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Dissonant Hearts (Degusaurusrex x AndrewS)

She did have to admit that Isen's reaction to Ignas' sarcasm had been very amusing, but she had neither the time nor the patience to play practical jokes involving corsets. She was too busy listening to the two of them bicker, anyway, and the more she thought about it, the more she had every intention of shutting Ignas up as soon as their day was over and done with. Unfortunately, that time couldn't come soon enough, and she flopped down on the bed with a loud groan.

"I don't particularly feel like getting captured again, either, so I'm with you on this one. Ignas, shut up, you're just jealous you don't have a body anymore to ogle random witches that strike your fancy." Her voice held a bit of a snap as she sat back up, her cheeks red as she muttered under her breath and began rifling through her bag. All she needed to bring was her wallet, at this rate, and she could find something to buy for herself during their little bit of thievery.

"You are.. Not going to like the shoes. Maybe we can get away without them and just blame it on winter, you can always say you forgot to change out of your boots if anyone seriously asks about shoes." Getting him in business attire was already going to be complicated, and she couldn't, wouldn't ask him to give up his only pair of boots just to sneak into the building. Those were a necessity, but the rest.. Well, she wondered what he would look like in anything other than what he'd been wearing so far.

"Alright, back into the cold we go, I guess! Just do the best you can with your coat to keep that covered so we don't get booted out of the store, I guess." Now they just had to find some sort of supermarket or clothing store, anywhere that would carry button ups and slacks would do, really. "We'll just ask on the way out and hope the idiot at the front knows anything."

Less than five minutes later they'd gotten directions to a nearby store that sold just about anything, giving Adelaide a sense of relief she hadn't known she needed. Now they had a solid plan for the day, so as long as they didn't get caught in the store, they would be fine.

"..Have you ever even worn dress clothes, or did you just randomly acquire clothes over the years of being alone?" She questioned Isen once they were on their way, giving him a perplexed look as she thought about it. He had taken care of himself all those years, so how had he gotten things for himself?
 
Following her back outside with an actual plan in mind felt nice for a change. It felt like they were, too often, flying by the seat of their pants and just taking things as they came at them. Part of that was, of course, due to both of their inclination to make rash decisions in the heat of the moment so this was a welcomed change. It was like they actually had some sort of control over what came next for the first time since they had begun working together, even if it meant he would need to get dressed up in fancy clothing that he probably wasn't going to like. At least it was something.

Isen decided it might be best to leave Onigoshi and Ignas outside of the store, just to be safe. She had told him to cover them up but there wasn't much chance a coat would hide a whole sword, so he dropped Ignas off in an alley at the side of the store near a dumpster for safe keeping, something which the demon was most definitely not fond about. Even as they entered inside, he could still hear Ignas spouting off from outside but it was better this way, at least now they weren't about to get kicked out for carrying a weapon into a public store.

"I avoided cities." He told her, reminding her of what he had said once before. "I never needed to dress in any particular way. I wasn't trying to impress anyone, I didn't need protection, it didn't really matter." Another perk, or perhaps a detriment, of not having to worry about basic human needs, he presumed. "Much like you, I just took what I needed when I needed it and moved on." His speed helped with that, but so too did the fact that he rarely stayed in one place long enough to ever get caught.

"It doesn't really matter what you choose, just make sure it will get the job done. I'd hate to ruin the new clothes you buy me by getting into a fight." Blood wasn't easy to get out of clothing, after all. He could already feel people looking at them strangely. Even without the sword at his hip, he looked very out of place. They needed to be done with this quickly.
 
"I have a feeling he's going to complain the entire time that we're in here." She snorted as they entered the store. "I know you said that, but I don't know what happened before you had Ignas, and I don't know if little villages still have small stores. I lived in the city blending in with the crowds, so you and I were very different in that aspect." Wait, what was the last thing he had just said?

"You think I'm paying for an entire outfit?" She snorted again and shook her head, nudging at him before looking around the store in search of the men's section. "No, no, I was going to get myself something small so we had a bag for you to stuff your current clothes in. You're going to try on clothes until you find some that fit, then you're just going to rip the tags off and walk out in them like you were wearing them the whole time." Like hell she was going to throw away an absurd amount of money on an entire outfit he more likely that not would get bloody.

"I'm expecting the potential for blood." She steered him over once she'd located the men's section, ignoring all of the denim and polo shirts, and went straight for the button ups before looking at him speculatively. "Guess we might as well have you get a black one, then we can find a pair of pants to match and get you trying them on. Here," She picked up one of the shirts, checked the size, and then shoved it towards him, "See if you can at least stand the feeling. If you can, then that's good to go on the shirt and we just need to find you pants. But I don't want you fidgeting while trying to fight, because you're itching or something."
 
