The Mutant & The Mutant Hunter. IC/OOC

New York City; Center for Mutant Affairs Office

*Access granted*

The electronic voice of an autonomous woman buzzed lowly along the walls of marble hallways as the dim red ‘Locked’ letters lit into a bright emerald dazzle upon the security keypad screen. A faint smile creeped along the ivory masked face of the intruder. His fingers fell from the numbered pad as his eyes fell upon the sliding steel door revealing a small amount of armed guards.

The startled expressions on their faces were enough of a characteristic to portray their confusion. The coated raider’s smile grew noticeably larger under his veil. He took the element of surprise at it’s highest peak and snapped instinctually into combat form, vaulting from his last task of intrusion and into the assault phase of his stratagem. The guards reached for their pistols, but like a lion upon a herd of Zebra, The Alabaster Spectre fell upon them, his long pale sleeveless trench coat falling beneath him.

“Who the fu-“

One of the marks hollered before taking a swift fist to his jaw, the sound of cracking bone echoed from the wound as blood followed. He was faster than the other sentry, but a splinter too slow to defend himself properly.

“I am Cognus. I am the Wraith.”

Cognus sputtered from his lips as his body continued to move fluidly through the horde of victims. His jabs were untraceable and his kicks were nimble. With each strike, a louder and more painful grunt fell to his ears. The agony and injuries brought a sick sense of amusement to their assailant. He pulled no punch and held nothing back. The intent behind his discord was derived from animosity. An unbridled level of discrimination towards all of mutant kind.

Although he showed neither pity nor mercy, Cognus left his signature cutlass pistols holstered to his hips. These human beings were not members of the mutant scourge that plagued the world, but only employees earning a living to fulfill their needs. With a final thrust of his arm into the abdomen of the last foe, he was finally alone. Only the sound of heavy breathing from obstructed windpipes were left hovering in the air.

A sense of tranquillity washed over Cognus while a calming numbness enveloped his senses. He looked down upon his victims.

"Merci beaucoup.”

His words were only a whisper, finally content with the level of unconsciousness of the fallen before making his way to the room he had intended to enter from the start. He held a hatred for mutants that was unmatched by any other emotion he was able to muster. A cynical streak that imbued every single fiber of muscle in his body for reasons known to few.

The room wasn’t a remedy for his anguish, but only a short fix that would indulge his sadism for a short time. A file cabinet had been secured within those walls that held accounts and portfolios of mutants within the state. An elaborate series that would become his hit-list. A form of weaponry to keep humanity safe in his mind.

OOC

This is a closed RP between @katraya and Cognus. This will also be the OOC thread. Please keep all questions, comments and concerns covered with spoiler protection. Hope you enjoy!

@cognus_:

Katraya was not a difficult person to track down, her existence in Gothic was somewhat well known and she had done nothing to conceal who she was when outside of the Order of the Sacred Conflict. In fact her distinctive red 'leather' uniform made her rather obvious of a presence. She often operated as a mercenary, doing odd jobs and frequently made use of her social skills and silver tongue to worm her way into circles of influence. It was at one such event that he was eventually able to track her down. There was a high society gathering at one of the many art galleries in Los Angeles and Katraya was in attendance, circling through the various wealthy members at the party with a glass of champagne in one hand. She smirked a little as she took a sip of her drink, listening to a conversation to her left and watching a wealthy. Katraya in these circles was a viper who used her beauty and skills to seduce and manipulate when she sought information.

She took a drink from her glass and casually slipped it onto the tray of a passing waiter without breaking her stride as she made her way to the central exhibit. Once there she slipped her arm through the arm of a young man who was struggling to impress the socialites his parents had pushed him into. His status changed almost instantly, suddenly an extremely attractive woman was on his arm and he managed (just barely) to play it off as something he expected. She smirked, ignoring his 'friends' and shifting her gaze elsewhere. She listened intently, gathering information on a series of locations she planned to hit in the next few weeks, places she needed to determine the security status of. Katraya had long ago been taught that people spoke most loosely in situations such as this one, usually to pretty young women they intended to impress into bed.

Katraya had no means of knowing she was being hunted today, no immediately available backup and most of her equipment was located off sight, it was the perfect place and time to attack her. All she had on her was her usual red leather clothing and her pain batons. Of course...no Hyper Mutant was ever truly unarmed, nor truly vulnerable because she was the swiss army knife of mutant powers and could tap into any number of abilities at the drop of a hat. Even standing there, unaware of impending attack, she had her hands always relatively close to those batons, just in case something transpired, even if it was just some getting a little overly handsy when she didn't want them to be.

