Magistracy:Origins

[csyphrett]

Placeholder to find later

CES

[Trebuchet]

Re: Magistracy:Origins

 

I can't wait!

[Mr. R]

Re: Magistracy:Origins

 

I want more please.

 

Jerome

[csyphrett]

Re: Magistracy:Origins

 

Sorry, I am slow as dirt except at novel writing time. I will try to get some of this out in the next week or so. Also have a villain to use for both the odd squad and the school. As soon as I have a slot open, will work on those too.

CES

[csyphrett]

Re: Magistracy:Origins

 

1

 

Jerry Silver

High above Los Angeles, a zeppelin cruised toward the center of the town. War had not broken out yet, but German Intelligence was in operation in the neutral United States. America supported their British cousins in all but manpower. The point of the project was to gather enough information that Roosevelt would be forced to sit things out no matter how much he had signed a lend lease deal to stave off the inevitable victory for the Third Reich.

 

Captain Arnold Schwartz looked out the windows of the crew compartment hanging under the balloon and almost growled. He had been assigned the task of stealing models of new planes America was thinking of using in the future. Everything had gone well except for one complication.

 

And that complication soared in the air behind him, using steam to power some jet pack that looked cobbled together out of fans and clockwork gears.

 

Johnny Gold smiled as he aimed for the door of the carriage. Agents of the Reich hated the professional adventurer for constant interference in their plans. He crashed against the thin door, sweeping it open to step inside the conveyance.

 

Schwartz drew his weapon. He pulled the barrel up to line up with his enemy as the crew reached for whatever fell to hand. This was the last time Gold would meddle with the S.S. His finger tightened on the trigger. The American opened his mouth. Steam filled the room in a heated jet, creating a fog where everything rested in a shroud.

 

The Captain fired into the exhalation. He couldn't see at what he was aiming, but he didn't want Gold to get too close with that hot breath of his. Men had lost their skin when caught in his steam power.

 

Gold released the pack from his shoulders. The solid clunk against the floor attracted attention but he was already heading forward. Let the sailors mess with his pack while he dealt with their captain. Whining bullets made him dive to one side. Bullets flying around inside a vehicle loaded with flammable gas was a bad recipe.

 

He had to stop that quick.

 

Gold charged forward, summoning his breath power again. One good blast should do it. He had been feeling winded the last year or so. He thought something was wrong inside, but couldn't stop helping save the world.

 

Schwartz spotted the adventurer clearing the now cool cloud of mist. He leveled his pistol at the tan double breasted jacket. One bullet should put an end to this. They would dump the body over the Pacific.

 

Johnny Gold released the steam built up in his lungs. The cloud struck the officer like a furnace. The pistol went up and discharged. The bullet punctured the roof of the cab, then the bag beyond. The hot metal slug ignited the gas in a firestorm over the city.

 

The explosion rocked Los Angeles, but those who hadn't seen it at the time put it down to a small tremor. Jerome Silver was one of those. He had diagrams and drawings of tubes he hoped to put in radios or the new thing called television. The building shook under him, but that meant nothing as long as it didn't fall down around him.

 

Jerry had to figure out how to manufacture smaller tubes with better carrying properties in three days. He didn't think he could do it. He picked up one of his failures and turned it around in his hand, examining it with his eyes.

 

What had gone wrong?

 

A crackling from his phone made Jerry look at the instrument. He picked up the receiver, wondering what was going on. A bolt of electricity picked him up and slung him across the room. He crashed against a work desk and went out like a light.

 

Jerry woke up in the hospital. Bandages wrapped his hand where he had been holding the phone. He got out of bed and headed to the bathroom. He glanced in the mirror and stopped. He ran his unburned hand through his hair.

 

Jerry's hair had been a raven black. Now it was a gray, like an old man's, like the silver that was his name. He stared at it, forgetting about why he had entered the bathroom.

 

What had happened to him?

 

Jerry held up a hand. Lightning raced around the fingertips as he watched. He decided that he needed to sit down. Silver made his way back to his bed. Lightning touched the rails that were supposed to keep patients from rolling off of the mattress to the floor. He took a breath and the yellow streaks died.

 

What should he do? Being able to summon electricity was beyond him. Maybe there was an expert that could help him. Everyone know that Johnny Gold knew scads of things about stuff like this. Maybe he should try to get in touch with the man.

 

Jerry nodded to himself. If Gold couldn't help, he would know someone who could. His reputation as an expert circled the world. Jerry stood up and started looking for his clothes. He couldn't see someone in a backless gown and be taken seriously.

[csyphrett]

Re: Magistracy:Origins

 

2

350 point version of Jerry Silver

Real Name: Jerry Silver

Nationality: American

Hair/Eye Color: Gray/Blue

Place of Birth: Los Angeles, Ca

Date of Birth: 3/9/1917

Height/Mass: 5'9, 175 pounds

 

Cost Characteristic Value

5 STR 15

33 DEX 21

20 CON 20

20 BODY 20

15 INT 15

20 EGO 20

5 PRE 15

COM 10

PD 3

ED 4

SPD 3

10 REC 12

END 40

8 STUN 45

 

OCV: 7 DCV: 7 OECV: 6 DECV: 6

Phases: 4, 8, 12

 

Cost Powers and Talents (END)

Lightning 75 pt Multipower

5u Lightning: 5d6 ranged killing attack (75 pts), side effect (6d6 energy blast -1/2, always happens, Always occurs when power is activated.) 50 pts

5u Lightning: 15d6 energy blast (75 pts), side effect (6d6 energy blast -1/2, always happens, always occurs when power is activated.) 50 pts.

5u Electrical conduit: Absorption 15d6 vs electricity to add to energy blast. (-½) 50 pts

5u Taser fist: 15d6 hand attack Hand to hand attack (-½) 50 pts

4u Lightning: Transform 15d6 75 pts, machines to junk (-½) side effect (6d6 energy blast -1/2, always happens) 38 pts

5u Lightning : 15d6 Flash 75 pts side effect (6d6 energy blast -1/2, always happens) 50 pts

 

2 Life Support: Longevity

 

Cost Skills

3 Mechanics 12-

3 Electronics 12-

3 Inventor 12-

3 Computer Programming 12-

3 System Operation 12-

3 Fast Draw with lightning

3 Bureaucratics 12-

3 KS: US Military 12-

3 KS: Intelligence Community 12-

3 KS: Superhumans 12-

3 KS: Hidden History 12-

3 AK: The World 12-

3 KS: Electrical Engineer 12-

3 PS: Electrical Engineer 12-

4 Navigation: Land, Air 12-

3 Combat Driving 13-

3 Combat Piloting 13-

4 TF: Wheeled vehicles, planes, jets

3 Teamwork 12-

3 Tactics 12-

2 WF: Small Arms

 

10 + 5 OCV levels with lightning

6 +4 Lightning Reflexes

 

7 Contact: The President of the United States 8-

7 Contact: The President of Russia 8-

7 Contact: Head of the CIA 8-

7 Contact: The Prime Minister of Great Britain 8-

7 Contact: General Secretary of the UN 8-

5 International Police Powers

1 passport

5 Diplomatic Immunity

 

150 Points Disadvantages

15 Secret: Power is killing him 11-

10 DF: Electromagnetic aura

20 Public Identity 11-

10 Reputation: Cranky Curmudgeon Blaster 11-

15 Psych Lim: Protective of those around him

30 Hunted by Magistracy's enemies 14-

20 Watched by the UN 11-

15 Psych Lim: Smoker

15 Psych Lim: Wants to get his way.

 

CHA Cost = 118

Total Powers Cost = 106

Total Skills Cost = 127

Total Cost = ____350/350______________

[OzMike]

Yay - character sheets

 

That said - want some feedback? And if you do - how about we start another thread?

[csyphrett]

Re: Magistracy:Origins

 

Yay - character sheets

 

That said - want some feedback? And if you do - how about we start another thread?

 

Either or is fine, Mike. The math might be off but since I probably won't be using the sheets, I don't see how it matters one way or the other.

CES

[OzMike]

Re: Magistracy:Origins

 

Either or is fine, Mike. The math might be off but since I probably won't be using the sheets, I don't see how it matters one way or the other.

CES

 

The thread is here, and it allows the story thread to remain uncluttered

 

And I like providing feedback because I like noodling with character builds - it'd be great if you made yourself available to explain design choices.

 

On with the magic please.

[csyphrett]

Re: Magistracy:Origins

 

The thread is here, and it allows the story thread to remain uncluttered

 

And I like providing feedback because I like noodling with character builds - it'd be great if you made yourself available to explain design choices.

 

On with the magic please.

 

Cool, Mike. I find it hard to explain stuff though.

CES

[csyphrett]

Re: Magistracy:Origins

 

3

Luna and Phaeton

They took the bag off Diana Archer's head to reveal a blank room with gray walls on all sides, no furniture, concrete floor. Her two captors stood by the only door, bored expressions on their faces.

