Into the Black

Pterano · **Reply #840 on:** January 12, 2014, 01:26:20 AM

Tony nodded at Axel. "It did indeed go well! Well... as well as can be expected with my pops. He rarely gets positively emotional. Negatively... oh yeah... but hey... he is my father." the ferret said here now. He took some interest in what Soren and Axel might be doing with Anne's horn. They had some time before dinner after all, and Tony took interest in this. He wasn't really technically inclined, but things like "shop" always intrigued him, so he kind of hovered around, hoping to maybe learn a few things.

aabicus (LettuceBacon&Tomato) · **Reply #841 on:** January 12, 2014, 03:55:41 AM

"No, but someone around here does," Emilena kicked the door open to a nearby lounge room and brandished her pistol threateningly at the two surprised occupants, who were playing on a game console. "Nobody move and I don't shoot!" she yelled, firing twice and hitting both in the back. "Wait, crap. Oops."

She rifled through the drawers and their pockets and came away with a number of useful items, such as a lighter, batteries, writing supplies, steel wool, and a pack of autocigs. "Work your magic," she smiled, passing him all of the items; she had a distressing lack of pockets at the moment.

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At the armory, a young wolf Purifier came puffing into view. He had a bloodied wound on the side of his head. "The Vulpine!" he gasped to Aaron. "She and the snake...they're heading below! I think they're trying to escape through the sewers!"

bushwacked · **Reply #842 on:** January 12, 2014, 07:32:07 AM

"That's good," Axel smiled at Tony. "I'm glad." He turned to look at Anne and Soren. "Sure, no problem. Soren's right though, with what we've got it might be a pretty patchy job," he said as he rose and approached the pony, "But hey, you seem like a patchy kind of girl." He bent closer to the damaged augment. "Mind if I just..." Axel carefully held the horn as he switched vision. He could see a faint electrical signal getting past the cut.

"It's not a clean cut all the way through," he said as he straightened up and glanced at Soren, his eyes flicking back to blue. "If we had something thin enough, I think it should fairly simple to connect the wires up again. Then we could try soldering the cut closed?" He looked down at Anne and chewed his lip. "You should be back to your... uh, charming self in no time."

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Marcus rounded a corner and stopped dead when he saw the body of the Purifier sprawled on the ground, a phone buzzing in his outstretched hand. "Son of a bitch..." he snarled as he looked up the hallway. They had to have gone that way, it was a straight path back the way he'd come...

He heard the voice of the young Purifier crackling through faintly on his radio. "Aaron!" he barked into it, "Go down into the sewers and get everyone to split into four teams, one for each exit - follow the others, they know their way through! I'm heading up to cover the ground from the roof..."

The mutilated Purifier on the ground gurgled, still clinging to life that was rapidly fading. Marcus stepped over him and started sprinting towards his quarters where he kept his sniper rifle.

StarfallRaptor · **Reply #843 on:** January 12, 2014, 05:03:00 PM

-REDACTED-

aabicus (LettuceBacon&Tomato) · **Reply #844 on:** January 14, 2014, 06:52:21 PM

As Aaron and his men raced to the sewers, the young Wolf purifier watched them go with a calculating look, all fear and pain vanishing suspiciously quickly. Then he darted in the other direction.

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A guard stood at the entrance to the back alleyways. He was startled when a burning ball suddenly ignited to his left.

Immediately he cocked his rifle and assumed a combat stance. "Identify yourself!"

Then Emilena shot him from behind. The ball had been a battery wrapped in steel wool, which ignited shortly after Emilena threw it.

Emilena kicked the door open. "That had to sound an alarm, but we're almost out of here."

As they darted into the alleyways, she glanced up at the looming headquarters. She noted a sniper tower overlooking them and shuddered. Luckily, it appears nobody was stationed in it at the moment...

