Holy shit, she couldn't believe it. While she couldn't exactly confirm that it was her kill, but she can at the very least confirm that two Scary Things have been taken down. She could tell the difference as well, this titan seemed to have more preparation and familiarity with its form. It was someone that was close to the conspiracy, and hopefully, if Baba Yaga and any of her backup were to salvage anything from that building, they could hopefully find out where Mr. X is and bring an end to this whole thing. Or at the very least, find out how to find him.
She sighed in relief and spoke into the radio. "This is Venom Bean." She said. "That's a confirmed kill on Scary Thing 2: The Electric Boogaloo. I'm on my way down. Stay tuned." She packed up all of her sniper gear and slowly got up, relocating down towards the courtyard to meet up with the others at the car. It took her a few minutes, but eventually she got there.
What she didn't expect was a hug from Amanda, but she sincerely appreciated it. She listened to her, and nodded in understanding. "You got it boss." It was her first time seeing her like this, and it sank into her how deadly this whole thing was starting to get. They've had so many close calls that Scarlet was worried that their luck would eventually run out soon. But hopefully not sooner than they can get Mr. X. He brought home an evil that should've stayed way beyond the moon. She can't let them continue this madness.
She got in the car with the others, and didn't speak. She simply looked out the window. She looked to Mikey once he asked if anyone needed medical attention, to which she shook her head. "No, thank you." She said weakly, before looking out the window. She couldn't help but give a light amused chortle at Michael's remarks of an Egyptian Goddess, to which she just had to see. She looked into the trunk compartment, got an eyeful, and returned to her seat. "Neither am I." She said with a light curl on her lip. She looked to Mike as he patched himself up, and wordlessly gave him a hand with some of the items. She checked on Faye as well as she helped Mike out, before looking to him. Once he asked if she needed anything, she gave it some actual thought, touching what used to be a massive bullet wound through her neck. "I think I'll wait until I'm checked out. Thank you, though."
There was nothing really left for her to do at this point, other than do what Amanda said. Take the rest of the day off. That is an order she'll follow gladly, there was some on Skinemax screentime that was long overdue.
Scarlet could only watch the next few seconds in horror as Scary Thing 2 approached Faye. There was no way she could cycle the bolt fast enough to fire another shot. It should've been her down there, taking the hit that'll come next. Faye didn't deserve this.
The blow didn't land.
Scarlet blinked. She noticed that Scary Thing 2's massive arm was met with a black wall as opposed to her smaller friend. Before Scarlet could process what happened, a blast of dark-looking magic flung Scary Thing back against the wall. Scarlet brought her scope towards it, keeping an eye on it for a second, before checking in on Faye. She saw the nurse from the office earlier, but couldn't hear her speak. She bowed her head to Faye in what appeared to be a greeting, and Faye seemed just as shocked as Scarlet was, if not more so.
She brought her scope back on to Scary Thing 2, hearing it roar and snarl as it charged at the group. She quickly cycled the bolt, and as soon as she brought her gun to bear, the Scary Thing was immobilized by a magical thorn net of sorts. It thrashed around in its restraints, and they didn't look like they were going to hold long. It was clear to her that her explosive rounds weren't working, and that she needed to remember to keep the receipts for the ones that she'll be buying later. She quickly swapped out her explosive rounds for her armor-piercing incendiaries. Her second most expensive rounds, her off-brand Raufoss rounds were meant to stop armored vehicles, just about anything short of a tank. And if these rounds won't kill that thing, they might have to call in a tank of their own.
Portals opened up around Scary Thing 2 as it continued to thrash around in its thorned restraints. She noticed from outside her scope that Michael was slowly getting back into the fight, but holy shit he's gonna have one fuck of a hospital stay. She cycled the bolt, collected the still good explosive round that she just ejected, and brought the gun to bear. No one on the radio said anything like hold your fire or restrain it or anything that would indicate that they were trying to capture this Scary Thing. She read the intent in everyone's movements, and she knew what she needed to do.
Shoot to kill.
She took aim at its chest, and squeezed the trigger.
