Cedric stared up at the massive jaws above him as the t-rex sniffed the air, deep rumble emanating from it's throat. The hair on the back of his neck stood up, he could feel the aggression from the animal in the air. His muscles ached, his head ached, and he knew Minori was running low on energy as well after multiple time stops.
"Oh, yeah. Sure, you couldn't show up a couple of hours ago and make it easy." He breathed heavily before blinking to the side as the creature tried to snap off his upper half. "Minori! Research time!" He appeared next to her and stuffed his bag into her arms, "Datalogger in the bag, tracker in the car!" He explained quickly as he pulled a small tracking dart out of the strap of the back and twisted it to on. "Never thought I'd be using one of these on myself." he muttered and turned back to their foe.
"Alright you big ole iguana, fetch." He shot a fireball at the rex's face before breaking out into a sprint across the warehouse. It didn't take a look back to know that it was a good thing he still had a speed buff on, the rex was having no trouble keeping up with him. He ran as fast as he could towards the opposite wall, towards the same small door that Alastar had been attempting to exit. Turning his shoulder forward he lowered so he would hit the panic bar rather than blinking through it or simply smashing it open. He had a feeling he was going to need to conserve as much energy as possible. The T-rex wasn't prone to such worries though, it simply smashed into the warehouse wall full force.
Minori merely blinked a few times as Cedric spoke, fatigue slowing her reaction time and making her feel sluggish. She accepted Cedric's gizmos as he got the monstrous duo's attention before sprinting off. The T-rex roared and gave chase, Abe clearing the way for the beast's charge. The ground shook as half the warehouse got blown away by the golem's magic and the dino's strength, all the while Minori stood in stunned silence and watched, the only noise she produced being her own desperate draws of breath. Stopping time was a powerful spell, and one she used when alternative means would not get the job done. If she had known that Alastar's death would not have taken his golem with him, she would have saved her strength. As it stood now, she'd need either a power nap to get back into the fight, or she'd have to think of a way to bring their opponents back down to their level.
Seperating them might be a good start.
She made a dash for the car, flinging the door open and leaping inside as quickly as she could, thankful that Cedric had left his keys in the cup holder rather than keeping them in his pocket like a normal person.
For a moment Cedric thought the building might contain the creature, but as he risked a glance back he saw that Abe had super heated the metal and as the creature smashed into it glowing slag exploded into the street, more that a few pieces nearly landing on Cedric as he dodged them hastily. "Holy shit, that's a lot of mana energy. How big of a battery does this guy have?" he thought out loud as he hurried down the street. "Alright Minori, heading north, ask the car to show tracking and the GPS will pop up on a HUD on the windshield. Then kindly come rescue me!"
Pausing for a moment in incredulity, Minori looked about the car before clearing her throat.
"Show tracking?" she asked timidly, jumping slightly in her seat when a miniature GPS map popped up in the lower left hand side of the windshield.
"Fucking rich kids..." she muttered, igniting the engine and slamming her foot down on the gas pedal, traffic laws be damned.
The car guided her true, and before long she was only a half mile behind the chase going on between Cedric and the T-rex. Cedric was trying to keep from getting too close to residential areas, opting for the commercial district instead.
Cedric cast a few spells back at the T-rex as he ran in an attempt to keep the massive creature from gaining too much ground on him. More of his focus was on removing obstacles ahead of them though. He had to telekinetically move a number of cars aside as he ran, awestruck drivers left in shock as the scene passed them by.
"You know, we could probably label this as a movie promotion. Lincoln has already been a vampire hunter..." Minori mused as she put on cruise control, humming to herself as she formed a bar of ice between the door and latched it to the steering wheel to keep it steady as she leaned out of the now open window.
The data logger was an artifact, similar in make to the shackles Cedric had previously owned, looking like a monocle but was infused with mana. As Minori put it to her eye, she could see mana trails, as well as concentratons therein. Lincoln was white hot, filled with Alastar's black mana, but with other objects inside the mannequin that seemed to generate the stuff. For all the spells he'd been using, he didn't seem wanting for energy. One thing had her curious, however.
