Society of Justice 3: Crisis on the Earth

[RBMidknight]

Taryn walked upstairs and paused by the bar. She briefly debated sitting down but then decided to head out to the ship. As she stepped outside Taryn noticed Garrus and Leland were already on their way to the Merriweather. She waved to the the men as she entered the ship, making her way to the front of the cockpit quickly. Taryn went to the pilot's chair and sat down. She frowned in confusion as the chair seemed to be different. 'Oh...whoops.' Taryn switched to the co-pilot's seat and made herself comfortable. Wanting the ship to be a bit warmer she altered the temperature dial and punched in the code for the pre-flight sequence.

 

[Lefthandofgod]

Steven slowly came to the realization that he was in his own body again. His second realization was that he was back in his own liver again.

"YES!! OH FUCK YA! THERE IS A GOD!" He might have had a more coherent first sentence, but he was currently lost in the liquor. Some people got drunk, others choose to get wasted. Steven McPhearson's goal was to drink to the point where he would be so far away from sober he was approaching it from the other side.

 

[socialtangent]

Levi made his way into the Merriweather's cockpit as Taryn settled down into the co-pilot's chair and sat down at his own spot in the pilot's chair. He settled down in the familiar seat and saw that Taryn had already started the pre-flight checks. Gauges and bars began reading moving, and eventually settled to within normal levels. After the others finished their round of drinks, they entered the Merriweather, having to drag Steven in due to his extremely inebriated state. Levi noticed that he also seemed to have pocketed the majority of Mordtoten's liquor cabinet, judging from the various bottles in his hands and dangling from his person. Shaking his head, he powered up the Merriweather's engines and set her on a course to the Promenade. After a short, uneventful flight, Levi brought the ship down in the surprisingly untouched hangar of the Promenade. "Okay, people. We have a bit of a mess to clean up..." he said as he lowered the boarding ramp.

 

[elementsoul]

Tyson quickly made Brian his drink before chugging his own down. Why must I always be forced to commit this sin against drinking when I get glass of a really nice scotch? Tyson headed back to the ship and soon they were back at the base. Tyson held up rushing in as he remembered something he forgot to clear up. Tyson turned back to Richard and said, "Before we rush in there I wanted to clear something up from before that was unclear. When I said they could have a super powered army. I was referring to the fact that they could make an army of soldiers with not only my power, but with the powers of everyone else in my former team as well."

 

[blaze96]

"That would be a serious threat to global security, I will admit. For now though, let's focus on what it is we plan to do once we get inside the Promenade. We can speak of ill omens and horrific outcomes of possible situations another time." Richard replied, obviously already thinking of a plan which he wasn't particularly fond of.

"I say we just go for the direct approach and be done with it, no more sneaking around, no more hiding." Lillian replied.

 

[socialtangent]

Levi had to grin at Lillian's suggestion of simply rushing in. Expressing disapproval of the idea would be entirely hypocritical, because he was known for simply running headfirst into battles. "I'm going to agree with Lillian. We should get in there, hit them hard and fast, and flush them out while we still have the element of surprise," he said to the group.

 

[RBMidknight]

'Well it'd be nice if it wasn't a blind approach.' Taryn thought. Shifting in her chair she powered her computer on and flipped a switched to activate the ship's row of monitors lined up across the upper wall. Once the monitors flickered on Taryn pulled up the feeds from the security cameras. The feeds cycled slowly from screen to screen - as there were only four monitors and several times that cameras.

'At least there is still power.' Taryn noted. The amount of destruction was terrible. Taryn shook her head and silently swore to upgrade her alarm system. 'If we'd gotten here sooner...maybe it would have made a difference.'

Taryn looked down at her computer and scanned the available cameras. Her room's video feed, set on a private loop, seemed to be offline. The technopath frowned and hoped that her room wasn't completely destroyed. At least, there were a few items that she hoped remained. 'I wonder if...there!' Taryn activated the lounge feed and sent it to one of the middle monitors.

"Who is that?" she asked quietly, pointing to the screen. A disheveled young man was sprawled on the lounge floor. A broken Guitar Hero controller was next to the motionless body. And...'Is that a bird sitting on top of him?' Taryn tilted her head trying to identify the feathered creature.

