Creeping in the Night

"I'm confident that he's here somewhere," the mercenary muttered to himself in one of the local taverns of the Kingdom of Kai. He hated this godforsaken kingdom of eternal night. It served his mission well, but it was annoying. His target was a fairly strange one. According to the ad he was a toon of sorts. That was all Randous really knew about his target, and that was all he needed. The reward was decent-ish, and appeared like it would be a simple job. He didn't foresee this toon giving him much of a fight. He gulped another sip of his drink, the smell of whiskey embedded into his breath as this point. It didn't do much to him due to his ever-flowing healing factor, but the brief satisfaction was worth it. Plus it made him look less conspicuous. His battle armor didn't help him blend in after all.

He would probably head out soon to find his target again. It couldn't take that long.

Hershel had mix of emotions on his face as he read a poster he found. "5000 Coins? That's it? I mean what did I do to get wanted in the first place." He said thinking out loud, "Oh yeah... I guess the whole party peanut incident a few months ago. Are they still mad about that? I said I was sorry... I think."

The toon rabbit just shrugged as he walked away. "Oh well... It just means more people get to know my name. Still if I want people to really notice me I should focus on doing something that's actually worth some money. I mean come on. Only 5000 C. I'm at least 5000 times worth that much. Maybe I should go out of my way to prove it."

He just shrugged once more as he entered a dark and spooky alleyway that smelled of garbage and murder. Well mostly garbage. Probably doesn't have as much murder as that first sentence may insinuate. If fact I believe the only incident that happened in this alleyway was a kid accidentally scrapping his knee. So yeah... He entered a dark and spooky alleyway that smelled of garbage and the risk of incurring a minor injury if your not careful. Though that is still probably stretching it a bit.

What does murder and the risk of incurring a minor injury if your not careful smell like anyways?

The rooftops of the Kingdom of Kai's Kagamino City were the perfect place to scope out the area. Randous was crouched down at the edge of the rooftop, looking out over the streets below searching for his target, and soon he found a muttering toon making a bunch of noise to himself. He was too high up to make out the content, being approximately three stories high, but it was worth checking out. This person seemed to attract a lot of attention to himself, and may have fit the description of his target. The armored terminator motioned over the to the fire escape close to him, and climbed down slowly and quietly so as to not attract attention. Randous' training was all about being a weapon, a soldier, and an assassin. His blade was meant to sever heads. His arms were meant to crush and break necks. His legs were meant to chase down his prey and stomp his enemies to death.

The singular brown eye gleamed in the dim moonlight, and he soon found himself at the bottom of the fire escape, staring out over his target as he continued his musings. Randous had trouble identifying his target on sight, despite being only 20 meters away from him. The damn night made it hard to see and identify his target. Another reason he hated this godforsaken place. The mercenary then carefully leapt off of the fire escape, making a small thud as he gracefully landed on the ground. If the toon was paying attention he would realize that the assassin was here, but he hoped that it wasn't the case. It would make things more difficult. Randous' breath underneath the black and orange mask was calm and quiet. He was doing his best to maintain his cover. Randous had decided however no matter what this toon would die. If it wasn't his target then Randous would just keep hunting down toons in the Kingdom of Kai until he found his man. The terminator reached for his green cloth-covered hilt on his steel blade, the tactical black blade slowly rising from his sheath and facing the toon.

He would die tonight.

---

Unsheathed "Deathstroke"

"Huh... Why do I have the feeling that someones trying to hunt me down?" Hershel asked no one in particular as he stopped to look around, "Maybe it's an adoring fan looking for my signature."

Hershel looked around for a bit trying to see if he could catch any sight of pursuers. Unfortunately he couldn't see anything in the dead of night. Just shrugging it off, Hershel continued on his way saying, "I could of sworn I heard some type of soft thud. Oh well... Perhaps it's just some type of ninja or assassin trying to hunt down a target. Kaseki knows there are to many of those in this world. And it's not like that wannabe ninja world doesn't help matters much."

