Ace of The Duck Pond The Good Doctor.

[MWBailey]

"might be a friend," Al said. "Then again, it might not." He called up the corridor again, "We can see your gun in your hand, fella, show yourself and come out slow, and drop the gun, or keep standin' there an' git shot!"the arm with the hand moved suddenly, and the right epaulette of Al's flight suit flapped loose as the report of a small-caliber pistol rang out. Al fired back almost at the same instant, and the arm disappeared, the gun falling to the floor. "Foe, I guess," Al said.

"Somebody oughta go back the other way and see about our fare," he said seriously. "What with all o' this goin's on, they might be tryin' something on with him..."

[Stella Gaslight]

Jace was breathing hard shocked by the quickness of the attack.  How had he moved like that?  The door behind them opened and Jace wheeled around pointing her pistol at the figures head.  "Jace it is a friend  I swear." Charlie said looking sheepish.  "I am sorry I didn't realize he was off until after you left.  We just got a bushel of new hires and I don't know all of them yet."

Jace lowered her pistol but did not put it away.  As soon as Charlie moved around the corner the lights went out and a shot zipped overhead."Looks like you have an infestation of people who have gone around the bend. To the door extra quick!"

[MWBailey]

Al reached dowm amd grabbed the medallion the first shooter was wearing; he ripped it loose, broken lins falling ion the floor as he brought up the rear, firing back at the flashes in the corridor in front of him as he backed toward the door. There were two cies of pain, and in the flash of his own pistol the Blue Duck's pilot saw a body laying in the middle of the floor asanother man hunched over holding his chest. Al almost ran back forward to dispatch Mr. Chestgrabber, but then in his nexyt mnuzzleflash, saw the unmistakable form of a machinegun with a round magazine swinging around to train on him. "GIT IN TH' DOOR, THEY GOT A GREASEGUN!" he yelled and shoved the others through just as the machinegunner cut loose, bullets ripping away the door trim.

[CPT_J_Percell]

Wilfred kick the door open he had sheltered in and looked down the corridor watching the others dive through another/
"You guys got any casualties over there?"
"Only ego's!" someone called out.
"Anyone mind if I roll a fire cracker down the corridor?"
Wilfred pulled the round object out of his pocket and smelled, this was no fire cracker. pulling the pin, he rolled it down and shouted "fire in the Hold" before the corridor was filled with heat and the smell of burning flesh and the copper tang of blood. "Opps, that must have been a bad one as they don't usually have that much bang1" he called out before covering his mouth to avoid breathing in the acidic smoke now rolling down the corridor.
"Time to move!" he called out diving down the corridor after the others.

[Ranger Reid]

Unlike the others, Liam seemed calm to the point of being uninterested.  He allowed the group to surge through the doorway, the as the last members pelted last, he leaned back into the hallway.  Falling to his side with only his upper torso laying inside, the boy waited.  Through the smoke heavy footfalls rang out.  Liam took a second to eye the swirling smoke, and shot 5 times in rapid succession.   Three men fell to the floor, all had a similar guant maniacal look like the ferret had.


Liam scrambled after the others, reloading as he went.  Though he was expressionless, he was absentmindedly humming to himself.

[Stella Gaslight]

"I don't know what waboose we managed to make hopping mad but we are getting hazard pay for this."  Jace looked back at her crew and made sure  they were safe.  "Every one have all your fingers and toes?" 

[MWBailey]

"I'm missing one or two marbles, but we already knew that," Al said. His ankle was stinging, so he looked down; there was a hole in the cuff of the leg of his flight suit, with burnt-looking edges. He twitched teh leg fabric up and found that the bullet had grazed his sock, but not broken the skin - Or at least, there was no blood. "Well, crap. This is a new set, too. At least the pressure pads're unhurt."

[Stella Gaslight]

Inside the tower was full of panicking visitors but the crews that called the station home were cranking down blast doors and were perfectly ready to wait it out like the explosion and gun fire was just another summer storm. On the second floor overlooking the new arrivals was the security office.  It was all shiny and modern with a fancy steel grate and thick glass.  Jace shook her head.  She had hoped to not make a production of things and take the back stairs but who knew what was waiting for them there.  "All right then we have to take the stairs out in the open and who knows what is waiting for us."  She kissed her fingers and touched her lucky charms.  "Don't fail me now." And she was off taking the stairs two at a time and hoping she could outrun what ever other surprises were in store.