 

"Clothes." The one on the left held his hand. Diana looked at him in shock. She had been cuffed before they took the bag off, now her wrists hurt and a stranger demanded her school uniform. "Don't look at me. Strip."

 

"I won't do it." Diana tensed, falling into the karate stance she had learned.

 

"We can do this the easy way or the hard way." The spokesman folded his arms. "Either way, you're going into this gown and we're taking your clothes with us. Don't make us hurt you."

 

Diana looked at the hospital gown in the second man's hands. She thought about it, thought about the implications. Then she stepped to the door, aiming a punch at the spokesman's lower regions. A back hand met her face, knocking her to the floor.

 

"Last chance, kid." The spokesman stepped back. "We're not supposed to get rougher than we have to but the doc will overlook a few black and blues if we tell him you made a fight of it. Don't make us step it up."

 

"Leave the gown and step outside." Diana picked herself up. "I'll change and hand my clothes outside to you."

 

"Knock when you're done." The two stepped outside the door, leaving the gown on the floor. Diana stared at the exit, wondering how she was going to get out of the cell.

 

At least they were keeping their hands to themselves. That had been a big fear in the front of her brain. What did they want with her?

 

Diana knocked on the door, handed her uniform through a crack. She hated to see it go. She might have been able to build a weapon out of it somehow.

 

"The nurse will be by to check you in a few." The spokesman's voice drifted through the opened doorway. "Don't try anything cute when she gets here."

 

"I'm going to get out of here and I am going to kill you when I do." Diana stood at the door, fist clenched.

 

"Until then, chow is in a couple of hours, bathroom is in the corner." The door slammed shut. Before it did, Diana thought she had caught a glimpse of someone being dragged down the hall in front of her cell, bag over his head.

 

How many were trapped like she was?

 

The nurse came in while Diana was still exploring her small drab cage. The girl couldn't find any weakness in the walls. The door sounded like wood over steel when she slapped it. The vent in the ceiling was barely big enough for a rat. She thought about trying to rig up something from the light, but didn't think she could get the grill over the bulb off with her finger nails.

 

"Hello." The nurse had a needle and empty vials, and a rubber hose in her hand, Diana's two watchdogs at her heels. "Please bend your arm. This will sting a little bit."

 

"When will you tell me what's going on?" Diana hugged the far wall, looking for her chance. "What's going on?"

 

"I need to draw some blood from you." The nurse tried to smile. "The more you cooperate, the easier it will go."

 

"You want some blood, vampire?" Diana launched herself across the room at the nurse. "I got your blood, $(*#$!"

 

The two guards grabbed Diana and put her face down on the floor before she could do more than punch the nurse. They bent her arms up and sat on her back as she struggled in their hold.

 

"Get the straps." The spokesman said. "We'll have to do this the hard way."

 

"Jeez, what are they feeding these kids now?" The other guard grabbed the back of Diana's neck in a big hand and squeezed slightly.

 

The door opened and closed twice. It took a while before Diana got too tired to keep fighting but eventually they strapped her legs and arms to her body so she could only wiggle like a worm. She screamed invective at the three of them while they took a moment to recover.

 

"They don't pay me enough for this." The spokesman wiped his brow. "Go ahead and stick her so we can get out of here."

[csyphrett]

Re: Magistracy:Origins

 

4

 

They kept Diana strapped down for what seemed like hours. They fed her with a spoon so they wouldn't have to untie her. Neither side liked that for the obvious reasons. Finally she fell asleep while she waited for new developments.

 

At least they hadn't hurt her more than necessary yet.

 

"Wake up, sleepy head." The spokesman and his sidekick were back. The balding kidnapper shook her shoulder. "Time to go."

 

"What's going on?" Diana struggled to sit up. Her limbs protested at the renewed circulation forced into them by her movement. "Where are you taking me?"

 

"Just down the hall." The spokesman undid the leg straps. "Cooperate and we let you walk. Otherwise we strap you back down and bring in a chair to roll you around."

 

"Screw you." Diana went for a kick. They needed her for something. That gave her partial immunity to their wrath.

 

The sidekick caught the leg. They reapplied the straps against her struggling. One of them held her down while the other left the room. She could tell by the lessened weight on her back. Then she was in a chair with a quick flip around. More straps tied her to the wheelchair.

 

"We would have to pick a wildcat." The sidekick started rolling Diana out of the room.

 

"Makes things more interesting." The spokesman walked on Diana's left as they rolled by a set of closed doors that could have been more cells. Then they navigated a doorway and rolled her into a large chamber with cubicles set up. Some of the walled spaces were filled.

 

More prisoners for whatever was going on?

 

The two guards rolled her into her own slot and parked the wheelchair. She could see them thinking about putting a gag on her. Finally they walked off, maybe to get another prisoner.

 

"Does anybody know what's going on?" Diana tried to keep her voice low. She didn't want a gag in her mouth.

 

A chorus of no's and invective reached back to her ears from down the line. That didn't mean much. Most people didn't tell you they were going to do something bad to you before they did it.

 

Diana worked on her straps, trying to loosen them up so she could get out of the chair. Her numb fingers didn't help her efforts. She froze when the nurse, the watchdogs, and someone new appeared. He must be a doctor with the lab coat on over green scrubs.

 

Splatters of blood formed a small x on his shirt. Diana went back to work when she saw that. This guy had cut someone up and she was determined that she wouldn't be the next one under the knife.

 

The doctor took a recorder from his coat pocket. He slipped in a tape, recorded a test one two three before nodding to himself.

 

"This is for test number 2149." He walked behind the cubicles, out of Diana's sight. "Time of injection starting is twelve PM on the thirteenth of May."

 

He returned with a cart of syringes and glass bottles with each of their names on them. Diana spotted hers at the end of the cart. She struggled in the wheelchair, trying to rock it over, do anything to get out of there.

 

The doctor spoke into his recorder as the nurse prepared each syringe and worked her way down the line. Diana had to be held down by the guards so the woman could stab her in the arm. Fire raced up that limb, reached into her brain.

 

The doctor continued taking notes, marking their reactions, watching the effects on their subjects dispassionately. He paused beside Diana's cell, recording how he might have had some success with her neighbor. It was too early to tell yet.

 

He noted that Diana had no outward sign yet, which was puzzling. He speculated that she might be partially immune to the booster.

 

"These two can go back to their rooms." The doctor indicated Diana and her neighbor with the recorder on pause. "Make sure you keep them under watch while I observe the rest of the subjects."

 

"Sure thing, boss." The spokesman grabbed Diana's chair and started wheeling her down the hall.

 

Diana didn't care about that. She was too busy trying to keep her brain from leaking out of her skull. A simple thing like movement was too complicated for her at the moment. She didn't even make a token resistance when she was laid on the floor of her holding pen.

 

Diana woke sometime later. She didn't know how long she had been out, but she was still strapped up. Her hair had fallen over her face. The color seemed off somehow. There were other things to worry about than that.

 

She needed to get out of there before they stuck her again. She already had an idea that some of the other prisoners had been killed by the experiment. The doctor had calmly described specifics in front of her.

 

Diana reached down with her fingers, grasping the straps around her wrists by the top edge. She pulled with her fingers, shredding the leather in her grip with an easy movement. Next came the leg straps, then the straps around her upper body.

 

That was easier than she had expected.

 

Diana went to the door, listening at the barrier. She couldn't hear anything. It was time for her to get out of there.

 

Diana brought her hand down on the lock with a sound like rolling thunder.

[csyphrett]

Re: Magistracy:Origins

 

They had grabbed Rob Solis in front of the arcade. He hadn't known what hit him when the bag went over his head. Then he had been led into the very same room he laid in now. Then they had taken his clothes and given him a gown.

 

He had the feeling they had thrown everything he had been carrying in an incinerator somewhere to erase any evidence of where he had been taken.

 

Then came the injection after hours of waiting.

 

Rob rolled on the floor, his brain baking under the influence of the drug coursing through his system. The light from the overhead lamp was a comfort, soothed him. His hand caught fire but he didn't care.

 

It wasn't burning him.

 

Rob got to his feet, pushing against the door. The light beamed down into him. He felt energized. His hand started sinking into the metal as it ran in rivulets down the wood paneling catching fire as the boy felt the fire run up his arms.

 

Rob smiled, face glowing. His hand broke through. He pulled back as the metal ran along the opening. He heard something that sounded like a hammer. Maybe one of the others was still alive.

 

He had to get out of the cell.

 

Rob stepped back, willing his fire to increase. For a moment, he felt as one with the light. He leaped forward, faded away into a brighter shining cutting through the air. Then he was outside the cell, standing there with burning air around him.

 

That was great. He should do that again. First he needed to get out of there.

 

Rob jogged to the locked door where the hammering was coming from. The lock had been pushed out three or four inches. The pounding guy must be strong as heck. He grabbed the lock in his burning hand, watched it melt in satisfaction as the tongue split under the pressure. He stepped back to let the door cool.