"Cedric... there's a huge concentration of mana in the back of Abe's head, but it seems separate from his energy source. I think it's important. You doing okay up there?" Minori asked, smirking to herself as she leaned back in to the driver's seat and snapped her fingers to evaporate the ice that had held the wheel during that straightaway. Thankfully, Cedric and the dino were very efficient at clearing any traffic.
"Oh, just dandy, morning jog!" his voice was clearly strained from the effort. He was having to start rebuffing his stamina and speed, as well as keep up a kinetic barrier behind him to ward off the rounds Lincoln was firing at him. It all added up to start straining his reaction, the longer this kept up the less he would be able to do when it was time to turn and fight. "Any minute now would be great!"
"So... does this thing have an autopilot?" Minori asked, a feminine voice interrupting whatever response Cedric might have given. 'Autopilot engaged," The car said, causing Minori to grumble about the wealthy once more. The car corrected itself to the center of the lane, still following the tracker as Cedric turned a corner. Soon they would be in downtown.
Leaning back out of the driver's side window again, Minori took a deep breath before focusing her mana and freezing a patch of the road in front of the T-rex. It would either trip the beast or get it's attention on Minori, who had a very fast car with which to flee should she be chased.
The ice sprung up at Cedric's heels. He didn't bother to slow down or turn until he heard the crash, at which point he blinked into a side alley. The wall had been enough to break the beasts focus on Cedric, and it turned wildly as it regained it's composure and tried to find it's footing. Lincoln still firmly attached up top was firing rounds in various directions, knowing Cedric was around some corner but unsure which one. The animal found it's new target, it was like it could sense that Minori had cast the ice spell, it wheeled around finally and let out a loud challenge at the black car coming towards it.
Watching the T-rex fall was definitely a sight to behold, stopping the car and watching as the beast fell onto it's side and slid several feet, before snarling and rolling to it's knees, using it's massive snout to hoist it's weight back to it's feet again. The way it's head swirled around to glare at Minori implied intelligence she didn't believe the creature could reasonably possess, but as it roared it's challenge directly at Minori, she realized the beast didn't give two shits about what it could and could not do. The autopilot disengaged as she slammed onto the brakes to come to a stop, not wanting to get within biting range just yet.
Sensing Cedric was probably up to something, Minori began honking the horn and turning the headlights on and off to keep the dino good and focused on her, ready to test how good the warranty on this car was as soon as it charged.
"Hope this thing is still running on natural instinct." Cedric leaned against the wall of the alley, his head throbbing, muscles starting to feel like they were tearing. His eyes began to flash as he reached out with his mind to try and find the rex, it would be much easier if he could at least connect with the creature using his ability rather than mana alone. Eventually he found the mind, a ball of rage and instincts, he could tell right away that he wasn't going to be able to directly control it, either because it wasn't actually from a gateway, or because whatever Lincoln was using to guide the thing was blocking him out. "Have to rely on instincts then."
He started to project a scene around the animal, the city faded away, over run by nature in moments. The buildings gave way to dense stands of trees and massive rock formations. All around other creatures suddenly appeared, all issuing challenges to the T-rex. This caused the animals previously single minded rage to become divided, confirming Cedrics suspicion that Lincoln had merely been pointing the animals rage. "Alright Min, this should keep rex distracted, but it's still dangerous, and we still have to get Lincoln off." as he said this the corner of the building he was hiding behind exploded above him. Lincoln had switched to magically enhanced bullets, he had turned his rifle into a miniature howitzer for all intents and purposes. "Shit these guys were well prepared."
Cedric's words came through at about the same time the T-rex started jerking it's head to the right and the left, as if seeing more threats. It took a few steps back and let out another roar before charging forward to take a massive bite into a billboard, sinking it's teeth in and delivering a massive kick to the two story building it was perched on. Even without seeing the illusion, Minori could tell what the T-rex was seeing but her crytpozoology lesson was put off when she saw Lincoln starting to take aim at the car.
"We're not exactly flush with long range firepower. Abe has been shrugging everything off, right?" Minori asked, studying the symbiotic pair as she slammed the car into Reverse and got out of the way of the burst of fire Abe sent her way. Fotunately, the T-rex bucked to the right towards another imaginary foe as Abe readjusted his aim, ruining his shot.
