savetheearth | [Voice (phone), possibly -> Action]

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[Voice (phone), possibly -> Action]

[Fred, as seems to be normal for him on the network lately, is upset. Distressed, even. All right, let's be honest: he's panicking. He's also pretty out of breath, like he's running while he's talking.]

Help! Somebody... I think... I think they turned my mom... into a monster.

[He just pants for a few seconds, then gulps and goes on.]

I dunno... what to do. She's chasing me, and... and I just... don't know. Help...

[OOC: So my original plans for the execution of this Mystery Event have been foiled by RL imposing on the other player, so here's the improvisational version. Feel free to try to get information or give advice, but PM/ping/PP me if you want your character to actually join in. Any action stuff I want to do in a single thread, probably with one or maybe two other characters. I have no clear idea, at this point, how this is all going to go down, but acto the mods' message Fred's mom'll end up dead within about a day no matter what happens.]

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Suzaku here? He is running too. Only he's running at a speed that could beat machine gun fire. He's not really sure how it works, but given the neighborhood he's headed to, he doesn't bother with his motorcycle.

He rushes because he doesn't know what to expect. Turning a corner, he slides several feet, kicking up gravel and flailing to stop himself before slamming right into the side of somebody's car.

"Damnit-" Suzaku growls, pushing himself up and looking around.

Well, there's the owner of the car. Beautiful. Rather than address that ding he just caused, he looks around for someone running from...he doesn't know what the guy's running from. "...You get that call too?"

She'd listened to the whole post in the car, so while she was a bit startled by someone else showing up, when he spoke she recognized his voice.

"I did. The woman who turned into a monster is... ..."

She took a deep breath, then let it out slowly.

"She's my niece. Fred is my grand nephew. And all this has been so unbelievable but when family starts telling you that something's gone wrong..."

Suzaku is suddenly relieved he only has a wooden kendo sword. That he left his gun at home because this is someone's mother.

And now, this woman's niece. It makes a strange situation more tangible, heavier than before. At first, Suzaku says nothing. He is not a man for tact. On some level, he is aware of this.

But he doubts any amount of forethought will change it now. He shifts his weight uneasily. "The only reason I came was because I thought no one could pretend to be that terrified," he admits, the words reluctant to come out.

Talking to the guy's family member, it feels a bit callous somehow.

"We'd better find him," Suzaku says, looking around again before taking quick strides. "He said he was coming from this direction, right?"

She chooses to ignore that comment. He's young, and sometimes people don't know how to be polite. Besides, they have bigger problems.

"He did, yes. I haven't seen him yet, that's why I got out of the car. My hope is that we can keep Catherine..."

Deep breaths, now.

"That we won't have to fight her, and can just keep her at bay while we get Fred in the car and drive off. Hopefully, she can't run any faster, whatever's been done to her."

He listens intently to what she has to say, deferring to her age and relationship to the persons involved. As rude as he as in day-to-day life, he holds his elders in higher esteem than his peers.

"Understood," Suzaku responds with a nod, watching for any movement as they approach the street Fred mentioned earlier.

Although the goal is to avoid confrontation, he keeps his wooden katana firmly in his grip. Whatever comes next is foreign territory.

As it happens, Fred has been making some detours, sometimes at another networker's suggestion and sometimes to avoid where he thinks people will be. So when he appears it's from a side street, and he's breathing hard and starting to slow down.

(Once this is over and everything's back to normal, he's going to work on his stamina. Next time he has to run away from - or after - something, he doesn't want to be all worn out.)

Behind him is what used to be his mother. She's still recognizable, but obviously not her normal self. She does not seem to be slowing down.

As soon as he notices Maya - and Suzaku, who he assumes is the other guy that was coming - he heads straight for her. Afterward he might say something about strength in numbers, or that they might have been able to make a plan, but really he just wants someone familiar and authoritative to fix everything.

Maya's breath catches in her throat. There's Catherine... but not Catherine at all. She looks too different, changed by something withi--

The courtyard was dark, but there he was, standing in the center. She'd found him at last. She ran up, a smile finally breaking across her face -- but, no. As she drew closer, she saw, something had gone horribly wrong. His hair was stark white, and his eyes had turned a lurid yellow, like the eyes of that horrible boy, or like the monsters.

"Terra?" she said. Maybe he was still himself. Maybe this was just the result of the ordeal they'd been through.

He reached out to her, and she drew back, still not trusting... but she was just a little too slow. His hand closed around the straps on the front of her clothes, and he lifted her into the air, one-handed.

"Who... am I?" he asked. The air around him wavered like an inverse heat mirage, black shadows flitting in and out of reality. She could feel it radiating off him, a terrible coldness that chilled to the very heart.

"Such... such terrible darkness! Fight it, Terra! Please!"

"Terra... you say?" he said, slowly. He let her fall to the ground, suddenly gripping his head, as though in pain. For a moment, it seemed as though he might have regained himself.

"Terra's heart... has been extinguished!" shouted the man-who-was-not-Terra. "Smothered by the Darkness within him!"

He drew his weapon, a strange, gigantic key, and struck at her, but now she was alert and aware to the truth. She dodged out of the way, his strike going wild, the weapon burying itself in the ground with a crack.

