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Post by jarahamee on Sept 25, 2021 1:22:46 GMT -6
Cassius surveyed the room quickly, staying low in case there were more assailants there. He strained his ears listening for more movement, and was rewarded. At least two more threats.
One above, and one by the door. He shifted, moving quickly and quietly to the stairwell, using it for cover. The person above had stopped moving, and was no longer coming down. One, two, three. He was listening for Agent Jones far above.
Good, he could ambush him when he got here, with all luck, but he would have to deal with the woman first.
The old werewolf looked over from down low, and noted the presence of the child. He’d have to be careful not to harm her, but her cries would alert the others. Perhaps, this would require a more delicate touch than with the two men.
He’d aim to disarm her, and move her and the child out the front door, and hopefully, out of harm’s way. That would leave Jones to take care of those on the upper level. Unfortunate. He’d have to wait for back-up, or return through one of the doors without any line of sight on his victims.
The scarred man gritted his teeth, and moved quickly to knock the gun out of her hand, allowing him to grapple her without injuring the child. He aimed to cover her mouth with his hand. In the movement, he would aim to turn them so he could access the front door and move them out of it.
“Police, freeze.”
He hissed, close enough that his statement offered no warning whatsoever.
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Post by Vaitris on Oct 1, 2021 18:19:32 GMT -6
The attic window cracked and shattered inward, shards falling to the wooden floor beneath with a tinkle of sound. Stenson was able to gain entrance to the house but not silently and shortly after he was inside, there was a noise in the direction of a trapdoor in the middle of the room. It creaked open and he glimpsed the silhouette of a slim figure peeking through before a flashlight crested the edge of the doorway and it was obscured by the glare of light.
The light was swept around the room, exposing a variety of boxes and other bulky items pushed up against the walls and then evidently forgotten. They were all gray with dust and anchored in place by stringy cobwebs. When the glow finally fell on Stenson’s frozen form, it stopped. There was a small noise of disgust and a young feminine voice whispered, “that’s one ugly ass statue.”
The light then pivoted slightly to settle on the broken window behind the gargoyle. Silence hung tense and heavy in the air, before a sudden crash from downstairs and the piercing scream of a child cut through it.
“Shit! Willa!” The light suddenly disappeared and the trapdoor fell closed with a thud. Wood creaked and the sound of footsteps descending a ladder could just be heard as the stranger hurried away.
Down below, the old woman had no time to dodge Cassius’ attack. She swung her attention from the front door to the man as he called out, just in time to have the gun knocked from her hands. When he reached to grapple her she twisted away, but tripped and fell to the dirty carpet with a forceful “oomph.” Now nearly on top of her, Cassius could spot bits of bright orange foam stuffed into her ears.
The little girl recoiled from them both and let loose a long, wild shriek of fear. The sound was shrill and grating and surprisingly, almost paralyzingly, painful. Window panes shivered and cracked in response. The television’s screen shattered. Light bulbs burst and rained glass on the floor.
Hau, halfway through the front door with his eyes locked on the discarded gun, yelped in a mix of surprise and pain. He stumbled over the impulse to plug his ears with nonexistent hands, before scrambling back through the door and out into the night.
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Post by Pearl Dragon on Nov 21, 2021 11:36:43 GMT -6
Stenson's sense of sight and sound were preserved in this statue state, allowing him to watch as a trapdoor in the center of the room opened and a silhouette peeked into the attic with a flashlight. It scanned the space, passing over abandoned boxes, stored objects, and finally stopped on him. Inside, he felt a moment of tension, would they think him out of place? But to his surprise, the figure only commented "that's one ugly ass statue" before their attention fell on the broken window. So, this wasn't their house. Otherwise they would have recognized him as a foreign object. The air remained tense, but perhaps only for the person with the search light. Stenson felt a calm certainty fall on him, knowing they wouldn't find him. Still, his mind raced on what to do next. Before long, there was a crash and deafening scream from somewhere below and the silhouette retreated to see what else was going on. The scream itself pierced Stenson's sense of hearing and he hardened his eardrums into silence at the intensity of it.
The moment the trap door closed, Stenson let go of his disguise, carefully turning his eardrums back to flesh as well to listen for when the screaming stopped. Whoever that was, they were a super for sure. Granite softened into flesh, and the moment one arm was free, Stenson reached over and grabbed a stack of boxes. With no regard for stealth, he knocked the entire stack forward towards the closed trap door, allowing some to also fall at his feet as well. He wanted them to hear him, or at least feel a thud from the heavier containers, and he wanted them to pinpoint that the commotion had come from somewhere near the boxes, the "ugly ass statue", and the window. The very next moment, Stenson resumed his previous position, and hardened himself back into granite.
There he'd wait, knowing whomever had just left the attic would have very little time between their initial exit and the sound from the boxes. He would be waiting up there for him, some boxes fallen at his feet as if someone had been hiding just near the statue behind the stack, while the rest of the stack fell in an arc from him to the trap door, looking as if someone had gotten clumsy in their hiding spot.
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Post by jarahamee on Nov 23, 2021 0:20:11 GMT -6
Cassius flinched impulsively, clapping his mangled fingers to his head. His skull was screaming. Suddenly, his eye caught the couch cushion pieces stuffed in the mother’s ears. There was one way he could get her to stop. Besides the obvious, anyways.
He reached out and tried to pull the foam out of her ears, his head still ringing from the impact. Was there blood in his own ears now?
A shape emerged from the door, quickly retreating. A super. Not one of them. It moved fast, retreating out of the doorway and dodging down the street, leaving the door open.
And hopefully now that she was hurting her mother, the whelp would stop screaming. If he was successful, he shoved them into his ears, and, in the same motion, aimed to push the mother out the open front door. Through his ringing head, footfalls could be heard above, and likely another armed intruder was coming.
He could use her as a shield, but moving out the door would be an easier way to have cover, and now he had protection from the child.
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Post by Vaitris on Dec 4, 2021 10:57:05 GMT -6
The stack of boxes fell, spilling papers and Christmas ornaments and clothes across the floor of the attic and over the door. The ornaments especially made a tremendous clatter that just had to be heard by whoever was downstairs, screaming or no. But moments passed and there was no movement from the trapdoor, no creaking from the wooden ladder, nothing. Whatever was going on elsewhere in the house was apparently more important.
Down below, the old woman realized what Cassius was trying to do and wrenched herself away from him, but the agent was just too quick. He snagged the plugs from her ears and managed to shove them into his own, dampening the sound of screaming but not cutting it out completely. The piercing pain receded to a dull ache that throbbed through his skull.
Slapping her hands to her ears, the woman cried out, cursing acidicly. She rolled away from him as he reached to grapple her, dragging herself up onto the couch and twisting around to kick at him. If he was still planning to take her anywhere, she was planning to put up a fight. And she was heavyset, dragging her from the house would take a bit of effort.
The only real relief from the shrieking pain came when the little girl gasped for breath, and it was during one of those brief moments when a voice could be heard. “Willadean!” A young woman had appeared at the top of the stairs, her hands pressed flat to her ears, a flashlight jutting awkwardly from her hip pocket. She screamed over the noise, fighting to be heard. “Willa! Stop!”
The girl sputtered, paused, tears glistening at the corners of her eyes as she looked up. “Mama!” She took off, dodging around Cassius in a blind sprint for the stairs.
Unnoticed by her and everyone else in the room, the door next to the stairs was now cracked open, just far enough that someone on the other side might glimpse the chaos going on in the living room.
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