Night 46: Sun Room

[arc_wrench]

[from here]

And now it was time for the traditional cautious entry into the Sun Room, the old classic of carefully scanning the area for the enemy that will surprise you anyway, and then the venerable tradition of running in an attempt to not become very lumpy wallpaper.

HK had done this so many times by now, it at least felt like it deserved

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[quickdrawbkiddo]

If HK-47 was so enthused with taking point, perhaps the Bride would enthuse him further by taking point, herself, once they got to the weaponry test. Regardless, it was his own fault for revealing to SubZero that he had thermal vision. It was tempting to get Lugnut to be a literal meat shield, but she didn't care to make use of him for anything other than opening doors.

Once inside the room, Beatrix moved silently, her own eyes casting about for enemies. Including up.

[hailmegatron]

Lugnut followed with equal caution, then asked HK-47 in a voice that could almost be called hushed, "Where are we going?"

[arc_wrench]

"Answer: That way." HK pointed towards the doors to the refueling area, still carefully scanning the surroundings. Just like the female, he remembered to look up this time. Too many meatbags in this room seemed to love making physics cry.

[no_ones_son]

The three who had entered the room had good reason to be wary, though it looked like they were expecting Batman himself to come swooping down at them from the ceiling. Jason was just going to have try real hard to make sure he left a good impression on them. Even if he had to play by the same stupid rules he'd gotten free of years ago, he could still have some fun with them.

When the group had reached the middle of the room he decided to make his presence known. Footsteps thudding dully over the rug, Red Hood casually strolled forward. He stayed back in the shadows for now, so that unless these three had nightvision goggles or something he'd be little more than a shape in the darkness.

Apart from the light gleaming off the pistol he cradled carelessly in one hand. That should be pretty damn easy to see.

Tsking in mock disapproval he shook his head at them, voice muffled by the helmet he wore as he said, "And what are you three doing out and about? It's after dark, all good little crazies should be in bed."

[quickdrawbkiddo]

And there was what they had been expecting. The moonlight reflected off of the gun, catching the Bride's eye, and she automatically reviewed their path in her mind. The gun meant she was going to need to use the furniture (or Lugnut) as cover.

From what she could tell, the man was wearing something on his head, from the distortion in his voice. She chose not to answer him, but continued forward. There was no point in talking; they were not going to change their course at all.

[hailmegatron]

"Just a human?" Lugnut said, a bit disbelievingly. He'd nearly been killed by giant flying things, by rotting humans that refused to die, by Autobots, by Decepticons, by his fellow gladiators when he had fought for a living, back in Kaon, millenniums ago; they expected him to be afraid of a human with a gun?

He snorted and shook his head, lifting the baseball bat to his shoulder and glancing about, looking to see if there was anything in the room that could stop a bullet.

[arc_wrench]

"Irritation: Oh, stop being 'mysterious', meatbag. I can see your heat signature, no matter how dramatic you feel like being tonight. Glowing rather spoils the effect of trying to stay in the shadows." HK probably shouldn't have said that, but frankly, it was something he'd wanted cleared up right now.

And Lugnut appeared to not be on the same datapad as them, whether it came to food or not getting shot. "Statement: They perforate meatbags quite easily. I would advise not trying to pretend otherwise." And oh, how he wanted that gun. Did they really have to run this time? Sigh. He continued forward as well, keeping a distance between himself and the female meatbag so that they could scatter if they needed to start running.

[no_ones_son]

Jason chuckled, shrugging and spreading his hands - keeping the gun trained on the group all the while - as he said, "I was trying for intimidating. Guess I need to work on that." He sized up the group again, weighing up which of the three was going to be the most entertaining. The woman hadn't said anything and she moved like she could be a pro. The big guy... well, he was big. The chatty and most obviously crazy one was at least smart enough to recognise a threat when he saw it.

They hadn't stopped or turned back, but he would've been disappointed if they had given that easily. Time to make his point a little more clear. Flicking the safety off, Jason casually raised the gun and fired off a single warning shot at the feet of the leader of the little group. "That was your only warning. Go back to bed like good little lunatics. No one's escaping tonight." He wasn't allowed to kill anyone - had to keep reminding himself of that or he might 'accidentally' put one through their heads - but garbage like this wouldn't know that.

