Futuristic Midnight City Runners on VHS

[Kazama]

11:06 pm
Saint Billiart Projects, City Housing Block C43​

RATATATATATATA!!!
THOOM!! THOOM!! THOOM!!
BRRRRRRRT!!! BRRRRRT!!!


"Hey, remember when Architect said this would be an easy run, and then it totally was? Yeah; me fucking neither!"

Two unmanned turrets, five assailants with automatic weapons, three shotgunners, and a dog. That's how many how many barrels were currently pumping bullets into the shanty courtyard. Except the dog. Someone had already shot the dog.

Of course, all that wasn't counting the reinforcements that were probably running through the heavily graffiti-ed halls towards the fight. City Housing Block C43 was a lot like City Housing Blocks C01 through C-whatever. Overpopulated, poorly maintained, and crawling with gangbangers. The difference between the other blocks was that these gangbangers, the Chrome 66, had a bunch of old military hardware that, while kind of janky, still worked pretty well. And bullet wounds tend not to care if the round was fired from a new rifle or an old one. They were also led by a prominent ex-Runner who'd taught these guys how to really be a threat. All-in-all, not a fun bunch.

The job had been simple. Go to the housing block, pick up a package from a different gang called the Convict Circle who typically ran this block, and return it to a client. Turned out the Chrome 66 had literally taken over the block a few hours before the team arrived and opened fire on the armed Runners who'd shown up on their new turf. Such is life in the city ghettos.

All caught up? Good!

Because right now, the team was clinging to cover in a courtyard surrounded by shanty buildings with Chrome 66 thugs running through them, trying to get an angle. To the North was the main threat. Two ZK 13's, these old but functional Soviet auto-turrets, were set up on the balcony of the building in front of them. They scanned the courtyard below for targets and opened fire when they detected one. They were inaccurate due to age and bad maintenance, but they pumped out a lot of lead. Thugs with assault rifles from a dozen different manufacturers from a dozen different countries in a dozen different states of repair fired down on them with a seemingly endless amount of ammo.
To the West was the building they'd come in through and where the fight had started. They'd pushed their way out of the building into this courtyard. To the East was another building, probably brimming with more thugs. A few shotgunners had been peeping out, trying to get an angle on the team but had so far been suppressed. South of them was a sheer drop. It was the gap between Block C43 and C42.

Ocelot pushed himself up against one of the short concrete planters that lined the courtyard. There were rows of them down here, waist high concrete basins with dirt in them meant to serve as little gardens. At the moment, each planter had several stems of Zapper growing out of them. Zapper was the term for a local drug that came from a plant which had evolved from a marijuana strain out in the radiated wastelands. People had brought it back and it became yet another party favor for Midnight City's drug scene.

Architect's masked voice came through their earpieces, "Holonet chatter's lighting up all over the block. I'm seeing reinforcements coming from the east side. I'm hearing some chatter about trying to get into the building west of you as well for a third angle, so keep an eye out. Still looking for a link to connect Krueger to the turrets for an attempted hack, ETA thirty seconds."

Ocelot ducked as rounds peppered the concrete basin next to him, "Hey Architect, do me a favor. When we inevitably die here, burn my apartment down. I'd rather have my collection die with me than end up in a police evidence cabinet." He raised his PDW over his head and blind fired at the riflemen on the building north of them. Almost immediately the turrets began to spray 7.62mm rounds in his direction, forcing him to duck back down with an, "Oh fuck!"

Architect, all business as usual, continued on, "Raze, I'm marking possible overlook positions on your datapad's map. There are some good spots on the west building. Advise taking a partner, don't go alone. Possible reinforcements heading for that building so you may not be the only one in there."

RATATATATATATA!!!
THOOM!! THOOM!! THOOM!!
BRRRRRRRT!!! BRRRRRT!!!

"Hey Magos, you guys have an afterlife in the Lorekeepers? Can I come too?"