The toon hadn't noticed his approach. That or he was feigning ignorance to catch the assassin by surprise. Either way it wouldn't matter. Randous was prepared, and he always got his man. Some believe Randous was a ninja in the way he snuck around and the way he assassinated people. That wasn't the case at all. He wasn't a ninja. Ninja were governed by a code. They were expected to have some higher sense of honor, and were to off themselves if they felt they disgraced themselves. Randous was not honorable. His ethics fit his situation. It was all about surviving and about getting the job done. They relied solely on stealth, while Randous only used it to set up his plans. Randous reached for the gun around his waist with his other hand and held it with the end pointing at the back of the toon. He would test the toon to see if he saw him or not. He pulled the trigger, sending a bullet traveling toward him to puncture the flesh of his back. Randous was ready to get this party started.

And it would start with a bang. A shot heard around the world.

---

Used "The Pistol: Deadshot"

A loud bang came from the gun. If Hershel was any normal person, he'd probably be lying down on the ground with a bullet stuck in his back. Yet Hershel wasn't any normal person. In the instant between the bang and the bullet about to hit Hershel, the Toon managed to quickly grab the bullet and turn it like a screw, making it head towards the would-be assassin that shot it. All without causing the bullet to lose any of it velocity.

Hershel then turned around with a smile on his face. Whether the bullet had hit the assassin or not didn't matter to him. He just wanted to see the assassin's reaction to what Hershel had just did.

---

Name: Redirection
Rank: D
Description: With some nimble work, the user is able to take a range projectile flying near him and change the direction of it's destination to wherever he chooses.
Strengths:

• Shifts the target of one D rank projectile spell, skill, or attack to another.
  
• Can effect both positive and negative spells/skills.

Weaknesses:

• The attack in question must be a ranged projectile.
  
• Must be able to physically touch the projectile.
  
• Can only effect D rank attacks or spells.

Duration: Instantaneous
Cooldown: 3 Posts

This toon was more dangerous than the mercenary had first thought. As Randous fired the bullet, he attempted to calculate all the things that the toon could do. But never in his wildest dreams did he imagine such a reality-warping technique. The toon somehow took his bullet and turned its direction back at him without it losing a bit of its velocity. To accomplish such a thing was both extraordinary and annoying at the same time. Randous could only think of one thing to mutter underneath his mask, "God I hate toons." He fired another bullet, the projectile traveling swiftly to collide into the shot that the toon had deflected back at him. Randous didn't stop there however. He fired another two shots of the gun all meant to collide into the toon's chest, which was all that was left in the first round of bullets. Randous wanted to know if the toon could do that again, or if he had another trick up his sleeve.

---

Used "Deadshot" another 3 times. 0 bullets left to shoot, 21 bullets remaining. Must reload.

((Sorry for the wait. I meant to get this post done a while ago, but kept getting distracted.

Also for the bullet thing. I know that was a bit pushing things, but I thought him being able to turn around in such a short amount of time is pushing things even farther. I mean this would have been a split second. Though in hindsight, I could have probably have done something like have the bullet just bounce off his skin. But I'm going to much into this. Now back to the post at hand.))

Hershel quickly dodged rolled into some near by cover as the bullets flied. "Must admit. I'm impressed. It's takes quite fast reflexes to shoot a bullet out of the air like that." Hershel said with a small chuckle, "But I also must admit I don't like being attacked. I'm not even sure why your attacking me. Okay. Slash that. I'm pretty sure I know now. Your hear because of that wanted notice. Well I'm happy to see you chose me as your target, but it's not worth it.

"I mean come on. I'm worth much more then just 5000 C's. At least 5001. Okay. I understand all I did was incite a man's peanut allergy, but I'm a freaking celebrity. And can be a pretty dangerous one at that. Everyone knows my name, or will soon enough. Now that I think about it though, I think that man may have died. I never did follow up on that. Oh well..." Hershel paused for a second as he peeked from his cover.

"I'm sorry. I must have gotten sidetracked. Where were we again?"

As the mercenary fired his rounds to penetrate the strange toon, his senses analyzing the movement of this toon seeing what he would do to thwart him, Randous found himself feeling a bit euphoric. He enjoyed money, but his second most pleasuring vice was combat. He enjoyed the fight just as much as the currency, and would be damned if he lost the fight or the credits. As the toon made his evasive maneuver, the mercenary realized his gun was out of ammo and that he had to reload. While the toon made his annoying chit-chat the mercenary focused on fixing his gun. The toon liked to hear the sound of his own voice, which only served to further aggravate the mercenary.

