Something lost, something found. (open)

Mantis didn’t mind his work being done for him, as Reginold threw a figurative lighter to the gasoline that was this situation. Alerts popped up on his UI as needles were exchanged and barriers established. He turned to look at the Doctor over his shoulder only to be addressed by him. The wince that traveled across the older man’s face didn’t go unnoticed, but Mantis decided it was a matter to be wondered about when the environment was less hostile.

“Yes, this place is quite literally dead,” the spymaster mused in response and pushed himself off the counter in the little window of time the doctor’s barrier had provided.

However, Mantis had only managed to turn around and grab a hold of his opioid gun when the kingpin was on him. The knife was a slash of silver in the dark as it traveled through the field of his vision, much faster than he would have expected from a street thug. No doubt wielding a knife in this fashion was one of the highlights on his resume.

Mantis jumped back but collided with the bar counter behind him. Turning this loss into a gain, with the momentum gained from the collision, he somersaulted backwards, over the counter top and sent an incapacitating round from his gun to the bartender’s direction. The hasty acrobatics landed him behind the counter and he took a fraction of a second to inspect the damage done to his chest.

“Motherfucker,” he muttered under his breath as he took note how the thug had made a nice slash across the chest of his expensive jacket. The cut exposed a good amount of white skin and a slight trickle of blood where he’d managed to scrape Mantis.

Without having the proper time to wrinkle his nose at this, the spymaster recharged and before dashing from behind the counter towards the cover of some turned over tables, popped a dose of the battle enhancer formula into his neck artery.

Enoch's shield wavered briefly as Reginold took shelter in a similar spot to Mantis; he frowned a bit, not how he was expecting his night to go but it could be worse. The droid was sending data through his augments, picking targets that seemed most important. The good doctor looked behind him. Where the Los Muertos had come in was the main entrance, but there was the emergency fire exit where Reginold and Mantis were hiding. It was beyond the DJ station. That's where he'd be headed.

Pistol up he fired a few rounds over the table at one of the men who'd separated from the crowd to pursue the targets. Enoch's droid dropped down and onto Reginold's back for the moment, shield needing to recharge. It wasn't exactly a Crusader shield after all. The doctor put his gaze onto Mantis and made a motion at his eyes then over his shoulder towards the DJ station. "I haven't got the ammo to deal with this, and my body can't maintain too many doses of Nanovirus, I'd burn out;" he said, making sure not to say what he was planning directly.

If they could get to the emergency door they'd have a chance at escape, considering it was illuminated thanks to glow in the dark plastics it wasn't hard to find in the dark. "Do you understand what I mean?" Another few shots over the table. "I know a place to hide." Make that many places, escaping his problems was something Reginold did best after all.

He dropped the empty pulse cartridge and loaded in another one. "I'm going to count down from 3, we move then;"

"3, 2...1;" At that he bolted for the door, after another injection; it would be enough to get him to the door, but as soon as he cracked it open, the fire alarm went off. Of course it would, these systems had battery back ups for just such situations. Well, he supposed what little emergency services they had down in this shit hole would be arriving but he didn't intend to be here when they did.

El Craneo motioned to his men and then put a finger onto the side of his helmet. "Back door." He said as he saw his target and the other man begin to flee. His men all began to move around the bar and those with guns fired at the two men in an attempt to suppress them. As they were approaching the DJ stand the back door burst off it's hinges and a massive man entered, his body adorned with glowing grey body paint and sparks jumping across the metallic gauntlets on his arms. The giant snorted and scrapped a foot on the ground. El Rinoceronte looked down at Reginold and Mantis, then slammed his fists together, sending more electricity across his gauntlets and up to a metallic horn attached to a helmet, and then charged at the two men.

Everything went muffled for a moment when the stimulants hit Mantis’ veins, leaving his pupils so dilated that they looked like two black holes. Then, when he landed behind the cover, within hearing distance from the doctor, everything came back to laser focus – clearer brighter and better than before. The data feed at the edges of his vision accelerated along with his heart rate. And for a moment he appeared a bit out of breath as his body struggled to accept the substance given. In a matter of seconds, however, they found synergy.

“Shame, I could do this all day,” Mantis jested in return to the doctors remark of the nanovirus and burning out. While the spymaster lacked the complete knowledge of what Reginold was talking about, he knew a thing or two about burning out – when it came to substances at least. And he also knew that should they not force their way out of the club sooner rather than later, he too was a subject to such burn out.

He’d gathered his body into an alert little crouch and prepped his opioid gun with a new set of rounds before agreeing to the doctor’s proposed plan with a nod. However, before the plan could so much as commence, it literally backfired. Mantis evaded a blur of a charge before he even properly registered it himself, landing in a middle of a bullet hell that was a bit rougher to avoid. This made him dive from one cover to another, to avoid becoming the likeness of Swiss cheese.

“You have to be kidding me.”

He gritted his teeth in the cover, the reluctant decision that he was about to make plain on his face. Without his personal drone, TIC, the calypra beam subjected him to the danger of overloading, but he opened up his free hand anyway, the metal plates in the middle of his palm shifted to reveal the glow of charging energy. He couldn’t use it to drain this … rhino directly from here, nor could he risk getting up and attracting bullets which were already plenty in the air. But as a pair of cargo pant revealed legs of a Muertos thug drew close enough to his proximity, he dove for them, quickly attaching the beam and tugging so the man would loose his balance and come crashing on the floor. There Mantis could easily pick him up and use him as a human shield to get a couple of steps closer to the exit before another rhino charge would slice the club, now filled with the sound of the drunken night dwellers screaming.

