Open Season (Open RP)

Elizabeth pauzed a moment to try and let the important parts of the volume of text sink in. Listening to Shannon panicking always gave her a slight headache... and now there where two of such critters around.

"Where is Lucard now, Darkleaf!", she walked to the big hall where she didn't saw any of them. "And our 'guest'." Elizabeth noted blood and wood splinters on the floor. But they wheren't there.

"Follow me you two... he may have taken her to his room.", and with that she walked to wards the dungeons. Across the stone corridor... the torches on either side flamed on by themselfves the moment the vampire passed them.

Darkleaf glances at Shannon and shrugs, before picking herself off the floor. Using her wings she quickly catches up with the Countess, following behind her and looking rather nervous.

Lucard looked up from the woman in the blood pit at the countess as she enter. "evening Elizabeth, has Darkleaf told you whats happening?" Lucard stood up, moving away from the pit to give Liz a peck on her cheek, then turned to woman again. "you may speak your message to the countess now".

For the most part the vampires had regained her human features, lips back to their normal pouty fullness, flesh lightly tanned. However her hands wouldn’t return until the metal caps were surgically removed....

She drank gorging herself as if she’d not eaten in weeks, when she rose from the pit, she resembled a greedy puppy belly swollen and distended.... well not really a puppy since they are rarely coated in blood.

She gives Lucard a smile and a look of such humble gratitude that it seems alien on her arrogant features.

“You may call me Maria, you have my eternal gratitude and thanks.” She said, struggling to remove the blood from her face.

Lucard nodded to the woman "a pleasure to meet you Maria, you had something to say to the countess? a message from this Tomb girl you mentioned?"

“She demands money... and has a means to threaten us” she paled a little and gave a shudder at remembered pain.

“I fear that if I repeat the tale too often, it will lead to open panic and perhaps even war.”

"Talk... and do not leave out any details... and I do mean any!", Elizabeth said with a commanding tone.

Shannon stayed at the door... and even though the room had enough space to hold the wee fae, she would rather stay outside peeking in.

Lucard looked to Darkleaf and Shannon saying "this is Vampire buisness, you may listen, but under no circumstances are you to repeat what you here without our permission, understand? now get in here Shannon and close the door".

Lucard turned back to Maria, his eyes flicking between her face and the stumps of her arms, anger boiling inside him.

Maria blanched and gave a curtsy

“C..countess” she stammered before she yelped, a long blade extending from her stomach.

A second appeared from her side, a third from the other, she gave the countess a confused, pleading look before she fell in half, split at the waist.

A ball like device rose from the lower half of her body, as both parts of the vampiress fell back into blood filled pool. It bobbed in the air, hovering by aid of the spinning propellers that had so cleanly sliced the vampiress into pieces.

The device rose into the air a little, with a buzz the bottom of the device swivelled, revealing a camera like device that emitted a blue light, this light soon became a blue tinged hologram. A little girl in a body covering cloak, with a hooded cowl and skull like mask... she was also wearing a large sombrero.

“Hola ********!” the hologram of Tomb greeted the Countess glibly.

Lucard's face twisted with rage as Maria fell apart. "Tomb i take it" he growled at the hologram. "good, now i know who to put a bullet in for this, what is it you want little girl? we are buisy and do not have time for the rantings of child who was never beaten by its parents"

The hologram device swivelled as the hologram of the diminutive, crime boss called Tomb marched back and forth.

“Do be a dear and keep your pets silent Bathory, a good hostess should know when to muzzle her animals after all.”

The hologram stopped pacing.

“What I want is simple... M..O..N..E..Y” though her face was hidden it was clearly a patronising look she gave Lucard

“For the hard of thinking that spells money” the hologram turned back to face the Countess.

“Not that much money, only ten percent of the annual profits of every Vampire controlled organisation.” The hologram clapped its hand delightedly “We could call it a tithe.”

Darkleaf had been standing with her back to the wall when the vampire called Maria had suddenly parted company with herself. Her eyes went wide, and with a gasp she threw up, she couldn't help it. She looked around, clamping a hand over her mouth, wondering if there was a way out of the room without drawing attention to herself any further.

In the graveyard in Sharkhead Skull Maiden was meditating, she had had some of her zombies put up posters wrote in magical glyphs around the isles and Paragon city. Telling all with magical knowledge that she could offer interesting spells, perhaps more than that, the cost though was high. vampire dust or a human skull, one per spell. She smirked under her mask, it was almost too generous, she found wars so amusing.

Now though she was here for more pratical reasons, she was going to need a bodyguard and she had just been reading old news papers and found a rather unpleasent but suitable soul to drag from hell to serve her. One old long dead cowboy who had to be hung three times before he died, yes he would serve her so well. Several of her undead servants arrived wearing monk like clothes and they bowed in a circle. A unhearthly green light started to glow from the floor, green smoke drifting up from it into the grey skies. Skull Maiden stood up and said in a loud pwoerful voice dripping with menace and hatred.

