Chemo Jimenez's Story

Sparks, seeing the others escape successfully, decided to leave and get out of the area. He decided to return to the place he called home, to take a shower, eat some dinner, and deposit the one million into his secure untraceable accounts. He left, heading fir his penthouse.

Rougeshadow kept her eyes firmly on the monster but turned a head to see the others beginning to flee, clutching her bow tighter in her grip "Damnit...why are you all leaving?! This is why people like us are being called criminals! We try to help and we run away and cause trouble later..I am at least trying to do something" She said, seeing the thing head for one of the sewer grates. She drew another arrow and fireed at it, the grate suddenly became covered in solid ice. The burning building did cause some concern for her but there was nothing she could do about the fires. With a sigh, she looked down to Preston and called out "I am sorry about the pie!! You know...arresting and all that. Ill make it up to you again!" She called as she Shadow stepped out of the area, feeling guilty for leaving

One bullet made it's mark and the rocket exploded, but the inside was filled with shrapnel and exploded a cloud of metal shards that would fall short of the grunt's target. The shards would hit where Richard stood. The grunt quickly reloaded to take another shot. Meanwhile the grunt at the machine gun fell as Mio tore open his jugular. Two other grunts stood in the room and dropped the crate of ammunition as Mio charged in. They both opened fire on the dog with no concern for the tackled grunt and both fired assault rifles with drum magazines equipped.

"Ripper, you're up." Preston said, Anodyne stepping out of one of the transports. She wore her usual dark orange armor and black jumpsuit, a multitude of handguns holstered on her body as usual. The woman took a few steps forward and then shot out towards the building the gunmen were in.

Anodyne slammed through a window, almost simultaneously drawing two of her revolvers just as the men moved to open fire on Mio. Anodyne put herself between the dog and the bullets, the shots hitting her armor and skin but she seemed to be unfazed.

Or she was good at pretending they didn't hurt.

She raised the revolvers and let off four shots from each, four for both men to make sure they were dead and wouldn't be getting up every again.

Back outside Chemo and about half of Team Ripper rushed towards the burning building. NPA Enforcers close behind the team to protect them from any more attackers.

"Ready?" Chemo asked as they got close and could feel the heat, "Yep." Mulan said, "We're good." Chemo raised both hands as he stepped into the fire, a shield flickering with blue energy shooting up and around the group to keep them safe from the fire.

"I can't keep this up for long on my own. Let's sweep as many areas as possible, we've got about fifteen minutes and then I'm done." Chemo told his comrades, the shield pushing some flames back but they only raged harder to spread.

As Anodyne jumped infront of Mio stopping the bullets the dog stopped to look around for a moment before running out the door of the building and back toward Richard.

Richard looked up to the building and pointed to the second story. "RPG IN THAT WINDOW!" He shouted to the Invictus and NPA. he knew at this range it was no use moving in on the building he was all but useless here. he watched as Mio trotted back blood clearly on his nose from his successful kill.

"Good boy." He said to Mio.

The Aschen military convoy was making it's way down main street not far from Gambit's Bar towards Hagan Avenue to get into the private spaceport where they could continue on their way.

Engines churned and the black limousine, flanked by a pair of Tiger IFV's. Their sleek angular form, flashing blue lights, and seal of the Aschen Empire denoted just exactly who they were, and the limousine they were protecting made it evident what they were protecting.

As the chaos erupted across Main Street, one of the IFV drivers grabbed his radio and shook his head. "Three nine, we have something going on up here about half a klick." He said, pointing out the chaos on the street ahead to his gunner. "Something going on with the cops, we need to find another way around."

The Gunner frowned some, and then turned to his communications man. "Let Three one know we might have some action." He warned, and the comms guy nodded slightly.

"Gonna push some Terran dicks in?"

The Driver chuckled. "I hope so, we have a team of trigger happy Marines ready to kill shit, but just to be safe let's put in a call to the Killers and the TCCA."

"Roger that." The Comms officer said, then he keyed in his radio.

"UCON TCCA this is Aschen Imperial Three Nine providing VIP escort to an Aschen and Terran VIP, Location is main street, one half klick from the intersection of Main Street and Hagan Avenue, got something going down up here and we're requesting cover. Send all available personnel, this VIP must not be compromised"

Once the call went out, the pair of IFVs moved into a more defensible position.

