Outskirts of London

[Sokuren]

"Family, eh?" at this point Sokuren gets quiet for a few moments, staring at the part in his hand before putting it back into storage. "Well, If it's my help you want, consider it given, for what it's worth."

Reactivating the facemask and visor on his helmet and taking out his buster pistol again Sokuren turns to Maya
"Ready whenever you are, I'll follow your lead, i'm not really good in these kinds of situations. And if we make it out of this alive, I would be happy to teach you a few tricks about repairing things if you like."

[rumor]

The standoff between Max and the FX unit would last forever to the human (though it was closer to two minutes), before two of the three reploids came stumbling in behind the Chaser, still rubbing their eyes from Sokuren's eariler distraction.

"Gah that little....wait a minute, i'm picking up a cloaked signature nearby..."

At the sound of this Max mumbles something resembling a certain bodily by-product and turns, running out of the alleyway.

Gotta lead them into a more advantageous situation...Hmm?

Before he can fully turn the corner, Max spies both the other guy and...a teenage girl with cyber elves? through the wall-door. Skidding to a stop, he realizes that they are for the moment, unknown. He also knows that to run means that they will be discovered....

....

Decloaking his face, so that all parties within the ruined building can see him, he silently mouths out "I'll distract them, go the other way." and recloaks, turning and running full tilt towards his now three foes, all the while the joes are still thrashing about.

I hope this works. I just need that headless monkey to leap at me...

[kehaul]

"That's a resounding IF!" Maya shouted at Sokuren, taken aback by the sudden appearance of a human, or perhaps another like her? She did not fire at him though, secure in the knowledge that he had not fired upon her first.

"Akiko!" She moved her finger in a beckoning motion towards herself.
"Yuki!" She motioned towards Sokuren.
"Zephyra!" Maya held her palm upwards to the creature. As if on cue, it took for the air. In one swift motion, it was already resting itself upon Maya's outstretched hand. It then shifted in transfer from top to bottom, but at such a rapid pace that it may as well have been a magical disappearance act without the smoke.

Akiko and Yuki neared their respective targets, and transformed into a state of energy that then enveloped them. For Maya, it was a normal experience, every fiber of her being was strengthened, and her energy core switched over to thermal operation. The process was almost instantaneous, as was necessary. For Sokuren though, it was a rather unique and foreign experience, not unlike being invaded by a foreign entity. It was equally quick however, and was not even as much as a needles prick worth of pain.

Maya then charged forth immediately, recovering from the sensation much quicker than Sokuren could have been expected to, for his first time. She did so however, in the opposite direction she had been instructed to do go. "Human! If you're out here, get the hell off the battlefield!" She barked out in indifference to his plan. Her attention was then immediately upon the reploids, who were kind enough to identify themselves as hostile by opening fire upon her. She managed to dive away from the first shot, though it still singed an outer layer of clothing. Twin long barreled pistols, with a caliber just shy of a small cannon phased into her hands. She then stood resolute in place and exchanged fire with them. Thermal incendiary plasma rounds splayed high; the first impact hit one in the face with enough force to snap its neck back. He then crumpled to the ground clutching his face in pain as the plasma and heat energy combined quite literally ate his face off. The missed rounds struck a wooden backdrop, which quickly erupted into an inferno of flames.

Herself, she stood braced and quite still; the backlash of both her weapons being firing at once demanded so. The remaining two reploids were now trained fully on her, seeking revenge for their injured comrade. Energy rounds struck her small form, searing through cloth and flesh. She did not however, succumb at all. For what lied below her synthetic flesh was a far cry above in resistance. Her own accuracy was quite poor, as it appeared she was in fact aiming for a non-lethal takedown shot to the face; a far smaller target than center-chest. A weak act on the battlefield...

Or perhaps she was aiming high in the expectation that a certain someone had not heeded her advice, and did not wish to injure him instead.

