Re: Sim's call for help. (Quest Thread)

[Wannabe]

((OoC: Is it too late for my character to enter?))

[VivaLaCult]

(Yeah )

[Rex]

Amp sat in the van strumming his guitar before opening a Kit Kat and munching on it, He looked out at the battle and shrugged going back to his guitar. He would have other times to have fun but they had it pretty well handled.

[Bash]

Bash saw the excitement unfold in front of him. He wanted to be a part of it. It looked fun. Bash proceeded to get out of the bus in the nearest exit possible: The window. He was already halfway out of it. He wiggled out of the window, falling out and face-planted on the floor. He ran up to the nearest dense cluster of assassins and using a drumstick, he slammed the ground that resulted in creating a shockwave which blew away most of them.

[Sim]

She had involved everyone in a dangerous battle, but she didn't feel guilty. They had agreed to help her already, in her mind they were honor-bound to defend her. Not that she had any intentions of being defenseless. she ran across the battlefield in a zig-zag, gripping her katana in her left hand. She ran head-on at an SMG-wielding suit, knocked the gun down with a quick slash. Sim moved fluidly with practiced skill, she seemed out of place amongst the all the chaos and jerking motions. Before the man could bring the gun to bear on Sim she thrusted forward into the air under his arm, turned the blade up and sliced upwards in a flash of movement. The gun fell to the ground, firing it's the rest of it's clip. The hand was still gripping it tightly. Sim had sliced cleanly through the bone of his wrist. The expression on her face was blank. She had cleared her mind of everything but the combat situation at hand. The man was shocked, unsure of what just happened or what to do. Sim was not. She gave a sharp kick to his shin, toppling him. As he bent over, Sim's right hand shot out and grabbed his throat, gripping tightly and cutting off his air flow. She kept running with his throat in his hand, not slowing down despite dragging a man a good deal larger than her.

The image of a girl that looked about 14 showing off such strength and battle skill was absurd. Bash lept into a group of torches that stood too close together, sending them to the ground or up in the air. Sim zigged closer to them, stabbing her katana up in the air at a sharp angle. It skewered one of the troopers through the side of the neck as he flew through the air. She brought the blade down in another flash of motion, slicing clean through half of his neck. The force brought him straight down, he hit the road and bounced a little behind Sim. She didn't bother looking back to see him bleed and suffocate. She felt the man in her other hand go limp, and realized that he had lost consciousness. She loosened her grip on his neck. Actually, she threw him towards the band's tour bus. He he hit the side of the bus with a thump, and slumped down beside it like a ragdoll unconsciousness. Sim wouldn't hesitate to take a life if she needed to and she wouldn't risk the lives of others for any member of this wretched organization, but she'd avoid killing if she could. She turned around when she reached the bus, in a prone stance ready to take her next action.

[VivaLaCult]

Thrash was walking through the carnage that seemed to rush forward like a title wave, bodies flying through the air was something Thrash was used to given the powers of his bandmates. Thrash flicked his wrist to shut the chamber on his revolver. He lifted his gun slowly and shot the man that Sim threw in the head, his missing hand would probably cause him to bleed out anyway, but this way was quick and painless. Thrash's attention shot around to all of his bandmates before he smiled, they could probably handle the rest so he re-holstered his gun and walked around the tour bus, and up the stairs. "Get up and help." Thrash said as he picked up a duffel bag and threw it at Amp, without taking his eyes off of the unmoved friend he quickly drew his weapon and shot out the window, sending a bullet charging through another suited man's skull.

[Slamfist]

The Torches that weren't dispatched by Sim and Bash began to fire on Mosh who through an amazing feat of speed, weaved through the hail of bullets. With a powerful swing Mosh burried Storm Wing into two of the men who were unfortunate enough to be standing next to each other. Leaving the guitar behind, he pulled out his Desert Eagles, Night and Day, and returned fire on several of the other men. Each bullet left the chamber and was followed by a sound wave, the bullet making contact and the sound wave knocking them off of their feet. "What the fuck is Amp doing?!?!" Mosh called out in confused anger.

