Settle The Score | The Assassination of Fenix Down (Player Plot Open-Log)

[aelwyn_aberration]

Who: Aelwyn + Anyone Who Wants To Be Involved In This Assassination
When: April
Where: Around Gloucester, Springfield, the Circus, assorted other locations.
Summary: A murder is planned, executed, and staged. The details are yet to come.
Warnings: Discussions of murder, actual murder, blackmail, espionage, gaslighting, TBA.

[Several months ago, following the Circus' initial visit, Aelwyn was given permission to take down Fenix Down and his circus. Now, after more recent revelations about their unseen enemy, the plan has become a higher priority.

The plan is as follows. To ensure that this doesn't implicate ADI, a false cult will be created for this specific purpose. They'll keep the entity behind it vague, but one must be selected to ensure anyone paying enough attention would be able to identify it. They'll create conspiracy theories, fabricate old reports from decades ago to make it seem like this group is only recently being resurrected.

And then, with that done, they'll execute the plan itself. Staging the kidnapping and murder as if it was the act of that cult, and an extensive interrogation.

OOC Post here!]

Comments

EXECUTION

[aelwyn_aberration]

[apocalypsehownpcs]

I. Pre-Attack
The fairgrounds in Springfield are bustling during the day and into the evening. Excited (and frightened) patrons roam the Fenix Down Extravaganza circus looking for sweet treats, fiery shows, and fun. There's a bit of grumbling that the big act they'd heard about: Pyre, the Man on Fire, seems to be canceled for the moment, but there's other fantastic entertainment. Maybe you can enjoy the event before trouble starts to brew.

II. Lights Out
It's after the performance has ended for the day, all of the guests to the circus have gone home, and it's workers cleaning up and getting things set for the next day. Fenix seems to be away for the night, so Penny and Roderick are handing out orders where they're needed. The circus is a well-oiled machine by this point, though. Few directions need be given, just a few specific details as they look toward the next night's show. Penny is overseeing workers on the grounds, checking food stalls for clean-up and the like, looking in to make sure all of the attractions are locked down. Roderick is inside the big top, tending to the sound and lighting equipment.

And then everything goes dark. There's surprised and confused chatter on the grounds from the human employees milling about. The first aid tent lights up again after a moment when the back-up generator kicks in, but the rest of the circus is dark, at least until people start pulling out their phones and other tools for flashlights. At the start, at least, there's just grumbling annoyance. Someone blew some sort of fuse? It's confusing, but panic has yet to set in. Penny and Roderick are on higher alert, but they'll be relatively unawares until someone actually comes for them.

((OOC: The mods will not be NPCing Penny and Roderick, but here are a few guidelines for interacting with them:

- These NPCs will not go down easily. Shooting them with bullets or tranqs will only annoy them. Stabbing them will be similarly annoying, but will not really hinder them.

Roderick
- Unaffected by the blackout in terms of his ability to see what's going on/respond to threats from the dark. His laser light accessories run on their own batteries. He will use said laser lights as weapons.
- Potential injuries from engaging: Blindness (temporary or permanent) from the lasers, burns from the lasers, dismemberment from the lasers when they're highly concentrated, deafness (temporary or permanent) from noise-based attacks he can throw at people (think supersonic screech)
- Parameters for taking him down: We'd like to see a minimum of two characters dedicated to taking him down. At least one of them should suffer some substantial injuries. More are welcome to sustain substantial injuries!

Penny
- Affected by the blackout in terms of her ability to see, but she will counter this by setting her whip on fire. She is extraordinarily nimble and can dodge/acrobatics her way away from people.
- Potential injuries from engaging: Blindness (temporary or permanent) from the gouts of flame she can spontaneously produce on command, burns from the whip
- Parameters for taking her down: We'd like to see a minimum of two characters dedicated to taking her down. At least one of them should suffer some substantial injuries. More are welcome to sustain substantial injuries!))

