Shadowrun Play > Play-by-Post
[5e IC] Mirror Dance [2076 Game Thread]
Aria:
[Thursday December 10th, 2076; Shirlock Road, London, UK]
Dream shook his head at Al’s blasé attitude
“Some of us are burdened with system identification numbers with linked biometric information so I can’t afford to be quite so cavalier. But I am honestly more concerned by leaving astral finger prints so Petal and I will need to be careful in that respect. Lord Bressingtonis an establishment figure and might be expected to resort to the authorities if wronged but his detachment from society and the nature of the artefact suggests that he might be keen to undergo their scrutiny. In that instance we will need to be worried about what other resources he might bring to bear…so our best bet is not to get caught! So, when do we leave?”
#24
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“Well hell, amigo, we done et, an’ the van’s parked right out front. But first lemme show ya my invention.” Al showed the hippie his handivacs, and then explained that if he was serious about not leaving trace behind, some sterile scrubs, hairnet, surgical mask, and footieswere a simple, “pretty good” option. “As fer what yaleave behind in the witch realm, well, no one said Satanism din’t come with a price. Now let’s load up an’ go kill us a vampire!”
#41
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Alyce looks at the things Al brings out and nods. "Very nice, Al. It looks like you have thought of everything. You have any nitrile gloves in that pile somewhere? If not, we should be able to pick some up at almost any Stuffer Shack or similar location. I am glad that you are on our side." She stands up. "Are we coming back here or should I get my things?"
#46
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“Couple hours from now, drac’s gon’ be mortalized, mirror’s gon’ be inna hippy’s hands. Since it’s gon’ go off without a hitch, can’t see what y’all gon’ need this place for.” Al shrugged. “Bring it, it’s with ya wherever yadecide ta decamp to. Me…” Al started to explain that he had someplace to be the moment he finished this errand, but thought again, continuing “…reckon I’ll becatchin’ up on some sleep.”
#42
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Alyce nods and walks to the sink, where she reaches into the cabinet below it for a plastic trash bag, then it is off to her room to pack the few things she has removed from her case. She puts the flour-speckled clothing into the plastic bag to keep flour from coating anything else and makes the bed she had slept in before returning to the kitchen area with her case. While the others are gathering their things, Alyce does a quick wash up and puts everything away after drying it. Once she is satisfied that she is leaving the place as neat as it was when she arrived, she allows herself to relax a bit and walks outside to smoke a cigarette and wait for the others.
#47
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Al was impatient waiting for the others; he was painfully aware of how early the sun fell at this latitude in December. They had precious little daylight left. But waiting a day would not have made Her happy, and he sensed his little game of playing Her off against the voodoo gods was soon going to pay some meaningful dividends. Still, annoyed as he was by the wait, it was nice that some women still knew their role. Finally, though, he could wait no longer. “Van’ll seat all of us, even the demon. So less’n y’all got some other wheels stashed nearby ol’ Al din’t see, what say we mount up?” And without waiting he scooped up what little gear he’d brought inside the house and then went out to sit at the wheel, engine started.
#43
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Alyce nods as she bends over to pick up her case and the handivacs she had brought from the kitchen. I used a hire car. It is in a car park a bit away but I can send it back to the dealer and we can ride with you. She lets Dream claim shotgun as she stores her case and the vacs in the back before taking on of the rear seats. After buckling in, she leans forward. "I would buckle up, Dream, Al like to drive fast." She settles back into her seat and waits for Al to take off.
#48
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“Oh indeed! Not too fast I trust, we want to get there without too many traffic violations, save those for our no doubt hasty exit. I believe I have everything I need…” and he patted absently at the various pockets of his coat “so no more reason to delay. The sun is fading fast with this smog alert…but then it’s so rare to see the sun in London at all these days, particularly in the winter…”
#25
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“Cast aspersions if’n ya will, but ol’ Al is the very picture o’ motorin’ courtesy. Only got so many vehicle iDs I can cycle through, an’ gotta save ‘em fer the exit scene.” So Al stayed legal, but still managed to weave his way expeditiously through London traffic, mindful of the sun’s early winter departure. By two pm his van was parked smack in a one-hour loading zone smack in front of the multi-story terrace home adjacent to the vampire’s.
Turning in his seat, he addressed his coworkers. “Reckon I can jist go up an pop the front door. Might take a few ticks, though, even if the alarm’s ain’tmonitored they gotta be disabled less’n we want an unholy racket. An’ seein’ as how some o’ y’allmilquetoasts is all worried about gittin’ caught, reckon we need this one ta deal with the eight million sec cams, an’ the she-demon here needs ta do somethin’ ta distract any local looky-loos.”
Al congratulated himself inwardly on suggesting non-diabolical measures to conceal their approach. It wouldn’t be on his eternal soul if the others ignored him and suggested some dark sorcery aimed at hiding them from prying eyes.
#44
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Alyce has her drones following the van so she can have a good feed of its progress and she has to admit to herself that Al is a very good driver. She does laugh. "Let's hope there aren't eight million sec cams, Al. That would be a stretch for me. But give me a few minutes here. The security system is the same as the one next door but without any recent upgrades. I am going in."
Alyce relaxes and slips into VR, looking for the weakness she had detected earlier in the security system. The new owners had not been really interested in the house so they were comfortable with an outdated system that was at least three generations older than the latest model. In short order she finds and enters the system after taking the time to find the local master unit that acted much like a local host for the house. That way, the security company could not be breached if one of its older and weaker systems was compromised. The local host would send out a signal if it detected a breach, but Alyce easily gets her three marks and slips into the local host. Looking around, she finds the nodes to the front door security locks as well as the interior and exterior sensors. She sends a message to her partners. >>OK. I am in and have control over the sensors for the inside and outside of the house. They are able to see us, but the host will ignore the feeds as if we are authorized technicians. I can come out and monitor the situation by AR but any questions before I do that?<<
#49
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Robyn had asked for a few seconds, but Al clocked her hot sim time at under twenty seconds. He figured it must have been an easy job or else she’d probably have been quicker. Pocketing his lock picks and microtronicskit, he clipped his handivac to his belt and said, “Jistone, toots. I’m assumin’ what you jist did won’t be so easy on the Transylvanian Consulate next door….? Schematics said mechanical locks in addition ta the mag-jobs. But any alarms an’ sensors, ya gon’ be able ta do those all easy-like, or am I gon’ hafta git my hands dirty? Or both?”
#45
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>>As long as the data I got from the security company is up to date, I will be able to handle the matrix-based locks and alarms, but we already know that there are also mechanical locks not tied to the matrix that will require you to work your own magic on them. OK, we have access to the house and can go inside. Coming back now.<<
Alyce's body shudders a bit as she reenters it then she grabs her own handivac and clips it to her side. "I had an idea in there, Al. The schematics show that a bunch of the wiring to the houses runs through conduits in the shared walls. If you can get me a small hole in the wall, I can make a direct connection and should then be able to access the local security host of the building next door. That will give me the best chance of spoofing the security system and keeping it ignorant of our presence. Is that doable or do you see an issue with the idea?"
#50
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“Eminently doable, toots,” Al replied, patting the heavy bag slung over his shoulder. “Capital idear. But will that render ya immobile, that direct connection. Cuz ain’tgon’ be no splittin’ up, an’ that’s all she wrote on that topic.”
He already had the door open and was out of the van. Once the others were out, he strolled leisurely across the street, knocked on the front door, waited as if he expected it to be answered, and then walked in.
#46
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Alyce chuckles as she leaves the van and walks up the stairs with Al. I will want to go into VR for a few minutes, yes, but only long enough to make contact and get in then set my own programs. It would be advantageous if I were to remain there while you go inside, in case I need to react to something, but we are a small group and it is a lot to ask to leave someone back to watch over my body. So, my plan is to set things up and slip back to the meat world to accompany you into the next building. Any problems with that plan?"
#51
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“Don’t see how I could have a problem with it, since it’s also my plan. Let’s get to work.” They ascended to the top floor, stopping in the kitchen on the way where Al was disappointed to find no beer. The shared wall on the topmost finished floor was a bedroom, dusty. It appeared to have been disused even before the latest occupant passed away. A glance at the schematics showed Al the placements of several shared conduits, and Alyce showed him which one she wanted quicker than he could have figured it out for himself. Once located, it took him about thirty seconds to make the hole. He didn’t have any ground-penetrating-radar that would ensure he didn’t drill the wires, but he did have a vibration drill - only cut hard, unyielding surfaces - the same sort of thing doctors used to cut casts off. “Et voila.”
#47
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Alyce smiles. "I love it when you speak French to me. It makes me feel all so sophisticated. Now let me at this thing." She reaches in and gently pulls a tiny pair of wire cutters from a small pouch at her belt and gently peels some of the coating away from the wires before unreeling her cable from her neck and attaching it to the wires. She grins as she quietly says, "OK, going in. Back in a tic."
