The First Age

Jacinda watched Amelia work. At least she was good with computers. Jacinda was functional, but that was it. It might have taken a while to get to the footage, with Ten looking over he shoulder and probably making some comment about ice and fur or something. "I stand here so long , my fur has ice on it."

She laughed to herself. Actually, that wasn't bad. She'd see what Ten thought of it later.

Anyway, the feed came up. Fast forward fast forward. Suddenly it slowed to normal and Jacinda leaned forward. The other footage had showed a woman, but she didn't recognize her. Here, though.....Jacinda's eyes narrowed. She whispered "That little bitch."
It was only slight anger. Aria was....odd. But a traitor?

Her heart caught. Yoshi! He was sparring with Aria. Her mind went back to when she and Aria had sparred at Baccaratt, before everything went to hell. She'd put the girl down a few times.

And Yoshi seemed to be holding his own. At first. Suddenly, he seemed to stiffen. Was she touching him? Then he dropped to the ground, his knees.

"NO!!!"
she yelled. It was useless. His blade ripped open his gut. And then.....Aria, her blade swinging, finishing the job.

Rage clouded her mind. Yoshi was a good hunter. They weren't friends. But he had been a comrade. Brother in arms.

Her voice was deadly quiet. "Aria...she killed him. She's the traitor."
She shook her head. "No, I don't know her full name. But she has a reputation. Amelia can find her in the system."


She looked at both of them, seriously. "Regus and Barovsky had her on some sort of a leash. Clearly, she's off it. We have to find her. Stop her."

The place reeked. Enough to choke acid in the back of Tenzin's throat, but not enough to fully disguise the tang of something underneath. No one used that much bleach for regular cleaning. Her brows lowered deep over her eyes as they worked to methodically check the safehouse, hackles prickling. She didn't like the little bug blocking up her ear even if Amelia thought it was necessary for the pack to communicate, but she tolerated it. It felt like a disadvantage though.

At the terminal Amelia did her thing, and Tenzin prowled restlessly, her temples already thrumming with the cloying scent. So strong! Enough to burst her eyes. She paused long enough to watch the footage play, stooping to watch over the others' shoulders. Didn't know anyone in it, of course -- no more than she had the last time, but stiffened as she caught wind of Jacinda's reaction. The anger sent her hackles to daggers. Such a little slip of a girl on the screen. Why did the man do that? She could feel the growl in her throat, battled down. She needed something to sink her teeth into.

"Leash?"
The word bit out harsh. She glared at the screen. At the woman they said betrayed pack. But it was something of the word, too, that offended her. "What is she?"

Jacinda looked over at Ten, noticing a strange sound coming from her throat. And she stared daggers at the display.

Yeah. They were on the same page. She had betrayed them. Not that she felt it personally. They'd met maybe once. Had their fight. Put her on her ass. Aria had never really been on her radar.

She answered Ten's question without thinking. "Barovsky was a control freak. A good hunter, but a control freak. Didn't like anyone to take initiative. But I guess he and Regus went back. Gave him power. I don't know what his deal with Aria was. I used 'leash' as a metaphor. I practiced with her once. Short. I think Barovsky came to get her before we got far."


She snorted. "Who knows. Maybe he was trying to get into her pants. She is cute enough. But nah. Not really. He didn't strike me like that. But there was something odd about Aria and him. I know that."



Edited by Jacinda, Feb 11 2018, 05:42 PM.

Her ‘team’ did not react well to the footage. To put it mildly. Nika, while a little intrigued at their relationship but mostly because she normally worked alone, let their anger hang in the air. She was an assassin, after all, and preferred to speak with the business end of her rifle. More or less.

Having received all the information she needed from the exclamations of her companion, she got to work. Amelia blew the screen up to the size of the wall with a gesture. Her blue eyes were focused and intense as she recalled all Atharim named ‘Aria.’ Sixteen bios popped up on the screen and the girl quickly flipped through and dismissed all but that of their quarry.

Aria Piccolo.

Age, physical stats all populated with a picture. Amelia flicked the bio to a corner of the screen like it was diseased. Her fingers flew across the key layout, calling up commands almost faster than they could be read.

C:\ search current location: piccolo, aria

Wallet Not Found.

C:\ search all current open safehouse logins:piccolo,aria

None found.

C:\ Enable Restricted Access: Moscow Area Transit Cameras

Access Enabled.

She keyed in some code and sent the FRS after Aria’s picture then flicked that window to the side. It remained open, scanning through faces and locations faster than one could follow. Meanwhile, the non-tech tech person had opened another window in MATC and had pulled up all the cameras in the city. Then narrowed it down by district until only the Enlightened District showed. Historical data populated. She selected the date Aria killed Yoshi. Fast scrolling through… The screen froze on Aria leaving the house post-murder. Amelia tapped on the woman’s on-screen form and wrote more code.

