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The First Age
Tony's Famous Pizzaria [DC] - Printable Version

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RE: Tony's Famous Pizzaria [DC] - Ryker - 01-18-2025

When the moment came, Ryker wiped his mouth with the napkin, left his payment, and walked out of the pizzeria deliberately, directly. His stride was not hurried. Just another guy heading back to his office. A tourist, maybe. No reason to look twice.

His gaze slid over the faces at Nox’s table as he passed. He didn’t know the strangers who had joined the group, and he didn’t care. They weren’t part of this. Nox had mentioned a ‘personal thing’ earlier. Ryker couldn’t care less, so long as it didn’t interfere with their mission.

Outside, the air bit at his skin. DC hummed around him: taxi cabs honking, a ragged street performer playing saxophone for donation, the faint rumble of a metro train underground. Normal city sounds. But Ryker’s pulse quickened as he slipped into the crowd. He scanned the streets, eyes darting between reflective surfaces and shadowy alleys.

The assassin had done his job. The Vice President shot cleanly through the temple in broad daylight. The shot had been so precise it made Ryker’s chest tighten. Only a professional could’ve done this. And Ryker knew these particular professionals, at least by reputation. Mercenaries.

The Devil’s Hands.

Only thing he didn’t know was which hand—which brother—was he chasing down.

That’s what they called them in the field. No names. No faces anyone had lived to remember. Just shadows that moved through cities like rumors, leaving a trail of dead power players in his wake. And Ryker? He was here to kill a shadow before it killed again.

The assassin wouldn’t stick around long. Ryker had less than an hour to find him, eliminate him, and disappear. He turned the corner, eyes scanning rooftops, doorways, the tops of parked vans. He knew how to think like a killer, but this guy was more than that. He was a ghost. 

Two blocks east, Ryker spotted him. Short. Thick. He was moving quickly, but not so quickly as to draw attention. He was wearing a gray hoodie, hood pulled low, but Ryker knew it was him. It was the way he walked, the way his head turned every ten seconds to scan the crowd. Hewas fast, but no one outran Ryker when it counted.

Ryker stepped into pursuit.

He stayed back, far enough not to spook the assassin but close enough to keep him in his sights. His heart beat steadily, his breathing even. The key to following a professional was to act like you had no idea what you were doing. Pros could smell another predator a mile away, but amateurs? Amateurs were invisible.

The assassin slipped into an alley. A rookie might have balked, hesitated, called for backup. Ryker didn’t. He closed the gap, his boots silent against the pavement. 

Ahead, the assassin stopped near a rusted fire escape. He adjusted something under his hoodie—probably a weapon—and glanced over his shoulder. Ryker ducked behind a dumpster just in time. Close call. The Devil’s Hand was good, but not infallible.

Ryker’s hand went to the knife in his pocket. He’d left his gun behind—DC was too hot for that kind of heat. A knife was quieter anyway, and this job called for silence.

The assassin moved again, heading toward the far end of the alley. Ryker followed, keeping low. His grip tightened on the blade.

When the moment came, he acted without hesitation.

Ryker surged forward, closing the distance in three long strides. His arm came up, the knife flashing in the dim light, aimed for the space between the assassin’s ribs.

But the Devil’s Hand was faster than he looked. He spun, one hand snapping out to deflect Ryker’s strike while the other produced a silenced pistol from under his hoodie. 

Ryker ducked, the gun firing with a muffled thwip as the round embedded itself in the brick wall behind him. He drove forward, slamming his shoulder into the assassin’s chest. The man staggered back, but only for a second. His leg came up in a sharp, practiced kick that Ryker barely avoided by twisting to the side.

They circled each other, two predators locked in a deadly dance. The assassin raised the pistol again, but Ryker threw the knife—not at him, but at the gun. The blade struck true, knocking the weapon from the assassin’s hand. 

The Devil’s Hand hesitated. It was all Ryker needed.

He closed the distance, his fists moving like pistons. One punch to the jaw. Another to the ribs. The assassin grunted, but he didn’t go down. He came at Ryker with a flurry of strikes, and Ryker had to give him credit—he was strong, fast, skilled. 

But Ryker was better.

He caught the assassin’s wrist mid-swing, twisting it sharply until he heard the satisfying pop of a dislocated joint. The man cried out—a sharp, involuntary sound—and Ryker slammed him against the wall. His forearm pressed against the assassin’s throat, pinning him in place.

“This is just because I want to,” Ryker growled in his real accent. Then, with one swift motion, he pulled a second knife from his boot and drove it into the assassin’s chest, right where the heart should be. The man gasped, his body convulsing once before going limp.

Ryker stepped back, his breathing steady despite the adrenaline coursing through his veins. He wiped the blade on the assassin’s hoodie, then retrieved his first knife from where it had fallen. He could have used the knife on his own skin and pulled enough power into himself to end him in seconds, but the kill would draw too much attention by investigators. They could not allow any attention drawn back to the Custody—to himself.