...because she was the swiss army knife of mutant powers..."

I love that

@katraya:

'Mutant-Superior’. Such a disgusting atrocity to consider an abomination on humanity as not just a flaw in evolution, but a blessing. It was despicable and just like the illness running rampant in a sentient being, it needed to be purged.

Quinn thought to himself as he tightened the scope of his m4 carbine rifle. The perfect weight of the ebony weapon balanced flawlessly upon his fingertips and was concealed in the darkness of the forest he had laid his frame upon. The ivory coat draped around his figure had surprisingly left no indication of his presence, leaving a strange, almost mesmerizing glow that blended seamlessly to the ground.

He shrugged off the notion of his motives, but instead returned his attention to the scene below. He had planted himself upon an loft hill that provided the perfect sniper’s nest to a lower building where a gala of sorts was occurring. Normally, Quinn would research the target more thoroughly and scout out the area, but this was different. He hadn’t felt the rush of a good challenge in so long, that adding a little danger to his schedule was what he needed, as irresponsible as it may sound.

*Click*

The rifle wasn’t designed for long distance firing, but he had augmented it’s power and attached multiple blackmarket pieces to meet the needed velocity. The crosshairs were aimed surgically at the upper atrium of the female fatale’s heart. The caliber of the 5.56 was a perfect piece of hardware that when combined with his master level dexterity and reflexes, became supernatural. A swift, but firm pull of the trigger being squeezed was the only movement of his muscles. The silence of the round cutting through the air was a heartwarming sensation. This was just another night. Just another mutant nuisance brought down. Or so Quinn had thought.

@cognus_:

Katraya had no means of advanced warning, the round penetrated the window, slipped through her clothing and punctured right through her heart...but even with the heart so grievously wounded the body wouldn't die instantly. As she hit the floor Katraya's training took over from the pain and panic that would have hit most people in their final moments. Gene lock...regeneration combat level. Her body reacted almost instantly, the new genetic information granting it the ability to recover from many types of wounds, including non-body destroying fatalities. So it was that the heart repaired itself, the entry and exit wounds did so as well. Katraya staggered back to her feet, slowly raising up off the ground as the people around her scattered in panic from the obvious gun shot.

"Gene lock, durability level two." She said aloud. Another injection and her skin and organs were reinforced with enough durability to protect her from small arms fire and low level slashing weapons. She wiped the blood from her mouth on the back of her gloved hand and turned her gaze to the shattered glass the bullet had come through and out of the open window. Somewhere out there is a dead mother fluffer Katraya pulled both of the pain batons from her belt and stepped through the open window. Her knowledge of ballistics helped to determine the general direction of the shot, but identifying a specific location was much more difficult in an area with so many options.

Instead, she tried something else. "gene-lock telepathy level three." Her body immediately re-organized its genetic properties and granted her the ability for long range telepathic communication...and the ability to try to read minds. She would use it like radar, searching out the minds in the area and attempting to discern who had fired the shot. It was not precise, nor was it especially good, but it was a start. "gene-lock, X-ray vision." She scanned the area with eyes and mind to find her attacker, intent on looking at and through every possible location until she found the man she was going to beat to death, repeatedly.

Whoever dies...can I have your body...parts

@katraya:

A look of utter disbelief seemed to be plastered upon the target’s face, but was soon washed over with a discriminatory scowl towards the assailant. Like a zombie unfazed by what would normally be a grievous wound, she marched on and towards the source of the projectile. This however was not a normal person and neither was Cognus, her hopeful assassin. Beneath the ivory and ebony patterned mask, Quinn raised a slightly amused eyebrow.

He read her profile thoroughly and was aware of her adaptive abilities, but it was unknown to what extend her powers could acclimatize to. This seemed to be only a taste of her potential. Quinn licked his shrouded lips in eagerness, tensing for the battle that would ensue.

Almost immediately after firing the round, Quinn swung his feet around from his prone stance and laid upon his back, retrieving a single one of his dual cutlass pistols and an obsidian colored blade, edged with jagged, yet flawless teeth.

Both were made with expensive and hard to come by, magnesium rich alloys that offered durability and lightness for efficiency. Almost hypnotically, he felt a slight tug at his psyche, the works of a telepath prodding the vicinity for some sort of consciousness.

