tA city named as a joke. Though subterranean and not well lit at all, the denizens of Tarantella live a very normal, very modern life. Pretty much everything one could find on the surface can be found here, including shrubbery in the form of mosses. It is a vast metropolis, full of spider-folk, though it only rarely receives surface guests.

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Tarantella Archive
Tarantella Archive II

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"You lost her," Menayen tells Ellen, "and you're exactly three pipes away from my house. Just keep going forward for two pipes, and turn left for one, and knock on the ceiling."

Yin breathes out...doesn't answer, though, for fear of sound carrying. Just follows his directions carefully, mentally double-checks what she's done, and then taps on the ceiling.

A panel slides to the side, and a smallish, clawed hand reaches down to help her up. "C'mon, you."

"Thanks." Takes it, of course, and climbs up, more than a little winded. Conditioned or not, that's a long way to sprint. "I..." she manages, wringing the hem of her coat into the hole--a pretty futile attempt... "will never get this smell out...of these clothes."

Menayen's holding his nose when he presses the button to put the panel back in place. "Tell be abowd dit." he grins at her, and scampers back to his chair to sit. "Actually, I have some things you might could use. You never know when someone might have to change clothes in a hurry. They're guy clothes, though." None of the spider females' pants would fit her anyway.

"No complaints. Do you have a bathtub I can also use?" Being filthy and reeking is not good for being inconspicuous...also, she hates it.

"Of course. It's down the hall. I'll get you a robe and some towels." The longeared kitty hops down from his chair, smiles a little, and goes to do just that.

"So did you gather anything from what you learned?"

"Yeah. I don't know where Brandt and Revilier are mixed up in this yet, or what interest they have in Troix...but this stuff's huge so far. On top of a look into Troix's value as a target, it gives some insight into her metamorphosis, especially if I can figure a good wizard-y-like person to ask." Slips her nasty jacket off as she walks. "It's also the first evidence that the missing egg wasn't some plot to start a war...maybe not Wyverns' doing at all, although with the source of the egg and no other information on that human 'doctor' yet, I can't be sure. Had to leave before I could ask Josel who 'they' were." Finds the bathroom, and is happy to start the water running...although she doesn't check the temperature with her hand, of course. Running water and all. "Did you contact Alou yet with this stuff?"

"Yes." Menayen shows up behind her, arms comically full of two towels and a soft, white silk robe. "He's got Troix under surveillance. They're more worried about you, though."

Yin smiles at him a bit. "Thanks. And I'm fine. Just part of hte job and all. At the moment, I'm more concerned with what I'm pretending I don't know is in my shoes." Her back is to Menayen, and she just unbuttons a couple of hooks and slips her shirt off. She's honestly not messing with him; just isn't body shy and eager enough to get out of the atrocious thing that she forgets herself.

To his credit, Menayen actually doesn't have a parade of dirty thoughts running through his mind. Still...

"You know, you have a beautiful back." He's beaming of course. "Looks like a lovely place to curl up and nap!!"

Yin smirks back at him. "Appreciate the towels, but how about you just imagine that sequence of events from the other side of the door."

"Well, I was just thinking that--"

The pounding on Menayen's door gets the Serinian's attention in a hurry. He looks that way. "Be quiet, and don't move around too much. Okay?"

Yin nods. Just reaches for a weapon before worrying about her shirt.

Menayen reaches up to open the door.

"Yeah, yeah--"

The doorframe smashes inward, pelting the little guy with splinters and a hinge. He stumbles backwards, lands on his feet, instantly alert.

The Silver Wyvern stands on the other side of the door, her petite hand still raised, palm forward in the falling dust and splinter. Her short, colorful earfins waver a little as she listens for anyone else in the house.

"Hey, that was my door you cute jerk!" Menayen hisses a little at her, something he's done for quite awhile to put off his enemies. "If you're not a stripper, get out!"

She lets her hand fall. Takes two steps inside the house, smiling that sedate smile.

Ellen lowers her chin a bit, eyes narrow. Makes no other move. Just listens, quieting and slowing her breathing as much as possible, waiting to see for sure whether Kaz needs backup.

"Don't you talk? Or are you just a pretty face?" Menayen waits for her to take another step before reaching for his taser gun. The gas-powered hooks shoot out of the device and snag in the wyvern's skin, but a deft movement of her clawed fingertips snaps the lines before he can push the 'shockie' button.

"Where. Is. Troix." The Silver Wyvern's shinbone smashes into the side of Menayen's head after a second of silence, sending the little guy sprawling sideways.

Yin grits her teeth. Still doesn't move...despite wanting to. Not until the last second. He may still have a contingency.

