|
Post by elizar on Oct 22, 2009 13:30:41 GMT -5
"Captain, how about you lead?" Sandra asked Beauchamps. Ian seemed to relax a bit and wasn't fighting the lock.
Ash stood up carefully and pulled Liriel up. "So we put them at the base? We do have a regular jail at the police station, but that's for humans." He glanced at Ian.
|
|
|
Post by Evangeline on Oct 22, 2009 14:12:26 GMT -5
"Guess we'll have to. I don't want to take any chances on Liriel getting into conflicts with the drunks, the druggies and the prostitutes in the regular jail." the Captain said. "We talked that over with the sheriff too, and he agrees." She set out ahead and the other helos fell in.
|
|
|
Post by elizar on Oct 22, 2009 14:36:10 GMT -5
Ash nodded in agreement and followed close to Rihanna. "And that she would probably be a nice find for those who are desperate enough to ignore the tail and ears." He sighed.
Sandra looked back to the humans, then turned towards again to keep an eye on Ian, who was behaving. Then she turned to Annalise. "So you think there's something to what Ash said, that Ian's somehow keeping Liriel in charge of the body?"
|
|
|
Post by Evangeline on Oct 23, 2009 21:45:58 GMT -5
"And she's going to need close watching anyway." Rihanna said to Ash. "Never know what kind of programming they put into her. Ceasarion's had quite a while to perfect his technique."
"Not by anything HE's doing deliberately, but definitely something attached to him by someone else." Annalise answered. "Running this kind of thing would take expertise and power that Ian doesn't have on his own. I'll have to see if I can hack it."
|
|
|
Post by elizar on Oct 24, 2009 4:12:46 GMT -5
"She is convincing, I have to give her that." Ash said as looking for a moment at the tip of the tail.
Sandra snorted slightly as unpleasant idea came to her mind. "I wonder what Ian would have done had he come into power around his grand parents." She said. "The last Graystone developed quite destructive powers because of her abusive background."
|
|
|
Post by Evangeline on Oct 24, 2009 17:23:27 GMT -5
"The work of a master." Rihanna agreed.
"We're fortunate that Ian is not fully manifest yet." Annalise glanced back towards the Oka boy. "But perhaps it also means that Caesarion's not as omnipotent as everyone thinks. Why would he need other users in that case?"
|
|
|
Post by elizar on Oct 24, 2009 17:40:42 GMT -5
"Rechargeable batteries?" Sandra asked. "Just making a guess." She shrugged. "I mean, he's already using a lot of power, perhaps he doesn't have it all to do what it has done. But it wouldn't make sense to send some of his 'charge' away."
"Maybe an extension of himself." Ash said. "I mean, you said Ian was used to maintain the spell on miss hissy. Maybe he can't bind anything in an artifact all the way over from the New Orly."
Jonathan stepped out of Kelora some distance from the cult's hot zone. It wasn't far away, but this was the way to go if going unnoticed. At least Kelora would go through the territory unmolested thanks to Elena.
He looked through the ring and nodded to Elena. "We're at the borders now." He said. "I don't know if it is a border of sensor spell or area of influence, but it is something at least."
|
|
|
Post by Evangeline on Oct 24, 2009 18:27:23 GMT -5
Elena applied a de-scenting spray to Kelora's cabin so that the scent of its recent occupants would not be detected on her. "It's a sensor line. Farther out it is, the more difficult to maintain a complete seal. But even closer in it's never perfect."
Kelora looked around to see where Gideon was. "By now, he'd be getting supsicious. I wonder how Rihanna and Sandra are doing?"
"I think the shape-changing spell is stable over distance." Annalise surmised. "His mind control, however, is not." She walked over to Ash and Liriel. "I can take her."
|
|
|
Post by elizar on Oct 24, 2009 18:40:05 GMT -5
"If we are to know anything from them today, it better be now." Jonathan said and keyed his radio on the protected frequency. "Hello angels, how are you?" He said.
