[ON - Albazeraj, Georgia]
The black helicopter flew over the cold Eastern European landscape. In the distance, a large town was just barely visible through the fog. Inside sat the three-man Bureau team. The chopper came in low, setting down in a small forest clearing about a quarter mile from the town. In the clearing, several uniformed police officers walked out of the woods, clearly cautious.
As the rotor died down, the doors to the helicopter opened. Raskolnikov was the first out. He strode confidently to the three cops, outstretching his hand for a shake. One nervous man returned it. "Privjet," he began, before continuing in broken English, "You have come for the Bureau?" Raskolnikov nodded, and waved for the rest of the team to follow him out.
Yasfir floated out, following the man she was bound to, yawning slightly as she did. The helicopter ride had been quite boring.
Silje stepped out last, removing her sunglasses to take a look over their surroundings. While perhaps she did not look quite as strange as the ghost, the Norwegian agent also had the look of being supernatural with odd golden patterns flowing over her skin. "What's the deal this time?" she asked as she replaced her sunglasses and put the hood up on her sweater to better conceal her demonic features from any superstitious mortals.
Raskolnikov was busy speaking with the police. They grew progressively more alarmed as the ghost and the demon filed out. They shared some words in Russian, and the police headed off. The Russian shook his head as they left. "Cowards, the lot of them. Alright, here's the situation: Looks like some nasty shit went bad, and a couple goth freaks got tangled up in some plot. According to our boys at the Bureau, mutation experiments. Anyway, they're holed up in town. The Georgians kicked most of the people out of town, so we're pretty free, just try not to level the stuff. Any questions?"
The ghost shook her head. To Yasfir, this seemed simple enough. Go in, remove the threat, and get out without causing too much destruction.
"Oh, well that's a relief, at least," Silje observed. "Do we have any clue what sort's this nasty stuff is? Taking on Mi-Go is a lot different than dealing with Yeth Hounds." She glanced over to her ghostly companion and added, "Though, it's not like we usually have a whole lot of options in the matter."
"We're looking at a lot of enemies, but nothing too fancy. They're supposed to be tough, but pretty stupid. Shitty music, too," Raskolnikov finished. "Anyway, make sure you're ready, and we'll head out." The man looked up. "Looks like rain, too, so make sure you hurry up." As he finished speaking, the helicopter rotors began to spin, shaking trees and blowing loose pieces of dirt and plant matter throughout the clearing.
The blonde woman held up her arm to protect herself from the various dirt and leaves the helicopter was blowing around. As the area calmed down and hearing again became possible Silje nodded to Raskolnikov, "Alright, then. Let's go see what's down there."
Raskolnikov retrieved his gigantic shotgun from his back, and loaded one of the large magazines. "Alright, then." With that, he turned and headed into the woods. "It's a bit of a walk, so try to keep up, da?" he called over his shoulder, sweeping the forest for possible threats. Luckily, none were forthcoming.
A short time later, the three intrepid heroes found themselves at the edge of the forest, looking out on the mostly deserted town. The fog had grown thicker, limiting visibility to about 100 feet out. From deep in the town, moans, howls, and other sounds slightly more pleasant than the music were barely audible.
In front of them was a large, almost totalled bus, a darkened gas station, and a large Catholic church. "Alright, let's do some recon. We don't know exactly what's going on. Where to first, girls?" Raskolnikov asked.
Closing her eyes and concentrating on the town in front of them, Silje raised her hand in a direction in front of them. "I can sense the presence of other demons. It's coming from that way," she said as she opened her eyes to see where it was that she had pointed,
Raskolnikov looked, but thanks to the fog, didn't really see much. "We got some reports saying they were trying to summon some demons up. I'm guessing that's out place, then." The big Russian retrieved his PDA from his pocket, tapping a few keys. He showed the screen to Silje. "It's a map of the town, from about fifteen years ago, so it's probably not fully accurate anymore. Think you can zero in on where you're getting those readings?"