Minori took a deep breath, summoning as much mana as she dared before leaning out the window and thrust her hand at the dino, causing ice to form on the ground in front of the T-rex again, resulting in it slipping and slamming down hard onto it's side, this time in the intersection. Minori hadn't even so much as cast the spell before she slammed her foot onto the accelerator and made a beeline for the monster, swerving to aim for Abe as soon as the dino became parallel with the ground. Abe barely had time to react before the edge of the car's bumper caught him in the side, throwing him from the beast's back and skipping him across the pavement. The impact was enough force to deploy the airbags, hitting Minori in the face hard enough to knock her out briefly, ensuring the car rolled to a gentle stop in the middle of the intersection as the T-rex once again started to get on it's feet.
Cedric winced as he watched the scene unfold, the second car in as many days to be damaged. "At least that's fixable." He sighed. Despite what amounted to a minor loss, the gambit had worked. Abe was sprawled on the floor across the street and the T-Rex was rising to it's feet. Cedric reached out with his mind and found the creature had drastically calmed in comparison to when Abe was atop it. As much as he hated it, he tried to nudge the animal away as he removed a number of the illusions he was conjuring, except for a few smaller ones that would seem to wander off. Abe was more of a problem right now than the T-Rex was.
The nudging and leading on seemed to work as the animal began to lumber off, though it did cast a glance back towards Cedric, it's huge head turning intentionally towards him. It didn't give Cedric the most pleasant of feelings, something about the way the animal looked at him, but regardless it seemed like they had finally managed to get down to one foe. Two drained mana users against a golum with a mana charge that seemed to be the equivalent of a small nuclear power plant.
He made his way to the car, attempting to ignore the damage to the front end from where it had impacted Abe. "No telling what this thing will do with out a direct controller, we can't even count on it to run out of power." Minori was slouched forward and practically cocooned in airbags, he opened the door and cut the side airbag away with a knife he retrieved from his jacket. "Nice work getting him off the Rex though." He tried to smile, but his face betrayed just how tired he was from trying to stave off the mana reaction, and just how dire he thought their situation was becoming.
The world was hazy right after the airbags deployed. She was concussed from the impact, drowsy and sluggish, but the healing spell she'd started prior to impact had kept anything permanent happening to her brain. She couldn't afford to be out of the game. Not with Abe still running around and Cedric already pushing himself too hard.
She was thankful for Cedric speaking, giving her mind something to focus on as her consciousness clawed its way from the foggy corners of her mind. She nearly let out a laugh as Cedric called her reckless move 'nice work' but swallowed the sentiment. She needed to focus on getting out of the car.
"You've got triple A, right?" She quipped, though her tone was still slow, focusing on each word as she shifted to the left to exit the vehicle. Her mind was screaming for her to hurry, not knowing how long until Abe would be back on his feet.
"It's last command was to kill us, and it will follow that command so long as it has power. Just... now it can't be told how to go about it so it's going to get creative," Minori added, nearly falling out of the car as she slid out, standing and putting an elbow on the top of the car to steady herself until the world stopped shaking. One last ounce of magic went into a healing spell to clear her mind, but she was nearly running on fumes.
"We need to buy time until one of us gets some mana back to hit this thing. Or call for back-up. I am perfectly fine with tagging someone else in. Maybe Selena would come running if you called," Minori suggested, grinning slightly as she looked at Cedric, hoping the joke would keep his mind from going to darker places.
"We can also steal someone else's car and just keep hitting it till it stops moving..."
Cedric looked toward the golum, already rising to its feet, "Some how I don't think that's going to work." he helped pull Minori up from the car, "Let's get a head start."
Setting off down the nearest alley, he was hoping at this point that they could keep moving long enough to regain at least some mana, enough to hold up until someone could come and bail them out, he reached up and hit the button on his com that would open a channel to the main gatewatchers network, "This is Cedric Valentine, requesting emergency backup, west bound off of Blanton and, shit..." he couldn't recall the last cross street they had been at, "35th I think." He risked a glance back to see Abe entering the alley, "Fucker." his attempt to detail the situation was derailed by the sound of rifle fire and mana infused rounds ripping past his head. "I'm gonna shove that damn rifle up his-" a round exploded next to Cedric, throwing him hard against the opposite wall, which he was surprised to feel give way.
