Normally villainy has to be planned in secret. It’s not wise to openly talk about illegal activities. But that only applies to places where the bulk of the inhabitants aren’t mindless zombies or unpleasant people. The police force was still weak, GEMINI had less than ten active espers, and Maverick had fewer still. The freelancers were numerous, but also divided and not without their own unsavory sides.
Why wouldn’t Justin just abduct Betty from the Great Escape?
Ditching the Bates was easy. In the end, the city was on
his side, it was
his to wonder, and even two reasonably powerful espers didn’t have the manna to fight everyone. It just wasn’t feasible to attack Justin out in the open like this. But that wasn’t to say this whole thing was favorable for him.. Justin had lost several irreplaceable treasures, and one of his favorite homes.
The vampire had since split off from his companions. Sofron would lead Betty and PAc-A-Fist to another one of his lairs, but Justin had other business to attend to. He drew a black capsule from his coat and popped it open, revealing a gold phone.he punched in a few numbers before holding it up to his ear. The person he called didn’t greet him. Likely because they saw his name via caller ID.
”Morning Dragon Fruit the eighteenth.” The vampire clenched his teeth.
”Are you still interested in the Burns estate? I may be willing to part with it. ”A chipper, feminine voice responded to him, absolutely seething with glee.
“Ah, is this Mr. Carthage speaking? It is an absolute pleasure to hear from you again! How are you, good sir? I do hope you were able to evacuate the majority of your vanity projects from the estate before, as you’re well aware, your own minions sunk the value of the property to the price of…” Obnoxious clicking and clacking sounded, as if someone was just mashing their fingers against a calculator. “...a mobile home from the 70s!”
”The mansion, yes, but not the property.” Justin slinked into an alleyway, stepping over an open bag of garbage.
”You’re going to knock it down and build one of your business ventures anyway, so whatever’s on top shouldn’t matter.”“Ah, yes, so a matter of land prices, right? Thank you for being so understanding, Justin! I will certainly have a completely independent appraiser to determine the value of the land after you’ve revealed that the neighborhood is infested with gun-toting criminals and giant ants!” A girlish giggle sounded immediately after.
Justin curled his lips inside his mouth.
”I think we should continue this over a meeting. Glex should be dropping by, and I have something that would interest her.” He grinned.
”Have a place I can drop by, or would you rather come to one of my mansions?”“And of course I’ve got a place! The carnival’s in town, so how about a nice and enigmatic meeting inside a mirror maze?”
He snorted.
”I hadn’t realized your family was visiting. Very well, so long as it meets her expectations, it will do.” Justin had been dealing with this woman long enough to know that the meeting spot she suggested was not a joke, and trying to sway her mind would just lead to even more ridiculous places. A moving carnival was, admittedly, a pretty discreet meeting place. By the time anyone thought to search the area for clues, the evidence would be packed up and moved away.
”Can you meet us there within the hour?”There was ‘beep’ as the phone switched to ‘Speaker’ mode, and in that moment, Justin heard both the shrieks of children and adults alike, as well as the demented accordian shriek of carnival music.
Justin pinched the bridge of his nose.
”Right. Don’t go anywhere.” He hung up without waiting for a response.
There wasn’t much to say about the carnival. Like so many other moving carnivals, it was a bunch of cheap thrills that were designed to be set up and packed up quickly. Most of the attractions were small, and charged exorbitant prices You could pay twenty dollars to throw a weighted basketball at a hoop that, while looked normal, was actually a few feet taller than a standard regulation basketball hoop. This was probably more fair than the six-shooter that you could use to hunt seven ducks, fling a bouncy ball into shot glass, or any of the other “games” that offered prizes that could be purchased cheaper online. In contrast to this, the food was cheap. Even if you spent most of your money getting conned by the games, you’d still have enough money to buy some greasy chicken afterwards. And the other attractions were somewhere in the middle. Not as cheap as the food, but probably more enjoyable than the games. Though as technology progressed, the thrill of riding around on a carousel or entering a labyrinth of mirrors became less appealing. Such childish attractions would only amuse children.
Or those with child-like minds.
Justin refused to dress modestly to fit in, which caused a few of the carnival goers to confuse him for an employee. Several children wanted their picture taken with the count, but they were ignored. He made a beeline for the mirror maze. Though he had to pace his steps with the blonde woman wrapped around his arm. Unlike him, she very much fit the stereotype of a carnival goer. She was on the skinny side and had her hair cropped half way down her neck. Her jacket and shorts were all denim, and she wore a shirt that read “I’m in my own little world, but it’s okay, they know me here.” More than her clothes, what marked her as a carnival goer was that everything she saw impressed her. Yet there was also something off about her, something indecent. Maybe it was the dark rings around her eyes, the fact that she never blinked, that her gaze hung below everyone’s shoulders, or just how pleased she looked to be in some cheap carnival. This wasn’t the 1920’s anymore, it was the 2020’s.
