Log:Vigilantes at the Port

2014/12/04 Forsaken Hunter Oriana Vixen Yameen 1

At the Port...

Enforcer is skulking around near some huge cargo stacks. Two days from now he's supposed to meet a new contact, so he's getting the lay of the land ahead of time to minimize potential surprises. There may be some that can spot him, but he's trying his best to remain unseen.

The port's purpose is the intermodal transition of cargo. Said cargo can be legitimate or otherwise. Yameen is most interested in the otherwise, and received intelligence suggesting that such might transpire tonight. Thus, she is atop a currently unused wheeled crane in overwatch.

Wandering feet, and an equally wandering mind, has brought Ori out to this part of town. An explorer by nature, she is just looking around. Prowling about doing yanno, cat things or what have you. Nothing strange about that... Anything to spark the creative muse, on a gloomy night. At the port.

The sprawling maze of warehouses and cargo containers spans miles along the side of the docks and even at this late hour is a bustle of activity as cranes, forklifts, trucks, many automated, deliver and move cargo. While less busy than during daylight hours there is still a significant amount of activity. From their various vantages the heroes see a number of different things. Yameen has taken advantage of a parked truck to leap the fence before moving onto her crane and has been there several minutes surveying before noticing several figures in dark clothes doing much the same only with less success at the stealth bit. Hunter pays careful attention to the security and vido surveillance elements and makes out a dark figure on a rooftop fiddling with the cables running to a nearby camera.

Oriana's sharp eyes notice a stream of bubbles in the harbour water, a set of three bubbling softly to the surface and moving at a brisk walking pace into the Port Area closing in on a ship.

Forsaken sees a door on a storage facility that seems to have a freshly broken lock

Yameen's attention turns from the containers to the fence as she notices others trespassing. As they are unfamiliar, she can only presume that their motivations are not benign. She adjusts her perched position to perceive the perpetrators properly.

Watching ships come in and ships leaving, Vixen is relaxing atop one of the taller structures of the area. Unseen by most she is, being a small person and not in very much motion. She is coated in a light layer of fur for the evening's chill.

Wanting to make sure the person fiddling with the cables isn't someone patching in to surveillance for his later meeting, Enforcer makes his way towards the rooftop. He silently stalks the dark figure on the rooftop, trying to remain unseen until he gets close enough to get a better view of what's going on.

Rooftops are good for cover. Forsaken sticks with her perch, her grapple gun in hand and ready to be used should the need arise, but either way she's up there observing and taking mental notes. Though, a broken lock gets her attention and she looks left, right, and then drops down over the edge to glide to the ground where she lets her cloak gather about her. She steps forward, not touching the door as she studies it... trying to figure out -how- it was broken. Brute strength? Leverage? Bullet? Rammed by a forklift?

"Huh." Ori blinks as her attention is caught by those bubbles, "Bubbles. Neat." Her eyes the only thing to follow them there at first. Finally fully intrigued as they move across the water's surface toward a ship, from where she is on land, Ori tries to follow along with them the best she can because curiosity never killed a cat before.

Like all ports this one boasts a control tower to coordinate and observe events, rather like the ones you see at airports. From her vantage-point Vixen makes out two figures on the roof of this structure making an effort to remain unseen.

Vixen gets a closer look at the figures trying to be unseen. Her ability to change vantage points nearly at will helps her with this, opening a portal beside herself and one near the unseen ones. Without them noticing, being the key factor.

Oriana is easily able to maintain pace with the bubbles which make very pretty patterns as the port lights wash over the water. Ignoring security and access and warning signs Ori follos them into the Port Area proper where they move under the dock itself. Forsaken notes the digital lock has been circumvented as has the local security sytem. There are sounds of some sort of activity within.

Studying the lock, Forsaken tsks silently. She shakes her head. More distractions from seeking Dad. Oh well, there will always be distractions. She reaches a gloved hand for the door, testing it to make sure there's no counterweight or some sort of setup to alert those inside that it was opened. But... that would just be paranoid. She debates.. stay out here and wait for them to come out, or go inside and catch them in the act. There may be a night watchman in danger, so.. inside it is. She tries to slip inside, following the trail of activity.

As Enforcer appraoches his target he sees that there is a black-clad figure in some sort of para-militarty style uniform who seems to be trying to access the central communication spine of the port security system. Doubtless the fact that he is huddled on the roof, staying out of sight, working in darkness, and has no safety gear is all part of standard port procedures...

As vixen approaches the control tower it becomes apparent that the two figures there have some sort of weapon-like item with a long barrel and a sophisticated looking scope on top. They seem to be surveying the area for signs of activity of which they disapprove...

