Hotel Attack: From Below

[John Hino]

He pulled away from the forming shackles with all his might, in one incredibly hard tug.

[Sara Stanton]

"Yeah well we brought something else." Sara frowns and grabs at the floor where the shackles are sticking out to weaken the ground and let John pull himself free.

[Hellsmith]

John pulled loose just as the ceiling erupted into harsh, full-spectrum light.

"Shouldn't take what isn't yours, dearie..."

A section of wall suddenly pistoned outward, aiming to crush Sara. As it happened, Stephanie caught a whiff of... something human. It was elusive, only really revealed for an instant, but there. Human mixed with oil and metal.

[Sara Stanton]

Bracing herself Sara slams her hands into the advancing wall, pushing her will against Hellsmith' to make the stone grind to a halt.

[Stephanie Kaltiera]

Stephanie nimbly dodged the blades with the help of John, and tried to help Sara break John free by tugging along with John at the newly formed manacles. She hesitated slightly as she caught the scent.

"Got her," she growled, "...maybe. There's something....sorta human controlling all this. Somewhere around here."

She sniffed the air deeply, eyes darting around to catch whatever Hellsnith threw at them next.

"Gonna find you..." she growled.

[David Renko]

Renko was a bit shocked by blades shooting from the grounds, which delayed his reaction a bit. With the others trying to free John he attempted to aid them as well by aging the manacles with his powers hoping to weaken them enough for John to break free.

[John Hino]

John's darkforce armor began to burn away as he closed his eyes and swung the chains with chunks of concrete trailing off his wrists against the lights.

[Hellsmith]

A shower of sparks came down from the ceiling as John destroyed one of the racks of lights. The ceiling was reconfiguring again, and as another gap opened Stephanie caught another whiff of the human scent, this time from further down the corridor.

"I wonder, can you react as fast as Faultline? Let's find out..."

The piston pushing against Sara suddenly retracted, while one from the opposite side shot forward.

[Sara Stanton]

The piston pulling away from her caught her by surprise and with her arms partially stuck inside it it pulled her along back to the wall. She hits the wall and just turns her head when the other piston slams into her and seamlessly connects with the wall with Sara nowhere to be seen.

[John Hino]

John was in the middle of breaking another rack lights when he noticed Sara appearing to get crushed.

"SARA!!!"

Oh God... no no no...

[Stephanie Kaltiera]

"I think I can find this thing...and maybe Sara!" Steph growled as she rushed to the wall where Sara was smashed...but hopefully in one piece.

[Sara Stanton]

First there's a bulge in the stone pushing out. It slowly reforms into something vaguely head-shaped. Then two arms grow out and slowly Sara pushes herself out of the wall, obviously struggling, even with no visible facial features.

[Narrator]

Metal was sliding out from the wall, beginning to encompass the section of it Sara was trapped in, trying to isolate her.

[John Hino]

"Oh no you don't," John said, grabbing the metal panel. Luckily his armor was in the process of reforming.

[David Renko]

Renko tired slowing down the metal that was sliding out of the wall hoping it would give Sara the chance to escape and John the chance to help her to do so.

[Stephanie Kaltiera]

Stephanie snarled and reached out to help John grab the wall.

[Sara Stanton]

Sara manages to pull herself from the wall and kind of 'melts' to flow out between the cracks everyone was keeping open in the metal.

[John Hino]

John gathered his strength to keep it open as Sara oozed free.

"Just... a little... further..." he groaned.

[Stephanie Kaltiera]

Steph bared her fangs as she grit them in effort with John to keep the thing open.

"Think. I can. Track. This woman. Thing." she said tersely, focusing on exerting her strength while trying to keep tabs on the scent.

[Hellsmith]

"Think you can find me, eh? You think that somewhere in this mess there's flesh and blood?"

Down the hallway, in the direction Stephanie had caught the scent, something was moving into place. Something heavy, grinding.

"You don't know as much as you think..."

[Sara Stanton]

"I know that you're not actually the building." Sara says, as she reforms. "You're just controlling it."

[John Hino]

"We know more about you than you know about us."

[Bobby Bowen]

"No problem. we just take down the entire damn hotel."

bobby smirked, his eyes darting left and right.

[Hellsmith]

Down the sides of the hallway tracks opened up on the walls as the final piece of machinery thudded into place and began whirring. An immense grinding cylinder, studded with spikes started traveleing down the track.

"The only meat here is yours, and we'll fix that problem, won't we?"

[John Hino]

"Someone isn't paying attention," John said, prepping to hold off the machine if it came to that.

"Renko. Anything you can do to stop this thing?"

[Stephanie Kaltiera]

"I can smell her. She can't be all machine," she growled.

"Renko, slow that down or disintegrate it. Whatever's easier."

[Altamira Vazquez]

Suddenly, the ceiling collapsed, and a bolt of purple and red SLAMMED into the ground, Harbinger slamming the Phoenix back first into the ground.

"OOOOOOU!" Harbinger shouted through the rubble.


"Burn," was Altamira's only reply, and a bolt of red...ENERGY emerged from her hands, shooting the Harbinger back up the way she came, followed quickly by the Phoenix!

[Sara Stanton]

Sara blinks as the dust is still settling and the two figures are gone again already. "Was that...?" she mumbles, staring at the gaping hole.

"Quick! Everyone up there, maybe we can get around that grinder!" she shouts and parts of the floor rise up to create a make-shift ramp up to the story above.

[John Hino]

"You don't have to tell me twice," John said, hurrying up the ramp.

[Stephanie Kaltiera]

Stephanie growled at the missed opportunity to gnaw on the thing living in the building, but followed the group from the rear, carefully watching to make sure nothing was coming after them.

[Sara Stanton]

"You said she was this way, right Steph?" Sara asks as they reach the hallway in the story above. "Any idea how far?"

[Hellsmith]

"T-told the General keeping her around was a mistake..." Hellsmith's strained voice sputtered over the damaged speakers.

The hole was closing, but only fitfully. She was having difficulty it seemed, and the scent Stephanie had caught was quite clear now.

[Stephanie Kaltiera]

Stephanie sniffed the air again, smiling wolfishly as she realized she'd only grown closer to her prey.

"Yes. It is," she said. "We're getting closer," she said slowly stalking towards the scent, her eyes peeled for any other surprises.

[John Hino]

John stayed at the ready, watching the corridor closely.

[Hellsmith]

As they went down the corridor a bladed mechanical arm swung wildly out from the wall, almost blindly. The whole building groaned, its supports shifting as Hellsmith tried to repair the damage.

[John Hino]

John sidestepped and slammed his fists into the mechanical arm.

[Stephanie Kaltiera]

Steph leaped over the arm gracefully and fell into a roll to break her fall, coming up on her feet with a snarl.

"All you're doing is pissing me off," she growled.

[Bobby Bowen]

Bobby used his flexible metal form to do a running slide-limbo under the arm, rolling and continuing his run after Steph.

[Hellsmith]

"Just vermin... all of you..." The words were halting, as the arm was wrenched loose.

"Taken your measure already... held off all the rabble... and you're weaker than them..."

A menacing looking energy cannon dropped down from the ceiling, its targeting systems reeling as much as the arm's were, but eventually it pointed at Bobby.

"...especially you, who never deserved your birthright!"

[Bobby Bowen]

bobby slowed down a moment, unsure of the meaning.

"What?" he asked out loud, looking at the cannon briefly.