Inside the limousine, Inviere listened silently to Norrington and Gabrielle, before she glanced at some paperwork. "Norrington will be strip searched when we reach the Reverence, any weapons he has will be confiscated." She said, clearing her throat. "It's not a problem because I pushed the paperwork through, but the LDA is going to want you both under constant armed guard, which means.."

She turned to Norrington, staring him in the eyes.

"One move that someone doesn't like, you'll be shot. Keep to Gabrielle's side, and don't make any threats or threatening gestures, and you both will come home in one piece, hopefully enriched from this experience."

As Inviere explained the situation, the Driver lowered the divider, and an LDA Agent in the front seat turned to the three.

"We have some problems up ahead, Armed escort is going to try and take us around it, Miss LeBeau, Mr. Norrington, you are strongly advised to keep your heads down, Chairman, we need to go to case yellow."

Inviere gave a nod to the LDA Agent. "Understood." Before she pulled a discreet lever, and a panel flipped down behind them to reveal a Disruptor RCW Rifle.

Inviere made a swift motion to grab the weapon, and load a single microfusion cell into the stock.

"You two stay down, this is an armored limousine, but I don't want anyone getting hurt, understand?"

The response to the Aschen communique came quickly after the dispatch call. Across the city the hornets nest of activity became quite a site as the first armored vehicles rolled out of their checkpoints for their objectives. In a few seconds, a great panorama of the city sprawled out on a screen; a satellite net capturing every square inch of the city at several million frames per second, with the crystal clarity of spring water.

Somewhere in the urban sprawl of Wing City Authority technicians switched back and forth between a phoneline, an airscreen and their command prompts. A dozen separate conversations went on, each one answering and creating questions and decisions for where to go, who to look for.

"We've got a response on the way, 18-IB spat up a flying column." A technicians' monotone voice accompanied dancing lights in the darkness.

"Keep the spread and get ready to render any follow-on forces. Who's our gagglefuck from the 18th?"

"Scabbard One, Kobol's Killers"


A bulky 5M-41A7 passed through an intersection, sirens wailing alongside it as the two FBP squad cars pulled wider to either side. The amphibous vehicles' chunky nature made it particularly difficult to maneuver, but it's survivability and armor were unrivaled even by APCs like the Steelback. Two marines bounced atop the hatches back and forth, trembling with all the battlekit and backpacks that hung off it. Just behind the Bovine, two other marines held on tightly in the battleready gun-seats of the 96mm M5 towed gun.

The stanchion cannon's barrel jostled whenever the Bovine made an adjustment or overcame a speed bump.

"This is Scabbard One, we're the cavalry for that dispatch call." The gunner spoke into his headset and gave a signal to the commander; the trailer carrying the towed gun unhitched with the push of a button, and the gun puttered along on its own power just a moment to worm itself into a firing position. The gun commander used a joystick to finetune the weapon's angle, peering through a window in the gunshield and watching the Bovine move in front of the Aschen convoy.

"Keep hands and feet inside the vehicle at all time, let's get rolling kiddies."

Gabrielle couldn’t help but sigh and lean back against the seat as Norrington explained what had happened. She was already exhausted and the trip hadn’t even started yet. The thought of having to go without any backup wasn’t appealing and if it came down to that, she would just decline visiting the Divine Shadow period. Her tongue pressed against the roof of her mouth to keep her from saying anything she might regret, though she made a mental note to berate herself later for picking someone that was giving her a headache. She adored Norrington, but he did seem to make matters more difficult no matter what the task.

"You best not be lookin' fer a way ta' kill him."

Pressing two fingers against her forehead, she held them there before sliding them down to the bridge of her nose. Squeezing the bridge, she could already hear what Norrington was going to say about being strip searched and hoped he listened to her and didn’t bring any weapons with him. The last thing she needed was more chaos to happen before they even left Wing City. Would they look for an excuse to shoot him? By allowing him to come, was she signing his death warrant? Gabby certainly hoped not and shot Norrington a look that he would with any luck know the meaning of. Glancing over towards the face that suddenly appeared once the divider was done, Gabrielle wondered just what kind of problems would cause such a fuss. Immediately, she wanted to peek out the window, but instead did as instructed and slid down in the seat, curling up in a ball.

