Nights on the Maltese

[Littlemankitten]

Aesha gave Mattia a weird look as she drank the cup without letting it cool down first, but Mattia was known for doing weird things, so she quickly waved it away in her head. Aesha didn't drink as Mattia spoke, instead tapping the table with her index finger as he spoke, thinking heavily about what he was saying. It was true that the Alfonsi probably thought of the damage system overrides on the ship, as they also seem to have messed with the AI on board, hence the lack of alarms. Since the escape pod and control room options we're already decided to be probably suicide, that just left the possibility of going to a staff room. "I agree with you, heading to the nearest staff room would be our best bet." Aesha began to get up when Raelia found the rocket launcher, and she visibly flinched. "Please put that down Raelia, we shouldn't use explosives right now, unless you want to cause a potentially catastrophic chain reaction in the fuel lines or something. I know most ships have measures against such things, but I'd rather not risk it... Anyway, Are you gonna come with us to the staff room Mattia? It would be best for all of us Romano to stick together, especially if we stumble upon a Alfonsi officer, or Crazy Al himself."

[CondorBoH]

Rosella gave a quiet nod, not too keen to have to spend any longer in a room piled high with dead bodies, especially since the dead were made that way by a professional. As she made a start to leave, she paused and turned around again.
"Hey, if these guys were some of the staff, and they got taken out without sounding an alarm, there might not be that many staff left. I totally agree with you in getting our actual gear, but I don't feel comfortable knowing that there's a high chance that no one is actually steering this boat."

Casting a quick glance down the hall, Rosella spoke quickly again.
"The hatch is what the staff use to move around quickly, right? Maybe that can get us around without running into any firefights."

[exalted]

Well.... shit.

The sinking feeling got even worse as she took in the carnage inside the the security room. Pulling on her driving clothes, she didn't want her finger prints anywhere near this and also... gross, and tied an old bandana she kept in her pocket for just these moments around her mouth and nose to deal with the smell.

Taking a quick look at the bodies, she was happy she hadn't bothered getting lost with Little Princess to find a gun, that wasn't going to help anymore. This had progressed well past some gangland hit or some such power squabble. This was serious heavy hitter shit, they didn't plan on anyone getting off the boat if they'd done something like this. She guessed that meant they planned to crash the ship somewhere to hide all the evidence.

Closing the door as she best she could, and wedging a the bodies against it to keep it closed, she quickly rifled through their pockets for anything off use before sitting down in the chair and looking a the monitors. The dead monitor in the Control Room confirmed her theory, they'd need that secure to bring the ships down... but the bathrooms? What were they doing in the bathrooms?

Examining the monitors, she looked for any sign of life, Alfonsi or Romano, it didn't matter anymore, these jokers needed to put their shit behind them if anyone was getting out.

"Hey, Assholes!" she spoke into the intercom, "Shutup and listen"

[RandomRoninKitten]

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Aesha gave Mattia a weird look as she drank the cup without letting it cool down first, but Mattia was known for doing weird things, so she quickly waved it away in her head. Aesha didn't drink as Mattia spoke, instead tapping the table with her index finger as he spoke, thinking heavily about what he was saying. It was true that the Alfonsi probably thought of the damage system overrides on the ship, as they also seem to have messed with the AI on board, hence the lack of alarms. Since the escape pod and control room options we're already decided to be probably suicide, that just left the possibility of going to a staff room. "I agree with you, heading to the nearest staff room would be our best bet." Aesha began to get up when Raelia found the rocket launcher, and she visibly flinched. "Please put that down Raelia, we shouldn't use explosives right now, unless you want to cause a potentially catastrophic chain reaction in the fuel lines or something. I know most ships have measures against such things, but I'd rather not risk it... Anyway, Are you gonna come with us to the staff room Mattia? It would be best for all of us Romano to stick together, especially if we stumble upon a Alfonsi officer, or Crazy Al himself."

Raelia examines the RPG, smiling excitedly, but when Aesha tells her to put it down, she frowns "B-but... this would be LOUDER than Mr. Thunder..." she said, sadly walking over to Aesha and handing over the RPG hesitantly and slowly, staring at the weapon longingly. "I r-really want to fire that..." she said, grumbling, but at the same time, continuing to keep an eye on the entrances to the room.

As if an after thought, Raelia looked over at Mattia quizzically "You still haven't danced with Aesha." she said, flatly.

Then on yet another tangent, she looked up and shouted to Vi "Viii, can we have a map of all the BAD people on the ship, pleeeaaase?"

[mrblah]

The mysteries on the Maltese thickens. Corpses in the staff rooms? Broken monitors? Don't it all just seem to reekof a trap... but it's been well planned and carefully executed thus far. Ain't no way it coulda been easy for any two-bit assassin to have broken into the high-tech Maltese and hijack it so cleanly. No, there's gotta be somethin' more to this mystery... some clues bein' left behind to better explain the situation. But so long as the ship's in that state of chaos, even thinkin' about all that would be hard. Gotta give props to the mastermind, here.

But good ole' Jenny-Lee cares to challenge, it's looking like. The assassin must have been a bit sloppy 'cause the intercoms were on, which allowed for Jenny to broadcast a message through the parts of the Maltese she was in. Not that she said much all that worth listening to, but it was a step in a direction. Already, a few important pieces in this chess game were lookin' confused by it all, but at the very least, she had their attention... and just maybe. Juuust maybe, she had the attention of... someone else.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
RandomRoninKitten and Littlemankitten

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

"Naturally, my dear. As you've said; with such dangerous men about... I can't let young beauties such as yourselves walk alone and vulnerable. I'll accompany you both for however long we'll remain on this ship." Said Mattia, with a smile. [Companion acquired! Mattia Romano!]

"And you are quite right, Raelia. In fact, I haven't danced with Aesha." With a surprised tone, he replied to Raelia's strange assertion, apparently not at all bothered by the girl's random thought. Clearly they were on the same wavelength, as Mattia swiftly turned back to Aesha with a winning smile. "Dearest Aesha, wouldn't you care to help me rectify this problem? I'm sure we have enough time for just one more dance. Here, I'll put on the Fran -"

"Certainly, User #240398." The sound of VI's voice interrupted Mattia. Someone must have messed with her volume settings, because she was way louder than normal. "There are some dangerous people at the leftmost exit, armed with weapons and charged with the intent to do harm. I believe they are preparing to suddenly accost you three now. Does this match your criteria of 'bad people'?"

... The doors were then kicked open at that moment, with a group of 5 behind one lone and vaguely off-putting woman. Her face was completely and totally impassive... until a small and pretty but creepy smile blossomed on her face. "So this is where you are... and you have friends? Hm hm... okay. I'm fine with that. It's more fun with more people." The woman licked her lips, then snapped her fingers, calling for her men behind her to move into the room. They spread out on either side of her, with their hands in their suit jackets, all in unison. How professional.

"Ah... what awful timing." Mattia mumbled. "I do believe we have some trouble on our hands. Raelia, dearest, please do bring me my weapon? I'm afraid we'll have to get rough with our new guests." He was rolling up his sleeves, revealing his surprisingly muscled forearms as Mattia glared at the men and the women. If he recognized her, he said nothing to suggest so. But just before anymore can happen; another woman's voice played over the intercoms. "Hey assholes! Shut up and listen!"

