| From: | Mike Goldberg <m_goldberg@**.COLORADO.EDU> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | A tarnished ring (part 3 -- finale) |
| Date: | Sat, 27 May 1995 15:50:28 MST |
from
Kor's point. I didn't get that team back on footage until the came out of the
building. The same also happened to Death Jestor's team. I can only wonder
what happened. I believe it has something to do with the fact that the whole
matrix team was fighting for there lives at this point, but hey, that is only a
small matter anyway!
+++++ continue transmission
You see the elf, ork and human set up a quick ambush. Doomsday limping and
Fenris start wearily approaching. As they get close to the door, they tense
up. You hear a grunt of pain as Fenris gets tackled by an Ork. Doomsday spins
only to get tripped by the elf. Snarling Doomsday gets up.
The elf sneers and says, "So I get the priviledge of killing the mighty
Doomsday."
Doomsday smiles and says, "Dream on tooth-pick."
They start carefully circling each other. They seem to be weighing the
approaches. In the back ground you can see the human move over to get a better
look at the ork and Fenris fight. You note, that Fenris is slowly loosing.
The human seeing this smiles coldly and leaps to pounce on Fenris.
Fenris seeing this pales as the human comes down. At the last second he
switches and viciously attacks the ork that was pinning Fenris. The ork gets
slammed back into a building and says, "Traitor."
The human shrugs and shoots the ork and says, "Sorry Doc. Not today."
As Fenris looks toward Doomsday he sees Doomsday blocking a flurry of blows.
Snarling he slams his forearm into the elf. On the elf's face you can see
pain, as he slowly sinks to the ground. You can see regret clearly on
Doomsday's face. Doomsday quickly glances at Fenris and enters. You can only
wonder if Doomsday saw the other human. Fenris shrugging follows in. The
human watchs the ork die and then shaking his head, closes the ork's eyes.
Realizing that Doomsday and Fenris entered, he shakes his head and enters.
---
Nightmare sighs and opens the door to the stairway. He blinks and sees HAMMER
see him. Grinning he bolts into the stairway and races up the stairs.
---
Blitzkrieg curses as he sees HAMMER race toward the stairs. The irish elf
smiles and stays behind. The other elf shrugging follows HAMMER.
Blitzkrieg moves to a better vantage point.
The elf says, "Hey Blitzkrieg. Come out and play."
Blitzkrieg moves quietly again as the elf keeps wandering in and out of his
eyesight. Doomsday and Fenris enter.
The elf snarls. Doomsday points to ceiling, and Fenris nods and bolts off to
one side. Doomsday walks up to where the elf is. Blitzkrieg looks like he is
really pissed because Doomsday just walked into his line of fire. The elf
smiles.
"I see you got through Doc and his partners. Too bad. Much better if we never
had to fight each other. Oh well."
The two start circling each other. Unlike the other elf, this one wastes no
time. It is immediately obvious that the elf has the speed advantage. His
left hand strikes Doomsday's jaw with a load crack, and his right leg shoots
out as he spins around connecting with Doomsday's left knee. Doomsday crashes
to the floor.
Blitzkrieg curses as the elf ducks down again. The human hearing the cursing
decides to investigate.
---
Fenris quickly paces up the stairs. At the second level he stops and looks
out. Not sensing anything, he turns to enter back into the stairway and
doesn't react quick enough as a bullet slams into his left upper arm. Cursing
in pain the ork, now off-balanced, falls down the stairs loudly.
---
Blitzkrieg saw the flash out of the corner of his eye. He quickly moves to
re-aim. He switches a switch on the scope on his assault rifle. He mutters,
"Where are you?"
The human about strike, pales and manages not to be shot by Blitzkrieg who
whirled around suddenly. Blitzkrieg, feeling suddenly paranoid, looks around
and decides to find a new hiding spot. The other human manages to carefully
avoid being spotted as Blitzkrieg finds another spot. Blitzkrieg then starts
looking for the mysterious gunman on the second level.
