Pandora's Dream Ic

[Phoenix Fang]

I tapped my fingers on the desk staring out over the shop, it had been a slow day, there had been one repair job in the morning, had to repair a headlight, actually all I had to do was replace the bulb, it was obvious the girl who’d owned the bike only got it so that she could ride with someone and that someone hadn’t been around to fix it. It had taken me five minutes, then there was a small rush near noon, but that was it, since then it had been quiet, and Cassy was busy with another design for a custom paint job, so she hadn’t been in a talkative mood.

I looked up at the clock and bit my lip in indecision. It was coming up on five, an hour to closing, hmm, finally with two minutes to go I got up and headed to grab my coat and pack. I called back to Cassy, “Going to head out early, hit the tracks.” She looked up from her design and nodded, “Yeah its pretty dead hear, go have a bit fun, be careful and I’ll see you tomorrow morning, you’re gonna have to tear apart the bike for this custom job I’m working on.”

I slipped on my jacket, “Cool, see you in the morning,” and with that I wrote down the time on my time card, stashed it and left. I was heading for the tracks, see Graveholm has a unique setup, at the edge of the city there is something like a five to ten square miles of tracks, dirt and pavement, straight away and round tracks, and even a long one that circled the entire plot. It was set up very well so that you could get to any track with ease. All you had to do was buy a season pass or just pay a base price to get in, and sign a lifetime wavier that allowed them to stay in business. The premise was that races were legal, that there were no speed limits, so you could go as fast as you want, since they put that in, street racing dropped significantly, as well as speeders. And it makes quite enough that they’re thinking on expanding. I loved it, I always went on the big loop, simply cause I love to fly out there, no worries, just me and my bike.

I walked over to the small locked garage where me and her kept her bikes, technically it was employee parking, but me and here where the only ones with actual bikes, the rest were part time kids that came in to help us out when we needed them or to sweep up or do the paper work when Cassy couldn’t be bothered.

I stopped and thought about that for the moment, Cassy was one of the most… one to the oddest people I’ve ever met, but I love her. While I’m into the bikes for riding them and pulling them apart and making them work right, she was an artist, and that was her interest, turning bikes into mobile pieces of art, generally, with a custom paint job, but when she could, she ripped the bike completely apart, or even better for her, started from scratch, the frame, the casings, the headlight bracket, everything designed for a specific look, and she was good. She wanted to redo mine, but what she wanted to do would take me forever, she wanted me to cast adamantium into certain shapes and such forth, but for that type of forging, it’d lay me up for weeks afterward, eventually she was going to convince me, I’d seen the designs she had in mind, and it’d be a great bike, not to mention indestructible.

But that was the oddest part about her, she’s a shrewd business woman, and one that’s not afraid to use what’s at her disposal to help her sell things. She’s a pretty woman, most men say hot, but oh well, not exactly the terms I think in. About five five, silky brown hair, green eyes, and a nice caramel skin tone that always dressed sexy. And she loved to use me, I didn’t mind, cause she treated me well, in fact I’m expecting an invitation to her bed soon, though I don’t know if I can accept. Most people who walk in the store think we’re lovers, she uses her art to good cause, she had a picture done in oils of me in very little behind the counter, though that’s not the one people’s eyes levitated to. The one they looked to is she and I on her bike, we’re in tight leather pants and black bra’s, she has me hands tied to the handlebars, and her teeth sunk into my neck.

She originally wanted to get me and her kissing, but then the event came, and she became a vampire, and frankly, I think this picture is better. Theirs a number of other pieces about the room, and once in a while she talks me into putting on an exhibition in the show room, most of the time just me and her sitting on one of the bikes, pressed close talking, but usually a guy comes in, we kiss, he watches, grabs a random item off the racks, and when we’re “finished” he pays for it and leaves, as I said, she’s not afraid to use me, but I don’t mind, its rather fun at times, and we’re both very comfortable in what we do, the store makes plenty of money and we live quite comfortably, her more so than me, but she is the owner after all.