He took a moment to survey the scene. The alley was quiet, no sign of witnesses. But he knew better than to linger. The assassin might’ve been a ghost, but Ryker wasn’t going to wait around for an exorcism. 

He pulled the assassin’s hood down and stared at the face beneath it—a face he’d heard described but had never seen for himself. Brown skin, dark eyes, bearded, a faint scar across the bridge of his nose. Ryker committed every detail to memory before slipping back into the street.

Minutes later, he was gone, swallowed by the streets. Another shadow in a city full of them.


RE: Tony's Famous Pizzaria [DC] - Connor Kent - 01-20-2025

It all happend so fast. First Nox passed the baby to some guy in another booth. That was when Connor saw that the carry had not been in their booth. Ayden pushed her way out after Nox. It only took a moment for Conmor to run after Ayden. 

There was more going on here- more players, more faccts-and he didn't want her running off into trouble- or a trap. He reached her just in time to see Nox laughing as he ran off, her standing in place on the sidewalk. 

Her frustration and anger were clear on her face and he wodnered why she let him go. He reached out for her hand and hit an imvisible wall. He froze and looked around, trying to understand. His hands ran all over the invisible barrier, worry now on his face.

Did she have air? She didn't look lole she was suffocating. He pounded in the barrier. "Can you hear me? Can you breathe?


RE: Tony's Famous Pizzaria [DC] - Ayden - 01-20-2025

She couldn't reach her power. She pounded on the barrier around her as Connor showed up. "I'm fine. He took my power. He trapped me in this bubble." She raged. "You have to stop him Connor!"

Ayden looked around frantically. "Nothing I can do here, nothing you can do. He's either holding the weaves or he tied it off and it'll dissipate. Go stop him."


RE: Tony's Famous Pizzaria [DC] - Sage - 01-20-2025

Ayden pushed through Connor and Connor followed her out the door. Sage shrugged. "Hey little one. Nox'll be back soon." Sage ate the cheese pizza that sat on the table in front of him. Ayden and Connor didn't want his help, they were too busy worrying about what Nox was or wasn't going to do. He wasn't here to kill the president. He was here to kill the assassins. And she was the distraction so they'd die regardless. Both down. Nox didn't much care about politics and he hadn't picked the targets he was only doing his job -- killing a channeler.

Sage looked out the window at the trapped woman and her lover and sighed. He put Lily in the carrier and paid the bills.

He crossed the streets without looking, the cars at both sides had red lights. Sage looked at them and sighed. He'd heard what she'd said. "I can either help you now or you can chase Nox."

Before they could make any decision the shots had already happened. No way Nox could have made it in time. Sage set the carrier down and pulled out his wallet and showed them the breaking news. "He couldn't have made it in time. You're just a distraction so he wouldn't make it. But he'll still finish the mission." Sage shrugged and put his wallet away. "But you go ahead and try to stop him."

Sage picked up the carrier and started walking away.


RE: Tony's Famous Pizzaria [DC] - Nox - 01-20-2025

Nox left Ayden locked in a shield and air bubble. The weave would last about thirty minutes before they dissipated. He had no intention of going back to the pizza shop. He'd get lost in the crowd for a while. Use the hidden places to seek sanctuary after he finished his mission.

He was about to head up the stairs when Sage relayed the news report to his ear peice. The president and vice-president were dead. A complete shot for both, and that meant neither he nor Ryker had completed the mission set out before them. But then again he was pretty sure that this was not about stopping anything, why else would Connor want to meet now. Why had they been blackmailed now, when he was coming into to town. There were no such things as coincidence.

"Wicked, get me in front of him."

Sage didn't answer but the HUD changed to the map and there was a blinking dot that represented him and one that represented his mark. The channeler was still coming down from the building he'd taken the shot. Nox had a little time to get in front of him. To finish what he was sent to do. Unfortunately he wouldn't be able to find out about the bullets or even get one. Not out in the public, it was a loss. But one he'd live with.

"Wicked I want to see the blind spots, rooftops and tunnels I can use to get out of sight." The HUD overlayed and Nox started looking for his escape route.

[[ ooc: given connor a chance to make a choice and then I'll finish the kill ]]


RE: Tony's Famous Pizzaria [DC] - Connor Kent - 01-27-2025

Connor was torn, looking from Ayden to where Nox had gone off to. Leaving her like this, trapped and helpless, was not something he could just do. 

In his mind, the emotional calculus churned, the result almost instantaneous. His familu was here. Who were the targets? How did they weigh against his wife and child. Not again. Never again. Not even if the cost was any and everything. He'd tasted that past. Never again.

On such basic emotions do decisions rest. He turned and faced her. "No. I won't leave you."

