| Logs |
2002 March 11
| Cosmic Guardians |
| Realms |
Retired
| Reality Fault |
General Info
 |
| Realms: Guardians Logs |
Background RP - Nikki - Part 6
Life and Death: Nikki's StoryPart 6:The Assault
The group, plus Nikki, leave in a black van a quarter past midnight. The van itself doesn't seem to be as outfitted as their Lodge, but there are benches screwed into the floor so that all can sit. Hermes drives, while Athena rides shotgun.
Hecate has traded in her beautiful robes and cloak for a sleek black bodysuit, the only other adornment being a celtic cross she wears about her neck. Cerberus has donned a black spidersilk vest, but for some reason keeps the rest of his extremities exposed, revealing rather thick black hair on his arms and legs. The only weapon he has is a shotgun strapped in a back-holster. Ares is far more prepared, wearing a web-belt of weapons under his coat: twin Ingrams and Glocks side by side, all four with silencers attached. Knives are tucked in a dozen holdout pouches, and he also carries a silver cylinder, which her described to Nikki as a 'babylon staff'. There are even a few grenade looking things hanging on the web, but Ares never explained what kind. He still wears his bulky Kevlar vest, making one wonder how he can be stealthy in all that equipment.
Nikki glances at all the others and closes her eyes a minute, envisioning herself in something like what Hecate wears, even going so far as to have her hair tied back in pony-tail and out of the way. She opens her eyes and looks down at herself, liking the results. She grins. "I could fit in with you guys, I think. Need more weapons, though."
Everyone glances in Nikki's direction, surprised for a moment. Then Cerberus barks a laugh, joined a moment later by Hecate and Ares, who eyes Nikki with something between approval and amusement. Prometheus, who had not changed into any different clothes himself, only smiles nervously. Then comes Athena's icy voice. "Get it out of your systems now, people. Laughter on the battlefield will get you killed."
Nikki glances at Athena and loses her grin, sitting down on the end of one of the benches. The rest of the group quiets soon after. About thirty minutes later, the van stops. "This is your exit, Pro." says Athena. Prometheus nods, and pulls the door open, hopping out. "Remember, distract and defend, don't engage. Their bullets aren't really a harm to you. But if they bring out something that could, back off and meet us at the agreed extraction point. Athena actually puts a hand on Pro's shoulder, outside the window. "Be careful, Nick. This is important, but we don't want to lose you....to MJ12, or to Frrrrrrshrk." she says in a gentler voice. Prometheus just nods and hotfoots it into the tall grass alongside the highway.
Nikki leans over towards Hecate. "Bullets don't hurt him?" The witch shakes her head. "Bullets can hurt him just fine. But they're not a danger to Frrrrrrshkkkk."
Nikki chews her lip. "Who's Frrrrsshchkk?" She feels like she should wipe her mouth after saying it.
"You'll see soon enough." comes Athena's voice, who seems rather subdued than before. The van drives on, and then less than five minutes later, stops again. "Everyone out, now!" Ares says in a hushed voice, swinging the door open. Cerberus jumps out quickly, followed by Hecate, who grabs the laptop with the Gorgon on it. Both dissapear into a ditch by the side of the highway. Which appears to be right next to a dirt road that leads to the Trypticon compound, only a few hundred yards away.
Nikki follows quickly, moving through the side of the van. She whispers to Ares, "Do you want me to disappear for now?"
Ares grunts something that sounds like an affirmative as he shuts the door behind him, and Hermes spins the wheels, dissapearing down the road. Ares makes a small leap, sliding down into the ditch with the others. Nikki concentrates a moment, fading out of sight to anyone but herself, and then jumps after him. It feels strange all in all: her body has no real weight to it, so when she lands, there’s no feeling of impact. Could be worse, she thinks to herself. I could fall into the ground, and that would really suck.
Ares takes a moment to flick the safeties off his guns and jacking a round into the chambers, then joins the others as they peek out over the edge of the ditch, seemingly waiting. Nikki waits a bit nervously, knowing they're waiting for Prometheus' distraction, but still a little impatient to be inside. Coming up beside Ares, she instinctively tries to pull herself up slightly to watch. Again, it seems to work. This is so odd. If I didn’t know it, it’d be hard for me to tell I was dead.
