Hunting the Sphinx (Success!)

[Nyghtingale]

Nyght opened her mouth, then shut it. She then opened it, and shut it again, suddenly feeling very much like some sort of human fish throw on to land and left to suffocate gasping at the air. She had not thought of a plan at all, and did not even have the slightest clue as towards one. Yet there Jack sat, as if she had all the answers in the world. She stopped opening and closing her mouth, then narrowed her eyes and thought hard. There are several options available to them. Nyght's first instinct was some sort of improvised explosive device. However making something like that would be really hard. She did not know much about explosives, and she was not even sure where to get them. She then thought of her acid ability, and thought that maybe they could find some way to create a container to hold the acid to dump on the sphinx.

"We could try to dump acid on it...." She muttered softly, thinking out loud. She did not really have a fully formed thought there, but the words slipped out. Suddenly she got an image of herself, riding her Akhult who was spraying acid upon a giant metallic bird and a sudden explosion. She winced slightly, and began to rub at her arm where she had broken it once. Suddenly she stopped, and her eyes went really wide with astonishment.

"Jack....remember what happened with the Stymphalian bird? How I accidentally created an explosion that blew the bird half to hell and back? Well, I was reading up on it afterwards, and found out what exactly happened. I wanted to know more about my own abilities before I went and did something extremely stupid like that again and ended up with worse then a broken arm. What happened was the acid reacted with the metal of the bird, and long story short the reaction put off hydrogen gas. You know...gas like they use to fill those giant zeppelins with. The Hindenburg? It blew up and burned remember....that is more or less what happened, but it was more explosive because hydrogen reacts violently with oxygen in the air and when given a spark, or flare, it can explode. We can also do that another way! A common school experiment done in high schools is called electrolysis...you run a extremely powerful ELECTRICAL current through water, and it will literally rip the water molecules apart giving you hydrogen...and oxygen...the perfect recipe for an explosion!"

[Jacksoπ Flεtchεr]

    Jack watched Nyght do her very best impression of what a fish out of water looks like and, while amusing, he had to admit to himself that it wasn't proving very helpful. When she'd suggested a trap, the young man had assumed that Nyght had something specific in mind. Apparently, his assumption had been wrong. That wasn't a particularly large setback. They were in the same place they'd always been. They would simply have to think something up.

    "Acid would be pretty fatal," was the young man's response to Nyght's initial suggestion. Jack waited for her to finish before he spoke again. "Alright. I hear what you're saying and these seem like some pretty good ideas it's just that I was thinking maybe we should come up with a plan for how to get the sphinx in the trap before we start deciding on how to deal with it once it is trapped. If we can't figure that out, then the rest is moot, don't you agree?"

    Though he hadn't said it, Jack wasn't too keen on Nyght's exploding hydrogen idea. It seemed good in a pinch, as an improvization, but if they really wanted to blow some stuff up then there were easier ways to accomplish it. Since they had time to prepare, a number of explosives remained available to them as options if they wished to go that route. But he would make that argument if the trap idea panned out.

[Nyghtingale]

Nyght contemplated his other question, brow furrowing. He wanted to know how to lure the sphinx in to their trap. She frowned, having thought that it was clear how they would lure the sphinx in to their trap. The sphinx was a hunter, and they would use that to their advantage. Prey was what they needed, and both of them had something the sphinx would think absolutely perfect to hunt.

"Jack....we already have something to lure the sphinx in. Paquito and Aurora will be our bait...they are strong and large enough to be extremely enticing to the sphinx, plus they would be a new thing to the sphinx who would more then likely enjoy the thought of hunting something new and exciting. They can be our bait to lure the sphinx in to showing itself, and they are strong enough and smart enough to keep themselves alive while we take care of the sphinx."

She waited to hear what he thought of this. She knew what he would say, that he did not want to sacrifice Paquito like that or put him in danger. She felt the same way about Aurora, and wanted nothing to happen to her beloved companion. However she knew that her companion was strong and powerful as well, and would give that sphinx a run for it's money and with her and Jack nearby they could quickly over whelm the creature.

[Jacksoπ Flεtchεr]

    The young man frowned. "So, let me get this straight. You want us to use our friends to lure a dangerous creature straight out of ancient mythology, whose full capabilities we can only guess at, into a trap that you also want to rig to explode?" Jack didn't mind putting himself at risk or fighting in battle with Paquito, but he felt like using the Ak as a piece of bait was a betrayal of the trust the Akhlut put in him. The very idea of it put a bad taste in his mouth.

