The Praetorians, a fantasy cop drama. (Game thread Started/CLOSED Prologue)

[NinjaDeathSlap]

"Shouldn't you two do something about that?"

'Really? Do you think so? Any other pearls of wisdom on which to send us on our merry way?' Jason so dearly wanted to snap, but instead he bit his tongue and answered "Yes ma'am.", and without further ado jogging across the street. Of course, for a man his size, Jason's jogs could cover great distances in not much time at all.

"I have an arrest, suggestions on how to get him back?". came Jason's voice through on the radio. He'd clearly managed not to get himself shot then, though that did not make Jason any happier about the situation.

'How about we tie the two of you together when I kick your ass all the way back to the precinct?'

"Just keep him there, we're coming to you." he replied, before turning to his remaining partner. "Chris, call it in. See if the regular cops have any cars going spare."

 

[Trasch17]

Sameera suddenly heard something, something dangerous, but was too slow. The criminal grabbed Collin and used him as a human shield and hostage, threatening him with his fangs. The point of her sword was directed at the kin's face.
Slowly but steadily he moved backwards, Sameera following him, while neither letting the distance between them grow nor shrink.

"Fangs!"

"Constable! Get a hold of yourself!", she barked at Collin while also releasing pheromones. Rage inducing pheromones. She figured that she couldn't weaken the other kin's pheromones effect, her pheromones were too weak for that, but she could at least divert Collins feelings into a different direction. Anger and fear is an explosive mixture.

Her eyes, burning with cold rage, fixated the gunkin. "Coward! What do you plan to do? Use your teeth like a savage? Do you intend to lower yourself to the level of a mere animal?! You're pathetic!" She tried to provoke him, so he wouldn't notice what she was planning: waiting for her pheromones to take effect and let Collin do something stupid, then overwhelm the distracted criminal. She already noticed a small ray of light from one of the manhole covers above them. As soon as Collin would act up, she in turn would hold her sword into the beam, trying to blind the kin.

~Let's hope it works.~

 

[Voidrunner]

There was a reason it was called flight or fight, you were supposed to do one or the other. Unfortunately for Collin, he wasn't going to get a choice either way because his fear began to warp into a burning rage. He was somehow both enraged and afraid at the same time. He began to wildly kick and flail, repeatedly slamming his head back against the Dark Kin, seemingly oblivious to the fangs that had terrified him only moments before.

"Try and take my blood then!" he roared, "and I hope you choke on it!"

 

[Belmarc]

Rat closed his eyes and yawned, tail wagging absently from Cali's touch, before he suddenly realized what was happening and bounded after Archibald. Standing up on the man, he pulled his clothing from his squadmate's arms, ignoring the mutterings he was highly capable of hearing, and trotted into an empty alleyway. He shifted quickly, already warmed up from the last one, and pulled his clothes back on quickly. He didn't mind the wrinkles, but grimaced at the loss of his shirt. He buttoned up his jacket to make up for it. It was a surprise these city folk didn't balk at the sight of any skin, with how nervous it made them to see any they deemed unacceptable. He stretched as he exited the alley, readjusting to using two legs.

Something was tugging at him though, something important. His brow furrowed in thought, before it dawned on him. "The same crime repeated." His frown deepened, before he broke into a grin directed at Archibald. "Stumbled on trouble."

 

[Trasch17]

A satisfied grin parted her face as her pheromones took effect. Collin was raging, the kin was distracted. Sameera took a step forward, held her sword into the light and turned it in way, that the light was reflected by the silver blade and shined right into her opponents eyes. The result was a screaming dark kin, shielding his eyes with one hand. Night vision wasn't always an advantage.

She dashed foward, grabbing Collin with her free hand and teared him out of the gunkin's grip. She quickly lunged at the kin and attacked with her sword, with the sword's hilt to be more exact, hitting his right temple. But it seemed as if he was tougher than he looked. Still blinded and seemingly unaffected by the blow he started a fierce and desperate counterattack, whipping the sword out of her hand into the darkness. She heard a clanging noise behind her.

A guttural growl left her throat.

 

[Terratina.]