There is suddenly an explosion off to the left and a car is seen to go flying into the air, and then crashing down in flames. A figure can be seen, even at this distance...a figure that seems to be composed of living flame. The grass beside it is already aflame, and only a few moments later, a loud siren goes off, several flashing lights suddenly turning on in response. Other figures dressed in black go racing across the Trypticon grounds towards the burning man.
Nikki almost jumps and stares across the distance. She whispers, mostly to herself as no one can hear her anyway, "Is that Pro? Holy crap...."
Ares nods quietly. "In a way, he is the most powerful among us....he is a medium, one who is the most vulnerable of mortals because his body can be easily by possessed by spirits, Fortean creatures, and even demons. Then a magic accident bound a fire elemental spirit to his body...the two came to terms and now Frrrrrrrrshkkkkk comes forth when he calls, using Pro as a battery for his flame essence."
Nikki nods quietly, just staring, not even registering for a moment that he can hear her while she is unmanifested. Ares waits another moment and then pulls himself up over the edge. "He's got their attention! Let's go!" Cerberus and Hecate climb up over the edge as well, running while hunched over. The sounds escalate from the western fence, and shots ring out into the night. Nikki jerks her eyes away from the fascinating sight and quickly scrambles after the trio, not upsetting the ground in any way as she moves.
The group quickly makes its way to the fence a good distance from the dirt road and it's guarded entrace to the compound. Ares kneels at the foot of the fence and takes out something in small glass jar filled with a clear liquid. He attaches a glass tube to a hole on the cover of the jar, and them presses down on a small button. Liquid starts to fountain forth from the glass tube, and he guides the spray in a box like motion, having to press the button several times before doing so. There is a light hiss as a tiny bit of smoke escapes from the metal that the liquid touched. Nikki lifts a brow and smiles. Pretty nice, but they'll know we've been here.
There are yells and a few screams as other things start to catch aflame. Buildings. Vehicles. People. Ares pays attention to none of this, waiting for the acid to do its work. After a moment, he gives the section a yank and it comes free.. Laying the piece of chain link fence aside, he motions the others through, who crawl underneath one by one. "The grate should be thirty feet ahead." he whispers, and then is the last one through.
Nikki had just walked through the fence, but stays low in case MJ12 employs people that could see her. She stays with the others, resistin the urge to dart ahead and check out the grate. Cerberus, looking quite at home somehow on all fours, finds the grate first. "Padlock." he says in an undertone, and produces a set of lockpicks from his belt. He picks it in a matter of seconds, and all start to decend below. Nikki follows the others, quietly grateful she can't smell, as it looks like the place might have one.
Ares hurries everyone down the ladder into the tunnel below. It is dimly lit with a red glow, and the faint call of a siren can be heard from down the passage. The bronze-skinned warrior is the last down, and quietly shuts the grate behind them. "How far is it?" he asks Nikki, looking right at her despite her currently invisible form.
Nikki blinks. "Uhm...hundred meters, about."
Ares nods quietly. "Right team, lets go. Pro might not be able to stall them forever." Cerberus takes point, sniffing the shaft. It doesn't really appear to be in all that bad condition: musty, perhaps, but not dirty. Pipes run along the walls, small and large, with small alphanumeric codes in blue lettering here and there on them.
Hecate looks around at the pipes. "What do you suppose these things are for?" she murmurs as she creeps along behind Cerberus, carrying Nikki's laptop.
Nikki looks back the other way, guessing the pipes must go all the way to the street, but in a less convenient passage than this. "Uhm...sewage...electricity...telecommunication....I'd guess." Even as she says the words, she starts wondering, Can she even hear me? Apparently Ares can, but... As if in response to her thought, Hecate giggles. "Too bad we can't do something like back up all their toilets....." she whispers.
Nikki blinks, and then lets out a laugh. "Can you all hear me?" Ares chuckles, in the rear, with Nikki 'in between' Hecate and himself. "Cerberus and Athena can't. The rest of us...well, we're special. Then again, Hecate can touch you while you're not manifested...I can't managed that trick."
Nikki smiles, remembering. "Makes me feel almost real..."
