Chronicles of The Omniverse Archived Westeria City: The Courtyard

as written by Saarai and Script

"Is that it?" Brendan asked, he and the rest of his green-clad gang watching as the APC made it's way up the street. "Yeah, right on time." Another gangster answered.

They were a Westeria City branch of a Van Leugen gang called the RDVs. They weren't above taking part in an assassination if it meant they got paid.

Brendan slipped a liquor bottle out of a pocket, twisting off the top and stuffing a green bandanna inside. One of his men lit the exposed end on fire with a lighter.

"Go!"

The RDVs rushed the line of WCPD officers, pushing some of them out into the street. Brendan took the opportunity presented to charge towards the APC. He threw the Molotov cocktail at the vehicle, watching as the flames exploded across it.

"The government abandoned us! We're alone!" Brendan screamed, earning a few cheers from the crowd. The Invictus escorting the vehicle approached him quickly, Brendan throwing punches to fend them off.

Walbridge brought the vehicle to a stop, his door swung open and he stepped out, "Get them out of here! What the fuck?" He shouted. It wasn't exactly flattering to see an Invictus operative giving orders to the law. As the RDVs fought against 'injustice', more of the crowd grew unruly.

They shouted curses, some even approaching Walbridge.

"Back up!" He yelled.

____

The plain-looking police officer was amongst those shoved forwards into the street, and he made a show of staggering as though injured in order to move past the Invictus line. What appeared to be a bloody wound in his side had appeared, as though he'd been stabbed. In response, they stepped forward to defend him, one of them taking a moment to check his injuries weren't lethal before doing so. He waved the man away, gritting his teeth.

"Only a flesh wound. Just give me a moment."

That seemed enough to satisfy the concerned man, who went to aid his allies in dealing with the gang members, not to mention an increasingly angry crowd.

The police officer leaned onto the SUV's window - coincidentally the one beside Lucian - for support, subtly murmuring something under his breath.

"Unlock and roll down," he whispered, sending a trickle of life into the glass. Unless magically warded, the window would respond, winding down as though the driver had done it himself.

____

"Get them out of the street. We're wasting time." Lucian said as his window began to roll down, "I'm working on it." Walbridge responded, "This is Invicta Three. Could use crowd control at Main and Hart." Walbridge said aloud, speaking into some sort of communication device.

Lucian looked over at the police officer near him, "You need help?" He asked, getting ready to get out and provide just that. "Are you hurt?"

____

"I could use a hand," the man said, his face turned away from Lucian.

A subtle weave of illusion masked the motion that followed. A static image of the officer leaning on the window, created within the window itself. For a brief moment, it would be as though Lucian were looking into a photograph of the street as it had been a split second before.

It would only take a few moments of total lack of motion before the Invictus founder noticed that something wasn't right, but the man didn't need moments.

He straightened without trouble, the wound in his side having been falsified with another illusion, and in a single precise motion, brought his rifle up and fired a high calibre shot almost point blank into Lucian's left eye.

____

Lucian was no idiot, but regardless of his cunning he was still too slow. He began to reach for his weapon, an old French dagger, resting beside him.

Before he could get to it there was a bullet ripping through his eye patch and into his head. Lucian was a strong man, but his missing eye was the soft spot.

Walbridge drew his gun quickly, turning toward the source of the shot. He had yet to lay his eyes on the now dead Lucian that had slumped against the door.

____

The face that greeted Walbridge when he turned was not that of the plain police officer. Wearing a cocky smirk, Jacob Haley met the man's eyes for an instant before dropping down, using the SUV as cover. In the same movement, he slipped something from his pocket, dropping it in through the window. A grenade.

Clutching his rifle to his chest, he whispered to it softly, "Shoot people that aren't me," before throwing it into the air. Once thrown, it hung there, turning towards Walbridge and opening fire. After a few shots it turned, targeting some of the other Invictus, then the WCPD, even random members of the crowd. The weapon would continue to fire until its clip was emptied.

Now with covering fire provided, Jacob broke from cover and sprinted for the crowd. He was banking on the Invictus not wanting to risk shooting innocent bystanders.

Not moments after he was set to reach the line of panicking civilians, the grenade exploded.

____

Walbridge knew that face, he glared daggers at Jacob. There was a fire in his eyes at not only seeing the young man, but knowing that he lived to kill another of his friends.

Walbridge was about to fire his pistol until Jacob's rifle fired on him first. He ducked down to avoid the shots, using the armored vehicle as protection."Scott, Kim, grab him. I got Lucian." Walbridge ordered, climbing into the vehicle immediately to check on Lucian.

His palm found itself resting on the grenade left behind, it was instinct to pick it up and get ready to toss it.

"Grenade!" He yelled, opting to drop the grenade and scrambling back out of the APC. As he tried to put distance between himself and the grenade it went off. The force knocked Walbridge to the ground, a piece of metal from the vehicle sticking out of his back.

Chances are he wasn't the only one injured, but it didn't matter now. A blow was struck against the Invictus that they would have a hard time recovering from.

"This is Kim. There's too much going on. We'll keep chasing, but I think we lost him in the crowd." Kim said, his words blaring into Walbridge's ruptured eardrums.

____

Indeed, the pursuing Invictus would have a hard time following Jacob, for within moments of breaking line of sight, mirrored images of him split in different directions to distract them. The true Jacob continued to run, but as he did so, his entire body began to change. He kept moving so that no one member of the crowd would easily be able to tell that he was changing, but within a few short seconds he was no longer Jacob Haley.

Instead, a female WCPD officer stepped away from the scene - her strides purposeful, but not panicked. She raised a phone to her ear and began speaking authoritatively into it, mentioning backup and describing the situation, until she had an opportunity to slip unseen into a side-alley, and thence to slip away into the city.
 
as written by Script

Some time later...

