Those With Power

[sgt_Angua]

(I'm starting to introduce some Monaran words into Gish's internal monologue.)

Unfamiliar words and idioms flew around Gish as she tried to understand what they meant. She was not sure how many were English words she had never learned and how many were in some other earth language. Shoon. And Marc was dead? Felix seemed to think that Marc could bring others back to life, but she could not tell from Marc’s reaction whether Felix was right or not.

But that was absurd. Once someone died, they returned to the earth. Who ever heard of the dead walking? Although… Marc certainly looked dead, and the gurgle in his voice suggested there was fluid in his lungs. Everyone else seemed to understand the idea of walking dead. Beh!

All of this went through Gish’s head in an instant while her face betrayed none of her thoughts. She followed the group into the hanger, and looked around at the various vehicles.

"Your pardon," said a vaguely familiar voice. "I had to change into a more practical style."

“Mallanc,” Gish said under her breath at seeing Marc suddenly headless, too quietly for anyone else to hear.

Why did you decapitate yourself?

No. Gish felt half-mad just thinking the question. She couldn’t ask it. Well that certainly settled the question of the dead walking.

Pretend everything’s normal and soon it will be.

Gish had received that advice during her first week on earth, and it had served her well. Hope was practically another planet in comparison to where she had first lived on earth. She would have to follow that advice and pray she kept her sanity.

“I don’t see a vehicle that will fit both me and my float-chair,” Gish said, her voice steady. “I could find my own way if it isn’t too far and someone gives me directions.”

[kronosdragon]

Arlaen looked over at Marc with wide eyes, but she quickly regained her composure.

I wonder why he cut his head off...How is that more practical?

She shook her head and looked over at the alien female, who was looking at the headless corpse with an expression Arlaen could only decipher as being shock and confusion. Personally, she didn't blame her, but chances were that this would not be the last time they saw a headless corpse walking around in the place of Marc. She gave the alien a soft pat on the shoulder and a reassuring smile.

"Don't worry. I don't know what planet you came from, and I'm sure that all of this is quite strange to you, but you'll get used to it."

[Varthonai]

[OOC Note:]

[So far, the only reactions to Marc that have seemed reasonably believable and in-character to me have been Gish's, Ryan's, Angel's, and Felix's. Everybody else is taking Marc way, way too lightly. You guys need to remember that your characters have not read his profile; you shouldn't be feeling so at ease around him, because you should have no idea what the hell he is! For all you guys know, he's not even human--he could be an alien parasitoid possessing a corpse, or a demonic spirit, yet most of you have already managed to reach the conclusion that he is a human being who is controlling undead puppets from a distance. He's been dropping verbal clues, yes, but for chrissakes, you shouldn't be able to focus on those so easily and think it all through so rationally when he's CARRYING HIS FREAKIN' HEAD AROUND IN A JAR.]

[kronosdragon]

(Arlaen can control her emotions just as well as she can control those of others, that's the only reason she hasn't freaked out yet. Otherwise, her reactions would be more along the lines of Gish and Ryan's...)

[Mattbot]

(Just in case anyone's confused, all of your chosen vehicles have been moved into the hanger without your knowledge while you were in the meeting. With the exception of Ryans vehicle because i'm not gonna go out and steal his wifes car.)

[Wadling]

("JESUS CHRIST!" Felix screamed, pulling a baseball bat from under his jacket "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU!"

He swung at Marc, knocking his head-in-a-jar to the floor and sprinting as fast as he could away from the Guardian base. "I'm out, you guys!")

"Oh great" Felix moaned "So do we draw straws to see who gets to ride next to the Headless Horseman here? Oh, speaking of which, do we have any horses in this hanger? That would be perfect for him!"

[Killing_Time]

(I changed my previous thought-reaction towards Marc seeing as I must've misread something Angel said about Marc's PDA-situation.)

