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Post by luscen on Mar 8, 2022 21:28:38 GMT -6
Casmir tapped the ashes of his cigarette into a nearby tray, blowing a trail of smoke out through his mouth, while the sounds of pool balls clattering mingled with AC/DC's “Back in Black” being blasted over the speakers of the bar he sat in. As the scarred man's mismatched eyes watched the smoke wend its way upwards, his thoughts turned to a certain redheaded, crocodile-tailed shapeshifter going home in the arms of a certain plank of wood. A plank of wood that had – intentionally or not – been the cause of much of her anxiety and heartache. The idea sent an irrational spike of anger lancing through Casmir's chest, and with a grunt he knocked back a large portion of the pilsner sat before him, his mouth twisting as he blanched over the bland taste of the amber liquid he'd ordered.
'Can't even enjoy a decent god damned drink,' Casmir grumbled sourly. Americans had no taste when it came to beer, it seemed. A lousy drink to end a lousy day, as it were.
With a disgusted sigh, the Hunter muttered something in Polish before leaving a tip for the bartender, taking his unopened bag of crisps for the road.
'Casmir!' The Dryder's voice, so intense that he actually staggered, rang out in the Hunter's head just as he laid hold of the handle of his bike. 'It's Atol! Atol's after Sara!'
The words rocked Casmir to his core; he felt the ground sway beneath him, his heartbeat pounding in his ears. “Where?” he croaked from a mouth suddenly dry as sand.
'The subway!' Delphi replied. 'I heard her warn me in code before he did something, cut off the area. Before she vanished she was about 10 miles from your location, due southwest, roughly.'
Casmir didn't reply, instead hopping onto his bike and taking off with a screech of tires and and a plume of smoke following in his wake. Throttling the bike, the Hunter let his reflexes guide him, weaving his way through tightly packed cars, his speed continuing to increase. He spied an entrance to the subway on his left, jerking the bike towards it and racing downstairs, laws and etiquette be damned. A few people yelled and ducked out of his way, but he couldn't even see them; the only thought occupying his mind was that he had to make it in time.
Please, God, let him make it in time.
The subway docks weren't so simply a matter for the Hunter to navigate; most of the crowd pushed themselves out of his way, but not all of them were quick enough, and as much as he wanted to get to Sara's side as expediently as possible, he wasn't about to run someone over in his haste. So, he had to settle for swerving around and relying on the masses to have enough sense to get out of his way. It had slowed him down, but only slightly. He was hoping it wouldn't be too drastic, but Delphi's voice cutting through his head again wasn't very reassuring.
'No... Oh no.'
The dread in the Dryderi's voice gave Casmir pause. "What is it?" He asked, concerned. "Delphi, what's wrong?"
'Casmir... the spot where Sara's talisman vanished...' the Dryder began tremulously. 'It's- the talisman's appeared, again. But Sara's not... She's not saying anything. And... and I can't see her Thread, anymore.'
The Hunter almost lost control of the bike at the words; memories of his nightmare, the one he'd had after he'd almost died saving the redhead from that facility, flashed through his mind: Sara, beneath a full moon too large to be real. Sara, turning to look at him with a warm smile. Her body suddenly bursting like a balloon filled with too much air. Her blood spattering to the ground, soaking the soil a deep red. Atol suddenly standing there, holding aloft a glistening red gem, his crimson eyes gleaming and a cruel, mocking smirk playing across his lips. His gloved fist closing around what remained of the once-vibrant Shifter.
Casmir clenched his teeth- that couldn't happen, he wouldn't let that happen! But the more time he spent trying to avoid running over the pedestrians in the subway station, the longer it'd take for him to get there, and Sara didn't have time. With a grunt, he pulled the bike off the platform, landing on the subway tracks and gunning the motor to the limit of what he knew he could handle.
'Sara,' he thought desperately. 'Hold on. I'll be there soon. Hold on!'
