There was so much Keenan could've gone on about after what Joe said after what Joe said, but he didn't, he wouldn't go through that conversation , not again. Instead he said "I don't know about everyone, but you'll definitely go mad if you try to take on fate" though he didn't think Joe heard him since he shoved past him after another friend of his appeared, small world this. Keenan and Serra were among those that lagged behind after Clayton moved off. Upon noticing the look on Keenan's face Serra asked "are you alright?". Keenan only smirked and shook his head, murmuring "I get the feeling this is going to be an eventful evening" as they both started of to keep up with the others
Cheshire had vanished shortly after freeing everyone else, silently making his way away from the catacombs, searching for his own prize. The prisoners had technically been the secondary target, as his boss liked to constantly remind him in the debriefing before the mission, but, he figured he could excuse releasing them ahead of priority by saying they were to provide distraction. Nobody would buy it, but it looked nice in the paperwork. As he escaped from the dungeon area, he made his way up, into one of the towers, and tsked. The computer room was the least secure area in the complex. Of course, he mentally sighed, picking the lock and entering. He hopped on one of the computers and put in a USB, typing briefly. Within a few minutes, he was already out of the complex and following the escaped prisoners.
"Waaait! hold on!" Exclaimed Hikaru. Aeon had to cover her mouth forcing her to remember they were hiding. "Rue, is that you? THE RUE?" Said the girl as she went and hugged Rue as if she were to be some kind of plushy toy "I missed you. How had life been since <graduation>.... if you can call that a graduation?"
Rue jumps a bit from yet another sudden bear hug. "Ack! O-oh wait Hikaru? You're here too? Wow small world." She smiles happily. "Er. It's fine but yeah I wouldn't call that a graduation. More like a trip to hell and back. " She gives a heavy sigh. "Well you look like you're doing alright, so I hope that you are."
"Oh well, I've been doing shady jobs for my shady boss, nothing dirty trust me!" said Hikaru. "Well, is Joe, Rue and me.... I wonder if the party will rejoin again!"
Quentin followed the group to the half-destroyed bowling alley, where Clayton laid out a plan of attack. He nodded along as the vampire pointed out areas on the map and briefed them on what role each person would play. "The run of the mill human soldiers should take this safest path. Thomas should go with them, as should Aeon and Pam,” Clayton explained. “I will go with Joe, Keenan, and Evangeline along the more guarded path. Being that it is night, we will need to be especially careful of ambushes." While he spoke, Quentin checked his weapons and made sure everything was within easy reach. Knife, handgun, rifle. All ready to go. The others didn’t seem quite as concerned about the mission. Evangeline, in particular, was sitting on a nearby countertop with about a dozen bowling balls orbiting around her, like a protective barrier. She seemed to be gathering them from all over the bowling alley, like a game to see how many she could juggle, and didn’t seem to be listening to the mission briefing at all. "Maybe afterwards, we can move to the church, just to scout it and see what they have going on," Clayton said at the end of the briefing. “If there is an afterwards,” Quentin said. “If those storehouses really are as important as they seem, we’re gonna face heavy resistance. Pardon my language, but if this whole thing goes to shit, we may not get a chance to check out the rest of the site. We might have to high tail it outta here.” Evangeline scoffed. “Nonsense. We’ll have plenty of time to see the sights… once all the cultists are dead.” She smiled devilishly. “I’m going to bowl a perfect game tonight. Strike!”
"We should probably get moving, the others'll get impatient if we keep them waiting." I smiled and picked up the pace, as I walked past Keenan, I shot him a sidelong glance. "I'll show you that fighting fate is possible. I promise." I smiled at him and then continued into the bowling alley. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - I listened to the conversation, standing in a corner of the bowling alley. I walked forward and crossed my arms, brushing a few stray hairs behind my ear. "I'm sorry, but I'm going to the church. I'm telling you this now, because, there's no way that I'm not going. I'm not a member of your organization, nor do I have any form of obligation to obey your commands. If I'm correct, and that man is down in their inner sanctum, and it is indeed down below the church, it is best if I get the drop on him before he gets the drop on us. Surely, their preparations are nearly complete. If they catch us a second time, it will ensure our demise. If I'm wrong, then it'll be a minor failure on my part, and I will regroup with you."
