Perfect War, Perfect Deception (OPEN [Rules inside])

Explosive Arrows, Derrick recalled from the one that flew past him Best to dodge them and not take any unneeded power . Running low to the ground the White Clad assassin ducked or side stepped the barrage, slamming his palm into the black clad man’s gut. Monroe bent over slightly in pain, giving Derrick chance to react with a swift upper cut. Now reeling back, Monroe faced another blow as the Assassin’s foot cracked against the Quincy’s chest sending him flying through the air, and the wall that blocked his path.

Flying through the dust and debris the wall left the man was ready to finish the job with his Katar like blade; only to find he wasn’t their. With a sharp explosion at his back derrick felt himself being propelled into the ground with a resounding thus. Rolling to his left the white suited man dodged the blunt of another arrow, only getting singed by the heat of the blast. Leaping to his feet Derrick removed his two nambu pistols from their boot straps and sent out the full clips of normal bullets towards where the man was firing from.

Without having the chance to reload Derrick already knew he had missed; Monroe had come from the side grabbing Derrick’s face and using it to throw him head first through another wall. As he twisted and turned through the rubble, the aptly named perfect human managed to load up his guns with his fast bullets, knowing the regular kind where perhaps a bit too slow.

Lying in wait for his prey, the man entered the newly created hole only to find himself bombarded with gunshots. Even still he managed to dodge all but one that nicked his ear. Already on his feet, Derrick was ready when his coloured opposite lunged at him again, grabbing his out stretch arm Derrick flipped the man; only to find he was swift enough to land on his feet.

Without hesitation Monroe tried to kick backwards towards his heavily armed opponents chest, however derrick had another plan as he side stepped the blow and quickly swept out Monroe’s foot with an equally swift kick to leg: The result being a lovely face plant. Turning to his back quickly Monroe already had an arrow strung to his bow, only to find himself staring down the barrel of a shotgun.

"At this range..." Monroe muttered as he stared up the barrel of the shotgun and held his bowstring firmly.

"I know," the Perfect Assassin boasted proudly as his finger readied to pull the trigger, "you can't hope to be more than a bloodstain on this wall when I pull the trigger. It's okay, though, I think you did more damage than any of the others would, no matter how small it was," the man boasted proudly as his finger almost pulled the trigger. "Bye."

The click rang out as the shotgun fired off a burst of pellets into the nearby walls and thin air, but no blood or body were anywhere to be seen. Still, the buzzing sound of a photon arrow behind him caused the assassin to partially look back to see who or what was behind him. "How?" the perfect human asked as he clutched his shotgun firmly.

"You really should have let me finish my thought," the Quincy said as he rested the arrow in the man's back, burning his jacket slightly. "At that range, your only chance to hit me was if my legs were broken," the dark clad man said with a smile as he released the arrow. The flash of neon green that erupted from the blast shot Derrik forwards and headfirst into the ground.

The Enhanced Human made his bow vanish without much of a thought and walked towards the perfect human and grabbed him by his hair and lifted him up slightly. "Derrik, right? Do you remember a woman named Tracey de Carlo? A detective that was trying to stop you?" The white clad man quirked up and eyebrow as he looked at Monroe.

"Don't worry if you don't," the Quincy continued as he slammed the side of the man's face against the wall and held him there for a moment. "Because I'm here to do my job as her guardian angel and make sure you don't ever show your face again. Those who hurt the people I care about... well, you get the idea," Monroe said as he began running along the hallway, scraping Derrik's face violently against the wall.

Smoke from burning and sparks emitted from the man's face as he was dragged along the wall, his skin seeming to be seared off by the intense heat of the friction burn that the Quincy created as he moved. Skin and muscle burned off as the dark clad man continued to drag his enemy towards the end of the hallway. "I'll see you in hell!" Monroe commented as he removed the man's face from the wall and slammed him head first into the next wall, shattering the man's skull through the wall on the other side and releasing his body, causing Derrik to roll through the room the Quincy knocked him in to.

Dybia had had too much convenience with his run through the building. He broke doors down when needed, and found too many open. The path before him seemed to be open at just the right times.

He looked around and saw no activity. There were no guards where he was. Suddenly he heard something from behind the wall to his right. He walked over to the wall the noise was coming from and listened. He heard a loud grinding noise, and it was headed straight for him.

"Oh Goddam-" He said right as he wall busted own with what Dybia could barely tell was a man thrown through. He could only spot this in the half second Dybia was left standing. He was laying on his back thinking, "Why does this always happen? I go anywhere, the f***ing walls come down around me."

