuss the matter with us?" Fire answered.
"Well now," the barman said "I will have to see about that, Wait here one moment." He headed off up some nearby stairs.
He came back down the stairs a few minutes later. "Very well," he said. "If you wish to talk about Jericho, Ni Zhan will see you." He let the sentence hang in the air a few moments before saying "But... Ni Zahn does not trust those... who carry guns. Only those of you without firearms will be permitted upstairs."
“That is acceptable” Fire said handing his gun over to Rade.
The barman raised his hand and said "No, It is not the carrying of guns he disapproves of. It is the mentality of a man that carries one. Such a man is not fit for his company. You may not come, whether you now put down your firearm or not."
"Very well, though I do think it to be short visioned" Fire replied.
"And if there are none amongst us?" Coeus asked.
"Then none of you see him. And I would say it is your vision that has been poor, to come to this place and expect to bring firearms to the house of Ni Zhan." The barman replied.
"There are some Coeus, let them go, I doubt much will happen there, and if needs be we can still do something" Fire said.
"Fine those without guns will go, Hep, Cloud and Mors, you are up! but if you need help, one ring and you got an ass load of firepower in there" Burn said.
Cloud headed up the stairs first, Mors behind him saying If anything happens up there and I do not return, one of you may take command of the mission. I do not expect anything dangerous to happen, but you never know with the Matrix..."
The three of them followed the barman up the stairs, where they were searched for guns. They were led through a number of rooms, one of which a kitchen. In the middle of the kitchen was a medium height Chinese man with some goons around him.
To their right a large chef turned towards them brandishing a meat cleaver.
"Zuban! No!" called out the well-dressed man, and the huge cook stood back. "These are the ones?" he asked the barman, who nodded. "Follow"
He led the three of them trough more rooms and up more stairs. The room they ended up in was lavishly decorated. There was a desk in the middle of the room.
"Forgive me," he said, "but I am about to eat and I see no reason to change that." Waiters kept popping in and out the room; one bringing him soup as a starter.
"I am Ni Zahn," he said, sitting down. "And I understand you wish to see me?"
"Yes, that is why we are here," Mors said. "I am Mors, this is Hephaestus, and this is Cloud. We are here to talk about Jericho."
"I see," said Ni Zhan. "And you are... friends of Jericho?"
"Yes, I knew him well. He was a good friend of mine, but was supposedly killed." Mors said, Cloud looked at Ni Zahn, he seemed pretty calm. Cloud wondered how much Ni Zahn really knew about the world he was in.
"I see," said Ni Zahn. "But he is most assuredly not dead, as you must know if you are searching for him. And let me tell you now... if you are a friend of Jericho's... you are no friend of mine."
"Is that so?" Mors asks, hiding his surprise. “The thing is, we were hoping you could help us find him. A woman that we call the Oracle pointed us to you, and she is rarely wrong."
"I do not know of this woman you speak of," Ni Zahn said, "but clearly she does not know much. Jericho is my hated enemy, and I would not help you find him even if I knew where he was myself. Now... who are you people, who dress like he does...?"
I have a bad feeling about this Cloud thought.
"Really? Why is he your hated enemy? Botch an organized operation to steal something? You think I do not know that you are Tongs?" Mors frowned. "Well, we dress like him because we are from the same organization."
"Yes, and there are many of us," Heph added.
Ni Zahn staree at the three of them. "Wait..." he said. "I know who you are. The business at the airport. I heard about that. You and Jericho both going for the same package, and rendering it useless..." He laughed slightly. "You are no friends of Jericho! Why do you pretend so? You have come badly informed about me. What is your greivance with Jericho, has he betrayed you? He certainly does not work with whoever your masters are."
"Like we said, he is supposed to be dead. He died 6 months ago, killed by things we call Sentinels. He and his team. But then he turned up at the airport when we were going for the device. We do not know how or why, which is why we consulted the Oracle, and which is why we are talking to you.” Heph replied
"I see," said Ni Zahn, scratching his chin, "He fakes death to escape you, and now you come for him... but you will not find him, believe me. I tried. Maybe you will meet again... if that same package was to become available again, hmm?"
"What do you mean?" Heph said.
"Well, it has to come again some time, does it not? Everyone has been shaken up by the incident at the airport. Everyone failed." He smiled, a horrible smile. "I imagine Jericho's employer was MOST displeased..."
"Employer? If you mean our leaders, then you should know that they haven't had contact with him either." Mors said.
"Of course not your employers!" he replied looking at the three of them again "Else you would not have been there, would you? No, I mean the person Jericho works for now."
"His new employers being?" Heph asked.
"Ahh, you do not know..." said Ni Zahn, clearly interested at this fact "I do, I know his employer well. Jericho has little personal use for packages like the one you were after... but Melitus does. Yes, Melitus, a powerful man. And I used to be his partner, the man he depended upon. Until Jericho took my place..." he said the last part bitterly.
"Can you tell us where Melitus is? I think we should talk to him..." Heph asked, glad the three of them was finally getting some answers.
"Yes," said Ni Zahn, grinning, as his main course arrives. "I can indeed tell you where Melitus is. I am sure he will wish to talk to you."
"Good. Where is he? It is urgent that we go immediately. Jericho has obviously betrayed us..." Mors said.
"Yes, immediately..." said Ni Zhan, grinning like the Joker "But I think you misunderstand me. I have no intention of helping you, any more than Melitus will. You have, after all, ruined Melitus' plans. And maybe if I hand you all over to Melitus, he will start to favour me again..."
18 or so waiters surrounded the group.
"Take them," said Ni Zhan. "But... make sure they can still speak..."
Cloud looked around them and then at his companions, “Finally we’re getting somewhere he said grabbing his katana…
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Jan 10th, 2005 04:45 PM |
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SpikeSpiegel
Swimming Bird
Registered: Jun 2003
Location: United Kingdom
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Party Time
"I hope you know that maybe just the three of us can take these waiters. They are merely people after all. We are warriors. Call them off or it will go badly for you." Mors said as confidently as Cloud and also drawing his katana.
"Is that how you want to play then, Ni Zahn?" Heph then said, removing his small metal staff "Bring it on..."
Spinning, Cloud slashed at one of the waiters stomachs, downing him instantly. A good start. Another of the waiters came at him with a cudgel. Cloud parried the blow with ease, twisted his sword and shoved it deep into the waiter, again downing him. Cloud stepped on the body and pulled his sword out.
A man with a machete swung for Cloud, just as he pulled his sword out. Immediately Cloud raised his sword to block the slash, blocking it directly in the centre of his blade. Another guy holding a Sai stabbed for him, but Cloud was too fast spinning and blocking both the attacks. Another man with a chain swing at him, Cloud moved his head to the left as the chain flew past his head…barely an inch away. Cloud shoved his sword away, throwing the Sai-guy and the machete guy back a few feet. A fourth waiter with a hook sword just managed to slash Clouds front, cutting him, before Cloud could get his sword down to block.
Angry at his cut, and the fact that he hadn’t been fast enough to block it, Cloud ducked and slashed randomly, cutting deeply into the chain-waiter’s leg…not enough for a kill, but enough to slow him down.
As everyone came in for another attack Cloud had to rely on his own speed, he shoved the machete away with his own sword, spinning to stick his sword through the chains and stab the man holding them in the chest, he then turned and blocked the hook sword, but again he was a fraction too slow and it cut along the side of his arm. A kick sent the Sai waiter back a few inches and disrupted his attack.
Cloud jumped up slightly and performed a roundhouse kick on the hook sword owners legs, causing the waiter to fall on the floor. Cloud then in a moment of anger sliced at the waiters throat, cutting it and watching the fear from his eyes disappear into emptiness.
The Sai wielding guy stabbed at Cloud again, who just let the weapon move past the curve of his back as he moved sideways on, he raised his katana and let the waiter move into it, cutting him. Behind the Sai waiter was Mr. Machete, whom Cloud lunged for when the Sai man had cleared his blade, the waiter tried and partially succeeded to dodge the blow, only getting cut across the chest, but not deep enough to do any serious damage.
One of Ni Zahns men fell as Mors stabbed him through the chest. “I’m going after Heph, you’re ok here” Mors said heading out of a door.
As Mors left, Cloud bought up his sword and bought it down on the Sais guy, his sword cutting through bone and dropping the waiter. He looked around the room at the mess, Ni Zahn had left through one of the doors and Heph and Mors had followed, it was time for Cloud to follow.
Cloud followed his companions through the door, both were caught in fight. They had each chosen a door - left and centre. There was only one left for Cloud to head through, the right door.
