First Reply Explosive Encounter

[Fulcrum]

Just another day. Of course, for Fulcrum, day meant night. In his experience, 3 AM was the optimal hour for getting things done-- chores, errands, legwork on his upcoming jobs, and more. Not that it really mattered in Coruscant's lower levels, far below the reach of the sunlight above. The entire level basked in the perpetual twilight of fluorescents and neon, interspersed by the sheer brightness of holographic advertisements.

The Kaleesh walked down the pathway at a carefully measured pace, helmet occasionally looking from left to right. You couldn't entirely keep your head down in a place like this, but you couldn't look too anxious or out of place, either. It invited trouble. Thankfully, being a 6'6" Kaleesh in full beskar'gam meant that most potential troublemakers would think twice.

Most, anyways.

The bodega was just up ahead. Fulcrum was running low on food, and corner stores like these-- where the cashiers were usually droids and didn't try to talk to him-- were preferable than sprawling, crowded supermarkets. Visiting at the late hour helped, too; it would practically guarantee that nobody else would be shopping. Perfect. He didn't need a stranger judging his propensity for sweets, or trying to pick a fight over his Mando'a heritage. In the heart of the Galactic Alliance, this was no small concern.

The Kaleesh approached the door. What he didn't expect was for the relative silence of the night to be interrupted by the sound of a not-so-distant explosion, immediately followed by a chorus of human screams. Fulcrum's head swiveled toward the noise; down the street and around the corner, he saw the flickering orange light that could only come from a raging flame. The screaming voices devolved into confused shouting, hundreds of words in dozens of languages, only some of which Fulcrum understood.

One phrase stood out. "There are people still inside!"

The Mandalorian spun away from the bodega, breaking out into an open sprint towards the danger. His beskar would offer him some limited protection against the flames, and every second he wasted was another second off of someone's life.

 

[Todblaz Graker]

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Tags: Fulcrum

The idea of harming innocents was meaningless to Tod, it was: do a job however you need to in however they ask. He didn't know where in the building his target was, but decided to flush him out. Typically he tried avoiding civilian casualties, not because he had morale qualms with it but because it dragged attention. He stood out back of the building where he assumed nobody was looking and opened a window.

This would be simple, start a fire and wait for the target to come out the entrance. He didn't really care if there was some sort of sprinkler system in the room because it would still flush his target out the front. Leaning into the window the room was empty, a dry place that would be easy to start a fire. He picked up a jerry can by his feet and placed it inside the room, opening the lid as he did so.

Looking around he didn't see anyone, the sounds of the night were deafening to him. Reaching into his left coat pocket he pulled out a thermal detonator. He placed the grenade on the jerry can's open lid and flicked it on. Red lights seemed going around the grenade and it made a beeping sound.

Tod casually walked towards the front of the building to lean against a wall adjacent to the entrance. When he pressed up against the wall he reached into his right pocket where there was a hole at the bottom exposing his hand to his pistol. Gripping the handle tightly he stood and waited. Then all of the sudden an explosion occurred and the building seemed to go up in flames. Yelling could be heard from around him, but he stood casually waiting for his target to exit the building.

While he was sitting there waiting he saw a giant beast of a Mandalorian, signified by the armor, running towards the building. Tod stood there muttering something but he would continue with his objective, maybe the thing doesn't grab his target.

 

[Fulcrum]

Tagging: Todblaz Graker

The man that stood beside the doorway as Fulcrum rushed towards it was immediately odd and out of place. Firstly, he seemed entirely unperturbed by the raging inferno nearby. Secondly, he wore some kind of body armor and helmet, cloaked underneath a heavy duster. Definitely not just a run of the mill civilian or passerby. Thirdly, he held his hand in his pocket tightly, his body rigid with tension.

Fulcrum was no idiot. He knew a concealed blaster when he saw one.

Right now, however, he would have to wait. He wasted no time in charging past the crowd of stunned onlookers and into the burning apartment building. The rise in heat was instantaneous, the durasteel floor warm against his bare feet. Smoke clouded his vision-- but thankfully, his helmet pinged softly with ultrasound, creating a roughly outline of the hallway that overlaid onto his HUD. Most of the doors were open, the occupants having left in a hurry. The only one that remained closed was the one to his left.

He felt the door. The metal was hotter than its surroundings. Cursing to himself, the Kaleesh stepped backwards, putting some space between him and the door. This was going to hurt, and he prayed to the gods that there was no one directly behind it. Finally, Fulcrum charged forward, one digitigrade leg lifting to plant a solid and sturdy kick directly into the door's center of mass.

