"Okay, I understand." Although he had seen Lei heading toward the ship, Rhaef had been blinded by revenge enough to not process what that meant. They had to get inside, and they had to do it quickly. He leveled his gun on Larry's knees, and with his other hand, flipped on the mike, "You know, Larry, I'm so glad you took the hard way." He snarled. He then fired the gun, once into Larry's kneee, and the next into his shoulder.

As though Rhaef's shot was the first chord of a symphony it was followed by the sound of gun fire from inside the boat ... quite a lot of gun fire as a matter of fact.  Larry started up the second symphony with his scream that was shortly echoed by those on the boat as he slumped to the ground.

Larry froze the second he heard Rhaef's voice come over the radio, before he had even finished speaking Larry's head was whipping around, trying to figure out where the hell the bastard was ... he was too slow.  In a second a bullet pierced through his knee, followed swiftly by another to the shoulder.  Larry couldn't even think as she collapsed to the ground, letting out a cry of agony as he did so.  The pain was absolutely excrutiating and for a moment that was his entire world - pain.

Then came the hatred, the loss, the fear.  More then anything in that moment he wanted Rhaef Sorandash dead.  He wanted to personally drive a knife through his skull, nice and slowly.  He hated that man.  Hated everything he did, everything he stood for, everything about him.  He hated him most for ruining this however.  Larry's moment of glory - gone.  Snatched away from him by that hun dun.  He had failed now, it was over.

Rhaef found no joy in shooting Larry, it was simply that had to be done. Rhaef wished he had the time to make sure he died, but Lei was heading into the middle of a fire fight, and even if she was afraid of him, he needed to protect her.

He walked up to Larry, "Larry, you'll never learn, you'll never be better than me. As much as I'd like to watch you die, ruining your heist will mean so much more." As he said, Rhaef spun the gun he taken from the guard earlier, and had shot Larry with, and cracked it down on Larry's temple, knocking him out cold. If Rhaef was lucky, he bleed out before help found him. Rhaef, stripped the Hawaiian shirt he was wearing, wiping the gun down and dropped at Larry's feet.

He turned to Wei-li and pointed at the plank, that looks like the only way in or out. I'm going that way, if you know of a better way with your skills, take it. Because I have feeling I'm going to walking into the teeth of a firefight."

"I could take the rope, cover the high ground, but it might be better that we stick together and watch each other's back... "

After a pause she took a deep breat.  "I'm much better with the sneaking and the not being seen, but I think its too late for that."

Rhaef sighed, he hated bring her into the firefight, but she was right. "You follow me, cover my back, hopefully, I'll draw most of the fire, if we get any, okay?" Rhaef replied as they began moving toward the gangplank.

Wei-Li gave Rheaf a solemn nod.  Keeping her her weapon in a low ready stance, she followed him towards the gang plank.  She kept her pistol trained the ship aft of where they would be entering.

"Ready when you are..."

As Rhaef and Wei-Li walked around to the front entrance they noticed that Larry's men must had set up an makeshift gangplank along the side of the boat for their own boarding purposes.  No one seemed to be up on the deck by it anymore however.

Rhaef taps Wei-Li's shoulder and points out the second gangplank, his guns drawn he steps down on to it his weapons trained on the path ahead of them, and his eyes open to area around the deck. All the while, he continues to listen the earpiece to see if anything more can be gleaned.

Wei-Li follows him trusting him to cover what was ahead of them, she watched the parking lot in case someone came out of the shadows.  Though she still moved gracefully it was clear that she was being carful of pushing her injuries.

Rhaef and Wei-Li followed the sounds of gun fire until they reached a doorway.  Rhaef pulled Wei-Li inside and the two of them emerged into the ballroom.  From their spot at the top of the grand stairwell they could see the sheer chaos that had enveloped the room.  And there at the bottom of the stairs were Kale and Geoff, surrounded by five men, all pointing guns at their unarmed crew mates.  Lei was also running across the room, darting in and out of the crowd.  Kyoko was no where to be seen as of now as she had darted into one of the adjacent corridors.

Rhaef turns to Wei-Li, "Cover me, please don't let anyone shoot me in the back if possible." There's almost a joyful gleam in his eyes. As he levels his guns on the men surrounding Kale and Geoff, he shouts, as he pulls the triggers, "Geoff, Kale, duck." He is aiming for the lower back of the two men behind them, so that he should hit his crew mates any way.

Kale has only a moment to register the voice he hears before he is flinging himself to the ground, his arm pulling Geoff down with him, afraid that in his drunken state he wouldn't move quick enough.

Rhaef's bullets connect solidly with the two of the men.  The others all look up at Rhaef ... this was not something they had expected.

"Rhaef!" Kale said from his spot on the floor, "Nice of ya to join us."  Still on his stomach Kale swipes his gun back from one of the fallen men, he rolls onto his back and from his lying down position shoots up at one of the men still staring stupidly up at Rhaef.

