Kazuhira Miller (
hellburger) wrote2016-02-29 08:37 pm
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Kazuhira Miller leans against a brick wall covered in the illegible remains of old wheatpaste posters, layered with a smattering of graffiti. With the exception of his bright yellow scarf, his uniform looks entirely at home among the coveralls and drab work clothes of the Industrial District's labor force. Workers representing various species wander past on the way to work sites and factories while others huddle together to eat lunch or enjoy a smoke break.
Miller looks down at his watch compulsively, only to be reminded once again that it stopped the moment he set foot in the Nexus. He sighs, pulls a Rite in the Rain notebook out of his breast pocket, and flips through pages covered in copious notes while he waits for a certain Mobian magus to appear.
Miller looks down at his watch compulsively, only to be reminded once again that it stopped the moment he set foot in the Nexus. He sighs, pulls a Rite in the Rain notebook out of his breast pocket, and flips through pages covered in copious notes while he waits for a certain Mobian magus to appear.
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He's too mad to take in anything Kaz is saying? Sunglasses? What sunglasses? Who cares!
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Without taking his eyes off of Naugus, Miller shouts at the top of his lungs. "STAND DOWN! DO NOT ADVANCE! THE SITUATION IS UNDER CONTROL!"
There's the sound of more rustling, and through the underbrush one can make out soldiers forming a watchful perimeter, but keeping away as instructed. Thank god.
Miller keeps his tone level, conciliatory, although he's still not lowering his gun. "See? There doesn't need to be anymore violence. I'll even call in a medic to look at your wounds if you want."
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Rather than respond like a normal person, Naugus opens his mouth and hisses again, loudly, before turning and charging off into the underbrush, his footsteps quickened with gusts of wind magic. Great. Now there's a proto-chubacabra loose in the jungles of Costa Rica.
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The patrol unit breaks off into the jungle after the cryptid, leaving Snail behind with Kaz. She still looks stunned -- both from being thrown and everything that's just transpired -- but she's at least regained her feet. He checks over her equipment and relieves her of a rifle and some tranq rounds before patting her shoulder. "Stay here -- near those trees -- and look for my sunglasses. Somewhere over there."
Orders given, he charges off to follow Naugus' and the patrol's obvious trail of broken and wind-whipped undergrowth.
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He can't drain the air from the lungs of his attackers; too many of them. Focus on three and another five sneak up on you. Water thick in the air is a good bet. Transform humidity to heat, set fire all around him. Burn it, burn it! Burn it all! Their soft, Overlander hides can't withstand the heat, but you can! You can!
He's panting heavily from anger and panic, drool hanging from his lower lip. He looks around frantically. Where are they coming from? Where could they approach? They know the terrain, he does not. The sound of a snapped twig occurs to his right, making the monstrous mage whirl that way and hiss as he shoves a gout of flame towards whatever assailant is there, imaginary, soldier or otherwise.
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Antelope (as his name happens to be) howls in pain when he's hit with the unanticipated fireball. Luckily the flames don't fully catch on his damp uniform, but his skin has been scorched by the intense heat. Not to mention the gunpowder in a few spare rounds ignites and explodes, including one flash grenade. Oof.
Miller redoubles his speed when he spots the light and sound through the trees. What a fucking mess.
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There's options for hiding, for proper escape, but the panic is too thick and too frantic to occur to him just yet. Slide into shadows, turn into mist; adrenaline's pounding much too free that there are no options other than running and attacking what attacks him first. Or at least what he perceives as an attack.
Another burst of flame is unleashed, now in just a halo around him, trying to plunge it deep into the dead foliage underfoot, to anything dry and suitable as tinder. Burn the whole forest! Who'll mourn a mess of war-mad Overlanders?!
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"No time to explain. Give me your radio." The soldier, Iguana, immediately complies, disentangling his radio from his gear and pushing it into his commander's waiting hand.
Miller wastes no time pressing on, dials into the patrol's frequency and issues an order: "Maintain a visual, proceed with stealth, but do not attempt to engage the target. Await my further instructions."
Three confirmations crackle in response, and Miller feels slightly more at ease. These soldiers certainly aren't equipped for wizard suppression, whatever the hell that entails. It's not as if he is, either, but he's got a slightly better chance of dealing with the Mobian.
Naugus might begin to get the impression that they've given up. It's certainly a lot quieter now -- at least in terms of things that are not Naugus himself.
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He needs to go back. He has every intention of finding the man in the glasses and making him pay for this, but he has to go back first. He can't run forever on an entire planet populated by war-crazed Overlanders. He can take so many with him, oh yes, but he knows he'll fall in due time. Not without a plan. With a plan, with time to think straight, it could be different...
But he can't go back. Despite his prowess with portals, Naugus still needs an item from where he wants to go. And everything on him is from his native planet of Mobius. Any portal he tried to open using his personal effects as a keystone would just lead to the blank that was left in his world's erasure. He has nothing that would take him back to the Nexus.
This only occurs to Naugus after he's already sunk to his knees, ripped up handfuls of foliage to get at the bare earth beneath, already scratching symbols and sigils from muscle memory. Then he just stares at it, mind racing.
Think. Think. Think. Think.
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He rolls his eyes. "Affirmative. Keep a bead on him and maintain your position."
Similar reports come in from the two other soldiers, equally incredulous now that they've had an opportunity to get an eyeful of the thing they've been pursuing. The three soldiers coordinate and carefully triangulate their positions, weapons aimed.