[Ranger Reid]

Liam sprinted along, gripping his pistol at hip level and still humming the odd tuneless song.

[CPT_J_Percell]

Wilfred cast looks over his shoulder as he followed, something was bothering him like an itch in the back of his head. Something didn't feel right about all this and he wanted to know what it was.

[Stella Gaslight]

When you run upstairs fast enough it feels like a barely controlled fall.  Jace felt something zip near her ear but it didn't matter because she was at the top and rolled forward using all of her momentum.  They could try to hit her but dammed if she would make it easy for them.  Luckily the railing was coveted with deco metalwork that the next few shots pinged off of.  Her luck was holding but the shots were getting closer too.

[Ranger Reid]

Liam held his pistol out and fired a 3 round burst.  The first 2,rounds hit the wall in the exact same spot.  The third round hit that weakened spot and,penetrated to the gunman behind the corner.  For a moment the only sound was the group's chargeing feet and ragged breath.  (and the annoying humming from Liam)

[CPT_J_Percell]

Wilfred stumbled as a bullet hit the step he was about to stand on exploded followed by the wall next to his head leaving his fave covered in dust. "Would someone mind explaining what the hell I have gotten into?" He fired his service revolver into an attacker that stepped out into the door way before cursing and placing it back into it's holster. he ducked as another bullet zinged past his head put pulled the colt 1911 out from behind his back.
"Fire in the hole, I hope." he shouted spotting a grenade in the fallen attackers belt. he looked back to see liam mouth the top of the stars the dived up behind him. Skidding around, he aimed through the rail and in a feet of marksmanship (or damn stupid luck) shot the cap of the hand grenade. He ducked and the stair well shook as the boom from the grenade filled the stair well.

[Stella Gaslight]

Her heart raced as silence fell across the terminal.  Jace very slowly and carefully stood up .  No more bullets came and Jace dusted herself off.  "Perhaps we we should ask our man in the box Wilfred.  If anyone knows what hornets nest he kicked it would be the man himself." The security office was made to impress with artistic steel telling the history of flight.  The front lock had been tried, she could tell from the surface starches it had been a hasty try.  They more then likely went on to the back to try that lock when they were spotted. Joke was on them the back locks were more secure than any mainland banks.  Taking the key Charley had passed off to her in their mad scramble she opened the lock and quickly pulled her crew inside. The door made a very solid sounding clunk as it closed behind them. 

Inside the office it was very quiet with a smell of fresh ink and old office. The secretary was a pretty lady with a tidy blond bun that Donna apparently knew considering the fact they were now gossiping in Portuguese. she broke off for a moment and smiled at her captain.  "The good doctor is in the brake room and has been on his best behaviour according to Julia." Donna went back to talking and Jace knew she would get a full report on the comings and goings at the tower when they were back at base.  She had to admit Donna was dammed good at gathering information. 

"Lets do meet this Doctor then." Jace squared her shoulders and headed down the hall.

She had expected a lot of things about Gerhard Vogel but none of them were that he looked like a matinee idol and spoke with perfect polished english. "Captian Jacinda Walters? It is a pleasure to meet you."

His handshake was firm and she could see how he charmed the secretary. "We had quite a time reaching you Mr. Vogel. Mind telling me just who you riled up?'

"Ah Ahnenerbe is at it again.  When will they learn that just because I was born in Germany it does not mean I belong to them." He seamed far to calm.  She looked back at her crew wondering if any of them knew what he was talking about.

[CPT_J_Percell]

Wilfred froze just before stepping through the door and into the room. He had been waiting for others to go first but when he heard the name of the person waiting for him he took a few steps back and waited in the corridor.
Reaching into his jacket, he pulled out a photo which showed a much older version of the man who owned the name, the man who he had shot when he had stolen the plane.

[MWBailey]

Al said nothing much at the mention of the name "Ahnenerbe." He did grunt, however; a rather disgruntled-sounding "Hmpf." He'd heard the name, of course, and had killed a couple of people before who answered to someone by that name, back in the Brazilian goldfields. He then remembered the medallion he'd taken from the first gunman's body, and took it back out of his pocket. A kind of square black cross surrounded by flowery scrolls and bric-a-brac, the medallion was rather like an old German flying ace medal, the kind favored by the the fledgling airforce that Richtofen had joined just before the war's end. No knight's crosses for those intrepid souls; they'd wanted their own medals, so the story went. This medallion was like, yet unlike, those medals; this one was struck like a bronze coin, not puddle-cast, and was all of a single piece, the cross seemingly set in place like a piece of carved jet. It's inscription looked to Al like some kind of admonition to fidelity at all costs, or something similar.