Jeager and Winter - Penny

[worthallthis]

Winter stalks silently between tents, in full tac gear, face mask, and goggles and rifle scope set to filter for heat signatures. The metal arm is covered in a sleeve, for once, so light doesn't glint off of it. There's a bluetooth in his ear to coordinate with Jaeger, who had better keep his ass at ranged for this-- or so Winter has already warned him.

He has the rifle up, ready to fire the instant he has Penny and her flits of flame in his sights. He's been warned that this won't actually do much, even if he's using high-caliber bullets (which he is). But it'll be a distraction, and get her focused in him, which is his goal, because if anyone can handle a fire-whip it's probably the guy with the metal arm.

That will, he hopes, give Jaeger the opening to do his thing from behind.

[bloodalwaystells]

Working at a distance is just fine with Jaeger: while he's not hopeless in close combat, closing with Penny seems like a genuinely bad idea when there's someone else better suited to it. He isn't hopeful that they can take her down before it comes down to melee, but, well, they're going to do their best.

His headset is properly secured, his eyes scanning the chaos for their target and to make best use of the space available to them. Flickers of light from cell phones and the distant shine of the first aid station aren't enough to really illuminate the scene, but on the other hand...maybe he can draw her out.

And get some of the innocent bystanders out of the way. He's thinking in terms of tactics, of life or death decisions, and right now, he needs his power. If it comes with a price, well, a little fear is preferable to unnecessary deaths.

Winter is the one with the superior vision. When he narrows down an area of attack? Jaeger will be ready.

[worthallthis]

There she is. Finally. He can see the light from her whip even before he rounds the corner and slows, listening for footsteps, from the crackle of fire. She's on guard, of course-- but he knows his job. He even has a trickle of serum speed from frightening a couple people on his way here in his tac gear and full mask and goggles, which he regrets but is going to take advantage of while he can.

Winter moves silently, slipping behind a booth, and taking aim, letting Penny walk into his line of sight. He doesn't give Jaeger any warning: the gunshot is the warning. He aims for Penny's right. He knows from what the attacks on both Fenix and Dunn taught him that it probably won't take her down, but it should hopefully distract her and make it harder for her to see and fight him.

He fires, there's a spray of blood and fire, and a screech, and then he's charging for her physically.

Your turn, Jaeger.

[bloodalwaystells]

People scatter like pigeons at the first gunshot, and that's good but Jaeger can do better. There's a line in his mind, the space they'll need to keep the crowd away from the conflict, and he follows that with his power, stirring the force inside him that lets him do such amazing things.

Amazing, and terrifying. It shouldn't come so easily, it's been a bare trickle for months now, but at the presence of fear, it sparks to life. A curtain of ink-black shadow drops along the midway, cutting the milling people off from the scene and, oops, plunging a few of them at the edge into utter darkness. Cell phone lights vanish, illuminating nothing in the well of darkness, and in that black is the certainty that more is coming. That something has spotted them, targeted them, and is coming to deliver pain-and-blood-and-claws-and-steel.

Jaeger's breath catches at the sensation of power flooding his body again after so long, but somehow, somewhere, he finds that thread of control. He hadn't meant to catch anyone in the dark, but if they're running away, it means they aren't casualties waiting to happen. That's good. That's important, he can manage that.

Combat casting is fast casting, and Jaeger has experience in the fastest, dirtiest magic there is. It flits through his mind that he has options, so many options, for dealing with Penny, but he settles on something old, reliable, and terrible.

Penny isn't concerned with guns, and probably not knives, either. But steel blades, when there are a thousand of them, launched at extreme velocity? That's a different story. The whirling cloud is tight, compact, and aimed with terrible precision as it flashes into existence with hundreds of tiny glints of metal, tears through the space she occupies, and then vanishes into mist.

Not fatal, not yet. But it gets her attention, and draws a pained, panicked sound from her at the sudden and extensive damage. It might be healing already, but it's enough for her to notice.