He figured they would probably shoplift but he didn't want to presume anything just in case. Now that price wasn't a factor, they could pretty much choose anything as long as it fit the role. He let her lead the way, since she had much more experience in this sort of thing than he did, following her into the men's section. "I don't feel pain or heat or cold, an itchy shirt shouldn't be a problem as long as the demon cooperates." Isen's eyes bounced between a couple of different shirts as he said that, trying to gauge something that felt right to him.

Of course, he wanted the plainest option, so the shirt she had pulled out for him was more than enough to satisfy his own tastes. It was a simple choice from there to find matching pants and he pulled a pair haphazardly off of the rack. Realizing that he would need to try it on to make sure that it fit, he began to remove his shirt until he saw the odd look that he was receiving from a nearby attendant. "Oh, right." He mumbled, looking around for some place he could safely change.

There were changing rooms, he just hadn't been aware of that. He gave a confused look towards Adelaide but soon found his own way into one of the rooms where he changed into what they had chosen for him. He saw his reflection in the mirror and had to admit that he looked different enough, already, just from the simplest change. This might actually work. But now, he needed to see what Adelaide thought of it. He opened the door and wandered back outside, holding his arms up as if to ask "well?" without saying a word.
 
"Good, that'll make things so much easier." He seemed satisfied enough with the shirt and seemed to find pants easily, although his next move was one she should have anticipated, but definitely didn't until it was too late.

"Isen, no, you can't--Oh god." She couldn't contain her laughter as he walked away to the dressing room, a hand over her mouth to stifle the sound. Okay, she probably deserved that ordeal, but good grief he was clueless sometime. Had he really been about to strip down half naked in the middle of a store? She was shaking her head for a good minute after he went into the room before she started thinking, was there anything she needed to get for herself? She was running low on clean clothes without anywhere to do laundry, and she hadn't exactly been able to bring her entire wardrobe when she'd evacuated the apartment..

"Holy shit." She caught sight of Isen emerging from the dressing room not long after, looking very different than he had just minutes ago. Was this truly the same person? "They, uh.. They fit well." Her cheeks burned red as she moved closer to inspect him, plucking at the fabric before circling him slowly and nodding in approval.

"Yeah, they fit. You might as well just leave them on, tear off all the tags. Are you going to keep your other clothes to carry with, or are you ready to let go of them? I know you have other stuff since I packed it myself, and.. Honestly, you're not hard on the eyes in these clothes." Far from it, if she was being honest with herself, and after a moment she stretched up to run her fingers through his hair and pat it down.

"I think I'm seeing what that one clerk saw when he picked up that pink key.."
 
He could feel her eyes burning through him as she overlooked the clothing and how it fit to his frame. She seemed pleased with it, which meant that this would more than do the job for their mission. Then she started to circle around him and he gave her a curious look. "You think so?" He asked, noting the change in complexion as her cheeks caught fire with a crimson flush.

Her fingers moved through his hair and he took a step back, reflexively, not used to the intimate action. "We can just leave them behind, it's not like they're clean anyways." He mumbled, though he did so passively, clearly distracted by the way she was looking at him. "Adelaide, why are you..." He mumbled as she reminded him of the clerk from their first hotel visit. "...alright. Thank you, I think." He didn't know what to do with this attention but at least it meant that it was a convincing enough change to hide who he was. Now, it was his turn to feel awkward. It was different having her look at him like this than it was a random guy at a hotel or a witch he had never met....but he couldn't really figure out why it was getting to him as much as it was.

And then, he decided to call her out on it if only to get her to look away, woefully oblivious still to the fact that most people would consider him handsome otherwise. "You can stop staring at me now."

Reaching around his back, he snatched at the tag a couple of times, ungracefully, until he managed to snag it and tug it downwards, snapping the flimsy string that kept it attached to the shirt. He couldn't find the tag on the pants and turned his back to her, hoping she could find it and remove it so that he would be safe to walk out when they were ready to go. "We need glasses too, right? Maybe we should grab a briefcase too or one of those things businessmen wear around their necks."
 
"Right, sorry." Her cheeks grew hotter when he called her out on her behavior, and Adelaide hastily averted her eyes entirely for a moment. It was only when she saw him struggling with the pants tag that she sighed and reached out, grabbing hold of it and ripping through the plastic cord that held the paper tag in place. Totally not awkward having to stick her hand down the back of the pants to pull it out. This was purely professional, after all.

"Yeah, sunglasses, definitely." She nodded, eager to change the subject and avoid more embarrassment. "We can see about a briefcase, it all depends what they have and what kind of security there is here." Considering no one had come up to them yet, it didn't seem like it was terribly tight unless they intended to swarm them as they left the store. Whatever the case was, she wasn't going to complain about the sight of Isen in these clothes.

"Oh, coat. Go get your coat out of the dressing room and then we can go get the sunglasses." She waited patiently for him to retrieve it, taking several deep breaths to calm herself before his return. She was a grown woman, not a teenager, there was no need for such drama inside her head! There was nothing wrong about admiring the way someone looked, but she needed to get her head in order before they went on a dangerous mission, that was for sure.

