thiswallinside | 20th arrest; feathers fallen from drapes fold her into pieces tied up and lace

Missing

Alexis Castle
5'6", red hair, blue eyes
Last seen in jeans and t-shirt

A seventeen-year-old girl named Alexis Castle went missing two days ago, July 7 at about 11PM. So far, we've been unable to locate her with the small search party we'd put together. A second search party is gathering together tomorrow morning at eight in front of the precinct and we could use a lot more volunteers. In fact, I'm begging for more. Her father, Rick, her friend, Blue and I will be passing out flyers with her photo and other information for those willing to help us in the search.

Otherwise, this is a photo of her for those of you who are unable to help us look for her. If you see her, please call one of the three people mentioned before. Alexis is very important to her family, and she's from a world where magic and science fiction are just in books. She's made some of you free cookies and probably served you coffee at some point, said kind words to you when things weren't going well. She probably wouldn't like me saying it, but she's just a child, and she needs our help.

And no. She is not in the Hall.

[ooc: Search party put-together for Lazslo's Kidnapping Plot. Other posts: Alexis' initial disappearance, her experiment log, Rick noticing her missing. OOC post #1, OOC post #2. Volunteers are welcome, though we won't be finding Alexis in the City; Beckett will just be extremely grateful! It's still just before the 10th in my timezone, so please no fourth wall shenanigans here, thank you. :)]

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[Her response makes Sylar smile, a shy sort of smile directed at the ground. It crosses his mind that he has plenty of opportunity here to use that trust to his advantage if he needs to- and he does his best to squash that thought as soon as he notices it. He doesn't need to, and it's exactly that sort of thing that gets him in trouble.]

You aren't aware of how unusual it is that people would give me a chance, even with all that going for me. It means-

[He cuts himself off as he hears a skittering sound in front of them and somewhat to the right.] Ah- they've found us.

[His hand lights up as blue sparks dance across it, casting more light on the tunnel. It looks like there's two (or maybe three) large dog-sized things coming their way, but it's hard to make out exactly what they might be.]

[She means to reply that while she might be used to putting guilty people away for good, sometimes there are those kinds that deserve a few chances. The ones who weren't as privileged as she was, they definitely deserved a little faith.

But then his hands are lighting up, and she's not sure what to make of it. No matter how much out of the ordinary she sees here, Beckett's not sure she'll ever really be used to it.]

They?

[Her flashlight isn't bright enough to let her see any detail, but she can see the large shapes. The clap of the barrel loading as she cocks the shotgun makes her feel only marginally better.] Oh. Silver going to do anything against them?

[He holds his hand out farther, almost like a torch, as he tries to discern what they are. They seem crustacean, but with longer, pincer-like legs. They're moving very fast, and...apparently able to climb walls and ceilings. They seem to have very sharp-looking spikes of 'teeth' at the end of their beady-eyed heads.]

It would probably do about as well as anything else.

[He holds his hand out and the closest one actually stops for a moment, apparently hesitant. Sylar opens his fingers, and....the light continues to crackle. He frowns at his hand for a moment.]

[ooc: Here is a picture, if you really want to see the horrible things. D: Ugh, they're creepier than I remembered.]

[She assumes he's trying to scare them off, so Beckett holds her fire under the assumption that an attack might provoke retaliation. To her, she can't imagine that they might be that cognitive, but she's not sure she can take chances down here.

Beckett steps up just behind Sylar when she doesn't see the beasts slow down and given another second of inaction, she starts to unload. An unfortunately inaccurate weapon, she's pretty much just spraying without regard to where the ugly things really are.]

Any time...!

[There is a moment she thinks she's just been brought down here under a ruse, but she still stands her ground in the hopes that it isn't, and that they'll continue looking for Alexis.]

[He gives up on the electrokinesis- it doesn't always work, anyway. It looks like Beckett's ripped apart two of these creatures. Once the exoskeleton's broken well enough, these creatures are pretty much done.

The third seems confused, unsure what to do. Apparently it got hit by the bullet spray as well, just not enough to truly crack it. Sylar grabs it with telekinesis and pushes it back down the tunnel, as far as they can see. It lands on its backside and spends some time scrambling before it rights itself. Then it skitters away from them.]

Best to leave the injured ones alive. It warns anything else it might come across that there's something in this area, and they're unlikely to bother us in the future.

[However, it's not practicality that drives him here. His reactions come more from the ridiculous demand from his world-mates a year ago that he not kill monsters. He got used to it.]

Those were some of the nastier-looking ones I've seen down here. [He looks up to the mess that is the two remaining dead bugs and makes a face.]

[She's happy to follow his advice, panting from the quick spurt of adrenaline, and looping the shotgun onto her back to switch out for a smaller.]

I guess I don't usually think about it that way.

[But she can adapt. If it means getting Alexis back, she can do whatever it takes. Even making comments she's pretty sure are Castle's territory, and without waiting for an answer to keep pushing forward:]

We going further down the rabbit hole, then?

[He gives her a small glance and nods. She's barely flinching from all that- not that he figured she would. But it's still fairly impressive.]

Yep. I've found people camping out as far as twice as deep, and I know there are dead ends down this way that open up a bit- that's good for nests and hidey-holes. If we're looking for someone or something that grabbed Alexis and pulled her down here, that's where they'll be.

[He tends to become very matter-of-fact when working with the police- he's obviously watched a lot of Dragnet. Regardless, he waves her on, starting further down the tunnel himself. He ignores the goo-ridden mess that was the two other monsters as he passes it. ]

If we find her, I'm not concerned with being a hero. You see a shot, you take it. I just want her out alive.

[She smacks her maglite against her hand a few times as she follows along, and it flickers a little brighter. Also, it keeps her from inspecting guts too closely and losing the very fragile cool she's got put together.

For the moment, Beckett is consciously tossing aside Sylar's record. It's easy if she remembers that profilers and even detectives have to think like criminals.]

Done and done. [Although he takes into account more last sentence than the first two. Rescue is somewhat new for him, but he thinks it's something he could be good at.

He continues down the tunnels, taking one more right. The tunnel does indeed open up at one point, and....ends on nothing. Well, there are some food wrappers, but that seems to be all. Sylar frowns.]

There's two others close by. Guess we backtrack.