[Fleuve Cendre- POV: Vasher-3rd person]
Vasher was in a new building within Fleuve Cendre that he had purchased to use as a new storehouse for his synth and other black market goods. He was overseeing the grunts moving the goods, pretending to be a mere supervisor and not the mastermind behind the who operation.
"Come on people, the boss wants all this packed away by noon." he said to the people hauling boxes and cages covered in cloth. Many of them rolled their eyes and muttered under their breath about annoying supervisors being pointlessly noisy.
Once everything had been packed, he handed out bags of mora to each of the workers and waited for the security team to arrive. They came in around 15 minutes after he had started waiting.
Nodding his head to them, he started to create a list of this location's inventory. Normally he would have left this menial work to a subordinate, but he needed to take some time out of his laboratory and doing this allowed him to gauge the general loyalty of his underlings.
It was just as he was finishing his work that he noticed how quiet things had gotten. It was too quiet, normally he would have heard noise from the guards or whimpers and groans from the less pleasant… commodities he sold on the black market. Calling out to the people that should have been standing guard, he heard no response.
Suddenly, from within the storeroom, somewhere among the many shelves, a song started playing. The sound indicated it came from a music box, but Vasher didn't remember ordering any children's toys for this location. Vasher grabbed a broadsword and a bottle of undiluted seawater from the shelf. If this was what he thought it was, things were about to go to shit.
"Oh my dear Vigneire… Why do so many things have to come between us?..." he muttered to himself.
Crouching down, Vasher sculked around corners, listening carefully for any noise, the music faded in and out of earshot. Occasional clattering of metal hitting metal happening in different parts of the warehouse as Vasher carefully made his way towards the exit. However, too soon, the air seemed to still, He could hear heavy footsteps slowly walking towards him from around the corner he was moving towards.
-thump- -thump -thump- -thump- …. The machine stopped, Vasher could hear the noise of its inner workings however, the turning of cogs and the venting of steam. The air itself seemed to hold its breath with him as he hoped to not be detected,
Vasher ducked down as he tried to hide himself behind a stack of boxes. He did not know how long he sat there, hiding behind boxes of contraband, but soon he peered over the top of the box, wondering what the machine was doing, only to come face to face with the machine w, his face illuminated by the azure glow of the machine's eyes, as it looked over the top of the creates he had hidden himself behind.
The wraith was described as a decrepit looking Gardemek, constructed with parts from multiple models, with a haunting glow coming from its visual input lenses like the soulflame held within the empty sockets of a reanimated skeleton.
He wasn't sure how he knew, but as he looked into the cold, mechanical, "eyes" of the machine, he felt as though he was looking into the eyes of another person, but that would be impossible, there was no way a human could fit inside the chase of the machine, the only explanation...
"VaAsHEERrrrr...." A distorted voice came from the machine, its eyes changing from Azure to Scarlet in an instant, mismatched pistons attached to the back and limbs of the construct starting to shift into a higher gear, one of the hands raising and slowly grasping towards him as out of tune music and screeching howls came from the machine.
"Yeargeaghhhhh!" he screamed as he scrambled to his feet and ran down the hallway. The eerie machine following closely behind him.
Desperate, he wove between shelves, pulling merchandise down behind himself in an attempt to block the machine's path; it seemed to work, as he soon could no longer hear the Mek's pursuit. However, in his desperate run to escape, he had ended up losing his sword after dropping it to push over a pile of crates to block the path behind him.
Looking around, Vasher did not recognize where he was, the shelves around him unfamiliar to his eyes. Looking around he found a few supplies, Treasure Hoarder Cryo Grenades, auto-loading crossbows, and several bolts, he took what he could carry, moving on, his eye caught on a few small vials, Condensed Pyro Slime essence, a highly volatile and regulated alchemical ingredient, as a drop of the substance could burn for hours, or when exposed to Electro, explode with the force of 20 large Pyro Slimes.
Carefully, Vasher picked up one vile of the essence, the ceramic container was significantly warmer than the air around it.
Once he had picked up his weapons, he felt slightly calmer, he could now, probably, defend himself.
Looking around, Vasher searched for any signs of the brass wraith. The place was silent once again. Then, behind him, Vasher could hear the whirring of mechanical parts and the clicking of pistons.
Looking behind him, the Wraith was standing behind him a shelf standing between the two of them.
With a flick of his thumb, Vasher uncorked the bottle in his hand and let out a splash towards his adversary, the viscous liquid catching fire soon after being exposed to the air.
The machine took a step back to avoid the flaming liquid and Vasher took the opportunity to run. Behind him, he ignored as the shelf full of his inventory started to burn, Sythe and various contraband losing their value as they melted or burned to ash.
Vasher ran, but the air was still full of tension, and soon he heard loud footsteps rapidly closing in on him. Looking back, he could see two blazing azure lights focused on him.
He fired a bolt from his crossbow, the projectile flew, collided with the Gardemek's chest, and exploded into splinters from the impact.
With a shout, he threw the bottle of condensed pyro slime at the machine, but missed, hitting the ground in front of it. As the essence started to burn, the wraith stopped dead in it's tracks, staring at Vasher through the wall of flames between them.
Vasher stared at the halted machine and sneered. "You don't like fire, do you? Guess those cobbled guts of yours aren't as invincible as everyone seems to think, huh, Wraith?"
An idea was forming in Vasher's head as he stumbled across an intersection he recognized, this would require some stealth, but if things went according to plan, he could potentially eliminate this threat for good.
-10 minutes of Cat and Mouse later-
Vasher panted as he poured out the last bottle of oil in a line on the ground, dipping the tip of a bolt into the pooled liquid, he readied himself, he heard it again, the sound of a music box, a tune made to soothe children that would now haunt his nightmares. It was coming from somewhere deeper within the warehouse. With a sneer, Vasher used a lighter to light the oil on the ground and the bolt in his crossbow. The fire quickly spread across the oil, forming a large ring of fire as Vasher pointed his flaming bolt at a few barrels painted a bright red color. Pulling the trigger he ran, not bothering to look back as the barrels exploded.
He continued to run, not caring if the goods were wasted, his life and freedom were more important.
As he ran, the warehouse burned, flammable crates and other items catching light and spreading the fire some even exploding cauing massive internal damage and caving in the roof. After making out of the building, Vasher turned back and watched as the roof fell in, the blaze climbing higher and higher, letting out a sigh of relief.
From a rooftop, another pair of eyes watched the building burn.
"Pale Lady, report." he said.
"Victims and thugs were removed from the building long before it was set ablaze said Ryuzu in her vigilante outfit.
"Good, good." said Carman, feeling some satisfaction after scaring Vasher and chasing him around a warehouse, though that had mostly been a distraction wile Ryuzu emptied the building of all the other people, focusing on the people Vasher had been planning on selling or using as experimental subjects. He wasnt even in there when Vasher had set it on fire, as he had sent in a disguised shadow clone to wind up the box and leave it somewhere out of Vasher's line of sight, but still within earshot.
"Let's turn in for the evening, the other locations still need further observation before we can strike, and I have school tomorrow." Said Carman as the two of them scaled their way down the down the building.
-To be continued.