C:\ subject capture:track.exe

The big screen followed the diminutive woman, switching between cameras as necessary, some footage was from afar, some close, from behind, both sides and from the front. The assassin spoke quietly to her quarry. “Wherever you go, they will find you.” Who was the hunter now?

Annnd Eureka. Red Light District. Some sort of camp.

The assassin sent a command to Big Brother from her forearm screen.
Edited by Nika Raskov, Feb 19 2018, 10:04 PM.

Metaphor, yet Tenzin did not look particularly gratified by the explanation. Her lips drew thin and flat. The idea sat ill with her, that kind of control; not least with all Jacinda had told her of her own past swirling round in her brain. Her Athari brothers were falling swiftly in her estimations. She crossed her arms for something to do, brow lowered. All this technology was pressing on her patience, as well as the scent of bleach razoring through her nostrils with every breath. Pond still flashed her fingers over the screens, narrowing the search parameters, and all the while Tenzin's feet itched. But she would do this their way. Jacinda's people's way.

Then there was a hit on location, and Tenzin unfurled. "Now we go."

Jacinda's watched the image of Aria go up on the screen. And her profile. Her eyes widened slightly. Huh. Furia. That explained a lot. Even could explain the way Barovsky treated her. Maybe.

She'd known a few furia in her time. Runey was the last. Seth's gamble had paid off, what with her mom being possessed by a wefuke and all while pregnant. When Seth told her the story, she'd been pretty frank about what he shoulda done. Sad, yeah. But she wasn't being heartless.

She knew the fear that you might give birth to a monster. Those rougs had wanted to keep her all those years ago for a reason. Trapped in that room, handcuffed to that bed, she'd wanted to die just at the thought of being used like that, some brood mare or something, for them to spawn more monsters, giving birth to abominations. It woulda been a mercy to kill the child in the womb, or even at birth. Failing that, killing her woulda been a kindness.

Those women she and Ricky rescued in Mexico from that nest of rougs had been given the same choice. They'd been kept and used by them for who knew how long. The odds were high at least was pregnant. There really was no choice. Take the pills or the bullet.

It wasn't pretty. But then again, neither were rougs or wefuke or dreyken or any of them. A mercy, however hard for someone to understand.

Well she understood, all too well.

But Seth had been lucky. Then again, who knew if Rune's ability as Furia was related. To be fair, though, the girl had never been anything but dedicated. Fun sense of humor on her too. Good to be around. But dedicated, most of all. And she respected that. At the end of the day- well a lot of days actually. Took time to earn trust- the girl had proven herself. It was a good ability to have, in the hunt. An advantage they needed.

Aria's record was nothing short of extraordinary. It explained a lot. Not Barovsky, though, now that she thought about it. If Rune and all the others were allowed leeway, why not her?

Bah, it didn't matter. She was a traitor. And they needed to find her. For Yoshi, at the least. Amelia found the last location using tech voodoo. Couldn't deny it saved time....but there was no finesse in it. No fun.

Ten seemed ready to jump out of her skin, wanting to go. Poor girl. That cabin fever had really gotten to her, all that taking care of an old invalid. Well she wasn't what she once was, but she still had a lotta miles left in her. Yeah, gonna have to make it up to her.

To Amelia, "Well, lead the way then. Ten is right- and ready to out run us all. And I'm sure your bot friends probably want to go too. Should ask 'em anyway. See if they're in the mood,"
she added dryly.


Edited by Jacinda, Feb 23 2018, 09:14 PM.

At her prompt, Big Brother had landed on the delivery chimney located on the roof, it wasn’t the dark ages after all. Houses, flats, businesses, hell everywhere, had them these days. It was standard 21st century crap and had been for the last fifteen or so years at least. Drones were used for nearly every delivery these days and instead of leaving your crap on the porch to be stolen, some dude had invented these chutes based on old dumbwaiters.

Said drone landed on the delivery pad, talked to your smarthouse or whatever you had and verified the delivery then birthed your goods. Your stuff would then descend into your abode via lift and be waiting for you to retrieve it. There were so many options to choose from it was crazy and you could go as fancy or simple as you wanted. Got perishables? Clearly you need a climate controlled model. Your dog getting dropped off from the groomer? There are special pet inserts too. You could even route and sort your goods once inside but that got pricey. Security could be beefy, lasering anything unauthorized into a bajillion pieces or basic, letting in anything that said please.

Nika herself had a very complicated system mostly because she’d once entered a supposedly impenetrable location via delivery drone and knew what havoc one could wreck with a little ingenuity. And a knowledge of tech. Well a gun helped too. That assignment had been a resounding success.