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Post by MP on Mar 9, 2022 22:43:00 GMT -6
Aaron didn't know how long he'd been lying there, staring at the spot where Sara had been. It might have been hours. Might have been seconds ago. She'd been just there. His mind kept turning circles around the absence, unable to approach the knowledge. It was the broken shape in the hospital bed. It was the screams through the burning door.
His fingers curled, and he found he could move again. Instead he dropped his brow softly against the concrete, the first shivers beginning to crash over him. He'd let her go. He'd had to. He let it happen.
Wasting time. A hope lit in the back of his mind, frail and desperate. It's not too late.
He stifled something like a groan, something like a sob. Pushed himself upright. The part of him that looked at the scene with an agent's eye began to chug into motion, driving his numb thoughts forward. Dimensional magic carried signatures. Teleportation spells could be traced. Aaron fumbled for his phone, still staring at the empty space as he raised it to his ear. An answer came through. They were out now. Too late. They were out.
"I need -" His voice was hoarse, faltering. He tried again, stronger. "I need dimensional specialists and occult trackers to White Glen station. We need to cordon off the area. Atol's taken Sar-" Another pause as his voice failed him. "Atol has taken Dr. Summers. The Soundless, yes."
He listened. Wiped at his eyes as he answered their questions. But his voice was steady now, if uncommonly flat. Help was coming. They were coming, Sar. The voice through the receiver was a reminder of that, a frail lifeline. But beyond that, there was the silence and the waiting. When Aaron hung up, he was still alone in the station, a lonely figure under the light.
His eyes turned downward, searching for any magical traces, for evidence to avoid and guard. But he couldn't seem to bring his feet to move. His gaze, wooden and dangerously fixed, kept going back to the empty space on the floor.
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Post by luscen on Mar 10, 2022 0:15:22 GMT -6
Try as he might, Casmir couldn't stop the onslaught of mental images looping through his head; it was a cavalcade of possibilities regarding Sara's fate, each worse than the last: Was she choking in a pool of her own blood? Had her neck been broken, her lifeless body strung up like some kind of morbid ragdoll? Could Atol have simply turned her shapeshifting power against her in some gruesome fashion, leaving nothing but a corpse like a jumbled mess of tissue and bone? Worse, what if she'd been turned into an abomination like Marchelute? And he'd simply let her tear Aaron limb from limb, aware - in some small corner of her mind - what she'd just done?
Another memory from a nightmare: a monstrous beast with hate-filled eyes, screaming his name in a bestial roar, the all-too-familiar crocodile tail crashing against the ground in a rage. Would the Hunter have to put her down? Could he, if it came to that?
'Stop,' Casmir growled, clenching his teeth so hard his jaw ached. Sara was gone, that much was certain- there was no trace of her that Delphi could detect, only the Dryder's talisman remained. Had Atol killed her? If not, where was she? Could he have taken her? Why? Why had he even bothered to do this in person? The Soundless worshipped a "night goddess," and as such they didn't tolerate the existence of Photomancers. Especially not one that had been as close to their goddess as Telmore seemed to be, if the intel Delphi had collected was anything to go by. Yet anyone who'd seen the man had to have known he was little better than a desk worker! A few assassins would have been enough to deal with this, easily. Why bother going to all this trouble?
'Stop thinking about the "why," Casmir chided himself. If Sara was there and still alive, or simply in a form too difficult for Delphi to pick up - an unlikely possibility, but a possibility, nonetheless - then he'd be able to at least save her life. If, however, Atol took her - perhaps as a bargaining chip or something to attempt to deter any attempts to recover Rhys - then Casmir could use the tools at his disposal to find out where they'd gone. Sidelis, or wherever Atol might have taken Sara, wasn't impregnable. There was no fortress or base that didn't have a way in.
At least, this is what the Hunter told himself as he tried to ignore the tremble in his hand.