The door fell forward with an earth-shattering clatter, and the sudden rush of fresh oxygen caused the flames within the apartment to suddenly grow in intensity. The Mandalorian kept his head down, stalking quickly into the burning living room. The walls and ceiling were coated in flame; the connected kitchen was practically a crater, food and kitchenware scattered in all directions.

Fulcrum froze for a moment. His ears twitched.

Underneath an overturned couch, he heard crying.

Rushing forward, the Kaleesh sank his claws into the scorched fabric of the furniture; he lifted it up carefully, but as quickly as possible. The source of the sobbing was a young Nautolan, barely older than a toddler; he was clinging to the unmoving form of a man who Fulcrum could only assume was his father.

There was no time to waste. Fulcrum tossed the couch aside and reached forward, one hand scooping the screaming child underneath his arm. The other quickly threw the father over his shoulder. He spun on his heel, making a mad dash for the door. Sensitive ears picked up on the sound of splintering support beams and cracking drywall; these apartment complexes were never built up to anything resembling a fire code. As he stepped into the hallway, Fulcrum heard the ceiling of the apartment completely collapse behind him.

Close. Too damn close.

His feet burning, the Kaleesh hustled onto the pavement outside, moving as far away from the burning building as possible. Setting the sobbing child down wasn't ideal, but he needed both hands. Quickly, Fulcrum folded them over the father's chest, pressing down in carefully measured intervals.

"Come on..." the Mandalorian muttered, deafened by the cries of the child next to him. Distantly, he could hear sirens, but he knew they'd take time to get here. "Come on, goddamn it!"

 

[Todblaz Graker]

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Tags: Fulcrum

Tod moved to join the crowd watching the fire after the giant Mandalorian run into the building. Fire glinted off his visor lens as all he could do was sit there and wait for him to come out the entrance, possibly with his target. The crowd seemed to have gotten quite loud and it prevented him from hearing what was going on inside of the building.

Though upon seeing the man in beskar reemerge from the building he realized that there was a kid being brought out as well. This he had not been informed about, he was told by his informant that the building only held the target. Didn't matter now as the kid survived, outcome would still be the same.

Watching the Mandalorian start compressions on the man he realized that this may be harder than he initially thought. From his experience Mandalorians were strong-headed and may not approve of what he was about to do. Despite this he walked towards the men. Tod noticed the man had good compression form, but without any automated defibrillator unit Tod would have no clue how it was working.

"You know, it's a thirty to two ratio on resuscitation." Tod began his hands casually in his pocket. "Well unless you don't think they work which there is an argument for." This was mainly to distract the man.

Using every inch of stealth that he could, he withdrew the pistol from its holster and left it under his duster pointed at the father. "Shouldn't matter anyway." He pulled the trigger, his firearm (AA round) going off while he had it pointed at the father's head. This was in the attempt to kill the target he was assigned.

 

[Fulcrum]

Tagging: Todblaz Graker

Fulcrum was many things. Paranoid, bullheaded, reclusive... but stupid was not one of them.

His ear flicked under the helmet, tracking the stranger's approach even as he continued to administer CPR to the Nautolan. A quick glance over his shoulder confirmed the man's identity. The stranger who had been hanging around outside with what had clearly been a concealed blaster in his pocket. Putting two and two together, the man's reason for being here became immediately clear.

An assassin. He had thrown an explosive through the kitchen window, then waited outside for the man to either evacuate the building or die in the flames.

The Kaleesh did not respond to his attempts to make conversation. He knew what they were meant to be-- distraction, nothing more. The important thing was not what the man was saying, but what he was doing. The barest flicker of movement, the almost imperceptible rustle of his duster, meant that the man was about to fire. From the angle over his shoulder, the most likely target was the head. The likelihood of pulling off what Fulcrum was planning was near zero.

But damn it, he would try. Even if the Nautolan beneath him was fated to die, his family at least deserved an open casket funeral.

"Shouldn't matter anyway."

One saving grace came in the form of the assassin's inability to just shoot the damn thing and get it over with. His final statement gave Fulcrum the timing he needed. As the final syllable dropped, Fulcrum's pounding hands suddenly grabbed the Nautolan's shirt. He sharply dragged the man's body out of the way as the pistol went off, the round slamming into the empty duracrete where the man's head once laid.

Fulcrum moved quickly. Still kneeling beside the man, the Kaleesh lifted one powerful leg-- before sharply jutting it out behind him in a kick that would hopefully make his ancestors proud. If it managed to connect with the man, it would no doubt send him flying.

