Breaking, Entering, and other Illegal Things.
Wind Wild, Grin, Tracy, Merlin, Monochromatic Rainbow
Day 1, Evening
Ludelle, Crow, Calder, Adele, Marielle
Crow shifted the magic he was drawing on from the air around him to the skull hanging from a strap slung from his right shoulder. The Wyrdshield was going to burn the magic in the Souleater. As Adèla took off and the guard ran for the other sound of destruction coming from the far side of the prison Crow dropped his mask. Looking from Calder to Marielle he moved to a doorway and pushed it open.
Son of a bitch. It actually just drops off into nothing. Sure enough the pit of southgate prison yawned in front of Crow as he stared out into the blackness. Looking up the cylinder he grimaced. “This is gonna be a bitch.”
Calder looked in, and noticed the bars were far enough apart to be used as hand and foot holds, and shrugged, he’d be a little heavy for the bars, but then causing chaos was part of the plan, right? Still, if he did that, he’d be unable to defend himself from any guards, and that would be problematic. Still it would be a useful card to keep in reserve, just in case. He grunted in response to Crow’s observation, and waited for one of the floating platforms to arrive. A guard rode the platform over, and waited while Calder was escorted on by Crow and Marielle, before taking the platform to the designated destination.
Marielle was surprisingly silent, save for some erratic breathing patterns. Past the illusion of her guard uniform Marielle was actually sweating a little. Everyone’s heads must be swarming with ideas, thoughts, and possibly fears, but if one were to peek into the folds of her mind they would find nothing but an empty void. She stepped slightly ahead of Crow and Calder, face expressionless. If they were to observe her thoroughly, however, they would see a slight twitch in the muscles on her arms and head every now and then…
Adèla jogged to the nearest mainframe access point, casting a quick glance down the hallway to make sure she was alone before slipping a small memory stick from a compartment in her armor and slotting it into the unsecured node. Well, it wasn’t unsecured per se, but the security was so lax even she with her minimal hacking skills was able to bypass the halfhearted encryption. Anyone trying to do this remotely would find a Herculean task, from within the walls of the prison itself? Security might as well have not been there.
Her custom written worm immediately slipped into the system undetected, depositing its rootkit in every single node it came across and rapidly seizing control. Within three minutes, the entire computer network of Southgate Prison was under her control, and with her hard coded and encrypted access key? Nobody was any the wiser.
Fingers flying like lightning, she redirected all four guard patrols heading to Cell Block A over to the “Disturbance” in H Wing, hopefully the addition of an extra twenty heavily armed goons wouldn’t mess things up too much. She wasted no time in locking down the sector and transferring all local control to the keycard she had embedded in her gauntlet and wiping the logs of any traces that she had been in the system, purging the worm and its rootkit with a few keystrokes, but not before sending a simple audio message over the cell block intercom, everyone could hear it as she cooed into the microphone, “Calder, it’s so dull here, and those manacles look rather uncomfortable. Be a dear and help me liven things up?” She terminated the connection, finishing the system wipe as she stood back from the console with the world’s largest shit eating grin. “Time to party.” She chuckled to herself, triggering a wireless signal to the two charges she’d planted behind the guards, tapping into the camera feed just in time to see their bodies sent flying from the force of the explosions. Of course, every other security camera had been disabled, Cell Block A would be an inaccessible blind spot. She whistled a merry tune as she jogged back to the group, HMG at the ready.
The guard wasn’t given a chance to react, Calder spun neatly and planted a foot in the small of the guard’s back, sending him flying forward over the rail, and then tumbling down into excercise pit. Continuing the spin, Calder popped the gimmicked shackles and threw them after the guard, in case the fall wasn’t enough to silence him. Then he pulled out the mini-gun he’d been given for the mission, and cleared an approaching platform of its guards with a couple seconds of sustained fire. He looked to Marielle, and nodded toward the controls. “You think you can get us where we need to be? I’m pretty sure I can handle covering our backs, if you and Crow can watch our front and top.” He moved to the back of the platform, and knelt on one knee, bracing the mini-gun against his waist, parallel to the platform. His eyes swept the cells looking for their target and wandering guards, mostly the latter though. He relied on Marielle and Crow to get them to the proper cell on time.