'It's just up ahead,' Delphi pointed out quietly. Casmir wanted to offer her some words of comfort, but found he couldn't muster any, just yet. Instead, he could only mutter a hushed word of thanks, before shutting the bike off and hoisting it up onto the subway terminal. He climbed up easily enough after, surveying the area, only to feel like someone had punched him in the gut when he saw Agent Telmore just... standing there, perfectly fine, staring at a spot on the floor. What was he doing? Hadn't Atol come for him? Why was he just standing there!?
"Where is she?" Casmir demanded in a tight voice. The Hunter stepped closer to the other man, his hand going for the collar of the Agent's coat. "Where's Sara?"
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Post by MP on Mar 10, 2022 4:08:09 GMT -6
He heard the growl of the engine, and at first Aaron thought it was the response team, somehow early. Maybe his alert had gone through after all. But it was the wrong voice. The wrong tone. Aaron knew that even as he turned.
He stared as first the bike, then the man emerged, still in a kind of daze. What was the hunter doing here? He held up a hand, trying to keep him there. Trying to ward off the demands. He wasn't sure he could face the answer.
"You need to stay back." It was Aaron's voice, and yet he felt strangely detached from it. Still a little too soft, a little too toneless. "This is a WDSA crime scene."
Part of him listened to his own words with disgust. How could he reduce Sara's loss down to that? A line of barricade tape. A file on someone's desk. Couldn't he drop the official act, even for her? She was gone. She was gone, and he'd let her go. Was that what the hunter wanted to hear?
As if he sensed it, the man moved for him, reached for him, and some silent thread snapped. Aaron retreated a step. His hand snapped up to knock Casmir's hand aside.
"Don't -"
The word snapped with aggression, anguish. A flash of emotion. Aaron put a hand over his eyes, trying to compose himself. He let out a breath. But how could he? How could he?
"Just stay back," he said, more calmly. "There may still be something we can trace."
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Post by luscen on Mar 10, 2022 4:44:30 GMT -6
Casmir was too angry to bother trying to avoid the strike. Rather, his hand immediately leapt back from where it'd been struck, grasping Aaron's arm by the sleeve in a tight grip.
"Something you can trace!?" he snapped furiously. "You mean to tell me you lost her? What happened, glowworm? Did you crumple in one hit, or did you actually break down and start fucking cowering the minute Atol exerted a bit of pressure?"
The Hunter was twisting Aaron's forearm, his thumb pressing down against the other man's wrist bone. It seemed he was doing it more out of frustration than by intent. How could he not get that Sara didn't have time for 'protocol?' Didn't he have an ounce of emotion in that burlap sack of a body?
"And now what?" he continued, taking a step closer to the other man. "You're just going to sit here and wait? While Atol took your fiancé!?"
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Post by MP on Mar 11, 2022 0:33:27 GMT -6
"Do not."
The danger was like a thundercloud, a blackness and a luminous quality all at once in Aaron's glare. He jerked his arm against Casmir's grip, but the man held fast. Aaron's other hand came up into the hunter's chest in a violent, almost desperate barge.
Part of it was some lingering awareness that he needed to protect to the scene, to move them away from it. But the larger part was the frustration at those words. At himself.
"What are you doing here?" he demanded. He stood braced as if for attack, tension bristling in his frame. "What do you want?"
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Post by luscen on Mar 11, 2022 5:28:49 GMT -6
Casmir saw the angry ripple of the meager halo framing Telmore's solid form, beheld the angry flash in his glare, his gray eyes pealing like thunderclouds. Rather than be cowed by it, however, the Hunter felt his own ire rising, the blood rushing to his head thanks to the potent concoction of fear and resentment and frustration.
Telmore's free hand came up, shoving into the other man's chest to try and push him away, and even through the runic barrier's dampening effect Casmir staggered from the force of the blow. Incensed, he grasped the Agent's hand before Telmore could pull it away.
"I warned you, Glowworm," he growled, struggling to keep the brunette's arms in check. "I told you, told her, to stop making yourself easy to find. Now she's gone, and it's your fault!"
