The Keepers
Posts 47
Power Level 21
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Post by Toko on Aug 8, 2016 19:28:19 GMT -7
That's all there was to this, a simple job to get some funds. Toko had noticed that the financial situation of himself and partner had fallen to a less than a safe amount, and decided to take it into his owns hands when he realized that their usual tiny client was busy collecting her own information. And so he ended up lowering his standards a bit to work with some less than reputable client who wanted a girl dead due to her being competition to him. He honestly had found it laudable, and though his mirth was well hidden, the man showed him proof of how a fifteen year old was about to crush his little empire. Honestly the Proiettile family would've at least talked about going with a joint venture scheme instead of attempting murder but then again they probably would've respected her instead of rubbing their wounded pride at having lost to her. He let out a long sigh as he remembered his old family and decided that trip down memory lane was unwarranted at the moment. The only reason he had even given this job the time of day if money was not so dire and he did not have his own suspicions about the target. It was why he had his briefcase in hand and two pills resting on his molars. Even if this job was too be simple, he refused to be sloppy and allow confidence to ruin it. Walking up one of many streets on the Malachite Isles that was covered on both sides with luxurious houses that he had very little chance of retiring into in the future. Oh well such is the life of a killer. Stopping in front of one particular house of a little Ms. Ophilia, Toko took a breath and chomp of his two pills. If anyone paid attention to the suited man, they'd see his skin turn a few shades of red before he disappeared. The world was a blur to him as he dashed through the yard and into the house through a window, that unlocked with a few latin words and an aptly named skeleton key, he remembered about thanks to his more than thorough research on the target's location. Stopping his dash past a pair of servants in the hall way, he delivered two super human blows to the head, courtesy of his pills aftereffects, and let them fall to the ground. No need for more death than necessary while on the job. Now would Ms. Ophilia be prepared for a mid-day assault on her life, as most of his targets had never considered themselves a target til they went to sleep.
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Post by Avaline Ophilia on Aug 10, 2016 17:34:38 GMT -7
As per usual for this time of day, Avaline was in her study. The AC had been left off despite the summer heat and much to the quiet discontentment of her servants (whom she’d appeased by telling them they could wear whatever they wanted and supply her fridge with whatever pleased them), meaning she was dressed in a comfortable t-shirt and baggy yoga pants the neighbours would scoff to see her in but she relished to find the heat to wear. Thus why she had the drapes to the floor-to-ceiling west-facing window drawn.
In comparison to the rest of the room, Avaline looked disproportionately small. The fine wood floors stretched mostly empty - recently washed - a far ways in every direction around the heavy wooden desk that could seat five aristocrats in suits and required at least three times that to lift. Even in lack of her usual sweater and ankle-length skirt, Avaline's clothes looked like they were eating her. The lack of anything resembling muscle did not help her already thin and bony build. 'Skeleton' is what the last wealthy businessman's child to have pulled back one of her sleeves on a joke had called her before she'd returned with something equally as rude and twice as clever. The stack of papers and books set on the desk and drawn from the bookcases and cabinets that essentially were the walls had at least as much mass as the girl who sat in the too large wooden chair on her knees. To sit otherwise was to have her legs dangle and her reach greatly limited because of the height of the desk in comparison to her. Besides, it wasn't like anyone was watching. Like her doctor, who would tell her in no short amount of words that such posture was awful for her back.
Avaline's scarf for the day - dark blue, silk - was haphazardly draped across the back of her chair where she'd thrown it once she realized its goal was to flop all over the things she was trying to read and block off her line of sight below her chin, and decided that it was not necessary in a room that was pushing 80 degrees. Besides the hailstorm of the desk, that, the armful of papers that had spilled onto the floor, and a recently finished tea cup placed on the floor made up the entirety of the mess of the room. Avaline made up the only movement. Even that, however, was minimal, as she focused intently on the notebook she hung over, sketching quickly jotted notes and diagrams.
Avaline was unaware of the two fallen servants. Her mind was occupied by the recent phone call with a chemical company who was refusing to sell to her in the bulk she needed because, quote: 'we feel someone who is neither out of high school or old enough to hold a part-time job should be handling chemicals that can be used to create bombs'. That was attempt two to company number three, and she was beginning to think she was going to need an alternative plan.
