Forums » Sci-Fi Roleplay » A CATtastrophe III: Return of the Hani (Closed)

Standing down was not a Therion's way; they were quite literally programmed to keep on fighting 'till the last bones and muscles in their body were rendered to pulp, which more often than not was a bigger flaw than a benefit. Hence the following scene unfolded: the Kiff's projectile had indeed embedded itself into the sole of her foot, and although Sprite managed to dislodge it slightly by shaking said foot, it blew up before she had the chance to remove it. Her hot blood splattered across the street, followed by a deafening roar that sent whoever hadn't noticed the fight going on by now racing to the other side of the station. 'Twas but a scratch! And thus she kept on fighting with only three of four legs intact. Another downside to the Therion's notorious unquencable battle-lust was that, well, the extreme pain and trauma wasn't particularly helping when it came to keeping her beast in check. For now Sprite could tell her friends from her foes, but it would only be a matter of time until that line faded. Neoma and Cris alike were at risk of becoming her next target, if she took enough damage; as if the situation wasn't already grave enough.. With her sanity fading, so did her sense of honor too: Sprite'd been in favor of pinning the leading Kiff down to let Cris have her revenge, though now it appeared that an action like that wasn't that high up her list of priorities anymore. Many of his brethren had fallen to her fangs and claws today, yet for some reason the gun-armed one seemed to have avoided her wrath. Compared to his hooded friends, who now lay torn and dismembered on the bare concrete, he was nimble and foul.. If the opportunity arose to lock her jaws around his shoulder and crunch him to a mush, she'd more than happily take it.. Instead, she ran ahead, limping on the good three legs she had left, and rammed a duo of Kiff into the air with her head, before catching them both in her mouth. One was shredded open and thrown to the pavement by her claws, and the other was snapped apart by her mighty jaws. She wouldn't lay down, she wouldn't stand down, nor would she take orders. The only thing on her mind was victory, to conquer these Kiffs like she'd been bred to do! Obviously, if the battle was a lost cause by this point, a stunted warbeast experiment like herself was unable to notice.. "Yeah, good idea!" Randle called back to the Hani, changing his course from the back exit to one of the shady side ones. Although a panicked stampede didn't make for the safest of enviroments, being surrounded by the fleeing bodies provided them with enough cover to slip away from the battlefield. "Got my ship on the docks at the eastern flank, it's a small hike but a safe distance from whatever the hell is going on back there. We'll be alright there." Best thing was that the Rustbucket, the ship he shared with Sprite and the others, was nothing short of innocent to look at. An unassuming thing, a mere courier ship without its cargo attached. No one would suspect finding a hostage and a priceless urn in there!

After seeing his numbers dwindle even he could see this wouldn’t be a normal rivalry between the group, it was becoming too costly for now.

One last action throwing a smoke grenade to the ground as he shouted sometbing in gutteral Kiff speak which made the remaining cloaked figures vanish into the darkness with a rush of robes and a few stray shots.

The place was empty for now.

The road to ths docks was crowded with people, some Kif moving into buildings but nothing to stop them, they needed to regroup for sure and tangle with the legal trouble they just started.

Barrah laid eyes on this rust bucket.

“Wow…you go through space in that?” He asked ?”

Neoma stood there, watching the Kiffs retreat. A dopey yet evil grin appeared and would fade for a moment whenever a piece of hair fell in her face and she'd blow it away. She retrieved her arrows that were nearby, keeping a close eye on Sprite, aware that she was in a dangerous state. As she shoved her arrows back into their quiver, she scooped up her longbow and quickly carved an abstract Kiff face screaming, she smirked than she put it over her shoulder.

When she finished collecting her projectiles and various arrows from her squadron, she approached Cris and set a hand on her good shoulder. "You alright? Do I need to run an errand, get zomeone, attack, etc. etc.?" She chuckled than turned away to cough a few times, blood splattering on the ground, her wounds in her thighs, calves, arms, shoulders, and abdomen became apparent to her since the adrenaline wore off. She pulled the ribbon that held her her hair in a long thick silver braid. As it cascaded down over her shoulders, she let out a relieved sigh, still keeping her eye on Sprite.

Leave so fast? Not if she had anything to say about it. Cris had jumped out of the grenade's way, and as the detonation's wave subsided she launched herself through the heavy smoke in the air, after the retreating Kifs. She was sitll shooting at head height - shooting to kill, no doubt - but, unless Zakukhakt's minions interfered, her blasts were reserved for him, and if they interfered... nothing personal. Her goal was simply to make sure their leader could no longer give orders, that was all.

