Loa Blood

[Jacobo_Curious]

Kell stared down at the bike. His eyes widened.

What is that thing? It looks like some sort of rocket propulsion device... so THAT's how the guys were going so fast!

I can go after the other bikers and take out the Loa shipment... or I can try to capture the Queen Bee, possibly an important figure, and a Gifted.

The military can handle those bikers, now that their camo is gone. But that truck was armored. Bullets might not be able to pierce it.

But I can burn it...

He pulled up the rocket bike and jumped on top, fumbling for a few moments before he kicked the starter, zipped up his black jacket, and narrowed his eyes.

He grinned.

"Bees, I swat you for justice!"

Slamming down on the accelerator, flickers of flame burst from the tailpipe and Kell shot forward in the direction of the truck. He laughed loudly, feeling the air shoot by him. He had never felt this fast before in his life.

This feeling... this rush. This is speed. I know it. There's a rythym to it. It is not uncontrolled like it seems. There is still a beat, but like a heartbeat, it is faster because it is stronger, and more ready. I can understand this... I can utilize this... I know I am capable.

He shot through the bursted barricades and quickly passed the crashed jeep, where soldiers struggled to emerge from the wreakage. He was coming up on the truck.

Gathering dark flames in his hand, Kell narrowed his eyes and pushed on the accelerator as far down as it would go. Rushing up to the armored truck, taking the soldiers by surprise, he slowed down and drove to the side of the truck, and then slammed his palm on the side of the armored vechile, screaming with all his might as he gathered up as much adrenaline and energy as he had, emptying it out into a scorch of flame that began to spread across the armor of the truck, slowly turning it to slag...

 

[Morgoth]

Noise. Terrible noise. With a roar, the crusher leapt through the roof, landing outside. With a growl, he looked about him, at the running people, at the helicopters, at the massive statuesque figure. One more cursory glance and his instincts thought for him. They weren't ready yet. He leapt into the air, tearing through a helicopter that was too slow. He turned his attention to Monolith. With a shriek, he propelled himself towards Monolith.

 

[SwampThing]

Monolith could see that one of the helicopters had strayed too close to the house with the blue roof. Hearing the noise, the dark, winged monster leapt through the blue roof, and tore into the chopper. Seconds later, it's wreckage fell burning into the street below. The trucks were blocked off, and the evacuation would be slowed.

"Ash!" cursed Baker through Monolith's radio. "We can't make a missile strike until we clear the civilians! Monolith, attack him now!"

The other helicopters pull away from the flying creature, and lock their sights on it. Even without their missiles, they carry a lot more firepower than the troops from the hospital, possibly enough to wound or slow the thing.

 

[Morgoth]

The Crusher shoulder-rammed Monolith, sending him flying down the street. As bullets began to hit him, the Crusher, roared, spinning around and sending waves of fire into one. He turned on another, readying himself.

 

[Abraxas Winterlight]

Monolith

The beast hit me and threw me down the street and into a car, crushing it under my body. I stood up slowly. Damn! I had never been hit that hard! THe creature was throwing fire at the police, and ripping through the armored cars like they were tissue paper.
The beast had created a cleared space around him, so i took advantage of it.
Lifting the mangled car above my head I threw it at the beast.
HEY UGLY!
He turned right when the car hit him.

 

[SwampThing]

The second helicopter explodes in flames, as the creature's energy wave ignites it's missile payload. The fireball crashes into a row of houses, setting them ablaze.

The soldiers and police on the ground scatter, panicked. The remaining helicopter begins moving erratically to avoid another flame blast, searching for an opening to fire it's heavy guns.

 

[Morgoth]

The car is sheared in half on the Crusher's face. Dan Williams, albeit an extremely angry one snaps into control. "I didn't like that", he growls, sending a blast of fire into Monolith, then turning and attempting to knock some helicopters out of the sky with the blast still going on full.

 

[SwampThing]

The heat of the creature's flame attack is enough to soften even Monolith's great stone body, and vaporize his Coda radio. But the last helicopter takes advantage of the creature being busy with Monolith to fire a burst from it's heavy machine gun.

