OOC: Ghah.. feel so rusty at this.
Theme: Hey, there, little red riding hood - Bowling For Soup
A loud wail pierces through the night. It’s human… yet not. A ghostly scream of anguish. Those that hear it pull the covers tighter over the heads, clench tighter to their lovers, cover their ears, anything they can to weather it. They all know what it is and where it comes from… and they all fear it. Down in the bar men go silent as it fills the air. Even their drunken states can’t hide their fear of the sound. When it dies off they slowly begin talking amongst themselves once again. Each one whispering their theory on who’s voice that was. And what they’d do if they met the cause face to face… while at the same time silently muttering that the others in their group are full of it for their own statements.

The truth is no one here would dare seek out the cause of that sound. All they do is hide in their beds and their booze and hope that like the year before the sound and the disappearances that come with it will vanish soon. The sound comes every night and at least once a night someone disappears. The baker’s daughter was the last one to go. Dragged off screaming in the night while everyone hid. The next day the baker went out after her. Naturally they all assumed him dead right after.

The ding-ding of the inn/bar’s front door draws many a gaze to it, curious what kind of fool would be outside at this time of night. Who they see causes everyone to raise an eyebrow. It’s a girl. A thin, barely teenage looking girl with long brown hair and a blood red cloak. She’s carrying something wrapped in brown cloth on her back. With a small pouch on her hip as well. Her face is hidden under her hood as she takes a look around the room. Seemingly content she heads for the counter.

Stepping up to it she pulls her hood back. “I require information.” She states in a level cold voice that sounds considerably older than she looks. Looking over the counter at her the owner blinks, a little stunned by the girl’s presence at this hour. “…Uh… alright kid.” He replies scratching his head “Say… where are your parents? It’s a big late for a youngin like you to be wandering around.” The girl doesn’t show any reaction to the comment. “Irrelevant.” She states simply. Her tone far more commanding than the adult’s. “I am looking for this man.” From the pouch she produces a single snap shot photograph and places it on the counter. “He should have arrived three weeks, four days and nineteen hours ago. In the company of two women. Both tall, blonde with brown eyes. Have you seen them?”

“Now listen here girly. I don’t know them folks and even if I did I asked you a question first, don’t go mouthin off. I expect an answer. What are you doing out at this hour? Where’d you come from for that matter… I don’t remember seeing you around her before.” The girl replaces the picture in her bag without a word. Humans can be quite detrimental to her task. They see her exterior form and expect she should have parental caregivers at her heels and explain everything she does. Neither of which she feels compelled to do. She is here to destroy a threat to their paltry existences. That should be enough for them to provide her with the answers she seeks.

“He is my father.” A lie obviously. She has no such thing as a Father, nor does she desire one. But in the interest of speeding this up without revealing herself by breaking the man’s fingers she is willing to lie. She has a fair amount of practice in fact. “Mother passed away recently… I don’t wish to stay in foster care so I must find him. Please, have you seen him?” Her tone stays rather flat but hopefully the man will just take that as her attempting to hold back whatever emotions she feels about her mother’s passing. Whether it worked or not the man suddenly becomes flustered and sighs.

“Listen kid… sorry to hear about your ma and all… but no one has come through here in over two months. Ever since the screams started up again… speaking of which how’d you get here anyway?” Blinking the girl shows her first sign of emotion… by giving him a confused stare “I walked.” The owner now matches her stare “You… walked? And nothing happened to you? Strange…”

OOC: More later... work now.
Words: 765

Added (02.19.2010, 0:24 Am)
---------------------------------------------

“Why is that strange?” She mutters her short lived moment of emotion gone. “Everyone else that’s tries to walk anyone has vanished. It happens around here this time of year. Wolves and the like.” He’s lying. She can tell as much. “I see. I must not appear edible then. I do recall hearing a loud sound on my way in. It sounded like a scream. Where did it come from?” The owner frowns “Don’t rightly know. Not something you should be poking into anyhow. Seeing as your pops isn’t here I’ll set ya up for the night. Not sure what to tell you to do in the morning though.” Turning the girl pulls her hood back up. “That is not needed. Good evening.” Before anyone can stop her she walks right back out into the night. As the door shuts behind her she adjusts the bundle on her back and looks up to the sky.

Failure. Her target isn’t here. He likely left as soon as he heard the voice from the wilderness. He is not the type to share his fun with others. No matter, she will catch up to him later. For now she will deal with this town’s problem. It should only take a couple hours. Heading back down the street she ignores the people watching her from their bedroom windows. This ‘girl’ is Morrigan. She doesn’t live, she isn’t human or even close. Morrigan is a android. An artificial life. And her purpose is to destroy the things humans fear. Another of which shall meet its end tonight.

