Topic: Scarred: The Lynchpin

Victor Kazon

Date: 2010-10-13 14:58 EST
((OOC: This thread is part of Scarred Chapter 2: Invasion, following the events of Scarred: Siren and Seraph (still under construction, will be caught up to present events within the next day or so) and Scarred: Fairy and Mage.

Huge thanks and props to all the players involved for making this a very fun event to play!))

Heavy boots made a surprisingly soft landing just outside the door of Star's End, but Victor was always careful when he carried Anya in flight. A slight kick helped the jammed door finish opening as he set her to stand before him. "I've taking a bit of a liking to this place as of late." Perhaps it was the presence of technology rarely seen in the city, or some other force he was unaware of, but he truly felt drawn here. As so many times before, his fingers were already trickling through Anya's hair, absently toying with the ribbon that tied it back as well.

"There are certainly less local cretins to wade through....Perhaps that's the charm you see?" Anya's smile seemed ever present as of late; smug, content, aloof, and even a fair degree sensual. Feeling Victor's fingers stroke the bit of her hair she'd wound up in her black ribbon, the siren turned into his touch, her lips parting to drag a playful display of teeth against his knuckles. Despite her slim, fitted attire that clinched about her waist and it's slick, leather nature, Anya made not a sound as she walked.

Smirking as he led them toward the bar, the seraph gave a slight nod. "That I cannot argue. My patience with fools has been tried one too many times as of late." As they crossed the room, he fished a red cigarette from his pocket, although how exactly he lit it was not clearly visible. Smoke trailed from his lips as he added, "Still, after last night there are many less to deal with. I loved the look in your eyes when you pushed that button. I shall treasure it always." With his translators finally restored, he could speak without hesitation, but his words still carried the thick accent of his homeland. Ever since his Nischa had expressed such a preference for it, Victor had disabled the voice modulation suite completely.

"I would push it again in a heartbeat....Those men were fools, just as you said. Their blood will not be missed....nor their bones." There was laughter hiding there in her words as she stroked along the fitted corset that gripped her svelte form. It was truly a masterpiece of leather and stitchery, gleaming and new as new could be. Turning her attention elsewhere, the siren found her eyes trickling across the bodies that'd found their way to the bar that night. Her lips tightened, clearly unimpressed.

"Indeed. And they look quite lovely on you." His hands followed her own, along the lines of the corset, paying special attention to the supports, which he'd helped carve with the work of a few precision lasers. Pulling up a barstool, he placed it right up against a second empty one before taking a seat. The explosions he heard brought a quirk to his brow, but were truly of little consequence as a single whispered rune brought a green crystal bottle flying toward his hand. "Hiaz."

Meanwhile, Travanix, a few seats down the bar, closed his eyes and smiled darkly as explosions could be heard in the distance.

Though she very much appreciated her husband's practical use of his abilities as of late, especially when it came to their outings and their evening drink, the explosions caught the siren's attention. Canting her head towards the door just so, she heard them all the clearer. Her gaze drifted across Travanix and his self satisfied smile before it trailed back to Victor and swallowed him up in their blue, blue shine. Her stare was clear, as was the question lingering within it and the slow, sinister display of teeth she graced him with.

In that same distance came screams, cries of others. More explosions, closer - coming from the Marketplace. It had begun. The dark chill surrounding Travanix surged through the air, as if dancing with delights.

Victor simply shrugged, although a glance was spared toward the dark lord, and a slight grin as he heard more and more carnage outside. "I take it your plans have begun, Travanix" Have you put the drones to good use?" He'd not monitored the devices himself since passing over the control key for those he'd mobilized. His focus had been elsewhere with the skurs who had tried to stage a pathetic little coup in Anya's venue.

Eyes were still closed as he listened, as if waiting for something to happen, Travanix turned quickly on the barstool. "Not only have I found them useful but I improved your design!" With a flick of his hand, miniature holo projectors flung from one of his pockets, projecting the invasion from various points - they filled the bar area practically, bathing the room in a light blue aura. "Rhy'din is mine! The displays that hung in the air showed chaos rampaging all over the planet, through out the realms and even orbit.

