full image - Repost: Needle's Eye. (19/?) (from Reddit.com, Needle's Eye. (19/?))
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PreviousWriter's note: Like Eli, Murphy is also not a low level noob. He's a literal battle vet AND experienced Detective in a post World War AND Universal invasion world. Like Rin's dad... he's kinda been through some shit. He just has better connections than Rin's dad.Also, just been offline for the past few weeks because I've been cramming as much outdoor fun and ice fishing in as I could before Alaska melts and gets all muddy and mosquito-y.Also Hell Let Loose and Hell Divers 2 have consumed my spare time too. SPREAD MANAGED DEMOCRACY!!!!Enjoy.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~"Are you sure this is going to work?" Marina asked from the bathroom.The sound of the trimmer had stopped some ten minutes ago, give or take."It's Deep Elf ceremonial patterned dye." Eli said as he rubbed some of the healing salve he'd procured on his way to their current location onto the small of his back. "Just use tin one before tin two and it'll be fine.""But there's no way this'll fool any of the Folk." She countered as he heard the shower head spraying water."It's not the Folk we're worried about." Eli said before lowering his volume. He sucked in air through clenched teeth as the salve began working its way into him, burning like Icy Hot as it did. "It's a damn Earth company and their gang banger mercs. If anything, we're here so that the Folk might accidentally help us if they try anything while we're here."The water from the bathroom paused as she thought of that for a moment."You're using their instincts against them?" She asks in offended shock."Nooo." He counters just as the salve finishes getting through his skin and into his deeper tissue. "Ideally nothing happens at all. But if it DOES happen... THEN... I'm hopeful that their instincts play in our favor."There's a loud, though muffled, bump from beneath them before they hear crashing noises. The rooms of the Tooth and Claw are, it seems, enchanted only to prevent noise from getting out of the room. But not from letting noise in. It's actually part of the reason he chose the, primarily Folk only, tavern deep within the QZ's third zone."That's messed up." He hears her say before turning the spray nozzle back on."I'll take any advantage we can get." He says to himself.His exile to zone three isn't exactly convenient given their circumstances. The fact that his apartment is in zone two only exacerbates that fact. But if there is one advantage to being Z-3 only is that the inner zone has a very extensive network of back channels. And even better than that, as an Int-D officer for the better part of forty years, he knew most of them.As Murphy was fond of saying during their training days, a Detective couldn't do much of anything without building a network. And in zone three Eli has a damned good network."As long as you don't put me in that bag again." Marina says as she begins blow drying her fur."No promises." He says quietly as he slowly sinks into the couch up against the wall. The TV on the opposite wall is playing an old rerun of a show from before even his time.A few minutes later, as he's beginning to struggle to keep his eyes open, she emerges from the bathroom, wearing the new clothes he'd snagged from the tavern's lost and found, a hoodie and a pair of cargo pants that are a size too large for her.And also the new fur color."This feels weird." She says as he gives her a sleepy once over.Gods he's tired. The day felt like it had been nearly a month long."Looks spot on though." He said with a nod. "If the ears were a touch rounder you'd be a dead ringer for a night sister. Which is enough to beat basic surveillance. Especially if it's being watched by zone one humans.""How long are we staying here." She asks as she sits on the edge of the bed a few feet away, looking at the TV absently for a moment. "No offense but being in a Merkin joint isn't exactly comfortable. You'd be surprised at the things I can smell in here." She said as she took a sniff of the air. "Least the bed seems to get full magic cleaning." She nodded at the couch he was already beginning to melt into again. "Can't say the same for the couch."He cocked an eyebrow at her. The term was a common bit of derogatory slang for a bar that specialized in letting people "Walk on the wild side" with members of the folk. They were popular among certain circles of the tourist industry.And as a result they also tended not to have much surveillance anywhere except the doors and the cash registers, and for that exact reason."How do you know about Merkin bars?" He asked in confusion. "You been to one of these before?"She looked at him with a blank expression. She might have been uncomfortable in these kinds of places. But she wasn't embarrassed by them either. After all, she wasn't in THAT line of work.He thought for a moment. Then remembered how she'd gotten into all this trouble in the first place."Right." He said as he scooted down further into the couch some more. "Smuggler. Merkin bar. Good spot for a meeting.""And I had more than a few fake ID's." She said.She wanted to ask about why HE was so familiar with these kinds of places too. But he was already snoring before she'd even finished the short sentence."Used to pick them up from Fig before meetings." She said as she remembered her dead friend/handler.She sat on the pillows of the bed with her knees tucked up to her chest and watched the old cartoon.She missed Fig. He had liked selling his wares at places like this.She missed her dad.--------------------------------------Murphy was about halfway through cleaning his old rifle when his cell phone lit up with a red border around a -WARNING!