'Well, this has escalated quickly.' Chris thought as he fumbled about with his belongings. The whole thing was a mess; interviewing ladies and a random arrest, what next? Rescuing cats? At least Chris liked cats, but that was beside the point. They had been told to investigate gang activity in the neighbourhood, and that goal still hadn't been reached. Perhaps now was a good time to notify the others of his... abilities. If the person arrested was in fact a gang member, that he could go undercover, so to speak. Then again, that line of thinking was just counting chickens before they hatched. Best to wait until the status of the arrestee was confirmed. He found the radio, and pressed hopefully what was the right buttons, "Er... Hemingr of the Praetorians here, a arrest has been made in the west-side bordering Redfields. Umm... requesting a vehicle to transfer the arrestee to HQ."

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

Jason and Chris came on the scene only a few moments after the call was made. Quickly taking in the alleyway, Jason saw that no-one was nursing any bullet wounds, although the Talin on the ground looked to be in some considerable discomfort. The sound they're heard must have been either a warning shot or a miss, and Jason wasn't sure which answer was better, if any. Still, no one required an ambulance, which at least soothed his fury somewhat.

"Come on." he said to Lloyd as he reached the two. "Let's get in back to the street where the car can find us." As he said this, Jason looped his right arm under the Talin's left, held behind his back by the handcuffs, and hauled him to his feet, as if he weighed no more than a bag of flour.

"Fashion statement is it?" he asked rhetorically, noting the Talin's grown out teeth and claws. "Try anything with those, and I'll punch them out of your face and make you sit on them all the way to the station." he added gruffly.

After he'd said that, he took a brief moment to shoot Lloyd a look, to give him a small appetizer of the chewing out he was going to receive as soon as they'd dropped off the little punk. It would have to wait until then though. Police needed to show solidarity, especially in the presence of suspects, or all their authority would leak out through the cracks. It wouldn't do to have the bag of garbage Jason was carrying take that kind of story back to his gang buddies. When their was no-one else around to hear though, Jason was gonna have some serious yelling to do.

 

[EnigmaticSevens]

Rory whistled as he went about his search, the scene before him a familiar one. A little hideaway in a low-end restaurant, a card table and a few half-empty liquor bottles. Folk hatched plans in places like this. They rubbed their hurts together and schemed over newer, richer tomorrows. The warg pocketed the few scattered bills that remained, no use letting good legal tender go to waste. He crossed his arms and got to work, rebuilding this sad little scene in his mind, hazarding a guess as to what went down here and if was worth pursuing.

Four chairs, four players, but in all this sweat... not four scents, five scents, one real faint, lingers on the silver casings but not much elsewhere. So four players, interrupted by the gunman, exchange of fire, mixed shell casing types. No blood from the gunman though, and only the shredder tasted silver. A hit then. Gunman enters, fires on his target, turns to flee to getaway car, other players give fire, miss, flee the scene, leave the shredder. Mates, but not close mates, none stuck with him long. Low level players for sure, tighter security otherwise, but players nonetheless.

A small frown lingered on Rory's face. This shop was on Red turf borderlands, and Reds didn't tolerate competing outfits. If this was spat between two other crews coming up, it would need to be dealt with, either by the Praetorians or... after hours. Father would need to be informed one way or another. Rory bent low and took a deep whiff of each chair, sorting out the scents like a blood hound, looking for a clear trail. Heard a bit of commotion going on in the restaurant proper, several new pairs of feet tramping about, the city cops. Rory sighed and headed for the hidden exit at the back of the hideaway, it led to a cramped corridor along the back of the adjoining building, and eventually, an exit into that alley at the end of the block. The scent trail kept clear right up to the exit, where it joined the sea of familiar city smells. Rory circled back around to the restaurant's back entrance, slipping through the door's and dismissing the lad he'd set to guard. The city cops didn't seem thrilled with Mordecai's presence. It made sense enough. City cops liked things simple, open and shut. Illegal card game gets out of hand, shots exchanged, end of story. Possibilities of organized crime, secret exits, and especially Praetorians, mix-breed amateurs, these just muddied the waters. Rory was content to let them go on thinking that, simple people had their uses after all.

Rory waved to catch his current partner's eye, motioning for him to follow back out into the alley, away from the scene of the crime and out of the city cops' way. Once back in the alley proper and well out of earshot, Rory offered his fellow officer a wry grin, "So much for solidarity and the free exchange of info between departments, eh? They're none too fond of the smell of us.... Speakin' of smells though, I picked up a few in there, three lads runnin' in the same direction. I think it's worth a look, care to indulge in a bit of inhuman detective work?"

