ext_265179 (![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png)
unknownandi.livejournal.com) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
tampered2007-12-11 01:15 am
unknownandi.livejournal.com) wrote in tampered2007-12-11 01:15 am
Log; complete
When; December 10th, evening
Rating; PG-13 for violence
Characters; Harry Dresden (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
dresden4hire), X (unknownandi)
Summary; Harry tracks down X's apartment -- but X comes home halfway through Harry's investigations.Hijinks ensue Each of them learn very interesting things about the other.
Log;
Harry stepped just on the other side of the door and pressed his ear to it. There was no sound. That was good, no sound was definitely good. He didn't want to encounter X right now, not on his home turf. And this was his home turf. The magic had taken Harry here. It was a long time to finally find it with the spell weakening more and more all the time, but this was the place.
Stepping back, Harry passed his hand over the locked and mumbled a string of psuedo Latin words. There was a soft click as he jinxed the lock. Readying his blasting rod, Harry stepped through.
As soon as he did, there was an all too familiar popping sound and the smell of burnt electronics.
"Damn it," he muttered, quickly shutting the door. There were computers everywhere, everyone of them now completely dead, hard drives erased. So much for pulling a network ID from them.
Moving further into the room, Harry noticed it was cluttered with various... things. Books and knick knacks of all sorts were all around the place. Money was all over the place too. One corner particularly held his attention. It was almost gleeming it was so clean. The cleanliness of the space and tools belied an unclean mind though as the tools of the killers trade were piled up.
"You are one sick bastard," Harry muttered, wandering over to look at the collection of tools. Saws of various shapes and sizes were there. He thought of how these had been used to turn people into what he had seen in those boxes and his anger burned. Whoever this X thing was, his reign of killing was going to end.
--
Meanwhile, X yawned, trudging up the stairs to her apartment, looking like nothing more than a high-school-age girl with a poofy blonde hair. Since the Prince had disappered, probably back to his own world, X had been having to do some of her own errands again. She didn't mind so much today though, since studying alchemy was rather boring, and the books she'd stolen recently were definitely coded in some ridiculously complex cipher. It would take forever to work out, but it would be worth it if she could use it to figure out how to take Envy apart properly.
And best of all, errands, included trips for food. So X was full and happy when she came back to her apartment and pulled out the key to unlock the door, not even realizing it was already open. The sound of the key in the lock was the only warning Harry got before the door opened.
Surprise shot across X's face when she saw who exactly was standing in her apartment. "Ah..."
--
Harry whirled around, leveling his blasting rod at the... blond, teenage girl that came through the door. If he hadn't already seen the killer in another form, he might have been tempted to relax his guard. But he was used to dealing with creatures that looked like one thing but were in fact another. From what he had seen of X before, just a split second was all it needed. Harry wasn't going to give him that chance.
"You sick bastard," he growled. "This ends now. No more people in boxes, you understand?"
--
"Did you get my message, Harry?" X asked with a smile, like she hadn't heard a word he'd said. The faint smell of fried circuitry made her glance at the hodgepodge of computers, but this clearly wasn't the time to figure out what had happened to the cluster.
"I tried looking for the 'essence' you talked about, but I couldn't find it after a few boxes, so I gave up," X added, thoughtfully. "But it looks like you found me again after all. I'm pretty impressed."
--
"I told you it's nothing you could see, don't try and blame your sick games on me," he growled. Had the wizard not have time to come to grips with his own guilt, the killer's words might have meant more. As it was, it only managed to fuel his anger. This... thing was talking about lives like they were nothing. People that had lived and breathed and laughed and loved and to this thing they were just experiments.
"But I tell you what, you just give me one good excuse and I'll blow a hole in you so big you can see what your own insides look like."
As if to back up his word, he leveled his staff at the monster as well, the runes on it glowing yellow-orange with the power of hellfire. It was partially a bluff, as an attack that strong here could very well blow a hole clean through X, a wall, and someone on the other side of the wall. Of course, the closer X got, the less that was a problem, but Harry really didn't want this thing too near him.
--
"Hmm." X considered the glowing staff with something that was less concern and more curiosity. "I'd rather have something to compare my own cells to. They're always changing, you see..."
It only took a moment for her -- him to change, a brief second of the quiet sound of X's body reshaping (slithering of flesh and creaking of bone) until he was in the shape he fell back to, all pale hair and strange eyes, an adolescent boy. He stretched, hands behind his head. "A-aah. It looks like you finally pulled out the glowy sort of magic this time, Mr. Dresden," he smiled, hands still up in the air, trying to play nice again. "What does that do?"
