Off to market (Nicky)

[Anonymous]

102379 crawled over. The other mage had pushed himself past his limits. He placed a boney hand over the mage's forehead, he was still alive but was incredibly warm. The creature was badly wounded, he needed to help him. He pushed asside his heavy cloak and tore several strips of cloth from the bottom of his shift (something that looks like a hessian bag only made of cloth). He looked at the mage, may I set your wing?

102379 gripped his shift and clenched his eyes, trying to fight the dizzyness that would have him pass out. He needed his master, he needed help, he needed medical attention.

[Anonymous]

Tend yourself first. The wing will wait. It is not fatal He stated mentally. His voice seemed fainter as if he didn't have as much power behind the communications. You go through much trouble to deliver me alive Unlike traditional vampires, he was not exactly dead or undead. He lived, his heart beat, his brain waved, he had a pulse...usually. However, like traditional vamps, he was difficult to kill-- more so than traditional vampires. Garlic was tasty, no holy anything repelled him, a stake through the heart was only temporarily effective. He suspected decapitation would work, but he'd never tried it. The Kalicrate blood was strong. When do you think your master will arrive?

[Anonymous]

There is nothing I can do for myself. I only wanted to make you more comfortable. He hung his head lower, almost bowing to the other mage. He felt ashamed for caring about the mage. It was not his duty and later it would have be frowned upon; his master might even use it as an excuse to have him exchanged.

He lowered himself completely to the ground and curled up. If you do not want my help I will not waste my energy. He refused to close his eyes, his master might appear at any moment or the mage might try to escape. Both outcomes would be seen as disobedience. I have been trying to contact him but have found nothing. I don't know what to do. He tried to cover his dismay but his mind was too tired to protect itself.

He looked at his hands: his master had cuty deeply into them when he had hacked at the other mage's back and had been burnt when the mage had created magma to preotect his back. Now, there was no skin left up to his biceps. He wrapped them with the strips of cloth. How is your back? Do yuo want water? He doubted he could conjure much water but he doubted the other mage would be able to last much longer.

[Anonymous]

My back He paused. Somehow he had managed to forget about his back. He reached back. The cut was deep, the spine was exposed, but the spine was once again in one piece. He flexed his feet and they responded. it is healing he said, eyeing the mage's arms. will someone be able to heal you? Vulcan asked. As much as he tried to deny it, he did care about others and considering that most of the damage on the mage's arms was because of him, he was a little more concerned than usual.

[Anonymous]

There are healing mages at the base. He closed his eyes and tried to focus, his vision was beginning to spin. He must not fall asleep, he must remain concious.

There was the sound of footfalls so 102379 opened his eyes. His master was there, how was that possible? He had not felt anything across the mind-link.
I could hear your thoughts miles away.
102379 looked to the ground, his thoughts had been shameful, I'm sorry master.
Filthy animal. Get up!
102379 rolled onto his knees and tried to stand, only managing to fall to the earth again. He clenched his eyes and tried again with the same results. The captain came over to him and glared down at him. Pain flew across the mind-link.

Pain, that was all he felt. His mind was ripped apart, the pain flowing into any part of his mind. He felt nothing else, could not smell or see anything. He could only feel the agony of his mind being mutilated and his master's mind voice harassing him.

Outside his mind he could feel nothing. To him there was nothing but the force destroying his mind. His body arched and wreathed as every muscle in his body clenched. He was shreiking and his eyes rolled into his head. Blood exploded from his nose as the energy got too much for his blood vessels. Next his gums and ears began bleeding and the whites of his eyes went red. Last, he began bleeding from where the screws held the headband in place. But he was not aware of any of this. He was ubable to sense anything other than the assault on his mind, which his master refused to lift.

[Anonymous]

There are healing mages at the base. He closed his eyes and tried to focus, his vision was beginning to spin. He must not fall asleep, he must remain concious.

There was the sound of footfalls so 102379 opened his eyes. His master was there, how was that possible? He had not felt anything across the mind-link.
I could hear your thoughts miles away.
102379 looked to the ground, his thoughts had been shameful, I'm sorry master.
Filthy animal. Get up!
102379 rolled onto his knees and tried to stand, only managing to fall to the earth again. He clenched his eyes and tried again with the same results. The captain came over to him and glared down at him. Pain flew across the mind-link.

Pain, that was all he felt. His mind was ripped apart, the pain flowing into any part of his mind. He felt nothing else, could not smell or see anything. He could only feel the agony of his mind being mutilated and his master's mind voice harassing him.

