NationStates Jolt Archive

Stephen looked at Garrien and sighed.

"Yes I mean werewolves, humans that become eight foot tall, furry, and very bad tempered creatures. I'm surprised Alexander didn't tell you he hired a large clan of lycans to take care of the vampires in Assington. Problem there is that there were far too few, and most died very quickly after meeting us."

Stephen pointed to Skadi and Hondur.

"They're the reason why they would be coming. Skadi and Hondur can call up the entire vampire population in Assington if the wished and...wel... look around you. Tear this place up, Alexander is quiet frightened of what would happen if the Assingtonians took the offensive. I'm not surprised if he had fled to find a place to hide or get the lycans over here faster. Maybe enough lycans to outnumber the Hyraphore."

Zero nodded. Signing to Leopold and Kellis to leave off, he picked up his Treasure Blades. It didn't matter if Driretlan could shoot his own energy back at him now, he could meet it with his own Blades.......but now's not the time to fight.

Holding his Blades in a casual, non-menacing way with Leopold and Kellis both lowering their guns, Zero started speaking.

"If you truly have no idea why it's a mess out there, Master Driretlan, I will apologize in advance on the behalf of the Lady Skadi of Emerald City, Assington (OOC: Assington, you can have Skadi punish Zero for apologizing later, since i get the idea she's a proud woman :p). You see.......we are not invading the Hyraphore because we want to invade you, if you know what i mean. It's just that......."

".......last night, Alexander Kelsing, who I believe is one of your men, led an attack on Emerald City last night. With vampires from the Hyraphore.......and a band of werewolves who call themselves the Kantrawulves."

He watched as this sunk in with Driretlan, then continued,

"Many of the Assingtonians were hurt in what I can only term a power grab by your Alexander Kelsing, what's worse, with the natural enemies of us, the true immortals of this earth. Our motive here is to teach Alexander Kelsing a lesson.......and from what I heard, he has also stolen the Lady Skadi's prize sword (OOC: Zero doesn't know that it is Avatre who has it). I have personally sparred with one of their leaders, one who i know only by the name of Tyr....."

Slightly agitated, Sigrun approached the nearest steel doors that had slammed shut upon the activation of some alarm in the complex. Placing his palm upon the cold steel, he closed his eyes and extended his senses to determine what lay beyond the doors.

Metallic clicks were heard...
Liquids bubbling...
The smell of medicine...
Electricity surging through the electrical circuits...

Sigrun opened his eyes. Something important to the Hyraphore lay beyond these doors. Stepping back, he thought momentarily, before raising both hands to the door, palms outstretched. In a soft yet firm voice, he spoke Sindarin words.

The horrible screeching noise of resisting metal resounded painfully throughout the entire complex as the doors reluctantly gave way to the gravitational field that pulled from Sigrun's hands. Building rubble began to fall all around as the doors ripped free of their frames, twisted and pulled in a strange way. Sigrun shifted his steps and cast the large doors over the ledge of the second floor, watching as it disappeared downward to the first floor. It began to fall with its own dead weight, now released from his spell.

Turning back to the room, Sigrun spied several tanks filled with some liquid, with wires and tubes running into them. He walked in, studied the surroundings and smiled. It was the Hyraphore's medical room.

Alexander will not like what I'm about to do...as well as anyone seeking medical treatment...

Sigrun walked to each tank, testing the tubes and wires and tapping on the glass chambers of each one. Finally, satisfied, he drew both hands out and formed an upside down triangle with his fingers, watching as the air within began to swirl and grow rapidly. Howling winds soon accompanied the tornado that spun wildly in place in front of Sigrun. His clothing and armor whipped about by the wind, yet he was relatively unimpacted.

The tornado began to move methodically toward each tank and literally begin to shred them to pieces...

(OOC: Feel free to have someone duck out of the way of the falling door. Same goes for hearing/feeling the tornado spawned.)

Every vampire in the hall was slightly confused by the loud noises coming from deeper within the Hyraphore. Stephen knew that even a large amount of C4 wouldn't cause noises like that. What the hell? He pointed to one of his squad.

"Go...go see what that is."

Stephen wanted to go himself, but he wanted to hear what Garrien would have to say.

The vampire moved down the hall and stood there for several seconds as he stared at the massive twisted mass of steel on the floor. Looking up at the hole in the ceiling he jumped through and followed the bizzare noise. Stopping at the door, he pressed his back against the wall and checked his rifle was ready. Poking his head around he stared as Sigrun continued to wreak the medical room. He quietly communicated this to Stephen.

Stephen's lips broke into a small smile as he heard the other vampire's report in his mind. He looked at Skadi and Hondur.

"Its just our elf friend Sigrun." Stephen's gaze moved to Garrien. "He is currently tearing your medical facilities apart."

OOC: I will wait for Assington to respond before I continue any plot-threads in the Hyraphore compound.

IC: The floor shook with the rumble of over a hundred pairs of feet stomped stepped and swayed in time to the sounds of DJ Paul-The-Wall. The setting was the Rage Nightclub, set on Club Row in Vancouver B.C.

The music was at times high-pitched and achingly loud, and at others, desperately soft, mellow, looking for its notes lost in the crowd of twenty-somethings.

Tyr Fenris was not much for dancing, but he considered himself a lover of music. As he sat in the private lounge of the Rage, the music washed over him. This particular song was by a group called Snow Patrol, called Run.


I'll sing it one last time for you
Then we really have to go.
You've been the only thing that's right
In all I've done.

And I can barely look at you,
But every single time I do,
I know we'll make it anywhere,
Away from here.


To him, music was an escape, from the worlds of guns and death, to ones of lost loves, rekindled romances and fiery passion for life.

To his left sat his romance, his passion. Avatre Ertava, a strong leader in her own right, did not look at him, and he did not look at her. To do so would bely their power as leaders of the Kantrawulves.


Light up, light up,
As if you have a choice
Even if you cannot hear my voice
I'll be right beside you dear.


Across from them sat four figures: Joseph Herhardd, Part-time assistant at the Science World tourist attraction, full-time leader of the Ythera Pack, based out of Vancouver.

Beside him was the demure Lady Tiana Williamson, a model whose career started as a Calgary Stampede Girl, and has branched out to include cover shots on Glamour and Vogue, and a part on Real World: Edmonton. Her clan, the Palidoe, worked out of

Next over was Nick Jenkins, a private school teacher to immigrants just landed in Toronto. His pack was the Kingston Core, and of course, worked out of Central Canada.

Only one person Tyr was unsure of: Gregory Lander. The rest of the figures Tyr had worked with closely, at least before the Green Lake incident, but Lander... He was an enigma. All Tyr knew was that he was the head of the multi-billion dollar Lander Mining Consolidated. He wasn't even sure what clan he represented.

And that was it.


Louder, louder,
And we'll run for our lives,
I can hardly speak, I understand
Why you can't raise your voice to say.

To think I might not see those eyes
Makes it so hard not to cry,
And as we say our long goodbye
I nearly do.


Tyr put down his Orange highball, which he barely touched.

"All right, I thank all of you for coming on such short notice. Especially Tiana, who I understand had to skip out on a photo shoot to make this meeting."

Tiana waved him off, and too a sip of her Smirnoff. "It was just for FHM. There will be others."

"You have a lot of nerve, Tyr. I thought you were too good for us."

Everyone on the table turned and looked at Nick Jenkins. The man readjusted his glasses, and looked back at all of them.

"Oh c'mon? Are we all really going to sit around and let Tyr talk, after what happened at Green Lake? Don't you remember..."

"We all remember," interrupted Joseph. "I remember, but times have changed. People have changed, and bitterness has drifted away, at least for some. At least give the man a chance to talk."

Tyr nodded, and then spoke up.

"Again, thank you. I will try and keep this as brief as possible, due to time constraints. I am looking to reform the alliance we all once shared, in the face of a greater need."

"And what need is that?" scoffed Nick.

"The need for the Kantrawulves to complete its blood debt to the Hyraphore..."

Joseph blinked. "The Hyraphore? How did you get mixed up with them?"

"It is a long and tiring story, but all in all, we owe them a debt."

"And what is that debt?" interjected Tiana.

"In short... its leader, Alexander Kelsing has enlisted us to fight his war against other vampires, these ones from Assington."

Nick laughed, cutting through the din of the dance floor.

"Wait, so you're here to beg for help, and not only that, but against Assington vampires? That's rich."

Tyr suddenly threw a fork at the leader. It cut through his glass of red wine and shattered it, sending the liquid all over his shirt and pants.

"I do not beg, Nicholas. I do not beg anyones help, least of all yours. What I do is appeal to all of your better judgement, and ask that we put our past differences behind. Together, we can be stronger, and if we can make it though this crisis - together - then perhaps it will be a stepping stone to reforging our great packs.

Tiana and Joseph nodded assent. "I agree that what is past is past," said Tiana. "We'll help you."

Nick raised his head to say something most foul, but he caught the look of his other two counterparts.

"You were always a smooth talker, Tyr. Kingston Core will be there."

Tyr nodded at Nick. Only one last person.

"What about you, Mr. Lander? Do you agree to my cause?"

As he waited for his answer, the end strains of 'Run' could be heard from the speakers. It was haunting, and mournful, and yet hopeful at the same time.

Hope was what Tyr needed.


Slower, slower,
We don't have time for that.
All I want is to find an easier way
To get out of our little heads.

Have heart, my dear -
We're bound to be afraid.
Even if it's just for a few days
Making up for all this mess...

OOC: GS, check your tgs. You too, GU.

OOC: Val, check yours.

Skadi remained silent for a moment as the rumble took everyone's attention. She knew it was Sigrun, there was a certain pattern to his magic that she had become accustomed to when nearby. Gaze still settled upon Garrien, Skadi spoke in a cold, calm voice.

"Something of mine was taken by one of the dogs. I assume this is something Alexander would like to keep locked away, just to spite me. I want it back and I am willing to cut every single creature down that calls themselves part of the Hyraphore to get it. If you would care to take me to my blade, this can end quickly and we shall be on our way. The choice is yours..."

Skadi's pistol remained trained upon Garrien. She wouldn't hesitate to kill the elder if he gave her any trouble. He didn't really have a choice anyway. Three elders vs two ancients, a stronger than usual fledgling and six other vampires did not lean in favour of the Hyraphore.

Hondur remained silent, deagles still aimed at the other two vampires. He would follow Skadi in whatever path she chose, whether it be slaughter these vampires or merely retrieve her blade peacefully.

OOC: Sorry for lack of posting... my brain is about to explode... :eek:

Gregory Lander looked up from his glass of Kalashnikov vodka. He took a sip of the liquid and stared at Tyr through his grey eyes. Gregory's Silver Moon Clan was seldom heard of, though it had just nearly 10,000 lycans. He financed it with money he had skimmed off the top of his corporation's profits. He was an American, Virginia born and raised, but his clan was based out of the Golden Simatar, which is also where he lived and his corporation’s headquarters was.

Gregory liked that his past was shrouded in mystery. Though he could make the cover of dozens of business and money magazines, he didn't give many interviews and there were few pictures of him. He was a shrewd, talented, and very brutal business man, but preferred to stay out of center stage. It was a know fact that he preformed many under the table deals, sliding a few million into a senator’s pocket to get Gregory what he wanted. He was not afraid to bribe or use force to oust unfavorable governments using his crack security force and placing rulers who will let him get at the resources the nation offered for next to nothing.

He rubbed his short beard and ordered another drink. His private plane had left Dulles International Airport when he had received Tyr’s call. He had expected something more important, this wasn’t important to him. Once his drink had come he looked at Tyr.

"No, I won’t help you. Let me explain. An ancient blood debt is no reason to all of a sudden start fighting alongside the vampires. I do like the fact that you are trying to honor it, but it is ridiculous for you to put your lycans in the line of fire so some vampire can sleep better during the day. I’ve never worked with vampires; I never will work with vampires.”

Gregory looked at the other lycans around the table.

“I can’t believe any of you are helping the Kantrawulves. It is your own damn fault Fenris that you got your men involved with that vampire Alexander. Let the vampires fight their own wars; they can all rot for all I care. Give me a reason why I should help.”

OOC: No worries Ass:) Hope you understand what I do here. I apologize in advance for Hondur:P

IC:

"No, NOOO!!!"

Sigrun didn't stop his weather assault on the Regenerative chambers as a small group of vampires entered the chamber room. They were dressed in white lab coats, and were of little threat to him.

They weren't that bright either. Two tried to stand in front of the failry large funnel, only to be dragged upwards, only to be hurled across the room and land by the wall, heads twisted in impossible ways.

Another grabbed a gun and pointed it at Sigrun. "Stop... this is importnat material..."

The man pulled the trigger, only to find that the safety was still on. He looked at it incredulously, and died with the look on his face as a sheared off piece of metal sliced him from shoulder to sternum.

The last continued to plead, though it was inclear if Sigrun could hear him above the winds. Its din was overbearing now.

"This room is also the electrical room... it.... it is... connected to everything in the..."

And then the lights went out.

Beewwooopp...

********

Garrien nodded. He would play along for now, at least until an opportunity came up.

"Yes. I know where he has kept your sword. I will take you to it right..."

Beewwooopp...

"...now?"

The hallway became shrouded in darkness. Skadi yelled across at Stephen.

"Watch out. They're still here somewhere. Suddenly, four bursts of gunfire lit up a small portion of the room, and a loud Buwwmph could be heard.

When the backup generators kicked in, Skadi, Stephen, Garrien, Piter and Samuel were still up and looking at each other.

However, the rest of Stephen's group was taken care of, and Hondur was unconcious down on the ground.

Garrien glanced at Hondur, and then back at Skadi. "He's not so tough. Now that you're outnumbered, lets see who gives order's to who."

Garrien charged Skadi, while the other two charged Stephen.

"You should never have come, lady Skadi. Now you will have to die..."

********

Beewwooopp...

The lights by Driretlen and Zero turned off, and the only illumination was from the outside area.

Suddenly, sounds of gunfire could be heard.

"That sounded like that came from over there. Let's go investigate."

Driretlen and Zero took off down the hall.

Stephen tossed the G3 away and he jumped to the left, avoiding Samuel's tackle. Piter quickly recived Stephen's fist smashing into his face; the vampire was tossed against the wall, leaving a small despression. Stephen spun on Samuel, who stared opened mouthed as Piter tried to stand. No fledgling should be that strong and injure an elder so easily, but it had just happened.

Stephen launched himself at Samuel, both vampires grappling on the floor, trying to get the upper hand. Both rolled on the ground before Samuel was finally able to toss Stephen away, the younger vampire hit the wall with a dull thud. Stephen brushed himself off and faced Samuel and Piter. He shook his head.

"Why do they have to do everything the hard way? Come and get me."

Stephen drew his heavy sword with his left and in his right gloved hand the silver handled Wolf Knife.

OOC: Val, go ahead and RP Zero and gang following Driretlan to the gunfight.

Skadi had kept her eyes upon Garrien the whole time and watched closely as he attacked Hondur in the surprise of the lights dropping out. She knew Hondur would be alright, although she would have a talk to him about being more aware next time something like that happens.

Skadi merely holstered her pistol as Garrien charged toward her, a determined look upon his face as he drew closer toward the ancient. In what appeared as one graceful motion, Skadi stepped toward Garrien but to the side slightly. As the vampire moved within range, Skadi took hold of his left shoulder in both her overwhelmingly strong hands and tossed Garrien straight through the wall in front of the vampire elder.

Skadi was not impressed. There wasn't any point to this fight, Skadi easily outdid Garrien, as she did to every other vampire within this pitiful coven, save for their true leader, the only foreign vampire Skadi held an ounce of respet for.

"You shouldn't have done that young one, now it is you that will die."

Skadi gave Hondur a quick jab in the ribs, shocking the unconscious vampire bag into a groggy state of awareness.

"Get up Hondur, we have important matters to attend to."

Hondur mumbled something incoherently as he rubbed a large bump upon the side of his head. The ancient was still hazy and wouldn't be of much help for the moment. Stepping through the newly made hole in the wall, Skadi picked up Garrien and slammed his now bleeding head into the wall once again.

"You are going to take me to my sword, or I'll kill you and your two friends right now before I tear this entire place apart in search of my blade. Understand?"

Skadi's voice had still remained calm, but something within it was giving away her frustration, and the rage was obviously evident within her dark eyes.

As the regenerative chambers fell into the darkness of night, the tornado continued to howl, but now its sound was more ferocious, more fearsome. Using the scientist's voice as a becon, Sigrun turned the tornado toward him, a straight face as he listened to the man's screaming as he was spun about in nearly impossible speeds. Sigrun stepped closer to the tornado and leaned in with his face, taking care not to to touch the tornado.

He froze the man in place inside the swirling winds. The man's eyes looked at him fearfully. Sigrun merely looked back at him.

An ironic silence filled the space between them, as the wind whipped up Sigrun's cothing, snapping it continuously as he glared at the imprisoned man.

"You are annoying." he finally said, before flicking his wrist and watching as the man suddenly picked up speed in his spinning so rapidly, then dropping quickly before speeding up once more. The process continued indefinitely...

G forces began to weigh heavily upon the man, his face becoming elongated, then bloated. His eyes bugged out, blood vessels rupturing and bringing a bloodshot look to his face. Veins popped out in his forehead and spittle flew out of his screaming mouth. Bones stretched throughout his body, skin even tearing at places.

Another little push of speed, and Sigrun watched satisfactorially as the man's body finally snapped in multiple places and broke apart.

Sigrun immediately halted the tornado, causing the body pieces to fall haplessly to the ground at his feet. The wind died down, and was replaced by a deathly peace.

Sigrun surveyed the room's damage, and smiled internally as he realized that the tornado had destroyed everything in the room. All chambers destoryed, all computers obliterated, all papers torn up and spread randomly about the room, all medical equipment decimated beyond repair.

Everything was useless...

Sigrun left the room silently, and continued down the hall, using his Elven sight to pick through the darkness carefully. His sight wasn't as great as it had been for him back when he was a vampire, but it wasn't as horrible as a human's either.

Suddenly, gunfire was heard, and Sigrun immediately broke into a run, leaping over the balcony to the first floor. However, the unexpected happened. Drirethlen suddenly appeared out of nowhere and was unfortunate to suddenly feel the shock of elven boot impacting on the top of his head.

Sigrun collided heavily into the floor, and got up quickly to face his new unknown. His eyes widened as he saw who it was.

"Drirethlen?!"

OOC: Sorry it's been so long guys...I got really busy.

Avatre seethed with rage. She glared across the table at Gregory Lander. What she really wanted to do was to jump over the table and tear out his throat for his arrogance. But that wouldn't accomplish anything.

Suddenly she felt a hand on her thigh. It ws Tyr, trying to reassure her and calm her down. He knew her well enough to sense her anger. Avatre let out a low growl and pulled roughly away from him. Her fury was not directed entirely at Lander.

He was right and Avatre knew it. That's what angered her the most. The Kantrawulves had no business even considering themselves indebted to a vampire, much less honoring that debt. The whole idea was ludicrous. It was what she had said from the very beginning. Now someone else was saying it too. It was almost enough to make her side with Lander.

She glanced over at Tyr. He's lucky I love him so much, she thought. Otherwise... Avatre shook her head slightly. She refused to think about that. Misguided as he may be, she loved him and was faithful to him. They had come this far together and she wasn't about to abandon him now.

Tyr squeezed Avatre's thigh to tell her thanks for calming down. Still, she did not look at him.

*She still despises the fact that I am still helping Alexander,* thought Tyr grimly to himself, looking at each of the Lychans around the table to try and regain control.

"Tyr has done what needed to be done to save the future of the Kantrawulves, Mr. Lander," said Avatre icily. "One cannot imagine the hardships we have been through. Especially when one is a billionaire."

Gregory smiled a little, and replied, making a little toast to the woman.

"Yes, you're right I suppose in a way. I mean, being a business man means that certain rules have changed. Evolved. Like I thought we all have evolved."

The man looked around the table at all of those around it.

"Tiana, Nicholas, Joseph... we all have careers, lives now that have moved away from such petty things as blood debts. Lives that have more than two dimensions, two colors. Our people have lives, lives that should not be shattered to help those who have always been against us.

Tyr slowly shook his head. "Look, Gregory, I understand where you are coming from, but I still don't think you get it. In life, in all lives, there are certain things that are two dimensions, a right or wrong. What is wrong is that you are refusing to help out a brother when he is in need. Yes, it is true that the vampires should fight their own war, but I need your help to help me get out of it. All I need is your assistance, and this "ancient" blood debt, as you say, will be history."

Tiana, Nicholas, Joseph nodded in agreement. Tyr felt around for Avatre's hand. It felt cool in his, calming him a bit.

"Don't punish my people for any mistakes I have made, Gregory. Lychan should fight with Lychan, and blood runs thicker than water. That much never changes."

********

Garrien mumbled something through his puffy lips. His head was bleeding profusely from a wound to the back of his head, and a cut was made on his right cheek.

"idntknwwwherrr..."

Skadi leaned her head in closer to hear what the vampire had to say. "Pardon, little one?"

Garrien flung a fistfull of concrete ash into Skadi's eyes, making her howl with pain and more annoyance. She released him, and he swung his elbow around and caught her in the side of the throat.

She stumbled away, but did not drop. Garrien stood up, and picked up his fallen Upir sword.

His vision was not 100%, and the blood began to work its way down the back of his shirt. He was sure that a tooth was missing.

He sighed. He never thought he would die on Hyraphore soil.

"Lok... trrr isno... is no...swrdd... I dontknwww *Coff Coff* whtu wantfrmm me... trrris us nooswrd..."

********

On the other side of the wall, Samuel and Piter calmly withdrew their Upirs and circled Stephen. They looked at him, and then at each other.

*This one is good,* said Samuel, with his mind.

*It is no wonder the Lady Skadi has chosen him to accompany her,* said Piter in response.

Piter swung his sword in an arc, and came forward with a forward thrust. Stephen easily deflected it with his heavy sword.

Piter looked at Samuel with an arched eyebrow. *Now!*

The two of them worked in tandem, each coming from the other side of Stephen to attack. Stephen parried, reversed, and made a few aggressor moves himself, but his knife and sword could only do so much against two opponents.

Samuel jumped off a nearby outcropping, and swung high. Stephen was forced to put both of his swords up to defend.

Piter leaned over, and kicked at the back of Stephen's knee. As he went down, he rapped the back of the ex-soldiers head with the butt of the Upir.

"Only a fledgling."

Piter and Samuel raised their swords in unison...

OOC: You can do whatever you want to get out of that situation, GS:P

********

Driretlen and Zero hurried along. In the distance, they could hear winds howling, glass shattering, and minor explosions.

"The regenerative chambers... they've reached the chambers..."

Suddenly, a great weight fell on the Ancient's head.

Driretlen, fell to the ground, head groaning in protest as he tried to see who had jumped him from the second floor.

He spun and got to one knee, staff in hand to face his opponent, only to see an Elf.

"Driretlen?"

Driretlen didn't move, instead choosing to speak to Zero.

"Two questions, Noble: A) Did he come here with you and Skadi, and B) how does he know my name?"

Gregory drained the rest of his vodka and placed the glass on the table. He stared at Tyr and everyone else around the table.

"I would help you whenever you would need help Tyr, any of you I would gladly help. But not here. I do agree Lycan should fight with Lycan and blood is thicker than water, but I'm not going to risk everything I have and created because of your error."

He leaned back in his chair and stared at Tyr. Its his own damn fault, let the bastard rot. He wouldn't let Tyr rot, he knew it was Tyr's own fault for getting involved, but he wouldn't let him rot.

"I would be inclined to help, but due to my standings with vampires, the answer is no. I would fight beside you, but you are fighting with vampires so no. I will not help."

*************************************************

Stephen spun on the ground, knocking the vampires off thier feet. Stephen stood and quickly grabbed them by thier necks.

"I'm not your ordinary fledgling."

With that Stephen tossed them both into the wall, enjoying the dull thud as they hit the wall. Stephen didn't let them breath, grabbing Piter he took the Upir away and hurled the vampire into the oppistie wall, and then he grabbed Samuel and hurled him head first into the wall next to Piter.

Stephen put his knife and sword away and picked up both Upirs. He looked at the battered elders. He was tempted to go and kill them, but he looked and saw Skadi getting the dust out of her eyes and Garrien holding a sword. Stephen jumped in front of Garrien, protecting Skadi while she finished cleaning out her eyes.

"Are you okay Skadi?"

Zero was stunned as he watched what happened, along with his teammates. Then he had to keep himself from laughing in spite of himself, it was almost that funny.

"Master Driretlan, yes, that Elf came with us and the Lady Skadi, the Elves of Lothlorien are joining the invasion of the Hyraphore as well. And as for (B)........", he looked at Sigrun with a cheeky grin. "Let's just say the phrase 'Skadi's mate' is the key."

He propped his Saber onto his shoulder. "You go figure out for yourself. I wouldn't know how to start explaining here, so i'll leave that to Sigrun......or Maximus Destroi, as you may have once known him."

Sigrun straightened his posture as Zero did that somewhat annoying cheeky grin and replied to Drirethlen's question. When Zero finished, he looked back at Sigrun, winking as he did so.

Sigrun nodded slightly his appreciation for the introduction. His eyes turned to Drirethlen.

"He speaks the truth. Indeed, I am Sigrun, once known as Maximus; who is no more..."

Memories of his murderer flashed briefly in his mind, before he shoved them away.

"It is good to see you're still around, despite your illness..." Sigrun pressed with a grin of his own.

Driretlen stood up, and warily walked around the elf, who claimed to be Maximus reborn in the guise of Sigrun.

He thought briefly about probing the elf's mind, but decided against it. If it was Maximus truely, he would have mind blocks to deflect him.

So, time to go with another question.

"Yes... yes, thank you. My cancer has been treated and I have been rejeuvenated. Not unlike you being reborn..."

The Ancient stopped, and looked Sigrun in the eye.

"But tell me. It has been such a long while since we saw each other. Where was it FIRST that we met?"

********

Tyr growled unconciously. He leaned forward in his seat, shifting the table ever so slightly. In the other are of the Rage, the patrons began to file out, into the cold night of Vancouver.

The unfortunate part of it all was that he could not fault Lander for anything he said. What he said was true, and a part of him hated him for that. The other part of him wished that he had the power to make such a stand.

Tiana leaned forward, and nodded. "Tyr, combined, the four of us have over 40,000 strong. Will this be enough to accomplish what you seek?"

Tyr nodded slowly, and then turned to Lander one final time.

"It may. Look, Lander, that's fine. I won't sit here, and beg you to help me, but you know what? I think that you have sat far too long in your boardroom and have forgotten what it truely means to be one of our kind. I bet you haven't even felt the adrenaline of battle in years... Help me, and feel what your heritage really means..."

Sigrun smiled. He knew that Drirethlen would test him for credibility. It was something he had picked up about the guy from early on. With a twinkle in his eye, he replied confidently.

"It was first in Assington, in Emerald City. On the back street of Traveler's Lane, under the streetlight behind the O'Reilly computer company headquarters. Skadi and I were on our way to rescue Hondur, and you called to us. You wanted us to become part of the Hyraphore then, to help increase your numbers. It was a time when the Hyraphore was still a respectable coven, unlike now...considering that you all have employed the assistance of the lycan mutts to attack the Assingtonians to coerce them to your cause."

Sigrun looked at Drirethlen the whole time he spoke. His demeanor went from an almost cheerful one to one of seriousness.

"I do not know if you are aware of the atrocities your fledgling has committed against the Assingtonians...for that, he will be given due justice, one way or another."

Sigrun looked over at Zero, silently asking him to leave the two alone.

Please, my friend Zero, go check up on Skadi for me.

Skadi let out a grunt of mixed pain and frustration, she was sick of playing around with this elder when she could be getting her blade back. She had no idea what Garrien was mumbling about but the ring of his Upir blade being withdrawn was enough to make her wary. Thankfully, Stephen stepped at the right moment, creating a distraction for Skadi so she could clear the dust from her eyes.

"I shall be fine. Your intervention was most welcome."

For perhaps the first time, Skadi had nearly complimented Stephen. It wasn't an outright praise, but it was probably the closest thing he would get for at least another hundred years. Now able to see more clearly, Skadi raised Glamdring and trained her now sore eyes upon Garrien. Her vision was mostly clear, but the stinging would most likely remain for some time, until she healed completely.

Stepping past Stephen, Skadi moved purposefully toward the elder vampire and aimed her blade at his chest. As she came within striking distance, those observing would have expected her to make an attempt at running Garrien through. Instead, the tip of Glamdring fell to the floor as Skadi raised her left hand, open palm facing Garrien.

"It's about time you felt what a real ancient can do."

With a thrust of mental will, Garrien felt himself being lifted off the ground, the force pulling him had a tight grip upon his throat. The room began to shake as Skadi's power continued to build, objects began revolving around the source of power. Skadi sat behind layers of mental blocks and shielding, as she knew Garrien may have mental abilities of his own. Not that it mattered, her power stemmed from far greater routes than his.

Skadi watched as Garrien made the first collission with the roof, adding to his already poor state of awareness. The choke grip tightened and Garrien's white form began to take on a slight shade of blue. To top it off, Skadi combined her physical attacks with wave after wave of scorching mental energy, running through Garriens mind and disrupting his thoughts.
________

Hondur was now on his feet, but stumbling wildly through the corridor. He couldn't collect his thoughts and he wasn't quite sure what was happening. Leaning against the wall to gather his balance, the ancient watched Stephen step through a gap in the wall, he assumed Skadi must be in there.

Making his way slowly, Hondur tripped and stumbled until he found himself flying in through the air after colliding with a large piece of concrete. He made it through the gap and continued to soar whilst losing altitude every moment.

Able to see his predicament, Hondur attempted to focus his mind, to call upon his vampiric ability of flight and save himself from a hard landing upon the hard floor. Calming himself, he closed his grey eyes and willed it to happen.

THUMP...

Hondur landed upon the ground at Skadi's feet, a new graze running upon the left side of his face from eye to chin. Groaning slightly, Hondur noticed his sire focusing upon someone in front of her, probably an enemy vampire. She was too busy to look at him, but her mental voice ringed through his groggy mind.

"Get up Hondur, he didn't hit you that hard..."

Gregory stared at Tyr and stood. He put on a grey business jacket and turned to face the others. His eyes focused again on Tyr.

"I'm truly sorry, but I will not help you. Maybe I have been sitting too long in meetings and negotiations for merges and such. Maybe, I'm the first one who is looking forward, and not being old school about everything."

He reached into his pocket and handed a business card to each of them.

"If you ever want to call me, there is my number. Ladies and Gentlemen I shall be off. One last thing. Would the vampires let thier guarddog off the leash, once they relised how good he is at guarding them? Good night."

Gregory smiled and left the bar. Walking outside he climbed into a black BMW and the man behind the wheel drove him to the airport. It wasn't until Gregory was sitting in a cream colored leather chair in his private jet did he speak to his second in command.

"They wanted us to help them fight with the vampires Dimitri."

"What did you say?" Dimitri asked.

"No." Gregory smiled. "That poor Avatre, she has so much potential, but is so damn loyal to Tyr, who is so damn old school."

There was a pause before Gregory picked up a thick file of the output of his African diamond mines and went back to business.

****************************************************

Stephen smiled slightly. He just liked the fact Skadi had acknoledged him being there, and that was more than enough for him. He watched as Skadi used her strong mental abilities to hammer Garrien into the walls. That is why I stay on her good side. He thought to himself.

Zero nodded, not saying anything to Sigrun's wishes. He turned to Leopold and Kellis.

"Alright, let's clear out. We'll go to Lady Skadi."

As he prepared to take flight, he felt inside his trenchcoat......and groaned. He's forgotten his throwing knives.......

"Here, boss", Leopold said. He handed Zero his two throwing knives that he had thrown at Driretlan earlier.

Zero smiled, and took them. Then they went in search of the Lady Skadi.....

Driretlen nodded, and looked again once over the elf in front of him.

"Sigrun... Maximus... this will take some getting used to." Driretlen sat down and looked at Sigrun."

Sigrun sat down as well, and looked across at Driretlen.

"I... yes, I... I admit this to you first, Sigrun. Do you prefer Sigrun?"

"Yes."

"Sigrun, it has been too long since we have talked. It is a pity that we had to reunite under such auspices."

"Please, what do you know of the Lychans?"

"It wasn't supposed to be like this. Please, understand this. When I had to leave Alexander in the leadership of the Hyraphore, I knew that, unchecked, he would run rampent. Perhaps over Assington, perhaps over the Hyraphore itself."

