[Nicholas Acker Villin]

The mansion was under renovations for various reasons. Fixing, upgrading and expanding with new additions. Acker truly enjoyed putting down his ideas on blueprints and turn his ideas into reality. Since his mind was always working on something, it meant that the mansion had to go through some renovations sometimes, and this was one of those times.

Luckily, the doc's assistant had taken care of the more mundane aspects of the process, Acker was more like the mind of the operation, checking that everything was going as planned and that the upgrades already installed were working properly.

However, it meant that the mansion's security system couldn't work as intended while the mansion was under maintenance. This wasn't the first time the mansion got upgraded and he hadn't always had issues, but it didn't mean that he should lower his guard. The kind of work that the mansion was going under was difficult to keep a secret meaning that ill-intentioned individuals could try to attack him. It had happened before, Hunters getting news of the mansion's security being under for a while, thus taking advantage of the situation.

That was why in the last upgrade, Acker made sure that the security system had a mode that could work while the mansion got upgraded. This meant the next Hunter was going to be very surprised to find out that the security system was still on.

It was the second week of renovations, and there were tarp and tools everywhere. Some walls were half-open between rooms, meaning that someone could walk to the other room by just passing through the opening between the walls. It was like that because some parts of the mechanism responsible for moving the rooms around had to be upgraded. However, some areas of the mansion had already been upgraded, so the mechanism worked in those rooms.

Acker was walking around the mansion to check on things when he heard voices coming from the living room. His power warned him that the tv got turned on, and that Apollo did it. The doc rolled his eyes while walking into the living room "How can you enjoy such trash? It's gonna melt your brain which would be unfortunate considering that it is a magnificent piece of machinery that took my genius to create" Apollo was sitting comfortably on the carpet in front of the tv, his paw on the tv remote. He barked as a response to his owner without taking his eyes off the screen.

Acker rolled his eyes again, but petted Apollo on the head while walking pass him. Meanwhile, the mad scientist wasn't surprised to find Zeus walking around the mansion outside, the loyal mechanical dog was checking the perimeter. Zeus & Apollo had two very different personalities, but they both cared about Acker and wanted to protect him. Acker's power couldn't force the dogs to feel this way since the upgrade, so it was genuine.

Acker knew better than to tell Zeus he could relax, so the doc walked at the entrance of the maze with a blueprint in hand, a pencil behind his ear, and a builder belt around the waist. Acker walked into the maze, and took a left while checking the blueprint. He was wandering around the maze, sometimes stopping to check something. The maze was actually huge and took the majority of the garden's area.

But, the maze wasn't just a maze. Sometimes, levers could be found, or riddles, strange statues, and so forth. It was like a game. Acker's mansion felt like a mixture of the mansion in the first Resident Evil game, and the Clockwork mansion in that Dishonored game. Neighbours believed that Acker was very peculiar, to put it politely, at least there weren't many neighbours to deal with up in the mountains.

Dane Wayland

[Dane Wayland]

[nospaces]

I STUMBLE FROM THIS EMPTY ROOM

you blow my brains and i'll blow my cool; you know i can't play by the rules

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[attr="class","lizardstripe-text"]At the top of the Guild agenda this month was Nicholas Acker Villin.[break][break]

Dane hadn't wanted to participate. And it was obvious the "team" he was a part of didn't want him there, either. But Antonio had insisted and none of them had really felt like raising the issue, Dane most of all — he'd been particularly unruly lately and his father's patience with him was becoming paper-thin. As much as he loathed leaning into the old man's demands, his tattoo had grown to a size that had him picking and choosing his battles. And this, surprisingly, wasn't one of them.[break][break]

So he'd attended the meetings. Lingered in the corner of the room, unwanted, and listened to intel as the group gathered information on the Villin and formulated their plan. He'd participated in the painstakingly-slow and cautious stake-out of the man's massive mansion, posing as stand-in cleaners and workers, most heavily involved in the past two weeks during the man's renovations. It had been particularly difficult. The men hired to work under Nicholas had been thoroughly vetted and it was luck alone that none of them had been sniffed out.[break][break]

He hadn't spoken up often — sensing his opinion meant jack-shit and that everyone felt he was only there because "his Daddy wanted it" — but, when they chose tonight as their time to act, he'd finally voiced that he didn't think they were ready. They weren't prepared. They needed more time. More men. But they'd all scowled at him indignantly, flexing their big-boy muscles, claiming their indomitable courage, and insisting (above all) that they had the final say.[break][break]

