DC Legends - Sunday, April 23, 2000, 12:47 PM
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Riverside Park - Sunrise City(#1363RF)

        Green in the very heart of the city, weaving alongside the sparkle of 
the river, reflecting the clouds that drift by. Trees lean over the steep banks, 
forming hollows between them where fisherman sit and wait for a bite. Bike 
trails criss-cross the area, patronized more by rollerbladers and skateboarders. 
And the occasional dog. A small play area is set off to one side, fenced to keep 
loose dogs from straying on it. And an open air cafe is found nearby, somewhere 
for parents to rest from the excessive energy of the young.

Psyche(#452PX?ce)

        Eyes of silvered emerald, almost feline in their shade, peer out from 
beneath arching brows of deepest green. A mane of hair the color of deep 
forests, rich and unnatural in its shade, showing no roots or hint of any color, 
flows over her shoulders, falling almost to her waist. These are the features 
that most stand out, for without them she would be barely pretty. With them, she 
is stunning, exotic. Alien enough to be attractive and fascinating rather than 
disgusting. Looking past, one sees pale features, light in color, suggesting 
that her natural hair color would, perhaps, be blonde, and light also in cast. 
She is not a big woman, not in height or in build. Smaller than average even, 
nor does she carry the sort of muscle that would suggest that she is the 
outdoors type. Not overweight, no, but not in peak condition either.
        She is wearing her cost.../uniform/. Uniform. It sounds better. It is 
essentially a form-fitting bodysuit, sleeveless, and cut to show a bit of 
cleavage in front. Green falls from her right shoulder, across the front (and 
back), an emerald color chosen to perfectly complement her hair, and continues 
down onto her left leg, which is covered not with solid fabric, but with a 
spiral of green that eventually runs into lightweight black shoes. Her left 
shoulder strap is black, vanishing 'under' the green, only to have black 
reappear and enwrap her right leg, solid this time, and again ending in the same 
lightweight shoes. Her arms are completely bare. Clipped to her waist is a four 
inch long, metal cylinder. She wears no mask, no device to try and hide her 
identity.


Psyche is standing near the river, looking and feeling distinctly...self-
conscious. Does he look cool, or just silly?

Templar steps out of a shadow, thankful the park has enough foliage to provide 
him some cover. Not that he's afraid of being seen, but he's still not 
comfortable with walking around in open areas in this costume just yet. He spots 
the woman in the body suit and approaches as quietly as one in a chainmail suit 
can. 'I see you've decided on a costume..." he says, fear fading behind a 
glinting smile.

Psyche turns. "Yeah. Do I look okay? I feel kinda silly."

Templar grins a bit. "You look good to me... but I'm not sure I'm in any place 
to be giving out fashion advice..."

Psyche nods. "So, we have a serial killer to...like...catch, right?"

Templar nods. "I still haven't seen any sign of it.. but... I have a feeling 
something will happen soon. Have you had any luck in your search?"

Psyche nods. "I've been hanging around on campus, but I think I'm a bit too 
like...obvious...even in like normal clothes. People /know/ I'm a Milennial. I'm 
going to have to disguise myself somehow."

Templar raises an eyebrow. "Did your hair change color after the Milennial 
event?  I thought you just dyed it..."

Psyche tugs at it. "Woke up, and it was like this. It's 'natural'...if anything 
about me is."

Templar nods. "A bit more shocking than what happened to me... thankfully, my... 
change was more gradual..."

Psyche ohs. "What happened?"

Templar says "At first nothing... and then about a month later, I discovered 
that I was putting on weight... height...muscle mass..."

Psyche hmms. "Oh. It all kinda happened overnight with me. Frankly...I was so 
drunk on New Year's Eve, I thought I /had/ dyed my hair and just didn't remember 
doing it."

Templar nods. "4 months ago I was a skinny wimp... and now..." He looks down at 
himself... "Well, it's like I got one of those Charles Atlas "I can Make you a 
Man in 7 days programs..."

Psyche giggles a bit. "I need to like...get fitter myself."

Templar takes a cursory glance at you. "You look fine to me..."

Psyche says "I could be better, if I'm going to be doing the criminal-chasing 
thing."

Templar nods as he glances out over the riverbank. "Well, I've been looking at 
things... trying to find some pattern between all the people killed so far..."