Outside his mind he could feel nothing. To him there was nothing but the force destroying his mind. His body arched and wreathed as every muscle in his body clenched. He was shreiking and his eyes rolled into his head. Blood exploded from his nose as the energy got too much for his blood vessels. Next his gums and ears began bleeding and the whites of his eyes went red. Last, he began bleeding from where the screws held the headband in place. But he was not aware of any of this. He was ubable to sense anything other than the assault on his mind, which his master refused to lift.

[Anonymous]

"What are you doing?" Vulcan asked sharply, gathering his strength from deep inside himself, though he hardly moved from his rather limp position on the ground. "He just about died trying to keep me from leaving at your orders. Here I am even now, stuck here with a creature like yourself, and yet you torture him for what? For his obedience? You may demand perfection, but your punishment for details is harsh. How do you expect to have a good mage if you kill them or their brains before they have a chance to learn properly?" He pointed out.

[Anonymous]

Captain Kaenos glanced down at the rogue mage and let his assault on 102379 lapse. 102379 gave a gasp for air and fell unconcious. He had overexerted himself.

'Silence mage. I told that creature to stay, he did not obey. I told him hold you, he did not obey. He did not return after he left and he did not bring you back,' the captain looked down at 102379 is disgust. 'He has had 17 years to learn obedience and still he does not comply.'

[Anonymous]

"He held onto me to the point that he crash landed with me" Vulcan stated coldly. "How is he supposed to stay when I pick him up and fly away?" Vulcan pointed out. This seemed like a lot of trouble to go through to get a creature you didn't like in the first place.

[Anonymous]

'He should not have let you fly off in the first place. He is a mage, he should have used his abilities to ground you,' the Captain snarled.

He eyed both the mages in disgust before pressing a button on his headband that acted as a phone, 'I've got them. Request backup to bring them in.' He went over to 102379 and tapped him with a foot. The mage was still out cold. Wake up, now. 102379 opened his eyes, gasped and fell unconscious once more. 'Filthy creature.'

[Anonymous]

Vulcan eyed the 'master' with open disgust. He had always hated people who held themselves as 'better' for whatever reason. People were people, just because one was rich and the other had been evicted to the streets did not make a difference. There were good people who lived in the streets, and there were horrible rich people and visa versa.

His wing snapped as the last bone aligned. He was trying to develop a plan. It would be harder to escape from TRIM than it would be to escape from this bozo, but he simply did not have the strength to get up yet. Healing took a lot of power, and he needed to feed. He eyed the Captain's neck thoughtfully. True he had already taken quite a bit out of him, but Vulcan wouldn't be all that upset to cause the demise of this particular man. "So now that you've caught me, and tortured your slave for catching me, now what?"

[Anonymous]

'Backup is coming to take you and that filth,' he nodded towards 102379, 'away.'
The Captain looked over 102379's body, GET UP! The order was sharper this time but the results were still the same. He kept an eye on the rogue mage while forcing more power across the link. He would have his mage awake before the other mordacai came.

102379's mind was in turmoil. Everything was black and creatures were seething around his broken thoughts. He cowered from them but they kept coming for him, leering at him and flashing their off-black teeth. These demons, these broken thoughts and pain, grasped him. The inside of his mind screamed as they began assaulting him once more.

GET UP! The violent order ripped through his thoughts right down to his core. He rose to conciousness and gasped. He was lying on his back still. The pain returned and he screamed. Congealed blood spluttered from his mouth and onto his face and made the scream sound like a gargle. Every single muscle in his body was on fire and he could not see. There was blood in his eyes where the original assault had ruptured blood vessels and turned his eyes red. There was blood coming from his nose, mouth, ears and skull where the screws held the headband in place.

[Anonymous]

Vulcan fingered the ground, gathering a handful of rock and dirt and letting it melt in his hands before flinging the now molten rock at the captain. "Hey, leave him alone." Vulcan said. "If they're going to take us away, then take us away, but whatever it is you're doing is only going to make him spurt blood out of who knows where, he's not able to do whatever it is you command of him when he's flat on his back, bleeding" He could smell it. He wanted it. "into his eyes, out of his ears, drowning in his own fluids. Or are you really stupid enough to think that if you torture a person enough, they'll be able to get up and do you bidding. Oh, or perhaps you'd prefer a zombie legion. They're already dead. Leave their heads attatched, if I remember correctly, and you can do just about whatever you want to them and they won't die. Sounds like the perfect companion for you."

