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Post by NµKe on Dec 23, 2010 14:09:07 GMT -5
Katie Rill winked at Murray as she walked by showing the mug of coffee.
"He wants it bad, m'ol'Katie-dear, the coffee, I mean. Told me not to let you in without it. I'm not sure if he's grumpy today. It's so difficult to tell now-days." said Murray with a smile and a return wink. He then added...
"Be careful up there, Katie. This one's a bad business. I've not seen much like the pattern that was shown there... at first I thought it was merely chance, but do your examining because it's been playing in my mind for hours now. Be careful."
Katie showed her serious face and nodded thoughtfully. She then continued on into the house and to the elevator. Walking slowly into the 3rd door on the left (as Murray had mentioned to her earlier) she stopped at the disgusting smell. She almost wretched. It entered her mouth and that repulsive, acidic taste then permeated not only her mouth but also her breath. 'Great.' She thought to herself. 'First impression -- toilet breath.'
Nevertheless she walked into the room (taking a small sip of the coffee, hoping that it would somehow help her breath in some way, shape, or form. It seemed to. As she turned the corner to the bedroom she first was greeted by the back of Phoenix's large, black coat, but swiftly after that she saw the bodies. The smell had been almost unbearable, but the sight of it combined with the stench caused Katie to lose it. She hurled. She made sure to keep it out of the bedroom, it was just to the right of the door if you were facing into the room. Embarrassment. Pure, strong embarrassment. Katie deeply desired to turn back into Karl and keep some sort of dignity, but she knew that Phoenix would see right through it. She simply dropped down to her knees, pulled out her handkerchief, and wiped up her mouth.
"Any clues?" she muttered, trying to focus back on the case.
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Kessen
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Post by Kessen on Dec 23, 2010 15:01:20 GMT -5
"Hi." Phoenix said calmly as Katie... reacted to the scene. He didn't say anything else, something about glass houses and bricks came to mind as he waited for her to finish. "You might need that coffee more than I do." He muttered stepping further into the room and letting the scene wash over him. Facts. That's what kept him calm at time like this. No matter what the horror in front of him might be the facts were the facts. Everything he saw as his eyes swept the room was neatly categorized and filed away. He felt bad for the couple, disgusted at the loss, revolted by the scene, and enraged at whoever had done this. These facts were important to him, still being able to feel that way was critical for someone in Phoenix Dark's position but as important as they were right now they were just facts. Fact's like the four sets of footprints that entered the room. Two sets of bare feet (belonging to the couple) and two sets of prints left by heavy work or combat boots. "Husband went down first." He said bending down to pick up a set of cassettes that had fallen off their place on the bookshelves. "Taken off guard, probably never knew what hit him. The wife they took their time with... wanted her to know what happened." He flicked through the tapes without really paying attention to them and placed them back next to the old cassette player. "Or they were looking for something." He frowned around the room and idly looked through the neatly arranged shelves and the silver framed pictures on the walls. "You all right?" He asked turning back towards Katie letting some concern slip into his voice. His eyes played across the room again slipping over the dresser but not finding anything extraordinary. A few discarded pieces of clothing, an old copy of "Jurassic Park" lay on top of some reading glasses and an old cd. He sighed... "Something's not right... what do you think?" (( OOC: Okay Nikolai I mentioned something that doesn't add up in the post see if you can furrow it out! No big deal if not it's alway easier to write these things than it is to find them ))
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Post by NµKe on Dec 23, 2010 15:35:58 GMT -5
[[His face was screwed up with fear. He wasn't taken by surprise. Therefore, my conclusion is that he found her already cut up, then he freaked out and was 'avada-kadavra'ed. Yes?]]
Katie stood back up and muttered a 'Pardon me'. She walked over to Phoenix and handed him the cup of coffee relatively nonchalantly as she was busy looking at the victims. Her disgust had vanished into her curiosity. She said quietly, almost to herself, but yet loud enough so that it was obvious she meant for Phoenix to hear it.
"If he didn't expect it to happen... then why that look?" Katie crouched down over the husband and studied his face.
"That's not a face of peace, Mr. Dark."
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Kessen
Junior Member
Posts: 41
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Post by Kessen on Dec 24, 2010 12:09:02 GMT -5
Phoenix bent down next to the husband with Katie.
