ROGUES GALLERY - Issue #2: Swords and Sorcery (Glitchipedia & Parma)

[Master Mew]

The search for Mark Mitchell leads Magister through the swamps of Parma, Ohio. His journey there is short lived when he gets a call regarding suspicious activities in Cleveland.

Blade's goal is destroy the mayor and plunge the city into an even larger state of despair.

Will Magister stop her within 24 hours? Or will destruction reign supreme?

 

[Parma]

The airport in Cleveland held a lot of people-too many for her own comfort. Blade shook her head at everyone else around her. Most of them were out of towners looking for their luggage, while still some of them kept milling around.

What a day I end up being here, she thought, shaking her head. Excessive scouring of the airport didn't unveil her target, as her informer had suggested.

Of course he wouldn't be here in a place like this!

Various nudges and bumps jostled her out of her thinking mode. Blade had an objective to attain, and she knew it. Walking briskly and going with the flow of traffic eventually led her towards the front doors.

The flow led her to a barrage of people in the outside. She made a right and continued walking down the street. Past the crowds, past the large signs and past the loudness of the noise, was one man in a trenchcoat and a small car behind him. The two of them looked at each other. He was the informer up until this point of time. Up until now, anyway.

Elimination had succeeded without a hitch. She took the body, jammed it into the backseat, and went off.

Hope this buys me enough time.

 

[Glitchipedia]

The cab driver glanced nervously in his mirror at the strange, robed man in the backseat. A man armed with a longsword.

"Hey, uh," the driver stuttered. "Can I see your license again?"

The man flashed his weapon permit, saying nothing.

"....ooookay then," said the driver. "But can I ask what that thing's for?"

"Defense," came the reply. The voice, bearing a New Zealand accent, was deep and gravelly, as if its owner had spent a great deal of time smoking.

As the man's destination was the Cleveland police headquarters, the driver decided there wasn't a whole lot to get worked up about. If his passenger turned out to be hostile, the boys in blue would literally be right there. They had just come from the American Ballroom Centre in Parma, so the drive wouldn't be terribly long.

 

[Parma]

The speed on the odometer only read 35 miles per hour. The keys remained in the ignition, while the radio's cacophony assaulted the driver's ears. It was all wailing cats to her.

She wasn't a fan of driving other people's cars. Harsh smoke within the car aggravated her nose. Blade just had to keep her eyes on the road. Other drivers in both lanes either zoomed past her or changed lanes. Without warning, the hairs on her neck stood on end. Loud sirens buzzsawed through her subconscious. Blade slightly gunned the accelerator; the traffic around her becoming slightly blurred.

Blade hadn't even noticed her mistake until a cursory glance in the rearview mirror revealed the source.

A lone police car, still in her lane, locked itself onto her position.

Blade wasn't taking any chances. She'd cursed herself for allowing herself to be caught so easily. The seething cacophony was slowly catching up. She twitched and then fully gunned the car. If they wanted her that badly, they'd need to catch her first.

 

[Master Mew]

(OOC: @Glitchipedia still around?)

 

[Glitchipedia]

(OOC: @Master Mew; @Parma; Sorry, college has been very taxing. Give me a bit to recuperate and then I'll post.)

 

[Glitchipedia]

At the station, the man, whom the officers addressed as "Magister", listened patiently as the situation was explained to him. A terrorist calling herself "Blade" was apparently sighted leaving the Cleveland Hopkins International Airport and a unit was already in pursuit. Magister's task was simple: using a civilian vehicle, he was to merge onto the freeway, discreetly follow Blade, then corner her at the first sign of vulnerability.

Magister waited until the precise moment when the police unit was to pass his exit. Merging, he intended to keep enough distance to appear no different from the other cars on the road, but the speed of the chase made this increasingly difficult. He could only hope that the unit would be informed of the plan and retreat, thus lulling the target into a false sense of security.

In the worst-case scenario, he supposed he could try telekinetically drawing Blade's vehicle backwards. His powers didn't ordinarily work well on objects that big, but it might at least slow her down a bit. On the other hand, it could work too well and cause her to slam into his vehicle at high speed.

He was really just hoping Plan A would succeed.

 

[Parma]

The cars around the lone aggressor were the noncompliant type. Some got out of the way, while others honked their horns in displeasure and refused to move. Blade resisted the urge to just ram the car into one of them to shut them up. However, she held a bigger objective in mind, which was currently in jeopardy.

Even still the police officer behind her didn't stop the chase for a minute. Blade had looked back with every lane change and speed adjustment. To her dismay, the flashing lights were still around.

Against her will, the road's width narrowed further and further.

She wasn't the fastest.

One mistake and she would be roadkill.

DING DING DING DING

The combined loudness of an oncoming train sent her into overdrive. Another glance into the rearview mirror revealed that the flashing lights were still there but a bit behind two cars.

They were trying to get out of the way. From above, two large crossing boards descended upon her slowly. With a fierce gun of the ignition, she sped up and rolled right over the tracks.

A small amount of distance later, the car stopped moving.

With yet another push of the gas, nothing had changed. Another cursory glance revealed the source: the small orange lever was directly on E.

For the first time in a while, she was stuck. The car was the fortress and she was the rat. "This sucks," she mumbled out loud. It wasn't an easy mission, but Blade herself didn't expect this to go south so easily.

No wonder nobody else had jumped at this plan but her.

 

[Glitchipedia]

Halted by the railroad crossing, Magister considered his options. Waiting for the train would probably afford Blade more than enough time to escape. It was clear what needed to be done.

