4916/Against the Unliving

Against the Unliving
Date of Scene:	21 December 2016
Location:	Hellsing-1 Earth <HE1>
Synopsis:	Vatican Section XIII investigates a region of the Austrian Alps that has been hit by a ghoul infestation, and brings along multiversal allies for the ride.
Cast of Characters:	Heinkel Wolfe (Dropped), 1081, 151, 796, 1084, Maya

---

Heinkel Wolfe (Dropped) has posed:
  Welcome to the Austrian state of Styria. The alpine terrain is famously rugged, going between high mountain pastures and knife-edged chasms. This time of the year, it's generally cold, and very snowy. Today the sky is overcast, completely blocking the sun, and there's no wind to speak of.

  The village of Tragoess perches on the shores of a snowmelt-fed lake. For most of the warm months of the year, it forms Green Lake, so named for the emerald clarity of its water. In the winter months the lake drains and freezes, so the area is used as a county park.

  Green Lake has been turned into a staging ground. Crates of supplies are stacked near the shore, with two tents staked into place. Most of the supplies are for combat, and include ammunition and the like; there's even a crate full of blessed silver bayonets (still sealed) and a crate full of boxes of consecrated ammunition (opened and partly missing). The coordinates transmitted to Vatican Section XIII's allies leads right here.

  There's no sign of life on the shores of the lake, although Iscariot was supposed to have an agent in the area to meet the hired help. A set of tracks leads to the trail that returns to Tragoess.

  They match the treads of Heinkel Wolfe's combat boots. Following the trail paints a picture of battle. Heinkel had met with resistance on the way to Tragoess. The remains of ghouls lie cast aside from the path, but the strangest part is that they haven't been shot.

  They've been torn apart.

  Spent shell casings on the side of the path suggest that Heinkel /did/ fire on some of these skirmish groups. One of the ghouls is charred in a way that suggests she had used her silver-plated pistol to bludgeon her targets when they'd gotten in too close.

  The last group yields up a confusion of footprints; both marks from the victims' shoes, and Heinkel's combat treads. Amidst the churned-up blood and snow, there are prints that look reminiscent of a dog's paw, if a dog had a paw the size of a generously large teacup saucer. It could be that Heinkel was attacked by what the paw belonged to. The pawprints don't continue; maybe the priest drove off whatever it was.

  Another skirmish site lies ahead. She must have been wounded; her footprints continue away from the skirmish with a trail of blood. It could be she was tracking something wounded, but ghouls don't bleed much. Maybe it was that dog-thing. She must have driven it off; there's no corpse, and the pawprints don't reappear.

  Heinkel's footprints lead to the main street of the village: A few mobile homes parked to one side, a church, a tiny post office, and an open square. There's a pile of crates and boxes here, and the banner bearing Vatican Section XIII's standard hangs limp on its pole.

  Perched atop the crates is Heinkel Wolfe herself. She has her right leg folded under herself, the other left to dangle over the edge. Her slacks are ripped at the left knee; blood pools in the snow beneath that dangling boot. Spent ammunition lies below her and she clutches her Dragunov rifle (stock slightly bloodstained). One of her sunglasses lenses is cracked.

  On seeing her allies, Heinkel looks up. Blood trickles from the corner of her mouth; she spits to one side to clear her mouth, blood in the snow, and laughs. The sound's as bitter as the winter chill.

  "Ach, there you are. I vas starting to vonder if anyvon vas going to come. Good. Ve haf a lot of vork to do." The priest straightens, lowering her rifle and pointing the muzzle earthward. "I cleared a path to the main square, as you can see. The buildings are still infested. I vasn't going to go into close quarters vitout backup. Might be more around the lake, still, too."

Celes Chere (1081) has posed:
    EARLIER

    "Terra, I need to borrow--"
    As Celes enters Terra's quarters, she finds it empty, the half-Esper likely busy with something. The blonde glances about, spotting a pile of paperwork on a desk. Requests for help from all over the Multiverse, likely yet to be sorted through to organize meetings. One catches her attention, outlining an undead problem of some nature. Celes takes the slip of paper and exits the quarters like nothing happened.

    NOW

    When Celes arrives at the agreed upon position, she finds no one to meet and greet her. And so she follows footsteps, and past a point bodies. Then pawprints. Then blood. The caped woman has no problem following, right up until they finally come across Heinkel herself. By then, the former general had unsheathed Excalibur, holding the golden sword in case of ambush. She lowers her guard at the sight of the priest.

    "My apologies for being late. I received the request from Iscariot only a short while ago and came as quickly as I could. The undead, what are they capable of?"

    As she asks for details, Celes also lifts a hand towards Heinkel, and it briefly glows a comfortable white and green. Healing magic leaps to Heinkel, a basic cure spell, nothing fancy.

Ainsley (151) has posed:
    Ainsley arrives in her own coat. It's a black trench coat to go with the black police-like uniform that she has taken to wearing now that she feels comfortable as a Paladin. The coat is closed enough for the built-in heaters to keep her nice and comfortable, and her tail is wrapped up as well to keep it from getting too cold while she's out here. Her hands and feet are covered by thick white gloves and special shoes respectively. She didn't bother to bring her police-styled utility belt today... no, she just brought her sword, the scabbard held in her left hand.

    A white ribbon sways in the wind, tied into her feathers where the red one is usually found. She looks around with interest when Heinkel says that she cleared the area. Her eyes trail down... the odd footprints of the dog make for a strange sight. Weren't they here for vampires?

    She turns her gaze to focus on Celes. Blue eyes trail down to the sword in apparent interest. "Seems like it's swords today," she remarks, as one of the people that's going to be wielding a sword on this little mission of theirs. "Glad you could come to help out," she adds, hoping that Celes remembers her. "Sorry that I seemed grouchy when you saw me last." She did drag her colleague out of that meeting with the former navy man in an awful hurry...

    She then activates her Sight and scans the immediate area, her eyes glowing with softly spinning blue magic circles on her irises. She's looking for short range broadcasts, or the distant vibrations of someone yelling for help. Anything that might give her a clue on where they should go first. Signs of living people.

Sarah Rogers (796) has posed:
    Sarah approaches flying low to the ground, looking somewhat lost. She's still not used to the reconfigured warpgates, plus she's never been here before. She's pretty much covered in cold weather gear. The outfit she'd normally use for this sort of thing is rather impractical for the Alps. Upon seeing the trail of carnage she sets down, staring in awe as she follows the trail into the village. After passing a particularly mangled ghoul she pauses to take her shield off her back, while her right hand fishes underneath layers of clothing to touch her necklace. A moment later Mjolnir appears in her hand.

    "What went wrong!? She asks worriedly as she approaches the small gathering. "Usually a team tries to meet up *before* something like this happens!?"