 

"Who are you?" A girl emerged from the cell, clad in the same type gown that Rob wore except his had burned up. "And where are your clothes?"

 

Rob searched his memory. He remembered fragments, things from before he had been dropped in the nightmare pot. They all seemed to belong to someone else. He couldn't remember if that someone had a name either.

 

"I don't remember." Rob admitted defeat. "What's yours?"

 

"I don't remember either." The girl grabbed her long silver hair in one hand, pulling it back as if to put it in a pony tail. She gave it a yank with both hands. The hair separated like water from the pull. "Let's look around for something to wear."

 

"I want to get out of here and try to find out who I am." Rob's skin gave off flames again. "Looking around is the last thing I want to do."

 

"Take off, naked boy." The girl started into the bowels of the place, butt hanging out in the wind. "I'm not going anywhere without clothes and answers."

 

Rob shook off the seductive sway long enough to look around. He thought he was making a mistake, but followed her to where he did remember being injected. There were worse things to do than follow a naked hind end around, he supposed.

 

The room was empty. The pair looked around, wondering what had happened to the rest of the kids that had been in the room with them. Were they released? Rob had the feeling that wasn't the case.

 

No witnesses, no evidence.

 

Footsteps hurried down the corridor behind them. The lab rats turned at the sound. The nurse stood in the door. She didn't look happy to see either of them moving around. That was okay with Rob. He wasn't okay with being used to test something that could have killed him.

 

The nurse turned to run. Rob caught fire and flew after her. She screamed when she saw him coming up the tunnel after her, burning the air like a rocket. He flew by to land in front of her.

 

"We would like to talk to you about what's going on here." Rob held up his burning hands. "Where are your files?"

 

"The doctor has them." The nurse backed up from the pyrotechnic display. "He transcribes the findings for later tests."

 

"And where is the doctor?" The girl stood behind the nurse. "We would like to talk to him."

 

"I don't know." Rob raised his hands, bringing them closer to her face. "I don't know. He calls when he wants someone to do the tests for him. That's all I know."

 

"Then you can go to sleep." The girl brought her hand down. She smiled as the nurse collapsed at her feet. "I'm calling you Phaeton from now on. That was great with the burning and flying."

 

"I'm calling you Luna." Rob looked at her. "How are we supposed to find out anything now?"

 

"Relax." Luna exchanged clothes with the nurse before locking her up in a cell. "Where do you think they are going to run their next horror show? They got a good thing going here."

 

"Why Phaeton?" Phaeton asked, arms crossed.

 

"Because he drove the sun across the sky." The girl smiled. "Why Luna?"

 

"Think about it."

 

Luna stared after him as he reentered the experiment chamber. Then she ran to the door. She shook her fist in the air as he looked around the room and two other rooms next to it.

 

"I'm not crazy!"

 

Phaeton ignored the outburst. A set of clean scrubs were on a cabinet in one of the smaller rooms. Now he needed to concentrate on not burning them up.

[csyphrett]

Re: Magistracy:Origins

 

6

Phaeton and Luna really checked their trap over after their look around. The building was some kind of leftover from the cold war. It sat on a river somewhere. Luna insisted that the lights in the distance was the New York skyline. An empty lot surrounded by a fence made the place look like every other place they could see around them.

 

Luna took the nurse's money and bought food for them after they discovered the doctor didn't keep any on the premises. She hacked her way through the fence at a spot away from the main gate. They didn't want their captors to know the mice had escaped.

 

They planned their ambush with the help of the nurse who didn't want her face burned off after all. That had been hard. Phaeton was sure that he didn't like burning people, and he needed to maintain concentration so he didn't burn up his scrubs. Still they got an approximate time for the others to arrive back at the prison. That was all they needed.

 

The guards came in first, checking the place over. The spokesman seemed surprised the nurse wasn't anywhere in view. They came down the corridor, pausing at the damaged doors. It looked like the experiment had worked. The kids weren't in their rooms.

 

The spokesman reached for his phone. The doctor had to know that his lab rats had gotten out and were wandering around. That would mean his experiments could be upgraded with the formulae he had established as working.

 

A hand chopped the phone out of his hand before he could dial out. He turned, swinging an arm. Something like a knife took him in the ribs and all he felt was pain that dropped him to his knees.

 

The sidekick also turned, wandering what was going on. He took a fist to the face that floored him. He thought he saw something glowing as he was picked up by the neck and thrown like a rag doll. The impact with his face against the nearest steel door dropped him to the ground.

 

"That was fun." The glowing Phaeton floated next to where Luna held her target with her hand. "Now let's get down to business."

 

"What did you do with our clothes and things?" Luna squeezed to emphasize she had the upper hand now. "We would like them back."

 

"Threw them away." The spokesman found speaking difficult with the pain wrapped around his heart. He couldn't reach the pistol under his arm the way he was locked down. "Standard procedure."

 

"So you didn't keep a record of who we are?" Luna's lips tightened. She wanted that information. Now it was gone with three words. Ripping out the man's heart seemed too easy now.

 

"Not my call." The man was on his knees. "That was the way things were set up. No one expected you to live so we didn't want to be caught with the stuff."

 

"Where is the doctor right now?" Luna gave him another squeeze.

 

"He's doing autopsies at his lab." The spokesman thought about reaching for the pistol with his other hand. He just had to break her grip on his torso. That should be easy. "As soon as he's done, we get rid of the remains."

 

"Give me the address." Luna could see the hope in his eyes, a plan. "Otherwise I'll have to find it myself."

 

The spokesman reached up to his shirt's breast pocket like he was reaching for a piece of paper with the address on it. Then he went for the pistol hanging in its holster, while trying to twist out of the grip on his rib cage. He turned, bringing the pistol up. A hammer hit his face, cracking it. He went down, gun sliding across the hall.

 

"Did you kill him?" Phaeton picked up the gun, melting the barrel closed with his fingertips.

 

"Does it matter?" Luna wiped her hands on her stolen dress.

 

"Yes it does." Phaeton checked the sidekick, emptying his pockets. "We agreed to not kill them."

 

"Quit being a wussy." Luna checked the spokesman's pockets, then picked up the phone, looking at the number on the display screen. "Can you drive?"

 

"I don't know." Phaeton checked what little memories he had. "I don't think so."

 

"Let's lock these losers up, then we can find this doctor." Luna opened the cell door the nurse was in, and stepped out of the way. Phaeton dropped the two guards in with their previous captive. "We'll have to fend for ourselves for a little bit."

 

"So what's the plan?" Phaeton thought about taking the men's clothes but decided against it. The scrubs would do for now. It's not like he would get cold.

 

"We call 411 and find out where this number is," Luna wrote the number down on a scrap piece of paper with a stolen pen. "Then we go visiting. The doctor isn't going to come here until the autopsies or new victims are ready so we have time to hunt him down."

 

Phaeton hated to admit it but that seemed like a reasonable plan to him. It sounded almost too reasonable.

 

"Go ahead." Phaeton gestured with his hand. "Then we can get something to eat and figure out how to get across the river to Manhattan since neither one of us drive."

 

"Hopefully by then I will have a plan for that." Luna dialed the number for information. "Too bad you can't fly us across without burning me to death."

 

"I'll work on it." Phaeton lifted off, concentrating on his flight while she navigated the information menus. He dropped to the earth when she said thank you. "What you got?"

 

"The number is listed here in New Jersey." Luna slapped the phone shut and put it in her stolen bag with the rest of their new belongings. "All we need is a map and cab fare then we can get drive out and talk to the man ourselves."

 

Phaeton smiled as they headed for the exit. It looked like they were going to be able to talk to their maker one on one after all. His day was looking better all the time.

 

"What do we do after we talk to him." Phaeton opened the door, letting Luna walk out first. "Where do we go?"

 

"I don't know." Luna looked around. "I don't think we'll be able to go home again. We're unrecognizable from before we went in. We don't even know what we're supposed to look like."

 

"Let's talk to this doctor." Phaeton headed across the parking lot to the rip in the fence. "Maybe he has our names tucked away somewhere."

 

"What are you going to do if he doesn't?" Luna followed, bag flapping against her hip.

 

"I don't know."

[csyphrett]

Re: Magistracy:Origins

 

7

 

The first thing Luna and Phaeton did was find a place to get a map of the area. The clerk at the convenience store looked at them. He didn't say anything. That was probably good for him.

 

The address for where the doctor's number had been listed was too far to walk in any good time. Phaeton could probably fly over in no time if he left Luna behind. She just looked at him and told him what would happen if he did that.

 

He decided not to call her bluff.

 

The pair decided that the building was south, they would walk until they could hitch a ride. Hitching should be easy with their combined talents. The drivers didn't even have to know they were on board if they timed it right.