Driretlen sighed, and drew a mysterious mark in the sand of the hall.

"That is when I brought in Tyr Fenris and the Kantrawulves. Of course, I told Alexander that it would be to help him in his... quest for power, but really, they were supposed to keep him in line. I mean, Lychans and Vampires: surely they could keep him in control, right?"

"Wrong," said Sigrun, narrowing his eyes.

"Wrong. Yes, wrong. What happened, as far as I can qualitate, is that he envoked a Blood debt, in MY name, that made it so that they had to follow HIS orders."

Sigrun nodded, blinking to further adjust his eyes to the light. "What sort of thing is this blood debt?"

"It is simple. Because I assisted the Kantrawulves after a... difficult period in their existance, they were endebted to me. You know, the whole honour bit. Well, somehow, Alexander found out about it, and now he has used it to get them to help him in his quest for Assington."

"And now they are off who knows where... they are not here," said Sigrun with a scowl.

"No, and neither is Alexander, Sigrun. Look, my old friend, I am sorry for what you all have been through in my absence. I must take responsibility for what has happened..."

********

Inside his mind, he screamed... at least, he thought he did. He wasn't sure of anything. Of anything at all.

His light blue shade had taken on a darker navy color. His eyes bugged out, as if he was being choked, and his blood flowed ever harder.

Inside his mind, he screamed. He screamed, and screamed, and screamed...

********

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO...

Driretlen sat up straight, and the hairs on the back of his neck stood up.

"Garrien... GARRIEN..."

Driretlen got up and ran down the hall, where Zero had gone. In confusion, Sigrun followed.

Driretlen ran, down the hallways, face illuminated through cracked skylights and broken windows.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO...

When he finally arrived at the source of the screams, he was faced with a sight he was unsure how to take.

Samuel and Piter, two of his lieutenants were down on the ground.

Zero was standing off to one side, mouth agape in wonder. Same with Hondur, who looked a little woozy.

And in the centre of it all, was Skadi, and an unidentified vampire. Near the roof, suspended by some force.

Certainly by Skadi, who had various debris circling her, attracted by her power.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO...

Driretlen bit his lip, too keep himself from giving into his anger. He raised his staff and pointed it at Skadi. The staff turned blue, and then a soft red, then a fiery rouge.

"Skadi... put that man down... now..."

OOC: Will wait for Avatre to post in Lychan subplot.

Stephen dropped one of the Upirs he held and quickly replaced it with one of his Para .45s. Driretlen's head completely filled the sites on the pistol. Stephen could tell right away this vampire was old, very old, probably not as old as Skadi, but seemed close. Stephen didn't this was Driretlen, he had heard of the vampire, but had never meet him before. He would give the unknown vampire a warning.

"Put down your staff or you will find a silver slug in your brain. Drop it. or I will shoot."

To get any ideas out of Drirelen's head that Stephen wouldn't shoot, he pulled the hammer back to full cock.

Sigrun looked deep into Drirethlen's eyes and studied them. Deep in his eyes, Drirethlen had a sorrow and a rage mixed together that remained buried within his mind. Suddenly he had an idea.

"Drirethlen, for years you watched Alexander rule the Hyraphore, tarnish its image and all but destroyed what you had worked so hard to build. What if we can change this? What if the Rilanti (the Fates) allow you to take the Hyraphore back for your own once again?"

Sigrun stepped to the edge of the hall and placed his hand upon the wall, feeling the vibrations that rumbled throughout the complex from hundreds of feet moving about. He turned back to Drirethlen once again.

"They say that change is good, but too much change is bad. Alexander is in essence that change that has gone bad. It is time to return to the old rule, and cast Alexander down once and for all! If you wish, I will stand by you as you do this, and together, we will work to put you back where you belong."

Driretlen's eyes slowly shifted to where Sigrun stood. His staff still never wavered, but his voice was softened. He glanced warily over at Stephen, and then spoke.

"I would like that, Sigrun, but before all else, Skadi needs to put Garrien down..."

Skadi turned her head slightly to take in the sight of Driretlen. Although she did respect the ancient vampire, she was sick of this game, sick of the Hyraphore and merely wanted her sword back. Garrien would not get another chance to decieve her. In a tone seething with utter spite, Skadi's cold words filled the room.

"He has brought it upon himself and he will not escape the consequences..."

Without another word, the surge of debris intensified around Skadi as she stepped out of the room via the actual door, Garrien floating quietly behind her as he continued to struggle. Moving down the hall, Skadi came upon a large metallic door. With a little mental force, the door ripped open and allowed the pair to enter before slamming shut, being held in place by Skadi's mere will.

Even with the door sealed, Garriens screams soon filled the halls of the Hyraphore as Skadi began working upon the unfortunate elder. The screams varied in pitch and occassionally went silent, only to emerge once again, more intense than the last lot.

This continued for thirty straight minutes before the groan of the metallic door could be heard once again. Skadi's leather boots pounded upon the hard ground and she made her way back into the room, a very different sight from before.

Skadi's black hair was matted to the left side of her face which was now a bloody crimson instead of the normal stone white. Both her hands were completely red and it was obvious there was much more blood upon her clothes, it just didn't turn out very well. Small amounts of debris still floated around the ancient vampire, her rage had died down but it was obvious she still wasn't happy, especially since she had found out her blade was not here. Turning to Driretlen, Skadi spoke in the same icy tone as before.

"If you wish to talk to him, I suggest you hurry... he doesn't have much longer."

Giving Skadi a glare, Driretlen hurried into the other room and came across a sight that made even him feel sick to the bone. Garrien was suspended from the roof, silver wire running through his neck, shoulders, hands, feet and lower back, all strung to the roof. Obviously the silver was burning the vampire, the stench of burning flesh heavy within the room. Facing toward the floor, Garriens open torso displayed the further damage done to him. All of Garriens ribs had been ripped out. Not cut, but literally pulled out individually. Skadi had taken the liberty of replacing the ribs with two silver daggers, one wedged within each lung.

Upon further inspection it became obvious that more of the silver wire was inside Garrien, running down his limbs, along the torn muscle. Blood seeped from the vampire's eyes, ears and nose and his left eye could be found upon the floor below him. Several wounds and cuts inflicted by a large blade decorated Garrien's flesh, covering his entire body with blood. The room was coated with more blood than seemed possible for one creature to contain, yet it was everywhere.

Garrien groaned in a numb stupour, opening his mouth to display the bare gums. All teeth, including the fangs had been removed from Garriens mouth, he was unable to drink. An attempt at speech only resulted in a dull gurgle as the wire cutting Garrien's throat had filled his mouth with blood.

It was obvious the vampire would die within minutes and there was nothing that could be done to save him. He had lost too much blood and there was too much silver within his body. Skadi's last method of torture had been the worst. With accuracy that is rare amongst surgeons, Skadi had formed a silver wire cage around Garrien's heart. Every time his chest heaved with a breath and his heart beat furiously to keep what little blood he had left pumping, the mighty organ came into contact with the silver cage, burning it away.

Eventually the heart would fail, eventually the searing wire would burn through the flesh and spill Garrien's final drops of blood. Gathering his wits, Garrien looked at his master with his one eye and summoned a few mental words, as he could not communicate any other way.

"Master... help me..."

OOC: Whoa, Assington......you should've put an R rating for violence on that post.....*barf*

OOC: Whoa...personally, I like it, but not everyone has a steel stomach like me lol

Zero watched all this, with a raised eyebrow. Apparently there's a mean streak in the Lady Skadi.......no, that was an understatement. Never mind about that.

He turned, and saw Hondur was still struggling to keep his balance. He must have taken quite a blow to the head, Zero mused. No matter, this will put him back in good condition.......his berserk lightning power was still latent in him, waiting to be used, even though he had regained his sanity......that comes of getting mad and not fighting in the end, he thought.

"Here, Master Hondur, maybe this will set you right......."

He took Hondur's arm, and lightning flowed from Zero into him, causing his teeth to chatter. But it should have worked, since his lightning has been channeled through Hondur's nerves, to clear any obstruction........he let go, and let Hondur collapse on the floor again.

"Are you feeling any better, Master Hondur?"

OOC: Assington, I loved the post. I've seen a lot of gory films such as Day of the Dead and love gory movies, so your post was a great treat. I know this sounds sick, but I have a twisted little mind. I give ya two thumbs up.

Driretlen swallowed hard, deep, forcing himself to look his former ally and good friend in the eye.

He tried to look past the horror, the physical atrocities that was inflicted on Garrien, but could not. The suspended vampire gurgled, and rattled on his pedestal of steel, screaming, but not screaming. Perhaps only mouthing the words.

A thin, steady flow of blood oozed out of Garriens mouth, pooling in a small semi-circle by Driretlen's feet. Driretlen looked down, and then back at Skadi.

His eye twitched, and then he raised his staff.

"Ahhhh...."

"STOP."

Driretlen turned around at the sound of Garrien's voice, but it was only in his head. Of course it was only in his head...

"Master, don't... don't do it... She didn't know what she was doing... she was only angry... who of us can say we have never been?"

Driretlen closed his eyes, and concentrated. The wounds... were massive. Trauma pockmarked all of the vampire's body, leaving nothing spared.

A half growl/sigh emerged from Driretlen's mouth.

"You are dying, Garrien. Shall I..."

"YES... yesss... please, but before you do, please, promise... promise... that you will find the Hyraphore... and... and... ask Alexander why he has done why he did..."

Driretlen opened his eyes, and looked up at the shivering form of Garrien. With one smooth mover, Driretlen swung his staff twice over his head, and slammed it end first into the ground.

As it remained embedded in the ground, a thin, wispy connection was made between it and Garrien. The connection turned white, then blue, then red, then white once more.

Garrien's body twitched, and then fell still. The heart stopped beating, and the breath did not rattle forth. Still, the blood from the mouth fell ever more...

"I promise old friend..."

Driretlen raised the staff, and fired...

********

Far away, in the breaking of the dawn, a Black helicopter landed stiltedly on the roof of the Emerald Ritz Hotel. A figure, bundled up against the early morning sun, was ushered into the rooftop entrance, and down three flight of stairs.

Once inside, the figure threw off his cloak, and grimaced. He had come so close, and yet now he was the one being hunted? Where was the justice?

The figure turned to one of the men attending him.

"Are you sure we weren't followed?"

"No sir, Mr. Kelsing. No one knows you're here."

The figure scratched at his chin.

"Good."

The figure slammed his way into his room, Number 245.

The room across the hall shook as the door slammed shut. Inside of 244, a 15 yr old girl lifted her head from her bed.

"Zero?"

Then she went back to sleep...

The rage which Avatre had so far managed to keep in check could no longer be silenced. She was gripping the table so hard that her knuckles were white.

She took a deep breath to temporarily compose herself and leaned over towards Tyr. We're leaving. Now. she hissed in his ear. He looked at her, but said nothing. He knew her well enough not to fight her when she was like this.

Avatre and Tyr stood up and said their polite goodbyes to the assembled Lychans. Taking Tyr by the hand, Avatre half-dragged him out the door and into the club, moving quickly and with a purpose.

She found a side door in the hallway. It was unlocked. She opened the door and hauled Tyr inside. It turned out to be a smaller conference room. No sooner had the door clicked shut than Avatre turned on Tyr. She grabbed him roughly by the shirt, backhanded him across the face, and threw him into a wall.

"What the hell is wrong with you ?!" she screamed. She began to pace angrily around the room.

As he sat on the floor leaning against the wall, she began to tear into him.
"How could you do it, Tyr? How could you? Are you now so weak that you must grovel before the likes of Gregory Lander? You say you will fight, and yet you beg others to do your fighting for you. Can you no longer fight for yourself?"

Tyr said nothing. His eyes remained fixed to the floor. Avatre went on.

"And what of me? Would you fight for me? He wants me, you know. Lander. I could see it in his eyes. I could smell it on him. Will you let him take me too? I can see that you are too weak to fight for your pride, are you strong enough to fight for your woman?"

She stood in front of him now, hands on her hips, looking down at him, waiting.

OOC: I know you're all thinking it... yes I am a sick and twisted mind. I too am a fan of horror movies... anyone seen Event Horizon?

IC: Hondur felt the shock of the lightning burning through his nerves, dropping him to the ground once again. Within seconds the shock was over and Hondur still felt slightly dazed, yet better. Climbing back up once again, he found balance much easier to attain. The only thing that remained was the throbbing upon his head, but that would heal soon enough.

Retrieving his dropped guns, Hondur turned around and faced Zero, producing a slight smile.

"Thanks Zero, that was helpful. What exactly did you just do?"
_____________

Skadi was going to kill Garrien either way, but during their little session, the method had been changed. Upon questioning the elder, Skadi had discovered that Alexander had most likely gone to Assington and that her blade was not even here, Avatre still had it. Garrien was right when he thought it would irritate her even more, yet he couldn't dream of the consequences his words would have.

As Driretlen returned, Skadi kept her rage in check but kept her eyes upon the anicent vampire. She could tell he was angered and would probably attack her. As she expected, the ancient unleashed his staff and Skadi immediately reacted by drawing Glamdring into a guard position and letting her rage flow once again, fuelling the force of telekinetic energy flowing around her, protecting her.

OOC: Assington, did I send you a TG about my new Rp?

IC:

Stephen's nostrils were quickly filled by the smell of blood and brunt flesh. The smell was overpowering, and Stephen knew what had happened to Garrien. Though he didn't see it, by the expression on Driretlen's face, the elder had suffered a terrible fate. Stephen backed off a few feet from the door, turning his back from it, taking a gulp of fresh air that blowed in from the outside.

He had lowered his automatic and when he sensed Skadi going on the defensive he spun to see Driretlen unleash his power. Instinctivly, Stephen raise the automatic, aimed at Driretlen's chest, and fired.

Sigrun had a strange look upon his face, but it wasn't a look several others were holding. It was a look that eerily looked like it belonged on the face of a vampire.

As if Maximus had returned...

Sigrun studied the art of the torture that Garrien suffered from greatly, courtesy of Skadi. Suddenly, his concentration was broken as the all too clear sound of a gunshot exploded into his hearing.

Time slowed to a crawl as Sigrun whirled around to search for the bullet. There...heading straight for Drirethlen...

Unsheathing his sword quickly, Sigrun timed his swing to impact the bullet and send it hurtling into the dead corpse of Garrien. He turned to Stephen, an angry look upon his face.

Stephen's face went whiter than it had ever been before. He had seen that look in Sigrun's face before...long ago...

Long ago, when Maximus still commanded the streets...

OOC: Val, just go ahead and kidnap Aeris.

IC: Zero grinned at Hondur.

"Well, that's another difference between Nobles and the rest of the vampire kind. When we get in a desperate situation, we tend to go berserk, and not only do our reflexes, physical strength, everything goes to a heightened state, our battle energy becomes less regular and more concentrated, such that it becomes an electrical energy that augments our powers by quite a bit. The price of that is that we tend to lose our conscience when we go berserk.......but it's also helpful to override paralysing attacks, like what i did to you, i can also do to myself."

"But when Nobles like me go berserk and end up not fighting, the result is, we have a excess of berserk lightning energy we have to dissipate, even though we regain our sanity......."

Then he and Hondur heard a gunshot, and whirled around just in time to see Sigrun deflecting Stephen's bullet. Acting on instinct, Zero stretched his hand out and blasted Stephen with purple lightning, hurling him against a wall......and provoking Hondur to back Zero up against a wall with a knife against Zero's throat, snarling, "What do you think you're doing?!"

Zero merely stared back at Hondur, forcing him to think through what had just transpired. Hondur's eyes slowly dawned comprehension, and Zero calmly removed Hondur's knife from his throat. Then, he turned to Stephen, who, despite Zero's electrical attack, did not show too much damage as he brushed himself off.

"Up until now, I cannot determine if you are fledgling or elder, but whatever you are, you've still got a lot to learn about patience." Zero addressed Stephen coldly.

Then he felt his hand twitch. Not good, he had controlled his berserk energy for far too long, and now it's starting to burst out. He'll have to either use this energy soon, or attempt to earth himself........

Stephen had pulled the trigger because he had warned Drirethlen to put down his staff, he hadn't and Stephen was okay with that, but Drirethlen had attacked Skadi; so Stephen fired. He didn't expect Sigrun stopping the bullet, or the apparent slow down of time.

His heart went to ice and his feet froze to the ground as he stared into Sigrun's face. It was like the night he had seen Maximus; Stephen had been pinned to a wall by the vampire, Stephen remembered the rage and anger in Maximus's eyes.

It was then he felt a large electric bolt jerk through his body sending him fly, breaking eye contact with the elf. He hit and his body jerked once by the electricy before he stood. Stephen's eye twitched slightly as to the effect as he brushed himself off. He stared at Zero. He thought of how to explain to Zero that he had taken one thousand years to turn.

"You could say I'm both Zero, I'm as strong as and elder, but only a year old as a full vampire. One thousand years ago I was bitten in the arm, burned like hell, but didn't think it was any more serious. I was captured by some vampires lead by Maximus, who we now know as Sigrun, and he told me I was slowly turning into a vampire. I opted for staying human, and he gave me something that temporarily stop the change. Well, the vampire blood that survived had taken enough hold over my body to make me immortal. About thirty years ago, I began having vampire symtoms, wanting blood, sunlight hurting etc. Though it was very subtle at first, it wasn't till about three years before I changed it became more pronounced. I fully turned a year ago and because I had been living with vampire blood inside me, it somehow made me far more powerful than a fledgling should be. So, that is my story."

Stephen put his Para away and calmly stared at Zero and Hondur, wondering what was going through thier minds at that moment.

As all assembled stood warily, looking at each other with watchful, baleful eyes, Driretlen only had eyes for Skadi.

The corner of his mouth twitched again, and he raised his staff once more towards Skadi.

Stephen made a move for his gun, but then decided against it. Zero and Hondur only watched, and Sigrun...

Sigrun nodded...

The rod pulsated, and shot out a thin, wide beam of energy. For her credit, Skadi did not move, instead instinctively throwing up her strongest shields.

But, like before, the energy pulse barely flickered across her defenses, instead rippling outward and safely down into the ground.

"That was not a strong attack," said Skadi calmly.

"I promised not to hurt you, but at the same right, I could not let you go forthright," replied Driretlen, just as calmly. "I did what I had to do."

"As did I."

Driretlen frowned bitterly, and then looked around the group. First he spoke to Stephen.

"I don't know who you are, but I can sense a deeper purpose, a stronger power beneath you. You shall be one of many who will lead our kind into the future. Your reflexes are... exceptional."

Then, he turned to Zero, who still brimmed with energy. He offered his staff, and Zero grabbed the end. He swelled up, and then expelled all of his raw energy into the rod. The smile on Zero's face telled of its almost sexual crescendo.

"Thank you," said Zero.

"Thank YOU," said Driretlen, slightly bowing.

He then looked at Hondur, but didn't say a word.

Lastly, he turned once more to Skadi and Sigrun. He motioned for them to follow him outside.

Skadi turned to Stephen and Hondur.

"Get the rest of our forces together. We leave for Assington within the hour."

As Sigrun and Skadi walked outside to join Driretlen on the last remaining wall of the Hyraphore courtyard, they could see that the Ancient was visibly shaken. They looked down and saw hundreds and hundreds of fallen, broken bodies, some in pieces, others burned beyond recognition.

The remains of the assault on Hyraphore.

"I know that you destroyed the regenerative chambers, Sigrun..."

Sigrun groused, and gazed down. Driretlen laid a hand on his shoulder.

"Do not worry. Take it as a lesson that revenge is often a bitter endeavour. Now please, I need your help and Skadi."

He nodded, and so did she. Sigrun and Skadi raised their hands in Unison, and started chanting under their breaths. Soon, a tangible, near-invisible field could be seen around the courtyard.

Driretlen raised his staff in his left hand. A bright flash encompassed the field, and soon large flames licked up at the edges.

"Fire is purifying. Fire is both life and death..."

Skadi looked at Driretlen and nodded. In a few moments, the fire dissapated, and the courtyard was now a scorched ruin. The bodies were no more.

Driretlen put down his staff, and looked at it.

"I truly do not know what this is, you know. During my retreat, I went through a number of ordeals. Trials as you might put it. At the end of it, I came out with this... But what awaits me at the end of this trial?"

OOC: He means the fight with Alexander.

********

Tyr did not look up at Avatre, instead pressing a cool hand to his burning cheek, where she had struck him.

He whispered, perhaps only to himself.

"Not wanting to fight is not a weakness, Avatre... It is a strength, one that I wish others understood..."

"What did you say?" said Avatre accusingly.

"I said that I did not beg him," said Tyr, standing up suddenly and looking at Avatre in the eye with anger caused by pain. "Asking him for his help is not begging. We could use his help!"

"Excuses. Begging is begging. Would you ask him for his help as he takes me for his own."

Tyr's eyes narrowed. "No."

"No?"

"No... I'd kill him..."

They, a knock on the door could be heard. It was a female voice.

"Tyr. This is Tiana. Are you all right?"

********

Alexander paced his room. He was trapped in Assington now: there was no way to get back to the Hyraphore. By now, Driretlen would have already seized control.

And he was thirsty. So thirsty.

"Kirk, tell me again why this Hotel is deserted?"

The vampire off to his left stood and orated. "Because of the conflicts in the city, most of the hotel patrons, and the city, have left the immediate vincinity."

"Most? What do you mean most?"

"There is one girl left in this hotel. I got the information from the cleaning staff."

The vampire licked his lips as he said cleaning staff. Alexander frowned: they had not left him one?

"Alright. Fetch her for me. I hate to use a little girl, but I am... so... thirsty."

The vampire nodded, and exited the room. Outside, he nodded at his accomplice, and headed across the hall. They knocked on the door, and spoke.

"Cleaning men."

OOC: Um...Val? We need to talk....TG me or drop me a IM. Thanks!

OOC: Val, are you going to have Alexander drink from Aeris? Zero is gonna get even madder when he finds out........:S Never mind, Val, do what you need to do.

IC: At the Hyraphore

"You can wonder about what awaits you at the end, but you have to move to reach the end."

Driretlan turned to see who replied to him, and it was Zero, who shrugged.

"A saying of my people. Anyway, I suppose it's time we moved out?"

Driretlan nodded. Then, Zero felt light-headed, a sure sign one of his own people is trying to contact him........

"Sir Zero?"
"Wha-what? What is it?"
"This is Lieutenant Ambrose of Atros. I lead the Noble reinforcements that is heading to Assington. Be advised, we are going to be delayed due to unforeseen circumstances, and will be late reaching you, sir."
"Acknowledged. You might want to tell your men to move faster. The situation is only going to get worse."
"I know sir, but we can't help it."
"Very well. Tell your men to make up for lost time when they can."
"Yes sir."

Zero opened his eyes, and saw everyone else staring at him, wondering why he had seemed to fall asleep on his feet. He sighed.

"The Nobles of Atros are going to be delayed, my Lady Skadi. I apologize for this." She nodded.

He turned to Leopold and Kellis, who had followed them without making themselves known, as befitting commandos of the Nobles.

"Let's get ready. The night isn't over."

OOC: Anyone, feel free to RP Zero and his mates follow the rest of the gang to wherever they are needed.

_________________________________________________________________


At the Emerald City Ritz

The water was warm, and steaming.

Aeris had regained strength to do things for herself since her immortal benefactor had left her this night, and although she was missing him already, the wonder of all this wealth has still not left her. She had spent the night exploring the Ritz, waited on by the staff, who seemed to almost fawn upon her every need in the name of Zero.......just how rich is he? she wondered.

Just now though, she had only just gone to sleep when she heard banging on the outside corridor. Disappointed that it was not Zero, she had tried to go back to sleep, but awakened like that, she futilely tossed and turned before getting up for a warm shower instead.

The warm water pelted upon her head, and she ran her fingers through her hair, savoring the water. To imagine, this was only the second time in her life she had enjoyed this.......

The door pounded, and a voice said from outside, "Cleaning men."

Disappointed to be interrupted yet again, she nevertheless stopped, dried herself off, and dressed herself in a bathrobe. She could always go back to the shower later, she mused. Stepping to the door, she took one of Zero's banknotes, remembering that Zero seemed to tip huge amounts like pocket change, and thinking that Zero wouldn't mind if she did that.

She opened the door, gasped at what she saw outside, and screamed........

Stephen watched as Driretlen, Skadi, and Sigrun headed outside. He didn't know what they were going to do, he knew they had to assemble thier forces. Picking up the two Upirs he had taken from Samuel and Piter he looked at the elders. Both of them were unconisous, so Stephen decided to hold onto the Upirs till he could give them back.

He turned and headed down the hallway, deciding to let Hondur gather his vampires, while he would search for the elf Arleni. Heading through the battered building he finally sensed the elf nearby. Stephen walked into a large libary and found Arleni. The elf appeared to be looked at one of the massive bookcases when she sensed him walk in. Her blade still out, she spun, and quickly went into a defensive stance. Stephen didn't flinch, he just smiled.

"Easy there Arleni, I'm one of the good vampires. I don't think there is any reason to keep your sword out, the battle is over and the rightful head of the Hyraphore is back. Get your elves together, we're heading back to Assington to finish this."

As Skadi followed Sigrun and Driretlen outside, she summoned a clear memory of Garrien just before his death, an exact image held within her mind. With the horrific site at the ready, Skadi stretched out with her mind, searching for a certain being, a being she thought should witness this...

Within the Emerald Ritz in Assington, Alexander was suddenly taken by surprise as Skadi's voice filled his head.

"Alexander, you cannot escape me. I will hunt you down and have your heart..."

The grusome scene of Garrien's torture and death played over within the mind of Alexander... twice.

"That should have been you Alexander... that should have been you."

Skadi cut the link and left Alexander in a horrified silence. After following Driretlen's burning ritual, Skadi continued to watch the her ancient counterpart. She didn't like that fact that his retaliation had been minimal, it kept her on edge. After watching him closely for several minutes, Skadi finally spoke.

"Driretlen. I am sorry that Garrien happened to be one of your men, but I could smell Alexander's taint upon him. He made things difficult. I can assure you Alexander will pay for his crimes... he shall pay dearly."

The anger was still within Skadi's voice, even though there was no more debris floating around her. She still didn't have her katana back, that dog had it somewhere...
_____________

Hondur watched as his sire, Sigrun and Driretlen departed to take care of some issues. Stephen disappeared in search of the elves, and so he was left with Zero and the other vampires. Turning to those still present, he began releasing orders.

"Alright, I suggest we all go back to the front gate. Find as many vampires along the way as you can, but any that aren't with us can be summoned easily enough. I'll take this hall behind me, Zero, you can come with me and the others take the hall down to our right. Let's move."

Hondur indicated that Zero should follow him as he moved down the battle worn hallway, stepping over dead enemies whilst also keeping an eye out for any live friends.

"So Zero, what is this pact between our two broods? Skadi has never mentioned it before."
____________

Garm wandered the streets of Emerald City alone. His men were off patrolling whilst he took some time to think things over. He needed some way to be able to take down Skadi without her preventing it. He knew vampires were fast, fast enough to dodge bullets. He could only expect that one of the original vampires of Assington would be fast enough to dodge the bullet and shoot back in a blink.

The lychan activity had died down, Garm didn't like this. It didn't make sense that the dogs all of a sudden just stopped attacking the people of Emerald. Civilians didn't come out on the streets at night anymore, it was too dangerous. This allowed Garm to wander in peace, alone with his contemplation of assassination.

As he crossed the street, a flickering shadow caught his eye. Backing up, he moved down an alley way to see someone quickly move past. Thinking he had come across another vampire, Garm quickly drew his machine pistol and scurried after the figure. Stepping out behind the shadow, Garm spoke.

"You, hands in the air and turn around slowly. You make any moves vampire and I won't hesitate to empty a clip of silver into your filthy head!"

OOC: 5CN, the figure is your character...

Zero didn't change expression at Hondur's question, but inwardly, he smiled. This could be a beginning.......and if he played this well, the Nobles will soon be back in the underworld, back to fulfil their vow of guardianship of their fellows......

"Funny you should ask, Hondur. I've got the idea no one here cares much anymore. Anyway, I'm not surprised Skadi had never mentioned it, for i believe even she has forgotten the pact of the Nobles, old as she is."

He sighed. "It's a long story. And it goes back more than 2000 years, even older than the Lady Skadi herself, probably the reason why she may not know its existence. Nevertheless, I shall tell this story. You shall be the first of many among the Assingtonian Brood to remember the Pact of the Nobles."

"More than 2000 years ago, when the first vampires were probably made, another brood of vampires, which we call the Vulgar Brood, surfaced. This particular brood of vampires are little more than walking, mindless corpses, not unlike the hilarious caricatures called nosferatu you find in vampire movies made a number of decades ago, but they multiplied so rapidly all over the world, they competed with the brood of vampires we now call the Assingtonian Brood for human blood. Take note when i say Assingtonian Brood, I don't neccessarily mean those from Assington: it's just a term we Nobles use to describe the rest of the vampires around the world, like you, the Lady Skadi, and to an extent, Master Driretlan. Worst still, they attacked the Assingtonian Brood vampires as if they were human, and although individually they were weak and disorganized, they outnumbered the Assingtonians ten to one. The Assingtonians, under the stress of both persecution by humans and Vulgars, cried out for help."

"It was at that time one of the Assingtonians went to find an archmage of those times, whose name has since been long forgotten, for help against the Vulgars, who were threatening the lives of his kind. Utilizing an ancient spell, the archmage conferred special powers on that particular vampire, and his blood was changed. He was no longer one Assingtonian out of many, but the Founder of the line of the Nobles. However, with this power came the Pact of the Nobles; for the reason for the existence of the Noble Brood was purely for the defence and guardianship of the Assingtonian Brood, and they should fulfil their destiny. Although the Founder was still a neonate then, his powers, although not exactly surpassing those older than himself, was exactly suited for the defeat of the Vulgar Brood, and by passing on the Noble blood to those of the Assingtonians who wanted it, he created the Noble Brood. With their new-found powers, the Noble Brood helped to beat back, then extinguish, the threat of the Vulgars. Today, the Vulgar Blood is extinct; there is nowhere they can be found any more."

"For a while, the Nobles were welcome amongst those they benefited as heroes in their own right. However, as the memory of those days faded away, the Assingtonians started to be suspicious of the difference of the Nobles. This eventually developed into a form of racism, and the Nobles were helpless in the face of persecution against those they were sworn to protect, leaderless since the Founder committed suicide. 500 years after the Vulgar Crisis and the Pact of the Nobles, a young Noble named Louis rallied the Nobles to his cause, and attacked an island nation by the name of Atros, led by a corrupt Dictator who made his people suffer. The mortals, desperate for a change, helped the Nobles in the Dark Revolution of Atros, overthrowing the Dictator and installing Louis as King. The King Vampire Louis of the Atrosian Empire of the Gothic Underworld of Atros today was the same Louis who led the Revolution, along with many figures of legend, including Louis' sister-in-mortal-life and vampiric childer, who fought by his side, the Shield-Maiden Adelia, who today is the heir apparent to the Throne, the Crown Princess Adelia. Atros, liberated from the Dictator, became a haven for Nobles seeking an end to the persecution, and Louis forbid any other folk of the underworld to enter......including the Assingtonians."

"As the Assingtonian Brood grew, mixed their blood with the blood of other broods to form similar but differentiatable covens like the Hyraphore, and eventually spread all over the world today, the Nobles isolated themselves in the island nation of Atros, and dwindled in number, awaiting the day when they will return to fulfil the vow in times of great need. I am the first of those new-generation Nobles who have returned to the global underworld to fulfil the Pact once more."

Hondur nodded at Zero's lengthy explanation, but then asked, "How did the Nobles die out?"

"They died.......of old age."

Hondur stopped. "That's preposterous. We vampires are immortal. How can we die of old age?"

Zero stopped, and merely smiled without looking at Hondur.

"The same way humans do, figuratively. Do you remember, Master Hondur, when you were mortal, and wished you could live forever?"

Hondur nodded, a bit unsure at what he was driving at.

"When humans wish for immortality, what they really want is to live in the environment they are born and raised into forever. They do not know what it is like to remain changeless, while everything you hold dear eventually gets phased out in the great human cycle of evolution and change, where the old goes and the new comes. They fail to accept that everything they had once held dear is disappearing before their eyes, and as a result, become bitter. Some of them, when they were old and bitter of a life they cannot accept, decide one day to go outside one night, close to dawn.........and they do not return to where they sleep that night. That's how vampires die of old age, Master Hondur. They die with their time. Those who survive to be Elders, and Ancients, these are the truly strong vampires, strong in both mind and body."

