[Open]Night Express

Gun. Hunter swung Metaruhōku with his left and placed it on his back, then raised both arms the best he could, trying not to show signs that his right was still injured.

Spoiler:

He was cautious to not provoke Alton, especially since he could either get shot or burned by the greased flatbed. His aura level was enough to stop him from burning, but it still too low to block bullets. Hunter started talking, trying not to get killed in the process.
"I was referring to the two innocent lives you took, Alton.Now, from what you've been saying is true, then you didn't mean to kill them. That's a good thing, but what you did still counts as manslaughter and assault." Hunter cautiously walked towards Alton, eyes on the gauntlet pistol aimed at him.
"Now, before you say anything, note that involuntary manslaughter is the event where the killer did not intend for a death to result from their intentional actions. Now, four years ago, an officer of the law was sentenced to jail for two years for shooting and killing an innocent man by accident. Do you remember that? The involuntary manslaughter of Oscar Grant? I'm just a swordfighter for hire, but I do know my law and order."

Hunter eyed his Aura level. 95%.



OOC: I just watched Fruitvale Station, a dramatization of the last 24 hours of Oscar's life. Great movie. I highly recommended it.

"First we need to get the situation out there under control. The. We get this information to the authorities, let them handle it." Myren said to Nigrum. Turning to Chiu he tosses her a small radio-like device. "Call ahead to the station. Tell them that train A-16 was attacked, that the VIP is unharmed but is still threatened, and that the attacker is still inboard. We need police on scene when we get there." He moves to exit the car, but turns back for a moment. "Also, they should probably know that the flatcar is drenched in flammable material."

Myren moved back towards the flatcar, only to find Hunter being held at gunpoint. "Enough of this." Myren grumbles to himself. Either this guy comes quietly, which didn't seem likely at this point, or they'd have to detain him, which he probably wouldn't make easy. All this without lighting the train ablaze thanks to all the oil on this damn flatcar!
Then the obvious answer came to him.

Myren puts two fingers to his lips and whistles loudly. "Stand down" He yells to the gunman. "We have your information, and it will go to the proper authorities to be dealt with. Surrender now and maybe you can cut a deal with them"

"To be quite honest sir, I don't think he's willing to go quietly." Hunter kept waiting for Alton to take his eyes of him.

96%...

"Prepare to be amazed, then, Pyro." Keeping his eyes ahead, Alton called back at the guard.

"Deal. With you. Not Pyro here." Lowering his voice, Alton continued. "I know that stance, it's my stance, and it's a combat position for rapid ambush from a standing position. If you think your aura'll protect you long enough to get a swing on me, I'd reconsider. A .45 slug carries a lot of energy, and Diadem can spit out seven every second, and I am just as fast as you are."

"You get Pyro here to stand down, and I walk into that cargo car behind him. You leave me alone, I leave you alone, and if anyone comes through the door without a badge or their hands in the air then we go back to square one."

"I don't think so. You're still a wanted criminal. Captain Vale!" Hunter called to the guard. "I suggest you cuff this guy. If we do what he's asking, then he's going to be in there with no supervision. We can't leave a guy like him unattended, right? What if he tries to escape? Think about that."

99%. He turned his attention back to Alton.

"Also, who said anything about a swing? It hurts to move my right arm. I think I tore something when I tackled you." Hunter put on his most sincere face. "This is just me showing you my hands. I can't move my arm any higher than this."

OOC: Is Alton pointing with his left or right pistol?

Chiu hooked the radio onto her belt. She had done as asked, reinforcements and a cleanup crew would be waiting at the station. However if things continued to escalate that wasn't going to matter. Suspect #2, Alton, was willing to give up, come quietly, provided Hunter also stood down. Hunter, it would seem, was unlikely to do that so eventually people were going to start dying. There was too much attention on Cap. If he moved it would start. The kid with the stick, cane she corrected herself, was too unknown. Was he fast enough? Agile enough? Trusted enough? She didn't know, but she couldn't risk everything on him. She would have to do it.

