"Uh..." Nagada frowned, and quickly looked across the lobby, it was a few seconds before she spotted a greyish-red cylinder up against a pillar a dozen and a bit meters from them. "Fire extinguisher?" She finally whispered in response.
She did have a couple of silver-fragmentation grenades, but if it came to that it would already be too late.
He frowned, following her eyes to the device. Quite ironic that the entire room was burnt to a crisp, and the one device meant to counteract fire was sitting in it's place on the wall, completely unused. He turned back to the doorway, sighing.
"Hopefully it's just one of 'em..."
His mind raced as he tried to come up with a backup plan, in case the imminent encounter didn't go well. Considering the options left to them, the only things he could come up with at the moment were fight, run, and some mix of both.
Nagada was also coming up with fight to run delaying tactics. These things had been bio engineered to kill them, they were not easy to take down. They were fast, a bit stupid, but effective none-the-less. That is if it is one of those creatures. There were other more human-like hybrids who roamed with the nests. They were cunning and intelligent and, they were a fusion of a vampire and some shadowy monstrosity.
As Nagada watched, the dust cloud billowing out from the entrance-way had settled, and all she could hear was her heart beating, and Jason's breathing. She slowly drew her pistol from it's place under her jacket.
She tried to listen for movement.
Silence.
Jason took a silent step forward, deciding that he wasn't keen on waiting for this thing to make its move. He approached the doorway slowly, knife at the ready for the thing he knew was on the other side. The suspense was agonizing, and it only made the slow walk across the room seem that much slower.
He flattened his back to the wall on one side of the door, looking over at Nagada to make sure she was ready to cover him if things got hairy. Finally, after a moment of internal pep talk he turned, glancing sideways into the door.
(Sorry, got caught up in Borderlands.)
Benjii took a step back, not sure what he was staring at. "Is...is that one of them?" He stared at it, not sure how to attack it or how to escape from it. "...I really hope Steph and Kole are far from here...and can't see this."
Infernus, on the other hand, growled at the creature not far from him. Ignoring Benjii's rambling, he ran at the creature, not caring what happens.
Vrix sighted his target as he stepped backwards with his dual Russian-made pistols. Their gun-metal chrome finish reflected the sun light beaming in at them, scattering golden refracted light onto the walls.
It wasn't the creature that he was aiming at, as he took anoth step back, shifting his aim up, and speaking calmly. "Benji, we'll find your wife and son together, I promise you. Right now I need you to 'concentrate'." Vrix emphisized on the last word he'd spoken, he had hoped to draw Benji's attention to his target, but was skeptical.
Where the creature had hit the wall, and had tore away the door-frame, a cracked panel of what ever it was the architech had decided to make the ceilings under each floor out of, hung abover the creature which was now a few meters from it. A dark stone-like surface, almost granite in look but he suspected likely only an asthetic choice, and infact was a much weaker stone judging from the crumbled soot-like dust seeping through it.
He weighed-in the distance as Infernus lept onto action; charging the creature head on, almost, and watched as it reared back further and reacted to Infernus's charge, sweeping a clawed 'hand' (for lack of a better word, for a hand wasn't quite what it was. Certainly not what it was used for in the conventional sense, as the claws swept through the air) in front of itself, intenting to rob the frenzied being of it's head.
Vrix watched it take a large step back for balance, and hoped it would take two more just like that one.
* * *
'Look out!'
* * *
Nagada thought she saw a shadow flitter behind her, and turned quickly, pistol covering her view, but she didn't see anything. There was a soft skittering noise on the desk behind her, so soft in-face she barely heard it over her heart beat, which had now tripled. Her eyes filled with fear as she turned to face the creature behind her, which was an inch from her.
Her mouth was half open to call out but she was too late to shout for Jason, as she saw the attacker. The nimble asian tried to dodge backward from the Stalker's strike, intended to sever her spine. She twisted and bobbed back away from the creature, but not enough as a clawed hand tore a deep bloodied gash across her left arm and side. Nagada managed a half cry as the force of the strike spun her, aiding her twist momentum, and sent her floundering to the floor as she hit the back of her head agains the lip of the desk.
Her vision swam immediately, and she found her body was no longer under her control. She couldn't move anything, couldn't scream, but she could feel the pain in her upper-arm.
A dark shadow filled her vision, which she guessed could only be her assailant leaning over her.
Jason scowled, spinning around at the sound of fighting, horrified at the sight of Nagada falling to the ground. He couldn't charge, it was too far. By the time he got to them the creature would have torn her apart. No, he needed a distraction. He turned and spotted the fire extinguisher, which was now within reach.
He sighed, wishing she had just left him to his nap.
"Hey, *******!" He grabbed the metal cylinder, stepping forward and tossing it across the room as hard as he could, aiming straight for the thing as it leaned over his incapacitated companion.
The Stalker ignored the shout as it almost tenderly traced her neck with the back of it's claw, up Nagada's cheek, to her forehead, studying her, before expertly spinning and smashing the fire extinguisher from the air. It clanged to the ground and the being cackled, as the red gas-cylinder ceased momentum against the desk.
The Stalker's tail flicked the air, and it leaped towards Jacen with ferocious speed.