She sits with her back to the wall and slides into the matrix. She takes the time to sleaze herself three marks on the local host and wanders about inside the security system, taking note of where the cameras and sensors are located. She slides in her commands to accepts the four of them as authorized to be present and clears the need for the host to alert the security company of their presence at all. Once done with this, she sends her avatar wandering about, noting the locations of the various sensors in the house and jotting them down on a virtual tablet that she sends to herself. Something odd catches her eye and she descends to the ground floor to check it out. A void is definitely not normal and that it is separated from the local host of the security system is even more odd. There is no record of this void in the system plans so it must be a completely different system. She looks carefully for anything that might be important and sees a small access port that is opening and closing at regular intervals to accept data of some kind. She focuses on matrix perception and spies four sources of the data flowing into the port. Two are on the floor and two on the walls opposite the entrance to the room covered by the void. Bingo. Pressure plates on the floor in two locations and some sort of heat and motion sensor on the walls.
The floor sensors seem to be basic and of high quality, but the wall mounts are at least corp grade stuff, no, wait, there is a serial number on the wall sensor mount. KHD-43568-TT-2W3. Smiling to herself, she sends a request at the speed of thought to her data haven and the answer comes back just as quickly. The mount is a third gen military grade system that was used extensively in the UCAS beginning twenty years ago and up to five years ago, when it was discontinued and replaced with newer, more effective systems. She reads through the specs of the system and notes an asterisk at the end of the document. Her grin gets wider as she recognizes the mark, which is used by the haven to denote files for which one or another of the matrix freedom organizations has submitted additional information. She requests the information and would whoop if that were possible when she reads it.
Alyce's body quivers a bit as she slips back into it. She disconnects from the host and turns to her companions with a smile on her face. "OK, I think we are ready to move on. I slipped a program into the local host of the security system that will tell it to ignore us as completely authorized to be present and to erase any indication that we were ever there when we leave. If the security company has a hot shot matrix monitor, they might pick up that some lapsed time is missing, but we should be long gone by then and no trace left inside. I did find out that there is a space in the house that is not on the security system. It acts as a void in the matrix. There are some rather generic pressure sensors in front of the door and some very good wall mounted heat and motion sensors on the walls to the side of the door. The good news at that whoever put this stuff in did not do his homework well enough. They used military grade sensors, but did not apparently take the time to wonder why the UCAS military was really selling them on the market. One of the groups of people that strongly believe in freedom of information on the matrix had busted the codes on this system several years ago and stored the data in the haven I use. Et Voila, I have the codes needed to disable the system. Still, I also will need to access a small data port after disabling the sensors so will need to go to VR to look at the system beyond the door before we go in. Questions?"
#52
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“Jist one: If all yer gon’ be doin’ is inputtin’ some codes an’ takin’ a peak beyond a door, why ya gotta go all hot-sim/limp-rag on us fer that? Nothin’ you can do cold simya can’t do full-VR, right, ‘ceptin’ it’s a mite slower? Reckon yer hot enough in there ta compensate for a bit o’ signal drag, an’ Count Chocula’s Inner Sanctum ain’texactly what ol’ Al’d call a safe space. Believe it or not, it’d genuinely suck for ya ta git yerself fanged. Or, more likely, fer poor Dreamy here ta git his blood sucked cuz I was busy keepin’ yer sleepin’ carotid intact. I mean,shee-it, he don’t even got the Vampire Sneeze spell. So what say we all try an’ stay on our feet from here on out?"
#48
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Alyce nods as she stands up. "I might be able to do that, yes, but it is certainly not the same. I mean, you can drink a Brit beer but it is not quite the same as one of those from the UCAS, right? There is just something about the taste, smell, texture that is different? Well, that is sort of what it is for me in the matrix. I can do a lot in either AR or cold sim, but there are subtle differences between those and hot sim VR that just get me feeling so much more a part of what I am seeing. I can do it without needing to leave my body, but I do give up some advantages. Still, I do see your point and will try it that way. By the way, I am sending each of you a file of the locations of all the sensors next door."
#53
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“Sure toots. Listen, don’t wanna tell ya yer job. Ya think hot sim’s best, go for it, we’ll back yer play. Jistunnerstand, droppin’ right an’ left inna midst of the shit, that ain’t without costs. So these sensors yer showin’ us, ya said yer gon’ take care o’ these, right? Good. Glad ta know ‘bout ‘em jist in case. What’s got me more worried, though, is if Nosferatu’s got these on an isolated host, what’s tat say he also ain’t got throwback sensors, ain’t spoutin’ no signal whatsoever? Reckon once I crack that balcony door, I lead the way as far as this place yer gon’ break into the secondary host, try an’ sniff out any low-tech sec.”
#49
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Alyce shakes her head. "No, I see your point, Al. I would not be going hot sim during combat unless that was the only way. I was just using to make my life easier in the opening steps." She carefully considers his other words and runs the schematics of the house through her mind again. "Throwbacks are a real concern, Al. If he has any, they are not listed on the logs at the company that installed the system, but he could have just added some on his own and they would not be seen on the host. I agree that this would fall into your area of expertise if the devices are wireless off or not wireless at all. We will follow your lead."
#54
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Dream followed the other two in the precarious jump across the two balconies, confident in the skills of the two ahead and buoyed up with his newfound knowledge of flight and the fact that Petal was actively turning aside anyone’s gaze that happened to stray in their direction.
Once on the balcony he almost gagged but was careful not to make undue noise until they were inside… Petal’s distress was even more evident…
“Phaw, this place stinks on the astral, I would say at least a level four on the Oxford scale. And if it’s this bad here we should be prepared for it to get worse as we progress further. Petal has to go while we enter the wards so keep your heads down as she won’t be shielding us from view. I expected this given what we believe we are walking in to but that pales against the reality! Ok, let’s get inside and hope that it doesn’t get bad too quickly or I’ll be losing my lunch and forensics be damned!”
#26
Aria:
Al listened to the hippy’s whining as he deftly checked the door for contact sensors then easily picked the lock. In fact, he was glad for that Dreamy said, since it erased the niggling fear in the back of his mind that their mark might not indeed be an undead abomination, and that he would not, in fact, get to kill his first vampire today.
Estimating the weight of the door with a practiced builder’s eye, Al opened it at a pace rather slower than the big hand on a clock, sensitive to any undue pressure on the swing. Nothing. No, the surprise came after he scanned the floor for pressure pads and stepped inside - blamed hippy had been right (and it was with no small degree of chagrin that Al realized the implications of being sensitive to this phenomenon, and shunted them to the darkest recesses of his denial). Al’s first reaction was simply to step back out, but he wouldn’t do that. So he took a step through to let the others pass and just stood there for a bit, steadying himself with deep breaths.
#50
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Alyce notes Al's discomfort and is concerned. For just about the first time since they had met, Al seemed unsure of himself or what to do. He steps aside and she walks past him into the room, expecting to feel something but feeling nothing. She takes only a couple of steps, waiting for Al to resume the lead, but taking the opportunity to make sure that the sensors she does control are still ignoring them. So far, there is no indication that she has made an error in her program.
#55
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“This is a bad place,” Al said. Whether to himself or his companions it was impossible to tell. “Voodoo gods won’t come here. They’s left me alone. She’s still here though, so points fer Her. This ain’t the home o’ somedrac goes feedin’ on some poor soul now an’ then when the hunger gits on him. This ain’t the lair o’ no simple predator. No. No no no. They’s some bona fide hate-filled sadistic mother fuckin’ evil dwellin’ within these posh walls….An’ its days’re numbered.”
#51
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Alyce agrees that the place is bad. Now that she is inside, her enhanced olfactory sense tells her that this is a place of dust and a bit of mildew and she kneels to run her fingers along the floor, finding a buildup of dust that must have begun years ago. She holds up her fingers so that the others can see.
When Al mentions the voodoo gods have abandoned them, her hand instinctively goes to the hand-carved idol at her neck and she gives an involuntary shudder at the thought. Her fingers brush the orthodox cross next to the idol and she is immediately comforted. God will never desert those that believe. She stretches her sensors out to look about the room they are in and her ultrasound paints her an image of a large bedroom of the sort found in old mansions and goodness knows that she has been in many of those. But nothing she has been in before has given her the same sort of creepy feeling.
Her scan builds up the picture and she sees the furniture; the large triple dresser against one wall, a vanity table against another, along with several night tables and some stuffed chairs. The bed is a large one, with posts at the corners and.....................frag, a somebody in the center. The room is dark and she does not know if the others have seen it yet. As she puts a hand on Al's shoulder to turn him in that direction, the detailed picture of the person is completed and she relaxes a bit. The person on the bed is dead and has been that way for a very long time. The desiccated flesh is sunken in on the bones and the wispy hair is barely attached to the skull. The arms are laid across the chest of what was certainly once a young woman, as if in repose.
#56
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Dammit, so busy looking for traps he’d missed the obvious. The form was clear to his enhancedcybereyes. “Place like this, jist cuz it looks dead, don’t mean it is.” Picking up an old-fashioned, wooden-handled feather duster and reversing it in his grip, he cautiously approached the form….
#52
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Alyce is holding her breath despite herself as Al approaches the bed and she brings one of the old wooden spoons she had found in the cabinet at the safe house from out of a pouch at her side. She had sharpened it at the handle with one of the kitchen carving knives, just in case. After all, everyone knows that vampires hate wood and this is a perfect fit for her hand.
There is nothing about the corpse on the bed that indicates that it has any sort of life to it, but what little bitAlyce was able to find on the matrix about vampires does not instill her with any certainty on this issue. Al reaches the bed and uses the handle of the duster to poke at it and Alyce feels a bit silly as the head falls off to the side, completely separated from the rest of the torso.