At the far end of the tunnel is a large metal door that appears to be bisected through the middle...with a keypad to the right of it. The tubes dissapear into the walls to either side of the door..but one of the smaller ones appears to connect to some sort of junction box. Ares takes one look at the keypad, and then looks at Nikki. "Your show, kid."
Nikki considers the keypad. Might as well try the simple first. "Let me peek through, though. It might just open from the other side."
Ares hmmms. "Give it a shot. Who knows how they have this set up. We might be lucky." Nikki nods and then leans through the door to look at the locking mechanism from the other side. The door also has a keypad on the opposite side, along with a large red button that reads, "Will Open Door Only If Fire Alarm has been triggered." The corridor itself seems to be empty: there is the shrill sound of a siren going off, along with flashing red lighs in the walls.
Nikki smirks and looks both ways as she moves the rest of the way through the door. Too easy. She concentrates a moment and solidifies herself to press the button. As Nikki presses the button, a second alarm suddenly goes off. A woman's voice says, "Alert. Possible sector breach detected in Section 3, Sub-Basement 2. Unauthorized attempt to open fire door. Alert."
Nikki pales. Shit. It wastoo easy. She slips back through the door. "Uhm....I thought the flashing lights were fire alarm lights...because they had fires and everything...and there was this button that said it'd open this door if it was a fire alarm....so I pressed it."
Ares curses. "Shit. Cerb....." The feral man-beast nods and unslings his shotgun, feeding shells into the chamber. "Can you even open the door at this point Nikki?" says Ares as he pulls out his Ingrams.
Nikki nods but doesn’t stop to talk, solidifying again and reaching into the computer bag for some screwdrivers, making quick work of the cover to the control panel. She purses her lips as she examines the circuits, pulling some aligator clips out and clipping them in a couple places on the interior of the panel and then hitting the ENTER button.
The fire door jerks open and slides into the walls. The woman's voice continues to report a security breach as Cerberus and Ares comes barrelling through. No guards....yet. "Where's the room from here?" "To the left, take the next turn to your right!" calls Hecate. Nikki decides to stay solid in case there’s more immediate things to talk care of, following quickly with the others, glancing around for computer terminals.
The squad of four run down the hall, towards the next intersection. As they turn the corner, there are apparently men in lab coats coming out of doors to see what's the matter....and when they see the four they stare in shock and then start yelling, some of them breaking into a run. Hecate holds out a hand and murmurs something in what sounds like Welsh, and three of them, including the running ones, abruptly collapse. Cerberus is bounding towards the last one, who seems paralyzed with fear, and strikes him in the forehead with the butt of his shotgun. The man promptly joins the others on the floor. Nikki stops running for a moment, stunned at the seamless ease that her companions acted, then shakes it off and quickly follows the others.
The group darts past the fallen people, Hecate directing them down a maze of corridors...then they see the large doors that supposedly lead into the room they need...and it's got five tense guards standing alertly at guard. One of them yells, and Ares ducks back around the corner as a barrage of bullets go by. Nikki halts up short behind Ares. "They're shooting..." She looks at Hecate. "Can I be shot?"
Ares leans around the corner, firing a burst from his automatic pistol as Cerberus somersaults by to the other side of the corridor. Hecate winces at the sound of gunfire. "When you're manifested, yes Nikki...and if your manifested body is 'killed', you have to go back into your anchor...the watch...indefinitely until to can regain enough power to come out again."
Nikki ohhs and then gets a wicked gleam. She changes imperceptively, still visible but not solid and runs around the corner and straight at the guards, yelling loudly with a wild expression on her face. The guards seem surprised for a moment, and hesitate, but then one opens up on Nikki, and a second later they all do, apparently not wanting to take any chances. Surprise, surprise: all the bullets pass through harmlessly, much to the guards' confusion. "What the hell is that?" one of them yells.
Ares and Cerberus come out from behind the corner as one, one spraying bullets liberally into the group of guards, the other releasing round after round from his combat shotgun. Three of the guards go down after a few seconds, before the other two start returning fire. Ares ducks back behind the corner, but Cerberus takes a hit to the belly, and another to the shoulder, and keeps on firing. Pretty soon, all are dead and the only sound left is the hiss of hot gunbarrels and the wail of the siren.
