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 Posted: Sat Aug 01, 2009 11:22 pm
Petrachkov had indeed caught up, grabbing a few M82 magazines as well. All his weapons were now locked and loaded. "Some freak calls himself the Jack of Diamonds, and he's wearing silly clothes. Armor resistant to bullets, been blocking them. I could try and pull back and snipe him, sir. If you think it'll work, I've got absolutely nothing on this guy at all."
M82: <10>/10/10/10 [40]
UMP: <25!/25>/(25/25)/(25/25)/(25/25)/(25/25)/(25/25)/(25/25)/(25/25) [400]
Five-seveN: <21>/20/20/7 [68]
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Posted: Sun Aug 02, 2009 7:09 am
"Hm," Catalena sneered from her position on the ground. One sword flew in from the side to hit the incoming weapon just below the assailant's forward-most hand with the crook of its hilt and shaft, halting the halberd's rotational action at the point of least torque before switching direction and heading towards the assassin's throat. The other swung around to the back and came in for a decapitating strike.
Meanwhile, Catalena thrust herself off the edge, very carefully caught herself so that she appeared to be standing on the broken edge of the bridge with a shifted center of gravity, and jumped off, blowing a kiss goodbye as she sailed smoothly away, seeming to float on her back where the bridge once had been. Because orthogonal forces, don't interact, all she needed was the upward telekinesis to prevent her from falling. She imagined she had just enough strength to carry herself a little past the gap; fighting gravity is not easy, even for her.
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Posted: Sun Aug 02, 2009 2:03 pm
There oftentimes comes a point in a fight where one person realizes they are entirely outclassed. Their opponent is too prepared, knows all their tricks (or enough to fake it), is too strong or too fast.
The armored woman jumped backwards while in a forward-flipping motion; the decapitating blade swung past her while the blade coming from the front was deflected by her helmet. She landed on one hand and pushed off it it, returning to her feet. The air around her rippled and she began to run forward at the gap, the guandao raised horizontally in front of her.
--
--
"Now now, that's not nice to say about me at all. You're quite rude, you know!" the Jack of Diamonds called from outside. "Ooh, a voice on the top! I'll go visit him first!" Blackstone and Petrachkov heard a series of footsteps going up the side of the tower.
"Back to the top!" Blackstone called out. "I'll boost you!" He slid to a halt at the foot of the tower and cupped his hands. Petrachkov leaped off the makeshift step and was halfway out in a single bound. He arrived in time to see Agent Kaiser rematerializing. "Kaiser. Where's the girl?"
"Blackstone! She was supposed to be here, I told her to- Oh, damn it! Should I go?"
"No, I'll find her. Which way was she?"
"North."
"Kaiser!"
"Two floors up, left from the stairs in Dreighton."
"Ugh. B e back in a moment."
"You'd better. Well kids, you ready to fight this guy," the Ghoster spoke - it wasn't really a question - as he turned to face the Jack of Diamonds.
"So very tiresome. You can't honestly expect for this to faze me." The Jack rolled his eyes and inspected his bright crimson gloves. "I'm ready when you are. I'll even let you strike first." He tugged on the glove. "But not really." He flicked his hand at them; they dove to the ground instinctively, avoiding the needles he'd thrown. He brought his sword up and slammed it down towards the Ghoster, who Ghosted and flew towards the Jack's throat. The Jack of Diamonds ducked it and extended a hand towards the Ghoster; a mana pulse launched him away. As he tried to re-stabilize, the Jack advanced on Pullman and Petrachkov.
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Posted: Sun Aug 02, 2009 2:18 pm
Crack!
The gunshot echoed across the empty air and reverberated back from the nearby towers. The sound of a .50 cal rifle was something unmistakable. The second shot wasn't any less so.
Crack!
Petrachkov had dropped to his stomach, deployed the rifle, and easily gotten a bead on the man. If he could block that with his flimsy sword, Petrachkov would be extremely impressed. If only there was time to get to his power armor!
M82: <8>/10/10/10 [38]
UMP: <25!/25>/(25/25)/(25/25)/(25/25)/(25/25)/(25/25)/(25/25)/(25/25) [400]
Five-seveN: <21>/20/20/7 [68]
GAR: <31>/30/30/30/30/30/30/3
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Posted: Sun Aug 02, 2009 2:52 pm
The Jack brought the sword around and braced it in the path of the round before Petrachkov fired. With each shot, he slid back about five feet.
"That'll be quite enough of that," Jack commented as the Ghoster approached him from the back. Suddenly, he stopped; he frowned and held his left hand to his ear. "What? How did they take BR's ear off? Ugh. Fine." He pulled his hand away. "We'll continue this later. Good luck finding the ship...." He ran to the edge of the roof and jumped off, landing on the crystal bridge and disappearing into the mall seconds later.
"What the hell just happened..." the Ghoster murmured. "He knows our mission."
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Posted: Sun Aug 02, 2009 3:18 pm
"Who cares? He's off our case, let's just get it done and worry about it later," Petrachkov suggested. "Next time I won't be so relaxed about this... I need to be wearing armor more often. Where the ******** is my armor right now?" he asked, standing and swapping magazines on the M82. He'd hardly expended any ammunition, but he could just reload the magazines later. "Let's get out of here," he suggested. "Get anywhere but here."
