Bounty hunters of the apocalypse

Orchard

Israfel let a long drawn out sigh."Okay, I -did- deserve that.Go Demongirl." She said with a tone between exasperation and tiredness. She contemplated not to include this on her report to her superior, as well as being glad she had chosen to wear human loincloths today. Probably the people would be less freaked out. She decided to not to push her luck too much as she carefully moved around the trees, knocking down some more fruit.

Meanwhile, Jeff's mutter made Matt raise his rifle briefly... his crosshair directly zooming in white panties. "That can't be right." He raised his head with a surprised expression to see the angel in the tree.

"Must be angel nesting season." He muttered to Jeff as he tapped his shoulder... "Or something." He added unflappably as he raised his hand to call Fang to his side.

edited 12th Aug '14 4:08:25 AM by AtomicNut

Still unable to give Orion any sort of satisfactory answer, Counter instead turned to Pyro. "I guess not. Better her staying behind than getting some of us killed... Probably" Counter answered him with slight hesitation. "As for the strider, I don't know. If they haven't encountered any more by now, that means it was probably alone?" he added, his tone making it clear he wasn't 100% sure on that.

"Huh?" Jeff muttered, turning to see Matt after he tapped him on the shoulder. "You again? Didn't you say you were a wolf hunter or something? What do you want now?" the young man asked, keeping the revolver pointed at the ground but still tensing up slightly. (He still has no holster for it, so to be fair he can't exactly let go of it.)

"I'm fairly certain I have more experience with dark rituals than anyone else in the group" Goldilocks said to Max through gritted teeth; the anger didn't seem to be towards him specifically. "It doesn't do anything special, it just glows a little so you can tell it apart from a Human tattoo; it's the mark of a demon servant, someone who sold themselves out so they wouldn't be just a bottom slave after the conquest of mankind" she continued, turning her head towards Jacob and tightening her tail some more, "he is what you would call a cultist, yes."

"Was a cultist, was a cultist!" Jacob said through tears of pain. "I gave it up I swear! You've gotta- ah! -believe me" he pleaded, his free arm half reaching to his constricted one, only to be reminded by a quick poking with the rapier point about why he wasn't struggling.

"Then why were you running?" Clark asked the obvious question, "afraid you were gonna get found out? Fleeing off to join up with Mephisto?"

"Please, no, it was jus- ah! -it seemed better if I just left before y- Agh! -before you found out and things got like this!" Jacob just about sobbed out.

"I say we kill him" Goldilocks growled, the end of her tail raising up and aiming the arrowhead shaped tip towards Jacob's neck threateningly.

"No please, please" Jacob begged; Goldilocks didn't seem to be listening.

Jacob's Location

As a former inmate himself, Earl was a bit sensitive towards people who wanted to turn their lives around. Still, his paranoid nature prevented him from trusting Jacob implicitly.

"Do whatever the hell you want with him. I'm heading back to the vehicles." Earl said before doing just that.

edited 13th Aug '14 7:52:47 AM by FantasyLiver

Vehicles

"So that's why he's all crazy as hell for Lisa. And he can't even do magic, the useless demon fucking cultist that he is, kissing the feet of Mephisto and the Illuminati. Jesus, next the kid's gonna turn out to be a dangerous psychic and Max some dude with fire powers." Shay commented, his tone only vaguely shocked. It seemed pretty obvious in hindsight of course. But then, so did a lot of things.

Forest
"If you gave it up, why's that thing still glowing?" Max asked. "Shouldn't it be not all magical if you cut off all your ties?"

Jacob shook his head, tears streaming down his face. "As permanent as- ghgh! -any tattoo!" Jacob said desperately but weakly.

Goldilocks hesitated at this, the reminder that the tattoo wouldn't simply go away even if he had genuinely switched sides adding some legitimacy to his claim. "Start talking, and we'll see if your words are worth your life" Goldilocks told him threateningly.

"I'll tell you anything, everything, just please don't kill me!" Jacob pleaded.

"Who claimed you?" Goldilocks asked to start the impromptu interrogation.