---
Fenris gets up slowly. You can tell the wound his hurting. Slowly leaning up
against the wall, he walks back up the stairway. Briefly he wipes the blood
off his forehead. You notice a decent cut on his forehead from the fall down
the stairs. He casts a spell before entering the level again. Above him, he
can hear the sound of metal meeting metal in a series of rapid moves. Looking
up he can see Nightmare fighting HAMMER on the middle of a catwalk. Suddenly
lightning flares and slams into HAMMER. The catwalk doesn't look to stable.
You notice that Fenris is transfixed on the fight above.
---
The elf curses as he hears the metal ringing out. Doomsday gets to his feet
carefully. The elf spins quickly and launches another attack. This time, the
injured Doomsday is ready and drops to the ground. Doomsday foot reaches out
and smashes into the shin of the elf. There is a look of pure pain on the elf
as he buckles to the floor. In supreme effort of will the elf backs up and
trys to draw a gun with his right hand. Doomsday manages to bat the gun out of
the elf's hand. He grabs the elf's shoulder and pins him on the ground.
The elf winces in pain. "Go ahead and kill me Doomsday. I deserve it."
Doomsday sighs sadly, "Sorry kid. Not my style." He takes out a pair of
handcuffs and puts them on the elf. He then throws the elf over his shoulder
and runs toward the stairway.
---
The human watches for a little bit as Blitzkrieg searches for a target up on
the second level. He slowly so as to not attract Blitzkrieg's attention moves
back to the door. It looks like he is trying to get to the stairway.
---
The elf, long black hair pulled into a pony tail, moves away from the door. He
moves through some offices near to a catwalk that HAMMER is walking upon.
Smiling he moves to a vantage point. Behind HAMMER, a man appears out of
nothingness. HAMMER moves to the middle of the catwalk. The man walks on the
catwalk.
A quiet voice, the man, "So Herr HAMMER, who is the traitor to the country now?
It seems, there is a small charge of treason on your head."
HAMMER turns and draws his sword. Snarling he says, "So we meet again. This
time no one interfers. No vampires, no gangs. Not Doomsday, or your weakling
brother. Just you and me. I could have been the head of operations if it was
for you. . . I could -"
Nightmare smiling thinly, "You haven't changed one bit. You would have been a
horrible director. Time and time again we meet. Last time I told you beware
of when I strike. Last time I warned you to watch your back. You didn't. So
you got hit by a car. You correctly identified the passanger as Doomsday. Yes
I put him there. I figured he would like the irony of the fact that you were a
passanger when Commander Drake hit him.
"I also thought you would figure out who the driver is. Nightmare isn't my
first handle. It is merely my latest."
HAMMER whispers in anger, "Changling."
Nightmare smiles tightly, "So you learn." You notice the smile isn't reaching
the eyes at all. "You -"
HAMMER spits and interrupts, "You betrayed Germany long before I did. You and
your manuevering. Who killed you father, a respected member of the military
intelligence? I didn't. Who through politcal manuevering killed three other
respected individuals in our government that now, neither of us are welcomed
to?"
If Nightmare is affected he doesn't let it show. "My father. He was a blind
fool. So are you. If you know about those three deaths, then you also know
that they were ordered to me by one dead Erik Schmidt. I obey orders. Unlike
you. All you needed from Blitzkrieg was his memory, yet you were the one who
decided to torment me, and force me to have him brutally interrogated. You
cost me my job, my brother's sanity. And yet you did more. You blamed
failures on my when it was your own inept failings that led to the disaster in
the mountains. You blamed me when the concentration camp ambushed failed. You
blamed me for AJ's attack on the BIS, when you full well knew that he had
plenty of motivation to kill you.
"Unlike me, you used your position to further your political aims. No HAMMER,
you shouldn't point a finger at me and call me a betrayer to the government.
