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Post by Beelzebibble on Nov 9, 2015 14:10:16 GMT -5
Monday the 16th 1:25 pm“All right there, Sikes?” issued a voice from the walkie-talkie. “All right. Got a couple of gents here tried to play the hero. Under wraps now. Otherwise, nothing wrong.” Sikes scratched at an irritated ring on his lower lip as he listened to Allen’s reply: “Good. I’ll close up shop down there, then.” And with perfect timing, the electric gate at the garage entrance unfolded into place, sealing off the final opening into the building. The Hotel Ansonia was officially closed for the afternoon. “Thanks. Guess there’s no problems on your end, either.” “Not at all. Over.” Sikes managed to smirk in spite of the blood on his face. He could quite clearly envision Allen in the control room, holding the rest of the security staff hostage while he infiltrated the system. Mind you, Sikes hadn’t actually seen Allen for a few months at this point. Damned devious of the boss to plant so many employees at the Hotel Ansonia over the past half year. There was one who scheduled ahead. Too bad he’d put Sikes in charge of the garage, though. The others upstairs must have been having so much fun. Now that this pair had been taken care of, Sikes very much doubted he’d see any more excitement before it was time to leave. ISHKABIBBLE SCENE TWENTY-ONE Rie Voices Few Questions Despite Finding Herself Confronted by a Substantial Mystery
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Post by Tout-Perd on Nov 13, 2015 12:35:31 GMT -5
Nopcsa kept his head hung low, mindfully letting his eyes stay shut and resisting the urge to wince. He also had been choking down the urge to make sex noises while Sikes had been talking to his employer, which was much harder than tuning out a broken finger and bruised ribs. Even though, as this narrative had thoroughly established, Sikes would not be shooting Nopcsa any time soon, his shattered digit gave the brute an easy outlet for any torturous and/or vengeful impulses he felt like satiating. Best to not encourage any of those, for once.
The telepath shifted, trying his bonds, but found that Sikes was substantially more competent with knots than anything else he'd done that day. He'd looped his arms and Alpha's together in such a way that neither could reach the other's knots, or their own, for that matter.
If Alpha had been awake, he'd tell the duplicate to have Terrian beam him up. If Sikes noticed him vanishing, Nopcsa could use it to bluff that his powers were substantially more dangerous than passive mindreading, and if he didn't notice, the mindreader could easily have convinced the thug that the duplicate was on the loose, and was either going to bring help, or was planning a sneak attack.
However, the linguist dozed on. Nopcsa thought he even detected a slight snoring. It made sense, really. Since Terrian got all the pain from his copies, even an uncomfortable position like this was quite cozy. Any efforts Nopcsa could make to waken him would either be loud enough to get the thug's attention, or painful enough that all he'd accomplish would be antagonizing Terrian.
After a moment's thought, Nopcsa drove the knuckles of his good hand into Alpha's ribs, and twisted, hard. Either it would get Terrian's attention, or more likely, it would be completely futile except for irritating the original. Admittedly, though pointless, that did make the mindreader feel slightly better. Nopcsa found himself regretting that he had been trussed in such a way that delivering a purple-nurple to Alpha was impossible.
Nopcsa paused, eyes opening in suprise. That could be his way out. If he made Sikes angry enough to want to torture him, he'd have to untie his hands to get to his broken finger. And while Sikes was occupied with further decimating his digits, Nopcsa could use his good hand to snag the gun. It was a long shot, but he liked the odds a lot better than serving as a passive hostage.
"Yo, Sikes!" He belted out, instantly puffing up and regaining his signature swagger. He turned as best he could, and shot a gigantic shit-eating grin to the thug.
"You know how I was complaining how homo-erotic this whole deal was? Forcibly tying up two virile lads like this, it really isn't helping. I mean, I understand the sheer number of repressed urges that you're struggling with right now, but bondage isn't quite my kink."
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Post by Beelzebibble on Nov 13, 2015 17:47:00 GMT -5
"Oh, you're fuckin' funny," Sikes snapped. He couldn't wait to hear what the boss would think of this one. The other one was useless, he could be blanked and discarded, or killed for all Sikes cared, but the mindreader was a special find. Tanner wouldn't just wipe this one's memory and cast him aside. He had to be good for something. Even if it was just the spectacle of watching him try to talk his way off the chopping block. He certainly had a way with words.
Dabbing blood off his lip with a corner of his jacket collar, and letting the gun dangle at his other side, Sikes set about convincing himself what a privilege it'd be if he were requested to blast the tosser's jaw off personally. He wasn't about to disappoint the King of Clubs a second time.
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Post by Tout-Perd on Nov 15, 2015 0:29:16 GMT -5
"Second time? HA!" Nopcsa pitched forward laughing hard enough that he felt his wrist pop. His injured finger protested this movement with what felt like a truck running over it. Nopcsa clenched his teeth, and with some serious willpower, turned his expression into a wild grin, "Even though you suck balls at everything you do, you might just have a bright future in comedy!"
He let his expression darken.
"That is, assuming you have a future."
