Klaus' eyes go wide as the barrel of the shotgun is raised, but it is Salvo's turn to be shocked when his blast is deflected at the last moment by an invisible force surrounding the man.
Klaus’s mystical defense earns a raised eyebrow from Salvo.
Who shrugs, pops up and squeezes the trigger of the shotgun again.
Then he lets the shotgun drop from his hand. The weapon’s sling over Salvo’s shoulder prevents it from hitting the floor. His hands move to the left, inside his long coat to grab the SMG stashed
- with Point Blank shot
"He's got some sort of mystical defense."
Klaus tries to mock Salvo. "Ha! The mind is stronger than the gun! Typi-" His taunt is cut short by Salvo's second shot, which penetrates his intangible armor and grazes his arm.
"Ach! My suit! You jackass! Kill them and torch the place, Joao Carlo." After issuing the order, Klaus steps back and closes his eyes and focuses. A purple glow fills the space behind him, growing larger rapidly until it's about the size of a small door. Edmund Klaus steps backward into the purple door. The portal snaps shut immediately, taking the man with it.
Stringer had taken a seat at the end of the bar. As soon as Salvo fires, he ducks around the corner and hits the script he'd pre-written for Tank. The dog-bot charges the door and fires its big pistol at the doorman.
Once he's under cover he pulls the HK off its sling and sprays it in the magic man's direction.
Hibo silently cursed how quickly the situation had erupted into chaos. He drew his Beretta and quickly pulled the trigger twice at the figure by the door before stepping back away from the bar.
Tank blasts a large hole in counter, it's gun barrel getting caught slightly on the door as it enters, throwing off it's aim. Meanwhile, Stringer fires a burst in vain at Klaus as he disappears in the portal.
His police reflexes kicking in, Hibo smoothly draws and fires twice at Joao Carlo. Both of the tightly-grouped 9mm slugs strike the taciturn man in the face, tearing flesh off his skull and completely destroying one eye. No man could survive a wounding like that. Joao Carlo hardly reacts.
Beneath the torn and shattered flesh are plates of green-gray metal fused to his skull. The strange metal has thousands of tiny circuits etched into it. In the empty eye-socket is a tiny robotic camera. He turns his head to face Hibo. In the same moment he locks eyes with Hibo, the Mercedes outside explodes from the engine compartment. A bright orange fireball consumes the vehicle and the frosted glass is thrown inside by the pressure. A moment later a secondary explosion tears the frame of the flaming car into twisted scrap with a deafening boom.
Joao Carlo stares with his living and mechanical eyes as he reaches down and uses his right hand to literally remove his left hand with a twisting motion. He casually drops the dismembered appendage to the ground, which lands on it's fingers and flexes. In the open socket of Joao Carlo's arm emerges a bright cutting torch. Blinding blue light flares from the end, a menacing weapon capable of causing serious harm.
Faith brings her rifle to bear and fires at JC.
”Yeah! You better run!” Salvo shouts at Klaus, just as the portal closes.
Turning his attention to the Joao-Bot. Raising the SMG and firing a full burst into it.
- with Point Blank shot & burst fire
Faith manages to put a round into Joao Carlo and is sure she damaged some of the strange metal implants and drew blood, but it's hard to determine the extent of harm inflicted.
Shortly after the loud crack of her rifle, the sounds of some rowdy motorcycle engines fills the night air.
Salvo snaps off a burst that stitches across the dingy tile floor and fails to strike the menacing man-machine-thing.
Stringer pulls back his SMG and checks Snoop's camera to see what's coming down the road.
Tank, per its programming, attacks the obvious threat.
Hibo squeezed the trigger two more times before falling back away from Joao Carlo and the door.
Looking at Snoop's monitor, Stringer sees three motorcycles making a beeline for the parking lot. They'll be out front in just a few seconds.
Tank's shot strikes Joao Carlo, but the bullet ricochets off of the strange metal implants, render the shot as ineffective as Hibo's totally missed pistol shots.
Joao Carlo's gaze doesn't stray from Hibo, and within a moment, he charges across the floor and slams the burning hand into Hibo's chest, cracking two ribs and causing a severe burn.
His hands scurries about, weaving around the stools at the counter on it's way to Salvo's boot.
Faith moves to a position in the entrance with the door held open enough that she can see and fire her rifle.
As the hand approaches him Salvo shakes his head.
”Oh, that’s just not right”
Then stomps on the crawling appendage.
He winces at the blow JC delivers to Hibo. Then steps back, thumbs the selector switch from burst to auto and pulls the trigger. Hosing down the squares occupied by JC, the hand.
w/point blank VS AC 10
Not sure it applies to AF but made roll.
w/point blank DC 15 Reflex to Avoid.
if applies.
"Bad guy backup outside. 3 bikers pulling up!" Stringer shouts to his companions.