“What de hell is going on? I t’ought dis was a routine t’ing. Dis dun look like no routine t’ing..!” She was trying not to panic, but the thought of being killed by unknown bullets while in a limousine with an Aschen agent was not something she wanted to happen. Lord, her father would probably have a coronary and her sister would go berserk.

No bullets for me…

"Oh! That's all you want? Sheesh I figured we were gonna get invasive or some shit," he said with a sigh of relief sitting back in his chair. "Hey, look, if you wanted me to flop it out, you only had to as-" A gun. It immediately set his fur on edge, standing upright. Slowly he sunk down to his seat, paw moving for the front pocket of his hoody, which became bulky a few moments later as he reached through the shadows there to slip on his robo-glove and pull it to their physical location.

No matter where Norrington was, he was prepared. Overprepared usually, but it tended to save lives. Specifically his. "Would a high powered magnetic field potentially mess with your weapon? I'm not saying I can stop bullets, but assuming this limo's got some degree of bullet-proofing I can probably stop bullets." He had also moved over a lot closer to Gabrielle, with his ears flat on his head and peering out the windows. Of course the day he was going to Aschen lands he'd get shot at.

"Where?" Taco called out to Richard, "He said there." Sandman told the Invictus soldier, pointing up at a window. "Make some distance, redirect traffic. Get the barrier back up." Preston barked at the others on the street, what little authority he had was being used to make sure there wouldn't be a high body count at the end of the day.

"I'll take the shot. Non-lethal." Sandman said, watching as several NPA enforcers raised their weapons at the window to open fire and kill the RPG-wielding terrorist. The wail of firetruck sirens began to join the other sirens in keeping the city awake for awhile longer while chaos reigned supreme.

"Negative. We are eliminating the threat." One of the NPA Enforcers responded to Sandman, "Fire." He ordered, the NPA Enforcers firing on the window with a clear intention to make sure their attackers would not be having an open casket funeral.

Swiss cheese would be an appropriate term for the aftermath.

The shots chipped away at the building, the barrage of bullets making it hard to tell there was ever a window. It was just a hole where the window used to be now.

In the burning building Chemo and his team swept through the flames slowly, the barrier around them weakening as the flames grew stronger and debris slammed against it. "There's no one in here. We gotta go." Mulan told the team, "Like, now. Fire bad." She said.

"I agree with her, I'm not a fan of being cooked." Chemo muttered.

The Driver of the limousine frowned, and noted that the Coalition Escort was providing sufficient protection for them to carry on. With a jerk of the wheel and a quick push of the throttle, the engine roared it's affirmation and the Limousine took a sharp turn to the right, down an adjacent side road that would take them to Hagan avenue.

As the Limousine moved, the IFVs followed suit, signalling for the Coalition units to follow.

"Three one to Kobol's Killers, I'm glad to have you aboard, next stop will be Hagan Avenue where we can unload our VIPs and get them safely to where they need to be."


As the Limousine moved down the side road, Inviere slowly lowered her rifle and placed it back into it's compartment, while the center divider raised back up to separate the driver from the rest of the cabin.

"There won't be any need, Norrington. We're taking a detour." She said, settling back into her seat.

"If I can arrange it, it might make more sense for us to travel by Bifrost, its a lot cheaper than taking a Reverence to Langara." She said, nodding to Gabby and the Bodyguard.

"If you don't mind, that is." She said, turning back to Norrington. "Not looking for a way to kill anyone though, just to guarentee everyone's safety and make sure that everything goes off without a hitch."

Gabrielle was a little surprised that Norrington was so nonchalant about what was being asked of him, but she wasn’t about to ask him why. Instead, she remained tucked in the seat, her arms hugging her knees to her chest nice and tight. This was not how she was planning on spending her time away from the bar. The apprehension that had begun to well up just by the notion of going to a strange planet to meet some deity or whatever he was had just intensified by one-hundred-percent. Burying her face in her arms, she vaguely felt Norry moving closer to him, but that didn’t make her feel any better. What if he got shot and killed here? She would hate herself forever because it would be ultimately her fault.

