Meshach
Slowly the shadowy figures of the Shadow Graphers were ambling closer, almost imperceptibly gliding across the uneven surfaces. The Shadow Graphers on the inside of a window were now making their way through the glass of the window and gliding down the building facade at a ninety degree angle. The more Meshach looked around, the more Shadow Graphers were appearing. They were common fare as far as the City goes. He really hoped not to encounter any, or at least only a few, as it was a waste of time and bullets trying to deal with them. Cat turned, her back against Meshach's, and they circled, each one getting their bearings. The City block was fairly simple- this close to the Sectors the City still couldn't do too much. It couldn't hover City blocks in the sky or really do too much to gravity, dimensions, time, distances, or anything of that sort this close, which meant as far as this fight went it was really much simpler than any fights out in the No-Man's Land of the City, in the wide berths of untamed urban jungle that were very much alive and omniscent. That meant than any one bullet if aimed correctly would hit a Shadow Grapher unless the City directly interfered and something told Meshach that it wouldn't. There were too many Shadow Graphers in this one place, but they were smaller somehow, a little weaker, a little skinnier in shape even though it was a implacable creature of shadowy sinew. The way they ambled too wasn't as coordinated as a deadlier group of Shadow Graphers was. If the City really wanted to use its darkness-born foot-soldiers to kill it would put most of its effort into them. They'd be sleeker, faster, stronger, able to form quickly into deadlier things, and even have some of the multi-colored eye variants that were apparently not uncommon but not common enough for a Hunter to see one regularly. But these ones weren't just weak, they were simple to kill, too. They still were in sufficiently large numbers that they could do serious damage to the untrained, but it seemed that either the City's influence was mostly redirected elsewhere, or this band of creatures was essentially a formality as far as Retrieval of such a big Cache went (and Meshach didn't doubt that either- something nagged at him, made him think that if the City was really truly alive as most people agreed it was, then the placement of the Cache directly between two warring Sectors was no accident, and this half-assed party of shadow beings served to strengthen that theory) or both. The way to the Cache was still clearly marked, the green haze of the clouds above the City acted as a guiding beacon, and it only so happened to be in the cardinal direction where most of the Shadow Graphers were amassing.
Before the creatures of the City began to seemingly emanate from the walls, the ground, and the shadowy corners of the block, she was about to answer and possibly placate his unwarranted curiosity. He was so close to getting some kind of answer; likely a partial answer, even an outright lie if he didn't know any better. He didn't really care how people thought for the most part; they were either entitled or otherwise unrepentant scum who he wouldn't bother associating with unless if they weren't the ones holding the metaphorical purse strings, or they were people whose ideas and thoughts he admired but were simply too weak to survive in a hostile hellhole like the City, but Cat was proving to be neither. The word "friend" was a bit of a strong word, and alien to Meshach's tongue, and even saying that the potential for some kind of ... "friendship" being there was outlandish, but acquaintanceship, a like-minded ally, someone who might not die within weeks of their first encounter, it's quite a rarity. So he paid a little more attention, in order to learn what to say and what not to say and how to say things in order for her to not loathe his assistance in the current task. It paid to have allies, after all.
Now, however, it was all tactics. It was all planning. Cat was judging distances from her short-ranged rifle and she didn't think she could safely hit any of them from their current range. They eyed the Shadow Graphers warily. The white-eyed shadow beasts were shambling closer, inch by inch, centimeter by centimeter, a slow and agonizing crawl. Something about the Graphers seemed off somehow, a faint ripple in the bodies that couldn't even be attributed to the aura of darkness, flecks of absolute black trailing off and dissipating from the creatures. The eyes and mouths of the beasts coarsed smoothly like waves. Even though they were only mostly tangible beings made of shadows, they had a seemingly solid layer. Something about this just didn't kick in. Cat mentioned to Meshach about trying to formulate a plan, and, at some point, asked for his tactical advice. She didn't need to add the part about dragging him into it; he was as happy to come along as one in his situation could be. An Afflicted to kill, a large Cache to get half profit from, a little reputation and ego boost to boot, and with someone who he didn't dislike with every fiber of his being. He just needed to figure out what was going on. He noticed that, every so often, one or two of the stunted ones rippled almost entirely, flickered like an image, while a few- a very, very faint few- were the normal kind of solid, with the pinpoint eyes and wide slit mouth of light. These ones didn't amble, they didn't slouch, and they came in much faster, attention to them almost being completely diverted by the gaunt, ambling Shadow Graphers to the point that Meshach had to do a double take the first time he saw one. When he was sure that most of the pieces had fallen into place, he scanned every inch of his surroundings, looking for the right target while he spoke to Cat in a sotto voice.
