Rum Valley bar (Thieves meet up)

[Nail Strafer]

[This will be easier to write as one post, so that's what I'll do.]

Quote:"Alright alright, chill out man, everything's alright. Look I'm unarmed ok? I'm coming out with my claws up."

That caused Nail to bat an eyelid as he stared down Giichi.

Claws? But he's human...

But that was nothing compared to the bomb Am dropped next. When he mentioned Nail's name, the hybrid's eyes blew way open, as he started to turn his head to look Am in the eye. Although at the last second he remembered he still had a potentially dangerous hostage at gun point and resumed looking squarely at Giichi.

He listened to the rest of Am's words. If the situation were less tense he may have just broke out laughing at being compared to Jav. Jav could drive but he was no shooter. All the same...

"That F4 garbage is ancient history," he almost spat into Giichi's face as he said this, in disrespect to his old organization. "I just needed the money..."

Meanwhile, Giichi too had a stunned look on his face, as he stared Nail up and down. So he WAS related to Gail after all! While what he was about to say might cause an unpredictable reaction from Nail, Giichi thought it might break the standoff.

"Do you...do you know Gail Strafer?"

Nail's mouth dropped open at that comment, and started to lower the gun from the shock. Alas, it only took a second for him to recover.

"You...you know my dad?"

Now it was Giichi's turn to be super confused. From their first meeting, Giichi knew Gail as a wild, irresponsible teenager with lots of youth still in him. Even if he did have a boy, Nail was way too old-looking to be Gail's son. In fact, it looked like it should have been the other way around. Nail looked like he was in his 30s or 40s. Fur sagged in places on his face, not quite masking the wrinkles under his skin.

---------------

"You're done, son!"

The brute shouted as the meter came crashing down. Alas, that stupid stick was there again to block his blow. How could such a flimsy-looking wooden stick be so good at blocking against everything?!

And then he found himself getting punched in the chest. Between blows the brute looked down. To his surprise, he saw that this echidna wasn't even holding the stick, but somehow keeping it up in midair! Since Terrador was putting his energy into keeping the stick up, they were mostly just an annoyance to the brute.

The brute did indeed back away, but it was also because he was letting go of the parking meter in favor of simply diving under the stick to tackle Terrador to the ground.

[SOLIS]

[I was waiting for a reply from Echo but haven't got anything so I'm just going to go ahead and post. If he has an issue with it, I can change it.]

Unsure of what to do, SOLIS remained where it was, listening to the conversation and building an symmetric graph of the relationships between all the entities in question. Nail has a father named Gail, works for the white wolf, previously worked for an unknown entity "F4", Gail know the unnamed entity Nail was talking to, who was standing next to a "Giichi".

Information regarding this F4 was easily accessible over the internet, so it decided to fill in that information during a safer situation. What really got its attention though, was that the same signals it was picking up from the ship were emanating from the unnamed one, but as it still had an incomplete set of instructions, it was unable to pick up any specifics.

"Nail," it slowly approached him, keeping an eye out for hostility, "There's something about that one. I would suggest exercising caution." Upon reaching him, it lightly bumped into his leg in an attempt to alert him where it was without him having to look.

[Terrador Bellator]

Frustration was dwelling within Terrador as his attacks proved useless. As the man released the pressure from his parking meter, the staff was flung high into the air from the amount of force the echidna was placing into it. All of that mental stress left him dazed for a few moments. His markings lost their glow and even adorned a gray hue. This of course left him open to being tackled to the ground. Regaining his senses right after hitting the ground with a hard thud, he allowed the brute to pull him down. The moment his back was against the pavement, he attempted to reverse the momentum by rolling backwards and placing a majority of his strength to fling the human in the opposite direction. Even with his Geokinetic energies not in use at the moment, his natural energy was more than plentiful.

[Echo]

Quote:"That F4 garbage is ancient history," he almost spat into Giichi's face as he said this, in disrespect to his old organization. "I just needed the money..."

"So...you tried to wipe out a whole species just for money? Ya know, that really speaks volumes about your character Strafer. Your parents must be just oozing with pride. "

Am was about to say something else when Solis came into view. Am stared at the machine in awe as it bumped into Nail's leg and spoke...about him!

Quote:"There's something about that one. I would suggest exercising caution."

Am visibly tensed with anxiety for a moment but regained his composure quickly.

"And just what's that supposed to mean?"

Am glanced up at the ship hovering a few hundred feet above them. Too far to really get her attention...without getting shot first.