"Sorry." She whispered and bolted.

In a blink she was across the flatbed. From there she scrambled up the ladder, and slid around on the roof until she was behind him. Four feet separated them. Close enough to kill if needed, but, hopefully, out of his reach. She drew her weapons, switched to guns and pointed both barrels at Hunter's back.

"Please don't make me kill you." She told him. "If you don't stand down you are going to get us all killed."

((Er, a few problems with that. First, we're on the flatbed - Alton's in the center, Hunter's to the rear, everyone else is forward. Second, you can't be behind Alton because, with a broken leg, he propped himself up against a pile of boxes (sorta like this, except standing and with less blood. Can't find a decent search term) for support, and currently has one gun trained in either direction - granted, his attention is currently focused on Hunter, to his right. Third, I gotta call shenanigans on the "sprint-and-get-behind-the-perp-before-he-can-react" thing - aura-enhanced speed is one thing, but you're not covering 20m+ of a pitch-black, oil-slicked, debris-strewn terrain on a moving train without even alerting the guy you're running at. Maybe on an NPC who dumped his spot and listen skills, but definitely not here. It's as life solving a hostage standoff by running around the guy with the human shield and taking him hostage - unless your character is an alter ego of Barry Allen, it's not happening.

Misinterpreted it as Alton being the target. My bad. But still, I'm growing to dislike the quasi-undodgeable moves like this - "I sprint into position an inch away from you, ready to strike, without you having time to react." Movement is as much an attack action as firing a gun is.

Also, Wrecker, right gauntlet.))

OOC: I think the train is going 60 mph, so going the opposite direction of it is faster than going foreward. Also Chiu is aiming at Hunter.

From what I could see, train flatbed positions are currently as follows:

[___cargo___]-[___C_H___A_____M_]-[_N_______]-[_a bunch of cars_]_[____P____]

C = Chiu
H = Hunter
A = Alton
M = Myren
N = Nigrum
P = Alex, who hasn't posted since page 5.

IC:

A bolt. A flash. Hunter felt a presence behind him. He turned his head and saw a girl aiming at him.
"Chiu? What-"

"Please don't make me kill you." She told him. Why the please? "If you don't stand down you are going to get us all killed."

"If you're trying to get me to stand down as well, I'll have you know that my right arm is busted. See?" Hunter tried to raise his arm. He only got it up only about a third of the way up before it burned.

"I'm in no condition fight. Something got broken after I crashed. Also, my wings, aka my bigass sword, is/are(OOC: What word do I use for something that is two wings and one sword? Is or Are?) covering over 90% of my body. It's forged from metalliko, one of the lightest and strongest metals of all. Military Flying Fortress airship material. A hundred .50 caliber bullets filled with nitroglycerin won't even dent it. They'll just bounce off my sword, then explode after they hit something else. If you shoot me, odds are your shot will ricochet and  hit you. I don't want someone like you to die for nothing today."

He turned his head back to Alton. "What I do want, however, is someone like you in jail. By the way..." Hunter looked down at Alton's shoes, then looked up and smiled. "You've been sitting in a puddle of flammable liquids for quite a while now. I'm surprised you haven't noticed your pants getting wet. Everyone else is pretty damn dry."

"You shoulda seen me earlier. I took a bath in the stuff. But I wasn't kidding when I said I've gotten used to being immolated earlier." Alton bounced his good knee. "Two words: fire retardant. Granted, I'll still be on fire from the oil itself, but that's details. Besides, with the amount of combustible on this car right now, I'm not so much worried about the fire as I am about the explosion which, dry pants or not, you'll be caught in, too.

Also, impressive... sword... wing things, but we're at point blank, here. Knights of old in plate armor weren't killed by swords cutting through the metal chestpiece, they were killed by daggers in the joints. You said it yourself, it only covers 90%."

