Log:Checkmate, Scene 1, Scene 2

With the recent activity and witness reports of a street fight where one participant ended up wounded and was being treated at the hospital, cops have been a little heavier in the area. This lead to one potential art robbery ending in a stalemate between cops and a group of people with P's on their heads. the meta and swat units were called in and after a fire fight the people with 'p's on their heads were neutralized, however the swat and meta units have taken a pounding as well. Reports of 4 people displaying meta powers flood the police bands. People in the artist's quarter gather tenatively to the police baracades wondering what's going on. Police have put out a call to local meta and trusted meta hunters in the area in order to get a hand, unsure if they can handle this by themselves.

Fortunately no people were seriously harmed or killed as of now. And paramedics on the scene are busy handling the wounded officers, none of them have been reported with fatal wounds however a few of them have broken limbs it would seem.

Kihzra makes her way over the rooftops, unhindered by the police barriers, and peers down curiously to see what's going on.

Dark Horse runs along the rooftops, having heard the police chatter over the radio. . o O (Four, huh? At best I can take like...three. We'll need someone else to show up. Hopefully someone like Imaginary Girl. Yeah...she'd be a good choice.) He catches a glance of Kihzra, since she's over to his right, across the street. . o O (She's a good choice, too.)

Flutter has been following, or tracking, Dark Horse, being her interesting person of the week. Enthusiastic, she is ever a source of conversation and occasionally a source of assistance even. "Where are we going?" she asks, flying along nearby but not too close.

Dark Horse chuckles, and keeps moving over the roof, to the edge of the building. He looks down onto the street where the metas were reported to be. Well, at least approximately. "There are four metas starting a fight with the police in the area. So, be on the lookout."

Kihzra says, "Four metas? Is maybe good fight, yes?"

Kihzra looks to see if she can spot the metas.

Dark Horse nods. "Maybe."

Devil Dog explodes onto the scene in his typical hellish fashion, freefalling from where he teleported in. He lands on the roof of a parked ambulence with a THUD and squats, resting his forearms on his knees while taking in the scene below him. He sweeps his glowing eyes first across the rooftops at his level before shifting his attention to the wounded cops, and finally the other side of the caussion tape. Flutter looks curious, then pauses. "Oh! The lookout is not a person! I understand that now!" She nods certainly.

The metas seem to be held up in the art gallery they were robbing. The solid brick building (so light doesn't damage the paints) is fairly large. The police seem over joyed to see meta in the area. They send some people to go retrieve the meta. Pleading 'Hurry quick we need your help!'

Kihzra says, "What is, cha, situation?"

Dark Horse drops down to street level to near where the cops are. He nods. "So...what's up?"

Kihzra joins Dark Horse.

Flutter moves alongside Dark Horse, "Hello police officers! I am here to assist!"

Devil Dog glances briefly down at the person pleading up at him. After a sigh he nods his head once and drops down to ground level from the emergency Vehicle. Stalking toward the crowd he doesn't bother trying to clear a path to the tape, instead letting his evil aura clear a path for him. "Art..." He growls to himself, just letting the word sit in the air as he vaults the tape and takes a couple steps toward the building.

"To make it simple, the people with 'p's on their heads seemed like normals, and they held the building off. Swat and Meta units managed to get to teh building only to say they were meta with 4 meta. They all were in body suits they say. One half white one half black, with like a checkered pattern." The officer in charge explains. "The officers in there, or atleast the ones who got out consciously." He points to a few guys with broken arms. "Said between teh four there were 2 symbols 1 on each, one black one white. Anyways, one kinda looked like" He looks at a note pad. "A keep with those up and down thingies on castles and the other is a horse head. Not sure what to make of this..."

the officer shakes his head. "Only body builds. It sounds like theee guys and a girl. two of the guys are real big though, and I'm guessing strong as they broke a few of our guy's limbs when they tossed them back out.

Chen is in the area delivering fresh spices from her grandfather's stall to the restaurants in the Artist's Quarter.

