Welcome to Gaia! ::

((Oh, sorry, I wasn't aware of the jump... sweatdrop ))

Inside FM HQ

Through the eyes of the enemy...

The wooden door slammed opened as it struck the wall, the imprint of the handheld battering ram was deep in its center. A gust of wind followed the group as they ran through the doorway armed with heavy assault weapons modified to use non-fatal ammo. The government wanted no blood in their hands, AGSA did not want to harm innocent humans, and Chrest just wanted live specimens. The weapons were whistling and glowing green in the arms of the operatives, hinting the use of electricity perhaps to launch blunt beanbags or perhaps use it to shock their targets. They were like sentient shadows as they scattered around the warehouse thanks to the black suits they were wearing. That's were the tax payer's money went. But the Celestials were dangerous. They were unnatural abominations that people would agree on annhilating. That's what they said, what the government of the people had said.

The warehouse was empty, it was like a haunted ghost town.

"What," shouted a heavy voice as if it rang from the heavens, "No helicopters? I'm disappointed."

In the dim lights of the morning sun, the empty tables and chairs began flying around the room. They began to whirl across the room, slamming into the walls where they disintegrate or shatter. For a few minutes, the men were shocked and frozen to see such an occurance, but they eventually knew what was happening when the office furniture was flying towards them. Three of them were struck down already by the chairs, perhaps only injured and bruised. Suddenly, the storm disappeared as fast it appeared. The chairs stumbling back down to the floor as lifeless as they were.

There was just silence. The men had their weapons aimed at some of the furniture just in case they were to fly again, but they were ready for this. They've heard of the stories. The horrors these Celestials have done to humankind. Their fear was replaced by their anger.

"We've got three men down, but still able," reported the appointed leader of this advancing unit, "We may have a telepath and a fan, I mean, a wind cele..."

The transmission was interupted, static blaring on the speaker. Their weapons began to erratically whistle. The chairs and tables began to quiver and slowly hover around them in a wide circle. The soldiers huddled close to their weapons, a few of them fired out of their growing fear. The familair scent of heated metal and gunpowder over took the bland stale air of the warehouse.

"Bullets." They realized they weren't armed to capture. "We're here to kill."

But orders were orders. They were just soldiers to a war to save humanity. Sacrifice the few for the many? Right. Use all force necessary they said, what the government of the people had said.

(OOC: RP'ed through an npc.)

Izanami watched the woman as she came into sight, noting the make of her pistol, the swagger in her walk, the way she held her weapon. A fellow gun enthusiast, then. Izanami smiled to herself, still cloaked in shadows as the other woman pointed the gun in her direction. Definitely a professional, whoever she was. Izanami almost felt admiration.

"You're good, stranger...but I'm better. Name and organization, or I start shooting."

Izanami's trigger finger twitched at the challenge. Cocky b***h. As though a celestial like herself would be unarmed except for a couple of artistically placed shadows. She had the upper hand, here. Her gun was already raised and the other woman, no matter how keen she'd been at picking up Izanami's presence, and no matter how formidable she was with a gun, still didn't have good chances of making a killing shot at a target she didn't know the exact position of.

She stood perfectly still. The other woman had been smart to wear the sunglasses. Izanami couldn't see her pupils and therefore couldn't tell how close she was to Izanami's actual position. That left Izanami at a slight disadvantage, unsure of just how safe she was in the shadows. She couldn't just stand there, though, the other would fire at any moment now, and no matter how well-hidden Izanami was, if the other kept randomly firing, she'd eventually hit something soft.

But Izanami had never been a "shoot first, ask questions later" type, no matter how rough she acted. And she couldn't diplomacy herself out of a wet paper bag, but she could sure as hell lie.

She tucked the gun into the front of her leather coat and slowly stepped from the shadows, hand extended and smirk on her face.

"You're pretty confidant there, Mundane," she said gruffly, "But I'll humour you. The name's Izanami. And I'm a little insulted that you'd think I'd become the pawn of anybody."

As she said it, her pupils quivered and, if the extension of her powers was successful, the metal of the gun in the other woman's hand crumpled like tin foil.

((Just sent a summary out to SuiZ 3nodding , and may I say that the Rping is looking awesome as usual. Also, I've been making a lot of mistakes recently, apparently. No big stresses about the jump thing (I'm probably more confused than anyone) and apologies for the wing thing, Lelio. wink Just edit out the majority of Deirdre's post, there, exempting the details where she kneeled at Sal's side.))

Deirdre: ~Sal's Home~

Sympathy for Sal's plight burned within her, as all Deirdre's mothering instincts seemed to come out. Realistically, Deirdre realized that she was pretty old herself and not a child, but that was without putting her current emotional state into consideration. At times like this, Deirdre couldn't help but agree with Parafli's sentiments that organizations like Chrest only deserved a swift death...