    However, if he was being entirely honest with himself, Jack didn't have a better idea. From what Nyght had told him of the sphinx, using their Akhlut as bait seemed to be the best lure available to them. He knew Paquito could take care of himself but they young man still didn't like the idea. "I'd rather not use them that way but... I can't think of a better idea," Jack admitted to her, staring at his feet.

    Initially Paquito had only followed Jack because the young man had defeated him in single combat, asserting himself as the Ak's rider. But it hadn't been long before the Akhlut's deference had turned into true loyalty. Jack saw him as a friend and treated well, giving him an enormous amount of autonomy. They spent time occasionally and, when he needed it, the young man called on Paquito for assistance but the rest of the time Jack let the Akhlut spend time among his own species, living his life the way he should. The Akhlut trusted him. Could using him this way be considered a betrayal of that trust?

[Nyghtingale]

Nyght sighed, placing her face in her hands and sitting there for a moment. Then she finally looked up and shrugged.

"I do not like putting Aurora in any more danger then you do. She is my companion, my friend, and my great creature that is loyal and amazing. I hate endangering them as well...but I am sure that as amazing as they are, they would be willing to take that risk to save us from danger as well as others. Yet, at the same time, I think we should take some time to think of ways to minimize the risk to them as well. Such as....we could definitely NOT blow them up. We could reduce that risk by possibly creating a pool deep enough that they could swim beneath the explosion. I am not sure...that would be a lot more work though...unless we tried to do this over at the Nile River...then we would not need to bring the water over and dig a giant pit and all that stuff.

She shrugged her shoulders and sighed, with out much more to add to this idea that she had just come up with. After all, how much thinking did he expect her to do upon the fly. Speaking of flying, she wondered how Aurora was doing. This was an extremely different environment than Aurora was use to. So she was slightly worried that her companion might be getting sick.

[Jacksoπ Flεtchεr]

    The young man looked away from Nyght's facepalm. He'd said something wrong, obviously. Jack hadn't meant to imply she didn't care about Aurora, or even that she didn't care about Aurora as much as he cared about Paquito. All he'd wanted to do was make his reservations about the risks involved known.

    "I didn't mean to-" Jack stopped himself from completing the apology, falling silent again. He thought for a moment, once she'd finished talking. "Is it entirely necessary that we blow anything up at all? Seems rather flashy and I'd prefer something just a tad more low key. We can both control metals, so I was thinking once we've lured the sphinx into the trap we could pull a trick with some chains. You know, something similar to what we did in Alaska. "

    Pausing for a second before continuing, Jack considered whether or not he should tell her this next part. He figured she already knew, but it wouldn't be a good idea to seem like he was keeping secrets from her in case she didn't, so the young man decided to tell her. "The body... It has value. That, along with my other reasons, are why I'd prefer not to use explosives."

[Nyghtingale]

     Nyght thought about his words, gripping her chin between her forefinger and thumb and resting her elbow upon her knees which where crossed. Jack had a very good point. The sphinx might be extremely useful, the insides and the outsides. It was possibly they could even harvest it for other things as well, sell them on the black market. She had heard tell sphinx testicles where an extremely potent fertility drug, and they could always sell them (truth or not was irrelevant) and make a ton of money. So it was quite possible, and pretty safe to assume, it was worth their while to keep the sphinx more in take then the Stymphalian bird that she had obliterated.

    "Alright, I suppose you are right. We should definitely try to keep take it in more or less one piece this time. We could always harvest it for different organs and sell them on the supernatural black market you know....make a whole bunch of cash off this endeavor as well. Could be useful...or maybe not..." She shrugged her shoulders and grinned, looking at Jack. Her grin slowly faded though.


     "What if the Sphinx is a lot strong then the akhult had been though? We barely got that to work with Auorora...and I think the sphinx is physically stronger then she is. Not to mention it might have the power to manipulate metal as well...which would put us at a serious disadvantage if we base our whole plan upon just that. We should think of something else, just in case. A plan B...."

[Jacksoπ Flεtchεr]

    Jack scratched his chin, not commenting on the idea of selling the creature's organs on the black market because he didn't have anything to add to the thought. He didn't particularly need the money. He'd never really needed things like that, simply taking it when he found a use for it. But the young man knew that Nyght's living circumstances had been less than favorable not a long while ago. Whether she needed money or not was irrelevant though. They were working together on this so Nyght was entitled to do whatever she wanted with the sphinx's organs, no questions asked.

