2014.02.10 - Zombie Night At The Gotham Aquarium

Yesterday

The argument was loud, the two scientists just seemed to yell at each other for a few minutes, and then there was the loud sound. That is when Jackson managed to come in and find one of the scientists dead and the other one is missing, along with a certain chemical that they were working on. But the Jackson knew what he had to do. He went the rolodex and placed a call. Unfortunately for him others knew about the incident as well. And they made their own calls.

Today

Well the Head of Security noticed what had happened. This could be the type of thing to cost him his job, and he needs the job dang it. He's got a family and other stuff, heck the security force could all lose their jobs over this. A collection was taken up amongst all the security people, and a call was made to a number that he had. "Scientist is missing in Gotham. He wants to test something to prove that it will work. There is seventy-five thousand in it for you if you help us with this. He needs a lot of animals, so check things like zoos and other places like that." That was the call that was placed to Lunair as she is known.

The director of the facility also knew what happened though. He also knew that he couldn't have this on his record, not with the government contracts they have and everything. So he also went to his rolodex to look up a number he has, one to Ringo Chen. He call was similar to the Head of Security's, "Scientist missing, he needs lab animals so to speak. If you find him and retrieve what we are missing I will pay a hundred thousand. This can't get out though, so well we don't need Dr. Minett back alive if you catch my drift." Hey people will do anything to save their jobs.

Of course Injun Peak has a lot of government contracts, and well the government has a tendency to keep careful eyes on places like that. Once they found out what was happening, they also made a call. They have contractors that they have used before. "Okay we have one Dr. Minett that escaped with some classified chemicals from a research facility known as Injun Peak outside of Gotham. We believe he wants to test it to prove it works to us. But we can't have this, if this gets out it will look bad for us. We will pay you a hundred and fifty thousand to retrieve him for us, as well as the chemicals he has. We're not sure where he will want to test it though, but it only works on the recently dead, and he won't kill people. So we're thinking animals." And that was the call that was placed to X-Force.

As for Jackson well the call he placed was to Tommy Monaghan, a man that was is O'Herne's rolodex. He is the dead scientist that was working on the project. "Mr. Monaghan, I have thirty-thousand dollars for you to find and kill a Dr. Minett. I need you to retrieve what he stole from our facility. This chemical is one that was designed to basically make zombies. But we know he won't use it on people. The cemeteries well their bodies are too old, so maybe a zoo will work."

Of course after staking out the Zoo, well Tommy saw no sign of the scientist at all. So instead he decided to try the aquarium. He doesn't know that there were others contracted. But well they would have figured out the same thing hopefully. Dead animals are dead animals you know, even marine life counts. So Tommy heads over the aquarium just in the nick of time, and even breaks in to start looking around to see if he can find the guy. Of course who knows who else can be in this place?

Oooh, work! Lunair is super ultra diligent, yes! Actually, to her credit, Lunair is a genuinely hard working person. Maybe her early life has lead to it. She is playing catch up these days, after all. She'll take the case, because Lunair LIKES animals. Yes indeedy. She would cuddle a kitty, pet a penguiny, feed a fishie, brush a bir-- wait... Okay, nevermind. But she does give a hoot (heehee). And for a nice, tidy sum, too!

So. Armor on. Winter long coat, complete with little shoulder cape also on. Dying of hypothermia would just be seven flavors of awkward and shameful. She checked a local zoo or two, passed a petting zoo, a small farm... and she'll make her way to the aquarium. She hums something from the Little Mermaid as she quietly pries her way in to the aquarium. She drove and parked a nice distance away.

"GOTH...am. Ugh. It's all in the name," Tabitha Smith muttered to herself. She'd taken to staring off here and there, like a curious, hyperactive little animal might. This fine day was just another in a series of tag-along sessions she was having with her new BESTEST BUDDIES EVER, Domino and Cable. Tabby spent a few random nights following them on their little quote-unquote missions as of late, non-silently observing thier mysterious ways and foreign customs. To a hipster like Boom-Boom, they were practically from another dimension, time, and planet. All of those. Totally oblivious to how her ongoing commentary had started to grate on her companions nerves, she continued her banal chatter about Gotham. "Why's it always dark here? It's like some Industrial Post-Apocolyptic Steam-Punk wankers ultimate... wank," Tabitha ever-so-succinctly announced. Her aloud babble were meant for only herself, and she'd been straggling behind her two pals by about 20 feet. One of the random aquarium-goers pulled her six-year-old-daughter close to her, fearful that she'd somehow get exposed to whatever it was that Tabitha was. Noticing that she was indeed talking-to-herself, she hurriedly skipped ahead to catch-up. She then remembered that Cable and Domino were discussing some kind of important mission and it had to do with scientists or something, but she had forgotten to listen to any of the details. Any of them. But she knew that somehow, somewhere, she was going to blow something up. That's just how things went.

Being paid a hundred grand was an offer Ringo Chen couldn't turn down. The fastest shot in Gotham City, tracking Dr. Minett down was proving to be simple. Stepping out of his convertible at the aquarium, Ringo regarded the building with his usual stoicism, taking the cigarette he was smoking from his mouth, letting a large puff of smoke float in the wintery air, and then walking around to the back of his convertible.

Opening his trunk, Ringo took a look at the equipment on hand. Assassination-type weapons. A few guns, loaded, some grenades in case he had to cover his tracks. He should be ready and loaded.

Closing the trunk, Ringo takes one last puff of his cigarette, and then drops it and rubs it out with a polished shoe, before adjusting his trenchcoat around his immaculate suit, straightening his tie, and then pulling on his leather gloves. Time to get to work, then.

