[semi-open]

[idkmybffbloodwing]

CHARACTERS: Mordecai, Lilith, Jack, Raven, Edgeworth, Michelle, Soysauce
LOCATION: Lilith's room, then elsewhere
WARNINGS: Language, violence, idk
SUMMARY: Jump 14 brought in Handsome Jack. The Vault Hunters want him dead. Jack wants them dead. There might be a problem here.
NOTES: Backdated to shortly after the jump. See this OOC post if you wish to join in, particularly if your character is a member of SEC.

Jack.

Mordecai had never expected to see that masked bastard again. Not after everything he and Lilith and the others had all gone through to kill him. Sure, he'd heard of the dead turning up alive again onboard the Tranquility, but he hadn't exactly been prepared to see a post from Jack turn up on the network. And trying to play the role of the innocent victim, too - though he couldn't imagine many would fall for that.

Still, it wasn't all bad, Jack's appearance. The man was a tyrant, yes, and profited off the exploitation of Pandora, wanted its residents dead, and to top it off, had personally wronged Mordecai a few times too many. His having turned up here meant one thing, though. It gave him a chance to kill Jack himself. To seek his own revenge. Lilith had had her turn, and she'd deserved her moment of victory, and it was a shame it hadn't lasted. Mordecai would make it stick.

Neither he nor Lilith had replied to Jack's message, of course. Hopefully nobody would blow their cover while they scrambled to organize. He wasn't worried about giving him a fair fight, because Jack had lost that opportunity to play fair a long time ago. If he and Lilith could track him down and kill him before the asshole ever knew they were there, it was all the better.

Mordecai was alone, for the first time in a long time - his bird was too young and too inexperienced to be anything more than another tool for Jack to use against him. He wasn't going to let anything like that happen again. Rather than let the bird bore itself in his room and start shredding things, he'd dropped him off with Jaye before heading to Lilith's room. He tapped a brief knock at her door, and waited.

Comments

[supfirehawk]

She had been standing just behind her door and it was opened immediately after his knock. The fact that Jack was here did not bode well and she wasn't about to let him roam free on the ship. Not after what he did. It had felt damn good getting closure before after what he had done to Roland and she was sure Mordecai wanted the same. He had been just as wronged by the bastard.

"I'm ready," she said simply and stepped out of her room.

[idkmybffbloodwing]

"C'mon, then. No idea where the putamadre is hiding but this ship's only so big. We'll find 'im."

Of course, the ship was huge, but there were only so many safe areas, and not too many places a man could hide, barring perhaps the oxygen gardens, and Mordecai had just been by there. Jack was a coward, and he'd be lurking somewhere, but it would probably be somewhere with other people, since he had to know his chances alone weren't great against Lilith and himself.

"Anywhere you wanna look first?"

[supfirehawk]

"The labs," she said and motioned for him to follow. She strode confidently and quickly in that direction. "You know he's going to try to get his hands on anything he can."

[handsomejack]

It was probably the luckiest guess Lilith could ever make. Jack had been rummaging through the ship for quite some time. It was.... unimpressive for the most part-- but Jack had some ridiculously high standards. What he saw in the labs though... he felt he could possibly make something work in due time. Stroking his chin, looking from setup to setup, he became interested in the possibilities. Of course before he can really start getting to work, though, he needed to know the people here didn't he?

After all, how can he manipulate and turn things to his favor if he didn't?

He started from the ground up before. He could do it again.

He stepped out from the labs and began making his way out through the corridors. There were lounges around here right? Places where people of the "crew" were bound to be. He figured he'd be his usual somewhat charming self, swindle his way through choice people and their good graces, and get a good hold of something he could work with.

Easy as pie.

[idkmybffbloodwing]

Lucky was right, especially when Mordecai rounded a corner and glimpsed Jack striding on past through an intersection down the hallway.

