The Price You Pay

[Borovsky]

Jens looked at her like she was an alien. He knew how to do this he was a cop for crying the fuck outloud. Though Jens had to admit he hadn't been in the field in a long time.

Following Vega had been a fool-hardy mission. The man wasn't running away from him. No - Dorian Vega was Atharim, he knew exactly what he was doing and Jens had fallen into the trap without thinking. Forgetting exactly the type of man he was dealing with - a double crossing double dealing man who had no loyalty. That was the man he was dealing with - and now he and the trap he set. Fuck!

At least she was well equipped. Jens was more inclined to turn back now. But there was no time as the things came out of the darkness. The first of the monsters fell. Jens had never been a field hunter. Monsters were theory. He'd been taken in to manage Atharim with in the CCDPD. Not to hunt monsters himself only clean up their messes.

Jens took aim and shot the next one between the eyes. His marksmanship was not what it once was but he kept up his certification just like anyone else.

Between the two of them they were dropping well out of range, but they kept coming and in more numbers. "We should probably find a way out of here. I don't think we are going forward."

[Dorian]

The mass of creatures hurtled passed his opening. But even after the noise dwindled in the directions Abt there was still sound on the other side. Dorian held his breath. He should move, but it was probably best he not at the moment. Dorian trained his gun into the entrance in the darkness. He could see just fine with the land warriors.

A figure drew closer into the darkness. A man... no it wasn't a man any longer. He was once a man, but he was covered in black goo, his eyes dripped it, his mouth. There was a glow about him that wasn't caused by anything Dorian could see. He peered over the land warriors and saw a fireball floating in his hand. Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!

Dorian's breath caught in his throat as he realized the monster was a fucking god.... he still had the power and he was like the monsters that he'd come to turn on Abt... Dorian wasn't sure how he was going to get out of this one...

[Nika Raskov]

They were doing an acceptable job of keeping the Littlest Pet Shop rejects at bay.  Nika changed her mag smoothly and maintained her rate of fire.  It was unfortunate the things didn’t turn on their dead.  She guessed warm, live food trumped warm dead food any day.  If they were left to it though, she bet the corpses of their four-legged brethren would likely be the next meal.  I mean, if the two bipeds made it out alive.  General Custer seemed to be holding his own which was encouraging but the assassin was not about to let herself feel as though they might be gaining the upper hand.  If anything the encounter was 51/49 or 50/50.  She’d probably ponder the maths later.  If there was a later.  Nika had no intention of letting this dumbass get her killed.  Then again, she had been the dumbass who’d come to give support in the first place.  Who then was the bigger dumbass?  The little Atherim barked a laugh.


Then Cobra Commander threw in the towel.  She could almost hear the high-pitched, screaming ‘Retreat!’ now.  What a great cartoon.  They just don’t ‘em like that anymore. The assassin added it to her mental rewatch list.

Nika was not about to take her eyes off what she was doing to check the drone feed, not with every shot needing to count.  Stuart was called up via throat mic.  “Hey buddy, what’s our tango count?”  His number was not encouraging.  She wasn't carrying that much ammo.  Shit.  Oh well.  Inspector Gadget had called it. 

The asset switched her firing mode to triple-burst and briefly sent her rounds toward central-mass.  She shifted away from the wall still firing and grabbed a canister from the back of her vest.  Her fingertips keyed in a sequence and she tossed the object left-handed toward the junction.  The cylinder hit the far wall and rolled beyond sight.  Good enough.  There wasn’t so much an explosion of sound as there was an whoosh of white light. The corner blocked the brilliant epicenter so it wasn’t blinding.  Her FLIR automatically adjusted regardless.  “Let there be Light!” she said aloud and chuckled darkly.  

Beyond view the hybrid-phosphorus agent spread to encompass the entire width of the tunnel, incinerating anything that could not tolerate a paltry 5000 degrees fahrenheit.  Nika never went anywhere without a plan.  Okay five plans.  The device was one of her bug-out systems.  Highly effective.  They were about as close as they wanted to be to remain comfortable though.  The increase in the tunnel’s temperature was noticeable.

Nika left her rate-of-fire where it was and kept at it.  Because the ratdogs shouldn't like that kind of heat at their backs.  Now it was 60/40.  She grinned behind her aperture headgear though it was impossible to tell. Mostly described as unsettling, especially with the deep-set eye sockets, the gear was designed to be protective like a helmet only nearly form fitting. A featureless face. “Better princess?”  Manageable achieved.

