Half-Dragon

IC: Srizz | Headed for Day RunThe grin widened further still. On Srizz's face, the effect was not encouraging. "Music to my ears. Lead the way, captain." He set his arm back on the handles and pulled back a bit, letting Khadbaen take the lead since he didn't know which way the money was.-=H-D=-

NPC: Carapace groaned. He was just about to contact Gadgeteer via the cellphone he'd left in Dmitri Kolyevich's pocket when everything, from cellphones to cameras to the actual jet they were flying in registered a significant power surge, then went offline. An EMP. Wonderful. He immediately began scanning security cameras at the nearby airport. With luck they would be in range... Nope, no such luck. He would have to rely on an agent who could be there in mere moments. A quick scan revealed no agents within the nearest fifty miles. That left only one reliable possiblity.He groaned again. This was always annoying.{H-D}

IC: Srizz | Outside the groundsSrizz slowed his own bike down when he spotted Khadbaen's distinctive profile. Mainly it was the hat. And the rahi. "Honestly? Between you and me, I looked through the roster: All the others are either full of losers or just plain full. So for the rest of the tournament, consider yourselves up one excellent assassin. Ah, who am I kidding? One phenomenally awesome assassin." He grinned, pulled up to match Khadbaen's stride and offered his hand. -=H-D=-

IC: Srizz | On his way to Day RunAfter a quick search of the city (well, okay, the bars mostly) Srizz decided he would probably find Khad down at the Day Run rather than skulking around this place. It didn't take him long to retrieve his vehicle from the garages, pull on a nice, big, warm cloak and zoom off across the frozen wastes. Guh... Whoever put the tournament here should be hanged.-=H-D=-

IC: Past | BoatsSrizz took a bow. "If you like that, you should hear my other backstories." He straightened up and leaned in conspiratorially. "I'm working on one that has a kanohi dragon." He leaned back again and grinned. "I'll say this truthfully, though: Folks back home do not get me. I tell them I'm an assassin and they hear 'psychopath.' How do they figure that? One's a profession, the other's a mental disorder." He rolled his eyes. "Anyway, I gotta ask out of curiosity: How many of the ones you send along do you actually think will survive the training?"-=H-D=-

IC: Before timeskip | BoatsSrizz grinned. "I grew up a simple farmryyz, growing madu trees for the village. All was well until we were raided by Zyglak one day!" He leapt to his feet and dramatically pantomimed the next few scenes. "A warrior of our people died to the spears of two of their ferocious number, and I took up his sword, terrified but knowing it was fight or die! And so my long-hidden killer instinct awakened..." He made broad, slashing motions with an invisible blade. "I slew them on the spot and, for my bravery, was inducted and trained by the elite rangers of our land! I learned the ways of stealth and swordsmanship, found a place among my people... "But I grew weary of the life of ease. Attacks were few and far between, and I craved action and adventure. The elder of our people forbade travel beyond our lands, saying there was naught but suffering and chaos out there, while our own home was an idyllic paradise. As I tried to leave, he barred my path. I knew there was only one way I would escape our island home. So I feigned submission, waited for him to turn his back, and with one swift motion-" He mimed driving a blade forward dramatically. "-I ran the old fool through! Then I took my boat and set out upon the seas, leaving my old life behind."--------------------------------------------IC: After timeskip | CitySrizz looked up at the screen, frowning a bit. He had been wondering whether to take up Khadbaen on his offer to join the team, now it looked like he had little choice. He'd wanted to leave his options open... but honestly, what options? Most of the good teams were full. He shrugged to himself. Well, he'd wanted to see what his options were, now he knew. So he turned and started looking around for Khadbaen, hoping he was still somewhere in the city and Srizz wouldn't have to go all the way to the arena, find out he wasn't there, go back to the city, find the bounty hunter and then go to the arena again. That was just a pain. And he hated the cold wastes between them.-=H-D=-IC: CityTheron strode through the streets of the City, cutting an imposing form wherever he went. He knew he looked intimidating to the average matoran. For that matter, he stood head and shoulders above most toa even without the added bulk of his armor. But it was as he said whenever asked: The innocent had nothing to fear from him. It was the guilty - criminals, insurgents and the like - who should be frightened whenever he went on patrol.=H-D=

IC: Srizz sighed. "Yeah, I guess. Didn't see as much action as you guys back there, so maybe I'm just restless." He spent a few seconds trying to think of something to do and eventually defaulted to conversation. "So... Where you from, anyhow? Or is it one of those emotional backstories you don't talk about because it gets you crying? There's a surprising amount of those."-=H-D=-

