Wizards vs. Muggles (Free-form)

Safehouse

Lita opened her mouth to ask if she could read it and closed it again when Karla said no one else should open it. Darn.

She put the envelope in her pocket.

"Okay. Anything more?"

Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, you can't sell him fish anymore. http://thoughtfulspurts.wordpress.com/

RAF Minton

Worst...birthday...ever... Warren though to himself as Golden came at him. The man had somehow managed to take down the guard, and now seemed deadset on making it out of the interrogation room; Warren be dammed.

Warren reacted and grabbed the collapsible baton that he carried on his waist, extending it all the way with an audible click, and gripping it tightly in his right hand; his other hand up in.a defensive posture.

He held his ground and waited until the last second before stepping to the side, and bringing the baton down on the meaty portion of Golsen's thigh. Stepping behind his target, Warren prepared to strike again.

RAF Minton
There was a crash as Goslen tripped, nearly collapsing on the leg that Warren had struck, but for one moment—visible to Lita—his eyes were clear and his mouth was opened in a confused gasp, before his momentum carried him against the wall. He hit shoulder-first and slumped against the ground, motionless save for his eyes and mouth, which worked silently trying to form words. Lita glimpsed his expression briefly before he went completely limp, his eyes and mouth still open: it looked vaguely like someone waking from a nightmare—or someone regaining their senses after magical control. Then the RAF policeman, apparently recovered enough, piled onto Goslen, but coughed and wheezed violently, gritting his teeth against pain.

The door to the outside had no window, but even through it Fields could hear the policeman choke out, in a voice tight with pain and racked with heavy coughing, a directive to bind the prisoner.

In the control room the camera display had apparently been damaged; the image from the CCTV set flickered and refused to focus. Though it had all been very fast the watchers had noticed: the first burst of static came when Lita Apparated in, a milder burst when she fired off her spell, and then prolonged interference with sound and video.

---

England
"Hmm." Karla tapped her foot several times. "Oh, yes. I may be out of the country for the next several days. Coordinate with Miss Szymanska and the senior handlers present for activities: chase down what leads you have on the village. And try to ease the newer members into the pattern of mundane life; I would prefer that they could walk down a street without being arrested. I have a few investigations of my own to follow up on."

Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three.

RAF Minton

"Because that worked so well last time." Warren stated as he drove a knee into Golsen's back. Reaching out and grabbing his arms, Warren bound them with zip ties, repeating the same process with his legs; stepping away from the now subdued Golsen, he drew his sidearm and trained it securely on the mans head.

"Kid, what are you doing in here?" He said to Lita "I'm in the middle of something."

RAF Minton

"Well, I was trying to avert that something. You know, violence not being the answer and all." She said looking at Goslen and slipping her wand back into her sleeve as discreetly as possible.

The confundus seemed to have done something unusual. Of course, given the circumstances, she wasn't too sure what the usual would be. Still, another piece to the puzzle was a good thing.

"Um... is anyone hurt?" She asked.

Safehouse

"Okay..." She said, not to keen on the idea of helping Nott with Muggledom.

"Um, would you like a glass of invigoration draught?"

edited 27th Jun '12 9:42:51 AM by Faramir

Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, you can't sell him fish anymore. http://thoughtfulspurts.wordpress.com/

Clark raised an eyebrow as the camera's view refused to fix itself. He stepped out of the security booth and headed to the interrogation room.

"I seem to have missed something." He said. "It didn't help that when I stopped by the security booth the camera refused to show a clear view of the room." He stepped out of Goslen's line of view before saying this and gave Lita a pointed look.

"Your mission is not to nuke the squid god." —Faramir

Lita frowned. "Um... I should check on that..." She said, and headed out to the security booth by foot. Another apparition could make things worse.

Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, you can't sell him fish anymore. http://thoughtfulspurts.wordpress.com/

"I wonder what could of caused that." Warren said as he rolled his eyes, " That being said, we need to put Scotty here back in a cell before he decides to get froggy again; I'm not having this happen again."

