[Plot/DEATH ENABLED] Storm the Base!

THIS TOPIC IS DEATH ENABLED. Do Not enter this topic without understanding that ANY character could die.

It was done. He was found out. He was found out ALREADY. He didn't even have enough time to return the princess! This was just great. Hunter paced around the room, cursing under his breath. He would have to leave. There was no choice. The problem was, there was no way he would be able to move his entire operation in time. Tch. Good for nothing minions, they barely slowed the hunters down! Perhaps if he could just get back to atlas, he'd be able to start over. After all, thanks to the princess' unique semblance, he'd be set for a good while and he wouldn't need to start with Phase one anymore; It was permanently completed. Of course it would all be for naught if he were to get caught here.

Upon entering the lair, the room would be much bigger than one would expect from a cave near the beach. It was almost an entire engineering laboratory, computer parts and debris strewn about. Along one wall there were four capsules holding The Queen, The King, and The princess. Cages of many sizes were scattered around housing many different types of animals. Off in a corner sat Periwinkle, limbs bound and mouth gagged, wearing the same thing she had been when she was captured. She looked visibly tired, as if she had already grown exhausted from her struggling. Next to her, Hunter paced around frantically. "Yes. Atlas." He muttered. "We'll go back and I can start this whole thing over."



((OOC Note: Part one of this topic is a Puzzle. Hunter (AND ONLY HUNTER) is allowed to godmod a little for the sake of the puzzle. This includes ignoring certain actions from players, but does not include instant kills or taking control of others.))

Some people might have questioned why Marcus was here. Hell, the first year himself questioned his presence, a little, when he first got the invite for the operation. Still, it made perfect sense upon explanation. See, of the students of Syne, there were plenty who knew their way around explosives. However, not many of them also knew of construction, of mechanics and material sciences. And of the few who knew of both, there were even less who were comfortable enough with both subjects to rig up demolition charges on the spot with minimal time to analyse what they were about to explode. Finally, of those minute few, Marcus was the only one readily available at the time.

Of course, that did not make him any less nervous. Even kitted out in full body armour, the excitement and tension was clear in the combat engineer's body language, from the way he checked every single charge with agitated precision to how he kept grasping the detonator on his belt.

"Right, done. Everyone clear!" he said as he stepped back from the door for the last time. He ran the math once more, just to be sure. Yeah, this would work. Well. It should work.

He found himself a nice cozy spot at a junction in the cavern, and tucked himself away in preparation for the coming fireworks. Slowly, almost reverentially, he brought up the small detonator. Charges set and checked. Detonator properly connected. Safety switch, off.

"Three. Two. One. FIRE IN HIS HOLE!" he yelled, and pressed the button. A small concussive blast roared through the tunnel, shook a light shower of dust off the ceiling, and did very little else. Then, there was a second loud clattering as the door, sans hinges and locking mechanism, fell outward away from the lair. Marcus internally nodded to himself, satisfied. Any idiot can slap a ton of high explosives to a door to blast it open. It takes a true artist to use only just enough to demolish the doorframe but leave the door and anything behind it safe and sound.

He never doubted it for a second he could pull it off.

"Right then pointman, by your lead." he said as he gripped Skree tightly. Actually leading the assault was left to someone else, Marcus was just there to knock on any doors in the way and the combat engineer felt exactly zero need to try and be a gloryhound when the stakes were this high.

Why? Why in the world was he doing this again?

Oh yeah, its his duty to risk his life for those who need it. The fox faunus paced nervously around his tower shield of choice, as the one chosen to set up the explosives checked each and every charge with intense focus. Being the one to find the lair in the first place, there was an expectation that he would be joining the raiding party - at least, that was how he had reasoned to himself. Besides, he helped stop the princess from getting kidnapped the first go-around, he should help save her from captivity, as well.

He was one of plenty of hunters and huntresses there. Whether or not some were there for glory was irrelevant. His ears perked up and his attention was turned towards the demolitionist when he began to shout something. He yelped when the words registered and he ducked behind his shield, covering his ears with all his might - loud explosions and sensitive ears do not mesh well together.