She glanced at Neoma as she approached her and nodded curtly. "Yes, keep an eye that people - police or whatever - don't clutter around Sprite, she's got to decompress and might react badly if she feels cornered!", she called out over her shoulder, without breaking her run. "Stay clear of her claws too, she might not be able to tell you apart from the others!" She knew this much not from extensive knowledge of Therions but, amusingly, because she'd been told the same thing by her Howler friends about that Fenris pal of theirs; in the heat of fight there is no telling friend apart from prey. And it was so common among most predator species she'd be all kinds of surprised if it wasn't the case with Therions too.

Then she dove back in her own hunt. The Kifs would soon realize they had quite a relentless pursuer, even if she could not get the straight headshot she wanted for Zakukhakt, but several of her blasts seared very near to him, if not hittitng his cloak or shoulder. Should they try to distance her with yet more explosive, she'd still not draw back, instead jumping on some unsuspecting folk's hoverbike - elbowing the owner out of he way wih a shouted "I'll give it back, don't worry!" - and resuming chase on wheels.

She was bent on not leaving a job half-done. Off with the head, then the others won't know what to do and scatter. Heck, the other Kifs might not even realize it, but by going after Zakukhakt's head she was offering them a chance of survival.

But there was no hatred in the eyes behind the mask, no thrill, and certainly no displeasure. Her eyes were so blank and impassive they could have belonged to a statue.

Or to a killing machine.

// had unfortunately escaped, in all the calamity slipping into the night, oh whst s wonderful rivalry this will be…

Hot puffs of steam escaped the Therion's maw as she, now taken out of the fight for good, lowered herself to her belly. At almost three meters in length, she unknowingly became a bit of a blockade for anyone wanted to cross the street, though to no one's surprise that currently wasn't an issue. Although the firestorm had settled and the sounds of violence were gone, the smell and vibe of the massacre was able to be detected from miles away. And in this case, that actually proved to be quite the convenience! "Hoooooooly chips Spritz, what happened here?!" an excited boy's voice cut through the mist. From the curtain of fading smoke stormed a child, about thirteen or so, with skin and a curly mop of hair as white as cleaned bones. "Oh man, they messed you up bad, huh? Not as bad as you messed up them though, right?!" Unarmed and pretty much the visual epitome of teeny and soft, the child kneeled by the Therion's side, and stroked her muzzle. Quite an odd display, but to Zero Cameron, the Number 01 Super-Adventurer To-Be in their crew, the real odd thing was the Elfish woman standing nearby. "Whoa.. Umm, heya Miss! You alright over there?" the lil' albino chirped, looking up from his duty of calming Sprite down and lulling her into her contra-transformation nap. "What happened here anyway?" === "Heh, I don't know how she's kept up with so many voyages either.. but trust me, it sure is a fine vessel if ya take the time to get adjusted," Randle chuckled, not surprised that such a jewelry-packed merchant like the Hani didn't think too highly of their third-hand retro wings. "We'll just stick around as long as needed, I'll try my best to get something outta this guy but-" Wait a minute.. His ear twitched, and in total silence, Randle turned to look back at the station-city behind them. No gunshots. No screaming. Curious.. "I sure hope that means we've won.. for now." Was Sprite alright? From what he'd been able to gather before they fled, she had turned to the beastly side, but he knew that even that couldn't guarantee her safety. "You wanna have a look for yourself? I'll be sure to catch up with you folks when our friend and I finish our little chat."

Rolled her shoulders “Okay” she said “I’m gonna head back to the bar for drinks maybe..depends how I feel”

The Hani walks off with her swaying walk again toward the firestorm of carnage that just erupted, she carefully hopped over sharp derbies with her Hani feet, making all her jewels jingle.

“Well, things got very interesting here…” the Hani said, dusting off the vase she still carried “I take it they wer..woah” she saw the weird monster outside the hospital, keeping her distance she looked over it “how the hell did that thing get in….” She asked herself.

Neoma had leaned up against a wall and slid down, head leaned back as one of her right hand man, Wyatt, aided to her wounds. When she heard the voice of a younger boy, she held a hand up to Wyatt and looked in the direction of the voice. When she saw the young albino boy, she smiled kindly but also weakly. "Hey zhere. I'll *cough cough* I'll zurvive." She looked around at the chaos of there little battle and sheepishly smiled. "Vell, let'z just zay zhat zomeone lozt zometing and threw a tantrum. Ve had to teach zhem a lezzon. I'm afraid ve had a slight comlication vith zhe lezzon though." She began to chuckle than stopped as she coughed up more blood. Wyatt quickly returned to cleaning and bandaging her wounds.