"Be my guest." Ash said as he moved slightly away from Liriel to allow Annalise to take over. He still kept close enough to be ready in case the cat-girl tried something unexpected.
Sandra noticed the radio chiming on her interface and answered. "Doing good here Jonathan, or should I say Charlie?" She smirked. "How did you know about that old thing?"
"Well, I found it!" The answer came back on the radio chipper. "Amazing thing, someone collected those old episodes and digitally preserved them."
"Well, you can tell Gideon that we have his son back." Sandra said. "But I'm afraid rehab's going to be difficult." She looked over to Rihanna.
Jonathan relayed that back to Gideon, who turned sour for a moment. He knew that capture would not win Ian's heart, but he had hoped for a miracle that never came.
"Here Elena." He said. "Sandra said there was something magical going on as well. And I'm not the person to ask about that as you can understand."
|
|
|
Post by Evangeline on Oct 24, 2009 20:31:20 GMT -5
Rihanna picked up her own radio set, which was linked in to Sandra's. "We have Liriel too. She's looking at us with murder in her eye right now, but we think it might be a personality template overriding her. We met Annalise Crawford over here, and she thinks she can hack the connection but it'll take a bit of time."
Elena took the radio. "Rihanna, can I speak to Annalise, please?"
Rihanna handed her unit over to the 'shifter. "It's Elena." Everyone in her circles knew who that was.
"Yes?" Annalise asked.
"Whatever you do," Elena warned, "Avoid trying to brute-force the code stacks. You'll have to finesse them with Verlan strings, and start in the mid-block. This would be impossible if she were any closer to the main influence, but once you cut the connection between her and Gideon, you can clear away the rest like so much scrap."
"OK." Annalise said. "We're moving them to a private place right now."
"Good." Elena said before returning the radio to Jonathan.
Kelora hailed Gideon. "They managed to catch Ian and Liriel, but neither of them are happy campers right now."
|
|
|
Post by elizar on Oct 25, 2009 7:03:57 GMT -5
"I've been listening." Gideon said. "But what the hell though, Ian is a user himself? There's not a shred of talent at either side."
The radio conversation went to smalltalk until both Sandra and Jonathan figured it had stretched too long. Sandra sighed as she closed the connection.
"Your dad's been worried." She said to Ian, but that got no notable reaction from him. He was intent on behaving to a degree.
|
|
|
Post by Evangeline on Oct 26, 2009 1:49:03 GMT -5
"He has a little, from what Elena explained." Kelora answered. "They found a user in Corpus Christi who identified it."
Bree sighed. "He's not going to come along easy."
They were now headed towards the air station, the captain calling ahead and making sure that accommodations were ready.
|
|
|
Post by elizar on Oct 26, 2009 12:37:08 GMT -5
Sandra cast a glance at Bree but stayed silent for now. She wondered if Ian had been telling the truth or had been trying to rile up Bree.
At least today had gone well, even though she felt a bit tired. She hadn't been in action, and while this barely consituted as first, she certainly felt like it was. She went over to Dmitri.
"I just hope that this is just one chance." Gideon said. "Hey, not only do I breed true, but do I have to breed users as well?"
|
|
|
Post by Evangeline on Oct 26, 2009 21:19:20 GMT -5
Dmitri smiled sympathetically as Sandra neared him. "Takes a lot out of you, doesn't it? I've had sea missions which weren't quite as trying, and I'm NOT being facetious."
"Outliers happen." Kelora answered with a shrug. "If it's any comfort, the odds of it happening twice outside known user lines are about one in ten million."
|
|
|
Post by elizar on Oct 27, 2009 6:01:59 GMT -5
"And there wasn't even any flight or fight involved in this mess." Sandra sighed. "Other than the verbal diarrhea that came from Liriel. And I got to wonder what we can do about them. Joanna is an adult, but Ian's not, at least not yet."
Gideon snorted a bit. "I sure hope so." He said. "Not to speak ill of users, but when this thing is over, they're not going to get a pretty reputation."
|
|