    "The chains, I'm thinking, would mostly just be to slow the creature down. They should hold it, at least for a little while. The two of us together should be more than enough to match whatever metal powers it may manage to bring to bear and, after giving it a bit of a shock to stun it for a few moments to keep it from resisting or teleporting away, delivering the killing blow should be easy enough. Wounding a major artery should cause it to bleed out fairly quickly without doing too much damage to its major organs, though that would be more dangerous than simply emptying the contents of the creature's cranium." The young man laid out the fairly simple plan. It wasn't perfect, he knew that. Nyght wouldn't hesitate to help iron out the flaws or suggest an entirely new one, if she had a better idea.

    "If the trap is sprung soundly, then the fight should be over before the sphinx even realizes it is under attack."

[Nyghtingale]

Nyght took a few minutes contemplating the plan, thinking about what Jack had proposed. It seemed sound enough, for the most part. The problem was that they did not know exactly what the creature was capable of doing, or exactly how it compared to them. It could be extremely smart and see through the the plan and trap all together, or it might fall for it. It could be strong enough to rip their chains they tried to use to shreds as if they where paper mache. They just did not have enough intelligence to work upon, and yet she also knew that they where not going to get anymore then what they already had.

"Seems like a decent enough plan....but we probably should not blow the brains out all over the place. Once, that is going to be a disgusting mess we will have to clean up...secondly we might need the head. Other then that though, the only problem I fore see is the creature itself. We do not know how intelligent it really is, or how craft. All the stories about sphinx show them as being far more crafty then we are...and hundreds of times more devious. It could see straight through our trap....but this is the best we have to work upon. So I suggest we just go with this plan, and if it does not work as we want we will just have to improvise on the go."

[Jacksoπ Flεtchεr]

    "I wasn't suggesting we blow its head off, I was just saying that killing it more slowly in a way that would preserve its organs and such would be a trade off with the additional speed and safety that a headshot would bring. Hell, the brain is probably one of the most valuable parts. Riddle of the sphinx and all." Jack leaned back and sighed. So they finally had a plan. Now all they needed to do was figure out where exactly they should lay their trap.

    "Where do you want to set everything up? As you said earlier, the sphinx is most likely hiding somewhere outside the city though it comes into the city to kill. We could set our trap outside the city and hope the area we choose is the right one to catch the creature's attention, or we can try to guess where it will strike next inside the city." The young man thought for a moment before continuing. "If you want to set it in the city, we can look at the previous murders to get some idea of where it likes to hunt."  The plan seemed to be coming together well enough. After ironing out a few more details, they should be ready to move.

    "It might seem suspicious to find two Akhlut inside the city so that could set off some alarms. Akhlut are rare enough this far south to begin with but, as the sphinx is fairly young, it might not know that."

[Nyghtingale]

     Nyght laughed slightly when he mentioned the brain being possibly the most important part, with the whole riddle thing. It was slightly amusing, but she knew he was also slightly serious as well. Seemed like that was a running theme in this whole conversation so far. She watched as Jack leaned back and sighed. He then asked where they should set the trap, and laid out several ideas. She had been thinking of that as well, and she was extremely against the idea of attempting to do this with in the city itself for several reasons.

     "I definitely think we should do it outside the city. We don't want to start a war against some creature we don't fully understand with civilians around who could get hurt or even killed in the process. Also, although we would have more cover and things to hide behind and inside we also would not have very much room to move around either. Plus like you said, the akhult are pretty rare inside the city. I am sure if we did this inside the city, with all the damage that could happen and three fantastical creatures that are not suppose to exist we might end up in jail or worse, shot by some terrified police. So...definitely outside the city it is."

     She contemplated for a moment, then nodded to herself slowly. "We should still look at where the creature has been hunting though. It might be possible to figure out where it usually comes in to the city and leaves. It is not a guarantee we will get it right, but it is better then just throwing a trap up anywhere and hoping we did in the right place.

[Jacksoπ Flεtchεr]

    "Ooh." It hadn't even occurred to Jack that innocents might be caught in the crossfire if they attempted to trap and confront the sphinx inside the city. "In the movies, the heroes usually do battle with the villain in, like, an abandoned warehouse district or something and no innocents are ever hurt. Unless the villain decides to take hostages, which they do more often than not." The young man thought to himself, his face flushing when he realized he'd been speaking out loud.

