Hunting Exorcists: A Real Witch Project [JT, R, Closed]

[Blair Aldaine ❅]

"Huh, neat. Gonna just glaze past why you know how to use plastic explosives, cool? cool. As for the shooting, don't worry about that. Our reflexes are well beyond what normal humans are most of the time, so we should have no trouble outshooting them."

Blair blushed heavily and felt a need to explain anyway. "Uh, well, I mean... Y'know, it's like a hobby! But, um... yeah. Alright. I guess you have a point there about the reflexes, so that sounds good. As long as we can be pretty dodgy, I think that's okay!"

The blonde listened to her partner talk and scooched a bit closer as Dia opened up the map. It was amazing the kinds of things she had access to. Was Blair going to get the same kind of access? Would she obtain similar knowledge over time? That would be pretty cool! Being able to prove herself more useful was only a first step. She was already pretty strong as a normal human, but she didn't even know what she was actually supposed to be. She didn't develop any powers and wasn't sure she ever would. As it stood, she was just a super strong human. All she could do was overpower other humans. If they were faced up against someone like Dia, she was in trouble.

" But uhhhhhh, beyond that I really dunno. We're kinda already escalating past the 'keep an eye on them' phase."

Blair's ears perked up as she quickly looked at Dia. "Well, in most movies that I've seen, people tend to get kind of antsy with their plans when big stuff like what you just did happens. They likely already know someone is on their tail. We won't be able to be discreet for much longer and I think you know that."

She thought for a moment. This was her first mission, too, and she didn't have the element of intimidation on her side like some rumors she's heard about other strong beings. But, of course, what she did have were ideas. And a small desire to impress Dia. They had to figure out a way to save innocent lives and stop the bad guys from winning, but this wasn't as simple as a video game. That part was frustrating. Blair frowned and furrowed her brows. Hmm. For starters, at the very least, they weren't going to make any progress by just sitting around thinking about it. They needed to take some kind of action.

"We can brainstorm a plan, but sometimes it's not always as easy as sticking to one path. We might have to make it up as we go. Are you any good at improv?"

Blair finished picking up her weapons and adorning some of them while putting the rest in a smaller backpack that was also inside the duffel. Jeez. Xcution thought of everything when they needed to prepare their people for missions. That was pretty cool. The backpack was light and actually matched Blair's overall color scheme so she felt like it was made for her. She glanced at another one that was in the duffel that matched Dia but looked a bit different in design, too. It wasn't just the colors that matched. It looked as if Dia had specifically asked what kinds of pockets she wanted on it and everything, given her skills.

"Anyway, my point is that we need to get going. We aren't going to make any progress just sitting here admiring our weapons. We've gotta get back to those people and continue following them. It isn't wise to make a move before we get to their base, I don't think. As we are now, there isn't much opportunity to hide. After that, we can infiltrate and dwindle their numbers."

[Dia Cuir]

Dia frowned just a little as honesty that made it even worse. A hobbey? She just blew shit up for fun? Nope, glazing over, she decided to pretend that she hadn't heard her coworker admit to being an explosives nut (Yeesh maybe she bleonged in this organization after all), and focused at the task at hand. And she......kept her ideas to herself. She had seen a pretty big fifty fifty split. Sometimes the punks she hit while on these jobs panicked and fucked up when things like this happened, but there were also times when they fully expected it, and had plans in place for these kinds of things. But that didn't seem constructive to the conversation.

Dia peered a little at the map as the plan amounted to 'lets wing it' which admittedly worked for her. She holstered both of the sidearms, slipping them under little staps under her armpits, real 90s tv police officer style. The rifle she put into her backpack with her wing. She decided to let Blair carry all the explosives, mainly because she just flat out didn't trust that shit not to randomly go off. She didn't like explosives. "Uhhhhh I'm good at not dying when I don't have a plan." She murmured gently at that, rubbing her chin a bit thoughtfully as she and Blair suited up.

"Well that's what I was thinking. Should we go back to the train? Or head for the base. We dunno if they're still stuck back at the train or not, we might miss em. I think it might be safer to head for the base, or at least some midway between the Train and the base that they'd have to go through, try to cut em off or whatever, you know?" She reasoned thoughtfully as she adjusted the straps on her holsters. BLAP! She almost jumped out of her fucking skin when one of her guns suddenly went off, blowing a hole clean through her jacket and clipping one of the nearby crates, Dia's face looking absolutely spooked ..........

