Operation: Phoenix, Turning Point Battle, Part 11

        by CyberPyro (cybrpyro@iac.net)

        "Whew ... 30th floor!" exclaimed a weary Lord Owsen.  An almost
imperceptible ripple ran through the air.  Windigo's ears pointed sharply
upwards and the fur on her neck and back stood up slightly.  J sniffed the
air, wondering what Windigo was sensing.
        "We've got lots of company," said CyberPyro as he cocked his
XRifle[tm].
        "Off the stairs!  Now!" yelled Most Holy.  No one in the group needed
an explanation: they were all in a very bad tactical position.  As the last
Jihaddi ducked out of the stairwell, a door on the 29th floor flew open.
        Sponge minions in body armor tossed large tin cans onto the landing
above them, slamming their door immediately afterwards.  The cans clanked
loudly as they landed, a couple nudging up against the 30th floor door.
        The explosion followed split seconds later, ripping the 30th floor
door off its hinges, embedding it an inch and half into the marble wall
opposite it.  The walls around where the door used to be ruptured inwards,
filling the hallway with deadly shrapnel and concussion blasts.
        "What the hell?!?" said Morgenna as she peeked out from under her
place under a desk in a side office.  The smoke was already roiling into the
room, some hundred and fifty feet away from where the explosion occurred.
        "*cough*  They have some new explosives," said Cerberus, the smoke
thickening in the room.  "Nothing I've ever seen before; this is bad."
        "There are more staircase elsewhere in this building," said Samhain.
        "Let's get the hell out of here," agreed CyberPyro.  "I'm not up for
playing catch with really high explosives."
        The ten Jihaddi sprinted across the office, headed towards the other
stairwell.  A few moments later and the group was crossing a large, open
office space with large glass windows, giving an excellent view of the city.

        "GREETINGS JIHADDI!" bellowed a figure standing against one of the
windows, his figure outlined by the lights of the city.

#set music: More & Faster, KMFDM
        "... More & Faster, here we come!
        white and trashy and incredibly dumb! ..."
#

        "Dark Puppy..." hissed Windigo.  He chuckled and strode forwards,
dozens of spongies in body armor coming out from behind filing cabinets,
under desks, and dropping down from the ceiling.
        "I... *eeek*" started Dark Puppy, hitting the carpeting to avoid a
shotgun blast from Most Holy.  A grenade from CP's XRifle[tm] whistled past
his ear.  A sponge minion behind Dark Puppy doubled over, blood pouring out
around hands that clutched his stomach.  He hit the floor, was motionless for
a split second, and then exploded in a cloud of burning gore.
        The air filled with an odd whistling noise as the spongin threw their
pAyOLa CDs at the Jihaddi.  A monitor exploded, a CD lodging in it, and then
the deadly discs were upon them.
        Samhain, moving with a cat-like elegance his intensive martial arts
training provided, alternately knocked the disks aside in their flight path
with his hands or dodged them completely.
        J-Rock managed to avoid all the disks but one.  It sliced
effortlessly across his back, separated flesh and spilled copious amounts of
blood.  He returned fire with his ER PPC, vaporizing the sponge.
        Shardik jumped in shock, several CDs lodging themselves in chest
armor, as black blood seeped out around their edges.  CyberPyro did a
desperate dance, avoiding most of the CDs.  One sliced across his left leg,
opening a shallow wound.  Another targeted for his head sliced his XRifle[tm]
in half instead, the weapon sacrificed to save his life.
        Windigo roared in pain, her forearm cut by a AOL CD, as she began a
frightening transformation.  Her pupils dilated, fur stood up as she began
to twitch and flex her claws.  Shardik, Hanover, Jace, and Morrigun twitched
as well, Windigo providing the catalyst for their changes.
        "Oh shit!" exclaimed Betty Boop, SI0002, as she tried to make a
graceful exit, climbing over desks to get to the door.
        "NYAR!!!" screamed Windigo as she blurred forwards, the other four
ferals echoing her holy battle cry and plowing into the ranks of spongin.  A
spongin wet himself, tried to hold his arms up in defense from the white
creature attacking him, and had them promptly torn from their sockets in two
claws swipe before another opened his rib cage.
        A sponge threw his AOL disks at a howling kitsune, only to have them
slice up office furniture.  The spongin jerked sideways, his neck and face
shredded by the fox's claw swipe.  Another spongin screamed in agony, the
Daemon Prince lifting it off its feet by the face.  Its cries stopped, its
body impaled on Shardik's fist.
        The other five Jihaddi attacked ferociously, the spongin dying at an
incredible rate.  SI0032 fired her rifle at CP, missed, and was torn in
half as Morrigun blurred next to her, grabbed her throat and shoulder, and
pulled.  SI0035 threw an AOL disk at CP, and fell noiselessly to the floor as
the same disk came back at higher velocity, splitting his heart neatly in
two.
        J-Rock eliminated two spongin with a swipe apiece of The Holy
Sawblade.  Another tried to cry out as he impaled it on the blade, roughly
shoved off a moment later.
        Before they could cry out, four spongin fell to Samhain's blades as
he danced straight through their ranks.  Spongin screamed in agony as Most
Holy's M249 blew large holes in them, the furniture around them, and the
walls of the building.
        Several Spongin, realizing their folly, tried to flee out the door
they sought to block.  As they turned to flee, most of them were cut down
from behind before they could take a single step by the rampaging ferals.
        The others made it most of the way to the door, where they found
their paths blocked by a pair of tall figures.  One seemed to attract the
light in the room, the various shades glinting on his blood-soaked Claymoor.
The other, wrapped in shadows, bore a pair of swords, dripping blood onto the
hands holding them.
        "Going Somewhere?" asked the dark one with a vicious grin.