[worthallthis]

It's a distraction. Winter takes advantage of it by diving in with his left arm swinging for her face. She manages to flip herself back out of the way before he can connect solidly with her face, but he manages to clip her ankle, so she lands badly.

He presses, and she lashes out with her whip, but that's what metal arms are for. The flaming leather wraps around his forearm, burns through the sleeve there, and gives him a chance to wrap metal fingers around the whip itself and hold fast. She can't use it if she can't pull it back, and he has the weight advantage. She'll have to either waste time yanking on it, or let it go and lose that weapon, giving Jaeger a chance to start setting up the protective dome they need behind her so she can't leap further away from him.

The fact that his arm is going to pay for this in fried circuits and melted connectors is something he's prepared to deal with. Later.

[bloodalwaystells]

The talk before the fight had been quiet but important, the two men detailing their strengths in combat and making a plan for their target. Winter knows most of the spells that Jaeger can cast, now, and the fact that they take a fair amount of energy. It will take him a minute to deal out his next bit of magic, all with the unhappy awareness of Nia's snitch around here somewhere.

He's also a respectable shot with the heavy pistol he carries, but he knows better to shoot into a melee. Especially when Penny is so fucking nimble and bouncing all over the place with her little hell-toy.

Jaeger circles the scene at a prowl, angling for the best spot to throw the barrier. Walls are good, domes are better, but he needs a second to catch his breath because that spray of metal hit him a little harder than he expected. Still, he's alert, watching the back and forth with a mix of anticipation and apprehension. He'll need to choose his actions carefully, react quickly, and that's foremost on his mind. He's promised Winter that he's a reliable partner, and he will live up to that.

And the Hunt is still there in the back of his mind, the rush of a fight, a chase, a kill, and he doesn't want to miss a moment of it.

[worthallthis]

She tugs fruitlessly on her whip, flaring the fire along it, scorching the metal of Winter's left arm, but otherwise not doing any damage. And he tugs on it, back, yanking his arm up and trying to throw her off balance.

Wisely, she lets go and flips back out of the way when he tries to lash the whip handle back at her. The fire goes out now that she isn't touching it, and he lashes with the heavier handle again, trying to drive her back towards a better spot for containment. The smaller the space, the more likely Jaeger can keep it closed.

She springs back again, and in between two booths, giving herself cover and possibly something to leap up onto if she's given enough time to do so. Good time for that barrier, Jaeger. Winter takes that opportunity to throw the whip behind him, out of reach of either of them, and advance to try and block her in on his side. The metal arm is badly overheated, some of the internal components twitching awkwardly, but it's still usable-- for now.

[bloodalwaystells]

Jaeger has no choice but to close a bit of the distance, to get a better viewpoint for the barrier. Penny's moving fast, unpredictably, but she's also boxing herself in while trying to get cover from his attacks, and...

A dazzling burst of flame lights up the night, followed by a wave of searing heat and Jaeger is so very, very glad that for his size, he's fairly light on his feet because otherwise, she would have broiled him where he stood. He dives out of the way, and the pain is both sudden and shocking as his coat and shirt sear away in the sudden, violent spray of flames.

Oh. That bitch. The impact steals his breath, reduces his sight to blackness and starbursts from the intensity of the light, but she's got two enemies to worry about, coming at her from two different directions, and she's going to have to turn her attention back to Winter to keep him off her, too. Acrobatic as she might be, she's not in the best position and Jaeger fully intends to press the advantage and keep her off-guard until they can land a definitive fight-ending blow.

And he'll be okay in a second. He swears. From the ground, he angles up another spray of metal shards, and while only the very edge of it catches her, it's enough to draw more blood, ramp up her panic just a little more and send that frission of fear back to her Hunter as the tiniest extra spark of energy. There's a quick, sharp twinge in his chest, but the pain is everywhere and nowhere at the moment, and he's long since accustomed himself to fighting through pain. He notes it, measures it, discards it in the greater frenzy of battle.

