Scene #6783: Hot BODD Pt 2: Kicking The Hornet's Nest

Owner	Pose
Penelope Vasquez	"We really kicked the hornet's nest on this one, guys." Monica's dire, strained tones echo through everyone's headsets. Barduk struggles and writhes where he lies on the floor, bound and gagged. The fellow gang members that tied him up, and a few ladies of the night, filter out of the panic bunker; chipping away at the goons cemented in riot foam by Lory, patching up and stabilizing those injured but not yet dead as best they can. Outside, there's little indication anything is wrong in the night. But the Handler continues to speak with strained tones, chewing on her plastic spoon in agitation. "So far as we can tell- Barduk got a call out. And because nobody there knows you're Bureau, they've sent in the fucking cavalry to send a message. That apartment complex is going to be a warzone, and our exit strategy of walking you out the front door is out the window." There's a faint electric buzz over the line. Monica takes a deep breath, and releases it slowly. "...alright. Right. There's vans pulling up out front now, disgorging... eyes say two dozen men. Heavy armed, armored. Looks like we finally know what happened to the riot gear from that depot getting knocked over. They're going floor by floor, room by room asking about people. So you have time." "Up top, there's a helicopter incoming. Cargo carrier model, but... they've jury-rigged weapons to it. Phantomas dislodging there too. My guess is they're going to do the same, sweep top to bottom, meet with the ground crew in the middle. The issue here is that they're only a couple floors up from you. They're going to check the Coffins, then they'll be on your ass." There's another soft buzz, and another breath. "...and we're seeing sniper coverage too. At least twelve. Stay away from the windows. I'm- I'm doing what I can to arrange an extraction, but the Bureau isn't going to move mountains for some contractors. If you were one of our own, we could arrange a helipickup, or- or something. I don't know. You may have to hunker down. But- civilians are going to die in this sweep, being no-knocked by a bunch of wigged-out gangbangers. Fuck..."
Lory Thumper	With a plan of some kind in place, Lory leaves Barduk for Nova and heads to scout out the floor. She looks for each air vent and for any fire alarm pull handles. She leaves some tranq darts behind just in case someone wants to use them on Barduk once Nova is done. And she tries to keep her breathing under control. She's trained for this sort of thing, but it is her first actual 'trapped without backup' situation, especially when it seems like the incoming hostiles will not take prisoners. If and when she finds a fire alarm pull handle near an air vent she stops and waits. "Okay, I'm in position. Just say the word, I'll hop into the vents again and start setting smoke grenades. I might just try and ride the vents down to the ground floor." But, just in case she tries to finds a hat, coat, and orange bandana somewhere.
Nova Terra	Tch. This would be much easier if she were alone. Nova steps away from the window, not wanting to give the snipers that are setting up an opportunity. Most of the options she can think up are either too unreliable to do with the others around, or result in too many deaths which might piss off their contacts here. Which Nova isn't too concerned about. But is still probably last resort material. The rabbit does manage to come up with a pretty good plan, apart from the issue of Barduk. But then Monica provides a solution for that. One which Nova is happy to go through with. The Ghost storms up to the bound and gagged captive, leaving him that way as she grabs and lifts him with just the one hand. Raising her visor so she can look at him directly, Nova uses her considerable psychic power to tunnel into his mind, expecting him unable to resist even if he did have training to do so. Which Nova greatly doubts he does. Nova is not gentle as she probes his mind. It's not a pleasant experience.
Laina Reliah	Laina stows her gun, moving to the stairs as she pulls another bundle of wires and metal from her belt. She rushes down two flights of stairs, then drops to one knee. She spikes a small gas bomb into the wall, then pulls a tripwire across the staircase. As dangerous and painful as the stuff was, she figured the stairway should be isolated enough and the cloud small enough that it shouldn't slip into any nearby doors. Hopefully. Laina set another gas tripwire at the start of the top flight of stairs, then placed her last two bear traps on the landing. She perked her ears, another idea rushing into her devious little head. Laina stood and ran back towards the others, dropping to her knees and sliding to a stop in front of the brick of Semtex. She goes about tearing out spark plugs and pulling off a mere half of a thumb-sized piece of the explosive. She jams a spark plug into the white mush, runs back to the stairway, and sets it on the final flight of stairs. "Right, they're gonna have trouble getting up here. And when they do, they're gonna have trouble getting back down too without breaking a leg. All that's left is how we get down." Laina jogs back towards Nova again, picking up the remote with it's little red button. She drops to one knee again, resting her arm on her thigh. "Could be worse, all things considered."
