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Post by Fife on Nov 12, 2018 20:59:49 GMT -6
Keeping himself concealed among the foliage was an easy task, but he knew he couldn't stay here forever.
He kept trudging through the mud, through the thick soil, and back up the riverbank into the back lot of a liquor store. Sirens echoed in the distance, and then sirens echoed close by.
He moved by the dumpster, before checking the back door of the store. It was locked, and the man grunted in disapproval, not before his eyes went to the sky, ears catching the sounds of a police helicopter, along with news helicopters moving in. His headstart was beginning to deteriorate rapidly.
"Frak this." He grunted in Anquietas, before he took two steps back. They were closing in, and he could feel them. Making a snap decision, he took off towards an adjacent parking lot, tugging on car handles until one popped open, an old pickup truck. Climbing into the driver seat, he looked at the controls, and grimaced at how primitive they were.
Well; it was a place to hide, so he climbed into the back seat and waited for the hapless driver to come along.
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Post by Circe on Nov 15, 2018 16:55:46 GMT -6
Xiaolian frowned for a moment thinking about what Maria had just said. "Power isn't everything Zhang, despite what some would have you believe. Between you and me, I can only do a handful of things. Nothing like people like Bronson can do." That was the painful truth, that despite all of her other successes, she wasn't able to measure up to anything near what other specialists were capable of. Instead, she had resolved to take advantage of her null status and a few other tricks to make herself indespensible to the team. "Okay so.. you can't track them in the car, but could you tell me about how far away they are?" Xiaolian asked as an idea started to form.
If Maria could locate their targets, then Xiaolian could get them there, without much difficulty. Granted, it wouldn't be near the exact science that other's had boiled it down to, but it could work in a pinch.
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Post by littlekreen on Nov 16, 2018 16:44:08 GMT -6
On the man's trail her instincts while very fixated to the immediate interest an abundance of caution stopped her at the line of foliage. Cover meant life and there were a ton of people still around though she wasn't sure if it was approaching night or leaving it. The place beyond the world had a sky but it did not change from hour to hour just place to place. Plants didn't seem hazardous here but the wet dirt was disgusting a thin layer of dead rotting material coated everything. It just wasn't sanitary and she worried about putting the whelps down. The whelps, however, had other ideas.
Flynn's boot squelched into the shore of the small wetland and several frogs lept away catching the eye of two mismatched pupils. Then a small rabbit bolted from its tattered stand of grassy cover at the activity. Thebus's empty stomach propelled him away from Bill's false coat straight to rabbit food. Flynn flailed at the sudden jolt losing her footing to muddy subsurface. Quinn quickly scaled sideways around Bill's torso to keep himself away from the ground as Thebus approached it greedily.
"Agh, Thebus! I always lay the fired whelps!", said Flynn bits of mud cratering around the coat that would not adhere.
Thebus ran off in chase of a the rabbit fleeing for its life the whelp holding hot pursuit with a rhythmic huffing noise of a predator born to run in an era with far less oxygen. Easily hopping between stands of land to splash in water snaking through ponds to launch in chase.
Flynn looked at the path where the man ought to have gone and picked herself away from the sucking crater. Bits of mud slipped down from Bill's ratty red coat as Flynn started after Thebus. Quinn whined in concern then interest hoping that brother would catch food.
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Post by demikara on Nov 18, 2018 12:45:28 GMT -6
"Two groups now." Maria said, tracking. "The...the group of three is closer. The single being is farther away." She hesitated before contributing her input. "The early reports only had one mage in them. I think we should follow the single signature, and send back up to the three?" She wasn't sure. But the fact that Lieutenant Boyuan could only do a few things bolstered her confidence a lot. "The single signature is farther. A mile and a half plus 37 feet in that direction." She pointed, unerringly, towards the Aschen. Maria may not have many trips, but she was very, very good at what she could do.
"The three signatures are about a mile in that direction." She pointed straight at Flynn and the whelps." She bit her bottom lip and looked. The directions were close, but not exact. A few degrees off of each other. She was exact enough to get that right at least.
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Post by Circe on Nov 21, 2018 19:01:27 GMT -6
"Good idea, you keep tabs on our singleton and I'll get someone out to look for the group of three." Xiaolian replied as she walked over to the car and dug inside for a moment. Producing the handset to the car's radio, she radioed dispatch requesting additional assistance. It was an urgent enough request that it didn't take long to get other officers to their location, and even less time for Xiaolian to instruct them what she needed them to do.
Most officers below the specialist rank, were proficient enough in tracking and defensive magics, but were usually easily outclassed by the specialists.
"Alright, the other guys have it under control from here." Xiaolian informed Maria as she turned her attention back to the other officer. "Just hold that tracking spell, and I'm going to concentrate on getting us there." She added as she stood behind Maria and placed her hands on her shoulders.
Concentrating, she laid her own version of a tracking spell over Maria's, adding a little extra push of magic to keep it stable. Feeling for the aproximate location in their local space, Xiaolian concentrated before making the jump. It was one thing to make the jump just herself, but it was another altogether to take someone with her. Though, soon enough the pair winked out and then back in at location Maria had pinpointed.
