IC- Signs of the Underground

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IC- Signs of the Underground

Post by Nazir » Wed Jan 30, 2008 12:19 pm

The fight for salvation from Bug City continues...

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Image Problems!

Post by Nazir » Wed Jan 30, 2008 3:39 pm

The power of the spell unleashed, Nazir relaxes and lets out a low growl.
The sound surprises him and looking down at his own hand he realises that instepping through the barrier from the astral realm to this one, he had forgotten to adopt his human form.
Seeng the apparent concern on the faces of the rag tag group of men on the roof he realised that they had noticed too.

Mentally chastising himself for the omission he forced himself to change into the arabic looking male, his hair shoulder length and beard neatly trimmed, his atire more akin to the nomads of the desert than to the ruins of Chicago.

He made visual contact with the human with the glowing red cybereyes.
'Good afternoon Mr Winter!' the spirit said with a short bow.

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Post by Nazir » Fri Feb 08, 2008 11:46 am

No Entry sat on the edge of the desk and nodded toward the Arab.
"So who the hell is this guy?" he asked Winter.
The solo looked up from his task of refilling magazines with bullets.
"He's a friend of Granite's is all I really know," the human said with a noticeable degree of disinterest.
"Yeah? But can we trust him?"
Winter took in a deep breath as if about to launch into a lengthy monologue, but then let it all out in one long sigh accentuated with a shrug. "Aw man! I don't know! Since Granite left us he's the only person who has shown any interest in helping us." The cyber enhanced human paused to nod at No Entry's bloodied clothes. "He's sorted you out though, hasn't he?"
No Entry looked down at his arm and at the wounds that were no longer there.
A young orc boy, who No entry figured couldn't be a day over fourteen, staggered up alongside the pair and dumped a heavy crate of ammunition on the desk beside Winter.
The boy, Give Way, smiled at the two and wandered away again to fetch another crate.
These crates of ammo were more than likely the reason the Blue Boys were so pissed off with them. They had liberated several crates on their way back from Echo Tower.

Solomon glanced over his shoulder at the human with the olive skin and the neatly trimmed beard. Nazir had some sort of symbol tattooed on his face. "What do they mean?" the big troll asked.
It took a second for Nazir to realise what was being referred to. "Oh, that! They are hieroglyphs. The ones on my cheeks spell out the name of Anubis. The ones on my forehead say "“ Death is not Final. It was the motto of my old legion."
"Like I thought, religious shit. So, you were a soldier?"
Nazir fell silent for a while, concentrating on his spell. Then after the troll's wound had gone, he answered. "Of a sort."

The group were in one of the many offices of the 1st Midwest Bank. They had stumbled into the building's foyer trying to avoid the Blue Boys.
The bank's automated defences, after all this time, were still working and began to repel the intruders, that was until HAL walked in and plugged himself in.
Now, his robotic body sat motionless in the basement, connected to the buildings Local Area Network.
The bank's defences were enough, under the control of HAL to repel the blue boys, and aside from the sudden arrival this morning of the army drones, the gang had enjoyed nearly two days of relative peace.

With the run of the building, virtually untouched since the evacuation of it's employees, the Sign's had discovered the kitchens stocked with dried, frozen and tinned foods. The fresh fruit and vegetables had long ago perished, leaving their foetid odour to permeate everything within the refectory.
They were enjoying their first decent meals in weeks.
All in all, the twenty four surviving members of the Signs Gang were in a good mood.

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The Gathering

Post by arcanus » Fri Feb 08, 2008 11:58 am

While the mysterious figure healed his comrades, his power mending bones, renewing flesh and blood, he and HAL slipped away.

No Entry made his way to the meeting, in the remnants of IGA Supermarket on 83rd Street, surprisingly the entire glass front of the mall was still intact which was more than be said for the inside. The shelves, aisles and furniture had been torn apart in the panicked frenzy of refugees claiming the precious food contents months and months ago.

People had died here, in the melee, the product of human misery. Skeletal remains lay in the aisles, amongst the litter and refuse, as if it were the most normal thing in the world.
"So a, what stops uz from killin youse" No-Entry turned looking at Hispanic ork regarding him. He merely turned as HAL slowly strolled around an end checkout.

