Match of the Millennium

Description: With the evacuation and rescue of the British diplomat's nephew, Max Evory is positioned to infiltrate Shadaloo operations within Southtown. Posing as a mercenary recruit, he finds himself sent to a brothel in Chinatown, with orders to dispatch Syndicate officers enjoying themselves. While executing criminals may sit within the scope of both the English and Shadaloo, the operation goes upside-down when the madame of the house reveals more monstrous seasoning amongst her women. Instead of fighting half-naked lieutenants, Max finds himself the lone survivor when the ladies of the night tear apart the Shadaloo agents... and he has to find his way to report to both his Shadaloo and British operatives, before the creatures of the night find him.

[MAX]
It only took a little manipulation to get into the Southtown mercenary employment roster of Rugal's field intelligence services, to allow Max Evory entry into the contract cleaner circles of the soldiers of fortune. Soldiers of fortune have hard histories, and the opportunity to save a dying heroin addict in Southeast Asia gave an MI-6 assassin the credentials of Lazlo Montana, a famous Australian Digger that defected from his unit after the murder of a Southtown Syndicate's daughter. Lazlo Montana was rumored to have had a synapse in his reasoning circuits blown after he was forcibly injected on heroin by one of Geese's drug runners in Australia.

In reality, Lazlo Montana was always bad, he just got tired of pretending to be good.

Max Evory, with Lazlo Montana's distinctive scar, walked into the Chinatown brothel wearing a worn denim jacket and an old cashmere sweater. His face was unshaven for a day, and his hair had been grown out without being styled, giving it a mussed look. His cold blue eyes, however, were unmistakable.

He had been hired to kill the Southtown Syndicate members here, by Shadaloo. If he could get into Shadaloo's good graces, he could find out how Shadaloo had breached NATO's communications networks and located the British e-sensitive that Max had saved from kidnapping, weeks earlier.

But first, he had to kill a few gangsters.

[MUNIN]
Before Max is a stairwell going down to a thick wooden door, beside of which is the traditional red neon light that indicates it as being a house of the carnal pleasures.

The sound of his heavy bootsteps echo in the enclosed concrete and brick space, multiplied by the steps of the squad with him. As his CO brings up a hand to order one of the men to pick the lock, a small sliding window opens, and a pair of exotic eyes, accented with makeup, peer out at them. They narrow, as if the woman is smiling, and it closes again. The door then clicks as the lock is undone, and the door slowly creeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaks open, revealing..... no one!

Whoever it was that opened the door, she is nowhere to be found. It's an empty hallway leading in.

... and it's coupled with complete silence from inside.

[MAX]
Max Evory keeps his mouth shut as he slowly slides on thick gloves with kevlar-weave palms, not for the bullet-soak but rather to allow him a stifling grasp when dealing with his future victims. And, of course, dealing with any blades that may come his way. His jaw clamps shut, as he sees the exotic eyes, before the empty hallway is revealed.

"I want this first," the spy says, before he steps inside, sliding a pair of yellow-lensed sunglasses over his eyes to repress any flashes. He's got a Colt .45 holstered at his hip, Lazlo Montana's preferred weapon, as he moves down the hallway, moving at a slow pace so the others can follow in taut comfort, keeping their senses alert.

[MUNIN]
The CO nods, knowing Lazlos rep, and waves the rest of the squad to follow, letting the spy amongst them take point!

The hallway doesnt go too far before it turns to the left, and there, down the hall, are several ladies standing on the sides of the corridor, some with clothes, some half-naked, others completely nude. They look amused, and completely unphased by the group. Some even beckon with a single finger, wanting them to make themselves 'at home' as it were, their indications clear. The squad, actually a bit unnerved (and after a glare from the CO) do not give in as they pass through the area, despite the ladies trying their best from where they stand.

While doors do line the corridor (the ladies are standing in some of said only half-open doorways), the one at the end is strangely open. The CO turns to the rest, telling them to spread out. To Lazlo, he says "You got the door over there".

[MAX]
There's a fine, hard tension in Max's look as he looks at one of the women as he makes eye contact with them, a look of canine dominance that indicates Max's true nature as a spy. He's less a human that interacts with others on the level of a teacher, more a dog that learns how to live from playing war games.