Hondur's brow was furrowed. "But can't you Nobles not sire?"

"Alas, no. Not of a failure of our kind, believe me. But because King Louis passed a law in Atros, forbidding siring of any kind. He needed to ensure the mortals that their safety was not threatened by our kind, and it worked, but it also meant our kind were slowly dying out. Still, i am here, so that must count for something."

Zero smiled.

OOC: I'm really busy guys, and I don't feel so good:( But I'll try and post soon. Thanks for your patience.

And KT, I won't be on MSN tonight, but I edited. Thanks:)

Arleni nodded her understanding and followed Stephen out of the library, but not before swiping one of the books off the shelves. She grinned as she thought of the look on Alexander's face, or anyone for that matter, when they realized their error in leaving such a valuable tool within easy access...

************

Sigrun leaned over to help a fallen comrade down on the ground. Placing his hand upon the massive wound upon the elf's neck, a result of a vampire bite, he spoke in Elvish, which roughly translated to:

"Do you wish to live?"

"No. Vampires may be our friends, but I do not wish to be one."

Sigrun nodded his understanding, "Very well then. I release you in peace."

With a quick jerk, he snapped the spine of the Elf, and watched as the Elf died in his hands, the light of life slowly draining away in the recesses of his eyes.

"Farewell, my brother. Your deeds will not be forgotten."

Sigrun stood and held an open palm downward over the body, from which a flame shot forth and ignited the Elf's body and clothing. It wasn't as good as a burial pyre, but it was a practice that was often done in a field of combat.

He watched as the body burned, the horrific stench of burning flesh and cloth filling the air outside the compound. He looked around to see other Elves performing the same rituals on a few other unlucky comrades.

None would ever be forgotten for their willingness to fight the darkness of the Hyraphore.

Sigrun turned to Skadi, noticing that she was engaged in a telepathic link to Alexander. Sigrun smiled, knowing that she would send him something he'd never forget.

"Let's gather our forces and find that son of a bitch. Perhaps then, we might be able to find where the Lycans are from him and force him to lead us to them to retrieve your sword."

Sigrun turned to the Elves that began to gravitate toward him anyway, assembling a short distance away, looking amongst themselves to see who had survived the fighting.

"Get the portals ready."

As Stephen and Arleni walked he stoped and picked up a pair of HK USP match pistols. He looked at them, both were custom made for whatever vampire had owned them last. Stephen held them, and found they fit nicely, he pocketed them and followed Arleni. He looked at the elf.

"So Arleni, did you know Sigrun as Maximus before he was a vampire?"

Arleni thought silently for a while. Years passed backwards in her mind, faces merged with hundreds others. Blood, pain, peace, smiles were only but a few of the things she saw in her mind's eye. Finally, she came to when she was only a young elf, still not a fully-fledged warrior. It was the first time she had heard of Maximus's existence, when he had been only ten years old.

"Yes, I remember him long before he knew of my existence..."

Stephen looked at her. How could she of known of Maximus before he knew of her.

"So, I take it Maximus somehow made a name for himself in the elf community?"

Arleni stopped and look at Stephen carefully.

He asks many questions...

"Actually, there was a prophesy that a warrior of our kinsmen blood would arise out of the shadows and become a powerful force in this world. The prophesy was vague, and did not specify that the warrior would be a vampire. However, we came to realize that Maximus was the one spoken of in the prophesy. However, we never expected him to return after his death to Damien Black..."

Driretlen walked over to Sigrun and Skadi. They looked around, as the large numbers of Elves gathered by their leader.

In the background, Samuel and Piter stirred. They collected their swords from Stephen, and then nodded at their worthy brethren.

The ancient called out to his lieutenants.

"Take the body of Garrien to the South Point Annex. Await for me there and take command of operations."

The two vampires nodded, and the turned back towards the outer hallways.

Driretlen spoke once more in the minds of Skadi and Sigrun.

"No matter what happens, I want to talk with Alexander first."

********

Tiana opened the door and rushed to Tyr's side. Avatre scowled, and bared her teeth a bit as the other woman grabbed her lover's arm.

"Tyr... thank god I found you. I just want to say that the others and I are ready to follow you into battle. I am so glad that I have had this chance to see you again. It has been so long..."

********

The girl screamed, loud and long. Though there was no one else in the hotel, Kirk and Leon winced, and then covered their ears.

Aeris turned and ran back inside the washroom. She quickly locked the door and hid inside of the shower, pulling back the curtain.

With a loud bang, Kirk kicked down the door, splintering it at the edges. Leon rushed in, and flung back the curtain.

"You're coming with us. NOW!"

He clamped a hand over her still yelling mouth, and together with Kirk, brought her back to Alexander.

However, when they got back, they found Alexander pacing wildly.

"Dammit! DAMMIT. She thinks she can scare me, but..."

"We have the girl, sir."

Alexander turned, and looked at the girl. He approached her, and with his right hand, looked at both sides of her face.

"Take her. We're leaving for our last holdout on Main and Terminal. Now."

Together, they strode towards the window, and looked down. Aeris was not prepared for their leap, and she screamed into the hand of Leon.

When they landed, they walked towards a waiting limo. Before they stepped in, Aeris bit Leon's hand, freeing her mouth.

"ZEROOoooo..."

Then, she was stuffed into the backseat, and then the limo was gone.

Shea Lancer froze as he felt the small machine pistol press up against the back of his head. The hell!?! I didn’t even hear him approach… As Shea attempted to organize his thoughts and think of a solution to solve his current predicament, targeted by a gun, random ideas began to pop into his head, some idiotic and downright mad, others clever and realistic. Suddenly, Shea began to laugh, a booming laughter that filled the air, loud in the tranquility of the alley. Before the vampire could ask him why he was laughing, Shea began to talk. “Ah… I think I am a vampire? From your voice, it is evident that you are old… You are deigning to threaten someone who cannot have the remotest chance of hurting you… You are threatening a mere mortal, a human with little ability…” Shea chuckled again, as his tone hardened. “Who are you?”

OOC: Val, you perv, you've stooped so low as to kidnap a half-naked girl, lol. Nah, just joking.

IC: At the Hyraphore

As Zero and Hondur continued along their hall, Zero took out the Heaven Sword, and started poking bodies on the floor with it. This eventually elicited a response, from a fallen vampire of Assington who had not yet died.

"Are you okay, laddie?" he asked the neonate, who weakly turned to look at him......

"I....I don't feel.....so good......"

Zero picked him up, and looked him over. The neonate was badly hurt, but at least he'll recover in time.......

"Be lucky you can feel at all", he told the neonate, then tossed him bodily onto Leopold's arms.

"This one can be saved. Take him to the Lady Skadi." he commanded, and Leopold nodded, then ran off.

Then, Zero suddenly saw nothing but darkness.....his head pounded, and visions of Aeris in danger flashed across his consciousness.....he recovered, to see Hondur staring at him, but before Hondur could ask him what's wrong, Zero extended a hand, and grabbed Hondur by the robe. With a tone of extreme desperation, he croaked out,

"He's got Aeris. Alexander's got Aeris."

Garm was slightly startled. Now that he was close to this figure and had spoken to him, it dawned upon him this was a man, not a vampire. Even so, he thought it suspiscious that a human would be out in the streets at this time, especially with recent lychan and vampire activity. Keeping the gun trained upon Shea, Garm spoke.

"I am commanding officer Garm Striker, of the Assingtonian government. I keep these streets clean. Now state your name and purpose out here before I cleanse my streets of your presence!"

The fact that Shea was laughing was slightly unnerving, something wasn't quite right about it. Nonetheless, Garm stood at the ready for action.
___________

Skadi nodded at Driretlen's statement. She imagined he was almost as furious as she. Alexander was trouble for everyone, including those supposedly on his side.

Skadi moved to Sigrun's side as she called out mentall once again, this time to all remaining vampires of her brood, calling them to her location. Within seconds other vampires began to emerge from various openings throughout the Hyraphore complex, moving towards their leader.

"We should get back to Assington, I do not think this is over quite yet... Alexander is smarter than that. We still have dogs to worry about."
____________

Hondur didn't have a clue who Aeris was but he gathered she must be someone important to Zero. Without stalling any longer, he hauled Zero to his feet and half dragged the older vampire down another hallway and out into the open, gathering elves and vampires filling the courtyard.

Moving toward Skadi and Sigrun, Hondur spoke up.

"Zero is concerned about something Alexander is doing, apparently he has taken someone by the name of Aeris... I'd suggest we get back to Assington quickly."

Aeris continued to struggle inside the limo, screaming incessantly, and beating her fists vainly against the vampires who've abducted her, much to their annoyance. Threats didn't work, so Kirk tried to pacify her, to no avail. Suddenly, she made a dive for the door, and was prevented from dashing herself onto the tarmac by Leon's strong arm. This was more than Alexander could tolerate.

"Jeez! Tie her up already!" he barked.

And so they did, leaving Aeris bound with rope and gagged, the loose bathrobe the only thing preserving her modesty, and barely succeeding at that. She struggled some more, but now her situation was even more hopeless.......all this while, she thought only of her saviour, Zero......would he come to save her once more......?

(OOC: I just HAD to try something like this, lol. Talk about kinky :p)

Shea Lancer paused in his laughter, as he slowly turned, dropping his assault rifle as he faced his opponent. In a quiet voice, Shea identified himself. "My name is Shea Lancer. Formerly a Special Investigator of Supernatural Occurrences for the Five Civilized Nations Interior Ministry. What am I now? I am a renegade, a mercenary for hire..."

Stephen smiled at Arleni as she stared at him. He would have to remember the name Damien Black. He handed Samuel and Piter thier swords back before he spoke.

"I don't anyone expected him to return. Returning from the dead is....."

Stephen stopped talking when he heard the slight commotion Zero had made. He moved closer and heard Hondur mention Aeris, Stephen turned to Zero.

"Zero, who is Aeris?"

Zero looked back at Stephen. Slowly, he calmed down from his hysteria, and stood up.

"Aeris........is a mortal I have taken into my care. She means a lot to me. We must return to Assington quickly.......Alexander has her. I've seen it in an omen."

He looked at the others. "Please, help me. We must return to Assington quickly!"

OOC: Val, i'm thinking of inserting a few motorcycle stunts by Zero in the car chase scene.......what do you think about it?

OOC: totally up for that. Let's make it like a hollywood movie :P I have a general plan for how this all will go, but I want total collaberation.

IC:

Alexander looked out the window as the limosine continued its fast pace down main. In a short period, they would arrive at the corner of Terminal, and he would get a chance to breath, at least for a moment.

But what of Skadi, and Sigrun, and Driretlen. They could all track him mentally. Skadi surely proved that. But how to stop that...

Alexander shuddered, and looked out the window again. On the corner as they stopped for a red light was a druggie, stumbling around in confusion of his high.

He looked down at his shirt pocket, where a syringe laid.

Off to the other side of the limo was Kirk and Leon, who sat on either side of Aeris.

The two young vampires glanced at each other, and then down on Aeris, who laid down awkwardly, letting her bathrobe slip open a bit.

The vampires grinned at each other, and Leon slipped a hand onto Aeris's leg.

Aeris struggled to scream, but the gag in her mouth stopped her. Kirk smiled wider now, and the grabbed the robe and started to yank it off. Aeris started to kick, but the vampires just laughed.

Blamm... Blamm...

Kirk and Leon looked at each other strangely as the loud gun shots rang out. Each saw a single bullet wound to the others foreheads.

Then they dropped dead, slumped on the seat and on Aeris. Aeris started to cry, but silently. Alexander put the gun softly on the seat, and continued to stare at the needle in his hand, which was filled with the serum concocted for the Lychans to stop the vampires from sensing them.

But would it work for him? And where were the Lychans anyways... it had been too long since their last report.

The limo stopped and Alexander, needle in right hand and aeris, still gagged but no longer bound, in his left stepped out of the vehicle. They were in the warehouse district of Assington, hidden away in the rows and rows of old buildings.

Alexander looked at the driver and nodded at the bodies of Kirk and Leon.

"Clean that up, and then come back with the other two limos."

The driver nodded, and Alexander stepped inside of the building.

Back the hell off, bitch. Avatre thought as she glared at Tiana. Or you will get hurt.

She walked over and positioned herself between Tyr and Tiana. She smiled at Tiana. It was a deadly smile.

"We were in the middle of a private conversation here, Tiana. Have a nice night."

Tiana looked up and down at Avatre. She seemed to be sizing her up.

The model licked her lips, giving Avatre the once-over once more.

"My dear, I will leave only when Tyr and I have finished talking..."

Avatre growled. This bitch was done. Absolutely done. With a howl of rage, she pounced on Tiana, throwing her back into the wall. She slid down to the floor and then jumped up, throwing herself on Avatre.

Unfortunately for her, Avatre was ready for this and twisted out of the way, allowing Tiana to crash heavily to the floor. She groaned in pain, then kicked Avatre's legs out from under her. She landed on the floor with a grunt.

The women wrestled on the floor, both trying to find purchase with nails or teeth, neither bothering to change into Lychan form. Finally, Avatre managed to pin Tiana to the floor, face downward.

She grabbed a handful of the model's hair and yanked her head back. She leaned down and hissed,

"I should kill you now, bitch."

Tyr immediately shook himself out of the shock of seeing his lover and the leader of the Palidoe Clan fight. With a growl, he grabbed Avatre's arm and threw her across the room. Avatre landed unhurt, and on her feet - Tyr had not thrown her hard at all.

Tyr growled at both woman, and glared as he helped Tiana up to her feet.

"Tiana, this is not how a leader should act... Please, tell the others to go and gather up their forces. All of them. And then wait for my call."

Tiana nodded, glared at Avatre while baring her canines, and then strode out the door. When she left, Tyr turned on Avatre.

"What the hell is wrong with you, Jen? You seem to be very preoccupied with undermining my authority? I don't like your violent outbursts, and yet, you continue to test me. Why? Why?"

OOC: LOL, a catfight.......between 2 dogs? That's even funnier, ROFL.

Garm arched an eyebrow as he stepped back, gun still trained upon Shea. He could understand why this man was alone on the streets now, he could handle himself and may indeed prove somewhat useful. Lowering his gun, Garm began delving for more information.

"I see. Would you happen to know anything about vampires?"
__________

Skadi nodded at Zero's request to leave immediately for Assington. All their remaining forces were gathered once again and it would soon be daylight. Looking around ther group of gathered vampires and elves, Skadi spoke quietly, yet everyone seemed to hear her.

"Dawn is almost upon us, it would be best if we return to Assington. We all have issues to take care of, especially Zero it seems. It isn't over yet, Alexander is still out there and so are his dogs, we must call upon all the vampires we can find. I'll explain the details at a more appropriate time..."

Skadi nodded towards Sigrun and Arleni, indicating they should open the portals and take them all back to the fields outside the Emerald City.

Shea's eyes hardened in anger as he glared at the vampire threatening him with the gun. In a voice laced with his anger and distaste, Shea began to speak. "Vampires... That hated brethern deserve to die. One of them bastards killed my entire family. For that, that species must pay for the ultimate price as I seek the vendetta that will be fulfilled."

OOC: Erm, 5CN.....? Garm is human :S

Sigrun and Arleni nodded briefly before turning back to their kin. Sigrun barked out the command, and within minutes, the portals were open once again.

Sigrun and Arleni drew their swords. One never knew what waited on the other side.

)~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~(
)Through the portal! (
)~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~(

The night in Assington was dying, but the cover of darkness still reigned. Sigrun was the first to step through, followed by Arleni. Moments later, the first of the Elven warriors and Assingtonian vampires followed thereafter.

Sigrun listened carefully to the air. Nothing was heard beyond the whistling of the wind, and the rustle of the grass.

Arleni climbed upon a rock that seemed to have fallen from some forsaken place and landed randomly in the grasslands.

She would wait until all her kin arrived, before she gave them further instructions.

Sigrun turned his attention back to the portals, waiting for the rest to arrive.

Stephen steped through the portal and was soon back in Assington. He smiled at Sigrun before finding a log to sit on. Taking a deep breath of the cold air, he felt slightly refreshed, now that the air wasn't filled with the smell of blood and gunsmoke. He sat there for a few minutes before standing a streaching a little. He looked out across the plains and stared at Emerald City.

Stephen was happy now this phase of the fight was over. They only now needed to take care of Alexander and his dogs. When that thought came into his mind another thought came in. Where would I make my stand? What place hold the most ambush spots? Where would I be if I was in Alexander's shoes?

Zero merely stepped through the portal, his eyes cold and soulless. As he did so, Driretlan came along with him, and so did Kellis and Leopold. When they had reached the other side, Zero turned to Driretlan.

"Master Driretlan. I suppose you are acquainted with Tyr Fenris?"
"Why, yes, I do remember you saying you had a fight with him. What about him?"
"During our fight, Mister Fenris said something to me. And now, I realise it to be true."
"What did he say to you, Zero?"
"He said, 'everything in life has to be personal', Master Driretlan. He also said that if we go about our business without making it personal, we are wasting our lives." Zero turned away, and his eyes narrowed. "Indeed he was right, Master Driretlan. Because now, it's personal between Alexander Kelsing and me."

Then, Zero suddenly fell to the ground.......

.....a warehouse, vampires everywhere.....felt a scream build up in his throat, but what came out was Aeris' scream......Alexander Kelsing was there, keeping a tight hold on her hands......

"Zero? Zero? Are you all right?"

"Huh, what.....?"

He sat up from the ground. Then, the impact of what he saw hit him, and he stood and turned swiftly to Driretlan.

"I know where Alexander is."

He growled. Then, he picked up a rock, and started squeezing it.

"Alexander Kelsing.......if you hurt my Aeris, I will have a taste of the Hyraphore through your blood....."

The rock disintegrated into powder under Zero's grip.

Am waiting for madame Avatre...

Garm nodded in sympathy at Shea's story. Although he had spent a large portion of his life around vampires that he called friends, the recent activities concerning Hondur had planted a deep suspicion within him. It was true that vampires could be vile beasts that merely slaughtered for fun, playing with their food in a sense.

Holstering his weapon, Garm stepped foward as he kept his gaze upon Shea's eyes.

"In that case... perhaps we can work together. If you want to deal a severe blow to the vampiric race, there is a certain target that needs to be eliminated. Your help would make things far easier, and you would certainly be paid for your efforts..."
__________

Skadi stood silently as she waited for everyone to get through the portals. She still didn't like travelling via use of magic, but she had learned to accept that sometimes it was necessarry if they were to accomplish their goals.

The sun wasn't far from rising, vampires tended to gain a sense of the sun, a natural instinct of when danger approached. Turning to Zero, Skadi placed a tight grip upon his shoulder.

"There isn't enough time now, we'll have to wait until tomorrow night."

Zero did not turn to Skadi, but merely placed his hand on hers to show his understanding.

"I.....understand, my Lady Skadi. I will wait, though it is against every one of my instincts to do so. I only hope my Aeris can survive until then." He paused and cosed his eyes, then Skadi noticed a blood tear flowing down his cheek. "I will never leave her alone like that again. You have my promise on this, dear, sweet, Aeris."

Then Skadi felt a tingling in her hand that was gripping Zero's shoulder, as if from static.

"Keep away, my Lady, you might get hurt", Zero murmured. She nodded, and stepped away.

Then Zero raised his head, his fists gripped tightly, and yelled into the night. His battle energy concentrated again into purple lightning, and it shot out of Zero in a vertical arc, surrounding him in a pillar of death that crackled with electric potency. The beam of vampiric lightning could have been seen from many miles away, disappearing into the cloud cover.

Then it subsided, and Zero relaxed, panting heavily. He opened his eyes, and all could see that his eyes were still crackling from the remnants of his exertion.

"Alexander Kelsing will see that beam of lightning", Zero said. "He will see it, and he will realise it as the Noble's Call Of Vengeance. And he will fear it, for in that pillar of death, lies my bloodlust for his folly."

Before Jen could reply, he was interupted at the door once more. Instead of a polite knock, the person barged in.

"Tiana..."

But it was not Tiana. It was Joseph Herhardd of the Ythera.

"We're ready to move out. The Palidoes are ready."

Tyr glanced at Avatre, and then back at his friend.

"Ready? How did you get the ranks here to B.C.?"

"Well, the Ythera is based out of here, and... its been a long time since any of the other leaders have been comfortable travelling without an escort of at least 1000 fighters."

Avatre interjected.

"So what is the plan from that Palidoe witch?"

Joseph looked at Avatre strangely, but Tyr replied for him.

"We're to head to Assington, and set up a beachhead. Either way, from here on out, I give the orders, and we take any chance we have to eliminate the Assington Vampires."

Avatre looked at Tyr, cocking her head to the side.

"And Alexander..."

Tyr flashed his claws, which glinted with the kantrasteel.

"We eliminate him too. We eliminate them all, and be rid of this."

********

An hour later, the gathered Lychan forces met up on the fields of Stanley Park, the largest park in the province.

Tyr looked at Tiana, Joseph, and Nicholas.

"Alright, I will take each of your escorts along with me to Assington, agreed? And you will go back to your clans and round up the rest?"

Nick and Joseph nodded. Tiana reached out and grabbed Tyr's arm softly.

"Good luck."

"I will be fine, but thank you, Tia."

Avatre glowered, and withdrew Skadi's katana.

"Let's get a move on."

Tiana flashed Avatre a smile.

"Agreed. I will set you down, as perscribed by Tyr, on the grasslands of Assington."

Everyone nodded, and then Tiana and 5 other loosely garbed woman approached.

They raised their hands, and a strange light emitted from their fingertips.

The next thing Tyr, Avatre and the 3000 Lychans knew, they appeared on the grasslands. Nothing was heard beyond the whistling of the wind, and the rustle of the grass.

That, and the sounds of voices not their own a thousand feet away.

The vampires.

Each Lychan immediately threw off their coats and jackets, and pulled out firearms of various sorts and calibre.

Tyr just looked at Avatre and sighed.

"Could this get any worse..."

OOC: Beats the hell out of me what I am trying to do. Just work with it :P

IC: When the Lycans broke up their meeting and headed off, a lone figure in the corner of the restaurant stood up. Then, she stepped out of the shadows, and walked out of the restaurant before her presence could be picked up by the Lycans.

Putting a cloak around herself to make herself even more inconspicuous, she tailed the Lycans to Stanley Park, where for some reason, they had all gathered. She hid within the trees, and as she observed the meeting, she heard from far away that they were going to Assington. Then, she gasped as the Lycans........disappeared in a flash of light.

The figure sighed. As expected, the Lycans were coming in force towards Assington.......this could get nasty. Walking away, she tossed off her cloak, and showed a mane of black hair, with an aquiline, white profile. In her right hand, she held a short sword, with an ornately cut hilt. The most unique thing about the sword though, was that it seemed to have seams cut horizontally across the blade.........

She took flight, back to Assington. Perhaps she could make it before sunrise there.........as she flew, Nikita Iznen touched a hand to her temple.

_______________________________________________________________

In Assington

Zero suddenly buckled, and touched a hand to his temple. But soon enough, he leapt up, and turned to the rest,

"Nikita says the Lycans are coming this way."

OOC: Ok, i don't know if i'm doing this right, so you know what, just OOC me if i screwed anything up.

Sigrun was busy giving commands to troops, when he suddenly paused. His eyes were scanning the grasslands. He had just seen something...

He sniffed the air, and turned his head to the side. Something rustled in the distance. The grass shifted in many places.

Sigrun narrowed his eyes, as he realized why.

The grass moves opposite of the wind...

The sharp ring of his sword unsheathing caught Skadi's and Arleni's attention.

Sigrun began to call out the warning, as he looked over his shoulder. Suddenly, his eyes widened as an entire host of large shapes leapt high out of the grass and toward him.

The glint of razor sharp claws shone in the first rays of dawn...

Sigrun was slammed into the ground by the first to reach him, the entire weight of the Lycan pressing heavily into his body. Lanta flew out of his grasp and slid out of reach. The beast atop him gnashed his slobbering fangs toward his throat. Sigrun reached up with both hands to grip the beast's throat, barely keeping its teeth from purchasing on his Elven flesh. Claws ripped painfully through Sigrun's torso and arms, yet somehow, he still mantained his grip upon the creature's throat...

Skadi spun around immediately as she heard the thud of Sigrun hitting the ground. One of the filthy dogs had landed upon him and was now tearing at the elf's chest. Only concerned with the well being of her companion, Skadi dodged and weaved through the masses of battle ready allies until she reached the scene involving Sigrun.

A quick arc of her leg resulted in a hard leather boot colliding with the attacking lychan, striking it in the side. Skadi watched as the dog was launched off Sigrun and sent on a violent roll through the grass until it came to a thuddering halt when it collided with several more approaching lychans.

Pullling Sigrun to his feet, Skadi quickly looked over his injuries.

"I trust you'll live?"

Skadi glanced over her shoulder as she withdrew Glamdring but paused as something else had caught her attention. The faint glow of the sun was now upon the horizon, it would be up within minutes...

Another curse escaped her mouth as she sheathed the blade once again and indicated to Hondur to start gathering the vampires and head back to the mansion. Skadi hated leaving a fight, but it was necessary if they were to live to fight again.

"I'm afraid we must depart, will you be alright by yourself?"

Skadi began to ascend into the air, acting as a figure for other vampires to follow as she headed back to the mansion within the city.

"Yes...go..."

Sigrun held his hand to his deepest wound, simultaneously reciting a healing spell to cease the bleeding. After a few moments, he observed a strange occurance.

Click to see Sigrun's little boo-boos ;) (http://groups.msn.com/_Secure/0VQAjA1ob6r6gYu1GhYur3AJQIvfbkVRlprjY4bmQPKWbdsC6QrXjEVh0jlgTRNoHafPQMO1W0AhNczmEl54s4GEyMJarcVCAIvG PPUSF96oJLB1K6eVhZBOrXlXthY7J/Sigrun-wounded.JPG?dc=4675493075112035977)

Scars of the claws remained on his skin. They wouldn't heal completely either...

Strange...

Sigrun picked up his sword quickly and spun about, just as another Lycan finally noticed him. He yelled to Arleni:

"Arleni! Enchio marlia a timos!"

Arleni didn't have to relay the command, as Sigrun's voice had been heard by the Elves. They gathered together, in a large mass as the Lycans quickly surrounded the eighty five Elves.

Sigrun growled in defiance toward the nearest elder Lycans he determined that were giving the orders. He called out in a clear voice,

"We will fight to the last! You will taste the bitterness of Elven steel and magic in your bodies this morning!"

The Elves gathered around Sigrun, providing a circling wall with weapons pointed outwards. In the center, Sigrun and Arleni knelt down, facing each other. To the unexperienced eye, it seemed they were conceeding defeat.

Yet it was not so.

The faint whispers of an exotic chant by dual voices could be heard filtering through the Elven barrier. The Elves, encouraged by this, suddenly and simultaneously let out a resounding roar of defiance. They were responded with the beastly cries of thousands of lycans.

A blue-green glow began to issue forth from the center of the mass of Elves. It spread to the edge of the mass and held in place momentarily, before seeming to gather a charging energy. Electricity expanded and pulsated within the orb in conjunction with the changes of color. The guarding elves could be seen adding their own magics to the orb, creating the power increase...

The lycans fell completely silent as they observed this amazing spectacle. Finally, they began to growl and roar in response, the addition of more voices continously adding to the noise.

The orb exploded outwards, a blinding flash of light and electricity that shone brighter than the light of the sun. It engulfed the entire lycan host as well as spread to the entire city of Emerald City. It was an event that was impossible to miss...

Within the city, machines of many kinds suddenly ceased to work. Vehicles died on the roads and computers killed themselves...

After what seemed an eternity later, the massive attack diminished and receeded inwards once again, ending back within the hands of Sigrun and Arleni. Both released their grip on each other as they collapsed into each others arms.

"Are you ok?" Sigrun gasped out toward Arleni. She nodded, "Yes, that took a lot though..."

"I know."

Stephen quickly began blasting both of heavy automatics at the lycans, only to be stopped by the faint glow of the sun. He put them away and joined the rest of his kind as they headed back to the city. The entire group moved at a good pace, and the last vampire was inside as the first rays of the sun sweeped across the sky.

Stephen knew the elves would be alright, though he wished that the night had lasted for an extra hour or two so the vampires could help thier allies. He smiled at Skadi as he headed for him room.

"Sleep well, see you tommorow night."

He got into his room, put his weapons away, put fresh rounds into his pistol magizines, and took a quick shower. Stephen lay down in his bed and fell asleep.

Zero turned at the commotion, and snarled in frustration at the situation. He would dearly have loved to kill some Lycans, if only to assuage his frustration at having to leave Aeris in the hands of Alexander......but even that was denied him by the curse of the sun. Still..........

As he retreated, some of the Lycans bypassed the Elves, and went for the retreating Assingtonians. Zero, along with his teammates, were among the last to make a dash for it, and as they retreated, Zero turned around, started running backwards, and his Dual Elites were out, firing away. The Lycans did not seem to get a single bullet, but at least they drew back, and that was all Zero needed. Nearby, Leopold had drawn out his P-60 submachinegun to add to the covering fire, and so had Kellis with a TMP in each hand. Once the Assingtonians were safely in the air, Zero finally gestured the order to pull out, and the Nobles took off as well, leaving the field of battle to the Elves.

As they flew at top speed, Zero overtook many of the younger ones, and drew up besides Skadi.

"My Lady Skadi, I shall not make it in time to my own hiding place, so would you be so kind as to provide accomodation for my people?"

________________________________________________________________

Meanwhile, over the sea around the island nation of Atros

Nikita was over the country of Atros by this time, but her sense told her that she was too late to make it to Assington before the sun did. Sighing, she dropped back to her homeland, deciding to take cover for the day, and joining Zero the next night.

Garm nodded in sympathy at Shea's story. Although he had spent a large portion of his life around vampires that he called friends, the recent activities concerning Hondur had planted a deep suspicion within him. It was true that vampires could be vile beasts that merely slaughtered for fun, playing with their food in a sense.

Holstering his weapon, Garm stepped foward as he kept his gaze upon Shea's eyes.

"In that case... perhaps we can work together. If you want to deal a severe blow to the vampiric race, there is a certain target that needs to be eliminated. Your help would make things far easier, and you would certainly be paid for your efforts..."
Shea frowned at Garm's offer. But it was clear that a decision had already been made. Shea had always wanted an opportunity to deal the greatest blow possible to the vampiric race and it was clear that this was one opportunity that could not be lost. With a smile, Shea raised his left eyebrow. "Although I am a self-styled mercenary, I do not seek money... I only seek revenge... Who is it that you want me to kill?"

The electricity hit the Lychans like a tidal wiave of bitter energy, tearing at thier skin and singeing their hair.

Many of the three thousand feel to the ground and twitched, legs and limbs unable to respond to mental commands.

Those who were farther away were able to withstand the blow with little consequence.

Others, like Tyr and Avatre, were only a mild tan.

Tyr stalked over the fallen bodies of the his comrades and approached the elves. He lowered his arms, and made no move to pull out a weapon. The elves looked wary, but took their cue from Sigrun, who only looked at Tyr with wonder.

Tyr reverted back to his human form, and nodded his head at Sigrun.

"You their leader?"

"Yes."

"Very powerful magic. You battle with strength and honor. I like that."

Sigrun looked atTyr once more.

"Who are you?"

Tyr was about to name himself when another voice answered for him.

"His name is Tyr Fenris, and he is the leader of the Kantrawulves, the ones who has been the pawns of Alexander."

Everyone turned to see Driretlen standing in the morning sun, replete with staff and cloak.

Sigrun spoke first.

"How do you manage this?"

Driretlen smiled. "I learned a lotof things during my retreat, and I picked up some of things. Learning how to enjoy the sun without the hurt of melanoma was one of them."

********

Alexander put Aeris down and rolled up his sleeve. He squirted out a little bit of the liquid, and put it up to his arm.

"So... my dear, who are you?"

Alexander put in the needle and pushed the plunger. He grimaced and groaned.

"I... I am Aeris, and Zero is going to get you..."

Alexander grimaced again, and then looked at Aeris.

"Zero... Zeroooo... I somehow recognize that name... but why?"

Suddenly, a bright flash of light envelopped the windows far up in the edges of warehouse.

Alexander flexed his arm.

"Well, Aeris, with this serum, they won't be able to track us at all. We'll relax here for a while, and Ill figure out my next step."