Two explosions later, he let go of his ears and stood at position. With the demolitionist's job done, it was up to someone else to spearhead the entry. Due to his position as a healer, he struggled with the decision to be the 'Pointman' of the group, as so denoted by the demolitionist. However, from the various law enforcement cases he has seen during his tours as Kitsune - being that faunus discrimination is still around and that some concerts sometimes end up disastrous - in raiding situations, the Pointman typically leads with the shield to cover the team during entry. It's the most dangerous job too.

Decisions, decisions.

Screw it.

He lifted up his shield and posted it right in front of the opening. Turning around, he faced all the present members of the group, locking eyes with each and every one, and nodded. Turning back, he closed his eyes in a small prayer before tightening his grip on the shield and slowly moving forward, eyes scanning in every which way and his ears focused on any unusual sounds.

Fenrir smiled to himself as the assault went underway. He stood on the other side of James as they entered. He cast a series of wind mail glyphs to diffuse physical attacks on the entry team as he took in his surrounding areas. He had not intention of closing in in such confined spaces, instead waiting for a moment when he could use his glyphs and dust attacks to restrict movement. He fired a fire dust lance at Hunter and then stepped back to let the others do their thing. Someone had fucked with his tracking glyph and he was going to take payment out on this green haired punk's ass with interest.

Actions:
Wind mail glyph on party: -30 ap +2 Def on James, Kei and self
Aoe fire dust attack: 35 potential damage with intent to burn
Aura recovery : + 5 AP

Hp: 50
Ap: 225
Kit: 
Fire dust #1: 4/5
Fire dust #2: 5/5

News of the princess' location had led Gallahad to this place. It looked like a raid was underway as he nodded to the engineer standing at the door. A fox faunus cleric, a ninja with wrist rockets and a wolf faunus assassin were already in the room. Instead of going in and cluttering the space up more, he turned and guarded the door in case hostile reinforcement showed up. He drew his weapon, but kept it in sword form since extending the handle would be counter productive. He held his blade in a two handed stance and focused his breathing.

why? that question was what Fuyuko wanted an answer to badly. She wasn't good at these situations on account of poor close combat ability. The engineer and a knight stood at the door, seemingly protecting against anyone who might come help the kidnapper. She twitched her ears as she looked around, her rifle pointing where her eyes went. She hoped the fight would be resolved quickly and that she wouldn't have to fight. At least it was a nice day at the beach. Maybe afterwards they could go for a swim....hopefully.

Gallahad watched as the newcomer traded some words with the engineer before entering the room. earlier, he had heard a blast as the wolf faunus with evil eyes fired a dust attack at Hunter. A fool move since the princess could've been injured from that. He just then noticed the people inside the pods at the far sidewhat in the Seven Names of Life is that? He wanted to go in there and tear the fool and the kidnapper limb from limb, but he simply took a breath, recited a few lines of his family saga and resumed what he had intended to do, "We need to keep an eye on that wolf" he said in an undertone that he hoped only Marcus could hear, "He's liable to kill the princess himself." He paced a bit as he looked again into the room, something was very off about this, but he wasn't sure what it was.

Amarante timidly walked up to the two guarding the ruined door. She looked inside and saw the lab and then sat in a corner behind Marcus and Gallahad. She didn't think she'd be much good if a fight broke out but since her team mate was here she figured she should be to. She was wearing her kimono,  a dark colored one with a red cross on it to clearly mark her as a non combatant healer. She looked warily at the giant lizard faunus before adjusting herself and settling in to be as comfortable as she could be in a cave with armed enemies and who knew what else was in here. She sniffed and caught a faint odor of flame, perhaps she should've waited outside of the cave, too late now. She pulled out her scroll and opened an app that let her see the status of the huntsmen and huntresses around her, provided they had scroll and had set it to share that information. As far as she could tell, everything was going alright but she didn't know for certain, "s-so what....are we....are...we going to do while....we wait?" She glanced at the two men.