Menayen pushes up, his whole world spinning. He's been kicked before, but damned if she didn't almost take his head off. "Lady, if you wanted me on the ground, you should have gone first." A short panel slips out of his sleeve, and he clicks the button. Instantly, the floor begins to light up with reticules as the hidden cannons in the corners take aim for the Silver Wyvern. "Bye, baby!"

She's on him before he can press it again, wrenching his fingers away from the control, breaking two of them in the process. He growls, and smacks at her with all his strength, but she's just too damned strong.

Yin bares her fangs, growling quietly. Throwing needles crystallize in one of her hands. She bursts out of the door. Analyzes for the barest of seconds, and then throws them. Not at the wyvern. At the dropped button.

The Silver Wyvern looks up at Yin, releasing Menayen's hands. She lowers herself to pounce, her eyes as feral as those of a jungle cat on a desperate hunt.

The button sinks in with a soft clock. Menayen rolls under a chair as machine gun fire fills the air with smoke and snap, and blood seeps in the nick wounds of the fortunate wyvern. Her backwards leap carried almost fast enough to the door. She glares at Yin, as though challenging her for Menayen.

Yin, of course, isn't moving until the machine gun fire eases, but glares right back, her own expression burning with an eerily similar, predatory expression. Dragons and wyverns are far more alike than most would care to admit. "What the hell do you want with a little girl, anyway?" she growls. "That's pretty messed up on every level."

Swaths of silver light swirl around the wyvern, from head to toe. She reaches for her belt and draws a competition-style handgun with sight and points it at Yin. no words. No blustering.

Yin growls--a literal rumbling deep in the back of her throat--and one of her hands snaps back. Ice, as per her usual technique, tries to fill the mechanisms of the gun. She puts her full faith in its working as a modest blade of hardened ice forms over her left forearm, a leaping sprint carrying her towards the wyvern.

The gun doesn't fire, no. The laser sight, on the other hand, burns to life, aimed directly for Yin's forehead as she approaches.

The effect is immediate...a cringe, gritted teeth, but she's counting on getting out of the laser in only a second. "Sword" careens for the wyvern'sgun hand as a loose, long dagger crystlizes in the dragoon's other grip.

"Yin, no...!" Menayen's please just barely escape his lips. The Silver Wyvern turns her gun to aim the light towards Yin's eyes, prepared to release it when the sword strikes.

"Nnng...!" This, and a faint, vaguely melodramatic sizzle announce the sight finding her eye. Shuts them both tightly before she loses the other. The vampiress's movements are smooth and fluid, only falter a moment...even as the gun goes flying, her dagger is stabbing back-handed towards the fleshy part of the wyvern's gun arm, also trying to guard her from the other.

The Silver Wyvern reverses her grip, pushes her arm forward and locks it at an angle, hoping to block Yin's forearm and swat it off course so that the stab doesn't find home. Her other hand shoots forward at the time same time in a claw-stabbing motion.

Yin jerks back and off the wyvern...thwarted, but safe from the stabbing motion. Still, she'd lost that little round, and she knows it. But she's not done yet. Large, blade-sharp cystals of ice spring from the ground and a wall, four of them, on three sides of the wyvern and from above, looking to impale, and the vampiress--after an extra second's pause, trying to overcome a twitching squint in her intact eye enough to evaluate clearly--springs again, blade drawing across. and ready to slash.

The wyvern skips backward, trying to put some more space between herself and Yin. That ice forming trick is a problem, but a Silver Wyvern associates with the Metal element. She knows that she can match such attacks, and it is with that thought in mind that a blade-edge pours from her forearm and solidifies, moving up to parry the slash.

At this point, Ellen isn't growling or trying to figure this woman out. There's just the fight. Her blade slams into the wyvern's with a dull, strange clink. Finds it parried, then the next slash blocked. Changes her angles, trying to find an in, and attacks again, wanting to give no time for her opponent to grab the offense.

The Silver Wyvern attacks, and defends; parries, thrusts, matching and being matched. Her strength surpasses Ellen's, but the Ice Dragon's quickness makes up for it enough that the wyvern simply cannot outfight her like this.

During an exchange, the surface of her shinbone coats with steel beneath her pant leg. The Wyvern feins an attack and swings the leg at Yin's, hoping to hobble her at least for a moment.

Yin, though unprepared for the attack, jerks back...her leg gets angled so that no damage is done, it glances too much, but she does stumble, head going down a bit. Shit...! A thick shield of ice immediately tries to snap over the back of her neck and head, sword slashing in a wide arc in front of her to cover. She doesn't honestly know if she can win this one or not...though it's some hell of an interesting fight. She's trying to buy Menayen time for..whatever. Escape, warn Alou, get a gun, something.

