Welcome to Gaia! ::

Parafli ~...~

Seem scary? Lady, you don't know the half of it...

Parafli thought, letting out a small chuckle as he knelt on one knee. Shaking his head, he smirked at the wind Celestial before him.

"You need to pay more attention. I said I want their downfall, not that I want you to join them. Trust me, I know how you feel about that group... they'll be destroyed soon enough, I promise."

He watched Korin's movements, raising an eyebrow at how easily she seemed to calm down the Celestial.

Amazing... no wonder their group contains more Celestials than any other one...

[[Yes, I was wondering where she was off to. x3
*twiddles thumbs and shuffles feet* Sal is educated... I mean, she sort of has to be to know about medical stoof. Think of Gardner's different ways of education [kinetic, inter/intra, musical, etc.] people are all intelligent in their own ways; like a sreet rat would be considering intelligent in their ways of being able to pick pocket, a master even. Compared to writer and their mastery of grammar, punctuation and blargh.
Everyone excels in what is necessary to their survival.]]

((I just realized that there's no reason for me not to start--I was waiting for nothing! gonk ))

***

::Tessara::
~Andel city streets, slums district~

The rain tapped down relentlessly on the car's exterior, as it had had been for over an hour. Someone up in the biosphere control tower must have been depressed today...the rain had been coming down so hard and so long that the streets were starting to flood.

Like with most things, Tess didn't care. She sat in the driver's seat and watched it apathetically, running her hands just as relentlessly over her gun. It was short and smooth, unlike her second pistol which was longer, heavier, less elegant. The third one she didn't associate herself with much...it was an emergency weapon, nothing more. She wouldn't need it here. Not if her instincts were right. Tess blew a strand of hair out of her face and reached up to readjust her sunglasses. Hm. Not there. Unusual. She looped her finger past the trigger instead.

Suddenly, static crackled loudly her ear. Tess cried out, and caught herself half way to digging the tiny radio out with her fingers. Instead, she angrily tapped on the tiny device twice.
"Son of a b***h! Just what the hell do you untrained monkeys think you're doing!? You nearly busted my ear!"
A quieter static followed, and slowly discernable words began to form.
"Sorry, agent Langent, but there's a lot of interference form the storm, we--"
"Idiots! You're in an association that hunts down Celestials, not some two-bit company shacked up in a broken down warehouse with a child's radio. Get your act together!"
The voice on the other end sighed gently.
"Well? What did you call for? In case you've forgotten, I'm on a mission."
"It's been over two hours since you were dispatched, agent Langent. What do you have to report?"
Tess clenched her fist, the plastic of the gun crackling in protest."No sightings. I haven't caught her yet," She said darkly.
The voice on the end of the line hesitated. It knew that tone. That was a bad, bad tone. "Um...maybe our locale data was incorrect. It's hard to pin down drifters like these. Why don't you return to HQ and we'll run another scan..."
"No. She's here. I can feel her."
Feel? Unlikely. She didn't have any special powers, the target wasn't equipped with a homing device. Still, the operator hesitated, knowing that it was dangerous to get between Tessara Langent and a target. But HQ wasn't going to be happy with one of their best agents sitting out in the rain all day long, doing nothing..."Agent Langent, I am formally ordering you to return to AGSA headquarters immediately."
"I don't think you heard me, snot-for-brains. I haven't caught her yet. Which means I'm not leaving until I do!"
"Agent Lan--"
"Agent Langet out." Tess tapped the earpiece three times, over the steadily louder objections from the operator, and turned the device off. With a satisfied smirk, Tess put the gun back in it's holster and took out the second one.

***

::Kimi::
~Andel city streets, slum district~

Today, Kimi did not have the luxury of a car--or a roof, for that matter--so for her, the relentless rain was not something to be viewed apathetically. Tears lost themselves in the rainwater as they fell steadily off her cheeks, and blood from open cuts on her arms and cheeks spun wildly down onto the street. The pure white outfit the Chrest employees had clothed her in was tattered and stained with grass and dirt. It offered little protection against the cold wetness. Kimi clutched at herself in a vain attempt to keep warm as she pumped her legs onward, weaving precariously through the abandoned street.