It was an irksome feeling when the explosions started, as Hunter knew it was too late to make a clean escape. How quickly the hunters had gathered their troops. Well, that much was to be expected from a group of excited school kids after all. The man from Atlas would just have to find a way to get them to stand down. Desperate times called for desperate measures and all of that. He grabbed the princess by the arm and pulled out one of his two laser pistols, putting it to her head. This of course gave the poor girl a brand new adrenaline rush, but hardly enough to loosen Hunter's grip. From the smoke of the fire dust the Syne students emerged. "You kids came at a bad time, I suggest you all leave now, Or the Royal family will go from four to three." Reckless? Maybe, but even without the princess alive he could still carry out his plan if he could just get out of this unfortunate situation....

(Puzzle start! This topic is now closed to any new entries and will follow the plot posting order)

Marcus nodded at James before the faunus entered the breach. The somewhat unfortunate fact of the matter was that, due to his tower-shield and general beefiness, their medic was also the guy who checked for booby traps and other welcome presents with his face.

Praise Saint Solaire, nothing horrible happened to James the second he set foot in the room so the asault proper got on the way. Kei made the traditional offer of surrender as well as show off his shiny, shiny wrist mounted rocket launcher and then Fenrir.

Fenrir you what. Why. Why would you do that.

Again it was as if the Saint himself looked down and smiled upon them as the lance of fire failed to do any harm to the person they were trying to save. A pity it failed to harm Hunter too, but still, an Area of Effect weapon in an enclosed space with a hostage was a bad idea with stun weapons, never mind a beam of fire and pain.

He exchanged a look with Gallahad, and gave a single slow nod to the knight. He steadied his breath, and let the analytical part of his mind take over. One laser pistol pointed right at her majesty's temple. Enough room to manoeuvre for high mobility dodge based fighters, enough cover or his own fortress like style.

Lapis entered the cave-wait what. Where did he come from? When did he get here? Well the man spoke some sense for a hunter at least, of a ready willingness to head straight into danger to save others.

“I got your back mate. Let's do this.” Marcus replied instantly, briefly paused to consider what he said, then nodded. That was one honest to gods truth.

Still, he did not yet have a good plan and did not intend to barge in without one. He could afford to take some time. Hunter was comfortably outnumbered and had no easy escape available to him. On top of that, he had just one hostage that stopped the hunters from tearing him a new one which severely limited his mobility. So what to do? Hunter can't look everywhere at once. Option one, someone right next to him who knows the proper disarm techniques, minimal to no risk to Perriwinkle. Needed a sneaky person, a distraction and too much time. Plan dismissed. Next-

At that moment Amaranthe chose to pipe up. The engineer briefly glanced at the shy girl faunus with them, the blank visor of his helmet conveying his emotions perfectly at that particular moment.

“Save the princess. Try not to die. Get stuck in when needed. Commit gratuitous adrenalin fuelled police brutality. In that order of importance.” he summed up quietly. “I'm open to more concrete suggestions.”

A thought occurred to him.

“We're not letting you leave without the Princess Hunter!” he yelled out at the criminal, a lot calmer than he actually felt.

At the same time, he grabbed his scroll and dialled up Feath.

“Feath, this is Marcus, can you snipe his pistol?” he said, this time in a hushed whisper.

James chuckled slightly as the ninja to his side made for an offer of surrender to Hunter. It was somewhat comforting that some semblance of curtesy was being presented before any violence was brought forth.

Of course, this was just as quickly dashed from his thoughts as the wolf on his other side released an attack of fire, setting a set area momentarily ablaze before settling and dissipating in embers and smoke. Mouth agape, he hissed softly at the faunus.

"Don't forget he has a hostage. That could have injured the Princess, or worse, killed her. Shame Hunter didn't get singed, however."