Nikki spins around, eyes a bit wide at all the bullets she knows were passing through her. Her expression changes quickly, though, when she sees that Cerberus has been hit, running quickly back to them. Cerberus seems stoic about the whole deal as Nikki comes running over. "Doesn't hurt much he grunts. Ares steps out into the corridor, grinning at the etherial girl. "Tienes cajones grandes, chiquita." he murmurs in his native tongue.
Nikki blushes a little and grins. "Uhm...I'd hope not." She looks at Cerberus and frowns. "You were shot in the stomach! What do you mean it doesn't hurt much?"
Cerberus raps his knuckles on his black vest. "This might be thin, but it takes a lot out of a bullet's velocity. And as for the rest, well....I was engineered with a thick hide." One does note, however, that there is blood running down his arm from where a bullet got through the armor into his shoulder. Ares and Hecate are running towards the door,, and the warrior calls back. "Come on, Nikki! We don't have forever!"
Nikki nods to Cerberus and glances back. "Right!" She quickly runs back to the others. "Maybe we should pull the fire alarm anyway, since they already know it isn't...it might take down some of the security barriers."
Hecate finds an emergency lever in the corridor. She pulls a small baton out of at thigh pouch and smashes the glass, yanknig the lever down. Nothing happens. "The state of emergency must be preventing any manual changes." she calls as Nikki gets her equipment ready. This door doesn't have a simple lock...it appears to be some sort of combination fingerprint reader and keypad, plus it's in japanese pictograms. Not only do you have to know the code, you need the fingerprints of someone authorized.
Nikki frowns at the lock. "Let me try the obvious first." She slips partway through the door, not bothering to go completely invisible. Apparently, MJ12 was never prepared against ghosts...or at least not this facility. Nikki manages to ghost through with no problem. The room is full of giant computers, one case that looks like it’s a multi-CD storage device, and several other machines, one a robot arm with a laser attached, still another a state-of-the-art spectroscope. Apparently there is no control on this side at all. There is, however, something that looks like an intercom, which could mean that you either need voice authorization to get out, or it pipes to the other side of the door, and the guards open it from the outside.
Nikki slides back through the door and solidifies again, taking out the screwdrivers again and preparing to open up the panel like she did the last one. "Unless one of them is still alive and can be convined to key the lock, we'll have to do it the hard way. The room is full of computers and stuff. I don't think I can bring any of it back with me, though." As she brings up the ‘driver, she apruptly notices something: there don't appear to be any screws on the panel of the key-pad. It's all one piece.
Nikki chews her lip and turns to the others. "Uhm...one of you think you can muscle that panel off without tearing out the wiring?" Cerberus considers the raised panel, suddenly, claws visibly come out of his fingertips, and he slams his hands on either side of the metal box, his claws seemingly digging into the seam where the cover meets the wall. He strains his muscles once.....twice...and then on the third try he yanks it off, exposing the circuitry and stumbling back a little. "Done." he grunts.
Nikki purses her lips, impressed. "Wow...uhm...thanks." She takes a quick look at the back and grins, grabbing Gorgon and a serial cable. "Love modular components..." Cerberus tosses the metal covering away as Ares moves to protect the others, in case anyone else comes down the hall, which appears to end at the large door. "They made me well." he says, without inflection.
It takes a moment, but Nikki is finally able to find a 'cable in' port to jack the serial cable into. "Whatever you're doing, Nik, do it fast." says Ares. "We don't know who heard that alarm, how many are dealing with Pro, or if he's even still distracting.
Nikki nods quickly to Ares and sits on the floor with the computer, tapping away madly at the keys with a look of intense concentration on her face, punctuated by the occasional smile. "Uhm...one of you scan your index fingerprint. Don't worry...I'll clear it out of their database when we get through." She waits while that is done and nods, saving that off to a file in case she needs it, then starts her assault on the authentication server, using the keypad as a vector. She throws out elegence in favor of speed, counting on the confusion currently going on to aid her.