--
Harry's eyes went wide as the thing before him shifted into another shape, the sound giving the wizard a case of the shivers. He could hear parts being rearranged. And it was a form that Harry recognized, an almost precocious boy with odd eyes. Of course, for all he knew X was just taking the shape of someone he recognized. He remembered this boy from Halloween, he had been in one of the trick or treating groups.
"It blows things up," Harry said. He kept the blasting rod on X but turned the staff to the side just a bit and muttered, "Fuego."
A tiny bit of his magic leaked out and pen sized ribbon of hellfire shot out of the end of the staff and punched a hole into one of the dead computers.
"And it can do the same to you if you don't do exactly as I say."
--
"Hmm. I'd like to," X explained in a reasonable tone, hands still raised. "But the problem is that I don't think you intend to let me find out who I am."
"I can be anyone... but I can't be myself. I don't remember any of it: name, face, age, sex, likes and dislikes, status... and it's an unpleasant feeling, to not know where you stand in this world, you know? All I'm doing is searching for a hint of myself. Observing. Comparing. That's the purpose of the boxes."
"Unless that's something you can do with magic, too? Do you know who I am, Harry Dresden? I really would like to know."
--
Harry kept his gaze on X, purposely not looking the man in the eyes, lest he initiate a soul gaze. And he really, really did not want to look into this things soul. What X was saying though, as twisted as it was, made sense. To not know who are what you are would very well drive you mad.
"Not me, but there are people here who could help," he said. Part of him was sure that this was some sort of trap, but another part of him wouldn't let him pass up the chance that it might be true. "People who can look into memories that might be gone or lost. Other people who can examine what's inside of you without cutting you open. We can compare it to what's inside other people too, without cutting them open. We could find out what you are without all this death."
--
X smiled, a face that would be adorable if it weren't for his words. "You wouldn't be able to see them properly. The bones and fibers get in the way, and it's important to be able to see into every little crevice and corner."
He did wonder why Harry wasn't quite looking straight at him, though. It would be interesting to use HAL's eye on him and see what the wizard's own criminal desires were like... but that would be impossible at this distance, without Harry looking straight into his eyes.
Mindful of the staff trained on him, he slowly took a step forward, hands still raised. Playing along. "But I am interested in people that could return memories. Do you know their names? Where I could find them?"
--
"Oh no you don't," Harry growled, the runes on his staff flaring up as the boy stepped forward. "You want to do that, you surrender. Like I'm just going to give you their names and where they live. I'm not stupid you know."
Harry refused to back down from the killer, even though his own survival instincts were telling him to not let him get too close. He wasn't ashamed to admit that he was more than a little bit scared, but that was nothing new. It was a rare occassion when the wizard wasn't squared off against something that scared the hell out of him.
"One last chance. Are you going to come peacefully or not?"
--
"Come peacefully. Hmm," X appeared to give this due thought before making his decision.
"No."
He leapt forward and to the side, moving at that impossibly fast speed again. One of the laptops crunched underfoot with the force of his impact, as he sprung from point to point around Harry. Evading the point of Harry's staff was one thing. Deciding on a weak point was another. No chance for HAL's eye now.
"Do you think I'm stupid too?" he grinned, a pale blur of motion. "For all I know, you don't know anybody that can help me. I'm not going let you stop me, until know who I am inside!"
--
"Damn it X," Harry swore as he turned, making sure to keep his rod and staff trained on the killer as much as possible. "This is the City, of course there are going to be people who can help you. Have you been successful doing what you're doing? You're never going to find out what you are that way. I'm offering you help, you won't get this from any of the other people looking for you."
Harry didn't know if he was more angry with X or himself for being so willing to help the killer out. Or maybe he just wanted to believe that this could all end without any violence.
--
"'Ecks'?" X smiled, pausing just long enough for Harry to get a good look at him again. X's eyes were wide, round... and utterly crazy. The logic behind Harry's offer of help was meaningless to this creature and his twisted mind. "If that's what you plan to call me here, that's fine too. Monster Robber X. I. Kaitou Sai. Sai. I guess it doesn't really matter much, does it."
Bearing in mind the last time he'd hit Harry, X lashed out with one arm on his next leap, aiming to send Harry off-balance, hopefully even sprawling to the ground. He hadn't even slashed Harry's clothing last time, so he felt more than free to put a little more effort into it this time.
--
Harry saw the arm swinging at him too late. He tried to fire off a shot with his blasting rod but it went wide and blew up one of the computers. The force of the blow knocked him to the ground. Immediatly the wizard rolled onto his back.
"Alright, that's how this is going down then so be it," he growled. "No second chances."
With a snarl of anger he fired blasts from both his blasting rod and the staff at the killer. There was no way he was going to stay on the defensive here, if he gave this guy a moment to so much as breath he'd be all over Harry.