As he regained his bearings he realized the wall had been a door. He was in a dark hallway that looked like it was part of a receiving warehouse or something similar, he cursed not having paid more attention to where he was. His vision blurred and his ears rang loudly as he stood, giving himself a severe case of vertigo. As he got hold of his senses he noticed the sign next to the door that read 'stage hands only! no loading this door!' He pressed the open com button again, "Ford Redux Theater! Make it snappy or send a hearse." releasing the button he started trying to figure out an endgame. "You go that way!" He motioned for Minori to head down one end of the corridor, "Keep going until you circle around to the front. I'll try to lead him around the other way. Maybe you can get enough mana built up to catch him off guard."
He didn't wait long for a reply as he moved back into the other side of the hall. The shots had stopped in the alley. It wasn't until he heard the familiar growl of a chainsaw motor spoiling up that Cedric knew just how close Lincoln was. He couldn't help but wonder why this was turning into a campy horror flick. "Is that how I'm supposed to die, B movie in real life?" He muttered as the silhouette entered the hallway. It turned away from him, towards Minori. Cedric summoned up a decent spell and shot a blast of dark energy at the back of Lincolns head, but the golum turned with that inhuman speed, catching the blast square in the face.
When the spell cleared Cedric was already running, breathing heavily, down the corridor.
The reprieve from the golem's onslaught gave the researcher very mixed emotions as she hesitated, looking back over her shoulder as Lincoln began to double back. She'd never seen the ring Cedric wore under such strain, and though she wasn't authorized, she'd thumbed through some of his medical records. Idle curiosity during some downtime in her lab, wanting to learn more about the agent who was usually tasked with acquiring new specimens for her. His reaction to his own mana would have begun kicking in a while ago. Now Cedric was essentially taking this thing on solo in the hopes that maybe Minori could finish it off.
Minori was more worried she'd watch a co-worker die.
She ran down the corridor Cedric had shoved her towards, keeping her head down and trying to ignore the sound of the revving engine as she stuck to the plan. Kill it, or keep it occupied till back-up arrived. Coming to the end of the hallway, the only options she found were an emergency exit and stairs leading up to the balcony sitting. She would be lying if the exit hadn't looked tempting, but she shook the thoughts from her head and began a hard run up the steps. She could still save Cedric if she hurried.
"Mother fucker!" Cedric grabbed a chair and threw it at the saw blade as it came down, knocking it off it's path and avoiding a nasty hole in the head, but he was unable to counter the blast from a rouge rifle round. The force sent him flying backwards like a rag doll, smashing through a set of double doors and out onto the main stage of the theater. Lincoln strode confidently onto the stage.
“War at it's best, is terrible, and this war of ours, in it's magnatude and in its duration, is one of the most terrible.” Abe quipped, the first words he's said in a long time, before his face resumed its stoic expression and he brought the rifle to bare
Cedric rolled wildly as Lincoln fired another round at him, blowing a hole in the stage where his prey had been. Sweat was pouring from Cedrics brow now, he had been using mana in chunks just to stay ahead of the golum, he was well beyond what he usually considered safe operating with his reaction. His ring was casting a dark halo out around him, it made the darkest parts of the room look bright. His muscles felt like they were going to tear off his bones, the nerves in his back were firing constantly, shooting pains to any and every ligament at random intervals. He had already been fighting voices in his head, fighting to keep his vision. It felt like his entire body was trying to tear itself apart and beat itself to death with the pieces, it felt like Selena's wild magic healing. He wished he was dead.
At this point it was a burning hatred of this thing, this lifeless golum standing over him, that kept him going. That and a vain hope that at least Minori would be able to get out of this alive. Next to him was a peice of steal, from some project going on at the theater no doubt, what ever the case he reached a shakey hand out and grabbed it, using it to help himself stand slowly. "Alright, warmup time is over you son of a bitch." He spat the sarcastic jab, knowing it meant nothing, but he poured mana into the bar anyway, buffing its strength in much the same way he would himself, but also heating it until it seemed to glow with a dark reflection, giving off a glow that was eerily similar to Cedrics ring.