NPC: Ultionis rolled his eyes, but said nothing. Honestly he wasn't happy about the delay, but Mr. Omaha had just been through a traumatic, month-long experience and would need some consoling. Also probably therapy. Just one more reason he hated getting civilians anywhere near the action. He filled the time by contacting Miss Tress aboard the jet. "Slight delay on our return. Civilian issues. Should be wrapped up soon. Over."(H-D)NPC: Carapace smiled honestly and broadly to himself. Perfect. Just perfect. He'd just learned the exact location of the Coalition's base via the cameras attached to Negafire and Saosin's disguises, and Mr. Mystery seemed to be unaware. Oh, there was always the risk that he had technopathic abilities from some villain or other and could detect the cameras, but that was the primary reason why all signals Carapace ever sent or recieved were routed through fifteen relays, seven of them orbital and each requiring manual access to trace further, before they got to their destination. Plus, just out of paranoia, he'd shut off the feeds not long after Mystery made his offers. Even a technopath couldn't trace a signal that wasn't there.Now the only question was what to do with the information. He could inform the League, but... That would be tipping his hand. As of yet he knew the location, but not the details of the base. He would need to gather more information. He would need to focus his efforts. He would need to plan. The smile grew into a grin. His favorite game.But alas it would have to wait. For now, Hexas was still at large and he did have assets at work. A glance from the helmet's cameras (he had wiped out the offending program by now) revealed Gadgeteer- Wait. He ran a facial recognition program. In moments it had produced a result: A person of interest he'd noted before the invasion as a possible agent, a professional mercenary calling himself Dreadnought. Real name: Viktor Borislav. This explained a great deal... but it also raised the question of his current, low-quality armor. Well, focus on that later. For now he decided to contact the man through the only other means available to him.With the press of a few buttons he dialled a call to the cellphone he'd left in the pocket of Gadgeteer's disguise, just for emergencies.{H-D}

IC: Srizz slumped on the bow of the boat. They had been variously sitting around and maintaining the boat for hours. Of course he'd been on trips like this before, but here he was on a boat full of assassins, bounty hunters, mercenaries and a toa with 'I'm not a hero' syndrome, and hardly anything happened! You'd think it'd be a melting pot of crazy backstories, emotional trauma and fights popping up at least once a day. Instead everyone seemed to just keep to themselves. "Last time I sail coach," he muttered. Sure, he could just grab his ride and leave, but frankly he wasn't sure he'd be able to find them again on Kai-Nam.-=H-D=-OOC: On an unrelated note, is there a place where a KNPD officer might storm in at any point soon? I gather something's happening in the South District, but it doesn't seem like the sort of thing you can just jump in on.

NPC: Ultionis was on the task immediately. "This is alpha squad," he said into the communicator. "We're ready for exfil. Confrontation went about as well as we'd expected. Omaha's clean, but the secretary was a plant. We're bringing her along now. How copy?" He paused. "Sorry, military slang. Is the jet ready?"(H-D)NPC: So. A malicious program was infecting a valuable machine at a remote location and Carapace was the only one with the secure connection to fight it off. He allowed himself a small grin. Now this was familiar territory. Four holographic keyboards appeared and four hands rose to meet them, each one typing away at speeds that made the fingers blur. Within thirteen seconds he had launched fourteen antivirus programs, erected nine firewalls, copied the schematic of that headband Gadgeteer wore (decades ahead of the rest of the armor - stolen?) and added a malware program of his own that would backtrace the offensive program and see about hacking into Captain Code's brain beginning... now.The only nagging worry was that Gadgeteer's systems couldn't handle so many programs running at once. To address this he set most of them up as backups in case the others failed, rather than trying to run them all simultaneously. If nothing else, judging by the rate at which the opposing program was working through the rest of the suit's software, it would take hours to break through all the defenses he had set up. He also canceled the armor shutdown protocol. He'd initiated it because he wanted the technopath to think it was automatic in case of attempted takeover, but since his presence was now revealed there was no point anymore.{H-D}

IC: Srizz glanced up at the sky, then back down at the others. This boat was not very fast. On his hoverbike it hadn't taken him too long to get here, but an old thing like this? Hardly any tech worth commenting on? Could be a while. So he decided to inquire as to their estimated time of arrival in the most polite way he knew how: "Are we there yet?"-=H-D=-

NPC: Carapace was not idle during the fight. While not physically present, he was still linked to Gadgeteer's armor. This afforded him some options. He knew that he couldn't upload his emergency anti-technopath programs to the armor in time, but Captain Code was distracted, making his hold on the armor much weaker. The firewall had long since gone down. However, Carapace couldn't count on his control lasting longer than it took to execute one command; once the fool villain realized his control was contested, he might fight back. So he got to work on the one thing he could think of that didn't risk causing too much damage: Shutting the armor down. Rebooting it would take too long for it to be useful for the Captain. {H-D}

