Tomb Raiders (Private: Pericles, Augustus, and Phlox)

[Pericles Herodotus Ozymandias]

Pericles hobbled along with August's help, his body weak from asphyxiation. Using what little strength he had, Pericles turned to look at August as they walked, "Date... Subjects..?" Pericles coughed slightly as he spoke, his voice a hoarse whisper, "I'm not that delirious." As if to punctuate his point, Pericles coughed a bit harder, "Though, to be honest, I'm kind of liking what you have to say, so keep at it, how many temples are there in honor of my dynasty?" Pericles tried to laugh, but instead only winced in pain.

"My lapel, if you would please." Pericles finally called, nodding his head towards his shirt pocket, where he kept a back-up inhaler. Looking at the artifact in his hands, Pericles hummed, "Well done detective. Perhaps I should hire you for curating a Vale museum on behalf of my family. You-cough certainly have an eye for artifacts and how to keep them safe."

Meanwhile, hiding behind a display case, a certain museum owner by the name of Aldric Wellsforth, family emerged now that all of the fighting seemed to have finished. When he'd initially accepted the pirate's offer to use his museum as a staging ground for the attack and frame it as though the pirates were holding him hostage, he'd been dubious but optimistic. The Lien they'd offered alongside the chance to get one over on a Faunus who thought himself smart enough to even spell the world archeology was too good to pass up. Even if he did have to work with a Faunus to do so. At least she knew her place in society like all Faunus should, thieves and criminals.

Then, it had all gone to shit when he'd lost his temper with that uppity lion Faunus, and at this rate the next time he'd see his museum would be in evidence photos before a court. Spotting Phlox, weak and trying to walk away with the body of his unlikely associate, Aldric made a decision he'd never thought he'd ever make... Saving a Faunus. Picking up a discarded weapon from the floor, he quickly took aim and sent a burst of shots towards Phlox and charging at him to swing the rifle down on Phlox's head.

[August Valerian]

August let out a low chuckle, shaking his head slightly, a small smirk touching his lips. "How many temples in honour of your dynasty? Hrmmm..? Let's see... Five, maybe six?" August reached up to Pericles' lapel, withdrawing the inhaler found there. He gave it a quick look before pressing it into Pericles' hand. He shifted his weight slightly as he listened to Pericles praise him, slightly uncomfortable with the praise and yet it wasn't unwelcome. He gave the young man a bashful smile upon hearing about having an eye for artifacts. "Ah well, how do I put this...? You see Pride I-"

A muffled gun shot echoed out the door, August's ears twisting to focus and his eyes a following suit moment later. He placed a hand on Pericles's shoulder without looking at him and spoke out in a low tone. "Stay here." He bolts back into the building, searching with both his eyes and ears, searching for any sign of where that gun shot came from. A wordless yell reached his ears along with the sounds of running feet. August darted forwards, back through the main room and down another corridor where he could see Phlox and the museum director struggling against each other, though it seemed to him that Phlox was running on fumes at this point. He charged forth into the fray, tackling the director away from Phlox and tumbling to the floor, arms and legs entangled with each other. The director struggled against August, landing a glancing blow across his cheek, the gun laying pinned between the struggling men.

After several seconds of struggling, August managed to pin the now panting director. "Oooh boy, you're a real piece of work aren't cha'? Now lets see, I should have a spare pair of cuffs somewhere around... Ah here they are!" August summoned a pair of cuffs from his storage and one wrist at a time secured the director. With the director's arms secured, August looked over to Phlox. "Hey Silence, need a hand?"

[Phlox Fessenden]

The first bullet, Phlox was lucky when it missed, hitting a nearby painting. The second bullet, however, struck him directly in the shoulder. Though his leather trenchcoat did stop the bullet from actually piercing him thoroughly, just halfway through the shoulder, the impact still knocked him to the ground, causing him to drop the leg of his victim, lean over on one of the pillars there, and slowly slide down to the floor. As he lay there, clutching his injured shoulder with his glass shard hand, Phlox cursed himself for not being more careful. Then he saw someone, he guessed, whose small flicker of flame barely made them visible, rushing towards him with something like a rifle in their hand, ready to knock him out. A rare wave of panic surged through him as he realized he was now not only injured but also unarmed. He quickly scanned the room, looking for a possible escape route, but the pain in his shoulder made it difficult to think clearly. As the figure approached rapidly, Phlox wondered…if this it then? All of his hard work, his planning, his sacrifices—all gone to waste in a split second? The fear of failure and the unknown outcome weighed heavily on his mind as he braced himself for the impending confrontation. But deep down, a flicker of happiness did appear deep down in his heart. Despite the fear and uncertainty, Phlox felt a sense of pride in himself for all that he had accomplished leading up to this moment. He made his parents proud.



