Rpol H&H Campaign - pt. 29

Continued from here.

Tommy opened the door and saw two guards standing by a table with beer cans stacked on it. They were arguing with each other until he opened the door and then they stopped and turned to stare at him.

Tommy quickly ducked back inside.  "Oh crap!  They saw me...!"  He pulled back into the shadows of the room, hoping the guards didn't notice.  He'd have to be quieter, he thought.

Meanwhile…

"I surrender,” Agent Malefor said.  “Give us the prisoners back. We are leaving here."

Lt. Raupp ignored the confusing submissive-demanding dichotomy of Malefor’s frantic words and kept moving. 

The Mountain Man moved to follow the man. Anyone watching him, however, noticed that his golden gorget was beginning to glow, softly at first but gradually bright enough to be unmistakable. The Mountain Man's stony body was beginning to glow with a similar, more muted golden light. Just as he got as close to the woman with the sub-machinegun, the Mountain Man sprang to attack.  "Sorry, $500 isn't going to be enough when I've got all this gold!" he shouted.

Silver Scorpion, who had been watching Lt. Raupp carefully, joined the Mountain Man in the fray at almost the same instant he made his move, leaping forward to the attack!

Agent Malefor ran like the wind. He knew he could not go up against them. But before leaving the temple, he would try to search for the prisoners.  Not sticking around to see what happened next, he bolted past the guards into the hallway and barreled through the open door.

The pretty woman with the pretty deadly looking weapon smiled as she side-stepped the Mountain Man and Silver Scorpion’s initial lunges.  "I was hoping you'd decline the offer," she said.  Instead of firing in the close quarters, though, she tried to use the rifle butt to smack the Mountain Man around.  She was fast -- fast enough that both of the remaining heroes were forced to stay on the defensive, backing up and blocking her quick swings and thrusts almost to the point of stumbling over the Daoist's body behind them.  Silver Scorpion saw an opening and took it, slashing a tear through the lieutenant's white shirt and leaving a red wound.  The Mountain Man just barely laid a punch on her.  She looked like she would have a nasty bruise, but she was not going down from this punishment.  Instead, she looked really mad.

Capt. Liberty was about to join the fray when he saw someone back at the entrance out of the corner of his eye.  Was it the Man in the Black Cloak?  He looked more closely, but it was only the mobster who had fled that way earlier.  He also noticed the two guards who had surrendered were looking a little bolder again after seeing one of their leaders holding her own against two heroes.  He gave them a ‘don't even think it’ look and smacked his fist into his other glove to dissuade them from getting back into the fight.

Meanwhile…

Tommy was hiding around the corner and listening to the guards in the next room.

"Hey, wasn't that one of our prisoners?" one of them asked.

"No, our prisoners are tied up.  Did he look tied up to you?" asked the other one.

Just then, Rudy Malefor stumbled into both of them.

"Oh, and who are you?" one of the mobsters asked, pushing Rudy back.  "A troublemaker?"

"Finally, some higher power is smiling on me," Tommy thought to himself.  He listened closely, trying to focus on the present instead of the insane thing he was about to do.  At the right moment, he was going to creep out and take the guards by surprise.

"I guess you could call me a trouble maker,” Rudy answered.  “I am going to get those prisoners free. If you'd like to fight me, go ahead bring it on, sissy boys."  Rudy threatened the two hoodlums as he started to brawl with them, just as Tommy took them unaware from behind. Rudy got the upper hand quickly, connecting with his fists as often as he missed and had one of the hoodlums reeling, but still in the fight.  Tommy tried for a quick knockout punch, but in his weakened state just could not deliver the goods.  Rudy's foe was soon giving even better than he got, connecting twice, though once just barely.  Rudy, not in prime shape either, was KO'ed by the second punch.  Tommy took a lesser pummeling, but could not handle even a lesser pummeling in his state.  Tommy was KO'ed too.

Agent Malefor went into a dream state, dreaming of being back in high school with his high school sweet heart. Oh, the things they got away with between classes, when the days were easier and he wasn't wondering if he would live the next day.  He dreamed about what him and his girlfriend did between classes...happy in his sleep. 

Back in the chapel, the lieutenant lowered the barrel of her M1 level to the Mountain's gut and prepared to fire.  "Now you'll die for the trouble you've caused."

Silver Scorpion laughed at her foe as she made a jab with the electrified cane and jolted the lieutenant in her gun arm. Raupp’s arm spasmed and she sprayed bullets into the ceiling just as the Mountain Man pummeled this nasty woman with his boulder-like fists and finished off with laying a haymaker on her.  She went down, her gun clattering across the floor right in front of the old man's feet.

Silver Scorpion laughed again at her remaining foe.  The Mountain Man leaped over the prostrate woman to reach the old man.

As the Mountain Man lunged, the old man ducked and snatched the sub-machine gun off the floor with unexpected speed.  He stood up and the Mountain Man grappled with him.  The old man was stronger than he appeared and it wa quite a struggle, one straining to bring the gun to bear in point blank range and the other desperately trying to keep that from happening.  The Mountain Man could feel his surge of extra strength failing him moment by moment and could not manage to get in the knockout punch he had hoped to land in time.

Silver Scorpion took advantage of the old man's distraction, flanked him, and lunged with the electrified cane.  The old man almost dodged, but the cane grazed him and caused him obvious discomfort.

It was not enough.