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Post by Zuyuri on Apr 9, 2017 22:40:19 GMT
According to the commissioner, almost all the inmates that had escaped during Thrax's explosive announcement had been returned. The new jail for Others was being constructed in the bayou. The idea was to keep the prisoners in one area if there was another escape attempt and at least they could be located without getting people hurt. For now, only one cell had been completed, and that cell was for the last inmate who had gotten away.
And that was the very inmate Shadow was looking for in the bayou. He stopped to rest at a rotting tree and glared out at the water, hunting for any ripples. Smart move, coming here. It'd be a good cover for...well...what he was. Having gotten strength back in the injured shoulder, he was ready to have a little excitement. As he continued to follow the disturbed dirt trail, a voice called out from the trees.
"What? Going rogue again?"
Shadow sighed in annoyance of being caught and looked back. Of course with his disappearance, Sunshine wouldn't be far behind. She had been worried sick, but ever since her date with Riku, she had seemed...well..more chipper. He pushed back the thoughts of jealousy aside as she slid down her rope of hair to land next to him, untangling the strands and putting her hands on her hips.
"Are you sure taking Croc down alone is a good idea? Sounds like a suicide mission."
"Croc was the last inmate that got out during Thrax's stunt. He's also the most dangerous, which would explain why no one's gone after him." Shadow regarded the trail and some of the water. "He's also picked the perfect hiding place. Since the rest of squad can't find him, I took it on myself."
"And you didn't bother asking me because?" Sunshine arched her eyebrow at him. A pang of guilt stung in Shadow's chest. "Look," she said after a silence. "I know you're still upset about what happened, but that doesn't mean you should shut me out. I'm not mad at you for running off. Hell, I understand why you were gone. But last I checked, we're a team and teams look out for each other." By the time she finished, her cocky smile was enough to win Shadow over. He tossed her a few bullets that he had stored, to which she loaded her gun, highlighted by the purple paint-job complete with suns.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 10, 2017 16:45:36 GMT
“So, what’s a big boy like you doin way out in the swamp? Gettin voodoo ingredients I'd bet”
Riku sighed and raised his blue eyes to the red sky. Red herself continuing to yammer on about nothing Riku cared about. They’d run into each other in the swamp and the flaming red head had stuck to Riku like glue for the past hour. Riku continued wandering the swamp with the red clad woman next to him, her gun at the ready and his sword held loosely in his hand. You never knew what could be in the waters here.
It was several more minutes before they stumbled across Sunshine and Shadow. Riku grinned and walked quickly over to Sunshine. “Sunshine, Shadow! what brings you out here?” he asked amicably. Red raised an eyebrow at the change in demeanor of Riku when he saw Sunshine and smiled over at Shadow.
“Heya sugs. You doin alright pretty loves?”
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Post by Zuyuri on Apr 10, 2017 18:35:38 GMT
Both Shadow and Sunshine froze at the accented voice calling over. Their guns were whipped and kept low. Red and green eyes scanned every corner of the bayou. Then there was a familiar call and both of them eased to relaxing.
Sunshine beamed as she heard Riku. He came? It was...how..."Riku!" She greeted with a girlie grin. Yep, there it was again, that sensationnof floating without wings.
Shadow bit back whatever he wanted to say. It was no secret that Riku and Sunshine had worked well together when he was...discovering himself. He turned his back to the teams and glared back out the water. He had no opinion of the redhead as of yet, but she was part of the group for now. With a reluctance of cutting his arm, he answered.
"We're tracking Waylon Jones, better known as Killer Croc. He was the last inmate on the radar. Stupidly, no one bothered going after him until now."
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Post by skyeknight on Apr 10, 2017 18:56:41 GMT
Aqua winced. She was running late. But she needed the flight time. The wind in her hair, beneath her wings, a light smile on her face despite the circumstances of her flight. Her wings all but sang in relief at being away from the city. She enjoyed being out of a glamour and away from iron. She didn't do it near often enough so her perhaps if Omar asked about that trip out of town again, she would agree. She spotted the other officers gathering before landing nearby on solid ground.
"Sorry I'm late." she said quickly.