So now, here they were. Just four men with a haphazard plan Dane was certain would go sideways quickly. Outfitted in light tactical gear, thin Kevlar, rubber gloves, and rubber-soled boots (as if they suspected the insulation would help them in some way, which Dane had chuckled at). Strapped to their backs and secured at their sides were a number of guns, all of the muzzled by silencers. Tucked in their boots and strapped to their thighs and calves were knives. Dane had joked they'd spent more care in dressing up and looking the part than actually planning their part.[break][break]

He crept along the lawn with the rest of them, keeping low and wary of the time it had typically taken the mechanical dog — acting as some sort of sentry — to make its round. Dane was aware of Acker's dogs, as were all of them. Incapacitating one, or both of them, was a priority. But they also suspected that Acker would feel when one of his dogs was taken out. His Gift surely had a range, but what exactly it was, was anyone's guess (finding out had been a point Dane wanted to press, but no one else seemed to care enough, thinking it inconsequential when Nicholas was outnumbered). It was possible the other dog would feel it as well. So acting quickly once they first struck was essential. They'd all decided neither of the dogs would work anyway, once Acker was dead.[break][break]

Dane lunged forward, clasping a hand to Pheasant's shoulder and wrenching him backward. The man righted himself and whirled to face him, eyes blazing with scorn. "You fucking idiot," Dane hissed hushedly, jabbing a finger toward the pressure plate, nearly seamless with the surrounding lawn, he'd been about to tread right over. "If you get us all killed immediately, I'm gonna be fucking pissed." [break][break]

Pheasant's flinty eyes narrowed but he said nothing. Typical. He was a spindly, cowardly thing. All bark and no bite. Grouse, his brother, had been much the same (though admittedly stupider). Dane had used the lanky blonde as a human shield — he was useful for little else — in a previous assignment and he knew Pheasant suspected as much. But he hadn't tried to call him out on it. Just in case, Dane decided he'd rather not find himself with his back to him. [break][break]

"Take care of the first dog, Pheasant," came Hawk's gravely monotone and Dane peered at him appraisingly. He was a big, daunting brickwall of a man. Some brutish ex-military thug who (for some reason Dane couldn't fathom) had good standing with his father. To Dane he seemed more brawn than brain, with a proclivity for puffing out his chest whenever he was challenged, but somehow he'd found himself as the de-facto leader of their assignment. [break][break]

"Take one of my summons with you," Dane started quietly, rubbing his palms together. Hawk's huge, ugly face twisted in a sneer and he jabbed a finger into Dane's shoulder, shoving him off-balance. "You're not in charge, Wayland, back off." Dane's nostrils flared, but he only pushed himself from the lawn with a shrug. "Good. Then I won't be responsible for the royal clusterfuck this is gonna be." The words tasted hollow. Even if he wasn't, if any of them survived tonight, they'd find some way to pin the failure on him.[break][break]

Hawk growled. Then he nodded to Pheasant, who licked his lips and slunk off to trail the patrolling dog. "Now, Kes, take out the power. Take it out for good. Wayland, you're with me." Dane rolled his eyes as Kestrel — a man who'd been more quiet than Dane during the entire planning stage (in fact, Dane wasn't sure he'd ever heard him make a sound) — gave a single nod and disappeared. But he followed after Hawk as they made their way to the massive garden area in which Nicholas had disappeared. Oh great, a maze. Of course. Dane groaned. He really didn't want to go in there. "Quiet." Hawk grumbled, tossing him an irritated side-glance as they skirted the entrance and waited for signs of Kestrel's success. [break][break]

Instead though, predictably, the signal they got wasn't the expected darkening of the mansion or garden lights. It was muted gunfire. Apparently, taking out the sentry dog had been too bold a task to put on Pheasant's shoulders. Dane chanced a small, snide laugh. "What now, Hawk, huh? Did you come up with a Plan B?" [break][break]

"Just shut up and shoot until he's dead," Hawk responded curtly, standing and slipping into the maze. Dane stepped after him but slowed to a stop only a couple strides in. He watched Hawk's back as it got further and further away and shook his head. He was gonna die. They were all gonna die. Slinging his rifle across his back, he rubbed his palms together and summoned a pair of twin birds, who shot up into the sky over the maze, flying low as they peered about, ready to cry out and attack once they spotted their quarry. Then he crouched and summoned a dog — not Snowcone, but a mirror-image of one of Acker's Dobermans. He didn't think it'd fool the Villin but for maybe just a moment, it'd give him pause. He ran his hand over the canine's ears and stepped in the direction Hawk had disappeared, choosing to move more cautiously. Ready to see how it panned out for the first guy before he made his own move.