Falling back away from Joao Carlo, his skin and clothing smoldering, Hibo lets two more rounds fire.
The bikers ride up, but do not approach the building yet. Faith can see them taking the whole scene in. Two point at Tank and another narrows his eyes looking at Faith.
Salvo brings his boot down hard, crushing the crawling robot hand between the thick heel and the steel toe of the boot it is perched upon. He can tell his stomp caused significant damage, but the hand is still active as he scrapes it off his foot. The big man jumps back and sweeps the gun across the floor and up into Joao Carlo. The hand is caught with full-force and is torn to pieces. Multiple rounds catch the cyborg, leaving gaping holes that bleed a mix of red blood and some black fluid.
Joao Carlo raises his arm intending to bring it back down on Hibo's head, but the cop keeps out of his reach and snaps off another pair of shots. One of his rounds penetrates through Joao Carlo's skull, where it fragments and ricochets around the inside of his metal-plated cranium. Joao Carlo falls to the ground. In the same moment a great gout of flame explodes in the kitchen, another incendiary device. The fire will spread quickly.
Faith slings her rifle, draws her Glock and baton and readies to head out. "Time to split this nowhere scene," Faith calls out. "Three bikers approaching."
She describes what weaponry she can see on them.
"Kitchen's on fire! Gotta get out of here!" Stringer has Tank take up a guard spot just outside the front door, waving its big gun around threateningly while Stringer runs around the counter to go through JC's pockets for anything useful- keys, phone, pocket computer, anything.
Stringer comes up short searching Joao Carlo's pockets. He has nothing on him other than a keyring with the fob for the fully destroyed car and keys to the burning restaurant.
When he stands after finding nothing useful, he spots Klaus' cell phone sitting on the bar where he left it before fleeing. It looks just like the burner phones the kidnappers used. He sees immediately that the last text the phone received reads, "VIP confirmed, breaching now."
Outside, the bikers dismount and pull small SMGs from their leather jackets and cock them. They shout out in Portuguese, "Stay inside and burn slowly, or come out and die quickly!"
After glancing at the raging fire and giving JC’s corpse a kick for good measure Salvo heads for the door.
”Time to go, people.”
Arriving at the doorway,he nods to Faith and peeks outside.
”Things just keep getting better. Okay I’ll scatter the goons. You guys be ready to run for it.”
Pulling a grenade from his pocket and holding it up.
”On three?”
"What? No rocket launcher?" Hibo asked with one hand covering the blistering wound on his chest. He slowly crept forward to crouch down behind one of the smaller booths near the door.
Faiths fires her Glock at the ganger to the Southwest, then closes on him, baton in her other hand.
"I'll take door number 3," she says in Portuguese and she runs at him. "You die or flee and then we'll roast marshmallows!"
Stringer ordered Tank into autofire mode, the bot choosing its own targets of the three selected enemies. "One, two..." He watched Salvo, ready to run when the grenade flew out.
Salvo takes position as Tank's targeting software locks onto the nearest foe. The shot nails the thug in the chest and drops him to the ground with a potentially fatal wound. Faith fires at another ganger. Her shot tears a chunk of flesh from his arm but leaves the man standing.
The biker backs away from the baton-wielding woman and tries to shoot her, but it's evident he does not know how to handle an automatic weapon and only puts bullets into the wall behind her. The other standing ganger likewise tries to fire a burst. Chips of pavement and dust fly away from just behind Tank as that ganger likewise misses his target completely.
Leaning out from the cover of the doorway he watches Faith assault the ganger.
”My she’s exuberant.”
Turning to Hibo.
”Launcher is in my other pants.” Noticing the man’s injuries, he pulls a small item from his coat and hands it to him. ”Med Kit.”
Stepping out the door he shouts. ”Frag out!” As he throws the grenade toward the easternmost goon Intending it to land in such a manner so that the 20 foot radius catches both the goon and their motorcycles.
Vs AC 10
DC 15 reflex for half damage.
Finally he raises the SMG and readies it for action.
Faith was going to go hand-to-hand, but if the thug is going to try to back away and shoot her, she stands her ground and shoots back. Her cop training shows.
Hibo accepted the med kit into the crook of his arm. He fell back a few steps as he holstered his firearm. Dropping to a knee, his free hand reached down to grab the snatch the pendant from the cyborg's neck.
Stringer runs for the front door, trusting Salvo, Faith, and Tank to keep the bikers distracted. "Let's go, let's go, let's go!"
Salvo's grenade lands just behind the ganger's feet. The man reflexively kicks the grenade away from him a moment before detonation. His bike ends up absorbing most of the blast, but he's still peppered with shrapnel. When he sees Faith drop his other compatriot with a shot to the chest at point-blank range he grows pale. Tank's shot, although it misses, just adds to his panic. He ignores the damaged motorcycle in favor of sprinting away down the street.