Ares takes off one of his gloves as the 'keys' on the liquid screen dissapear. He presses his fingertips to the screen, and in seconds, a text message says, Identification Stored. Hacking the server takes longer, but in only two minutes, she manages to crack it...and discovers more than she expected. The server is not just for this keypad....it controls the entire building security. She has access to the whole network from here.
Nikki grins wickedly. "I think I'll start a fire on the 5th floor...that should keep them distracted..." Nikki nods up to the keypad. "Ares, Could you type 1111 now? That should open the door. And you'll need to find something to jam it open, I expect."
The warrior nods, and the keypad reappears, this time with numbers instead of the confusing japanese pictograms. He hits the '1' key four times, and the large metal doors start to slide open. "Nikki, see if you can seal off this floor. Keep anyone from getting in." Ares says with some urgency, at her mention of starting a 'fire'.
Nikki nods abruptly and starts typing away...and then grins, erasing all the files that control access to the doors onto this level so that nothing short of physical violence would get them open. She erases the fingerprint file and then unhooks Gorgon, getting to her feet and heading into the lab to find the research computer. "There! They'll need to blow the doors to get down here now. Oh...I mulloxed the cameras and deleted their archives of the last hour, too." Ares grins at Nikki. "Bueno, chiquita." He stands at the entrance, taking the time to reload his Ingrams.
As the doors fully open, the room is fully revealed. Hecate and Cerberus move in, casing the room. The wolven tracker abruptly goes over to what looks like a safe in the far wall. He points at it. "Door number four?" he says with a wolfish grin. But then he takes another look. "Hmmph. There's no outside controls." Nikki blinks over at the safe, pausing in her search for the research computer. "Uhm...no...hmm. Maybe it has to be opened from the lab computer?"
Cerberus probes the walls around the safe, looking for hidden panels. "Got me..." There appear to be a few desktops over to one side, but they all appear to be networked. One is on, but it just has the password prompt visible.
Nikki chews her lip a moment and then quickly sets Gorgon on the counter, jacking him into the network. "Protect yourself, Gorgon. I'll be too busy to watch your back right now. It's a closed network anyway...and no one is in here...but there might be automated defenses." She starts typing, scanning the local network for any anomalies, like an address for something that might be locking the safe, and running the standard attacks against any of the active machines in the room. She says, without lookin away from the computer, "Could one of you start pullin tapes from the robot over there? We're going to want to either take them or erase them."
Cerberus looks dubiously at the tape library. "You sure you don't need that, hon?"
Nikki glances over. "Those are typically backups. Too slow to do normal I/O for day-to-day work. So that stuff should be on that drive array over there...but I need to crack a box to get to that. But if we don't want them rebuilding it, we'll need to steal or destroy their backups."
Cerberus shrugs and breaks the glass panel between him and the bot, and starts pulling tapes. "Should I take 'em or break 'em?" Nikki would respond, but as she finds the command pathways for the safe, however, a face appears on Nikki's screen. It looks digitally animated, but unrecognizable. "You are not cleared. Please submit authorization." The face suddenly seems to go flying off the screen then, and the Gorgon appears on all fours like a real bull, snorting smoke. Scuze me, toots. the Gorgon says in a little text box, and charges off the screen.
Nikki glances between Cerberus and the gibson and then back to Cerberus, stunned a moment by what happened. Deciding to address things one at a time, she turns to Ceberus. "Just pull them. We may want to take them with us if we can't get them off the computers." Nikki turns back to the gibson and starts typing in another window, ignoring Gorgon's defensive animations as she works, chewing a lip. "Damn...don't you guys have acid or that jelly explosive they show in the movies that you spray along the seams of safes and stuff?"
Ares, still standing in the doorway, puts his hand up to his head. "Please repeat." After a moment, he turns and looks at the others. "We don't have time to take the information the normal way. Pro's retreated, hurt. The troops are moving in on our position." He start's pulling small satchels out from under his coat. "We're going to blow this room to kingdom come. Cerb, Hec, start placing these. I've got to go close out entry point. We're not going to be able to leave that way." Ares races off, leaving a half dozen of the small black packets.
Nikki frowns. "This is likely the only place where we're going to get it. We'd better take the rest of the backup tapes with us at least. If not blow that safe first and take the prototype."
