"Noah~ Noah~." Pulling himself from his slumber Noah just cracked an eye open and rubbed it as he found Lenore looking down at him. "Oh good your up." She muttered as she leaned back as her brother sat up and did a few stretches. "Sorry we had to put you on the couch." She muttered.
"Hey, don't mention it, we didn't have enough beds right." Noah muttered as he popped a few joints. "Besides, it's not the first time I slept on a couch."He admitted as he got back to his feet and looked around. Safehouse was just as he remembered it. It looked like an apartment complex with only four rooms; two bedrooms, a bathroom and a kitchen. Crack open the shelves there were still plenty of foods and if you hit the safe you'd find an assortment of tools and gadgets locked away waiting to be used. Despite that it looked pretty normal really, well, less one counted steel "blinds" that reinforced on both the door and the walls. "Where's Viviane?"
"She's on the radio." Lenore told him as she gestured to a table in the far corner to see his twin messing with a small emergency radio.
"Still trying to get a signal huh?" Lenore said nothing as her elder brother got up. "Come on lets open the blinds up." They did just that, unlocking the blinds locks before pulling them up to see the early morning sun.
"You'd think the sun would stop rising when it's the end of the world." Lenore muttered as she and her brother continued pulling up the steel blinds to reveal the pale blue walls beneath them. Soon as they were done, Lenore headed towards the kitchen. "Hungry? I'll make us something to eat."
"Thanks sis." Noah muttered as he looked outside, staring at the empty streets. He crossed his arms as he made a face. I hate that it's so quiet." He muttered, as his ear twitched upon hearing Lenore firing up some rations on the stove.
"Morning Noah." Viviane greeted as she stood and walked over to her brother. "Whatcha see?"
"Nothing?" Noah stated as he leaned against the window. "And that's what bothers me."
"You never did like silence." Viviane nudged him as she rolled her wrist. "But yeah, I can kinda agree with you at this point." She muttered. "Where is everyone, it's not like the wars, over already."
"Maybe they're just waking up too?" Lenore pipped up as she walked back to the pair and showed them a pair of cooked rations. "I mean, we didn't hear anything last night, so maybe they went to sleep and are just waking up themselves?"
"Maybe." Noah muttered as he thanked his sister for the plate and started eating. Viviane did the same, but not before setting the emergency radio down so she might be able to continue messing with it.
"Anything?" Lenore got a headshake as Viviane settled down and started alternating between eating food and changing radio stations.
"Nothing but static." Viviane sighed before switching to another channel as they continued eating for a while.
Th [STATIC]
All three of them caught it, a voice in the static.
"Go back."
"I'm trying." Viviane muttered as she went back to messing with the radio.
"Repeat, [STATIC] Hunter Nomad [STATIC] [STATIC] Hunter's Division. Is anyone out there?"
Viviane grabbed the radio mic as fast as she could. "We hear you Nomad." She said with a smile as the others huddled around. "This is Hunter Viviane Bellerosé of House Bellerosé; can you hear me?"
[STATIC]
"Hunter Viviane? I'm glad you're still alive. You got anyone with you?"
"Yeah I got Noah and Lenore." She stated as she looked at the others. "We're still in New york, and we're at one of our safehouses, where are you?"
"I'm at the James Farley Post Office."
"How many you got with you?" She heard Nomad take a deep breath. "Not many huh?"
"Fraid so. That can change though. Can you get to us?"
"How long will it take us to get to the Post Office?" Viviane looked to Noah.
"That's in Midtown right?" Noah muttered before nodding his head. "Maybe… maybe 40 minutes to an hour on foot, give or take we get there before we get spotted and pulled into a fight."
"That case we better get moving." Viviane muttered as she looked back at the radio. "We're on our way, Nomad."
"Hate to delay you, but before you do I need a favor."
"Name it."
"We're still in the dark here, so we need comms back up."
Nomad stated.
"Your safe house should have a remote node that you can plug into a radio station. It'll help get our voice out so that we can find other hunters."
"Got it, where's the nearest radio station?" Viviane asked as she looked at Noah as he made a face.
"How the hell should I know?" Lenore just pulled out a map as she laid it on the floor.
Lets see we're here, and~" She dragged her finger along the map before seeming to think. "Here." She stabbed a portion of the map with her finger. "It's a bit far but the closest I can find would be the WABC radio broadcaster."
"It'll have to do."
Nomad stated as Lenore folded up the map.
"We'll see you soon Nomad."
Viviane stated as Noah finished his food and wiped it on his arm.
"I'll be seeing you, kids. I'm counting on you."
"No pressure, right." Viviane stated as the radio switched to static. Noah just got up and headed for the closest before pulling out a long grey coat. Adjusting the collar, he summoned his twinblade and nodded his head.
"Get dressed ladies, we got places to be and things to do." They did just that, gathering up some fresh clothes as they headed out.
Returning to the city they took off, running down the streets.
