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Post by rilkan on Apr 2, 2010 2:05:10 GMT -6
Taka slowed as he turned a corner, stopping as he took in the sight a few blocks ahead. Even from this distance, he could tell that there was a massive crowd of people moving along the street. Enough to lose Vorca in, he guessed, for a while at least. But he had his doubts as to whether he'd be able to muscle his way into and through the crowd without worsening the damage to his wrist.
Biting his lip, Taka stood on the corner, weighing his options carefully. He knew he shouldn't stop, not for long, but his indecision delayed him nonetheless.
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Darzul
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Post by Darzul on Apr 2, 2010 10:43:08 GMT -6
As Darzul continued to track Taka, he had slowed his pace from a full sprint to a jog in order to afford himself more stealth. He had assumed his rate of movement would be more than enough to catch up, but even with the limp Taka had managed to get a pretty good lead on him.
About a block ahead, Darzul caught a glimpse of Taka as he turned a corner. He could hear the crowds of the boardwalk not too far away, and knew he wanted to get to the boy before he slipped into the mass of people.
He continued to pursue Taka, still sacrificing speed for silence but, he hoped, moving quick enough to catch him nonetheless.
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Post by rilkan on Apr 2, 2010 11:33:19 GMT -6
Taka made his way south, no longer running. He hadn't seen anyone chasing him this entire time, and he doubted any normal person would be able to track him over several blocks of paved sidewalk.
Checking out his wrist, Taka winced. It was definitely broken, but the break was minor. If he could get it set right, it would heal just fine. Times like this, he wished he could use his powers on himself, but at least they allowed him to examine the extent of his own injuries.
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Darzul
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Post by Darzul on Apr 2, 2010 11:55:07 GMT -6
Darzul approached the corner where he had seen Taka disappear. He approached slowly; no reason to throw the kid into a panic now.
He saw Taka walking along, his limp noticeable but not seeming to be too much of a hindrance. He also seemed to be favoring his wrist. Probably landed funny when he jumped out that window, Darzul concluded. He still had no desire to hurt the kid, so he simply called out to him.
"Taka, stop," he said.
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Post by rilkan on Apr 2, 2010 12:11:26 GMT -6
Taka stopped at the sound of his name. Turning sideways, he looked at the man who had called to him.
Darzul Vorca was smaller than he'd expected. He guessed they'd be around the same height, if it weren't for the heavy boots Darzul was wearing. Something about him seemed a little off, some contrast between the lines of his face, which pointed to middle age, and the silver of his hair, which indicated he was a great deal older.
For a moment, he stood still, wishing he didn't have to run. But Sarah had told him what his path was. He wasn't going to start questioning her now.
Turning on his heels, Taka sprinted, grimacing past the pain in his hip. Ignoring the crowd, he took a left into a narrow alleyway, hoping he could find an unlocked back door into a building, try and lose him inside. Then someone tripped him, and he flew face-first to the ground, landing with an "Oof!"
Turning to glare at the idiot who had tripped him up, Taka lost his words as he looked into the pale, bloodless face of Jeremy, the former tenant who'd teleported himself, Nate, and Old Sarah to Thoncir in the first place. The only sound he could manage was a scream.
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Darzul
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Post by Darzul on Apr 2, 2010 12:41:05 GMT -6
"Dammit," Darzul muttered as Taka immediately turned and ran down a back alley. Just as Darzul was approaching the alley, he heard a cry of terror.
In a flash he had his sidearm drawn, and he spun around the corner, gun raised. He saw Taka standing over a corpse, missing a left arm and a leg. His head had also been cleanly severed, so much so that it still sat upon his body, which leaned against the wall. Only a thin red line at the neck and a single thin trail of blood even indicated that the act had been committed.
"It's okay, Taka," Darzul said, lowering his weapon. "He's dead. He can't hurt-"
Darzul stopped mid-sentence as he saw the carvings in the brick above the body. 'THE WHITE DEATH LIVES' was carved in large, jagged letters.
Darzul's jaw fell open as the gun fell from his hand. He glanced back at the body, the surgically precise decapitation an all-too-familiar calling card from the Etrahn War.
Darzul then remembered Sarah's parting words: "A ghost of the War returns from the City of the Lost, and make no mistake, he seeks an audience with you above all else."
"Oh, God," Darzul finally managed to utter. If the White Death had returned, and was an enemy to himself or the Vorcan Army at large, it could very easily be devastating to the army, and the city they had worked so hard to rebuild.