Forunately, blowing the safe is not required. While this conversation is going on, the face of the MJ12 gibson flies across the screen multiple times with the Gorgon chases after it, little text balloons appearing that say things like: Mercy! My spleen! Medic! Finally the Gorgon walks back in, upright, and brushes off anthropomorphic hands. You've got...safe. he says dramatically, and the safe pops open.
Nikki blinks at the screen. "Uhm...thanks Gorgon. Completely above and beyond of what I asked for, but thank you anyway."
Cerberus reaches into the safe, the only contents being a thick belt with an adjustable strap, and a silver box attached to it. Looking around, he finds a briefcase, and puts that, and the backup tapes into it as Hecate starts setting up the explosives. There is suddenly a loud thundering sound, but from far away outside the room. The lights dim for a moment, and the screen flickers, but they seem to maintain their integrity. The fan at the top of the cieling, however, stops spinning.
Nikki blinks and looks up. "That sounds bad." She picks up the Gibson and packs him up, putting him back in Hecate's pack, then quickly looks around for a bulk eraser. She manages to find one in a desk drawer. Ares runs back in, looking a little cut up. "I had to blow the tunnel. My guess is that took them off outside power, but the internal generators kicked in. We got what we need?"
Nikki is busy laying still spinning drives on the bulk eraser and pushing them off onto the floor after a couple seconds. She's down to the last couple when she looks up. "Uhm...we're not going out through the tunnel, I take it?" Ares shakes his head. "Can't. They were coming in that way anyway. No, we're doing Plan B." The mexican warrior moves over to the keypad, entering the simple code, and the doors slide shut as he strides back through.
Nikki jerks upright. "You just sealed yourself in here...and there's no air coming in." she says incredulously.
Ares smiles. "Welcome to Plan B." He pulls out a grenade. "Duck and cover." And, pulling the pin, he tosses it a second later through the gap of the motionless blades. Hecate and Cerberus and Ares abruptly dodge behind equipment as the grenade goes off, and the fan motor comes crashing down into the center of the room. Nikki goes insolid just as the others duck, but still flinches at the sound. She just stares at Ares.
Ares smiles wider at Nikki's confused expression. "This leads straight though the nbuilding overhead to the roof. We're getting out that way."
Nikki ohhs. She looks at Hecate. "Can I float? I haven't tried that yet. Ghosts float, right?" She chews her lip. "Or I could just run up the stairs and meet you at the van..."
Hecate looks doubtful. "Nae all ghost can fly, dearie. Ahm nae sure if'n it's only some ken do, or if it's a learned thing...ah can cast a spell of flight on ye if you take solid form..." Nikki nods and pauses a moment and then touches the wall. "I think that's getting easier for me."
Ares looks at Nikki doubtfully. "She minght be safer if she just phased out the way we came...if she came with us, there might be incoming fire, and she's not wearing armor..." Nikki blinks, suddenly worried. "Can I die again?" Hecate shakes her head. "The worst that would happen is that she'd lose tha ability to manifest for a while, Ares...she's really in less danger than us. Besides, we don't know how far she can move beyond her anchor anyway...and you've got her anchor, Ares." The warrior finally nods. "Okay, grab your gear, then. Let's prepare to haul ass." He gets out a small device with a switch on it.
Nikki looks at the little box. "Are you gonna blow the room after we leave?" Ares smiles. "Not while I'm in it, chiquita." Cerberus and Hecate move directly under the large shaft, Cerb with his briefcase full of loot. "Stand under the shaft, Nikki!" Hecate calls. Nikki grins at Ares' joke and nods to Hecate, moving to stand next to her, looking like a younger sister with her outfit imitatin the older woman's.
Ares moves with the others, sheathing his guns in their holsters, the trigger in his palm as Hecate begins chanting. In a few moments, they all rise into the air slowly, but then with increasing speed, the metal walls whipping by...
Nikki grins, lookin down as the room drops out of view. She says, loud enough to be heard over the rushing air, "Why didn't we come in this way?" Ares calls back, "This spell takes a lot of energy, Nikki. Besides, flying through the air isn't exactly inconspicuous."
