@ZombieDude101 Are you still involved in this?
Shit, I missed your notification. I'll get to work on a response bow. I think it's because of the capital D in my name.
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Shit, I missed your notification. I'll get to work on a response bow. I think it's because of the capital D in my name.
Happy New Year folks.
Cassius and Reed Taylor, & Jennifer Marissa Caspin.
@Mr Allen J"Move it!" A voice called in the rain.
Subsequent gunshots rang out as several more of the creatures set their sights on the Taylors, forcing Cass to alternate between holding them off and loading in more shells from his pocket as he made a retreat.
Snapping a glance over his shoulder as he heard other shots cracking off, he spotted Reed taking a stance beside the car and pitching in with covering fire - reducing one of the creatures to a mass of grey sludge which quickly dissolved in the rainfall, yet there were more where they'd come from and the two would only have so much ammo. Knowing full-well these things would close in too soon if they didn't get a move on, he quickly stuck a hand in his pocket and withdrew his keys, urging him "Quick, take 'em and get it started."
Reed snatched them out of Cass' hand and frantically climbed into the driver's seat, gunning to start the engine with a firm twist. Shifting it into gear, he glanced over the windscreen only to spot Cass pulling back towards the car after firing off one last shell, practically jumping into the passenger seat. The door was barely closed before Reed hit the gas, hoping to place some distance between them and those things as they grew larger and larger in the rear-view mirror.
Cass popped opened the glove compartment and yanked out a navy-shaded box of shells that'd already been torn open in a hurry and started pushing more of them into the shotgun's magazine tube whilst pocketing the excess shells for later use.
"What the hell were those things, Cass?"
"You tell me. I don't have a clue, just... shit. Just drive, we'll loop around and figure things out once I check the radio out."
Cass inclined forward and reached out with a free hand, fiddling with the various dials and switches on the scanner he kept on the dash. It was always handy, especially in times like this and gave him more information than the regular broadcasts ever would.
The signal was a little hazy due to the intense storm and the aging hardware that was receiving it, but it was coming through from all over Verthaven - none of it good.
Urgent calls for assistance, reports of multiple casualties as more of those creatures showed up, panicked riots and stampedes - even NEST chatter was spilling into the mix, turning his mind towards Quentin as he wondered where his eldest nephew was in all of this mess and hoped to hell that he was unharmed.
He had to be, for both their sakes.
"What's happening?" Reed finally asked, trying to navigate his way through the quieter streets towards as misshapen silhouettes scrambled amidst the rainfall. He'd been loosely paying attention but refused to believe all of it - not until he heard it from Cass' mouth.
"It's worse than anything I've seen or heard of, kid. Won't lie. Shit, I'm not sure what to do - you saw how bad the traffic was on our way out of downtown, it'll be gridlocked. We don't have any real way of getting in touch with the department, but-"
He stopped mid-sentence as he spotted something just about to run across the road. "Shit, slow down!" he shouted, prompting Reed to hit the brakes.
Someone in the road, it turned out.
Everything was going to shit. Jen long realized that this city is one thing after the other - but this was a whole different situation all together. Adrenaline and her healing factor were the two things keeping her running like a rabbit. Every footstep splashed a puddle of water underneath her feet. She had no idea where she was going, but her plan was "anywhere but here".
She kept running alongside the sidewalk - but one of the creatures, crawling on all fours, with a alien-body and large claws, landed in front of her. It looked up at her, and Jen instinctively took a few steps back, putting her hand up in some attempt to get back. However, the thing lunged at her, and she screamed, jumping to the side. She got some scraps on her arms as as she the ground, but she kept running.
That wound she recieved earlier was all but healed. Only a little bit more to go - but the process of forcing her body at this rate was always painful. She had little idea if the creature was still behind her, but she had little defense against them. She wasn't Meifeng or the others - she had no offensive superpower or training - she was basically your average sixteen year old girl.
Not percisely thinking too much, Jen ran across the street, hoping to get away from it.
Not too far away, a set of dimmed headlights died down and a silhouette climbed out with something heavy in its hand, before suddenly moving forwards.
"Keep your head down!" A heavy voice shouted as the silhouette closed in.
Jen briefly wondered what the hell was going on, but it felt great knowing that someone was coming to her aid. She knew that she couldn't keep running forever. Almost immediately, she dove downwards. The Purple Eyed beast was distracted by the newcomer and went for them at high speeds.
Cass stood his ground and shouldered his Ithaca 37, firing off an aimed spread of buckshot at the beast before firmly pumping the handle for another go.
The Purple eyed beast charged into the shot head on. Causing a chunk of it's flesh to immediately turn to liquid. It stopped, shaking. It quickly lunged at the man and forced him to take a dive to avoid getting pounced on, yet it quickly turned on its feet for another strike.