[rumor]

The other reploid would continue to fire...

before his hands went to his neck as if something was wrapped around it. Decloaking Maya would see the human she had ordered off the island spin the reploid around with his weapon, before slamming him head first into a wall, making his neck crunch inwards several inches and causing him to stop moving for the time being. Releasing him from the wrench's grip he finally puts a merciful end to the two thrashing Joes, firing off a shot each into their chests to detonate their cores. The final reploid would turn to face Max but would be greeted by a enhanced punch to the face, smashing it in and removing the artificial being's ability to see. As he cries out, Max follows with a boot to the back of his neck, sending enough force through his spinal cord that he drops to the ground unable to move for a brief period...

It would appear that taking life is not the human's goal as his gaze turns to the girl, a smile present on his face.

"No offense little lady but I've still got a task to finish before I can comply with that order. But thanks for the assist, I owe you one. Especially since you aimed high just for little old me."

Returning his weapon to it's standard form, Max hits the Chaser into a wall, causing the already weak structure to shatter and sent the unit flying into the opposite building, from looks an old bank.

"This one is mine. While you may have more firepower than I do, I still have some tricks up my sleeve. There ought to be more Joes nearby, prepare yourself for that..."

And Max hopped into the new door, stopping one last time to gaze at the girl for a moment. She LOOKED like a teenager, but he had see her clearly get shot and seemingly not care. A reploid this one. And a tough one at that. This knowledge made Max laugh before speaking again...

"It's rude of me to not give a lady my name. I'm Max. And I have the feeling i'll see you later Miss Reploid."

Giving a polite nod, Max heads inside only to find that the Chaser unit is not where it had landed moments ago.

Shit now we go into monster movie mode. *sigh*

Walking to the center of the room, Max takes a fighting stance and speaks in a loud voice, making echoes throughout the huge empty room.

"All bite no action. You want me lizard boy, come get me."

[Raeone]

"Keep me posted, Pallette, where was that disturbance...?"

A tense exhale escaped a reploid that gently skimmed the Thames, wing verniers and foot thrusters alit as a pretty, blue reploid made her way along through London. Enough reports had come her way about a possible disturbance within London, a place Winter was near, on a reconnaisance objective near the city... something about fighting erupting.

If I can get there before Neo Arcadian forces... went through Winter's head as she skimmed by a docked, empty boat that rocked in her wake, shooting upward into the night sky, finally getting a report and spotting a dust cloud not far off.

"There!" With a kick of one thruster wing, she's shot off into the direction of the disturbance, making her way to the ground and skidding onto it to a halt, blue eyes beginning to look around outside and near the building.

[rumor]

Suddenly the unit would answer, again performing a back attack, booting Max into the opposite wall, causing him to drop his wrench, which made a resounding CLANG as it hit the floor. Activating it's drill again it attempts to make a new air hole in the human's head but Max ducks in the nick of time, throwing a punch to send his assailant back.

My back's killing me. It's going to affect my strength, so I need to finish this NOW.

"COME ON THEN!"

The Chaser springs forward and Max leaps upward and over the advancing drill, landing on the machine's "Back". Clasping his hands together and mustering all the strength he can along with what his enhancers can pump out he hits the FX unit with all his might and sends it straight into the floor with a loud WHAM! He continues to land blow after blow into the body of the unit attempting to force a shutdown...

[Raeone]

Footsteps began to clink against the old cobblestone. Winter's right arm reached behind her as a weapon was grabbed, her rifle, pulled off her back as she began to dart around the corner, pressing against a building.

The yell was heard, as her eyes closed. Great, it IS a fight... she mused, giving a brief lick of her lips and a gulp before running further along the pavement toward the hole created through the fight, when one of the folks were thrown through. Winter found herself levelling the gun into the hole, before the fight fell into her sights.

With a click, the gun was levelled at their general direction. "Both of you, stand down and back off of each other immediately!" she boomed with a forceful tone, one befitting a military-like lady as she exhaled, awaiting their response.

[rumor]

Max would look up, another girl?

"Well actually there's a story here th-BAM!"

