7202/Hooked

Hooked
Date of Scene:	11 April 2019
Location:	The Milano
Synopsis:	Bounty hunters try to work out a deal with their quarry, while trying not to get Lanterned and blowed up in hyperspace.
Cast of Characters:	Lobo, Sister Reinhardt, Nuala Duvall, Star-Lord

---

Lobo has posed:
    For Lobo, the situation was no longer as tense as it once was...but it was still pretty awkward. His bike, useless for the moment off in the corner, his blood all over the floor of the Milano, and a Lantern standing right there while another one remains in captivity...with his fraggin' hook still in her shoulder. A normal bounty hunter would be paranoid about what could happen next.

    For the Main Man he merely remained sat on the floor, legs splayed out as his blaster was tossed aside in favor of grabbing a can of brew. He popped the tab with just his thumb and middle finger, clearly he's had experience at having one limb before. Speaking of, at his left nub around the elbow, five little bumps and protrusions were starting to grow out of the wound, wiggling almost on pure instinct.

    "Fraggin' robot...next time we meet I'm gonna take his cool purple glowin' head and shove it up his...huh...guess a robot wouldn't have nothin' like that. Still, gonna have fun trying!"

    At this point he was more muttering to himself. He didn't so much as offer Suzanne anywhere to sit, or anything to drink. How rude.

Sister Reinhardt has posed:
    Good thing about being a lantern, they can make their own chairs. Suzanne has made her own chair and has actually gotten something for herself to eat and drink, as well as a table to set it all on. "He wasn't a robot by the way. He was an actual person. And he lived, by the way." She then chuckles. "Not used to someone actually stand up to you, hmm?"

Nuala Duvall has posed:
    There is a spark from the inside of the cryopod, and suddenly the door bursts open, a plume of smoke from inside. The captive is out. She rolls out of the pod, coughing from the smoke, and trying to recover from the near stasis that she entered before managing to break free. The suit pulses silver, and she reaches up behind her neck, pulling free the hook and tossing it to the ground.
    She points her wrist blaster at Lobo. "<Turn the ship around, bounty hunter,>" she orders in galactic common before giving another cough as the smell of an eletric burn fills the cargo hold.

Lobo has posed:
    The Main Man could tell this was a tense situation, and a situation where the power dynamics just suddenly changed. But you'd never know it to look at his face, or look at his body language. Perfectly calm, perfectly relaxed even as every once and a while a few more millimeters grew out of his left stump. In fact, with that blaster pointed right at his face, the Last Czarnian took another swig of his booze before belching up at the two women, and speaking.

    "I ain't turnin' a damn thing around, on account'a I ain't the pilot. Also onnaccount'a, I don't do what crazy she-broads do, an' I don't care what kinda fancy Nova toy they're pointin' at my face. Now you can turn yer frail human behind around an' get back into yer dog cage, or you can continue ta play Accuser, an' whoever we hired can figure out yer Cyberlimb blood type."

    Another swig. Can was finished, can was crushed. Can was chucked at her face. Lobo grinned. And then Lobo belched.

    Well, it was almost cool.

Star-Lord has posed:
There's a sudden shift in the air and motion of the Milano. Anyone who's gone into hyperspace will instantly recognize it; the Milano just went through a jump point... which meant leaving the ship and going outside the protective hyperspace bubble was suicide for the vast majority of beings in the galaxy now.

It's also when Nuala managed to open a damaged stasis pod in the cargo hold. Peter had planned to handle disarming Nuala during the jump. Instead, he's probably going to have to fight in the Milano. In hyperspace. Against a Lantern.

"Aw, crap. Can't I get a break this month? Already got the a-holes on Takron Galtos to deal with." Peter complains out loud to no one in particular from the cockpit.

The ship isn't being torn apart and turned into atoms, so there's that. Maybe they were smart after all.

Soon though, Peter is heading out of the bridge and starting to head down to the cargo bay.

