001 - A Bad Day For Everyone

[chasingstars201.livejournal.com]

[Misaki Kirihara appears on the plane looking very, very pissed. Her Sig P230 is unholstered and leveled at…

…no one.]

Tch.

[She lowers the weapon, very slightly, taking in her surroundings. Or rather, the lack thereof.]

Contractor!

[She turns in a slow circle, tension wrapped around her like a creaking spring.]

Contractor! Show yourself. You’re being stupid. Using your power on a member of the NPA will get you killed. It isn’t worth the laugh.

[A pause. She’s starting to get angry again.]

Show yourself!

[She looks up, down, around at the stars, and a pained expression crosses her face. Barely audible, she mutters,]

You people… know how to be cruel.

Comments

[salvagestime.livejournal.com]

Uhm, yeah, about that. [rubs his eye a bit in a way that says 'uncomfortable'] You seem smart enough, so just...if you talk to him, keep your guard up. The Master can be rather dangerous. Oh and right. He looks more or less like Sam in a black suit. He feels completely different to me but that's a good way of putting it.

[chasingstars201.livejournal.com]

I've heard about him. Them. A little bit, at least. [Predatory Kirihara is predatory.]

You don't have to answer if you don't wish to, but why would you travel with someone like him?

[She checks herself and backs off.]

My apologies. You've been courteous. That was rude.

[salvagestime.livejournal.com]

[looks down a bit, suddenly seeming more tired than he was before]

That's...a long story.

[chasingstars201.livejournal.com]

[She suddenly feels like an incredible ass.]

One you don't have to tell. We all have our reasons for... strange companions.

[salvagestime.livejournal.com]

[looks back up, smiling slightly at her]

Well if you're going to be nice about it...We're the last two of our species. That's it. There was a war and my people lost. [glances around at the stars] Thanks to this place, we did find another survivor, though. A friend of mine, Romana. But that's it, besides the other versions. It gets quite complicated but there you have it.

[chasingstars201.livejournal.com]

[She doesn't really know what to say in the face of that, but she feels that she ought to say something.]

I'm... sorry. [She falters a bit, casting around for something else.]

Thank you.

[salvagestime.livejournal.com]

It's not your fault. But thank you.

[topic jump!] So! How'd you get into this line of work?

[chasingstars201.livejournal.com]

[She willingly jumps along with him.] I've always wanted to be a cop.

[She headtilts, smiling at nothing in particular.] I wanted to keep people safe.

[salvagestime.livejournal.com]

[smiles back] That's an admirable goal.

[chasingstars201.livejournal.com]

[Self-amusement.]

I certainly thought so when I was young. Everything is much easier when you don't know how hard it will be.

[salvagestime.livejournal.com]

[nods] Oh, yeah, sure but...you wouldn't want to do anything else, would you?

[chasingstars201.livejournal.com]

[An honest grin, this time.] Never. [It fades as quickly as it came on.]

Almost never.

[salvagestime.livejournal.com]

[nods] Ah, everyone gets tired sometimes. The point is being happy with what you do most of the time, I think.

[chasingstars201.livejournal.com]

Someone in my world has been killing children.

[And out it pops. She startles, surprised at herself--but it's only common knowledge, really, no harm done. Right?]

[salvagestime.livejournal.com]

[blinks, surprised for a moment before he frowns]

Not a normal serial spree?

[chasingstars201.livejournal.com]

Not in the least.

[Debate. Debate. Debate. Honesty for honesty it is.]

There are people, where I come from, who have certain abilities. It varies from person to person. They're an extreme minority group, though they've grown more prevalent since the attacks on the Tokyo Gate. They started appearing the same time the Gates did. They... [She rubs her neck, searching for a proper way to explain.]

We call them Contractors. Their abilities can be as simple as voice amplification or complex as matter transference. What they do... they have to pay an obeisance for it. Every time they use their powers, they must give something in exchange. They have no qualms about killing. They are entirely logical creatures, all but lacking emotion. Not all of them. But most.

That's the kind of person I believe is doing this. There have been signs. And I'm starting to think that the murders aren't the Contractor's goal--I'm beginning to think they're the obeisance.

[salvagestime.livejournal.com]

[listens carefully, then nods]

So the person doing this is doing it in exchange to use their abilities. Which were probably granted by the Gate or related technologies, then. Have you been able to match up disturbances of any kind with the deaths?

[chasingstars201.livejournal.com]

That's the most aggravating part. The stars--the fake ones--each react individually to a different Contractor and their power. It seems to be a sort of resonance. But since the government employs Contractors on a large-scale basis now, any Messier Code activity data that we gather is pretty much useless.

[salvagestime.livejournal.com]

[gives her a somewhat amused smile]

Now that's really interesting. Funny, there's these Saints around here with stars for guardians. You might want to talk to them. But I was actually thinking something closer to Earth. Like you mentioned voice amplification. You could ask around the crime scene if someone heard a shout. [shrugs] It's messy and unreliable but it might get a lead.

[chasingstars201.livejournal.com]

[She nods] We have been. But we haven't found anything consistent. That's why it's so frustrating that we can't use the Messier Code data. In that case, we would at least be able to rule some things out. The only consistent feature is a blue glow at the site of the abduction--a Russell Synchrotron Radiation Field, it's called. It's the visible radiation given off when a Contractor exercises their power.

[Scowl.] And then there is the added complication that the general public doesn't know Contractors exist.



[Sorry about the edit--thought he should know that bit!]

[salvagestime.livejournal.com]

[frowns] Wish I could see it. I could probably scan it and give you a mechanism to trace the source. You might be able to build one, still.

[and he looks curious at that] Ah, top secret and cover-ups and all that?

[chasingstars201.livejournal.com]

[Weirdly enough, she wishes he could see it, too.]

I have a friend in the Astronomy Division--Kanami Ishizaki--who's researching that possibility. Any thoughts you might have would be helpful. Notes, ideas, anything. I'm reaching the end of my options, and my other cases are pressing for attention as well.


Yes. [A slight look of distaste crosses her face.] I see the logic of it, but that doesn't make me like it.

[salvagestime.livejournal.com]

Hm...think you could get me a sample sometime? [fishes into his inner vest pocket and pulls out his sonic screwdriver] I could use this to track it if I were in your world but I might be able to build something with the same principles.

[nods slightly] Yeah, well, this sort of thing gets out eventually. In my younger days I was an adviser to UNIT about aliens. People more or less know about them now.

1/2

[chasingstars201.livejournal.com]

A sample? I'm afraid the Russel Field is extremely short-lived. Maybe if I had a meteor fragment, I could generate enough of a resonance with that to get some useful readings, but the majority of the meteor fragments vanished onto the black market after the battle at Hell's Gate.

And it will be the worse for us when it does. [Dark look.]

Re: 1/2

[chasingstars201.livejournal.com]

[And then,]

Everyone knows about aliens? What's UNIT?