 

[Voidrunner]

The Dark Kin holding Collin hostage was suddenly screaming, and it certainly wasn't anything to do with his futile attempts to injure him. The Dark Kin's grip loosened and Collin struggled forwards only for Draven's hand to lock around his shoulder and forcefully yank him clear of the fight. He stumbled backwards and lost his balance on the slippery walkway, almost tumbling into the rushing stream of sewage water. Collin spun awkwardly to avoid this fate and was able to remain on the walkway, albeit crashing painfully to his knees. Thankfully, the sudden pain helped clear his head somewhat, his thoughts were still somewhat fuzzy but he was no longer completely out of his head. Unfortunately that didn't stop him having stupid ideas.

Draven's blade spun out of the darkness and clattered to walkway ahead of Collin, with the noise followed by a growl. This fight was taking far too long, hence it must be of great importance, this wasn't a simple arrest, it was a showdown. Collin crawled forwards, fumbling around managing to cut himself on Draven's sword before he finally found the hilt and picked it up safely.

"Enough!" he shouted into the darkness, pulling himself upright and gesturing in the Dark Kin's general direction with the sword, "You, sir, are sneaky ambushing sewer rat and I demand a rematch." Forget that Collin had no idea how to use a sword properly, he was convinced that the Dark Kin only got him because he was taken by surprise. "I'll take it from here Draven, this clown won't know what hit him."

 

[Evrant-Knight]

The restaurant staff soon began to squabble, none of them wanting answer Mordecai's question, when suddenly one of the chefs snapped and threw his apron to the ground. "I'm done! That's it, finished, I'm finished, I can't take this any more!" He soon stormed off out of the restaurant. "Damn mobsters! Sick of 'em I tell yah, everyone knows what kind of place this is but do they say something? NNNNOOOOOooooooo!"

What staff remained got increasingly more tense as the sounds of sirens drew near, which hailed the arrival of the regular police as they filed in to assess the crime scene; as one was selected to talk to Mordecai. "You the one that called this in?" The man asked, to which Mordecai simply nodded as his response. "We can take it from here, lad, you can get on your way." The officer soon waved Mordecai off before rejoining the human officers.

Mordecai then noticed Rory leave the room he was in earlier, and wave to catch his attention, and motion to follow in the back alley. As soon as they were both out of the way and out of earshot, Rory offered Mordecai a rather wry looking grin. "So much for solidarity and the free exchange of info between departments, eh?... Speakin' of smells though, I picked up a few in there... care to indulge in a bit of inhuman detective work?"

"That's what we're here for Rory, besides, I was getting sick of the place. And whilst I didn't get much out of the staff members, one of the chefs did make mention of mobsters as he stormed out; so I guess that is something to go on at least. He said, and I quote;

"Damn mobsters! Sick of 'em I tell yah, everyone knows what kind of place this is but do they say something? NNNNOOOOOooooooo!"

In any event, before we set off on this trail you found, we should probably radio in with a status report, and inform Captain Ackerman or at the very least Sergeant Novak about our progress."

 

[Pappytech]

"The same crime repeated. Stumbled on trouble."

Archibald couldn't help but sigh in frustration. It seemed that the Warg had finally decided to enter back into the conversation, and that his preferred method of communication involved using pointlessly cryptic phrases. What, was he supposed to be speaking in some sort of code or something?

"And what, pray tell," the officer muttered through gritted teeth, spinning around to face his newly humanized squadmate, "do you mean by that?" Honestly, was it too much to expect this lot to speak sense? Were they simply intent on being as confusing as possible?

 

[Belmarc]

Rat gestured towards the crowd gathered around Julie and Laura, comforting the women. "Listen." Almost every single one had the same stories, losing a pet or being robbed, sometimes both. "Not a coincidence." He shook his head, then leveled Archibald with a calm stare. "Cannot ignore this."

 

[Trasch17]

The fight continued and Sameera managed to slowly gain the upper hand. She may have been blinded on one eye, but so was he, too. Additionally Sam was stronger and had a bit more combat experience. It was only a matter of time.

"Enough!"

Sameera glanced quickly into Collin's direction - and promptly recieved a painful hit from her opponent. She growled, made a sidestep and succeeded in bypassing the kin's guard, grabbed his head an smashed it against the wall.

"You, sir, are sneaky ambushing sewer rat and I demand a rematch."