"Oh! What arcane code!" Flutter declares, examining the chess symbols from various angles, even upside-down. "It makes no sense to me at all! Perhaps Dark Horse might be able to figure it out! he is very smart!"

Devil Dog continues to trudge across the open area, toward the infested museum. His hands are shoved deep in his pockets, posture slouched. He makes no move to hide himself, why would he?

Kihzra says, "Is reason, not go straight in? Are hostages?"

Chen notices a large commotion at the art gallery near her father's stall. Dark horse, DD Flutter and

Kihzra seem to be gathered and the air is filled with trouble. "No report of hostiges, but it probably wouldn't be far fetched. Honestly it looked like the employees and visiters were the ones shooting at us." the cop responds.

Dark Horse nods. "Alright...I guess we'll check it out. Thanks." He shakes his head slightly, and jumps the barrier before heading toward the building, trying to keep the potential lines of fire toward him to a minimum. He's keeping a bit away from DD, though...figuring that the fiery guy will draw fire."

Dark Horse looks to Kihzra, "The metas we're dealing with probably aren't innocent who are mind-controlled, at best guess. I don't think you'll have to hold back."

Kihzra grins to Dark Horse. "Is good."

Dark Horse nods. "The 'Pawns', though...if you see one, they're going to be innocent people. Keep that in mind."

"They will in all probability not harm me if they shoot me," Flutter says to Dark Horse. "I am very durable!"

Kihzra waves to Chen with a grin. "Tjasivju! Here is fight! 4 metas - is good, yes?"

Chen waves back, "A fight. Oh good. Uh, can you wait until I've done my errend for grandfather?"]

Kihzra says, "Cha - start is beginning."

Chen says, "Oh drat. Grandfather is going to be mad if his spices get burned or lost or damaged" Racing over to one of the police, picking one with lots of silver braid as being senior and thus reliable she thrusts the bags into his hands, "Keep these safe for me."

Kihzra says, "Ajah, Devirr Dog is vere alreay!"

the rooks charge DD in a coordinated effort. Together they attempt to strike him backwards, like twins from a martial arts movie they seem to be very well coordinated.

Devil Dog steps to one side of the rook on his left, but is a bit slow for theo ne on his right and takes a fist to the jaw. Unfortunetly for the rook, hitting DD feels like hitting a pile of very hot, very angry bricks.

Kihzra closes on the building, but fails to display the burst of speed she sometimes manages.

Devil Dog says, "shakes his head once and sighs as he launches himself at the rook on his right, the one that managed to hit him. Charging forward he attempts to push his way through the man's martial-arts defenses and drive a flaming fist full force into the man's stomach. "

The telegraphing of the attack seems to have set the rook who was being aimed at a message he manages to side step in teh knick of time. The punch falls on nothing but air.

Unlike Dark Horse's careful approach, Flutter is busily providing a target while she moves with him. "When you said to keep on the lookout, was that an instruction of some kind that would be easily understood by others?"

Dark Horse blinks and looks to Flutter. "It just means...be aware of your surroundings." He chuckles again.

Dark Horse decides it's in his best interest to try to help Devil Dog actually hit one of the rooks...so he shifts over, and attempts to trip the nearest rook.

Dark Horse executes a near-perfect hip throw, dropping the nearest rook onto his back on the concrete sidewalk.

Despite an impressive takedown the rook seems unharmed. But is this surprising for one of his title?

Flutter begins to cast a spell, tracing in the air with a glowing finger that creates a sigil. As she speaks a single word, two dozen Dark Horse duplicates show up in the area!

Kihzra charges in - now at full speed - and strikes at the standing Rook, leaving the other one for Devil Dog. "Bruohn!"

Kihzra exclaims, "Pfu!" to find the Rook unbudged despite the might blow.

The prone twin is in a big hurry to get up as if something is drastically wrong. Their body languages seem to be concerned about the sudden large amount of Dark horses in the area. They begin to lash out at the non-dark horse characters.

Devil Dog snorts as he is decked in the jaw again, tumbling off of his feet and landing hard on his back.