 

Phaeton lifted them on to the first semi heading in the right direction once they made it to the highway. They rode along until they reached the right exit, then he boosted them off and on to an overpass bridge. They walked to the nearest street and got orientated with the map.

 

"This way." Phaeton started walking.

 

"How do you know?" Luna walked at his side, folding the map and putting it in her purse.

 

"The highway was to the south of the street and the address." Phaeton pointed to a nearby street sign a little further along. "This street was north, and on the way to where we want to go."

 

"Got it."

 

They reached the building for the address and noted it was for a drug company as they crossed the parking lot. The sky was lighting a pink color in the East, marking time for them. They didn't have long before the day crew came in and got in the way.

 

Not to mention, they didn't know if their doctor was even at the place. He might have a lab set up somewhere else to conduct his research.

 

"What do you want to do?" Phaeton looked at the building with its guards roaming around in front of it.

 

"I say we go in and break everyone's face until we find the doctor." Luna started forward.

 

"Wrong answer." Phaeton grabbed her shoulder. "We wait here and watch things until we're sure he's here, or not. We give it a day."

 

"He could be freeing those guys back at the lab right now." Luna looked over, fury darkening her face.

 

"They don't know where we are, and the one guy needed medical attention, so they probably killed him instead of taking him to the hospital." Phaeton sat down in the long grass. "We can afford to wait one day."

 

"What if he just leaves?" Luna glared at the boy. "We'll never find out who we are."

 

"Then he does." Phaeton closed his eyes for a second. "I guess we could go to the police but then we'll never find him."

 

Luna sat down, staring angrily toward the glass monolith looming over them.

 

"What do we do for twelve hours?" She finally turned her head to look at her companion. He was asleep, curled up in the grass.

 

"Good job, Columbo." She settled in, looking at the parking lot. She could give him an hour to nap. The sun was barely up. Plus he couldn't raise questions if he was asleep.

 

Luna sat closer to him, letting his warmth wash over her as she kept watch. This could be nice if she wanted it to be. She just had to make up her mind where she wanted to go for her future.

 

She sat for a few hours, thinking about where they could go from here when the man she wanted to see roamed in front of her, walking from an old Ford. She slapped Phaeton on the butt to wake him up before standing.

 

"He's here, lazy bones." She brushed off her dress with her hands. "What do we do now?"

 

"Let's go over and look at his car." Phaeton stood up, wiping the loose grass off his clothes. "Maybe he left the registration in it."

 

"I get it." Luna smiled for the first time in a long time. "That means we can find out where he lives."

 

"That's right." Phaeton led the way to the metal fence holding the parking lot inviolate from people like him. "We could do with a lot more cars around as cover."

 

"It's that blue Escort over there." Luna sliced the fence apart with her fingers.

 

The subjects walked over to the car. Phaeton tried the door. It was locked. He paused, not wanting to damage the car before they had talked to the good doctor.

 

Luna ran her fingers in the wheel wells until she found a magnetic key holder. She thumbed the cover off. A key looked up at her with a silver gleam. She unlocked the driver side door and got in. She unlocked the other door for Phaeton.

 

"Let's see if he keeps his paperwork in the glove box like everyone else." Phaeton pulled the receptacle open. He pulled out a variety of envelopes and handed half to Luna. They went through the papers quietly. He found a square piece of paper from New Jersey.

 

"Write this down." Phaeton handed the paper over, taking the envelopes from her. "That's where we go next."

 

Luna nodded. Why wait for the man in the parking lot when they could wait at his home? The only drawback she saw was if an alarm was in place to keep people out. Then they would have to wait outside until the doctor came home.

[csyphrett]

Re: Magistracy:Origins

 

8

 

 

Luna smiled as she broke out the window of the back door. They finally had a grip on what they wanted to do. It felt good. Maybe now they could put their lives back in order.

 

Or maybe not.

 

The couple had gotten out the map, traced a route to the doctor's street. Then they left the car as close to how they found it as possible. A quick walk back to where they had punched the hole in the fence got them back on the street and moving along.

 

Phaeton used his flight to help them along. His control had improved so that he was generally steady, and didn't burn things as he floated along. His speed took them an hour to get to where they had to be.

 

A casual search showed that the doctor did not have an alarm system hooked up to guard his house. That made things better for them. So they walked around with as much stealth as they could muster in the hopes the neighbors were also going about their businesses and not watching the house.

 

Then Luna broke in so they could look around.

 

Phaeton decided to start his looking with the refrigerator. He was disappointed to find one bag of coffee sitting on a shelf in the fridge. He tried the cabinets for canned food. He found some cleaning supplies and that was it.

 

"This guy doesn't eat here." He called to Luna investigating other parts of the house.

 

"Two suits in the closet." Luna called back. "Two changes of underwear. Running shoes. That's strange, right?"

 

"What the heck does he do here?" Phaeton found a computer station set up in what traditionally should be a living room. He noted the front windows were shrouded from people looking in.

 

The boy found a set of discs and files in cabinet next to the computer station. He might have felt guilty about breaking into them if he hadn't found a picture of the doctor with some woman. They were smiling in front of some pines somewhere.

 

He wondered if the doctor had experimented with her first.

 

One of the discs went into the computer after Phaeton turned it on. A password screen came on. Phaeton couldn't think of anything the doctor might have used as a pass. He took the disc out, cut the computer off.

 

At least he had the paperwork to look through.

 

The files were full of autopsies with reports of damage and pictures. There were no names. Each dead subject was marked by batch and experiment number. Reading the dry notes angered Phaeton. He put them away before he burned them up.

 

"Nothing in the bathroom but a toothbrush, some paste, and a towel." Luna returned to the main room. "This is a shell of some kind."

 

"Maybe he moved to where he does the experiment autopsies." Phaeton sat at the computer, glaring at the empty screen. "This might be where he goes to throw off suspicion."

 

"So he might not come home for a while." Luna sat down on the floor. "We should go back to his job and follow him when he leaves."

 

"I need a shower." Phaeton stood up. "We both need a change of clothes so we can blend in."

 

"Only two suits in the closet." Luna sprang to her feet and vanished. She returned with the clothes on hangers. She placed one to drop from Phaeton's chin. "It'll be a little small, I think."

 

"Don't worry about it." Phaeton took the suit. "We clean up, change clothes, head back to the lab. Any thoughts how we can follow him without being seen."

 

"I think so." Luna kissed him on the cheek. "You'll look great after a shower."

 

"Thanks." Phaeton gave her a hug, awkward and uncertain. "You will too. Better than great. You already look great now that is."

 

"You're blushing." Luna returned the hug. "I think I like that."

 

"Thanks, I guess." Phaeton disentangled himself from her arms slowly. He liked the hug. It made him feel normal instead of a glowing freak. "We have to get ready."

 

"We should save time by showering together." Luna smiled. "I've seen you naked already so it shouldn't be that much of a big deal."

 

"I think I love you a little, but I'm not ready to go to the next level yet." Phaeton reached out a hand to take her hand. "Can you wait for me?"

 

"Only a little?" Luna felt anger flare up, but the look in his face stopped her from saying something to wreck the feeling that they were committing themselves in some kind of ceremony. "I can wait."

 

Phaeton kissed her, more sure of it. Then he turned away and ran into the bathroom and closed the door.

 

"Five minutes, then I'm coming in after you." Luna smiled. Then she pulled her own suit off the hanger to make alterations with her hands.

[csyphrett]

Re: Magistracy:Origins

 

9

Dr. Mortimer Rodentia drove his battered Ford off his lab's lot, turned and headed away from the monolith. He still had several autopsies to do, and thought it was good that Cheevers and Karlo were taking their time assembling the next batch of subjects. He needed that extra time to finish checking the results from the dead ones.

 

Then he would have to check with Danvers how the subjects that had survived had done overnight. If they were still alive, he might finally have the key he wanted. He could expand his search into their batches of Formula 451, and their DNA.

 

He was so close to expanding humanity into gods, he couldn't give up the search now. He had to keep going, no matter how many had to be sacrificed. It was the only way he could leave a legacy behind after everything that had happened.

 

He drove his Ford into the lot of a self storage place, drove it around to the back of the building. Security cameras watched him but none looked into his operating room where he worked. He parked just across from his locker and pulled the key to the MASTER lock out of his pants pockets.

 

"Time to wrap things up." He thought about the two survivors, the only ones so far. There must be something special about them that could be used to unlock the secrets he wanted.

 

Rodentia had a freezer plugged into the building's power. That kept the bodies cold until he had a chance to look at them. It took him several hours to look through each corpse and ready it for disposal. The remains went into a bag, and then were dropped into the ocean. Sharks and other fish took care of the rest.

 

The doctor opened the freezer, pulled the body on top out. He had a rolling table next to the appliance. The body flopped on that, bag crinkling as it moved. The scientist froze. He thought he had heard a sound outside by his car. He listened but the sound didn't repeat itself.

