Day -8, Evening
Adéla, Calder
Monochromatic Rainbow, Tracyarmav
“So, Calder, I have two questions - first: Just how good are you in a frontal assault? Second: How interested would you be in…
acquiring an arms manufacturing giant that brings in twenty five billion credits each year?” She paused, “That’s about six hundred and sixty tons of gold equivalent, if you’re wondering.”
Calder rolled his shoulders and head, and clapped his massive hands together as a rumbling chuckle, akin to waves breaking on a rocky shore. “Assault is my purpose, the very reason for my existence, and more funds and access to more arms is always a boon to any warrior. Let’s have a go and see what we can find.” Calder reached into his pockets and checked to be sure his shield and mace were in their places, and they were. He had considered getting armor of some sort or another from the tower, but honestly, it cost him so little to heal himself, and it was so much fun to watch the horror spread through his opponents as they saw him take hit after hit and just keep coming. Yes, armor had it’s uses, but so did fear, and in Calder’s experience fear was more effective than armor.
Pulling up to a large and imposing building with the words “
MACHINA INDUSTRIES” displayed in gigantic block letters, a stylized half gear serving as the C, Adéla held a hand up, “Whoa there, cowboy. Just give me a bit. Feel free to come in as violently as you like once you hear screaming and gunfire, mm’kay? I’ll make sure to throw someone through the door if I need you immediately.”
With that she hopped out of the car, blowing a kiss to the troll in the back as she marched into the building. Making sure her coat covered her weapon she strode up to one of the guards, winking at him as she walked inside, passing straight through their security scanners without a hitch.
The interior of the building was surprisingly spacious, and she took careful note of the rather unusual design, apparently intended to allow defenders to direct their fire onto an assailant. She chuckled, it was clearly designed by amateurs. This was going to be too easy.
Closing her eyes for a moment, she mentally flicked a switch and looked around, taking note of the Wills of the people in the lobby. Every single security guard seemed to have a completely average Will, and some even had dim little weak ones - they would probably crumple in a single hit. A few of the men and women in business suits caught her eye and she made note of them - wouldn’t want to kill them. They could be useful later.
One person caught her eye - a young man standing in a security guard’s uniform, but not holding a rifle. His Will was stronger than most of the ones surrounding him - she would have to dispose of him before the main show started, otherwise he could cause… problems. He wasn’t as powerful as Calder or herself, she could tell, but he could certainly add some unnecessary complications that would be best avoided. They didn’t want another magic user to complicate things.
An idea popped into her mind and she grinned - a good way to get most of the noncombatants out of the way while getting most of the guards clustered in one general area. She made for the area of the room he was in, settling down on a bench to observe him for a moment. Judging by the time, and the frequency with which he glanced at the clock, his shift was due to end any minute now. The perfect opportunity to jump him.
She busied herself pretending to stare at her phone, even as she took detailed mental notes of the layout of the entire building. The tick of the clock let her know that the guard’s shift had ended, and, as another man came to replace him, she got up to follow the man.
“Sir! A moment please!” She called after him, jogging to catch up. Once the guard had turned to look at her, a quizzical look on his face. “Hello, you probably don’t recognize me but I’m a shareholder in your company here, and a contractor working on a project I… probably shouldn’t mention actually. Anyway, I couldn’t help but notice that you aren’t carrying a standard weapon, and I wanted to inquire about any potential magical capabilities you might have? I was waiting for a business meeting, but it got cancelled at the last minute, and then I noticed you. I haven’t been able to find anyone else here with magical capabilities, and I had questions I wanted to ask a true combat mage. For a separate project actually. If you could help me I’d be
immensely grateful, and I’d be sure to mention you to the boss~” Once more she pulled the trick of allowing her shirt to, ever so subtly, part and give the guard something else to consider.
“Well… I’m off duty now, so I suppose I can spare a little bit of time.” The guard seemed to be taken rather… off guard by her sudden approach, and was unsure how to answer. He did an admirable job of not staring however.
Her face lit up, and she beamed at him. “Great! I’ll just follow you along to wherever you were going, if that’s okay? It should only take a few minutes, ten at most. I can compensate you for your time too.”
His eyebrows raised. “Well, I was going to go and change into my regular clothes and grab a bite to eat…” this time he looked down, and she had to hold back a smirk.
“Oh, that’s no problem.” She gestured, “After you.”
The man shrugged and began walking, “What kind of compensation are we talking here, by the way?”
Adéla held back the urge to cackle maniacally. “Whatever you want. I’m sure I can provide it. Now,” she pulled out her phone and opened up a notepad, “First of all, how skilled at magic are you now, and how skilled were you when you first began? Capabilities, stamina, etc.”
The guard went off on a spiel about his upbringing and magical education, letting slip gobs of information that would be useful in just a few minutes. Adéla kept up the act, jotting down notes as fast as she could and nodding at the appropriate times. She fingered a second syringe of sedative, making sure it was within easy reach for when she struck.
