Difference between revisions of "5523/Soliloquy of Reproach: Beset"

Revision as of 14:30, 21 October 2017

Alucard Tepes (1128) has posed:
-= AFTERNOON, WALLACHIA'S FORESTS =-

    Maria's map led into a dark world full of gothic horrors and vast forests. In specific, her map also led to a small clearing in the woods. Most of the world had something of an unsettling aura, even to those who were native to there. But this clearing seems oddly tranquil, as if even the natural animals don't want to break the silence. It's not an air of fear, though. It's the solemn air of a church during mass.

    But there is also a feeling of darkness. Not necessarily evil. But dark. Something that flees the light, even in daylight. And here, even in broad daylight it's dim, something about the environment leaving sunlight dampened and thin in this area. It should be easier for any vampires investigating this to not get burned to a crisp. Which should make this easier.

    The clearing is not empty, though. There is a small building there, like a small temple. It's a small temple, only a single room, but the room is a large one. In the center of the room there is a statue of a woman in somber reflection. She isn't praying, but her head is down, her hands folded in her lap. The statue-woman wears a hooded garment like many saints in Christianity are depicted.

    It's worth mentioning that there's no other visible exit to the room except the door to enter, and there's no tomb in that temple. But Maria has furnished the group with information here, too. The statue sits atop the entrance to Adrian's tomb. And there are marks where it has been moved very recently. Perhaps the vampire is in his tomb even now?

Leyanne Mace has posed:
Leyanne's entrance is heralded by the growling thrumm of a Harley Davidson. It's quite the feat to navigate a big, snorting hog through the forests, but somehow Tiny's managed it, pulling the oversized mile-eater up next to the tomb. She's heard on the grapevine that at least one fellow Watchman needs help... even if she was also warned that said watchman was 'a bit of a fruit loop'.

She's not one to judge; there are many who would consider her a bit of one too. Especially after her BASE jump off the big Ravinica tower. The giant, red-armoured mouse steps off her bike and pulls off her helmet, shaking out her long, blue hair and tying it back into a ponytail. Her beret is placed on her head, and its position adjusted in the wingmirror. Then she opens up her panniers and starts preparing her weapons. Today, Leyanne is packing relatively lightly. A P-90 is clipped to the right side of her backpack, followed by several large, round drum magazines, which she feeds into a slot in the side of her backpack. From the other pannier, she pulls out a Atchisson Assault shotgun, the long-barreled model, and slips in another drum. She racks the slide, and then holds the gun in her left hand, finger above the trigger guard out of habit. Then, several wooden fencing spikes, about a foot and a half long, are tucked into the side of the pack, where they can be easily grabbed by either hand. Finally, a small wooden humidor goes into the pack, before she hefts the whole thing up and settles it on her back.

THen nonchalantly, she leans against the tomb, next to the entrance, and lights up a cigarette.

Eithne Sullivan has posed:
    Death rides a dark horse today. Also, it's actually just Death's kid, and the horse is dark because Eithne had finally talked her new mount into being something spookier than 'a soggy white horse'.

    So she's riding astride the back of a black mare, a simple leather bridle and harness the only tack. The harness is in turn attached to a small farm cart, with a wooden coffin inside. A sassy juvenile crow rides on the edge of the cart, occasionally knocking on the lid with his beak.

    Eithne has basically given up on getting Sheela to behave, and just hopes John Rizzo won't emerge with a splitting headache or anything.

    Upon arrival, she hops off the horse's back and raps twice on the coffin lid. "We're here! It's even all dim and everything," she comments, turning back to the horse to remove the harness and set it inside the cart. "Behave, all right?" she tells the crow and horse sternly. Sheela flaps his wings and caws at her; the horse snorts and bares sharp fangs. Eithne rolls her eyes and heads for the temple-church-mausoleum thingy.

Seras Victoria (1084) has posed:
"Of all the places to stick your lair," Seras warbles out in a hazy, almost out-of-it manner, "A gloomy forest?" The sunlight here is subdued and suppressed, the gloomy aura of this place a bit more suitable for a dark creature like her. And yet Seras still seems unhappy about the locale.

    She's brought the same weapon as before - a sizable semi-automatic rifle that's about as long as she is tall. A pistol's holstered at her side, and several pouches on her belt are clearly holding extra ammo.

    Seras Victoria pauses upon reaching the clearing, her eyes fixed and widening on that statue. A woman of great faith...? She slowly blinks a few times and relaxes.

    Because the incongruity of the situation is just too gobsmacking. A kill squad waltzes in and finds a serene statue of a praying woman?

    Seras makes a doubt-filled grunt.

    Seras is clearly losing motivation for this operation. The mood is ALL wrong.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Whatever the era may be in Wallachia, Xiaomu didn't feel like wasting a lot of time walking; she committed the map to memory as best she could, and handled navigating most of the way to the indicated coordinates on her light cycle. The final approach is done on foot, though - light cycles may not be as noisy as your typical internal-combustion engine, but they DO make a certain amount of noise.

She's geared up more or less as usual, save that her carry-pack has some specialty anti-vampire ammunition - plus two clips carried more readily, with the other magazines she toes around for occasional reloading. Also some holy water (Shinto-style rather than Christian, but water is water and blessings are blessings, right?).

She does not appear to be carrying wooden stakes, garlic, or a crucifix. She has her Buddhist monk's staff (and the sword therein concealed), she presumably has her handguns. That's really all she feels a need for. And while she's waiting for everyone else to arrive, the sage fox busies herself checking the area around the statue - looking for scuff marks or the like - and giving Leyanne the occasional withering look when smoke from that cigarette wafts in Xiaomu's direction.

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    Maaka hates wearing this coat. Her trenchcoat is a knee-length, glorified smock lined with bullet proof kevlar material that gives it a weight of twenty pounds soaking wet. A regular human would be insane to wear this thing day to day, but Maaka's enhanced strength and the fact the coat distributes the weight around evenly makes that work out. Add on a plate carrier with magazines, holster and sidearm, an HF combat knife meant to vibrate hard enough to burn through solid steel, among other equipment Maaka doesn't keep in her Matter Manipulator, and there's a LOT of weight on her shoulders. Sure, she can carry that weight fine thanks to both inhuman strength and sheer manly grit, but it's not exactly pleasant.

    That's fine by her, she can take out her anger on the enemy. That's usually why she carries so much gear, beyond "I need it and you never know when you need a specific gun or tool."

    As she hops off of her own motorcycle, she retrieves and hefts a SCAR-H CQC battle rifle from the bike's gun holster after mentally going over her gear. Beforehand, Maaka requested some ammunition in .45 ACP, 7.62 NATO, and 12 Gauge magnum from Xiaomu and her organization's quartermaster. THankfully, she got just that from the Huli Jing before getting here, and she is grateful to her friend and colleague in asskicking.

    Speaking of those two things, Maaka spies not only Xiaomu but some other familiar sights, stopping beside the fox first. "Thanks again for the ammo, Xiao, wasn't expecting you to actually help out, but I appreciate it." She says with a nod, before approaching towards the towering mouse. "Hey," Maaka claps Mace's arm in a friendly if overly macho manner, as is her want, before she slings the SCAR and adjusts her coat. In the coat's sewn-in scabbard, she keeps a sawed-off Remington Spartan double-barrel holstered, just in case she needs it, as well as packing some wooden stakes she personally sharpened beforehand. Holstered on her plate carrier is an STI Tactical 2011, a double-stack magazine fed version of the classic 1911. "Didn't expect you to show up, but good to see you regardless." She says with a little grin to the Martian mouse, before she looks to see Enya arrive on horseback, with a card and coffin pulled behind the mare. "Seras, Enya, good to see you girls too. John in there?" She asks the perky child of Morrigan, before she begins to head her way towards the tomb, alertly keeping the battle rifle trained downrange as she checks corners and pathways.

Reimu Hakurei (972) has posed:
     The sound of the odd motorcycle was enough to attract Reimu's attention completely. She began to descend from the daytime sky with a pair of red and white Yin Yang Orbs next to her. Both of them were rotating as they followed her around. As she lands on the ground with her shoes clacking on the ground, she walks inside as well. Her gohei is held out in her right hand as she glanced toward the unusual group.

