Home › Discussions › General Discussion › My best campaign ever.... - General Discussion Discussions on Obsidian Portal Community Forums
Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Comments
CONTINUATION...
D.B. had been living in Poseidon for three years as a part of his mission to infiltrate the mega-corperate structure of Poseidon (currently ranked second in the world behind R.N.C. but one step above Liandri) . A.S.P. had been trying to consolidate corperate power across the globe against the growing influence of the EU/SHIELD. Stevenson's goal was to merge the might of Lin-Keui, TRIADE and Liandi/Genom under the A.S.P. banner. Gary's organization was already in control of the Federalist Americas but the Free Oil States/Southern Protectorate remained a thorn in his side. Stormfront was all that stood between The Black Asp and total domination of the (fragmenting) North America Union. Since enlisting with A.S.P. in KC-1, D.B. Only became Stevenson's right hand in the year that followed, a job he undertook with great relish under the code name "Viper".
Vipers are a fanatically loyal corps of "super-soldier serum" (improved Religex derivative) altered commandos. Numbering a little under 500 the Viper Corps represent A.S.P.'s best of the best. Only 1 in every 1000 A.S.P. Troopers ever complete Viper Training and of those numbers, 1 in 20 are killed by the Super-Soldier Serum. Only is unique in that he never recieved the serum but was instead going through Boomeroid augmentation proceedures that would ultimately turn the embittered D.B. into an unstoppable juggernaut. A.S.P. was able to insert Kano into the Lin-Keui organization by staging an assassination attempt on the mega-corperate CEO which he single-handedly stopped. The Vipers used to carry out the operation had no idea Kano would turn against them and murder them in the bid to stop the abduction. During his time there he adapted to a different way of life and even took Akira's only child as his wife but his time in the East makes D.B. question (as can be common for deep-deep-deep undercover agents) if Stevenson is really the "master" he should be serving...
Greg: "Oh?"
Phil: "Sounds more like A.D.H.D. to me."
Mike: "D.B. will go back to normal as soon as he stops eating Lucky Charms."
GM: "Sugar is a killer."
Greg: "Huh?"
GM: "Sugar is to cancer as spinach is to Popeye."
Greg: "The fried chicken people?"
GM: "Oh, nevermind."
It was no suprise to D.B./Kano that Mee-Chan was holed up in some dingy back-alley dive. In his time with the Wardogs, a place like this would have been ranked "four star" but after living a much better quality of life under A.S.P. & Lin-Keui for the last half decade, he found himself resenting the poor huddled masses. Whenever he saw them, he was reminded of his own terrible experiences on Autodeul and they served as a constant nagging reminder that his inevitable betrayal of Lin-Keui might see him returned to such squallor once more if he failed in his mission for Stevenson. Knowledge's arrival in Poseidon was as unexpected as it was unwelcomed. D.B., knowing full well that Mee-Chan is Nimbus, fears that Stormfront may be onto his plans and that the last three years of his life will have been spent in vain if North upsets the applecart. While it's true D.B. is just aching for a chance to even the score with Knowledge, it couldn't have happened at a worse time. Kano refuses to believe North's arrival is simply by coinsedence and he establishes contact with The Black Asp for the purpose of recieving new instructions. Gary however has it on "good authority" that Stormfront is about to be eliminated once and for all and advises his operative to LET NORTH GO!
Greg: "WHAT!?!"
GM: "Ssssshhhh...Piotr Arumov, remember?"
Greg: "Screw THAT! I'm kicking down the door and blasting him out of his socks!"
Kano does not see it that way however. He knows North is poison to the A.S.P. plans and decides to ignore Stevenson's orders to let Knowledge be.
TO BE CONTINUED...
-Peace-
CONTINUATION...
GM: "I will only ask you this once: BOTH of your "employers" need North alive and have ordered you to leave him be...but you're gonna ignore 'em and try to kill your nemisis anyways?"
Greg: "That is correct."
(Mike & Phil just stare at Greg in disbelief.)
GM: "Alright then..."
Mike: "Have you given any though to what might happen if you screw this assassination attempt up?"
Greg: "Attempt?"
Mike: "Yes, as in "might not succeed"...hence an indefinite outcome or in otherwords: attempt."
Greg: "F'k no, I kill him TODAY...I have waited LONG enough! He doesn't know I'm coming to kill him and I'm NOT taking him alone...I recruit the assistance of my wife and the Tsurimatsuo loyal to her."
GM: "You evil b@stard."
Greg: "Try and stop me."
GM: "I wouldn't dream of it..."
Mike: "Why aren't you stopping him?"
GM: "That's YOUR job...not mine."
(The GM passes a note to Phil.)
(Phil tries not to laugh and shows it to Mike.)
(Both Mike & Phil smile at each other and nod at the GM.)
Greg: "What th' f'k was THAT?!"
Kano had managed to-
Greg: "A-ahem..."
(GM sighs.)
D.B. Only had managed to recruit the assistance of Tsugi. She would distract her father and retask the Lin-Keui surveillance team assigned to shadow D.B. so he could operate independantly of Akira but regretfully could not accompany him in the caper-
Greg: "Hey?!"
She would serve as his alibi and in her place would send Sub-Zero, Scorpion and a cadre of her most loyal Tsurimatsuo assassins to ensure the Jumper's death...
Greg: "That's BETTER!"
Scorpion took half the Cadre and set up outside the hotel ready to ambush anything that escaped the building or even anyone who so much as walked down the street or opened a window. The other half of the Cadre (lead by D.B. & Sub-Zero) would inflitrate the hotel's lobby and then work their way up floor by floor, silently killing anything that still moving until finally reaching Mee-Chan's unit. No one but Tsurimatsuo would be allowed to leave the building alive.
Greg: "Now THAT'S what I'm talkin' about."
The Golden Swallow hotel was already known to Lin-Keui as a TRIADE front for a corperate espionage operation that spied upon Akira and so they predicted there would be stiff resistance from it's defenders. To limit casualties and risk of discovery, D.B. chose a typical method of A.S.P. dispatch. They would access the buildings environmental controls and deploy RL-D nerve gas through the buildings ventillation system that will kill anything in comes into contact with but oxidizes within 10 minutes of deployment.
Phil: "Overkill much?"
To disguise the OBVIOUS Tsurimatsuo Gi, the Elites all wore "sterlized" A.S.P. Viper Fatigues in addition to arming themselves in a fashion appropriate to that assault element. All but Scorpion and Sub-Zero who wore similar "beggars" disguises and cloaks over their normal battle armor and weaponry.
Mee-Chan wouldn't stand a chance.
TO BE CONTINUED...
-Peace-
CONTINUATION...
Greg: "You seem aweful calm for a player about to lose his character."
Phil: "Am I?"
GM: "Could go either way."
Greg: "What are you talking about? I have the place surrounded. 25 ninja wait to kill anything that leaves...25 more ready to kill anything that moves. Phil, on the other hand, has some overweight hacker. It's a slam dunk."
GM: "How will the ground team move in?"
Greg: "Okay...I'll order the 25 Tsurimatsuo with me to storm the lobby while I sneak upstairs with Sub-Zero. We'll put on our masks...wait for the gas to disperse and shoot whatever happens to be left."
GM: "But you're ninjas...shouldn't you infiltrate?"
Greg: "No more tip-toeing, it's time for some serious shock & awe!"
GM: "You're the boss. Will you preceed the attack or follow it?"
Greg: "I'll walk in before the attack with Sub-Zero and if the desk clerk gives me any lip...I'm gonna blast him."
The Golden Swallow's lobby area is nearly empty. A few vagrants and homeless sit clustered outside the entrance, huddling around a fire they have lit in an empty oil drum. The interior of the lobby isn't much better. The desk clerk seems preoccupied with trying to get decent TV reception while a pair of guests (or other transient) sits unconcious in lobby lounge chair. As one of them snores loudly, a small child picks his pocket and takes off out the front door before the desk clerk can react. He is about to give chase when he takes notice of D.B. & Sub-Zero.
Desk Clerk: "Can I help you?"
Greg: "Close enough..."
D.B. pulls out a silenced pistol and plugs the desk clerk in the face before wheeling on the two individuals in the lobbies lounge, shooting both in the chest with double-taps to the sternum before exhaling a deep sigh of relief. He looks at the program the clerk had been watching and scowls upon seeing Pokemon Classics. D.B. shoots the monitor.
D.B.: "Three targets down...lobbies good to go. Clear the streets and send in the clowns."
Upon his command, Viper disguised Tsurimatsuo teams begin to eliminate anything in sight, starting with the crowd of homeless people huddling outside the front of the Golden Swallow. D.B. is too callous to watch but clearly visible behind him, through the entrances frosted glass windows and doors is a brief frenzy of silenced gunfire and bloody splatter. Within a minute, nothing moves around the hotel for an entire city block. Moments later commando-clad ninjas begin to fan out from a group of armored Arisaka Type-98 transport trucks which roll to a stop in front of the hotel. Four six-man teams disembark and move into the Swallow while VERY recently placed "contruction barriers" bar traffic patterns from straying too close to the scene of the crime.
Greg: "Formidable defences my @$$! Okay so I take the elevator up to his floor and wait for my cue to don my gas mask. I'll go up with my "Hush Puppy" out but the moment I get to Phil's floor, I am pulling out my triple barrel for door breach. I'll take out both hinges and the handle...Zero will lead the charge. I want him to prepare something nasty. Like covering the rooms walls, floor and cieling with jagged icicles. OH...and I want Zero to disable the elevator controls and the emergency stairs door."
GM: "It's called "Winter Thorns. You won't be able to fill the room fast enough to make it instantaneous but you COULD chase them into a corner with it."
Greg: "Good enough....WHAT'S so funny?"
The Viper Cadre swept in to discover Sub-Zero and D.B. had already taken the lift to the targets floor. There was some initial confusion as upon arriving when the Tsurimatsuo Vipers only found two corpses in the lobby...not three as initially reported.
Greg: "what? What?! WHAAAT!?!?!"
TO BE CONTINUED...
-Peace-
CONTINUATION...
The six-man teams split up across the first twenty four floors, one per floor to caution any residents or guests to remain in their rooms while the 25th went to the environmental controls. The Viper who remained in the lobby had just dragged the two bodies out of sight and was just about to contact D.B. regarding the body count discrepancy when he heard the sound of a bottle rolling upon the floor. The Tsurimatsuo turned quickly towards the souce and leveled his silenced H&K MP-10 to see an empty beer bottle rolling straight towards his feet. Lifting a foot, he stopped the bottles motion, trapping it under his sole returning the lobby once more to relative silence.
The Viper determines the bottles apparent trajectory indicates it could only have been pushed from behind a nearby set of support pillars that ressemble large Buddhas. The Tsurimatsuo reacts by opening fire through both supports, emptying his magazine in the process. The assassin flawlessly transitions to his sidearm (leaving his smg to dangle by it's strap) while moving up to the pillars to confirm the kill but discovers he missed. He spins around as fast as he can but fails to do so in time to prevent being decapitated by the missing "vagrant" expertly wielding a chinese broadsword. The attack comes so fast and furious that the Viper is decapitated, has his weapon hand severed AND suffered a disemboweling strike so that as his hand and knees hit the ground, not only does his head bounce from his shoulders but his abdomenal cavity pops open, flushing the floor between his knees in a nightmarish symphony of gore.