Ugly, sharp metal buildings rose up on either side of her, decaying with rust and decades of disrepair. Kimi stopped at an empty intersection, trying desperately to discern between the buildings. "They all look...the same..." She gasped, trying to wipe the tears and rainwater out of her eyes. It was getting colder. Even at her age, Kimi knew she had to get to shelter soon. She lurched forward again, ignoring the tingling in her legs. There was a rickety lean-to like building just ahead...it was pathetically small and looked like it was going to collapse any minute, but it was easy to get to, and it was the only choice she had.

Kimi took a deep breath, and ran across the street.

***

::Tessara::

"I've got you now, b***h." Tess grinned widely and hastily holstered her guns as the little girl ran past the front of the car. The rain had made it difficult to see her features, but Tess already knew it was her. She slipped on her sunglasses and got out of the car, leaving the door open.

Using every ounce of her AGSA training, Tess hugged the outline of the old and decrepit buildings, keeping her pistol carefully positioned in front of her. Slowly she came to the edge of the large building, and peered around it's corner cautiously. The figure was almost at the end of the street now, a wobbling little speck in the distance, completely unaware of Tessara's presence. Grinning again briefly, Tess took a deep breath and ran down the sidewalk after it. Steadily she began to gain, and soon she was in shooting range. Tess pulled up and aimed her weapon at the speck's head.

"Stop!" She didn't really want to bother with the formalities, but AGSA would never forgive her if she didn't at least pretend to attempt bringing in the target alive. The figure stopped, and then did the one thing Tess had been hoping for. The little maggot ran.

"That's right, you little Celestial filth, run away like the coward you are...I'll hunt you to the end of your days..."

***

::Kimi::
"STOP!"

The single word inspired utter terror in Kimi. Flashbacks of Chrest flickered through her mind. Gasping for breath, Kimi turned and fled as fast as she could down the street. She nearly lost her footing as she rounded the street corner, sloshing through a huge puddle of gathered rainwater, but somehow she managed to right herself and she pushed on even harder.

***

::Tessara::

Keeping up with the tiny figure was no problem, just like catching up to it. Tess laughed out loud when she saw exactly where they were both heading--a dead end. A tiny, backwater alleyway, flooded with the rain and full of rats. That's where you'll die, you little worm. That's where I'm going to stop your heart.

In what she must have thought was an attempt to be sneaky, the young Celestial ducked behind the one empty dumpster that sat at the end of the alleyway. Tess laughed again. This was almost too easy. An unarmed Celestial, trapped in a dark corner? And without a speck of dirt to help her, either. How perfect. Helpless and terrified--just the way Tess liked them. She was on top of the Celestial in minutes.

"Show me your face!" Tess commanded, pointing her gun at the quivering figure. Slowly, the little girl looked up at Tess.
"Please, don't hurt me!" She begged.
Tessara's eyes widened in disbelief, then fury. "You're not her!"
"Wh-what?"
"YOU'RE NOT HER!" Tess grabbed the little girl by the hair and dragged her up off the ground. She pressed her gun against the girl's cheek. "Tell me where she is!"
"I-I don't know who you're t-t-talking about! Please, I beg you!" The little girl was sobbing now. Tess growled at her, and threw her angrily against the hard brick wall. The girl slumped onto the ground, stunned.
Tess shot her between the eyes.

***

::Kimi::

Panting, falling, Kimi finally saw somewhere to go. A dark spot yawned before her in a long brick wall. It was barely big enough, but Kimi was slim and she knew she could manage to squirm through it. Hurriedly she scrambled, scraping her knees and hands on the rough concrete, until finally she was safe, immersed in the dark. Shaking uncontrollably, Kimi crawled on hands and knees over the dirt, moving deeper into the underbelly of the building. The ground was studded with broken glass and hard rocks, but Kimi was too frightened to care. She threw herself into a corner.

BANG!