He tossed the medallion on the table in front of the doctor. "This their emblem?" He asked. "I had a few run-in's with people who answered to somebody by that name you mentioned, several years ago in the goldfields of Brazil," he said, a slight, unidentifiable note in his voice that didn't sound exactly friendly."Never did find out what they were really after, other than the gold shipments I was contracted to fly out for the local miners consortium. Always thought there was somethin' off about 'em, like they were just pretendin' to be cheap boomtown hoods. What's their beef with you?"

[Ranger Reid]

Liam felt like a child around adults.  They all seemed to just start chatting.  He was still amped up from the attack though.

So he began to look the room over.  In the corner sat a large metal fan.  It was stuffy in the closed room, so Liam decided to turn It on. When he tried, nothing happened.  Making sure no one was paying him any attention, the boy pushed energy into the fan and the relic squeaked to life.

The secretary exclaimed rapidly in ber native tongue, and donna turned to Liam.

"You just made a friend."   Seeing his confused look, she explained.   "That fan has been broken for 11 years.  You have an admirer."   As she was talking the secretary came running to Liam with a glass of ice water and a cookie.

He felt a little silly, but accepted both and tried to sink back out of anyone's attention.

[Stella Gaslight]

"They want me to work for them.  My scientific skills they contend belong to the state and should only be used to further Germany in to glory." He touched the metal and bitterness crept in to his voice.  "I did work with them for a while but in the end they asked for more than I was willing to give and I ran off.  They have been dogging my steps ever since.   I am hoping to use what is in that case to barter for asylum in America.  They have a program to take in scientists from all across the world and give them safety.  I could use that at the moment."  He smiled at Al. figuring the man may know something of miss spent youths.  "I have an ambassador ship coming for me in two days. Once i set foot on it I will be on American soil and if the Ahnenerbe make a move the American military will make one back.  They have wanted to for some years, something about kidnapping Americans of German decent I think, but they have never had a legal reason."

"And you are setting us in the middle of this nightmare. Have you gone around the twist?" Jace said angrily.

"No fraulein.  I bring this to you because out of every mercenary group in the sky you are the only ones who can handle the job.  They say you are bulletproof and that is what I need." She let out an exacerbated sigh and he looked very much like a man on vacation.

Donna had decided she very much liked Liam. He was a thoughtful kid.  No not a kid he was possibly old as her but something on him read young.  She wondered if he danced, Most likely not but she would have to ask any way after all some times people surprised you.  The Dr surprised her he felt off but not in a way she could identify other than the fact she was sure he had secrets.  But didn't that all? 

   

[MWBailey]

A figure stepped out of a deep shadow cast by the afternoon sun beside the back door of the tower. The odd thing about the lithe female form was that there had been nothing in the pool of shadow, or so it seemed, before her appearance...

A guard who had just stepped out for a cigarette and had happened to be looking in that general direction stopped her, asking how she'd managed such a neat trick, and did she have any more - with a suggestive air and a too-long dip of his eyes in the direction of her chest. She nearly dipped her head seductively (as a prelude to a predatory feeding), but then the collar of the man's shirt, undone and the tie loosened in response to the Pacific heat, let fall out into view a cross such as the one that Al had just plunked down in front of the beleaguered doctor. She drew back suddenly, not in response to the cross (she had become inured to such things over time), but rather to the fact that she recognized it as the symbol of the German order to which she and her village's masters, the Japanese, were allied.

"While my Elders serve the cause of the Japans," she said, a warning note in her voice, "I also serve them, and thus am obliged to treat you and yours as allies; be warned, however, that I hunger for things that you would be wise not to offer."

"One assassin is as good as another," the guard responded with the proper answer, and in the prescribed proper tone of voice.

"What is the mission?" Merovingia asked, in near-perfect English; there was just the merest hint of an unidentifiable accent.

-----------------
Far away, om a smaller island in the Japanese archipelago, an ancient, unwell Elder of the Village of Shouma Youkai swayed in a trance born of both devotion and illness on his futon at the head of a double row of subordinates and retainers, in a room bounded by paper screens in a house of the same fashion. A female retainer, a maid of sorts, knelt beside him as she ground and mixed the tea for the old man and his guests, who sat in places of honor at his side, their uniforms and long swords indicative of their rank both as Army officers and as Nobility.