I turned my thoughts away from that, she’d been artist today, working for a project that we’d start tomorrow, and it’d be good to just get out there and lose myself on the track. So I entered the code, and opened the door to my beautiful bike, sitting on the seat was my helmet, and in a sheath on the side in a position that allowed for an easy draw was my sword. When I’d shown it to cassy she called it a work of art, I don’t know, it just… felt right as I was creating it, and when I grabbed it and swung it, I’d felt at home with it. The same thing with the bracer. Both had a stylized wolf’s head upon them, It was just something that felt right to me, had always felt right, the wolf was my favorite animal hands down. I’d even rode along with a pack of were’s on a run, that had been one of the best days of my life.

I grabbed my helmet and slipped it on before swinging a leg over my bike and kick starting it to life. I took a moment just to appreciate the feel of the thing before I rode her out and onto the street, the garage door closing behind me. A twist of the hand and off we went, heading for the edge of town, but it was fate, or something else rather annoying that would prevent me from getting there this eve. Nope, as I turned down a street I saw flashing lights ahead, there was trouble, I could feel it in the air, that twinge of magic. So I checked my speed and made my way up closer to the police blockade, looks like they’d closed of an area of the city, must be something big going on, great!

I pulled my bike up to the curb and put the kickstand down, grabbed my bracer out of my bag and slid it onto my wrist, snapping the latches into place, and finally removing my sword, sheath and all, and replaced my backpack with it. The backpack and helmet I left sitting on the bike after removing the belt that had my nine mil and several clips, a couple spells tying it into place so that it wouldn’t be stolen.

When I approached the police cars, walking down the center of the road an officer called out, “Hey miss, you can’t come this way, swats been called in to deal with a disturbance, the area is closed off till the situation is resolved.”

Yeap, just what I figured, the police department still didn’t know what a paladin was, much less anything else out there. With that I shook my head and just continued to approach, getting close enough that my hearing, sharper now that I was a paladin, heard one of the officers swear, â€[censored], is that a sword on her back, its another one of these damn weirdo’s, the one leading that damn pack of freaks is using a black staff.”

So there was a black mage leading a group of something, probably goblins. The goblins were probably tearing up the area and the mage was extending a shield over them all so swat couldn’t do [censored]. This was gonna be fun, If it was a Death knight, then that would have me a bit worried, Death Knights were my equal, though I’d already been tested in that manner and won, removing that particular Knight from the world, but it had been close.

The officer in charge of the blockade here held out his hand in a stop signal while he reached for his sidearm, “Miss, don’t come any closer,” I ignored him and he pulled his gun, “Miss, any closer and I will take you down,” I laughed inwardly at that, then reached out with my will and moved the two cars, simply turning them and pushing them to opposite curves, parking them nicely. This got a holy [censored] and the two officers shot at me, emptying their clips, each of there bullets simply plinking off my shields, which no matter what, I always had up now, I slept with them up cause you never knew who might want to tear out your throat, and now, since the event, their were a lot more people willing to do it that there was before. I reached out with my will and bound them, freezing them so I could walk up without further incident.

I looked right into the guys eyes that had done all the talking and smiled, “Just be glad I’m on you’re side here,” I let them go and immediately they popped in new clips and aimed them at me, but they didn’t fire, “So how bout you just take me to the guy in charge so I can help you guys settle this and everyone can go home.” They looked at each other for a moment then the main guy gulped and nodded, “Right this way Miss.”

The looks I got as I was escorted to the man in charge, a captain I believe, but I wasn’t too good with police or military ranks. The man watched us come, blinking and then turned to the officer escorting me and practically blew up, “What the hell Simmons, what in the nine hells is [censored] wrong with you, leaving your post and escorting a armed citizen here, get her the [censored] out of here!”