His piece said, he turned back towards the situation at hand. He was desperate, that was for sure. The princess was being held in a strong hold, with a laser pistol pointed at her head. One wrong move and she was gone. That's not to even mention that being in Hunter's lair meant that there could possibly be traps laid for them. These, he kept a sharp look for. Taking in the details of Hunter, he noticed that he still had a pistol holstered.

It would be a boon to take his reserved weapon away from him.

Utilizing the same tactic he used against the henchmen that attempted the first kidnapping, a chain formed at the base of his foot and began to bury underground towards Hunter, in hopes of resurfacing behind him and taking away his second weapon. He then addressed the green-haired foe.

"You know, you seem like a smart guy, Hunter. A real character, would've enjoyed to spend some time conversing - under different circumstances, of course. So what in the world would you want with the Princess? Someone of your caliber could probably get what they want without going to such extremes."

Appeal to their ego and try to get them talking. The advice given to him by Ms. Belle long ago when he was just a fletching star, trying to land a gig, but the same advice applies to even now. He needed to know more - why the Princess was such a target. It couldn't have been for something simple as ransom or whatnot. There had to be a reason.

With one hand holding onto his shield, he used his free hand to signal to the rest of the attacking party that followed him in to fan out slightly, just enough to further dissuade him from attempting to rush an exit, and to keep an eye out for more traps and the like. Hunter was slippery, and that never bodes well.

--

Statistics:

Fenrir didn't react to all the people who were pissed about the fire attack.  He was in killer mode now and his face betrayed no sign of emotion. He set his scroll to upload and transmit data from all the computers around him to Yan back at Syne. His eyes caught sight of several chips identical to the one he dug out of the Beowolf's head at Finn it Woods. The assassin was for once grateful for the years of physical, mental and emotional abuse that had comprised his childhood as he overheard people whispering to each other. He cast a Stealth Glyph on the faunus girl with the rifle as he dropped his other glyphs and scanned the room for possible escapes. He could smell fear and determination in equal measure radiating from Hunter as they spread out around him, "The problem with taking a hostage is first finding someone people actually care about." He took several steps forward,  looking for traps without taking his eyes off his target, "for example, your plan fell apart when I decided she's worth more to me dead than alive. All this here conveniently points to Atlas. Bellmuse declares war. We go in and while everyone is busy sorting this cluster fuck I get to kill the rest of my family, whose purpose you have so helpfully advanced without realizing it." About half of that was complete bull, but he had a killing gleam in his eye as he made ready to snap his fingers and his other hand formed a cone behind them pointed at Hunter and the princess, "Did you know that enough concussion air pressure can shear blood vessels and nerves in the brain? Quite fascinating actually. I've been practicing that little trick and from as far as twenty meters out, death is near instantaneous. Another five to ten beyond that, death is slow and agonizing. You kill the princess and I'll kill you. Or perhaps I just kill you and the princes together. Wouldn't that be poetic?" He took a few more steps forward and was within ten meters of Hunter.

Actions :
Stealth Glyph : 10 AP
Aura recovery : + 5 AP
Hp : 50
Ap : 220

Fuyuko looked at the crazy man. His eyes spelled EVIL with bold underlined and italicized lettering. He also ran his mouth...wait. She looked at her hand and realized it was...faded? The wolf man was...of course. Everything he was doing would distract Hunter and let her set up the shot to disarm him. She took advantage of the fact that an entire fire team was blocking the criminal's line of sight to her and she quickly and quietly laid down behind a table and waited as everyone started moving to surround him. She zeroed in on the gun next to Perriwinkle head and shifted to Hunter's face. There was literally no room for error since a ricochet would kill the hostage and really achieve less than nothing. She slowed her breathing and flipped the safety off as she tried to decide if she wanted to shoot the gun or the face. If she tried anywhere that wouldn't disarm or kill instantly, her target could pull the trigger on reflex...She altered her aim slightly lower and planted the cross hairs on his elbow. Even if it wasn't a perfect shot, the force of the bullet would move his arm and hopefully if he fired it would miss. She sent a message through her eye implant to the team have a shot, need him to turn slightly left . This would have to be a miracle to work...and she was aiming on a prayer as she applied a little pressure to the trigger and waited.

