Re: Kicking the Hornets Nest

[Kroll]

Kroll weighed his crossbow in his claws before reaching into one of the pouches in his vest and pulled out three ski masks, tossing one to Aella and the other to Sten. "Looks like we'll be needing these after all...we don't want to risk getting recognized in the future, so these are just an extra precaution." the captain paused to slip his mask over his face, moving the eyeholes slightly so he could see better before turning to Aella.

"Alright now, here's the plan: We'll stack up on the door, and on three, I'll kick it in. " the tercel paused to reach into apouch, pulling out a flash bomb. "As soon as I do that, Sten, I need you to toss this inside the room. Should dazzle them long enough for us to get in and knock them out, alright?" Kroll held the small bomb out to Sten waiting for him to take it.

[Aella]

Aella laid her polearm down on the ground near the wall and stood in position next to the door. The oversized weapon was getting in the way anyway.

[Sten Softclaw]

Sten took the bomb, holding it for heft. Yeah, he could do that. He nodded and stacked up opposite Kroll on the other side of the door.

[Kroll]

Kroll stacked up against the door across from Sten and counted to three. Upon reaching the magic number, the captain delivered a powerful kick to the door that sent it crashing open, motioning to Sten to throw the bomb into the now open door.

[Sten Softclaw]

Sten primed the bomb and pitched through the doorway. Inside, there was a surprised yell, a soft bang, and a flash of light. He winced and grinned to himself out of sheer nervous energy.

[Kroll]

After the bomb detonated, Kroll raised his crossbow as he walked through the doorway, its padded mechanisms making muffled clicking sounds as the captain began to shoot at whoever was on the other side. Two muffled yelps and subsequent thumps on the floor later, Kroll's voice could be heard calling the others in. "Alright, room's clear. Hurry on in and close the door after ya; we don't need any curfew breakers rubbernecking."

[Aella]

Aella moved swiftly into the room, taking a moment to survey the area before moving to the side of the door.

[Sten Softclaw]

Sten shuffled into the room and shut the door after, a little reluctantly it must be said.

[Kroll]

Kroll nodded in appreciation at Sten as he leaned back on a large bookshelf that was chock-full of cooking recipes. By his feet were two unconscious ponies, each sporting a considerable welt on the side of their heads from the non lethal bolts the captain shot at them. "Nice job with the bomb, Softclaw, definitely happy you decided to come along." the tercel said with a small smile as he stepped over one of the bodies.

"Now then!" The captain exclaimed as he rubbed his claws together, walking over to a table that was to the side of the bookshelf, starting to move some of the papers that were scattered across it. "A few of these documents seem to be related to the store's operations, but some of these..." Kroll trailed off as he raised one of the papers up, peering at it with a perplexed look on his face. "Some of these look like ingredients for something a bit more under the table..."

[Aella]

Aella was hardly the kind to understand formula and recipes. She opted to keeping out of the way while her more cerebral comrades worked it out. She dragged the ponies to the end of the room and positioned them so they wouldn't inadvertently do something dangerous like swallow their own tongues.

[Sten Softclaw]

Sten started rifling through the books which were, sure enough, mostly cookery books. A few loose pages fell out of one, though. They looked like recipes sure enough, but the ingredient lists were odd.

"You're right about that," he said, picking up one that caught his eye. "Nitric acid, sulphur dichlorate..."

He wasn't certain of the exact chemistry, but it all seemed quite familiar. "Certainly isn't just bread. All very sub rosa."

[Kroll]

Kroll nodded in agreement with Sten as he began to stack the papers neatly. "We could use these as evidence, but we should keep looking around." The captain began to search about the bookcase, randombly pulling out a few of the different books that lined the shelves and flipping through them before putting them on the table. The captain reached to grab one last book, but when he pulled on it, there was a mechanical sound clanking, as if a latch had been moved somewhere.

Kroll let go of the book and took a step back, staring at the novel that seemed to be jutting out over the ledge of the shelf it called home. The captain began to inspect the sides of the bookshelf, tapping at it and running a talon at where it met the wall. Leaning his shoulder into it, the tercel raised his eyebrow as the bookshelf moved slightly. "Hey, Aella," he whispered to the hen. "Help me push this thing."

