A Villain's Effigy

The wolf is impressed by how quickly the reptile was able to halt herself using her tail and follow up with a slash from her cleaver. It was a good thing that he wasn't pressing his supposed advantages or he wouldn't have been in a position to guard himself.

Her slash met his shield again and he once more angled his arm to let the cleaver slide along its length, carried along by her own momentum, then raises his arm so she would have to move her cleaver upward to disengage from him or use more energy to either push back against the motion or reverse the momentum of her own swing.

With her right side exposed and his own right arm already drawn back, the wolf lashes out with a quick jab, intending to hit and pull back immediately. The ring of metal would function much like brass knuckles, but would be more unyielding on impact.

Never have he had thought he would of been assisting one hired gun as one himself usually yet here we was doing just that, it appeared birb boy must of caused enough damage to warrant such attention...and it did not seem like the first time either, nor maybe the last. 

Blue tape...blue tape...drum mag....magnetic cuffs...there appeared to be quite the array of parts and other bits and pieces scattered with in, forcing him to...sift through random materials, however the item in question was located, rather neatly packed and organized, it still baffled him how she came in possession of such a high grade weapon.

With a careful glance over it did indeed seem to hold every thing she wanted, rounds, cuffs and all, clipping up the case and hauling it out of the trunk, the Avian was not thoroughly convinced of the Hyena's statement, that her weapon was not loaded with the right ammunition to even have a hopes worth of punching through his armour.

Before the Charcoal armoured ally could intervene, thrusters ignited from with under his armoured feet as he rocketed in the sky above, on instinct, Shrike dropped the case raising his own rifle up to take a couple of shots upon him, unlike her buckshot his own weapon fired military class 7mm rounds which probably had far better chances of cutting through the suit. Only managing to get off a couple he's finger releases the trigger.

"Dammit! I could of just popped him on the spot and I didn't.....now that sob is on his way to warn that snake that we are on our way....."

The armoured human took a moment to compose himself, trying not to let anger and rage cloud his thoughts and judgement, trying to not act the way he once did, arching over he collected the case in his firm black gloves, swiftly delivering it too the Hyena in question.

"I suggest you load up on the "Correct" ammo this time....Let's go..we gotta hussle too intercept that bitch! I hope Wolfgang is holding his own...."

There would be no time for questions of who she was and why exactly she was after him, probably for the simple aspect of of his nature, with no time for information the former soldier took the point, gesturing with his right hand too her in a impatient manner to follow his lead, he wished to regroup with Wolfgang and reinforce him against the serpent

"Move or loose it fluffy!"

The wolf is rewarded with a gasp from his foe as she reels back from his punch as well as her dropping one of the cleavers to the ground. As he drew back from her after his successful strike, as he had intended to do, the reptile leaps back from him as well, opening a decent gap between the two of them.

With all that space between them now, the wolf relaxes his guard, standing up straight once again and lowering his arms to his sides, but he keeps his focus on the reptile. He knew that she could close the space between them really quickly, but she was only holding one weapon now.

She then offers a bit of a compliment about how well he was doing against her, but seems to be distracted by something else. When she starts speaking again, he's able to deduce that she's talking to someone else. And even then she is still throwing insults at him.

"We done here?" the wolf then asks, not making any move to approach, seemingly content to wait on her.

Shrike didn't have time to discuss that kind of stuff at this point, while his original goal was shoot to kill, it seemed fortunate he had missed every shot fired at the feeling bird, The hyena wanted him alive and unharmed...a request by his sister too whom he only knew by name. Had she lost her mind ? Flak was a hazard in his own right, destruction and death followed him, surely at this point in time she would of seen there was no other way other then putting a swift and just end too him.

Against his own judgement the human had decided to seek the alternative...bring him in alive...."Alive." Not exactly what Shrike was equipped for but willing to give it a shot...hopefully with out having too shoot. Remaining at more or less a 2 meter gap between himself and the Hyena so she may atleast keep track of the silhouette of his shape among the thick hazy air. Honestly if not for his helmet he might as well of been going in circles for all he knew, every road kinda looked the same, thank chaos for onboard navigation.