"You know as well as anybody that when the King of Clubs says he's giving you another chance, he actually means that it's your last chance, and he's just too much of a gentleman to state it more bluntly. You remember the the most recent time that happened, yes?"
Nopcsa paused as Sikes conjured up a mental image. The telepath actually drew his focus back, doing his best to tune out the impressive damage that had been done to the man's corpse by the time the henchman had seen it. Ever since Salt Lake City, Nopcsa had lost his stomach for gore, especially when things like that were done to somebody's face- The mindreader supressed a shudder, and continued speaking.
"The reason why you're so eager to kill me is because you know I'm going to be filling your spot on the payroll by Wednesay," Nopcsa managed to throw his head back so that he was leering at Sikes, his view upside down.
"As for what you'll be filling?" His eyes gleamed menacingly, "Well, there is a lovely lake about fifty miles east of here."
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Post by ch00beh on Nov 15, 2015 22:18:28 GMT -5
Sikes unconsciously clenched his fist, then continued the action consciously. The body he was imagining turned into the mind reader’s broken face. Sikes forced a laugh.
“Big talk from a guy tied up with no weapon. Lucky the boss likes people with powers alive.” Sikes brandished his gun for effect.
Or rather, he would have brandished his gun if he hadn't felt a sudden pinch at the top of his wrist accompanied by a spreading numbness up his forearm.
“You know he’s right, David, you are very bad at your job.”
Sikes saw a silhouette in the car he was guarding and turned around, uselessly moving his shoulder to raise the gun. Except for the other parked cars, there was nothing. What the hell... The shadow was right behind me... Sikes strained his ears but could only make out distant, muted gunfire.
“Ha. Ha,” the voice came from behind him.
“What the fuck?!?” Sikes spun around again and fired two shots, then two more. These were the last bullets, and appropriately enough, at this moment the numbness spread to his fingers and caused him to lose hold of the gun. It clattered to the concrete underfoot.
The shadow in the car shifted then slowly disappeared. Sikes, speechless, took a frightened step backward. A hand on his shoulder stopped him from taking a second step.
“Did you really think a common thief like yourself would matter when it came to life and death?” a monotonous, bored voice said into Sikes’ ear.
The man screamed in surprise, then in pain as a knife slid into his kidney. Another sharp pain penetrated his lower back with enogh force to separate his lower spine. Sikes crumpled into a screaming mess, no longer able to move his legs. He craned his neck in an effort to look at his attacker and saw a figure with no face dressed in all white. Sikes tried to grab at anything to drag himself away.
“I would say you’re a disappointment, David, but really I only pegged you at 10% chance of being able to look someone in the eye and pull the trigger.”
Sikes didn’t hear any of that as his own screams echoed through the garage. Sikes could barely see the attacker step in front of him through all the blood and tears covering his face. The attacker squatted down and pulled back Sikes' hair.
“Hush now, David. The adults have pleasantries to attend to.”
Mandelbrot took out a scalpel from its coat and drew a small slit through Sikes' throat. The killer was careful to only sever the esophagus and vocal chords, not the jugular. It stood up to face the captives inside the car.
“Terrian Brogue. Excellent.”
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Post by Tout-Perd on Nov 23, 2015 23:49:58 GMT -5
“Y’know, buddy, you really need to work on your trash talk-“ Nopcsa choked on his own spit as Mandelbrot drove the blade into Sikes. The mindreader hastily disengaged from the thug’s thoughts as the man went down and began bleeding out. He really didn’t need to feel somebody’s dying thoughts. No, not again.
The psychopath rose from where it had placed its victim, drawing a lopsided crimson smirk across its blank canvas of a face. As it mentioned Terrian, it leaned in, its breath fogging the glass. It made a “Hm,” devoid of curiosity.
Nopcsa turned in his seat, jamming his feet up against the inside of the car door. He pushed with all his might, gaining a scant few inches. Of course, Sikes had to leave me tied up on the side between this… thing and its target. The freak leaned in against the window, its forehead touching the glass. Nopcsa could have swore he saw a flicker of the innards of its skull, as if the window was a guillotine, cleaving through its face.
The telepath twisted, and slammed the heel of his shoe against the window. The killer withdrew, less from discomfort than for the sake of observation. The gore that had bedecked its face had already seeped into the fabric of its mask.
Nopcsa gritted his teeth. He had virtually no leverage to negotiate, and he wasn’t exactly certain that dipping into the butcher’s mind was a better option at all. Still, it beat flailing and screaming.
He opened his mind, deliberately focusing his senses away from Sikes’ frantic pleading to the powers above. The first thing that hit him was a high, thready ringing, like somebody rubbing their finger along the edge of a wineglass, punctuated occasionally by a wet squelch. After a moment of contemplation, Nopcsa felt his stomach churn. That slurping sound was the noise from the scalpel plunging into Sikes’ throat. No, wait- It was many different sounds like that, dozens of impalements and mutilations being held dearly and played back over and over in this blasphemy’s head like a treasured memory or favorite song.
The mindreader felt the scars along his jawline throbbing, like when his face had first been clawed open, and his vision swam. He took hold of his broken finger, and wrenched it violently. The sharp physical pain pulled reality back into clarity. He wasn’t sure if the thing had a deliberate telepathic defense, or if it was just that warped, but he had to get into its surface thoughts to get something to work with. Nopcsa took three ragged, panting breaths, and pushed his focus past the symphony of eviscerations.
