July 02, 2017:
A house burns down in Metropolis and Aesh and Silverhawk are hardpressed to stop the culprit.
Bakerline – Metropolis
Bakerline is a primarily a middle-class housing community consisting of three districts known as Lafayette, Oaktown, and Hamstead. Spread across these three districts are homes that show what Metropolis was before it became the large bustling and shining city. Small businesses do not exceed more then three to four stories in height, most ground levels turned into 'mom and pop' storefronts while they lease the areas above out to tenants or reside there themselves. Like any older neighborhoods the middle class can vary to that of lower, the old housing nearly appearing derelict if not abandoned completely, but despite that appearance there is still the bustling of life as block parties are hosted by the communities within communities, residing closely and not just by the separation of walls - most of these people have grown up together for generations and enjoyed the peace they have from the bustling borough of New Troy. Small parks mottle the areas as well as Bakerline Zoo, centralized between the districts of Lafayette and Hamstead, making areas for these families to enjoy without having to venture too far from home.
Characters
![class="image1"](http://cmbeta.wdfiles.com/local--resized-images//class="image1"/medium.jpg)
NPCs: Arkon (ARKA-7)
Mentions:
Plot:
Mood Music: [*\# None.]
Fade In…
Its evening in the bustling city of Metropolis. Sirens wail loudly. A loud explosion glows high in the dark sky. The firefighters received a call: A house is on fire. The men leave their trucks and start to do what they can to control the situation. Soon, a crowd is formed: A lot of people have decided to watch the firemen work. On the other side of the city, Aesh has also been notified of the fire: He was about to go to sleep when he heard, over the firefighter's frequency, about the fire. The red-haired man quickly puts his clothes back on and flies as fast as he can towards the fire. As he flies closer, he quickly notices the house won't last much longer. Despite the firemen's best efforts, the place will burn to the ground. Looking intently at the large house, his HUD shows him that someone is still inside. Aesh ignores the crowd, flying directly towards the house. He enters through a broken wall, the heat burning his skin and flesh. It isn't long before he finds the person: An unconscious elderly man. Aesh quickly picks the man up in his arms and flies back out of the house with him. He quickly puts the man down, not before he makes sure he will be fine…
***
"Are you kidding me?!" Rachel Quinn's voice is outraged, pitched to carry over the cacophony of the street below. "What the hell is your problem?!!" Booted feet carry her at bionic speeds across the rooftop of the low-rise at the end of the street where the house burns. The armour that encases her automatically switches into 'glide' mode. She soars over the house, to an alley beyond where a shadowy figure stands, none too concealed to her enhanced vision. When she impacts the figure, they roll several long meters further away from where the fire is being fought. Thus, neither is aware the elderly man within has been rescued.
The shadowy figure, in the reflected light of the fire and street lamps, is garbed in armor not entirely dissimilar to Quinn's own, though it is darker, more matte in sheen, and cut with religious symbols and battle scars. He throws her off with a solid kick and she slides back half the distance they rolled before she regains her feet.
"Silverhawk," he sneers behind his mask. "Even if you defeat me here, archangel, you're too late. Dr. Anderson has surely gone to his just reward."
"Arkon, you sonuvabitch, you've gone too far, this time." A powerful pistol appears in the woman's right hand and she raises it towards Arkon in one smooth sweep from its holster at her side. It reconfigures itself at her touch, changing from something close to a standard 9 mil in size to something more the size of supersoaker water pistol… but a whole lot heavier and deadlier.
Arkon just laughs.
***
Fate can have a strange sense of humor. "You'll be alright, sir." Aesh remarks to the frail-looking old man, the youth letting the nearby paramedics take care of him. He's about to fly of, when the conversation happening not too far from him is brought to him, courtesy of his increased auditory system. He follows the direction of the two voices, flying quickly. He lands beside Rachel. Since he didn't hear enough to come to a conclusion, he stays silent for the time being, watching the two other people closely, waiting to see the reactions to his presence.
Even as Aesh is landing, S'hawk is squeezing the trigger on her weapon. The projectile it releases is heavy and solid, and drops to the ground in front of Arkon, its momentum absorbed by an energy barrier that flares to life around the dark figure. Nevertheless, Aesh's appearance startles Quinn, distracting her from Arkon for half a heartbeat.