Flutter calls out, "May I make duplicate images of you both as well?" Apparently she either only thought to just now or for some reason thought it would be ill-advised to do so.

Kihzra says, "Cha, is good...."

Devil Dog sprouts flaming wings that flap once to bring him off the ground and to his feet. Immediatly retracting the wing he closes on his rook with an annoyed grunt, "Damn your obnoxious." he mutters, then kicks one boot up toward the rook's stomach. As he does so his hole boddy suddenly bursts into unnatural-looking flames.

Dark Horse decides to help out DD, and moves to trip the Rook that the fiery hero is just about to hit.

Dark Horse trips the rook, who ends up falling forward toward Devil Dog's boot.

the Prone man is hit and rolled. the blow seems to have been a rather weak on for DD BUT it also seems like he took more damage from it some how as he is rolled back into the building.

Dark Horse looks to Devil Dog, "You know...I thought you were stronger than that."

Adding to the confusion, or perhaps narrowing downt he possible targets, duplicates of Kihzra replace some of the duplicates of Dark Horse!

Chen is running towards the location of the fight.

Kihzra delivers another blow to the same Rook - putting her full strength behind it.

Devil Dog snorts in discust, then explodes from the scene in a ball of fire. Araving miles away outside his church he calls up to Loupy, currently on watch, "Fight in the art district, the fancy museum. Fill in for me, fighting is up front, try to land yourself on the roof or you might get trampled. If you can, get one of them arrested. I get the feeling we'll need him." All this is shouted up toward the roof of the old church as DD strolls inside, looking annoyed as always, "By the way, they have chess peaces on their uniforms, my guess is they're light training in martial arts and have high tolerance to pain, or damage. Give a good account of yourself." DD moves along into one of the many rooms of the crumbling structure then, yawning.

Kihzra says, "QHAH!" Loupy cocks his ears at all of that and says, "Ok, sure..." and shakes his head for a moment, "Seems like I'm cleaning up after you again here, eh?" he says this with a grin on his face and in his tone, so there's no hard feelings behind that at all, and teleports out to one of the rooftops in the area before a response can be shot back at him. -poof- The rook is rocked and hard. the blow does not move him but he is acking. the ground beneath him cracks, a small crator forming at his feet.

Dark Horse blinks. "Hmm...I wonder..."

As loupy appears there are two other figures, they look to loupy look to eachother and shrug. They are in black and white outfits, were watching a small PDA display. on their chests are symbols resembling horse heads. One figure is male the other is female

Chen finds her preliminary choice of target has vanished by the time she gets close. Seeing Kihzra fighting the Rooks she'll settle for one of those as Devil Dog isn't on hand to be hit, and tosses out a looping punch on the end of an extended arm at the one still at the door.

The enraged one UGH's at being hit. He doesn't like the fact he was struck, though he seesm tob e much better off than the other.

The prone rook stands and tries to gather his wits about him. with two slaps on his head he seems ready to fight again. The other rook attempts to smash Kihzra in the face

Even the false image of Kihzra dodge's the Rook's clumsy blow!

Suddenly two more figures in black and white checkered body suits appear, one male one female. They seem to be see through. They look at the rooks, who nod back to them.

Flutter maintains the illusion by having three of them conjoin on Kihzra's location when she strikes, and then split off!

Dark Horse considers his options...and clearly deciding that the knights are probably insubstantial, he pulls out a flash bomb, and tosses it at one of the rooks...the one that was looking to get back into the fight.

The flash grenade goes off a bit earlier than expected but teh rook still feels it's eye bitting sting.

"GAH!" he cries out grabbing his face

the knights grab their respective rooks. There is a shimmer and a gleam then they seem to be no where to be found. One rook gets a good middle finger off at kihzra before he goes, not too pleased by the fact she kept hitting him.

Kihzra says, "Ajah! Pfu! Where are gone?"

Flutter removes the illusion of Kihzra and Dark Horse clones, laughing. "That was fun! Thank you for participating!" She looks around. "When will we see them again?"