Seras Victoria (1084) has posed:
There are too many oddities on this approach. Far too many. Even Seras Victoria, clad in a pink fuzz-lined coat and wearing knee-high boots can tell this much. One prodigiously long and thick CANNON-RIFLE is slung over a shoulder and toted with ease. Never mind the small lettering about its manufacture and specs, the name 'HARKONNEN' is printed bold and proudly on both sides of the weapon, along with the company name 'Hellsing Arms.'

    Whoever's in charge of 'Hellsing Arms' has GOT to be crazy, because that's an anti-tank CANNON. A bloody CANNON. Who's going to be firing THAT?

    Seras steps and shuffles through the snow, adjusting her backpack of ammunition and other supplies here and there...

    It's not hard to follow Heinkel, the weird tracks and... dog tracks interspersed aside. Just follow the blood. Follow her nose, too!

    Which leaves Seras giving Heinkel a soggy, disapproving look once she finally reaches her with the others! "Work to do? When you're in THAT condition?! Please... tell me you weren't bitten..." Seras' face turns long and disheartened already, because it's hard to imagine injuries from ghouls that DON'T involve bites!

Maya has posed:
The Undead had come to this place and Maya was here to help. She was clad in winter gear provided buy Section 13, which she was thankful for givne how cold it was. She could only guess how bad it was for Ainsley given she was a reptile after all. She was armed with her rifle at the ready. She chedked it and it seeme good. She follows the trail and Maya's keeps he eyes peeled. She often seen as fairly relaxed about the Paladin's HQ? Today? Maya's more of a predator sizing up the ghouls did before they were taken down and soon she catches up with the priest and nods once to her.

"Good thinking, we can't miss a single one. Every last one has to be purged or this could keep happening here." She checks her rifle again and she seems ready. as Celes shows up and handles the healing and she nods to her.

"Good to see another person who can heal along, we're going to need it I suspect Miss. I'm Maya by the way."

She pauses looking to Wolfe again.

"Nice work, saw what you did on your way in."

She looks to Seras for a moment.

"She'd have turned by now, I'd wager."

Heinkel Wolfe (Dropped) has posed:
  "Chief must haf been putting out a lot of requests for help. I don't know who you are, but glad to haf you. Velcome to the Alps." Heinkel looks down at Celes with obvious curiosity, nostrils flaring.

  Heinkel holds up a forefinger. "Freaks: Cheap knockoff vampires. They're hungry for blood und vhen they bite, they make more ghouls." A second finger joins the first. "Ghouls: The victims of freaks. They vere people vonce, but now they're not. Killing them ist a favour. To everybody. Including them. They can turn people, but ve don't know vhat the determining factor is. Be careful, don't get too close." A third finger rises. "Most importantly: They might be mindless, but they haf numbers, here, and I don't know vhere they're entrenched. The vons I killed are just a fraction."

  Ainsley earns a careless two-fingered salute and a cheeky grin. "Chevalier Ainsley. The coat looks good on you."

  The lizard-woman's Sight would not reveal much. Most of the central square must have been hit hard, because there don't appear to be any survivors here. There are still ghouls holed up in some of those buildings, but they aren't hiding so much as milling around aimlessly, as though confused and without direction. The freak that made them must not be too close.

  "Because I vas ambushed as soon as I got here, und Grünen See--" That's Green Lake, "--ist too forested to haf clear line of sight. I decided vonce I cleared a spot, this vould be a safer place. See? Ve're overrun." She frowns. "This ist the same story as a lot of other places in Europe, but ve need this place because of the mines. Doesn't sit vell vit me to leafe other places in need, but... priorities. Ve can't fight vitout veapons."

  Ah, and there's the Draculina. Heinkel swings her leg down, vaulting from the crates with a grunt and landing in a crouch, clutching her rifle as she straightens. "I vas starting to vonder if Hellsing vas going to send anybody." There's some grumbling under Heinkel's breath, something about Integra, but it's not loud enough to make out any specifics. Cats and dogs. "I hope you haf something for close quarters, too..."

  "Heh." Heinkel looks to Maya; the lines around her eyes suggests she's squinting behind her sunglasses. "Danke."

  "Vell, let's start. They're in the buildings, I know that much, but not how many. No fewer than groups of two. You haf trouble, you call for help as loud and immediate as you can, ja?" Heinkel slings the rifle over her shoulder by its strap, and reaches into her coat for her trusty Iscariot-issue pistols. "Vell, pick a building, I guess. Police Girl, you're vit me."

Celes Chere (1081) has posed:
    "Oh. I remember you, yes. I don't think I caught your name?" Celes says to Ainsley, without an ounce of judgment for her appearance. She's quested with a party that included a yeti, a moogle and a mime, she's not about to question the heavily-clothed lizard.

    A nod to Maya, then. "I'm not as good as some others at using white magic, but I can get by. If anyone gets injured, I'll take care of you when we have some breathing rom."

    Heinkel answers, finally, and Celes nods. "Celes Chere. I can't turn my back on people who need help. And, understood. So they'll focus on physical attacks and need to be kept out of biting range."

    That's certainly one way to simplify what Heinkel said. Before everyone splits up, Celes raises her sword in the air, pointed up, and for a few moments her cape is caught in the wind (moreso than already) as a bright blue and white spell expands from her blade and washes over everyone else present.

    It's protect, you all get a bit more physical defense.

    This might be when people notice Celes' clothes don't exactly look winter-proof, but she's not shivering or complaining. Magic is great, and magical armor even better.

    Protection and healing handled, Celes does as RPG protagonists do and instinctively picks a random house and walks into it like she owns the place.

Seras Victoria (1084) has posed:
Seras can't help but stare at Celes - who on Earth tromps around a mountain dressed like that, and carrying a sword? A very ornate sword, for that matter. And... did she just throw glowy green sparles all over Heinkel or something? Seras' mouth gapes open in wonder... and then the same magic shivers in the air around her body too!

    "E-excuse me, but... what's with that getup? Are you sure it will--.....?" Aaaaaand off goes Celes. Right into a house. Easy as you please.

    disappointed, Seras shuts her mouth tightly and turns back to Heinkel! "If this thing doesn't suffice as a club in a pinch, I don't know what will. Worst comes to worst there's always kicks and elbows! If it's only ghouls..." And, of course, the possibility of a Freak. But who knows?

    Seras unlocks the Harkonenn's barrel and breach-loads a DU shell. Using explosives indoors is a bad idea for now!

    "Are you sure you're alright, Heinkel? You're awfully bloody. Did a wolf maul you or something on the way here...?"

Ainsley (151) has posed:
    Ainsley gets one piece of information from her scan: The Freak Chip vampires are not immediately nearby. "No sign of the control influence of the vampires," she says aloud, as her Sight fades out. She puffs a little sigh through her nose as she prepares for the mission right after having had the situation explained to her.