 

[FTR]

Tilt jumped behind and army crawled along the length of a long concrete planter. The sound of gunfire filled the air as bullets riddled the courtyard sending chunks of concrete and dirt into the air. Getting to the end of the planter, she poked her robotic hand out like a sock puppet, looking left, then right then reaching for a zapper plant before getting shot by the auto turrets, blowing off her ring and pinky finger.
"Ow, fuck! Aw man,....they shot off my pinky. That was my classy finger...The bastards." Tilt said to herself, laying curled behind the slab as she flexed her remaining robotic fingers. "We better be getting paid extra for this!" she shouted to the rest of her team. "They've crippled my swagger!"
After a moment, the turrets switched their attention to one of her teammates and she used the moment to quickly peer over the planter and pinpoint the turrets locations. They were more or less out in the open. Her eyes widened as she notice one of the turrets swivel back towards her and she ducked just barely dodging a round. "Oh, shi-!"
Adjusting to lean a bit against the planter, she reached for the weapon at her hip. "-A perfect time to test out my- oh..." Tilt said pulling out a broken smart pistol, a large bullet hole having torn right through the slide. "-it's dead..."
She slumped disgruntledly against the side of the now crumbling planter, staring at her broken gun. Her demeanor 180'd near instantaneously as she lost interest in her own dismay, having heard the Architect speaking over the comms. She jumped to a crouch and vaulted over the ruins of the planter, diving behind another one further up while she wasn't being targeted.
"Oh Archy, you're so two weeks ago! "Link"...Who needs em' when we got these?" Tilt asked rhetorically, rolling onto her back to pull out a black hat projectile from one of her many pouches and packs and load it into a breach-loaded launcher.

Spoiler

She then kicked herself across the ground in this position to the edge of her new cover to get a little further within earshot of everyone else.
"Hey! Hey, Ocelot! Ocelot, hey!" she called out to get her teammate's attention. "Hot potato." She joked, tossing a grenade to him, it's pin already pulled. It was an IR smoke but she hadn't labeled this batch so it didn't look any different from any other canister grenade.
Under the smoke screen, they'd be able to maneuver and she'd hopefully be able to get close enough to hit a turret with the jack so Krueger could do her thing.
"Krueger! You still have that doodad I planted on you before we left?" she asked sarcastically, alluding to the fact she put the remote access for the black hat on her person without her knowing earlier.

 

[Sludgemouth]

Magos sat propped up against a planter, frantically fumbling with his machinegun which had jammed almost as soon as the enemy had set upon the team. Sparse cover and enemy positioned meant that his more close range alternatives were not viable options unless he was willing to accept the inevitable suicide as part of the deal, which he wasn't. In the meantime he was going to focus on rendering his weapon combat effective again. The Architect came over comms, but what was supposed to be tactical data just sounded like more bad news. Magos acknowledged the report and heard a few others on the team do the same.

Seems like everyone else is alive...so at least there's that.

"The Lorekeeper idea of the afterlife doesn't sound like the greatest place for me to end up, seeing as how I'm the one that sent most of the 'keepers there in the first place."

Magos replied as he turned to look at his teammate, before immediately (and metaphorically) shitting his pants as he looked down at the black cartridge resting in Ocelot's lap. What had begun as blind and fatalistic rage quickly changed into adrenaline fueled excitement as thick IR smoke belched fourth from the grenade. Magos doesn't properly remember what happened in the next few minutes afterwards but it went a bit like this. Having grown very fed up with his malfunctioning weapon, very suddenly, Magos roared at the machinegun

"YIELD, YOU DIVA SONOFABITCH!"

before smashing his mailed fist into the gun's receiver, which responded with a satisfying *clink* as the bolt found its way home. He wasted no time reveling in his victory over the inanimate object and stuffed a fresh ammo belt into the breach and charged the Hellion. Magos then rolled over bracing himself against the planter he was hiding behind and proceeded to lay on the trigger, saturating the opposition in .338 magnum rounds, and deafening racket, accompanied by Magos' ranting that sounded like a mixture of prayer and incoherent cursing. He used the UV spectrum targeting to guide his wrath avoiding the now blinded gun turrets and keeping a careful eye on the smoke to grab dirt as soon as it began to clear.