"As for you." He said to Lita as she walked away, "You might want to be a bit more situationally aware."

Lita tensed and dug her nails into her palm as Mr. Peace rolled his eyes. She'd apparated and cast a spell, it shouldn't have caused more than a minute's worth of static tops to the computers. Obviously there was something else going on. Though Mr. Peace wouldn't think that would he? He'd just think she was careless, or useless, or stupid.

She'd been trying to avoid any violence, he didn't notice her until after she's cast a spell on the guy, he goes off and hits him in the leg, and she needed to be more situationally aware? And his tone, it was always on his tone, as if she was a four year old. As if what she thought or how she felt or what she could do didn't matter in the least.

A small part of the floor near the door cracked loudly.

"I'll fix that later." She muttered as she stepped out of the room, manoeuvring around Alex as she left. She had to figure out something to do about her magic outbursts before she did any harm to anyone.

Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, you can't sell him fish anymore. http://thoughtfulspurts.wordpress.com/

"Uh huh...sure" Warren said as he put his sidearm back in the holster and continued to watch over Golsen; still restrained on the cold concrete floor.

"Anything you want to ask our friend here?" He said to Clark.

"In a moment." Clark said. "First, get off each others' cases. Officer, would you help the man back into his seat? Thank you." This last remark was addressed to the RAF policeman who was keeping an eye on Goslen, who obliged. Once Goslen was seated, Clark decided to forgo sitting and instead stand on the other side of the table, hands on the chair he had previously occupied. "So, tell me." He asked. "What did I miss?"

"Your mission is not to nuke the squid god." —Faramir

"Oh nothing of value" Warren said "I asked him if he knew anything about the pressing issues and he went off the deep end, accused us of being in league with witches and all that nonsense. Then he decided to make a break for it; number three on the list if stupid decisions he's made tonight."

Clark looked over Goslen, noting that his brain seemed to be as scrambled as breakfast eggs. He looked up at Warren. "I'm assuming that leading a mob after Mrs. Barnes and attacking us are the only things beating it out." He said. "I wonder how she's doing...Anyway. Judging from his condition here and the situation with the cameras, I'm going to say that something's suppressing him."

"Your mission is not to nuke the squid god." —Faramir

"Right on both points." Warren said " I guess tonight just isn't his night. As for his current state...I'm sure we both know how that happened. "

Alex listened, figuring that Goslen had probably made some kind of move and by the sounds of it managed to hit the guard; but also that the situation was probably under control now. He raised an eyebrow when he heard Lita's voice, since he had left her back in the surveillance room. Well, she is magical after all. Guess she teleported or something Alex thought to himself as Clark suddenly arrived. Seeing that Clark was going into the room, Alex opened up the door for him and waited right outside.

Based on the conversation, something had messed up the cameras. And now Warren was blaming it on Lita. Alex supposed that it probably was her doing, but he doubted it was intentional or anything. Then suddenly part of the floor cracked loudly, and by Lita's mention of 'fixing that later', it was apparently caused by her. But, something was off about it; she hadn't used her wand or said any magic words, it just happened.

Alex considered the way Lita looked when she left and what Warren had said, then had a quick ponder to himself about what a magical temper tamptrum would look like. Goslen was restrained now, and Clark was there, so the situation in the interrogation room was probably under control; Alex took this as an excuse to try and satisfy some worried curiosity.

So, abandoning the door, Alex went jogging after Lita. "Hey!" Alex called as he started catching up, "what was that just now?"

You are reading this.

Lita yawned as she walked to the interogation room. Suddenly she felt tired. Maybe she hadn't drunk as much as she thought of the invigoration draught, or maybe she'd built up a bit of a resistance to it over the past few days. The dark circles under her eyes began to reappear and she rubbed them with the back of her hand. She stumbled when she heard Alex ask her something and turned around. Lita blinked hard trying to focus on Alex, apparently a herculean task.