    "Chevalier Ainsley," she introduces, holding up her Paladin badge to Celes, since she's not a Paladin and that's the standard method to introduce herself. She shines a great big smile as she does that. "Just call me Ainsley, or whatever suits your fancy. I'll know when you're referring to me either way." Because she's a wizard and she can just sense it. She leaves that part out.

    Ainsley turns and just walks to find a smaller building to check. The front door is cracked open a bit, with blood smeared across the front of it. Someone was dragged into the building. She doesn't display shock or revulsion, she just draws her sword out of its scabbard and leaves it against the door frame. Then she pushes the door open with her foot and watches the inside of the building. It's an old house, it seems like. When no ghouls immediately lunge out at her, the police lizard steps inside.

    She turns the corner and immediately a ghoul is sprinting across the dark room at her, knocking over a chair on its way toward her in its mad dash to try to bite her. She calmly raises her sword, and side steps into a well-practiced diagonal swing, lopping the rotten, slavering creature's head clean off with one stroke. The blood spray is not as impressive as the blood knights that fill this particular world would enjoy, but it's enough to spatter the door step she was just standing on, and the ghoul slams into the porch and sliiides to a stop. The reptile woman goes about this with a calm, brutal efficiency, not wasting a single sword stroke on butchery when she can neutralize a ghoul as fast as possible.

    Plenty of sounds can be heard from inside of the house as she carefully exterminates the undead infesting it. When she gets done, she's stepping out through the front door again and cleaning her long sword off with a large cloth she brought with her.

Sarah Rogers (796) has posed:
    "Sarah Rogers, Squire." She introduces herself with a slight twinge of nervousness to the gathering. She nods a few times as she listens Heinkel explain the situation, "Can we assume that everything in the area is already dead.. or close enough?"

    Once she's assured that what they're dealing with is essentially mindless ghouls, she offers Celes a quick smile of thanks, then starts down the street, finding a large house that looks particularly infested judging from the sounds coming from inside. She walks up to it and proceeds to kick the door in, the entryway is surprisingly clear, so she heads inside.

    "Holy Fu--" Suddenly there's a crack of thunder, a wave of force blowing out all the windows, and lighting erupting from every crack and corner of the place, accompanied by the smell of ozone and burning flesh. Yay!

    It takes only a few seconds more for the entire house to collapse in a heap of rubble, with Sarah slowly emerging shield first from a section of the roof, "Uh.. I think this ones clear!" She declares with a nervous grin. "Sorry.. still kinda new at this."

Maya has posed:
Maya says "Still it could mean the differnce between life and death after all. Don't sell your self short with a talent like that."

It's time to go sweep the building and she nods to Heinkle as she does so.Does Maya catch the squint who knows either way. Maya enters into one of the houses, she's silent as she moves, well as much as he can, her rifle gripped and it's ready to go. Maya finds her wya in as she hears the sickly sound of flesh being torn, she sadly knows it and in what ws a common's carea are several bodies, with ghouls that are currently eating them. Now Napalm might be an idea but given this town does need to be recliamed at some point. The rifle comes up and the sound of the assault rifle can be heard spraying out bullets as Maya moves to gun the the group of Ghouls down, she leaps back as one gets close nd it takes full on burst to it's face causing the head to become a find mist and body to drop, the gun fire has also drawn more from hiding. Maya mutters an old prayer, if anyone had experiance with Babylon it would sound a lot like it. Maya has faced the undead and the horror of their existance and the possiblity the victem's souls are stuck in there screaming out to be allowed to cross over? Unsettles her and always will.

More come and the rifle powers up again this time aburst of bight white energy comes from the underside of the rifle burning a hole in the first Ghoul. They try to get close and Maya weaves out of the way, and even uses her rifle stock to smack one. Still she gets how strong these thigns are, do not stop moving, keep firing.

Heinkel Wolfe (Dropped) has posed:
  "Sorry," Heinkel throws, after Celes. "Ve'll handle introductions after ve kill these sorry sons of bitches, ja?"

  The former general does get a bit of an odd look from the gun-toting priest, because apparently Heinkel just now noticed what kind of skimpy non-winter clothing Celes is wearing. The lines around her eyes suggest she's squinting really hard, because seriously, that looks so cold it's painful to imagine.

  She remembers one last thing, and raises her voice in a bellow after Celes: "TAKE OUT THE HEART OR THE HEAD! ONLY VAY TO KILL THEM FOR GOOD!" Knew she forgot something important. Hopefully Celes heard.

  "True," Heinkel replies, to Seras. "You're a freak of nature, now. A creature of the night." The priest grins, showing her teeth, but the way she says it suggests it's not actually meant as an insult. It's more of a fact of life. There's nothing like Alucard or Seras in nature. "Your hands qualify as veapons, now. But it's not only ghouls. There are freaks in here somevhere, and you und I und the others, ve're going to kill them all. There's at least von, probably two."

Heinkel Wolfe (Dropped) has posed:
  Only then can they start ushering in relief efforts, once the threat is eliminated. Maybe Hellsing can get one of their fancy helicopters involved in the relief efforts, and airlift supplies. It's one of the only feasible ways to move material in these high, remote places.

  Checking both pistols, she grunts in response to Seras. "Nein. I got mauled by ghouls. Von of them had long nails, und no real care about breaking them. So I broke her face," she reports, grimly. "Eh. Don't vorry about me; I'fe had vorse. Thought I saw something in the voods on the vay, here, but I vas busy vit the rabble. Keep an eye toward the treeline. Might be another freak. The people those things keep creating don't seem like the kind to vork together, though."

  CELES CHERE will find that her house is full of ghouls. They do the predictable ghoul thing, rushing toward the living once they sense her in the immediate vicinity. They're slow and clusmy, uncoordinated; it could be that the cold is affecting them. It would be trivially easy for someone of her caliber to avoid their attacks and and dispatch the unliving.

  AINSLEY seems to be well in hand with dispatching the unliving, as evidenced by her return to the world of the living, slightly bloodier for the wear but whole and evidently unhurt.

  "Close enough," Heinkel adds, to Rogers. "Don't assume anything. If there are survivors hiding, your priority is still to kill the ghouls, because they can turn any survivors they manage to find. Nobody is safe until they're /all/ taken care of, ja? I can't underscore that point enough." Both of her Iscariot pistols are twirled, with the kind of tight control that speaks of someone with a lifetime of experience wielding them. "Be caref--"

  A house collapses, by all appearances with SARAH ROGERS still inside it. That's probably not good. Heinkel is already raising a pistol and pointing it at the rubble, just in case something that /isn't/ Rogers comes out.

  Nope. She's good. The pistol lowers and Heinkel frowns, before shaking her head with a grumble and trailing after Seras.

  MAYA stumbles upon a ghoul enjoying dinner. It isn't enjoying dinner for much longer after she stumbles in on it. So is the sound of a lot of automatic gunfire.