 

[Todblaz Graker]

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Tags: Fulcrum

Maybe if Tod was less talkative about he would've gotten the shot off but that didn't matter. The man needed CPR and if he didn't receive any he would become hypoxic and be dead or braindead. Either way he's essentially dead and that would be a completion on his job.

As he saw the Mandalorian's giant leg get ready to lurch at him, Tod started to move out of the way, narrowly avoiding it. Backpedaling he fired off two rounds, one aimed his target and the other aimed at the beskar on the man's chest. Tod didn't want to kill the fellow, it wasn't apart of his mission and he especially didn't want Mandalorians hunting him down for killing one of them. His bullets, while strong, shouldn't be able to break through beskar but the transfer of kinetic energy would hurt like hell.

The time for talking had ended now he was in a race against the police arriving. While trained officers could be a problem, with the fire blazing he did have the chance to slip away before they put two and two together and chase him down. Tod continued to fire at the target while he moved backwards in an attempt to finish him off. As he fired his cylinder fell empty. Reaching into his pocket he pulled out a speed loader with one red tipped round, an explosive one, and five normal rounds.

Though if he kept the man from resuscitation for a few more minutes Tod could walk away and end the fighting. Since Tod had not seen when the man started dying he decided to leave it at when he was pulled out of the building. This would give him a few minutes before he could leave. That would make his main priority to keep the body moving and not being treated. Simple goal, short time to do it, should be a breeze.

 

[Fulcrum]

Tagging: Todblaz Graker

Grasping claws on his extended foot clenched around the empty space where the man once was. Fulcrum silently cursed to himself as he spun quickly, forcing himself into a standing position. Kaleesh were naturally acrobatic and dexterous, and his digitigrade legs gave him an advantage over the smaller human.

Of course, the slugthrower was a problem. Fulcrum devoted a split second of thought to pulling out his own heavy blaster, then thought better of it. The chances of a shot going wide and hitting a bystander were high enough with one pistol involved. The last thing this situation needed was two. As the man backpedaled, firing round after round at him, the Mandalorian took a moment to shove the sobbing four year old aside. Not his best moment, but he needed to get the kid out of the line of fire, fast. Then, he pursued, leaving the body on the ground behind him.

He couldn't let this man's killer get away. He wouldn't.

The rounds impacted the white surface of Fulcrum's beskar. While the shots didn't penetrate, the sheer kinetic force was like being hit with a bat; they slammed into his center of mass as the Kaleesh charged forward. A sharp pain flared in his ribs. Hairline fracture. He would live. He had been through far worse.

The man was forced to stop, reload, and Fulcrum took the opportunity to make his move. He dipped to the man's right-- then suddenly juked to the left, one powerful hand extended towards the gun. If he could rip it from the man's grasp, he would throw it aside-- but even being able to lay a hand on the man's wrist or forearm would allow him to wrestle the gun aside. No matter what, the momentum would carry them both backwards.

 

[Todblaz Graker]

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Tags: Fulcrum

While this beast certainly had power over Tod, Tod held the advantage of agility. Though that did come with the disadvantage of limited options if he is grabbed by the giant. Despite needing to reload, he managed to track the beast as they closed the distance. Tod slammed the cylinder closed, the explosive round being the first that would fire.

When Tod saw the Mandalorian lurch forward he left the target behind which essentially meant that his job was done. Without continued support the man's brain would die and the body would follow soon after. This just meant Tod's goal is to get to his ship and escape, which wasn't that far in a local spaceport.

As the Mandalorian got closer Tod reached one hand into his medical pouch and pulled out a syringe of etomorphine. Typically it was used to sedate his biggest patients and he would calculate the dosage, but this should overdue the sedation of even the biggest man. The Mando reached for the his gun, and despite having the reaction time being fast enough to pull back, he would be able to grab the front of the pistol with his grip if he wanted. This caused Tod to release the pistol and drop down, attempting to jab the Mandalorian with the needle in one of the exposed thighs (according to your biography picture). Even if he had strong skin Tod assumed the needle would break as it was designed to go through the toughest of scales to inject into muscle. Even if the injection goes through it would still take a few minutes to take the giant beast down.

 

[Fulcrum]

Tagging: Todblaz Graker

Wrapping his fingers around the still-hot barrel of the smoking gun, Fulcrum sharply wrenched it from the man's grasp before tossing it aside. Unfortunately, the move left him wide open for a counterattack he hadn't expected. His eyes tracked the plunging syringe; a choked gasp escaped him as it punched through his undersuit, the needle jabbing into the meat of his thigh.

Shit.