Then they slow, when they abruptly realize that the louvers of the airshaft are shut. "Fuck!" says Ares. "I was sure...how could they..." Hecate says nothing, but she looks strained. Cerberus looks at the other two. "She has to concentrate, or she'll lose the spell. How do we get through?"
Nikki reaches up to push on the outside edge and pull down on the inside one, trying to get them to rotate open. "If I go unsolid, I'll probably just drop again." Ares chews his lip "That's not certain. Unmanifested, you're not affected by gravity. Try it. But....don't think like you're going to fall. Be convinced that you can stand in thin air."
Nikki swallows and looks down. It's a little easier to believe that since they're currently doing it, but she's still a bit nervous as she closes her eyes and changes state. Nothing seems to change, but at least she doesn't feel like she's falling...
Ares's voice sounds a little nervous. "Now....try floating up, through the louvers."
Nikki opens her eyes, one at a time. She looks at Ares. "Up...? Uhm...'kay." She tries, but doesn't seem to move, then closes her eyes and tries to imagine it instead. Several seconds later, when she opens her eyes again, she seems to be floating a foot above the louvers. The roof above appears to be clear.Nikki blinks and drops down to 'stand' on the louvers, still immaterial, but looking around for some sort of manual override to open them. Looking around for a moment, she manages to find a lever. She she kneels down to pull it, however, she hears a voice behind her. A familiar voice. "Stand up." Nikki freezes and looks over her shoulder. A man in a suit is pointing a gun at Nikki.
A man with red hair, and freckles.
"Hands where I can see them, missy." says Mr. Frants.
Nikki stares at him, for a moment a cold streak of fear passing through her, but then quickly replaced by rage, which she attempts to hide, hoping she still looks afraid of him. Her immaterial hand is still poised against the lever. She blinks slowly, glancing at his gun as she solidifies and pulls the louvers open with a heave, fully expecting him to fire, but knowing that Hecate can't wait any longer. She yells as she pulls, "We're not alone!"
Frants's weapon speaks, and hits Nikki in the spine....her body suddenly goes numb and she gets cut off in midsentence. But then Cerberus, Hecate, and Ares comes flying out of the shaft, and Ares jerks the trigger of his Ingram as soon as he has a target....bullets spill out like a deadly hail, but Frants dodges at the last minute back into the door which he'd come from.
Nikki slumps over alongside the lever, looking a little dazed and mostly unaware, except she thinsg she hears Ares' open up. I hope he got the bastard...though I wanted to do it.
Ares shouts, "Nikki, are you okay?" Suddenly, there is the whup-whup-whup-whup sound filling the air....and a black helicopter suddenly rises above the roof, shining a spotlight down over the four. "Stand where you are, or we will open fire!" says someone over a loudspeaker.
Nikki continues staring at the side of the airshaft, the sounds of the struggle and queries to her sounding like distant concerns.
Ares throws his gun away and raises his hands, as does Cerberus and Hecate. Frants comes out of the door with a pistol in each fist. "You've caused a lot of trouble for us, you folk. But it's all over now." he sneers.
Nikki blinks and groans a little as she starts feeling the pain of that shot. She closes her eyes to try and make it stop. She abruptly goes transparent, and the weakness of her damaged body flees her. Frants stares at this transformation in shock. "What the hell....."
Nikki gets to her feet and turns towards Frants, a very dark expression on her face. She starts advancing on him. "You Son-of-a-bitch....you killed my brother..."
Mr. Frants is the picture of bemusement....and then he recognizes the girl that stalks towards him. "you....." he trails off, and actually backs up a little. "Who are you people?" he says in a small voice. Nikki keeps walking towards him, still talking only loud enough to be heard over the blades of the copter. "Me? I'm your worst nightmare...I'm going to make sure you suffer the most painful death you can imagine...."
Ares, watching this, speaks dourly. "We're the Pantheon, Frants. And we take care of our own." And then he displays the detonator concealed in his palm. And presses the button. The building rumbles.
Quicker than any could expect, a rumbling sound builds within the interior of the shaft....and then a giant fireball explodes out of the shaft, half-engulfing the helicopter as it moves a hair to slow, suddenly spinning out of control away from the roof.....the metal louvers blasting free and flying every which way.