  The sound of gunfire warms the cockles of Heinkel's black little heart, because it means one or more less ghouls in this world to torment the living. And, hopefully, one or more souls put to rest.

  Seras might hear the priest intoning solemn prayers beside her with every report of gunfire; every hint of ghouls falling. It starts as a quiet murmur, and rises into a rasping growl, steely and angry.

  Meanwhile, HEINKEL WOLFE and SERAS VICTORIA are headed for a large building that looks like it was the town hall, once upon a time. The door is slightly ajar and there is a suspicious lack of bloodstains around. Heinkel's prayers cut off almost mid-word; she taps Seras on the shoulder with the muzzle of her pistol, and then points with clear deliberation toward the town hall's door. We're going in there, the gesture says, and we're doing it quietly.

Seras Victoria (1084) has posed:
No insult meant sure, but Seras doesn't apparently like being called a 'freak of nature'. She fixes Heinkel with a soggy look while that's being laid out - but is SWIFTLY distracted by THUNDERBOLT-CRASH and a house collapsing on Sarah. "What the--?!" And somehow Sarah is completely unscathed.

    Seras slumps forward and stares in UTTER disbelief. Did someone just magic a house into splinters? That is SO unfair, close to unbelievable... but also COMPLETELY unfair. Relieving, but just as crazy, Sarah just brushes off a house collapsing on her.

    For Seras, the sound of gunfire not hers that she can't see isn't comforting. It gets a tiny flinch from her in fact. But she catches onto Heinkel's signal nonetheless and nods her understanding. Seras ducks down low and slowly approaches. If there's a window she can covertly peek into she'll take the opportunity... and if not, she readies the Harkonnen and takes a position ready to kick down the door!

Ainsley (151) has posed:
    Ainsley turns and starts walking to the next small building. The scabbard is collected in her tail as she goes. Her eyes half-lid as she goes, finishing with cleaning off her weapon as she reaches the next door. It's a small store that sells... she decides that didn't matter. The scabbard is left by the door here, too, as a sort of marker of which building she was clearing out.

    The main room was empty. She spared a glance around, and saw a door to a back room, likely where the stock was stored for replenishing the displays at the front of the store. She looks back over her shoulder, briefly thinking of calling to the others to check if anything is wrong... but decides they have it handled. And so she heads up to the door and gives it a quick testing turn of the door knob. It doesn't budge. She steps back from it and frowns...

    And then there's a loud SLAM against the door. And a surge of ghouls pours out of it. Not enough to overpower her, but enough to suggest that people had tried to hide in the back room and wait out this disaster, and it didn't turn out well for them. This time, Ainsley doesn't have time to properly aim her strikes, and has to maim the ghouls just to prevent them from grabbing her as she takes retreating steps and takes advantage of the display cases. It leaves quite a mess, and she is forced to pause to catch her breath by the end of it, covered in blood and exhausted.

Maya has posed:
Maya does not hate the victems here, there's no hate towards who they were no. It's an act of mercy and Maya goes to make sure that there Maya does also make sure to fire extra shots to make sure the Ghouls she took out are down and then moves on leaving only carnage and shell casings in her wake. Maya doesn't like it but she's focused on making sure she does not miss a single one. She keeps stalking through the building moving to tract if there were more Ghouls they would be drawn by the blood of the fallen and the sounds of gunfire.

Maya remaisn on edge knowing just how dangeou these things are.

She moves to check the basement now as she contiunes her sweep and she'll not be alone, Maya's junped and she soon finds her seld with a Ghoul slaming into her, she kicks it in the chrst forcing it off then opens fire with the rifle again.

"To the afterlife you have been deined."

Celes Chere (1081) has posed:
    Celes memorizes names and faces. She knows none of these people! It's a bit awkward. At least she heard Heinkel's advice about hearts and heads before wandering off to mess in a house.

    Once inside, she sees what she was warned, but didn't really expect them to look so... well, put it this way, the undead Celes has faced before have generally either been dead for a long time, or not in much of a state to visibly be 'people' anymore. This is a little bit offputting, but thankfully her former employer frequently had her kill people, so... well, you know. Not saying she can kill in cold blood, but.

    The way she swings Excalibur, artfully, precisely, lopping off heads, impaling, kicking away, deflecting blows by cutting arms off, and occasionally aiming for legs when she needs to put distance between herself and the horde, certainly would say a lot about her if anyone had followed her. It's also possible Excalibur helps here; it's a holy sword, inflicting holy-elemental damage. Even without a weakness to it, white light like flames would have a tendency to scorch targets hit by it. It's nothing like the faith-based weaponry of Iscariot's best, but it might be better than a regular sword.

    She makes a mental note to ask Heinkel how these sorts of infestations begin. Having whole villages or towns swarmed over by the living dead isn't usually something that just kind of happens... right?

Sarah Rogers (796) has posed:
    Sarah's not *completely* unharmed. There are a couple tears and blood spots on her coat, too fresh to be ghoul blood. These are likely from the house collapsing on her, but having a vibranium shield and a natural toughness helped a lot. She pulls herself out of the remains of the house and brushes herself off."This place was close to a solid mass of undead." She explains apologetically

    After checking over her pile of rubble to make sure nothing else survived it, she decides to tone it down a notch, hanging her Hammer on her belt so she doesn't accidentally level the next house she clears out. She picks a smaller, quieter one this time.

    Searching it slowly and methodically, this time she dispatches any ghouls she finds by decapitating them with the Star Shield, preferably from a distance, but she'll deal with them up close and personal when necessary. Especially if she's near a load bearing wall. Not making that mistake again!

Heinkel Wolfe (Dropped) has posed:
  In contrast to her bouncy associate whose attention keeps getting dragged all over the place every time somebody does something multiversal, Heinkel is calm under fire and keeps her attention focused on the task at hand. She is nothing if not meticulous; the quintessential 'professional.'

  Even in a division full of lunatics and fanatical warrior-priests, she seems uncommonly calm and methodical. The gunfire is only a comfort because it means more of these creatures are being put to rest. This group is far gone enough that they probably couldn't figure out how to pick up a gun and work it.

  Peeking into the window provides enlightenment. No, not for the meaning of life.

  Yup. Ghouls. It just lets the two reluctant associates discover that there is a room full of ghouls on the other side of that door and window. Heinkel's face twists into a sour expression. Seras might hear her cursing beside her.

  It's kind of impressive, because while Heinkel pauses to figure out how best to wipe out this nest of ghoulkind, she's cursing steadily for thirty seconds straight and doesn't repeat herself once.

  "Alright, Police Girl." Heinkel sighs, jerking her pistol toward the door. "Time to see vhat you can do vit that big gun of yours. Try to kill as many as you can; I'll stay back und take care of the vons that you flush out. There might be a freak in there; there's an awful lot of ghouls in that building."