 

[tsatoma]

"That...looks like Nuke," Garrus chimed in as he looked at the lounge video feed, "To be more precise a beaten to a bloody pulp Nuke."
"I figured that'd be the way he'd go...though I also imagined that it would have been in a dark alley after he moved on to hard drugs and was trying to score some and- oh hey I recognize that cute widdle birdie anywhere," Leland said before walking over to the opened boarding ramp and whistling loudly. The monitor showed Talbot perking his head up before flying out of view, arriving at the Merriweather after half a minute and into his owner's arms.

"Aww, how are you little fella? Did you beat up Nuke? I bet you did something to him," Leland cooed at the cold unamused bird, hugging him tightly.
"Well unless Talbot decided to beat him with the Guitar Hero controller I think it was someone else..." Garrus said, shaking his head at the damage he saw, "Anymore feeds that can show us if anyone is still there Taryn or are we clear to head in?"

 

[RBMidknight]

Taryn looked cautiously at the bird before pulling her laptop in front of her.

"Let me check." she replied to Garrus. Taryn stopped the cycling monitor feeds and opened several windows on her laptop. She quickly ran through the security feeds three at a time. She skipped the duplicates - cameras that were the same room but a slightly different angle. After several minutes the technopath spoke up again.

"We're all clear." Taryn told Garrus. 'I wonder where everyone went.' she thought. Though she was more concerned about the wreckage left behind. Standing up from the co-pilot seat Taryn shut her laptop and slid it into her jacket pocket. "The only person inside is Nuke." she added pointed to the lounge feed that was still up.

 

[socialtangent]

Levi examined the feed from the lounge curiously, his eyebrow raised. It seemed that the Union had completely left, save for an apparently inert Nuke. "I find it a bit strange that the Union would just suddenly pack up and leave..." he thought aloud, stroking his chin. After a moment, he continued. "The security feeds say we're clear, but I still think we should be careful, especially with Nuke just laying there, he added as he stood up. Levi straightened his vest, fixed his gloves and looked around. "If there's no objections, I think we should get going".

 

[CounterAttack]

"Why would they leave all of a sudden? I'm not sure I know of any reason they'd want to just up and go like that," Rowan mused aloud. "Could they have gotten a call from someone back at their own base? I'm assuming they have one, of course. Or maybe their boss - No, Major Crime was there as I remember from overhearing you guys. Heck, I have no clue why they'd leave. But then, I'm less experienced than you guys when it comes to the Union."

"Yeah... yeah, I'm confused too. You'd think they'd take advantage of our situation in addition to our absence from the Promenade," Katie added. "But yeah, I'm with Levi. We should get in there, see if Nuke is okay - maybe patch him up - and the try to fix up the place as best we can."

"Wait, what? Did you just say... patch him up?" Rowan shot a look at Katie, confused. Even with his vast knowledge of clichés from things such as games, novels and film, he didn't get it. "Sure, I know the whole 'live to fight another day' thing, but this guy is on the same side as your - our - greatest enemy, Major Crime."

"If we kill Nuke, that makes us no better than the Union. If we hold him hostage, they'll probably just raid the place again, maybe even take out a couple of us. We may as well let him go, maybe even help him to recover if he needs it," Katie explained. "He's clearly in no condition to fight or negotiate in any sense."

"Ah, I guess you're right. Still, he might make a good bargaining chip..." Rowan trailed off, knowing he was beaten. With that, he got up and started for the access ramp. Amused by the concept, Katie stood as well, though she moved to stand with Leland instead. "Sure, a bargaining chip. Provided, of course, he's honourable enough to not blow the place up," she said sarcastically.

"I heard that," Rowan called over his shoulder.

 

[Pm0n3y]

After gazing upon the security cameras with the others, Jason and young Marrissa make their way down the access ramp.

"You were in there last, Mar. What do you think might've happened?" Jason asked

"Well, Major Crime did say something about beating the crap out of Nuke if he beat him at Guitar Hero...We could only assume the worse from there..." She answered thoughtfully.

"Sounds like someone is a sore loser." Erebus added.

"Also, the reason they left was because they got bored. We all did, actually. You guys took too long to show up. Funny how the hosts were late to their own party." She said to those that listened, crossing her arms.

"Speaking of which, since Nuke's in there knocked out, what do we do with him? Just toss him in a dumpster somewhere? Keeping him around for the time being wouldn't be the best idea in the world, seeing as he'll probably be a bit mad once he wakes up." Jason asked.

