Description: Best reason to app Holly Wood yet!
Once again, night has fallen, trucking along right on schedule for the billionth time in a nigh-uncountable number of years. This is widely considered by people the world over as a good thing. Mind, it's not that effective around these parts, because even though it's well-removed from the city, the heavy cloud cover has a tendancy to reflect the massive source of light that is Metro City proper. The end result is that even though it's dark, certainly, and you'd be hard pressed to spot celestial objects of any sort, it's still more than possible to see where you're going. This is not neccesarily a plus for our hobo hero, as he frequently finds it easier to move around when other people plain won't be able to see him. Still, it's not that much of a bad thing, either, as he's currently employing the 'hide in plain sight' method' of going undetected.
This still doesn't exactly explain what he's doing out here. I mean, really, your guess is as good as mine. The mind of hobos, like those of ninjas, are mysterious in their workings.
And there would be something somewhat unusual. In the middle of the night, far beyond usual times, heavy freight -- the massive cargo containers that can fill up gargantuan ships -- is being moved rather quitely through the city. There are three in all, one significantly larger then the other two; Which says a lot, as each is much bigger then a semi trailer. At the front of the convoy is a plain white van, and at the rear is another plain white van. They have the insignia of the moving business. However, two things are wrong. One -- the moving business doesn't exist, if Guy bothors to pay attention to such. Two, well, damnit it's late. What better reason do you need then that? It would be easy to follow in the dark night, going to one of the fringe warehouses directly by one of the major roads and also near the military installation for Metro City.
Pulling into the chain-link fence enclosed area, a pair of people in oddly plain uniforms quickly pull the door shut, the top covered in chain link. However, it's nothing a super-hobo couldn't leap over as silent as a cat with only minimal groin-related danger. The three vans come to a stop, unloading a total of eight people. And...
Holly Wood.
He's dressed in the same uniform, but the massive figure is about as subtle as a pile of bricks. Also, he's got on a red beret for some reason, and a knife openly held on his belt. "Okay you goddamn bastards, I want this unloaded in 30." "Thirty?" Holly Wood swiftly approaches the person who questioned, and shoves him hard enough into the van that it almost falls over. He collapses to the ground, gasping for breath. "TWENTY-FIVE."
Holly Wood snaps his gaze around. Given his reputation, he has to order through brutality and intimidation; Something that Rolento is more then willing to endorse. It's useful having someone to shift soldiers to. 'Be good or I'm putting you under Holly Wood.' My god, just look at the effect on Nassir.
Two of the trucks back up to the loading platform, massive doors sliding upwards as two men begin to open the ends. The insignia on the side of the boxes is for a real shipping company however, one that commonly comes to the Metro City docks -- and is almost never thoroughly checked beyond the minimum. They are a long-time consistent and trusted party.
...One that has been missing for over a month, after their last shipment. Whatever much Guy might know, this is definitely going to require some investigation.
Well, isn't that interesting? While Metro's far too big a city for Guy to keep track of every little moving company, there is something to be said about suspicious looking caravans in the middle of the night. Even if it turns out they're perfectly innocent...well, it still doesn't hurt to watch. There's something to be said about a healthy sense of paranoia, although I have no idea what it is.
Reasoning for actions aside, the hobo who most certainly is not Guy does, indeed, go into the aforementioned action. Still, it's a difficult thing, even for him, to keep up with several vehicles. Not impossible, but difficult. Dashing along behind at the side of whatever roads the vans go by, barely managing to keep up, when he finally arrives at the chain link fence, he's breathing heavily and already feeling a bit under the weather. Still, no excuse to slack off. Leaping over the fence, keeping to the shadows, our brave bum spots the familiar face that is Holly Wood, and further sees that whatever's being transported is about to come into view, as it were.
Naturally, this requires both a closer look, and an equivilant amount of caution. Wouldn't want to do anything rash, now. Right? Right.
The exterior warehouse doors are open. The doors of the freight is open. However, annoyedly, the vehicle then backs up. The rear end of the trailer completely enters the building, before a mechanical sound locks it into place. The same happens with the other. So it appears it will not be nearly that easy to spy on this particular bit. But one could hold a lot in such trailers, especially if they came in unscreened... And what sort of stuff would the Shank Squad wish to store in a warehouse? Rolento has managed to get three helicopters into the city -- one of which Guy blew up -- and similarly has hum-vee and large stores of weapons from RPGs to assault rifles. This much is known. But that's almost nothing in a city of this size. Foreboding might begin to creep in.
Two people remain outside with Holly Wood, as the drivers of the trucks turn off their vehicles and get out to stretch their feet. Presently there are only five people total Wood included outside, although the sounds of heavy moving machinery now hums outside the large building. And now Guy might notice there are regular patrols on top of this; The area is dark, to better hide what is taking place, but a seeming pair use flashlights in all the nooks and crannies during their circuits around the warehouse, also checking outside the fence into the nearby streets and alleys. In a few minutes they'll be on him.