"Shit, that was him," he muttered, and drew the Widow Maker. He'd prefer to make this as quick as possible. He wasn't one to feel the need to draw out his revenge, he just wanted Jack dead. He sped his pace a little so they wouldn't lose the guy around another turn - hopefully, anyway. Who knew how the hallways had oriented themselves this jump.

[supfirehawk]

She hadn't expected her first guess to be right, though she wasn't going to complain. "Think you can get him?" she muttered back. Her Hellfire was still holstered, but she didn't need a gun to hurt Jack.

[handsomejack]

Jack went about his business, hands in his pockets. The more he thought about his existence here in Tranquility, he couldn't help but feel the slight inkling that as much as his business back on Pandora was done.... something was lingering. Call it intuition, paranoia, or whatever. If he was here... what did it mean? Years roughing it from Tantalus and the journey to head Hyperion, he knew that even in the seemingly comforting embrace of security- he couldn't let his guard down. Not that he had any reason to believe his past may have followed him here. Half of him hoped that slate was wiped the hell out, and the other half hated that he didn't get what he wanted.

Revenge.

As he walked, he noticed the archaic nature of this ship. The things he could do to this place. For a moment he stopped, trying to get himself oriented to the layout. It was slightly confusing. It was then that he realized he was going the wrong way, and he turned, heading back to where he remembered the passengers quarters were.

And that's when he caught a glimpse of them.

He hitched a breath, shocked, eyes widening a moment-- he considered for a split second that he may have just seen a hallucination. If they were hallucinations, they'd just disappear like a psychotic disturbing mirage. If they weren't.... well, he should probably start shooting. His hand reached up to his shield, and the other to his gun... bracing himself for the possible reality. "Well ain't this just peachy."

He scowled, ducking back into one of the hallways. Cloaking time was GO. He needed a second or two to gather his wits. He didn't like these kinds of surprises.

[idkmybffbloodwing]

He gave a slight nod of his head to Lilith as he stalked down the hallway, preferring to stay quiet just in case. But things had moved in ways he hadn't anticipated, of course, and then suddenly Jack was facing them for a second. And then he vanished down an intersection.

"Goddamnit, he saw us," he hissed, though he was sure Lilith had noticed that, too. He sprinted to catch up, but slowed as he approached the corner and looked carefully down the direction Jack had disappeared to, and found nothing.

The guy could cloak, sure, and he could create illusory body doubles that could even take a few hits. He'd hoped to keep the advantage of surprise, but evidently that was gone.

[supfirehawk]

She had. It was hard not to. She cursed underneath her breath and decided it was best to go invisible for now. It only took a split second and a flash of light for her to phase between dimensions and she hurried down the hall to try to cut him off wherever he had tried to go.

[handsomejack]

Goddamn it. It was real. Thankfully, Jack had fast reflexes. The rush of seeing those two again, oh. It was all coming back to him again. That rage.

Lilith ended up trapping Jack between herself and the hunter. To their eyes, three Jacks suddenly appeared. All with gun in hand and one standing right in front of Lilith with his gun aimed right between her eyes. One Jack faced Mordecai, gun raised and aimed, and the other in the center, his focus on the Siren.

"'Sup, Lilith." He nodded his head up in a cocky manner. "Mordecai." Another chimed in. Their brows narrowed sharply. "Now, is this any way to welcome me aboard?" The third spoke in a growl. "If you're not careful, you two meddling kids are going to cause one hell of a mess, and I'm not cleaning it up you child murdering slabs of bandit filth."

The doubles had slightly pixelated voices. The real one was clearly the one in center. However, Jack's doubles were still capable of causing damage. "DIE!" He grit his teeth and squeezed the trigger. All three of them.

[idkmybffbloodwing]

It wasn't like he'd completely stopped moving, even with Jack's attempt at melodrama. He knew better than to let him get shot point-blank if he could help it. A shield wasn't much good at that range. The shot glanced off his, and immediately Mordecai began firing back, not wasting time or concentration on talking. That kind of thing wasn't going to make Jack dead any quicker, that was for sure. The double fell easily, and he concentrated his fire on the one he was pretty certain was real.

