18122/Don't Drink the Water III

Don't Drink the Water III
Date of Scene:	01 June 2024
Location:	Still in Tijuana!
Synopsis:	Zombie cyborgs. A motorboat chase. And a cliffhanger as Mr. Gila finally shows up. They didn't drink the water, but can they survive the yacht party?
Cast of Characters:	Conner Kent, Carrie Kelley, Rose Wilson, Kiden Nixon, Laura Kinney

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Conner Kent has posed:
It took almost a whole day of street and online investigation, but the Outsiders managed to find a some places belonging to the gang the Tijuana Cartel had in Brooklyn. And under one of them, they found... well, not exactly what they were looking for, but close enough!

Suspect #1 one Nina Cruz, 26-ish, supposedly the girlfriend of the Brooklyn gang leader, suspected now to be the brains behind the whole mess, and likely fed false information to the gangers for some reason. (Hint: it is always money). Currently Rose is in fast pursuit of Nina through a maze of underground tunnels. They move to fast for Carrie, maybe because she was shoot... nah, actually both Rose and Nina are moving too fast for any normal human to keep up.

And a bunch of near dead cyborgs. Something went wrong with these guys. Their fleshy parts are half-rotten and most of them seem to be moving thanks only to the bionic bits. Currently a few of them are trying to murder Laura and Kiden while begging for help. Which is possibly rather weird and creepy.

Carrie Kelley has posed:
This is the part of being with the Outsiders Carrie has not gotten used to yet. All her martial arts skills and parkour skills; when you're in a team with super powered individuals your strengths do not lay in your body. Batman puts their bodies through intense training to -survive- long enough to use your brain.

Her eyes turn back to the computer console Nina was operating. She takes out her portable computer and plugs it in and begins to run the usual BatHack suite against it.

"What in the world are you up to Cruz," she murmurs to herself. Sitting takes the pressure off the gunshot wound - NOT. She now has a world class Bat-Grimace to make Batman proud. Fingers begin to type. There's more going on here than meets the eye, especially considering those rotting corpses.

Rose Wilson has posed:
It's been a while since Rose had to chase after someone who could keep pace. At a dead sprint she can push 35 miles an hour, assuming there aren't any obstacles in her way. Imploding consoles had given Nina a head start but there is solid determination to /not/ let her get away.

<< Got her, she's making a run for it through the tunnels! >>

With only four bullets left there aren't any good opportunities to take an accurate shot at Nina. There aren't any good opportunities to throw a sword or to cut her off or to leap off of a wall and try to tackle her... Nope, just run like the wind!

Ravager can keep this pace up for a while, though compared to cybernetics? Nina might be able to do this all day and night. To be THIS CLOSE to only end up losing her -- no. Not an option! The Outsiders have got this covered!

<< Can't you get a drone out here or whatever?! X, get your damn bike! Flux, just...get over here! >>

Kiden Nixon has posed:
"Shit! I *knew* that was going to happen! Fucking horror movies are always right..." Kiden makes a face as the rotting half-cyborgs come for her and Laura. Ducking down, she reaches out to grab up one of the IV stands they'd been attached to before both she, and the stand, disappear! POOF, bitches!

There. Much better. Now she has time to assess. To pick her target. To position herself perfectly. To really wind up on the swing and then.... BAM! Steel IV stand gets jammed deep into the last of the half-borgs, right through the chassis! It drops Kiden out of No Time, but the chronokinetically enhanced strength really helps drive the makeshift weapon through. Hopefully straight through whatever power source is keeping it alive.

"UGH, the smell... like burnt rubber lined with rotted meat, dipped in formeldahyde and left in a Carls Jr. dumpster on a hot day in August..." Kiden shudders. She grabs up another piece of medical machinery and gets ready to do it again when Rose's call comes through.

<< If you have a location, we can meet you there! What direction is she headed? Delphi, do we know where she's running to? >>

Laura Kinney has posed:
Last we saw our intrepid heroes someone, well more of a something really, was busy trying to cook X-23 with a flamethrower while several other cyborgs were trying to carve her into little bits.

Sadly this sort of thing happens to X-23 more often than you'd think. And a great deal more than she prefers. Still how often people try BBQ her is something she can complain about later. For now at least she needs to focus on the immediate threat. < Little busy here. > There's a whoosh through the comms as she ducks beneath a jet of flame. Foot claw lashing out, not at the cyborgs, but cutting one of the beds they were resting on free from the floor.