The room quickly became much more populated than Hunter would have liked. What's more, these annoying kids had potential to be a real problem. That said, they were not such, not at the moment anyway. One member in their ranks in particular was a real bro, in the most sarcastic way. Hunter could not help but laugh at the man's threats. "Heh, you think you can intimidate me?" Hunter pulled the trigger on his weapon and it went off with a futuristic 'pew!' sound followed very closely by the shrill screams of the princess. It was a point blank head shot indeed, though it wouldn't kill her, at least not yet. It would, however, Deplete her aura by about half. It would take two more shots to finish the job by Hunter's estimates. "Listen here! You think I need this woman alive? I can take you all out here if I chose to, so I suggest you all leave us in peace if you want to keep her on Remnant." He focused his gaze on the man in front of him. "I didn't work this hard so that you could scare me off, Kid."

(2/3 Chances left)

Gallahad took his place to the side where the fox girl was. She was clearly out of place here and didn't seem to be able to protect herself. His eyes locked on Fenrir as he tried to place the face, black eyes with red slits, obvious lack of regard for life. It clicked. Sable Assassin. He had fought two, and nearly died both times. They were like grimm in person form and had no value of human or faunus life, often leaving entire towns slaughtered to the last person. He growled in his throat as he tried to come up with a way to save the princess from both Hunter and Fenrir. He paced from side to side being careful to keep his distance as he tapped his weapon on his leg, the rings jingling with each tap. He took several steps forward when Hunter fired his gun, not close enough to do anything. he cursed the man and the monster that had the princess between them.

Amarante looked up from the ground to see the situation had escalated rapidly. She wasn't all that surprised, but she was finding herself being terrified of her teammate Fenrir. He didn't have that goofy older brother look that he had back at the dorm when dealing with Yandere. He seemed...like a creature of grimm. She cast a shield glyph over the princess and opened a vial of dust. She shuffled under one of the tables where Hunter wouldn't see her and focused hard. Her dust glyph appeared and the contents of the vial slowly flowed to the computers around the room and some behind Hunter. She waited until she was sure everything was ready and then carefully stood up behind a monitor and started looking through everything on it. She read several files,  letter her mind perfectly record everything she read as she rapidly went through notes on making void dust? She thoroughly read the notes as she realized with horror that there where references to other experiments that where definitely illegal and immoral. She ducked back down and tried to catch her breathe, knowing that what she had seen would haunt her.

My actions
Shielding Glyph : - 10 AP + 2 Def on princess
Dust glyph: -20 ap, delayed attack

Ap: 225/250
+5 AP Regen
Hp: 50
9/10 fire dust

So violence wasn't the answer what with the gun to the hostage's head. Their sniper did not have a shot. Yet Hunter still talked to and with them, sort of.

A new idea popped into his head. A terrible idea, easily worse than that one time with the cleaning rods and spare shotgun shells.

“Hunter, how's this. You need just one hostage, and we want the princess safe.” Marcus offered. Skree clattered to the ground. The weaponised angle grinder made an almost disappointed noise as it powered down. He held his empty hands clear to the side.

“So take me instead. We can't let you leave with the Princess, and you only need a hostage to get out of here.” he said clearly and carefully. He took a step forward, hands still next to his shoulders. With some luck, Feath could get a better shot. He also knew for a fact he had a much better chance of escaping under his own power than the princess did.

An animalistic growl escaped the throat of the fox faunus. Threats never work in hostage situations - they may have the numbers, but Hunter clearly has the upper hand. Hearing the scream of the princess pained him and his grip on his shield tightened.

His hold loosened, however, when the demolitionist stepped forward and offered himself up for a hostage exchange. Slack-jawed, he turned his head to try to talk the man out of this plan but his tongue was held. There was a determination and caution in his eyes, and James tsked. He didn't want to play this gamble, it was too risky, but he decided to trust in his teammate.

