Description: Naerose Archives. Daniel and Aranha and Naerose try to steal one of the tanks being used in some big old war! These good old days long forgotten may not even be a trace in the mind of the Red Witch, ever changing, ever fickle. . But one can not erase memories of the heart!
The Todoh Dojo wasn't looking very good. The place looked like it had seen better days, but worse yet, Daniel Jack wasn't there. A slightly less big smile lingered on Naerose' lips. She couldn't find anyone, but she did find a note. Daniel Jack had been kidnapped by Rolento. He was part of her plan, so him being kidnapped was a problem. She'd managed to avoid the trouble in Southtown this long, but it seemed like her luck finally had run out.
Having snuck through the village, becoming more and more aware of the peril. Naerose found herself at Aranha's apartment building. She totally needed an ally. "Aww man, he's gonna be so mad at me," Naerose whines as she approaches the door list. "Aranha Aranha.. what even is his last name?" exclaims the red clad witch while scratching her head. "I'll just push them all." And she does.
And then Aranha makes his way towards the apartment... Slowly. There's something about taking a shot that has killed elephants that will make a person not want to move fast unless it's to get out of danger. For now there's no danger.
But upon seeing the witch he stops. The shock of seeing the witch at his apartment doorstep is surprising by itself. Her showing up after what happened at the Second Strolheim tournament seems almost galling to him. It's enough to give him pause.
Too bad Aranha is so stunned by the witch's presence and intrusion on his sanctuary that he stays there for longer than he normally would before he decides on fight(wanting to beat her up in general) or flight(from the witch's craziness).
No one answers, well Aranha doesn't answer. Other people answer but none of them are Aranha or even know who she's talking about when she asks. "Hello, Hello, Aranha, I know you live here somewhere, come on, I really need to talk to you, I mean really really, please?" The replies she gets are , 'Stop pushing that button' and 'leave us alone or we'll call the police.' Totally not a good start, but that was all about to change. As Naerose started to turn away, looking totally downcast and failtastic she sees,
"Aranha!"
You can tell she's really happy to see him as the witch bounds over toward him with a biig grin, hopefully not triggering his fight OR flight.
"Hey Aranha, okay, I know we havn't always gotten along great, but please please please hear me out."
Naerose happy to see him? Not that he has ever seen her not smiling(without there being any relation to apply foot to witch) but the downcast appearance right before the bounding towards him? He can only attach that to her catching sight of him. First thought in his head? 'Ok. That's just scary.'
Apparently the scarlet spellslinger wants to talk with him and he steps back keeping account of measurements. He makes accurate accounts of limb length(both his and hers) and the range of Naerose's swing with a broom(after all they've fought enough he can remember that detail quite well). He uses all of that place himself in a range that keeps him just within kicking range but out of pickpocketing range. Sure he's still vulnerable to broom but it was a compromise he was willing to make.
Upon settling in his spot, he folds his arms loosely across his chest and looks the witch in the shades. "Ok... I'm listening." The tone is tense and gives no indication of trust. "I'm in a charitable mood. Make it quick."
Sigh. Aranha was being better than Naerose expected. It was all she needed. A foot in the door. So stopping and yes, composing herself, Naerose actually dusts herself off and straightens, leans on her broom and tries not to sound at all worried about anything. She sounds worried,
"Listen Daniel Jack has been kidnapped by some fella named Rolento. He's a friend of mine, I have to help him, but I don't have anyone else to turn to.. Just you. Cross my heart! I'm not with Blackjack anymore, Elle came back and fired me. She did it over text message!" Now practically babbling, Naerose keeps it up, hoping it will work,
"Look, I was wrong, all along, she was everything you said, I'm sorry about the past, but please help me." She looks over the top rims of her shades, practically begging.
It's a lot to drop on the capoeirista in one on instant. The fact that Naerose had came to him after all they went through. The witch just had to be desperate. The witch and the ex-thief were definitely not what one would consider friends and here was the witch in front of him pleading.
If it were some random stranger, he would've asked, 'What's the pay?' He however knows the witch and knows she wouldn't have any. Which would lead to the normal sub-response of 'No.' He opens his mouth to say it however the word doesn't come out.
He thinks back to when Kyle helped him rescue his sister from the same organization that Naerose has ended up being cast aside by. He thinks back to the fact that Kyle helped him, even in spite of the fact that Aranha knew that probably didn't even deserve his help.
After that moment of personal deliberation, Aranha opens his mouth to say something and this time the words come out. "I'll help you. But don't get it twisted. I'm not doing this for you. I'm doing this for someone who helped me sometime ago. I haven't had a chance to pay him back directly and I think that this was life reminding me that I still owe him."