Still not letting go of his head, she pulled him closer to her and ran into Collin's direction.
~It's time to teach him a lesson.~

"I'll take it from here Draven, this clown won't know what hit him."

As she reached Collin, she lifted the kin up, only to then smash him into the ground right next to Collin. His moves slackened and she immediately seized the opportunity to put on the iron handcuffs. As she held them, she could feel an uncomfortably tingling sensation, even through her gloves. Once she was done, Sameera planted herself in front of Collin.
"Denied. Also, you might want to return that to me." She pointed at her sword in Collin's hands. "You know, I have one rule, and if you want to have a good time working with me you'll have to comply." She brought her face extremly close to Collin's. "Do not. Touch. My stuff. Especially not my sword. Understood?"

 

[CrazyGirl17]

"The same crime repeated. Stumbled on trouble." "Listen." "Not a coincidence." "Cannot ignore this."

Cali stopped to think about Rat's words. It did seem awfully coincidental all the crimes involved robberies of items or pets...

"Alright then, so what do you propose we do now? Ask if anyone saw anything?"

 

[Pappytech]

"Cannot ignore this."

Finally. The mongrel said something that made a modicum of sense. Even if his assertion was entirely off-base, at least he was saying it in a way that Archibald could understand.

"Alright then, so what do you propose we do now? Ask if anyone saw anything?"

And it seemed that the Talin was joining in with him. Fantastic.

Not bothering to hide his annoyance, Archibald fiddled with his glasses, adjusting them until they rode a millimeter or two higher on his nose. It was a bad habit, yes, but it was one of the few he tolerated within himself. It gave him something to do for a few seconds while he struggled to find the right words or understand the scope of his situation.

Needless to say, his situation was not looking good.

If it was only one of his squadmates violating orders, he could report them easily enough. But if it was both of them... Even if they did end up disobeying the Captain, it would be their word against his. And while his word was undoubtedly more valuable than theirs were individually, he wasn't sure who Ackerman would trust if they tried to defame him together. Tch. This was why there was no sense in working with cretins like these; they always banded together when it came to their illicit activities.

Wonderful. Unless he intended to lose face on the first day on the job, he had no option but to play along with his squadmates' desires. Even if it meant going against orders himself...

"Fine, fine, fine," he muttered, finally releasing his spectacles and shooting a cold glare at the Warg and the Talin, "if the two of you are so intent on ignoring the Captain, then I suppose it would be irresponsible of me to leave you to your own devices.

"However." Pausing for a moment, the officer gestured at his compatriots, directing them to certain parts of the street. "Wherever possible, we will be following whatever regulations or common decencies we can. So you," he said, pointing an accusatory finger at the mongrel, "will not be talking to any of the victims. With your 'eloquence', there's no telling how many of them you might drive off. Instead, take a look at the list of stolen goods from the [insert last name here]s household, see if there's any rhyme or reason to it. And you," the finger swung over to the Talin, "and myself will be talking to the other victims. You will try to gather as much information from them as you can; find out what was stolen, what pets went missing or were killed, any suspicious characters lurking about."

Stopping for a moment, Archibald stared at the other two Praetors. "Understood?"

Naturally, he didn't bother to wait for a response. "Fantastic. Let's go."

Spoiler: OOC

Yeah, I don't think we ever found out Julie and Laura's last name.

 

[Ruedyn]

"Come on. Let's get in back to the street where the car can find us."

Marc nodded, and moved away from the talin as Jason hoisted him up, giving a threat as he pushed him towards the street. Marc strolled over to Hemingr, giving a small wave for a greeting. Marc either didn't notice the glare (or didn't care) as he was grinning broadly at the Shedder. He took a moment to finally put away his gun, fumbling with the holster.

"An arrest on the first day is good, I think. Shows some competence if nothing else... How did your side project go? Was it anything big?"

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

"An arrest on the first day is good, I think. Shows some competence if nothing else..."

'Oh, You are on the fucking limit!'

Jason bristled at that, though he stopped himself from teaching his colleague a lesson right there and then. Honestly though, competence?! In whose world was it competence to draw your weapon and fire on unarmed kids on your first day. He took a moment to study the punk he was hauling down the alley. The kid couldn't have been more than 17. What had he even been doing to earn such treatment? Lloyd bore no signs of having been given a hard fight, Jason couldn't smell any drugs, blood or gunpowder residue on him, and if there's been anyone else being assaulted at the seen, they sure as hell made off pretty damn quick. He was just some dumb kid, the sort that Jason had rubbed shoulders with every day for years. If he truly belonged to the Dawn Claws, or whoever the hell he identified as, he was too low rank to be any kind of catch to the force, or any kind of loss to the gang. Such kids could be scumbags, even on occasion dangerous scumbags. Still, you cant just arrest people who haven't actually done anything wrong, what the hell was Lloyd even suggesting he be charged with?