"Yeah," mumbled the blonde as she, quite embaressed, took the PDA from Raskolnikov and looked it over. "Let's see if we can't figure out where they are. Watch my back." Silje handed the PDA back to her squad leader and started walking towards the direction of the other demonic presence.
Raskolnikov dropped the computer in his pocket, unslung his shotgun, and followed the woman. As they passed the bus, a savage shriek erupted from inside it, alongside some horrific thumping sounds. The bus shook a bit, and then settled down.
Yasfir floated silently behind, glancing over at the seemingly angry bus. It wasn't coming after them, whatever it was, so no worries, right?
Silje took a cautious step to the side, away from the direction of the loud noises. They disturbed her concentration, but she held fast, certain that if there was a problem, her comrades would be on top of it. Whatever it was it wasn't setting off her internal alarms she had come to rely on, so she ignored it in favor of finding out exactly where these demons were hiding.
The bus erupted in hateful howls and shaking again. This time the screams seemed to be almost words. Raskolnikov pointed his shotgun at the vehicle, watching the windows. "Silje, any reading from that thing?"
"What?" she asked as she lifted her head in Raskolnikov's direction and looked at the bus he was referring to. "No, nothing from in there," she advised, ready to shove off her human visage if necessary.
As the two Bureau agents spoke, what looked like a hand impacted hard with the glass window, almost smashing it out of the side of the bus. "Jesus!" Raskolnikov shouted, raising his AA-12 to his shoulder. "What the hell was that?"
Yasfir materialized her sword, preparing just as Raskolnikov did. Okay, so it might not be something worth worrying about. But only a little. It still wasn't attacking, though it seemed to be trying.
"Whatever it is, it's no demon," Silje noted as her mortal flesh and form sloughed away and revealed her demonic self, a white goat-like creature with golden hair and a long, twisted horn coming from it's almost human-like head. Silje was mostly back-up in combat situations, but that horn of hers could be quite nasty.
Another, much louder scream erupted from the bus and, for a brief instant, a horrible, grey-skinned mutant smashed itself up against the window, revealing itself to the heroes. However, it was only for an instant, as, even with its massive strength, the beast practically bounced off the window, and disappeared once more.
"Yasfir," Raskolnikov whispered, "See if that thing's still kicking."
Nodding, the ghost floated towards the bus. She scanned the side, before poking her head through. Hello? Anybody home?
The mutant was on the floor, drooling profusely and looking dazed. It caught sight of the ghostly woman and made a muted roar at her.
Yasfir pulled her head back out, turning to Raskolnikov. If the roar wasn't enough to answer his question, her nod to his question hopefully did. If that still didn't answer, well, that'd just be sad.
The window nearest Yasfir's head served as further confirmation to Raskolnikov. Or, more specifically, the broken guitar that exploded through it and over his head did. "Suka!" The man yelled, and dove out of the way. Following the guitar, the beast won its rematch with the side of the vehicle and erupted from its side, landing on the ground next to it, and beating its chest with fury.
As soon as Yasfir was certain the monster was now out, she turned to face the monster. Staring emotionlessly at her target, she thrust sword towards the monster, aiming directly for its soul.
The attack missed its target, but still caught the attention of the mutant. It spun quickly and attempted to give Yasfir a good smacking. Unfortunately, due to her being a ghost, this was quite ineffective, and simply led to a nice-sized dent in the side of the bus.
The demifiend stood her ground, keeping her hooves planted firmly on the ground and lowering her head to point her twisted horn right at the mutant. Silje was the least combative of the team, but was still ready to charge just in case it decided to turn it's attention to her.
Despite being quite stupid, the mutant caught on rather quickly that the woman closest to it was somewhat incorporeal. Instead of wasting his time on her, he turned to the other two team members. Specifically, Raskolnikov. The beast bellowed and charged, winding up for a good-sized punch on the man, which it delivered, knocking the Russian off his feet.