*DOOOOOOOWWWWW!!!*
A 12.7mm-wide round soared through the air, the white-hot incendiary copper round carrying its payload of armor-piercing tungsten carbide. In the blink of an eye, the round would've already made it into the center of its chest.
"You doing okay there Pretty Red Lady?" Scarlet looked up to Mike and nodded weakly. "Yeah, I'll make it." I hope. She grunted as she stood up. "I can walk it off, go ahead and stack up. I already know where to go." Mikey then nodded and joined up with the others. Despite the painful wound in her neck, she still managed to smile underneath her gaiter.
- - -
"Scarlet, are your wounds okay to handle the recoil?" She heard Faye over the radio, and quickly responded. "Yeah, at least until the adrenaline runs out." She answered. She took a second to think, before she remembered that she had a whole magazine of her most expensive rounds to date.
-
Scarlet's last shot had just staggered the creature to its knees, buying the team a precious few seconds to breathe. As she cycled the bolt, Amanda managed to get clear to high ground. Scarlet quickly guided her scope to each of her team members. Jesus... Even at the quickest glance, Michael did not look like he was in good shape. This fight was clearly taking a toll on everyone.
“Micheal, whatever you do. I suggest you do it quickly, I’m currently making a request to the office for an emergency compound to restrain this thing. Hopefully, they’ll respond quickly and give me the-” Scarlet didn't even have time to think or process everything Amanda had just said, only being able to bring her scope back up in time to witness Scary Thing 2 fire what looked like a strange energy blast at Amanda. Scarlet gasped and took aim at it.
"Die, you son of a bitch!" *DOOOOOOOWWWWW!!!* She fired another explosive round, marking it on its shoulder, but the force was only enough to slow it down for a moment. It continued its pursuit of Amanda before Scarlet could cycle the bolt again. Shitshitshitshitshitshitshitshitshit The sweat stung her eyes as she started to quake again.
The fear came back. She only had three rounds left, and that was all of the explosive rounds she had. Scary Thing 2 wasn't slowing down, and everything she did only seemed to just piss it off. That was the best equipment she had. She can't kill it. She can't save her friends. It was going for Faye. Nonononononononono She quickly took aim at it as it moved to attack Faye. Die motherfucker die motherfucker die motherfucker*DOOOOOOOWWWWW!!!*
She missed just shy from its head when a small patch of dirt erupted behind it.
*BANG! BANG!* Scarlet continued to send hot lead towards what she perceived as enemy combatants. Silhouettes that resemble gunmen continued to appear in the windows, despite Scarlet's best efforts to suppress them. She's managed to suppress at least five, as they never appeared in the windows again after she took a few shots at them. She knew for a fact that she's killed one, a direct hit to the head painted the wall behind him red. Amanda managed to hand off the ROE as if it were just a mere fact, blowing away a ground level threat without as so much a glance. Dayum. As Faye threw up portals to redirect incoming rounds back towards the enemy, Scarlet took this opportunity to reload her AUG. The original 40-round magazine hardly lasted, as will the next. A classic HK-slap*CHACK!* seated the round and Scarlet was able to fire again.
In the short break in gunfire (Thanks Faye!), Scarlet took a moment to check on the team. Faye was still hard at work returning rounds to their senders, which turned out to be a bit more effective than Scarlet's own method. She glanced to Mike just in time to hear his prayer. She couldn't exactly determine what was going on, but she knew that his ritual was starting to have an effect on the world around them. The air felt... different. The already overcast sky got a bit darker.
