Grimacing at the monster he must face once more, Takako charged into the breach left by the mystery man's grenade. Like a hero out of some damn trideo trash, dashed into the store sending swirls of smoke to spiral away from him.
The thing, Takako couldn't honestly describe it as a troll with how deformed it was, now clutched a young girl in its massive grasp. Although the girl was wailing like a banshee, she appeared to be relatively unharmed for now. Having seen what the thing did to the other people in its grasp earlier he knew that wouldn't last very long. Unless he was able to do something about it.
His resolved redoubled, he put all of his will into a powerful punch aimed at the things jaw.
As he swung, the beast bent down to be on eye level with his enemy. He put all of the pain and anger he was feeling into a mighty roar that was almost palpable to Takako. So much so, that his muscles faltered for the briefest of instants. He flashed back to just how badly this scene had played out only minutes before. And in that instant of doubt, his fist went wipe.
Panic began to set in with earnest. Then Takako could feel the soothing presence of Eagle in his mind. It returned his calm. He knew he was all that stood between this evil creature and the girl that would otherwise be dead.
Using his momentum of his failed punch to pull his upper body on past, Takako watched the troll's eyes follow the fist. He had the thing now. He twisted his body down as he lifted his leg into a powerful spinning kick headed right for a bullet wound in the trolls side.
Just before the kick landed, the troll finally caught on. But Takako knew it was too late. The troll seemed to realize it too, because he wasn't even trying to dodge out the way. No matter how futile, Takako would have expected it to try.
Oh no! It's still going to hurt the child, was Takako's only thought at what he saw. The troll wasn't trying to dodge because he was too busy reaching out his other hand to grip the girl more firmly, as if he as going to smother her against its body. Eagle cried out at the injustice of this.
The kick landed with a meaty thud and a splatter of blood from the previous wound. The troll bellowed in pain, but held onto the child as it fell to the floor. Takako's elation at seeing the troll going down finally warred with his fear for the child.
By some freakish luck, though, the troll had fallen in such away that the child's body was almost completely protected from the thunderous impact. Takako's heart sang out at this sight. He'd done.
He'd saved her from the....monster. The monster who's body was now going through a riotous change. It was like every muscle in its body was bulking up an unworldly force. In a moment, the things arms had ballooned out too large to hold the child and she rolled out of its grasp with a cry of surprise. Just when Takako feared the troll was going to exploded, the tearing flesh reaching some unknown limit. Then it began 'bubbling' back down. That's the best Takako could describe the tumultuous movement beneath the battered skin.
The whole process only took a handful of seconds, but they would return in Takako's nightmares for years to come. How could any body ever survive such a dramatic shift? Yet, somehow the troll had held onto consciousness through the entirety of it. Takako could no longer see the rage that had overwhelmed everything else in this creatures eyes. Now all he could see was pain.
The now human form reached out one hand towards the girl while looking at Takako. "Don't," <cough>, "hurt her..."
Shock hit the shadowrunner. What the hell!?!
Takako glanced at the girl who was now crawling over to the fallen figure with tears streaming down her face. "No. No. No." She kept repeating that until she reached the naked now-man. She grabbed at his chest to shake it. "Wake up. Come on. We're friends now. You can't be dead."
Takako just stood there for a moment completely mystified. He looked up as Sledge walked up to the scene from the back of the store. The look they exchanged said Sledge had no clue what was going on either. Had this girl been the target the whole time? Surely not.
Whatever the case, Sledge knew it was time to bugger out of there. << @TEAM: Target is down. Not sure what's going on, but we need to vacate the premises. You copy? >>
Angel's voice called from the back as she began standing up having just returned to meatspace. "Copy that. I've still got the shooter tagged. We want to follow him?"
The voice distracted the girl from her pleading with the unconscious form. She looked up to see the two men standing over her and the woman now approaching through the rubble. Her eyes focused on Takako. "You monster! Why did you have to hurt him? He was so much fun."
She actually launched herself at Takako to start slamming impotent little blows against his chest. Monster? How could I be the monster? I saved her from that thing. It was the monster. Wasn't it? Something very wrong had just happened here and guilt was trying to take hold within Takako even though he'd been so certain of what actions were needed.
Was he becoming one of the bad guys? Only minutes prior he had nearly killed an innocent woman who's only crime was being in a dark alley when Takako had a gun in his hands. And then this? Had the shadows twisted his mind so much that he didn't know the difference between right and wrong?
He stood letting the child's anger hammer away at his morale.
Angel reached Sledge's side. "What the fuck is going on?" she harshly whispered to him.
"I haven't got one damn clue. I just know I'm done here. You?"
"Um....yeah." Angel looked around at what once had been a Stuffer Shack, but was now only another ruined building in the great sprawl of Seattle. She nodded at Flowers who was now approaching them. "You ready to get out of here."
He too was looking around at the devastation. When he noticed the bloody remains of Swims-with-Sharks' body, sadness filled his voice. "Hell yes."
Flowers trudged through the debris towards Takako. "Let's get Swims... and that guy too I guess. And get somewhere safe. We need to figure out what to do next." When he got to Takako, the girl's excitement was finally loosing steam as she simply ran out of energy.
"Go help the others," he told Takako gently as he pulled the girl away. He had no clue what to do with her, but for now he gave her what comfort he could.
It was grim work pulling Swims-with-Sharks body out of the remains of the checkout counter, but they did it as quickly as possible. Takako was even able to find a relatively intact tarp somewhere for them to roll him up in it. The torrential rain still coming down outside helped wash away their comrades blood on their hands, but it didn't wash away the feeling of loss. They'd just formed this little team of theirs and yet they'd already lost one of their own.
Laying him into the trunk of their vehicle, Takako spoke up. "Dammit it. We hardly even knew each other. Yet he's already gone. I don't even know if he had family."
Angel spoke up. "Not sure if he's family or not. But Swims told me about a good friend of his. Turns out he was somebody I dated years ago. Maybe I'll have to track him down to tell him what happened?"
All Sledge could say was, "yeah, maybe that'd be good."
The three of them went back into store to grab the unconscious form of their attacker. They took a lot less care with him and were done more quickly.
A moment later, Flowers joined them outside with the girl in his arms. "Let's go."
"What are you going to do with her?"
"Haven't got a clue," He got into the vehicle and asked, "Any of you have an idea?"
Everybody shook their head. "Well, just get us out of here for now. We'll figure out what to do next once we're safely away from this wretched place."
Leaving the ruined store behind, they all wondered where this nights events would take them. Did they really want to fall down this rabbit hole to find out what was going on?
Ten minutes into the drive, Angel's voice broke the silence. "Shit."
Everybody turned to look at her worriedly. "What?" asked Flowers first.
"I was still tracking the shooters deck, He was driving into Bellevue and seemed to be checking in over his commlink. He said something about the test being a failure and that 'they' didn't work. I tried tracing who he was calling, but whoever it was must be good. Just as my guy was telling whoever was on the other end that the expendable assets were still in play and would need to be dealt with, my trace was spotted and the connection severed with the guy saying 'your tagged.' I dumped my connection before I got dumped myself."
"Dammit. There goes that lead. You said they were in Bellevue?"
"Yeah, but the driving pattern was definitely not in a linear way. I have no idea if there destination was around there or not."
"It's a start. And maybe we can get some more once this guy wakes up."
"I hope so."