 

[Semblance]

Bullets skimmed past the top of the concrete planter as Raze pressed herself to the ground behind the garden basin. Her piercing amber eyes fell on the two automated turrets before flying to the multiple gang members holding assault rifles. One of the shotgunners raised his arm to shoot and Raze instantly whipped back behind the concrete basin next to Vi. The bullet whizzed past her and she cursed under her breath. They were clearly outnumbered.

Architect's warning on approaching reinforcements only made the situation worse. "Architect, can you at least try not to kill us?" she muttered into the mic when she saw Vi's fingers getting blown off. Well, at least they were prosthetic. Raze took out the data pad from one of her belt pouches to analyze the overlook positions that Architect had marked on the west building. She only needed to get about halfway up to get a good vantage point for her shot.

Smoke filled the air as Vi's bomb released a foggy cover and Magos fired repeatedly into the thick smoke. This was her chance. "I'm going up! Try not to die without me," she shouted towards her team. "Krueger! Let's go up that west building," Raze called to the hacker through the fog.

She turned her attention back onto Vi and reached over to grab two more smoke gas bombs from her belt. "And I'm going to borrow these. Thanks!" she said to the pink haired woman without asking nor waiting for an answer. Time was of the essence. Making sure her Remington 700 was securely slung across her back, she started to sprint through the fog towards the west building, careful to keep her head low. Her hands tightened around the pistol in her hand, ready to shoot should an enemy present himself.

As the metal stairs that wound up the side of the building came into view, the reinforcements that Architect had warned them about also arrived. Four gang members raised their shotguns towards them. Raze instantly pressed herself against the side of the building and behind the stairs. The bullets whizzed by and hit the metal stairs at multiple points, causing loud metallic clanking sounds.

A brief pause in the ammunition allowed her to quickly toss the smoke gas bomb towards the four men. As soon as the thick white smoke was released, Raze shot a series of repeated gunshots into the fog. She heard shouts of pain and knew that she had hit someone, but couldn't tell the extent of the injuries.

"Let's go!" She shouted back to Rueger, signaling for her to go up the stairs first. Shooting a few more shots behind her, Raze sprinted up the steep metal stairs after her teammate.

 

[Volfy]

Krueger lay behind the cover with the rest of the crew, keeping her head well out of any line fire. She had her data-pad in one hand, several boxes containing lines of numbers and symbols rolled past on the screen as it tried to establish a link with the turrets. To little avail however. A yelp escaped her mouth as a large chunk of concrete was blown off above her. “God sake...” she muttered, crawling so she was crouched on her knees, retrieving her MGA-E and placing the barrel of the gun on the edge of the planter. Two shots she got off, before fire focused onto her position and forced her back down.

VI’s voice carried over the barrage of gunfire, and Krueger patted herself down quickly, feeling for the ‘doodad’. “Yeah, I got it.” she yelled over, glancing up before looking back at the remote access. That didn’t last long though, with smoke filling the air and Raze calling out to her. Krueger re-positioned again, moving along the planter till she got to the end, waiting for Raze to lead the way before breaking into a sprint after her. Bullets shot past her through the smoke as she scrambled to join her teammate by the wall, the reinforcements already near and guns raised. “Oh sh-” Krueger throw herself at the ground, shotgun pellets filling the space she’d been occupying a second before. She crawled next to Raze just as the woman tossed a smoke grenade into the newly arrived men. She followed it up with several shots, blasting into the smoke. Krueger added two of her own bullets the fire, her gun kicking back and sending the rounds into what she hoped would be the midst of the men.

At Raze's prompt, Krueger leaped up the stairs, racing upwards before ducking down once at a vantage point. She glanced back to make Raze was still with her, then put her attention back to the turrets. "Hey, Architect, or VI. Either. Can't establish a link from here. Any progress?"