The shells tear through the beast's wings, and pierce it's black scales, lodging painfully in it's thick flesh. The dark monstrosity is thrown back by the impact, it's stream of flame arcing wildly through the air.

The fire spreads quicly through the suburb, and across the golf course. One of the military trucks, full of civilians for evacuation, catches fire and explodes.

Distracted as the creature is, the helicopter manages to evade it's flame, circling around for another pass with it's gun.

 

[Abraxas Winterlight]

Monolith

I roar in pain as my skin begins to melt under the creatures firey attack. The helecopter buys me some time, but I needed more. I rush the beast while it is preoccupied with the helecopter and slam into it, knocking it back and through a evacuated house nearby. I could hear it roaring in anger as the building collapsed on top of it.

GET EVERYONE OUT OF HERE!!!!! IT'S MINE!

I wrenched a metal lightpole out of the ground, and broke it down into a club. It was time to finish this. I leaped to the house as the creature exploded out of the wreckage with death in his gaze.

 

[Lady_Siren]

Nikki cursed softly when she felt the truck begin to heat. That damn boy wasn't going to give up. She had to admire his determination. She closed her eyes and sent herself seeking out of her body. She had been practicing and was getting better. She sent herself out of the truck and alongside the boy. Concentrating with everything she had she grabbed the propulsion device and sent a bolt of pure psycic energy through it causing it to backfire and explode. It wasn't a large explosion just a little boom as the motor died. Immediatly the bike slowed down before finally coming to halt allowing the truck to get away though not completely damage free. She re-entered her body completely spent and breathing hard. She was dizzy and sick to her stomach but she felt a sense of accomplishment. She was really getting better at this whole psycic thing.

 

[SwampThing]

Kell's stolen jetbike sputters to a stop, but a large slab fell off the side of the truck. They aren't going to blend in anywhere now, and the Queen Bee is exhausted.

The remaining army jeep speeds past Kell, still chasing after the truck. Mark drives the damaged truck off the road, splashing down into one of the canals that drain the docklands into the bay. The jeep stops at the edge of the canal, and the soldiers use it as cover while shooting at the agents below. The Killer Bees cover Mark and their Queen from the sinking truck into a storm drain tunnel. The firefight leaves a few of the Killer Bees, and all of the soldiers dead.

"Come on," Mark urges the team. "We'll lose any pursuit in the sewers, and come up into one of our safe-houses."

Far away, across the city, two of the fleeing bikers are shot down by their helicopter pursuit. The rest escape the city in different directions, with 9 cannisters of the precious, deadly Blood.

Kell is left exhausted in an alleyway, with a broken jetbike.

 

[amon_darknight]

Ghost

He saw the whole thing at the concert and it didn’t phase him, all he thought about was Aya, he needed her by his side, she brought peace to his heart and mind, he missed her and wanted to find her desperately. He walked through the panic of the people rushing out, he was yelling out Aya’s name over and over again, but she did not respond. Finally after the events Ghost found himself back on the streets, his jacket was messed up and barely able to conceal his metallic arm, but that was not on his mind right now. Thoughts of Aya were flowing through very quickly and he wondered if she would ever come back to him. Ghost finds himself in a dark back ally of some sort with dumpsters everywhere, he went and sat down between two dumpsters and he sat in his thoughts and he drowned in his sarrows. He knew now that she was not coming back and he had to deal with that in his mind.

He sat there through the weekend and no one even bothered him, nor did they notice him. Ghost just sat between the dumpsters and didn’t know what to do anymore. This whole time he was running from the cops and protecting Aya, but now that she was gone and did not want to be found, what would he do now? He had no idea on what to do, but something had to knock on his door, but when he did not know. He looked to the bag with the guns and wondered, he should throw those things away, but than he thought he might need it. He was not liked by the thugs in the underground and he did not know if they were looking for him or not, so he should just leave the city and go somewhere else. It did not even matter to him now that his homeland was destroyed, all he thought about was Aya and he was to far down in his sadness to think of anything else. He just sat there and thought. If something was going to happen, it had to happen now.