[Anonymous]

Captain Kaenos roared in anger and pain. He reached for his gun before realising it was in maintainance. He walked over to the lava mage and kicked him in the jaw. He punctuated his words with a cruel kick to some part of the body, 'NEVER - USE - MAGIC - OR - HARM - A - HUMAN!' He glared at the mage and hoped that he had broken at least some bones. His eyes narrowed when he noticed the healing that had already begun on other part of the body. This could get interesting. He stepped back, wrapped his hand in his sleeve and pulled the solidifying lava from his face. His face twitched with pain but he did not call out.

'Shut up, you filthy creature!' 102379's gurgling screams were getting annoying. He turned back to the lava mage, that loathsome creature that had burnt his face, 'I am not doing anything to him. If he is screaming it is through his own actions.'
________
102379 was not in control of his body though. The muscle contortions he had endured had left him paralysed in the arms and lower body. His eyes roved around, trying to see thought the blood and his ears were too full of blood to hear anything but his own screaming. SILENCE! The order cut through his mind. It took a while for him to comprehend what had happened but when he did, he tried silence his screaming. It dropped to a loud, high pitched whimper.

[Anonymous]

"You're not human" Vulcan retorted, spitting blood. He eyed the tooth on the ground. It was one of his incisors. One of his fangs. Damn it. It would grow back, but until then, it annoyed him a great deal and it only made him mad. "Now leave him alone" Vulcan toyed with a rock, slowly sitting up, or trying to. His shoulder was still out of sorts as the healing seemed to have started in the wing, and the kicks had cracked a number of his ribs which made moving difficult and painful.

He set his gaze upon the Captain as if he could read every thought in his mind. Maybe he could. Vampires were known for such things. Was he a vampire? Not exactly. Did he have vampire characteristics and skills? Most definately. "Your friends seem to have abandoned you." He finally commented. 'Backup' was taking a very long time indeed. He sure hoped he never required backup. He'd be dead long before they even showed up. He'd probably have died and come back and started cleaning before they showed up.

[Anonymous]

As the blood from his ears slowly stopped coming, 102379 became aware of what was happenning around him. He heard his master say that mages could not properly judge anything for they had weaker thought processing. 102379 silently agreed. He turned his head slightly, only for the muscles to jar again and set off his screaming. He tried moving his fingers but they did not move, all that happenned was stabbing pain shot up his burnt arms. He had to help his master, he had to secure the other mage, he had to surpress its powers. He sent a weak message across the mind link, what do you wish of me, Master?
Surpess its powers.
102379 sent all of the power he had built up towards the mage. He doubted it would work but he had to try. He must obey, he must not fail. Using his powers sent a dull, throbbing pain through his head and mind, he knew it would get worse the harder he tried but he kept going.

Captain Kaenos came closer to the other mage and looked into its eyes, trying to decide if the creature was subdued enough to touch. How could he punish this creature without it harming him? 102379 had proven itself next to useless. Hopefully he would be able to claim the new mage instead.
Kaenos decided that he would attack the creature once more; if it attempted to defend itself he would consider it hostile and he would knock it out first. He slammed his foot towards the creatures groin and hoped it would penetrate deep into the creature's abdomen. He kept the creature's face and body within his vision to spot any sign of magic.

[Anonymous]

What need did he have for magic at close range? Vulcan shot a foot up and across to protect himself and knock the foot off course. If he aimed correctly, and the captain had nothing more than human reflexes, he could very easily come down over the kneecap and if not cause damage, at least cause pain.

It all happened much more quickly than usual and hostile was quite an accurate description of Vulcan. He did not take kindly to people who tried to beat him up, or picked mercilessly on semi-helpless and/or brainwashed creatures.

"You're going to get yourself seriously hurt" Vulcan stated as if it was a simple fact, nothing more out of the ordinary than stating the day of the week. And if he kept it up, Vulcan was really going to enjoy being the one to seriously hurt him. As it was, he smelled quite tasty.

[Anonymous]

Kaenos saw the leg but did not have time to move away entirely, he ended up with a sore leg. He would have a large bruise on his shin in the morning. He spat down at the creature. Filthy creature. He would take great pleasure in either watching or doing this creature's preparation into the military. Right now, what he needed was to stop the thing being able to fight back. 102379 was useless, it didn't have enough energy to do anything.