"Sprits come to me, bow to my will bind to me the one I seek, grant me the soul and undead form of Jacob Stone outlaw, murderer and grant me power over him forever".

There was a red lightning strike in the middle of the circle and a zombie hand smashed through the Earth. Then a large figure of a man in a brown trench coat and cowboy hat holding a whip lifted himself out of the floor, he said in a heavy southern accent.

"Who called me!

Skull Maiden chuckled in a cold evil way, "Welcome back Jacob Stone, follow me, we have much to discuss".

Jacob spat on the floor but felt compelled somehow to do what the woman said and he followed her away from the graveyard and he in turn was followed by Skull Maiden's undead servants.

Port Oakes.

In her base Leeches had watched on one of her cameras as the wounded vampire was taken into Castle Bathory, she could tell that something was seriously amiss. Just because she did not dwell in the castle did not mean she did not have a interest in the Court and its continued exsistance. She personally thought it had been a mistake to carry the vampire inside but it was their business, she shook her head and sighed. It had been only a matter of time till something like this took place, she would wait and see what transpired after these events.

Back in the Castle Shannon too was looking at the bloody cutup of the mutilated Vampire with wide-eyed horror. And although she didn't get sick her hands where covering her mouth and she was struck silent.

Elizabeth stayed cool though and gave a silent nod to Lucard to be quiet. "Look here, little girl... I am not in the mood for messy games. And I am not going to pay for it in any way. In fact... I should have you on your knees cleaning this up!", she waved to the blood, bones and flesh scattered all over the room. "Further more... I pay a bounty a head. But for those on my list only. This... 'girl' was not on it."

She walked a bit closer to the hologram... as if it was the camera. "I am not taking any blackmail... and certainly not form a child." Behind her back she waved to Shannon and Darkleaf to get out of the room. "Your little device might be able to explode but I am ok with that... I have reasons to believe I will survive it. Will you survive my anger though?!"

"That's the question..."

Shannon opened the door a bit... and looked at her mistress very carefully... "Missy Elizabeth will survive yes... Shannon is sure..." Then pulled Darkleaf with her to the door.

Lucard stood silent behind Elizabeth, watching Tomb's reaction, his anger seemed to have gone back below the surface and his face had taken on an evil smirk. His body language suggest he had relax also, slouching a little behind Liz, but his aggitation showed through as his hands rested gently on his pistols.
As Elizabeth mentioned her wrath, Lucard began to shake, a grin forming on his face as he looked away from the hologram, a dark laugh welling up inside him.

“An explosion, you think I’d go for something as damn simple as threatening to blow you up? Why my dear Bathory you must be getting senile in your old age.” The hologram steeped its fingers.

“The blood is life, I believe that is the saying correct?” her tone was condescending, the way one might talk to a puppy that kept doing its business on the rug.

“Now I’ve come into possession of a fairly unique virus, it’s hideously virulent, spreading through air and water well... like a plague.” The hologram looked back towards the pit

“While it has no major effect on the infected, save an eighty percent increased chance of cancer, what it does however do is make the infected blood totally inedible by vampires” she chuckled

“Ask Maria about it... when she pulls herself together, really now people these days, one little shock and they go completely to pieces Ahaha ahahaha hahaha hahahahaah” the hologram stopped stock still as if forcing herself to stop laughing.

“So here we have it, a ten percent tithe for your continued existence, else you face your entire parasitic coffin dodging race starving into oblivion.” The hologram looked Bathory up and down impudently “You don’t look the type that would slack on rations dear”

Lucard began to laugh loudly, evilly, his voice echoing around the room as dark tendrils flow from hi body and darken the room futher.
"you think that can threaten us little girl?! HAHAHA! you think noone has tried this before in the past? please! im going to enjoy ripping you apart, but not as much as i'll enjoy playing my little gaes with you, a virus like that wouldnt work, especially not now!"

Lucard laughs again, doubling over with glee.

"oh my dear it will be fun to have a truely worthy human for an enemy again. It has been so long since i had cause to laugh like this, so come now, and tell me your real plan my dear cause tis is rediculous".

Tomb gives Bathory a look of pity, as one employer of dim witted henchmen to another, with a sigh she looks back at Lucard.

“The virus doesn’t infect vampires numb nuts, unless I’m paid I’m going to poison your feeding source comprende?” the figure snorted out a short laugh

“Think about it, well in your case hun at least pretend to think, Bathory is clearly a step ahead of you. If vampires can’t drink from humans, they’ll get desperate, sloppy, noticed, violent. Humanity will respond as it always does, by hunting you down, how long do you think this place will hold up against a modern army sweet cheeks?”

Without showing any fear Elizabeth addressed Tomb again... "Now you are a crafty suicidal little nibblet I see. Give me a sample of the virus contained and I will have proof. Proof to see that you can do what you claim."

Liz hold up her hand to stop Lucard from responding in an outrage again...

"Until then you and your trash have outlived their welcome. Prove that such a virus exist... and I will see if I can persuade some sort of deal." She picked up the vampire girl's head... "This is not enough proof for me... you hear me cupcake!?"

