[SgtBoomCloud]

"Tuskers?" He grins with his lips really wide and says, "Pffffft! You wish you had some tusks like these."

She allowed herself to grin, the comedic antics of the ork helping put her at ease.  "Tch, perhaps I do~" She offered a wink into the mirror, sporting the closest thing a breeder could come to an orkish smirk.  She rounded a corner, a puddle splashed by her tires in a light spray as she got her bearings, checking the AR nav-map, bobbing her head to unheard music in the quiet night.

[Triskavanski]

Masqerade gagged, choking as she began to stir again after being pulled into the car. Quickly she worked her raven mask off off her face, vomit and sweat caked inside, the poor lass trying to clean off her face with as much dignity as she could. "Its time.. for you to... pay your debts.." she mutters, gasping for the semi-freshish air. "Why.. where.. you there so soon?"

[SgtBoomCloud]

Blinking, Arc glanced sidelong at the stirring female in her passenger seat, wincing and rubbing at her implants again.  It was way late, she never stayed up so late, and working her cybereyes that long always led to aggravation at the implants.  Shaking it off, her nostrils flared as the smell of sweat and vomit mixture passed over her.  "Whuu...dammn..."  Another puff of her cigarette, and it was done, the girl flicking the butt out the window.

"Its time.. for you to... pay your debts.." Masquerade mutters, gasping for the semi-freshish air. "Why.. were.. you there so soon?"

She raised a brow, smirk dropping slightly.  Riight...I forgot how mysterious this chick liked to talk.  Still, she's speaking chip truth, I owe her a drekton.  Clearing her throat, she gave a nod, gesturing with her head to the ork offering her a cigarette.  "Coincidence, really.  Duck here has kin missing, we were looking.  Ran into the same fraggin' monstrosity once before running into you.  If I didn't know any better, I'd say you freaked out as bad as our boy 'Rack back there.  So what's it you need Raven?  Y'all aint spoke to me in near two years, why now?"  The girl sounded curious and puzzled, though the distraction helped calm her a bit.  Passengers may be thankful for that.

[SnowDragon]

Arachnid sort of cringed for her to see in the rear vision mirror, looking a little chastised, rubbing the back of his head. Other hand slipping the weapon back into the holster, safed for now, leaning up and back in that strange, uncomfortably arched way to get it into place, clipping it into place with a soft click. "Sorry 'bout that, my good lady... I guess... it just never came up?" Spirits that was a poor, terrible excuse. It wasn't like Arc had ever been shot before while he was around, so he'd never needed to ready a spell while she'd been around. And the two topics had just avoided each other without really trying or intending to do so. Then, her introduction of the girl, Raven. "A pleasure,"

He turned his head to Duck next, while casting a look out the back window. "Two magazines left, 28 rounds," A short pause, to take a slow, calming breath, and trying to speak for the relief of all those in the car as well. "I don't sense it near us anymore. We're clear, for a short while at least."

[ismilealot]

@ Khali There is Wolf's call again, howling into the night. Calling the pack, Calling the Hunt. Racing towards that thing in the street. That thing turns towards you as Wolf leaps. And for a moment you see it's smile. Even in outline the evil of that malevolent grin is clear. And then it disappears. There's nothing. No outline, no thermo, no nothing in the street where it was. Nothing anywhere. . . . . Wait . . . . that's not quite right. There is something. There. Up against the building just a block down from where you are now. The thermal signature is cooling rapidly. But, it can't cool quickly enough for you not to recognize bodies pinned against the walls. Four of them. And one of them is either a very small dwarf . . . or a child . . . 

@ Red  As you chase after Khali you see it for a moment. A creature like some bad fantasy monster from a game. But, this is no game. And that thing isn't going to go away if you hit escape. And when it turns and grins at you, you see evil. Not the anger of a ganger, or the ravings of drug withdrawal, or the petty bullying that goes on everywhere around the world, but true evil. And it smiles, limned in some kind of white dust. And then disappears. Her concentration isn't so focused on it that she can't see the body hanging on the wall and swerves to avoid bumping it.
 
@ Arc, Masquerade, Arachnid & Duckdown  You fly down the road away from that thing. And there is absolutely nothing on the roads to slow you down for several minutes.

@ Feathers  The KE detective looks at you again. You can almost see him decide that he'd rather take a chance that you might, just might, actually have some real info for him and he stops and looks at the crowd. "I'll give you 5 min's after we wrap up here. I think you're jerking me around and I'll arrest ya' for obstruction. Got it?" It takes about 30 min's for them to finish up. But true to his word he steps towards you when they're done. "Ok, whatcha got."