Adelaide was almost surprised when they managed to leave the store without being caught, and even more surprised that he had actually managed to secure a briefcase, even if it wasn't top of the line quality wise. They'd made out quite well considering all, and she found herself glancing over at Isen periodically once they'd exited the store.

Looked good in a button up and tie? Check.
Distracted her more than he probably should have? Check.

"You know, if you don't end up destroying those clothes, you should hang onto them for future situations like this."
 
Isen doubled back towards the dressing room to grab his coat, deciding to leave his old clothing behind as he had no further use for it right now anyways. They weren't in great condition and he hardly had any attachment to them. Besides, Adelaide seemed pleased with how he was dressed, so it wasn't all bad.

When he returned with his coat wrapped around his arm, he followed her lead and, to his surprise, they were able to actually make it out of the store without getting caught or even drawing any real suspicion. He called that a success and he retrieved Ignas from where they had left him.

"What did you do to him?" He asked, incredulously, directing the question towards Adelaide after finally being able to get a better idea of what she had picked out for him.

"Future situations like this?" Isen also posed a question of his own, offering two different options for her to respond to. Was sneaking around their new thing?

"Either way, we have what we need. I think it's time to get started."

The plan was simple, though quite risky. If he were to actually manage to get inside, convincingly enough not to draw any attention from the guards, he needed to find a way to get them in from the inside. Even though he would need to leave Ignas outside, he realized that he could use the demon as a go-between to relay information, effectively acting as a living walkie-talkie, so they could stay in communication and work things out together. If things went south, he wasn't in any real danger and she would be outside, so she could flee and find some place safe to wait for him. It seemed like this might actually work but it all seemed to hinge on one thing; he needed to act like a normal businessman and he had absolutely no idea what that even meant.

So, as they walked back towards their destination, he took the chance to inquire a little further. "So, what exactly does a business man do? I need to try and make it believable."
 
"Well, you never know, and they'll just replace what you left behind in the bag, so why not?" She shrugged. "Yes yes, we can get started. I know you're just as impatient as I am, and the sooner we get it done, the sooner we can attempt to relax for the night." Even if the chances of that in the shady little motel room they'd gotten were slim to none, at the very least she could sleep and she had Isen to keep her safe.

"Uh.. That's a good question." She hadn't thought that far ahead and a brief look of panic crossed her face. What would a business man do, why would he walk directly into a facility? They would need a believable reason for him to be there, a reason he would want to speak to someone inside. People did it all the time when they had questions about things and they wanted direct answers, so it wasn't him walking in the door that was the problem, it was the reason he would give whoever asked him what his business there was.

"Oh! You could say you had questions about this morning! They were all throwing such a big fit over seeing the werewolf and a man with a sword. You could be there because you want to make sure the business you work at is safe. Uh.. Maybe something vague if they ask about your job, like selling insurance. Something that you wouldn't need to give an extra location or whatnot. Or maybe a consultant, I don't know. Point is, you could be there to complain just like everyone else because now you feel unsafe."
 
"So, I just complain about how unsafe things seem to be and ask to speak with somebody important?" He wondered, though perhaps it was better not to draw the attention of anyone of importance, especially in case they managed to recognize him. "Or I could try to find a back door to get you in. It seems like whatever we're searching for may be under ground. I think we should be concerned about how we're going to get out as well."

"And if you screw it up..."

"I won't."

"But if you do..."

"...we'll do what we unfortunately do best."

That wasn't the most reassuring, but at least it was a back up plan. It felt like Ignas would prefer the back up plan become the primary, but that was why he wasn't allowed to make the decisions.

There was a certain irony about heading inside to complain about threats to public safety when he was one of those threats, but it made sense to capitalize on the panic and use it to their advantage. With a tentative plan in mind, he seemed pleased with the situation. "Okay, sounds great. Just one more question..." Isen paused for a moment, as if adding dramatic effect, before he spoke again with oblivious confusion. "...what's insurance?" It had been such a long time, after all. He had a basic idea but he wasn't confident enough with it to just waltz into enemy territory without preparation.

Isen felt a little more apprehensive about this than he would have if he was jumping into a fight. That was natural to him, this wasn't. But, standing in the space where they witnessed the rally earlier in the day, he readied himself, leaving his sword with Adelaide to continue to sell his unassuming disguise.
 
"Not someone important, or they'll probably come looking for you when you disappear." He'd already moved onto talking about a back door entrance, and she nodded in approval of the idea. It was smart, and it made the most sense for any vault to be underground instead of on a level the public could access.

"It'll be fine. We'll manage, and we probably won't even have to kill anyone." Probably not, but possibly, and she knew Ignas would be all too happy about that.

"Insurance?" Adelaide stared at him blankly for a long moment before she tried to figure out a simple explanation. "Uh.. It's like a backup for things. It helps with bills sometimes. Health insurance pays when you have to see a doctor, car insurance pays if you get into an accident. It's just a way for people to protect themselves, but they have to pay something each month to have it, so the companies make money regardless of what happens.