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The Keepers
Posts 47
Power Level 21
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Post by Toko on Aug 16, 2016 22:47:32 GMT -7
The security here was light, extremely so, which was suggesting either arrogance or confidence. Two which went hand in hand far too often and could spell death or injury for him if he ever confused one for the other in his line of work. She appeared a simple target, but if she was then he would certainly not have been hired. His reputation always gave him so many clues, it was blessing unlike many of his ammo related curses. Drifting back into reality instead of his thoughts, Toko popped a pair of dark green and blue pills into his mouth. The second he bit into them he could feel a slight change inside and felt the immediate urge to close his eyes as sound overwhelmed every other sense. Birds were singing and bugs were buzzing on this dreadfully warm day, and it appeared there was a light breath in the study just down the hall, followed by the scratching of notes and designs. Ah a researcher, well he had heard about some failed transactions due to her age. Shame she will not see them come to light. With as a light of a breath as he could achieve, he murmured one phrase that rang through his ears.
"May capere morte de manu tua"
With the latin curse prepared, he quickly removed and attached a silencer to his glock, before suddenly opening the door and firing four rounds into the room with four successive pings. Each bullet a carved finger bone that homed in for his latest victims heart. Normally he would make apologies, but that would possibly alert more people than necessary and he always preferred keeping the kill count to a minimum unless necessary.
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Post by Avaline Ophilia on Aug 18, 2016 13:05:36 GMT -7
The sound of the door opening would be unheard to the few remaining servants in the floors below, as would the shots, but in the near silence of the study, it was impossible to miss. There hadn’t been a knock and there was little present reason to bother her. If not one of her servants, then-
The first shot fired from behind. Avaline’s powers intervened immediately, removing the bullet in its entirety- only, it did not. A small slice was carved into the head of the bone bullet, enough to knock it off course of her heart, but not enough to fully stop it. Avaline let out a pained yell as what felt like fire shot through her shoulder, grazed by the bullet.
Her tactic switched immediately at the sound of three more shots. Small cubes of aluminum, each about two inches thick, appeared directly before the bullets. Each buried itself in the metal with a small clang, transferring its momentum into the cubes. The moment after the force was imparted and the cubes took the place of the bullets in their trajectory towards the small girl, all three cubes vanished. The remaining three bullets clattered harmlessly to the ground between them.
Avaline tried to swallow the pain and relax her knitted brow. Her wound felt warm and her shoulder wet. An assassin had come; not the first, but these non-metal bullets were concerning. She would think the assassin had come prepared for her power, but she knew of none who had connected her two names save for the very few she had personally told, and no one should’ve discovered enough of her powers to have prepared weapons to counter it. This was luck by their part.
Avaline spun around in her chair to face the doorway. Small plugs formed in her ears. As soon as she saw the gun, a point inside the barrel detonated with a small amount of HMX. It would be more than enough to blast apart a normal gun and scald the hands of the wielder, ignoring damage from shrapnel. Once the boom had given its worst, the wads in her ears disappeared.
It didn’t matter to her if the person could hear her after the bang or not. Her tone was flat besides for the small amount of pain she couldn’t suppress from it. “Stand down and I will make your end a swift one-”
Her words cut off abruptly as she saw the face of the person. Avaline blinked. “T-Toko?”
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The Keepers
Posts 47
Power Level 21
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Post by Toko on Aug 26, 2016 1:18:50 GMT -7
The pills' effect on his ears had a run out a few seconds after the shots but had thankfully given him some info, the first shot had somehow been sliced with perhaps air? and the other three had hit aluminum cubes that had just vanished instead of hitting the floor. It appears his initial thoughts had been correct, this girl was by no means average, she was a Super no other way around it. At that moment he had actually regretted not bringing Kaz to ensure his victory instead of leaving it at 80 or 70 percent. BANG! The pain in his right hand was ignored in favor for his currently enhanced ears, he swore that the chance of a ruptured eardrum was extremely high, yet she continued to speak. She was still confident and assured in spite of the pain, and she knew his name...No this was not something to be dwelled on, dwelling on it meant death, she could very easily be a mind reader or have heard his reputation like his client had.
The next few seconds were a practiced blur for Toko, actions he practiced several hundred times against Kaz in various sparring matches. With a flick of his thumb against the leather to a gold dial on his case, it suddenly opened to allow a black mass to fall in front of his right foot that just took a step back. After that action he flicked and tossed the case into the hall behind him, before two push blades made from smooth ivory fell from his sleeves into his waiting hands to be thrown to either side of his current target while kicked the mass into the air. It was a liver of a cursed black salamander that immediately hissed before filling up the area with a mixture of methane and hydrogen sulfide, it wasn't his best poison but he had a strong immunity to the stuff and wouldn't be affected too badly.