I stepped back, further away from Marc. What was this? It went beyond my understanding of death. Somewhere a frightened girl awoke in me as I found a respect for Marc. Respect for someone else that I had not experienced before. Of course at the very moment this conclusion was pushed aside by confusion and unsafeness. I placed a hand lightly over my right pistol, instinctively readying myself for any attack, hoping I'd see it. This was not normal, this was a power too abstract to comprehend and too dangerous to trust.
"What are planning to gain by doing this?"

[kronosdragon]

(Wish I would've known about the bike being moved to the hanger without her knowledge. I'll edit my post about her bike to fix this.)

Arlaen let the bike rest against its kickstand as she sat in the padded leather seat.

"Well...I don't have much room, but he's welcome to ride with me if he wants."

She felt a slight flicker of fear as she said that, making her stomach lurch, but she quickly pushed it away before it caused more discomfort.

If Angel trusts him enough to let him become a Guardian, then I'll just have to try to trust him too, even if I have no idea who he really is...Hmm...He said he'd been taking formaldehyde to slow the corpse's decomp, but I'm just concerned that he may throw off my bike's balance and I'll have to be extremely careful when turning corners...

She shook her head, pushing away her thoughts. She couldn't afford to get distracted now.

"Yeah, if he wants, he can ride with me."

She looked the corpse up and down, feeling slightly uneasy.

"Um...That thing isn't going to hurt the leather, is it?"

[Mattbot]

(Last time I leave the descripting up to Thunder )

Mendoza silently cursed, from the information he had gathered on this attack he had assumed it would have taken place late afternoon. Angel quickly donned his long coat and pulled down his visor. He flipped open a section of the wall behind his bunk revealing a small arms rack, the first row displayed a series of small thrown projectiles such as knives, darts and shurikens of different styles and uses, mainly tranquilizers. Behind these lay his two hand cannons surrounded by different ammo clips. At the far back was a small shot flask accompanied by two bottles, one bottle of Jack Daniels and one bottle of usquebaugh-baul which had not been opened yet.

Angel was saving the latter and decided to fill his flask with the Jack Daniels for this task, he took a large swig from the flask before grabbing his gear. He decided to bring along only Tranqs for his pistols and thrown weapons. Angel sprant back down the winding corridors and up the long stair cases, his head becoming lighter as his pacing and balance increased. He hopped up the end of the final staircase and through the doors leading to the ever expanding hanger. He turned to his left and tapped a large steel panel on the wall.

Upon doing so a series of large clanks and churns emitted from the front of the room, the wall of the hanger began to slowly slide upwards unveiling a stunning view over the city. In the distance the team were able to make out the plumes of smoke coming from the Orion building, below them lay an empty overpass, both sides had been automatically stopped by traffic lights when Angel had hit the button, A large ramp extended from the hanger leading down onto the highway. From outside it was revealed that the hanger was built into the 4th floor of the ‘Tionscal leictreach' building.

[Aval]

(Actually, I think it's pretty unlikely that people seem surprised at Marc. People generally notice when large estates are taken over and have martial law imposed on them by an army of walking corpses. :/

Also, lol Rachel isn't Ryan's wife, but the Freudian slip kinda works in character so; awesome B])

Fuck, did I just say "wife"?

Ryan pinched the bridge of his nose

It's far too early in the morning for this shit.

But no time for that now, stuff was happening.

"Wait, what is this? I dont even-"

He stood amidst the commotion, preplexed and surpised at how quickly he had been drawn into the fray.

"Do I get a gun or something? What do I do when I get there?"

[Mattbot]

Angel flipped out his bike keys which he had yet to place with the others and found his Suzuki. Using the key he unlocked a side compartment on the back of the bike, after shuffling around the equipment inside, Angel pulled out an old Winchester model which looked like it had seen better days. He hastily examined the gun before handing it over to Ryan.