Greg: "WHAT-THE-F'K!?!"
The sword-wielding "vagrant" immediately sprints down the hall in persuit of the Viper on his way to the hotel's environmental core.
Greg: "WHO-THE-F'K-WAS-THAT?!?"
GM: "You have NO idea...your man was suprised and he didn't get a chance to see who it was before he had a little taken off the top."
Greg: "But I shot him TWICE?!"
GM: "Ain't modern body armor grand? Now, if you'd shot him in the head OR with a rifle we wouldn't be having this conversation right now..."
Greg: "So my guy on the second floor MUSTA heard the shots?!"
GM: "Silenced weapon of fine quality."
Greg: "FFFFFFFFFF'KKKKK!!! How soon till I realize he's down."
GM: "Depends."
Greg: "On?"
GM: "If you don't recieve a message to put your mask on in another minute..."
Greg: "Heheheh-hehhehehehhhh...ya f'ked me AGAIN didn't ya?"
Mike: "No...I'm pretty sure you did it to yourself."
Phil: "He DID caution that ninja's are for stealthy infiltration...but you hadda wade in guns blazing without checking anything out first."
Greg: "F'K!!!"
D.B.: "Sound off."
Enviromental Viper: "Have reached the target...priming the RL-D canister...put on the masks now."
TO BE CONTINUED...
-Peace-
CONTINUATION...
The door to the control booth opened with hardly a sound behind the Tsurimatsuo Viper but when Steel Feather emerges into the darkened room, the ninja is nowhere to be seen...
Phil: "He HEARD me...but I succeeded by eight?"
GM: "The ninja succeeded by twelve...victory by four in his favor."
Greg: "Suck it!"
His attention was immediately drawn to the RL-D canister connected to the central air. RL-D is binary in nature and can only be delivered in aerosol form. Once the enviro-controls have "primed" the currently liquid components, they will begin to disperse throughout the building, killing everyone without protection. The systems status metre reads: 12% and dispersal would begin in less than 30 seconds!
Steel Feather begins to walk towards the console when from the shadows, comes the whine of sonic shuriken as a cluster of three arc towards the Shaolin...
Greg: "Shaolin!?! AWE, F'K ME!!!"
(Phil & Mike begin to laugh out loud.)
Greg: "THAT'S what was on the note, wasn't it?"
Phil, Mike & GM: "Nope."
Greg: "Awe, sonnova-"
Steel Feather not only detects all three coming but is able to knock from the air, the only two in danger of striking him, as he spins acrobatically causing his cloak to billow and obscure him from the Tsurimatsuo's sight. The Viper one-hands his laser pulse rifle and unleashes a wild burst at the spinning monk. The burst of light decimates the whirling mass into flaming smokey shreds of cloak...but as the remains settle...there's no dead monk among them.
The Ninja hides between a series of modular shelving that are laden with cleaning products. Steel Feather charges into the side of the shelf closest to him (after acrobatically escaping the laser carbine burst by the slimest of margins) causing a domino effect to take place which forces the ninja from his spot. He steadies his weapon with both hands as he vaults out from between the stacks of falling cleaning products and sprays in the direction on the incidents origin. Keeping pace beside him as laserfire ignites the more flammable cleaning products in the bursts wake, Steel Feather emerges and throws a micro-disruptor charge at the Vipers feet. It detonates releasing localized but very powerful EMP pulse that temporarily k.o.'s any electrical equipment within two yards. The ninja's laser carbine sputtered and failed.
Greg: "D@MNIT!!!"
Steel Feather then acrobatically flipped into a strong spinning kick at the ninja which sent him into the enviro panel behind him, halting the RL-D countdown. The ninja spun (removing his carbine) throwing it at the Shaolin and drawing his combat knife which he twirls skillfully to allow him to use the weapons butt to resume the RL-D countdown. Steel Feather lands a second kick and once more pushes the viper into the control panel halting the countdown again. The ninja responds by contecting with a push kick that puts come distance between himself and the Shaolin which he takes advantage of by restarting the RL-D countdown and launching into a flying knife lunge for the monks face. Steel Feather executes a flawless four-swing rapid strike combo that literally cuts the ninja to pieces.
Greg: "AAAAUUUUGGGGGHHH!!!"
The ten minutes had almost transpired. D.B. was ready to storm North's room when a call came over the link:
Nameless Viper#5: "Sir, this is the level thirteen sentry....I have lost contact with levels one and tw-"
The transmission abruptly terminated. D.B. couldn't be certain but swore he had heard the man scream out as the signal ended. Kano was about to order Zero to storm the room while they still had the element of suprise on their side but the Tsurimatsuo suddenly gestured for Only to be silent. He looked towards the emergency stairs as the door was kicked in with a single powerful blow even though it was sealed by a thick sheet of ice.
Yu-Lung: "You hear something?"
Greg: "!!!!!!!!"
Emerging from the shattered doorway-
Greg: "Steel Feather...yeah, yeah...we got it."
As I was saying: Emerging from the shattered doorway was none other than Li-Li Kat...
Greg: "FFFFFFFFFF'KKKKKKKKK!!!"
Phil: "THAT'S what was on the note he had wrote!"
D.B.: "Take care of her...I'll make sure North is dead!"
Yu-Lung: "No, I DEFINITELY heard something that time-"
TO BE CONTINUED...
-Peace-
CONTINUATION...
NIMBUS vs KANO:
(Cue John Williams - Deul of Fates music...)
North kicked the front legs out from Yu-Lung's chair causing the SYSOP to fall to the ground when D.B. shot out the doors hinges & handle before booting it in, walking into the room and using his laser carbine to cut the living unit in half as he advances. Knowledge's action saves Yu's life.
The room was small. Beside the units door was the bathroom and on the other side of the hall was a small closet. After a 2 yard hall of sorts, it opens into the actual room. D.B. fired into both closet and bathroom as he advanced. The laser carbine is powerful enough, that as D.B. walks towards the main room (firing into the bathroom) his shots are passing through both bathroom interior walls and shredding the rest of the hotel room as they do. By the time D.B. is about to round the corner into the room, almost everything above the waist is either burnt or on fire. After saving Yu's life and rolling off a chair himself, Knowledge pulls out "Samantha" and begins to shoot blind through the bathroom wall on a reverse trajectory to the incoming laser fire....
Greg: "GODD@MNIT!!!"
Kano had entered the room guns ablaze but JUST as he is about to round the corner the .660NE goes off and tears a disproportionatly large section of wall with it (when compared to D.B.'s little laser holes) and sprays him in debris. He halts his advance and flinches. A second hole tears through the wall even closer causing him to begin to backpedal out of the room, frantically spraying as he goes. A third and fourth round bark out, effectively chasing D.B. from the room entirely despite that "Samatha" is easily capable on penetrating twice the amount of intervening cover. Both fighters paused to reload.
TO BE CONTINUED...
-Peace-
CONTINUATION...
Phil: "Vests are optional kiddies!"
Greg: "Shaddup and roll."
Only hunched down for cover as he sat outside the doorway to the unit while swapping out his carbines powercell...
D.B.: "When the he77 did you get THAT monster?!"
North: "Stick your head out and I'll tell ya!"
Knowledge and Yu-Lung were trapped in the unit. His first thought was to escape out the window but D.B.'s attack has set the room on fire. Smoke was billowing from the multitudes of laser hits and the rooms curtains had burnt up in the initial seconds of Only's onslaught. Through the smoke of the dimly lit room arc'd targeting lasers from the Vipers in position outside the building. North gestured for Yu to stay put as he made his way towards edge of the rooms "entrance hall". Kano stops playing around and prepares a fragmentary grenade while further down the hall, Sub-Zero squared off against Li-Li. North rolls out from cover just as D.B. emerges from cover with his grenade. BOTH fail fear checks and freeze up!
D.B.: "I've GOT ya "dead bang" and you KNOW it!"
North opens fire and hits D.B.'s prosthetic arm. The .660 Nitro-Express round tears through the Dark Jumper's bicep, causing him to fumble the grenade as he whirls out of view. North does not know this and rises to give chase. Only "loses it" and instead, flees INTO North's room to escape the blast. They both fire wild, each charging towards the other before colliding in the "entrance hallway" and falling to the ground. The grenade goes off shredding both sides of the corridor with lethal shrapnel. North vaults to his feet in front of the window as the kneeling D.B. "Rambo's" his carbine. Mee-Chan acrobatically cartwheels out of sight but not before a Viper Sniper almost accidently shoot D.B., prematurely ending his attack. In a rare feat of courage, Yu-Lung uses the portable cyberdeck to unsucessfully knock the rifle from D.B.'s hand. Only aims at the SYSOP:
Kano: "Is that all you've got?"
D.B. pulls the trigger and discovers Yu's attack successfully disabled his pulse carbine when it shorts out in a burst of sparks. Without the arm brace for "Samantha" North's arm is killing him but his hatred for D.B. runs strong so he takes aim at the Dark Jumper as he shoulder rolls for cover, missing him by only the most narrow of margins. He almost persues him but another series of shots through the window convinces him otherwise.
D.B.: "Don't this bring back memories?!"
Yu-Lung: "Does he ALWAYS talk this much?"
North fires another round through the wall and misses hitting Only's bags by a hair.
D.B.: "WHERE CAN I GET A GUN LIKE THAT!?!"
North: "You want it? Come get it!"
D.B.: "C'MON now...ADMIT IT...THIS is how it's supposed to be between us! THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE!!"
Knowledge fires another .660NE round off through the wall but still misses his intended target. D.B. responds by firing back through the wall with his silenced pistol. Yu is barely able to get out of the way. Kano reloads his SOCOM but North only has ONE shot left and the Lorcin is by the bathroom sink.
(In other words, nowhere near him.)
D.B.: "YOU AIN'T GETTING OUTTA THE ROOM ALIVE THIS TIME BUDDY!"
North rolls his cylinder back one chambre before cocking back the hammer and screaming out:
North: "EAT THIS!!!"
"Samantha" dry fires. Only hearing this decides to take advantage of the situation by ending the stalemate once and for all...
FINISH HIM!!!
Kano round the corners with his "Hush Puppy" and is instants from having his vengence when Knowledge, whose gun ISN'T empty (but IS now!), shoots a fire extinguisher directly behind the Dark Jumper's feet as he exposed himself to shoot. The resulting explosion sends D.B. flying into the units "spidered" window to hang unconcious as he lies frosted white from the compressed extinguisher foam. Before passing out...Kano is certain he hears the sound of a children's calliope playing on the television next door...
BABALITY!!!
(Greg throws the dice across the room.)
GM: "You're STILL alive...just K.O.'d...but unless someone checks your vitals, you look pretty dead hanging out of that window."
Greg: "You tricky motherfu-"
Phil: "Sorry dude...but you FELL for it without even rolling perception for the number of shots fired."
Mike: "The old "gun isn't really empty" trick...rarely am I in the presance of greatness."
(Phil takes a bow.)
But the Showdown at Golden Swallow wasn't over yet!
TO BE CONTINUED...
-Peace-
CONTINUATION...