"Yea we will take the son of a bitch alive but I can't promise you it will be easy! What ever his sister is paying you better sure as hell be worth the trouble it's gonna cost us to do so.


The sound of strikes of metal clear as day light along with the usual grunt and shouts of those who were locked in a confrontation were coming up soon, at least Wolfgang was still alive and holding his own for now, a moment crossed the freelancers mind if maybe now he could bring his arsenal to bear upon the serpent, a swift and fast killing blow to eliminate her once and for all. The sound of heavy boots against the concrete ground were heard lingering in the smoke, rustling gear followed closely, a sure give away that Shrike was on his way back to back up his partner at the intersection, now with extra help in tow in the form of a Stocky lady. The well built Hyena's response about the snakes lethality over Flaks was all too apparent, at least when it came to fighting up close and personal.

"No shit she is dangerous....tried to fight that asshole in hand to hand combat and nearly got reduced to chunks...if not for the armour!"

"Hold on wolfgang! Backup is here!"

Emerging from the cloud of ash he appeared abruptly, the heavy rise and fall of his chest plate evident as he regained his composure and breath, waiting for the Hyena to reinforce them, that would make 3 against 1 now.

Ava maintained her defensive stance, even as the mobian across from her lowers his guard and makes no attempt to close in on her. The crazy eyed serpent chuckled softly in response to his question, shaking her head subtly.

"Oh, don't tell me you're getting bored already?" Her tone was eerily playful, yet jagged from her heightened state. "Don't worry, our little play is just getting started!"

Ava finally straightened out her posture, placing one hand on her hip and letting the one holding the cleaver rest at her side. She turned her head slightly, glancing over her shoulder at the sound of approaching footsteps. Her tail twitched sporadically, her body incapable of calm.

 Gauge coughed as she navigated through the smoke by following the freelancer's lead. She should've brought a respirator from her shop or something, but everything happened so quickly she didn't have time. The hyena had to make due and pull the collar of her shirt over her mouth and hold her breath until they cleared the dense smoke, not that it'd do much.

Soon the two emerged from the densest layer of smoke, much to Gauge's relief. She exhaled sharply and attempted to take a deep breath, which only caused her to start coughing again. She was going to scold the armored man for literally calling out their presence but with her coughing like this the snake was going to be alerted anyways. 

Gauge planted the buttstock of her shotgun against the ground and propped herself on it as she hunched over and let out the last bit of her coughing fit.

As the group of vigilantes formed around Ava in the streets below, Flak gathered his rocket launcher from the rooftop where he had dropped it prior and loaded it up with another rocket from the duffel bag, this time using one of his own custom made incendiary rockets sporting a napalm payload. 

Flak returned to his perch overlooking the intersection and lifted the launcher to aim in the direction of the small crowd, his form lightly obscured from those down below by some thinning smoke. His finger teased the trigger as he lined up the sights but he does not fire.

"Fieser Drones one through four, relocate to position 7-A and provide fire support." Flak called out to his drones over the comms, pulling them away from several strategic monitoring locations to assist his ally. 

A faint mechanical whirring could be heard in the skies above, slowly becoming more and more prominent as the drones relocate to their new given coordinates. Their chassis remain hidden by the the thick smoke billowing into the sky, though off in the distance one could unmistakably make out several red optics closing in fast from separate locations.


"Backup is on it's way, try not to die in the meantime!" 

Ava raised a brow in response to her partner, chewing on his words for a few brief moments before dropping her cleaver to the ground and raising her hands into the air.

 "Welp, I'm outnumbered. How about an interlude, guys? Perhaps I were to say I surrender?" She spoke loudly, hoping that they weren't paying too much attention to the skies and that they were merciful enough not to just shoot her on the spot. She kept her eyes trained on the fire escape across the way, ready to let her natural defenses kick in if things began to look less than favorable.

The wolf waits as the reptile responds to his question.