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Posted: Sun Aug 02, 2009 4:07 pm
"The aerocopter will be here soon," the Ghoster replied. His eyes suddenly went wide. "He might be trying to ambush Blackstone from the back... s**t...."
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Posted: Sun Aug 02, 2009 4:22 pm
Catalena wondered exactly when that point would come for this woman. She snatched her blades out of the air as they came back to her, using their momentum to boost her own speed, and continued floating backwards, eyes always on the attacker and one hand behind her to feel for the other end of the bridge. Anticipating that this woman's jump would take her to at least to the opposite end of the gap, Catalena... thought.
She had been concentrating on getting away because she knew she could not fight the woman in one-on-one melée; it simply was not an option. Proud she may have been, but stupid? That was another story entirely.
One sword went into the jacket fluttering beneath her. If she could reach that edge in time, and she would most surely get there first (barring, of course, the rippling in the air having an accelerating affect on the other girl), she could bring yet another tactic to her aid to let her find a better vantage point. The other sword was held defensively in front of her; having to rely on mental strength alone would do her no good if the enemy actually got in range.
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Posted: Sun Aug 02, 2009 4:31 pm
The rippled repeated as the armored woman came to an abrupt stop at the edge and swung her guandao through the empty air.
The ripple of air continued moving. The bridge collapsed behind Catalena, leaving another ten feet to travel before she would reach solid ground.
Blackstone emerged from the doorway to the bridge, in the direction Catalena was traveling.
"Jacobson? Can you make it?" Blackstone asked, stopping far enough away that his REF wouldn't interfere with her.
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Posted: Sun Aug 02, 2009 5:15 pm
Shockwave!
Catalena knew it would not be the most controlled movement ever, but as the ripple passed through her, she let it carry her a little way, guessing the goal before it reached the other side. At Blackstone's voice, she growled in frustration that she would need his help, but loosed her pride just long enough to answer, "Not quite! I would appreciate aid!" She was struggling to stay afloat as it was, and it took all of her balance from her dancing and jiujitsu to turn and latch a hand onto the edge. The other was holding her shoes and one blade, and her mind was pulling up the hovering sword as she hung there, trying to keep the best grip she could. All of her mental faculties were not concentrated on getting herself and her affects onto that platform. It burned her as she looked over her shoulder at the attacker.
That woman would die upon their next encounter.
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Posted: Sun Aug 02, 2009 5:25 pm
Crack! Crack!
Another two shots rang out from high above Catalena as Petrachkov decided to enter the conflict. Two .50 caliber bullets raged their way towards the woman in the armor, one at a time. The Jack of Diamonds might show up at any moment, and the assistance was necessary.
"BLACKSTONE! WATCH BEHIND YOU!" Petrachkov roared, taking a break before lining up for a third shot from his high post. He couldn't tell if Blackstone had heard; it wasn't important. For now he just needed to do what he could do.
M82: <9>/10/10/7 [36]
UMP: <25!/25>/(25/25)/(25/25)/(25/25)/(25/25)/(25/25)/(25/25)/(25/25) [400]
Five-seveN: <21>/20/20/7 [68]
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Posted: Sun Aug 02, 2009 5:45 pm
Petrachkov hoped the augmented hearing from the helmet would let Blackstone get his warning. Blackstone took Catalena's hand and looked over his shoulder as he pulled her up. "SONOVA-" was as far as Blackstone got.
The Jack of Diamonds rushed out, clearing the ten-foot distance in two steps, faster than Petrachkov could adjust his aim. As he and Catelena almost made it up, the Jack dodged the kinetic rounds Blackstone fired and bodyslammed them, throwing both him and Catalena off the edge. There was no bridge beneath them.
Blackstone glanced around and yelled, "Slow your fall!" He positioned her to his side and shoved off of her, slamming hard against a bridge while she began to fall/drift sideways towards another, lower one.
The Jack and his compatriot looked at each other. The Jack emptied his powder bag over himself as the armored female looked up at the source of the bullets that had deflected from her armor. She made two odd hand signs at him before making her exit. Petrachkov tried to fire a final shot at her - hopefully one that wouldn't fail against her armor like the first two - and a kinetic bolt exploded just out of the range of his REF, the shockwave knocking the gun from his hands.
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Posted: Sun Aug 02, 2009 6:24 pm
"Dammit!" Petrachkov yelled as the M82 sprung from his grip. It clattered to the ground behind him and he rolled away for cover, recovering his weapon as quickly as possible. "s**t, they fell!" he told Kaiser and Pullman.
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Posted: Sun Aug 02, 2009 8:33 pm
Thus far, Pullman had watched the events following his confrontation with the Black Rook in a euphoric blur of violent images. It was like he’d been kicked in the teeth (which, theoretically, he could very well have been in the course of combat), like a whole new world was open to him. He’d realized things like this went on in the world, but that he was actually going to get to be a part of it?
s**t, I should’ve started doing this years ago.
Pullman snapped out of his reverie, intruded upon by the panicked voice of Petrachkov. “s**t, they fell!”
Pullman stared blankly ahead at the edge of the building, then to Petrachkov.
“…And?”
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Posted: Sun Aug 02, 2009 8:39 pm
"And?"
Petrachkov stared at him incredulously. "That's a ******** bad thing!" he snapped. "I'm guessing Blackstone'll be alive, but that other one - who the ******** knows? That's bullshit, that's bullshit!" he declared loudly.
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