"Got eyes on you, Commander. You're close," the radio whispers again, in concert with a flashed signal from a nearby rise in the terrain. Kaz waves an acknowledging signal and slows his approach to place his steps slowly, carefully.
Naugus' purple cape stands out against the lush greens of the forest, and Kaz freezes at the sight of it. He takes a moment to observe the wizard and consider the best course of action. Preferably one that won't start the chase anew.
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Hide? He should hide. But his own pride rails against the idea. Hide? Like a scared rodent? Hide and quiver in fear of a bunch of Overlanders with their outlandish tech and reliance on guns? To slip into the shadows or the soil or the air now wouldn't be tactical retreat, it would be cowardice! Another insult to his primacy!
Think. Think. Think. Think.
Naugus pushes himself back up to his feet, still breathing hard, furious at his quandry. When was the last time he did battle in a jungle? Not ever. He ran right through it to find a location better suited for his magicks last time he was in a place like this. Pushed on right to the Southern Tundra. But he doesn't know what lies beyond this place. The situation of the continents in this unknown world.
"YOU'RE MISTAKEN IF YOU THINK ANY OF YOU WILL LIVE TO SPEAK OF THIS INDECENCY!" He roars into the trees, sending birds from the branches in noisy flight.
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"Nice work. Hold your position. We'll circle back shortly." Hopefully.
"Switch to normal rounds. Lynx, line up a leg shot. Take it if it looks like he's about to run again. Dromedary, Wolverine -- headshots. But ONLY at my signal." With that, Miller sets both rifle and handgun at the base of a tree and emerges from cover.
He smiles and raises his empty hands to make it abundantly clear he's unarmed. "Look, Naugus, just you and me now. I even left my Overlander weapons behind. How about you take a deep breath, stop acting like a cornered animal and follow me back to the portal. Nice and easy."
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"HHHHSSSS! Tricked! Trapped! I follow you nowhere! That's what caused all this in the first place! I know how you work! Where are the rest!?" Naugus looks around frantically, searching the trees and vines for any sign of a gun barrel, a glint of metal, a masked human face.
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"And what's the alternative? Skulk around in the jungle for the rest of your days? Show up in blurry tabloid photographs? Snail -- you know, that woman you attacked -- she's got the key. C'mon big guy. Let's head back." Miller reaches out a hand and makes a coaxing motion. Easy does it.
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Funny how his fear of being caged and treated as an odd animal is making him behave like one.
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He lets out a long exhale. "Look. Nobody said anything about capturing you. I've got a lot more important things to deal with than your paranoid bullshit, Naugus."
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At least that's what can be thought up until Naugus locks eyes with Kaz...and then suddenly darts back into that cape of his, slipping into its dark folds like it somehow hid a portal within it. In a display of completely bizarre physics that kind of are confusing to witness, said cape soon folds in on itself, following the owner, and vanishes.
Somewhere else in the jungle, back near the portal that he had created, Naugus bursts from the shadows beneath a tree, hissing and making a grab for Snail's gun.
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"Some kind of cloaking device? Orders, sir?" his radio crackles. He raises his hand for silence, knife at the ready and watching the ground cover for any signs of disturbance. Even if Naugus is invisible, he's probably still stomping and raging. There's nothing, though. What the hell.
While Kaz and the rest of the patrol are thus occupied with tracking the vanished mage, Snail is continues to have an awful day. Already on edge, she recovers quickly from the sudden reappearance of the thing and reflexively steps back -- towards those two portal trees, as it happens.
She winces; the fall from earlier either sprained or fractured her ankle. One hand keeps her gun raised, the other fumbles for her radio. "C-commandante! El monstruo esta aquí!"
"Shit! Keep him busy. We're on our way back," Miller's voice responds.
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Glaring at her angrily, rather than try anything violent or rash, Naugus hunkers down and remembers, oh right, he is shot, huh. And he's got some distance between him and the other soldiers now. Might as well deal with that. And by dealing with it, that means using his crab claw to try and pinch out the slugs left lodged in him. It's messy work and he continues to shoot angry looks at Snail because she caused this. Clearly.
"Well?! Do you even understand me? Me comprenez-vous? Pourquoi avez-vous tuer!" Might as well try other languages. Like these savages know Mercian, though.
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Snail keeps her gun raised and adjusts her weight off of her injured leg. She watches Naugus' attempt at surgery with a grimace. "Dios mío ... You shouldn't do that."
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"I'm sure your leader will somehow make this all my fault."
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"He can wait for a medic, or he can hurt himself all he likes. Entirely up to him." She shrugs at Miller's response, but continues to keep her eyes trained on Naugus.
"You should wait. You're making it worse."
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"Oh, and you're concerned now? For me, the thing?" He flicks his hand in irritation, splattering drops of red across the leaves underfoot. "Tell me the real plan. The one where I wind up in a prison or a cage, for the scientific curiosity or simple amusement of your leader."
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Snail snorts derisively at the mention of conspiracy. "Haven't heard any plans, but who knows? Maybe El Jefe wants to start a private zoo."
Even with all this casual conversation, the barrel of her gun doesn't drop an inch.
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At some point, Naugus angrily looks to his right, perhaps watching for more mystery soldiers arriving...and spots the tranq dart sticking out of his shoulder.
"And this!? Really!?" He points at it incredulously.
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