NPC: "I've been in worse fights," Ultionis agreed. He looked around. Security didn't seem to be aware of them yet. They might be able to smuggle Golem-Girl out of here without raising the alarm... He glanced at Lodestone. "Best we exfil now, get off of her turf. Never know what kind of surprises are waiting here."(H-D)

NPC: Ultionis didn't need to be told twice. Ignoring the childish name-calling he lifted his gun one more time and took aim. Unfortunately her fingers were still in constant motion, making it very difficult to hit the ring. Especially with the occasional bursts of acid from the tips. "Stop struggling," he demanded aloud. "You don't want me to miss." While he very much doubted she would acquiesce, his insistence seemed to break through her stony skull long enough that she paused for a single moment to see what he was doing. One second to shoot a ring off someone's finger at eight feet away?Child's play. The soldier allowed himself a small grin beneath his mask as he adjusted his aim by a nigh-imperceptible fraction of a degree and pulled the trigger.(H-D)NPC: Up until now Carapace had been remarkably silent for a number of reasons. First, and perhaps most important, if he was constantly barking orders Gadgeteer would cease to believe himself in charge of this mission in the slightest, which might well foster resentment. Micro-managing almost always did. However if he was given a long enough leash he might believe himself, if not a partner, then at least a trusted professional who didn't need to be told how to do his job, thus making him more succeptible to suggestions when they did matter. Second, his own scientists had just barely scratched the surface of inter-dimensional gateways before the invasion, and their only prototype was destroyed by a walker. He had no idea what a 'Jeznewooby' was beyond that the person who named it ought to switch to writing for those Dr. Seuss movies. He couldn't have provided any useful information. Finally, he had been looking up information on the scientists. What he had found was not encouraging. "Ike," he replied verbally, glad once more that he'd thought to add a covered earpiece that would isolate the sound entirely to one listener. "Last name unknown, but I believe he has a brother, Ivan, also at this facility. Brilliant, with a penchant for proving what was once theoretical physics, but eccentric in the extreme. Ten minutes ago I would have advised you to avoid them both like the plague, but it seems the stealth portion of this plan is shot. Their chaotic 'mad scientist' approach might provide an edge against Hexas. Or they might get you all killed. Here and now I advise you make the best possible use of their abilities, but ensure they know better than to risk another interdimensional incident. Be very clear. We cannot rely on their common sense. "One other thing. Saosin has learned of Negafire's true identity. This has the potential to cause problems. If we're lucky he won't bring it up until the mission is over, but keep an eye on them both. You may need to diffuse a situation before it begins." The camera in Saosin's disguise had been intended to monitor his movements and help coordinate if things went awry, but it had caught his conversation clearly enough. "Note that he doesn't know you know. Best keep it that way if possible." {H-D}

IC: Srizz was not so controlled. He laughed freely and happily, despite the slight wince as his laughter aggravated the cuts in his side. "I like this guy," he said once he'd finished, gesturing at Khadbaen. He'd known they had plenty in common when they first met. There was a kind of professional respect as men of similar trade. Still, it was always nice to find someone you could get along with in a universe where so many had their irrational hatred of mercenaries, assassins and bounty hunters.-=H-D=-

NPC: Luckily Ultionis was already on the ground at the time, on one knee behind the desk, or he would've been knocked on his back. As it was, the desk was sent rattling into his head, but it was a minor bump that actually helped clear up his vision. He looked up again just in time to see the other ring. Well, breaking the first had removed a major disadvantage. This one might shut off the threat altogether. He ducked again and activated the comm, speaking as quietly as he could while still being heard so Golem Girl didn't catch on. "Lodestone. A second ring. Try and get it off. If you can't, hold it still. I'll shoot."As much as he would have liked to, Ultionis did not have another of those bottled moments of clarity in him for at least a few more minutes. It put a strain on his mind. But if Lodestone could hold the ring still, even such a small target would be easy enough to hit. (H-D)

IC: Srizz tapped his chin, apparently searching his memory. "Pantheon, pantheon..." A spark of recognition lit behind his eyes. "Oh yeah! Big guy, kinda looks like a spider-crab-thing, whole mess of tricks up his sleeve? Tough one, I'll give him that. Anyway, I guess I should mention a couple of things off the bat: I ain't fire these days. I had a firestone and a cool mask, but I lost one to a tribe of Rahkshi living under a mountain and an angry Makuta - don't ask - and the other to a volcano and an ice toa - long story. On the plus side, I got a new mask out of the deal. Personally I like it better. More versatile. I also picked up a few upgrades for my ride."-=H-D=-