Nikki continues stepping towards him, as the building errupts around them. She speaks louder and louder, so that he can still hear her, "So....Frants...prepare to die!" She reaches towards him and attempts to solidify, hoping to use the shaking building to aid her in pushing him to his death. Frants starts to scream and fires both of his guns at Nikki's body. The combined distraction of noise makes it impossible for Nikki to concentrate to solidify, but just as it seems that Nikki's hand would 'touch' the red-head's body, he backs up out of range, suddenly fleeing for his life, stumbling as he's hit by a piece of debris, and then falling backwards over the edge of the roof....
Nikki blinks, suddenly a lot more aware of what's going on around her now that Frants has been removed. She turns around, looking over towards where she last saw the others. The vent is no longer spitting fire, but the building itself is still trembling slightly, and it sounds like there might be explosions elsewhere. Cerberus is covered in scrapes and cuts, and looks like he might have taken one of the bullets Frants was firing moments before in desperation, but Hecate and Ares appear to have dodged behind a piece of masonry and avoided the worst. "Quickly! We've got to get out of here!" yells Ares. "Hecate, can you cast that spell again?" She nods, "Long enouh' t' get us t' the ground!" she calls back. She looks at Nikki. "Can ye get down on yer own?"
Nikki runs over to them when she sees them, nodding at the quick question and following them to the edge. She looks down, takes a needless breath, and leaps. In doing so, she finds that, immaterial as she is, she can glide down as if she were lighter than air. There are a few people running around down below and there appears to be smouldering wreckage where the helicopter fell. With a little concentration, she can increase her speed. As she looks behind her she sees Hecate and the others gliding along behind her. As she pans her head around, something catches the corner of her eye...something black, and moving through the sky.
Nikki turns and points. "Ares! What's that?!" Ares doesn't seem to hear her, as she's still facing away from him, and is a good distance behind her now...as she slows, and takes a closer look, she can see it's not moving towards them, but instead to a building to her left. As the firelight illuminates it slightly, Nikki can see that it vaguely resembles a small glider-shaped parachute...and it carries a man dressed in dark clothing.
Nikki tries to slow to a stop to let the others catch up, waiting to tell them about what she saw, and keeping her eyes on the building. The figure below seems to land on the building roof, stumbling slightly as the chute falls to the ground...it writhes around a moment, seemingly and then stands, and runs towards what looks like an iron door in the roof, lifting it up and dissapearing beneath it.
Ares is suddenly beside her. "Why did you stop? We must hurry: the others are waiting and we can't afford for them to see the van... Nikki points towards the other building. "Someone in black with a black chute just landed on the roof of that building and went in through the roof entrance."
Ares frowns. "That's odd. Maybe someone managed to escape from the helicopter. Or maybe there's someone else taking advantage of the chaos we have started. But we have no time to worry about it now, let us depart!"
Nikki nods and drifts down towards the street with the rest of them. The group flies over the fence, drifting low as they see the van parked on the other side of the highway. Uninterrupted, they glide down to the van, where Athena opens the side door and ushers them all in. "Drive, Hermes!" she says with urgency as she shuts the door, and Hermes guns the motor and leaps down the highway. The pale leader looks at the others. "Did you get it? It looked a little hairy at the end..." Cerberus nods, and holds up the briefcase. "It's all in here." Then, Nikki notices Prometheus. He seems to be huddled in the back, his trenchcoat around his otherwise naked body, his skin red in several places, as if he'd been sunburned...as he shifts, there is the white of a bandage visible, and the red of blood. Nikki hurries over and sits down, and looking at the medium with concern. She concentrates a moment to become solid, reaching towards Prometheus. "Are you alright...?"
Prometheus stirs, and grins weakly at the girl-ghost. "Got clipped towards the end there...I can only channel my firey friend for so long before I start to feel the effects..." he groans, wincing as his smile stretches tender skin.
Nikki nods and smiles a little. "I killed Frants....well...sorta. You could say I scared him to death."
Athena looks at Nikki with Prometheus, and then nods. "Right. You can tell me all about it when we get back then." she murmurs quietly as she listens to Nikki and Pro talk. "For now, at least, the excitement is over."
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