Alanna strode through the Courtyard, a hefty duffel bag slung over her shoulder. Her long blue-grey duster flapped slightly with each step, drawing a few raised eyebrows from passers-by. She didn't pay them much mind. She wore the reinforced leather coat for function, not fashion.

Her path led her on a beeline directly for the Invictus HQ's front doors, but she came to a halt before she stepped inside, well aware that if she waltzed in carrying the number of weapons she was carrying, she'd probably set off an alarm.

"You there," she called to the nearest member of Invictus personnel she could pick out, "Who do I talk to about joining?"
 
as written by Saarai and Script

"Joining what?" An Invictus soldier asked, approaching Alanna. She was a tall woman, dark-skinned with a face covered in intricately designed tattoos. "Us? I don't think we're really looking for new people right now." She told Alanna.

But before she could finish turning Alanna away, another woman stepped out of The Palace. She was dressed in an Eisenhower jacket with a tie and a pair of black slacks. She wore a utility belt, complete with pouches, handcuffs, and a pistol.

It was safe to say she held some sort of rank, or just liked fashion. Both were true.

"We're not really looking for new people. But, you can show us what you got." The woman said to Alanna, "I'm Nina. Nina Sekova. I handle recruiting these days." She told Alanna.

"Walk and talk." She said, making her way by Alanna.

____

Alanna nodded to Nina, falling into step alongside her. "Alanna Damodred. I've worked with your people before," she explained as they moved. "John Izumi, on Hera Prime. We escaped a Jupiter Corporation holding facility there."

Damodred was a name that Nina might have recognised. A few years ago, Damodred Arms been a relatively big name in Westeria, a weapons manufacturer reputed to have ties to organised crime. The latter had never been proven, and the company had been all-but ruined during the last war with the Aschen, after a number of their factories and offices were destroyed.

"I've done work as a bodyguard, and as more general security. Fought everything from gangsters and aschen to archmagi and dragons. I can forward you a résumé, with references. Or I can give you a breakdown now. Your choice."

____

"Hold up. What?" Nina asked, "John Izumi? The quiet weird kid? He's missing right now." She told Alanna, "Probably thanks to these Jupiter asshats." Nina dug into a pocket, whipping out her cellphone.

"How much do you remember about where you were?" Nina asked, typing away on the phone. "I'll look into your resume, I can't officially bring you on. Yet." She told Alanna.

"But, for now you would be very useful as a 'consultant'." Nina said, making use of air quotes. "We've been after the Jupiter Corporation for awhile."

____

"It was near a town called Siren," Alanna replied, frowning. She hadn't been paying close attention to the news lately, and hadn't heard of Izumi's disappearance. "I don't know if I could remember the exact route, but I would be able to point you in the right direction. And as far as I could tell, out there, it was practically the same thing. A lot of driving in a straight line."

She smiled at Nina's final words. "I'm glad to hear it. That's part of why I wanted to join. I owe those bastards some well deserved payback."

____

"We can provide you with gear. You need to be ready. Combat ready." Nina told Alanna, "I have someone who's coming to meet us." Nina said, gesturing to a pub nearby. It was clearly under repair, but they were coming along nicely.

"For reasons I can't speak on, we're going there to assure privacy." She said, "After that, we can get started with seeing you work on the field."

____

"Way ahead of you," Alanna patted her duffel bag, "I've got my own gear. I'll take a look at anything you have to offer, though." She smiled, "And I'm always combat ready. Mostly. When I'm not asleep."

She followed Nina with a nod, not questioning the need for privacy. There'd been enough chaos in the city of late for her to understand there could be any number of reasons for it.

____

Nina pushed open the door to the pub, a young blonde woman seated at a long bar counter. She had her feet resting on top of it, her phone in hand.

"Yo, Emily." Nina said to the young woman, prompting her to jump from her seat. "Ya' can't be sneakin' up on me. I thought you were my mum." The young bartender said with a noticeable Irish accent.

"We're gonna use this place for a chat. Lock us in once Mulan gets here." Nina told Emily, "Friend?" Emily asked, raising her chin at Alanna. "New recruit, maybe."

____

Alanna nodded her head in acknowledgement to Emily, "Morning," she offered, following Nina to a table and taking a seat.

"So what's the field test you've got planned?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. She hadn't been expecting to be thrown into the action quite so quickly - not that she was complaining. After yesterday, whatever they had couldn't possibly surprise her.

____

"I think it's a good idea to have you protect Vanessa, she's on her way, once you get to Hera Prime." Nina told Alanna, pointing towards the door. An Asian woman made her way into the pub. She seemed to be all business thanks to the black jumpsuit she wore.

"Mulan, right here." Nina called out, gesturing the woman over. "Alanna, meet Vanessa Le. We call her Mulan." Nina said to Alanna as Vanessa sat down with them.

She looked between Nina and Alanna, staying silent for a moment. "You can get us close to where we need to be?" Vanessa asked Alanna, "What else can you do once we get there? We might run into trouble." Vanessa explained.

"Trouble meaning Jupiter Corporation mooks trying to murder us." Nina explained.

____

Alanna nodded, smirking. "Sounds almost nostalgic. It's good to meet you, Mulan. I should be able to get us to the facility I was at, if that's what we're going for. And as for what I can do?"

She leaned back, patting her duffel again. "I've got a lot of guns, and I know how to use them, for one," she replied, "I'm also a battlemage. Trained at Academia Everia when I was younger. My specialisations are in water elementalism and in glyph magic. The latter, in layman's terms, can be summarised as 'spells in a can'. Scribe a glyph on a rock, and you can trigger the spell a week later if you know how. Makes long periods of downtime great for building up an arsenal of quick-trigger magic."

Alanna took a small, smooth pebble from her pocket and tossed it up, catching it deftly a few moments later. "And I've had a lot of downtime in the last few months."

____

Vanessa looked to Nina, the other woman nodding. They seemed to be having a mental conversation. It was unclear if there was more going on than just the two giving each other looks.