But something flared up—a fire of determination—as Phlox realized that he couldn't let all his efforts go to waste now. No, not like this. With a sudden surge of courage, he barely got back up and faced the figure head-on, ready to fight for what he believed in. An overhead swing from his assistant was barely blocked by his forearm, and the sound of bones breaking could be heard immediately. Ignoring the pain, Phlox gritted his teeth and pushed forward with the last bit of energy he had, using the glass still embedded in his hand to slice the neck, actually delivering a pretty clean blow. Unfortunetly his body gave up on him and he collapsed on the ground and darkness started to envelop his vision, though he did hear another pair of footsteps approaching, before passing out completely.

[Pericles Herodotus Ozymandias]

Pericles rose a disbelieving eyebrow at August's directions, "Where exactly do you think I'm going?"

He was answered a couple seconds later when he was suddenly surrounded by medical professionals who hoisted him onto a gurney and before he knew it he was loaded up with enough pharmaceuticals to run a cartel.

Meanwhile however, Captain Ching the second, slowly came back to the waking world as the fight between Phlox and Aldric waged on. Chuckling under her breath at the man's actions, Ching, drew upon her last dregs of strength, and as Phlox let go of her as he passed out, she acted.

Lunging upwards, she pulled a shard of Lightning Dust from one of her bandoliers and jammed it into August's shoulder. Using the moment, she fell forward onto Aldric as her Semblance kicked in with the scraps of her Aura that remained, and with a a cackling laugh full of gold teeth, she disappeared alongside Aldric Wellsforth.

It was several hours later, long after the smoke from the museum had stopped, and after Pericles and Phlox had recovered enough, that the three found themselves sitting, uncuffed, in an interrogation room as a detective strolled in, "Thank you for coming by so quickly gentleman, we understand that you were all injured in the matter, and we hope that we can get this questioning finished up promptly so that you all can rest and recover. Now, before we begin, do any of you have any questions for us?"

[August Valerian]

August winced as he pressed the ice pack to the side of his face. Turns out being jabbed with a shard of lightning dust didn't do good things to you; August had effectively punched himself in the face when he had been jabbed. He'd been lucky that his aura had mostly held up otherwise the contents of his semblance would have spilt out, and considering that several flashbangs made up that inventory... He eyed the detective through his one open eye with some wariness given his history with the police. There had been a bit of a stand off between himself and the police when it had first come to light that he was at the scene, initially the police had assumed that August had been working with the criminals, though clearly one of the officers had done their homework regarding who August typically associates with and got him off the hook for the time being.

"Uh... questions? Who the hell were they? They weren't there to steal anything, they could have done that before we showed up seeing as they had the director in their pocket..." August gritted out against the aches of the side of his face, causing him to adjust the ice pack once again. This was exactly why he didn't fight fair, because fighting fair was for losers and also another reason to put down for why he should run rather than fighting. Other than that..." August gave a half hearted shrug, figuring the others would have questions to ask.

[Phlox Fessenden]

Phlox was still clutching his broken arm, which was covered in a cast, and it hurts on both his arm and his bandaged hnads. He couldn't shake off the pain he had endured, and the hospital stay hadn't made it any easier for him. He flexed his fingers, wincing at the pain. He glanced around the interrogation room and took in the stark, sterile surroundings. The fluorescent lights hummed overhead, casting a harsh light on the cold metal table in front of him. Then he remembered about the crown. He felt for it in his trenchcoat, trying not to draw attention to himself in front of both the detective and his 'allies', surprised that it was still gone. Now that brought up a question.

How did somebody notice it in his trenchcoat during his hospital stay?

