The night was cold, as they often were at this time of year. Though his uniform kept him sufficiently warm, a chill breeze still nipped at Aquamarine’s face and hands.
He had no desire to be out this late, but Jet’s mission required a significant amount of energy. An unreliable partner would have left Jet to his own devices; Aquamarine was too loyal for that, staunchly devoted even when the mission objectives weren’t to his liking. When circumstances prevented them from gathering energy together, they took it in turns to do so.
So he left work after another lengthy shift (that was typical for this time of year, too), and instead of teleporting directly to Negaspace (where he knew Jet would be toiling the night away), Aquamarine stopped by a couple of his usual haunts for a bit of energy. No one noticed. No one cared. One man offered to buy him a drink. Aquamarine accepted, drank his whiskey, then lured the man out and left him unconscious in an alleyway.
The night began no differently than so many others before it.
Aquamarine would not be able to say the same for its end.
He came to a familiar park as he began to wind down, nearing the limit of his effort. Jet’s bench was within sight — empty, of course, with Jet’s absence. No one else in their right mind would be out at this time, in weather cold enough to snow.
No one normal, at least.
No one without a stake in the war.
Guine
Posted: Sat Nov 27, 2021 6:56 pm
Hiding in plain sight was always a huge risk. Michael might have been able to sense the General’s aura, but he knew as soon as he powered up he would be felt as well. And if he was too close to be seen, then he couldn’t power up at all, lest he risk his identity. Should the General decide to take his starseed, there was little he would have been able to do to stop him.
Except to reveal himself and kill the General before it could be made known who he was.
But Michael didn’t plan on killing anyone that night. Instead, there was a very specific reason he sought out the General. They may not have been able to make any headway with the device before Velencya’s Commodore decided to sacrifice them to the Negaverse.
That field would have been the perfect place to use the device. And he had to wonder if Serge felt the same way when he died.
Michael let go of the gently pulsing orb at his neck, feeling it disappear as he powered up, still out of sight of the General.
“It’s been a while, General,” Sessrumnir greeted the young man as he stepped out from behind a small brick building used by the park’s maintenance crew.
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Posted: Sun Nov 28, 2021 6:09 am
Aquamarine was halfway through a yawn when the aura of a Knight flared to life less than a dozen yards away. His rapier was in his hand before he turned, but some of the tension bled from his frame as soon as the Knight was within sight.
He tipped his head and smirked, not quite inviting, but not as spiteful and petty as he was capable of yet either.
“Sess,” he said, savoring the knowledge his consultations with Jet allowed him to acquire. “Have you been following me?”
How else would the Knight have known where he was? It couldn’t be entirely coincidental that they were in the same park. Who hid behind maintenance buildings unless they didn’t want to be seen, waiting for the opportune moment?
“That’s a dangerous game,” Aquamarine observed, scrutinizing the Knight, attempting to peer through the magic that kept his identity safe. Was he one of the men from the bar, perhaps? “I’m flattered. Have you given my offer any thought? You’d make a fine General.”
Guine
Posted: Sun Nov 28, 2021 6:51 am
A small smirk found its way onto his own face when it seemed as though General Aquamarine knew his name. Ah, he supposed after years of fighting the Negaverse, it would only be a matter of time before someone decided to make a note of what it was.
“Sessrumnir,” he corrected, figuring he might as well let Aquamarine know his full name. “And maybe I have been following you. And maybe I decided I would make a better agent,” he said, holding up his hands to show that they were empty.
“That wasn’t very nice to leave me to deal with all those youma last time. How are the aliens? I thought the Negaverse was anti-alien invasion?”
He couldn’t help but pry. Commodore Lyndin betrayed the White Moon by siding with the Negaverse in the end. But the explosion of their moon debris seemed to cause something to start developing on worlds. He had yet to visit Sessrumnir, but if what Ganymede and Valhalla said was true… who was Lyndin really trying to benefit with his actions?
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Posted: Sun Nov 28, 2021 7:58 am
Aquamarine’s smirk grew. He filed the name away for further addition to the database.
“Unpleasant as they are, youma have their uses,” Aquamarine admitted.
