Brotherhood of the Machine (IC Thread) [PG/14] {02}

[Prof B Hunnydew]

Babs was not taken this lying down, Here was this stranger a cyborg taking her who know where.  The Brotherhood shooting at them, mostly likely killing and hurting her friends in the crossfire.  And Now He is saying her "boyfriend" is likely dead.

She  is now screaming at Jexx and beating him as he goes down the alleyway.... The Brotherhood is quick to locate them after that and start fire down the alley.  She would have thought the brotherhood would be think about her welfare, but they were still shooting at them both the deadly force.  Bab stop screaming at Jexx after one plasma bolt had enough force to blow out the steel door which Jexx held her against just second before.  The shot was clearing aim at her...

The shock squirrel was not sure who was going kill her, but she was sure she was going to die in the next minute or two.

PBH

[lucas marcone]

Josh had ditched him and was running down an alley way. "I'm hit, but I lost the goon. Jexx you better keep her safe! I won't have an innocent's blood on our hands! Ugh it hurts." Josh had entered the forest unfollowed. He took his hand from his head, ripping some of the soft tissues away leaveing a hand print on his head luckily he still had his ear. The camp was still a good walk through the woods, his ear was ringing, he was confused, disoriented and hurt as the adrenaline wore off. "Guys, I uh, I think I'm lost and uh, I'm just going to uh, stay here and uh, I'm takeing a nap." Josh sat down and he started to nod off.

OOC: Tech, Josh's reciver(ear piece) was blasted off not his mic (tooth).

[techmaster-glitch]

   Babs' struggling was really starting to get on Jexx's nerves. Her screaming was attracting more bastards, and though her pounding with her fists really didn't hurt Jexx, it was very distracting. However, she stopped struggling when some rifleman nearly took her head off. Jexx continued on, dispatching the the rifleman as he followed Jexx down the twisting alleyways, but not before taking a plasma bolt to his left side (just barely missing Babs' foot) for his trouble, exactly opposite to the turret-wound he had sustained earlier. His fur and flesh were burned up, but it was fortunately a relatively small wound.
   Jexx then heard Josh's voice over his microcomm. His right handcannon morphed into a hand, and flew up to he ear, pressing a finger into it to hear better. "Hey, good news, lady," Jexx said, "You're boyfriend's not dead after all. Josh, if you can hear me, yes I've got you girlfriend, and yes she's safe."
Jexx turned another corner, made sure there was no one following them, then set Babs down again, tapping the microcomm on his tooth to turn it off. He then looked at Babs and grabbed her shoulders with his metal hands (not being overly gentle about it, either).
   "Listen, lady. Believe it or not, I'm here to save your life. And for me, that's being very generous. I'm going to be honest with you, the only reason I'm here is because I like killing Brotherhood sons of bitches. I don't really give a damn about you personally, or about the fact that you have magical potential. However, Josh cares about you for both of these reasons, and since he isn't here, he wants me to get you out of here safely. From here on out, there are two ways we can do this. One, I slam you upside the head with this," Jexx took his right hand off of her, morphing it into a handcannon to how her, then made it back into a hand and grabbed her again, "to knock you out, and I carry you over my shoulder silently the rest of the way. Two, you stop screaming and struggling, and I let you follow me on you own feet, if you can keep up, silently the rest of the way. Either way works for me, because I can't have these bastards following me at the moment, much as I'd like to kill them. So, what's it gonna be?"
   Jexx's eyes stared hard into hers. The disturbing thing about them should become apparent; they had no iris or veins to them. They were just two orbs of pure white with one small, not black, but red pupil in each of them.
   His expression was serious, but his furred hedgehog face, with the red X on his forehead, looked like a madman's out of a nightmare.

[Azlan]

"We should be able to get back to camp without any trouble, seeing as our distractions are playing off nicely."  Morgan paused to motion to the Rebellion soldiers to move up, "let's not fight if we can avoid it.  I prefer not to have any civilian casualties, and stray shots will likely do just that.  The Brotherhood is not known for marksmanship in its rank and file."

Somewhere inside Morgan worried about the other two who recklessly charged off, but if they were caught, cut off or wounded, he would not permit a rescue.  We cannot risk the lives of the whole squad and those at the camp over just two.  Morgan thought to himself, more to convince himself then for any other reason.

[Prof B Hunnydew]

"Oh My goddess, Josh is in trouble and Jexx has the girl.  And No one is going to rescue them.... Find  Oh Just Find..." shouts Dr Sally.   She has finished packing one of the her team's Vans and jumps into the driver's seat.  She locks on to Josh's Transmitter's signal and drives off. 

"Commander, Can you take care of Bill the security guard and Dr Chad?" asks Sally over the comlink. 
"Who is takes care of Me?  Oww" says Chad from the back of the van.