"A succubus- AAAAGGHH!!" Jacob screamed, as Goldilocks' expression of anger lost even more of its restraint when she heard that; her tail, still sporting all the thorns, hooks, and needles, moved along its coil around Jacob's arm and shoulder like a moving snake, raking Jacob's skin and causing an even greater flow of blood.

"Keep. Going." Goldilocks growled through gritted teeth after stopping a moment later.

"Succubus, named Alearth..." Jacob choked out, pausing for breath and another sob, "spawn of Azazel. She's running an underground cult in Kentucky."

"Why did you leave?"

"She gave me some explosives; ordered me on a suicide bombing mission... Not even for a succubus did that, seem worth it... So I sold the explosives and went West, ended up joining Gary's caravan..."

Clark actually had a worried expression on his face as he kept glancing at Goldilocks, who was ignoring him. As a former cop it was hard for him to ignore the fact that this was quite literally torture. But nevertheless, he kept his rifle aimed at Jacob. "Kentucky is the way you were headed. Looking to join back up with her?" Clark asked.

"No! No! I never told anyone about the cult, even after leaving... I decided after you confronted me earlier, that that wasn't right... I was gonna tell someone, everyone, to help get the cult rooted out and taken care of" Jacob told them.

"That sounds less believable than my story" Goldilocks stated simply, the end of her tail raising up again to point at Jacob's neck.

"It's the truth! It's the truth I swear! Don't kill me please, oh God don't kill me!" Jacob cried, and finally tried to struggle away to make a run for it, but was easily stopped by Goldilocks grabbing his other shoulder with her free hand, which had of course shifted into a set of claws that she promptly dug into said shoulder, producing more blood and another scream of pain from Jacob.

Jacob's screams of pain could be barely heard all the way over at the orchard, which made Jeff look away from Matt in that direction. "What in the hell?" Jeff muttered, and either forgetting Matt or deciding he was less important, started running in that direction.

edited 19th Aug '14 9:52:18 PM by FirockFinion

"Stop!" Some one shouted at Goldilocks, it was Molly.

Forest
"Shit! She's back!" Max shouted, aiming at Molly. "I don't have the heart to kill you in cold blood, but you need to leave. It's the best anyone can hope for after what you did."

Orchard.

Matt just shrugged and simply said. "Not worth spending bullets." Looking at Fang when he heard the screams, he resorted to fill up an apple bag and get out of there. God, wasn't he hungry. Someone had to. He even contemplated the remains of one of the butchered dire wolf carcass. Redder meat than the rats.

"Goddamnit." He added, tossing the bag with fury."Fang, guard the apples. That beast must be on the loose again." Matt muttered as he started zipping through the forest, using its cover to mask his presence as he homed in the direction of the noise, rifle unslung.

Meanwhile, Israfel decided that was enough tree-prancing for the day when she heard Jacob's screams. She shook her head and spreaded out her wings, starting to fly in the direction of the screams.

edited 14th Aug '14 12:08:21 AM by AtomicNut

Recon walked into the scene, his pancor on his back and his knuckles a-crackin'.

"A cultist, and not even a good one. Was wondering when we'd stumble across one of them. Hey Goldilocks, this a private party or can anyone join?"

edited 14th Aug '14 7:23:12 PM by gameknight102xx

"And yet, you're fine with this!?" Molly shouted back, gesturing at the torture, clearly disguested by her former companions doing this. "Max! If you're okay with this, How are you any better than a bandit!?" Molly then turned back to Goldilocks. "Let him go." She growled.

edited 14th Aug '14 3:35:40 PM by TroyandHawk

Forest

Earl heard the screams but he just covered his ears and kept on trudging towards the vehicles. If he didn't see anything, he didn't have to feel guilt about anything later. Deep down, he hoped Jacob made it out okay.

Firetruck

Red, meanwhile, had started up a game of Go Fish with Sophia (and invited anyone else who wanted to play) in order to distract her (and him) from whatever the hell was going on out there while they were waiting for everyone to come back.