--
All over had been exactly the thought on X's mind -- with Harry down, he'd planned to drive a hand straight through the wizard to the floor, since anything else just seemed to push him around. He moved again, ready to jump up and use the force of gravity to aid his strike, but the tip of the blasting rod swung towards him.... and X ducked down behind the kitchen counter just as an explosive line of force caught the countertop where he'd just been and went past, blowing a smoking hole in the side of his refrigerator.
X wrenched the nearest drawer open, spilling silverware across the kitchen floor and grabbing a couple kitchen knives. Out of Harry's direct line of sight now, he quietly slid down the floor from where he'd pulled out the drawer, listening carefully for Harry's movements on the other side of the island.
--
Harry immediately scrambled up to crouching position and shifted himself towards the door, both to keep X from getting out as well as making sure he had an escape route as well.
He also realized that it would be stupid to keep shooting fire around in here. The last thing he wanted to do was set the place of fire. That didn't mean he couldn't attack though...
"Veritas!" Harry shouted, wind whipping around at his command. A small scale tornado grabbed two of the computers and threw them in the direction that X had disappeared.
--
The first one was a surprise, the monitor hurled by the sudden wind crashing solidly into X's shoulder. The second one, X's free hand whipped around to catch midair and hurl violently back over the countertop, not bothering to look and aim. The sound of the crash should be more than enough to cover the sound of him opening one of the lower cupboard doors and hiding himself inside.
Harry would have to come around to find him. He felt fairly certain that Harry wouldn't call for backup -- so X was comfortable enough with lying in wait for the moment.
--
Harry didn't have time to activate his shield bracelet before the monitor was hurled back at him, almost with no effort at all. It slammed into his left shoulder and sent him spinning around with a grunt of pain. With a low moan he tried to raise the arm back up. Hissing in pain, he found that it refused to lift any higher than just above his waist. That was definitely going to be a problem.
Glancing over he saw nothing of the killer. A sudden chill swept through him at the idea of the creature being able to turn into something as small as a mouse. Who knew if the laws of conservation of mass applied to this thing.
"Hell's bells," Harry muttered. He had no idea where X was now. Well, he didn't have to know exactly where X was to trap him. Letting his blasting rod drop his his side, Harry pulled a small silver knife from his pocket and cut the palm of his hand. Blood welled up and he dabbed the base of his staff in it before dragging the staff along the ground. If he could make a big enough circle then he might get lucky and catch X in it.
--
X couldn't see through the cupboard door, but he could hear Harry easily, and hear the sound of something being dragged along the floor. He waited, kitchen knife in hand, until Harry crossed into the kitchen. The footfalls came closer and closer to where he was hidden, and he stilled his breath, his heartbeat. Silent.
Until the moment X slammed the cupboard door wide open, the force ripping it off its hinges. One boyishly skinny hand reached for Harry's ankles to drag him down, and the other one with the knife lashed out, slashing and stabbing at the wizard in the mad desire to know, to take him apart too.
--
Harry felt the hand grab his foot and the knife slash at his torse at almost the same instant. It had happened so fast that he didn't even had time to react. He screamed out in pain and rage, releasing the stored up kinetic energy in one of his rings. He didn't have time to aim it properly, instead letting the full force blast out from him. With any luck, it was blast the killer off of him and against the wall. He let loose with three more blasts successively, intended to pound the killer into nothing but a pulp if he could.
Clutching at his side Harry stumbled up to a standing position, leveling his staff at X, fire hazard be damned. He didn't think the knife wounds were fatal but they hurt like hell and if he didn't do something soon, he would eventually pass out from blood loss.
--
Much like last time, the force threw X across the room easily, two of the blasts catching him well enough to leave bloody impact bruises along his body where they hit. He cried out when he felt a couple ribs snap, and he could feel a couple limbs aching more than they should, the bones fractured.
Even in such poor shape, his nose bashed in and bloody, flecks of dark blood in his pale hair, there were traces of a smile on his bloodied lips as he fell to his hands and knees, staring up at the tip of the staff pointed straight at him. "Are you... still going to ask me to surrender?" he asked curiously.
--
It took all of Harry's strength to not let the tip of his staff waver or fall and his arm burned with the effort to keep it from trembling. One tiny slip here and he knew that he was dead. His only hope was that someone might have heard all the noise and alerted the newly forced police squad. This being the City though, Harry doubted that would happen. Most likely he was going to end up in a box. If he was going out though, he was going to hit this X thing with one hell of a death curse. When Nnoitra had killed him, Harry had learned he could curse things into being human. That might be the most human thing he could do to the killer as well as the most effective in stopping him.