Despite her steady chase, Cris found that the Kifs were darn good at giving the slip on the long run. Having lost sight of them some blocks away, she circled the area on the stolen bike before finally halting in the shadow of a building. She sheated back the raygun, got out her pocket and, after fumbling with her contacts for a few instants, found Randle's ID and sent him a quick voice message.

"Hey, it's me. They're on the run, for now. Head honcho's still on the loose, so watch out just in case. I'm going back to check on Sprite and that Moon Elf fighter," And with that she pocketed the comm and headed back toward the hospital area, leading the bike by hand. If she was lucky she'd run into the owner and be able to return it.

She didn't look disappointed or disheartened with their escape. She just took it in. That Kif head-thug had tried to kill one of her friends, and if their paths would meet again, she'd regard him as a threat to take out. The rest? They got to live another day, hopefully some of them would have the good sense to not repeat something so stupid and even get to become old and have grandchildren. Or maybe not. T' wasn't her business, anyway.

As for how she felt about the whole matter?...

All in a day's work, she thought, the voice of her mind as expressionless as her eyes.

//

Back at the same Bar this all started in Barrah swirls around a new drink in her glass, she’s all tired from stressing out, her fur is a mess in some places.

She just needs to relax now she thinks, it’s allll over, maybe she can get to know these new friends

Luck could only last someone that long; there came a shiver from the pile of living matter clenched underneath Randle's arm, and once he made his way into the Rustbucket, he was quick to realize what that meant. His suspect had expired. Met with his ancestors from the dubious safety of a towering construct's armpit, the Kiff was more eager to give his life than give info. So it was. Now he had to do away with the corpse.. "Oi, old fart! Back so soon, eh?" came a voice from the cockpit. Artie Irix, the fourth and final member of the crew, stuck her ginger-tufted head into the main room. "Ye gods, what happened that bloke?" Randle sighed. "It's a long story. I'm planning to leave him at the hospital, and check in with Sprite after. A lot has gone down here- don't suppose you and Z wanna regroup? We, uhh.. might have to think about a change of plans." Hadn't she heard the shooting going on? Of course, chances were that as a human, she hadn't been able to catch it. "Z's already made acquaintance with the city, actually," Artie said, rummaging underneath a table to fetch her bag of tools and medical supplies. "Said he felt some real daft vibrations out there. Was actually plannin' on shooting ye a message about it. Lead the way." And there they went. After locking up their old courier vessel tighter than a drum, the duo plus corpse returned to the station's city center, sticking to winding alleyways and old tunnels to keep off any prying eyes' radar. Randle was beyond delighted to receive a voice message from Cris too, who'd been sweet enough to give him an update (one that he specifically answered with a short audio fragment of his one, stating: "Thanks a bunch, Cris, Art and I are on our way, just try to stay put for now, alright? Might need ya help with disposing of a body.. AGAIN."). Things'd taken a turn for the weirdest, but at least the misfit bunch of four would soon be reunited at the site of the disaster.. === "Hihi, you can say that again! It really looks like you guys gave them like, the ultimate thrashing, though!" Zero laughed, suspiciously unfazed by the mess around them. His awful eyesight helped him miss most of the gruesome details, true, but in a way his upbringing and his time with the Skylax had desensitized him too, to a degree. "Oh, I'm Zero, by the way! Spritz here and Randle over in.. wherever he is, we're all part of the same super awesome team! Artie too, but I don't think she's shown up around here yet." Soft white fingers trailed across Sprite's eyelids, and in only a matter of time Zero'd turned her entirely docile, drifting off to sleep so her shift back to human could commence. Another case that had ended in a shitshow, but they had weathered through worse storms. All that mattered was that they and their buddies were okay- after all, they had a brand new chapter ahead of them..

//

And so, lots of stuff needed cleaning up, a explosive end to a typical meetpoint day!

*insert brass orchestra and ending card i guess*

After giving orders to Wyatt, she stood up, holding her side and wincing. She sighed heavily, smiled at Zero and Sprite than walked to the docs to watch her squadron leave. She waved goodbye with a proud smile than decided to leave for the bar where they all met after setting a note by Sprite and Zero. As she made way her back to the bar, she whistled a few sea shanties, keeping an eye out for any hooded Kiffs.

{{Sorry for not responding in awhile ;v;}}

It’s pretty much over now, you can come on over to the ship