Max moves to lean up against the open door, sliding a pack of Camel Filters out of his pocket. He slides one into his mouth and replaces the pack in his jacket, lighting it with a red Bic. As he takes his first drag, he looks inside the open door, to see who's inside.

[MUNIN]
With trained ease the rest of the squad breaks up, each taking a room nearest to them to search. The ladies casually move out of the way, not hindering the search, before swaggering suggestively behind them. The CO also takes a room to search.

As Max enters the room at the end of the hallway, he sees that it is a very ornate master bedroom. The curtains have been pulled over the bed, covering it from view. However, beside the bed he sees a woman in clean, simple garments. The purple dress she wears is decently long, with a tight top that does not cover her stomach. She gives him a curious yet unconscerned look "Can i help you, mister? You ARE in my establishment, after all". She stands there, hands on her hips, eyes boring into his with great intensity.

[MAX]
"Can you play Caribbean Stud? I'm looking for a lesson, and I hear you Chinese ladies know how to run things by the numbers."

He lowers his eyes as he smokes left-handed, forefinger over his cigarette, explaining, "I'm gay."

He exhales smoke, tilting his head backwards and looking upwards as smoke moves out in a plume.

[MUNIN]
Before she can respond, theres a sudden sound of a man screaming heard in the hallway behind Max! Within a few moments, more screams! The sound of gunfire rings through the hall, of heavy objects impacting the walls in some great struggle. Wet meaty sounds of sharp objects striking flesh, like you would hear at a butcher shop. From the hallway, small rivers of red run from beneath the doorways as the doors open, revealing the ladies from before, grinning from ear to ear and covered in blood. Their hands, fingernails now long and razor sharp, are also covered in the red substance.

.... and just like that, Max is alone with these monsters.

The woman before him steps away from the bed, revealing a pale arm sticking out from the heavy curtains that had been hidden behind her body, suddenly gaining an abnormally large grin and claws of her own.

When she speaks, her voice is rough and gravelly "Don't worry. We aren't picky with our partners here! You just haven't been with the right girl!". Abruptly, her clothes and skin seem to age, her legs rotting away until shes only a torso, floating in the air with her waist hidden by the tattered cloth. Behind him, the other women have undergone a similar transformation, their monsterous forms consisting of thin, blue-tinted emaciated skin, long sharp claws, and dirty tangled floating hair. Their eyes glow with pale cold blue light as they stare and begin to move in on Max.

COMBATSYS: Banshee Swarm has started a fight here.

[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
Banshee Swarm    0/-------/-------|

[MAX]
Max stands in place, as his body tenses and his muscles bind together as he hears his entire team get slaughtered beyond sight. And then, when he slowly turns his head to observe the ghoul, he takes a last drag on his cigarette, before dropping it to the ground and grinding it out beneath his toe.

"Consider me heterosexual, darling."

At that, Max grabs the open door and pivots about with a torso torque. He rips the door off its hinges and spins it about to hold it the long way, as if he was holding a table, before he charges the banshee in the room, attempting to slam her legs against the bed with a dive, shoving his upper body against hers, before he jams his head upwards with a headbutt against the jaw.

COMBATSYS: Max has joined the fight here.

[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////////////]
Max              0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0    Banshee Swarm

COMBATSYS: Max successfully hits Banshee Swarm with Mind Your Surroundings.

[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////////////   ]
Max              0/-------/------=|=------\-------\0    Banshee Swarm

[MUNIN]
While the banshees now have no legs to speak of, the initial strike DOES hit her in the waist, knocking her out of position for the followups. While it DOES have an effect visibly, it doesn't feel right. She feels almost.... insubstantial on contact to some extent.

While the strike to the jaw would more than likely stun a normal human if hit like that, to this creature it does little more than anger her it seems. She grabs at Max, attempts to pull him close, before SCREAMING in his face! This is no NORMAL scream, however. It's very high pitch, which to the normal human ears is likely not even hearable. The effect it has on the inner ear, however, is DEFINATELY noticable!

COMBATSYS: Max blocks Banshee Swarm's Deafen.

[    \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////////    ]
Max              0/-------/---====|==-----\-------\0    Banshee Swarm

[MAX]
Max backpedals away from the banshee, dropping the door, the scream ratting him as he puts his gloved hands over his ears.

