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 Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2007 7:55 pm
By the time Björn made it up three flights of stairs, all that was left was carnage. Marcos lay barely stirring, bleeding heavily from a gaping wound in his stomach. Richard, throat cut, stared up at the ceiling, face set in a last scowl in death. And in the room, pleading in a thready voice that shook with purest terror, Jared gave a great scream as something ripped wetly and crunched up.
"No," Ethan's voice whispered hoarsely as footsteps crept across the room. "No."
"Oh, yes," Weaver's voice said silkily. "Yes."
There was a strangled sound, as though Ethan was biting back a terrible cry of pain, and the heavy sound of a body falling.
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Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2007 7:58 pm
Oh, and that was the last goddamn straw. Björn came in with a violent swing at the nearest inhuman head, not caring how much damage he did as long as he got his revenge. Second on the list, make sure Ethan was still alive.
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Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2007 8:06 pm
Mister Thatcher, who had trailed curiously behind Björn, staggered back with his head partially smashed. The innards were entirely clockwork, a dreadful hollow ticking filling the hallway.
"That," he said irritably, "was not polite."
Weaver did something that made Ethan choke and gasp before calling out, not even bothering to turn around.
"Who are you talking to, Thatcher?"
"A very large man who just smashed my face open, Mister Weaver," Thatcher said testily, smoothing out his face as it seemed to rebuild itself.
"Hmm. How large?"
"Large enough to provide a sincere irritation and put us behind schedule with his meddling."
"Hmm. I do so hate people who try to play the hero. Is he here for one of the deceased?"
"Most likely, Mister Weaver."
"Pfaugh!" Weaver said, throwing Ethan across the room. He hit the wall and fell to the floor again heavily. Mister Weaver and Mister Walker, bloodied, leering and pockets full of weird, ugly little objects, exited the apartment while giving Björn a reproving look as if he'd just interrupted something private.
"Take what's left if you wish," he said cruelly. "Young master Cebcharik will simply have to be moved up on our schedule. Good evening."
And the three clockwork men simply walked away, albeit very, very fast.
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Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2007 6:56 pm
Björn quite literally roared at the things as they left, rushing to Ethan immediately and picking him up without question. Liam rushed in then.
"OH GOD."
"Don't even think about it."
"THIS ONE'S BREATHING!"
And so 'that one' was picked up too.
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Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2007 7:03 pm
Marcos gagged and coughed out a good deal of blood as he was moved, moaning and clutching at his stomach with one hand and the other blindly grasping at Björn. Ethan, barely conscious, went limp as a rag. Mister Weaver had toyed with him - a bloody crucifix had been slashed on his face, and scars on his arms had been meticulously reopened. A shallow cut on his stomach seeped blood, the beginnings of Weaver's work as he sought to gut out another of the bizarre objects.
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Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2007 7:09 pm
Björn looked the wounds over and shook his head. Sonnuvabitch. He was terrified to put Ethan down, and so just knelt in the offal on the floor. Liam scuttled over, digging two small phials from his pocket. One he simply poured the contents of into Ethan's mouth. Björn took the other and tapped it against This One's lips.
"Drink it."
Just in case he'd receive violence in forcing it down the poor guy's throat.
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Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2007 7:25 pm
Ethan swallowed only out of pure reflex, gagging and coughing as the phial's contents went down. He shuddered as the wounds closed, and tried to raise his head. The effort proved to be too much and he collapsed, passing out ******** swallowed with difficulty, still clutching at his stomach even as the wound healed over. The vivid bloom of bruises that blackened his throat faded slowly, and he coughed wetly. He struggled to sit up, though it was rather futile and he sank back down to the floor fairly ******** hell," he muttered, itching at his blinded eye moodily. "Gutted like a ******** fish..."
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Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2007 10:25 am
Björn shifted slightly to support Ethan's head and then looked down to This One.
"You got off easy," he said and dropped This One's feet, seeing if he could stand on his own, "and, if you don't mind, I'd like to know what the ******** is going on."
