A Night to Forget

[Jay Carpenter]

Surprisingly, Jay and Jared only returned to the surface for a short distance. The tunnels that Nox suggested had provided a labyrinth of practice halls, away from bystanders and causalities of their experimentation. As swiftly as they could travel they arrived at another subterranean entrance, this one beginning in a sketchy neighborhood and ending underground. One where the locks were already broken. Suddenly, Jay was grateful he was armed.

Down..down..down. Jay and Jared descended so far that Jay rechecked the signal on the Wallet to see if they were actually in the right spot. But unlike in their previous hole, this one was powered with wifi and light bulbs. They were in the right spot.

His chest was tight by the time they reached the club proper. It was abandoned but for a man drenched in lonely light.

Jay exchanged a silent look with Jared, eyes narrow. He wondered if their resident wizard would do something with that power of his to give them the advantage. Jay himself wasn't exactly useless, being armed and having fists and all that, but he had no particular reason to suspect the silhouette to be dangerous, other than the hairs standing on the back of his neck.

"I take it you're the one that called?"
Just to offer something, Jay stepped into the light ahead of Jared, holding his hands high

[Sören]

He could have begun searching the tunnels, but it would be an onerous task; one he was more eager to allow someone else to get on with. While he waited he spent some time cracking into the club's security cameras and unpicking the grainy footage. His new eye shifted focus and adjusted. After a while, in the recesses of his skull, he could feel the beginnings of a headache.

He looked up when company arrived, and chucked out Natalie's phone in answer, battery now dead, crack prominent on the screen. If it concerned him that the man had brought reinforcements, he didn't show it. Instead he only stubbed out his cigarette on the wall behind him.

"How do you know her? I wasn't aware she had friends in Moscow."
Misleading, perhaps; he had not seen Natalie since London several years before, and though he knew she had been in Africa he had not followed her life there. He'd long since discovered that women who called the runes were of little interest unless they had other useful talents - like the healer girl - because he could neither see nor sense what they did beyond a chill discomfort. He only knew she had no contacts in Moscow because Grey had told him; it was part of the reason he was so concerned.

With a flick of his fingers he spun his wallet's hollow-screen and replayed the footage of Natalie's last recorded moments; her walking out of the picture's edges, phone in hand. And the black-haired man who momentarily followed.

Watching that footage again, he conceded that it did not exactly look good.

And if the girl was dead he had wasted an entire morning.

He appraised the American stranger a moment longer. There was nothing to suggest he was what he claimed, but there wouldn't be until he called on the power. Given the underground's reputation, he hoped the admission was true and not just the result of a drunken rambling - it occurred to him then that, rather than divesting the search into more willing hands, he might have instead just invited another body that needed looking after in the darkness. For a moment Declan hovered in the back of his mind; how different that moment might have been if the man had been more than mere mortal.

To banish the thought he curled his fist and tasted the strength of the runes. In the tunnel ahead, where the electrics faded, an orb of light grew into being, awaiting its master.

"Unless you have a better insight or suggestion, I suppose we start looking."


[[The amulet thing Soren wears masks his channeling. If Jared is holding saidin at all, Soren would have marked it but said nothing - didn't want to assume either way]]

[Jay Carpenter]

He caught the device with one hand. Dead and cold, with a crack down the front, he turned the wallet over in his hands even as shards came away from the screen. His throat tightened as did his fists around the device. What happened? She drop it? She throw it? Was it ripped from her hands as she tried to summon help?

Jay looked who chucked it up and down. He was about as warm and fuzzy as he sounded on the phone. He was dressed like a guy from wealth that didn't actually care what people thought of him, but the necklace seemed out of place. It was almost impossible to pin an age on him, because while he seemed early thirties, he could have easily been a hundred.

How did he know her? Images flashed through his mind. Fire and smoke curled in his nostrils. Natalie smothered by a cloud of ash. The rumblings of a vehicle over rough terrain. Pleas for help drowned to silence by explosions and gunfire. Nausea twisted his stomach. How did he know her?

He stepped forward. "My name is Lt. Jay Carpenter. This is Lt. Jared Vanders. We were part of the Legion that ensured her safe passage out of Sierra Leone."


He was about to ask the same of this guy when he summoned a video. The club was empty now, all but abandoned during the day, but last night it had been thick with people. The completely trustworthy, good, clean-cut sort of people with no ulterior motives at all. What the hell was she doing here anyway? Did she frequent this kind of place? Jay's gaze studied the pipes overhead, the worn bartop, and the concrete floor.

The video showed her departure into darkness, followed by a skinny, dark-haired creep. There wasn't a good shot of his face, so recognition software would be shit in this situation, but Jay memorized every nuance to his movement. The way his feet shuffled quickly after her. The twitch of his hands. The fall of his hair. If he touched her, he was going to regret it.