Raskolnikov hit the ground on his back and rolled back, his wind knocked out of him. As he gasped for breath, he pulled the flamethrower from his back with lightning speed, and pointed it at the mutant. "Fuck off!" He sprayed fire at the beast, but only succeeded in dousing the ground in front of him with burning napalm.
Seeing Raskolnikov take one in the gut, Silje stomped the dirt and charged the deformed creature, nicking it with her horn. Perhaps this would give a chance for her Russian teammates to do some damage while she drew it away.
The beast made a roar, and it looked like it had taken a pretty good hit.
Yasfir quickly moved beside the monster. Once again, she thrust her sword toward the monster.
The mutant, still somewhat reeling from the horn-charge, swung a brutal fist into Silje's chest, connecting hard with the demon.
Silje flinched from the punch. She should've expected that, after all. She had wanted it's attention and she had gotten it. Gritting her teeth she cursed under her breath.
Rask, his breath back, reaimed his flamethrower, this time getting a much better bead on the monster, and let out a brutal wave of fire onto the monster. It screamed loudly and tried to beat at the fire covering its body as it began to melt the beast's flesh.
Shaking off the effects of the mutant's attack, Silje prepared to charge in for another strike. It may have been more prudent to step back, but the unexpected blow had riled her up. She lowered her head towards the mutant once more and headed in for another gore.
Unfortunately she was off target and completely missed the transformed human.
Yasfir raised her sword, but... it wavered and then vanished. Her vision blurred. She was out of strength. It was up to the other two....
The mutant, still trying to put itself out, threw another punch at Silje. Luckily for the demon, it missed by a wide margin, and in fact fell to the ground, where it rolled around in an attempt to extinguish the flames.
Raskolnikov attempted once more to douse the mutant with fire. Unfortunately, he failed, burning the ground around it, but doing nothing to the monster itself.
And again the Qilin missed her target as she attempted to gore it with her horn. She cursed again and swore to spend more time practicing when she got back to headquarters.
The mutant pushed itself to its feet weakly. It howled once more and attempted to tackle the Qilin, although only succeeded in punching it in the head.
Silje spat out some blood. This mortal being was being far more of a nuissance than she had expected.
The annoying mortal being suddenly ceased its activities thanks to a large burst of flame that consumed it. Raskolnikov slung the nozzle of his flamethrower and headed towards his comrades, near the bonfire that was once a guitarist. "You all alright?"
"I'll be fine," Silje said as she trotted over to Raskolnikov and touched her horn lightly against his arm, sending waves of healing energy through him as it glowed a soft golden color. "If there are more of those things about, we may need some bigger firepower."
Yasfir merely floated beside, her head hanging in shame. She was practically useless in that fight... actually, she was useless. Couldn't even touch the thing....
"Thanks, Sil," Rask told the Demon as she healed her. "I can call for support, but we probably won't get it for a bit. It's almost dark, so we should probably wait until morning." The Russian looked to the ghost who attached herself to him, and now hung dejectedly in the air alongside them. "Hey Yasfir, cheer up. You did good."
The ghost shook her head. She did absolutely nothing to help.
Raskolnikov frowned, and reached out to pat the ghost, although remembered that she wasn't corporeal just before his fingers touched the ghostly image. He lowered his hand and shook his head. "Let's rest for the night. I'll keep watch and dial for support in the morning. Get some sleep, you two. Especially you, Silje. You took a hell of a beating."
Raising her head, Yasfir nodded. Might as well rest, not as if she could do much on her own anyway, especially if she were to seperate from Raskolnikov. Time to recuperate and hopefully redeem herself.
When she was finished healing Raskolnikov Silje turned her healing powers on herself. As the Qilin did so her hair began to fall out in clumps, followed shortly by her skin and everything else until she was just a human standing there again. She crossed her arms and replied indignantly, "Yeah, yeah. Morning, then." It wasn't that she was mad at her teammates, far from it, but the fact that this dangerous enemy was able to bypass her detection so easily and managed to rough her up as well.