*PFFT!*"Ulgh-!" Scarlet could only muster a grunt as a small portion of her neck burst out from underneath her gaiter. She fell, grasping her bloodied neck. It gushed briefly, before Scarlet put quick pressure on it, using the part of her gaiter that wasn't torn up by a intermediate Soviet round. "Fuck-" was all she could manage before she took cover behind the car, reaching into her bag to pull out another healing syringe. "Spirits of wind, spirits of storm, spirits of dust and ash and cloud. Heed me, hear me. I call your aid..." She quickly pressed it into her wound, crying out briefly in pain as she did so. "Hear me spirits of the land, the sky and the water and of life. We fight this way to stop great evil, and to carry the day against anger, pain, and manipulation! Help us!" Scarlet groaned quietly as the wound on her neck healed, but only to a point. It still bled, just not nearly as badly as it used to. She grunted as she tried to sit up, and turned briefly to Michael. She witnessed the clouds form around him as his ritual grew in power. "Spirits! Hold my foes, help my allies. May my allies strike true! My foes strikes fail! Spirits! I call on you!" Her eyes widened underneath her shades.
To call the next series of events mind-blowing would be an insult to Michael and what in the good fuck he and his friends just accomplished. The few shots that Faye didn't manage to intercept went even wider, and now there was sprinkling showers. What the hell... Despite her wound, Scarlet managed to fight through the pain, enough to turn her head upwards towards the sky. "You crazy son of a bitch..." She barely muttered as a whole ass weather pattern just materialized right above them. How in the-
***BOOM!*** What could only be described as the deepest sounding explosion she's ever heard, a massive bolt of lightning struck directly into the heart of a gunman who had the sights of his PTRD rifle trained on Amanda. Scarlet could barely even blink before Michael called out for more. Windows shattered from the combination of thunder and lightning, exposing a few who relied on them to remain unseen. Scarlet knew an opportunity when she saw one, so she painfully raised her rifle, and squeezed a few rounds. Target down. Michael called for an encore, and he got one in a gust of wind. A bullet just missed her head by at least a few inches, blowing away the car's driver's side mirror. Judging by the sound of that shot, that came from an SVD.
Mikey, I hope to whatever gods out there that still give a shit about me that you do not keep a tab. Scarlet raised her rifle to the source of the gunshot, spotting a sniper on the roof. *POW!* Scarlet was smart enough to duck before he shot, but that was still a close one. She grunted and rolled over to the ass end of the car, rolling onto her feet and taking aim from behind the trunk. Risky if he had tracers or incendiaries, but if she didn't shoot first, she was dead anyway. *BANG-BANG!* Both shots hit the wall in front of him, shooting up clouds of dust and concrete in front of him. She bought herself a few seconds. She kept it steady and held her breath. The pain in her neck was unbearable. The glowing red dot gently fell upon the sniper's head. She squeezed the trigger. *BANG!* The sniper fell. "Sniper's down, you're clear!" She barely managed to shout.
Scarlet heard the cheers right next to her, smirking a little to herself in pride for Michael and his friends. She was more than happy to call him a comrade at this point. Not like Faye slacked in the slightest, her portals gave them the chance to cheer.
Scarlet looked up to whomever spoke to her and nodded weakly. "Yeah, I'll make it." I hope. She grunted as she stood up. "I can walk it off, go ahead and stack up. I already know where to go."
Scarlet made her way over to the old Soviet building, having put pressure on her wound the moment she vanished from her team's view. She didn't like the idea of having to hide her wounds, but she hated the idea of compromising a mission for the sake of a flesh wound. Yeah, some flesh wound. I'm still fucking bleeding. Great. I really, really need to do something about this. She did feel a little sluggish while she made her way over, and that rusty fence was a little harder to climb than she was used to. Oh no, gods please don't let me bleed out. Fuck. She got to the rusted ladder on the side of the building. Deciding not to let go of her wound for too long again, she reached in her tactical bag of holding for a low profile bandage. She grabbed it, and applied it to the wound on her neck, sighing in relief as the fabric's magical properties kicked in. The bandage was made with magical herbs that helped in the healing process, disinfecting the wound and sealing it. A quick stretch and she was back in the game.
The ladder was a treacherous climb, but she managed to get to the top unscathed. She dashed over to the position she marked in her head, and slid over to the nearest source of cover. Thank you air-conditioning units. Scarlet took a knee behind the A/C unit, reloading her AUG before slinging it onto her back. She quickly produced her Barrett M90, loaded it with the standard cheap shit, and got cozy. "In position." She said on the radio, training her scope near Amanda and her team. "I've got my favorite OMR agents on scope. Happy hunting, ladies and gentlemen."