Laughing softly, Anya found the man's excitement a wonderful contagion that filled her up to the brim. Leaning further into her seraph, the siren stroked along his jaw, nails lingering on the edge of his chin. Her voice lifted to Travanix despite the intimate, familiar posture she'd assumed with her husband. "Congratulations my Lord....And might I thank you for bringing out some of my husbands darker talents." Smiling as she spoke, she turned her lips against Victor's ear, mouthing at the lobe.

Victor's mana eye scanned the projection with speed and precision, and he gave an impressed nod. "Well done....hmm..." A tactical battlefield analysis emerged from his arm panel, and design schematics as well. "I see....and yes, those were not military grade drones. I've not produced any on this world due to the cost - they were, after all, just for surveillance and security in mining sites. I could, of course, mass produce something larger and more heavily armed if needed."

"Hardly, my friend." Travanix patted Eillani on the head gently as he turned to stand up, his arms folding behind him. His eyes scanned each display as he monitored the battlefield. "Blitz attacks everywhere at once...No one saw it coming."

The seraph's attention was diverted quickly by Anya's affections. "This looks like fun, doesn't it..." A turn of his head slipped his ear from her lips, only to replace it with his mouth. A lungful of smoke was slowly let out before it turned to a deep kiss. His fingertips absently popped the cork from the absinthe bottle.

"I expect you two will have your forces on the ground soon?" Travanix arched a brow toward the two.

Welcoming that smoky kiss without the slightest hesitance, Anya hummed quietly once they'd parted, her lips musing together as she looked back towards Travanix with a downright dastardly sort of satisfaction. "If that is what my vischa so desires, I'm sure we will....though we hardly need such forces to lay waste to those that stand in our way." Her fingers moved and began to unwind the dark, black slip of ribbon from around her hair and curl it in her hand. Setting the tail of it against her thumb, she slid it's silky fabric along Victor's collar bone, eyes lidded.

"Of course." Victor smiled, then his gaze returned to Anya again. "I did make you a promise, after all..." Smiling, he sipped directly from the bottle and for a brief moment, closed his eyes at her touch. "I do, of course, intend to keep it." His fingertips crawled slowly, contentedly up her spine.

A blinding flash of blue light exploded into the room, a simple diversionary tactic, but one Celeth had often found effective. The sorcerer appearing in the center of the flash was orbited by seven crystals, all projecting powerful shields around him. A single hand reached past the barrier as he scanned the room, quickly recognizing the target, having seen him in every detail from the eyes of his companion. "Die." At his command, hundreds of razor-sharp icy spears flew from the outstretched hand, directly toward Travanix at the bar, and from the wide array it was obvious he cared little for collateral damage.

The dark lord's hand shot up, his eyes went blood red, glowing fiercely as the area around him came to a sudden stop around him and Eillani.

"убейте ту собаку!"* Anyanka cried angrily, teeth bared as she shielded her eyes from the flash of light and power. Despite her lack of magic, the siren didn't cower, in fact, she half stood in front of Victor, hands curled and contorted into angry little claws.

The seraph's head snapped suddenly toward the center of the flash, and while his flesh eye had momentarily lost sight, the cybernetic one identified the man immediately. "You..." Meanwhile, the icy blades dropped to the ground and Travanix's hand went from open palm to a finger, pointing towards the intruder. "Kill him!"

Eyes narrowed, Celeth watched intently as the blades stopped in midair then fell, but he'd already prepared a chain of spells, the next of which created a vortex void behind the man and the one he protected. His fingers traced the runes in the air with alarming speed.

Eillani rose to her feet with all the swiftness of a cobra's strike, watching the attacker.

Victor was more direct; without hesitation, a blast of energy fired directly at the blue man from his mana eye, then he was airborne, leaping toward him with his crystalline sword drawn.

Eillani's training would keep her out of the way, and Travanix's own allowed him to move quickly, the Dark Side aiding his physical skills to leap away from the vortex. He was not going to go down like that - not tonight. Not now! The micro projectors were collected before they became damaged. Jumping to gather them with the force, he rolled to the side. Metal scratching metal was heard as talons enclosed around his flesh and blood fingers.

Just before the spell was complete, the blast hit his shields and threw Celeth roughly into the wall. Had he not been protected, it would have reduced him to a pile of ash. Shocked eyes turned toward the source. "...Kazon?"

The blade was already descending, aiming for one of the shielding orbs while his eye tracked and fired at another. "Yes, I know who you are....Celeth." Most of the others present were already leaping away or taking cover.