Yameen notices that her group of four intruders pull out small semi-automatic weapons and increase their speed at some unseen and unheard signal, melting into the shadows of the cargo containers,

Yameen dislikes intruders with small arms, especially when they hold semi-automatic weapons. She descends rapidly down the crane structure in order to follow the group from the ground. Preferably without alerting them that fact.

As Forsaken pushes open the door there is an odd whirring sound, similar to an electronic servo-motor, or more accurately several as a man in a large exo-skeleton swings a fork-lift-shaped appendage at Forsaken.

At the sound of the bulky suit attacking, Forsaken widens her eyes. Okay, so they did have someone watching the door. Score points for paranoia. She leaps into the air and it is interesting.. instead of just coming right back down where the guy would be aiming for, she flares out her cape to catch the air and hold her aloft for just a moment, coming back down where she originally was in a crouch.. before straightening back up and inclining her head towards the armored goon without so much as saying a word... it's one of those... /seriously?/ silent stares.

Behind the exoskeleton engaged with Forsaken are three others, the last of which the user is still in the process of activating. The other two simply stare at the new arrival for a moment.

Vixen gives an unseen perplexed expression at the sight of the sniping seekers, having a good look around the area from her current position to check for others.

Ignoring everything, (and oops, tresspassing apparently) but those bubbles and those rather pretty patterns they are making, Ori is very happy until they disppear under the dock. Frowning then she tries to continue her pursuit, to see exactly where they went under the dock. "Huh. Wonder what's up with those," she muses outloud to herself and finally stops bubble hunting long enough to take a look around at just where it is she is exactly.

Beneath the dock is a wonderland of shadow and darkness and diagonal cross beams and support beams of wood and concrete. It's like a super-sized kitty palace! Though it does smell a bit... but it also smells of fish. There's a splash... oh right... the bubbles the bubbles are turning into guys in scuba gear emerging from the water, taking off their gear and pulling weapons out of bags.

So many options, so much time. Enforcer watches the man fiddling with the wires to hack into the system as he stalks noiselessly towards him, blending in with the night. Once he's behind his target, he moves to grapple him, aiming to clap one hand over his mouth and twist the man's right arm behind his back.

In the distant yonder is a man in black overalls fiddling with something. As Vixen watches he is accosted and belabored by a villain who snuck up on him while invisible. Another miscreant of some sort is leaping from crate to crate, their attention fixed on something that seems to be moving between the crates. As Vixen notices the two snipers take aim, one at the figure on the crates, another at the rooftop scuffle. Below the deck Ori's tail tingles as somewhere nearby two laser pointers activate.

In a storage locker not too far away the final man finishes donning his exoskeleton and the other two who are already in theirs simply tear their way out through the roller door and move away.

A gloved hand snakes around to cover the man's face, while another hand snatches for his wrist and twists it back painfully for leverage, forcing the man to remain bowed if he wants to avoid breaking his arm. Enforcer whispers darkly, "What do we have here...?"

Vixen decides to intervene, figuring the snipers probably don't need to start shooting anyone. She steps forward, growing to her rather frightening size, and sends a fist upon each of the two rifles to help them become multiple rifles each. None of them functional.

Never in a million years would Ori have expected her bubbles to turn into scuba diving men. With weapons. Fun times. Praying she had no been seen, because weapons, Ori quickly looks for shadows to hide in, random stray boxes to hide in, anything to keep attention off herself from those armed men. But hey, what in the heck was that sound?! That metallic tearing gets her ears to perk and then lay flat, shuddering as an alarm blares. So much of her attention is going in so many directions before finally she remembers, hiding is good, so resumes her attempt at staying neither seen nor heard. Hiding means living. Hide, kitty, hide.

Hark! The sound of wild guns undergoing mitosis! As the weapons crumble the large fox-beast glares at the two men beside her. "Sit." she utters in a growling tone.

Yameen hears a loud metallic tearing sound from nearby and the group she is tailing transition from a bent-legged jog to a flat out run - or at least the military version. They also spread out, moving from a stealth configuration to a combat formation where they are more difficult to collectively target.

Beneath the dock the scuba diver's momvements become more urgent and where they were carefully packing things away they just quickly stuff them in bags and begin climbing up to the dock-side. Since their backs aren't made of rubber nor their fronts made out of springs they're pretty slow and clumsy by Ori's standards... and so.... slow.

Yameen frowns as her prime opportunity is thwarted by nearby events. She increases her own pace in attempt to keep with the group, but drifts towards the left flank and the individual(s) spread in that direction.