"I was willing to help you," he said, surprised at how strong his voice sounded. The anger burning through him was probably helping with that. "But you don't get any more mercy."
--
"Oh, I see," X said with a little boyish smile. He'd been doing quite well before Harry had caught up with him. The increased rate of change in his cells over the last couple years had helped a lot. Inside him, bones cracked back into place. Skin peeled and regrew where his face had been mashed in by the kinetic energy from Harry's rings. "Then I should make every effort to kill you first!"
The staff was aimed right at X; he couldn't do anything about that. He'd probably get hit with the brunt of the blast no matter how he managed it. But turning and fleeing would have the same result. Better to roll forward from where he knelt, his body changing as he moved, and keep aiming for the wizard.
--
Harry knew he was only going to get one shot at this. This thing was fast enough that if he fired too early, it might dodge the attack and rip into him. Another moment and Harry pushed more magic into his staff.
"Fuego!"
Orange flame the size of a fist shot out, the smell of sulfur slightly tinging the air as the hellfire burned through the air. He could feel Lash screaming inside his head, probably offering him more power should he need it but the wizard ignored the demon. It wasn't worth his soul to try and kill this thing.
--
The blast of fire caught X just as he rolled forward, not quite straight on through his chest. A gaping hole flashed away in a wisp of sulphurous ash as X screamed. But it didn't stop him. The cavity was still on fire in the instant that X reached the wizard, murderous intent clear in his pale eyes and gasping hands.
Panting heavily, X leapt on top of Harry, bowling him over and grabbed the wizard's arms to pin him to the floor. "But before I take you apart, you're going to tell me all about how magic works, aren't you. I'd rather take you apart than use you for anything though, so afterwards... I'll do you the favor of killing you." He bent his neck, putting his face so close to Harry's that their noses almost touched, his eyes wide, grining despite the the smell of his own charring flesh.
--
It didn't work. The blast and blown a good sized hole in the creature but it hadn't drivne him backwards at all. All it had done was just let the thing get closer to him. Harry knew he was going to die, and that wasn't really what bothered him. Unless he got stuck in a box, he might even come back. He doubted X had enough time to stuff him in a box with all the noise they had been making. No, what he regretted was not taking this bastard with him. Still, as he lay there Harry readied his death curse.
"I hope you're ready to be human, fucker," he muttered. And instantly later though, he was speechless. X had looked him in the eye and initiated a Soul Gaze.
Harry couldn't accurately describe what he saw, but the soul of this thing was pure evil. The wizard had seen a lot of really bad people's souls, but few of them could be described as what he saw inside X. It was an image that would stay with him for the rest of his soon to be ending life and it could only be described at the opposite of everything that was good. There wasn't a single part of this... thing that wasn't twisted and corrupted in some way.
--
Evil... a pure and innocent evil untarnished by justifications or rationalization. Evil just for the sake of being evil. That was X.
Whatever it was that X saw in return, his smile broadened. "Aah. This is going to be interesting, Harry," he said as an odd symbol appeared, dark and deep inside X's right eye, accompanied by the beginning of a strange blue glow in the back of his retinas, like that of a television monitor. X opened his mouth, and just as the glow began, a shrill electronic shriek began in the back of his throat.
And as quickly as it had started, X jerked back violently with a sharp cry, hand jumping to cover his right eye as though pained. He opened his mouth to speak, and coughed out a puff of smoke, spitting flecks of dark blood on the floor.
--
Harry had no idea what had happened. One minute he was about to die, and the next X was leaping away from him, smoking and screaming and covering his eye. That was all the opening Harry needed though. With a loud groan he raised his left arm up as much as he could and activated his shield bracelet. A shimmering wall of energy formed between himself and the killer. It wasn't a huge wall, but enough that the thing couldn't leap right at him.
"You are one sick... thing," Harry spat, raising his staff up again. This time, he'd keep attacking until there was nothing left.
--
What had gone wrong? HAL's eye was possibly the best thing he'd stolen to date. Surely it wouldn't fail on him so quickly! X stumbled back, half-blind. He wanted to ask Harry what he'd done, tell him how interesting what he'd seen was, tell him he was going to kill him and worse... but he wasn't entirely sure what had gone wrong. Repairing this was more complicated than fixing skin and bones and flesh.
Mute, X turned to flee. The window was across the room. He just had to make it there and out.
--
"Fuego!"
Another blast of fire last out but Harry was too weak to keey the staff steady. Instead of hitting X it blew a hole in the wall near him. Swearing, he tried to bring his staff to bear again but X was just too fast and Harry was just to slow right now. Still, the thing had left more blood, more blood that Harry could use to track it. Assuming he didn't bleed out all over it himself, which right now was looking like a real possibility.
