Vermin [Open]

[Lucas D. Hargrave]

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[atrb=background,http://i41.tinypic.com/25qq3gn.jpg] It was around three o'clock in the morning when the attack started. Lucas blearily lunged for his handgun, lost his balance and cursed creatively as he tumbled out of his cot, banging his head and bad leg on the way down. The explosion of another mortar round made him reassess his priorities and he slowly managed to get up, grabbing the gun with his good arm. Hopping on one foot he gamely made his way down the crumbling remnants of what had once been the Ashford mansion and toward ground level. The last assignment hadn't ended particularly well. Right arm broken in two places, leg broken in three. Technically, he wasn't supposed to be ambulatory but Lucas was confident in his own ability to judge his condition. Besides, ambulatory or not, they were still attacking the compound. He was needed. Thus, broken legs or not, he was on his way. As he descended he admitted to himself that flying was rather more... ah. Useful. than he had previously considered. For one thing, he wouldn't have to 'hop' his way to the scene of battle. After the Earth was conquered, the remnants of humanity were either enslaved, or left to their own devices. Of those that remained 'free' some tried to continue life as it had been before. Others, however embraced their darker natures. Raiders and criminals became commonplace, feeding on the weak and keeping the tentative attempts to re-build East City firmly in check. Lucas couldn't say he didn't understand their motivations but their continued assaults were getting... tiresome. None were particularly powerful but some had rediscovered magic and others had pilfered powerful alien tech that had been discarded after the war. Some of their arsenal was ludicrously powerful but so precious they usually didn't dare bring it out. It wasn't like they could get more ammo for the things just anywhere. Still, no matter what they brought with them, Lucas was confident he could handle them. That was his job, in-between assignments. And it just so happened that he was very, very good at pest control.

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[Android #18]

18 hated this town. Why she was still here she didn't even know. Terrorism was her addiction. She couldn't stop it. She enjoyed causing pain and looking in the eyes of people as they begged for their horrible lives. As a matter of fact, she didn't even like killing that much. That was more of her brother's thing. No, she only wanted to see that fear and loss of vitality and hope. Once she had seen that, she was done. However, in this city, people had already succumbed to despair. There was nothing to gain.

"At the very least, 17, maybe this will be a great place to find a new boytoy," yes, a boytoy. 18 had a softness for romance in her heart, and yet a spurning toward rejection. This made for a deadly combination when it came to her seeking a new partner. It didn't matter much anyway, she had 17 to keep her company.

"That seems like an interesting place," she said as she pointed down to the mansion below them. Without waiting for her brother's reply, she landed on the front porch and raised her right hand. An energy beam began to form, and in moments, it blasted out of her hand, destroying the front entrance and reducing it to rubble.

"I bet there are some interesting people in here, 17."

[Lucas D. Hargrave]

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[atrb=background,http://oi41.tinypic.com/5xoe2u.jpg] Approximately thirteen seconds before the door exploded, Lucas sensed an abnormally powerful presence. Given that he was on a multitude of different painkillers (not his choice and completely unnecessary) he gave it fairly high odds that his senses were shot to hell and that he'd have to rely on his vision instead of any more esoteric senses. As it turned out, he was both wrong and right. Right: his senses were shot to hell. Even a scouter wouldn't have detected any reading significantly higher than his own. Wrong: As it so happened, certain androids had been created too high spec and were not only powerful but stealthy. Two of them, by coincidence or not, had decided to drop in on the ongoing festivities and blew the entrance apart to make a point, not unlike a human stepping on an anthill. It was pure luck that Lucas was too slow to make it there in time for the actual blast and merely got slammed with the aftershock of the attack rather than its full force. To the broken leg and arm Lucas added the annoying throb of a hand-sized piece of wood stuck firmly in his abdomen and second degree burns over any exposed surfaces, not to mention his hat which was actually burning and he was forced to discard. The energy ball, unlike any he had direct experience with before, had not only vaporized the concrete, metal and wood but actually superheated the air, turning the immediate area into an inferno. The splinter in his side had actually come from the walls warping as the pressure wave expanded outwards. Without even bothering to look for who had launched it Lucas had already admitted to himself that the odds had suddenly tilted strongly against him and the city. How... annoying. Fatally so, possibly. Well. It was not like he had ever played to lose before. The experience might be interesting. With a whispery motion he quietly backtracked into the now burning mansion, intent on making it to the back door. It'd give his eyes time to recover from the bright flash of ki and an opportunity to seize up the opposition. Being unable to sense who had launched that blast was a definitely limited his options. Hopefully it was some sort of new laser, whose user could be easily taken out. If it wasn't though... Well, he'd burn that bridge when he got there.

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[Android #17]

Luck just didn't seem to be on the poor mans side this day... As 18 was blowing up the front of the mansion, much to the displeasure of 17, he himself was moving towards the back. "Come on 18... Don't tell me you're still upset about me accidently killing that last guy you were interested in... I swear I wasn't aiming for his head..." As the two moved for the mansion it seemed that 18 was playing 17's game against him and moved in for the first assault. 17 scowled but moved towards the back.

"Hopefully more fun than the north pole... At least there's buildings to blow up and people to kill here... Let's do it" With that 17 heard 18 start the fire works by blowing the front entrance to tiny, smoldering, little bits and the joy that the sound brought to 17 was overwhelming. As he landed at the back entrance and brought his hand up he saw an odd man moving towards the door. The sadistic grin that appeared on his face was one that would send chills down anyone's spine

Moments for anyone inside the rear area of the mansion would feel like years as the blue swirling energy sphere of the Power Blitz would begin to charge. Seconds later the sphere of intense energy would be launched at the rear entrance and blow it away much like the front was. As the smoldering remains of the back wall would be hanging there 17 would slowly walk in, his arms crossed across his chest, and look around. Shouting down the way to 18 he would finally chime in. "Let's show them how to really throw a party..."

