Mission 7 - A Chance Meeting

[oncedevil]

Who: Anthony Sparado, Hajime Aikawa, Chinen Shou, and NPC mcfirestarter
What: Cleaning up some loose ends.
Where: Downtown Locke, couple of areas likely
When: December 1st, late afternoon/evening
Warnings: Violence, death, probably profanity.

Text: [The hurriedly typed address of a small bookstore somewhere downtown.]

Got a bite. It's show time, hope you're hungry.


Action: After the sting at Espresso Yourself things had fallen quiet again. By now quiet was worrying, instead of signalling peace and a break from madness Tony had come to associate the quiet with an impending shitstorm. With luck, and a good bit of skill, maybe he'd be able to cut this one off before things got unbearably messy. That was the plan, anyway.

Shou's contacts had given Tony a lead or two, and that coupled with his own ever increasing hunter's instincts he'd finally tracked down his quarry: The modified human that had been made to look like him.

After shooting a quick text to the both of them (he couldn't give them more time as much as he would have liked to) he began to move in. Storm clouds rumbled ominously overhead, briefly distracting Tony. Something about all of this was weirdly familiar, and unsettling. He adjusted the sword on his shoulder, shoved aside the anticipation causing a funny knot in his gut, and began to move in. Now he knew he spotted the guy around there somewhere. He couldn't have gotten too far, could he?

Comments

NPC- Luca Dantonio

[dead_black_eyes]

Bugged-out eyes flick independently back and forth of each other as a young man with green-tinged skin drags on a cigarette and tries to suppress his nerves. He's working tonight, and he has to take it seriously if he wants to remain in good favor with his notorious boss. That being said, it's fairly dangerous, because he'll probably end up on camera. The only real upside is that he won't look like himself; he won't look exactly like who he's trying to look like, either, but that hardly matters. All that's really important is that he comes close enough to fool the prejudiced masses, and given his modifications to look and behave more like an chameleon, it'll be very little trouble.

Stubbing out his cigarette on the nearest brick surface, he pulls his hood down, shifting his appearance to take on the features of the young man he's impersonating. White hair, a missing eye and accompanying eye patch, a blue sweater... and a can of gasoline, and a box of matches. When this hits news stands tomorrow, the small charity clinic will not be the only thing to have burned.

[oncedevil]

There were a few buildings to choose from. A privately owned bookstore seemed promising, but Tony had a feeling that that might not be quite high profile enough. Besides, this guy wanted to be seen, so somewhere with better security cameras seemed more likely. Maybe it was just a hunch, but the clinic looked more promising.

He began his hunt there. Expertly making his way over the chain link fence blocking off the alley with ease, he crept quietly through the seemingly empty area. Eye and ears alert for any sounds that might betray another person skulking about. If anyone asked, well... he was just out for a stroll, got a little lost.

Never mind the sword might be harder to talk his way out of. Small details.

NPC- Luca Dantonio

[dead_black_eyes]

If Tony's hunch was just that, it was a good one. Luca had, just a few moments before on the other side of the building, pulled himself near-soundlessly onto the chainlink fence, balancing for a moment as his fingers and toes gripped onto the top like a real chameleon would a slender branch. He skittered down nimbly, a prehensile tail grasping the gasoline can, which he took into his hands. He was quiet as he went about sprinkling the sides of the building with the acrid-smelling liquid. He made sure his tail was tucked away, because those security cameras wouldn't be able to make much sense of it in the context of Anthony Sparado, but then again... With as well as most average citizens understood the Numbered population, they might as well have just been a bunch of monsters.

[oncedevil]

It wasn't exactly just a hunch, he didn't exactly know how to describe it, but he had a way of just discerning where would be a good place to hit. An instinct, perhaps? Hard to say, really, maybe Shou was just rubbing off on him a little too much. That aside, it seemed he'd hit the jackpot as the acrid scent of accelerant hit his nostrils. This was the right place, and he didn't have time to wait for Shou or Hajime to show up.

Looked like this was going to be a solo party. It occurred to him that it wouldn't be safe to use his gun, he could end up sparking a fire anyway and the whole plan would be shot.

Following the smell he rounded the corner of the building, spotting his bug-eyed double dousing the building. "Well, well," He called out, sounding a lot more confident than he felt as he strode forward. "What've we got here?"