Crow looked up the shaft. “I see another group. Hold on”
With a lunge Crow hurtled into empty space arms spread out and he began to plummet before he burst into a mass of black feathers and angry caws. The swirling murder of crows with metal claws and red cybernetic eyes ascended the shaft in the beat of a hundreds of wings bearing death. The platform above held a few guards. As the mass of Crows approached they opened fire. The murder slammed into them and flung them from the platform. The last remaining guard pinned to the wall cowering as Crow reformed, grabbed the guard by the throat and flung him from the platform to plummet to his death. “Clear.”
The prisoners had begun to cry out for release promising help, death and other ravings. That was until
He appeared. One of the Warden’s of Southgate prison descended on one of the platforms. Only this one was independent of the wall of the prison it simply floated in air.
”Stand down intruders and you will be granted a fair trial. Resist and I will use lethal force.”Adèla emerged from a corridor nearby, coming to an almost screeching halt as one of the Wardens of the prison emerged. That was… not part of the plan.
She spared a half second to glance at the security readout, no breaches, he’d been in the cell block the whole time. She gulped, unsure of if he’d seen her yet. Nonetheless she tightened her grip on her weapon, gently flicking the safety off and lining up the visor’s crosshairs with the Warden’s neck.
She narrowed her eyes, judging by the voice, this was the guy who’d made nothing but innuendos while she was working on the construction of the prison…
She gritted her teeth and opened fire, the thunderous roar and shockwaves of the heavy machine gun slammed into her like a brick wall as it thundered, sending at least fifty of the anti-material projectiles at the armored figure. “I reserve the right to remain silent, but I’m not gonna!” She shouted over the roar of the weapon, and repeating herself after the burst was over, broadcasting it on her suit’s voice amplification system, before adding, “Summary execution isn’t due process.”
The repulsor field around the Warden shimmed from the impact of the projectiles. Turning on its platform it seemed to look down at Adèla. “You have been warned.” It tossed a handful of orbs into the air which took flight around the Warden. Before they open fired with energy based beam weapons searing the area in which Adèla was standing with high precision particle beams. Clapping its hands together and drawing them apart slowly arcs of green lightning leapt back and forth across its gauntlets before it thrust the hands forward sending an arch of green lightning towards Calder and Marielle. Before turning and firing a net made of hardlight energy at Crow.
Calder turned at the sound of the warden’s voice, and considered it carefully. It looked heavy, and powerful. This was going to take more time than Calder wanted to spend here… So he burned a little magic from his vanguards to capture, amplify, and redirect the lightning bolt right back at the Warden. That wasn’t a trick Calder could afford to repeat often, as he’d need those reserves later he was sure. He raised his mini gun and began hurling 20 mm HEI at the platform, hoping to destroy it, or at least damage it enough to compromise the warden’s footing. Calder fired in bursts of eight to ten rounds trying to spread the damage as evenly as possible across the platform.
The warden pulled its platform up to block the lightning and then the rounds from the gun as it sprung through the air to the other side of the cell block. Another platform launched from the wall and the warden landed on it. Moving above the old platform as it crumbled in air the warden fired a canister into the hallway, it hissed as it released a neurotoxin which would induce paralysis.
Give up, you can not win. This is my realm. Criminal.Crow cut through the strands of hardlight with his Talons. This was turning into a real shit storm, the Wardens were gods within these walls. Not only that but they were almost completely magic independent. The best technology was what went into that warden’s armor and ontop of that if they did end the antimagic field. It would just free the Warden to channel the power of Exandra which would make this even more nasty. Walking to the edge of his platform Crow tucked his submachine gun against his shoulder and open fire raining metal on the Warden.
Marielle stepped in front of the line of fire, the liquid metal around her legs splitting and snapping along her back and chest to catch a few of the scattered bullets before she shot an arm up. The girl turned her cheek slightly to Calder and Crow so they could see a dark grin lift half of her face. Her delayed reaction to the fight was disconcerting. She pointed with her outstretched arm to the door behind them. It was now open. As Marielle turned back to the Warden her eyes started to fog with orange, like smoke in a glass ball hitting the sunset. Any
normal human being would run in fear, or stop moving due to shock, but Marielle was…
different.She was batshit crazy.