"I just have things I'd rather be doing than this." he replies to her.

He wasn't surprised that she wanted to keep fighting. She had appeared rather singularly focused on doing just that since she first crossed his and the black clad figure's path a little while ago. She finally takes a more relaxed stance similar to his, but that was only until she turned to glance at the approach of others into the immediate area.

The wolf did similar, and spots the black clad figure returning along with what appeared to be another canine. The canine didn't look too good on arrival, having to stop and cough much like he had when emerging from the cloud of dust earlier.

Seemingly in response to the arrival of the other two, the reptile dropped her cleaver and raised her empty paws, then offered her surrender.

The wolf narrows his eyes slightly.

*She's giving up? Something doesn't seem right about that.* he thinks, *She was ready to fight earlier when there were two of us... now she wants to give up with three here? And she can seemingly teleport... so she could leave whenever she wanted, right?*

He ponders this quietly for several moments, allowing the other two arrivals to decide what to do with the reptile.

Then the wolf's ears shift slightly. He then tilts his head a little and listens intently. He notes that there was some sort of odd sound in the area now. It wasn't something he'd noticed before... or maybe it was something new. He had no idea what was causing it, but it seemed like it might be coming from above.

The wolf turns his gaze upward, looking around, but not really knowing what he was looking for and not really seeing anything anyway with all the smoke and dust in the air.

*Standing promptly beside his wolf buddy he stood, only this time his sleek looking rifle was now directly aimed at her, the reticle lined up for the shot. They now held the advantage of both numbers and weapons in this show down. However it did appear the Hyena didn't fair all to well after emerging from the smoke ridden street, even paused to try recompose himself, earning a glance from Shrike, it would be brief as his eyes locked back upon the snake.

The apparent suggested surrender of the serpent didn't bode well, surely this was not legit, a sudden shift of that kinda degree was unusual, and thankfully Shrike did not trust her actions, refusing to lower his own weapon, course he would not fire. Perhaps he was hoping maybe her senses had come to light...well at least he did in the back of his mind.

Now having her at gun point they had virtually any option they could employ.....dead...or alive...one way or the other she would be in their custody...Shrike seemed all too willing to pull the trigger right now but resisted the urge, the days of just shooting at will were gone, the newly developed self control ensured he knew when it was required too fire and not....maybe this one was also on the so called "Bounty list."

"Hey....Gauge was it ? What you want us to do with this one ? Is she also wanted alive ?"

He paused and addressed the wolf beside him to catch him up too date on the matter of the situation

"Gauge here wants the bird alive....and hopefully unharmed.....I haven't really asked why or who wants him but maybe we can settle this with out having to kill either of them....I don't know....but much like you....I want this too end swiftly......"

Just then a strange humming sound was heard approaching their vicinity from the sky, at first Shrike disregarded it was just possible ambient noise, but it began to increase in volume, finally causing him to peer up along with his buddy...visually he could not see any thing...but his helmet did...2 unidentified objects detected closing in rapidly...the helmet confirmed the nature was none organic and machine instead.

"You gotta be kidding me! We got inbound from the sky! Watch yourselves! Could be more hostiles...."

"Oh? I didn't realize I was holding you back from your obligations, scruffy! Perhaps you should just leave Gauge to us then? Trust me, we'd be doing this town a favor."

Ava spoke in a low tone, a clear spitefulness in her voice. She finally span around, turning her back to the wolf to set eyes on her adversary. That old twisted grin forms across her life once more.

"Gauge, huh? Cute name, Cackler. Oooh! Look at you, not wearing your mask either! I'll remember that face, Gauge. I never forget another killer."

"She belongs in a grave," Gauge coughed "kill her!"

"See? She's just as cold blooded as I. We used to be a team, Gauge. We share blood on our hands."

Every time the snake spoke the Hyena's name there was an increasing bite in the way she spoke it. It was certain she never knew the Cackler's identity up until now, and was using this information to dig into her. Their history ran deeper than the bystanders could possibly understand.