[quickdrawbkiddo]

The thought of intimidating a couple assassins and apparently a robot nearly seven feet tall amused Beatrix. She almost smiled at that, but kept her cold composure. If their enemy wanted to talk, she was more than willing to let HK-47 trade words back and forth.

When the gun went off, the Bride quickly altered her path to put a couch between herself and the trajectory of the bullet, slipping a knife out to conceal against her forearm during the brief moment the movement would be hidden. A warning shot. That told the Bride a lot. Despite the threat, she did not stop, her mind sorting through the various handguns she knew to gauge the caliber and the clip capacity.

[hailmegatron]

"I know that," Lugnut snapped at HK-47, edging the other direction from HK's human assassin. One gun couldn't shoot three directions at once, after all.

He pointed his flashlight at the human as he moved, to try and catch a look at their foe and judge his strength, answering, "We are not trying to escape, human, and we are not cowards, to flee from a single foe who has yet to prove anything-- besides that he can shoot into the air and hit it."

[arc_wrench]

Well, you could never tell with Mister 'Eating-what-is-this-nonsense-I-don't-need-it'.

HK kept moving, eyes trained on the meatbag. "Affirmative: Yes, you do need to work on that, meatbag. You are not intimidating, and use stereotypical methods to attempt to do so. An entirely unsatisfactory performance." He wasn't even phased by the sound of the shot. It just made him want the gun more.

[no_ones_son]

Good to see the crazies here weren't completely incompetent. The three had scattered at his fist shot, forcing him to choose between three targets. The woman was remaining silent while the other two kept talking, trying to distract him though they weren't doing a very good job at it. He'd done the same thing himself plenty of times before, the banter was easy to keep up even as he made his next move.

"The way I see it, if something works why change it?" Jason started moving again, strolling casually around and angling closer to the woman. She was feeling like the biggest threat here - or it could just be that he automatically targeted the silent, stoic types. Call it a habit.

"But," he went on, "Since you're both so determined I do better, let me try again." As he spoke Jason fired off two shots in rapid succession at the big one, aiming for his shoulder and foot, both non-lethal injuries if they met their mark. "Is that a better start?"

[quickdrawbkiddo]

Finally getting a better look at the man, the Bride was not pleased with what she saw. The helmet, the thick leather... the knife she had concealed was not going to do much against that unless she got up close and personal. She'd prefer to not have to fully engage him. Running was always an option, but without the two with her, her destination was pointless. Running without the others was not an option, even if she timed it right. She also wasn't sure if either would run. HK-47 surely wanted his hands on the gun and Lugnut didn't seem like the type.

Well, she'd see now that he'd been shot at.

[hailmegatron]

If Lugnut had been in his true body, the bullets would have hardly damaged him-- if they had even hit him at all. Perhaps, if he had taken better care of this body, and wasn't slowly starving himself out of hate for it, he would have been able to move faster, and his reflexive dodge away from the attack would have taken him entirely out of the way of the bullets.

But, because he wasn't and hadn't, his dodge-- dropping down and to the side, thumping heavily to his knees-- left him roaring in pain, dropping his flashlight as he clapped the hand to his shoulder. "Slagging organic!" he snarled, hand coming away red, and he surged back up to his feet, taking his baseball bat into a two-handed grip and charging at the human.

The Bride could probably see what Lugnut thought of running, at this point.

[arc_wrench]

Oh, great. Well, it was probably inevitable that this was going to happen. Without Lugnut, they wouldn't be able to open the door, and Lugnut apparently was not keen on leaving until the meatbag was squished.

HK used what little access to his organic subsystems that he had to prioritize speed and agility over strength, and charged for the meatbag, keeping low and ready to dodge. Hopefully, Lugnut's hugeness would be a decent enough distraction to let him get a hit in with his axe, swinging as soon as he was within range. It wasn't as elegant as he preferred, but he was keeping the long knife in his other hand close to guard or try for a second strike.

[no_ones_son]

That was more like it! Jason grinned, unseen beneath the hood and tensed in anticipation as the big one closed in on him. It was a good thing for him that Red Hood wasn't intending on killing anyone tonight - the headlong charge would've made it too easy to just shoot the lumbering idiot in the face and be done with him