"Phoenix." He correct her looking grimly down at the body. "You don't have to know what hit you to know something hit you." He looked down at the open green eyes of the husband. "I've never seen a Death Curse victim that looked calm. Don't know what it feels like, but the Muggles generally categorize it as being 'scared to death'. Death isn't peaceful kid. Not this kind of death, not any kind of death. We fight and claw against the unknown but in the end we're fighting a battle we can't win. Sometimes it ends later, sometimes it ends sooner." He nodded towards the husbands body. "It never ends well."
Phoenix stood up and nodded towards the door. "Four sets of footprints entering the room." He said nodding towards the heavy footprint. "Obviously the couple never left but the question is if the bootprints came into the room and there are no tracks leading out... how did they leave?" He spun around and pointed at the cassette player against the wall. "And..." he said pieces suddenly falling into place. "If they have a cassette player and a cassette collection why..." He pushed Moby Dick out of the way. "Do they have an old CD?" He picked up the CD with a pencil being very careful not to let it touch his skin.
"So kid," he said raising an eyebrow at Katie and nodding to the CD. "What is this?"
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Post by NµKe on Dec 24, 2010 17:27:46 GMT -5
[[Ah, good call. Reference: Goblet of Fire -- Chapter 1. When the family died in the house, they all looked peaceful. They all were killed by the Avada Kadavra curse, I believe. So... if he was shot in the back, then he might've looked completely peaceful. I figured she was dead before he was, as in, the Dark Wizards wanted to kill him after he saw her... some sort of vengeance or something. Meh. Statement Retracted: Upon further investigation, I discovered that all of the Riddles had a look of terror on their face when they died in the GoF. Therefore, the above statement is rendered incorrect.]]
Katie nodded.
"Hrmm... perhaps they have a CD player somewhere else in the house?" Katie suggested. Cassettes were somewhat old-fashioned, to be sure.
Katie stood up and walked over to Phoenix who was holding the CD with a pencil.
"You suppose it's cursed, Phoenix? As in... the Dark ones possibly did this whole fiasco just to try and get at those who'd discover the scene?"
Katie turned to walk downstairs and get some more information from Murray. As she started walking she muttered something about other friends that might visit, a housekeeper, a gardener, or perhaps a colleague at work...
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Kessen
Junior Member
Posts: 41
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Post by Kessen on Dec 27, 2010 16:21:46 GMT -5
"It's possible." Phoenix said frowning down at the CD. "But I doubt it. You're forgetting the second piece of information though... no footprints leading out. Murray would have mentioned if the neighbors had heard anyone dissapparating. So..." He said slowly rotating the CD. "I think it's a portkey." He waved his wand and muttered a spell and the CD gave off a faint blue light. "What do you say kid?" He held the CD halfway between them and raised an eyebrow at her. "Up for chasing the white rabbit?"
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Post by NµKe on Dec 29, 2010 11:20:49 GMT -5
Katie turned and gave a small smirk to Phoenix. She then took one step forward and began to transform. First her shoes, from her comfortable small shoes to bulky boots, then her relatively baggy capris to bulky, pocket laden, full length pants, covering most of the boots. From her well-fitted jean jacket to a white t-shirt covered by a large overcoat. The last thing that transformed was her face (as the rest of her body had transformed underneath the clothing. Her face turned to the old, wrinkle covered, slightly bearded mug of her other alias: Karl. Karl winked at Phoenix then reached for the port-key, drawing his wand.
"Wand at the ready, Phoen. Let's boogie." Karl's manly voice sounded out, but on the inside, Katie was chuckling. 'Adventure!'