"Don't touch either of them!" Another voice shouted from behind the creature. Reed readied his glock and opened fire, gunning for the bright purple eye which painted a target on its form.
Attention went from Cass to Reed the second the bullet knocked off another chunk of flesh. The beast turned towards Reed. There was a clicking sound coming from it. It quickly lunged through the air at breakneck speeds, and landed on Reed before he could react. It's flesh split, and revealed a mouth of vicious-looking teeth - giving no indication that it had these before - and brought them down on Reed's arm as he scrambled to get a last minute shot.
"Raargh, fuck!" He let out an agonised scream as the teeth punctured through muscle tissue and bone alike, like an industrial vice.
"NO! Get away from him!" Like that, Cass sprung to his feet faster than anyone had ever seen the old man move before and pointed it downrange towards the creature's central mass, but knowing that there was a chance he could harm his nephew made him hesitate.
All Jen could do was hopelessly stand by as the fight went on. Her breath rate accelerated, and she started biting her fingernails - more of her fingers - until she drew blood. She was frozen. Unsure of what to do. Everything was just so damn crazy. And she was just one girl thrown into the thick of it. But she had to do something. Anything. She didn't want to see this man eaten alive in front of her.
Next to her was a pistol - Reed's pistol, pushed away in the confusion.
Should she even touch it? Jen was so terrified right now that she was worried that she might make the situation worse. But she had to try her best. She grabbed her guns, and immediately realized that this was much different than the games she played. She didn't even hold it the right way. She aimed it at the beast, and grit her teeth as she thought about pulling the trigger. This was dumb, and impulsive - but she was too rattled right now to realize it. So, she just pulled the trigger, and the tiny explosion propelled the bullet out of the gun. The bullet didn't even come close to the beast - it merely hit a car down the street. And the recoil hurt the hell out of Jen's wrist.
But, the Purple-Eyed monster was distracted, and this was enough for Reed to frantically slide out from under its mas and drag himself out of Cass' field of fire - allowing the old man to take aim and fire.
It was the final shot that put an end to the beast. When the last shot hit, it hit one of it's vital organs, and caused it to dissolve into a grey sludge. Dead.
Cass quickly ran over to Reed and took a knee beside him, fear washing over his face as he saw the scope of the injury, "Reed?! C'mon kid, lemme check you out," His eyes darted to the puncture marks in his sleeve, "Dammit, you're... bleeding. I'll get the kit from the car, patch you up."
Through bated breath and gritted teeth, Reed shrugged off Cass' reassuring hand on his shoulder, "Mmph, don't.. you should know better than that, old man," he muttered, "Shh.. this hurts, it fucking hurts, but I'll live. Ch.." He nodded towards Jen as he drove his good palm into a knee to stand up, hissing "Check on her. Then we'll fix this."
Secretly, that made Cass proud of the man that his nephew had become.
Jen sighed. "I.... didn't think that'd work out." She spoke to herself as she watched. Jesus, that guy was messed up. She wished that she could have helped him here.
"Ma'am, are you alright? Are you hurt?" Cass finally approached, still carrying the shotgun in one hand whilst the other reached into a pocket to produce his badge. "We're off-duties."
"I... can't say that I am alright - but I haven't been hurt." Jen shrugged. She wondered if they would realize the torn clothes, and blood stains when she was slashed by that beastie. She could shrug it off by saying that it only caught her clothes... oh yeah, the blood. Jen sighed. She looked at the badge, and realized that they were VPD. "That's..." Jen said, trailing off when she tried to think about what to say next. Honestly, in all of this chaos, she's better off sticking with the cops. "Great?" She mentally slapped herself. "Look, is he okay?" She asked, before getting a closer look at him.
He was that cop that helped against REAPER at the party.
Small world, huh?
"Don't-" Cass glanced back towards his nephew for a moment, before realising his own hesitation, "Don't worry, I'll make sure he's checked out. But.." He wasn't blind to the blood stains on her clothes or where they'd been torn. "Are you sure you're not hurt? Adrenaline doesn't always let you notice it - let's get you checked out just in case. I've got a first aid kit in my car."
"I'm... fine." Jen said, admantantly. This man is most likely the opposite of stupid, if he sees that there's signs that she was injured, but no injury - he could easily put two and two together.
The senior detective arched an eyebrow. "Alright, can't make you get checked out. Though, I know this might be a difficult question, but.. there wasn't anyone else with you?"
"No... I was alone the whole night." Jennifier answered. "My family went out to dinner somewhere in the Priscilla Isle - I forgot...." Then she wondered where the hell they were. She hoped that they were okay. "I don't know what the hell is going on..." She said, grabbing onto her forehead and shaking her whole head.