Penelope Vasquez	Lory's adventuring through the hall and a few floors is fruitful. Every hall is exactly identical, barring some personalization one the doors; welcome mats, or stickers, or chalk drawings on the concrete floors. A large air vent at the end of the hall, under a window facing the exterior. A fire alarm to pull exactly midway through the hall. Nobody's out and about, though; you don't go outside after hearing World War Three in the next door apartment. Unfortunately, that means the only people Lory could steal clothes from are the people Nova took care of in the other apartment, unless Lory would like to do some B and E. It's a bloodbath in there. The gangsters that didn't surrender weren't given the relatively gentle treatment of Lory and Laina; they were ripped apart by sheer brute force and flying furniture. There's probably enough clothes not soaked in blood to assemble a very crude disguise. Laina's prep is unmolested. The first couple floors down are booby-trapped; it may be some time before those traps see use, though, considering how high up they are. The landing leading to the floor up is trapped as well; if Laina pokes her head up, she can see the first of the Phantomas shock troops. Helmeted, wearing police SWAT gear painted white and orange. The floor simply labeled as 'COFFINS' is a single room, five stories up; there's no lighting, the only visibility coming from the massive sheet of glass set in the ceiling, which has been shattered and is being rapelled through by gangster troopers. There's angry shouting as quote-unquote apartments- little more than a bed and a shelf set into the wall- are shaken down for information. Once or twice, a gunshot, before the troops move on to the next cubicle. Barduk obviously does not have special psychic resistance. His eyes go wide as Nova invades his mind- grunts and groans of pain are muffled by his gag, and his body contorts against it's bindings. Monica's whisper in the team's ear is translated directly through to Barduk. "What is Project Bergeron?" A memory of childhood in a classroom. A presentation about a book by Vonnegut that wasn't paid attention to. Another; a meeting. Adults. Blurred faces, everyone wearing the gang's colors. The Semtex. It was destined for a bridge out of town. "Where is the funding coming from? We spend half our time crushing your backers." Only static. Small sales of drugs on the streets, sometimes arms. Collecting tolls from people living in the area. Tithes from building owners. "What do you know of Seven-Three-Six or One-Oh-Eight-Zero?" A memory of a man which looks much like Barduk. He thinks of him as Barduk too. Slightly older, slightly more confident. It's his funeral. Not many people have shown up. There's a shot of violence in the thought- a zombie in a trenchcoat, stabbing an ice pick which crackles and smokes into the elder Barduk's neck- A shot rings through the night, and Barduk's head pops like a melon, mid-connection. The other gangers have taken the time to clear out as Nova interrogated the man. The window is shattered. Nova was out of sight of the window, but Barduk was not, evidently. It may be time to move quickly.
Nova Terra	Nova has to suffer through hearing people's thoughts all the time. She doesn't particularly enjoy it then, let alone when she's doing it intentionally. Though the years have left her rather dull to much of it. Still, she's eagerly awaiting the moment that she can get out of this thug's head. That moment comes earlier than expected when said thug's head explodes. It's not the first time Nova has been inside someone's mind when they died. The result varies depending upon the means. In this case, it hits her like a truck, Nova dropping the now lifeless corpse as she staggers back, clutching her head. Nova leans against a wall to take a moment to recover, relaying the information to Monica as she does so. But soon enough it's time to move out. Nova shakes her head to clear it, gripping her rifle once more as she moves to check the hallway, "Alright. Let's get the hell out of here."
Lory Thumper	Lory has to take a moment when she comes upont the bloodbath that Nova left in her wake. "...sweet...peas and carrots..." she says to herself quietly. But, she forces herself to power through and collect some clothing items that are as bloodless as possible. She takes as big a jacket as she can find, an orange bandana, and one of those stretchy knitted wool hats if she can find one. She doesn't put them on yet though. If a sniper caught sight of her wearing the clothes they might alert someone to the disguise. It also doesn't bode well that the vent and fire alarm pull are in a hallway with a nice big window to the outside. She'll deal with that in a moment. For now, she gathers some pots and pans and some wood and paper debris. Trying to keep out of sight of windows, she sets up the pots and pans away from walls and curtains with the wood and paper inside, then sets fire to them with her stun gun. Real props are the best props, and if the building has an automated fire detection system this should set it off. If not, perhaps a sniper might report a fire. Once that is done, Lory radios to the others. "I've set a decoy fire that -should- stay controlled to make it more believable, and I'm about to set off plenty of smoke grenades to go with it. It should break the snipers' sight lines. Assuming they don't have alternative detection scopes. I'm heading to the vent. Pulling the fire alarm in 30 seconds if it doesn't go off on its own." Lory makes sure smoke preceeds her every move as she makes her way toward the fire alarm. When either the automated system goes off or the 30 seconds are up, she then makes her way into the vent with the clothes she gathered tied around her waist.