Fifteen minutes lat her footsteps on the soft dirt road is the only sound in the air. She hears no birds, no animals. Something has scared them away. Good. That something is what she wants to find. A slow chilling breeze passes between the trees blowing her cloak out behind her. A human would be cold wearing the little sleeveless dress that she is. But to her it’s nothing. The cold doesn’t bother her anymore than the shadows. The emotion of fear is one of the things she finds odd about humans. It makes them behave irrationally when they believe their life is in danger. (Whether it truly is or not.) And that behavior tends to get them killed. Ironic really.

A snapping twig causes her head to snap to the side. Out of the tree line to her right stumbles a man clutching at her chest. A large amount of blood stains his white apron and shirt. “He… help…” He stammers dropping to his knees. Morrigan carefully lowers the bundle on her back to the ground then approaches him. He’s tall and broad. Probably quite healthy for his age. Which judging by his growing bald spot must be somewhere about 40. “Pl…please… I don’t want to die…” Kneeling next to him Morrigan tries to examine his wound but he clutches so tightly at it she can’t pull his hand back. That in itself is strange. Few humans have more strength than her. The second strange thing is his color. His skin shows no signs of paling despite the large amount of blood he seems to have lost.

When she stops trying to move his hand he slumps forward, his hand landing on her thin shoulder. “My little girl… it got her…” Is this where she should comfort him? Such a thing isn’t in her programming. Instead she just wants to know where ‘it’ is. When she asks he whispers and answer too low for her to hear. Which prompts her to move her head closer and try again. When she does his grip on her shoulder suddenly tightens. Every bit of her combat training screams alarm. She pushes him back and turns her body to the side just in time to avoid his other hand. Two sharp claws extend from between his fingers as his hand arcs up into the air. They may have caused substantial damage if she hadn’t moved. Bringing her foot up she slams it into the center of his chest to knock him back. He tears the shoulder of her dress when she breaks his grip.

Sliding back she rights herself and squares off against the man. Who rises up chuckling softly to himself. He isn’t human anymore. Another set of those claws extend from the flesh on either side of his middle finger on the other hand. His mouth has extended into a muzzle, like a dogs but lacking fur. Long sharp teeth jut out from it at awkward angles. His knees have reversed and his arms grown several inches longer. His bulk increases as well. Soon he’s twice as wide at the shoulders as he was before. “Little….girrrrl.” He snarls rolling his R. His voice is feral and angry. “Stay still… stay still so I can eat you!” He yells with a roar before leaping forward.

Morrigan braces herself, ducks and as his head passes over her lashes up with a punishing uppercut. The beast’s jaw lets out a loud cracking sound under the blow. His head snaps back buying her the instant she needs to follow up with second blow to his gut then a spinning kick to the side of his face. At the end she stances herself with one hand drawn back behind her. Inside her head a computerized voice says (“Accessing primary combat protocols... complete. Releasing limiters… complete. Energy levels at maximum. Initialize combat.”)

A surge of additional energy flows through Morrigan’s mechanical body. Her combat state is a one of her main protocols. The very first she was taught to activate. Years ago her… master, creator, whatever term you choose to use for him showed her the command code for activating her combat mode and maximizing her energy levels. It’s caused by pushing her internal power core beyond its standardized limits. It causes strain on the components however which is why she only activates it for combat against opponents her basic levels might not suffice against. When she first received It she assumed she was meant to keep it on at all times… her master was very displeased when she burned out her body and he was forced to rebuild a large portion of it from scratch. The whole time he muttered about how she may not be worth the effort. She hasn’t made such a mistake again since then. She did not wish to be ‘not worth the effort’.

Words: 1.074

Added (02.19.2010, 0:28 Am)
---------------------------------------------

The beast, a formally normal man infected by a werewolf wound, continues to chuckle as he rises back up from the dirt. This is not serious to him. Humans are no more than animals to hunt to him now. It hasn’t dawned on him that she isn’t one yet. When that happens he’ll get serious. She should destroy him before then. Her eyes snap to the bundle she set in the center of the road. With it this fight shall remain a short one. She moves without warning, diving for the cloth bundle. The half-wolf leaps after her. Morrigan hits the bundle, rolls and comes up with it just in time to put it between herself and the creature’s downward swipe. A metallic ringing sound marks the impact. His claws fail to break the object but rip off the cloth when he pulls them back. In Morrigan’s hands is a large saw like weapon, the blade curves slightly and the handle is modeled after a dragon’s toothed maw and made of a brownish metal.

Spinning around she lashes out with it to drive the creature back. Holding the blade out behind her she faces the beast without a hint of fear. “I will end you.” She states simply in a thin emotionless voice. In a flash she leaps forward, swinging the heavy weapon down from above easily with one hand. The creature tries to block it with one set of his claws. To his dismay the weapon shatters right through and tears a long gash down his chest. Blood sprays from the wound onto the dirt road. Morrigan spins again and putting all her strength behind the blade swings once more. The creature reacts faster than she anticipated and leaps back out of reach leaving the blade to pass through empty air. Glaring at her in snarls in a mix of pain and anger.

