Forums » General Roleplay » Bullet Fuse

Letting out a short whistle, wicked observed the impressive and detailed map which outlined most of paradiso and the surrounding areas. “That’s a pretty impressive map you’ve got there. Must’ve taken at most a few weeks to collect all this information. Now would you mind pinpointing our current location? You seem very capable at doin that if you can do this.”

O30 pumped her head to the beat of a rock song she wasn't sure was just in her head or not. The machine gun fire trained on their car had suddenly started spraying wildly. The rear view mirror bestowed the answer to why, and it was worth a second chance. Hadn't Silence been on their vehicle a moment ago. O30 whistled as the dystopian ninja and some shady blur went to work.

"You keep some savvy company, man." O30 chuckled, calming down. "Looks like we're in the clea-"



The route was steeped in the stink of law enforcers. A Tinker-Engineered Sp8derbot glowed with hostility as the speeding vehicles approached rapidly. The souped up play-cops were all ready to halt this chase here and now. Too bad they aren't prepared to stop a tank.

O30 spun the wheel, braking into a wild spin which threw loose change and spent brass that'd been stuck in the cushions flying. The wheels screeched. Rubber burned. O30 winked in case anyone was recording. The patrol car whizzed past the tank, stabilizing it's insane drift to gain speed once more; now safely behind the hurtling mass of steel.

"Hurry up!" O30 called to those on the armored ticket out of here. "Ju-"

O30 lost the thought when he looked out of his broken driver side window. There was an edgy cloaked figure doing his best Chesire impression handling an Old World hunk of two-wheeled junk. It kind of just threw her for a loop. Enemy? Ally? Spectator?

She threw a half-hearted wave amidst the campy action movie that was playing out around them. "Yo."

The map pinged her location.

"No it only required a few scans. Thanks for thye compliment though "

engage in seduction algorithm?

no not now!

“Let’s get you out of here before a sand storm manages to hit, or we get run over by another bad driver.”
He jokes with the corner of his lips quirked upward as he offers her his hand.

Thea blinks a few times looking at him.

Man, I hope I'm not acting all cute and nerdy

Personality analysis complete. You are acting very cute and nerdy!

Damn you not now!

Thea was blushing as she put her hand behind her head, closed both eyes then said:

"Okay then.... Lead the way please!"

Thea held out her hand.

Cheshire nodded her head and smiled. Holding up a mechanical thumb. Her autotune voice echoes. "Well, that works I guess." She pulled out a silver magnum from her side holster, spinning it on her finger. "Let's party!" With that, she jumped into the newly formed hole in the top of the tank.

"WHAT ARE YO-" Bang.

"HEY GET OUT OF" Bang bang.

It grew silent as the metal beast continued to roll down its destructive path forward. Only to have an auto-tuned voice call out to the Jedi on top of the tank. "INCOMING!" And, with that, the new ex-drivers were tossed out of the hole and now onto the road, god she hopes the kid misses them. That bike better not be ruined.

Now sitting inside of the metal beast, Cheshire sat down, flicking on the switches and connecting her hud to the Tank's hud, it's health is really low. Thanks, Ms Jedi. Looking through the DRIVING SCREEN (Basically a giant HUD that shows what's ahead) she saw, ah crap. The roadblock... Why. Why her. Okay, that'll be an easy situation to drag herself out of.

"Activate forward cannon." She spoke aloud, to probably her AI assistant ALICe.
"Cannon not operational." The blunt voice responded, no emotion in its tone.
"Okay.... Activate gun systems?"
"Gun system also not operational."
"Son of a-.... Ugh! YOU OWE ME MONEY YOU BLOODY JEDI!" She slammed her fist against the console, letting out a frustrated grunt. "Alright, all guns aren't working. We got a tank..... Okay, this is gonna suck."

She pressed the call menu and called Leka whom which is still on her bike. "Alright kid, listen. I'm gonna need you to take the VIP, the pursuit car, if you're gonna ask, down the next turn. That'll take you to highway 84. Which will lead to the other exit out of town. Meet you at my place, it's location should already be implanted in the bike's coordinates. Just ask ALICe. I'm gonna do something really stupid."

Alright, directions were given. She hung up the phone, then called up to the sword-wielder still standing on the tank. "Hey! Unless you want to get absolutely wrecked, you might want to either get back to the car you were in or get in here! Warning though, this is gonna suck a lot of @$$."

"I'll need the tank's chasis" was echoed through Silence's mind. She sighed as she stood in front of the tank. "We need the tank's chasis. Continue following, I'll deal with blockade" she shouted back before she fired a hook at the car in front of the tank and pulled herself forward. She broke the link to launch herself at the blockade.

The guards noticed Silence being slung at them and fired their weapons away. The spider bot adjusted its posture and started to rotate up its rotatary cannon. Due to her large momentum, she was too fast for the bullets to hit and landed near a guard, slicing him right through. However she didn't stop there, she continued moving to let the momentum go. She drew out her other blade handle and used her left hand to deflect the bullets from her back side and the right on the front. Slice one, and another, and another. The guards were being cut down fast by mere seconds due to her stats being skewed. The spiderbot could not keep up due to having to readjust its posture in order to fire.

