"..and then he tried the "smooth" approach," Mackie sighed, rolling her eyes as Lyn laughed slightly.
"Are you tired?" she asked with an amused smile.
"Because you've been running through my mind all night - yeah, that's the one," Mackie said, shaking her head. She glanced down, running her
hands down her sides and over the cheap t-shirt and jeans combo she defaulted to when hanging out with Lyn in the city. "Is it me? Do I have some bizarre
loser attracting field that all the guys that're interested in me are cheap bar trash?" she grumbled.
"Well, you do look like you could be eighteen depending on how loose of clothes you're wearing," Lyn pointed out as Mackie gave her a sour look.
"Gee, thanks, I think," she said, sticking her tongue out as Lyn stopped, blinking and glancing behind her. Mackie looked at her curiously.
"What is it?"
"...thought I saw someone...probably nothing but, I'll catch up with you in a second?" she said, questioningly.
Mackie waved her hands at her in a shooing motion. "I'll go hang out at the gas station, get a drink. Stupid 94 degree heat," she grumbled,
heading towards the convenience store as Lyn grinned.
***
Mackie frowned as she paid for her drink, sitting down in the cafe section and waiting. Really, was Lyn right? Did she look young enough to merely attract
exactly the wrong type of guys? Sylia'd offered to help her with her look if she wanted, but Mackie'd been unsure if she wanted to do so...after all,
that would be admitting even more to the fact of how girly she was now, and....
"EVERYONE ON THE FLOOR!"
A burst of automatic gunfire made a very persuasive argument in favor of the spoken order by the Death Head stepping nto the store and Mackie was right behind
them, cursing the fact she'd left her armor popped open in mid-modification before they'd left. As it was, Mackie was as vulnerable as anyone else in
the store, and she abruptly felt a stab of sympathy for people who lived through this sort of thing every day. She wondered how long it'd be before the
nearest hero came in to save them. After all, Lyn was still outside and even if she didn't have her armor with her, she could get in touch with someone. Or
maybe it'd all be over soon anyway. Mackie wasn't carrying much cash, so being mugged would hardly be a problem, really.
When the Skulls started lining everyone up along the inside of the store, however, Mackie started sweating. This was definitely not good....
Hurry up and get help, Lyn....
***
Lyn frowned from where she was frozen on a fire escape, watching more skulls enter the rear entrance of the store that Mackie'd just gone into. Still as
the rest of the scenery, she listened as the two Skulls traded poor jokes and the occasional, "No shit, there I was..." story. She was almost about
to chalk them up to normal robbers when the Bone Daddy arrived, the other two standing a little straighter in his presence.
"Get inside. They're about to make their move downtown, and even if this is a distraction, we have to be ready."
"What about the cops, boss?"
"If they interfere, we waste a hostage, let 'em know we're serious about this if they poke their noses in. They'll back down. Always do,"
he said.
"And if they don't?"
"Then we waste 'em all and let the ambulance guys try to save them while we run away," he chuckled. "Might as well get some fun out of this
run."
"Okay then, boss."
"Right, now get inside. Need to watch out for snipers," he grunted as the trio disappeared inside, leaving Lyn with a very worrying timetable as she
dropped from the fire escape and onto the roof. Popping the lock on the upper door, she slipped into the station, staying quiet as a mouse.
***
"Yeah, well if you cops want to see any of these pretty folks alive again, you'll keep yourselves and the
fucking capes back and out of our faces, got it?" the Bone Daddy smirked into the phone, before hanging it up. Looking over at the crowd of hostages, he
walked up and down the isle, absently grabbing Hershey's from one of the shelves and starting on it. "What's the word from Skinny?"
"They're starting. We just need to hold out a little longer."
"Easy enough. How twitchy are the cops getting outside?"
The Death Head leaned over to look outside, noting the positioning of the cops around the barricade. "I say we have six minutes before they move in."
"Right, time to make things perfectly clear. Get one of the hostages," he said, the Death Head nodding and walking over to the group. Mackie blinked
as a gunbarrel rested itself on her forehead, looking up the weapon at the Death Head. He jerked her to her feet before leading her in front of the glass
windows with a few grunted commands, well in view of the cops.
The Bone Daddy picked up the ringing phone, smiling slightly. "Why, hello Inspector....yes, you see, we seem to be in a disagreement. You said you'd
stay back until we could negotiate, but what I'm seeing isn't staying back. I guess you don't think we'll go through with the threat. Let's
rectify that misunderstanding," he smiled.