The room was bare, safe for a table in the centre of the room. Atop the table lay a game board of the game Go. Two identical Asian twins sat at it, each smoking heavily. As Cloud entered they both stood up at the same time, took a drag of their cigarettes at the same time, put them out at the same time and threw them aside at the same time.
“Guys should be in a circus” Cloud said cockily, looking at the Go board, “Could call you the Go-Bros.”
One of the twins, raised his hand, beckoning Cloud on. Cloud shrugged his shoulders and charged at him. The brother ducked, raising his hand to grab Cloud’s blade. He turned, twisting Cloud’s arm then ran up his body and delivered a kick to Cloud’s chest. Cloud, using his quick reflexes, dodged backwards, but he was too slow…or the Go-Bro. was too fast. The kick hit him square on, sending Cloud back into the wall and into a crumpled heap on the floor.
The twins ran up to him, moving to either side of his body. One aimed a kick, the other a drop punch. Cloud slightly dazed from the surprise kick. Rolling backwards, Cloud dodged the punch, as he rolled forwards to dodge the punch the brother just caught him, just. Cloud stumbled forwards, grabbing his dropped sword. He must have dropped it from the impact of the kick.
Now the brothers swapped their attacks, the one who had kicked him now threw a punch, while the other one tried a kick. Cloud, in a blistering array of speed, spun. The kick hit where he was a second ago and his sword slashed the brother’s leg. The other ones punch came at Cloud square on, but a simple duck of the head managed to avoid it. These guys were good, almost as good as Cloud, but there were two of them.
Cloud then launched a strong, fast combo. He twirled his weapon bringing it down hard on the hurt brother. But despite the pain, which Cloud was counting on to slow the man down, he managed to block it. He twisted Cloud’s hand and both of them launched a fury of punches directly at Cloud’s chest. Cloud spun his sword through the block and cut at the brother again, the punch missed, as did the other brother’s. But the third punch hit him, causing his to stumble backwards.
Another punch and kick came his way, but he simply weaved between them, slicing at one of them again, and hitting. More attacks came at him, as he moved between them, but he was fast enough to get through and turn to face them without getting hit.
Using his combination again, Cloud slashed at the hurt one, slicing his chest deeply.
Cloud launched another attack at the hurt one, hitting him again. The hurt brother stumbled backwards.
“Ya!?” The other brother shouted, concerned.
“I’m ok, Yu.” Ya replied.
Yu smiled, stepping backwards and luring Cloud on. Stupidly, Cloud took the bait, launching another attack. Again Yu grabbed Cloud’s arm and launched a kick on him, flipping and catching Cloud on the chin. Cloud flew backwards, slamming his elbow into the floor to stop him from sliding across the floor any more, the pain just became a blur as adrenaline rushed through his body.
"Bastards..." Cloud said, getting to his feet.
A punch from one of the brothers landed firmly on Clouds cheek, sending him towards the wall. Cloud’s left hand grabbed it as he used it to steady himself.
More attacks came at him, these guys weren’t letting up at all. Cloud used his hand to push himself off the wall and away from harm, as he did so he bought his sword around to slice Ya.
More attacks, with their now predictable punch-kick combo. Cloud ducked the punch and hopped above the kick. Spinning from his slightly airborne position, Cloud caught Ya’s hand with his katana. Another combo attack from the brothers. Cloud stood on Yu’s leg and grabbed Ya’s arm. He ducked under the arm and bought his sword up to Ya’s chest, deeply cutting him again. Ya stepped back in pain, before launching a kick, Yu launched a punch. Turning Cloud walked up one of the chairs and followed it down as he stepped on it’s back, turning once more to face his opponents.
"Focus Cloud, Focus" he told himself, wiping a mixture of blood and sweat from his forehead.
Smiling, Cloud thought of a cunning trick, one that unfortunately meant putting all his eggs into one basket and hopping it would work. He moved his left hand up, clutching his blade’s hilt in both hands now, spinning it as fast as he could, faster and faster, moving towards Ya, who’s look of surprise was a pleasing sight to Cloud. Cloud raised his sword up, just missing Ya, who had stepped to the side. In a move to recover and not loose any speed Cloud spun around again, still spinning his sword faster and faster, he launched another attack, that Ya leant back to avoid. Still Cloud spun his sword, and still it got faster. He thought he must be moving as fast as Neo did now, then in a cunning, deadly fast move, he lunged forwards, cutting deeply into Ya’s shoulder. In a mixture of shock and pain Ya stumbled backwards, his mouth open, but no sound coming out.
"Heph when you've finished out there I could use some help in here" Cloud yelled at the doorway, he could probably finish the surprisingly still alive Ya, but he’d most likely struggle with Yu, he had underestimated them at the start of the fight and was now suffering greatly for it.
Cloud, still with adrenaline running through his veins he lunged again at Ya, missing, but both the brothers attacks missed too.
“Nyahhh!” Cloud yelled, slicing at Ya’s neck. It hit, Ya fell to the floor grabbing his throat, the cut wasn’t deep, and if he got to a hospital in time he probably could have survived, if he was human that was. Cloud spat blood on Ya, not on purpose, but he had taken so much of a beating he couldn’t hold it in.
Yu caught him off guard, delivering a punch to Cloud’s spine, causing Cloud to stumble forwards, trip over Ya’s body and hit his nose on the wall.
Looking over as Fire ran to the door, “What took you so damned long?"
As he spoke Cloud, bought his blade down on Yu, cutting his arm.
"We ran into some guns downstairs" Fire replied, as Yu launched an elbow at Cloud’s face, before he could see the outcome, Fire had gone, rushing away after Ni Zahn, Cloud guessed. The blow hit him in the centre of his face, as his head recoiled into the wall he forgot was there, and his body slipped to the floor. His vision blurring, he managed to catch a glimpse of Yu dragging Ya out of the, doorway before he blacked out.
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Feb 3rd, 2005 06:24 PM |
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SpikeSpiegel
Swimming Bird
Registered: Jun 2003
Location: United Kingdom
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Ghost Hunt: Part 4 - Meeting with Meltius
Cloud, sat up, slouching against the wall. “I can’t fight like this…” he said, referring not only to his condition, but also to his techniques.
“There you are!” San and Ares rushed over to him. They helped him to his feet. Cloud looked out at the doorway and spat out some blood, watching several of his comrades shoving Ni Zahn along.
”Good,” Cloud thought, walking slowly forwards. ”At least they caught that b******.”
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The teams had each split up into several different cars. Apparently two more of the crew had been sent in to the Matrix as back-up. One of them a crewmate, and very good friend of Cloud’s. His name was Azrael. A good fighter, but he was more philosophical than Cloud could be.
They were on their way to meet some person who supposedly knew Jericho, named Meltius, in the industrial district of the city. Cloud’s head still throbbed, he still wasn’t entirely sure of what was going on. All he knew was that the building before them was a very obscure warehouse compared to the usual variety.
"Woah there pretty-boy. How do we know you are not leading us into a trap." Cloud could hear Burn ask.
Cloud rubbed the back of his head, listening to Ni Zahn’s reply of, "Same reason I know you aren't just going to shoot me anyway when we are done. As in you don't. I guess we will just have to trust each other. I suspect I have more to lose."
He could see Fire calling someone on his phone. Cloud sighed.
“You OK, buddy?” Azrael asked him, seeing how rough Cloud was looking.
“Yeah, the sooner we get out of here the better. Just a little reminder not to be too careless on the battlefield.”
"What the hell do you want?" A guard asked walking up to the group. He looked like a stereotypical criminal.
"I have brought some friends of mine to see Melitus." Ni Zahn replied, cautiously.
The guards looked at the group, and snorted in a kind of 'Yeah, right!' fashion, still, he indicated for the group to follow him inside.
Just inside the entrance there was a pick-up truck. A blonde man was climbing onto it. Armed guards stood by his side. He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a cigarette. One of the guards took out a lighter and lit it for him.
"What the hell is this shit, Ni Zhan?" he asked. Eying the group suspiciously.
"Ah, honourable sir, I bring these people to... umm..." says Ni Zhan, as half a dozen guards grouped around him and dragged him away into the darkness of the warehouse.
The blonde man never took his eyes off the group.
"Who the hell are you then? And what do you want here?" said it taking a drag of his cigarette.
"We are looking for Jericho" Fire responded, speaking for the whole group.
"Jericho?" he snorted. "And what business could you possibly have with him?"
"We have some questions for him actually" Fire spoke again, taking command of the situation.