Looking back he ignored the ork with bad grammer, and looked at the black clad leader of the 'Illinois Saints'.
The saints were ork/troll gang who fought the fight of Christianity in the South CZ, in being Christian they were every bit as brutal and even murderous as the next gang, they just apologised during evening prayer.

The big black troll stepped in beside him and they walked a distance from the main gang, they made a bizare gathering, each and every one dressed in white winter camoflage, each adorned with crosses and belts of makeshift weaponry.

All apart from 'Hoodlum Priest' their leader, a troll of rare faith. 'Hoodlum' was known from before the CZ, he'd made his place of charity in the 'Shattergraves', leading the poor souls, protecting them from the monsters. His brand of protection was somewhat questionable.

"King Vlad has invited us to join him" said 'Hoodlum'
No-Entry didn't reply, merely looking at the troll dressed in a surprisingly clean and dapper priests garb.
"They are ungodly, no the Children of Judah will not bow before the Philistine"
"We all have our faith" replied No-Entry
"Your no hood ork" observed 'Hoodlum'
"I was a college student, Enviromental Studies" replied No-Entry

"So, your proposing an alliance" said No-Entry cutting to the chase.
"I am" replied Hoodlum "You are being hunted on all sides, it will not be long before the self same hunters turn their hatred upon us"

"Have you heard of The Eighth Regiment Armory?" asked Hoodlum

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Collaterol Damage

Post by Hades » Tue Feb 12, 2008 11:46 am

"Christ!" Solomon blasphemed. "It's fuckin' snowing!"

The dozen members of the Signs gang rushed to the windows of the bank to look out upon the raging blizzard that was sweeping across the city.

"That's a bit weird, even for Chicago!" No Parking laughed.

Solomon glanced over at one of the few humans left in the gang and noticed U-Turn looking concerned.
The troll approached the ork. "What's up U-Turn?"

The ork cast him a withering look. "You do know there's no such sign as u-turn, don't you. No u-turns, yes, but none that actually instruct you to do one."

"Chill out, friend," the big troll grinned, absently scratching at the base of one of his battle scarred horns.

"Sorry Sol," U-Turn said while keeping his eyes on the foul weather outside. "Getting a bit jaded with the whole signs thing. My name's Mac."
Solomon nodded. "I know who you are. Mclarren Hades. Drafted in to the Chicago Bears after a college scholarship, Running Back. Lasted two seasons before you left after a disagreement with the coach. Got into financial difficulties after their lawyers tore you a new one, and got swept up by Chicago Shatters urban brawl team as a scout and reserve outrider. Been with them for three seasons, think you've got a 10.4 seasonal goal average and hold a team record of four games without injury."

Hades looked suspiciously at the troll. "Are you stalking me?"

Solomon raised a single eyebrow and gave the ork a wink, then smirked. "No my friend. I watch the Brawls. I sort of recognised you ages ago. Got the more technical details from this Sporting Journal I found in the lobby waiting room. There's a profile of the Shatters, including you." He held up the data pad and saw Hades wince. The image showed the ork with his face swollen and bruised and his left arm bent at an awkward unnatural angle.
Hades remembered the fracture had hurt a lot.

Another figure joined the two at the window and both meta-human's fell silent. "The weather seems rather unusual," Nazir stated.
"It's freakish is what it is," Solomon clarified.
"It's not the weather," Hades countered.
The troll's body language became defensive at the challenge. "It's snowing outside and you reckon it's nothing to do with the weather. Nice one genius, you've had one brawl too many, Mr U-Turn!"
"Really, Sol. This is not the weather's fault. You need all sort of atmospheric condition to cause naturally forming snow. We haven't had, and still haven't got them."
"What are you now, the weatherman?" Solomon's voiced was raised and dripping with sarcasm.
"He might as well be," piped up Speed Limit, also known as Daniel Smith. "He's got a doctorate in environmental sciences and a bachelor's in meteorology."
U-Turn, aka Mclarren Hades looked embarrassed. "Yeah, thanks for that Smudge!"
Solomon looked genuinely impressed. "I was going to take the piss, but then again, for one of us goblin types to get a doctorate is pretty impressive. I heard you can fail your exam just for being an ork. I thought you went to college under a jock scholarship. What's a brawler doing learning environmental science?"
"I wasn't aiming on being a brawler then. I wanted to be a football star, remember? I had an eye on the future, once my legs were shot and I was passed my prime. Graciously retire and do something useful, even meaningful with my life."
"Who'd have thought it though, U-Turn the brainiac!"
"Will you quit with the U-Turn? Granite's little pet names for us where cool for about five minutes. The appeal and need for them sort of died out when he did."
Nazir glanced at the ork with surprise. "Granite is not dead."