“This is an old lever action Winchester Model 1894 I used long before my days on the force, it has an effective range of about 200 yards and uses standard 30 30 shells which you can get at any good gun store for a cheap price. Its fed on tube cartridges so keep a few fully loaded spares in your pockets.” Angel handed a small box of shells and cartridges to Ryan, The man clearly had no idea what was being explained to him. “All good senor?”

[Aval]

"Ah, I see." shit. I'm holding a fucking gun.

Ryan examined the surprisingly heavy killing device in his hands in an attempt to seem knowlegable.

"so, ah, this has good... killing abilit- FUCK!"

The weapon discharged into the floor after being fiddled with in the wrong place.

Ryan decided to leave the rifle round his shoulder untill use.

[Mattbot]

Probably wasn't the smartest idea to give Ryan a loaded weapon without any training before hand but I doubt he'd- A loud gunshot echoed across the room cutting off Angels trail of thought.

Angel turned back to Ryan with a sympathetic look before drinking his flask empty and proceeding over to his bike to compare it with Arlaen’s. He could feel his senses heightening, he went over all of the checks on his bike in a matter of seconds and then proceeded to dismantle and reassemble one of his pistols. This was a standard practice Angel performed to test how enhanced his reflexes were at the time.

[Aval]

"Anyone interested in sharing a ride? Thinking about the planet, you know."

[kronosdragon]

Arlaen jumped, her heart racing at the sound of the gunshot, her vision going red for a brief second and her skin crawling uncomfortably. When she realized that it had only been a misfire, her heart rate dropped and she calmed herself down, her vision returning to normal. She looked down at her arms, taking deep breaths to calm her shocked nerves and watching her skin ripple slightly. When all was back to normal, she sighed and straddled her bike seat, keeping one foot on the floor. She lightly tapped the screen displaying her bike's specs, bringing up a list of options provided by the system. She pressed on the GPS option and entered their destination, just in case she should get separated from the group on the way there. She watched Angel as he disassembled one of his pistols, only to put it back together a moment later. She turned her attention to the others.

"Is anyone riding with me?"

She twisted the throttle, the engine producing a healthy purr.

[Thunder]

Thorsten stared at the smoldering hole in his brand new floor, before wondering how Ryan had managed to miss all the vehicles in the room. Then he stopped wondering and just thanked whatever god there was.

He grabbed the keys for the Focus, before aiming them at the car in question and pressing the button. The car blipped pleasantly, a feature he had always hated.

Felix rushed over when he saw the lights flash.

"Woah. Where's the vigilante stuff? Does it shoot rockets? Can it fly? Does it have adjustible seats?"

Thorsten slid into the drivers seat. "It's a Ford Focus. It's the most normal reasonably priced car on the planet."

Felix looked slightly disappointed at this. "Well why aren't we taking a Ferrari or something?"

"Because I don't want you turning one of the Ferraris into a giant block of lego halfway there"

"I suppose that makes sense."

Felix jumped into the passenger seat and immediately opened the glove compartment, to find the owners manual. He looked disappointed again.

Meanwhile, Thorsten was starting up the brand new Sat Nav which he had installed on all the new cars. These were another Tionscal Leictreach product, and his logo flashed across the screen before being replaced with a street map. All the vehicles had been linked to a server operating in one of the garage stations, showing their position. Right now, the screen was packed with little red dots, as he was still in the hangar.

"I suppose you have a location for us Angel?"

"Posting it to the server now..."

Moments later, a highlighted route sprang up on the screen, showing the way to the location Angel had flagged.

He started the engine and revved the car.

"Ready when you are Angel".

[sgt_Angua]

“My float-chair can move quite fast, although I would appreciate as much warning as possible for stopping,” Gish said, putting on the headset she had received earlier. She had hoped to avoid putting too much stress on the machinery, but it didn’t seem it could be avoided. Luckily she had brought her sunglasses so she wouldn’t be half-blinded by the wind.

Gish smiled as the directions appeared on the PDA. She would have to look into setting up some way to attach the PDA to front of the float-chair.