The Chaser would again prove more resiliant as it used it's good leg to boot Max off of it and through a teller's window, the human landing with a muffled thud. Determining that it's survival was in jepoardy at the moment it hopped onto the ceiling and quickly drilled a hole through it, becoming gone in a flash...

Afterward the only sound the Hunter would hear was a soft, but clearly annoyed "Yep. For sure regretting it now. Ow."

[Raeone]

"...!" The guy on the ground was another story, unfortunately, a human by the looks of it that probably wasn't going anywhere. What was that robot, though?

"I'm sorry!" Winter blurts out, feeling bad about abandoning the guy before suddenly her wings light up in thrust and she begins to force into the sky, raising at a steadily accelerating rate, trying to see if she could catch up with whatever that 'chaser' was.

[rumor]

"...Yeah sure. I'm fine here by myself....sheesh."

Staggering to his feet, Max walks back to the main area of the room, dusting himself off, and retrieving his wrench.

"Geez if it wasn't for my armor, i'd be SO dead right now..."

That girl was gone. Maybe she could fly?

"Going after the FX...sorry but now it's personal. Boost Up."

And activating his leg enhancers, Max runs out of the bank through the now VERY handy hole and hops onto the same fire escape he had been booted off earlier, hopping from piece to piece until he was on the apartment building's roof, finding the girl floating above the roof, trying to scan for the Chaser no doubt.

Of all the days I forget to bring a hat with me...

"Excuse me miss I don't mean to be impolite, but that guy's still got a date with me at the moment..."

Suddenly down on the street, the other three Joes appear and begin firing, two toward Blaze and one at Maya.

[Raeone]

As footsteps could be heard behind her, Winter's eyes shot a sudden look of shock in their general direction as she flitted around in her spot, swooping up and turning around to face what appeared to be... that human again? Was he cybernetically enhanced?

A soft scowl came over her face, apparent in her eyes and mouth. The rifle in her arms was lowered, held pointed at the rooftop below her. "Forget it. Let me handle this... protecting humans like you is what I was created for." She gave him a brief second of consideration before turning around, floating to the other end of the roof and looking down the streets. << Monitor the phone lines, I've lost a hostile... >> she radios back to HQ.

[Sokuren]

Disoriented after the Cyber elf had done something to him, Sokuren did a quick systems diagnostic to see what had happened to him.

"Woah, what a rush.... Ice and penetration eh? I can work with that."

Jumping out into the street, he quickly spots the group of Joes that remain and moves to a nearby spot with cover, scanning them as he did so.

"Hm, basic Joe model, internals suggest that production set, which probably means that combat AI.... got it" he mutters to himself as he aims his pistol. Firing off a barrage of rapid-fire but low power Ice element shots at the group, spreading the shots among the three, not dealing any serious damage but severely lowering their temperature and partially freezing their joints.

"Right, that should do it, I hope this works"

Using his dash boots to close the distance between him and the Joes, Sokuren pulls out his beam sabre, setting it as a sword, but cranking its heat output to the maximum, he stabs it into the torso of the Joe it the middle, then rips it out sideways into the head of the Joe on the right, while at the same time elbowing the Joe in the middle, which collapses due to the thermal shock in it's primary support structure. However, this gives the third Joe time enough to target and fire on him.

"Ah, Fu-"
Sokuren activates his dash boosters again, but is not quite fast enough. Instead of hitting his head, the shots from the remaining Joe instead hit his right shoulder, causing him to let go of his beam sabre, leaving it in the head of the second Joe. The impact on his shoulder also throws him off his intended course, causing him to land on his back and drop his pistol in the process. Skidding along for a few feet before managing to stop himself, he looks up at the remaining Joe as it takes aim at the now disarmed Reploid.

[rumor]

However this would be stopped as Max once again drops from above and lays a blow on the Joe's head that smashes it, the body dropping to it's knees and then to the ground moments later, as Max holds out a hand...

"Nice moves there. Need some help?"