Once he got past that, he found a much more peaceful tone. Though the ringing still echoed in the background, the being’s mental voice was every bit as level and calm as its vocal one.
Nopcsa shook his head, trying to clear the droning from his senses. He could taste bile at the back of his throat. Choking it down, he managed to speak.
"Hey, uh, buddy, you do realize this isn't even Terrian here, right? It's one of his copies that he left behind. You may as well mosey along, because stabbing this fella would be about as effective as shanking one of his turds."
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Post by ch00beh on Nov 24, 2015 10:51:50 GMT -5
"Oh my," the masked killer said, its monotonous voice lacking any exclamation of surprise despite its words. "That is awful news about Terrian. On the other hand, what a pleasant surprise to find a mind reader..."
Mandelbrot reached into its coat, cherishing the beautiful play of quivering facial expressions and tensing body language that shuddered across the mind reader as he recoiled back. Mandelbrot's fingers immediately found the notebook where it had been left, but the killer took its time withdrawing its hand. It concentrated, vividly imagining a set of dentist tools in its coat. As Mandelbrot pretended to rummage, it observed the mind reader. Eyes dilating. A twitch across the scarred jawline. A centimeter of futile movement in an attempt to make more space. Exquisite.
Mandelbrot finally pulled out its little black book. The mind reader's body slackened every so slightly--relief was an amusing emotion to play with. The abstract thought of grinning flitted through the killer's mind as it casually flipped through the notebook, finally settling on a page with "Terian Broge" written neatly at the top. It took a pen from the notebook's spine and jotted down a note about the duplicate. Useless to kill a duplicate? Need evidence. Obvious gambit by associated mind reader--Ender, Harmony, Nopcsa? The pen's scratching was audible despite the gurgles of a dying man nearby.
Mandelbrot deliberately drew out turning a few more pages. It could practically hear the mind reader sweating. It focused on the man's quivering lower eye lid, hoping he was watching.
"Now," Mandelbrot slammed the notebook shut. The reader twitched. His chest rose and fell at an elevated rate, presumably as adrenaline filled his system. Mandelbrot's cheeks lifted ever so slightly. "I love surprising mind readers. They're always so helpless when they don't know what everyone else is about to do."
The killer began to pace around the car. It knew the mind reader's instincts would force him to keep the killer in his field of vision because he couldn't simply listen for intent to attack. Being tied up and seemingly injured, that would be terribly inconvenient. "Now, if I had to guess, as a mind reader associated with Mr. Brogue and sporting a lovely facial scar, you would be Nopcsa from the Fascere Order, yes?
"I commend your attempt to have me leave you and this duplicate alone," Mandelbrot was behind the car at this point, soundlessly taking its slow, casual steps. It paused, regarding the tied up men through the sedan's back window. "But where's the fun in just walking away? I don't even know if you're telling the truth about the futility of killing a copy."
Mandelbrot had made its way to the duplicate's side of the car. Curiously, the glass was already broken. Bad luck for the car today, it seemed. The killer cocked its head and shrugged, then looked up at Nopcsa. Judging by his unflared nostrils, it appeared the man's heart rate was starting to lower. That just wouldn't do. Mandelbrot moved closer to teh front side window and leaned its forehead to the glass as it had done earlier. The killer made sure the mind reader was staring up front, then raised a latex gloved hand up, pressing it against the window.
"Besides, Nopcsa, you've also been very naughty over the past few years," Mandelbrot said. It pushed against the glass, arm disappearing into the window as if it were reaching into a pon. The hand didn't come out the front window, however, as Nopcsa felt latex caressing his cheek from behind.
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Post by Tout-Perd on Nov 25, 2015 14:07:25 GMT -5
Nopcsa shuddered, feeling the hand running across his skin. This was it- Either he took action now, or he'd be gutted like a fish. Apparently, being a very minor Power wasn't sufficient to dissuade the killer. He shrank away from Mandelbrot's touch, just enough to lure it into reaching farther into the vehicle. The icy fingers stroked his cheek again. Nopcsa could see Mandebrot's other hand playing delicately with the scalpel. He had to go for it.
Disguising his agony as a reaction to the murderer's touch, he twisted his broken hand through Sikes' knots. If his fingers had been intact, there wouldn't have been a way out, but Nopcsa was having all the luck today. He reached up to grab Mandelbrot's arm by the wrist and acted as if he was pushing it away.
"You really don't know the half of it, do you?" He panted, on the verge of hyperventillating.
"I'm just going to have to show you," Nopcsa wrenched with every muscle in his body, trying to bend the arm in the wrong direction. As he did so, he went for his real goal; he hooked the pointy toe of one of his dress shoes into the handle of the car door, and pulled towards himself. The moment that the latch popped open, he planted both his feet against the car door, and gave it an adrenaline-fueled shove. It flew upon, catching Mandelbrot in the ribs.
