The Sinner’s Price, Part Eight
As the Magisters appeared in the doorway, Melchior raised his staff, sending eldritch strands flashing towards the Mythica's men. At the same moment, a car exploded, knocking two SEA agents off of their feet, and Tranquil leaped into the air, her sleeves extending to create tightly-wound ribbons that pulled her towards the second floor of the auction house. Blossom's arm twitched up, and a pair of slim knives flashed out towards the sleeves; a moment later they curved a long arc around Tranquil and dove back at the Magisters. As Roland stepped into their path, Blossom's mask went blank. “Right,” she muttered under her breath. “Can't use projectiles.”
“Blossom?” Jack yelled. “What are you doing here? Director Henry...”
“Alice dropped me off as soon as we lost communications,” Blossom explained, as the Magisters darted across the street. Melchior's energies were dispersing Piper's song, and the Mythica's soldiers were taking up formation in the doorway as the magician walked towards them. “I know it was risky, but we figured there was trouble.” She glanced up as Kitsune raced up the side of the building, moving quickly enough that her feet found footholds before she could fall, and brought her knives around towards Tranquil's head. Tranquil's left sleeve coiled around her, catching the knives and twisting around them, and the thief kicked out, sending Kitsune back to the ground, where Proteus had already stepped to catch her, spin her, and launch her back into the air. “We were right.”
The Sinner’s Price, Part Seven
Captain Sylvia Marsh checked her comm one last time. “Nothing,” she muttered. “That's it. Is the area cleared?”
“Yes, sir!” her second-in-command reported, saluting. As soon as communications over the block had been lost, Marsh had sent one agent to run down the street and report back to the Magisters' HQ, while the rest of her men declared a state of emergency and chased off any civilians walking down the street. Since this was a major downtown intersection, it had taken longer than she would have liked.
“Good,” she said firmly, drawing her gun. “We move in. Alpha Squad takes point. Gamma brings up the rear. Beta Squad... we'll have to hope that they can see us.” The snipers that should have been watching the area were also out of contact, but Marsh didn't know if it was because something had happened to them, or because they were simply inside the area of interference. No sense worrying about it now. She raised her hand, and gestured sharply forwards, and Alpha Squad's five members began to cautiously approach the front of the large, stone-fronted building where the auction was taking place.
The Sinner’s Price, Part Six
The hallway upstairs was silent, closed. The guests were still in the auction, wondering at the delay in bringing out the next item on the block. The guards were downstairs, having been pulled away by the auction master. For a moment, everything was still.
That moment ended as the stairway doors exploded open, and Tranquil rolled through them, one hand tossing a small flash grenade over her shoulder as she did so. She rolled to her feet, one hand on the carpet, and shook her head in annoyance. “Synthetic,” she muttered. “This is absurd.”
“Problem, Shauna?” Jack's voice came around the half-closed doors, as he pulled up the dark goggles he'd slipped on when he saw her hand moving. “I don't suppose you're ready to surrender.”
The Sinner’s Price, Part Five
“Number 16, sold to the gentleman in the white hat for four hundred thousand dollars!”
Catherine sighed as the auctioneer's gavel came down. 'So, what's the verdict? Is the matrix safe?' There was a long pause, during which she straightened and looked over to Yousef. He was already hurrying towards her.
“The radiogems just went dead,” he said urgently. “One moment, the Director was talking to Jack about that matrix, and the next... nothing.”
“Come on,” Catherine said, pushing the back door open and striding out. A security guard looked over to her, and she gestured. “Come on! Where's the organizer?” She pulled out her flute case, shaking her head. “We have a problem.”
“Not necessarily,” Yousef said weakly. “There could be feedback. Radiogems are psionic technology, after all. A bit of excess energy in the matrix could...” He broke off, and shook his head. “No, even I don't believe it. Let's go.”
The Sinner’s Price, Part Four
“Next on the block, Number 16 – a rare sculpture depicting the Atlantean goddess of the harvest, Kialara.”