NPC- Luca Dantonio

[dead_black_eyes]

Luca stiffened, his uncovered eye pivoting and locking onto Tony. The gas can fell from his hand as he crouched defensively; the young man he was impersonating seemed confident, and why shouldn't he? He'd caught him in the act, and if he had the power to back up that confidence...

The wisest course of action really did seem to turn tail and flee, stat, if Luca cared a thing for his life. And truly, he did. So he whipped around, sprinting back toward the chainlink fence, reaching for the pistol in his pocket. His thoughts were the same as Tony's in that a gunshot was a bad idea, but for a different reason: framing Tony was the objective, and if the kid was dead, then it shed some serious doubt on him being a firestarter... But if he had no other choice, he was prepared to do that to save his own scaly hide.

[chalicejoker]

Hajime had wasted no time in responding to Tony's message. The fastest way to get there was aboard his motorcycle, and since the bike transformed when he took the form the Ace of Hearts granted him, he just went with that. He was a little faster that way than when he took the Joker form that he'd been running around calling the Lord of the Bugmen, and really, something smaller and less well known would serve them well in this endeavor.

Tony had an idea of where the guy was, so the hunt was on. Hajime lay in wait in an alley; when he saw the guy, he was going to run him down. Even in a sleeker, armored form, stealth was not his special skill. Hopefully the guy would show himself, or Tony and Shou would drive him out.

Or would quietly patrolling around the area do the same thing? Decisions, decisions...

[ursoreckless]

The decision was probably taken out of his hands as Shou just lightly leaps down from the rooftop to land near him. Because the jump wasn't what could be considered graceful, he stumbled and flailed a little before ending up to try to casually lean against the wall. It probably would have fooled anyone that wasn't paying attention, but then again, Shou was still trying to get use to this whole 'creature of the night' gig the pulses had landed him into.

"Evening."

[chalicejoker]

Luckily for Shou, Hajime's helmeted form meant that he just wasn't very expressive. He is therefore spared the sight of Hajime's smirking at the lack of grace that accompanies that leap. Instead, he just gets a nod of greeting. Just going to pretend like he hadn't seen that, nothng but business here. "Have you seen anything yet?"

[ursoreckless]

"Not really? I think there's an odd scent in the air, but not sure."

He took a deep breath, still really not sure of his senses and what they tell him. It was one thing to use them to hunt people down, another to use them once the hunger was gone and he was thinking again. at least he knew when to go out hunting. At least he knew how to judge that bit though he wasn't sure how much longer he had until his feeding would get too noticeable.

[chalicejoker]

"I'm not much for smelling things." Hajime taps the helmet. "In the other form, I kind of get that off the antennae, but not so much when I'm like this." He looks around the area. "But if you can narrow that down to a direction, go for it."

Afterward- Willow Ridge Boarding Academy

[dead_black_eyes]

The school had come a long way since L had initially purchased and begun work on it. Many had contributed to helping him renovate the old building and whip it into habitable shape, but he had been the one there, every day, working himself to the bone and pouring endless time, effort and energy to the project. Though his stamina for a labor of love was almost preternaturally high, even he had his limits, and following his relatively successful interview with Energy Up earlier that day, he'd returned to the sparse dorm room he'd claimed for himself and collapsed into a deep, dreamless sleep.

Only now, after dark, he was beginning to resurface to a relative state of general alertness. He sat up, rubbing his eyes blearily and putting a pot of coffee on.

If only he'd known how thoroughly he'd soon be woken up, he might have saved himself the trouble.

He stiffened as he heard the roar of a motorcycle. It was closer than most traffic that passed the school. Very close, too close, and it was only getting closer. Hastily pulling on his boots, L made his way downstairs, an ever-growing sense of dread quickening his pace.

[chalicejoker]

The motorcycle engine cut off, and soon the sound of firm, insistent knocking sounded through the air. Hajime hadn't bothered to transform back to human or to his Lord of the Bugmen form; he was still in the form he called Chalice. The one that wasn't quite familiar to many people of the network yet. He'd left Tony with Shou for the moment so he could get them inside.

But at least he thought ahead enough to call out, "It's okay--we're friends." Granted, enemies were prone to lying, but he hoped his voice, at least, would be familiar enough from the network to get them in. "And we've had a hell of a night." Hell. There was a joke in there somewhere, only Hajime was too exhausted to make it.