Dybia powered his body and got up to shout, "Ok! I'm pissed!" He walked through the fresh hole in the wall to see a slightly familiar face. Dybia used his speed to get behind the man, who seemed to be dressed differently than the last time he'd seen him.

"Well, I wasn't expecting this. Remember me?" , in a slight act of presumption Dybia sent a kick towards the man's mid back, but was caught off by how much faster he seemed to be. His kick was caught effortlessly, by a hand that seemed like it could break his leg.

"That's nice and all, but I'm gonna need you to let go." He said as he sent a large jolt through his leg. As soon as his hand let go another kick went to the man's stomach this time connecting and sending him towards the man he just threw through the wall.

Dybia started rubbing his shoulder from being bowled over by the man that Monroe threw through the wall, "Feeling my age get to me."

OoC: Sorry or taking too long. Had a lot of cool stuff happening lately, but this isn't the place to talk about that.

**** **** **** **** Derrick thought as his face ran along side the harsh wall **** one last time as he felt his body being thrown through a wall. He wasn’t injured to the point where he couldn’t fight, however his body was aching a little, and his face was bleeding very badly; which was an accomplishment on Monroe’s part, given the strength of the Assassin’s skin. The sounds of fighting where heard as Derrick slowly picked himself off the ground. Looking through the hole in the wall he made, the White clad man could see an older man with a smirk on his face.

"Feeling my age get to me." The man remarked seemingly to himself.

“Allow Me to help,” Derrick added coldly, as his cane suddenly found it’s way through the air and into the older man’s shoulder. Running forward basing his attack on the element of surprise The White Clad man kneed the old gentleman in the stomach and ripped his weapon out sending him to the ground. With his cane in his left hand Derrick pointed the tip down at the man’s neck and plunged it downward before the older man had the chance to react. A Stream of blue stopped the assault.

Derrick looked on as his cane was snapped in two pieces from an arrow to his right. Looking over he saw the black clad man getting himself off of the ground, “One at a time Please,” Derrick said nonchalantly taking out a pistol and blasting a round to where the man was standing.

OoC: A Short One, oh well.

Monroe dusted himself off as he looked at Derrik and smiled. His bow became a flash of neon green again before it vanished back into his glove again. "One at a time? Here I thought you were the "perfect assassin". If you can't even fight two people at once, what chance do you stand against something really dangerous. After all, compared to some people I've seen, you're nothing more than a warm up."

The Quincy glanced at the old man as his gauntlet collided with the side of the perfect human's face and knocked him off and sent him rolling on the ground. "As for you, old man, I thought you died in Chinatown. Guess I'm gonna have to end you this time. I had so hoped that Zorlo and Cadenza's blast had killed you, but seems they didn't do anything more than help you develop that new power."

Dybia stood up and rested his hand on his sword as he looked at the dark clad man. "Well, you seem different from last time I saw ya. It could be the clothes... or the fact you're not getting your ass kicked. When I figure it out, I'll tell ya," the lightning innate said as he vanished and drew his sword quickly.

Monroe moved quickly and stepped forwards, stopping the blade of the sword between his hands. The Quincy smiled as he held onto the sword before a sudden jolt of lightning pushed him back through a wall. The archer's left hand wrapped around the broken wall as he pulled himself out. "Magic... I had almost forgotten," Monroe stated sarcastically as he looked at Derrik. "Hey, Mr. "Perfect Assassin", what do you say we beat pops here up and then finish killing each other?"

Derrick’s eye’s peered over to the Black garbed man, a look of calm indignation flashing in his eye’s “No matter how fast I pull my trigger, only one heart can be pierced at a time,” he said coolly the words rolling off his tongue.

“Good point,”

“As for your offer I begrudgingly except for as long as it shall last. Do not get me wrong your life has no value to me, nor does your corpse, but when it comes down to it and you get between me and that ruby I will deal you a deathblow without so much as blinking; Don’t take me as a friend, but take me at my word. I do not care wither you live or die,”

“I will do the same to you,” Monroe Said his bow materializing in his hand, “The only difference is that I value your corpse, as our punishment for hurting Tracy,” He said coldly and without emotion, as if instead of a death threat he was ordering pizza on the phone or something of the sort.

“Deal,” Derrick replied turning to the grey haired man, who was listening to the conversation loading his gun with explosive ammunition and taking aim, as Monroe did the same with his bow. At once the two let their missiles fly.

OoC: Short and to the point. Ball's in your court kingy~

Dybia quickly dodged the projectiles from the two men, and when they next saw him he was suspended by his feet from the ceiling in front of them.