 

[elementsoul]

"If you kill a person who aims to kill civilians than you are nowhere near the same as them Katie," Tyson shot out and then continued on. "However his fate isn't my decision. Plus seeing as he's still alive, I'm sure asking him a few questions about where they took our things wouldn't be out of the question if we drugged him up a bit."

Tyson started walking towards the Promenade and stopped as something came to him. "Also, why are a few of you talking about letting him go? Don't we have a prison or containment area that can hold these criminals so they aren't a danger to society?" Tyson asked.

 

[NeoAC]

"Yeah that actually seems like a pretty good idea there, eh?" Brian commented as he walked out with the group, still clutching the final bottle that he took from the Professor. If he didn't have a hockey stick and there was some trouble that the Society didn't know about, he was going to bring in a weapon. Even a makeshift one would do.

"I mean, I don't think it would be a good idea to just let him go back. Besides, if that guy is willing to put this guy here into a coma just for beating him at a game, they really can't care about him all that much, can they?"

 

[tsatoma]

"We have some confinement cells in the basement that can be used to hold him in, not sure if any of them are 'blowing-up' proof. We'll patch him up before we put him in there though. Not sure if he has any information but he might," Garrus said as he walked through the broken entry doors into the main hall.

"We really need a back entrance; maybe an underground one or something like that," he muttered, picking up some of the broken pictures and moving them to the side.
"Heheh back entrance," Leland chuckled, getting ordered by his brother to stop that and head for the lounge to check on Nuke, "Roger that."

"

Beep

Beep brrrrm," Ethan asked Garrus, before remembering Garrus had no clue what he was saying. Instead, the visor showed:

Has the Promenade ever been this destroyed other than during the Omoi Incident?

"Well during that time it was practically totally demolished...I think the only other time was during that whole Brink of War saga way back when," Garrus replied as he swept up some of the glass to make walking around a bit safer.

 

[CounterAttack]

"He's not exactly in any position to go round killing civilians right now," Katie said quietly to herself as she followed Leland. She figured that Tyson would have another response for that comment and not wanting to get into an argument with her teammate, so she just dropped it altogether to avoid a debacle. She hated arguments and infighting.

 

[tsatoma]

"He'll be easy enough to deal with. Even if he could attack we would be able to stop him before he did anymore damage to the Promenade," Leland said, letting Talbot go onto his shoulder as they walked through the museum.

"Hey at least this is still good, hopefully we can still get some revenue through the tourists to help pay for the rebuilding," he told Katie with a light chuckle. "Hmm with all those walls that were knocked down perhaps we can expand some rooms or maybe add things in too. Anyways let's just go and deal with Malcolm right now," he said as he opened up the doors for the lounge hallway.

 

[socialtangent]

Levi cautiously entered the lounge, looking around to see if anyone was still there. Just as the security feeds showed before, it was entirely deserted save for Nuke, who lay on the ground next to a broken plastic guitar. Approaching the unconscious man, it was apparent that he took a severe beating. "I'm no doctor, but he looks pretty bad. This has Major Crime written all over it," he said to the others. "...and speaking of doctor, where is the Doctor anyways?" Levi still found it odd that despite working here for so long, nobody knew the Doctor's name, or anything else about him besides the fact he was a doctor.

 

[blaze96]

"We could always just, you know, throw nuke outside. I'm sure he'll be fine soon enough but I'm not about to put hospital staff through his brand of excitement and fun. I saw enough of that when I saw the myriad explosions from riding the APC. I mean, two years later and they are probably still finding craters he caused. Liking Michael Bay doesn't help things but still. As for the doctor, I don't particularly care, he'll show up sooner or later, he always does." Richard said as he walked through the at once untouched and ruined room.

"I say we just call the cops and have nuked removed while he is out cold. Hopefully they can store him somewhere, even if it is a building that will collapse on him if he so much as breathes too loudly." Lillian said as she walked in with Renton after making sure nobody but them were in the building.

 

[RBMidknight]

Once all of the team members disembarked Taryn sent a series of commands through her computer to tell the ramp to pull back up. Once the ship was secure Taryn followed after Levi. As she walked through the Promenade she made a note of places that needed cameras, and stronger security measures. Taryn entered the lounge in time to hear Levi question the Doctor's whereabouts and Richard give a response.

'Hrmm...' Taryn didn't recall seeing the Doctor anywhere in the feeds. "Someone could check the infirmary." she suggested. Taryn still found the Doctor a bit creepy so she didn't volunteer for the job.