The gun finished reloading and he put it back in his holster on the back of his waist's belt, responding to the toon's question with only one phrase. It was the first time the toon would come to hear his low and sinister tone. "Up to the part where I kill you," the mercenary replied. With his tactical blade in his hand the second round was about to begin. Would the toon run, fight, or wait for Randous to make the first move?

---

Deadshot (see last post) reloaded and holster'd.
Deathstroke unsheathed

"Oh come on... This is your first real line in this story and that's what you say. Talk about cliche. Your really just setting yourself up for defeat. I mean how many have ever said that line and were able to kill the person they were trying to kill. From my count, it's zero." Hershel said, apparently completely unfazed by the knife the mercenary know wields.

Though now that one thinks about it, was Hershel even aware that this man was actually trying to kill him? Or did the toon just see this as some sort of publicity stunt to get his attention? Either is actually pretty possible to him right now.

"Oh... I know. How about this? Why don't you tell me your here to get revenge for your parents that I killed in this very alleyway? That way it sounds much more epic and tragic when you only end up losing this fight. Then, with renewed determination, you return to face me one more time, to only have your a** handed to you one more time. That'll definitely help out my ratings. It might even turn me into something like a legend."

And no. He still hasn't really shut up once since the Merc attempted to shoot him.

Randous was getting tired of listening to this toon's voice. The way it squeaked and babbled on like a broken toy. It was annoying, the voice tearing into his skull and making him want to claw out his eyes. Randous waited for the toon to finish, wanting to savor the rush of killing his foe when he was trying to stay alive. Not when he was waiting time making idle chatter. "Shut up," he said. He wasn't a man of many words. He was a man of action. Suddenly he jumped into action with his blade running up the side of the wall to gain momentum, until he eventually leaped off and slashed downward onto the toon to slice him in half. He was faster and stronger than the toon might have expected. But this toon was tricky. Randous had to be on his guard. At least if he truly wanted this toon dead.

---

Lineage: Experiment 626 being used:

Ability: You received a highly experimental genome. As a result, your speed and physical prowess is greatly enhanced.
Useage: User's speed is increased by 10 Levels. User's physical attacks are considered to deal an additional 10 levels.

Deathstroke being used. See previous post (not going to link it every post >.>)

((Sorry for the wait. Missed that you posted here. Don't forget about our mission as well. It's been your post for awhile now.))

"Talk about rude. Do you talk to your mother with that mouth." Hershel said as Randous told him to shut up.

It appeared that the assassin was actually pretty quick on his feet. Quick enough that Hershel barely had time to react. Keyword there was barely as he was able to pull out a bat to block the attack. Unfortunately it wasn't the baseball kind.

"Oh great... Not again. I already have more then enough bat orphans that I know what to do with." He said before throwing the two halves of the bat corpse at Randous. Then, without any warning, threw a punch right at the man's stomach. "Now watch as one them decides to dress as a human and go around fighting crime calling himself 'Manbat'. And who do you think has to be the freaking butler. Because I doubt your going to be to do it."

---

Pulled out a now cut in half bat.

This toon was tricky. He was capable of pulling out items out of his arse without any effort at all. Randous remembered this ability was referred to as a "magic satchel" in that the toons could pull out anything without any explanation at all as to where it came from. It would be the most annoying trick, but he had experienced worse. As the sword seemed to cut the bat in half, Randous landing on his feet as it happened, the toon would swiftly counter his attack by throwing the now halved bat pieces at the mercenary. Thankfully Randous had just enough space and reflex time to defend from the assault, taking a step back as he slashed horizontally through both of the incoming pieces before they got to him. The confined space of the alley was barely enough to handle the motion of the slices without colliding accidentally into the brick walls. Randous had put himself in quite a difficult position fighting out here.

As Hershel motioned to take advantage of Randous' defense by lowering himself to get in close a deliver a punch to the mercenary's stomach, Randous responded in kind by shifting his weight into his forward left foot, and lifting his back right foot up for a solid frontal kick to Hershel's face. The legs extended farther than the toon's arms could, and would intercept him before he could get in close enough to make his move. Randous was not going to lose here, and that was for damn sure.

---

Blade still in play.
Experiment 626 Passive still in affect (and will be for the rest of the thread)

((Sorry for the wait. I have been having a pretty busy week last week and I completely missed this.))

