River let out a yell of surprise as she was bodily picked up and thrown through a wall by the mage's magic, her armour thankfully absorbing most of the blow, but still leaving her stunned a few breaths. The miniature sun burned away her previous attack, the runner biting her lip at the pain of it there and on her armour, just about to blink away when Claire arrived, the light winiing out as she killed the mage controlling it. The last didn't seem to notice at first, and River wasn't wanting to give him time to sort out what had happened. She drew up a wall of shadow between them as she jumped to her feet, then jumped straight through it anyways, hands extending into wicked talons aimed for the mage's face and throat.
As River made to unleash her counterattack, her wall springing suddenly into place, the man that was her victim unleashed a large and infernally hot rolling wave of flames. As the fire washed over the wall, the mage only had a moment to recognize his mistake as the wraithling simply launched herself through her own barrier, the shadow stretching across her form, carrying fire and death with her as she struck the man. Screaming in pain for a moment, his thrashing only lasted for a moment as her talons tore him apart. Blood fountaining across the far wall, River found that his fire had failed to hurt her at all, despite it having torn her flimsy wall to pieces, her clothing scorched even underneath her own armour. Thankfully such a view was guarded from Claire, though she did raise an eyebrow at the brutal and straightforward attack. One group was down... The others were starting to close.... And now they were gone... They were all hiding from her now, they'd have to hunt them down the hard way now...
River almost recoiled at the blaze, pressing through as her nerves sparked witht he pain the shadow around her felt. Her first hit was across the man's face, his scream cut short as the second tore through his throat, dragging him forward to meet the third, the woman doing a small pirouette around him tu bury her claws through his back and into his heart, the strike following through to bear the corpse to the ground, before she drew back, standing again and looking over at Claire. "Thanks. the others... They're keeping the shadows at bay now, harder to track them..." She said slowly. "Doubt we could slip away, either. You have a bead on any of them?"
Claire chuckled, the harsh and dry as she pointed at the north wall. "The nearest only, but they're moving fast." She answered, before another vicious explosion rocked the facility, followed by the sound of helicopter rotors in the air. "Seems like the council is here as well... Which means our enemies will now be trying to flee... I like it when they run..." She added, grinning, her fangs shining in the flickering glow of the flames nearby, debris burning from the previous blast.
[Just let them go.] The trapped River prodded, prompty ignored. "Seems they didn't think this attack through, If they're looking to run so soon. You take them, I'll stop the chopper." She said, waiting for confirmation before heading upwards, gathering more shadow with each successive port, until the last one put her twenty or thirty feet above the chopper in the waning twilight. .Then she dropped the extra mass she collected, a leaden weight of darkness almost a foot in diameter, aimed right at the center of the chopper's rotors, and she blinked out again, reappearing a ways off on the roof to watch the effect.
"Split factions wanting different things! Fun fact, each council magistrate commands something of a private army. Not sure who these belong to, but the chopper is a riv...Well then" Claire said, watching as River rocketed skyward in her own unique way. As the various lights around the factory died, heralding her attack, the chopper, a black, possibly stealthed affair, kicked on a searchlight, trying to find the source of the disturbance that was reaking haywire on it's electrical system. The spotlight died soon after, flickering weakly, before the mass smashed down into the rotors, baring it down into the ground with a massive fireball of a detonation, several nearby warehouses laid flat in the blast, and River knocked clear from the rooftop, before her own tendrils lashed out to anchor her, and she came back down to the shaking, definitely on fire, soon to collapse factory Main. She could feel Claire, popping up in different areas, and her victims, appearing briefly within her web, before being snuffed out
like a candle before a hurricane. As she focused though, she felt a mind brush against her own, before another, and a third. With that being all the warning she recieved, a mental blow as real as any physical one smashed into her consciousness, dropping her to a knee as her own telekine nature reflexively tried to shunt it off. She could see stars flashing around in her mind as a trained and concerted effort to bring her down began. She'd have to find a way out of their range, it was the only way she knew...
Rival factions? Her demonic half didn't care, revelling in the destrustion she caused even as the surprisingly large blast wave knocked her off the building. She reached out, shadow extending past her arm's reach to catch the edge of the roof she was on, swinging her towards the wall. She let go before she hit, sliding down a ways before kicking off, rolling on the ground to absorb her momentum. Picking herself up with a grin, she just started to track Claire's movement when she came under assault herself, the utterly new sensation of being assaulted mentally bringing her to her knees before she ported away, taking refuge in the shadow world. She knew she couldn't wait here long though, so she bent her will to finding the mentalists. Far as she knew, they couldn't turn the lights on her, after all.