Hunter looked down at his own feet and chuckled. "You're funny, you know that? I may not be able to use my arm, but since we've now got Chiu here..." He gestured with his head. "You're pretty much surrounded. Two people in the front. Two people in the back. Hundred foot drop to either side. One of you. Why don't you put your arms down before you kill four more people? What do you say?"

OOC: Sorry, apparently I missed the fact that Hunter landed on 5 and then BOUNCED to 7. I thought he was still on 5. That move was supposed to be a short 2-3 yrd sprint to the ladder.

"ENOUGH!" Myren roared as he slammed his blade against the wall of the cargo car, causing a cascade of sparks to come dangerously close to the oil. "Hunter, the girl's right, you're not helping the situation. I don't know what this guy did to you, and frankly I don't give half a drekk. Fighting him now gets us nothing. this isn't about old grudges right now." He said as he slowly advanced onto the flatbed.

Addressing Alton: "that being said, I can't exactly leave you to you own devices now after all the trouble you've caused, so I'll tell you what. you agree to some restraints, and I'll put in a good word with the authorities... and make sure Hunter doesn't do anything we'll all regret.

Both Myren and the girl left the cargo car leaving Nigrum alone. He blinked twice and leaned to look out the door. Did... did they just leave me alone with this information? He thought to himself, I'll take it. He pulled a few sheets of the manifest and folded them up shoving them into his pocket but leaving a few sheets in the folder, Myren would have no idea how many papers had been in the folder to begin with.

A Shouting match ensued on the car between Myren and all the people. He looked out as it appear the teen in the middle surrendered. "Oh is the battle over now?" Nigrum asked.

"...fine."

Hunter dropped his arms, letting out a sigh of relief, but still kept alert. He could still get shot anytime.

"Smart move, Alton." He turned to the guard. "After you cuff him, can we all go back into the passenger cars? It's really windy out here."

Myren approached Alton cautiously, but sheath's Skorpios as he draws near. He reached for the set of cuffs he'd been given, but stopped when he realized the rather obvious problem.

"you're going to have to remove your weapons." He grunted to Alton. "Let's not make this harder than it needs to be".

Myren sighs inwardly at Alton's response. 'of course not. that would have been too easy' He thinks to himself.

"fine, we'll do it your way. just don't make me regret this, or I promise that jail time will be the least of your concerns."

as the gauntlet's handles retracted, Myren guided Altons hands behind his back and secured the cuffs, making sure they were in the way of the retracted handles.

"now then. lets all get off this explosion-waiting-to-happen, shall we?" He says, guiding Alton back to the rear cargo car (7 by wrecker's chart)

"Woah there, Captain Vale." Hunter stopped the guard. "We're still taking him back into the cargo car? I thought we were gonna go towards the front and keep him where there's more people to watch over him."

"Going forward brings this situation towards my employer, that is not going to happen. Not to mention, that would involve passing through the high security cargo car, which is sealed for a reason."

Myren pauses for a moment, his eyes narrowing as he turns to Hunter.

"speaking of which, where exactly did you procure that blade from? they wouldn't have left something like that unsecured..." He says, nodding at the sword on Hunter's back

"What, the Metaruhōku? Right, about that...  I thought there was going to be a big fight, so I tried to figure out a way in. It took a while, but I found an unlocked window and climbed in. Metaruhōku was just hanging on the wall." He gestured to the girl who was still aiming at him. "Chiu wanted her weapons too, so I grabbed the only other two weapons in there and went back out the window to give them to her. I didn't take anything from the cargo hold, much less notice what was inside. I don't really care what else is in the train. That's Alex's jo-"

Wait a minute, Hunter thought. Where's Alex gone off to? He looked around. Alex was nowhere to be found after Hunter followed Alton backwards to here.