#57
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The sight of the dead body didn’t bother Dream so much as the manner of her death. Even after the evident amount of time that she has lain here there are still traces of the violence in the ether. Reluctantly he allowed his senses to see the astral and blanched, turning away to commiserate with Petal and her unfiltered view of the murder
“In case it isn’t obvious this woman was murdered. A knife to the throat I suspect. What is worse is that her death was used to power something. Whatever LordBressington may be, vampire or not, I strongly suspect he, or one of his staff perhaps, is something worse than we had feared and there is a blood mage here!
We are inside the wards here, Petal and I will sweep the building and see if we can narrow down our target. I suspect it will be in the area you’ve identified, and probably separately warded so I doubt we will find it in the next bedroom but luck has seen stranger things happen, and you are with us after all…” this last directed at Al…
#27
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“So…what? Yer gon’ do that ghost thing?” Al sighed in resignation. Always a choice between rudeness and dalliance with the diabolical. And of course he’d never be rude. “Alrighty, then, hippy kemo sabe, reckon we’ll watch her carcass. An’ right after I got this one to agree not ta go all comatose on us once we got in here. Okay okay, off with the both o’ ya - figure out where we’sheaded so we can bleed the blood mage, stake the vamp, an’ git the hell outta Dodge….oh, yeah, an’ git this mirror yer after.”
#53
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Alyce looks away and smiles at Al's predicament. "It is OK, Al. It gives me some extra time to double check my program. Given what we are seeing and sensing here, though, my guess is that the greatest threat is not going to be technology, but mojo." She sends her AR fingers out and checks every sensor she can find, noting that all are behaving as they should according to the program she had slipped into the local host. Once done, she kneels on the floor and sends her enhanced senses out to check for inconsistencies in the area around them and.....................bingo. She looks up and grins. "Al, over by the door leading out of the room. There is something a bit odd with the floor there. It is a four inch square located dead center on the door about six inches back. There is a very minute difference in the floor there. It might be just age, but it is a bit regular in size, which would be abnormal for natural warping so it could be a manual pressure plate of some kind. It is not showing up on the security system list, so it could be one of the throwback sensors you were warning us about. Good intuition, Al."
#58
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“Good intuition an’ a nuyen’ll git me a NerpsBar. Credit goes ta you an’ yer mad sensors,” Al conceded, down on all fours checking out her find. He couldn’t see anything. He pulled a card from the deck in his pocket - nine of hearts, Kitty Nong - and gingerly slid the edge along the polished wood floor - sure enough, the edge caught right were Alyce had said it would. “Alrighty, that there’s a win. Now we know what ta look for, next’ll be easier ta spot.” He glanced out the balcony doors at the swiftly falling sun. “Trouble is, havin’ ta watch fer these contraptions gon’ slow us down considerable - ain’tlikely ta call ‘er a day while the sun’s still up. Oh well, life hands ya lemons, ya squirt the juice in its eye steal its wallet.”
#54
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Alyce laughs. "I like that." She pauses, then adds, "You know, by the amount of dust on the floor, this room has not been used a very long time, Al. Now that we are in, we could just rest here and wait for tomorrow morningand go get the vampire."
#59
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Al glanced meaningfully at the desiccated and now headless corpse on the antique four-poster bed. “Appealing as the prospect of a haunted house camporee sounds….we din’t bring enough beer ta git us through an hour, say nothin’ of all night. Ghost kids git back, we gon’ make this happen.” He pulled his big knife and began turning the feather duster into a sturdy wood stake. “But yer itchin’ fer some shut eye, yer welcome ta snuggle up with our hostess there. I’ll keep watch.”
#55
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Abby chuckles softly. "You charmer, Al. But you don't know that I have slept in many tombs in the company of dead bodies, so the prospect of snuggling up to the dead girl in the bed is not without merit. However, I am rested a bit and do not feel all that tired just now, so I will stay up and just catnap over here against the wall."
#60
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Al nearly swallowed his cigarette. Dead people? He said nothing, not wanting to know more. “Catnap away. Ol’ Al can hold the fort.”
She was a gem, no question, unnatural proclivities notwithstanding. He’d known a lot of questionable characters over the years, but also been blessed to meet some truly remarkable folk. Many, surprisingly, in this crazy urban merc business. He even caught himself worrying about Dreamy, and more with each passing second. This was a bad place, and everything they’d discovered here in the first damned room told them it was worse. Blood mages and vampires - sounded like a force multiplier for evil if ever he’d heard of one. And, as far as he cared to understand such things, people going ghost were vulnerable all sorts of ways.
So he kept his back against the wall opposite Alyce’sand watched the whole room, wary of any diabolical mist that might try to materialize and bushwhack him. But mostly he was watching Dreamy’s inert form, determined nothing ill befall the misguided hippy while his corpus was uninhabited.
And he prayed that they’d be okay. Never should have let them split up.
#56
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Alyce sits down with her back to the wall and tell he is concerned about something and assumes it has to do with their current companions. She keeps her voice so low it can barely be picked up by the throat mike of her transceiver. "So, Al, what have you been up to lately?"
#61
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Al knew he didn’t need a micro transceiver or even more than a wisp of a breath to be heard by Alyce. Which in a way was a relaxing way to talk. “Been on a beach in Okinawa. Never been ta Japan afore that. An’ still haven’t, near as I can tell. Whole different place, but that colonialism for ya. The good an’ the bad. Beaches is nice, though, if’n yer into that sorta thing. Tried a littlebeerchemy, but couldn’t find the parts I needed. Was jistfixin’ ta pull out when the damned comm started chirpin’.”
#57
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"Japan? I have been to Japan once. Hokkaido, to be exact, so I have not done more than pass through Okinawa at a refueling stop, but I have heard that the home island Japanese do indeed consider the Okinawan's as poor relations, just as you say. The beaches might have been nice, but I don't really get much chance to go lay in the sun. Did you have a nice time there?"
#62
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[Thursday December 10th, 2076; Bressington’sMansion, Grosvenor Gardens, Belgravia, London, UK]
Dream returned to his body somewhat breathless, mentally trying to slough off the rancid feeling of the astral here…he pitied Petal and her continued exposure to it but couldn’t risk sending her away just yet, and she understood his dilemma and would have refused to leave them in any case.
“Sorry to interrupt…we’ve swept the house, as expected the mirror is in the warded safe room below, if it is here at all. But the mansion isn’t empty, there are staff and so we will need to be cautious. They appear to be drugged or otherwise slow of mind judging by their auras, perhaps just numbed by the continued exposure to the taint here so they don’t pose a risk by themselves unless we are careless. Come, let us get this done…!”
#28
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Alyce nods as Dream finishes and stands up. "It is not so simple as all that, Dream. While you were gone, we detected a pressure plate switch in the floor near the door. It is a throwback so I cannot detect it in the matrix. My analysis is that depressing the switch makes a connection to the matrix and sets off an alarm. We will need to be careful where we walk."
#63
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Al didn’t expect any throwback alarms in the hallway. He knew a little about security, how the tighter it was, the less functional the site became. You put dumb sensors in heavy traffic areas, you were going to slow down the day-to-day and have to deal with the many-layered hassles of numerous false alarms. Covering disused rooms, sure. But the way they needed to go to get downstairs would probably be clear now that Alycehad disabled all the smart sensors.
Still, he proceeded with more than a little caution, wary not only of mechanical hazards, but of the zombie staff Dreamy had warned them of.
They had come in on the third floor, which was Brit for the fourth. So they when they headed north down the corridor and found the staircase, it wound both up and down through its square shaft. In a perfect world, Al would have liked to have the floors above secured before descending, but this world hadn’t been perfect since Eve had gotten Adam kicked out of the Garden. Anyway, Dreamy and Flower had swept the upper floors and they were clear of hostiles. And the target was down, he reckoned. And the Mirror, too. So down they went.
The passageway toward the stairs was dusty and dank. Mildew stained oils on the walls - mostly portraits, a few seascapes - and there was grime crusting the china arrayed on sideboards. Maybe this wasn’t actually a high-traffic area after all - Al redoubled his care with the floor, watching also for wires or simple electric eyes crossing intersections. Nothing, though, and then they were in the stairs. it was quiet. Real quiet. Except for the baby crying. What? Al shook his head. Only a stair creaking. Down past the second floor landing. There was definitely a baby crying. A low, pitiful, plaintive whine. He looked at the others, but they weren’t reacting. It wasn’t a baby wanting attention, wanting picked up. It wasn’t a hungry baby. It was a baby in pain, but had been crying for so long there wasn’t much cry left in her. At first it had faded in and out, but it was stronger now, though with the echoes in the stairwell, he couldn’t tell if it was coming from up or down. His eyes scanned in every direction. He couldn’t believe his coworkers weren’t looking for the source of the sound as well.
“Y’all hear that? Where ya reckon it’s comin’ from?”
#58
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Alyce holds up a finger at Al's question. She has been trying to focus on the noise even before they had reached the stairs. Her first thought was that it must be the child of one of the staff here and she has shook her head in wonder at who would want to raise a child in a place like this. Once in the stairwell, though, the noise was clearly not that of a normal child. Alyce has been using her ears as her primary means of perceiving the outside world for a long time and she is in the process of winnowing out the chaff so she can focus on the crying. Downstairs. The baby is downstairs from where they are. She calls up the floor plans of the building and isolates the possible locations and nods. She points her finger down the stairs. "She is down there, one floor down. Off to the left."
