Grave Robbing The Deep

After successfully defeating the evil pumpkins in Haunted Village and breaking the power of the Corlone family in Rose Garden, Victoria had taken a few days off to rejoice in defeating her nemesis Francesca Corlone the legal way. There was almost no possible way that the Corlones could ever recover from having their dealings in murder for hire and slave trading exposed for the public of Earthland to see in newspaper, on Lacrima television, and on the Lacrima net. There was no way that the crime family could ever garner public sympathy... at least Victoria hoped that was the case. She was sure that in between the police and rival crime organizations, Francesca and her father would not dare show their faces in public for a very long time, if ever.

Earlier today she had received an invitation from Haraka Omaras of West Fiore Trading Company to accompany them on a trip to Tolgalen. Looking for a chance to get back into action, Victoria eagerly accepted the invitation. She gained a respect for the mage during the job in the Cursed Lands, where they beat back an attack on Haunted Village made by pumpkins infused with magic and a taste for human flesh. Haraka was a mage dedicated to defending people who could not protect themselves. They also attempted to limit the property damage done to Haunted Village and its crops, something that gained the West Fiore Trading Company mage more of Victoria's respect.

Wearing her Azure Armor over a blue t-shirt with khaki cargo shorts and white tennis shoes, Victoria kept her Bandolier inside her backpack instead of draping it over her armor to avoid inciting panic among the citizens of Earthland. She would put on the Bandolier when she got to their destination. She did not have to worry nearly as much about the opinion of enemies as she did the opinion of the people she was trying to protect. She arrived on the docks of the Cloud Sea and found Haraka crouched down on the dock.

"Hey Haraka, are you OK?" Victoria asked the other mage. She was concerned about them because she recalled the story that Haraka had told her about how stratified the society the latter came from was. She remembered how Haraka's mother was barely tolerated despite being one of the few healers around and how his grandmother was disqualified from ever having a leadership position because of a simple physical defect. The situation reminded her of her unpleasant experiences with Capital Crocus' stratified society, but the undersea people were a lot worse than Capital Crocus ever was. At least Victoria could have become part of capital society, even maybe a social leader if she had enough money to be deemed tolerable to the aristocrats and wannabe aristocrats of Fiore's capitol.

Haraka's people were not nearly so tolerant. She only had to remember the stories of Haraka's mother and grandmother to get a quick reminder of that fact. Haraka was a good person in spite of what happened to his family... maybe the brunette could stand to learn a lesson or two from the other mage.

[Word Count: 523]

"Don't worry, Haraka. I'll travel with you wherever it is you're going." Victoria assured him. Haraka was a good guy who needed a helping hand with the pressing issue of going back to his family's home for the first time in ages. Going back to a place with so many powerful memories was not going to be easy for him and he clearly wanted at least one person by his side to help him through what was certain to be an unpleasant experience. When he said that they were going to go under the water, the brunette winced for a moment. She was not able to breath underwater without the aid of a scuba tank or rebreather.

"I'll go with you. However, I have one question before we set out, Haraka." Victoria said to him while holding up a finger. This next question was going to be important. It was so important that one could say that it was a make-or-break kind of thing. If Haraka did not have a means for her to breathe under the water, it would be a very short trip for the brunette.

"Do you have a way to help me breathe underwater?" Victoria asked Haraka. She was a mage with powerful magic and more than a little resourcefulness, but she was still dependent on breathing air in order to stay on the right side of the dirt. She hoped that Haraka would have a way to help landlubbers like her survive under the waves. Whether it was a spell that helped her breathe water for the duration of the trip, a spell that gave extended lung capacity, or a spell that gave her a "bubble" of air around her head, Victoria would take any help that Haraka could offer.

[Word Count: 302]
[Total Word Count: 825]

"Tips for calming down?" Victoria repeated the question. Perhaps Haraka would be better served asking someone else for that kind of information, but since she was the only one around, she would have to help him the best she could. She would have to think about her response and make sure that it was the right one for him. Normally Victoria did not really think about these sorts of things because she lived in the moment. She did not experience strong emotions very often, but when she did they tended to be intense but brief.

"Hmm..." Victoria hummed noncommittally because she honestly had no idea of what to tell him. After intense stuff a bit of alcohol helped, but there were three problems with that. First, she did not know if Haraka could safely drink human alcohol. Second, she did not know his stance on alcohol. Third, she did not even know what type he liked.

