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Post by Fife on Oct 23, 2018 20:26:54 GMT -6
Caprica City, Little Tauron
Officer Giotis was in hot persuit of the leader of a suspected ring of magic users, during the close of a months long operation to root them out, and eliminate them. In Aschen society, witchcraft was punished by a brutal, and public execution, and Officer Giotis was no exception to the cogs of the Imperial regime that turned against those it saw as undesirable.
He was pushing his body to it's limits, with each footfall against concrete, each breath, and each bound as he tried to keep up with his target. "Vos! Prohibere!" He cried out, as the figure he was chasing ducked into an alleyway. "Centralis: alpha-Agnus unum septem novem. Habeo est suspicio angustiis, angiportum in medio itinere de lucos et Cronus!"
For a moment the officer stopped. He knew this particular alleyway was a dead end, with a large fence cordoning it off from the highroad to Victory Square, panting, and choking on his own spit from exhaustion, the Officer pulled his pistol from it's leather holster, a newly issued disruptor pistol.
Working up the courage, and with the sirens of backup filling his ears, he rounded the corner only to be knocked down by some sort of blast. His world went black for a moment.
--- Somewhere in south Dallas...
It was the worst headache, a sensation like his head was about to explode. Everything felt warmer, the air stank with some sort of acrid smell, the sun was hot, why was the sun so hot? Whoever he was chasing, had disappeared, and his radio was eerily quiet.
"Per deos..." He groaned, holding his head. Something wasn't right, the sky was different. Did Pangar get smaller?
His eyes flitted across the street, homeless bums caught his eye in an adjacent alleyway, He'd have to see they were sent to a work camp. "Úbi sum?" He groaned again, pulling off his cap and wiping the sweat from his brow.
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Post by littlekreen on Oct 24, 2018 13:44:27 GMT -6
One of the bums stood up a disheveled fellow with military tattoos obscured by worn skin. He seemed more attentive than the others without the furtive look of other homeless avoiding eye contact. Certainly the focused stare of unmoving eyes ill matched his fellows giving a worried side-eye. A hunched posture as he walked transformed into something more upright as he walked between the metal cars parked just beyond the sidewalk. Weathered hands rubbed across the metal of one in a frown and raised eyebrow ignoring a man yelling at him from behind glass. The street was clear of traffic enough as the dried out face with unmoving eyes walked across to the strange fellow. Flynn knelt down beside the man having heard a familiar language on the wind.
"Absit viator?", a sandpaper voice intoned in Latin as Flynn's own voice hidden by the husk of Bill's meat she wore, "Habemus forsit."
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Post by Fife on Oct 24, 2018 19:17:33 GMT -6
The officer squinted slightly at one of the bums as he made his way across the street, something didn't seem right, whether it was the weathered looking skin, or the motionless eyes. All of this served to unsettle the officer, and agitate him even further.
He keyed his radio, tapping on the small side button to key up dispatch, whatever this was, he had to inform the IIA At this point.
There was an ominous silence, not even static, but silence.
The officer's other hand still held his disruptor pistol; how he managed to hang onto it through the blast was a mystery, but his grip on the sleek weapon tightened as the strange man approached, and began speaking in an odd dialect of Anquietas, one the officer barely understood.
"Quid?" He asked in return, taking a step back. "I need Crisis response, now!" He called into his radio. "Step back!" He warned, taking a step back and drawing his weapon once more. "What is this? Whose jamming my radio!?"
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Post by littlekreen on Oct 25, 2018 0:37:48 GMT -6
Bill sat down and held his legs with a hoarse laugh her latin solid but not quite Antiqas, ((Haah! You slipped through space too. Everyone is too far away to hear."))
With a nearby rock agile if wizened hands fumbled for a grip. Scrapes left a scratched circle then two other circles added overlapped with it but not each other. One labeled Tu, the other Mihi. The central one labeled 'Terra Incognita'.
A finger tapped at the one point where all three intersected, "Hic es tu."
Bill pumped his hands palm upward and a grin with unmoving eyes, ((Fools point weapons at scarce allies.))