"I think I know what's going on, and it's very important that you trust me. Well, not me my instin- y-you know what I mean. But first I need to ask you. Describe to me exactly how you see this City block. Leave no detail free. But first I need to test a theory.." Bingo. He found exactly the right one. Two Shadow Graphers were in a line only about two dozen paces away, the one in front one of the gaunt, shambling ones with imprecise movements and a seemingly complete intangibility, the one behind the more solidified presence of the kind of Shadow Grapher that Meshach was familiar with. The first thing he would do is nonverbally respond to that sharpshooter comment, just to get that point clarified. Also he had a hypothesis to test. So he aimed for the head of the Shadow Grapher in front with his pistol and fired, the bullet flying in a decent trajectory- although a little more off-kilter than Meshach wanted, flying more towards the right cheek of the Shadow Grapher in front as opposed to between its eyes- but still in a trajectory that will take it through both of them.
---
The City's attention was divided thrice, its power automatically changing some things here and there in far off areas and conjuring things near other Sectors without its attention or control, but currently it was trying to set the stage for a war, and the two main parties weren't properly synchronized. The two designated Retrievers from Sector Nine were only just starting to get acquainted and prepare to head out, while the two from Sector Three were already a few blocks closer. It had to make sure not only that the Retrievers from Sector Three didn't come up and nab the items inside before there could even be a proper standoff, but it had to circumvent the damnable ex-Servant of Tsefahn who thought it was her own.
To this end, it had sprinkled a little bit of The Harmony right outside of Sector Three. Not quite enough to cause things too hectic or impossible, but just enough to create a simple illusion of an impossibly large army of Shadow Graphers, although it peppered in a few actual Shadow Graphers here and there just to take them by surprise. To this end, it had set multiple stages of confrontation against the Servant so that she would be preoccupied at least until one group or the other arrived. If it was Sector Nine she would be asked to stand down by whoever was on scene, most likely; that's what Sector Nine's normal brand of paladin-type Retrievers were, but the City wasn't quite sure of its inventory and didn't know if there were any Retrievers left from the Sector that haven't been drawn to its other smaller Caches. In the case of Sector Three... well, one of the two sent Retrievers has a hate-on the size of some of its taller buildings for Afflicted and Constants alike and the other one has a less than fortunate history with someone of the same profession as the first. It would at the very least be interesting.
It felt bullets on two fronts. On one front, the hawkish, dark-haired man Meshach fired a single bullet that rippled through the illusion Shadow Grapher without fully perforating or destroying it in the slightest, it still walking confidently forward slow step by slow step, while the Shadow Grapher behind it burst into a plethora of dark, shadowy shapes, muscle and sinew made of pure blackness bursting from the dead creature to lay and dissipate on the concrete. On the other front, Kat the Afflicted was busy shooting the lances it fired with perfect accuracy, many of the lances shattering into pieces on contact, though there were some, groups so close together but distant enough in time and location that she could do very little but try to dodge some. It knew about the accuracy given to almost all Servants, but especially enhanced in the case of the Huntresses, but even an Afflicted has its limits. At the same time, its final step was nearing fruition, but this step had not quite yet faded away. Lances that dodged stuck fast into the Shoggoth, reformed and, as more Shadow Graphers aside from the ones the mutt Lazarus was ripping into entered the being, these lances extended and became more tentacles, as the ones that had been broken into pieces, in their last vestiges of usefulness, still kept going forward in the general direction, some landing on the ground, small tentacles trying to trip the Huntress before dissipating into nothingness, others flying farther past her, trying to hit her and, if failing that, going back into the Shoggoth. The City would stand this no longer, so with only a handful of the Shadow Graphers it wrote out the message,
where it could be plainly seen. One tentacle, particularly elongated by the inclusion of Shadow Graphers began to slither and coil like a thin snake, dodging as many of Lazarus's bites and avoiding its ripping claws as much as it could, and although it ended up ragged and flimsy, managed to wrap itself around Lazarus's neck and pull. The Shoggoth, already halved and only slightly growing back, was almost done for. Then it would be time for the City's final stage, which will hopefully keep her out long enough for one group or the other to arrive.
It really wanted things to go to plan.