And now the danger has seemed to pass, one can look at their surroundings every single bit of art has been taken. And there are a few of those camera's with crowns on them. A sticky note on the side.

Loupy steps up to the edge of the roof and looks down, frowning a bit as he sees the last of them disappear. "Eh, ah well..." He ponders a moment and then steps back to where the two stood and starts sniffing around the roof, catching their scent so he can find then later. Once he's sure he has their scent he disappears from his place on the roof, appearing without so much as the puff of air to betray his coming or goings, so he can start sniffing around on the ground for the other scents as well.

Kihzra says, "Pfu, was not fun. Was not good fight. Vey onry got hit ven ran!"

Chen complains to Kihzra, "Not much of a fight."

Dark Horse raises a brow. "Odd. I'm curious how they got the art oout. Probably the teleporters, I guess." He takes a look at the note, making sure to not leave a fingerprint on it.

The note reads 'Check. And please, leave the lense off this time. I enjoy watching people's expressions.' Signed 'King'

Kihzra nods to Chen. "Are cowards! Grimngot!"

Dark Horse recites the contents of the note, so that others can hear it. "Hmm. 'Check', huh? I think his analogy is off."

"What is the analogy in use?" Flutter flits over to Dark Horse and note.

Chen nods, "Yeah. Oh well, better get back to delivering. Call me if you see them again, okay?" and with that she's heading back to pick up the bags of spices from the police officier.

Loupy steps in closer so he can get the scents better, then looks around, "Check? Sounds like he's got more planned and this ain't the end of it for sure... and I'm sorry for the tardiness, fight was about over anyways. I just scared a couple off of the roof where I popped in at and they came down here."

The officer with teh bag of spices is still confused but seeing as Chen is moving out some other officers begin to move in, assuming this si a sign for all clear. The officer with the spice asks. "Um, what happened miss?"

Kihzra says, "is good. Next time, we hit see-ffrough ones first!"

Chen explains in obvious irritation, "They ran away. Devel Dog and those people Kihzra was fighting."

Kihzra leaves the building in a foul mood too. "Here is no good fighting now!"

The cop is confused. "Devil dog? Is he working with them?" The officer offers back teh spices getting out his pen and pad to take notes. Chen is a witness now. "So uh, how'd they get away?"

Dark Horse nods to Flutter, "It's an analogy to a game called 'Chess'. 'Check' means the opponent's king is threatened."

Loupy scratches behind his hear and looks around, getting a look at the walls to see what was taken. "But it's not a finishing move. It's just a threat."

"Oh! And what is threatened instead of a king now?" Flutter asks, puzzled. "This game sounds very regicidally-oriented."

on both of the camera's 5 lights on top of them that are tiny and barely noticable just ticked on, 1 second after all turn on 1 disappeared. :)

Loupy cocks his ears to either side and sniffs at them... just on a lark, checking for explosives...

Dark Horse blinks. "I think we have two bombs, most likely. Can we contain them?"

Chen leaves, telling the police officer, "There are heroes over there. They might know. You saw as much as I did. I only intervened to have a fight."

"In what way would they be contained?" asks Flutter. "Oh! I know!" She casts another spell, pauses before completing it, "You may wish to vacate the area around them!"

Though Dark horse raises a reasonable concern, time doesn't seem to be on his side, the 2nd light goes out 1 second afterwards. Runnning might be advised

Dark Horse backs away. "It's nice to know magicians." He backs up away from teh cameras.

Flutter resumes casting when the blast area is assumably safe, and finishes the Sigil of Binding!

Only 2 lights remain right now.

Loupy growls and then casts his teleportation spell once more, the one that can grab anything within 4 meters of his target. He's aiming to grab the nearest camera and send it up into low orbit before scurrying away from the other one.

1 light remains as the other camera is sent into low orbit!

Outside there is a rumbling as the inside of the museum fills with smoke from the explosion. Flutter's spell absorbs the damage with ease.

Dark Horse chuckles. "So...if that was 'Check', did we just 'Castle', or something goofy like that? Nicely done, by the way."

Kihzra looks back at the building. "Qhah! What happened?"