"Okay." Vanessa said, "I can't tell you exactly what we're doing just yet. Things are being kept quiet." Vanessa told Alanna, "She'd be great to have watching your back. She's experienced. Worked for the Damodreds." Nina said to Vanessa.

"Damodreds? I've read up on them once." She said, "Get ready. Meet us outside of town." Vanessa said to Alanna, pulling a pen from her pocket. "Here at these coords." She said, grabbing a nearby napkin and scribbling the coordinates on it.

"I need to look into something. Meet us in two hours." Vanessa said, standing up. She nodded to Nina and then Alanna, turning to walk away and head for the exit.

"She's usually much more social, but this isn't the best month for us." Nina assured Alanna.

____

"I don't think it's been great for anyone," Alanna replied with a touch of grimness behind her wry smile. "If there's nothing else, I should get back and clear out my apartment. Need to put whatever I can't take with me in secure storage before the looters pounce."

She shook her head. With the TNG abandoning the city, she doubted it would be long before it descended into anarchy.

____

"The Courtyard is one of the more secure areas of the city right now. Feel free to look for an apartment or hotel around here when you get the chance." Nina suggested, "Or squat in some abandoned building. Whatever you're into." She joked.

"Alright, leave you résumé. I'll look into it while you get ready."

____

Alanna nodded, taking out her phone and flicking through a few screens. "I've forwarded it to your recruitment address," she noted, before getting to her feet.

"And I'll see you shortly."

With that, she left - she had a few preparations to make.

____

A crowd had formed around outside of The Courtyard around a booth, people clamoring to get to the front and see what the attraction was. A young man pushed himself through, eyes coming to rest on something unexpected when he found himself up front.

A woman. A strange looking woman. Black face paint smeared across her eyes, braided blonde hair with different ornaments attached to them, and worn black leather covering her body.

In front of her were tarot cards, candles, and strange trinkets likely for sell.

The woman held a man's hand, staring stoically into his eyes. She inched closer and closer to him until their noses touched. The man was clearly uncomfortable, but he needed to know what she knew.

"Wealth. Love." She said to him, "I see them for you. Only if you change your ways. Sabine suggests that you invest." The woman told the man.

"That's it?" He asked, pulling away from Sabine. "Anyone could have told me to invest. What kind of bullshit is this?"

"Sabine suggests you listen to her advice." Sabine said to the man, "Humiliation and poverty await if you never change." Sabine continued, "Sabine can sit and spin." The man said, walking off and pushing through the crowd.
 
as written by Krysis

It was rude to just show up out of no where, but Minnie really had no choice. She had been away for some time, researching on an airless moon supposedly, and when her consciousness flitted from that harsh place to Valore, it took her several hours to find Westeria again. Even then she had to double check the other landmarks to be sure it was the same city, as entire blocks smoldered and gravity became strange in some places, sending the small collection of dust motes that she rode in unexpected directions.

Gathering ashes and dust as she moved, it was barely a streak of smoke that settled in one of the less populated areas adjacent to the Courtyard. She gathered more matter steadily, taking care not to be too dramatic about it or to take too much from solid objects, until Minnie had enough to appear solid. Not that she was, yet. A hand would pass right through her, but for the moment, being less than wholly present was acceptable.

The upshot was that Minerva had no trouble walking through the crowd. She strode through them with no more substance than a figure made of smoke, though gathering more solidity with each step. She got to the head of the line despite any that dared to push, wearing an empty smile.

For the Invictus, Minnie wore her usual appearance: doll-like, slightly exaggerated features, slender build, brown curls at shoulder length and a very plain version of their uniform in matte black. She stared down at Sabine for a long moment before warmth entered her brown eyes, "It's good to be back. What happened?"
 
as written by Saarai

Sabine peered at Minerva, the peering soon becoming nothing but eerie staring from the gypsy woman. "Fire from the skies. From a creature, from the alien crafts." Sabine said, her French accent seeping through with each utterance.

"Things have changed. Sabine sees more change in the future. Good change and bad change. It's all relative." She stopped speaking in favor of silence, staring yet again at Minnie.

It lasted for much longer than it needed in order to be awkward.

And then finally Sabine said, "Welcome back."
 
as written by Krysis and Saarai

"There is always change. Destruction and creation are irrevocably intertwined." Minnie answered with her empty smile, glad to have run into Sabine first. They could attempt to out-strange each other. Or rather, Minerva didn't have to try so hard to seem normal next to the gypsy woman.

Standing with her head slightly cocked to one side, dust and ashes constantly blowing towards her and never away, Minnie just smiled blankly at Sabine through the silence. Honestly, Minerva forgot that she was supposed to speak until Sabine welcomed her.

"Thank you. Is there work to be done?" Minnie helped herself to a seat next to Sabine. In front of her, a knee-high dust devil swirled, which was just as conductive to fortune telling as a streamer of smoke or a crystal ball.

____

"Much." Sabine began, gesturing around to the crowd and the city at large. "Fires to extinguish. People to save. To comfort. So much to do." She said, beckoning over a nearby Invictus soldier. "Sabine thinks you look well." Sabine told Minerva.

"Yeah?" The soldier asked as he approached, nodding to Minnie to avoid being rude. Sabine looked to Minnie and then back to the soldier and then back to Minnie.

She cocked her head to the side, painted black fingernails rapping against the shoddy wood that she used to build her booth. The sage pointed at Minnie.

"You can go places many of us cannot. Sometimes you are solid. Sometimes you are nothing." Sabine said to Minnie, "What is she talking about?" The soldier asked.

"Work." Sabine answered, standing quickly. "Come, Minerva."

____

Minnie smiled at the soldier, extending her hand towards him and letting it fall away as sand before she reformed the appendage. "She means I am not real. Fair fortune, sir. Avoid men in leather. Your lucky number is 73."