"Oh really?" He asked rhetorically, raising an eyebrow. "Well, I..." The man was then interrupted by his mobile phone ringing. He picked it up.
"Yup? Yup, that's right. Well, ok." Slowly he put the phone away, looking slightly annoyed.
"You guys are to come on up," he said, obviously disappointed that someone had pissed on his fire. "Come with me.”
The building was a huge steelworks, with great machines clattering all around, pouring molten lead, turning out sheets of metal, and bars.
Leading the team across this noisy floor, the blonde man took everyone to a cargo elevator with a grill blocking the entrance, slowly he drew it back, entered, and waited for everyone to follow him in.
"Let's go people" Fire said.
“If you all wish to come…” The man said, everyone followed him in.
As the lift went up Cloud blocked out all outside noise and focused his mind. He pushed back the pain and let out a long breath, taking control of the situation in his own way.
When he opened his eyes again he almost died of shock. He appeared to be in a mansion, the walls and roof were all nicely decorated, such a contrast from where he had just been. He first thought it to be a trick from his head injury, but soon saw everyone else react the same way.
Slowly, the group moved forwards, none of them trusting the strange environment.
They moved into another room, better decorated, the walls were covered in mahogany panels. The door behind them shut and a voice said, "Good evening sirs,"
A man stood before them, quite plainly, a butler, in smart black formalwear, immaculately pressed, with starched white collar.
And on his face, obscuring all his features, was a plain white harlequin mask. His voice sounded somewhat hollow behind it.
"I trust you had a comfortable journey?"
"Journey? Where are we?" Azrael asked.
"Why, you are at the factory, sirs," The Butler replied, "After your journey from Chinatown. I understand you suffered considerable discomfort at the hands of Ni Zhan. On behalf on my master, I apologise profusely."
"Thank you, now can we speak with Jericho?" Fire said.
"Jericho, sirs?" asked the Butler. "I am afraid that Mr. Jericho is not currently on the premises."
“What about Meltius then?” Fire asked
"Of course," said the Butler bowing, "My employer, Melitus. If it would please you to accompany me, I shall take you to him."
The butler led them through a variety of rooms, each better decorated than the last until…they arrived at a pure white room…
"If you would mind waiting here for a few moments," said the butler, moving to the far side of the room.. "The process will be very short."
“Process…?” Cloud asked.
“Yes, my master doesn’t like germs…he is in a very fragile state anyway, so you must all be decontaminated.”
A slow humming sound came on for about a minute and stopped.
“There we are, all done. Now if you’ll follow me.”
They walked through more rooms, Cloud could hear music somewhere close.
“Beethoven?” Burn asked.
“No……….” Cloud said, trying to place it. He had heard it before, just before he had been freed… “Boccherini's Minuet”
As they walked, there was a small string quartet in an alcove playing it. They all wore white face masks. At the far side of the room, four men in green outfits stood, crowded around someone working with some sort of machine. They seemed to be doctors, working on a large metal object…an iron lung.
The doctors moved aside, revealing Meltius. He was affixed to the iron lung. Cloud was surprised, the iron lung was an outdated piece of machinery, used in the early part of the 20th century.
"Ah," The man said. "You are here. Please. if you would...sssssssshhhhhhhhh... move to a place where I can more easily see you, that would be appreciated."
The group moved closer, “Thank you…ssshhhhhhh….Though I am sure my butler has already done so, I must apologise for the actions of Ni Zhan. It was exactly for such reasons that I... sssshhhhhhhh…ceased having dealings with him…”
"Wise decision, if I do say so myself. You seem to be a well informed man, you possibly tell us about Jericho?" Burn asked.
"If you do not mind, before we talk...sssssssssshhhhhhh...business, I shall ask for this to be a private audience.”
His eyes flicked to the Doctors.
"Please leave," he requested. The Doctors gathered up their tools and head for the door.
"All of you," he said. The musicians stopped playing, to Clouds disappointment, packed their instruments, and alongside the Butler left.
"Now, first things first. My name is Melitus. And whom is it I am addressing, may I ask?" he asked, saving his breath until the end of the sentence.
The group each introduced themselves.
"Very well. Now then, what was it you gentlemen wanted to...sssssssshhhhhh...talk to me about?"
“Jericho” Rade stated flatly.
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Mar 9th, 2005 06:08 PM |
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SpikeSpiegel
Swimming Bird
Registered: Jun 2003
Location: United Kingdom
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"Its seemed obvious to us, that Jericho was dead, yet he still moves in the matrix. You cannot do that when you are dead. Its not possible....to our knowledge. As his employer we hope you can clear up a few questions regarding this matter...." Caster said, he was cut of by Meltius.
"I am sorry," said Melitus, "but I am not entirely sure what you are talking about. I simply employ Jericho because he is a useful operative for someone in my line of work. I have no idea...ssssshhhhhhhhhhhh...how I should answer any questions about him apparently being dead. I can assure you he is not."
“We are friends of Jericho, we must find him immediately” Mors said.
“Ah….ssshhhhhh…now you see I am confused…ssssssssshhhhhhhhh…you say you are friends of Jeicho, then you must know how much he values his…ssshhhhh….privacy….you will not find him”
“Perhaps.” Rade said, “but we may with your help.”
"That places me in an awkward position, I have reason to doubt that ...ssssssshhhhhh... you are in fact his friends. I think all those who are friends of Jericho, and there are not many, know already ...sssssssshhhhhh... how to find him. I suspect I would be doing him a great disservice by revealing his location."
“In fact, we are neither his friends nor his enemies,” Rade said, “that has yet to be revealed. We don’t know if he has hostile intentions, until we meet him”
"Were it for my own part I would take your word," said Melitus. "But I can hardly...ssssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhh...take it upon myself to risk another's safety without his agreement. And I know he does not wish to be found. You say that...ssssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhh... you used to work with Jericho but thought him dead? Surely then, if he is alive, that must have been a forgery. And so therefore...ssssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhh... he must have forged such a thing to get away from your employers, so now I can only be more certain than before that...ssssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhh.. he could not possibly want to meet you, representatives of his employers he escaped. However, I now have a better...ssssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhh...idea of who you are. Jericho did mention a case of unfortunate timing and crossed purposes at the airport. Neither your employers nor myself ended up with what we wanted. And I feel this puts your visit here in some....ssshhhhhh...perspective."
"Did Jericho ever mention why he wanted to get away from Our employers?....." Fire said, lowering his voice "... can't say I really blame him"
"I do not see why that was any concern of mine, I was interested...ssssssssssssssssshhhhhhhhhh... in Jericho purely because he is a man of extreme talents, a trait he shares with you people. Such people are hard to come by."
"...Indeed we are" Fire said.
"So now we reach an impasse, you want information that I cannot think of any direct reason to give you. Though...ssssssssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhh...I can be certain if I do give it to you, a confrontation will ensue. But somehow I suspect that the prospect of extreme violence will not discourage you."
“Not at all, we will find him with or without your help” Fire said.
“Now that is where you are mistaken. I am your only way to find him.” Meltius said.
"We have run in to him once, we might run in to him again, if that is what ment to be than it will be so. But indeed you are most likely the only lead we have on Jericho"
"Jericho and myself will not allow such accidents to happen again, It is no mystery to me that you have no other...sssssssssssssssssshhhhhhhhhhh...leads to follow else you would not have taken absurd risks like going to Ni Zhan or myself. So now I find myself faced with a very interesting choice."
"Maybe we are just all insane and combat addicted?"
"No, I have no reason to believe that you behave in such a way and would seek a fight when an alternative was possible. You...sssssssssssshhhhhhhhhh...have no other options other than what I can offer you. Which leaves me with two unattractive alternatives. Either...sssssssssssshhhhhhhhhh...I give you Jericho's location, and betray one group of Mercenaries with whom I have a working arrangement, or I stay quiet, and aggravate another group of mercenaries who are with me at this very moment. Difficult."
"It is very urgent that we find Jericho. He knows something that should not reach other ears." Mors said, taking his rightful control over the tam. He was the team’s leader after all.
"I do not underestimate your need to find him, and the not unlikely prospect that he will kill all of you when you try will not dissuade you, I am sure. My concern
...sssssssssssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhh... is on what option creates the least inconvenience and possible harm for myself."