He never banished his rapier, but his grip around the hilt was relaxed. Sessrumnir was no less imposing than last time, at least as far as his build, but Aquamarine was confident in his own abilities. He knew Sessrumnir’s magic. He knew Sessrumnir’s wolf. He knew which buttons to push if he wanted to try eliciting a reaction. If Sessrumnir attacked, Aquamarine could counter him.
Still, he sized up the Knight. Aquamarine didn’t make a habit out of recruiting others, but on the rare occasion, he might come across someone who seemed worth the effort. Sessrumnir was capable and efficient. Perhaps the power wouldn’t be wasted on him.
But Aquamarine had no interest in forcing it. There'd be no satisfaction in that.
“You mean the alien invasion you and your kind allowed?” he asked, conversational. “You know, I never put much stock in the alien angle before now, thought it was just a clever bit of propaganda, but then you welcomed the actual aliens with open arms. Hoped they’d destroy us, didn’t you? And then what? You’d let them have the Earth? You certainly wouldn’t have been able to stop them when you needed their help to stop us.”
Not that it did the White Moon much good in the end.
“You don’t like failure, do you? It eats at you.”
Guine
Posted: Sun Nov 28, 2021 8:50 am
“I can’t say I’ve experienced enough failure for it to eat at me,” Sessrumnir said with a small snort of amusement. Whether or not he had failure eating at him, it wasn’t going to be shared with Aquamarine.
“It would have been convenient if they destroyed you, but we suspected they’d fail,” he admitted, not so much invested in the aliens now that he had the device to try and repair. “Guess we’ll just have to go back to destroying you one at a time.”
He casually reached down to his side where the fang hung, grabbing hold of it and calling out his summon. If this magical item worked like it was supposed to, then he wouldn’t need his summon. Might as well make use of her now, and hope that he didn’t end up in a worse situation that he’d placed himself in.
At Sessrumnir’s bidding, the wolf lunged forward towards the General, using teeth to try and subdue him.
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Posted: Sun Nov 28, 2021 9:12 am
Aquamarine let the wolf draw closer enough that its proximity would have been a serious threat to a Lieutenant. Then, with another self-satisfied smirk, he vanished.
“So the fang is how you call your wolf,” Aquamarine observed, peering down from his new perch atop the maintenance building. “Deprived of it, you’d lose a significant bit of aid. I expect the object differs from Knight to Knight.”
Still, potentially useful information. All they needed to do in order to neutralize that particular threat was to figure out which object each Knight needed to summon their creatures and divest them of it. If they worked the same as a Knight’s magic, they might even be on a time limit — advantageous for precious seconds, but not for anything long term.
A shame, really, that they were so easily outmaneuvered.
“You came alone,” he said. “Brave of you, or foolish. Just you and your wolf.”
Aquamarine paused to consider Sessrumnir again. The smirk on his face grew wicked.
“Are they a theme of yours? Wolves? Is that why you were so fond of Remus?” he asked. “Where is he, I wonder.”
Guine
Posted: Sun Nov 28, 2021 1:54 pm
He wasn’t surprised that the General figured out that he had his summon housed in the fang. He would never let anyone get close enough to him to take the fang off him, so it didn’t matter what the General observed.
The mention of Remus though. While Sessrumnir’s expression didn’t change, he felt the tension in his chest, and his jaw tightened just slightly.
“I will admit, you’re pretty informed. I didn’t expect that from-- well… you didn’t seem like the type to bother,” he confessed as he recalled the wolf to her home at his side. The Negaverse having information on him more than just a nickname was a little more concerning, especially if they started piecing together others he knew.
Even though he and Remus were no longer together, it wasn’t as though he stopped caring about him. What of the rest of his family…? Would they realize that he and Valhalla were brothers? Or Oberon? Would that put Belmont at risk for being associated with him?
“With a pretty face like yours, I can’t imagine you had a difficult time getting that rank,” he pointed out, obviously suggesting that Aquamarine didn’t deserve the title. But he did have access to someone else who would have known he was associated with Remus.