She rose fluidly to follow Sabine, jogging a few steps to catch up and walk at the other woman's side. "There is strangeness all around. Trees grow where naught should take root. Gravity shifts in unpredictable ways. It doesn't seem like a job for Invictus to be putting out fires. That is the sort of thing that any one can do with time, effort, and materials. There are more interesting things to occupy our time."

Minerva hesitated then before asking, "Are we now allied with the TNG?"

____

"An alliance that will hurt us." Sabine told Minerva, "That is no prediction, that is Sabine's opinion." She said, coming to a stop at a manhole cover. She pulled it aside, stepping into it and descending down into the darkness beneath Westeria City.

The stench of the sewer was far from pleasant. One would be forgiven if they assumed at least a few dead bodies and discarded pets helped foster the smell.

"I will fight by my Invictus brothers and sisters. Who we ally with is irrelevant as long as we fight not for evil." Sabine said, body pressed against a wall.

"Sabine knows that great evils manipulate great goods and those between. Sabine knows great evils. She fears the Deep One."

____

"Sabine's opinions are generally right." Minerva answered, not bothering with keeping up expressions anymore once they were in the dark, in the sewer. She didn't seem to mind standing in the stink, but then again, Minnie doesn't breathe. Her tone was still alive sounding, her voice was always the most human part of her though.

"What do we call evil but that which hurts us? And good is what pleases us. I grow weary of the distinction." Minnie looked around finally and laughed.

"Which deep one is that? Something that lives down here, perhaps? In the filth and death of an abandoned city?"

____

Sabine shook her head, hands caressing the wall in search of something. "The Deep One lives far, yet close. The Deep One is one of many evils that Sabine hopes will ignore mortals." She said, slamming her palm down on a wall.

Inches away from her face part of the wall lifted up, exposing itself as a secret door that hid a dimly lit hallway. It was clean, very out of place. It was built into the sewer system, recently enough that it hadn't held onto the stench from it's less sanitary neighbor.

Sabine looked to Minnie, barely tilting her head towards the hallway before entering it herself.

"Sabine will concern herself with the demons and old god. You concern yourself with this task." Sabine told the woman, "I need you to listen."

____

"I hear you and the murmuring of water and filth outside." Minerva took it literally, following Sabine and then standing perfectly still to listen. The vibrations in the earth around the passage were as good as a map to the dust mage.

The filth from the sewage did not appear to cling to Minerva, which was more an effect of her absorbing the solids and leaving liquids and gases behind.

Still, most people would be disturbed at how Minnie has given up playing human for the moment. First the hair went flat and had the wrong texture, and then the small details of the clothes and face would slip as her concentration was elsewhere. "The land groans with the horror wrought upon it."

____

"And, Sabine suspects there is more to come." She said, pointing upwards. "Above is a pub. A bar. A secret meeting is happening. Sabine has seen the meeting, she hasn't heard the meeting." She told Minnie.

"Privacy for our fellow Invictus is good. Not when they keep big secrets." Sabine said, shaking her head.

"I don't like these kinds of secrets. These secrets will change us. Destroy us."

____

Minnie turned her attention to the pub above, though her physical form didn't seem to move other than a general sagging as her mind was elsewhere. Then her concentration returned and her human-like form resolidified. "I can not pick them out of the general murmur. What I can do is alter the structure of the soil beneath them so you can hear them directly, here. You must be silent until they leave and I fix what I do, for if we hear them, they will hear us as well."

Minerva rose on her toes to place her hands flat on the ceiling, floating a bit in order to reach. There was a faint rumbling-hiss, like a far-off waterfall, which would also be heard in the room above. In the dim light of the hallway, it was difficult to see the ordinary rock being shifted and crystallized, but there was nothing to see at the ground level until a hole about an inch across would just open. In the hallway beneath, the hole is almost a foot across, between Minerva's hands as she shifted the edges in the gradually widened passage to reverberate the sound down to the two strange women.

____

"We've got no proof." A man said, seated in the pub above Sabine and Minerva with several people. All of them Invictus leadership, save for a few faces that couldn't make it or weren't part of the inner circle.

"Enough to suspect that Ariadne had something to do with Lucian's death." A woman retorted, "Mary, you can't believe that this is a coincidence." The woman said.

"I don't think so, but when would she have time to make this happen?" Mary asked, "Her guy, Lars, he might have the time. Or Church. No one has seen Church for days." Another man interjected.

"What if he's dead?"

The Invictus leaders all went silent, considering that this man they suspected of killing one of their own might have been loyal and paid the price for his loyalty.

"Magic was used to take out Lucian, along with conventional means." Mary said, "Put our people on it. The Lamia and the Veritas especially. I want someone following that Lars kid. Someone he can't make."

Sabine pointed at Minerva, as if to indicate her current usefulness.

"Send Team Ripper to New Caprica in peace. Find out what happened to their namesake."

____

Sabine began to wander off further into the tunnel, gesturing Minerva along with her. She heard enough for now. She only needed confirmation concerning the rumors she had heard. She got it.

There was disloyalty in the Invictus, enough to probably fuel a few murders.

Sabine would surely root out the corruption before it spread. She hoped to try, at least.

____

Minerva closed the gap in the ceiling before following Sabine, leaving as evidence only a darker mark on the ceiling of the tunnel and a lighter mark on the floor of the pub. So it took her about a minute before she followed Sabine, one hand trailing along the wall to stay in contact with the earth.

"You wish for me to follow the Lars kid, or follow the tail they will put on him?" She asked when they were far enough away from the scene of the eavesdropping that Sabine seemed ready to discuss the point.

____

"Follow Lars." Sabine said to Minerva, "Find answers. For me." She said, then pointing upwards. "For them." She continued, finally pointing at Minerva. "For yourself." Sabine was being her usual cryptic self, but it was straightforward for Minnie to understand. Spying on a possible murder was meant to be therapeutic in Sabine's eyes.

"Sabine will be close. Always close. Just call her name." Sabine told the sand witch, pressing her back against a wall. "Sabine sees Lars. Van Leugen. A hospital."

