13th Exploit: Joao and the Party Packers 3

Antonio finally confronts Joao, but the Party packer leader proves to be a tricky one and coupled with the S.U.N Chip Tony finds this opponent to be more trouble then he'd thought

13th Exploit: Joao and the Party Packers Pt. 3

Joao leans on the podium and smirks triumphantly, looking down at the would-be hinderers ranging from cops to Tai Corps members; five laying unconscious or dead on the stage. Two of them are heavily burnt, as though they were assaulted with fire. One of the packers is in the middle of putting out a stray fire near the side of the stage and several others try to keep the stage surrounded. As is made apparent they haven't been doing well in keeping assailants from going for Joao but hes managed to handle himself. One of the packers jumps up on the stage, holding a bag, and steps toward Joao. He drops the bag at his feet.

"This's what our groups got so far." The packer speaks with a strong sense of confidence. "We've had a bit of resistance but mostly things are goin' well from our end."

"Good! Good, 'ats my man! Actually-" Joao looks at his wristwatch and smirks concerned. "-speakin' of my man you have any idea what Will's up to? Usually his groups the first one to get things done."

"Can't say's I know. Ive heard we've got a couple of party crashers that seem like they can hold their own. Maybe Will's split off to snub their invitation?"

Joao waves dismissively. "Nah, Will said he'd look into th' "mother load" Jeff was talkin' about." Joao smirks nervously. "My girlfriend should be able to handle whatever obstruction comes against us. She's got a nifty cop outfit so-"

"Yo!" The packer turns his head sharply. Joao looks past his subordinate and down at a face hes never seen before; Antonio's. Tony stands roughly four feet from the stage. He has his eyes on Joao's, whose eyes remain calm. "You the guys throwing the party?"

"Maybe we are." Joao says with a smug tone. "You lookin' to pay the host directly?

---

King Fiamme Morte's motorcade was still tight and driving along, distancing itself from all the hectic mayhem going down at the park they had left no more then twenty minutes ago. Morte has been relaxing and thinking over his next few days in the meantime, though right now he is on the built in limousine phone speaking to one of his military generals.

"Permission denied." Morte speaks in a smug tone. "We cannot afford to use any of our power on something so small, not while W.S.L. is still a looming threat."

"But what of your overall image sir?"

Morte smirks. "What of it? Rose Mali is a smoldering cigarette burn on the map of my precious nation, a boil that ought to be drained. Its already a waste for Tai Corp to use their resources. Though I do appreciate the protection."

"If I may speak freely-"

"Nope. You're going to hang up the phone and let Rose Mali's situation resolve itself. If it comes back to me that the national shield has gotten involved I'll strip your rank right off of you." The King sighs before smiling warmly. "You just keep an eye on the Ferland border."

"... Yes si-" King hangs up the phone.

"What nonsense." The king shakes his head. "Wasting the military on a s**t-hole like Rose Mali, and petty thieves no less. Its ridiculous."

---

Dante's knife teases the flesh on Sarah's neck, threatening to open the jugular at any time. She licks her lips and grins, eyeing Jason with a sadistic glee in them. Jace looks as though he is on the cusp of panic and Jason is thinking up how he can possibly salvage the situation.

"What now pal? Is this life expendable enough for you to try something, or are you going to give me what I want and let me look inside your neck for getting in my way? Jason closes his eyes and sighs.

"Geez lady, you really are sadistic aren't you?" Jason smirks behind his scarf as he raises his hands slowly above his head. "I'd rather not have innocent blood on my hands so do whatever. You want my neck, you got it."

Dante almost looks surprised. "Ooooh? You're a rare one <3" Dante slowly begins to ease the knife away from Sarah's throat. "Now, you so much as twitch one of those fingers and try to get me with that string ball thing I'll kill the boy too-"

Sarah doesn't waste the moment of shifted attention and violently grips Dante's knife hand. Sarah presses her thumb into the middle finger and breaks it and ducks down. She throws her body weight forward and rolls, forcing Dante to roll with her. Dante grabs what looks to be her last knife mid-roll out of her belt holster. Sarah brings her knee down on Dante's leg and has an officers grip on her wrist, but Dante has a knife pointing up at her neck.

