Character Heist

An illusion made by Mitsu.

edited 17th Sep '12 6:57:38 AM by PsychoFreaX

Jonathan muttered darkly to himself. Kobayashi had gone into the safe house, but left two guards at the door, apparently waiting for him.

He quickly glanced around. Near the BMW, there was a spout that might support his weight. He tentatively walked over and pulled cautiously at it. Nothing creaked, groaned, or popped out, so he assumed it would. He grabbed on and began pulling himself hand-over-hand up the building.

Once he pulled himself over the top, he quickly ran over to the safe house's roof, taking roundabout routes to avoid detection and jumping alleys. Once over the entrance, he examined the two men. They were positioned close enough that he could get the drop on both of them from here, if he jumped down. He toyed with the idea of simply shooting them, but dropped it; they were probably just doing their jobs.

Instead, he hunkered down and waited for any signs of conflict.

Alice yawned. "I've seen the mages of Uel sacrifice their own children to feed their dark lord, and get some trinket of power in return. People are capable of truly incredible evil, and it's really not so hard to make them go those sorts of distances." She raised her head to stare Kobayashi in the eyes and said, "so a third-rate, jumped-up thug with delusions of power threatening a child to get his father to do his bidding makes perfect sense. You are really not helping your case here."

An illusion made by Mitsu.

edited 17th Sep '12 6:57:53 AM by PsychoFreaX

Kobayashi was really beginning to irritate Alice, and it showed. But deciding to humor the fool, she said, "very well. What is this 'favor'? And does it involve killing? Because I'm in a very stabby mood right about now..."

An illusion made by Mitsu.

edited 17th Sep '12 6:58:03 AM by PsychoFreaX

"I'd rather not go back to that dingy rat hole. It wasn't a very nice place," William says mildly, and chastises himself for not making more bombs as soon as he got his hands on supplies. "You want us to find the purple-haired brat, eh? I know he's a pain in the ass, but why do you want him?"

An illusion made by Mitsu.

edited 17th Sep '12 6:58:15 AM by PsychoFreaX

Alice leaned back in her chair, a sinister idea forming. "Oh, yeah, Prisha. Little brat. You sure I can't stab him? Be nice if I could." Time to spin a lie. And hopefully remove a thorn from Western Amalgamated's side.

"Anyways, last I checked, one of those Sol III Foundation SUVs picked him up. Turns out he's one of their dogs. Another reason to kill him. You know the Sol III Foundation, right? Tech-obsessed 'think-tank' with their own pet political party and a couple half-assed cyborgs in their employ. Anyways, he's probably on a chopper to Area 51 right now — their Air Force contacts let them use the place for their cybernetic experiments, and knowing them, they've expanded to psionics." With a morose chuckle, she added, "only the Sol III foundation would give an obnoxious part-Uelane brat like him psychic powers..."

edited 18th Aug '11 8:30:21 AM by KillerClowns

An illusion made by Mitsu.

edited 17th Sep '12 6:58:35 AM by PsychoFreaX

William makes a mental note to throw Prisha off a cliff.

"And if Bianca and I help, can we go home?" he asks.

An illusion made by Mitsu.

edited 17th Sep '12 6:58:51 AM by PsychoFreaX

"Challenge accepted."

Ian peeked out from around the corner and placed himself against the wall. His skin sizzled slightly in the sun, but he didn't mind. He followed the BMW after it left without him, which was a little hard. By keeping in the shadows, he was able to keep up with them. After traversing the warm streets of Las Vegas, he understood why vampires preferred areas further north. It may be charming at night, but an overcast sky was hard to come by.

"I already found him once." Ian said, rubbing his fingers together. "He hid in a drawer and I heard him. During that incident, I memorized the scent of his blood. One I locate his general area, weeding him out should be easy."

He looked at his employer and said. "Can two or more people receive this award?"

An illusion made by Mitsu.

edited 17th Sep '12 6:59:07 AM by PsychoFreaX

"One?" Bianca repeats faintly. "Is there anything else William and I could do to change that?"

An illusion made by Mitsu.

edited 17th Sep '12 6:59:19 AM by PsychoFreaX

You better not cry, you little bitch, William thinks.

"So basically, you want to bind us to you, for your own purposes."

