|
Post by NightSlash on Sept 7, 2005 12:04:34 GMT -5
And at last, it begins, the new League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, upon a new century, shall be gathered to stop impending doom that threatens the world, and face the challenge of being room-mates...well, it had to happen.
Have fun. ^_^
|
|
Sara Pezzini
LXG
Leader;Wielder
Confusion tolerance my ass.
Posts: 88
|
Post by Sara Pezzini on Sept 7, 2005 12:22:48 GMT -5
Another day off. These are becoming too frequent Sara mentally grumbled as she walked out of the 11th Precinct. Helmet in one hand, keys in the other, she walked towards the precinct parking lot. Dante had told her that her vacation time still wasn't over. Due to all the "unusual" things that had been happening over the past several months, her "charming and sensitive" captain had decided to force vacation on her. Or just fire her if that was what she preferred. And Dante had the power to do that, unfortunately.
Sara growled slightly and headed for her motorcycle. If she wasn't working, she was crankier than usual. Being a cop was what she loved most, one of the few things she loved period. And having time off meant she had too much time on her hands, and that meant contemplating over the Witchblade, and all that had happened because of it. It also meant she had to chase Nottingham away from her fire escape more often. Though lately, she'd just left him there and pretending she had no clue he was around. Not that he wouldn't know she was faking. The man had a sixth sense about those things. Annoyed the hell out of her.
"Excuse me, are you Detective Pezzini?" An unfamiliar voice asked as Sara reached her motorcycle. She looked up, annoyed, and saw three men in black walking over to her. The Witchblade swirled beneath her jacket sleeve, but remained in its usual form, though Sara felt like running as fast as she could. She didn't have the best, experience, with men in black, and even worse when it was men in black suits.
Give me Nottingham over these guys any day.
"Yes, I'm Pezzini," Sara replied, reluctantly. Eyeing them warily, she asked, "And who are you?"
"We'd like you to come with us, Detective. We're not here for trouble, but there's something that you're needed for," the guy in the forefront stated. His tiny, forced, polite smile gave Sara the creeps. "We're not here to make you disappear, we're here about certain, matters, that cannot be talked of in public."
The one time Nottingham isn't stalking me is the one time I want him to be, Sara grumbled, then set her helmet on her bike. She had a feeling this wasn't going to be easily avoided, and she didn't want to make another scene that Dante could easily see. Then there'll be even more vacation time to face. "Okay. I'll come with you."
"Right this way, Detective," the creepy guy stated, directing her towards a black SUV. Naturally. Men in black suits always led people to black SUVs. "Now please, don't be alarmed," the creepy one said as they neared the vehicle.
"Oh, I'm not." Just really, really irritated, Sara silently added as she glared at the man before getting in.
|
|
|
Post by Hannibal King on Sept 7, 2005 12:56:28 GMT -5
King was coming to hate daytime, no matter what hour. He didn’t mind sunrise so much… especially if he was holding onto a vampire why it happened; they tended to make nice lightshows when they exploded into flame and blew away on the wind. But afternoons were just… crappy. Nothing to do except play violent video games, or remember the past. The way things were. And right at that moment, he didn’t want to do either. He never particularly wanted to do the nostalgia bit, anyway.
So he was bothering a Familiar. What else?
“Not the answer I was looking for,” he quipped darkly, slamming his strong fist into the guy’s nose and shattering it under the blow. Blood poured, and then King heard the engine, tensing. Had this punk called some friends? Well all right then; show time! Bring it on! King was in the mood for some violence, and Familiars were dumb enough to provide it in bucket loads… they even occasionally made it entertaining.
The Familiar himself looked bewildered by the sound of the warehouse door opening, and King took a moment to calculate the meaning; this guy hadn’t called for friends. Which meant there was a third party in the fun. Keeping his right hand wound tightly in the guy’s jacket collar, Hannibal King pulled out one of his electronic pistols, aiming it out behind him, and turning his head to follow its aim, saw it pointed at… the head of some unknown man, wearing a black suit.
“Mr. Hannibal King?” the man inquired after taking his eyes off the gun.
“I’d say ‘who’s asking’, but I hate clichés.” He paused, glancing to the familiar, before laughing almost bitterly. “Who am I kidding? I love clichés.” Another pause, before almost deadpan, he asked bluntly, “Who’s asking?”
“We have all the answers you’ll need, Mr. King. All you have to do is come with us.”
Eyes narrowing in disappointed disbelief, he said, “If you know who I am, fancy-pants, then you know I’m not gonna be doing that.”