She watched as the team quickly cleaned house. Every now and then Scarlet had to interject with her light .50, but it was hardly an issue. When she first set up, she didn't have a chance to look into the room since it still had most of the condensation on it. By the time the team reached the room, most of it had already faded away. Best seats in the house. There was something off about that room, though. It was stuffed with all kinds of electronics, a lot of them high-end military gear. Scarlet reached for the radio, hoping to ask the team to relay what they're seeing to her, a light pulse of fear made her quake, causing her to drop her radio.
That same fear she felt when she fought Scary Thing.
A large shadow moved through the windows towards Amanda, launching her through the window and into the courtyard. Scarlet barely caught it as Amanda fell out of view, but her aim was trained on whatever the hell that was. Her hands quaked in fear. No. No no. No. No no no. Nope. Nope. This is a whole lot a fucking nope. She heard her leader's voice over the radio. “Hey uhh, guys? Do you have any idea how we’re supposed to defeat this thing?” No, this has to be a nightmare. She must be dreaming. She just needs to wake up. Please. Wake up. Please. “My systems are giving me error messages all over the place. Uhh, help? Help?!?”
Scarlet's frozen. She can't move. She was so useless, sitting here like a pathetic coward while her friends struggled and suffered. She was nothing. A homunculus, an artificially created human created straight from a factory, using a recycled brain wiped like a used floppy disk. She doesn't know what to do. She hasn't brought anything new to the world. All she does is kill things. That's all she's ever good for. She's scum, just like the rest of them.
No.
She took aim at its head and quickly squeezed the trigger.
*DOOOOOOOWWWWW!!!* A direct hit to the head, and the creature staggered backwards slightly. It didn't penetrate in the slightest, though, but the force was enough to make it stagger. It was enough.
"Amanda! Do you know a safe location, maybe a bunker, an armored safe or something that could hold this creature?" Faye's pretty voice came over the radio, and Scarlet's soul found hope again. "It will take some time due to the interference of this corrupted magic... but I can create a portal to this place. We would have to find a way to push this titan to the portal though."
Scarlet immediately reached for her radio and smirked underneath her mask. "Y'all might want to keep your distance from that thing. I'll buy you guys some time with my all-time favorite rounds." She reached into her tactical bag of holding, pulling out a 5-round magazine full of strangely tipped .50 BMG rounds. "Just sit back..." She pulled back the bolt as she dropped the original cheapo box from the receiver. "Relax..." She pushed the magazine, painted in lovely colors of fire and brimstone, cleanly into the receiver. She pushed the bolt forward and locked it down. "And enjoy..." She took aim at its chest. "...the fireworks."
*DOOOOOOOWWWWW!!!*
A flash burst from its chest, as well as large cloud of smoke. The explosive round kicked with so much force that it was enough to knock it back a few yards and bring it onto its knees. She hoped that with Scary Thing 2 grounded, the team would have the time they need to safely neutralize it.
Most of the soreness that Scarlet felt from the events of the last few days mostly faded as her intense focus brought her to the present. There was definitely going to be another fight with a bunch of armed combatants soon, and she needed to be at her best. A quick plan and a closed comms network was assembled from a local map they salvaged and a bunch of handheld radios that the OMR had already written off. Anything more would've tipped off the mole, so Scarlet had to get all of these from the only places that the OMR didn't require paperwork, which was waste processing. Not like dumpster diving was the worse thing she's done for the sake of a mission, but it was still something she wasn't entirely proud of. Scarlet had a vague idea of where she needed to go and what she needed to do, and had prepared herself well ahead of time with everything. Her light gray t-shirt was mostly concealed by her black plate carrier, her gunbelt consisting only of her tactical bag of holding, her holstered custom Glock, and one of the older Motorola radios she's salvaged and jury-rigged into working order. Steel kneepads added a dash of aggressiveness to her otherwise casual and faded jeans. She hid most of her face with a combination of a skull gaiter, a black ballcap and a pair of shades that also doubled as shooting glasses. Even if she did her best to be prepared, she never really followed plans to the letter. They had a tendency to fall apart when they come into first contact with the enemy.