"Aw, what a touching relationship you two have. Anyway, I feel you both underestimate and misunderstand my power, but now is not the time for explanations." ,Dybia said as he jumped down and grabbed the shoulders of the man he did not know pulsing electricity into him.

Monroe had already knocked back his arrow, and released it in an instant. Dybia could only spin to block with his make-shift shield of Monroe's ally. This man was tougher than he'd thought, because even with Monroe's attack hitting him square in the back and his electricity, the man forced himself to punch at Dybia knocking him back a little less than he would have before.

Before he could recover Monroe was already behind him with an attack ready. Dybia instinctively turned around giving a roundhouse kicked his shot into another direction. He gave the first attack that came to mind, a headbutt straight to his gut. He ran with it straight into the wall behind him.

Dybia stood up straight and heard a click behind him, and he ran as fast as he could but the man saw where he was going the man shot his explosive ammo where Dybia had been headed. An explosion blew a hole in the floor, but Dybia was not there.

Dybia clung to the ceiling and said, "Nice firepower, doesn't mean I'm gonna let myself get hit with it though."

In other parts of the building, explosions and walls falling down could be heard. J wondered how many others there were, and what their power level was, but he'd probably get to see them soon enough. First things first, he had a girly to subdue.

He slid backwards a little ways, not much fazed by the kick. It took inhuman force to deal adequate damage to him, and the dark stranger seemed quite human underneath the high-techery. He never really knew how to handle these kind of fights. If he really really wanted to, he could probably break her legs and walk away, but he would never do something so cruel if he could help it. How much damage he was willing to deliver was always stretched over a blurry line, and it always wasted a good amount of his time and endurance, no matter how quickly he wanted to get the job done, and it didn't really help now that his opponent was a woman.

"Look, I'm serious, you should consider my offer. You wouldn't want to break a nail, now, would you?" He said as he narrowly avoided a blast of plasma searing past his helmet. She apparently wasn't amused. It seemed strange to him how similar their arsenal was. Of course, he did wield pretty basic, yet highly effective equipment. The key to his skill set was his ability to throw a curve ball into almost any situation.

The female assassin fired off her grappling hook once more in an attempt to gain a better angle, but J was quick to intercept, catching her hook out of the air with a grapple shot of his own. With a powerful and precise flick of his arm, the cords shot back at the woman and spiraled towards her, threatening to tie her up with her own cable. The black cloaked fighter quickly flipped out of the way, firing off her second grapple hook into the mix in an attempt to gain control again. She landed in a crouch, bringing her arms down and flinging the two whip like cords in such a way that J's own claw was aimed to take his face off.

The armored soldier took a wide stance and realed in his own cord, sliding back on his feet as the three ends connected with his arm. He brought up one leg and slammed it into the tile floor with entirely too much power, shattering the concrete at his feet and throwing up debris into the air. In a fluid motion, the enhanced soldier slammed his opponents cables into the biggest piece of debris he could find, and threw the concrete slab out the window behind him with all the strength he could muster. He then turned back around, ready to knock out his incoming opponent with a well placed blow to the head.

OoC: Weeeeee!!

OoC: "...and what their power level was..."

IT'S OVER NIN-

IC:

The heavy slab of concrete managed to unwind great lengths of Jennifer's abseiling cable before she was able to respond and hit the quick release button, which would cause the hooks to immediately retract and let go of the concrete anchor. An idea suddenly came to her, though, and instead of hitting the quick release button, she hit the lock button. The cables suddenly locked in place, making sure they wouldn't unwind any futher than they already had. Of course, they were still attached to the falling block of cement, and as soon as the cables locked the heavy weight pulled Jennifer towards the window, and she flew past the armored man. She jumped to get her feet off the ground, and cleanly cleared the window opening.

For a moment it would seem she had either abandoned the battle, or fallen to her death. However, whlie neither case was so, she hoped that her opponent would assume so. As soon as she was outside, she hit the release button, leaving the concrete slab to hit the ground and shatter into gravel, and her cables snapped back into place like a tape measure. Immediately, she aimed her cables back at the wall of the building, and a burst of pressurized air sent the hooks deep into the bricks. She pulled herself against the side of the museum, hanging there silently. On one side of her was the broken window she had just sailed out of, and on the other side was another window, this one as of yet unscathed.

Jennifer thought it was interesting, the fact that the boy seemed to have similar equipment to her. Plasma guns, grappling cables, computer enhanced visor, and armor suit. They were certainly top of the line equipment for this line of work though, so it wasn't too surprising. She had one thing he didn't, though, which was her laser weapon. Of course, he had superhuman strength, which might be a bit of a problem.

