Chapter 2 - The Calm Before the Storm

[Shrike7]

Re: Chapter 2 - The Calm Before the Storm

"The fuck? That's new..." River mutters as she watches the cat-thing along the roof. She hears a thump and turns her gaze away to find out it was over in Fletch's fenced off area, then turns back to stare at it, alerting it that she had spotted it, apparently. It pads off to the far end, and she's left with a dilemma...

"Hey Fletch, you got that thump in the yard handled? There's something on the roof that isn't that dude, I'm gonna check it out." She calls back, then runs over and flits up the side of the building. "Here, kitty kitty..."

 

[Copper]

Re: Chapter 2 - The Calm Before the Storm

Like Fletch, she thinks, holding in her frown. Still, as he said, there were enough shadows. She does take a moment to study his features, just in the off chance that they are spotted, or rather, he's spotted, if there's anything possible she can use to play off the way he looks. ((Since, well, all you said was "He looks like a Nosferatu." Could look like Batboy. Could look like the creature from the black lagoon...))

"We'll take the south side," she says quietly. "And I'll keep ahead of you, if that's all right. Just watch for my hand to drop." She makes a point of clutching at the shoulder strap of her bag. "If it does, try and hide, okay?" Seems a decent enough plan. She almost wonders how he got this far originally.

If he's ready, she'll start off across the lot, making sure to scan for any errant pedestrians or other folk that might be loitering about.

 

[Rule 34]

Re: Chapter 2 - The Calm Before the Storm

"Got it," Fletch growls and grabs a coil of the chain in his hand, ready to unleash it at a moment's notice. He walks over to the fence quietly, now and then peering up at the roof. Undoing the chain to the srapyard causes a bit of noise, though, and Fletch curses as he figures whatever it was knows he's here now. Dropping all pretense he jumps on top of a vehicle and starts to look around, once more parting the shadows with his Eyes of the Beast after checking that there's no kine watching.

 

[dmronny]

Re: Chapter 2 - The Calm Before the Storm

The girl looks toward the oncoming car for a second before she hesitantly starts walking towards them. After clambering down the short embankment she continues up to them hesitantly her frightened eyes never leaving the shotgun in Claire's hands. She looks to be in her early twenties with medium length disheveled brown hair. For clothes she's only wearing a pair of panties and a poorly buttoned long-sleeved white shirt with no shoes on her feet.

"I-I'm s-sorry officer b-but the gun scared me when I first s-saw it. M-my friends were j-just. Were j-just. -incoherent sobbing and babbling-"

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River has no problem making her way up to the roof of the garage where she saw the cat-thing. What ever the creature is it's still sitting towards the back edge of the roof where it had moved to after hissing towards her. Looking towards her as she climbs up it hisses again though it doesn't run off and stays sitting with it's tail curled around it. Up close it looks exactly like a cat except that there's something off about it. It's eyes seem lifeless and it looks almost as if it were a fake though it certainly moves and acts as though it's alive.

Fletch stares through the darkness of the junkyard from his perch on the vehicle. He notices nothing on his first scan of the are but as he's slowly turning his head again the kindred seems to appear from nowhere in front of Fletch thrusting his hand forward as he does so. Fletch sees what looks like the air bending as if something were it's way through it towards him from the vampire's hand.

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Lucky nods his head and letting her take the lead carefully follows her out, trying to move as quietly as he can while staying low. They're about to cross the street when a car goes speeding by almost catching them by surprise. Their plan seems to work perfectly however as Lucky is able to disappear just in time when Izzy drops her hand.

They manage to make it over the street and through the first half of the lot where they the people seem to be. As they make their way along the side of the mall though she catches a pair of guy's stepping out of the shadows a short distance ahead of her. She drops her hand as they start heading her way and Lucky is safe but they seem to have noticed her as they call out.

"Well looky here Marcus told you it was just a slow night. So what kind of candy are you looking for sweet thing?"

 

[Sinfulwolf]

Re: Chapter 2 - The Calm Before the Storm

Claire glances over at Eve for a brief second, and mutters something under her breath about never living this down. Keeping the weapon pointed directly away from the woman, Claire steps up to her, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"It's okay. It's okay. Come with me and we'll get you cleaned up and back home alright?" Claire said softly, almost motherly. Her muscles were relaxed a calm smile on her features as she gently guided the woman back towards the fort.

"We have someone who may want to talk to you, so we can catch whoever hurt you and your friends. You'll be able to put all this behind you," she continued gently.

 

[Chibichibi]

Re: Chapter 2 - The Calm Before the Storm

Eve relaxed from the pumped up state she'd been in and also smiled at the woman, nodding encouragingly. "She's right ma'am." her accent came in a bit thicker than normal. "We'll get everything straightened out. You just gotta come with us."