"Oh Aranha, Thank you thank you thank you," Naerose is practically down on her knees, grovel styling because man is this a upturn. You can just see the relief, who else could she turn to and besides, as teammates, well, Aranha and Naerose were rivals for so long that they knew each other well, what they were capable of, it might make them even better partners.
There was just one question in her mind, the eagerness of having someone to help her, that was a good start, but the next step was complicated. "Alright, now.. I havn't been around for this whole situation. So, I'm kind of at a loss for how to begin. We could just walk in there and do the old fashioned way, but, there has to be something better."
She's looking to Aranha for some insight into the situation.
"To be honest," Aranha begins as a finger rests on his lips creating a thoughtful expression on his face. "It would be easier if I knew where the guy was holing up. I've been spending my time trying to keep a low profile here to be gathering information on Rolento's location. Unfortunately, making Shadaloo soldiers shoot each other and punching Mike Bison in the family jewels probably didn't help much in that department."
Aranha then glances at the door to his apartment and then looks right back at the witch. "As for the approach, well I know that Rolento would be probably hard to out manuever. I'm fairly good at strategy but I'm not exactly sure I can match him in particular. And I'm damn sure that just marching in on him would be suicide."
There's a bit of a pause. The wheels turning in his head are pretty damn obvious. He doesn't even bother to make secret of it. Besides the wheels turning in his head would probably be a lot more reassuring to the witch. "So instead of out-maneuvering, our best hope is in out-crazying him. Doing something so nuts... No something so insane that he wouldn't be able to see it coming... Hit him so fast and so hard that we're out before he knows what's going on. I've got it!"
If this were a cartoon, there would be a large lightbulb over his head.
Watching Aranha, you can see that Naerose is getting more and more excited. This was great, Aranha was taking it seriously which meant they might stand a chance of actually succeeding. Nevermind that they were just two people attempting to over throw a trained mercenary and his whole team. So come to think of it, well one has to hope that this works out well. He'll need a good plan.
"Alright alright, what if we capture one and ask them." Naerose is all sorts of ready this awesome plan...
"No... Not going to work." Aranha shakes his head. "We capture one of his men, he knows something is up and there goes our element of surprise." Aranha's lips curl into a smile that is filled to the brim with mischievious glee.
"No what I have in mind is..."
Meanwhile, in the Southtown Villages.
"What the fracking scuzz did I jag to sip noodles scabby GINGERS!"
With a heavy heart and a furious murmor, the one Daniel Jack was released from the ICU in uptown Southtown Residences. Boy howdy, working for the USPL was a great deal. Not only did they have the heart to destroy his Dojo, but then the one Rolento pummels him into a pulp. Twice. Though apparently, the second time was an 'accident.' Accident meaning that Daniel somehow guided the knife right into his chest. So the accident was all Daniel's fault. Great. And now, he apparently was on 'standby' for a special target. Already, Daniel Jack wondered if he should put together a will. Maybe give all his belongings to someone important.
Like Marz.
At least, in the kindness of SOMEONE'S heart the Detective earned a spare outfit. And by earned, it is meant that he was dressed in vomit-green nurse scrubs. With his former outfit destroyed, it was that, or a hospital gown. And apparently, breezy cloth was much more fashionable. Clutching both his snubnose revolver and his M-3 Grease Gun, he marched from the drive-around grimly staring at the ground. Now, he needed to figure out a place to sleep, to eat, and to find some supplies. Like hell he was going back to the USPL's base. Bitterly, Daniel knew what he must do.
He needed to find help.
OH YEAH.
It's just like the coolaid man, only less wall smashing and more car crashing. A tank, yes, a Shadaloo tank comes roaring over a car and smashes the vehicle under it. There is nothing left but the tank doesn't even slow. One solo figure rides on top and cheers, a woman dressed in a NESTS uniform with the nametag 'Rosie' on her chest and a pair of round black shade and a red witches hat with a broom. She looks terribly out of place on a Shadaloo tank. Turning to the opened hatch, she shouts inside,
"This is great, we'll find Daniel in no time!" But it is hard to hear her over the noise of a tank being driven badly and quite destructively around the town. Whatever transpired to this point, it is hard to say, but certainly they fit right in with all the chaos going on around town just now.
Meanwhile as the tank causes chaos around the city in their search comes a voice from inside through the opening in the hatch. "Good. I don't want to spend too much time looking for him. After all at some point Shadaloo's gonna be really mad that we jacked their ride."