[break]

Tag: Nicholas Acker Villin [break]
Give me a nudge for any changes![break]
Feel free to use the extra men/summons for whatever!

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[googlefont=Poppins][googlefont=Open Sans]

[Nicholas Acker Villin]

Acker used his machines to keep his place clean, at least usually. But, this time was different. The machines around the mansion had had to go under maintenance with the mansion itself, so actual people had been hired instead. Same thing with the workers. Usually, his technology would do the heavy lifting, but this time around real construction workers had been hired for the occasion due to maintenance.

The doc wasn't stupid, so he had realised that this maintenance was putting him in more danger than usual considering that real people were around and about the mansion. However, he trusted his assistant's ability to hire the right workers considering that he had always done an efficient job. In fact, the few real people who worked with the doc wouldn't ever reveal any confidential information concerning the doc's work, and not just because of legal reasons, but also because they were well compensated and treated fairly. It wasn't bad working for Acker even though Hunters would believe him evil, the doc actually respected people who worked for their money and so you would get compensated as justly as the quality of your work.

Long story short, the people working for the doc were loyal, the assistant had made sure of that. So, the mad scientist had been confident of the near impossibility of any intruder being able to infiltrate themselves as a worker.

Even though officially no one knew that Acker's dogs weren't real animals, the news had reached the Hunters' circles. After all, Hunters had to deal with the doc's power, so it was inevitable that the true nature of the dogs would reveal itself while fighting. Since the dogs had mechanical parts created by the mad scientist himself, it meant that they could hear even better than actual dogs, and real dogs had an excellent hearing to begin with. What did this entail? Zeus had heard unknown voices, but he had pretended that he hadn't noticed anything was wrong to not alert the intruders.

However, Zeus alerted Apollo and Acker via the power.

Apollo hadn't heard anything because of the tv's noise. So, he rose up his head in surprise when he felt the warning coming from his brother. Apollo stood up in a hurry and left the living room without turning the tv off.

Meanwhile, Zeus dealt with one of the intruders, the one who was sent after the dog. The intruder believed himself stealthy, believed that the dog was unaware of his presence, but he soon paid for that mistake in judgment. The intruder had been caught off guard when Zeus suddenly attacked him and shot towards the dog's direction without even thinking as an automatic self-defence response.

Agility on the machine's side, Zeus swiftly jumped on the side. In that moment, Apollo had reached his brother and attacked the intruder from behind, trying to bite the man's leg. Meanwhile, Zeus tried to bite the man's arm holding the gun. At the same time, the Lads were trying to use their weight to make the man fall on the ground. Apollo would pull from behind, and Zeus would push from the front.

Regarding the intruder sent after the power. There were multiple power systems. One was outside like it was in most houses. That one was for the mansion. However, there was also a back-up power system in case anything happened, alongside a generator. Unfortunately, both the back-up system and the generator were under maintenance, so they couldn't work.

However, the maze had his power too and that was more complicated to turn off because finding the power system was a game in itself. The back-up and generator for this system were under maintenance too. Luckily for Acker, some of his toys were powered by solar battery or a battery that could last for a while by itself.

Meanwhile in the maze Acker hadn't heard the men, after all he just had average human hearing which was nothing special. However, he felt something else. Zeus' warning. There were intruders. Acker quickly folded the blueprint and secured it in one of the belt's pockets. He was wearing black gloves with some kind of buttons on them.

In that moment he heard a cry up above. The doc looked up and noticed a pair of birds diving down on him. They were attacking him. In that moment, Acker pushed a button on the glove and summoned a pair of his own birds. A window in the mansion opened up and a pair of birds flew out to a specific direction. The mechanical birds followed their creator's cry for help, not a real cry, but a sense of urgency coming from the power. The mechanical birds could sense via the power that their creator was in danger.

The mechanical birds arrived to the summoned birds attacking Acker. The doc wasn't facing the birds, so they were attacking his back. The mechanical birds dived down on the summoned birds to defend Acker. The two pairs were now attacking each other. However, the mechanical birds had metal bodies which made it more difficult to hurt them.

Acker used the opportunity to leave the spot and run away from the birds. The fabric on his back was torn where the birds had attacked him. The torn fabric exposed bleeding wounds caused by the birds.


Dane Wayland
ps. sorry if it's too long and please tell me if i need to edit anything!