The Return of Magic IC

[GallifreyanOddy]

Night had fallen over the world long ago. Stars twinkled in the sky above as a pair of eyes watched them intently. The timing was all off. This was not supposed to be happening yet. A scowl crossed the face of the person watching the night sky. Turning slightly, the figure could hear footsteps followed by the heavy pounding of a fist against solid wood. Someone was at the door and whatever information they had was important. "Come in." The voice identified the figure as male. His voice was deep and sultry, the kind of voice any woman would want whispering in her ear. The door creaked open to reveal one of the few women who could resist such a voice. Her long, ebony hair was in a braid and the silver laurels that rested on her head shined in the light that flooded from the hallway. She stepped in, with an unnatural elegance, and shut the wooden door behind her. Slowly, she took her eyes from the floor and soon his gaze met her own. She was his most prized possession, the leader of his Techs. The woman smiled softly as she walked to the one who saved her and gave her a new purpose in life.

"Ah Zeke. What is wrong my child?"

"Rumors are spreading Sire. A few scouts say there are those in the Wilds using and learning magic."

She watched his face turn into a scowl before it became red with rage. He turned suddenly, his back now facing her. This wasn't good. Her dark brown eyes bore witness to the destruction the Sire made as he took his anger out on a nearby statue. She knew of his hatred for magic but never understood it herself. He looked back at her, his eyes glowing red in the darkness of the room, and spoke through gritted teeth. "Get Thorn and Nemesis. Find these mages and take them out!" She winced as he hissed the word 'mages'. Without speaking, she bowed and left The Sire to continue in his rage alone...

Zeke found herself heading for the building that housed the Techs. Sire had built it while the three were still in recovery. It had everything the three could need. She entered the house and let out a loud whistle to let the others know she had arrived. Each of them had their own way of entering and letting the others know of their presence.

"Thorn! Nemesis! We need to talk!"

Zeke sat on the couch and rubbed her hand over the chest plate she wore, just above her artificial heart. Sometimes she missed her own heartbeat. It was odd falling asleep without it. Of course, she required little sleep. All of the Techs has been modified to go without sleep for weeks if need be. Still, Zeke was more human than the others and like her human traditions.

Once the two men had joined her in the common room, she would sit up from where she slouched on the couch. "Okay boys. Sire wants us to head to the Wilds and see if these rumors are true." She touched her right temple and suddenly both men would have all the information send to them via the skintenna they shared.

"It'll take us three days to reach the Wilds. Sire wants us to take the long way and keep out of sight. We can't have anyone knowing what we are doing." Zeke looked at the two and smiled. "It's about time we got to have some fun huh?" It had been six months since The Sire had sent them on a mission. Zeke was about to go insane. "So gather up what you need and let's head out."

( Mages, first one to post can set up things there. I just wasn't sure where to start you all off at. Sorry! )

[Thorny]

Thorn smiled when he saw her coming, he always secretly loved the way she walked. The fluidity of it all. Part of him knew it was the modifications, but being modded himself, he did not care. When she whistled he crawled down from the ceiling and flipped over onto the couch lazily. The moment she sent the information through the skintenna, hunting mages was always fun for him, rarely did he get the chance to feel a mage tremble under him as he ripped them apart. He prayed the rumors where true so that he could make them untrue. he looked down at his clock interfaced into his wrist, almost everyone had one these days. 13 hundred. time for my 13 meal of the day.. though since we are leaving now I better grab something for on the road. he walked off towards the kitchen and loaded up about 7 lbs of food, grinning back at the other two. "well, I'm good for now." As he walked back into the main room he put a little bounce to his step, just to burn some excess energy. "I guess the Sire is not to happy, eh?" he spoke out loud, not daring to risk the Sire listening to him through the skintenna.

[malmshodes]

A vehicle pulled up besides the Tech's building. The vehicle was bigger than a truck, but a little smaller than a tank. It could have been mistaken by a truck by some, because of the similar shape. Only the presence of tires instead of treads, and the lack of a barrel made it clear it wasn't. It was brown, with gold letters on the side that read "Dire's Delivery's." The engine was left idle while a man in a brown suit, with a brown hat that read "Dire Delivery's," stepped out. He was tall, a little over six feet with dull grey eyes, and a pencil in his mouth. He took a second to check something on the clipboard, and then looked closer at the numbers on top of the building. He pulled the pencil out of his mouth, and checked something off on the paper. "Yep." He mumbled. "This is it." He walked up to the front of the door, and started knocking. "Hello?" He called. "Is there a person named Zeke here? I have a delivery from the Sire's armed group." He put his hand on his hip, and bounced his heel on the floor as he waited.

[GallifreyanOddy]

"When is Sire ever happy anymore?" She replied to Thorn's question. Zeke was about to head to her room when there was a knock on the door and someone was calling her name. Her eyebrows raised in confusion as she headed to the door and opened it up. "I'm Zeke." The tall man shoved a decent sized package into her arms. She looked even more perplexed as he had her sign for it and then he left. "What the hell could this be?" The Tech wondered aloud as she took the package inside the house. She placed it on the table and took a laurel leaf from eat head. It instantly became razor sharp. Zeke used the leaf to cut the box open. "What in the world is that?" There was some sort of creature inside...


Meanwhile, a bird hovered just near the Techs house. The little bird flitted around before it shot off towards the Wilds. The enchanted bird arrived back to its master in no time at all. They conversed and the elderly man frowned. This was not good. It seemed The Sire had learned of his students. This was not good at all. The old man hobbled out of his small cottage. A young woman waited outside for him. "Call them here Cassie. We need them all." The young lady nodded and whistled, calling a horse to her side. She mounted the creature and began her ride to the other small villages to gather the Mages.