 

[Kazama]

Ocelot continued to wait while under fire.

"You think I should've brought something to read? I feel like I should've brought something to read. Maybe they'll let us have a bathroom brea- VI WHAT THE FUCK?!" he tossed the grenade aside before it began to belch out smoke, hiding them from the riflemen in the building and obscuring the turrets' view of the courtyard.

"Goddamnit it, don't ever do that shit again! Jeez..."

In the west building. the Raze's smoke had slowed down the gunmen, but not for long. Of the four that had entered with them, only three remained; the fourth had been injured and stayed behind. The vantage point was a bedroom with a wide window and clear view of the north building. They could also see the balcony on it where the turrets scanned left and right. This point was out of the turrets' field of view, so at least that wasn't a problem. The real problem was that the door to room was nonexistent. It was just a doorway that led into the hall.

Architect's voice came through Krueger's earpiece, "Still working my way through the system. I've run into some problems; their security's getting more complex. Someone is trying to force me out of the system. I can beat them, but I need a few more seconds. If you can fire that remote access jack into one of the turrets, you should be able to override them directly and instantaneously hack at least one of them."

Then the other misfortune became present. The stairs they'd come up through led right into that hallway and had a clear line of sight into the room they were in. There wasn't much for cover in here except an old mattress and a cheap plastic table. The three remaining gunmen had started coming up the stairs but stopped. They seemed to realize they were at a disadvantage here.

"Hang on, they're up in that bedroom!"

The barrel of a shotgun poked up between the handrails and blind fired into the room where they'd heard the two Runners go. Pellets spattered the doorway and a few sped into the room, throwing up little puffs of dust where they hit.

Architect notified the group, "Team. Reinforcements are still coming in through the east and west. Keep an eye out, don't get surrounded."

"Anyone wanna break Architect's heart and remind him that we're already surrounded?" Ocelot quipped.

Down in the courtyard, the smoke had become thick enough to hide them completely. As Magos fired at the buildings, his rounds passed through the thin wooden cover in several places and injured at least one of the riflemen. And he could tell they had because someone shouted, "Shit, Turk's hit! Get down!"

"Well it's about time." Ocelot jumped up and returned fire, making his way over to the eastern building, "Yo Magos. Got some reinforcements with our names written on their asses. You game?"

And that was the part where shit really hit the fan. As if on cue, the reinforcements arrived, explosively so. The entire wall of the eastern building burst and standing among four gunmen was a towering pile of armor and muscle. The Runner who'd forcibly taken control of the Chrome '66, the man who'd charged them into Housing Block C43, and the man infamous for being one mean, tough son of a bitch. He used to be somewhat well known as a British born Runner who'd specialized in brute force and had a mean streak a mile long.

Peter Willis Chambers
aka Bulldog
Approximate Bounty: $200,000

​

"You want somethin' done roight, gott'a bloody do it yourself." his accent was thick, but he got the idea across. He raised his shield and began firing an automatic shotgun into the courtyard while four new gunmen took cover to the left and right. Ocelot dove behind cover, using the narrow end of the concrete basins this time. He fired at Bulldog but most of the rounds sparked against his shield and the few that flew past it pinged against his armor with little effect.

In the west building, as Raze and Krueger sat in the vantage point, someone kicked a door open down the hall. Two more gunmen walked in and between them, a crazed, haphazard Runner rolled down his sleeve and quite literally growled. To those who knew a little more Runner history, he was not someone to be underestimated; despite the twitchiness. This Runner had been born into one of the few remaining Amish communities and grown up there, only to get tired of worship and song. He left and later became a Runner, falling into drug abuse after that, and Running to fuel his addiction. He used to be part of Bulldog's group, before Bulldog traded the Runner career for the gang lord one. It seems his friend here had never stopped being his crony. A church boy gone wrong:

Jeremiah Sommer
aka Plague Rat
Approximate Bounty: $180,000

​

A specialist in chemical warfare, Plague Rat was known for using poisonous gas grenades and traps. It seemed drug use had left him as a wreck however. Despite that, it made him even more unpredictable than before. And unpredictable is dangerous. Both to the team and to his own men.