The man Enforcer has grabbed thrashed with no small amount of energy and skill in an effort to win free.

Enforcer uses his positioning and leverage to keep the man restrained easily. "Now careful. You may hurt yourself," he warns quietly, preparing to demonstrate.

Ori simply watches the scuba-weapons-guys start to non-cat hurry, herself staying still and quiet as a shadow herself, out of sight in those other darker shadows.

Yameen steps up behind the individual on the left flank. She nearly strikes prematurely, yet waits until after he makes a turn to swing a hand down atop his weapon. This not only points it at the ground and away from her, but grants her leverage to twist the weapon from the indivudal's grasp.

Eyeing the one that swung at her, Forsaken just shakes her head. She eyes the one just suiting up and snorts. That's about the only sound her mouth (or nose) make. She bursts into movement as she dashes after the fleeing power suits. Her grapple gun comes up as she moves, and it fires towards one of the feet of one of the runners... and as she runs, she does a little acrobatic flip to help as she whips her arm about, flipping the grapnel line up and over the -second- runner.. and then she lands and plants herself... giving a HELL of a yank on the handle of the grapple gun.

And as the two suits topple and skid, the grapple gun releases and retracts.. a whirrrrrr-snap of it being drawn back into its launcher can be heard as Forsaken straightens up and looks back over her shoulder at the other two.... and then raises her brows as if saying. /Your move/.

The two surprised snipers were kneeling and remain kneeling as the looming form of Vixen towers over them menacingly. They simply stare, jaws hanging open for a moment before they begin to regain their composure.

Beneath the dock the four armed men climb briskly and quietly (or clumsily and loudly depends on the standards you apply) up onto the dock itself where they pause to assess the situation.

Enforcer carries out his demonstration. As the man struggles, he twist the arm and raises it back in a subduing hold that's shocking painful. Up the arm goes, twisted against its normal range of movement so when the man struggles, he ends up hurting himself. But any sound or yelling would be muffled by Enforcer's gloved hands. "What did I tell you?" he instructs calmly.

The figure Yameen disarmed does the wierdest thing. He just drops flat to the ground. Without a sound the other three members of his group turn, move a little to present a semi-circle at about 6m from Yameen and open fire with what turn out to be silenced sub-machine-guns.

Atop the control tower both men simultaenously move, one going straight for his sidearm, the other trying to rise to standing first.

Vixen sends another fist into the one with the firearm being drawn, the one who is prone. Being that he is an easy target, she holds back significantly.

Still quiet as a shadow, Ori continues to stalk her sorta 'prey'. They aren't nearly as awesome and pretty as bubbles, but for now they will do. Her curisotiy always got the best of her anyway and it felt like a community service anyway! Keeping track of the bad guys!

Yameen drops into a sudden crouch as her opponent vanishes, not having forgotten about the other, still armed, opoonents.

The light patter of the silenced weapons is no louder than a series of soft coughs, disconcertingly so for such lethal wepons... Of course... having sailed past the mercurial form of Yameen they slap into the side of the cargo container beihind with a godalmighty racket of reverberating metal.

The savage thump of Vixen's massive paw smacks the sniper into the rooftop and he instantly falls limp. His companion attempts an attack of his own, drawing his sidearm."

The report of the sniper's sidearm is quite loud, the crack of the pistol ringing over the dockside. there is perhaps an attitude of smug satisfaction as the round strikes home but then it's apparent effects begin to manifest...

Over at the storage warehouse the two trip exoskeletons thrash awkwardly as they struggle to right themselves. Fortunately they fell face down but this still requires not inconsiderable skill and time. Their colleagues close in to flank Forsaken, ready to smash her with the enlarged forklift arms...

As the bullet from the fiery arm pierces the thick hide of Vixen, something snaps within as she falls from standing. There is a momentary pause as she seems to collect her thoughts, and then a look on her monstrous face like something is about to be torn apart. It is a unique expression to her, rarely seen and usually followed by something being torn apart.

Being flailed at by a pair of forklift armed armorsuits, Forsaken sighs and ducks under one of the swings before grabbing the passing forks to pull her out of the way of the second one. This conveniently places her out of the way of the second attack. She adroitly (I love that word!) backflips twice more. More like back handsprings.. because they look cool. As she comes up from the second one.. her grapnel flings out and attempts to latch onto one of the two that have merely just gotten to their feet... not the ones who attacked her of course. Then... the grapnel retracts and she is sent towards the powersuit, one foot leading the other. It's a grapnel powered flying dragon kick!