Once they entered the mirror maze, it was what most could expect from a five dollar entry fee. The maze itself was inside a modest sized tent, with a few fold out walls. It wasn’t much of a maze, and was more of a linear path from one side of the tent to the exit at the other side. Though one could stop and see how each mirror altered their reflection. Vampires did not traditionally have reflections, but that was only the case when Justin exposed his eyes. Otherwise, his clothes and makeup showed up in the mirrors just fine. That wasn’t to say seeing his majesty distorted by some carnival mirrors was to his amusement.
”So.” Justin grunted.
”Morning Dragon Fruit the eighteenth is probably around here somewhere. I didn’t see them on my way in.”.
”Then we just gotta find her!” The blonde wandered down the hall of mirrors. .
”Yo-hoo! Fruity? Where are you hiiiidiiing?”Despite the simplicity of the maze’s design, there were nevertheless more than a couple ways of hiding one’s self within a linear path. Namely, all one had to do was remove the hinges off one of the mirrored walls and slip behind it. And when some names were shot out, well…
“It’s Morning, not Fruity,” chimed the chipper voice. The mirrored wall two meters off from the strange couple’s location creaked open, and a perfectly manicured hand beckoned them to come within, drawing them into the darkness of the other side of the looking glass. A woman, a professional-looking woman in a crisp business suit and glasses, smiled at them the way a child would. Morning looked to be in a good mood indeed, and her expressions, as genuine as honey scooped out from a hive in a forest, were infectious, alluring.
“Are the big boys coming too, or are we just here to kiss little Justin’s boo-boo?”
”Oh, that won’t be necessary. If I had any wounds, I have plenty of attractive servants to shower them with kisses.” He chopped the air with his arm, as if to sever the current thread of conversation.
”I thought Glex might be interested in what I’ve been up to over the past few weeks.” He turned to look at the blonde woman he entered the maze with.
”Last time we met, you said that Oros might be in Pax Septimus to collect some espers, and that we should do everything in our power to ensure she doesn’t meet them.” Glex was examining a corner of the empty corridor before she turned to look at Justin. Their eyes didn’t meet though.
”Yes, they were talking about Betty on Shimr.”Justin’s grin only grew.
”I believe that a gentleman should work to surpass what is expected of him at all times. I acquired Betty Barton last week, and Pac-A-Fist just today.” Glex’s eyes flicked up to meet Justin’s
”You acquired them?””Yes!” He had no trouble letting his pride show.
”If our enemy wants a precious resource, I’ll sacrifice anything to get it. I had a close scrape with GEMINI and Maverick, however-” ”They didn’t discover the hand of entropy exists, did they?” Glex hadn’t blinked since she started looking at Justin.
”I don’t know how they could have. We don’t exactly keep documents or anything like that.” Justin averted his “gaze” . turned away from Glex.
”I’m not sure what Oros was going to do with them. They have fairly modest power as far as espers are concerned, but given what the Monarch has become after coming in contact with her, I think it’s fair to say I’ve only scratched the surface of what they can do.” He shrugged his shoulders.
”Of course, if you think they should be executed, that can be arranged.”Glex hummed.
”Mmmm, nah, they might be useful in a few weeks when the diver arrives. We can’t assume Oros wants them alive anyway. Killing them might bring on even more bugs.” Her eyes dropped down to Justin’s hands and her smile returned.
”Alright, I guess you did okay, but I don’t like this game.” She pouted.
”Penny isn’t around to draw heat off of you anymore. You need to be more careful, or it’s game over!” ”No need to worry about me. I have far too many places to hide, and too many willing to die in my place.” He turned to look at Morning.
”So Morning, if that is how you’d like to be addressed, I do have the deed for the Berns estate on my person. Name the right price, and it's yours.”The suited woman stared through Justin as if he were glass, no more than a transparent obstruction to larger schemes. Like a human looking upon an anthill. Like an old god looking upon Sodom. There was, in that moment, a perfect stillness.
Then she broke it with a smile, and slapped her fist against her palm. “Right, the Diver! Thanks for the reminder, lil Glex. That event totally slipped my mind.” With catastrophe on the horizon, there was no need to be too hasty with new acquisitions after all. “I’ll let this slip once as well, Mr. Carthage. Glex gets to call me Morning. You may address me by my full name. And, of course, we can discuss the matter of property
after the Diver’s done their detour.”
Even without owning the land, after all, she still had her fingers in construction.
Justin curled one of his fingers into his palm and pressed on it with his thumb until it cracked.
”If that is your preference, so be it.”