The mindreader lunged as best he could with his feet tied together. He slammed facefirst onto the concrete, hard enough that his vision flashed. Even as blood poured from his forehead, he writhed away from Mandelbroth. Using his free hand, he snatched up Sikes' walkie talkie from the spreading puddle of gore.
Clenching his shattered fingers as tightly as he could muster, he shouted raggedly into the walkie-talkie.
"I lied, Allen! We've got a situation! The parking garage has been breached, and there's a Power here who's out to kill our boss!"
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Post by ch00beh on Nov 28, 2015 0:03:59 GMT -5
Mandelbrot crumpled to the ground after taking the car door to the chest. As Nopcsa cried into Sike's walkie talkie, the killer slowly rolled onto its stomach and casually pushed itself up. It moved with an awkward grace, limbs moving fluidly as if unconcerned about stretching ligaments in unnatural ways. It rolled its neck then turned toward Nopcsa, blank face showing no movement. Being knocked to the ground were barely an inconvenience.
"Ha. Ha. Ha," Mandelbrot said. It was the same deadpan "laugh" as when Mandelbrot was toying with Sikes.
Rie pressed up behind the door to the garage. She pulled out her rifle and with practiced ease, released the magazine into her off hand. She glanced down for half a second, double--no, this was the fifth time--checking that all 30 5.56mm rounds were present and accounted for. She had to be extra sure as she had left two pistols behind with the rest of the group. 30 shots in the rifle and 10 in her only remaining pistol, plus one in the chamber for each. Hopefully no situation came up that would need more than 42 rounds.
The girl listened for violence on the other side of the door. Hearing nothing, she stole a glance through the door window. She was about to phase through when she hear a scream from the floor below. Rie immediately sank through the floor, landing in front of another door almost identical to the one above save for a calligraphed "B" rather than "A".
Rie stepped through the heavy metal door without opening it, rifle raised and ready. As soon as she was through, Rie could hear the diminishing gurgling cry of a dying man echo off the concrete walls. The girl didn't pause, sprinting to the nearest pillar and phasing into it. She phased her heavy boots with every step, effectively silencing them. She knew the scream couldn't be Alpha since Terrian took the pain. More unknowns. Great. Though, it could be that Alpha was the one doing the killing. Compared to Terrian, Alpha did seem to have more of his shit together, and it would explain why he wasn't responding. Rie was very familiar with the blank mind that combat brought. Rie needed to find out more.
Rie crouched down and stalked forward, stepping out of the completely black concrete pillar and back into the washed out fluorescent garage. The sounds of death and murmur of voices were coming from one row of cars to the left. Rie slipped through the cars, making less noise than a cat stalking its prey. Her lack of noise didn't matter much, though, as the sounds of a brawl--breaking glass and shouting--picked up again. One of the voices screamed for reinforcements in the walkie talkie. Another laughed.
"Ha. Ha. Ha. That is going to hurt a little tomorrow. My only regret is that I can't say the same of your wounds since you'll be dead soon."
Rie recognized that voice. She recognized the humorless sound that was a facsimile of a fake laugh at best. She inched forward and her eyes confirmed: Mandelbrot. The motherfucker that tried to kill Rie in her sleep. The killer had its back turned to Rie, and the girl was fine with that. She raised her rifle at the killer's head and moved her finger to the trigger.
SLAM
The noise of a slamming door and running footsteps paused Rie for just half a second. Enough time for Mandelbrot to flinch into a crouch as three bullets whizzed over its head, harmlessly sinking into the concrete ceiling. Before Rie could readjust and shoot again, the killer had already dived into its own reflection on the side of Terrian's broken car.
"I heard gunshots over this way!" some guy said.
Rie didn't curse. She shifted her feet just enough to stay stable while turning around. A man in a bellhop uniform and holding an uzi stepped into view behind the concrete pillar that was protecting Rie's back. The girl quickly switched her rifle to single fire and turned the man's head into a fine pink mist. Someone completely obscured by the pillar shouted "bloody hell!" Rie could hear clumsy footsteps running away from the body, meaning he would show up on the other side of the pillar right about...
A man dressed as a valet ran into view, and Rie immediately pulled the trigger. Her first shot barely missed, but the second tapped him square in the torso. The assassin hit him again in the head for good measure as he lost his balance and became less of a moving target. A pistol clattered out of his hands and onto the ground. Too many variables today. The girl didn't need more.
Mandelbrot had disappeared, but Rie knew the killer could show up at any time again so she turned completely ethereal. She stood up and turned to look at Terrian's car. Alpha was unconscious in the back seat, and two guys were sprawled out on the ground. One was twitching in a pool of blood, and the other looked like he was crying. Rie pointed her rifle at the crying one, ready to phase in and end his misery once she was done asking questions. "What's going on here?"
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Post by Tout-Perd on Nov 30, 2015 0:24:06 GMT -5
Nopcsa used his free hand to push himself to a halfway sitting position. As his gaze met Rie's, she felt a familiar sensation, a faint touch across her thoughts and memories. However, whereas Ender's mental touch had been firm and confident, this sensation was light and feathery, almost as if the man was tickling her brain. Upon realizing he was digging into her mind without permission, she made a point of aiming her weapon directly at the telepath's forehead.