The black helicopter flew over the cold Eastern European landscape. In the distance, a large town was just barely visible through the fog. Inside sat the three-man Bureau team. The chopper came in low, setting down in a small forest clearing about a quarter mile from the town. In the clearing, several uniformed police officers walked out of the woods, clearly cautious.
As the rotor died down, the doors to the helicopter opened. Raskolnikov was the first out. He strode confidently to the three cops, outstretching his hand for a shake. One nervous man returned it. "Privjet," he began, before continuing in broken English, "You have come for the Bureau?" Raskolnikov nodded, and waved for the rest of the team to follow him out.
Yasfir floated out, following the man she was bound to, yawning slightly as she did. The helicopter ride had been quite boring.
Silje stepped out last, removing her sunglasses to take a look over their surroundings. While perhaps she did not look quite as strange as the ghost, the Norwegian agent also had the look of being supernatural with odd golden patterns flowing over her skin. "What's the deal this time?" she asked as she replaced her sunglasses and put the hood up on her sweater to better conceal her demonic features from any superstitious mortals.
Raskolnikov was busy speaking with the police. They grew progressively more alarmed as the ghost and the demon filed out. They shared some words in Russian, and the police headed off. The Russian shook his head as they left. "Cowards, the lot of them. Alright, here's the situation: Looks like some nasty shit went bad, and a couple goth freaks got tangled up in some plot. According to our boys at the Bureau, mutation experiments. Anyway, they're holed up in town. The Georgians kicked most of the people out of town, so we're pretty free, just try not to level the stuff. Any questions?"
The ghost shook her head. To Yasfir, this seemed simple enough. Go in, remove the threat, and get out without causing too much destruction.
"Oh, well that's a relief, at least," Silje observed. "Do we have any clue what sort's this nasty stuff is? Taking on Mi-Go is a lot different than dealing with Yeth Hounds." She glanced over to her ghostly companion and added, "Though, it's not like we usually have a whole lot of options in the matter."
"We're looking at a lot of enemies, but nothing too fancy. They're supposed to be tough, but pretty stupid. Shitty music, too," Raskolnikov finished. "Anyway, make sure you're ready, and we'll head out." The man looked up. "Looks like rain, too, so make sure you hurry up." As he finished speaking, the helicopter rotors began to spin, shaking trees and blowing loose pieces of dirt and plant matter throughout the clearing.
The blonde woman held up her arm to protect herself from the various dirt and leaves the helicopter was blowing around. As the area calmed down and hearing again became possible Silje nodded to Raskolnikov, "Alright, then. Let's go see what's down there."
Raskolnikov retrieved his gigantic shotgun from his back, and loaded one of the large magazines. "Alright, then." With that, he turned and headed into the woods. "It's a bit of a walk, so try to keep up, da?" he called over his shoulder, sweeping the forest for possible threats. Luckily, none were forthcoming.
A short time later, the three intrepid heroes found themselves at the edge of the forest, looking out on the mostly deserted town. The fog had grown thicker, limiting visibility to about 100 feet out. From deep in the town, moans, howls, and other sounds slightly more pleasant than the music were barely audible.
In front of them was a large, almost totalled bus, a darkened gas station, and a large Catholic church. "Alright, let's do some recon. We don't know exactly what's going on. Where to first, girls?" Raskolnikov asked.
Closing her eyes and concentrating on the town in front of them, Silje raised her hand in a direction in front of them. "I can sense the presence of other demons. It's coming from that way," she said as she opened her eyes to see where it was that she had pointed,
Raskolnikov looked, but thanks to the fog, didn't really see much. "We got some reports saying they were trying to summon some demons up. I'm guessing that's out place, then." The big Russian retrieved his PDA from his pocket, tapping a few keys. He showed the screen to Silje. "It's a map of the town, from about fifteen years ago, so it's probably not fully accurate anymore. Think you can zero in on where you're getting those readings?"