Wei-Li tried to watch everything at once, The stairs behind her, ground level, and those on upper levels that could snipe.

She forced herself to relax and take it all in, watching everyone... not only where they were, but where they were heading, and what they were carrying. She saw one man, who seemed to be running away, but his angle was wrong.. he was turning, aiming.

She squeezed off two rounds, realizing that that was probably a mistake, but it was too late now.  She moved from where she shot now that her location was given away-- or would have been if not for the mayhem below.

Geoff could only stupidly gape as he heard Rhaef's voice and looked up to see him. "Hey...ya were s'posed ta be dead too. Weird...", he muttered even as Kale pulled him down with him. Geoff hit the deck when the captain pulled him down and watched two of the men fall from Rhaef's shots.

While it probably would have been wise to pick up one of the guns from the fallen men, Geoff had never claimed to be wise even when sober. So his first reaction was to launch himself up from the floor and at the guy who had taken his gun. Geoff had a fondness for his guns and had promised himself he would put a hurting on the bastard who had taken it. Now was as good a time as any, he figured, as he slammed his fist into the man's gut and grabbed for his gun, intent on taking back what was his.

The two men Rhaef shot went down, as did the one Kale shot.  However, the one not being pummeled to the ground by Geoff was now firing up at Rhaef.  His first shot missed but the second slightly grazed Rhaef's upper arm, just a clip though.

The man Geoff had taken on stumbled backward as Geoff's fist connected with his stomach.  He dropped the gun, but as Geoff bent to pick it up he made a grab for the knife still sticking out of Geoff's shoulder and gave it a twist.  His attempt to pull it free failed however.

The man Wei-Li had fired at took a graze to his shoulder, which seemed to do little but piss him off as he began firing up at her.
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:39, Tue 04 Apr 2006.

Rhaef twisted to dodge the bullets coming at him, and as the second one grazed him, he turned and leveled a blast at the man who had fired on him. As he did, he back to make his way down the stairwell, back to the wall, with guns pointed in either direction, trying to cover both Wei-Li and Kale amd Geoff.

Wei-Li let her breath out in a determined huff as she dove away from where the man was firing and came up with her gun leveled at his head.  She fired another shot then flattened herself of the ground trying to make as little of a target as possible.

Kale pushed himself to his feet as the men began falling down all around him.  He looked up at Rhaef and grinned, "Did I ever tell you that you have impeccable timing?" he asked, "If I had the money, I'd give ya a raise ... maybe ..."  Kale then glanced around, to his right he saw a man aiming up at the stairwell firing off rounds at Wei-Li.  He took aim and shot the man down.

As drunk as Geoff might have been, the twisting of the knife dug deep into his shoulder caused him to cry out and he had to grit his teeth against the sharp pain that shot through his shoulder. He growled slightly at the man before him and grabbed the hand that the man had twisted the knife with. "Ben tian sheng de yi dui rou!! I'll ruttin' kill ya!!", he said as he gripped the man's arm tightly before driving his head forward to impact with the man's skull in a headbutt. Geoff would feel that later, but since when did he care about that?

Lei had just about reached Geoff when Rhaef came bursting into the room.  She had half the mind to run in the other direction, but the bad men were everyone and there was only one Geoff and she wanted to get to Geoff.

It was confusing to her that Rhaef seemed to be shooting the bad men in masks.  Wasn't he one of them?  She'd have to think on that later.  For now she was almost to Geoff.  She came alongside him right as the man was twisting the knife in his shoulder.  Lei screamed.  And then looked down as Geoff's gun clattered to her feet. She looked down at it for a second and then picked it up.  Geoff needed his guns.  She remembered how he had told her that that was what he used to protect people with.  "Geoff, gun!" she said and held it out to him.
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:51, Tue 04 Apr 2006.

Rhaef's man hit the floor and the man firing at Wei-Li was met with not only her shot, but Kale and Rhaef's as well ... needless to say he went down.

Geoff's man hit the floor with the force of his head butt and was scrambling for the gun when he realized that the little girl was holding it.

Rhaef reachs Kale, "Good to see you Captain, but I did not know this was your kind of party." He moved back to back with the Captain, and turned to cover Wei-Li's way down the stairs, shooting down a sniper who was targeting her. "Wei, move, I'll cover you."

Wei-li fought to catch her breath as she once again scanned the area for any threats.  From her vantage point she couldn't see any, but she knew that didn't mean there weren't any, and it was time to move.

She eased her way down the stairs, keeping her gun ready in case she'd missed someone, she continually scanned the area.  She gave Rhaef a relieved smile, and nodded to Kale, but did not lower her weapon... instead she continued to scan the area.

"It ain't." Kale said, taking up the familiar fighting stance that him and Rhaef used often when things went south ... which they usually did.  "But it is the type 'o party that the folk who got Destiny go to." a thought crossed his mind then, "Ain't you supposed ta be in the hospital?"