Author's Note: Sorry it's been so long since my last posting, but life as always is hectic, and this chapter was a bear to write. I initially wanted to do a different approach to the Society of Leopold mission, but after reading each successive chapter, was never satisfied with it.
This time, I think I have it, but I left it short for two reasons. One, namely, I hadn't updated in awhile and wanted to give my readers something. Two, the next chapter it gets interesting.
You'll find out next year!
Be glad there's only three more weeks left till 2019.
Chapter 56 – Slaughterhouse Rescue (Part One)
October 9, 2004 = Saturday Sunset
~Eliza Flores~
Walking up the driveway, I felt giddy and grew more so with each crunch of gravel under my boots. In a way that seemed antithetical to me, I was anticipating this, and as I approached the first hunter in the shadows of the driveway, didn't even slow up as I pulled a chakram from the shadows before throwing it through his neck. The hunter fell like a bag of potatoes, his head hitting the ground moments before his body.
I continued on, the gravel crunching under my boots. I passed the arrangement of motorcycles they used, including a pair of vans that I figured were for transporting supplies. The bikes were a mismatch of styles and models, some I didn't even recognize. All seemed to be well cared for though, so I let them be for the moment.
When I rounded a corner, I immediately yanked the shadows around me to obscure me from sight as I was face to face with an entire army of hunters. I took a moment to study the group and the heavy firepower they carried. I wasn't even sure if the guns were automatic or not, but I was sure they were some type of assault rifle. Some had lasers to assist in their sighting, others had some weird looking scopes. All the rifles had long magazines to indicate a heavy bullet count, so that wouldn't be good for me.
As my eyes roamed over the men, movement in the bell tower caught my eye. Studying the tower, I saw two men with what looked like the M60 Larry had shown me except it was blockier. It I knew would be the machine gun in the group, and as I searched the roof of the mission, found another nest at the other end to cover the back with more men in it and probably more men there to secure that side from invasion.
That left me to figure out the best plan of attack. Looking back to the bell towers, I knew the deadliest attack would be the known automatics, so those I wanted to take out first. If I tried to lay into the ground forces and left the M60's alone, they'd just open up as soon as they had a target and that could hurt.
Eyeing the layout of the men, though, I began to worry about a direct attack. Using the shadows, I checked around the entrenched men to find small glass battles with rags on the top. Sighing, I knew the Molotov cocktails would be my worst nightmare in a direct attack, so I was forced to abandon that idea. They were just too entrenched and it made me wonder if Beckett knew of this wrinkle before pawning it off on me.
With SAW in hand, I turned into shadows and began to ghost along the ground. Nobody even paid me any mind as I ghosted along the wall and through the rear and less heavily defended rear door. I saw a hunter praying for strength in front of an altar, so I let him be as I ghosted along. The mission itself wasn't very large, a collection of small rooms that were converted into bedrooms.
I found a set of stairs at the other end that I took, checking to see if they had the doctor in the attic. What I found in the dark space was another fifteen hunters, this time all facing the stairwell with what looked like a man tied to a chair at the back of the room. Since no one paid me any attention, I moved along the roof to find that the guy was in fact just a dummy made to dupe suspecting kindred into attacking.
After glancing around, I went back down the stairs to think. Only a handful of rooms, but the hunters numbered almost a hundred. Either they weren't all sleeping here, or they had more space somewhere. A door off to the side of the entryway was my only clue, so I ghosted through to find myself heading down some more stairs.
I figured I was on the right track when I found two more hunters on guard, in the hallway at the end of the stairs, but the cellar seemed empty except for some large casks of wine. Infuriated at the lack of Johansen, I snapped back into existence and used a potence fueled leg to knock one hunter into the other. Both men went down into a pile of limbs and guns and I moved forward and grabbed their guns. As both men realized their defenseless state, they stilled their struggling to regain their feet and just stared daggers at me.
"Now that I have your attention," I told them, leveling the big SAW on them. "Where's Professor Johansen?"
"We'll never tell you where he is!" one spat at me. I cocked my head to the side and shook my head.
"You'll speak," I told him.
"Give us your worst!" he challenged and my smile grew sinister. Lowering my shades down my nose, I dominated his mind.
"Now, where is Johansen?" I asked him.
"Behind the cask in the middle on the back wall is a ladder," he began to speak. "Follow that cave to the cavern where the shipments come in by boat, then on to the other side to the training room. Bach himself guards the professor from the evil spawn, Lacroix."
"Good," I said more to myself than them. "Now, you two will begin performing the most seditious sex acts on each other and will forever live your lives as gay men. Such is the punishment you two will endure for helping kidnap an innocent."