"Yeah," mumbled the blonde as she, quite embaressed, took the PDA from Raskolnikov and looked it over. "Let's see if we can't figure out where they are. Watch my back." Silje handed the PDA back to her squad leader and started walking towards the direction of the other demonic presence.
Raskolnikov dropped the computer in his pocket, unslung his shotgun, and followed the woman. As they passed the bus, a savage shriek erupted from inside it, alongside some horrific thumping sounds. The bus shook a bit, and then settled down.
Yasfir floated silently behind, glancing over at the seemingly angry bus. It wasn't coming after them, whatever it was, so no worries, right?
Silje took a cautious step to the side, away from the direction of the loud noises. They disturbed her concentration, but she held fast, certain that if there was a problem, her comrades would be on top of it. Whatever it was it wasn't setting off her internal alarms she had come to rely on, so she ignored it in favor of finding out exactly where these demons were hiding.
The bus erupted in hateful howls and shaking again. This time the screams seemed to be almost words. Raskolnikov pointed his shotgun at the vehicle, watching the windows. "Silje, any reading from that thing?"
"What?" she asked as she lifted her head in Raskolnikov's direction and looked at the bus he was referring to. "No, nothing from in there," she advised, ready to shove off her human visage if necessary.
As the two Bureau agents spoke, what looked like a hand impacted hard with the glass window, almost smashing it out of the side of the bus. "Jesus!" Raskolnikov shouted, raising his AA-12 to his shoulder. "What the hell was that?"
Yasfir materialized her sword, preparing just as Raskolnikov did. Okay, so it might not be something worth worrying about. But only a little. It still wasn't attacking, though it seemed to be trying.
"Whatever it is, it's no demon," Silje noted as her mortal flesh and form sloughed away and revealed her demonic self, a white goat-like creature with golden hair and a long, twisted horn coming from it's almost human-like head. Silje was mostly back-up in combat situations, but that horn of hers could be quite nasty.
Another, much louder scream erupted from the bus and, for a brief instant, a horrible, grey-skinned mutant smashed itself up against the window, revealing itself to the heroes. However, it was only for an instant, as, even with its massive strength, the beast practically bounced off the window, and disappeared once more.
"Yasfir," Raskolnikov whispered, "See if that thing's still kicking."
Nodding, the ghost floated towards the bus. She scanned the side, before poking her head through. Hello? Anybody home?
The mutant was on the floor, drooling profusely and looking dazed. It caught sight of the ghostly woman and made a muted roar at her.
Yasfir pulled her head back out, turning to Raskolnikov. If the roar wasn't enough to answer his question, her nod to his question hopefully did. If that still didn't answer, well, that'd just be sad.
The window nearest Yasfir's head served as further confirmation to Raskolnikov. Or, more specifically, the broken guitar that exploded through it and over his head did. "Suka!" The man yelled, and dove out of the way. Following the guitar, the beast won its rematch with the side of the vehicle and erupted from its side, landing on the ground next to it, and beating its chest with fury.
As soon as Yasfir was certain the monster was now out, she turned to face the monster. Staring emotionlessly at her target, she thrust sword towards the monster, aiming directly for its soul.
The attack missed its target, but still caught the attention of the mutant. It spun quickly and attempted to give Yasfir a good smacking. Unfortunately, due to her being a ghost, this was quite ineffective, and simply led to a nice-sized dent in the side of the bus.
The demifiend stood her ground, keeping her hooves planted firmly on the ground and lowering her head to point her twisted horn right at the mutant. Silje was the least combative of the team, but was still ready to charge just in case it decided to turn it's attention to her.
Despite being quite stupid, the mutant caught on rather quickly that the woman closest to it was somewhat incorporeal. Instead of wasting his time on her, he turned to the other two team members. Specifically, Raskolnikov. The beast bellowed and charged, winding up for a good-sized punch on the man, which it delivered, knocking the Russian off his feet.