The 'Stalker' altered it's trajectory very slightly, seeing the attack from Jacen coming. It snuck just under the blade's slice, and it's tail flicked up towards the hand holding the blade, meeting the spinning cut, with a thrust meant to pierce the nerve pathways. Make his hand useless. Almost at the same time the creature reached for Jacens legs, claws primed.
(too late to edit, but I did wonder if you had read what I actually posted, heh)
The man-thing recieved the punch, which had enough force to knock it back. It clearly wasn't happy about this as it regained it's balance, and stood in an almost human fashion. "You... Fight..." it hissed between it's fangs, voice almost snake-like, but the voice had the sound of effort, that maybe it hadn't used it in some time.
It raised it's clawed hands and readied a conventional combat stance (almost amused).
Nagada turned her head slowly, and tried to move but remained slumped against the desk. Her vision which had began to clear fizzed and her world-perception spun. Bile rose in her stomach, and she felt honestly sick at the effort to move. She could make out to shapes of the Stalker and Jacen, at least thats what she hoped they were. She could hear sounds of fighting, but couldn't make much sense of it in her dazed state.
The Stalker began with a side-step, as it thought of various ways to kill Jacen and the girl he seemed to want to protect. How useless, it thought, and in that creepy voice spoke again, seeming to gain more control of speech.
"She will soon be... dead..." indicating the girl with a quaint gesture from its 'hand', cackle-ing almost hoarsely, "and you..." it goaded, "watch as I cut her heart..." it's look hardened "...from her chest..."
At that moment it leapt forward with lightening speed, twice as fast as any Vampire Jacen may have seen, definatly faster than most. It reached straight for Jacen's sword hand with the intent of tearing the sword (and hand along with it if nesessary) from Jacen.
As it reached it also twisted to deliver a powerful kick to his mid-section.
(can ya try to mention how you dodged these attacks before coming back with an attack of your own, this guy is no push over. Also need to know what the sword is made from)
Benjii took his eyes off of the creature and looked at Vrix then looked up. Realization in his eyes, he nodded and turned his attention back onto the creature and Infernus...not sure if the hybrid was going to react in time to the creatures attack.
Infernus stumbled as the voice shouted in his head, unknowingly ducking under the creature's deadly claws and just missing being decapitated. "What the Hell is your problem?!" he shouted as he regained his balance, looking up at the thing, a creature just like the ones in the horde that nearly killed him. " You could have gotten me killed!"
Jason barely even had time to react, throwing as knife as hard as he could at the creature before its kick connected, sending him flying across the room with a loud grunt of pain. He bounced across the floor, coming to a rest against the opposite wall. He coughed, groaning and pulling himself up, trying to ready himself before the stalker could get on him again.
'You were nearly a head, less! If you die...'
* * *
The creature took the fact that Infernus had stopped for a chat as an opening (this guy is fast becoming a brute zombie, need to get back on track with him being the result of a Vampire that has been unwittingly or otherwise, changed), and (to put it into context, this is the bear from Red Dead Redemption, and downstairs they are fighting the couger) it swept forward with it's razor claws cutting the air straight down towards the skitsophrenic (bad spelling sorry) one.
Vrix took one more step back, and flicked the safety off on each pistol. "More will be here soon. This was just a scout."
Schizophrenic...branded with that word for life -.- lol)
Infernus ignored the voice, jumped back but not far enough. The claws sliced down his chest as his back hit a wall. "You stupid *****! I'll kill you!" Infernus lunged at the creature with all his strength, desperate for any kind of advantage.
Benjii looked at Vrix, glaring. "What the Hell are you waiting for? Shoot!"
There was a brief hesitation at Benji's words as Vrix waited for the moment when the Beast lost it's balance. The creature made a wide stance, as it took Infernus's charge, and swiped him away easily enough, but in doing so, took that last fated step backwards.
As the powerful blow sent Infernus's form flying through the stairwell door-way, with a resounding clang as his body ripped through the banister, Vrix fired.
The bullets zipped through the air and exploded against the black stone, shattering it to dust. He continued firing for four more shots, until the entire ceiling began to cave in jush ahead of the half fallen creature.
With a muffled roar, a huge chunk of ceiling collided with it's head, giving it more immediate concerns as it flailed about tring to stop the cave-in, but only aiding in it. Dust and debris filled the hallway, and Vrix slowly lowered his guns, with a half satisfied grimace, leaving a steam trail in the air.
"We had better- Ah!" The entire floor gave a jolt and for a moment Vrix's feet were no longer firmly planted on it. Then he fell, and his feet slipped on the dust now covering the marble, which now had a noticeable slant. As Vrix lost his footing, he dropped the gun in his left hand, and as it skittered off the edge and into the air, he placed the hand out to steady his fall.
"Oh." His expression was partially worried.
(will get back to Nagada and Jacen within the next post or so, soon as this one is ahead and gives me more to work with.)
Without thinking, Benjii grabbed Vrix's hand at the same time trying to find something to grab on to with his other hand. ""I take it you didn't think this plan through!" His hand landed on a loose piece of the wall. Grabbing it, the piece gave way, causing Benjii to lose his balance and be pulled by Vrix's weight. "**** today...**** it up the ass!"
Infernus coughed as he slowly stood up, dust falling around him. "I hate those ****ing things. I'll kill each and every one of them!" He looked around at the rubble that surrounded him. "...as soon as I find a way out of this mess."