The Golden Swallow has the basic overhead shape of a letter "T" with a very short vertical axis. That vertical axis holds the buildings two elevators with the emergency stairs spiraling around them the length of the structure. The horizontal portion of the "T" is the singular hall that all the living units are accessed by and just opposite the elevators is the buildings waste disposal closet. Li-Li stood at the mid-way of the hall while Sub-Zero stood 10 yards away, chilling the air around him so drastically that fire sprinklers overhead trigger and freeze in mid-spray as he walks by.
LI-LI KAT vs SUB-ZERO:
Li-Li draws her broadsword and rests the tip casually upon the carpeted hall behind her. Sub-Zero performs a kata that seems to increase the aura of cold he emits and ends the martial stance by kneeling and slamming his fist into the floor. The ground freezes instantly under his touch and begins to blossom with "Winter Thorns" that stretch rapidly up the hall towards the Shaolin. Li-Li charges straight towards the icy obstacle dragging her sword, which splits the carpet in her wake, and just as it seems she will reach the ice and become impaled, she impossibly begins to run on the walls instead of the floor without breaking stride or losing speed. Zero, seeing Li-Li is almost upon him, springs to his feet and draws his katana while acrobatically vaulting away from the Shaolins opening series of alternating butterfly strikes. The Tsurimatsuo stops giving ground as Li-Li vaults from the wall and lands a jump kick to Sub-Zero's torso only to discover she has struck and pulverized an ice simulacrum of Sub-Zero and not the Real McCoy.
SUCKER!!!
Passing through the ice coating on the floor like "quick silver", Sub-Zero suddenly springs forth and lands an uppercut that takes Li-Li off her feet, sliding her through icicles into the nearby wall.
Greg: "YES!!!"
Mike: "..."
Zero "skates" towards the Shaolin and unleashes a flurry of icicles which tear through the hall like an ice assault rifle but the nimble Li-Li kicks off from the wall she struck, sliding as she evades the incoming ice spike salvo while recovering her fallen sword in the process. She reaches the far side of the hall and is not only on her knees but had managed to parry the last of the incoming projectiles with her feather sword. Seemingly about to slide right into Li-Li, Zero acrobatically vaults over her in an attempt to Evade the Shaolin, creating and destroying another sprinkler "tree" that showers down on the dimunitive monk. Before the ninja can swing his sword, the Shaolin kicks one of the falling icicles out of mid-air and sends it into Sub-Zero's left eye. While the attack was enough to permanantly blind the Tsurimatsuo, the ice spike lacked the integrity to pierce the skull. Sub-Zero is temporarily stunned and attempting to reel away from danger when Li-Li's killing blow is blocked at the last moment by a resident who emerges into the hall to see what all the comotion is about, causing her feather sword to become stuck in the opening door. Zero seizes the moment and swings his own katana at Li-Li's trapped Feather Sword, shattering it in the process. Li-Li pushes the resident back into his unit and then kicks the door straight off it's hinges right onto Sub-Zero. He is not injured but becomes startled enough to drop his OWN katana and have it covered by the fallen door.
To BE CONTINUED...
-Peace-
CONTINUATION...
Before Sub-Zero can react, Li-Li leaps at her foe, perfectly executing "Liu Kang's Bicycle Kick Technique" and sending the Tsurimatsuo Legend crashing to the ground. The Shaolin vaults towards her foe to land a strong stamp kick but upon reaching her target, shatters yet another "ice simulacrum" instead of the true assassin in the flesh. To avoid counterattack, Li-Li begins to acrobatically retreat down the hallway, vaulting from floor to wall to ceiling as she goes. Sub-Zero rises from the closest ice sheet to the Shaolin and pulled out a handful of sonic shuriken but before he can suprise Li-Li, D.B.'s fumbled grenade goes off-
Greg: "F'K YOU, F'K YOU, FFFFFFF'KKKKK!!!"
-and the resulting explosion takes the Tsurimatsuo off his feet. This time, Zero does not "spring" to his feet as he had before (slowed by his wounds) and the Tsurimatsuo has barely risen by the time Li-Li is on him. The Shaolin advances upon Sub-Zero with alternating "can-can" style kicks to the jaw and manages to connect with three before her combo is broken. They don't cause a lot of injury to the ninja but look REALLY cool in the execution.
Zero, still holding Li-Li's leg from his last "combo-breaker", has the Shaolin use him as a stepping stone before flipping over the ninja and landing behind him but the Tsurimatsuo manages to connect with a perfectly executed back kick to Li-Li Kat's kidneys which bowl the monk over and send her sliding into more icicles. Sub-Zero, sensing Kat will not last much longer, creates a katana made out of ice and brandishes it menacingly at the monk. He closes for the kill on Li-Li when the monk thrusts her arm at the ninja, causing a weighted chain to shoot out from her sleeve towards his weapon which entangles the ice sword and prevented it's use. Sub-Zero bent both his arms and began to make an alternating swimming motion which had the effect of wrapping the chain around his elbows while gradually pulling Li-Li Kat towards the tip of his sword.
(Y'know...Wolverine-style.)
The two titans strained...Zero to pull Li-Li in and Li-Li to hold her footing against Sub-Zero's superior strength.
Sub-Zero: "You fight as you might but you'll NEVER get away."
Li-Li: "Who ever said I wanted to get away?"
Greg: "!?!?!?!"
Li-Li Kat stops resisting and launches herself towards Sub-Zero (using his strength for added momentum) but as she slides towards the Tsurimatsuo, she manages to lasso the chain around the ninja's throat (coinsedently preventing her impalement) before hitting the deck and sliding between his legs on the ice sheet HE created, with chain in hand. Her rapid pass between his legs (with arms almost immobilized by chain from pulling her in) had the effect of yanking the unsuspecting Sub-Zero's skull straight down into his OWN ice sheet (cracking his head) at high velocity and sweeping him off his feet...
Greg: "NNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"
Li-Li vaults over Sub-Zero and manages to lasso his neck again in the process. Landing behind the Tsurimatsuo, she begins to garrote the Hand of Legend using her knee on the back of his neck as added leverage and in his weakened state, Sub-Zero is unable to resist...
FINISH HIM!!!
The resident Li-Li Kat had saved was a dog lover who had spent a small fortune for the licencing and ownership of his beloved pets...a pair of cloned Pit Bulls. After swinging Sub-Zero (by his throat) into the wall face first a few times (damaging the wall with his ugly mug...HEY, LOOK...SNOW ANGELS!!!), she spins the Tsurimatsuo around 480 degress before releasing the ninja face first into the residents apartment. He slid to a stop at the feet of the pair of genetically enchanced canines and looked up as the beasts bared their teeth before tearing the ninja's face and throat to pieces.
ANIMALITY!!!
EXCELLENT!!!
TO BE CONTINUED...
-Peace-
CONTINUATION...
Mee-Chan could hear the "Mortal Kombat" going on in the hallway outside his unit and was about to move to retrieve his Lorcin from the bathroom when he heard Kano groan and begin to stir. Tossing "Samantha" to the bed, he spun and grabbed the helpless Dark Jumper from behind by his shoulders as he dangled out the window. The appearance of a trio of green laser dots on his chest chased him to cover before a series of Dragunov SVD rounds tear into the room separating North from his quarry...
Greg: "YES!!!"
As he catches his breath beside the window as glass explodes from the shattered pane with each new incoming round. He is starting to tug at D.B. when his nemisis is grabbed from the other side of the window, to his suprise. Yu cries out startled at the occurance:
Yu-Lung: "There's someone on the fire escape!!"
Greg: "YESSS!!! C'MON GUYS...SAVE MY @$$!!"
Phil: "No WAY you live!"
Knowledge attempts to get a better grip on D.B. but is chased back to cover by incoming fire when a sudden tug pulls the Dark Jumper from his grasp and out the window. In the final moments before D.B. is yanked from sight, Knowledge is positive the "beggar" outside the window is wearing Scorpion's battle armor...
Greg: "YEESSSSS!!! F'K YOU...AND F'K YOU TOO SIR...F'K YOU BOTH!!! YES!!!"
Phil: "Awe, sh1t!"
North springs past the window as a salvo of riflefire tears the window sill to pieces. North takes a nearby wooden table and hoists it up looking at Yu-Lung:
North: "When I get this in front of the window, I want you to get out of this room as fast as you can...don't look back...just keep going!"
Yu-Lung: "What are you going to do?"
North: "Gonna try and buy you some time....GO!!!"
Using all his strength the Jumper jams the wooden table in the shredded window by leaning it against a shelf that lies just under the windows edge, blocking the snipers line of sight into the room. No sooner as he placed it there when round after round is pumped through the makeshift barrier by the Tsurimatsuo Vipers outside. Yu-Lung yells and runs as fast as his pudgy legs can carry him as Russian 7.62mm Nagant rounds begin to tear the "entrance hallway" apart. Mee-Chan sinks down out of sight under the window sill but STILL (like a complete madman) manages to hold the table in place with both hands without losing any fingers!
TO BE CONTINUED...
-Peace-
CONTINUATION...
NIMBUS vs SCORPION: ROUND III
Yu-Lung JUST clears the room when the table is kicked in by Scorpion. As it falls, it narrowly avoids hitting the jumper as he cowered under the window, but having dropped has now completely hidden North from view. Scorpion vaults into the burning room and looks for survivors. He hears the combat in the hall and moves to investigate when Knowledge rises up with heavy wooden table as a shield and slams into the Tsurimatsuo Legend with all his might, bowling him over with the ferocity of his attack. North tries to scramble from off the door, grabbing "Samantha" as he goes but Scorpion uses his suits superior strength to launch the door off of his back, sending the Jumper through the damaged (and still burning) bathroom wall, crashing through the mirror and rolling off the counter to the tiled floor, covered in scorched and burning faux-wood. Knowledge's vision began to clear as Scorpion tore the bathroom door off it's hinges. Just out of reach was the Lorcin lying on the floor. The Tsurimatsuo Legend grabbed the Jumper by the foot as he scrambled for the pistol...
GET OVER HERE!!!
Scorpion dragged the Jumper with a single tug that saw him slide to Scorpion's feet on his stomach only to be hoisted up, turned over and slammed into the floor by Scorpion with a single-hand...but when North is turned over he immediately opened fire with the Lorcin on the Ninja Legend at point blank range. The first shot clips Scorpy's face protector and knocks it off stunning him. Taking advantage of the moment he empties the clip into the Tsurimatsuo Legend. Scorpion staggers backwards under the withering barrage of fire, finally pushed back out the doorway of the bathroom into the "entrance hall" when the pistol runs dry.
Phil: "Awe...no, this isn't gonna be good."
Scorpion draws his Katana and is about to charge at North when the sound of a second sword being unsheathed makes the Tsurimatsuo freeze in his tracks. He turns his head and standing in the doorway is the equally legendary Steel Feather.
Mike: "Okay...let's party."
Greg: "WHERE ARE MY TROOPS?!"
GM: "Dude...your ninja are 250 point heroic level assassins. Steel Feathers is a full-fledged 750 point swordmaster cinematic legend bordering on "minor god-hood". Just how much of a fight do you think they can put up against that when confronting him ONE AT A TIME?"
Greg: "What about the half Cadre staking out the hotel?"