As the room around him throbs and bevels with vertigo, he takes a step forward and then jumps into the air.

His arm snaps upwards to catch an old pipe on the ceiling, before his brown boot swings outwards as he performs a monkey kick with a lever on his arm via the ceiling.

"I don't know how you offended your father, but here we are."

COMBATSYS: Banshee Swarm blocks Max's Diving Kick.

[   \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  /////////////////////////     ]
Max              0/-------/---====|===----\-------\0    Banshee Swarm

[MUNIN]
The banshee that is kicked at merely holds up a glowing hand, the kick impacting with little effect on the palm. With a quick flick, the banshee in question grabs at the foot, attemmpting to yank Max forwards, over her head, and onto the bed with the corpse! Once there, she intends to hold him so her sisters can move in and have a better shot at him with their claws!

COMBATSYS: Max interrupts Grounding Throw from Banshee Swarm with Dancing Blade.

[        \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////        ]
Max              0/-------/=======|=====--\-------\0    Banshee Swarm

[MAX]
Max gets pulled off the pipe and spins about to land atop the corpse.

Ignoring the dead Syndicate member he lays atop, the blood and guts squealching beneath him as he pulls a knife from a holster inside his jacket where a hidden bandolier holds it, he grabs the banshee as she holds him down while her sisters claw at him, stabbing her with the blade from below in the guts, his other arm wrapped around her shoulders and neck.

His lips curl into a teeth-bearing grimace as he stares upwards, cheek beside her ear, running her through while his clothes are torn to shreds.

[MUNIN]
Once more, while it DOES seem to have an effect, the banshees body feels strange as the blade pierces her form. A faint energy-like substance that isnt a gas, yet isnt a solid either, seems to drift out from her as she floats back holding a hand to the place struck.

Meanwhile, her sisters try to dig into their new meal, claws flying in a frenzy of slashes and cuts as they try to remove him from the living in as brutal and messy a fashion as the poor man he lies upon!

COMBATSYS: Max dodges Banshee Swarm's Corrupting Touch.

[        \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  /////////////////////         ]
Max              1/-------/=======|======-\-------\0    Banshee Swarm

[MAX]
Max Evory shoves upwards with a curl, and springs off the edge of the bed after grabbing the lower edge and righting himself.

Leaving the banshees behind him, he lands with his knife in his hand and sheathes it back into the holster beneath his bloody jacket.

He turns around, stretching his fingers in his strangler's gloves, one hand after the other, before he curls them into fists and unleashes a trio of punches at the banshees cornering him in the bedroom. First, a right cross, then, a left jab, before a final right uppercut as he strafes to the side to get near the door.

COMBATSYS: Max successfully hits Banshee Swarm with Three of a Kind.

[         \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////           ]
Max              1/------=/=======|=======\-------\0    Banshee Swarm

[MUNIN]
The banshee struck lurches with each hit, the last one striking her in the head, which shatters into several dozen fragments of energy! With a screech, she writhes in the air before vanishing from sight!

The rest glare at him with undisguised hatred, and as one they rush him! Grasping at him from all directions, moving through the walls to flank, they try to grab him, pulling him this way and that, into the air, across the room, slashing, pulling throwing him around in their anger. They almost seem to fight each other in the drive to inflict damage and pain to him for their sister!

COMBATSYS: Max dodges Banshee Swarm's Last Gasp.

[          \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////            ]
Max              1/------=/=======|=======\-------\0    Banshee Swarm

[MAX]
Max jukes and ducks and blocks through the horde of slashing, angry ghosts, slapping their blows aside with his arms and tripping his way through them with quick sidesteps and shiftspins. Left behind him is a small metal disk latched to the floor with a trio of red lights on it, colored a dull red.

Max goes diving away from the door as the metal disk flashes to life with three red blinks, one after the other, before all three flash red and the disk explodes.

COMBATSYS: Max successfully hits Banshee Swarm with Blinding Heights.
~~ Alluring Hit! ~~

[          \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  /////////////                 ]
Max              0/-------/-----==|=======\==-----\1    Banshee Swarm

[MUNIN]
The explosion envelops the remaining banshees, who scream in pain! They had not been expecting such a thing....