"Chad?" yells Dr Sally "Sit down Chad!!  Josh and Jexx, Can you get to  to Oak and 6th?  ETA fifteen minutes. "   She can see that Jexx is still moving but Josh was stop.  She hope the bad guys were not in the area.  " Jexx, Josh has stop moving at Maple and 5th just in a wood area part of the regional park.  I will meet you there in ten minutes.  Maybe, the girl can help him, if you can get the goons"

"JOSH? Josh !" asks Bab

PBH

[Tapewolf]

"OK Morgan," the doberman hissed as Morgan reached him, "Which way now?  I only know the way we took in, but you've had more time to explore the place.  Do you know of a better route?"

[lucas marcone]

Josh was just sitting there deep in the woods leaning against a tree and "sleeping". The doctor would notice that the shot to the head had left him with a severe concussion, and as you know sleeping is one of the worst things to do.

[Azlan]

As Dorcan asked the question of routes, Morgan had moved to the next corner, "We could move down this street around the corner and head to the alley halfway down.  It runs all the way to the country road where we can reach the edge of the forest."

Morgan turned to look around the corner and immediately ducked back, "Bloody hell, that's bollixed.  There's a squad of heavies coming up the street this way.  I don't think they saw me."

[Tapewolf]

"Heavies?"  Dorcan queried.  "What are we talking about here?  Normal people, like Brotherhood sympathizers, or Zealots?  And if it's Zealots, do they have night-vision?"

[Prof B Hunnydew]

Bab stops screamings and looks around scared for any more people shooting at her.  When Jexx forces her to look at him.  She stops and stares into Jexx white eyes with a dazed and puzzled look....  She is shocked and more confused  to think about Jexx's strange eyes  She locks on to the only that makes sense He said something about Josh   

"Josh?  Josh !!!  WHere is JOSH!" She shouts which brings distant noise of Brotherhood patrol.

"Wait! you hear that over there  beyond that next fence.. THX -23"  Brotherhood units are not in sight but can be heard rush up two blocks away.

Bab cover her mouths and rushs behind Jexx.

PBH

[techmaster-glitch]

   Jexx's face contorted into an expression of infuriation when Babs shouted out, attracting more Brotherhood patrols.
   "God-fucking-dammit, woman! You will be the death of me!!!" He hissed at her. Jexx was running out of options, fast. So he did one of the only things he could think of.
   Jexx's markings had already been glowing, and now they burned fully brightly as Jexx grabbed Babs' arms, then used his (not conciously known to him) magically augmented mechanical strength to throw Babs straight up into the air, but slightly at an angle so she would come down on the roof. She'd be feeling something tomorrow, but Jexx couldn't worry about that. He vaguely heard a voice in is ear, but didn't connect it with Sally.
   Without wasting any more time, Jexx dug his metal hands into the wall and climbed to the top at record speed. He flipped himself up and over the top, falling prone next to Babs, just a split-second before the Brotherhood entered the alleyway.
   Once the Brotherhood patrol had passed, Jexx's glow dimmed a bit. He tapped the microcomm on his tooth back on, and said, "Sally, did you say something? I missed it, I've got a very problematic package with me at the moment." He then turned to Babs, quickly tapping his microcomm back off, and started making odd gestures as if to strangle her. "Just...shut up, ok? I am this close to thunking you upside the head, and dragging your unconcious body back to the others."

[Prof B Hunnydew]

Looking over the edge of the roof at the searching Brotherhood, then cowing from Jexxx, Bab quietly says "But but yous  say you know whar Josh is?   Please, I feel that he needs me"   as she rubs her sore butt and then she looks to the west.

"JEXX !  JEXX! Come in  Josh is west of your location some ten blocks and one south, and follow the bike trail about 100 meters and then another 10 meters south west into the woods.  The public park land ends there and the really forest begins.  I am not sure but the Brotherhood looks like they still concentrating in the suburban streets and not the woods yet.  This scan has just dots on it but no info, not even reds or green dots.  But your dot and Josh's dot are labeled, as are the dots back at camp.  You are  about 1 mile from Josh.   My ETA is 7 minutes.  I took the wrong road when reading this thing. so I'm back tracking. " reports Sally over the Comlink.

" SAllleeee SLow down this is not the 400 Brickyard race, eeeee" is weakly heard over the comlink.

PBH

[techmaster-glitch]

   "Ok, now I know where Josh is, and we need to get to him quick." Jexx didn't bother to turn his microcomm back on. He lisened to make sure there were no Brotherhood patrols down below, then stood up. "Alright, I'd really rather not be on the ground anymore. From here on out, we're jumping roofs. Think you can do that?" Jexx asked Babs, and looked over to the gap in between buildings, Unless Babs was much stronger than she looked, the gap was much to wide for someone of her build.

