The Day I Met Dawn (for myself and Pywakit)

[dragonrazor]

A young man drove through the countryside, hopelessly lost. He knew he was in the wild west, but that was about all he knew. He hadn't seen a road sign in hours, and probably wouldn't have recognized one if he had. He spotted a farm in the distance, and slowly drove towards it. Maybe they would be able to tell him where he was, he thought. He was almost out of fuel too, he realized, as he looked at his gauges. As he rounded a bend around a ridge, he found himself right in front of the house, and had to slam on his breaks to avoid crashing into it. He blinked, then shook his head, slowly putting the car into Reverse and backing up slightly, before parking the car and getting out. He didn't see anyone anywhere, but that wasn't a sign of anything. The owners could be out in some nearby town he didn't know of, or managing the farm itself. He decided to wait on the hood of his car.

As he laid there on the hood of his car, he slowly started to drift off to sleep, only to be awoken by a woman's voice in a soft, southern drawl.


OOC: i've attached pictures of the character for you

 

[Pywakit]

Dawn

Dawn saw the car pull up, saw the man get out, look around, and finally lie down on the hood of the car. She didn't recognize him, but then why should she? Visitors were rare out here, which was, of course, why she'd chosen this as her new home. When leaving behind a life full of baggage like she'd left, you don't want to leave a forwarding address.

She prided herself on the farm she'd tended; it felt good to get back to her roots, raising cattle (even if it was only a few; hard to manage a whole heard on your own!) was her family calling. When she'd run away from home to become a movie star, she hadn't realized just how much she enjoyed being a cowgirl. Of coruse, her climb to stardom had been hampered by her looks; she was quite simply TOO sexy for the type of movies she'd thoguht she wanted to do. By the end of two years, she had nearly two dozen pornos to her name, and the wild lifestyle to match. When a mixup with some gambling went sour, she'd been forced to flee the city. She couldn't go back to her real home, so she'd bought this farm from an old couple who wanted to move on.

So at first, she thought the man who'd come to visit was one of Gape's men; the bookie to whom she owed an AWFUL lot of money. She'd ridden her favorite horse, Winterdance, up into the hills when she'd heard the motor, but now she was wondering if she hadn't jumped the gun.

Slowly, she rode Winterdance back down the trail. The man had fallen asleep on the car; surely not something one of Gape's goons would do. He was handsome too, and Dawn felt that old ache of loneliness in her loins again. It'd been a long time since she'd been with a man...

But she couldn't risk it. His posture might be a ploy to get her off guard. Quickly and fluidly, she drew her revolver, currently (along with Winterdance) one of her only trusted friends. She aimed the gun at the man's crotch, then called out in a deceptively soothing voice.

"Well, well... wha' da' we have here, Winterdance? A visitah, pe'haps?"

 

[dragonrazor]

The young man had been sound asleep, until two things had him awake instantly. The first, was the unmistakable sound of an old .45 caliber revolver being drawn from its holster and cocked. The second was the smooth, soft voice of a cowgirl, a Texan from the sound. He backflipped over the car, landing behind it, and kicked the trunk open, pulling an Air Force issue P90 submachine gun out of the trunk. His first thought was that he had stumbled on some mob wife's summer home. As he aimed through the sights, he saw something that almost made him drop the compact personal defense weapon. Standing before him was a tall, beautiful woman, but what was odd was that she had the face of what looked like a border collie. He also spotted a tail swishing around behind her. That was when he realized she had asked him a question.

"Um...hi. My name is Archer. I've been driving for hours, and I seem to be lost. I'm looking for a place called Driscoll Flats?" What he didn't know was that Driscoll Flats didn't exist anymore.

 

[Pywakit]

Dawn

Dawn's eyebrow arched as she saw the man spring into action. She didn't fire; she didn't feel the need. She had him in her sights and was confident that before he had a chance to pull anything, she could put him down. Even after he scooped up the submachine gun.

"My, my. Strange, don'tcha think? A man named Archer, using a gun?" She smiled at him, sizing him up. "An' anaway, what's yer business in Driscoll Flats?" She knew the place was gone, but decided to play along with him for now to try to determine what he was really up to.

 

[dragonrazor]

Archer slowly lowered the gun, and reviewed his mission parameters. Find and protect Jacob Ramsey. Eliminate all Black Scorpion cult members. Destroy all trace of the Black Scorpion Temple. Above all, avoid public disclosure of mission. He knew it was a top secret mission, and he shouldn't be telling anyone of it, but something about the way she spoke of Driscoll Flats made him pause. He decided to tell her his first and second mission parameters.

"Mission Parameter one, Find and Protect Geneticist Jacob Ramsey. Mission Parameter two, Eliminate all members of the Black Scorpion Sect."

 

[Pywakit]

Dawn

Dawn paused as Archer spoke the name of Jacob Ramsey. Her gun wavered for a moment, lowered, and then she raised it again and aimed it right at his head. Her voice was lower now, more menacing. She'd not heard Jacob's name spoken in years.