[ursoreckless]

Even if the armored Hajime was not a familiar sight, the sight of Shou probably was, though he did look a lot wilder than normal. His eyes were huge, the color lighter, and his fangs very visible. He seems to be a little hurt but it didn't seem to affect him although one of his shirts was now ruined. He was also holding onto Tony, half carrying him and half-dragging him to the front door.

"L, is there a place we can stretch out?"

[dead_black_eyes]

L flung the doors open; Hajime looked unfamiliar but sounded like someone whose voice he'd heard before, and when he saw Shou and Tony's slumped form, there was no sense hesitating. He shook his head for a moment in overwhelmed disbelief, expression between concern and deep confusion, before standing aside and holding the door.

"Bring him in," he urged, "and tell me everything. Why and how this happened..."

Why I am only finding out about this now.

"Is a healer on their way? Did you contact one?"

Do we have any left...?

[chalicejoker]

"We went after the guy who was pretending to be him," Hajime explained as they stepped inside. "He got shot. There was a fight. Things got complicated." And once they were in and he was away from the open doorway and therefore out of sight, he breathed a sigh of relief, took a card out of the box clipped to his waist, and swiped it through his belt buckle. His form rippled, and he was once again human. "We were going to take him to the clinic, but there were...he...this seemed safer. And he's doing a lot better than he was..."

After all the excitement's died down - Tony and Richard

[oncedevil]

Tony was resting quietly on a musty old mattress in one of the empty dorm rooms. Clean towels had been laid out in place of sheets, and Tony cleaned up to the best of everyone's abilities without risking waking him and sending him into another fit. Fortunately the sedative, exhaustion, or both had sent him into a deep slumber. Now that things were quieter, with his sentinel in the form of L watching over him, he could sleep more soundly.

While he rested perhaps his new found healing abilities could take over and patch him together a little better.

[brotimaeus]

"Damn it, kid..."

He'd had a headache for days. Maybe weeks. Maybe he could trace it back to when this all began if he tried but he wasn't really in any state for thinking. Richard had shot over the moment Shou had contacted him, fear and anger and sheer frustration coiling tight and hard and nauseating in the pit of his stomach.

Now, sitting next to Tony, he sighed and rubbed a hand over the boy's arm.

"This has gotta stop."

[dead_black_eyes]

It had been a hell of a night. Though there wasn't much to see, L remained after a collection of bload-soaked damp cloths had accumulated in the corner and the warm water had long since cooled. His cheek throbbed and stung where Tony had hit him, but he had no ice for it. He needed a cigarette or four badly, but didn't want to smoke with Tony in the room, even with the window cracked. His presence now that the excitement had died down was not particularly useful, perhaps, but it felt like it was helping, so he simply watched and waited for something to change.

When he heard movement at the door, he shot to his feet, gripping his ice stave, jaw tense and eyes narrowed. The hairtrigger fierceness faded when he saw who it was, replaced by sudden discomfort and uncertainty. Will he think this is my fault? Is it my fault? He leaned the stave against the window, where it left just a touch of frost, withdrawing a pack of cigarettes from his jacket pocket and avoiding Richard's eyes as he started toward the door. Now that he was here, it would be OK, right? His frustration was palpable, though, and while it was justified wholly, L could say he'd had quite enough of being on the receiving end of someone else's anger and fear for one day.

If Richard asked him to stay, he would linger to explain or attempt comfort, but otherwise, his objective was to disappear like the smoke he had been inhaling lately to calm his frayed nerves.

[oncedevil]

There were sounds, distant and muted. A scuff, a thunk echoing in the hollow room. Tony's mind raced to track and keep up but was ultimately unfit to do so. Between the sedative and lingering damage he was far from capable of complex processes. He mumured, shifting in his sleep as he fought the fog away.

Was it danger? He couldn't tell, nothing made sense and everything hurt.

"Hn?"

[brotimaeus]

"Settle down," Richard muttered, only half distracted by L leaving the room. He should have said something, probably, but in that moment he didn't want the younger man to stay. In fact, he likely would have ended up asking him to leave if he hadn't walked out of his own accord.

"'S just me. Shou let me know where you were." He was still carefully rubbing his hand over Tony's forearm before he closed his fingers loosely around the boy's hand. "Fuckin' hell, I swear you're tryin' to kill me."