Exiting his vehicle, he took a running start and fired a telekinetic push directly at the ground, launching himself clean over the tracks. To his surprise, he found Blade's vehicle motionless on the other side, and it seemed she hadn't seen fit to abandon ship yet.

"Ma'am," he said, approaching the driver's side door with one hand on the hilt of his sword. "I'm going to have to ask you to step out of the vehicle."

 

[Parma]

The voice had belonged to a tall robed guy next to the car. His hand covered something, but the lower part of the window shielded it from her peering gaze. He didn't look like an officer and he wasn't wearing standard officer garb.

Blade evaluated her options. No way was she staying in the car, for the plan would never work. However, taking this guy on? He was the unknown quality. On the other hand, she'd taken on dragons before and never flinched.

It's better than nothing.

She reached behind her and took out her spear-

Wait a minute. Nothing was behind her. Nothing was on her back. The weight of the scabbard was light. That single realization immediately ticked her off more than usual. Both spears weren't there.

Throwing the back of the carseat down, she scuttled her way to the backseat and threw the body at the back door window. The clutter caused from the crash did mess everything up and left some glass on her body. Not that she cared. She spied the dead body on the ground and jumped out of the large window created there.

 

[Glitchipedia]

Though initially taken aback by the use of an apparent corpse to break the back window, Magister moved quickly to intercept Blade. His hand remained on the hilt of his weapon, but he did not draw it yet.

"Please know me as Magister," he offered politely, but sternly. "You are the one they call Blade, are you not?"

After all, just because he was here to apprehend a wanted criminal didn't mean he had to be rude about it.

 

[Parma]

Blade looked at Magister with a defiant look on her face. This was the second time that he'd asked for her name. This guy was awfully persistent for only having met her once. What was his deal?

She figured that she could comply. Only for a second, though. Time wasn't aligned with her.

"Yeah. What about it?"

 

[Glitchipedia]

OOC: He only asked for her name once.

---

Magister gave a quick nod of acknowledgment. His expression was serious, but not yet threatening.

"No point in lying to you," he said. "I'm here to take you in. But I'm prepared to give you a fighting chance. Let us duel one on one. Your terms."

A formal challenge of this sort was not, perhaps, the best way to handle the situation, but Magister still felt it was the right thing to do. Besides, letting Blade feel as if she had some control of the situation could work to his advantage in the end.

 

[Parma]

"Fine. If I win, I take your car. If you win, then you take me in."

Blade placed her hand into her pocket and took out her pocket knife. Though she did have multiple knives at her disposal, she wasn't going to use them all up. Not here, anyway.

Suddenly, the sounds of multiple cars revving up made her look to her left. Apparently, during the commotion earlier, the train still kept going. But now, the train from before was gone. Blade rolled her eyes.

She jumped on top of a nearby car and then jumped directly at Magister. There it was, an opportunity for a headshot. However, was it going to work out?

 

[Glitchipedia]

With only moments to react, Magister made another telekinetic jump straight up into the air, Blade's knife clipping the bottom of his robe mid-ascent. Wrenching his body around as he landed behind her, he finally drew his sword, but did not yet strike with it. Instead, he aimed another telekinetic push to forcibly disarm Blade—not a guaranteed success, especially coming so soon after his jump. It didn't exhaust him now the way it did when he was younger and less experienced, but a short recovery period between uses was probably still advisable for maximum effect.

 

[Parma]

(OOC: this is the officer from Blade's getaway attempt earlier)

WHIFF.

Blade missed her target entirely, falling face first onto the ground. Loud horns bleeped as various cars swerved around the raging duelists. Well, her opponent wasn't raging, but he just happened to have a longsword in his hand.

Of course, she yelled to herself. Blade then cursed herself for being a complete idiot and stopped short.

"What did you even do?" she asked. "I was about to-"

Both of her arms suddenly felt like being crushed! Nothing was around her, oddly enough. The sheer weight of what that invisible thing even was sent her into a blinding rage.

Without any warning, another yell stopped everything.

"Stop right where you are!" A female officer stepped out of the police car. Blade shook her head. That was the pursuer. "Why are you impeding traffic? I've received numerous reports of a blockage here. What are you doing?"

Blade was too engorged with rage to answer.

 

[Glitchipedia]

Upon the officer's arrival, Magister's concentration faltered, stopping his attempts to push Blade's knife out of her hand.

"Apologies," he said. "My codename is Magister; the Cleveland police have asked me to apprehend this suspect. Evidently, I chose a poor place to do so."

He turned his head to face Blade again.

"Shall we take this elsewhere?"

 

[Parma]

Blade nodded in affirmation. Her body was still filled to the brim with rage.

"I see," the officer said. She got into the car. Blade merely watched as the officer drove off without the cacophony of those blasted horns or lights. It was the only thing she could do; the crushing sensation in her arms hadn't abated even once.

She turned to Magister while dodging a nearby car in the process. "Where do you want this?"

But her delivery came off as a wild yell.

 

[Glitchipedia]

Magister stepped off to the side to avoid further oncoming traffic.

"You lead," he said. "I will follow."

He didn't want to have to take his eyes off her for more than a second or two at a time.

 

[Parma]

Blade started walking forward on the side of the road. Only cars zoomed past her. The nearest establishment wasn't on her side for some time.

She didn't turn her head. Blade only looked out of the corner of her eyes. So far, none of the cars had taken the bait. She looked to her right.

The highway rails were to her waist, but surely she couldn't just climb over the rail? Blade stopped to survey even further. It held trees, trees and more trees.

Worth a shot, she thought.

"You wanna finish this over there or what?" she asked.