"What? Oh-um..." She yawned. "Well you see there's this...ever since Romania..." She squinted, her eyes were starting to hurt "the patronus kinda... magic is very—"

Lita tried to explain that the patronus in Romania had probably tied her magic to her emotions closer together, but failed as she fell asleep mid-sentence.

edited 28th Jun '12 7:15:37 PM by Faramir

Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, you can't sell him fish anymore. http://thoughtfulspurts.wordpress.com/

There were a few things Alex could've expected as a response from Lita. Turning, starting to talk, and then falling asleep was not one of them. Startled, Alex quickly reached out to grab the young witch before she fell on the floor. Wizards don't normally fall asleep after using magic, do they? Does Lita have narcolepsy or something? Alex thought to himself.

Making sure not to drop Lita, Alex shifted around until he had a hold on her from behind under her arms, and dragged her along like that towards the nearest bench or bed that he could lay her down on. All the while he looked about with a pleading expression on his face that clearly read, 'can anyone help me with this?'

You are reading this.

edited 28th Jun '12 7:59:47 PM by hotelkilo

Let God do His work, we will see to ours. Bring in the candles.

"I think we're done here, for now." Clark said. "See if we can't find the man a cell to wait in until he's recovered."

As he departed from the room, he decided to go visit Mrs. Barnes. Perhaps she'd be so kind as to shed some light on the situation. He thought back to the scene they'd found her at, and one moment in particular came unbidden to his mind.

I wonder why she called him "Barnes." Clark pondered. He recalled the envelope she'd given him, not recalling examining it. He headed back to his office, locked the door, and opened the envelope.

edited 29th Jun '12 4:13:39 PM by Wysp

"Your mission is not to nuke the squid god." —Faramir

Olivia almost bumped into Clark as she ran down the hallway, her weapon coming millimeters away from smacking into his arm. Turning to the side to squeeze past, she continued her speedy journey.

Moments later, she ran through the door of the interrogation room, stopping quickly to avoid hitting the table. She quickly scanned her surroundings, eased her grip on the shotgun, and snapped off a salute.

"Sergeant Browning, sir!" she announced, once again emphasizing her shiny new rank. "I was told that there was an incident in the interrogation room, and a possible injury, sir! Is everything under control, sir?"

She returned both her hands to the weapon, as if subtly hinting that she was hoping that everything would not be under control.

I am become Death, Destroyer of Miniputts.

England
Karla shook her head. "Later, I think. I am fine for the moment. You are excused—and don't forget, you've got a few investigations of your own to handle the next few days."

---

Scotland
Olivia was interrupted by the RAF policeman nearly collapsing against the nearby wall, coughing loudly; the man was breathing ragged, painful breaths, his hands pressed near his sternum, where Goslen had hit him with the manacles. "Sorry, sir," he muttered. "Doesn't feel quite right."

There was no more need to keep weapons trained on Goslen; the man's eyes were open, but he was otherwise completely nonresponsive, almost catatonic.

Outside, Fields noticed that the only other furnished cell in the brig complex was the one occupied by Claudia Barnes, who had opened the door at the recent commotion, and who now looked out at Fields dragging Lita through the corridor.

"Is the lass hurt?" she asked, hurrying out to the pair. She had to step aside for several of the OCCULUS soldiers, who were hurrying to the interrogation center with weapons drawn; they looked at Lita curiously, but asked no questions when Barnes looked at them.

---

Letter
To: Commanding Officer, Drear Island operational group
From: Captain A. Barnes, formerly 21 SAS

If all has gone well, receipt of this letter should be accompanied by the protective custody of Claudia Barnes, my wife. I have asked her to come to you for help should she need it, though I fear that her natural Scottish stubbornness may mean that her threshold of "need" is higher than anyone else's. I fear that she may be targeted by paranormal or mundane factions, and I must ask you for your help; she would never accept it on her own. For herself I am afraid that she would choose to stand her ground, even when it would endanger her life, and it is thus that I request asylum for her.

