Witch Hunt: IC, The power of Magic corrupts completely. Options

[2bit]

"Sasha Yarr, Emergent Cryonics HR rep. A pleasure." She extends her hand. You can tell by the way her smile drops that your nervous demeanor is putting her off. "Yes - Mr. Jessie Reynolds will be with us shortly. I have a guest badge for you. Mr. Reynolds will escort you upstairs."

[yoippari]

<[HR] to Team> "I'll see what I can do. If you have high enough clearance it should be fairly easy."

High Rise sets Orion's node as a proxie node and checks his access levels against the Emergent node trying to gain legit access.

[Glyph]

Null manages to pull himself together enough to politely shake the woman's hand and thank her, although his cold, clammy handshake is not likely to reignite her friendliness. He's used to that reaction, though. At least it's slightly better than the equally common "fixed, frightened smile while edging away as quickly as politeness allows" reaction.

[Cakeman]

Monday, March 10, ca 08:00 Mr Reynolds Room, Emergent Cryonics, West Seattle

"Anything like this ever happened here before?" Orion asks Malcolm without looking up. He's busy with his comlink, answering questions the VirtuaDocâ„¢ wants to know while following instructions given. He opens Malleus shirt, tearing the last button away when he fumbles with it and then places some electrodes, correcting them when the kit says so.

Everyone already thinks this is the mages handiwork. Can it be confirmed? Malcolm is sure of it anyway and he looks terrified to boot. There! Now let's see what this thing says... c'mon Malleus! It'd be bad if we lost a member without even identifying the suspect. I wont be able to carry a body out discreetly either.

[2bit]

Monday, March 10, 08:00 The Van down the street from Emergent Cryonics, West Seattle
High Rise

You hijack Orion's commlink, careful not to get in the way of his medkit operation. The access is good; it's definitely what you would call a security level account. It has limits, though, as you immediately discover: accessing the building's security requires finger- and voice-print authorization, and must be done while logged into a "level-3 or higher" terminal, whatever that means. There may have been instructions given to Malleus and Orion that you missed.

You can call up a building map for areas Orion's badge gives him access to, find out who sits where, see other users logged into the system, send email, start a phone call, order lunch from downstairs, and probably plenty of other things I haven't thought of.

Monday, March 10, 08:01 Emergent Cryonics Lobby, West Seattle
Null

There's a brief awkward silence between you and Sasha but her socialite instincts kick in. "So, your associates mentioned you were here for something about Magician Registration Act compliance? That must be interesting work. How do you do that?"

** You have to squirm a little longer!! You'll need to say something - but, one minute later. . . **

Jessie Reynolds emerges from the guts of the office building at a brisk pace, walking past the security desk. He is visibly rushed, and has fallen into some nervous joking behavior. "Good morning! I apologize for not being down here sooner, but, you know. .". He rolls his eyes and makes a gesture pointing upward and shrugging - apparently that's supposed to be a universal sign for something. "That's how it goes, if you follow. Heh."
Sasha just looks at him, trying to hide a quizzical expression.

Jessie looks back and forth between the two of you, saying, "Well, yes. Sasha, you have a guest badge for, ah... the gentleman, yes?"
"Yes, I have Jake Styles's guest badge right here."
"Ah - Thank you. Please follow me, Mr. Styles ah, this way."
The two of you walk up to Sid Geiger at the security desk. Sasha walks away wordlessly.
"Hello, Sid, good morning. Jake Styles from Oracle Consulting. He'll just be using a guest badge until we set him up with a Contractor one, okay?" says Jessie, his nerves surfacing.
Behind the security desk, Sid picks up on this a bit, but is more concerned with retrieving his guest entry protocols. "I need your SIN and your badge number, sir."

??????, ????? ??, ??: ?? ??? ?????????
Malleus

[ Spoiler ]

You are standing in darkness. Far away, you hear a pleasant echoing beep, like a soft sonar ping, over and over. It seeks something. When you try to discern the source of the sound, you realize it's coming from behind you. Turning around, you see a hospital bed. The sound is a heart monitor, steady and slow. In the bed is your sister Lab - motionless - deep in her coma. Her head is unbandaged, undamaged; she looks perfect.
Wake up, Lab. . . you think to yourself.
"You wake up. . ." responds her voice, though her prone form remains motionless.

. . .

"Wake up." she repeats, more insistently.

A stench fills your nose. An animal stench. You know exactly what it belongs to.

"WAKE UP!" She's shouting now, angry. Lab, the bed, the soft ping, all fade into darkness. All that remains is the stench.

A shiver runs up your spine. A hot breath hits the back of your neck, and you are gripped with terror. Suddenly, you're hit hard by an enormous mangy paw and thrown to the ground. The Beast, a rabid pit bull, leaps atop you, barking, slathering, lips curled far back, eyes bloodshot, raining saliva and filth down on you, shaken from its fur. Its weight is crushing - you can't breathe. It barks and snarls madly. The Beast lunges for your throat and clamps down HARD. Something pops.

"WAKE UP!"

Monday, March 10, 08:02 Mr Reynolds office, Emergent Cryonics
Orion and Malleus


"Wake up, Mr. Dawson. . . come on, wake up."
<[VirtuaDoc] "Was the patient responsive?">
<[Orion] No.>
<[VirtuaDoc] "Try again. This time, using a firm, authoritative tone of voice."

Malcolm has tried to make himself useful by peering through the blinds at the fog. "Hey, check it out. . . I think I see the sun."

Malleus's heart rate spikes and he bolts upright, gasping for air. He is awake.