She’d maintained her focus whilst the women chattered about leashes and whatnot. Honestly it was a little weird so the Atharim chalked it up to inside jokes or a you-had-to-be-there kind of thing. Well that’s alright.

The assassin raised an eyebrow at Jacinda’s comment about her drones, not really understanding what she meant by it. Annoyance? Who knew. Who cared. ‘Amelia’ walked over to the dumbwaiter’s door and opened it. In this house it was made to look like a cabinet. You could customize that too. There was a battery the size of her pinky within the wall. She reached to her collar and retrieved another battery. Swap complete, the old unit was placed on the tray and she closed the doors. The lift went upward silently and she knew Big Brother would take care of the rest. The power unit was to her scrambler, which, was a delightful piece of tech that functioned to disrupt one’s features on video playback. Or pictures. Anything electronic really. She couldn’t go galavanting about the city, kicking ass and taking names all the while being recorded by the sea of cameras both public and private, now could she? No. So to anyone’s knowledge, Nika Raskov was still in her flat across the city.

The assassin eyed her companions and grabbed a clean throw-away wallet. “Shall we?”

‘Pond’ walked a couple of blocks for three reasons. One: to put some distance between them and the safehouse. Two: because it felt right to go where there were more people. And three...because it seemed like Tenzen needed to be taken for a walk to spend some of that pent-up energy. Somehow. Maybe later that intuition would be revisited.

After all her criteria were met, Amy Pond called for an Uber. Their driver, a grad student from MU, jabbered about all the trouble he got into as an undergrad in the RLD. Red Light District. Amy chatted him up in Russian and got some great tips for the bars they weren’t going to as well as a dancing scene she clearly was into because of her shoes; they were off but he’d recognized the brand. Losing a shoe to Big Brother was just the gift that kept giving. Team Spice Girl ended their ride a block away from their intended destination. Amy thanked Alexandr for the ride and wished him luck with his studies, waving as he puttered away.

It was late but there were lots of no-gooders about. Kinda like them.

Their destination wasn’t far; a couple of minutes. At least her shoes were comfortable. She listened to the drone report on the area as they walked. Her eyes swept casually about and she was at ease. It was a little chilly so not at all out of the ordinary for hands to be in pockets. Her coat was big enough to conceal whatever she was or was not carrying.

Then their destination was upon them.
Edited by Nika Raskov, May 6 2018, 02:46 PM.

Jacinda and Ten were content to let Amelia take the lead from this point. She and her gadgets. Kind of ironic. Ten and Amelia were near the same age, not a fossil like her. You'd think that tech would be in both of their blood. But maybe it was the Himalayas. Ten wasn't all that impressed with it. Not that it wasn't useful or that it didn't have a role to play. But there was something about doing it the old way. It felt more....real.

Then again she was a dinosaur. But there was no substitute to seeing with your eyes, to take it in unfiltered and raw, to let your mind process it all.

She had been taught. Regan, yes. But not just him. Not that she thought of her at all. Another life . The flash of pain was barely noticeable now. But the lessons were as true as there could be a thing called truth. It wasn't something she could unknow.

Let the land talk to you. You must be humble in the face of what is greater than you. She was sure no one who met her would call her humble. She wasn't. Not with anyone. Not that she showed anyone. And was proud of it. But the universe, the environment, the land. That was something else. Be quiet and listen. Let it teach you.

Like now. They followed Aria's trail. And then they were near a slum or encampment. And then Jacinda told them to stop. Not for the people around. They were in the distance. No. Something felt....off. It just wasn't right. There was a subtle warping about everything. Nothing overt. But it was like pieces of the puzzle that just didn't fit quite right.

And the smell. Ten had a sensitive nose, she had picked up on that from the way she wrinkled it or occasionally rubbed it. Or something. In any case, she had to notice. She looked at Ten. "Can you smell that? Smells like burn. Or fire....or...I don't know."


She walked slowly about the ground, trying to sense what was different about this place. Every place has a personality. It is consistant. When something....wrong happens, the land is changed. [/i) The words were written in her mind. Truth. Just words tho. She did not hear them clothed in voice.

But they were true. Something happened here. She sensed it.


Edited by Jacinda, Apr 14 2018, 02:26 AM.

Jacinda Cross was correct. There was something off about this place. Fire and blood. Amy Pond was ahead of the elder Atharim and her partner. Charred blood. She caught the scent off an alley wall pushed toward her by the draft let through shoddy construction and broken buildings. It caught her unprepared and a sudden flash of a car fire from long ago gleefully danced free from its cage.