"What?" both members of the Signs Gang asked at once.

"He has been evacuated. A LAV from the Atlantean Foundation took him and his friends out of the city."

"The fucker!" Solomon swore incredulously.

"Were you with him when he went?" Hades asked, slightly more calm than his companion. He got a nod in reply. "Why didn't you go?"
"I stayed with Mr Curren. He had things that needed taking care of in the city before he left and I stayed to assist him. Which is why I am here now. We want to start getting people out of the city. I'd like your help to do it."
"What's the point?" Solomon put in. "Get ourselves shot up for the sake of everyone else, then get shit on again?"
"Easy Sol!" Hades put a calming hand on the big guy's shoulder. It was funny to think that the two had pretty much been mortal enemies until six months ago. Now the ork counted the troll amongst his best friends. It was a funny old world, as the saying went. Who knew where this would lead. Perhaps in getting everyone else out there would be the opportunity to get themselves out too. If not then at least they will have been doing something. Either way he figured it was probably a good idea to hear the Arab out.
However, the gang seem to have adopted No Entry as their defacto leader, now Granite was gone, and he thought his old school friend should be here to listen to the human's proposal.
"Where's Ty?" asked the room but got blank faces in return. Tutting he corrected himself, "No Entry?"
"He left to go to a meeting with Hal," someone said.
"What meeting?"
At that moment Nazir staggered and let out a groan, one hand pressed across his eyes the other reaching out to steady himself, grasping for anything solid.
Solomon reflexively grabbed the proffered arm.
After a moment Nazir seemed to recover. "Something is coming. Something huge, and very bad." His eyes fixed on the window and the unusual storm raging outside. "I will not be long," the human said and with that he began to fade, and then the ghostly image blinked out of existence.

"He's very odd," Solomon quipped. "What's with the invisibility?"
Hades was looking around the room. "I'm not sure he is invisible."
"What's wrong with you today, U-Turn? You're getting close to speaking in riddles."
"Holy shit, look at that!" A voice called out from elsewhere in the room.
They all turned to the windows. A huge black mass writhed through the sky soaring over the Chicago skyscape, snaking its way down the Lake Michigan shoreline.
The gangers crowded around the windows watching the mass get nearer.
A bright shaft arced through the air and struck the mass, then a LAV appeared a short distance off. Searing bright dots erupted from the LAV's weapons tracing a line through the air to the dark shape. The dark shape twitch and recoiled from the onslaught but the gunfire kept coming. Then suddenly the rounds were blasting through the other side.

"Fuck! Look out!" Hades yelled diving on top of the two people to his left.
Suddenly the wall of the bank exploded inward in a deadly hail of masonry and glass.
The room was filled with smoke and dust and the screaming if the wounded.

Hades winced, pulling himself up and looking about himself, ignoring the shard of glass sticking out of his leg. The smell of blood was intense and as he climbed to his feet he slipped on the ichor that was once one of his friends.
Two others were dead, two new guys the gang had picked up on their way here, more fugitives from the wrath of the Blue Boys.
Solomon had been the only one to remain standing. His front was plastered with a thick layer of concrete dust that merely highlighted his dark eyes as he blinked and slowly turned to look at Hades.
The wall a foot either side of him had been blasted to rubble as had large chunks of the floor.
"Jesus, Sol!" Hades said shaking his head in disbelief. "You must be the luckiest bastard alive!"
Multiple injuries and just three dead, the ork considered they had all been lucky.

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Post by arcanus » Fri Feb 15, 2008 4:31 pm

"What the hell was that" spat No-Entry, as he clambered out of the dumpster and shook his mosquito net off of locusts.
[It was Schistocerca americana or The American Desert Locust] replied HAL, very matter of fact, No-Entry gave him a cool, withering look.

