[M] The Agency; You're out of line, X!! [Mr. VVvinkartwist (V) and Wattz][IC]

[V]

Rated M because I forgot to ask what it should be rated and I figured we could use leeway for sex and violence and gore and swearing and shit.

The full moon, lights from the airport and the illuminated runway all fell upon the sports car parked oddly enough just off the runway itself. A woman waited sitting on it's hood. Her clothing was as black as the car itself. Despite the warm summer air she wore a coat and gloves.

Viera checked her watch hearing the roar of the private jet overheard. Her hair flicked about as the jet's wheels hit the the ground, her unlit cigarette didn't move so much. The Agencies jet squealed along until coming to a stop. Normally the craft was only used for high priority cases and transporting dangerous enemies. And allies.

But it was needed today. Signi just couldn't take regular planes, he would scare the public too much. His mouth was stitched too much.

Unfortunately there had been a spree of high class fire attacks done around the city. Magic was involved, somehow. And that's where Signi's own abilities lay.

Viera didn't bother walking across to Jet, one of the agents aboard would show the man in the right direction. Then they would probably take off once more.

[Wattz]

Signi hadn’t been to Sydney in years, and to be honest he hadn’t planned on going back for quite some time. He was always restless, always wandering, and years ago he’d stepped into Sydney for all of twelve hours before realizing he wouldn’t find what he was looking for. He peaked outside to see the lights blazing against the night, as if the world were on fire.

“Are you listening, Mr. …Signi?”

’Of course,’ he said—or rather—sent lazily to the man in front of him. The agent’s eyes were covered by sunglasses, but Signi could feel him staring. He kept his stitched mouth covered by his enormous jacket, but the presence was still there.

Signi was a rather tall and muscular individual. His skin was tinted a brown with reddish hues, and his hair was dark and long, tied back in a braided ponytail. His brown eyes were intense, as if most of his emotion had been channeled in them. But his body posture was fairly inanimate, currently slouching to prevent himself from seeming intimidating. His hands were deep inside his pockets, looking fairly exhausted, though he was anything but. In fact, this particular day left him full of energy.

“Well, Mr. Signi—“

’Signi is fine.’

“Yes. Well… you’ve read the briefing?”

’Absolutely.’ Signi nodded slightly, then lifted one hand from his pockets to pick up the documents on the table. ’I’m to meet Agent Xaviera about some arson cases.’

The agent winced every time Signi spoke to him. The well-dressed man didn’t like it, not one bit, so he merely nodded and leaned back in his seat. Signi couldn’t blame him, really. It must have been strange, having one’s mind infiltrated with another’s voice.

So Signi went back to looking out the window until they’d landed.

He was lead to a woman, a particularly short woman, sitting on the hood of her car. He continued to slouch, even as he walked, appearing just this side of bored.

’You are Agent Xaviera?’ Signi said. ’My name is Signi.’ He offered out his hand to shake her’s.

[V]

He looked all big and mighty coming toward her, him in his blue coat and stitched up mouth and such. Viera rolled the cigarette over and grunted slipping off the car. His creepy mind-talk entered her thoughts and she made a face. Well that would take some getting used to.

Still, she clasped his hand and gave a healthy shake. "Just Viera's fine, get in and we'll go find some bad guys."

Once they were both in Viera turned the sports car about leaving a shriek of tyre before seeking the exit. Once they had left the airport, she kept to a comfortable.... if annoying pace.

"Welcome to Sydney," she said. "Home of a mad Pyromancer destroying building after building. But I assume you've already read the report?"

"On that note," she turned to face him and grinned, rolling her ciggie about with her tongue. "You don't mind lighting me up?"

[Wattz]

Signi followed along, crouching into the car after Xaviera—or rather, Viera—had taken her spot in the driver’s seat. He was immediately met by the smell of smoke, comforting as ever. Quite the welcoming, getting right to the point. Signi was perfectly fine with that; the sooner this was over, the better, for a number of reasons. Though he was mostly made curious by the case; he’d never met another pyromancer before, though he’d always known there were others.

And of course—

”You don’t mind lighting me up?”

Signi sighed through his nose, then brought his fingers to her cigarette. A harsh snap of the fingers, and a light flame began to burn the end. ’Cute,’ he noted to her. ’Quite clever, really.’ He pulled a cigarette out of his own pocket, then lit one up for himself, letting the smoke waft into his nose and occasionally tapping the lit end against his hand.

’Read through the paperwork, sounds pretty simple. A bit difficult to find a pattern at this point, though. Wasn’t the most thorough of reports I’ve ever read.’

[V]

’Cute,’ he noted to her. ’Quite clever, really.’

She breathed out some heavy smoke and replied, "that's me, cute and clever." She winked at him halfway through turning at an intersection.