"I'm going to find you again X," he shouted, or rather tried to shout. Instead out gave out as a half groan, half gasp. "This isn't over."
Rating; PG-13 for violence
Characters; Harry Dresden (
dresden4hire), X (unknownandi)Summary; Harry tracks down X's apartment -- but X comes home halfway through Harry's investigations.
Log;
Harry stepped just on the other side of the door and pressed his ear to it. There was no sound. That was good, no sound was definitely good. He didn't want to encounter X right now, not on his home turf. And this was his home turf. The magic had taken Harry here. It was a long time to finally find it with the spell weakening more and more all the time, but this was the place.
Stepping back, Harry passed his hand over the locked and mumbled a string of psuedo Latin words. There was a soft click as he jinxed the lock. Readying his blasting rod, Harry stepped through.
As soon as he did, there was an all too familiar popping sound and the smell of burnt electronics.
"Damn it," he muttered, quickly shutting the door. There were computers everywhere, everyone of them now completely dead, hard drives erased. So much for pulling a network ID from them.
Moving further into the room, Harry noticed it was cluttered with various... things. Books and knick knacks of all sorts were all around the place. Money was all over the place too. One corner particularly held his attention. It was almost gleeming it was so clean. The cleanliness of the space and tools belied an unclean mind though as the tools of the killers trade were piled up.
"You are one sick bastard," Harry muttered, wandering over to look at the collection of tools. Saws of various shapes and sizes were there. He thought of how these had been used to turn people into what he had seen in those boxes and his anger burned. Whoever this X thing was, his reign of killing was going to end.
--
Meanwhile, X yawned, trudging up the stairs to her apartment, looking like nothing more than a high-school-age girl with a poofy blonde hair. Since the Prince had disappered, probably back to his own world, X had been having to do some of her own errands again. She didn't mind so much today though, since studying alchemy was rather boring, and the books she'd stolen recently were definitely coded in some ridiculously complex cipher. It would take forever to work out, but it would be worth it if she could use it to figure out how to take Envy apart properly.
And best of all, errands, included trips for food. So X was full and happy when she came back to her apartment and pulled out the key to unlock the door, not even realizing it was already open. The sound of the key in the lock was the only warning Harry got before the door opened.
Surprise shot across X's face when she saw who exactly was standing in her apartment. "Ah..."
--
Harry whirled around, leveling his blasting rod at the... blond, teenage girl that came through the door. If he hadn't already seen the killer in another form, he might have been tempted to relax his guard. But he was used to dealing with creatures that looked like one thing but were in fact another. From what he had seen of X before, just a split second was all it needed. Harry wasn't going to give him that chance.
"You sick bastard," he growled. "This ends now. No more people in boxes, you understand?"
--
"Did you get my message, Harry?" X asked with a smile, like she hadn't heard a word he'd said. The faint smell of fried circuitry made her glance at the hodgepodge of computers, but this clearly wasn't the time to figure out what had happened to the cluster.
"I tried looking for the 'essence' you talked about, but I couldn't find it after a few boxes, so I gave up," X added, thoughtfully. "But it looks like you found me again after all. I'm pretty impressed."
--
"I told you it's nothing you could see, don't try and blame your sick games on me," he growled. Had the wizard not have time to come to grips with his own guilt, the killer's words might have meant more. As it was, it only managed to fuel his anger. This... thing was talking about lives like they were nothing. People that had lived and breathed and laughed and loved and to this thing they were just experiments.
"But I tell you what, you just give me one good excuse and I'll blow a hole in you so big you can see what your own insides look like."
As if to back up his word, he leveled his staff at the monster as well, the runes on it glowing yellow-orange with the power of hellfire. It was partially a bluff, as an attack that strong here could very well blow a hole clean through X, a wall, and someone on the other side of the wall. Of course, the closer X got, the less that was a problem, but Harry really didn't want this thing too near him.
--
"Hmm." X considered the glowing staff with something that was less concern and more curiosity. "I'd rather have something to compare my own cells to. They're always changing, you see..."
It only took a moment for her -- him to change, a brief second of the quiet sound of X's body reshaping (slithering of flesh and creaking of bone) until he was in the shape he fell back to, all pale hair and strange eyes, an adolescent boy. He stretched, hands behind his head. "A-aah. It looks like you finally pulled out the glowy sort of magic this time, Mr. Dresden," he smiled, hands still up in the air, trying to play nice again. "What does that do?"
--
Harry's eyes went wide as the thing before him shifted into another shape, the sound giving the wizard a case of the shivers. He could hear parts being rearranged. And it was a form that Harry recognized, an almost precocious boy with odd eyes. Of course, for all he knew X was just taking the shape of someone he recognized. He remembered this boy from Halloween, he had been in one of the trick or treating groups.