"Hey, listen, I'm with you guys!" Nopcsa squirmed to his knees, but rose no further, lest he provoke Rie into firing. He pointed with his mangled hand towards the even more severely mangled car, "The guy, the one that looks like a gutted fish over there, he jumped Alpha and me, tied us up, and well- Whatever that thing was, it sliced him up."
"I don't know if you know the Fascere Order? Terrian, Ender, and-" The name stuck in his throat, "Natalie had some negotiations with us a while back. They sent me to check up on Mr. Brogue, seeing as how he's one of our more valued operatives, make sure he didn't put his foot in anything he couldn't handle and here we are... This Euler mage chick he owes a blood debt, Mafioso demanding protection fees, and now this Power hunter psychopath provides the deranged cherry on this shit sundae!"
Nopcsa met Rie's gaze as a particular thought rose to the surface.
"Oh, fucking seriously, he's mixing it up with the King of Clubs too?" Nopcsa slapped his forehead, leaving a gory handprint, "Is there any power on the earth below or the heavens above that Terrian isn't on the shitlist of?"
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Post by ch00beh on Dec 6, 2015 3:40:02 GMT -5
Rie felt the telepath brush her thoughts again. She moved her finger from its safe position to the trigger. "Stay out of my head."
This guy claimed to be on Terrian's side--therefore Rie's as well--but the girl had no reason to believe that. He was a mind reader; anything he said was probably true for someone else. Also, he had called for back up from armed goons. With Alpha knocked out, there was no way to verify the guy's story. It would be easier to kill him. Better, in fact, because Rie didn't know what other powers the guy had other than mind reading. It would remove another variable from this whole mess.
On the other hand, he was already pretty beat up. If had telekinesis or psionics or mind control or anything like that, he probably wouldn't have been so thoroughly broken by Mandelbrot.
"I don't believe you." Despite her words, Rie took her finger off the trigger and pointed her rifle toward the ceiling. "Read my thoughts again or try anything behind my back and I will put a bullet between your eyes."
Rie had been scanning the garage with her peripheral vision the entire time, but once she was reasonably sure the mind reader wouldn't move, she took her eyes off him to really look around. Nothing continued to move. Besides the sounds of three people breathing, silence.
Then something made a snapping noise behind Rie. The girl spun around to see a plastic vial sailing through the air and Mandelbrot dipping out of sight behind another parked car. Rie took two shots at the killer, ignoring the vial since she became ethereal again immediately after shooting. She stopped ignoring the vial when she felt it hit her in the chest instead of passing through her. Shit.
Rie dove into the nearby concrete pillar again, and just a moment later, the vial exploded with a deafening bang and brilliant flash of light. The shockwave, magic in nature, didn't do much physical damage, but it did shove Rie out of the pillar, sprawling her to the ground.
The girl barely managed to collect herself before Mandelbrot dove out of a nearby SUV's back window, knife in hand. The killer jumped on top of Rie, its physical body passing through the girl's. Rie had a feeling the knife would not do the same. As Mandelbrot brought the knife down toward Rie's chest, the girl instinctively dropped through the floor. She landed on her feet on the floor below, despite her head still spinning from the magic flashbang.
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Post by Tout-Perd on Dec 6, 2015 10:21:12 GMT -5
"Wait, what?" Nopcsa recoiled, looking almost like Rie had planted a knife in his heart, "You think I'm actually with these clowns? Do I look like the kind of guy who's ever even touched a strumpet in my life?"
It was then that Rie bailed, and Nopcsa saw the 'glowstick'. Fortunately for him, he was quite familiar with that sort of device, as the Fascere Order frequently dealt in them. Unfortunately for him, being on the receiving end of one typically sucked. The mindreader dove under the car, picking up another set of scrapes on the other side of his face. Nopcsa had to admit he wasn't pleased with his newfound symmetry, especially as he slapped his hands over his ears and clamped his eyes shut.
The blast went off, though it left Nopcsa largely unfazed. He laid there in the suddenly vast feeling darkness and silence.
He shifted his good hand over, and slowly rubbed the bridge of his nose.
"...Crumpet, crumpet... The fuck did I just say?"
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Post by ch00beh on Dec 6, 2015 19:26:08 GMT -5
Rie didn't stumble as she ran at the garage wall and leapt, using it as a platform to catapult herself back up through the ceiling and out of the floor of garage level B. Her vision hadn't quite cleared, but she was still able to sweep her rifle over all reflective surfaces in her line of sight.
Movement. Something white shifted in Rie's peripheral vision. The girl turned to it and phased her rifle into the physical plane. With the after effects of the explosive still addling her senses, the girl took a shot at the object, only realizing a full second later that it was a lab coat with no wearer. The bullet passed clean through it and through several cars behind it. Before Rie could phase her gun back out, a silvery, metallic substance struck it from the girl's blind side. The substance moved like quicksilver, enveloping the gun's barrel, bubbling as it corroded the metal underneath. Rie dropped the rifle while stepping backwards into the wall. As her eyes fell into darkness, she saw Mandelbrot standing in white scrubs, still in a throwing stance.