- message on the screen."Shit." He cursed under his breath as he turned wiped the bolt carrier with the shammy cloth nearby. He tapped the screen of the phone to dismiss the warning as he slotted the firing pin back into the carrier and pressed its spring in place.Another swipe of his finger and his house's controls turned on.He was thankful that his wife Maria was in Philadelphia with his daughter for the next week.As his camera feeds came up he saw the cause of the warning. The main gate to the perimeter wall was rocking against the side of the brick wall of Maria's Dahlia bed. It had been blasted off of its hinges."Shiiiit." He said as he quickly slapped the completed bolt assembly into the stock of the weapon and released the disassembly tab so it would lock in place. He slotted the barrel back in its lug, still uncleaned since he'd been interrupted, and twisted it until it made the light pop that meant it was properly housed.He didn't have time to do things proper, so he simply squirted dual action cleaner and lube into the whole assembly and scissored it shut. Then he braced the charging handle with one hand and released it with the other, easing the bolt back and forth a few times to get it oiled up.He watched on his phone's screen as several dark forms stalked through the gate and up his driveway."They're coming through the front." He said to himself as he peered out of the window behind his table. "Means they know I'm in the back"Sure enough he saw the little black shadow of a drone flying over the back yard. In the distance he could see lights moving in the forest beyond the back wall. The rear gate would likely be breached in a moment too.He looked back at the phone for a moment as he slapped a full magazine into the mag well of the rifle.His head tilted as he saw the "person" leading the fire team."Muck Marcher?" He wondered.His phone automatically enlarged the feed from the camera over his garage.No. He thought as he saw a slightly closer view of the "person". That's something else entirely. Some new model or something. I thought they stopped making those.As if on cue the armored thing looked up and to the side, and pointed the front of its, (slightly too large) head at the camera over his front door.He didn't see the normal face plates that he'd come to recognize from other Muck Marchers. Instead he saw three large bulbs of some kind of lens. They looked almost insect-like in design.The things hand's blurred before the feeds for his door, garage, front yard, and side alley all shut off.Then the application on his phone shut down. It instead flashed a warning.-FEED SECURITY COMPROMISED--REPORTING TO NORTON HOME SOLUTIONS AND LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT FOR BREACH OF SECURITY-"SHIT!" He half yelled as he picked up the phone and threw it into a desk drawer and shut it in.He couldn't trust the piece of technology now.He stayed low and moved over as quietly as he could to the closet nearby, which had become more of an armory since he'd taken over the basement. He slung the rifle over his shoulder as he moved.At almost the same moment he heard the front door crash open up above. Something clattered and slid across the ground before there was a loud BANG! BANG! BANG!"Shit shit shiiiiiiit." He said as he jammed a few spare magazines into the pockets of his sweatpants.He was torn between thinking he'd been caught with his pants around his ankles, and thinking that they'd caught him at the most opportune time. Another twenty minutes or so and they would have shown up while he was upstairs getting ready to plate the pot roast that had been cooking for the past few hours.He threw his battle belt over his chest like a bandolier, his .44 magnum holstered on the left side. Then he picked up an old surplus AA12 from the previous century and pulled the box magazine out of it as quietly as he could. Once it was out, and stowed in his belts dumb bag for the time being, he quickly opened the hidden panel behind his fire safe, which had been pushed aside. Inside were two drum mags for the weapon. He could see the green plastic of the shells that had cost him a yearly bonus to source from some dealers in the back alleys of a place he had intentionally suppressed his memory of.One of them got slotted into the massive slab of a weapon, and he quietly chambered a round. The other got placed in the dump bag with its smaller sibling.Then he set the automatic shotgun on the shelf so that its light was shining into the secret compartment.He looked over on the side wall and saw the panel he was looking for.He drew in magic as subtly as he could and channeled it into the enchanted panel. A set of glowing runes appeared on it and he tapped the ones that were red and green.Then, as he heard the people upstairs pause in their motions, he stepped out of the small armory and donned a gas mask with a set of enchanted goggles duct taped over its eye slots. He went over to the breaker and flipped the power off. It wouldn't do much to stop the "Muck Marcher" or whatever they were. But he figured it'd give him an edge on the human component of the intruding team."Gas! Gas! Gas!" He heard them yell up above. And he smiled as he raised the AA1`2 to his shoulder.As a rather successful QZ detective these weren't the first ne'er do wells to try and visit him at home.He flipped the safety off of the shotgun.And he began stalking up the stairs slowly and quietly.Objective one. He thought as he stepped on the very edge of the third step, which always creaked if you didn't do that. Get the fuck out of here.Something heavy stomped across his house, somewhere near the kitchen. He wondered if maybe its sensors, or whatever the fuck it had, had sent it there because of the heat signature.Also, stay the fuck away from whatever the hell that thing is.He opened the door at the top of the stairs and was happy to see the noxious, burning, (and entirely non lethal if a judge ever asked) green gas that the enchantments in his heating vents would be releasing for the next twenty minutes or so.You fucked up trying to sneak in on my turf. He thought as he crept out of the doorway.He tapped a small rune on the side of his goggles and a little green rune glowed faintly. The same color as the one he'd tapped in the hidden compartment downstairs.And as the enchantment powered up the gas became crystal clear in front of him.Thank you very much Eli. He thought with a grin as he saw one of the same kind of gang mercenaries from earlier standing only a few yards away with what looked like a construction worker's filter mask and a pair of ski goggles on. They were waving their off hand through the air as if they could clear the gas out just by blowing it away.He began slinking forward as quietly as he could. Moving AWAY from the kitchen where he'd heard the ....thing... moving around.
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