     "I assume that you're here for the job as well, right? If more people are arriving, then this is going to be much easier than I expected."

     Afterwards, she glances over to Xiaomu and smiles slightly,
     "It's nice to see that a familiar face is here as well."

Rebecca Chambers has posed:
The sound of running footsteps can be heard nearby, along with the sound of someone breathing rapidly. It's getting closer and closer...

A few moments later, Rebecca arrives with her hands on her knees, catching her breath before looking up at the others who have gathered, and then surveying the general area. "So this is Wallachia," She comments. Then she spots Xiaomu and a few others she knows, giving them a nod, before taking out her Beretta and loading a fresh clip into it and then turning on the attached flashlight.

Jonathan Joestar has posed:
Jonathan's footfalls were resolute and steady as he, strangely, was able to keep up with most of the more conventional methods of travel for the time period that some of the group took, despite only using his own two legs. He'd considered going inside of the Armor of 77 Rings, but ultimately, he figured that Alucard's sword would easily slip through the gaps and impale him when it would be least fortunate for him, nullifying the defensive boons it would provide.

    Seemingly unworn from the trip, Jonathan's eyes slowly wash over the rest of his cohorts.

Some sort of eastern maiden, though dressed far more conservatively than Xiaomu, another animal person, Alexis, the vampires, that medic from before, the little girl..

It was a strange group indeed. The fact it was comprised primarily of women did not do his nerves any service, if he were being honest.

"If this is everyone, then -- I'll go first."

From the gloomy foilage into the aged stone. It was like an ancient cathedral, it didn't bear the imperial omens of Windknight's Castle, but none the less, he could equate this place to something similar. A modern torch, a stick lined with LED lights, was held up to illuminate the room better. " .... a woman."

A statue of someone who bore a very close resemblance to the women who'd been attacked, and of course, Maria. More than that, however, was the disturbing resemblance to his own fiance. Jonathan sets the torch down, and presses his hands flat against the statue with a grunt. Buldging muscles expand as he brings his might to bear in pushing the large stone structure aside.

John Rizzo has posed:
John emerges from the coffin with a sluggish kind of awareness, the lid haphazardly pushed aside. His first reaction upon looking up into the sky is animal fright. The rays of the sun see him scrambling, first to grab the lid (which has fallen clear of the cart), then to get underneath the cart. But... something is different about this light. It doesn't burn him, for some reason.

     That's one hell of a wake up call for a vampire, but once he's clear of the coffin, he takes a look around. Everyone seems to be loaded for bear, here, which is... disappointing, to say the least. On the off chance Alucard is innocent, it's going to look mighty suspicious, seeing allies showing up at his front door with all this firepower.

     He's been on this Multiverse kick for a while now, and he knows the best way to keep this from turning into an incident is being there to stop it from happening. He therefore vaults over the side of the cart and enters in. Should no one attempt to stop him, he'll even try to step around people in the hallways to get closer to the middle-front of the group.

     "Hardly an evil lair," he remarks as he passes the statue.

Alucard Tepes (1128) has posed:
    It is a really heavy statue. But otherwise a normal statue, in an otherwise normal temple. Even if the land seems dark. Which really isn't weird, since pretty much the whole WORLD has that whole 'steeped in darkness' feel. However, there IS a 'hollow' feel under the statue. And thusly, as Jonathan pushes at the statue, it slowly begins to slide back -- indeed, re-marking those marks on the floor where the statue has been moved before.

    Beneath the statue there is a staircase that leads down into the earth for quite a ways. At the bottom of the stairs there is a short hallway, with three doors -- one to the left, one directly forward, and one to the right. The doors to the left and right both lead to empty rooms with little more than the debris of destroyed rooms. One may have been a library or a study at one time.

    The door directly forward of the staircase is the one where most of the attention will probably be focused. It's an open archway, and leads into a room about the same size as the temple room above. There's nothing here but a stone sarcophagus, in the center of the room. Unlike the rest of the place, the sarcophagus itself is very ornate. Intricate rose designs are carved into the sides.

    The top of the coffin has an odd symbol carved into it -- a simple cross, with a pair of bat wings sprouting from the top edge, a snarling wolf atop where the two 'bars' of the cross intersect, and wisps of clouds or smoke around the bottom long bar of the cross.

    Here, though, the feeling of wrongness starts to set in. Something is here that doesn't belong -- something truly evil in the solemn darkness. As the group enters, the multitude of candelabras on the wall light themselves, with malevolent red flames. But nothing moves yet.

Reimu Hakurei (972) has posed:
     Reimu begins to follow after Jonathan Joestar closely. The orbs were illuminating the darkness on the way down the staircase with a faint red light. Upon reaching the bottom of the stairs and immediately takes a moment to step back.

     "Alright, this has the makings of an obvious trap. Come on out and speak with us immediately!"

     The red and white orbs begin to spin faster as well as she swings her gohei. As the paper trails through the air, the black haired girl speaks further her joyous tone being in complete contrast with the malevolent flames.

     "Because I'd be happy to play around with you otherwise!"

Eithne Sullivan has posed:
    More and more people pile on in, some of them people she knows. Maaka and Seras get waves and a smile, Maaka because Eithne sort-of knows her and Seras because she always seems so discouraged. "Yup! I think he's about--" The coffin lid slides off, and there are a few very tense moments for the detective.

    After making sure John is all right she walks up next to Jonathan and lays hands on the statue as well, helping him push it faster. She's stronger than she looks.

    Though she peeks into the side rooms, the middle chamber is clearly where the important bits are. "Ooooo-er," she murmurs, sidling toward the sarcophagus (and by necessity, past Reimu). "What's this, then?"

    ...She's admiring the roses carved into the sides instead of paying attention.

Leyanne Mace has posed:
Leyanne Mace appears to be counting each of her arriving comrades. "Awesome, I brought :enough Victory Dances." She mutters cheerfully, holding up her other hand for a fistbump with Maaka. She grins cheerfully, leaning across to whisper cheesily "I see dead people!" She giggles, wiggling her antennae. She's half-expecting a punch for that one.

As soon as everyone starts getting down to business, she pinches out her smoke and puts the end in a little ashtray. "Yeah yeah I know the deal, don't fire 'till the dude shows himself to be a threat."
She follows Joestar and Rizzo along, covering the corners with her shotgun. Her finger remains above the trigger, the mouse having to crouch slightly within the tunnels to fit. WHen Reimu calls out for the person to come out and speak, she lowers the gun, aiming it at the floor.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Once Jonathan starts trying to move the statue, Xiaomu abandons her inspection of the scuff marks and, and if an extra set of soldiers would be handy, she helps him with the pushing. Somebody physically stronger than Xiaomu might be better-suited if it comes to that - she's no weakling, but there are upper limits to how much she can lift or push, and some people have better capacity in that field than she does.

If she has a moment to make up for lost greetings, she does so - it's always good to see familiar faces; for Xiaomu, though, pretty much *everyone* here is familiar to a greater or lesser extent. That doesn't stop her from giving Reimu in particular a grin and a thumbs-up before they move on.

She heads down the stairs and into the crypt with the others; she's quite happy to let Reimu take the lead, given what the miko had to say about her attacks. But that feeling of wrongness sets her ears to canting back, the fur of her hair-tails fluffing out more visibly than usual; her usual good-natured snark actually peters out as those candelabras flare up in an ominous red hue. Even the way she's carrying herself changes - from a relaxed demeanor to a conscious balancing of her weight, maintaining a poise and position which will let her react quickly to a threat as soon as it presents itself. Most people might not pick up on the nature of that shift ... but she's in the company of Elites, who don't generally fall under the heading of 'most people'.

She most noticeably is NOT focusing her full attention on the sarcophagus. She's not ignoring it, but whatever that sense of encroaching evil may be heralding, she's not about to assume the big, ornate coffin is the source of it. Her gaze and her ears angle this way and that, trying to take in as much of 'all of her surroundings' as she can pull off.

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    Maaka definitely returns the fistbump to Mace, and she snorts in amusement as she gives the mouse a smack on the arm. Not enough to hurt, but definitely a firm rap of her knuckles. She lifts her battle rifle so she isn't flagging Jonathan and Rizzo with the muzzle of a 7.62 select-fire rifle that can punch holes in body armor and concrete with ease, before she trains her weapon on the sarcophagus when they reach it, expecting the worst and preparing herself to react accordingly.