  AINSLEY has slightly more luck with a small building, once she's cleaned up the mess that was left behind inside. Never mind that there is now two hundred percent more mess inside. That's not interesting; what's interesting is the fact that there are footsteps sounding inside the room, echoing. What? Suddenly, there is automatic gunfire sweeping the room where Ainsley's at. Apparently that's one of the possible multiple freaks. Some punk kid in a ski hat with red eyes and a semi-automatic assault rifle that's probably illegal in a dozen countries. He doesn't look particularly interested in negotiating. In fact, he looks pretty crazed, screaming in German while he sweeps the room with another volley of gunfire. Have fun with that, lizard cop! Maybe she can use what's left of the display cases to her advantage.

Heinkel Wolfe (Dropped) has posed:
  CELES CHERE is having more luck, mostly because she has an awesome weapon that has elemental damage. The divinity therein may not be quite the right sort, but fire is an excellent tool against ghouls, and they burn like anything else flammable. They groan, but they don't really seem to be in pain. Maybe they stopped feeling pain when they were turned. Gosh, that sure would be a relief. Too bad we'll never know! She does make short work of them, and investigating them would prove that they were probably a mixture of locals and tourists. Their clothing all looks like it's a pretty similar style -- probably they all came from this world, at least. None of them are carrying anything suspicious.

  Oh, but there's movement on the far side of the room. A slow clapping, in fact. "Very /good/! I'd heard about the multiverse, but this is the first I'd seen of it myself." A German-accented voice, from the far shadows; a woman who seems not too young, and not too old. Blood-red eyes gleam from the shadows. "Stick around. You can replace the underlings you so thoughtlessly killed."

  There's the sharp /crack/ of a revolver, pock-marking the ground near Celes' feet with splinters and bullets, followed by ill-intentioned laughter. "Shall we dance?"

  SARAH ROGERS has more luck when she isn't blowing up houses, and whoever's left to worry about property damage is probably thanking her in spirit. The ghouls prove no real challenge for Sarah; they go down easily enough. As Heinkel had cautioned, they're essentially mindless, and they seem to rely on numbers and brute force. Probably they aren't smart enough to use weaponry. Which is why the loud /crack/ of a pistol is a little out of place, and wood chips shower around Sarah. There is a bullet lodged in the wall about five inches away from her head.

  "Stay back--!"

  Ghouls don't seem to have enough brain left to talk, so it's probably a survivor. There's a frightened young man huddled behind what looks like a jumble of tables, chairs, and other furniture. A shaking revolver is sticking out from the morass, and the click of the hammer suggests it's being primed for another shot. It then lowers, because apparently he catches the fact that Sarah Rogers is not a ghoul. "Oh, thank God. Have you come to get us out of here?"

Ainsley (151) has posed:
    The thing about punk kids firing into rooms with automatic weapons is that it is a very blatant thing to see. The lizard woman realized that this person was one of the Freak Chip vampires, and that this was the perfect time to get a look at one of them in the wild. She realized this as she grabbed and used the full weight of her body to shove over a display case toward the German vampire. As she knocked over an array of trinkets and bits and bobs toward him, a brief distraction, she turned on her Sight.

    A brief scan. She didn't have a lot of time. She glances over him, seeking signals, or perhaps even just a fragment of what it is tuned to receive. Perhaps it had a self-destruct mechanism in it.

    Ainsley didn't push it. The moment hostile intent refocused on her, shining white hot in her Sight like a lighthouse, she turned her Sight off and charged. She charged without a roar or a single warning. He tried to shoot her down and fired automatic weaponry at her in the process. She didn't chop or slice or swipe, she abused her ability to fly to lean forward in an odd manner that made it very hard to hit her, holding her sword behind her, then turning it about and completing the motion by trying to impale the kid through the chest.

    Ainsley preferred to talk. But she didn't hesitate to try to impale someone that tried to kill her.

Sarah Rogers (796) has posed:
     Sarah whirls around reflexively putting her shield between herself and the gun shot. "It's cool! I'm staying back! I won't hurt you!" She replies as she peeks above the shield, "Yes, we have a team here trying to make the village safe again. Are you hurt?" She looks the man over for obvious wounds, especially bites. "Is there anyone else in here with you?" She asks cautiously.

    She gets on the radio to the rest of the team. "I've found survivors! Can I get a healer over here!?" She proceeds to explain which house she's in.

Seras Victoria (1084) has posed:
Ghouls. TONS of them. Densely packed, too. "Right!" Seras agrees, resolving herself to what's about to happen. She has a mission, and it involves turning all of those ghouls into a bloody paste. Or ashes. She's had some weird results in the last week!

    The situation's changed, so Seras pops out the DU shell and instead stuffs in an explosive round! With a *WHUNK* The Harkonnen's closed.

    A slow inhaaaaaaaale.. and then!

    She rams the weapon's butt against the window to shatter the glass then whips out, jamming the barrel through the break and OPENS FIRE. Two cacaphonous BOOMS go off quick enough to overlap! The middle of the room where a huge group of ghouls were roaming just got PASTED into a fireball of shrapnel. OTHER windows also burst outwards rather noisily.

    Of course, she doesn't just leave it at that. Seras loads and fires another within a few seconds. Breach, load, close and fire! Over and over! Within ten seconds she's sent four shells at various points of the flow and sent ghouls flying around - in pieces...

    The walls and ceiling are starting to get absolutely covered in blood and... other things that drip... it's messy in there.

Celes Chere (1081) has posed:
    Celes turns sharply at the voice, Excalibur already held in a defensive stance. Gleaming red eyes, ability to speak, obvious taunt. Must be one of those 'freaks' Heinkel mentioned. So that's how it started, then? Someone decided to come here and just... murder everyone. Turn them into those things.

    "I hope you have a good explanation for killing everyone here. I might let you off easy if you do." Easy being relative. But she doubts very much there's an explanation good enough to justify what happened here.

    She doesn't flinch at the gunshot either. She glances down at the damage, then back towards the weapon. The wielder is skilled enough to issue warning shots. Best not to underestimate her.

    Celes will give the woman a moment to answer the question, but at the first sign of hostility or non-compliance, and most likely even after the question is answered, retorts not with words but with a spell. Lightning blasts out of her sword, a trio of lightning bolts spreading, arcing and then converging back into one as they near the faux vampire.

Heinkel Wolfe (Dropped) has posed:
  AINSLEY turns her Sight onto the freak, and she is met with a wash of absolutely nothing, insofar as communications are concerned. Apparently the freak chips are transmitted their one-time activation signal, and then they're forgotten about by whoever it is that's doing the controlling. A literal 'fire and forget,' turned loose against the masses once the necessary alterations have been made. There's something chilling about that implication; that the lives of not only the freaks, but their ghoul victims, would be valued so little...