“Jet is going to get what’s coming for him one day, you know.” The name was easy to recall, both from his own interaction with the General and hearing about him from Ganymede and Valhalla.
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Posted: Sun Nov 28, 2021 3:46 pm
Aquamarine cared less for the implications about rank and a pretty face when they came from a Knight than he did when he heard the same sentiment from other agents. More recently, he didn’t care much when it came from other agents either. He knew his worth. Aquamarine might not know precisely what he’d done to earn the Queen’s trust, but he had it, and the Queen didn’t seem the type to be swayed by a pretty face.
No, he cared far more that Sessrumnir had the gall to utter Jet’s name on a warning.
It took less than a second for Aquamarine to appear behind the Knight — far too quickly for Sessrumnir to turn around. Aquamarine kept his rapier in hand but didn’t use it yet. At close range, he much preferred to use his dagger.
The blade sank through Sessrumnir’s cape, into the shoulder that was not fortunate enough to have the protection of a pauldron.
“Is that a threat, Knight?” he seethed into Sessrumnir’s ear.
Guine
Posted: Sun Nov 28, 2021 4:35 pm
Sessrumnir was expecting some kind of response, but the degree of response he hadn’t been sure of. Once the General disappeared from sight, only to reappear behind him and plunge a dagger into the back of his shoulder did Sessrumnir determine just how personal he took Jet being mentioned.
The pain had him gritting his teeth, an anguished hiss escaping as he tried to jerk himself away from the General, glad he decided to go for his shoulder and not his neck or thigh, which were much more vital and exposed than his shoulder.
From his pocket he quickly drew a small spherical object, and threw it against the ground at their feet.
“I’d like to consider it more of a warning,” he growled, his expression darkening as he turned himself around completely to face Aquamarine.
Smoke Bomb Suppressor A golf ball sized smoke bomb contained in a decorative bag. When thrown against the ground the smoke bomb releases a transparent, odorless smoke that cannot be avoided. The smoke affects everyone within fifteen feet of where it was thrown and suppresses all magic for sixty seconds. It prevents all Senshi and Knight Magic, all teleportation, all summoning weapons--you still have the physical boost of your rank but any additional magical abilities cannot be accessed if you inhaled any smoke. After sixty seconds, the smoke fades and magical abilities return. This item must be approved for use in any event or ORP. Only one use per smoke bomb suppressor, but the tiny decorative bag can be kept as a memento.
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Posted: Sun Nov 28, 2021 5:03 pm
He would go for a more vital area when he felt like making a kill. A threat like that deserved a bit of pain and suffering first. Whatever offer Aquamarine might have made for recruitment was no longer on the table. If Sessrumnir thought it wise to threaten Jet’s life, he would die accordingly.
His blood would paint the ground. His starseed would glimmer in Aquamarine’s hand. His death would serve as another example to all those who thought to challenge Metallia.
Aquamarine left the dagger lodged in Sessrumnir’s shoulder. He could summon it back when needed. Sessrumnir turned, and Aquamarine attacked again, piercing Sessrumnir’s tunic with a savage thrust of his rapier.
Whatever Sessrumnir threw, Aquamarine didn’t get a good enough look at it to determine its origins. It was small and round. It burst when it hit the ground, sending smoke into the air. Aquamarine jumped back, but could not avoid it. He sneered through the haze of smoke; whatever it was meant to do, the Knight was well within range to be affected, too.
Visibility was not so poor that he couldn’t see. Even so, the smoke could be disorienting. Perhaps it would work to his benefit. All he had to do was teleport behind again…
Aquamarine meant to disappear, blip out of sight and return from a better angle.
Only he couldn’t teleport.
“What...?”
Guine
Posted: Sun Nov 28, 2021 5:13 pm
The stab of the rapier had him hissing again from the pain, his hand reaching down to grasp at where the rapier had pierced through his tunic and chainmail. He was lucky that the blade only hit his side, and didn’t feel like it hit anything vital. Sessrumnir supposed he could have tried dodging, but he wanted to see the moment the magic started working.
There it was. That hesitation where Aquamarine surely meant to teleport but couldn’t.