Step by step, Ringo approaches the building, going straight for his target's office. As arranged beforehand, he'd gotten ahold of maintenance keys, and thusly slips in past security, taking advantage of the cameras's blind spots when possible.

Cable's checked, of all places, the ASPCA.. and random animal shelters in the area. Dogs. Cats. Bunnies. Goats. Various and sundry rodents. All coming up zero. And in some cases, there's actually boots on the ground as opposed to CCTV files.

Will wonders never cease?

Now, however, Nathan's finding himself into an aquarium, walking the dark, damp corridors. "You know, Camden Aquarium is only going to last a few more years."

The large mutant is obvious, with drover's coat billowing behind him, cargo pants, shirt... and that shock of white hair atop a 6'9" frame that is partially -metallic-. "After tonight? I'm thinking that it won't last to morning." Not with him and Domino around.. oh, and Boom.

Silly mercenaries. Don't they know Gotham type people travel almost exclusively via rooftop? In Creeper's case, with an additional pirhouette, flourish and the soft, whistled strains of what appears to be...yes, almost certainly..."Inna Gada Da Vida". The long version. He lands on the rooftop of the aquarium, nails scrabbling for purchase. He pauses, head twitching this way and that, "Now, what was I doing here? Rikki tikki tavi, I had some sort of jobby..." he murmurs and then sticks a finger up in the air, "Ah, yes! Jackie poo got a tip! And not the usual kind that leaves him sore in the morning. Chemicals. Wickedness. The sordid, furtive affairs of men. FUN," he snickers, turning into a full bellied laugh that carries out into the night, rolling over the nearby streets (See ability The Laugh to see how you might react, if you hear it)

Somewhere with a lot of animals. Well, that certainly narrows it down! No fooling, 150K in the bank just to track down an errant whitecoat and some chemical. Child's play for someone like Domino. Even easier with Cable along for the run! She's already checked out one of the Gotham zoos, the most notable thing there was a panda with a large black spot around its left eye. The picture she got standing next to it should be worth a laugh the next time she gets plastered with the crew.

Though speaking of children...

The trench-covered albino drops her forehead into a gloved palm with an audible -thap!- as Tabitha just..keeps..rambling. Rambling, and not paying attention. They had been discussing the mission for her benefit. "I don't know, why does bad stuff always happen to Metropolis? Why is America so littered with super-powered stories while the rest of the world just doesn't seem to care?" (Why do I always get stuck with the mouthy sidekicks?)

Now that Tabitha's caught up again, Dom reaches over to pull an arm around the other girl, mostly so she can grab hold of a shoulder in that 'hold still, dammit!' sort of grip. "If you're going to be a part of this little operation then you need to do less blabbing and more listening. A whole lot more listening. Emphasis on the listening. Is it working yet? We've got one man to find in less than a half dozen probable locations but we still have a lot of ground to cover. It'd be great if you could work independently enough to, oh..I don't know, scout out the -east- side while I take the west."

Cable's remark is met with a smirk. "It's Camden, I have no idea how any of it survived this long."

Well closing time hit the aquarium, anyone who got there before it closed and wasn't there to look at the pretty fishies, and the awesome sharks, found a place to hide. As for Dr. Minett, well he was one of them that decided to hide of course. Once the place was closed he made his way to two places. First was the filter room, that also conviently housed the main air vents. Both were essential to his plans, the aquarium also housed things that were amphibious of course, like alligators, penguins and seals. So he needed a way to kill them. That was easy of course, poison the food supply, then release the chemical in the air that will turn the recently dead into zombies. He also added the chemical to the main water supply, so that when the others died well they would be turned into Zombies as well. Then Minett made his way to the tank control room, where he raised the temperature of all the tanks. Boiling all of the little fishies inside. Anyone else inside the aquarium will notice that soon the fish inside the tanks are well floating upside down.

As for Tommy, well he just keeps sneaking around the aquarium. And then he notices the fish as he walks, "Oh well damn this one isn't going to be as easy as a thought. One day I'm going to tell those people at Injun Peak to lose my number." He sighs and gets out the guns, because he knows he's going to need them now. And it's at that moment the fish wakes up and starts banging against the glass. And that is when Tommy freaks out and just opens fire at the thing that can't even get to him. Now pretty much everyone in the facility should recognize the sound of gunshots.

... poor fishious. Poor, poor fishious. Lunair is murderous, but she's not an animal abuser. She was quietly hiding in a breeding tank room. "Awww, baby sea horse--" No, focus, Lunair. Focus. And when she makes her way out to see the other tanks, to start skulking - she hears gunshots and notices the dead fish. "Man, what kind of jerk-" Pause. Right, gunshots. She really should jerk in startlement more, but she's growing used to these noises. An uneasiness settles in. And she quietly hums Thriller beneath her breath as she skulks (that's right! IT'S A VERB!) towards the sounds of the gunshots.

Also, if Lunair ever saw the Domino-panda picture - she would probably think that's adorable, hilarious and awesome. Lunair is good at what she does, but she's young and only been at it about 8 or 9 years or so. Still inexperienced compared to some and bound to be somewhat trackable today. Then, in her slinking (like a ferret in a cocktail dress down the stairs. That is some serious slinking), she spots Tommy and - that fish is alive? "Dude." She pulls a freaking shotgun out of nowhere. It looks like an AAR-12. Uh oh.