  The freak fires, but this isn't somebody who's trained to use a gun. It's the wild staccato of panic fire, instead of the disciplined, measured shots of deliberate aiming. Ainsley is able to dispatch the young man with ease. He at least has the dignity to die withuot begging, mostly because his chest is impaled, and therefore so too is his heart. He flops over like a sack of grain once a hole is put into his heart.

  There's nothing particularly unusual about his corpse, except for the part where it bursts into blue flame, charring away into a disproportionately small pile of ashes. Left behind in them is a tiny chip no bigger than a grain of rice, and the trained eye would see the microcircuitry in it. It could even be missed in the ashes, even, so tiny is the device.

  SARAH ROGERS whirls around, though she's too slow to block the shot; the splinters sticking oddly out of the wall next to her attest to that.

  The man's head peeps out from behind an overturned table. The voice is American, and he looks like he might be a tourist. Round wire-frame glasses, a smattering of freckles, and vibrantly red hair suggest Scottish descent; a ski hat, a scarf, and a goose down windbreaker suggest a penchant for skiing. Carefully, and without ever putting his gun down, he extricates himself from his improvised barricade.

  "H-hello?" He looks dubious, to say the least, and kind of bloodless, because this kind of ordeal would probably drain the blood from anybody sane and rational. The tourist blinks blue eyes somewhat blearily. "No. I think I'm okay. I--I think I'm the only one. Everybody else..." Shiver. The look he turns on her is haunted. "No. I think I'm the only one here. Thank you. But... who are you? Are you alone? There's more of those things out there," he adds, a little panicky. "They're everywhere. I heard this weird woman laughing and then suddenly those damned things were overrunning the town. I had some vacation time so I came here; I was supposed to be skiing, not caught up in this ungodly nightmare!"

Heinkel Wolfe (Dropped) has posed:
  HEINKEL WOLFE is very hastily putting distance between herself and the town hall building, once SERAS VICTORIA makes it clear she intends to fire the Harkonnen. No, not so she can shoot Seras in the back. She's getting away because a weapon the size of the Harkonnen is bound to make a lot of noise appropriate to a weapon the size of the Harkonnen. Her hearing is orders of magnitude better than human standard (although Seras probably doesn't know this) and she would really prefer not to be stone-deaf after that thing goes off.

  So when Seras shatters the glass and opens fire, Heinkel is across the town square, taking cover behind the smoldering remains of a building, with her hands clapped firmly over her ears.

  The Harkonnen roars, and once it's done roaring, there's not much to be said about what was inside. It used to be People, and now it's sort of a vague paste. None of these appear to have spontaneously combusted. Explosive rounds, however, mean that the town hall is now on fire.

  From over by the rubble, Heinkel lets out a long, exasperated sigh. While it's nice to have removed the problem of a ghoul infestation, it's something of a Pyrrhic victory if there isn't going to be a Tragoess /left/. Nonetheless, she slinks back over to Seras, pistols drawn just in case there are any survivors. (There don't appear to be.)

  CELES CHERE is confronted by a guest. It is not a nice guest. The woman slowly, languidly steps out from the shadows. She looks like she might be in her late twenties or early thirties, with dark hair and eyes the colour of fresh blood. They're actually luminous in the dark. A bit like Seras' eyes, when the Draculina means business.

  The woman smiles at Celes' unsmiling regard and question. "I consider it doing the rabble a favour. Such short, pointless existences... but we can be so much more. Just a little sacrifice, and we can attain heights humanity can only /dream/ of." The gun is still drawn on Celes, but for now, the woman isn't shooting. Yet. Apparently she was expecting words, not lightning. When the arcs converge, the woman fires, but more from convulsive muscle spasms than any intent to fire. The shots swing wide, although maybe she'll get lucky -- but that seems to be it for the woman.

  Much as with Ainsley's freak, this one also crumples in on itself in a rush of blue flames, leaving behind a tiny pile of ash and an equally tiny microchip.

Maya has posed:
There's so much carngehere so much soreow but she'll leave here allies and firneds to clea out the other area aa shemakes usre her sweep is ronr of the place. The House Maya is sweeping is generally cleared out the building she was in. Maya at least thinking she's cleared the plac is going to move on trying to find people hwo are still alive. She knows there are people here and well she needs to find where they are for after they are done clearing out any of the remaining undead is there are any form the sounds of it her allies are doing a hell of a job though someone whose been able to hide from the Ghouls for so long? Might just be able to get the /drop/ on her.

Celes Chere (1081) has posed:
    Rabble, favor, sacrifice to attain greater heights. Celes isn't sorry at all she just shot right away. Reminds her of bad things. These kind of people are just...

    Thoughts are interupted by the sudden impact of the dying woman's stray shots. One on her pauldron, making her shoulder flinch a bit. Another hits the clothes protecting her chest, and don't penetrate so much as bruise the material. One grazes her arm, barely. It could have been a lot worse.

    Celes approaches what's left of the fake vampire, picking up the microchip and examining it. She's no engineer, but she knows enough to guess it was inside her. Heinkel called them knockoff vampires. Created? Experimented on? Artificial? She'll hold on to the chip, ask Heinkel what she knows.

    Ensuring the house is truly empty, Celes eventually leaves and returns outside, looking to check on the others and get a status update.

Sarah Rogers (796) has posed:
    "Alright, come with me." Sarah urges the man, "Though I'd be a little more comfortable if you put the gun down." She's bullet resistant, not bullet proof. Getting shot's not fun.

    She offers her free hand to him to help him up. "I'm Sarah, what's your name?" She asks with a smile. "I'm not entirely sure this place is empty, but there should be a safe path to the door." On the way out she calls on the radio again, "I'm bringing a survivor back to our little base camp. Still need someone to look him over." She asks hopefully.

Ainsley (151) has posed:
    The sword plunged into the fake vampire's chest. Ainsley had taken a shot in the charge, but it hadn't hit anything vital. The decisive blow meant that her opponent burned up and fell into a pile of ash. She paused in this moment to check her coat. Surely it couldn't be good for the electronics in the coat to be so drenched in the blood of the dead, and she suddenly found herself considering the horror of approaching someone in this coat that would not take her bloody appearance well. The reptile frowned at the idea of a survivor shooting at her...

    Ainsley resigned herself to tracking down and slaughtering any remaining ghouls. She couldn't talk to anyone like this. Hearing the others on the radio, she let out a bit of a sullen sigh and began the arduous task of clean-up. Even if survivors have been found, a single ghoul could be disastrous.

Seras Victoria (1084) has posed:
After the first few shots were fired Seras accompanied the others with outraged SCREAMS, letting her pent-up frustrations with the undead horrors loose! Finally she lowers the Harkonnen, leaving what's left of city hall in flames. Oh well...

    There's nobody left here to run the place anyways...

    She's ANGRY about this, and when she turns around her eyes glow bloody red, like the pits of hell.

    "Who did this. WHO DID THIS?!"