A moment later, Rie stepped out of the concrete wall at a different position, pistol in hand. Mandelbrot managed to dive into its reflection in a nearby sedan. The two shots Rie took shattered the sedan's back and front windows. Nine shots left.
Rie stepped back into the wall. In the blackness, the girl clambered upward, measuring her movement so she could crawl into the ceiling. She holstered her gun using pure muscle memory, then felt around for the continuation of water pipes that traced themselves everywhere. When she found one, the girl shapeshifted into an albino mouse and crawled onto the pipe. Comfortable in the shadows, teh assassin watched for the killer again.
Mouse eyes were not ideal here, so Rie changed to the glaring eyes of a golden eagle. There. An oval, white object momentarily poked out of the side door of a BMW. It disappeared then reappeared in the windshield of a mini a few seconds later. Rie watched Mandelbrot scan and saw a simple linear pattern of movement. The girl crawled along the pipe, positioning herself where she thought Mandelbrot would appear soon.
Mandelbrot's head popped out the back window of a Maserati below with the slow, deliberate movement of a predator. Rie didn't hesitate as she shifted physical while her body exploded into that of a rhinoceros'. She landed without grace, completely destroying the car. Something white momentarily appeared int he hummer parked in the next space, so Rie just shuffled sideways and let her mass crush the SUV's side.
Rie felt something stab deep into her side, and a numnness started to spread from the point. Mandelbrot leapt out of a sedan three spaces down, bloody knife in hand. The killer charged Rie, but the girl dropped through the floor while shapeshifting out of her now disabled rhino form.
Two seconds later, an albino python burst from the ground and sank its teeth into Mandelbrot's foot. Rie's venomous bite tasted rubber rather than flesh, so be fore Mandelbrot could counter, Rie phased back into the ground.
Rie sprang again from the ground, this time aiming for Mandelbrot's inner thigh. The killer reacted just as quickly, sidestepping the attack and taking a swipe. The blade nicked Rie--not as deep as the earlier stab, but the girl could feel numbness spreading again. Rie started transforming in mid-air, and as a human, hit the ground in a dive. She phased her left hand so she could grasp the inside of the concrete structure and used her falling momentum to swing back upward. With her right hand, she pulled out her pistol and twisted her body around as she started ascending through the floor again.
Mandelbrot was already running for the nearest car. It dove head first at its reflection, but not before Rie could fire off three shots. The killer disappeared right as the bullets shattered the car's windows and punched holes in the door. Rie noted a smudge of red near one of the bullet holes.
"Ha. Ha. Ha. This feels good, wouldn't you agree?" said a voice from nowhere in particular.
Seven bullets left.
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Post by Tout-Perd on Dec 10, 2015 21:00:36 GMT -5
Nopcsa remained cowering beneath the undercarriage of the car, the floor smelling of oil and blood. He considered dartling out to snag Sikes' pistol, but skimming the abomination's thoughts revealed it had counted the shots, and the clip was officially empty.
He really didn't have any proper way to intercede in the fight... Unless...
The mindreader sighed, and rolled his eyes. Between the two combatants, he'd rather the person who was apathetic about shooting him win, versus the one who eagerly anticipated vivisecting him. But if he was going to tip the balance, he'd need to start dipping into their brains and meddling in their plans.
He opened his mind’s ears to listen, instead of rummaging through either mind. Rie would make a point of busting a cap, etc., and as for the other... Nopcsa wasn’t even going to go there. He could still taste bile on the back his tongue from his first pass.
Rie’s train of thought bubbled up, steady and clear. It was characterized by a lack of surprise, suspense, or even curiosity. The girl’s train of thought was on some very sturdy rails. It reminded Nopcsa of the night in the dorms, where the legendarily calm Huxley III tried to instruct the legendarily stoned Jimmy Hillary through the campaign mode of Halo.
”Keep your weapon aimed at headlevel, in case somebody’s there when you turn the corner. Be ready, they’ve got grenades this time. Don’t think that just because you’ve got shields, you’re safe-
Jimmy had died a lot that night.
Nopcsa changed his focus to the freakshow. Currently, they were concealed in one of the reflections, suckling on their mask like a kitten with a teat. Nopcsa shuddered again. The creature was savoring the taste, the aroma of Rie’s blood, recalling how much it enjoyed it.
Wait... Recalling?
Rie’d been blank on this thing, but it certainly wasn’t blank on her.
“Wait!” Nopcsa clambered up from where he’d been hiding, his hands raised to show he was unarmed.
“Rie, something’s not right-” Her gaze remained flat as she regarded him, “Well, besides everything about this guy. But I digress.”
“Rie, he knows you from somewhere.”
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Post by ch00beh on Dec 12, 2015 12:29:12 GMT -5
Rie knew Mandelbrot had attacked her before, but the mindreader's words implied more than just that. Strange. Rie decided she could figure that out after murdering the killer.
Movement to the left. Rie adjusted her footing and turned her pistol in that direction, just in time to catch Mandelbrot flitting behind the side of a black Audi. Rie was about to shoot the reflection when she noticed another plastic vial sailing through the air.