Their sniper did need Hunter to move slightly, so this would hopefully be the prompt that would open her window of opportunity.

Off-hand, he wondered why his chain had not resurfaced yet. He could still sense it was underground. In any case, these thoughts were wiped from his mind and he focused back in on the situation on hand. If they could get the princess away for just a fraction of a moment, then they can rush Hunter. They can end this. He watched, with intense scrutiny, the path of which Marcus was walking, ready to tell him if there was any traps laid out.

Fenrir smirked in a way that looked more like a feral snarl as Marcus offered himself in exchange for Perriwinkle. A noble but useless gesture that would only encourage the target. He walked towards the pods near Hunter, "facsimiles, not very original. I take it this is where you do your very illegal experiment with everything." He walked back to where he had been, only he was now five meters away, close enough to windstep without needing to use his aura. He twitched his muscles and called forth his gauntlets as he pulled his mask back over his face, "I would offer to trade our fox girl with the big titties but she'd eat your face off if given a chance." He took a few more steps until he was standing just to the side of where Hunter was facing James. He yawned loudly and the in a blunk, dashed at Hunter and put his hand on the gun, his thumb jammed into the barrel and the fingers of the other forming a gun shape pointed at Hunter's head, a glyph forming on the end, "like I said, I have more to gain with dear, sweet Peri being six feet under. Hiwever, I find it much more satisfying when I do the killing with my own hands." His pupils widened until his eyes were orbs red as blood and the intoxicating scent of the princess' fear fuelled his bloodlust. He leaned forward and kicked her ear, "soon it'll be just you and me in Atlas,  and when they find your body I'll be one step closer to allowing my own leap into oblivion." He said loud enough for all to hear.


Actions ended:
Stealth Glyph

Actions:
Aura recovery : + 5 AP Regen

50 HP
225 AP

Fuyuko watched with fascination as the engineer offered himself, followed by the evil faunus making derogatory remarks about the other girl before magically ending up in front of Hunter. She had no idea how he closed in so easily but from the looks of it, he had stopped the enemy's ability to hurt the princess again. She held her hand to the side behind the table and created a HEAP bullet which she loaded and added a flash bomb and smoke bomb to her hidden arsenal as she waited for the shot. With this bullet, she could graze Hunter and still do some serious damage. The bombs would be saved for the wolf but I'd necessary she'd use it on the man with the gun. The princess looked like she was traded between to animals fighting over a piece of meat. For all she knew, their "teammate" might be working with Hunter. She slowed her breathing as she waited for the right moment.

Gallahad watched in admiration as Marcus offered to trade himself for the princess. And then he wanted to remove the other one's head when he managed to get so close to her. Gallahad wasn't sure what to make of the Sable, but this seemed like part for the course based on what he had encountered before. He growled as the assassin leaned in close to the hostage and he took a couple steps when she flinched, "our job is to ensure the safety of the Princess Perriwinkle you fiend." He extended the handle so the Jiu Huan Dao would be at full length. He was both impressed and disgusted with the people around him. Even if they took out Hunter, there was a good chance they'd have to fight Fenrir as well and there was no way they could do a three way battle while protecting the ladies present. It was time a like these he wished Azure was present. His butler had serious skills that would've helped here. He dialed in a group call, making sure Fenrir wasn't also tapped in" Kei, can you incapacitate the two demons after Fuyuko takes her shot?" He asked in an undertone into his scroll, "Fuyuko, take the shot as soon as you can and then back out, we can't afford to have to protect you and the princess. Fox girl...Amarante right? As soon as there's an opening, heal the princess and create a shield wall leading to James so he can cover her. Marcus, you and I will charge them after Kei fires." It didn't seem like a good plan, but he didn't have time to come up with something better since it had rapidly spiraled so far out of control it wasn't remotely possible to believe this was real.