 

[dmronny]

Re: Chapter 2 - The Calm Before the Storm

The girl is still sobbing and babbling incoherently when the car passes by without even slowing down. Their words seem to calm her a little and she allows them to drag her along back towards the campsite.

"D-do we have to go back to t-the campsite. I-i saw something attack m-my boyfriend. He h-had a gun like y-yours."

 

[Copper]

Re: Chapter 2 - The Calm Before the Storm

Izzy rolls her eyes at the pair, not having issue with letting them see it, either. Still, if she could manage to scurry them off, Lucky'd be able to get past them.

"Oh, please. Like I'd want anything you're selling," she snips, though to them it might look like her eyes are flicking around nervously. In actuality, she's trying to find the best place to lead them off or toward so Lucky can continue to scoot on by.

 

[Sinfulwolf]

Re: Chapter 2 - The Calm Before the Storm

"A gun like mine? Did he use anything else in the attack ma'am? And no, we're not going directly to the camp site, we're going to the fort. You don't have to go back to the camp," Claire said carefully, besides... she didn't want the girl to see the sight and suddenly remember something she shouldn't be.

She guided the woman through the woods and towards the fort where Jack would still be searching.

 

[Chibichibi]

Re: Chapter 2 - The Calm Before the Storm

Eve followed behind, doing her best to keep giving the woman reassuring smiles and to keep an eye should she try to bolt.

 

[dmronny]

Re: Chapter 2 - The Calm Before the Storm

At Claire's assurance that they don't have to head to the fort the girl looks much relieved though her eyes still betray the abject terror she must be feeling.

"H-he didn't use the shotgun on m-my boyfriend, h-he used it on our f-friends. H-he k-killed my b-boyfriend w-with his teeth like a v-v-vampire or something. T-then h-he started to rearrange the place and s-speaking to himself while h-he did it like he was crazy or something. O-oh god."

She breaks down into uncontrollable sobbing for a few minutes after that though she still continues to walk along with them. She starts to calm down again just as they break through the trees near the fort. Over in the parking lot they can see a black and white sitting with it's lights flashing. Jack stands near the black car talking to one of the officers.

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"Oh come on now little girl, you can't be telling me you'd come walking through here if you didn't want to buy something. If your just trying to stay loyal to Luis it's cool we work for the same people. Things are safe here to we got big Marcus here to keep the bad guy's away, so what is it you want honey?"

The smaller of the two guy's seems to be the dealer judging from his banter and judging from his statements the much larger guy standing towards the back seems to be there for protection. He also seem sot be much more observant as he walks up a little closer looking as if he's trying to see behind Izzy, a confused look on his face.

 

[Copper]

Re: Chapter 2 - The Calm Before the Storm

Izzy catches the muscle looking around and if he is there to keep trouble away, then the best way to do that is to distract him. This, unfortunately, might hurt. "Look, 'sugar,'" She rather quickly puts herself within the dealer's personal space, actually jabbing out at his shoulder with two fingers. "I'm just taking a shortcut home. Now either you and your trained monkey back off, or I'll start screaming loud enough for them to hear me in the next county over."

(God bless Fortitude.)

 

[dmronny]

Re: Chapter 2 - The Calm Before the Storm

((For convenience I moved the last post by me for each group up, that way you don't have to go searching for it.))

At Claire's assurance that they don't have to head to the fort the girl looks much relieved though her eyes still betray the abject terror she must be feeling.

"H-he didn't use the shotgun on m-my boyfriend, h-he used it on our f-friends. H-he k-killed my b-boyfriend w-with his teeth like a v-v-vampire or something. T-then h-he started to rearrange the place and s-speaking to himself while h-he did it like he was crazy or something. O-oh god."

She breaks down into uncontrollable sobbing for a few minutes after that though she still continues to walk along with them. She starts to calm down again just as they break through the trees near the fort. Over in the parking lot they can see a black and white sitting with it's lights flashing. Jack stands near the black car talking to one of the officers.

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River has no problem making her way up to the roof of the garage where she saw the cat-thing. What ever the creature is it's still sitting towards the back edge of the roof where it had moved to after hissing towards her. Looking towards her as she climbs up it hisses again though it doesn't run off and stays sitting with it's tail curled around it. Up close it looks exactly like a cat except that there's something off about it. It's eyes seem lifeless and it looks almost as if it were a fake though it certainly moves and acts as though it's alive.

Fletch stares through the darkness of the junkyard from his perch on the vehicle. He notices nothing on his first scan of the are but as he's slowly turning his head again the kindred seems to appear from nowhere in front of Fletch thrusting his hand forward as he does so. Fletch sees what looks like the air bending as if something were it's way through it towards him from the vampire's hand.

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The dealer goes a little bug-eyed as Izzy jabs her fingers into his shoulder. Taking a step back he puffs up a little and starts sucking on his bottom lip while lifting the front of his t-shirt to reveal a pistol tucked into his belt.