"... Let's just ignore that one for now and continue. Raelia, if you would?"

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Raelia had just finished using her foot to gently kick Mattia's gun across the floor, to rest at his feet, when suddenly the enemies that VI had warned them about burst into the room. Raelia immediately slide into position behind the table and kicked the leg out from under it, to form a shield. She then shouted over to Mattia and Aesha the most profound thing she could think of "Take cover!"

In response to Raelia's shout and receiving his weapon, Mattia simply picked it up, followed her example of kicking over the table he and Aesha sat at, and hid behind it. He, of course, left enough space for Aesha. "My, the after party's a little early, aren't they? What say you ladies to showing them the door they so rudely burst through?"

Aesha froze up for a second, completely put off guard, but Raelia's shout and Mattia's words brought her back to reality, and she quickly ran to the nearest table, kicking it over and taking cover behind it as well, thinking that being besides Mattia will just make them both more vulnerable. "F-Fine with m-me"

The gangsters flooded into the rooms and took up positions by the door along the wall, all readying their weapons and waiting for the 'go' from their leader. Said leader, the masked woman, walked up to the center of them and raised her hand lazily. "Please try your best to make this entertaining. Live as long as you can~" And with that, she threw her arm down, and a barrage of bullets began shooting up everything by the positions of the Romanos.

Raelia waited for one of the enemies to start reloading and hefted Mister Thunder, firing a shot at the head of the closest grunt, shouting "Mister Thunder says BOOM!", the shot rips through his shoulder, nearly ripping his entire arm off, then she ducks back behind the table and whispers to the Butler that he should teach the enemies how to dance, however, the Butler starts downloading instructions instead of doing anything helpful.

Aesha rubs her temples, trying to think of a plan to get out of this mess, she takes a moment to look over the table and at the ceiling and walls. There wasn't anything useful on the walls, just... Wall, but the ceiling had multiple chandeliers on it. Ducking back into cover, she turned towards Mattia. "Hey Mattia, You see that chandelier over in the corner? I'm gonna try to shoot it down, if I manage to do it, shoot a rocket at the wall next to it, that should send shards of glass flying at high speed into the enemy. However, it's going to be a hard shot for me, so don't get to trigger happy." She smirked at Mattia, and once he confirmed his cooperativeness, she would quickly pop out and aim for the chandelier. She had to do it very quickly however, and it wasn't like she was a great shot in the first place, so while she got close to hitting her mark, it was no cigar. "Dammit!" She cursed at herself and jumped back down. "Sorry, I tried."

"No no, it's more than fine, my dear." Mattia responded, giving a relaxed smile to Aesha. He apparently didn't register the gunfire coming from across the room. He waited for another lull in the grunt's offense, and when the opportunity was presented, Mattia poked himself out of his cover immediately and fired a rocket straight down the line, headed towards the masked woman. His rocket would fly past her as she spun around it, giving a twirl and laughing playfully. It could have been elegant. "Hm. I do believe most people can't dodge rockets, but -" Mattia had to duck again as more bullets went flying down the room.

The Alfonsi gangsters began moving closer to their group, firing more and more bullets as some of them focused entirely on Aesha's position, destroying her cover. She was able to clumsily fumble out of the way of the bullets raining down on her position, however.
Raelia whispers something which nobody can hear to the Butler, to which the Butler responds by grabbing onto Raelia's shirt, ignoring her hoodie. She fights with it briefly, and manages to knock it off of her, but not before it rips her shirt, exposing her lilac and black striped bra. She starts to frown, as she liked that shirt, however, she sees the enemies break apart Aesha's cover, and gets upset over that instead.

She yells at the enemy as she pops up and fires Mister Thunder at the grunt who nearly lost their arm "HEY, YOU SHOULD SPLIT!" her shot rips through the grunt's chest, spraying a fountain of blood over the wall and table behind him, after which his lifeless body drops to the floor in a heap.

Aesha yelps as her cover gets destroyed, and she starts flailing around wildly as her position got shot up. She got hit once, but given the amount of lead in the air, it was practically a miracle that was all. She quickly grabbed two chair's and brought them together, making a makeshift barrier. She looked over to Raelia and yelled at her "R-Raelia! This is no t-time to try and have some f-f-fun with the robot b-butlers!" Growling in frustration, she turned to the nearest butler to her. "H-ey! C-c-can't you see th-there are t-terrorists smashing this p-place up-p? Do s-something about it to help us d-defend ourselves!" Having demanded action from the butlers, she breaks cover for a moment to fire at one of those grunts, but once again, she proved her aim was bad. "F-fuck! T-this isn't my f-forte guys!"

The robot butlers all stopped their unlawful assault against Raelia as they received new information. They stalled, taking a minute to process whatever the hell they were... then they all simultaneously beeped. "CopyCops notified. The proper authorities shall be here shortly. Please remain calm as we handle the threat." Slowly, the hovering robots all began moving towards the gangsters... or more specifically; they began to move to the masked woman. She seemed completely unconcerned, and was sitting on a table watching the fight.
But not for long. Mattia popped up out of his cover again and fired another rocket down the line, aimed towards a grunt next to the woman. The obvious result was very little being left of the man, and the masked woman got caught in the explosion. She yelped out in pain, falling off her table and glaring at... or at least, she probably was? Hard to tell with the mask. "Rude... I'm just trying to take a break, so I'd appreciate it if you stopped throwing rockets at me!" She plopped herself back on her table, sulking like a child.

Raelia lifts her table and stands up, crouching so she can stay behind it as she moves, and sets it back down when she's closer to the enemy.

While the woman seemed to be distracted, by the exploding grunt, Raelia fired at the woman, this time without shouting, as the previous shouts were to force the enemies to assume Raelia would shout every time she was aiming and wouldn't expect her to fire a shout without doing so. This strategy, however, fails as the woman simply turns slightly so the perfect head-shot misses completely. Raelia is briefly stunned, however, quickly remembers that she should get back down behind the table. Slightly upset that she's the only person with ripped clothes, Raelia yells something to the Butler nearest to the mystery woman, with a mischievous expression on her face.
In her indignant anger, the masked woman ordered her grunts to focus fire on Mattia. They do as commanded, tearing his improvised cover apart and getting a few shots into his custom shield. He laughed a bit. "Oh, how scary the anger of a woman is... don't feel to bad, dear! I'm just doing my job!" The man rolled to the side to get out of harm's way, moving to get behind another cover.

Meanwhile; one of the robot butlers had gotten to the smiling masked woman. "Hello~" She greeted, not at all aware of the orders the butler received. "Are you here to offer me tea - wagh!" She was suddenly accosted by the robot, pinning her to the table she was sitting on. It tried to carry out its orders and grabbed hold of the girl's black dress, before a mass of lead punctured through its chest, ending it forever. The broken machine was then tossed to the side, and a fuming masked woman sat back up. "That was a mean prank. I'd rather like to take off my clothes on my own, rather than have them ripped off!"