"Really, it's just financial protection, I guess."
 
Isen nodded. It made enough sense, he supposed. Besides, it wasn't like he actually needed to talk about insurance to anybody, he just needed to have enough of an understanding that he wouldn't completely blow it. Easy enough, he thought.

"I am ready." He declared with a fervent nod of his head. "Ignas will serve as the in-between so that we can stay in touch."

"If I must." He sighed, he didn't sound thrilled about it but he knew it would bring him one step closer to seeing just what was inside of that vault, so he was willing to play along well enough.

Isen climbed the steps at the front of the building and felt the cameras turn to face him. He could hear the sound of their lenses tightening, somebody was looking over him. So far, so good.

"State your name and your reason for visiting." The first guard spoke as they stepped forward to stand between Isen and the front of the gate.

"My name is Isaac. I am an...insurance sales man. I am here to speak with somebody about safety."

"Safety? You'll have to be a little more specific than that."

"I bet he's a left over from the group that caused all that ruckus earlier today.

"Ah, yeah, you're probably right. What makes you so special, huh? There's a lot of important people in there, they don't have time to deal with every little problem."

Isen paused for a moment; he needed to think quickly. "...it's regarding the man with the sword."

They looked at each other, eyebrows raised. "...very well. Follow us inside."

"He's...actually being led inside?" Ignas relayed to Adelaide, rather surprised that it actually worked. "Huh. Would you look at that?"
 
"A demonic walkie talkie, got it." That was something Adelaide never thought she would be utilizing, but if it worked, it worked. The fact that it seemed to irritate Ignas made it all the better, if she was being honest. "Guess you're stuck with the witch for a little while, Ignas." She snickered quietly, although her attention was quickly on whether or not Isen would get into the building without issue.

"Wait, led inside?" She gave the demon a confused look and then leaned back against the nearest wall. "Not just let inside, but led inside? That's.. Interesting." That was either very good for them, or very bad, but since Isen wasn't internally screaming at the demon or making a scene, she doubted it was the latter. Still, the uncertainty was enough to make her anxious and she fidgeted in place.

"Okay, so far, so good. We may actually pull this off without having to kill anyone, as much as I know that would annoy you."
 
The two guards brought Isen inside and he was immediately blindsided by how it looked in there. Despite the high level of technology, it looked like nothing more than a regular lobby. A large, golden staircase ascended on either side of a front desk where a woman was waiting, eyeing him down as he was brought towards her.

"Is the speaker busy?" One of the guards asked. She pulled out a tablet and began to skim down through it's contents.

"His meeting is in ten."

"This stiff says he has info on the swordsman that's been spooking out the town."

"He's in his office."

While one of the guard remained near the entrance, the other sighed and walked towards the staircase, leaving Isen with the receptionist. She was looking at him intently, it was making him feel a little uncomfortable. It felt like the way Adelaide had stared at him and he wanted it to stop but didn't want to cause any problems by speaking out against it.

"You're some sort of salesman?"

"Yes."

"You don't look like a salesman. What do you sell?"

"Insurance."

"Oh, yeah? I could use some insurance. What kind?" She asked, leaning forward.

Isen once more had to think fast and he said the first thing that came to mind, remembering his conversation with Adelaide prior. "...car insurance."

"I love cars. What do you drive?"

"He's made a friend." Ignas smirked. "She seems very interested."

Isen was, luckily, saved by the voice of the guard calling him from the top of the staircase. "He'll see you now."

He gave a polite nod towards the girl before walking towards the stairs instead, narrowly dodging that bullet.
 
"Of course she does." Adelaide rolled her eyes, crossing her arms over her chest and huffing irritably. Of course Ignas would make sure to share that little detail as if it was important. It made sense that women would look at Isen now that he was all cleaned up as he was. Hell, the clerk at the first hotel had looked at him before he'd even been in dress clothes! It seemed that no matter how he dressed he held some sort of sexual appeal to women, and she wasn't sure what to do with that knowledge. If this kept up, she was going to be beating men and women alike off of him with a stick. Or with Ignas, at any rate.

"Good for him, but we need to find out if they have a vault, not play wingman for him to pick up some random human chick. Do you really want to deal with shaking one of them off?"
 
"He's so oblivious, he doesn't realize it anyways."

"I'm still here." He grumbled to Ignas as he reached the top of the stairs. He was supposed to be finding a way to get them inside, not actually meeting with anybody from the DSTF. He was quickly becoming in over his head and this was headed towards a not-so-great ending.

"Hello, Issac. I hear you have information that I may be interested in hearing."

The man who had been outside stood from his desk where he had been sitting in a lavish chair. He began to walk towards Isen, meeting him in the middle. "And I believe I may be of use to you as well. First, allow me to offer you the curtesy of hearing your concern first."

"..."

"There's no need to be worried, Issac. I know I may seem a bigger deal than what I am but I assure you, I'm a hard working citizen of Cresthaven just like you. There's nothing to fear here, you can be open with me."

