09-16-2012, 01:23 AM
Originally posted on MSPA by GreyGabe.
The explosion had shaken Marcus, but not nearly as much as the great bloody swathe of destruction Karen had just taken out of the spectator stands. Overall, Marcus felt like the thing to do was to stay out of Karen’s way and let her get all of the crazy-murder-death-rage out of her system. Or wait until she tuckered herself out and could be easily subdued. Either or. Granted, it was an absolute shame that those violence-loving gore-fetishists this competition called an audience had taken such casualties, but Marcus wasn’t exactly shedding any tears over it. They came for over-the-top violence, that was exactly what they had gotten.
Karen was going crazy, killing pretty much anyone she could get her hands on. Marcus didn’t know what had caused this… maybe someone had drugged her, or maybe she had just snapped from all of the violence and bloodshed. Either way, it didn’t look like she was going to be talked down. And he wasn’t entirely sure he could safely take her down himself… that is, he had no doubt he could kill her, but doing it without being maimed or killed in the process? Unlikely. He could try shooting her in the back, but that hadn’t worked so far for the other poor saps who had tried, and were now laid to rest in about a dozen different places each. The more sensible contestants were running for it.
Hell, the more he thought about it, the more he realized that getting as far away from here as possible was generally a good idea. He could get out of Karen’s way, and warn Sarika and Lloyd that she had gone waaaaay off the deep end in the meantime. Or he could go after Reudic…
A bunch of people were trying to escape through the hole in the stands, but Karen was between it and Marcus. Instead, he began putting more distance between Karen and himself. As he did so, he noticed something interesting: A group of contestants (at least half a dozen), and a couple of security personnel who had been locked in with them, were working together to force open one of the security doors that had slammed shut. As he approached, they managed to pry the door almost up to waist level before it dropped back down with a vicious slam. Ignoring the hissed curses and appellations aimed at the door, Marcus nodded to a familiar face in the group.
“Hey, Frank.”
Frank nodded his spiny, crimson head, and bent over to once more make an attempt at the door. Marcus slung Retribution over his shoulder and moved to take a place next to him. The others, still muttering curses, took their places as well. It wasn’t like there was much else they could do.
Marcus strained as hard as his enhanced musculature would allow. Slowly, the thick metal door ascended, first a few inches, then a foot, up to stomach level, higher… It seemed like they might actually make it.
“Oh. There you are. I was wondering where you had gotten to…”
Marcus glanced over his shoulder, but didn’t let go of the door. Karen regarded him from a good distance away, smiling.
Marcus didn’t like that smile one bit.
“Are you afraid…? Interesting.” Her hand began to blaze with mystic fire. “Well, this is nothing personal, but I need the XP. I need to be as strong as I can when I face the Boss.”
She drew back her arm. Marcus looked up at Frank. Frank regarded him with what looked like fear.
Marcus came to a sudden decision. He let go of the door and ducked under it, falling into a half-jump-half-roll as he did. There was a chorus of curses and panicky, screamed denials as the door dropped back down, the others unprepared for someone to let go so suddenly.
Marcus ran from the room as the door caved inward with a loud boom, glowing red hot. Sorry, Frank. Marcus silently gave thanks that she hadn't used the same spell she had used to take out the big guy and the audience stands. Five inches of what looked to be steel had only just managed to stop that relatively small fireball. He couldn't help but wonder why she hadn't used her full power, though. Maybe she was trying to fight back against whatever had happened in her head? Or maybe she was just trying to pace herself for a long day of murder and mayhem.
Either way, he couldn’t be sure how dedicated Karen was to taking him out right now, so he decided to keep moving.
Marcus found himself in a long, familiar-looking hallway, that stretched off in either direction. It was lit by red lights set high into the walls at regular intervals, presumably emergency lights of some sort. One way looked much the same as the other. He arbitrarily chose to go left.
He’d been jogging along for a few minutes when he rounded a corner and found himself face to face with a group of security guards, who seemed to be as alarmed to see him as he was them. There was a tense silence as the group took in his presence. Then the two in front raised their prods while the two further back drew some sort of small, sleek-looking pistols. Retribution being slung over his shoulder, Marcus quickly drew one of his pistols and leveled it at the nearest guard.
She grinned at him. “Ha! You can’t fire that off the field! They fix it with a restraining bolt so it won’t work in here.”
Marcus glanced down at his gun. He didn’t see anything unusual on it. He fired an experimental shot into the ground a few feet in front of the guards. The loud report of his gun firing caused the guards to jump back, one of the pistoleros screaming and firing a wild shot in Marcus’s general direction. It missed by a wide margin. Marcus leveled his gun back at the leader and raised an eyebrow.
“Wha- but- they told us they put restraining bolts on your equipment! They told us that no competitor’s weapon would work off the battlefield!”