"You must wake and make your report, Old Man,"  the eldest of the two imperial japanese officers said. We are your masters, after all...."

A movement like the response to an earth tremor swept through the room, and low-voiced epithets of outrage could be heard in response to the officer's words. More than one subordinate's sword was thumbed an inch from the lip of it's scabbard preparatory to drawing and striking. The girl who was grinding the tea swayed back, preparing to jump out of the way if the old man's people decided to spring - though her own hand was reaching for the short sword barely concealed within her kimono.

"Hold." the voice of the old man echoed through the room, though it was scarcely more than a whisper. "These are our honored guests. Remember the Sanctity of Hospitality." The words, though spoken calmly, carried the ring of steel and command.

Of "Course, Honored Elder,"

"Your Pardon, Sensei"

"Forgive us, Fusharou -Sama"

"Komori Shi onna, the White Bat, is in place," the old man said. "She who is as one of my daughters serves your purpose -so long as I live..."
---------------
Back at the Duckpond, Merovingia felt her blood quicken, and the soft caress upon her mind distracted her for a moment. Foster-Father...

[Stella Gaslight]

"All right then I guess the first thing to do is get you back to the tank and hope like hell you are right about me being bullet proof. Because those abe bees people are mad as a box or hornets and I don't think you want to front the repair bills if they get the bright idea to up the ante and attack again."  Jace thumbed the doctor's chest. 

There was a sparkle in his eyes that surprised her. Gerhard took her hand and kissed it.  Donna almost burst out laughing, the captain was looking like a stunned goat. "Ah fraulein I look forward to fighting by your side."

[MWBailey]

Al wasn't sure he liked the doctor much. "Really slatherin' on the charm, ain't he," he said under his breath to Donna. The way the fellow was going about it increased Al's sense that something wasn't completely right about this setup.

"Alright, but let's be locked and loaded just in case," He said aloud. He was beginning to wish he'd brought his carbine, or dismantled the rear gun from the Duck and brought that along; there was something in the air that told him the difficulties were far from over with this job. He moved to the dingy little office window that looked out over the runway, and saw the bustle of commerce and deal-wheeling, but with a difference: the general swirl was Rather pointedly avoiding a pair of foreign-looking cars; they didn't look like armored military vehicles, but they had a rather more-beefy-than-necessary look about them that suggested there was more to them than there appeared to be; the ostentatious reappointed Benz star within a circle adorned their radiator caps, and they just looked powerful. Why would they need speed-demon Staff Cars on the Pond? He wondered. Standing around them as if standing guard were five burly blonde military-looking fellows in plainclothes and trenchcoats that were just too regular, and had odd bulges under them. Machineguns?

"Could be nothin' Donna, Jace, but it looks like we've got company of the Nordic variety outside." He took the air grenade from his pocket. Like a snall, bulbous football with a slightly longer tail and rudimentary fins, it was if he'd taken out a small aerial bomb - which, in fact, it was. Unlike the prop-primed bombs that used little propellers on their noses to screw down and set the primer to explode on impact, the ones Al used were preset by an adjustable timer that worked off of a loaded spring and approximated the same action as with a propeller primer but designed to detonate if jarred or dropped,no matter what part actually suffered the initial impact, which made it unlikely to explode in hand, but dangerous as hell five to twenty seconds later - and it was loaded with old-style gun cotton for extra bang.

"This thing's a bit worse than your firecracker, Wilfred, so it'd better used outside. Could probably knock the tower over if ya put it in the right place. If I throw it, either find cover or run like yer ass is catchin'  to the Dragonwagon; it'll detonate on impact."

------------------
"No matte what happens, the Doctor must be kept alive and whole; beyond that, do what you will to help us to effect his capture," The officer said. Meri nodded assent and slipped in to the shadows once again, as she felt that the situation was about to change. "here they come, I think," her disembodied voice said from the shadows. The officer signaled to the group standing by the waiting staff cars.

[Stella Gaslight]

"Damn it is like an ants nest.  I hope you have a gun Doc because things are about to get dicey.  I have a little surprise for them."  Jace started out and down the stairs then pulled a tiny radio out of her pocket.

"Not that thing!" Donna grumbled seeing what the captain was playing with.

"I got it working after last time."  Jace said fiddling with the buttons.

"It shot my poor dog all full of holes and I had to do body work for a week to get it back to normal."  Donna did not like the way that the newcomers were moving.  Unless she missed her mark they were professionals and would be harder to take out than the others.