"Grrrrrnnngh, ffffuuuuckshitshit!!! Just as I was about to sh-sh-shoot up!" he finished stuffing a magazine into his assault rifle and slapped the bolt home, "Let's make this f-f-fucking quick!"

He fired at the two Runners in the bedroom, but ducked into one of the bedrooms in the hall for cover. The gap in his shooting suggested he was prepping a grenade. Or with that many substances in him, having a stroke. But most likely it was a gas grenade.

 

[FTR]

"Ya don't fuckin' say?!" Tilt reacted sarcastically at the Architect's suggestion about the blackhat round. She rummaged through her various packs to find something to use, she had multiple different breeds of munitions and tech but was currently trying to figure out the best way to go about getting them out of here. She sat thinking for a few seconds before finally saying.
"Well, we're not surround yet! We're just pinned to shit!" Launcher with the jack grenade in hand, she rolled over crawling out of the smoke to be able to see. Magos had hit one of the gunman and forced the rest into cover allowing her to have more or less of an opening to make the shot.
"Ocelot! Give me some-" Just then the calvary arrived, blowing down a whole wall to enter. "Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.." Tilt said frantically as she weighed her options and decided to just take the shot. She popped out for a split second, shot, and missed. The projectile hit right of the turret, bouncing off the helmet of the one gunman who decided to wear a helmet, knocking him out and ricocheting into the turret. "First trryyy!" she said in a funny tone before hitting the deck again now receiving fire from the new group. "OK, now we're surrounded!" Tilt called out retreating back into the smokescreen. "Krueger! You're clear to do a thing and convince that turret to join the cause!" she said over comms.
Inside the smoke, she ended up sliding into cover with Ocelot, crowding him behind the relatively small side of the planter. "Soo, come here often?" She joked loading a thermite grenade into the launcher. She looked out from around the cover and, though unable to see, could tell that the fire from the east had slowed a bit and the turrets still weren't back on them. It was an opening. "Hold still, monkey-boy." Tilt joked as she turned into him and straddled his lap to use his head as a rest. She shot the grenade towards the new group to the east, upon landing a secondary charge blasted the now burning thermite outwards hitting whatever it landed on with lumps of hellfire. Sounds of screams coming from that direction signaled a successful shot. "And that's why thermite rhymes with fun!" she commented, ejecting the shell from the launcher. Tilt looked down at Ocelot and smiled smugly. "That oughta get him to start stripping out of his turtle suit. Still, your pee-shooters aren't gonna do much....Here, take this." She said pulling out a large handgun she had strapped to her lower back. "It's breach loaded, shoots these!" she continued loading the first .458 into it. She handed him the loaded gun and 5 more rounds before saying "Now you have 4 guns. This one, those two and the one in your pants." She said facetiously. Tilt rolled out to the planter to the right of Ocelot's and started loading a buckshot round into her launcher, then peering out towards where Krueger and Raze were held up.
"You think Hack n' Snipe over there need some help? " She went to tap the ear piece of the throat mic she used to communicate but it had fallen out, so she could talk but not listen. In all honesty it wasn't that much different from normal. U
"♪ This is ground control to Major Raze, you've really made the grade - and the papers want to know if you need help - If you do then shoot three times into the air ♪ "

 

[Volfy]

Krueger had vaulted into the bedroom which overlooked the space below, as well as the north building. Tucked tightly against the edge of the window, she glanced back at the wide open view into the hallway. VI voice sounded in her ear and she quickly raised her right wrist, retrieving her data-pad at the same time. "Cheers, VI." Speaking to her wrist, she continued "Sid, run a line into that turret via the jack." "Running R.A.H. A moment." responded the robotic tone. Carefully balancing the pad in her thigh, Krueger snapped her MGA pistol open, her cybernetic fingers slotting several heavy rounds into the gun, eyes flicking from her weapon to the pad to the doorway. She jumped slightly as gun sounded close, followed by several pellets perforating the room. "Raze." Krueger warned, raising her gun and unloading half of it in the direction of the hallway, hearing yet more movement. Two shots disappeared into the area beyond the door, the third hit the wall, punching a fist sized hole in the thin structure.