Marcus shrugged. “Listen. If you haven’t noticed, there’s some pretty crazy shit going on around here. I don’t want to die, and I’m assuming you guys don’t, either.”
The leader nodded slightly.
“Let’s work together. I watch your back, you watch mine. You know the layout of this place, I don’t. I have combat experience, and you…” Marcus looked meaningfully at the guard who had panicked, who frowned and averted his gaze embarrassedly. “What do you say?”
The leader mulled it over for a second, before nodding once more. There was an awkward moment as Marcus continued to stare them down, before he finally holstered his weapon. The guards followed suit and disarmed themselves, but didn’t completely relax.
The leader cleared her throat. “Okay. Well, if we’re getting out of here, we need to get to one of the underground garages and go from there. The security lockdown sealed off all the main exits, and that explosion’s caused a bit of damage on the lower levels. We can use our security clearance to open the backdoors, though. So, the way I see it we should loop around-”
“We’re not leaving. Not yet.” Marcus smiled grimly as she blinked in confusion. “I have some unfinished business with the thing that locked this place down.”
Marcus didn’t like it, but it seemed like the best decision. If he took out Reudic, they would be transported out of this city to… somewhere else. Getting Karen out of a major population center seemed like a good idea at the moment. Hell, maybe it would even calm her down. At any rate, he’d probably have an easier time with Reudic than with Karen, with the added bonus that he would derive profound personal satisfaction out of turning the rose bush into mulch. He wasn’t sure how he would take Reudic down without his incendiary grenades, but he would burn that bridge when he came to it.
“So, where’s the control room?”
“Look, we really need to get out of here! I don’t care what kind of business you have, we’re not getting killed over it!”
Marcus regarded her coolly. “Look, you help me find him, you can go on your merry way. Run, hide, whatever, I won’t stop you. Maybe you can even help evacuate some civilians on your way out. That is your job, right, protecting the people who come to watch this sick thing you call a game?”
There was some embarrassed coughing and mumbling.
“Uh-huh. I don’t really care. You can go and hide in a broom closet afterwards if you want. But if we don’t find Reudic, a lot more people are going to die.” Marcus laid a hand on the grip of his pistol as a less-than-subtle indication that “a lot more” could almost certainly be expanded to include them. “So. How do we get to the control room where he started this from?”
One of the other security guards said, “He could only have done this from the main control room. It’s several levels up from here.”
“Well. We’d better get going, then,” Marcus said, gesturing for them to take the lead.
The explosion had shaken Marcus, but not nearly as much as the great bloody swathe of destruction Karen had just taken out of the spectator stands. Overall, Marcus felt like the thing to do was to stay out of Karen’s way and let her get all of the crazy-murder-death-rage out of her system. Or wait until she tuckered herself out and could be easily subdued. Either or. Granted, it was an absolute shame that those violence-loving gore-fetishists this competition called an audience had taken such casualties, but Marcus wasn’t exactly shedding any tears over it. They came for over-the-top violence, that was exactly what they had gotten.
Karen was going crazy, killing pretty much anyone she could get her hands on. Marcus didn’t know what had caused this… maybe someone had drugged her, or maybe she had just snapped from all of the violence and bloodshed. Either way, it didn’t look like she was going to be talked down. And he wasn’t entirely sure he could safely take her down himself… that is, he had no doubt he could kill her, but doing it without being maimed or killed in the process? Unlikely. He could try shooting her in the back, but that hadn’t worked so far for the other poor saps who had tried, and were now laid to rest in about a dozen different places each. The more sensible contestants were running for it.
Hell, the more he thought about it, the more he realized that getting as far away from here as possible was generally a good idea. He could get out of Karen’s way, and warn Sarika and Lloyd that she had gone waaaaay off the deep end in the meantime. Or he could go after Reudic…
A bunch of people were trying to escape through the hole in the stands, but Karen was between it and Marcus. Instead, he began putting more distance between Karen and himself. As he did so, he noticed something interesting: A group of contestants (at least half a dozen), and a couple of security personnel who had been locked in with them, were working together to force open one of the security doors that had slammed shut. As he approached, they managed to pry the door almost up to waist level before it dropped back down with a vicious slam. Ignoring the hissed curses and appellations aimed at the door, Marcus nodded to a familiar face in the group.
“Hey, Frank.”
Frank nodded his spiny, crimson head, and bent over to once more make an attempt at the door. Marcus slung Retribution over his shoulder and moved to take a place next to him. The others, still muttering curses, took their places as well. It wasn’t like there was much else they could do.
Marcus strained as hard as his enhanced musculature would allow. Slowly, the thick metal door ascended, first a few inches, then a foot, up to stomach level, higher… It seemed like they might actually make it.
“Oh. There you are. I was wondering where you had gotten to…”
Marcus glanced over his shoulder, but didn’t let go of the door. Karen regarded him from a good distance away, smiling.