When Erik Schmidt was appointed director, you didn't see me trying to kill him.
You didn't see me using my resources to get revenge. Not like you. How many
times did you send shadowrunners or mercs to kill me? How many times Shadowfox
or Blitzkrieg?" (He draws his sword) "You were so conviently at hand when
Doomsday was captured, and when Shadowfox was taken by the Yakuza. Just as you
happened to be orchestrate MET2000 arrival in Africa to keep the dwarves slave.
Peace-keeping force my foot. How far did you use your power to strike at me?
"To you, my long time enemy, there can be no more toying with. There can be no
more giving you warnings of what is to come. You have pushed me for the last
time. I don't know about anyone else, but I can see your hand in the setup
that framed Shadowfox. Once more to lure me out. Unfortunately for you, it
will mean death.
"Now you dance one last dream. Now you live one last time of darkness. You
tried to backstab everyone who offered you a hand up. You wouldn't let old
things pass and go on with life. NO! You had to keep on living them. You had
to play out your fantasies in your mind until you started to believe your
dreams were reality. I bet it hurt to loose you real legs. Imagine the hurt
that will be when death has come to you by my hands -- "
*Hangtime* Recall your team. Mission objective has been reached. Recall your
team for backguard.
Nightmare smiles coldly, "For you who are about to die, " as he walks onto the
catwalk toward HAMMER, "There is no justice. There is only pain. The pain of
knowing that you are going to die, without knowing love. Without knowing
friendship. When was the last time you ever were happy with yourself? You
delude yourself with power. You delude yourself with material things that mean
much to others but nothing to yourself."
HAMMER is trembling with rage.
Nightmare, "This is your final dream of life, HAMMER. You never knew any of
things that make people truly happy. You buried yourself in your job, because
you had no life. And now, as you so deserve - and not for what you have done
to me, you will die. I could accept your backstabbing me and blackmailing me
to destroy my brother as just a cruel way to deal with someone in your way. I
could accept you not wanting to live because I knew to much. Doomsday,
Shadowfox, Rebecca Jones. Attacking them is unacceptable. Attacking the poor
Cerise and stealing her dead beloved's sword is unacceptable. I wish my life
hasn't come to this. For the first time, I'm looking forward to death's cold
embrace. But before that shall happen, you must face justice!"
With a spring, Nightmare's sword crashes down on HAMMER's. Throughout the
building you can hear clang after clang of metal meeting metal. You can see in
each other's eyes that there will be no quater given and none accepted.
Unfortunately, Nightmare is not as strong as HAMMER. Relentlessly HAMMER
pounds Nightmare. The sheer force of the blows driving him back. Nightmare
snarls and his hand glows red. Lightning shoots out from his hand and crashes
into HAMMER. HAMMER falls back. Nightmare leaps up and casts again, this time
the lightning strikes the catwalk. You hear a squeal of metal giving way, as
the catwalk suddenly shifts. One side has broken free of it's moorings.
---
Hearing the squeal, Doomsday starts running up the stairs. Passing Fenris
without thought he continues to run up the stairs. Fenris sensing Doomsday
panic, forgets out trying to find his assailant and runs up after him.
The human starts up the stairs. You hear a strangled yell from Blitzkrieg as
he sees the human and runs after him. The human curses and runs up the stairs.
---
The elf pales as he sees the catwalk weakening. He moves over to the catwalk,
plainly afraid to do anything that might send the catwalk crashing.
---
*Hangtime* Uhhh... we got a problem. Nightmare is ignoring the plan.
Kor says, "What a shock."
The Count frowns at him, and says, "Kor, Maze and I shall try and extract him.
The rest will continue on their evacuation."
The Count points a finger at Kor and says, "Time to prove your loyalty. Let's
go before it's too late."
---
Blitzkrieg has just passed the third landing. As he moves to continue up, a
blur tackles him. You can tell it is going badly for him against whatever he
is fighting. You hear a japanese voice, "With you captured, I still have a
shot at getting Shadowfox back."