Back into her own little world, back into the relative safety of... Shit... She could already feel them moving. she'd jumped a lot recently. Though she'd left no food, this was no longer truly Her Place, and the creatures that warded it knew it. She could maybe stay her for another minute, tops, Total, before she'd have to leave it for an extended period and rely on other methods. Like sharks circling fresh blood, the chained shard of herself could feel them closing in, and this time, when she made it known, her other half listened... Here, and Only Here, could she assert any dominance over herself. Forcing the realization upon her dominant half, River forced herself to realize the danger, and bent her will to finding the threats that lay outside... the seconds dropped like grains of sand in an hourglass... 11... 12 She'd found 1, southeast corner of the factory wall, behind an open door, 15... 16... 17... 2! To her immediate right in plain sight, shielding herself from River's senses... she'd have to learn that technique... Where was the third! 20... 21... She could move now, slay at least half of the Telekines, or try her luck at finding the third threat, and the possible fourth still hunting her....
The seconds ticked away in River's head, the time ticking much faster here than in the world she watched, in comparison. The chained half counting them, more loudly as each passed, pressing at the half in control to leave as she felt the beasts here closing in. {Two is enough, go!] She yelled, the demonic half finally listening to the panicked tone, reappearing above the one closest, dropping down on it and driving a spike into his skull, pulling it out immediately and throwing it at the one through the door, more to engender the telekine's own panic than expecting it to finish them, the woman running quickly after it to make sure the job finished properly.
Back into reality, throw the black wall above the hidden woman and down onto a victim that literally never had any warning. The crunch and the wet sound that heralded her instantaneous death was only followed by the heartless, and powerful throwing of her victim. Soaring almost 30 feet, the corpse slammed into the door, knocking her second target over, and lessening the attack she could already feel rebuilding. River, moving on vaulted legs, her own shadows spiraling up into her feet to propel her faster, was on the downed man in fractions of a second after he hit the ground, his death just as quick... The third though was still pounding away at her mind.. And there was still no sign of the fourth. The pain flashing through her own skull was as if someone were slowly squeezing down on her, strangling her thoughts, making her hazy, and the trickle of blood sliding from her nose heralded what was obviously soon to be lethal...
She could feelthe blood, those of her victims on her suit of shadows, and her own, sliding between her skin and the dark barrier, trickling slowly into her mouth. With no idea where the third was to attack him physically, and out of time in the shadows to hide and wait, she dropped to her knees again, slumping against a wall and ignoring her physical shell for the time being, pressing her willpower back against the assault, looking to follow it back to the source and return the favour in kind. her own attacks were crude, but with the power of one that doesn't know their own limits as yet, driving against the invading presence with every fiber of her being, both halves working to ensure her survival as a whole.
It was painful, difficult, and she could feel the walls crushing in on her mental self even as she tried to marshal a counterattack. The part of herself that was still her was taking the worst of the pounding, tortured within her own seclusion, while the demonic half of her weathered the assault fairly well... She could not fight this threat as she was conflicted, and away from the shadows that were the old River's true source, that side of her found her toehold slipping, felt the crystalling prison, that little corner of herself, start to be crushed under the weight of Ferenze and his Minion's dominance. And That River...Already had a Master... Back to the source, with the naggling doubt restricting that side of her powers, River was able to follow the line back to her attacker, a cripple, a man in a wheelchair at the edge of the compound, and as she tore into his mind, and he saw what he had assaulted, River in all her demonic glory, with the shadow of her Master looming behind her, he gave a strangled scream, before his body erupted into flames, the conflagration starting inside his skull, before engulfing the rest of him... With the threat dealt with, the little hiding wraithling, River's last vestige of herself, felt the pressure her demonic half had inflicted to deal with the him, lessen, and she survived... but only barely... Already the sound of combat was starting to die down, and River could see the lines of black Humvees crashing through the gates baring the standing insignia of The Tower, and the men and women, and even creatures that they carried. Even Jess was now vaulting over the walls... River's instructions were not to be seen, by anyone... She had to find Claire, and get out. Now.
Her demonic half crowed it triumph, the annoying shard fading further bruised and weakened. But a whole different set of difficulties appeared, reinforcements from the tower crashing in. Her instructions were not to be seen, and even if those instructions came from teh same source as the reinforcements, plausible deniability seemed the best course of action. She focused for a moment to find Claire, cringing slightly at the effort required, and what she had to do next. The weak half had said a minute in the dark, she had barely spent half. It should be enough... Porting quickly to Claire's location, she gave the elder lycan a bare warning as she strode up. "Boss-man said to keep you hidden, his own people count. vamp's quick, we're quicker. This won't be pleasant, hold your breath, close your eyes." She spat out quickly, reaching out and taking hold of the kitsune. Assuming Claire didn't avoid or blast her for the presumption, she'd port them both into the sewers, as fast as she could.
