ic Double Dutch

[Heritage]

Grim rolled her eyes and began to tidy up a bit as the Duke started one of his patented narccissitic rants; she piled the journal and one of the crossbows and poisoned bolts on top of the still-groggy Rutte, the sinister butler, traced an oval around him as he mumbled on the couch, and dropped the lot into her Vault.

But then the Duke's rambling took on a darker tone, and the hairs on her neck stood on end. "Oh no..."

She just had enough time to dismiss all her glamour from the room (the Impact of the Duke's Rolls would be nothing compared to the pain of a full-on explosion) before Velocity grabbed her by the arm and started to pick up speed; the changeling's full-sized body melted back into vapor which trailed behind the speedster, leaving only Grim's tiny pixie arm in her grasp.

"Eep!"

Edited November 27, 2014 by Heritage

[Supercape]

GM

 

The rumble progressed to the anticipated conclusion. Streams of blue lightning lit the entire mansion, crackling with static, coursing through every metal, and burning every wood. Fires burst, and every electrical appliance exploded with light and sound. 

 

But that was not the worst of it. As streaming pulse of electricity shattered every window, and ominous groans creaked through the entire house. 

 

"MAGNIFICO!!!!!" came the last words of the duke, delighted at his performance. 

 

And then, the house came a - tumbling down....

[Thevshi]

As Grim shank down to size, Velocity closed her hand halfway around the miniature pixie, helping to keep her in place as they zipped through the halls of the castle. Electrical appliances were just starting to explode, and wood bursting into flame when the speedster skidded to a halt in the library. She did not waste a nanosecond, scooping up her unconscious fiancé and taking off once again in a blur of yellow.

It was just a few moments later that she skidded to a halt a short distance from the castle as the widows were blow out and loud groans foretold what was to come. Velocity took a deep breath as the castle collapsed in upon itself, quickly becoming little more than rubble.

"Well, so much for easily wrapping this up." She stated as she opened her hand to look at Grim. "Though I have a feeling that is not the last anyone will see of the Duke."

[Heritage]

Grim sat up in the palm of her hand, shook her head clear and fluttered her iridescent wings. "We can't be that lucky; we need to track all those bodies down. Hopefully that journal will give us some clues."

She flew out of her friend's hand and resumed her normal size, peering down at Robert's unconscious form. "How is he? I hope my insane assault on the Duke's equipment isn't why he's like this." She turned to look back at the smouldering ruin, shaking her head. "Y'know, even if he IS dead, I have a hard time feeling bad for him, even though that's an awful thing to say." The shapeshifter shrugged. "It's like in his quest for immortality, he sacrificed everything that was good about being human; just a puppet slave to his mad dream."

Grim sighed and rested her hands on her hips. "So where to? I have to drop this butler off somewhere."

[Thevshi]

Velocity was still holding Robert and looked down at his face at Grim's question. "I think he will be alright, that shock just caused his heart to stop. But I was able to get it started once again with it only stopped for a few seconds."

She then looked back up and at the ruins of the castle, although she had not really needed to, her goggles allowed her to see everything that was going on around them. "Well, first lets drop Robert off in the Pegasus so he can rest, then we can get the butler off to the local authorities and explain what happened here."

[Supercape]

GM

 

And so, shortly, in the Pegasus...

 

"What happened? Did I miss anything?" asked Lord Robert Harrow, eyes slammed open. 

 

"Shocking!" was his judgement on the subsequently explained events. 

 

"You know, what we saw down there...it may have the creations of a madman, but it was also of a genius. With decades on his hands. Some of his work...on physics, cybernetics, genetics....it was extraordinary. Self-centred, no doubt, but extraordinary all the same. And, i think, not all his. It was as if he had people make the jigsaw pieces, and he put them together. Nobody quite new what they were doing, they made the ingredients...but he made the dish" he said, with some admiration. 

 

"I can't help wondering exactly who or what he was. A man with a thousand bodies and one mind. I guess it was an interesting life for him. But, I wonder if he was just bored. Bored but determined to live despite it?" he pondered. 

[Thevshi]

Velocity almost rolled her eyes as Robert expressed some appreciation of the Duke's genius. "Well, he may have been a genius, but he sure wasted it." She replied, no longer using her more rapid inflection she used as Velocity now that it was just them and Grim. She then frowned slightly as Robert mentioned that the Duke's equipment seemed rather piecemeal.

"Hmm, that is interesting. Wonder if there might be any way we could try to track down who might have helped him?" She stated. "Might provide some leads on locating more of his clones. As I really doubt that this is the last anyone will have seen of the man."

[Heritage]

Grim also looked a bit askance at Robert, imagining Dok would have said something similar; frickin' scientists!

As they discussed possible future encounters with the Duke, the shapeshifter suddenly hunched her shoulders a bit, and got a little pink in the ears. "I, uh...might have a little something that might help us with that..." She reached into her dimensional pocket and pulled out...the Duke's journal, still in its clear evidence pouch! She turned it around in her gloved hands a few times as she spoke.

"I promised the evidence tech - who was just adorable, by the way - that we'd bring it right back once we made a copy, so..." Her gaze darted between the other two as she shrugged. "I can be extremely persuasive, especially when I give 'em the 'big brown eyes'!" She did a vague gesture that took in them both. "I'd demonstrate, but you guys have a thing."

Edited November 30, 2014 by Heritage

[Supercape]

GM

 

Around about then, in Paris...

 

The Duke sat in cafe, drinking an inexpensive thick coffee in one hand, and an inexpensive dark red wine in the other. 

 

"<Ah Paris, how you enchant me so!>" he said, tipping his rather extravagant and flamboyant hat to a pair of Parisian beauties who strolled past, clothed in style and elegance. 

 

"<Now then, now then...what a enjoyable vexation that was>" he continued in his native Flemish. "<One mansion down, a lot of research, and a magnificent cyborg body. Still, it was rather magnificent, the whole thing>" he mused to himself, scribbling notes on his newspaper. 

 

"<It is the age of miracles, no doubt of it...and of beautiful pretty butterflies. I believe I shall become...>"

 

...

 

"<A collector...>"

 

~ Fin ~