And at the moment the guy who Nox had dropped the baby off was there, telling them it was too late. Nox would not get there in time to stop it.

Connor had been hoping for hope. And he seized on that statement. We were a distraction for Nox. Nox would not get there to stop it.

It opened up in his mind, a path so clear that it smacked him in the face. He looked from the kid to Ayden and back. He made as if to leave and Connor said, "What was Nox supposed to stop?"

He looked at Ayden through the invisible barrier. He somehow knew the next few words would signal the next major change in their lives.


RE: Tony's Famous Pizzaria [DC] - Sage - 01-27-2025

Sage watched the contemplation through the video feeds behind him and when Connor spoke Sage smirked. Had they just realized they played a part in all of it. They were used. Of course they knew that already, apparently sent here on a mission to stop Nox. "You are smart man. Your son looked up to you for that. Hayden was a good kid, and a damn fine Gears of War player." The added touch of his son was meant as a taunt, that Sage knew far more than what Connor thought he did.

Sage turned around with a sad smile. And he walked back over to them and in a quiet hush, he spoke angrily. "But I'll be plain. You were sent to distract Nox from completing his mission, which was to stop the two shots that just went down. And should his mission fail, which it obviously was, then to kill the assassins regardless? Taking out the loose ends who would tie the real killer to the weapons they used. Nox is a bleeding heart. He'd never just let someone shoot someone else. He needed to believe he was here to stop it. You played your parts well. If Nox suspected, he went with it anyway. But guarantee he knows the truth now. Coincidence is not something he believes in. Too many shit things happen in his life."

Sage looked at the duo stuck in their respective prisons. One made of the power of the gods, and the other in true love and family. "I will ask one final time. I have things to do. Do you want me to help you get out of this mess?"


RE: Tony's Famous Pizzaria [DC] - Ayden - 01-27-2025

Ayden wanted to yell at Connor. He had to do this, but he wouldn't leave her. There was nothing he could do here. Nothing to help. But he could stop the stupid kid but he wouldn't. She growled but wasn't able to get any words out before he shouted after the man who was higher than a kite. He wasn't normal. Not even close.

He spouted nonsense, things he shouldn't know, like the name of Connor's son. How did he know that? How...

Wicked's response to Connor's question made Ayden even angrier, she couldn't even reach the power inside it was still behind whatever that fucking kid did to her. She pounded on the wall and wanted to scream, but she didn't. She was already making a scene.

The words barely registered. A distraction. The kid was meant to stop what had happened. That was all bullshit. There was no proof even if the messages she'd read on his wallet had pretty much said the same thing. She would not be used like this!

His offer of help came louder than the prior conversation and Ayden was fuming, she didn't want their help. She hated that they needed help to get out of this mess. What could this fucking kid even do? "How the fuck can you help us? You can barely walk in a straight line."


RE: Tony's Famous Pizzaria [DC] - Nox - 01-28-2025

The blinking dot on the map drew closer as I walked the least likely paths to be seen. It wasn't as good as the coverage in Moscow. Sage had much more control over what he saw. Mostly because Nox had wandered a majority of the city and he collected data points without doing anything other than wandering the city. It was the least he could do to help Sage out. Sage was a big help in most of his work.

Kai looked back over his shoulder as he darted down the alley were Nox waited. The power drifted inside of Nox and he waited in the shadows. Kai looked around, he felt the looming threat but he didn't understand what it mean, he must have met another channeler like himself before. It was such an odd feeling to feel that presence and not know what it meant. Kai kept looking over his shoulder and walking quickly down the alley.

Nox leaned against a wall in the darkest of the shadows and waited for the man to pass, he had noticed him, but he hadn't taken note that Nox was doing more than just standing there. An inverted weave to stop the man's heart floated across the space and Nox nestled it around Kai's heart and Kai stopped clutching his heart.

Nox ran over and attempted to assist him, he even found the man's cell phone and quickly dialed 911. "I think he's having a heart attack."

Nox set the phone down wiping his fingerprints away with another weave of air. It was in those dying moments that Kai had realized with the feeling meant, the weaves of air his last vision before he lost consciousness and soon after took his last breath.

Nox looked around seeing no one and slipped away. The cameras hadn't seen his face, and his hood was pulled up over his head anyway. He was gone before the sirens were even close. He slipped around corners and into alleys where there were no cameras. And if there was he made sure to avoid showing his face. It wasn't as easy to find a place to escape into nothingness.

There was an odd calm around him as Nox slipped into the a club full of people and got lost in the crowd. Even the horde was at ease for once, the kill had been unsatisfactory, but it was the hunt it had enjoyed. Maybe that was part of what was missing. Maybe Nox needed to have more of a challenge in the hunt to stave off the horde's hunger. It was a thought to consider when back in Moscow. But for now, Nox focused on blending in and getting lost before heading back to Alexandria to finish their business here in the US and he could return home.