[supfirehawk]

"We're the murderers?" she spat back. It amazed her how delusional he was. After everything he had done to Pandora, to them, to his daughter and he still thought he was some kind of hero. It was a good thing she wouldn't have to listen to him for long if they got what they wanted out of this fight.

She was going to need a moment before she could phase walk again. Her shield took care of the bullet and she strafed around Jack while she withdrew her Hellfire to concentrate on the remaining double. It wouldn't do them any good if they had extra enemies in the way.

this is for jack i guess!

[shoyu]

Gunfire. Now, that was a sound he hadn't heard out of the blue in a while. Soysauce found that his patrols usually ended quite peacefully, not much worth reporting in most cases. And this should have been another quiet patrol around the corridors -- up until the moment he heard gunshots ringing off in the distance. It only took him a moment to pinpoint what direction the sounds were coming from, and Soysauce immediately sprinted down the hallway, revolver in hand and finger ready to take off the safety.

His shoes squeaked against the floor as he turned the corner, almost slipping from how quickly he tried to move, and Soysauce stared for a moment, taking in the scene. Someone he recognized -- Mordecai. And a woman he didn't recognize. And someone he'd briefly seen on the network. Guns pointed at each other. Ah, that wasn't good.

"Security. Please stop and lower your weapons!" It must have been startling, hearing that sharp demand out of nowhere. Even before the smoke from those previous gunshots died down, Soysauce had his gun out and pointed at the closest person -- Jack, the man he wasn't really familiar with -- as he cautiously drew closer, keeping his gaze fixed nervously on the others as he approached. "-- Mister Mordecai, ma'am, I'm not sure what's going on here, but I'm afraid I'll have to stop you." His gaze turned to Jack, his grip on his revolver tightening as he added, "You too, sir."

[handsomejack]

Soysauce managed to... annoy Jack. One double down, and the other wouldn't take long to disappear either, and this guy was just getting in the damn way.

Yeah. He didn't care what they did to him once he murdered both Lilith and Mordecai. He needed this. He wanted it. They needed to not be living right now. Jack glared at the stranger, teeth clenched, turning his gun briefly to face this man that claimed "security". This rent-a-cop did not want to get in the middle of this. That was a big mistake.

With lack of a moral compass, Jack was ready to pull the trigger. It didn't matter that this man had nothing to do with this. He didn't even want to warn him. If this guy shot him back- he had a state-of-the-art shield that'd likely take the brunt of it. With any luck, the dude would fall dead to the ground and Jack could just go on about his business.

That's when an arrow grazed his hand. Instead of letting his gun go, he squeezed it harder-- causing him to shoot. Lucky for Soysauce, it made Jack miss. Barely. "AUGH!" He brought his second hand up to hold his wounded hand. A white blade followed through to hit his gun... which successfully hit it away from his hand. Son of a bitch.

[shoyu]

As much as Soysauce tried to be polite and mindful and courteous at all time, there were definitely limits to how long he could be so well-mannered. Having a gun pointed directly at him brushed up against those lines. Being shot at definitely crossed those limits.

The sudden flash of something white (paper?) going whizzing by startled Soysauce as much as it surprised Jack, and the fact that he reflexively jerked back a half-step probably helped him to avoid the sharp crack of Jack's gun. The bullet went streaking past his arm, just barely grazing his shoulder, and Soysauce immediately decided that this was no longer the time for diplomacy.

The moment that gun fell from Jack's hand and clattered to the floor, Soysauce kicked it sharply, sending it skittering several feet away. His own gun, he kept with the safety on. After all, security was meant to protect, not to kill. And as much as hand-to-hand non-lethal combat wasn't his forte -- well. One could always improvise.