Aesha's gun was out of reach, meaning she needed to get closer. What a pain. Grabbing a chair, she went behind the nearest robot butler and used him as a shield, plopping the chair down as well to duck behind, she then took a few tentative potshots at one of the grunts, and missed of course.
Mattia pops up again, trying to grab hold of one of the robot butlers on their way to the masked woman to hold it in place for use as cover. Unfortunately, the robot was simply too strong, and continued to jog over to the girl. Without any cover, he simply aimed and fired another quick rocket at one of the remaining grunts. Point blank explosions are still really deadly, so the guy's kinda not alive. His friend next to him also got caught in the fire, with the blast even carrying over to his chair and destroying his cover.

With him being the only one standing out of cover, the masked woman had apparently decided to target poor Mattia. With a pretty and adoring smiled aimed right to the man, she lifted her finger to point directly at him, silently commanding her drone-like gangsters to focus on him. Even without her saying anything, they understood. The blank-faced men turned their guns on him... but there were only two of them now anyway. They fired down the line, and Mattia had to duck behind more cover to escape the gunfire. "This is really a bit much, don't you think!" He called out, with the masked woman ignoring him as she sang from a table she'd just jumped to. He was in a pinch.
Raelia decided that shooting at the mystery girl at this point would be a complete waste, so she popped back up over the table and whistled at the Grunt closest to her. As soon as he turned his head, she fired Mister Thunder at him, blowing his head to bits, after which the body crumpled to the floor, just like the last one.

Aesha takes aim at the last standing grunt, hoping that she could at least land one hit during this entire fight. Luckily for her, the grunt gave her ample time to aim, and she popped a bullet right into his heart, a chunk of flesh coming out of where it used to be. She then moved forward with her mobile chair-shield in order to get closer to the last target.

Seeing that there had only been one enemy remaining, Mattia lowered his RPG, smiling victoriously as he took a few steps towards the masked woman. "I do believe this is the end of the line for you, my dear; it's three of us against one of you. Now's the time to surrender while you can." He said confidently to the girl... who still seemed unconcerned. Rather, she was smiling in a relaxed manner, kicking her feet from the table she sat on. "You really do have a pretty way with words, mister~" Her tone of voice was rather sing-songy. "You really must be stupid, though... I guess you kind of countered this a little, but can't you tell I have a plan~?"

Suddenly, the supposedly dead bodies of a few of the grunts began to stand, groaning in pain from the effort. Their eyes glowed red, and they all turned to the shocked Mattia, staring at him as their wounded and badly damaged bodies protested against their attempts to move. Suddenly, all three of the 'alive' gangsters charged Mattia, who barely had enough time to try and dodge away from the first one's grab -- but not the second one. From there, the other two surrounded him and grappled him to the ground, and then with a shout... they exploded. Mattia's weapon went flying over to Aesha, somewhat damaged but surprisingly functional. The masked woman laughed a bit. "He looked really surprised there... didn't he? That was funny."
Realia looked over at Aesha and called out something as profound as the usual "People aren't supposed to blow up!" as she looked at Mattia's KO'd body. She shook it off, though, and aimed down her scope, firing at the girl, however, she ducked it, causing the bullet to whizz passed her.

Aesha noticed that the girl moved right into range of one of the many chandeliers, and so attempted to reenact her previous plan, minus the explosion this time. It went even worse than last time, only managing to break a window somewhere the maintenance people will have a pain in the ass getting to.

The masked woman laughed at their attempts, looking completely unfazed and amused as the situation progressed. "You two are really persistent... but I like that! It's more fun when they keep trying." She taunted, remaining in the same general area she had been, unaware of the enemy approaching from behind her. That one moment of negligence costed her, as in the next moment, the sneaky robobutler had her pinned down from behind. She grunted at its roughness, kicking away another butler that came to help its fellow robot. "Ah, so this is your idea? Ha ha, it's a cute one! What will you two do now?"

Raelia stands up over her cover and pulls out her Cold Pistol and shoots at the masked girl "Dodge this!", she shouts, the cold shot hitting her since she's distracted by the robo butlers.

Aesha switches her weapon to her secondary in order to completely nullify the chances of the girl escaping. She aimed right at the girls head and sent quite the electric shock through the girl.

The masked woman's laugh cut off from the attacks, apparently less amused by the pain than she was at being pinned. Her struggling to escape seemed to be futile with the efforts of the robobutlers, and she remained where she was. "1 out of 3, then... hehe, I suppose that's not a bad haul." Her low murmuring voice slowly built into a loud laugh, with her mask glowing a bright red.

"He's not even dead... doofus." Raelia murmurs before shooting her with her cold gun again, striking her in the shoulder.

Aesha sighed. "I think you'll be surprised what that crazy man has survived before." Aesha then switched to her revolver and shot the girl in the chest, hoping to finally finish her off. "Yet it seems like I might be able to say the same to you."

The masked woman didn't respond, simply smiling up at the ceiling as her shield was broken by the final shot from Aesha. The impact of the bullet had been softened, but it'd be leaving a harsh mark on her skin. Yet even despite this, she remained silent and seemed to calm down... until her shining mask stopped glowing, and the unnamed girl calmed down. Seconds passed... and for a moment, it almost seemed like she'd fallen unconscious somehow, until her voice sounded from the table she was pinned down on.

"... Would you two kind Romano ladies please take me prisoner? I'm done for, as you can see. With my shield broken and my men dead... well, I'd like to surrender."

exalted

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Jenny, in fact, could see a lot of things on the monitors. Lots of gangsters fighting. Lots of people talking. It was almost creepy how much the Maltese's crew seemed to be watching, but maybe that's just what happens when you're tasked with the maintenance and security of a billion credit invention like the Maltese. Regardless, seems like a lot of people were hearing her on the intercoms. Good. [Luck check; Harder. Jenny = 22.]

Something alarming happened on one of the monitors, just as she started talking. One of the monitors that monitored of the hallways she knew led to her... suddenly blacked out. One might call it technical difficulties; but in her line of work... that's just unlikely. Lia was also in the line of that hallway, walking down with her found TR3 Assault. She's in the way of whatever's coming and she doesn't even know it.

MiscChaos

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Alisaie Romano had, like many others, been in the ceremony room at the time the shit hit the fan. She was quick to get out of the room as bullets were flying, recognizing the great danger there was in stupidly staying behind to engage in it all. No doubt all of those idiots would be dead by the time it was over... [Agility checks; Hard. Alisaie = 12.]

She still got hit a couple of time, but she was relatively fine. Her extra shield took the brunt of the damage. [-5 to Alisaie!]

After that, she had went off on her own to do whatever it was she had to. She was currently within a hallway, close to the escape pods in the more Romano-dominated part of the ship. Like many others, she still only had access to her secondary weapon, rather than her primary. Ali also wasn't alone. Tagging along with her, was your standard Romano gangster—fitted in the normal black suits all Romano grunts wore. His name was Billy, and for as long as Alisaie's known him, he's done nothing but talk.