Rebecca Chambers has posed:
As soon as Jonathan moves the statue, Rebecca moves into position near him to cover him in case someone or something springs out to attack. Fortunately, there's no such thing, and Rebecca is relieved for the time being. She then notices the stairs and after a moment, shrugs a little. "I guess we're going down." She waits for a few others to go ahead before following behind them.

As they go down into the crypt itself, Rebecca's breathing begins to grow a bit heavier and faster as she keeps moving, trying not to get uneasy. One look might spot a few beads of sweat on her forehead, and her lip is quivering a bit. Despite this, she's doing her best to keep a calm face in spite of all of this. She then takes a deep breath and seems to firm up a little. "Stay with it, Becky, you've got this!"

Once they're inside, Rebecca sweeps around with her flashlight, looking around for anything that's possibly suspicious or out of the ordinary. She doesn't have danger senses like Xiaomu does, but she does have that gut instinct that's saved her before. "Something's definitely not right here," Rebecca says, scowling a little. "Everyone, stay alert!"

John Rizzo has posed:
John does peer curiously into both of the ruined rooms--but it seems like it's just junk. The main attraction here is the coffin, which Enya seems interested with, as well. "Alucard's an old-fashioned guy," he says to Enya. "Traditional, too," he says, noting the cross on the top with a curious frown. It would of course stand to reason that Alucard, a vampire a few centuries his senior, would be more old-fashioned in his choice of haven.

     Occasionally, John has no problem playing along with the narrative. At this point in the novel, something lurks in the room with them, waiting to emerge, announcing its presence with the slightly theatric display of candles suddenly alight. To find this entity, he would of course be expected to call upon Malkav's gifts. And so, to further the narrative, he does.

     Upon seeing the candelabras light up, Rizzo searches the room for auras other than those of his allies. "Alucard," he announces. "There's some real itchy trigger fingers in this room," he says, paying a momentary glance to Reimu.

     As he talks, he glances around the room in search of auras. "I ain't one of 'em--but I'm one guy. Now, you don't know me, but I came here at my weakest to talk to you, vampire to vampire. Whaddaya say we cut the Orlok routine before these folks fill us with daylight, huh?" One hand cautiously drifts to his neck, fingers dipping under his loose-fitting collar.

Seras Victoria (1084) has posed:
The gloomy gothic decor is depressing Seras in a situation one would think a vampire would be in their element for. But the police girl gazes upon all the rows and rows of candles and the OVERTLY morbid resting place with a look that is... 'really?' written all over it.

    Her disinterest in the CLEARLY CLASSIC vampire aesthetic aside though... the place soon gives her a nasty case of the creeps. Her undead body tenses and in a few moments, SERAS, TOO, is radiating some Creepy Vibes of her own as her eyes shift from an innocent blue to focused, determined, and aglow-from-within bloody crimson.

    "Come out!" She shouts angrily at the darkness.

Jonathan Joestar has posed:
Jonathan looks appreciable of the help. He was more than strong enough to push it by himself, but the strain on his body would be largely unneccesary considering available help. "You have my gratitude." he says as they begin descending the stairwell. It didn't take long for them to reach another point of interest, accentuated by Reimu's boisterous response. For such a tiny, petit little oriental woman, she sure had a set of lungs on her. Yet, he wasn't so sure that it was so easy that they'd find their mark. He was fairly certain, this omen in the air -- it was different. Unlike what he'd felt before, when he fought the monster. Another being, perhaps? A servant creature of some kind? The vampire's lieutenants?

Jonathan's hand rests on the hilt of Luck & Pluck. "Keep your wits about you, everyone."

He did not make any flagrant demands of his own. No, he had no need of it -- even if he were wrong, and Alucard were indeed the one exuding this aura, they'd battled before. The vampire could not mistake his reasons for being here as anything else but his destruction if he did not have a very good explanation for his actions.

Alucard Tepes (1128) has posed:
    A chuckle echoes through the chamber at Reimu's demand. It's a chuckle full of malice and evil, full of intent to harm. Eithne may want to watch herself, because at that moment the sarcophagus starts to open. The lid twists in a circle rather than being pushed aside, leaving the top half of the stone coffin open.

    "You want to play?" A gloved hand reaches up and grabs hold of the now sideways lid. It's the same voice Jonathan Joestar heard in his battle with the vampire in Windknight's Lot. But it's not the same feel. There's something different about the voice. It bears the same quality that Dio's did, after his transition to vampire -- pure evil.

    The coffin does seem to be where the feeling of wrongness emanates from. But Rebecca's words ring true in more than one way -- those with more sophisticated senses may note that it's not just a vibe of evil. It's a vibe of 'wrong', as if the thing there doesn't belong here. As if it is somehow out of place.

    There's movement again, and someone sits up from inside the coffin. To all appearances, it looks like Alucard -- yes, the man that Jonathan fought, in his black cloak and black nobleman's gear. But his eyes glow red, and there is a smile on his face. No, it's more apt to say a smirk. It twists his face into a malicious charade of a smile, displaying one pointed canine tooth. Then he moves again, seeming to skitter out of the coffin much akin to a snake or lizard slithering over stone, flowing to the ground on the other side.

    "Oh, but you've brought so many playmates..." he continues on, seeing the amount of people here. "That would hardly be fair, would it? I suppose I should call some of my own..." He reaches out to the the coffin he stands behind. The sense of a magical spell being used, and light shines from inside the open stone coffin. "Arise, my darlings..."

    Suddenly more hands begin to reach up from the coffin -- delicate, beautiful hands. They're clearly not literally coming from inside; he's merely using the coffin as a portal. And what crawls out? A gaggle of beautiful women. Yes, all of them blonde and delicate-looking. Their eyes glow menacingly. Alucard notes, that smirk still on his face, "We have guests. Do please entertain them. But don't play too hard. They'll be lovely additions to our family..."

Reimu Hakurei (972) has posed:
     The young miko began to float in the air as she got directly out of the way of anyone else the orbs began to fire off sets of blue amulets one after the other. All of them appeared to be coming out of the two orbs at the rate of machine gun fire. Meanwhile, Reimu waved her gohei through the air and an enormous stream of red talismans began to fire forth directly in front of her. The holy elemental talismans hurtled themselves directly toward the doppelganger while the blue, holy elemental amulets threw themselves at both the hands and the zombie ladies.

     The look on Reimu's face was surprisingly calm as well. It was perhaps, unnervingly calm.

Eithne Sullivan has posed:
    "Traditional, huh?" she murmurs, looking up at John as he starts speaking aloud to the presumably-napping vampire inside the coffin. She can't feel the 'wrongness' in this place so overwhelmed with the psychic scent of death; Wallachia as a whole is playing merry hell with her Death Sense. It's like there's a corpse underneath every tree or something!!

    She can feel the rumble of stone on stone as the coffin lid begins to spin - the edge of the lid touches her hip and almost manages to push her out of the way.

    Eithne steps out of its way and waits for it to stop. Then she calmly grabs it in both hands and rips it free of its mooring, holding the hundreds-of-pounds slab of stone like an unwieldy parcel.

    She lifts it up over her head...

    And SLAMS it down onto the coffin itself. "Right then, that's enough sexy vampire ladies fer now," she admonishes, and reaches for one of the succubi to drag her right out of the ruins. GIRL FIGHT

Jonathan Joestar has posed:
His instinct was more or less, on point. Yes, something inherently evil. Something familiar. Staring at the red eyed, sharp toothed, pale haired man with a face beautiful enough to make some women envious brought back rather unpleasant memories of one year previous. But, this feeling was not .. true. Rather, he felt that what he was staring at was a falsity. Almost like a dream so real you could believe it were reality, yet it still held an uncanny quality ... ah. Of course, that had to be it. Before, when he'd fought the creature, there'd been differences. In the teeth, the eyes, and most importantly, the demeanor. It had been a cool, collected menace. Like Bruford's cold gaze. This sheer arrogance was uncharacteristic.

Soon, enemies fill the room. Tantalizing, scantily clad women. Jonathan paid them no mind, however, as air seemed to rush into his flaring nostrils. It became apparent why -- his eyes were closed. Their faces and eyes reminded him too much of his dearest to knowingly strike at them. And so, he would not look upon their suffering.