The Wyvern jumps back again. Her sedate smile is still there, only now she's genuinely having fun. She's thrilled, invigorated by this woman's fighting style, her ability to improvise so beautifully. Still, she does have a job to do. She swings for Yin's shield to get her attention, just as pins of piercing still prepare shoot up all around, and beneath, Yin's feet.

The dragoon would be having a tremendous time, really, had she not had such a crap-ass couple of days...and there's still a certain thrill that comes with a fantastic fight. Eyes widen just a touch at the needles. She springs back and on top of a table.

The carpeting rips in a dozen place as the spikes puncture it from beneath. More begin to form on the table, and the ceiling as well.

Yin bares her fangs a little. Eek. Grabs her cell phone. Pulls out the detonation lever, twists. A spiky ball of ice forms around it just before she chucks it towards the Wyvern's abdomen.

The ball smacks into her clothes and sticks, just as the needles shoot up from beneath Yin's feet. The Silver Wyvern shrieks when the device detonates, clouding the room with gray smoke and smashing her back into the wall. Her eyes slide shut, glazing as she slumps to her side.

A pained cry breaks from the Dragoon's lips too at a dozen concurrent stab wounds. But without the ones from the ceiling...she crumples to a knee, catching her breath, but she's okay. One piercing the bottom of her jaw had come dangerously close, but none actually did fully disabling damage. Pulls a spike from her leg--has to jerk it to get it out--and slips off the table. Catches her balance on it. No time to waste, have to get the wyvern restrained.

"Ellen, Brandt..."

"Don't touch her. You did an excellent job to best her, you know." The temperature of the room rises a few degrees when Brandt enters, attired in civilian clothes this time. "Don't move."

Yin's fangs bare to a snarl. She can't help it. This is the man who almost certainly ruined her, singled her out for personal or convenient reasons to destroy her career. "Or what? I'm not recovering from critical injuries this time. Not as easy a target as last time." Of course, she has projectiles sticking out of her in ten places. But oh, she hates him.

"I thought you'd try to be brave. Of course you would." Brandt looks down to the unconscious wyvern. He gives her a little kick with the steel-toe of his boot, nudging her. Does it again. And again, viciously, slamming the reinforced boot toe into her ribs. The wyvern whimpers through her haze, her body drawing up to protect itself. "So I took a precaution. If I don't call my associates in four minutes, my snipers will perforate your friend Alou."

Ellen grits her teeth, eyes burning. Damnit. Damnit, damnit. She doesn't like how he's treating Silver, either. She can respect the other woman as a fighter, and hasn't been given any reason to not respect her as a person. They're just opposing agents. "What do you want?"

"I want Troix. Josel wouldn't talk, so we fucked him up in the hope that he might be persuaded. When he didn't, we started keeping watch on his room for the inevitable other agents... imagine my shock to see a disgraced Dragoon going into that hospital." He looks at Silver. Shakes his head a little. "Give me Troix."

"No. Fuck off." She folds up a piece of gauze as she speaks, wincing just the littlest bit when she sets it over her eye and ties it in place. "Alou would sooner I let him get shot than hand her over. What do you want with her?"

"What do you think is, a James Bond movie? You think I'm going to divulge my secret plans just because you asked?" Brandt draws a fairly unspectacular pistol, points it at Ellen's forehead. "I'm a thug. I'll readiliy admit to it. That's bad for you. Tell me where she is. You have three minutes."

Ellen folds her arms. "That makes shooting me counterproductive." Glances down to the wyvern. "What do you have on her, anyway? She seems awfully competent to be working for bitch like you."

"I'll shoot you afterward. And that falls under my 'none of your goddamn business' policy. Two minutes."  His gaze shifts a little bit. Menayen pushes himself up from the ground, staring stupidly at nothing as he sits back. Brandt smirks a bit. "Or I could shoot the cat."

"International incident," she points out. She's hoping the kitty will come up with something, has an ace. Otherwise...she'll figure it out. Mind is racing.

Menayen looks up.

Brandt shifts his aim and fires at his right shoulder.

Yin stiffens. Grits her teeth....breathes. Swallows hard. Finally, though faint, frustrated trembling... "Fine."

Menayen trembles on the ground, clutching his shoulder almost silently. Oh yeah, he's been shot before.

"Good. Tell me exactly where she is." Brandt smiles a triumphant smile. "One minute."

Menayen's fingertips are still moving, almost as if he's typing at an invisible keypad. Behind the doorway, partially hidden in the shadows, a humvee-sized spider-bot looms.