Below her, an explosion blew a couple windows out. Whatever was going on in other parts of the building, she was just glad she wasn't there. Eidolon pulled out her laser carbine and powered it up. To use the weapon, she had to release one of her cables and free her right arm. She could easily hang by just one, as the cables were strong and the hooks dug deep, so it wouldn't be a problem. In a matter of seconds, the laser carbine beeped to inform her that it was active and had a shot fully charged. Jennifer activated the infrared heat vision function on her visor, but soon switched back to normal, as the visor couldn't see through the wall. The brick wall was most likely reinforced with concrete and possibly a layer of steel even, since some of the most expensive and important items were held in this room (such as the Ruby they were all after.) In fact, Jennifer was surprised there were even windows.

Eidolon pushed her feet against the wall, and leaned toward the unbroken window. In the darkness of the night, with her dressed completely in black, she hoped she wouldn't be seen through the window from the other side. J was standing there on the other side, but looking through the broken window, probably wondering if Jennifer was going to come back through it. She aimed the charged laser carbine at the boy, using the nightscope to aid in her precision. Killing him didn't seem like the right thing to do, not that Jennifer was one to care much about morals. Instead, she aimed the gun at J's shoulder, hoping the beam would incapacitate him. The laser was strong enough to shoot through layers of thick bulletproof glass, she had no doubts it would shoot through both the window and the kid's armor suit; and it would do so silently and invisibly, leaving but a small hole in the glass.

With that, she pulled the trigger; or rather, pushed the button.

So he took the bait, Falenor thought to himself and his impromptu partner, albeit softly to avoid disrupting the battle. Excellent. The distraction Eidolon provided was more than sufficient for him to focus on the task at hand with almost total concentration. Upon closer examination, he found that the material surrounding the Ruby was incredible. Ten times harder than diamond without being even slightly brittle, there was no way that brute force or even most lasers were going to get you in there. Luckily, Falenor had something else in mind.

He hated to use such a cliched term, but the words "resonant frequency" were perfectly applicable here. The right tone of sound would vibrate the barrier in such a way that it simply shattered, leaving the ruby untouched...in theory. After about a minute of concentration, what actually happened was that a high-pitched whine like an alarm emanated from the point Falenor was standing at, having absolutely no effect on the casing.

As it happened the pitch of the note was off by the tiniest of margins, but that was still enough to mess up the attempt. Glancing over and seeing J and Jennifer still fighting, he concentrated even harder on another attempt, placing his hands on the barrier and closing his eyes, excluding all other stimuli from his mind. Basically, he was relying on Eidolon to keep anyone from attacking him while he worked on the Ruby's prison. He didn't even notice the ruckus taking place just a few metres away from him, much less the loud noises coming from other parts of the building.

Luckily, his new partner seemed to be more than capable of holding off J for the duration. After what seemed like an age, Falenor was finally positive that he had precisely the right frequency in his mind...now all he had to do was transfer it to the barrier. He produced another high-pitched sound completely indistinguishable from the first one, only when this one was finished there was a hairline crack in the material. Perfect, he thought to himself.

A few kinetic blasts later and the crack had become something large enough to extract the Ruby from. He reached in to remove the prize, but found he was unable to budge it. A quick glance downwards revealed why: something electronic was holding it in place. Fortunately, this obstacle was easily fried with a quick blast of electrical energy, leaving him free to grab the Ruby. Unfortunately, this immediately triggered another alarm. "THE HUNTERS RUBY HAS BEEN REMOVED. ALL UNITS TO MUSEUM IN SECTION 3B. SPECIAL UNI-"

Falenor cut the alarm off with but a thought, but it was already too late: everyone in the museum would have heard that alarm, particularly J. Throwing what shields he could muster around himself, he immediately bolted for the door, leaving Jennifer a quick telepathic message. "Have ruby, but alarm has activated. Meet me at back museum entrance within three minutes or I will be forced to bail. If you are late, meet at the large warehouse fifty meters from Museum grounds. Don't be late." He didn't even make it to the door before yet another blast door came down, and this one seemed resistant to his kinetic attempts. Great, he sighed, the walls would be easier to- hang on...

Instead of trying to get through the blast door, he simply began blasting the wall next to it. This met with moderate success: he could definitely climb through now, but it wasn't going to be easy. Feeling rather drained from all the energy he'd had to expend recently, he clambered wearily through the hole and emerged back in the corridor outside the Ruby room, where he looked around planning his next move.