"Come on!" she hissed, waving at Sanjay. "We gotta move!"

bushwacked · **Reply #845 on:** January 14, 2014, 07:33:17 PM

Marcus barreled through the door to his quarters, grinding his teeth hard enough to make his jaw crack. Crouching down, he grabbed a heavy metal box and dragged it out from under the bed. Unclipping the latches, he threw it open to reveal a dissembled sniper rifle. Still crouching down, Marcus snatched up the pieces and rapidly put it together. He didn't care why the two prisoners had been allowed to live this long... but they'd escaped, and they'd killed one of the Purifier's soldiers. They had to die.

Sliding the stock home and locking it into place, he grabbed a handful of bullets and loaded them in with the bolt as he darted out of the room and down the hallway. Soon, he turned off and came to a narrow metal staircase rising sharply up, the faint sound of wind echoing down. A small sign drilled into the wall leading to it was marked Watchtower. Slinging the rifle over his shoulder, Marcus charged up the stairs three at a time.

Serris · **Reply #846 on:** January 15, 2014, 12:40:45 AM

(Purifier Compound)

Aaron stopped by the armory to get a shotgun. He muttered some curses as he started loading his weapon. The men with him grabbed their own weapons.

"All right into the sewers!"

The group quickly headed outside and lifted up a manhole cover. Slinging their weapons across their backs, they quickly descended the ladder. Spots of light could be seen as the men turned their weapon lights on.

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Sanjay nodded and crouched so his entire body touched the ground. He then slithered surprisingly quickly after Emilena.

He looked around, scanning with his infrared third eye implant. He smiled as he noticed a large transformer was nearby. Unfortunately, it was surrounded by a fence too narrow for him too squeeze through.

The Indian Cobra looked at his pistol and then Emilena's rifle. His pistol wasn't powerful enough to pierce the plating of the transformer but her rifle was. "If I can set that transformer on fire, the power outage and flames should cause enough panic that we can scram before they know what's going on.

He took out a handful of autocigs – all chemically ignited ones – and carefully ripped away the tobacco, revealing a small waxed paper pouch the size of a pea. Squeezing the cigarette in the proper place would break the pouch, causing the two chemicals to mix and ignite, lighting the cigarette.

Sanjay then carefully wrapped the incendiary pouches in a sheet of writing paper.

"Okay, once you shoot a hole in the transformer and oil leaks out, I'll use the lighter to set the paper on fire and then throw it into the oil. The paper won't burn hot enough to light the oil but it'll burn away the paper on the autocig lighters, which will give a very hot but short lived flame. That should set the oil on fire."

He then held the crude incendiary grenade with one hand and a lighter in the other. "On your shot."

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(The Heights)

"Whatever works," Anne said with a shrug.

Soren looked at the cut. "Some aluminium foil should do the trick." He then turned to Tony. "Mind showing me to the kitchen?"

Pterano · **Reply #847 on:** January 15, 2014, 01:30:44 AM

"Oh yeah, sure!" Tony nodded. "This way!" he exclaimed, waving his paw as he led the way towards his family's massive kitchen. Massive was a bit of an understatement though. The kitchen in here was more like a hotel's kitchen, with a lot of large mixers and ovens and stoves. Tony felt a little embarrassed showing Soren this, but quickly moved to one of the numerous cabinets and tossed over a box of aluminum foil. "Here you are! If you need more, just let me know." be said simply.

Serris · **Reply #848 on:** January 15, 2014, 02:05:39 AM

Soren grunted as he caught the box of foil. "Thanks! That's way more than enough."

He then carried the box to the living room where Anne was sitting in a sealskin chair.

Anne looked at the foil. "Well fuck me, I'm getting fixed up with kitchen goods!"

Soren sighed as he carefully tore up a piece of the foil. "Okay, Axel, Tony, I need some more things: a radio, a set of pointed tweezers, some non-conductive glue, solder and soldering iron."