Jason looked back at Lloyd. The Dark Kin looked young enough, but Jason knew enough to know that didn't mean anything. Dark kin could live for over a hundred years and not look a day over thirty. Jason hoped that Lloyd was only as old as he looked. Youth and inexperience was a far easier problem to rectify than utter stupidity, and an ingrained arrogance to boot. The guy smirked like a tool, seemingly oblivious to what his "competence" amounted too, drawing his gun and firing on a unarmed kids at the first provocation, all because he'd got twitchy by virtue of going off on his own. Jason would consider himself fortunate if Lloyd's action hadn't made the Praetorians more enemies in Old Town on their first day, than the amount of friends they could expect to make in a month. People around here were tight-lipped towards cops at the best of times, for crying out loud!

When they were back at the precinct, Jason would stand up and be counted for his own fuck-ups today. Lloyd though... unless his dressing down came sooner than that, this bout of "heroism" might go to his head. That made Jason feel a little better about his anger. He wouldn't just be taking the guy down for his own benefit, but rather ensuring that no-one else get the wrong end of Lloyd's over-zealous trigger-finger today without good reason.

 

[Voidrunner]

You know, when people are locked in vicious fights in pitch dark sewers they tend to ignore ridiculous challenges to duel. Still, Collin was slightly offended that he wasn't even given a chance to take down the suspect in a fair fight. Draven absolutely demolished her opponent and cuffed him before she turned her attention over to Collin.

"Denied. Also, you might want to return that to me." She pointed at her sword in Collin's hands. "You know, I have one rule, and if you want to have a good time working with me you'll have to comply." She brought her face extremly close to Collin's. "Do not. Touch. My stuff. Especially not my sword. Understood?"

"You've got something stuck in your teeth," lied Collin, carefully stepping backwards as he did so. "just thought you might want to know." Collin seemed to have entirely forgotten what Draven had asked him for in the first place until he nearly managed to stab himself in the foot with the sword. "Oh this old thing?" he handed it back to her, managing to avoid injury this time, "I've got about fifty of those lying around at home," Collin neglected to mention they were all cheap film props he had wasted his money on. "You might want to lay off the coffee as well, tea is probably better for your temper, just a suggestion. You seem a little on edge is all."

 

[Terratina.]

"How did your side project go? Was it anything big?"

Chris returned the greeting, thankful that there was someone friendly here. He replied with a diplomatic, "Not much." Details could wait for later anyway, when they were actually needed. Not like there was much to begin with. He had expected more from a rough neighbourhood such as this one, but flying vases would have to do.

'Now it's just a matter of waiting, just to get out of this mess.'

 

[Trasch17]

"I've got about fifty of those lying around at home,"

Sameera just left that uncommented while taking her sword back but her look made clear what she thought of that statement. She felt much better with her sword in her hands again and put it away, her anger slowly fading.
She gave the restrained kin a fireman's lift and proceeded to climb up the nearest ladder to the surface.

"You might want to lay off the coffee as well, tea is probably better for your temper, just a suggestion. You seem a little on edge is all."

She chuckled. "It's not the coffee. I'm always on edge, no matter what I drink or eat. That's one of the reasons why I'm here." She removed the manhole cover without much effort and climbed out of the sewers. Sameera greedily inhaled the fresh air.

"Speaking of eating... I am kind of hungry... better call Novak so he can pick us up." She pulled out her radio. "Hello... erm.. this is constable Draven of the Praetorians. I... er... hello?" No answer, not even static. "Huh... Collin? Can you call Novak or Ackerman, please? My radio seems to be broken."
Her stomach grumbled. "Oh, and tell Novak to hurry, in your own interest. I might take a bite out of you before he arrives!" Sameera bared her teeth. She was joking of course. However, if Collin would notice that too...
She sat down, simply dropping the dark kin on her shoulders, who hissed weakly, to the ground, pulled out a handkerchief and started getting the blood off her face. "Stop with the hissing already!"