Pauses. Damnit. Closes her eyes "Safe house. I'm not positive of the exact location since I'm not fully one of theirs. It's near the southeast mall for a quick place to run, within two blocks. The house is three stories and the only lavender one in the area." That's a safe house all right. But it's not being used except by guards that she knows of. Alou had told her about it about a month ago in conjunction with a case he was working, and she'd nailed enough details to find it on her own time.

"Alright. I'll have my people check it out." He turns to leave. Pauses. "That's... a big fucking spi--"

He doesn't get the word out. "Kaz" reaches in with its immense foreleg and bitshslaps Brandt hard enough to shove him away from the door.

"His phone," Menayen groans, "call, call... Alou...!"

Yin is quick to grab and dial. She can't move her fingers quite as quickly as a high school texter, but not bad. picks it up to her ear as her ice-sword thickens to something like a club, taking advantage of the stumbling Brant to wallop him again, hopefully damagingly.

Brandt's off balance, but he's quick enough to block part of the blow. He stumbles into the wall, eyes blazing in fury as he tumbles over, pinned underneath a spider foot.

There's no answer on the other end of the phone.

"Time's up, bitch."

Yin grits her teeth. Damnit. Damnit. Someone pick up the damned phone...Alou, if you're dead, I swear to god...

He's competent. But she's worried. She's gotten pretty bloody attached to him in recent months, a good friend through mutually difficult times. "Someone pick up the damned phone..." she murmurs. She's tense enough that her wounds are actually bleeding more quickly.

It's another moment. Finally, though...

Click.

"Yeah...?"

She's ten kinds of relieved. "Get the fuck down. If Brandt's up front you have four snipers on you now with orders to fire."

"Yeah, I know. I found three of them." Alou's voice cracks a bit, pulls a gasping breath. "The other one found me first, but I got him too."

A swift, almost imperceptible movement of Brandt's right arm pushes a dagger through the Spider's foreleg, and he rolls free. Stands, fires two shots into the robot's face. Looks for an exit.

Yin snarls. "Bye." As she's hanging up, the other hand jerks a metal projectile out of the bottom of one of her breasts and flings it at the base of Brant's skull.

It makes a harsh ping sound when it meets a sheet of metal forming behind him. Silver, sitting up, her face written with volumes of pain, holds her hand out long enough to protect him before working to drag herself up.

Yin growls, conflicted. Finally, ice tries to form up and over the wyvern's hands and ankles, hoping to cement her into place. Her sword's edge replenishes itself. A dagger goes flying towards where his gun should be if he turns as she rushes him from behind. "Still too many questions for you, Jackass!"

The wyvern just succumbs, hurt too badly by the kicks and the blast to fight any more.

Brandt, growing weary and a little worried about all this, releases a wave of heat from within his body, eyes blazing as he finally calls upon his inner fire dragon. 

Still again, Yin may not have the strength to take him on head-on. At least not with draconic abilities. Her head's beginning to spin from blood loss, too...still, she can't let him just slip away. Skids to a stop and springs back, pained at the heat...grits her teeth, jerks another of Silver's darts from her body, and springs after him again, metal armaments in hand and slashing towards his throat.

The heat intensifies, swirling, gathering into a burst between himself and Yin. 

...no good, she can't. Has to fall back after a moment, catching her breath. Eyes narrow. Grabs Silver's dropped gun. The ice shatters as she raises it and pulls the trigger.

The bullet strikes home. Brandt, shot through the left lung, coughs, and gurgles. The heat intensifies again, a last desperate attempt to put Yin down.

She finally drops to a knee. Keeps the gun up. Vision is swirling as though everything is a Sahara mirage. Narrows her eyes. Eye. Tries to get a sight on him. Takes a few seconds...can't be sure. Scowls. Fires once, then again.

Brandt falls, but whether she hit him or not is impossible to tell through the flames. The apartment is burning now, and Menayen lies unconscious across from Silver, who is likewise. Outside, sirens can be heard approaching the smoke-filled apartment building.

Ellen coughs in the smoke. She doesn't have much left in the way of power...glances back to the other two. Forces herself to her feet, gun set aside. Come on...the little nerd has to have a fire extinguisher somewhere...

He does, but it's on the other side of the flames.

From outside, the sound of firetrucks and the spray of thousands of gallons of water crashes into the roar of the flames. Smoke billows even more powerfully, blackening the air until visibility is almost zero.

She coughs several more times, harder. Head swirls. She limps over to Menayen and Silver...loosely tapes a medical pad over the cat-pimp's mouth as a gas mask. Is really struggling by the time she gets to the wyvern...manages to repeat it over the room's lovliest face. Ellen pants as she gets out a third for herself...gazes at it a moment. Can't quite muster the will to lift it. A few moments later, she crumples where she'd been kneeling, and lies still.