Reginold had much the same thought as Mantis, /you've got to be kidding me/ as he jumped out of the way of this Rhino man, heard pounding as he clenched his fists, he'd nearly dropped his pistol he'd been so stunned, what the hell was that thing? Some kind of horrifying genetic monstrosity he assumed. This is why he'd never really gotten into bio-engineering. He regretted it partially, as maybe he'd have some idea on how to stop this beast and escape more easily. As it were he knew his little injectors wouldn't be getting through skin that thick if he could even get close enough.

He was taking refuge behind the DJ station now, gun fire all around him making it hard to think, his Augs were doing all that they could to keep up with his accelerated thought processes and Enoch's warnings. The drone slipped off his back again taking note of the room and marking targets again. Reginold really needed to develop a HUD to better organize this data stream, a GUI would be much appreciated for interfacing with the drone. Later. Right now Enoch's shield was back up allowing him some flexibility.

Mantis was marked in green, with the rest being marked in red. Now separated he wasn't sure how he was going to communicate with the other man who seemed to be his own sort of agent, maybe he and Los Meurtos wanted the same thing. Reginold couldn't worry about that now, he was going to need that sort of expertise to get himself out of here. The door being busted open was a blessing in some ways, it meant they could just bolt out without worrying about those scarce seconds. His hand was beginning to shake, his breathing ragged, he wasn't sure at what longevity and potency the Nanovirus was lethal at even in it's beneficial mode so he was playing it by ear. He could feel it wearing off.

No time for development as he shot a man trying to flank him, Enoch was worrying about his vitals. "...Think, Reginold; door, rhino, room...Enoch what's the charge on your control pulse?"

"85%"

"How long until full charge?"

"10 minutes at current power draw."

"...Get to the battery back up for the fire alarm, full draw."

"Yes, sir" The drone left him then, shifting to crawling on the ground weaving through tables. Now Reginold just needed a way to keep in touch with the Mantis. Think Reginold, think. The shakes were getting worse, his mind was slowing down, he'd need another dosage before they'd be able to make it out. He wasn't sure his heart could take it. He briefly poked out over the DJ stand and raised his hand up, the gauntlet had a glow to it; he flashed twice trying to get the man's attention. Then he pointed towards the ruined door frame that the Drone was currently draining of power.

It was really all he could do. If Enough could disable the guns and this Rhino's equipment maybe they'd have a window to escape. Longshot but worth the try.

El Craneo watched as the scene unfolded and smirked. Sure this would require some reconstruction to get his establishment up and running again, but this wouldn't have been the first time. He watched as Mantis took the human hostage and sighed. "El Rinoceronte, handle the doctor." The gang leader said as he made his way across the room. He walked through the carnage and right up to Mantis. "Your sacrifice will not be in vain. Sangre para el dios de la sangre." He said, plunging his knife into his own man, the blade glowing red as he pulled it out. "Now stop interfering fool!" He said as he began to slash at Mantis. Meanwhile the giant caught sight of the doctor's light and charged, slamming both fists down with an arc of electricity bolting off through the air.

There hadn't been even a fraction of a second when Mantis had thought the lead Muerto to be sentimental about his goons. The unfortunate one he'd managed to catch, Mantis hadn't considered a hostage as much as a meat shield between himself and the bullets that had been traveling the room in herds. So understandably he was a little taken aback when the poor thug was stabbed to what from his perspective looked like a merciful death.

The spymaster leaped back as his cover was brutally compromised. His hand was still glowing with the warmed up calyptra beam as he backed away after his initial leap, protected from bullets by the close proximity of the kingpin. Before he lunged at Mantis, that was. The thug's knifeplay was still swift, some of the best as far as the streets were concerned. It gave Mantis a run for his money, even when he was operating under influence. He was, nevertheless, under the influence, which meant he was somewhat elusive - or at least very hard to hit.

Then, being chased back by the attack, from the corner of his eye, the spymaster caught the sight of Reginold. The simple UI indicated his location and displayed a calculation on approximate distance. He could make it.

Evasion, shift, plunge. A delicate dance around slashes of the weapon.

When his computer picked up an opening, with one more backwards leap, he swiftly raised his opioid gun and shot and incapacitating round to the kingpin’s direction. If not to incapacitate him, to least hoping to break his concentrated attack for long enough to plunge behind DJ booth the good doctor was occupying.

Only to land in the rhino monster’s charging path.
“Shit,” he had the time to utter under his breath.

Reginold noted the fight commencing with king pin and his wayward companion in all of this. The doctor was certain that indeed this man also wanted something from him; his movements, skill and tech were all too impressive to be some common club goer hitting up an older man. A few tense moments and he had to decide.

Mantis was moving towards him with each artful dodge, and that was enough for him to decide, he was going to need more Nanites. If he was getting out of this alive he'd need to be as fast, and as clear headed as possible. A feed started into his augments, signalling the control pulse was ready, which would exclude Mantis and the Doctor. Speaking of the man...the rhino man was charging Reginolds location. His companion was in the way. Another dose of Nanovirus and Reginold was on his feet, a shudder through his spine.

The doctor ran through a small haze of bullets quite literally snatching the thin form up off the ground and out of the way of charging monstrosity. That was enough of an opening, Enoch's droid flew up shield covering their escape. "Initiating pulse," it murmured before a wave of electronic signal burst through the club, it would disable pulse rounds, deactivate equipment and act as something of a flash bang to blind the men who'd been fighting in the dark. He barely made it to the door and just kept running, not bothering to put Mantis down, felt like his heart was literally going to burst, his augments screaming about his vitals.

No time time worry about that now, if he stayed they were dead, if he ran he might be dead. Enoch's drone kept the radial shield behind them hovering right behind.