[Open]Night Express

On the count of three, jump at the door. One. Two. Three. SMASH. All it took was one headbutt to shatter the icy. Unfortunately, Hunter didn't include calculating what happens when going the opposite direction of a speeding train.

"Oh, FRAG!" Hunter yelled, bouncing on the floor along with shards of ice. He barely grabbed hold of a crate in the room, managing to stop himself. Hunter looked around. Now, where are you, Metaruhōku? He scanned the room. There. Right where he left her. Hunter lifted his sword send placed it on his back in buster form. Suddenly, and idea popped into his head.

Chiu was looking for her own weapons, right? Better look for them. Taking another scan of the room, he found the only other weapons in there and held them in his hands. Looks like some kind of gunblade. Better not mess with it much, he thought. But how can he walk around with two 10 inch gunblades and Metaruhōku? No time for that. Chiu and that "Captain Vale" (Hunter seriously wishes he knew the guard's name) might be in trouble right now.

As he walked towards the door, Hunter suddenly felt two things happen. First, gravity felt stronger. Second, he was no longer going straight towards the door. Instead, he was being flung towards a window on the right. Scrap. You stepped onto ice, AND the train is turning left. As he smashed through the window, Hunter grabbed onto the frame, ignoring the glass shards as he dangled outside. Nowhere to go but up. Using the pistols' blades, he climbed his way up, stabbing as he went. His hands were on the roof when he spotted the guard, Chiu, and the train hopper.

"Hey, Chiu! I got your weapons here! Come and ge-OW!" Hunter suddenly lost grip of the embedded pistols. What hit me? A branch? He flailed through the air. Wasting no time, Hunter pressed a button on his aTab. Immediately, Metaruhōku transformed into its second Form, a set of wings, powered by repulsion Dust. This glider only has a limited propellant. He reminded himself. Use it wisely.

Another push of a button, and Hunter was flying right next to the train, but he wasn't fast enough. If he doesn't start aiming for the train, he'll be stranded out in the forest. Banking left, he saw some other guy, flailing as he was dragged by a tow cable. The second looter? Hunter thought, as his speed decreased. Oh, frag.

Bip. Bang. Clang. He bounced off three different cars, stopping on the caboose, groaning, "Man, I have got to stop hitting things." Hunter looked up, and for the second time that night, he realized he wasn't alone. He looked up and saw a familiar figure from a job he did, three months ago in the always frozen forest. The figure was armed with a crossbow.

Alex was startled by body tumbling towards him, but thankfully, it stopped before Alex needed to dodge it. He kept his aim and looked down. "Hunter Thợ Săn?" he thought.

Alex crouched down a bit lower, adjusting his aim as he went, and whispered in the body's ear, "Hunter, is that you? What are you doing here and who's the guy with the cane-thing?"

Nigrum turned as one of the teens ended up flying or more tumbling down several cars ended up near the other figure that was down there.

He looked back to the other two in front of him the girl now had a knife in her mouth. Fantastic, teen girl is a psyco killer. He looked at the two, he wanted no trouble just to get paid.

"Can we talk inside?" Nigrum shouted at the guard. "Rather than having a shouting match on top of a train."

It would be simple enough. Tell him he had information for the ambassador, give the information and leave. Perhaps he could figure out a way to get the case from the ambassador if the guard wasn't on his back during the meeting. But that was all relevant to them letting him proceed and not arresting him.

((Dontcha just hate when your post fails and you forgot to copy a backup of what you wrote?))

Alton decided it was high time he got himself out from under the train. He couldn't be sure, but he was fairly certain he'd just seen a large bird with metal wings fly past him before slamming into the back of the train. Maybe he was hypothermic, maybe the goo was hallucinogenic, maybe the Grimm were learning metallurgy.

Alton started swinging back and forth, each time farther out, until he was able to get a clear view of the cargo compartment ahead of him. Hopefully, if he reeled himself in with Diadem, the line would come in fast enough that he wouldn't slam into the ground on the downward swing. Hopefully.

"Here goes nothing."