Aranha wasn't exactly sure he wanted to use the speaker system from inside. After all advertising that he was the one who had the stones to steal their vehicle wasn't something he wanted to do quite yet if ever. He already had one organization that wanted his blood. He didn't need another.
*CRUNCH!*
A fire hydrant becomes the next victim of the tank spraying water. "Hey, Naerose! See anything yet?"
See, the trouble is that Naerose doesn't know much about the tank she is in. See, like many large destructive things, Daniel and it has a history. A violent history. A terrible, violent history involving Daniel tearing it apart with his bare hands, and it doing a belly flop on him. Good, horrible times. In short, Daniel was completely torn apart by this one tank model.
So naturally, once he hears the crushing of a car, he promptly turns, stares, and loses tension in the jaw.
Down the street was Charybdis. And heading straight for him. Of COURSE, he would have this kind of luck. It was probably that guy with no name who Rolento was hunting down. He got word of Daniel's associations, and now, he was sending a couple tons his way for a little whackjob. To say the least, Daniel Jack mouths a few words that Naerose will almost certainly interpet as 'Mother Vacuum Son of a Biscuit.' And like that, the detectives turns about face just as the hydrant erupts a fountain of water. Holding both of his guns high in the air, he just runs. Runs like the post-surgery man he was.
No, not THAT kind of post-surgery.
He was shanked pretty badly, okay?!
The water sprays all over Naerose in what can only be described as a really neat effect. Man this was turning out better than she even imagined. "Hey! I see him, just ahead, he.." She squints through her shades and shouts into the opened hatch, "He's running from something, he must of just escaped! Quick, we need to hurry and help him escape more!" Yay, Naerose was succeeding in her attempt at being a good person.
Of course she wasn't sure that Aranha could see much in there and didn't want to run Daniel over, best to call out to him.
"Daaaaniel!" Man that tank is noisy.
With the water gushing out all over the place, it was pretty hard to see much of anything. Plus the fact that the controls were so different from the cars he used to hot wire when he was younger that his control of the vehicle left a lot to be desired. On the upside, he seemed to be picking things up quicker than expected.
The tank rolls over a tree knocking it into the street. Its treads don't hit evenly so there's a bit of shaking before it stablizes itself again.
Wait did she say Daniel? Aranha instantly hits the brakes causing the war weapon come to a not quite screeching halt. After a few moments a man in a black sweatsuit with black leather gloves climbs out of the hatch and looks out following the witch's line of sight. When he sees the detective making tracks. "Is that the guy," he asks before deciding to call out to him. "Hey you!"
Badabadabadabadabadabadabada- *TRIP!*
He almost made it. Daniel Jack couldn't really outrun a tank. After all, it was a prime example of how mechanized infantry revolutionized the entire battlefield. Speed and power in a tight package. However, thanks to Aranha's brilliant piloting skills, the detective almost had a chance. That is, until he stumbled over his own two feet.
Falling into a tumble, Daniel Jack lands right on his back. With both guns pointed back at the tank, he began to shoved himself backwards across the concrete. Sweat was pooling on his brow, he felt his time was up. Looking straight at the cruel, heartless NESTS soldier. A monster of a dame if he ever saw one. And yet, in a witch hat. Wait, what? Daniel's mental gears were beginning to warm up faster once Aranha popped up. Naturally, a complete stranger, which didn't help his favor. And then, with sharp cry, he snaps out his only, panicked defense.
"Get Back, scuzzies, or I'll chop you down to ya ankles, full auto!"
"Oh.. Darn, we're totally too late, they sucked out his brains or something," Naerose comments, not looking too concerned by the threat while being on a tank. He didn't know they couldn't figure out how to actually make it shoot or anything and besides, why give away a perfectly good secret.
"Hey Daniel, err.. if your brains are fried.. does that mean we can't still be friends?" Naerose givse Aranha a shrug and whispers out of the corner of her mouth, "I'll try to get him to keep talking, maybe calm him down and if we have to, throw him over the top and drive him out of here. " Then there is that big Naerose smile for Daniel. Yep, this is going to work.
Brains are fried? Be friends? Aranha internally face palms. What this looks like to the rest of the world is an intense cringe. Aranha's theory is more in the vein of failure to communicate. "Listen. If we were going to attack you, I would've hopped back into the tank the moment you tripped would've ran you over while you were still flat on the ground."
Aranha tilts his head towards NESTS uniform clad witch as he continues. "Naerose said that you were in need of rescuing and I decided to help out however you're out here now which means you don't seem to need rescuing unless it's from yourself. Because we not only do we have a tank, but neither of us are exactly that bad at fighting. But anyway, I rather talk right now than fight and if you do the math, you might want to talk as well. Especially considering that she's your friend."