Liam was skittering around, peering at the corpses and prodding occasionally, trying to determine what the Hell had gone on here and failing miserably.
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Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2007 4:15 pm
"Brother, you got me there," Marcos said miserably, looking over at Ryan. He rolled onto his side and forced himself up, taking off his bloodied sweatshirt and covering the dead teen with it. "I don't know. I don't know what those things were. Ethan..."
He stared at Ethan silently for a minute. The boy's face was pale and drawn. A trickle of blood from his formerly split lip stood out vividly on his chin.
"...Ethan knew. Recognized that Weaver guy. He knew, and god in heaven, was he scared," Marcos said. He took a deep breath and gave a startled cry of pain, doubling over and hugging his stomach. He coughed, shuddering. "They took something out of me. I don't....I don't feel right. Everything hurts."
Looking around, straightening with a wince, he cursed viciously as he spotted Jeddeth poking at Jared's corpse.
"Get away from him!"
"He's dead," Jeddeth said reasonably. "I'm just looking at the wires."
"Wires?"
"Yes," Jeddeth said mildly, tugging a mess of vein-like wires out of a gaping hole in Jared's chest. "I didn't know humans grew wires."
"We don't," Marcos said, looking ill.
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Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2007 4:24 pm
Björn peered over. Wires? Oh, s**t! And then he looked down to Ethan.
"Liam, did you bring a--"
"No! Who the Hell carries around metal detectors? I have a magnet, though."
"Can I have it?"
"No."
"Why?"
"Hold on, I'm looking for it!" Liam yelped as he groped around in the air. Björn sighed and shook his head, turning to This One.
"Hey, buddy. You okay?"
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Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2007 4:28 pm
Marcos skated over the opportunity to say something snarky, because he just wasn't in the mood to fear for his life again this evening. He settled with shaking his head, and stood unsteadily. One hand braced on the wall for support, he went into the kitchen while trying to avoid looking at Richard's body, and was quietly sick in the sink.
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Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2007 4:34 pm
"Liam, can you get rid of the b--"
"Got it."
Liam handed a strong magnet to Björn who held it over Ethan's body, running it over slowly, trying to see if it would pull at any point. Liam knelt and said a little prayer before pointing to what was once a young man, and the body disappeared.
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Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2007 4:41 pm
Marcos staggered out of the kitchen, wiping his mouth repeatedly with the sleeve of his shirt. He leaned against the wall, his single eye flicking back and forth between Liam and Björn before he noticed a wad of flesh on the floor that had previously been Terrance's throat.
"I do believe I'm going to heave my guts out," he said conversationally to the ceiling, hobbling back to the sink.
The magnet was proving nonreactive until it passed over Ethan's stomach. While nothing attracted a magnetic pull, an unmistakable blue crackling of static played over Ethan's skin, weak, harmless and perfectly out of place for someone who had never exhibited any kind of special ability for his entire natural life.
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Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2007 4:45 pm
Björn immediately lifted the magnet out of range and arched a brow. Alright, that was bizarre.
"Look, guy," he yelled slightly into the kitchen, "We have to get out of here."
Liam continued to remove bodies, adding them to his legion not by choice, but by necessity. Especially seeing as to how This One reacted to them.
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Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2007 4:54 pm
"Gladly," Marcos said hoarsely, having effectively emptied his stomach of any and all contents it might have collected over the past five years. "All...all packed."
Hefting his old bag onto his shoulder, he doubled over again briefly before shrugging the pain off, abandoning his usual slouch to stand taller than usual.
"I don't wanna impose or anything," he added, looking extremely uncomfortable. "But. I. Uh. I'd rather...not be alone. I can kip in the basement if ya got one."
Ethan coughed and shuddered as the static finally died away, muttering something nonsensical as though in the throes of delirium. Marcos stared hard at the boy, expression pitying.
"And I don't want to leave him, either," he said frankly. "Weaver...really liked him."
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