____

Minerva nodded slowly, hiding her discontent about being sent away so soon after getting back to Westeria. She hadn't even found out if her belongings were still there, or destroyed, or claimed by someone else. Not that she actually had much, just a few trinkets that pleased her, and a small library of books. Of course, it wasn't hard for her to hide her emotion. All she had to do was decline to show them, since showing took effort while remaining blank did not.

There were other reasons she wanted to stay as well, but they were more nebulous fears. Her doom was fast approaching and Minerva wasn't sure if it could be stopped, or even slowed. The best she could do was keep on moving and see what came of being sent to Van Leugen.

"I go." She answers though, continuing down the tunnel even if there wasn't an exit that way. Whether the other end was a blank wall or a door, there would be a smear of dirt, dust, and soot left on it, human shaped, and Minerva would be gone from their city once more.

____

"Make a hole!" An Invictus security operative shouted at the crowd of people at the front gate of the compound, a van inching closer and closer to the Courtyard. "It's Team Ripper, give them priority." Another told his comrades.

Sabine watched as the van passed by, her customer becoming annoyed by the woman seemingly drifting off into space. "You gonna read my fortune?" The customer, a young Terran woman, asked.

Sabine remained quiet, slowly turning her head back to the young woman. "Sabine sees a bad future. Sabine is closing shop." The sage told the woman, "You read my friend's fortune, his came true, tell me mine, please?" The woman pleaded.

"Okay." Sabine said, "I see a man in your life, a handsome man with golden hair. He is dangerous, too dangerous for you." She told the woman, "I don't mind danger." She told Sabine, "Unfortunately." Sabine said, turning away from her line of customers.

"Closed." She said loudly.
 
as written by glmstr

"Welcome, please sit on the examination table while I get ready to see you," A feminine voice called through the door labeled Emergency Room.

A terran man nodded and limped into the doorway. The Operating Room was very clean, much moreso than anywhere else in The Courtyard. Bright fluorescent lights flickered in the ceiling, the smallish room felt like a real hospital.

Sat in the corner was a large 'robot' of sorts, around seven feet tall, made of what looked like brass. It was hunched over at a desk, with two arms holding down a piece of paper and scrawling notes on it while the other two were placing various used surgical tools onto a wheeled metal cart.

"Alright, so why have you come in today?" The metal humanoid stood up and turned around, its dimly glowing blue 'face' eyeing the patient in front of it.

"Well, I used to work for the city, construction in particular. But with the invasion and all, I lost my job. I joined one of my buddies' contracting firms and did some work for him, since I used to be a plumber. I was fixin' a hot water heater a week or two ago when one of the pipes burst right there, got all burned up and a few bits of metal shot out at me. My side's been really hurting bad, so I think there might be a piece still in there."

The construct, by the name of Virgil, nodded and wrote on a clipboard as he told his story.
"Could you please remove your shirt so I could get a closer look?" Virgil grabbed a tray of surgical implements and pulled it nearby as she sat down in a stool, albeit one reinforced to support a thousand pounds of metal. The Terran nodded and promptly pulled off his shirt and turned to let the doctor see better.

His skin was clearly scarred along his right side, from his armpit to his pelvis. He must have been sprayed with steam (or at least boiling water), as these looked rather severe. The whole area was slightly red, and rather tender. Virgil held one of her hands near his side, about level with his kidneys, and opened the three fingers on her copper-plated hand.
"Do you feel anything when I do this?" The golem was using her magic to gently pull on anything magnetic in his body.
The man winced, "Ow! Please stop doc, that really hurts," and the physician promptly stopped.

"You're right, there is definitely some metal in there. I can remove that right now if you'd like, it'll be quite a bit more painful than if we do a formal surgery, but you can get out of here faster. If not, I can schedule an operation by the end of the we-"
"I think I can handle it Doc, let's just get it out of there."
"Alright, I'll give you an IV and some painkillers, and we can get started," Virgil nodded and wheeled on her stool to his other side, pulling a metal stand with a drip bag full of saline towards the table. One of her metal arms reached elsewhere and picked up the IV needle, the other two holding his arm extended and still.
"Here comes the needle, please hold still-" before finishing her sentence, she had already gently driven the needle into the vein in his wrist. As a result, he was taken by surprise and didn't react to the pain until it was already where it needed to be, pumping painkillers into his bloodstream.

"You'll barely feel a thing, I'll be done before you know it," before long, the man's sense of reality started to fade away, as he drifted into a drug-addled stupor.

What felt to him like seconds passed by, until eventually the real world started to come back to him. His vision sharpened again, the sounds and smells of the operating room were crisp and clear, and he felt a new pain in his side. Milder than before, but sharper and only at the skin level. He tried to move and adjust himself, but a metallic claw-hand gently pushed down on his chest for him to stay.
"Please don't move yet, your stitches are still fresh. We'll move you to the holding room so you can lie in a clean bed there for a day or two. After that, feel free to leave when you feel strong enough."

"I've removed the piece of metal. It was a pretty simple procedure, nothing went horribly wrong," Virgil reached to a similar metal cart and picked up a piece of twisted and torn up metal, the fragment still covered in blood. "If you'd like to keep it, you may," a playful laugh came from the doctor.

The Terran gave a hearty chuckle and smiled, "You know what Doc, that's not too bad of an idea. Put it in a little box or something, I can find a nice display case for it."
 
as written by Saarai

"We need medics!" A woman shouted from outside in The Courtyard proper, the crowd outside grew louder as the woman screamed again for medical assistance. For some sort of help.

A man burst into Virgil's operating room, he himself a doctor dressed in scrubs. "We got one, it's bad." He said to Virgil before rushing back out.

"Make a hole!"

The crowd began to form a passageway towards Virgil's little base of operations, revealing a gurney being pushed along by several WCPD officers. On the gurney lay a bleeding woman, dressed in NPA tactical gear. Her face was bloodied, the armor, the gurney itself. It didn't show signs of slowing down.

