[Open/Dorian] The Missing Portrait

[CETO EURYALE]

Helicopter overhead, Ceto adjusted her sunglasses as she observed the commotion overhead. Fortunately this was New York, where wearing sunglasses was acceptable at night. Disguised as a human, Ceto blended in with the mob of on-watchers around her. What the blazing hell is going on up there?! She thought to herself as a bald man approached the corner of the building.

Eyes widening, the gorgon certainly hoped there was another person up there to talk the man into standing down, the suicide rate was all ready through the roof. Her observational skills warned her that it wasn't him that would take the fall, when all of a sudden he threw something over the side of the building. Something that had been watched as it fell from above.

Grabbing a civilian, Ceto pulled the human out of the way of harms passage. Glass spread out over the pavement, the gorgon was angered by such insensitivity. "WATCH WHERE YOUR THROWING YOUR GODDAMN GARBAGE, YOU WHORE! IN CASE YOU DIDNT NOTICE, PEOPLE ARE ACTUALLY DOWN HERE!" She shouted up at him, only to find he was gone. "Are you okay?" She asked the human, who scurried away in shock.

Quickly making her way around the building, knowing there were authorities on site, Ceto wanted to investigate the matter for herself. Climbing the escape route hastily, unaware of the situation, hands on her hips she glared at the group on the roof. "What the hell is going on up here? A tea party?" She interrogated sarcastically.

[WARREN SORROW]

Warren had just stood there. All the commotion, all the running, all the flippin' out over some fool on the roof, and a portrait which turned out to be a glass pane. "Oh well... might as well get my butt over there." he siad as he shrugged, and walked at a slow pace down the block.

His head swayed from side to side, snapping lightly as he stepped to the beat in his head. The shadows of the night, cast from street lamps, car lights, ambience from windows, even the light shone from cell phones taking pictures of the scene. All shone wonderful shadows. Which all came to his. Oooh it was going to be a fun night. His eye began to grow darker, as the red, orange, and yellow iris grew bright like fire. There was many old souls willing and able to join in on a good time. His friends passed out the word, so to speak, spreading from his and coming back with more, almost tied to them.

"Ya'll are in my world now... not your world." he sung lowly, almost under his breath. "And i've got friends on the ooother siiiide." The shadows wriggled suddenly, like a giddy child waiting for sweets. His smile, spreading across his face, again resembled that of a snake, a predator sure of his kill. He buttoned up his shirt halfway, leaving his vest open, flapping at his sides. He stopped at the corner, just before the crowd and whistled softly, his doctor bag, followed by his cane, hopped over in his belongings usual fashion. They stopped at his side, and he leaned down to grab the cane, the bag hopping up and hooked onto the very top of it, and fetched out his badge. " 'EY! This ain't no show! Go on now! Shoo! Did ya not hear the cops??" he asked and stood there for a moment, waiting for a reaction. None. Absolutely nothin'. Fine. "By the flair of the Baron... MOVE, BEFORE I KILL Y'ALL!" He bellowed. Folks didn't get the hint till you put fear into 'em. Never did. That, mixed with him waving his badge back and forth got the now shrinking crowd to scurry away.

The aforementioned shadows swirled around him, then slithered forward, going up the sidewalk, and climbing the wall. They reached the very top, and Warren did something a little strange. He stretched for a moment, then placed his left foot, raised at wait height, against the wall. It stuck. Now, the other foot. He was completely horizontal. Granted, the whole trick of it was that the shadows grabbed onto his feet, and spread along the underside of him, keeping him from falling backward. But to the folks that DIDN'T know that, it was quite the trick. He strolled up the building, his cane tapping ominously against the brick. As he approached the ledge, the shadows pushed him up and foward, making him seemingly show up out of nowhere on the ledge, and was glad to now be vertical again.

His eyes wandered from the man, seemingly running through walls, to the man with the gun, to the now angry woman. A very, very beautiful woman. Tall, curvy in the good places. Not as short as he liked, but he'd take it, later at least. Now, he had to focus. He started approaching Dorian, slowly and calmly. He raised his hands above his head, showing he had no weapon. The shadows circled around his feet, slithering like a nest of snakes.

"Now now, friend. Let's just put the gun down. We can talk this allll out." he said softly, trying to coax the guy down. Then he stopped, stroked his chin for a moment in thought and clickd his tongue. "Oh to Heckerbreck with this!" he scoffed, and snapped his fingers lazily at the man. "Go get 'em!" His new found friends seperated from his own shadow, and flew along the ground, aiming right at his shadow cast by the nearby street lamp. They wrapped around it, biting into the mans shape to keep it still. That should cause immediate paralysis until Warren released him.

Warren, now back to his smug self, strolled over with full on confidence. "Since this whole shin-dig is over, i'd like to ask a few questions. What the hell were you doin' boy?! Runnin' after some nut, wavin' a gun around. Jeezus. Mila, can you come cuff him, please? While she's doin' that, let's start with a name." Then he stopped. Important matters were afoot. Namely, new girl. "Never mind, Carl and Mila'll take care of ya." He let out as he slid on over in his usual way to the hidden gorgon and smiled his most charming smile. "Why hellooo there. Who might you be, miss?" His southern drawl coating each syllable.

