Surprise!

[Seer]

Meanwhile, still in the floors above…

Bishop quickly filled Alycia in on the basics, leading her back out into the hallway and making for the stairwell down. The low lights from the generator cast everything around them in an eerie light.

Reaching the corridor, they could see the stairwell, yet standing almost like sentries in front of the door were two LICKERS!

“Evolved” Crimson Heads, Lickers were agile, able to climb walls with ease, with long sharp talons and incredibly long sharp tongues.

 

[Bishop]

Illustra - 99th Floor

To her disdain, Bishop put Alycia behind him and led her back the way he had come. As they turned the corner, first he could hear a low hissing sound, and then he saw them. Wagging their tongues like a dog would wave its tail, the two Lickers had already seen them, their eyes trained on the pair of humans.

One Licker slinked silently towards them down the hallway, the only sound that of its tongue dragging along the wall, scraping it as it went. The other was crawling up the opposite wall to the ceiling.

“Watch out for the tongues.”

Alycia: “You take low.”

The two Lickers, quick as cats, began bounding towards them.

Bishop already had both guns drawn. He dropped to his knees, thrust both Brownings out in front of him, and emptied his chambers into the Lickers’ head.

 

[Arsenal]

*mouths*: "What do we do?"

:: She crept up the stairs to Mike. She didn't think they sensed her and Mike yet but it was only a matter of time. ::

Wasps. Worse yet...super mutated wasps. Seriously?! What to do...what to do...he got an idea.

Reaching out, he pulled Cass up the stairs gently, urging her quietly back until the reached the next landing where the dead troops were. Grabbing one of the bodies, he attached some knockout grenades to him, pulled the pins and tossed him over the side to fall to the ground where the wasps were. As they turned to swarm to him the gas escaped, knocking many but not all of them out. The remaining ones would be more manageable, but definitely no picnic. How he wished he had a flamethrower right now. Those things were normally pretty useless but right now, it would be perfect.

He turned to Cass, handing her a gas mini-mask.

Any ideas? They are on the way and we have maybe 30 seconds to do something...

 

[Artemis]

Illustra - 99th Floor

“You take low.”

Alycia sighted her golden Desert Eagle at the Licker bearing down on her from above. She couldn’t get a kill shot but put 3 bullets in its chest and finally one in its front leg. The wounded Licker lost its grip on the ceiling but was agile enough to drop almost directly onto Alycia.

She felt the air go out of her lungs as BISHOP hit her like a linebacker, shoving her out of the path of the Licker and to the ground. She was breathless but unharmed – Bishop was not so lucky as the Licker’s tongue lashed out and sliced a deep gash in his arm.

 

[Bishop]

Illustra - 99th Floor

His Licker wasn’t moving. He looked over at Alycia’s target – her’s was much more erratic in its movements and she wasn’t able to destroy its head enough to kill it. She wounded it, though, like a good soldier.

The thing was falling…but it was too close to them. She was holding her ground – Delilah had always said this girl was tough, but now he was seeing it up close and personal. It was going to get her killed though. His guns were out and he didn’t have time to reload – so he barreled into Alycia, knocking her out of the Licker’s path and them both to the ground. He felt the hot knife of pain in his arm as the Licker sliced it. He rolled onto his back, picking up the gun that Alycia had dropped, and fired at the thing’s mouth. He scrambled to stay out of its reach.

From behind him, he heard the sound of broken glass and an alarm.

 

[Artemis]

Illustra - 99th Floor

Now Alycia was pissed. First of all, she didn’t need saving by some commando. Second, she had dropped her gun – and she LOVED that gun. Third, this thing wouldn’t just DIE already.

It was time to clean house.

Bishop was injured but that didn’t appear to slow him down, though she could see his arm was bleeding heavily. He immediately saw her gun and picked it up, firing more shots at the monster, trying to put that tongue thing out of commission. It was hard to see in the low light, but she saw a glint in the hallway. Smashing the glass with her elbow, she winced as a few shards cut her through her sleeve. Alycia pulled out the fire axe, setting off the alarm.

Bishop was keeping it occupied, giving Alycia the perfect chance to sidle up to the Licker. As the gun clicked empty in Bishop’s hand, Alycia whistled for the creature, as if it were a dog.

“Here, boy.”

And with smooth motion, she swung the axe and separated the Licker’s head from its body.