Psyche nods. "Any luck?"

Templar sighs as he reaches inside the folds of his tunic. "Some... though 
nothing that will give us much to go on." he says glancing around. He motions to 
a park bench nearby. "Sit down and I can spread this out...."

Psyche nods, and sits down.

Templar pulls out four clippings. "There have been four murders so far, spread 
out over the last two years or so... the progression seems to be going in an 
even number spiral...

Psyche nods, moving to study them.

Templar pulls out a photo of an attractive brunette girl about the age of you 
two. If your mind reading/empahtic abilities are strong enough, you can sense a 
definite feeling of sorrow from Templar regarding this article.

Psyche is almost shielded...but does feel something. "Who was she?"

Templar says "Tiffany Walton... Cheerleader... killed between her apartment 
building on the west side of the campus and the library... That happened... 
nearly six months ago...."

Psyche says "That's a short distance..."

Templar nods. "Yes... that made me think that someone had been watching her for 
a while... knew her habits...  Anyway... 8 months before her was this girl... 
Jennifer Metzger..."

Templar tries to quickly change the subject.

This girl, too, is an attractive brunette.

Psyche hmms. "Vaguely similar appearance."

Templar nods. "Some serial killers do show a preference in their victims... 
usually it's some aspect they find attractive..."

Psyche nods. "So, he likes brunettes. Or she."

Templar nods. "Well... that's what I thought..."he says, as he pulls out a third 
photo. "Amber Sanders... psych major... and a red head.  She was killed some 8 
months before Jennifer... who was killed 6 months before Tiffany...  Before her 
came this girl..."  Templar holds up a fourth article. "Tamara Baker... 
blond... killed 10 months before Amber..."

Psyche nods. "Meaning he's about to strike again."

Templar nods to you. "10 months... 8 months... 6 months... we're coming up on 4 months."

Templar sighs. "There's more... but it's kind of a long shot..."

Psyche nods and bites her lip. "I'm really new to this...what's the long shot?"

Templar sighs. "No newer than me.. I just know a pattern when i see it..."

Psyche nods. "Okay...what's your long shot?" . o ( What am I /doing/ out here? )

Templar sighs as he pulls out a map of the campus. "You know how the campus is 
contained with in a rough square?"

Templar traces the map with his finger. "Along these four streets...."

Psyche nods. "Sure do.

Templar says "Well, remember what I said the other night about the Zodiac 
killer?"

Psyche nods. "The guy tracing constellations?"

Templar nods. "Right. And before you ask, I'm not some nut who likes studying 
that kind of thing... I just remembered the case from a class I took on Abnormal 
Psychology...." He pauses again. "I'm a psych minor..." he mutters.

Templar thinks. o O( I sound really nuts here, don't I?)

Psyche nods. "So, does our guy have a pattern?"

Templar says "Well... that's the long shot... I plotted all the sites on this 
map."

Psyche studies it carefully, some of her hair falling across her face.

Templar motions to four red dots. One is on the west side of the campus.. 
another rests in the upper east... another in the southeast... and one on the 
northwest.

Psyche nods. "Compass points?"

Templar says "Well... not quite... they're kind off center... especially the 
northwest and south east ones...."

Psyche studies. "Is it a spiral?"


Templar says "No... I took a compass... if you set it at the center of the 
campus... they all line up along a circle which touches the square at the 
compass points...." He takes a pen and draws in the circle. "Now here is where 
the long shot comes in...."

Templar pauses. "I don't suppose you know anything about the use of symbols in 
magic, do you?"

Psyche says "Uh, I know /nothing/ about magic."

Templar nods. "Neither do I... not the real thing anyway... but I do know a bit 
about symbols..."

Psyche nods. "So you think our friend's trying to do something magical?

Templar nods. "In a sense... You know how some magicians use pentagrams right? 
Well, whoever this is is doing something similar...."

Psyche frowns. "That could be like bad."

Templar says "You see, the Square is a traditonal symbol of Earth... the Circle 
of Air..."

Psyche says "What about water and fire?"

Templar nods. "Equilateral Triangles... point up is fire and point down is 
water... or something like that...I may have those mixed up.. not that it 
matters..."

Psyche says "Okay."

You say "What matters is that, like Pentagrams, some magicians use a symbol that 
mixes those four in combination for spells..."

