The sound of her knee slamming into his groin gave off a satisfying thud. God, at this moment, all she wanted to do was rip this guy from head to toe.
Jacinda was a fairly violent person. By which to say, she had no issues with using violence as a means to an end and none of it bothered her. Sometimes questioning people meant making sure they weren't holding anything back.
But there was one thing she wouldn't do. One area into which she never crossed. And she never let ANYONE ELSE do it either. It was usually the last thing they did. There were not a few unsolved deaths out scattered across North America that had her name on it for that very reason.
You just didn't do that kind of thing. Kill, hurt, make sure you had good intel, sure. But sexual violence....no.
Maybe it had to do with Regan. From the moment her parents had died- her father murdered by a Roug and her mother- it boiled her blood- raped and then murdered by one- well, from the moment he took twelve year old Jacinda into his life, to raise her as his daughter- and, well, as more than a daughter, in truth- she had absorbed everything he taught her.
That had to have been on his lessons, though she couldn't ever remember him specifically saying something about it. For her to feel that strongly about it- and let me tell you, it was a gut reaction like none she'd ever felt in her life, the concept or reality of rape or abuse- she must have absorbed Regan's sense of justice.
In any case, she knew what she saw in Henrik's eyes. And was glad her fight seemed real enough. Nox was running toward him as she ran away. He was oblivious to her, now that he had his prey. She almost- almost- wanted to let him go at it. But their Atharim assets were low as it was. Especially in the middle of a fight.
Instead, she dashed to where she'd hidden her sonic blast under a dumpster and pulled it out. She knew the others were about as well. She'd already set it to the highest level. Nox would have to be dazed big time. Like hard to think, hit over the head, dazed.
She pointed the blaster from cover behind the dumpster and let fire. Hopefully, Henrik got a little of that. Serve him right.
The man charged even as she ran away. Nox's instinct was to throw a wall between him and the man. It was thick enough to stop him and keep him busy for a while. He had barely reached the invisible wall when the proverbial shit hit the fan. His ears started to ring like a flash bang gone wrong. Nox covered his ears with his hands and started to move to look around but the moment he turned he felt burning hot, flesh melting, blood boiling.
It was hard to think. Hard to do anything but cover his ears, but that did little to help the rest of his body. He sank to his knees and curled in a ball but it kept coming kept hurling at him. His hand touched the ground. His power was still held tightly, it fought to overwhelm him. It was like burning from the inside out and the outside in.
But the ground, felt cool to his touch, he let his power go through it let his instinct kick in, protect him, hide him. His only thoughts - lead being a second close. The air grew warm and the feeling diminished but the air around him was hot and stuffy.
His head was a buzz. He couldn't see straight. Nox's hand took hold of the earth below his fingers. The cement crumbled in his grasp. It was like mud, but he felt home. Felt at ease but the pain poured through his body trying to erase that feeling. A slow trickle of blood ran from his ear and dripped on to his leather jacket or what was left of it.
His power pushed out, formed a thicker bubble inside the one he was in. And then Nox pushed out the bubble and there was a resounding pop. His ear drums or the bursting earth bubble he didn't know which. The outer shell of earth and lead shattered into billions of tiny pieces and flew out in every direction. Up, out and away. Nox didn't hear them pierce the brick walls around him, he didn't see anything as he hid inside yet another bubble, thicker wider with only a single air hole in the top.
Nox prepared a second weave and sent it into the ground... it shook the very earth around him...He wasn't sure how long he would hold on, but inside the bubble he'd either live or die, but he hoped to take as many with him, he only had to hold on...
Stephan watched as things unfolded. The others had their weapons, and the boy god stood in their stream of invisible rays. Henrik being the idiot that he was had charged him and stopped headlong into an invisible wall and then Cross fired upon him and his friend stood clenching his head like Durante.
Stephan's heart rose with glee as the god fell to his knees. Defeat was nigh...
And then like magic and Stephan supposed it was a multitude of things happened seemingly at once. A bubble of earth grew from the ground and surrounded the boy. Stephan made to move closer but stopped himself, the god was still alive, still inside, and the rays were still pointed in his direction, not to mention Cross' beam out into the street. Stephan watched...
And then within moments the bubble burst into shards of all shapes and sizes, and then there was nothing but darkness...
Jacinda’s ploy seemed like it was to lure him to Henrik with a struggle. Henrik took it to an extreme with groping. Probably unnecessary, but it worked and the target approached. Jacinda kneed Henrik in the groin and Ichiro smirked a bit. Served him right.
Jacinda moved to take her position and Ichiro readied his weapon. He still hates the thing, but he used it nonetheless. Ichiro activated it with ease, keeping the power in a medium range. Nox wasn’t a kid who didn’t know how to use his curse. He had complete control and that showed when he could still pull on it despite his pain.
