The Keepers
Posts 234
Power Level 31
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Post by Azoth on May 16, 2016 14:13:29 GMT -7
Azoth didn’t spot Holloway until Anonymous had already gotten his hooks in the man. Discerning this was indeed the work of the unaligned was easy; even from the small forest overhang she’d found her way to and through the slowly dispersing fog she could see the once sane man had become a monster. She’d heard rumors of the super’s abilities, but to see it in person… she felt a chill go down her spine.
Her mission was to kill Holloway, but she wouldn’t interfere with Anonymous’s work. She didn’t want that, whatever that was, directed at her. She would wait until he was done.
She watched the scene emotionlessly, and for its duration, found herself unable to look away. If anyone showed up to interact with her, she’d only answer them with silence. Motion returned to her only after the madness seemed to have left the man. Others had shown up; rangers and firefighters. Azoth sighed. She would’ve liked to do this face-to-face, quietly, but with authority here she’d have to fight her way to get close to him.
Standing upright, her hands out in front of her as though she were trying to catch something, Azoth closed her eyes. Her brow furrowed in concentration. Slowly, a shaped strip of metal formed in the palm of her right hand. It grew slowly at both ends over the course of several minutes, expanding to one side a barrel, and to the other a shoulder rest. The sniper rifle was heavy in her arms. Coming to rest atop the highest rock of the overhang, Azoth took as much time as she needed to carefully line up her shot.
She pulled the trigger and Holloway slumped to the ground. His end was not painless, but at least it came soon.
“Mission complete.” Azoth said simply. The gun began to vanish again from the ends, and after ten seconds, her hands were empty.
The fog began to thicken. It would be clear Holloway had been murdered, but hopefully the distraction of the slowly growing fire and the scene left by Anonymous would be enough for them to make a clean escape.
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The Keepers
Posts 206
Power Level 30
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Post by Unhallow on May 16, 2016 20:36:16 GMT -7
Between the fire, the slime, the supers, and the general chaos, Unhallow momentarily lost sight of the target. It was unavoidable in this case given they couldn't exactly walk through that burning tree and walking around it would take time. Worse than that, Azoth ran off on her own. If Unhallow could run this wouldn't be an issue, but running was a terrible idea. Even if they could catch up with Azoth by running, she held up to Unhallow's power even worse than most people. Getting near her when their power was stronger than usual, even stronger than usual given the combat situation, sounded like a really bad idea. Instead, Unhallow briskly walked towards the direction they saw the target running and slowly made their way around the burning tree.
Azoth apparently found the target first. She was on the edge of Unhallow's range, using her power to spawn something Unhallow couldn't quite make out yet. They felt a slight pang of defeat and uselessness given finding things was supposed to be their strong point, but as long as what needed to be done got done, it should be okay right? There were other humans filling the area, presumably to take care of the fire, but there were more than they expected. Unhallow kept their distance from Azoth, hiding in the nearby trees. If Azoth needed anything, she probably knew that she could just whisper and Unhallow would be able to hear fine. In the mean time, Unhallow made their way closer to where the target apparently was, if only to make sure that he wouldn't get away again.
The scene Unhallow sensed after taking those last few steps forward immediately made them freeze once more. At this distance, most people wouldn't be able to see most of the details. They wouldn't be able to see the nature of the wounds, the amount of blood, the expression on the victim's face, nothing like that and certainly not as clearly as Unhallow could. Unlike most people, Unhallow also couldn't look away. Not without moving more, but at this point their body wasn't responding. Having experienced something similar, Unhallow had a pretty good idea of what happened here, and their mind kept wandering back to what happened at the trainyard. What exactly was Anonymous trying to get them to do? Unhallow recalled that they saw vague images that they couldn't quite make out, presumably because they couldn't actually see the battlefield. At this point, it seemed like unleashing their power like that was just an accident.
By the time Azoth finished building the rifle, Unhallow's mind was in such disarray and panic that they didn't even notice what it was until the sudden movement of the bullet and the vibration the sound gave off. Unhallow felt their stomach lurch as they realized exactly what this mission was. They weren't sure whether they should be happy or furious that they weren't told, given it didn't seem like the organization expected anything more than reconnaissance out of them. Even so, there was some doubt in the back of their mind. Was this a test? What did the Keepers expect them to do? Were they supposed to be the one to finish him off given how much less obvious it would be? A knot formed in their stomach, and they immediately regretted one of the design choices of their costume. Their body was shaking, they wanted to throw up, but doing so could easily cause them to drown in it given the vomit would have nowhere to go in that helmet.
Unhallow's knees grew weak, causing them to slowly collapse onto the ground. Azoth's body language told the rest of the story. This was no big deal. If anything it was boring, routine. Unhallow was sure there was a reason behind the assassination itself, though they weren't thinking nearly clearly enough to think about what it might be. This was something they knew the Keepers had to do sometimes, knew they did sometimes, yet they still found themselves completely unprepared for actually seeing it. The authorities were nearby, they knew they couldn't stay here, and yet their legs simply wouldn't move. The authorities were far enough away that it would take some time for them to come over here, especially given the scene around Halloway. When the time came, maybe they would be able to force themselves to move then. Hopefully. It didn't look like anyone would be helping them regardless now that the mission itself was over.