"Jason." Jason raises a brow. "I apologize for suspecting you, and thank you." Sarah smirks. "I think I can handle things from here."

"s'no problem." Jason smiles positively. "You can deal with her, I need to get this S.U.N. Gun to Tony pronto."

"Go with speed!" As if on que Jason leaves. He lariats one of the bystander packers in the process. "Now-" Dante tries to thrust her knife into Sarah's neck but Sarah grabs the wrist with her free hand and slams in down on the ground. She looks down upon Dante with immense fury. "How dare you go around and murder people with that uniform on!" Sarah grits her teeth. "You think I'll let you get away with sullying the honor of the police?!"

---

"'I'm sure he would make his way toward the stage."' Bo reasons to himself while heading toward that direction. He's managed to keep himself relatively unnoticed by would be packers through careful footwork, though even with his injury just about any of them would prove to be a minor obstacle. Bo places his hand on his shoulder and slightly frowns as he thinks to himself. "'I shouldn't have been so careless while I was watching the target fighting. I didn't even notice all the bloodlust surrounding her."' Bo shakes his head. "'How did they even get a cop uniform in the first place?"' Bo lightly grins as he sees the stage not too far from him. "'There it is. I-'"

Before Bo can continue with his thought process a loud "GOOOOAAAALLLLL!" shout is heard from the stage, proceeded by an agonized "AUGH!". Bo picks up his pace and looks past one of the packers also watching the stage. Bo lifts a brow, almost surprised to see what he does; Antonio on his back with Joao standing about five feet from him and looking better off.

---

Two minutes and a half prior

Antonio cracks his neck and looks up at Joao with a confident smirk. "You want me to pay?" Tony shakes his head and sighs. "I just can't get away from you weird greedy b******s can I?" Tony hops up on the edge of the stage and points at Joao. Joao crosses his arms and smiles. "Don't worry buddy, I'll pay you! You might not like the currency though."

Joao shrugs and uncrosses his arms, placing his hands on his hips and lifting his chin up. "Sounds like you don't really care for the party. Well-" Antonio suddenly bursts into a sprint toward Joao. His chip goes mad as he tries to knee Joao in the gut. Joao takes advantage of Tony's encumbered attack and smashes his elbow down on his knee. Joao's eyes shoot open as pain courses through his arm. Tony brings his other leg up and tries to hit an airborne roundhouse but the chips 'shock' once again slows him. Joao leaps directly up and over Tony's kick. He spread-eagles in midair, thrusting one of his feet into Tony's face. Antonio stumbles back and falls on his back as Joao lands and squats. He looks at Antonio surprised.

"What are ya, steel?!" Joao stands and looks at Tony with concerned. "An' that's a damned S.U.N. Chip yer fightin' with! You shouldn't even be able to think about attackin' me with that on! Just what kinda pit of hell did you crawl out of?!"

Antonio grins as he rolls forward off his back and into a sitting position as Joao reaches into his bag. "I guess you could call Eastvine that, as for me I'm the worst thing that'll ever happen to you-" Joao lobs an oily looking ball at Tony. It hits the stage and bursts into a flash flame in front of him. "What the-" Before Antonio can react to anything Joao is upon him and swings his leg hard as if he were kicking at a soccer ball. It flies through the flame and smashes shin first into Tony's orbital bone. Tony is sent rolling backward toward the edge of the stage. 

"GOOOOAAAALLLLL!" Joao shouts, but his gleeful expression changes to agony as a great pain rushes into his shin. "AUGH!" Joao hops up and down on one foot as he holds his shin. "Ya are steel!"

Antonio slowly sits up. He rubs the little bit of blood coming from his nostril and smirks. "Good kick, I actually felt that one."

