Lords of Gossamer & Shadow - [LoGS: IC] URIEL

[JoeChuck]

URIEL

The men drag Uriel into the large hangar and the guy carrying Jonna tosses her onto a chair. The two handling Uriel place some type of electronic handcuffs over his wrists and ankles. They also attach a chain to the cuffs at Uriel's wrists and begin hoisting him up into the air. Uriel's toes still touch the ground. The same restraints are put on Jonna, but she is left sitting the chair with her hands behind her back. Mr. Hands cops a couple more feels of Jonna's breasts while even the other henchmen tell him that that is enough.

,,

Halstead walks into the hangar with another gentleman that stays in the shadows. The only illumination about this man's face is a lit cigar that didn't really provide any definition of the man's features. Halstead isn't sweating anymore and is calmly talking the shadowed man. They shake hands and the mystery guy walks back out of the hangar. Halstead walks forward and tosses one of the muscled henchmen a length of chain.

,,

"Get what you can out of him anyway you can," Halstead pounds his fist into his other hand, "this guy is part of something bigger and it might be a new mega-corp vying for dominance. Get him to tell you everything he knows about Umbra."

,,

"What are you gonna do?" the burly henchman ask Halstead.

,,

"The deal was for Uriel, " Halstead walks over to Jonna, "not her. Mr. Ruan said that it wasn't necessary to keep Jonna captive. She'll eventually understand throwing Uriel under the bus. Hell, she'll probably be upset she didn't do it first!"

,,

With that, Halstead undoes Jonna's restraints and makes disgusted comments to Mr. Hands for groping Jonna so hard to have left marks on her skin. Halstead gets two henchmen to help him carry Jonna back to the car. The burly henchman begins wrapping his fist with the chain. Interrogation and torture don't change much no matter how advanced technology has come.

,,

With the two helping Halstead take Jonna back to the car, that leaves ten in the hangar with Uriel. They all seem to be perplexed as to why so many are supposed to watch one guy. One of them suggests taking Uriel down and beat him in a circle passing him around. Another says that they should stretch him with the cars out front.

,,

"No. I'll just beat the shit out of him," the one with his fist wrapped in chain replies, "Halstead said this guy is dangerous and I believe Halstead wouldn't bullshit about that."

,,

The henchman reels back his fist and the light reflects off the chain into Uriel's eyes.

[Uriel Arcadia]

And the credibility of the Galactic Syndicate fell even further in Uriel's eyes. If they perceived him to be as dangerous as said - and blabbing like that within earshot was not a good idea, because you don't give stuff away to the guy you're interrogating unless you're an idiot or have a plan in mind - then why use physical torture?

,,

First problem: a trained operative can resist pain. Second, it was essential to be able to verify the details, and flying blind into the abyss the way Halstead was driving them in his hashed up belief of a new organization, Uriel could tell them the sky would become purple and they'd believe it.

,,

Uriel stared at the chain-fist thug, unflinching, deadpan, just daring him to try. And so the thug did, rearing back to deliver one heck of a punch. Except as the thud landed, Uriel barely blinked, not changing his patient, quiet, flat expression.

,,

For third, Uriel's evolution pretty much increased his tolerance for pain and resistance to blunt trauma immensely. Uriel had felt nothing from that. "You lot must be new at this all." The attacker glared with a mixture of half-irate, half-incredulous and struck again. No effect.

,,

"This is going to be boring," Uriel sighed dramatically. "So who is Mr. Ruan?"

,,

"Piss off!" Another strike, this time a kick attempted to the groin, but even that didn't really hurt. Uriel waited them out, with gibes and letting their own chatter answer his questions about the big boss and current events.

,,

When he felt he had enough, Uriel grunted, the vocalization focusing his mind and magic as he snapped free on his bindings and landed cat-sure. In a minute they all would be dead.

[JoeChuck]

The thug with the chained fist stared in disbelief, "What the fuck!?"

,,

The others took up arms immediately. Some fired wild shots at Uriel, but none came close. Only one of the thugs seemed to be amused that Uriel broke free and shouted, "Awesome!"

,,

The thugs are all standing with their guns pointed at Uriel, but all the laser scopes are pointing at different points of Uriel's body that aren't vital. Uriel looks down at his suit and smirks. They want him alive.