Rie sprinted in the opposite direction, holstering her gun in one smooth movement so she could clamp her palms over her ears. She counted the seconds, still remembering the approximate delay from the first bomb. At the moment of explosion, she braced and shut her eyes.
The blast knocked the girl off her feet, but being farther away and protecting the sensory inputs helped. Rie's head still swam, but she was coherent enough to see Mandelbrot jump out of a Mustang's window, attempting to get the drop on the girl before she could get to her feet.
Rie rolled over so she was on her back, and with practiced quickness pulled out her pistol again. It looked like one of Rie's earlier shots grazed Mandelbrot's calf as a smudge of crimson had spread around a small tear in the killer's scrubs. Rie didn't intend to miss again and pointed the gun at Mandelbrot's chest.
Her head still fuzzy, Rie's first shot went wide right. The comforting bang triggered a minor moment of clarity and the girl steadied her aim and took another shot. It would have been true if Mandelbrot didn't sidestep at the last millisecond. Rie released her finger and started to apply pressure again when Mandelbrot closed the last bit of distance and kicked the gun out of Rie's hand. The weapon clattered uselessly to the side.
Mandelbrot stomped its foot toward Rie's head, but the girl quickly rolled away. She scrambled to her feet and pulled a combat knife from her boot. Mandelbrot had started running back toward the Mustang.
Rie didn't want to deal with the cat and mouse game much longer. With her free hand, she grabbed a pair of throwing knives strapped to her thigh and then threw them, going more for speed than accuracy. Both knives missed Mandelbrot by a healthy margin, but that was fine as they struck the Mustang, shattering the windows that the killer could have used to escape. Mandelbrot paused, and Rie used that moment to take a third knife and throw it at the killer's center of mass.
Mandelbrot turned around just as the knife left Rie's hand, and it barely managed to move out of the way. Before it could make another move, Rie threw two more knives. The first glanced off Mandelbrot's upper leg, but the second sank squarely in the killer's right arm. As a reaction, Mandelbrot dropped its knife but didn't cry out in pain.
"Oh."
Rie rushed Mandelbrot and lowered her shoulder right into the killer's chest, pinning it against the car door. A breath of air was forced from Mandelbrot's mouth, then the killer crumpled to the ground. Rie pressed her knee over the killer's flailing good arm and held her knife against its neck. The girl was about to open Mandelbrot's jugular when she noticed her own blade shimmering like a still pond. The fractal pattern on Mandelbrot's forehead pulsated.
Rie grabbed the mask by the pattern and pulled. It resisted, as if it were clinging to the killer's face. Rie just pulled harder, and a moment later, it gave. Green eyes stared blankly from where there was once just blank white. A memory of being hired as a bodyguard on an artifact hunt then trudging through Thailand's jungles and around overgrown ruins flitted through Rie's mind, followed by the recollection of a small conversation in passing on a train.
Julia smiled.
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Post by Yoshimitsu on Dec 13, 2015 21:27:38 GMT -5
"I figured you might like to see this."
"You got me mid-fucking-recon and you called me out to the ass-end of town," Felix responded, sliding through the window of the car, a Honda, he noted as he lit the joint in his mouth. "This had better be the best fucking shit I've ever seen in my life, Peacock."
"I think you might like this. With my calulations, it should happen within thirty seconds."
"And you're a dick."
Felix closed the call through his ear piece and took a deep drag of whatever he was smoking, it would probably lower the value of the car and he didn't even care. Hell, this was a vacation at this point, actually being able to sit on his ass and do nothing. The alarm would go off if he touced the radio, he shouldn't do it, but the silence was boring and he really...
Two figures crashed across his vision and his head snapped up, he saw the girl on top grab the... whatever the fuck it was on bottom's forehead and start pulling. The mask came loose.
Felix drummed his fingers on the dashboard of the car, watching the fight from a safe distance across the garage. "Fuckin' called it," he muttered.
"That's all, we're going to get you away from your weird fixation," Samm said, and Felix just took a deep drag on his joint.
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Post by Beelzebibble on Dec 14, 2015 11:25:37 GMT -5
The abyssal rumble that churned on for a century in an instant brought Alpha keeling, crashing, back into awareness. He only had a moment upon opening his eyes to read the scene before they shut tight again in protest of the smoke and dust now filling the room. Across the garage, one car had gone down entirely into a flaming, crumpled chassis, while the others around it had been knocked askew and caught fire as well. The Brit who had attacked him lay spreadeagle on the cement floor, facedown, a puddle of red ringing his hideously skewed neck. Of Nopcsa there was no sign. Two other figures, however, could be discerned through the smog. He recognized the wiry, muscular back and short dirty-blond hair of Rie, but her position, crouched over the other, prone figure, blocked this additional visitor's face from view. The last thing Alpha could keep his eyes open long enough to glimpse was a long white labcoat fanning out over the floor. Perceiving himself bound by the wrists, he threw himself sideways and down onto the car seat, trying to put as much space between himself and the rising smoke as possible, and choked out: "Blaise?" The "abyssal rumble" is an explosion, a normal fire and debris kind of explosion, not the magical and apparently not-quite-physical shockwaves caused by Mandelbrot's vials. Lucas and Scar planted a bomb here in the garage as well.