Two options; One, leap out of the pertimeter and try to hide in an alley. Two... run and hide beneath one of the idling trucks locked into the offload bay. Or the third truck, with the oddly massive trailer, which remains idling. The driver inside appears to be listening to an iPod. Holly Wood and the others are being yelled at harshly; Wood's back is to Guy, and it would be suicide if one shifted eyes away. The second option appears to be the best bet for true ninja infiltration.
Well, if there's anything that's indictive of something bad going down, besides Holly Wood, that is, it would be this security. Damn but it's heavy. Clearly, this makes option one wholly unacceptable. If Guy runs off now, there's no telling what he might miss. He doesn't want that nice little run to have just been for exercise, after all.
Indeed, it seems the best spot to avoid being seen is under one of the trucks.
Clearly, the time for action is now. No time to hesitate - just as in combat, the difference even a few fractions of a second can make are incredibly important. Indeed, that's the mentality that the practitioner of Bushin seems to be applying to this entire sneaking around business. It's just like a battle, except...y'know, not. Many of the concepts of the one apply to the other. Still, all that aside, it's a good thing that he still has his sneakers on, as if he was wearing something with hard soles, Guy would almost certainly make enough noise over the ambient sounds of motors and things being loaded and whatnot. As it is...who knows? Dashing as fast as he can toward one of the unloading trucks, he goes into a slide once he approaches, ending up neatly underneath. Speaking of combat applying to stealth, that's pretty much one of his attacks, right there! Go figure.
The slide causes one of the more astute people to quirk his heads, and make the mistake of glancing towards the open area bathed in shadows just past the truck that Guy is now nestled beneath. Of course, Holly Wood slaps him. Hard. "Egh!" For a moment the incognito Shank Squad looks like he'll hit Holly Wood back in a spurt of surprised anger, but smartly doesn't. Holly Wood still has his hand up. "I heard something!" "The hell you did!" "I swear! Bet you ten drinks I heard it!" "Oh, suuuure!" Holly Wood states with a loud laugh. The people with the flashlights are inspecting the area that Guy was in just moments before, and then the alleys and streets. "See? Nothing."
Then... "What if he went under the truck?"
"Under the truck?!" Holly Wood states, and his footsteps can be heard coming towards it. He laughs loudly, and begins to kick a tire. "Hulllooo! Is there someone under the truck? Come out, come out!" The man who originally spoke appears to be embaressed. "I bet it's Guy's corpse! Hey, Guy's corpse! Come out! We'll have a drink!!" Holly Wood then laughs, kicking the side of the vehicle and actually causing it to raise an inch from the ground before settling back. Wow. But he never actually checked.
Holly Wood returns to the other four men... But the fifth, who got slapped, walks towards the truck that Guy is under warily. He then immediately crouches down, checking underneath with an abrupt flash of light. "Aha!" is called out, no matter what. "The hell are you doing?!" Holly Wood snarls, beginning to walk over in order to slap the person in the back of the head.
Good thing nobody actually saw him sliding in, or Guy might be in serious trouble right now. As it is, Holly Wood is giving him quite the fright. Insensitive bastard. Talking so callously of the dead! It's a good thing Guy's got other priorities, because otherwise he'd surely be able to find some reason to just up and kick the crap out of the SSer.
Still, as soon as Holly starts coming his way, Guy is moving onward, to the other side of the truck. Funny how that works. Still, that's a few brief, tense moments of crawling forward on his ass that keeps Guy sweating. When he gets there, he comes up in a crouch, and starts moving toward the warehouse, keeping an eye out for patrols. If his feet should be from under the truck, it's a pity, but that's out of his control right now. Gotta stay focused on the mission objective, and stuff.
And indeed, Guy's foot is shielded by one of the tires as the light is flashed underneath. There's a completely surprised sound done by the man who attempted to ambush. "But... but..." He's swiftly kicked in the rear by Holly Wood, being in a quite well-placed crouch for such cruelties. His head impacts the side of the vehicle and he crumples, curling into the fetal position as the flashlight rolls underneath the truck and settles to a stop facing Guy. There's a sudden flash of his sillouette upon the wall in front of the truck!! Is he found out?
...No, the man with the iPod happens to be the only person facing that direction, and he's got his eyes closed. The end of the truck obscures it from the third in command and his posse, situated on the other side. Still, likely an unhappy close call.
Holly Wood is pointing down at the fallen man now, and the other three have turned their backs to him. Not a fan of Holly Wood brand discipline, observed or taken. Insulting him behind his back is one thing, but the repricussions when in his presence make up for it. Oh, he knows; And he tends to make everybody pay.