"Captain, what I'm about to say may cause some panic. Recall how I disappeared earlier? A branch hit me and made me fall towards the back of the train. That's where I found an old coworker of mine. Alex Broles. He and I were part of the same security detail for the convoy Alton here attacked. Alex was on top of the caboose, fully armed and aiming for the front. He's got a job tonight, something about cargo and an ambassador dying. He and I had just followed Alton to the front when Alt and I jumped backwards without Alex. I don't know where he is right now." Hunter looked keenly at the guard. "I'm guessing your employer is the ambassador, isn't he?"

Myren tried to maintain a calm display of professionalism as Hunter carefully explained how he had illegally gained entrance to a secure compartment and illegally procured the weapons which he was now illegally carrying...

"Captain, what i'm about to say may cause some panic"

Myren's right eye twitched slightly

"I found an old coworker of mine."
"fully armed and aiming for the front."
"something about cargo and an ambassador dying"


" I don't know where he is right now"

Myren grabbed Alton by the collar and dragged him to the cargo car (7), roughly tossing him inside. He drew Skorpios and pointed it down at Alton saying "I don't have time for diplomacy anymore. give me any more trouble, and i'll hamstring you and leave you for the beowolves."

Without waiting for a reply, Myren turns and sprints across the flatbed, aura flaring in his legs to keep him stable in the slippery puddles as he brushes past Chiu and Hunter.

'son of the Grimm.' He thought as he burst into the first cargo car. 'I was distracted by all this drek, and left him undefended... Father would have my head for this'.

Well that information would've been very much welcome thirty seconds ago. People pay attention to the major threats, not the three-month-old inactive ones. Alton rolled his neck to work out the kink from the guard's throw. The way things stood now, he was facing false charges, for the murders at least - he'd seen the autopsy reports and he'd heard enough from the passengers' accounts to know that no one had died in the initial attack. What made matters worse though was the fact that one of the guards' lackies had Alton's proof.

"It's too bad I wasn't lying about my arm. This is really going to suck."

Should I stay or should I go? Hunter thought. Staying here would leave more people to guard Alton, but there was no way of knowing what Alex could be doing right now. He looked forward at the guard, and back at their prisoner.

Screw it. Hunter ran towards the second guy who was on the car, who seemed to be another guard (OOC: This is Nigrum. Hunter never really got a good look at him earlier.), saying, "You, stay with the prisoner. I'm helping your guard friend out." Then he turned to the girl. "Chiu, I'm headed for the front. Someone might die tonight, and I don't want that. You coming or what?"

The teen that had been using the wings came running up to him following after Myren who had gone running towards the Ambassador for some reason.

"You, stay with the prisoner. I'm helping your guard friend out." Then he turned to the girl. "Chiu, I'm headed for the front. Someone might die tonight, and I don't want that. You coming or what?"

Chiu, so that's her name Nigrum thought, Also who does he think he is one calling me friends with the guard and, two: telling me to stay with the Prisoner, whatever "Can do" He said walking out across the flat car towards Alton, stabbing the Panther into the car to keep his balance across the oil as he walked.

He stepped into the car with Alton. "So I'm here to make sure you don't get away." Nigrum said, "So while we wait why don't you tell me more about the shipment you got the manifest from." He might as well take advantage of this time so he could properly inform Xenvee what was being transported.

"This is both incredibly convenient and horribly inconvenient." This guy had the manifest, but was also a guard, and Alton didn't know how long it'd take him to get Diadem back on if he tried to remove the cuffs - he could, but not with his gauntlets on, and with a broken arm it might take longer than usual, to boot. Then again, these cuffs had a bit of slack to them. Maybe...

"Open it to page four, inventory. It's the key." Alton said, slumping to the floor and folding his arms against his chest with a wince.

Ah karma, you fickle mistress. Chiu had to hand it to Hunter, throwing her own words back at her, it seemed he was a bit tougher than she had given him credit for. Resheathing her weapons she pulled the loaned knife from her belt. "Here." She said as she handed it back to him. "Thanks." She couldn't really think of anything else to say.