[Prof B Hunnydew]

The red squirral girl could jump far with a running start, and she show Jexx that she could jump the common street gaps, but four leaps later only got them to a parking lot and then a four lane road with single family homes beyond that.  The Brotherhood had one guard at the intersection to the north and they could see the rest were searching off to the south and east.

"Okay Now what?  We can travel south one block by rooftop to get a way from the goon up the block, then you are out of roof tops." says Babs  The residental area has trees and winding roads.

PBH

[techmaster-glitch]

   Jexx was suprised at the squirrel's ability to jump the rooftops, but he was still better. When the reached the end, and she talked about their options, Jexx looked at the guard, who was facing away, and said, "No problem."
   Jexx suddenly and quickly let out a concentrated stream of red plasma ball toward the goon. The poor zealot never had a chance, as he was slowly and partialy melted into slag.
   "That solves that. Now, we run." Jexx quickly took Babs, and swung her so he was carrying her on his back, jumped over the side of the building to the ground, let her off, and then took off in the direction Sally had directed him, into the residential area, with many trees and houses to hide his movements. "Josh is this way!" he said to Babs. "We gotta get to him! It sounded urgent."

[Prof B Hunnydew]

"Jexx That is great flare there on 4th and Maple , I see now.   Eta 2 minutes." said Sally over the comlink.  Once Jexx lit up the zealot, the Brother came running back and started searching the residental nieghhoods.   Beside a few close calls, Jexx and Bab make it to the park and the backwoods area.  The scanner would be good here as the underbrush is getting in the way of finding.

Babs is getting fantic, "He is near, he iis right here.  no here...  I know he is he is in trouble...."   she fights into the heavy wooden brush and Jexx loses sight of her. and the woods go quiet after a moment.               

PBH                                                                                             

[Azlan]

Morgan put his hand up for a moment, "Brotherhood, heavier crowd control weapons and more 'riot style' armor.  They are not equipped with night vision.  Let them pass, as long as they do not suspect anything, they should pass right by."

He stood in the shadows very quietly, patiently waiting for them to pass, hoping the rebellion soldiers would remain hidden as well.

[techmaster-glitch]

   When Babs dissapeared on him, Jexx was quite annoyed. He stood around making very odd gestures and sounds of irritation. Finally, he stopped and talked into his microcomm.
   "Sally, I've got a bit of a problem here. Babs..." Then Jexx remembered that his microcomm was still off. With a severely ticked off growl, he turned it back on and tried again.
   "Sally, that stupid girl ran off on me. I think she's going for Josh. I don't know what I'm going to go do at the moment, but I am not responsible for her well-being anymore." He said very irritably.

[lucas marcone]

A strange feeling came over Josh and he "woke up" just long enough to lean over  to a side and vomit on the ground, then he went back to his "nap.

[Prof B Hunnydew]

Jexx hears a bang and screech as a white van comes into view and bumps down the bike toward him.  it stops

"Well Jexx, if she is near Josh then we just need to GPS Josh.  I think he is 30 meters that way off the path."  said Dr Sally as she got out of the van.  Chad is frozen in place with all his fur standing on end.   Sally looks at him a second and see him is still breathing.

"Come On." she whispers "This way" as she grabs her bag and heads into the woods.

******
In the dark woods

Josh see nothing but dark....no feelings no light, he drifts in a sea of dark. He thoughts slowly fading  Himself fading, he is just too tired to panic... too tired to be annoyed at that voice calling his name.  it was a sweet voice far away, calling
Josh Josh
  Who was Josh?  Wait that is my name?  It is too far to go there?  Who was calling?  That Bab girl  is so annoying  No she is not.. If we don't answer she will go away.  No I want her to stay.

Josh? 
Babs!  I'm here...
   Josh.   ** a star appears in the black void.  Josh can't seem to reach out to it. **
Bab
Josh stay with me.   **the star becomes a small glow and then a moon and finally a sun with Bab inside **
Josh  Please stay with me, I need you to come back  ** Josh feel Bab warm and love full him and his strength returns.  Josh feeling all that is Bab and knows she feels all that is him**

"Will you come back, Josh? It is just this ,,,,way? Where is the door back?" shouts Bab.  The squirrel girl turns to see no path or string to follow back and the dark closing on them.

"Foolish Girl, jumping in to safe someone without a lifeline. Hmmph Nevermind, Follow my voice,... I will guide you back to the living." says the voice of Dr Sally

****

Dr Sally has frozen and stared at the sleeping couple for two minutes or so.  Then she pick up the girl and asked "Jexx Can you get Josh into the van?"  Josh is fully healed under his torn and bloody clothes.