RAGE electrified my body as I remembered his words. "It's really just... not smart with what you did, at all, now we can escape, and go and put an end to your little sect before you go around and sacrifice more innocents for your false god and keep making horrific creations like that Meat fellow. Now, I don't blame you because frankly your mind is probably completely gone due to magical insanity, or perhaps it's the result of one of their little rituals, can't say for certain. How about you just take a niiiiice little nap and when you wake up when this is all over, go make some better life decisions, go to a mental hospital, try and keep the symptoms at bay." He'd choked me until I'd passed out. Not a big deal, really. But for him to LIE and say that WE were responsible for sacrificing innocent lives was unforgivable. Did he not know that the Maniacals Corporation had set us up? Did he not know that we were merely patsies, set up to take the blame? He was on his way to the church now, striding along a well worn path when I jumped out in front of him. "You!" I shouted, taking him by surprise. "Your kind has declared war on us, but you are misguided! We pose no threat to you -- none whatsoever, yet you are hell bent on our destruction! Do you even recognize the level of corruption going on within your own ranks? Do you even know how my kind has been tortured and killed, and set up as scapegoats at the behest of your so called leaders?"
Unfortunately for the poor psychopath, she was having a hallucination. The detective was still standing inside of the bowling alley, discussing plans with the rest. To make matters worse, she was standing outside of one of the windows of the bowling alley shouting at empty air, alerting those inside. The next thing she knew, a ceramic vase filled with putrid water was smashed against the back of her head, making her lose consciousness once more. "That... is probably not good for her." I was holding the top half of the now broken vase, my top half hanging out of the window. "Sorry Miss Psychopath." I bowed apologetically to the now unconscious body lying in the muck outside of the bowling alley.
Clayton shook his head at seeing the cultist girl get hit with a pot of mud. A second after seeing her face Clayton realized she was the very same cultist Joe had knocked out before. While Clayton still had no problem firing upon and killing these insane cultists, he started o understand Joe's views about it. "Wait." Clayton said to Joe, holding up his hand "In the event that you are right about the church it will be more heavily guarded than it seems. One other person should go with you, and it should be more of a scouting objective than anything else." Clayton turned to Cheshire "I know neither you or him are under the orders of either Maniacles or ROSE, and your business here is different than ours, but in the event that you manage to benefit Maniacles here they will likely reward you. Clayton stood up "Everyone else, saddle up, as I used to say."
"Own it once, own it twice, continue killing, own it thrice." The wind picked up speed as clouds gathered and warm air collided with cool. Unbeknownst to those inside the nearly demolished alley, a twister was forming overhead. "Here's your Cat 5," I said, smiling maniacally.
I could hear the screams inside the building as it was torn to shreds. Served them right for needlessly killing innocents and placing blame where it did not belong.
Serra walked over to the window shortly after Joe walked away from it as maniacal laughter could be heard outside, seeing the girl standing there screaming something about cat5 "Joe, your lunatic is still at it" just then Serra noticed a long heavy stick just inside the window, grabbing it she swung it outside and hit the girl in the head and knocking her out again "Nevermind, handled it" Meanwhile Keenan poked his head out from the corner of the window, "hmm", he pulled himself back and and walked over to whatever group he was going with "well, let's get on with it then eh?"
REALLY? I mean, come on. I tried to create a tense scene with mmarage and he DISSED me. And now that I retaliate with a maniacal scene of my own I get railroaded? Alright. Fine.
The group argued about what should be the best course of action. Something happened, apparently a fly showed up or something like that. Whatever… Aeon grew tired, to wait in hide wasn’t his style. Let them argue and we’ll see the daylight before we reach to a conclusion thought while cracking his knuckles. “Guys, I’ll handle the distraction” Stated and without waiting for a reply he ran outside the building, into the close woods. The organization of the guard seemed average at least. Their eyes looked tired as if they had been guarding the place for almost a day. That proved one point, the cultist were short of people. That meant good for Aeon as they won’t be at their full capacities. At the contrary, Aeon was filled with energy. Let’s see what the cultists can do against the most powerful magic Thought with a grin. “Disarm…” A couple of seconds later, what seemed to be a bunch of rusty stakes were falling as arrows right above the cultist. Each stake like figure being in real a piece of wood Not all of them were mages, that was something already stablished, yet within the guards at least some were skillful practicioners of magic. A barrier was erected to guard agains the rain of stakes, yet that’s something Aeon foresaw already. “Rearm…” mumbled from his hiding spot. Then all the separated rusty stake like figures suddenly attracted between them, joining into a large figure, a very large figure. There were millions of pieces of wood and now there was only one a large tree. Their barrier was strong to contain a bunch of small pieces of wood falling without too much of weight, however when a large tree formed in the mid of the air and propelled against them like a missile their barrier felt simply too weak. The tree broke through it and impacted all the cultist below it without leaving them any room for escape. It tore piece of the ground apart and a screen of dust was formed. Aeon smiled next to a large spot were a tree used to be. I’m sure they were alerted of the presence of an intruder by this point… I mean…. Look at that. Thought the man as he revealed himself once the dust cleaned. Several wounded and perhaps dead cultist remained, however the situation attracted more armed guards to the spot and thus Aeon’s presence. That’s a window guys, take advantage of it….. I hope they’re smart enough to bring me a bit of support thought as gunfire begun to take action.