The petite mutant flips the table into an improvised shield. Charging directly at the offending cyborg and trusting the bed will take the brunt of the flames. At least long enough for Laura to get into claw range and start removing cyberzombie parts. Sweeping legs off, stabbing her claws clean through the metal into the brainless shambling figure, all while keeping as much of herself fire-free as possible.

It might leave her open to other cyborgs but she trusts Flux to handle those. Teamwork!

Conner Kent has posed:
It takes a bit for Carrie to rewire the computer innards given Nina attempted to destroy them. What she finds out, though, is surprising. Although the computers are not really alien, the whole thing, protocols, programs, disk allotment, etc... it is not standard. It is like something that diverged back in the 80s, before standardization. Translating it is going to take a while.

Meanwhile Nina... also has four bullets in her handgun, which is smaller, but more precise than Rose's revolver. She tries to hit the white-haired swordswoman a couple times. But mostly she tries to escape. But she is not really faster than Rose.

Maybe her cybernetics would have given her greater endurance, but after a few minutes of sprinting, she reaches her goal. A way back to the surface, just at the edge of the city's beach. A few thugs are waiting for her, and while three of them confront Rose, armed with handguns. Nina and the fourth thug push a sleek sporty motorboat into the water and try to escape by sea! (Incidentally, there are couple other motorboats parked near, similar models, for reasons!).

Meanwhile Laura and Kiden are not too keen on listening the pleads of the zomborgs. Maybe because they are trying to kill them. Fortunately, those rotting cyborgs are not the best fighters around and can't handle superspeed and adamantium claws very well. One caught fire due to 'friendly' fire, another gets skewered, a third loses legs and head. The rest shamble after the young women, stumbling and moaning.

Carrie Kelley has posed:
<< "A drone isn't going to help you in those tunnels" >> Carrie is to the point about it but she is tracking their comm signals above ground. One of her drones is moving that way at least over random buildings and homes toward the beach.

Carrie however is suddenly very rapt by the discovery of the almost alt-reality computing model presented to her. "Back to first principles..." It has to get the job done somehow and physics dictates the limits of what that could mean. There's a logic to every computer system. Like trying to learn a new keyboard layout on the fly she is trying to understand the analogs between their computers and these computers.

Some part of her starts to wonder if this cybertech and computer system did come from an alternate reality. The odds of that- are higher than she previously thought given how she got to this world seven years ago.

But like any good hacker she's going for the jugular. Communications. Every advanced system has their own ideas on how to achieve that but they all tend to follow the same general patterns. Client, server, peer to peer - in this case also security through obscurity.

When Rose does make it out to the surface the new coordinations and footage appear on her device. << "Cruz has made it out to a beach. Sending coordinates so you can catch up with Ravager." >>

Rose Wilson has posed:
Which way is Rose going, Kiden asks? << The hell should I know?! Follow the tunnel connected to the server room and ... look for footprints or something! >> she complains while she does indeed spring against the walls as Nina takes shots back at her. They miss, but they did slow Rose's roll somewhat. Good thing Nina hadn't been worrying about aiming.

Now the other three thugs, those guys are going to be a problem. Inside of a tunnel there's nowhere to go but forward and Rose can only try to dodge so much being thrown at her! One guard gets sword-stabbed. Another gets the full effect of her fancy gold plated magnum.

The third manages to land more than grazing wounds on the one-eyed scrapper, a bullet catching her solidly in the side and another in the arm. The shock causes her sword to simply fall from numbed fingers to the ground, prompting a stunned look from the girl as if to say 'how DARE you!'

Her fourth shot smacks the gun out of his hand. Her fifth shot hits him in the stomach, a deliberate move on her part to make sure he really feels it for the last ten minutes or so he has. The jerk.

Freshly injured and with one bullet left to her name, Rose drags herself up onto the beach to see the others opening the throttle on a speedboat. What starts as a heart-felt curse leads to her going back to comms. << Beach! Boat! Spares! Hurry up! >> she pants, the tip of her one blade dragging a small furrow into the sand as she hurries toward one of the other boats. It'll take her a moment to get it prepped. Should be enough time for the others to catch up... Maybe. Hopefully.

Kiden Nixon has posed:
As soon as the cyzombies in front of them are dispatched, Kiden grabs Laura with one hand and grins, "No Time to fuck around with these guys. We got a date to keep." She starts pulling Laura along as she hits the comms once more. << Delphi, you coming with? We gotta catch a boat! Speedboat chase! >>

If Carrie consents, she'll be grabbed along with Laura and Kiden with No Time them to the surface as she asks Laura, "Can the three of us fit on the bike? If we can all fit on the bike, we should take that. Otherwise this is going to FEEL like a very long walk." Bonus? Nothing will hurt, they won't get tired, they won't feel any aches or pains, they won't get hungry or thirsty... it will be a pretty, relaxing walk!