***
Lyn was almost above the hostages when she heard the phone ring, and the resulting conversation didn't sound promising. Carefully, she lifted the ceiling
panel ahead of her...and froze, spotting Mackie near the window, a Skull with an automatic rifle standing behind her. In that instant, she began thinking of
the odds she could take all the Skulls down and prevent any hostage casualties, but they all kept coming back to one conclusion: without her armor, she
wasn't fast or durable enough to do so, and she certainly couldn't deflect bullets. Which left one option....
***
Mackie refused to let herself whimper or show any fear as she felt the gun muzzle up against her back. They wanted that. They enjoyed the feeling of their
victims cowering because the Skulls had their guns and they had nothing. She wouldn't give them that satisfaction. She was still thinking along those lines
when the ceiling nearby exploded downward, a familiar blue clad figure with emerald hair landing in the middle of the store. Mackie saw a glint of metal,
before several things happened very fast.
The first Death Head tried to pull the trigger, but found his hand not responding to his commands. He looked down, before screaming in shock at the bloody,
spurting stump that ended at his elbow, his hand and weapon still falling to the ground. Lyn jumped and rolled over the shelves of food next, slicing a bloody
line along one Grave Digger's torso and dropping the gang member to the ground in shock and pain even as she kicked his pistol out of his reach. Next was
the other Death Head, bringing his weapon up so....slowly...compared to her movements. She could slice off the end of the rifle, but the resulting damage to
the gun in this close of a space could seriously injure one of the hostages, so she sliced diagonally along the gun arm, her cut slightly deflected by her
ramming the hilt of her sword into the gunbarrel and knocking its aim upwards. The handful of shots that got fired were emptied into the ceiling, and another
reversed slash downwards took the Skull out of the fight permanently. Two more Grave Diggers charged at her, but Lyn's eye was on the Bone Daddy, pulling
out a wicked looking assault rifle as she sliced through first one and then the other. The gang's leader had enough time to see her coming and open
fire(thankfully at head height, and missing the hostages entirely) before she ducked, losing the tie on her ponytail, but otherwise unharmed before she
precisely pierced the poor armor of his leather jacket and and t-shirt, dropping him to the ground, the rifle going silent.
Mackie, unaware for the moment of the blood that wasn't hers splattered along her clothes, looked at the clock as if checking for some kind of sanity. The
entire confrontation hadn't taken more than twenty seconds.
Lyn quickly cleaned off her blade before sheathing it again, even as PPD burst through the door, ready for a bloody confrontation that'd already ended. Lyn
nodded at the men staring vaguely goggle-eyed at the young swordswoman covered in blood spray, hair in disarray as she walked over to the still frozen Mackie.
"Mackie, are you all right?" Whatever she'd been expecting, Mackie looking at her, trembling as she took in the blood Lyn still had yet to wash
off, and then running out of the store hadn't been it. Lyn blinked, before raising a hand to her hair and wiping off some of the blood, frowning slightly.
***
Mackie looked up at the soft knock on her door and frowned. Sylia had seen the expression on her face and not pressed the issue, and Priss wouldn't have
thought it her place to offer advice on anything even if she had been home. Even if she's practically a stone's throw
away from being my sister-in-law, Mackie chuckled softly to herself as she stood up to answer the door, curious. She looked at Lyn in surprise as the
taller woman stood in the doorway, her hair once more tied back in its usual pony tail and her clothing either cleaned or replaced from the blood-stained
garments she'd been wearing before. And most unusually, her almost omnipresent sword wasn't at its usual place on her belt.
"Uh...hi," Mackie said.
"Hello....I wanted to....well, I'm not sure, really," Lyn said, resting her weight back and forth from one foot to the other unconsciously.
"I...scared you, somehow, during the fight earlier. I'm sorry for doing that, I guess, even if I had to do what I did..."
Mackie smiled weakly at her friend's obvious discomfort with such an unusual (for her, anyway) situation. She stepped back, waving Lyn into her room and
clearing a few piles of technical manuals off the closest chair so she could sit down. "It's....it's okay, really. I freaked out, but I just
needed some time to think things through...and after that, well. Thank you. For saving my life," she said earnestly.
Lyn took the thanks at face value, nodding back. "Any time. Though, of course...." she trailed off thoughtfully.
"What?" Mackie asked, frowning.
"This just proves that I'm not allowed to leave you alone on your own these days," she chuckled, getting an indignant squawk from Mackie.
"I am not helpless!" she growled as Lyn fell full on into laughter at the indignant squeak that resulted.
---
"Oh, silver blade, forged in the depths of the beyond. Heed my summons and purge those who stand in my way. Lay
waste."