Aeris turned away from Alexander, her fear threatening to overwhelm her. She didn't know what to do.......squeezing her eyes shut, a tear dripped down her face. She knew now, from the light starting to fill the sky, that Zero could not come to her this day.......but hopefully Alexander, himself a vampire, won't harm her at the same time. All she could do now was wait......and hope, hope that Zero would come before Alexander did anything to her.......

"Help me, my immortal lover.....", she thought to herself........

Skadi and Hondur now sat within the dark confines of the vampiric mansion. The population of the coven had grown since their visit to Valient and now the house was full of vampiric kind. Both ancients knew there were many more out there in the city, and that they would need them come the time for battle against the lychans.

Skadi had allowed Zero to sleep in the mansion for the day and now the trio sat within one of the many libraries of the building, discussing what must be done.

"We must gather all remaining vampires to our cause. The lychans will come in force, but we are stronger in numbers, all we must do is gather these numbers to our cause. Time is a problem though..."

Hondur nodded agreement before making a suggestion.

"Perhaps we can call out to them through a psychic link. I'm sure the combination of our mental powers could reach every vampire in the city. If not all of them, at least most."

"That is true. We'll find out tomorrow..."

Turning to Zero, Skadi posed a question.

"What aid can we expect from your kind, besides those already here?"
__________

Garm smiled in return. The fact that Shea's motivation wasn't money pleased him. It meant he couldn't be bought with a higher price and he was more likely to be dedicated to the task. He would prove useful indeed.

"I have been assigned the mission of killing the ancient lady of Assington. The vampire Skadi. She is the oldest known vampire in the nation. Obviously this is an extremely difficult task, and if you were to aid me in such, I believe we would have a high chance of succeeding and ridding the nation of a powerful enemy."

Garm gave Shea a little time to consider the offer before he spoke again.

"Do you accept my offer?"

IC: Zero, who seemed to be happily perusing a book in the mansion's library while really paying full attention to the plans Skadi and Hondur were making, didn't reply to Skadi's question for a few moments. Then, he put down his book, and they could see that he was feeling slightly troubled from the look on his face.

"There will be aid, all right, my Lady Skadi, from the Nobles", Zero replied. "They will come. The problem is, when?"

"Even now as I speak, an army of Nobles are headed this way. However, firstly right now they are stranded in a foreign land by the sun, and they are taking shelter in that city, whereever they are. Assington is a long way from Atros, and they would still have to cover quite a distance come the next night.

Secondly, the Noble army number only a hundred strong. I apologize on behalf on the King Vampire Louis of Atros that we could not provide more, but our kind are so scattered, we were lucky to get that many at all.

Thirdly, most of that army is made up of Elders. We had never really gotten that many of the Ancient veterans of the Atrosian Dark Revolution.......one of which was me, but i digress. I believe they should be sufficient for your needs, but then again, they can't quite fly as fast as Ancients can.

So, in conclusion, we are looking at Noble reinforcements only a hundred strong of Elders and a dozen or so Ancients, which is a unit quite powerful in itself, but they could very well be too late. I can ask them to push it, true, but I can offer no guarantees that they will be here once the fighting starts. If we're lucky, they'll come at our hour of greatest need, and I'll say that's a good thing, but you can never be sure."

Zero buried himself in his book again, unwilling to face Skadi.

"I am truly sorry, my Lady Skadi. I've done all I can."

OOC: Val, check your TGs

"I don't think there is a need to be sorry Zero, you've done everything you can."

Stephen walked into the room wearing a black t-shirt, jeans, and just a pair of socks, he didn't bother putting shoes on. Unable to sleep Stephen had decided maybe exploring Hondur's mansion for a while might help him to bed. He had heard a bit of their converstation before walking in. The three other vampries looked at him as he walked in.

Stephen smiled and walked over to a desk and pulled out a map of Emerald City and lay it on a table in front of the others.

"From my point of view, being an ex-soldier; there are some factors that we all must consider. First, He needs a spot that he can easily defend from attack, he'll put up fire cauldrons, ambush sites, and booby traps. The thing I don't like about this fight is the ground is of Alexander's choosing....I don't think he'll come to us.

Second, we must think of the fighting style will be up against. Claws, fangs, and steel, or squad sized fire fights. There could also be a mix of the two. House to house is the worse kind of combat I've been in, so in the end we could always blast whatever buildings they're hiding in with rockets.

Third, we could always try to reason with the lycans. I was able to convince a few on the train to leave. That shows that there are some who don't believe enough in this fight to possibly lose thier lives."

Stephen looked at the other three. He could see each of them thinking over what he said.

"Personally, I think we should go with trying to talk the lycans to turn on Alexander. It's a long shot, but worth a try."

Sigrun nodded appreciatively. It would be good to have Drirethlen with him. It justified what he was about to do.

"Well, on the subject of your lycans being the pawns of Alexander...tell me Tyr, why are you fighting the war of another, a fight you don't even belong in?"

Sigrun nodded respectfully to Avatre, then looked back to Tyr awaiting his response.

Garm smiled in return. The fact that Shea's motivation wasn't money pleased him. It meant he couldn't be bought with a higher price and he was more likely to be dedicated to the task. He would prove useful indeed.

"I have been assigned the mission of killing the ancient lady of Assington. The vampire Skadi. She is the oldest known vampire in the nation. Obviously this is an extremely difficult task, and if you were to aid me in such, I believe we would have a high chance of succeeding and ridding the nation of a powerful enemy."

Garm gave Shea a little time to consider the offer before he spoke again.

"Do you accept my offer?"
Shea's eyebrows rose in derision as he began to laugh once more. In a condescendingly sharp tone, Shea queried Garm. "Are you trying to kill me? Even I am not stupid enough to go after an ancient by myself. If you want someone to do the job, you should call some legends to assist you. The only way that I'm going to do this is if you give me a way to fight Skadi with a decent chance of victory."

(OOC: Just drag Shea somewhere and force him to undergo bio-treatments or something...)

Skadi wasn't too concerned with the Noble situation. She had never depended on them before and she wasn't about to start. Their presence would be appreciated but she could understand the difficulties in covering such a distance.

"I understand Zero. Your kind will be appreciated when they arrive, hopefully it won't be too late then."

The ancient vampire fell silent as Stephen walked through the door and began going over his ideas for the coming battle. Some of which Skadi agreed, others she did not. She waited until he finally finished, then stood up and moved slowly toward him.

"Stephen. You don't know Alexander like I do. He won't attempt to stay fortified within enemy territory, he will march through the streets of Emerald City, killing any vampire that doesn't submit to him. We must meet him before he can do any damage. As for the lychans, I think it would be best if we could presuade them to turn on Alexander, but we shouldn't hesitate to cut the dogs down if need be."

Hondur merely nodded in agreement.
___________

Garm shook his head.

"You will not be alone. I want you to distract the lady Skadi whilst I plant two full clips of silver nitrate fluid bullets within her back. Believe me, she won't be getting up after that. Again I offer you a financial incentive as well."

Tapping his two machine pistols, a sly grin passed over Garm's face.

"Anyway, if you refuse then I'll have to take you in on illegal possession of arms within the city. And I'm sure I can find some other charges to pin you with..."

Zero looked up from his book again.

"So the summation of the situation then, is this."

"We, by which I mean the Assingtonian vampires, and if they come in time, the Nobles, outnumber the Lycans, but we are all scattered, and there's no telling the strength of our ranks on the day of the fight itself. Sigrun and his Elves are still out there somewhere, and I haven't seen Master Driretlan for a while now. They are probably out there still fighting the Lycans, but from what Stephen says, we might have a chance at turning them to our side, albeit temporarily.

As for Alexander Kelsing, what we know is there he's hiding somewhere.......and I know where he is right now", Zero growled, tapping his own head. "However, we can't get to him now, as much as I'll like to tear his skin and drink of his blood, for touching Aeris, who is under my care. His forces are most likely outnumbered against us in Assington as it is, so we have home ground advantage. However, the Lycans are the balancing force in this equation due to their strength in numbers. They have the choice of joining Alexander's cause, or ours, and whichever they choose will tip the balance to one side's benefit.

But then again, Alexander now has Aeris", Zero growled again as he said that, "and there's no telling what he would use to his advantage. Still, my Lady Skadi, if the Lycans do decide to join us, I hardly think even a power-hungry b****** like Alexander would not think twice about meeting us head-on with a disadvantage so decisive........"

He looked at Skadi. "Unless, of course, he's every bit as much of a madman as you have been painting him as, and in this case, you know more about him than I do, so I'm in no position to judge."

Zero made as if to turn back to his book, then suddenly thought better of it, and turned to Hondur.

"By the way, Master Hondur, I've not seen your mortal Garm the whole of last night. Where's he been?"

Stephen listened to Skadi and thought it over.

"Makes a bit more sense than barracading himself somewhere."

Stephen stopped talking and heard out Zero. Leaning back against the wall he thoguth the situation over. What the Noble had said made sense, it was only after Zero had mentioned Garm did Stephen remember the mortal. It lingered on his mind for a minute or two before he began to think of the battle to come. Everything was pretty much layed out, only how to rescue Aeris without Alexander hurting her seemed like the problem. With Alexander holding Aeris, that complicates the situation; God I hate it when the desperate ones take hostages.

He turned to Skadi.

"Skadi, how many vampires do you think we can call to our side?"

Skadi nodded at Zero's summary of the situation.

"That's pretty much it. The lychans will play a deciding role in this battle, but we must not depend on their alleigance. We certainly have superior numbers in this city. Emerald numbers over ten million people. I'm confident enough we could most likely gather sixty thousand vampires to our kind, even though there are more out there. We must be realistic and accept that not every vampire will come just because we ask. But we have a good chance."

Hondur nodded at Skadi's assumption with the numbers.

"Perhaps we can gather a little more, it may vary up or down. I would say that most are willing to fight back lychans and there is no love of foreign covens within Assington."

"As for Kelsing. He may be deranged when it comes to control of our brood, but he is not stupid. He won't harm Aeris because she is too valuable to him as a bargaining tool. Don't worry Zero, we will get her back."

The determination was obvious withing Skadi's voice. She was sick of Alexander intervening in hers and her companion's affairs. The example she made of Garrien was a testament to such.

Hondur turned to Zero at the question regarding Garm.

"To be honest I am not sure. I have not seen him since before we left for Valient. I'm sure he is just occupied with ASHVO business, keeping the streets safe and all."

Zero turned to Hondur again.

"ASHVO, huh? Yes, I think I've done some research on it......", he drooped his head in thought again, and appeared to go back to his book, then he looked back up, and gazed steadily at Hondur.

"We might have a problem here. As far as I remember, ASHVO is meant to keep the peace between vampires and humans. Even though this upcoming war is between the vampires and maybe the dogs......i don't think you can still call it "keeping the peace". I'm thinking we might face some interference from ASHVO, unless you can command them otherwise, of course, Master Hondur. What do you think?"

Garm shook his head.

"You will not be alone. I want you to distract the lady Skadi whilst I plant two full clips of silver nitrate fluid bullets within her back. Believe me, she won't be getting up after that. Again I offer you a financial incentive as well."

Tapping his two machine pistols, a sly grin passed over Garm's face.

"Anyway, if you refuse then I'll have to take you in on illegal possession of arms within the city. And I'm sure I can find some other charges to pin you with..."
Shea grimaced at Garm's plan, shaking his head at idiocy of the plan. With a wry smile, Shea spoke. "Tut, tut, tut... You should not be threatening an agent of a black-ops unit, even a former one..." As he shook again with laughter, Shea continued. "I will consider your plan and will reply to you within one day. For now, I will go." Without another word, Shea quickly pulled a flashbang grenade from his belt and jumped backwards, and pulled the clip, throwing the grenade at Garm's feet, as he covered his eyes. Rolling, Shea managed to avoid the worst effects of flashbang and escaped, running into the alleys...

Stephen's eyes went wide with shock when Skadi estimated about sixty thousand vampires. He gave a low whistle, he knew there was a good number of vampires in Emerald, but he never thought possibly that many vampires. Stephen agreed with Skadi.

"We should also leave Alexander a route of escape."

He caught the hard glare from Skadi at the suggetion. He ignored it.

"He won't kill Aeris as you say Skadi, but if we corner him, with no route of possible escape, he has nothing to lose. If he kills her he is dead, if he releases her he is dead. So, we must find a way to make him release her, without getting into such a situation that could explode in our faces."

Stephen also listened over what Zero had said. It was a very good point, if the ASHVO comes in, what would happen? But, as long as Hondur was able to get some control over the ASHVO's operations, Stephen knew there shouldn't be much of a problem.

Tyr visibly calmed down, and then howled three times in the air. A long, bitter wail, followed by two, curt and short yips.

Several lychans around him looked at him, as if to question his order, but Tyr did not speak anymore. Silently, and with tepid stares across the landscape, the 3000 lychans bounded across towards the city, still in animal form. As they drew closer to the lights of Emerald City, they would fall back into human form, and mingle in with the habitants.

For now, all that was left on the plains now were Tyr, Avatre, Driretlen and the elves.

Tyr looked at Sigrun with a thoughtful gaze.

"Honor... honor... Andrew Carnegie once said that "All honor's wounds are self-inflicted." I suppose that you could say that that is the reason why I am here.

But Sigrun, please, before I continue, what is the stake of the elves in this conflict? If that question must be answered by myself, surely an elf, with no visible links to the Assington vampires must have some reason to why he is risking his life against mine."

********

Alexander turned away from Aeris and went to a small office near the large bay doors of the warehouse. He passed by many vampires, who continued to shine up weapons and tune up lincoln town cars and the odd SUV. It seemed like a NRA convention, except Charleton Heston didnt make a guest appearance.

Inside the room, Alexander looked around, finding a small water cooler, a picture of a countryside setting, a chair and desk ensemble and a computer console.

It would be enough.

With a growl and a half-yell, Alexander whipped out his Upir and slammed it into the water cooler baseball bat style. He sliced the jug neatly in half, letting the water spew over his pants and shoes. Then, he turned to the computer, and kicked it over the side of the desk with a clatter. Trying his hand at a different sport, Alexander kicked the computer football style, sending it into the wall and bashing into pieces.

The vampire screamed once more to let out his anger, and then calmly sheathed his sword. No one came in to see what was the matter.

On the now empty desk, Alexander spread out his papers, which he pulled from his pocket. He spread out the files, and flipped through them.

"Lee Natarin... Alexander Valient, Octavious, Roania... Zero..."

Alexander looked at last file, and then grinned.

Perhaps he would keep the girl alive for a little while longer...

Garm smiled slightly as Shea agreed to his plan. Perhaps things would work out after all. His smile quickly vanished as he watched Shea release the pin from his flashbang and launch the cylinder at his feet. He knew mecernaries were trouble but there was little he could do about it.

Diving back toward a nearby alleyway, Garm pressed up against the brick wall and shut his eyes, back facing the grenade. Seconds later the flash erupted into the dark street, momentarily illuminating everything for a few moments. Once it died away, Garm emerged and rubbed his eyes. They had been partially effected, but he would be fine.

Garm strode back off into the now fairly lit morning, he had things to organise back at ASHVO. The men must be briefed about the traitorous nature of one of their own...
____________

Hondur shrugged Zero's concern away.

"You have no need to be concerned about ASHVO. They have been under my command for hundreds of years. Half of them are vampires from my original coven. They will join our cause immediately. As for the humans, they will be instructed to defend Assington against foreign vampires and lychans."
____________

Skadi nodded once Stephen put forth his idea.

"That is reasonable enough. But we must make sure he does not escape, or he will take Aeris with him and have us chase him all over the world."

"Well then, if you say so, I suppose ASHVO is not worth considering then, Master Hondur."

With that, Zero turned back to his book. In the back of his mind though, the omen he received just kept bothering him. Who would be the "traitor least expected" so warned in his prophesy........?

"Well", he thought, "now I'll just have to listen to the details of what Skadi and Hondur is about to plan, and then decide if anything is worth suggesting.......maybe I'll try to contact the Atrosian reinforcements. We'll see........"

Stephen was now in thinking about what might happen. He knew they would have to hit Alexander hard before he could make his move, and they'd have to hit him in such a way that it would be neary impossible for Alexander to recover. His eyes drifted over the map of Emerald City, looking for places the vampire could be gathering his forces. Stephen also began to remember the tour of the city when he had first come here with Skadi and Sigrun.

There were many places that popped into the young vampire's mind. He remembered some old houses, schools, office buildings, and gyms that were long since abandoned. The warehouse disctrict seemed promising, but Stephen would have to think on it before he spoke. He leaned back against the wall and looked at Hondur.

"Hondur, how many ASHVO agents or operatives...or whatever you call them can show up to help us? And....does the ASHVO own any attack helicopters?"

Sigrun grinned as Tyr asked him the inevitable question. It had taken him long enough to bring forth the question. Tyr looked at him puzzlingly, unsure of what to make of the strange knowledgeable grin that was plastered across the warrior elf's face.

"Why the grin?" he questioned, still very much at a loss for an explanation.

Sigrun glanced at Arleni who also was smiling cryptically.

"Because I am one of them." Sigrun replied, focusing his eyes deeply into Tyr's own. Tyr tilted his head in further confusion, "Wh-what? But--That's impossible! You're not--"

"Not a vampire, I know. I have no fangs, I have no taint of darkness that binds me to the night, I have no thirst for blood, save for what I spill in battle. I am a peculiar one, some may say. In fact, I should not even be here right now."

Sigrun took a moment to let this sink in, before delivering the blow of his words: "Because I am dead. Many know of my death, yet few know of my secret victory."

Tyr was now completely confused at the cryptical speech by Sigrun. Dead, but standing before me...how?

"Allow me to elaborate. I am Sigrun Greenwood, of Lothlorien. Before I died, I was known as Maximus Destroi, a human-vampire that had elven lineage buried in the confines of my DNA. I was sired by Skadi, the one whom leads the vampire covens in this little war of ours. Little by little, I unlocked the power within and was in my prime, when I was struck fatally in battle. Dead in body I remained, but alive in spirit. The Higher Fates deemed that my role was cut prematurely, and arranged to return me to this world. Yet, my old body was gone, destroyed. From the strands of my bloodline, they pieced together a life, a vessel, a body that would become mine."

Tyr finished Sigrun's last few words, "And now you're as you are..."

"Yes." Sigrun replied, while adjusting the elven armor on his body slightly, "That is why I fight, that is why the Elves fight. Although they are not honor-bound to the Assingtonians, they fight because of me."

Arleni spoke then, "We fight because you are the Cala'quessir Beleger, the last King."

Sigrun turned sharply to Arleni, "What did you say?!"

A silence befell the entire group, Elves and Lycans alike as the shock swept over them all.

A king in their midst?!

Hondur nodded at Zero's comment before turning back to Stephen.

"There are a few more vampires I can gather to our cause, but the humans would not abandon ASHVO. We don't have any choppers, we're a relatively small, covert group. Mainly for dealing with internal issues."

At this point Skadi intervened.

"We can consider the details of our plan tomorrow, I suggest we all get some sleep before the battle. The streets of Emerald shall run red once again..."

"Very well then, Lady Skadi. I shall take my leave now", Zero said, then put down his book, stood up, and walked out.

Stephen finally felt the urge to go back to sleep finally come back into his body. He turned to leave shortly after Zero and paused at the door. He turned and smiled at the two ancients.

"Sleep well, see you tomorrow morning....I mean tomorrow night."

Stephen felt slightly embarassed by what he said as he turned and left. He had been a full vampire for just over a year, but still had one or two things to get used to. He walked into his room, undressed, and moved under the covers. He lay there thinking for a few minutes about what the night would bring.

After nearly thirty minutes, Stephen fell asleep.

Hondur and Skadi bothed bid goodnight to Zero and Stephen before making their way to seperate rooms and preparing for sleep. Hondur couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong with their plan whilst Skadi's only concern was her blade. The blade that lychan bitch still had...

OOC: Shortened because my patience is at an end.

IC:

Tyr looked at Sigrun as the Elves bowed in reverence.

"Ok, Sigrun. You seem to know a lot about the vampires. Tell me, how do I get out of my alliance with Alexander?"

Sigrun pointed a finger toward Arleni, "Don't you go anywhere for a while...you've got some answering to do..."

Arleni merely nodded in understanding, "Of course I won't, cousin."

Sigrun turned back to Tyr, pushing the thought of his lineage to the back of his mind.

"You say you're in an alliance with him? How?"

Tyr responded, "A blood alliance, he saved my life long ago."

Sigrun nodded thoughtfully, "I see...well, only you can determine how much shit you'll pull up with before you determine your alliance nullified."

Avatre grunted in agreement. Sigrun looked toward her momentarily.

"Seems like you've been thinking this all along..." he offered, while keeping an eye on Tyr and waiting for his response.

Avatre was ecstatic. She couldn't believe he was really going to do it! What she really wanted to do was throw her arms around his neck and kiss him, but she controlled herself, knowing he would not appreciate it. Instead she waited to see how this whole thing would pan out...

Garm sat within the lower depths of the ASHVO HQ. Assembled before him was all of the Emerald based ASHVO agents. About three hundred men sat in casual gear as they intently listened to Garm's briefing. The vampires were gone, every single one. Those that had not initially left with Hondur had soon heard about his defection and had followed. Garm didn't care, they would all pay for their crimes.

"Alright men. As you may know, there is likely to be extreme violence within the very near future amonst our streets. Large numbers of lychans have already been detected within the city and we all know of our vampiric issues."

Garm was silent for a few moments, waiting for the question. It wasn't long before everyone's suspiscions were confirmed.

"Yes, Hondur is no longer with us. He has abandoned ASHVO and is now associating with criminals. If any of you encounter him, do not engage. He is mine. We have the rest of the day to prepare... I suggest you gather everything necessary. Tonight will be bloody..."

Tyr looked at Sigrun and nodded.

"Yes... I have thought long and hard about my relationship with Alexander, and I have now fully realized that he is far too... overzealous in his goals, and they do not lie with mine. Though I would like to say it to his face, I can at least tell myself that it is over."

Avatre moved forward and clasped Tyr's hand.

"I too would like some words with him, but alas, he has taken flight. Is there any way you can track him with your mental abilities, Elf?"

Sigrun thought for a moment before responding.

"I cannot establish my mental link with him, however, my kind are expert trackers. He will be found. He may hide his mental links, but he cannot hide his smells, his footsteps, his disturbances of the natural equilibrium that exists in everything."

Tyr looked at him questioningly, "Equilibrium?"

Sigrun nodded, "Yes, equilibrium. Everything that occurs causes something else to occur in turn. Each event is led by another, and leads another after itself. Some call this the "Butterfly Effect", in the sense that they say that a butterfly can cause a hurricane halfway around the world. Do you understand?"

Tyr nodded slowly, "I think so. So what you're saying is that whatever Alexander chooses to do from this point on will have consequences and will effect something."

Sigrun smiled, "Exactly. You're not the brainless dogs I once thought you to be. And for that, you are worthy of more respect alone."

Skadi was the first to awake. The sun had just gone down as she awoke, perfect timing. Skadi found she wokke closer to sunset as she got older. One a few occassions, she had even awoken whilst the sun was still up.

Quickly dressing, Skadi departed the mansion and took to the sky. There was something important she must retrieve before the battle begun. The night was eerily quiet, most humans either in doors or rushing for cover as Skadi flew overhead. She guessed the tension had been evident and most knew the streets were not safe currently. Skadi cared not about the lives of these people, but at least they would not be in the way.

Landing easily upon the balcony of her high rise apartment, Skadi forced her way through the locked door and into her bedroom. Ignoring all other items in the room, the ancient vampire went straight to a long mirror. Again the mirror parted, revealing an extensive weapons cache.

Grabbing a few clips of ammo and shoving them into her coat, Skadi looked up to see a sheathed katana, identical to her own. Engraved in silver upon the scabbard was one word.

Uller

Skadi watched the blade for a moment, hesitant to take it. Finally she reached up and took the blade in her hand. Closing the mirror, Skadi quickly departed her apartment and headed for Hondur's mansion once again.
__________

Hondur started awake, immediately able to seen within the dark confines of his room. Immediately he could sense Skadi was not in the house, but that didn't concern him. She knew what she was doing and would turn up when necessary.

Quickly dressing, Hondur nodded ing greeting to a few other vampires as he made his way to an exit. He had a few things to take care of himself. Once outside, Hondur ascended quickly into the sky and lined up his direction. The ASHVO HQ wasn't far from his mansion via flight and so he thought a quick stop off might be appropriate.

Soon enough Hondur landed outside a run down building, the windows and doors boarded over. Walking around the back, Hondur moved inside and navigated towards the bathroom. Stepping inside, the door locked behind him and Hondur followed the standard procedure with the taps and toilet. Finally the faint glow of the elvevator emerged from behind the mirror and invited Hondur inside.

Stepping within, Hondur placed his hand upon the DNA pad. After a few seconds, a voice angrily stated he was not permitted. Wiping his hand clean, Hondur tried again. Again the angry voice. Not understanding why it wouldn't work, Hondur leaped through the closing gap of the mirror door as he remembered what happened after two bad attempts. The hissing of gases could be heard from behind the mirror. It was time to leave...

Stephen woke up not long after Hondur had left the mansion. Getting up he dressed, put on his armpit holsters and sword belt, before putting on his trenchcoat. Stephen walked into the hall down to the armory where many of the vampires were gathering equipment for the upcoming fight. He quickly grabbed several magazines for his Para automatics, put them in a few empty magizine holders on his belt, and put the rest in his pocket.

Stephen suddenly felt a slight pain in his gut as he moved out of the room, it was time for him to feed. He had noticed Skadi and Hondur were not here, so he thought it would be the perfect time to go out for a bit. He stepped outside and quickly jumped onto a building.

The young blonde haired woman was jogging down the street, only a few blocks from her house. An arm shot out of an alley, grabbing her by the neck, she was quickly brought in and slammed into the wall. Stephen quickly sunk his fangs into her exposed neck and fed quickly. In a few short minutes the woman was drained completely of her blood, Stephen quickly sealed the wound and licked his lips clean.

Jumping back on the roof he quickly made his way back to Hondur's mansion.

"Sir......Sir?"
"Wha- ah, crap, who is it?"
"This is Lieutenant Ambrose, of the Noble army heading your way, sir. The sun is down, and we are now heading your way."
"Wait, hold on. You say the sun is down?"
"It is where we are, sir. It should be nightfall in Assington too, sir."
"Crap. I hate oversleeping, even though I needed that. Anyway?"
"We will try to get to the Emerald City as soon as we are able, sir, but we still have a long way to go......."
"Oh please, spare me the details, I've heard it all. Just get your collective asses down here as fast as you can. You be too late, I'm the one going to have to explain to Lady Skadi, and I don't feel like doing that, not with her sadistic ways......"
"Sir?"
"What? Oh, never mind. Just get down here as fast as you can, and the rest of you as well."
"Will do, sir. This is Lieutenant Ambrose, over and out."

"Zero?"
"Ah, crap. Who is it?"
"It's Nikita here, Zero. I'm making my way from Atros."
"Ah yes, right, I know now. If you catch up with the reinforcements, tan their asses for me."
"Aw, Zero, give them a break. By the way, I have lost contact with the wolves."
"Well, we've seen them here already."
"What? Are we too late?"
"Apparently not. Word is that the wolves might join our cause, even."
"Wow. Anyway I'm making my way there as fast as I can."
"Tell me about it, I'm kinda sick of hearing that. See ya round."
"Right. This is Nikita, over and out."

Zero sat up, and sighed. He hated it when the smart ones decided to mental-link him when he was still sleeping........it always gave him a hangover, just like it is doing now. He looked around, then picked himself up and strode over to the window......yes, Ambrose was right, the sun IS down. Damned, the Assingtonians must be up by now, and he's already set them a bad example........the Lady Skadi is going to tan him for that, Zero groaned.

Then, he felt something in his trenchcoat, and instinctively picked it out........it was the rose Aeris had given to him. Staring at it, Zero put the dying rose close to his chest, then threw it aside.

Alexander is going to pay tonight..........

Hours later, just after sunset

Sigrun awoke on the plains, the ground still warm underneath his body. He stood, looked around at the various elves that had also taken the time to rest before the night arrived.

"Arise my friends and let us set the tone of this final conflict!"

All around Sigrun, figures stood, adjusted themselves, and then raised their heads to their leader. Arleni approached Sigrun and smiled in greeting. Sigrun turned to where the Lycans had camped out for the last few hours. They too were arising from the ground, a massive army of brutes awakening.

Sigrun turned to the skies, his eyes surveying the moon. Yes...it would be a full moon for one more night, then the moon would wane away until the next rising of the full moon, as if it were a pheonix, fresh, whole and powerful once again.

"Come. We go to war!" Sigrun cried, immediately recieving a collective cry from both the Elves and the Lycans. It was strange really, the harmonious war-cry of the Elves mixing with the harsh roars of the Lycans, many of whom had begun to transform already.

All turned and faced Emerald City. A city that lay trembling of the war that raged nearby, and soon would be in its streets...

And they ran, a massive wave of green and brown, the shining of weapons and armor glinting in the moonlight.

Alexander's wave of death...

Stephen returned quickly to the mansion and saw everyone was getting their weapons together. He walked down a hall into the armory; he looked around for a few minutes before finding what he wanted. Stephen knew his little idea was silly, but it might prove useful.

Stephen walked into the back of the armory where he found some tools and some other things. Stephen put his tools and what he had grabbed on a table, and sat on a stool. Forty-five minutes later he looked at his work, it was a rush job but it would do for the battle to come.

He had crafted two fang caps made from some light weight steel he found, he put them on and found they fit nicely, they were comfortable, and he could remove them easily. The edges were finely serrated. Stephen remembered seeing Skadi come back from her fight with Avatre, with the lycan’s blood on her fangs. He thought to himself that if he ever got into such close quarters with a lycan that he would have to use his fangs, he might as well add a bit more pain to his bite.

Stephen took them off and wrapped them in some cloth and put it in his trench coat pocket. He knew he might not use them, but he rather have them in case. He was also ready for any remarks from anyone else about it. He thought it was a good idea that was all that mattered to him.

Stephen headed out into the main hall, wondering where Skadi and Hondur had run off to.

Alexander shuffled out of his room in the sparsely decorated Warehouse when the cry came through.

"We've got movement in sector four. Sector four."

Immediately, Alexander got his mind racing.

The Lychans should have returned by now... and they should have contacted him...

That would mean only one thing... they had turned their backs on him So, their blooddebt wasn't as strong as they had made it out to be.

But his relationship with them surved a purpose, as it taught him a lesson he supposed he should have learned after dealing with vampires: Don't trust anyone except yourself.

As the men hurried to shut down the operations stemming from the three large buildings, Alexander grabbed two large men and stopped them from their running around loading packages of ammunition and sums of GP into the trunks of the cars and trucks that were scattered around the Lot.

There were Denalis, Land Cruisers, BMWs and the odd Honda or Toyotas. Alexander himself spied his awaiting Lincoln Limo.

"Looks like we're heading off-shore sooner than we expected, gentleman. I need this operation to be ready to move in ten minutes."

Alexander pointed at the various vehicles and outlined his plan.

"I need this convoy to move tightly towards Emerald International. There, I will have 4 transport jets to move us to the Caladen Isles. I want the SUVs and Trucks to be first in line, to take whatever obstacle we have out. Then the limo and the cars will follow. At all times, I want everyman to carry an AK-47 or something of similar calibre and keep any eye out. I expect that those verdamnt vampires and Lychans will try something."

The two men nodded and headed off to finish their task. Computers and displays, cachets of guns, GP and other not so legal cargo was soon loaded into the vehicles.

Alexander nodded to one other man, who nodded back. There was only one last thing that needed to be brought along. Their "Insurance plan."

********

Moments later, a convoy of 20 vehicles snaked their way out of the Warehouse District of Emerald City. Inside the lone limo, sat Alexander, who faced Aeris.

"My dear, I hope that for your sake, your Zero is a rational man."

Aeris turned a defiant eye toward Alexander.

"He'll find you..."

Alexander looked out the window and nodded.

"I expect he will. Thats why I need him to be rational..."

********

As the hordes of Lychans and Elves flowed toward Assington, Tyr and Avatre could only look at each other. They stood atop the Harrods Shopping Centre in the middle of Uptown, and swayed in time to the wind.

Tyr looked at Avatre.

"You know that she'll want her sword back, right?"

Avatre looked back.

"She'll get it back... eventually..."

With that, the two jumped off the building, and began their own private search for Alexander.