The guard’s locker room was upstairs, which factored into her plan even better than she could’ve hoped. “Do you mind if I come in? I can keep asking you questions while you change. And… stuff, yeah.” She managed to fake a blush, averting her eyes as they neared the door.
The guard’s eyebrows shot straight to the top of his forehead. “You want to come into a men’s locker room?” He stood there for a second, incredulous. “I mean… I guess? Can’t guarantee what’ll happen if one of the guys walks in on us.”
If one of “the guys” walked in on them, she would have one fewer guard to deal with later. Shrugging, she smirked, “I’m sure I’ll manage.” Walking in right after the guard, she made sure one last time that the syringe was right where she could grab it easily.
The guard unexpectedly rounded on her. “What do you really want?” He demanded, she glanced down, noticing that he was apparently rather mixed on his opinions.
Raising her hands defensively and to show she was -apparently- unarmed, she played up the confusion. “What?” She showed him the phone full of notes, “Taking notes! Learning! Going to make myself some money - and you of course, too.” She added hastily, “Look I’m just a woman without much money or anything to do but work okay. I wanted to work on a project of my own, and you seemed nice.” She gulped, making sure to glance down below his belt every now and then, and making sure that he noticed.
He smirked at her. “Oh, really?” Stepping forward, he extended an arm, placing it on her shoulder, and then moving his face closer.
This is really going to work? Again? Adéla thought incredulously. She had been expecting something… far harder.
No sense in looking a gift horse in the mouth. “Yes…” she replied, putting her own arm around his neck, the mini syringe in her hand as she pushed the incredibly thin needle into his neck. She’d tested them on herself before. They were almost impossible to feel.
Suddenly his hand flew to her neck, choking off her windpipe in a vicelike grip. His eyes were cold. “What are you here for?” He demanded, completely unaffected by the drug.
She choked and spluttered, chest growing ever tighter as her oxygen supply dwindled. She couldn’t reach her gun, and this was a mage, and one trained in combat at that. He could probably kill her before she’d have time to paint the walls with his brain.
His face went from one of grim determination to shock as her body began to grow. Her hair shrank into her head as a tattered crimson robe replaced it. Heavy armor grew from her body, forcing his hand off of her throat as thick tentacles rushed out from under the robe. Her face became obscured save for two dark, bottomless holes where her eyes had been. She in turn grabbed him by the throat with a now clawed hand, as he stared in terror at
what she had turned into.
She wasted no time savoring the radically different playing field. Before the mage had a chance to react she punched the other clawed hand through his stomach and crushed his throat.
Striding briskly through the door, Adéla stood at the edge of the fourth floor and took a second to enjoy the calm before the storm. With a single… less than graceful leap, she jumped - but not before throwing the guard’s corpse beforehand. Slowing her fall by spreading a net of tentacles out to catch the walls, she still shook the floor of the building when she impacted.
The people in the lobby stared at her. In an alien yet still slightly feminine voice she yelled to the room, “Civilians please exit the building in an orderly line. Please no screaming until you get outside. You can return to work once the company is under new management, and probably get paid more. Thank you for choosing Mind Warping Abomination for your new employer!”
With that she grabbed a cluster of people and pushed them towards the doors, out of the line of fire, even as the security let loose regardless of who was in the way. Luckily the other occupants of the building had the good sense to duck and crawl, most too stricken with fear to scream for the moment, instead soundlessly complying with her orders. Adéla ripped the blast doors out of the main entrance, catching the hail of gunfire with the heavy reinforced slabs of… some alloy. She flung her tentacles out, grabbing four of the security guards and flinging them viciously against the walls.
The first earsplitting scream reached her ears as a cluster of people managed to get outside.
Calder sat waiting patiently, he was mildly annoyed at being asked to do clean up, but he’d done it enough times before so he complied with her request. It was several minutes later that things finally started happening. He noticed people stumbling out of the building in shock and horror, then came the gunfire, screams, and panic. Still, no one was cast into the streets so Calder took his time getting ready, pulling out his shield and mace, he considered the front entrance, and the side ally carefully.
Mortal building, best leave them a route of escape, mortals get nasty when cornered. Calder strode confidently forward, the masses moving around him of their own will, giving him a wide berth. As Calder reached the front of the building he opted knock in a front window instead of waiting for the last few stragglers to tumble out of the front door. Now inside he noticed that most of the guards were equipped with simple enough tech, machines relying on the user to point them in the right direction. He raised his mace high over his head, and geyser of steam poured out of the end, filling the lobby area rather quickly with extremely hot water vapor. The cloud and heat worked together to obscure vision of the guards, while a simple thread of Will shaped it to Calder’s whims. The vapors moved mostly naturally, but seemed to contain faces and shapes, often vague but somehow familiar to the viewer. Unfortunately or the guards, that did nothing to stem the heat, which was approximately 1645 K. It left little time notice the heat on direct contact.