He gulped but I had to give the man credit, he didn’t back down, “Didn’t have much of a choice, she parked are cars and me and Richards both emptied a clip, the bullet just bounced off, then she requested to see you, what the hell was I supposed to do.” Everything got very quiet at this point and I looked around, there was suddenly a circle of ground with nobody but the captain, me, and my escort. I waited a minute, running my hand through my auburn hair, before finally saying, “Alright, I’m not going insane and trying to toss police cars about popping your heads, can we get on with this?” I looked straight at the captain, “Got a shot of what’s going on?” I extended my hand, “By the way, Tirla Deamun, I’m a paladin.”

The Captain took a bit longer to break the silence then finally reached out to clasp my hand, “Alright I have no Idea what that is but I’m just gonna go with it, over here.” He led me over to a car, where a notebook was sitting on the hood, showing a live shot of what was going on. Time to give these guys a lesson, “Alright, these critters here, they’re goblins, nasty little buggers, they aren’t great fighters or anything, but they can sure trash a place in a hurry, and in large numbers, a horde, they can overwhelm a person, that’s where they’re strength lies. Now normally, conventional fire would be able to take them down, but the problem is here,” I tapped the screen, indicating the mage, “This here is a mage, a black mage to be specific, there are four types of those, but I’m not going into detail about that, right now he’s extending his shields of the goblins and protecting them.” I pulled a clip off my belt and showed him the top bullet, “See that, that’s silver, it’s a kill all to magic, but bullets aren’t the best thing, size matters here, the more silver there is the more likely it’ll cut through magic, but these will serve us. As he spreads out his shields, they become weaker, so now if there was someone with a high caliber gun with silver bullets, they might be able to take him down, concentrated fire also might do that, but he’d pull back his shields before that happened, which is going to be my goal.”

He listened intently, trying to wrap his head around it, he honestly seemed to be adapting well for a man who’s had his world turned upside down. Then he shook his head, “You’re not going out there miss,” I can’t allow it.”

I looked at him and smiled, “You can’t stop me, sorry to say, but that’s the way it is, when I raise my sword above my head,” his eyes went to the weapon on my back, “Have your guys open up on the goblins, don’t worry about hitting me, I’m protected, just take out the goblins, I’ll handle the mage.”

He didn’t look too happy about it, but he nodded his head and I pulled my nine mil, and made my way to the cross roads while the captain gave his orders. I leaned against one of the buildings while I waited, my eyes turning to the swat officer that had come up behind me. He looked rather curious and reached out and poked my leg, I let him touch me and simply smiled at him before my shields closed again around his finger, not letting him pull it back, I nearly laughed as he struggled for a moment before I let him have it back. Suddenly his head tilted then he looked to me and gave me a thumbs up.

I wasted no time and walked around the corner, my gun raised as I sighted my target in. I walked about three yards, before I pulled the trigger as fast as I could, bullets slammed into his shield and the mage staggered back snapping his shields back to him before one of my bullets could get through. I holstered my pistol and reached over my shoulder and drew my sword, holding it high in the air. The goblins didn’t stand a chance, fifteen M16’s will do that. All that was left was a series of bodies and limbs, and a few piles of brain matter, now it was just me and the mage.

The mage was nothing more than a goth, pale as could be, black makeup and nail’s, and every piece of clothing black as could be. From what I could tell, one that didn’t even know his art that well, I don’t think he honestly knew the power he possessed, didn’t realize what he could do with it, I felt his will trying to ignite a flame, and he did, on his palm, but it was pathetic, it wasn’t his corner of the magic realm so he was weak in it.