Using alcohol to calm down led to its own set of problems, problems that they did not need to risk running into at such an emotionally charged time for him. Alcohol might just make him angry at the worst time, so she needed to come up with another idea in a hurry. What could possibly help him right now?

"Normally I'd go for a long walk somewhere with no destination in mind. I'd walk and keep going until I calm down." Victoria suggested to him. Walking was what helped her get focused again after experiencing strong emotions, but that might not be the most practical idea underwater. Swimming was the next best thing... maybe Haraka had a place that he went to when things got too heavy to bear, somewhere not in the city.

"Uh, do you have a place that's not in the city that you could go to? You know, like an underwater garden, a coral reef, somewhere you go to get your focus back?" Victoria asked Haraka. She was at her wit's end on how to help the mage. Maybe her talking it through with him would help Haraka think of something other than what was stressing him. He needed to be in a good mental place before they ventured into the city so that they could work together to face whatever was down there.

[Word Count: 388]
[Total Word Count: 1,213]

Victoria watched as Haraka tried to coll down and focus on getting ready for the underwater trip. He was doing his best to mentally prepare himself but was not quite ready to take the plunge... figuratively speaking. She would wait for as long as needed because going back to a place full of memories like the ones Haraka described to her would not be easy. Victoria had the same feelings about Capital Crocus because of its hidebound aristocracy who thought that anyone not like them was barely tolerable at best and human refuse at worst. Victoria also did not have the emotional investment in Capital Crocus that Haraka did in his home city, so it was entirely reasonable that the West Fiore Trading Company mage would be a lot more upset about going to the underwater city than Victoria was about going to Crocus.

"Special food, drink, or places?" Victoria repeated the question. That was a good one because she had given it very little thought. There was very little that she would not eat and she would drink almost anything with alcohol at least once. Haraka wanted an answer, so she would give him one.

"Yeah, I have a special drink. Slatheron vodka. And I have a special place... a friend of my father owns a bar where I learned to mix and sling drinks as a side job." Victoria answered the question in an effort to give the other mage hope. She then thought of a question to ask Haraka before they went under the sea. She got to thinking and her mind turned to the question of whether there were any automated defenses they needed to worry about dealing with or avoiding.

"Hey Haraka, does your city have any kind of special defenses like magic barriers or automated weapons or sentry bots that we need to worry about?" Victoria asked him. She did not expect a warm welcome and a red carpet rolled out for them, but some receptions were more hostile than others. The Sabertooth mage wanted to know this kind of thing before showing up and getting a lot of gunshots, stab wounds, or other unwanted attention from the locals.

[Word Count: 365]
[Total Word Count: 1,578]

Victoria was not deterred by the possibility of seeing the sight of multiple dead bodies lying around. She had seen and heard someone starve to death in winter back in the bad old days of Capital Crocus. She had also witnessed the aftermath of a gang fight involving the use of switchblades... the area looked like an abstract artist had gone overboard with the red paint and had slung it and dripped it on the paving stones. The sight of death was far from new to her, but she appreciated the warning. It was also not an easy subject for Haraka to talk about, particularly since the dead bodies were his own people.

"I'll be fine, Haraka. I've seen plenty of death in my time in the bad part of Capital Crocus. Still, thanks for giving me a warning." Victoria assured Haraka that she would be OK with the sight of death. She was more worried about how her companion would feel about the sight. He seemed to be handling it well so far, but she was not sure how he would react once he was actually back in the city and among all the remains of his people. Victoria would be there to help the West Fiore Trading Company mage every step of the way through the city and do what she could to help him get through the visit.

"Are there any other defenses that we need to worry about besides that door? Did the city have any automated defenses like guns or robots?" Victoria asked Haraka for a little more information regarding the city they were going to visit. She was probably getting a little out there with her questions, but she was not sure exactly how advanced Haraka's civilization was. It might have been one of those advanced ones where robots were designed and in use long before people on the surface even thought about them.