Back away from her allies, to Claire, the woman just now disembowling another enemy. Turing to regard her, that lethal touch of hers lashing out before the lycan pulled it back, her lips turned into a disappointed scowl. "Fine. To Corvinus then, I'd rather be going home sooner anyway, and that was the last of the sport." She snarled, before closing her eyes as told, and soon finding herself almost a half mile away in the sewers. Looking around once they arrived, Claire's lips turned into a grin. "You're hunted in there... Interesting, and by something new.... Well well welll...~ Wont that be something to chat about... Maybe I will stick around..." She said, grinning her toothy old crone grin, and starting to walk. "Well, I do hope you have a better plan then wandering around in Shit all night..."
River swore she could feel the breath of the things down her neck, the graze of a claw before she dumped them into the sewer, panting and backing off a step. "Nothing should be in there, those things enforce that. Even I'm not immune." She said, letting the shadows fall from her face an dlimbs, keeping her torso covered for modesty and wiping the blood from her nose with a shred of her shirt. "Walking's about it, I fear. Don't got much more left in me, and another jump risks both out lives. Unless you have a better idea?"
"Hmm.... Nope! Walking in shit it is! It's just like being 150 again!" Claire said, clapping her hands and starting to stomp her way down the sewers. "Odds are we can surface somewhere and get a cab, or steal a car, or just... I suppose I could jump us into the tower if we were closer... I don't think you'd take my kind of travel well though... May not come out all in one piece." She mused, still walking. River could sense the sewers were clear, almost empty except for the rats... It would be a long and messy walk home, but it would be a safe one at least.
"From how Vorlan explained it, yours didn't sound so bad. Then again, you said yours was stronger somehow. Honestly, i can't think of anything worse than mine, right now. How is yours so bad?" She said, her strength returning as they walked. "Think we're alone down here, at least as far as threats go." She added after she had gained back enough to do a proper scan of the area.
"Think of it this way.. When you're younger, things are harder, well, you need to be clever, and more careful about how you do things yea? Well, I'm old, very old, and I stopped being careful a long time ago. Vorlan, the pup bless him, slips around and through, very good at it... I well. I change reality to suit me. I think. Fucked if I know exactly how it worked. I used to care, that stopped about a century ago. Now well, I want something, I go get it, I can't be bothered with consequences anymore. So when I jump, I tend to leave holes in things, or people." Claire said, expressing her point by putting her hand on the wall and seeming to push, her hand sliding into the stone. When she pulled back, the wall seemed to have been literally melted away, the stone scorching hot, warped, and violently cracked.
River's eyes widened in surprise, reaching a hand out until she could feel the warmth radiating off of it. "Your clothes seem fine, surely you take a bit more care with the things you bring with." She commented, resuming the walk with a shrug. "At least you know you're fine, using it. Mine can kill myself or anyone with me, I don't get much say. Regardless, we have the time now, at least. next left."
Claire chuckled again before nodding. "That's more something like muscle memory then choice, and a very good tailor. It wouldn't be the first time I walked through a wall, set an office on fire, and apologized naked though... I used to be quite the looker to." Claire added, barking a short laugh as she took the turn. "What about you though? Something new, and even then, something not. Things have already changed you girl... I felt the man you set ablaze... how did you do that..."
Shit. Think fast. "Not too different from you and the wall, i think. He was hammering at my head, so I did the same to his. didn't really expect him to light up, not really convinced that was my own fault, thought it was his own stuff at work. Must have hammered the inside tight enough to spark something, i guess." She said, pausing frequently. both to appear as if she was figuring as she went, and because she actually -was- figuring as she went. "Still figuring out all I can do. A lot of it is reflexive. They almost have a mind of their own, they kinda do their own thing, to make it turn out like I want." Another pause, longer. "I, uhh... Don't really want this big file on how to kill me, like the others i saw in the computer. Could you keep these to yourself, please?"
"Suppose so." Claire said off handedly, smiling at the thought as they walked. River figured they had another 2 miles to go in the sewers, which were thankfully entering the newer section of the city, which meant walkways. River could even feel Slip moving around in the sewers nearer the tower, building a web of it's own and apparently hungry, eating rats. "Honestly, I just want a bath,and then maybe I'll raid Corvinus' wine selection, not as good as the rum he keeps, but still, very large." Claire continued, tilting her head as she wondered more about how to spend her evening then the dead bodies and burning factory they were leaving behind.
"Think he's more protective of the rum, anyways." River said, stepping up onto a walkway with a grateful sigh. Her illusion seemed in place, for now at least. Once she had brought Hervo to her Master, perhaps he wouldn't have her return. Her cover would likely have been blown when she made her play, anyways. Her thoughts drifted to her reward, a small shiver passing through her in anticipation. The shard had something to say about it, but she clamped down on the weakened personality, keeping it silent in her head.