Tabitha's expression twitched nervously with Domino's (completely-justified by anyone that wasn't Tabitha) hold. She grinned widely, her smile looking a bit forced, and nodded.

"Alright, toots," she replied, followed by her holding up her hand like a gun, giving a little wink. "You got tha West," she said, wriggling out of Domino's arm. "I gots da East," Tabitha continued, looking for signs. An easternly sign was just there, to the right! She wondered if Domino had said that on purpose... or if she was trying to get rid of her. She started to trot over that way, but spun around and started walking backwards. "We different sides of tha street, but we can still...be...friends--GAHHH!!"

Tabitha shouted because her backwards walking landed her straight into an elderly man with a rusty cane, jabbing her in the lower back. Despite his breathy apologies, Tabitha simply watched him pass, the glare of the grim reaper upon her scowly face. Ohhh the scowl she gave that man. Once he passed, she trotted solo-style down the tunnel... 'okay, okay,' she thought to herself. Gotta find...this..scientist guy, I think. She might've even seen a picture. After a moment, she stopped and took a long three minutes to stare at a tank full of cuttlefish molesting a sea otter. "That's just nasty," Tabitha observed.

After some more time passed, Tabitha had realized she'd been wandering the aquarium and not finding anything. 'So,' she thought to herself, 'When they announce on the loud speakers that the aquarium is closing up, they really meant it. Huh.' Assuming that Domino and Cable hadn't just ditched her (because c'mon, would they EVER do that?), she continued to look around. She watched a school of gorgeous blue-faced angel fish for a long time, and remarked how she might like some as pets, when suddenly they all keeled over and died. "Maybe not pets. They don't live long," she remarked.

The office was proving to be a dead end. Rummaging through the papers, though, Ringo noticed a few papers. Trying to sort out just what had been going on, and where his target had gone, the notation of just what this man had been up to was starting to form in his head.

The sound of gunshots, however, draws his attention. Damn. Did someone get to his target -already-?

Spinning on his heel, Ringo moves towards where the gunfire had come from, gun drawn and at ready.

People were definitely converging, but they certainly didn't look like security. And where the person was...

"Tommy," Ringo says, approaching with the confident air of a killer. "Losing your composure? It's not like you. Listen, I got a look at the files, and..."

Cable listens as Domino gives the girl her marching orders, and when she finally does turn around, the large mutant looks briefly grateful. Really.

"It's because of your luck, Dom. No one cares." Nate chuckles as he looks to the tanks, his gaze settling briefly into that middle distance because, really, who expects problems at an aquarium? (Okay, Camden.. but other than that?) "Until, of course, you do something stupid. Then they won't let you forget it."

Turning back around to face his partner, it also happens to be -the- time when the fish behind him begin that ascent, belly-up. Which is missed by the large mutant as he doesn't scan for fish.

It's the reverberating sound of gunfire that brings him to the 'here and now', also causing him to pull his handy-dandy pea-shooter up... yes, that one. His own shotgun.

"What.." and the scan goes out to check on emotions. Running pretty damned high--

Before he, too, discovers why. Those floaters are no longer, but rather bashing their noses against the plate glass over.. and over.. and over.

Plink..

Plink..

Plink..

Skylights. Every city in Gotham has 'em, whether they need it or not. Bruce Wayne probably got it inserted in the building regulations. Creeper's cackling trails off as he hears Tommy open fire and the resultant fracas, hubbub and general mayhem that quickly ensues. And mayhem, well, he's all about mayhem. He leaps and crashes through said skylight, his leg catching on a strut that doesn't quite break. Thus, instead of the graceful, crouching, dramatic landing he planned, Creeper spins in a flailing, head over heels spiral, complete with Goofy style "WAAAAAAAAAAAAA HOO HOO HOO!" until he lands on his side with a crunch, dislocating his shoulder until it seems to be coming out of his scapula. "YOWZA! I think I might need a band-aid!" he says, starting to laugh maniacally again as he spits a mouthful of blood onto the floor and straightens up to his knees, twisting his torso with a wretched wet sound until his shoulder pops back into socket, "Never mind the band aid! FALSE ALARM!"

Domino's still struggling with herself over whether Tabitha's a good kid or not. 'Loose cannon' doesn't begin to describe it, but she's also the sort of loose cannon that wouldn't go down without blowing up everything within throwing distance of herself if it came to it. So, a potential good distraction, at the very least.

Still and all. The idea of having a mutant who can conjure up -timebombs- in an -aquarium- strikes her as a potentially bad decision. But, Tabs needs more experience. The contract also never mentioned anything about collateral damage. With Tabs off on her own, Dom also doesn't have to worry about any potential shrapnel from potential collateral damage due to a potentially good distraction involved with a potentially bad decision.

"Amen to that," she mutters back to Cable while peering around a darkened corner. When she turns back around to glance at the bigger mutant, she says "It's always a matter of time aaand what the heck happened to all of the fish?" Eyes wider than a moment ago, she peers at the fish as they all start to go sideways toward the surface. "-Shit- we're too late, he's already here."

With one quick sweep of the ol' trench, Dom's suddenly got a cut-down shotgun in her hands, complete with a folded stock and plenty of extra shells on demand, both on the gun and upon herself. For those quick, less than lethal take-downs, she's got a taser slug already in the tube.

Oh, and someone else is starting to shoot. Someone trying to kill the scientist? Surely they wouldn't be shooting at the -fish-... There's cackling, too! "Do you suddenly get the feeling that we were invited to a party but someone forgot to add us to the guest list?"