Fire suddenly drew is katana and yelled, "ENOUGH, I've had it with all that crap, If your life means anything to you, you will tell me where Jericho is NOW! or I will make sure you find new words to describe pain and suffering"
Meltius didn’t even flinch he just said, "I am afraid it looks as if your logic is impeccable. No matter what retribution Jericho would offer against me, it cannot be as large a problem as the threats you can give...ssssshhhhhhh... to me. I am left with only one option. I shall tell you where Jericho is, and I will simply have to hope that it is you that kills him and not the other way around. I will do this on one condition only, a condition...ssssshhhhhhhhhh...... without which your threat becomes less relevant to gauging my safety."
"Name your condition" Fire said, everyone else, running to stop him from doing anything stupid.
"The condition is very simple. It is simply that after your confrontation with Jericho, that you return here and tell me what happened. If you do not return, I shall assume that Jericho eliminated you, and …sssshhhhhhhh... take the appropriate precautions."
"We will return after we have eliminated him. However I warn you not to trick us that time, or no pain you can conceive will be close to what I will do to you" Fire said.
"There is only one place I know of at which I can contact Jericho. He has taken a job at the Circe Computer Corporation. He can be found there between 8 in the morning and midday once every three days. He was there today so….”
The group understood…three days…
"Well Gentlemen and Lady, it seems our business is done. I hope for your sakes that we meet again, and maybe for mine also. My Butler will escort you back out of my...ssssssssssssssssssshhhhhhhh... personal chambers, from there I am sure you can easily find the lift and the way back out. Good day to you."
The group thanked him and left.
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The team stood by a phone. Castor picked it up and waited to disappear…he didn’t. His body started to disperse, but then his body reappeared and was thrown across the room…
“I think we may have a problem…” Cloud said, looking at what had just happened.
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Mar 9th, 2005 06:08 PM |
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SpikeSpiegel
Swimming Bird
Registered: Jun 2003
Location: United Kingdom
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Eliminate - Part 1: Splitting up
So this was it. The headquarters of the Circe Computer Company. Where Jericho worked every third day...apparently. The place looked just like any other large office building. Cloud imagined that each window symbolized a person inside, he shuddered. With that many people if anything went wrong, there’d be plenty of people's bodies for agents to take.
There was no point in trying to find a way out of the Matrix. Meltius had found a way to stop them from escaping. This was the only thing that they could do to hope to get back to the real world. Cloud looked at his watch, 10:03. Jericho should be inside now; doing whatever it was he did.
Coeus and Celsius had stayed at the motel to rest. Their injuries were too severe to have healed over the three days; they might not make it at all. Cloud prayed that they would be alright, there was precious few ‘red pills’ as it was.
Looking up he crinked his neck, a gust of wind blew he blonde hair aside as his mind troubled over the crew of the Bounty. Medea had helped them, but Meltius had said they wouldn’t want us looking for them. Cloud closed his eyes to remember what it was that Dallas had said about Jericho.
“I know this situation ain’t ideal and there is all sorts of shit going on, but don’t you guys worry your little heads about it. Those of us in the real world will sort out all the technical difficulties, and all of us can work out what the deal with freaky iron lung guy is later. Right now, we still have a mission to do and we are not going to fail it! We have to find and deal with Jericho.
Now, what you have to understand about Jericho is that he is a nut. Thinks too much, like Morpheus. But he’s a clever nut and he’s been on the lines for a long time. Watch out. And should you have to go toe to toe with him… well… heh, he’s no Dallas! But he’s good enough. Very much into the whole Samurai thing as well. Nut.
But the one you should really look out for is Khali, and not just because she was Jericho’s heavy duty crewmember. Khali is… unhinged. I don’t think she was a very nice kid to start with but the whole trauma of being pulled out the Matrix affected her badly… she’s a disturbed girl. Genuine sociopath. In a war, it’s very handy to have someone like that on your side but in this kind of situation… well, I’ll just say… if anyone is going to not hesitate to pull the trigger on another human, it’ll be her.
“So just stay focussed, ignore all our other troubles, and do your job.”
Clouds hand unconsciously slipped down under his coat, checking his trusty katana was still there. Mors was on the phone to Ariadne again, going over the problem of jacking out. The rest of the crews were stood around waiting.
"We'd better hope the broadcast points are safe," Rade was saying, "If sentinels come they'll just have to use the E.M.P. Let's just hurry and get this done with"
“We’d best be careful, we’re not prepared if this goes wrong” San was saying.
The teams walked through the buildings revolving doors.
“This is reeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaalllll inconspicuous guys” Cloud joked looking at his all black uniform.
“Wait here.” Fire told the rest of them, as he walked towards the desk and ignored Cloud’s comment.
“Hello there,” Fire said to the girl behind the desk, “We’re looking for a friend of ours. His name’s Jericho, he said he’d be in today. Could you please tell us where he might be?”
“Do you have an appointment?” The receptionist asked, looking at the group behind Fire.
Rade stepped towards the desk, “I’m sure he’ll want to see us…we’re old…..acquaintances.”
“I’ll call his apartment…he’s a very busy man” the receptionist said, picking up the phone.
“She’s scared…” Cloud whispered to San, who was stood next to him, “…if she’s hit the silent alarm we’re done for…”
“Can I take a name?” The receptionist asked looking from each person to the other in the group.
“Just say Dallas” Burn said, moving to one of the seats at the side of the lobby.
After a brief pause she smiled and said, “You’re to go on up, floor 13.”
Cloud sighed a sigh of relief; he was worried the mission would be over before it started.
They all moved off behind the receptionist for the lift. Cloud hit the up button. A few seconds later Ares hit it several times in rapid succession.
“These things take too long” He said
Fires phone rang, “Excuse me” he said picking it up from his pocket.
After a couple of seconds he hung up.
“Rade, Heph, Caster and Azrael. You’re with me in one lift. We’re going to see Jericho. The rest of you are to take the other lift up and remain as back up.”
“Right,” “sure thing,” “seems best” were the unvaried responses from most of the team. They all stepped into the lifts.
The thirteenth floor lefts opened into a corridor. Down one end was some toilets and some stairs. Straight ahead was an open plan office.
Cloud leaned against the wall while Jericho’s visitors entered the office. The rest of Cloud’s companions who had to wait outside either sat down or lent against the wall.
Azrael came out first, “Apparently there’s been a mix up. Jericho’s on the next floor up.”
Fire came out next, “Dallas wanted you guys to stay put, I’ll ring if I need you.”
Fire’s team headed off up the stairs.
Cloud pushed himself from the wall, looking at the lift. “4…………5………….6” it read.
“Odd.” Said Cloud, “Don’t remember it going down…”
“S***” Burn said, grabbing his Mp5 and pointing it at the lift.
“This can’t be good” San said, reaching into one of her pockets for her gun.
“4…………5………….6” the lift read.
“Oh F***” Cloud shouted, “We got a real problem here!”
“You’re kidding right!?” Burn said sarcastically looking at a grill which had appeared in front of the stairwell.
“They’re trapped up there?” Cloud asked rhetorically.
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Sep 21st, 2005 06:45 PM |
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SpikeSpiegel
Swimming Bird
Registered: Jun 2003
Location: United Kingdom
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Eliminate - Part 2: A usual day at the office
Mors grabbed his phone, it rang in his hand as he whipped it out of his coat.
“We got a ton of SWAT en-route to this floor. Move it!” Mors shouted, throwing the phone to San and grabbing his weapon as three of the six lift doors opened.
Cloud’s hand wrapped round his katana as he drew it to the SWAT before them. The rest of the team had reached for their weapons. There was no-where to hide, and only one viable place to run too…the busy open planed office, where there was plenty of people for agents to inhabit.
Cloud bit down on his lip as bullets flew from his comrades guns, taking out several of the SWAT. A shotgun raised in Cloud’s direction. Spinning his katana he sliced deeply into the mans arm, spinning in the air and then digging the sword deep into his gut.
Cloud still wasn’t used to all this, he had barely been out of the matrix for two months. Still his skills seemed to come naturally, but this wasn’t the time to worry over small things…he was as good of a fighter as the rest of them; it was why he was allowed to be a part of the team. Several bullets flew past Cloud’s head…defiantly a bad time to get distracted.
Cloud struggled removing his blade; he swung it clean from the dead man into another person, barely scratching his armour.
“We got more coming up the stairs!” San shouted, relaying from Dallas.
A bullet scraped Cloud’s left shoulder, causing a yelp of pain.
"Guys, we’ve gotta get out of here already! There's more of them coming! We need to get to the emergency stairs before they do." San shouted, relaying Dallas's message.
Cloud, lunged at the person who had shot him, blood trickling down his arm. He wouldn’t be able to use it for a bit, he’d have to rely on his right.
More bullets, aimed at Cloud and Mors, they both ducked, glancing up at each other and grinning, as Burn tore into the remaining SWAT members.