Tessara's gunshot echoed through the streets like thunder. Kimi screamed and cringed at the sound. She started sobbing again, and sank even deeper into the darkness.

"Mommy...daddy...where are you?"

((Yeah, sorry about that. ^^() I did it in normal size originally but realized that made it positively enormous, so I changed it to a smaller font. I promise that my other posts won't be nearly as long, but I always go for big intro posts. Force of habit.

I assume that Laurence is referring to Kimi?))

((I think you're a little confused, Homasubi. A jump took place (I know it was confusing, and I'm not sure how many Rpers here are familiar with jumps...) so it's actually 12 hours later. Can I say that you're out driving for a different reason then? Because the scenario works well otherwise.

And... crying Wherefore art thou SuiZ? I should really give people more time before becoming panicky, I guess...

I'm going to try and make my Rping post move stuff forward as much as possible.

And NPC's are availlable for those that want to try and burn X's poor sorry a**... xd See Hiram's excerpt for details.

About Hiram and X...it would be cool if they met, since X would recongize him.))

Adrienne: ~Car, Parson's Avenue~

Laurence's familiar voice crackled into her earpiece. Her attention shifted away from the cellphone, however briefly. I don't know if he's out for coffee and spending extra hours with that pretty secretary, but his slipshod nature is going to cost us at this busy hour. When she spoke, her voice betrayed none of her current agitation.

"Give me a minute, hon."

Resting the cellphone between her ear and shoulder, Adrienne freed her hand so that she could push the correct buttons on the car monitor and change the screen to take in a different area. She was looking for something that would make Laurence concerned enough to call her...

"Yes, I see. There's a ton at the moment. The ones that we talked about yesterday are pretty condensed right now, and I don't think they're moving anywhere for a while. But the Earth..." Adrienne bit her lip, and then used her free hand to run her hand tiredly down her face. She ignored the strong urge to cough. "Laurence, check it out. There's enough men for the FM hit to be a cakewalk, and I don't want Hiram stressing his sight so soon.

"Also..." Over the phone, she could still hear the contraption ringing. "Do you have O'Malley's phone number or a way to contact him? I'm not sure if he's aware of the four that are together, and he'd be a very good hitman at the moment." Considering he doesn't join their ranks once he gets there.

Hiram: ~Near FM Building, Rooftops~

The countdown was coming close to an end, and it was enough to make him jittery. Watching Laurence's expression and hearing some of his conversation with Adrienne, Hiram had a vague feeling that the Chrest operative wouldn't be sticking around for a leisurely cup of tea while watching the fireworks. With three minutes to go, he warned the men over the communicator chip and then cracked open his cellphone.

While he waited for Samuel to pick up (the poor guy was probably immersed in paperwork per usual), Hiram tapped his communicator.

"Move in."

Definitely somewhat resembling a swarm, the men on the street below flowed out of their respective cars (which surrounded the building on several streets) and found about every possible entrance. Dressed in black garb and with guns cocked and raised, they kicked down the door.

Normally, they would give cries like, 'This is the police!'. However, today, these men did not exist. They would not introduce themselves when they were not there, and especially not when conducting a raid that they had never heard of, mostly because they did not exist. The people that were killed would not be the victims of Andel, but of a little humpbacked healer who had suddenly, mysteriously and randomly snapped.

Deirdre: ~Sal's Home~

Luckily, Korin seemed to have the situation well in hand. Deirdre released a sigh of relief. When it came down to it, she was too business-like to be very consoling. If she'd managed Sazuko better, maybe...

No. No, never mind. I had no control over that.

Smiling sweetly, Deirdre also advanced and took a kneeling position beside Sal. Delicately, she raised a hand towards her wings; in the poor light, they shimmered like gold. "Jove...did Jove do this to you?" Pausing slightly, Deirdre removed her hand. "Was it Chrest? I've been to Chrest too...they are bad people. Did they do this to you?"

Did they say why?

Repeating Sal's words back in her head, Deirdre possessed a puzzled frown. "Where did you used to be?"