'There's got to be something I can pull out of the egg here' he thought as he remained silent hoping the conversation he'd stirred up would provide him time to devise a plan of attack.

[Nail Strafer]

[I think that's SOLIS in Nail's pocket bumping against his leg, actually. Regardless you would still hear SOLIS's voice.]

Quote:"There's something about that one. I would suggest exercising caution."

"I've noticed, thanks," Nail quickly said. "Maybe you could find out how he knows so much about me?"

If SOLIS did an Internet search, it would quickly discover that F4 stood for Freedom Fighters For Furs, hence the short name F4. Most of the material found would be old news articles related to attacks or bombings made against humans by the organization. F4 was a terrorist organization of anthros dedicated to killing humanity, so that anthros could rule the world. It seemed they had been more active in years' past, but not so much today. For good reasons, Nail clearly wasn't proud of his past association with them.

Quote:"So...you tried to wipe out a whole species just for money? Ya know, that really speaks volumes about your character Strafer. Your parents must be just oozing with pride. "

The last sentence really pushed a button for Nail. Sparing half of a harsh glare at Am since he still has Giichi at gunpoint, he just barely kept his voice even and controlled. With the way he spoke, it sounded like his voice would crack and become more rage-filled at ay time.

"You shut the hell up about my parents. You don't know anything about that. My mom was murdered while I was in grade school, and my dad loves me, and my kids...and my wife..."

The last part seemed especially hard for Nail to say. The angry glare melted away, as his eyes turned downwards in regret. Within the space of one sentence he'd gone from an angry rant to almost looking like he wanted to cry.

"We...we were both young and stupid back then... When F4 was new..."

Since both of his hands were occupied, Nail rubbed his eye against one of his shoulders instead, even as he continued to hold Giichi at gunpoint.

"You were saying about my dad?" This question was directed at Giichi. "Where did you see him last?"

[Giichi Twinkieland]

When Nail confirmed he was a former F4 member, a lump passed through Giichi's throat. At the time F4 was active, he'd been too young to remember most of the news. But he did remember the way humans started looking at him and his family with suspicion, or just outright hatred.

His mom and dad had to pull Giichi out of grade school temporarily when a crowd of bigger human children ganged up on him. They'd yanked his tail...pulled out some of his whiskers...punched him in the nose... Someone threw a brick through their home's window one day too. Sometimes they'd go into stores and no one would serve them if they were run by humans.

F4 had bombed a city office a couple days earlier, and since then all anthros like himself were treated as if they were all a part of F4. It just wasn't true of course, but some of the humans just didn't understand.

If Nail was one of those guys who was capable of killing humans just for being human, Giichi wanted to be as far away as possible. Unfortunately, Nail was the one who had a gun to the cat's head.

Quote:"You were saying about my dad? Where did you see him last?"

Giichi decided he would just answer, if it made him happy.

"Umm...I don't know if we're talking about the same person..." Giichi mumbled, trying to keep his voice even. "But I did see someone named Gail a couple weeks ago. Gray wolf...big, muscly..."

Nail nodded, urging him to continue. Obviously he looked very interested.

"But...he was a young guy. Not an old guy. He was just a teenager."

That obviously puzzled Nail, but he stayed silent and encouraged Giichi to keep talking.

"I needed some help getting my car, but then he took off. I haven't seen him since... Don't know where he went."

---

With the help of his earth strength, Terrador managed to use the brute's momentum against him, like a judo through. The human was flung straight over the echidna's head. With a sickening impact, the brute got flung to the curb on the side of the street, giving his neck a nasty impact as his head made contact with the side of the sidewalk.

This blow looked like it had really done a number on the brute, as he wailed in pain. The human grasped at the back of his neck where he'd hit it. He tried to get back up again, but clearly the hit on the curb looked like it had done a number on his balance. Eventually though, he managed to sway to an uneasy stand. He glared at Terrador as he did so, even if his head didn't look like it was quite on straight now.

[SOLIS]

[I had assumed when Nail was blown off the roof by the ship that SOLIS was in his grip and he'd dropped it when he fell, so SOLIS had been taking cover under a nearby vehicle. Nothing to post this round, though.]

[Relic Drake]

[I am going to pretend Relic and Priscilla was fighting Ajax and the robot somewhere "off screen", bear with me guys.]