When the smoke clears, they are all clearly damaged, some missing parts of their bodies, but all still present, glaring as they as one open their mouths! Invisible sonic waves fill the room as they attempt to use their trademark namesake ability from ancient myth to do harm to him from a distance!

COMBATSYS: Max blocks Banshee Swarm's Hue and Cry.

[           \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////                  ]
Max              0/-------/----===|=======\===----\1    Banshee Swarm

[MAX]
Max pushes himself up from the dive away from the explosion, and ducks into another door in the hallway as the screams bounce off the hallways, feeling his ears shock and his head throb. After the screams disappate, he comes out from back behind the doorway he was using as cover, and he does a quick trio of steps, at one of the banshee, before he throws himself headfirst at it, attempting to grab the ethereal women and pull her to the ground, so he can repeatedly bash her into the floor with both arms, on his knees.

COMBATSYS: Max successfully hits Banshee Swarm with Medium Throw.
Glancing Blow

[          \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////                    ]
Max              0/-------/---====|=======\====---\1    Banshee Swarm

[MUNIN]
The banshee that is grabbed screams as she is slammed into the floor, and seeming explodes into wisps of foggy energy that vanish moments later. The remaining trio radiate pure fury, but keep their distance.

Well, two of them do.

The third is unable to hold it back, and races in at her target, attempting to swing her glowing claws at him from various angles, some of which are through objects in an attempt to throw him off guard!

Despite her frenzy, she isn't closing the gap TOO much, indicating her awareness of how dangerous this human is....

COMBATSYS: Max fails to interrupt Charged Combo from Banshee Swarm with Parkour Tackle.

[              \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////                    ]
Max              0/-------/-----==|=======\=====--\1    Banshee Swarm

[MAX]
Max bursts up from the ground after the banshee is banished, and turns about to face the one charging him. He goes running at this one, just like previously, an extra shot of speed provided by his adrenaline.

And then, as he charges off the ground with a jump to meet the hovering ghost, he's slashed across the face, knocked back to the ground and spinning to the concrete floor. He screams in pain beneath it as the claws tear his face and chest, roaring in rage.

[MUNIN]
The other banshees, seeing this, move in, and also slash at Max!

One of them instead grabs at his ankle, and attempts to pick him up, and slam him into the floor on her opposite side, then the wall, and so on, swinging him around like a ragdoll into whatever solid surfaces are closest at hand!

COMBATSYS: Max dodges Banshee Swarm's Brutal Throw Chain.

[              \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////                   ]
Max              0/-------/-----==|=======\=====--\1    Banshee Swarm

[MAX]
Max is pickd up off the ground and swings into the wall, placing both his hands up and rebounding off it with a hard vault. He hits the ground and backpedals his momentum into a wall, before pushing off it and going at the banshee with both fists, swinging and punching, before he attempts to grab the banshee with his hand and swing the legless apparition into a wall to banish it.

COMBATSYS: Max successfully hits Banshee Swarm with Fierce Combo.

[              \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////                          ]
Max              0/-------/-----==|>>>>>>>\>>>>>>>\2    Banshee Swarm

[MUNIN]
With a swing, the banshee Max is holding flies through the air..... and right through the wall. With a wrench, she pulls herself free from his grasp, and flies out of sight, harmed or not is unknown.....

As he lands and surveys his surroundings, he sees that the other two are nowhere to be found. They seem to have fled the field, leaving the spy alone with the corpses of his allies, as well as his former targets......

COMBATSYS: Banshee Swarm takes no action.

[              \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
Max              0/-------/-----==|

COMBATSYS: Banshee Swarm can no longer fight.

[              \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
Max              0/-------/-----==|

[MAX]
Max slowly wipes the blood off his mouth with his sleeve, looking down at a piece of paper retrieved from one of the lieutenants.

'Duke Burkoff'.

He sees the remain of the wax seal, narrowing his eyes.

After leaving the brothel, Max Evory huddles his shoulders up with his hands in his pockets, cold and alone into the night that is the same, huddled into its fearful bosom once more.

Log created on 19:33:42 08/01/2018 by Munin, and last modified on 20:49:49 08/03/2018.