"- And so I say to this guy, right? I said, I said... 'you see here pal, I ain't no dummy,' but he's not even listenin'! So I'm trying to explain to him that I know the blanks he gave me weren't treated proper, 'cause you know they didn't have that weird shock-y feeling when I touched 'em, but this guy's tryna tell me that I'm trying to fake HIM. So I pulled out my S&M right -" He's been talking about some story Ali hadn't been listening to for the past 20 minutes that involved him and some shopkeeper.

Thankfully, Billy's story was interrupted by the intercoms suddenly turning on. A woman's voice loudly blared out over the speakers. "Hey assholes! Shut up and listen!" It sounded... familiar, but Alisaie couldn't match name to face. At the very least, it was probably a friendly on the Romano side.

Mark3000 and CondorBoH

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Coming to a plan, the two Alfonsi women decided to use the hatch and map out a course closest to their room's location. VI was very helpful in giving them the exact directions, but once they were down in the small and confined walkway that the crew used (wide enough to barely fit two average men standing shoulder-to-shoulder), they found that it was almost maze-like in design. Just going in the direction of their rooms was proving harder than expected. And there was no form of directory down there... how did the crew manage to properly navigate the damned maze? [Luck check; Difficult. Henrietta = 14. Rosella = 15.]

Thankfully, Rosella seemed to make a few good lucky guesses and got them to an exit. It was a ladder leading up to another hatch, and as they were climbing up it (with Rosella leading, of course), voices could be heard on the other side. It was a woman, and she sure did sound angry. "... bitch... still family... challenged the fucking computer..." Was all Rosella could hear properly. The hatch was thick metal, after all, but the voice was still familiar... could that have been... Olivia?

Rosella opened the hatch and poked out her head, which was apparently located in the middle of a hall. She spotted both Charli and Alfonsi, who saw her just as she saw them. What a joyous first meeting!

The Third Triumverate and Lilbooth

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

"User #240404, I ask you to please stop burning the room. This is a crime against the ship. If you continue, I will be forced to inform the Staff and have Security Droids sent to your specific position to apprehend you. You may also be issued a fine for any damaged items owned by the Maltese Flight Services and Conventional Creations™." Sounded VI's usually apathetic voice. The room seemed to take the heat as expected, with the flammable materials within it lit aflame. However; a majority of the Maltese's rooms were, in fact, fireproof. All that was really ruined was the bed, both Charli and Olivia's spare clothes, the carpet, and the rugs. Charli spent one Heavy round on this.

While the two were arguing, both of them heard a slide-y, hiss-like sound, and they turned their heads to see a section on the hallway floor sliding open, as if it were some sort of trapdoor opening. A head popped out of it and looked at them... hey, that's Rosella.

[MiscChaos]

"Do not kill him. Do not kill him. Boss would get pissed off and then that'd come down on you. You just got out of a gunfight and using this idiot as a meatshield might save your life. Whatever you do, DO NOT KILL HIM." Is the mantra going through Ali's head right now. Normally she would have given this fucker one warning and then if it was ignored, lobbed off one of his arms and his dick and make him into a unicorn with a tail, but she doesn't have a knife or her sewing kit on her. And she supposes because she needs the extra bullets in case something else goes pear-shaped. That second point is probably the more important bit, but the first one seems a shit ton more fun. Or maybe she could do something else. She has freezing rounds after all; she could graze his lips with a shot and freeze his mouth shut. Or maybe she can still do her unicorn idea by freezing the needed parts and shattering the ends then freezing the parts on their new homes. Her thoughts are consumed with different ways she could hurt this idiot until the intercom goes off.

And she's never been happier to hear another person's voice! It shut this asshole up just as she was going to freeze him to the ground and start stomping on his testicles until he stopped screaming! Even better is it's a familiar voice. It's not one she equates to an enemy, so it must be friendly! It'd probably be for the best to try meeting up with said voice, that way if she snaps and kills this idiot, she still has backup. "Shut the fuck up. We're going to the intercom room to link up with the speaker. If you attract a hostile fuck with the sound of your voice before we get there, I swear I'll finally lose my fucking patience!" She says to the idiot before changing paths to head to the intercom room.

[exalted]

"You jerkwads need to pull your heads out of your asses and look around, this aint no run of the mill gangland shit, someone is stroking off both sides so put down the cannons," she snapped into the mic, seeing several faces look up in the monitors, "Good now listen up, whoever is playing us all like chumps doesn't want us seeing what is in the bathrooms and... shit"

She paused as she noticed the hallway monitor go dead.

"Shit, shit shit.... fuck, the fuckers found me," she hastily looked around, wondering if she could open up the crew hatch that lead deeper into the ship, "Lia, get your head on a swivel, whatever 'it' is, is coming right for you.... any other Jerkwads not preoccupied in doing the enemies job for them, get to..."

She rattled off the corridor the broken monitor was meant to show before checking the hallway door was as secure as she could make it, and double checked the load on her revolver before returning to scan the monitors.

[CondorBoH]

Whoever built this maze was an asshole. She understood the security of it, of having the crew be the only ones to actually know their way around the side passages but... still. The lack of any real directions or landmarks was just plain dumb. What if a drunk guest got stuck down here? That'd suck for them. Or what if the boat was attacked and the guests were forced to navigate these passages to avoid getting gunned down?
Rosella shook the thoughts out of her mind, and decided to pretend she knew where she went until they came across the ladder, and voices. It was a hunch, but those voices sounded familiar. Alfonsi, familiar. The bodyguard threw a glance at the passageway they came down, before climbing up and opening the hatch - gun first.

Pop.

Well, at least she did recognise these two. Family, hopefully family who wouldn't shoot. That was nice. The fact that the room was partially ablaze was less nice. Rosella took one look towards the angry women, then the burning carpet and rugs. An eyebrow was raised, and her tone was incredulous.
"So, should I come back later or are you two going to kiss and make up?"

[Mark3000]

Despite coming up with the plan, Henrietta was annoyed by how difficult it was to navigate this confined walkway. With no directory to guide them, she had to rely on Rosella's surprising good sense of direction.

As they make their way to their rooms, Henrietta begins to hear voices ... familiar voices. Seeing her bodyguard draw her piece, Henrietta does the same. But she probably wouldn't need it if the voice belonged to who she though.

Going through the hatch behind Rosella, Henrietta dusted herself off. "Well this is a pleasant surprise" The buxom woman said. "Good to see you in one piece Olivia. I'm guessing the fires were caused by your friend here" She said looking towards Charli. She'd heard of the pyromaniac in passing, preferring to keep her skin unblemished.

[The Third Triumverate]

Charli’s rampage ceased when she saw the friendly faces, although she didn’t act very excited at all to see them.

“Guess we’re not all dead.” In response to Rosella, Charli sarcastically murmured “you hear that ‘Liv? We’re frieeends...!”

Charli prepared to go on her merry way, completely forgetting about the fire and the joy it had given her.