She landed right next to the spiderbot for cover. The last few guards were having plasma rifles, which were hard to deflect. Due to Silence being right next to it, the spiderbot had no means of dealing with her. She sliced off the legs of the bot and sliced into its core.

He grabbed her hand, leaning down to place a soft kiss upon her knuckles before rising once more. He began to pull her through the sands from which she emerged and twords his shelter, all the while continuing to wear his Cheshire grin.
“May I ask-“
He began after a long bout of silence “what a lady like you is doing all the way out here, did you get lost perhaps?”
He asked smoothly as the ruins of oasis came into view upon the horizon.
“Surely the job you were doing must be paying quite a lot no?”

"Mmmmmmmm!!!!!" Thea said blushing from the kiss. She slapped him after that.

"That was a bug in my suit you perv!"

She didn't want to admit she had hit a wrong button.

Thea allowed herself to be pulled along with him. As she walked with him, her suit was building and recording a map. Scanning all around her, searching for possible enemies. The suits scan capability could find anyone within range, unless they were radar immune.

"Actually, I died. I had been logged out for quite a while because of that.... I re-spawned here.... I was lost because I've never been in this area. I'm not sure why I was put here."

As they made their way through through the ruins, Thea noticed the oasis.

"Yes.... yes it was. I'm not horrible at this, in fact I've spent a lot of time on this character. I've been building her up a lot, and I tend to win against players my level even a few levels ahead.

It was so irritating when I got back stabbed by someone I thought I could trust.

He did it because he wanted to steal my equipment, and take the reward for the job himself. Actually, my character would have been permanently killed... I guess that traitor used some sort of special weapon.

This equipment I have now is all new to me. I guess the way the weapon worked was it permanently killed me, but I also had the option to become a cyborg and start over with new equipment. I got to keep my levels, but pretty much everything else was stolen from me...

Have you heard of a weapon like this before? I hadn't and I read the online news feed most nights."

Leka cursed under his breath as Cheshire frickin' jumped over to the tank, scooting forward and grabbing hold of the Harley handlebars. He sighed in relief when nothing immediately went to $#&%.

He sped up, wincing a little as it did- he didn't have great conteol over it, but he wasn't dead yet- and looked around, wanting to be well prepared for any obstacle or incident that would throw him of-

The woman- or at least, the female avatar of the car he previously contacted- waved. "Yo."

He almost swerved. Holy £&€¥ he wasn't ready at all for this. Logically, he knew that all the android avatars looked alike but god she looked like G30. "Hey," he said, voice hoarse. He cleared it, tilting his head. "Hope you heard Cheshire. Said to follow me."

It was said matter of factly, with a deliberately gentled undertone. He was still working on sounding... not awkward and defensive. He nodded toward the road in front of them.

"Highway 84. I'll be turning there." He clutched the handles of the borrowed bike, still rough riding. He touched the side of his helmet. "ALICe, coordinates."

A transparent map blinked across his screen, then zoomed in to where he was. Good. He leaned to the side, turning and speeding off to the highway.

"Good luck," he whispered after the tank.

The car's driver covered her mouth to contain a snicker at the motorist almost wiping out from a mere word being slung their way.

Man this guy sounds awkward and defensive.

"Pffft... Ya sure you know where you're-" O30 shook the thought away at the name drop. "Wait, that really is Chesire out there? That's pretty #=%^ convenient. We were just in town to say hi." She peered back to the scene of slicing metal and gunfire growing fainter as they sped away. They could probably handle themselves. Laying low and letting them take the heat off wasn't such a bad plan, especially when they were the ones escaping into the sunset. She followed the cloaked motorist through HW 84. The further they removed themselves from the part of the city they'd wrecked, the less and less security drones hovered where they usually were so obnoxiously buzzing. It was a satisfying sight to see players taking notice to something she'd played a part in doing. Even if it was such a minor part, it was more than enough to inflate that ego. This, she recalled, was why she played the game.

But one thing was fairly odd about this set up...

"So who are you?" O30 switched to comms. "That cat usually rolls solo, as far as I know. She started taking in fanboys as apprentices all of a sudden?"

Cheshire looked up at the screen and watched this Jedi/ninja rocket herself forward into the mass of guards standing post to stop their approach. She's a bit sloppy though, seems to only be swinging in hope to kill something, obviously a noob level with high gear. None of her concern, not her problem.

Instead, she eyed the few men still standing and firing at this chick, and slowly using the computer in front of her to input the throttle. She's not completely useless, she is still in a tank of course. 5 tons of metal incoming.

"Out of the way! Behemoth coming through!" She yelled into the microphone, followed by a loud crackling. Mayhem, oh sweet mayhem.

Those men who were still firing at Silence didn't take the hint that there's still a giant tank barreling towards them and paid the price gravely.

Squish.

The tank came to a slow crawl, still have some forward momentum. She spoke into the microphone to Silence. "Hey kid, need a lift?"

Silent looked back quietly before sitting down in the car. "She will be fine. If any, she will return to us."