[Aella]

Aella left the unconscious ponies moved over to the bookshelf. She placed her talons upon the shelf and pushed, straining slightly as it moved aside.

[Sten Softclaw]

Behind the bookcase? Sten wouldn't have credited it, but then again, what were the odds? He glanced about and got ready (rather desultorily) for whatever was on the other side.

[Kroll]

Once the Bookshelf was completely moved to the side, it revealed a dark passageway that led into a dimly-lit room that seemed to not be part of the original structure. Grabbing his crossbow, Kroll motioned to Aella and Sten to follow close behind him as he started to make his way into the dark tunnel.

[Aella]

Aella stayed two paces back from the captain, looking over his shoulder as he progressed and prepared for action.

[Sten Softclaw]

Sten clicked his claws nervously and took last place in the queue, hoping the cap didn't want him on point.

[Kroll]

As the group neared the end of the tunnel, Kroll turned his head behind them and motioned at Sten to watch their back as they continued onward. Turning back to the end of the tunnel, the captain raised his crossbow as he took point, slowly stepping out into the dimly lit room on the other side. As the tercel was checking the left corner of the room, a stallion leapt at him from the right, using its forehooves to smash the captain across the head and smack his crossbow from out of his grip.

Kroll let out a grunt as he dropped to a knee from the blow, quickly raising his arms to block a follow-up attack from the pony before striking his opponent with an uppercut. The stallion staggered back from the blow, but recovered quickly enough to launch himself at the tercel as he started to get up, knocking him back down to the floor. The captain did his best to defend himself from his assailant's attacks, but the blow to his head seemed to be taking a toll on his reaction time.

[Aella]

Aella grabbed the pony assaulting Kroll by the sides of his head and dragged him off the tercel. She grabbed him by the throat and squeezed, ignoring the hoof blows of the struggling stallion until he went limp and unconscious. She laid him down upon the ground and struck him in the sternum twice to start him breathing again.

[Sten Softclaw]

Sten winced and jumped as the end of the corridor had a little fracas. Still, the folks at the front were dealing with it just fine, and he kept an eye behind them.

[Kroll]

Kroll groaned as he slowly picked himself up off the ground, rubbing his head to check for blood. "I've had to deal with ambushes before, but getting put on my ass by a low-grade criminal like that? Shit, I must be losing my touch!" the captain said with a chuckle, picking his crossbow up before looking at Aella with appreciation. "Thanks for the help Aella, much appreciated." The tercel paused to look at the unconscious stallion before continuing. "He may not have been the only one back here, so let's proceed with caution from here on out. I hate surprises."

[Aella]

Aella stepped over the unconscious pony and took up position behind Kroll again as he began to move.

[Sten Softclaw]

Sten kept behind them, giving the pony a surreptitious kick on the way past, just so.

[Kroll]

Kroll started to look around as his eyes began to adjust to the darkness of the room. Now that he wasn't concerned about getting his face smashed in, the captain could see that the room appeared to be some kind of storage area, as there were a large number of wooden crates, each with some kind of shipping label on them. "Looks like this is the staging area." the captain mused quietly as he walked over to a small table that had a few transaction and shipping records on them, tapping at them. "This is some good stuff right here, but if this is just where they store their goods,where do they prepare it?"

[Aella]

Aella moved over to one of the crates and pried it open as quietly as she could. The lid came away with a muffled crack and revealed dozens of tightly packed paper packages. The griffoness picked one up and inspected it.

"What do you make of th-"

Her talons slipped through the cheap wax paper and the package fell apart, filling the air around the griffoness with white powder.

"...this... sir"

[Kroll]

Kroll looked at Aella as the white powder spilled from the package, stiffly holding up a claw. "Don't. Breathe." he whispered tensely, slowly gesturing to the hen to come towards him, waiting until she was a good enough distance from the airborne powder to give a nod, signifying it was safe to breathe.

"Well, at least now we know what kind of substance this place is manufacturing. Makes sense, too; fine, white powder that could be passed off as sugar or flour to anyone curious enough to pry. Heck, it could probably be even baked into the store's products if need be..." The captain waited for the white powder to settle more before motioning to Sten to come over to their side of the room.