"Shut your damn mouth, Ava!"

Gauge shifted, pushing herself up from her hunched position. Her face was visibly distressed by the snake's words, a truth to them that cut deep into their history. Once standing up straight she took her shotgun in her paws and took aim at the yellow snake as she feigns her surrender. Gauge is about to pull the trigger when the filtered voice of the soldier calls out several hostiles approaching.

 Gauge peered upwards, catching sight of one glowing crimson orb in the smoke, followed by another, and another. There were for in total, and they were closed in quickly. Shortly the four drones breached the dense camouflage of the smoke and became visible.

 The machines were modified G.U.N. Beetles by the looks of them, equipped with two missile pods mounted on each side, carrying 6 thermobaric micro missiles each and their chassis were painted black and orange to match the color scheme of Flak's armor, making them unmistakably his. The mounted machine guns typically found on these drones remained unchanged, however the ammunition was not standard issue, Flak opting to load them up with explosive 9mm ammunition instead.

 The drones immediately laid down suppressing fire as they emerged from the smoke. The hellish sound of rapid gunfire began to rain down from above, accompanied by the crackling of the explosive rounds hitting the concrete below. The drones aimed for no targets in particular, seemingly using their shots to push their targets away from Ava. Luckily there was plenty of rubble tossed around by the bombed out gas station and the blown up robots that it wouldn't be too difficult finding something to use as cover. Not to mention the plethora of buildings and alleyways.

Flak chuckled to himself as he watched the chaos slowly unfold from a distance through the scope of his weapon. It'd be all too easy to pull the trigger and end them all then and there, all he'd have to do was warn Ava. Flak was all about his theatrics though, and taking them out in such a way went against his showmanship. He'd have to at least give them a fighting chance, even if the odds were stacked against them.

 Flak threw the sling of the rocket launcher over his torso and slung it over his back. He'd have to get closer to make his threat known. The apartment across from the gas station was the perfect location, as it'd position him directly above them. Before he took off though he leaned down to rummage through the bag of equipment until he found the respirator he made for Ava.

"Heya, Thrillkill! I'm about to head your way. Meet me on top of that apartment complex across from the gas station y'all are at, okay? I have something for you."

The wolf turns his attention back to the reptile as she first speaks and turns to the other canine, so that they could have a heated exchange.

Apparently there were some issues between them.

And now he was caught up in them.

Along with everyone else that got caught up in everything exploding a short time ago.

And for what? A personal grudge?

He wasn't sure what to think of all of this. Other than that it shouldn't have started and it should stop as soon as possible.

Then his attention was drawn back to the dark clothed stranger with them, who shouted out about something approaching from above. The wolf looks up to see several metallic forms emerge from the smoke high above them.

"Oh." the wolf says softly.

Then the objects above began shooting and the ground around them began to explode in small bursts. In a panic, the wolf turns away, raising his arms to protect his head with the makeshift metal items he was carrying and ran towards the nearest building.

"Shazbot!!" he curses as he sprints away, while being pelted by bits of debris thrown around by the weapon fire.

It did appear to be so, the three had been entangled before, clearly not just a once off either, their actions and words suggested they had clashed swords on more then one occasion boiling down to this becoming rather personal in the end.

Uncertainty set in, the Serpent claimed or better yet spoke as if Gauge was at one point like her, a killer, who worked with this being and took the lives of who knows how many and now they stood face to face, one still stuck in their ways and another seeking to end it.

Wolfgang and himself were silent while the duo spat words at one another, of course its because neither of them knew the extent of what was going on and the history involved. Shrike was not going to do any thing to brash, yea he had the serpent lined up for a killing shot, he could, right here, right now but if Gauge wanted Flak alive...maybe she would want to take Ava in as well.

The drones closed in rapidly and a torrent of hell fire rained down upon the trio forcing Shrike to disengage from Ava swinging his rifle over and around to the incoming hostiles.

"FALL BACK! I'LL COVER! GO GO GO!"