[Word Count: 323]
[Total Word Count: 1,901]

Victoria listened to Haraka's answer concerning firearms and robots and was intrigued to hear that his father had attempted to introduce a magically charged hand cannon. However, the innovator's design was turned down for reasons that were unknown to the Sabertooth mage. Maybe the higher-ups of the undersea society feared that they would lose power if all the people they casually oppressed and treated like refuse got the hand cannons. Victoria's attention was diverted from that when Haraka cast a spell that enshrouded her in a bubble that allowed her to breathe water, though for how long she would enjoy that privilege she did not know. She did not get a chance to ask because Haraka soon dove beneath the sea and moved with an unnatural grace and speed.

The Sabertooth mage kept quiet and observed the sights that were under the ocean before they reached a dark area of ocean where the sun's light was unable to penetrate. The only light was provided by biolumenscent crustaceans and other bioluminescent lifeforms that patrolled the ocean floor on their rounds of doing whatever sea creatures did. Victoria noticed that Haraka's eyes looked about in the dark waters before darting to a what looked like a large crack in the ground and focusing on it. After a brief hesitation he soon dove into it and the pair found themselves in an area that looked like an endless expanse of white that stretched as far as the eye could see. She had never seen anything like this before, but she had never been this far under the ocean before either.

Victoria noticed that there were pale lifeforms that did not live on the normal ocean floor. They must have been unique to this area. She did not understand how they could live here, but here they were floating around the two mages. Oceanographers would likely give every Jewel they owned to get their hands on even one of the pale creatures for study. Victoria pushed that thought out of her mind and listened to her companion when he declared his intent to land near the capital city.

Once he had landed, Victoria was treated to the sight of a city that was obviously in decay but still possessed a certain splendor to it. However, Haraka was nowhere near as enamored by the sight as she was. Victoria turned from him and back to the city.

The city was coated in a low hanging red fog-like miasma that had enveloped it; the city looked large for its age but had no skyscrapers like comparable land-based cities. The roads in the city were tiles made of a strange pure white metal that she had never seen before. Many of them had been crushed or cracked thousands of years ago, but some still remained in good shape. The roads were lined with tall street lamps much like the ones that dotted land-based cities and the ones that were not broken somehow still produced light, something which was both amazing and eerie.

Victoria's attention was diverted from strange splendor of the city to Haraka's question about the weather and if she was okay with it. Victoria had braved the cold before when she had worked with Vinn Cobalt, Masha Dymonrel, Imai, and that strange Sara chick to stop Santa's invasion of Silent Glaciers. She had also braved the cold alongside Sassi Luminosa when they ventured into the cave to retrieve some moss on behalf of a scientist. Still, she was grateful that the West Fiore Trading Company mage was concerned about her.

"I'm OK, thanks. How about you?" Victoria asked Haraka how he was doing now that they were close to their destination. He did not seem too happy to be here. He was a brave guy simply for coming this far; she would help him go the rest of the way and would help him against the group that left behind the red miasma as well as help him get through the issues that came with returning to the city where he had experienced so many strong emotions.

[Word Count: 695]
[Total Word Count: 2,596]

"Oh." That simple statement was all that Victoria could reasonably say to Haraka's lengthy and detailed statement about his well-being. She was especially alarmed when he told the story of a group of strangers coming in and wrecking the place just because their leader got angry. That sounded like a lot of the bored rich kids who went to the bad side of Capital Crocus in packs. Far from being hapless travelers who got lost on the way home from the bar, these guys came looking for trouble. They went to Victoria's neighborhood to alleviate their boredom by picking fights with the homeless and wrecking what little shelter the poor people had, which was not saying a whole lot.

A sense of entitlement as big as Capital Crocus and being unaccustomed to someone telling them "No" led to a lot of tragedy in the bad part of town. It was not uncommon for hapless vagrants to be found after having been beaten into unconsciousness or be found with multiple bite marks from the dogs that some rich sadists set loose on them for cheap laughs. Victoria herself had to run for her life from a pack of Dobermans a rich girl set loose on her after the latter decided that the typical insults about Victoria's old clothing and infrequent bathing were not sufficient insult for the crime of being born poor. Those were days that the brunette would rather forget. She focused on Haraka and tried to assure him that everything would be OK... or about as OK as they could get considering the circumstances.

Haraka went from being barely in control to openly crying when he had dropped a box that was of special significance to him. She did not dare touch it because she did not want to make a bad situation worse, particularly when the entire point of her being here was to support him. Instead she opted to try and talk to him. She thought that she had spotted a small dot in the distance but could not make out what it was because she was preoccupied with trying to help Haraka recover from his latest emotional spike.