Sister Reinhardt has posed:
    The can stops in mid-flight before it can his Nuala and Suzanne crunches on a cruton. "I don't know how hyperspace works, but I don't think we can leave at this point. Or turn it around." Suzanne says over to Nuala. "Nuala....Something is amiss here, doncha think? If there's bounty hunters here...that means there's a bounty on your head. If they turn around now....MORE will show up."

Then Suzanne puts her food away into a portal...same with her drink. "Someone put a bounty on your head, Nuala. I would like to find out who, and honestly? I'm sure they could've done a lot more damage than they did." She then looks to Lobo. "Am I right?"

Nuala Duvall has posed:
    Nuala holds her fire, only seeming to right then realize that Suzanne was onboard. "Su-" she stops herself. "Blue Lantern?" she asks. She listens as the case is made. "I got an idea," she answers. "A real piece of work in Nova, I got him busted down from Admiral due to...well, that's not all important right now. Probably caught wind of what was happening," she says. "Wanted to give me my just desserts, if I had a guess. Tried to get me dismissed three times already. Can't imagine he'd like that Nova was going to let me be." She doesn't lower her arm, but asks Lobo. "Virek?" she asks, trying to confirm her suspicions.

Lobo has posed:
    "Blueberry, yer askin' the Sultan of Slaughter, the Bishop of Brutality, the Pope of Ordinance, the Assassin ta' Royalty and Scourge of the Cosmos himself, if he coulda ripped this girl inta eight pieces if he wanted to? Get real, the only reason her entrails ain't wrapped around this ship as if it were a Life Day Tree is 'cause we been hired fer retrieval, and not fer disposal and slash or 'example makin', end air quotes."

    He flashes Suzanne a wolfish grin, before looking around at Nuala when she asks her question.

    "Sorry there, sport, the Main Man don't give up his sources, an' he don't give up on his word."

    As he spoke, his left hand went down to his belt, opening a thick box-shaped hard-plastic pouch nearest to the ultra cool skull buckle. There he pulled out one of his most important gadgets: A primo cigar. Since he didn't have access to a cutter, he just used his teeth, biting into the very end and spitting it off into the distance.

    "Now, there's the little issue of you bein' outta yer room before supper. We ain't big fans o'that in the bounty huntin' business, see."

Star-Lord has posed:
It takes about ten seconds for Peter to get from the bridge down to the cargo bay: It's not a huge ship, and the cargo bay is in fact one of the bigger places on the ship. When he hears voices though, Peter frowns and pulls out both his element guns, keeping them in an idle position as he walks in. He's still wearing the same setup he was when he was flying around, sans helmet that's been retracted back into the device near the back of his neck where it situates. "We have a 'wanted alive' bounty. That pod you were in is supposed to keep you in stasis until I had time to disable your armor." Peter clucks his tongue in a 'shit' manner, "That's gonna be as easy as finding Elvis, now."

Peter looks to Suzanne, then. "At least you're smart enough to realize starting a fight in hyperspace is a terrible idea... but I'm still gonna need those weapons disabled." Peter gives a head nod to Nuala, then looks towards her, "Are you going to turn this into a hyperspace disaster on us, darlin?"

Sister Reinhardt has posed:
    Suzanne ponders a bit, before looking to Quill. "I'd worry less about her and more about me, guys. It'd be a hyperspace disaster for you and 'the main man' here....and not me or Nuala. However, I think we have an opportunity here." She says looking to Nuala. "If it's who you think it is, we have something to work with....and these bounty hunters get paid."

She then stands up and her chair disappears. "The idea is this, Nuala acts as if she's still captured, I act as one of your 'crew' on this ship...and we find out for sure who did this. Then, once we find out...'The Main Man' Causes a bit of havoc, and we leave. Well....Nuala and I will have a bit of a chat though."

Nuala Duvall has posed:
    Nuala gives a laugh. "Paid?" she says. "Nova is not likely to front him money for this," she says. "I think he will try to cheat you." She glances back at Suzanne, then up to Peter, and lowers her arm, the wrist blaster sinks back into her suit, and she lets out another cough. "So, Are you saying that they deliver me, and then you..." she hesitates, trying to consider exactly what happens next.