 

It must have been the wind blowing something around.

 

Rodentia turned the body over to get at the bag's zipper. He still had an autopsy to perform. No one knew about his operation except for his employees and they didn't know who he was. No one knew about this place. He was in the clear.

 

Rodentia heard a sound. He was sure that time, so sure that he started to turn around. Something clipped him in the side of the face. The concrete floor became a bed when he hit.

 

"Pretty good." Phaeton checked his breathing without touching the doctor. "It looks he's down long enough for us to fix him without leaving a trail."

 

"I should kill him and get this over." Luna glared at the fallen man and not at his makeshift lab. "I'd be doing the world a favor."

 

"I think we can do things better than that." Phaeton pulled Cheevers's phone from the hand bag Luna still carried. He dialed 911, and waited for the operator to ask him to state his emergency. "I'm down here across from Benson Self Storage. I think I saw a man robbing the storage compartments. He had a bolt cutters in his hands. There's a car parked outside the compartment. Hold on." Phaeton pretended to be walking closer, then gave the doctor's car model and plate to the dispatcher. "Better hurry. I don't know how long he'll take before he leaves."

 

"I don't know if that will bring them running." Phaeton looked up at the sprinkler system. "Maybe a fire alarm will do it."

 

He melted the pipes closed above the locker room before heating up the smoke detector. A few minutes later, sirens told them help was on the way. Now all they had to do was sit back and watch.

 

"Let's what happens." Phaeton grabbed Luna by her waist and the two of them landed on the roof as a police car rolled through the lot. A searchlight made them keep away from the edge. The cop stepped out of his car, checking in with his dispatcher with a shoulder radio as the fire department rolled up. They entered the building to search for the fire causing intruders. A clamor went up at what they did find.

 

"He better not get off." Luna whispered even though the excitement on the ground covered any normal noise she might have made.

 

"He won't." Phaeton smiled. "We just made him the next famous mass murderer. No one will touch him with a pole. Even if he beats the charges, who would hire him, who would let him live near them? He's a marked man."

 

"That doesn't make me feel better." Luna glared down at the doctor crying, bruise forming on his face. "But it's the best we can do right now."

[csyphrett]

Re: Magistracy:Origins

 

Richard Mays stood on a street corner looking up at the sky. He thought he had spotted a glimmer in the sky that didn't move like any aircraft he had ever seen before. He wondered what it could be.

 

A beam of light ripped down from beyond the clouds. It struck Mays, engulfing his body in liquid fire. He blinked out of existence for several seconds. Then the light withdrew to its point of origin.

 

Rick wondered why he was on the pavement, looking up at the clear blue above.

 

"What happened?" Fire burned through Mays's brain as he tried to think.

 

The voices started then. They muttered about lost cats, rent payments, who shot JR. Taken by themselves, it would have been like overhearing a conversation on the bus. The problem was that each voice went on with another voice overlapping, then another, until all he could hear was a staticky buzz that resembled waves crashing into the shore.

 

Mays staggered to his feet. Despite the constant talking in his skull, he felt stronger than he had ever felt before. Maybe he had suffered a stroke. It happened, even to people as young as he was. He should get an x-ray of his brain to make sure everything was still rolling along in there.

 

Mays turned to his mental map of the city. He found the nearest hospital and realized it was blocks away. He started down the street, trying to ignore the shifting chorus as he walked. Everywhere he looked, a voice matched the person he looked at as they made their way along.

 

Someone decided to try and rob him as he slowly worked his way along. Mays felt the thought a few moments before hands reached for his shoulders to push him down and rob him. He felt a small amount of surprise when he braced himself and the hands barely slid his feet along the ground.

 

Mays didn't know if the surprise was his, or the mugger's.

 

Mays turned, hooking his arm around the thin man trying to roll him. The man looked light, but he felt lighter than that. The mugger left the ground and hit the wall. He lay there looking up, arms and legs contracted to protect his body from kicks and punches.

 

"I think you need to get in a program and get off the crack, Tyrone." Who was Tyrone? "Then decide what you want to do with your life. Otherwise I think you're going to wind up dead messing with the wrong guy. Do you want help?"

 

"Get away from me!" Tyrone scrambled up and ran. "Get away from me."

 

Mays watched him go, convinced that he could chase the thinner man down as easily as fish swam. Instead he stood there. He had rifled Tyrone's brain in a few seconds of contact. He decided that he really needed to get checked out. Something unexplainable was going on.

 

A beam of light flashed down out of the clear sky. It caught his attention, reminding him of the other flash he had spotted before he had fainted. He decided that getting an exam could wait. Maybe his answers were wherever the beam had hit.

 

Mays ran in that direction, amazed at how much faster he felt, how much easier it was to run along the sidewalk. He hopped over the hood of a slow moving car like a champion hurdler. That was the least of things as far as he was concerned. Panic drifted to his enhanced brain.

 

He heard a scream. A car flew through the air. He saw it hit the front of a clothing store. He winced at the pain that cut across the rest of the chorus he felt moving in his brain. He didn't know what was going on, but someone had to stop it, and he felt like it was something he could handle thanks to whatever had been done to him.

 

Mays paused when he saw a man dressed in black garments like something out of Star Wars. Black light burned from the man's eyes. He turned to face the New Yorker, his gaze igniting a lash of pain as the voices inside the changed man's skull competed with something else trying to get in.

 

"You don't seem like a champion." The voice was part scratching on chalkboard, part exacting as a measured line. Most of it reverberated inside Mays's gray matter with his new mental radio. "I suppose killing you will be some kind of distraction as short as it will take."

 

"I don't know what's going on." Mays looked around, glad to see that some of the bystanders were helping the wounded out of the battle zone. "I do know that you seem a little crazy, and someone has to do something to stop you. I guess that will be me unless you want to go back to where you came from right now."

 

"Maybe you are the champion after all." The man smiled.

[csyphrett]

Re: Magistracy:Origins

 

Richard Mays looked around, wondering how he had gotten into this mess. He should have walked the other way. Now he was committed to doing something against someone who could throw a car with ease.

 

And why was he the champion? That didn't feel right at all.

 

"I don't want any trouble." Mays held up his hands. "The police will be here to take you in any minute. Why don't we settle down to wait for the nice policemen to take you to the hospital?"

 

"I have been sent to settle a long established feud." The Visitor's voice cut through Mays's head. "If you are the champion, ripping out your heart is the proof I need that I have completed the mission."

 

"What if I'm not this champion?" Mays grimaced at the thought of having his heart ripped out of his chest.

 

"Then I can rip out your heart for personal enjoyment." The Visitor smiled as the black light poured from his eyes.

 

"I'll pass." Mays shook his head. This was kind of like the bullying he remembered when he was a kid. First they talked tough, then they tried to demonstrate how tough. The two of them were still in the talking tough stage, and he didn't like it. He didn't have the knack for it. "I like my heart where it is."

 

The Visitor flew forward, hand reaching for Mays's chest. Once he dug his fingers in, he could rip out whatever engine was in there. He saw the move to the left just before he flew into a parked car.

 

"You can always say you couldn't find this champion." Mays tried not to think about the massive dent in the Chrysler. That could have been him. "Tell them they sent you to the wrong planet."

 

"I think we're beyond that." The Visitor slapped some dust off his robe. "You are the one I have been sent to find."

 

"Let's say for argument's sake I am the champion." Mays quoted the word champion with his fingers. "What if I don't want to fight? I can just walk away anytime I want."

 

"Then I continue with what I'm doing until I am bored." The Visitor picked up the bent Chrysler, tossing it up and down with one hand. "That might take a while."

 

Mays stepped back. Usually the villain chucked the car and then tried to use it as a screen. Of course he was a whole lot faster than what he used to be. Could he dodge a flying car at close range?

 

The Visitor threw the car like a boomerang, the unnatural v of it spinning in the air as it rolled toward Mays. He leaped after it in a trail of black sparks. The two movements were so fast it looked like a piece of stop motion photography.

 

Mays jumped forward, swinging a right hand as hard as he could. That seemed to be the only thing he could do.

 

The champion caught the improvised weapon, trying not to freeze at the realization that he was stronger than a hundred men without going to a gym. His arm continued the forward motion. That slung the car back at the Visitor. The black garbed alien seemed to be taken back by the metal bearing down on him. He raised an arm and punched through the automobile. A human hand grabbed his wrist while another pulled his hood down in the way of his searing glare.

 

"Release me!" The Visitor reached up with his free hand to knock the grip away from his cowl.

 

"I got the picture now." Mays released his grip on his enemy's arm. "You want to decide if humanity is fit to be asked to join your union. So you test some random guy off the street to see how he acts. You make some noise and see who shows up. Your methods blow."

 

"How do you know that?" The Visitor paused, unsure for the first time since they met.

 

"Your guys screwed up back at headquarters." Mays shook his head. "They changed the conditions from what you're used to."