"......oh right.safety...." She murmured, taking a moment to click that on, and then doing the same for the other two weapons, smiling sheepishly and chuckling. "Whoops! Ehehh, I really should take classes on this shit or something when I get back to HQ." She murmured nervously, refastening the holsters and then poking a finger through the hole in her outfit. Whew, talk about close. "OH and uhhhh speaking of safety. If things get....dicey. I may have to....." She waved a hand, thinking of how to phrase it. "Pull my Devil Trigger. So to speak. and uh that kinda burns off my clothes when it happens. So if you see me suddenly starting to strip or something, don't be alarmed. I just don't wanna ruin my duds if I can avoid it." She pointed out.

[Blair Aldaine ❅]

"Well that's what I was thinking. Should we go back to the train? Or head for the base. We dunno if they're still stuck back at the train or not, we might miss em. I think it might be safer to head for the base, or at least some midway between the Train and the base that they'd have to go through, try to cut em off or whatever, you know?"

"Right, totally! The base works. I think if we can just go there to start, then--"

Blair was cut off quickly when she heard a sudden loud noise fire from Dia's holsters. The poor girl jumped probably three feet in the air and squeaked as a result of the sudden sound, but tried to quickly compose herself before the embarrassment set in. She was supposed to be an assassin for Xcution. Why the heck was she so afraid of silly things like that? Stronger people probably weren't afraid of gun shots. In fact, they could probably stop them pretty easily. This was so stupid and Blair knew it. She sighed and rolled her eyes at herself. Oh, well. At least Blair wasn't the only one. Dia also looked pretty freaked out, and that honestly made the blonde feel a little better.

Until Dia explained why she might be stripping in the future. The human looked at her partner somewhat stunned, but shrugged it off and smiled. If that was what needed to happen for them to be saved, then fine. It didn't matter, anyway. They were both women, right? They had the same parts. It would be just fine. At least one of them was able to use their abilities. To Blair's own knowledge, she was just basically stronger than usual, faster than usual, and could sense things that other people couldn't. She was too new at this to have developed any powers and wasn't even completely sure what she was, though she recalled someone telling her once that she was a Fullbringer. Sure, whatever.

"Uh, okay, got it. So like I said, let's head to the base. The instructions we got for this mission had basically every coordinate we'd need, so we can follow that to get there. I don't know about that train, but my guess is everyone who we need to follow already bailed because they figured out they were the ones being targeted."

Blair pulled out her notes that she was given when assigned the mission and glanced over them. The base where they needed to go was north and slightly east from where they were, but honestly not far. It was probably a couple of miles, which makes sense given where the train was headed. They had been close already. Stashing the weapons and tools in this location suddenly made sense, too. That was good! The blonde motioned for her partner to follow as she started walking in the appropriate direction. They would likely pass by the train anyway, it seemed like. Did it make sense to scope that out real quick?

"Unfortunately I don't know of a faster way to get there, but even walking or running won't take us long. Oh, and apparently we're going to pass by the train again? Um, assuming it's where we left it, which I doubt. But we were already close to the base to start with. We can either ignore it or check it out one more time. I don't mind either choice, but I think we need to reach the base sooner rather than later."

[Dia Cuir]

Dia nodded along as Blair made it clear she ...well at least she seemed to be taking some sort of control of the situation. There was a bit of lacking confidence in the girl's voice, but that was probably just because of the gun going off in Dia's holster. Honestly the both of them looked a little armed to the teeth at this point. So it would be probably better if they just went past the train. all the same, it was then that she realized that Blair was already starting to walk, causing the Nakka to quickly catch up and walk alongside her.

"I think we should probably skip out on the train sightseeing. We're not here to lollygag. IF they ARE there, then good, we don't wanna stop and give them a shorter head start in following us. Nor do we wanna....you know....have them see us with all these guns and get suspicious. And if they AREN'T there, we dun wanna waste time we could spend catching up to them." She reasoned, folding her arms as they made their way closerr to the train station.

Of course, Dia did her best to just move on by. But if Blair decided to catch a gander, they would see that they were still working on fixing the door. The rest of the passengers had been evacced out of the side of the train. But from where they were standing. They'd see that the Orphans and the men escorting them, were nowhere to be found. Wether they were still on the train, or if they had already pushed ahead and left was up in the air.

ALL THE SAME, Dia would push to keep going, moving on past the train station and toward the base itself. Or well...the mountain that it was in. But between them and the base was actually the Town itself. Already there were .... a lot of Crowds, and Dia promptly tensed up as she noticed the attention that had been drawn up from er...her little Train Fiasco. it wasn't a STRAIGHT shot through the town to get to the base. But they would kinda have to get somewhat close to it to pass by.