Alycia let the axe head sink to the floor, holding the handle with one hand. She reached down with the other and took her Desert Eagle from Bishop.

“You owe me some ammo.”

 

[Malice]

Illustra - Crystalline Lobby

“You bitch.”

Malice smiled icily.

“My dear Karen, flattery will get you NOWHERE. Even now, my troops are flooding the building. They’ll take this place for everything it’s got – and see all of your friends DEAD. So much for Morgan’s legacy, eh? What a shame.”

“You’re getting sloppy in your extreme OLD AGE, Diana. I would have thought you would have chosen the Parthenon as your battleground – you’ve spent so much TIME there over the years flat on your back!”

“Tsk tsk – such jealousy. Just because your husband preferred me to your withered self. You can’t honestly be surprised that Christopher would choose me?”

Malice feigned surprise.

“Oh, were you? That’s so sweet.”

Shadow Weaver attacked with one of her paltry spells, and indeed her feet did seem rooted to the ground. She looked down at her body.

“Party tricks? I expected more from you.”

Malice clenched her fist, transforming herself into her DIAMOND FORM.

She picked one of her feet up off the ground and wiggled it at Karen.

“FAIL!”

To demonstrate the strength and invulnerability she enjoyed in this form, Malice picked up a nearby sofa and threw it at Karen.

“Here – catch!”

 

[Ruby]

Illustra - Private Stairwell - Ground Floor

:: Mike handed her a gas mask and she looked at him. She didn't need a mask. She was dead; she had no breath. ::

"I don't need one, remember?"

:: She smiled at him, her eyes sparkling. ::

Any ideas? They are on the way and we have maybe 30 seconds to do something...

:: Cass thought for a moment. There was only ONE option she could think of. She quickly passed Mike, talking as she went. ::

*softly*: "Give me about ten seconds and then get down low. Stay close to the ground and don't make ANY noise. Move with stealth, downwards. Remember: no noise, stealth, and go DOWN, not up. I will be fine."

:: Cass passed him and sat down on the stairs above him. She closed her eyes and sat for roughly five seconds, focusing on feeling as light as air and suddenly...SHE WAS. Cass had the ability to transform herself into MIST. Not just any mist but mist that was 'designed' to confuse people and animals/insects/etc of where they were and what they were doing. ::

:: After another five seconds, Mist!Cass billowed softly down around Mike, enhancing herself until the entire stairs and area were completely 'blocked' by an eerie MIST that seemed to have come out of nowhere. NOBODY could see where they were or where they were going. The wasps were getting frustrated by not seeing where THEY were going either... ::

 

[Arsenal]

*softly*: "Give me about ten seconds and then get down low. Stay close to the ground and don't make ANY noise. Move with stealth, downwards. Remember: no noise, stealth, and go DOWN, not up. I will be fine."

She sat down...and then she was gone. Not GONE, but a fog like the movies. For a second he wondered if she would do that for HIM if they survived this. The he began to crawl down stealthily as the remaining wasps grew angrier and more confused by the mist as they passed through. Funny thing is, in their anger and confusion, they were no longer escaping the knockout gas and unlike him they had no mask. So the remaining wasps fell around him as he made his way down. He lightly shed them as he moved easily, finally standing as he detected the last of them sound asleep. He smiled at the fog/mist billowing down as the afterparty came to mind again for a second. He then went back to work. Whispering, he spoke.

While you are in this form, perhaps some recon? What is behind this door?

 

[Seer]

And above them...

Alycia and Bishop (barely) survived the two Lickers – and both realized the grave fact that these were probably the LEAST of what Malice was going to throw at them. The two soldier on, however, finally reaching the private staircase and heading down. Their trip is uneventful…

…until they begin to hear faint moaning coming from below. Not knowing who or what is making the sound – or if it is injured needing assistance – Alycia and Bishop continue downward. They do find injured, but not in the way they expected.

The MysTech shock troops have infected some of the Clandestine, Inc. soldiers with the T-virus – turning them as they died into real life ZOMBIES.

 

[Bishop]

Illustra - Private Stairwell

Bishop watched as Alycia took a fire axe to the remaining Licker. Damn. He made a mental note to try not to piss her off.

“You owe me some ammo.”

“Sweetheart, THAT I can oblige.”

Bishop stood and, gingerly at first, moved all his limbs as if making sure they were all still there. He tore a strip off the bottom of his t-shirt and tied it around his arm to stanch the bleeding. Then he moved to a panel in the wall.