It wasn't long before the small team of seven arrived. Amanda parked the car somewhere nice and quiet, just a hop and a skip away from the target building. Scarlet didn't like how exposed they were here, but they had to act quickly before the mole can move their operations somewhere else. She climbed out from the front seat and stood to face Amanda, bringing her loaded and chambered AUG rifle to shoulder. Amanda reiterated their plan, and Scarlet nodded. Cover the entry team by shooting anyone that could threaten them. Routine shit, nothing she hasn't done before. So totallynot relieved in the slightest that she isn't in there with the entry team to soak up any and all ordnance the building's occupants could throw at them. A gentle sigh of said not-relief left her mouth once Amanda finished relaying her instructions.
As Faye spoke to Amanda, Scarlet looked around for the building that she was supposed to be on. It was a smaller industrial warehouse that was just two streets over, one that used to be some great worksite for the mighty Soviet Union that was abandoned the moment the Soviet Union ceased to be. She was also glad that Amanda chose this building for her. If the hostile contacts return fire to Scarlet, at least no civilians would get caught in the crossfire. Speaking of...
"Hey Amanda, can you repeat the ROE again? I just need to make sure that we-" *POW!* The first shot was fired, and it glanced off of Amanda's cheek. Scarlet blinked. She still can't get over how fucking cool that is. Scarlet sighed as she switched her safety to semi-automatic fire. "Contact 2! Upper floor!" She raised her rifle at the source of the gunfire and immediately fired off a few rounds, already working to cover the entry team. *BANG! BANG-BANG! BANG!* Several 5.56mm NATO rounds found their way through the building's upper windows, cracking some and shattering one. She was only partially listening to Faye's questions in regards to where thrown weapons can be teleported, but she did hear the entirety of Faye's last sentence. "Just so you guys know... I can still teleport them back inside the building... As long as we don't care about what's inside, that is."
Scarlet grinned underneath her mask a bit at the idea before firing off another few rounds to suppress some of the shooters. "Yeah, if we know for sure that there aren't civilians in the building, I won't be opposed to being a little more..." *BANG-BANG!* "...indiscriminate!" Scarlet took cover behind the car and started firing some more. "Hopefully y'all still know the frequency I set up for us! Good luck and give 'em hell!"
Scarlet continued providing covering fire for the team, suppressing most of the shooters in the windows so the entry team can get to the entrance with less issue. Once she knew that the team was safely inside, she was going to make a break for the building behind her and set up shop there.
Scarlet continued looking through the footage as the others made their insights. She tried to make sense of most of it, but most complicated magic was beyond her. Most of her experience with magic was messing with objects that were purchased pre-enchanted, she didn't know many spells herself other than the odd cantrip or two. As Scarlet scrubbed through the footage of the SUV, she listened to Michael's insight. "Gotta be something else. Do we have a clear view of the Mercedes plates somewhere? Roll back a bit, did the doors or rear hatch of the Mercedes open at any time? If they did and no one got out then we can add someone with a Cloak or invisibility effect to to thinks to watch out for." Scarlet nodded. "I got enough footage of the uhm... Mercedes'...s plates. Wait, is it Mercedes' or Mercedes's?" She muttered to herself before shaking her head. "Whatever, uh, give me a second." She scrubbed back the footage to see the Mercedes arrive at the garage at a much earlier time, but no one getting in or out of the car. "I think that may be our perp's support vehicle. Can't be too sure. No one got in or out, probably there just to monitor the op." Michael turned to her and spoke. "Fun times huh Red? We got an okay team here though. We can work this out." Scarlet nods with a soft smirk of her own. "One of the best I worked with in my short career, that's for sure."
It wasn't long before Amanda came back with more crucial information, and a lead. Their target destination is an apartment complex deep in Minsk, a standard commie-block apartment popular in most former Soviet republics. ROE is similar to most other low-intensity situations, keep the civvies away, capture the targets if possible, kill if necessary. “I have informed the office of the potential raid and the info leak, they are currently busy rebuilding the wards they thought were foolproof, so there won’t be any reinforcements present until a couple of hours from now. So bring your A-game okay?” Scarlet nodded. "You got it, boss."