The blonde suddenly snapped his head forward, aiming for the other man's nose. If the flashbulb wanted to throw a punch out of some pathetic desire to alleviate his impotence, he could do it with one of his work buddies. Casmir wasn't interested in babying him.
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Post by MP on Mar 12, 2022 5:41:57 GMT -6
Aaron only just recognized the movement. He jerked back, trying to turn his head. The blow caught him hard on the cheekbone, just below the eye, and Aaron reeled with a grunt of pain. But the starburst of red behind his eyes didn't stop his fist. It came up almost as reflexively as the earlier shove, thrown straight from the shoulder into Casmir's face.
"Warned us?" It wasn't just a defensive reflex this time. Aaron chased the hunter with a second blow, right on the heels of the first. "We live here, you fucking psycho."
There was nothing recognizable in the agent's tone. It was fury; it was grief. He wanted the hunter away from him, wanted to feel the give of that sour face under his fist. Aaron moved into the other man's instep, refusing to give him an inch.
"You're the one following us. You're the one showing up everyplace we turn. Always on Atol's fucking heels-" A harsh shove, an almost blow, as he tried to shunt the man back. "The hell do you want?"
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Post by luscen on Mar 15, 2022 17:27:04 GMT -6
The botched connection of Casmir's attempted headbutt afforded Telmore a quick recovery. The Agent took full advantage, his fist swinging with alarming precision right at the Hunter's face. It connected solidly, knocking the blonde's head back and forcing him to release Telmore, who followed up with a second swing that managed to catch Casmir on the opposite side of his face. More surprisingly, the flat, toneless voice the Photomancer had before was gone, replaced by a strained, angry timbre that matched his heated blows.
However, as the brunette stepped in, intent on pressing his advantage, Casmir recovered. The blows had served to clear his head and focus his ire, and in a single, precise motion, the Hunter's gauntleted fist shot forward, catching Telmore mid-grapple in a counter.
"Malotek," the blonde spat, literally spewing some blood mixed with a bit of saliva off to the side, then working his sore jaw. "You think Atol got lucky? Just sat on the train for hours hoping he'd run into you? He'd already had your number, you twit. And you made it all too easy for him by keeping to your damn routine."
The Hunter cracked his knuckles. "No security detail. No attempts at taking a more unorthodox route. No checking into a nearby hotel, instead. You couldn't even bring your little red-haired attack dog with you. Not that it'd help, since you let him off his leash and Atol butchered him in reply." Casmir's face darkened as he considered the other man. "You're a real piece of work, glowworm, you know that? First you get your pocket child soldier messed up, then you let your fiancé get taken, again. Do you even care what happens to them?"
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Post by MP on Mar 16, 2022 0:32:50 GMT -6
In that moment, Aaron looked like a wounded beast. Hand clamped over a bloodied nose, eyes blazing with a wild light, he all but radiated violence. His rattled focus narrowed in on the snarled accusations, on the mismatched glare, and he righted himself where he'd staggered back.
"You don't say a word about them," he spat through the drip of blood. He stepped toward the hunter, advanced, his momentum building. "You don't show up now and try to fucking talk."
It looked like he might try to barge Casmir back again, but there was something sharper in Aaron's eyes this time. More focused. Force him back. Knock him down, a fainter inner voice snarled. Aaron moved for Casmir again, and this time, his arm came up to divert the counterblow.
"What did you know? What does he want her for?"
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Post by luscen on Mar 16, 2022 15:55:06 GMT -6
Casmir stared back at Telmore's furious, blazing eyes, the Agent further proving to be very much unlike the doormat the Hunter had dismissed him as. 'Good,' came the hungry growl in response, as he sized the other man up with fresh eyes. 'If he can actually fight, that means I don't have to feel guilty for pummeling the bastard into the pavement.'