"Don't worry too much about your family, just focus on staying safe. You can tag along with us if you like, we'll keep you safe." Cass gestured to the car, where Reed seemed to be fiddling with something.
Jen didn't even waste a solid second before she scrambled towards the car, quickly saying, "Yeah, that'd be great."
"Glad to hear it." Even if it was just one person, Cass knew they were doing something right. Heading back with the girl, he found Reed seated in the passenger seat with the open first aid kit in his lap, having alreadyworked on some self-treatment, although now he seemed more interested in the police scanner at the moment.
"By the way, I'm Detective Cassius Taylor. My co-worker over there's Detective Reed... Taylor."
"Jennifer." Jen said, "Jennifer Caspin. It's nice to meet you...."
"Call me Cass." Cass had almost forgot to mention. Reed acknowledged the two of them with a brief nod, before adding "And yeah, we're rel- hssh" he wound up cutting himself off as he caught his arm on something.
"Hang on," Cass opted to intervene and figured now was a good a time as any to administer first aid. At this stage in his career, he'd done it a dozen times over - yet somehow it was like dealing with an injured child all over again, even if he wasn't supposed to let it get in the way of his duties.
After a few minutes of careful, almost coddling treatment, Cass was ready to put the kit away when something cught their earshot on the scanner.
"...Repeat, all units, we are establishing a relief center at the NEST HQ site on Crystal Shores, all evacuees and injured personell are to be redirected to this location - avoid contact with the creatures if possible..."
Okay. Seems like the smartest place to be when monsters invade the city. Though, Jen wondered how well NEST was handling the situation themselves. But, it's a plan. Better than running around aimlessly. She knew that her family could be there, giving that it's the Priscilla isle. All Jen did was nod, and await the ride there.
"Looks like we've got a plan," Reed finally remarked.
@Zombiedude101 Cass and Reed are in University Row, right? Perhaps we can do a collab of some sort?
Sure, let's do it.
I could probably see Quentin spending Christmas Eve alone at his condo (or the NEST lounge) and then the next day probably paying Cass a visit for dinner or something like that.
Cassius and Reed Taylor
Bearing in mind recent events that had been going on across Verthaven, the VPD - all of its departments included - had been working overtime, Cass and Reed just one of many among them. Today, the two of them conveniently finished work around the same time and so to save on gas (and as an excuse to meet up outside of work) they’d opted to head on the journey home in Cass’ car. For the past twenty minutes they’d been navigating through downtown’s traffic into university row and discussing recent matters, one of which was a certain reconciliation between a certain pair of brothers.
“I can tell Quent’s different - he’s changed for the better, I guess? I dunno, I just don’t want any kind of shit to screw this up whilst we’re making progress.” Reed had pointed out.
Cass was quick to end any concerns, however. “Look, it doesn’t matter what’s happened in the past between you two - all that matters is that you just keep in touch and keep on doing what you’re doing. It’s good, y’know? Your mom wo-” before he could continue easing his nephew’s concerns, the car began to violently shake as a sudden bout of tremors took a hold of the ground beneath them.
“Earthquake, shit!” Thinking fast, Cass kept a firm grip on the wheel as he swerved to the side of the road and was luckily able to regain enough control of the car to pull up before any damage was done. He was ready to duck down when the tremors stopped as suddenly as they’d appeared, though being a California boy born and raised he figured it could’ve been a prelude to another earthquake. This didn’t stop him or Reed from taking a slow cruise around the block to make sure nobody’d been hurt - after all, cops were never really off the clock and this god damned rain didn't seem to be letting up.
It didn’t take long before the sound of a commotion just around the corner led them to a residential street not too far from where they lived, where the road had a huge fracture running down the middle of it like an opening to hell. Whilst a few cars had been pulled in or were teetering on the edge of the abyss, it soon became clear why a crowd had gathered around one of the doomed cars; a passenger was still trapped inside, in the backseat of a coupe no less, whilst the car faced headfirst into the abyss.
“Move, police!” Reed quickly cleared a path as he withdrew his badge to let the crowd know he was an off-duty, whilst Cass made a quick survey of the situation and thought fast. Pointing to Reed, he started heading back towards the car at a running pace as he shouted back “Stay with him, I’ll grab something from the car!” Yet not a moment later another tremor hit and the car began to teeter further towards the abyss, until finally tipping over with the poor bastard inside - “Fuck!” the subsequent sound of crumpling metal and broken glass gave way to the terrified screams of the surrounding crowd, yet it wasn’t the tumbling car which’d caused it.
In this case, the guilty party was a freakishly large humanoid hand with boney claws reaching up and grasping onto the edge of the abyss, before it’s owner - a humanoid mass of grey, sliming meat with a thick purple eye - finally clawed its way to the surface. Without hesitation, it started slashing and grasping away at the surrounding crowd - disemboweling some poor bastard who’d frozen in place whilst another unlucky onlooker got yanked back into the fissure by another creature’s grasping hand and it wasn’t long before one of the purple-eyed beasts set their sights on Reed.