To a speedboat chase.

They will also be out of contact with Rose for the (to Rose) few moments that it takes them to arrive. But it really will only be a few moments for Rose before the trio pop back into the normal timeline.

Laura Kinney has posed:
Being brought into no-time means Laura can't continue her fight and honestly? She's not mad at leaving the borderline dead cyborgs behind. Chances are it's only a matter of time before the fire spreads and the flamethrowers fuel tank explodes. And the further away they are from that the better. The 'bed' gets dropped carefully, so as not to release them from No Time, blocking their escape route.

"Rose just ran there," she points out. "The boats can't be that far. Going back for the bikes only to leave them will just take more time." Given this isn't a great part of the city the bikes are probably a reasonable walk away. Somewhere they wouldn't attract every bike thief in the area. "I'm happy to walk."

But she's X-23 she'd happily walk without No-Time. Heck she'd probably be fine just sprinting there.

Sadly taking the trip in No-time does mean when they finally arrive where Rose is she still smells like liquid fuel, burnt cyberzombie, and cordite. And because she doesn't heal while time is frozen? Well her hands are an unhealthy pink like they've been pressed against a hot plate. They'll heal but it sure looks uncomfortable.

Conner Kent has posed:
Even picking up Carrie and getting lost a couple times in the underground area, and almost again in the streets of Tijuana, it takes seconds for Kiden to get to Rose. Well, it was almost an hour for her and those she carried, but no-time means walking through a maze of frozen people and objects. Not very difficult.

By then Nina's boat is speeding off, and Rose, still bleeding, has her own motorboat just going, still very close to the beach. They can climb onboard or grab the third motorboat.

There are a number of yachts some distance from the beach, and Nina and his minion seem to be heading towards the largest of those.

Carrie Kelley has posed:
Carrie isn't getting anywhere fast enough with this computer. She'll have to come back to it to crack its mysteries. She copies what she can and then Kiden is there by her side. Rising up she puts an arm about her time unchallenged friend.

And then they are outside. In less than the blink of an eye she spots the motorboats and Nina trying to get away. "A tactical mistake. She has given us the ability to move as fast as her-" Carrie states and gets on the third of the motorboats. "Hop on," she turns it on and revs the engines up. Driving fast is one of a Bat's more favourite activities. It's as close as they can get to feeling like a super. They feel the need, the need for speed.

Rose Wilson has posed:
And so the immediate team reconverges, complete with injuries all around. Sort of. Waiting would have meant losing and Rose isn't in that kind of mood. Now, a fast enough person could still make it onto her boat if desired but considering how she's defying the whole 'no wake zone' they'd best be quick about it! Anything nearby is getting sprayed with water.

Including her shirt. Again. Now with a more likely excuse!

To the others there's some excited arm motions up over her head and some equally excited shouts which are fortunately not so easily heard. The finger-pointing toward the fleeing Nina, that much is easy to make out. As is Nina's ultimate destination. A yacht! If they make it as far as international waters maybe the Outsiders can have themselves a little post-druglord yacht liberation party. No one would mind, would they? Surely not.

Kiden Nixon has posed:
The walk through No Time is a pleasant one. They can sightsee! They can point at silly people frozen out of time midway through doing something silly! They can grab some water bottles (or tequila!) and some ice pops along the way. Sure they won't need it right now, but once they're out of No Time, things like hunger and thirst are a thing again!

Then they're at the beach, and Kiden releases Laura and Carrie back into the normal time stream. She finishes chugging down a bottle of water (it's hot down here!) and heads over, hopping into one of the boats to chase after Nina!

It's at this point that Kiden realizes there's an upside to not knowing how to drive! She can just kick back in the boat and enjoy the chase! Hell, she even pulls up some good chase music on her phone and sets the volume up as high as she can!

Speedboat chase!

Laura Kinney has posed:
Leaving No-Time at a run X-23 makes a split second decision. Go for the stationary boat that Carrie is busy firing up and trust that the Delphi can make up the ground? Or put on a burst of speed, leap onto the back of Ravagers moving boat, and haul herself up while it's still moving. Naturally she goes with option 2. Even if it does mean she'll get soaked in ocean water that is probably not exactly /clean/.