The armored figure shook his one hand telling them to leg it for the best possible cover, Shrike would follow behind returning fire against the hostile beetle drones. Out gunned but still trying to make the drones job that much harder. Firing bursts before relocating and repeating the process. The nimbleness of the beetles made them difficult targets to hit.

Pulling back when he needed too to set up and return fire, checking over his shoulder to see how much distance the other two mobians had made before withdrawing further. A couple of stray 9mm bullets struck the chest plate of Shrike, unable to penetrate the armor the explosive oomph behind them sent him rolling onto the hard concrete surface, narrowing avoiding a twisting warhead that arched into the side of a derelict building, showering his position with fragmented debris.

Clambering too his steel capped boots and experiencing a mild form tinnitus from the close hits, Shrike was forced to give up his own retaliation and haul ass along with the rest

The wolf continues to run towards the nearest building available, but he started to slow down as he didn't see any easy way to get inside of it. The door was intact and closed. If it was locked, that would be quite an embarrassing problem. There was a large window in the front of it, where some goods were laid out for display. He could crash through that if he wanted... be he really didn't. Having broken glass everywhere was more trouble for him to deal with.

As he considered this, the female canine caught up to him, mentioned some name that had no meaning for him and that she'd shoot open the window for entry. The wolf merely glances over at her, contemplating a response, but not having time to really form one before she aims her weapon and fires, destroying the window ahead of them.

The wolf recoils from the blast of her weapon, sidestepping away from her quickly and slowing his forward pace as he waits a few moment for the ringing in his ears to subside.

Glancing back towards her, he sees that she had slowed as well, Only she had turned her attention back the way they had come to offer some support for their black clothed companion.

As he wasn't able to offer any real support in the current situation, the wolf continues on towards the building they were going to use for shelter. But as he gets close, the wolf slows his pace further and begins walking more carefully as he gets close to the window, despite the fact that he was still being fired on and peppered with bits of debris.

Once he reaches the window, the wolf keeps himself covered as best he can with his makeshift shield while he looks in through the window. Only then does he carefully start to step through.

Disorientated, blurred and hearing impaired the fatigued armoured figure continued to do his best to navigate the the war torn looking street as weapons fire continued to pour down, panic pumping through his veins, keeping him moving, the miracles of adrenaline, ever so often peering over his shoulder to try and spot where the drones where. 

All but giving up on shooting back at this point, the drones were far to nimble and he could not expend all of his own in hopes of a lucky hit. Ahead of him he could spot his other two allies nearing a damaged establishment with the logo of "Callum's hardware." Any where then out in the open was better. 

The duo had already taken shelter after the Hyena blew the front facing window clean out, opening for entry of the pair. The whereabouts of both Flak and Ava were now unknown, they either could be trailing them, waiting for the bots to trap them or perhaps they had left, trusting in the bots to finish the job.

Several blasts of shotgun fire ripped from the building ahead, the pellets striking one of the drones, causing enough integral damage to bring it down to a crashing thud upon the ruined street, it appeared the Hyena's Shotgun was more effective in this regard thanks to its spread fire of the shell.

Eventually Shrike would make it, leaping over the small ledge, through the now shattered. The moment he landed the armoured figure jolted himself back against the solid surface, pressing his back against it, peering at the other two while they took refuge.

"Dammit! I never thought I'd have to fight G.U.N drones! Gauge! I need you to take down the last one...your shotgun is better suited for this....perhaps before it brings this building down ontop of us......I lost visual with Flak and Ava....you think they booked it and fled ?

"Hey Wolf how you holding up ? hope you didn't get to roughed up out there?"

"I hate to break to to you, chromedome, but-" Gauge started, cutting herself off as a bullet whizzed last her head and impacted the brick building behind her, chipping a bit of the brick. "I think there's more than just one of these things left!"

Gauge fired a few more shells in the general direction of the drones to cover the soldier as he climbed through the window and got into cover. She managed to clip one more drone, causing it to plummet to the concrete like the other. She ceased fire as the soldier ran past her to get into cover and followed behind.