@Crusader Lord@FamishedPants”Good evening, agents.”Fritzi paced back and forth in front of Samuel and Lilliah. Her eyes were locked on her tablet, which she was prodding with a stylus. They were standing in the new and improved training room. Ashley had been the first to test it out, but Binky had made a lot of enhancements since then. Remnants of the old obstacle course were still in place, which had recently been used to test Finn’s abilities. It seemed that they had not yet been repaired. But Sam and Lilliah were enlisted agents, and evaluations were seldom conducted after one was hired. Neither one had an idea as to why they were here. After making them wait in silence for the better part of a minute, Fritzi looked up at them with a smile.
”I don’t think the operation at Justin von Carnage’s mansion was anyone’s finest hour.” She tapped the top of her stylus.
”I read your reports. It seems our enemies are more numerous than I initially thought, and I wasn’t too generous with my initial estimation. The nun, in particular, will be troublesome.” With a huff, Fritzi placed a hand on her hip.
”Well, I read your reports, but now I want to hear your opinions. What do you think your squad’s greatest weakness is?”
Morning broke bright, heralding a brisk, blue sky, but down in the depths of Bastion, the only indication of the transition between night and day came from digital clocks and mood lighting. Living a subterranean life had benefits, but the inability to synchronize the body and mind with the rotation of the planet was not one of them. Unless, of course, one had a phone with alarms set religiously to remind them when to sleep and when to wake.
This time, however, no such alarm roused Luna from her slumber. Rather, by chance or by fate, the Maverick Esper found herself blinking her eyes open to the sound of a ‘ding’. A message, sent from a username that she didn’t recognize on Shimr.
‘PirateBayRat.’
In most other circumstances, such messages could be ignored, of course. It was too damn early for a booty call from a random, and it wasn’t as if Shimr was free from hackers trying to steal account log-in info with innocuous image links that just don’t seem to be able to load. But while it may have been only by luck that Luna was roused by a message, it was by intention that she became wide awake immediately after.
‘A little bird on a decaying grapevine told me’
‘where your lost little lamb is’
@mantouAria’s shift at the nursery was about to start. She had given herself plenty of time to arrive, but the subway was packed today, and the diminutive woman couldn’t see over most people. The way Aria was getting bumped back and forth, they might have mistaken her for a ball of mochi. None of them were getting off at her stop, which made it even harder to reach the exit in time. But she managed. Aria wouldn’t need to take a detour this time.
After a scenic walk to the city’s outskirts, she saw it, the orphanage where she worked part time. It was just a small cottage that had been converted into a nursery. It stood between two newer homes, but there was a row of trees at either side that kept the nursery isolated. Not that anyone was home during working hours anyway. Aria’s shift ended around three to four O’clock, at which point all of the kids would be picked up.
And speaking of kids, it was not uncommon for Aria to find a few of them waiting outside already. Though if she looked a bit harder, she’d make out some of them walking behind the windows.
They had gotten inside.Had the last caretaker forgotten to lock up?
@SilverPaw@Majoras EndWhen it came to agents that were both capable and mentally sound, there really was only one that fit the bill: Dragon Breacher. The others were all either immature or possessing particular fixations, after all, and Silhouette, the one who could be trusted at least to rein in his predilections, was occupied. But while any old patrol of Pax Septimus could be handled by just a duo of agents, today’s occasion was different.
Two hours before, Dragon Breacher, Leroux, and the newly-recruited Timekeeper had been briefed on an assignment of utmost import. While Justin’s own hideout remained out of the grasp of the GEMINI’s own analysts, CCTV monitoring and ‘collaboration’ with local authorities had uncovered a couple of key threads, the most promising of which the trio was sent to investigate now.
A month or two back, a private clinic, the Aspiria Refuge, opened up in Pax Septimus, offering up mental health services. This was good and normal, and they operated as such, paying protection money to the Mixed Nuts Gang. In the last week, however, surveillance had caught an influx of patients coming in. Patients that did not come out, and patients that were not reported as ‘missing persons’ either. The reason behind it, after some cross-referencing, became obvious.
Those patients were thralls. The same escaped thralls that GEMINI forces had come to battle with during the initial raid of the Carnage Mansion. Possibilities of all sorts could be surmised, of course, hypotheses stacked atop each other, but in the end, speculation was meaningless, and the mission was clear.
Enter the clinic, detain the doctor, and investigate the premises.
So now, there the three of them were, across the sidewalk facing Aspiria Refuge.
In person, it was an unremarkable building. Two stories tall, with the second floor serving as a living space for the doctor, presumably. White-washed walls glistened in the noontime sun, more a sign of anti-graffiti measures than an obsession with a well-kept building. The signage was blocky and friendly, with the logo being that of a dove carrying the Rod of Asclepius.
There were no windows, however, and a paper sign on the metal door read ‘Closed’.
A medical clinic, closed during the middle of the weekday, at noon of all times.
It was a good thing, then, that the GEMINI agents possessed a no-knock warrant.