---
The human pauses as he is almost to the fifth level. He stops and listens.
Hearing no footsteps he pales, and looks over the railing. Not seeing
Blitzkrieg he curses. And looks indecively as to where to go.
---
Kor enters the building. Above they can here the clash of arms.
---
Doomsday drops the elf and runs to the catwalk. He quickly fishes around and
digs out a rope. As quickly as he can, he ties the rope around his waste and
throws the other end to Fenris. Quickly Fenris ties it to the stairway railing
and holds on to it.
The elf looks at him and says, "What's your plan?"
Doomsday shrugs. "Hold on ta catwalk."
There is a scream from the otherside, "NEITHER OF THEM DESERVE TO LIVE!" There
is a flash of a powerbolt slam into the catwalk.
Doomsday dives for the catwalk as the other moorings give way completely.
Nightmare looks completely surprised. HAMMER uses the surprise to his
advantage and strikes home, slashing Nightmare across his middle.
Nightmare grabs on to the side of the catwalk, dropping his sword.
---
Kor watches unable to move as Nightmare's sword comes crashing down. The
breaking of the sword releases him though. He looks at the Count and the
paling Countess.
The Count says grimly, "Find that mage that destroyed the catwalk and bring him
to me."
Kor nods. And slumps to the ground.
Maze says softly, "I'll stay with him."
The Count starts running to the stairs.
---
Blitzkrieg didn't hear the shout or the giving way of the catwalk. He did
however, hear the sword breaking. Struggling his best to break free of the
man, he was slowly loosing consciousness. Bringing up his cyberarm he jams it
into the mans face. He uses the spare moment to try and crawl away, but it
doesn't work. The man recovers to quickly and slams down on top of him.
Savagely the man brings down a knife right in the elbow joint of Blitzkrieg's
cyberarm. Blitzkrieg cries out as feedback consumes his mind.
---
Kor smiles and gets up. He turns to Maze and says, "My elementals should be
able to bring --" He smile turns to a frown. The beautiful Maze watches him
carefully.
Kor curses. "The fool is attacking my elementals." Snarling he runs across
the room.
---
The Count appears outside the door, and steps to the side to assess
the situation.
The elf has managed to get Nightmare over the railing as HAMMER climbs over.
Count points his pistol at HAMMER and fires a shot. HAMMER rolls and stops
with a knee at Nightmare's throat. With a vicious uppercut he punchs the elf.
HAMMER moves his foot to Nightmare's throat as he stands.
The elf somehow manages to hold on to the rail and slides down a little. Once
outside HAMMER's reach he hops over the railing. HAMMER scowls and says, "Come
any closer, and Herr Nightmare dies -- ARRCEHHH!"
HAMMER winces in pain as lightning shoots into his legs. He stumbles to the
ground. With a great lung Nightmare places a knife into the center of his
back. The elf smiles and stomps on the top of HAMMER's head, as the catwalk is
dropped by Doomsday with a horrendous crash.
---
Kor races up the stairs. He reaches the 3rd level and swears as he sees
Scarface battling two elementals. Kor shouts, "What the hell are you doing?"
as Scarface knocks one elemental back.
Scarface scowls, "They deserve to die. Leave me alone Kor." He turns and runs
off. The elementals following. Kor swears and chases after him.
---
Doomsday races down the stairs with Fenris following. The human realizing that
he is standing in the middle of the damn stairway tries to get out of
Doomsday's way and fails. He ends up going bouncing down the stairway.
Doomsday somehow avoids falling on him and continues down (almost completely
uncontrolled). Fenris grimaces in sympathy at the human and continues on.
The human grunts and gets up and stumbles down the stairs.
Doomsday and Fenris come flying in to the room with HAMMER and Nightmare.