"Stop!" A telekinetic wave of his hand turned the seraph's blade aside. "That man! He is a monster! Settle whatever debt you wish with me later, seraph....but KILL HIM! NOW! He has already started a war!"

Travanix laughed darkly. "Started a war" I am rebuilding a world!"

"I know, Celeth. I helped him." Victor's grin was dark and sadistic, teeth honed to a razor's edge. "Hiaz." The simple rune of 'here' pulled loose one of the orbiting crystals, and he crushed it in his hand while a laser blast shattered another.

"Так красивый моя любовь..."** Anyanka crooned in that queer, animal, underwater tone of hers as she watched Victor begin to move against the blue man. She didn't so much move away from him as move with him, standing to the side; circling, waiting, and above all else, watching. There was nothing but adoration and absolute lust in the siren's eyes as she watched her seraph move.

"If this fool is one of your problems, Victor, remove him! I am far to close to my goal to have wanna-be-heroes get in my way!" Travanix growled, claws readied.

"Consider it done." His wings extended and without another word, Victor rushed forward. A kinetic barrier formed before him, blasting the shocked sorcerer out through the window.

"...what?" Pulling himself up and glaring at them both, Celeth paused, at a complete loss. "How could you....you're a seraph! You're a guardian! What the hell has he done to you?" Taking a defensive stance, he spoke a quiet word in High Runic, causing the five remaining orbs to spin faster around him. "Damn it!" As the glass behind him shattered and he felt himself falling, Celeth grabbed one of the crystals and charged it to critical mass before throwing it back into the bar. The shields formed by the remaining crystals formed a sphere that rolled harmlessly backward, and he began preparing another spell.

"Alright, lani..." Travanix growled as the item was tossed - that was a good indicator of a bomb. He moved quickly towards Eillani, pushing her towards a corner. He pulled several throwing knives from the utility belt pocket and lobbed them towards the attacker. Merely a distraction, but enough that he could maneuver. The blades whizzed by Victor, one clattering from his extended wing, but flew over Celeth as the sorcerer's shielding sphere rolled away into the street.

Eyeing the pair as the battle began to move through the window and out onto the street, Anya hissed angrily as she took a few successive steps back towards Lord Travanix and his company, her hands still contorted and half curled, ready to slash and grab. "Get down!" The siren herself said this as she flipped a nearby table and slid behind it's metal surface. Unfamiliar with technology or no, the siren knew when an enemy threw something, it was generally a good idea to be out of it's way. In her rush, the ribbon fell to the ground beneath the clutter of chairs and debris that littered the floor.

Following the rolling sphere, Victor drew out a crystal of his own, one that seemed to suck in all the light around it. So focused was he on Celeth that he ignored the bomb altogether. "I am a guardian, and you've encroached upon what is mine for the last time!"

Suspended inside the sphere as it rolled away, Celeth let its inertia carry him, but not before whispering the rune that triggered the overloaded crystal, in hopes that it would be enough to destroy the monster inside. "Victor....stop this!" He hissed through gritted teeth as the seraph bore down upon him.

Victor rushed after him, a blade extending from his wrist and a bright light charging in his eye. Behind him, the bomb exploded, the shockwave hitting his kinetic barrier and propelling him that much faster toward the escaping Celeth.

Before the dust even began to settle, Anyanka spied the nearest exit and loped out through it with an inhuman speed and grace.

((*"Kill that dog!" **"So beautiful, my love..."))

Victor Kazon

Date: 2010-10-13 20:17 EST
In the Marketplace, chaos had already set in. Forces had invaded from nearly every side. Victor's grin was consuming, sadistic, as he blasted repeatedly at Celeth's rolling shell, aiming for the crystals that powered his shield. Anyanka had escaped the bar and it's charred bits with most of her own pieces intact. The only reason she would have stayed had rolled out the window with the disgusting little blue mage; Victor. Looking just a bit more feral than normal, the siren looked on as the two spilt into the streets of the market, her jaw tight.

"Damn it, Victor! Stop this! The enemy is behind you! He's a goddamned psychopath! What happened to you?" The crystals shifted in random patterns to evade the laser blasts as the runes before him formed a cage that flew out toward the airborne seraph.