“Time to go!” Burn shouted running through the door into the office, followed by everyone else.
After seeing there weapons all hell broke loose, the workers ran screaming for the exits. An explosion tore through the air from the stairwell being blown open. The emergency exit was across from them at the other side of the office; to their right was a huge window, to their left a blank wall.
Mors was shoving people aside as he ran, creating a path for the others. Behind them an agent appeared in the doorway.
“S***, agent!” Cloud said, moving faster.
Burn rolled along the floor, firing a couple of shotgun blasts backwards towards the agent. The agent disappeared into a blur, an un-hittable target. San and Ares joined in, flipping the top half of their bodies around to let loose on the agent, still no hits.
“Exit’s blocked!” San yelled, receiving an on the spot update from Dallas.
“Damn it!” Mors yelled, spinning around, “The rest of you, take care of the SWAT team...I'll keep our suited friend here busy...” He ran forwards, "Agent Daniels I presume? Or some other look-alike program?"
"I remember you," a voice came from behind Mors, from the emergency exit.
“Not another one!” Burn shouted, ducking bullets from the first agent.
“Uh……"Mr.…………………..Agent……….why do you want us? Surely we share a common enemy in Jericho. He also tried to get those plans about the machines, why not go and see him first?" Cloud gestured, trying to buy some time to escape.
“The windows!” San suddenly shouted, setting off towards them.
SWAT appeared behind the first agent, along with the agent letting loose on everyone. Cloud ducked under the pathetic cover of the office dividers, but it kept him safe for now. He turned south towards the window.
San reached the windows first, “Cloud, smash them….window box….hurry!” She relayed.
Cloud’s sword barely scratched it, “Damn it’s re-enforced!” Cloud said, throwing all his strength into another blow, the glass shattered. “Go! Go! Go!”
Cloud waited, helping people out of the window. The agent had reached them, grabbing San as he jumped towards the window. San kicked backwards, falling to the floor and knocking the agent back into one of the office divisions. Almost as soon as he hit the floor he was to his feet, kicking slightly on the floor and standing up.
"Hurry, San!" Ares shouted up to from the window box "Just don't get hit and we'll be fine!"
“Mors! Get a move on!” Cloud shouted, waiting for Mors before he jumped. Everyone else was out. The agents approached them side by side, each raising their fists.
“These are not who we were expecting” The first agent said
“It makes no difference. We shall proceed.”
“Eliminate them”
Cloud swung his blade, cutting the agents hand. Cloud grinned, turning and jumping out the window. As he did so, a force unlike anything he had ever felt before slammed into the back of his spine. It was now more of a fall than a jump. Cloud hit the window box hard.
“Hi……..g…uys……….how we………doing?” He asked dazed and getting to his feet.
Mors landed elegantly next to Cloud, “Don’t worry, you’ll get it in time” he said, looking back up at the agents.
“Smash the window! We’re going back in!” San shouted.
The agents jumped down into the boxes, “Enjoy that little kick around up there?” Daniels said grinning and attacking Mors.
"Even easier than before..." the other agent said, hitting Burn in the ribs.
Cloud turned, throwing all the strength he had left into attacking the window, “We’re in!” He shouted heading through, suddenly hit by Burn. His katana dropping inside the office.
“Sorry about that. That agent seems really pissed off at us.” Burn said rolling off of Cloud and into the office, Cloud struggled to his feet, grabbing his katana and leaping inside to avoid a kick by the agent.
Far above, glass came flying down towards them, as someone Cloud recognized as Azrael came leaping out of a window and onto the CCC sign.
Mors, Cloud and Burn were lagging behind, caught between two agents as the others ran to the lifts opposite, prying them open and leaping inside. Mors fell to the floor in front of them taking a hit from Daniels who was in pursuit. Cloud grabbed Mors arm as he ran, heaving it over his shoulder and half-dragging, half-carrying him along.
“Burn! A distraction!” Cloud yelled, spitting out some blood as he ran.
A kick flew past Cloud, the agent’s aim off thanks to a well timed shot by Burn. Now the real obstacle, getting past the other agent to the lift. Burn and Ares let out a flurry of bullets at the second agent.
“Now!” Burn yelled, indicating to run while the agent was dodging.
The two of them ran, leaping into the lift shaft, grabbing a cable inside and simultaneously throwing Mors further over his shoulder.
“Damn, this is tough!” Cloud said, indicating Mors.
“Only another fifty feet, then a service hatch” San said, looking up at Cloud.
"Once again, Mors being the heroic..." Ares said sarcastically, looking at Mors "How ya feelin’ Mors? Shattered? Smashed? Broken? Lopsided?"
"A little bit of everything, Ares..." Mors replied, not looking at him.
They all crawled through the service hatch, Cloud threw Mors through before heading through himself. He looked up, sunlight…and more than a dozen SWAT. Cloud spat blood onto the floor, this wasn’t going to be easy. How had it all gone wrong?
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Sep 22nd, 2005 07:29 PM |
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SpikeSpiegel
Swimming Bird
Registered: Jun 2003
Location: United Kingdom
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Eliminate - Part 3: The great escape
Cloud grabbed his stomach; he left Mors by the service hatch. Swinging blindly for one of the men with a shotgun. A bullet flew past him, dropping a SWAT to the floor. The man he had swung for, stepped back as Cloud lunged again, embedding the sword in him and leaving it there for the time being. ‘Time for some hand-to-hand’ he thought.
More bullets came from his team members, dropping four more men. They seemed to be having better luck than he was. That punch from the agent was still taking its toll on him, his vision blurred. A blur rose from another man, a butt of a shotgun. It hit him hard in the chin, throwing Cloud back onto the floor.
“Crap….an agent!” He heard someone yell, voices from people he couldn’t recognise.
More yells, and bullets. Then, an explosion…and nothing.
Cloud struggled into a sitting position, looking at the dark chaos of rubble, and the contrasting orange of fire around.
“Did I miss something?” Cloud asked, rolling over to his sword and removing it from the dead SWAT.
“Nothing much…” Ares said sarcastically.
“I got to blow up an armoury!” San said, obviously happy with herself. “I think we're all fine...and I'm pretty sure that explosion took care of all the SWAT guys...but s***! I don't want to be that close to a bunch of explosives going off again if I can help it.” She said on a more serious note.
Ares leapt for his phone before San could, “Hello? Ariadne? Dallas? Where the hell are we?” He asked, looking around.
Cloud too, took the time to look around, they must have fallen into a sub-basement. Three of the walls were solid, rather than rubble.
"Your plan, eh? Your plan nearly got us killed, but it did the job," Ares said, ripping off some pieces of his shirt and cleaning his wounds. "I bet those guys up there are a bit skeptic of how the Agents survived, but I'm sure not. Damned body-snatchers..."
"Well, got way for us to get out of here?" Ares continued, grunting occasionally in acknowledgement. "Can you locate any good spots where we could remove rubble without being seen? Or heard? Or where it would be easiest?" He ventured, trying to help Dallas out.
"Alright, sounds good. Guide me there..." Ares said, walking with Dallas' directions.
“Ares, find out how the others are doing first.” San said, getting to her feet.
Ares nodded in agreement, “Dallas, how are the others doing? Did they make it out? And give us the spiel about the Bounty, if we've discovered that..."
After a few minutes of listening to Dallas rant and rave he said, “Jericho, that bastard. Glad Medea helped them, but she did us no favors”
"Ahh, damn I never got to thank her. Anyways, we should get the hell outta here." Burn said, helping Mors up.
"That's the second time Medea helped us...but I still don't trust her." San said "But I agree. We should go before anyone decides to go poking around down here."
"Good idea, but Dallas said to wait a bit. Dallas, call us when we should get out..." Ares said, hanging up and putting the phone on vibrate, should anyone be near enough to hear the phone ring.
"Well, that was sure a blast!” He said, sitting down with his shotgun.
"Ha, ha. That was also way too close." San said, sitting in the middle of the area.
“Yes, almost close enough to kill us all,” Cloud said, “My back is on fire, when agents punch they punch hard. I hope I’m never left to face one alone, like you Mors.”
“At least we’re alive” San said, “Damned agents though, they had help finding us.”
“Yeah, the spammer’s the oldest trick in the book.”
“And it hasn’t been used in a long time either, no-one could have anticipated it” Mors said.
Ares phone vibrated for a couple of seconds and stopped, “Time to move.” He said, moving towards the rubble and slowly moving some aside. Together, as a team they soon had a path cleared.
