melodiesoflife | Mooglehunt

Entry tags:

Mooglehunt

Characters: James Kidd (Mary Read) and the Heroes she's approached about her Assassin's Guild
Where: Trano Golsaucia
When: Begins November 6th and hopefully ends by the 9th
Summary: The information that Mary has gathered has lead her to believe that the fugitive moogle Artemicion has been spotted in Trano Golsaucia. She's decided to take a small group to take him in herself.
OOC notes: This log is semi closed to people who Kidd has had CR with. However the first prompt will be open and if you want to try to come on board please contact me via plurk or message. Even so, she wants to keep party size limited so to not spook her quarry. OOC post here: link

Largely this will be a first proper mission for her guild's pc trainee's. Information on the Artimicion will be supplied by the mods as they're able to help us out. Beyond that this is sneakytime fun. I'll handle any npcs that we interact with. I believe the best way to do it would be for each player to pick which location and date they will be searching an area during the trip, covering the 7th and 8th. On the 9th a move will be made and hopefully the moogle will be captured.

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On the 5th, letters go out to a few particular Heroes, and not through the normal Mognet channels. Instead they are dropped off quickly and quietly, though a keen eye may still spot the hooded moogle jumping from hiding place to perching point as she goes about her deliveries.

The letter reads:

Dear Friends,

Ever since the vanishing of Palitutu I have been reaching out to various contacts that I could make around the world, trying to find out what I can about her movements. While the Tarutaru has remained elusive, there seem to have been sightings of a particular moogle that I would like to investigate and I'd appreciate your assistance.

Please meet me at the Eagle Eye pub tomorrow so that we may discuss matters.

Yours,
James Kidd

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"What are you waiting for? Grab it and run!" Something that tiny couldn't be difficult to pick up under someone's arm. Whatever that signal had been, it couldn't bode well for any of them. He might have called for backup, or he might have signaled that he had been compromised. Whatever it was, there was no sense in dallying here a moment longer than necessary.

She poked her head out, trying to see where the other Moogle had gone, the one that had delivered the message. That one might be worth following as well, but she couldn't see any sign of him.

Slinging her quiver and bow over her shoulder, she hastened down the steps of the blasted building to snatch her arrow from the ground, keeping a sharp lookout for signs of trouble.

The other Moogle, unfortunately had disappeared among the other Moogles. With that said, Yuffie would easilly be able to gab Artemicion and the letter he was holding. Needless to say, Artemicion kept trying to fly away as if his life depended on it.

However, around at the same time this happened, Ashelia and Kidd would both feel their powers leave them as both of their Jobs had been deactivated. How or why, there was no way to know, all that was clear was that their powers were gone and they were nothing more than Freelancers now.

Thirty seconds after that, Ales and Saori would be the ones to have their Jobs disabled.

"Oh hell no you don't! " Saori cursed under her breath. It's no leap of faith but she pounced after the poorly dyed Moogle. She aimed a few knives at Artemicion in the hope of slowing down his flight. Since she figured Yuffie was a higher experienced assassin than her, she would be better off as back up.

Except until she noticed, she couldn't free run as well as before. That device must have had something to do with that. It doesn't stop her from still trying though. "Well, that's just great."

Edited 2015-12-17 07:27 (UTC)

Yuffie leaped forward, her fingers grasping the letter while her whole upper torso fell on top of Artemicion. He was smaller than her, which wasn't something Yuffie usually encountered and so she decided to use her weight to attempt to keep him knocked out or pinned to the ground.

Either way she wasn't letting go of the note which was now a little bit crumpled and clamped between her fingers.

Kidd stumbled as she felt her magically enhanced agility slip away from her. She had up to this point been using her own invisibility crystal to help her movement through the crowd, but that was gone now as well.

On the other hand, she'd taken care to at least physically retrain herself as an Assassin since her arrival. She wasn't as nimble as the Jobs would make her or even as she was back home after years of training. Here and now it was enough to keep her from falling flat on her face.

"Yuffie! Hold onto him!" She shouted over the screams in the crowd. This could end poorly if things kept going the way they were. She looked at the panicked people and then over to Saori as an idea came to her mind. She tried to catch Saori's eyes, hoping she'd get the hint and run with it. "Artemicion! You're under arrest!"

Before long, while all of this was happening, Yuffie's Jobs deactivated as well, leaving her without any powers. Not that it helped Artemicion.

"K-Kupo, let me go...!" Artemicion tried to kick his way out of Yuffie's grasp, probably with little success given his size. "I'm not a criminal!"