The dull pang of metal on metal contact rang out in the air above Nail, Giichi and Echo. Followed by the distinctive sound of an object falling at high speeds. Relic plowed directly into the roof top less then a dozen feet from the trio. His body crumpled in an unnatural way, his spine contorted as his lower body was pulled back forcing him into a crescent before he finally laid flat. Before his body could lay still the dread knight began to stir, rising slowly to his feet. His chest plate had a large dent from the fist of the robot, the metallic being had picked up Relic and pummeled him down towards Nail in an attempt to crush him, though the titanic fox had managed to avert that mid 'flight'.

In pursuit the enormous, easily double Relic's size and competing with the gunship for largest object, robot flew down to the roof. It's flight mode consisted of its legs retracted upwards and 4 large VTOL (Vertical Take Off and Landing) jets replacing them. Cutting the overall height of the robot by about 35%. Smaller jets popped up from various places on the robot correcting its flight path and keeping it stable. Slowly the mechanical, silver, giant hovered down. "UNIT - GUARDIAN 731. ORDER - CEASE AND DESIST" it boomed emotionless. It pivoted its upper body, facing the gunship it was sharing air space with.

By the time Guardian had issued it's verbal command to the knight, he was back on his feet. A blow that would have turned anyone here to paste seemed to inconvenience the knight.



Below Ajax and Priscilla where locked in a battle of swords. The white wolf was just barely able to keep rogue damaging her. Even though she was using a combination of her agility, magical shields and her short sword Ajax seemed to just be toying with her. Jumping into the air and jumping off red disk of energy preform acrobatic maneuvers usually reserved for that of a tight space like that of an alleyway. "You maybe a looker, but you aint no fighter, honey!" he taunted, the hooded figure constantly flipping all over. Priscilla let out a grunt as she parried another one his thrust. She wasn't trying to beat Ajax herself, just stall him. The she-wolf smiled on the inside, Ajax was living on borrowed time.

[Echo]

Am stood a moment listening to the exchange between Nail and Gichii.

"touchy aren't we Nail? I was just telling you what the reports about you said. It's all public knowledge to anyone who knows how to make the 'intwernet' work for them"

Am was about to continue when he was thrown to the ground by the violent impact of Relic.

"ooh what now? This claw breaking rock gets more insane by the second. Now it's raining....whatever 'those' are!" Am said pushing himself off the ground.

"I'm gonna feel that tomorrow"

Am shakily got to his feet and made his way over to Nail and Gichii.

"You guys alright? So Which one of you children wanna tell Amiroo what that thing is?"

[Nail Strafer]

Nail spared a glance upwards when he heard the metallic clang up in the air. It was a big, black mass, and approaching down very quickly, right on top of him. Right afterwards, Nail and Giichi traded a mutually terrified look, before they bolted away from each other in opposite directions. There was a sickening crunch of metal, concrete, and wood as Relic smashed directly into the roof almost where they'd been standing. Cracks spiderwebbed across the floor and the entire building seemed to lurch to one side from the impact.

As he spun around, Nail couldn't believe what he was seeing. It was Relic, and the guy was still going. Most people would have just been crushed like bugs against a windshield after a hit like that. Pity Relic was not 'most people'. The hybrid found himself a little terrified seeing the demon again, but mostly he was just pissed off. If Relic would just die, he could just shoot Priscilla and just leave her little gang behind.

Speaking of Relic dying, this situation looked like the best chance for that to happen. If anything could take out Relic, it would be that giant mecha now flying around above them. Maybe Nail could join Am and Giichi with the mecha in fighting Relic. However, this also had a fair amount of risk. If Relic was not dead at the end of this, Nail suspected his head would be on a pike in Priscilla's new throne room.

On the other hand...maybe he could hitch a ride with Am's friends if things went south. But first he had to make sure the mecha didn't destroy Am's gunship with a round of friendly fire. After considering that possibility, he decided it was time to switch sides.

As quickly as he could, Nail located Giichi. The cat stood on the other side of the building's roof, transfixed by the sight before him. Nail couldn't blame him. But he needed the cat's help to keep Am's gunship from being shot down.

"Hey! CAT!" Nail called out, waving his hands. Giichi looked bewildered at Nail. This was the first time since they'd met where hybrid wasn't pointing a gun at him. "Don't just stand there! That gunship's full of your human friends' friends! Get on the horn and tell that mecha to stand down!" And then sparing a quick word to SOLIS. "Turn off the interference if you haven't already."

In the meantime, he hoped Relic was too occupied fighting the mecha to hear Nail's commands to Giichi.

Quote:"You guys alright? So Which one of you children wanna tell Amiroo what that thing is?"

"The devil's right hand man, and the devil is a woman. If you help me kill him, I will join you."

In the meantime, he quickly checked to make sure his two weapons were topped up with ammo.