---

Two minutes prior

It's only five seconds after Jason left Sarah to deal with Dante.  He had just taken out one of the other four packers surrounding the two and Jace, leaving Sarah to clean up the rest. Jason reasoned to himself that Sarah had shown fighting spirit whereas Dante and her henchmen had no signs of it. That aside Antonio was likely in a desperate need to remove the debilitating stamp on him. Tony was a monster, but even he wasn't going to be able to fight for too long with pulses of agony constantly tracing his body.

Jasons feet begin to spark as he prepares to rush forward toward the direction of the stage, but he stops hard. Out of the corner of his eye he notices something peculiar; a girl in a worn out red shirt and skirt wearing a brilliant gemstone around her neck and struggling to free her ankle from the grasp of a bloodied packer on the ground. Rosaline and Will.

Will violently jerks his arm back and trips Rosaline. He coughs up blood and shudders. "I ain't givin' up that stone!"

"Get off of me!" Rosaline kicks Will in the face twice with her free foot, busting his lower lip open. Will roars in anger as he lets go of her ankle and leaps onto her and grabs the necklace. "NO!!!" Will rips the gemstone off the sturdy black lace and glares ferociously down at the girl.

"You dumb b***h!" Will lifts his hand up with the intent to slam it down on Rosalines face, but he isn't able to move it down. "What?!"

Will looks over his shoulder and sees that his wrist has been grabbed. Jason stands over him and looks down. "Enough of that now." Will tries to power his way out of Jason's grip, but not only is he too beaten up to bring much strength into his arm but Jason well outclasses him in power regardless. 

"Come on let go 'a me!"

"No." Jason yanks his arm up, pulling Will off of Rosaline. He pulls Will hard enough to pop his arm out of socket and bring him airborne. Jason smirks under his scarf as he sends a nasty wave of electric through Will. As Will releases the gemstone Jason releases him. "Lady-" Jason turns himself toward the direction of the stage. "You ought to hide your trinket a little better then that. Flaunting it around so arrogantly is just asking for trouble, its a magnet for attention."

Jason sprints away before Rosaline has a moment to respond. She greedily scoops up her heirloom and looks more agitated then relieved. "Did he just call me arrogant?!"

It takes Jason maybe four seconds to reach the stage from where Rosaline is. As he does he sees Antonio getting punted in the face, followed by an immediate "GOOOOAAAALLLLL!" and "AUGH!" by the kicker. 

Jason places his hand on the S.U.N. gun that's sticking out of the back of his waistband and looks at Antonio, then Joao, then Antonio again as he sits up. "Hmm..."

---

"Alright-" Antonio stands up and gives Joao a smug grin as he runs his thumb across the sun chip. "-try to keep up." 

Antonio starts to run at Joao, ignoring the pulse of the chip with relative ease. Joao is quick to  throw another oily ball at Tony, but this time hes also taken what looks like a caulking gun with a can on it out of the pocket too. As soon as Tony reaches to grab the ball Joao points the tool at him and pulls the trigger. A wave of heat radiates from the nozzle and ignites the ball in Tony's hands. Joao thrusts his foot forward and hits Tony in the chest with the sole of his foot while Antonio is waving his hand around in irritation. Joao follows through and holds the trigger down on his heat gun. 

The humidity escalates to the point of scorching, effecting the chip and sending stronger pulse waves through Tony. Joao begins to backstep while removing the can from the gun. He throws it and four oil balls at Antonio. As soon as they come in contact with the heat the balls ignite around the can, causing it to rupture and explode just a foot from Tony. Antonio is sent flying backward and off the stage. His shirt is in tatters. Joao whistles and dusts off his hands as if he was done. Tony lands hard on his back, not too far from Jason. Jason looks down at him.

"Hey." Antonio opens his eyes. 

"Oh, hey."

"Looks like you're having a bit of trouble."

"Just a little" Antonio says with a cocky smirk.