Another gust hit her like a sucker punch as she was shoving the first offender back where it belonged. Stronger. She could smell the man’s cooked flesh-boiled blood-it was in her nose.eyes.hair. Blood was matting, slicking, soaking through her hair, clothes...soaking in...running down her face into her ear… slicking her neck. She closed her eyes tight. She’d never wear her long hair again. Neveragainneveragainneveragain.

What the fuck? Where the hell had that shit come from? She’d dealt with all of that years ago. Years. Sure, she still had the occasional nightmare. There were the inevitable quirks from being trapped under a body for six hours like, she couldn’t stand top sheets or comforters on her bed. Stuff like that.

Nika dug a thumb into her eye for a good number of seconds.

When again she faced the alley there was a man in front of her. Staring. He kept his distance though, wary of the newcomers but the bottle in his hand made him curious.

“You’ve gone all white, myshka…” He was graying, more gaps than teeth in his mouth.

Nika swallowed around a suddenly dry throat and managed to croak something out. “I’m looking for my sister...she’s missing.” She patted numbly through her pockets before allowing a particularly distraught expression to settle on her face. One that wasn’t hard at all to manifest at the moment.

“I had a picture of us…” She swallowed an annoyingly real scratched throat. “She’s um, as tall as…” Her hand leveled out around her own height. “Pretty though and a delicate face…long hair...” The assassin gave the rest of Aria’s description accurately. “She’s just, I think she’s fallen in with the wrong guy. I’m worried and the driver...he said she came around here.”

“Da...da…” He turned and called out toward a shadowy doorway draped with plastic and bits of cloth. Shapes had already started moving toward them though. Murmurs echoed, an empty bottle was kicked into a corner, boots crunched and shuffled along. The group was a motley bunch of disheveled faces, bright with drink and their recent victory. They sensed no harmful intent from Pond and the two forms farther back in the room, if the shambling group even saw them.

The old man introduced her as his little mouse. “Myshka is looking for her sister…” His words were thickly slurred either from vodka or his missing teeth. Nika went with it all, since she knew somewhere behind her Jacinda and Ten would be backing her up. Possibly. Also there were the drones. Plus this was getting interesting and she would rather show momentary vulnerability to a bunch of vagrants than turn and face two Atharim she couldn’t know. Compromised. Sure it was backward but it made sense to her.

Don’t get close to anyone. Not ever again. Never hurt again.

Alone is safe.

The old man and his ragged army, that’s how his story unfolded; the greatest army since the Germans were turned back! - they fought off the evil… It was piecemeal but coherent for the most part, complete with interjections from those gathered. Aria’s fate -her attackers- ...murderous dogs...the whole story was woven into the night air. Bottles of clear liquid courage were passed around. The old man had actually hugged her when he got to the part about her sister’s demise…a stiff Russian hug but one nonetheless. That was a military affair really. Justice was served...the dogs run off...celebration afterward. Possibly some minor looting. The group started up full-time again with the celebratory drinking. Tomorrow they’d go back to squabbling over rights next to drum fires and doorways but tonight they were united.

Nika whispered something to the old man and pressed hard notes into his palm. Channelers. She turned toward where Ten and Jacy had been. Her face was tired now, eyes hard but behind fatigue. Fucking channelers. They had to find the body. Disappeared into the ground? More likely a dumpster if at all. Still, the group consensus maintained a woman matching Aria’s description had been murdered there earlier that evening.

Nika called in BB for an intense scan of their location as she made for her team.
Edited by Nika Raskov, May 25 2018, 06:01 PM.

The girl- Amelia- seemed to reel and that put Jacinda on edge. She put her hand on the staves at her thigh and looked at Ten. She was quiet, but that seemed to be normal for her. This wasn't the time for joking- well, at least not for Ten. They weren't sitting at a table talking or watching people or walking in the market.

They were hunting a traitor. And a pack of drunks milled about as if they had won a war. Amelia pulled herself together and put together a story. Smart. Quick on her feet. While she had no doubt that there were others in the group (or in the rooms and abandoned buildings that dotted this neighborhood) that might see them as an easy bit of fun, the man taking the lead at least seemed to buy the story.

And then they all chimed in with what happened. Each version, of course, made them out to be the hero.

Still, it was enough. Aria was dead. Killed by channelers. That explained the smell. She remembered Nox and his tricks. Fire. Her back twinged- probably just at the memory- and she forced herself to ignore it and focus back on what had happened. So...Aria dead. And put into the ground.

Into the ground. She looked around, taking a few steps to cover each direction. The place was a dump, but there weren't any open sections of ground- no dirt patches or anything. Yet they all insisted.

Amelia was messing with her toys again. Jacinda kept an eye on the men though she was thinking. Where could they have stashed the body?