[Sten Softclaw]

Sten shuffled over, one claw still over his mouth just in case.

"What is it then? Quicklime?" he said, his voice quavering a little. "What kind of psychopaths would put quicklime in bread?"

[Kroll]

Kroll looked at Sten, blinking a few times. "That...that is actually a pretty good idea. Remind me to write that down later." The captain murmured as he glanced back at the documents on the table. "I'm guessing these are some kind of illegal substance; a recreational drug of some kind would be my best guess." 

The tercel paused, looking around at the large number of crates in the room. "And considering how many crates of the stuff are sitting here, my guess is that we're standing in one of the larger repositories in the city; we take this place down and this could be a major blow to Manehattan's drug trade. It may not slow them down, but it'll definitely cripple 'em for a bit."

Kroll nodded his head at a door to the right of where he was standing. "We might be pushing our luck, but considering those  'recepies' we found earlier, there's a fair chance that they manufacture drugs here, not just store them."

[Aella]

Aella shook her head and sneezed. She looked over at the spilled powder and frowned.

"If all these crates are full... this must be a massive operation. The kind that would need a hell of a lot of staff"

[Sten Softclaw]

Sten glanced over his shoulder.

"And they're not here at the moment, of course," he said. He raised his voice and said, "unless they're hiding, in which case they should jolly well come out now!"

He didn't know what to expect, although he knew what he hoped for. The last thing they needed was some high-as-balls pony to come at then with a socket wrench or something from some unknown corner.

[Kroll]

Kroll stared at Sten in disbelief, wondering what would've been going on in the tercel's mind to start yelling about during what was supposed to be a stealth mission. The captain started to walk towards the pidgeon-like griffon, his claws poised as if he was going to strangle the unstealthy griffon.

Suddenly, there was the muffled sound of multiple hoofsteps and shouting approaching the group from behind, causing Kroll to swear quietly and motion to Aella and Sten to hide behind some of the crates as he knelt behind the one that was closest to him, gripping his crossbow tensely as he waited for whoever was coming.

A few seconds later, a small group of ponies burst out of a door towards the back of the room, armed with an array of different weapons, from crowbars, to a bat with a railroad spike in it, one even was armed with a marble rolling pin. The group began to look around the room for the source of the noises, two of the stallions making a beeline for their fallen comrade and the broken package that Aella dropped.

[Aella]

Aella dropped down and moved between two rows of crates. She stalked as quietly as she could to the end of her cover and waited in ambush.

[Sten Softclaw]

Sten hopped back, trying to get around the crates to hide, but didn't quite manage it with the kind of grace he'd expected. In fairness, he only barged into them, and didn't knock any over. He still hopped behind them, hunkering down on the other side.

"Well thank goodness for that," he whispered to himself.

[Kroll]

Kroll quietly ground his beak as one of the ponies walked past his hiding spot. After conducting a head count, the captain realized that there were five stallions, making the odds of succeeding in a direct attack smaller than normal. Looking down by his feet, Kroll noticed an empty bottle and picked it up, weighing it in his free claw as he tried to think of a plan.

Peeking back out at the stallions, the tercel could see that one two that had been checking on their fallen comrade noticed that the bookcase had been moved, and was beginning to head toward it. Taking this as an opportunity to create a distraction, the captain gripped the empty bottle by the neck and flung it at the head of the pony that was investigating the spilled packet of drugs.

[Aella]

Aella winced as she heard the sound of breaking glass and a scream. She doubted that pony would come away unscarred. If they lived long enough to heal that is.

[Sten Softclaw]

Sten heard the glass and the scream and knew it was On, metaphorically speaking. He ground his claws against each other in anticipation, which made a horrible squeak.

[Kroll]

The other stallions jumped at the sound of the bottle shattering against the head of their associate, and began to look around the room with an increased fervor, one of the stallions moved over to inspect the one that had been hit by the bottle.

It was at this point that Kroll popped up from behind his hiding spot and fired two bolts at the stallion closest to him, one round hitting the pony in the shoulder, and the other striking the side of its head. The sight of another one of their comrades hitting the floor, in tandem with the sight of a griffon randomly popping out from behind a crate sent the other stallions into a frenzied panic, one of whom began to bolt towards the door that they had entered from.