He raised the bar and slammed it against the side of the oncoming saw blade, dodging to the side to avoid the chain as it swung wildly. The sudden return of strength caught Lincoln off guard for just a moment, long enough for Cedric to wind up and deliver a massive blow to the arm holding the rifle. At the moment of contact Cedric felt as if time was moving slowly, not because of mana, but because his thoughts were racing. What if he wasn't strong enough? What if this glanced off like so many other attacks seem to have done? There's no plan b.
He heard the bone crack, the hand clenched, a round fired right at Cedrics feet, the explosion launched him away, tearing through skin and muscle and bone. He slammed into the stage floor, his head smashing against the wood hard. He thought for a moment the chances of finding himself in this kind of predicament twice in as many days, but he watched the rifle fall to the ground, at least that worked.
Lincoln's face was expressionless as he looked down at his rifle, chainsaw idly yet ominously rumbling in his good hand. The golem would have smirked if its face was capable, looking back to Cedric as it raised it's chainsaw up and revved the motor.
"The ballot is stronger than the bullet," it said, preparing to bring the weapon down into Cedric's back, but the faint sensation of a shoe hitting the back of his head made the golem freeze in place, head swirling around to glare at the woman standing in the balcony.
"What kills a skunk is its own publicity!" The golem said, tone conveying a hint of annoyance as it relaxed its grip on the chainsaw, turning and crouching before leaping into the air, landing with a heavy thud in the balcony.
"I do the very best I know how - the very best I can; and I mean to keep on doing so until the end," it said as it began to raise its arms, hesitating only slightly as Minori mirrored the action, quickly thrusting her arms up and shouted.
"As temperature approaches absolute zero, the entropy of a system approaches a constant minimum!"
the water vapor in the air around them spontaneously froze, first covering Lincoln in a layer of frost, but as Minori kept pushing, the ice built up rapidly until everything below the golem's neck was contained in a block of ice three feet thick. The chainsaw was worthless, and not even Lincoln's strength could budge from his confines without momentum or inertia.
Now!... Cedric!..." Minori shouted, the last ounce of her strength having gone into that attack. Without any energy left to keep her going, and her body crying for rest, the woman collapsed where she stood, falling on her back as the consciousness left her body. Lincoln was unable to move, his neck angled back just enough for the back of his head to be an excellent target from the main stage.
Cedric could hear voices, see shapes, but he couldn't understand them, and he couldn't distinguish between real and imagined.
There was a man, darkness, smiling. Cedric knew this man, this thing, was causing all of his pain, all of his agony. The man stared at him, crumpled on the floor, helpless. ".ʞɒɘW .mυloϱ ɒ lliʞ nɘvɘ Ɉ'nɒƆ"
the voice dripped with disgust and disdain. ".ʞɒɘW".υoγ loɿɈnoɔ I ʕɘm loɿɈnoɔ blυoɔ υoγ ɈʜϱυoʜɈ υoY"
There was a rage in the pit of Cedrics stomach, he would find this man. He would kill this man. But first he had to live.
Reality reformed through a haze of blood and vomit. He could see Lincoln, frozen solid in the balcony, Minori falling backwards on the balcony. He summoned all the hate and anger and fear and rage in his being and forced his muscles to move. The pain was excruciating, he could feel the bones in his leg moving in places they shouldn't, he could hear something hard scraping against the wooden stage. But he pushed through.
Abe was already beginning to heat himself in an attempt to thaw the ice, Cedric knew he wouldn't have much time once the golum started ramping up the heat, if it got free it was game over. He crawled towards the rifle, just a few more feet.
Heat was building up rapidly around Lincolns body, creating a layer of pressurized water against the ice. Still restraining movement, but showing progress.
Cedrics hand wrapped around the grip of the rifle, rolling over in a effort of sheer will, he lifted the weapon off the ground. Black spots swam in his vision as he looked down the sights. "Sic semper tyrannis you son of a bitch." his finger squeezed slowly.
In his state the concussion from the shot was enough to knock Cedric unconscious, so no one saw the bullet enter the back of the golums head where it shattered the artifact that had been providing a state of autonomous life. Without the hexes and spells to hold everything together the mana powering the construct began to dissipate quickly. The ice reformed around its body as it was no longer able to maintain the heat spell.
The theater fell eerily silent.