An illusion made by Mitsu.

edited 17th Sep '12 6:59:32 AM by PsychoFreaX

"So," Alice said, voice dripping with sarcasm, "basically, what your saying is that rather than having us cooperate in hunting down Prisha, you'd prefer us to trip over and sabotage each other, desperate to claim your prize, until some Sol III cyborg notices us and guns us all down?" Alice gave a sound somewhere between a laugh and a scoff. "No wonder you hold such rank and prestige, given your brilliant plans..."

An illusion made by Mitsu.

edited 17th Sep '12 6:59:45 AM by PsychoFreaX

This was not going well. The data contained on that laptop... Kobayashi made a phone call.

Far away from the safe house sat an ancient woman sat in a wheelchair, hooked up to various life-support devices, observing lines of seemingly impenetrable ascii on monitors. Lady Likho, they called her. A hideously ugly, balding old hag, with an eye-patch over the socket where her left eye had once been. Her voice, with a thin Russian accent, was weak and wheezing as she muttered to herself, "They're trying to DDoS us? Really? Script kiddies... and I was hoping for a fun day. Ah... the arrogance of youth." A raspy chuckle turned into a hacking cough that rapidly brought aids to her side. "No, no," she said, shooing them away, "I'm not dying today. Too busy."

Her phone began ringing, and an aid rushed to bring it to her, obligingly holding the headset to her ear and mouth. "Yes? Who is this?"

Speaking outside of the hearing of any of his pawns, Kobayashi said, "it's Kobayashi. We've had a minor security breach... one of my laptops is in Prisha's hands."

"Whose hands?"

"Prisha — one of my recruits, from the Occult Society."

"Kobayashi!" Likho said, her raspy voice grating against Kobayashi's ear like sandpaper. "Forget the laptop! It'll take days for them to break our encryption!" Those who worked with Likho were surprised how much she knew about computers... until they found out that she'd been among those who had invented computing, having credentials dating back to the eras of vacuum tubes. And while her body was decayed, her mind was as sharp as ever, and she was a voracious learner. "It would have been millenia if we'd have used Twofish, like I said, but no, our dear employer didn't think an publicly known cipher was secure. Never mind old Likho, silly old Likho..."

Days. Not hours, days. A definite improvement on what Kobayashi had feared.

Likho's irritated sigh resulted in another coughing fit — when finished, she continued, "hmph, that miracle you pulled off in Honolulu has earned you a lot of credit, so I'm thinking you can handle this absurd incident without a grumpy old lady on your back. How hard can it be to find an occult? Don't you have some kind of magic smelling dogs for this sort of occasion?" She wheezed as she considered Kobayashi's situation. "gah. Don't worry too much. Wait, no, that's not entirely true. I'd hate to be you if they get that laptop long enough to decrypt it. But you should be able to deal with it before then."

Without waiting for a reply from Kobayashi, Likho hung up. It didn't even bother him anymore.

Returning to the safe house, Kobayashi said, "while you were busy hemming and hawing, I just made a phone call. Forget Prisha. He doesn't matter quite as much as I'd thought in the long scheme." With a smug smile, he added, "generous offers don't wait forever... I thought you people would have known that. Oh well. Too bad. Enjoy your night at the safe house. We'll be monitoring it... make sure nobody gets in without permission." The malicious sparkle in his eyes made his implied "or out" very clear.

As soon as he left, Alice said, "great. Prisoners in a gilded cage." She realized that her brash rudeness had probably done more damage than good... Kobayashi would be watching them more closely than ever. She'd have to explain her scheme another time... but how?

I'm offering Lady Likho as another shared character — do be careful with her, though. She really is just a dying old woman, albeit one whose mind remains as sharp as ever. Just don't try to make her a Magnificent Bastard. She plays too cautiously and defensively for that. And Likho his not her proper name, but a codename.

edited 19th Aug '11 5:40:21 AM by KillerClowns

Yuki frowned as she stood from behind her car. In her fist she held a handful of devices that had been attached to her car: redundant GPS systems, microphones, and a few things she couldn't immediately decipher.

"Great. So I'm pulling these off for nothing, then?" she asked, tossing the electronics to the ground. "I swear, this is going to be the longest two weeks of my life."

She retrieved her sword before closing and locking her car. "I assume we're going back to the planning stages?" she asked Alice.

Nice job restoring the status quo there, Killer Clowns. Maybe now we'll see more posts.

It would be just dandy if Bianca started crying right now. William sighs and leans back the chair while she stares blankly ahead of her.