For this question, he knew it must have been someone who had access to his personal belongings. Maybe a nurse or a doctor, or maybe another patient. As he sat there, in the cold chair. flexing his fingers in pain and curiousity, he began to realize that those wouldn't be possible, though as he thought about it more, he zoned out, became lost in his own questions.

[Pericles Herodotus Ozymandias]

Pericles for his part was the calmest he'd been all day, this was the part he was most used to, the proceedings that came after an attempted kidnapping or attempt on his life. The noble born merely sat silently with a small hum on his lips as the investigator spoke.

The detective sighed, "Yes, well, based off of the correspondence we were able to scrape off of the encrypted parts of Mr. Wellsforth's personal items, it appears that we was coerced into participation with a mix of threats and monetary promises. As for the main bad actors, we're nearly able to guarantee their identity at this point, due to our efforts with a few of the suspects you three incapacitated. They're a Mistralian crime syndicate known as the Zheng Raiders, they're basically pirates that have been around since before the Great War. You crossed paths with their current leader, or in this case, captain, who goes by Captain Ching the second, though her name is Ching Shih the second. She's apparently from that part of Mistral where they put their last name first. Regardless, that's all we could really tell you about them, they're a Mistral issue typically, and the VPD aren't exactly on the need-to-know basis when it comes to this thing. As for who hired them to kill Mr. Ozymandias here, we're in the dark on that as well, but I promise you gentleman that we are doing our best to investigate this matter, thoroughly."

"Now, we got a brief statement from you earlier, but while we have you here, if you three could recount any specific details you can think are important, or something that we might miss in our own investigation, go ahead and shoot." The detective said as he finally sat down in the chair across from them, a clipboard in hand.

[August Valerian]

August fixed the detective with a one eyed grin. "Anything that stood out? Like the fact that they went through the effort of stealing a crown despite their claim that they were only there to kill Pride here." August indicated towards Pericles as he spoke. "Now I'm no detective myself but... if they wanted to kill him, they wouldn't have needed to do that would they?"

August looked over to Phlox. "Hey, Silence? You got anything to add to this..." August glanced back to the detective. Perhaps 'farce' was too strong a word. "... thing we have going on here? His grin grew broader, even if his face did ache quite a bit from the effort.

He sat back in his chair, raised his legs and rested them up on the table, still holding the ice pack to his face as he waited for other answers and questions to come up. Man... he really wanted to go to his favourite coffee place and get a cup of... an expresso? Hot chocolate? Latte? Hrmmm, choices choices…

[Phlox Fessenden]

Phlox just signed to himself as he rested his head on the interrogation table , feeling the cool metal against his forehead. He closed his eyes and tried to calm his racing thoughts as the bright overhead light glared down at him. After all, he really just wanted all of this to end, and he just going home. He's not sure what to do, but after that, musuem hell, he didn't want to be involved in anything that damned prince was into, not now and certain, ever again.

"I don't know," He simply muttered, his voice partly drowned out by the metal table beneath him,
"Ask the walking target, his highness, who in fuck wants him dead." He suggested, a pinch of bitterness evident in his tone as he thought about the predicament he found himself in.

[Pericles Herodotus Ozymandias]

The detective sighed as he answered August's question, "Our best guess at the moment is that they were using the crown in order to prevent Mr. Ozymandias from fleeing. Further, while their main priority may have been the assassination attempt, they are a criminal syndicate none the less and stealing the crown as far as this department is concerned was a crime of opportunity."

As all eyes turned to Pericles, the young man hummed in thought, "Well, I suppose there's quite a substantial list of who would desire my early demise. That being said, in the context of who they supposedly hired, I'd have to narrow it down to either members on the Mistralian Council or one of the other Mistralian criminal organizations. Though, as I'm sure all of you are aware, it is not surprising to find aforementioned criminal groups dealing in double-headed coins, if you catch my parlance?"

The detective sighs and thinks for a moment, "You gentlemen are all free to go. I'd like to say that the VPD will certainly be exploring this matter further, but with this is beyond our jurisdiction at this point, I'm sorry gentlemen. I'll escort you out." The detective stands up and holds open the door for the three young men to leave.