Dr. Minett is somewhere, watching his handywork on security cameras. Of course on those cameras well he notices that there are people in the aquarium, people who aren't supposed to be here, people with guns. "Hey who cares about them? I am proving my drug works. Look at what is happening here! The military will have to buy this now."

Tommy sees two people approaching him, one he knows one he doesn't. That doesn't stop him from pointing guns at both of them, "Ringo. Here to see Billy the Killer Whale as well?" Then there is a sideways glance to Lunair, "Who are you what are you doing here?" He asks the lady. And then the Creeper lands, and well Tommy is just unsure of what to do at this moment. Of course at that moment the thing that happens when you shoot a glass tank happens. The glass breaks, flooding the area with water and the rest of the zombie fish! Of course once the water is gone, and there are plenty of places for it to go the fish just flop there, not able to do anything on the land. But who knows what the water did to the people that were there.

The gunshots also have some other undesired effect. As mentioned the place houses amphibious creatures as well. And those have all be attracted by the gunshots as well. They make their way out of the cages somehow, and follow the sounds of the gunshots, so we have cuddly killer seals and penquins and uncuddly killer alligators also on their way.

And one of them pulled a gun out of freaking NOWHERE! Freaky! Lunair dismisses the shotgun, in favor of an alarmingly large, military grade hunting rifle. Right then. It looks to be rather top of the line as rifles go. She has a gun pointed at her and seems content to keep hers up and ready. "I - uh. I'm changing my codename. Someone made fun of me for it, so please, just call me Scarlet for now," She seems pained and embarrassed. Creeper makes her entrance and he opens her mouth, closes it. She winces at Creeper and his shoulder. "Um. Okay." It is apparent Lunair has no idea how to react to the man.

Suddenly, things get all kinds of Thriller aqua-style. She has her armor on at least, and it might take a bit for her to get soaked. "Eek! Hey!" She dropkicks a zombie sea urchin rolling towards her. They just keep rollin', rollin, rollin'. Zombie cowboys and Zombie Linkin Park would say, that's my pet! which is all the more reason to KICK IT WITH EXTREME PREJUDICE. "Also I am looking for the guy who did this," She pouts. But then, she's unaware of the less cuddly murder train on the way, trying to keep the sea urchins from rollin' all over here. "Oh hey! Blue ring octo-- aren't those things venomous?" Moveawaymoveaway. She's doing her best to keep from getting rolled over or tentaMURDERED. "Sorry, sorry, who are you? Have you seen any strange men in white coats?"

"Cabminooooo!!" Tabitha shrieked (all Akira-like) from across the room from Cable and Domino. Yes, that's what she sometimes called them, Bennifer/Bradgenlia-style, much to their distain. Probably not the best timing for such jokes, but she was out of breath. She'd finally found them after running the halls ten minutes. She was pretty sure she saw some people shooting at the glass, but didn't stick around to interrogate them. After a few breaths, Tabitha pressed on like a good little soldier to get closer to compadres, huffing all the while. "All the fish...All the fish... are dead," she relayed to them. "I mean... were dead... I mean... now... they're freaktastic." She stands upright, getting more composure. A real Sherlock, this one. "A dozen snarly, evil penguins started waddling at me!" she said, as if the idea was something to be afraid of.

A moment later, a huge pack of penguins rounded the corner. Their beedy, red eyes pulsating manically, drool pooling below their beaks, making an ungodly creaking noise from their gullet. "Want I double-dead 'em?" Tabitha asks, her fist already alight with the pink glow of one of her time-bombs. Just as the words escaped Tabby's mouth, unbeknownst to her, a zombie alligators rounds the *other* side of the room, directly behind the three. It snorted at them; a sickly, orange pus oozing from its nose. The amount of shooting and breaking glass sounds echoing through the aquarium were only increasing, and Tabitha knew that Cable and Domino knew that Tabitha knew that everyone knew that they were not alone at all.

Whatever else Ringo had intended to tell Tommy was cut off, as animals started coming out of the woodworks. The fishes clanging against the glass walls glowed red eyes, teeth glistening even more so as the aquarium lights flare up more so.

And then there came a shuffling sound, a disturbingly shuffling sound approaches, coming close to Lunair and the Creeper's side.

"He went and did it," Ringo says in disbelief. "He -dosed- the aquarium with his chemicals!"

Closer and closer, the sound shuffled, as little by little, what approached was...

Baby seals. Small, petulantly cute, waddling on little flippers, white as white can be, cute button noses...

And glowing, glowing red eyes.

"SHOOT THEM!"

BLAMBLAMBLAM!

One baby zombie seal's red eyes go out, forevermore.

Plink..

Plink..

SMASH!!

From the tank behind them (the one Cable'd ignored up until, oh, now..) comes those 'cute little shrimpies'. They've -blasted- their way out of the tanks, and are actually taking foot... er... feet... and they look like they're on a mission.

With the *whoosh* of water from the tanks, it gets Nate's boots wet, but more than that? There is a concussive -blast- that comes from the half-dozen little shrimp with their red eyes. It pushes Nate back, advantage gained just by the fact he doesn't -expect- it, but once he slams against the far wall, he brings the shotgun up to bear.

BLAM!

Their litle chitinous bodies reel back, but one of the joys of armour? Heh... it's armour.

The Creeper is about to leap into the fray, although he's unsure if he should side with the humans or the animals. Suddely, a red-eyed alligator bowls into him from behind, making him backflip and land on its back, "Whoa, ride 'em, croccy!" he howls, wrapping his arms around its head and trying to wrestle it.