The medical staff had their hands full already, this case wasn't looking good. At least not for the woman on the gurney.

"Prep! Now!" A doctor yelled at a nurse.
 
as written by glmstr and Saarai

"Oh my, she doesn't look good," Virgil peered at the woman and lifted her from the gurney to her operation table. It was already cleaned after her last patient had left, and a sterile set of tools was ready for use.

The woman seemed burned, the crude olfactory sensor embedded in her helmet was reporting the smell of charred flesh. Additionally, there seemed to be blunt-force trauma to various parts of her body.

"Tell me what happened here," the doctor picked up a scalpel and sliced through the straps and fabric of her patient's tactical clothing, peeling off armor and clothing that was covering up injuries below. The clothing was placed into a nearby bin, so if an investigation was ever held, any evidence regarding them would be preserved.

"Excuse me, can I get a nurse to put in an IV right away? She's clearly losing fluids, we'll lose her if we don't start putting something in her body."

____

The nurses moved quickly to provide everything Virgil needed, another doctor pointing at a bullet wound exposed by the removal of the patient's clothing. "GSW." He said to Virgil, slipping on a pair of gloves. A nurse approached, placing a breathing mask over the injured woman's mouth and nose.

A tube running down into a canister that sent oxygen into her.

"We found her like this at a crash site. Helicopter crash, no other survivors." One of the police officers told Virgil, "Some locals saw it, called for help. We were the closest." Another added, "As far as we can tell, they were attacked. We sent for the other bodies."

The police officer turned away when the nurses began to insert the IVs into the woman, he wasn't the biggest fan of needles it seemed.

____

"Gunshots? Helicopter crash? Oh my," Virgil's tone was the only easy method to express her concern, as she no longer had a face that could actually portray expressions. She grabbed a pair of forceps in one hand, and a scalpel in another, leaving the other two hands free.
"This might be a little messy, but it's the fastest way to get it out," blue-white arcane markings began to glow along one of her empty arms, and she opened her hand, holding it near the wound. Suddenly, one by one, tiny bits of metal shot out of her patients body and latched onto her now magnetized fingers, and they were promptly picked up by the forceps and placed in a small cup.

"Now for the bleeding and any non-magnetic bits stuck in there..." Virgil switched the pair of forceps for a clean one, and carefully plucked any foreign debris from the wounds, as well as trimming the torn and tattered flesh away with a scalpel to ensure the sewing is easier to perform, the wound having less risk of infection from the damaged and dirty exterior, and the scar healing faster and looking much nicer.

With the wound cleaned and re-cut, she began the process to stop the bleeding.
"Hemostats please, I'll need several of them."
The hemostats (special forceps that lock when closed, used for squeezing blood vessels shut during operations) were placed on her surgical tray with a clatter. The instruments found themselves clamping down several large arteries and veins, suddenly making Virgil's job much easier as there isn't blood everywhere. A half an hour or so of antiseptics, bandages and a few tetanoid shots later, she placed her tools down on her tray and wheeled backwards, signaling the operation as done.

"We'll need to keep an eye on her for quite a while, those bandages are only a temporary fix. Change them every few days and let me know if any sort of infection sets in," The half-ton doctor stood up and generated fire in all four hands, searing the metal to kill any bacteria or other living matter left on her fingers, and then made her way to the sink to cool them down and wash them with soap.

"When they find the bodies, please bring them in, just in case any of them aren't actually dead."

____

"We'll make sure they get bring in any bodies that we know for certain aren't dead." The female police officer told Virgil, "We have to report back to our lieutenant." She said, casting a glance down at the injured woman before heading out with the other officers.

Outside police officers and Invictus personnel were trying to get their nosy residents to disperse. "Go about your day. Just a car accident." One of them told the crowd.

____

Virgil stood up and sighed, already beginning to feel the effects of the already stressful day. She rolled her neck instinctively, only afterwards remembering that she can't get neck pain, nor would that help her anymore if she did. The construct shambled towards the door of her operating room and office, and stepped outside to see the ruckus.

There were police and civilians everywhere, making the already-crowded outpost look even more packed than it usually is. They must have came in following that officer, she turned her head towards the van that had become a makeshift ambulance. She leaned against a large stone pillar, one she chose very carefully to not crack or collapse from supporting her weight.

____

"Sabine wonders why you hurt. Not physical. Mental. Stress." Sabine said to Virgil, stepping out from behind the pillar to join her. As always, Sabine was cryptic and strange. She donned a black leather trenchcoat to protect her from the cold.

The seasons were changing in more ways than one.

She raised her hands up to her head, slowly undoing her braided ponytail as she stared at Virgil. "Virgil longs for something? Or does Virgil not know if she longs for something?" Sabine asked.

____

"I'm sorry? Oh, I'm just stressed," The metal figure turned her head towards Sabine, the blue orb of her head glowing dimly. "I don't think I long for anything in particular. I like being able to save people, even though it's a a very stressful process. My body is not at all human, but," Virgil tapped her head with one finger, "My mind and soul are. I guess there's a certain.. emptiness when I can't truly feel things the way I'm supposed to, there are all kinds of things I can't experience any more. Some simple sensors wired up through this body give me a rudementary sense of smell and touch, but so much is still lost," the doctor's head turned back towards the sky, folding all four arms across her chest.

"Why do you ask?"

____

Sabine shook her hair out as it fell loose, uncaring of how it looked. Looks didn't matter in her profession. If you could call it a profession. "Sabine asks so that you can know the answer." She told Virgil, "Sometimes we are afraid to ask for ourselves." She added, eyes drifting to a pub across the street.

The van that had entered earlier was parked in front of it, armed Invictus soldiers hanging out near it. They were waiting on someone, the job was never really over these days.

"Where is it? Your self? Your body?"