“Burn you go first” San said, pushing him forwards and taking her phone out to ring their ‘guide’.
Cloud was the last to clamber into the gap, up ahead he heard San telling Burn to stop. There was a hole, about fifty meters deep, with jagged rocks all over the place.
“Any way to dig around it?” Ares asked.
“No, tunnel’s too fragile.” San relayed.
“Maybe we could use Mors as a bridge, he likes that suicide stuff” Cloud joked.
“Sounds like a Dallas plan to me” Mors replied.
"Dallas, Would this work; What if I had Ares hold one end of my trench coat and lower me down onto a jutting our ledge, then I use the leapt across the chasm and grab or land on another jutting rock on the other side. The I climb up to the other side and catch the 'rope', made up of tied together Trech coats anchored by a large stone. Then the others climb across the trench coats to the other side and we all escape safely. Well, would it work?"
“Dallas says it’ll work” San replied.
Everyone backed up, removing their jackets and passing them down. The sound of falling rocks came from up ahead. They all moved slowly on, each crossing the chasm. Cloud was the last to go across. He tied the last coat to a sturdy looking Rock and made it across.
“Move! 30 seconds till this place collapses!” San yelled.
Everyone clambered as fast as they could, through into a tunnel with steam hatches and boiling pipes. A maintenance tunnel Cloud guessed. A piece of rubble caught Cloud’s leg as he leapt into the maintenance tunnel, he bit down hard, keeping himself from yelling.
“Unguarded area up ahead…chemical spillage and fire risk…and Dallas would forget to mention it had it not been for Ariadne.” San said, “at a part it’s broken, we’re going to have to climb down and then climb back in again, avoiding chemical spills and fire along the way.”
“Easy as that?” Cloud said sarcastically, as the part of the vent he was in gave way.
He fell into a small room, chemical fire around him, and more chemicals pouring towards him. Trapped under the vent, Cloud’s arm hit the side, lightly burning him. Around him everyone, except Burn ironically, leapt down into the fire, kicking and heaving the vent off him.
“Go, we’ll be right behind you!” Mors shouted, giving Cloud a boost up.
Burn and Cloud grabbed Barb, helping him up and moving back to give more room for people to jump up. Cloud and Barb helped up San. Cloud then moved on, to let San and Barb lift up Ares, then Mors. They crawled onwards to another vent, kicking it out they leapt into the unguarded chemical spill area. Running towards a fire exit.
Sunshine……freedom……..Cloud took a deep breath of air as he ran down the stairs. If anyone noticed them leave, they were long gone before anything could be done about it.
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Sep 23rd, 2005 07:15 PM |
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SpikeSpiegel
Swimming Bird
Registered: Jun 2003
Location: United Kingdom
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Heist - Part 1: The job
The team had run straight from the CCC building, looking back occasionally to check that they had not been followed. They were now crouched down an alleyway, catching breath and thanking whatever deity had saved them. Cloud was checking himself for injuries, his back still ached, and he had left his sword behind. He cracked his neck back, looking up at the sky, sighing. A familiar ringing sound broke his peaceful thoughts…news from the real world.
San picked up her phone, listened then put it down, relaying the message. “There are sentinels nearby the Percy, so they have to stay quiet. The Shez is busy, but Finn’s going to direct us to a hard-line to be briefed and to re-arm us.”
Cloud sighed as everyone got to their feet, and walked back out onto the crowded streets following Finn’s instructions to the hard-line. Marduk was waiting by it, guns concealed all over the place.
“Hey guys, you all bearing up OK?” He asked.
“Well, let’s see. I've been hit by an agent, fallen out a window, been shot, jumped across a gaping hole, burnt myself on a hot pipe and been trapped under some rubble in a room full of dangerous chemicals and fire. Other than that just peachy” Cloud said sarcastically.
“I wish I could tell you things are getting better," Marduk replied, "but they are not. This is a situation of great adversity. If it is any compensation, you are in a better state than the others.” He paused “I have brought the weapons you need."
"Great. We need some weapons here. Especially since those damn agents are probably looking for us right now..." San said, tearing into one of the large bags lying next to Marduk.
Cloud bent down, looking for a Katana…his Katana. It was at the bottom, in a new sheaf.
Marduk shook his head to San, “They seem to be off your case. They don’t actually seem too bothered about you. Probably as of the Sentinels that they’ve sent after us. They know that even if the ships escape, you guys will be dead.”
“Great…sentinels too.” Ares said, grabbing a pair of Ingram’s and some clips from the bags. “What happened to the others?”
“They went after Meltius. It didn’t go well, we’ve been out of contact with them since they entered Meltius’ realm.”
“Damn it.” Burn snapped, “They were good men. We can’t sit around here and mope though.”
“We know they’re not dead.” Marduk replied, “Their Bio-signs are showing…although they are rather unusual.” He sighed, showing that he was afraid. “With the Sentinels around we cannot contact Zion at this point either, not that they could do much.
I won't lie to you; we have only a matter of hours before the Sentinels find either the Shez or the Percy. As you know, if we move... well, we are bound to leave broadcast depth at some point. We'll endeavor to go around in circles as long as we can but if we do that, at some point we'll have to hit the EMP...”
“No point wasting the ships just as you can’t get the crew out.” Mors said.
“Indeed.” Marduk replied, looking at his feet then straight up, “I’m going to head back to the ship now, you guys lay low and wait for Dallas to contact you. Don’t worry I’m sure his plan won’t be too extreme this time.”
“Thanks Marduk, for both the help and the guns” Ares said.
Burn’s phone rang about three minutes after Marduk had returned to the Percy.
“Hey! It's pretty good here despite the whole Agent Blowing up thing. So what’s up with you?" He answered, grinning, then a few seconds later, "Oh boy! Tell me, tell me, tell me!", "Do I get to blow stuff up?", "Awesome, so when do we start, do we get more stuff?"
Cloud leant over, “I’m not particularly liking the sound of this.”
"Goodness of her heart, yeah right, Anyway, then what happened?" Burn said sarcastically into the phone. With his free hand he waved off anyone asking what was going on. Indicating that he would say later. "The USB drive thingy?" He said into the phone again waving everyone away.
Burn put the phone down for a second, “Hey guys, we’re going to be stealing that USB device thing from Jericho and his crew.”
“Sounds dangerous, Jericho’s team’s as good as us in almost all respects. It’ll be tricky.” Mors said, looking from person to person.
"At least we'll have the advantage here, for a change...Jericho and his crew think we're dead, after all, and they sure won't be expecting six 'dead' people to show up!" San broke in.
“Indeed” Ares replied.
“When do we start?” Cloud said to Burn.
“ASAP, before they get back to Meltius” Burn replied.
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Nov 3rd, 2005 07:17 PM |
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SpikeSpiegel
Swimming Bird
Registered: Jun 2003
Location: United Kingdom
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Heist - Part 2: Sunday Drivers
Cloud leant back in the driver’s seat of the Hummer. He cracked his knuckles and rolled his head from side to side. He hadn’t driven since before he was freed. Ares sat next to him, preparing his gun. The rest of the team had split up into pairs too. Cloud’s katana lay next to the seat, on his right, so that he wouldn’t mistake it for the handbrake. In the boot, and along the back seat lay an assortment of guns, ammo and blades.
A radio sat on the dashboard. A voice came through – Ariadne.
“Ok teams. Jericho and his men have reached the freeway. They’re only a mile behind you, and traveling at 90mph. Time to get moving, you should be able to hit the freeway just as they pass you. Good luck.”
“OK, Cloud, let’s get a move on. Jericho is asking for an ass-whooping…” Ares said from the passenger seat.
Cloud turned the ignition key and slipped the vehicle into first. They headed out from the small building and drove towards the freeway.
“You should see them now,” came Ariadne’s voice over the radio, “they’re driving in a single white van.”
“I see them,” came Mors voice over the radio.
Cloud slammed his foot on the accelerator, he was pulling alongside Jericho’s van, on the passenger’s side. San was on the opposite side in another Hummer, while Barbarossa was behind her, in the van’s blind spot. A small red Dodge pulled out in front of Cloud, he couldn’t risk sounding the horn, it might alert Jericho, so he pulled back again.
“Pull over, past the Dodge, I’ll take a shot from there” Ares said, giving his idea on the situation.
“Wait, it looks like they’re pulling off the freeway.” Ariadne said. The tree hummers pulled back, the dodge and the van pulled off and the hummers followed.
“Let’s try again” Burn said over the radio. Barbarossa and San pulled over onto the van’s driver side again, San going further forwards so that Burn could take a clear shot at whoever was driving the van. Cloud tried again to get past the Dodge.