( just have the Mages go with the woman. Feel free to NPC her. )

[Dannyel]

“Mari! Where have you been!”

Marisela flushed, her cheeks still rosy from rushing home. “What is it, Ma?” She collapsed on the chair, drained from a long day of watching the children of the clan, only to have her mother drop her knapsack in her lap. “Ma?”

Her mother leaned against the table, brushing Marisela’s unruly hair out of her eyes. “Oh, my sweet little girl…I have some news. A woman of another clan stopped by while you were out. You’ve been summoned to a great meeting of all the mages here in the Wilds.”

“But Ma,” Marisela interjected, “What about the kids? Who’ll watch after them?”

“Don’t worry, dear. We’ll find someone.”

“Fine,” she muttered with an overdramatic pout, “but can you at least tell me what’s happening?”

Her mother paled, gnawing her lip as she looked away from her. “I don’t really know, but she said that you might be in danger. You should hurry.” Pulling her a slip of paper from the pouch at her waist, she held it out. “She left you some directions. You can take my horse.”

Marisela’s head was reeling. She had always feared that something like this would happen, rumors of the people in the City and their views on magic had reached even the farthest corners of the Wilds. “Aye,” she muttered, breathing deeply to calm her racing heart, “I…I guess I should head out.”

Leaning forward, she placed a soft kiss on her daughter’s head. “Be careful dear. I’ve packed your things.”

Marisela stood up, taking the knapsack and note in hand. As she headed out, she turned and looked back at her mother. “I’ll be fine, and back soon,” she lied. “Take care of yourself.” Without waiting for a response, she dashed out into the evening light.

***

She rode hard into the night, following the directions that her mother had given her. Finally, she came to the village in the cottage in the directions. Sliding from her mother’s horse, she slowly approached the door. Steeling her herself, she knocked on the door. “Hello?” she called. “It's Marisela…and I’ve been summoned, I guess.”


OOC: I didn't really feel comfortable taking over your character, so I worked around it.

[onlytheneverwas]

Damnit, why did this have to happen now. Really? Raven grumbled as he packed his small carrying bag, adding the trinkets and charms he thought would help. "Poe! Poe, damn you! You're never around when I need you!" The raven gave a lazy squack from his nest in the corner. "Don't back talk me! You know how important this is!" Raven ran over to the neon sign in the window and clicked it to closed. His year round Halloween shop did fairly well, but he never took on co-workers to hold the shop open when he wasn't there. The Goths and eccentrics could do without him for a night. He quickly got all the stuff into the bag and slung the straps over his boney shoulders. "Fine. Don't want to help, you can stay here." The raven cawwed angrelly and tried to clammer out of his nest, but Raven turned and lifted his arms, darkness swirling up around him and then faded, leaving him absent.

The darkness swelled in the forest near the outside of town. Raven stepped out of that darkness and moved instantly away, taking out a small cumpas. The needle of the cumpas wavering to point to the nearest sourse of magic.

[RBYDark]

Nemesis had been resting. Not in the human sense - more in the way a computer might rest, only necessary processes kept running until disturbed, which would trigger full alert in seconds. Zeke's message had disturbed his resting state, and he stood, vaguely aware of the tingling sensation in his organic ifthesiteisnogooditshouldberemoved leg as he walked to the common room. He remained standing, spine ramrod straight as Zeke explained. He blinked as the skintenna gave him the necessary information to put her words into context - a hunt in the wilderness for mages. His programming disagreed with such a concept, that mages could still be alive. He could fix that.

"NoTHing else IS requiRED." Only the odd emphasis of the syllables lent any sort of variety to his speech. He did not move as Thorn gathered food, not as Zeke got the box - he could see the heat signature within, so not even as Zeke opened the box. Her surprise was so....natural. He walked over to get a better look nonetheless, simply for his databanks, in the event that the delivery man had lied or been deceived. Best to complete analysis before it attacked.

[Thorny]

Thorn poked his head back into the room when he heard her cry of confusion. He looked down upon the box, looking at the strange creature within. "whatever it is, it is not human...."

[malmshodes]

"Thank you for noticing." The thing inside the box chuckled. "I'm glad I wasn't mistaken for anything as violent as a human being." The thing's head popped out of the box like the cork in a wine bottle. The rest of it's frail looking body fallowed in quick pursuit. "Don't get me wrong, i'm hard to offend. I'm just saying I don't strike terror into the hearts of youth as I did in my days of old. The ones when I was free to roam about, not the ones where I was locked up in a dank little cell for decades. No, wait, please don't say it. I'm surprised as the rest of you all are. I mean, look at how far mankind has come." The thing made a sweeping motion with its hands, pausing on various cybernetic implants. "And yet, in this day and age there are still really places like that. I guess sometimes the classics just can't be let to rot. It's only we the few, the brother, the living that may hold that entitlement, as much as we may protest." The thing shook its head. "Oh I'm sorry. I'm a bit of a babble. It's been so long since I've been given the chance to do so, and well. Oh never mind. Anyways. The name is Imsar, and the Sire, in all his desperate rage to see to it that nothing mystical, magical, or in any way above normal, is left free to roam, decided to let me out of my cell, potentially forever, provided I'm useful in the..." It coughed into its fist. "Total genocide of the mages." He stuck out his hand so it could be shaped. "Pleased to be met. "

[Thorny]

Thorn pointedly ignored the creature's hand, not to be rude, but he didn't feel like crushing it. "what are you, why where you locked up, and how are you going to help us?" Thorn asked, then he reached down, grabbed a juicy green apple and took a loud bite out of it.