 

"I don't believe you." The Visitor looked up at the sky as if seeking answers.

 

"Why don't you go home and check it out?" Mays pointed up in the air. "I'll still be here when you get back. I'll even give you an address you can meet me at for the rematch."

 

"Why would you do that?" The Visitor crossed his arms.

 

"Eventually humanity is going to be out there with you guys someday." Mays shrugged. "There's nothing anyone could do to stop that short of destroying the planet. I don't see anything wrong with an observer watching our progress as we work our way up to that level. Trial by combat should be the last thing you try. Give us the chance."

 

"All right." The Visitor pulled what looked like a remote control from his belt. "I'll be waiting to rip your heart out if you ever get that far."

 

He pressed a button and vanished in a beam of sparks ascending to the heavens.

 

Mays looked up at the sky, imagining the things he had seen and doing them himself. He smiled.

 

"We're coming for you, buddy."

[csyphrett]

Re: Magistracy:Origins

 

12

The two boys glared at each other. Almost the same height and build, they could have passed for brothers to those that didn't know them. The older boy sneered as they faced each other like gunslingers.

 

Only gunslingers hadn't been born yet, because firearms weren't even a dream in an inventor's brain.

 

"Chemist?" The older boy's sneer grew more pronounced. "What kind of title is Chemist?"

 

"I looked into the future." The younger boy crossed his arms. "That's the name I had so I have decided to adopt it at the start instead of changing my mind and picking another name."

 

"Looked into the future." The Chemist's counterpart laughed. "What makes you think you'll be alive in this future. Time can't be trusted."

 

"I'll be alive as long as you're alive." The younger boy barely changed his expression. "That much I saw, Scriptus."

 

"You know that isn't a guarantee." Scriptus jabbed a finger at the Chemist. "Time can change at a moment's decision. You know the rules for that."

 

"I'm not worried." The Chemist frowned. "The glimpses I took was enough show me the way the world will change in the next millennium. Magic will slowly become a lost art and be replaced by something called science. No one will even believe in it."

 

"You're lying." Scriptus pushed the other boy with both hands. The Chemist fell to the ground before he could catch his balance. "There's no way that magic will fade away. Look around you."

 

The Chemist picked himself up, letting the dust fall off his robe. He shook his head. The school of magicians was the biggest facility of its type in the world. Every train of thought about the metaphysical world was honed and bestowed on the students in the hopes they would destroy darkness wherever they found it.

 

The Chemist knew all of that would be gone and never be replaced. They could strive to hold off the end, but he didn't see how the masters would be able to stop it.

 

"Admit this vision was in error." Scriptus loomed over the Chemist. "Admit that you saw a false future."

 

"Only time will tell." The Chemist almost smiled at his joke. The fist cracking against his cheek stopped that thought. He staggered back. "What did you do that for?"

 

"You tell me these hideous things but you don't tell me how to prevent the outcome." Scriptus raised his fist to strike again.

 

"You can't, boy." One of the masters tapped his walking stick against the smooth stone walk as he approached the students. "Well, you can, but time is the consequences of our decisions, not the tool of prophecy."

 

"I don't understand, Doctor." Scriptus let his hand fall to his side. Fighting was prohibited and he had been caught doing that by one of the teachers. He could be expelled if the old man wanted to make an issue of it.

 

"No one does." The Doctor smiled. "Shall we go for a walk, boys? Maybe that will cool your heads."

 

He turned, white hair brushed back from his high forehead. His short cloak flapped as he stepped into a floating hourglass that appeared in the air around him. Scriptus and the Chemist hurried to catch up.

 

The world changed to a blur with the Doctor holding on to the slippery slope of time with his stick embedded at the edge of reality. Scriptus and the Chemist grabbed his cloak so they wouldn't fall into the maelstrom around them.

 

"A bit confusing, isn't it?" The Doctor raised his free hand. The landscape slowed to a barely tolerable vibration of the small courtyard where they had stood moments before.

 

"This is time?" Scriptus looked around, careful to maintain his grip on the old man.

 

"This is what the world looks like when the likely outcomes of things are plainly visible." The Doctor looked around. "In this small setting, the courtyard seems hardly to change. Shall we go ahead five hundred years?"

 

"I want to see this future where the magic is gone." Scriptus glared at his fellow student. "I want to see it for myself."

 

"All right." The Doctor started walking, pulling himself forward with his stick. "Let's go."

 

The three of them watched as the world changed. The courtyard blew apart in a soundless fury, fire and destruction reigning for a few steps. Then they were pass, and still walking to some unknown destination.

 

"What was that?" The Chemist stared back at the fiery cloud falling behind him.

 

"The destruction of the school a few years after we left." The Doctor kept walking, examining the sky above them. Things roared through the sky above. The type of thing depended on the moment they watched as they walked.

 

"It doesn't look like your future, Chemist." Scriptus smiled.

 

"It looks worse." The Chemist tried to identify the things that drifted above them.

 

"This is a consequence of someone's decision, or of some disaster that was unforeseen." The Doctor pointed ahead. "We'll stop at the millennium and look around."

 

The three reached the line of light placed to mark the end of their thousand years and the start of the next. The scene looked worse than it had when they had started. The Chemist raised his hands to start writing on the ether.

 

"I wouldn't." The Doctor held up his hand. "Magic will reverberate along the timelines, disrupting more than helping."

 

"This isn't what I saw." The Chemist balled up his fist. "I swear it. None of this was in the scrying bowl."

 

"This is more interesting than a world without magic." Scriptus looked around in wonder. "I've never seen so many demons wandering the world."

 

"And almost as likely to appear." The Doctor turned. "Let's start back. I think this is the end of the lesson."

[csyphrett]

Re: Magistracy:Origins

 

Marcella Chan watched the storm coming in. Black thunderheads galloped like horses across the sky, occasional lightning imitating hoof beats. She wondered how much time she had before it broke overhead.

 

A tip had come in about some dumping on Staten Island. She wanted to confirm it for her paper. That might get her off the op-ed page.

 

Marcella looked out over the Staten Island Refuse and Recycling Center through the chain link fence. She spotted a couple of cameras, but it looked like dogs were out of the question. That was good as far as she was concerned.

 

Marcella took some bolt cutters from her backpack. She cut through the chain links with sure strokes. She bent the fence out of the way and slid through. One hand stowed the tool as she picked her route through the piles of garbage.

 

Marcella pulled her camera out, took a couple of pictures to test it. Everything looked good. Now all she needed was pictures of the dumping to go with her column.

 

She also needed to not get caught. Some guys from the EPA, and the FBI, had been killed in other dumping investigations. She didn't want to add her name at the bottom of the list.

 

Marcella pushed a loose strand of hair from her face. Her long black tresses always came loose from the scrunchies she used to hold it back. Her hand brushed the strand behind her ear as she wandered among the piles of trash.

 

She wished she had brought her galoshes with the surrounding piles of garbage, and swampy puddles. Her shoes would be ruined by the time she got done looking around the yard. She would have to soak her feet as soon as she got back to her apartment.

 

No said investigating would be easy. She just had to hang in there and be careful.

 

Dead reporters filed no stories.

 

Marcella found a spot near the center of the trashyard. The ground glowed slightly under the night sky. She took a picture. This exactly what she was looking for.

 

Marcella looked around. She took pictures of the surrounding piles. She was careful to pick out background details so she could find the spot again. The garbage drifted like the sands of the Sahara. The glowing ground might be covered by tomorrow.

 

A rumble drifted to Marcella's ears. She looked around. Lights pointed in her direction. Maybe the driver saw her, maybe not. She ran to cover behind old appliance boxes and waited.

 

This might be what her tipster wanted her to see.

 

Marcella waited as the truck rolled to a stop within walking distance of the glowing ground. Men got out, walked to the back of the twelve wheeled transport. Thunder rolled overhead as they opened the sliding door. She spotted a lift for unloading lowering to the ground as small drops of water fell on her back.

 

I should have brought an umbrella.

 

Marcella took pictures of the process in front of her. Blue barrels were rolled on the lift with a dolly, lowered to the ground, and rolled to a spot near the glowing ground. A tap in the bottom let the contents flow into the ground until the barrel was empty. The drained containers went back on the truck.

 

Marcella had visions of a Pulitzer dancing in her head as she took picture after picture. Rain fell with an obscuring hand as she ran closer to take pictures of the truck itself. If she could get the plate, someone could make arrests and she would get the credit for that.

 

Marcella skirted the edges of the pool of chemicals glowing at her feet. She looked through her viewfinder at the retreating truck, trying to catch the plate. She snapped several pictures. She grimaced. The rain and darkness combined to cloak the plate. Maybe someone could enhance the pictures and find something. She doubted it.

 

So much for glory.

 

Marcella put the camera in her bag. She had to get out of the rain, and figure out what she could write, and what she could hand over to the cops. That would be fun. She stepped in the glowing mass and groaned at the wet sogginess seeping through her sneakers.