“Delilah thinks I’m crazy for stashing weapons all over the city.”

He flipped a small panel, and pressed his thumb against a touchpad.

“So I didn’t tell her I did it in Illustra too.”

A hinge swings open, revealing a small cubby in the wall. He pulls out a M16 .223 and throws it over his (good) shoulder. He then pulls out a couple boxes of ammunition and throws them to Alycia, reloads his own Brownings and puts extra clips for the M16 in his pockets before closing the panel.

“Okay. Let’s get you out of here.”

They entered the darkened stairway. They could see, but not as well as he would have liked. They started walking – and it was a looong way down. They made good progress, but when they were almost to the bottom, they started to hear a strange noise.

His first instinct was that it was Illustra workers hiding in the stairwell for safety. But as they got closer, he saw the uniforms of Clandestine, Inc. agents. They weren’t acting normal – not that they had been before – but now they were moving slowly, with jerking and labored steps.

“Are you men alright?”

As the first of the Clandestine soldiers reached him, he lunged for Bishop’s throat. Bishop pushed him away, and was able to hold him at arm’s length while he got a good look. The man looked like he was decaying, his jaws were snapping as he tried to bite. He knew about the attacks in the city weeks before…and he and Delilah had seen this before…at the Citadel.

“Zombies! They’re zombies. Aim for the head Alycia!”

 

[Artemis]

Illustra - Private Stairwell

“Sweetheart, THAT I can oblige.”

Alycia looked at him with a deadly glare.

“Don’t call me sweetheart.”

She could tell he was rolling his eyes, but she didn’t care. He didn’t ask for her help bandaging his wound, and she didn’t offer. He did surprise her by having a weapons cache down the hall from her office. She wasn’t sure if she should be angry about that or grateful. He tossed her a couple boxes of ammo.

“Thanks. I think I’ll keep the axe too.”

She reloaded her Desert Eagle while he took care of his own weapons, and stuffed the leftover ammunition in her jacket pockets.

“Okay. Let’s get you out of here.”

“I don’t NEED you to get me out of here. We need to get to Karen and your other people so we can stop this thing.”

She slipped off her high heels – one of them had broken during her fall anyway.

“You owe me a new pair of shoes too. And be assured these were EXPENSIVE.”

She loaded a bullet into the chamber and nodded to him.

“Ready.”

They walked down the stairs for what seemed like an eternity. She would never curse an elevator for being slow again. But just when it seemed the end was in sight, they were faced with what looked like decomposing Clandestine forces coming at them. Bishop stated the obvious.

“Zombies? NO SHIT.”

“Aim for the head Alycia!”

Alycia sighted down her arm, and put a single bullet through the brain of the zombie that had a grip on Bishop.

“I always do.”

 

[Seer]

Not out of the dark yet...

Alycia shot the zombie Bishop was struggling with in the head. As it went slack in his arms, he got a good grip then threw it down the stairs at the creatures coming behind it. That gave them enough room to breathe that he was able to sling the M16 around and start firing. Methodically, he and Alycia called out their targets and picked them off as they came, moving forward down the steps as they cleared their way.

Then they came to the landing on the first floor, which was packed solid with zombies devouring a pile of their fallen comrades. The corner was tight, and they would have to get up close and personal if they were going to be able to do any damage.

 

[Artemis]

Illustra - Private Stairwell

Bishop picked off as many as he could whilst keeping a safe distance from the outstretched arms of the zombies, temporarily blocked from pursuing he and Alycia by a pile of bodies. But the angle was all wrong: shooting around a corner was not easy.

Alycia rolled her eyes.

“How about using some of those grenades you got there, soldier boy?”

She reached a hand out towards him.

“Give me one of those pistols, and I’ll cover you.”

He let her take one of his smaller guns out of its holster. Alycia now held a gun in each hand; she raised them towards the ceiling and cocked them, then slid down the wall so that she was in the corner of the landing, positioning herself as far from the zombies as she could get but still giving her an angle. She lowered her weapons and fired into the monsters closest to them, who were beginning to climb over the pile of bodies to get to fresh meat.

“NOW!”

She raised her guns to the ceiling, allowing for Bishop to slide around and throw the grenades.

 

[Bishop]

Illustra - Private Stairwell

Alycia showed no fear, and in spite of himself, that impressed him.