...

        Silence fell.  The Jihaddi nursed their wounds as they looked at the
remains of the Hell Wyrm's "elite" forces.  Shattered furniture, blood
stains, fresh corpses, and the strong scent of blood filled the office.
Close to one hundred and twenty spongin had died in about as many seconds.
        "Look over there!" yelled Samhain as he spotted a lone figure
slinking towards the door in the shadows.  The figure bolted, trying to make
it out of the room alive.
        "Not so fast," said Morgenna as she blocked the door and batted the
spongin away like a cat playing with a mouse.
        "Please don't kill me!!" groveled Dark Puppy as he ran towards the
large glass windows.
        "How 'bout I just hurt you a lot?" asked CP as he drew his Claymoor
and advanced, the other Jihaddi moving to cut off the spongin's escape
route.
        "In the name of Lord b'harnii!" screamed Dark Puppy as he held his
Barneynomicon up to defend himself.  "I ... *ggauuuukk*"
        CyberPyro's Claymoor pierced through the book, ruining its contents,
as the tip of his sword buried itself in Dark Puppy's chest.  The spongin's
knuckles turned white as he held the book, willing it defend him.
        Dark Puppy cried out again as the Jihaddi's sword wrenched out of his
chest, jerking him forward, and taking his book away in one motion.  He
staggered backwards, his hands clamped over the wound on his chest.
        "Please no... no ... I didn't mean any harm..." groveled Dark Puppy
as he backed away from CP.  "I .. *GASP!*"
        Dark Puppy's eyes become as wide and round as saucers as CyberPyro
ran towards him.  The movement reminded him of a football player about to do
a place-kick.

...

        A window of the 30th floor of the 801 Grand Building exploded
outwards, a spongin screaming three octaves too high for his gender and
holding his crotch falling with the fragments of glass.  His fall provided
the spongin equivalent of a screaming bottle-rocket, amusing spongin and
Jihaddi who heard it alike.
        His scream came to an abrupt end.  A satisfying *splut* announcing
his final contribution to the world.

...

        "Ooooooowwww!" said Owsen, echoing the sentiments of every other male
Jihaddi in the room.
        "Amused, I am," said Windigo as she softly laughed to herself.
        "Let's get this over with.  To the top," said CyberPyro as he headed
for the stairs.

                                                                        CP

Copyright, Pyrokinetic Productions, Inc. (1996)