Laina Reliah	Laina simply waits next to Nova, bouncing her hand up and down on her thigh as the woman interrogates Barduk. Once the head is exploded and the plan is made, Laina forcibly peels off another thumb-sized lump of Semtex, jams the spark plug into it, and sticks it on the ground in the hallway. She backs away from her little rigged breaching bomb, hiding behind a doorframe to allow her to watch the stairway, holding up the remote. Laina raises the remote, her finger hovering over the button. "Loud and clear. The moment they're here and shit goes down, I'll smash the button. Spooky n' I'll be behind you, Rabbit."
Penelope Vasquez	Lory, garbed in wrappings of gangster gear, leaps into the vents and makes her way down as smoke grenades pop off. The fire alarms go off soon enough; and an earsplitting BREEP! BREEP! BREEP! begins to echo through every hall on the top ten floors of the building. Below the gang, civilians begin to filter out of their apartments, making a slow traversal to the bottom floors; grumbling to themselves about how someone smoked a fat cloud directly into the air sensor again, probably. The masses of humanity slowly flow down the building. On the 35th floor, where Laina and Nova are, they're reluctant to come out for some time, due to all the gunfire and such. Eventually, though, they do, headed towards the stairs. Which, moments ago, were covered in gas traps and beartraps; good thing Laina thought twice! Either way, they're safe. Lory's plan to just ride the vents down to the floor isn't quite perfect- the apartments share one massive ventilation system, but it seems it, like the fire alarms, is divided into rough sections. She can slip and slide and crawl her way about halfway down the building before she must exit; these are the nicer floors, less concrete box-y, and the elevator services here! Unfortunately, she can see through the vent that the Phantomas have set up a crude checkpoint before the elevator. They're checking and waving people through, the crowd building higher and higher as the people from the top floors trickle in. Back upstairs, Laina blows the charge. The floor of the hall, in a flash of light and sound, now has a hole in it! They can see down through it, to... an identical apartment, in layout, on the thirty-fourth floor. It's already been vacated by the occupants, thankfully. As the bomb pops off, one of the gangers at the checkpoint downstairs touches at his helmet- Lory can hear with those big ears of hers a quiet discussion with the 'upstairs crew.' A few soldiers have peeled off of checking the coffins to investigate the bang.
Nova Terra	Nova ducks into a room as the charge in the hall detonates. She steps out once again after the dust has settled, though doesn't immediately jump in. Instead she takes a cylindrical device attached to her suit on the leg. She presses a button on it before throwing it towards the entrance into this apartment. Nova briefly explains to Laina, "Motion triggered flashbang. Should keep them busy an extra moment or two." Nova then jumps down into the next apartment. Landing with a light thud, Nova quickly makes for this apartment's exit. She cautiously opens the door, sweeping the main hallway with her rifle to check that it's clear. She then makes her way out to head for the stairs down. Hopefully they'll have a clear path to the exit from here. Getting into a firefight would be bad, just drawing the whole building of goons down on them.
Lory Thumper	It is just as well that Lory can't just slide all the way down to the ground floor. She was actually planning to pop smoke on every floor and pop out on every tenth floor to set up more smoke and set off more alarms to try and make it seem like a real fire and to get more of a crowd running to make more of a distraction and get more civilians out of harm's way. When she sees the makeshift checkpoint Lory skips that floor and tries the next. Someone popping out of a vent would be pretty suspicious. If the next floor is also like that, she sets up smoke before popping out. Gotta keep the herd moving if she wants to make a good enough distraction. But, when she encounters the forced exit she mmphs before radioing quietly to her teammates. "...looks like they have set up checkpoints at the elevator, maybe in the stairs, too. I'm trying to get more civilians moving, but whatever tac gear you can take off and hide you should. The vents don't go all the way down, so I'm going to have to try and slip past somehow." she advises. After that she slips on her own disguise and makes sure plenty of smoke is flowing before she slips out of the air vent. She joins the masses for now, but she knows even a slightly closer look at her would probably give her away even with a big jacket, some gloves and shoes, and an orange face covering. And she makes sure to hide her badge, too. Her last chance might be if a group of people who are more worried about an actual fire head toward the stairs, and if they do she joins them.
