Task:

It hadn't taken Sprocket long to lead the two marines to "somewhere private", a small hideout that she had made for herself outside of the town formed from a mine shaft. "Relax," Sprocket assured them, "They never found anything down here. This was one of the test failure shafts where they didn't find any lead down here." The place wasn't that bad, considering it was pieced together by a single person. "I thought everyone in Flevance had died due to the outbreak," Celia spoke up as the three got settled in. "Yeah, that's about right," Sprocket replied, "Thank goodness my parents were paranoid about what I ate. You're looking at the sole survivor of the island." she held her arms out, giving them a good look of herself, "Not bad for someone who was only ten at the time." "It must have been horrible for you," Anton replied sadly, "Watching everyone around you dying," "Yeah, it was," Sprocket replied, a little disheartened, before suddenly perking back up, "But, can't really do anything about that now, can we? What's more important is that we can do something about the now!" The two couldn't help but feel like Sprocket had somewhat stuck in denial, but decided to keep their mouths shut. Who knew what would happen if they forced the topic of her town's brutal death on her.

The two watched quietly as Sprocket walked over to what looked like a mini fridge. How she got it was anyone's guess, or how it worked down here. The survivor smiled as she swung the door open. "Anyone hungry? Don't worry, this stuff's all clean. I made sure of it." Never had two high ranking marines lost their composure in the face of hunger so spectacularly.

"So, erm, you guys had your fill?" Sprocket had never seen two people eat so much so quickly. Thank goodness she had managed to stock up on the food, otherwise they would have eaten her out of house and home. The two marines in question were slumped in their seats, patting their full bellies in satisfaction. "Sorry about that," Anton said lazily, "It's just been so long since we've eaten." "I've noticed," Sprocket replied flatly. Celia tried to regain her composure, clearing her throat. "That doesn't excuse our manners," she said, trying to regain her dignity, though Anton remembered her eating more than he did, "Anyway, you were going to tell us about the men who attacked us?"

Sprocket nodded, shifting in her seat. "Yes, that's right. Well, they're with some group calling themselves the Barrel Works." she gave a small shrug, "They just showed up on the island one day, starting doing some digging around the old mines. When I tried to warn them, they sicked their goons on me. I was forced to hide here. They've been hounding me ever since." Anton and Celia glanced at eachother. Anyone who's first response was to attack an innocent civilian definitely was up to no good. Especially since they were also attacked. "Any idea what they're after?" Anton asked. "Well, if the machinery they've been bringing in is any question, I'm guessing they're picking up where the miners left off, and are trying to mine the place for the Amber Lead here." "And if someone like them is mining an ore which literally wiped out an island's population, there's no doubt in my mind no good can come of it." Celia spoke up. Anton nodded. "Miss Sprocket, could you possibly take us to the mines?"

Sprocket nodded when all of a sudden, the sound of gunshots rang out. All three people hit the deck as suddenly chunks of the door were blasted out. Thankfully, they were far enough away from it that none of the bullets hit them. When the gunshots finally died down, a twisted laughter could be heard outside. "Looks like we have some company to deal with first," Anton spoke out, earning nods from the others.

Slowly, the three of them made their way to the door, keeping to the sides incase whoever was out there started firing again. Standing on either side, Anton quietly gestured for them to wait before suddenly lashing with a foot, kicking the door open before backing away. However, there were no gunshots this time. After a few moments of complete silence, the three of them decided to take a chance and step out of hiding.

And found themselves staring down twenty odd men armed with guns. In front of them was a woman, dressed in some sort of cowboy outfit.

Spoiler:

"So," the woman said, eyeing the three of them, especially Anton and Celia, "You're the ones who gave our ghosts a good licking huh?" A small smirk appeared on her face "Good thing we didn't pump you full of holes after all. Easy on the eyes." Anton felt a shiver run down his spine. He did not like the way she was looking at him. "Who are you?" Anton spoke up, trying to keep his voice level. Why was this woman making him nervous? The woman smirked. "I'm K. Lamiti, lovely enforcer of the Barrel Works. And I've gotta say, it was very nice of you to lead us to this little rat that's been causing us so much trouble." She sent a venomous glare over at Sprocket. Celia scowled as she stepped forward. "Why are you here? What do you want with the Amber Lead?" Lamiti gave the short woman a sneer. "That doesn't concern you short stuff. What should concern you is the numerous bullets that are about to be pumped into you!" She gestured to the men behind her. "Fire when ready men!"

However, Anton acted first, launching himself towards the group, sword ready. "Vigueur Anneau!" Swinging his sword, a blast of compressed air shot out around him. Celia quickly pulled Sprocket down to avoid the attack, and Lamiti lept into the air, letting the blast hit the three men behind her. The men cried out as they were knocked flat, the twisted cowgirl landing safely behind them. "Now THIS is something fun!" she laughed out, drawing her gun, "You mean take care of the girls. Pretty boy there is all mine!"