But hey her undercover outfit was a swimsuit and sarong. A little water is no issue. Although the sarong is probably lost to the brine-y depths and... she seems to be down a shoe too. Probably lost to the wake of the boat.

A quippier hero might shout permission to come aboard or make a nautical theme pun. Laura rolls into the back, hands finally healed, and raises an eyebrow. "Do you even know how to pilot a speedboat?" she wonders. There's a beats pause. "Any bullets or guns on this thing? Even a harpoon gun will do."

Keeping low to avoid getting shot, it's only a matter of time until those goons and Nina notice them and open fire, she begins to check for any weapons at all. And if she can't find any? Well there's always the rope & anchor. That's sort of like a grappling hook.

"Get us close and we can board them?" Anything in the boat they don't need goes overboard including her now lone shoe. A lighter boat goes faster. And it's not like they've paid a deposit...

Conner Kent has posed:
Guns! Nina has two bullets in her pistol, but the goon has a better, higher calibre one and plenty of reloads. Maybe Rose should have taken one from the three thugs back at the beach.

Maybe. Shooting from a moving motorboat almost flying over the waves at over 120 mph with a handgun... well, maybe Bullseye could do it in a good day. Average thugs are not going to hit much. But he does try!

At that moment there is something else in the comms. <<Hey, SB here. We did find a group with some cyborgs, they were going to attack a private jet of all things. But I am heading back to Tijuana now, I'll be there in five. How is it going?>>

Good timing? They might all arrive to the big yacht at the same time. Unless someone has a trick to stop Nina beforehand. Tossing an anchor? They need to get a bit closer!

The yacht... it it turning, apparently going to meet them. Definitely inside Mexico's territorial waters. Which doesn't entirely vanish the chance of a yacht party, but it does make it a little less likely.

Carrie Kelley has posed:
Carrie is grinning from ear to ear as their speed boat crests a swell and crashes past it to the calm over and over again. She's going fast and is hunkered over the controls. This is her element - and something she was trained to do. The Batboat is faster than this thing.

Which isn't to say this isn't incredible fun and exhilarating. The adrenaline rush is almost enough to forget about the hole she filled with temporary medical cement just to stop from bleeding out. Almost. Every big bounce and thump of the speed boat reminders her that the stakes are real.

<< "Nina Cruz is headed for a yacht. We're closing in on her fast. Drone is lagging behind our speed boats but I'll paint the target. See you soon." >> She knows that Conner will be able to see the broader spectrum, the radioactive paint invisible to the eye. She digs in to her utility belt and gets out a pellet and launch gone. Aim, fire, score one on to the side of the yacht - a glaring 'HERE!' that only a super or missile could see.

Rose Wilson has posed:
Rose is too busy scowling to look happy that Laura made it in time, although she does pause long enough to realize something smells off, and that something happens to be Laura. "Did you stop to get into a fight with a diesel mechanic?" she wonders, half teasing. It doesn't last long. "YES I know how to pilot a speedboat, what kind of merc do you take me for?!"

A young and somewhat inexperienced one, but one who at least /claims/ to know how to operate a boat.

A quick glance back with her good eye shows Carrie and Kiden have joined the pursuit. Excellent, two boats are better than one.

As Laura's asking about a weapon Rose passes back the .357, "You got one shot so make it count!" ... "And give it back when you're done! I like that gun."

Get close? "Throttle's already open!" Just call her 'Scotty' 'cause she's givin' it all she's got!

One thing's for sure, these boats are FAST. Despite bleeding out onto the deck (although it is gradually slowing down) Rose pumps a fist into the air with a woop! "We're comin' for ye, mateys! YA-HARR!" Because who better to live up the pirate fantasy than the chick rocking an eye patch!

"Whoa--shit!" They're being shot at! Small puffs of water spray up around them as bullets slap off of the waves then ricochet back UP. One of them takes a gouge out of the side of the boat with a dull *thunk*.

Okay, /yes,/ Rose should have taken some of the other guns before going for the boat. But she didn't, and it's too late. The two with the healing factors will just have to draw aggro for now.

<< What she said, you're missing out on the fun SB! >>

Kiden Nixon has posed:
<< Hey babe! We're in a speedboat chase! There's gunfire and a yacht and everything! >>

Kiden's backgrounded by the song playing on her phone, letting Rose and Laura get in on the beats for a minute! Then there's the patter of gunfire coming from the mooks on Nina's boat and Kiden's rocking up to her feet and moving towards Carrie.