"That was a mistake and I said I was sorry."  They had been spotted and a few of the new Nordics were almost in range.  The dragon wagon jerked aiming her small guns at the cars.  Radio controlling the dragon wagon was a bit of a nightmare but they would never expect it.

[MWBailey]

"Okay, but will it actually shoot on-target this time?" Al muttered, then more loudly, as he judged teh distance and set the time ron the aerial grenade. "They haven't started shooting, yet, Jace, maybe we oughta wait 'til --!"

BRRRAAAAPAPAPPPAPA RAPAPAPAA

the Schmeissers came out from under the militaristic trenchcoats and the blonde bravos cut loose. The Dragon Wagon's Armor, though more than a deade old, deflected the bullets easily, as shoppeople, stevedores, couriers and other noncombatants scattered and dove for cover to esxcape both the barrage and it's ricocheting result.

"Okay, that tears it!" Al said loudly. "FIRE IN THE HOLE!" he yelled as he threw the grenade. Onlookers screamed as they realized what was about to happen; Al's little aerial handdbombs were notorious for explosive force and their frightening capacity for causing conflagrations. the "grenade" struck the ground just under the frontg bumper of the lead Mercedes and detonated a half-second later, launching the car into the air in a double blackflip and scattering it's engine and component parts all over the tarmac. On Nordic posterboy went flying and struck the ground with a sickening wet-slap kind of movement; he didn't get back up. The others moved away, one dragging a leg but still firing, another also firing sporadically but mostly carried off by a third, while two others covered for them. Al opened up with teh Colt just as a shadow suddenly reared up behind him. Barely a millisecond passed as he whipped teh khukri out yet again, and only just managed to block the sword cut that would have split him in half lengthwise.

----------
"FOOL!" What IS it with you cursed texans?! First thrice-damned Dreyfuss and now you!"

As she fought Al, Meri's mind raced, in a quandary of whom to grab and make off with. Why does it have to be both? she questioned wildly in her head. The doctor I can understand, but that popinjay woman? What is she to their order?! Both? One or the other, it would have to be - but which one? One now, and one later. A century's worth of experience enabled her to manipulate both Al's and his conrades' responses to her moves so that she ended up with both the doctor and the acursed unit's leader in easy reach. A slash from the khukri that would have beheaded a lesser being healed almost as soon as the blade left her flesh.  Still, it staggered her a bit and she scramed in pain as the blood gushed momentarily, then smiled in a very frighteningly predatory way as the would healed over; the bones and cord in her neck fused back a heartbeat later, though the heart that beat would not have been hers; this old man was good, almost as good as that damned jumped-up pirate hunter of an airshipman had been. But to the matter at hand... A quick grab, then simply melt into the shadows with her "guest," and then...

[Ranger Reid]

During the commotion, Liam quietly unpacked the rifle stock from his bag and attached it to his "special" C96.    Even as all Hell broke loose he started picking off the men below. 

To a casual onlooker, his targeting might have seemed random.  But when the third man fell, a strange thing happened.   The officer who had been barking orders turned to move, and tripped over his own dead man.   He had been under cover, but the tangle of dead around him had entangled his legs.

For the most brief moment the leader was exposed.   Even as he scrambled for cover, a crack rang out, and a splash of red exploded on the man's lower left leg.

Without immediate aid, the man would bleed out.   Any coordinated effort from the opposition fell apart as the men scrambled to help their leader.   

There were still plenty of Germans in the fight, but they were completely disorganized now.


Liam was humming again.

[Stella Gaslight]

Jace fiddled with the small buttons and the dragon wagon creaked to life it's guns training on anyone that tried to block the way to it's door.  "Get in quick. it is working but I dont know for how long!"

Donna scrambled in sideways mumbling saints names and hoping her mad captain was right.  It was only after she had a chance to strap in to the driver's seat that she took a deep breath and jelled out the window.  "Liam hurry the guns could go louco at any moment."  This was one hell of a first day for the mechanic.

Jace was back to back with the doctor as the Germans swarmed ineffectively around them.  She pulled the miniature machete from her boot and tried to slash her way to the wagon but that Chinese girl kept blocking their way.  Jace was sure she got her with the blade a few times but with all the blood it was hard to tell.  Either way the other woman was still fighting like a tiger and giving them hell.  Jace was forced back almost to her knees blocking a particularity wicked blow leaving the doctor exposed.  The girl lunged for him and jace pushed back her hands barely brushing Meri but the force still hit.