Faith considers chasing the last guy down for questioning, but doubts a smooth operator like Klaus would allow mooks like this to know anything about the big picture.
She holsters her gun and waits to see everyone get out safely and then heads for the vehicle.
Stringer rushes out of the burning building and crosses the street to get away from the flames and possible pending explosion, depending on how they heated their food. He tasks Snoop with flying a patrol pattern about 200 feet up to warn of any more incoming threats and has Tank cross the street with him.
"So, that guy disappeared through a glowing portal, right? Everybody else saw that? Because sewer mutants, worm monsters, and full skeleton cyborgs I'm 100% on board with but actual literal magic is not something I was expecting to have to believe in today."
After watching the fleeing goon for a moment Salvo looks back at the burning building. Then heads toward the vehicle.
”Mr Stringer. I know you said there were no Wi-Fi signals in the area. But you please make one more sweep. I would prefer not to be recorded fleeing a burning building after a firefight.”
He climbs into the passenger seat of the jeep after recovering the MG from the back.
”I want to be ready when we get back to the stash house. Although from what that text said. It will probably all be over by the time we get there.”
"Gotcha." Stringer does as Salvo suggested, scanning the area for wifi, radio, or other signals that might indicate they're being recorded.
Stringer and Spot find no obvious signals, and fortunately, while this neighborhood may be a little better than where the crew has stayed the last few days, it seems unlikely that closed-circuit cameras may be functional and in line of sight.
Salvo's prediction turns out to be true. It is, indeed, too late. When the crew gets back to the squat, it isn't as returning champions the way it was a day earlier. The guard who would normally spot them and the gangers who patrol the courtyard lie dead from gunshot wounds. The sniper's nest is nothing but charred rubble. In the breezeway leading to the apartment they had been using to crash are signs of a brief, final stand.
The girl is gone. The homeless man Faith had been following in connection to mysterious deaths lies slumped against the wall. He is riddled with bullets, as is the wall behind him. His body is caked with blood and plaster dust, making him look like a ghostly apparition. At his feet are two bodies, both clad head-to-toe in black. Neither has any visible wounds. Nor do they have any gear. The assailants removed anything of value, but left the bodies.
Faith sighs at the devastation, sad that they couldn't be there to help those they befriended and ultimately doomed. She makes the best of the situation and scans the room for any evidence that might be relevant before leaving.
Hibo gingerly exited the vehicle once they had arrived at the scene. He slowly made his way around, one hand still clutching his chest. He kneeled down at each body, to see if any still lived.
Salvo grimly nods at the obvious destruction. Leaving the MG in the jeep, he switches to the SMG to search the area.
He looks for spent brass and examines the bullet holes in hopes of identifying the weapons. He also checks the black clad bodies for any tattoos as well as a cause of death.
The look on Stringer's face says that while he didn't have a problem making bodies out of people who are trying to shoot him, finding the bodies of people he knows is a new experience. He doesn't say anything but leaves his display specs on while he usually takes them off inside- trying to hide the tears in his eyes from the older, more experienced adults.
"Hey, guys, I have to, uh, make a call. I'm gonna go out to the car for a second. Be right back." Stringer's voice is none too steady, and he quickly bolts for the door and goes out to catch his breath and calm down.
Hibo finds every body he checks is lifeless. The ones in the breezeway might have survived their initial woundings, but were executed by their assailants. When he checks the two attackers he pulls black balaclavas up to reveal faces contorted in pain and terror, but no clue as to their cause of death.
Faith analyzes the apartment and Salvo deconstructs the action. Both notice similar things from different perspectives. The go over everything and confer with one another using mostly grunts, nods, and pointing. After a few minutes they are reasonably sure they know how it went down.
A squad of four or five made the attack, taking out the outermost sentries quietly and quickly. At some point, probably while trying to cross the open parking area, they were detected by the gang's sharpshooter, who got at least one shot off, missing, before the mercenaries went loud by firing an HE 40mm grenade into the nest. This commotion brought the other fighters out, who attempted to defend the building and themselves using the stairs, railing, and landings as cover. Their defense would prove to be short and futile against the well-trained operators. Two of the gangers were wounded, but dispatched with close-ranged shots to the head with 9mm SMG rounds.
At this point they entered the apartment with Machado and the little girl. Faith's person of interest did something to drop two of the assailants. Whatever it was must have been terrifying because the professionals with ice in their veins panic-fired in response. They emptied their magazines into the unhoused man and the surrounding wall. At this point they took the girl and fled the scene, leaving the bodies behind. Salvo suspects a cleaning crew will be on the way to deal with the mess.
