Meleck

Thick as Thieves

Alexa smiled at his hatred of the gun. “It is a mage killer,” she finally said.

To the language question, “Most trained mages learn a few languages. It helps with the swearing around young children.” She said with a chuckle. Languages were one of the things she was good at. Reading and research was another. You know the things that pay well. Thank you Google.

“I want to keep the I’m out of town cover,” she smile hating this. Her current boyfriend. “Yeah, it would be good to know who and how,” she continued.

She doubted Tom and his friends would have found her that quick. That meant the cops or a different group was either trying to hire them or the thumb drive was more important to someone other than their employer. They could make two copies. She had her laptop.

She took two cups out of her bad, a bottle of water and instant coffee. She put bags of coffee in the cup poured in the water and started it boiling with a little spell. She walked over and picked up the gun and slid it back into the holster. She half expected him to give her crap for not grabbing the ammo. It had 5 rounds in the clip. Unlike Rohaan who could spit fire, grow claws, and bash skulls, she did not have those abilities. Also combat casting wasn’t her strong suite. So she would mind the gun that could to stop a fellow mage.

“Coffee first, if it is my family, don’t kill them,” she said. He helper disappeared as the sun rose having ate the rest of her cold pizza.

Thick as Thieves

Alexandra Eileen Scott

---

Just at the start of dusk, Alexandra sat up and scribed a circle and pentagram in chalk on a board. With a fairly elaborate chant she conjured up a little being about the size of a softball. The light danced off its skin and colors of red, orange and purple. “Get my staff and my jump bag.” She said.
“Payment?” It asked. She looked around. “Pizza,” she replied and it vanished.

The impish being was not demonic though it looked like a little demon. It was a manifestation of a helper spirit that she created. Since it was hers it could cross into her apartment and get things. Before sunrise, it reappeared looking like it had been attacked. It had her staff and her bag which contained her purse, phone, laptop, and three days worth of clothes if she didn’t do anything dance.

The creature looked at her as she passed over two slices of pizza to it. “Men in your apartment, searching it.” It said.

Alexa rolled and called to Rohaan still resting peacefully or trying to allow her to have some privacy, “Someone is searching my apartment!” Her tone was serious. Someone had gotten through her wards without her knowing.

Thick as Thieves

Alexandra Eileen Scott

---

Walking helped get the blood flowing in her feet, being bare foot in the city wasn’t bad and she stayed away from the gravel and the broken glass as best she could. To the world she looked like another girl being “rescued” from the streets. She didn’t care at this point. They did not know her and she did not know them.

The restaurant was a bright spot in the neighborhood. The Indian woman gave her a look that made her feel welcomed and uncomfortable. She knew she looked like a fresh street walker to these people or a druggie. Jazvir didn’t even mention her bare feet.

After they ordered food, Alexa excused herself to head to the rest room, it was by the kitchen. In about 15 minutes she returned dressed in a rose colored sari with Sandler like slippers. She sat down with a smile. Now she looked like a lady that was in the wrong neighborhood. She giggled as she ate and spoke Hindi with Jazvir when she poked her head out to check on things. “Her daughter thinks your hot,” she said. The girl was maybe twelve, but she remembered her twelve year-old crush.

She had given Jazvir part of the money they stole to pay for the damages and for the clothes. See had to learn some Hindi, Mandarin, and Russian for her degree. It was a history degree which basically meant, she could woof at a library. It was also the cover for people wanting to learn more magic. She had done well enough with the languages.

The clothes were not a perfect fit. But Jazvir had wrapped it well enough that she was well covered. Her cat suit was in a bag near the till.

Alexa learned that Mr. Tough guy had played a big part in this place. He had given Jazvir the money to setup shop, the cook and the cashier had been rival gang members out to kill each other now they were best friends. It was not what she had expected. Alexa handed the cashier a fifty and grabbed her bag as they headed out.

The Rohaan’s place been a grand hotel at one time. She could see potential in this place. Climbing through a window was, not what she expected. She could smell the lingering effects of squatters who had stayed there. She noticed some of the architecture that of the building in the Early 1900’s. When they got to his room, she pulled out a piece of chalk and drew a sigel on the back of the door. It was a basic ward to make things ignore this place. Yes, he was big and tough, but bedbugs don’t care about big and tough.
She wold draw another Rune and cast a spell to drive the 10 billion bugs out of the building. She doubted he ate bugs often.

Alexa handed Rohaan the gun, but she ejected the clip on the ground. At least the safety was on, she thought. He could sell that mage killer gun for some money, more if she would have grabbed the ammo. She also pulled a thumb drive from her waist and waved in front of him. She had grabbed the data they went in for, not the way they planned. She smiled knowing they would get paid!