Thankfully the tank took out the rest of the enemies. She gotten out of cover to get back onto the tank. "No need to say more" Silence said quietly as she got onto the tank. She looked around cautious for anyone signs of enemies but continued to stand on the tank. If things gotten quiet, she sat down somewhere.

Leka felt a scowl coming in before he quickly supressed it, forcing himself to exhale slowly.

"She's an old teammate," he said. He checked back to the map and untensed his shoulders. Still on the path. His riding became less hectic, more controlled. "From a while ago. A year."

He paused, then glanced back to where he knew the driver was situated. "You sound like you know her," he said, genuine curiosity leaking from his voice. "And not just in the way most players here do, like a distant legend. You sound like you've interacted with her before."

He thought for a moment as he pulled her along, eventually entering a partially still standing building that stood at the edge of the ruins of oasis. The building itself was a small thing at about two stories(well NOW). It’s roof made of a patchwork quilt of rubble and fabric. It’s walls a faded light blue dusted with tones of grey dust decorating its outside, on the inside however, were white marble floors covered in scattered bits of concrete, and from the ceiling hung a string of lights that seemed bright enough to see from the outside. However the only reminders of the second floor, were some metallic railings that and stairs that led up to the iron platforms above, each decorated by a single window. Scattered about the room were work benches, many of them near the windows. At each desk sat one hooded figure or another, each sporting a tail, some ears, or other animal or insect like extremity.

“Weapons like that aren’t easy to find.”
He spoke after a long silence.
“They are usually kept by the admin to punish extremely bad or overzealous players. Some of us refer to them as ban hammers, and trust me when I say they are hard to find.”

Ban hammers? But what had I done to deserve that sort of treatment?

No that asshole must have cheated and got a hold of something he was never meant to use.

"Oh... I see.... Why don't you introduce me to your friends?"

I hope he doesn't say anything about how shy I am... I can't really help it.

Be advised. At least one player in this room is likely hostile. Suggested Action: Caution.

The suit was printing those words on the screen within the helmet she looked through.

Damn. I best be careful....

"Oh- Ah- Pfft- Jeez- I don't know if I should tell you..." O30 failed miserably in feigning reluctance to share. It was plain as day she was enjoying the attention she'd been so void of since this whole 'Going into Hiding' business had to be a thing. "... I'm kind of a big deal, ya see." She let go of the wheel to throw her hands around as she spoke in a familiarly cocky manner. "I seriously doubt you were with Cheshy- I call her cute nicks' cause we're just that close ya see- because, well, I was real busy saving her behind around this time last year during WOM. That's the infamous Week Of Mayhem, in case you didn't know. It's fine to admit it if you're new to the game," She paused to eye the user's info only to find it shrouded, "er, No-Name? Weird. Well, no need to lie about hangin' in the Kool Kids Klub."

O30 concluded these half truths with lowering the rear driver window to get a confirmation out of the disguised, gender-bent Silent. "Ain't that right, Ms. Quantum Physics? Ever seen this guy?"

"Like I said," Leka replied, voice taking a distant quality. "It's been a while."

He shot the woman another quick glance as he drove, keeping an eye on the projected map in his helmet. His mind raced with it. Worked together? Week of Mayhem? Don't tell me-

He had a sinking feeling in his gut.

He knew there was a chance that the woman was lying, but- why would she? She was following him to a place where Cheshire was guranteed to be. She would only be humiliated, or killed.

So that meant...

"... Who are you?" he said, knuckles turning white underneath the gloves. "Nano? Silent? Wicked? G-" he bit his lip, "G30?"

Please, please...

The cocky demeanor sported by the talkative beaut was put on hold. Abruptly. The mysterious fan-boy who'd been tailing the bounty hunter they were after somehow knew more than she was comfortable with. Eyes narrowed, and back muscles tensed. "Nope." The synthetic face plainly recognizing the moniker said, shaking quickly before looking back to the passenger in the rear seat. "Who the hell is this guy?" She whispered hastily. The player just as quickly whipped around for what was the third time to the motorcyclist without waiting for Silent to respond. The car jerked slightly as they sped along. "Who the hell are you? A hitman? You out here to off me? Wait, you knew the whole crew too... said all their names 'xcept..."

A click. Internal and a pair of fingers snapping to match. O30 pointed knowingly at the once anonymous user as he drudged up the missing name from hundreds he'd come to know since the event. "Ssssspeeeeees?" He tried warily. "Spes? Is that it?"

"Ssssspeeeeees?"

No.

"Spes? Is that it?"

No.

He jerked, motorbike braking with a harsh SCREECH. He clambered out of the motorcycle, managing to get out somewhat gracefully before plopping to the dusty ground.

His hands were shaking. Everything was shaking. His eyes blurred, his breathing picked up until- until-

He distantly realized that he was having a panic attack. Oh god, he really wasn't ready.

Breathe. He shut his eyes, forcing himself to take a few seconds before, during, after every breath. In. Out. In. Out.

It was dark. His head was pressed against his knees, pulled up to his chest. His arms were around himself in a sorry excuse for a hug.

He didn't want to move. He didn't want to answer.

A wave of hate for the woman he was ran so sharply through him that he flinched.