Think happy thoughts… think happy thoughts… think happy thoughts…

If she wasn’t so worried about falling off the seat, she might have started rocking back and forth, but that was a difficult task to do while lying down on her side. Even Norrington’s admission that he could probably stop bullets if the limo had some bullet-proofing wasn’t all that comforting to her. In fact, it wasn’t until Inviere stated they were going a different way that she released a breath she hadn’t even realized she was holding. Sitting back up, she glared out the window, suddenly remembering why it was she left Wing City in the first place. Shaking her head, she returned her attention to the other female just in time to hear something about a Bifrost.

“What… de hell is a Bifrost? And it’s too early t’ tell if yer tryin’ to kill us or not.”

Despite apparently leaving the conflict Norrington wasn't anymore calm. "Yeah yeah, anything to get off this shit-stick of a world," he muttered, moving back away from Gabby and promptly dropping his glove through the shadows of his front pocket again. Now he was suspicious. He didn't have proof... But how could he know it wasn't just a test to see how well armed he still was? It made him swallow uncomfortably at the thought the Aschen's could be so conniving.

His eyes avoided Inviere's for the time being, choosing to instead look towards the window and seem as casual as he could. Better to not let information slip from now on. "Teleporting," he suddenly spoke, "Or close enough to. And sure I'll trust you." He also wasn't going to let on that he was confident they could have killed him by now.

With the fire bearing down on them, the team of Invictus, NPA, and WCPD officers retreated from the burning building. Firefighters had arrived, their trucks blocking much of the street as they went to work on connecting their hoses to fire hydrants.

The fire that raged would stand no chance against Wing City's finest firefighters.

"You guys okay?" Taco asked the men and women as they put distance between themselves and the burning building. "I think so. There wasn't anyone inside. My guess is they got out of Dodge when shit hit the fan." Chemo said, "You're Canadian, how do you know that expression?" Taco asked the Invictus soldier.

"Canada is still in America, some of your history is our history." Chemo answered, stepping aside to let the firefighters work. Watching as they used their hoses to beat the flames into submission.

Preston stood by with the other commanding officers on the street, glancing towards the building he saw Anodyne enter into. "Worried?" A SWAT commander asked, "Not really. She's tough. It's just taking her awhile." Preston answered.

Despite Anodyne's tough exterior, she was just a woman mentally. For all Preston knew she was inside that building processing what she saw. The attackers could have slaughtered the people who lived in the apartment, or Anodyne could have been pleading with them to give up and come peacefully.

But, Preston heard gunshots. It was unlikely that the criminals, the terrorists, would be brought out alive.

Sugar pushed the doors to the pub open and stepped inside, immediately scanning the room for the friends he was coming to meet before he had to play bouncer for Renee outside. "Oh! Found them! Come on." Sugar said, floating off deeper into the pub.

He seemed very excited, giddy even, to introduce his new friends to the friends he already had. Sugar was the people person, it seemed. A social butterfly always content to spread his wings.

He headed towards a booth in the back of the pub, several men and women mostly dressed in street clothes seated in the booth. A few had military-styled clothing on. Combat boots, fatigues, the whole look of a soldier not on duty. And they seemed to enjoy the fact that they weren't on duty by the amount of food and alcohol that was on the table.

"Who would you rather screw? Mike Tyson, or zombie Teddy Roosevelt?" One of the men, a young Caucasian man, asked the woman seated across from him. The woman herself appeared to be somewhat Asian, maybe Hispanic. She seemed to be really considering the question.

"Taco, that's a tough one. But, I'm going to have to go with Tyson. Even if it's not young Tyson." The woman said, southern accent dripping over her words. "Okay, Arya, you ask someone now." Taco told the woman.

"Chemo!" Arya called out, her attention shifting to a young dark-skinned Hispanic man seated beside Taco. "Who would you rather? Robert Downe-..."

"Robert Downey Jr." Chemo answered, not letting Arya finish the question. "Doesn't matter the circumstances, I'll take RDJ any day." Chemo said.