A sly grin creeped it’s way to his mouth. She was unaware that his skull was lined with ceramic cranial plating, a defensive invention of his own to protect against telepaths specifically.

“Je vais le faire vous un mieux, imbecile!”

He shouted from the darkness in the forest that had concealed him so well. He lost the element of surprise intentionally, hungering for the sanguine fluid of a mutant freak to coat his weapons and sate his blood thirst. He leapt out of the shadows acrobatically in a an olympic vault and fired four rounds aimed directly to her skull, hoping her speed was less than that of the bullets. In the rare case that it had missed or failed to put the creature down, the blade was readily available and targeting to puncture her carotid artery.

@cognus_:

Her attacker suddenly revealed himself and four perfectly placed rounds smashed into her skull but with her enhanced durability the bullets flattened and fell by the way side, though they did nearly cause her to stumble from the kinetic force of being struck four times in the head. Despite this, she had seen the flash of a close combat weapon and was anticipating his next attack.

That's where her pain baton's came in. She flashed one up suddenly and caught his blade against the baton. Advanced alloy connected with what appeared to be simple leather. It dug in a bit but was brought to a sudden and violent halt by the vibranium core the leather was wrapped around. Without hesitating she brought the second baton around for a violent crack aimed straight for his ribs. She was not using her enhanced strength yet, though the blow could potentially crack human ribs. More important than physical striking power however was the nature of the baton itself. Mere contact would be enough to set the nerves on fire all around the contact point. If she hit, it would feel as if his side had burst into flames and his blood was boiling.

She pushed his blade away and prepared for whatever was to come next. Though his gunshots had failed to so much as bruise her skin, they had done an excellent job of leaving her precious little time to respond to his other attack, thus she'd only been able to launch a single attack of her own in the amount of time typically necessary to attack before one's opponent could start their own series of attacks.

@katraya:

Quinn’s eyes widened in astonishment as the bullets not only failed to deliver a killing blow, but had lacked so much as achieving a visible injury. It was difficult for the Silver Tongued Wraith to not be astounded to a certain extent, but he couldn’t help it. Even as the alloy melded knife made a powerful connection with the nightstick of his foe, he thought he had at least disarmed her.

Once again though, his expectation was only met with more disappointment. Before he could react with a third strike, the swing of the charcoal colored baton came swaying rapidly towards the side of his torso. The speed was nearly blinding to the un-augmented eyesight of a normal person, he however was genetically and intrinsically modified to surpass the typical level of perception.

Rolling with the strike and leaning away from the brute force, he had enough space to take the hit without being significantly impeded. This however, was not enough to dodge the blow, as he felt the weapon make contact with his ghastly coat, he felt the fire of his nerves shooting towards his brain. The pain was enough to remind him that this mutant was not to be trifled with, as he grimaced in pain.

“Cela suffit danse!”

He shouted while reaching towards his obsidian belt, continuing with his evasion roll and fetching a handful of sapphire colored coated pistol rounds. He loaded them into the magazines swiftly, leaping backwards to open the distance between them before firing the bullets. Hopefully, she wouldn’t be able to analyze the expended rounds and decipher that the color coating was actually micro explosives that would detonate on impact.

@cognus_:

It was Katraya's turn to be surprised. Although she wasn't physically wounded by the new rounds, they did throw her off her feet and slam her into the ground as they exploded against her hardened skin. Worse, the proximity of the explosions caused ringing in her ears that greatly limited her ability to hear and the flashes caused issues with sight, causing bright spots in her vision temporarily. Crap. "Electricity Generation, level two." She said quietly. Needles pierced her skin as she forced herself to her feet, shrugging off the sting and stunning impact of the explosives. Her clothing was torn at the location of impact but her skin remained intact.

"Want to play at ranged, let's play at range!" She shouted. She stretched out her hand and a bolt of brilliant lightning arched from her finger tips, intent on zapping across the gap between them and destroying her opponent with a powerful electrical impact to the chest. The energy shot from her hand with a powerful THZAAP! and a clap of thunder that resonated through the area with a bone rattling THOOM! A bolt of lightning such as this one could produce heat equal to or greater than the surface of the sun, to say nothing of the shock ability. People, ordinary people, had survived lightning strikes before however and she prepared to deal with whatever counter he came up with, still holding her combat batons tightly in one hand.