GM: "One six-man team is ensuring D.B. gets medivac'd in an Arisaka, the remaining 18 are spread out over the immediate city block surrounding the Golden Swallow."
Greg: "18 Elites and Scorpion against Steel Feathers, Li-Li Kat and Mee-Chan?"
GM: "No...the 18 Elites are still OUTSIDE...Scorpion is INSIDE...so, it's more like 3 vs 1."
Greg: "D@MNIT, D@MNIT, D@MNIT ALL!!! Is D.B. conscious?"
GM: "Yes."
Greg: "Awesome, I order all Tsurimatsuo to withdraw immediately and return to the dojo for further instructions."
Realizing he is outnumbered and possibly surrounded, Scorpion detonates smoke charges which obscures his escape through the window he first entered through just as Mee-chan finally locates his last magazine and reloads it too late to blast the Tsurimatsuo. North emerges and sees Steel Feathers, almost shooting him in the process but the sticky situation is avoided when Li-Li and Yu-Lung emerge and convince the Jumper that perhaps it's time to leave. Before departing the room, North retrieves "Samantha".
Greg: "HA!"
Phil: "What "ha"? We kicked your @$$."
Greg: "But ya just can't kill me!"
Mike: "What now?"
GM: "I think it might be time to turn up the heat on Tsugi as without her...this latest botched attempt is going to have serious reprocussions for D.B."
TO BE CONTINUED...
-Peace-
CONTINUATION...
The Golden Swallow's fire alarms had already sounded and residents were beginning to pour into the hallways of the hotel as the Shaolin prevented the Jumper from leaving his burning room. The remaining sprinkers on the level did their best to quench the flames.
Li-Li & Mee-Chan: "YOU!?!"
Li-Li: "I should have known."
Kat shoved Yu-Lung at the Jumper:
Li-Li: "Who is this one?"
Yu-Lung: "Y'know, for a monk...you've got some serious issues."
Kat shot the SYSOP a intimidating stare which silenced Yu and cowed the A.R.F. leader into looking at his feet.
North: "He's with me but he was just leaving, WEREN'T you?"
Yu-Lung: "I gotta feed my birds."
Li-Li: "You have failed your mission!"
North: "Nothing has failed."
Steel Feather: "But Lin-Keui wants you dead...how is that not failure?"
North: "Lin-Keui is in the middle of a power struggle. Akira wants to rule the world...or one just like it. Tsugi just wants Akira to die. She's disobeying his direct commands and is determined to take my life. She knows the best way to hurt Akira is to deny him access to "Looking Glass"."
Li-Li: "They took great risk to attack you on TRIADE property."
North: "Did any of your people manage to find their leader? A gaijin mercenary...they took him out the window?"
Steel Feather: "All invaders on the lower floors have been neutralized."
North: "I just SAID he went out the window!"
Steel Feather doesn't appreciate the tone the Jumper has struck and moves his hand towards his sword but Li-Li prevents her companion from becoming menacing...
Li-Li: "We must alert Uncle Odd."
Knowledge thanks the A.R.F. SYSOP for his assistance and mentions he will probably see him again soon, cautioning the monks that Yu is not to be harrassed. Yu replies:
"Not TOO soon I hope."
TO BE CONTINUED...
-Peace-
CONTINUATION...
Stevenson already suspected that D.B. might become compromised. He knew Viper's hatred for Mee-Chan rivaled his own but Only displayed much poorer impulse control than Black Asp. He knew he couldn't rely on Viper alone to complete his mission. To alleviate his concerns, Brax Milton...(Inferfist CEO)...was sent to Poseidon following D.B.'s astounding failure at the Golden Swallow. Gary had always believed North to be little more than a thug in powered armor but after witnessing Viper's vid-feeds, he began to realize that D.B. could have possibly been correct in his assumption concerning Stormfront's involvement in Poseidon. Brax Milton would arrive shortly to ensure that the Black Asp's plan gets followed to the letter.
Brax (while never in the limelight) has been in the background of all A.S.P. operations since the KC-1 Rogue. Stormfront knows the name of Brax Milton and has identified him as an A.S.P. sympathizer but had lacked the resources to pursue even the most promising of leads concerning Interfist operations and the A.S.P. organization. Cyclone holds particular disdain for Milton and was the only team member who ever came close to capturing him. Perhaps, she would finally get another chance. Brax was not a field agent but it had been Milton's long held opinion that any operation involving Viper invariably turns out messy and he wasn't looking forward to teaming up with D.B. despite past successful collaborations. He would land at Hokaido International in five hours.
Mee-Chan was brought before Odd Kat by his neice. The Jumper waited outside Odd's weapon decorated boardroom as the TRIADE overboss yelled at Li-Li & Steel Feather. He hadn't been truely upset at the monks but the recent betrayal by Akira Lin-Keui had been pushing corperate relations to the breaking point and Odd's stress was starting to manifest in the form of wild "mood swings". Li-Li had never seen her uncle so furious. When they finally emerged from the boardroom, the pair of monks seemed shaken by the asian kingpin's ravings. They opened the door for the Jumper and bade him (DARED HIM) to enter.
(In truth...North would have entered no matter what lay on the other side of the door if it possibly led to getting his Tomahawk & Bowie back!)
Upon entering, North was astounded to see Yorobazu Hime had not only recovered from his recent surgery but had even returned to his master's side. Odd's paranoia had grown in recent days and he opted in favor of multiple Boomer bodyguards instead of his loyal TRIADE enforcers as he had done in the past. Instead of distant, cold acknowledgement from Hime (as had been his way in the past) Yorobazu bowed to the Jumper as they greeted each other. North returned the gesture and had barely straightened up when Odd began to rant...
Odd: "You were supposed to kill Akira & Tsugi to PREVENT a corperate war. Explain to me now why you are instead STARTING ONE!!!"
Phil: "So he CAN speak english!!"
Mike: "Told you."
Greg: "You should say something to him about it."
GM: "Really? You want to troll the furious TRIADE overboss like some kind of "grammar nazi"?"
Phil: "No we DO NOT troll the angry crimeboss!"
(Phil turns to Greg.)
Phil: "What are you trying to DO to us?!"
Greg: "Get you killed?"
Phil: "...."
North: "I warned you about Tsugi, didn't I? You should have listened."
Odd: "You will fix this or you will pay with your life!"
North: "Even with D.B.'s ambush, the plan is still a go for tomorrow night."
Odd: "The only problem is that the Lin-Keui may want to send another chaperone with you. Had my niece not intervened, you would ALREADY be dead!"
Phil: "Doesn't that just make us even? I DID save her butt at the banquet."
Mike: "Shush you."
North: "Look on the brightside...there can't POSSIBLY be that many Tsurimatsuo Legends left, can there?"
TO BE CONTINUED...
-Peace-
CONTINUATION...
Phil: "Seriously guys, THINK about it. Ermac and Reptile were hospitalized-"
GM: "If Yorobazu is back in the saddle again you can be certain THEY are as well but there's nothing indictaing they couldn't also be in America with Kitana."
Phil: "Sub-Zero's a popsicle."
GM: "Chilling."
Phil: "Kitana is fish food."
GM: "Glub-glub."
Phil: "Kano-"
Greg: "VIPER!!!"
Mike: "Oh, just get over it already...you look EXACTLY like him!"
Phil: "Viper's eating through a straw."
GM: "I hope you like soup Greg."
(Greg flips the bird.)
Phil: "So there's only Mileena & Frost."
Mike: "Don't forget Scorpion...he scares the sh1t outta me. A whole clip of 9mm and he just STANDS there and TAKES it?"
GM: "He DID throw his arms up in front of his face."
Phil: "Oooohhh, maybe we got him demoralized."
GM: "If that had been "in-game" I woulda given ya a point for that!"
Phil: "So, there's like 5 Legends left."
GM: "Six...Tsugi is technically Smoke."
Mike: "But we don't know where Ermac's & Reptiles loyalties lie."
GM: "Well, Ermac WAS sleeping with Tsugi..."
Mike: "So, Reptile is the only wildcard in the deck."
Phil: "Akira has Frost & Mileena while his Daughter has Scorpion & Ermac...with Reptile still unknown. There's gotta be a way to turn 'em against each other."
GM: "That's sorta happening whether you want it to or not."
Greg: "SEE what I mean?! Everything was going great until PHIL shows up. He's been here a WEEK and already one of the largest business partnerships in the corperate/criminal world is threatening to go postal on itself!"
GM: "Kinda freaky, huh?"
Mike: "Freaky? Nah, freaky would be using Stone on these ninja: "Why are you hittin' yourself, huh? You should stop but you CAN'T can you?"
(The GM giggles while using his right hand to slap himself with his left hand.)
GM: "GUYS, CUT IT OUT...I MEAN IT...I'M GONNA TELL MOM...MOM, MAKE 'EM STOP!!!"
Mike: "I love Stone."
Phil: "Too bad...you got Portney!"
Mike: "But he isn't here."
GM: "He soon will be but let's not get side tracked."
Yorobazu winced at the Jumper comment and braced for the tirade that would inevitably follow but Odd's scowl seemed to crack at the mention of this fact. For the first time in years, TRIADE's Shaolin Legends now outnumbered their Lin-Keui Taihujutsu counterparts.
North: "I've been summoned to LK-Zero this afternoon. If Akira has anything to say about it...I'm sure it will come up then."
Odd: "What do you know about this "Viper"?"
North: "I gotta tell ya...I REALLY thought I had broken through to D.B. I never thought he'd go THAT far...to gas an entire building of families? Not in my worst nightmares could I have ever seen that coming. I KNEW him better than ANYONE on this planet...we were comrades-in-arms long ago. I've GOTTA stop him."
Odd: "He is like you?"
North: "No...but we were cut from the same cloth. He's the most dangerous man I have ever met. He feels nothing but hate and if I don't stop him, eliminating Akira & Tsugi won't matter...if D.B. knows about "Looking Glass" then so does Stevenson. No matter HOW it plays out between TRIADE & Lin-Keui...A.S.P. will be coming for you."
Odd: "I have never heard of this A.S.P."
North: "Other than Lin-Keui, few outside the Combined Americas have. I believe they control the entire Federalist caucus through the R.N.C. corperation but...I can't prove anything yet."
Odd: "The Federalists hold no control over TRIADE. The West is corrupt & decadent...this is why the sun rises in the East but sets in the West."
North: "You're wrong Odd...A.S.P. can control the NSA & DoJ...they even seem to be able to sway EU/SHIELD policy...RNC practically IS the global military and WHEN (not "if") they decide to target TRIADE...YOU won't be able to stop it."
Odd: "If the enemy is so intractable...why do you continue to fight them?"
North: "I created them..."
For the second time since the Jumper's arrival in Poseidon, Odd Kat is unable to eat.
TO BE CONTINUED...
-Peace-
CONTINUATION...
Mee-Chan's meeting with Odd went better than he had expected. He still hadn't retrieved his axe or knife but at least had left the boardroom alive.
He was met by Li-Li Kat who instructed the Jumper that he was to follow her and warned him that any deviation on his part would be met with lethal force. TRIADE Tower was a monolithically enormous structure so North didn't notice he wasn't being escorted to the lobby until he emerged from the elevator into the underworks of the tower. A nightmarish assortment of tunnels and secret laboratories which carry out all manner of unspeakable expiraments in the name of profit known as Tarterus.