His laughter fades, however, as the young man joins their stand-off, and his tone changes from darkly amused to nearly as outraged as Quinn sounded before. "More of you?" Arkon growls. "They've made still more? That is unacceptable!" A pair of blades emerge from his gauntlets and he charges forward with the same superhuman speed each of the others possess, intent on destroying them both.
"Look out!" Quinn shouts, twisting to shove Aesh out the way — though Aesh may not necessarily even still be there when she does.
***
It is thanks to his HUD that Aesh managed to escape Argon's blow. As the man was about to hit him, Aesh dodged the blow. Aesh then decides to strike back: He raises his right hand, his hand morphing into a grappling gun. He fires it at Argon's legs, the hook making a loud *klang* as it finds a pulling point. Aesh starts to pull him down, attempting to make the man fall. His other hand also morphs, turning into a plasma caster. Aesh charges the weapon for a second, before he fires a burst of energy at the man's torsos. He doesn't glance at Rachel but his HUD shows him where she is at, meaning he can give her support if that's necessary.
***
Arkon lands on his back, but twists, using one of his blades to slice through the cable around his legs. He is then back on his feet, twisting sideways to avoid the plasma blast. The projectile sails past him, impacting on a street lamp pole and knocking it over. Sparks explode from cables that are snapped and shorted out by the toppling pole. Electricity fails in a section of the surrounding neighborhood.
Quinn is reeling backwards, her weapon re-holstered, now, since it's evident to her there's no point wasting its ammunition. Instead, she draws out a military-style knife and assumes more of a classical martial arts stance. "You need to stand down, Arkon!" she tells the man, who will doubtlessly ignore her entirely. "You're done!"
***
"There's no point in arguing with them." The youth says to Quinn. "My experience taught me they never surrender." Electricity still comes out of the broken cables. Aesh changes some settings on his HUD, electricity starting to come towards him, the energy being absorbed by his body. "Some people can only understand when they are down." His grappling gun morphs back into a hand, Aesh's body starting to sparkle as he focus the electricity into a single point. He points downwards, shooting the electricity down at Arkon. No matter the result,metallic-looking tentacles will sprout from Aesh's torsos. The youth is now taking the fight seriously.
***
"You should listen to him, archangel," Arkon says, springing back before he brings a gauntlet to bear against each of them, energy bolts erupting from his forearms. "I cannot be stopped. Not until all of you are dead. Every last abomination."
Quinn rolls under the blast, coming up with her knife, closing in with him. He blocks her with the gauntlet blade and twists to present less of a target to Aesh as he does. "Yeah, well, just remember, you come from the same place I do." Quinn says, kicking out at Arkon to try to throw him off-balance.
"To my eternal shame and damnation." Arkon replies, engaging her, now, in a flurry of blows.
***
Aesh looks at the two for a moment. He thinks of what he can do to help before inspiration strikes. He swings his tentacles at Arkon, the tentacles acting like two large, electrified whips. As one moves to strike Arkon in the face, the other thrusts, attempting to puncture the man's back. That's not all. Aesh channels kinetic energy to his feet, gathering energy there. He stomps down, attempting to create a small earthquake, attempting to unbalance Arkon. As the energy bolt is about to strike him, Aesh projects an energy shield, the shield managing to negate the damage of Arkon's energy. Aesh's HUD scans the energy, attempting to find the best defence against this new enemy.
***
Most of Arkon's threat comes from his size and speed, in combination with the advanced abilities of his high-tech (if battered) armor. His reaction times are superhuman, to be sure. Bioscans will prove that he is a sophisticated cyborg augmented further by his armor, as is Quinn herself, though her biosystems are more advanced than his. His armour has a few more extra surprises than hers — evident, mostly, in his ability to deal with energy attacks.
The earth tremor, however, is enough to cause both of them to fall backwards — not off their feet, but certainly off their battle. Arkon's attention turns to Aesh. "You are full of surprises, aren't you, demonboy?"
"Your fight's with me, Chief," Quinn says, launching herself with bionic force to shoulder tackle him. Again, they're rolling across the chip-and-seal, narrowly missing sparking cable snakes.