He HAD wanted to say something to the Hunter girl but felt he'd had been rude enough for today.

[trueblaze]

Now Blaze was more than a bit confused. A moment ago he had been staring death in the face, now it seemed nearly an entire army had joined the fight and those he had been fighting were suddenly on the run...well sort of, the dead don't exactly run that fast after all.

After the show down with the FX, Blaze had decided to take a moment to clear his head. Crouching in a corner, he had applied some medical salve to his wounds and attempted to repair his broken gauntlet. By the time he had, it seemed the fight was all but over. All six Joes appeared to be dead, the three reploids were no where to be scene, and that Chaser was probably destroyed by now. Though the fighting seemed to stop, Blaze couldn't help but feel he had forgotten something. Oh well, it was probably nothing anyway.

Peeking his head around the corner, just to be sure that nothing was going to jump out at him yet again, Blaze spotted the humanoid scavenger, an odd looking young girl, and the mechanic that had saved him earlier.

"Um...hay guys," Blaze said as he opened his visor and removed the mask. Scratching his scar unconsciously in embarrassment he continued. "Ah, thanks for the help. I was really beginning to think I was a goner there for a moment. I can't really pay you guys much if that's what you were helping out for, but I suppose I could treat you all to a round at the tavern once I finish my job....Except for the kid...um....mayby milk and cookies instead...or something. Well ah," Suddenly Blaze paused noticing something for the first time. "My...that is an awfully big shadow. There's something standing behind me isn't there....I forgot about the anthro didn't I."

Suddenly a large humanoid hand grabbed Blaze by the head lifting him off the ground with the ease of a feather. Spinning him around, the assailant looked him dead in the eye.

Standing between six and half to seven feet stood a large imposing figure. Though still considered an anthro reploid, this particular unit looked much more humanoid than most. He had a large thick torso shaped like the armor of an ancient spartan warrior. His arm and legs were clearly mechanical with slightly larger than average hands and feet. On the back of his arms were long shafts who's purpose could not be identified at the moment. His head, much like his torso, resembled that of a spartan helmet. Although other than the red glowing eyes located in the eye slights, it was clear there was no face under the said helmet.

Narrowing his eyes the large spartan anthro looked into Blaze's. Standing in silence for a moment, it then let out an irritated growl and dropped Blaze back to the ground. Rubbing it's "temple" with it's newly freed hand, it let out yet another sigh turned itself sideways, and looked into the air.

"Spara, to base," the anthro said in a human voice with a slight metallic hum. "Your, not going to believe this. We've got the wrong target." There was a short pause before he stomped his foot into the ground angerly causing the pavement to crack around the impact point. "YES I'M SURE! I KNOW WHAT ZERO LOOKS LIKE AND THIS GUY SURE AS HELL IS NOT HIM." He paused again. "Ya ya, just make sure you find out who gave us this intel. I'm ganna have a long chat with them when I get back. Spara out."

"Spara to recon squad, we have the wrong target. Regroup and prepare to return to base." There was yet another pause. "Spara to recon squad come in....Spara to squad, anyone respond."

A staticy hum could be heard coming from the anthro as a weak humanoid voice could be over heard, "Spara...cough....this is Thain...cough...I'm hurt pretty bad sir."

"Thain where are you? What happened? Report," The anthro responded with clear concern in his voice.

"While circling around, we found...cough...some guy trying to scavenge one of our Joes sir...cough...we attempted to eliminate him, but he managed to set off the Joe's power core. Tom and Lance are dead, I survived. I'm pretty messed up but I should make it...Cough."

"Hang in there, I've already sent word to a recovery team." the anthro responded, this time there was a clear hint of anger along with the concern in his voice. "I'll be there when I can, I've just got a little clean up to do first."

Turning off the com link the spartan anthro turned back to the collection of "heroes". For the first time he noticed the wreckage of what remained of his Joe units scattered among them. Tilting his head toward the group, the could now clearly see his eyes within his helmet. As the two red dots glared at them angerly one could almost swear they could see smoke rising from them.