#64
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Without hesitation Al headed down the stairs, picking up the pace. If he hit a trap, it would be him and not the others. To the left of the next landing was a long, dimly lit corridor lined with paintings and small antique tables holding expensive-looking vases and wilting flowers. A door latch clicked and Al melted into the shadows in the lee of a polished mahogany chifforobe. A petite woman in a barely decent maid’s uniform emerged, jet black hair in a tight bun. The infant’s cries, fainter now, escaped through the open portal, and as the maid turned to shut the door tight, Al could see two lines of blood running down her chin, one from each corner of her mouth. She turned to go further down the passage, one finger wiping at the spillage as she went. Al’s Docs were silent in her wake on the piled Persian carpets. He closed the distance rapidly and raised the hardwood feather duster handle he’d whittled to a point, then brought it down swiftly toward the sweet spot between her shoulder blades, a hair to the left of the spine.
#59
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Alyce follows Al down the stairs, her sensors and enhances natural senses giving her a better picture of the path than normal eyes could. She is just a couple of feet behind Al when the woman comes out of the room and she slips into a niche in the wall next to a suit of armor. Al is quick, but she has seen him in action before and is ready. He is silent, but there is noise from somewhere close by that is neither the woman ahead of him or the infant. She stretches out with her sensors and isolates the noise even as she follows Al down the corridor.
The maid doesn't have a chance, collapsing without even screaming, and Alyce reasons that the improvised stake has penetrated whatever passes for a heart in these monsters. While Al is kneeling at the body, she comes up to him, holding out one of her sharpened wooden spoons. "Here, Al. I am not sure, but all thetrids I have been watching about vampires suggests that it is a bad idea to remove the stake after you kill them unless you can cut off their heads. I can use my whip to do that if you like, while you stand guard. Also, I think there may be another of them in this room just to the right. It sounds like someone sucking a drink through a straw, if that makes any sense."
#65
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Before Al or anyone else can think to reply, much less check, there is a strange sound from the room and a muffled shriek.
“Petal…” Dream exclaimed and made for the room before Al deterred him from entering first
From Al’s limited view into the room there is indeed a sight to make anyone exclaim… rising out of the bare floorboards there is what at first looks like a silver birch tree, but as Al appears in the doorway it turns and Al can see the limp infant cradled in its arms, leaves whispering in an unseen wind and a powerful scent of blossom filling the room. Hidden under it all is the acrid metallic scent of blood which is sprayed across the bed and back wall from the man impaled on thorny vines that have erupted from nowhere. He is gasping like a fish around the tendril that enters his mouth and apparently exits through one ear…his eyes slowly glazing in death
“Be careful” a lilting voice says “the blood is tainted…”
#29
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Aria:
Alyce sees the infant in Petal's arms and makes a move toward the first room before stopping and whispering. "Al, I would like to go into that room to see to the child we hear there. Is that alright with you or do you need to go in first?"
She looks at the horrific scene through the open door and asks another question. "Are the children infected as well? I was under the impression that they would not be infected unless drained dry, at which point they are no longer of use as a food source. If that is true, we will need to see how many more of these poor children are up here. I want to save them if we can. Let me check the other rooms from here."
Alyce stands in the hallway and sends her enhanced senses out, isolating the sounds from each room in turn, her face going quite pale at what she is hearing. She staggers against the wall, putting out a hand to give her balance. "Al, Dream, All four of the other rooms on this hall have an infant like this one in them. There is one other person.........thing.........in the second room on the left, but the other three rooms are empty of anyone but the infant. Hey, the creature is stirring. He may have finished his feeding or he might have heard the noise when Petal killed this one. He will be at the door in about 2 seconds."
While Al goes off to kill the vampire about to emerge from the room ahead, Alyce kneels and spools her whip from her finger before wrapping it about the female vampire's neck and tugging on it. By the time she is done, there is yet another dead vampire in the hall. As she moves to behead it, she whispers, "You do nice work, Al. Let me finish this one then go back and take the head of Petal's kill. But we have six children here...............what do we do?"
#66
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Looking into the second room, Al shivered. Not at the carnage - that he was used to - but at the deeply unnatural transformation the hippy-girl spirit had effected. But with the devilish parasite bleeding out and the babe cradled in her arms, he remembered there were more forces than one in the universe. “Hell,” he rasped under his breath, “Blasphemy ta call her an angel, but injustice ta say devil. Gon’ put you inna good-guy category, plant-lady.”
He turned to Alyce and Dream. “Sorry boss, kids is more important’n mirrors. We can’t leave this.”
He removed his feather duster handle from the now headless form on the floor and moved to the door whereAlyce indicated a hostile. With Alyce in the other room finishing off Petal’s kill, he gave Dream a moment to stack up behind him, waited for the door handle to move, then kicked the door right below the latch, splintering the doorjamb, and rushed in, shouldering the door to smother and blitz whatever was behind it….
#60
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Al's maneuver catches the creature on the other side of the door by surprise, flinging it several feet away. As Al rushes in to finish the thing off, he notices two things; first, that the vampire appears to be no more than a child herself, perhaps no older than twelve or thirteen. Second, that this is no average twelve year old girl. She may have been tossed aside when Al slammed the door into her, but she has amazing reflexes and spins around on the floor. Her mouth opens to reveal extended canines already bloody from feeding on the infant on the bed in the room and her eyes seem to pierce Al to the soul.
The vampire makes a lightning quick roll to the side, avoiding the wooden duster, but still catching one of Al's boots on its side, causing it to waver. Dream motions and a bolt of mana springs from his hand to strike the vampire, sending it sprawling. Al is upon her before she can recover and the sharpened handle of the duster pierces the chest and heart of the girl, who opens her mouth in a soundless scream. At the last moment, there is a look in the little girl's eyes that will stay with Al for the rest of his life. As she is dying, the eyes seem to thank him for releasing her from something.
#67
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Any misgivings Al may have harbored about killing a child were swept away the moment he realized that, since these freaks didn’t age, the freak could have been two hundred years old. They quickly secured all the rooms on the corridor. As Alyce had said, they found six babies. Some sort of sustainable food bank…this was more than one old Drac with a fancy mirror. It was a damned coven. Well, he’d come here to try on vampire hunting, and he’d already notched up two. “Dreamy, jig may be up now; we should hustle fer yer prize. Can Petal git these babies outta here?”
#61
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"Al, let me see what I can hear of the house." Alyce has been standing still in the hallway, reaching out with senses that have been honed by natural abilities and aided by implants to the point that most normal people cannot comprehend. She has rarely had to stretch her abilities before as she does now and the only observable difference between her right now and when she goes into VR is that she is still standing as she carefully and exactingly roams through the hallways and rooms of the house. She starts with those near her, identifying the sounds of the six children for reference then moves outward. She draws up the floor plans and filters through the noise of the house, one room at a time. Soon, a loud noise near her would be ignored as not important to her search. She smiles inwardly as she ticks off the locations of several other members of the household then pauses, frowning. Carefully, she checks and double checks the data coming to her.
Alyce slowly retraces her sensory steps and rouses herself. Her look is serious as she scans about at her friends. "It is worse even than I had thought. There are no more infants on this floor in this wing, but I have found what I think are four others being held, but there is a difference. "I think they are older, or at least one is and I am making an assumption about the others. There are six rooms very like these on the other side of the stairway, down the other wing. I could only detect breathing in four of them, and only one had more than one person in it. I could hear the same slurping sounds as I heard from inside these rooms, so I believe that one of the people there is being sucked on. The important thing is that I heard her ask where her baby is, that it is time to feed her. Another voice, presumably that of the vampire with her, gave a short laugh and told her she would be able to feed her daughter shortly. I think that it is quite possible that she is the mother of one of these infants."
Alyce looks around. "The vampire there was finishing up his feeding and what I heard leads me to believe that he is making ready to leave the room. Beyond that, I have the locations of several of the other residents here. That they seem to have mobility would lead me to think they are other vampires or trusted servants. No one else is on this floor, yet, and no one seems to have been alerted to our presence as yet."
#68
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“Miracle that, but it won’t be long now. An’ pickin’ these freaks off one by one by ambush is one thing - holdin’ our ground against a bum rush by the whole coven, that’ll be quite another ball o’ wax.”
As he spoke, Al was glad to see tree-Petal gathering up infants. “Dreamy, can yer witch-sight tell at a glance which is infected an’ which ain’t. Cuz mother or not, they got the disease, they goin’ down. If not, then hopefully we can bring ‘em outta here….”
#62
Dream shook his head “It’s not as simple as that, the vampiric virus is notoriously good at hiding itself in the initial subjugation of the host. Petal will do a better job of detecting it but after that last statement I wouldn’t hold out much hope of her telling you which ones are infected. She has a kinder heart that you or I…
…There are foes approaching, and they must know we are here or my spell wouldn’t react to their presence, this will have to wait for another time, things are about to get interesting…”
Although with the background count rendering the power focus useless Dream nevertheless gripped the twisted willow braided wand in his hand as he prepared to unleash what was left of his arsenal. In his right hand he reached for the precious reagents that would help him combat the sapping effect of the negative aura of this place and, not for the first time, he regretted ever coming here…
#30
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Alyce smiles grimly. "But they do not know that you have me as a secret weapon. I can hear them approach. Why don't we each take a separate room so we can catch them from in front and behind when they come at us. Remember that they might not all be vampires. I will take this room and keep you advised by throat mic, unless that plan is no good?"