"Okay Zhang, do your thing again. We're probably closer." Xiaolian suggested as she looked around the parking lot she'd landed them in, completely ignoring the fact that she had just teleported them there without too much difficulty.
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Post by demikara on Nov 23, 2018 8:20:23 GMT -6
Maria took back what she thought. The few things Boyuan could do were completely and utterly terrifying and specialists in general were scary sons of guns who had no concept of limits. People may joke about Bronson, but if the other could do anything like this, than she was clearly not someone to joke about because that was terrifying. The young officer took a moment to collect herself and focused on her tracking spell. They were definitely closer, and she pointed to where she could sense the singleton at. “Half a mile in that direction, plus 462 yards.”
What was happening to their car while they were this far away? This was insane. Almost a mile away in the blink of an eye was...the other claimed she could only do a handful of things, but the things she could do were powerful. Maybe the lieutenant wasn’t powerful for a specialist, but she definitely outclassed a regular officer by far.
Maria was more than a little intimidated. But she had a job to do, and she’d do it.
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Post by Circe on Nov 23, 2018 18:21:06 GMT -6
"Okay..." Xiaolian said thinking for a moment. It would take a bit to regain her bearings before she could jump them again, but that wouldn't take long. "So.. half a mile. That's not too far.. I can get us within the last few hundred years." She added thoughtfully, as she turned her attention back to the magic. She would need to carefully feel her way through the magic, judging the spatial distances just right or they were likely to land in the Trinity River or on the expressway not too far from it.
But from what Maria had said, she guessed that their target was hiding somewhere near one of the liquor stores in the river bottoms. There was one in specific that Xiaolian thought the mage they were chasing could be hiding in or around. "Half a mile.. not too far." She thought aloud. It was well within her capabilities, and would only result in her having to make one jump versus several.
"Alright, let's go."
In a blink of a eye they winked in and out of existence again, with the pair landing in the parking lot not too terribly far from their target.
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Post by littlekreen on Nov 24, 2018 18:31:24 GMT -6
As a wasted looking male triapsed around the marshy area in search of his other lime fluff Flynn realized she was probably drawing attention. Thebus finally realized he was lost and peeping loudly to attract Flynn's attention. A loud chirp wasn't that hard to find and she caught the loud fluff on the shore of a small island of reeds. It took some doing to get over there given Bill's size and this human seemed more ungainly than she thought. Perhaps it was just his limbs were shaking for some reason. Mismatched eyes caught Bill on the horizon and still peeped at her thought not quite as loud. She scooped him and considered dunking him in a puddle but opted not to without something to dry them off. The half-muddy whelp would just have to make do until she could get to somewhere warmer.
Quarry lost her mind went back to getting back to investigation with the warm place as a secondary interest. She made her way out of the marsh directly to one shore then onto the street much to the surprise of some human wearing something on their ears. He walked faster, worried, and Flynn just sighed and shook her head. She needed a husk that didn't look like a hostile male. At least that she didn't follow just got looks of disgust from others instead of worry.
The lot of still metal carts was just a bit up the way after standing on Bill's tiptoes to see. While Flynn wasn't sure what the metal objects were moving around waited until she had room to cross. Then would start down the street toward area where she'd seen the man. She had her doubts that he was a Reacher but he was a traveler and she needed to know how to get back home.
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Post by demikara on Nov 24, 2018 19:23:58 GMT -6
That was incredibly disconcerting. Maria took a second to regain her bearings and immediately drew her gun, point straight at the truck. "They're in that truck." Her voice was whisper quiet not wanting to alert the suspect if she could do so. It was possible that she had tracked the wrong signature. That truck, the signature inside it, was what matched with her reading but it could be the trio that had caused the disturbance. The officer kept her gun at the ready and wondered if it would even hit the rogue mage. It depended on how strong they were, probably.
This was nerve wracking. This was also definitely not a nuisance call, which meant she'd actually be using all the training she had on this call. She swallowed and made certain again that she was okay, clicking the safety off her gun. She remembered her training, and she had kept up her physical fitness and marksmen requirements. She had this.
Besides, she was back up to Lieutenant Boyuan. The lieutenant probably had this in the bag.
Still, he tracking spell registered the trio of signatures coming their way and she twitched. "...the trio is approaching."
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Post by Fife on Nov 24, 2018 22:27:10 GMT -6
Petros quietly peered through the dark tinted window of the pickup truck. He was on the lookout for the truck's owner, but saw someone else approaching with their gun drawn. He grimaced at this, before he unclasped the retention strap that held his disruptor pistol securely in place. It unfastened with a snap, before the weapon came free, now clasped firmly in the officer's hand.
"You can do this.." He muttered to himself, before he pulled the door lever, and slowly opened the door facing away from the approaching officers.