Meanwhile, as the anthro had his little discussion, Blaze quickly pulled himself up and stepped closer to the group. As the Antro glared at them, the red reploid took a moment to state the obvious.

"Oh by, I think we're in trouble here."

~~~~~~~
Else where:

The Chaser jumped down from where it had been standing stumbling a bit due to it's leg and spinal injuries. This pursuit had turned for the worse it seemed, new targets had appeared, it's injuries continued to mount, and the situation was rapidly turning against it's favor. It was time to fall back momentarily to reassess the situation.

Setting the destroyed Joe unit it had been carrying down on a table, along side it's own head it had collected just moments earlier, it set about it's it's task of field repairs.

Using it's remaining hand it dug inside the Joe pulling out various components. Some were tossed to the floor while others were slotted into either it's "neck" or it's "skull". After a short while it deemed it's task complete. Lifting it's head up it placed it back upon it's own neck. Whirring sounds could be heard within as connections were made and after a second it released it's grip from it's newly refunctioning head.

With that done it quickly set about it's next task. Removing the Joes lower arm portion, it reached inside making some sort of adjustments. Once these were completed, it placed the arm unit over it's missing arm locking it into place. Once again whirring sounds could be heard, and after a moment it began giving it's new hand a test run. First opening and closing it, then turning it into a blaster then back again.

That too completed it prepared to work on it's damaged leg, but before it could begin something caught it's attention. Suddenly the front of it's head snapped shut causing the back to open revealing a second camera eye facing backwards. With a slight snapping sound the joints in both it's arms and legs changed directions effectively allowing the unit to do a 180 degree turn instantly.

Behind him stood what appeared to be some sort of female. Only slightly shorter than the FX, she wore a strange oval shaped helmet with two very large compound eye holes reassembling those of insects. To add to the insect look two antenna stuck out from above these eye curling around to just above here ears. Aside from the strange helmet she wore a light armored, yet sleeveless, vest similar to that of military leather as well as a matching pair of long shorts that came down to just above her calves.

"Easy there, it's just me," The woman said calmly and quietly to the FX. Despite the helmet her voice could be heard clearly.

Nodding slightly, the FX did another 180 turn and went back to work.

Meanwhile, the woman walked to the nearby window. Looking out, she had a clear view of the anthro facing off against the humanoids.

Sighing she crossed her arms over her chest, "It would seem Spara isn't planning on letting this one go." She sighed again. "He never does. We shall wait here for now. I doubt he will need help against foes of their level, but I'd rather not leave the big lug like this."

[kehaul]

Maya stood still for a firm moment after the human named Max had departed. So, he was that kind of human was he? She smiled for a moment, in amusement of the man who seemed not to be a man at all. She then turned to where she expected to find Sokuren, providing cover fire from within the confines of the building, but could not spot him. Fearing the worst, she merely shrugged off the incoming fire, and had run towards the last place she had seen him. She moved at the fastest pace the pitter patter of her bare foot could afford, hopping over a chunk of upturned debris on her way. Only then had Maya spotted him in the last place she had expected, charging into the fray like an honest to god superman, and doing it with style... mostly. She leveled a single weapon towards the remaining Joe, only to watch as its head compacted. It seemed she had found herself some mighty fine companions.

...

A wry expression was plastered all over her face as the most recent turn of events had transpired. The anthromorphic reploid was an absolute behemoth of a foe, especially compared to her own stature. To Sokuren, she could only fathom that the creature he saw in his mind's eye was as an indomitable fortress of a reploid.

"Ya know?" She spoke sheepishly to Sokuren, tiptoeing towards him as to not immediately offend the newest guest to the party. "It just occurred to me that this mighty fine person wasn't after me at all, and well, I really have no idea what's going on right now so..." She paused. "...My bad." She summarily apologized to the reploid she had all but dragged into this mess. "Your original plan's starting to sound better, and well; let's say I take you up on that offer?" She looked hopefully towards him.