OOC: Uh oh, Val. You put Aeris in the same limo as Alexander? Well.......I hope you're agreeable to having Zero deal quite a bit of damage to Alexander's limo :p. And if you're wondering, I would do it such that the limo would still run :p. Anyway, Val, TG me, we might need to plan something to avoid a coupla misunderstandings.

IC: Zero walked around the mansion, inspecting the Assingtonian warriors on Hondur's behalf, nodding agreeably all the while. These vampires are a lot younger than those usually found in Atros, but that did not mean that their fighting spirit was diminished one bit. Not at all.

He came upon Leopold, who was getting himself ready, and regaling the young Assingtonians with tales of his own exploits in the Atrosian Dark Revolution. Those who were listening sat rapt, drawn deeply into the story of a war veteran.

"Alright, stop it, Leopold, you're taking their minds off the battle", Zero grinned.
"Ah, crap, Zero, it always helps to give the young 'uns a little R&R before they fight, you know that", Leopold grinned back.
"Say, what are you doing?" Zero said, on seeing what Leopold was doing.

Leopold was apparently stripping down his M249 machinegun, and right in front of the eyes of the Assingtonians, they saw that the outer casing of the machine gun was custom-made for........something. What, became apparent when Leopold took out a huge zweihander blade that had no hilt or handle, somehow clipped it onto the gun casing, such that when he set the casing back on the gun, the huge blade stuck out in front of the machine gun barrel right on top of the nozzle, like some kind of oversized bayonet.

In short, Leopold has recreated his very own, custom-made Gunblade, which he showed to the admiring Assingtonians. Shaking his head in exasperation, Zero walked off to continue his inspections. He momentarily wondered where Kellis was.........

Skadi and Hondur landed within minutes of eachother outside the mansion. It was now alive with the sounds of the preparing vampires. The word had been spread to many other vampires throughout the city and it recently been discovered that the lychans were no longer a problem... for the moment.

Skadi noticed the disturbed look upon Hondur's face as he noticed the sheathed blade in her hand, identical to hers. Skadi asked first.

"What's wrong?"

"We may have a little problem regarding ASHVO."

"How so?"

"I don't seem to be able to get in. They've shut me out."

"I see. Well we can't worry about them now. If they do turn up, we shall sort that out when it happens."

"Alright. Hopefully it won't come to that. They can cause a lot of damage."

"I see."

"What about you, did you get your blade back?"

"No, come inside and I'll tell you."

Hondur followed Skadi into the mansion, passing several arming vampires. By now the mansion was full of vampires, estimated at around eight thousand strong in and around the building. A decision had been made to severely cut the forces being drawn in now that the lychans were fighting against Alexander as well. The overwhelming numbers simply weren't needed.

Moving into a quiet room, Skadi closed the doors and laid the blade upon a large oak desk. The gleaming black scabbard reflected moonlight as it sat there, illuminating the raised silver engraving... Uller. Hondur moved forward and touched the word. Ignoring the burn the silver caused, he asked an obvious question.

"Uller? He was one of the originals was he not?"

Skadi nodded.

"He was the one to create this blade, and two others like it. This is his blade, I have held onto it since his death. Over the years I have waited, judging who would be worthy to carry this blade. Hondur, you are worthy."

Skadi's fledgeling was silent for a moment, still taking in what had just been said. He couldn't believe she would give him this blade, especially when her own was missing.

"Skadi... are you sure you want to do this?"

"Of course I am. Be grateful and use it well, or perhaps I'll take it back."

Hondur grabbed the blade at that last remark and held onto it tightly as he removed the scabbard, inspecting the fine diamond edged silver blade. It wasn't a complex design, but it was effective. Still shard and clean as the day it was made, Hondur could only nod in thanks.
__________

Garm put down the phone with a smile. A quick chat with the VP and now his force was four thousand strong, all armed to the teeth. Garm hadn't made contact with the mercenary Shea, but that didn't matter. He could get anyone to fill that position.

It would all come together nicely. Skadi would die, the vampires and lychans would be destroyed and he would be praised as a hero for doing a good job...

As he walked around the mansion, studying the available troops like a good commander should, Zero felt rather than seen the Lady Skadi and her childer Hondur return to the mansion. No matter, they won't need him that quick. he also felt Kellis return to the mansion, and as he turned to her, he noticed that she seemed literally bloated with blood........

"Feeling peckish?", Zero hazarded.

"Shut up. While the both of you were showing off in front of the children, I was out drinking your share, and Leopold's", she replied tartly, holding out a wrist to Zero. He took it, and drank from her to replenish his energies.

Once he was done, Kellis said in a tart tone again, "Now I'm done feeding you like a baby, I have to deal with Leopold. Excuse me, Commander."

With that, she strode off in a huff. Zero looked at her retreating back, and shook his head. He was perfectly fine when his close friends dealt with him in a disrespectful manner, but it did make him wonder whether being immortal does not prevent a female of the species from having what they called 'the huffs' in his time.......or what they called 'PMS' nowadays in this day and age. She probably drank from a woman who was having this 'PMS', Zero decided.

With that, he turned to look for Skadi, meaning to ask her the current situation. It's always best to be up-to-date with the current information.........

Stephen went to the armory, where there were still many vampires getting their gear ready. Stephen was already carrying his two Paras, but decided to get something heavier. He picked up a combat vest, magazine and grenade pouches for his G36K and AG36 grenade launcher attached to it; he was also carrying a MP5K on his back. The only thing that seemed out of place is that he was still wearing his 1796 heavy sword.

As he checked his weapons and ammunition, he laughed thinking what his old comrades in the Rangers would think if they saw him now. Stephen quickly checked the sights on the rifle before slinging it over his shoulder and heading out of armory.

He sensed that Hondur and Skadi were back. Stephen headed off to meet them.

Garm put down the phone with a smile. A quick chat with the VP and now his force was four thousand strong, all armed to the teeth. Garm hadn't made contact with the mercenary Shea, but that didn't matter. He could get anyone to fill that position.

It would all come together nicely. Skadi would die, the vampires and lychans would be destroyed and he would be praised as a hero for doing a good job...
(OOC: I'm back!!! Did everyone miss me?)

Like a wraith, Shea moved swiftly on the roofs of the buildings in Assington. As his eyes flicked over the rooftops, gathering in a slew of information, Shea's mind churned, as he thought about Garm's proposal. Interesante... This idiot wants me to be his scapegoat and help him kill an ancient... I would die, but the world would be rid of another specimen of that hated species... With a heavy sigh, Shea stopped and crouched down, his back to a chimney, as he whipped out his cellphone from his pocket. Unshouldering his assault rifle, Shea swiftly dialed Garm's number that he had found in the government databases that he had hacked. As the phone began to the ring on the other end, Shea closed his eyes and for the first in nearly four weeks, relaxed...

Stephen walked down the hall and sensed Skadi and Hondur nearby. He opened a door to see the two Ancients at a table. They looked at him as he walked in; Stephen quickly noticed Hondur was holding, what appeared to be Skadi's sword. He guessed Skadi must of gotten it back from the Lycan somehow.

"Skadi, I think we are about ready to move out against Alexander. I see you got your sword back...did you have to kill the lycan to get it?"

OOC: Sorry for the wait... *curses all things school related*

IC: Seconds after Garm placed down the hook of his land line phone, the buzzing of his mobile filled the silence. With a fluid movement he dived into a jacket pocket and withdrew the small device.

"Hello... Ah, it's you. Have you made up your mind yet?"
____________

Skadi and Hondur looked up to see Stephen entering the room. The unique fledgling was obviously prepared for battle, as were most other vampires out there. That same tension filled the air that was present during the preperation of the fight against the AVO those hundreds of years ago.

Skadi didn't hesitate to correct Stephen as he mentioned the blade within Hondur's grasp.

"No, this is not my blade. This sword belonged to one of the original ancients. He is responsible for forging my blade, this one and another like it. Unfortunately he has not been alive for a long time. Therefore I have passed it onto Hondur."

Hondur nodded confirmation.

"So Stephen, has there been any word of Mr Able? I have met him before, I always thought him to be the more sensible side ot Hyraphore activities."

Skadi allowed Hondur and Stephen to plunge into conversation whilst she located Sigrun.

"It is time we got going, come to the mansion so we can finalise everything."

At that moment, Zero walked into the dim library.

The said Zero looks around at the leaders of the Assingtonian movements for a moment.

"Well?", he said, with a cock of his eyebrows. "I'm hearing rumors all over the place from the kids. What's the real story here? What about the dogs?"

Stephen nodded as Skadi explained about the blade. He remembered her telling him about the original ancients a few weeks after he had turned, so he knew somewhat about them. Stephen looked at Hondur and shrugged.

"When I meet him in a place called the Bloodmoon Pub...he didn' seem that sensible, he was right with Alexander. But, overall he was a bit more sensible, but....he seemed to of apparently suffered a mental breakdown. Remember the train crash at the Golden Strait Bridge that splashed over the news a few nights back?"

The Ancient nodded, Stephen then answered the question he could tell was brewing in Hondur's mind.

"Well, Mr. Able had hijacked it and sent it flying to God knows where. I chased after him, boarded the train, killed the lycans with him, and ordered him at gunpoint to stop the train. He used his powers the slam the door for the pilot's cabin, I was unable to get it open, so I jumped off.

"He was the one who rammed it into the bridge. In my opinion, no one could of survived the crash and he is very, very dead. The back car slammed forward and went into the next car, those flipped and smashed into the next.....and on and on and on. No one, not even a powerful Ancient like Skadi or yourself, could of survived the crash."

Stephen let it Hondur take it all in.

"So Hondur, the last sensible person that we could talk to and make bargins with to end this conflict...is dead."

Seconds after Garm placed down the hook of his land line phone, the buzzing of his mobile filled the silence. With a fluid movement he dived into a jacket pocket and withdrew the small device.

"Hello... Ah, it's you. Have you made up your mind yet?"

Shea grimaced slightly as he replied. "I have. I have decided to accept..."

Sigrun listened as Skadi's voice repeated the message in his mind. Turning his head to the now greatly increased army that walked behind him and Arleni. The original run had been broken down to a walk to conserve energy for the upcoming conflict that they predicted would come. Although the Lycans turned against Alexander, Alexander still commanded the vampires of the Hyraphore. Those vampires wouldn't be completely naiive about battle either...

"We must meet the rest of our allies at the mansion nearby. All leaders are to follow Arleni and myself to converse our plans of attack and execute them."

Immediately, three of the Lycans stepped forward and introduced themselves, after reverting back to their human forms.

"Kyle Harrison, Ythera pack." spoke a a tall, lanky Caucasian man with glasses and somewhat neatly parted brown hair.

"Kiesha Chante, the Palidoes." seconded a stunning brunette. She did not smile, but kept a grimace on her nearly perfect face; save for a small, nearly invisible scar that crossed the bridge of her nose and went across her eye socket. Her physique was arguably the same that millions of women strived to attain, and few ever did.


"Gavin Jackson, Kingston Core." replied a man with darker complexion, a with African genes mixed with Chinese genes. Strangely, the mixture of race made a nice combination that perfectly fitted his personality.

Sigrun looked at each of the lycans before him nodding respectfully to them. "In case you do not know, I am Sigrun Greenwood, and this one over here," he gestured to Arleni with an open hand, "is Arleni Greenwood, my cousin and most trusted companion."

Sigrun beckoned for all of them to follow him as he resumed the march toward the mansion. The elven and lycan forces followed them in succession, their footbeats sending a dull thunder in every direction. For those that looked at them from the outside, it was a fearsome sight to see such numbers and diversity following a select few.

"We are going to meet the commanders of the Assingtonian vampires, Skadi and Hondur. With them, there will also be a unique vampire known as Stephen, and a recently joined ally of the Noble breed of vampires, Zero. You have my word that they will be respectful, and will expect the same in return."

All three of the Lycans keeping pace with Sigrun voiced their agreements and understanding. Within minutes, the entire masses arrived within the mansion, some forced to remain outdoors because of the numbers already within the mansion. Sigrun walked in just in time to hear Zero asking about the Lycans.

"These dogs as you so put it, are to be treated with respect, for they are now your allies, Zero." Sigrun announced.

Faces everywhere in the mansion turned to view the incoming leaders, the elves and lycans seemingly pouring endlessly into the mansion. New hope rose in the hearts of many as they realized what had been achieved.

"Is that so?", Zero turned around and saw Sigrun, along with 3 individuals who smelled of lycan.......but now, in this case........

"In that case, they have my utmost respect. Welcome to the Lady Skadi's mansion", he said, shaking each of the pack leaders' hands in turn. Then he looked around, before walking off.

"Where are you going?", Sigrun said to Zero's retreating back.

"To find a certain person named Tyr Fenris. I've yet to thank him for that piece of advice which I have since found extremely true. Namely, about always keeping everything personal......."

Skadi and Hondur stood as Sigrun led the lychans into the library. Skadi looked over each one, attempting to assess their persona. Her face had taken on that cold expression that was so common, a face that gave no emotion and seemed to suck the happiness out of the air around her. Done with her examination, Skadi nodded in acknowledgement.

"You are welcome here as long as our alliance is honoured. Let's not hide behind the pretence of friendship. We are not friends and I doubt we ever will be. That does not bother me. We have a mutual goal and that is to take down Alexander of the Hyraphore. No more and no less. I hope you understand..."

Hondur fixed the black scabbard to the his back and replaced his coat, concealing all save for the hilt. Hondur looked slightly more inviting in his dull clothes and coat, his expression may have been indifferent but it lacked the harshness of Skadi's.

"This is my home and I am willing to open these doors to you for our cause. I trust that we can work together efficiently?"
__________

Garm smiled, things would be more interesting with this mercenary.

"Good. We've kept our eye and ears open and it has become evident that something is going to happen... tonight. From what we can gather, we have three parties. Assingtonian vampires, foreign vampires and lychans. We're not sure where these lychans fit in, but be wary of them. Anyway, meet me outside the city VP HQ, we've got to pick up a few more forces. Then we'll make our move..."

Stephen studied the three lycans as they walked in. As the vampire looked them over, he could swear he had seen the female lycan on a cover of a few magizines. Stephen was now breathing easier that the lycans and the Assingtonian vampires had joined forces, depleting Alexander's numbers.

Stephen did a quick check of his weapons, outside of his pistols, his rifle and grenade launcher were unloaded; he would load them later. He looked at his sword, remembering Sigrun and Skadi had put him through a tough crash course in swordwork to improve his skills; it had helped him greatly, and he privately thought Skadi, as an instructor, made the sargents who had trained him look like Boy Scouts. He made sure he had maxed out ammo, and had a few grenades in a pouch for the launcher, before looking up at the group.

Stephen smiled slightly at the Lycans, trying to act friendly towards thier new allies.

Tyr and Avatre ran along the rooftops, tracking the smell of gasoline and burning rubber back from the warehouse district. It seemed that all of the operations had ran in haste, leaving behind the still warm monitors and printing presses. Which meant that they weren't that far away.

Suddenly, the sound of squeeling tires were heard from just over the crossway. With a solid leap, Avatre and Tyr landed on top of the steel mesh, and spied a convoy of vehicles. From the windows, automatic weaponary could be seen.

Without hesitation, the Lychan mingled voices and cried across the cityscape.

WhoooWOOOOOoooo...

********

Alexander, in his stretch limosine, tilted his neck as the wolf cry sounded out across the city. With a straight face, he radioed up to the driver.

"Speed up!"

********

WhoooWOOOOOoooo...

Before any of the vampires could move, half of the Lychan forces marched out the door, answering the call of their leaders.

Keisha turned and looked at Stephen, who she had noticed staring at her.

"Looks like they've picked up the scent. Better hurry..."

With that, they were gone.

Zero was outside the mansion, looking through the army of Elves and Lycans, when suddenly he heard, as all the other Lycans did, a Whhhooooo. The Lycans must have taken it as a signal, for they all began to move out.

Zero muttered to himself, "I'll be damned if that wasn't Tyr."

Then he snapped back to attention, and yelled in a voice everyone inside the mansion and outside it could hear him,

"Well, let's get our asses on!"

Garm stood outside the Emerald City VP HQ, waiting for all the VP officers to load up. His men were all ready for the coming battle and the VP were under his command. It was about time order was reestablished with an iron fist, crushing lychans and vampires alike.

All that remained was the presence of the mercenary, Shea. Disrupting the hustle of weapons and men, the lychan howl echoed throughout the city, sending a chill down the spines of many officers. Garm didn't react. They would all be dead in due time...
_________

Skadi and Hondur stood simultaneously as the howl reached their ears. Now was the time to act before it was too late. Alexander would be found and killed before the night's end. Skadi vowed so to herself. Still lacking her blade, Skadi checked her duel berettas and several throwing knives before opening up to all vampires within the mansion and property.

"Brethren, the time has come. We shall go forth and purge our land of foreign scum. The Hyraphore will burn and I will have Alexander's head! The lychans have realised that whilst we are not their friends, they hate Alexander as much as we do. Do not harm a single one so long as they keep that pact. Go forth and unleash our might..."

Hondur smiled at Skadi's little motivational speech before checking his own weapons. They were all outside now, surrounded by a swarm of fur and pale flesh. Skadi, Hondur and those vampires that could took to the air, heading straight for the source of the howling whilst others jumped or ran as quickly as their abilitiy would allow. Others pursued in vehicles, mostly fledglings as they were not fast enough to keep up on foot.

The swarm had left its nest and a target had been found. The streets of Emerald would run red once again...

As Skadi made her speech, Stephen slapped a fresh magizine into his assault rifle and then put a grenade into the launcher. Jumping onto a building he moved across the rooftops with other vampires and a lot of lycans. He could tell they were reaching thier targets by everyone slowly down slightly, Stephen moved to the edge of a rooftop and nelt down.

He looked to the right and could see the headlights of the convoy coming up the street. As he looked around he could see dozens of vampires and lycans, waiting for Alexander to get closer, and for the attack command. Stephen brought the G36 up and pressed the buttstock into his shoulder. Holding it with his right hand, he used his left and pulled out several magizines and put them on the roof for easy reload.

Stephen looked down the sights of the rifle, he could make out the driver in the first vehicle, Stephen placed the crosshairs over the driver's chest. He flicked the selector switch to two round burst and tracked his target. As the suburban came closer, the vampire could make out details on the driver.

Stephen wrapped his finger around the trigger, ready for Skadi to give the word.

Sigrun immediately sent Arleni to split the elven warriors, taking half for herself. They would direct a two strike attack, which would commence before the rest of their allies would be able to attack.

Immediately casting a cloud about himself, Sigrun watched as the land beneath him rapidly change as he shot toward the moving convoy. Merely moments later, and long before any would arrive, all the Elves had converged upon the convoy. Arleni was already in place with her command, her attention on the last vehicles of the convoy below. She raised her arm and lowered it quickly, commencing a sudden large-scale spell that suddenly broke the streets underneath the cars and sank them several feet into the ground before halting with the vehicles halfway buried. The forward remainder of the convoy continued it's travel through the streets of Emerald City, oblivious to the 'divide and conquer' tactic that was happening...

Not too far from there, Sigrun led his small army out of an alley, They lined the street, providing a double rank of blockade. The convoy would be forced to arrive here within a few minutes, and they would not get past, even if they had to fight to the last elf. Elves around Sigrun began to charge their magical items, summoning spells to the front of their minds. Under normal circumstances, the convoy could have just simply run them down.

But this was not one of those circumstances...

Upon the mobilisation of the vampiric, Lycan, and Elvish armies, Zero wordlessly leapt into the air, and Kellis and Leopold leapt after him. Being of Ancient stock, the Noble trio kept up with the Assingtonian Ancients, and while they slowed down, the trio merely swept past them.

They had no battle plan as yet. Their part of the mission was to rescue Aeris.

As the trio flew amongst the streets of Emerald City, they found the convoy, the latter half trapped in what appears to be the effects of an Elvish spell. Kellis and Leopold looked at Zero questioningly, but Zero merely flew past the stranded half, and went for the half of the convoy that was still moving, for Zero somehow knew that Aeris - as well as Alexander - was there.

Gunshots began to rang out, and flashes of light were seen emitting from the windows of the cars. All aimed at the only part of the attacking force which was visible to them now. And that happened to be the Noble trio, who immediately went into evasive manuveurs a fighter pilot would have been proud to call his own.

"We can't go on like this, Commander!", protested Kellis. "We have to find some way of being less conspicuous until they realize they are outnumbered!"

Zero didn't speak, but his eyes picked out a biker gang, a swarm of Japanese rice burners that happened to be a little close to the action.

Perfect.

Zero swooped down, and Kellis and Leopold followed him, knowing instinctively what we was about to do. With a metallic zwing, Zero pulled out his Dragon Saber...........

"HEY!!!!!"

That was the only sound three unfortunate souls could make, before they found themselves knocked to the ground, their bikes stolen by three black-clad characters who seemed to swoop out of the sky..........

_________________________________________________________________

Meanwhile

Aeris stared quickly around at the first sign of the howls of the Lycans, with the expression of a trapped animal. Quickly she realized what was happening, and before Alexander could stop her, she dived for the side window, and screamed out,

"ZERO!!! HELP!!!"

Garm stood outside the Emerald City VP HQ, waiting for all the VP officers to load up. His men were all ready for the coming battle and the VP were under his command. It was about time order was reestablished with an iron fist, crushing lychans and vampires alike.

All that remained was the presence of the mercenary, Shea. Disrupting the hustle of weapons and men, the lychan howl echoed throughout the city, sending a chill down the spines of many officers. Garm didn't react. They would all be dead in due time...
Shea appeared out of nowhere, armed with his sword and his assault rifle.

(OOC: Sorry about these posts... I'm up to my ears with college applications and essays...)

Garm looked at Shea for a moment before nodding.

"Good, now let's go."

Without another word the pair jumped into an armoured jeep and sped off towards the location of a recently reported mass movement of 'undesirable creatures'. The rest of the VP and ASHVO forces were directly behind them.
_____________

Skadi and Hondur were soon at the battle scene. The elves had already begun to stop the convey in its tracks, causing the initial fire fight to erupt. That didn't particularly bother Skadi, she had something to take care of first. The ring of Hondur drawing his new blade filled the air as he prepared for battle.

"Shall we attack sire?"

"Aye, you give the word. I won't none of them left, save for Alexander. Leave him for last. And make sure no one harms Zero's girl. She's a problem enough as it is, but I don't want the bigger problem that would result from her death."

"Understood. And what of yourself?"

"I must retrieve something that belongs to me..."

Without another word Skadi shot towards the ground, her eyes trained upon a particular figure nearby. Landing heavily upon the rooftop, Skadi stood behind the pair of Avatre and Tyr.

"Lychan, that blade belongs to me..."

Hondur charged towards the fray of violence as he signalled for the Assingtonians to attack the convoy.

As soon as Hondur gave the word to attack, Stephen opened fire on the first vehicle. His first two burst shattered the windshield, sending glass into the eyes of the driver, putting the SUV into eratic turns, Stephen fired his grenade, which flew into the vehicle and exploded. An RPG fired from another roof finished it off.

Stephen continued to fire into the convoy until he had emptied his rifle, he reached behind him and pulled out the MP5 with his left hand and was firing it while reloaded with his right. Just before he was about to bring up the G36 he was hit in the chest by a burst from an AK.

Stephen fell back, he lost grip on the MP5 and it fell to the street below. He lay on the rooftop for several seconds before removing his vest. Son of a bitch. Two of the rounds had smacked into some of his spare magizines, another had punched through a shallow part of the vest and had entered near his left shoulder.

Pulling out the Wolf Knife, he useed it to help dig the bullet out. He smiled as the bullet was finally out of his flesh, Stephen put a bit of cloth on the wound to help control the bleeding while the wound healed.

Putting the vest back on Stephen picked up the assault rifle and again opened fire onto the convoy.

OOC: I am going to assume Alexander is not at the head or tail of the convoy. Heck, I am going to assume a lot of things here.......

IC: The convoy started moving at top speed upon the sounds of gunfire on their ranks, and upon the sight of the three black riders catching up on them. The convoy weaved and turned, mowing down everyone in its path......and the Noble trio followed, opening fire on the tail car, whose occupants fired back.

Having to shoot while compensating for the movements of speeding vehicles isn't an easy task even for vampires, and so it is that after a few turns, the only casualties of the gunfight between the riders and the convoy tail were several on the Hyraphore's side, as well as any innocent victims of a continuous drive-by shooting. Still, they persisted, and eventually the Nobles were rewarded, when one of Leopold's bullets hit the rear car in a wheel, causing it to spin out of control.

"Yoohoo!", was Leopold's first reaction, followed by an "Uh oh."

"JUMP!!!", commanded Zero, and together, the three pulled their bikes up to leap over the wreckage of the car, and continued the chase. Seeing what they managed to achieve, the next car in line at the rear of the convoy opened fire with redoubled effort, causing them to swerve wildly to avoid the hail.

"Argh!", Kellis moaned, clutching a suddenly bleeding shoulder with one hand, and riding with the other. With a yank and a scream, Kellis ripped the bullet out of her wound, and allowed the wound to bleed, unable to dress her wound while going at top speed.

Then some smart guy in the rear car tossed a grenade out the back.

"Watch out!", Kellis shouted, and she and Leopold swerved away, but Zero instead sped up, and pulled up on the handlebars......

The grenade exploded, and Kellis and Leopold watched in horror at the sight of Zero's bike being lifted clear out into the air by the explosion. But the horror soon turned to the Hyraphore rear car occupant's side, as they spied a thin blade extend from the airborne bike, swinging wildly, and the bike dropping towards them........

He couldn't explain how he managed such a feat afterwards, but Zero landed on his wheels alongside the rear car, and plunged the Heaven Sword deep into the boot of the car, before decelerating swiftly to avoid a point blank shot.

"Damned!", was the thought of the Hyraphore vampire who had tried to point-blank Zero, but his eyes turned to the Heaven Sword, buried deep into the side of the car. It was charged up with purplish electricity, which sparkled up and down the blade. As it suddenly started shaking and glowing purple, the hapless fledgling's eyes widened........

From the viewpoint of the Noble trio, the car in front of them suddenly blew up in a humongous explosion. They didn't even have to leap this time, as the wreckage of the car was lifted clear over their heads, leaving a trail of debris. Zero stretched his hand up, and caught the flying Heaven Sword out of the air, which he promptly sheathed.

The trio accelerated, intend to destroy the convoy car by car until they came to Alexander. Now for the next car.......

Tyr looked at Skadi, and then at Avatre. His love only nodded, and so he nodded back.

"Be careful, love..."

"I will..."

With that, Tyr ran off, eager to join in the hunt, leaving Avatre alone once more with Skadi.

The Lychan looked at the Vampire, and then at the sword.

"Skadi... Lady Skadi... tell me... why are you here?"

"You knwo what I am here for..."

"No... not really. Yes, I know you want your sword, but... I am curious. WHy are you here? WHy do you exsist? Why do you fight those such as I? Why do you hate so much..."

********

Alexander cursed as he heard the explosions rock the convoy. It wasn't going as planned.

Then again, he knew the importance of being flexible.

Alexander grabbed the intercom and radioed all of the cars in the convoy.

"Use grenades and rockets!"

Alexander then opened up the sunroof and climbed outside. He nodded to a vampire also in the limo and pointed to Aeris, making sure that she would not escape.

With that, he jumped out with his own RPG launcher and his Kantrasteel sword. All around him, he could see cars of passerbys gawk in abject horror at teh scene out of Hollywood.

The Assington Vampires and Lychans continued their assault on the convoy, but were being mowed down in great numbers as the grenades and rockets tore the unlucky ones to bits. Still, the continued to race alongside the cars and trucks, unheeding of the danger.

Alexander smiled as one Lychan leaped onto the car in front of him. It jumped towards him, but was stopped by a choke hold by the vampire.

"Pathetic..."

snap...

Finally, Alexander made his way onto the last car of the convoy. Even though it was speeding in and out of traffic, trying to escape Zero and Co, Alexander had no trouble staying on.

He stood on the car and smiled mockingly. Zero wondered what was happening, when he suddenly realized that someone was missing.

He turned around, and spied Kellis tumbling down behind the duo. Zero grimaced and turned back to face Alexander. Must have been his psychic blast.

The showdown had started...

Skadi stood completely still, no weapons in her hand. She didn't want to fight Avatre if she didn't have to, but getting her blade back was always top priority. Stepping forward, Skadi began to answer Avatre's question in her usual cold tone.

"I exist because of a series of events almost two thousand years ago involving a demon and mages. Perhaps hard to believe, but such things do exist. Vampire or not, this is still my homeland and I do not like it being run over by foreigners with no goal but to upset the balance that has been installed. Do not think that your kind is a specific target of my disapproval. I do not hunt lychans, you have merely been caught up in a battle that is not your own. I have my reasons for hate and right now it is directed toward Alexander. Now if you could give me my sword, we can go and run him through..."

The ancient vampire waited for Avatre to make a choice, even though Skadi would get her blade back one way or the other.
___________

Hondur floated high above the tail end of the convoy, blade in one hand, deagle in the other. He was too high up for the convoy to shoot at him and obviously for him to shoot back, but at least he was above them without their knowledge.

Plunging toward moving vehicles, Hondur smiled as Zero and his companions took care of a few cars, making things slightly easier. Someone had noticed him now and the whizz of bullets had promptly become the only noise concerning him. Arm raised, Hondur squeezed the trigger several times, unleashing those rounds into the top of a car. One vampire standing through the roof went down as a bullet took out his knee, giving Hondur his window of oppurtunity.

Covering the remaining distance, those within the car were alerted of Hondur's presence by the loud thump and indent upon their car roof. Another stupid vamp stuck his head out the roof and was met by Uller's blade plunging into his eye and through the brain. The silver began burning flesh immediately, cooking the now dead vampire.

Moving forward, Hondur plunged his blade downward, where he thought the driver would be located. His efforts were met with a scream of surprise as the blade had glanced into the vampire's neck/shoulder region, causing blood to flow freely. The car began to swerve uncontrollably and before he could do anything, Hondur was thrown off the vehicle as it plunged off the road and into a large stone building.

Picking himself up, Hondur sheathed the blade and withdrew two deagles. He watched as Zero passed him and soon witnessed Alexander take down Kelis. Rushing toward her fallen bike, Hondur helped get it off her.

"Are you alright?"
_______________

Reports had confirmed there was indeed a significant fire fight. By the sounds of it all parties were involved and anyone caught in the middle was slaughtered. Garm merely informed the group of government vehicles to speed up, they didn't want to miss all the action.

Within the next few minutes they would arrive, then the true battle would begin.

Kellis moaned for a bit after being thrown off her bike, but then she jumped up, her wounds already healing swiftly. She took the chance to dress her wound at her shoulder, then turned to Hondur.

"Thank you, Master Hondur, I am alright, although now I have issues with Alexander now", she growled, picking at her tattered trenchcoat. "This coat was new!!!"

Picking up her bike, she glanced back at Hondur.

"Care for a ride?"

________________________________________________________________

Meanwhile

Zero noticed the danger of Alexander being at the last car, but took a calculated risk, and signing Leopold to take a shortcut, he revved up while Leopold disappeared down a side street. Alexander stared at him, but Zero built his psychic energy shield in front of his bike, just in time to take Alexander's second psychic blast. Swearing, Alexander aimed the RPG at Zero's weaving form, waited for the lock-on, and fired.

At the sight of a flash of light emitting from the bulbous tube, Zero leapt up from his bike, planted his feet firmly on the seat, and leapt clear of the bike just as it was hit by the explosive. The explosion hurled Zero clear out into the air, and he drew out the Treasure Blades in midair.

He fell towards the rear car Alexander was standing on, and Alexander swung his Kantrasteel blade at the falling form of Zero. With great agility, Zero parried with the Dragon Saber, then fell further before plunging the Heaven Sword into the boot of the car to create a handhold. Landing on the tarmac on his feet, sparks flew from Zero's boots as he held on to the embedded Sword, and with a swing of the Saber, Zero knocked Alexander's RPG into the sunroof of the car, then another swing forced Alexander to retreat to the bonnet, just enough time for Zero to put the Saber on the boot, pull out his Uzi and fire into the car, killing everyone in the car except the driver. That done, he leapt up onto the boot of the car, picked up the Saber, pulled out the Sword from the boot, and turned to meet Alexander with the two Treasure Blades in hand.

Amidst the noises of the chase, Zero yelled out at Alexander, "You know what I'm here for! Where is she!?"