"...I'm concerned for the safety of the people who work at my company."

"See? That wasn't so hard." He mused, smirking. "Where do you work, Issac?"

"...I....own a private company a couple of blocks from here. I employ two other people and with the commotion in the streets in front of our office, I thought it might be a good idea to come and speak to you about it."

"Hm, I see." He turned towards a side table where a bottle of wine was on display. "Care for a drink to ease your nerves?"

"I...uh, no, sir. That won't be neccessary, I have to return to work when this is over."

"Ah, a responsible man. I understand and I appreciate it. If you don't mind, I'll go ahead and help myself, however. I have a meeting with the board soon and you can imagine how stressful that could be."

He popped the cork and filled one of his glasses. He looked up towards Isen to see if he had any second thoughts on turning down the drink and upon seeing there weren't any, he finished it and took a sip himself.

"We are planning on increasing the presence of our men in the street this afternoon. I can make certain to send some extra attention your way if it calms your worries."

"...thank you, sir."

"Now, if you would be so kind...tell me what you know of this swordsman."

"He's actually doing kind of okay. It's a miracle, really."
 
"..Shut up, Ignas. God, I wish I didn't have to listen to you right now, you're lucky I have to in order to know what's going on with Isen." Seriously, as soon as they were done with everything for the day, she was using that spell Samara had given her. She'd only need to do it once and then she would remember it, hopefully, for the rest of her life, which meant that she could shut the demon up whenever he got too mouthy for her taste.

"Something doesn't feel right. I know it wasn't going to be an in and out to get us in there, but something feels off." Adelaide had only been silent for a couple of minutes before she spoke again, pacing around the alley with a frown. She couldn't quite put her finger on what felt off, just that something did and she didn't like it at all. "Maybe we should just go in anyway, there's gotta be some sort of back door we can try to sneak in and I can just pull my hood up and.. What the hell is that noise?"

Her head snapped up as she heard what was definitely cawing, a sound she hadn't expected to come out of nowhere, and it was followed by the sight of Samara's familiar Priscilla. "Priscilla...?" She yelped as the bird came straight to her and landed on her shoulder, holding a small, metal bar in its mouth.

"What's this for, pretty girl?" Adelaide took the bar carefully between her fingers and examined it, inhaling sharply as she felt the magic bouncing around inside it. This was clearly a spelled object, and after a moment of inspecting it she saw a barely noticeable little button on it. Was she supposed to push it and learn whatever spell was inside?

"Well, here goes nothing. Thanks, precious." She ran her hand over the bird's head gently before it cawed again and flew off, leaving her to peer around the corner toward where Isen was before she took a deep breath, counted to three, and pushed the button.
 
"We saw him. This morning." Isen began, trying to weave a believable lie. "In the streets."

"Yes, there have been multiple reports, that is nothing new to us...what we need to know is who he's traveling with, what he's capable of. We have reason to believe him to be extremely dangerous. I'm sure you've heard the rumors of the traveling demon..."

"Demon? Demons aren't real, sir." Isen lied, as convincingly as he could.

The speaker seemed to give him a peculiar look, as though he was staring straight through Isen's facade.

"Ah, yes, I apologize. It's the stress, you know. I shouldn't be reading too much into the rumors." He mused, taking another sip from his drink. "Was he alone?"

"...yes. He was traveling alone." Isen continued, trying to shield Adelaide from any attention.

"Hm, that's strange. I've been told otherwise." The Speaker began to walk towards Isen, closing more of the distance between them. Isen took a cautious step backwards but otherwise stood his ground.

"Perhaps his companions were elsewhere when we saw him but I definitely only saw one person."

"Or, perhaps, you're misleading me. You wouldn't do that, would you, Isaac?" His brow rose in question. Isen thought he would stop speaking to give him a chance to formulate a reply but the Speaker continued on. "Two other people, you say? It would be a shame if something were to happen in your end of town. Given the dangers in these streets, you can never be too careful, right?"

Had that been a threat? Isen furrowed his brow, his hand moving towards his waist as a precaution only to find that Onigoshi, which was typically at his side, was no longer there and had been left behind with Adelaide.

"Why are you really here?" Came the next question and then, darkness.

Something had pulsed through the entire building. Isen felt the intense magical wave that seemed to spread, knocking out all of the electronics in the building. The lights went dark, the computers and security systems lost their power and suddenly, the door behind Isen had been pushed open with the guard from before coming inside. He grabbed the Speaker by the arm, ushering him out of the room. While he walked, his head turned to remain locked onto Isen, staring him down until they were both in the stairwell. The second guard from before soon followed to come get Isen but, seeing the opportunity here, Isen shrugged off the guard's arm and lodged a well-placed elbow into the back of his neck with haste, crumpling him to the floor, unconscious.

Whatever had happened was sudden, unexpected but fortuitous. It gave them an opening.