Young Iimiidiina had come home. He forgot his book at the office, and had teleported right in front of Sean's vet office....right in the heat of battle! With a gasp, the child ducked behind some trash cans, then quickly tried to remove his muzzle. His voice was powerful, and he will use it to defend himself, to make his escape. The child just managed to get the buckles off, and he hooked the muzzle onto the clip holding his outfit together. With book under his arm, the child hid behind the trash cans and prayed to Canis and Lupis nobody would take interest in either himself or his home. His paws were trembling. Screams and bullets filled the air of the Marketplace.

For the seraph, the cage was a temporary distraction at best. His sword and the blade that had emerged from his wrist cleaved through the bars, although they were tightly knit enough to prevent him from taking a clear shot at the sorcerer's shielding orbs. "You're the psychopath! You tried to assassinate the emperor! You sold your soul to the goddamn devil and gave Au'Zek the key to Sintherrata!"

The scuttling and the reek of fear from a nearby body drew the edgy predator's attention. Turning towards the source, Anya canted her head in a queer, bird like fashion as she began a slow, slow stalk towards the gangway that held the shaking trashcans. Feeling a noise build in the low, back base of her throat, the siren let it loose, crooning in a voice better suited to the world found beneath the waves than the ground they walked on now. "Come out, come out..."

The words stung, and Celeth's eyes narrowed in anger. "I was controlled, and now I seek to atone....you were a knight! Why are you party to this?" He paused, however, at the ease with which the seraph was cutting through his trap. "...Irigar's hammer..." The curse was muttered irritably as he realized there was something else at play here, something he did not see.

"Oh, Canisian iina Lupisian, hiisaa miituu. Pahriis miituu soolta stroom, peesee," the boy whispered to himself as the siren's voice came nearer. Oh, this was very scary for the child. Why did he have to forget his book when he and Sean evacuated to the Den"

Meanwhile, Celeth's hand stretched out beyond the spinning orbs and fired hundreds of icy blades, all directly at Victor. The woman he ignored; he'd seen her and the absence of mana within her.

After creeping close enough to assess just what sort of creature was cowering behind the waste in the alley, Anya sneered, her face contorting as if she'd scented something unpleasant. A child held no importance to the siren, none at all. Hissing underbreath, she growled towards the furry adolescent. "Home child....Home. The streets are not for the easy and innocent such as you." Disdain, disappointment; you name it, it colored her voice darkly.

"Loovaa!" The child shouted. The percussive force of his voice, directed at the threatening woman, made walls shake with its force. He stood, backing down the alley to get some distance between him and the siren.

A few more strikes and the cage fell to pieces, but Victor barely managed to raise the barrier in time to stop the barrage of blades. Seven struck deep, lodging themselves in his chest and thighs. More still broke skin but shattered upon contact with the reinforced bone beneath. "I owe you no answers, freak." He growled in pain but still lunged forward, blades first, attempting to disrupt the shield. a massive blast fired from his eye.

"отвратительное существо!"* Anyanka crowed down the alley even as the walls shook. A passing breeze and a bit of dark, silky debris drew the siren's eye away from the odd child and his raw, unschooled power however. A black ribbon licked around her boots, and it made her smile bleed itself anew. How fortunate....She'd lost hers back at the bar. Stooping down and turning back towards the battle on the streets in one sleek, slow motion, Anya collected up the dark little ribbon and snuck it around her hair.

"Damn it....wake up, Kazon!" The shielding sphere absorbed the impact and kept rolling backward, Celeth levitating in the center, hands constantly moving faster than the naked eye could see, leaving a trail of runes before him. "Don't you remember" I came to you in your dream!"

Seeing the girl run off, Iimiidiina took the opportunity to go back into the main road and shield the building. "Shiistroom miituu huum." And boom! The vet office was safe. He turned around and, after shouting at a couple of soldiers who had taken interest in him, propelling them many paces away, he ran as fast as he could, towards the edge of the Market and away from the sounds of battle.

The noise drew her attention back from that simple motion of primping; I came to you in your dream. Those oceanic hues snapped across the way to the blue man and narrowed to dangerous slits. Baring her teeth, she began to stalk back towards her husband and the fray he was still amidst. If it went on much longer, the tension along her spine would win out, and Anyanka would be seeking an entry into said fray.

