maskeddarkness | Trial of Trials : Act 2

Trial of Trials : Act 2

There's something uneasy that can be felt in the city, and seemingly no end to the rumors springing up in the wake of the downtown explosion that leveled BOARD's headquarters. Stories of an odd sickness where the afflicted suddenly winds up anemic, their blood levels dangerously low, despite feeling fine that morning have already taken root, others of strange animals seen roaming at night, and horrible screams and gunshots in one of the parking garages....

The space where the ill-fated headquarters lays silent, an empty patch of dirt and gravel that seemed to attract those drawn to stories and rumors. Police have already had to shoo away opportunists with metal detectors, hoping to find something interesting in the impressively quickly cleared wreckage, and others have reported something that just feels... wrong, when they walk by the site. The ghosts of those who hadn't made it out of the collapse? Or something else? Noone can really put a finger on it to explain.

And meanwhile, under the cover of shadows, things unknown to those who still walk in the light continue to move. Whispers of the rogue mage and a treasure trove of information, of upsets in the vampire hierarchy, and sworn revenge on the mages who had used one of their own for their gain.

And deep in a hidden lab, BOARD's remains and allies continue to work, twisting all they can get their hands on to create the perfect weapon; made of the very things they wish to cleanse from the world. The loss of the incapacitated vampire elder was only a small one, with how much they had already extracted and drawn from it. And if the rumors of their knowledge being in the hands of their enemies were true? They would just have to speed up their projected timeline. Or simply slow down that of the world. After all, they were mages. Reality bended to their will, not that of those who opposed them....

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The man lets out a soft sigh, setting his cup down. "If you insist. I would hate for my favorite cafe to come to harm simply because I choose to enjoy its fair."

That was a sentiment that Hajime could understand, and that he could pissed him off even more because this thing was so very wrong and should not exist. "Yeah, I insist."

"So be it, then." With another sigh, the man rose to his feet. "Where do you suggest?"

Finally. The wind swirled around them as Hajime got to his own feet and started to leave. "This way." He knew of a particularly good, lightly-traveled alley nearby. Perfect place to kill someone.

The man followed, expression calm and nonchalant, the pleasant smile still lingering as he watches Hajime intently through his shades.

Hajime probably should have tried to at least try something subtle, but as soon as they're in the alley, he's swinging at whatever this was with a ferocious punch.

There's a flicker as the man seems to simply vanish, only to appear behind Hajime, expression unchanged. "I expected about as much from someone such as you," he observed, tone still the same; annoyingly even and pleasant. "Not much of your human mind left, is there?"

What? That was much faster than a Fetch should have been able to move. Too fast.

Plus, the smiling man had struck a nerve in a big way. Hajime reached out towards him and made a grasping notion. The pavement around them started to blister, as though struck by an intense blast of heat directly from the sun--he wanted this guy to burn.

Unperturbed, the man stood in place, smile never wavering. "You'll have to do better than that, remnant..." The word was almost dripping with disdain and contempt as he made a slow gesture with one hand, gathering all the heat in the area into a single ball, the very air combusting at the intensity as it hovered over his palm.

"Catch."

This was not at all what Hajime had expected would happen, and the fact that this was forcing him to summon a defensive bit of armor made from the wind itself ~~however that even worked~~ made him even angrier--

--not that he had the time to properly use this anger with the way that ball slammed into him and threw him across the alley. It was a mark of either the armor's or Hajime's own toughness that he didn't just go down from that hit, but he decided on another tactic, rushing at the Fetch-thing with the intent to become the wind at the last possible second, trying to suck the air right out of the man's lungs...

The man stayed still, watching with a hint of smugness in his smile--

--before there again was that flickering feeling as the man vanished, only to appear a short space away.

"Your tenacity is admirable, if ill directed."

Oh, it was on. Hajime did not even want to dignify the man's veiled insult with a respsonse. He tried again to attack from a distance, this time by melting the pavement immediately underneath the man's feet.

Again, the uncomfortable flickering, this time resulting with a very firm fist being planted in Hajime's solar plexus.

"There are quite enough potholes in this city's pavements; kindly do not add to them."

That actually...well, it knocked the air out of the Summer King. He doubled over, and he furiously lashed out in the man's general direction. Granted, he'd been having trouble hitting the asshole even when he had the upper hand. Now, not so much.

The swings are easily dodged, each one with the increasingly disorienting and unnatural flickering before the man effortly grabs the changeling by the collar, hauling him up and holding him easily in the air so that his feet couldn't touch the ground. "Are you quite done showing how little of your human self remains?"

Hajime knew he was being goaded with those human cracks, but right now, he didn't care. He tried to become the wind again, intending to bowl this smug thing off its feet.

This time, the wind is greeted by a crackling energy-- white hot bands forming a slowly constricting cage around the wind Hajime had become. It was a spell Hajime had seen before, when he and Tachibana first had encountered each other.

"It would be so easy to dispose of you, you know," the man reflected idly, smiling with the same, smug pleasantness as before. "To reduce you down to just your base energy, nothing more than a simple power source... but that would be such a waste, don't you think?"

Hajime made a mental note to look into picking up some kind of counter to this asinine means of containment. The wind roared angrily, trying to force his way out of there anyway through sheer strength, feeding said strangth with anger.

The containment holds, not even buckling or stretching at his efforts. "How long can you hold out, I wonder? Do you turn back to your human shell when you run out of energy? Or simply disperse into nothingness?"

Hajime didn't even want to dignify that question with a proper response that did not involve smashing this thing's head in, but after all the raging, he finally fell to the bottom of that containment cell, right back in his human form.

Hayami blinked once, lowering his shades. "Now that isintresting..." he reflected, moving closer to observe. With a small, absent-minded gesture, the cell vanished, dropping Hajime roughly to the ground.

Hajime grunted as he hit the ground, but still he tried to pull himself to his feet. He was going to kill this bastard, whatever it was...

"And still, you try. Very admirable," the man returned with a small golf clap. "But I am afraid you're in far over your head, my friend. If you wish to keep your sham of a life, you may find it in your best interest to stay where you are."

"I don't listen to the likes of you." Nope, going to try one more charge, if he could just land one punch...

"So be it."

There was another wrenching of time and again, Hajime had a fist slamming into his core before an elbow met the back of his neck.

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