Goldilocks did not let go of Jacob, but she did lower her arms in slight surprise at Molly's voice, forcing Jacob down to his knees. "You're going to lecture me? You nearly killed one of us! And this cultist is more of a threat to us than you are! Lord Mephisto probably knows I'm on his trail already, but he doesn't know about our angel, and that gives us an edge" Goldilocks responded to Molly, still keeping the now weakly sobbing Jacob from going anywhere. "And we can't afford to lose that edge. Besides, you're not part of the group anymore, so I don't see why I should stop because you say so" she continued, for the third time preparing her tail to pierce through Jacob' neck; she also prepared to stab her sword into the back of his neck, possibly out of spite or just to be sure.

Clark and Coline had, like Max, turned their way towards Molly and aimed their weapons at her; Coline in particular gave a startled and slightly frightened exclamation in French, along the lines of, 'oh no, not you again!'. "Please no" Jacob said a bit weakly again amidst his sobs.

"Then you stop because I say so" Jeff's voice pierced into the situation, having just arrived on the scene with Matt a little ways behind; once again, Jeff had proved damn fast, but only for a short period. He now had Goldilocks' revolver aimed square at her chest. "I don't give two shits what's going on here; you've got an unarmed and helpless man begging for his life while you're torturing him. Let him go now, or I'll shoot you" he warned her simply.

Goldilocks couldn't help but scoff. "Jeff, you? You're not going to shoot m-"

And then she was cut off, as Jeff shot her, the shot ringing out with a loud BANG! throughout the nearby forest. Jeff had shifted his aim over just a little before pulling the trigger, so the shot went right through Goldilocks' right shoulder instead of her heart. From the slight jolt of the impact and just the surprise of it, Goldilocks had let go of Jacob with her left hand, while her tail slackened in its coil enough for Jacob to just kind of fall forward free of it.

This had all transpired right about when Israfel had gotten right overhead of the situation. Silence had fallen for a couple moments after the shot, save for Jacob's weak sobs as he tried to crawl away from Goldilocks but failed due to the injuries to his shoulders. Goldilocks just stood there with her eyes wide in shock, her expression a mixture of being completely stunned and just a little betrayed. Her wound, which had just about rendered her right arm useless, looked like more of an afterthought at the moment. "You... shot me" Goldilocks muttered, her expression mostly unchanged.

"I told you I would. I don't bluff" Jeff said simply, then looked over to Clark, Coline, Max, and Recon. "Next person who makes a move to harm anybody gets one through the skull" he explained to them, his tone not nervous at all; in fact it was pretty much completely calm, with an underlying fury.

"Guys what's happening? Another monster?" Counter's voice asked through the various radios that were on among the group.

"... Not exactly... We'll get back to you on it later" Clark responded after slowly reaching his free hand to his radio, keeping his gun aimed at Molly but glancing at Jeff. Coline on the other hand, didn't seem to care about Goldilocks getting shot and just kept her focus on Molly.

Garnet had joined in on the Go Fish. She tried to talk Emerson into giving it a try too, but the gnome had refused, simply stating that he was 'busy'. Since the time Shinespark had transformed into a falcon, Emerson had still been standing on top of the firetruck, watching the cherub intently in a tensed, ready pose. Garnet really wasn't sure what about that qualified as 'busy', but she decided not to press the issue.

The Go Fish game had been going alright, getting to about the third time around when the distant but distinct bang of a high caliber revolver going off echoed through the forest. Garnet paused and looked over that way. Over in Orion's car, Counter did the same, and grabbed his radio; though it took him a few moments since he forgot that it wasn't on his person, because he'd put it down near the back of the car bed. "Guys what's happening? Another monster?" he asked into it once he'd retrieved it.

"... Not exactly... We'll get back to you on it later" Clark's voice responded after a few more moments.

"... The heck's that supposed to mean?" Counter muttered to himself, looking uncertain and a tad worried.

edited 14th Aug '14 11:00:11 PM by FirockFinion

Molly quickly caught the cultist, pulling him foward, before kneeling, seeing how badly hurt he was, stopping every so often to give a wolfish look of pure hatred at the people who let this happen; Recon, Max, and most of all, Goldilocks.

_________________________

Pyro raised an eyebrow at the sound of gunfire. "Anyone feel like we're missing something big?"

edited 14th Aug '14 11:03:02 PM by TroyandHawk

Forest
The moment Jeff fired, Max opened fire on Jeff's center of mass with a pair of 3-round bursts. He had already had his gun out when he was telling Molly to leave, so it was a fairly quick action.