 

[SwampThing]

As Ghost sat in the alley, he heard an engine coming closer, fast, very fast. Then the trash in the alley was blown by a sudden wind, as a figure in black and yellow body armor sped past Ghost on a high tech jetbike. It happened so quickly, only Ghost's heightened senses allowed him to read the labels on the silver cannister strapped to the back of the bike as it went by.

GAIA. Biohazard.

As the bike raced away, Ghost heard a helicopter overhead, following the bike. With the bike's greater speed and maneuverability, there was no way the chopper was going to catch it.

Ghost realized what was happening. He didn't know who the man in black and yellow was, but he was carrying Loa Blood, stolen from GAIA.

Ghost hasn't eaten or had a real sleep in days, he's weak and feverish. But he knows he could run fast enough to catch the jetbike, and that he's the only one who could do it.

 

[PoliteSuccubus]

Meanwhile, away from all the madness...

Faith had a wall dedicated the web of events. Sticky notes covered from floor to ceiling along Prices hallway, in which he'd never hung any artwork.

Yellow were key players; like Nikki Hall, Beckett, the Draconian Prince.

Green were Cuckoo.

Purple were Coda.

Blue were Gaia.

Pink were Gifted who were nuteral.

Red were Gifted who were anti-social or crimmnal.

Tan were Gifted who appeared to be on the good side.

White were events.

She used red and green dental floss and tape to connect people and things together.

There was a pattern, she could feel it. But she couldn't see it. Not yet.

Her interview with Beckett would help, she was sure. And picking Prices brains. And Monolith might be able to help.

Aw, shit. She glanced at the clock. She'd missed her appointment with him and had no real way to contact him. She called the paper and was routed to the mailroom.

"Mailroom, Ben speaking."

"Hello, my name is Faith Honai, and I was told..." She began.

"Ah, Miss Honai! I am glad you called!" Ben had a distent Dracon accent. "Your mail box is getting rather full; will you be coming by to pick up your things soon?"

"I didn't even know I had a mailbox." She confessed..noteing abcesntly that she hadn't added intutions on her wall like the Chruch of the Wheel, the Police Dept, or even her paper...

"Yes, and a video tape came from Locir for you. I had to open it, it's our policy, to make sure it wasn't a bomb."

"You open things expsecting them to blow up?" She asked, surrpized at this revlation.

"It's a part of the job, but we have a bomb tank to do it in."

"All right, I'll come down in a while and pick stuff up. Thank you."

"No problem, Miss Honai."

As they hung up Ben went to the mirror in the office and in a flurry of his four hands straightened his cloths and smoothed his hair. He was actually going to meet Faith Honai!

 

[SwampThing]

One thing at least was clear from Faith's multi-coloured web of paper and dental floss. The two "Cuckoo" incidents both happened at the same time as major Loa Blood events connected to Coda and GAIA. The prep-school kidnapping had happened the same hour as the Dracon Island disaster. The asylum breakout, the day after Nikki, Damien, and some other unidentified Gifted banded together to protect a mysterious "shipment" from the Killer Bees (the news reports never said it was Loa Blood, but the secrecy alone was a dead giveaway to Faith).

Even the vague, earlier mentions of the "Cuckoo" in the anarchist press all co-incided with hijakings, spills, or important discoveries. The first mention she could trace had appeared in an anomymous article in a college newspaper in Boomtown (north Argo), shortly after the infamous first broadcast of the images from the antarctic. Her parents' generation had never forgotten where they were when they first learned what lay beneath the ice. And it would seem that was when the "Cuckoo" was born.

If the pattern held up, then surely the events of this weekend heralded another appearance from the mysterious entity.

 

[amon_darknight]

Ghost

He saw the motorbike go by in a hurry and he noticed the words on it.

“Gaia, Biohazard”

He than saw and heard the helicopter fly over a while after the bike went by. It was weird, he looked and he still saw the vapor trail of the motorbike, it was oblivious that he was in some kind of trouble. But that was none of Ghost’s concern, than he thought of what he saw again….

