Match of the Millennium

Description: Following a lead on some stolen HitBit devices up for sale, Brandon heads to Sunshine City's industrial outskirts and has an encounter with a mouse. A robot one, to be exact!

[MOONDYNE]
In the seedier and more industrial sector of the Sunshine State (and by proxy, Sunshine City) there is a bit of trouble afoot tonight. Word has gotten out that a deal is going down concerning some rather... expensive and illicit hardware. Weapons primarily--but a muttering as well of something even more exotic--HitBit. A transparent shadow stalks these streets, looking like a heat haze one might see in the distance on a very hot summer day. Despite the heat and humidity though, night is dawning, and as the stranger shimmer sneaks past a large puddle in an alleyway, a strange stark white and black form can be glimpsed from it's reflection.

The tipoff for Brandon would lead him to a large warehouse down that very same alley, dark and foreboding. Was the stuff going to be sold here, or was it just being stored here...? And was he already too late? As one approaches, they may find the building's security has already been penetrated--locks picked or circumvented entirely.

[BRANDON]
Originally, Brandon was in Sunshine City on a case completely unrelated to this particular seedy location. Originally in Sunshine City to track down a enchanted item to return to their owner. An item more of convenience more than an item of power so he didn't think it would show up on NOL's radar. That was when he got a tip on a deal concerning the HitBit technology. Having obtained the object that he was hired to acquire, he decided to take on a pet projectof his own.

He traveled to the location cloaked in an invisibility ritual of his own. A faint humanoid shaped ripple in the air is his only sign of approach as watches and waits near the compromised building as he performs surveillance on the building and waits to pursue if need be. There were some benefits to being an arcane private investigator.

[MOONDYNE]
If Brandon had decided to enter the building behind whoever it was that got there before him he might have encountered the place dim and quiet--with a particular Mouse in the act. However since he's decided to wait there, the thief in question has already had time to break through the safe in question and traded the item inside for a bit of plastique--which she already has set and is ticking down--right next to wooden crates full of assault rifles and explosives. Wuh oh.

It is at this point that Brandon might hear a noise inside the alley, what look like transparent sneakred feet splashing in a puddle somewhere down the length of it as they race toward him--the figure JUMPS right toward him, Moondyne de-cloaking in mid-air as the entire side of the building behind her ERUPTS into a fireball, the mouse's trajectory heading right for him--to push him down away from the fire...?

[BRANDON]
Accursed need to do things with proper procedure so he can maintain his Private Investigator license.

The private detective could recognize the signs considering that he was a light based mage who often used illusions and was even using a cloaking ritual was moving towards him. Not only that, he could see the figure going directly for him which meant that this figure also knew he was there.

He was only prepared for surveillance at that moment and not an explosion or a fight and so he's caught completely flat footed. Instinct kicks in and he turns his shoulder towards the now de-cloaked figure while a hand goes to protect the leather pouch on his belt and the clasp required to open it while the other goes to shield his face as he goes down to the ground.

Between getting tackled and the fireball from the building he had just been observing, he scrambles to his feet with a sense of urgency before looking upon the now visible figure.

[MOONDYNE]
There is a brief shimmering effect still clinging to Moondyne, the edges of the transparency peeling away for good with a blue-hot electric glow, leaving the rest of her body visible.

"Whew--excusez-moi, mon ami--" Moondyne, of course, as Brandon would soon realize appears to be some kind of anthropomorphic mouse with light blue hair and reddish brown eyes wearing what looks like a black suit and stark white armor, sits up as she straddles the man's waist, pulling herself up off him as he scrambles away.

"You should not be here, but you came prepared, I see," Moondyne's tail flicked behind her--at the very tip of it dangled some kind of object wrapped in cable and a black trashbag. It had somehow escaped the fire and heat. Had she shielded both it and Brandon from the flames??

"What's your game, stranger? Maybe we can make things better for both of us~"

[BRANDON]
Brandon's own cloaking ritual completely fades out revealing the investigator wearing white fedora, tie, vest and pants and a black long sleeved shirt no longer as pristine as it would have been had he not been taken to the ground. He looks at the anthromorphic mouse with a frown on his face. His personal investigation was ruined by an outside influence.

"I guess there will be no business transaction here anymore."

It was the truth but not the whole truth. He needed to find out what the mouse's game was without revealing too much of his own situation. As far as he knew, the HitBit merchant was killed in the explosion or buyer for that matter. His eyes dart to the trashbag for just an instant before returning his attention to the mouse.

"How do you think you could make things mutually beneficial?"