When yet more fire was sent in their direction, Krueger hit the floor for the third time today. She was becoming rather good friends with the ground. "Raze, give me two seconds." she tried positioning as far out of sight from the open doorway as possible, tipping over the flimsy table and ducking behind it. Her gaze focused on her data-pad. Sid had run the remote access hack so she didn't have a lot to do but redirect the turrets now. Krueger's fingers tapped away at the screen briefly while on the north building, one of the ZK 13's stopped its fire, the barrel dropping. A few seconds past before it raised again, searching left and right, then pausing. Suddenly, the gun focused on the men below, no longer interested in the runners. Without warning, it opened fire, the soviet machine-gun unloading a hail of inaccurate, yet heavy fire onto the Chrome 66 gang members.

 

[Semblance]

As they reached the room at the top of the stairs, Raze heard bullets fire from behind them and instantly dove to the ground with Krueger, shooting a few times back towards the stairs. Thankfully, none of the blind shots hit them. She knocked the table down onto its side and leaned the mattress up against the table, ducking behind this makeshift shield. Wasting no time, Raze began setting up her Remington 700 and rested the gun on top of the sides of the mattress and table. She occasionally used her pistol to send more bullets towards the stairs, deterring the enemy runners.

Raze didn't have much time to feel grateful when a tower of metal armor bursted through the eastern building. She recognized him as Bulldog, the leader of the Chrome 66. As if things couldn't get any worse, three figures appeared in the open doorway. She instantly recognized one of them as Plague Rat, notorious for his chemical warfare and toxic explosives. Before she could react, more bullets flew towards them and she pressed herself to the ground. A bullet pierced her outer jacket and bounced off the light armor underneath, the force making her fall back.

Vi's voice came into her earpiece and Raze immediately shot 3 times into the air, requesting any sort of aid. "Raze, give me two seconds," Krueger said, as she focused her eyes onto the screen before her. "I got you," Raze replied firmly, loading her sniper gun.

The pause in the perpetual shooting clued the sniper into Plague Rat's next move: toxic grenade. "FACE MASK. NOW!" she immediately yelled to her teammate, as she took out her own face mask. Just as she yelled this, a grenade flew into their room and hit the ground, immediately releasing a pale yellow gas. The slightest whiff managed to get into Raze's nostrils before she slid on the entire mask.

"Shit, what the fuck is this gas??" Raze called out towards the doorway, knowing that the enemy would hear her. Even though she had her face mask on, she needed some way to lure them into the room. Crouched behind the mattress with one eye in her scope, she aimed her gun towards the doorway. One shotgunner stuck his arm into the room to shoot, careful not to expose his whole body. She pulled the trigger instantly, shooting his hand and making his gun fly to the other side of the room. Shouts of pain ensued as the runner retreated back into the hallway. Raze shot a few more times into the doorway before taking out a hand grenade and pulling the pin. She threw the explosive towards the open entrance and let it bounce into the hallway before lowering herself to the ground. She heard men shouting just as the grenade detonated, but she wasn't sure how many had survived.

 

[Sludgemouth]

Magos tossed the emptied Hellion onto the ground and dropped to follow it as a hail of automatic shotgun fire hammered his location. He gazed up from his defensive position and saw a hulking armored figure.

That motherfucker's got an automatic shotgun.... I WANT ONE!

Unsure of how to proceed Magos poised himself, figuring out how to maneuver closer without being turned into canned mincemeat. The solution quickly revealed itself as Bulldog and his posse were suddenly bathed in molten slag.

"Oscelot, I'm taking his gun, and I'm naming it Valerie... assuming I manage to not die."