"What can I do to help you?" Victoria asked him. If there was something she needed to avoid saying or doing to stay on his good side, now would be a good time for him to tell her. Maybe he did not want her going in the buildings without him with her. Maybe he wanted her to avoid touching anything inside the buildings. Considering that his hometown was a graveyard for his people, any prohibitions Haraka set in place would be entirely understandable.

[Word Count: 449]
[Total Word Count: 3,045]

Victoria had spaced out somewhere down the road and that would make her look bad. Haraka had apologized for the lengthy conversation and apologized for seeming like he was haranguing her. The brunette was not upset at all... rather, she owed him an apology for spacing out like she had. Victoria decided to let the matter drop and instead went over everything he had said to her about his reservations in coming here and how he wanted to deal with the grave robbers.

Haraka had explicitly stated that he wanted them taken alive, so she would have to employ non-lethal measures for this job. Fortunately she had Taser Spark, a Grenade Launcher that could fire tear gas and bean bag rounds, and a Tranquilizer Rifle that she could use with little fear of accidentally killing their quarry. Since they were in an underwater city that had once been home to Haraka's people and was now effectively a cemetery, Victoria would refrain from using the heavier weapons unless Haraka gave her permission to shoot to kill.

"OK, Haraka. I'll try to take them alive if I can. If we need to get more violent, just tell me." Victoria assured her host and companion that she was not going to turn the place into a shooting gallery unless it became absolutely necessary to use lethal force. She then recalled him telling her the path that they would be taking to their destination. When asked if she had any ideas on what to do and how to go after the grave robbers, the brunette turned to him and spoke.

"I don't have any idea where we're going, so I'll follow your lead, Haraka." Victoria gave her answer on the first part of the question. This was her very first time ever going into an underwater city, so she had no idea what to do or where to go. Victoria would follow the West Fiore Trading Company mage's lead on this adventure because he used to live here... a long time ago, but the point remained that he had once lived here and thus knew his way around here a lot better than she did.

"If you're willing to try and take the grave robbers alive, Haraka, I will too. Just be careful. They don't want any witnesses and might try to kill us." Victoria warned Haraka of the risk but otherwise consented to his idea to capture the grave robbers alive so that they would face justice of the legal sort and not the extralegal variety. She would do everything she could to follow his plan but warned him that they might have to use deadly force in the course of this exploration. Victoria grew up in rough circumstances and was perhaps a bit more comfortable with lethal force than a Legal mage should be.

"I'm ready to go when you are, Haraka. I'll follow your lead. You tell me where to go and what to do." Victoria assured the West Fiore Trading Company mage that she would defer to him and follow him.

[Word Count: 522]
[Victoria's Word Count: 3,567]

"So they'll kill themselves if they can't kill us?" Victoria asked aloud as she followed Haraka further down the path at a brisk walk. The concept of grave robbers killing themselves to avoid capture was a new one to the brunette. She had never dealt with grave robbers before today, but she had assumed that bandits of that kind prioritized their survival above all else because dead men could not cash in on centuries-old finds. The fact that they were willing to commit suicide must have meant that there were severe punishments for grave robbers, punishments that were harsher than any on the surface.

Before she could get an answer Haraka broke into a full run towards the castle, leaving Victoria in the dust. The Sabertooth mage recalled what he had said about taking them alive and mentally cycled through her arsenal to come up with the best weapon to use for this situation. She could choose from a Grenade Launcher with tear gas and bean bag rounds, a Taser Spark spell, and a Tranquilizer Rifle. Each item had their own strengths and weaknesses.

The Grenade Launcher offered the versatility to target either individuals with bean bag rounds or to suppress crowds with tear gas grenades. There was no wind down here, so she did not have to worry about it blowing back in their faces. However, it could still drift back towards them and be pushed towards them if any of the enemies were Wind mages.

The Taser Spark spell was good for fighting individuals and could fire quickly. It also did not need a weapon to be used. However, it affected only one target at a time and could not be used for crowd control. She was also worried about hurting herself since water and electricity did not mix.

The Tranquilizer Rifle offered range and power, allowing her to non-lethally incapacitate enemies from afar. However, it was good only at range because sniper rifles made poor close-quarters weapons due to the length of the barrel. They were also a bit slow to fire unless they were semi-automatic, which Victoria's Tranquilize Rifle was.