The child stopped at the end of the road, hitting a dead end. He sniffed around, making sure no soldiers followed him.

Further down the street, Corren's missive had him here with two of his men. With the disturbances going on they had worked their way along the back of buildings and now, down an alleyway of some of the shops. They were dressed in a similar fashion, Corren slightly more decorated with the obviously higher rank. As they grew closer to the heart of the action their pace slowed to something more careful and deliberate. He studied the situation for what he was looking for, feeling they would be unnoticed in all the chaos.

Victor's face screwed up into a perplexed expression as he almost paused just to stare the man down. "...Dreams" I have only seen you in the logs where you scryed on my ship, trying to isolate the emperor and take the Gift for yourself!" Although Celeth may have thought the movement of the orbs to be random, Victor's cybernetic eye found a pattern, and anticipated. One....two....three....both blades and his eye worked in sync to cleave one, pierce another, and detonate a third.

The child should have been looking ahead, not behind. Corren was only slightly startled to feel the small fellow bump into him. His white blue eyes widened a fraction and his hand shot down, grasping him by the elbow, "Where's Celeth?" He wasn't whispering, but his voice was low.

With all but one of the orbs destroyed, Celeth fell to the ground, but shifted before he touched down. He heard his name, but paid it no mind as he could not let himself be distracted from the seraph. Besides, the time for words had passed. A dire frostwolf, nearly five feet tall at the shoulder, lunged toward Victor, passing through the kinetic barrier and seizing his arm. His jaw clamped down hard and ripped through skin and muscle, locking onto the metallic bone.

The child shouted once again, and the percussive force of his voice shook the walls and propelled the men away from him. It shook them, sure enough. The two men at either side of him fell to their backs. Corren was flattened against the wall and instinctively his grip tightened on his arm more than it had been before. He almost had to stagger to regain his balance and, frustrated with the set back, he jerked the child back against the wall and looked down at him, "Where is Celeth?" Could his grip get tighter"

"I will rend the organs from your body!" Anyanka shrieked angrily as she watched the mage morph and shape shift and attack her husband anew. She hovered now, circling the pair, her eyes wild with fury as she watched the beast tussle with Victor. The seraph's arm swung and flailed as he screamed in pain, wrapping his wings halfway around him in a protective shell as he crashed to the ground. He tried in vain to turn the blade against the wolf, but his arm could not move. The muscles were nearly severed. The other, however, brought down his sword in a swift motion directly toward the beast's head.

"Aaf!" The boy, his muzzle hanging from his clothes, glared at the man grappling him. "Loovaa!" The child focused his magic, pushing on the man, forcing him away.

A strong swing of Celeth's body launched the seraph away just in time, releasing his hold and leaping back from the blade's arc. "Do not make me kill you, seraph!" Where the wolf stood, now the blue man reappeared, wielding tendrils of ice around each arm.

This time, without the wall to his back, the child got the distance he wanted. His other two men were already expecting the kid to do that, so they were already bracing themselves and avoided tumbling over. At this point Corren shook his head at the child, deciding he was useless and not worth the trouble, and signaled the other two to follow him. He started for the faces of the buildings, not yet sure he saw Victor.

Having driven the men away, the child worked frantically to teleport himself away. "Moora miituu iit Ammy!" The words worked their magic and Iimiidiina escaped.

From the side Celeth saw the Anya's approach, and sent a flurry of frozen blades in a wide arc. "Stay away from me, siren!"

Standing slowly, Victor's eyes widened in horror as the blades flew toward Anya. He teleported before her, wings wrapped around him once again as a shield as blood poured down his arm. "I will watch your bones bleach in the sun and crack into dust before I let you pull another piece of what belongs to me apart, you fool caster!" Snarling viciously, Anya moved to drop to the ground, her fingers wide on either side as they prepared to prop and turn her; the action was never executed unfortunately; she met a solid wall of flesh. Were it not for her and the seraph's connection, she would have thrashed, but the beat of Victor's heart was unmistakable, as was the warm weight of him.

Celeth followed suit, teleporting behind them both. His body turned to solid ice, hard as steel. An arm fired out and wrapped around Victor's one weak spot - his Nischa. "Leave now, seraph, and I will spare her."