There was no way, in the moment, of telling just what he had been injected with. It could be as mundane as a tranquilizer, as deadly as a poison, or only the gods knew, one of a million other drugs. The ragged breaths he was taking could potentially be his last. His time was limited, growing shorter with the powerful pumping of his six-chambered heart. His opponent had made a terrible mistake, however. He had just accelerated Fulcrum's timetable-- and with the potential of death looming over his head, he had removed any reason for the Mandalorian to hold back.

He had just been trying to apprehend the man. Now he was trying to kill him.

With a harsh, agonized war cry that would make both his Mandalorian and Kaleesh ancestors proud, Fulcrum let loose a series of swift, coordinated punches and kicks-- the former aimed at the man's chest and arms, strong enough to break bone if they landed. But it was his legs that were the most dangerous of all. Kaleesh were excellent kickers, reaction speed far beyond that of what humans possessed, and the man's relatively unarmored knees were his target. Already, he could feel a strange numbness beginning to spread through his body, but Fulcrum powered through it, never letting up on his attack.

 

[Todblaz Graker]

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Tags: Fulcrum

Tod stood there when he heard the war cry, it had certainly caught him off-guard and at first he assumed it was a cry of pain. Though seeing the change in attack style he instantly realized what it was.

"Oh kiff." Tod muttered listening to the yell and seeing the beginning of the flurry of fists and feet.

He thought that because the Mandalorian was angry his attacks would be weaker and less organized. Tod was sorely mistaken. Barely dodging the first punches he got a kick square to the chest. The beskar and padding did well to absorb it, but enough kinetic energy to send him flying backwards was still transferred. Despite not being in the air for long, it felt like an eternity and he landed a few feet back. He had a sharp pain on his left side around the fourth and fifth ribs, definitely broken. His helmets padding also did well to keep him from giving a concussion. As soon as he realized his injury, Tod's breathing changed to shallow and rapid, he didn't want the rib's break pressing against the lung and puncturing it.

Rolling onto his feet with his right side, he stood there looking at the beast. Tod thought, due to the dosage the Mandalorian should be feeling it heavily soon and his punches and kicks would be substantially weaker. The injured mercenary just decided to play defensively and wait for the sedative to take effect.

 

[Fulcrum]

Tagging: Todblaz Graker

The kick landed, and Fulcrum felt a brief rush of elation. His six-chambered heart beat heavily within his chest-- which was, he dimly recognized, not a good thing. It meant the poison would take effect that much sooner. But the benefits of adrenaline in this situation could not be overstated. There was something so goddamn satisfying about seeing the bastard before him crumple and roll across the ground, and the Mandalorian could tell by the change in his breathing that he had broken one of the man's ribs.

Good. Eye for an eye.

As the Kaleesh moved to close the distance, however, the numbness in his body began to creep up his neck. A strange light-headedness overtook him. No small wonder as to what that was; his time was nearly up. With a shaking hand, Fulcrum yanked his blaster pistol from the holster on his hip. His vision blurred, the entire world looking like blobs of paint upon a moving canvas, but he could still dimly make out the dark-colored blob that was his target.

Fulcrum aimed at the center of the blurry mass and fired. The edges of his vision became dark. One last thought passed through his head.

This poor son of a queen had better hope he killed me.

With a final, rattling groan, the Mandalorian finally succumbed to the chemical inside him. His knees buckled as he collapsed, out cold, hitting the duracrete with a solid thump.

 

[Todblaz Graker]

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Tags: Fulcrum

Tod continued to backpedal as the Mandalorian opened fire, the shots fired somewhat erratically, indicating that the sedative had taken effect. While none of the shots found their mark on Tod, his duster did gain a new hole, this one in the lower left. Finally, the mighty beast fell, and the battle between David and Goliath had come to an end.

Walking over to the collapsed Mandalorian, he lacked any care for his safety as he thought even if the beast was awake he wouldn't be able to do much. Letting out a sigh, Tod spoke softly, "Poor beast, never wanted to fight you."

With those words, he carefully rolled the Mandalorian onto his side into a recumbent position, a simple act to prevent him from choking on his saliva. Hopefully the crowd would explain that he did nothing wrong and the medical support that was rapidly approaching would treat him. Walking over to retrieve his pistol, he methodically rotated the chamber, his attention briefly drawn to the sound of a nearby child crying, the same child who had been pulled from the house.

Rotating the cylinder in his pistol he fired a normal round at the father's head to ensure that there was no chance of recovery. Deciding to leave before the cops came, he calmly walked to the back of the house and continued to the next street as the cops pulled up to the house, never even seeing him. Though people may try and point him out he would be long gone before they come after him.