A wicked grin pulled at Sessrumnir’s lips this time, and he took the opportunity to lunge forward at the General, throwing a punch at the pretty blond’s face, while reaching to grab his wrist that held the rapier at the same time.
“Having some trouble?” he sneered, ignoring the pain in his shoulder for now. He would get the dagger dislodged when he wanted to use it. He knew he only had a minute, and he intended on making it count.
Even if he couldn't get the rapier to drop from Aquamarine's hand, he kicked hard at him while he was still in range, hoping to send him to the ground.
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Posted: Sun Nov 28, 2021 5:26 pm
Aquamarine tried again.
Nothing.
Again.
Still nothing.
Then he had to stop trying, because Sessrumnir was in his face. Aquamarine saw the fist flying for him and dodged, jerking his head away, but the movement gave Sessrumnir the opportunity to grab his sword arm. The grip around Aquamarine’s wrist was tight. He tried to jerk away and got a hard kick to the knee for his efforts. His leg gave out and Aquamarine crashed to the ground, kneeling upon the dormant grass.
He called his dagger back to him. He’d shove it into Sessrumnir’s thigh, cut his femoral artery and leave him to bleed out.
Or he tried to, anyway. Despite Aquamarine’s efforts, his dagger remained in Sessrumnir’s shoulder.
His heart skipped a beat. He swore under his breath.
Calm down, he told himself.
Aquamarine swept a leg out and tried to take Sessrumnir’s feet out from under him.
On his knees on the ground with one arm restrained, he was terribly uncoordinated.
Guine
Leaving the quote in here so you know I edited it because I had "away" typed as "agay" and while I was like, "Yes, he is a gay," that obviously wasn't what I meant to write there.
Posted: Sun Nov 28, 2021 6:09 pm
Even if Aquamarine was able to get his legs out from under him, Sessrumnir just let his weight come crashing down onto the General. As it were, he was in a better position to jump backwards just a bit, dragging Aquamarine with him as he crushed his wrist in his hand.
He dragged him a little further from where he had better use of his legs, before shoving him to the ground. Sessrumnir kicked him once in the side to encourage him to let go of his weapon, and stomped his foot down on the hand to try and get him to let go of the rapier.
“Not so tough when you can’t teleport,” he spat.
Although Aquamarine couldn’t teleport, Sessrumnir could feel the pain from the dagger in his shoulder, and the puncture wound in his side. Could feel the blood soaking into his outfit. It seemed to be a shame that he was bleeding and Aquamarine wasn’t.
Still standing, he finally reached behind him to dislodge the blade from his shoulder, and flipped the weapon over in his hand so the blade was downward as he drove it into the less bony part of the General’s shoulder.
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Posted: Mon Nov 29, 2021 9:34 am
Under more advantageous circumstances, Aquamarine might have been snide, might have snarled curses into Sessrumnir’s face or thrown a variety of colorful insults at him — clever, hateful little comments he would have looked back on fondly.
But this was not an advantageous circumstance. Aquamarine couldn’t teleport. He couldn’t summon his dagger. A crack from his hand beneath Sessrumnir’s boot was all he needed to know that something had broken. Pain drew a gasping shout from Aquamarine’s throat; he fought through it, but his rapier fell from his grasp and he couldn’t summon that back to him either. Without his weapons, without the ability to teleport, Aquamarine found himself against a much larger, much more adept opponent without the necessary skills to defend himself.
Then his own dagger plunged into his shoulder. The next scream to tear its way out of him was feral.
Aquamarine fought the only way he knew how. He twisted and writhed, tried to shove Sessrumnir off of him. He clawed at Sessrumnir’s face, teeth gashed together as pain radiated down his arm. He kicked where he could, brought his knee up to aim for Sessrumnir’s groin, but Sessrumnir was prepared for it.
In his desperation, Aquamarine tried to summon his communicator.
If it ever materialized in his hand, he never felt it, never managed to send a distress call before it was knocked away.
Given that nothing else worked, Aquamarine doubted it ever made it out of subspace.
Guine
Feel free to do all the godmodding in your next post. We've already discussed all the things.