“Of course you’d require proof”

A section of the device opened up, and a long metal cylinder shot out, of course Tomb being Tomb, the cylinder that was shot out with the speed and force of a baseball from a pitching machine, was aimed squarely at Lucard’s crotch.

“Have your lab boys take a look at that, it should prove quite interesting. Catch you later Lizzie dear!”

With that said the hologram , would vanish, the device would slowly start to drift backwards, no longer receiving directions from Tombs crew, if left long enough it would hit a wall, strike sparks with its propeller’s and then buzz around the room like whirring, slicing death.

The cylinder could be unscrewed revealing several plastic tubes containing blood, each marked with a blood group, and each infected with the blood altering virus. Now it could be that Tomb’s threats were made in earnest, or it could be that Tomb isn’t playing with a full deck, or that the full deck she is playing with contains a variety of different cards, from several different games...

Lucard caught the vial in one hand, carefully placing it on the desk. "the girl is foolish, i am not an idiot, i knew what she was saying. Do not fear it Elizabeth, she is insane and unlikely to have made a working one, besides, its not like we havent countered such things before." Lucard pulled out a pistol and fired an accurate shot at the device, blowing it to pieces.

"do you want to have one of your own scientists test the samples or do you want to me to send them to the Empire's scientists?"

High on an iron fire escape stairway, a shadow within a shadow, a long breath is slowly exhaled. The slim form of a girl, boyishly lean and with short cropped hair extends herself into stillness and calm. One slender arm, taut muscled as a gymnast's, slowly reaches out, and the wrist-mounted needle gun is brought to bear with patience and grace.

The pose is held for several heartbeats as the hidden assassin waits for the moment. The perfect moment. The foreseen moment. Then, the wrist-device fires, sending the deadly needle laced with exotic neuro-toxin towards the opposite building some 40 yards away.

The tiny projectile speeds instantly across the space, seemingly headed for a window, which is opened from within just a bare moment before the impact. The tiny dart passes within, into the kitchen that has been hidden by the light relected from the windows, and straight into the face of the elderly woman who had unexpectedly opened this window into her own death.

Unexpectedly for her, that is. The assassin had foreseen this moment of perfect vulnerability. Her precognitive powers had been honed through years of training, just as her physical abilities had. The girl stayed motionless, again nothing more than a shadow within a shadow should anyone look. Another full minute passed before she moved with determined stealth and grace that any cat would envy.

In minutes the girl was 4 blocks away, tucked out of sight and wind in the leeward side of a bulky air-conditioning unit atop an apartment block. She pulled a small electronic data display device from one of the pouches on the belt she wore about the skin-tight costume. Tapping the tiny screen expertly, she updated the device and looked for her next target. Then, with a pause as if listening to something, and a small shake of her head, she skipped further down the list.

One of the most powerful precognitives, Arachnos had strongly wished to have Drew remain behind the walls of one of the Arachnos bases, making predictions and guiding operations. Drew much preferred field-work though, and had been an assassin for many youthful years before being recruited for training as a Widow.

Of course, having access to Arachnos data had many advantages. Not least this list of all known relatives, colleagues, informants and friends of certain heroes. She had foreseen the outrage this would cause. The anguish, hatred, and the foolish risks it would provoke. It cut short threads upon the loom of fate that others they had touched would become detatched, weak, and more easily removed.

To kill so many innocents seemed costly, and inefficient, yet her arts and senses told her this was truly the most efficient and effective way to weaken and destroy several of her targets. The aspect of Lachesis told her the way to remove the threads from the pattern. Now she took on the aspect of Atropos, patron of the Night Widows, cutting the threads. Five such threads so far this day, and several more to go.

Then Drew could return to the Isles and continue with everyone to whom the life-threads of those Hyenas were connected. It was going to be considerable work if she needed to get them all. The list of Big Game's past lovers alone was several pages long. Some of them were going to have to die quite horribly to have the desired effect.

Steel Canyon, Paragon City

Kazuril moved quickly through the streets, using the darkness of the night to hide his body and the bodies of his five companions as they made their way to their allocated positions in Steel Canyon. They were the vangaurd of the Army which, even now was using tunnels and sewers to move under the city. Kazuril had no fear, for he did not care if he lived or died in the coming fight, so long as their objective was secured, it would not matter.

Kazuril left his companions to enter a side alley, climbing up the building's fire escape to the rooftops. Quietly he began to chant a spell so that his brothers below would know he was inplace. Sitting crosslegged on the roof, Kazuril made ready for the final phase of preparations to be complete before the summoning began.

The Circle will not be broken, we shall not fail this day Kazuril thought to himself. The Nighthunters will pay for their transgretions against us, we will take back what is ours, and repay them for every fallen of our brothers. As he thought this, Kazuril saw an image in his head, of Steel Canyon falling into fire and ruin, and he changed his chant. That was the signal for him to begin the summoning, and slowly, an orb of glowing blue and purple light took shape, surrounding and consuming him. In his head he smiled, he was an instrument of the Circle, and now their Portal was open, and the invasion could begin.