She made.... a sort of worried glance at Blair as they went, a little more nervous about them heading for the base now. "Hey, Blair. Maybe we should have Mike hold some of the more....suspicious looking weapons." She murmured, as those teeth slithered out of the bare air, mouth opening as Dia promptly scooted her rifle into his maw, giving Blair plenty of time to hide a thing or two in there if she wished. Dia of course ...well....not the best with these kinda stealth things. She was visibly peeved that her little stunt with the train had some negative repercussions.

Damn continuity. DAMN IT TO HELL!

[Blair Aldaine ❅]

Unfortunately, Blair wasn't too surprised to see the people they were targeting gone from the train. A bit of a pit formed in her stomach as she gave the train one last look-over, hoping for even the smallest clue so they could investigate what the heck was going on, but nothing gave that information away. A sigh escaped her lips, but she followed Dia's lead. After a short while, Blair noticed Dia tense a bit and placed a hand on her shoulder with reassurance. They were in this together.

"Hey, Blair. Maybe we should have Mike hold some of the more....suspicious looking weapons."

Blair simply nodded and actually handed the jaws her entire backpack. It was rather small, but most of the weapons Blair had were explosives. She managed to sneak a gun into the waistband of her pants and even kept it in its own holster like a professional. She didn't want to keep anything too bulky on her person and the only reason why this worked was because she was wearing a pair of black leggings underneath denim shorts. That, along with her magenta hoodie, would hide things fairly well. She certainly didn't look like she should have weapons.

But she did share the same negative feelings that Dia had about what happened with the train. People noticed these things. It's not like either of them could wipe memories, so as far as they were concerned, they were kind of screwed. The only hope here would be that no one noticed it was actually the two of them. They both looked (and were, sort of) way too young to have successfully pulled off a stunt like this, and they were scuffed up enough from what happened that they also appeared to be victims. With that, hopefully they wouldn't be noticed.

Without much time passing, they managed to make it to the base. Blair was noticeably concerned about what happened with the train but figured it would be best to not bring it up with Dia. Having Mike carry their weapons was freaking awesome because it meant Blair wouldn't have to drag around a heavy backpack or risk setting something off by accident. She had a tendency to be trigger happy when it came to bombs. She didn't actually remember when she picked up an interest in these things, but the knowledge was useful.

"Okay, cool. We're here. So ignoring the train, I don't think anyone knew it was us, exactly." The girl was speaking softly. "This is it, though. I don't see anyone outside, so maybe that means they're all in there. We gotta go get these kids."

[Dia Cuir]

Dia nodded along as they moved past the town, Mike was making comments about having to taste the guns, but this was not the time to be too worried about that. And before long, they were at the base. The place built into the mountain, the air already getting cold, snow starting to fall in small little flurries as she stood beside Blair, eyeing the entrance. She felt...apprehension. Something deep inside of her felt anxious at whatever it was she was seeing.

Mike peeled out of the subspace and spit out their stuff, Dia taking a moment to retrieve the weapons, furrowing her brows a bit and then looking up and inside. "Blair. Before we go in here. I just want you to brace yourself. I got a bad feeling about all this." She murmured softly, pulling out a pistol and then popping the safety off, checking the chamber and then nodding to the doors. Once Blair was ready, they would approach the entrance, and Mike would make short work of it. Gouging the door from the wall, and prying it open.

But rather than alarms and guards, there was just...an empty hallway. Dia blinked, surprised more than anything else. Wasn't this place like a high security spot? She glanced at Blair, no doubt as confused as she was. She would slowly move in, keeping her eyes peeled for any ...issues. But there wasn't anything. Just cold, unlit hallways, the air fogged by their breath as it would be quite a while before they were able to see anything. The hallway turned for a bit, and then there was a set of stairs, and right nect to those stairs was a doorway, two big double doors, and a small sign next to it.

On closer inspection, the label would read 'Barracks'. Was this for the orphans? or the guards? Dia glanced at Blair for a moment and nodded toward the sign next to the dor. This was potentially where they would find those orphans. Right? All the same, they'd have to be careful. "Hold on." She whispered, closing her eyes. Blair wouldn't be awar that Mike was scoping out the room for them, checking what was inside.

"...What?" she blinked, furrowing her brows. She didn't elaborate, she just bolted to the door and just shoved it open, pushing the doors open, barging in, and then staring a little. Inside, they would see....racks. Racks and racks and racks, of some sort of canisters? They looked very much like some sort of ...claymore? Bbut they weren't marked as explosives, and hat caps on the top.

She frowned, not sure what she was looking at? "Nothing....or...whatever these are. Supplies maybe?" She glanced at Blair and furrowed her brows. "The kids aren't here.... what do you think? Should we trash the place and move on? OR should we come back later and steal it?" She asked softly, looking to her partner as she kept her gun up, peeking out and down the stairwell.