Casmir's own eyes had sharpened to fine points; a burning brand of red next to a frozen fleck of ice, every line of his stony face etched in silent wrath. He shifted his weight, bringing his right shoulder up towards Telmore, his left arm bending towards it, while the opposite limb angled down along his midsection- it was a stance known as the "shoulder roll" to anyone familiar with it, and was a difficult defense to penetrate. The way the blonde easily slipped into it bespoke many a day's practice, and his piercing gaze gave little in the ways of opening.
Telmore stepped in, once again displaying a surprising amount of speed for his size. He was larger than Casmir, going by frame and body type, though not by much. In a fight, however, those few pounds could mean all the difference. As things were, Casmir might be in trouble if he continued fighting like a back-street brawler.
Fortunately, the scarred Hunter preferred to rely on speed and precision, rather than brute strength. As Telmore's fist shot forward, Casmir's responded, looping around the Agent's arm. To his surprise, however, the brunette retorted by bending his elbow, disrupting the momentum of the attack, and snapping Casmir's head back with a short uppercut from the opposite arm. He'd have been impressed with the display of skill, had he not felt his brain rattle from the weight of the other man's fist.
"What did you know?" Telmore's voice barked. "What does he want her for?"
'Want her? He was after Sara from the start?' Casmir's brain was sluggish from the hit, his legs unsteady as he fought off the fog of a solid knock to the head. He managed to parry Telmore's aggressive follow-up strikes despite his sluggishness, trying to muster his thoughts; Atol should have been targeting the glowworm, not the geneticist. Why would he need Sara?
Unfortunately, Casmir didn't have time to dwell on the disturbing thought at the moment; his haze had given way to frustration, the time wasted with this farce was growing by the second- he needed to settle this, now.
'He's not going to let me just hit him again.' For a moment, the Hunter felt the black flame of anger churning within him, and his jaw set. Couldn't this broken bulb see that they didn't have time for this!?
'Bait him,' Casmir thought, examining the Agent for weak points. 'Roll with the punch. Target the knee while he's off-guard; his mass will work against him then. He'll crumple like an old sack of potatoes. Keep him down with a blow to the head, after.'
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Post by MP on Mar 16, 2022 18:20:37 GMT -6
Aaron's thoughts held no such coherency. Etheric evidence, incoming agents, the momentary furrow to the hunter's brow - these were distant details, muted beneath the pounding blood in his ears and drowned out further with every blow of Casmir's. And the silence - the silence. The agent almost shook with frustration. He'd wipe that look off the hunter's face; he'd beat the truth out of him if he had to. He'd known about Atol - he'd known, and he showed up now to gloat?
Even through the haze, Aaron felt something wrong with the weight of his blow as it landed. No weight, no resistance. He started to backstep, arms coming in to guard and hook the counterblow, when he saw the change in Casmir's footing. Aaron shifted his footing so sharply that the hunter's boot scuffed painfully off his leg. The agent had stepped in between Casmir's legs and into his space, denying him footing or space to rebalance. Aaron had the advantage of weight, and he knew it. Get the hunter off his feet. Get him down. The weight would be on the back leg after the attempted kick. Aaron was already driving forward, left shoulder turned as a shield and battering ram. His right hand curled, ready to drive up and either catch Casmir's retreat or follow a stumble up with a fist.
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Post by luscen on Mar 18, 2022 18:03:49 GMT -6
Telmore's blows landed in Casmir's torso, buffered by his runic barrier- the impacts had more than a bit of force behind them, but the barrier worked by dispersing the strikes evenly across its surface, dampening the damage to a point that it was negligible- To Telmore, it would be like striking an air mattress; his blows would feel soft and shallow.
Casmir took advantage of the opening, his leg coming up and intent on bashing the Agent's knee. Regrettably for him, however, Telmore apparently picked up on his intention; the Agent suddenly shifted his footing, so the blow bounced off his calf, instead. And before Casmir could right himself, the brunette was pressing his advantage, setting his foot between Casmir and denying the Hunter the chance to correct his stance. Again, had Casmir not been so fueled by his anger and intent to hurt the other man, he might have been impressed with his opponent's fighting prowess.