There's a heck of a lot of water in those tanks. It doesn't take long for some of it to flow down the hallway where Domino's standing, suddenly up to her ankles in water that had been boiling not all that long ago, then a whole lot more by the tank that explodes beside Cable. Thank goodness she's got thermally regulated armor these days! It even stops the fish that ends up on top of her foot, fighting for the post-mortem life of itself to nibble through the flexible ballistic weave.

Dom reaches down and plucks the reanimated fish up by the tail, pinched between two fingers. "-Really?- 'Night of the Living Goldfish?' This is -shockingly- tame for Gotham," she declares while flicking the struggling fish over the back of her shoulder, fairly close toward the returning Tabitha. "I'm half expecting Harley Quinn to be behind this mess." There was the laughter, after all. Maybe the Joker and Co really are here. Good thing she's got more guns handy.

Penguins. "Anyone know if those are on the endangered list?" she quips, then half-shrugs. "Light 'em up, Boom." Time to find out once and for all if penguins can fly!

As for the alligator, Dom levels the twelve gauge like a massive pistol toward the undead reptile, waiting for that one perfect moment when it takes a snap at her. -KaBLAM!- Dead 'gator struck with potent electrical jolts leaves it thrashing and twitching in the flowing river that's become of the hallway, the spent shell hitting the water with a *blip!* before the current sweeps it away.

"What's next on the menu? Are those -shrimp?- They kinda look nasty--Cable, can you TK them all into a salad bowl or something so we can do what we came here to do?"

Dr. Minett having seen enough decides to go and wander around the place, but he stays close to the areas where the amphibious creatures can't get him. Nope he just admires his handy work amongst the other fishies. But hey he's not hiding now so will be easy to find when everyone else starts looking for him. Of course Minett ends up wandering into the shark enclosure, cause why the heck not!

As for Tommy well he gets knocked over by the original flood of water and doesn't get to talk to anyone before that one happens. But hey one doesn't need to tell him to start shooting things. He opens fire on the fish that are there, starting with the octopus that decided to grab Lunair. Hey Tommy protects the ladies, it's like one of his things, he's a killer but a nice killer you know! Of course that means there are other creatures such as alligators around that he needs to start shooting at as well. "Hey Ringo, mind if I ask who hired you? And what you're getting for this job?" Cause damnit right now Tommy feels he's really underpaid.

And more and more zombie critters just come out of the wood work, like look there is a tank of Piranhas that has just busted open. And over there is a killer whale that managed to break free as well. But as usual once the water is cleared the creatures can't seem to do much on the land. Except for the amphibious ones that is.

Lunair is unaware of where the Doctor is at the moment. She's playing football with the EVIL URCHINS and sending one of the spikey things sailing at the evil seals. "IS this why people club them...?" She really is socially deficient. Poor kid. And she's got an octopus on her. Flail! Tentamurder and perversion, woe! She manages to stay steady though. "Thanks!" Octobutt problem, SOLVED! She is actually remarkably polite for a mercenary, despite her shortcomings.

Wait. A killer whale? That can't be good. Fortunately, it's likely someways off. And there's evil seals, however cuddly they are. Creeper is riding the gator. "Wow." Boggle. She looks to his friend. "Is he Ringo?" Her rifle is fired a couple of times at a bouncing stonefish with MURDER IN ITS BEADY, JABBALIKE EYES. Another urchin gets kicked. "Seriously, there were less urchins in a Dickinson novel."

Boom-Boom flings a boom-boom at the crowd of bobbin' penguins--it explodes into a loud crackle, sending the birds hurling every which way. "That's kinda like bowling," Tabitha says, metally adding a number to her score. It was a perfect score.

A mess of penguin guts smeared all over the walkway to the east, Tabitha turns around when she hears Domino open fire, catching the image of the zombie alligator meeting his bullet-riddled end. With the brief moment of silence, Tabitha considers giving the animals a moment of silence, but instead suggests that they start finding out "who these people with guns 'n stuff are," while pointing to the exit she recently emerged from. For all the girl's lack of experience, she could at least hear sounds and point at them. It was a start. So, Tabitha moved in that direction, hoping Cable and Domino would follow her. En route down the tunnel, she saw a random baby seal squirming its way along, hissing like a raspy snake. Tabby didn't want to stop, so she just lept right over it, and continued along towards all the commotion. Unbeknownst to her, however, she was guiding her allies straight into the shark area. Whee!

"A hundred grand for Dr. Minnett's head, dead or alive. Preferably dead," replies Ringo, unruffledly shooting more zombie baby seals,shifting closer to Tommy so that they can work back to back. "As to who hired me, you know I don't discuss my cliente. I don't suppose you're after the same thing...? Or, for that matter, all these other people?"

Regarding Lunair with the air of, well, a remarkably Zen-esque unflappable expression, Ringo comments, "Doesn't seem to be your usual type of girl. She doesn't seem to hate your guts."

More gunfire, this time taking out more clubbable seals and then urchins. "In any case, Dr. Minnett's been conducting experiments. Judging by the night of the Living Dead, I'm guessing he's succeeded."

Son of a ...

Cable brings his shotgun up to bear on the critters, but as he's regaining his feet, the little shrimp begin to rise as well. In that next moment,

CRACK!

The shells break as they're 'held' aloft, spilling their little insides out and onto the wet floor. "I like my seafood salads cooked-- oh, hey. Boiled water. I get it."

The telekinetically crushed sea creatures are dropped onto the floor and the large mutant heads up to come side by side with Domino, and the newly returned Boom.