Stephen kept firing upon the convoy, only able to fire one or two burst before having to duck down from automatic gunfire and rockets. Stephen stood and fired another grenade and ducked back down. A vampire holding an AK47 was about to get down, the grenade hit him, blowing him to bits.

Stephen got down and began to put another grenade into the launcher when he thought he heard more engines off in the distance. Rolling onto his stomach, he crawled across the roof till he was out of direct fire. Stephen stood and listened, there were more engines, it sounded like another convoy.

Stephen darted across several more roofs, crouched and made his way to the edge. Shit. Stephen saw the VP and ASHVO forces moving towards the firefight. The humans were definalty packing serious hardware. Stephen quickly sent a message to Hondur.

"Hondur, this is Stephen. Your friend Garm has gathered up every ASHVO and VP officer he could find and is moving towards the firefight in armored vehciles. They are definatly coming to kick some ass, want me to set up a roadblock or something to slow them down?"

Reports had confirmed there was indeed a significant fire fight. By the sounds of it all parties were involved and anyone caught in the middle was slaughtered. Garm merely informed the group of government vehicles to speed up, they didn't want to miss all the action.

Within the next few minutes they would arrive, then the true battle would begin.
Shea Lancer closed his eyes and napped quietly, cradling his assault rifle in his arms, as he sat jostling inside the armored personnel vehicle as it travelled through the street...

Hondur declined with a wave of his hand as he floated into the air once again.

"No thanks, I'm not much of a bike person..."

With that he gained speed and altitude once again, heading directly for the end car where Zero and Alexander were engaged. Shortly after his take off, Stephen's voice emerged.

"So I noticed. I'll take care of it. You leave them be and concentrate on more important matters."
_________________

The first report of visual contact with what was now identified as a foreign vampire convoy had come in. Garm didn't know what was going on but the facts remained. There were lychans and vampires tearing the streets apart in a bloody fued. He would put a stop to it. Although outnumbered, Garm's forces were obviously the most heavily armed and armoured, giving them a significant advantage. Nearing the battle, Garm opened a channel to all his men.

"Alright, here's the deal. Take out lychans and any of those foreign vamps. You've all been brief on those highly ranked within our own vamps and I don't want anyone touching them. Obviously some Assingtonians may take some flak as well, but don't target them."

At that moment, Garm's head was filled with his ex companion's voice.

"Garm, good to see you again. We've got some things to talk about, but first there is the issue at hand. It's a long story but..."

Garm interrupted the mental conversation.

"Don't worry, I've got things under control. We can talk once this is all over."

"Good. I'll see you during the aftermarth."

The VP transports pulled up and men began pouring out of the vehicles, unleashing heavy fire into the crowds of lychans and vampires. Other men remained within vehicles and manned several mounted machine guns and RPGs. Those vehicles began the direct pursuit of the foreign convoy.

"Shea, we shall not commence our plan until the aftermarth. Until then feel free to fight or rest. Understood?"

Stephen nodded after what Hondur told him and darted back across the roofs to the fighting. Moving slightly ahead of the convoy he jumped on the ground and took cover behind a building. Stephen quickly appeared, aimed his grenade launcher at an approaching vehicle covered with lycans...

The sound of a pair of heavy machine guns filled the air as the lycans were swept from the vehicle and a RPG round smashed into it. Stephen stood there slightly stunned before he sensed movement behind him. Jumping up to the roof, he just barely escaped being killed by some VP that were coming up behind him.

He carefully leaned over the edge, the humans had either not see him jump, or were too busy blasting at the lycans and Alexander's forces. One officer looked up, spotted Stephen, pulled out and threw a grenade up to the roof. Stephen had ducked back and his eyes bulged at the sight of the grenade. He grabbed it and tossed it to the road where the fighting was going on, where it exploded.

Moving to the edge of the roof again, Stephen aimed his grenade launcher at a swerving SUV that was moving towards him. It smashed into a streetlight before he could even fire, the door swung open and he saw a vampire trying to get out. Stephen fired two quick bursts, bring him down; the other vampires in the SUV were killed by lycans or by the VP.

Stephen was about to bring his rifle to bear on the next approaching vehicle when he saw Alexander and Zero on the back of it. He only saw them briefly before it tore past him. What the hell?

Sigrun and the Elves watched as the vampires took matters into their own hands and smiled as he saw that they were getting the upper hand. He surveyed the chaos that had unleashed itself in the street below.

He decided the best thing the Elves could do for now, would be to stay high above the battle, and fire down on the Hyraphorian vampires.

And they did just that. Expert archers drew their bows and notched them with their arrows, taking careful aim and firing down into the masses. It was like the falling rain, only it injured, and in some cases, even killed. But death was difficult to attain with only arrows. However, these were silver arrows, specially created for such a purpose...

OOC: This will be my last post in AV3 before I go to Korea and hand over rein of my characters to Tarl for ten days. Hopefully AV3 would not have ended by then.

IC: As Leopold raced through a series of alleyways, he suddenly got targeted by a bunch of humans wearing ASHVO uniforms as he turned a corner.

"What the f***?", Leopold thought. But there was no time for thought, as Leopold pulled out his GunBlade, and fired off a few salvos in return, before slashing through the rest of the small squad.

Ducking into another alleyway to avoid anymore ASHVO, he pondered whether to alert Zero, but decided it's a matter for Hondur. And so, while on his bike, he tried to contact Hondur.........

OOC: Perhaps I haven't made this clear... ASHVO/VP forces are only attacking Valient's convoy and lychans. They are not targetting Assingtonian vamps, elves or the nobles. Garm is still considered a friend as far as Hondur is concerned since none of them know of his ill intentions, they shall not be attacking them.

OOC: Ok, Gothic Underworld has given me permission to RP Zero and the Nobles for the next ten days, so I will start by having everyone ignoring his last post on here, in accordance to what Ass has said about the VP. Also, I myself have edited my post to address the problem as well.

The arrows fell, like the ash of Vesuvius, like the crumbling towers of Rome.

Like many Lychans and Vampires, who were unlucky to be caught in the hail of Elven arrows unleashed from the rooftop.

With shock and more than a little surprise, the Lychan forces moved off and away from the convoy. For their part, the Hyraphore vampires rolled up the windows and continued to roll down the freeway, arrows bouncing off of the cool steel rooves of the remaining cars and trucks.

Though some Lychans were bloodlusting, they soon realized that it was folly to enter the swath of arrows. One was impaled through the eye, and fell, twitching and screaming to his death, before reverting back to human form.

Only two figures were readily willing to stay in the rain, one a megalomaniac, one the would-be hero ready to try and take him down.

Alexander raised his personal field enough so that it covered both him and Zero. For his part, so did the nobleman for his opponent.

Alexander held his Upir and gestured towards Zero.

"You know what I'm here for! Where is she!?", repeated Alexander, in a mocking tone that dripped with sarcasm. "Do you realize how cliche that sounds?"

Alexander lunged forward and sword met swords with a clang. The driver of the tattered vehicle managed to keep the car driving fairly straight.

"Does it make you feel big to say something like that, Noble?" continued Alexander, his face inches from Zero's. "I don't know how you learned to talk, but I learned to let my actions speak for me."

Alexander suddenly pulled a small dagger from his sleeve and quickly slid it into Zero's side. With a gasp, Zero felt the blade cut deep.

"I didn't want to have to do it, Zero, but the girl has become quite a nuisance..."

Zero's eyes suddenly flashed. "NO!!!"

With a kick, Zero shoved Alexander back to the edge of the car, falling onto his back. In an instant, Zero was on top of Alexander, trying to force him from the car.

"Don't you understand, Alexander? You've lost. It's over, and you're DEAD!"

Zero looked down at Alexander, and then realized that the vampire was no longer looking at him, but rather at a van moving swiftly into position alongside the battered car.

A sliding door opened, and a simple Rocket Launcher poked its head out of the opening. It was aimed at Alexander and Zero.

"Dead..." whispered Alexander. "Not yet..."

With a burst of energy, Alexander grabbed Zero and threw him over his head, into the van with the rocket launcher.

Just as that happened, the rocket fired...

********

"Now if you could give me my sword, we can go and run him through..."

Avatre looked at Skadi, and then at the sword. The sword that had nearly killed her.

With one smooth motion, Avatre threw the blade up in the air. Skadi did not move, only staring at her Lychan counterpart.

"You may exist because of a series of events involving a demon and mages, but I was created by a lonely wolf, hunted until his death.

"Think about it."

The diamond-tipped Katana landed squarely between Skadi's feet. Avatre then turned and leapt off of the rooftop, leaving Skadi alone with her sword and her thoughts.

Skadi wasn't concerned with whatever mind game Avatre was attempting to play. She knew very well what it was like to be hunted, better than most. It was only through her determination to stop being a victim that Skadi had fully embraced her abilities and the willingness to use them. Drawing her blade from the roof, Skadi smiled. Reunited at last...

The ancient vampire took one last glance at Avatre as she disappeared into the night before taking to the air, she had to find Alexander and introduce her blade to his heart.
___________

Hondur smiled when he noticed Skadi pull up next to him, the pair both flying towards the speeding convoy of Alexander's. Each vampire held an identical blade and an equal determination to see Alexander dead.

"It's time to finish this. You take care of anyone that gets in our way, I'm going straight for Alexander."

Hondur nodded at his sire's instructions, happy to do his part in the death of their long time enemy.
__________

Garm now sat behind the scope of a mounted RPG on the top of the head car. Shea remained inside for the moment but that didn't bother Garm, the mercenary was only here for one reason.

Gaining speed, Garm finally reached a point of range where he could deliver a significant blow to the foreign convoy. Taking careful aim, ignoring the bullets bouncing off the armoured plating around him, Garm unleashed his first grenade. Directly towards a van driving alongside the last car of the foreign convoy...

Stephen began to relax, the humans were coming in and mopping up whatever was left of the convoy. Something kept telling him in his mind there was one more thing to do before the VP and ASHVO wiped out whatever was left of Alexander's man.

AERIS!

Stephen quickly dropped the assault rifle and took off his combat vest. Running like hell he began to move up the convoy, looking for the vehicle that was taking the most fire and surviving. He spotted a VP armored car move in, strafe the convoy, before backing off to avoid any rockets the Hyraphore would release. The the bullets had simply bounced off the limo.

Stephen moved ahead of the convoy. He watched as the limo came closer. Stephen took off his sword and placed it on the ground. He thought about jumping, but quickly tossed the idea out. Instead he pulled out one of his automatics, he aimed it and used his free arm as a rest for the barrel.

Stephen would have to make the next few shots count to blow out the tires.

Alexander jumped up and immediately turned to face the van, which now had fired a rocket upon him.

Alexander smirked. With a simple wave of his hand, Alexander deflected the rocket back towards the van.

A pity that it missed. As he turned to head back towards the limo, he spied A vampire taking aim at his ride with what appeared to be a sidearm.

Stephen. The fledgeling.

With a leap, Alexander jumped to the roof of the limo, and drew out his own 9mm, loaded with Kantrasteel bullets.

He locked eyes with Stephen, and heard a distinct message from Stephen.

"This is for Daniel..."

Stephen fired into the front wheel of the limo, only to find that it reflated and continued to roll.

Alexander replied in his own fashion: with a stream of bullets which sent the vampire diving for cover.

"Haven't you ever heard of run flats, Stephen?"

Suddenly, Alexander felt another voice enter his head.

"Sir, there is a roadblock on Exit 44 500 metres ahead."

Alexander craned his head and spied a menagerie of cars, vans and large SUVs stationed on the off ramp. There were many outside with guns and other larger weapons at the ready.

"Can we break through that?"

"No sir. We're down to about 10 cars, and we're heavily damaged."

"..."

"Sir?"

"...take us downtown."

"But sir, there's no way to get to Emerald Airport from downtown."

"... do it."

"Sir."

With that, Alexander stood on top of the limo and watched as the remains of the convoy drove swiftly past Exit 44. The figures behind the wall of cars began to fire, but they were too far away.

What a pity, Alexander thought.

Stephen ducked as Alexander fired on him. He waited till the older vampire had finished his magazine before standing. Stephen looked and took off after the convoy, not bothering to pick up his sword. He ran after the convoy, but knew he need more direct action to slow down Alexander. He wasn't going to try and kill him; he would let Skadi kill the bastard.

Stephen decided to take a risky gamble. He jumped off the roof, at the convoy. He began to fear his timing was off when he hit the back bumper of the SUV. Stephen grasped onto the trunk door and looked at the ground speeding below him. The SUV had tilted backwards when he had landed and the vampire in the passenger seat, holding a Markov PMM went back to investigate.

The vampire crawled across the roof and looked over the back end of the SUV. He was greeted by Stephen suddenly grabbing him and tearing into his neck with his fangs. Stephen ripped out a large hunk of meat, and tore open the vampire's artery. He threw the body behind him, where the other vampire landed with a dull thud on the pavement.

Stephen wasted no time in grasping on the side of the SUV and quickly entered via the open passenger door. The driver had no time to react before Stephen fired one of his .45s, blowing away the driver's head. He knocked the corspe out and took control of the vehcile.

He looked behind him and spotted several more vampires in the back, but they were too injured to do anything to him. Stephen focused his attention ahead of him. He mashed on the accelerator, sending the SUV barreling forward.

He moved to the side of the convoy and quickly began to pick up speed. He quickly began to close the distance between himself and the limo. Stephen saw Alexander on the roof of the limo. A thin smile crossed his lips as he pushed the SUV harder, getting every RPM he could out of the machine.

Stephen opened the window of the SUV and leaned slightly out. In his left hand was one of his Paras.

Stephen took careful aim and once again opened fire.

OOC: Nice to see you're still alive Val...

IC: Garm watched as the foreign convoy took the next exit towards down town emerald. The road block he had organised had obviously worked, but now he needed to cut them off. Whilst the vampires couldn't get to the airport now, there was nothing stopping them from driving straing out of the city.

Getting back into the armoured vehicle, Garm grabbed the radio unit.

"This is agent Garm. I want heavily armed road blocks on all exits to Emerald City. I don't care if you have to hold up traffic, I have presidential authorisation to do anything that is required. Get it done!"

The VP convoy continued to accelerate, gain on the foreigners and slowly picking off more cars.
__________

Skadi and Hondur were now over the top of the last SUV in the convoy. They had little to do there as Stephen had taken care of the occupants and commandeered the vehicle.

Following the exit, the pair of ancients continued until they were above the next vehicle. Skadi lowered herself and begain plunging her blade deep into the roof, the desired result was signified by scream of agony. Hondur withdrew his twin desert eagles and unleashed several rounds into the driver's seat.

Seconds later the car spiralled off to the left and collided with a concrete barrier. The pair moved onto the next car. Alexander was now in sight...

The van did not seem to exhibit any signs of activity for a bit. Then, a moment later, people came flying out the doors, accompanied by Zero's declarations of, "I'll drive."

Then the van began to lurch violently, and pulls out from where it was sitting. Soon enough, the van turns in the direction of the convoy, and sped off. Zero is still in the game.......

Stephen began to catch up to the next vehicle in line, he urged his SUV harder, trying to pull up close to the next in line. As he got closer he felt a arm go around his neck and he spotted a dagger move for his eye. One of the vampires who had lay wounded in the back had recovered enough to move, and attempt to regain control of the SUV.

Stephen let go of the wheel, but kept the accelerator glued to the floor. He grabbed the vampire's knife arm and tried to pry the other arm off him. The SUV went wild, it smashed into a mail box, breaking it open and sending hundreds of letters into the air.

Stephen managed to get the other vampre's arm off his neck and was now wrestling with him in the front. The other obiviously was not falling for Stephen's original 'weak fledgeling' trick. He put all his engry in trying to thrust his dagger into Stephen's exposed throat.

One of the vampires in the SUV in front of Stephen looked back to see him and the other vampire fighting. Grabbing his AK, he and the five other gunmen quickly broke the back windows and opened fire at the other SUV.

Stephen was under the wheel as the other vampire rose to send the dagger into him. The next Stephen remembered was glass flying into the SUV, he closed his eyes and waited till the gunfire ceased. When he opened them, he found the upper half of the seats were obliterated, and the back windows also been destroyed. The vampire above him was riddled with bullets, and he was quite dead. Stephen tossed the corspe into the back of the SUV.

In the forward SUV, the shooters thought they had killed Stephen. They stopped congradulating each other when a blood soaked Stephen once again appeared behind the wheel. His face had been cut slighly by the glass, but the wound had healed, his face though was covered with the blood of thier friend.

Stephen quickly wiped his eyes clear off blood, pulled out one of his automatics and opened fire. His first three rounds killed one of the shooters and injured another. They had not yet reloaded their weapons, and were easy targets for Stephen. He quickly emptied his magizine and slapped a new one in, the last living shooter popped up, and recived a silver .45 slug in his forehead.

Stephen looked in the left sideview mirror and spotted a van quickly gaining ground behind him. Stephen looked closer, and spotted Zero at the wheel.

Not needing to worry about getting attacked from the rear, Stephen increased speed.

As Zero drove the van up the road and caught up with the convoy, he pulled his Uzi out again and aimed carefully at the SUV in front of him. But then, he saw that it was Stephen, behind the wheel of the van.

"Great. He'll drive, I'll shoot", he thought to himself. And with that, he leapt out of the van, causing it to swerve wildly, then crash spectacularly into the streets of Emerald City. Zero, not looking back, proceeded to fly to Stephen's SUV, land on his roof, then quickly dive into the passenger seat besides Stephen.

"Howdy, kid", Zero said to Stephen. "Let's knock these buggers off the roads. I want to get to Alexander as fast as possible."

OOC: Contemplates holding Valient and Tarlachia at gunpoint until they post...

Nearly a hundred pairs of eyes, lined now on both sides of the street watched the last few vehicles become eliminated, or overtaken by the vampires. Their eyes turned to the roadblock in the distance, then back to the leading getaway car.

And suddenly, the air charged with the power of a hundred beings...

The very limo that Alexander and Aeris were in suddenly ascended vertically and sharply so. The vehicle that held Stephen and Zero inside suddenly flew past where the limo had last been touching the ground, but screeched quickly to a halt moments later.

Many eyes watched, and even those of non-elven race as the limo was hurled with ferocity into the nearest large building in the area.

The mall.

Skadi and Hondur were not far behind the limo when it suddenly lurched to the right, slamming into the massive mall complex and coming to a zero velocity with a crash and bending of metal. Skadi and Hondur were momentarily shocked at such a display of telekinetic force but were soon reassured it was friendly as Sigrun's voice appeared in their heads. Skadi soon replied...

"Sigrun, thanks to the efforts of your brethren Alexander is trapped. I know him, he will take the girl and flee into the mall. Please aid in surrounding the complex, then join me in our final battle..."

Skadi and Hondur both landed just outside the mall, beside the wreckage. A quick inspection revealed Alexander and Aeris had gone. They wouldn't get far.

Skadi and Hondur stepped into the empty mall, searching out the hiding rat that was Alexander Kelsing...
___________

The roadblock was now in sight and it wouldn't be long before the limo would hit it, making escape impossible. Almost all of the foreign vehicles had been destroyed already but the remaining would soon meet heavy opposition and not get far.

Speeding up, Garm noticed some convoy vehicles had already stopped and foreign vampires had moved into the mall through a side entrance. Garm smirked slightly... that mall was brand new and yet it was about to recieve a significant makeover.

Instructing the driver toward two figures near the recently uplifted limo, Garm could barely make out Hondur and sent a message.

"Hondur, I am not far behind. There are enemies in the mall, I'll cover your back... See you soon."

The VP vehicle pulled up just after the two ancient vampires moved into the building. Garm and Shea emerged along with several other agents and officers.

"Alright, we all know what to do. Let's go..."
__________

Several lychans and foreign vehicles were caught off guard when the VP road block unleashed their heavy fire upon the enemies. A halo of rockets and bullets rained down upon the creatures, shredding, tearing and burning...

Stephen nearly blasted Zero's head off when he appeared sitting next to him. Stephen rammed his pistol back into the holster as he swung the massive vehicle around the SUV in front of them, giveing Zero a clear line of fire to blast the driver. The next thing he knew they were airborne and suddenly landed.

Both vampires looked at each other, slightly confused on what had happened. Stephen spotted Alexander's limo go into the mall. Stephen looked off to his right as the rest of the convoy continued on, and was destroyed by the VP. A stray RPG round narrowly missed them and hit a streetlamp.

"Lets get moving Zero, before the VP notices us sitting here."

Stephen jumped out of the SUV and ran to the mall. Seeing Skadi and Hondur take the main entrance, Stephen took one of the others. He pulled out one of his .45s and carefully entered the mall. He was standing in what would be the food court he guess, he quickly checked behind the counters, no one was there.

Making his way out of the food court, he jumped to the second floor, and began his search.

"What the........"

Zero felt the undead blood pulsing through his veins, as he took quick gasps, trying to figure out what has happened. One moment, they were in hot pursuit of Alexander, the next.......it was this.

Ignoring Stephen, he stepped slowly out of the vehicle, he looked around at the Elves who had stopped his vehicle. He looked around at the Elves, who returned his stare. Slowly, he nodded, and seeing Stephen run into the mall, followed suit, running into the main entrance after Skadi and Hondur.

Stealthily, he stepped up besides them, and without a word, drew his Treasure Blades, and stalked forward. Aeris was in there somewhere.......

As the others began their search for them, Alexander, with Aeris in tow, made their way through Emerald City Mall. It was a huge mall, nearly 2000 sq km. in total area, with more than enough stores to cater to every tastes.

Right now, the only thing that Alexander searched for was an exit that wasn't being watched by elves or lychans. It was night, and the mall was free from the prying eyes of humans.

A pity, thought Alexander. The more persons there were, the greater chance for chaos. Chaos bred confusion, and in confusion he could hope to escape.

But there was no chaos, save for the one in his head: how had it all gone so bad so fast? Now all he had left was just the girl.

And he would be damned if he would let her go so easily.

Around him, walking in a protective four person quartet were the last of his men. Pathetic really. All looked tired and haggard, but carried a large rifle that demanded respect. Alexander could respect that: he was the one covered in dry blood, courtesy of the limo driver, whose head was severed from his torso after it had slammed into the second floor of the mall.

The six headed down the stalled escalators towards the first floor, near the south end of the mall. They began to warily walk towards the empty concourse.

Aeris looked around, not daring to scream. She whimpered, only to be slapped by one of Alexander's men, with a "quiet, you!" imprecation. Alexander seemed too wary to notice.

With tears brimming out of her eyes, Aeris panickedly considered her options. She couldn't scream, much as she wanted to, for fear of her life. Without knowing what she was doing, she picked out a rose bud that was given to her earlier in the Ritz Hotel, by the orders of Zero to the staff, and quietly dropped it. No one noticed what she had done, and in her panicked state, she didn't exactly understand why she did it, but it was to prove useful later.

Sniffling, she struggled against Alexander's grip, fearful beyond anything she remembered.

Both geared and ready for action, Garm and Shea stood at the main entrance of the newly constructed Emerald City Mall. Taking a look into the dark building, Garm sighed at what he must do. He knew of the history between him and Skadi and he had come to trust Garm. Unfortunately they were in violation of the law and the President's will. They would be eliminated.

"Alright, I want you to get through a side entrance and keep out of sight, somewhere high. When I send you the signal over the comms, a sharp beep, you fire off a few rounds at Skadi's feet or anywhere else you think would make a good destraction. Then I'll take care of her before she can do anything. Understood?"

Shea nodded. Garm gave the merc a pat on the shoulder before heading into the darkness and quickly catching up with the vampiric pair. Hondur casually turned around to see his human partner with his twin machine pistols and simply nodded, no words were exchanged...
__________

Skadi was vaguely aware that Hondur's friend had turned up. She wasn't really concerned with the human since Alexander was so close. She could smell his foul stench, almost see him lurking around a corner somewhere. This would be the end, finally. Skadi was sick of having to deal with his irritating efforts at moving in on her city, on her nation. It ended tonight.

Moonlight gleamed off the polished katana as the vampire moved under a sunroof, spraying the silver light upon Skadi's stern face. A new odour was now evident. It was weak, but Skadi would vaguely pick it up. Something she hadn't smelled in years... a rose.
__________

OOC: I'm controlling Sigrun and the elves whilst Tarlachia is away.

IC: Upon hearing Skadi's message, Sigrun handed command of the elves over to Arleni with the orders of maintaining a barrier around the mall complex to assure that Alexander would not escape. Sigrun left Arleni with a quick gaze before drawing his blade and stalking off into the dark mall, attempting to catch up with his former sire.

Arleni watched for a moment before making the command. Silently, the large force of elves quickly moved to their assigned locations, blocking off all hope that Alexander would be able to escape through another exit of the mall. He was trapped.

Zero stalked on, aware that Garm was there, but not especially thinking about him. There was a bigger prize out there.......and Zero was intent on claiming it. His Treasure Blades gleamed purple, as his eyes bespoke murder. He also felt the presence of Sigrun, but him he also ignored, just as he had ignored everyone else in his pursuit.

Then, it hit him. The scent of a rose.

Quickly, he stepped from his path, and strode quickly to where the scent was enamating. He stooped down......and picked up a rose bud. Zero turned to face Skadi and Hondur.

"He's here", he growled. Then, pocketing the bud, he disappeared into the shadows.

Stephen moved slowly through the dark mall, each store could hold suprises in the form of several automatic weapons, yet everything was empty. He paused at a corner and looked around it, nothing. It was then he sensed Garm enter, he didn't pay much mind to the human.

Stephen knealt and moved slowly to the edge of the second floor, he jumped up and leveled the Para. Skad and Hondur spun, and looked up at Stephen, their weapons at the ready. Stephen noticed his mistake and lowered the pistol. Even from the second floor, he could fainlty smell some kind of flower. Alexander and the little girl couldn't be far away.

OOC: BUMP POST

Skadi, Hondur and Garm all draw their weapons and aim at Valient's head. The quivering mess that is Valient is then marched to his computer where he is told to post or lose his life...

(OOC: And also my head too, right?)

OOC: True... but at least you're not holding up the flow of the RP... ;)

OOC: Well, 5CN, you ARE holding up the flow of the Superheroes thread.......fix that, or I'll have no choice but to powermod Xuanyu. Sorry about that.

(OOC: *expresses outrage* Well its not my fault that I have family obligations and college applications!!! :mad: )

OOC: You know what.......why don't you shoot me a short TG about how you want the fight to go?

Alexander sighed... (as did Daniel Chai...)

He looked down on Aeris as they all entered the concourse. It was devoid of people and looked far more like a tomb than a bustling totem of consumerism.

He motioned for his men to halt and look around as he knealt down to Aeris's level.

"Aeris... you know, I'm not really a bad man..."

Aeris looked up at Alexander's face, which had significantly softened.

"All I really wanted to do was to be loved. Have you ever loved?"

"..."

"I have... once. She was a beautiful woman. She was powerful, moved like an angel... She was Strigoi... and she was mine..."

"..."

"...The thing is... I can't even remember her name... isn't that sad, Aeris?"

Alexander suddenly stood up and whipped out his desert eagle. With a tilt of his head, Alexander shot two of his men in the head, sending a loud "BLAM BLAM" echoing throughout the concourse.

The other two men turned around in shock. A funny look remained on their faces as Alexander cut through both in one swipe with a cut of his sword.

Aeris didn't make a sound as she witnessed the happenings. She did not move as Alexander discarded the gun with a clatter and once more sank to one knee in front of her.

"And now... now little one, your protectors are coming to kill me. Won't that be sad?"

"..."

"...I suppose not..."

Aeris kept silent, torn between her emotions, gaping at what Alexander had told her. Finally, the flood of tears arrived, and Aeris started pummeling ineffectually at Alexander's body. Still, she didn't care, as she started screaming her frustrations at Alexander.

"But why?!", Aeris screamed, "Why did you have to do all this? Why do you have to kill so?! Why do you have to take me?! Why did you have to have them all hate you?! Why?! WHY?!"

She sank to her knees, sobbing, unable to comprehend the meaning of all this violence before her.............

The time had finally come. Skadi could now hear Alexander's conversation with the girl, attempting to draw some sympathy out of her. He would get no such thing from Skadi, she only held pure contempt. Checking her blade once again, Skadi moved forward ahead of the others and around the corner and into the concourse. Alexander was there... awaiting his fate.

Skadi almost appeared as if she were a demon. Black eyes that seemed to suck the light out of a room, white skin that gave an eerie gleam in the moonlight and her ever present black attire, along with the katana. She was there for one purpose and nothing would prevent that... nothing.

Marching forward, Skadi kept her eyes upon Alexander, the hate brimming forth inside her head, fuelling her will for what must be done.
_________

Hondur remained silent, as did Garm. Even Garm could see how worked up Skadi was and knew it best not to get between the two vampires. He had no delusions about what she was and wasn't willing to do to kill this foreign vampire and decided the best time to strike would be after his death, when everything was calm and no one suspected a thing.

Hondur merely held firmly onto his new blade, keeping an eye out for anything that may interrupt the upcoming battle.
_________

After several minutes of running through the maze that was the Emerald City Mall, Sigrun was able to locate Skadi and the others just as they found Alexander. Moving with a silence only an elf possessed, Sigrun came up next to Garm and almost made the human jump. They would all bare witness to this battle...

Aeris' lilting voice piped through the dark, silent confines of the empty mall, and Zero picked up on it just as soon as Skadi did. With a murderous glint in his eyes, Zero followed on Skadi's heels pretty closely, Treasure Blades gleaming in the light.

In the dark, his eyes glowed red, full of murderous intent, as he kept his eyes fixed on Zero...........

Just as Skadi and Zero approached Alexander in the open concourse, yet another voice boomed out from the third level of the mall.

"Nice mess you've gotten yourself into, Alexander..."

Skadi and Zero, along with the rest looked up, only to catch the fading glimpse of a shadow.

Eeeyooowww...

The wolf cry sent chills throughout the group, all save for Alexander, who held onto Aeris even tighter.

Skadi and Zero turned back to Alexander, but their moves began to slow. Like trying to push through a wall of water.

Skadi cursed herself as she finally stopped moving: Stop-Time.

Jumping from the top of the third floor, Driretlen and Tyr landed in front of the assembled mass. Stephen, Garm, Hondur, Skadi and Zero were unable to move, try as they might.

Driretlen bowed and tilted his head. "Sorry, Skadi. With me and Alexander both using stop-time, you'll be unable to break through.

"However, Sigrun you can still move. Why don't you come into the light..."

Skadi merely glared at the trio, her fury growing even stronger by the second. She would not be denied her vengence, even by Driretlen. Gathering up all her psychic will, Skadi attempt to break the hold, attempted to free her movement. Unfortunately, it was too strong. After several enraged attempts, Skadi realised it was useless. Finally she figured out a better approach and informed Hondur.

They may have frozen our bodies, but not our minds. You know what to do..."

Hondur confirmed and went silent as he concentrated. For several seconds, nothing seemed to happen. It all happened so quickly, the others had no time to react as Alexander and Driretlen were flung off the floor and slammed hard into a concrete pilon, the sound of crushing bones filling the air.

With their concentration now broken, the pair were unable to hold Skadi or the others in place. Skadi leapt forward and levelled her blade at Driretlen whilst Hondur approached Tyr. Garm merely drew his machine pistols and aimed at Alexander, all too willing to unleash his clips.

Looking down at the foreign ancient, Skadi growled.

"You would deny me what has been due for many, many years? I do not care how old or how respectable you might be, if you stand in my way... I WILL CUT YOU DOWN!"

Skadi's rage was more than evident as she screamed at Driretlen, a bloodlust like no other was in her eyes, something she had only ever gone through once before, almost 2000 years ago. She was completely intent on Alexander... and nothing would stop her.

Stephen was boiling over with rage as Driretlen and Alexander froze them. I should of killed him back at the Hyraphore, Sigrun just had to deflect my bullet. When Skadi and Hondur released them, Stephen wasted no time going to the edge of the second floor and leveled his Para .45 at the older vampire.

Skadi was already keeping Drirethlen on the ground but Stephen kept his pistol aimed at the older vampire's head. He guessed he might see him again, but not in this fashion. He felt the sudden rush of rage from Skadi as she screamed at Drirethlen. It nearly made him jump, but it gave his whole body goosebumps.

He knew Skadi could get angry, and was never on the reciving end..spare for when he messed up once or twice in his first few weeks as a vampire. He could never imagine her get this angry, and half expected her to burst into flames because of it.

Stephen simply turned his attention from Skadi's rage, back to keeping Drirethlen's head in his sights.