North: "Disobeying Uncle Kat? What IS it with asian kids and their parents?"
Li-Li: "Do not speak another word."
North: "I'm sorry about your birthday. I'm sorry your uncle's idea of a good time is watching you die and I'm sorry I didn't say something about it sooner."
Li-Li was about to silence the Westerner roughly but refrains from inflicting injury upon him after the completion of his sentiment.
North: "Why is it I'm NEVER in control of the situation but I'm ALWAYS the one getting the blamed for it?"
Li-Li: "You-have-no-idea."
North: "Where are you taking me...may I at least know that?"
The Shaolin did not respond.
North: "What's it like in Tibet?"
Li-Li: "In Tibet it is quiet...pretend you are there."
North: "I remember seeing pictures of it as far back as 75'...I didn't believe such a place could be real."
Li-Li: "They HAD cameras back in 1975?"
North: "See? You DO have a sence of humor when you try...(that was ACTUALLY pretty good)...f'k you too, b1tch."
Li-Li: "Tsugi is right...you have a funny way of begging for your life."
North: "You're not like any monk I've ever met either...and I once saw the Dalai-Lama."
Li-Li: "Pffftt!"
North: "I said I SAW him...I didn't say I MET him! BIG difference."
This time it was the monk who halted their progress through the techno-ghoulish tunnels of Tarterus...
Li-Li: "What do YOU know about the Dalai-Lama?"
North: "He was smiling...greeting the people...the news described him as "radiant"...but the only thing that struck me was how sad his eyes looked...how alone he seemed...when he thought no one was looking. I can't say I know anymore than that."
Kat resumed her pace urging the Jumper to keep up before bringing him to a massive diagonal lift platform of colossal proportions in a high-security area. The Shaolin then motions for North to step on the platform.
North: "Guess this is it, huh?"
Li-Li sarcastically smiles and waves "bye-bye" before resuming her stern demeanor while commencing the lift's desent with the push of a button. The room shudders as the platform begins to lower into the dark shaft below.
Li-Li: "Watch your step...it would be a SHAME if something were to happen to you."
North: "There's that sence of humor again...admit it, I'm gettin' to ya."
Li-Li rolls her eyes at the Westerners comment and walks away from the shaft's edge, leaving him alone on an express lift straight into the heart of Tarterus.
Phil: "Oh, YEAH...she DIGS me."
Mike: "You poor, deluded, batsh1t crazy b@stard."
Greg: "BACK off Phil, batsh1t crazy is MY department!"
Phil: "Well, I WAS born out of wedlock..."
GM: "Focus, Danial-San."
As the platform reached the bottom of the seemingly endless shaft a series of lights illuminated the the breadth of the entire chambre, measuring hundreds of metres in diametre. At the far end stood a set of massive dusrasteel valves. As breathtaking as the scope of the chambre was, it was the design on the floor of the vault at the bottom of the ramp from the lift that caught the Jumper's attention.
It was that of a "magnifying glass".
TO BE CONTINUED...
-Peace-
CONTINUATION...
Only one other person was in the room other than North. They stood so distant that Knowledge couldn't make out any details aside from a white lab coat. It took the two of them a minute of walking towards each other before words could be made out over the echoed distortion created by the immense chambre.
Hoo: "What do you think?"
North: "It's...RE-ally big."
Hoo: "You'd think so wouldn't you."
North: "How you holding up Doc?"
Hoo: "It's Helen I'm worried about..."
North: "I'll get her back even if I have to storm an SDPC platform to do it."
Hoo: "With all due respect...you could be DEAD in 24 hours."
North: "Thanks for the vote of confidence Doc, 'preciate it. Do you have any good news for me?"
Hoo: "You won't be dying alone?"
A brief silence filled the room that lasted just long enough for the previous echoes of conversation to fade from perception.
North: "Vivian...why didn't you tell me Tsugi was your daughter?"
(Phil drops his chocolate bar.)
(Mike drops the corn chips.)
Greg: "I'M MARRIED TO DOCTOR HOO'S DAUGHTER!?!"
Hoo: "Who told you?"
North: "Yu."
Hoo: "I did?"
North: "Not YOU...Yu...Yu-Lung...he's a hacker."
Hoo: "A very GIFTED hacker to access "Heaven's-Eyes-Only" restricted files without being being traced."
North: "Vivian, I broke her nose and nearly killed her...WHY didn't you say something? My best friend's daughter is trying to kill me...and you didn't think to SHARE that?"
Hoo: "Does she know?!"
The Jumper shook his head.
North: "Not yet."
Hoo: "I guess I have some explaining to do?"
GM: "Hoo works for TRIADE. TRIADE's biggest rival at the time WAS Lin-Keui. The rivalry is so intense, the country of Japan had no choice but to create new laws to make the constant warfare legitimate...but it's destroying profits and weakening the East to western concerns. Akria meets Vivian and woo's Hoo, believing she will unlock the secrets of "Looking Glass" for him. This becomes the foundation of the TRIADE/Lin-Keui merger but when Tsugi is born, Vivian's work on the Looking Glass project (predictably) begins to suffer as she tries to spend more time with her daughter. Akira is crazed by the idea of having his only opportunity to return home become compromised by his own progeny. To solve his dilemna, he GIVES his daughter to the Tsurimatsuo in the hopes it will return his wife to the role of orchestrating his return to Earth Prime. Hoo, instead helping Akira, leaves Lin-Keui (without her daughter) and returns to TRIADE's employ...divorced and heartbroken. Akira's unusual cruelty throughout the years is part of the reason Vivian prefers the company of women. To disappear...she was sent by Odd Kat to America to work with Doctor Mobius at the Alamo, re-building Lin-Keui's "Looking Glass" when she first met the Jumper. Lin-Keui has steamed over the loss for many years. Eventually his anger began to fester and manifested in his exceptionally poor treatment of his loyal & loving daughter. All those years of neglect and abuse culminated in her (quite reasonable and probably healthy) hatred of her father. Now, it makes sence as to why Lin-Keui was so willing to believe North's claims to be able to return Hoo & Looking Glass to his pocession. His single-minded persuit of Hoo and the means to return home after his past failure forms the nexus of what makes Akira who he is. His only daughter (Tsugi) is a constant reminder to him of how his every attempt to return home has been an abyssmal failure."
Phil: "That is messed up."
Mike: "Aye."
Greg: "I didn't know WHAT was going to happen, but I KNEW we were gonna get screwed."
Phil: "?"
Greg: "If you kill Tsugi, Hoo will hate you...and Stormfront NEEDS Hoo."
Phil: "D@MNIT!!"
GM: "Yep. BEST part? Viper can't find Nimbus anywhere...but he accidently MARRIES into Stormfront while trying to figure out how to destroy them!"
Phil: "Seriously, dude...when th' f'k did this game turn into Melrose Place?"
Greg: "Says the man who can't walk down a street in real-life without causing drama."
Hoo walked with Mee-Chan towards the the distant Valves set in the far side of the Looking Glass entrance chambre. The walk takes them five minutes to complete from the halfway point of the room.
TO BE CONTINUED...
-Peace-
CONTINUATION...
North: "Odd Kat doesn't know I'm down here, does he?"
Hoo: "No he doesn't."
North: "What exactly am I looking at?"
Hoo: "This? This is where the coolant coils for Phase I are stored. Phase I was the original prototype Conveyor that Lin-Keui had originally contracted to have built. It was never completed but the research methods pioneered in its construction enabled us to move forward with Phase II. Phase II was the operational prototype in the Mobius Complexe. You and the others were all brought here by Phase II. The Conveyor itself only works at 93% efficiency at present but Existential Panes can be breached with as little as 60% efficiency. It had been my original intent to share the recent discovery I made here after the banquet but things didn't turn out exactly the way I had planned."
North: "I should have listened to you Doc-"
Vivian immediately spun around and slapped the Jumper across the face. After regaining her composure she resumed walking to the Valve controls.
North: "I deserved that..."
The Doctor accessed the frosty valve panel and began the unlocking sequence after which she handed the Jumper a parka after donning one herself.
Hoo: "Two monthes ago I had a "eureka" moment and deciphered the key to unlocking Phase III. It's creaton negates the need for onboard power source, coils to cool it or an emergence platform to open a gate..."
The security valves ground open with a burst of cold settling across the room at the core's supercooled shell. The spherical room is half a kilometre in size and while light is projected from the walls, they all seem to be aimed at the centre of the platform where a rather small looking pedistal can be seen 250 yards away.
Hoo: "...till now, we always believed that world jumping could only take place at the projectors source but using quantum entanglement, I have pioneered a method of remote jumping. Matter can be safely moved across space and time...even through the fabric of space and time to other dimensions and beyond...all at the touch of a button. I also managed to lock onto coordinates which I believe belong to your world of origin."
North: "!!!"
Hoo: "I found a way to send you home Knowledge."
They reach the centre of the gigantic room and step up to the pedistal. Upon it lies a fancy looking wristwatch cradled in a security field.
Hoo: "Whatever you do...don't break the light. It's a prototype DNA-specific security field and if it detects any foreign material within its halo, you'll be reduced to ash in seconds."
North takes a step away from the shimmering lightbeam bathing the pedistal as Vivian removes the device walks back to the Jumper.
Hoo: "I call it a T.C.D. Quantum Relay. With it, you can tap into the the powergrid stored here (exclusively for its use) across any distance instantaneously. All targeting solutions are performed these computers and the relay acts as the beacon for the Conveyor's emergence point. The problem is that even when remotely tapping into the Tarterus core, it still takes an hour to recharge between jumps."
North: "Getting INTO LK-Zero won't be a problem..."
Hoo: "What will you do?"
North: "To be honest Doc, I was kinda hoping you could give me a head's up here. Akira has given me sanction to kill Tsugi...but I CAN'T kill your daughter."
Hoo: "But she will kill you?"
North: "Already tried three times and I regret to inform you, she's getting better at it."
Phil: "You said Hoo wasn't a ninja but she is."
GM: "No, Hoo's daughter is a ninja."
Phil: "She's related to ninjas."
GM: "Once more...not exactly the same thing. Knowing A ninja is not the same as knowing Taihujutsu."
North: "She knows I am Nimbus. She may know everyones identities. Even if I let her kill me...there's no guarentee she'll stop with just me. But if I kill her..."
Hoo: "If you can bring her to me unharmed, I may be able to solve that problem."
North: "Providing I can even restrain her long enough to get her here...what do you propose?"
Hoo: "I'm going to try and wipe her memory."
North: "Unproven AND unethical...let's do it."
Hoo: "You have a better suggestion?"
North: "I do...but not about Tsugi."
Knowing the Jumper as well as she does over the last decade, Vivian has seen that look in Mee-Chan's eye before and knows he is getting a "bad" idea.
Hoo: "What are you thinking?"
North: "This T.C.D. relay of yours...y'think it could reach orbit?"
TO BE CONTINUED...
-Peace-
CONTINUATION...