"Slowly.. slo--"

BLAM!

Nate brings his weapon to bear on the same target as Domino's. Just in case.

"So... let's split?" Okay, Cable officially isn't allowed to tell jokes anymore. Never.

Ever.

With Boom's bearing down the corridor, leaping and blowing penguins out of the way, well.. how could he not follow? Though now, there's the search for minds as he strides. Head count, literally!

One.. two..

"Dom, Luna is here."

Three.. four..

Tussle. *BANG*. Senseless gibbering. The pitter pat of little teeth smacking against a load-bearing wall. All of these subtle sounds are lost amidst the gunfire, Creeper rolling and wrestling his crocodilian nemesis behind one of the piranha displays. When Creeper finally emerges, he has piranha pinched on both his ears, what appears to be a pair of women's underwear, provenance unknown, strapped across his face as a pink, makeshit eyepatch, a bit of gore oozing down his chee, and the snapped half of a still fleshy crocodile mandible in one hand. He starts whipping at any and all nearby sealife, "ARRRR! HAVE AT YE!! NAY AND FORSOOTH! BLUBBER ME SHRUBBERS! I'm the very model of a modern major generaaaaaaaaaaaal..." he shouts, an underheand swing launching what appears to be a lobster in a high arc as he dances past some of the other combatants, pointing at them in turn, "Oooooooooh, a couple of foxes, oooooooooh, baybee, i'm a-swoonin'. My, what big guns you have!"

'Boiled water. I get it.' "Happy for you, Nate."

Splort! Previously passed penguin parts, -all over the hall.- Here her demeanor brightens. "See?" Domino says with a grin as a piece of black, white and red critter comes sliiiiding down the wall beside her. "Boom's got some initiative, just has to come out on its own."

'Let's split?' Here she stops everything, turning to give Cable -such- a look over her shoulder. Yes, even while he's fending off the rampaging rainbow shrimp. "Glad your aim's more on target than your humor."

Yes--Mission first! The albino's definitely following after Tabitha, though when she goes to leap over that seal she also gives it a good thwap upside the head with her shotgun. Keep it distracted, and all. She doesn't have a club handy. Just a Mossberg.

"Heeere fishie fishie fishie..." KaBLAM! One piranha jumps out of the river in time to get turned inside out by a twelve gauge, becoming a scattered red stain on the far wall. "Oh my -God,- that -smell-..!" She groans with a scrunched up face. Wait--"Luna's here? Why is Luna here? You didn't call Luna, did you? Boom--look out for the--! Turtle. Nevermind."

Well Dr. Minett is still in the shark area if anyone goes looking for him. Like say a telepath who can try to find all the minds in the area. But he's not doing anything interesting besides looking at a Zombie Shark swimming around in it's tank.

Tommy looks at Ringo, "Really a hundred thousand? Why the fuck do I have to be hired by the cheapskate." See it's things like that, that just piss the guy off. What does Tommy do when he's pissed off, he just tosses a grenade into the mouth of the alligator that has decided to try and eat him, no more alligator! "And hey there are women that actually like me, like uhm. Okay most of them hate my guts. It's something about the killing people for money thing that really bugs them." After that he just fires one some more zombie fishies. "And you know based on all the gunshots there are more than us here. And hey do you know the crazy joker wannabe? Is he one of Six Pack's friends?"

"Wait, he got a hundred thousand? Gosh, I was only offered 75 thousand..." Lunair contemplates that. A soft sigh. "I guess it's because of my age and stuff." Alas! Life is so unfair sometimes. "Still, that's not a bad sum, so I guess I'm okay," She takes life in stride. And really, for a 19 year old, that's a dandy rate. Even if not many possess a living arsenal. No arse jokes, please. She really wishes someone hadn't already taken Armory the code name (seriously).

Pause. "wait, women hate you for that? Guys always get 'ooh, alpha personality and a killer so bad and in need of a soft touch, blah blah. I'm JUST SCARY. It's really an unfair double standard." Sadface. Then another round of urchin kicking. This place must have incredibly clean chimneys and periodic musicals. Freakin' urchins. "Who's Six Pack?"

And there's more gunfire and explosions around. But she's distracted by the man and his pervy armor/eyepatch. "Umm. That was a pretty good rendition." She dismisses her rifle and gets a pair of uzis. "I feel so stereotypical with smaller guns," really. Tonight is so ETHICAL it burns. "Hey! Zombie lionfish off the -" Pause. "IT'S COMING FOR YOUR BUTT!" She's going to take fire at the razor finned zombie fish who seem to be amble hopping along after Tommy, Ringo and the Creeper.

After a fit of swatting a horde of peevy geckos, there's a long, sliding squeak as Tabitha Smith's sneakers stop mid-stride. She's just passed the doorway to the shark pool area, and her eyes go all anime meets Eyes Wide Terrified: on just a quick glance, she could see at *least* ten sharks in there, and they're all whipping around in the water at speeds beyond what she'd ever seen from a shark before. They looked stronger, faster, and angier than she ever thought she'd see a shark... she thought they were perhaps waiting for a tasty morsel (yeah, she was tasty! shut up!) just like Tabitha to show up. Was there someone else up there? She thought she saw some human-ish movement just ahead, but it was hard to make out. Tabby hung back and waited for Cable and Domino to catch up.. when they did, she said, "This is like Survivor meets Seaworld." She pointed ahead, whispering to them that "somebodys over there." If Tabitha were herself a shark, and 'the obvious' was her meat, she'd be blood-thirsty.