#69
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“Less talkin’, more doin’,” Al said as he assigned himself a room and ducked inside. He was never a big fan of splitting up, but he could see the tactical sense in Alyce’s idea, knew she had the big picture view of the situation, and in any case was keenly aware they didn’t have time to spare for a debate. Not with an enemy that could materialize literally out of mist anytime and anywhere.
Inside the room, he put his back against the wall opposite the door. The jig well up, he stuffed his feather duster handle into his belt and unslung his shotgun, pumping a wood pulp capsule into the chamber.
#69
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Alyce unspools her whip from her finger and puts the spoon in her belt, drawing the handivac and readying it. The monofilament of the whip might not be wood, but she is pretty sure that the vampires will be somewhat allergic to its effects, too. Her senses are alive, the walls of the old house providing no real barrier to her ability to detect the three enemy approaching. The thick carpet muffles the sound for the enemy, just as it did for Al as he had surprised the first vampire, but it is no match for Alyce's enhanced hearing or the ultrasound sensor implanted in her. She is aware when they spy the beheaded corpse of the first dead vampire and her sensors allow her to see when one moves forward to kneel at the side of the dead vampire and motions for his companions to begin checking the rooms out. "Al, the one approaching your door is armed with a shotgun. He is reaching for the knob now."
Her door opens at the same time as the attackers coordinate their movements. Unlike Al, Alyce is standing off to the side as the man enters the room leading with his weapon. Suddenly all hell breaks loose as she hears the blasts from a shotgun across the hall. Her hand flicks out and the nearly invisible whip snakes out to wrap around the arms of the man entering her room. A not so gentle tug has the shotgun and both forearms falling to the floor and two stumps spurting blood as the man falls back, screaming in anguish.
#70
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With Alyce’s warning, the usual thing to do would be to fire through the door. Problem was, the wood pulp capsules Al was using had the penetrating power of peanut butter.
But the Drac didn’t know that.
Picking up a heavy standing lamp in his left hand, Al fired at the door and stepped off to the side. The wood pulp splattered on the door, but hit it hard enough to let the freak on the other side know he’d been shot at. The return fire punched two neat small holes through the wood as if it were paper - Al had figured guys this rich would be rocking APDS. With buckshot, Fangs would easily have been able to see through their hole. But this way he couldn’t, and the moment he fired, Al tossed the heavy lamp onto the floor where he’d been standing across from the door. It landed with a heavy thump.
The vampire was through the door in a flash, shotgun held loosely in one hand, pouncing for where he’d heard his prey fall. That split second of unthinking blood lust was all the edge Al needed - these things were fast, but then so was he, and when the monster turned to spot him, his face was met by Al’s next capsule. The hypersonic projectile hit the thing’s face like a locomotive, and thousands of nifty allergen splinters spread out across and into its cheeks, eyes, oral and nasal cavities. Without the punch to reach the brain, the thing yet lived, but its visage was a bloody, featureless ruin of once immortal flesh that now would never heal. Fast as lightning it pounced, but its blind rush was easy to sidestep. Al brought his shotgun butt down hard on the back of its head as it passed, and when it fell he placed the weapon’s muzzle flush with the line of the spine on back of its neck and pulled the trigger before it could get up. And now it never would.
#70
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Alyce is through the door, whip at the ready and she catches the kneeling vampire in a moment of confusion. The man, if you can still call him that, has been startled, first by his armless companion, who is still screaming on the floor, and now by the shotgun blasts from the room to his right. In his mind, things are not going well and he feels the need to go report to his Master and he makes the decision to go to his vapor form, only to experience the single greatest pain he has ever felt as the woman antagonist sticks some sort of device into his mist form and flicks a button.
Caught part way inside the handivac and out side, the vampire cannot resume his solid form without ripping part of his body apart. The pain would cause him to shriek if he could in this form. Alyce grins. Her sensors have already told her who is still standing in the other room. Reasoning that the several shotgun blasts have removed any doubt that the house is being invaded, Alyce calls out. "Al, this handivac is working great. Bring yours out and we can tear this thing to pieces."
#71
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“Heh heh,” Al chuckled as he whipped his handivac off his belt and completed the fluid dismemberment of the third vampire. “All too easy,” he snorted. And as if on cue, all the lights went out. And then back on as magical flames rushed in at the small group from both ends of the hall, the billowing orange and black conflagration filling the space from floor to ceiling in either direction, nearly drowning out the chorus of maniacal cackles erupting from all directions….
#71
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That the lights go out does not phase Alyce. The flames coming down the hallway DO phase Alyce, but she has little time to worry about it before Al shoves her through the open door to the room she has just left, following her in and kicking the door closed behind him. The two fall on the floor and Alyce lets out a "humph" as Al's solid weight pushes against her. Even through the wood of the door, she can feel the heat of the flames as she turns her face up to his. "Thanks, Al. You sure know how to show a girl a hot date. I might never get a chance to do this again." She lifts her face to his and kisses him just before he rolls off of her and stands up. He reaches a hand down to help her to her feet and Alyce smiles grimly. "Well, so much for the pansies, eh? I think they have a couple of big guns out there now. I really don't want to stay in the room and wait for them to figure out how to deal with us, but I have a plan. Sort of. Sort of a plan. Here goes. I am going to fire up some of my drones and lead with them in both directions. One drone on each side will be a Noizquito and it will go a bit closer then go off. The noise and light will be blinding, so you might want to turn your eyes off I can use the feed from the other drones I am sending to guide you to the target. You go right and I go left and we take them both out. Speaking of noise..........................." The loud ringing of a fire alarm suddenly shuts off. "There, much better if we don't get too many of the locals involved. You ready?" She smiles as six small drones take off from the area of her collar. " Just like Cambodia, Al. Trust me to talk you to the target from my own feeds." She takes a step closer, her chest heaving a bit from the excitement and adrenaline pumping her up, and places a hand on Al's cheek. "I do love you. Take care." A final smile and she moves to open the door so Al can go out first.
#72
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It was a balls out plan, but the way Alyce’s touch sent Al’s nerves screeching to DefCon4 reminded him that charging a vampire wizard blind was not nearly so dangerous as staying there in the room with her. He tore through the door the moment she opened it, trusting her drones to get out ahead of him, and after a quick mental eeny-meeny broke left. The carpets and ruined furniture were ablaze, the wallpaper smoldering, the place was filled with smoke. His eyes had good flare compensators, but turning the eyes off altogether for a moment was better just the way not getting shot in the first place was better then trusting your jacket to stop the round. Once he was blind, Alyce’s voice was right there in his earbud guiding him toward the target she’d identified, and a good thing, too…..he hadn’t figured he’d really need her, because the voodoo gods always guided him through moments like this. But just as he’d realized when they’d first entered this hell hole, the loa would not come here, not even Ghede or Baron Samedi himself.
The drones lit up just as planned, and the noise was like being boxed in the ears by a troll on Jazz, but his dampers did their job. He brought his eyes back on line and there was one of the assholes that had tried to fry them. He saw Al’s shotgun and darted away. Real fast. But Al was faster. Or not. Even as he squeezed the trigger he realized that the guy had skipped off of the weapon’s line. Dammit, he wasn’t that fast…no….Al was slow. Without his voodoo gifts, everything was off, skewampus. He could feel the power in him, but it was straining to respond to his wishes, smothered in the black molasses of this place’s curse.
He tracked the mage’s movement and was bringing the weapon to bear again when the guy told him to put it down. Just like that, pretty as you please. Even as Al thought about it - it did make perfect sense, after all…hadn’t the Master taught to turn the other cheek - he could see long claws extending from the other guy’s fingertips. Well, Al didn’t need the voodoo gods to blow off this sort of parlor trick…but the Drac didn’t know that. So he let his face go slack and let the shotgun fall, shrugging the strap off his shoulder. “Now kneel, and bow your head.” The freak’s voice was like scarabs swarming a sarcophagus. Al knelt. “Your throat.” Still kneeling, Al lifted his chin obediently, hands at his belt now. The guy drew in, fangs bared. Al waited, the picture of docility. Hot breath on his neck, the tiniest scrape of incisor. And he plunged the feather duster’s handle in and up, hitting the top of the abdominal cavity below the sternum, aiming straight up for the heart. The freak gasped. Al used his free hand to pat its cheek, then pulled it to the floor and stabbed it again and again in the face, the wood piercing to its brain. Finally a shoved a burning table leg into the open cavity where its face had been.
It had been six seconds since he’d left the room he’d sheltered in with Alyce. He stood and looked to see how his companions had fared.
#72
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Aria:
Alyce charges out of the room just after Al leaves, breaking to the right as he goes left. The drones give her a good picture of each end of the hallway, as do the ultrasound and her normally augmented senses. She can feel the heat from the burning carpet and wall hangings and the stench of the burning vampire corpse is nearly overwhelming. The vampire blood mage at her end of the hallway is half blinded and more than half deafened by the drone going off close to him, but he is still able to concentrate enough to send a bolt of destructive power at her. The badly aimed bolt catches her on the right side of her chest, tossing her against the wall, where she falls to her knees, shaking her head to keep the pain from driving her unconscious. Alyce's armored clothing protects her from all but a minimal amount of damage and she quickly comes to her feet as the mage lurches forward.