Laina Reliah	"I like your style," Laina says as she draws her rifle, jumping after Nova with a the same lightweight thud, her knees bending to absorb the shock. She follows the Ghost into the hallway, aiming her rifle the opposite direction of the stairs for a moment before turning to walk with her companion. "If we hit resistance in the stairway, best course of action might just be to double-time it rather than just fight." Laina huffs, stepping into the stairway and lowering her voice as she starts to make her way down with Nova. "Worst-case, we just jump down and hope we don't break our knees." Laina was fairly sure she could achieve that feat. But with Nova alongside her? Might not be the best idea.
Penelope Vasquez	The teeming crowds begin to cough as smoke fills the makeshift checkpoint; the alarm for the lower level of floors BREEEEPS loudly, setting everyone on edge. Lory mixes into the crowd easily enough- nobody will notice one extra kid. But it's slow going, the gang having trouble processing the sheer amount of people trying to get downstairs in a timely manner. They begin to jostle and push, the crowd growing more and more agitated, starting a sort of psuedo-riot from sheer paranoia and justifiable worry about burning to death. After a particularly pointed insult- one of the gangers pulls a rifle from his back, and fires into the ceiling, before leveling it at the crowd; they duck and cower. "Alright? Alright! Calm the fuck down! There's been murders here tonight, and we're tryna keep 'em from getting at you people. That's why we got the protection money from you- we're PROTECTING you. Next one to step out of line catches bullets. Single file, pull down your hoods, take off your sunglasses." Slowly, carefully, the crowd starts to comply. Unless Lory wants to break the mold, she'll soon be next up in line, a masked gangster pulling a flashlight to shine directly at her. Upstairs, Nova and Laina's plan works pretty well! They step down the stairs- until the meet a traffic block of residents. Most don't pay much mind. Some mumble about the Phantomas hiring heavies to enforce for them now. Everyone eyes their weaponry warily from the side-eye. Soldiers hustle up the stairs past them, but they're lost in the crowd, the group focused on the fire and explosions above. Soon enough, the pair can see Lory at the head of the line, having worked their way down to the landing. They stand out like sore thumbs- it's only a matter of time before the checking gang members look up from the people directly in front of them and catch them directly!
Lory Thumper	Lory is racing through options in her head as she nears the front of the line. She doesn't remove her hat or mask, and when she nears the checkpoint man she pulls out one of her futuristic-looking pistols. "Pew pew! Yeah! Get those badguys!" she exclaims in as good a little kid voice as she can manage. And while the guard is hopefully staring at her in confusion or pondering whether to shoot her...stun prongs fire from her gun and deliver an incapacitating amount of voltage. She throws off her coat (but keeps her hat and mask since these people apparently don't know about bunny people), then leaps with all her might and spirals her way through the exit with expert aim and practiced grace. She wants to be visible now, both to draw attention and to avoid them firing randomly into the crowd. Where she lept she leaves some flashbang grenades to catch any of the soldiers near the checkpoint and cause more confusion. Then, it is a sprint. Lory throws smoke grenades in front of her as she goes to try and dissuade sniper shots and darts between cover like power poles, newspaper dispensors, and garbage cans. She heads down an alley as soon as she can and if she makes it around a corner she deploys more smoke to try and block sightlines, then doubles back quickly through the smoke to head the other way. "I hope you have an escape vehicle nearby, Monica!!"
Laina Reliah	Laina pushes her way through the crowd of people, grunting as she forces her way past past person after person. She removes her mask, trying to at least make herself seem like a normal person rather than a tacticool operator. She keeps her head hung and her ears flattened under her hood as she moves, trying her best not to make eye contact with any nearby gangsters. When Lory does her thing, Laina grins and waits just long enough for the little rabbit to break free from the crowd, then bolts out to follow her. She holds an arm over her eyes to defend herself from Lory's quite liberal use of flashbangs, then keeps up her pace, sprinting after Lory as fast as she can. Hopefully, the gangsters are too focused on the rabbit to fire at Laina specifically. If not... well, she'd never been shot by these kinds of guns before. It'd be an interesting experience. If she, in fact, wasn't shot, Laina runs around the corner to follow Lory down the alleyway, every fiber of her concentration focused on nothing other than fleeing the scene. "Frankly!" she yells, "I'm surprised that limo's even still here!"