[Borovsky]

Fire. Fire was one way. They kept coming though, through the fire. The bodies piled up onto each other, but they kept coming. A human face stared upon the other side he didn't point but Jens knew he was controlling the mass. A leader.

The smell was making Jens gag, and the smoke was burning his eyes.

"Not really... princess." He retorted and moved away from the firey mess. But the scratching started to sound all around them. How many tunnels were here. Jens yelled. "You can stay if you want to, but I'm heading topside." Jens didn't wait for his back up to join him, he was going to get out of here. Run as far as he could as fast and get ahead of them before they smothered the fire in their bodies.

[[ my plan is get jens lost.... ]]

[Cruz]

Sage got a notice that his father's car was moving. Nox was busy doing something when the message came in. It hasn't been easy to convince the hacker to not tell Nox, but he was too busy with Aiden to really care anyway so the promise was made and Nox didn't know as Cruz slipped into the tunnels with a pair of land warriors, the electronic map and his power.

If Nox could do it. He could do it. His Dad's phone was in the tunnels.... and Sage had made sure he would always have signal. The hacker was good.

The tunnels were dark. A small ball of light hovered over his head. Cruz was going after his father.

[Nika Raskov]

Another mag changed and Paris Hilton’s only friends kept coming.  70/30.  There was still an acceptable buffer of dead space between them.  Only one or two so far had made it within 10 yards.  There were a lot of bodies to crawl over at this point and it was slowing the hoarde down.  


Apparently, Professor Lockhart thought otherwise.  She wasn’t sure if his response was meant as an insult but if it was well, that was the saddest thing since Chrysler made the PT Cruiser.  Pfft.  
As the assassin was busy kicking ass and taking names, she did not look over at the man when he announced his brilliant exit strategy.  Oh but she wanted to.  It was good that Nika was otherwise occupied because she might have shot him herself.  He left.  The coward just...ran away.  Who the fuck were the Atharim recruiting these days?


Fine.  If that’s the way things were going to be...  She’d tried to do the right thing.  Assist a brother-at-arms.  Where had that gotten her?  Lesson learned, Universe.  

The Asset rose into a crouch and fell back little by little toward the tunnel she’d originally taken to this encounter, still firing.  Her head start and the buffer zone established during the firefight gave plenty of room to deploy a second hybrid-phosphorous canister at the junction.  Her back was covered now and she was on her way to being seriously pissed off.  Call for help and then leave?  If the man survived the Underground and she saw him again, Nika would kill him herself.  That was a promise.

The assassin  stalked invisible once more in the darkness.  God help anything dumb enough to cross her path.

[Borovsky]

Jens rounded a corner and the scratching grew louder.

And another and his light flickered out. Classic horror show problem he thought to himself as he knocked it against the cavern wall. It echoed in the distance. And as the light flickered on, a glint of an eye, then another and another peered through the darkness before the light fled completely again.

Jens didn't see the mass move. He only felt the air around him shudder and then the teeth sinking into his flesh...

[Cruz]

The little blip got closer with each step. The light he held he dimmed as he drew deeper into the tunnels. Sounds of scratching erupted in every direction and Cruz doused the fire and held a weave of fire in his hand ready to let lose but it didn't light the way.

A voice shouted in the distance. "Come out. Come out. Where ever you are?" It was once a human voice it sounded thick and gravely as if the vocal chords no longer function the way a human's should garbled by a mangled tongue too Cruz thought.

A bright flash. The sound of gun fire went off and Cruz was running towards the direction of the sound and his father's blip.

[Dorian]

The man/thing shuffled closer to Dorian. He yelled, "Come out. Come out. Where ever you are."

Dorian saw a badge and he took mental note of the things he saw on it. A name, a badge number, a company name. It was all recorded on the land warriors. And Dorian sent it to the information topside. The one thing Sage had been good at was making sure signals were strong. And the landwarriors picked up an incoming connection that was strong. Nox was on his way. Perfect. Dorian took the clear shot to shoot at the man. He knew it might bring the horde back this way, but Nox was coming.

[Nox]

The darkness was his friend. His name was still fleeting and the hunger was strong, but the pack was gone, food was being feed upon. But food was so close. Alistair was once a smart man. But now he was more powerful. The power flowed through him. It sat on his hand in the form of fire.

A blast came from the pray. Lodged in his shoulder, missed his heart - his new heart. Alistair knew this. The man didn't.

More food came... The power flowed through him. Fire engulfed Alistair...