He jumped out, firing Diadem at the cargo car; with a jerk, his body was yanked forward. As he smashed flat into the metal siding of the car, Alton felt the air leave his lungs. Here he was, again, dangling off the side of the train; cold, tired, wet, and gasping. At least he didn't have to hold up his legs, now.

"Hunter, is that you?" ... Alex? "What are you doing here and who's the guy with the cane-thing?" Yup. It's Alex.

Hunter got up fast, immediately switching Metaruhōku from Wing Blades to Buster Blade, taking a defensive stance about three meters away from the caboose guy while slowly positioning himself between the boy with the crossbow and the girl with his knife.

"Yeah, it's me, Alex." Hunter shouted over the wind. "It's your old co-worker Huntsman Hunter Thợ Săn, taking a merry little train ride to start a new year at college." He took a quick glance behind him. Seems like Chiu and the guard got the Ice Duster to surrender. But the flailing cable guy... Looks like he's failing horribly to board.

"Now, your turn. What are you doing here, Alex? Do you know who that guy with the grappling cable? Are you planning to loot the train? Because if so..." He switched to holding Metaruhōku in attack mode. "I'm gonna make sure you get arrested like the guy on the roof."

If confronted on it Chiu would have admitted that she might, might, have been a bit over zealous in her pursuit of justice. But only a bit, and only if someone made her. Luckily no one was.

The suspect was facing them. A pole of some kind, probably his weapon, was embedded in the roof.
"Can we talk inside?" He called out to them. While she was disinclined to acquiesce to his request, Chiu figured it was probably not her decision to make. Grasping Hunter's knife in her right hand she looked to the guard. "If you ask me Cap I say you check his ticket. No ticket? Send him flying."

Myren edged his way cautiously towards Nigrum, alert for any sudden movements

"if you ask me Cap" - I'm not a captain
"I say you check his ticket" - I'm not a train conductor
"No ticket? Send him flying" - I'm not a murderer.

"Fine" He yells. "Let's talk. there's an empty car, just ahead" He then retracts Mirmigi, and launches it again at Nigrum's outstretched arm, looping the chain around his hands and pulling them tight together.
"Just a precaution, you understand"

Turning to Chiu, He shouts. "Miss, please retrieve the intruder's cane, and the knives that your brother left embedded in the roof there" They must be related He'd figured from their similar outfits.

"If you ask me Cap I say you check his ticket. No ticket? Send him flying." The girl said to the security guard. Oh please no, oh please no. If that happens I'm gonna be in trouble with two sets of people not just one.

"Fine" the guard shouted, "Let's talk. there's an empty car, just ahead." Before Nigrum said anything the guard had launched an ants head at him. It wrapped a chain around his arms attaching him to the guard. The ant's head then opened it's jaw and clamped shut on his wrists. Nigrum let out a grunt of pain. "Just a precaution, you understand."

"Miss, please retrieve the intruder's cane, and the knives that your brother left embedded in the roof there" The guard shouted to the girl.

Nigrum sighed, not wanting to let the Panther go and be in the hands of some stranger. "Lead the way officer" Nigrum shouted to the guard walking towards him. Okay, this is good. Just have to explain why I'm here. Simple, I've made harder lies in the past.

OOC: Myren, feel free to drag Nigrum into the next car as it will make it much easier to advance the thread. He should stick the landing though when they get down from the roof though.

Not waiting for Chiu's response, Myren began carefully walking back to the front of the carriage. The chain linking him to Nigrum remains slack as Nigrum follows. upon reaching the front, Myren knelt, gripping the edge of the roof as he swung himself down, dropping with a heavy thud. a moment later, Nigrum simply hopped down, his landing far lighter and more graceful.

Myren opens the door to the empty car, and motions for Nigrum to enter. He quickly crosses the compartment and locks the far door before lighting the lamp that each carriage has in the corner.

"Now then, lets start off with something I'm pretty curious about. Why exactly were you trying to get into the locked cargo car?"

Alex took out a card and held it between the index and middle fingers of his left hand. The card read: "Talk to the Ambassador about the train's cargo and report in via radio. Failure to do so before the train's last checkpoint will result in a certain Ambassador's untimely death." He slowly reached over to Hunter and handed him the card, trying not to lose sight of his crossbow's target.