Hissing it leaps at her, anger fuels its strength not its intelligence. Morrigan side steps the downward strike and prepares to counter but gets surprised by a sideways punch by the beast’s other hand that catches her in the gut. She doesn’t feel the blow in the traditional sense but her body registers the damage and suffers from it in its own way. Staggering back a step she tries to recover in time to block the next blow but fails. The beast turns on her, grabs both her shoulders and heaves her off the ground like a toy doll. She doesn’t panic but instead drives both feet into his stomach as hard as she can. That causes him t snarl, turn and fling her through the air. She slams into a nearby tree hard enough to crack the bark.

Warnings go off in her head, a little diagram showing her damage to her right shoulder blade and forearm from contact with the tree. Dropping to the dirt face down she runs an alternate plan through her mind. For whatever reason this one seems stronger than the last few half-wolfs she’s fought. Perhaps its werewolf owner is of an older breed. In any event she shouldn’t risk much more close range combat with it. Pushing up to all fours she leaves her sword in the dirt. With only one fully functioning arm she won’t be able to swing it properly anyway. No she’ll have to use something normally reserved for fully infected creatures, not these half-breed humans.

(“Accessing non-standard combat protocols… complete. Activating ‘Ki’ protocols… complete. Energy combat possible. Energy reserves currently at 87%.”) This… was one of her master’s more peculiar ideas. He claimed, and for his own part proved, that humans possess a powerful energy called Ki. Which with proper training allows them to release bursts of powerful force or even energy bolts for use in combat. (She still doesn’t believe he was human or that any others are able to do that. Humans are as useless as cattle. She cannot picture them having access to such a potent ability.) He created for her a sort of technological mimicking of this ability. By releasing energy from her generators through various sections of her body fitted with special projectors she is able to do the same as humans.

He even went so far as to force her to actually learn how to do it, rather than just have it programmed into her combat subroutines. His ‘feel the Ki within you, channel it through your body… and release!’ training method made it very hard for her to grasp it however. She did eventually after driving him into a near rage several times with her inability to understand his instructions. She doesn’t possess the Ki after all. She couldn’t ‘feel’ it. Which it turns out neither could he when he tried. To those with his abilities… she is a empty shell, a spiritless undetectable creation. It might prove useful someday. The firs of the two ‘techniques’ he forced her to learn and convert into code for her memory is called Kaiho, a burst of invisible force.

Lines of code burn through her mostly machine mind. Her energy flow changes, more and more of it moving to the palms of her hands. When she feels ready she leaps forward, going from all fours to a quick dash instantly. Charging straight for the creature. Who in turn grins a toothy grin and spreads his arms wide, welcoming her into his embrace. A mistake he will regret soon enough. Five steps short of slamming into him Morrigan throws up her hands and releases the pent up energy. From her palms a clear burst of force shoots out and caches him in the chest. It doesn’t hurt but it does send him flying back as she planned for it to. Now for the follow up finish. A warning beeps in her mind telling her that her energy reserves have been depleted by another 16%. She will have to finish this and repair the damage to her body before the drain gets worse.

Leaping up above the beast she activates the second technique. A ‘run of the mill energy release’ her master called it. The principle is the same as the Kaiho but the energy must reach a different wavelength and be much more focused. A soft blue glow forms around her palms as she prepares the attack. When it’s ready she releases it. A small blue beam of energy streaks from her palms and slams into the creature’s chest driving it down into the ground. The smell of burned flesh fills the air along with the beast’s howl of pain. Flipping Morrigan lands beyond him blue trails of energy seeping from her palms for a moment. The beast is still alive. It tries to move but can’t. Howling and snarling at her it continues to try however.

With a blank expression Morrigan walks a wide path around the creature to retrieve her sword. Holding it with one hand isn’t hard but swinging it could be. It’s meant to be wielded with both after all, even by her. Dragging the tip in the dirt she returns to his side. “I will ask once. Where is the full blood wolf?” The creature stops snarling long enough to glare at her and reply “Ourrrr Fatherrr wolf is everrrywhere! You will meet him soon enough little girrrrl!” Morrigan doesn’t respond to him. She just raises her sword and slams it down on his head, letting the weight help make up for wielding it one handed. The blade crushes his skull. With one last futile kick he goes limp. Leaving the blade there Morrigan examines the damage she sustained from the combat. Her energy level is down to 60% and her right shoulder and forearm will need tending. She wasn’t even fighting a full wolf and she took enough damage to need repairs… it appears she will be staying around this town for a little while longer after all…

Word Total: 3.161
OOC: 3.161 /2 = 1.580 PL gained. Gained Basic Training: Kaiho, Ki Shot and Powered Up. (Assuming I did it right.)
Since I'll be gone until Tuesday... going ahead and starting her Shut Down here.