I could have captured him. But he made me so angry.

There, there, child. You can always kill him later.

She sighs. "We have to steal the diadem." William raises his eyebrows at her, but says nothing. Let the rest of them tell her that there are other things to worry about.

So, what should I do now? Alexia thought.

Alexia sat on the bed of her new hotel room that the casino owners provided. It was a suite, with a living room, a nice bathroom, a mini-kitchen, and a four-poster double bed. She found some mints scattered under the pillows that seem to keep their shape after she accidently leaned her elbow in it. She was still figuring out the technology, but it was similar enough that she could handle it without having to call someone up.

The sun was setting outside, and the lights were coming on. It was a beautiful sight. Through the glass double-doors to the baloney, orange light shone through the clear warm sky. The radiance cast light onto the carpet, heating it up.

She examined the bags that she was provided with. It was simply clothes, and a few other stuff like an electronic device, a portable phone, and a smoke grenade. They let her keep her gun and knife, on the condition that she doesn't tell the rest of the staff about it. The few staff members that she met were accommodating, but they were in with the plan to foil the heist.

How exactly should I use my power? she thought. It'll be hard contacting one of them beforehand, so...

She thought back to her interview.

"Give me a reason why we should let you stay here." the man said. "It seems like you have little fighting ability."

"I do have some experience in weaponry." Alexia brushed her hand against the glass table. They were in some sort of private lounge, with dimmed lights and leather sofas. Classical music played from an unknown source, which made her feel at home. It beat the "pop" and "rock" music she keeps hearing. It was a little too strong for her tastes. "On me is a Colt revolver and a knife. I would tell you where I put them, but that would be unlady-like of me."

The man remained undaunted. "Can you stand your own in combat with trained soldiers? Take out them from afar?"

"Umm..." Before Alexia could answer, the door opened. A young woman dressed in some sort of uniform entered the room. Cups full of coffee clattered on the tray she was holding. A pleasant smile beamed on her face. She reached the table and set the tray down on the center of it.

"Here are the drinks you asked for." the woman said in a young and upbeat voice.

Alexia took note of the woman. She noticed her brown chestnut hair, her blue eyes, her apple-shaped head with her small but puffy lips...She even noticed how the woman rocked her head, figited with her fingers, and bounced on her feet. Small details, but important ones.

The woman left the room as promptly as possible. As soon as the door closed, the man wavered his hand towards the cups. "Would you like some coffee?"

"I prefer tea, but this would be nice." Alexia brushed her hand against one of the cups. It was warm, but not scalding hot. She picked the cup up with two hands. "I supposed I should show you my ability."

As she lifted the cup towards her mouth, Alexia pictured the woman in her head. Something triggered within her mind, and she began to shift. She could feel her face shifting into a blur, and reconfigurating. Chemicals also shifted in her body, making her feel a bit more peppy. She touched the rim with her lips, which were now shaped differently. The man looked at her in surprise.

"Do you think that's impressive?" Alexia said in the voice of the young woman. She took a sip. "I have the ability to impersonate a person. Just by observing them, I can copy their face, hair, body, voice, mannerisms, and even some of their personality. All I need to find out is a little about them, and I could take someone's place, even for a few minutes." As she took another sip, Alexia reverted back to her red-headed form. "I think it would be useful. Once the thieves infiltrate this casino, I can isolate one of them from the group, knock him or her out, and then assume their place. It won't be convincing for long, but it's enough to throw a wrench into their place."

Alexia looked directly in his eye. "What do you think?"

"How much should I pay you?" he asked.

"You don't need to give me money." Alexia said. "All I need is a way home. Can you figure out how to do that?"

"I can try."

"That's good enough." Even if he couldn't, it was Alexia's duty to protect the casino. Despite its under-handed motives, Alexia doubt the thieves were going to steal from it for good. Instead, they probably have selfish, lawless motives.

When law and crime are morally equal, what side would you choose?

"All right, folks. If you're still too fired up to go to bed, we'd better talk about what to do. No matter what, Bianca and I are going to get that diadem. It's our only way home." William lights up a cigarette and leans his elbows on the table. "Who's going to help us? The goddess is too weak to fight us past the security over there before Bianca kills herself. She's just too weak in this world. See? Look. She's asleep already. She had shields up around all of us until Kobayashi left, no to mention the attack on Daisuke and Prisha's little tantrum."