The look that Domino graces him with is returned with something of a lopsided smile before Nathan puts on something of a mien that is worthy of their current situation. Zombie fish, it seems...

"Dom, watch out for the--" 250 pound alligator snapping turtle.

Who knew they could move so quickly?

Nate is on it so no ones heels are -bitten the hell off-, and he brings his gun to bear. "Why am I getting all the ones with armour?" rises as a (justifiable) grouse.

BLAM

And, for good measure, the turtle rises into the air before he finishes it off. A coup de grace.. and the ridged shell lands, occupantless.

"As I was saying... Luna--"

And it appears the other minds are rather engaged, except for one.

"Dom... Boom. I've got a hit, I think. A few in the fray, but one isn't. Too calm. Will get position in a-- oh, hey." Sharks. Perfect!

~ Luna. Shark tank. Meet us there. ~

"It's.. yeah. Got him on the screen." Though the sharks? Might be a problem. Ish.

Creeper isn't paying much attention to anyone else, rather finding this whole experience rather blissfull. Completely psychotic and healing rapidly, he takes and dishes out plenty of gore, his suit soaked to him in a mingling of fish guts, tentacles, crabshell, squished oysters. As he comes to a halt, a lei made out of algae slows its spin around his neck as he comes up behind the X-Force gang, shoving his head in and laying it on Domino's shoulder, "Oooooooooooooh, guys, I'm so happy you could make it! It wouldn't be the same without you, whoever you are!" he says. Then he notices them staring and lowers his voice to a whisper, "what're we looking at?"

"Because you're the one that's half cybernetic?" Domino 'helpfully' suggests to Cable. (Just a thought!)

Running-running-running--Panic Stop!- Right behind one mutant gal is another mutant gal, the albino skipping to an abrupt halt right behind Tabitha. It's not long before she's looking mighty surprised as well, though perhaps not in that 'beer coaster-sized eyes' sort of fashion. "It's a damn feeding frenzy, 'feeding' pending. Don't fall in. In fact, I may just have you detonate the pool while we're at it."

Okay, so Lunair's here, too. Dom shouldn't be surprised. Nor should she be surprised that they managed to get to their target first, as it seems. Now, the sad news is that they need to bring this guy in alive. They didn't specify just -how- alive he has to be, mind, so if there's any of that chemical left? They'll find it. However, alive means 'not dead,' so she has to mind the trigger finger. Good thing they've got a strong telepath on the team.

"Nate, can you pull the plug on our mark? We can go for a clean sweep, be halfway to payday before anyone else knows we're g--."

Creeper.

The instant there's an unfamiliar -head- upon her shoulder there's a much more familiar twitch in her shoulders, spinning about as she tries to smack Creeper's head with her shotgun before leveling the bore at the guy. "Who are we? Who are -you?!-"

..Yeck. Just looking at the guy makes her want to pull the trigger rather than ask questions. Maybe the smell had been him and not the fish, all along..?

"Don't we have something more important to do than debate the price of our services, gentlemen, lady...?" Ringo responds coolly, continuing the gunfire, sliding chambers out for reloading and then resuming shooting. "The Creeper...? I've heard stories about him. Sixpack ran into him before. Gave Shakes the shivers, more than usual. Apparently he made much bueno with Bueno Excellente..." As more gunfire resumes, Ringo jerks his head upwards. "Head to the gunfire. Either we've got allies, or we've got competition. Or both. We'll sort out who gets to kill Dr. Minett after we deal with his experiments."

Without preamble, Ringo plays rear guard, moving the rest of the party aloong to the inevitable showdown...

Dr. Minett notices that the sounds of gunfire are drawing ever closer, so of course he decides to prepare for their arrival. First he makes sure he has his gun loaded, one never knows when he'll need that thing of course. The next thing is he makes sure the tops are open on all the shark tanks. Hey maybe he'll get lucky and the things will leap out and kill the people for him.

"Oh come on, even the lady is getting paid more than me? That's it when I see Jackson again I'm kneecapping him for being such a cheapskate." But Ringo's idea isn't a bad one, and he just starts firing some more at the fish. And then the lady saves him from the zombie lionfish, "Hey thanks, I owe you one. Also Sixpack is a friend of ours, if you're ever in the area come to a place called Noonan's bar, I'll buy you a drink." Hey a chick with guns, now this is Tommy's type of lady! "How about this Ringo, when we get there we all open fire and just claim our bullet was the one that killed him?" See always thinking this one.

Well eventually the gun toting fun people will all meet up at the shark tank, only to have the fun that happens when several people with guns all come together!

Lunair pauses. Well, her guy didn't specify so. "I guess an ID and/or photographic proof would be enough. It's sad that we couldn't stop him from getting the fish zombified. The breeding tanks seemed okay, but those aren't hooked up to the others." Baby fish set loose? Feeding time. She manages not to giggle. Poor - strange fellow. "I am sorry about that," She offers simply. And she manages to pick off the zombie lionfish. Phew. "I can't drink legally..." Sadface.

"But thank you for the offer. And no problem. You um, pulled the octopus away." See? Lunair remembers. "Maybe he asked for a low price because - um. I got nothing." She just lets it go at that and heads towards the shark tank. Clattering clams get drop kicked. "I feel like an extra in the Little Mermaid."

Tabitha Smith isn't much one for waiting, and Domino had her at 'detonate'. Surely the mere suggestion was a cue, right?

"Tally-hooooooo!"