Her heart was resolved. She raised her hand to draw her weapon.

"My name is--"

Maya had frozen, as though in shock, staring straight ahead.

"Terra?"

She continued to stand, as though in a trance, taking a single step back, and then slowly drawing not the wooden saber, but the live steel, the scimitar with the inlaid blue scrollwork on the blade. A gift from a fan, but nonetheless a real weapon.

Suzaku turns to Maya after several moments of silence from her. She's not reacting - it could be shock. But it seems like something else entirely. He doesn't know what to call it, attention flicking between the woman and Fred...and the thing that was his mother.

Then, she simply snaps out of her trance, pulling out a sword. A real blade. Something that is capable of lethal damage, or at the least, injury.

He opens his mouth, hesitates, and then speaks. "Fred's here, wasn't the plan to run?" The car isn't that far, although Fred looks exhausted from running for his life. Suzaku doesn't wait for an answer, assuming a familiar stance with his wooden kendo sword. "You could kill her with something like that."

Swords? Nonononono, that's a good way to hurt her, maybe even kill her! And even if she's a monster, she's still his mom! What are they doing?

Fred tries for an extra burst of speed, in the process dropping the phone that's been his network connection. It's not much of a burst; he's pretty worn out by now. But if he's going to get some kind of explanation before whatever happens happens...

Maya blinks, then looks down at her hand... and almost drops it.

"Gracious goodness I... I don't know what just came over me," she says, hastily sheathing that and drawing the wooden one instead.

Another flashback. Maya shakes her head. Fred's getting closer, but Catherine is, unfortunately, right on his heels.

"You! Take these," she says, handing the car keys to Suzaku. "Go get Fred into the car, I'll hold her off with the wooden sword."

He accepts the keys, stealing a quick glance at the creature - Catherine - still rushing their way. There's enough time to say it, and so he does.

"I'm a soldier, I should be the one to stay here," Suzaku can't avoid pointing this out. He won't sacrifice a grandmother to save himself. Whatever skills she has, what she's up against is still inhuman. It isn't her job - isn't her responsibility.

However, she is still his senior. She still makes the call, this is her family.

"I'll do what you ask, but I won't leave you behind. Agreed?"

By this time, Fred's fairly close to the car. Not quite there yet, but close enough to ask what are you doing?

"W-"

If he had enough breath, of course. He tries his healing power - the others will see a brief glimmer of yellow sparkles moving up through him - but it doesn't seem to make a difference. Oh, well. The car is safety, or the best ticket to it he's got at the moment. He makes for that. Maybe one of the doors will be open when he gets there?

"Agreed! Now, if you'd -- "

Catherine's too close to them now. Maya steps in front of Fred, holding out her wooden saber in a block, about to start telling her niece to stand down, when something surges through her, a feeling like being caught up in a breaking wave, and all at once a bubble of shimmering translucent hexagons surrounds Fred, Suzaku, and herself. The monster-Catherine slams into it full force, and is forced back a few feet by the blow.

Maya blinks, but at this point isn't questioning it. She focuses on that feeling of breaking waves and holds the barrier. Somehow, she knows...

"If I move, it'll break," she says. "But you should be able to pass through it from the inside to the outside. Head to the car, I'll hold her off with this and then catch up."

For an instant, all Suzaku can do is stare.

It's not just the shield that pops up like some kind of magic in the MMOs he plays. That, by itself, is strange enough. But for a moment, something flickers through his mind. A woman who isn't herself, a gunshot, crushing despair. Where did that come from? Unsure, he shakes his head to clear his thoughts and grabs Fred's arm.

"Let's hurry-" He doesn't know what this thing is, but at the same time, it's better not to test its longevity. Whatever leapt through his mind, it can wait. There are more immediate concerns.

Suzaku moves at a brisk pace toward the car, using the buttons on the keyholder to unlock the doors along the way. While he doesn't usually drive a car, it's straightforward enough.

Fred is more than willing to be hurried along. More than anything right now he wants to be out of here, and figure out how to deal with the whole situation once he's - they're - safe.

He heads for the backseat, not really thinking about anything beyond that it would have more space to collapse on. It's a little awkward to open the door and get in while fleeing - he hasn't fully processed Maya's barrier - but he manages.

Once he's in, he has a bit of trouble relaxing, though, which may have something to do with the sword that has just appeared lying across his lap.

Maya holds the barrier for a second longer, then pushes just a little, knocking Catherine off her feet.

With that, she turns and runs towards the car as quickly as she can. She keeps in shape, so she's surprisingly quick on her feet for a woman her age. In a few seconds, she's in the driver's seat, with Catherine hot on her heels.

"SEATBELTS, EVERYONE."

It's an order, and Suzaku is quick to obey it. He ignores the unpleasant pressure of the kendo sword between him and the passenger seat, attention fixed instead on the creature outside of the car.

While there's semblance of humanity there, it doesn't seem to him that there's much more than that. "Catherine" doesn't appear to remember the people she's attacking, and even the attacks themselves are heedless of self-inflicted damage.

That's the way it looks as Suzaku watches her.

Edited (hope this adds some clarity of narrative) 2013-08-03 19:41 (UTC)

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