"You might wanna be telling me right now what you know about Jacob Ramsey, Mr. Archer..."

 

[dragonrazor]

Archer spoke from his memory of the briefing for the mission. "Jacob Ramsey is the foremost researcher into genetics, both human and alien. He is responsible for the Xenome antivirus, which cured the Human Immunodefiency Virus, which causes Acquired Auto Immune Disease. He is also known for his research into the genetic structure of mitochondria and the alien race known as Karon. He was kidnapped six months ago by the Black Scorpion Sect, who wished him to clone their 'god'."

 

[Pywakit]

Dawn

Dawn listened intently as he spoke. All possibility of him being one of Gape's thugs was gone from her mind now. What he said of Jacob struck a chord with her. She'd known Jacob most of her life as a mentor and teacher, yet after she ran away from home, she'd lost contact with him. She'd heard he'd died... news that he might still be alive made her head spin. And as for the Black Scorpion Cult... she knew of them as well. They didn't cause many problems this far out in the wilderness, but then again... it wasn't always wilderness. What they'd done to Driscoll Flats had changed the landscape, and not for the better.

She holstered her gun and dismounted from Winterdance with the grace of a dancer. As she led the horse into his pasture and then stepped toward her home, she looked back over her shoulder.

"You better come inside, Mr. Archer. I do believe I've got some news to share with ya."

 

[dragonrazor]

Archer blinked at her fluid movement. He found himself absently thinking of what she'd be like in bed, but he quickly dismissed the thought. He slowly put the P90 back in the trunk of the car, and replaced it with a harness that included thigh holsters for a pair of Heckler and Koch MP-7 PDW submachine pistols, which he pulled out and slid into the holsters. To that, he added his own favorite handgun, an old .50 caliber sixshooter that he attached a laser to. Once the handgun was in its holster, he pulled a duster out of the trunk and put it over his arm. He then followed her into the house, wondering just what was going on.

 

[Pywakit]

Dawn

Dawn glanced over her shoulder again to make sure he was following, and got the distinct impression for a moment that he was checking out her ass. She smiled slightly, filing that information away for later. She stood just in the doorway, holding it open for him, then followed him into the main room of her home.

The room was a combination lounge, bedroom, and trophy hall. Trophies of beasts both mundane and otherwise hung on walls here and there, and in one corner a half-repaired leather saddle lay draped over a sawhorse. Yet Dawn ignored these, and walked over to a low table near a window in the opposite wall. Strewn over the table were all of the notes, newspaper clippings, books, and reports she'd been able to gather about her missing mentor, Jacob. All dead ends. Yet also among them were photos of the ruins of Driscoll Flats. These photos did little justice to the horror of what the Cult had done; buildings melted or burned to the ground, bodies impaled on split timbers, immense scorpions feeding on those bodies that had been left to rot on the ground...

"I'm afraid that Driscol Flats is no more, Mr. Archer. I hope what you were looking for there wasn't that important..."

 

[dragonrazor]

Archer sank slowly down onto the nearby couch. The pictures clearly spelled out the devastation caused by the Black Scorpions. The horror filled his head, as he realized he could no longer complete his primary mission objective. After all, once they had their Scorpion God, they wouldn't see any reason to keep Jacob Ramsey alive. He immediately reached into his pocket to pull out a cell phone. He'd have to report to his superiors, and hope they sent a cleanup team. Of course, he didn't even know where the nearest FBI branch office was. To be honest to himself, he didn't even know where HE was. He sighed, and then pulled out his phone, and was about to dial when she stopped him.

 

[Pywakit]

Dawn

"An' jus' what do ya think yer doing?" she asked as he was about to dial. Her hand darted out and plucked the phone from his fingers just as he was about to hit SEND; she thumbed the END button and set it down on the table before she sat down herself, crossing her legs and swishing her tail in an almost mischevieous way.

"The Black Scorpions have control of all the towers in this entire region. Well... except for the ones I've sabotauged. So assuming you could get a signal way out here... which I doubt... they'd intercept it and'd be down on us in no time flat. I've managed to keep hidden from them for now by NOT using any form of electronic gear out here; nothing that sends signals."

Her eyes glittered as she regarded him.

"Your boss sure didn't tell you much about the cult before sending you out here, did he? Or did he not know himself?"

 

[dragonrazor]

Archer looked her in the eyes, then grabbed his phone back. On the back was a strange looking device, which seemed to glow. It was, in fact, a subspace antenna, which allowed the phone to operate in a secondary manner, without using the local network. He shrugged, and pocketed the phone again. He closed his eyes, thinking. He had a satellite laptop in the car, along with some other equipment, but his superiors had trained him with the best of ideas. So it occurred to him that he could enlist her aid. As such, he pulled out his badge, which essentially had no real identification on it, it simply assumed a different organization when shown to different people. As The Doctor would say on Doctor Who...Slightly Psychic Paper.