Sugar Bear came to a stop at the table, shushing his friends. "We have company. One of them is a kid. Let's get PG-13." He suggested.

"That's gay." Chemo said, "I'd know, because I'm gay." He added, "I'm starting to think you might not be gay. I've never seen you with a guy." One of the other people at the table said.

"I know every song from Rent." Chemo said, seemingly to prove that he was gay. The others at the table not arguing the point.

"Its nice to meet you" Liam told Renee, before entering. Liam was being far from honest right now. He was letting himself appear like the kid he used to be, before Zamikar. In truth, he was no longer scared of the dark.

Liam wanted to say not to bother with the sensoring, because he has heard and seen worse. Also, he had seen Zamikar gut a human being in front of others with his own hands and eyes, so at this point he was fairly used to gore at least. However, he left all those details out for now, because he didn't want to upset the moment.

He could feel Zamikar was uneasy about something. But then again, Zamikar was rarely in a friendly mood or a co-operative mood, but this was different. He would have elbowed Zamikar, except that would involve elbowing himself and it wouldn't really do anything.

The lights shutting off outside had surprised him, but in truth, despite what his outside appearance was he wasn't scared. He might look scared, but Liam once had to deal with a dragon. Granted, it was still in its childhood phase, but it was still deadly. However, he did hear one of them mention something. "Isn't Rent that movie that got really bad reviews?"

This was the first conversation in months that wasn't with Zamikar. He was going to make conversation as best he could.

Renée followed behind Sugar, still taking in the entire scene unfolding in front of her. It was absolutely captivating and she knew that when her sis came back, they were going to come here together. Sometimes it was good to go somewhere other than the bar you were raised in. Plus, her sister could use the break from Gambit’s. It was one thing to run around and be devious at an earlier age, but having to run it at such a young age was probably giving Gabby ulcers or something, so a night out in a joint like this would be fantastic. Scrunching up her nose, she smiled down at Liam before coming to a stop right beside their host, if that was what he was. He paused at a both in the back full of people and she figured they were the friends he had been talking about. Smiling politely, she sort of shifted from one foot to the other, idly messing with her raven locks, pushing them behind her shoulders. Still wearing the sunglasses that she had kept on, even when it became dark, she knew it would be proper to take them off, but showing off her unnatural eyes wasn’t high on her list of things to do.

Arching her brow, she listened to their conversation, a sly smirk appearing on her face at their choice of wordage and the subject they were discussing at that moment. It reminded her of when Logan and her dad would sit around the bar talking when she and Gabrielle were barely old enough to understand what was being said. Well, she understood a lot more than her younger sister, but she picked up on things too. She loved the whole who would you screw games and often played it with people she befriended while out and about doing whatever it was she felt like doing. But, she didn’t feel comfortable with these people, so she just kept silent and stood awkwardly with Liam and Sugar. Liam was the first to speak up and she tried to remember what she knew about the movie, Rent, unsure what kind of reviews it ended up getting. Shrugging a little, she did admire how dedicated the guy who had brought up Rent was at trying to prove he was gay. Coughing a little to clear her throat, she fought to keep from fidgeting.

“Ehh… hi there. De name is Renée LeBeau. It’s nice t’ meet y’ll’.” At least her voice sounded calm despite how nervous she felt.

"Rent had amazing reviews, kid. But not from people who didn't understand that it was originally a play, based on a play, adapted for American audiences. Also, all the gay stuff." Chemo told Liam, brown eyes lingering on the young man for a moment.

"Oh! I never told you my name." Sugar realized, looking to both Liam and Renee. "Miss Renee, uh... kid... I'm Sugar Bear. Sugar for short. Real name Darren if you prefer that. I prefer Sugar." The man said to the two, then gesturing to the others at the table.

"That's your cue, guys."

The people at the table seemed lost for a moment, "Oh, shit, yeah. Uh... I'm Robert. You can call me Chemo." Chemo said, "Next to me is my heterosexual life-partner, Matt." Chemo said, gesturing over to Taco. "But, you can call me Taco. Just don't call me when I'm hanging out with Jay-Z." Taco said.