The alarms went off, and thus, the fighting trio stopped for a few seconds. "Tsk, had too much fun," Monroe commented as he jammed his hands into his pockets and started to walk off. "Took too long fighting here and now somebody's got the ruby." The dark clad man let his senses focus on if anything with Reiatsu was in this building. Aside from Dybia, the building was all but void of magically powerful people.

"Well," the dark clad man said as he walked off, "I don't have any more time to waste then." Before he could take another step, the elder man landed in front of him and looked at the former assassin.

"Like I'm gonna let either of you leave-" the man half finished saying before the backhand of Monroe's Sanrei Glove slammed into the side of his head and threw Dybia through a wall.

"Don't have time, old man," the Quincy stated as he heard a blast not far off. "Good, it's close, I'm guessing," the archer said as he formed his bow and began firing arrows into the walls, blasting several small holes, followed by more volleys of arrows to make larger holes, that the dark clad man could slam his fist through and then rush through.

Even if Derrik had tried to stop him, Monroe had all but stopped paying attention. He had to find this guy with the ruby and get it. That was his only goal. And if the police showed up... well, more senseless blood could be spilt if necessary, he guessed.

Derrik watched without blinking as the black garbed assailant tossed Dybia aside like a rag doll, and proceeded towards the Ruby with a volley of arrow fire, lighting the entire hallway way a dull green. Through the corner of his eye Derrick saw the weary older man start to get to his feet, “Please stay down,” Derrick said removing one of his shot guns and firing a shot at closer range at the man’s chest sending him flying to the ground. Without so much as a second thought Derrick walked slowly threw the newly created holes, half heartedly tossing a live grenade behind him to block the path. Looking back at the ageing man he gave one last piece of advice, “Don’t follow,”

The Explosion rocketed through the building, sending the ceiling around the blast zone collapsing down in a puff of smoke, blocking the immediate route to Derrick. As the white coated an walked slowly through the halls, ignoring the sounds of fighting intentionally, he carefully packed his guns with his heaviest and strongest bullets, getting ready for anyone that could come his way.

Footseps.

Looking down the hall to his left he spotted someone walking by rather quietly for the battlefield. In his hands was…the ruby. “jackpot,”

Quickly removing his two shot guns from his back the walked forward, and started firing. God Speed to whomever was in his path.

Edit: Not really much I could do.

"No respect," Was the first thing Dybia could think of, " Just assume he's weak and run off. This is something I can't let go. Those dumbasses are going down."

Dybia walked forward batting aside the remains of the wall, and he powered up his body to give pursuit. Dybia took Enola off of his belt and got ready to seriously fight these guys. All play was fair if they turned their backs on him. They'd soon learn their mistake, and regret it.

He would not be denied the prize he came for, but what fun was a game without fighting the competition. Dybia closed in on the last man to leave earlier while he was shooting at someone of ahead of him and gave 2 quick slashes with his sword Enola at full charge to the man's back. He bounded over and shot a bolt of lightning down the hall after the person he'd been shooting at, nothing that would kill though. Dybia noticed something strange here. Where was Monroe? He'd left first.

OoC: meh

Oh lovely, shotguns. I'm in no shape for a fight right now... Falenor thought wearily to himself. His outward reaction, however, was quite different. "Shotguns," he said with a confidence he didn't really feel right now. "How quaint". As his adversary raised the weapons to shoot a plan began forming in his mind, and by the time he'd pulled the trigger the plan was ready. First up: a little light show, he thought, pouring photons into the ruby so that it appeared to glow and shimmer eerily like a neon sign. Then just as the bullets reached him, he poured almost all the energy left to him through the ruby and out into them, melting them instantly.

This not only took quite a lot out of Falenor, but he now had superheated metal flying at him. As soon as it made contact with his clothing, he simply absorbed the heat back into himself. The process wasn't perfect, but it left him with almost as much power as he'd had before. Almost. "As you can see, your bullets can't harm me in the slightest," Falenor lied, waving his hand at the metal splattered across his chest. The ruby flashed again and Derrik was flung back into the pile of rubble his grenade had caused. "That was good advice you gave that man back there...you would do well to follow it yourself," he smirked, placing the darkness projector on the ground and setting it to plunge the entire corridor into total darkness.