[imperialus]

As Malleus bolts upright his left arm shoots out and grasps Orion by the throat. He shouts something unintelligible as he pushes Orion onto his back, straddles his chest and draws his right hand back to punch him in the face. He’s staring right at him but seeing something else entirely. As Orion winces in anticipation of the blow and raises an arm to fend it off Malleus’s eyes suddenly clear and a look of confusion takes place of the anger and fear that was there a second ago. He slumps back into a kneeling position and touches his fingers to the blood coming out of his nose.

“What… What just happened? What’s going on?�

Malleus then winces and clutches at his left arm, he slowly pulls the shirtsleeve back revealing a latticework of scars crisscrossing his forarm, they are red and inflamed as if they are still healing, not only that but there appears to be a thin sheen of ichor on them. It's odd, you remember seeing them yesterday however, Malleus had been wearing a short sleeved shirt and they looked to be several years old at least then, now it looks like he was injured a month or two ago. He quickly rolls he sleeve back down and slowly stands up. He makes his way over to the nearest chair and after sitting down for a moment or two and a glass of water he seems to have regained much of his composure. He’s still rather shaky however and his eyes have a slightly haunted look.

As Orion begins to explain what happened, Malleus glances out the window. He interrupts when someone suggests that the mage must have done something.
“No… I don’t think so, at least not directly… I’ve had spells cast on me before, this was different… More of an attack… Something was here… You say I came too as soon as the sun came up? That suggests a spirit, not a mage. Spirits are usually only bound to the world until sunup… That means that whoever summoned it was expecting us… expecting me… Mr. Reynolds, Malcom could you leave us for a moment? I need to discuss something with Harry.

If Reynolds and Malcom leave Malleus dials Alfred Ancients number into his comm. After Alfred picks up Malleus links him into the rest of the teams comm’s. His voice is still remarkably calm however considering what just happened to him.

<<Hello Sir? This is Malleus.>>

<<Malleus, I wasn’t expecting to hear from you so soon. I can’t imagine you’ve solved everything have you?>>

<<No, we havn’t, the mage knows we’re here though, I was just attacked. It looked like… Felt like… Lab’s favorite spirit, only after she was corrupted. Lab was there too... Warning me, forcing me to wake up. I don't know for sure Sir, but I think we’re dealing with a Toxic, and I think whoever it is knows who I am. I need some advice as to how we should proceed.>>

[2bit]

Monday, March 10, 08:05 Mr Reynolds office, Emergent Cryonics
Orion, Malleus, and Null

As Malcolm leaves the room, Jessie Reynolds and Null reach the office.

[imperialus]

Malleus's voice suddenly takes on a very hard, almost cruel edge.

<<Definatly Sir. Can I kill the bastard?>>

[2bit]

<[Alfred] You don't need the permission of an old man for that, son. >

[yoippari]

<[HR] to Orion> "To get to the cameras I need a finger and voice print at a level 3 security terminal. It says you have that access but you need to physically log in."

[Cakeman]

Orion rises from the floor slowly, after Malleus sudden awakening and recent violent behaviour. "No problem, I'm fine..." he says silently but he notices that Malleus is preoccupied with a comcall and soon thereafter he get's the tap and listens to the conversation with Alfred.

He checks the medkit just to have its opinion but it wasn't connected long enough (or properly) to get any reading. Well he seems okay enough, I'll take his word for it. But what was the rest about there? The medkit is put into order in no time, and then:

[Glyph]

Null follows Jessie with palpable relief. Hunting a dangerous rogue mage - that's something he's more at home with. He pauses slightly when the commcall gets routed to him. He smiles approvingly at Malleus's understandable anger, but his smile wilts a bit at Orion's rejoinder.

Well, mine not to agree or disagree. Mine to be part of the team. And the team must function smoothly, yes? But perhaps this one will be difficult. Extreme measures may be required. Oh yes, extreme measures.

He turns to Jessie, who is looking slightly puzzled, with a smile that is meant to be reassuring. "I have received word that my associate has recovered."

As they enter the office, Null nods at his teammates, then peers at the blinds. "Interesting. The sun shows up, and this malevolent spirit flees. A respite, but I fear it will be... a brief one." But his tone is one of pleased anticipation, as if he welcomes a confrontation.

[2bit]

"Good. . . great. That's good news." Jessie opens the office door, and, seeing everyone inside, says, "It's five past eight, and I really have work to do. Malcolm can show you to the office we've set up. I'm sorry to be. . ." he smirks, "kicking you out of my office like this, but, you've got a job, I've got a job." Looking at Malleus's hardened expression, his face droops a bit. "I'm sorry, is - is everything ok now?"

** when Malcolm shows you to the office **

The office they've set up for you is a windowless unit in the interior of the building about 3 meters deep and 2 meters wide. Unlike all the other offices you've seen so far, it doesn't feature a floor-to-ceiling adjustable opacity window next to the door, making you think it's probably retrofitted storage space. Inside is a classic, ergonomic work desk system with AR terminal, input ports, function lamp, and utility drawers. The desk faces the door, and there's just enough room for one human or elf to walk behind it comfortably. A fully loaded, black office chair is wheeled up behind it - the kind with ten or more different fully customizable comfort parameters, including presets: Stress Lift, Productivity Maximizer, etc.

[imperialus]

Upon seeing Jessie's expression Malleus smiles reasureingly. Not to worry, I'm fine. A little shaken up is all. I just hate it when they pull drek like that.

<<Don't worry Orion... I spoke somewhat rashly... I've had... issues with toxics before. As for Lab she was my sister, and the reason I joined the Sons. A run in with a toxic ended up getting her killed*... It's a long story. I'll tell you over a beer sometime.

After being escorted into the office Malleus smiles and says "This should do nicely. Lets get this show on the road ok. If you could call the first employee in I'd appriciate it."

[ Spoiler ]

*So Vader did kill your father, from a cirten point of view