Rocky · **Reply #849 on:** January 15, 2014, 02:19:29 AM

Meanwhile, Patrick Anderson, a wealthy Liger was returning home after a charity event. The wealthy Anthro was exhausted and ready to go to sleep.

bushwacked · **Reply #850 on:** January 15, 2014, 05:11:29 AM

"Hey, we told you it wouldn't be pretty," Axel told Anne, then nodded at Soren. "Alright. But she'll probably need to get it looked at more... uh, professionally soon - this stuff's only gonna keep her horn going for so long."

He turned to Tony. "Lead the way, I'll give you a hand. Unless your family hasn't gotten around to buying a radio..."

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Marcus reached the top of the watchtower, the metal flooring rattling underfoot. It was a plain setup, a square perch with a roof shielding it, surrounded by a metal balcony that ran all the way around. He stepped out onto the balcony and looked down, the wind snapping his coat to the side. This watchtower gave him almost total visibility across the northern side of the compound - the side that faced towards Lanthae city. If they were going to be escaping on the surface, this would be where they'd go.

He rested the rifle on the balcony railing and switched the scope to night-vision, scanning the dark alleyways below.

Pterano · **Reply #851 on:** January 15, 2014, 02:36:15 PM

"Uh... OK, sure." Tony nodded now, trying to think of where he could obtain these things. "Well my father has a radio... but we're not... using that one." he said hesitantly. "I'm sure there's others around the house in the guest rooms... the tweezers would be in a bathroom, and the glue, solder, and soldering iron can all be found on the workbench in the garage... or... should I say... the shop, in the garage." Tony said, trying to sound modest.

He led the way to the stairs now, heading up to the halls on the second floor of the house. Walking down the carpeted floor, his shoes made only muted echoes as he looked from left to right. He bypassed his siblings' rooms, and made for the guest rooms around the corner. Knocking on one and not hearing anything on the other side, the ferret entered and looked around. "See if there's a radio in one of the nightstands. I'll check the bathroom." Tony wandered past the polished and heavily paneled veneer of the guest room (including the poster bed) and entered the bathroom. Most guest rooms in his father's house had en-suite bathrooms, and this one was no exception. "OK... OK... let's see." he murmured, rummaging around in the medicine cabinet, and pulling out some tweezers. "Got some tweezers in here!" he called to Axel. "How'd you fare on the radio?"

bushwacked · **Reply #852 on:** January 15, 2014, 03:19:50 PM

"Still looking!" Axel called back, crouching down next to the nightstand. The drawers were full of odds and ends. He pulled open the final drawer and pushed aside a leather bound copy of 'Great Expectations', reaching further in. "Oh hey, I... I think I found something..." he announced as his fingers closed around a heavy object.

He pulled it out to see it was indeed a radio. It looked like a pretty expensive make too, but it looked like it hadn't been used in a while. "Yep, got it!" he said, standing up and tucking it under his arm. Damn, something like this would take me ages to save up for it. These guys are really loaded. "Workshop next?"

Rocky · **Reply #853 on:** January 15, 2014, 04:55:40 PM

Patrick Arrived Home went straight to bed, drifting off to sleep.

Pterano · **Reply #854 on:** January 15, 2014, 05:33:15 PM

Tony caught sight of the copy of Great Expectations in the drawer as Axel pulled out the radio. "Oh hey, that's my favorite book! I wonder what it's doing in there..." the ferret wondered, pulling on his chin fur. "Anyway yeah... let's go to the shop." He nodded, and led the way back out into the hall, threading his way around the corridors and back down the stairs, then towards the side of the house where the garage was located. "OK... try not to have a heart attack." the ferret warned the rat as he opened the door.

The garage extended into the darkness for quite some ways before the lights automatically kicked on, their glow glinting off the polished chrome and rich colors of cars from all eras (though mostly classic) arrayed in two rows that ran down the length of the place. There was a Marmon, Isotta Fraschinis, Auburns, a Cord, Delahayes, Aston Martins, Bugattis, a 1953 Allard, an Avions Voisin, a Stutz, Packards, Pierce Arrows, and numerous other vehicles even further down the rows, making his garage more a museum. "Uh... my dad likes cars." was all Tony said, and moved to his right into what was like an auto repair shop.