"Demon, did you feel that?" He asked Ignas as he peaked outside just in time to see the Speaker and the guard exit through another door. This one was unlike the others, it was a regular door with no hint of electronical influence. Isen made note of it while looking around to see if he could find any other hallways that were open to him. The lobby had cleared out from the panic, leaving just him and a chance to finally look around. He found a pair of shut, metal doors and pried them open, disappearing into the pathway concealed behind it. Without the cameras active, he was able to walk freely until he found a shutter door.

"I think I found something. It appears to be..." He paused, trying to remember his directions. "East side of the building, a shutter door. Think you can make it there?" He asked as he pulled against it's weight with all of his strength, dislodging the door and causing it to unbuckle from it's locks. Normally, the computer nearby would open the door but without electricity, he needed to improvise and use some of Ignas' magic to aid him in opening a path. He felt the cool, winter breeze breaching through as he tugged it upwards; a side entrance clearly used for freight or some other sort of export, wide open and ready for Adelaide to join him inside the building.
 
"Wait, did all the lights go out in there?" Adelaide stared down at the device in her hand before she hastily shoved it in her pocket, taking a steady breath to recover from the abruptness of using her magic. All the lights in the facility seemed to have snapped off suddenly and she stared in wonder, realizing that whatever Priscilla had delivered to her, had clearly done that. Some sort of EMP spell, perhaps?

"Time to go, I guess." Once Ignas had relayed the information to her, Adelaide fumbled around trying to get a proper grip on the blade so that she could take the demon with her. While her magic allowed her to carry the extra weight without too much trouble, it didn't compensate for the awkwardness of carrying a large object, and she was not by any means a large woman.

"You're lucky we need you, or I'd have left you there until we were done. Pain in the ass to carry, if I have to do this again I'm getting some sort of holster, because you, demon, are a bigger pain in the ass than you normally are." Once she'd gotten him as situated as she was going to in the limited time that they had, she ducked around the corner and in the direction she had been given.

"East side, shutter door. East side, shutter door." She repeated the words as she went down the street as fast as she dared, spotting people exiting nearby buildings trying to figure out what had taken down the power of such a large area. The fact that it had crashed all the power at the facility was astounding enough, a fact that seemed to be making people panic as they walked up and down the streets.

"East side, shutter door." She wasn't sure how she managed to get through and around the panicked people flocking to the streets, but eventually she managed to find the door Isen had communicated to her through Ignas.

"Alright, let's go, go, let's get what we can and get the hell out of here. I have no idea how long the power will stay out, I didn't even know the thing was going to do that when I pushed the button.. Ask me later, just show me where we're going."
 
Isen was relieved to see Adelaide arrive on the other side of the door, safe and sound and without having alerted any of the guards who may have gone outside. He took Onigoshi out of her hands to free her of the burden and put it onto it's rightful place on his hip.

"Your timing was perfect." He complimented her, assuming that it was her doing, as he walked her back down the hallway he had taken and into the lobby. "Whatever you did seemed to fry everything, they were pretty freaked out. The guards grabbed the Speaker and brought him through that door." He pointed it out to her, still as confused by the door as he had been the first time he saw it. In a place full of such fascinating technology, and presumably powerful magic, such a mundane door seemed very out of place and stranger still was why they had chosen it to be where they went in times of panic.

Isen approached it and tried to pry it open but found that it seemed to resist, supernaturally, against his strength. "This is no time to play around, demon. I thought you'd be more eager to see what was on the other side." Isen chastised Ignas, figuring this to be some sort of joke of his, pulling away some of his magic the way he had in the diner or on the train. His strength that never failed him before, why would it suddenly do so now?

"I am, which is why this is none of my doing. Don't you feel it? This isn't an ordinary door, there's magic flowing through it, a large amount in fact."

If it had some sort of spell on it, this out of place door suddenly had a reason for it's out of place existence. Luckily for them, however, they had the perfect witch-in-training for the job. Isen didn't feel any concern over the fact that they were effectively locked out and, instead, he simply walked back towards Adelaide and placed his hand onto her shoulder, encouragingly. "You're up."
 
"It shut off the power in the other nearby buildings, too. People were wandering around the sidewalk panicking." She might have found amusement in it if they hadn't been in such a rush. "You were actually talking to the Speaker?" Maybe that was where the bad feeling she'd gotten had come from, so her timing really had been perfect.

"But that's a normal door." It wasn't even functioning by some sort of electrical device, was it? "Come on, Ignas, this isn't very funny!" Adelaide snapped at the demon as she watched Isen struggle with the door.

"What the hell are you talking about?" She frowned, jumping at the sudden weight of Isen's hand on her shoulder as she gave him a wide eyed stare. "Wait, me?" She hadn't been planning to have to unlock a door with no prior warning, and now he was looking at her with such an encouraging expression? This was a far cry from the man she had met when she'd first encountered him at his sister's grave. He had feelings, expressions other than anger at the demon now, and it was almost uncomfortable to have him staring at her like he had such faith in her.