The really good thing about a monofilament whip is that the damn thing is practically invisible as it kills you, and vampires, even powerful vampire blood mages, are just as susceptible to the razor sharp strand of molecules as anyone else. Alyce leaps forward towards the vampire, slinging her arm sideways as the whip races out. The only warning the vampire has are a few sparks as the whip slashes across the wall, and that warning is not enough. What IS almost enough is the picture fed to Alyce of Al sinking to his knees in front of the vampire at his end of the hall. In an instant, Alyce considers and rejects the thought that Al's will is crumbling to that of the vampire. Hell, if he can resist her charms, he can resist those of a creepy vampire, right? In any case, she has to trust him in this. The vampire ahead of Alyce keeps walking forward, not even aware that its torso has separated from its legs and that its long life is over. She scrambles up to the top half of the creature and removes its head with her whip. Leaving a drone to watch this end of the hall, she turns the Noizquitoes off and walks back to Al, her clothes covered in vampire blood and patting out small embers trying to burn holes in her clothes. "See, just like Cambodia, Al."
#73
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“Sure toots, sure. Jist like Cambodia.” He wished it were true. But that wasn’t how it worked. You never really got to go back to where you’d been. Or if you did, it was different by the time you got there. But why ruin the moment? “Okay Dreamy, kids sorted, first an’ second waves down. Where’s this damn lookin’ glass?”
#73
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Alyce shakes her head. "Not sure the kids are sorted, Al. Remember those people I saw in the other rooms? They could be more like these kids or even their mothers. I think we should go see and release them as well if they are. Maybe Petal can get all of them to safety while we finish getting the mirror."
#74
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“Dammit,” Al said, lighting a cigarette on a burning patch of wallpaper, “Thought hippy-girl was already takin’ care o’ that. Anyhoo, a few ticks ago when this was about maybe goin’ in fer the mirror an’ gittin’ out, the kids was most important. But now the jig’s up, we ain’t gittin’ that mirror without killin’ ever’ danged Drac in this place, after which the rest is jist logistics. So we press the attack now, rather’n let ‘em regroup while we’s babysittin’ who knows how many folks, some of whom are likely infected theyselves. Only reason I wanna know where the mirror is is cuz we go after it, that’ll attract the rest of ‘em, makin’ it easier ta be sure we cack ‘em all, ever’ last one. Ergo, immediate problem solved fer said babies. So which way, Dreamy baby?”
#74
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Alyce nods. After all, Al's logic is flawless. "Let's be about it, then. The drone I left at the other end of the hallway tell me that there is nothing on the stairs there but the one I sent down is feeding me pictures of four people gathering in one of the rooms below us. I am sending the data to your 'links now." Before going anywhere, Alyce kneels down near the vampire Al had killed and beheads it. Standing, she nods that she is ready.
#75
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[Thursday December 10th, 2076; Bressington’s Mansion, Grosvenor Gardens, Belgravia, London, UK]
Dream was struggling with forming any sort of coherent thought under the barrage of noise and hostile magic. Petal was faring somewhat better but he was under no illusions about the state they’d be in without the two runners to cover their own inadequacies in a confrontation. Desperately trying to shake off the malaise caused by the background count he vaguely gestured onwards at Al’s request for some kind of direction
“Down…” he croaked, throat horse from the smoke laden air, “Petal and I will keep their spells off you but do not count on us being much more assistance than that. Gods protect us if they send a blood spirit! Alyce…can you cut a way through the floor? Being confined on the stairs is only going to make matters worse…just don’t snag a gas line…”
#31
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Alyce nods and uses her sensors to try to find a weak spot on the floor to cut through, but is stymied by the construction materials used in the building. She frowns and shakes her head. "The floors under the carpet are made of the same fire resistant materials as the walls. I could cut a hole in it, yes, but it would take time. Right now, my drones are showing no activity on the stairwell and I think that we should be moving." She looks over to Al for his opinion.
#76
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Half nauseous from the oppressive spirit of this fell place, Al leaned against a bit of wall that wasn’t smouldering. “If this one can’t cut it, it can’t be cut. An’ if this one says the stairwell’s clear, then that’s the best we’s gon’ git.” He pushed himself away from the wall and headed through the flames toward the stairs, wondering what a blood spirit was and if it was bad that he hoped they’d meet one.
#75
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Alyce keeps her drones and senses tuned for anything amiss in the stairwell, primed to alert Al at the slightest hint that something is wrong. She breathes a slight sigh as they pass out of the main smoke area and are at the bottom of the stairs. She taps Al on the shoulder and points off to the right. "There are four of them through that room and in the next beyond it, which leads to the stairway down to the blank space in the house. I do not see any others on this floor, but I am still looking. I expect that the worst of them may be down the next level protecting their master."
#77
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So if they were all holed up in those rooms, the way on down the stairs was clear. Tempting to just bypass them, but also stupid. They were clearly positioned to come in on their rear, catch them in a pincer if they proceeded toward the mirror. They’d have to be taken out. “Can you git eyes in there, see if they’s vamps or what?” he asked his companions, knowing that both Alyce and Dreamy had various ways of gathering intel.
#76
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Alyce nods. "On it, Al. Sending the feed to your 'link.........now." The drone feed shows three men and a woman off in a side room. The men are all armed with shotguns while the woman seems not to be armed. They are positioned so that a casual observer would miss them as he headed for the stairway down, allowing them to come in from behind. As always, Alyce does not rely on just one source when she can have more and she uses her senses to do some "looking" as well. "Al, the three men have breathing patterns as if they are frightened, but the woman does not. My guess is that we have three mundane male human guards and a female vampire leading them. You see any fault in that analysis? How do you want to deal with them?"
#78
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“We do ta them what they was fixin’ ta do ta us. Dreamy an’ I’ll head on down, then stop short here,” and Al indicated an ambush spot on the feed offered by Alyce’s advance drones. “They won’t wait long cuz they want ta be able to hit us when we’s bein’ met in front down at the bottom. So they come, an’ we’s waitin’….with you havin’ followed right behind ‘em.”
#77
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Alyce nods and smiles then steps aside into a different room while the men go on down towards the stairway leading to the cellar and the hidden room. She keeps the drone feed from linked to Al's and Dream's 'links as she waits. Her hearing picks up the cries of the babies left in the rooms on the floor above her, but she filters them to a back spot in her brain as she focuses on the people in front of her.
Sure enough, Al has been right again and the four enemy leave their hiding spot to go after what they think is the prime target. The vampire and one of the men are side by side in the front and the other two men are just behind them. Alyce waits a few seconds and slips from her own hiding spot and follows them, her whip unspooled and ready. She does not have to vocalize any sort of warning because Al is seeing everything on the screen of his 'link, courtesy of Alyce's drone. Not wanting to alert the vampire and its minions, Alyce stays back where she can still approach the group from behind as Al and Dream engage them from the front.
#79
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[Thursday December 10th, 2076; Bressington’s Mansion, Grosvenor Gardens, Belgravia, London, UK]
Dream turned to face back towards the foe with a knowing grin and his hands raised in mock surrender…although his magic was seriously impaired by the background count he wasn’t really a combatant anyway, he would leave that to his more effective counterparts. What he could do, at least briefly, was contain the vampire behind a mana barrier…with luck the mundanes might even be stalled if there was some kind of mental manipulation going on…and then Petal…she materialised beside the vamp in a glorious spray of colour and scent and proceeded to demonstrate why vampires are so averse to wood…
#32
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With the lead vamp lady spasming in agony on the multiple branches impaling her, Al shot the first familiar as he raised his weapon. But then the other two had their weapons up. Al knew the voodoo gods wouldn't let him get shot - but then they weren't here. And he wasn't as fast as he usually was. He knew he couldn't get both before they fired, but then he wouldn't have to - he fired a split second quicker than the second, even as Alyce loomed up behind the third....
#78
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Alyce smiles grimly as what must be Petal seems to materialize next to the vampire and pierce her body in several places with her various wooden appendages. The choking scream of the undead woman is cut off prematurely by a branch that seems to grow from her mouth and another that stabs up through her brain, coming out the top of her head. The man next to the vampire is blown back into the pair behind him by Al's first blast and his second roars out even as the two thugs try to bring their own weapons to bear on him. Still, their aim had been thrown off long enough that they would never get a shot off, as Al's second round took off the top of his target's head and Alyce's whip nestled around the upper torso of the last man. A pull of her hand later and the man's upper body completely separates from his lower body at about the waist, sending blood and entrails all over the section of stairs he had been standing on.
Alyce steps gently past the still quivering bodies on the stairs and joins her companions. "Well done, you three, maybe we should go into the vampire hunting business. I think that is the last of them on this level. There are four at the bottom of the stairs leading to the hidden room, so I would expect these to be the worst we will meet until we get into that room. Two seem to be thugs and the other two should be vampires. Here, I am sending you a picture of the room and its occupants now. How do we want to proceed with this?"