Mee-Chan's knack for survival continued to vex Tsugi Hoo/Lin-Keui. She began to believe that even the mighty Scorpion might fall prey to the resiliant, resourceful North or one of the TRIADE's Shaolin Legends. She had been prepared to wrest control of the Tsurimatsuo by force and while it was still too early to unleash her new minions upon her father, she could certainly send them after Knowledge. To topple her father she'd initiated a project which would incorperate the best qualities of ninja while retaining the strength and power of a Boomer. She had a retinue of personal assassins built that were more powerful than any mortal in the order. The combined knowledge of the Lin-Keui...eight centuries of training Taihujutsu...now at the disposal of unstoppable mecha:
- Sektor (The ninja previously known as Ermac.)
- Cyrax (The ninja who failed to tell Tsugi about Odd Kat's westerner guest showing up at the banquet.)
- Hydro (The ninja previously known as Rain.)
And even a Boomer version of Tsugi Hoo/Lin-Keui...
- Smoke (This variant was 100% Boomer as opposed to the others which are legally classified as Boomeroids at a 75% rate of organic replacement.)
Greg: "YEEESSSSSSSS!!!"
Phil: "Ninjas & boomers weren't enough so ya hadda add ninja-boomers other than LN-7 with little or no warning?"
GM: "Fire in the hole?"
(Mike does a "happy-dance" around the game table.)
Phil: "Tsugi-Tsugi Hoo...Where are you? We've got some work to do now."
GM: "70's cartoon reference...that gets a point!"
A typical Lin-Keui Ninja-Boomer (actually a misnomer since every Boomeroid is unique once it's primary weapons suite is factored into the equation) was heavily armored with a reinforced ceraplast clamshell plating overlapping a tactical monocrys sheath. The outer shell is rated to be effective against most projectiles under 12.5mm in diametre and most energy pulses under 100 kilojoules of output. It's shell is composed of exotic materials not widely available on Autodeul and it's prototype monocrys tactical undersheath is capable of preventing penetration from most ammunition under .50 calibre in grade.
(Against energy weapons...all bets are off!)
When combined with the outer clamshell, the Lin-Keui Ninja-Boomer can even withstand direct hits from 20mm ordinance. A typical unit has astounding physical capabilities. Any member of The Hidden Hand can easily outrun an average human (topping out at 20mph) while being able to benchpress somewhere in the neighborhood of half a ton. All Ninja-Boomer have retractable monowire-edged talons which can extend from each hand (or in some cases, foot) in addition to being equipped with enhanced shock gloves (capable of shorting out vehicular systems) and "Trademark" laser-edged katana.
Sektor's speciality was that he could negate the energy inherent in kinetic impacts or collisions.
Hydro's systems were based around a prototype gauss wave generator that would allow his strikes to be electrically enhanced beyond the levels already available from it's enhanced shock glove. With a well-placed strike, Hydro could disable a military aircraft in a single hit or bend AC/DC current to his whim.
Cyrax was the more "explosive" member of the team and most of his special attacks were based around missiles or explosives.
The enhanced Smoke Boomer was Lin-Keui's crowning achievement. Even the latest BU-55c Series could not stand up to the Smoke Boomer's offensive capabilities in open combat.
Once activated they would never stop until they had completed their primary objective...Knowledge Daniel North MUST die.
TO BE CONTINUED...
-Peace-
Just saw the MK-L season 2 trailer. Looks VERY promising! Thought I would drop by to share it.
(Not that any of you HAVEN'T seen it...I just like the direction of the new story)
That and they got rid of Jeri Ryan! Can't STAND that woman. I avoided MK-L season 1 for that very reason. Her Kirsten Dunst and Gwynth Paltrow are a blight upon the Earth. The only movie I'd EVER watch with them starring is one where they have their heads held underwater until the bubbles stop before the opening credits have finished scrolling by!
If anyone out there EVER finds out the name of the music tracks used for the trailer please let me know as they make awesome game music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5l3jrR5XMSU&list=PL6F0E167923796F5C
-Peace-
(P.S.: Continuation will be delayed while I piece together some rather confusing game notes on the passage in question.)
Still perusing notes to compile another entry.
Here's some more Season 2 Mortal Kombat Legacy...
Hanzo Hasashi vs Bi-Han
For those of you who don't habla that translates as:
Scorpion vs Sub-Zero
Enjoy kiddies!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0E68LKGx1M
-Peace-
There is so much material missing from this adventure that the reconstructions I type up keep seeming less like the session and more like a "reboot".
I refrained from trying to use that word so many times while typing this (due to my hatred of J.J. Abrams "Anti-Trek" fiasco and soon to be "Not-Star Wars" coming out in 2015) but I don't honestly remember what occured in the missing portion outside of the main details.
(Those could be summed up in 20 words of less!)
It's taking a while to sort out but I should have something to post up there soon. Until then, here's some Bubblegum Crisis for those of you having difficulty trying to figure out what the games "cyberpunk-ish" twist looks like.
Episode 8: Scoop Chase (Curious Girl)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsFKODomCyA
Episode 8: Scoop Chase (Final Fight & Closing Credits)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVd-xVlIYRo
Episode 7: Double Vision (Perhaps the BEST animated assassination sequence I ever saw!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSwxdSFos44
Episode 6: Red Eyes (Priss vs Largo...or Brian J. Mason...whoever the f'k he is!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfw4okoJO8
Episode 5: Moonlight Rambler (Sylvie's Death)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFqGV3O0jEU
That's essentially what this campaign is all about. Hope you enjoy them.
-Peace-
CONTINUATION...
The view scrolls rapidly, distorting all details about the background before slowing to a stop overlooking a high security, high tech cargo module.
Open-shelled heavy-duty exoskeletons, piloted by dock workers, bustle in the lower docks area as black clad security personal ride the rails overhead as they survey the workers below.
This specific module seems to be the primary cargo customs where equipment is stored before being shipped out to the various SDPC orbital concerns which pepper the planets upper atmosphere.
A patrol of three seems to be strutting across a catwalk while observing a pair of female replicants when two turn towards the left leaving the third to continue on straight.
The pair of sentries decend into the cargo pod and their approach seems to fill the workers with dread as they freeze up and slowly begin to back away from the heavily armed corperate mercenaries, gradually moving closer to the boomeroids.
The lead guard commands:
"Workers, prepare for snap inspection...assume the position!"
Although fearful and hestitant, the priming of the guards rifles jolted the pair out of inactivity and they complied with the security teams request.
The guards take their time as they stroll towards the pair of cringing Sexaroids and are just about to undo their battle harness when they notice that the cargo workers have stepped away from the security teams in alarm as a shadow is suddenly cast over them.
A large and heavy cargo module topples from the upper gantry onto the pair of security guards who barely have the time to look up before being instantly flattened without even so much as a short scream.
The pair of cargo workers cling to each other, still frightened by the sudden, grisly mishap after being sprayed in a crimson deluge.
They look up to the remaining guard on the catwalk who shrugs as he walks by without breaking stride:
"Oops."
Helen Seven shakes her head in disbelief:
"I'd know that voice anywhere..."
Knowledge slides up the visor on his helmet as he reaches the cargo lift controls:
North: "So much for making a dramatic entrance."
Seven: "You're the last person I expected to see here..."
North can't help but giggle at the blatant sight gag made by the blind boomer.
Seven: "...why are you laughing?"
North ceases being proud with himself stops smiling long enough to unlock the controls.
TO BE CONTINUED...
-Peace-
The boomeroid with Helen was of an earlier generation...the 32S-series, meaning the only difference fom the 33S-series was the J-Type Interface used in its heuristic processor. The 32S-series was had a VERY short production run and only 100 were ever completed before being discontinued in favor of the more military versatile 33S. She was named Cammy and was originally uploaded as an administrative model.
Unlike Helen...Cammy could see.
Although hesitant, she was goaded by Helen to proceed to the lift as it ascended, boarding in the nick of time, before the lift platform rose out of reach.
Seven: "How many others with you?"
Knowledge realizes his display may have attracted the attention of another guard as he begins to walk towards him and starts to call out. The Jumper turns to face him, causing him to turn his back on the lift and the boomeroids, exposing the Lorcin neatly tucked in to the back of his belt to the pair of Sexaroids behind him.
North: "It's loaded and chambered...safety is off."
The sentry levels his rifle single-handedly as he closes in on Knowledge causing him to hold his hands aside in an unthreatening manner.
North:"Take it easy...we're all comrades here, yes?"
The sentry grips the rifle securely with two hands and assumes a hip firing posture as he primes his Matsucorp pulse rifle and activates the targeting laser scope.
North: "Aaaahhh, frak...they ALWAYS gotta do it the hard way-"
The lift has not risen to the edge of the platform yet and Cammy tries to cringe, remaining out of sight as cargo platform realigns with the upper gantry, just behind the jumper.
Mee-Chan is in the middle of appearing as if he will be placing his rifle on the floor by it's sling with his other hand held palm towards the assailant in "submission".
Waiting until at point blank range, the guard becomes distracted for a second as Cammy & Helen rise into view cringing on the platform behind him. North then triggers a personal repulsor glove, aimed at the thugs legs which causes him to spun counter-clockwise half a dozen times only to smack his skull, faceplanting into the floor and falling into the cargo module beside what remained of the flattened guards before him.
As amazed as Cammy is at the feat, North is even more suprised at how flawless that had turned out...no one nearby even noticed it had even taken place.
TO BE CONTINUED...
-Peace-
Seven: "How did you EVER find me?"
North: "Wasn't easy..." he hesitates and hands her one of her custom-made sensor-web bodysocks "...not half way as hard as just trying to stay out of sight here long enough for Looking Glass to recharge."
Cammy: "What do you mean?"
North: "I've been wandering around this place for almost an hour...there are at least another dozen guys like that, stuffed into supply closets all over this space station. I expect it all to go south any minute now..."
Knowledge hesitates and double takes Cammy.
North: "Do WE know her?"
Seven: "We can't leave her here."
North: "Can she be trusted?"
Both The Jumper and Seven look at Cammy who nods her head emphatically.
Knowledge takes out a "guard's pass-key" and deactivates their stun shackles.
North: "Alright girls...here's the drill, you're my prisoners...you do what I say, when I say it and we just walk right out of here."
Cammy: "It's never going to work."
North: "This is gonna work...trust me."
Cammy: "We're going to get shot."
North: "We will if you keep yapping like that so cut it out!"
Helen nods her head at the 32S and the younger looking model silently complies with North.
The pair turn but as the it seems they will pass the final two guards to the chambre on of them holds his hand up to detain North as he pushed the boomeroids passed the security barrier.
Before Cammy can blurt out their guilt, Seven fastdraws the Lorcin from the back of North's belt and shoots both guards in the eyes at point blank range in under a second with one silenced-shot going off on either side of North's head.
As if unphased by the sudden eliminations, North prevents one of the slain guards from falling just long enough to remove his security card and take the dead soldier's pistol from it's holster and handing it to Cammy.
North: "I need you to put this on..."
Knowledge gives her the portable Looking Glass controller and activates it after securing it to Seven's wrist.
North: "...then we're going to find a nice dark room and wait out till the countdown expires."
Cammy: "What happens then?"
North: "A rift in space/time is going to open up for ten seconds and we're going to go through it before it disappears."
Cammy: "You're kidding me..."
North: "I could leave you here if you like?"
Seven: "Behave...what's wrong with you?"