“Damned Sunday drivers” Cloud spat, “take out the tires, see if we can’t take the dodge out of the equation all together”
Ares put a foot on his chair and pushed himself up so he could shoot from the moon-roof. A burst fired from above Cloud’s head, the tires on the Dodge exploded. The car spun out of control and straight into Cloud’s path.
“****” Ares said in unison with Cloud. The Hummer’s front left hand side hit the back of the Dodge as Cloud spun to avoid it, his feet shot for both the clutch and the brake. He spun the wheel to try and keep his position on the road. The back side of the Hummer hit another car, knocking it onto the other side of the road.
Cloud turned the wheel sharply to avoid an oncoming motorbike, he managed to regain control, slowing all the way down to 50mph, he swerved the car to avoid a lorry that had blocked his path back onto his side of the road. As soon as it passed he leapt the car over the break in the road and back behind the van.
“Talk about luck…” Ares said trying to catch his breath,
“Luck?” Cloud said grinning, “Nah, it was pure skill”
Cloud once more put his foot down, this time managing to pull alongside the van. Ares stood up again and let off a burst of fire at Jericho, who was sat in the passenger seat of the van. Mors was now on the roof of the van, sword in hand ready to cut into it like a tin-can.
Cloud pulled back as bullets flew out of the passenger window of the van, Ares steadied himself on the roof of the Hummer, letting out another burst of fire at the van. The doors at the back swung open, revealing the rest of Jericho’s team. Medea grabbed the roof and swung on top, while Ares fired another burst at her to keep her distracted.
Cloud pulled back alongside the van as it slowed down. More bullets came from above Cloud’s head. He reached back and pulled out another clip of ammo, passing it up to Ares.
The van suddenly pulled out in front of Cloud, and shot down a side street, Cloud, pulled on the handbrake, spinning around to face the side street. He threw the Hummer back down to first and shot down the street after it. Ares ducked down into the car to dodge fire from the van.
The van suddenly spun around in a handbrake turn, outside a subway station. Cloud, San and Barbarossa skidded to a halt too. Cloud’s left hand reached down for his katana, while his right went to the door. This was where the real fight would start…
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Aug 10th, 2006 11:18 AM |
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SpikeSpiegel
Swimming Bird
Registered: Jun 2003
Location: United Kingdom
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Heist - Part 3: Thieves Interrupted
Bullets flew from both Cloud’s team and Jericho’s. Cloud, leapt forwards into a roll. As he did so he bulled his blade free from its sheath. He swung at Tyr’s legs, trying to get him into an easy position to steal the laptop from. Tyr leapt back, firing a shot as he did so. Blood dripped from Cloud’s ribcage, he bit his teeth together, trying to mentally block out the pain. His left hand subconsciously went to the wound. A police siren rang somewhere in the background of the chaos.
A blast from Khali hit Cloud in the back of the shin, he stumbled as he ran, hitting his chin on the ground. His hands shot to the floor, throwing him back onto his feet again. He blocked out the pain with every ounce of will he could muster.
Behind the police had pulled up. Two officers got out, looking at the mayhem before them.
“What do you make of this one, Bob?” Asked one cop, shouting above the noise.
The man next to him was convulsing in pain, he straightened his head and said “I’ll take care of this”. The man in the dark suit walked towards the disaster in the making.
“Agent!” yelled Loomis, one of Jericho’s men. He spun and shot at the new arrival, who vanished in a blur before reappearing.
Cloud took a brief glance at the agent, and then at Tyr and the laptop, now was his perfect opportunity to attack. He leapt forwards, spinning around in the air with his sword, and bringing it down on where Tyr’s head was. Tyr had turned just as Cloud had leapt, firing off a burst at him. Cloud’s mid-air spin had allowed him to narrowly avoid the shots. Tyr tripped backwards, trying to do anything to avoid the spinning blade. He succeeded as the blade cut across his arm, blood dropped to the floor, running down the laptop on their path to the ground.
Cloud landed on his feet, Tyr was already on him, spinning in a roundhouse kick. Khali stood beside Cloud, bringing down a knife on him. Cloud spun again, turning his back toward the gap between the two, his left hand shot out to grab Tyr’s foot as his katana came down to run parallel with his right forearm. The small knife hit the blade, and the tip pricked Cloud’s long coat, tearing it. Khali was already moving the blade back to take another shot at Cloud.
Cloud spun again, throwing Tyr’s foot back to the ground and throwing him into a small spin. He ducked as he moved, dodging Khali’s next attack as it moved by overhead. She slashed down at him again, Cloud spun his katana to knock the blade away. She spun, bringing the hilt of the blade down on Cloud’s wounded rib. No amount of mental blocking could hold back the pain this time as Cloud let out a loud scream of pain, his left knee buckling. He threw his weight forwards and heaved his body back up again. His quick getup threw his body out of the way of Khali’s knife attack.
A fist came in from Cloud’s left, as he threw his weight backwards to avoid his hand went to the wound on his side again. The fist passed inches from his face. Cloud took another step backwards as Khali slashed at him, the blade moved harmlessly passed his midsection. Barbarossa leapt in next to Cloud, distracting Khali. Cloud turned towards Tyr who was throwing his fists towards Cloud, Cloud once more spun and ducked, as Tyr’s fists moved over his head, Cloud looked up at Tyr’s spinning body – another roundhouse kick. Cloud moved to his right, grabbing at Tyr’s foot with his free hand. His right foot snapped up towards Tyr’s midsection, Tyr’s hands grabbed his foot. The two warriors looked at each other for a second before throwing theit captured feet down.
Cloud looked up at Tyr, his grip tightening on the hilt of his blade. He spun it around between the two, taking aim and moving the blade faster until neither of the two could see the silver of the blade. He saw Tyr’s concentration lapse for a split second and the blade forwards at Tyr’s shoulder. The blade ran straight through, now it was Tyr’s turn to cry out in pain. He dropped the laptop to his blood soaked hand and threw all his strength into another punch.
Cloud’s blade had thrown off Tyr, whom Cloud just reached out and grabbed Tyr’s wrist, blocking the attack. As Cloud smirked at Tyr a head came down hard into his sternum, throwing him back onto the floor. Cloud’s blade slid from his hand. He looked up at Sinister who now stood next to Tyr. Bullets and fists came at Tyr from behind and he ducked out of the way, turning to face his new attackers. Sinister smirked at Cloud and turned around to defend Tyr as he moved down into the subway station.
“We’ll meet again…” Cloud said at the retreating team. He spat blood onto the ground. He knew they were in trouble, they had no way to get back to the real world and they were already hurt. He saw Burn lying on the floor, coughing up blood and in agony. He then looked up and saw the Agent still standing there in the centre of the team, “Bugger”
Cloud pushed himself to his feet, charging towards the agent and the freedom beyond him, his blade bringing sparks up from the ground as he let out a war cry. Mors leapt in first, attacking the agent, Cloud jumped into a roll, moving past the agent and towards the hummers they had arrived in. Mors had managed to navigate around the agent and now was running towards the Hummers too.
Ares flew past the two of them, slamming into the side of the Hummer and bending it’s doors inwards. He dropped to the floor, tried to stand and collapsed into a heap on the ground.
“Damn!” Mors shouted spinning and letting off a burst from his MP5, “Cloud, get him into the Hummer, San distract the agent, Barb, get your ass in that damned car!” the first officer of the Shez called.
Cloud grabbed Ares chest and threw one of the damaged doors behind him, it had snapped off in his hand. The agent flew backwards into the second Hummer, although he quickly leapt to his feet and straightened his tie. Cloud lay Ares on the backseat of the car. Cloud clambered in after him as suddenly the whole vehicle lifted up into the air, spun and landed on its roof. Cloud slammed the back of his head on the roof as Ares’ body landed on top of him. He looked over (or under depending on how you look at it) the front chairs and saw the rest of his team lying there clumped up of the roof.
San and Barb crawled out of the Hummer and attacked the agent. Cloud grabbed Ares again and pulled him from the car, he was on his mobile, grunting out words at Ariadne. “Hang on…?” Cloud heard, obviously he hadn’t gotten a very helpful response. He then looked at the phone and mumbled “she…hung…up…?”
Cloud was dragging Ares past the agent to another one of the cars. Barb landed next to him on the floor, hurt. He struggled to his feet. San had moved towards them and now faced the agent. As did Mors and Burn, who lay strewn across his back.