His first port of call was to inform Jennifer of his new situation, which he did with a quick telepathic message: "Have encountered resistance. Escape probability is around 91% assuming no other threats become evident." With that, he kinetically blasted through the nearest wall he could find, emerging in what appeared to be a data room with several servers lined up along the walls. Sighing with relief, he pulled out all the electrical plugs he could find, constructed a basic resistance circuit from the machinery available, then hooked all the powerpoints--and himself--up to the circuit, the ruby remaining safely in his lap as he sat cross-legged. He floated a little distance off the ground, reveling in the energy flowing across his body even if it wasn't much for the time being. Soon enough, he thought with a smile, keeping an eye roving around the room.

OoC : I'm off on holiday for a couple days; I'll post when I get back.

In an instant, the data room lit up, and moments later, it was dark as night. Photon arrows had ripped through the monitors, into the technology and blown up everything. The man in the room looked around in confusion for a moment as the ruby that sat on his lap suddenly jutted from its spot and collided with someone's hand in the darkness.

A thin, neon green thread had been wrapped around the ruby that was now in Monroe's hand. The thread was attached to Monroe's index finger for a second before he dispelled it and looked at the ruby. "All this work for this thing? Man, I had to fight the newest model of me, an old man, and now this guy," the Quincy said, motioning to the man in the now destroyed data room. "This mission is getting dumber by the second... still, thanks for the prize," the dark clad man stated as he placed the jewel into his jacket.

Now all he needed was an effective escape plan, and he was set. However, the dark clad man heard Derrik getting up, probably hardly harmed at all. From where the two former assassins had come from, Dybia's reiatsu moved through the wall and drew him into this room. Aside from those two, the man in the data room was now getting ready to fight. Options were few, it seemed.

"Hey, Derrik, I've got another proposition! How about you kill the old man, Dybia, and I'll kill the guy that was trying to make off with the jewel. After that, I state again, we can kill each other," the Quincy stated firmly. Now, he just had to wait to see if "perfect" human didn't mind this arrangement. It was too hard to try to fight three people at once, but fighting one and then another. Now that was easy.

A couple swipes of a sword, and a small explosion where little more then child's play to the Aptly titled "Perfect Assassin". Already on his feet again Derrick listened closely at the dark garbed man's proposition, "Okay Monroe, it's a deal. However if you back stab me and take a run for it I will run you down, and shoot you up. Mark my words," Derrick said half heatedly looking towards his agreed upon opponent. Even in perfect darkness Derrick's sight was good enough to see the man perfectly.

Detaching his two Kimber Eclipses from their holsters, and using his laser sight more for effect then actual aim, fired towards his opponent who jumped and rolled out of their way. 24 shots later and the aging man had still managed to duck and dodge his way out of the bullets deadly path, perhaps their was more to this man then he had previously thought. Quickly reloading their cartridges with his personal favorite ammunition he took aim again.

Unlike before the first shot hit the old man in the shoulder, as the scatter shot's sharpened beads spread out from the time they left the barrel. Though they didn't pack quite the punch as some of his other ammunition they where perfect for speedy foes like the one he was facing. Firing a few more shots Dybia took heed as a few more pellets broke through his skin and quickly dived and rolled to a hall way adjacent to the one they where in, virtually hiding himself from direct fire for the time being. Though the white cloaked man was expecting an ambush of sorts, he still fearlessly walked over to the hall way where the man was hiding, turned the corner and aimed his weapons.

OoC: lalalalalala.

J found himself wondering what the crap had just happened. His legs buckled and his arm was numb, and becoming more painful every second. Upon further inspiration, he realized there was a small whole that had traveled all the way through his shoulder. This caused him to raise his eyebrows in surprise, as most things couldn't go all the way through his shoulder like that. The wound had been cauterized by the heat of whatever is was that hit him, his bone punctured and weakened, or so his HUD/X ray vision told him.

J winced as he gathered his nerves, standing back up to his feet and supporting his left arm with his right. He'd had worse. The arm would be adequately functional in ten minutes, and completely healed in thirty, give or take.

By this time, it about sounded like the building was being ripped asunder, and a really obnoxious alarm was going off. J glanced to the source of his skewering, but whoever it was, most likely the cloaked chick, they were already gone.

The soldier snorted in a disappointed fashion and scanned the building for the largest disturbance. Assassin lady was really hard to find, but four others popped up in his view like Christmas trees, and one of them had the ruby. Well that sucks. Should have kept a better eye on the girls crony.

The armored man took off for the ruby carrier. He was going to have to make his next moves carefully now, what with the many other bounty hunters all smashing the museum to bits, and the cops that were possibly on the way. If he wasn't able to secure the gem, this whole night would be a bust.