Thick as Thieves

Alexandra Eileen Scott

---

Money was Tom would be moving across the country sooner than that. When they review the video, it would look like he let his guard down and let her get the best of him. Using what people do naturally was the best magic and young single men are easy. Riding on his back was the another reason that Alexa wore the leather body suit. Her dress popped and snapped in the and her shoe less feet, took the brunt of it.

She was shivering hard and gave him a disapproving look then said, "Cold. Yes, foo-oo-d." Valdez was probably going to be okay, she thought. They had caught Rohaan after all and detained him. He had a family to care for. Rohaan's flying high and at the speed he flew meant the air was cold. If she would have cast magic to keep herself warm, they would have left a trail that a "magtech" scanner would have been able to follow. She did not want that. Now she was cold enough that she couldn't concentrate enough. The sweat she had inside the leather suit was cold on her skin making parts of her body ache.

Alexa she had set wards on her place that would not come down till tomorrow at sunset. She was suppose to be camping, of all things, with a girlfriend. She had pictures with a girlfriend when they had gone. Alexa had begged that she post them tomorrow as she said she was having trouble with her stalking corporate security boyfriend and he thought she was cheating on him. It was mostly true, except for the part about the boyfriend. Her girlfriend agreed having had a stalker too from work. She would go with him as much for safety as for warmth at his moment.

Being barefooted, she was not going to go far. Worse it looked like she was going to be taking the walk of shame in the morning. She did not like drug houses, but Rohaan was right. No one liked them and that made them safer places. "Your place is fine," she stuttered. Rohaan knew that this wasn't her style. She had a ritzy studio apartment up town near the club district. She had won the money for that in Vegas, she had been banned from the Casinos there. She had lost more than she won, but she walked away with enough money to pay the rent for years to come. Her Corporate Accountant Dad had setup trust to keep her from spending everything she had on magical research. Her being a mage was still a family secret. Every time she used magic around her mother, she started to cry. So she acted like a normal collage girl at her parents house. Talking about boys, clubbing, drinking, and work. None of it was true, there was rarely a boy, she hared alcohol or anything that altered ones thinking, and well, why would she work a normal job when she could basically take what she wanted.

"When I warm up," she said, paused for a moment, then continued, "I'll make sure the bugs leave your place alone." She grabbed his arm for support and walked with him letting him leed. Her wind tattered and frayed dress, her hair a mess, and being barefooted made her look like a college student turned street hooker because of a drug problem. At this moment, she did not care. She just wanted to get under a warm blanket and to get out of the cold wet body suit. Off was easy, but it took almost 35 minutes to just get it up and over her hips.

A few blocks away, the Cathedral bells chimed for Mass to start. Alexa pulled out the Rosary she wore and kissed it and started praying. Maybe Rohaan would let her go light a couple candles and pray there later. The church had not changed its position on shape shifters and mages. According to Doctrine, they were still considered have received their powers from Satan himself. When her powers manifested, the priest had banned her from the Sacraments and from most of the life of the church. Now being a thief, did not help matters. The Church had thrown her under the bus, but she had not done that to them. It was one of the few things that reminded her that she was still a normal and is why she had a hard time with killing people.

The walking helped get some warmth back in her legs and body. Her feet were warming but still felt like they would be cold for a week.

---

ooc

Just wondering, could the tenement building he has been staying at, could have been a "grand hotel" at one point? That was converted into a tenement and the prior owner let it run down and abandoned it? I could see her restoring a grand ball room as a lab and then taking a half a floor and making it an apartments. I am not seeing it play into the plot line. I figure Rohaan has already started the urban renewal and would probably continue to deal with the nasties to make them stay clear. I could see her buying the place and making this as kind of a low income/halfway house. Getting some of the Sisters to manage and run it, but they get to keep their space.

I'm picturing a mix of the south side of Chicago and the Bronx, lot of African Americans single mom and families, mix raced lower class blue collar people, hookers and the like. Nosy neighbors hanging at he window yelling at the cops and corporate suits, their kind ain't welcome here. Tough enough that they would protect us from most mundane stuff, slummy enough that most people would say away or pay attention. Alexa could put a low level ward around the building to make people not want to notice it either. I could see Rohaan being the neighborhood bully keeping all the bad people in check (We need them to keep an element of what a crappy neighborhood). I am not seeing this as the main plot line, more as color or between job posts. If the ball room was on the top floor and there was roof garden, Alexa would glam that space.

We can keep hopping around too. What do you think?