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Post by ch00beh on Dec 14, 2015 11:49:58 GMT -5
Rie instinctively phased when she sensed an explosion. Mandelbrot's mask, being a magic artifact, didn't follow Rie into the ethereal plane, and the explosion's shockwave ripped it from the assassin's hands. Julia, mostly sheltered by the car to her back, had enough wits about her to squirm away while Rie couldn't hold her down. The doctor reached into her coat and pulled out another vial and thew it straight down. More thick black smoke erupted from it to join the rest of the debris already in the air.
Once the smoke dissipated enough to see through, Julia was gone.
In the refreshing cold of the world behind mirrors, a white object pressed its way through the ghostly facsimile of a car. The object--fabric with a fractal pattern painted in deep black ink--was followed shortly by the hand that was holding it, then the rest of Julia's body as she crawled to sanctuary. Her face showed the same blank stare as earlier, paying little attention to the piece of metal sticking out of her right arm or the spreading spots of crimson at her side and leg. Once she was all teh way through the reflect, she snapped.
Julia's eyes immediately started tearing up, but she was laughing as well. She took a moment to enjoy the feel of her own heart racing, but as the adrenaline faded, she became more acutely aware of the knife.
Julia took several deep breaths and focused. The fractal pattern on her mask shifted, and some of the windows to the real world did as well. One in particular, the mirror to Julia's apartment bathroom, hovered in front of the doctor. Julia reached her masked hand through the mirror, rummaged for a bit, then pulled out a medical kit stolen from Saeptum's stores. The knife could be dealt with now, but Rie knowing her face, and thus Saeptum knowing her little secret, would be an issue for the future.
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Post by Tout-Perd on Mar 29, 2016 17:17:27 GMT -5
“Awww, young love. How sweet,” Nopcsa deadpanned, leaned against the side of the mangled vehicle.
“But I’m afraid you’ve got the wrong labcoat wearing psychopath that wants to hunt you down and nail your testes to their bunsen-burner,” He sighed, and shrugged, “It’s okay buddy, it’s quite the extensive list these days. We’re thinking of having the Audubon Society compose a fieldguide.”
“Fortunately for you, I deftly prevented any and all attempts at filleting you during your beauty sleep-”
Nopcsa heard a snap-judgment rise to the surface in Rie’s mind, and a moment later, she cocked her gun deliberately loudly while pointing it in the mindreader’s general direction. Though she wasn’t one for glory or acclaim, having Terrian aware she’d saved one of his duplicates and warded off an attempt on his life was a valuable asset when it came to calling in favors.
“-By putting out a distress call, which this lovely young lady rushed to answer.”
“Anyways, whatever’s going on, it seem like your main-man’s really put his foot in it. Though I’d normally err heavily on the side of ‘getting out of dodge’, I believe all of us have a vested interest in making sure he doesn’t-” Nopcsa jerked his thumb towards Sikes’ cadaver.
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Post by Beelzebibble on Apr 1, 2016 12:49:44 GMT -5
"Doesn't arise as a zombie and grind our brains into paste," Alpha finished. "Yes. To be absolutely sure, we should leave the body here, where it'll burn to a harmless dust." That was as much energy as he was prepared to spend in that moment trying to decipher what the mindreader was saying. Following carefully after Nopcsa's endlessly circuitous insinuations could be as much a fool's errand as chasing the bouncing blue light through the forest at midnight. Even his account of their attacker was an exercise in using a maximum of words to communicate a minimum of ideas, but Alpha had the gist: That figure hadn't been Miss Euler. For the moment they were safe. The only people left in the garage were himself, the man carefully readjusting his sleeves, and the woman showing no concern for her grime-and-blood-smeared clothing. This excluded dead company, of course. Checking in, he thought. shit alpha where were youThe garage. Briefly unconscious. Now with Rie and our friend from Fascere.oh Perfect. My Pal of Pals. Here for the famous Winstone cycling pub crawl I bet? Did he bring a helmet? You tell him, I don't care how beautiful those wavy locks ride the wind, safety comes first.Do you know, he's actually here to find you?no kidding. And this was accompanied by an image of a DMV lobby and the sound of a dozen jingling keychains. ask him to take a number? Got another meeting lined up now. You remember south pole summoners?Helen Mercury. Hers wasn't a name Miss Euler had been inclined to forget, or to let anyone else. Alpha frowned. I hope this date is going better than your last.No, it's two guys, they are terrible dates. ON AVERAGE they are not as pretty. Just - just get upstairs with Nopcsa and we can figure this out.Yes.He opened his mouth to speak, and then heard a follow-up thought: also that wasn't a date you scampIgnoring it, he went on: "As for our own bodies, let's bear them upstairs, where they are somewhat less likely to burn to a crisp, though admittedly ever more likely to catch a bullet. It is the danger that persists, in deference to nothing, rearing itself at every unexpected moment. Let's go now and apply our formidable minds to this redoubling tangle of problems, and afterward, if we escape bullet-free, we should really avail ourselves of some bicycles." ISHKABIBBLE
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