Regardless, Telmore was barreling forward with his shoulder, intent on knocking the Hunter to the ground. The blonde, however, in his hyper-focused state, took advantage of the Agent's momentum, turning it against him; grabbing the other man's lapels with one hand, clasping Telmore's fist in the other, Casmir denied the Agent the means to pull away or press the assault. He rolled with Telmore's shoulder-check, carrying them both down to the ground and leaving Casmir on his back, negating the attempted charge. The blonde brought his boot up sharply as he went down, driving it into the other man's gut, in an attempt to knock the wind out of him before throwing Telmore away and giving Casmir some breathing room.
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Post by MP on Mar 19, 2022 21:29:52 GMT -6
Aaron had the presence of mind to tuck his head and control the fall, but his breath still left him in a whoosh as the boot met his stomach and his back met concrete. Even through his padded coat, the impact jarred through his shoulders and back. And now the hunter was on the wrong side of him - closer to the stop and the last traces of Sara's abduction.
He righted himself with a growl, the lights whining above him. Aaron was too angry, too desperate to feel the fatigue or the unnatural heaviness in his limbs. But where the light shone down on Casmir's exposed skin, the sensation prickled like a low-grade sunburn. Aaron didn't seem to notice any such sensation. The throw had put them both on the ground. The hunter was also rising. He hooked a swift fist at the man's face as they rose, aiming to throw him off balance, keep him down.
"Get out," he snarled. The fact that the hunter couldn't have complied under the assault, and his own increasing incoherence, seemed lost on him. "Get out!"
He knew the hunter would try to catch him again. He saw it in the man's hungry focus. The same cold light was reflected in both their eyes. Aaron's response was another lunge, stepping into Casmir's space in the same aggressive move as before. He couldn't get through the defensive magic - it could be nothing else. But he didn't have to.
Aaron saw the second throw coming. Even through the haze of rage, he knew the man would take the opportunity. This time, he was waiting for it. The agent's stance dropped abruptly to one knee, ducking the hold and putting his shoulder on level with the hunter's hips. Aaron put all his weight into the takedown, ready to drive his knee into the hunter's gut and pin him once he was down.
Keep him down. Keep him away from the scene - all background thoughts. Aaron's eyes were flat and intent, focused only on the gap in the hunter's guard.
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Post by luscen on Mar 21, 2022 7:20:48 GMT -6
Casmir pushed himself off from the ground, turning just in time to see Telmore's fist arcing around towards his head. The Hunter didn't curse or jerk away, but gracefully rolled his head, avoiding the swing, his fierce eyes never leaving the other man for even a moment.
"Get out," Telmore growled, the lines of his face taut, the nimbus of light around his body quivering violently. His eyes seemed alight with an inner glow, as well, and he took a few more swings at the other man. "Get out!"
The lights whined, almost like they were keening in pain, obviously responding to the Agent's baying. Casmir could feel the uncomfortable sting of a minor sunburn on his exposed face, but he ignored it. Swaying around the other man's strikes, the blonde ducked low to the ground and slipped under Telmore's guard, his left arm raised for a punch. At the last moment, however, the Hunter quickly twisted his torso, using the torque to plow his elbow into the other man's diaphragm, instead. It staggered the brunette back a few paces, but aside from that didn't seem to do much- the Agent was simply too mad to register anything beyond his anger, at the moment.
Before Casmir could test just how far Telmore's anger would drive him, the other man was already moving; he telegraphed a second lunge, and the Hunter feinted, attempting to grab his coat again for another throw. This time, however, the Agent suddenly dipped down, avoiding the snatch and attempting to go in low for a grab of his own.
Yet Casmir had been expecting this; his forearm curved down, parallel to the ground, to deliver a smash into the brunette's nose, in an attempt to stave him off. The angle was wrong, unfortunately, and he simply struck Telmore's shoulder, instead. The Agent's larger mass crashed into him, and Casmir buckled, taking a half-step back by reflex.
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