"Wanna freak her out? Drive in a serpentine pattern, don't let up, I'm gonna see if we can fake this bitch out." She flashes a grin, laying a hand on the boat and one on Carrie's shoulder.

Blink! The speedboat is GONE! It's... MAGIC!

Oh wait! No! it's over there! To the left!

Gone again! Wait! There! On the right!

Shit! Where'd it go?! It's the magical disappearing, reappearing boat!

It still moves in a general forward direction, but now blinks in and out as it does so! Enough to make anyone wonder if they've inadvertently (or intentionally) dropped acid in the last few minutes!

Laura Kinney has posed:
"I always assumed you'd love the smell of napalm," Laura shoots back with a grin as she snikts one of the spare seats lose. Then throws it into the sea. "While you were having fun in a strip club we got to deal with cyborg zombies. Next time you can take the church basement and we'll hit up the bar."

One gun with a single bullet and no other gun adjacent weapons. Excellent.

The length of rope with a heavy metal object on the end will probably come in handy pretty soon then!

< We might have started a fire in a church. But I'm sure all the people fleeing the strip club next door will have reported it. > Things are going super well. Honest. Just don't tell Tim the details.

Experimentally she whirls the anchor around in a lazy arc. The balance is terrible so a few bits get trimmed off with her claws until it's a much better weapon. Even if it's now pretty useless for anchoring a boat. But before she resorts to throwing sharp metal things at people there's that one round.

"You know I'm a better shot than you," she taunts putting a foot up on the edge of the boat. "Of course I'll make it count."

A two handed marksman grip, heedless of the incoming fire, she inhales and lines up her shot. Stopping a boat with one bullet is a pretty futile task. So she doesn't even bother trying. She waits for just the right moment to put a round as close to the steering wheel as possible. It's not about hitting Nina or her goons. It's about making the person piloting the boat panic enough to turn sharply. Why? Because a boat going in a straight line is fast. One making a sudden turn? It has to slow. Not everyone can cheat by using No-time to pull off those wild moves after all!

The gun would get thrown overboard too but Rose seems picky about it. So she tucks it in the swimsuit where it'll look... pretty ridiculous but oh well. It's not like this is a fashion show. And if anyone thinks about laughing? She's got a jagged metal hook on a length of nylon rope and she knows how to use it.

Conner Kent has posed:
The magical blinking boat makes the thug change targets, as suddenly Carrie/Kiden seems far more dangerous. That means that when Laura puts a hole through the motorboat's windshield, the guy does panic and falls off the boat.

But not Nina, she is cool as a cucumber. She even found some sunglasses to put on. Besides, they are almost by the yacht.

Which is a big one. Possibly a crew of 20 or so. Only they don't see anyone. Laura does see, though, the yacht is not what it seems. There is something larger underwater. A submarine, possibly. And the yacht is just mounted on top of it.

It is a big submarine. And it has some kind of camouflage, without enhanced senses it would be pretty much invisible.

Finally, just as Nina's motorboat slows down and bumps against the side of the yacht, a man show up at the edge of it. Tall and gaunt, wearing a colourful poncho over a black bodysuit. A golden, decorated mask, covers his face, a mane of dreadlocks falling over shoulders and back. "Ah, finally something interesting happens," he states, glancing down at Nina and tossing her a climbing net.

Laura might remember him. That is Mr. Gila, the weird guy that was selling shark/dinosaur crossbreeds in Gotham a year and a half ago. The poncho looks really weird on him, but then again, so did the expensive suit he had back then.

Carrie Kelley has posed:
Carrie is enjoying blinking about as she bounces over the waves doing serpentine movements. This is a great vacation - much better than the stinky corps cyborgs and the getting shot bit.

The nice thing about a fake yacht is it gives Carrie something to grapple line on to. She motions to Kiden, "Hold on to me Flux," Her arm is offered and she attaches one end of the grapple line to her beck and the other gets loaded in to her gun. She points up at the yacht and fires.

Ziiip up she goes hopefully with Kiden on to the fake yacht. "Let's crash this party," she says wishing she had her Delphi armor right about now.

Rose Wilson has posed:
"I didn't say it was a BAD smell" Rose calls back to Laura like it's no big deal. "Aw /damn it!/ Cyborg zombies sound /way/ better than what I got stuck with!"

Fast lightweight boats on open water means lots of bone-jostling, enough to make Rose hiss in pain and clutch her side. << Don't worry about a fire, the bartender will take care of it >> she suggests without going into any further detail.