Catherine leaned against the back wall of the auction room, looking over the gathered clients. They were, unfortunately, exactly what she’d expected – a mixture of the idle rich, a handful of well-dressed but bored-looking agents representing people too important to attend in person, a few out-of-place academics, and a few low-tier mages hoping against hope that they might discover something interesting.
The Sinner’s Price, Part Three
Sitting on top of a small apartment complex across the street from the auction house, a bulky man clicked open his walkie and spoke into it. “Position 3, Todd speaking.” he murmured. “There are SEA agents covering the loading dock. No sign of Tranquil yet.”
“Thank you, Position 3.” Melchior’s voice came over the walkie, smooth and serious. “I’ve sent Molly up to your position. The passcode applies. Watch for any shadows on the rooftops nearby, and don’t let them spot you.”
The Sinner’s Price, Part Two
“Jaaaack!” Blossom sprang out of the garage door, practically knocking Jack over as she surged towards him. He laughed, catching her with only a slight stagger backwards. “Welcome back!”
“Thank you, Blossom,” he said with a grin, disentangling himself from her. “Although you're behaving as if we didn't see each other last Friday.”
“Okay, well, yes...” Blossom said, mask still grinning. “But it's not the same. You're back for real now.”
“Yeah, it's kind of a big deal,” Roland said, stepping up to pat Jack on the shoulder. “Welcome back, man.”
The Sinner’s Price, Part One
“Bored!”
Melchior looked up from his papers as Fenris stalked into his small office, and held back a sigh. Fenris dropped into a large cushioned chair across from the desk, draping his legs over one arm and leaning his head against the other. “I am bored, Melchior,” he said. “You told me we could get this show on the road as soon as you finished with that scrap we stole from the plant girl. What’s the holdup?”
“The holdup, my lord,” Melchior said smoothly, “is that we can’t free Jormungandr if the time isn’t right. If we attack the prison while its bindings remain strong, we’ll have wasted twelve years of preparations.”
Kryptonite, Part Ten
“So that was our day,” Blossom said with a sigh, leaning back in her seat. She was back at the base, having retired to her room while Yousef and Catherine were busy being checked up, and was now typing up her report while chatting on the phone. “I wish you’d been there. I kind of wonder what you’d have been offered.”
“I think I’m happier not knowing.” On the other end of the line, Jack shook his head, glancing around his modest kitchen. In the other room, he could faintly hear the sound of furniture moving as Tarah cheerfully swept the floor. “Too much introspection is bad for the soul.”
Kryptonite, Part Nine
“Well,” Roland said with a smile, watching as a small team of SEA agents carefully bundled up the mirror, “that was a pretty painless…”
“Finish that sentence,” Catherine growled softly, “and I will hurt you. I don’t know how, yet, but I will find a way.”
Roland chuckled, patting her on the shoulder. “Glad to have you back, Pipes. Now I don't have to do the heavy thinking for a while.”
Kryptonite, Part Eight
Roland found Chad on the roof, sitting on the edge and rolling a small thread of fire between his fingers and staring off into space. “I interrupting?” he asked.
For a moment, Chad looked like he wanted to say ‘yes’, but he shook his head, patting the ledge next to him. “Nah,” he said as Roland sat down. “I called Christine.”
“How’d it go?”
“Oh, it was sunshine and puppies,” Chad snapped.
Kryptonite, Part Seven
The team, along with Chad, gathered around the conference table at the local SEA base. On the far wall, Jason and Oliver appeared on a large television. “Alright, teleconference is set up,” Jason reported. “Let’s get started. First off, the good news. Based on everything you got from Sunderstorm and Turbine, we’ve got a ping on that mirror. Apparently it’s known as the Frost Of Aideen.”
“Sounds ominous,” Roland said, leaning back in his seat. He looked around at the team. “How bad is it?”
“Pretty bad. You’re looking at a high-tier magical artifact, Roland. It was forged in Scotland during the Atlantean invasions of the 2600s BCE. Aideen was some sort of priestess, probably a shamaness, and she devised the mirror to encourage the occupying Atlantean forces to leave her people alone. Worked like a charm.”