Tabitha launched six time-bombs into the air... their pinkish energy sparkling in a lovely arc, landing into the water. Before the explosion--the one that wound send water and glass flying across the entire room in a freakish, way-overkill-display of concussive force, Tabitha noticed the four new arrivals from behind, and turned completely around to face them, her back to the shark pool. "Ohai. This must be the shooting gallery," she quipped, "Cover your ears."

FtSSSSS BA-BOOM BOOM BOOM!!! BWooooOSSHHHHHHKKRRRRRRKKKAAAAA!!!

Tabitha grinned with a faux-gesture of embarrassment, as explosions went off behind her.

"Sounds good," Ringo is unruffled as he constantly fires, aiming and reloading. "Especially if we've been hired by different ocntractors."

Pausing as Lunair offers up her inability to drink legally, Ringo -almost- smiles. "You're liking them younger and younger these days, Tommy?" It's not quite stoic humor, but it -was- a tweak at Tommy. Nat the Hat would have said much worse...

Arriving on the fish tank awaited a... apparently, metahuman of some sort with explosive ability, to which Ringo barely bats an eye as he starts shooting fish out of the air before they came raining down all teeth and... finny. At least this way they'd arrive on the party already per-fileted.

Cable is waiting for Domino to concuss the guy with his head on her shoulder before he takes it off.. at C3. And there, there it is.

"Okay.. he's going down." Turning about, back turning to Creeper, Nathan picks his way carefully- in the attempt to avoid the fish. Luckily, the side facing the tank is mostly cybernetic. Heat radiating off the man is less, so perhaps it'll keep the sharks from attempting their jump out of the water for that infamous 'bump' before they try to eat him.

It's a blast, then... a psychic 'shut off' switch that Nate'll be flipping, should the man have no telepathic shielding or defense for. Trick is, then, to get to him before the aforementioned sharks do!

It's kinda like a scene from a movie. Dom's back is also to the shark tank explosions, now dealing with Creeper. And a slew of other well-armed people now pouring into the room. As the rest of the room starts pouring -out- of the room. This calls for another gun, filling her off-hand with a compensated 10mm combat pistol.

Sure enough, there's Lunair. "Luna, are these people with you?" is asked, partly with an accusing tone. (Really?)

Cable's notice is received, their mark should be easy pickings now. They just need to reach him first. This many people here, some remarkably less sane than others, and with guns aplenty, she can hazard a guess that they're also looking for the labrat, and at least -someone- out of this group has a kill order on the target.

Time to look alive! Hopefully Boom can hold them all off. With her time-bombs. And her annoyingly fun wit.

Well who didn't see this one coming? Dr. Minett is on a scaffolding above a shark tank, and that is when a shark leaps out of the water and bites the bad Dr. in half. Hey well he turned the fish into zombies and got eaten by a zombie shark. Who of course lands out of the water after that, and well is dead kinda when he lands.

"Damnit, can we still claim it if the shark got him? I was never told I had to be one that killed him I guess." He looks at the others and well can't resist the urge to use the X-Ray vision on Domino and Boomer. "And hey Noonan's doesn't card. Cops don't come in there." He sighs and puts the guns away, "Well Ringo lets go get some drinks, and we still have time to make it to the card game. Also she's cute, and she likes guns. Maybe she won't hate me."

The resulting, progressing chaos that followed over the next twenty minutes was actually both fun and exhausing for poor, poor Tabitha Smith, who totally got soaked with a few scrapes and cuts. Yes, many shrieks made due to the flails of writhing, animated corpes of undead sharks.

All and all, Tabby ended up getting dragged away by Cabmino (heh, heh!) before she got to make nice-nice with her brand new squishy friends: the gunslingers that they bumped into. She did recognize and wave to Lunair, who she kept seeing around, and gave her a friendly wave. She even got to say hi to Creeper, too, before she rolled her eyes at his leering, and suggested he 'get an ointment for that'.

You could say that Boom-Boom learned a lot this day. She learned to never, ever go to the aquarium. She also learned that scientists were evil. But most importantly, she was able to reinforce her belief that explosions fix everything.

"With them?" Lunair looks a little confused. "They were here too." She seems puzzled. "I was hired alone technically, but we've been making sure no one dies to fish." Or urchin. SO many urchins. Or clams. Or anemones. The ocean is full of murder already without throwing zombies into it.

Then the guy gets into the shark tank. She holds up a smart phone, getting the footage. "There we go. Proof!" Yes. "Good enough for my job," She sagenods and waves to Domino. "Hi you guys!" And there's a blonde lady who is familiar, too! "Nice to see you!"

They were here too. Well, that's fair. Dom nods to Luna, though the look on her face definitely suggests that she thinks Lunair keeps some of the country's -very- most bizarre company.

And there goes the--"Aw, -come- on!" Domino yells out as the target of the evening gets himself waxed by his own creations. Shoulders hang in unison, both of her guns pointing floorwards. "Hell. Time to renegotiate. I so hate this part..." (Maybe it can wait until after I get trashed.)

Make that three to beam up, Cable. Bodyslide, hooo!

Like Lunair, Ringo has a smartphone ready to take pictures. However, just to be absolutely certain...

"Tommy..." Ringo comments as he slides the revolver and takes aim at said shark.

BLAMBLAMBLAM.

And then as the shark that ate Dr. Minett floats up, Ringo coolly comments, "NOW we can be sure."

Stepping aside out of the way while Creeper runs around swatting remaining zombie critters with very large zombie piranhas, Ringo starts walking out, putting on his shades. "Noonan's, then, people...?"

Although he'd pass on -anything- Baytor made, after tonight...