With no time to truly react, Hershel felt his face contact Randous' foot. His face contorted slightly as he could swear that he felt a few of his teeth being knocked out of his face. This ruined some of Hershel's good spirit. Much to the Assassin's misfortune.

Hershel didn't even blink as he jumped back and pulled out the chainsaw. "You know? I would have forgiven you if you had hit me anywhere else, but you just had to go for the face." He told Randous as he spit some kind of black substance out of his mouth. The chainsaw soon roaring into life as Hershel started it up.

"Let's see how you deal with this?" Hershel said, charging forward.

---

Chainsaw

Randous felt some satisfaction from landing a sharp boot to the annoying toon's face, finally stopping that awful mouth of his from talking if even for just a few moments. Suddenly however the toon came up with a chainsaw, the mercenary eyeing it with caution. He knew what that meant, and as Hershel ran to run him through, Randous maneuvered by a series of leaps out of the narrow alleyway, hoping to make his way out toward the nearby street where he'd have more room to properly fight the toon. Thankfully the one-eyed mercenary had enough speed and reflexes to properly do this without worrying about the toon catching up to him with that chainsaw.

[Lineage in effect. Level is considered to be 11]

"Why! Does! Noone! Ever! Stand! Still!" Hershel called out in annoyance as the assassin kept dodging the chainsaw. "Geez... I promise I'll only saw you in half a little bit." He then pleaded, yet he knew full well that the assassin wouldn't take him up on the offer. No one ever does.

With this looking like it's going nowhere pretty quickly, Hershel began to think. What could he do to get the upper hand on this guy? This assassin seemed to be pretty quick on his feet, though that is to be expected. An assassin being light-footed is as cliche as a knight that wears armor and a wizard that is smart. Yet was that something he could honestly use against this guy. Maybe if he had a banana peel or something slippery like that, but he doesn't.

So then what else could he do? He was running out of time to think as it seemed they were going to be out on an open street here soon. Wait. An open street? That gave Hershel an idea. One that'll not only allow him to beat this idiot to the ground, but garner some more fans in the process.

Randous decided at this point he was going to power through Hershel's constant badgering. The toon wasn't going to distract the mercenary's mission. The blank stare of the man behind the orange mask was empty, searching for nothing but his next paycheck. All he cared about was making enough money to get them back.. to get HER back. This dead toon would be the first step in achieving that goal. As the two made their way to an open street, empty it was in the late hour, Randous unveiled his pistol from his right hand once more, the gun aiming to fire two more shots, both meant to travel and pierce the toon's lower leg.

[Used: Deadshot. 3 bullets left]

As they entered the open street, the assassin unveiled his gun once more, and fired two shots at Hershel's leg. At this distance the bullet would reach him in less then a second. That made dodging completely impossible for the tune. Trying to block with the chainsaw either wouldn't have been a good option either for if he could even move the thing fast enough to block the incoming bullets, he was liable of choping his own leg with it in the process. That left the toon with one other option.

Fortunately for Hershel instinct took over where his brain would have been to slow to figure out what to do. He swung his foot forward towards the first bullet was heading, and instead of it piercing his foot like it normally would have, he essentially kicked it back towards it's owner. While this meant that he still took a bullet to his leg, it was still better then taking two. Plus he had the chance of catching his opponent off guard. (Even though he had a feeling that that wasn't going to happen.)

"I must admit that I'm impressed. Aim for the legs in order to limit my movements and increase your advantage. Unfortunately for you, your fighting a toon, and we are not as flimsy as you humans." Hershel said as he continued his assault with the chainsaw seemingly unfazed by the bullet lodged in his leg. That didn't mean it didn't hurt like hell though.

---

Name: Redirection
Rank: D
Description: With some nimble work, the user is able to take a range projectile flying near him and change the direction of it's destination to wherever he chooses.
Strengths:

• Shifts the target of one D rank projectile spell, skill, or attack to another.
  
• Can effect both positive and negative spells/skills.

Weaknesses: [list]

[*]The attack in question must be a ranged projectile.
[*]Must be able to physically touch the projectile.
[*]Can only effect D rank attacks or spells.


Duration: Instantaneous
Cooldown: 3 Posts

The armored mercenary's gaze did not detour from his target, his gaze focused as he awaited for the  toon to be riddled with bullets. Little did he know that the toon had gained the ability to use that same ability he did only a few moments ago. It appeared to be something that had a set amount of time between each use. The ability to redirect his bullets, as it had last time..
 