[MOONDYNE]
"Sorry if I ruined your suit, by the way, not many men cut that kind of figure in an outfit like that," Moondyne grinned, but flicked a few bits of dust and debrus from her own armored chestplate and shrugged. "Not here now, can you follow?" Moondyne places a hand against the sill of a nearby window, taking hold of it as one of her long booted feet is placed against the wall beneath. With a flourish, the neighboring office building's window is pulled open and she pulls herself headfirst through, that black-wrapped package her tail is clutching disappearing along with her. Was /that/ what the criminal contacts had said was hidden here...?

"As for beneficial, well--I take it you're not someone who just came here by chance... and you probably weren't looking for weapons," Moondyne is standing in the doorway of the office building's dark chamber, which is partially lit by the fire outside, leaning against the door frame. She's got her arms crossed and a smirk on her face, showing mouse-like buck teeth over her lower lip, dangling the package in her tail down near her boots.

"Maybe I have what you want...?"

[BRANDON]
Ruined indeed however he could use his magic to restore his clothing once he had some time to sit down. Unfortunately, that time wasn't now. He sighed as he saw her hands go to the window sill and her feet below. He could already tell what was about to happen. However, thanks to the building not currently being owned he could technically follow her. It just wasn't his ideal mode of transport.

It was Brandon's turn and he pulls himself up before sliding one foot and then another through the window. He looks at the now dusty pants with a sigh as he notes yet another thing he's going to have to use a spell on to clean/fix.

"I'm not used to being the one receiving the Sherlock Holmes treatment."

His eyes glance towards that trashbag wrapped item.

"Perhaps. But what's in it for you?"

[MOONDYNE]
There came the sound of engines and sirens outside as they stood in the building just adjacent to the now ex-warehouse.

"Sorry if you're usually not into breaking and entering, but I did just save your life, I think," Moondyne shrugged. "And that depends, what might your interest be? those people in there were some pretty bad people, you know, maybe I should keep you safe by keeping you out of it..." she still grinned a little, those cute buck teeth showing.

"Or maybe you just want it that bad?" she teased. "What did you cover with your hand in that bag there when I jumped at you?" she raised a brow, her red visor sliding up from her eyes to rest on her forehead.

[BRANDON]
"This place doesn't belong to anyone anyway... Yet. It's due to be auctioned off soon."

He shrugs since it was the only way he would've been able to continued to follow this path. He continues to observe the mouse like humanoid(darkstalker?) He raises an eyebrow at the implication that he would need protection however he still lived in a world where he had been figuratively disassembled by someone like Juri.

"I had originally shown up to observe something specific change hands. With that being the only thing to come out that explosion I don't know if that was the item I needed to observe or if it got destroyed."

It's then that he sees her eyes go to the leather pouch as she asks the question about why he was guarding it. She really didn't know who he was. It was kind of refreshing considering he had made headlines in protest of specific technology as well as having a team make it to the 3rd place match in the King of Fighters, even if his role wasn't that big on said team.

"A deck of cards."

[MOONDYNE]
"Me? I don't really care either way, I go where I like," Mouse shrugs, their armored chestplate clicking against the vambrace's around their forearms. Come to think of it, it looked like her tail was some kind of long flexible cable, tipped with that device that was holding the package. She might give some 'tells' that she's more robotic in nature. Or maybe cyborg...?

"Is that all? hmm, you must be a good player if you carry a deck around with you... or maybe you're good at card tricks?" she opined, tilting her head. One of her long conical ears twitched a little, hearing people coming down the alleyway--police, firefighters? She lowered her voice in response.

"Well if you want more information... perhaps we can run into eachother again soon then, non?" she stood up from the door frame and began to step back into the darkness beyond it.

"Till next time, well-dressed man~" she seemed to be trying to re-stealth herself, too.

[BRANDON]
The tells, plus the cable was more than enough to make the arcane investigator to raise an eyebrow at the fact that he was dealing with a cyber creature with an energy signature. Robot with some type of chi-tek? Cyber darkstalker? He had no idea but between the fact that his surveillance target was now a crime-scene, his investigation was a wash due to a transaction never having an opportunity to take place, and the fact that he wasn't getting paid for this particular investigation, he pretty much had to cut his losses.

He goes out through a window away from the sounds of emergency vehicles and then glances towards the cyber mouse. He on the other hand wasn't trying to stealth himself since his ritual was used and he would need some time and privacy cast it before he could use it again. Time he didn't have right now.

A few blocks away from the explosion, he casts a couple of tiny spells that restored his clothing to pristine condition and he was on his way back to the hotel to rest before he had to head back to Metro City.

Log created on 20:30:34 06/20/2019 by Moondyne, and last modified on 00:30:04 06/21/2019.