Laura gets in a taunt. Rose shoots the clawed girl with the only thing she has: A glare. "You'd be taking a swim if it didn't mean losing that gun" she promises. But first: A spot of teamwork.

"Crest!" she calls out before the front of their boat gets jolted upward by a wave. The call-out is repeated each time, always right before the boat slams into the unforgiving aquatic terrain. At this speed it's like ramming into boulders with a truck! But if Laura can get the warning and work out a rhythm to land her shot, it'll all be worth sounding like an idiot.

It turns out to be a really good shot, too! Laura's also fortunate enough to not immediately be sent overboard to retrieve the revolver. Instead Rose starts slapping what amounts to the boat's dashboard. "GO FASTER you piece of garbage!"

The unfortunate part is the shot only rids the lead baddie boat of one baddie. Nina makes it to the yacht. Rose chooses to take all of this as a personal offense. While she may /sort of/ have the same idea as Carrie her method of approaching it varies wildly.

"HANG ON!" she yells to Laura as she lines up the already 'floored' speedboat with the side of the yacht. Right where Nina is climbing up the net.

Oh yeah, she's totally gonna ram the sucker.

Kiden Nixon has posed:
"Oh Hell yeah!" Kiden's absolutely down for flying through the air on a grapple line! She takes hold of Carrie's arm and grins, "Lets do it!"

There may some glee cackling happening around the area of the yacht where they land. Mostly because this is like taking ALL the drugs with NONE of the side effects! And she's having a blast! They go up the side of the yacht and over the edge!

"You want to get in a sneak attack on them? We can mke it a surprise party!" it's whispered to Carrie with a grin from Kiden. Because yeah, stepping out of the flow of time tends to get the drop on people! "Ooooo... we could push Mr. Golden Eyes there over the side..."

Laura Kinney has posed:
The shot lands pretty much where she was hoping. Well okay. It's an entire inch to the left. But don't tell Rose that. That it worked is the important bit!

"You know that's not a real yacht right?" she calls out for Rose's benefit. "And..." Whatever her next comment was gets cut short. Because the engine noises are very clearly of the vroom vroom boat go /faster/ sort. And not the 'lets slow down to board this sucker' noises she might have been expecting. "Fuck."

Whatever she was going to say about Mr. Gila will have to wait for another time. Laura runs to the back of the boat, almost like she's about to abandon ship at the news they're ramming the suckers, but then she turns and starts charging forward. Up onto the bow. No holding on for her. The moment they impact she's going to put those mutant enhanced muscles and superhuman reflexes to good use and leap off.

Claws pop with that distinctive SNIKT sound. Or they would if anyone could hear them over the sound of a speedboat hitting a fake yacht at top speed. And her arms spread wide to give her the maximum chance of catching onto something.

Hopefully it's a real enough yacht that Laura doesn't just smash through it like a petite kool-aid girl. But if she does? .... Hey at least she's not loaded with so much adamantium that she'll sink!

Conner Kent has posed:
"It is rude to come uninvited," states Gila, barely glancing to Carrie and Kiden. "That goes for you too," he adds for Nine. "I sent a message first," replies the woman. "Besides, I am sure you can handle American superheroes, they are way over my pay grade." She is sliding aside, apparently not liking the idea of standing on the way of dangerous women with just two bullets in her pistol.

Then there is an impact. That is the motorboat hitting the side of the yacht and getting very, very destroyed. They are not made for ramming, really. Laura manages to land on the deck, rolling and rolling almost to fall on the other side. Rose? Hopefully she jumped before the crash.

Then there is a second impact. That is Superboy landing on the front of the boat and cracking the fake wood deck. "Nice yacht-submarine-thing. We don't see this kind of super-villain contraption much nowadays." He grins, and folds his arms over the red S in his chest. "Wanna surrender now?" He asks Gila.

The gaunt man was barely fazed by both events, and turns to Conner. "Why? Because you can fly? Really..." he pulls a hand from under the poncho, holding a small box he opens up. "I have this space rock that says you are dead, boy."

Conner staggers as he sees something crystalline, green and glowy in the box. And quick as a viper Gila brings the other hand from under the poncho, this one with a huge handgun. BLAM.

The bullet puts a huge hole in the middle of Conner chest and sends him flying off the yacht.

Gila turns. "Ladies. Shall we dance?"

Four black-clad men crawl off hatches in the deck. They are obvious cyborgs, with gothic leanings, decorated firearms and curved, serrated bladed weapons, shark teeth, crazy grins. Skin pale, greenish, smelling a like gunpowder and rotten meat.

Hunter-Killers from Gamorra.