A loud bang came from the gun. If Hershel was any normal person, he'd probably be lying down on the ground with a bullet stuck in his back. Yet Hershel wasn't any normal person. In the instant between the bang and the bullet about to hit Hershel, the Toon managed to quickly grab the bullet and turn it like a screw, making it head towards the would-be assassin that shot it. All without causing the bullet to lose any of it velocity.

Hershel then turned around with a smile on his face. Whether the bullet had hit the assassin or not didn't matter to him. He just wanted to see the assassin's reaction to what Hershel had just did.

Randous remembered that and kept it in mind as he continued to fight, the bullet bouncing up towards his mask. The bullet hit the side of his mask, causing a crack in it as the bullet fell back to the floor. The mask of his armor was strong enough to absorb the impact of the bullet. As the bullet had moved to hit him Randous lifted his gun up, a third bullet firing to hit the neck of the open-lipped Hershel. Randous continued his movement from the sidewalk of the new street out toward the asphalt of the street itself, attempting to continue to stay out of range of the incoming chainsaw.

---

Used Fourth bullet of Deadshot. One bullet remaining before reloading.
Slade Armor: 1 weak hit... I'll check the percentage rating for its health in a bit.

"No you don't." Hershel said as he suddenly pulled up a dummy that looked just like him. The bullet plunging into it's neck instead of his.

"Now catch." Hershel then said as he then suddenly tossed the chainsaw at Randous. It wouldn't be to shocking to the Toon if the assassin actually caught the chainsaw. He seemed spry enough to do so.

---

Spoiler:

Stunt Double: 1 D rank left / 1 Post

Spoiler:

This toon was quite the elusive target. He had deflected his bullets, he had taken the mercenary's punches without too much damage. And now here he had summoned some type of dummy right in front of him to take a hit from the mercenary. His tricks were persistent. He was a pain in the ass and the mercenary was done with it. The anger seethed through him, the eye in the mask exuding a look of rage. The brown eye bulged at the toon, an animalistic look about him. Randous was not amused. He was losing his cool. And that would end up very bad for Hershel.

---

"This is your first task, Randous," an ominous voice told him. "Use your powers and the equipment we have provided you. Eliminate the target. At ALL costs. Do not fail this mission." Randous was but a young man at that time. He was confused, and his head; it hurt all the time. "But why?" he had asked without thought. He was hit in the back of the head, his question obviously offending the masters. "It doesn't matter. Not to you," the man said dismissing the young mercenary-in-training. "You are our weapon. You are a killer. You have no feelings while on the job, for morals are chains that will tie you down.

If you fail us, then she will die."

Randous looked at the man in fear. He grabbed the helmet of the armor they were branding him with, staring at the mask with wide eyes. He put it on, his eyes looking through the mask. It was if he was seeing the world from a different viewpoint in here. The mask, the helmet rather gave him a new perspective, a new lens through which to see the world. It seemed darker through here...

---

Randous responded to the toon as he tossed the chainsaw toward him, having moved out of the way of his stunt double to peek out and throw his accursed weapon. Not much time was given, forcing Randous with a sidestep to his right to evade the incoming weapon. Randous allowed the chainsaw to fall to the floor, skidding across to the other side of the street. With that out of play Hershel was vulnerable. "This is my chance," he mused to himself. With his left blade in tow Randous charged at the toon, preparing to slice him in half once more, ending this fight once and for all.

Afterword: It had been a hard fought battle between the Mercenary and the Toon; Randous had run around Kagamino City all night chasing after his prey only to fail to the toon's elusive fighting style. Eventually Randous lost all sight of Hershel. They would continue this another day... he would find him again. And when he did: he would make sure the toon paid his dues....

---

Used "The Blade" Deathstroke.
Level is 11 due to lineage.

(I apologize for my behavior in this thread. I was trying to stroke my ego and handled it wrong as an RPer. I was trying to gauge your ability and from a narcissistic mindset teach you things about RP for moving forward in future topics. I edited my post and ended the thread with Randous failing to capture his quarry and Hershel having escaped. May our next encounter be more fun, as I will refrain from being a dick in the future~ <3)