Sigrun stepped from the shadows, looking over at his allies as he warily watched Drirethlen and Alexander. He didn't like the fact that they had singled him out to be free from the stop-time effect. However, moments later, the two were thrown off their feet by the mind forces of Skadi and Hondur. Moments after that, Skadi was ranting...no...ferociously raging in Drirethlen's face.

He had never seen this side of her before, and once again, his long established respect for her took higher precedence in his mind. Sigrun moved closer and spoke,

"Drirethlen's mine Skadi..."

He lowered Lanta down to Drirethlen's throat. "You betrayed our friendship..."

It all happened right in front of him. First, he was slowed once again by Driretlan's damnable mind trick, then, before he could regain his bearings, Skadi and the Assingtonians had done it for him. Right now, though, he can't be bothered with that fact that Driretlan seemed to have betrayed them, or Skadi's rage, or Sigrun's cold tone of outrage...........nothing.

All he could think of, was Aeris. And Alexander. And while the rest were preoccupied with each other, Zero simply...........ignored them all, as he passed everyone, his rage culminating in this moment, his energy becoming irregular once again. His eyes crackled.

"Give me back Aeris, Alexander, you mutt", he muttered. "Give her back now, and maybe I'll grant you a quick death........."

Driretlen looked up at Sigrun, and then over at Skadi.

"Friendship... friends come and go, Maximus. So do we all, no?"

Inside of his mind, Driretlen sent Sigrun a psy-message.

"Please... humour Alexander. And me..."

Sigrun nodded. Off to the side, Tyr slowly slunk away into the shadows, and then dissappeared.

"Shall we?"

Before anyone else could react, Alexander, Aeris in tow, Sigrun and Driretlen leapt straight up onto the roof of the mall, through the glass atrium.

Then they ran away from the hole that they made, further down toward the south wing of the mall. From the edge, one could see the harbour. A small cruise ship of partiers swept by, oblivious to the carnage happening nearby.

Sigrun stopped, and beckoned the others to stop. With one hand, he gestured to Alexander.

Alexander nodded, and then released Aeris. The girl ran to Sigrun, who held her close.

The elf still held his sword out in front of him.

"Why Alexander? Do you know that out of all the questions I've probably ever asked you, 'Why?' is probably the one I've asked you the most?"

Alexander sat down on the edge of the South Wall, back towards the waterfront. Driretlen pulled out his staff and rested on it.

"She will kill you, you realize..." said Driretlen to his former protege. "And if she doesn't, Zero surely will. There is nothing that I can do to stop it."

Alexander sighed, and pulled out his Kantrasteel sword.

"You know... Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future."

He threw his Kantrasteel sword to Sigrun.

"You know, Sigrun, the main reason that I wanted to see you one last time is to apologize. Me... me and you. We've been through a lot, and... heh, we've come a long way. Please, keep an eye on that for me. I'll be back for it..."

Then Alexander jumped off of the roof, towards the waterfront.

"SIGRUN!!!!"

Zero couldn't believe his eyes when Sigrun, of all people, suddenly turned turncoat, and fled along with Alexander and Driretlan, taking Aeris with them.

"NO!!!!", Zero screamed, and leapt up through the hole, pursuing them over the roof and towards the southern wing of the mall, but then he stopped short, gaping at the incongruous sight before him.

It appeared that Sigrun was not quite a turncoat after all, for the three figures before him were.......talking. And even more incongruous, just before Alexander made his escape........he actually let go of Aeris, who promptly ran to Sigrun's side, before escaping.

Zero ran to them, and Aeris, seeing him close, ran crying to him, and they hugged each other tightly.

"I'm sorry, Aeris, I shouldn't have left you like that", Zero murmured into her ear. She merely shook her head, unable to speak through her tears. As Sigrun approached them, Zero looked back up at him.

"Thank you for Aeris, Sigrun", Zero said.

Skadi waited a few moments as the vampires, elf and human girl moved to the roof of the mall complex. She was still furious, but Alexander was not going anywhere. Even he knew it was over, Skadi would have her revenge and there was nothing he could do about it.

Taking one final look at Hondur, Skadi ascended into the sky, high above the congregation of Zero, Aeris, Sigrun and Driretlen. She gave them a slight glance before taking note that Alexander's presence was quickly moving toward the waterfront. He wouldn't be getting far, not far at all.

Skadi was truly death incarnate this night. Her blade gleamed silver in the moonlight, as did her pale skin whilst her black attire mad her disappear into the shadows quite easily. Those black eyes were only filled with one thing, murderous rage.

The ancient vampire steadily glided towards Alexander's presence, ready to finally end this once and for all.
________

Hondur merely remained silent, waiting. Garm had too many questions and couldn't help himself.

"Who was that? The one with the girl?"

Hondur looked at his human companion and decided he should probably fill him in on everything.

"That was Alexander Kelsing of the Hyraphore, a vampiric coven in Valient. He's been trying to take control of the vampires in Assington for the last couple of hundred years. The last time I encountered him was just before I joined ASHVO. He is responsible for the lychans and all this mess."

Garm nodded, now knowing where the true blame rested.

"I've been away the last few days because Skadi and I have been rallying all the vampires in Emerald City to fend off Alexander's attempts. We stormed the Hyraphore HQ and left a gaping wound in their side. It was necessary to gather so many to combat lychan numbers, but they are no longer an issue. All has caved in for Alexander, and she will kill him."

Garm finally understood. Hondur hadn't betrayed him, he had done something to defend Assington from the dogs. Of course, that still didn't change his mission. Hondur may be innocent, but he still had Skadi to take care of. He had Presidential orders to follow and he would not fail to see them out.

Stephen stood there for several seconds, slightly confused about what just happened before his eyes. He watched as Sigurn, Skadi and Zero chased after Alexander and Driretlen up to the roof. He knew already what would probably happen up there. Holstering his pistol he looked over the edge of the second floor and jumped down to the first.

Stephen looked around, something...or someone was missing. That lycan, Tyr had run off. Where had he run off to? Stephen looked around but he couldn't see the lycan anywhere. He looked around and walked over to Garm and Hondur.

"Hondur, did you see where that lycan ran off to?"

Garm raised his machine pistol as Stephen approached, still wary of any vampire that came near him. Hondur merely put a hand over the weapon, easily lowering it.

"Calm down, he is a friend. Whilst not from Assington, Stephen has been aiding in its defence."

Garm nodded slowly but kept a wary eye on the vampire.

Hondur then turned to Stephen.

"I haven't seen him since the others went to the roof. Perhaps you'd like to find him?"

OOC: Val...two things. One, Sigrun is MINE. Two, I'm curious to know how an ELF can jump from the ground floor of the mall through the roof and on top of the building all by himself? Interesting... bouncy shoes as Assington suggested? Oh well. On we go.

IC:
Sigrun watched Alexander taking off...no...fleeing for his life. Just then, he noticed a shadow passing overhead, and heard the ruffling of leather. He looked up to see Skadi watching Alexander and giving chase. He returned his gaze to Alexander's back. He glanced down at the Kantrasteel sword in his hand and whispered quietly.

"Farewell. While sane, you were a good friend. Now, your fate is sealed. There is no escape."

He looked over at Zero who was holding Aeris close. He nodded his acknowledgement and replied, "Just doing my job."

Sigrun looked into Aeris eyes and smiled warmly at her. "The nightmare is over. You can relax now." He lingered his gaze a few more moments before turning to Drirethlen.

"Seeing as how Alexander is soon to meet his fate, if he hasn't already-" he glanced over toward where Alexander and Skadi had disappeared, "-you will take command of the Hyraphore once more. Perhaps this time around, things will be straightened out, and old alliances can be restored to their former strength. The time is now, Drirethlen, for you to return the Hyraphore back to its former glory and honor..."

Stephen tensed slightly as Garm leveled his machine-pistol at him. He smiled slightly as Hondur lowerd Garm's weapon. He looked around, still not seeing the lycan.

"I just want to know where he ran off to. Probably to go check on his pack to see how much damage the VP dealt them. If you want me to find him I'll go looking. Won't be much of a problem if he is still in the mall, not everyday you would find a lycan wandering around in one."

OOC: Sorry Dan. Sincerely, I only did what I did to advance the story in at least part way that I wanted to take it. Ass and GS were taking it far off course from what I needed to happen to Alexander. I won't take as much liberty as before. I apologize.

And it's only four floors. I suspect that Sigrun could have made the jump easily from what I read about him:P I will post asap, but happy new years. Off to work now.

OOC: Crawls over to Canada in a drunken stupour and attacks Val with a... rabid wombat. Post damn you! Remember... Jan 8th.!!!!!!!

ooc: Let me just do a post to keep you busy Ass.

ic:

Stephen sat on the railing of the second floor, his legs dangling in the air. He didn't know what Skadi would do with Alexander, he just knew Alexander was a dead man. Stephen pulled out one of his pistols, he ejected the magizine and put it in his trenchcoat pocket. He pulled the slide back and locked it, pulling a small rag out of his pocket he began to do a quick cleaning of the chamber. Stephen pulled the magizine out of his pocket, slapped it back in his pistol, closed the slide, and put it back in his armpit holster. Stephen repeated the quick clean with his other pistol.

He looked down at Hondur and Garm who were still on the ground level.

"Hondur, I haven't been told much of a reason behind Alexander's desire to control the vampires here. Could you possibly fill me in?"

Hondur looked up at the younger vampire. Since he was so knew to these struggles, Hondur had presumed he knew little and figured he'd become inquisitive as to the cause of this ongoing war. Sitting down on a nearby bench, the ancient vampire looked upon Stephen.

"Back when I was very young, around 25 years, the Hyraphore was a weak coven with a dwindling population. Their leader, Diretlen was very ill and close to dying. After the incidents around that time were over, Alexander came into power and was quite successful at gathering numbers to the Hyraphore. Although, he wasn't satisfied. Ever since the first battle in Emerald, he had wanted control of the Assingtonian vampires. There were so many of us, it would make his coven almost unstoppable."

Hondur paused to gather his memories before continuing once again.

"After I turned down an alliance where he simply wanted control of my coven, he went crazy. He declared war on us and caused all sorts of trouble. He was merely blinded by ambition, and he shall suffer for such."

Skadi could finally see Alexander now. After all these years and all they had gone through, it had finally come down to this. The foreign vampire was walking at speedy pace along the pier, towards the point facing the ocean. The waves rocked against the human constructions, making contact with an immense whoosh before flowing back out once again. Save for the water, all was quiet.

Alexander reached the end of the pier as Skadi stepped onto it, her pace now slow. Each footstep seemed to echo within the head of Alexander, knowing that his time had come and the mistress of death incarnate was before him, those menacing eyes glaring straight at him. Skadi's blade was held tight within white fingers, her ancient pale skin gleaming in the moonlight, as was her silver blade. The steps continued and death drew closer. A sudden flash of lightning illuminated Skadi's face, the deathly calm upon it as she was about to slaughter her enemy was unnerving, even to a seasoned soldier.

Rain now pattered upon Skadi's leather trench coat, the dark clouds above reflecting her mood as she finally stopped before Alexander, not taking her eyes off him. By all appearances, her enemy was calm. He knew he deserved this and had possibly come to accept it. Skadi knew he didn't want to die, but the vampire was far too proud to beg for his life. He would feel the consequences of his actions... one last time.

"You know very well this is your last night Alexander Kelsing. For too many years you have pushed boundaries, moved in where you were not welcome and earned my spite. For such, you shall not live. You were given the oppurtunity to choose another path, and yet your pursued this idiocy. Now you are nothing. Your allies have turned upon you, a city of vampires has rallied against you and even your master has accepted your fate. Goodbye."

Alexander coughed slightly as his eyes widened, the shock of the blow still registering upon him. Skadi's blade was now burried through his chest and protruded through his back. The ancient vampire kept as straight face that watched Alexander's eyes the whole time. The stench of the silver burning vampiric flesh filled the air as Alexander's heart was burned into a black little crisp. It was finally over.

Alexander... blinked... and coughed.

He looked up into the face of Skadi, and thought that it looked a little darker than usual.

Then he realized... everything was getting darker.

He laughed, spitting up a little bit of blood. How quaint. It ws just like the movies.

"...Skadi... you say... fate like it was a bad word..."

Alexander fell onto his knees and rocked slightly back and forth. His eyes remained open, but the dark night grew darker still... In the near distance, he could see a figure approaching. It was Zero.

"But... tell me... Skadi... don't... you agree... that even now... even here, I still managed to orchastrate every... everything that has happened... aren't you impressed?"

Skadi watched as Alexander struggled to stay upright. The silver had taken its toll, and he slowly began to tilt to the right.

"I'd be impressed if you stayed dead."

Alexander forced the last words out of his mouth.

"... b..ut... where... would... the fun... b..be... in that..."

Skadi nodded. "I'd have fun."

"With that, Alexander closed his eyes and stopped moving. Skadi grabbed the sword and wordlessly withdrew it with a slick sound of blood.

Alexander wobbled on the edge of the pier, near the black waters below...

A slight sense of relief passed over Skadi. He was finally dead, gone. Wiping her bloodied blade upon the shirt of Alexander, Skadi sheathed it and gave the now dead vampire one last glance.

"Farewell Alexander."

The ancient vampire unleashed a might kick, sending the corpse of Alexander sprawling through the wet air, several metres away from the pier until he finally fell into the water, that one massive splash signifying the end of centuries of war, conflict, hate and death. With Alex gone, there was little problems left for the ancient vampire. She would see to them before the end of the night, then she could rest for the first time in ages.

Skadi now moved down the pier once again, heading back to the mall complex. She would find Hondur and gather the vampires so they could leave. The lychans would hopefully leave, or she would make them leave. As for the humans involved, she cared not. Now back at the building, Skadi floated easily up the wall and over the congregation of Sigrun, Diretlen, Zero and Aeris. Taking a look at her elven companion, Skadi spoke.

"Join us, it is over."

Whilst Skadi still appeared her menacing self, the rage was gone. She was no longer an unleashed rage intent on murder but her cold, calculated self once again. Without another word, she descended into the darkness of the mall complex.
__________

Hondur and Garm looked up as a dark figure floated towards them. Garm couldn't make out who it was, but Hondur seemed confident.

"It's finally over. Alexander is dead."

Garm didn't ask how he knew and just assumed the vampire new his sire well enough. The moment of truth was about to arrive and he would not fail. Things would work out, once Skadi died and his forces captured all those involved. Garm waited, machine pistols still in hand. Shea would be lurking around somewhere, ready to distract the ancient vampire.

Sigrun listened as Drirethlen spoke to him softly, "Yes...the time has come once more for the Hyraphore to cleanse itself..."

With that, Sigrun turned and followed Skadi into the mall, descending by means of an magical force field that he stood upon. Moments later, he stood before Hondur, Skadi and Garm.

His eyes centered on Garm. He squinted them in the darkness... He could smell the fear, the uncertanity...

He's up to something...

Wordlessly, Zero and Aeris watched the final confrontation between Alexander Kelsing and Skadi. Or rather, Zero watched impassionately, while Aeris buried her head in his shoulders, unable to look any further. In his heart, Zero dwelled on the events of the last few nights. He didn't expect so much to change for him, ever since he first came into Emerald City, looking to make the first connection between the Assingtonians and the Nobles in centuries. Now, he was a part of them, and now he had a mortal love by his side. He watched as the inevitable happened, as Skadi did away with Alexander once and for all, and laid him to a watery burial.

"Can I ever forgive Alexander for all that he has done?", Zero asked rhetorically to himself. At that, Aeris looked up at him. "You know........Mister Alexander wasn't all bad.", she said, shocking Zero somewhat.

"What?"
"Yes......it's true. He did kidnap me.........but he of all the Hyraphore vampires treated me the best. The others tried to take advantage of my helplessness........but Alexander was the most honorable of them all. He dealt with those who got too close to me.......a little too bloodily, I must admit.......but he protected me, even when I was helplessly under his power. Underneath his madness......he was honorable."

She waited to see his reaction. For his part, Zero looked away, absorbing his information. Even though they were enemies on the field of battle, Zero has found his respect for the vampire who now lay under the water.

"Rest in peace, Alexander Kelsing." he whispered.

Just then, Kellis flew to him, and Zero looked at her. Nodding, he handed Aeris to Kellis. "Take her back to the Ritz, and guard her. I cannot lose her again."

"Sir.", Kellis replied, and lifted Aeris up as easily as a feather. As she took flight, Aeris cast imploring and yet understanding eyes on Zero.......shaking his head, he dropped down, back into the mall.............

Garm didn't like the way the elf was looking at him, but it didn't matter. Once Skadi was dead and his mean were in here, it would be too late. There was no stopping him now. The ASHVO agent activated a small device that signalled Shea. It was time to act...
____________

Shea sat within the shadows atop the highest level of the complex. A pair of night vision goggles allowed him to see Skadi and the others. Just as he trained his sights upon the female vampire, Garm's signal came through, it was time to act. Switching the safety off his automatic rifle, Shea pulled the trigger.
__________

Skadi spun around as soon as the explosion of a bullet exiting a barrel reached her ears. She drew her own pistols and searched for the source, attempting to discover if it were an enemy. The shot hadn't hit anyone and merely smashed into a pilon about a metre away from Skadi, but it could be that whoever was up there was merely a bad shot.

Hondur and the others also drew weapons and began searching for the culprit. Garm didn't raise any eyebrows as he aimed his twin machine pistols, although slightly lower so they were level with Skadi's figure.

Finally Skadi noticed the human as he fired off another shot, this time at her feet.

"There!"

Skadi unleashed several rounds towards the source of attack, hoping to shred him to pieces before he could do anything. Hondur and the others did the same.

Eventually the automatic bursts of Garm's machine pistols filled the air, yet the bullets were not travelling towards Shea. With an unblocked path, the silver nitrate filled slugs tore into Skadi's exposed back, burrying deep into her flesh and releasing the vampiric poision into her body. She stopped shooting and dropped the pistols, a look of complete and utter surprise registering upon her pale face. She couldn't even manage to turn around as silver nitrate began to pour out her wounds, burning her skin and the inside of her ancient body.

The ancient vampire fell to her knees, gasping for air and in pain. The silver was in her lungs, around her organs, burning her. With a mighty thud, she fell to the tiled floor and began a series of uncontrollable, violent convulsions.
_______

Garm aimed his pistols downwards, ready to finish Skadi off with a few rounds to the head. Before he could squeeze the triggers again, Hondur shifted forward in a violent rage and sliced straight through Garm's wrists, causing both his hands to fall to the ground, along with his weapons.

Screaming in pain, Garm feel to his knees as he looked up at the furious Hondur. A look of shock upon his face.

"But... she has to die. The President knows all about her, and you. It is his will. Why did you betray us Hondur, after all those years you simply betrayed the law, the nation for some woman?"

His voice was becoming soft, vision dimming. Yet Hondur was furious and his voice echoed around the entire complex.

"You fool! She is the last original vampire in this nation! She is my sire and deserves the respect of everyone. I haven't betrayed the law, I've betrayed a corrupt government. It is you that has betrayed me. You come from a long line of honourable men, and yet you had to brake that trend. You have tarnished the name of your ancestors, and my faith in humans. Goodbye Garm."

The human remained silent as Hondur's words hit home. He knew Hondur was right, but it was too late. Tears poured down his face as he watched the gleaming blade come towards his head. A quick sting as the blade touched his throat, then... darkness. Hondur watched as the human's head rolled along the floor, blood spilling across the tiles.

The noise of running footsteps and loading weapons came to Hondur's ears, echoed down from the other end of the complex. The VP were coming. Hondur rushed to Skadi and picked her up, ignoring the silver pouring onto his arms, burning through his flesh.

"We've got to get Skadi out of her if she is going to live. She'll need blood. Zero, Stephen, can you two do something about holding off those soldiers whilst we get our of here. Meet back at mansion.

Hondur decided it not wise to go up through the hole as there were most likely enemies waiting for him. He spun around and ran past Garm's body, searching for his own way out. Sigrun followed closely.

Sigrun was furiously pissed off as he watched Skadi collapse under the silver salvo into her backside. Hondur, being a vampire, was naturally faster and had reacted first, murdering Garm with a passionate rage. Finally, he picked up Skadi, glanced over at Sigrun and took off running. Sigrun did his best to keep up with the vampires.

As Sigrun passed by Garm's body, he glanced down momentarily with disgust as he simultaneously withdrew Lanta and with a quick, clean swipe, completely severed the head of the traitor. Merely seconds later he was still behind Hondur, his blade waving through the air as he pumped his arms to keep up.

"Hondur!" he called out as he simultaneously raised his hand in front of him. A thin rope of green smoke twirled from his hand and slammed into the wall. Yet the wall did not collapse. Instead, a portal opened...

Hondur nodded a thanks to Sigrun once he realised what had opened up before him. Although he had travelled through the elve's portals before, it still surprised him to see such a thing emerge out of nothing. Now slowing down, the vampire plunged straight into the portal, unaware as to where it would take him but confident it would be away from the VP.

Opening his eyes, Hondur found himself in a familiar street. The coven mansion was just at the end of the street, no lights were on but that was common, they didn't wish to attract attention. The vampire continued running, causing Skadi to groan in discomfort. He knew she would die unless they helped her quickly.

"Hurry, she needs blood."

Within seconds they were outside the mansion, Hondur kicked in the door and yelled.

"All of you, go find humans and bring them here. We need lots of blood... now!"

Although confused, the vampires noticed the panic in Hondur's voice and complied immediately. Charging into a random room, Hondur placed Skadi upon a large bed and looked to Sigrun as he entered the room.

"This isn't good, she's full of silver."

Hondur displayed his burned hands, the bone showing in some places as the silver had burned right through flesh and muscle.
_________

Hundreds of VP soldiers charged into the mall complex, all heading towards the signal of Garm's GPS beacon, unaware of his fate. Stephen and Zero had to do something, or they would be captured.

Sigrun looked down at Skadi and at her wounds. She looked bad...really bad. And he knew what he had to do.

"Hondur. Stand aside. She will not survive long enough for the humans. The silver's been inside herself for too long. My blood is richer than a human's..."

Hondur looked into Sigrun's eyes deeply and nodded understandably. He gently laid Skadi down upon the bed and stepped back as Sigrun simultaneously moved forward, pulling out an elven med-kit and tossing it to Hondur,

"Put that on your hands. It will neutralize the silver, but not get rid of it. That part is up to you to complete."

Sigrun focused his attention on Skadi, gently lifting her head toward him. She moaned in pain as her eyes fluttered open. Her eyes were beginning to show the presence of death. Not the same kind of death that had been in them for years, but rather, the ultimate sign of death. This was bad. There was little time to lose.

Sigrun removed the elven armor that covered his torso and tossed it aside. He turned to Skadi once more, and lifted her head. He lowered his neck closer, exposing his elven flesh and his pulsating arteries.

"Feed. It will help you."

Skadi was barely awake. She could sense a pulsating artery directly in front of her, blood. Natural instinct caused Skadi to bite forward, digging into Sigrun's neck and drain his elven blood. Skadi had never tasted elven blood before and would have taken the time to appreciate it if she could. The blood flowed into her, restoring her heart to a more stable state and countering the silver still within her. She would need a lot of blood to counter all the silver, but Sigrun's was a good start.

The elven blood awoke something ancient within Skadi, a lust for a blood she had resisted all those years. She drank depper, drawing faster and biting harder. Now that she had finally tasted this blood, she wanted more...
________

Hondur applied the elven remedy to his skin, halting the pain and the damage. He sighed in relief and began concentrating, using his mind to locate the silver that had solidified and draw it out. He moaned in effort and pain, gradually pulling out the harmful substance.

Sigrun was within Skadi's powerful grip as she drank viciously from him. He could feel the blood flowing freely into her mouth, her fangs digging deeper as she worked to drain him.

Sigrun convulsed under the power of her drain and rolled his eyes back. Yet, what happened next surprised everyone.

From Hondur's point of view, it appeared that the two had merged as one, and both had become surrounded by a strange glow that seemed to centralize from Sigrun's neck. Brief glimpses of the blood showed traces of blue and green elements intertwined, the source of the glow. Sigrun continued to convulse under Skadi's powerful grip. He moaned as his eyes began to roll back in his head and could feel the sweet coldness of death nearing...

The gunshots startled Zero out of his reverie, and reacting instantly, Zero ducked behind a corner, only to see with his horrified eyes as Garm turned on them, shooting into Skadi a full load of silver. However, he had no time to react, as first Hondur did the dirty work of doing away with Garm, then the turncoat VP forces started storming into the mall, bullets bouncing all around the place.

"C'mon, youngster!", Zero swore, literally dragging Stephen off his feet into a refuge from the bullets. They were outmatched in this place........as he searched around for a solution for what to do, he saw Sigrun......cast a portal spell, from which he and Hondur, holding Skadi, escaped.......leaving him and Stephen behind.

"That's the third time you've screwed me over, Herr Sigrun. Third time pays for all, as they say, so watch out, I'm coming to collect!", he thought to himself, an amused smirk widening his face even at this most inopportune time. He whispered a prayer to himself, realizing this could be where his legacy finally ends........

"Sir?"
"Lieutenant Ambrose? Is that you?"
"Yes Sir! We're in Emerald City now! I know exactly where you are, in fact!"
"So stop your dallying and get down here! We're in trouble. Double-time, soldier!"
"Sir yes Sir!"

And with that, a flood of vampires suddenly came rushing down through the roof like water, and the gunfire increased tenfold. A great, deadly gunbattle ensued, with the VP on one side, surrounding the mall, and the newcomers on the other side, backed into a circle, firing with bullets and purple energy blasts in all directions.

The Nobles have arrived.

Lieutenant Ambrose appeared by Zero's side just as quickly, "Sir, we're here, I'm sorry we're late, but....."
"Cut your chattering and get out your guns, we're at war here!"
"Yes Sir!", the Lieutenant answered, then wincing as a bullet hit near his head.

Getting out his Dual Elites, Zero looked over at Stephen.

"Alright, youngster, you're the one with the bright ideas! So think one up now!"

Hondur almost collapses as the silver finally fell to the ground, out of his system. The vampire watched in awe as an odd glow surrounded Skadi and her companion, engulfing them in a calm light that seemed to heal. Hondur was caught on the edge and could feel the good it was doing his burns.

Suddenly Sigrun's groan snapped Hondur back to attention. Unless he did something, the elf would die. Skadi couldn't control herself and would drain him. Stepping into the aura, Hondur ignored the warm feeling and grabbed Sigrun by the collar, pulling him away from Skadi and landing him against a wall.

"You rest and recover, Skadi should be alright until some more blood comes in."

Hondur stepped forward an examined the vampire. She was healed enough to most likely live now, but Hondur didn't want to take any chances. With ease, he bit his wrist and placed it over Skadi's gasping mouth.

"It may not be elven blood, but it will do."

The vampire flinched as his sire drew upon his veins with an intense pull.

Sigrun looked up through a haze of colors, barely making out Hondur's form. He blinked slowly several times. He felt weak, nearly completely drained. He watched the form of Hondur make its way over to Skadi and offer a wrist to her.

Good... he thought slowly to himself as he slumped unconsciously onto the floor. Yet, his heart continued to beat, although faintly. Thumpthump-thumpthump-thumpthump...
___________________________

Arleni paused in the middle of her shots with the elven bow in her hand as she fired the last one straight through the open mouth of the human charging the mall.

Her eyes went wide as she suddenly realized she couldn't detect Sigrun's telepathic signature anymore.

"SIGRUN!" She cried out, immediately catching the attention of her elven allies. She renewed her attacks with vigourous action, a set look in her eyes now. The same was true for her elven friends as well...

Stephen went numb as he saw Skadi be gunned down by Garm, he was about to move against the human, but Hondur had dealt with him. As the VP came pouring in Stephen felt a strong hand grab him and drag him behind a corner. He listened to Zero over the roar of gunfire as the Nobles and Elves engaged the VP. Stephen pulled a blueprint of the mall out of his pocket; he had found it while he was searching for Alexander.

Stephen looked at the blueprint, pocketed it, and looked at Zero.

“For one thing you can stop calling me youngster. Now, go to your Nobles and gather every grenade, C4 satchel charge, and any other explosives they can spare. Also get me a roll of duct tape. In ten minutes, meet me over there.”

Stephen pointed to an empty store and he got a quick nod from Zero. Stephen quickly ran towards the south entrance and ducked as an arrow went over his head. He quickly found Arleni fitting another arrow into her bow. Stephen signaled her over and yelled above the roar of gunfire.

“Follow me! I think you should know something!”

He quickly led the elf to the store he and Zero would meet. He found the vampire already there with three over stuffed packs. Stephen looked at the other two.

“Look, in the basement there are about two dozen propane and various other fuel tanks down there. I’m gonna set the explosives and use them and the tanks to blow away the supports and foundation. This mall is gonna go down. Arleni, you and your elves hold the south entrance at all cost, it is our only way out of here. Zero, keep the humans pinned down as long as you can.

“Don’t worry about me, there is an airshaft that is large enough for one person to fit through and get outside. Zero, I’ll send you a message telling you to pull out. Pull out in good fashion and get back to Hondur’s mansion. The same goes for you Arleni. As soon as you are out, keep moving…this explosion is gonna be big and God only knows what will happen. Get moving.”

Stephen quickly took the packs as the other two went back to their groups. He ran to the back of the store and quickly went into the backroom. It took him several minutes to get back down to the basement. He opened a steel double door, closed and locked it. He looked around and ran into the center of the room.

Stephen shot off the lock of a mesh door and ripped it open. The vampire took off his trenchcoat and tossed it into a corner. Stephen ran into the room and began to haul out twenty gallon tanks, two or three at a time. His heart was racing; time was defiantly not on their side. He pushed the thoughts of how Skadi was doing; right now it was the explosives that mattered. Stephen took a few deep breaths and calmed himself down.

He opened the packs and laid the contents on the ground. He picked up a remote detonator and put is in his pocket. Stephen pulled out the blueprint, looked it over for a second and rammed it back into his pocket. Stephen gathered some explosives and tanks and began to set them up.

“Let’s see if I can remember what I did in demolitions training.”

Driretlen, Tyr and Avatre looked down upon the melee from their vantage point on the top of the mall roof. Below were figures scurrying to and fro, firing guns, screaming and shouting to others.

The Ancient shook his head. "It is never over..."

Tyr nodded, and moved to Avatre's side. "Shall we pull out?"

"...Yes..."

Tyr and Avatre held hands, and then both changed into their canine forms. Driretlen watched with a fascination, and then turned back towards the water. It was still: no sign of Alexander.

Eeeyaaawwhoooooooooo...

It was a low and mournful cry. Those Werewolves still in Emerald City simply slunk into the shadows, and disappeared.

Tyr remained in canine form and looked at Driretlen. The vampire cocked his head, and then nodded.

"I'll deal with Sigrun and Skadi at another time..."

Together, the three stalked off into the night.

As the firefight continued, the balance, even with the Nobles present, once more started to shift towards the VP. Zero, until then mesmerised by what Stephen was intending, finally saw what was happening, and turned to Lieutenant Ambrose.

"Lieutenant! I thought you promised me at least 100 vampires!"
"I did, sir! All 100 of them are here!"
"There isn't anywhere close to 100 vampires in this mall, Lieutenant! They may be Elders, but they are still outnumbered! Where are the rest of them?!"

With that, Ambrose gave an evil smile. "You're right, sir! Only about 30 of us are fighting in this mall right here! But, once your youngster here is done with his explosive idea, the rest of us will be attacking the VP from the outside while we make our retreat! Once we're all out of here, our comrades outside will force the VP to retreat into this mall, Sir! Then.....KABOOM! WE win the day!!!"

Zero stared, stunned. Then, a great smile broke upon his lips, and he slammed Ambrose's back, causing him to choke. "Remind me to give your superior a special mention of your abilities, boy! A man with brains and balls as big as yours deserve better than Lieutenant!"

"Thank you, sir", Ambrose choked, as Zero turned back to Stephen. "Alright, Stephen, be quick here!"

Feeling his strength sap away, Hondur mustered what effort he could and tore away from Skadi, allowing his wrist to slowly heal. He panted heavily and lay against the wall, severely weakened by the loss of blood to Skadi. Looking back at the elf nearby, Hondur spoke in a pressured tone.

"She'll... be alright for the moment. She has enough blood to live. Now... we just need to wait."

The room fell into a desperate silence, waiting for the vampires to return with the necessary blood to ensure Skadi's healing.
_______

More VP and ASHVO soldiers poured into the mall, dropping down through the hole in the roof, bursting through windsows, charging through doors. Gunfire had erupted everywhere, all focused upon the enemies left within the mall.