The brunette had not yet made a choice about what weapon to employ because she was still trying to catch up to Haraka. He could move really fast for a guy who was so distressed... maybe the adrenaline being produced by his distress made him run faster than she could. Maybe he was simply taller and the length of his legs helped... anyway, she had to catch up to him before he went too far by himself.

Victoria skidded to a stop when she saw a gun-wielding man in dark clothing barring the way up ahead. Why was he not hiding? It was liked he wanted to be seen or something.

Victoria resumed running and after a lot of effort caught up with Haraka a medium distance away from the man. Something was not right and she needed to warn him. This felt like an ambush in the making. But where were the other people? That man in dark clothing did not come down here alone and if anyone tried to tell her otherwise, she had beachfront property in the Cursed Lands to sell them.

The brunette looked around and focused on her surroundings. She made out eight faint distortions against the white background nearby and her stomach turned a flip when she put two and two together. The enemies were using a special type of optical camouflage to hide out in the open!

"Haraka! We've got cloaked enemies around us!" Victoria warned the West Fiore Trading Company mage of the lurking threat. Now that they knew the jig was up they should break camouflage soon. If they could attack and maintain the camouflage maybe Haraka had a spell that could make them stand out.

[Word Count: 650]
[Victoria's Word Count: 4,217]

Victoria brought out her Grenade Launcher as Haraka cast a spell that did not directly attack enemies but rather made them easier to see, which worked just as well for her and showed the ability to think on his feet. The enemies were spoiling for a fight and confident in their chances to kill the two mages. Unfortunately for them, the Sabertooth mage was not going to lay down and die without putting up a fight. She showed one of them the hard way when he rushed at her with knife at the ready. He expected her to give ground when he charged, but she stayed where she was and fired a Bean Bag Round that hit him squarely in the stomach when he was halfway to her, making him fling the weapon at her feet and double over in pain.

Victoria took advantage of the opening she had created and hit the enemy in the face with the stock of her Grenade Launcher, then hit him in the face again for the knockout. With that enemy down she turned her attention to a group that was hammering Haraka without mercy. Her companion had already taken a stab to the back and the foes surrounding him were ready to dish out more pain to the hapless mage, who was releasing a cloud of cold and snow in an effort to buy himself some breathing room to take the offensive. The Sabertooth mage would do her best to give him some breathing room by drawing away a few of the enemies currently surrounding him.

Victoria aimed her Grenade Launcher and fired a Bean Bag round at the head of one of the men, hitting him in the side of his head and drawing the attention of him and two others wielding knives. Three was not the number she was hoping to draw away from her companion, but it was all she was getting, so she would just have to deal with them and hope that Haraka could deal with the rest.

"Get her!" One of the men ordered. The man she had hit and two accomplices peeled off from the main group to go after Victoria. Victoria stood her ground and readied another Bean Bag round, remembering Haraka's directive to take the men alive. She aimed and fired at the man she had already hit, hitting him in the face and knocking him out when he fell flat on his back. The other two men kept charging and managed to close the distance with Victoria before she could fire again.

One of them punched her in the face and the other snatched away her weapon, which she promptly dispelled to keep from being used against her or Haraka. The surprised man who held the launcher was stunned long enough for her to punch him in the face and knock him on his back. The other man grabbed her by the shoulders from behind and threw her to the ground... it was her turn to land on her back. He then advanced on her with knife in hand but was met with a Taser Spark that connected with his chest and caused him to scream while twitching violently.

Victoria scrambled to her feet and followed up with two punches to the stomach and one to the face, the final punch being the knockout blow on him. The third man had gotten up and now faced her with weapon in hand, but she was ready. He rushed at her and she stood her ground until he got close enough to slash her, upon which she fired another Taser Spark that had the same effect on him as it did on his colleague. He paused in place, then fell face-first to the ground and twitched helplessly until a swift kick to the face knocked him out. Mindful of Haraka's warning that they would kill themselves to avoid capture, Victoria hurriedly collected the weapons of the four mean she had just defeated and threw them far away from the fighting.

Once that was done Victoria had to find a way to help Haraka. She could heal him, but she did not want one of the grave-robbers to catch the healing spell in mid-flight, so that would have to wait. She would have to help him get rid of the men surrounding him first.