That was infrequent however, as Calder let it rise to the top of the room and slowly roll back down the walls slightly. If the guards bunched up, he would direct his geyser at the clump of personnel, and leave behind well steamed, corpses. His only lament was a distinct deficiency of good marinating sauce to flavour his meal with. He did actively keep the steam from Adéla, not being certain how well she could take the heat. He also kept an eye out for civilians, no point in slaughtering his new employees after all.
As some of the guards watch in horror, Calder takes the time consume bits of arms and legs of the steamed corpses, mostly for the psychological effect on the survivors, he wasn’t really hungry, yet. Bullets flew towards him, his large bulk blocking the incoming natural light and leaving a hazy silhouette for them to aim at. And each one hit him, his raised shield, or his greaves. The shield and greaves rang with every hit, and Calder’s flesh … well the sound resembled a man trying to walk across mud flats, the initial entry quiet enough, but the exiting rounds, made a brief sucking pop. Still, he never seemed to notice the bullets. Calder’s shield protected his head, a mild nuisance it was to have to find your thought every half minute because of a lucky round.
He moved towards the emergency stairwell near the elevators, and sent his geyser into the inclosed space. He’d rather they used the elevators to move, since the wall displays above them kindly told him where each elevator was, and which way it was going. Since this was Adéla’s hit, he looked to her, clearing away any intervening steam with a thought, for further guidance, as to how she wanted to play this slightly volatile take over. Blood trickled from his chin down his chest, the blood of his … well, late afternoon snacks now. His own wounds healed almost instantly with minimal, if any visible, bleeding, so far.
Adéla looked between the stairs and the elevator, pondering for a moment which one to take. The elevator would be quicker, and would allow them to avoid more confrontations with security - but then again, they could kill the power and trap them inside.
Not to mention she wasn’t sure if she and Calder could even fit in there together. She doubted if even one of them could comfortably fit in there.
She walked towards it, eyeing the interior and glancing back at Calder. “We can squeeze in there, but we’re going to have to go one at a time.” She ducked her head and squeezed into the confined space. “It’ll be back down in just a few seconds, these elevators are terrifyingly fast.”
Clumsily pushing a button with a clawed hand, Adéla shot to the top of the building at a breakneck pace, g forces shunting her against the back of the elevator. Then, as the elevator came to a sudden halt, she went airborne momentarily, coming back down to land rather ungracefully and stumbling out of the elevator in a most undignified manner. But at least she was at the top - poking another button with a tentacle she watched the elevator shoot down back to the ground floor.
Calder would be up with her in a moment. So she began to walk, making a beeline for the ornate double doors that lead to the CEO’s office. She’d been here before, and now she had quite the score to settle.
Calder wondered it was worth trusting the technology to get up the building in haste… and decided he’d rather trust only himself if he could. So he rode his own elevator up, taking a moment to set up a bigger, but cooler geyser in the floor of the stair well. Then he rode it to the top, rolling out of the stream as it reached the top floor. Though his momentum was such that he rolled a good meter along the ceiling before dropping to the floor, and landing on his own two feet, as if he did this sort of thing everyday. It was his fae blood that made him so graceful. He didn’t even try honestly, it was just a part of him like his scaly hide and toothy grin.
A quick glance around the room showed him Adéla storming across the room. He moved forward in something not quite a run, for the motion he made more than any lack of speed, and was soon advancing on her left flank, a half stride behind her, so she had a clear line of fire in front of her and to either side. One last, desperately loyal guard opened fire on the pair from ambush, aiming for Adéla. A mere twitch of his fingers and Calder created a wall of ice that simply swallowed the bullets. Each projectile gleamed through the clear Ice, leading a hazy trail of cracks to show their path. A gesture later, and the man found himself sealed into a hollow cube of Ice. His gun couldn’t even punch through the walls of his new cubicle, and if he stayed there too long he would suffocate, unless air holes were made. Calder intended to let the man pass out before restoring his air, so he wouldn’t be able to cause any more trouble for the pair of entrepreneurs, as they finished their latest acquisition.The reached the double doors, and Calder pushed them open with magic, mostly to save the doors from being scared by an accidental scrape by talon or claws. Calder stood in the doorway behind Adéla sealing that exit physically until she deemed anyone free to go.
Adéla grinned malevolently as she strolled into the CEO’s office. She morphed back to her human shape gradually, swaying her hips seductively as she stopped in the middle of the room. “Six little piggies went to their jobs one day.” She twirled a finger, blasting a guard who’d been slowly raising his rifle and completely erasing his will from existence.
As space folded around him and ripped his body into nonexistence, Adéla whistled a merry tune that vaguely resembled the individual escapades of the little piggies. Only, when she began to sing it in a surprisingly gentle and soft tone as she warped back into her Aberrant form, the lyrics gave those present in the room chills down their spines.
She extended a cluster of tentacles from under the hem of her robe, crushing all the security cameras in the room into a fine powder, but not before they recorded a bone chilling, inhumanly malevolent cackle from her general area.
1x Laugh