[lilbooth]

Olivia stood in shock for a few moments. Charli had completely ignored her entire statement. She was nothing short of flabbergasted. Either this girl was truly insane or actually a bit smart. Perhaps the smartest move was not to acknowledge her anger at all. Eventually, Olivia turned to face Henrietta, who had managed to emerge from the floor of all places. "Oh no, the pleasure is all mine!" Olivia responded sarcastically. She hurried over and helped the two women from the hatch regardless, "I'm fine, Charli is still in one piece but could use some bullets dug out of her. We were going to head for the lifeboats, I'm assuming you two would like to tag along." She asked motioning down the hallway.

[CondorBoH]

Rosella dusted herself off, keeping an eye on Charli. She hadn't had much interaction with her, but what she did know and remember from those few interactions were...
Well.
Avoid, if possible.

Still, crazy or not, she was probably better pointed at other people instead of pointlessly agroing her. That could happen later, when they weren't in immediate danger.

The bodyguard turned to Olivia, frowning slightly.
"We've already tried that. The lifeboats are locked up, going to need to open them up from the ship's main control room. We had no luck from a security room either. I wouldn't mind sticking with you, to be honest, more people means it'll be easier to keep us all alive if things get loud again. But Henrietta and I don't have our main equipment, so if we stick together we'll be pulling you down if we don't get to our rooms and get equipped first."

[RandomRoninKitten]

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

"Naturally, my dear. As you've said; with such dangerous men about... I can't let young beauties such as yourselves walk alone and vulnerable. I'll accompany you both for however long we'll remain on this ship." Said Mattia, with a smile. [Companion acquired! Mattia Romano!]

"And you are quite right, Raelia. In fact, I haven't danced with Aesha." With a surprised tone, he replied to Raelia's strange assertion, apparently not at all bothered by the girl's random thought. Clearly they were on the same wavelength, as Mattia swiftly turned back to Aesha with a winning smile. "Dearest Aesha, wouldn't you care to help me rectify this problem? I'm sure we have enough time for just one more dance. Here, I'll put on the Fran -"

"Certainly, User #240398." The sound of VI's voice interrupted Mattia. Someone must have messed with her volume settings, because she was way louder than normal. "There are some dangerous people at the leftmost exit, armed with weapons and charged with the intent to do harm. I believe they are preparing to suddenly accost you three now. Does this match your criteria of 'bad people'?"

... The doors were then kicked open at that moment, with a group of 5 behind one lone and vaguely off-putting woman. Her face was completely and totally impassive... until a small and pretty but creepy smile blossomed on her face. "So this is where you are... and you have friends? Hm hm... okay. I'm fine with that. It's more fun with more people." The woman licked her lips, then snapped her fingers, calling for her men behind her to move into the room. They spread out on either side of her, with their hands in their suit jackets, all in unison. How professional.

"Ah... what awful timing." Mattia mumbled. "I do believe we have some trouble on our hands. Raelia, dearest, please do bring me my weapon? I'm afraid we'll have to get rough with our new guests." He was rolling up his sleeves, revealing his surprisingly muscled forearms as Mattia glared at the men and the women. If he recognized her, he said nothing to suggest so. But just before anymore can happen; another woman's voice played over the intercoms. "Hey assholes! Shut up and listen!"

"... Let's just ignore that one for now and continue. Raelia, if you would?"

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Raelia had just finished using her foot to gently kick Mattia's gun across the floor, to rest at his feet, when suddenly the enemies that VI had warned them about burst into the room. Raelia immediately slide into position behind the table and kicked the leg out from under it, to form a shield. She then shouted over to Mattia and Aesha the most profound thing she could think of "Take cover!"

In response to Raelia's shout and receiving his weapon, Mattia simply picked it up, followed her example of kicking over the table he and Aesha sat at, and hid behind it. He, of course, left enough space for Aesha. "My, the after party's a little early, aren't they? What say you ladies to showing them the door they so rudely burst through?"

Aesha froze up for a second, completely put off guard, but Raelia's shout and Mattia's words brought her back to reality, and she quickly ran to the nearest table, kicking it over and taking cover behind it as well, thinking that being besides Mattia will just make them both more vulnerable. "F-Fine with m-me"

The gangsters flooded into the rooms and took up positions by the door along the wall, all readying their weapons and waiting for the 'go' from their leader. Said leader, the masked woman, walked up to the center of them and raised her hand lazily. "Please try your best to make this entertaining. Live as long as you can~" And with that, she threw her arm down, and a barrage of bullets began shooting up everything by the positions of the Romanos.

Raelia waited for one of the enemies to start reloading and hefted Mister Thunder, firing a shot at the head of the closest grunt, shouting "Mister Thunder says BOOM!", the shot rips through his shoulder, nearly ripping his entire arm off, then she ducks back behind the table and whispers to the Butler that he should teach the enemies how to dance, however, the Butler starts downloading instructions instead of doing anything helpful.

Aesha rubs her temples, trying to think of a plan to get out of this mess, she takes a moment to look over the table and at the ceiling and walls. There wasn't anything useful on the walls, just... Wall, but the ceiling had multiple chandeliers on it. Ducking back into cover, she turned towards Mattia. "Hey Mattia, You see that chandelier over in the corner? I'm gonna try to shoot it down, if I manage to do it, shoot a rocket at the wall next to it, that should send shards of glass flying at high speed into the enemy. However, it's going to be a hard shot for me, so don't get to trigger happy." She smirked at Mattia, and once he confirmed his cooperativeness, she would quickly pop out and aim for the chandelier. She had to do it very quickly however, and it wasn't like she was a great shot in the first place, so while she got close to hitting her mark, it was no cigar. "Dammit!" She cursed at herself and jumped back down. "Sorry, I tried."

"No no, it's more than fine, my dear." Mattia responded, giving a relaxed smile to Aesha. He apparently didn't register the gunfire coming from across the room. He waited for another lull in the grunt's offense, and when the opportunity was presented, Mattia poked himself out of his cover immediately and fired a rocket straight down the line, headed towards the masked woman. His rocket would fly past her as she spun around it, giving a twirl and laughing playfully. It could have been elegant. "Hm. I do believe most people can't dodge rockets, but -" Mattia had to duck again as more bullets went flying down the room.

The Alfonsi gangsters began moving closer to their group, firing more and more bullets as some of them focused entirely on Aesha's position, destroying her cover. She was able to clumsily fumble out of the way of the bullets raining down on her position, however.
Raelia whispers something which nobody can hear to the Butler, to which the Butler responds by grabbing onto Raelia's shirt, ignoring her hoodie. She fights with it briefly, and manages to knock it off of her, but not before it rips her shirt, exposing her lilac and black striped bra. She starts to frown, as she liked that shirt, however, she sees the enemies break apart Aesha's cover, and gets upset over that instead.

She yells at the enemy as she pops up and fires Mister Thunder at the grunt who nearly lost their arm "HEY, YOU SHOULD SPLIT!" her shot rips through the grunt's chest, spraying a fountain of blood over the wall and table behind him, after which his lifeless body drops to the floor in a heap.