Slowly the shadowy figures of the Shadow Graphers were ambling closer, almost imperceptibly gliding across the uneven surfaces. The Shadow Graphers on the inside of a window were now making their way through the glass of the window and gliding down the building facade at a ninety degree angle. The more Meshach looked around, the more Shadow Graphers were appearing. They were common fare as far as the City goes. He really hoped not to encounter any, or at least only a few, as it was a waste of time and bullets trying to deal with them. Cat turned, her back against Meshach's, and they circled, each one getting their bearings. The City block was fairly simple- this close to the Sectors the City still couldn't do too much. It couldn't hover City blocks in the sky or really do too much to gravity, dimensions, time, distances, or anything of that sort this close, which meant as far as this fight went it was really much simpler than any fights out in the No-Man's Land of the City, in the wide berths of untamed urban jungle that were very much alive and omniscent. That meant than any one bullet if aimed correctly would hit a Shadow Grapher unless the City directly interfered and something told Meshach that it wouldn't. There were too many Shadow Graphers in this one place, but they were smaller somehow, a little weaker, a little skinnier in shape even though it was a implacable creature of shadowy sinew. The way they ambled too wasn't as coordinated as a deadlier group of Shadow Graphers was. If the City really wanted to use its darkness-born foot-soldiers to kill it would put most of its effort into them. They'd be sleeker, faster, stronger, able to form quickly into deadlier things, and even have some of the multi-colored eye variants that were apparently not uncommon but not common enough for a Hunter to see one regularly. But these ones weren't just weak, they were simple to kill, too. They still were in sufficiently large numbers that they could do serious damage to the untrained, but it seemed that either the City's influence was mostly redirected elsewhere, or this band of creatures was essentially a formality as far as Retrieval of such a big Cache went (and Meshach didn't doubt that either- something nagged at him, made him think that if the City was really truly alive as most people agreed it was, then the placement of the Cache directly between two warring Sectors was no accident, and this half-assed party of shadow beings served to strengthen that theory) or both. The way to the Cache was still clearly marked, the green haze of the clouds above the City acted as a guiding beacon, and it only so happened to be in the cardinal direction where most of the Shadow Graphers were amassing.
Before the creatures of the City began to seemingly emanate from the walls, the ground, and the shadowy corners of the block, she was about to answer and possibly placate his unwarranted curiosity. He was so close to getting some kind of answer; likely a partial answer, even an outright lie if he didn't know any better. He didn't really care how people thought for the most part; they were either entitled or otherwise unrepentant scum who he wouldn't bother associating with unless if they weren't the ones holding the metaphorical purse strings, or they were people whose ideas and thoughts he admired but were simply too weak to survive in a hostile hellhole like the City, but Cat was proving to be neither. The word "friend" was a bit of a strong word, and alien to Meshach's tongue, and even saying that the potential for some kind of ... "friendship" being there was outlandish, but acquaintanceship, a like-minded ally, someone who might not die within weeks of their first encounter, it's quite a rarity. So he paid a little more attention, in order to learn what to say and what not to say and how to say things in order for her to not loathe his assistance in the current task. It paid to have allies, after all.
Now, however, it was all tactics. It was all planning. Cat was judging distances from her short-ranged rifle and she didn't think she could safely hit any of them from their current range. They eyed the Shadow Graphers warily. The white-eyed shadow beasts were shambling closer, inch by inch, centimeter by centimeter, a slow and agonizing crawl. Something about the Graphers seemed off somehow, a faint ripple in the bodies that couldn't even be attributed to the aura of darkness, flecks of absolute black trailing off and dissipating from the creatures. The eyes and mouths of the beasts coarsed smoothly like waves. Even though they were only mostly tangible beings made of shadows, they had a seemingly solid layer. Something about this just didn't kick in. Cat mentioned to Meshach about trying to formulate a plan, and, at some point, asked for his tactical advice. She didn't need to add the part about dragging him into it; he was as happy to come along as one in his situation could be. An Afflicted to kill, a large Cache to get half profit from, a little reputation and ego boost to boot, and with someone who he didn't dislike with every fiber of his being. He just needed to figure out what was going on. He noticed that, every so often, one or two of the stunted ones rippled almost entirely, flickered like an image, while a few- a very, very faint few- were the normal kind of solid, with the pinpoint eyes and wide slit mouth of light. These ones didn't amble, they didn't slouch, and they came in much faster, attention to them almost being completely diverted by the gaunt, ambling Shadow Graphers to the point that Meshach had to do a double take the first time he saw one. When he was sure that most of the pieces had fallen into place, he scanned every inch of his surroundings, looking for the right target while he spoke to Cat in a sotto voice.