Heinkel Wolfe (Dropped) has posed:
  Back at the town hall, Heinkel Wolfe stands up, frowning around her sunglasses as she peers into the dark and silent structure. The silence is abruptly broken as some of the timbers collapse in on themselves near the window, clattering to the ground and raising a cloud of choking dust. She staggers back, coughing; waving away the dust.

  Heinkel leans into the window, narrowing her eyes as she scans the floor. A few traces of movement are punctuated by the sharp bark of her pistols, the precise one-two-three of a practised shot.

  When the dust starts to settle, she seems to be satisifed that there aren't any more moving targets to shoot.

  The Hellsing vampire is shouting something, which only dimly registers as background noise. Seras then might feel the incredibly cold muzzle of a gun pressing, very sharply, into the back of her neck.

  "Gife me a reason."

  The voice is cold and hard and terrifyingly flat. Heinkel gives absolutely no inflection whatsoever to her words, as though shooting Seras would be just another day on the job.

  It's also an unspoken threat: If Seras doesn't calm her vampiric ass down, Heinkel's going to pull that trigger, and she absolutely won't lose any sleep about it. It /will/ be self-defense, if the Draculina actually loses control of herself.

Celes Chere (1081) has posed:
    Now back into the cold winter air, it's not hard to spot Heinkel as she makes her way over to Seras, who isn't hard to pinpoint on account of the screaming. The angry screaming. Celes sighs, recalling similar episodes with the people she'd call friends now. At least one caused by her.

    Without words she approaches the commotion, though she's completely passive and non-threatening in how she tries to defuse it.

    "Please, there's no need for this. We all came here to save lives." She pauses. "Or at least, stop these creatures from claiming any more. There's no point shedding more blood now."

Maya has posed:
Maya hears the call for a medic and the warning Seras has given. Maya grunts and knows it has to be done if it comes up but Ainsly is here who has far more refined magics than Maya will quickly go check she's praying right now for no bite marks, she won't like what she has to do if she doesbut she damn well won't try to make someone else do it. She tkes a deep breath now as she moves to catch up to Sarah and she is now moving. She knows seras is also losing her temper and is just pausing.

"Fighting like this means the cancer can keep spreading!"

She is however still moving to Sarah to get to medical work and she's going to check the wounded for bites too.

Seras Victoria (1084) has posed:
Oh, this is not good. The hairs on the back of Seras' neck stand straight on end and it's rather like a chill wind just froze her anger - but in the rising terror, with her shivering there!

    The last time something cold touched her there... it was a blessed bayonet. She shivers pretty badly there.

    "This isn't how you build trust with a partner," She glums out sarcastically, doing her best to cover up the fear with a stiff upper lip. Her voice does waver a little though...

    Of course from this angle Heinkel can't really see her eyes, can she? They've gone back to blue...

    But one has to wonder. Could Heinkel really pull that trigger as quickly as she'd need to?

Heinkel Wolfe (Dropped) has posed:
  Heinkel's head doesn't so much as twitch away from the vampire. Her gun is stock-still in her hand, without so much as a hint of trembling It's possible she's been planning on this possibility; that Hellsing's monster on a leash might slip its choke chain without closer supervision.

  Despite the clear threat, her finger is actually somewhat loose on the trigger; to the observant, it may show that she's not actually inclined to shoot unless she's given good reason. She appears neither eager nor reluctant.

  Much as she'd told Seras, in no uncertain terms.

  "Oh, but there ist." Her answer to Celes is given without turning her head. Heinkel's attention is riveted on the vampire for now. "This ist only a polite reminder to control the thing inside her, because ve're all going die if she doesn't. I haf no intention of shooting her unless I haf a reason to."

  What she doesn't add is that she knows what that event horizon looks like, because she herself fights the good fight every day. It's both possible and probable that Seras is in better control of herself than she lets on, but Heinkel can't take that chance. Not with her allies all around her, or vulnerable survivors in the area.

  Freaks and ghouls are one thing, but a full-blown vampire, descended of a true vampire, is quite another matter. Cleaning up this kind of mess would require calling in people Heinkel would really rather not call in. Anderson would just make a political mess all over the floor.

  Her coat rustles about her ankles, and the wind ruffles her hair, but that's the only movement the priest gives. Her gun remains exactly where it is, pressed to Seras Victoria's neck. She's patient, and doesn't seem to mind waiting and studying, to make sure that Seras is well and truly in control of herself. She can wait until the cows come home from the mountains. Which they may do, eventually, if the ghouls didn't eat them.

  "Nein, nein," she asides to Maya, though she doesn't look at the Junker. "I'm only reminding the Draculina of her place, because if she loses control of herself, I'd be forced to shoot her. How terrible," she adds, flatly. "If I vere interested in a fight, I'd already be shooting, and vhile I'm pretty sure I vouldn't be able to kill her as I am now, I vould damn well do as much damage as I could before she ripped out my throat."

  The cold certainty with which she gives this indicates that she's both willing to do it, and also not particularly afraid of dying if it meant sacrificing herself to shield her allies, however little good it might do.

  Apparently Heinkel is using some other senses to gauge the Draculina.

  The gun withdraws, very slowly, slowly enough to make it clear that Heinkel could still aim a shot if she felt the need. Eventually, the hammer cocks, and she thumbs the safety and replaces the gun back into her shoulder rig.

  Heinkel calmly turns on her heel and trudges across the ruins of the town hall. If Seras does lose it, she can trust her allies for the split-second of warning she'd need.

  "I think ve haf them all. I'm thinking von freak, two at most; just going by the number of ghouls. They're probably not going to be in the remote areas." She reaches into her coat, producing a cigarette and lighting it with a quick, efficient flick of a thumb over the lighter in her hand. The lighter gets dropped back into a pocket, followed a second later by her hands. "Fucking freaks," she breathes, along with a wreath of smoke. "I really hate this part of the job, you know."

Heinkel Wolfe (Dropped) has posed:
  Sighing, she turns, glancing at Seras; although her eyes are still hidden by those sunglasses, her expression still manages to convey how flat the look is. "Don't think I von't be reporting this to Integra, either. Vell done, othervise, but... next time, I don't suppose you could leafe the building intact...?"

  Heinkel sighs smoke, morosely. "I'm going to haf hell to pay vit the papervork on this von. Chief's going to rake me ofer the coals on that von, and it's not efen my fault this time..."

Seras Victoria (1084) has posed:
Oh thank god. The gun's finally withdrawn. Only when she hears the safety click does Seras risk MOVING. "Riiiiight. That makes two of us. We're -supposed- to be working together." Her tone turns almost comically grouchy. "More backstabbing over misunderstandings? -Really?-" With lips pursed, brow furrowed and eyes a bit narrowed she can only turn her head and childishly glare a bit at Heinkel.

    But she forcibly exhales to cool her head some. Her lips press together thinly as she looks over Celes, Maya, and Ainsley. "Is everyone alright? Nobody was bitten, were they?!"