IC: Srizz grinned. "Now there's an idea. I'm currently between teams, you know how it is. You, me and... Actually, who else you got on that team? Don't suppose it's anyone who can stack up?"-=H-D=-

NPC: Ultionis cursed again, ducking back behind the desk and switching off night vision once more. But the important thing was that this wouldn't happen again. With Golem-Girl's eyes bound and the lights back on properly the visibility advantage was now theirs. Once he finished blinking out the spots he could get back to the fight and they could end this game.(H-D)

NPC: Despite knowing he was setting himself up for another flash, Ultionis reactivated night vision and watched the target. Good, she was blinded too, and would be if the lights came back on. More importantly, he could see the ring on her finger. She was swinging her fists wildly and randomly, hard to get a lock on them, but there was one last trick up his sleeve. Not another grenade or some odd ammunition, but the result of years of hard work, training and experience. He closed his eyes, let out his breath, stood up and opened them again. For just a single moment everything seemed slow. Clear. The chaos of the fight felt far away. The ring was moving as if through molasses. He raised his gun and took aim naturally, letting his marksman's instincts guide his hand. He had one chance. One perfect shot. It was all he would need.BANG!(H-D)

IC: Srizz shrugged. He didn't buy it. He knew bad people - he was bad people - and Kovian had never really seemed bad to him. Even now he seemed more resigned than anything. Like he would be the bad guy because, as far as he was concerned, his actions had condemned him beyond hope of salvation. Or something. He was pretty sure he'd met another Toa like that. Leso-something? Tough son of a maha. Either way, the conversation had served its purpose. Kovian was now distracted by his own emotional problems and seemed to have forgotten all about Srizz's mysterious appearance for the time being.The assassin glanced over at Khadbaen. While Srizz's accent had dulled over time, Khad's seemed to have leapt off the deep end. He was just comprehensible now. "See you got a new hat," he remarked. "No hard feelings about the last one?" As Srizz recalled, he'd accidentally incinerated it in an attempt to do the same to Khadbaen during the tournament.-=H-D=-

IC: "Oh, they got conveniently distracted by the sudden and inexplicable attack of some Frostelus looking for a new home." He gave a sly and somewhat feral grin that, coupled with a creepy, hissing, little laugh he did tended to discourage further questioning without actually suggesting hostility, just by creeping people out. It had taken him weeks to perfect. Then Khadbaen said his piece and Srizz, suddenly interested, joined in. "Good question. Not so sure I'd go calling you hero - and that's a compliment - but I never figured you for a soulless mercenary either. That's my shtick."-=H-D=-

IC: Srizz rolled his eyes. "Don't even get me started." His old, hissing accent seemed to have dulled a good deal. Now it was just a normal accent rather than making him sound like an anrgy bog snake. "That mess with the giant-snake-slash-death-god brought a bit of unwanted attention. I got no problem working with groups like, well, the Hunters, but it was looking like I'd be conscripted for a while there. Politics around every corner and me right in the middle. Normally that's a dream come true, but this time there was no money involved. "So I left. Went silent for a bit, lived off my earnings, stole a bit just for fun. Then I got back into the game as an assassin, thief, saboteur and general mercenary." As he spoke the Haaz'ryz looked around the boat, taking note of everything with a practiced eye. Secret entrances or exits. Concealed compartments. Placement of both indicating whether they were for emergencies or concealment. Locations of every Dark Hunter. He wasn't actually planning anything, but it was a hard habit to break.All the while he continued talking. "After that some stuff happened. I'll spare you the stories, but I lost a couple things, found some new things, generally lived the strange, random and profitable life I lead. Did anyone ever actually, y'know, win that tournament?"-=H-D=-

IC: Srizz nodded gratefully as he got up off the bike, wincing at the renewed pain. Way too many spines had gotten at him. Stupid spread patterns... "Much obliged," he said through teeth just slightly gritted as he padded toward the control cabin.A couple of minutes later he emerged, bandages wrapped around much of his torso and parts of his left leg. After a bit of stretching confirmed they wouldn't break under stress he glanced back at Kovian, who seemed to have not moved at all. "Sorry about the deaths. Friends of yours?"-=H-D=-

IC: As expected it didn't take long at all before Srizz pulled up besides a boat that looked to have some six, seven, maybe eight people on it. Kovian was one, good. They knew each other. He was used to Srizz showing up where he didn't belong. Also might have bandages. He set the hoverbike down on the boat's deck, but didn't get up. Right now his wing was wrapped tightly around his torso to restrain the blood flow, but he didn't want to aggravate the wounds. "Judging by the mood here," he remarked, "I'm guessing that didn't go as planned.-=H-D=-