[Araska]

Audio shrugged. Seemed that everyone was more aware than initially thought. And that Sim was in no need of much protection, as Audio watched the tiny girl weave through the cultists, or whatever they were, that ambushed them. Audio jumped up and stomped the ground, his heavily plated boots switching their jets on, and strummed his guitar as he did so. Several bursts of energy burst from the back of his gauntlets and into the suits, causing them to stumble and fall back. As they returned fire, Audio used the steam from his boots to skate backwards behind his car, already tattered without help from the ammo. He leaned inside his still running car and hit the radio on, luckily for him, the most valuable part of his old Celica was the radio and speakers he had installed. The metal station on the XM Audio always had on began rumbling the immediate area for a split second before going silent, along with all the gunshots. An eerie silence followed as Audio stood up behind his car, holding his gauntlets over it as they began blasting pure sound at people, a visible bolt of force flying into the suits faces. Their screams were unheard as the several hit flew back a foot and tumbled onto the ground, trying to stand but unable to as they writhed on the grass and sidewalk, blood pouring from every orifice on their head, slowly bleeding out.

[Ihendrenos]

((OOC: I have permission from Metis for Archmagus to join this thread at this late stage. I’ll try to work my character in as realistically as possible without coming across as some random passer-by.

BTW, sorry about the obscene size of this post; it kinda took on a life of its own. I’ll try keep it down to a couple paragraphs max in future. If it’s a little TL;DR for you, feel free to go to the last couple paragraphs after ‘Present Date’…))

Several months ago…

Elijah Reed was working in the basement of his Magus’ Sanctum, casually scratching behind the ears of his indolently purring black cat with one free hand, when the monitoring spell watching over his labs geomantic orb began issuing a warbling cry of alarm. His Sanctum was a thaumaturgical laboratory located in the heart of Chicago’s business district— disguised as a normal looking antiques store. In the basement level, however, things were much different from the floor that the public got to look at. Bookcases and shelves were filled to the brim with tomes of arcane lore from ancient civilizations both known and unknown to common-folk. Research diaries of magi long dead and hundreds of containers filled enchanted storerooms housing alchemical reagents of every type— from the basic elements like hydrogen, carbon and iridium through to plants with origins both mystic and mundane like simple Rosemary or Adriana’s Tears. Other artefacts of magical significance like the preserved body parts of supernatural monsters; troll’s blood, sidhe hair and goblin skin were present for the use in magical healing elixirs and other potions.

Terra veneficus orbis, the geomantic orb, was an enchanted magic device outwardly resembling a globe of the planet Earth the size of a basketball— though one far more realistic than any plastic model. Hovering over the surface, however, were not details like nation borders or the locations of human cities, but rather the positions of tectonic plates, symbols indicating the locations, strengths and types of the various nexuses of magical power and their fields of magical energy that naturally gravitated towards prominent geographic landmarks like mountains, lakes and rivers. Visible also were the Ley Lines— great conduits of mana energy that connected the most powerful nexuses across vast, international and even intercontinental distances.

The reason for the monitoring spells outburst was immediately apparent to Eli once he cast his eyes upon the floating illusory markings that hovered around the geomancy focus; one of the nexuses had been drained by a significant portion— someone had been tapping into the field of mana generated by one of the great nodes in the mountains of Germany and used colossal amounts of energy for a great magical working there.

Was is the Conclave? Eli asked himself, They’re situated primarily in Europe and have research bases in Germany… what the devil could they be up too?

Eli shuddered involuntarily. The Magi Conclave was one of the largest— if not the largest— organizations comprised solely of spell-casters around the world. Not to mention they were tolerant of the abuse of magic against mundane humans and other supernatural creatures by it’s members, so long as they weren’t caught it the act of using magecraft by the mundane authorities. The governing body of the Conclave was dominated by ancient, self-serving Warlocks and Necromancers, most of which were guilty of crimes against humanity that would make Stalin or Hitler blush. They were also obsessed with the accruement of personal knowledge and power, guarding it jealously from their fellow magi and from each other. If the Magi Conclave— or worse yet— one of the Senior Conclave members were behind the magic responsible for the nexuses drain of power, the repercussions could have world-altering effects.

The amount of magic used could have been for any conceivable purpose— creating something, destroying something… perhaps even an attempt in opening a Gateway to the Origin— though whilst that was the ultimate goal of the Conclave, he doubted they were ready for such an attempt with the resources presently at their disposal.