She offered a sheepish smile. She knew that this was important. Killer Croc was dangerous. The last on their list of big criminals (minus Vanitas and Thrax) to track down after the prison riots. Thank goodness for that because Aqua wanted her life back.
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Post by Zuyuri on Apr 11, 2017 1:40:09 GMT
Okay, apparently everyone and their Seelie Godmother knew about the hunt for Killer Croc because Aqua dropped in. Literally dropped in. Her wind-rustled hair wrote the whole story of how she rushed to get here. Shadow felt...well, betrayed was the wrong choice of words. Mistrusted...yes, that seemed more appropriate. A bit mistrusted. He just nodded in her apology for being late, looking back out at the water. He was out there somewhere.
"...So..." Sunshine looked at Aqua, "while you were airborne, anything that looked...promising?"
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Post by Deleted on Apr 11, 2017 18:36:22 GMT
Riku walked over to Sunshine, pleased with her smile. She seemed as happy to see him as he felt seeing her. Red smirked at the reactions of the two and walked over to where Shadow was. "Wan me ta ask th drowned spirits in th swamp if they done seen yer villain? I was gettin some contracts goin with em anywho. They can do this small service"
Riku turned when Aqua showed up and grinned. "You guys leaving me out of the party? I came out here to get herbs and things, though I'm always ready for some justice" he said easily.
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Post by skyeknight on Apr 11, 2017 21:17:44 GMT
"No I didn't see anything." Aqua said.
She glanced around. Something was off. Everything was weird. Riku and Sunshine were smiling too much and Shadow looked angry. Or rather more angry than usual. She wondered if she had done something wrong. She pinned her wings down to her back and looked down at her feet. She shifted. She had been told that they needed back up at the bayou so she had gone as fast as she could to get there. Instead, she walked into a weird conversation and an odd tension.
"But I can go and get a second look."
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Post by Zuyuri on Apr 12, 2017 1:06:56 GMT
"A swamp spirit or two would be beneficial." Shadow was ignoring Sunshine's little moment with Riku. The more he focused on that, the more his envy would get in the way. He had to think about the half cric convict who was playing hide and seek with them. "Besides, it'll give Aqua a chance to rest her wings."
Sunshine rocked on the balls of her heels. Was Shadow... jealous? She had never seen that side of him, where he ignored her. Even around newcomers he had stuck to her. But, she knew he'd tell her when he was ready.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 12, 2017 16:13:22 GMT
"Swamp spirit comin right up" Red said, noting the way the homunculous was ignoring the two young people acting sweet towards each other. Red pulled out some paper and a pen, quickly finishing half made summoning circles and setting them on the wet ground and making quick hand gestures. The circle glowed and out of the water came a small creature covered in swamp debris. It looked somewhat like a frog, but a foot or so larger. The creature slithered into the circle and stayed there. Red nodded, satisfied. "Right honey. Ask th' spirit what you're lookin for and then I can send it on a search. If yeh got a picture or somethin ta smell o yer croc-man's, that'll work better"
Riku was getting the distinct feeling that Shadow didn't like him, at all. Was he jealous that he and Sunshine were so close? Maybe the fact that they worked very well on a case together made him feel threatened. Riku was going to have to talk to him about that. "Hey Aqua, maybe we can scout ahead with the spirit, once it gets going. I can paralyze pretty much anything so I should be alright, if that doesn't work I'm armed, and you have your magic and your wings"
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Post by skyeknight on Apr 13, 2017 2:02:21 GMT
"Yeah. We should probably get to it. We don't want to run out of daylight." she agreed.
The sooner they caught Killer Croc, the better. The streets would be safer. Aqua opened her wings up. She glanced between everyone before she went airborne again. She liked flying. It was just a shame that most of the time she was flying, she was doing it to catch a bad guy. It left very little time to actually enjoy it.
"We'll stick close," Aqua told Riku. "So he can't take us by surprise."
He was armed and she had her magic. Still, there was a chance something would happen. She wasn't about to lose her partner to a Croc-human. She did smile though. Omar would find it funny that after he told her trolls wrestled alligators, that she had gone after her own (in her own way). He might not let her live it down.