The barrier will follow in a minute. But right now, he wants blood to soothe the insult of being burned.

[worthallthis]

Winter reacts to Penny's panic at the flying blades by lunging, grabbing her arm, and yanking. That will be the only gout of flame at Jaeger, because she's going to focus on trying to claw at Winter's face with her free hand. Lucky for him, he's got a face mask, so she just breaks her fingernails-- and drags soot as she tries to call up a spark and is distracted by having her arm twisted cruelly-- along said mask.

"Get back!" Winter snaps, for Jaeger's benefit, not Penny's, hauling Penny right up against his chest and smashing her there with his super-heated metal arm after the knives fly. "Back, Jaeger!" He doesn't want the man anywhere near her when he engages his grenades. Winter trusts that he can leap free in time, but he doesn't want to risk Jaeger.

And he also doesn't want Jaeger wasting power on offense when they have perfectly good grenades, dammit, and the barrier is much, much more important.

[bloodalwaystells]

"I need line of sight," he returns, just a little bit breathless and voice scorched even more raw than usual.

The snapped words through his headset are enough to shake him out of his moment of bloodlust, though. A little bit lost in it, but not totally gone, and Jaeger scrambles back to regain some distance. Both mentally, and physically. The ecstasy of adrenaline is still there, damping the pain of what might be some serious wounds, and he still has the plan in mind. Still can focus his power, even through the twinge in his chest that hints at more damage than he expects.

Well, they knew this would be messy going in, didn't they? Jaeger finds his feet, ignoring the scorched-raw skin across his chest and arm, and raises a hand again. This time, there's intent, conscious effort there, and the first glittering flashes of arcane light sketch out the borders of the dome that's about to appear. It's not as quick as it normally would be, but he's putting everything he's got into it, and as soon as Winter gets some distance from the forming barrier, Jaeger will solidify it.

[worthallthis]

Penny has one more trick up her sleeve, and when she can't wriggle free from Winter's implacable metal grip or get a hand to his face because said metal arm is now pinning both of hers to her sides, she sends fire coursing down his leg.

He's had worse-- but he's had worse when he had a serum to heal it. It hurts, and that leg isn't going to hold him for long. Thankfully, he has his grenade in his flesh hand, already primed and counting down, and he shoves it into her pants pocket before pushing her directly into the budding barrier.

He falls back, rolls, hisses as he comes to his feet in a crouch on top of blistered and bloody skin. It doesn't stop him from throwing the second grenade at Penny's feet as she tries to catch herself from his shove, just in case one isn't enough. Time to bring that down, Jaeger.

[bloodalwaystells]

Jaeger's judgment may have lapsed for a minute and probably cost him quite a bit in damage (if not trust from Winter), but when it comes down to the exact, necessary moment of action, he's there with fucking bells on.

The barrier solidifies around Penny, just a few scant feet from Winter, with expert precision and a semi-translucent glow that shimmers blue in the night air. It can be seen through vaguely, shadows and shapes, but it will prove to be as tough as concrete for as long as Jaeger can hold it. And he doesn't have to hold it long. Just a few seconds, ticking by like the roaring of his pulse in his ears as blood starts to drip from his nose.

It gives Penny those few seconds to realize exactly what's coming, and her scream of rage does carry through the barrier, that intense, horrible, perfect moment when she fully grasps her situation.

[worthallthis]

That's all she has time for, before the first grenade goes off, right in her pocket. The barrier is full of fire and dust, shards of the edge of the booth caught inside the barrier. There isn't even time for the first to die down before the second grenade explodes.

Winter scoots back, then lands on his ass in the dust, breathing raggedly. They have to go, someone would surely have heard that, even muffled by the magical barrier. But they can't go until they confirm she's dead.

"Jaeger. Jaeger, drop it."