"Are you tired?" she asked with an amused smile.
"Because you've been running through my mind all night - yeah, that's the one," Mackie said, shaking her head. She glanced down, running her
hands down her sides and over the cheap t-shirt and jeans combo she defaulted to when hanging out with Lyn in the city. "Is it me? Do I have some bizarre
loser attracting field that all the guys that're interested in me are cheap bar trash?" she grumbled.
"Well, you do look like you could be eighteen depending on how loose of clothes you're wearing," Lyn pointed out as Mackie gave her a sour look.
"Gee, thanks, I think," she said, sticking her tongue out as Lyn stopped, blinking and glancing behind her. Mackie looked at her curiously.
"What is it?"
"...thought I saw someone...probably nothing but, I'll catch up with you in a second?" she said, questioningly.
Mackie waved her hands at her in a shooing motion. "I'll go hang out at the gas station, get a drink. Stupid 94 degree heat," she grumbled,
heading towards the convenience store as Lyn grinned.
***
Mackie frowned as she paid for her drink, sitting down in the cafe section and waiting. Really, was Lyn right? Did she look young enough to merely attract
exactly the wrong type of guys? Sylia'd offered to help her with her look if she wanted, but Mackie'd been unsure if she wanted to do so...after all,
that would be admitting even more to the fact of how girly she was now, and....
"EVERYONE ON THE FLOOR!"
A burst of automatic gunfire made a very persuasive argument in favor of the spoken order by the Death Head stepping nto the store and Mackie was right behind
them, cursing the fact she'd left her armor popped open in mid-modification before they'd left. As it was, Mackie was as vulnerable as anyone else in
the store, and she abruptly felt a stab of sympathy for people who lived through this sort of thing every day. She wondered how long it'd be before the
nearest hero came in to save them. After all, Lyn was still outside and even if she didn't have her armor with her, she could get in touch with someone. Or
maybe it'd all be over soon anyway. Mackie wasn't carrying much cash, so being mugged would hardly be a problem, really.
When the Skulls started lining everyone up along the inside of the store, however, Mackie started sweating. This was definitely not good....
Hurry up and get help, Lyn....
***
Lyn frowned from where she was frozen on a fire escape, watching more skulls enter the rear entrance of the store that Mackie'd just gone into. Still as
the rest of the scenery, she listened as the two Skulls traded poor jokes and the occasional, "No shit, there I was..." story. She was almost about
to chalk them up to normal robbers when the Bone Daddy arrived, the other two standing a little straighter in his presence.
"Get inside. They're about to make their move downtown, and even if this is a distraction, we have to be ready."
"What about the cops, boss?"
"If they interfere, we waste a hostage, let 'em know we're serious about this if they poke their noses in. They'll back down. Always do,"
he said.
"And if they don't?"
"Then we waste 'em all and let the ambulance guys try to save them while we run away," he chuckled. "Might as well get some fun out of this
run."
"Okay then, boss."
"Right, now get inside. Need to watch out for snipers," he grunted as the trio disappeared inside, leaving Lyn with a very worrying timetable as she
dropped from the fire escape and onto the roof. Popping the lock on the upper door, she slipped into the station, staying quiet as a mouse.
***
"Yeah, well if you cops want to see any of these pretty folks alive again, you'll keep yourselves and the
fucking capes back and out of our faces, got it?" the Bone Daddy smirked into the phone, before hanging it up. Looking over at the crowd of hostages, he
walked up and down the isle, absently grabbing Hershey's from one of the shelves and starting on it. "What's the word from Skinny?"
"They're starting. We just need to hold out a little longer."
"Easy enough. How twitchy are the cops getting outside?"
The Death Head leaned over to look outside, noting the positioning of the cops around the barricade. "I say we have six minutes before they move in."
"Right, time to make things perfectly clear. Get one of the hostages," he said, the Death Head nodding and walking over to the group. Mackie blinked
as a gunbarrel rested itself on her forehead, looking up the weapon at the Death Head. He jerked her to her feet before leading her in front of the glass
windows with a few grunted commands, well in view of the cops.
The Bone Daddy picked up the ringing phone, smiling slightly. "Why, hello Inspector....yes, you see, we seem to be in a disagreement. You said you'd
stay back until we could negotiate, but what I'm seeing isn't staying back. I guess you don't think we'll go through with the threat. Let's
rectify that misunderstanding," he smiled.