[DORIAN GRAY]

“You're mine!” Dorian called, pushing a new path through the bystanders. The escapee was now making his way up a fire escape ladder. Jumping in speed, Dorian caught the ladder and climbed to the roof.

Mysterious Man: "Not tonight, Gray!"

“There's nowhere to go!” He yelled, pulling his gun out and pressing the barrel into the mans temple. “Give it up, and surrender that portrait.

Pesky Agent: ”Shit, he's got a gun!”

Mysterious Jerk: "Ah, look! You brought friends! Oh and what fine taste you have, Gray! I should have known..."

“Who are you? Give it up, and surrender that portrait!”

"Oh! You mean this?....Very well. I'll surrender it..."Threatening to knock the item in question off the building Dorian's eyes widened in horror and he cocked the gun into the mans head and pulled the trigger. The man phased bullet flying through him and wedging itself in the stones of a nearby building.

“You wouldn't dare! What do you want from me?!”

The man pushed the portrait off the roof nearly hitting a few passerby. A civilian played the hero knocking another girl out of the way.

Bystander: "WATCH WHERE YOUR THROWING YOUR GODDAMN GARBAGE, YOU WHORE! IN CASE YOU DIDNT NOTICE, PEOPLE ARE ACTUALLY DOWN HERE!"

Pesky Agent: This is the police, drop the gun and step away from baldy!”
Pesky Agent's Radio: ”Agent Ilyukhin, this is Rose. I've got overwatch. Over.”

Perpetually bored, the gentleman laughed quietly. Talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time. He thought to himself. “Don't get in my way.” Dorian called back to the agents. “You have no idea what you're getting involved in.” It was too late to open fire, the man had escaped... For now. Tucking his firearm back inside his slacks, Dorian took a few steps back, preparing to jump off of the edge of the building. If baldy wanted to play, then let the games commence.

Bystander: ”What the hell is going on up here a tea party?”

What the hell? She hadn't been there before. There was another. A man, a man surrounded by shadows who was watching who had also not been there a moment ago. Pressing his fingers to his temple Dorian let out a long sigh. “This can all be explained.” He assured them. He had never seen a team of so many freaks assemble at the scene of a 'crime' so quickly. There might be a hidden HQ around nearby, he thought.

Shadowed Agent: ”Now now friend...Let's just put the gun down. We can talk this all out.”

“You don't understand. What he has is very very valuable.” He raised a brow. “I don't have time for this, so I will just be on my way.” Bolting once more, Dorian made a full speed run to the edge, intending to jump when he heard the agent speak again.

Shadowed Agent: "Oh to Heckerbreck with this! Go get 'em!"

Stopping, annoyed, he narrowed his eyes. There were shadows coming from the mans feet slithering in his direction. What magic was this? “Look. Tonight is not a good night. Let go of me.” He demanded hotly, pretending to be affected for a moment. He needed to know what he was up against, but such demons would be feeble against him.

Cocky Shadowed Agent: ”Since this whole shin-dig is over, I'd like to ask a few questions. What the hell were you doin' boy?! Runnin' after some nut, wavin' a gun around. Jeezus. Mila, can you come cuff him, please? While she's doin' that, let's start with a name."

Smirking, Dorian began to laugh. This man thought he had a chance. How... cute. “My name...” He said with a look parallel to the cocky agents devilish grin. “Is Dorian Gray.” He took a few steps forward seemingly unaffected by the mans feeble attempt to capture him. Pulling the blade out of his cane, he held it to the shadowed agents throat. “And I would not do that if I were you.” He stated harshly. The man hadn't seemed to notice at first as he was so sure that his plan had worked.

“Now you boneheads listen to me.” Dorian demanded. “That man has my portrait and if any of you are educated at all you know that that means he has my soul. Which means he can kill me at any given time, I could just drop dead, so either help me get it back, or get out of my way. It is a matter of life and death.” He poised a threat to Warren intentionally. “Go ahead, test my logic. Let your skilled sniper up there shoot me, I won't die.” He stated coldly. “I don't know what the hell you guys are, or what you're doing here, but this is just a small piece of the picture.

[LUCY BISHOP]

Lucy waited far more patiently than Dorian as the elevator descended to the lobby, listening with interest to his conversation with the young girls. She watched on in appall as Dorian burst from the elevator only to collide with another man, who apologized with a distinct and familiar twang.

By all that was holy, please let that not be that smarmy, southern son-of-a-bit...

And then like a racehorse out of the gate, Dorian was off like a shot after some bald gentleman carrying a suspicious portrait-sized object, and Lucy began after him, as fast as one is capable of running in tight pencil skirts and three inch heels. However, slipping through crowds discreetly was one of her specialities, and moving through the throngs of people was far easier on her than it was for Dorian’s new pursuers, no doubt all BPRD, the lot of them. This day just got more complicated, especially when it looked like the group of them decided that climbing up the side of a building was the next logical choice in this cat (and cat) and mouse game.