Garner and Yelena - Roderick

[musicdied]

There is something incredibly surreal about stalking someone through a nearly-empty circus under the cover of darkness, illuminated only by the thin light of the waning moon and the distant first aid tent, and there's a part of Yelena that half-expects the scene to descend into nightmare at any moment. Even knowing that the blackout was engineered by ADI, a part of Aelwyn's plan, it's all just a little too close to Katie Dunn's reign of terror for comfort.

But so far, there's no panic, no screaming, just the occasional distant curse when someone stumbles over a trailing cable or piece of equipment. It's a double-edged sword - on the one hand, it means any outcry might bring people running, but on the other hand, it also means that when Roderick had separated to check on some piece of equipment, no one had come along with him.

Yelena pauses as the evening's target turns down into the maintenance alley behind the funhouse, glancing towards her partner for the current operation.

"Do you have your respirator?" she asks. It's quiet - not the harsh quiet of a whisper, bound to carry, but a more natural tone that will be swallowed by the sound of wind and snapping canvas more than a few feet away.

Between freezing someone with nitrogen and contaminating them with sawdust, the latter is far more feasible under their current circumstances. All they really need to do is force Roderick to inhale the stuff.

And that will go much better if they're not also choking on it.

[whisperedone]

With so few people, the carnival practically transformed in the still quiet of darkness. He could hear the edges and dips in places his daytime scouting with Beauregard hadn't afforded. Here, he can hear her near-silent steps and maneuver easily around what obstacles they come across, until a sound a head has their attention. Their quarry. They had a precious few moments to pick how to do this before they lost their window, they would need to make it count.

"Yes." His voice was always low and quiet, but it works for the better now. He pulls the mask from one of the fabric loops of the outfit he'd arrived in, battle-worn leathers and thick, dark, quilting treated to absorb sounds and hits alike. Listening to how she moved, how she carries herself, there's little doubt in him they're both built for this...and all the better. They would need both of their heads.

"Pincer or surprise?" He asks before slipping the mask into place. He would have preferred his usual cloth covering, but he'd been assured this thing would be more thorough.

[musicdied]

She considers the space, well aware of precious seconds ticking by - but she hadn't been part of the scouting mission, having been present during the last encounter with the circus, and while there hasn't been much change to the layout, there also hasn't been none.

"Pincer," she says. "Better if we divide his attention. I'll circle around; give me a count of 45."

Long enough to make sure she can get into position without risking alerting someone who might be passing by.

Their quarry, at least, is easy to keep track of, muttering irritably under his breath.

cw: brief self-harm

[whisperedone]

"Understood." He nods and reaches for the glaive at his back and waits for the sound of her movement before starting his count.

It bought him a couple moments of privacy, and a second to run the edge of his glaive over the back of his left arm, between the strips of leather he usually kept wrapped around it. The cut is clean and coats the edge of his blade in red.

That well of power in him still carried some energy, though it had waned some in the time since his confrontation with Dunn, it seemed to prick and pull stronger as he focuses on his intentions. A new hunt. A new target, and a need for the icy chill that forms along the edge of his weapon where his blood now sits. Steam from the air dances around his glaive, though he only just feels it as he moves to take his position at the end of the makeshift alley and wait.

[musicdied]

Yelena's departure is quicker than their approach had been, but her tread is still light, footsteps fading into silence by the time she reaches the end of the alley between attractions. She keeps her own count in her head, and reaches her mark before she winds down - for the moment, they're entirely clear. It's a good sign, and she can only hope that they manage to complete their business before that changes.

She takes the precious few extra seconds to check the fit of her respirator and goggles, then draws two of the slender tubes in the bag strapped to her thigh. No high-tech weapons here - and she misses them dearly, for perhaps the thousandth time since tumbling out of an air vent in entirely the wrong world - but ADI's equipment specialists are creative in their own way.