The Guardians would eat them alive and make the blast that wiped out Hiroshima look small in comparison, the young archmagus thought to himself smugly.

Eli needed to divine the source of the power drain, find out what was responsible and if there was any danger. He went to the bookshelves containing the tomes for divination spells and the summoning spells for spirits of knowledge and intellect, and sighed— he was in for a few sleep deprived nights whilst he made the preparations needed for the rituals.

-----

Eli threw his hands up in the air in frustration more than once over the next week. Time after time, he got zip, nadda, zero, negatory. A.K.A. Nothing. Whatever protection spells that had been laid had sealed off that mountain area in Germany from his attempts to peak inside as well as anything he could fashion himself. He still didn’t even know for sure who was hiding out there— the Conclave was definitely capable of this level of skill— most of the Senior Conclave could tie him in knots were they so inclined, but they usually would have shown up and told him to quit poking around and mind his own business by now— or have relayed a message through Aethyr. They rarely missed the chance to threaten him and put an upstart little mageling in his place.

”This is it… if this doesn’t work, screw it.” he swore to the cat. It blinked at him once as though concerned for her owner’s state of mind— talking to the cat was not healthy after all— meowing a gentle reproach before she resumed bathing herself. ”Don’t you look at me like that. I’m more than a little tired and stressed alright? Now if this last summons can’t give me some answers, I’m just going to take a long nap and forget this whole stupid affair.”

Catlaiya’h was a fairly powerful spirit with an awareness that bordered omniscience and precognition— she was also one of the few spirits that powerful that didn’t ask for something ridiculous like a soul or ones first-born in exchange for the knowledge asked for. The downside was that, though she almost always answered a person’s questions, she tended to be so cryptic in her responses it was just shy of impossible to make heads or tails of what she said until long after the information was useless. She was also a very difficult summon, the ritual involving a complicated magic circle made of awakened salt crystals filled with mana— difficult and time consuming to produce— those tiny little crystals got absolutely everywhere unless you were careful. The incantation for the spell was also verbose in the extreme, lasting over three hours— whilst Eli was fairly adept at performing Aria in Latin and English, his Classical-period ancient Sumerian was a little… accented… he had to take care not to mispronounce any words and have the ritual blow up in his face— literally. Eli was fortunate that his Sanctum was situated 380 yards directly above a small mana nexus; sufficient to power most rituals— but he didn’t want to tax the field of the nexus too much more or else he might severely impair the protective spells and other mana-powered devices he had in place throughout the laboratory.

By the end of the Aria – the incantation – Eli’s mouth and throat were hoarse and he desperately wanted a glass of water. However, if he broke the circle before the ritual was complete, he would have to begin again. The emergence of Catlaiya’h began as a faint awareness that something else was present in the room. A gentle caress of cool air in a windowless room, giving rise to goosebumps upon Eli’s neck and forearms. Then, she began to take corporeal form; aethereal matter— ectoplasm— was formed from the mana present in the salt crystals of the ritual circle. The hazy white mist rose up and coalesced into a vaguely humanoid shape, ghostly and almost completely featureless— also lacking visible legs. The spirit faded into complete transparency below the thigh. Slowly, over the course of about a minute, the creature took on a more human visage. That of a wizened old crone in a long, flowing white and gold-trimmed robe with a hood that reached over to shade her wrinkled face; her eyes were wide, white balls that completely lacked any visible irises. She looked as though she were 50 years older than any human who had ever lived.

”Hmmmm…. Elijah James Reed…. no, that’s wrong; a pretence… you humans like to wear Given Names… you come once again to seek understanding… to find hidden knowledge… don’t you, Ihendrenos?” whispered the old crone, who then broke in to crackling, cackling laughter that shook her whole slight form. Spittle involuntarily dripped from her lips to slide down her chin, where she wiped it off unceremoniously with her sleeve.

Elijah felt as though he’d just been sucker punched in the gut; a being’s True Name, the name of their immortal soul forged in the Origin— Heaven— was knowledge few possessed. With it, one had great power over the owner of the name— those few magi who had bothered to divine their True Names told no-one, lest it be used against them. That was no bar to Catlaiya’h, however, who knew the name of each and every soul that the Creator had ever forged.

”If you want to impress me, Cat, try telling me what I want to know with a minimum of mysticism and spiritual bullshit, please.”