Kaenos considered his options: the creature was obviously stronger than him and would heal shortly. Without the use of his mage, Kaenos would not be able to hold the creature down for long. The backup was taking its time too. How long would it be before either mage healed enough to fight? What he needed was a metal pole or something to scewer the rogue mage with or some long distance weopon. His own weopons were being fixed and tuned, he had been relying primarily on the fact that most uncontrolled mages steared clear of the Mordacai and military.

You, hold him. Stop him from getting up. He ordered across the mind-link before going to search for something to use as a weopon. He doubted the mage's abilities but if anything happened, 102379 would be held accountable.

102379 tried to stop whimperring and focused on the other mage. He could not tell if his magic was doing anything but he could feel it throbbing up into his mind. It should be going to the mage, not into his mind. What was happenning, could it be that the magic was trying to heal him? He had no healing abilities and even if he did, using it here would be disobedience. The headband began humming, throbbing in time to his magic.

He fought for control and made the magic go back towards the other mage. With any luck the mage would feel weakened, both physically and magically.

The magic started to run out again, he hadn't had much in the first place. M-m-master. It's fading. His mind-voice was weak and trembling with fear. He was failing his duties again. When they returned to the base he would already be punnished severely. He sent another thought through his mind in hope the other mage was still in there, please. Please... Please what? Please take the punishment you deserve?
The mage had already expressed that it didn't believe itself inferior. Perhaps he could entomb the creature or scewer it?

The throbbing magic faded. He would only have enough to hold the mage a few more seconds anyway, an earth spike was the best option. 102379 forced the final dregs of power into creating a long, sharp spike of earth that would pierce the mage through the abdomen. He infused it with his own lifeforce in hope it would be more accurate and larger. If it pierced the intestines or colin the creature would die.

102379 began convulsing, the throbbing in his mind intensified. It was not his master doing this, it was his own body fighting against itslef, fighting against the magic he had been using and fighting against his very existance. Help me, he hadn't sent it across the mind-link: the thought had just passed through his mind from some tortured memory. His lungs wouldn't fill, the muscles controlling them contracted painfully until bronchial fluid filled his mouth. Help me.

[Anonymous]

Vulcan gulped as the spike pierced him, but he managed to heat it as it went through his body to seal the wound. He couldn't seem to breath himself, but not breathing wouldn't really kill him, at least not nearly as fast as a normal human. Gathering some strength, he melted the base of the spike to allow himself to try to tumble his way over to 102379 Give me your hand Vulcan said forcefully. His tone was almost hard to argue with. He wasn't going to let this creature die on his account, at least not like this. It had been a very long time since he had healed anyone, but there was no reason he shouldn't be able to do it-- other than maybe it might kill him, but that was only a temporary set back.

His body was shaking horribly. He definately wasn't getting up and running any time soon. He could probably melt the spike though his middle, but that took too much energy and power and wasn't worth the time just at the moment. Later, when he had a chance to feed, maybe, though by then, he'd probably be an experiment once again and they'd be wiggling it around and measuring how much pain they could cause or some other such nonsense.

He was dizzy and quite likely to go into shock, but maybe he could heal the mage before he collapsed. There was no way he was going to manage to heal himself before he collapsed, but his body would work on that after the fact, dead or alive. When I die, pull this thing out of me. Vulcan requested If they haven't taken me already It could be melted, but if his body didn't have to waste stores melting rocks, it was better.

((Sorry for the delay, my muse went on strike and I couldn't think of a thing to reply with))

[Anonymous]

102379 forced himself to obey the command. The muscles in his arm screamed with the movement but he was able to brush his burnt fingers against the other mage. he wrapped his hand around one of the mage's fingers. What do you wish me to do? The mental assault on his mind had confused him to the point where he would obey anyone. He could not tell truly who was his master and could not notice that the voice was not coming through the mind-link.

When I die, pull this thing out of me. Vulcan requested If they haven't taken me already
It didn't sound like an order. What should he do? ... Die? He was not allowed to let his charge die. The mage was going to die and it was his fault. He had to get the rock out, he had to help the mage, he had to stop his charge dying. He had to... he forced himself to inch closer to the mage. He still couldn't breathe and his muscles were still convulsing but he pushed his body anyway. He didn't manage to move far however, only enough to place his whole palm in the mage's.

OOC: the backup will be coming in the next post, along with the captain coming back.