[Aella]

Aella sprung from her hiding place and leaped in the direction of the door from which the stallions had entered. She landed heavilly and blocked the escape route of the fleeing pony before grabbing his head and slamming it onto the edge of a crate.

[Sten Softclaw]

Sten stayed down, shaking and breathing heavily. This, he decided, he did not need. To his credit, he barely jumped when Aella slammed a pony into the crate right next to him.

[Kroll]

Kroll sighed with relief as he saw Aella deal with the fleeing stallion before his attention was snapped back at the pony armed with the marble rolling pin, who was in the process of charging at him. The captain raised his crossbow up to block the pony's swing, grunting as the marble culinary tool collided with his weapon, forcing the tercel to take a step back. 

Pushing off his back leg, Kroll shoved the stallion back, using the momentum to strike his opponent across the side of the head with the butt of his crossbow. As the pony staggered back from the blow, the  captain unloaded three bolts into the stallion's body, muttering something foul as the equine hit the floor. 

The tercel sighed as he looked around the room, surveying the aftermath of the brief skirmish. "Well then," he said calmly with a hint of ire. "I guess they know we're here now."

[Aella]

Aella turned and moved up beside the door that the pony was aiming for. She crouched down and risked a peek around the corner.

[Sten Softclaw]

Sten coughed politely and slipped out from behind the crates, doing his best to look inconspicuous. Well, that certainly could have gone better, all things considered.

[Kroll]

Kroll stat down on the corner of one of the crates as he pulled a strand of licorice out of the pack he kept in his armor, letting the uneaten part hang out of his mouth as he chewed on the candy. Hearing Sten cough quietly, the captain lowered his gaze to the crossbow in his grasp, staring at the two bolts that remained. "Sten?" the tercel said in a calm, somewhat restrained voice. "Do you know what the purpose of a stealth mission is?"

[Aella]

Aella gave Kroll a thumbs up to show that the hall the ponies had come down was clear.
For now.

[Sten Softclaw]

"Broadly speaking, sir," said Sten, trying not to look directly at the captain. It was only a dressing-down, nothing to be too concerned about really. Nothing he wasn't used to at any rate.

[Kroll]

Kroll nodded as he began to reload his crossbow. "Alright. Just thought I'd ask." he said simply, pushing himself off the crate as he walked to the door, giving Aella a look of acknowledgement. Raising his crossbow, the captain motioned to the hen to open door slowly.

[Aella]

Aella moved in front of the door and grabbed the handle, pulling it open as she moved back to the wall

[Sten Softclaw]

Sten had a little sigh of relief and stacked up behind Aella. Maybe he'd get it in the neck later, or maybe not. Maybe something would happen to the cap in the next few minutes and he'd be in the clear again.

[Kroll]

Kroll took a deep breath as he cautiously made his way into the opened door, checking his corners as he moved through the doorway of the next room. As it had turned out, the escalating commotion that the griffons had caused in the bakery had not gone unnoticed, for the room that the captain had stepped into was bustling with activity, the other members of the streetgang had been in the process of packing up and fleeing the building through a hole in the back, not wanting to meet the same fate as the ones that crossed the griffons.

By now, only seven or so ponies remained, dumping documents and files into a burning oildrum near the back of the room. The leader of the group, a large earth pony in a tattered coat, was stiffly pacing behind the remaining underlings, murmuring to himself in frustration. Kroll stared at the ponies for a moment as his grip on his crossbow tightened. "Get down on the ground!" he yelled, causing the ponies burning the documents to jump nearly a foot in the air, the documents they had been carrying cast into the air.

The tercel grit his beak as he took a step forward, completely entering the room to assert his presence. "I said get down on the g--" was as far as Kroll got before three crossbow bolts embedded themselves in the breastplate of his armor, causing the captain to stagger back into the previous room before falling over to the right side of the doorway near Aella. "Close the door." he said hoarsely.

Back in the packing room, the large earth pony screamed at the remaining seven to deal with griffon before ducking out of the hole in the wall.

[Aella]

Aella slammed the door closed and pulled a crate in front of it to create a barricade. She leaned back against the crate to hold it further.

"Problems sir?"

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