She cracked her neck quickly and bent her knees a little, holding her fists up. The crazy woman’s eyes glowed like the sun, and her sharp smile grew even wider much to everyone’s discomfort.
“Come at me motherfucker.”Calder was moderately annoyed with Marielle’s decision to waste some of his ammunition, but was pleasantly surprised by the distinct lack of explosions going off in his face. He shifted his focus to the canister, and pulled a tad more energy from his vanguards to encrust the nozzles with Ice, since it was just the nozzles it took very little energy, but a lot of focus, leaving him unable to act or react properly until the canister was dealt with. He glanced around taking stock of the situation as the canister fell harmlessly past him and Marielle into the abyss.
As you wish The Warden cycled to a different function on his gauntlet. It loaded an incendiary grenade into the mechanism that had housed the hardlight net and fired it into the corridor where Caldur and Marielle were standing. The impending firestorm caused the Warden to shield his eyes even though he had a tint on his visor.
How is that for Coming at you motherfucker Turning to look up towards Crow he held out his right hand and projected a magnetic shield in front of him. Halting the hail of bullets to spin in air in front of him.
Be gone. The hail of bullets returned with full force on Crow’s platform. Tearing it to shreds as Crow hurled himself out of the way. Turning its arm the Warden began speaking.
I’ve neutralized invaders in one of the cell blocks. Send reinforcements to clean up the messAdèla shook her thoughts clear as she looked up, then a searing pain smashed into her, almost knocking her to the ground as her arms buckled. She looking down, recoiling in shock as she saw blood, and, a couple meters from where she lay, a leg. Lying in a gleaming pool of blood on the shiny floor of the prison. A leg covered in a distinct matte grey material, with very familiar servos and additions made to it.
Her leg.
A strangled gurgle died in her throat as she stared at the limb, then down at the stump that used to be connected to it, just above the knee. She frantically scrambled over to the dismembered appendage, hoarsely whispering to the armor, “Initi… In…” she fell forward, faceplanting just in front of the limb, before dragging herself forward again. Grabbing a hold of the severed leg she jammed it against the bleeding stump, coughing into the microphone, “Initiate autorepair functions. Activate autonomous suit functions for right leg.” She gritted her teeth, letting the suit’s nanites swarm over the armor plating and servo wires - they couldn’t save the leg, and she’d be getting a new addition to her cyberware, but for the meantime the suit itself could operate using signals from her cranial cybernetics.
A small timer popped up on her visor, letting her know she had approximately 30 seconds before she’d be useful again. She sighed, and then bit back a screech as another wave of agony smashed into her. Choking out another command to the armor, she looked around for her weapon even as her amputated leg shrieked pain signals at her mind, pleased to see it at least had survived the carnage.
As five separate pinpricks jabbed into her body in various places, she felt her pupils dilate as the world seemed to slow down and colors became saturated. Pain wasn’t an issue anymore, and everything seemed to move in slow motion, except herself. She wasn’t wounded anymore, she was just angry, and high, high as a goddamn satellite.
She grabbed her weapon, the suit’s servos doing an admirable job of replacing her leg as she jumped upright, barking several orders to the suit and entering a few commands to the software of the prison.
Local access override for all substations: Accepted…
Local access override for all regular personnel: Accepted...
Local access override exception for MASTKEY9001889y328yqr4287h09fwe9y…
: Accepted...
Local access override for all local users: Denied, Auth. Code KEYWARDEN01
Adèla swore, glaring up ahead the hallway at the ongoing battle. Of course she wouldn’t be able to override the Warden’s control, she had specifically exempted them from her own control - prison was suspicious enough of her ability to access everything, giving herself control over even the Wardens would’ve landed her a stint in a cell of her own.
She rushed ahead, while she couldn’t deny the Warden control over the facilities, she
was on a similar level as him, and she called down a second lift right on top of him at top speed as she unleashed another thundering burst at him, screaming over the suit’s loudspeakers to distract him from the massive piece of metal plummeting down towards him, “Jdi do pekla, ty hovno stravování posera zmrde!” (Translation: Go to hell, you coward shit eating motherfucker!)