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Post by Zuyuri on Apr 13, 2017 2:51:40 GMT
"Wait you two!"
Sunshien held out a hand to Riku and Aqua. They were so eager to scout ahead, but if any of them got hurt by a croc man. If she knew one thing about crocs, ambushes were a big deal. She had just started to like Riku. She didn't want him to get his hand bitten off. She looked back over at Shadow and Red, who were looking down at the frog-spirit she had summoned.
Shadow got to the level of the frog, looking at it in the eye. He had no picture, which was a shame, but he did have one specific detail that could help.
"We're looking for an escaped murderer. He is half-human, half-crocodile. One major important thing to point out; he has an active shock collar around his neck."
Yes. Super important detail. Important for everyone to know. If that collar got shot at in the right placement, it'd stun Croc and make him easier to get back to the prison. Which also mant the caution of being quiet had to be in effect. Croc would be hunting them so much as they were going after him. Alertness and silence was key.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 16, 2017 18:16:43 GMT
Red nodded to the frog spirit. "Got that dearie? a crocodile human mix with a shock collar. Have ya seen somethin like that lately?" slowly the spirit nodded and stepped out of the circle and back into the water, evidently waiting for them to be ready to follow. Red nodded. "No scouting necessary but it'd be best if we spread out to get th drop on im. We gotta have some element of surprise"
Riku had paused and nodded along to what Shadow and Red were saying. "Sounds good to me, then. We need to be careful"
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Post by Zuyuri on Apr 16, 2017 20:02:43 GMT
"But it's not like we can go into the water," Sunshine pointed out. Swamp wading was absolutely dangerous, and not because of mud. But because the sound waves in the water would give away their position.
"Riku, do you have any kind of charm that could support weight?" Shadow asked. Aqua and him could transverse fine, her with her wings and him with his hover skates, but Red, Riku and Sunshine would be at the mercy of the predator. "And Red's right. We should go individual paths."
He stepped away from the group and suddenly began gliding at a quick speed. In a circle. The ground beneath him began sinking as he ran. The ring of dirt, grass, and mulch collapsed. He was going down with the run.
"Shadow? What are you doing?" Sunshine asked, coming to stand at the edge of the hole he had dug. It was a deep chasm and getting deeper. The mud was hard enough that it couldn't flood or be dug into quickly. Shadow was wall-hopping to get back up, flipping from a root.
"Croc's mindset is basically an animal," he answered, dragging moss to cover the hole. "And animals need traps and the right bait. Once one of us gets to him, lead him here." He cocked his gun and inserted a few tranquilizing bullets, giving the box to his motley team. "Keep these on you. But don't use them until he's cornered."
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Post by skyeknight on Apr 16, 2017 22:45:55 GMT
Aqua caught the tranquilizers that Shadow tossed to them. She looked between the four others. She then passed the box over to Red. Aqua had sleep magic. That worked as well as any tranqulizer. They would also need something to bind his mouth. To keep him from tearing one of them limb from limb. Gruesome stuff. Still, they did this sort of thing every day. She was only surprised that an animal control agent wasn't there for the assist or at least a local hunter or someone who knew the swamp well to act as a guide.
"You and I could just lure Croc back here." Aqua said to Shadow.
The irony of acting as bait was not lost on her, considering her most recent conversation regarding big game. But she didn't see what else there was for her to do.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 17, 2017 19:16:18 GMT
Red took the tranquilizers as they were handed to her and took some before handing them to Sunshine after Riku raised a hand and shook his head. Red nodded. "We'll each spread out. I'll take th' trees by th water an you all can take th air an water ways" She was thinking of the large hollow fallen logs that many crocodiles liked making nests in. Maybe she could catch him asleep and get the jump on him. She nodded in approval as Shadow made the pit. "Good thinkin sug" she said in approval.
Riku took out a packet of sleep powder and nodded at them. "I can make everyone light enough to walk on water" he said slowly. "But it's going to take a lot. I'd be best as bait after I made the stuff for Sunshine and Red. But it'll be good because it increases agility as well"
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