[Blair Aldaine ❅]

Blair was just not going to get used to a random mouth appearing out of nowhere. She thought the power was pretty cool and certainly wasn't going to complain since it was extremely convenient, but it made her jump almost every single time it popped up. The girl made a mental note to try to calm down more so that she could handle her own surprise, though she didn't feel all too confident. Still, despite the startle, Blair picked up her chosen weapons and dressed herself with them.

"Blair. Before we go in here. I just want you to brace yourself. I got a bad feeling about all this."

She frowned as she looked over at Dia, obvious concern washing over her features. Between the two of them, Dia was more powerful. Blair only knew what she was supposed to be but had no idea about what she could actually do. It sucked, yes, but she tried to make the most out of it, regardless. For Dia to be this worried about something meant it was serious, though. Blair's stomach started to feel like it was tossing itself around.

One thing that she had to admit was nice about Mike was that he could do things the two of them couldn't even wish to do at their present state. Pushing the negative feelings out of the way for the time being, Blair watched as Mike all but destroyed the door, giving the three of them a chance to enter the facility. She started growing anxious again as they walked through the entryway, though the anxiety was quickly replaced with shock when she realized no one was coming for them.

Dia and Blair exchanged a glance, both definitely confused, but Blair was somewhat thankful. Having to fight off a group of dangerous people right off the bat was going to be extremely difficult for the two of them, and she had to admit that she wasn't looking forward to it. With an eyebrow cocked, Blair glanced around where they stood and did her best to find any semblance of security, yet saw nothing. There was no one around that she could even remotely pretend she saw.

All she could do was follow Dia and see if anything popped up on her end. As soon as she noticed the sign, she squinted with suspicion and reached forward, thinking she could simply open the door if no one was around. Even though she didn't like the fact that they were so alone, she appreciated it. Again, what were they supposed to do? Fight off an entire army? No way. So why not take advantage of the situation and look around on their own?

"Hold on."

Blair stopped suddenly. She watched Dia's reactions but was more confused than ever. She had no idea what Dia was seeing and wasn't sure how to ask, especially since she was doing her best to stay quiet and calm herself down. But as soon as her partner barged into the room, a small shriek escaped the human's lips. She covered her mouth and walked in slowly after Dia, taking in whatever that room held. She tried being as cautious as possible, though curiosity was getting the better of her.

It really was odd. These were certainly supplies but Blair didn't know what they could possibly be used for. Her brows were furrowed, as well, and she turned around to get a better look. After walking a few steps here and there, doing her best to figure out what everything was, she came to what she thought was a somewhat smart conclusion. Even if not very smart, it might help them in the long run. Blair walked back over to Dia and spoke quietly.

"Let's come back for them. If we try to trash them now, people will hear us even more so than they already have. I just get this weird gut feeling that they're almost letting us in to try to find them. I don't know. I could be wrong, but doesn't it feel like they're watching us?"

Paranoia was setting in fairly quickly. Normally, in situations like this, the enemy was always close by and was just allowing passage through their lair. She took Dia's arm and pulled her away, leading her back into the hallway. After glancing around to see if the coast was clear, Blair all but dragged Dia with her down the hallway, twitching her ears in response to any sound. She didn't have supersonic hearing or anything crazy, but she had decent senses. All she was trying to do was make sure no one was following them too closely.

"For now, we gotta go deeper into this place. I bet they're keeping the orphans in some kind of dungeon or something crazy and video game-y like that."

[Dia Cuir]

Dia paused for a moment and looked around as Blair brought it up. And she was....unsure. If they were watching them....what exactly were they waiting for? She looked at the containers long and hard, before ultimately nodding and stepping back outside and into the hallway, letting blair lead her as they went, bringing up her sidearm as they started walking again, leading deeper and deeper into the facility. Blair was right, of course, but it still felt so....off. "You're right, we gotta try and find those kids..." she murmured.

It was hard but...eventually the two of them and Mike made their way deeper into the facility. the air growing.....colder. More Damp. Down down down they went, deeper and deeper into the Mountains, where only the dull lights in the ceiling allowed them to see where they were going. And as they got deeper, a smell started to fill the air. Something......like death. Or similar. a preservative. The smell of something like a taxidermied animal. Until at long last they didn't even come up to a door. Just an opening in the hallway in front of them, as it spilled out into some large, massive room. Dark, with the lighting coming from deep green lighting that came from the door below, tinging everything that slight color.