Gish secured the fastenings of the float-chair around herself and waited for the signal from Angel.

[Aval]

"Anyone? No?"

Everyone else appeared to have thier own transport sorted.

"Fine. Don't come running to me when you die of pollution or something."

Ryan twirled out the most expensive keys he could see and fired them into the room. To his delight, the Ferrari flashed and beeped. He slid himself in and spun up the engine, while one handedly mashing the hands-free communicator onto his head.

"Alright. On your mark."

[Killing_Time]

(I'm changing to third person since I find myself writing in that style whenever I start an entry.)

Villa couldn't stand still. Somehow she felt the situation surrealistic. People were readying themselves to go, not questioning this Marc's behaviour. She shook her head lightly. She would be better off with not questioning.
She put on the headset and placed the PDA somewhere she found reasonably safe. She would have to construct a pocket for it as soon as she got some time. If Angel expected her to wait for the rest to use up all their pedal power and gas before getting a signal to start he'd have to think again. She was off. She turned to the opened wall, then turned her head at Angel with a nod, ensuring he'd see she wore hear headset.
Crunches barely audible due to the engine noise sounded through her body and she jumped off, running with a pace that was far from necessary and purely for the effect of impressing.

[Wadling]

"Well, as much as I just love to impress people with how reasonably priced my car is" Felix opened the door to the Ford Focus "I think I'm gonna go ride with Dorian Gray over there, 'cuz he's got more style... Despite blowing a hole in the floor, just think about what that says about you."

Felix got out of the car and slammed the door, jogging over to Ryan and his Ferrari, hopping in without invitation.

"Hey" Felix nodded "Mind if I turn on the radio?"

[Aval]

"Sure." Replied a somewhat preplexed Ryan.

[Wadling]

Felix reached forward and started fiddling with the radio until all of a sudden a loud song blared from it.

'HIIIIIIII HOOOOOOO SIIIILVER LININ', ANYWHERE YOU GO NOW BABY, I SEE YOUR SUN IS SHININ', AND I WON'T MAKE A FUSS, THOUGH IT'S OBVIOUS'

"Oh man, I love this song" Felix grinned

[Thunder]

Thorsten rolled down the window and shouted after him "WHAT?! I only used this so that you couldn't turn one of the-"

He paled.

"Máire Día..."

He rolled his eyes again, before exiting the horrendous Ford and moving over to one of the vehicles covered in a tarpaulin. He whipped it off to reveal the Type R, pulled his keys out of his pocket and slid into the drivers seat. This thing was heavily modified, even the back wheels had been weighed down slightly to stop the wheel lift as it rounded corners.

"Still ready to go when you are Angel. Anytime now."

[Varthonai]

Marc opened the Ford's left backseat door, placed his head on the right and sat down in the left before pulling down both seat belts.

"I would think it inadvisable to listen to the radio during an emergency situation," said Marc. "If we are distracted at a critical moment, Angel will have little sympathy."

[Mattbot]

Angel watched as Villa soared off down the ramp and across the empty overpass, She’d need a head start if she was to meet then at the scene on time. He found himself admiring her form as she departed the Guard Post, a bad mix of alcohol and flexible women in tight clothing. Shaking the distraction from his mind he turned to inspect the team. Somehow Angel had passed by Marcs ambassador without noticing its current status. After a brief moment of staring in puzzlement he thought to himself Screw it I’m too drunk to ask.. Tapping on his headset “Alright guys, The PDA’s are all automatically set to this conference by private satellite (HELL YEAH!) you can pick out a specific team member or other phone number by voice command. The headsets also have a separate function as a short range interpersonal radio incase we lose signal in a tunnel or something.”

With that, Angel hit the ignition and shot over the ramp landing with a painful bounce, He’d have to be a bit more gentle in the future. “Keep up if you can!” He mocked across the headset and left the overpass towards the smoke covered building in the distance.