Nightbeat
Minor
Eternal Foe of Kitsch
"Truth is revealed in the smallest detail."
Posts: 453
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Post by Nightbeat on Nov 6, 2010 18:14:05 GMT -5
Skipping Jazz due to time-out.
Nightbeat proceeds further down the sewer until he comes to the freshly-dug tunnel. He draws his plasma blaster, peering into the gloom, and runs a finger along the rough wall of the passage. Definitely not your standard municipal excavation.
"Bingo," he says, one side of his mouth turning up in a grin as he walks down the wormhole.
//Jazz, if you can hear me, I just hit pay-dirt down here. There's a fresh tunnel leading off from the sewer toward Mikkrogg'l's house. I'm following it now.//
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Jazz [G1]
Rookie
Cool as an icicle in a snowstorm.
Posts: 177
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Post by Jazz [G1] on Nov 6, 2010 18:49:35 GMT -5
Jazz nods, and looking around for some manner of fire-fighting implement. He finds a lack of one!
Until a rival fire-fighting crew pulls up, and Jazz jogs over to help them! Once he manages to wrangle an extinguisher of some manner, he goes to spraying the outlying building.
//Need me to come along once we get this fire under control?//
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Hellbender
Major
Mecha-Shai-Hulud
"Seriously."
Posts: 892
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Post by Hellbender on Nov 6, 2010 20:23:22 GMT -5
The fire chief already present, glared angrily at the new firefighting crew and stomped over. "Hey! C'r'sus! You can just turn your boys around and get the hell out of here! I got this contract."
The leader of the new fire truck's crew, a large lizardoid jumped down from the front passenger seat; he chomped on a large stogy, and wisps of sulfurous yellow smoke leaked from his nostrilas. "Wrong guess, Vigiles! Church got worried one company couldn't handle the job, and counsel hired us. Check yer contract under 'Auxiliaries', 'cause we got a valid contract" he said, waving a roll of paper at him.
"The hell you are! Boys, CLEAR THE FIELD!" Vigiles shouted, and his firefighters dropped what they were doing, if they could, and came running with fire axes and hoses ready and aimed.
C'r'sus team, in the meanwhile, jumped off their truck, all carrying heavy pry bars and the like. "Shame you got to be so unneighborly and go agin' yer own client," C'r'sus says, picking up his own long wrecking bar.
In the meantime, no one is paying attention to Jazz...
Nightbeat will eventually reach an area near the perimeter of the house where the tunnel is blocked by fresh earth, apparently from the collapse/explosion. On close examination, it's sifted finely and mixed with ground-up chips of ceramacrete, wood, and metal.
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Nightbeat
Minor
Eternal Foe of Kitsch
"Truth is revealed in the smallest detail."
Posts: 453
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Post by Nightbeat on Nov 7, 2010 10:13:00 GMT -5
//Might help. Tunnel's clogged with debris here. It'll take me a while to clear it on my own.//
Of course, that's not going to stop Nightbeat from trying. He starts sifting through the debris with his hands, paying close attention for any incriminating evidence.
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Jazz [G1]
Rookie
Cool as an icicle in a snowstorm.
Posts: 177
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Post by Jazz [G1] on Nov 7, 2010 16:22:25 GMT -5
Jazz will notice that there's suddenly no one else fighting the fire, and a good bit of shouting coming from where he just came from. He turns to look over there, and...
Oh, great. A standoff.
//...well, I'll be there when I can. Looks like we got two sets of firefighters up here who wanna fight each other rather than the blaze.//
Jazz is too helpful for his own good sometimes! He jogs over to the conflict, and puts himself between the groups - and he's in his police uniform, though that may or may not be helpful since he's just a beat cop. He raises a hand up to each side. "Whoa, whoa, cool it, dudes! You guys waste your time fightin' each other, there won't be a house left to put out!"
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Hellbender
Major
Mecha-Shai-Hulud
"Seriously."
Posts: 892
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Post by Hellbender on Nov 7, 2010 17:04:58 GMT -5
"Boss, he's got a point," says one of Vigiles' firefighters. Vigiles scowls while C'r'sus grins.
"You going to fail your contract on non-performance, Vig?" C'r'sus says, still grinning. "Church might figure they really do need a whole 'nother company."
Vigiles lowers his fire axe. "Fine! But don't think you're getting a cut of our payment! My shyster's gonna talk to yours when this is over." He nodded at his crew. "Back to the job."
C'r'sus turned and yelled at his own crew. "Whaddaya gawkin' fer? We got work to do!" He looked back at Jazz.
"Thanks, Copper, for makin' that hothead see reason. Both of us would've been out non-performance fines if he'd kept it up," the big lizardoid tells Jazz. blowing yellowish smoke out his nostrils as he talks.
----------------------
The loose dirt is oddly uniform, no large chunks of debris at all. Just that same fine mulch of dirt, ceramacrete chips, wood and metal bits.
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Nightbeat
Minor
Eternal Foe of Kitsch
"Truth is revealed in the smallest detail."
Posts: 453
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Post by Nightbeat on Nov 7, 2010 20:06:03 GMT -5
//Hmph. Typical Pz-Zazz. Let me know how it turns out,// Nightbeat transmits.