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Kessen
Junior Member
Posts: 41
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Post by Kessen on Jan 25, 2011 20:48:15 GMT -5
Phoenix looked at his partner (now a man) and raised an eyebrow. He had known she was a metamorphus, it was (as they say) in the files. "Phoenix." He corrected her evenly. Phoen? He thought to himself. He was a wizard. An Auror. A wielder of power beyond the conception of most muggle brains, and he got Phoen? Sounded like someone's smelly Aunt. "Boogeying" and the man transformation were fine by Phoenix, whatever floated her boat. His boat. Whatever. Phoenix elected to leave his wand in his coat at least for the moment but held his staff ready in front of him as he gripped the CD and felt the familiarly strange sensation of a hook jerking just behind his naval. The world turned dark, rotated wildly, and with a jarring shake Phoenix landed with his feet firmly planted on what felt like concrete. He opened his eyes and looked around him and said the first word that sprang to mind. "Oh." Yup. That was Phoenix, Master of Rhetoric. Phoenix found himself standing on the roof a building hundreds of stories above the ground. All around him skyscrapers reached for the stars with bony metal fingers. And not far away from where he stood right now was a singular spire that he recognized beyond any doubt. The Empire State building. "Oh."
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Post by NµKe on Jan 25, 2011 21:00:46 GMT -5
[[Postage?! What?! Dang, it's been SO long, lol I'm glad we're back though ... and yes, by 'we' I mean 'you'.]] Karl landed somewhat awkwardly and dropped to one knee, but got back up on his feet."Sorry, Phoen. No nicknames, got it." Karl muttered, half-smiling. He then took in his surroundings and leaned just slightly over the edge to see all the way down. He let out a whistle."Whoa... quite a long way down. Now... why on earth would someone port here?" Karl asked Phoenix, expecting him to have already figured out the next step. Phoenix was quite brilliant, as Katie had heard... and so since he was taking leadership, Katie figured that 'tagging along for the ride' and 'helping out where she could' would be acceptable.
'Let the man lead...' she thought to herself and began busying herself with looking for clues around the building that they were currently on.
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Kessen
Junior Member
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Post by Kessen on Jan 26, 2011 22:27:19 GMT -5
Phoenix grunted as man-Katie said something involving the word Phoen again. He let the wind grab his cloak and pulled it billowing behind him. Off to his left was a small service door that looked like it had been opened recently but other than that no signs of lurking evil showed themselves. That was the problem with villains in reality: no sense of melodrama. They insisted on being all secret and stealthy and things. Phoenix glanced over at his partner as the she/he asked about porting. "No idea." He shrugged. "Guess I didn't make the guest list." He took several steps toward the service door and just as he was about to reach out his hand to touch the doorknob a flash of light to his left he caught his eye. With a crack Phoenix was simply gone and a column of fire flared up in the space that he had occupied only a second before. The angry red bolt of magic that would have hit him directly in the face vanished into the flames. Phoenix re-apparated off to the right and behind a large metal cooling unit hopefully out of sight of whoever had attacked him. Short jump apparating was fairly basic stuff but handy in a pinch and Phoenix had only recently mastered the art of adding the blast of fire at the point of origin. It generally didn't do much damage but fire is as distracting as heck (no pun intended) and in a tight fight having a good distraction is always a good idea. As near as he could tell there was just the one attacker but he hoped Katie would make herself scarce for the time being until they could force the attacker would reveal them self.
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Post by NµKe on Jan 27, 2011 20:14:20 GMT -5
[]
Karl turned at the noise and saw the cooling unit, Phoenix, the door, and the small raised ventilation shaft that must have hidden the attacker. There was only two other areas on the roof that could provide any sort of cover... something of a tool shed for whatever crazed maintenance man would use the roof as a storing shack, and a set of antennas obviously used for any sort of technological needs the building had. Karl moved quickly but quietly over to the other side of the ventilation shaft that the main was hiding behind.
Karl couldn't see through the vent shaft, but he knew that attempting to blast it wasn't a good idea... the shaft seemed thick and relatively big, proving it to be more of an obstacle than an object of use. Karl had an idea.... he picked up a set of rocks using a quiet wingardium leviosa and brought them close to the door where Phoenix had been. She wanted to see what the person would do... She heard a stupefy! and she swung around the back side of the shaft. Kicking the person square in the back and attempting a petrificus totalus might have worked, but Karl didn't fully know as as soon as she had attempted the spell she swung back around the shaft with her eyes closed and her fingers crossed. Odd actions for a large, bulky, somewhat muscular man to do, but that would only be if they didn't know who truly was inside the large, seemingly unfeeling shell.