"It blows things up," Harry said. He kept the blasting rod on X but turned the staff to the side just a bit and muttered, "Fuego."
A tiny bit of his magic leaked out and pen sized ribbon of hellfire shot out of the end of the staff and punched a hole into one of the dead computers.
"And it can do the same to you if you don't do exactly as I say."
--
"Hmm. I'd like to," X explained in a reasonable tone, hands still raised. "But the problem is that I don't think you intend to let me find out who I am."
"I can be anyone... but I can't be myself. I don't remember any of it: name, face, age, sex, likes and dislikes, status... and it's an unpleasant feeling, to not know where you stand in this world, you know? All I'm doing is searching for a hint of myself. Observing. Comparing. That's the purpose of the boxes."
"Unless that's something you can do with magic, too? Do you know who I am, Harry Dresden? I really would like to know."
--
Harry kept his gaze on X, purposely not looking the man in the eyes, lest he initiate a soul gaze. And he really, really did not want to look into this things soul. What X was saying though, as twisted as it was, made sense. To not know who are what you are would very well drive you mad.
"Not me, but there are people here who could help," he said. Part of him was sure that this was some sort of trap, but another part of him wouldn't let him pass up the chance that it might be true. "People who can look into memories that might be gone or lost. Other people who can examine what's inside of you without cutting you open. We can compare it to what's inside other people too, without cutting them open. We could find out what you are without all this death."
--
X smiled, a face that would be adorable if it weren't for his words. "You wouldn't be able to see them properly. The bones and fibers get in the way, and it's important to be able to see into every little crevice and corner."
He did wonder why Harry wasn't quite looking straight at him, though. It would be interesting to use HAL's eye on him and see what the wizard's own criminal desires were like... but that would be impossible at this distance, without Harry looking straight into his eyes.
Mindful of the staff trained on him, he slowly took a step forward, hands still raised. Playing along. "But I am interested in people that could return memories. Do you know their names? Where I could find them?"
--
"Oh no you don't," Harry growled, the runes on his staff flaring up as the boy stepped forward. "You want to do that, you surrender. Like I'm just going to give you their names and where they live. I'm not stupid you know."
Harry refused to back down from the killer, even though his own survival instincts were telling him to not let him get too close. He wasn't ashamed to admit that he was more than a little bit scared, but that was nothing new. It was a rare occassion when the wizard wasn't squared off against something that scared the hell out of him.
"One last chance. Are you going to come peacefully or not?"
--
"Come peacefully. Hmm," X appeared to give this due thought before making his decision.
"No."
He leapt forward and to the side, moving at that impossibly fast speed again. One of the laptops crunched underfoot with the force of his impact, as he sprung from point to point around Harry. Evading the point of Harry's staff was one thing. Deciding on a weak point was another. No chance for HAL's eye now.
"Do you think I'm stupid too?" he grinned, a pale blur of motion. "For all I know, you don't know anybody that can help me. I'm not going let you stop me, until know who I am inside!"
--
"Damn it X," Harry swore as he turned, making sure to keep his rod and staff trained on the killer as much as possible. "This is the City, of course there are going to be people who can help you. Have you been successful doing what you're doing? You're never going to find out what you are that way. I'm offering you help, you won't get this from any of the other people looking for you."
Harry didn't know if he was more angry with X or himself for being so willing to help the killer out. Or maybe he just wanted to believe that this could all end without any violence.
--
"'Ecks'?" X smiled, pausing just long enough for Harry to get a good look at him again. X's eyes were wide, round... and utterly crazy. The logic behind Harry's offer of help was meaningless to this creature and his twisted mind. "If that's what you plan to call me here, that's fine too. Monster Robber X. I. Kaitou Sai. Sai. I guess it doesn't really matter much, does it."
Bearing in mind the last time he'd hit Harry, X lashed out with one arm on his next leap, aiming to send Harry off-balance, hopefully even sprawling to the ground. He hadn't even slashed Harry's clothing last time, so he felt more than free to put a little more effort into it this time.
--
Harry saw the arm swinging at him too late. He tried to fire off a shot with his blasting rod but it went wide and blew up one of the computers. The force of the blow knocked him to the ground. Immediatly the wizard rolled onto his back.
"Alright, that's how this is going down then so be it," he growled. "No second chances."
With a snarl of anger he fired blasts from both his blasting rod and the staff at the killer. There was no way he was going to stay on the defensive here, if he gave this guy a moment to so much as breath he'd be all over Harry.