"I'm trying to keep this operation as clean as possible." he added, hoping Hunter would understand that Alex himself wasn't a threat. He couldn't possibly fathom what information about the train's cargo would help with, but a job was a job. What was strange, though, is that the employer's insignia, which was stamped onto the back of the card, was one that Alex hadn't seen before.

Chiu hadn't realized how naked she had felt without Lunar Lotus at her side until it was back in her hands. She was standing outside the compartment the guard had escorted the suspect into. She positioned herself with her back to an empty compartment across the aisle and to the left of the impromptu interigation room. The tight confines made drawing her swords next to impossible, so instead they were crossed in front of her, bellies down with the flat of the blades against her knees.

Hunter's knife was tucked into her sword belt and the suspects...thing was propped against the wall to her right. This placed her between the suspect and his weapon should anything go down. Although she had a feeling the suspect in with the guard was not the one she needed to be worried about.

She had seen two shadows board the train. She was certain of that. If the boy in with he guard was one, where was the other?

ooc: from the sound of ThePrinnyDood's post we might need someone for an NPC...

ic:

Nigrum looked around the empty train car. The seats looked comfortable and appear to have the ability to lean back and be a make shift bed.

"Now then," The security guard began drawing Nigrum's attention, "lets start off with something I'm pretty curious about. Why exactly were you trying to get into the locked cargo car?"

Nigrum drew in a breath, lots of explaining ahead he thought. "Well my intention wasn't to steal anything in the cargo car I can assure you of that. I hopped onto the train because I learned there would be an ambassador on this train to whom I was suppose to deliver information about The Opposition. And meeting someone at a train station seemed a bit too obvious and I thought a member of The Opposition might be watching. So instead I decided that I should just hop on the train part way along it's route and give him the information." Nigrum paused to take in a breath. "And as for the locked cargo car I crashed onto the flat car when I jumped on and was coming this way to look for the ambassador. I wasn't expecting a locked car along the way." He looked at the guard's face to see if he believed him, conveniently for Nigrum 90% of what he was saying was the truth, plus he was good at lying.

"So, if you could take me to him I can give him the information, and then I'll be on my way. Infact you can even throw me off the train, granted... I would like my cane back before departure from the train, but hey that can wait till after I give him the information" Nigrum finished.

ooc: yes, I did just make The Opposition the official name of the evil group. deal with it.

Alex held out a card, which Hunter cautiously took, still holding up Metaruhōku. Alex and Hunter both worked together months ago guarding a convoy through the always frozen forest. Unfortunately, the convoy was ambushed, but that's a story for another time.

"Talk to the Ambassador about the train's cargo and report in via radio." the card read. "Failure to do so before the train's last checkpoint will result in a certain Ambassador's untimely death." So, Alex was hired to board the train and gain access to the cargo hold, but it wasn't a mission for him rob. But if he wasn't trying to rob, Hunter thought, then what's he gonna do?

"I'm trying to keep this operation as clean as possible." Alex explained. Hunter looked at him. He was still aiming his strangely thin crossbow behind Hunter towards the front.
"If you were trying to learn about the cargo hold, you could have gone and bought yourself a ticket." Circling Alex, Hunter lowered his sword a little, eventually winding up behind him. He looked forward and spotted Chiu and the guard, who was pulling the jumper behind him. "I'll help let you on board, as long as you help me with two things:

One: Give me your weapons.
Two: Capture the guy who's hanging onto the side of the train."


OOC: So I just noticed Hunter Tho San, Alton Asteras, and Alex Broles are all involved in the same story on another ongoing thread that takes place months prior to the train, AND Chiu Fong Wong is Alex Broles' future Beacon teammate. Wow.

"One: Give me your weapons." Alex was hesitant. Though the two of them worked together on a mission months prior, he didn't trust anyone but himself with his weapons.

"Two: Capture the guy who's hanging onto the side of the train." This he could do, but he couldn't do it without his weapons.