“BLOOD… LOA!”

He picked his bag up and loaded the custom made handgun and put it in his shoulder harness and he ran off still able to sense the vapor trail of the bike. He ran with all his might and strength, he could feel that he was weak and tired, but he had to get to that bike and take that stuff from him before he hurt someone with it. He soon was able to catch the bike, he saw that he was leaving a trail of destruction behind him as he was running, people fell down from the winds being kicked up, and the street was getting ripped apart, but it didn’t matter to Ghost. He would not be able to be caught, he was side by side with the bike and he waved at the driver. Than Ghost took off faster than the bike and was like a mile and a half in front of the bike, the driver looked at the speedometer, and was amazed at the speed of that man, he wondered where he went, than he heard a loud gunshot and he flew off the bike and was seeming to fly.

You see Ghost stopped running a mile and a half ahead of the bike and waited for him to hit 100 feet in front of him, when he saw that he fired his powerful handgun and struck the bike in the front tire and than the driver went flying off, but than Ghost took of in a mad run and caught him and he seemed to vanish, as a strong wind blew and a large chunk of the building flew off as it followed where Ghost was running. To Ghost it all seemed like slow motion, but he was soon in a underground parking structure holding the large handgun to the mans head.

Ghost: “Look, you better tell me where you got this and why you were running away from whoever was chasing you, you have 5 seconds and than say good bye to your head.”

Ghost looked down at him through his sunglasses and had a very serious tone in his voice. He was not joking.

 

[SwampThing]

The jetbike spinn out of control when Ghost shootss the driver, flying into a graffiti-covered alleyway with it's strange cargo.

When the helicopter finally catches up, Ghost and the Killer Bee are long gone. The chopper sweeps the area with it's searchlight beam, uncovering only the swath of destruction left by Ghost's bursts of speed. The cannister of Loa Blood is nowhere to be found.

In the parking garage, Ghost holds the wounded agent. At 100 ft, the bullet hadn't pierced his Killer Bee armor, but the impact had broken ribs, and left his body one great bruise. At point blank range, the gun would finish the job.

The agent coughs. "I'm not telling you a thing, Loa freak! You're going to kill me anyway. I've heard about you. You've been smashing up the independents in the underworld lately. You hit the hospital, and the gun shop. You think you're setting up to take over, whitey? Well you can't stop the Bees. We're everywhere."

 

[Jacobo_Curious]

One... two. One... two. Left... right. Right... left.

Heroes really shouldn't have to do this.

Kell plodded slowly along, panting heavily, slumped over. Cars drove by and people chattered about what was going on, but he kept walking, his head down.

Well... at least... the truck will be easier to find...

Even his brain felt exhausted.

Still, I'm probably lucky. If the truck actually had opened and I had gotten inside, all I would've been able to do would be sit there while they killed me.

This work is really too dangerous.

"I wanna go home," he whispered.

Where's home, now?

"...mother..."

 

[amon_darknight]

Ghost

He absorbs everything the bike rider said.

“What the fuck is a killer bee? And I don’t want to take over anything. I only believe in peace of this world, but unfortunately people have to fuck with me, so than I get angry and the demon comes out in full force. Like you, you are messing with me right now by lying to me. And who gives a fuck if I mess the underground up, they are dumbasses anyway, what’s the matter with them anyway, are they to good to come and live with the people up here, why do they got to have so much hate for. I can be like that to, but I accept who I am. I might be a little different, but I don’t give a shit, I don’t even know where the fuck I am, I am here for two reasons. One, to find out who killed and destroyed my home land, Marrow Island, and two I have to find the woman that I fell in love with, Aya. Now you are going to tell me who you are and what you are doing with this shit.”

He takes the vile away from the man and he shoots him one time in the kneecap. In slow motion you could hear his knee cap bust open. It was disgusting, you saw the blood pump out of his wound and Ghost stood there and looked to him as he holstered his gun and drew his Katana and he turned and sliced and the bikers helmet flew off and than the gun flashed in his face and the sword was sheathed and Ghost shouted very angrily.