“We’re not here to cause any trouble, and no harm shall come to you.”
Damn straight.
“We just need for you to come with us. There is an important matter that needs to be discussed with you, but… this is hardly the right location.”
King contemplated the words, and the situation behind them. He didn’t doubt that one of these guys had a weapon, but they didn’t show any signs of going for it, even if he had his own gun aimed at the louder one’s head. So, he figured this could be one of those rare times where he could play nice. “Fine. Lead the way, fancy-pants.” Slotting his gun back in his holster, he looked to the familiar, before adding, “It’s your lucky day!” in a faux cheery tone. And then slammed him in the face again. The man dropped unceremoniously, and unconsciously, to the floor, before the former Nightstalker turned, and followed the suited men out to… oh, another cliché!
“You guys and your unmarked cars…”
|
|
Sara Pezzini
LXG
Leader;Wielder
Confusion tolerance my ass.
Posts: 88
|
Post by Sara Pezzini on Sept 7, 2005 13:32:27 GMT -5
"Well, guys, it's been a lovely ride. I'll miss you," Sara stated as she was led away from the SUV by the creepy guy. The sweet tone in her voice and sappy smile she gave made the other men blink and a few smirked, but that was all they'd give her. Not that she cared, she didn't even look back. She was quite thankful to be out of the SUV. The whole ride had been silence after Sara had asked where they were going and why they were going there - to which she got the standard, "We are not at liberty to discuss that information," answer. And it had been uncomfortable to boot.
If I die Ian, I am going to come back and haunt you for not being there, Sara mused, glancing at the bracelet around her right wrist. And you had better make it happen, too.
The creepy guy led her into a conference room with a long table that looked like it belonged in the Vorschlag Industries building Irons inhabited as much as his own home. "Have a seat, Detective, you'll get your answers soon," he stated with a creepy smile that wasn't forced - that was the creepiest thing about it - and left her in there alone. Not that she was complaining about him being gone, she hoped she'd never see his creepy face again.
The sound of another door opening jarred Sara from her thoughts, and she tensed. The Witchblade did nothing though, so she relaxed, somewhat, and looked over to the area the sound had come from. "I assume you're the guy who's going to explain what's going on?" she questioned as another man approached the table.
"I must work on my transparency," the man stated with a hinting of a smirk playing on the left corner of his lips. "I remove that statement with apologies," he quickly corrected himself. "Never was one for jokes, I let the younger agents in this division handle them, no matter how poorly they can be." The man was dressed in a simple dark suit with a collarless shirt, and a black jacket. A somewhat thickened folder was held firmly under his arm before he dropped it on the table, his eyes gazing at Sara thoughtfully, and a hint of intrigue. "My name is Brian Cragen; I'm a representative of the United States government, and we need your cooperation and assistance."
"Cooperation and assistance with what, and why me?" Sara asked, a little disbelieving. Her left eyebrow quirked upwards in question, and she folded her arms as she waited for an answer. The Witchblade remained silent and still.
"A situation has come up that could threaten this entire country, possibly even the planet, unless we act now," the man explained, his voice calm, yet carrying a firmness to it. "We're asking you to lead a team of, unique individuals, like yourself, to combat this threat."
Sara blinked. "You want me to what?"
"We have a team of individuals picked, each one possessing a unique ability that will prove useful in dealing with this already increasing threat, and you have been picked for the leader of this team." As Cragen spoke he scooped up the folder and let it slide across the table towards Sara. "Those are the files we have containing the members of this team. As it's your team you may look through them and decide how you wish to recruit, but it needs to be carried out swiftly."
Sitting down, Sara reached over and grabbed the file, glancing at Cragen warily before she opened it. There were several other people listed in it, her being the first. They knew about the Witchblade somehow, which explained why she was one of these "unique individuals". The second was someone with a doozy of a name: Hannibal King. School life must have been hard for him.
"So, I'm supposed to recruit all these people, and lead them?" she asked, rather incredulous.
"You and your co-leader, yes," Brian replied, tilting his head so he could see which file Sara was currently viewing. "Yes, Hannibal King, he was chosen for the second in command, and you two are to recruit this team and deal with this threat. It has been done before in the past, and now, once more, with you the leader of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen."
"Gentlemen, and you want a female leader?"
"It was done before, back in 1899," he replied cooly, slowly beginning to circle around the table. "The government believes that for, certain situations where normal government solutions would not apply that the services of, singular individuals with unique traits are assembled, and so this branch was created, teams being assembled in the past to combat everything from world wars to alien invasions."