And then it dawns on who the girl is.
"-CHERRY?!-" Daniel Jack doesn't exactly change his expression of exasperation. It could be argued that it in fact compounds. He remembered Cherry, AKA Naerose. Nice girl. Ex-Gangster. Somewhat mysterious, potential druggie, had a whole witch motif without any connections to the occult. Space case. Except she was now in a tank. With her... boyfriend? Aranha's words somewhat make sense, but seem to be met with even greater confusion and high-octane confusion. "Bugga- Whugga- WHAT- TANK!? FRIEND?! RESCUE?!" Daniel's eyes were almost swirling from the information overload.
Quite clearly, he didn't know what was going on.
Their words rattle in the man's skull as he just lowers the weapons. Rescue from WHAT. Daniel Jack was so confused. Unless... she got word of his 'kidnapping.' Something dawns on Daniel Jack. Those burgers. The time he 'rescued' Naerose from the evil French vampire. Naerose was... paying him back. And from the looks of it, in spades.
His panicked expression fading, he stands up. Taking a long deep breath, he exhales. The detective stares at Naerose, Aranha, and the tank. He takes another deep breath in. And finally, he exhales. Spinning the revolver upon one finger, he snaps it right into the waistband of his scrubs bottoms. And like that, he rolls his neck, unleashing sharp cracks as he levels a frigid glare right upon the pair. Shouldering the submachine gun, he delivers a cool, crisp return back at the pair of heroes. "Alright scuzzies. We cool. I think we better have a talk about what's going down right here in Southtown, you dig? But first, I'll take your ride."
And like that, Daniel bounds up and along, scamping up on the topside of the tank, towards Naerose. He still didn't know what was going on. But at least, he knew it wasn't out of his control.
" Alright!" Exclaims Naerose, having no idea what is going on, but ready to go with the flow. "So Aranha here knows how to make this thing go, I hope you know where to make it go to though, cause we've been having problems with that, now that you're rescued though.. I suppose.." She hadn't planned that far ahead. "I mean we have a tank and all.." Yeah, she's getting somewhere with this, "And I have this uniform from the group that's in Gedo.." She is really working hard at thinking, "Just seems a shame you know, to let it all go to waste." Naerose looks from Aranha, then to Daniel and finishes with,
"So if either of you know a good place to go with it."
Clarification: Aranha isn't her boyfriend. He's just a boy that isn't quite her friend. If Aranha himself were to attach titles to their relationship at this moment, he'd grudingly call her an associate.
Aranha then climbs down the hatch but doesn't quite go all the way down yet. "Personally I wouldn't mind holding onto this as a trophy. After all, if they insist on attacking me because I'm not on their side, I see no reason not to steal their shit... They had it coming. But on the other hand I have no problem with smashing their stuff with it either. If you have any ideas now's the time to discuss it. I'm gonna continue driving this thing."
With that, Aranha hops all the way down the hatch. And the tank begins to travel down the street once more.
And there they were, three lost individuals with no idea what is going on, where they needed to go, and why they needed to get there. There was only one thing clear: How.
Daniel Jack attaches titles to everything. Looking somewhat like a low-life (sorry, Aranha, it is the scars), he connected that Aranha was at some point either a mooching victim of Naerose, or a former gang member. Maybe both. In any case, that was a white elephant that Aranha might be wearing around his neck for a while.
Pulling himself up on the tank, Daniel Jack listens to both Naerose and Aranha. Rescued. He didn't quite know what they meant by that. Clearly, he wasn't quite working in line with Naerose's thinking. But he was close enough, in any case. Grimly looking forward, the detective tightens his jaw, eyes burning forward. "Both of you are sharp. Real sharp. Okay, listen up. I got a bit of a pickle. I know you heard about the whole Rolento dealie. In short, he jacked Todoh Dojo, and he jacked me. He promised to pay for repairs if I pull two things."
Daniel Jack turns to Naerose, holding up two fingers. "The first is that I start pulling my weight and hit a few key points. That means jacking Shadaloo and NESTS. The second is to stay alive. If I fail both, he'll be tying me down in a cedar box six feet under, you dig?" The detective stares at Naerose for a moment. And then, he sighs. "We need to beat up Shadaloo, or else Rolento is going to kill me."
Clearing his throat, he mulls a bit. "Naerose, I gotta ask. Who is the stud down below. Ex-Gang Member? Boyfriend? And how did you jack this sucker?" He adds, motioning his hands to the entire tank.
Log created on 22:29:18 04/22/2009 by Naerose, and last modified on 22:32:54 12/19/2010.