 

She definitely should have worn galoshes.

 

A jagged streak of electricity struck down as she started to lift her foot up. She quit worrying about her choice of shoes as her hair stood on end for a brief second. She fell into the energized goo. Smoke rose under the leaves of water drifting down.

 

Marcella picked herself off the ground after the storm had fled away from the city. Everything hurt. She looked around at the looming piles of trash, thankful that no one had found her trespassing. She would take body ache over bullet to the head any day.

 

Marcella thought about wanting to go home. She found her yellow door waiting for her. Surprise made her pause. She must have blacked out on the way home. She was sure that she had walked home and remembered everything about the trip.

 

She would worry about that in the morning.

[csyphrett]

Re: Magistracy:Origins

 

Jo Pauleski looked into her microscope and smiled. It looked like her little animals were finally doing what she wanted them to do. It had only taken years of personal time for her to perfect her tiny wonders.

 

Jo let them play as she went over her schematics and notes for any possible error in their construction. One slip up could be catastrophic. Her reputation would be shot. Any future work in her career area would dry up as soon as she put in her application and resume.

 

Besides she was already on thin ethical grounds. She gave the company some of her more mundane ideas. Her nanos fell into grounds for a lawsuit if they found out about them. That's why Jo had set up her side lab at home so no one would know.

 

Loose lips sink ships.

 

Jo planned to serve out the rest of her contract, working on her nanos on the side. Once her contract had expired, she knew several people whom she could shop the micromachines. She hoped to write her own ticket.

 

A mechanical cure for medical problems danced in the petrii dish on her work table. Diseases might be rendered extinct by her work once the programming was right.

 

The doorbell chimed. Jo looked up at the ceiling, wondering who could be visiting her. She didn't have any friends, no one from the office came by, and her neighbors minded their own businesses. One hand covered the petrii dish while she thought about it. The doorbell chimed again.

 

Obviously they, whomever they were, knew she was at home and wanted to talk to her. She looked around the lab. Everything could run without her for a few minutes. That should be more than enough time to brush off her unwanted interruptions.

 

Jo closed and locked her lab door before heading upstairs. She paused in the front hall. Her chief of operations stood out on her front steps. More suits stood behind him. He seemed a little anxious. He pressed the doorbell again as she walked over to the door.

 

She didn't want that many people in her house. Stepping out on the porch was not the most polite thing to do, but that was all she planned to do.

 

They couldn't know about the nanos. The engineer was sure she hadn't left any type of notes, or drawings at the office. What did they want?

 

"What's going on, Mr. Daniels?" Jo peered at the other men present. They had the air of police.

 

"There's been rumors that you have been using company equipment to moonlight." Daniels looked at the others from the office. The faces betrayed nothing. "The VP wants you to hand over anything and everything from our labs. You're fired."

 

"I don't have anything from the office here." Jo frowned at the group. "I can't believe this."

 

"I'm sorry, Jo." Daniels scratched the back of his hand. He did that when something had exploded in his face. "They want to sue you for breach of contract."

 

"What?" Jo leaned against her closed door. She faced losing everything. "I haven't done anything."

 

"It's not my call." Daniels scratched the back of his hand again. "The VP wants to make an example of you for stealing from the company."

 

"I haven't stolen anything." Jo closed her eyes. "All of my work is in my files in my cubicle. I haven't taken anything home, haven't talked to anyone on the phone except you and my mother."

 

"That doesn't matter." Daniels worked his lips. "They want to search your house for company material."

 

"No." Jo looked at the whole group. "Get off my property."

 

"The police will be coming with a warrant." Daniels shrugged. "Once we look through your house, we're going to press charges."

 

"Until then, get off my porch." Jo pointed. "Get walking."

 

"This makes you look guilty." One of the men piped up.

 

"What does that matter?" Jo pointed again. "I'm already fired. Move out."

 

The group reluctantly started across her yard to the black SUVs parked at the curb. Evidently they expected to find something at her house. Either that, or they planned to put something in her house when the police arrived. Jo stepped inside and locked the door. She didn't expect to have a lot of time before the police did arrive. She had to do something before they found her nanos and tried to take them.

 

She couldn't allow that. Someone must have found out about the nanos somehow. That had to be the reason the goon squad had shown up on her doorstep. She walked back to her basement lab. Maybe someone had planted a bug in her computers to check on her private life.

 

Most of her research was on the lab machine. If the goons, or the police, took it, she was back to square one and lost her best ideas yet on top of it all.

 

Jo took her back up disk, the petrii dish, and her notes in hand. They would tear her house apart to find whatever they were looking for whether it was her inventions or something else. She loaded a virus in her lab computer while she thought. She started it ripping the drive apart as she considered a hiding place. There had to be somewhere she could put her most valued belongings without anyone knowing.

 

Finally her mind seized on a place that seemed fairly obvious but she hoped would slip the inspection. She placed the precious material in the place and covered it up. She started clearing the memories from the machines she had used to help her build her tiny pets.

[csyphrett]

Re: Magistracy:Origins

 

Jo stood outside her house, arms folded, search warrant in hand. She held back tears. What did they expect to find? Did they know about her machines? How did they find out? She had thought she had been careful not to leave any trace of her ideas at the office.

 

Obviously someone had seen something and handed it up the ladder. Otherwise the security guards and police wouldn't be inspecting her house. She hoped they wouldn't find her notes and prototypes. They would confiscate them and her ideas would be stillborn.

 

Forget ever working on them. As soon as she produced something similar, lawyers would take everything she owned in court. Her whole life would be gone. At this point, she could get a job working somewhere else as an engineer.

 

Daniels came out of the house empty-handed. He didn't look pleased. To be honest, he hadn't looked pleased the whole time. The goons came out. They had a veneer of frustration over their menacing professionalism. The police were last. They looked mad.

 

"Ma'am, here are the receipts for your equipment." The sergeant in charge of the search detail handed over her proof of ownership. "I'm sorry for the trouble. I hope you have a good day."

 

The police herded her unwelcome guests out of her yard. Daniels got in his conveyance last, sitting in the passenger side. His driver backed out of the driveway as he rubbed his face. Jo watched them all go.

 

Then she went inside and put water on for tea.

 

She settled in her kitchen, watching the water bubble to a full boil. She got a cup out of her cupboard. Her hands shook a little as she poured the water into the cup. The burner went cool as she steeped a bag of tea in her cup. Two spoons of sugar finished the concoction.

 

What could she do? Her house was no longer safe, she couldn't go back to her lab, she had no prospects for the future. She had a feeling the people from security had rigged her house to be a listening post. That ended any work she might want to do in the future. Her best bet was sell the house and move.

 

That wouldn't keep the company from sniffing at her door for anything she might come up with while she was trying to rebuild her life after the move. More listening devices and watchers would be her lot from the looks of things.

 

Of course, she could just be paranoid about everything.

 

She read a great deal. There was an innocent way to test for bugs. She just needed to make a phone call and say the right thing. What would draw the company out and expose themselves? Maybe the hint of a new discovery they were no longer privy to.

 

They would do everything to find out what they missed in the search.

 

Jo reheated the water and poured that in her cup. She had some thinking to do. She let the steam follow her as she descended to the basement. It had been a piece of luck keeping the papers for what she had bought. The company would have said the machines were theirs without the proof. She sat down at her wiped computer, trying to think of her next move.

 

Jo pulled her work from its hiding place under the mounted tool chest on the wall. A cover had fooled the searchers that the bottom was a solid piece of metal. She put the nanos and notes next to her computer. She needed a better hiding place than that for the future.

 

She stared at the computer. It wasn't safe to use anymore. Someone might have loaded a virus to send her writing over to another computer. That was what she would do. She needed to buy another if she wanted to keep working.

 

Jo heard a clicking coming from her computer. She pressed the button to release the cover. A small clock on the top of a block of clay blinked at her from the bottom of the case. Another clicking turned the red light next to the clock to green. Jo turned to run, covered specimen dish and notebook clutched to her chest to protect them.

 

Sound and light smashed her body before she made it to the stairs. Fire rushed through the room. Then the ceiling, the floor above, fell down on top of everything to add fuel to the flames. The rest of the house slowly followed.

 

Emergency crews responded to save the rest of the neighborhood. Jo's house was gone by the time they had unloaded hoses to start spraying water. Police arrived soon after, one of them was the same sergeant that had helped search the house earlier. He shook his head at the destruction.

 

The firefighters fought the flames under control, snuffed it after several hours of hard work. They would have to go in and look for the dead and clues to what had happened. Most of them knew a bomb when they saw one's aftermath.

[csyphrett]

Re: Magistracy:Origins

 

Jo Pauleski looked at her shattered face in fascination. She knew that her pain centers had been shut down. If they weren't, she would be writhing in pain, screaming at the absence of flesh and the visibility of charred bone. Instead she stood in a locked bathroom, stare at the mirror, and wander what had happened to her.