It had been confirmed that Garm was dead, also adding to the confusion. It was now merely a gunfight, threatening to kill anything that wasn't wearing a uniform.

Shea sat within the shadows atop the highest level of the complex. A pair of night vision goggles allowed him to see Skadi and the others. Just as he trained his sights upon the female vampire, Garm's signal came through, it was time to act. Switching the safety off his automatic rifle, Shea pulled the trigger.(OOC: Wow my character is a really bad shot... >_>)

Stephen grabbed several grenades and wraped some more duct tape around them. He placed them on top of a propane tank and smiled. He was almost done he just needed about another twenty minutes. Stephen kept running from small bomb to small bomb, making sure everything was right. After nearly another twenty minutes, all of the explosives and tanks were placed where they would be most effective.

Stephen next turned to the most important part of the operation, the detonator.
He would only need a few minutes to hook it up.

"Zero, Arleni...you guys can pull out. I'll be done down here in only a few minutes."

Stephen pulled out the small cellphone sized remote and checked it, a small red light appeared on it. He then turned to the reciver and made sure it would work, it too also worked. Fitting it on a brick of C4, he used the rest of the tape and fixed it to a large propane tank. Stephen took several smaller recivers and placed them on a couple more well placed C4 bricks. Pocketing the remote, threw on his trenchcoat and activated the other recivers.

Stephen pryed open the air duct and looked in, it was big enough for him just to squeeze through. He climbed in and began to slowly make his way to the surface. If Zero and Arleni had pulled out liked he asked, by the time he reached the surface, the VP and ASHVO would be complete control of the mall.

And then Stephen would send them to thier deaths.

OOC: It was on purpose 5CN. Shea was only mean to distract Skadi, not injure her. I figured that he might have a chance of survival if he didn't harm anyone. I'll leave it up to you to decide if Shea was killed by the burst of gunfire towards him or not.
______________

IC: Gunfire was everywhere, tearing apart the mall complex in search for enemies. No one could actually see a vampire but that didn't stop them from shooting amongst the confusion. Several men were cut down by the fire of their own comrades, creating the illusion that there was indeed an enemy within the mall, killing the VP.

Before they knew it, the true battle outside the the mall had reached full intensity, forcing the VP back into the mall. Within minutes almost every VP and every ASHVO member were inside the mall, confused and all possessing an easy trigger finger. Little did they know that had already lost the battle.

Those near the edge of the mall still fought with the ferocity of a cornered lion, gunning down several vampires in an attempt to escape the mall perimeter.

OOC: GS, feel free to explode things now.
____________

Finally the first vampire burst into the room, an unconscious human within his arms. He glanced at Skadi then realised why he had fetched the young girl. Nodding towards Hondur, he lay the girl down next to Skadi and departed, searching for more blood.

Hondur nodded in thanks and quickly pressed the neck of the girl up to Skadi's mouth.

"Drink my sire, you need to take in as much fresh blood as you can to purge the silver."

Hondur still felt weak from his own blood loss, but he would not rest until he was sure Skadi would be alright on her own. Even after gaining enough blood, Skadi would take a while to heal from so much silver. Gettin the substance out of her body would be the worst...
____________

OOC: Alrighty, as some of you may know, I am leaving for a few weeks on Jan 8th (my time) and so we had to rush this a little at the end. Thankfully we've pretty much finished and I would ask everyone to start doing their final posts. It is currently 10:53am Jan 7th so there will be a few more posts from me yet, but after that you won't see me till the 18th.

Everyone please try and finish off.

Stephen scrambled through the air duct as quickly as he could. The gunfire had died down slightly, but he still heard the chatter of automatic weapons. He looked through a metal grate and spotted the nobles and elves keeping the humans inside. Stephen pried open the other end of the air duct and quickly slid out.

********************************

A young VP officer empited his rifle into the door leading to the basement. The bullets tore away the lock and the man knocked the door open. He didn't see anything at first, there was no one there. He took several steps in and dropped his rifle. It was then he saw the explosives. The man turned and ran like a bat of out hell, he tried to scream a warning to his comrades. He was halfway across the mall when he felt it rumble benath his feet.

********************************

Stephen darted across the parking lot, making sure to keep low. When he got to the far end, he hid behind one of the parking lot lights. Stephen pulled out the detonator and looked at the mall. He pressed the button.

The first explosion of a third of the explosives and fuel shook the whole mall, the other two thirds followed even before the first had a chance to settle, and many of the people in Emerald felt or heard it.

Fireballs shot through the ventilation shafts, buring everything in thier path. Humans standing to close quickly caught fire, and in thier suprise fired off thier weapons; killing more of their men. Sevearl of the unlucky men were flamethrower operators, the tanks on thier backs ruptured, killing more people.

The foundation and supports broke apart, the explosion had torn huge ravins and canyons into them and the intense heat turned many parts into a mush. The wall that Stephen had placed his bomb under went first, breaking at the bottom and falling down and into the rest of the mall....dragging the other walls with it.

It was when this began to happen did many of the officers grasp what was happening, by then it was too late. Out of the collapsing mall, only fourteen VP officers made it out, many of thier comrades and the ASHVO were trapped under the mound of debris.

********************************

Stephen watched as the mall crumbled, he had done his task. Moving from his hidding spot he headed back to the sight of the convoy battle. Jumping onto a rooftop, he watched nearly a dozen ambulances and firetrucks race towards the mall. Stephen looked around on the roof and recovered his sword.

Putting it back on, Stephen made his way to Hondur's mansion. He knew he had just killed or doomed to a slow painful death hundreds of people. Strangly though, he didn't feel bad about what he did, Stephen shrugged it off.

He walked into the room where Skadi was. He looked at her, Hondur, then Sigrun...and all looked like shit. He instantly read Hondur's expression and gave a slight nod. Taking off his trenchcoat he walked to the bed. He bent down and exposed his neck to Skadi.

"Skadi, drink..take what you need."

Barely awake, Skadi lunged forward and sunk her fangs deep into Stephen's neck. He ancient fangs drew out the rich vampiric blood and drew it into her injured body, attempting to heal the massive amounts of damage done by Garm.

Within a minute Stephen began to feel extreme weakness as Skadi continued to draw blood, not able to stop herself. Stephen attempted to pull himself off Skadi but found he didn't have the strength, especially against Skadi's grip for dear life. Starting to panic, Stephen grunted in effort.

At that point, Hondur stepped forward and yanked the younger vampire off Skadi, saving him from being drained completely. Picking up Stephen, Hondur moved him out of the way as several more vampires walked into the room bearing humans.

"Stephen, we must feed to regain strength. Then we have one final task to complete."
_________

Nothing could be done to prevent the devestation. The explosion rocked the city and gained the attention of ordinary police, fire fighters and other city officials. The entire ASHVO population was inside the mall when it exploded, ending the reign of the recently established organisation.

Fire was everywhere, engulfing anything that would catch alight and fuel the intense blaze. The remaining vampires quickly made themselves disappear so they could avoid the lethal flames and the soon to be arriving authorities. It wouldn't be long before they all returned to the mansion.

Battered and bruised, the 14 VP officers got into what vehicles weren't destroyed and gradually made their way back to VP HQ. They would most likely lose their jobs after this.

The fire continued to grow, but thankfully remained within the area of the mall complex.

Stephen's eyes grew wide as Skadi buried her fangs into his neck, this was only the second time he had been bitten by a vampire, and his whole neck hurt. Stephen was afraid he would be drained until he felt Hondur pull him off. He leaned against the wall, letting his neck heal and try and get his bearings.

Stephen coughed a little before nodding to Hondur.

"Yeah, lets get something to eat."

The pair left the mansion, Stephen nearly stumbled on his first step and Hondur quickly put him back on his feet. Hondur and Stephen moved through the streets, many humans had gone indoors when the first gunshots had been fired. A young couple running down the street, looking for cover were heading in thier direction.

The two vampires hid in an alley and grabbed the two humans, dragging them into the alley. Stephen bit the man's neck and gulped the blood down quickly. After several minutes he had finished, he dropped the corpse and licked his lips clean. He turned to Hondur as the older vampire finished his meal.

"What is this task we have to do?"

Hondur finished feeding an quickly dropped the body, not caring if it were found or not. Turning to Stephen, his face took on a murderous expression rarely displayed by Skadi's fledgling.

"Before Garm died, he spoke of following Presidential orders. So, we must pay a visit to the President and make sure he gives no more orders involving Skadi and any other vampires. There will most likely be guards, but they won't be expecting us. We won't have to worry about silver ammo. Let's go."

Hondur took hold of Stephen and launched the vampire into the air, throwing him up higher than the surrounding buildings. Seconds later Hondur was in the air, floating right by Stephen as he rocketed upwards. Before the younger vampire could fall, Hondur grabbed him under the armpits and began to take horizontal direction, heading for the Presidential quarters of Emerald City.
___________

After several more humans, Skadi was safe for now. Her blood had been fully restorted and all outer wounds had healed. The internal wounds would take much longer and Skadi would most likely have to sleep for quite some time before she would be back to full strength.

Sigrun kept a watchful eye upon his vampiric companion, sapped of strength but also worried about her condition. He didn't know vampiric states like Hondur did.
__________

Hondur and Stephen landed upon the roof of a massive house, even bigger than Hondur's mansion. The massive block of land was completely surrounded by fences, guards and other security measures. Obviously they weren't expecting anything that could fly would be quiet.

Listening for any indication they had spotted, Hondur quiet lead Stephen to a ventilation duct and lowered himself down.

"We want to make this silent and quick. I'm not sure where his office is, but we should be able to find something."

Stephen nodded in response to Hondur, and climbed into the ventilation duct shortly after him. The pair moved in a crouched position for several minutes, they stopped as a guard walked beneath them. The human adjusted his uniform and went along his way, oblivoius to the two vampires just feet above his head.

Stephen and Hondur moved quickly through the ventilation shaft, Stephen paused and moved quietly down another duct. He looked through a grate and saw a man sitting in a chair next to a fire reading a book.

"Hondur, get over here."

Stephen moved and let Hondur see the human in the chair.

"If that is the president, lets move in."

Hondur moved over to the grate and watched. It was indeed the President. He indicated the pair should wait for a few moments and was lucky enough to see the Minister of Security walk into the dimly lit room, a handful of papers within his grasp.

"Mr President, there has been an incident. The newly constructed Emerald City Mall has been destroyed, along with many of our anti vampiric forces."

"Shit. That ASHVO officer better have done his job or we'll have to bring out the big guns."

Hondur nodded his head.

"That's both of them. Alright, we bust through this grate and get out there as quickly as we can. I'll grab the President, you get the Security Minister. Kepp him quiet and lock any doors you can find."

Without another word, Hondur burst through the grate in a blur of motion and charged directly for the startled President.

Stephen burst through after Hondur, and slammed into the Security Minister, the man fell backwards and hit his head on a bookshelf, stunning him. Stephen turned around and quickly locked the door. He pulled out one of his pistols and leveled it at the human.

"Should I nail this prick?"

Hondur nodded and Stephen lowered his pistol, he holstered it. The minister was confused slightly. Stephen put on a black leather glove, pulled out the Wolf Knife, and moved to the Minister. The man opened his mouth to scream for help, the knife flew in the air and punched through his skull and buried itself in his brain. Stephen walked up, pulled out the knife and cleaned it on the suit the Minister had on.

He pocketed and went to the door and peaked through the lock, he could see the hallway.

"Everything is clear Hondur."

The President and Hondur watched as Stephen quickly disposed of the Security Minister. Still within the grasp of Hondur, the President didn't dare to sceam for help.

"Why... why are you doing this?"

"Well Mister President, you have caused us a great deal of trouble with your orders and we would like to return the favour. The only difference being, we will succeed."

The President finally realsied what this was about, a look of complete terror upon his face as Hondur displayed his fangs and wrenched the President's head, breaking his neck and allowing the limp body to crash to the floor.

Nodding to Stephen, Hondur opened the door and looked down the corridor. At the end was a glass windo, looking out into the open courtyard. They were at least two levels high and would have a reasonable distance between the window and the ground.

"Alright, we're getting out of here through that window. Don't worry about where we're going after that, I'll take care of things."

Stephen nodded and made a sprint for the window, Hondur keeping pace right next to him. About halfway down the corridor, a guard rounded the corner at the other end.

"Hey! You two, stop!"

Without hesitating, the guard withdrew his glock and began unleashing rounds at the fleeing vampires. Not taking any notice of the bullets flying past them, Stephen and Hondur smashed through the window, glass, blood and lead filling the air. Before they could fall, Hondur took hold of Stephen and began ascending into the dark sky.

Hondur had managed to catch a bullet in the shoulder as he moved upwards but would not let it phase him, only slightly jolting as the metal pierced his flesh. By the looks of things, Stephen may have recieved one in the back as well. They would be tended to later.

Picking up speed, the pair disappeared into the nigh, only a few more minutes remained until the sun reclaimed the sky.

The explosion and demise of the Emerald City Mall was something to behold, rivaling the world's biggest fireworks display any country can muster up. Of those fighting in the Battle of Emerald City, the Assingtonian coalition were the ultimate winners, and while the vampires of Assington and the Elves of Lothlorien took heavy casualties, few of the ASHVO, the VP, or the Hyraphore had survived. The Lycans were gone as well, the fight ultimately not theirs, and Hondur's coven has been reinstalled as the primary coven in Emerald City. During all of these, there was no thought for the Nobles that had joined the Assingtonian coalition at the last minute, and they were absent after the explosion. In such a case, it was no surprise that most people thought that the Nobles had perished.

Or so they thought...........

_________________________________________________________________

Minutes before the Emerald City Mall explosion

It was almost a one-sided affair between the VP and the Nobles, even accounting for the fact that the Noble Elders and Ancients far surpassed any human in ability, and the fact that they fought with desperation for their lives. The numbers were just too great, and while the Noble force of 30 had banded together and created an all-round purple energy shield to protect them, the concentrated gunfire overwhelmed the shield eventually, and the bloodbath resumed in full earnest.

It took the reemergence of Zero into the battle along with his trusty sidekick Leopold to delay the impending demise and ultimate failure of the Noble force, dismaying the VP force, if only for a while. With a war cry, the Treasure Blades flashed as Zero did his 'energy rain' move, spinning in midair as the spinning Blades shot off little bolts of cutting purple energy in all directions, severing into the body parts of the VP mortals. Heartened by this great effort from their legendary leader of the Dark Revolution, the Noble force, now cut to 21, rallied around Leopold to direct increased firepower at their mortal foe. Slowly, they managed to push the VP force back.

It ultimately took one more unlooked-for reinforcement to save the day for the Nobles. And that reinforcement came in the form of Nikita, who, with an Amazon cry for blood, crashed into the VP force from the outside, her bloodcurdling yells complementing her skill with the WhipBlade, a whip-like sword that changed shape as it slashed in all directions, behaving almost like a whip, but with far deadlier consequences. The VP force, stunned at the attack from an unexpected quarter, did not have the time to recover, and the now 15-strong Noble force fought back. For the first time, the Noble force started to push the VP back strongly, and coupled with the fire from outside, courtesy of the Elves and the rest of the Noble army, the VP were dismayed, trapped in the mall.

Then Zero, intercepting Stephen's message to pull out, relayed the mental order to everyone else, along with his own message

"My Noble kindred, assemble at the Emerald Ritz. Leave the others."

And with that, the Noble forces, both inside and outside the mall, took flight, leaving the field of battle to the VP.

A field of battle that would soon mean nothing as it disappeared into a fiery cloud of unimaginable power.............

_________________________________________________________________

Half an hour later, outside the Emerald Ritz.

A congregation of black figures gathered outside the Emerald Ritz, now devoid of any guests.......except for the Noble vampires that now gathered outside as their leader had ordered. Trembling, what remaining staff were there in the hotel were gradually assured of their well-being by Zero, before he stood in front of his army. By his side was his beloved Aeris, as well as his trusty lieutenants Nikita, Leopold, Kellis, and the soon-to-be-promoted Lieutenant Ambrose.

The casualties were high, even for the small number that the Nobles added to the battle. Even though they proved decisive in the Battle of Emerald City, only 69 of the original 100 were left, and many of them were nursing wounds that were slow in healing, due to the silver conflagaration they had exposed themselves to.

"My kindred", Zero started, "We have won this battle. We have won this battle for our Assingtonian kindred, and we have proved ourselves worthy, as the Nobles that we ARE!!!"

Even weary as they were, the Nobles cheered, finally proud to have revived their legacy of honor, of service to their Assingtonian kindred.

"Because of your effort, we may now have entered a new age for the Nobles! With this battle, you have strengthened my hand in negotiations. With our proof of service, we will once more be accepted into the community of the underworld. And for this, I humbly thank you for your assistance!"

More cheering. "Tonight, my brethren, go out into Emerald City and feed to heal. You shall stay in the Ritz for the day, and the morrow, return to the City of Darkness. Once more, I thank you!"

Just then, the proprietor of the Ritz timidly stepped up to Zero's back, and tried to stutter, "Ah......", but he was stopped by Zero's raised palm. "I shall pay double the fees that you would normally earn from a full capacity, Sir. In addition to that, each of you would get a personal US$500,000, for your own benefit. Is that enough?"

"It is enough, generous Sir! Thank you", the propreitor stammered, as he was led away by the kindly hands of Zero's soldiers. As what left of the Noble army dispersed to find their blood, Zero turned to Nikita, Leopold, and Kellis.

"Thank you for your assistance as well", Zero started, but was stopped this time by Nikita. "No, Zero. When our leader asks, how can we, the Elite Commandos, refuse? It is our honor", she smiled.

"For our honor!", Leopold and Kellis cheered along with Nikita, while Zero beamed. Finally, he turned to Aeris.

"I have to go pay a visit to the Lady Skadi now, Aeris. Please stay here....."
"No", Aeris shook her head, startling him. "I have to go pay my respects to the Lady Skadi too. I feel like I will be needed there, but I don't know why......"
"Aeris......", Zero started, but her fingers went to his lips. "Please, my love."

Slowly nodding, Zero put an arm around Aeris' waist, and flew off to Skadi's mansion..........

_________________________________________________________________

At Skadi's mansion

Before Sigrun knew it, Zero had arrived at the mansion, and was standing besides him.......along with Aeris. Looking at her, Sigrun felt a strange sense of......kinship, one he couldn't explain. After all, Aeris was but a mortal girl.......how could she be related to him? It was puzzling.......but there was something about Aeris Sigrun couldn't put his elven finger on.

"My Lady", Zero whispered as he observed Skadi's weakened state, but Skadi did not wake. However, as if by compulsion, Aeris started forward.

"Aeris, don't", Zero said, trying to pull her back, but Aeris struggled at his touch, and he had no choice but to let her go on. Slowly, Aeris arrived at Skadi's bedside, and bent down to her.

"She's hurt", Aeris whispered. Then, she did a most unexpected thing. Crouching down close to Skadi, she put her hands to her bathrobe, and undid it partially, exposing a bit of her cleavage.........but that was not the most incredible part. Around her neck and cleavage area, a rainbow light was shimmering, such as had shone on Sigrun when Skadi was feeding on him.......

Sigrun opened and closed his eyes slowly. The drain from Skadi not only took physical strain on him, but also on his mind. He couldn't focus, everything was in a blur. Soft footsteps walked past him and toward Skadi. He looked up at the figure, but she was blurred. He couldn't recognize her.

But she was Aeris. And she held a mystery about her. Something he couldn't quite pinpoint.

Sigrun felt the strange shift in the balance of the arcane. Something was happening nearby, and it seemed to come from Aeris. He opened his eyes once more and drunkenly stared at Aeris and Skadi.

Arcane... he thought slowly to himself, before passing out unconscious.
____________________________

Arleni bolted with the rest of the elves away from the mall. Yet, she still felt the explosions' heat on her backside. However, she had managed to get far enough away that it didn't matter.

"Corinan! Lead the clan home!" she commanded, "I've got to find Sigrun!"

Portals began to open up in random places, and almost immediately began to flicker with the elves jumping through.
____________________________

Arleni entered the mansion and made her way to the sounds of her friends. She darted in the door, glanced quickly around and finally saw Sigrun slumped against the wall, unconscious.

She cursed in elvish as she bent down to him. She called to him, "Sigrun! Awaken!"

She finally saw trickles of blood flowing slowly down his neck. She turned his head aside and finally saw the fang marks. She released a gasp as she looked up to the others.

"What the hell happened to him?" she demanded.

No one responded. Arleni grew frantic as she glanced back at Sigrun. She placed a hand upon his chest and muttered a spell silently. His heartbeat was faint...almost too faint to be saved.

Finally, Skadi's voice called out, "He saved my life...by nearly giving his own..."

Arleni looked up to her and noticed Aeris standing next to her now. Skadi was sitting up and looking down at Sigrun with apparent affection. There was also gratitude in her eyes as well...

Sigrun gasped slightly as Arleni returned to stabilize his health. He was going to be all right.

They were all going to be all right.

The war was over.

Suddenly, Sigrun was hit with a mental image. It was of Driretlen and the two werewolves standing on the roof of the mansion.

"Sigrun, please bring Skadi to the roof at your leisure. Come alone."

Sigrun moved his head about and fussed with Arleni. She attempted to hold him down, and after a immobilizing spell, succeeded. Sigrun, as weak as he was, finally accepted his fate.

He sent a message telepathically to Drirethlen.

"Drirethlen. The war's over. You can send you friends home now..."

OOC: Assington is trying to close the thread Val... please just go with it...

OOC: Taking writer's authority of my character, everyone should note that Skadi does not wake up.

IC: Hondur and Stephen filed back into the room to find Skadi feeding of a human girl. She seemed to be willingly giving herself to Skadi, which somewhat puzzled Hondur. Looking around the room, he found Zero and gave him a puzzled look. Zero merely replied with a nod that seemed to explain everything. This was Aeris.

Finally the girl began to wimper under Skadi's drain and was soon struggling weakly to get away from the ancient vampire. Hondur didn't say anything as he stepped forward and yanked Aeris back, landing her in Zero's arms.

"Enough. She doesn't need more blood, she needs time."

Hondur moved to stand by his sire, looking at the group gathered around him.

"Obviously Skadi is unable to give her thanks, but know that she appreciates it greatly."

Looking to Sigrun and Arleni, Hondur smiled.

"Sigrun... Maximus. Whilst we have had our differences, I am forever greatful for your help and the help of your brethren in keeping the vampires of Emerald free from the tyranny of the hyraphore. We owe you and your elves a great debt."

Moving his glare over to Zero, Hondur gave a nod of repect.

"Whilst I was not aware of the existence of your brood, I have become thankful that you are a reality. Your help throughout this situation has been vital and the aid of our Noble brethren at the last battle was paramount. I would enjoy restablishing a more permanent contact with the Nobles of Atros."

Hondur looked directly into Stephen's eyes, the respect he had for the fledgling was obvious.

"Stephen, whilst you are significantly younger that those around you, you have proven your worth, ability and competence as a valuable member of this coven and a trustworthy friend of ours. You will always be welcome here."

Taking a glance at everyone once again, Hondur grinned.

"We have one another battle, thanks to our combined might. Whilst he have indeed suffered, it is nothing that time won't heal. And time is something a vampire, or an elf has plenty of."
___________
After delving into the supple neck of Aeris, Skadi felt the same sense of foreign energy running through her. Whilst the blood was human, there was something similar about the force that aided in Skadi's healing, something similar to Sigrun's force. Whatever it was, it helped, but it would not be enough to heal Skadi completely. The rest was up to her and her natural ability, no more blood would help, no more elven forces. It was all up to her.

Although still physically asleep, Skadi managed to get one mental message out to all those within the room.

"Thankyou all. Alexander is gone and we can finally rest. I will not awaken for some time, but when I do... I hope to see you all again."

The pleasant message startled many in the room, although Hondur seemed to be less surprised than the others. There was a special bond they shared, even though Sigrun was her partner, Hondur shared a blood bond.

It was finally over, the threat had been killed and the vampires of Assington could rest easy for a while to lick their wounds.
_____________

The group now stood within the deepest dungeon of Hondur's mansion. Far underground lay a catacomb of passage ways and chambers. Some were storage, others shelters and one was a tomb, a place of prolonged rest for the vampiric.

Skadi had been placed within a large padded, stone coffin at the centre of the tomb, her blade resting within her grasp. There were no other vampire resting here save for Skadi, not that she would notice the company. The group shuffled out of the chamber and a massive metallic door slammed shut, the buzz of lock mechanisms filled the air as it was sealed shut. Only Hondur could open the door and would only do so when Skadi was ready. No one else was getting in there... no one.

Without a word, the group headed back up into a living room of the mansion, just in time to realise the sun was up and no vampire would be leaving until the next night. Hondur sat down in a huge armchair.

"Of course, you are all welcome to seek refuge from the light here."
_________

During the day...

Once light flooded the city, the full impact of what had happened the previous night finally sank in. The Emerald City Mall had been compeltely levelled, the entire complex destroyed in the explosion and resulting fire. Whilst no other building had been damaged by fire, many sported structural damage due to flung debris.

Hundres of people lost their lives that night, all existing ASHVO members save for the mysterious vampiric leader that has disappeared. Several VP officers lost their lives, those remaining are pending an investigation into their actions and are suspended from duty and the civilian loss has yet to be confirmed as the bodies are still being found.

This day will be remembered for more than these lives.

Early that morning, the President and Security Minister were found dead within the Presidential office. It is suspected those guilty were terroists or hired asassins, but there have been no further leads.

Eventually Emerald City will recover from the affairs of vampires and creatures like them. One day, the people will take their city back.
___________

OOC: Well everyone, that is my last post. I assume everyone will wish to do their own finishing posts but that is it from me. Thankyou all to those that participated to make this a great thread and sorry to those that were left behind.

I'd say this has been the best chapter of the AV series yet and I'll be sure to let you all know when AV4 hits NS.

Well I'm off for a few weeks, bye all.

OOC: And this shall be my swansong post for AV3. It has been a good time with all of you guys. As you know, I'll need to be away for a long while too. So until then......See ya, all.

IC:Skadi's fangs pierced into Aeris' throat like a surprise thrust into her awareness, and she moaned as she felt her self being drained away by the voracious appetite of Skadi's vampiric hunger. Finally, having had enough, she tried to pull away, and it was only by the strength of Hondur that Aeris managed to save her life from Skadi.

Holding the now somewhat anaemic Aeris in his arms, Zero turned to Hondur, and nodded at his words. "If that is your wish, then so be it. On the morrow, the Noble army will leave Emerald City. Soon, my King will send representatives to negotiate a treaty of friendship between the Assingtonians and the Nobles. But for now.......my place is elsewhere."

With a last nod, Zero took Aeris in his arms, and carried her like a baby to where Skadi would be entombed, for a while at least. By this time, the sun was up, and Zero had to stay in the mansion for the night.

Finally, the next night, Zero got up early, and went to Hondur. With a nod at Hondur, Zero said, "I'll meet you next time, Master Hondur. I hope we meet once more as friends the next time."

And with that, he took flight, taking Aeris back to the Ritz.........where another adventure awaits them.........

Arleni watched as Hondur left with Skadi in his arms. She whispered a prayer of good health to the mate of her cousin and then returned her attention to her task.

Sigrun would need rest for at least the next few days. She helped Sigrun to his unsteady feet and guided him to the bed, the same one that Skadi had been using earlier.

"Lie down. Your rest will heal you."

Sigrun obeyed, his head swimming as if he were drunk. He sighed,

"I must take care of my armies. Must bury the dead and--" he began, but soon drifted off to sleep.

"Sleep well, Sigrun. All will be taken care of." Arleni whispered as she watched her cousin sleep peacefully for the first time in a long time...

OOC: here is my last post. I have to say it has been fun.

IC:

Stephen was slightly confused by seeing Skadi feeding from a human girl. It was only then he got a good look at her and guessed correctly she was Aeris. He watched as Hondur pulled the human off.

Stephen could only smile at Hondur as the older vampire spoke to him. He couldn't find any words to say at the moment, but he knew that sometime later he would find something to say. Stephen listened to Skadi's brief message and followed the group down to the tomb.

He looked on quietly as Skadi was placed into the coffin. And I thought Stoker made that part up. Stephen thought to himself.

When they got back upstairs and with Hondur sitting in his chair, Stephen was one of the last to leave. He turned and bowed slightly to Hondur.

"It has been a honor finally meeting you Hondur after hearing so much about you. I'll see you when the sun goes down."

Stephen left and went back to his room. He undressed and took a long hot shower. Stephen wrapped a towel around his waste and sat at a small table. He pulled out his pistols, disassembled and cleaned them. He cleaned his Wolf knife, his sword and put all of his weapons back.

Stephen put on a pair of clean boxers and climbed into bed. Staring at the ceiling he thought over what had happened in the past few nights. Skadi had nearly died because of Garm, Daniel was gone, so was Alexander, and the Hyraphore seemed like it was ready to get back on it's feet. Two things stood out in his mind more than anything else.

"I killed a Security Minister and leveled a shopping mall....well.....guess there is a first time for everything." he said quietly to himself.

Stephen also felt better, he had gained respect of Hondur. He smiled slightly and closed his eyes.

Several minutes later he was fast asleep.

Driretlen nodded at Sigrun's words, and turned to the werewolves.

"I am afraid that the time for rebuilding bridges shall not be tonight my friends."

Tyr nodded, and glanced up at the waning moonlight.

"I understand. It is time once more for the Kantrawulves to pull a disappearing act."

"When shall we see each other again?"

Avatre and Tyr jumped onto the edge of the roof and looked down, and then back at the ancient.

"Fate acts in strange ways, Driretlen. I have a feeling that we'll be seeing each other sooner than we would like..."

With that, they leapt off, and Driretlen was alone. He paused for a moment to regain his composure and ran off himself. He had to rebuild the Hyraphore as well. That would take time.

And time was always... Always of the essence.

********

Alexander's body drifted near the surface down the Georgia Straight. It would have headed further down and perhaps even out to ocean.

However, his lifeless form was snagged on the wreckage of the destroyed bridge, on which the skytrain with Daniel Able was on. Cleanup crews were already on scene, but none noticed the black garbed figure that floated nearby.

None also noticed as the body sank beneath the surface, and did not rise again...

OOC: Great job everyone. Remember - ATG wants in the next one :D

(OOC: Final post)

Like a wraith, Shea Lancer disappeared into the night, clutching his leg and chest in pain, his assault rifle abandoned on the rooftop. As he limped from roof to roof, always heading away from his near fatal encounter with vampires, Shea's mind whirled, unable to accept what had occurred, while also attempting to sort out a course of action to follow and a future to hope for. It was clear that Shea's situation was hopeless. With his resignation from his position in the Five Civilized Nations Interior Ministry, Shea Lancer could no longer return to the Five Civilized Nations; because he knew too much. His home lost, his vengeance not yet fulfilled, and haunted by the events of the past, Shea faced a dire predicament, worsened by the fact that now he was no longer the hunter, but the hunted, prey for the supernatural beings that he had faced before...

As he climbed into his hotel room through the window using the escape ladder, Shea grimaced and collapsed on the floor. Slowly, Shea stripped off his vest and his drenched shirt, groaning in pain. When he glanced at his many wounds, Shea immediately understood that they were fatal. With a curse of pain and frustration, Shea levered himself up from the floor, as he his life slowly dripped away...

With determination, Shea raised his sheathed sword, marveling at its beauty as he unsheathed the blade. With the last bit of his strength, he brought the blade to his neck. Closing his eyes, Shea muttered quietly, "Morituri te salutamos," an ancient Roman battlecry.

As the tears flowed down his face, composed even with the agony that he was experiencing, Shea slit his throat, cutting the vital veins and releasing his remaining lifeblood. As he gurgled, collapsing onto the floor and releasing the grip on his heavy sword, Shea opened his eyes, facing the window, and taking in the full moon... He died quickly, joining the spirits of his dead family...

(OOC: *Note: Morituri te salutamos means: We, the dead, salute you.)

OOC: Like the Energizer Bunny, this thing never dies...

And maybe this time I'll try to keep up.

(OOC: Um... the thread is over...)

OOC: We're both aware, we've been monitoring its progress.

As with MS, perhaps I will be better able to keep pace with the next installment.

OOC: Thanks for that everyone... nice way to end things 5CN.

:p

OOC: When can we expect AV IV?

Hmm, there are two possibles. Either within a month or so... or not until close to mid year. I have a few things to work out with school, work and not being able to access a computer. Hopefully it will be up earlier, I'll see what I can do.