Thick as Thieves

Alexandra Eileen Scott

---

There was a visible cringe as Tom turn then the two meaty thinks the first of impact with a body and the second with the floor. She put out a lip in a bit of a pout then she quickly bent down and lifted Tom's wallet and Id badge. She slid the drivers license out got the address and kissed it leaving a bright rose lip prints on the license, placing it on him. She then stood and held her hand out for him to take it and the badge. "Front door or roof?" she whispered holding up the key ring with the Magitech weapon and holster. When Rohaan took her hand, she brought up a veil making them invisible to all but the military grade camera's that the mage snipers used. She used her hand to take them slowly down the hall guards were coming up in a tactical line. From a distance there were shouts, "Keep low, they have the rifles but they can't escape." She added Rohaan's roar and the guards lost some of their discipline and headed for the office where they came through. She let out a little puff now that ear rings were back on and the red lipstick circles drawn on the inside of the ammo box let a pressure wave go off that started cooking process. Rounds started going off in the detention room and wizzed through the air. A few of them hit the force fields that had come back up causing the lights to dim. Yep, the only thing they needed to worry about was the follower. There were always one of two followers waiting to see if the criminals snuck past and to provide additional support when they pressed their attack.

Captain Valdez was the follower. Alexa squeezed Rohaan's hand and bit her lip. The squeeze was to stand still, the lip was self explanatory but he had a ring on. Sweat was running down her back and under her boobs as she concentrated on the veil and slowed her breathing. He moved past when one of the rounds hit a control box causing an explosion and setting off the sprinklers and fire alarms.
As they approached the door, one young guard was there with one of the rifles. She squeezed Rohaan's hand to keep him from hurting the kid then moved forward to read his badge. When she had the name, she made it sound like he had a call from Valdez to call for parametics and lead the fire fighters to them and that they had them pinned down.

The guard went running past mere centimeters from her and went running. She double squeezed Rohaan's hand to let him know he could use the badge to unlock the door and get them out on the roof. She let him go first so she could keep the illusion that the door was closed. When she stepped forward the illusion fell. Those watching the camera's would see them heading to the roof. It was now all up to Rohaan to get them away.

Dark Dagger

:)

Dark Dagger

Dang covid and work changes have clobbered me!

Dark Dagger

Elra Silverfang

---

Elra lifted he hands and a dark glow shone around them as she captured the creature and battled for control of it. It was not the strongest creature she had seen or encountered. But she always had her master there to help.

She closed her eyes and turn palms out, "Kneel before me dark servant." The creature dropped to its knees within the circle she had made. Feet from killing her. It was now hers to command.

Thick as Thieves

Alexandra Eileen Scott

---

Rohaan asked, "Do I need to track someone down and kill them?"
Then said, "I expect you'll want that back...tell you what. When we get out of here, stay behind me and wait until I start shifting before you follow me out. I'll create a diversion for you, and you can sneak around and get that purse of yours. Shouldn't be too far from this room. Might have to go down to the end of the hall, I think."

She kept her focus on the magic and waited to answer when they were through and he was helping her up. “Yeah, my last boy friend!!” She said. The guy was a medical student and was a bit rough when he wanted to play doctor. Even Rohaan would be able to tell she was not serious about wanting him dead, maybe scared a bit.
“I don’t think they need to die, they are doing their job.”
Alexa did not like hurting people more than was needed.
“My finger prints are all over that stuff and there is a gun in the purse,” she said in a bit of a teenage sarcastic tone. She knew breaking in one thing, stealing stuff was another, but doing with a weapon raised the stakes.

Rohaan moved with smooth grace as and his punch was at the perfect height to catch the guard. He was off to do his thing. She picked up one of those head bashing baton thingy’s and smashed all four of the cameras in the room as the lights flashed and the sirens howled its mournful call. ”Poor security guards, did not know what they had coming,” she thought as she headed for the desk and the weapon safe.

Most desk locks were fairly simple and the magical technique she just used a bit of force to press and turn the tumbler. The desk lock clunked to the unlocked position. Her purse was in the bottom right drawer. In the top center drawer was a “badge of shame” and a ring of keys. It would probably help them get out and a key to a lock box and paper clips. She grabbed the badge and the key. The top right drawer had a shoulder holster that was wrapped around the gun. It was black and went with her outfit under the dress. The gun was high tech. She had heard about mage killers before. High tech weapons that would blow apart spells and worse blow apart a mage.