Aesha yelps as her cover gets destroyed, and she starts flailing around wildly as her position got shot up. She got hit once, but given the amount of lead in the air, it was practically a miracle that was all. She quickly grabbed two chair's and brought them together, making a makeshift barrier. She looked over to Raelia and yelled at her "R-Raelia! This is no t-time to try and have some f-f-fun with the robot b-butlers!" Growling in frustration, she turned to the nearest butler to her. "H-ey! C-c-can't you see th-there are t-terrorists smashing this p-place up-p? Do s-something about it to help us d-defend ourselves!" Having demanded action from the butlers, she breaks cover for a moment to fire at one of those grunts, but once again, she proved her aim was bad. "F-fuck! T-this isn't my f-forte guys!"

The robot butlers all stopped their unlawful assault against Raelia as they received new information. They stalled, taking a minute to process whatever the hell they were... then they all simultaneously beeped. "CopyCops notified. The proper authorities shall be here shortly. Please remain calm as we handle the threat." Slowly, the hovering robots all began moving towards the gangsters... or more specifically; they began to move to the masked woman. She seemed completely unconcerned, and was sitting on a table watching the fight.
But not for long. Mattia popped up out of his cover again and fired another rocket down the line, aimed towards a grunt next to the woman. The obvious result was very little being left of the man, and the masked woman got caught in the explosion. She yelped out in pain, falling off her table and glaring at... or at least, she probably was? Hard to tell with the mask. "Rude... I'm just trying to take a break, so I'd appreciate it if you stopped throwing rockets at me!" She plopped herself back on her table, sulking like a child.

Raelia lifts her table and stands up, crouching so she can stay behind it as she moves, and sets it back down when she's closer to the enemy.

While the woman seemed to be distracted, by the exploding grunt, Raelia fired at the woman, this time without shouting, as the previous shouts were to force the enemies to assume Raelia would shout every time she was aiming and wouldn't expect her to fire a shout without doing so. This strategy, however, fails as the woman simply turns slightly so the perfect head-shot misses completely. Raelia is briefly stunned, however, quickly remembers that she should get back down behind the table. Slightly upset that she's the only person with ripped clothes, Raelia yells something to the Butler nearest to the mystery woman, with a mischievous expression on her face.
In her indignant anger, the masked woman ordered her grunts to focus fire on Mattia. They do as commanded, tearing his improvised cover apart and getting a few shots into his custom shield. He laughed a bit. "Oh, how scary the anger of a woman is... don't feel to bad, dear! I'm just doing my job!" The man rolled to the side to get out of harm's way, moving to get behind another cover.

Meanwhile; one of the robot butlers had gotten to the smiling masked woman. "Hello~" She greeted, not at all aware of the orders the butler received. "Are you here to offer me tea - wagh!" She was suddenly accosted by the robot, pinning her to the table she was sitting on. It tried to carry out its orders and grabbed hold of the girl's black dress, before a mass of lead punctured through its chest, ending it forever. The broken machine was then tossed to the side, and a fuming masked woman sat back up. "That was a mean prank. I'd rather like to take off my clothes on my own, rather than have them ripped off!"

Aesha's gun was out of reach, meaning she needed to get closer. What a pain. Grabbing a chair, she went behind the nearest robot butler and used him as a shield, plopping the chair down as well to duck behind, she then took a few tentative potshots at one of the grunts, and missed of course.
Mattia pops up again, trying to grab hold of one of the robot butlers on their way to the masked woman to hold it in place for use as cover. Unfortunately, the robot was simply too strong, and continued to jog over to the girl. Without any cover, he simply aimed and fired another quick rocket at one of the remaining grunts. Point blank explosions are still really deadly, so the guy's kinda not alive. His friend next to him also got caught in the fire, with the blast even carrying over to his chair and destroying his cover.

With him being the only one standing out of cover, the masked woman had apparently decided to target poor Mattia. With a pretty and adoring smiled aimed right to the man, she lifted her finger to point directly at him, silently commanding her drone-like gangsters to focus on him. Even without her saying anything, they understood. The blank-faced men turned their guns on him... but there were only two of them now anyway. They fired down the line, and Mattia had to duck behind more cover to escape the gunfire. "This is really a bit much, don't you think!" He called out, with the masked woman ignoring him as she sang from a table she'd just jumped to. He was in a pinch.
Raelia decided that shooting at the mystery girl at this point would be a complete waste, so she popped back up over the table and whistled at the Grunt closest to her. As soon as he turned his head, she fired Mister Thunder at him, blowing his head to bits, after which the body crumpled to the floor, just like the last one.

Aesha takes aim at the last standing grunt, hoping that she could at least land one hit during this entire fight. Luckily for her, the grunt gave her ample time to aim, and she popped a bullet right into his heart, a chunk of flesh coming out of where it used to be. She then moved forward with her mobile chair-shield in order to get closer to the last target.

Seeing that there had only been one enemy remaining, Mattia lowered his RPG, smiling victoriously as he took a few steps towards the masked woman. "I do believe this is the end of the line for you, my dear; it's three of us against one of you. Now's the time to surrender while you can." He said confidently to the girl... who still seemed unconcerned. Rather, she was smiling in a relaxed manner, kicking her feet from the table she sat on. "You really do have a pretty way with words, mister~" Her tone of voice was rather sing-songy. "You really must be stupid, though... I guess you kind of countered this a little, but can't you tell I have a plan~?"

Suddenly, the supposedly dead bodies of a few of the grunts began to stand, groaning in pain from the effort. Their eyes glowed red, and they all turned to the shocked Mattia, staring at him as their wounded and badly damaged bodies protested against their attempts to move. Suddenly, all three of the 'alive' gangsters charged Mattia, who barely had enough time to try and dodge away from the first one's grab -- but not the second one. From there, the other two surrounded him and grappled him to the ground, and then with a shout... they exploded. Mattia's weapon went flying over to Aesha, somewhat damaged but surprisingly functional. The masked woman laughed a bit. "He looked really surprised there... didn't he? That was funny."
Realia looked over at Aesha and called out something as profound as the usual "People aren't supposed to blow up!" as she looked at Mattia's KO'd body. She shook it off, though, and aimed down her scope, firing at the girl, however, she ducked it, causing the bullet to whizz passed her.

Aesha noticed that the girl moved right into range of one of the many chandeliers, and so attempted to reenact her previous plan, minus the explosion this time. It went even worse than last time, only managing to break a window somewhere the maintenance people will have a pain in the ass getting to.

The masked woman laughed at their attempts, looking completely unfazed and amused as the situation progressed. "You two are really persistent... but I like that! It's more fun when they keep trying." She taunted, remaining in the same general area she had been, unaware of the enemy approaching from behind her. That one moment of negligence costed her, as in the next moment, the sneaky robobutler had her pinned down from behind. She grunted at its roughness, kicking away another butler that came to help its fellow robot. "Ah, so this is your idea? Ha ha, it's a cute one! What will you two do now?"

Raelia stands up over her cover and pulls out her Cold Pistol and shoots at the masked girl "Dodge this!", she shouts, the cold shot hitting her since she's distracted by the robo butlers.

Aesha switches her weapon to her secondary in order to completely nullify the chances of the girl escaping. She aimed right at the girls head and sent quite the electric shock through the girl.