Thirty-eight years ago I was involved in an incident in McMurdosford village that, even now, I could scarcely believe; it opened my eyes to the world of magic that lay beneath ours. It was not until fairly recently that I managed, with assistance, to finally piece together the implications, which are in the wrong hands very dangerous. I was on Drear Island to aid a friend of mine; you know him as Arkady. He has helped me enormously in my research, and in return I agreed to help him in his own job, which ended in dramatic fashion when your unit showed up. Unfortunately, after that, the ghosts of old McMurdosford refused to stay dead. I could not materially affect events, nor could I contribute anything but a meaningless death, in the village proper; mobile and on ground of my choosing it is a different matter.

Considering what I have seen of your willingness to work with magical means, I am taking a long shot, but a worthwhile one. I think you stand a good chance of warding off some manner of catastrophe, should my suspicions prove correct. We can discuss prices and means later; for now, as it was thirty-eight years ago, there are lives to save.

The rest of the letter detailed methods to contact Captain Barnes: should the group be interested, a reply was to be left in a certain hayloft within three days of receipt of the letter.

Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three.

England

"Okay" Lita said. She gave Karla a respectful nod and left the room to get back to her own and get back to working on the thing for Mr. Clark.

Once in her room, Lita started to work on the proposal -though it seemed less and less like a proposal the more she worked on it- right away; taking breaks to use her pensieve and look at some things twice to make sure she hadn't missed anything. She ended up drinking a bit of invigoration draught herself at around three in the morning, and later at around nine.

She didn't leave her room until near-noon in the twenty ninth of October.

RAF Minton

Lita slept heavily. She could have been mistaken for dead if not for her breathing and small twitches every once in a while. She didn't notice any yelling, or moving, or anything. Invigoration draughts gave the drinker an energy boost, but sooner or later one had to balance it out with sleep. She'd be out for hours.

The only way she'd managed to put together the large document she'd given Mr. Clark was by constant work and next to no sleep in the past few days. Even her magic was weaker now that she was making up for lost sleep. In another night over the past few days she would have caused a crack or something similar by now, but her exhaustion over more than forty-eight hours working without sleep had hit her like a giant hammer. The more destructive parts of her sleep would probably be absent for a while.

Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, you can't sell him fish anymore. http://thoughtfulspurts.wordpress.com/

"Come here for a moment," Olivia told the guard, before realizing what she was saying. "Wait, no, stay there. I'll come to you."

Walking across the room, she set her shotgun down on the table, pointed towards the wall. Placing her medkit next to it, she rifled through it, making sure everything was in order.

"Were you hit, stabbed, or shot?" she began, looking him over. There didn't look to be any blood, so the last two were fairly obviously ruled out, meaning he was probably hit somehow, or tripped.

"Okay, stupid question," she doubled back, changing approaches. "Where specifically and with what was the blow dealt? What do you feel?"

I am become Death, Destroyer of Miniputts.

Clark pondered the content of the letter and then folded it up and put it in his jacket pocket. He headed down to the room where they were hosting Mrs. Barnes, deciding to ask her about this previous Mc Murdosford incident.

As he headed toward the room, he spotted Fields, carrying Lita. He raised an eyebrow, wondering whether this was the suspicious magic in Goslen's cell or just exhaustion. "Need help?" he asked.

edited 30th Jun '12 5:33:29 PM by Wysp

"Your mission is not to nuke the squid god." —Faramir

Alex glanced at Mrs. Barnes and Clark as they spoke to him, then glanced down at Lita, whom he was still dragging. "I dunno, she just fell asleep, I think" Alex said, then looked back towards Claudia. "You mind if she borrows your bed for a bit?" he asked, not sure where else to really take the girl.

You are reading this.