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Post by Fife on Oct 25, 2018 16:45:16 GMT -6
The man looked at the circles, and cantered his head in confusion. He couldn't read the Latin lettering, and the man's Anquietas was broken and poorly pronounced, with words that didn't even make sense.
But the universal language of force had been spoken at this point, and the officer watched closely as the strange figure put his hands up.
Someone must have reported a mugging in progress, though, a police car screeched to a halt and two officers came out, guns drawn.
The Caprican's reaction was swift, if ill advised. He reached out and attempted to pull the hobo out of the line of fire, as the cops closed in barking commands that the Aschen couldn't understand.
He ignited his aegis first, bringing his left arm across and in front as if holding a shield. There was a pop, and a shimmering hexagonal barrier ignited just as the officers opened fire.
Giotis did what any man would reasonably do in that situation, flinch as each bullet struck the barrier with an audible "twang."
And of course return fire.
Blinding green flashes, followed by deafening reports almost like thunder, the Caprican fired at the locals, each Disruptor bolt striking out in a plume of smoke, flame, and liquefied metals. Two hit the police cruiser, causing it to erupt in flame, a third took out a storefront window, causing the mannequins to catch fire.
The two officers dove for cover in a panic, and people nearby began to flee.
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Post by littlekreen on Oct 25, 2018 17:37:28 GMT -6
The man reached forward as Flynn heard some creature screech behind her. Off balance by the unfamiliarity of the husk she fumbled sideways rolling away from him. Turning over onto Bill's back Flynn's eyes went wide seeing the two enforcers with weapons drawn. Not the least wanting combat in this place with her whelps in tow she backed up to the wall. Bill looked about listening intently for squeaking and soon found it. Another squeal down the street she heard the faint alarm call of her lime fluffs barely avoiding something. They scurried along following their nose toward their mother as the first rapports came out. Just at the leeward end of the car they spied Bill and smelled their mother. Creatures of their nose as the policemen dove and fire erupted the small whelps ran overtop the two men and under the police vehicle. The two lime fluffs moved quickly as Flynn scooted down the wall toward them. They hugged the wall as Flynn opened Bill's arms to receive them.
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Post by Circe on Nov 1, 2018 16:58:50 GMT -6
Maria Zhang had known since she was young she’d be a cop one day. She just hadn’t thought she’d be a paranormal cop. The rookie was still a little excited and had been on the mcu equivalent of traffic duty, thought it was more like fairy duty convincing mundanes, now that magic was out of the bag, that no, they did not in fact see a tiny fairy and no, it didn’t look like a hex was put on them. In other words, nuisance calls.
She wasn’t responding to a nuisance call tonight though. Or at least, she hoped it wasn’t another nuisance call. It was supposed to be with lieutenant Boyuan after all. And she was pretty sure the lieutenant didn’t do nuisance calls. All Maria knew was that she was supposed to be the backup on this call. She could do that. She had all the training after all, and she had her own skills, little though they were. A few slowing spells were the extent of her active magic. Passively, she could brew potions but even then, they weren’t great works of magic by far.
“Relax kid, this is probably some twerp who decided the rules don’t apply to him.” The lieutenant spoke, interupting the young officer’s thoughts. “Not a nuisance, but not anything to be terribly worried about either.” The woman added as she turned her attention back to the GPS in the vehicle. Dallas was a large city, and getting anywhere in a reasonable fashion seemed to require a GPS, or at least a way to cut through the traffic. Getting to this most recent call was no exception to that either. The cruiser’s lights helped some, but it mostly just made other motorists panic and drive erratically.
"Be advised that officers in the area are reporting green bolts of light and one cruiser totaled." The radio in the vehicle chirped with it's static and nasal sounding voice.
"Spoke too soon looks like! Hope you're good with more than just that gun they gave you." Xiaolian added as she accelerated through an intersection, dodging a few panicked motorists along the way.
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Post by Fife on Nov 1, 2018 20:32:25 GMT -6
The man grit his teeth, returning fire seemed to give the officers pause, and some breathing room for Petros. He tapped his radio once more, surely this was some kind of misunderstanding, but he also didn’t really have time to take in his surroundings. He brought up his TacNav unit, which was blank, icons displaying across the screen that satellite communication had been lost.