Scarlet studied the floorplan carefully. Fuckin' Bosnia all over again, swear to Christ... She knew how nasty clearing apartments like that were. But thankfully, they only have to worry about maybe a handful of rooms and hallways at most. Having personally witnessed Amanda's combat capabilities, Scarlet figured that they might be able to pull this off and make it back in time for dessert. They'd need to be mission ready in about a half hour, so Scarlet checked her items, making sure she had everything she needed. As she did that, Amanda leaned in and confided with the rest of the crew.
“Just between us guys.” Scarlet leaned in after holstering her Glock that she just loaded and checked. “But I think Mr X might be a deity. Just… think about it, near perfect knowledge of OMR SOP’s, advanced kill squads ready and waiting for our arrival. The fact that they used magic from the abomination. Either Mr X used to work at the OMR, or knows someone in the OMR to peel their brain on how the organisation works, or alternatively have traitors in the organisation itself.” Scarlet blinked for a moment before groaning quietly. "Oh, fuck me..." She muttered quietly to herself. Why did it have to be a diety? Couldn't it hurt them to use a normal war criminal of some kind, the kind with heads that I can turn into pink mist? Welp, it's been a good run. See y'all in the afterlife.
Reflexively, Scarlet takes out something that appears to be rolled in some kind of paper. Anyone that happened to be in the same room as Scarlet that also has a working sense of smell could easily tell that it was a joint. "But I thought the actions of every deity were pretty well controlled nowadays, aren't they?" Faye said as Scarlet snapped her fingers to create a small flame within her hands. "That would make it considerably more difficult to a deity to move themselves in secret and plan those kind of stuff..." Scarlet used the flame in her hands to light her joint. "Although, considering their influence and power, depending on who they are, some might not even need magic to pull some strings to make things go according to their plans..." Scarlet took a long hit of that good stuff, and blew it all out in a direction away from the team. "If we are going against a deity, things might get even scarier as our target gets even more cornered..."
Oh, god, this can't be happening. Scarlet's face grew paler as she took another big hit. I was just a split second from meeting my maker yesterday. And now we're going to raid an apartment of a spy that's possibly on a rogue diety's payroll. Do they all have a fucking death wish? Scarlet exhaled, blowing a lot more weed smoke into the room. I am so gonna fucking die. And it's all gonna be Amanda's fault. The other two will mourn me for a week, assuming they survive this ordeal, and they'll replace me with some doe-eyed idiot, and history will forget me. Great. Just what I needed. So much for paying off the rest of my debts. Scarlet sighed, taking a seat and leaning back.
"Well, it was an honor serving with you guys. And it was fun while it lasted." Scarlet said, sharing her thoughts on the matter. "Just be sure to let me know when we're going after the Man himself. I'd like to get my affairs in order by then."
Scarlet payed close attention to the footage in the garage. She kept a close eye on the timestamp, and once they got to the point in time when the imposter left the building, nothing happened. For a bit, anyway. But someone else stepped out shortly after. He looked a bit different from Mosley himself, and while the film was too grainy to get an exact ID of the guy, they at least knew what he looked like in general. He then got in a white Lada and pulled out from the parking garage. “Guys. I’m going to run over to get some identification on that car. I just need to see if the place of the car’s residence and registration can lead us somewhere. So just hang tight and I’ll see what I can do.”
Scarlet nodded. "Copy." She rewound the tape back to the point where the suspect left the building, and kept her eyes trained on the footage. Was that just an employee who left from a different part of the building? Or was he actually the mole? They'd have to look at the other tapes just to be sure, but she didn't recall seeing anyone else leave the building through that way. She wasn't familiar with the building's layout, so being able to plot their movements would probably establish a firmer case for them. "Hey uh, can you get a floorplan for the building too? Forgot to mention that earlier, sorry." She said to Amanda as she stepped up to the TV. "Yeah, this one's really got me scratching my head too. If that's our guy, I can't see how he was able to drop the disguise so quickly." She switched the tapes back to Communications and played back the footage that showed the imposter in his disguise, hoping to find something that can give them a clue.