He ignited the aegis, which screamed to life with a pop, and a blue flash as he whipped around the front end of the truck, his pistol drawn and pointed at the approaching officers. "Hoc non adeunt!" He called out in Anquietas. "Cognosco!" He called out. He didn't appear like a mage, wearing his black police uniform. Aside from the shimmering barrier, and the futuristic looking equipment worn around his belt, he appeared only slightly different to the local cops. Olive skinned, very Mediterranean in appearance, the man blended in as far as being human, but there was something strange in the way he carried himself.
The strange text that had no known earthly equivalent embossed upon his hat, and uniform also set him apart.
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Post by Circe on Nov 28, 2018 19:19:15 GMT -6
Xiaolian paused and held a hand out for Maria to stop. The man appeared to have some sort of ability to generate a protective field around himself and his equipment. While not exactly anything new for Xiaolian, she did know that it could cause problems for both her and Maria if they weren't careful. "Put the weapon down." She said as her hand moved slowly to where her side arm was holstered. She didn't want to take any chances with whatever artifact or devices the man was carrying.
"We're not here to harm you, I'm Lieutenant Boyuan and this is Officer Zhang." Xiaolian added motioning over towards Maria. "We received word of a disturbance, someone setting a few Dallas police cars on fire."
She wasn't about to mention magic just yet, as lately there had been a rash of mundanes getting their hands on some artifacts and causing all kinds of chaos. The way Xiaolian saw it was, if one couldn't be responsible for the magic or item, they didn't need to have it.
"Can you talk to us for a minute?" She asked
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Post by demikara on Nov 29, 2018 7:11:08 GMT -6
Maria lowered her gun so it was pointing at the ground, still rather tense and not wanting to risk things. She could probably get it up to fire off a shot if the other tried anything. But she still wasn't sure and this was entirely too nerve-wracking. She could do this though. She had the training. She could handle a little thing like this. She definitely was not fond of having her gun pointed to the ground while someone pointed a weapon at them and shouted in a language she didn't know.
He was dressed in a uniform of some sort, she was sure of it. He looked human at least, but the uniform wasn't one she knew of. Maybe some sort of magic extremist group? Those existed, even if they were rare. It would explain the destruction of the police vehicles. Extremists were not what she was prepared to deal with though. Still, she had the training, she could do this. She would do this. Hell, she was with a specialist, she didn't need any more back up than she already had.
Besides, maybe he was just another mundane with an artifact he shouldn't have. That had been happening a lot lately, with the whole reveal and all. He didn't look magical, but her tracking spell had noted him as somethign other and it wasn't like it was obvious whether someone was or was not magical after all.
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Post by littlekreen on Nov 30, 2018 14:43:51 GMT -6
Flynn reached the parking lot after a few minutes and saw two individuals in the parking lot. Females, but carrying something in her hands she figured was a weapon. Far and deep? A long sigh at the two woman she watched from behind a small berm of rotting tree chips with flowers growing through it. Curious fingers nudge containing wood and poked the chip surface finding it solid enough if she needed cover. The others looking on shyed away from her but some didn't seem to care. Given her husk was not embraced by the passed out male a pale shadow of a life had none of its odoriferous quality. Both more conspicuous and beneficial she eyed the locals looking on with her. Few bothered to make eye contact so Bill backed a bit into the crowd. The two lime fluffs on Bill's chest however did attract a bit of attention given the husk's lack of repellent quality. They occasionally hissed quietly at males that shifted a bit close but mixed eyes peered through thick lime strands at a woman peering back.
Flynn shooed their gaze away feeling the shift of bodies on the ragged junkie's overcoat surface in his equally tattered voice, "Quiet, little ones."
"They're cute! What are they?", She asked.
Flynn was a momentary loss for the right excuse realizing she can't husk nameless whelps even if she could use her ritual on others. Pets? They didn't seem to have ones she recognized. The four legged canines? No, they do not climb. a half-truth then.
"The little ones are young. Exotic. They won't bite but don't feed them fingers," Said Bill's throat full of sand and a cracked smile which seemed to stay a roving hand whom went back to looking on for the moment. Flynn heard the noise from a square object in her hand but didn't know what it was.
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Post by Fife on Nov 30, 2018 22:41:21 GMT -6
A quick glance to the power indicator on his aegis gave him a moment's reassurance, but the self charging fusion cell wouldn't last forever, he would have to take the aegis down to allow the charging cell to recharge. "Onna matta netario." He said quietly to himself. "Non loquetur tua verba!" He called out. "Ego non concedo!" He iterated.
He didn't understand them, or their demands, their words were little more than gibberish to his ears.
"Non veni ultra"
He gestured with the pistol, while still crouched behind the shimmering blue-white barrier.
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Post by Circe on Dec 5, 2018 15:21:14 GMT -6
"I don't understand a word this guy is saying, do you?" Xiaolian said to Maria as she shook her head. If the guy wanted to do things the hard way, then it appeared that they had little choice in the matter. At the end of the day they needed to get him somewhere that was anywhere not on the street damaging property and causing a risk to life and limb. "Keep him distracted..." The lieutenant said before winking out of existence again.
Reappearing behind the man, she took advantage of the element of surprise to knock him to the ground.
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