The ghostly figure smiled with a travesty of a mouth filled with broken and missing teeth. ”The answers you seek, you’ll find by reading a Californian newspaper; specifically the jokes section. That clear enough for you, dearie?”

Eli blinked. ”You’ve got to be bloody kidding—“

”I am not ‘kidding’ you, magus; the indigo flame burns brightly, whilst it even now sears the lost whelp. Do you hear yet how she cries? It blisters her back, tearing off her wings… how the scales shine… what a pretty bauble they make for the bearers of the torch…. or is it will make? Have made?—“ her wicked grin splits her face, whilst her blind, rheumy eyes almost shed tears of joy… or is it sadness?”— I can no longer tell.”

Eli blinked once more. ”What the hell is that supposed to mean?“

”Realities an illusion, time is tossed… what once was home now has been lost. This truth has been written, her path is now set… your choices are made— you just don’t know it yet.” Yet again, there was more cackling, insane laughter as she slowly began to fade away.

”By the way Ihendrenos… Nadeshiko is looking forward to seeing you again, real soon. Ha ha ha…”

Elijah stood there for a minute in silence, before he finally found his voice once more.

”Well… shit.“

His cat looked over at him a meowed her agreement.

-----

Present Date…

“Girl seeking help from human heroes. Secret evil organization has crippled me and stolen something very important. I need help traveling to their secret base across the ocean, and fighting their forces. Combat skill necessary, I cannot guarantee safety. I have nothing to offer, but there will be lots of riches and artifacts for the taking. Those willing to help should call…”

Eli was driving down the street passing by rows of houses in an old, beaten down Holden of indeterminate type— its constituent pieces seemed to belong to several makes and models, many of which were scratched and beaten as though from large predators. He went mentally through the Californian newspaper ad he’d found on the net once more. It had taken some doing to track down the origin of the newspaper article in question— he had managed to intimidate and bribe one of the less moral editorial staff to tell him the home address of the girl who had requested the article be placed in the paper. It was such a pity that the immoral editor he’d bribed lost his newly acquired wad of bills when they turned to ectoplasmic mush and evaporated after a mere hour. Easy come, easy go.

Eli was now less than a minute from the address he had acquired, having just turned the corner for the street written down on the post-it-note he’d acquired. The magus began to slow down and take stock of his surroundings. He’d debated whether or not he should actually call the phone number himself— though the girl was asking for heroes— Eli didn’t consider himself a hero, just a guy with some magic, trying to do the right thing when bad stuff happens.

Thakka-thakka-thakka. Sounds of automatic weapons fire rang clearly through the air, vibrating through the glass of the Holden’s windows.

”It’s never easy.“ Eli slammed his foot down on the accelerator and the car shot off towards the direction of the gunfire. In a couple moments, he could see a bunch of colourfully dressed folks making a stand near a bus, armed with various sorts of armaments… even musical instruments… fending off a crowd of dark suited men with sub-machine guns. Eli took a wild guess that the Suits were the bad guys— they certainly fit the generic description of henchmen for a ‘secret evil organization’ and so proceeded to reintroduce them to the concept of ‘speed bumps’. There were some shouts of confused alarm as the Holden came careening down the street and proceeded to slam a trio of goons with the hood— making some fairly satisfying thuds.

”Bloody pedestrians… should know better than to stand in the middle of the street.“ Eli popped open the door, gripping his staff and force rod whilst the goon-squad were still reeling in confusion.

”CONTEGO!“ Eli shouted. A bluish-white orb of energy instantly formed around his body as he made to join the besieged group of heroes.

[Sim]

The numbers of assailants had thinned, though the majority of the band seemed to have gone missing as well. There were only about 5 of the torch members left alive, and three of them were standing right next to each other, pushed together in the chaos of the battle. Before they had time to regroup a car came roaring down the street. One tried to jump out of the way, but the car smashed into his side before he cleared it, and he rolled off to the side with several broken ribs. The other was tossed onto the windshield, rolling over the entirety of the vehicle before rolling off the back and hitting the ground with a broken leg and many other minor injuries. Sim watched as a man came out as a man jumped out of the car. He called out for protection, but not in English. He was speaking the language of the wizards. He didn't look like Sim's idea of a mage, but it looked like he was holding magic tools. Sim wasn't even a century old, so she hardly completely understood the nature of the universes. Even she knew that there couldn't be only evil wizards on this planet. Sim's ancestors had been saved by mages that desired peace. Because of that, wizards who pursued just causes were regarded as heroes by her race.