"Shit bitch you be trippin ifn you be thin..."

The dealer is suddenly cut off by Marcus holding his hand out and looking the other guy back.

"Chill squirrel, the lady said she's just trying to take a shortcut. Don't matter if it's the truth or not so long as she ain't causing trouble."

Turning back he looks Izzy up and down before responding.

"You got guts lady but I got one question before we part ways. You taken this shortcut within the past month cause one of our dealers got killed in this area and it sure as well wasn't like any hit I ever seen?"

 

[Copper]

Re: Chapter 2 - The Calm Before the Storm

Izzy starts to take a step back at the sight of the pistol and then catches herself, though her back goes rather ramrod straight, her jaw set as she keeps her attention on the dealer, eyes only sliding away from him after Marcus starts speaking.

At his question, she almost asks him what makes him think she'd know anything about it but then the notion flashes into her mind that he might be asking her as a witness not as a suspect.

She shakes her head, swallowing once before replying. "Haven't seen a thing. This isn't a route that I normally take." She keeps her voice level, her gaze steady on him. That said, her brows arch. "Now, if you gentlemen will excuse me, I'll be on my way and you can get back to your business."

And unless either of them decides to stop her again, she'll keep walking, her hand going to clutch at the strap of her bag again, looking like a nervous gesture and praying that Lucky managed to skirt around this whole situation somehow.

 

[Rule 34]

Re: Chapter 2 - The Calm Before the Storm

Well, SHIT. Fletch dives sideways off the vehicle and tries to roll through, spinning around while releasing the length of chain he grabbed in a wide swing. The rest of it remains looped around his forearm.

 

[Sinfulwolf]

Re: Chapter 2 - The Calm Before the Storm

Claire starts slightly when she notices the cruiser. She looks over to Eve and quickly passes her the shotgun, whispering in her ear: "Put it in the woods, I'll get it later. Keep her here," she whispers tightly, before walking over to Jack and the cruiser.

"Jack," she calls gently from a short distance away, though her eyes were locked onto the cruiser itself, wondering if it was the two 'cops' that had apprehended her before.

 

[Chibichibi]

Re: Chapter 2 - The Calm Before the Storm

Eve nods and says, "Ma'am, if you'll give me a moment," she hurries and deposits the gun near the treeline, and hurries back to the woman as fast as she can. "Just give her a minute, ma'am. She'd gonna go get the officer that'll want to talk to you and get you some help."

 

[dmronny]

Re: Chapter 2 - The Calm Before the Storm

The cruiser isn't the same but the officer talking to Jack is the younger of the two that Claire had been picked up by. Jack finishes up with what ever he's saying to the ghoul and points toward camp site before heading over to Claire.

"Good you found her. Hopefully without any trouble, she see anything she shouldn't have?"

The girl just stands there looking over at Jack and Claire talking near the cruiser while Eve hides the gun. Her sobbing has died down again Eve returns and after nodding her head she asks.

"A-are they all really d-dead, uh officer. I d-didn't actually stop to look I just ran when I-i saw what that guy did."

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The creature just keeps sitting and looking up at River hissing whenever she tries to move closer to it. Suddenly just as the commotion starts towards the junkyard, Cody suddenly comes over the headset.

"All right I finally got Vincent to head back your way. How are things going on your end?"

Whatever the thing was that the other vampire had thrown his way misses as Fletch dives off the side of the vehicle. The end of the chain flying out in a wide circle and catching his opponent in the midsection. The other vampire falls backwards from where he stands and lands on his backside with an annoyed look on his face.

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Marcus nods and indicates she can go seemingly satisfied with her answer before shooing the dealer off with a look. moving back toward where they were standing before though Marcus does take a look behind her again as he's leaving though he just shakes his head as if he's thinking he must have been seeing things.

Izzy makes it the rest of the way across the parking lot without a problem though she gets the feeling that the dealer and Marcus haven't taken their eyes off her the whole way. Once she makes her way into the trees she finds Lucky waiting a worried look on his face.

"Did that big guy see me, he was looking right at me at first. I only managed to get away when you shoved the little guy."

 

[Rule 34]

Re: Chapter 2 - The Calm Before the Storm

Fletch grins as the Tremere falls on his ass. He pulls the improvised whip back and gets it swinging over his head before trying to bring it down on the kindred's noggin.

 

[Sinfulwolf]

Re: Chapter 2 - The Calm Before the Storm

Claire glanced over her shoulder at the sobbing woman before looking back and nodding.

"She saw her attacker tearing into one of the victims. Teeth and such. Said it seemed like a vampire. Then whoever the attacker was began speaking to himself and re-arranging stuff," Claire said, leaving it up to Jack and the young cop whether or not the girl had seen too much.