[Triskavanski]

"Because, you're the one that owes me the most.. but it seems we might be mutually in this one together." the young.. person sighed. It was hard to place her race and gender. Like something of a cross between a human female and a male elf. "I don't know what that thing is... but my own abilities are going to be pretty useless against it. I think I'm marked by it."

She sighed and looked behind her now to the others. "If we could call it that. If anything this seems far from pleasurable for any of us."

[Landmine]

@ Khali There is Wolf's call again, howling into the night. Calling the pack, Calling the Hunt. Racing towards that thing in the street. That thing turns towards you as Wolf leaps. And for a moment you see it's smile. Even in outline the evil of that malevolent grin is clear. And then it disappears. There's nothing. No outline, no thermo, no nothing in the street where it was. Nothing anywhere. . . . . Wait . . . . that's not quite right. There is something. There. Up against the building just a block down from where you are now. The thermal signature is cooling rapidly. But, it can't cool quickly enough for you not to recognize bodies pinned against the walls. Four of them. And one of them is either a very small dwarf . . . or a child . . . 

Khali skids to a stop as the thing disappears, the shock of the surrounding bodies is enough to jar her loose from Wolf's influence.  She gets the familiar feeling of coming down from the adrenaline-like rush of Wolf's presence [Drain: 10d6t5 4 No Drain]

As she looks at the bodies she turns to Red, "This is bad. We should get back to the warehouse." Khali snaps quick pictures of the victims with her image link she before heading back.

[Csjarrat]

i wouldnt wrap up here until magic squad have been down.
Feathers waits around diligently until the officer is free, following him to a slightly less tense area.
look, I know you're a busy man so I'll make it quick: this crime scene is littered with the traces of magic, and not the lovely friendly kind. Whoever did this is one sick son of a bitch, a blood mage or someone utilising blood magic rituals.you need to get your magical misuse boys down here whilst the traces are still viable.

[ismilealot]

@ Feathers  The officer looks at you and his voice intensifies, "Blood Magic! That's illega....!" He stops and thinks long and hard "I'll call the boys. But it'll be hard to get 'em down. I've already had 'em to a couple of these scenes. They say the smell of vomit down here in the sprawl is so strong they can't work in it at all. But I'll try." He speaks into his comm. >>Hold up boys. I'm gonna try & get the muck it with magic guys down here again before we close up shop. I'll buy you all a 'kaf afterwards for the wait..<< You hear an indistinct response.  >>Yeah, yeah Perretti I know, a beer for you. Think your mama had beer in her tits.<< Out of the corner of your eyes you can see the officers laughing at their detectives answer.
      He makes a call. You can hear him talking, and then arguing. And then he comes back to you. "They're coming. But it'll take awhile. Say they don't have anyone qualified to ID that. But I've gotta move onto a double homicide. They don't need me for their mumbo-jumbo anyway" and he shakes his head in consternation. "If it's a blood mage every ganger with a gun will be down here from all over the world trying to bag it and make the cred. There won't be anything left alive in this sprawl inside a week." He walks away then.

[SgtBoomCloud]

Arc raised a brow, giving a brief nod towards Arachnid.  "Null sweat, omae, I just wasn't expecting it, ya heard?  Forward me your address and I'll hook you up". Rubbing her eyes, she glanced once again at Raven.  "tch...fair enough, though you sure as he'll got funny timin' with it.  Aight, I gotta take care of these guys and then deactivate for a few hours.  Eyes are flarin' up.  Need me to drop ya somewhere?"

In the back of her mind, she felt a little guilty of running off the way she did, taking them all with, knowing that Duck was likely tearing up his insides over his tiny niece.  She took one glance back at the ork to check on him, and it wasn't long before they arrived at the drop-off point.  "hoi, Duck..." she spoke up a little more quietly than one might expect from her.  Upon receiving her next point if destination, she bit her lip.  "...do what you can to comfort Zip, and don't let her kill you, aye?  I'm gonna take one more pass through that area on the way to Rack's, in the car this time.  If I see anything, you'll be first to know." if nothing further was said, she held out a fist to bump, winking before zooming off.  She kept her speed slow enough to avoid KE radar, but fast enough to make good time, passing through the industrial and warehouse district before too long, the sound of her engine cutting the heavy silence.

[Csjarrat]

Feathers nodded and spoke before the officer left, noting the name "peretti" on his notepad app.
that stench is what blood magic smells like, it's the taint it leaves behind.
Officer, if this stench is present elsewhere, you'll be seeing a lot more of these homicides.
I'll call if I find out anything more of use, have a good day.