His whole body radiated ripples of the sun, as he calmly stepped forward. His body seemed to multiply almost, fading in a half-circle of afterimages in his approach, a serene movement with such mysticism that spoke of danger to any of the enemies that approached. And what seemed like far too quickly, Jonathan arrives at the Vampire, well within attacking distance. "I know not your purpose --- but whether you speak now or hold your silence, I am going to destroy you."

Leyanne Mace has posed:
Leyanne Mace sighs a little. "And here was me hoping you'd talk. Pity." She brings up the gun. "Nobody ever wants to talk." And then she takes aim at one of the scantily-clad, glowing-eyed ladies, centring the simple sights on her centre mass and letting fly with a two-round burst of buckshot. At close range like this, if she hits, and they're not immune to lead, it should knock some pretty big holes in them...

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    Maaka wasn't sure what to expect, sure as hell wasn't a gaggle of suspiciously sexy women flanking this pretty boy vampire with a grin that makes sharks scared. She takes a breath, hissing as she takes aim at one of the succubi while Jonathan takes care of "Alucard". Impersonator or not, that guy is definitely suspiciously creepy looking enough to be the culprit they've been hunting for.

    Her SCAR rifle barks out as the cyborg mercenary takes a few shots at one of the succubi, aiming to splatter that pretty face all across the walls of this tomb. Normally she'd be a little reticent to see anything happen to someone so pretty, but this sort of situation means that fair play comes second to survival, and she can't afford to fuck around with the undead.

Rebecca Chambers has posed:
Well, looks like Rebecca was on the right track after all.

"I knew it was a trap!" Rebecca exclaims, ducking back a little to steady her aim on her handgun. "Sorry, but we're not here for a party I'm afraid!" Rebecca responds to Alucard, before firing upon the nearest succubus with her Beretta. She fires not once, but twice, hoping her bullets cause some damage.

Seras Victoria (1084) has posed:
When your enemy sics succubi on you...

    Well, that's when it pays to not be AT ALL interested in girls. Seras face sure does screw up at the unexpected development. A thousand thoughts of WHAT she is dealing with bring all kinds of dread and doubt crossing her face...

    But the hesitation is gone. Seras flicks her weapon's safety OFF... and opens fire with blessed silver bullets in burst fire!

    One of the supposed-succubi now has a bunch of holy rounds going for her heart and head and much of the flesh in-between.

John Rizzo has posed:
This complicates things. John's lived as a vampire long enough to know what evil is, and the reaction Alucard gives to Reimu's challenge surely won't be taken well. What certainly won't be taken well is the knowledge that Alucard not only intends to fight them, but with the aid of recently turned victims, as well.

     As the thralls begin to rise from the coffin, Rizzo's hand rises from beneath his collar, revealing a silver medallion. When the stone lid slams shut, the medallion gleams in the light as if in response. It's a medallion of St. Jude, the patron saint of lost causes. Does something human remain within Alucard, or within his thralls? Probably not, but there will always be a ray of hope within him, no matter how dire the circumstances.

     A white light emanates from Rizzo amidst all the chaos around him. Kneeling before the sarcophagus, he bows his head and recites scripture in an effort to undo what he hopes is simply ensorcelment, both on Alucard's mind and those of his thralls. It might work, it might not--but anything is better than standing by and watching.

     "Oh, let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet but this once. Peradventure only ten righetous souls be found within Sodom. And the Lord said, I will not destroy it for ten's sake."

     Bullets zip past him, the vampire completely ignoring the thralls and Alucard, all in the name of saving any who might still have a shred of goodness within them. Bullets, magic, and all maner of projectiles zip past him, but his voice barely raises above speaking level even as chaos surrounds him. Even as Jonathan prepares to strike Alucard down, John attempts to use his faith to help, on the off-chance that this sudden shift of heart is the cause of evil magic cast upon him by another.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Out of all the things that Xiaomu had been expecting, that was about three which she WASN'T.

Alucard comes out of his coffin all Evil Vampire Lordy, radiating that miasma of ominousness and Bad Things which Xiaomu had been *certain* had to be coming from somebody (or something) else.
And he has company - a lot of it. Xiaomu isn't sure at first glance whether they're full-fledged vampires; Jonathan chimes in on the radio that they seem more like succubi. The difference is a little academic at the moment - vampires and succubi both kill by draining something vital, it's just how they go about it that varies, and in any case, letting a succubus get too close and too personal will ruin anyone's day just as fast - even Xiaomu's.
Oh, and there's a *portal* in the coffin. Which explains why the sexy undead fangirl mob are coming out of the coffin.

Dealing with the coffin portal seems like it should be easy enough: wreck it. Xiaomu calls for it, Eithne makes her way forward and does that with its own lid. That puts a limit on the number of problems; now they just have to bring the tally down.

Once the battle has revved up around her and people have their priorities arranged, Xiaomu engages one of the succubi/vampires/whatever, they're blonde and too sexy for anyone's good and they're deadly. Call 'em succubi for now. The sage fox greets one with a hail of gunfire - anti-spirit gunfire, rather than specifically anti-vamp; that was what she had loaded and there's no time for juggling clips. And if the succubus (or not) gets close enough despite bullets in the everywhere, the sage fox channels ice magic out of Suiren to try and freeze the blonde into a solid block of ice ..

Followed by just *kicking* the succubucicle as hard as she can, and hopefully sending it (her) sliding into some of the other succubi. Or just into the wall.

Alucard Tepes (1128) has posed:
    The hail of blue magical pellets from Reimu gets the whole group of vampires on the defensive, and they start dodging. They're not going to dodge all of that, though, not even with supernatural speed, and several of the shots hit (or graze), raising smoke from where they strike.

    Eithne, for her part, smashes the coffin pretty easily, and the magic within it sputters to a stop with a small flash and a tiny little magical pop. So there will be no more of the vampire's playthings to fight here. Then again, there are by far enough of them anyway. These women all sport fangs and hiss angrily at the attackers. Doubtless because of a vampire's turning. The women are dressed in filmy dresses that cover them well, though the skirts fade to transparency beginning at their knees. The dresses are various pastel colors, like those a young girl might wear, mockeries of innocence.

    Alucard had been standing back, from the looks of things, but then suddenly found himself faced with Jonathan Joestar, way too close for comfort. "What?! How did--?!" That's about all he's got the patience for, it seems, bcause he goes on the offensive. Not with a sword. His gloves are off, literally, and he attack's Jonathan like a beast, clawed hands slashing for the Hamon-practitioner's face.

    Leyanne's blast does hit one, and she screeches in an inhuman way as she falls, the blast flinging her back. But having a hole in her stomach doesn't seem to be more than a minor annoyance, and she soon stands up. "Master has no need to explain himself to a RAT!" she shrieks as she leaps at Leyanne. Looks like she's trying to bite her.

    Maaka's shots tag one in the side, removing one arm in a smoking mess, but when she fires the second shot, the woman has figured out where the shots are coming from, and is putting on the speed. And she's also charging at Maaka, with the claw-like nails of her remaining arm outstretched.

    Rebecca's target is struck by both bullets and staggers back. But she's not down. And now she knows where to aim. Much like the others, she lunges at Rebecca with a hiss, seeking to sink claw-like nails into her.

    Seras's target is soon more hole-y than righteous, thanks to the large rounds. But there seems to be a difference here, between these girls and the thralls Seras might have fought in the past. These are tougher, and faster. As such, the thrall drops down under the shots to her head, one grazing the side of her face. ...Uhoh. She seems to pause, bringing her hand to her face as if shocked. "You... damaged my face..." And then a SCREECH! "HOW DARE YOU?!" Think fast, Seras... there's a very angry thrall coming after you, even if she's got smoking holes in her chest!

    And then something very strange happens. Rizzo begins to pray... and then Alucard seems to pause. It's probably just long enough to save Jonathan from the attack. And it opens Alucard up to counterattack by Jonathan, too. The thralls, however, seem unmoved.

    Xiaomu's got everything worked out, it seems, and her anti-spirit rounds tear into the side of one of the thralls. She gets the same treatment as the rest, it lunges at her. But of course the freezing startles the succu-pire (is that even a word?), and just as Xiaomu had planned, the vampcicle ends up smashing against the wall. That one's not out, but she's down; she needs to get her bearings.