The count hits zero, and she darts from her hiding spot. The motion's enough to attract Roderick's attention, and she drops to her knees as his lasers whine to life, slamming the base of the tubes against the ground. There's a dull fwump of sound, and then a haze of sawdust fills the air, smoking slightly where it passes though the beams of concentrated light.

[whisperedone]

He moves as his count hits zero and he hears the fwump of her trap being placed.

She’s the distraction he needs in that moment: a split second of time that allows him to stab the frigid blade of his glaive into Roderick’s torso. The man cries out and there’s pain, but there’s anger and shock just as much. A creature that didn’t expect to be hurt is even more deadly.

Garner tanks the glaive free and there’s no spill of blood he can hear. Not that he has long to think on it as he hears the man turn, ostensibly to keep both threats in sight. There’s no sound of a weapon though, no retaliation to counter he can hear even as braces to meet it. Instead, there’s only the feeling of an odd burning sensation building quickly in his shoulder.

[musicdied]

He's not bleeding. Yelena sees Roderick jerk with the impact of being stabbed with a polearm wielded by a man built like a tank, hears him cry out, but there isn't a drop of blood.

It isn't entirely surprising - she'd seen Aelwyn's message noting that some of the Desolation's servitors are made of wax, and the sheer quantity of candles she'd found in the performers' quarters all those months ago had suddenly made a lot more sense - but not entirely surprising is still incredibly disquieting. Living things should bleed. Things that don't are a lot harder to kill.

She pivots, bracing herself with one hand on the ground, and swings her leg in a low, sweeping kick that hits Roderick hard at the knee. Bloodless or no, his joints still bend, and gravity still has its hold. He goes down hard, sacrificing the ability to break his fall in order to keep his hands where he can still use them. For a heartbeat, it seems almost comical, and then the remaining two canisters clipped to Yelena's belt ignite where the light of the lasers plays across them. She throws herself to the side with a guttural curse, before anything else can go up in flames.

[whisperedone]

The burning sensation dies down when he hears her hit Roderick and the resulting thump of him falling. It gives him enough time to shake out that shoulder and feel how the skin is still warm and pulls, but still has motion. More than enough to start and arcing path for his glaive -one that jolts and misses for the sound of shattering glass and smell of burning.

She curses and he's instinct is to go check on her, but they can't. They're still hunting, he has to keep focus. Garner grits his teeth and takes a second swing for the man, but what solid form his blade catches -ice crackling across him in the aftermath- is nothing compared to the scream Roderick gives.

Garner shouts and jerks back to over his ears, glaive falling heavy to the ground, but for a moment, he can't hear anything but the ringing left behind. And if he can't hear, he can't see, can't even tell if Yelena was caught in the screech as well, it hadn't felt aimed at him, but his head swam too much to be sure.

[musicdied]

The shriek is almost more a physical blow than a sound. It's like an icepick through her temples, all sharp pain and radiating numbness, and pressure like she's dived too far, too fast into deep water.

Her vision greys out, shadows flooding inward from around the edges. One moment, she's fighting with the clip holding the burning canisters, and the next she's curled half-fetal on the ground, the hands she'd clapped over her ears without any conscious direction damp and faintly sticky.

She struggles to orient herself in a world gone strangely silent, vision dimming again as she turns her head, turning both friend and foe into a nauseating blur.

[whisperedone]

Everything's muffled but he can smell burning and scent like candles and if he moves quick, maybe he can still catch where Roderick is.

And hope he doesn't hit his partner, assuming she's not down already.

His glaive is lost to him for now, but there's a hunting knife at his hip that he draws and swipes where he last knew their target to be. The first swipe misses, but the next seems to cut through something and that's enough. He brings the blade quickly back to himself to slide it over the throbbing wound he'd left before, ice coating where the blood sits once more.

That burning sensation from before drives bright across his hip, but it gives him renewed direction to lunge, blade burying deep into something solid. It isn't too hard to twist and rip from there as the sound of male shouts becomes the first thing to come back to his hearing.