His case opened once again in the air, somehow having a sawed off fall out and into Toko's waiting hands before he fired both barrel's full of ammo into the room. This time rotting fingers that would rot any living thing they touched, and they were heading for the warmest thing in that room which was currently Avaline's heart. Dropping the gun, it was cheap and replaceable, Toko dashed further into the hall before opening a door and using it as cover. Allowing himself a single breath, he began to calculate his current attack. At the moment she could most likely not see him due to the poisonous black fog filling the room and hallway, his knifes were heading for her heart in an attempt but she would most likely deal with those the same way she had with his bullets, and the three hands worth of fingers he had shot into the room would worm their the way to her heart and stop it with a single touch. It had a very high chance of success if he didn't fully know her abilities, the knives and poison were deadly distractions that would allow his hands of death to finish the job. If these did not work, she would most likely begin to underestimate his firepower due to the bones and fingers lessening the speed and strength of his shots, and that would allow Mephistopheles to finish her off.
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Post by Avaline Ophilia on Aug 29, 2016 0:09:20 GMT -7
She knew Toko to use biological weapons and thus she would have to assume every one of his weapons and bullets to be made of organic material, meaning there was little point in trying to remove them with her powers. They would have to be deflected, which required precision and timing, both in placing the object that would be doing the deflecting and removing it. It greatly complicated matters, as if they weren’t already dire enough.
The knives were first. She had to react to take care of them before she could fully take care of the gas - methane and hydrogen sulfide, both highly flammable; something that, if he didn’t already know, she’d be sure to make him very aware of - as said the small amount of air she took. Avaline sat motionless in her chair and forced her concentration. Clean air, perfectly average in temperature and make up for this elevation and location, formed around her mouth, pushing out and back the toxins. A small sheet of metal formed at an angle in front of each of the blades, knocking both enough off of their trajectories to send them shooting past Avaline. She felt the rush of air on either side of her shoulders as both just narrowly missed her. One bore into the back edge of the desk behind her, the other carried as far as the other wall and buried itself in one of the bookshelves.
Avaline was glad she had every book in this room memorized. She took one last breath of clean air and held it, abruptly ceasing to make more. The first three bullets had to be taken care of by aluminum cubes, but for the rest, there was a… simpler method.
Toko would hardly have time to open the door for cover before the entire room and hallway burst into raging flames. The finger bullets would be turned to ashes, along with all of the papers and furnishings caught in the fire. The inferno raged for a good five seconds before slowly quelling. Flames licked the walls and ashes littered the blackened wood floor. The only sound among the crackling embers were the sound of footsteps on the wooden floor. The hinges on the charred door Toko held gave way, allowing the door to fall forward into the hall. Avaline stood in the hallway just beyond the doorway of the study, a gas mask on the lower half of her face, a bandage over her wound, and not a single trace that the fire had happened on her. If Toko looked into the study, he would see there was a single circle in the seat of the chair that had been entirely untouched by the fire.
Avaline looked her assassin in the eye. The glint of battle and the embers of the fire flashed in hers. “Toko. If you do not stand down, you leave me little option but to fight you. Forgive me.”
Then, a ball about the size of a fist of pure white, deeply condensed fire formed close enough behind Toko to set even thick clothes instantly on fire and burn to the skin. It expanded quickly outwards, lighting another small fireball centering around the small of his back. With only helium to burn, it would fade quickly enough, but the blast was instantaneous.
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The Keepers
Posts 47
Power Level 21
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Post by Toko on Aug 29, 2016 23:39:11 GMT -7
The explosion was the whole reason for him using the door for cover, he'd have been a fool to not know every property of his weapons and thanks to that knowledge he gained a few clues to her identity and more importantly powers. It didn't take long for him to process each new piece of info, she had formed a gas mask, bandage, survived poison, and remained unsinged. Her power must've involved some sort of chemical manipulation. Interesting. Pure science bordering upon the realms of magic versus magical research that required required research equivalent to science. What other abilities did she posses, skills, and what could her corpse perform? Questions upon questions piled in Toko's mind and almost made him ignore her stare and statement.
"Though I know not how you have discovered my name, Miss Ophilia, I must state this is simply my job and your my objective...Give my condolences to Thanatos for me."
The second e in 'me' left his lips he felt fire singe his back, her power relied on sight but it's range was quite reasonable if it was able to reach behind him. In a fluid motion and step forward, his suit's jacket had come off and flown to coat the flame in ashes, not able to extinguish it but able to least delay it slightly and lower the degree of burns his back would receive. The main purpose being to give him a split second to slip his final red orb into his mouth and crunch it. This is where the situation changed completely. The blood red pill had several different ingredients mixed into it along with a few spirits and curses, it's main purpose being to unlock more than a hundred percent of Toko's physical abilities, it's what allowed a fairly good chance at beating Kaz in fist fights. An unforunate side effect of this pills repeated usage is that it caused his mind to become a bit more primal and unrestrained. No longer was there a perfect gentlemen who smoothly talked to his clients over chess and withheld all killer intent. No he was a bit more mad than that, killer intent and blood lust quickly filled the hallway as he ran down the hallway at her, face red and body a disheveled blur. Less than a second had passed before the hallway behind him appeared to become blackened in a dark violet by his intentions but that wasn't the case, multiple pills curses and ingredients that lined his coat had promptly been burned by her fireball and now provided a perfect background for the hitman known as Faust.