The flames roared when the grenade spat out it’s destruction, covering part of the hallway with the fire. There was a long pause, then a loud laugh contorted purely of madness gurgled out from underneath the hot gases tongues.
”Oh you’ve done it now dumbass.” The sound of boots crunching ash echoed in the hall before the Warden’s target appeared, unscathed and re equipped into her magician clothing. Her smile was wide and her eyebrows curved down, furrowing into a dark face to match her ominous orange eyes. In her hand was two cards. One was a king of spades, the other: a ten of spades. She quickly jammed them into the thin gauntlet molded into her arm, then the fire bended to her will, compressing the gas to make it more concentrated. She thrusted her fists into the flames, gathering their will, before sending the blast back at the Warden with ten times its original combustion.
Calder was getting a tad annoyed with this warden, but aside from Adèla, no one had been injured yet, so Calder really couldn’t complain much. The grenade did little more than warm his scales, before Marielle redirected the blast. Taking this bastard from a distance wasn’t working, time to get up close and personal, right after that second platform connected that is. The mini gun vanished into a pocket again, and Calder leaped to one side, grabbing hold of the bars of a cell one level higher than he’d been, long enough to push off towards the other side of hallway, rising another level as he went. He was level with the Warden now, but he lept higher still, avoiding the descending platform, and pausing only long enough to see if the platform would connect with the Warden. If it did, Calder would jump down on top of it, if the Warden moved or moved the platform, he’d just jump the Warden.
Holding up its hands the Warden’s shields flared to light and overloaded, the outside of the armor crisping from the blast of fire that had consumed it. Shaking its head it looked up to see Calder hurtling through the air towards it.
The Warden moved backwards. Not to avoid the platform but to avoid Calder. It turned its particle beams on Calder and fired as it charged another burst of electricity between its hands. Before lunging forwards to grab Calder and deliver a massive jolt of electricity to the troll as it heaved Calder trying to lift the troll above its head preparing to hurl Calder down the pit.
Die beastAdèla’s eyes widened as, not only had her attempts failed, but the Warden grabbed Calder and prepared to throw him down to certain death.
She wasn’t having any of that.
A quick command rerouted all suit power to the legs, and she dropped the bulky machine gun, pulling out her nanoblade as she sprinted with all her might, vision darkening as she stared down at the figure who’d cost her her leg, who was about to throw to his death someone she couldn’t call a friend yet but definitely liked, who was getting in the way of her rescue of someone she certainly did consider a friend.
A growl built in the back of her throat, a bestial, inhuman one that grew into a full blown roar of rage as she sprinted towards the gap, the inhuman sound still emanating from her lungs as she lept over the gap, swinging the blade she’d seen cut straight through solid tungsten at the Warden’s neck with all her strength, enough of her consciousness remaining to reroute power to her arms for maximum strength.
Marielle threw her scearing arms down and sprinted at the warden, her smile instantly melting to pure focus and determination at the scene. Her eyes flicked over to Adèla, absorbing everything going on as she shouted at the girl.
”Distract the ugly bastard, ! I got Tankface!” This was going to use quite a bit of magical energy, a small price to pay for the troll’s life. She gritted her teeth and inhaled an ear-ripping sharp breath.
“CALDER! Give me your hand!!” It wasn’t long before she was just mere feet away from him, extending her bare arm with an open palm. A purple mist oozed from her body, her skin slightly tinting a pink from the energy.
”NOW!”Calder laughed as the beams tore through his unprotected arms and legs, though most hit and were ablated by his breastplate. A familiar spell, sipped energy from his vanguards as it healed the wounds acquired in his charge. This was his signature, and even a fall from the platform would be little more than an inconvenience for the troll. Calder lunged forward as the warden reached for him, checking the warden as the grasping hand found his armored back, and discharged into a natural capacitor. Calder really liked whoever had made this breastplate, they had an eye for the unexpected it seemed. Calder’s helmeted head rushed towards the warden’s visored face with the force of a hydraulic ram, but landed only a glancing blow as the warden lifted Calder over his head. That was quite a surprise to Calder, as he was even heavier than he looked, like most trolls. Hearing Marielle’s shout, Calder, kicked down at the warden shoulders, twisting around to reach her hand with his own. Catching her hand a tad roughly, but firmly, in a cool scaly grip, Calder pulls her up over the edge of the platform, incase he has to let go quickly.