Sara blinked, glanced at the Witchblade, and then swallowed all that information. She'd seen so much weird stuff, she figured everything was true now, including all this guy was spewing. "So where's this co-leader?"
|
|
|
Post by Hannibal King on Sept 7, 2005 14:56:04 GMT -5
The co-leader was being led down the hallway, which echoed the sounds of King’s heavy steel-capped boots impressively, the noise of which he listened to in case it changed or tried to hide something else… like, say, an ambush. His hand hovered near his thigh-holster, and he felt the other weapons on his person. He had refused to let them take his dark tan leather jacket, the collar of which stood up naturally, the bottom hanging around his waist, above the thick leather belt with steer-skull buckle, made out of silver. His fingerless gloves were strapped tightly over his hands, one of which was clenched, readily.
Glancing around warily, he let his ‘tour guide’ open the double doors for him, and strode in. “Why thank you, fancy-pants. I’m all out of cash, so a tip’s out of the question.” He flashed a humourless, dry smirk, and watched as the man took his leave. “What? Not even a smile? Don’t tell me I’m losing my touch.” With a ‘hmph’ noise, King turned, and then saw the other two occupants of the room.
“Oh, look,” he began sarcastically, “it’s a party.”
|
|
Sara Pezzini
LXG
Leader;Wielder
Confusion tolerance my ass.
Posts: 88
|
Post by Sara Pezzini on Sept 7, 2005 15:01:56 GMT -5
Sara looked up as her co-leader entered the room, briefly glancing at his file, then back up at the man himself. Reminds me of Jake. Only, more capable of handling himself. Which was good, because Jake, while not a bad cop, got his ass kicked a little too often. Not that it ever really damaged his ego though.
Offering a visibly forced smile, Sara gave a weak, brief wave. "How ya doin'?" she asked, figuring she might try to be polite. He didn't seem to be overjoyed himself. If the guys he'd been stuck with were anything like the ones with her, she couldn't really blame him, could she? Also, she was kind of avoiding this whole, League and leadership thing. She wasn't sure how she felt about it all.
|
|
|
Post by Hannibal King on Sept 7, 2005 15:09:34 GMT -5
He returned the wave; simple and brief. “Hey.” She seemed in a state not too unlike his own. A general ‘what the hell is going on?’ attitude, but with an edge. He liked that. Looking to the man not far from her, he waved a hand. “So you must be behind this whole thing, huh? Gotta tell you, buddy; not feelin’ the love. Your collection guys? Need a sense of humour, and maybe a few more catchphrases. All I got was ‘we’re not at liberty to say’ and ‘you’ll get your answers’.” He moved closer to the table, taking childish pride in the fact that he made the man look suitably… short.
“They kinda remind me of those pull-string dolls you have as a kid,” he added, before glancing from one to the other, as if waiting for an explanation.
|
|
Sara Pezzini
LXG
Leader;Wielder
Confusion tolerance my ass.
Posts: 88
|
Post by Sara Pezzini on Sept 7, 2005 15:41:55 GMT -5
Sara shook her head and went back to the file before her. "Least we won't be working with them," she muttered as she went to the next person in the file. Everybody seemed to have odd abilities or strange pasts, or both, and some of them were just plain worrying her. I'm supposed to lead some of these people?. She was not looking forward to this. However, she had no idea how the government would react to a negative answer.
Brief flashes of Gabriel, bloody and broken, men in black suits, JFK in her apartment, and a tape were suddenly distorting her vision, and by the time she could grasp what was happening, the images were gone. Sara glared at the Witchblade, silently hissing at it. What the Hell did you just show me?! The bracelet remained silent, not even a swirl in the red jewel to answer her. Guess that means I should say yes.
"I'll do it. But you get to explain it to my, co-leader," Sara stated, looking up from the file. She glanced at him and at King, allowing herself to take in more details of both of them now. King was three inches taller than Cragen, and being bulkier made him look even bigger than he really was. Sara found this amusing for no real reason. Oh, wait, there was the fact that she hated men in black suits, that could be it. Men in black, always creating problems. Oh. Ian is going to freak if I'm not around.
|
|
|
Post by Brian Cragen on Sept 7, 2005 15:51:34 GMT -5
Brian settled his gaze on Hannibal as he prepared to relay the details that he told Sara. However, the threat that loomed on the horizon was - at least they believed, there was some evidence to suggest it - more familiar to the hunter before him, and it tied into his recruitment. "Sara Pezzini and yourself, Mr. King," he began, almost blinking at how, odd the latter name sounded with that title before it. "Have been chosen to lead a team to stop a threat that could pose severe problems to this whole world even," he continued, stepping backwards as he nodded towards Sara.