When the orbs of light spun into being, illuminating their way, Jay looked at Jared expectantly. He didn't feel anything that implicated the man, but what else could have it been. The sense of competition, resistance and withdrawal always accompanied the power being wielded by other hands. "Did you do that?"


While Jared explained, Jay pulled something from his own Wallet. It was the map provided by Nox of the underground city, or as much of it as had been documented. He didn't want to know why Nox had such information, but he wouldn't hesitate to call upon the guy if necessary. Not that he was dying to see the guy again. They hadn't exactly parted the best of friends. He was a fighter though. Far more accomplished with the power than Jay could utilize. Jared and Nox could together devastate anything they found. Jay wasn't completely useless, meanwhile. He had a gun and years of training behind him.

He used the routing feature to determine the location of the club on the map, and a red dot showed their place in the undercity. More than one tunnel penetrated the earth nearby, and dashed lines showed connection points - natural and unnatural alike. Jay hadn't studied it in detail yet, but it seemed they were about to get a crash course in the Underground City.

"You're an old family friend, I take it?"
He asked quietly, keeping his ears open as they walked.

[Sören]

"Ah. Don't tell Vanders."
He chuckled, mostly to himself, but didn't bother to elaborate. No particular recognition flashed at the legion ranks, so perhaps he hadn't truly cared about the answer -- he was more interested in the way Jay looked to his companion at the manifestation of light. So they were both like him, which at least made him marginally more invested in the search. He'd met others, of course, including a rather irritating policeman, but such occasions were rare -- and almost entirely unique to Moscow.

"Family friend? No, not really."
He'd done business with Eleanor, but only as a means to help Natalie over the cusp of sickness. He grew irked with continually having to explain to Grey that it was as a bird trying to teach a fish to fly, but he never turned his back on those who might one day be small brothers and sisters either... or, at least, he gave them the means with which to save themselves, and fortunately in Natalie's case she had pieced together enough to stay alive. "Her father is something of an associate, I suppose. And since he can hardly look for her himself, I'm just doing a favour."

[Jay Carpenter]

Jay frowned. Yes, yes cheap shot. Great job old boy. You're rubbing it in.

It didn't escape Jay's notice that the guy was not concerned about the glowy magic lights. If he was another wizard, maybe it was why he didn't sense anything from him. There were probably all kinds of rules to these things. Those D&D nerds were up to their eyeballs in rules about magic. Maybe Jay should have paid more attention to them in junior high.

If this fellow was cloaking himself in intrigue and mystery, so be it. Jay accepted the explanation he did offer, but also noticed that he again withheld his name. Anonymity. That's cool, man. Whatever floats your boat.

But Jared was far more qualified to deal in magicks, and Jay felt obligated to at least explain a little. Don't tell Vanders.

He cleared his throat, again keeping his voice low as they progressed. "I might have left a long and totally not embarrassing voicemail while slightly or totally shitfaced last night where I didn't want you to find out that I could uh-- you know--channel"
He scratched the back of his head, glancing askance at Vanders, apology wrinkling his gaze. There was more to the story, but thank god he hadn't said anything about killing cannibal monsters at a concert and everything else afterward.

Not long after, the tunnel came to a blunt and complete end. The map showed that it continued, but an apparently very big and solid stone wall said otherwise.

He looked at the map, back to the wall, and back to the map. "Rock paper scissors for who gets to knock down the fake wall?"
He grinned at his two channeling companions.

[Nox]

Hungry. It was the only thought. Food. Eat. Kill. Blood.

Scratching all around. Competition. Fight. Kill.

****

A man in a white lab coat was walking his normal path through the depths of the darkness. The scratching on the walls was growing intense. They knew he was there. They could smell him. They could see him in the darkness, but they didn't move. They waited.

Dr. Pavlo was a crazy man. He thought to tame these beasts, but they were nothing. They last test subject had been thrown into the depths of their holding facility to see how it reacted to the lesser creatures. And now he was being sent to check on him.

The half man, half creature - it wasn't even human anymore. The skin was slouching on muscles like its skin didn't fit anymore. Sunken eye sockets holding grey eyes - washed of all it's former color. Black ichor dripped from it's lips like a bulldog salivating to eat a steak. It was hungry. There was very little humanity left. It ambled along. It said nothing. He wondered if it thought anything. It reminded him of every zombie movie he'd ever scared himself with as a child.

Except this thing wasn't a zombie. It was very much a live - never had been dead. It was a cross between a canibal human like creature that ate people... It was gentically different than a man, we'd yet to find a female. It was crossed with a parasite creature, it infected you through bodily fluids. This man was infected with it. Pavlo's super soldier.

He opened the door to the room, he'd had to walk around the wall that wasn't supposed to be there. It made things more difficult. But there was always another way around in these tunnels.