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Pandaemonium
I need a gingerbread man, the one I'll eat
Posts 154
Power Level 28
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Post by Bloodbath on May 17, 2016 5:14:42 GMT -7
Bloodbath froze as the area was flooded in fog, completely incasing himself for a sneak attack. It never came.
Instead, he started to hear a terrible screaming, like many of the crazy people in Pandemonium's organization, then he heard pained shrieks, not any of the supers here.
He peeked out from his shield in time to see a bloodied man, the one he was supposed to capture, surrounded by corpses. His stomach jumped as he recognized they were his family, and the man held the knife. "Poor guy." He mumbled, even as no sympathy entered his voice.
He started forward to try a capture, just in time for a shot to ring out and the man to fall in a spray of blood. Welp, there went that mission!
And of course the rangers turned for him! He raised a wall of blood and, when it fell, Bloodbath was gone...
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The Keepers
Posts 76
Power Level 24
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Post by Arcanum on May 18, 2016 0:22:48 GMT -7
It was getting hard to see with this steadily growing smoke and fog around. Arcanum's attempts to become a substitute firefighter were not entirely successful. The source of the flame did not get put out in time, and the fire stared to spread.
But who cared about any of that?
There existed a much bigger problem that required her attention. In the midst of all this confusion, Anonymous slipped away somewhere. Apparently he was after Halloway as well, and judging from the screaming that echoed through he forest, he found his target. Arcanum felt like she could guess at what happened without actually looking, but still she needed to see for herself.
The actual scene ended up being dramatically worse than expected. While Halloway may have been crazy enough to do something like this on his own, that idea seemed awfully convenient. A normally sane man having a violent psychotic breakdown, while a super who could control minds ran away without doing anything to his target? Possible, but unlikely. This was clearly the work of Anonymous.
With a long sigh, Arcanum turned away in disgust. She couldn't stand to witness such a waste of innocent life. No, she corrected herself, that wasn't the real problem here. Failing to stop him didn't bother her. Watching strangers die stopped being depressing a long time ago. This whole tragedy was just too dishonorable and selfish to be acceptable. At least Azoth finished things like a professional without involving any bystanders. For some reason she had expected better from Anonymous. Of course, the universe always loved to find a new way to be disappointing, so it made sense that he would be less intimidating in person. He was clearly the worst kind of person. . . but not much of a threat to Arcanum herself. As wrong as it sounded, she needed more motivation to persuade her into actively trying to get rid of him.
One glance at Unhallow almost made her reconsider not trying to murder the psychopath. He certainly had a negative impact on the young Keeper, which needed to be stopped immediately. How to do so without actively following one of them everywhere would take some time to figure out. That could wait. For now, Arcanum moved steadily towards Unhallow, standing a little too close for comfort. That power of theirs stung a little, but she was used to it by now. If needed, she could always eat part of the nearby grass in order to replace the lost cells in her body.
“We ought to leave this place” she suggested, then promptly sat down and waited. Arcanum considered walking away alone, but figured the best course of action required her to leave together with Unhallow, or not leave at all.
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The Keepers
Posts 206
Power Level 30
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Post by Unhallow on May 18, 2016 19:51:48 GMT -7
Everyone else was either busy with fleeing, in the case of the supers, or dealing with the aftermath of the fight, in the case of the unpowered workers. Everyone, with the exception of Arcanum who was coming their way, was busy enough that it at least gave Unhallow time to breathe. Where they were wasn't exactly the best place to breathe given they could still see the entirety of the scene Anonymous left behind, but their body was still shaking enough that moving wasn't really an option. Arcanum's presence was somewhat soothing, but not enough to make a noticeable difference in Unhallow's mental state right away. Unhallow attempted to respond to her, but all that came out of their mouth was incomprehensible sputtering. Their mind was moving too fast for anything to keep up, but it also couldn't stay on one subject long enough to make sense of anything at all.
Breathe. Just breathe. Anonymous wasn't here. Azoth wasn't here. No one was here. No one could do anything to them right now, unless they stayed here too long and the unpowered workers caught wind of them. That was the only thing that mattered here. The rest could be worked out later. One thing at a time, right? Just focusing on the inner workings of their own body, something they could observe much more closely than any normal human, let them chase out the other thoughts. They still lingered in the back of Unhallow's mind, and Unhallow suspected they'd be there for quite some time, but focusing on something as mundane as the air filling their lungs, or the blood running through their body, made it so their mind at least stopped racing. Even then, it still took them quite some time to calm down enough to be able to do anything. By then the fire was contained and nearly out entirely, the crime scene had been marked, and people were starting to search around the area for the cause of all this. It was only a matter of time before the investigators came over here. As much as Unhallow would have liked another twenty minutes or more, they didn't have that much time. Slowly, using the tree to brace themselves, Unhallow rose to their feet and turned towards the city.
"I'll be okay. You should go on ahead. I'll be slow, but I'll at least know where they are and which direction they're coming from."
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