"I think we can divide up what to carry so we're not overwhelmed." he suggested, looking around for the supplies.

bushwacked · **Reply #855 on:** January 15, 2014, 06:27:27 PM

Axel grinned as he hung back a second, taking in the rows and rows of expensive, classical cars. "Your dad likes cars? Bit of an understatement," he laughed, shaking his head. Tony's voice to his right drew his attention, and he followed him through to the repair shop.

"Alright, sounds fair enough," he agreed, coming up beside Tony. He sifted through some of the tools piled on the workbench with his free hand, then made a contented noise. Leaning forwards, Axel picked up a worn tube of non-conductive glue. "Well, I guess I've found what I'm carrying," he joked as he slipped it into his pocket, freeing up his hand for another item.

aabicus (LettuceBacon&Tomato) · **Reply #856 on:** January 15, 2014, 06:36:58 PM

Emilena nodded and blasted it with a single shot. As if on cue, oil began leaking out.

She looked nervously at the sniper tower; if anyone was in there, they'd have heard the shot. "How long is this gonna take?" She asked.

---------------

A mansion cleaning lady, noticing that the bathroom had been silent for hours, knocked politely. "Hello?" She asked. "Is someone in there...?"

Pterano · **Reply #857 on:** January 15, 2014, 07:05:15 PM

"Yeah... I guess it is." Tony chuckled, shaking his head as he picked up the solder and soldering iron. "I think I can manage these. You got the biggest thing with the radio, after all." Tony nodded at the radio in Axel's paws.

As they stepped out of the shop now, Tony glanced at a 1939 Delahaye 165 Cabriolet. "That is a sleek car." the ferret said appreciatively of it. "It's one of my favorites that my dad owns. That and well... the 1932 Auburn Speedster V-12. I mean can you imagine it? A V-12?" Tony grinned, shaking his head as they exited the garage. "You a car person, I mean, you know, with your name and all?" Tony joked.

bushwacked · **Reply #858 on:** January 16, 2014, 04:07:07 PM

"Oh yeah, in my spare time I'm an illegal street racer. But don't tell anyone..." Axel mock whispered. "Nah. I mean, I'm not, like, an expert on cars or anything. But holy crap, you'd have to be dead not to like those babies!"

As they made their way back around to the house to where the others were waiting, Axel glanced at the ferret, his ears perked up with interest. "So, any other collections around the house? Mona Lisa in the bathroom?"

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The crack of the rifle shot carried up to Marcus on the howling wind. He snapped the sniper's sight down to where he'd heard it, and caught movement down in the alleyways below. Two figures were huddled below. Marcus zoomed his scope in, and hissed. A dumpster between them and him obscured his vision of the pair - he could only get brief glimpses of them as they moved around. Marcus didn't want to take any chances - one shot, one kill for each of them.

Keeping his scope on their cover, he reached down with one hand and unhooked his radio. "Aaron, they're not in the sewers. They're on the surface heading for the north exit." There was no response. "Aaron? Aaron?! Fuck!" he snarled, throwing the radio into the tower behind him. Was something jamming it? Marcus returned both hands to the sniper and steadied his aim, finger hovering above the trigger. The moment one of them poked their head out, he'd put them down.

Pterano · **Reply #859 on:** January 16, 2014, 07:59:45 PM

"I know! Right?" Tony asked as they walked back, chuckling at Axel's mention of being a street racer. "I just HAVE to convince my dad to let me roll on outta here in one of his cars when you guys leave!" he exclaimed. "That'd be so cool!"

As he listened to Axel's next question, Tony couldn't suppress a grin. "Well, my father DID buy the Mona Lisa, but the French government refused him an export permit." he explained, not elaborating on whether he was being truthful or not, only giving the rat an amused look.

As they rejoined the main group, Tony waved the tweezers. "Hey, Soren! We got your stuff!" he called.