Her thick clothes provided her adequate protection from any glass that might threaten to knick her as she climbed through the window.

"No way in hell Flak and Ava fled..." She mumbled to herself.

Gauge took position with her back up against the wall at the side of the window and peeked out to the smoke filled streets as the soldier checked up on the wolf. 

 The remaining two drones stopped firing the moment they were all in cover. It was hard to tell if it was because of ammo conservation or something else, but knowing the villains they were dealing with, it was probably something else. The drones hovered in place, maintaining their position with sights on the hardware shop, and acting as sentries.

 Ava dawned her respirator mask, fastening it securely to her face. The serpent then made her way over to her ally overlooking the situation down below. The smoke was far to thick from up here for Ava to see anything down below as she peered over the ledge. 

"What's going on down there?" Ava spoke, her voice now muffled by the device concealing her maw. She turned her head up to look at her companion for an answer.

Flak's optics flicked to the color red as he switched to infrared imaging to get a better look of the situation. 

"Looks like they're taking cover in Callum's."

"Heh... So what's cooking now, bird?"

Flak pulled the rocket launcher from his shoulder by the sling and held it out to Ava, who carefully took it into her hands. She looked at Flak in surprise, raising her brow at him.

"Let's cook them! Together!"

"Gross. Don't say together like that ever again."

The wolf had made it into the building first as the other two did their best to fend off their flying attackers. Once out of the line of fire the wolf took some time to calm himself and do a quick check of himself for any injuries.

He could see that his clothing was now even dirtier than after passing through the cloud of smoke and ash earlier, and there were many small gashes in the material as a result of being pelted by small bits of shrapnel from the explosive ammunition that had been used to harry them into cover. Otherwise, he didn't seem to be hurting at all, but he wouldn't be surprised if he'd suffered any number of small cuts.

As the other two join him and then turn their attention to surveying the scene outside the building, the wolf moves a bit further in and sits down on a small display case.

Then the dark clothed individual inquired about his condition.

"I'm doing just lovely." he replies irritably, "I've only had one person trying to kill me, apparently really taking delight in the attempt, and just now I had... whatever those things in the air were blowing stuff up around me!"

As the wolf vents, he shakes off the pieces of scrap metal he'd had in his grip during the fight, letting them drop to the floor before he pulls his work gloves off and flexes his fingers a few times.

His tirade apparently over, the wolf then blows out a breath as he regards his two unexpected companions.

Any opening Shrike could get he would take assisting in returning fire in kind in hopes a 7mm would find its mark, the large caliber of his gun would ensure even a single hit would cause some form of hefty damage to a drone, however trying to line a shot up while getting your ass handed to you but crazy robots is rather difficult to do.

Seems like he got his answer of the two, Gauge probably knew down to a "T" how these two operated, if she said they had not fled the chances were they were simply looking on waiting for their own chance or perhaps waiting for the drones to soften em up allowing them to deliver the final blow.

Fragments of concrete coupled with sparks of rounds skimming off metal surfaces really caused a ruckus, debris was every where, a true demonstration of just what firepower was capable of when hooked up to machines that had more then a operational capacity then a brick, something the empire would take note of.

As hellish as the barrage was it would also end as quickly as it began...the guns fell silent, a thick dust hung in the air visible by the beams of light pouring through the bullet holes, for a moment...peace..but most likely...the calm before the storm....using the opening Shrike would begin to immediately reload his rifle, taking the chance to probe his head just enough to view what was beyond.

"They....stopped firing ? Why ? They have us boxed in we are easy targets for them.....either their ammo bins have run out or......or"



Holding his last words, Shrike's visor draws his attention to motion above and directly ahead, the visor drawing a pair of rectangular boxes around a pair of Mobians.

"Contact, directly ahead....apartment complex roof top! It's them and it looks like one has a freaking RPG with them, I'm not waiting to get blown to giblets! We either move now or I am gonna take my chances and engage them while I have a chance! Decide quick Gauge!"