Marielle inhaled as the Warden attempted to grab Calder before she suddenly bounced Calder so she held him up by his back above herself. Before he knew it Marielle was carrying him with two arms on his back as she bounced up, jumping just out of the Warden’s grip. “AH SHIT!!” Marielle growled. “You’re so heavy what the fuck!!” Her muscles strained as an example. “Adèla you might wanna finish being badass and get to the wall, It’s coming!!!” Her gritted teeth curved into part of a grin. Her face turned up to the troll whose belly was facing the ceiling. “Try not to puke on me,” Her grin was hardly convincing from the beads of sweat beginning to form at her forehead.
The Warden snarled as Calder was snatched from his grasp. Turning he lined up his gauntlet and prepared to turn Marielle and Calder to ash with the direct energy weapon in his gauntlet. As he did so the Warden turned his back on Adèla leaving the neck join in his armor totally exposed as he tracked the escaping pair of Marielle and Calder preparing a lethal shot on both of them.
Adèla snarled viciously as she cleared the gap, the targeting systems in her armor locking on to the exposed neck of the Warden as she channeled every scrap of power the reactor could generate into the blow. She brought the blade down on the back of his neck, smashing the weapon savagely into the armor as she herself crashed into him, the full weight of her and her armor smashing into the back of the Warden, pushing him towards the pit.
The Warden’s severed head plummeted in one direction while the rest of his body was flung into space plummeting into the depths of the pit beneath the cylinder. And with that there was silence as Crow descended from platform to platform.
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Crow peered down at the fight. As Adèla launched herself at the Warden, Crow knew the fight was over. Turning to look up the cylinder Crow took flight again in his Murder form, ascending the cylinder, searching for the prisoner they were here for. Something caught his attention….It stank of Raven. He’d caught her ancient and powerful scent lingering on Marielle, and here it was again. Turning his hundreds of eyes he descended on the cell. With that he reformed himself gripping the bars and peering into the cell. “Hey, rise and shine.”
The prisoner was already up, her muscles tense and ready for the breakout. She had heard the commotion and it had lit a fire in her soul that managed to overcome even the petrifying cold. As the bizarre man appeared at the bars Ludelle glanced at the bird the mysterious woman had left her with, its calm confirming that this was an ally and not a foe. “I don’t know about shine, but at least I can rise… and probably follow.” The woman grinned, her teeth flashing under the beak. “Is there a white horse somewhere around by any chance? And a spare key.” The nervous chuckle was covering the increasing pain the cold was causing her... but it didn’t matter. Nothing mattered right now except getting out of here as soon as possible. She didn’t even care who her allies were and why they wanted her. She just wanted out.
Crow eyed her. “White horse? No. Key? No.” With that he simply slashed through the bars with his talons. Tearing them out and hurling them into space. “Are you the only one we’re taking out of here?” Peering back down the shaft he frowned. “This is going to suck, my magic is running low.” Turning back he looked her up and down, “Are you intact or do you need me to make accommodations?”
Ludelle’s eyes widened as the man
slashed the bars and she took a startled step back. Pain shot through her ankle but it held and she remained upright. Fixing her posture and stepping forward she gripped one of the damaged bars and peered down the abyss below. “Intact. But I can’t fly.” She informed him bitterly. “My magic’s running low” sounded pretty grim and she hoped he had a better plan than making her run and dodge incoming bullets along the way.
Crow stepped into the room and picked Ludelle up like she was a child and walked back to the bars taking a look down. “Hold on, I don’t think I can transform us both safely so we’re going to have to do something different.” With that he spoke in the language of the dead and drew the spirits from his skull wrapping them around Ludelle and himself before he jumped into open space.
The fall was a short one but it terminated on a platform below before he leapt down to the next one. Descending rapidly. “Don’t squirm or I may drop you”
Easier said than done! Her muscles had spasmed on reflex when he’d cast his spell… and then she’d frozen, too scared to even budge when the darkness enveloped them and gravity pulled them down. Just a small hiccup revealed her terror as he jumped and secretly she was hoping she’d faint sooner rather than later.
“Are you sure this is safe?” She croaked weakly.