There were many things that Lucy was excellent at; magic, stealing, hand to hand combat among others, but scaling up some rickety ladder in heels and a skirt was not one of them. So that’s why she watched the agents scamper up after Dorian, hidden amongst the crowd, not even bothering to follow them once they disappeared over the top of the building.
Once they were up, she slipped into the same alley, right hand reaching out from beneath the cuff of her coat sleeve, Keyring spinning a fevered pace, keys appearing in the blink of an eye and disappearing within the next as she strode purposefully toward a grimy looking backdoor to whatever it was that this building housed. She studiously ignored the few bums that seemed to favor this alley, her next course of action would never be believed by someone who lived as they did, and she didn’t bother hiding her blatant use of magic. Her eyes traveled up the brick facade of the building, where no doubt a stand-off between agents and otherworldly was taking place, willing the key that opened the roof door to her hand. As her hand neared the door, a keyhole appeared, the perfect size for the key that now rested between her fingertips. It slipped into the keyhole, and with a turn, she walked out onto the roof of the building, coming face to face with a stand-off between agents, Dorian and the mysterious bald man.
Oh, and the helicopter.
How in the world did they get the approval for that thing to show up so quickly?! Damn those BPRD agents.

It seemed she had shown up right at the end of the exchange, as the small group watched, one in horror, as the bald man threw the object over the side. When Dorian didn’t immediately crumble into dust, Lucy assumed that the object thrown was, in fact, not the portrait, so she kept her eyes trained on the man who had thrown it, and was surprised to see him simply melt through the walls and disappear.

Things quickly got out of hand what with the cocky bastard Sorrow showing off with his shadowy friends and their lack of effect on Dorian. She couldn’t help but grin at the quick turnaround of the situation, and Warren’s sudden view of the business end of a sword delighted her. However, as much as she enjoyed kicking that man off his high horse, she didn’t wish him dead (yet). So she called Dorian’s key to her hand, closing the door behind her, and inserting the new key, and re-opening the door back to Dorian’s flat all with a smooth, practiced motion.

“Mr. Gray? While stabbing BPRD agents is all well and good, perhaps we should continue your hunt elsewhere?”
She motioned to the open door with her free hand, the other still on the handle, and if Mr. Gray had any sense within him, he would see that behind the door was not the flight of stairs back down the building but in fact his own from which they had just left and hurry his ass over before they both got shot by some trigger-happy agents.

[LUDMILA ILYUKHIN]

Ludmila looked up into the sky and saw, much to her surprise that someone had dispatched a SWAT helicopter. She knew that SWAT choppers were not sent out to handle a small situation like this, so she assumed that the aircraft had been sent by someone at the Bureau. An excitable, somewhat ill advised someone, and that someone soon made herself known: Rose Neghana.

"For fuck's sake, agent Neghana, this situation does not require a helicopter or an overwatch.

Still seething from the Bureau's over-reaction, she turned to face the strange man she and Carl had been pursuing. Warren's failed arrest attempt took a turn for the worse as the strange man pulled a sword from his cane and pressed its point against the younger man's throat.

"This is the best cock-up I've witnessed in a while. Thank you for that. All of you", she stated sarcastically. With a flick of her thumb she switched from semi-auto to full auto for her Stechkin APS. "If you harm agent Sorrow in any way, mujik, I will shoot your legs from under you and bring my foot down on your face."

Already her eyes were examining the man her gun was pointing at, marking out weak points. She hadn't been trained to play nice with those she faced. She had been trained to take them down as efficiently and quickly as possible, and whether or not the opponent survived the take down was not important.

[CARL GREENE]

Ho! Ho! Ho! All this is going balls up, mate.

I agree with you on that one, thought Carl in response to Callaxiam's comment. The demon soon spoke up again.

Intervene before someone gets shot. The Russky doesn't look like she's fucking around. She's a fighter and a killer, and a damn good one at that, but that geezer over there? He's not going to die, mate. He's bound to an object that keeps him alive, so no harm will ever be done to him unless someone destroys that object.

That was all the prompting Carl needed. He holstered his Glock and stepped forward, his hands raised diplomatically in an attempt to appease both sides.

"Whoa! Whoa! Everybody calm down", he said before turning to Ludmila. "Ludmila, that man is not what you think he is. He's Gray. Dorian Gray, the main character from the Oscar Wilde story."

Ludmila stared at Carl as if he'd gone insane, but her aim never wavered. Callaxiam had been right about her being a killer. Everything in her current stance showed she was not in the least bit afraid to use violence, and neither was she scared of Dorian.

"-What?", she said.

"-You of all people should know that in this kind of job we see strange things...well, this is one of those things. Now put your gun away."

Ludmila reluctantly complied, but she kept her eyes on Dorian. Carl then turned to Dorian and said in a diplomatic tone of voice while extracting his badge from his coat's pocket:

"-All right Gray. I know who you are. Now put the sword away and let that man go. My partner and I are from the B.P.R.D., the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defence. We mistakenly thought you were planning something nefarious. Now, explain yourself and let the man go. Maybe we could help you."

[THE STAFF]

Closed due to thread failure - Proof it happens to the best of us!
Closed on: 2011 June 13 by The Staff