--
All over had been exactly the thought on X's mind -- with Harry down, he'd planned to drive a hand straight through the wizard to the floor, since anything else just seemed to push him around. He moved again, ready to jump up and use the force of gravity to aid his strike, but the tip of the blasting rod swung towards him.... and X ducked down behind the kitchen counter just as an explosive line of force caught the countertop where he'd just been and went past, blowing a smoking hole in the side of his refrigerator.
X wrenched the nearest drawer open, spilling silverware across the kitchen floor and grabbing a couple kitchen knives. Out of Harry's direct line of sight now, he quietly slid down the floor from where he'd pulled out the drawer, listening carefully for Harry's movements on the other side of the island.
--
Harry immediately scrambled up to crouching position and shifted himself towards the door, both to keep X from getting out as well as making sure he had an escape route as well.
He also realized that it would be stupid to keep shooting fire around in here. The last thing he wanted to do was set the place of fire. That didn't mean he couldn't attack though...
"Veritas!" Harry shouted, wind whipping around at his command. A small scale tornado grabbed two of the computers and threw them in the direction that X had disappeared.
--
The first one was a surprise, the monitor hurled by the sudden wind crashing solidly into X's shoulder. The second one, X's free hand whipped around to catch midair and hurl violently back over the countertop, not bothering to look and aim. The sound of the crash should be more than enough to cover the sound of him opening one of the lower cupboard doors and hiding himself inside.
Harry would have to come around to find him. He felt fairly certain that Harry wouldn't call for backup -- so X was comfortable enough with lying in wait for the moment.
--
Harry didn't have time to activate his shield bracelet before the monitor was hurled back at him, almost with no effort at all. It slammed into his left shoulder and sent him spinning around with a grunt of pain. With a low moan he tried to raise the arm back up. Hissing in pain, he found that it refused to lift any higher than just above his waist. That was definitely going to be a problem.
Glancing over he saw nothing of the killer. A sudden chill swept through him at the idea of the creature being able to turn into something as small as a mouse. Who knew if the laws of conservation of mass applied to this thing.
"Hell's bells," Harry muttered. He had no idea where X was now. Well, he didn't have to know exactly where X was to trap him. Letting his blasting rod drop his his side, Harry pulled a small silver knife from his pocket and cut the palm of his hand. Blood welled up and he dabbed the base of his staff in it before dragging the staff along the ground. If he could make a big enough circle then he might get lucky and catch X in it.
--
X couldn't see through the cupboard door, but he could hear Harry easily, and hear the sound of something being dragged along the floor. He waited, kitchen knife in hand, until Harry crossed into the kitchen. The footfalls came closer and closer to where he was hidden, and he stilled his breath, his heartbeat. Silent.
Until the moment X slammed the cupboard door wide open, the force ripping it off its hinges. One boyishly skinny hand reached for Harry's ankles to drag him down, and the other one with the knife lashed out, slashing and stabbing at the wizard in the mad desire to know, to take him apart too.
--
Harry felt the hand grab his foot and the knife slash at his torse at almost the same instant. It had happened so fast that he didn't even had time to react. He screamed out in pain and rage, releasing the stored up kinetic energy in one of his rings. He didn't have time to aim it properly, instead letting the full force blast out from him. With any luck, it was blast the killer off of him and against the wall. He let loose with three more blasts successively, intended to pound the killer into nothing but a pulp if he could.
Clutching at his side Harry stumbled up to a standing position, leveling his staff at X, fire hazard be damned. He didn't think the knife wounds were fatal but they hurt like hell and if he didn't do something soon, he would eventually pass out from blood loss.
--
Much like last time, the force threw X across the room easily, two of the blasts catching him well enough to leave bloody impact bruises along his body where they hit. He cried out when he felt a couple ribs snap, and he could feel a couple limbs aching more than they should, the bones fractured.
Even in such poor shape, his nose bashed in and bloody, flecks of dark blood in his pale hair, there were traces of a smile on his bloodied lips as he fell to his hands and knees, staring up at the tip of the staff pointed straight at him. "Are you... still going to ask me to surrender?" he asked curiously.
--
It took all of Harry's strength to not let the tip of his staff waver or fall and his arm burned with the effort to keep it from trembling. One tiny slip here and he knew that he was dead. His only hope was that someone might have heard all the noise and alerted the newly forced police squad. This being the City though, Harry doubted that would happen. Most likely he was going to end up in a box. If he was going out though, he was going to hit this X thing with one hell of a death curse. When Nnoitra had killed him, Harry had learned he could curse things into being human. That might be the most human thing he could do to the killer as well as the most effective in stopping him.
"I was willing to help you," he said, surprised at how strong his voice sounded. The anger burning through him was probably helping with that. "But you don't get any more mercy."