[Android #18]

"A party?"

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18 followed 17's every step. She was looking to have some fun here. The place was certainly interesting enough, though for the most part it appeared to be somewhat empty. Really, she didn't care that much though. She had only come here because she was so bored and was looking to meet someone new to have fun with.

"Okay, but this time, no killing any men unless I give you permission," 18 answered him with a quite monotonic voice. Despite this, 17 would probably understand just how serious she was being right now. As all of the times before, she could likely forgive him if he did go against her word, but she would most definitely hold a bit of a passive grudge.

"I swear, the reason I can't get a boyfriend is because you kill all of them handsome men before they get a chance to ask me out," she sighed and crossed her arms.

"And if I say I've spared someone, spare them, 17. When you kill them it makes me look bad. It's like I'm lying."[/blockquote][/blockquote][/blockquote]

[Lucas D. Hargrave]

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[atrb=background,http://oi41.tinypic.com/5xoe2u.jpg] Lucas lay on his back. The mansion was burning. Or possibly gone. He was trying to do his best not to breathe, it was a kind of subtle art. In his head, thoughts raced. People. The ones that were capable of all this were people. Ridiculous. That was his first instinct. Ridiculous. If Earth had had such power... why not fight back? If his estimations were not incorrect than these warriors exceeded - by several orders of magnitude - anyone else he had ever met, himself included. That the aliens could simply overwhelm even fighters of this caliber... possible. But, at the same time... he doubted it. Even the part of him that wanted to fight, even to his own destruction, could only depend upon outside factors to allow him the barest chance to escape and survival. These people were monsters. Oppressively, stunningly powerful. For all intents and purposes, walking gods and ones he could believe in much more than some face in the sky. Still, this wasn't to say he had given up. Because these two could only be here by coincidence and that meant- There was a BZZT sound as some idiot raider tried to shoot one of the two androids in the back with a purple, laser-like alien weapon. Lucas lay absolutely still as he waited for the inevitable.

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[Android #17]

As the bzzt was heard and the following "PING" 17 slowly turned around to face the poor bastard that had apparently been foolish enough to fire upon both he and his sister. He sighed lightly and shook his head, raising his hands in an 'who knows' type of manner. "Well look here 18... Seems like someone doesn't want to wait their turn when it comes to dying." As the male android raised his right hand to point at the unfortunate soul a beam of energy was fired from it and in an instant the man was lying on the ground with a hole through his chest where his heart would have normally been were it not turned to jelly.

He sighed lightly as he lowered his hand and turned back to face 18. "Seems people these days have no manners... Though I was happy to oblige... Anyways, I can still sense a few life signs in this place... Care to take a look and see if you can find anyone you fancy... That way I know who to ki... I mean not kill?" 17 smirked that sadistic smirk as he turned to look at some of the bodies along the ground. One caught his eye as he looked down at a man with long black hair and a gotee. He nudged the guy with his foot and waited.

"Hey... Hey... Don't you fuckin' ignore me..." He knelt down next to the man and placed his hand over his head, summoning an orb of energy above it. "If you don't answer me I'm gonna have to kill you..." With that he waited for the man to respond, or for 18 to stop him... Again...

[Android #18]

As always, 17 was being beyond reckless. 18 couldn't say that she appreciated this. However, he did have a point. That guy who shot at them certainly deserved to die, as did anyone who thought they stood a chance against the Androids. Nonetheless, she had wished that her brother had taken it much more slowly. The way he killed the man was just so boring. There was no style to it. There was no time to watch him as he realized that he had no hope left. It was just instant death.

Nonetheless, her brother had soon moved on to Lucas. He now held out his hands and prepared to use some kind of energy attack on the man. 18 simply watched momentarily as she processed some things.

"Don't kill him so quickly, 17. It ruins all the fun,"

[/color] 18 pouted. She made her way over to Lucas and stood next to him. She then bent down to his level. She smiled.

"So, on a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate my beauty?"
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[Lucas D. Hargrave]

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[atrb=background,http://oi41.tinypic.com/5xoe2u.jpg] Lucas realized that either the painkillers were doing more than they advertised or the various ki blasts had badly injured his eardrums by exploding too close when one of the walking anthropomorphic personifications of death knelt by his side, an orb of ki hovering in his hand and started speaking. His lips were moving but Lucas could barely make out a single world, and even straining to read the man's (woman's? it was hard to tell, she might have been rather flat) lips he only barely got out the word 'fuckin'' which could have been used anywhere in any context. Imprecations were truly an all-purpose set of vocabulary. Well. This was not good. The laser blast must have been some sort of high-powered artillery or even just a trick of his mind, much like his absolutely retarded ki sense. His internal odds maker dipped his already precariously low odds even lower. The black-haired fellow's posture (not to mention ki ball) suggested threat but without knowing the demands- There was a pause as the maybe-male turned his head, Lucas followed his eyes to see the blonde striding towards them, vicious sort of smirk on her lips. She was also asking questions. He managed to catch a very quiet 'beauty' but lost the rest. Well. This was unfortunate. He slowly levered himself upright, expecting at any moment to be blasted to a small, sooty, ash-stained mark on the ground. Think, think, think - what would save him? Flattery? Shit, his sister always told him to be nicer to girls. Maybe this was why. "YOU ARE BOTH VERY BEAUTIFUL," he said, not realizing that without his full range of hearing he was yelling out his thoughts.

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