***
Aesh "I'm a cyborg." Aesh replies to Arkon's comment. Inspiration strikes him once again. His tentacles are launched forward. They move through the air with a loud *woosh*. They plunge into Arkon's armor, attempting to send him to the ground. Its then that Aesh puts the second part of his plan in motion: He sends an electronic signal to Arkon's armor, attempting to interfere with its system, Aesh trying to have control of it. Meanwhile, his tentacles fire one more discharge of electricity at Arkon, this one being fired closer then the last. Aesh stands still, attempting to keep Arkon distracted while his signal hopefully does its job.
Cyborg. Demon. They're synonymous in Arkon's mind. He doesn't, however, bother trying to explain that to the 'boy'. Neither does Quinn. Indeed, as Aesh starts sending electricity into Arkon's armor, the woman rolls away from him, ends up on one knee and grabs one of the sparking power cables from the ground nearby. She shoves it towards Arkon, adding its energy to Aesh's.
Arkon's body arches and he struggles to snap the cables on him. He resorts to rolling away, quite potentially dragging Aesh with him.
***
Aesh blinks. As he notice he's about to fall he throws himself down. He adjusts his fall so he'll fall on top of Arkon. His tentacles are still plunged into him. They stop channeling electricity. Kinetic energy surrounds Aesh's body, his idea now being to overpower Arkon with brute force. Blades now protrude from the tip of his tentacles, the blades denting Arkon's armor and due to the fact the tentacles were already in contact with Arkon, the blades manage to pierce his skin ever so slightly. As Aesh falls, he starts to throw punches at Arkon, using all the strength of his cybernetics, more dents appearing on the armor.
***
And Arkon's response proves he has as much strength as Aesh. He's also got advanced military combat training, in addition to years of martial arts, all of which very likely surpass Aesh's own. Even Quinn, a highly trained soldier and combatant, herself, is hard-pressed to keep up with Arkon.
By this time, however, the fight has attracted attention. Quinn is now distracted by the approach of authorities. "Stay back," she tells them, producing a badge out of some where. "D.H.S." Department of Homeland Security. She lights up an internal uplink and sends a message off to her superiors, telling them they needed to get the area clear ASAP, given Arkon's personal presence. But, it will take time for that be put into effect. So, the brawl tumbles on.
***
Aesh falls back as he receives a nasty punch to the face. "Alright, now you've done it." Aesh exclaims, blood trickling from his lip. He starts to pull his blade out of Arkon, more pieces of metal leaving his armor. With a loud ripping noise, Aesh's tentacles leave Arkon. Aesh leaps back, putting some distance between him and his enemy. A quick glance is given for him to see where Quinn is at. |Energy at 60| flashes across his right eye. Even with the boost given by the electricity, Aesh's starting to run low on energy. The tip of his tentacles start to morph once more, now two square objects appearing on them. Aesh activates them. The new devices are EMP generators. These have been specially designed by Aesh and will not affect him provided he doesn't increases their frequency too high. They produce a loud noise when they are activated, the generators emitting vibrations that will, hopefully, disable Arkon's armor and damage him.
***
Except Arkon isn't staying still to be hit. Both he and Quinn are hardened against EMP attacks with military-grade shielding — Quinn's being more advanced than Arkon's. But, Arkon's armor is compromised. More than that, he heard Quinn's electronic call for help as well as Aesh likely did. He's not staying around for backup to arrive. He bends deeply at the knees and launches himself into the air in a bionic leap that takes him out of the alley-drive behind the houses, onto one rooftop, and then to others as he now beats a strategic retreat.
Quinn glances to Aesh. "Think you can narrow-band that pulse?" she suggests, a trifle hint of irritation in her tone. Because it's rattling her systems. "You're not helping me, any." That said, however, she's not about to let Arkon get away, if she can help it. So, she springs after him at speed.
***
Aesh nods, the EMP being deactivated. "I thought it would hinder him… But it appears attempting to break his armor works best." He quickly nods, leaping after the woman, trying to use his HUD to find Arkon.