The masked woman's laugh cut off from the attacks, apparently less amused by the pain than she was at being pinned. Her struggling to escape seemed to be futile with the efforts of the robobutlers, and she remained where she was. "1 out of 3, then... hehe, I suppose that's not a bad haul." Her low murmuring voice slowly built into a loud laugh, with her mask glowing a bright red.

"He's not even dead... doofus." Raelia murmurs before shooting her with her cold gun again, striking her in the shoulder.

Aesha sighed. "I think you'll be surprised what that crazy man has survived before." Aesha then switched to her revolver and shot the girl in the chest, hoping to finally finish her off. "Yet it seems like I might be able to say the same to you."

The masked woman didn't respond, simply smiling up at the ceiling as her shield was broken by the final shot from Aesha. The impact of the bullet had been softened, but it'd be leaving a harsh mark on her skin. Yet even despite this, she remained silent and seemed to calm down... until her shining mask stopped glowing, and the unnamed girl calmed down. Seconds passed... and for a moment, it almost seemed like she'd fallen unconscious somehow, until her voice sounded from the table she was pinned down on.

"... Would you two kind Romano ladies please take me prisoner? I'm done for, as you can see. With my shield broken and my men dead... well, I'd like to surrender."

Raelia rolled her eyes and stepped out of her cover, not even carefully, and made her way to the Masked girl "You should have given up sooner, your men were weak." she said. Once she made it to the Masked Girl, Raelia would roughly yank the girl's shirt off and use it to tie her wrists behind her, then grab her by her bra strap and drag her over to Aesha, so she can decide what their plans are for their next move. She would have let the girl walk on her own, but was somewhat annoyed that she put Aesha in danger and wasted so much of her ammo.

Once close enough to Aesha and Mattia, she'll ask her "What do we do now? I want to take her mask off..."

[Littlemankitten]

Aesha grimaced at the woman's words. She had put up one hell of a fight, and seemed to be much more powerful than her looks would reveal. This girl was dangerous, she could feel it, and saw it. There was also the fact that her goons seemed radical in their devotion to her, following every order, even after what she assumed was their final breath. Where they even human? Did they have a mind of their own? Figuring that out was for later, for now she wanted to check on Mattia. She trotted over to him and quickly went through what knowledge of first aid she had. "I'm unsure if her survival would be a good thing for us in the long run, she could easily be planning an escape, or worse. Personally I feel like putting a bullet in her head would be the best course of action. However, I want Mattia's opinion on this first though."

[lilbooth]

"Fine off to your rooms we go then. I'm sure you cant be far from where we were staying?" Olivia questioned.

[mrblah]

The battles all around the Maltese were startin' to die down some, as the moon started its descent downward and the sun started to rise in the sky. Pretty soon, this whole night'd be over, and the Maltese shoulda been dockin' down at its station. 'course, it's a toss-up if that's still in the plan this time round, considerin' all the oddities and the obvious. But regardless, it was an undeniable fact to all on that ship that the atmosphere was changin'. The cold bite of the night (that none of 'em felt in the Maltese because the whole place is kept at warm temperatures) was warming by the rays of the sun coming above, and the sounds of gunfire and the scent of blood were starting to fade out, like the ink on my pen. . .

Anyway, a big, biiig event'd be marking this occasion pretty soon. Our so-called heroes of this story will be having to come up against something outsida their element, and already the Alfonsis were unknowingly preparing for the upcomin' battle. The Romanos, well... they've got their own problems still. Namely, Mattia just got knocked the hell out by a bunch of explosive zombies and our favorite driver's being propositioned for sex by some girl.

... Hey, I ain't gonna lie, that latter thing happenin' would be a-okay with this guy.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
RandomRoninKitten and Littlemankitten

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

The masked woman frowned at having been stripped of her top, but made no comment on it. Her skin was perfectly unblemished and pale, almost oddly so, with a youthful glow that just seemed too perfect to be natural. She furthermore made no verbal response as she was dragged so rudely by her bra. Guess she's somewhat cooperative. Mattia, meanwhile, seemed to be really banged up, but alive. His shield had taken most of the damage, but the shock of so many explosions around him clearly did more than break his shield. He had burns, bruises, cuts, broken bones, and ruined clothes. But he was breathing. [Intelligence check; Variable. Aesha = 18.]

Aesha's first aid knowledge helped with some of the minor injuries with the use of makeshift bandages from the man's shirt, but she didn't have anything on hand to help the worse parts. He'll need to see a doctor, or she'll need to get something better to help him with. Guess that dance would have to be postponed. Poor Raelia.

"Hm... I was expecting a little more damage from those bombs. I guess I really did need the whole team to get past that shield of his... hm hm~" Sounded the masked woman, looking at the unconscious body of Mattia. "And if I may say a few things, I'll say that escape is the furthest thing from my mind currently, my dear captors~ You have no more to fear from me! Please keep me alive and do whatever you do with your prisoners. Interrogate and torture me to your heart's content. Throw me in a holding cell and feed me nothing but dog food. I will cooperate to the best of my ability, as is my punishment for losing~" She smiled widely, an almost teasing tone in her voice, as if she'd been speaking down to the two Romano girls. "Ah, but please allow me to retain my modesty and innocence. I simply couldn't bear to accept having my body tainted. I'd cry. I'd just die inside!"

Both girls barely noted the intercoms shutting off abruptly. They'd barely heard what was being said, which really was no fault of theirs. After all, they were busy fighting.

exalted

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

[Charisma check; Hard. Jenny = 9.] Try as she might, the fighting wouldn't stop. Barely any of the fighters even broke focus in their battle, and the ones that did were swiftly ended by their adversaries. Even the gangsters not in any fights began to ignore Jenny after some time. They just didn't care to hear anything she had to say.

Lia, on the monitor, had in fact looked up to the speaker Jenny's voice had came from in confusion, then looked to check behind herself... before that monitor too went dark. It really was a matter of time before whatever was coming arrived, so Jenny took that time to fortify her position. She had some struggle with lifting the broken door, but she was able to at least cover the doorway with it, though she couldn't set it back up. Desperately, she tried to cover it with some of the chairs, and stood back in preparation as the cycle of monitors shutting off continued. 5 away. 4 away. 3 away. 2 away. 1 away... Nothing happened. Seconds ticked by under a tense silence, with Jenny's eyes remaining on the main entrance into the STAFF room she was in currently, with her single gun trained to the door... wait, wasn't there another entrance? [Agility contest. Jenny = 9. ??? = 14.]

"Heya." A happy sounding voice came from her blindspot, and Jenny had to spin around quickly—but not quickly enough. A black object sharply swung through the air, hitting her wrist and making her drop her gun, and another hand pushed her away from the dropped weapon just as quickly. She hadn't even had the time to react before she was disarmed by her assailant, who... was just as unarmed? The woman then kicked Jenny's revolver back away from the both of them, not even giving it so much as a glance. "Don't need none of those now. Guns are so useless!"