Leyanne Mace has posed:
Leyanne Mace smirks as the succubus she's going for goes down. But when the thing gets back up, she prepares to open fire. But then she says the word. The R-word. Leyanne sees red. Literally red; her cybernetic optic flicks from green to red and she lets go of her gun, her left hand bending oddly as it pulls one of the stakes from her backpack and grabs it in her fist. All the red lights along the limb suddenly turn green.

The mouse leaves herself WIDE open to attack from all angles as she sprints to meet the charging, face-biting succubus. She makes no attempt to avoid her attack. What she does attempt do do, as she comes in range, is thrust the stake so far through her chest that most of her forearm is likely to emerge from the other side. Gas jets from her elbow and shoulder.

        "MOMMA DIDN'T RAISE NO STINKIN RAT!" Leyanne bellows, abject rage in her voice.

Reimu Hakurei (972) has posed:

     Now was a perfect opportunity to go ahead and finish them off one by one. She merely floats to the side as another pair of Yin Yang Orbs appear as well. The four of them begin to spread out and hurtle themselves off directly to the walls of the enormous room. All of them appear to glowing a warm red and seem to sporting no signs of damage. The light that they emit glows a vivid and rather unpleasant shade of red.

     "Alright, let's see you dodge this one then!"

     She raises her gohei into the air and begins to swing it left and right as well. As she continues to swing it through the air, four lines of yellow talisman streams begin to make themselves evident as the sound of repeated shots being fired fills the air. As she finishes the swing, the four streams begin to curve themselves directly into the positions of the succubi. Meanwhile, the orbs just ricocheted off the walls and each one seems to be bouncing toward the succubi while glowing a rather bright shade of red.

Rebecca Chambers has posed:
Unfortunately, it seems Rebecca underestimated her enemy. The succubus comes at her and drives her nails into Rebecca's sides. Both of them spots where her kevlar vest doesn't protect her, unfortunately.

"Yaahh!" Rebecca cries out in pain, trying to force the succubus off of her. "Dammit, that hurt worse than a Hunter!" She feels her sides where the succubus attacked her and is unsurprised to find blood coming out. The wounds don't seem too deep, but Rebecca knows the succubus means business.

After getting the succubus off of her and checking her wound, Rebecca grabs her stun baton and attempts to strike the succubus with that before her enemy can recover fully.

Eithne Sullivan has posed:
    There's something nice and simple about a fight, Eithne reflects. You hit the other person until someone stops moving, or the police arrive. A set of sharpened, thick nails rake down the side of her face; in return, she grabs a fistful of the succupire's hair and slams her head down into the stone over and over.

    A floating bullet grazes her shoulder and Eithne yelps - that hurt more than it ought to! What the hell are those things even made of? Sadly, that might be just the opportunity the succupire (Eithne has privately named her Pinky for the color of her nightgown) was waiting for...

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    Maaka sees as the succubus's arm is taken clean off. She sees Reimu's torrent of...energy balls? Some kinda magic. Anyway, she sees those and promptly books it out of the way, just for the one-armed succubus to slash at her arm. The claws cut through armor and Maaka's jumper, drawing blood as she snarls in pain. "/FUCK OFF!/" she growls loudly, driving the buttstock of her SCAR into the succubus's face, with speed and strength that would pulp a normal human's skull as she tries to swiftly transition to her shotgun, the double-barrel barking loudly as she pulls both triggers to fire point-blank into the she-devil's stomach.

Jonathan Joestar has posed:
The claw comes quick, like lightning. Yet. it did nothing but force a deeper frown to his features as he recalled their previous battle. Why attack him with his bare hands like this? Why step into Jonathan's own effective range? Surely the Vampire remembered the last time that happened -- he'd nearly been broiled alive by Hamon. But evidently, the creatures memory eluded him, or ... his suspicions that this was not the same Vampire would prove correct. Moreover, the previous engagement with this Alucard had shown an intelligent, cautious fighter. Not this haughty and rash savage.

Red lines scratch across Jonathan's cheek as he waves around the lapsing strike, intent on grasping onto the would-be Dark Lord's wrist, his grip like an iron clamp. The stinging along his cheek bones did nothing to deter him. "Koooooooooooooh............!"

        "OVERDRIIIVE!"

Jonathan's fist meets Alucard's face, nose first, in a surging blast of ripple transmitting from knuckle to delicate white skin.

Seras Victoria (1084) has posed:
"HYEEEEEK!!!" Seras FLINCHES, and that's a big no-no in combat. She wasn't expecting such terrific SPEED from her opponent and is caught a bit flat-footed...

    Or is that the reason? It may have to do with the sudden BIBLE VERSE CHANTING happening nearby that got her squeaking like a hanged banshee.

    Either way... the woman claws into Seras' undead flesh - specifically, an exposed arm raised to shield her own face.

    The Draculina wails, because GOD that hurts!!

    But with a surprisingly adept display of honed footsie, she hooks out with a leg to trip up her opponent the moment her feet are on the ground again... and tries to use this to PIN the succubis into a brutal hold!

    "You have one chance--ngghhh!- to go back where you came from, or else!"

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
With the crowd getting sorted out a bit more, Xiaomu has the opportunity to appraise how her assorted allies are doing. Reimu's danmaku makes for excellent crowd control, as well as maintaining aerial superiority on the side of the good guys; the other shooty types are making a good accounting of themselves, as a rule, although the thralls aren't as easily subdued as you'd expect out of regular mooks.

So clearly these are not 'regular mooks'. One more useful detail.

The sage fox would be happy to help subdue Alucard, but there are still enough thralls at liberty that she can't make much progress in that direction. So, Xiaomu draws a bead on not one but *two* thralls who'd picked her out as a juicy target, sing-songing, "Juu no Kata!" as she practically dances between the two of them - and then she vaults up onto one of the walls, springing off to do a spinning cartwheel over the two of them and pump MORE anti-spirit bullets into the two of them.

She should have a relatively clear spot to land in ... or such was her snap judgment at the moment she began that crazy maneuver.

John Rizzo has posed:
John finishes his prayer, looking up to see that, of the group within the haven, not one has turned; not Alucard or any of his thralls still standing. True Faith can do a lot, but it can't magically change someone's mind. Even for Malkavians, that takes time and effort, the former of which is in tragically short supply. All around him, succubi are being struck down, and with only one entity even showing a reaction--Alucard.

     He hopes beyond hope it isn't a fluke, that there's something left of the man himself behind the monstrous mask serving as his expression. If he can't get to that shred with True Faith, he'll try good old fashioned talking.

     Without rising from his spot, the younger vampire casts a somber glance Alucard's way, still surrounded by an aura of bright, white light. Were it not for the stubble and the ill-fitting contemporary clothes, he'd look like a Renaissance portrait of someone being knighted.

     This is important. Important enough to drop the charade, if only for a moment, and speak plainly. "Is there no goodness left within you?" In contrast to Alucard's red eyes, John's are human, grey like the statue outside. As Jonathan's fist collides with the elder vampire's face (or at least, the fellow John presumes to be Alucard), those eyes are heavy with sadness... and pity.

     He really, really doesn't want to hurt anyone. Hopefully that question will shake something loose just in time for Jonathan to knock the guy off his plates. But there's a lot of hoping going on, and things don't seem to be going the way he'd hoped--especially as Leyanne goes berserk over the insult from one of the succubi.

     John rises slowly, and holds the medallion out towards Alucard. The light focuses into a beam, washing over Jonathan. To the vampire (?) it becomes unbearably bright--but it washes harmlessly over the hamon master. If Alucard won't stand down, he'll just have to make it increasingly difficult for him to continue fighting.

Alucard Tepes (1128) has posed:
    The thrall going for Leyanne thinks she's won. She's broken Leyanne's composure, and made her be reckless. But if she gets her fangs into Leyanne's muzzle, it won't even matter. Why? Because there's a stake going for her heart. And in the next instant it penetrates the flesh. There's nowhere for the thrall to go. She screeches again, this time in agony, as the stake punctures her body... and yes, goes through the other side, along with Leyanne's forearm. Quite a mess, but not for long; the thrall goes limp, and then an instant later crumbles into dust. That's one down.

