Welcome to Gaia! ::

At a cheap inn, Red had been watching the news about what was happening in Yaits City, in her mind it couldn't have happened to better people, and Yaits dead, she didn't beleive it for a minute. But something was eating away at the back of her mind, Melissa, she had a twinge of guilt, wondering if she was okay. Of course, Lament was under attack, again, and she couldn't go anywhere. She pulled out the small bag with Eri's arsenal and went through it.

Weapons, nothing even remotely good. The mint gum looked interesting, she tossed the container on the bed behind her. She read the receipts, the notes, and then looked through the spell book as the guns could be heard firing outside. She tried to read a few of the spells outloud, curious, she tried page one. Nothing, she couldn't read that chicken scratch anyway.

Maybe I should go outside and help around a little bit, Red thought,

It was just for stupid reasons like this that she was going slow. Maybe this was just how it was supposed to be, you know? Trying to go in to get some of the famous Lament Green Tea, but getting a gunshot or 20 at her. With the guards hawking so hardcore, she'd only have to worry about those towers at the gate and the ground guys who were wondering what the towers were shooting at... they wouldn't let her get high where she could release some mega-attack of your doom, right? Right.



Too late. Forgiving the fact that sniper rifles are typically loud as hell, things that pierce the sound barrier create a sonic boom and clouds of smoke. A glint of metal in moving, cocking back... weapons made noise when they moved, with the many small mechanical parts sliding so a guy could get a bead on her.



But maybe the small minute sounds were a little too unbelievable. Well, that's why there was that. Screw the need for any other sounds... she could see the bright-as-hell beacons of red light before guns locked and guys went trigger happy.

I see you.

Undoubtedly, these guys were sure that they could hit her, so she may as well keep the illusion for... a second. At the realization of what was to come, she flicked her hand while leaning backwards. At the time the thing was supposed to hit her, she swung all the way around, spinning in the air as if she had solid ground under her.

4/8 time at 280 BPM. Beat 1 was her leaning and twirling. On beat 1 of the second measure, the bullet pressed into her arm, and stopped.

Dance of Shields.

Only two beats into it, and they were laying into her, to the sound of her sighing. An eye roll later, and she completed the spin. End of first volley, start of second. She was shot at before, and the bullets all went tink-tink-tink to the ground at her feet. There was something about them this time that made her think. Normally, she'd just sit here and dance, keeping the Shield up by so little as bobbing her head or breathing in rhythm. However, there was something in the weaponry that continued to make ineffective a shield, that made her actually feel each bullet as it collided. She didn't know how good the shield was against magical weaponry, and wasn't so keen on finding out now. Reanimation was always a bothersome process.

The best way down was to drop. So she did just that while keeping her fist tucked. If the guys wanted to keep firing at her and letting the bullets that had odd angles bounce off and kill other citizens, then whatever, it was their guys. Otherwise, she was going to chalk it up to a loss and walk away... very carefully, because the people here were stupid and if someone jumped at her, they'd have to get slapped down.

And thus this is where her problem was. The Lamentian Guards were on LOCKDOWN patrol. They weren't going to sit around without a bullet in the chamber of their guns. Loading took time, and that was time that the Guards didn't want to have to deal with if an invader decided to show up. So, all that loading noise would be canceled out, allowing the snipers to target the woman with stealth, reguardless of her hearing since there wasn't a loading noise to be heard. As for the "sonic boom", a "sonic boom" still travels at the speed of sound, meaning that if there WAS such a thing from the bullets, the bullets would still strike before the woman could hear it. And to make matters worse, the sniper rilfes were outfitted with silencers to make them even quieter.

Also, the watchtowers couldn't SEE an invisible person, at least the guards without thermal equipment wouldn't, and since eliminating the targets was first priority, the red signal would have to wait. Shoot first, alert the others later. Thus was the standard procedure for the Lockdown. She would have no warning to avoid the bullets. No sound, no red signal flare. And the bullets would reach her location before she could even THINK to say, "Oh snap" seeing as the rounds were traveling towards her body at a speed of nearly 2,300 feet per second. She was going to look like Swiss cheese by the time the snipers were done with her.

I'm going out, Red thought, and she changed into her street clothes, checked her weapons inventory, making sure not to forget her I.D. and headed out onto the streets of Lament, leaving the plastic bag with the items scattered about her room for now.

She remembered this part of the announcement word for word:



She thought she'd check things out if she could, hopefully bust a few heads open in the process.

The bulletin must have been posted on the ginormous locked door or something, because otherwise people outside the city would never have been able to read any bulletin. Hopefully the guards didn't start shooting on sight of anyone approaching the city, either, since that would make bulletin reading rather hard.

People just arriving, or thinking of taking a vacation in Lament, would very likely be disallusioned at being shot at without warning, especially since the travel brochure (front page) said nothing in regards to a lockdown.

You know, finding north and consequently east, south, and west, would probably be easier to do just by asking the man in charge. The spellsword took a seat by the table and spoke up, "So, which way is north?"

As for the message from Descant...

Decruda would recieve the message as he caught sight of a woman in his mind, the image disorted like as if static interference had infected a screen. He would want specific details on the matter as well as a simple message after he was filled in; "Return to the lair, await my order." If not, he'd have to organize the message to be delivered later, whether by magical means or by more mundane means.

However, he did take in the additional bit of information, never one to overlook small details. So apparently there was some terrorist attack and the entire city was locked down, nobody gets in or out, nobody moves from their current location. Well, he'd share this information with Gavin, but this little occurance wouldnt affect his individual plans at all. If anything, it made his job easier.

What kind of dumb terrorist blows up a single elevator shaft anyways?

*Added thought: Unless of course, it was the only way from the surface to the underground and vice versa.

As soon as the soldier heard her voice, he spun around, sidearm drawn and ready to fire. However when he noticed her I.D., he calmed himself and answered her quickly. He had a duty to attend to afterall. He couldn't afford to be late to his next check in.

Terrorist attack down below ground. The whole city is in Lockdown. No one enters or leaves the city. I'm sorry, but that all I can tell you. I suggest you stay indoors as much as possible.

The Guard saluted and turned to continue his patrol.