She then looked to Jenny with a wide smile and attentive, focused eyes, looking Jenny up and down with a searching gaze... her look seemed to linger on Jenny's chest for a bit too long, before she looked back up to her eyes and nodded enthusiastically. "You're the one on the intercoms, huh lady? Hah! Nice to meetcha! I'm the gal who was sent to stop your fine ass from making such a racket, you can call me Annie!" Annie introduced herself exuberantly, and flashed a friendly thumbs up to Jenny, then continued after her brief introduction. "So, what're ya gonna do from here? 'cause I'll let ya leave if ya want. We don't gotta fight or nothin' 'less ya wanna. I'm just gettin' paid to keep you from those," she thumbed back to the microphone and the monitors, "but they ain't tell me how. Hell, y'know, you're a cutie! We could even just call it here and get to know each other, yeah?" Annie winked.

Jenny got a better look at her opponent, judging her to see her threat level. She was totally unarmed, no matter how you looked at her. No guns, blades, explosives or anything. She also didn't look too muscular or really seem like much of a combatant in any other way...

MiscChaos

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Billy did as he was told, shutting up quickly after being snapped at so quickly. "Uh... y-yes ma'am." He followed after Alisaie, trailing behind her with a careful distance.

Ali's destination was somewhat far off. She knew this from having asked VI for directions, but actually taking her journey was showing the distance in full. At the very least, she knew she was close to the STAFF room the intercoms were in. Just a little more walking, and she'd be right at the door... and just as she turned the corner, Ali had found a familiar face. Particularly, a displeased face that almost collided with hers. She stopped herself short, and the taller girl did the same, with an awkward silence permeating between them. The newcomer stepped back.

"... Alisaie." Greeted the irate looking Lia Raidne Romano, carrying her TR3 Assault. "This is a surprise. I was just hoping to find a friendly face... well, somewhat of one, at least." She grumbled. Ali had a reluctant acquaintanceship with Lia, and for as long as she's known her, the sadist had always been... particularly difficult. While she could be polite and concise, paired with that politeness was an annoying arrogance and bossy nature that would rub anyone the wrong way. She was also smart, which paired with her natural abrasive nature, only made her all the more irritating, at times. Her most redeeming quality was that she was really good with technology.

"And of course, you also have neglected to go retrieve your weapons... whatever." She sighed. "More importantly with you here—you can help me get the pods unlocked. I'm pretty sure I figured out where we have to go to get those doors open, but I need backup."

Alfonsi Family

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

It turns out that the answer to Olivia's question was that they were right next to one another. Damn, that's convenient.

A quick stroll to their room came up with their weapons and ammunition, leaving both Rosella and Henrietta stocked and ready to go. All four were armed now, and whatever next step they took... they're gonna be ready for whatever dangers come from it.

[exalted]

Jenny-Lee rubbed her wrist as she took in the other woman, checking to make sure her wrist wasn't broken as she massaged away the pain. While the woman didn't appear armed, something hard had hit her wrist and with all the cyborg and robot stuff around who knew what lurked beneath the skin. Thankful at least that she wasn't shish kabob, she mulled over the woman's words.

The woman was apparently a merc., which confirmed her theory about what was happening was due to a third party. Furthermore they either didn't want anyone checking the monitors to catch their movements and know where they were, or they didn't want someone trying to organise the gangsters with the intercoms and end the fighting. Then there was her choice of what to do next...

Fighting was out, Jenny was just the wrong kind of professional for that and their was obviously some cards in play that hadn't been put on the table.

Running was tempting, but sounded like a trap, a bit too much like the hounds chasing the fox out of the scrub and into the open for the masters. Even if it wasn't, going back out there without her piece would probably still see her bleeding out on the carpet.

Which left.... goddammnit.... she wasn't a prude but still, being propositioned like this was just.... grrrr damnit.... nnnngh, okay, maybe she could create an opening to escape, get some more intel or bash the woman's head in with something while she was distracted by.... oh god, was she really going to do this?

Gulping, she slowly unzipped the top the of her maintenance camouflaged jacket to reveal the top swell of her t-shirt covered bust.

"P-please.... I'm not involved in any of this, I don't know any of those guys..." she started, "You... you want to do it here.... with the blood and bodies... and the smell? How about we go somewhere more private... and clean... hell, even a bathroom stall would be better than this"

[RandomRoninKitten]

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

The masked woman frowned at having been stripped of her top, but made no comment on it. Her skin was perfectly unblemished and pale, almost oddly so, with a youthful glow that just seemed too perfect to be natural. She furthermore made no verbal response as she was dragged so rudely by her bra. Guess she's somewhat cooperative. Mattia, meanwhile, seemed to be really banged up, but alive. His shield had taken most of the damage, but the shock of so many explosions around him clearly did more than break his shield. He had burns, bruises, cuts, broken bones, and ruined clothes. But he was breathing. [Intelligence check; Variable. Aesha = 18.]

Aesha's first aid knowledge helped with some of the minor injuries with the use of makeshift bandages from the man's shirt, but she didn't have anything on hand to help the worse parts. He'll need to see a doctor, or she'll need to get something better to help him with. Guess that dance would have to be postponed. Poor Raelia.

"Hm... I was expecting a little more damage from those bombs. I guess I really did need the whole team to get past that shield of his... hm hm~" Sounded the masked woman, looking at the unconscious body of Mattia. "And if I may say a few things, I'll say that escape is the furthest thing from my mind currently, my dear captors~ You have no more to fear from me! Please keep me alive and do whatever you do with your prisoners. Interrogate and torture me to your heart's content. Throw me in a holding cell and feed me nothing but dog food. I will cooperate to the best of my ability, as is my punishment for losing~" She smiled widely, an almost teasing tone in her voice, as if she'd been speaking down to the two Romano girls. "Ah, but please allow me to retain my modesty and innocence. I simply couldn't bear to accept having my body tainted. I'd cry. I'd just die inside!"

Both girls barely noted the intercoms shutting off abruptly. They'd barely heard what was being said, which really was no fault of theirs. After all, they were busy fighting.

Raelia crouched in front of the prisoner after dragging over by Aesha "I think he's sleepy right now", she said to her, before turning her attention back to the masked girl and grabbed her by the nose with two of her knuckles and spoke in her usual air-headed tone "You and your weaklings did not attack me once... you only wanted to hurt dancing guy. Why? You should also tell me your name, and tell me why the ceiling voice stopped. You should also tell me why your mask glows." while Raelia spoke, she continued to hold the masked girl's nose between her knuckles and pulled on it a little to make her slightly uncomfortable.

[Littlemankitten]

Aesha grumbled to herself as she helped out Mattia, one would think also those dancing lessons would translate into being able to dodge some dumb goons. She had no choice but use his own clothing for bandages, and they really needed actually medical equipment to help him out. They could ask the VI to guide them to the medical bay, but they'd have to guard him the entire time, and that meant simply hoping someone else would land the ship for them. They had to continue with their previous plan. "VI, please guide us to the nearest working staff computer. Robobutlers, can you carry this man with us? Raelia, don't fool around with that girl to much, we still need to get out of here."

[Mark3000]

Henrietta smirked once she had her Shock Gun. Taking a moment to adjust her hair and dress, she rejoined the group.

"Now that we're all properly armed, Why don't we make our way to the Main Control Room and get off this beautiful piece of junk." she said turning to the closest VI terminal hoping it wasn't destroyed and asking for directions.