He glared daggers at me, “You psychotic [censored], why the hell did you do that?” I laughed, “Cause I’m a paladin kid, I don’t go for this kinda [censored].” That’s when I felt it, his will seeping into the ground, reaching for whatever would help him, spirits, skeletons, I had to act fast or this was going to get bad. I dashed forward, Sword held down and too the side as I leaned forward to get as much speed as possible. That’s when he started firing bolts of pure will at me, they were invisible, but as a magic user myself I was able to feel them, The first one I reached out and batted away, then there were two, one aimed low, one High right behind it. I dived forward, soaring over the low one and ducking under the high one. I ducked into a roll and as soon as my feet hit the ground I pushed off, flying into the air, gathering my will for a concentrated blast. My sword came down, his staff came up to block it, but it did no good, my sword snapped it in half. My feet touched the ground and I spun, snapping out my hand and sending a spear of will at him. He was still reeling from his staff being snapped and the spear hit him dead center. Light bloomed and then flashed as his shield broke. I was gathering another blast for the finale strike when a single shot rang out. The kid’s head snapped back, a hole appearing dead center in his forehead, I saw the splatter from the other side and was glad that when his body landed he stared straight up, I would have thrown up if I saw what the sniper round had done to the back of his head.

(Note: This was meant to create openings for certain people to post, that would best fit with my char, also, at this point in time, even with an adviser, its all still too new, so few cops even know there’s a magical advisor.)

[Pyromancer]

Alex stood up and slung the sniper rifle over his shoulder. The mage had been bartering some sort of arcane drug that allowed people to see the auras that surrounded supernatural creatures and objects. The Cartel had lost several customers due to the stuff, so the boss had paid Alex to take him out.

He gazed down at the woman below, noting the weapon and bracer she had. A paladin, huh? I'd better avoid her. He jumped off the roof into the gap between two buildings. His path of falling allowed him to catch himself on a wall, and he crawled the rest of the way down, a la Spider-Man. Not that I would compare myself to a hero.

He jumped the remaining ten feet to the ground and was immediately confronted by a pack of five goblins. Alex calmly drew his pistol and shot each of the goblins between the eyes in about a second. The speed of the shooting caused the shots to not so much sound like blam! blam! blam! blam! blam! as bbblam! He put the gun away and started walking away from the fighting. I hope noone heard that. The last thing I want to do is kill someone I don't have to.

[Kilroywuzheere]

He'd been called in. Another one of those people. The one's that had changed. So many were popping up. So many calls to stop them. Charles lifted his body armor over his head, strapping it on. The weight on his shoulders felt familiar, he'd worn it many times. He slung the sheath of his sword over his right shoulder, placing the pure silver blade within its holder. Thank god for the paladins. Without them, they'd have never thought to use silver. Those on the S.W.A.T. team were the among the first, and the few, that knew much about these new things. And even then... They still knew almost nothing. He checked his gear, tightening his boot straps. Finally, he placed his helmet on his head, strapping it on. He hoisted his rifle into his hands. He would be needed again. Everyone loaded up in the van, and it drove off to the scene.

Charles had taken up a position on the second floor of a building near the horde. Nasty creatures. Controlled by the mage. He got a bead on the guy's head, just before the cops opened fire. His shield was no longer coving the goblins. His chance was gone. A paladin... and unknown at that. "Idiot. We know what we're doing. We could have ended this quickly but..." Officer Peterson said, keeping his target on the mage's head. He watched the battle unfold, waiting for his moment to strike. And then it came, the flash of a shield being broken. "Bang," Charles said, just before another shot hit the kid. Immediately, Charles pulled out of the window, taking cover behind the wall.

"Come in! Come in! Unknown sniper fire! Repeat, unknown sniper fire!" he said in a bit of a panic. Additional snipers were seldom good. Although he appeared to be a friendly, they couldn't take that risk. "Urge everyone to take cover immediately. Repeat, unknown sniper fire!" Charles had to move quickly. Even if the other guy had never seen him, he couldn't stay here long. Sitting still would be foolhardy right now.

"Unknown sniper fire! Everyone get to cover!" the commander shouted, taking his own advice rather quickly. Charles strapped his rifle to his back, drawing his side arm just in case. He made his way downstairs, into the street. He appeared in the doorway of the building, a goblin had found its way there, managing to avoid the barrage that had killed most of its horde. A single round right between the eyes and it fell. He moved into the doorway, waving the paladin over to him.