“No, it’s not. If my magic gives out we’re paste. It will probably cause the bones in our bodies to shatter, pulp our internal organs and render the two of us a single amalgamous mass for whoever has to clean it up. Assuming we fall all the way down. If we don’t the impact of a platform will probably kill us just due to impact.”
Crow looked down at her. “I wouldn’t advise thinking about it as you appear to be less than stable currently. Instead you may wish to consider your life leading up to this point and focus on the good things. I’m lead to believe it takes the edge off of a fear of impending death.” Crow leapt again
Out of everything he said, (none of which was calming in the
least) it was the last thing that struck a nerve. It felt like a cold blade aimed straight at her heart exactly because she had so much unfinished business. Her fingers curled around his top and dug deep within, the anger, humiliation and hurt all exploding into a fit of insane rage. Her grip was strong enough to snap one of those iron bars and she felt like punching him for no good reason.
“You better make sure we survive.” She growled, her voice completely changed.
Crow looked down at her. “I said don’t squirm” His next leap carried them out into open space as he fell he let go of her waist and his left arm wrapped around her like a vice as he dug the talons on his right hand into the stone of the wall as he slid down it. leaving Ludelle to dangle in the air over the pit clinging to him before his fall jerked to an abrupt halt and he dropped onto the edge of the entrance to the cell block. “There, we survived. Next time try not to make such a fuss, it may cause us to die. And that would be highly unfortunate.” Crow’s face contorted into a grimace as he face shimmered and shifted for a second it was that of an Elder Sidhe, heart achingly beautiful with a touch of gorgeous madness around the edges. “It’s high time to go” he growled as he set her down on the edge.
The world swam and swung violently on their way down and when he let her go, Ludelle had to grab the wall to steady herself. Now that she was out of the cell her impeded vision was becoming more of a problem and seeing Crow’s face… in both its versions… was confusing at best.
“Have they transformed you too?” She asked while scanning the vicinity and trying to piece together what she was seeing. Everything seemed as if she was looking at it through a fractured window and she really hoped the effects weren’t permanent. Rubbing her eyes, Ludelle looked back at Crow. “I need a weapon.”
Crow extended his left hand and a blade extended from the flat piece of metal strapped to the inside of his wrist. Resting in his open was a flat blade. “Take it. And try not to hurt yourself.” Crow looked at her. “You gonna be alright?”
Noting the question he ignored, but grateful for the weapon, she took the blade and gripped it tight. “Now I will be. Thank you.” At least now she had a fighting chance.
“Done murdering things?” Crow yelled out into the cylinder towards the rest of the group. “We got what we came for, time to get the hell out of here before the Angel’s Landing Peacekeepers show up.”
Calder was done, he’d noted Marielle’s complaint and found time to reverse the situation, with him holding her, since that was far less taxing on both their reserves. He looked back at the fight, to see that Adèla had finished the warden. He’d made his way over to Adèla again and set Marielle down, as Crow descended with their charge. That simplified things a great deal. Calder reached over and placed a massive hand over Adèla’s severed leg, and burned through most of his remaining magic to heal it completely. It cost him more to heal others, but she’d taken out the biggest threat around, so he wasn’t worried about it. They’d all soon be outside again, and he’d be able to work his magic properly again. With that done, Calder leaped over to the entrance hall’s landing and took point, pulling his shield out, to cover his large frame, and those behind him, as he stepped through the doorway, noting the two conspicuously absent guards and the blast marks on the walls behind their posts. He grinned as the tide came rushing back into him, as he took up a position next to the open door so the others could come out, while he watched for their getaway vehicle and incoming peacekeepers.
Right behind Crow there was a skittering noise, only to have Raven’s companion hop towards everyone. It’s mysterious eyes oozed with purple mist, and it cocked its head to the side. gracefully it parted open its beak and let out a soft dissonance of sounds, like wind chimes. Like a shifting shadow it swept up onto Ludelle’s shoulder, brushing its feathery face into her neck in a nuzzle. A soft aftertaste of Raven’s voice slipped into Ludelle’s mind.