"As you wish," they intoned as I turned my back on them. I went to the cask and gave it an experimental pull, finding it was actually on hidden rollers. Behind it was indeed the ladder, and I stepped through pulling the cask to hide me as I got on the ladder to conceal my progress. I then shifted back to my shadow form, moving along the ceiling of the dark tunnel lit by work lamps. There weren't any hunters stationed here, so I wasn't worried about being found as I moved along.
I didn't have a care one until I hit a fork in the tunnel. The hunter I had dominated didn't mention a fork or which way to take, and a look at the ground didn't offer much help either. I took the left fork, mainly because at a sharp turn it was much brighter than the right and I was hoping that meant the cavern was just past it.
What I found instead was a small cavern filled with cages and some crates off to one side. In one of the cages sat a kindred and I was forced to do a double take. Ash Rivers? He was a highly successful movie star who had just recently won an Oscar for his role in Negative Zero, a spy movie that rivaled Mission Impossible in appeal.
If I had a throat, I would have laughed at the man's situation, even though he had obviously been tortured. Looking at the kindred though, I briefly wondered if I should let him loose. I decided to talk to him if nothing else, reforming my body from shadow to land in front of the startled hunter who was so shocked he froze long enough for me to dominate his mind. Ash rose at seeing me drop into existence, and I gave him a serious stare before turning back to the guard.
"Go guard the door and shoot anyone that comes our way," I told him. The hunter nodded, then moved to guard the entrance, his weapon at the ready..
"So, what are you?" Ash asked as he eyed me.
"Lasombra," I told him as I faced him. "My name is Eliza Flores."
"Isaac send you?" he asked, his tone dry and lacking enthusiasm.
"No," I told him only to get scoffed at. "Isaac and I don't really get along. He thinks I should join his Anarchs and leave the Camarilla behind."
"And you told him to go to hell?" Ash said, leaning against the bars with a grin growing on his face.
"The prince knows whom gets the job done," I told him, and even Ash lost his smile over that. "I'm not even here for you. They've kidnapped an innocent and I'm here to rescue them."
"I wonder if anyone even knows where I'm at," he groused as he leaned against the bars.
"I wonder if anyone would attack a hundred hunters to get you back," I told him, and he sagged in defeat. "They've made this place a fortress that even elder Gangrel kindred fear to tread."
"Just great," he groused. "Can I at least talk you into letting me out?"
"How did they even know you were kindred?" I asked him, moving closer to the bars.
"Damn hunters in Hollywood figured it out," he told me. "Eventually they posted guards all over my club and ran off my clientele. I tried to make a break for it, but they caught me and brought me here."
"Tell you what," I told him, examining the bars. I could only think of one thing to ask him for, because even though I hadn't felt the thirst when I left the motel, I was now from using my powers. "I let you out, you let me have drink."
"You can't drink kindred blood," he told me with a sneer. "Isaac always told me not to even try it."
"I can," I told him, making him back up a step. "I'm something different, older. I can't drink from the kine like him anymore, only kindred."
"Al-alright," he said, looking unsure. "You let me out, you can have a drink."
"Deal," I said, then used my potence to rip open the door, breaking the latch. Ash was startled by the display and looked increasingly unsure. I moved into the cage with Ash backing away from me and almost smiled at his nervousness.
"It isn't going to hurt, is it?" he asked nervously.
"I'm told it feels pleasurable," I told him, finally pinning him in the corner. "Best thing a kindred can feel short of their own bloodletting."
"From a neck?" he said aghast. "I've never drank from another person before!"
"Such a pity," I said, feeling disgusted by him. How was this supposed to survive?
I didn't give him another moment for banter before forcing his head to the side and sinking my fangs into his neck. Ash was taken by such surprise that he didn't even get a chance to fight before I was tasting his blood, such that it was. The taste of his blood was somewhat bland and weak, not the electrifying taste I got from Michele. Had to be something about the kindred itself.
I drank deep, not giving any thought to making it feel good for the pretty boy with the thought that once I would've swooned just for him to even speak to me. All I felt as I drained his lifeless artery was disgust that I was lowered to drinking from such a worthless fool who, though he surely had access to celerity, still got caught by humans.
Once I had my fill, I pushed the snack off and began to brush the dust of his captivity off me. His eyes yellowed and he bolted around me, and I turned to follow him as he rushed the hunter guarding the entrance. Ash made short work of it, his own hunger making him more vicious in his desperation to get blood. When he was finished, he let the dead body fall.
"I...I," he stammered, as I sidled up beside him.
"Drank a bit too deep," I said, rubbing salt in the actors wound. "Punched his card. Bought him the farm. Cashed in his chips. Stepped on his bullfrog."