And thankfully Faye was the first to spot it. She quickly stopped the tape and brought it back, pausing it right at the moment she needed to. And if it weren't for the fact that they were looking for solid leads, Scarlet would've been quite jealous of Faye's ability to wrangle with otherwise uncooperative VCRs. "I can see some strange traces of magic coming from the fake Xaviron! Just on a few frames.. They look like reflections if one doesn't pay enough attention... They look like... wisps of light?" Scarlet blinked and looked closer. What she first dismissed as VHS artifacts were indeed light wisps. Faye continued brainstorming possibilities, and Faye brought up the idea of stacking spells. It clicked, and Scarlet's eyes widened a little.
"Oh, yeah, that's quite possible." Scarlet nodded. "I don't think it's exclusive to the fae. I don't know how it was done, but I know it can be done." Scarlet jogged her memory the best she could. "I know I keep bringing this one deployment up a lot, but I think my coworkers did something along the lines of that to our VIP, so we can safely escort him out of a contested city. I remembered that they mentioned something about stacking spells to make the disguise more convincing or something along the lines of that. I was a little... scatterbrained at the time so I can't remember the details of how it was done exactly. Worked like a charm too, took the Serbs a few more seconds to shoot at us." She chortled lightly before staring at the screen. "I'd bring that up to Amanda when she gets back."
Scarlet looked around for additional TVs and VCRs, and then scrounged together a smaller, separate setup. Her idea was that she'd look at the other tapes so the others could focus on examining the magical artifacts in the frames that they revealed themselves in. She put the parking garage tape on next, and after seeing the familiar footage, she noticed another detail as well. "Uh, guys, I don't think our perp was acting alone." She said, gesturing over to her screen. After the white Lada pulled out from the parking garage, a black Mercedes G-Class SUV pulled out about twenty seconds after it. She didn't see anyone get in or out of the vehicle, so someone was clearly waiting in there for a bit. Unless they were a sworn agent who was spending too much time in their car after their shift was over, they may be in on the whole thing. It looked a bit too suspicious for her. Either that or she's watched way too many movies where every bad guy in Europe owned a black Mercedes G-Class SUV. "That's interesting. We might want to run the plates on that one too."
Scarlet would be lying to herself if she said that she didn't feel the least bit validated when Amanda and the rest of the crew figured that the option she presented was their best bet. However, Faye voiced some rather valid concerns about the security of their agency if a mole was able to sneak in and get the intel needed to plan an ambush as quickly as they did. "I suppose that's the monkey's paw there." Scarlet said in response to Faye's concerns. Amanda swiftly left the room and returned with some VHS tapes. Scarlet stood up to help Amanda set up some of the tech, but it seems as if Amanda was familiar with all of it. That and she was an android that had no trouble lifting up a big ass 2-in-1 television set. Scarlet cleaned up her space in the meantime, removing all evidence that she ate her pop tarts like a heathen.
She sat back down with the crew and watched the tape with them. Due to the fact that it's just a consumer TV and not an editor's setup, there was always a 1-second lag anytime they pause and rewound, forcing Amanda to have to adjust her timing a bit anytime she used the remote. They didn't find anything unusual. Comparing the staff in the surveillance footage to those in the list revealed nothing out of the ordinary. They all served here for years, and only had minor incidents in the office at worst. Going through the footage ate up a bit of time, so in her natural state of boredom, Scarlet stood up and looked around for a radio.