"Listen, you goddamn little jackass." Holly Wood snaps down his arm, grasping the fallen Shank Squad member by the neck and slamming him into the side of the vehicle in a ripple of toned muscle. "You disobey me one more time, and I'll break your arm. I don't give a damn if I'm not cleared for 'crippling' discipline like that bastard El Gado. Trust me, little man, not a single damn person will say you did anything but /trip./" Holly Wood whirls around and shoves, allowing the man to tumble to the ground and come to a stop, coughing and getting to his feet. It only takes the wounded Shank Squad member a glance at the three, backs still turned, to realize Holly Wood is right.
"Stupid little... How is the unloading going?" is shouted towards the back of the truck. Holly Wood squats, noticing the flashlight's still there, and begins to walk around the front in order to pick it up. Worse off, the recon party has doubled back. The only way that Guy can run would cause him to pass through their own light and the subtle investigation would be over. Is there anywhere he can hide?! Yes. But will he find it?
Oh, this isn't good. Angry, violent dumbass incoming! Guy's options are looking pretty limited right here. Quickly being hemmed in by the multitude of people, Guy is reminded why he generally goes the simpler, beat down everyone's ass style of investigation. It's not too late to go for it now, but...it would be a shame to see all of the effort so far go to waste.
Still, that leaves the problem of what, exactly, to do. The horizantal is blocked, can't go down, Holly's going for the flashlight underneath in just a moment...that really only leaves one direction. With a leap, Guy vaults up flat onto the top of the shipping container, and then starts crawling his way toward the building. It's tall, it's wide, and if he stays low, he should be able to stay out of sight of all those people on the ground, while making his way toward the building at the same time. With a little luck, it's just crazy enough to work!
And indeed, Guy leaps up just as Holly Wood rounds the end of the semi and strolls to the flashlight. The ones who doubled back similarly illuminate the area around him, looking to be wary of the warning even if the third in command is not. "Two more guards on perimeter." Holly Wood orders, furrowing his brow. He seems to be getting some second sense now. Even if he agreed with the other person, he has to beat his ass. Then again, if he /does/ find someone, that's another notch on the laughingstock meter for poor Holly Wood.
But he does crouch down, and thoroughly scans the underneath of the truck. He then scratches his head, glancing at the top for a couple moments. Shifting in place as if to leap up and check, a combination of doubt, how ridiculous it would look, and simple laziness end with a grunt as he walks back into view of the four mingling in the lit section just before the main doors. "Thought I saw a shadow." Holly Wood muses, as if he's taking credit for first sighting. Which he is. Everyone nods, fully agreeing. Even the person who he slapped, kicked, and threw. Two are randomly pointed at, and pull out flashlights. "Check all around. Have a secondary team start scanning inside. Better safe then sorry, huh?" Or maybe he just likes ordering people around. One way or another, Guy is remaining on a knife's edge.
...But there are two windows seen clearly, near the top of the warehouse and within leaping distance of the large container's end.
Knife's edge. Knives, knives, knives. It's been too long since someone's just tried to beat the crap out of him the honest way. Still, he's done well enough so far, all things considered, so when he crawls to the end of the shipping thingy and sees the window, well. Clearly, Guy has to go for it. Coming up into a crouch at the container's edge, he leaps and snags the bottom of the window, allowing himself to hang flat against the building. Slowly drawing himself up for a peek inside, checking both for a spot to drop down onto, for guards, and for whatever's being unloaded...if the coast is clear, he'll pull himself in with his mighty arms and get to some cover. Course, it's not wise to get ahead of one's self. Gotta take these things bit by bit, one step at a time!
The inside is fairly massive, and for the most part filled with numerous mundane crates. Wooden ones, plastic ones, steel ones, all covered in heavy tarps. The place is fairly high-tech, the sound of an air conditioner heard. But there's no place to really go from here; Directly down the place is massively well-lit, and there's a good four people active. Two others have forklifts, and have attached chains to something inside with them. Weird. Just as Guy glances in, they begin to pull backwards, navigating around piles of boxes. Chains go tight. The groan of the forklift engines hums in the warehouse.
During this, two teams of two can be seen moving around the boxes, flashing lights here and there randomly. They don't appear to be actually looking, more pretending for such. Such a sloppy operation would be impossible under anyone else's command; The unique qualities of a Holly Wood led expidetion have their own charm, though.
And where Guy can go next is actually seen pretty easily. The ceiling is a grillwork of reinforced bars, six of them stretching across the entirety of the massive warehouse. It wouldn't be too hard to shimmy past the people below, and then drop upon one of the stacked tarp-covered piles of storage in a relatively shadowed place...