What was going on?
He disengaged his personal aegis, affording the gauntlet a moment to recharge; and he considered his surroundings for a moment. He had to get the high ground, he had to find some way to make contact with central.
He took off running into the alleyway, firing several more shots back at the officers, erratically aimed and aimed more so to suppress than kill. He knew the officers would be reluctant to persue, but that they would also set up a perimeter, and were this Aschen territory, the entire city would be locked down.
“I have to move quickly before they establish overwhelming force... conserve charges...”
He didn’t even have EVE providing tactical assistance.
Panting, but moving quickly through the alleyway, at a speed beyond even the most physically fit human, he ran, rounding corners, and climbing fences. City was beginning to give way to the acrid smell of polluted water. Sirens echoed all around him.
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Post by littlekreen on Nov 2, 2018 14:26:03 GMT -6
Flynn held her whining whelps against Bill's chest while the spiker for brains opened fire on what were clearly the local Far and Deep. Realizing she didn't want to be investigated by the foreign Far and Deep either the reacher looked once to them then in the direction the man went. Bill swiveled to his feet lime fluffs clamped with their feet around his chest. Head down he hugged the wall trying to evade the hail of fire from down the alley and any coming from the Far and Deep. This world's dreaming felt too sparse to enter blind a howling emptiness heard within it. So Bill's rickety old legs moved quicker than they had any right to as Flynn followed the man in the only avenue away. Flynn wasn't far behind Bill's breathing a curious constant huff of air her lungs of a different sort than Bill's own. She scrabbled at a fence once then jumped with a brace hand on the top to vault it. Bill had shoes not toe-claws and the clop of badly worn boot heels slapped against pavement. Lacking her hunter's sight in Bill's body Flynn huffed at the trailing scents somewhere between antiseptic and outright foreign ozone. As she neared the noxious parts of the city she lost him as it drowned out all sense of him. Trailed by many others than Bill the muddy footprints were everywhere here and not very helpful. She was a dozen lengths behind him now.
The whelps eying her miming her sniffing broke her concentration. They whined for food though not urgently yet and Flynn's stores were dry. She licked them with Bill's tongue and it sated their interest for a little while.
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Post by Circe on Nov 7, 2018 22:00:44 GMT -6
"Shots fired! Shots fired!" Crackled over the radio in Xiaolian's car as the woman tried to pour more speed into her vehicle. The words sliced white hot, and with a sickening panic through any thoughts either officer might have had earlier about this being a nuisance call. Would they even go home at the end of their shift?
"Car 103 enroute." Xiaolian said after picking up her radio in the vehicle.
As the small SUV bounced over the pot holes, bumps, and cracks in the Dallas pavement, the lieutenant driving it wondered just what sort of call they were even responding to. As far as she had been made aware, it was likely a borderline nuisance call, with some kid taking it on himself to start torching the neighborhood. Instead, it had quickly turned into shots fired and a need for potentially additional officers.
The scene that greeted the pair looked like it was straight out of a war zone, if you lived on some other planet or plane. Between the smoldering wreck of a DPD squad car, torched buildings, scorched, pockmarked and still smouldering pavement, Xiaolian wasn't sure what had even happened. "Just don't get yourself killed Zhang." The woman said to the rookie officer who was currently sitting next to her in the front passenger seat.
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Post by demikara on Nov 8, 2018 9:55:37 GMT -6
"I'll try lieutenant." If she's succeed or not was up for debate. What was she even looking at. Some mage gone rogue? She slipped out of the car after ensuring she had cover and kept her gun up, scanning for the mage who pulled this crap. "I can try a tracking spell?" It was close enough that she should be able to manage tracking whatever magical being had done this. It focused on magical signature after all and this? This looked like the work of some kind of war mage. Maria checked that she still had her anti-magic cuffs on her, moving her hand to touch them lightly, before she resumed the grip on her gun.
She could do the basic investigative magic. She wasn't good for much else, and this looked more like a fight than she had thought it would. Definitely glad she had her gun then, because this was not something she was prepared to handle at all, not magically at least.