"Do you have to rub it in like that?" he hissed at me.
"Get used to it, pretty boy," I told him. "I said I'd get you out, not that I wouldn't give you a hard time doing it. Now, my information says that down here somewhere is a boat access. Once I get you to it, you scram."
"You'll never see me again," he said darkly. "I'm gonna go somewhere no one will ever see this face again."
"Good luck with that," I told him as I stepped of the corpse of the hunter and headed back down the path to the fork. A quick look over my shoulder showed me that Ash had taken the hunter's rifle and he held it with familiarity. I was sure it was information from his movie training, but it was at best a tossup whether he could use thing.
As we came upon the brightly lit cavern, I motioned Ash into the shadows.
"What is it?" he asked me as I pushed my sight ahead into a shadow.
"A cavern filled with hunters," I told him as I looked around.
"Can we take them?" he asked and I shook my head as I eyed the paintball-like guns hanging at their sides.
"I see flamethrowers," I told him. "Give me a bit, and I'll take care of it."
"Alright," he said, and I could almost feel the uneasiness roll of him as I cloaked us in shadow.
I began to wonder what the best way to hand the situation would be when a thought hit me. If I could blend abilities like possessing Hans and then use what blood bound me to him to enact a spell on an unsuspecting victim, could I do the same now?
Looking at my phone for the time, just after seven-thirty. If I could dominate their minds through the shadows, and give them orders, I could get several of them to open fire on the rest and create confusion. That would make it more likely me and Ash could clean up the leftovers.
Picking a target, I waited until his eyes were facing me before I began to try to push my mind into his. As his face went slack, I knew it had to be working. "Nod," I said, then felt giddy when the hunter began to nod. "At seven-forty-five, I want you to begin killing everyone. If you are last man standing, I then want you to stick the gun under your jaw and blow your brains out."
The hunter again nodded and I let go of his mind. I was working on lining up a second when Ash cut in. "Will he actually do that?"
"Without a doubt," I said as I got a line on a second hunter and repeated the process with the exact same time.
I managed to get about five of the guys under my control before the appointed time. When that time came, the five guys began to open fire, clearing the cavern of the other hunters. My five came out on top, each man not shooting their allies until it was just them. When the last man fell amid the pop of gunfire and one man was left, he began to follow my orders and put the gun to his jaw but then stopped.
I stepped from my shadow and towards the guy but it was plain to see my control was slipping. Since he wasn't facing me, Ash and I were able to walk right up to the guy where I pulled out my Glock and blew his brains out before he even registered our presence. Ash looked askance at the gory sight, but held his tongue.
I looked around, taking in the sight and the dock. There was a small boat like the one Mercurio used to take me out the Dane, and I saw Ash eyeing it.
"Take it and go," I told him. "I can get out of here without it."
"Happy hunting," he said as he made the dash for the raft.
I didn't even wait for him to clear the cave, and began rummaging nearby bodies for additional guns. It was without a doubt that Johansen would be guarded by the best the hunters could offer, and I figured I might need an edge.
The rifle I grabbed was goofy looking with its magazine behind the pistol grip, but it was on a sling that kept it under the right arm for easy grabbing. It had a scope that offered a clear view of Ash as he puttered out of the cave with, and a laser pointer just above the barrel that somehow managed to stay clear of the scope's view to show me right where the bullet would land.
My actions got me a one-fingered salute from Ash right before he disappeared, and I was tempted to hunt him down but decided against it, for. The hunter also had a long bladed knife on a webbed utility belt that I grabbed as well. The belt also contained a few pouches containing spare ammo clips for the pistol he carried as well as the rifle, which according to the barrel on the pistol was a 'Model of 1911 US Army.' Figuring that the military would at least have functional weapons even if they were dumbed down for its soldiers, I kept the whole belt, including the knife and its metal scabbard and tightened it around my much leaner waist.
I took a few more pouches containing rifle magazines from other fallen hunters, fastening these to my messenger bag's strap as my 'new' belt wouldn't hold anything more. I also took a few more canisters of fuel for the flamethrowers and was more than a bit upset when I found that I couldn't hold more. These things were kindred fighting gold and I still had the Sabbat to deal with.
I was going to have to rely on being a skilled hand-to-hand fighter to win when I had that fight I finally decided. Fire alone wouldn't scare a human unless you managed to spray them directly.
So as I left the cavern behind and headed into hell itself, I felt somewhat confident I could handle any number of hunters the Society decided to throw at me. I had enough firepower to be a one girl hit squad, the speed to be almost impossible to hit, and a body that would take a licking without slowing down.
As I opened the door and stepped through I was confident in my ability win. I was walking death, the mistress of the night, and the sun had set.
Time to play war.