Jason pulls the SUN Gun out of the back of his pants and holds it over Antonio. "Do you need help?" Antonio effortlessly kips up to his feet and pats the flame dancing around the shoulder of his sleeve. "You'll probably be through with him in no time without that."

"Yeah, which is exactly why I wanna finish this with the chip." Jason gives Antonio a concerned look. "Don't worry, even with the chip that guy can't really do much to me. Has no fighting spirit."

"Yeah and neither do you right now. You're sturdy, but you can't be eating explosions like that with just your body."

Antonio raises his eyebrow. "Wanna bet money on it?" Jason sighs and shakes his head. "He's probably hit me with his worst already-"

"HEEEEY!!!" Antonio and Jason turn their heads toward Joao. He now has something tied to his right arm. Its like the can holding object from before but its attached to his forearm. There's a thin barrel jutting past the back of his hand connected to it, and attached to the bottom is a small black tank with red words 'caution' across it. The trigger for this odd weapon is located on the palm of  his hand where one of the straps are keeping the thing sturdy. "I didn't wanna use this thing, but you're really bringin' th' party down man." Joao aims the barrel at Antonio and smirks uneasily. "So I'm gonna have'ta throw you out."

"Pfft." Antonio smirks back and takes two steps toward the stage. Joao seems hesitant to press the trigger. "Your party is crap. The punch is spiked and the music is terrible." Tony's smirk fades and a calm but cold glare shoots toward Joao. "Not to mention its host is a complete a*s." Antonio ducks down, just out of sight from Joao. Joao thinks Tony is doing it to avoid his weapon. He lowers his arm and grins. "Its enough to make me want to 'flip tables'." 

"Flip tables?" The stage shudders as if someone was trying to pick it up. Joao suddenly realizes what Antonio is trying to do. "What?! ''ey man you know how heavy this platform is right?! You're gonna pop yer guts out! Not to mention the chip-"

"The chip is nothing to me!" Antonio bluffs as he grunts and begins to heave the stage up. The chip agonizes Tony, but its not enough to stop him. Joao raises his eyebrows in concern as Antonio yells out. "And this stage is nothing but a paper weight to me!!!" 

Antonio brings the side of the stage hes trying to lift upward. Joao almost trips. His look of concern turns to fear as Antonio brings the bottom of the stage to his chest. The stage is tilted at a 30 degree angle now. Jason has his hand on his head and looks amazed. Even without a chip Jason doubts he'd be able to pull this kind of stunt off! Bo looks on in shock, and Joao struggles to keep his footing.

"You goddamn freak!" 

Joao dashes forward and up the stage. Antonio lifts the side of the stage up and above his head, tilting the stage at 50 degrees now, but Joao jumps off the stage at the same time and double stomps Tony on the top of the head. Joao falls forward and bends his legs in, then thrusts them backward into Antonio's back. Tony trips forward and falls into the stage as if falls onto him. Joao lands on his belly and quickly rolls on his back, sitting up and aiming the barrel of his contraption toward the base of the stage.

"Gotta be sure!"

Joao presses the trigger. A white streak of flame launches out at an incredible speed and blasts a hole through the stage. Hardly a second later flames burst through the surface of the stage. The heat is enough for anyone within a forty five foot radius to feel it, and those close to it are in threat of burns, especially Joao. Joao clutches his wrist as it writhes in pain. Jason drops the SUN gun and Bo is at a complete loss of words.

"Ahh, I don't think it broke-" Joao says as he rubs his wrist. "-but man I hate using this."

Jason shakes his head solemnly and looks toward Joao. "Don't worry, once I'm done you won't be using that thing ever again-" Just as Jason finishes his sentence Antonio rises from the inferno. A maniacal grin decorates his bloody and burnt face. Embers dance around what's left of his pants and a little on his hair. The chip is still there somehow undamaged, but it's angry pulses are torturous. 

"I'm not done yet." Tony speaks in wheezes as he looks down at Joao. Joao looks to be on the verge of tears.