Then, all her muscles twitched and she let out a brief cry of pain. The Celestial energy that was swelling from somewhere near by was nearly more than Deirdre, as a Brain, could take. After rocking momentarily and biting her lip, she stood up quickly, eyes blazing. Holding her head, she glanced sharply towards the doorway. Though she had no clue if her other Celestial companions had felt the same degree of pain, she was sure that they realized something was definitely out of the ordinary - even if merely because of her own bizarre behavior.

((For the sake of drama, I'm going to assume that little trick with the gun is very subtle...))

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

Tess, unaware that her gun had been damaged, took her time puzzling over the woman's words. She automatically suspected that this "Izanami" was lying, but that was mostly because Tess assumed everyone was lying. At length, Tess shrugged apathetically and re-holstered both of her guns before taking off her sunglasses. She hooked them on the front of her jacket, which was buttoned, and let her purple eyes take in Izanami. Good build, well outfitted and certainly not without defenses. Probably close to equal par with Tessara's own fighting abilities. An odd taste in hairstyle, too, but she moved with an air of confidence just like Tess did. This one was no easy target, and in the deep recesses of her mind, Tess was ever so slightly disturbed by the similarities between herself and this shadow-swathed stranger.

"Everybody's a pawn of something in this world, Ms. Izanami," Tess said harshly. "And even if you're not, you're a poor liar. From the way you stuck to the shadows like that, you've either had special training or you're a--" Tessara's lip twitched ever so slightly and a deep scowl came over her face, "--Celestial. For your sake, I hope you're the former." Tess let the scowl go, and absent-mindedly ran the tips of her fingers over the protruding handle of the gun on the left side of her waist, the one Izanami had ruined. "Tessara Langent, AGSA. Now that we've gotten the intros out of the way, what would you like to do now?" The last statement came with the hint of a smile, and the ring of a challenge. Tess wanted to see just how far she could push this woman, or even if she could be pushed. It wasn't something she was going to spend an enormous amount of time on--there was a small earth Celestial that needed finding--but it might provide some interesting information and, if nothing else, some much needed entertainment.

I was taken aback at the sudden shrill scream that was placed, too close to comfort, next to my ear.
Korin's attention fled to this woman. "Deirdre, what's wrong!?"
I was shoved to the side as Korin quickly left my pressence.
The beautiful lady left me.
She was so quick to leave, yet somehow I expected it. I had moved to the side and out of her path and was now just crouched on my legs, balancing my heavy back by leaning forward more than what should be normal.
Before leaving she had looked to me, then Parafli. "Watch her!
Don't make sure she's all right, don't listen to her, don't ask her more about herself-- watch her.
The burden of watching Sal was placed onto another's shoulder.
Oh Sal, my sweet Sal. You better go, they already know too much.
Don't worry I can ditch him, he's just a kid.
Oh, but he's not.
With a mental scowl at myself; I can any way's.
I slowly stood from my crouched position and crossed to the back of the room where my cot was tipped over from the hustle and bustle of domestic wind furry.
My stomach growled, and the all too familiar ache spread around my midriff. Ignoring it I walked around the cot, too weak at the moment to lift it, and rummaged through the now very disorganized supplies I used for my routes. They had apparently used the cot as a barricade and accordingly weren't thrown about the room like other things had been.
I shoved some pills into my pockets, slightly opening the inside of my jacket to get the secret pockets too. I stock piled with gauze, surgical tape, a few more sanitary knives, bandades, ointment-- I took as much of this as I could.
I wouldn't be coming back.
Not unless you have to, Sal.
I grabbed two individual bags of mild pain relievers and ripped them both open. Four pills in all, I took two for my begging stomach and then went back to where Deirdre and Parafli were. I handed the woman the two extra pills.
"Sorry, no water. Swallow dry." I held them out. "It's for your head."

::Many thanks.::

Korin

If there was one major flaw in Korin, it would be the way she saw things. Urgent vs. nonurgent. Now vs. later. Her span of attention was short, and it would probably mean her end, eventually.

As she attempted to move his blood-covered hand, she was arguing with herself in her mind. You shouldn't use any magic until it's absolutely necessary.
But it IS necessary...
She looked at him, and hated herself. No matter how small the injury... it's all pain. She thought she was stronger than that.

She smiled and brushed her thoughts away. "It's okay, I can help you, I can make it so this wound didn't happen..." His weakened hand was easily moved away, and she replaced it with both of hers. She saw the man's blood spill over her previously white hands.
Her eyes cleared, and the light that emanated from her hands enveloped the wound, repairing it slowly.
When it had healed, she slumped back, momentarily exhausted.
She looked up from the ground. "Parafli... where's Sal? You need to watch her... we can't lose her, do you hear me?"
She sat back up. "See? It's done! It might still sting a little, but it's healed, now. You'll be okay." she would have wiped the hair out of his eyes to see if he was completely okay, but his blood covered her hands, and she doubted he would appreciate it.