    Reimu's orbs and shots seem to be a constant source of trouble for the thralls. They're unable to coordinate their attacks together, for needing to get out of the way of them. And those bouncing balls, too. The shots start making holes in the girls, and finally one of them goes after Reimu personally. She leaps high enough, but just as she gets in range, one of those bouncing balls hits her and knocks her unceremoniously back to the ground. She's smoking and doesn't get up. But she isn't dust/ash.

    The thrall's hands glow red where they've pierced Rebecca. Hopefully Rebecca is smart enough to back off from that, because if she's not she might find her blood being drained. Through the thrall's nails, yes. Rebecca's got a moment either way, though, because as the nails are pulled free, the thrall begins to lick the blood from her fingers. "Mmm... such a delightful taste..." she breathes. Only to be nailed in the side of the head with a taser baton! She's stunned, and staggers back from the strike.

    That's absolutely right, too. With her incessant bashing into the ruined stone, Eithne has reduced the face of the thrall she fights to a bloody mess. Yet in that instant she pauses, the thrall turns and tries to lunge right for Eithne's throat with her fangs!

    The thrall after Maaka does a similar thing to the one after Rebecca; pausing long enough to lick the blood from her fingers gets her a gun stock in the face, and she screeches as she clutches her abused face and falls. A second screech follows as she finds her belly in a world of pain thanks to the anti-vampire rounds in Maaka's gun. Her stomach is obliterated in a smoking mess. And still she screeches angrily, clawing at Maaka from the ground with her one functional arm.

    Jonathan's punch gets the kind of reaction he's used to this time -- the skin smokes and seems to melt at the strike, leaving the vampire's face quite disfigured. The vampire shrieks and falls back, staggering at the attack, but seems less pained and more angry. "You DARE?!" The words are muffled past the way he's clutching his face, though.

    Seras may find that trying to pin a thrall is a bad idea. The woman struggles and screeches, seeking to bite any of her opponent's flesh that presents itself as a good target. Seras has a... well, not a 'live' one, but definitely a lively one! There's no sense of anything but a wild animal here, though. This woman's clearly beyond help.

    Anti-spirit seems to be pretty effective against them too -- it's draining off whatever enchantment is making them more-than-mooks. In draining it off, it reduces the thrall in question to her proper mook status. So the bullets are then effective as they should be. Soon there's only dust remaining of the pair of thralls Xiaomu unloaded on. Dust which she might land in. Thankfully it's only gross, not diseased.

    Rizzo's appearance near Jonathan definitely gives Alucard pause. Even as he clutches his face in pain from Jonathan's last attack, he backs away from the approaching Rizzo. And then he yelps at the bright light, ducking his head. "...Stay BACK!" But there's fear in his voice, as he continues to back away.

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    After losing an arm, getting her head bashed in, and two shotgun blasts to the stomach, Maaka sighs with exasperation as the thrall refuses to take the fucking hint. "PLease just be reflexes." She mutters, then Maaka pops the break-action in her shotgun. Reloading shells, Maaka pins the thrall to the ground with her boot, bracing the weapon against her head. She pulls the trigger, firing twice to make certain.

Reimu Hakurei (972) has posed:
     As the orbs vanish from their bouncing positions, they reappear next to Reimu on the spot. She merely smiles as the four orbs arrange themselves in front of her body. All four of them begin to unleash a much deadlier onslaught of red needles, each of them meant to tear through spirits, evil, and as expected, the undead. The entire stream of needles clump up together as they begin to resemble a small wave. She begins to perform an aerial run as she tries to shoot down the succubi with a much more lethal assault.

Leyanne Mace has posed:
Leyanne Mace snarls as the succubus' fangs sink into her muzzle. The thrall will get a brief taste of her alien blood before the stake goes through her. She snarls, glaring into her eyes angrily even as she crumbles to dust. With a satisfied snarl, she spits "Bitch. I am not a cunting rat." The mouse looks around, looking for another target, slowly calming down. The red in her eyes slowly fades back to green. Her face is gonna hurt some in the morning...

Seras Victoria (1084) has posed:
"HYAAAAAAAHHH!!!"

    Getting suddenly BITTEN is not what Seras was expecting out of a supposed seductress-demon, if the succubi claim is accurate. The fangs sinking into her arm have her crying out and reverting to esomething less 'trained skill' and more...

    Instinctive, angry flailing that will maybe-hopefully shake the thing off. Because she flips sideways and uses all the strength she can muster to DRAG the woman who's latched onto her arm up and around in what's almost a wrestling move. Or something out of a cartoon...

    A big up-over-and *WHAM* slam to the ground with enough force to shatter stone!

Rebecca Chambers has posed:
Normally, Rebecca would feel bad for Thrall, but the monster deserved it, after what she did. The electric shock should leave Thrall stunned long enough for Rebecca to land another attack against the succubus. "I hope Umbrella doesn't try anything like this. I'd be shredded alive!" Once Rebecca's finished musing to herself, she decides to finish what she started.

"How did you like that?" Rebecca asks sarcastically. "I'm just getting started, you know!" Rebecca attempts to drive her baton directly into Thrall this time around, as opposed to just striking her with it.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Two more thralls down - and Xiaomu spares a moment to finish off the one she previously put on ice, before the thrall can regain her bearings and start wreaking havoc again. That matter handled, the sage fox looks around briefly, reloading her handguns - and then holstering them.

Why put her handguns away when she just swapped fresh clips into both of them? Mostly because there are a couple more of the succubi-vamp women closing in around her, and they're not even close enough together for gun kata to be as much good. Plus, Xiaomu actively wants to mix things up some more - and once her guns are tucked away, she draws Suiren, ice magic making the air chill into mist as the blade cuts through the air, the staff's shaft/sword's sheath held in her off-hand so she can whack enemies with it.

And then she goes to town on her latest crop of adversaries, each slash of her blade marking its passage through an enemy by leaving hoarfrost at the very least, big chunks of ice at the most, wherever Xiaomu wounds her foes.

Jonathan Joestar has posed:
Jonathan pauses as he watches Alucard go down, the Hamon surging into his face. The highly destructive force coursing in his body was certainly doing its work. If it had been any other vampire, Jonathan would not have given it a second thought, but because of their previous encounter, he couldn't help but pay close attention. His Hamon had done more damage here than it did previously. In other words, certainly, this could not be the same vampire. Not just a mind-controlled or otherwise possessed Alucard, no. The creature he fought then and the relative weakling he was fighting now, they were entirely different.

Rizzo's light, and his change of demeanor washes over the both of them. Strange, yes, it caught a surprised look from the nobleman. But the last of the Joestars knew well how deadly it could be to not pay proper attention to your quarry, and as a result, his sword is drawn in a flash and pressed against Alucard's skull, ready to deliver a seismic Hamon shock at a moment's notice. "You're not the one called 'Alucard', creature. Call off your fiends."

A fact stated with a hard voice. "Reveal yourself."

Eithne Sullivan has posed:
    As if getting grazed by weird extra-holy energy bullets wasn't bad enough, the succupire she'd been beating on goes right for her face as soon as she's distracted. Eithne rocks back on her heels, arms up to protect her face, and gets a wristful of teeth for her trouble. Her blood's not like most.

    But alas, Pinky only gets a fleeting taste of it. Eithne's free hand clamps down like a vise on her neck and tears the succubus off. She picks her up like a sack of potatoes and slams her down into the stone. Again, and again, and again.

    And then she picks the poor woman up, still by the neck, and bashes her head in with a large chunk of coffin lid. "--feckin' arsehole goin' around in yer nightie, bitin' perfectly decent people and bein' a tatty nuisance!" she finishes, and tears the woman's head clean off with her bare hands. There is an impressive splatter, then dust.

John Rizzo has posed:
A light of a different, more figurative kind flashes across Rizzo's stony eyes. Hope. He wants very much to believe what Jonathan says, that this creature isn't Alucard. Indeed--he had't even intended to repel, but this creature recoiled as if by instinct.

     At least, in his experience, most vampires don't know True Faith for what it is. Not until it burns them, or is explicitly used against them. Which... kind of starts a suspicious spark in his mind. "...the power of Christ compels you! Begone, unclean spirit! Out, you agent of Satan! In Jesus' name, I command you!"