North: "It's just my knuckles are REALLY sore...I don't normally punch so many people."
Cammy: "You just shoot them?"
North: "Eeeee-xactly."
North has no sooner than turned his head from Cammy when the 32S raises the guard's sidearm Knowledge gave her and is just about to shoot him in the back of the skull when Seven snatches the pistol from ger hand at the last second and without the Jumper taking notice that anything had occured at all.
North: "I have an idea..."
The cargo area airlock slides open to reveal all three are now dressed as security guards although Cammy's armor is obviously way to big for her.
Cammy: "This is a STUPID idea!"
North: "Stop complaining."
Cammy: "We're going to be shot."
North: "Then you'll be REALLY glad your wearing all that armor..."
TO BE CONTINUED...
-Peace-
The lift opens as the trio steps out onto the habitat ring.
In front of them are four security guards and a pair of officers who had been waiting for a lift as well and within moments, the liftcar was packed to capasity.
The group began to slowly take notice as floor after floor scrolled by that Cammy was too short to be wearing that armor.
One of the officers looked at North and began to laugh as he pointed at Cammy's poorly fitted armor.
North began to snikker back and pointed while laughing audibly for all in the lift to hear.
Soon, everbody but Cammy was laughing at how short she was in trooper armor.
It happened so fast, poor little Cammy had no idea who started it.
North walked up to the officer closest to him and laughed as he took off his helmet with one hand but quickdrew the Lorcin in the other.
In a single fluid motion, he removed his helmet and swung it into the face of the guard closest to him, shattering the visor and sending shards into his eyes, blinding him.
With his right hand he drew and placed the Lorcin flush to the closest officers chest before delivering a double tap to the man's sternum, dropping his foe instantly.
Seven spins the pistol she took from Cammy and in the twirling motion, locks and loads the sidearm in a seeming singlular motion and sensing Knowledges heartbeat, knew when he would attack before he did it. In a second, she had placed two rounds into the faces of the closest troopers to her, causing their visors to explode in a shower of bloodied plexiglass and dropping both dead in their tracks.
Cammy stood paralyzed with fear as it went on around her.
One of the guards reaches out to the stunned Cammy and is just about to grab her when Seven leaps in at the last possible moment and push kicks the security guard back so aggressively he bounces off the cieling before he hits the floor, arm and leg broken in the process.
The last guard takes aim at Seven and is about to shoot her in the back when North immobilizes his hand gripping the pistol. He spins the guards hand around (painfully) and ejects the magazine into the air, in front of his face.
The guard is then judo thrown to the floor as hard as North can manage and the sidearm discharges in the process as the grunt hits the floor face first, emptying the weapon in the process as it fires off harmlessly, then breaks the trapped limb at the elbow with his knee.
North then stands with the guards pistol in one fluid motion, reloads and fires two rounds onto each of the remaining guards before moving on.
North: "You two are a LOT more trouble than you look."
Cammy still stands frozen in shock as the last guards body falls to the floor.
Cammy: "THEY WERE REAL PEOPLE!?!"
North: "Not any MORE, and if we don't pick up the pace, neither will WE!"
The trio picks up the pace as they make their way into a defendable position.
A pair of guards come running down the hallway with lights mounted to their pulse carbines.
Just as they reach an intersection, Seven's legs decend from the ceiling and wrap around one of the sentries heads. The second guard wheels to aim at Seven but North emerges with a wire garrote and neutralizes the sentry quietly. Seven snaps the neck of the trapped sentry with her thighs and seeming pulls the guard up into the cieling as North draggs his aside and out of view.
Seven's "timepiece" begins to chime and flash.
There is a brief "pulse-like" shockwave of pressure originating from the beacon instants before the cross-dimensional rift yawned open and revealed the heart of Tarterus beyond.
Cammy was stunned.
A new pair of guards reached the edge of the hallway and had taken aim to fire at the Jumper but Seven's timely intervention prevented his ambush as she emptied her pistol into the pair of guards at point blank range without taking a single hit.
North: "GET HER OUTTA HERE NOW!!!"
Seven dragged the stunned 32S with her as they moved through the Looking Glass.
Knowledge backed up gradually, firing short bursts at the gathering opposition as he fell back towards the gate.
He saw the dimmimg of the rift and feared he may have over stayed his welcome.
North charged at the swirling vortex, firing blindly at SDPC SECFORCE personal as he ran, in an attaempt to suppress enemy fire.
Knowledge cleared the portal in the final moments and Looking Glass sealed behind him, much to the confusion and dismay of SDPC.
The three of them stood on the Looking Glass Phase III Reciever Platform in the heart of TRIADE Tower.
Seven held the cowering Cammy who was doing her best not to scream.
The Knowledge came diving through in a hail of fire.
Vivian even broke with character and cheered as she joined them on the Reciever Pad.
TO BE CONTINUED...
-Peace-
Seven: "Are you okay?"
North: "No...I'm pretty sure I've been shot."
Cammy: "Seriously?"
North: "Yup...went clean through...I hope."
Helen move Cammy aside and looks at Knowledges wound.
Seven: "The good news is I can see the bullet and it's close to the surface..."
North: "But?"
Seven: "...but it's an explosive tipped round and it hasn't gone off yet."
North: "Just my luck...what do you suggest?"
Vivian: "I can take it out."
North: "No time..."
Seven: "I can pull it out."
Vivian pulls Cammy away from North and Seven.
Seven looks North in the eye and hestitates as he stammers nodding his head in resignation.
North: "Yeah, I know...it's gonna suck."
Without delay or warning, Seven plucks the bullet from his shoulder and tosses it away only to have it deteonate harmlessly instants later.
North: "Y-you...suck!"
The Jumper cringes and slumps to his knees and tries to catch his breath as Seven seeks to stauch the bleeding by simply sticking her finger in the wound. Knowledge tries not to cry out in pain.
Vivian: "Ya big baby...it's hardly a scratch."
Cammy: "What will you do now?"
North: "One down...(he relieves Helen Seven of the Looking Glass Beacon)...three to go."
Doctor Hoo looks at Cammy and wrinkles her nose...
Vivian: "Who is THIS?"
North shrugs his shoulders.
Seven: "She won't say anything Vivian..."
Vivian: "And you're okay with this?"
North: "Don't drag me into this...I've been shot once already."
Vivian: "Oh, behave or I'll have Seven put the bullet back in."
Knowledge pouts and cradles his arm as Hoo examines the wound.
As she leans close to have a good look at the injury she whispers...
Vivian: "Thank you, by the way. I always knew we'd figure something out...but thank you."
North: "Anything to get you to stop slapping me in the face...those REALLY hurt when your not expecting them."
Hoo cauterizes his wound, injects some growth accelerant and finally a stimshot for pep...perhaps a bit too much stim...he was complaining about pain a LOT.
Now the Jumper just sat around in a semi-dazed drug induced state, and he still had to kill one Lin-Keui, kidnap another right out from under their own noses and the night was still young.
Knowledge was so whacked on stims he could barely string words together.
For some unknown reason, he felt uneasy as he approached the Lin-Keui Arcology and couldn't shake the feeling he was being followed.
It wasn't until he approached the overpass leading to the entrance that his assailants revealed themselves.
Strung out as he was, North could still "feel them coming" without seeing them at all.
He paused halfway across the catwalk.
The lights began to flicker and dim from both ends.
Knowledge looked behind and saw Hydro waiting there, matching his fighting stance from the shadows, move for move.
As the Jumper glanced ahead, he managed to catch sight Sektor, but only for a brief second as the lights in his portion of hallway shorted out, bathing him in shadow and the light cast from his own baleful eyes.
Hydro starts to walk towards Knowledge as Sektor likewise begins to close ground with the Jumper.
Knowledge seemingly becomes distracted but in reality is about to go akimbo on the approaching ninja-boomers as he prepares to fastdraw.
Hydro begins to execute a gauss-enhanced falcon punch as he leaps towards the Jumper.
Sektor charges first upon floor, then upon handrail and finally, suspended from cieling but unabated in momentum.
Hydro is on the verge of landing his attack when Seven drops from the cieling with wakizashi in hand, ends his charge. She uses her fall to aid in the momentum of the strike but Hydro crosses his forearms and deflects the sword blow which trails electricity from the strike it had built-up but failed to deliver.
NIMBUS vs SEKTOR:
Knowledge pulled out "Samantha".
The .660NE round struck Sektor square in the throat and blew his head clean off his shoulders with one hit, causing his body to fall lifeless to the floor at the Jumper's feet. His wrist was killing him, but it had been worth it! He reacted so smoothly, he had hardly noticed what had happened until it was over.
One shot...one kill.
FLAWLESS VICTORY!!!
EXCELLENT!!!
FATALITY!!!
The Jumper proceeded to fire a second round into Sektor's torso through the open neckhole as he lay headless at his feet.
GM: "Was that REALLY nessessary?"
Greg/Phil/Mike: "YES!!!"
GM: "Sigh..."
TO BE CONTINUED...
-Peace-
LN-7 vs HYDRO:
Hydro, arms still pulsing with electrical energy, launches into a combo attack upon Helen. With blistering speed he unleashes a four-punch combo in one second that she miraculously fends off using her wakizashi, sending sparks and chiped armor flying with each defended strike.
LN-7 counters by landing two deceptive spinning kicks to Hydro's head, temporarily causing the unit to lose it's target lock.
The Hydro ninja-boomer quickly refocuses and reacquires its quarry and traps the leg which sent it's head spinning 360 degrees.
Helen counters by backflipping away from Hydro and landing a boot to his jaw as she retreats.
The Lin-Keui ninja tries to counter with a stamp kick but Seven is too fast and the attack only splinters concrete.
Helen counters by launching into a combination of butterfly swing attacks with her sword.
The first three are blocked but the fourth, instead of bouncing off Hydros forearm (as it had been doing) instead get's some traction and sinks into the cyborgs elbow mechanism, releasing the shockpulse into himself, frying delicate circuitry in its wake.
While standing at the moment of impact, the short in Hydro's gauss generator was enough to make him drop to one knee.
Seven twisted the blade, still locked in Hydro's elbow, in a form of armlock and threw the cyborg face first to the floor.
Hydro, while faceplanted into the floor, managed to push kick LN-7 from him.
He sent her back four yards before she hit the ground, having done a complete 360 before she hit.
Hydro struggled to his feet and with his sole remaining arm, grabbed the sword, and pulled it from it's elbow, almost displaying "relief" at the removal.
NIMBUS vs HYDRO:
Before the ninja-boomer could take aim upon the helpless 33S, Hydro heard the sound of a REALLY big gun chambering a round.
North: "Remember me?"
Hydro retracts his mouth cannon and spins to fire upon the source but Knowledge fires a .660NE into the Lin-Keui elite which takes him off his feet. Hydro launches two yards into the floor behind him before he stops sliding.
The ninja-boomer vaults to it's feet effortlessly.
No sooner had Hydro reached his feet when another .660NE round slams into his torso and takes the cyborg off it's feet.
Hydro is getting angry now.
Knowledge knows he's only got two shots left before he's forced to reload...and his wrist is about to give out...it's effecting his accuracy.
The Lin-Keui ninja-borg rolls to it's feet...leaving pieces in it's wake...when "Samantha" gives another shout.