He collects a few samples from the wall of the tunnel and from the debris. The eggheads back on the Event Horizon can go over them later, just in case his investigation here doesn't turn up anything.
//Bring a shovel. Or explosives.// As he's digging, Nightbeat reflects that the life of a private eye isn't all fast women and beautiful cars. Sometimes it's just digging up the dirt on a perp.
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Jazz [G1]
Rookie
Cool as an icicle in a snowstorm.
Posts: 177
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Post by Jazz [G1] on Nov 9, 2010 21:21:35 GMT -5
Jazz puts forth a grin, despite wanting to facepalm on the inside. At least they stopped fighting, if for the wrong reasons. Better than being caught in the middle of a brawl, at least. He waves off the praise from the lizard. "No worries, man, don't think anything of it."
//Defused quicker than I thought...//
"...don't suppose you got a couple of shovels I could borrow, do you?" Jazz asks C'r'sus.
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Hellbender
Major
Mecha-Shai-Hulud
"Seriously."
Posts: 892
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Post by Hellbender on Nov 9, 2010 22:23:06 GMT -5
C'r'sus takes his cigar out, inspects the tip, blows on it a bit, and sticks it back in his mouth. (H'hkaar smoke a certain sulfur-concentrating weed to get the trace of poisonous sulfur compounds they like in their air). "Pom! We spare two shovels?" he yelled to one of his crew.
"Yeah, but we'll need 'em back after the surface fires are out--"
"Loan 'em to the copper here and get 'em back when you need 'em," C'r'sus ordered. He blew out a cloud of yellow smoke and told Jazz, "You heard him. We need 'em back in a bit, but I'm always glad to help out an officer of the law." Especially if he isn't shaking me down to be allowed to work...
---
There isn't that much dirt to dig through to reach the bottom of the crater, and crater it most definitely is. Watch out for burning debris falling on your head, Nightbeat! Or rubble sliding down to bury the tunnel all over again.
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Nightbeat
Minor
Eternal Foe of Kitsch
"Truth is revealed in the smallest detail."
Posts: 453
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Post by Nightbeat on Nov 9, 2010 23:38:29 GMT -5
//Always good news when things don't end in a brawl for once. I'm hot on the trail here, I can feel it. I'm right under the house now, unless my mapping is off.//
A section of the tunnel ceiling in front of Nightbeat caves in as the burning house collapses further. The Autobot detective puts his arm up in front of his face to shield himself from the shower of sparks and ash.
//Yeah, definitely under the house. Singed my damn coat.//
You can always get a new trenchcoat, Muzzle says through their telepathic link.
I like THIS coat.
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Jazz [G1]
Rookie
Cool as an icicle in a snowstorm.
Posts: 177
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Post by Jazz [G1] on Nov 11, 2010 21:52:31 GMT -5
Jazz pops a rather loose salute. "No problemo. I'll get 'em back soon as I can." With that, Jazz takes the shovels and looks into finding his way toward a hopefully hidden manhole...
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Nightbeat
Minor
Eternal Foe of Kitsch
"Truth is revealed in the smallest detail."
Posts: 453
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Post by Nightbeat on Nov 21, 2010 20:09:15 GMT -5
When Jazz arrives under the house where Nightbeat is, he'll be treated to the rather unusual sight of a headless Nightbeat working alongside Muzzle to clear a tunnel through the debris. Two sets of hands are better than one, after all, and they only have one set of eyes either way.
The detective's singed (grumble) outfit is pocketed in subspace for the time being.
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Jazz [G1]
Rookie
Cool as an icicle in a snowstorm.
Posts: 177
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Post by Jazz [G1] on Nov 23, 2010 21:53:00 GMT -5
Jazz can't help but grin when he walks up. "Well, that's usin' your head," he remarks, handing the detective one of the shovels, and then setting in to work at removing the debris. "Buncha firefighters nearly went to fightin' each other over who got the pay for putting this mess out rather than actually doing it..."
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Nightbeat
Minor
Eternal Foe of Kitsch
"Truth is revealed in the smallest detail."
Posts: 453
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Post by Nightbeat on Nov 23, 2010 22:11:12 GMT -5
Muzzle make a gesture at Jazz that shall not be described here. "If I had a decicred for every time I've heard that joke . . ."
The Nebulan looks over at Jazz as he presents the shovel to Nightbeat, who slowly and awkwardly turns around to take it and resume digging. With two carbots shoveling and a humanoid clearing debris, hopefully they can make some headway.
"That's what happens when you privatize the fire department," Muzzle responds.
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Jazz [G1]
Rookie
Cool as an icicle in a snowstorm.
Posts: 177
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Post by Jazz [G1] on Nov 24, 2010 19:03:23 GMT -5
Jazz raises hands up in a 'hey, don't shoot' gesture, but still grinning. "Alright, alright, fair 'nuff. I gotta do something to keep spirits up, since this place seems bound and determined to crush 'em." Jazz shakes his head a bit as he digs.
"I guess so - they probably woulda been content to let the thing burn down if they thought they could get away with blaming the other crew."
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