Over the Comlink "Okay Commander, We have Josh and Bab, We are heading back to camp. or should we head to HQ?" asks Dr Sally

PBH

[techmaster-glitch]

   Jexx heard the van coming, and was slightly aprrehensive when it came to a stop. Sally spoke to him, and Jexx got in the van.
   When they got to Josh, he was a wreck. Babs was doing something having to do with magic to him, and seemed near unconcious herself until Sally intervened, She healed Josh and then carried Babs to the van, asking Jexx to do the same with Josh.
   Jexx rolled his eyes and scoffed. He went over to Josh and easily picked him up with his mechanical arms. "I am starting to get way too charitable..." Jexx muttered to himself as he brough Josh into the van and climbed in himself.

[Tapewolf]

Dorcan watched through half-closed eyes as the patrol came into view.  He was unnaturally still.  Fortunately they seemed to be preoccupied with dispersing the crowds of confused citizens in the street rather than being on the lookout for half-concealed ne'er-do-wells such as the party.

"That was lucky," he hissed back to Morgan, poking his head gingerly around the corner the other had been looking.  "Looks clear," he said, and checking that the Brothers were out of view, strode purposefully across to the alleyway that Morgan had indicated so he could give point.  Scampering was all very well for the cover of darkness, but in the glare of the light and for that kind of distance it was far better to simply look like you were supposed to be there.

[Prof B Hunnydew]

Dr Sally looks at Jexx's wounds and looks apologetic to him. "Sorry Jexx I never meant to put anyone in harms way.  Here this will fix you up" She says as a warm glow heals Jexx' wounds and restoring blood lost and regrowing fur.  She pats Jexx on his shoulder and goes to secure the patients.

Bab is unconscious, her abilities tax beyond their normal levels.  Josh is fully healed and asleep, he come awake at any time.  Both were in the back of the van with Dr Chad looking after them.   Sally kisses him on the cheek and drives them all back to the base camp passing the searching Brotherhood zealots.

Returning to camp, the doctor give the Lab techs the chip from Babs.  The squirrel girl's body had almost destroyed it and the girl have been free of the control in about six months.  Dr Sally would not think about that now.  Now she was tired and hunger, but waited for the Commander.  Find out what was next. 

PBH

[techmaster-glitch]

   Jexx was extremely surprised when Sally came over and healed his two plasma burns. It was something rather unknown to him, as he never had magical healing before, he just let his wounds heal by themselves. He was also entirely used to being in harm's way, it's how he lives his life. He felt gratitude toward her, gratitude being an unknown felling to him since he had never really socialized with anyone before he was called on by Jackson. But he then quickly shook it off, like he always does with anything unfamiliar or distracting.
   He looked back at the town swarming with Brotherhood they were leaving, only wishing he could kill some more.

[Rammenstein]

Eraser swept his eyes along the street, scanning it for any Brotherhood Soldiers. He was, at the moment, huddled in an alleyway branching off from said street. He had indeed waited on the rooftop until most of the squad had escaped, prepared to open fire should things get out of hand. Luckily, he didn't need to. The squad was having no trouble making their way through the town, and he hadn't seen anything that would give them any serious trouble. So, in favor of not being left behind, he had decided to make his own getaway.

The Fox ducked further back into the shadows of the alley as a small patrol of Brotherhood Soldiers passed by. He waited until they had left his field of vision before leaving the alley, making his way down the street.

[lucas marcone]

Josh's eyes were still closed but he surprised everyone as he spoke. "Did everyone make it out ok?" His words only served to make his headache worse for wear. "Thought 'Eraser' was sposed to be covering us." Josh said porpusfully knowing full well Eraser was litening in.

[Rammenstein]

"I tried." Eraser responded through the comm, somewhat heatedly. "You were out of my LOS and, unless I were to use up all of my Penetration rounds, I would have just been wasting ammo shooting at the wall of a building."

[lucas marcone]

Eraser's words fell of deaf ears, without his reciver Josh was blissfully listening to the sootheing rumbel of the vans tires on the road.

[Prof B Hunnydew]

::: Shhhh shh  Josh go back to sleep, Luv. ::: Josh hears that from a female voice somewhere behind him....   Behind him? He lying on a cot in the van with nothing but the street/ground beneath him.   Behind his closed eyes,  he hears a little giggle and feels a warm presence snuggle up to him, which fells asleep and then slowly fading away into the back of his mind.  Josh feels that other another sleeping against him.

PBH

[Tapewolf]

Looking in all directions first, Dorcan beckoned the others across to the alleyway he was hiding in.  By the looks of it, the Brotherhood was concentrating on suppressing any trouble in the centre of the town, so their activities in the outskirts were going largely unnoticed.
In the distance he could make out the edge of the forest, and the sight of it made him want to whoop with exhilaration.  Barring any nasty last-minute surprises, it looked like they had a clear run home.