"Yeah well," she grunted, "it was the most thorough report I've ever written." Which was probably true, much to the Agency director's annoyance. Viera just didn't get on with paperwork.

And starting the documents at 4am whilst drunk might contribute to that.

"Surprised I spelled a word correctly in that one." She commented.

She was racing along and soon they would get to the most recent attack site, recently it had been policed off. And heavily guarded my Agency officers, two bulky Sentinels. Extreme muscle, that had some brains. But mostly muscle. "Want any info before we get there?"

[Wattz]

’Actually I think you spelled “Monday” wrong,’ he said nonchalantly, inhaling cigarette smoke through his nose.

’Think I’m good for now, thanks.’ Signi rifled quickly through the report again before they arrived at the site, a crumbling pile of char and wooden supports. The porch was still vaguely intact, and he could see what looked like a living room through one of the blackened windows. Caution tape outlined the perimeter. On the surface, the whole place looked disturbingly normal.

He stepped out of the car, following Viera through the bulky Sentinels. They were just a hair taller than Signi, and their lips were set into a stoic line. He gave them a nod, though it was hardly necessary, and stepped up the porch into the house.

Victim: Pearl Oxadine.
Age: 34

Body found tied to the stairway. Died when the ceiling collapsed in on her. Ruled out death from burns or asphyxiation.

Ms. Oxadine’s hand could be seen peaking out through some of the rubble. One little poke and the hand would have broken into just another formless pile of ash. Little remains of rope could still be seen as well.

’Seems like our guy wasn’t too set on subtleties, then. I wonder why he didn’t just burn her before the house itself.’

[V]

"Moanday after a particularly long weekend." she commented in reply.

They pulled up and got out of the car. Viera had been to similar scenes recently so she didn't have to explore much. But she did so anyway incase their man, or woman, had left a clue.

Still seemed pretty much consistent, big fire, burnt dead female victim.

"Know where our guy started this one? Signi?"

She flicked open the folder with the report. Died when the ceiling collapsed in on her. Was the thing that had been sticking out to her for a while. It sounded terrible but that could help them capture their guy.

At the previous attack sites, the victims had all been burnt alive. Which was kinda bad for her, if she wanted to convene with them for a good old chat. It was a hard death, and the ghosts and the dead didn't react well to it. Viera had learnt that early, it was one of the few things that impeded her skills. The previous victims had left screaming messy ghosts.

Maybe, this one could help them out some.

"Hmmm..." she mumbled.

[Wattz]

Signi wandered the house, hand outstretched to see if he could feel for the source. The magic was stronger in some areas over other areas, but he could feel the highest concentration… ah, yes, in front of the victim. He stood in front of the rubble covering Ms. Oxadine and flagged his hands forward in a swift motion.

”Here. He started it here. The bookcase.” Across the way, the wall was stained in a blackened square, piles of ash at its feet. Only a bookcase could hold that shape and burn so fast, not to mention the little flecks of paper that dotted the debris.

Signi walked towards the mess, taking a moment to continue. ”He wanted Ms. Oxadine to see the place burn,” he concluded. ”He didn’t want her dead immediately like all the others. Inconsistent with the pattern. But maybe… there’s two killers? Or perhaps she was a special case.”

He paused again, head tilting this way and that way, thinking about any possible connection with the bookcase. Was it simply the best place to start a fire? Or did it hold a special meaning?

”Viera. They told me you can connect with the dead. Have you already tried with this victim?”

[V]

"Maybe this for another purpose, different to the others. If there was a second person here, maybe they wanted the bookcase burnt. Just a speculating of course. I dunno how the criminal pyromanceric minds work."

She lit up a new cigarette, "we should work out what was in them books. Do you have her file there, what did she do for a living?"

Viera wandered over to where their victim died, she crouched. "Yeah I was just thinking about that before. A bit nervous to try, really, the other victims didn't exactly leave pleasant conversation ghosts."

"But I'll try it, might be pretty boring for you of course. In the car there is a laptop, you could maybe do some research?" She shrugged breathing in the smoke.

[Wattz]

"I'll just stay here, thanks. Get to looking at the books and her file." Truth be told, he was far too delighted, but also terrified, by the prospect of seeing someone communicate with ghosts. The mystery, the possibilities.... He wondered how far her powers could reach, if she had to be in the right place at the right time, if she could just reach into death and take a gander. But this was too much too fast to start asking her. After all, they'd only just met.

Signi busied himself instead with the bookcase. According to her report, Ms. Oxadine had been unemployed. Recently. She never kept with one job for too long, at least not after having been fired from her place at the local library. From the looks of the place, it didn't seem like she had many other books besides the ones that were right in front of her corpse.

It wouldn't be a terribly stretch to say the murderer had taken something from the bookcase before setting it aflame. Or maybe the murderer just wanted her to see it? Hopefully Viera's investigation would help them find a better start to this whole mess.