“Tell me what you are doing with this fucking vile and where the fuck did you get it. I will kill you and I will make it so no one can identify the body.”

The only thought that ran though his head was Aya and her leaving him cause he was weak and a freak. Ghost clenched his metal fist together and he looked the biker in the eyes, never took his stare away from him.

“Tell me now and I will not hurt you, I will take you to a hospital and tell them that a LOA person hurt you. So tell me what I want to know. You have one minute. Oh wait I don’t have a watch.”

He looked to the biker and he reached and stole the watch he was wearing and he put it on.

“Do you have a cell phone? Oh you do or you don’t answer me quick.”

 

[SwampThing]

The biker screams, clutching at his bleeding knee. "Coda! We stole it from Coda! I was taking it to a meeting point out in the desert. I don't know who the buyer is. They don't tell me shit, I'm just an agent!" Now that his helmet is off, Ghost can see that the guy is young, maybe 22 years old. He has the silver hair and stubble of an Aralian.

"I don't have a phone. There's a radio in my helmet."
_____________________________

Eventually, Kell gets picked up by an army jeep. The soldiers tell him that the Killer Bees escaped into the city's drainage tunnels. They congratulate him on the one cannister he managed to rescue, singlehandedly. They offer him a beer, and a ride back to the Coda building.

 

[amon_darknight]

Ghost

He opens the canister that held the vial and he shook it. He looked to it and opened it to find there was nothing in it.

“What the fuck you moron. Why are you carrying a empty canister for? Are you stupid or what, trying to stiff the people you are carrying for.”

He put his gun away and he looked to the wound on his kneecap. He shook his head and looked around the place where he was. He saw a pay phone.

“Ok look, I want to know where the real canister is, or why you were trying to stiff the buyer, and I also want to know where the drop off point is, tell me this and I will call the cops and you will live.”

He looked to the man and smiled at him evilly.

“And if you don’t tell me, I will just shoot you and do what I said I was going to do.”

He waited for an answer.

 

[SwampThing]

"The cannister of Blood was on my bike. What you're holding is my thermos, for coffee.

"The drop-off point is off highway 11 . . . " he gives Ghost some specific directions. "Oh, wheel, my leg, you've gotta call me an ambulance."

 

[amon_darknight]

Ghost

“Wheel, what the hell are you talking about, I will call you a ambulance don’t worry. Just don’t die on me.”

He walked to the pay phone and dialed 911 and told them where to pick him up, he didn’t know the place where he was but he told him the streets and than he left. He walked back over to the man and kneeled beside him.

“I am sorry for what I have done to you, I know you didn’t deserve it, my name is Ghost. I am a Loa freak, but I only seek my love and my vengeance. You will be fine, the bleeding has already begun to slow, and the ambulance will be here soon. Take care friend.”

With that said, Ghost walked off and seemed to have vanished, all that was felt was a strong gust of wind and things flying in the direction he ran. As Ghost ran he saw a fire ladder and he climbed it, he was tired and when he got to the top he saw a little shack, he walked into it and saw there was snacks in here and toys. He figured some kid played in here often, so he would just rest in here and eat the snacks and than when he was rested, he would go out to the desert and see who this buyer was. But for now, zzzzzZZz

 

[Lady_Siren]

Nikki followed Mark through the sewers her head pounding. She forced herself to endure, she could do it. She just had to get to a safe house then she could rest. She stumbled slightly then righted herself hurrying to catch up. 'Please let it be soon...'

 

[Morgoth]

The Crusher was mad. Really mad. Projectiles that bounced off of him were one thing. These tore into him. With a psychotic roar he leapt from the demolished house and into Monolith, head snapping to the side and biting the lamppole in half. At the same time, his mangled wings slammed forward, hitting Monolith in the chest and throwing him back. Stunned, he was unable to reract as the Crusher dove into him, shouler barrelling into his chest and throwing Monolith down the street.