--
"Oh, I see," X said with a little boyish smile. He'd been doing quite well before Harry had caught up with him. The increased rate of change in his cells over the last couple years had helped a lot. Inside him, bones cracked back into place. Skin peeled and regrew where his face had been mashed in by the kinetic energy from Harry's rings. "Then I should make every effort to kill you first!"
The staff was aimed right at X; he couldn't do anything about that. He'd probably get hit with the brunt of the blast no matter how he managed it. But turning and fleeing would have the same result. Better to roll forward from where he knelt, his body changing as he moved, and keep aiming for the wizard.
--
Harry knew he was only going to get one shot at this. This thing was fast enough that if he fired too early, it might dodge the attack and rip into him. Another moment and Harry pushed more magic into his staff.
"Fuego!"
Orange flame the size of a fist shot out, the smell of sulfur slightly tinging the air as the hellfire burned through the air. He could feel Lash screaming inside his head, probably offering him more power should he need it but the wizard ignored the demon. It wasn't worth his soul to try and kill this thing.
--
The blast of fire caught X just as he rolled forward, not quite straight on through his chest. A gaping hole flashed away in a wisp of sulphurous ash as X screamed. But it didn't stop him. The cavity was still on fire in the instant that X reached the wizard, murderous intent clear in his pale eyes and gasping hands.
Panting heavily, X leapt on top of Harry, bowling him over and grabbed the wizard's arms to pin him to the floor. "But before I take you apart, you're going to tell me all about how magic works, aren't you. I'd rather take you apart than use you for anything though, so afterwards... I'll do you the favor of killing you." He bent his neck, putting his face so close to Harry's that their noses almost touched, his eyes wide, grining despite the the smell of his own charring flesh.
--
It didn't work. The blast and blown a good sized hole in the creature but it hadn't drivne him backwards at all. All it had done was just let the thing get closer to him. Harry knew he was going to die, and that wasn't really what bothered him. Unless he got stuck in a box, he might even come back. He doubted X had enough time to stuff him in a box with all the noise they had been making. No, what he regretted was not taking this bastard with him. Still, as he lay there Harry readied his death curse.
"I hope you're ready to be human, fucker," he muttered. And instantly later though, he was speechless. X had looked him in the eye and initiated a Soul Gaze.
Harry couldn't accurately describe what he saw, but the soul of this thing was pure evil. The wizard had seen a lot of really bad people's souls, but few of them could be described as what he saw inside X. It was an image that would stay with him for the rest of his soon to be ending life and it could only be described at the opposite of everything that was good. There wasn't a single part of this... thing that wasn't twisted and corrupted in some way.
--
Evil... a pure and innocent evil untarnished by justifications or rationalization. Evil just for the sake of being evil. That was X.
Whatever it was that X saw in return, his smile broadened. "Aah. This is going to be interesting, Harry," he said as an odd symbol appeared, dark and deep inside X's right eye, accompanied by the beginning of a strange blue glow in the back of his retinas, like that of a television monitor. X opened his mouth, and just as the glow began, a shrill electronic shriek began in the back of his throat.
And as quickly as it had started, X jerked back violently with a sharp cry, hand jumping to cover his right eye as though pained. He opened his mouth to speak, and coughed out a puff of smoke, spitting flecks of dark blood on the floor.
--
Harry had no idea what had happened. One minute he was about to die, and the next X was leaping away from him, smoking and screaming and covering his eye. That was all the opening Harry needed though. With a loud groan he raised his left arm up as much as he could and activated his shield bracelet. A shimmering wall of energy formed between himself and the killer. It wasn't a huge wall, but enough that the thing couldn't leap right at him.
"You are one sick... thing," Harry spat, raising his staff up again. This time, he'd keep attacking until there was nothing left.
--
What had gone wrong? HAL's eye was possibly the best thing he'd stolen to date. Surely it wouldn't fail on him so quickly! X stumbled back, half-blind. He wanted to ask Harry what he'd done, tell him how interesting what he'd seen was, tell him he was going to kill him and worse... but he wasn't entirely sure what had gone wrong. Repairing this was more complicated than fixing skin and bones and flesh.
Mute, X turned to flee. The window was across the room. He just had to make it there and out.
--
"Fuego!"
Another blast of fire last out but Harry was too weak to keey the staff steady. Instead of hitting X it blew a hole in the wall near him. Swearing, he tried to bring his staff to bear again but X was just too fast and Harry was just to slow right now. Still, the thing had left more blood, more blood that Harry could use to track it. Assuming he didn't bleed out all over it himself, which right now was looking like a real possibility.
"I'm going to find you again X," he shouted, or rather tried to shout. Instead out gave out as a half groan, half gasp. "This isn't over."