About the time J came within close proximity to the others, the jewel thief dropped off his radar. The clone soldier frowned and slowed his pace slightly, before abruptly spotting another blip moving through the room in front of him. Quietly positioning himself behind a wall, and being able to see through said wall, he listened in on the monologue that was coming from within the dark room.

"All this work for this thing? Man, I had to fight the newest model of me, an old man, and now this guy. This mission is getting dumber by the second... still, thanks for the prize,"" confidently stated a extremely sure of himself bounty hunter. "Hey, Derrik, I've got another proposition! How about you kill the old man, Dybia, and I'll kill the guy that was trying to make off with the jewel. After that, I state again, we can kill each other,"

"Okay Monroe, it's a deal. However if you back stab me and take a run for it I will run you down, and shoot you up. Mark my words," came a Whitely garbed mans response.

These people are just silly... The first man had just stolen the ruby and was now more interested in his ego and challenging people to duels then he was in making it out of here alive. J thought about jumping in with a surprise attack, but after a seconds thought, came to the realization that it would be much better to let these rookies kill each other off and pick up the jewel on the way out. This would also give him plenty of time to heal his wounds and assess the other fighters capabilities.

Activating his black skinned stealth mode, the genetically altered clone crept to a safer location where he was out of the way, yet could easily intercept anyone trying to make a run for it with the jewel.

As soon as someone entered the room, Falenor closed his eyes and did his best to observe the goings on mentally. Luckily he was wired straight into the power grid, so the equipment smashing didn't disrupt the flow of power coursing through his body. Difficult as it was, he kept from reacting too strongly when the Ruby was torn from his grasp. I'll get it back soon enough, he thought.

Keeping a mental eye on the situation, he kept Jennifer updated as to his situation: "Ruby is in possession of another thief. Competition has arrived, including that J person you were fighting before. Suggest immediate backup and a speedy escape. I'll just sit tight; there's too many for me to take out". Still not happy about the situation, he sat and waited for something to happen.

Unfortunately, that something came in the form of someone mentioning offhand that they planned to kill him. This knowledge sent Falenor's brain into overdrive, plans ricocheting around his skull like so many ping pong balls inside a large sphere. Several facts appeared amongst the throng of ideas. My new opponent probably didn't know he was aware of this state of events and may well simply try to kill me outright. Backup, such as it is, will take only as much time as J took to reach here, which wasn't very long. In addition, I am gaining in strength every second I sit here, something which the others seem to have failed to notice.

The correct course of action, at least in the immediate sense, was obvious. Falenor simply put extra attention into the area around him, preparing to throw up a shield if an attack or person came near. Other than that, it was just a matter of patience: waiting for the Ruby to be within reach, then grabbing it and getting out as fast as he could.

Jennifer didn't wait around to see if her shot was effective, using her grappling cables to get herself onto the roof of the museum. Falenor had managed to acquire the Hunter's Ruby, and was running off with it. Hopefully he managed to get out of the building in one piece. The alarm had apparently been activated as well, meaning that every thief in the building would be after Falenor. If that wasn't bad enough, the police had arrived at last. Jennifer watched from the roof as several police cars, followed by SWAT vans, pulled into the parking lot. Blue and red lights were ablaze, and sirens were ringing. Police officers stepped out of their cruisers, and special units, dressed up in combat armor and wielding assault rifles, poured out of the vans. The special units made their way into the building, ready to take out the intruders and secure the gem. They didn't look like they were planning on holding back a thing, likely to shoot first and ask questions later.

Jennifer got another message from Falenor. Apparently he no longer had the Ruby. He couldn't take out all the thieves hired to steal the Ruby, and Jennifer couldn't just sit back and trust him to get the precious gem back. She had to take things into her own hands, and she had an idea. From the roof of the museum, Jennifer could see a nearby small building. According to the blueprints she had, this was a security outpost. Special elite museum security forces would equip themselves here to take out intruders like herself. At the moment, quite a few special units were preparing themselves, equipping their semi-automatic shotguns, and heading towards the main building to join the SWAT team. After they had all left, Jennifer abseiled from the roof of the building, and made her way to the security building.

Inside she found plenty of spare security uniforms, and took one that was around her size. She removed her own cloak wrapped her weapons inside of it. She put that, along with her helmet, inside an equipment backpack. She put the security uniform over her armor, and put on a combat helmet. Lastly, she grabbed a pair of shotguns and plenty of ammunition, and strapped them over her back. Now to all the world, she looked just like a unit of the museum's elite security force, albeit with an extra shotgun and a missing security badge.