Psyche nods. "So, he's casting some sort of spell?"

Templar draws in the circle on the map and the motions to the points. "I really 
don't know... But if you draw lines across the map like so between the 
scenes...."

Templar draws them in... You have two straight lines on opposite sides on the 
campus... they just need two points to make them into crossing equilateral 
triangles making a hexagram across the campus...."

Psyche nods. "I think I see it. Ugh. We have to like...stop this guy."

Templar nods. "Actually, I don't know if there is any magic too this... for all 
we know this guy could just be a math nut... the number spiral seems to suggest 
that...."

Psyche says "Guy belongs in secure mental."

Templar nods. "Magus or Madman, he does... one thing that does trouble me about 
the spiral though..."

Psyche says "What?"

Templar says "If he does kill someone this time and the pattern holds... it will 
be 4 months to the next one... than 2... then 1....  That leaves him commiting 
his final murder sometime right before 2001 begins.... And 2001..."

Psyche nods. "...Is the new milennium by some standards."

Templar nods. "So it is... possible, I don't know, but possible... that whoever 
this is is planning something to happen then... Whether it's magic or not I 
can't say... And as I said... it's a long shot."

Psyche grumbles. "Great, he's not just knifing co-eds, he's trying to summon 
Cthulhu.

Templar rolls his eyes. "Or he thinks he is... I still think that this guy is 
just plain nuts... besides, that type of circle is usually used in beneficial 
magic... so says the source I found... Still, it does give us two points to 
watch...."

Templar leaves the unspoken "Assuming I'm right about all this..." hanging

Psyche nods. "And two of us. If I had more control over my telepathy, I could 
try linking our minds, but I'm not confident about doing that."

Templar thinks. "Well, we could always do it the lo-tech way..."

Psyche says "We could get walkie-talkies. I could, anyway."

Templar nods. "I was just thinking that... we could hit the Radio Shack....  Do 
you want to handle that or...."

Psyche says "I'm the one with the big money."

Templar smirks. "Yeah... well, I'm on scholarship... but I think I can handle 
it... still, if you wanna finance it..."

Psyche says "Or I could ask Will. He might have better..."

Templar thinks. "Will?"

Psyche says "My...uh...teacher. He's got lots of cool tech toys."

Templar nods. "Mmm... best stick with the walkie-talkies... see if you can get 
one of those wireless headsets too... I sort of need my hands free in this get 
up..."

Psyche nods. "So do I, especially if I have to use this." She unclips the 
cylinder from her belt.

Templar looks at the cylinder. "I'm guessing that's not a chicken soup 
thermos..."

Psyche flicks her wrist, and the cylinder extends into a staff, slightly longer 
than she is tall.

Templar ahs. "Nice. Wish I had something that compact, but... well, the sword's 
pretty impressive..."

Psyche says "Will gave it to me."

Templar nods. "By the way... have you come up with a name.. yet?"

Psyche uhhs.

Templar skakes his head... "Well... I wouldn't worry that much about it..."

Psyche says "I did have one idea, but it's silly."

Templar grins. "Sillier than Templar?"

Psyche blushes. "Psyche."

Templar nods. "That's good..."

Psyche says "It is?"

You say "Yeah... i mean, you've got the whole mind powers thing... and them 
there's the whole mythic aspect..."

Psyche hmms. "I'm a little concerned about Cupid jokes."

Templar smiles. "Well, you do look like you could steal worshippers from 
Aphrodite..."

Psyche turns scarlet.

Templar sighs and turns away. "Sorry... let me known when I get carried away 
with the chilvaric flattery..."

Psyche says "I'm not that good looking...not with this hair."

Templar shrugs. "Have you tried dying it something less conspicuous?"

Psyche hmms. "Black doesn't look right with my coloring, peroxide doesn't look 
right on /anyone/ and my other attempts to color it looked ghastly. So..."

Templar nods. "You figured it best to go with the punk look.

Psyche hehs. "I had to redo most of my wardrobe, though."

Templar raises an eyebrow. "Match the green?"

Psyche says "Or just not /clash/ with it."

Templar nods. "Well.. I really need to be going... shall we meet back here 
tomorrow so you can give me the walkie-talkie?"

Psyche nods. "Of course."

Templar nods. "Okay... I'll see you back here tomorrow night then..."