Sim raced towards him, finishing off both of the unfortunate soldiers he had struck with his automobile with quick downward thrusts. She spun around an put her back to the car once she reached him. "You..Are you a mage? My experiences with mages so far have been less than pleasant, but I take it by rough entrance that you hold no allegiance to these men or their cause." Sim kept an eye on the strange man, not yet sure of his motives. She was so busy watching him, in fact, that she didn't notice the last two soldiers taking aim from behind an overturned Volkswagen.

Meanwhile, in the torches secret underground base...

Commander Rudolf was the last to arrive in the meeting room. He seemed out of place in his dress uniform, everyone else dressed in their wizard robes. True, the common sentiment among most of the wizards was that he did not belong here. This tension was aggravated by the fact that the Grand Wizard treated him with favor. Hartwin cared little for what they thought. His job was to use his men to accomplish the goals of Grand Wizard Vester. Vester stood at the head of the table. "Ah, welcome commander Rudolf." He motion towards him. "Your Report?" He asked. Hartwin looked stoic, despite the unfortunate tale he was about to recite. "Our forces are doomed to defeat. The target is unsecured. I ordered my own man to evacuate before he was found." the head wizards broke into an uproar. "I knew we couldn't leave such an important task in the hands of the enforcers!" Hartwin glared at the speaker. "My men did not lose because of inferior skill or strategy. They were simply too outmatched in firepower. The target has the help of a rag-tag group of superhumans. They don't seem to have much of a grasp of combat, but their power is too much for a single squad of regular soldiers. If I had had my elites like I wanted, the target would be secured and on it's way here now!" His hands remained behind his back but his face grew animated as he spoke to the Grand Wizard like no one else would be allowed to. Other Torch Bearers found such a scene obscene. "Now now, calm down." Vester gestured with his hands for everyone to be quiet. "You are confident your elite squad would have been successful in California Commander?" Hartwin bit the inside of his cheek and nodded. "Yes sir, I am." Vester smiled. "Then it is safe to say they would have no trouble being successful here? We have no need to send any more forces after her. The creature will be coming back here. We have something she wants terribly. The men we sent accomplished their task...we now know what firepower the creature is bringing back with it. and it is nothing we can't handle. Now..." He looked around. "I need to instruct these men on preperations for the project, which will go ahead as planned. Commander, put your men on high alert. That is all. You are dismissed."

Hartwin put his fist to his chest and bowed, took a sharo about-face and exited the room. In a blink, he relayed the orders telepathically to his squad leaders. Then he was off to his quarters, until the next interruption.

[Ihendrenos]

The magus saw a young female figure separating from the group ahead of him that had been defending themselves against the goon-squad with SMG’s. She moved fairly quickly— probably as fast as Eli could run and he no couch-potato. His eyes widened in brief surprise as he saw her almost casually dispatch the men he had just seconds before sent flying with his battered Holden-- displaying an uncanny level of martial skill. With either a single slash of her Japanese-style katana sword or a surprisingly powerful impact from her gloved hands that belied her physique, she ended the lives of the injured men groaning on the ground before her.

Eli wasn’t much of melee fighter— his combat expertise was better suited to long-range battle— however, he’d been in a fair few scrapes against many kinds of fighters over the years. Enough so that he had a fair appreciation of the level of skill the girl displayed. It was immediately apparent that her prowess was far more than any fourteen-year-old human could possibly hope to attain in such a short life-span. With the inhuman skill, paranormal strength, blue hair and crystalline amethyst eyes— not to mention a few pieces of Catlaiya’h’s cryptic warning suddenly making a little more sense – Eli knew the girl before him could not possibly be human. The girl gave off a markedly supernatural presence— one not that dissimilar from Eli’s room-mate and keeper, Aethyr— though he could sense no sign of an illusion hiding a non-human appearance.

When the girl reached him, she spoke with a dulcet voice in a distinctly formal fashion— possessing an accent that Eli couldn’t quite place, though it tugged at his memory as though he should know it and had heard it before. "You..Are you a mage? My experiences with mages so far have been less than pleasant, but I take it by rough entrance that you hold no allegiance to these men or their cause."