____

"My body's long gone. I gave it up for someone. A patient of mine, lost all control of her body after an injury to the spinal cord, but she could still think and feel. She was trapped in that useless husk of flesh, we ran some tests and discovered that my own body could be a host for her brain, if they could find something to do with mine. Thus, I spoke to neurologists and enchanters until I devised a plan: make an artificial body for myself. After paying some neurosurgeons and enchanters rather handsomely, these," Virgil tapped her 'face' and the crystal on her chest, "were made, ready to have a soul and consciousness bound to them."

"They cracked open my skull, put my brain in a jar, and transferred it into my new body. From what I heard, the second step of the operation was a success, and that girl now can live her life again. I sometimes wonder if it was truly worth it, though," the large metal figure let out a sigh, "My actual brain is probably on display in a jar of formaldehyde somewhere, but there's nothing left in it. I could in theory put myself back into it and stuff it into a cadaver's skull, but that would require somebody else to become what I am, and the cycle would just start over again."

"I guess the easiest way for me to fill the voids in my life, is by saving the lives of others."

____

"To Sabine, it sounds like you have no voids." Sabine told Virgil, pointing a somewhat dirty finger at her. The effects of sitting around outside in mostly one place for hours and hours. The woman inched closer and closer to Virgil with several subtle steps.

As per usual she went silent, instead opting to stare at Virgil's 'face'.

____

"I guess. It may be selfish, but every now and then I wish I could have a body of flesh and blood, or at least outfit this one to bring back those feelings I miss."
Virgil's head turned back to the cryptic woman, her head cocked slightly to the side in curiosity as she seemed to be approaching her.

____

Sabine reached out to touch the crystal where Virgil's face would have been. She wasn't so sure she should, but Sabine also wasn't sure if she cared about making Virgil uncomfortable.

"I wonder what you looked like. Don't tell Sabine. Leave Sabine to her thoughts."

____

"I-okay," Virgil stopped herself, and simply remained still as the sage touched her face. It felt like finely polished stone, or even glass to Sabine's touch. It wasn't an unusual thing for her, children and adults alike would often ask to touch her face or feel her hands, the cold gemstones and metal that moved and acted with such fluidity, such humanity behind them. It must have been mind-boggling to those people that there was a real person trapped, by choice even, inside that metal prison.

____

"Sabine will find you again." Sabine told Virgil, patting her crystal face before heading off towards the pub and the armed Invictus soldiers. She wasn't trying to be discreet, everyone saw her coming over.

"Private meetin', Sabine." One of the soldiers said to her, approaching to intercept her before she got two far across the street. "Sabine knows. Sabine is warning." She told the soldier, "Aye?" He asked, "Old friends are new enemies." Sabine answered, turning to head off back towards her booth.

She waved to Virgil, bidding her a temporary farewell. Sabine would be back.

She always came back.

____

A horn blared and blared until it died just outside of The Courtyard's front gate, "Hey! Stop!" A guard shouted to the driver, the van coming to a halt. It was a boxy van painted in Mexican styled art of the Virgin Mary.

"It's me!" The driver yelled, hopping out of the van. It was a small Asian woman and she was clearly in distress, "Lisa? You okay?" An Invictus operative asked, "It's Nunez. Van Leugen. And a tower. Evil." She said, not forming actual coherent sentences.

"What?"

"Get help! It took Nunez!" She shouted, slapping the gate until someone decided to open it and let her in. The woman began to sprint towards one of the shops in the Courtyard.

Godfrey's Mystical Emporium.

Lisa pushed the door open, eyes landing on Godfrey himself as he read a magazine. "Welcome to Godfrey's Mysti-..."

"Nunez walked into an evil portal tower thing!" Lisa shouted, "God damnit, Javier. Always curiosity that kills the Mexican cat." Godfrey said, dropping his magazine. He dug out the pendant tucked into his shirt, he gripped it tight. The pendant lighting up brightly.

"Lisa, start assembling everyone." He ordered.

Outside of the shop, Sabine had begun to slink over. She was always lurking around, but the sight of Lisa and her state of panic made the lurking different.

There was trouble.

Sabine took a seat just outside of the shop, legs crossed and holds folded in front of her. She closed her eyes and almost immediately went perfectly still.

Lisa stepped out of the shop, raising an eyebrow at Sabine before she went to find a phone to use. She dropped her own when she left Nunez behind.

____

"Just a few more stitches left Ms. Harvey, bear with me."
A Terran woman sat in a wooden chair backwards, clutching the back of it as the large metal doctor quickly and carefully worked a needle and thread through a large gash, one which had been meticulously cleaned just minutes ago. Once the 'golem' reached the end of the cut, she secured the thread into a small knot and cut the string with a pair of scissors.
"Alright, that's it. Thank you for holding still. I'll have a nurse bandage up your back for you, and please be very careful. I don't want you bending over or doing any heavy lifting until that is all closed and those stitches fall out, or you might re-open it," Virgil's tone was the classic mix of passionate worry and stern ultimatum that many medical professionals knew oh-so-well.

After a minute or two of scorching her hands with generated fire and then washing with soap and water, Virgil stepped outside of her office and into the courtyard itself. Her clinic was quite close to a magic shop, Godfrey's if she remembered correctly, and she had heard shouting and seen the flurry of panic and emergency from a few people rushing about.

The construct, curious as ever, made her way over to the shop with unintentionally loud footsteps, finding that strange Sabine looming outside of the building.
"What is the hurry? Is someone in trouble?"

____

"One of us." Sabine said to Virgil, still unmoving save for her lips and her chest as she breathed. "Darkness. A new darkness. I feared this day. It's close to us." She continued, Godfrey stepping out of his shop as she spoke.

"That's one of the Lamia accounted for." He said upon seeing Sabine, other members of the Invictus on the approach. Unlike many Virgil might have seen, they were much more unique in appearance. No uniforms, at the most some wore the Invictus phoenix logo on some of their clothing.

Some weren't even human. This was a different Invictus often hidden from the public eye. And for good reason. They were the Custodis Lamia. They dealt with magic and otherworldly anomalies.