They swiftly made their way through the scene from 'Milton', the already bleak streets of the CZ, had snow flurries, dotted with fresh fires and thousands of dead locusts.

Nearing the bank, the odd pair looked at the large hole in the wall
"Fuck" swore NE as he cautiously scrambled across the street, HAL remained where he was allowing his sensors to take in his suroundings.

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Post by arcanus » Mon Feb 18, 2008 9:43 pm

HALs arm shot out, targeted and fired, the tazer struck No-Entry in his arse, sending his body into an imediate spasm and dropping him like a stone.
The somewhat provocative move undoubtably saved Tyrone's life, as a 5.56mm round blew a chunk of ferrocrete out of the road, along a trajectory that would have taken his head from his shoulders.

HAL stepped out, acquired and fired, his shots chewing masonry along his targetted roofline, the sniper suffering grievous wounds to his legs.

HAL strolled out, hoisted No-Entry up and proceeded back to the Bank.

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Roll-Call

Post by Hades » Tue Feb 19, 2008 12:04 pm

Thought this might be a bit usefull:

THE SIGNS GANG

(Format: Gang Name-Race-Notes)
  • No Entry-ork-Tyronne Beggs (Gang leader). Guitarist

    Solomon-troll

    U-Turn-ork -Mclarren Hades. Vocals and guitar.

    Yield (Give Way)-ork-Age 13

    Klaus-dwarf-techie guy

    Speed Limit-ork-Daniel Smith. Physisist and drummer

    HAL-Automaton

    Hump-troll-plumber

    Bus Lane-human-trucker

    Don’t Walk-ork-rigged taxi driver

    One Way-ork-female, nurse

    Road Works-ork-thief

    City Limits-ork-ganger ******RIP******

    Toll Bridge-ork-ganger

    Crossroads-ork-welder

    Intersection-human-teacher

    Ford-elf-teacher

    Speed Camera-human-photographer

    4 Way-ork

    Slippery When Wet-ork-Chip Dealer

    Rough Road-ork
Last edited by Hades on Thu Feb 21, 2008 7:21 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Post by arcanus » Tue Feb 19, 2008 12:36 pm

The Anubian form exploded through the apartment wall, throwing his magical shields up to ward off the deluge of flame that followed.
He attempted to shout over the roar, but instead had to weather further barriage. The huge flame spirit spun, searching for its foe.

An old human habit, but Nazir caught his breath, shifting from his Jackal Headed form to that of an arab and waited.
Ducking from his hiding place, he sent a jet of flame flying into the fiery form, of course in this case fighting fire with fire was a impotent point.
It did however cause the spirit to pause.

"Shalom" he said, as the situation seemed to calm, the huge Salamander stopped and regarded him with feral eyes.
Nazir could see a rawness to its form, this wasn't good, the spirit was turning, he could only guess that the CZ was poisoning it, toxifying it and if this was happening to a creature of such age and power how long would it be for the CZs other spirits including him.

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Asserting one's authority!

Post by Hades » Wed Feb 20, 2008 8:40 am

The cafeteria seemed crowded. Hades guessed everyone was here.
The ex-urban brawler looked at the list One Way had drawn up. It was all that was left of the amalgamation of three gangs when Jim Granite had taken over.
The ork hadn't been sure why the ex-nurse had given him the list, but then, who else was there? Their apparent leader, Ty, had gone off somewhere with HAL.
Solomon, over the last few hours had regressed into an almost vegetative state. If it wasn't for the fact that he was still walking you'd think he was in a coma.
That episode with the wall earlier had shaken the big troll more that McLarren Hades had realised.

The nurse smiled at him as he entered. "How's the leg?"
"It's better. I heal quick, " he replied, trying not to sound rude. The fact was, he was a fast healer, uncannily fast some had said, and he found it easier not to talk about it. People tended to ask less questions.

One Way gave him her stern ward sister look and peeled back the dressing. The look of surprise almost made him laugh.
"It was just a small cut." He saw that she was not satisfied and said, "Let's just leave it there shall we?"
Changing the subject quickly he asked her if Ty was back. After clarifying that he was indeed talking about No Entry he wasn't overly surprised when she answered in the negative.
"Is anyone down guarding the lobby?"
She shook her head. "I've just come from there. Everyone's up here."