Corren pressed his back against the wall and looked to the other two, "I see him. As soon as I get this thing started, we'll go back over there," he nodded in the direction of the harbor. The other two nodded. It was an unusual item he had— very unusual. It was handheld, intricate and looked something like a mechanical apple with gears. It hummed and growled when he turned the gear, vibrating angrily in his hand and starting to take on light. He leaned down to it, wet his lips and whispered into it "Celeth." The result was not one immediately devastating. In fact, it seemed some event had suddenly happened but what it was was unclear. It was a time eater. For Celeth, it wanted to eat up five minutes. That didn't sound like much, but that was hours in teleport talk.

Turning, Victor's heart nearly stopped in his chest. The wounds were closing in his arm, but the shredded skin and muscle would take much longer to regenerate. He was fortunate enough that the bleeding stopped. "Release her, or I will tear you apart, genasi. I will burn and heal you for a century and never let you die. You will suffer for every minute you have left." Even while he spoke, even through the horror of Anya caged in arms of ice, his eye was lining up a shot, finding a way to target him without hitting her.

Rage threatened to crack the siren's skull as the mage's fist closed around her throat; pure, fierce, unadultered rage. There had been many a time she'd told her husband how unlike a human she was, about how violent and bestial she could be. Those times had not been all talk, and one look into her eyes would prove that; they were shining like mirrors, and the sheer rage that throbbed through her well outweighed any sensation of pain she might have felt from Celeth's icy grip. With every ounce of strength she had, Anya bowed and flexed, her body contorting wildly as she bared her teeth. I will kill him, I will kill him, I will kill him! It was a growling mantra that just never ended. Ripping her arms upwards, she clawed her hands bloody at his frozen grip.

Corren's device activated then, and Celeth was frozen, motionless, completely still and silent. Unfortunately, the hold upon Anya was reinforced by his inability to move, and so well wound was his arm around her throat that there was literally no room to fit her head through the gap.

Corren's eyes went to Victor for a moment and he tipped his head towards him. A couple minutes ahead, give or take, he'd given the seraph to play with. The man was able bodied. But it was all a nonmagic wielding human could do here. Avoiding the fury for fire and ice he and his men retreated back the way they came and awaited further orders, crouched and wondering about the time when there would be blood on their hands from people like themselves.

Brows quirked, Victor stared oddly at what now seemed to be a statue of Celeth. Then the systems on his arm panel went berserk. "SHIT!" Rushing forward, he grabbed Anya and the Celeth 'statue', taking to the air the moment he had them within his grasp. His screamed toward Corren almost as an afterthought. He knew not what the device was or why he'd helped, but there was no time to ask questions. "RUN!"

A moment later, beams of energy rained from the sky. Gaining altitude, Victor swerved and banked, dodging the blasts, the propulsion system kicking in to escape the blinding dust and debris flying up from the ground. Anya's thrashing stilled by quite a noticeable degree once Victor had moved in and collected her and the icy mage up. Victor was in flight; she knew better, even in her rage blind state. "Anya..." He could not spare a hand to reach to her, but his head tilted down just enough to touch his forehead to her temple while his cybernetics plotted his course. The energy signatures of the beams and the heated currents of air gave him just enough to predict the location of each strike and compensate, although the flight itself was rough and barely controlled due to the constant changes in air density. Eventually he found his way to a somewhat stable rooftop, setting down with them both as the strikes ceased.

"Stay perfectly still, love....do not move, even an inch!" His eye charged with a bright red light, calculating the exact point to carve the arm from the 'statue' to free her without burning through her.

Frozen eyes slowly moved in their sockets, but seemed far too heavy, and he watched with horror as the seraph's eye aimed to cut off his arm. He tried to move, but his body did not respond; the sorcerer could not even open his mouth to utter the runes that would carry him to safety.

"Angel man will not hurt Pretty!" A booming cry echoed from seemingly nowhere, yet everywhere at once, as if the world had turned to a deep, deep cave and her voice was the only that dared cry out through the dark. A bright light erupted above the trio in the markets, where, bloodied wings and all, a large, large fae emerged. Fifty feet in all, and pulsing with intense magics. Tears stained her cheeks just as purpose filled her eyes.

Anyanka stilled completely then; not only because of Victor's hushed, harsh command, but from the sudden burst of light. The last time such a light exploded onto the scene, Celeth had arrived. Still mad as hell and boiling beneath the soft, pale surface of her skin, the siren steeled herself, waiting patiently for the moment she could be free again.