Hydro turned to the direction of the shot in time to take the .660NE round to the face...and it wasn't pretty.
The ninja-borg staggered from the shot began to retract a wicked looking weapons pod from one of its arms.
Knowledge fired his last shot without hesitation.
It struck Hydro in the eye and took the entire back of his head out in the process.
He didn't get up again after that.
FLAWLESS VICTORY!!!
EXCELLENT!!!
FATALITY!!!
North: "Tides out buddy..."
GM: "Dude..."tides out", seriously?"
Phil: "Surf's up?"
GM: "No point."
Phil: "Shocking?"
GM: "Too late."
As the reunion went on in the bowels of Tarterus, somewhere over the pacific ocean cruised a hypersonic aircraft with an all too familiar outline.
The Knightwing carried out it's stealth approach to the Neo-Tokyo One metroplex. At it's current speed, they would arrive in just under an hour at the second set of coordinates supplied by Hoo.
One would have expected a nervousness or hesitation over a mission as "vague" & "vital" as this one but despite over a year out of action, Stormfront reacted to the crisis with an almost rehersed level of fluidity.
Everyone knew their role and functioned seemlessly. Despite the urgency of the situation, the team was glad to be working together again.
They'd just finished donning their mecha jumpsuits when news of entering Poseidon airspace was broadcast.
Sally O'Shea had been quiet in the cockpit up till that point when the curious looking "heirloom" beacon signal did something odd.
It moved and began to talk by itself.
Vivian had finally been able to re-establish contact.
TO BE CONTINUED...
-Peace-
An interior airlock slowly grinds open to reveal a soaked (but none the worse for wear) Knowledge North as he waits for the door to finish sliding open.
On the otherside of the door awaits a contingent of 20 Hand Acolytes in full combat gi.
All adopt a fighting pose as he steps into the chambre.
North: "Guys, just for once...let's not do this...I have what your boss wants."
The Hand all begin to lower their weapons and allow him to pass to the elevator. Upon reaching the lift, they cease their accompanyment and only watch him ascend in the liftcar. North thinks to himself:
"This is too easy..."
His liftcar deposits him in the reception area of a huge unoccupied lobby. No sooner does he emerge from the lift when the hatch seals behind him and leaves him in relative darkness, alone on the level.
Hesitantly, he makes the long walk across the level to what he hopes is a way off this floor.
Knowledge has reached the halfway part of the room when he calls out:
"You know I have Looking Glass...so what are you waiting for?"
There is no sound save the echo of his own voice.
"We both know you won't let me reach your father alive."
North slowly turns around as he walks across the massive chambre.
"Face me, Tsugi."
A single shadow begins to rise and stands apart from the rest.
Knowledge's hand slowly slides over the grip of "Samantha" with his second hand gripping the Lorcin tightly...appearing as though he will drop the hammer with the slightest provocation.
Tsugi shakes her head as she emerges from the shadows.
Tsugi: "He was right about you, from the start...but I just didn't listen."
North: "Who? D.B.?"
Tsugi: "He said I should haf just killed you."
The Jumper turns to face her.
North: "I'm glad you didn't."
Tsugi: "I'm gonna fix that mistake right now."
Lin-Keui draws her sword from it's sheath and tosses the scabbard aside.
Tsugi: "I've waited a longtime for this."
From out of the shadows behind him stepped Scorpion as Cyrax flanked his Mistress.
Tsugi: "Make sure father dies."
The ninja-boomer turned and walked towards her father's shrine leaving Tsugi and Scorpion alone with Knowledge.
Tsugi: "Alone...at last."
As dangerous as Tsugi Hoo/Lin-Keui is, The Jumper keeps his eyes locked on Scorpion as the Tsurimatsuo Legend positions himself to make the kill.
Knowledges hand comes to rest upon "Samantha" and he cocks the hammer back on his custom Earthshaker as it rests in the holster.
Tsugi: "I counted your shots outside...you fired four times and I never saw you reload."
North: "You're sure about that?"
He kept his eye's fixed upon Scorpion but had been manuvered by the Tsurimatsuo Legend into being flanked by Tsugi.
Tsugi: "I'm Positive."
She motions to Scorpion and the ninja flawlessly unveils and quickdraws his Shoge Hook in a flashy yet menacing manner.
This time, Knowledge does not move...he gives no ground to the display...he does not even flinch.
The smile on Tsugi Hoo's face disappears.
Tsugi: "I WANT HIS HEAD!!!"
TO BE CONTINUED...
-Peace-
SCORPION vs NIMBUS - ROUND IV:
Before Scorpion can finish uttering the words:
"GET OVER HERE!!!"
The Earthshaker was out in a flash, roared to life, and in a moment of "ridiculous luck"...North manages to shoot Scorpy's shoge hook from the air, destroying it in the process and sending a shard into it's owner's cheek.
Like an outlaw of the west (and for the first time I might add) North stepped towards Scorpion, twirled the oversized Earthshaker in his grip and began to fan the hammer at the stunned assassin.
Scorpion drew his katana but no sooner had the weapon cleared it's sheath when a .660NE round blew through the Tsurimastuo Legend's bicep. The sword went flying from his grasp and imbedded in the floor behind him. The impact spun him like a top.
The Ninja saw North leap towards him but saw he now held a pistol in each hand...Lorcin in one...Earthshaker in the other.
Scorpion used his knee and pushed aside the Lorcin, causing it to discharge harmlessly into the floor before forearm blocking the Earthshaker and preventing the angle he needed for a shot.
The Ninja performs a leg sweep but not only is Knowledge ready for this but he is using the Lorcin to fire at the sweeping leg while in mid-acrobatic vault and manages to clip Scorpion in the calf.
Scorpy springs up from the floor to execute an uppercut which misses by only the most narrow of margins, North counters by placing the Lorcin at point blank range and firing into his torso as fast as he can.
Knowledge is able to hit Scorpion four times in the torso before the Lorcin finally runs dry.
The Ninja backhands the dry firing pistol out of Knowledges hand and sends it flying across the room.
Scorpion draws his tanto and is just about to use it on North when he hears the Earthshaker being cocked again:
"You forgot something..."
Knowledge placed the pistol to Scorpion's abdomen and pulled the trigger, putting a three inch hole clear through the Tsurimatsuo's body and painting Tsugi's face with the blood of her own champion.
Tsugi Hoo/Lin-Keui sees that Scorpion might ACTUALLY lose to the Westerner and decides to tilt the game in the Tsurimatsuo Legend's favor.
Her katana is in hand in the blink of an eye but before she can strike Knowledge from behind, there is a blur of motion before her deathstroke is blocked (from seemingly out of nowhere) by Helen Seven with wakizashi...without even looking.
Scorpion grabbed Nimbus by the throat.
"Samantha" went off again.
Scorpion had a second hole blown clean through him...but he WASN'T giving up!
Knowledge took ahold of the hand which gripped his throat and armlocked the offending limb before cocking "Samantha", putting it to Scorpion's head and eliminating him once and for all.
EXCELLENT!!!
FATALITY!!!
Smoke/Tsugi was livid.
SMOKE vs LN-7:
Seven: "Your mother has sent me."
Tsugi: "I-HAVE-NO-MOTHER!"
TO BE CONTINUED...
-Peace-
Tsugi lunges with her sword to impale Seven but a subtle almost effortless twist of the boomeroid's wrist deflects the lethal strike with seeming ease.
Seven counters by kicking the back of Tsugi's knee and bringing her to disadvantage as she kneels.
Smoke unleashes a whirlwind strike but Seven is able to seeming defy gravity, floating temporarily above the flurry of steel.
Seven takes advantage of her foes aggression and allows Tsugi to throw herself off balance.
Smoke leaps to her feet and counters with a wide arcing swing. It fails to strike its target but suceeds in forcing her foe back to where a shorter wakizashi is of disadvantage.
The riposte that followed is only barely defended the overconfident Smoke, who loses their balance.
Now off balance AND with weapon unreadied, Tsugi is in a bit of a pickle!
Seven steps within her guard (effortlessly with a deceptive attack), simply brushing her defences aside with ease and places her wakizashi at Smoke's throat.
For a moment, Tsugi panicked...a momentary lapse in concentration...but that was all it took.
While distracted by Seven with swords locked in "Mortal Kombat", North steps up behind Tsugi and injects her with a sedative.
Upon realizing she has been tricked, she tries to yell out but discovers just effective the TRIADE nanotoxin supplied by Vivian really is.
Hoo hits the ground in three seconds flat.
Seven glances at Knowledge to "see" he wears a look of displeasure on his face.
North: "We can only use Looking Glass once here...and I still have to take out Lin-Keui or this is all for nothing."
Seven: "What do you suggest?"
Knowledge puts Phase III on Helen's wrist and activates the gate.
North: "You're gonna use it to get Tsugi and yourself back to Vivian."
Knowledge takes note that he only has two remaining shells from Vivian left for "Samantha".
He also carried .45ACP sidearm with twelve shots remaining that he took from a security guard.
North hadn't a clue as to how he was going to spin all this but it wasn't until Seven and Tsugi vanished that it finally began to sink in.
North: "Wow, that was a really fraking stupid idea...what was I thinking?"
Before he continued to his meeting with the Lin-Keui Patriarch, Knowledge was sure to take Tsugi's katana & scabbard.
North: "Two down...two to go."
But it wasn't until North passed the display case with the "traditional Smoke armor" that he had his moment of brilliance.
He put on the armor and posed in the case, waiting in ambush for someone to enter the Shrine.
Knowledge didn't have to wait long.
Akira was on edge.
He felt he had waited long enough.
When componded by the fact that Mileena's strike team never reported in again, he was in (what you could call) a foul mood.
His son-in-law mysteriously hosptialized on the eve of great success.
His daughter possibly dead.
His ex-wife possibly returned to him.
Looking Glass finally in his grasp only to have it delayed by a tardy gaijin?
The surge caused by the Looking Glass portal had the entire building on alert.
Guards began to sweep through the various areas, searching for signs trespass.
North took a chance that other Tsurimatsuo would ignore the armor of their Master and his gamble pays off.
In the dimly lit corridors, no one can distinghuish a red from a black suit and when actually seen they bow and avert their gaze.
Knowledge is able to breach the inner shrine without arousing suspicion.
Seeing an opening, Nimbus (now disguised as Smoke) siezes upon it.
Akira is being escorted out of the Arcology.
The Hand suspect a trap and have accordingly doubled the guard for their liege.
What they don't suspect is that Nimbus (as Smoke) as booby-trapped the hallway with monowire tripwires and nano-detonators courtesy of Vivian Hoo.
Charges going off in the hall is his cue to "bring it"...
As the charges go off and Tsurimatsuo are torn to pieces, Knowledge runs through the chaos cutting down opponents at his leisure. In the darkness and confusion, the Smoke armor makes North indestinguishable from the Ermac armor adorned Acolytes.
Using the "nanothorn" technology and limited phasing capability of the Smoke armor, North despite being wounded, is able to locate and eliminate 40 Hand of the Tsurimatsuo.
As predicted, no suit in "The Hand" arsenal matches the Smoke "weapons suite".
Nanothorn weaponry is without equal.
TO BE CONTINUED...
-Peace-