War and politics didn't come naturally to them.

"Virgil, right? I read up on you." He said to Virgil, nodding to the Lamia members as they entered his shop. "You could be very useful." Godfrey told her, putting two fingers to his lips. "Yes. Yes. Join us."

He gestured towards his shop, "You as well when you're done, Sabine."

____

"Eh? Well, some doctors recently moved in, and I trust them to take care of those in need. I guess I'm available," Virgil lumbered into the magic shop, the floors crackling ever so slightly beneath the half-ton Mage.
"So what sort of darkness -so foul it attracted the Lamia- is afoot?"

____

"It doesn't matter." Godfrey told Virgil, following her inside. "It has one of our own. And, Sabine there is like a Voodoo bloodhound. Whatever it is has her attention, that's good enough for me." He continued, moving towards his counter to lean against it. The other Lamia began to join, taking seats or otherwise standing.

They were waiting for their marching orders.

"Something is going on in Van Leugen. Javier Nunez, a Brujo and one of us, went there to check it out. A colossal structure erected itself there, some of you have probably heard." Godfrey said to the group.

"It could be dangerous, so I need the best, the brightest, and the strongest on this from inside and outside of the Lamia. I need some of you to make calls, the rest of you, even you Virgil, to Van Leugen."

One of the Lamia members raised a hand, "What do we know?" He asked, "Nothing. Have fun." Godfrey said, "No, really. Go out there and figure out what we're dealing with. Consult books, myths, ask questions."

____

"A mysterious dark force that almost nobody knows anything abou? Sounds pretty routine for the Lamia, aside from the fact that it has one of our own," Virgil's tone quickly shifted from sarcastic to frank as her quip progressed.

"That structure sounds like something I could visit in person, thanks to, well," the construct knocked on her chest, a dull metal-on-metal klang responding, "not being made of flesh."

____

"You could. That's one of the reasons I think you should go along. Unfortunately, we don't know if this thing does anything to the mind." Godfrey told Virgil and the others, "My guess is that it does. Because cliches are real."

"Hit those books." He ordered, several members of the Lamia getting up to leave the shop. "Let's get to Van Leugen and check this thing out."

____

"I'll gather a few things then meet you at the van outside," Virgil made her way back to her office and pulled a large trunk out from under the desk, and quickly went to work picking up any personal belongings (as well as a spare surgical kit, she would likely need it) and placing them in the box of luggage.

That was one big advantage to being what she is now: packing was easy because she never needed clothes.

____

Godfrey slid on his trenchcoat, stepping out of his ship to join the others at Nunez's van. Lisa pulled it up into the Courtyard proper, the woman clearly anxious as she sat behind the wheel. "Go ahead when the others get in. I'll drive my hearse." Godfrey told her, walking off towards an alley not far from his shop.

Sabine finally stood up, moving to cross the street and head her own way. The sage barely avoiding being hit by a small convoy of trucks heading for the front gate.

"Damn it. Hurry up." Lisa said, barely containing her urge to wear out the van's horn. "Hold your horses, love." A man said, carrying a few bags to the van. "Finally get to get out of this place. It's been a little crowded." The man said.
 
as written by Krysis

Lalita had made one wrong turn after another and was completely lost. The old farm truck was rattling along and she suspected she would need to get gas before she could make it all the way home, but hopefully she could make it out of the city at least. A couple of people had tried to accost her, thinking they could steal her truck, but she had 'convinced' them otherwise with only a little inconvenience. Then there was the street that was blocked by trees. And the streets where rubble slid sideways without warning and gravity did weird things (which was how she had ended up with one busted headlight and dirt smeared on her hands and face when she had to heave the vehicle back out of the weird gravity by hand).

Still, it was discouraging. Wait! There was traffic! Alot of traffic! All going in the same direction. The tiefling hit the gas to catch up, and then the brakes when the line of trucks continued. Which was how the strange looking girl ended up sitting and staring at the convoy leaving the Courtyard gate, not sure if she could follow them out of the city or not. After all, they might be headed for something In the city and the country girl had enough of the confusing place and lack of green.

Well, it wasn't like she had a better option, as it had been proven that her instincts for directions were not as good as she had once thought.
 
as written by Saarai

"Move!" Lisa shouted at pedestrians as she pulled the van up behind the convoy leaving The Courtyard. She was trying to get to Van Leugen as quickly as possible to save Nunez and all of these people with nothing to do but be in her way were in her way.

Assholes.

"Calm down, Lisa. We'll save Javier." One of her passengers said, looking back at the trailer hitched to the van. Virgil was inside, the van had enough power to pull her along on the trip. A lonely trip it would be for the most part.

"Anyone else joining the supply run? We need volunteers, and we're offering rides. But, you need to make it quick." An Invictus said over an intercom, the man himself standing near one of the trucks that had stopped.

He climbed into the truck as it began to pull off, waving to Lisa and her passengers as the van was passing by.

"Follow the others. We're taking safe routes." He said to her, the van starting on its way out of the city. The journey to what was possibly Nunez's grave had begun.
 
"As you can see, we've done our very best to provide protection and stability to the people of Westeria City." Ariadne told her investors as she walked them through the refugee camp that the Courtyard had become.

"But, this isn't enough. With the government leaving everyone to fend for themselves and with the threat of another Aschen attack, the people need more." She continued, "What more can the Invictus provide?" A businessman asked Ariadne.

She turned to him, gesturing to the things around them. The people, the medical tents, the vendors. What the Courtyard had become.

"It's not what the Invictus can do, not alone at least. It's what Kale Industries can do. It's unfortunate what brought these people together, but the point is that they are together." The woman said, "We buy up more city blocks and we can create a new home for them all."

"Capitalizing on their plight?" Another suited man asked, "Monetizing good will." Ariadne answered, "Peace and stability, for a price."

"Westeria City is gone. We're going to rebrand it."
 
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