Shockwaves struck both Stephan and Henrik. Ichiro knee they wouldn’t make it. They were casualties in a war. Ichiro would drink sake to their memory later. It was then he turned up the intensity. Hopefully it would catch him off guard.
((IOC - posting on my phone. I apologize for any typos or tense issues I may have missed. ))
Henrik charged the boy god. He was headlong before he ran straight into an invisible wall. He had bounced back of of it just as the ear splitting pain started. Fuck that woman! I'm in the goddamned way.
The wall in front of him crumbled under the sonic waves and the boy clutched his ears, much the same as Henrik had started to do. Henrik moved towards the wall away from the cone that weapon made from behind him. But he was still in the waves when the EMs started to radiate down upon him. He howled in pain. Fuck you guys! he thought. But then things went even farther down hill as the ground shifted and walls of earth erupted from the ground and surrounded the boy. Moments later those very same walls shattered and came at Henrik.
A large shard peirced his shoulder and the momentum carried him backwards into the wall with a loud squishy thunk. Henrik's ears were ringing. His skin was burning and now he was howling in pain with the additional pain. He couldn't move. Each time he struggled the shard cut deeper. Gravity was pulling him from the razor sharp edge and the pain of everything made Henrik scream in agony.
Nox was on the ground and Jacinda couldn't help the smile that came over her. It wasn't as fast as a bullet, she knew. These new weapons really needed to be used in conjunction with traditional ones. Take them by surprise, overwhelm them, and then, BANG! Bullet to the head and brains spraying out and the game over.
This was all still new, really. These weren't feverish sick kids or ordinary putzes who had no clue what they could do.
Case in point, Nox was on the ground and in pain but even so, he had thrown up some kind of barrier to protect himself. That kinda pissed her off. Henrick was at least getting some payback for his little play. So there was that, she supposed.
And then the barrier or whatever seemed to grow thicker and with spikes. Fuck, but this kid new what he was doing. She tried upping the power on the sonic device. She wanted to see blood dripping from his ear.
Whatever the barrier was, it seemed to keep the worst of the sound out. Hopefully the EM weapons had more effect. She filed everything away. They needed a better strategy for this kind of thing. Better planning.
No more fly by the seat of her pants stuff. It would take some fun out of things...but the point of the job was to kill gods, not just piss 'em off.
Cuz he seemed to getting control. The ground started shaking. She actually felt a thread of fear. Holy shit!!! This was real. Like real god stuff. Fear, but damn! This was exciting!
That barrier got darker and all spikey. She was glad she was shielded by the dumpster because all of a sudden the barrier exploded out. The metal of the container was slammed with whatever it was that Nox had been making. She peaked around, could see Henrik on the ground- he'd been hit. The barrier might be down? She didn't know. She focused her beam on high on Nox. Maybe that much power took something out of him. She hoped Yoshi and the others kept it up. It had to be draining him.
Edited by
Jacinda, Jan 8 2018, 01:45 PM.
Police Scanner report
A hot burning fire has been reported in the Red Light District. Sources say the fire is out and only one building was damaged. Earthquakes are now reported with an epicenter near the reported fire. Possible Channeler activity - requesting Domovoi backup immediately!
Dorian was half asleep while he waited for Nox to return. He'd left abruptly and he hadn't wanted to let the watch go for the Atharim on his house, and without Sage here someone had to do it manually. How that boy did anything was beyond Dorian illegal too but he didn't want to think about the ramifications of that anymore than what Nox did.
The scanner went off and Dorian only heard a bit of it. And then there was chatter about Domovoi and Dorian was wide awake sitting and listening.
Cruz was standing in the doorway looking at his wallet and listening hard to the scanner in the office.
"Dad. I think that's Nox."
Dorian was on his feet immediately. "Why do you say that?"
Cruz pointed his phone at me and frowned. "Sage tracks all our phones and since the Atharim were out I thought it was a good idea to watch Nox while he was out and about alone, and his wallet died right around that address. I could swear it. But I don't know how to back up the history on this app. I'm still looking."
Dorian didn't hesitate. "You, your mother and Christian in Nox's safe room now."
Cruz looked at his father defiantly but then he nodded. "Yes sir."
Dorian was in his car faster than he thought possible. This wasn't just any god, it was Nox, and the Atharim had him.
Annemarie didn't want any part of this. She hadn't wanted to point the weapon. Provide them, listen to them whatever else she didn't want to kill another human. It wasn't about monsters, it was her own nerver, her own stomach. Killing always made her sick, it was why she chose the comms. Why she'd worked so hard to stay in the van.
She didn't know why she had agreed to this.
But she pointed where she was supposed to. She felt the nausea overwhel her but she held her stance, held her position even as the stench of burning flesh started to make it's way up into her nose. Or was it her imagination?