Maria didn't have the experience for actual combat in a case. They had specialists for that, and officers trained just for that.
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Post by Fife on Nov 10, 2018 18:34:13 GMT -6
The man had found himself standing on the banks of a river, now, or a creek, among foliage that concealed him. He crouched low, behind some trees before pulling out his Portable Computron, and switching it on. The PDA booted okay, but there was no network connectivity. The advanced piece of technology was simply incompatible with the local wifi signals.
There was also a pain gnawing at his arm too, a pain that was starting to set in as the adrenaline began to wear off.
He looked at his arm, blood had stained his uniform. The Bullet must have hit him before he activated the aegis. He grit his teeth for a moment while checking his surroundings. This place would only serve as a temporary hiding spot; he had to move.
Flipping his knife open, he began to cut, while wincing in pain, soon he felt metal on lead, and the man pried the bullet out of his arm, and let it fall to the ground. He didn't worry about the knife not being sterile, he didn't worry about bacteria, or infection. With the bullet out now, the wound had stopped bleeding, and was beginning to show signs of improvement.
He pulled his cap off, and ran his hand through his hair, he wouldn't have long to get his bearings, no doubt whoever these people were would be closing in fast.
He set his next goals into mind, a change of clothes, and a way to blend in with the locals before he was found.
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Post by littlekreen on Nov 10, 2018 22:03:57 GMT -6
The disheveled man with large lime green pompoms clung to his chest stood up with the mud sloughing off the husk. Without consent it was a soft and mealy shadow that couldn't hold a texture much less absorbency. The clothes were little more than smooth if matte coloration of the exact shape. Feet shaken to clean them mud leaps away from a surface unwilling to let dirt cling. Texture-less bootprints squelched along the way Flynn thought the man went before realizing the scent of blood upon the ground. The human eyes may not support her sight but the insides were hers so the nose worked just as well. Old habits of a reacher of chasing the interesting overwrote the good sense to go get lost herself.
A strange cycled breathing chased the iron scent. Two higher pitched ones joined shortly as the two whelps thought it was food.
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Post by Circe on Nov 11, 2018 16:08:30 GMT -6
Xiaolian nodded to Maria, "Good idea Zhang, a tracking spell will likely separate this guy out from the regular background noise. Just set the spell parameters to look for anything that doesn't fit a known signature, human or otherwise. We're looking for the outlier here." But she wasn't even sure that Maria would be able to cast a wide enough net to catch whoever was doing this sort of craziness. The damanges alone were likely going to have them and the Warden busy for the next month, if not longer. No doubt area businesses and the Dallas Police Department would be having a field day with insurance and demanding reports from them as soon as they could even get them finished.
"Let me know what you find." She added as she stepped back away from Maria to go and investigate the currently smoldering remains of a cruiser. She needed to be far enough away from Maria when she cast her tracking spell that the ability of a passive null didn't interfer with the magic. Right now, though, she was wishing she could get a hold of Bronson. But the woman seemed to be exceptionally flighty lately, and was impossible to pin down long enough for the lunch date that the other owed her.
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Post by demikara on Nov 12, 2018 8:33:28 GMT -6
"Yes ma'am." Maria said and carefully cast the spell, slowly so she'd get it right and build up enough magic. Breathing out, she cast the spell, channeling through a carnelian to boost her magic some. "There's...four? Four signatures lieutenant, but they seems to be going in the same direction." She pointed in the direction that Flynn, her whelps, and the aschen had gone. She could do this. It was her first big case, even if it was basically chasing down some out of control mage. Either way, she could follow the trail. She was good at investigative magics. "I can follow it on foot, but I wont be able to go fast." Luckily, humans were pursuit predators. She may not be able to go fast with the tracking spell, but she could walk for a long time, and even jog most of it, if she had to. "The car still messes up my spell. I'm not...not really all that powerful."
She wasn't nearly as strong as a specialist, that was for sure. But she could and did work hard and she could sustain her spell for a long time. She had definite staying power when it came to magic, and she had some high calorie snack bars in her jacket. Most magic users kept some on them, in case they did magic too high and needed the calorie boost.
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