"Don't look at me like that, it's weird. I mean, no pressure or anything, right?" This was all up to her now, and she took a deep breath before placing her hand flat on the door and closing her eyes. She needed to feel the magic, steal it and contort it and take it as her own to force the door to do her bidding. It sounded so easy when she thought of it that way, but actually doing it required intense focus and that was hard to do when they were on a time limit.

"This magic is.. Weird." She made a face and opened her eyes, tapping her nails on the door as she pursed her lips. "I'm not used to spells that control doors like this." She still wasn't used to spells at all, truth be told. It had been less than a week since she'd been forced on the run and back into her birthright as a mage, and there she was handling all different sorts of magic.

"..There we go." It had taken her a couple minutes of concentrating and controlling the flow of magic, but finally the door began to open slowly, giving them a view into what was beyond as she dropped her hand. "I really hope there aren't a bunch of those, though. I just want to get this shit over and done with." Oh, she could definitely feel the dark magic inside the place now.

"Oh, it smells absolutely filthy here. They must have a lot of dark magic."
 
Isen waited patiently while Adelaide tried to figure out what to do with the spell in the door. Ignas was, expectedly, not so patient, quipping with impatience which probably only served to make things more difficult.

"If she can't even do something as simple as open a door, what hope do we have of taking down this entire operation?"

"You're not helping. Let her focus, she can do this." Isen spoke in response, believing that Adelaide would be able to work it out. His faith in her was rewarded near moments later as the door finally began to creak open, offering them passage beyond where it had blocked. Even he could sense the magic coming from inside and his ability to do so was nowhere near on the same level as hers.

"Yes! Yes, this is the right way. We need to go, now!" Ignas chanted and Isen sighed.

"Yeah, wander head first into the enemy's magic death trap. That's definitely the right thing to do."

"I'll bring you back to life if you die..."

"That's great for me, not so much for her."

"Fine...good work, witch. There, are you happy? Now, let us proceed?"

Isen glanced over at Adelaide with a look of annoyance but stepped forward first, finding the hallway ahead incredible dark without electricity or any sort of outside light offering illumination. There were multiple other doors on either side of the hall but they appeared mechanical and all were shut tightly. Near the end of the hallway appeared to be an elevator but, without electricity, they were out of luck on getting it to operate.

"I sense darkness from below. Witch..."

"Adelaide." Isen interjected, shaking his head. He had gotten used to saying her name, now, it felt natural to call her that. Ignas still preferred witch, but that wasn't within Isen's control. "Is there anything you can do to get this device activated?" He wondered, though even he was aware that since they had knocked out the power grid, there wasn't a ton that they would be able to do.

"There's bound to be another way down. Maybe some stairs."

"A long staircase would be easy for us but not so much for her." That was an easy way to tire her out before they ever got to the bottom, after all. He looked to her for her opinion and if she could think of something she could do to help them out of this situation.
 
"Will you two stop arguing already? You make it very difficult to concentrate, and I kind of need to memorize all this magic." She shot Isen an annoyed look before looking straight again, examining all of the doors but paying them little mind. None of them were of any importance, but the elevator, that was another story entirely. Too bad it was shut and out of order with the power loss inside the building, which meant she had to either figure out a way to jumpstart it and hope they didn't get stuck partway down, or they had to find some stairs and hope it wasn't going to be ten stories down to get to where they needed to be. Neither of them sounded particularly pleasant, and she grimaced as Isen looked her way again.

"We could take stairs, but this ring only gives me magic, not energy. You'll probably end up carrying me back to the motel if we have to take twenty flights of stairs back and forth, and we really can't afford to be drawing that kind of attention." First the door, now an elevator, that was just bloody great. Life was never easy, especially when you were infiltrating normally secure facilities whose expertise was in magic and battle.

"Let's just hope the elevator only goes one place, so we're not bouncing around trying to find the right floor. I'd imagine what we're looking for is all the way at the bottom." The magic inside the device Priscilla had dropped off had taken away the power, so if she could control and then reverse it, focus it solely on the elevator, that would be enough to get it to function for them.

"Huh." She took a step back with a surprised noise as the elevator slowly opened under her touch, the lights inside flickering before it gave a loud ding and held in place for them. "Okay, I wasn't expecting it to be that easy to reverse it, so that's good." She dropped her hand and stepped inside, looking at the single button before sighing in relief.

"Good, this should take us right to where we need to be."
 
Was this the imprinting thing that Samara mentioned? By having just held the device that she had been given, her body would have recognized the magic and learned how to produce the same spell, it made sense she could reverse it as well. With power restored to the elevator, it began to move once the button had been pressed, descending them down several floors. Isen was a little apprehensive of what they were about to stumble into. There must have been something down here they didn't want anyone seeing, especially if they went through the trouble of burying it so far underneath the city.

The elevator dinged as it reached it's destination, the doors opening up into another, dark hallway. Isen kept his hand around the hilt of his blade as he approached it.