Marcus didn’t like that smile one bit.
“Are you afraid…? Interesting.” Her hand began to blaze with mystic fire. “Well, this is nothing personal, but I need the XP. I need to be as strong as I can when I face the Boss.”
She drew back her arm. Marcus looked up at Frank. Frank regarded him with what looked like fear.
Marcus came to a sudden decision. He let go of the door and ducked under it, falling into a half-jump-half-roll as he did. There was a chorus of curses and panicky, screamed denials as the door dropped back down, the others unprepared for someone to let go so suddenly.
Marcus ran from the room as the door caved inward with a loud boom, glowing red hot. Sorry, Frank. Marcus silently gave thanks that she hadn't used the same spell she had used to take out the big guy and the audience stands. Five inches of what looked to be steel had only just managed to stop that relatively small fireball. He couldn't help but wonder why she hadn't used her full power, though. Maybe she was trying to fight back against whatever had happened in her head? Or maybe she was just trying to pace herself for a long day of murder and mayhem.
Either way, he couldn’t be sure how dedicated Karen was to taking him out right now, so he decided to keep moving.
Marcus found himself in a long, familiar-looking hallway, that stretched off in either direction. It was lit by red lights set high into the walls at regular intervals, presumably emergency lights of some sort. One way looked much the same as the other. He arbitrarily chose to go left.
He’d been jogging along for a few minutes when he rounded a corner and found himself face to face with a group of security guards, who seemed to be as alarmed to see him as he was them. There was a tense silence as the group took in his presence. Then the two in front raised their prods while the two further back drew some sort of small, sleek-looking pistols. Retribution being slung over his shoulder, Marcus quickly drew one of his pistols and leveled it at the nearest guard.
She grinned at him. “Ha! You can’t fire that off the field! They fix it with a restraining bolt so it won’t work in here.”
Marcus glanced down at his gun. He didn’t see anything unusual on it. He fired an experimental shot into the ground a few feet in front of the guards. The loud report of his gun firing caused the guards to jump back, one of the pistoleros screaming and firing a wild shot in Marcus’s general direction. It missed by a wide margin. Marcus leveled his gun back at the leader and raised an eyebrow.
“Wha- but- they told us they put restraining bolts on your equipment! They told us that no competitor’s weapon would work off the battlefield!”
Marcus shrugged. “Listen. If you haven’t noticed, there’s some pretty crazy shit going on around here. I don’t want to die, and I’m assuming you guys don’t, either.”
The leader nodded slightly.
“Let’s work together. I watch your back, you watch mine. You know the layout of this place, I don’t. I have combat experience, and you…” Marcus looked meaningfully at the guard who had panicked, who frowned and averted his gaze embarrassedly. “What do you say?”
The leader mulled it over for a second, before nodding once more. There was an awkward moment as Marcus continued to stare them down, before he finally holstered his weapon. The guards followed suit and disarmed themselves, but didn’t completely relax.
The leader cleared her throat. “Okay. Well, if we’re getting out of here, we need to get to one of the underground garages and go from there. The security lockdown sealed off all the main exits, and that explosion’s caused a bit of damage on the lower levels. We can use our security clearance to open the backdoors, though. So, the way I see it we should loop around-”
“We’re not leaving. Not yet.” Marcus smiled grimly as she blinked in confusion. “I have some unfinished business with the thing that locked this place down.”
Marcus didn’t like it, but it seemed like the best decision. If he took out Reudic, they would be transported out of this city to… somewhere else. Getting Karen out of a major population center seemed like a good idea at the moment. Hell, maybe it would even calm her down. At any rate, he’d probably have an easier time with Reudic than with Karen, with the added bonus that he would derive profound personal satisfaction out of turning the rose bush into mulch. He wasn’t sure how he would take Reudic down without his incendiary grenades, but he would burn that bridge when he came to it.
“So, where’s the control room?”
“Look, we really need to get out of here! I don’t care what kind of business you have, we’re not getting killed over it!”
Marcus regarded her coolly. “Look, you help me find him, you can go on your merry way. Run, hide, whatever, I won’t stop you. Maybe you can even help evacuate some civilians on your way out. That is your job, right, protecting the people who come to watch this sick thing you call a game?”
There was some embarrassed coughing and mumbling.
“Uh-huh. I don’t really care. You can go and hide in a broom closet afterwards if you want. But if we don’t find Reudic, a lot more people are going to die.” Marcus laid a hand on the grip of his pistol as a less-than-subtle indication that “a lot more” could almost certainly be expanded to include them. “So. How do we get to the control room where he started this from?”
One of the other security guards said, “He could only have done this from the main control room. It’s several levels up from here.”
“Well. We’d better get going, then,” Marcus said, gesturing for them to take the lead.