Raskolnikov hit the ground on his back and rolled back, his wind knocked out of him. As he gasped for breath, he pulled the flamethrower from his back with lightning speed, and pointed it at the mutant. "Fuck off!" He sprayed fire at the beast, but only succeeded in dousing the ground in front of him with burning napalm.
Seeing Raskolnikov take one in the gut, Silje stomped the dirt and charged the deformed creature, nicking it with her horn. Perhaps this would give a chance for her Russian teammates to do some damage while she drew it away.
The beast made a roar, and it looked like it had taken a pretty good hit.
Yasfir quickly moved beside the monster. Once again, she thrust her sword toward the monster.
The mutant, still somewhat reeling from the horn-charge, swung a brutal fist into Silje's chest, connecting hard with the demon.
Silje flinched from the punch. She should've expected that, after all. She had wanted it's attention and she had gotten it. Gritting her teeth she cursed under her breath.
Rask, his breath back, reaimed his flamethrower, this time getting a much better bead on the monster, and let out a brutal wave of fire onto the monster. It screamed loudly and tried to beat at the fire covering its body as it began to melt the beast's flesh.
Shaking off the effects of the mutant's attack, Silje prepared to charge in for another strike. It may have been more prudent to step back, but the unexpected blow had riled her up. She lowered her head towards the mutant once more and headed in for another gore.
Unfortunately she was off target and completely missed the transformed human.
Yasfir raised her sword, but... it wavered and then vanished. Her vision blurred. She was out of strength. It was up to the other two....
The mutant, still trying to put itself out, threw another punch at Silje. Luckily for the demon, it missed by a wide margin, and in fact fell to the ground, where it rolled around in an attempt to extinguish the flames.
Raskolnikov attempted once more to douse the mutant with fire. Unfortunately, he failed, burning the ground around it, but doing nothing to the monster itself.
And again the Qilin missed her target as she attempted to gore it with her horn. She cursed again and swore to spend more time practicing when she got back to headquarters.
The mutant pushed itself to its feet weakly. It howled once more and attempted to tackle the Qilin, although only succeeded in punching it in the head.
Silje spat out some blood. This mortal being was being far more of a nuissance than she had expected.
The annoying mortal being suddenly ceased its activities thanks to a large burst of flame that consumed it. Raskolnikov slung the nozzle of his flamethrower and headed towards his comrades, near the bonfire that was once a guitarist. "You all alright?"
"I'll be fine," Silje said as she trotted over to Raskolnikov and touched her horn lightly against his arm, sending waves of healing energy through him as it glowed a soft golden color. "If there are more of those things about, we may need some bigger firepower."
Yasfir merely floated beside, her head hanging in shame. She was practically useless in that fight... actually, she was useless. Couldn't even touch the thing....
"Thanks, Sil," Rask told the Demon as she healed her. "I can call for support, but we probably won't get it for a bit. It's almost dark, so we should probably wait until morning." The Russian looked to the ghost who attached herself to him, and now hung dejectedly in the air alongside them. "Hey Yasfir, cheer up. You did good."
The ghost shook her head. She did absolutely nothing to help.
Raskolnikov frowned, and reached out to pat the ghost, although remembered that she wasn't corporeal just before his fingers touched the ghostly image. He lowered his hand and shook his head. "Let's rest for the night. I'll keep watch and dial for support in the morning. Get some sleep, you two. Especially you, Silje. You took a hell of a beating."
Raising her head, Yasfir nodded. Might as well rest, not as if she could do much on her own anyway, especially if she were to seperate from Raskolnikov. Time to recuperate and hopefully redeem herself.
When she was finished healing Raskolnikov Silje turned her healing powers on herself. As the Qilin did so her hair began to fall out in clumps, followed shortly by her skin and everything else until she was just a human standing there again. She crossed her arms and replied indignantly, "Yeah, yeah. Morning, then." It wasn't that she was mad at her teammates, far from it, but the fact that this dangerous enemy was able to bypass her detection so easily and managed to rough her up as well.