“How about using some of those grenades you got there, soldier boy?”

“How about you kiss my ass?”

But he still gave her one of his guns, and did what she said.

Alycia set up covering fire like a pro – and that made him wonder what secret past she was hiding?

He moved around the corner and threw two grenades down the stairwell to thin the crowd in their path.

Hopefully, the stairs wouldn't cave in, but hey, they were only on the first floor. He’d survived higher falls than that.

 

[Seer]

Dawn of the Dead

The grenades do blow chunks out of the stairs but the structure holds, and they do serve their purpose of thinning the zombie herd. Alycia and Bishop still need to defeat those that remain – who have become even more aggressive due to the loud blasts - before they can get to Karen and the others.

 

[Ruby]

Illustra - Private Stairwell - Ground Floor

:: Mist!Cass was aware of her surroundings even as mist. She was concious of ALL things. Still, there were some things Mist!Cass could NOT do, such as see. But she could sense different presences; presences that were either on HER side or against her. ::

:: Mist!Cass 'heard' Mike's request and she billowed towards the doorframe, settling/hovering over the floor. She allowed a few 'tendrils' of wispy mist, curl underneath the door and silently thinned out along the walls. She could sense two presences - there may be more but the two really stood out to her - and the tendrils of mist softly curled backwards and underneath the door. ::

:: Soon, the entire mist drew back into the far corner away from Mike and got denser as it settled down. As Cass formed back into herself, the mist grew less dense and it looked as if Cass was hiding in the corner all along. She blinked a couple of times and looked at Mike. ::

"I'm not sure what's behind there, but I did sense TWO presences there. One of them is on our side, quite possibly Karen? But the other...is NOT on our side. Whatever else is there, I don't know, but the two presences are what stood out to me. ::

:: She stood up and looked at Mike. ::

"Ready when you are..."

 

[Seer]

Almost there...

Their ingenuity got them past the wasps, but as Mike and Cass stepped through the broken doorway to Illustra's bottom floor, they were met with one final surprise.

A pack of DEVIL DOGS collapsed onto their location, forming a semi-circle around where they stood, snapping and snarling at them. These T-virus infected animals are more agile, durable and aggressive than normal dogs - and their bite has the ability to spread the T-virus as well.

Trapped between the remnants of the wasps in the stairwell and the devil dogs, Mike and Cass would have to find a way to make it to Karen beyond in the front Lobby.

And so, we watch...

 

[Ruby]

Illustra - Private Stairwell - Ground Floor

:: Cass stared in horror at the scene in front of her. There, in front of them, were a pack of ZOMBIE DOGS! Now, Cass knew that under NORMAL circumstances, the dogs wouldn't attack HER. She was dead...just like them. But knowing that MysTech had descended upon the building, she wasn't so sure. She backed away from the pack, pulling Mike with her. She went to the collasped door and moved it in front of the doorway, blocking the dogs from them, gaining them both some time. ::

"What do we do now?"

:: She hefted herself, using her entire strength and weight, against the door. It was only her and Mike. If she was correct, and the dogs would not harm HER, then Mike needed protection. She briefly wondered how Bishop and Alycia, Bishop's friend, were faring. She glanced around the stairwell, as if looking for some type of weapon.

We need help...

 

[Arsenal]

DOGS!! OR what used to be dogs. Damned shame.

"What do we do now?"

:: She hefted herself, using her entire strength and weight, against the door. It was only her and Mike. If she was correct, and the dogs would not harm HER, then Mike needed protection. She briefly wondered how Bishop and Alycia, Bishop's friend, were faring. She glanced around the stairwell, as if looking for some type of weapon.

Hmnn...let's try this.

Mike sneaked a knockout cannister past the door and waited. And waited. Then he peeked past the door, pulling his head in...

...JUST in time a one of the dogs snapped at it, throwing itself at the door.

Whelp. THAT didn't work worth a damn. And no more of the good stuff in terms of grenades, just some flash-bang. Time to shoot our way out I guess. I want us to work our way to the right of this doorway...it is thinnest there, keep them from surrounding us. On the count of three, throw the door right and low so as the knock those couple on the right down. Then we work that way and keep them at bay with the flash-bangs while we create room to pick them off. That's all I got. Ready? On three.

He smiled at Cass as if everything would be JUST fine. He hoped he was right about that.

One. Two. THREE!!!