,,

The standstill gives Uriel some more time to commit what the thugs revealed about Mr. Ruan to memory. The shadowy character definitely had some power or authority which was maintain by fear and cruelty in equal measure. Mr. Ruan doesn't ever show up unless he wants to see something firsthand. Like most mega-corp upper executives, Mr. Ruan likes to handle pretty much everything by proxy. So, Mr. Ruan was really interested in Uriel.

,,

"Don't fucking move, shithead," the chain-fisted thug finally barks, "I don't know how you did that, but you still ain't goin' nowhere."

,,

The chain-fisted thug goes to grab Uriel by the scruff of his neck.

[Uriel Arcadia]

"Hold on." Uriel raised a hand with his faux-cheery smile. "Let's not do anything that Mr. Ruan wouldn't like. After all, I'm not going anywhere, yes?" The reference to their shadowy, fascinated superior stopped the thug mid-motion. In the few moments as time felt to slow down, Uriel ascertained them all.

,,

Feeling obligated to restrained but be non-lethal, fearful and jumpy, good. Any place not vital, pretty much was protected by his suit and its protective enchantments.

,,

Show time.

,,

Uriel stepped in and headbutted the chain-fisted thug, the same level of force this time pulverizing the man, while simultaneously, Uriel's two hands operated ambidextrously and independently. One hand took away the chain, the other hoisted the now corpse from the side and tossed him at two gunmen.

,,

Both had no chance to dodge and the force delivered was incapacitating if not fatal. Three down, and the instigation of hostilities had barely passed through the amber-slow changing of the Syndicate members' expressions. Uriel whipped the chain into a unwrapped line and then slashed with it into an arc at the three directly behind him.

,,

The metal transcribed a glinting slash tearing through their throats, and Uriel spun to catch one laser rifle one-handed. The final four finally had their guns up and firing, but only one or two got off a wild shot near his side before Uriel unloaded multiple shots into all of them.

,,

With the bloody room complete, Uriel checked the clip. Half-dry, he could work with it. Time to find Jonna.... and Hals-dead.

[JoeChuck]

Jonna is going through the final stages of mutation. She's broken the neck of one of the thugs and still dispatching the second. Simitre is bellowing from her mouth and her eyes are glowing bright. Her skin is still unchanged and the horns have yet to burst through.

,,

Halstead is visibly scrambling into his vehicle and tears ass down the tarmac. Jonna starts to chase after him, but Uriel catches her eye and she turns his way. Her eyes wince still in transition from lady to beast waiting for Uriel to make his move.

,,

Halstead's tires are heard screeching to a halt and his vehicle spins around. He's revving the engine as he takes aim at Jonna. The second thug has managed to die crawling to his vehicle with his keys falling out of his hand as he reached for the door. Uriel can see all the possibilities, but he knows Jonna could launch an attack at his slightest move. He'd hate to have to kill her. Halstead starts to accelerate.

[Uriel Arcadia]

Hang secrecy at this point - time was running out and one of the few people who could possibly be privy would be dead soon. Uriel acted at once, casting the Simitre Ward spell on Jonna in the hopes it would stop the process before the point of no return.

,,

And, still one-handed, he fired off shots to bring Halstead's vehicle to a stop.

[JoeChuck]

Jonna collapses in a sweaty mess. Her form still in the in-between phase of fully bolking-out, but not getting any worse. The shots fired at Halstead bounce of his vehicle revealing that it has some sort of armored plating. The well-placed shots and the light show provided by Uriel's spell have enough shock value to make Halstead veer off course and miss Jonna completely. He continues down the tarmac swinging around again and revving his engine waiting.

,,

Uriel rushes over to Jonna and she still aware of her surroundings, "I think the fucker wants to play chicken, Uriel."

,,

Halstead flashes his lights and revs the engine loader.

,,

"He's a little bitch, but he can drive his ass off," Jonna coughs out and begins to limp over to the dead thugs car.

,,

Jonna picks up the keys and tosses them to Uriel, "You drive."

[Uriel Arcadia]

"Not yet." Uriel caught the keys but shook his head. At this point, given that he was going to have to explain some things to Jonna anyway, time to loosen cover a little. After all, only people remaining who would know.... were right here. "Watch and see."

,,

He waited, for Halstead to just drive off, or do something else. If, predictably, it would be the former... Uriel would cast a Barrier spell right in front of his car before it was too late to avoid.