Letting the momentum of that hard kick carry him forward, Soysauce lunged forward to give a wide-armed swing of his revolver, aiming to slam the butt of the gun against Jack's jaw. A blow that would certainly stun a man, but not enough to break any bones or kill.

[handsomejack]

In moments, Jack's gun dissolved into blue pixelation. He had at this point brought his attention towards whoever sent the blades and arrow his way-- and before he could say anything, Soysauce was taking his chance to attack him. Jack stepped back, dodging the gun with a growl.

"Out of the way, cupcake. You're attacking the wrong damn guy." He grunted, making it a point not to attack back. This party was officially busted, and he rose his hands up. Now that he, himself, was unarmed... he had no reason to want to kill the guy because he'd have to regroup to change his target back to the original bandit trash he had his eyes on.

What he needed to do now was look like the victim.

"They ambushed me, man. Self-freaking-defense."

[shoyu]

He could feel the way the revolver's handle came so, so close to striking against Jack's jaw, just barely missing when Jack reeled out of the way. Stomping a foot down as he regained his balance from the followthrough of that attack, Soysauce made to try and take down Jack once more -- before screeching to a halt the moment he saw that hands-raised defenseless gesture.

"-- an ambush?" Soysauce still sounded tense, though, and he couldn't help glancing at his shoulder for a moment. The bullet had torn through his sleeve, scraping a shallow wound across his shoulder, and there was blood starting to blotch red against the fabric. Aah, that was another shirt ruined. A small sigh before Soysauce looked back to Jack, carefully pointing his revolver at Jack's legs as a safety measure.

"Whatever the reason was, we frown upon violent fights, here. I'll have to ask you -- and the others involved -- to cooperate with us."

For Mordecai! Sorry about that, oops.

[bibliophilism]

What started out as a relatively mundane day for Michelle, watching the passengers and crew members exit through the lifts before leaving the medical bay herself culminated into something that she thought she would never encounter on a spaceship. Not that she had even wanted to. The sound of bullets was enough to galvanize her into action alongside Soysauce, her current patrol buddy, briefcase in hand as she ran down the corridors, following the noise, adrenaline already coursing through her body like it had not coursed through her in a while.

Her skirt - only a close observer would notice that it was actually made of paper - swished around her legs as sheets of paper fanned out from her sleeves, forming her paper bow as she sprinted with her metal briefcase in her other hand. Once she arrived at the scene, Michelle dropped her briefcase with a loud crash and quickly loaded her bow with another wave of paper from her sleeve.

Instead of waiting for anyone to lower their weapons as Soysauce had instructed, Michelle promptly shot arrow after arrow - not to kill or wound, but to graze the hands of anyone holding a gun so they would drop their weapons without another word. And when her arrows made their marks, she let her paper bow collapse into the sheets of paper they once were. These sheets stiffened with metallic sounds, becoming more like large, white blades, and she threw them at the guns as those fell, hoping to cut them to pieces.

"That's enough!" she declared.

[idkmybffbloodwing]

Damn, that's right, there was some kind of security force on board. When was the last time he'd had to deal with that? Soysauce's insisting wasn't enough to dissuade him, of course; he could deal with whatever rules he'd broken later, once Jack was dead at his feet.

As he steadied his arm against the recoil to re-aim and fire again, though, a sharp pain tore through his hand. "Shit," he growled, and the revolver clattered to the floor, then dissolved in a burst of blue pixellated light as it deconstructed.

Still, an injury like that wasn't going to hold him back, nor was the lack of a gun. Jack was now apparently weaponless as well, and the confusion was an opportunity. He crouched and drew his sword from its sheath, and lunged forward in an attempt to run Jack through.

[bibliophilism]

A paper blade passed right through Mordecai's gun as it glowed with blue light and...disintegrated? Vanished? For one moment, Michelle found herself blinking and gaping at the spot where the gun had been. It definitely wasn't the work of her magic. But she had no time to wonder about that, because Mordecai was still moving. She crouched down beside her briefcase and pulled out what looked like a long ribbon of paper.