By the way the girl critically examined him whilst awaiting his response, it was obvious she didn’t trust him yet— considering the hectic circumstances he couldn’t really blame her. He felt it would be best that he removed any doubts she had immediately, lest she unfortunately decide to turn her formidable fighting talents towards the task of removing him as a possible threat. He displayed his most friendly, disarming smile and hoped that would put the girl at ease before he answered in a warm, cultured voice characterized by the musical tones and clear pronunciation required of his craft.

”My name is Elijah Reed, and I am an independent archmagus. You can simply call me magus or mage if you want… though I prefer Eli, myself. I’m at your service, miss—”

Unbeknownst to the conversing pair, the two remaining Indigo Torch henchmen had taken aim from behind an upturned Volkswagen. They released a spray of hot lead towards the draconian and magus— Eli instinctively moved in front of Sim in order to cover her upon hearing the renewal of weapons fire. Fortunately, at that range the guns were less than perfectly accurate. The initial bullet-fire missed Sim, though the Rejection of Fate shielding spell protecting Eli flared as a couple bullets in the spray impacted its surface, accompanied by an equal number of brilliant flashes of white light as the kinetic energy hurtling the bullets forward was absorbed and dispersed. Eli gritted his teeth with the strain of maintaining the shield and continuing to feed in the prana required to counter the continuing volley of bullets that were now impacting its surface. Pistol-fire wasn’t such a big deal, but sustained fire from an automatic weapon would rapidly drain his energy— he had an abundance of spare mana stored in the half-dozen jewels secreted about his coat but he would have preferred not to waste any more energy than required in case it would be needed later.

”— Hellfire and bloody flaming brimstone… you’ve got to be kidding me. I hate being shot at!” Eli raised the foot-long oaken rod in his left hand towards the pair of gunmen firing from behind the overturned vehicle. He shut his eyes for a brief instant, gathering and willing more of his internal energies into the evocation focus and preparing the rod for use. The spiralling patterns and sigils along its surface began to glow a fey sapphire blue which dance around Eli and the confines of his barrier like lightning. When Eli opened his eyes, they shone bright blue as vast and deep as the ocean, and as pitiless as the sun.

”VI PERCUTERE!” the magus snarled, eyes flashing with the magic power running through his cells. The air in front of the rod rippled, as the rod generated a ‘force strike’—a spell producing a wave of pure kinetic energy that drove through the incorporeal air as a barely perceptible shimmer not unlike summer heat haze. The surge of kinetic energy raced across the asphalt towards the overturned Volkswagen at 200 mph— displacing air and sending loose rocks and ambient particles careening towards the unprepared shooters. When the wall of force slammed into the vehicle there was a sickening crunch as the Volkswagen immediately flattened the pair of men like pancakes and proceeded to roll up over the pavement and grass for several meters until it solidly wrapped itself around a stout tree in some poor souls front yard. The tree cracked, began to topple and fell downwards tearing loose several planks of an adjacent wooden fence separating one front yard from that of its neighbour.

Eli winced at the sight of the damage, turning embarrassed towards the girl beside him. ”Ahh, sorry… I get shot at far too often nowadays. I’m really, really starting to get sick of it…” Eli leaned back against his Holden— now possessing a few additional holes— and sighed heavily.

”As I was saying before we were… interrupted… I’m at your service, miss?” he said questioningly, whilst letting the defensive barrier finally drop during the apparent respite.

[Slamfist]

Mosh tossed up his desert eagles and caught each by the barrel. Tossing them end over end, the guns smashed into two of the Torch's faces. With a graceful backflip Mosh landed next to the pile of flesh and bone that Storm Wing was buried in. He grabbed the handle and ripped it out with a sickening squish. Taking off towards the two dazed and rising men that had been hit with his guns, each currently on both knees, Mosh skidded past them, blade down and scraping the pavement, quickly and effeciently removing heads from bodies. He came to a stop next to Sim, "Let's get out of here. I suggest we take the bus so we can all be together, we'll replace both of these cars when we get back from Germany."