[Arachnion As Captain Jack]

Rachel started drinking. It felt good..really good. How long has it been since I last fed? A week? Who cares, too long. It sucked being around food all day...Food? No, blood. It sucked being around blood all day and not being able to drink anything. They're weak, they make for easy prey..what? No...I'm not supposed to eat the patients..but they'll live if I'm careful, right? Couldn't hurt more than a-NO, I am not feeding on them. Rachel stopped her inner monolouge for a while and just let the warm elixir dominate her thoughts.

"Rachel? Rachel, that's enough."
"Hm?" Rachel's eyes opened. She was still in the room, her fangs dug into the volunteer's arm. She let go and stood back up.
"Sorry...It's been a while."
"That's okay. We got the data we were looking for. You can come out now." Dr.Stephens was behind some glass at the end of the room, and pressed a button that unlocked the lab door. Rachel walked out, saying goodbye to the Doctor and leaving through the front lobby. Rachel was going along her normal path back home, flipping her knife and thinking, when she noticed several parked police cars with sirens on in the road. Odd...wait, there were corpses. And the girl standing next to them had a sword drawn. Rachel decided to lean up against a streetlight and see how people would react to her.

[Luca]

Luca walked down the street with Mira 'guiding' him and tapped his staff down the road past all the fighting going on. He walked on oblivious to what was happening, and walked past Tirla's shop. "Good morning, Luca." Cassy said without looking up from her work. "Good morning, child." Luca replied. He walked into his pawn shop and set down for lunch.

[Pyromancer]

Alex watched from an alleyway as a girl walked straight into the trouble spot and leaned against a lamppost. What are you doing woman? This place still has goblins crawling around, you should be trying to keep your distance.

He then saw a goblin getting ready to pounce on her. Alex slowly drew his Ghurka knife, ready to move in and slash its throat if the girl didn't do something first.

[Nikolai-097]

Ryan was standing patiently near the scene of the incident. Some chick was was talking to the police, he strained to hear what she was saying, but missed it. Soon she moved in firing her weapon at the Black Mage. I grinned, wondering if she would claim the kill before Alex Rickman would. The sound of a high powered rifle delivered the answer. I took a quick glance, and the gore was all the evidence I needed. I walked away, heading towards my car. As I was walking I opened my cell phone and dialed Mr. Chate, my Boss's lieutenant. "You can tell Mr. Balika that our friend won't be interfering with us anymore. Rickman has earned his pay." The response was not very heartening. His gravely voice came back with a new job.

"We just got a new bunch of guys. They need to be inducted. Also Jenkin's shop has been vandalized by some punk [censored] gangers. They think their new powers mean they can [censored] with our [censored]. You're taking care of both of these." The line went dead. Ryan flipped his phone shut and sighed. He got into his car and headed home. I guess I'll be taking my suit back to the cleaners tomorrow.

[Phoenix Fang]

Tirla stood there young and dumb, the suddeness of it, she hadn't been ready for it, not like that. Then she heard the screams and radio chatter, "Unknown sniper fire!" She blinked, her first thought was that it had been swat.

"[censored]," her eyes started looking around, scanning for the sniper, wondering if he was stupid enough to try a shot on her, that would give them a position, but there was additional gunfire popping up all around them, she didn't like it, and frankly, she still wasn't used to the idea of being bullet proof. So when one of the swat snipers showed up and motioned her over, she ran over and ducked inside.

She pressed her back to the wall and took a deep breath before she held out her hand, damn she was getting the shakes. She bit her lip and leaned her head back, focusing on breathing. Dead bodies, she'd seen five her entire life, three were relatives in caskets, one was the death knight she'd killed, and now the kid, when it came to taking life, or seeing it extinguished, she wasn't very experienced, but she couldn't break down here.

She looked to the sniper and then said in a low whisper, "Tell your boss to call Cassandra Williams, she'll be at the shop yet, the number is 677-545-2832, they need to ask her to send a Cubi over here, she knows a few, a cubi will be able to tell us why that shot was taken, and from there we might be able to know where to look for the shooter."

(note:Its around 7 pm, not morning.)