"I think I know what's going on, and it's very important that you trust me. Well, not me my instin- y-you know what I mean. But first I need to ask you. Describe to me exactly how you see this City block. Leave no detail free. But first I need to test a theory.." Bingo. He found exactly the right one. Two Shadow Graphers were in a line only about two dozen paces away, the one in front one of the gaunt, shambling ones with imprecise movements and a seemingly complete intangibility, the one behind the more solidified presence of the kind of Shadow Grapher that Meshach was familiar with. The first thing he would do is nonverbally respond to that sharpshooter comment, just to get that point clarified. Also he had a hypothesis to test. So he aimed for the head of the Shadow Grapher in front with his pistol and fired, the bullet flying in a decent trajectory- although a little more off-kilter than Meshach wanted, flying more towards the right cheek of the Shadow Grapher in front as opposed to between its eyes- but still in a trajectory that will take it through both of them.
---
The City's attention was divided thrice, its power automatically changing some things here and there in far off areas and conjuring things near other Sectors without its attention or control, but currently it was trying to set the stage for a war, and the two main parties weren't properly synchronized. The two designated Retrievers from Sector Nine were only just starting to get acquainted and prepare to head out, while the two from Sector Three were already a few blocks closer. It had to make sure not only that the Retrievers from Sector Three didn't come up and nab the items inside before there could even be a proper standoff, but it had to circumvent the damnable ex-Servant of Tsefahn who thought it was her own.
To this end, it had sprinkled a little bit of The Harmony right outside of Sector Three. Not quite enough to cause things too hectic or impossible, but just enough to create a simple illusion of an impossibly large army of Shadow Graphers, although it peppered in a few actual Shadow Graphers here and there just to take them by surprise. To this end, it had set multiple stages of confrontation against the Servant so that she would be preoccupied at least until one group or the other arrived. If it was Sector Nine she would be asked to stand down by whoever was on scene, most likely; that's what Sector Nine's normal brand of paladin-type Retrievers were, but the City wasn't quite sure of its inventory and didn't know if there were any Retrievers left from the Sector that haven't been drawn to its other smaller Caches. In the case of Sector Three... well, one of the two sent Retrievers has a hate-on the size of some of its taller buildings for Afflicted and Constants alike and the other one has a less than fortunate history with someone of the same profession as the first. It would at the very least be interesting.
It felt bullets on two fronts. On one front, the hawkish, dark-haired man Meshach fired a single bullet that rippled through the illusion Shadow Grapher without fully perforating or destroying it in the slightest, it still walking confidently forward slow step by slow step, while the Shadow Grapher behind it burst into a plethora of dark, shadowy shapes, muscle and sinew made of pure blackness bursting from the dead creature to lay and dissipate on the concrete. On the other front, Kat the Afflicted was busy shooting the lances it fired with perfect accuracy, many of the lances shattering into pieces on contact, though there were some, groups so close together but distant enough in time and location that she could do very little but try to dodge some. It knew about the accuracy given to almost all Servants, but especially enhanced in the case of the Huntresses, but even an Afflicted has its limits. At the same time, its final step was nearing fruition, but this step had not quite yet faded away. Lances that dodged stuck fast into the Shoggoth, reformed and, as more Shadow Graphers aside from the ones the mutt Lazarus was ripping into entered the being, these lances extended and became more tentacles, as the ones that had been broken into pieces, in their last vestiges of usefulness, still kept going forward in the general direction, some landing on the ground, small tentacles trying to trip the Huntress before dissipating into nothingness, others flying farther past her, trying to hit her and, if failing that, going back into the Shoggoth. The City would stand this no longer, so with only a handful of the Shadow Graphers it wrote out the message,
IT IS NOT YOURS HARLOT
TURN BACK NOW
TURN BACK NOW
where it could be plainly seen. One tentacle, particularly elongated by the inclusion of Shadow Graphers began to slither and coil like a thin snake, dodging as many of Lazarus's bites and avoiding its ripping claws as much as it could, and although it ended up ragged and flimsy, managed to wrap itself around Lazarus's neck and pull. The Shoggoth, already halved and only slightly growing back, was almost done for. Then it would be time for the City's final stage, which will hopefully keep her out long enough for one group or the other to arrive.
It really wanted things to go to plan.