Recon instinctively ducked when Max fired his gun, drawing his Pancor and readying himself for whatever mayhem came afterwards.

"Absolutely beautiful. This team has the cohesion and stability of a freakin' Jenga tower," he muttered bitterly.

edited 15th Aug '14 1:06:20 AM by gameknight102xx

"GOD DAMN IT! I DIDN"T SIGN UP FOR THIS!" Earl screamed as he picked up the pace, continuing towards the vehicles.

Mexican Standoff Forest

Matt grumbled. Fast. He added as he couldn't keep up with the pace. And then the whole standoff was happening. Matt couldn't sling his weapon in time to prevent Jeff from shooting, but then the movement from his side as some other guy grabbed a rifle and aimed at Jeff tipped him off and he moved instinctively his sight to the weapon, aiming to inutilize it. He pressed the trigger.

FUCK He thought out loud as the whole picture of the scene was coming into his mind.

And just like then, Israfel fell to the ground, in a pissed off landing.

"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU ALL DOING!I THOUGHT YOU WERE GROWN HUMANS NOT SOME DEMENTED HELLSPAWN OF THE DECEIVER! STOP IT! STOP IT ALL!" She growled, radiating fury.

A number of things happened in a very short time span. Jeff noticed Max swinging his gun around towards him; (Because he may have had it out already, but he had it aimed at Molly before.) he didn't react to it much though in the split of the moment because he had expected people to possibly aim weapons at him. The shooting took him by surprise though, as what he had not expected was for any of them to just immediately start shooting without warning or talking about it or anything.

Just a little behind Jeff, Matt had only the time it took for Max to bring his gun around to get his own up and fire. Max and Matt ended up pulling their triggers at almost the exact same time. Two bullets from the burst went off towards their target, but the third went veering just barely off course as the bullet from Matt's rifle slammed into the side of the gun. The bullet impacted into the barrel casing at an extreme angle, (Since Matt is firing almost head on at Max.) just a few inches in front of the magazine, which Max's hand was holding onto as he fired; after caving in the casing halfway and probably denting in the barrel, (Probably since it was hard to tell for sure on the outside.) the bullet tumbled as pieces broke off of it. The main piece of the bullet along with plenty of the smaller fragments kept going along their path, altered from the impact with the barrel casing, into Max's hand; thankfully the tumbling caused the bullet to hit sideways, thus leaving the back of Max's hand and fingers with a number of bad cuts and lacerations instead of going right through it; the worst of it was right around his middle knuckle where the main piece of the bullet hit, and actually left a crack in the bone. Max didn't get the second burst off before this all happened.

As for Jeff, the first shot to hit him hit just a little to the left (his left) of the center of his torso, going through a rib and into the bottom of his left lung, then leaving out his back between a couple of the ribs. The second shot had gone higher and more to the left, clipping the bottom of another rib and likewise going through the lung, more in the center though. Jeff staggered and lost his footing from the shots, falling backwards to the ground. Bad as it looked, especially the exit wounds on the back, Jeff was not dead yet, as his still moving form proved; he tried to prop himself up with his left arm while bringing the revolver up with his right, but with a breathless gasp as his left lung was collapsing he failed, and started going into shock.

“Damn it Max, stop!” Goldilocks screamed, snapping out of her slight daze as the gunfire ensued and currently ignoring Israfel. “This, means nothing!” she told him, motioning at her wounded shoulder with her good arm, “you could have killed him you fucking idiot! Think for a second before just opening fire on an ally!” Apparently she didn't count Jeff's action in that statement; probably because he obviously had thought for at least a second, and had very obviously intentionally shot her with intent only to wound.

Clark and Coline swung their weapons around now, Clark going to a crouch as he aimed for Matt; he would only fire if Matt shot again though. Coline actually aimed her weapon around to Goldilocks, muttering something in French about suspecting that the succubus was causing them to fight each other with deceptive magic.

“Oh what the hell?” Counter muttered louder as the one shot from before was joined by more; well, at least one more. At this distance and how quickly the shots happened it sounded almost like just one, particularly loud shot. He considered radioing them to ask what happened, but decided to wait for now.