And her foot *PINGS* off the exoskeleton. Forsaken bounces off and flips in the air, catching said air with her cape as she drops to her feet again in a combat stance, her grapnel held in her off hand and twirling slowly through the air with a WHOOSH WHOOSH sound. She still hasn't spoken, but the prone armored figure before her is the target of what could only be called... a hungry grin.

Enforcer's head turns towards the sound of all the other fighting. So much for stealth.

Enforcer uncovers the man's mouth and moves his hand to grab the back of his head. Pressing down harshly, the slams the man's head into the rooftop. His opponent goes limp as he gets knocked out, and Enforcer releases him at last and turns towards the sounds of fighting.

In front of Yameen the guy who throw himself to the ground to give his colleagues a clear shot rolls back to his feet."

The three exoskeletons standing whir and clunk a little as the stomp into position around Forsaken. The one that she has downed thrashes a little, looking hopelessly ungainly before the safety system engages with a soft whir and a sequence of beams exend from slots to roll the floundering unit onto its front.

One word is finally spoken by Forsaken. Her vocal distorter helping make it creepy. "Surrender..."

Once more using the armored goons as her own personal vaulting pieces, Forsaken steps on the one having his safeties start rolling him over, just in time to evade the first swing, and then the second and third flail away as she leaps backwards off of that one, flipping in the air to land where she just stood moments ago. "Pathetic." she remarks.

As the downed unti rocks onto its face there are a series of ugly swipes and misses from the assembled villainy. Despite the fact they are really quite skilled Forsaken makes it look like they couldn't hit water falling out of a boat.

The peace and calm that Vixen had displayed is short-lived. Next comes the claws. The fox-beast tears into the armed one's armor, her large claws forcing their way beneath the fabric and plating to the fleshy parts beneath.

Yameen's opponent is now risen, which may or may not mean that his allies will not fire on her again. She hopes to ensure this, and reaches for one of the man's wrists. All th better to twist it in a way it does not wish to bend in order to gain control of the limb. And by extension, the rest of him. The sling that dangles from the weapon in her grasp is flicked for his other arm in an attempt to do the same to it and help pull the man in front of her. Between her and his armed allies. All while leaving his weapon still in her grasp and free to be pointed at said allies.

Down at the water-front the four armed men rush in a group toward a nearby warehouse. The distant sounds of gunfire, falling exoskeletons, bullets whacking containers and the like do not distract them as they close in and form a perimeter while one of their number plants an explosive charge by the door to the warehouse.

Vixen's claws bite through the kevlar lik it is so much tofu, ripping great gouges in the man's chest. The impact is not enough to stun him or knock him to the ground which is perhaps not such a good thing because he simply stands in front of the enraged Vixen.

Back by Yameen her maneuver is a complete success, and she wraps her newly-acquired body shield in an expert grip. The three others close in a few metres before the ones either side open fire on their compatriot, the one in the centre holding fire.

The kitty stalked those men for as long as she could. But as soon as Ori saw them start setting up that bomb, something snapped. She was out of the shadows and moving as fast as she could to that evil-scuba dude setting it up. Claws were out now, a growl leaving her as she literally pounced him, "Not happening!" Those claws dug in, curling inward as she gripped hard on to them and ceased their happy fun bomb time, laying them down prone, and thankfully away from their objective. Fur--well, hair--was flying now!

As Yameen loses control of her hostage who slumps to one side the last of her foes opens fire but misses not necessarily by a comfortable margin.

Sighing almost like she is bored, Forsaken just bobs and weaves through the crowd of armored goons. "As I said.. Pathetic." she remarks as she leaps up and over one, only to land on the one she knocked down last time. Might as well finish one off rather than just doing bits of damage to each. This time however, she really means it.

With another snarl Ori was moving on to scuba dude's friends. At least the nearest one to her in that moment. Her claws still out she turned and raked them in a hard slash at the one to her left, because left is always right. The expression on her face was definitely interesting in those moments, clearly she was not happy with what her bubbles turned out to be in reality.

Coming down.. HARD, Forsaken's boot strikes the face of the prone armored suit. The guy's head hits the back of his helmet and he is just out like a light. Then.. she whips her grapnel out, spins it lazily and says, "Next?"

He has not fallen! This calls for greater force. There is a roar as the savage monstrous Vixen's claws tear another hole through the squishy center of the armored mercenary/soldier.

The claws punch a hole through the armor, through the ribcage and into the heart of the matter, or the man. Vixen starts to see things clearly once more, looking perplexed at her handiwork. No remorse. No urgent need to flee. She just wipes her rather bloody hand on the corpse.