Sarah Rogers (796) has posed:
    Sarah hands the man she found off to Maya, "I don't think he was bitten, but the situation in there was a little tense. I thought it was best to get him to safety first." She explains.

    It's okay to relax now, right? Nope! There seems to be another tense situation going in the direction of the flaming remnants of City Hall. "What was that all about!?" She gasps as she runs up next to Seras. "I thought we were all Paladins here!? She calls in Heinkel's direction, "They did their homework on both of you before they let you in, right?"

Celes Chere (1081) has posed:
    Celes tenses as Heinkel explains her reasoning. She doesn't know how much truth there is to it. Doesn't know whether Heinkel can accurately gauge the weight of everyone present when assessing the threat, either. But it's clear the gruff woman is coming from somewhere with her words and that there's a good reason why she's so careful. The former general only allows herself to relax when Heinkel lowers the firearm, and then she awkwardly scratches the back of her neck.

    Maya having gone to handle the medical issues, Celes is mostly left to sheathe Excalibur, remembering she's still holding onto it, the curved, golden blade fitting into the simple scabbard by her side. Then she remembers she had something to ask.

    "Ah, right... in the house, I encountered one of those freaks, I think. There was a small microchip left in the ashes after it burst into flames. What's that about?"

Heinkel Wolfe (Dropped) has posed:
  "Nein. That vas a varning." Heinkel's tone is steely. She stuffs her hands into her pockets, slouching against the cold breeze, coat flapping about her ankles. "Hellsing might be cozy around vampires, but you're still monsters that prey on the blood of others. Maybe you don't take this too seriously, but /I'm/ the von who has to, und not just because you think I vant to stab you in the back."

  One hand rises from a pocket to jab a forefinger in Seras' direction. "Stop fucking around, Police Girl. You do something stupid that /looks/ like you could lose control, /I'm/ going to take it seriously and assume you /are/, because /somevon/ has to, und it's /my/ job. Remember that the next time you throw a fit und start screaming like a maniac, ja?"

  Folding her arms and grumbling under her breath, Heinkel rolls the cigarette from one side of her mouth to the other, glaring. She makes a point of ignoring Rogers for a moment until she can answer that glib remark calmly.

  "Ja. They did. You vant to take up my qualifications vit our superiors, you go right ahead." Heinkel puffs smoke a little more harshly than strictly necessary. So she focuses on something more constructive, which in this case is Celes asking about the freak chips.

  The priest frowns around her cigarette, thoughtful. "Ja, that's vhat I thought. Those chips are vhat creates the freaks. Somevon triggers them from some remote location, und /bang/, you haf a cheap knockoff vampire on your hands. Vhile they don't haf the same power as, say, Alucard, they're still a threat to a lot of people. Vhere the freaks go und feed, so too are the ghouls found. Ghouls, those poor shuffling bastards you cut down, vere the unfortunate souls the freaks fed on."

  "I don't know vhy they burn vhen they're finished, but they do. I'd guess it has something to do vit a vampire's veakness to sunlight, but I couldn't say for sure. They're imperfect copies of /something/. Ve don't know vhat. More importantly, ve don't know who's churning them out, or vhy." Heinkel pulls her hands from her pockets, spreading them in a gesture of helplessness. "I can't efen begin to think of a reason how this vould benefit anyvon."

Maya has posed:
Maya says nothing and simply nods to Seras. "No I was not." Maya is meanwhile catching up wwith Serah and working to treat the man she's also praying near constantrly that he has nobites. She keeps her work she's calm but mostly silent as she works to check the man over for injuries. The talk of the chips is listened to and she grimaces a little bit. she contiune with her wor and ideas for a moment. A thought strikes her, some men wish to just see the world burn, she's seen enough people in the multiversewho /wants/ things like that. She knows this from personal experiance. However talking about what she's thinking on may be best kept to the comm for now.

Celes Chere (1081) has posed:
    "So someone's using chips to turn people into monstrous supersoldiers... to what ends?" Celes asks Heinkel, looking rather uncomfortable with the subject. It's not like Heinkel could answer-- she literally just said she didn't know, in fact. It's more musing out loud. "And how much does the chip change them? Are freaks still the same people they were, or...?"

    Regardless of the answer this doesn't look like a pleasant situation. Seems they're not in short supply of people looking to help, at least. Celes looks around, at least glad they were able to stop this from spreading, even if it was a bit late.

Seras Victoria (1084) has posed:
"Real vampires don't burst into flame." Seras explaisn to the others. "Ash and dust. That's all that's left behind. There was... this vampire pretending to be a priest..." Well she's not going to go into details about that one.

    Nor is she really able to come up with a good response to Heinkel's continued accusations about her control and sanity - so all it gets is a brief side glare that lasts no more than a second.

    "Supersoldiers is giving them too much credit. They're rapists. Murderers." The police girl's head turns Celes' way as she firmly states such. "But we don't... really know. Background checks usually turn up the worst of the worst kinds of people. And these Freaks can't create more vampires. Every victim always becomes a ghoul. Even ones that... that shouldn't."

    She's not about to explain the details there unbidden, but her face does flush a little there...

Heinkel Wolfe (Dropped) has posed:
  "Ja, that's about the size of it." The priest stuffs her hands back into her pockets, hunching her shoulders again in a futile effort to ignore the winter winds. "Someone's churning these things out like they're going out of style. They show up all over Europe. I hafen't heard of any international cases, but I vouldn't rule it out, especially vit communications in such disarray after the incident."

  Heinkel sighs smoke, somewhat irritably. "Vhat burns me ist they're getting avay vit this vitout tipping their hand at all. These things are cropping up all ofer Europe, vit no rhyme or reason as to vhere they are. I've been tracking incidents for years, und I still haf no better answers than anybody else in Iscariot studying this."

  Reaching up, she pulls her cigarette down to tap ash into the snow, before placing it back into her mouth. The priest lets out a puff of smoke, which the wind quickly shreds. "I don't know. The common factor I'fe found ist the fact that they're alvays--"

  Murderers, Seras explains. Criminals. Heinkel sighs, cigarette drooping from the corner of her mouth. "Ja. Basically that. Seems to be the common denominator among them."

  "Maybe putting them down might put their souls to rest. Frankly, I don't gife a damn any more. I really don't." Heinkel frowns around her cigarette, glancing toward the town hall building, or what's left of it. "I haf a lot more sympathy for ghouls, who don't ask for vhat happens to them."

  Muttering under her breath, she shoulders against the wind. "I'm going to call Chief und tell him vhat happened. He'll send in a cleanup crew und get some disaster relief crews in here. Good vork, everyone. Danke." Shoulders slumping, Heinkel sets off across the snowy square, provided nobody actually tries to stop her.

  One could almost think, by the slump of her shoulders, that this part of the job actually gets to her sometimes.