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3 T1 grunts defeated.

skills:

Anton Stamina: 495/520

The battlefield broke out into absolute chaos. As the Barrel Work goons were regrouping from their surprise and trying to reload their weapons, Celia unloaded both her pistols, catching two of them and bringing them down quickly enough. Meanwhile, Sprocket closed in on one of them and swung that heavy wrench of hers, catching him in the side of the head and bringing him down to the ground. However, at that point, the men had finally finished reloading and the ladies were forced to duck for cover to avoid getting shot at.

However, the men would have another problem right now. For as Celia and Sprocket made their attacks, the marine commodore began to change, his body shifting and transforming into his hybrid zoan form. Needless to say, the goons were freaked out by this change, immediately turning their weapons on him and firing. That...was a mistake.

"C Sharp!"

The blast of force ranging out from Anton, while not close enough to do damage itself, was more than enough to send the bullets fired back towards his attackers. Men dove to the ground while others, eight by Anton's count, fell the ground crying in pain from the rebounding bullets. And just like that, the odds had been significantly been reduced against them.

Then, there was a loud bang and Anton felt something hard slam into his side, causing him to stagger. While it wasn't enough to puncture the exoskeleton, it was enough to cause pain and stagger him. Before he could recover and see just what hit him, something barreled into him, knocking him to the ground. Quickly regaining his wits, he could see Lamiti atop of him, her smoking hand cannon pointed at him with a twisted smirk on her face. "Well aren't you full of surprises," she said with a wicked grin, "Let's see what those extra arms of yours can do bug boy!" "Get the hell off of me!" Anton yelled out, trying to throw her off. The result was the two of them rolling around on the ground, Anton trying to get away from her, and the crazy cowgirl hanging on.

As the two leaders tussled in the dirt, Celia had reloaded and fired off a couple more shots, bringing down two of the stunned henchmen, though bringing the rests attention back onto them.

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13 T1 goons defeated.

skills:

Anton's Stamina: 460/520
Celia's Ammo: 14/20

"Oh come on little bug, I promise I'll be gentle!" "Will you stop saying sexually suggestive things! It's creepy!" BANG! "And stop trying to hoot me!" Anton and K. Lamiti rolled across the dirt, grappling with each other. Anton was trying to force the mad cowgirl off of him, as well as preventing her from shooting him with that hand cannon of hers. Meanwhile, she was holding on for dear life (she had some pretty strong thighs to hang on like that), while desperately trying to put a bullet through Anton's skull. Finally, after rolling around, Lamiti managed to end up on top again, throwing her whole weight on him to keep him pinned while pressing her gun to his head. "Sorry cutie," she leaned in, her eyes burning with insanity, "I promise I'll make good use of that body of yours."

Yep, that clinched it. The sexual innuendos were bad enough, but this was too far. Anton suddenly lurched forward, slamming his reinforced skull against her face. A splatter of blood flew as the woman recalled back, her nose broken, stunned just enough for her grip to loosen. Anton gave a mighty heave and threw her off of him, springing to his feet and jumping back to get some distance. Lamiti climbed to her feet, rubbing her bleeding face as an insane smile spread across her face. "Oh, I love a man who can play rough!" she laughed manically, taking aim and firing. However, Anton lept up into the air, dodging the shot and landing right in front of her. He acted before she could reload. "Hopper Kick!"[b] The grasshopper zoan's foot connected with the woman's face, sending her flying. One of her goons, who was focused on keeping Celia and Sprocket pinned down with gunfire, failed to see his superior flying at him and was taken down by the living projectile. The other three paused, shocked at what happened, right before Celia shot two of them down and Sprocket, taking advantage of the sudden stop of gunfire, ran in and brought the last one down with a swi of her wrench.

Everything had fallen silent, the battle was over. Celia stepped out from behind cover, approaching the downed soldiers. "I get the feeling this won't be the end of it." she said, earning a nod from Anton. "Sprocket," Anton said, "Can you take us where Barrel Works has set up?" The blonde smiled, holding up her wrench. "You betcha. But what about these guys?" she gestured to the downed enemies. Anton shrugged. "I'd say tie them up. If they have any extra ammo on them, Celia can restock."

"Mmmm," Everyone looked over to see Lamiti laying on the ground, half conscious with a dazed smirk on her face. "I didn't know you were into that sort of thing," she sniggered at Anton. Anton's face turned a bright red. "And gag her, gag her before she talks anymore!"

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4 T1 grunts defeated. K. Lamiti defeated. Mission complete!

skills:

Anton's Stamina: 443/520
Celia's Ammo: 10/20 (collecting ammo off of defeated mooks)