The world started to shake, the shard sent everywhere were dangerous and sharp, one pierced the window she had been standing by and flew inches from her head landing with a loud thwack behind her into a thick piece of wood.
Stephan's vitals went dead. Henriks were erratic and he was struggling to retain his life. Marco was not used to this either and upon the first unleashing of the shards he was gone, in the trucks. He was a weapons tech not a weapon user not a field agent. Some of us weren't cut out for this
But the ground shook, the buildings rained dust from their ceilings inside and outside the iron from the fire escapes rattled. Things were going to start falling down soon. "You need to get out of the alley. Out of the buildings. Everythings going to come down." Annemarie shouted into the comms.
And then a transmission came over. Annemarie wasn't sure if it was a sigh of releif or fear. "Domovoi is coming. If you can't finish him off now, get out!" And with that Annemaried turned off her device and ran to the van. It was a precarious run, but she made it. Marco was already in the drivers seat waiting. He looked releived. They had done this part plenty of times. But every other time the world wasn't shaking, there were not dead Atharim. No, this was not a good day!
The air grew thicker with heat and sweat and Nox knew that things were getting dire. It was everything he had to keep the power from burning him from the inside out. He pushed into into the ground. It shook and rocked and he could hear the creaking of things around him. He knew that he was putting lives at risk. But he couldn't stop. He had to protect himself.
There were sirens in the distance. But they weren't likely headed this way. Wrong neighborhood to get caught in a literal fire fight.
Nox didn't want to hurt other people just the Atharim. He pulled in his power and changed tactics. It was so hard to think. So hard to do anything. He could feel the power pulling at him pushing at him. It wanted to burn him alive. It was always a fight and it was more so now than before. His head hurt. He hurt everywhere. Burned and boiling in his own shield.
Nox didn't know which way was up. His ears rang. Nox formed a third bubble one inside the other and sent the shards again. Inside a forth and pushed out, more shards. With each wave he grew weaker and weaker until it was all he could do he tied the last bubble off and the power winked out.
He saw visions of his family. They weren't life flashing before your eyes visions. They were his nightmares. His failures - all laid out before him as he lay cooking to death in a trap of his own making.
Jacinda's head bounced off the metal of the dumpster, leaving it ringing. No. Not ringing. Like seriously hurting. Cuz it was like the 3rd or 4th time. She wasn't smiling anymore. The fucking kid was firing stuff out- those spikes of rock or whatever- and they were pummeling everything in the vicinity. Those that hit the brick wall above her shattered and rained debris down into her hair and jacket and shirt.
Between that and the endless crashes, she wasn't able to get her weapon around the corner anymore and keep it focused. Well, she tried a few times, but the last time, one of the shards had slapped her wrist pretty hard and she dropped her weapon. She was able to scoop it up with the other, but she was afraid her right one was busted.
Fuck, this had gone all sideways fast. She wondered where the others were. Hopefully, someone had something continuous on him.
And maybe they did because the intensity of the shards dropped a bit. She tried to clear her head as poked the weapon around again. The dumpster was hit hard and rocked.
Maybe she could get to somewhere safer and fire. She peaked around, tried to see through the hazy clouds of dust and debris. She took a deep breath, stifling the pain that tried to take over, and burst out, running to the nearest wall along the block.
Just as she made it, she felt another blow, this time at her hip. She dropped, skidding, and for a moment, fear lanced through her as her legs wouldn't work.
Fuck!! Not now. Not like this. Paralyzed? Not how she was gonna go out.
She tried crawling, glad of the leather jacket that gave some protection from all the sharp pieces of debris. And she felt her leg twitch. And then a little more. Seemed temporary. She tried to get up to crawl but wasn't able to yet. Her legs still helped though, and it was better to keep a low profile to the ground.
She made it to the corner and the blasts had stopped. From the distance, it appeared Nox was laying on the ground under the bubble. She radioed and through the static heard some chatter.
"Keep the beams focused! It's working."
Somewhere she had lost her weapon. Fucking Fuck!!!
She didn't know how costly this was. And she was gonna be hurting bad tomorrow. And if that was all, she was lucky. She coulda been dead. Nox didn't move though the bubble was still there. At least she thought so. She didn't have her weapon anymore. And he appeared to be dead. And she could hear sirens in the distance. Time to go. Not much more she could do. After the 3rd or 4th try, she was finally able to get up without her leg collapsing under her, and limped off. She'd call for the van when she was further away.
Each step brought an unbelievable twinge of agony. Fuck! Still, what a hunt. Nox Durante. An actual god. Wow. Walking away from a fight with an actual god? Now that was something.
Didn't stop the pain, of course. But it felt goddamn good all the same.
[[Continued in
Time to Breathe]]
Edited by
Jacinda, Jan 22 2018, 08:52 PM.