,,

OOC

Hanging Spell List: Bolt, Replicate Object, Immobility, Invisibility, Weaken, Physical Ward, Barrier, Magic Drain, Psychic Ward, Material Ward, Teleport, SLOT EMPTY

[JoeChuck]

Halstead floors it. He aims the vehicle straight at Uriel with reckless abandon. Jonna screams at Uriel to move, but is still to weak from the partial mutation to even attempt to pull Uriel out of the way.

,,

Uriel cracks a smile and braces himself while releasing the barrier spell. Halstead hits the spell hard and the Uriel skids backwards on his feet as the vehicle smashes to a halt. Bright blue sparks bounce of the invisible barrier and showers the entire area. Halstead's vehicular assault almost breaks through barrier spell, but Uriel put almost all his effort into it.

,,

The result was a totaled car and Jonna wails as bumps start to become visible on her head. The horns are coming. Uriel quickly switches his focus to maintaining the Simitre Ward on Jonna and she collapses again as the mutation ceases.

,,

Halstead falls out the car. He's obviously nursing a few injuries from the crash, but trying relentless to crawl away.

[Uriel Arcadia]

Uriel focused on making the Ward settle fully into place and not have to divert his attention again, mentally. He had enough presence of mind to lift Jonna up and hoist her over one shoulder before deliberately walking towards Halstead. He paused to stamp a foot down on Halstead's back to hold him in place while he checked on Jonna.

[JoeChuck]

The mutation has stopped indefinitely, but Uriel will have to wait to see what Jonna's mindset is when she wakes up. There's no telling when the Simitre affects an Azmani's mind and they become vicious killers. From the looks of it, she's going to be out for a while.

,,

Halstead is having spasm on the ground while underneath Uriel's foot. He's breathing hard and clenching his fists, obviously in too much pain to utter a word. Halstead coughs out some blood onto the asphalt.

,,

The sound of slow clapping is hear over Uriel's shoulder. A shadowy figure steps out into the tarmac. The mysterious Galactic Syndicate UP, Mr. Ruan, finally shows his face. A man about the same height as Uriel, but older from the looks of it. Ruan is wearing a tailor suit in the latest Azmani fashion. No visible buttons and fitted very snug to his body with no lapels. He's dress all in black.

,,

"You put on quite an interesting show, stranger," Ruan chortles and walks closer to examine Jonna, "What did you do to her? To stop the Simitre? The other mega-corps will pay trillions for the secret."

,,

Ruan looks Uriel in the eyes and cuts a devilish grin across his face. Ruan's eyes are a faded green color, but flash an intense blue when he mentions the amount of money he could get from Uriel's secret. Also, Ruan is smoking a cigar that Uriel notices that he doesn't smell it.

[Uriel Arcadia]

Uriel didn't adjust his position in the slightest. He could see that type. Ruan would casually seek to place all Halstead 'in the past' while cheerfully sacrificing him in exchange for placating Uriel. And his valuable secret. Throwing people under the bus would cut both ways.

,,

Not that Uriel wasn't unwilling to play that game. Because he still could get use out of the Galactic Syndicate, so stringing along Mr. Ruan was profitable. And my secrets aren't what you could comprehend, anyway. Cold faced, he slowly shook his head at Mr. Ruan.

,,

"It's not something exactly digestible for the mega-corps. Tell you what though. I could come up with something that is. In exchange for some demands fulfilled."

[JoeChuck]

Ruan grins and, after making a showing that he wasn't going to pull a gun, takes an electronic tablet out of his jacket.

,,

"You'd be surprised at what we can stomach," He flips the tablet on, "Demands are easy, though. Go head, Mr. Mystery, but you better deliver on your word. I can make demands into nightmares."

[Uriel Arcadia]

Uriel rolled his eyes. Ruan had of course, misinterpreted his warning altogether. Which, given the point Uriel had tried to get across, had an ironic fitting. Corporations after all, could and would pass up things that would fit into their views of the world, their investments, and their markets.

,,

In any case, time to maintain the cool-headed mystery man of knowledge image. "Let's see. All the information the Syndicate has on the Simitre and its victims - and I mean ALL OF IT. Swift passage to Mariz.... access into Ares, say 50,000 credits just in case...."

,,

He jerked a finger at Jonna. "And she's coming with me."