 

Jo raised her hand, staring at it. Her palm held a shard of glass from the petrii dish. She thought she had crushed it when the explosion flung her in front of the fire. The glass slowly sank into her hand, vanishing like a house sinking into the earth.

 

Jo smiled. The nanos must be repairing her as best they could. She needed to give them more material to work with. She looked around the tiny closet, thinking of material she could give the microscopic surgeons that they could use.

 

"What's going on in there?" Heavy knocking followed the strained inquiry.

 

"I have a bad case of the runs." Jo's voice sounded like it had been run through a meat grinder, smoked, and beaten into submission with a bag of rocks. "Use the men's. I'm going to be a while."

 

"Why does this always happen to me?" Jo heard the other door fumble open next to her refuge. She ignored other sounds as she considered what she could do to help her creations.

 

"Maybe some water could help." Jo turned the handle on the cold water on. Brown water ran for a few seconds before it cleared and fell into the sink with a slight drone. Jo put her hand into the stream. Loose flesh came away under the liquid's touch, but the engineer didn't feel it. She turned her hand under the water, then pulled it away.

 

The water still on what remained on her skin dried in a few seconds. New skin replaced what she had lost down the drain. It was smoother than anything promised by Cover Girl. That seemed to help a lot.

 

"That's doing the trick." Jo smiled, her exposed teeth turning the expression into a savage grin. "Help me out, boys. I need to look normal before I can leave here."

 

Jo ran both arms through the stream of water, splashing it as she moved. The activated nanos must have dragged her body the quarter mile to the gas station nearest the house. She stopped there sometimes for coffee on the way to work. Hopefully no one had seen her before she made it to the bathroom.

 

The way she looked provoked interest. She didn't need to look down at the rest of her body to know she looked like something from a nightmare. So far the only thing keeping her from dying were the nanos operating on a basic level to repair her, and build more nanos.

 

Side effects for what they were doing had to be massive. They might even kill her instead of all the fire damage she had suffered. She might have created a plague.

 

Too bad her notebooks, and disks, had been destroyed in the fire. They would have been useful if she needed to create an antidote. It would take weeks to try and recreate her work from scratch.

 

She might not have that much time left.

 

Jo examined her hands under the yellow light from the lamp bar above the mirror. They looked almost normal but too young to be hers. All the lines from movement and use were gone. Women desperate for long gone youth would pay out the nose for something like that.

 

Jo splashed more water on her body, letting it run under the tattered remains of her clothes. The sound of it hitting the floor was a comfort. The water pooled in a dirty mess, holding soot, charred skin, fragments of her bone and muscle. She would clean it up when she finished.

 

Jo continued her efforts until she had to sit down. Her legs wouldn't hold her up anymore. She grabbed paper towels from the dispenser before lowering herself into a dry spot. She laid out the towels to soak up the water she had already spilled. That was the least she could do while she tried to get her strength back.

 

She needed something to eat. The nanos must be using her energy somehow to power themselves while they did their repairs. If they drained enough nutrients from her system, it would be like not eating for two days, then a week, then like a mummy.

 

Jo closed her eyes, tempering her excitement of more of her creations capabilities with the fact she couldn't just leave the bathroom and buy a candy bar. She didn't have the money, the human looks, or the strength to stand. She needed some way to get food that wouldn't involve the police.

 

Any clerk worthy of humanity would call for help when they saw her wrecked face and body. She didn't want to spend time in a hospital when she knew they couldn't help her. What could she do?

 

Jo cupped her hand under the spigot, trapping some water in her hand. She poured it down her throat. Hopefully that would be enough to clear her throat and esophagus. Another handful followed the first. That dimmed the call for more energy enough for the engineer to get back on her feet. She threw the damp towels away as she staggered to the door.

 

Now to make her next move.

 

Jo opened the door. She looked out, hugging the wall as she snuck from the bathroom. The lady in the men's room seemed to be really busy judging by the noise she was making. The engineer grabbed six bottles of Vault off a rack beside the door to the cooler. A couple of staggering steps took her back into the restroom. Her hand threw the lock closed before she sat back down.

 

Jo drank the liquid sugar, one bottle after the next. The taste was horrible, but she forced it down, all six of them. Energy flooded her system. It wasn't perfect but it was the best she could do. Now she had to find someplace away from anything that might want to hurt her and let the nanos keep working.

 

Hopefully the clerk hadn't seen the shoplifting so she could make it out without causing too much of a fuss.

[csyphrett]

Re: Magistracy:Origins

 

Jo made it away from the gas station without too many problems. She felt a little better, but knew she had several problems. Mostly it came down to having no money and no identification.

 

The vault had fueled enough of her regeneration to make her look almost normal. The problem was her clothes were dirty rags, her wallet with her credit cards and license a scattered memory. She couldn't draw any money from the bank after hours and she didn't look enough like her old self that the teller would give her the money on faith and a filled out withdrawal ticket. She needed to get enough money at least for some decent clothes.

 

She wondered what her house looked like after the blast that had nearly killed her. Maybe there was something there she could use even if everything had been burned to the ground.

 

Jo staggered along, watching her walking. She seemed to be improving as she went. There might be something broken inside the nanos were still trying to fix. She wondered how much longer this would go on. There was a chance they would eventually start branching out into areas that weren't so beneficial.

 

If only she had been given more time to program them before the company men had shown up at her door.

 

Jo ignored stares from people on the street and the sidewalk. It didn't matter if they looked at her as long as they didn't recognize her. She didn't want the company to know she was still alive. They might try to kill her again while she was still recovering from the last attempt.

 

Jo leaned against a light pole when she reached the end of her block. She winced at the police barricade and the milling city employees messing up her lawn. Even from a distance, the house looked like a total loss to her.

 

She had expected that.

 

Jo sat down, feeling run down again. The energy drink hadn't lasted as long as she had wanted. How much longer could she afford to wait before she had to flee.

 

Jo realized that a lot her neighbors didn't seem to be home. The police must have cleared the surrounding houses. She got to her feet, thinking this was the chance she needed. She crept between two houses. The windows had been blown out on both of them as far as she could tell. She jumped up and pulled herself over the sill of the house to her left.

 

Amy Myers was close enough in shape that Jo could wear her clothes until she had some of her own again. The Myers also had six kids, so they were guaranteed to have food in the house. The engineer couldn't decide what was more important, eating or cleaning up. She decided to raid the kitchen first.

 

Jo sifted through the refrigerator, glad the power was still on. She constructed a Dagwood from all the ingredients she found. She didn't know what the nanos preferred but it was obvious they were tapping her body for personal power. If she wanted to keep them going, she had to eat when they called for more energy.

 

Jo put the sandwich on a plate before grabbing a glass out of a cupboard. She drank down two glasses of milk before pouring a third to take with her. She took her meal to the bedrooms in the back of the house, munching as she went. The engineer made sure to stay away from any windows as she went. She didn't need the police checking on her reason for being alive.

 

Someone would tell the company who would come after her again. She was better off dead until she could think about what she needed to next.

 

Jo laid out some clothes to wear while she munched her sandwich, then started running water in the tub. The Myers wouldn't be home for a while so she had time to settle in and plan. She dropped her rags on the bathroom floor. She luxuriated in the hot water while finishing her sandwich and milk.

 

Jo woke a few hours early, sitting in black, cold water. She emptied the drain, stood up and showered the stains off. Then she dried off with a towel, and headed back to the master bedroom. She put on Amy's clothes, stole a pair of running shoes, looked out the window at her destroyed house.

 

The army of police had vanished in the amount of time she had been napping. That was good.

 

Jo looked around for loose money and found a few dollars. She stuffed it in her jeans pockets before climbing out the same window she had used for an entrance. Jo walked over to the rubble of her house, taking a deep breath against the anger that fought up against her iron control. She could hear a buzzing in her head from the emotion.

 

Jo walked over to her wrecked car. A beam had went through the windshield, crushed the hood, fell to the driveway beside the Ford Focus. That wasn't important at the moment. What was important was the trunk, and the spare tire well. She pressed the switch for the trunk, pulled the carpet out of the way, undid the tire. Her box of emergency funds sat right there.

 

Jo took the tire iron and opened the box from a distance. No one had trapped it. She grabbed the spare identification, passport, ATM card, and put them in her back pocket. She left the spare car and house keys. There didn't seem to be any point in taking those. She put everything back and started walking. She needed a place to work on the next step while everyone still thought she was dead.

 

She needed a lab and a computer she could equip to talk to her nanos. Once she programmed them, she wouldn't have to worry about them running amuck and eating everything in sight. Then she could work on finding out why the company had tried to kill her.

 

Jo walked until she found a bus line running for night service. She boarded, putting some of her change in the slot. She got a seat in the back, looked out the window, wondered what she was going to do.

 

Three men of the criminal persuasion helped her with the decision.