"It's close. So very close. Keep going, Isen!"

This door wasn't spelled but it was definitely operated mechanically. Fortunately, it was one of the doors he was capable of pulling open on his own and bit by bit, they revealed what was waiting on the other side.

There wasn't a vault for them to step into. This was the vault.

It was massive in scope and size, far beyond the one they had seen before. There appeared to be multiple levels, the entire place more resembling a hangar than a museum. Isen couldn't believe something like this even existed. What would the people of Cresthaven think if they knew there was a treasure trove of dangerous magic right beneath their feet? There were odd containers visible from each level with different elevators and computer systems strewn all throughout. More concerning was the fact that, unlike the rest of the facility, this place seemed unaffected by the EMP spell. Had it been so far underneath that it hadn't reached or was there something else at work here?

Isen took a couple of careful steps forward, spotting cameras rotating and whirling around. There was no point in trying to hide from them, whoever was watching would have been aware of their entrance the moment that elevator activated again, after all. They didn't have a ton of time. But they also weren't alone.

"I hoped you weren't who I thought you were, but I suppose my intuition is better than I thought it would be." Came a voice through a speaker, an intercom system relaying the sound of the Speaker. Isen spotted him up above, on one of the higher levels, looking down at them but talking through a microphone. "...Isen Hiyori. Adelaide Lancaster."

"Did you think you had me fooled? You're no sales man, Isen, nor are you traveling alone. You're brave, though, I'll give you that. To barge straight in, to do something so foolish...I suppose eternal life does dull the senses over time. But, do enlighten me. What was your plan? It wasn't to kill me, you could have done that the moment we were alone but you didn't. No, I suspect you wanted the contents of this vault, just like you did the last time you decided to attack one of our facilities, isn't that right? I'm sorry to disappoint you, you won't find any treasures or cursed objects here but, I'd be more than happy to show you what we've been working on instead."

"Stop listening to the old man talk! There's so. Much. Magic. Kill him, take it all. It's ours, it's our birthright. It's mine." Ignas began to spout off, quickly, speaking erratically, almost like he was losing control of himself.

"What are you talking about?" Isen called out, ignoring Ignas' rambling. The Speaker offer a sarcastic laugh in response.

"Protection. The future...it may be difficult for a relic of the past like you to truly understand the ambition of forward progress, of innovation, but surely Ms. Lancaster has an idea of what it is I'm talking about. Our world is fragmented by fear, fractured by forces of darkness and terror. The people have the right to feel safe and protected. They've done nothing wrong, after all. Why should they have to be affected by forces like magic, Dissonants, the knowledge that all of the wives tales and urban legends they grew up with were all true?"

He was a Speaker and Isen could see why. He loved to talk.

"Your idea of protection is fear. Don't act like any of this isn't exactly what you and the DTSF wanted because we both know that it is."

"Since when did you become a champion of the people? Last I heard, you were content cutting them down with that sword of yours...at least, until you came into contact with her. The General was right about you, Adelaide. All the power in the world and none of the knowledge or ambition to use it. You're a stain on your family's legacy. What would they think of you? They were strong, ambitious, ruthless...but what are you?"

He was trying to provoke her, it was clear. What was he getting at?

"Adelaide...don't fall for it." Isen warned her, hoping she could keep her temper in check until they had a better idea of what was going on. The Speaker was too intelligent to be this foolish, he very clearly had something up his sleeve.
 
"Holy shit." The previous vault they had found was nothing compared to this. There were so many levels, cases, ways to get to different items that she had no idea where to even start. "Where do we even start, there's so--" She jumped at the sound of the voice playing into the room, her head snapping up until she found the source of it all. Of course, this had seemed too easy to be true, despite the fact that operating newfound magic itself had been difficult. She should have known the moment they walked in and the room had full power that something was amiss. The chances of the power coincidentally coming back on everywhere the moment they entered was slim to none.

"Damn it. I should have known this wasn't going to be so easy." Still, she had hoped they would be able to get some of the items inside before they were caught, and yet she hadn't been able to retrieve even one. "Isen, we don't have time for this. He's lying, I can feel the dark magic. It's here somewhere, I just don't know exactly where yet, there are too many things." Good god, the man just never stopped talking, did he? He clearly loved the sound of his voice, and how smug he sounded about everything made her want to rip out his tongue so he could never speak again.

"Do I look like I really give a shit what you think about how I affect my family's legacy? They're all dead, you bloody idiot, why would they even care? They can laugh or taunt from behind the grave if they wish, but I know they would never side with you. You're the one who's going to be a stain by the end of all this, I can guarantee you that." Oh, his words had hit a sore spot, but she managed to keep her composure despite the rage that was bubbling up inside.

"For someone you want to call a stain, you people seem pretty desperate to get me. Pretty pathetic, if you ask me. A bunch of children trying to play god and throwing tantrums when they don't get their way."
 
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