"A-ha!" She found a small boombox sitting on one of the nearby tables, and after plugging it in, she jumped from the sudden burst of volume that came from one of the local radio stations. "Sorry!" Scarlet called out sheepishly as she adjusted the volume and turned it down. From her bag of holding, she produces a blank cassette tape, puts it into the boombox and presses play. The worn tape opens up with Suzanne Vega's hit, the homunculus bouncing and shaking parts of herself to the beat as she saunters back to her chair. She quietly hums to herself as the crew continues to scrub the footage, hoping to lighten up the rather tedious task that they're undergoing. I am sitting in the morning at the diner on the corner, I am waiting at the counter for the man to pour the coffee... And he fills it only halfway And before I even argue, he is looking out the window at somebody coming in... Scarlet continues humming the song to herself as they scrub through the footage, bouncing to the beat.
Eventually they got to yesterday's tape, and scrubbed through that as well. One of the agents who worked in the room that day looked really cute. Scarlet kept her eyes on the rather attractive but otherwise unassuming agent until someone strange walked into the room at around 2 o' clock in the afternoon. Scarlet squinted her eyes once the figure walked in. She could've sworn she's seen him before, and just a second after the thought crossed her mind, Amanda brought up his name.
"No shit..." Scarlet looked closer, trying to make out whatever details she can from the footage. She quickly looked to the others just to make sure she and Amanda weren't the only ones who were seeing this, and it was clear as day that all of them were seeing the same thing. The group quickly ruled out the idea that it was actually Agent Mosley. She didn't know the guy all that well, but the others seemed to believe that him being the mole didn't fit his profile. Mike then brought up the fact that he couldn't possibly be here before them, and Scarlet thought the same thing. "Shouldn't he be with the B-Team back in Frankfurt?" Scarlet asked casually. "A quick phone call to the Frankfurt office should easily clear his name."
Amanda then brought up magic that would alter someone's appearance. Scarlet gave it some thought, she was aware of magic that did create illusions, but nothing as real or as convincing as that one was. Scarlet herself never needed illusions like that to get the job done, disruptive black face paint and a dark gaiter usually did the trick for her. But if there was a spell like that that could alter her appearance, she could use it for future deployments. "Still... How should we even guard ourselves against such a spell... If it exists, that is? If they can just make themselves look exactly like us, they could just freely walk around and get any information they wanted... right?" Faye said, to which Scarlet pondered. She turned to Faye and replied. "I suppose it depends on the kind of magic being used here. If they're simply using illusion magic, it should be pretty easy to beat with basic frisking and fingerprinting. If they're a shapeshifter, well... wait." She paused for a moment. "Can shapeshifters change their fingerprints, or does theirs remain unique to them like everyone else's?" She pondered that for a bit more before Mike chimed in with his experience.
"Speaking from experience, there are some creatures who can mimic sound and shape...the whetigo and the wendigo can do so to a limited extent, but that's a natural ability and doesn't stand up to much scrutiny." Mike brought up, to which Scarlet nodded. "We tricksters can mimic sound form and function, but the illusion falls apart if we can't match knowledge." Raven added. Scarlet stifled a chuckle from his interaction with Manabozho, and nodded emphatically. "Yeah, that's what I was going for. Usually illusions like that come with their limitations, and since so many people used those illusion spells to commit fraud back in the day, most places have tech that screens for that kind of thing." Scarlet looked at the door. "Hell, I could've sworn I walked through a few pieces of that tech on my way in yesterday."
Amanda then brought up that the potential suspect could've left in a vehicle of some kind, and suggested that they should check the garage footage next. Mike was onboard, and so was Scarlet. "Mhm, what he said." Mike turned to the rest of the group and spoke to them. "We can't be that compromised right guys? I don't like the idea that a mole could be on our team. It doesn't feel right." Faye responded. "Even if we don't have a mole on our team... It might be just a matter of time, if they can really just infiltrate themselves so easily..."
Scarlet looked to the both of them and thought for a moment. She racked her brain for ideas and smirked just a little. "Well, if any of you suspect me of being replaced by a shapeshifter, just... reminisce about something with me that never happened. The imposter will go along with it to keep their cover." Scarlet joked. "Works all of the time in the movies." She thought for a moment. "Or you can ask me what car I rented in Frankfurt. If I answer with anything else other than a red 1989 Honda Prelude, you have my full permission to shoot me in the head."
Mixtape Ghost N