[Der Kojote]

Hunter stood there looking at the scene first there were goblins and a black mage, after some sniper fire, black mage drops dead and now choas. "well, i'm getting out of here befpre anything else happens." he got in a ally and took of to they sky. the police to make it easier for avians and themselves had created a fly zone for avains between 50-100ft after that it was a crimal offense not that anoyone could enforce it... he headed back to his office and opened the door a chirp greeted him. "Jacob how's my favorite pet doing?"

[Arachnion As Captain Jack]

Some...thing ran up to Rachel. Ugly..I wonder what it wants..She reached out her left hand to it, but snatched it away just as the thing tried to bite her. Without thinking, she flipped her knife open and stabbed the thing in between the eyes.
Rachel drew her knife back out and cleaned it on her pants.
"Okay.." How did I do that?

[Pyromancer]

Alex raised an eyebrow as the girl killed the goblin with one blow. I don't think she's another hitman-err, woman, so she has to be supernatural in some way to kill something that quickly. He slid his knife back into its sheathe, then started off to see Mr. Balika. He ran at speeds too fast to be visible, only becoming visible for a second as an indistinguishable blur when he pulled a sharp turn.

When he arrived at Balika's headquarters he slowed down to normal human walking speeds. He didn't bother knocking on Balika's door, just opened it and walked in. His voice was low and quiet. "You failed to inform me that the target had goblin servants aiding him, as well as that the police were going to be having a standoff against him during the hit. My price just went up by half for this job. I hope you have the money to pay."

[Nikolai-097]

Balika never even looked up from the report he was reading. "You are aware that I do not decide the time of the hit. That is in your purview. Also the goblins were not a serious threat, nor were you instructed to fight them." He looked up the report and stared at Rickman. "If you are displeased with the situation, you did not have to kill him. The police would have taken care of him."

His eyes shifted slightly to the door, then back to Rickman's eyes. "I realize that you have been working for us for several years now. However, you would do well to knock before entering my room. I would also recommend that you not threaten me. It would be a shame if a misunderstanding were to happen." He turned back to his report. "Seeing as you eliminated the target, stealing the kill from the police I assume, I will award you a bonus. You can have pay and a quarter."

----

Ryan pulled up to the meeting place, a small bar on the edge of the Cartel's territory. A second later seven men exited the bar and crowded around his window. He glanced them over and told them to follow him to the target. They nodded and mounted their own vehicles and followed him to the target's headquarters. They announced their arrival by storming in, guns blazing. After a ten minute gunfight, the gangs leader and several of its members were captured. They were bound with zip ties and duct tape and left for a Cartel safe house. The problems were not quite solved, but they would be soon.

[Der Kojote]

peter was laying down when Jacob started cheeping worridly it always was gunfire and a large amount. Peter opend his cage and grabed him. "Jacob show!" The bat went screaming of into the night with Peter following his bowie knife in hand "this maybe worh checking out."

[Nuff]

"pfft... He is even weaker than I had sensed. He didn't deserve his power" Malice said to himself as he watched the Mage being cut down by a snipers bullet. He shook his head and moved his hair out of the way of his face as he looked down on the scence from a nearby building.

"Still... in death he shall serve a purpose much more worthy" He said rasing his staff a pointing it in the direction of the dead mages corpse. SLowe the body began to twitch until in rose to it's feet, a few of the goblins rose up too and they all bagan to shamble towards where the Paldin had gone.

"meat puppets always were amusing" He smiled "Let's find out how much power that Paladin girl really has"

[Pyromancer]

Alex narrowed his eyes. "Fine. But I should probably also mention that there was a paladin there." He turned around and started walking out. "I also would not like a misunderstanding to happen. I hate job hunting."

He dashed to his home to drop off the rifle and then back to the scene. He climbed to a rooftop, aiming to get a better view of the scene, and spot the paladin. He spotted the paladin through the window of a building. He sat down to wait for her to come out. He wanted to get more information on the paladin in case he was ordered to take her out.