"Alright," Alex said, "but on two conditions of my own. First, I expect them back to me once I finish my business with the ambassador. And second, I'm not handing over my gauntlets. Oh, and I won't be able to catch that guy over there without my weapons." This, he thought, would allow him to only hand over War, as Death was neatly concealed as an inconspicuous tube. The only way Hunter would ahve known about Death, is if Alex was forced to take it out back on that first mission. He couldn't remember at the time, so he hoped Hunter didn't either.

OOC: At this time, I haven't shown Death in the Frozen Forest thread, so for now, Hunter doesn't exactly know that Death is a sword. It'll be fair game for Hunter to bring up if I have Alex pull it out, though.

I don't get payed enough for this crap, Myren thought as he listened to his captive's story.
"So let me get this straight. you illegally boarded a speeding train, tried to break into a secure cargo container, and then when you couldn't get in, you decided to walk across the roof, just so you could speak to my employer and deliver some sort of absolutely vital intelligence (as he tapped the case still tied to Nigrum's waist with the tip of his sword) that he couldn't get any other way."

Myren would have been content to sit out the remainder of the trip with this intruder chained up in this car. However, He was not the one calling the shots, Nor was he the one implicated by this should the story prove to be even remotely true.

Sighing loudly, He drew a small device from a pouch on his belt. He pressed a button, and a small screen illuminated as he spoke into it

"excuse me Sir, this is Aeacres. I've apprehended an intruder on the train who claims to have been sent to deliver sensitive information concerning the opposition."

Myren waits a moment as he receives a response.

"He was carrying some kind of cane weapon Sir, but has been disarmed. He is also carrying a sort of attaché case."

"Yes sir. one moment"

turning his attention back to Nigrum, he asks: "what's in the case?"

Alton scrambled on top of the train, heart still pounding from his latest run-in with the Reaper. "If I keep this up, I'll be brushing up with death so often I should start giving him high-fives as a I pass." He'd heard voices up here on top of the car he'd been clinging to during his recovery from the fall; from the wisps of sound he'd been able to make out, Alton knew that there was someone on the train that shouldn't be there, but nothing else was distinguishable over the roar of the wind. The fact that there was currently no one on the train of the car with him was less than reassuring.

Arms raised and feet steady, Alton walked down the roof of the car, looking for an entrance to the main floor.

"So let me get this straight." The guard began "you illegally boarded a speeding train, tried to break into a secure cargo container, and then when you couldn't get in, you decided to walk across the roof, just so you could speak to my employer and deliver some sort of absolutely vital intelligence" the guard tapped the case still tied to his waist with the tip of his sword, "that he couldn't get any other way."

The guard pulled out a small screen and began talking to someone on the other side. Fantastic, that might not work out so well.... He stretched his neck while he waited for the guard to get off the of the call.

"Yes sir. one moment" the guard said. The guard then looked back up at his and asked "what's in the case?"

"Well sir, the case does not contain and weapons or explosives. What it does contain however is recordings from meetings of The Opposition, as well as pictures of their prototype weapons and some pictures of their maps." Nigrum spoke confidently, it had been the hardest information to acquire for them. But his jobs with The Opposition allowed him easy access to the information, much easier than if he had to do the spying stuff that was originally asked for. "You see, I'm an undercover agent."

Nigrum stopped, that was all there was to it. The case was information... unless... "Additionally," he began calmly, "some of the information to go with the maps and weapons isn't in the case but rather in my head. So I need to explain it to the Ambassador."

OoC: yeah, at this rate we're gonna need someone to be the ambassador

IC:

great. espionage, undercover agents, and secret meetings.
"yeah, not getting payed nearly enough for this" Myren mutters to himself.

He relays Nigrum's response through his device. after a moment he gets his orders.

Myren moves over to Nigrum, quickly frisking him to ensure he doesn't have any concealed weapons. convinced he is clean, Myren detaches Mirmigi from Nigrum's arm and retracts the chain.

"He'll see you now."

Myren stands and marches to the front of the car, unlocking the door and sliding it open. He folds his sword into the shortsword configuration, but doesn't sheath it.