***
"Yeah." Quinn leaps from roof to roof, following Arkon's lead. The man is both fast and clever. While Aesh's HUD can track him a ways, eventually, he ducks into one building and disappears off scope entirely. Quinn swears silently; he's done this to her before. Arkon is better than Houdini when it comes to escape artistry. Entering the building, regardless, Quinn begins a methodical search for the man. "I'm thinking, next time, I'll try superglue."
***
"Super glue probably won't work.. That guy's really strong." Aesh stops for a moment, the nanomachines in his body repairing all the damage he sustained. He continues to follow Quinn, intending to finish the fight with the armored man. "I take it you've met him before?" The youth asks the woman.
***
"Mm." Quinn's reply is terse. "Once or twice." Understatement, right there. Huge understatement. "He's a rogue agent from my unit. Before my time, but he's got a hard-on for wiping all of us off the map. That house he blew up was owned by Dr. Alfred Anderson, whose work in nanotechnology paved the way for the technology that launched the Archangel program." She glances at the youth. "You'd best watch your back, too, kid. He's pegged you as ARKA, even though you and I both know you're not."
***
"Archangel program, huh? The name sounds familiar.." He hmms for a moment, trying to remember.. Nothing comes up so he just shrugs. "Well, just one more enemy, really.. He'll probably have to wait in line with the others." Aesh jokes as they continue to walk. "I've never even been a member of the military.. I built all my technology from the ground up.. Some parts of the government are even trying to steal and reverse engineer it." He comments, remembering the problems he's facing with his business.
***
Quinn doesn't doubt it. She doesn't approve of it, either, mind, but she knows full well it happens. She's as much an engineer as she is a soldier. "Captain Rachel Quinn," she says now, by way of introduction. "They call me Silverhawk." Or sometimes 'Shawk', but she doesn't say that. She continues her careful walk through the building. The knife has been sheathed. The oversized pistol is back in her hand, though. She's betting the cracks in Arkon's armor may make him a little more vulnerable to it.
***
"I'm Aesh Amilton… Though you can call me Aesh." His name is known on the cybernetic and business community and he isn't sure if the woman has heard of him. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Rachel.. So, if I understood everything you said before.. Was the man we're looking for responsible for the fire? I ask because I managed to save a man, before I went your way." He scans their surroundings carefully, his HUD highlighting everything.
***
"Gentech," Quinn says, recognizing the name. You can be sure she keeps tabs on the businesses out there dealing in nano and cyber tech. "I heard about that. You saved Dr. Anderson?" She sounds both impressed and relieved. "Well. At least one thing's gone right, tonight." Because this search is quickly coming to its end and there's no way to tell where Arkon went.
***
Aesh nods a couple of times. "Is doctor Anderson an frail-looking old man?" He asks, curiously. "Last time I saw him, at least, he looked frail.. Well if its him, I've saved him.. I heard about the fire and decided to see if I could help." As he checks a corner with his Hud once more, he continues to talk. "Yes, Gentech… I'm its current CEO." He remarks simply.
***
"Dr. Anderson is about 80. So, yeah." Quinn doesn't let on just how relieved she actually is to hear the old man survived. She always liked him. Of course, her biosignature gives it away, but still. "He's a good man. I'm glad you were able get him out." She sends a pulse to her system and her face mask retracts. "Arkon's gone," she says, frustration in her voice. "Again." She shakes her head. "Seriously, Aesh, keep your guard up. Arkon is a trained military operative: Master Sergeant Andre St-Onge. He doesn't have the same networking capabilities later ARKA agents have, but you've seen how strong and resilient he is. And, his connections reach deeply into underworld. Further than anyone else I've tried going after." Not that she goes after Arkon very often.
***
Nodding, Aesh replies. "Don't worry… I'll be careful… I'm amazed that I managed to damage his armor, all things considered." He pulls a small card from his pocket, handing it to the woman. "Here's my contact. It would be better if we kept in touch.. It seems we fight for the same things.. Plus we have a common enemy." Aesh certainly notices the change on her biosignature, though he keeps it to himself. Some people like to keep their emotions inside, for the better or for worse. "I have to be going now… I have to analyze all the battle data I gathered tonight.. Hopefully I'll be able to improve my chassis with what I've learned…" He turns to leave the building, giving Rachel a smile as he leaves. "Have a good evening and be safe."