For the first time since the experiment, Darzul was afraid. Not for his own life, but for that of his army or even Thoncir. The sensation had become so foreign to him that it made him physically ill, and he vomited into a nearby trash can.
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Post by rilkan on Apr 2, 2010 12:54:41 GMT -6
Taka pushed himself against the opposite wall of the alley, trying to escape the corpse in his panic. He no longer cared about running from Vorca, or listening to Sarah, or Maku, or anyone else. All he wanted was to get away from what was left of Jeremy.
Seeing Vorca bent over the trash can, Taka forced himself to his feet, moving just far enough to block the body from his view. Slumping against the wall, Taka slid to the ground again. When Darzul was finished, he'd go with him, no complaints, no running.
He didn't care where he went anymore. He just didn't want to be here.
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Darzul
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Post by Darzul on Apr 2, 2010 13:17:46 GMT -6
Darzul wiped his mouth and picked up his gun, holstering it. He was ashamed of the weakness he had shown upon seeing that message, but there wasn't much he could do about it now.
He then walked over to Taka, deliberately putting himself between the young man and the body.
"I'm sorry you had to see that, Taka," Darzul said calmly and quietly. "My name is Darzul Vorca. I'm in charge of the army your brother enlisted in."
"And I'm sorry if I scared you," he said, a smile creeping at the corners of his mouth. "I suppose a man with a gun in fatigues chasing you can be a little unsettling. But I'm not here to hurt you, Taka. I just want to discuss something with you. Would you mind coming back with me to the base for a while?"
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Post by rilkan on Apr 3, 2010 0:02:12 GMT -6
Taka heard Darzul, but was barely listening, his mind still reeling from the shock. He and Jeremy hadn't been close, but the tenants all kept an eye out for each other back in the City, and seeing one of them...like that...was a major shock to his system.
The questioning tone in Darzul's voice brought Taka's attention back to the older man. Taka managed a nod. "I don't care anymore...just get me out of here..." he said, his eyes cast downward.
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Darzul
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Post by Darzul on Apr 3, 2010 0:06:38 GMT -6
Darzul nodded. "Alright, come with me," Darzul said, offering a hand to help Taka up.
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Post by rilkan on Apr 3, 2010 0:29:08 GMT -6
Taka took Darzul's hand, pulling himself to his feet with a wince, his hip now protesting the strain it had been put through.
Then, he noticed something odd, which distracted him from the pain. Over the last month, he'd noticed his powers seemed to have evolved somewhat. His strongest ability was still his healing powers, but he'd noticed during his time at the hospital that, with a touch, he could tell where and how badly a person was injured, or he could tell if they were ill, and how severe. Essentially, anything his powers could fix, he'd know about through physical contact.
However, when he took Darzul Vorca's hand, something odd had happened. A man with Darzul's appearance, he'd expected some of the standard wear-and-tear that comes with age, a kind of 'background noise' he always picked up on when he examined a patient. But as he pulled himself to his feet, he realized...there was nothing. Nothing his powers could do, no damage he could repair, no illness he could remove.
Pulling his hand away, Taka wiped it on his jeans. Somehow, feeling nothing had felt...wrong. "You...you're constant, aren't you? I mean...you don't age?"
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Darzul
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Post by Darzul on Apr 3, 2010 0:46:08 GMT -6
Darzul nodded approvingly. "That's right," he said. "I don't age, at least not physically. I'm a Unique, like you. My gift is regeneration, and it does a wonderful job of hiding the fact that I'm actually 70."
Darzul then began to walk out of the alley and toward a street, where he hailed a cab. "You figured all that out about me from a touch?" he asked Taka. "You're a more powerful Unique than I thought."
"Take us to the base," Darzul told the cabbie, holding out a 20-coin piece.
"Your money's no good here, Mr. Vorca," the cabbie told him as he held up his hand in a gesture of unwillingness to take the money. "When my pipes burst last winter, your men cleaned up all the water damaged carpeting and even replaced it, and they wouldn't take any of my money."
"That's because I ordered them not to," Darzul said. "I pay the soldiers plenty. Doing a good deed for a citizen shouldn't come with a price tag."
"Yeah, tell that to the plumber," the cabbie retorted with a chuckle as he began to drive Darzul and Taka to the Vorcan Army base.
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