Nova Terra	Nova finds herself quickly heading towards the gang's checkpoint. The situation was quickly starting to reach a critical point. And it was beginning to frustrate Nova considerably. She was about to snap and do something rather crazy... When Lory proceeds to do something rather crazy. Nova blinks in surprise as the rabbit does everything she can to draw the attention of the goons. Well, that works. In order to help her blend in with the crowd, Nova cloaks herself once again. It's likely going to mean some bruises as others run into her, but it's better than being in plain sight wearing a skin-tight, obviously military-grade suit. Nova begins to follow and push her way through the evacuating civilians as she attempts to make for the exit, happy to let Lory take the heat. She seems capable of surviving it. And if not... ... Well, some goon will be eating well tonight... ... Using the reward he got from his boss for taking out one of the operatives that raided their base.
Penelope Vasquez	The gangster in charge of checking the line stares, full of confusion, at Lory as she pulls her little kid schtick. He actually lifts the visor on his helmet to squint at her, eyes showing perfectly the level of 'uhhhh' his brain is running on. And then he's tazed, and then Lory is running for it, and then the other guards are firing into the hall, and then the crowd rushes forwards in a great wave and knocks the gangster onto the floor as they all rush for the exit along with Lory and the gang. It's like a tsunami of irritated, scared, angry people, rushing through the lobby- the guards at the door jerk up and take aim, rata-tatting along the rabbit's path, before the grenades she's dropping in a trail burst their eardrums and blind them. A few in the crowd took a round or two for the trouble the gang has caused, but it looks like nobody is dead. Out into the night they go, dropping smoke and false trails as they dart through the dark streets. Nova follows along, invisible- only marked by the absense in the crowd as she's shouldered and jostled and avoids being trampled. The residents of the apartment tower spill into the streets, toxic gas and flames now licking from the windows of the highest floors, which they peer up at. The gang is too busy struggling to control the mob for the footsoldiers to chase the crew. Silent as an owl, the long dark limo speeds into one of Lory's clouds of smoke, and stops on a dime. The door kicks open, spilling refridgerated air into the balmy night. Monica is inside, and she shrieks, "Get in! Gogogo-" before she's cut off by a rifle bullet cracking into the limo's door. Then she just shrieks like a regular person. Presumably, the gang piles in. The limo speeds off. Every few seconds, they can hear something which sounds like heavy-duty hail striking the roof of the vehicle. It dents in places- one lucky strike exposes the roof to the air, AC spilling into the night. But soon enough, the vehicle is out of range of the snipers. Monica is pale as a sheet, and clutching her chest. Her froyo has been spilled. She looks between the three, voice hoarse. "So. Mission accomplished. Nice. Nice work."
Lory Thumper	Every bullet that ricochettes near her or wizes past her head causes Lory to jump to one side or the other, and she is starting to wonder just how many snipers there are when Monica arrives! Even Lory almost misses the limo pulling up beside her with how quiet it is, but as soon as it does she is inside. As bullets start hitting the limo she pulls her riot shield and stands between Monica and the field of fire. Will it stop the sniper bullets? She likes to think so, but either way it will be better than nothing! "We're alive, so I'd have to agree!" she says to Monica, even though the bunny is panting at a level just below panic herself. She may have trained for it, but that doesn't mean she wasn't scared to death out there!
Laina Reliah	Laina leaps into the limo as it pulls up, landing on the floor of the limo with a heavy thud. And there she stays, with her head down and her hands covering her ears. While from the top of the limo came the sounds of hail, from the bottom came whispered curses and frustrated snarls until, finally, the sounds stop. Laina rolls onto her back when the fire finally stops, breathing a heavy sigh of relief. "Could that have been any more chocoboshit?" she murmurs, laying on the floor right where she was. "But we are alive. So it's not totally a bad day."
Nova Terra	Nova is an invisible blur as she quickly enters into the limo. She reappears amidst a wash of blue as the limo speeds off. The Ghost rests her rifle across her lap before pulling her head mask down and taking in a deep breath. She then leans back and crosses her legs, pondering the mission results, "Not bad. Could have been done with a bit more finesse. But the objectives were completed, so good enough." Nova eyes Monica as she finishes, "Now to see how this situation evolves from this point. Should be telling."