Hades didn't like the sound of that. He surveyed the room, looking from person to person. They were sat in groups of threes and fours, chatting , with a few loners lost in their own thoughts. There was no laughter, just the quiet murmur of people deep in conversation. In fact this was a step up compared to how it had been a week ago.
Looking down at the list in his hand, a list that was short by three names, all killed earlier that day.

"Excuse me, everyone," he said in a loud voice. Some of the conversations died down. "Excuse me!"
"Shut up!" One Way screamed, silencing the whole room.
All eyes were now on the young ork and he felt uncomfortable.
Hades took a deep breath, as much to calm his nerves as to clear his head. Just imagine you are on stage, he kept telling himself. It would help if I had my guitar. Then he realised that everyone was still watching him.
"I think there is something you all ought to know," he began and his nerves began to abate.
"The Arab has informed me that Granite and the other runners that were with him did not die in the Aztec Pyramid as we first thought, but were in fact extracted and are now alive and well outside the zone."
There general murmurs along the lines of well done, and nice one.
Then a few seemed to grasp the implications of this.
Hades nodded as many eyes returned to him. "That's right. He is out and we are in, which means we are on our own. There are enemies on every side of us and sooner or later we are going to get shafted. We have to get out of this city, if we don't do it soon, we're all dead. So for those of you who still looked up to our one time leader to return and take us out of here..."
He didn't need to say any more.

After the rumblings of discord settled down, Hades continued, "I don't know where No Entry is at the moment. He could be dead. In his absence we need to get ourselves ready and make plans to move. Every moment we stay here is more time for the Blue Boys or anyone else out there who wants a piece of us to plan an attack. We need to stay alert, and ready to move."
"I want five people armed and installed downstairs, in the lobby. I want another two at the rear fire exit ready for us to bolt if need be. We'll have to work out a shift rotation. We also need to plan our next move and scout out the route. Most of all we need to stick together. One thing we have on our side at the moment is numbers, there's still enough of us to make a formidable foe for any opportunistic groups to think twice. Right, seven volunteers for first watch, please."

There was a moments silence, then a voice piped up. "Who the fuck put you in charge?" It was City Limits, Hades noticed, and his main antagonist since joining with the ork gang over a year ago. He and his flunky, Toll Bridge were the only original surviving members of the Madison Street gang and both were life long gangers who found it hard to shrug that street gang mentality. The fact that the majority of the gang now consisted of everyday people, most of whom used to work for a living before the wall went up, is something the pair rankle about often. City Limits and Toll Bridge (Hades had forgotten their real names) both considered themselves to be next in line for leadership, a fact that most of the other gang members tried to ignore.

Previously Hades would have backed down, not wanting the confrontation. Today, after this mornings events the ork felt as though someone had flicked a switch in his head.
"No one put me in charge, but No Entry isn't here and we don't know if he's coming back, so we need to get some things sorted."
"Like I said," City Limits interrupted, coming to the front and standing before Hades. "What makes you think you're in charge."
His stance and bearing became suddenly aggressive.
Hades knew where this was going, didn't really want to go down this road, but he also didn't know if City Limits had any other backing on this move.
He opted to try and talk through the problem. "I don't presume to take over leadership, I know everyone has more or less agreed that No Entry is the boss now, but like I said earlier, he isn't here."
Again City Limits interrupted. "So why don't you go and sit down and leave the decision making up to someone who knows they're doing."
"Gladly. Who would you recommend?"
"Not you!"
"So who?"
City Limits looked around, knowing that to nominate himself first would be misconstrued as him sulking that he wasn't in charge. "Winter," he said with a smile.
Winter looked up from the back of the room and shook his head. "No thanks, don't do leadership." The human's tone told everyone in the room that his statement was to brook no argument.
It was the answer that City Limits both expected and wanted. "Alright, me then."
"Well I have to admit," Hades said, his voice dripping with sarcasm, "that your plan so far has been ingenious. Gathering everyone into one room to sit and talk and munch your way through our supplies whilst leaving the building unguarded is clearly the work of a moron!"
The urban brawler knew the comment and more specifically it's tone would provoke a reaction, probably physical, and he was ready for it. If putting City Limits in his place, and letting everyone else know that he was of some use could only be a positive move.

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