Outside, Stringer is just finally getting his emotions and breathing under control when three large SUVs, black with impenetrable tint, pull up. The lead vehicle rolls down the window revealing the driver to be a man of middle eastern decent.
"We are too late," he tells a passenger. He turns to Stringer. "Mr. Bernette? Could you please gather your associates? Tanomoshi-sama has requested your presence at the Oyama Corporation's local office. Please, hurry."
If Faith notices Stringer's emotional response, she sympathizes. She had similar feelings after her first few murder spree crime scenes. She eventually learned to compartmentalize those emotions and channel the energy into a cool-headed determination for justice. This crime scene was no different.
She wraps her index finger in a scrap of rag and spells out in a pool of blood (in Portuguese), No mercy for the merciless. Grudge established! She hopes the message gets back to the boss. She sighs as she considers what she might have learned from Machado. No matter. She has much bigger carp to fry now.
Stringer clears his throat and takes a step forward. If they'd meant to shoot him they wouldn't have talked to him first. If nothing else, he was a well trained corp kid. "Yes, of course," he said. He gestures over his shoulder at the building with his thumb. "You should know, there was shooting in there not long ago. There are..." what was the good little corp word for 'bodies'? "that is, there is collateral damage inside. Municipal authorities may be on their way."
"I will gather my companions." He gestures at Tank as he turns to go into the building. "You can start loading our gear."
The young man walked crisply into the building to find Faith, Salvo, and Hibo. He had calmed down from a few minutes before but his voice was a trifle unsteady and he pointedly did not look at the body of Faith's person of interest as he spoke. "Ride's here. We should clear out."
As he and Faith reconstruct the scene, Salvo notices Stringer’s hasty exit.
He recalls his first. Your first massacre is always rough. He will never forget that little village in the desert.
Once they agree on the timeline. He briefs Hibo.
”We should probably get out of here. Cleaning crew likely on the way. Grab ammo and any weapons you want.”
When Stringer announces the new arrivals. He steps outside, SMG ready but not pointed at anyone.
”We will want answers. But I’m sure we will have to settle for information.”
He says to the man. Then looking back at the others he nods and points with his head toward the vehicles.
Faith is ready to listen to what Oyama has to say, given the lack of leads on Klaus.
Stringer nods at Salvo. "Here's hoping they're picking us up for a reason."
Faith had no professional cases that dealt with Oyama, and most of her information instead comes from the general Sphere of knowledge and zeitgeist.
Originally a publisher in Osaka when founded at the start of the 20th century, the company today is a massive global presence with an interest in all sectors from logistics and manufacturing to entertainment and sports. They're well-known for their corporate social responsibility and while they buy votes from proles like every major company, they insist on educating and providing medical care for the children of their proles.
Stringer knows the more ethical aspects of the company are sneered at by the "profit-now!" mentality that dominates the majority of the multinational boards. But more importantly in regards to recent events, it's his dalliances in dark web conspiracy sites that sheds some light on their interest in the minion hunters.
It takes time for his brain, still in a state of shock at the aftermath of horrific violence, to recall that Oyama's "special projects" division is cited on rare occasions with seemingly unhinged bloggers. The details are sketchy, but at least one person claimed they have their own squad of hit men and cleaning crew that erase signs of supernatural incidents.
Tank has just been secured in one of the vehicles when the crew exits. Two men are near the stolen jeep with a can of gasoline. One asks if you need to recover anything from it before departing. The intention is clear: they're going to torch it. Possibly the building, too.
Both men are dressed in nice, but not flashy suits. What is flashy about them are swords strapped to their backs. Curved, with flat blades. Scimitars.
The driver and passenger say nothing as the vehicles department. Any attempt to ask questions is met with a reply along the lines of, "Tanomoshi-sama will explain." They drive way too fast through streets first strewn with debris and burned out cars, then gradually moving to nicer and nicer neighborhoods as they come into downtown where the car is briefly stopped at a corporate security checkpoint. The guard takes the drivers papers. "Uh-huh, and their documents?" she asks in Portuguese. The driver hands her a fat stack of corp script. She counts it and looks up. "Everything seems to be in order, go on, sir."
The SUV finally parks in the garage of a twenty floor building and the group is escorted to an elevator by the driver, who leaves his own scimitar in the vehicle. The elevator rises to the 15th floor and opens to a unmanned reception area. The driver escorts everyone to a large conference room. "Please, help yourselves to the refreshments available, someone will see you soon."
Sitting on a real mahogany conference table is a small charcuterie plate. On a bookshelf facing the window is a coffee maker, not a cheap one, ready to brew a variety of coffees. A small fridge beneath it contains different creamers and bottled water.
The overall effect is quite different than the poverty the crew had been living with since the attack. Plush carpet, real furniture not made of press board or upcycled materials, perfect climate control, and a view of the colorful and bright city.