After one more minute, Elsa's powers deactivated as well.

Yuffie struggled with a grunt as she continues to pin the moogle beneath her. Even without powers she was going to hold him down, even if that meant a few small buries to her ribs in the process.

"Then why are you running!"

Seriously! Only the guilty run away.

"B-Because you're all attacking me, Kupo!"

An arrow shot at him out of nowhere can never be a good sign. By now, the powers of any Heroes of Light present in the city are completely deactivated.

While Saori caught up to Yuffie and the now captured Moogle, she looked behind her and saw that look in Mary's eyes. Quickly she fished out her badge and brandished it. While she wasn't as high an officer as Sparks, she could keep up the bluff until they made it back. Whether or not her superiors would be pleased or not with a slightly unethical method of capture could wait until she got back.

"That doesn't change the fact that the city of Aqures Ixen has a warrant for your arrest since you are a wanted criminal. Aiding and abetting a fugitive, espionage, and conspiracy to commit treason are some of the charges against you. Now then, anything you say or do now can be used against you in a court of law. You also have a right to an attorney and in the case where you cannot afford one, the court will appoint one for you. Do you understand?" Either way, a pair of moogle-sized handcuffs and/or other restraining methods have his name written on them.

While the lack of a Thief Job made sneaking difficult, the Freelancer job gave him his original agility as a Teensie, and he slid down a ladder from the rooftop onto the alleyway below. That poor puppet was sitting in the middle of the street, useless, but at least it helped with Artemecion's capture before he lost control of it.

He tucked his small hands under the body of the robot and cradled it in his arms, the robot's own limbs dangling onto the floor. Hours of work had to be treated with respect.

Ales joined the group surrounding the Moogle. His clothes were replaced with a purple robe and a shiny black jacket. "There's no way you're talking yourself out of this, Moogle. There's a lot you have to answer for."

"B-But, Kupo!"

Artemicion kept trying to free himself out of their grasp, but that didn't seem to work for the best. In the meantime however, someone emerged from the panicked crowd running around. Someone who looked as calm as ever and headed straight for Artemicion and the group surrounding him.

"He's not talking himself out of this." She stopped a couple feet away from them. "But you are going to let him go peacefully and go back to Aqures Ixen, now."

Kidd heard the voice before she saw who it was and her ears prickled and her whole body coiled at the sound of that voice. It was a voice she wouldn't forget for a long time and one that made her wrist twitch every time she heard it in her mind.

She was never the most patient of Assassins. She was good at what she did but she still let her temper and impetuousness run away with itself when the success of a mission was on the line. This was a target who got away. But this time she didn't have history protecting her and she wasn't going to let the chance slide.

Turning on the spot she lunged at Palitutu, her wrist flicking and her hidden blade springing into action. She would take this woman out here and now, even if it cost her own life!

The second Kidd lunged at her, Palitutu vanished and reappeared behind Kidd, as if nothing had happened. Those familiar with the Illusionist Job could recognize she used the Vanish skill.

"I wouldn't do anything like that again if I were you."

She took a few steps forward and stopped right before Kidd.

"Ultima Weapon has for order to raze this city to the ground and kill every lifeform from here to the Temple of Water." She looked up at Kidd. "It will arrive in exactly three hundred seconds. Of course, I can still cancel the order."

With that said, she directed her gaze to the group holding Artemicion.

"I said, let go of Artemicion."

Ultima Weapon? Saori's eyes went wide. Was this a bluff? The stakes were too high to risk it though. They couldn't afford another repeat after what had happened back then. Their window of opportunity was closing faster than ever.

"You got guts showing yourself in public, Palitutu." With their jobs disabled, they had no clear advantages against her outside of numbers. Saori grit her teeth before turning to Yuffie to give her a nod. The most wanted traitors were standing right in front of them but they couldn't do a thing to capture them.

Yuffie stealth-fully keeps the lose piece of paper in her hand while glaring at the little wobbly woman. "Bitch." She swore softly before standing up and kicking Artemicion hard in the stomach.

The other who had grabbed onto the moogle were still holding him but Yuffie relented. They didn't have their jobs, most like because of her and she wasn't going to chance more lives to this crazy woman.

"What the hell is your problem!?"

Palitutu didn't even blink as Yuffie spoke, and instead awaited for the others who were holding onto Artemicion to let him go as well.

"Two hundreds and eighty seconds."