***
Lyn was almost above the hostages when she heard the phone ring, and the resulting conversation didn't sound promising. Carefully, she lifted the ceiling
panel ahead of her...and froze, spotting Mackie near the window, a Skull with an automatic rifle standing behind her. In that instant, she began thinking of
the odds she could take all the Skulls down and prevent any hostage casualties, but they all kept coming back to one conclusion: without her armor, she
wasn't fast or durable enough to do so, and she certainly couldn't deflect bullets. Which left one option....
***
Mackie refused to let herself whimper or show any fear as she felt the gun muzzle up against her back. They wanted that. They enjoyed the feeling of their
victims cowering because the Skulls had their guns and they had nothing. She wouldn't give them that satisfaction. She was still thinking along those lines
when the ceiling nearby exploded downward, a familiar blue clad figure with emerald hair landing in the middle of the store. Mackie saw a glint of metal,
before several things happened very fast.
The first Death Head tried to pull the trigger, but found his hand not responding to his commands. He looked down, before screaming in shock at the bloody,
spurting stump that ended at his elbow, his hand and weapon still falling to the ground. Lyn jumped and rolled over the shelves of food next, slicing a bloody
line along one Grave Digger's torso and dropping the gang member to the ground in shock and pain even as she kicked his pistol out of his reach. Next was
the other Death Head, bringing his weapon up so....slowly...compared to her movements. She could slice off the end of the rifle, but the resulting damage to
the gun in this close of a space could seriously injure one of the hostages, so she sliced diagonally along the gun arm, her cut slightly deflected by her
ramming the hilt of her sword into the gunbarrel and knocking its aim upwards. The handful of shots that got fired were emptied into the ceiling, and another
reversed slash downwards took the Skull out of the fight permanently. Two more Grave Diggers charged at her, but Lyn's eye was on the Bone Daddy, pulling
out a wicked looking assault rifle as she sliced through first one and then the other. The gang's leader had enough time to see her coming and open
fire(thankfully at head height, and missing the hostages entirely) before she ducked, losing the tie on her ponytail, but otherwise unharmed before she
precisely pierced the poor armor of his leather jacket and and t-shirt, dropping him to the ground, the rifle going silent.
Mackie, unaware for the moment of the blood that wasn't hers splattered along her clothes, looked at the clock as if checking for some kind of sanity. The
entire confrontation hadn't taken more than twenty seconds.
Lyn quickly cleaned off her blade before sheathing it again, even as PPD burst through the door, ready for a bloody confrontation that'd already ended. Lyn
nodded at the men staring vaguely goggle-eyed at the young swordswoman covered in blood spray, hair in disarray as she walked over to the still frozen Mackie.
"Mackie, are you all right?" Whatever she'd been expecting, Mackie looking at her, trembling as she took in the blood Lyn still had yet to wash
off, and then running out of the store hadn't been it. Lyn blinked, before raising a hand to her hair and wiping off some of the blood, frowning slightly.
***
Mackie looked up at the soft knock on her door and frowned. Sylia had seen the expression on her face and not pressed the issue, and Priss wouldn't have
thought it her place to offer advice on anything even if she had been home. Even if she's practically a stone's throw
away from being my sister-in-law, Mackie chuckled softly to herself as she stood up to answer the door, curious. She looked at Lyn in surprise as the
taller woman stood in the doorway, her hair once more tied back in its usual pony tail and her clothing either cleaned or replaced from the blood-stained
garments she'd been wearing before. And most unusually, her almost omnipresent sword wasn't at its usual place on her belt.
"Uh...hi," Mackie said.
"Hello....I wanted to....well, I'm not sure, really," Lyn said, resting her weight back and forth from one foot to the other unconsciously.
"I...scared you, somehow, during the fight earlier. I'm sorry for doing that, I guess, even if I had to do what I did..."
Mackie smiled weakly at her friend's obvious discomfort with such an unusual (for her, anyway) situation. She stepped back, waving Lyn into her room and
clearing a few piles of technical manuals off the closest chair so she could sit down. "It's....it's okay, really. I freaked out, but I just
needed some time to think things through...and after that, well. Thank you. For saving my life," she said earnestly.
Lyn took the thanks at face value, nodding back. "Any time. Though, of course...." she trailed off thoughtfully.
"What?" Mackie asked, frowning.
"This just proves that I'm not allowed to leave you alone on your own these days," she chuckled, getting an indignant squawk from Mackie.
"I am not helpless!" she growled as Lyn fell full on into laughter at the indignant squeak that resulted.
---
"Oh, silver blade, forged in the depths of the beyond. Heed my summons and purge those who stand in my way. Lay
waste."