"She's the leader, with you second in command, the Co-leader, you being brought here because of your skills as a leader and in, dealing with what we're up against, on top of the fact that we have reason to believe this threat had something to do with the, incident that occured a while back, with a friend of yours, Whistler was her name, correct?"
|
|
|
Post by Hannibal King on Sept 7, 2005 16:10:43 GMT -5
Instantly, King was on the defensive, and he quickly decided he didn’t particularly like this man in front of him. “So, what you’re saying to me, Mr. No-Name, is that this has something to do with vampires and the bastards who killed my friend.” Pulling a bitter, not-in-the-least-amused smile onto his face, he said sarcastically, “Please, tell me more! I can’t wait to get involved!”
He would have sat down, but only before hearing this; the reason for his involvement. Now? He was just plain uncomfortable, and that made him cranky.
|
|
|
Post by Brian Cragen on Sept 7, 2005 16:18:56 GMT -5
Brian let out the slightest motion of discomfort at the hunter's reaction. "I didn't expect you to have the most, positive of responses to that, and it's Cragen; Brian Cragen." He ran a hand through his hair as he let a soft sigh escape him. "We don't have full proof, but we do believe it to be the ones responsible for Abigail Whistler's death."
As he continued he pulled out a file that he set down inbetween Sara and King. "It's not much, but it is what we have on this threat, and I expect you to show it to the others of the team as they are recruited."
|
|
Sara Pezzini
LXG
Leader;Wielder
Confusion tolerance my ass.
Posts: 88
|
Post by Sara Pezzini on Sept 7, 2005 16:24:53 GMT -5
Sare didn't glance at King for too long after his, outburst. She'd had situations similar to this happen to her, and she wouldn't want to be stared at. To think Dante gave me headaches. Sara listened with a mixture of confusion and irritation as Cragen went on, then took the file as he handed it to her. She opened it to find two pages that covered very brief information on someone named Elijah Damaskinos.
"Vampires. Of course they exist. Poor Jake's gonna have nightmares if he finds out," Sara muttered as she read over this file, rather confused. "Alright, so who exactly was Eli Damaskinos, and why was he so important?" Sara asked, looking back up at Cragen. She was feeling kind of lost, but that was hardly new.
|
|
|
Post by Brian Cragen on Sept 7, 2005 16:29:17 GMT -5
"Eli Damaskinos, from the information that we gathered, was a vampire who was over five thousand years old when he died," Brian began. He normally was never the best one for explanations, but he could make do, even if it was slightly blunt. "He had been attempting to create the perfect race of vampire, immune to sunlight and everything else vampires can be harmed by. A few years ago he came rather close with a near animalistic mutant breed called Reapers, the carrier of this virus being Eli's own son, Jared Nomak. Nomak killed Eli, and was then destroyed by Eric Brooks, also known as Blade, a half-vampire if you will, and Eli's lap was supposidly destroyed, or at least completely trashed, but, as seen now, it wasn't investigated enough, otherwise we would have most assuredly found where the clone was being kept."
|
|
Sara Pezzini
LXG
Leader;Wielder
Confusion tolerance my ass.
Posts: 88
|
Post by Sara Pezzini on Sept 7, 2005 16:35:45 GMT -5
Sara blinked, then nodded. Information swallowing time again. Sara read over the file once more, taking it all in. Thw Witchblade swirled, giving her visions, brief flashes of an ancient looking male, a young male with his lower jaw split apart, and a normal looking, young male. Sara let out a hiss, rubbing her temple as she handed the file over to Hannibal. "Okay, think I got it all now." Though I could have figured enough out from Cragen's explanation, there was no need for the visions. Again. She really hated the Withcblade sometimes. The bracelet on her wrist swirled briefly, as if to tell her she needed it.
|
|
|
Post by Hannibal King on Sept 7, 2005 16:44:25 GMT -5
King took the file and dropped it straight onto the tabletop. “I know it all already.” He looked to this Cragen man. Hostile? Perhaps just a little. “And you knew I would.” He paused. “Maybe the clone is new, but I know the rest. You’re supposed to know all about me; you know what I did when I met Blade, and before Abigail Whistler died.” One of his hands rested on the grip of one of his pistols, but not with the intention of pulling it out and firing it; merely for a pose.
“And let me guess. You want us to find this beastie, and kill him.” He locked eyes on Cragen. “You’re not really hard to read.”
|
|