    "Ahem." Jack cleared his throat, clearly embarrassed. "So, we, uh, should definitely confront the creature outside the city. Cool. Let's go up to my room, then." The young man climbed to his feet, picking up his small bag as he did so. "N-not for, um, well, you know. I mean, I've got some stuff up in my room. Research! And, well, I figured you might want to see it..." He'd never stumbled quite this much, gotten quite so flustered. "The information I gathered!" He quickly added. The young man forced himself to shut up before he made an even bigger fool of himself.

    Once he'd composed himself, Jack continued. "I mapped out where the bodies were found, where potential victims were last seen but whose bodies haven't shown up yet, and had autopsies done on the corpses we have found by a coroner I trust. They're in the supernatural know, so I trust they managed to point out anything too obvious. Afterwards, we can give the bodies and sites themselves a visit if you feel a firsthand look is necessary."

[Nyghtingale]

Nyght laughed, chuckling as Jack seemed to get awkward fro some reason. She smiled, shaking her head slowly from side to as she watched Jack. She finally stood up and put her hand on Jack's shoulder. "Calm down, Jack. I understood exactly what you meant. If you have stuff, I would expect you to have it stashed around somewhere around here and not upon your person."

She giggled, shaking her head at Jack's suddenly strange behavior. She wondered what was wrong with him, what was making his usual cool nature break all the sudden. She wasn't entirely sure, but it was kind of cute that he was showing this side of himself. When he finally managed to gather himself and continued explaining she nodded her understanding.

"Oh, let us go see what you have. All the information you have gathered and gotten and we can decide where to set up our trap. I do not think that we will need to go see any of the bodies, I am sure you have all the information that could have been gotten from them."

Truth be told, the idea of seeing dead bodies all cut up, even for an autopsy, made her stomach turn and feel slightly squeamish. She did not want to look at those, and she was sure that Jack had done his work well. He had not failed them yet in these sorts of things.

[Jacksoπ Flεtchεr]

    The young man nearly jumped out of his skin when Nyght laid her hand on his shoulder. Jack still wasn't used to being touched and it freaked him out. He sighed, still embarrassed as hell but since she didn't seem to be making a big deal out of it, the young man figured he could move on and act like it had never happened. He'd already forgotten. Yep. Totally forgotten.

    "Right, right. Well, follow me." Jack, his face still slightly flushed, made his way over to the elevator and hit the up button. While they waited, the young man thought about how Nyght had responded when he'd offered to take her to see the bodies. He wasn't the best at reading faces or tones or emotions or just how others might be feeling in general, but she hadn't seemed too particularly fond of the idea of looking at the corpses. It was probably nothing, though.

    Jack stepped into the open elevator and hit his floor. While the elevator rose, the young man tried to ignore the tightness in his chest, sneaking glances at Nyght every so often. Tight spaces were never really Jack's strong suit. Yeah, that was probably it. When the doors opened again, the young man quickly hurried out and made his way to his room where he fumbled with the key before finally shimmying the door open for Nyght.

    "It's not the best, I know," the young man apologized, indicating the relatively small room and its fairly plain furnishings. "I mean, I usually teleport home to sleep. But I set my investigation up here so you could check it out once you made it in."

[Nyghtingale]

     Nyght followed Jack, then hesitated at the elevator and grimace. She did not really enjoy the confined space, but she rationalized that if something happened, she could always control the metal around her as well as electrical currents to achieve a successful freeing or forcing the elevator to go where she wanted. With that mental fortitude, she stepped on to the elevator and tried to relax against the back, leaning against the back wall and taking slow deep long breaths to keep herself from getting to anxious.

     When the doors slide open again, she stepped off after Jack who seemed quite eager to exit the contained area, and she smiled to herself as he went past. So he did not like elevators either? She was not the kind of person to make fun of him, and so she made sure to think of this several times to solidify it in her memory. Now, if they ever had to take an elevator again, she would happily suggest they take the stairs and admit to her fear of the confined spaces so that way Jack would be able to graciously accept and not have to stand in the confined area.

     Stepping in to his room, she waved her hand dismissively at his first words. She knew Jack's habit of teleporting everywhere he wanted, and knew that he probably had only ever used that door once before. It did not bother her, and she was pretty easy going.

     "Do not be so easily dismissive Jack. Remember I was homeless for a exceeding amount of time. Even the simple things to me are extremely nice. Now, let us look at this investigating you have done, and figure out where this sphinx is getting in to the city and where we can set up our booby traps."