She heard Rohaan shouting his name, which meant things were getting interesting as she grabbed a bright red stick of lipstick from the purse, the other was a softer rose that she liked. She drew a circle around the release handle of the lock mechanism. Blowing a lock off of a safe meant the rods would lock in place. But blowing the handle into the room with a directed blast would let her probe the inside with magic. She could align the tumblers quickly and probably get the door open.

She moved around the side of the safe, stuck her fingers in her ears opened her mouth, bent over, and then chanted the spell. From the way she acted you would have expected a C4 blast or a fuel air bomb. But she learned on one job where they blew a safe with big explosives, better to always be safe. The pop was more like a big fire cracker. If moved the handle about an eighth of an inch. She could have done the same thing by pulling on the handle and leaning back. With a little effort and by sticking her tongue out, she forced her magic into the inside of the safe. The weapon safe was a three tumbler safe, you wanted to get into the quickly in an emergency. What she learned was she could have just turned the handle and door would have unlocked.

Inside were a couple banded stacks of bills and weapons. She grabbed the cash.

She walked over to the security guard that was starting to wake up. She rolled him over popped his cuffs from their holster and cuffed him. She grabbed to keys from his set. There were only three different normal handcuff keys used by security. She hooked them to her purse with the others she had collected. She lifted the guard’s gun and slid it out into the detention room, hoping it would slide into the force field.

“Honey, the explosive charges are set. Was I suppose to only use on block of the C4, because I used all five?” She shouted down to him. It was her signal that she was ready to go, she just didn't know if she needed to go to him or if he was coming to here. When the plan went wrong, everything goes wrong. She headed down the hall towards him to find a young security guard with his hand on his gun ready to draw. She raised her hands and said, "Tom, If you want to go on a date, meet me at the Flaming Rose Bistro Saturday night around 7pm?" She read his badge for the name. The kid was cute having that young fit military look. She would would have a friend of hers watch from the apartments across the street. She would say back a block or two and then when corp security and the police figured she wasn't coming and they sent him home, she would see if Rohaan would follow him. She would bring pizza and beer. He would get a nice meal on the company and then they would see where things went. Rohaan may need to work his apartment over before she went in. She could tell he wasn't sure what to do. He hesitated to pull his weapons, even smaller boobs can do that to a guy. She was armed but trying to keep the purse so it hid the gun.

She smiled a playful smile at him. Alexa had a history of picking the wrong guy. She knew that Rohaan wasn't going to let her go threw with it. But can't a girl dream a bit?

---

ooc

1) The weapon safe is open if you want to place something in it or destroy the weapons.
2) Her plan is to let Rohaan knock him out and get his address from his wallet. I think she is going to get like just outside the door when the guard catches her.
3) I am thinking Tom is a newbie. The heavy hitters would be after you!
@Blackfridayrule

Thick as Thieves

Alexandra Eileen Scott

---

Alexa looked at Rohaan and said, "I'm going to have bruises on more than my bottom."
Her tone conveyed her disappointment with the male gender and conveyed the message, "Yeah, I know you had it worst than me."
She broke the heal off a shoe and started unwinding the thin copper wire from around it. It had taken her hours of carefully wrapping the wire to make it look right. In Alexa's mind image wasn't nothing, it was everything.
"I told them that I give up and it is like they don't understand. Where are their manors?" she asked as she pushed the wire along the floor into the force field. She slowed as the tip of the wire started to glow.
"Did they really need to take my dress off me?" she asked. She would have done the same thing.

It was a third of the reason that she wore the body suit. She stuck her tongue out as she started to twist the wire so that the wires force was perpendicular to the force field. “Tangent to the inner diameter of the parabolic cone of force,” she could hear her calculus instructor saying. The second reason she wore the body suite was for padding. Crawling through air ducts was dangerous as there were always sharp pointy edges and corners. Unlike the movies, no one finishes the inside of an air duct. The final reason was it thought it made her look sexy and dangerous. The truth was, she was more dangerous in her beat up sweatshirt and jeans with her spell books and in her circle trying something new.

As the wire slowly made it through the far edge it glowed slightly. The force field was generating and electric field in the wire. That meant she needed to be quick.
"They took my purse with my stuff," she said alluding to the gun and magical foci she used. She was smart enough to leave her identification and her cellular phone at home. She closed her eyes and started to chant. The wire glowed white hot as her magic flowed into it and out beyond the field.
"Now," she said as the force fields started to flicker at the power fluctuation in the fields. She rolled, passing through where the force field should have been pulling the wire and shoes with her. The loops of the brass buttons on her dress flared and went flying as they melted to slag. The thin knife heated as it broke through the field making her quite aware that it was there.
She waited to hear that Rohaan had made it through safely and the she could open her eyes now.