Enforcer turns his head towards the closets visible conflict. He vanishes in a puff of black smoke, only to reappear to the side of one of the armored suits. His hand is already on the hilt of his blade. With a smooth unsheathing motion, he strikes. The blade cuts through metal and hydrallics, causing the suit to come to a stuttering halt.

Starting with Forsaken and Enforcer the two remaining exoskeletons move one for each and attack with their lifter attachments.

Given the cumbersome suits the attacks are really quite fluid and against lesser opponents might even be effects buat against Enforcer and Forsaken they seem hopelessly, haplessly clumsy.

At the dockside Oriana has put the cat among the pigeons. The one she just hit shakes himself back to his senses as the explosives expert rises painfully to his feet. The two remaining mercenaries raise and level their weapons. Fortunately Oriana is even more nimble than she is stylish and their shots go wide, one ricocheting off the front of this building which bears the legend "Precious Metals Repository"

Yameen did not expect her human shield deterrent to become a pile of ground meat. Now without cover and staring down gunbarrels, she's forced to a more direct approach. She darts forward several meters and makes use of the weapon in hand, though not in an expected manner. Dropping the firearm and grabbing the sling, she swings it in a wide arc; an improvised flail.

The two kilograms of steel combined with the load of lead slugs makes for a rather weighty bludgeon. The sling provides leverage and great speed. The end result is a staccato trio of impacts across the black facemasks that leaves Yameen's opponents reeling.

Forsake leaps and fires her grapple gun, the grapnel hit's the exoskeleton on the right and she retracts the cable to swing herself in a spiralling orbit around this foe and bring both feet crashing against the jaw of the driver of the exoskelton on the left who staggers and drops inert to the ground.

Oriana spins into a sudden pirhouette, her right foot flicking expertly to catch the explosives expert just as he returns to the upright position and drop him sweetly and smoothluy into oblivion's embrace.

Enforcer vanishes again in a puff of smoke and appears behind the last still functioning exoskeleton. His blade moves with swift precision, disabling the mechanics of the suit, causing it to tip forward in a stumble and crash down on the ground, skidding along a few meters from the top-heavy weight dragging it along.

Forsaken looks To Enforcer. "Thanks for the assist, I'll look after these lugs." She nods in the direction of distant bullet impacts. "Sounds like there's more trouble over there.

Enforcer nods silently to Forsaken and turns in the direction of the bullet impacts. "I'm on it."

Yameen knows that they have no compunctions against murder, quite obviously. She rapidly closes the remaing meter or two with a leap upon the center figure's shoulder in a semi-sidesaddle fashion. Her right leg curls around his head while the left knee goes under his right armpit. One arm reaches out for the nearest wrist of his companion to either side. She then arches her back to throw her weight backwards into a tucked flip. This momentum should wrench joints and bring her opponents to the ground.

While there is no remorse, Vixen is aware that there might be consequences. Trouble from authorities or people who currently like her that she in kind likes. She picks up the dead one, making a portal again, and vanishes. Easier to hide the body than get forgiveness. And she can hide bodies much better than anyone else. Portals! Yameen manages to complete her flip and land on her feet. The same cannot be said of her opponents, who drop facefirst. More importantly they do not move further.

With a series of swift kicks and expert strikes Oriana is quickly able to disable the few remaining raiders, the fllen slumping inert and badly concussed to the dock amidst a flurry of hisses and yowls. In the separate portions of the Port the heroes look over their handiwork for several deep breaths before in the distance the faint sound of sirens can be heard indicating approaching emergency responders.

Law enforcement can be detrimental to identity and secrets. Moreso to the combination. Yameen does, however, take the time to inspect the unconscious individuals, their clothing, and belongings in an attempt to gain some clues or insight into their identities, affilations, and/or intentions.

After it all, Forsaken glances over towards Enforcer. "Glad you could join me eventually." she mutters. Then looking around to the others, she grins a bit, "Perhaps we should begin asking some ... questions." She remarks.

Enforcer sheathes his sword and looks over to Forsaken. "I knew you had this. I was trying the stealthy approach. Were the alarms you?" he smirks lightly in a playful co-worker manner.

"No, the alarms were these guys, apparently trying to flee with their ill-begotten powersuits... without bothering with doors. I merely pursued." remarks Forsaken as she holsters her grapple gun. That thing is in her hands -whenever- she is in a fight.

Yameen completes her examination of her former attackers and subsequently departs to elsewhere. It may take time for proper analysis, and that is best done elsewhere.