With that Magos took advantage if the chaos caused VI and the others and charged at the armored runner...that wasn't him, while drawing the Castigator.

"AFFIX BAYONETS!!!"

He screamed as he vaulted off of the planter towards his enemy. Bulldog and his retinue Turned and braced themselves against Magos, Who instead landed a few feet from them and pitched himself to one side placing the flaming adversaries between him and his allies.

"Now Osc, Get em'!"

 

[Kazama]

Plague Rat's gas not only made the room dangerous, but it obscured sight lines and made it hard to see in or out of the room. Gunfire flooded through the doorway, pelting the walls and breaking the plaster in some spots. It was difficult to tell who was doing the shooting, but it might suffice to assume everyone was shooting.

"Grrrrrggh, idiots!!" Plague Rat growled when one of his men was hit, "Kill theeeeeemuh!!! Killthemkillthemkillthemkillthemkillthem!!!" Plague Rat leaned out of his doorway and fired into the room. The plastic table and mattress didn't make very good cover; just decent concealment. Rounds shattered the table where they hit and puffed out of the mattress.

VI's thermite was giving two of the gunmen a tough time and it distracted them long enough for Krueger's hacked turret to fire enough rounds to take them both down. The turret kept most of the gunmen in the eastern building pinned, but Bulldog had managed to walk into the courtyard which was currently obscured with IR smoke. Bulldog had reacted quickly enough to catch most of the thermite with his shield. The metal wasn't designed for the heat, but it held. The edges of the shield glowed brightly and dripped molten metal.

"That all you ninnies got?" he taunted.

"Hey Queen Elizabeth!" Ocelot's head poked out of cover as he lay on his side to peek around the corner, "Say crumpet!"

The pistol VI had given him kicked so hard it almost slid him back a bit. The round hit Bulldog's shoulder and managed to punch through the armor enough to actually hurt him. He stumbled back a bit and growled. The shotgun came back up and returned fire. As he fired, he took a few steps back towards Magos. Bulldog realized he was in a bad position and moved to put Magos in front of him and Ocelot to his left side in order to have cover from both with the shield. Or he could charge Magos and make it harder for Ocelot or anyone else to fire at him without risking hitting Magos. He attacked Magos, coming at him with a spiked, dripping shield and shotgun blasts.

He was no martial artist, but he was aggressive and heavily armored.

 

[FTR]

"One, deux, drei." Tilt counted off Raze's shots. "Roight then!" she said in a fake accent, joking about the tank of a man. Tilt may be crazy but she's not dumb, the rounds she gave Ocelot had had beacons in the bullets. She pulled a out three tiny red spheres from a pouch on the calf of her cargos and tapped a discolored circle on their top. A digital "AW YEA" appeared in the area causing her to smile. She tossed the them to Ocelot and started unloading the empty in her launcher.
"Get a safe distance away from him and use these! Careful with 'em! They arm themselves after a few bounces!" She closed up the breach of the launcher and looked around the corner of her cover to see if she had an opening to move. "Cover me while I do a thing!"
Tilt started to worm her way closer to the area Raze and Krueger were held up in, talking deafly at them as she crawled and moved between covers. "Smoke? That gives me an idea! Turtle up, bitches! I'm about to turn up the HEAT!"
Once she got close enough for her to think herself capable of hitting inside the doorway she loaded something into and pointed the business end of her launcher toward the entrance to the building and started humming as she took aim.
"Half a pound of HMX, half a case of diesel, that's the way the money goes......." she shot sending the projectile hurdling into the doorway. It exploded violently into a raging flame upon impact turning the lower level of the building into a temporary inferno, burning in an inky black smoke that quickly filled it's interior. "- POP! Goes the weasels!"
The carnage from the grenade would have pushed anyone at the bottom of the stairs further up or killed them. After a moment the fuel fire disapated but the smoke remained, obscuring sightlines and giving Raze and Krueger a chance to unpin themselves. "If y'all're gonna do something, do it now. I'm running out of thingamabobs."