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Kessen
Junior Member
Posts: 41
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Post by Kessen on Jan 30, 2011 0:06:51 GMT -5
Phoenix heard a grunt and spun around the corner just in time to see their attacker stumble as the spell ManKatie had cast slammed into his chest. The man hit the ground hard and slammed his head on the concrete when he went down. Ouch. "Nice shot." Phoenix said as he walked back around the corner. The man was obviously not going to be conscious for a good long while. "Oh goody." He thought. "Cause that's what my day needed... Less answers." Still though he had to hand it to her/him, it had been a good move and she/he... shehe... had been under pressure. The kid was as good as they said. "Let's see what we can find out about..." In mid sentence a whirling noise whispered from his left and Phoenix dove to the ground. Again. Yay. He was getting too old for this. Phoenix rolled over when he hit and looked to his left just in time to see a witch on a broom rocket past him shooting spells more or less at random with her wand. Two other brooms shot past the roof and followed the witch away from the building they were standing on. One more wizard came popping up over the building and turned towards his companions but by that time Phoenix had managed to get up. In one motion Phoenix swept his wand out of his coat and extended it towards the man on the broom. The mans broom gave a jerk and flew backwards towards Phoenix outstretched wand. Phoenix swatted his wand to the left and the man flew off his broom and came to a skidding and extremely uncomfortable looking faceplant on the roof. Phoenix watched the wizard skid against the ground with an expression of vague interest and casually reached out to catch the man's broomstick as it glided gently towards him. Phoenix had given vague thought to interrogating the man but it seemed the best way to get answers would be to follow the broom mounted culprits zooming away. He turned to KatieMan and arched an eyebrow. "Fancy a trip?"
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Post by NµKe on Jan 31, 2011 22:02:48 GMT -5
Katie chuckled. This guy has style... She thought to herself.
"Sure!" She said, excitedly. As she ran towards the broom she transformed back from Karl into Katie. She always loved to feel the hair rushing through her hair and so she pulled her hair tie out of her hair and let it free. As she did this she muttered an petrificus totalus at the wizard who had done the face-plant.
"In case we come back to question them..." she said to Phoenix in case he was even wondering as to her motive. She mounted the broom behind Phoenix and emitted a little giggle.
Katie loved flying.
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Post by NµKe on Aug 7, 2011 18:10:44 GMT -5
Phoenix and Katie kicked off the roof and shot off in the direction of the mounted wizards. It had been later in the morning when this whole adventure had begun and so by this point the sun was nearing its apex in the sky. The heat was somewhat substantial, but practically nothing when combined with the rush of wind that riding a broom brought. The three wizards didn't seem as though they were completely set on losing their followers. Or perhaps they simply didn't realize. Sometimes lackeys like that simply did not have the brain-power to handle a mission. Katie leaned around Phoenix a little to stare hard into the eye-watering wind. She saw two wizards go right between two skyscrapers and the other one drop to the left. He had gone into something of a nose-dive. Katie then took the opportunity to yell over the whooshing sounds of the wind into Phoenix's ear. (Hope he doesn't get hearing problems from this...)
"I'm going to drop off and follow him, mmkay?"
Phoenix simply grunted... or possibly groaned. She realized that no matter how loud the wind, she had still just yelled into a man's ear at point-blank range. She then attempted to apologize in a normal pitch, but she figured the lasting ringing in his ears probably negated her attempts. At the turn, Phoenix began to veer right to follow the two wizards while Katie leaned to the left and simply dropped off, falling directly down towards the diving wizard.
Katie giggled with anticipation.
Accio Broomstick she mentally cast the spell, wand aimed directly at the wizard. The man did a somersault and left the broom. He obviously wasn't holding very tightly. ...novice... Katie then cast, as she caught and mounted his broom, Arresto Momentum upon the falling wizard. His fall slowed quite a bit, but he still managed to heavily dent the hood of a new-looking Dodge Charger. Swooping down quickly, Katie obliviated the nearest Muggle's memory and disapparated with a pop.
She was back on the roof with the other unconscious wizards. The wizard she had dragged with her made to draw his wand but Katie landed a good swift kick to his face. After a stupefy Katie began moving all of the unconscious wizards over to lay side-by-side near the raised vent shaft. She then decided to wait for Phoenix, hoping that his excursion was going as swimmingly.
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