The door opened and the scratching stopped. He flashed his light inside and it glinted it off what looked like thousands of eyes.

****

A scream echoed in the tunnels...


(( Sorry have to do it. Walls are erected for reasons right? But since Nox didn't mark it with an encounter (or maybe he did and Jay doesn't know I'll let you decide) ))

(( a second aside: There is ONE human like rougarou/chubacabra hybrid among say 20 dog/rat like creations, he's commanding the little army of critters. Feel free to use it or not, it's all the same story. ))


Edited by Nox, Nov 6 2017, 12:20 PM.

[Jared Vanders]

[[in response to Soren - Jared is not holding the power at the beginning]]

Jared followed Jay, wariness was always in his step. He had no idea what had happened to Natalie, but they would find her.

They approached a man who had made the call. He threw a Wallet to Jay, the screen cracked. The man didn't look necessarily savory, but looks could be deceiving. What drew Jared's attention most was the strange necklace he had on.

The man showed a video - the image too grainy to show too much detail, but Natalie was clearly in it, going away with a man with black hair.

The man suggested they leave and suddenly a ball of light appeared in the distance. He hadn't made it, and Jay hadn't channeled at all either. Besides he probably wasn't skilled enough with it to make that happen as quickly anyways. That left the stranger, but Jared felt nothing from him as well. Interesting.

"It wasn't me,"
Jared said in response.

Don't tell Vanders. That got a raised eyebrow from Jared. Jay quickly explained about his voice mail and had the situation not been that serious, Jared would have laughed. Natalie had asked him to keep her secret too.

They arrived at a dead end, Jay bringing some lightheartedness. Jared's map said the same thing - the path continued. He gestured to the stranger. "It's all you."
He then gestured towards the fake wall. Perhaps it was a secret entrance, perhaps not, but he'd like to get a measure of the other and possibly figure out how he was masking his presence.

[Sören]

He mostly ignored his companions. The ansuz-wrought light bobbed alongside them as they traversed the tunnel, but he found his new eye able to adjust further through the surrounding shadows. When they stumbled upon their first obstacle his expression deadened, unamused. While the pups fought over who was going to do the work, Soren splayed his hand against the wall, considering. His senses brushed an enquiry and sensed a residue, which only twitched his frown deeper. How curious.

It was not unlike the Ascendancy's Arch; something of the maker and making lingered here, and Soren absorbed it greedily.

He stepped back, arching his neck to better encompass the whole thing in his gaze. "This is not natural nor built by any man's hand. Someone put this here for a reason, but not recently enough. She couldn't have gone this way."


They'd have to backtrack. Perhaps the map was inaccurate; there had to be other tunnels. Yet he didn't move away; in fact the hand not clenched at his side touched the cold stone again. "To lock someone out? To lock something in?"
Ah, a mystery - and how Soren could not resist a mystery. Then, faint behind the stone -- even with the power burning strength through all his senses -- a scream.

"Hmm,"
he murmured to himself. "Something in, I think."
The power gathered to him quickly, the runes spinning and twinning into hagalaz's call. The stone groaned and Soren stepped back, an impatient gesture with his free hand urging the others to have a care. He spun the runes tighter; around them the light flickered as he funnelled more and more to the task. Until a controlled boom marked the inwards explosion.

The light strengthened once more. Soren stooped to enter the newly formed hole.

[Jared Vanders]

((Ooc: I know the medallion blocks me being able to sense him channel, but can I still see the weaves forming?))

[Jay Carpenter]

((That was the 1st question I asked too, Jared. No, we can't see them.))




Neither Jay nor Jared were doing the channeling. That only left one person. Jay didn't claim to be an expert, but he distinctly recalled the sensation when Nox and Jared channeled. He felt repelled from their proximity, like a bubble of energy pushed at his senses, edging him out. But now, in this rather claustrophobic tunnel, no such dramatic revulsion kicked at his senses. In fact, he felt exactly nothing. Damn nerds and their magic-rules.

Soren examined the wall but found little more evidence to its secrets than Jay had. No markings nor scrapes along the floor or ceiling. There were no divets or discolorations. Nothing indicated its construction, age or purpose. Soren mumbled to himself, and Jay wondered what sort of thing might be kept beyond.

He exchanged looks with Jared as Nox's stories came to mind. Jay shifted his weight, frowning, ready to do something if nobody else would when the wall collapsed. He hadn't flinched, a testament to training, even though a surprised gaze shifted to Soren. When they all climbed through the hole, the orbs leading the way, he decided to fuck it and straight up ask the guy.

"How are you doing all of this? I thought I was suppose to see and sense it."





((Jay didn't hear the scream because he wasn't holding the power. soren barely heard it even with the power. Figured i couldn't just then.))