It was hard to see, but for Blair it would be significantly easier. It was some sort of Laboratory. One that reeked. But there were two individuals that could be seen. And blair probably recognized one of them. One of the two men that had been at the train. He was at a table, working on what could only be described as a mess. Blood. flesh, muscle, and bone. Whatever it was, it was being taken apart, dissected for some strange purpose. Though if focused on, it would be clear that what it was had small, very human features. even though it was missing limbs, and various other parts of itself.

And of course, was the thing in the very center. A man. Wearing what looked like some sort of armored suit. Mechanical in nature, and with those familiar containers they had seen before, locked into slots on it's back. The helmet was climpletely closed, save for a single glowing green line down the center that seemed to allow the person inside to see. And as the two women entered the room, Dia found herself furrowing her brows at the darkness, unable to see anything. She didn't even know about the two men until the thing in the very center suddenly spoke up. Voice modulated slightly by the suit he wore.

"Ahhh. At long last. Visitors! This is perfect perfect! Oh you have no idea how hard it is to find subjects. How hard it is to test these things." He said softly, almost earnestly. He smiled up at them, even as the other man suddenly jolted when he noticed blair and Dia as well, and dropping what he was doing, he bolted, running for the other side of the room in a panic, panting just a little as he did so. Clearly he didn't want to be involved in this confrontation as he bolted deeper into the facility. All the while the man in the middle slowly stepped toward the two women from his position. The whole lab was sortof caved into the floor. As if several floors had been combined into one singular lab. And Dia and Blair stood at the very top of a ring around the main lab that was just a bit below them. As such, the man was looking up at them as he walked.

"You have no idea how worried I was. The children you see. I worried some of them would never get to see the light of day. It's so depressing in this place. So really, I'm so happy. Finally we'll have someone to keep them company. for them to finally play with. Ah..." he paused as if he had heard something. He looked over his shoulder, looking at something that didn't seem to be there. "Ah. what was that Ria? Ohohoho... my dear..." He chuckled, his voice deep and compassionate before he turned an dlooked to the two women. "Ria says she loves your hair. and I quite agree with her." He chuckled, and resumed walking toward the pair.

Running Man's Speed: 45

[Blair Aldaine ❅]

Blair was so blindly following Dia that she didn't notice where the two of them had ended up. She was doing her best to ignore their surroundings despite attempting to keep an eye open for danger. She didn't like what she heard, saw, or smelled. All of it was overwhelmingly awful and she felt herself start to hope this would end quickly. They had been tracking these people for what felt like forever and she was growing tired. Blair knew they wouldn't be able to rest until their mission was complete, but this was a lot for a newbie.

Soon enough, they reached a lab. Blair sniffed the air around them and immediately recoiled, absolutely hating what it was she smelled. The scent acted as a guide for her eyes and she eventually saw what it was that made her gag so much. Something that resembled butchered meat was strewn across the table, and it would have distracted the girl completely if it weren't for the sudden motion she noticed. Two men were in the room, and one was standing near the mess of whatever it was. The other was housed inside some kind of mechanized suit. Reflexively, she braced herself.

"Ahhh. At long last. Visitors! This is perfect, perfect! Oh you have no idea how hard it is to find subjects. How hard it is to test these things."

Blair growled and narrowed her eyes. The other man started to run away, and the blonde hoped it was out of fear since she and Dia had arrived. She didn't think either of them looked particularly intimidating at first glance, but you never knew. They did give off a spiritual presence, so who knew how it would feel to other people? Maybe it was obvious that they had something going on even if they weren't completely in-tune with their powers yet. Unfortunately, the other man didn't act the same way. Whether it was because of his suit or some other reason, he seemed all-too confident in his abilities.

He kept speaking to the two women, sounding more and more psychotic with each word. Blair couldn't stop herself from trembling a bit as she tried to come to terms with their situation. The way she saw it, the only one who stood a chance against this guy was Dia. Blair wasn't going to be able to take down a mechanized man. She wasn't strong enough. She was quick, but she had no powers. And besides all of that, what was he talking about? He was acting like these kids were like mutants or something. Any movie Blair had ever seen told her that once a dude starts talking like this, he'd introduce the protagonists to his horde of mini-creatures that used to be regular people.

"What have you done with them? Where are they?" Blair spoke but took a few steps back as she did so.

Blair reached into the side pocket of her backpack and grabbed a sticky bomb. This thing was one of her favorites. She just needed a blasting cap and then everything would be good. She wasn't too worried about her aim, and she was rather light on her feet, so sticking something like this to that guy's armor wouldn't be too difficult, she assumed. But she also couldn't be anywhere near him when it explodes or else she'd get caught in the fire, too. For now, she kept it behind her back and stepped closer to Dia.

[Col Arana]

136 paragraph count; 680 TP to both participants