"What the..." Victor's eyes went up, and up, and up....in abject shock. Even from a three story rooftop, the fairy towered over them, and he had no idea if a laser blast would even work on something of that size. "What the hell IS that?"

Shang....why....you should not have come! I told you to rest, to heal! They have been corrupted by the dark man you saw! They will try to take you, or even kill you! RUN! Still helpless, Celeth's mind connected with her even though he still could not move. Please, Shang....I cannot lose you....go now!

"Put Celeth down. That means the squirming lady too." Shang's eyes narrowed down at Victor as she tried to steady herself, wilted, torn wings and all. Her face was simply a road map of tired lines, very odd lines, lines that did not belong on the eternally youthful such as she. There were dark half moons beneath her big, big eyes as well. For a moment however, she hesitated, and turned those big eyes to the little blue bit of ice among the trio. Oh yes, she'd heard him; it was the reason for her frown. She said nothing however, in fact, for perhaps the first time, Shang ignored Celeth completely. She did however turn back to Victor as her face hardened again to that no-nonsense expression.

Releasing the two, Victor righted them so the frozen Celeth would not fall upon Anya. His eye began to charge once more, although he cast a deeply worried expression between Anya and the fairy, unsure of what to do next. "If you touch her....if you harm her....I will find a way to destroy you, even if you stand a thousand feet tall, I will build a cannon big enough to reduce you to ash."

"Pretty Angel will learn to hush his mouth if all it is good for is one thing." Shang said angrily as she squatted and extended her hands down towards the uncomfortable looking pair that Anyanka and Celeth made. Every inch of her screamed for sleep, but just like Celeth, the fae ignored those cries too; they would both be heeded soon enough. Collecting what little focus she had left, Shang poured every ounce of herself into the warmth her hands began to emit. All that mana, all that magic, and yet she wielded it with the utmost care and compassion. The mana would recognize Celeth instantly, for it was the same entity of power he took from the fae on a daily basis. His angry captor would remain untouched. It was Celeth the power wanted, and Celeth alone. "Come home with Shang....Mama can watch us both sleep."

The distraction had given Celeth the one thing he needed: Time. He felt the strength returning to his body, the bizarre time distortion was nearing its end, and he now waited for the perfect moment to make his strike. Shang....please listen to me. Return to the Gelid. You have done enough. I will return to you. Just go, please. If you show him your true power he will hunt you down...

Victor rushed forward, his hands taking hold of Anya protectively, despite the massive fairy's approach. As the huge hands came closer, the red glow of his eye stared up with deathly rage. "If you so much as touch a single hair on her head..." A tracking light was now focused directly between Shang's eyes, and the charge was enough to nearly overload the focus crystal. The mangled arm, moved by cybernetic controls, slid between Anya and the statue as he watched every move, ready to fire.

Vischa....Vischa. We should take her with us. The ribbon she'd found to bind her hair was gone yet again, perhaps it was fate" Either way, the result was that lovely spill of cayenne the seraph enjoyed so much. Such was his luck it'd be here in this situation, of course. The siren was eyeing the sprite however, oh yes, eyeing her very carefully. Oddly enough, it was not for Travanix that she thought of for the fae, but for Cerre. For answers.

Shang's warmth would be enough, it had to be; there was simply no other answer. It was there around the mage, it was there in him, caressing where skin still shouldn't have been able to be caressed beneath that icy cage. The memory of her hair on his neck, perhaps, might come to mind, or even the way she smelt when he first woke; all small, seemingly insignificant memories.

The ice gave way and Celeth leaped back from the two instantly, two new shielding orbs flying up from his pockets and taking orbit around him. "Kazon....if we meet again, I will kill you. Do not follow me. Do not pursue Shang." His eyes were narrow frozen slits. "Not even the Pare will save you."

Victor himself had not noticed, but with the threat to Anya, his flesh eye had started to blacken and the tendrils had spread into his face. I do not know how to capture a being taller than a building, Anya....nor can I fight them both at once. For now we must regroup.