Fenris seeing Nightmare curses and and goes over to him. Doomsday looks at
HAMMER and Nightmare and looks really sad. Slowly he walks out back onto the
stairway.
---
The human struggles into a landing. He sighs as he sees the man dragging
Blitzkrieg along. He says, "It's over. HAMMER isn't leaving alive."
The man looks up and smiles. "Help me with him. We can still get out alive."
The human says so softly you almost don't catch it, "You can?" He stumbles up
to the man and smiles. So causally he draws his gun that the man doesn't
realize it until it is to late. "Goodbye." He fires and the man falls to his
death.
Doomsday hearing the gunshot runs up stairs. Seeing the human above Blitzkrieg
he roars and draws his gun. The human drops his gun and raises his hands, but
not registering it in time, Doomsday fires a shot and hits him in the shoulder.
The human falls back and continues to try and raise his hands. Blitzkrieg
crawls to the man and checks him. You hear barely, Blitzkrieg say, "You saved
my life?"
The man smiles and leans back, letting his blood trickle down the wall.
Doomsday lowers his head in obvious pain. He walks back down, without entering
the room so that the Count can see him he says, "Fenris, two people upstairs
need your help."
Fenris sighs, "I've almost stablized Nightmare to the point where he can be
moved."
Count says, "Hot extraction."
*Hangtime* This out to be fun. Red Ronin will co-ordinate the vehicles. They
other team is out and Shadowfox and Nightingale are safe for now. They need to
be moved . . . but that can wait a little bit.
The Count sighs and says, "That is good. Where is Kor?"
*Hangtime* He is chasing -- oh. He caught our mysterious assaliant. He is
bringing him back. You might not want to tell Nightmare this. . . it's
Scarface.
The Count looks at Nightmare and says, "At least Nightmare should live. I
don't -- Where is Blitzkrieg?"
Doomsday says softly, "Upstairs. I -- "you can hear the pain in his voice,
"shot da man dat apparently saved his life."
Fenris gets up and puts a hand on Doomsday's shoulder. He starts to say
something but seeing the pain in Doomsday's eyes decides not to. He quickly
goes up stairs. The Count bends down and feels for a pulse on HAMMER. After a
minute he says, "He's evil is thworted as his body expires. Thus ends the
career of someone who had the potential to do many good deeds and chose not
to."
Looking at Doomsday and the elf, he says, "Why don't you two go up stairs and
help Fenris?" As they leave you have one last glimpse as the Count bends down
and gently picks up Nightmare.
+++++ end transmission
Nightmare lives but is still weak. Shadowfox is still recovering from the
drugs that Nightingale fed him. Nightingale has gone back to her usual
activities. Doomsday isn't really talking to anyone. Fenris won't let him out
of his sight. Blitzkrieg lives but is as weak as Nightmare is. And I cannot
speak for the rest of the people that went. Oh, I do know one thing, before
everyone found out what Scarface did, he managed to pull a disappearing act.
You know, it is kind of strange. I have lived through an awful lot. I
remember the rise of HAMMER's career through the BIS. Early on him and
Nightmare made a very effective team. Yet they had so many differences.
HAMMER never respected Nightmare, and I think that is what got him in the end.
It is almost though as if an era has come to pass.
The people left Japan, DragonEyes was around. Now they come back broken and
weary from all that has transpired and there is still no DragonEyes. It almost
seems like a broken circle.
It seems to me that we might not ever fix that circle either. Shadowfox looks
like he has lost something more precious than he had ever found. Doomsday
hasn't smiled since getting back. Scarface has fled his friends. And
DragonEyes the person who usually helps everyone out is still missing.
Indeed, I fear the time ahead. It will not be easy.
Well, I have spent enough time pondering the events that have occurred. I'll
leave it to others like Scourge to fill in the many gaps. 'til I have more
news to report . . . Ratspeak signing off. ]<<<<<
-- Ratspeak <15:00:09/5-27-56>
