UN Special Forces Poland Research Base

[albatross]

The huge creature waits on the left side of the doorway, opposite the door. The revolver in Khris' left hand has the clear shot. The thing is watching him with its beady eyes and steps forward.

[dakota]

Khris held his fire, but brought the shotgun around to point towards the creature and then spoke in a calm voice, "I can't miss at this range, and this thing will cut a tank in half if I empty the magazine. Now all we want is to talk, but I have problems killing you, so calm the hell down."

[albatross]

The creature hesitates, stutter steps. Then pauses and waits. Its eyes are calm and regard Khris with their inhuman gaze.

The creature holds both hands out, palms open. Perhaps to show it is unarmed, or perhaps some other meaning to the gesture.

[dakota]

Khris didn't lower his weapon as he got to his feet. "Nothing personal, but I know you can tear me a new one. Tiger," he raised his voice slightly," want to have that talk with your dance partner now?"

[albatross]

Tiger holsters her guns and steps into the room. She steps close to the creature, careful not to come between it and the AA12's line of sight. She looks the creature over slowly. It doesn't appear to be carrying many possessions. It has what looks like homemade shorts, a belt of braided rope.

After a moment, Tiger spots a medallion of twisted metal looped into one side of the belt. Tiger gestures to the medallion. The creature snorts. Tiger holds out her hand, palm open. The thing eyes Khris and his gun. Its eyes dart about the room looking to escape, but it is cornered.

Slowly the giant unties its belt, slips the medallion off and reties the belt. Tiger stands with her hand outstretched. The giant starts to whine and plead, tears forming in its eyes and dripping down its face.

"I need it to save everyone," Tiger says calmly.

The giant eyes Khris' gun again, thinking.

[dakota]

"Tigger, I think we owe him an explanation why we need his help." Khris said, getting to his feet. He looked at the giant, then took a chance and lowered his shotgun barrel to the floor. "Look, I don't want to hurt you, but we need this. We're trying to save the entire planet.... , "he hesitated, and took a chance. "Tiger, it will be easier to show him, and he's already shown he has what it takes by getting the better of you and Akane."He looked back at the giant and tossed Tiger back her pistol, then pulled out his Omega Shield ID. "Come with us and everything will be explained. If you decide you don't want to stay, we'll bring you back here, but I think from what I've seen today and heard about you, you'd be happier helping more than just your neighbors from ocal troublemakers."What do you say?" He glanced at Tiger, not sure if she was going to agree with his idea.

[albatross]

The creature listens to Khris intently. Then it shakes its head back and forth, no.

It points to itself and then points down, gestures around. Then it repeats the gesture. It intends to stay here. It hands the medallion to Tiger. But then it it points to her and Khris and to itself and to the floor again.

"Later," Tiger says softly. "We'll bring it back when we are done."

The beast nods.

Tiger steps out of the room carrying the medallion and motions for Khris to follow.

[dakota]

Khris nods in understanding, and slings the shotgun. " We'll be back as soon as we can." He followed Tiger out towards her motorcycle. "I don't suppose you can turn that off? And see, I don't always have to shoot somebody, threatening to do it works just as well sometimes." He smirked.

[albatross]

Tiger shrugs, "I'm not sure how it works." Khris can feel his senses return, so it must be off currently.

She smiles as she gets on the motorcycle, "Good work. Mugging someone doesn't feel great, but it does beat killing a person to steal their stuff. Let's get back to the others. I'll give this thing to Dante to figure out."

[dakota]

"Would have been better you helped convince him to join us. We could have used some muscle on the team, even if he looked like something out of children's book." Khris replied. " If Dante can't do it, we can call Wrecker, maybe let Jeckle look too."

[albatross]

When they get back to the rest of the team, Tiger takes the time to tell everyone that she would like the medallion returned to the creature when the mission is over. She intends to do it herself, but there might be several priorities in the aftermath.

On the drive back to the plane she says to Khris, "He would have been tough to disguise. But more than that, vigilante's often protect a territory that is important to them. According to the data, he doesn't range very far. This is likely his home. If it wasn't he would have come with us to watch.. uh... whatever that is." Dante is holding it in the backseat and examining it thoughtfully as Jeckle peers over his shoulder.

[dakota]

"I guess, " Khris said, still a little bothered how they had gone about collecting the item. "Don't get it. I used to plug someone a half mile away and then clean their pockets without a second thought, but I can't take a beatup hunk of medal from a giant. critter that wanted to beat my brains in, because he looked like he was gonna cry?" He paused and looked out the window for a moment. "I must be getting to old for this or something."

[albatross]

The flight back is uneventful at first.  Jeckle and Dante get to examine the medallion.  Dante can use it easily.  It can be activated and deactivated mentally at will and requires a small amount of concentration to keep it active.  Shouldn't be too hard to train Peacemaker or Merrow to use it. 

A couple hours from arrival at the Poland UN Base, a coded transmission arrives.  Tiger leaves Bel at the controls and comes back to the comm center.  "Its from Lt. White," Tiger says with a shrug.  She turns it on.

"Switch to code pattern we discussed before you left." White says right away.  Tiger hits some switches.

"Done, and we got the toy.  What have you got that couldn't wait two hours?" Tiger asks.

White looks straight into the camera, his eyes are steady and his face expressionless, though his eyes flick briefly over Tiger's shoulder to Jeckle for an instant.  "Before I start I want to tell you that everyone is still alive and there are no major injuries."

Tiger stares at the screen.  "Tell me."

White shakes his head.  "Its too much.  I'll show you.  Remember what I said, though, everyone is doing fine."

"I'll remember," Tiger mumbles.