#80
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A plan is quickly made and Alyce follows behind Al and Dream as they approach the stairway leading down to the hidden lair. Her drones give her a view of the four individuals waiting for them and she updates the feed going to her partners. All four of their opponents seem to be alert and ready, still, there seems to be no way to get to the mirror other than going through these defenders. Halfway down the stairs, Alyce receives unwelcome information from one of the drones she had left up on the main level to monitor the area. "We have some company behind us. Looks like another vampire and three minions are approaching the stairs from somewhere in the rear of the building. We will be cut off and surrounded in less about fifteen seconds. Ideas?"
#81
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[Thursday December 10th, 2076; Bressington’s Mansion, Grosvenor Gardens, Belgravia, London, UK]
“And now it gets tight” Dream mused “the area up ahead is the most strongly warded part of the building so I’m reasonably sure we’ll find our prize there…but it also means that Petal can’t lead the way until I am through, I don’t want to waste the time it would take to batter down the ward. Bloody vampires, I had no idea that covens of this size still existed in London, aren’t we lucky!? There’s no surprise left to us, we can only find hope in speed now. Either way if we turn to engage one group the other will drop on us from behind. I will summon another to assist Petal and have them both watch our rear while Al leads us through that door…”
And he began to mutter under his breath, drawing on the mana, even in this tainted place, to bring another spirit to their aide…
#33
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Once Dream had summoned his second demon, Al led the way down to the door that lay between them and four final guards. Knowing there was a fresh force closing in behind them, he wanted to hurry but didn't want to be stupid - hopefully Petal and the new devil would be enough to slow down the enemy pincer long enough for them to take care of business on this end and avoid a two-front battle.
Outside the door, Al took a few moments to point Dream and Alyce to where he wanted them, well to the side of the door in either direction. Once he was sure they were positioned behind load-bearing sections of the wall, he knelt and picked the lock as quietly as he could. Then, latch loosed, he stood well to the side and used his shotgun barrel to push the door open before dodging further away. As expected, the movement of the door was met with a withering barrage of gunfire from within the chamber.
The people seemed scared - they fired until they were empty. There was a pause as Al assumed they were reloading, and Al shouted "in! In! In!" rushing into the room behind his weapon, scanning for vampires to shoot first. Dream and Alyce were on his heels.
But the room was empty, and there was a solid click as the steel door on the other side was audibly locked. Whirling, they saw the bullet-ridden door they'd come through disappear as another steel plate dropped down from the ceiling, blocking the aperture of their exit.
And then the hiss of gas....
#79
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Alyce rushes into the room right behind Al, looking for any sort of target to try to take out only to be completely surprised at the lack of targets.......any targets. The enormity of the situation comes in on her as the metal doors seal them in and her truly exceptional hearing and smell picks up the telltale sound and odor of gas. She has little time to wonder at how ALL of her amazing sensors, both implanted and natural, had been fooled so completely before the effects of the gas begin to be felt. She slips the custom ballistic mask from her hip and slips it on, activating the air supply and checking on her companions.
#82
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Al calmly switched to his internal air supply, deeply annoyed at having to once again stop smoking. Looking at his companions, he saw that Alyce had come prepared with a mask, but the druid did not appear to be so well equipped. It occurred to Al that he could share air with his companion, but he didn't kiss guys and that was that. "See if ya can hold yer breath fer a tick there, Dreamy baby," he offered, looking around for the sources of the gas - he could hear at least four - or any way out of the room.
#80
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Aria:
[Thursday December 10th, 2076; Bressington’s Mansion, Grosvenor Gardens, Belgravia, London, UK]
Dream began to feel light headed and he suspected it wasn’t due to holding his breath, giving that up as a bad job he said “I think it’s a contact toxin… got one last trick…” and extending his will fourth he summoned his big gun from its home on the astral. The bound spirit chafed at its bondage, even from such a lenient master as Dream, especially because of its power which dwarfed that of Petal. It materialised in the small box room as a giant oak tree, cramming the frail metahuman occupants to one side, skin scraped by the rough bark
“Please aid us in escaping this room great one and I will release your bonds in acknowledgement of your great service…”
The branches slammed in to the steel doors with the force of countless ages behind them and the metal began to buckle as if time was accelerated and the oak roots undermined the structure… unfortunately Dream passed out before he could see them free, or not…
#34
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Dammit, Dreamy was right. Al felt his head going light. It was contact vector, like neurostun or something. Al's power of fuck-you to drugs would buy him a few seconds, but not forever. Alyce was reaching in a cargo pocket for something....Then the tree appeared. Well, Petal had done right by them, so maybe....hell yes, damned thing was treating steel doors like plywood....almost there...and then dreamy lost it.
Which was exactly when fucking treebeard went on strike. Turned an angry eye on the prone form of its erstwhile master....Al had heard about vengeful demons going postal on incapacitated summoners and staggered between the thing and Dreamy, but the last thing he saw was a baleful sneer slashed across the trunk of a derezzing spirit before everything went black....
#81
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Alyce has already identified that this is a contact poison by its symptoms just before Dream said anything and is reaching into one of her pockets for something to counter its effects when a huge oak tree manifests into the room, thrusting her against the wall like so much paper and crushing the vial she has in her hand. The rough bark of the tree holds her in place, not even allowing her any range of motion to get her whip into play. Her head is pressed against the wall so that she can see Al stumble. Knowing that she may have finally met something she cannot walk away from, she triggers her omega code, sending pre-programmed messages to her daughters and her lover that she loves them very much. Then, still barely conscious, she sends a final message to the man she loves more than anyone else. >>Al, Alyce. I have never been able to properly tell you that I love you and it looks like I may not ever have the chance. I guess I only get to say a simple I love you and that will have to do.<<
Al goes to the floor and she is not certain that he has even received the message and her heart despairs that she never ever found the way to tell him how important to her he is. Suddenly the huge tree begins to vanish, releasing her from her confinement and she stumbles to get closer to Al, only to fail at the end and fall unconscious to the floor just two feet from her goal.
#83
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Alyce wakes to a pounding headache and a throbbing pain in her right hand. She shakes her head a bit, which only serves to make things worse so she stops doing it. She reaches out with her sensors as well as her natural senses and finds that she is chained to a wall. Al seems to be still unconscious on her left with Dream on her right in a similar condition. A quick check of the locks on the chains reveals that someone really likes throwbacks and the locks are the simple sort that open with a key............completely immune to Alyce's ability to open them in the matrix. The room is perhaps twenty feet to a side, unadorned by any windows although there are two doors; one on the wall directly opposite where she and the others are chained and one on the wall to her left. A sharp jab of pain in her right hand reminds her that something is wrong and she focuses her ultrasound on her hand, taking in a sharp breath as she realizes that the finger that had held her whip has been roughly cut off and the wound just as roughly bandaged.
There are two other men in the room at the moment, neither one talking, although one perks up as Alyce moves. He walks to the wall to Alyce's left and pushes a button next tot he door. "Master, they are waking. Do you wish me to................."
He is interrupted by a voice coming through the speaker. "No! I do not want you to do anything. I will be out."
The intercom goes dead and the man returns to the position he had been standing in. Within seconds, the door opens and a distinguished looking man walks out, accompanied by a beautiful woman. The man steps first to Dream and slaps him hard enough to wake the man before walking down the line of prisoners and slapping the other two as well but failing to rouse Al. He slaps Al a second time with the same affect then shrugs his shoulders before moving to stand in front of the others. Alyce can tell by his breathing that Al was awakened but his voodoo gods must be with him to allow him to continue to play unconscious. Her attention is brought to the man who had slapped her as he begins to speak.
"First, let me say how impressed I am that there were only three of you, and one a fucking blind woman. This place should have been impregnable to people like you, but not only did you manage to get in, you have killed most of my servants. And I am not even sure why the hell you are here or if you have any backup." He waves his hand. "It is all so very distressing and leaves me with a shortage of minions, a shortfall I intend to fix rather quickly. I am sure that all three of you are quite brave and would refuse to answer my questions so I will not waste my time or yours. I have a fool proof plan that will help satisfy my minion issues and get willing answers to my questions."
He had begun pacing in the room but stops in front of Alyce. I would take the woman first, but I think she will be a bit more fun for me when I have sated myself on the essence of her friend here. Indeed, my dear, whoever the fuck you are, your essence is somewhat pitiful so I would not get much nourishment from you. Instead, I will sate my physical lust in you and share you about with my remaining minions before emptying your husk of its essence. Once all of you are mine, you will give me all the answers I need." Dream struggles against the chains and the man walks up to him. "Oh, poor fairy creature. What bothers you the most, hmmm? Knowing that you will spend the rest of eternity as my slave, chained to the darkness and obeying my every command or knowing that your friend here will be ravished by me and the rest of my people? Or is it that you want her for yourself? Don't worry, I will give you a chance to use her before I turn her, but by that time you will not mind anymore. In fact, I think I will start with you as it is depressing to empty an unconscious person."
He turns to the woman with him and nods without saying more, disappearing back through the door. The woman nods to the two men in the room, one of whom moves to Dream and unlocks the chains that hold his arms to the wall. Dream tries to resist, but he is too newly awake and his feeble attempts only draw laughter from the two men. As they grab him, the woman moves to where Alyce is standing and raises a hand to touch her face, extending a finger and drawing a sharp nail down the blind woman's cheek. She wipes at the blood dripping from the shallow wound and put her finger in her mouth, sucking at the blood on it. "I will be the second one to taste your body and use it. you will not enjoy it."