This wasn't going to be easy. But that was why she always had her supply of ammunition.

"I said, that's enough!" Michelle gripped the chain of interlocking sheets in one hand and hurled the other end toward Mordecai's ankle. The paper wound around it like a snake, and Michelle pulled with both hands to trip him up.

[idkmybffbloodwing]

He fell with a thud, and managed to avoid impaling himself by rolling away from the blade. He tried to kick the paper off, but it wasn't giving up, apparently, and he snarled at the girl on the other end.

"Damnit, woman, lemme go! If you're tryin' to help people here, tie up that asshole with the mask, not me!" he spat, as he sat up and tried to tear the paper off his leg with his free hand.

Aaand for Lilith, then, a few moments later!

[jurisimpudent]

Edgeworth, however, wasn't on patrol. Though he supposed he was equipped now to do that particular task, he typically was more occupied with work back in the central office. Today, he was simply walking, rather without aim, still trying to process that accursed object that he'd found in his locker...

And then he'd heard those gunshots. And he'd frozen at first, terrified -

But then he'd realized what they meant, and he launched himself forward. He was breathing hard when he arrived at the source of the noise, but was relieved to see that Soysauce and Michelle both were already there, were already in action -

"This is security; stand down," he called - just on the offchance that neither of the others had informed them of their identity, which - Soysauce was a good sort, but occasionally absent-minded...The call was unfortunately weakened somewhat by the fact that he was utterly winded, but at least it carried. And it helped that at once he acted, even though he was still trying to keep this power under wraps; he used his telekinesis to push the woman off to the side, against the wall, to hold her where she'd be safe from any sort of harm.

[darkholme]

It's probably a rookie movie to just run after someone she knows is headed towards danger without.. actually saying anything, but it didn't seem worth the time wasted. She heard the gunshots, saw Edgeworth take off, and followed behind. Simple as that. She doesn't sprint, doesn't want to get ahead of him or anything, but she's caught up by the time they reach the scene, just in time to see-

-someone being pushed up against a wall?

Not thrown, or shoved, but.

Huh.

Not that that's the important thing going on here, but, she can't help but notice it, try and look around to see what's causing it. Erik has that ability, at least when there's metal on the person, but-

RIGHT. Right, right. Not important. She'll figure it out later.

"Should I contact medical?" She should really look before asking, see if anyone's injured, but she's doing both at the same time, urgent. People fight all the time here, they could sort out the issue later, but if someone needed to see a doctor...

[supfirehawk]

She had cursed when her gun had been hit from her hand and it managed to deconstruct itself before the blades of paper broke it apart. Suddenly, there was a lot more going on and the invisible force that began to push her back was her cue to phase out of the scene. Her tattoos glowed and she appeared to vanish in a small blast of fire and electricity.

It gave her a chance to see what the hell had happened. There were four more people than there should have been and one was attacking the wrong person. While phased, she moved closer to the paper bindings that were rushing towards Mordecai so her exit from phase walk would disintegrate it. She reappeared much in the same way she had vanished with the exception of the wings of fire that were now on her back.

Mordecai could handle getting himself out of the rest of his bind and she focused on Edgeworth, the man she presumed had pushed her out of the way. "Why are you attacking us? He's the criminal here!" She motioned vaguely towards Jack as she rushed in the direction of Edgeworth and Raven. She wasn't after anyone but Jack and didn't intend to change that unless it became necessary.

[jurisimpudent]

Edgeworth was too disoriented to answer that question. The woman had just...disappeared, and suddenly Michelle's paper bindings were coming apart - he whirled, staring with wide eyes at the woman with those wings on her back -

But after a moment he recovered. Raven was behind him, asking a question, and he turned to say to her, "Support me, call for backup when you can - "

And then he turned back to the woman and reached out with one hand. His telekinesis answered; he wrapped a mental hand around the woman's ankle and yanked hard, trying to trip her.