Well, the view's not bad from where he's at, but Guy can do better. In fact, scratch that, he has to do better; he wants to know exactly what's sort of thing Rolento has going here, and the best way to figure that out is to get a closer look. The girders are, in fact, an ideal way to accomplish this. Fancy that. Pulling himself up fully onto the edge of the window, Guy balances there for a moment, calm and sure, and then hops toward the nearest girder, aiming for the top if there's room above, aiming to grab onto the bottom if there's not.
Either way, he's moving forward, looking for that ideal drop-spot; one where he can find proper concealment, while at the same time getting a good view of the unloading process. For that matter, while he's looking, exits would be a good thing to note; you never know when you may have to beat a hasty retreat.
There's less then a meter on top of the girder, but it's a simple manner to hug it like one's deepest lover and supply grind your away along it's massive length. Nobody bothors to look at the ceiling itself, not truly believing there'd be an intruder -- mayhaps if there was better evidence then just hearing Guy's slide, and they got an order while actually being observed by Holly Wood, things would go better. A drop-off point has a direct view of the contents of the shipping containers, and what the chains are connected to therein.
...
Slowly, surely, the two forklifts manage to pull out tanks. Two small urban-model Russian tanks, the turrent situated far on the back and the tip not quite passing the vehicle's front. It's a deep grey, and steadily rolls on the treads under the forklift's guidance. They continue to pull backwards, until situating them in an open corner a good bit out of the weigh.
Two people unlatch the containers, and call for the trucks to leave. The sound of doors opening outside, and with a rumble the night can be seen through massive squares. The third truck remains idling, but the driver pushes out his door and yells to Holly Wood, who's just now pulling himself into the building through the still unshuttered entry bay.
"Where do you want this one?"
"That one? Oh... /That./ Take that straight to Section B. It's one of Rolento's best goodies." "Roger that." The iPod-wearing driver pulls his door shut, revs the engine, and heads for the gate. Two of the wandering people jog over to pull it open and allow it's transit back into the street. Something that size... And if he had tanks in the other ones... A shame Guy wasn't able to look into it, huh?
Right now, the eight people are busy stacking boxes on the front of the tank about it's barrel, latching them into place with chains and then throwing a tarp over it, making sure that it completely covers the sides, front and back. At first glance, they look like nothing more then another store. Holly Wood walks over, rubbing his chin thoughtfully and gauging the concealment. "This'll work. Other people who use this building won't touch it. Radio sub-base B and have them tell Rolento that our final shipment has arrived. And that his Class AAA is en-route." Sub-base B? Rolento's truly been having a field day in Metro City. And given how close the warehouse is to both the military base, one of the main routes into and out of Metro City, and a police building... They could easily cause a hell of a lot of damage.
Guy did good. Guy found evil Rolento scheme. As for exits, there's the windows again. Although then he'd have to drop a story and a half, given the trucks left. Or the one-way door at the corner by the twin cargo doors, which remain slide open. People are milling about, checking things and constantly re-adjusting the tarp-covered tanks as the forklift operators park the vehicles in their designated area in order to hook them to the charger once more.
Recon complete. Guy's seen at least part of what Rolento's got up his sleeve, and so the advantage is his. Or, at least, Rolento's advantage is decreased. Time will tell. Still, there's nothing more to be done here - while destroying the hell out of those tanks would be a good idea in the short term, the temporary hobo decides that for now, it would be prudent for nobody to even have known he was ever here. Therefore, plan gtfo and go is now. Backtracking, dropping a story and a half to the ground out the window, and then beelining over the fence, getting out should prove much easier than getting in.
And indeed it is. The thud upon the ground is heard, but the pair who go investigate find nothing out of the ordinary. There's a brief murmur, and then Holly Wood comes out, glancing around curiously. "The hell?" "We... We thought we heard a sound, sir." A long few moments pass, as the wheels begin to turn in the man's head. A supposed sound. A weird feeling of another presence. Now, another sound? "Nothing was found in the patrols?" "Negative, sir. Should... Should we file this to Rolento?"
Holly Wood leaps down, and crosses over to just below the window that Guy leapt from. His beret-topped head tilts from side to side, before he then pulls out his flashlight and crouches down. Turning it on, the ground is observed with what would seem to be a hunter's eye. Holly Wood appearing to know what he's doing appears surprising to the guard. Slowly shifting around the flashlight, head as well turning, the third in command then stops. A partial footprint, nigh invisible. The Shank Squad all wear the same type. He rubs the edge, easily destroying it. New, for sure.
"Huh." If he tells Rolento, then he could be blamed for failing to keep a perimeter. And hell, it could mean nothing; Did he check the footwear for what the drivers were wearing? Indecision manages to reach his countenance, but is quickly bit back. "No. Don't see anything. Stop jumping at ghosts." Holly Wood spits upon the footprint, stepping over it towards the pair of vans once more. All in all, his personal ability became secondary to personal well being. "Let's move out. Now!"
Log created by Rolento, and last modified on 03:37:58 08/08/2005.