[Sul-Fury]

Sul-Fury was frozen like a statue during the entire battle. This isn't what he wanted. Granted, these attackers were attempting to kill them. But defending ones self or others doesn't require killing them in return. He was appalled at their actions, not sure what his next move was going to be. It was bad enough they were drugees. From this point forward, there was no turning back. He was either going with them, or leaving. But he had to know.

"What is wrong with you? Why did you kill them?" He furrowed his eyebrows. "You're no better than they are..! What if they have families? All their fatherless or motherless lives, they'll be raised to hate people like you and me. I can't support this group if this is how we'll be from this point forward. You're just as evil-minded as these are. What is the point in helping one woman, when you leave a path of corpses in your trail? You will have to restrain yourself from lethal blows. Can you do that?"

[Slamfist]

"I'm sorry you feel that way, but if they're shooting at me I'm not going to take time to try and apprehend them." Mosh twisted his head back to the stone man and shouted back. "There is a difference between heroism and stupidity, I'll exercise my right to self-defense thank you." Mosh allowed his body to follow his head and continued on. "If the situation had been changed, us outnumbering them, them giving us a chance to resolve the situation diplomatically, yes We could have apprehended them instead. But this is the better alternative to these me firing into another crowd of seemingly innocent civilians don't you think?" Mosh made his way back to the bus so that they could leave, "Now, are we leaving?"

[Sul-Fury]

He wasn't convinced, and he didn't like the response he got. "I consider you equal to those who would fire into a crowd of civilians. We all have our right to self-defense, but we do not have the right to deprive others of life. Those who were once evil sometimes seek redemption. You don't have the right to end their lives."

Naturally, Sul-Fury was a brawler. He'd beat the snot out of the agents, crippling their advances. But not kill them. And he wouldn't allow his fighting skills to be used for these clowns to murder the opposing forces.

"You could use non-lethal shots. In the leg and shoulder area."

[Sim]

Sim watched amazed as the Magus dispatched the two men. Of course, the mage would probably be much more amazed if Sim could still use her own magic, but the that thought hadn't occurred to Sim. It wasn't that dragon magic was completely unknown to human kind, or impossible for humans to learn. Just that it's so incredibly difficult for a human to learn, there's almost no conceivable reason to try. In the time it would take for someone with enough magical potential to even learn the basics they could have mastered another school of magic. Even Draconions, with their massive lifespans, do not always master the form of magic that is their birthright. Because of this, and the fact that other types of magic were actually somewhat more difficult for Draconions to learn than for humans, Draconions that learn multiple schools of magic are somewhat rare and well-respected.

”As I was saying before we were… interrupted… I’m at your service, miss?”

"Ah, Yes! I would be honoured to have your assistance Sir Magus...Er-Sir Eli." she flashed him a ganuine smile, not really remembering her mouthfull of ivory daggers was abnormal in this world. Then her face turned sour. "...and there is no reason to apologize. Anyone who sides with the torch bearers deserve no mercy." She said, casting her gem-like eyes towards the most recently dispatched assassins. "You can take my word for it. If you wish I can tell you my tale, and perhaps you can tell me of yourself and your magic." She said eagerly.

Just then Mosh came up beside her. "Let's get out of here. I suggest we take the bus so we can all be together, we'll replace both of these cars when we get back from Germany." Sim nodded, looking around at the destruction that had just ensued in the blink of an eye. She cleaned off her weapon with a cloth produced from her jacket, and sheathed it, following Mosh towards the bus. She looked back at Eli. "You're coming, right?"


Just then, Sul made his speech and asked his question. She looked at him with sadness in her crystalline eyes. "Friend, these men have no families. They already made their decision, to give their life up to the indigo flame. Though they walk, they are corpses already. I lived, to use the word loosely, in their cage long enough to know this much is true." She walked towards him, placing a gloved hand on his rocky chest. She wasn't tall enough to reach his shoulder. She bit her lip and averted her eyes for a moment, as if trying to find the words. "I sympathize with you friend, I do not relish the thought of killing at all. But....all things do not come with a choice. I will not take life if it is possible, but I will not let any more people be hurt because of these people." She paused, looking at him. she had more to say, but the words wouldn't come to her so she began walking towards the bus again. After a few second she looked back and spoke over her shoulder to Sul-fury. "I am only a child. I never wanted to be a taker of life. I never asked for any of this. This fate was thrust upon me. If you will not help I understand, but I will be saddened by the loss of your aid."

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