Knives exited the car and waited for his brother to join him. The city was full of the noises that accompanied humans wherever they went. Somewhere a man was yelling at his woman, who screeched back. Somewhere a cat yowled, in heat he assumed. The noise seemed to mock the woman, echoing her voice. It seemed an apt comparison, the howl of the feline fading into a counterpoint to the argument. Humans, so animal like, and so blind to their true natures. He almost pitied them, but pity would get neither him nor them anywhere, so he refrained.
His gaze was naturally drawn to the sky, away from the evidence of the humans, but even the stars were occluded by the dirt of the city, touched by the miasma that surrounded the den of humanity. They seemed very dim, faint and far away. He almost felt lost, as if they had deserted him.
And still he was waiting for his brother.
He reached out and pounded on the roof of the car, trying to remind the airhead that they were here for a reason. A few more moments passed, and he beat out another percussive reminder.
Finally Vash opened the car door and stood up.
"Ready?" asked Knives, asperity coloring his voice.
His brother nodded, but said nothing.
Knives rolled his eyes and set off towards the plant. Why did this goof have to be the only one willing to accompany him? He'd almost have rather had Alex, even with the boy's tendency to get distracted at the oddest times. At least he didn't whine as loudly as his father, even if he didn't use words. Vash ghosted after him, protesting silently the entire time.
They paused a few blocks from the plant to go over their plan of attack. They were going to situate themselves outside the main door to the plant and gauge the traffic in and out. When they detected a lull, they were going to go in, knock unconscious the people they found, grab Kiley, and drag her out.
Vash was being entirely too monosyllabic for Knives' tastes. He could tell by his brother's mien that he was just aching to pull on those annoying yellow sunglasses again, that he wanted to hide his eyes behind the anonymity of the circles of colored glass. Likely, the only thing that stopped him was the fact that they were attacking in the dead of the night, and that visibility was already rather poor without further diminishing it.
For such a stubborn man, he certainly had a hard time dealing with situations like these. It was his soft heart. Already it bled for the pain it was about to cause.
Knives couldn't help himself, but rolled his eyes as he turned away after the review. Let the humans bleed. Let them die, if that was the course they chose. Only a fool would attack a superior being in the first place. That thought never stopped a human, but then again, they were all fools. Vash's obsessing over their pain got him nowhere. The humans didn't care if they got hurt, or they wouldn't attack. How his brother could decide on a course of action and then pretend that his reluctance in any way eased the minds of those involved was a mystery to him.
Much better to weigh ones options, decide on a course of action, and then accept that ones actions have consequences. Sometimes you have to do things you don't much like, but you do it because the options are worse. For instance, he would prefer to kill all the humans who dared to stand in his way, but his family might disown him. And since the vermin were not worth such a fate, they got to live.
Slowly, cautiously, Knives and Vash strolled to the perimeter of the square that fronted the main entrance to the plant. It was edged by cafes and restaurants, most of which were already closed at this late of an hour. Noise and light spilled out of one crowded bar, marring the stillness of the night, but seemed to accentuate the stillness of the rest of the square in contrast.
Knives picked one of the tables at a random café to sit at, taking down one of the chairs that had been placed on the table and sitting down. The edge of the parasol that shaded the table rustled in the evening breeze, and Knives fought a chill. Vash sat down next to him, and the two stared slightly to their right, marking the comings and goings at the front door.
The night seemed quiet enough. Few people felt the need to visit the plant at this hour, more people leaving than entering. Knives stayed still as the moons moved a few degrees in the sky, watching, waiting for the right moment to make his move. Their move. He shot a glance at his brother out of the corner of his eye, caught him slowly fidgeting with a buckle on his body armor.
He looked down at his much less protected form and hid a small smile. The humans weren't going to come close enough for his lack to matter. The fools thought that they knew what plants were, thought they knew what they were capable of doing. They had no concept of how utterly wrong they were, how completely outclassed they were. He could wander around naked, and they still wouldn't be able to touch him. He was nearly invincible now, nearly as powerful as one of their gods.
He was nearly caught.
He sensed something, a breath of air that moved differently from how the it had ebbed during their wait. He threw himself to the ground, and the dart that had been shot at him missed by a narrow margin. Its clatter as it fell to the square was masked by the crash of the chair falling down as Knives threw himself out of the way.
This was not in the plan.