”You’re in good hands now, dear.”Meanwhile Mareille grinned like a madwoman while brushing off the dust on her body. “Alright ladies and gents, prepare for a beautiful vehicle-gasm because in about--” she looked down at her gauntlet. “--ten seconds, you’ll be kissing my ass.” Marielle paused at that. “In the good way, of course.” She glanced over at the entirety of the group. “So, any of you fuckers know how to drive, or will I need to be two-timing the shit I had prepared for us?”
Adèla nodded gratefully to Calder. “Thanks for that, I’m rather attached to my leg, and I’d like to keep the relationship physical.” She looked over to Marielle, “Depends, what are we talking here? I can learn to drive almost anything in about a millisecond, so I’d reckon so.”
She looked over to Ludelle, eyes widening behind her visor as she saw the… significant differences in her appearance to prior. “Good to see you’re alive, though… the hell happened to you?” Immediately she regretted saying it, but she’d been taken off guard.
Crow slowly rubbed his temples as though the noise was annoying him. “Let’s just get the hell out of here before anymore fun happens that we weren’t expecting.” The whispering from the skull was back and it was slowly getting louder; an effect of draining its magic in such a taxing manner. The spirit's in it were becoming more agitated causing the headache and the beginning of a fowl mood.
Ludelle wasn’t quite sure how to react to the crazy woman in the revealing outfit, nor to the giant lizard that literally reattached somebody’s leg so she chose to ignore them. Everything was getting quite overwhelming and the woman could feel her brain shutting down. Fatigue was dulling her senses and her capacity to think or feel seemed to be rapidly decreasing. Who were those people? What did they want from her? Surely, their help didn’t come for free.
But right now she couldn’t care. Ludelle petted Raven’s bird and absently stared at the woman who addressed her in an oddly familiar matter. The voice sounded familiar but the armour didn’t ring a bell and the face was obstructed. A friend? Unlikely, she had no friends. An old acquaintance probably. Ironic, someone she knew but didn’t recognise was complaining about being unable to recognise her.
Part of her wished the masked man would hold her again – she didn’t feel terribly steady on her feet. Her eyelids felt heavy and swollen and it seemed like sleep was going to claim her any minute.
Calder glanced over to the beaked woman shivering near Crow, and couldn’t help but wonder why she was shivering, given that it was rather warm day. He dug into one his pockets… dug a little more... He hadn’t used this since he’d added it to his pocket several centuries ago… There it was, He pulled out a large cloak, enchanted to keep a body comfortably warm no matter the weather. He draped the cloak, made to fit his own massive frame, over the shivering woman. It wasn’t exactly ideal, but it would have to do. He inquired after the woman’s health next, since he was the closest thing to a healer the group had. If she died of illness on the way, this whole trip would be wasted. “Are you sick? Do you need medical attention?” He studied at her face very carefully, she seemed human except for the beak and skin, typical fae work probably… He wondered if he could undo that change himself, but wouldn’t know without a more thorough investigation, that no one had time for here.
Ludelle’s eyes snapped up at the troll and she blinked before speaking.
“Um… Thank you.” She muttered, huddling into the cloak (where did that come from?) and glanced around the group, uncertain if this is the right time for this. True, she was feeling very fatigued and hardly had the desire to move at all, but losing consciousness was surely better than being shot. “I do need some attention. Both my skin and face have been transformed… and I might have been poisoned. I feel unnaturally cold… ” Her teeth chattered slightly when she spoke. “But I think I can make it…? Where are we going anyway?”
Calder didn’t like the thought of having to deal with a poisoned prisoner, and the cloak should have helped with the cold… he gently touched her forehead, felt the cold there and recognized the spell that was causing it. He slipped a thumb between her chattering teeth and was not disappointed to find the second part of the spell embedded in her bloodstream. Who ever had done this was clever, like a fae, but Calder had literally grown up with fae, so it was expected. He took a few moments to review the spell and was pleased to find he wouldn’t have to skin the woman to break it. He carefully undid a small part of the spell and it slowly unraveled itself releasing the excess energy as warmth.
There, with the cooling spell gone the cloak should get her temperature under control and back to normal soon… He scanned her body carefully with magic, and found nothing else amiss, only her altered skin. Calder removed his hand, gently as he answered her questions. “Think nothing of it, You shouldn’t be cold much longer, but your skin will take more time and dedicated study to fix than I can spare now. I’ll see to it once we’re clear of the conflict. We’re going to return the bird.” Calder gestured to the bird Ludelle had been stroking and laid a steadying, and hopefully reassuring hand on Ludelle’s shoulder.