"Alright then." I smiled. "Buuut, again, I can't promise anything." I turned to Rue. "I want Rue to accompany me, she'll be perfect for infiltration due to her illusion magic. Let's go." I nodded at her and then rushed outside of the bowling alley and began working my way toward the church. "Maybe getting in through the roof will work... Surely there are windows or holes that we could slip in through, this place has been abandoned for a while, though, of course, they might have patched those up in an effort to protect the church from intruders. However, if they did any major renovations, then it would give away to those that are observant that there definitely is something within the church... Time to make a little gamble."
NOTE: I AM ON YOUR SIDE NOW. I HAVE LEFT THE RANKS OF THE REBELLION. My mind hovering, going from room to room until I could be sure that there were no living targets and no treasure to be had inside the church, I paused. Finally, I spoke. "Burn it to the ground," I said. "There's nothing of value here."
Rue looks to Joe when he turns to her and nods. "Well if I can help in any way, I 'm all for it. Just lead the way captain." She teases before quickly running after Joe. "Just let me know about the plan when we get there. Unless needbe it wouldn't be beneficial to talk aloud alright? Don't want spying ears along with those eyes." She says up to Joe.
I looked over at her and smiled. "I think that accessing the church through the roof would be a good idea." I looked around for a second and then suddenly stopped and grabbed her arm. "Don't move, please." A silver glyph appeared beneath us and slowly began to raise us into the air. "We should stick to the roofs and treetops. Not a lot of people look up, but, since our little escape attempt, they'll be far more weary, we'll just have to hope that they expect us from the ground." As soon as we reached a branch that would seem to support our weight, I stepped off, keeping the glyph active. "Follow me, and be careful." I began making my way towards the church, using a mixture of tree branches and smaller glyphs to act as stepping stones, keeping them active to allow Rue to cross safely.
Rue nods her head a bit surprised at first seeing the glyph. "Fancy. Look at you and your handy magic." She smirks stepping off onto the tree branch too. "Just don't leave me in the dust okay? " She turns to go after him using the path he was using. "Heh if this wasn't a serious thing this would be pretty fun." Rue gives a heavy sigh. "Well then rooftops it is. I'll try to cover us if anyone notices okay?"
So it seemed Clayton's plan had been unnecessary. While the resistance faced on both paths were more than expected, the cultists lacked the mix of skill and technology to stop the mercenaries. The resilience of the vampire Mercs was likely one of the key factors in their success surrounding the store houses. Clayton had sustained injuries, and was walking around with gunshot wounds oozing blood. This of course mostly went unnoticed. If becoming a vampire could be considered a blessing, this was definitely a reason why. Still, Clayton couldn't help but sigh at the tree missile attack. Sure, it took out the cultists guarding whatever there was, but now every cultist in the swamp was heading their way right now. But without saying a thing, Clayton immediately jumped into action, taking out cultists who were attacking from the trees and incoming from all directions. It wasn't all rifles and pistols being fired at him, but mages throwing fire attacks and balls of energy. A few vampire cultists even nearly had him matched in strength, but not in skill. This would be a tough fight to protect not only themselves from the cultists, but also the warehouses in case they had what the Mercs came for.
"Ah, but why can't it still be fun?" I grinned easily at her. Eventually we leaped onto a rooftop not too far from the church and the storehouses. "Oh geez..." We could see the fighting from here. "I hope they'll be alright..." I rubbed the back of my head. "We should hurry." I began running across the rooftops toward the church, avoiding holes that had developed over time. I eventually stopped laid down on top of the rooftop, peering over the edge, towards the front of the church. "I was right." Even with all the fighting happening only a few hundred feet away, there were still a few cultists hanging around the front of the church. "They're still guarding the church, just in case attacking their storehouses is merely a distraction..." I looked over at Rue. "We're going to need an illusion of the sky here, Rue, so then we can cross without being noticed." I whispered.
Rue shook her head with a chuckle. Once on the nearby roof she looked at the fighting with a sigh. "Yeah we should. If they're not fine we can back them up. Maybe." She frowns following Joe laying down on the roof by him when he ducks down. "So basically make a layer of illusion for them. I can do that. Just don't go below it ok? No guarantees that I can catch it." She whispers with a smirk. "But ready?" She says quietly concentrating as an illusion of the sky would appear between the cultists and them to block their view of Joe and herself. "It's up." She whispers over.