It was a bluff. Ellie was absolutely sure of that. No one would threaten to level an entire town for the sake of one pitiful Moogle, particularly if it meant evaporating that Moogle in the process. She stayed crouched where she was, watching the proceedings with a frown.

The problem was, she doubted any of these Heroes could afford to call that kind of bluff. Supposing it was actually true, Ellie was sure they wouldn't endanger the townsfolk for the sake of their mission. All of them would surely survive (in a manner of speaking, anyway, if they were returned as crystals), but no one else would.

She made a quiet chuff of disgust, rolling the hilt of a dagger between her fingers. Her abilities may have been slightly diminished, but truth be told, she almost felt better for it. More natural, really. Shaking her head, she held her tongue. Ellie had only come as support, not to usurp Kidd's leadership. The call was ultimately hers to make.

Kidd let out a curse. This was so far from what she was expecting out of this mission and now they themselves had the knife to their necks. She shot a glare at Ellie. She couldn't be sure but that arrow likely came from her. If they had been able to approach Artemicion without him noticing, if he hadn't had a chance to make a fuss, they might have been able to apprehend him.

Then again she couldn't put it past Palitutu to find a way to get one over on them no matter how careful they were. For all they knew she could have known they were there the whole time.

"Damnit. Let him go. We can't risk the people of this city." The Weapon could easily raze this place and Palitutu would undoubtedly be the sole survivor, not counting their own resurrections.

What? Don't look at her like that, she should have had a more concrete plan than 'spread out and let's get him eventually.' In Ellie's opinion, she stopped him from slipping into the massive crowds where it would have been next to impossible to find him again, or at least, he would have been rid of the letter he received. He should have been grabbed before he could set off the sparklers.

Saori could feel her blood boil but not from Palitutu. If she hadn't wavered earlier in attacking, things would've gone off differently. She dared not to do anything else to Artemicion or else that timer would conveniently be shorter.

If she could, she would've thrown Artemicion right at Palitutu's face. Instead, she just shoved the moogle forward.

"You heard her, get going."

As soon as they let go of Artemicion, Jessie nodded at him and he flied away as quickly as he could. However, Jessie didn't seem to take notice of the paper Yuffie had managed to hold on. She looked at the Heroes gathered before her one after the other.

"Do not try this again. Next time, I will not give you a chance to save the citizens."

She turned away and started walking away. She did pause however, looking back at Kidd for a second.

"It's as your people say, right? Nothing is true, everything is permitted."

And with that said, she would vanish within the crowd before long.

Kidd cursed again as Jessie vanished, fists clenching as the tarutaru's words echoed in her mind. She parroted them to her own ends. This wasn't what they were meant to mean. Just because one had the power to take a city hostage didn't mean you should. The freedom the creed espoused was to encourage one to act wisely, not with an iron fist.

She stood by, watching the skies, waiting for the Ultima Weapon to rain down fire and death in spite of her words. But the crowd began to form again around them as if the recent disturbance was nothing at all. At least the police weren't bearing down on them.

"Damn her. Damn her to the bottom of all the seas in this world. And those back on Earth as well." She shook her head and turned to the others, "I'm sorry for dragging you all here. It looks like this mission is a failure."

Yuffie moved next to Kidd and lightly elbows her in the arm.

"It isn't." She whispered the words. Honestly she'd rather read the note she swiped in private.

"Let's go."

It took a moment for Yuffie's words to process in Kidd's mind. She shot a glare at Yuffie at the elbow, but then she mouthed what Yuffie said once more. 'It isn't'. Did she get the letter off of him? Did she have time? Had Palitutu missed it?

A slow smirk crept over her face and she clapped a hand on Yuffie's shoulder. "Good work...Right...I'd say we all deserve a drink and a warm meal. After that, we'd best see about getting back home. Thank you all."

She looked around the gathered folk. A good few of them had proven themselves capable on this trip. She'd have to consider approaching them to see if they wanted to be Initiates of her Brotherhood properly. She felt a pang of guilt for doing things this way. She wasn't a Master Assassin, just a field agent....but it felt good to have allies she could trust.

Saori nodded in agreement. "We did our best under these circumstances. Let's head back to the inn unless anyone anyone would like some time to cool off. I'd rather not press our luck if the police do show up." After all, she didn't have any power in this jurisdiction to convince them not to look into the situation if they did.

Her left hand balled into a tight fist. She couldn't help but feel a knot in her stomach. Yes there was no point in dwelling on what was done, but Saori had to wonder about her own decisions back there.

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not_most_days - 2016-01-13 22:02 (UTC) - Expand

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