Forest
"That's the point!" Max cried out, shaking his hands. "You're the only one who can save the world, and he shot you! The first rule of guns is don't point them at things you don't want dead, I don't care how good he thougt he could shoot, I don't care that it worked, he risked everything! I have a sister in Canada! My parents live in Oregon! I have cousins in New York! I have friends in Boston! And he could have killed them all with one bullet! Everyone on the planet owes their lives to that moron's hand not twitching! "

edited 15th Aug '14 11:28:58 PM by nman

Recon stood up, his gun still in the ready position, already noting the places he could dash and roll to cover to.

"Max is right, guns don't have a "wound" setting. When you shoot, you shoot to kill, that's kind of a gun's schtick. More to the point though..."

Recon pointed to Jacob.

"Why the hell are we tearing ourselves apart over that?" he said the last word like he was referring to a rabid animal.

edited 16th Aug '14 12:17:00 AM by gameknight102xx

Matt sighed as he pulled the rifle away and put it in his back. Surely, there were guns aiming at him, but it did only look jumpiness. Not much of a killing intent, or they'd have shot at him already. He slowly opened his jacket, reaching for his lighter and cigarette pack, and lighting one up. He needed to calm himself down. Everyone was pretty much jumpy.

"What a mess." He sighed in exasperation, looking at the scene. "We're wasting too many bullets this way." He said, offering a cig to Clark. "Apologies for the guy's hands. I wanted to inutilize his weapon before he did something regrettable, but I wasn't fast enough."

Meanwhile, Israfel's hand reached for Max's face, in a mightly cheek slap."Idiotic monkey!Goldilocks is important, but not THAT critical. Think for a second there. What can she do that I can't with regards to the demon invasion. Surely we might have had to work ourselves harder! But shooting a guy in retaliation is only going to further Mephisto's plans! And you, Goldie! What the hell's wrong with you? You could've killed Jacob before getting all the info!"

She raised her hands to her temples, her wings mimicking a puffing up motion. "Just, ugh... is it too hard to find a little self control among humans? You all are like Cain! Swing then weep about the crimes that he comitted.! And you know what? I call quits! Go save the world yourselves!" She added finally kneeling before Jeff, her hand glowing. She knew the price of overexerting herself, but even ceasing to exist or being knocked out was preferrable in some aspects.

She gritted her teeth, as her nose started bleeding, and her hand began to shake, while pouring more and more energy into the wound.

edited 16th Aug '14 4:43:00 AM by AtomicNut

Vehicles

Having joined the Go Fish game, and similarily been disrupted by the gunfire, Shay was beginning to get worried, especially by the constant insistences that there wasn't anything wrong over the radio. The only way he could see that happening was if Lisa or another demon had done some mind tricks. The gunfire was also worrying, especially since it sounded so much louder than all of the other guns the part had. Were the party being attacked by a rocket launcher or some sort of artillery? He didn't want Sophia to get scared, so he kept his mouth shut, and settled for questioning the group as soon as they got back.

Sheila was also anxious, although in her case it was mostly for the safety of Goldilocks and Matt for her own, selfish reasons rather than for any empathy for the party. Seeing that the participants of the firetruck were occupied, Sheila pulled up next to Orion's vehicle and asked Counter, since she and Orion didin't have any radios, "Do you know what's happening? I swear, the only thing I've heard from the forest is gunshots every freaking ten seconds. And loud ones at that. I wouldn't be surprised if every monster in the area's planning an ambush for them, and then coming to us." Sighing dramatically she awaited Couner's response.

edited 16th Aug '14 10:14:50 AM by Tricksen

Midway Between Orchards and Vehicles

Earl made sure to pick up his bag of apples on the way as he continued to run to the vehicles.

Vehicles

"Go fish." Red said to his daughter when she asked if he had any threes. He turned to Shay.

"What do you think we should do? Sounds like something has 'em real scared. If they don't come back here soon, should we...you know... take off? I'm nervous, man."

Molly growled at Recon. "Don't speak." She told him,

__________________________________

Pyro picked up his rifle, "Eh, I'm going to go see how it's going." He growled, "You guys wanna come?"