"Hang on, Haraka!" Victoria called out to him as she tried to decide what weapon to employ next. Perhaps her Tranquilizer Rifle would be a good fit for the situation. She could use it to pick off the men one-by-one, but they might grab Haraka and use him as a shield from the darts. This was an interesting conundrum and one that she would have to solve quickly.

[Word Count: 803]
[Victoria's Word Count: 5,020]

Victoria took a brief break from her fight against the poachers to watch Haraka concentrate and somehow pull a lantern out of his chest before suddenly shifting into a more aggressive attitude. Haraka became the epicenter of a flurry of activity that saw three of the men knocked to the ground and Haraka break away from them before the remaining opponents could respond. That gave Victoria the opening she needed to give the enemies an incentive to not chase them... for a good few seconds, at least.

Victoria put her right hand behind her back and created a Flashbang, then threw it in an arc and watched it clatter right in the middle of the cluster. Moments later it went off with a flash that drew a chorus of wailing and screaming. The men were covering their eyes, which gave Haraka a few more seconds to get to safety and gave Victoria a few more seconds to decide what less-than-lethal weapon or spell to employ next. If she knew that they did not have any Wind mages among them she would have already fired a Tear Gas grenade to slow them down even further.

Haraka had mentioned something about an organization and that he had not said anything before because he believed that Victoria possessing knowledge of it would put her in danger. He also promised that if they got out of this hazardous mission alive that he would tell her about the organization. Victoria was not concerned about the organization right now... she just wanted to get Haraka through this alive.

"It's OK, Haraka. But let's get through this first before we discuss the organization you're talking about, all right?" Victoria calmly requested of Haraka. She saw that the six men were beginning to get over the effects of her Flashbang and that they were pretty mad about what had just happened. They were looking for revenge, so it would be prudent of the two mages to put some distance between them and the gun-wielding enemies... or go on the offensive and knock them out so that Haraka could ask questions about their poaching activities.

"Um, Haraka... they're coming after us and they're looking pretty pissed." Victoria said as the six men fully recovered and began to run towards them. Maybe Haraka had a plan to get them out of this mess. She was sure that he had a few spells that he was saving for just the right occasion... judging from the angry men, she was also sure that the pair of mages would need them.

[Word Count: 436]
[Victoria's Word Count: 5,456]

Seeing Haraka make a stand against the poachers inspired Victoria to return to the fray with a shift in momentum that allowed her to make an abrupt U-turn. She used the speed generated to hurry back to Haraka's side and subdue a few of the men attempting to get free and kill Haraka before he could incapacitate them all. Victoria grabbed the hands of one man, but he quickly got his hands free and slugged her across the face with a solid right cross that staggered her. The man laughed at the ease with which he had staggered the lightweight mage.

"OK asshole. If you wanna play rough, I can play rough too." Victoria replied to the laughing enemy while her left hand clutched her injured face. Her dwindling patience with these goons was now officially gone. It was time to let her fists do the talking, which was what she did best anyway. Victoria strode over to him with the intent to teach him a lesson that he would not soon forget... when he woke up, anyway. She did not expect him to remember anything after she landed a few punches.

Victoria stepped into the punch and blocked it with her left forearm, then hit back with her right hand. Her punch to the face made him fall back and almost out of Haraka's spell that kept him in place. Once he recovered enough to stand upright he looked startled that someone so lightweight could hit so hard. Victoria tended to surprise people that underestimated her based on looks alone... her magic played a big part in letting her punch way above her weight class.

Before he could fully recover she swung again and hit him in the face again, sending him swaying backwards like a punching bag at the gym before he popped up again ready for another fist to the face. Victoria obliged and hit him again, repeating the process of falling back and popping up for a third time. The third time was a charm because this time he was unconscious and no longer a threat to her or Haraka. Unfortunately for her another threat soon popped up when a man close to Haraka drew a knife from his boot and was prepared to use it.

Victoria jumped in front of him and hammered the offender with a left-right combination from her fists, making him drop the knife before he could use it on her companion. A third hit to the face and he was out like a light. Victoria stepped back and kept a close watch on the others in case another one wanted to challenge her or Haraka to a fight.

[Word Count: 451]
[Victoria's Word Count: 5,907]