"We did security for Jay-Z once and now Taco thinks he's best friends with him because he shook his hand and called him cool." Arya explained, "Jay-Z will return my calls. Kanye too." Taco said assuredly.

"This lovely little Asian-ish lady is Arya Bones." Sugar said, pointing to Arya herself. "Wassup?" Arya said, holding out a fist to Liam. It was clear she wanted a fistbump from the young man. She figured that's what kids his age did.

"Oh! We have to get you food, and maybe some clean clothes." Sugar said to Liam, "Missus Horne!" Sugar yelled, "What?!" A woman shouted back, "Got a homeless kid out here who needs food and clothes!" Sugar responded, again with a yell. Most people would go to the room the person they were talking to was in.

Not the Invictus and the Horne family. They were all practically one big family.

"Emi! Get the boy some food and then bring him to me!" Mama Horne yelled, "Who?!" A young woman behind the bar asked, also yelling. "Over her, Emily!" Arya yelled, "Okay, here I come!" Emily told Arya, still yelling.

One could say it was getting out of hand, but it was normal for the pub and the people in it. The Irish yelled and got everyone else into the habit of yelling whether they wanted to or not.

"You want a drink?" Chemo asked Renee, "And another round of drinks!" Chemo yelled.

"You just wanted to fit in." Taco said to Chemo.

"I know." Chemo admitted.

Argus sat there for a while, listening to them talk, before getting tired of them and walking over. He hated kids with no respect, especially ones who won't shut their mouths when spoken to, and was getting an itchy trigger finger, which he would love to use with his rifle sooner or later, maybe he should head down to the Forest Border for some target practice again.

"Hey kiddos," Argus said, standing before them. "You're kinda making a lot of noise, and you're disturbing everyone's peace and quiet, especially mine. You've given me a rough headache and I'm not standing for it any longer. I'm gonna ask you politely to quieten down, otherwise, we're gonna have some problems."

Argus cracks his knuckles and smiles, scratching his beard, waiting for the group to answer.

Liam quickly reminded himself they were referring to him when they said "kid". He was so used to people calling him runt, rat, Zamikar (who he technically is), demon child, and pipsqueak. "Thanks. This is the nicest anyone has been to me since..." He started, but stopped. The end to that sentence was "my exile". Since by Wiccan law, he had committed an unprovoked act of violence, Wiccan society basically exiled him. And no one liked a stray, he found out the hard way. Oh, that was another nickname. Stray.

Liam looked over at the people who were nice to him. He didn't plan on telling them about Zamikar, at least not yet. A lot of people misinterpreted that, especially since their "bond" was an unusual and unique one. Also knowing Zamikar tends to get people killed. But he considered mentioning his Wiccan side. He was unsure, but it would allow him to explain part of his exile. Not the whole story, but he could think of a version with no lies.

He gave Arya a fistbump, and smiled. His first real smile in a long time. The last time he had actually smiled was before he had even been kidnapped from his birthplace in the first place. The morning actually, swimming with his friends in the river. Right before breakfast. He felt....good. Zamikar felt like he was going to be sick, but he also felt a sort of happiness. Is he trying to turn me good? While I am turning him dark? Zamikar thought to himself.

Before Zamikar could tell Liam to do anything though, a man came over being relatively irritating. "Him next. Liam, I can't deny it...you being happy is making me happy, just like me being happy has made you slightly happy. I say, we both be happy. Place a curse on him to get him to shut up, and return to having fun with your new friends. In this scenario, we both win".

Liam didn't want to curse anyone. But...he was happy for the first time in over a year. And keeping them both happy kept them both from falling into a coma. Liam placed another simple curse, this time on Argus. The curse was that he could not speak while confronting people. He would be able to talk casually just fine, but when he was confronting someone like he was now, his voice would escape him. The curse was simple enough it only required a slight wave of the hand, easily missable especially with a man walking up and scolding them. Of course, if the curse took hold was only highly likely. You never really know with magic though, but the chances it wouldn't were slim to none. And then, with his silence, they could continue to have fun.

Liam looked at Sugar and asked with a smile "If your just messing with me, I will be very upset". Obviously Liam didn't actually think they were, his voice and smile indicated that, and he was just asking as a kind of joke or something.