Withdrawing his Glock, Reed aimed for the monster’s central mass and opened fire, hoping to bring it down like it would a normal human target, yet all this did was catch the attention of the other beasts as the rampage began. Twisting back towards the car, Reed began to make a break for it, hoping to put some distance between them - only for one of them to close in using its powerful arms as a gorilla would to make the pursuit. It seemed like the creature was ready to pounce for the kill, yet something hit it from the side and knocked it to the floor like a ton of bricks. From the same direction shouted a familiar yet all the same pissed-off voice which really hit home: “Hey, motherfucker! Get the fuck away from my goddammed nephew!”
Pointed downrange at the beast was the smoking barrel of Cass’ trustworthy Ithaca 37, wielded by none other than the man himself - and he was pissed. Nobody - nothing in this world was going to hurt his family so long as he drew breath, he’d told himself and now he intended to live up to it.
Rowan Campbell
@ChicogalThese past few months had felt like some kind of dream, drifting from one point to another - and the boat trip was no exception. Rowan had spent most of the voyage in his cabin trying to figure out what kind of time this ‘academy’ held for him. All it did was give him another headache and prompt him to pop in a small dosage of painkillers he’d kept hidden in the lining of his dufflebag.
When he’d first stepped outside, the academy struck him as some kind of ancient fortress - dark, cold and foreboding - though the second of those three was probably due to the fact it was always cold up here, apparently - not helped by the fact that he’d never set foot out of Cali’ until now. For that, he was glad Mom had sent him the jacket when she heard where he was headed - his ass didn’t need to freeze any more than it already had. Before long, he was led down alongside all the other students to the auditorium to hear the Head Mistress’ speech.
Oh man, he could tell that the old man’s blood would be boiling if he saw him now - listening to one of ‘those’ types (and he wasn’t just referring to her academic position) laying down the law - but that just amused him even more. The content of the speech seemed to be the usual spiel, mind; “Welcome, my name is Jeff, you’ll be doing this soon, don’t steal or break stuff, etcetera and etcetera” - he’d all heard it before, though the one thing that did catch his attention for a moment was that note on illegal substances. Well, painkillers weren’t technically illegal, were they? At least, he needed them for a reason - not like the old man’s constant dosages of booze and amphetamines or whatever other shit he figured he could spike himself with.
‘Miss Taylor’ seemed decent enough for now - the type who’d probably seen a lot of shitty kids and was used to dragging them back to level one when things hit the fan - and at any rate he had no plans of making trouble for her or anyone else in this school - he was just going to see where this took him. Who knows, maybe he’d get along here after all?
First chance he got, he quickly dug into the cafeteria food like a starved dog - he’d not eaten much on account of not wanting to risk the seasickness - and the first thing he noticed (aside from the good food) was how clean everything was, to a level that seemed to beat the canteens he’d seen at the social services residencies that the feds had set up for kids like him. Yeah, things didn’t seem that bad after all. Of course, that thought was quickly changed not even a half-hour later, when he lined up with the others to figure out their living arrangements, only to learn who his roommates would be.
Something he’d pushed to the back of his mind sprung forward at the mention of the word - ‘roommates’. With an ‘s’. So there’d be two other people he’d have to share a living space with? The idea of sharing with one was enough of a challenge, never mind two - but he decided to shut it down for now and see what these two would be like. Copen and Victor were the names of his soon-to-be roommates, the first of which sounded like the preppy type that loved places like this whilst the other didn’t particularly strike any kind of chord with him beyond sharing a name with one of the old mans’ ‘brothers in iron’ who lacked volume control.
After about ten-fifteen minutes of aimlessly wandering through the domestic wing, searching for the right area, Rowan finally hauled his dufflebag to his dorm and after locating the correct room, he firmly twisted the handle and stepped inside. Inside were three metal-framed beds with their own respective setups for the students that would be occupying them - one had already been claimed judging by the lithe blonde flopped against the mattress with a suitcase next to him.
With an arched eyebrow and a quick survey of the room, he offered his new roommate a simple “Hey, there” as he dropped his own dufflebag besides one of the unclaimed beds, besides a window.
<Snipped quote by Zombiedude101>
Well, damn it. I forgot about your character since, you know, you haven't posted him to the tab. He's now in the same room as Victor and Copen.
Sounds good. And yeah, sorry about that - circumstances pulled me away from the writing keyboard.
Working on a post right now but is there anyone who hasn't got a roommate yet? Wouldn't mind having one for Rowan (assuming that's how things are) to set things up and the like.
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