     A column of force rushes past Rizzo with such ferocity that dust sitting upon the ground is kicked up like the spray of a powerful boat crossing the ocean at high speed. His trench coat billows behind him as this invisible force rushes harmlessly through Jonathan on its way to Alucard.

Alucard Tepes (1128) has posed:
    Maaka's thrall is finally dust -- the first shot turns the brain to dust, and the rest of the thrall along with it. The second shot hits the ground unimpeded and cracks the stone.

    Reimu's assault this time is indeed far more deadly -- the anti-evil shots seem particularly affective, raising smoke from where they hit. And another one bites the dust. Or becomes dust, in this case.

    In the brief instant after the fangs strike home, Seras may feel blood being drained. And the injuries that this particular thrall had begin to close. Seras's blood is particularly potent, as she is a vampire herself, sired by an even more powerful one -- perhaps the most powerful vampire in her world. But it's not enough to make the thrall stronger. Strength has to be RESTORED before it can be increased, and Seras's flailing assures that the thrall can't stay attached long enough. And the bashing into the ground assures she's not going to stay in battle condition much longer. Seras might just continue until the thrall finally turns to dust.

    Rebecca might not want to taunt too long; the thrall recovers quickly from her shock, and this time, as the baton is driven at her, grabs the haft of the weapon. She's supernaturally strong, so she just might be able to hold it back. Grapple time?

    Xiaomu's ice sword cuts into the thralls, leaving ice in its wake. Even if it doesn't dismember them, it will leave behind enough ice to make moving difficult. Which will make it easier for Xiaomu to destroy them, since they can't move as easily.

    Eithne's certainly dealt with her problem messily. But then, dust isn't quite so bad as bloodspatter. Then again there's a lot of both in that case. But that means the number of thralls are thinning out. By now there are only a few left, and those are injured. They should be easily dealt with.

    'Alucard' doesn't really have much of a choice but to stay put, Jonathan has a sword on him. Thing is, Alucard could still turn to mist and escape. But this one doesn't. However, he blinks, looking up at Jonathan. "...Alucard...?" Blink. "Y-young master...?" The red glow is starting to fade from his eyes.

    It's Rizzo's words, and his subsequent power, that drives the red fully from his eyes. A scream of pain and surprise, and the man falls to the ground. And his shape changes. No, as Jonathan thought, it ISN'T Alucard. Though this one could pass for his brother. He's dressed like Alucard, but his hair's shorter now, and darker -- more greyish than platinum blonde. His chin is wider than Alucard's, his lips thinner. And as he opens his eyes, they're still red, but that appears to be their color. They're not glowing. And he looks confused. "What... where...?"

Reimu Hakurei (972) has posed:
     This was starting to get a bit too easy at the moment. None of them were unleashing any bullets and normally that's what happens by now. As her attention shifts over to Rebecca, she sighs,

     "Give me a moment!"

     Afterwards, she promptly turns around and a large spray of anti spirit red talismans are sent forth toward the thrall grappling with Rebecca. Meanwhile, the blue homing, holy amulets have returned except now, they're curving backwards and moving directly toward the other thralls anyway.

Seras Victoria (1084) has posed:
WHAM! WHAM! *WHAM!*

    Again and again Seras screams bloody murder and REALLY IS TRYING TO DO JUST THAT to the thrall who bit her and drained her. with both hands clutching the woman's legs she - again and again - raises her up over her and slams her back down. Three, five, seven times!

    But about then the police girl's panic recedes enough that she remembers the pistol at her side... and rapidly draws this and unloads half a clip of holy rounds straight into the back of her opponent's head. And heart. Several shots for each.

    "Haaaah... whew... she BIT ME!"

    This should HOPEFULLY be enough to put the thrall down and reduce her to dust... but whatever the case...

    WHATEVER the case, when Rizzo starts chanting from the good book, Seras makes another panicked flaily yelp and hurls herself away from the confrontation with fear in her eyes. Whether it's his power affecting her or something else... who can say.

    But when 'Alucard' drops in a daze, looking rather different...

    "A trick? It was all a trick...? Then...who wants this young man dead...? No, that doesn't make any sense. Whoever did this to him COULD have killed him... if we'd killed him, what would..."

    Welp. This case just got MORE confusing.

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    Maaka breathes heavily as she holsters the shotgun, and she holds the SCAR on NOT!Alucard as the vampire shapeshifts. "...wait, what the hell?" It's like someone just got unbrainwashed, the cyborg supposes, as she approaches him warily. "Anybody awake in there?" She asks, lowering the rifle and letting it hang on her sling as she kneels and snaps fingers repeatedly at the grey haired man. "So we have a /lot/ of questions to ask, looks like." She muses.

Leyanne Mace has posed:
Leyanne Mace surges forward, the lights on her arm still glowing green. She sprints towards Rebecca, taking a few kits from the spray of red talismans but she ignores them; her red armour protects her, mostly. A few cuts are visible, but she doesn't pay much attention. Instead, she works on punching the thrall latched onto Rebecca in the side of the head. Probably hard enough to punch the thrall's head clean off.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
The thralls may be thinning out, but they aren't all disposed of yet - and even if the control over them is starting to fray some, the threats haven't all evaporated quite yet. But before Xiaomu can pick one of the remaining targets, two things happen.

The first is Leyanne decking the living (and/or undead) hell out of the thrall who was about to give Chambers a bad time.

The second ... is on the radio, and it's enough for Xiaomu to focus on confirming how much room they have between the good guys and the entrance, respectively, and whether any thralls are potentially in the path of a hasty retreat.

At least she can focus on making sure the path is clear.

John Rizzo has posed:
So, it was an illusion after all. Perhaps even the thralls' apparent sapience was illusion--now that this imposter has been knocked down, they all seem to... power down? It's like watching the light fade on an old cathode-ray tube TV, gradually shrinking into a pinpoint and winking out. Perhaps there wasn't even a shred of thought in them, without this creature to pull the strings. If that's so... maybe there's some way to turn the lights back on--for those who are still alive, anyway.

     Rizzo sighs, looking at those who turned to dust. Stupid. Slow. If only he'd been faster. If only he'd caught on sooner, there would be more left. It's his fault... but he can't mourn them now, nor can he atone. He has to get back In Character, or the blood of millions will be on his hands.

     Shoving his hands into his pockets, he approaches the prone vampire and looks down on him. "John Rizzo, private dick. The torpedo with the sword here's Jonathan Joestar." He then points out each respective Elite that he's met, giving a name for each--Xiaomu, who he's at least familiar with from their time in the Union, Seras and Maaka, who he's become acquainted with over the course of their mutual investigations, and Enya, who may as well be family by this point. "Not too familiar with the rest of the trigger men here, but they're good people. Sure they'd tell you if you asked."

     He kneels before the other vampire. "The 'what' is, some demon got the bulge on you and me and Jonathan had to send him back to the big house. He made tracks before we could finger him. The 'where' is Alucard's pad--or we thought it was, anyhow. Guess it was a trip for biscuits."

Eithne Sullivan has posed:
    The good feelings from getting her kill on don't last very long in the face of the revelation that comes to them over the radio. If Eithne could go any paler, she might.

    Her horse isn't fast enough - it's not a pegasus, or the Black or the Grey. That floaty girl, though, ought to be plenty fast. She chews her bottom lip in angry thought, but short of rushing off into a probable ambush there isn't anything she can do. By the time they all get back to Windknight's Lot, whoever it is will either be long gone, or there will be reinforcements waiting for them.

    With a sudden explosive burst of power, the Scion kicks the wall hard enough to dislodge dust from between the stones.

    Then, rage momentarily vented, she goes to check on the not!Alucard guy in a cape. "Y'all right, then?"

Alucard Tepes (1128) has posed:
    The thralls have stopped now that the not-Alucard has been revealed as who he is. They are no longer attacking. There's only a couple left anyway. With this, it won't be too difficult for Reimu's shots to destroy them, since they're making no effort to dodge or attack her.

    Leyanne fixes the thrall's little red wagon, too, knocking her block off expertly. The thrall turns to dust and is no longer a threat to anyone. Also Rebecca gets her baton back.

    The thrall attacking Seras is quickly dealt with, too. Whether it's the slamming into the floor or the bullets to vital areas, the thrall is soon dust.