Regroup....Yes. Yes regroup, of course. Concern flooded Anya's features as the notion took newer, stronger roots in the siren's mind. She'd not smelt the injury simply because her senses were already so thick with his blood. Turning up to Victor, she pulled both hands around his face, letting her fingers frame the strong lines along his jaw. The other two were ignored completely; she'd given them her back, smelling the weakness on them.

Shang moved slowly now, each limb leaden and weighted by exhaustion as she turned to watch Celeth. All that energy, oh he was lucky. How could he have so much energy when she was so very, very tired" Smiling weakly, the fae actually had the courtesy to take one of her large hands and wave down at the other two as if nothing were amiss. "Pretty Angel and his lovely will do well to stop pestering people and to stay away from the cold man with his creeping blackness, hm?"

"Come with me, Shang." A hand reached up to touch her own huge one, an unspoken gesture that she would recognize. Shrink down and sit on my hand. Runes were already starting to surround him, to take them back to the Gelid, which he would fly into a void zone to hide them from the madness that had seemingly taken over every corner of the city.

"Pretty....Shang is so glad you are safe." No sincerer sentiment had ever been spoken by the fae, and with a heavy, happy heart, she collapsed onto Celeth's hand. She'd of course been aiming for a more slow, paced sort of motion, but as soon as her size left her and she was that amazingly manageable set of inches again, Shang's energy just flatlined completely.

Victor's healthy arm slipped around Anya's back, his head resting on her shoulder, mana eye carefully watching the two. But....when next we face them, it will not be as difficult a task....The image of what he planned fed through the connection a split second before he actually performed it. Mana released from his cells, and at just the right moment, when the teleportation runes were locked in, but before Celeth and Shang had fully faded, Victor was in motion. In the blink of an eye, his sword cleaved through one stone, then the other, and the blade on his wrist fired forward through the gap. Penetrating just below the sternum, Victor plunged the blade until it emerged from Celeth's back, then carved upward until the two faded out of existence. They shall both drain their reserves just to keep him alive...

A horrific scream faded as did Celeth, blood pumping hard out of the wound that missed his heart by only an inch. Shang's own high, keening pitch joined Celeth's, and faded just as quickly.

Turning back to Anya, Victor shook the violet ooze from his blade and it retracted back into its sheath inside his wrist. "No one touches my Nischa and lives."

Chuckling darkly, Anya leaned in and breathed contently against Victor's neck, her lips brushing with each slow, husky syllable. "We shall celebrate this when you've healed enough." The violence she smelled on him excited her like nothing else, save perhaps that sense of 'mine' he'd grown into so much as of late.

"Why wait?" His smile matching her own, Victor wrapped his arms around her tightly and a gentle pull of her hair brought her face up so he could meet her lips with his own. "I feel like....celebrating....now." The runes spun around them, but before they had even faded, his fingers were unlacing her corset. It was one thing he would never tear from her body, especially considering the care he'd put into crafting it from the bones of the skurs they'd killed together. In the distance, just before the two vanished, his eye caught the sight of a small group of what appeared to be mercenaries, fleeing the field of battle. They were, in Victor's mind, either enemies or cowards, and he did not care which. His smile turned sadistic, and in parting he fired a blast that detonated in their midst.

((*"Disgusting creature!"))

Aksana

Date: 2010-12-02 19:06 EST
Her body was liquid in its grace as the assassin danced over the rooftops. Senses beyond those of any human seemed to see the orbital strikes before they happened, and she was always one step ahead.

All the while, Aksana's eyes never left the target. I can engage. The Vindra is not a concern. His eyes are only for the seraph.

The Voice quickly intervened. No. Observe, my Naira. There are too many players upon this stage. You see the corruption, yes" Your orders are countermanded, effective immediately. Seek the source. We were wrong.

Her eyes widened in surprise. The Voice was NEVER wrong. Has this channel been compromised?"

No. Code Alpha 11704498 Zeta. Confirm. The reply was correct. Aksana could do nothing but comply.

...confirmed.

Now, observe. Place trackers on the combatants, and monitor their every move. Then find the source. Terminate it.

A whirl of motion followed, as an invisible hand placed a tiny sensor on the siren, seraph and finally the blue man, just before he disappeared. She growled in irritation, however, as the last was shattered by the seraph's blade. Sh*t...

Never mind the Vindra, Naira. The chance of survival from such a wound is less than 0.5%. An acceptable loss.