Alyce smiles. "I have been dominated by professionals, you amateur. You....................."
Alyce is interrupted by the woman pulling her head back, exposing her neck. The woman's open mouth closes on Alyce's neck and she feels the sharp pain of a pair of elongated incisors as they pierce her flesh, drawing an involuntary gasp from her. The woman's effort is interrupted by a sharp command from the door. "Ilsa, no! I have said what I wish to have happen to her. Leave her."
The woman slowly withdraws her fangs from Alyce's neck and glowers at her. "Yes, master." She turns her attention back to Alyce and says, "I will enjoy breaking you." She takes a finger and drags it along Alyce's neck, scooping up some of the blood still seeping from the wound and sucking it up as she turns to join her master. One of the thugs in the room takes Dream and walks him through the door. The distinguished man standing there nods at Alyce and the unconscious Al. "I will leave the intercom open so you can hear him scream and know that this will be your fate as well." Alyce's hope that only the one man remaining will be left to watch them is short-lived as the second man returns shortly, closing the door behind him.
True to the vampire's word, Alyce only has to wait a short time before Dream's screams come through the intercom, shaking her to her core. Realizing that things have never really been more serious for her, she sets her mind to work on a plan. Her scanner has already shown her where her whip sits on a small table, still attached to her bloody finger. If she can get to the whip, she might be able to kill these minions, free Al, and rescue Dream. There is very scant chance of this plan working, but then is was scant chance that she would survive a gunshot to her head and yet here she is.
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The screams from the other room slow and taper off to a soft mewling then stop altogether. Al has given no indication yet that he is awake, a true testament to the acting ability he had always bragged about, but Alyce knows that he has heard every one of their friend's screams of pain. Her sensors have picked up minute movements of Al's hands in the chains and has come to the conclusion that he may be nearly able to free himself. She has covered the small sounds he might make by trying to engage the jailers in conversation and, when that completely fails, singing the lyrics to some of the songs, some of them from Al's favorite groups. Still, it seems that Al's time runs out when the door opens to revel the woman vampire, who nods at the two goons. "The Master wants the woman next. Get her."
The two men nod and move to free Alyce from the chains, one opening the lock and the other holding one of Alyce's arms. As the first man release her arms from the chain and turns to assist his companion, Alyce strikes. The decorative metal bracelets on her arms uncoil at her mental command and the Medusa drones strike, sending doses of Narcoject into the arms of both humans. One does not even understand what is happening and stares stupidly at the thing poised to strike again, even as the potent drug courses through his veins. The other man gives a strangled yell and drops Alyce's arms to clutch his own where the drone has struck. Seeing her chance, Alyce shrugs off the now relaxing grasp of the man still trying to hold her and leaps for the table and her whip.
Sadly, although a great plan in concept, it failed to realistically account for the speed of the woman vampire, who dashes over and smashes Alyce and the table to the floor, sending the whip off several feet from Alyce's prone figure. The woman snarls again as she picks up Alyce's form and throws it against the far wall. Alyce lets out a grunt of pain as she slides to the floor, not truly being able to recover her breath before the vampire is on her again. However, the voodoo idol hand crafted years ago by Al exerts what influence it can and one of the wooden spoons that had been put on the table has fallen to the floor under Alyce, whose hand picks it up just as the woman reaches her. Alyce feels herself lifted into the air against the wall, the breath of the other woman in her face, and strikes. Alyce's blow is shunted aside by her position and the sharpened kitchen implement strikes the vampire in the shoulder instead of the neck, eliciting a scream of pain and rage from the woman as she immediately drops Alyce.
#84
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The vampire yanked the spoon unceremoniously from her shoulder, instantly dropping it as the allergen burned the palm of her hand. It cost her just shy of a second, almost enough time for Alyce to reach her whip.
Almost.
The blind woman was once again snatched up like a rag doll and pinned high against the wall, feet dangling. Close up, she could see the wound in the vampire's shoulder already starting to heal. The monster held her head in both hands like a vise, and started to squeeze. Almost immediately Alyce's sound and other senses started to distort and fade as the pressure in her brain increased. But she had already sensed enough, and even as the world started to drift away she had to suppress a smile. The sharp cracking sound surprised only the vampire, who maintained her grip but turned to her head to see what had caused the noise.
It had been Al Guthrie breaking a leg off the table.
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Al had come slowly back to consciousness, taking inventory of his senses one by one. So he knew enough from his tactile data that he was well and truly fucked in the mobility department. Crashing headache aside, he realized right away that he was trussed up good. The manacles holding his hands to the walls above his head would be the work of seconds thanks to the mixed-rigidity smart materials he'd accidentally had the bones in his hands replaced with. But his ankles were likewise clamped directly to the stone wall, and he'd need his hands to get those off.
Piece of cake if he was unobserved, but his hearing quickly let him know that he was not. He could hear two guards, and if he made a break for it with them watching, he'd be dead sometime between slipping his hands free and getting the ankle clamps off.
So he waited for his chance. At first it was easy. Uncomfortable to the point of torture, but he could handle that. Been in worse spots and for longer. Then the king-shit vamps came in and he was sorely tempted to just settle for freeing his hands and throttling one the moment they came into reach. But there were Alyce and Dreamy to think about. It was clear they were here with him.
Then when they started talking about who to take first, he was going to wake up and be obnoxious enough they'd take him. But that'd be him against four, and they'd be ready for that. He'd be dead and no good to anyone. Still, he wasn't sure the smart play would be his to make if they tried to take Alyce first.
Turned out it was Dreamy. Still was all he could do to let it happen, wait for the best play. He told himself the elf had known the job was dangerous when he took it. But when the screams started, it got hard. Three or four times Al morphed his hands to slip the cuffs, only to stop himself. He figured Alyce with her fancy ears heard him, because she always talked to the guards louder when he did it. But there was no way he could see to get both guards while his legs were locked to the wall. As the screams got louder he tried to think if he was strong enough to just yank his leg loose, leaving the foot behind, and he forced himself to regulate his breathing, shut such desperate craziness down. He almost laughed - the thought of fighting a bunch of vamps on a pair of bloody stumps was morbidly comical in a Pythonesque sort of way. It distracted him from the screams for a bit.
And through it all he had to admit to himself that he was glad it was Dreamy and not Alyce.
By the time the queen asshole came back, he figured it was too late for Dreamy. But he wouldn't accept it. Bressington had talked about doing the vampirey-turney thing, but they had no idea of how long that really took. Maybe if they could get him out, get a blood transfusion or something...
They were going for Alyce next. He got ready. He was sure she'd try something.....If she could just get their eyes off of him....
As with Dreamy, he heard only the wrist cuffs coming off of her. So he was the only one that rated the ankle restraints. He silently congratulated himself on being recognized as the greater threat.
When Alyce made her play his hands were already through the cuffs. Shaking them out, it took a precious half second for them to reform into a functional shape. Holding himself upright supported only by his ankles fixed to the wall at a spot six inches off the floor was a hell of a trick, and the pressure was excruciating on his already-bleeding limbs. But he needed to stay up just long enough to retrieve the handcuff key he kept sewn into the fabric of his trousers at the small of his back. It was for standard handcuffs and wouldn't fit whatever was holding his feet, but it was the only tool he had.
Once it was in his fingers, he flopped forward at the waist, quickly grabbing his shins. Now to keep his balance this way - a misplaced ounce or two of weight to one side or the other and he'd topple, likely snapping both his tibias.
The two goons were already down by Alyce's hand, but now he could hear the she-vamp kicking her ass. He couldn't even spare the scene a glance. He had split seconds before something in his crazy contortionist position gave way. Hah, first lucky break, a single padlock holding a double clamp. The handcuff key made a piss poor pick, but of course he was better than some rusty medieval lock. It took some maneuvering, but he worked his key's single tooth deep into the archaic padlock's single-pin tumbler, and...it stuck. He twisted harder and felt his bent-over body tip to the left. He tried to compensate but there was nothing, no leverage whatsoever. He had as much time as it would take him to fall over...one final twist of the key, hard but not too hard...and the lock opened and he yanked it from the hasp and the double-clamp opened just as his falling body weight cut the flesh of his shin against it. He'd saved the bones, and that was all that mattered right now.
Up in a flash, he saw Alyce's sightless eyes bulging as the vampire squeezed her head like a grape. He snapped the leg off the table, asking himself in what world were vampires so stupid as to have so much damned wood in their dungeon. He made sure to break the leg loudly enough to get the bitch's attention.
"Yo Vampirella, all this girl-on-girl action done give ol' Al some wicked wood..."
Trick was, the voodoo gods were even farther away down here than they had been upstairs, and even setting aside the drugs and loss of circulation in his limbs, Al was far from his usual self. Bitch thought she was fast enough - normally she'd have been wrong, but today she was right. She ripped the fragment of furniture from the little man's hand. "Hey. Ouch. Splinter," he said before her open-handed slap knocked him across the room.
Well, Alyce had done her job pulling the bitch's eyes. And now he'd done his, he thought, as the vampire closed in on him and, behind her, he watched Alyce pick up her severed finger....
#82
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