"Please do not disappoint me, I hate for an answers worth to not equal their research's effort."
There was no smoothness, just a darkened tone that would make most shudder at it's utterance before he removed her from his coat. Mephistopheles, his treasured Thompson Contender that was always kept holstered closely to his side, was aimed not for Avaline's head but instead of a few inches right of her. One pull of the trigger, a gunshot loud enough to rival her explosion, and suddenly Toko was gone from her sight. The only alert she would get to his presence was the sound of his shoes sliding against the floor behind her, to slow down his acceleration and give him a moment to spin around with a crude blade of blade he had had Kaz sharpen for this job. The reason for his sudden teleportation Stunt was the bullet's unique gunpowder being made of a certain super's remains. Now Mephistopheles rested in one hand, a blade heading for Avaline's neck in the other, and his briefcase remained on the floor. Far range had done him no good so far, so it was time to push her limits and see if she could handle this sudden attack, again using every distraction in an attempt to overwhelm her. If successful he would be able to leave her body relatively unmarked and prime for research.
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Post by Avaline Ophilia on Sept 5, 2016 14:29:22 GMT -7
Avaline clicked her tongue. There is was, confirmation that someone had hired Toko to kill her. For someone to turn to a true professional such as him, all to kill a fifteen year old girl, it seemed some of her enemies were beginning to get desperate. She was going to have to be more careful, and she was going to have to track down whoever it was that send Toko. And anyone else who might be thinking of trying something similar.
But one look at Toko’s changed face snapped her back to the battle at hand. His tone sent a chill down her back. She had never seen him like that before - and then, with another gunshot, she couldn’t see him at all. The bullet shot wasn’t at a trajectory for her, and Toko was far from a poor shot, so why had he fired it? It was her sensory powers that spotted him first. With his already proven speed, she couldn’t afford not to keep constant watch of her surroundings with them. He seemed to come out of nowhere behind her.
There was a blade and a bullet. Avaline’s powers immediately tried to dissolve the blade, but all she got was… bone. At this point, Avaline was ready to curse Toko and his entirely biological arsenal; nothing could be made easy. A clang rang out in the hall as the bullet ran into another aluminum cube, the second vanishing and the first falling to the floor. The blade, however -
Avaline had to wait until Toko was dangerously close before she could do anything. He was strong enough she doubted her ability to deflect the blow, and she obviously couldn’t get rid of the blade itself. Not the whole of it, anyway.
A small explosion detonated just off the side of Toko’s hands, with the hopes of carrying his spin and jab a bit farther than he had intended. It had to be small; just large enough to burn the backs of his hands and, with any luck, throw him just a bit off. Avaline had no mind to protect herself from it. The bang rang in her ears and she could feel the nearby heat warm on the side of her face and caught a small whiff of singed hair.
Then, once the knife was hardly an inch from hitting its mark, a very fine slit appeared in the blade. It ran all the way from the top of the weapon to the bottom - and cut the whole of the blade from the hilt. A thin sheet of plastic formed between the blade separated from its hilt and Avaline’s back, catching the rest of the knife's force and spreading it more evenly along her back.
Even spread, the force of the blow was enough to knock Avaline from her feet. She let out a startled cough and collapsed down to her knees. The plastic vanished, but in its place was a large cloud of carbon dioxide, focused around Toko’s head. She just needed to knock him out before he could do any more damage to her.
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The Keepers
Posts 47
Power Level 21
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Post by Toko on Sept 22, 2016 17:49:16 GMT -7
She had sensed him, good that just proved either greater skill or power lied within her waiting to be released in death. In the split second that the blade had been destroyed, Toko felt the explosion knock him off course as well the sudden change in air around him, she was so dangerous but intriguing like living poison. It was only due to several self experimentation that he was able to last a few additional seconds in the sudden harsh head space. With a practiced flip, the Thompson Contender was spun so it's barrel rested in his hand, not the handle, and he pulled back for one strike. There was no air for an insane line or quip, he had to finish this just as fast as she wanted to. Unfortunately the need for air and fight had exhausted him slightly and he could feel his vision begin to go blurry as he spun for one more hit. A deadly handle blow intended for the head instead became one for her shoulder as he fell towards the ground, blackness quickly coating her vision. If he was lucky perhaps her power would deactivate with what he thought would be a killing blow, and allow to regain consciousness and leave the scene with a new test subject.
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