Noting the delay, feathers didn't have much confidence that the already weak signatures would fade further.
Taking a chance, he reached into the astral, summoning forth an aid to search the astral on these poor victim's behalf.
Please, stay on the astral so as not to alarm these scared folk further. the taint of blood magic remains in this area, please help us to track down the practitioner. If you can get a location and a description the victims may just see the justice they deserve

[Tamesh]

Khali skids to a stop as the thing disappears, the shock of the surrounding bodies is enough to jar her loose from Wolf's influence.  She gets the familiar feeling of coming down from the adrenaline-like rush of Wolf's presence [Drain: 10d6t5 4 No Drain]

As she looks at the bodies she turns to Red, "This is bad. We should get back to the warehouse." Khali snaps quick pictures of the victims with her image link she before heading back.

Red nods, but doesn't say anything. She's seen all sorts of metahumans doing all kinds of awful drek for all kinds of awful reasons. But this thing, this straight up unnatural... Whatever, has her more than a little out of her comfort zone. She reviews the footage on her glasses, trying to confirm to herself what she saw was actually there... If it shows up on the footage at all.

She's right behind Khali the whole time, keeping an eye out for any more of the thing.

[Landmine]

Red nods, but doesn't say anything. She's seen all sorts of metahumans doing all kinds of awful drek for all kinds of awful reasons. But this thing, this straight up unnatural... Whatever, has her more than a little out of her comfort zone. She reviews the footage on her glasses, trying to confirm to herself what she saw was actually there... If it shows up on the footage at all.

She's right behind Khali the whole time, keeping an eye out for any more of the thing.

Khali checks the pictures to make sure that she doesn't know any of the victims. As they head back, Khali discusses what happened with Red.

"This is... not just bad. This is drek like I've never seen, even growing up around mages. Normal mages can't do this kind of thing, even the creepy ones. Whatever this serial killer is, it's much, much worse than anyone suspects. We're out of our league here, chummer. But I don't think we can duck it. This drek is going to keep happening. We need a battle plan."

[Poindexter]

The smell of puke in the cramped car is starting to get out of hand and the tall lanky ork knows it's still another 5 ot 6 minutes stuck in here before they reach the ARO Zipline had sent him a minute ago. To help counter the horrible stench, Duckdown starts rolling up another spliff. As he does, he can feel Arc's eyes on him through the rearview mirror. He briefly looks up to meet her gaze and give her the "Cobain" smile again as he licks the paper to finish it off. He lights it and passes it once around the car to anyone who wants some before hitting it himself, just as the car comes to a stop. He pops open the door, letting smoke billow out into the night sky and steps out into the city air, still holding half the spliff in one hand. Pixie puke is one of the most horrible smelling things ever. I far prefer the standard stench of poverty that the city air has all on its own. He can see Zipline walking up the street toward him, black rings of sleep deprivation around her eyes as she does, but no Melinda in tow. Arc must see the look on her face as well, cause she rolls down the window and says

"hoi, Duck... Do what you can to comfort Zip, and don't let her kill you, aye?  I'm gonna take one more pass through that area on the way to Rack's, in the car this time.  If I see anything, you'll be first to know."

"Wiz. One love, Skraacha. If you or 'Rack need anything, holler at me." He walks away from the car toward Zipline. He passes her the spliff and the two of them exchange a few words too quietly for Arc to hear over the commotion in her car, but she can tell what it's about when the big tough leather clad gang girl collapses sobbing in Ducks arms. The spikes from her riding gear are clearly cutting into ducks flesh in a couple places, but he doesn't protest. He just holds her and lets her cry, there in streetlight.

[Tamesh]

Khali checks the pictures to make sure that she doesn't know any of the victims. As they head back, Khali discusses what happened with Red.

"This is... not just bad. This is drek like I've never seen, even growing up around mages. Normal mages can't do this kind of thing, even the creepy ones. Whatever this serial killer is, it's much, much worse than anyone suspects. We're out of our league here, chummer. But I don't think we can duck it. This drek is going to keep happening. We need a battle plan."

Red is quiet for a few moments, mulling over Khali's words. "I'll be honest, I don't even know where to begin with something like that. I deal with the metahuman element. Whatever that was is so far out of my element it's insane."

She pauses for a while, but when she speaks again she sounds a little more collected, the initial shock beginning to wear down. I guess I could get talking to some talismongers or something, see if they've heard anything about critters or spirits or something on the loose. Someone has to know something."