Later; L and Richard

[dead_black_eyes]

From the second Tony and company had appeared at his door, desperate for a place to crash and lie low, L had been doing a fine job holding things together. He was getting better at compartmentalizing, putting aside the smaller concerns to better deal with the larger ones, but it meant that he tended to wait until the dust settled and he was alone to implode and collapse inward. And now that he wasn't needed anymore, and Richard had arrived, wasn't his work finished? His worrying certainly should have been. While a small amount of guilt chewed at the back of his brain (Tony might not be able to communicate to Richard what happened, how much did Shou tell him, will he need to know more?), he was, for the moment, free to quietly fall apart.

The showers were a communal affair, with heads lining the tiled walls. More development would eventually mean more privacy, but for now, a typical boys' locker room was where anyone living at the school was going to get clean. He removed and neatly folded his blood spattered clothes, keeping a soft, freshly laundered towel nearby as he turned on the water and waited for the room to fill with dense, heavy steam. The familiar sting of Lysol against his bare skin started powerful and irritating and prickled gradually into numb, resigned comfort; this was what he could always rely on to make him feel pure and sterile. White rooms, bleached walls, discomfort he could live with if it killed every trace of slimy mold.

As hot water pelted down on his head and soaked his dark hair, L watched it glide across the floor and disappear into the drain. Even if it was only on a molecular level, it was taking the deadest and dirtiest parts of him with it. Secure in that knowledge, L permitted himself to feel something like peace for the first time since seeing Shou and Hajime carrying Tony's limp body toward him.

[brotimaeus]

Talking with Tony had been difficult. It wasn't only that the kid couldn't form any kind of coherent response, but that he might have said far more than he meant to in the face of said unresponsiveness. There would be some things they would need to discuss later, when Tony was able to speak again, but for now...

For now, there were a few things he needed to discuss with L, too.

It didn't take him long to track the younger man down, but he wasn't about to go walking in on him when he was taking a shower. So, he waited outside, leaning against the wall and going over things in his head, over and over until he felt like he was running his own thoughts around in circles.

Just when they thought things might settle, everything turned upside-down again. He really ought to be used to it by now.

[dead_black_eyes]

Showers were how L dealt with stress, but they couldn't last forever. Eventually, like everyone else, he needed to suck it up and face the music. Toweling his strawberry-red skin off and giving his hair a quick ruffle, he put on the same grimy clothes he'd walked in with, having nothing else. That had been an unfortunate lack of foresight, on his part; too late now. Pushing the swinging door aside with the damp towel over his arm, he didn't expect to see Richard, and the way he immediately stiffened when he saw the older man probably said as much.

He tried to regain his composure; there was no real reason to be anything more than startled, the kind that came with thinking one was alone and then being proven wrong. Rewind. Reset. Try to find some kind of vaguely appropriate greeting for the aftermath of so your kid was shot in the head...

One didn't spring readily to mind.

"Before you say anything, I was at least as shocked as you were. I didn't know anything about this," he said, a carton of cigarettes and a lighter coming quickly out of his pocket. Having something to keep his hands busy helped.

[brotimaeus]

The way L immediately tensed on seeing him had him tilting his head as if in questioning. He didn't blame L for what had happened. It didn't feel right to really place the blame on anyone, given the circumstances, but he couldn't help but feel angry at the entire situation.

What was important, he had to keep telling himself, was to not misdirect that anger at the people who didn't deserve it.

"Yeah. Figured I could trust you enough to let me know if you'd heard anythin'." At least.. he'd hope so. Despite L's more troubling characteristics, he is someone that Richard would trust with Tony's safety.

[dead_black_eyes]

L was having some trouble with his lighter. It snapped four times before he managed to get a flame; the issue seemed to be his shaky hands, but the nicotine would help with that. He inhales the acrid relief, holding his breath for a moment before exhaling.

"I outsourced contacting you to Shou. He was eager enough, I needed to clean Tony up, and it would have been really inefficient and stupid to have two people furiously texting or calling you when you were probably on your way here in your car the second you heard what happened. It's been hectic," he adds quietly. "He wouldn't calm down without a tranquilizer, but there shouldn't be any long-term effects... especially with the healing abilities it appears he's pulsed back."

He leans against the wall, in a state of soggy exhaustion, before wordlessly offering Richard the cigarette carton.