"Alright," Alex said, "but on two conditions of my own. First, I expect them back to me once I finish my business with the ambassador. And second, I'm not handing over my gauntlets. Oh, and I won't be able to catch that guy over there without my weapons."
"..." Damn. Hunter thought. I messed up my wording AND my plan. "Fine. Hold onto your weapons, but after we capture the cable guy, you have to give them to me. Now, let's go." Hunter sprinted past Alex, and started jumping over the train cars towards the cable guy, sword in hand. Cable guy seemed to be trying to get down from the roof.

He shouted the command "BLAZE!" Instantly Metaruhōku burned a red-hot flame. "Halt! Hands up where I can see them!"

OOC: So this is train car # 3?

Alex watches as Hunter sprints over to the car that the stray is on. "Well this has certainly turned out to be an interesting mission." Alex thought to himself as he followed Hunter, crossbow still at the ready.

"BLAZE!" shouted Hunter, as his sword produced a giant flame. "Halt! Hands up where I can see them!"

Alex had his crossbow aimed at the straggler's feet with the white-tipped ice bolt at the ready, preparing to shoot of the person tried to run.

((OOC: Yes, we're currently on Cargo [3]))

"BLAZE!"

"FIRE. HOT. BAD."

Alton almost paused as the deja vu washed over him, but this was no time to delay. It was the pyro from a few months back - they were on the same train? Alton made a mental note to not just kill the Fates, but do so slowly, for they were definitely trying to do the same to him. The pyro stood across the gap in the cars from him, flames running up and down the length of his sword.

"Halt! Hands up where I can see them!"

"What a deliciously appropriate choice of words."

Alton didn't know why this guy was here, but he doubted that flamesword-guy had forgotten their little exchange. Nevertheless, Alton raised his hands - to shoulder height, still in usable range.

Spoiler:

"Fine ev'nin for stroll, eh?"

The security guard patted Nigrum down to check for hidden weapons, something Nigrum hadn't considered taking along with him ever. The guard removed the chain from around his wrists freeing him. Nigrum rubbed his wrists, the chain was a bit painful.

"He'll see you now." The guard said walking to the front of the car and sliding the door open.

Nigrum glanced to the girl sitting a few seats back from where he was questions. "Take good care of Panther till I'm back" he said to her and walked off to the door.

He entered the cross way between cars, taking in the night air for a second before sliding open the door and stepping into the Ambassadors car. [7] "Greetings Mr. Ambassador, pleased to meet you. I'm Nigrum and I have some information I think you're going to like very much." he said walking over to the Ambassador who looked to have downed at least half a bottle of wine during the trip.

Chiu still didn't exactly trust the young suspect, but she didn't follow as the guard took him to see the ambassador. Besides, the farther he was from his weapon the harder it would be for him to kill the ambassador with it.

OOC: I'm still following along, just not much for Chiu to do.

OoC:

Just to let everyone know, Hunter, Alex, and Alton met before in a different thread. That thread is still ongoing, and they're all currently fighting too, just like here. I don't know how to go on here because what happens next on cargo car 3 depends on the other fights events.

ooc.

well this entire thread seems to have ground to a resounding halt, and the NPC request board is turning up nothing. so perhaps it would be best if one of us took on the temporary roll as ambassador, for the limited time that he is necessary. i'll do it if nobody wants to, though some idea's on where this story should go would be greatly appreciated.

OOC:
I can happily say that Hunter, Alton, and Alex have now seen each other's faces in the Frozen Forest. Let the battle continue here!

IC:
"Fine ev'nin for stroll, eh?" The cable guy said. Hunter froze. That voice... I know that voice. The stowaway's silhouette against Metaruhōku's flame looked familiar as well.

Hunter quickly switched to holding Metaruhōku in a defensive stance, covering as much of his body as possible as he looked at the boy who had his hands raised.

"Alex, take a good look at this guy. Doesn't he look like the one who attacked the convoy three months ago, pulling a stunt that killed two civilians, hospitalized fifteen others, and most importantly, tried to kill us?"

ooc: yeah, I'll make a post tomorrow Myren and take control for this point since Nigrum is the one interacting with him at the moment.