@IzurichThe other agents were with Fritzi or preparing for an operation, which left Ashley and Silmeria to patrol. Silmeria’s shift had ended about ten minutes ago, but she decided to continue her patrol outside her usual route. Surely even the monsters were aware of their patrol paths, and it wouldn’t hurt to do something a bit more extra.
But then where should she go? Just wander?
She wouldn’t need to think about it.
Silmeria came across a van. The clear coat had dulled from years of baking in the sun, but it was well maintained. The rims had all been cleaned, and barring a few scratches here and there, it looked to be in good shape. The newest addition to the van was a vinyl logo. “Pax Landscaping,” with a cartoon tiger jubilantly pushing a mower over some turf, followed by “We stripe it!” and a phone number.
It did look like a good time to mow down some weeds.
@OwO, wuts this?The roar of six cylinders sounded out through the desolate streets of Pax Septimus, a muscle car prowling freely in the night. Apollo, as it happened to be, was driving, fresh off the sort of pub crawl that would make most lesser specimens keel over and get rushed into the hospital for a new liver. He, of course, was built different. A chad amongst chads, a machine bound in flesh, the man was driving straight even with a liter of pure alcohol being processed through his veins, cruising through the neon shitscape of the City of Blood n Sin with both windows open. Monstrous music blasted out as the cool wind flowed in, whisking the sweat of premarital sex off his skin.
Aftercare and bedtalk, after all, were both beta things. Apollo was the man who was out before the first cigarette even finished.
But perhaps he wasn’t alone in enjoying the 4AM roads after all. Hi-beams flashed against his rearview mirror, then dimmed to reveal the silhouette of another car: a scarlet red Pontiac Firebird, its hood vibrating with the force of its own engine. The windows were too target to make out anything of the driver within, but the intent was clear as the car first changed lanes, then
caught up to Apollo’s own vehicle. The intent was clear enough, and this road, following the path to the abandoned industrial section of the city, was a winding, deadly one, well known for both fatal car accidents and absolutely badass street races.
Of course, knowing all this, there was only one path and one road for Apollo…unless, of course, he was feeling like a little bitch instead.
@The World@Ponn@ERodeAs it turned out, Ashley and Marrie had no reason to wait for High-Priest to acquire another esper. After Tetrad gave Klava Marrie’s number, Marrie and her talked and realized they were both trying to find Sofron. High-Priest seemed pleased with this outcome, citing the Maiden as a reliable and experienced ally that was perfect for rounding out the team. They offered pay suitable for the mission’s completion,and some instructions. You’re not really working for a mysterious patron without following a few obscure instructions.
The trio walked down an alleyway in the dead of night. The only thing lighting the way was two barrel fires situated at either end of the street. After spotting a table with a tarot card depicting the high priestess, Marrie showed her phone to one of the players, which had a PNG of the tarot emperor loaded onto it. One of the players sneezed, and then three card players from entirely different groups approached the espers. There was a fox girl wearing a police uniform, only she had decided to forgo her top for a leather harness and a bikini, which her badge was clipped to. Another “officer” just wore a vest, which was open and revealed the awesome six pack he was rocking. He also had a mustache that glistened in the evening sun. The last one was the tallest. This officer wore a strange knit garment that only covered his arms and the lower half of his face, but exposed his torso, which was only covered in a net.They looked strange, but not more so than the espers before them. They locked arms with the espers like they were all besties going to a club together, casually chatting with each other.
And then they guided the espers into Grizzly Rose, a night club.
Not that anyone could tell on the inside. Once you were inside, all you could feel were sensations. Hues of red and purple light hit the espers like a freight train, or maybe it was the dated electric techno music. Clouds of smoke rolled out of some vents, which were bathed in neon light. Silhouettes of warm bodies swayed and bounced, but not to any particular rhythm. They were just as eccentrically dressed as they were, if not more so. The night had just begun, however, and their guides were able to steer them towards their destination.
The first floor of Grizzly rose was a fairly standard rave, but there was a penthouse a few stories up that allowed for a more relaxed environment. Justin had purchased it for Sofron, and according to High-Priest, he was using it tonight.
The esper’s guides took them far away from the dance floor and sat at the bar, where they continued their conversation. It was actually quiet enough that one could hear themselves think. But just beyond the bar was a staircase that led to the penthouse.The only other way in was through the window that overlooked the sea, but that wasn’t exactly a subtle option. Then again, the door leading in was likely locked, and Sofron probably wasn’t taking visitors.
For now, the espers were on their own.
So are you up for another job or what? You should be happy I'm willing to hire you again!
Your observation aside, if you want to stop Justin, you will need to separate him from Sofron. 
But yes, that passes muster. The time of day and location look correct. 
He was able to prepare for it due to the bickering online, and it seems that both GEMINI and Maverick were aware the other one was going to attack that day, which created other problems. This suggests the existence of moles in both organizations.