Jennifer climbed into a second story window, and then ran from there into the museum's entryway, where the SWAT team and the museum security were gathering and organizing themselves. She feigned exhaustion as the leader of the SWAT team approached her. "What's going on, ma'am?" he asked.

"I just came from the upper levels. I was on patrol, searching for the intruders, you know. Well, I found them, but there was too many for me to take out. They all look very well armed, and armored. Luckily, though, they aren't working together, but rather against each other. They might just kill themselves off before we even get there. I got in a fight with one of them, lost my badge. They killed another one of us, I took their shotgun, no sense leaving it with the intruders," Frost explained.

"Alright, good work ma'am. We can take it from here if you want to take a break, or retire for the night. Sounds like we have our work cut out for us. We can't let a single one of these intruders leave here alive," the team leader said.

"No, I'm coming with you. I know where they are, I can lead you right to them," Jennifer insisted.

"That's the spirit. We should start moving now." The SWAT team leader motioned to the rest of the group, and they all began to move. When they got to the floor that the intruders were on, the group split into smaller groups, so they could surround the thieves. They moved stealthily and quickly. Once they got close enough to the area that all the thieves were gathered in, it was very easy to tell where they were. There was shouting and yelling, gunfire and explosions, and things being smashed and broken. The SWAT team was nearly in position, but before they moved in, they threw several flashbang grenades into the area. Before the intruders even knew what was going on, the entire area was surrounded by SWAT and elite security, wielding assault rifles and combat shotguns.

"DROP YOUR WEAPONS AND PUT YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR, NOW!" shouted the team leader. They would give the thieves a few seconds to comply before unloading their weapons on them.

Jennifer, mixed in with the rest of the museum security crowd, couldn't see Falenor, but she thought to him anyway. I brought backup. Which one of these bastards has the gem?

The movement of energy in the room where the dark clad man had removed the ruby seemed to give that the person in there was... borrowing energy into its own body. That's annoying, Monroe noted as he quickly launched more of the wires into the room, this time binding the man before yanking him away from the mechanical system and launching Falenor into a wall.

Still, in the time it took to do that, SWAT team officers, police and other useless fodder had rushed into the scene. "You've got to be kidding me," the Quincy stated as he smiled. The men pointed their guns at the group, intent on probably being scary or something. "You so called "normal" people think that you can defeat us?"

Monroe had to admit, from his lips, those words felt a little strange. Then again, normal people, no matter how well armed, couldn't possibly fight against these people and hope to win. "Three on however many of them there are sounds fair, right?" Derrik and Dybia didn't comment, but had stopped fighting for a moment.

"DROP YOUR WEAPONS AND PUT YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR!" the man repeated as the sound of any safeties that were on were just clicked off.

Monroe curled his fingers into fists. Tightly held fists that, as he uncurled his fingers, revealed nearly invisible, neon green strings attached to all of his fingers. "You two finish killing each other, I'll take care of these guys. After all," the Quincy said as he raised his hands, "they're only normal people."

A blast above Monroe's head caused a hailstorm of gunfire to erupt from the operatives towards the dark clad man. Still, even the stream of bullets that poured from their guns was no match for the Quincy's impeccable speed. Monroe would have, normally, used his arrows to keep these guys at bay, but right now he needed something a little more discrete. Something that allowed him to remain hidden, and that silver tube had created just the distraction he needed.

The constant stream of bullets couldn't find their way past a single point. The bullets wound up being bound and stopped by some almost unseen force as the man moved out of the cloud of debris that had been created by the blast. Then, something terrifying happened. The gun chambers of the military unit were empty.

"Too bad, children. I had hoped to play with you for a little bit longer," the man said as he swung his arms across himself. Quickly, the wires began to bind themselves around the necks of the SWAT members. The Quincy tightened his grip, slowly crushing the wind pipe of each man their intent to stop these bandits, thieves, rouges and assassins. Still, of the SWAT team, the only one that didn't fall dead in the next few moments was a woman that had narrowly evaded the attack.

The dark clad man smiled at the disguised woman. The nearly invisible strings on his fingers seemed to simply vanish into thin air. In the Quincy's left hand, his bow reformed as he looked at the woman. "Clearly you're not with them. So, I'm guessing you must be like us. Too bad reinforcements failed. After all, each man here could have killed these guys by themselves. Except for you, and him," Monroe stated as he pointed from her to Falenor, who was still recovering from the shock of the Quincy's last attack.

"But don't worry. Death isn't so bad. After all, the Angel of Death doesn't opt to show himself to many people. I'm just here in his place."