    Rizzo's words get a blink from the injured young man. "What? How... no, wait. I remember..." He suddenly looks frightened. "Magnus! You have to stop him! He has something horrible planned for young master Alucard!" He blinks at Eithne's kicking of the wall. Her question gets a nod. "I will be fine. You must stop Magnus, before..."

    Suddenly a crack of thunder and a screech of agony echoes from the doorway. Those turning to look? It's Alucard! And there's a couple piles of dust at his feet. And he does not look happy. If one can tell, that is; his expression is usually deadpan. "...What is the meaning of this?" That's the tone Jonathan should remember from their fight. It's calm and almost cold.

    But then there is emotion there, as he looks past to Jonathan and sees the young man on the ground. His gray eyes widen, and he gasps, "Lyudmil!" In a flash he's crossing the room, trying to dodge past others to get to the young man. Apparently he knows him.

    And so does the young man. "Young master!" He tries to rise, but fails. He's too injured.

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    Maaka listens to the radio. Her gut is twisted and her calm is...compromised. The only thing that makes sense right now for her is to hunt down this "Magnus" and terminate him with IMMENSE abhorrence like the piece of filth that he is. Of course...thing is he has a hostage, and she has no idea where to find him right now. So right now, she needs to maybe dial it back.

    Her rage briefly flashes up again upon spying Alucard, THE REAL Alucard, before he moves past everyone with downright unearthly speed that leaves her aiming a gun at thin air by the time she spins around.

    "...he has the girl." She says frostily towards the Dhampir. "We need to act now, unless we want to have pieces of a man's wife mailed to us one by one every week." explains the cyborg, before she makes a move for the exit, to get to her bike.

    They REALLY can't afford to sit around.

Reimu Hakurei (972) has posed:
     The young miko merely flies down to the ground and lands on her own two feet. The four orbs promptly dematerialize as she carefully walks to the rest of the group.

     "Alright, tell me where he is and I'll get on it right away. Judging by the conversation on that weird metal device, I assume that he'll expect you guys, but is there a chance that he'll know anything about me?"

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
What sucks most about the pieces falling into place the way they just did is how far SOME of the pieces landed from where they'd been expected to show up.

It doesn't come as much of a surprise to Xiaomu that the real villain is, in fact, somebody entirely other than Alucard. She had a feeling there was missing information - you don't join the law-abiding faction if you're set on resurrecting a castle pretty much built out of evil. Sure, there were possible explanations, but she wasn't going to buy them until Alucard himself said that was his intention.

Somebody ELSE apparently wants Castlevania back, and it isn't Dracula's heir apparent. And Magnus is, from all current appearances, utterly committed to being as evil as he thinks he needs to be in order to get what he says he wants.

Maybe worse.

A point comes in the conversation where Xiaomu *has* to speak up - she's seen this dynamic, the pattern of monsters being feared and hated and driven out by humans, only for the monsters to become even more monstrous to 'get back' at humans, whatever language they dress it up in. Magnus can't see the look on the fox girl's face; her allies in the crypt generally *can*, and it's a look of pained desparation - she wants to sympathize with Magnus, but that sympathy runs out against a solid stone wall when he's threatening (or actually doing harm to) innocents.

... also, there's the fact that, again, the 'home' he wants to go back to is Castlevania. And he's trying to forcibly drag Alucard into the side of the 'monsters' to make him *want* to.

At this point, Xiaomu's just leaning on her staff, holding it with her left hand, while her right hand has drawn out the 'baton' her lightcycle formed when de-rezzed. She's just toying with it for now, twirling it idly in her fingers, but she's plainly ready to break out the wheels and just pour on the speed when the conversation runs into its all-but-inevitable dead-end ...

Leyanne Mace has posed:
Leyanne Mace growls quietly as she listens to what's going on. Normally, this would be the time she'd hand out cigars, but... this doesn't feel like a victory to dance at. She stays silent, checking on Rebecca. She adds her opinion to the radio discussion, rolling herself a cigarette and waiting for the order to roll out.

Jonathan Joestar has posed:
Jonathan pays no heed to Alucard. His sword had been sheathed after the doppleganger had been unveiled and the truth revealed. The look on his face was unlike any expression Jonathan had worn before. Xiaomu looked sympathetic, but Jonathan -- he looked livid. Not the rabid, red-seeing rage sometimes described in books or what have you, but the kind of red hot rage that drove a man far past his conceivable limits. Everyone here continues to try and talk him down.

Alucard might recognize the look on his face, if he cared enough to examine it.

It was a hairs trigger away from the kind of fury that drove Dracula to his darkness during Trevor Belmont's age. The kind of vitriolic fuel that could warp someone if it weren't addressed.

Crackles of hamon-turned-lightning danced between his grit teeth as he marched up the stairwell. The others could make peace all they wanted, but they wouldn't have long to convince Magnus to give up and repent. Because Jonathan had a very good idea where the talkative vampire was, just from the hints he dropped. Not far away, in a ruined castle.

    Only one such place fit the locale.

    It was time to return to Windknight's Castle.

Alucard Tepes (1128) has posed:
    Alucard looks to Maaka. "Wait. We should present a united front." A look to Jonathan. "And he knows the area better than I do. He will know best how to enter the area. As it seems Magnus has set up in the old castle there in Windknight's Lot."

    Reimu gets a look from Alucard. "You are a priestess? You would be invaluable; Magnus is a demon, and has unholy magics. You could be the key to breaking them."

    A look to Jonathan then. "...I should apologize to you." Pause. He knows that look. "...But right now, it is not important. I will help you. This is partly my fault. Allow me to tend Lyudmil, and then I will go with you.

Eithne Sullivan has posed:
    Eithne Sullivan looks at Alucard. Then looks at the coffin she absolutely obliterated.

    The dark-haired girl slooooowly sidesteps away from the ruins and may in fact be trying to disappear behind John's coat.

Reimu Hakurei (972) has posed:
     "That's normally what I do in life for the most part. Also, thank you for taking note of that. Not many people seem to notice and I'd be happy to help out for free again."

     She grips her gohei in her right hand as she takes a deep breath.

     "I can also make barriers and fly if needed as well."

Leyanne Mace has posed:
Leyanne Mace stays out of the way and listens. Her eye stays green, but there are little smouldering red flecks flickering through the optic's status display. Her arm has returned to red glow, indicating all the assists are shut down, but her fist remains clenched, and rotating at a slow 1-2 RPM at the wrist joint. "Fuck off are we letting you do this alone, dude." She mutters, sourly. "Not a fucking chance mate."

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    If this were a cartoon, Maaka would be making that comical tire squeal noise as Alucard bids her to stop. She looks to him, and just narrows her eyes. That said, she's willing to hear the dhampir out after some clarification. "We're going to kill him." She says, in no uncertain tones. There's gonna be MURDER on the horizon, for Magnus.

John Rizzo has posed:
John's coat is big even on his lanky frame. There's room for hiding, and he doesn't make any overt moves to stop her from doing so. No, he's far too busy trying to wrap his head around the ethics of this situation. On the one hand, Magnus is literally a demon--an agent of Satan. But, even Jesus himself allowed Legion to flee when the demons asked mercy. It's a conundrum.

     Perhaps... the fact that he's a demon means that judgment has already been passed. Even if that's the case, is there any other way this could go? Any way this could end without violence? If he withholds mercy even from one being, what's to stop him from doing it to the next? This is going to be something that defines the rest of his unlife. So what's a vampire to do?

     Well... if he's going to make a stupid mistake, it's better that he makes that mistake erring on the side of forgiveness. After a long silence, he speaks up. "I'll help you," he says, mirroring his sentiment from the last time he was in this position.

     "But if he waves the white flag you better believe I'll lay off." Besides--if there's the option to do so, and Magnus is indeed shown mercy... or rather, if John can /convince/ everyone, the humans of the group included, to show mercy? Maybe, just maybe, he'll reevaluate his stance on humans. It's one hell of a long shot, but that's John's raison d'être.

     "I'll stick around till sundown, then I gotta blast." With that... he takes a moment to kneel before the ashes of the thralls, uttering quiet prayers of expedient rest and beseechments of forgiveness for his complicity in their deaths.