Star-Lord has posed:
"No deal." Peter looks to Suzanne. "What you're asking for is downright unprofessional. We'd never get contracts again when word spreads, and our reputation would be ruined." Peter gestures with one of his element guns to Nuala, "Her pretending to be captured would get around, and no one would trust our contracts because our record would be blown."

Then, he looks to Suzanne, "We lose our livelihood, and we might as well burn this entire ship to a crisp and take you with us for all the good that deal gives us. Now, if we get double crossed by the client? That's an entirely different story... and we're not responsible for what happens to her afterwards, once we get our credits." He shrugs, "If the bounty is legit, the most I can guarantee is not interfering with what comes after."

Lobo has posed:
    Lobo, for his part, finally rose to his feet where he limped over to the main table and sat across it as if it were a chair. At his height, it was easier than finagling one of the chairs or more 'official' seats. From his left stump a slimy, gooey, blood-covered beginnings of a hand were starting to emerge, four fingers and three sets of knuckles, right down to half of a palm sticking out of the wound. Smirking downward, he gave everyone there a small wave, before flipping his stump around so that he could flash them all briefly the middle finger...perhaps it meant peace and love on Czarnia. But it probably didn't.

    "Yeah, I gotta go with Quill on this one, ya dweebs want us ta just roll over an' narc on the guy who hired us...frankly, I don't give a whizz if it's Darkseid or Thanos, credits are credits an' a job is a job."

    As he spoke, he grabbed his scatterblaster from off of his bike, flipping the lever-action, sawn-off weapon around with his one good hand, before tossing it to his stump-hand, and grabbing his flip lighter to light his cigar, and to fill the hangar with the smell of it.

Nuala Duvall has posed:
    Nuala shakes her head, watching the disturbing growth coming out of Lobo's stump arm. "Bounty hunters with honor," she comments dryly. "How inconvenient. That is fine," she says. "But if it is Virek, you two should not hold your breath in expecting that he will come through on the payment." She stands up, only to sit on the edge of the crypod, and turns to look back at Suzanne. "I hope you know what you are doing," she comments.

Sister Reinhardt has posed:
    Suzanne smiles and points to Nuala. "That one word, right there, is what I've been hoping to hear from you for a while." She then chuckles. "And, no...I don't. I've only seen a Nova Corp operative from a distance...other than you." She then gestures to Quill and Lobo. "Honestly, I don't think the 'bad ones' are any worse than these two twerps. but I imagine if this guy is as true to form as you say, these guys will have no problems tearing him, and his office, a new one as we leave. Cuz, while my duplicity is one thing....someone that doesn't pay a successful bounty is another. The best I can say is...the trap is sprung, but you can hope for the best."

Lobo has posed:
    By this point, while Lobo was still paying attention, he was also starting the process of removing his various things from his Hog, organizing them carefully elsewhere so that he could fold the clunky vehicle up into a more secure and more compact shape. The process of repairing it would happen later, and would probably require gear and tools found at a real station.

    "Either way, Pete, might wanna think about addin' a few trailers to this boat, the way ya keep pickin' up guests an' strays. Takin' that 'Guardian' moniker a bit too literal-like, I reckon."

Star-Lord has posed:
"I'm not a total a-hole, darling." Peter counters to Suzanne, "I'm the leader of the Guardians of the Galaxy. Star-Lord, at your service." He gives a charming smile to Suzanne, "and while we are mercenaries, we're not looking to see the universe destroyed. This is all frankly a side trip for some credits right now. We plan to head back to the Takron Galtos Riots right after this. That's where the credits are, and where the worst scum of this galaxy are imprisoned. We're gonna lend a hand."

Peter walks over to the pod, then, and starts to work on it, taking off the back panel as he begins to perform maintenance, "I'll even be generous and let you keep the armor until we've confirmed credit exchange."