The woman almost flinched as Calder touched her forehead and almost recoiled his finger found its way in her mouth but her reflexes were too slow. It seemed to be a recurring pattern she didn’t like. Luckily he was quick to retrieve his hand and surprisingly, as he did, so did the cold too.
It was obviously going to take longer to completely warm up but she could already feel a bit better. A sigh of relief escaped her and her shoulders slouched a bit. “Thank you.” She muttered honestly. “All of you. I don’t know why you’re doing it but thank you.”
Adèla stepped up, putting a hand on her shoulder as her visor cracked its airtight seal and slid up to reveal her face. “I can’t speak for everyone else here, but I’m doing it because there was a friend of mine in a prison I helped design, and that just seemed wrong.”
Ludelle’s heart dropped as she recognised Adela.
Oh God…. She thought, her eyes dropping. Whatever. It didn’t matter anymore, she didn’t have the energy to run, even if she had the opportunity. Not to mention the whole arsenal on Adela’s body and all the magic of everyone around. From the frying-pan into the wok…
Adèla’s eyebrows rose as she watched Ludelle. “Hey…” she watched her for a moment, confused at her reaction, “What’s wrong? You have the cloak, so you’re warmer now, Calder just… did whatever you do to fix magical ailments, we just busted you out of a high security prison. In a couple hours you’ll be safe, and we can focus on fucking up the Stygian Blade even more, because fuck those guys.” She frowned, “Do you need to sit down somewhere?” She looked over at the rest of the group, “How long ‘til our ride arrives, again?”
Ludelle threw Adela a guarded glance and nodded. Just how safe she would be was still uncertain, especially with someone from the Blade in such a close proximity.
Crow caught the look one Ludelle’s face and then looked at Adèla. “She’s on the out now. We’re Knights, you’re safe. Promise. If you don’t believe me then I can assure you Shard will convince you.” Straightening Crow blinked his eyes a few times. “It might be prudent to move to the exit. I believe Marielle can provide transportation from there.”
Adèla’s eyebrows rose. “Oh.” She muttered. “Yeah - for the record they fucked me over just as much as you. I took a machine gun burst right to the spine, you’re not going to see me working for them anytime soon. You’re safe, s’why we busted you out.”
Ludelle just nodded and hoped they’d get out of there soon.
It was surprising none of them noticed Marielle’s absence. Suddenly the loud growl of a clean engine thudded. Then, the sound of wheels, spinning and purring firmly on the ground came next. Sooner than anyone knew it, Marielle was back, on top of a unique motorcycle. She revved the engine with a grin plastered onto her face. “Yo bitches! Your savior has arrived!” before she could see any possibly puzzled looks she whistled with her two fingers.
The wall to the side of the alley across from them collapsed. The cause of the destruction blew away the debris for a clear path, revealing a black sports car, unphased. Both machines had glass containing carbon nanofiber. (
Motorcycle ) (
Car )
Marielle pressed a button and the protective glass covering the bike lowered, revealing the girl in her biker helmet. She pressed a button on the side of it, putting her voice through a speaker built into her helmet, the sound loud and crystal clear for everyone to hear. “Adèla, drive Xavier, my car.” The mechanical voice cackled. “Ludelle, you’re riding with me sweetheart. I’m your fastest route to safety. Everyone else…” She snapped her fingers and Xavier suddenly revealed it’s full potential, morphing into a thicker version of the car and extending its length, revealing a multitude of big guns, rockets, and explosives. “Make your enemy wish they went to Hell before meeting you.” There was a back layer to the car containing a spot for Calder in the back and a wide array of the attached weapons.
Crow gave Marielle a look, “Oh, compensating are we?” The ghost of a smile hovered on his lips before he climbed into Xavier and tapped a spot behind his ear. “Settled in, let's get the hell out of here”
Calder helped Ludelle over to the bike, where he made sure the oversized cloak wouldn’t get caught in anything, before moving over and sliding gracefully into the only space big enough for him, and kept an eye on the path behind the car, waiting for the inevitable pursuit to arrive.