White hits a button a video transmission begins.  On the video lights flash and alarms sound in the distance.  The view is of the main hanger elevator.  Inside the hanger is the power armor of the 1st Air Calvary.  And with them is Dancer.  Tiger's eyes lock on the screen.

The blinking lights make it hard to see.  One moment the power armor and Dancer are standing there, and the next instant a black winged figure is upside down in the air over Dancer, reaching down.  Dancer extends her hand to the winged girl, they grasp hands, and both Dancer and the winged girl vanish. 

The power armor squadron leader barks out orders, "They can't have gone far.  Split up and re-acquire."  They open doors in the hanger elevator in three different directions.  In two directions, six power armor travel down the corridors immediately.  And Marv's shadow slips inside and climbs up the wall.

But in the third corridor stands Rock.  He is looking at the floor and his feet shuffle, revealing his legs and hands are shaking.  "Wha...  uh...  going...  um... Giza?" Rock mumbles.  Unseen, Veil stood in the shadows of the hallway behind him, hidden by the doorway.

"Get outta the way kid," The captain says.   His voice is more filled with pity than derision.  The 1st Air Cav knew about Rock after all.  Sometimes soldier's minds were broken on the field of battle.

"WhatarugunnadowithGiza!!!" Rock roared and slammed his foot to the floor with a force that could be felt by the pilots inside their power armor.  Dust swirled in the hanger in odd patterns, moved by the flow of chi.

Marv grunts, then his voice echoes oddly in the hanger.  Is he above them? To one side, or the other?  "....They were going to take Giza and one robot and have her fight.  Alone."

The captain of the 1st Air Cavalry, 7th squadron, had quickly realized the difference between a phobia and general PTSD.  Rock was afraid of unstoppable demons and Tiger, but that had not always been true and he certainly had no fear of a squadron of power armor.  The captain was starting to recall all the intel on Rock's feats of strength.

Rock watched the captain intently.  Tiger had taught him how to spot lies in their training before the Trials.  Narrowed pupils.  A slight shifting of glance that would be invisible at this range to people without Rock's hawk like vision.  Excuses instead of denials.

The captain held up a hand, "Look kid-"  Rock saw the lie.  Rock's pupils narrowed to pin pricks as if he were staring directly into the sun. At first it seemed like Rock twitched.  By the time the power armor in front him realized he was moving he was already behind them.  They started to turn. The captain tried to shift his outstretched palm back to his gun.  Fast.  So fast.  Too fast. 

Rock wasn't just fast. The chi pumping through his body made him fluid grace.  Behind the captain now he snaked his arm and hand between the neck brace armor and the captain's helmet.  Torque.  Soluminescence. With a crack Rock's twisting knife hand hits the back of the captain's head. Rock is strong, and the chi flowing through him makes him stronger still. And Veil stands in the shadows. Even wearing an armored helmet the captain loses consciousness and his power armor slumps.

There were five other power armor that were supposed to remain with the captain while the other eighteen went down the corridors. Twelve had left down the other corridors to either side while the six who had been assigned to Rock's corridor were now all turning around to see what was going on. With the captain unconscious, there were eleven still in the hanger.

The five next to the captain were in shock, unsure what to do, but the six turning around saw the captain go down and brought their weapons around. But before they could fire Marv slipped a huge finger into the trigger guard of one the the power armor's long guns. He was behind the unit, locking it's arm. He squeezed his finger and the power armor could not break the contact. Rounds sprayed, peppering the six behind Rock. They desperately sought cover, but it was a big open hanger. The pilot of the unit whose gun was being used against his will tried to aim elsewhere but Marv just broke his wrist and tossed him into the unit next to them that was starting to train his gun on Marv. With a crash, Rock chucked the unconscious captain and his power armor into another, stepped to one side, and knocked another pilot unconscious with a flick of his wrist.

For a few moments, chaos claimed the hanger. Rock and Marv kept defending each other – hurling power armor into whoever was trying to shoot the other person. And every time they got close, Marv broke bones and Rock knocked people out. Finally, a power armor unit got a gun on Rock, but he dodged the shot and knocked the gun right out of the armored grip. With a quick kick Rock launched the weapon into Marv's hands. There was a pause as power armor shrank back, trying in vain to flee. Marv seemed to cock his ear. He waited. There was a boom in the distance. A distant explosion. Then Marv leveled the 20mm cannon at the elevator controls and blasted them apart.

Marv smirked, “No. More. Elevators.” He put his foot and the gun against the neck of the unconscious captain. “Drop your weapons and get outta your armor. You're trapped, the elevators are all broken. You are cut off, surrounded and if you don't give up right now, I won't hold back. Starting with captain crap for brains.” Off in the distance, there were thunks and thuds and radio chatter indicating one of the groups of six that had left the hanger had encountered Roan. Their calls for help ceased quickly. Followed by silence. “Ain't no reinforcements,” Marv said flatly.

The 7th squadron surrendered. Tiger stared at the screen speechless. Rock was, despite her coldness, her favorite student bar none. And without Dancer Tiger knew the entire plan would fail. And the Americans had endorsed her promotion to director. Her knuckles were white and she stood stock still. Furious. She was too angry to speak.

[sasqaricious]

(OOC - Screw it just jumping in...)

Akane for the most part being herself just observes the whole thing with the eyes of a girl who has seen more then what her outward appearance tends to state. As a creature of emotions she stands there vigilante in watching what has just gone on.

[dakota]

Watching both the monitor and Tiger's reaction, Khris slipped in behind her and placed his arms around Tiger, both to try to calm her down and to let her know he was there for her. He spoke softly, "Relax, they handled things. Nothing you can do from here, and Marv did exactly what you would have, except I probably would have got my ass kicked in the process. "