The agent took a step towards them, stopped then starred at the Hummer. The Humvee was thrown into him as a bus slammed into it. The agent and Humvee were thrown back towards the subways entrance. The team looked up in disbelieve at the bus’s driver…Dallas…
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Aug 17th, 2006 07:29 PM |
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SpikeSpiegel
Swimming Bird
Registered: Jun 2003
Location: United Kingdom
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Heist - Part 4: Bustop blues
“Get in!” Dallas shouted from the drivers seat. To their left the Humvee had started to move. No-one thought twice before piling into the bus. “Burn, Ares, which one of you wants to drive?”
“What…?” Burn asked, clearly in pain.
Dallas sighed, “It’s like this. You can either drive, or try and take on that agent.”
Burn looked out of the window at the Hummer that was slowly being overturned and jumped behind the wheel, he threw his foot on the gas and moved the car back onto the road. Cloud lay Ares down onto one of the chairs.
“Well ‘ello Cap’n!” Ares said, trying his best to salute, “How bad does my nose look?”
“Like to tried to come onto my sister,” Dallas said smirking. “We’ve got a lot of work to do before we get out of this one. Burn, take the first right” Dallas whipped out his phone and called the operator.
A loud crash appeared from the back of the bus as it’s roof crumpled inwards. As the bus skidded around the right turn, the roof of the bus was torn backwards.
“Get up there and get that bastard off my roof!” Dallas yelled.
Mors spun and let out a burst of fire at the agent, he blurred away, avoiding the bullets.
“Third right!” Dallas yelled as Cloud, San, Barb and Mors ran to the back of the bus. The four of them leapt up to the roof, flipping in the air so that the hole lay between them and the agent.
Barbarossa and San both let out a couple of bursts of fire at the agent, who blurred away again. The agent leapt over the gap in the roof, while he threw his fist forwards at Cloud, who ducked down, and steadied himself by grabbing the torn bit of roof. San too ducked and brought her foot around towards the agent’s legs. The agent hopped up, over San’s legs. Mors turned, aiming a low-roundhouse kick at the Agent’s knees. Cloud spun his weapon around in a fluid motion, turning as he did so to bring the blade down across the agent’s chest. The agent’s suit now had a large slash in it, a slight red mark lay across his white shirt. He looked up, his eyebrows frowning.
Barb fired again, and the agent once more blurred away. San leapt up into the air, preparing to do an Eagle Strike kick. The agent’s body blurred back up into shape and his fist shot out into San’s chest. San flew backwards to the front of the bus, rolled along and managed to grab a hold of the side of the bus to steady herself.
Mors once more tried to aim a roundhouse at the agent’s knees. The agent stepped backwards grinning at Mors. Bullets came from the front of the bus and the agent once more blurred away. Cloud leapt, spinning his body and performing a side-kick to the agent, just as the bus turned the corner. His kick fell short as he was thrown off balance. San charged forwards, rolling and bringing her foot down on the agent’s ankle. The agent, stepped backwards. As he did so, Cloud regained his footing, bringing his foot back up to the back of the agent’s knee. The agent toppled over, rolling off the bus. His hands grabbed the side, and almost with no effort at all pulled himself back up onto the bus and straightened his tie.
Cloud glanced behind the agent to see that they were now driving through the park. Burn was driving as best as he could to avoid people and trees. The agent had punched at Barbarossa, who had leapt backwards, out of the agent’s reach. Cloud once more spun his sword, as he did so the agent grabbed his arm and shoved him aside. Mors now grabbed his sword from it’s sheath and cut at the agent. A thin line of blood dropped from the agent’s sleeve as the blade cut into the agent’s jacket again.
The bus suddenly jerked, Cloud steadied himself on the torn piece of roof again. Barb fell over, whilst San and Mors managed to keep their footing. The agent looked down at Barb and let out a vicious kick at his head. San leapt up and kicked at the distracted agent, who was knocked back across the gap and onto the back of the bus again. He glanced up from there and suddenly rose to stand again. The agent leapt across the gap and kicked Barb backwards, Cloud’s friend was thrown back into the bus, his head hitting one of the chairs and knocking him unconscious.
Mors swung the hilt of the sword at the agents face, slamming it into the cheekbone. The agent simply turned his face to Mors and snarled. Cloud and San both aimed kicks at the agent, who easily avoided them, turning until he was in a free position. Mors threw all his strength into another slash with his katana, cutting the agent again. The agent threw another punch at Mors head, his nose exploded in a bloody mess and he was knocked back into the bus.
Cloud swung again, he hoped his friends were still alive, they didn’t look too good. The agent stepped aside of his strike, and Cloud spun to aim another blow.
“You are pissing me off boy…” came a voice from behind the agent.
“Captain Dallas…” The agent said smirking, he threw a punch at Cloud, trying to take out as many people as he could so he could engage Dallas. Dallas was throwing a few practice boxing punches into the air. Cloud stared straight at the agent, risking everything to keep himself in position to throw everything he had at the agent. The bus lurched and the punch fell short. Cloud threw his sword into the air, putting all his strength into a punch at the agent, The agent stepped aside, as Cloud, still throwing all his weight forwards, stumbled, turned and grabbed his sword again.
The agent punched Dallas, who although knocked back, seemed not to take any damage, he took a step to recover the distance lost between himself and the agent and brought his fist up in an uppercut. The agent, taken by surprise stumbled backwards. San grabbed him, holding his arms behind him. Cloud brought his blade up, cutting the other way across the cut he had made earlier and making a bloody X shape in his shirt.
The agent spun, throwing San backwards, as Dallas came in with another punch. The agent moved to his side, avoiding the punch and throwing one of his own. Dallas too rolled past the punch, aggravating the agent further. San and Cloud both launched kicks at the agent who stepped past them and threw more punches at Dallas, who threw his hands up to block all of them.
The agent reached out and grabbed Cloud by the throat. Cloud swung his sword to block the attack, the agent’s hand gripped the blade and threw it into the bus, it landed inches away from Mors head. The agent raised his foot up and started to straighten it at an impossible speed. Cloud leapt to his left, just in time to avoid it. Cloud scrambled to his feet and aimed another kick at the agent. The agent let the kick slide past him and slammed his elbow down into Cloud’s face. Cloud fell to eh floor stunned, he quickly came to his senses and rolled back to stand by Dallas’s right.
Dallas charged forwards, punching at the agent. The agent grabbed Dallas and threw him off the bus. Calmly Dallas grabbed hold of a lamppost and spun around and back onto the bus. Smirking at a false triumph the agent was distracted enough for San to spin around and kick at the Agent’s knees knocking him to the floor. The agent struggled to his feet. Cloud threw all his strength into a final side kick, it connected with the agents face, throwing him off the back of the bus.
“Yes!” Cloud shouted, raising his hands to the sky in praise.
A bang came from the back of the bus as a hand appeared, then another, then the face of the agent.
“Cloud, San, to me!” Dallas said, beckoning the two of them to stand next to him. They did so without a second thought. “Now this is when we…” he said, grabbing hold of San and Cloud’s waists and heaving them off the bus with him. Seconds later, Mors, carrying both his and Cloud’s swords and using them as crutches, Ares, Burn and Barb leapt out of various doors and windows on the bus.
The bus carried on going, smashing into the side of a car park, at about 90mph. Burn had been accelerating flat out. Nothing happened for a split second, then a huge explosion crippled the side of the car park.
Dallas got to his feet, “That’s one for Zion!” He shouted, turning to the team, “You guys look like crap.”
“I feel about the same” Burn said, falling to the ground for a rest.
“You guys have been nothing but downbeat lately” Dallas said, heading towards the undamaged side of the car park.
“Have you found a way to get us out of here yet?” Cloud asked.
“You’re not even meant to be in the matrix yet, captain” Ares said, “You’re still injured.”
“You guys worry too much” Dallas said, a phone ringing somewhere in the distance.
“Well it’s better than winding up dead” San said.
Dallas lead the team to the undamaged side of the car park. Four phones lay against the wall, one of them rang.
Dallas picked up his mobile. “It's Dallas. Are we all clear to go ahead?”, "Ahhh... we'll get around to that... are you all ready to try this thing out then?", "Uh-huh... good, so everyone's ok to jack out then?" “Excellent” He hung up the phone. "Ariadne says you are all clear,” he handed the ringing phone to Mors.
Mors took the phone. His body began to disappear, then reappear with a screeching sound, then disappear again with what sounded like a modem noise. Then it reappeared again, and then finally disappeared.
“Neat…it worked…” Dallas said.
They were finally allowed back to the real world…
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Aug 18th, 2006 11:05 AM |
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