"I'm an elite covert operative, trained for infiltration and devastation of my target. My job in this area was to retrieve Ramsey, destroy the Scorpion's entire facility, and themselves in the process, and then get Ramsey back to Washington, to his family. Unfortunately, the likelihood that they would keep him after he resurrected the Scorpion God is almost nonexistant."

 

[Pywakit]

Dawn

Dawn regarded Archer with her bright eyes, then made a soft "wfff" noise in the back of her throat.

"Well... if they'd managed to resurrect the Scorpion God already... I'm sure I would have been among the first to know, being practicaly at ground zero as I am." She paused for a moment more.

"So you really think that Jacob might still be alive?" She asked. "Cause if ya do... might I could come along with ya on yer little quest? I'm pretty good with the six-shooter, you know. And... I've other skills that might come in handy as well..."

 

[dragonrazor]

Archer thought for a moment, then shrugged. To be certain, he'd have to access surveillance satellites. Either that, or search the old fashioned way. If she was right, then they probably had little time. If he knew Ramsey as well as he thought he did, then the man was probably trying to stall for time. Not an easy task when dealing with a fanatical cult. He wondered for a brief moment if he had enough equipment for the job. True, he had some energy weapons, but he'd need explosives to get rid of the facility. Unless, of course, it ran on a reactor, in which case he could set it to go critical. As he was thinking through his plans, a beeping came from his pocket. He pulled out the phone, and looked at the display, which had a text message on it. It read, in almost ominous letters, 'Message from Ramsey: Self Destruct activated. Suggest using Elephant to finish the job.' His eyes went wide as he read the last part.

 

[Pywakit]

Dawn

Dawn's ears perked as she heard the phone chirp, and her hand went to her pistol.

"What! Didn't I tell you that using that thing'd broadcast our location?" She had no idea his phone worked on a different signal, and in her mounting panic, she was out of the chair and to the window, scanning the horizon for the cult.

 

[dragonrazor]

Archer raised an eyebrow, watching her, then stood up, and stepped over to her. He held the phone up in front of her, showing the display. The message was clear, and it indicated Ramsey knew he was there. Which would mean they'd gained access to the satellite scanners. That made things interesting, but she didn't understand much of it. "The message is from Ramsey. He's telling me to use the leftover SDI project satellites to obliterate the base they are using."

 

[Pywakit]

Dawn

Dawn blinked.

"The only part of what you just said that made any sense to me was that Jacob's alive. And that means we have to do whatever we can to help him escape! So yeah... do whatever it is he wants you to do so we can go get him!"

She was groing excited, but without an obvious foe to fight or a solid clue as to Jacob's location, she was also growing frustrated.

 

[dragonrazor]

Archer shook his head slowly. She didn't get what the message really meant. "He wants us to level the facility with him in it. By firing the Elephant at the same time the self destruct goes off, we can completely demolish the base and everyone and everything in it. He's left us with about two hours. He's also probably rigged the countdown so that they won't know what's happening until it's too late to stop it."

OOC: night, see you in the morning, or whenever

 

[dragonrazor]

bumpeded

 

[Pywakit]

Dawn

"What? We can't let him do that! Not just after I found out he was still alive!" Dawn said, her voice tilting into an almost hysterical edge. "Can't we sneak into the building or whatever it is, rescue him, and THEN throw this Elephant thing at the cult?"

 

[dragonrazor]

Archer thought for a few minutes. They didn't have much time, and he didn't know how far they had to go. Then, of course, they'd have to either sneak past, or fight through, the entire sect. It was possible, if they could get there fast enough, but the execution and timing would be critical. They'd need to hurry.

"We have to hurry. And we have to be prepared to fight. Getting in won't be easy, getting out will be worse."

 

[Pywakit]

Dawn

"Fine," Dawn said as she stood up. She scooped her dual six-shooters off the nearby table and with a delicate pair of spins, slid the guns into the holsters at her hip. Next came her wide-brimmed hat; soon as it was sitting snugly on her head, her silver hair cascading out around it, she turned to face Archer.

"Ready to go; just lead the way and I'll shoot any cultists that get in our path."

 

[dragonrazor]

Archer nodded, then headed out to his car. He checked the directions using the satellite tracking system, and then got in and started the engine. They had about ten minutes worth of driving to do, according to the maps, but he knew nothing about the terrain. For all he knew they might have to go offroad, which wouldn't be easy in a sedan. He leaned over and opened the door for her, then pulled on his seatbelt, and checked to make sure everything was ready.

 

[Pywakit]

Dawn

Dawn followed closely. She was tempted to take Winterdance, but realized that the horse, for all his stamina, would never be able to keep up with a vehicle, and speed was of the essence. She slid into the passanger seat, placing her hat in her lap as she waited for Archer to start the car.

In no time, they were off.

"So... do you know where you're going, Mr. Archer?" she asked. "Cause I might know a few shortcuts if you do..."