Tokyo, Japan
Exhaustion was kicking in again.
Course it was.
Always kicked in around this hour.
Had the late nights to blame for that.
Thing was he could stop having to stay out late.
The masked man thought to himself as he pressed forward, dragging his body along as made his way down the streets. Katana still in hand as he trudged forward. A demon slammed into the ground behind him, but he didn't acknowledge it.
The wounds showed he had already cut it down.
He just trudged forward, continuing down the streets before turning towards a half destroyed apartment complex. Though the Hellgrowth had spread quite far throughout the capital of Japan, it hadn't reached this place, not yet anyway. It would reach it in time, till then this would be a good place to settle for a bit.
Either case; for now this place would have to do. Stepping into the apartment the faceless man just looked around , as if he was trying to find something before settling down near a wall that was out of sight and took a slow breath.
Tired.
He was so damn tired.
He hated the fact that his body was tiring.
He hated that innate weakness; one that humans, demons and angels seemed to possess.
He needed to rest; needed to regain his strength.
"Five minutes will do." He whispered as he leaned back and kept his katana wrapped in his hand. "I'll rest for five minutes, then I'll press forward again."
London, England
Despite the early hour, there were certainly a lot of them wandering around.
Galahad thought as she stepped forward, pulling her claymore off her back and marched forward, forming a wall of flesh and steel alongside her comrades as they got their weapons ready.
There were so many demons heading in their direction; their numbers forming an ocean of flesh and fangs as they made their way across the streets.
They didn't scare her.
She dealt with demons before, they all had.
She knew what they were capable of, she knew how they fought, and she knew how to take them down.
Still… the breath that she released had… something in it that seemed questionably shaken.'You can do this.' She told herself. 'You can keep it under control.' She thought.
"Riflemen!" Someone called out as she stepped back, their more heavily armored and heavily equipped Knights stepping forward as they adjusted their preferred choice of weapon; a stylized minigun that. "Fire!"
If it wasn't for the audio dampers in her helmet, Galahad was damn sure that her ears would have been ruptured from the sheer noise that came from a wall of minigun-fire that raced down the street. The Forefront of the horde just kept charging forward.
A wall of bullets tore into them as they dropped. And even as they did they soaked up as many rounds as they could before going down. Their comrades paid them little mind, just charging forward, stepping over their dead as they raced forward in a bid to see who drew first human blood. They didn't give a damn who died, they had reserves.
Eventually the minigun fire went silent, the last round being spent as they were dropped and promptly discarded. "Blades!" If swords weren't already drawn, they were now as the horde started to grow closer. "Charge!" The Kingsmen, the Knights of King Arthur charged forward towards the demon horde as they gave an incoherent battlecry. Galahad breathed as she raced forward, swinging her Claymore as she cut into her first demon of the day and split them in half. That mammoth weapon of hers seemed to be a feather in her hands, all the practice she had put into getting used to this old weapon was showing itself in her attacks and defense.
She cut down another one as she turned, used her free hand to draw one of her autoguns as pointed it at another demon and opened fire. Steel shells hitting their mark as she ducked and realigned her shots towards a new target. She fired and switched to her sword, bringing it up in a rising swing as she took the demon down before pressing forward. Crimson was already starting to coat her armor. She didn't mind.
Much as she hated to admit it, part of her liked the color.
Galahad shook her head, and quickly dodged to the side to avoid the swipe of a claw that was aimed at her before putting her Autogun away before sending a strong punch towards the demon's face that damn near shattered its jaw. She turned with the punch as she brought her sword around and took the demon's head before racing forward.
They were outnumbered and there were no angels to fight beside them, but that was fine.
'We did not survive this long by relying on the angels to protect us.' Galahad told herself as she cut down another demon. "And if need be, we will survive the endwar without them." She told herself as she felt something in her stir. She didn't let it bother her however, pushing the feeling down as she looked forward. "Be not afraid." She told herself as she looked ahead. "We will win this, and we will survive." She whispered as her blade was soaked in blood and something stared down at her. "Be not afraid."
New York, United States.
"Damn it." Noah cut down another demon as he bit his lips while his Viviane cleaved another in two with that massive sword of hers. She had this smile on her face, a sign that she she was enjoying her 'morning exercise' a little more than she should. "Well, who am I to stop you. Lenore worked defense, using her magic to raise up barriers to protect herself as she pushed the hunting party back. She wasn't fighting yet, but she was getting there at least.
"You're in the way." Noah kneed a demon in the back, knocking them off balance slightly before suddenly kicking them into the cement. He turned, ducking under a demon's sword and stepped back, dragging his twinblade through it's throat as he spun around. He cut one of his fingers and pointed elsewhere, red-orange and black embers wrapping around his free hand as he swiped it to the side as a small localized wave of magic repelled the horde as they came after him. With another gesture he created some kind of spectral claw that grabbed another demon by the throat for a moment before it was pulled towards him only to be punched elsewhere as the specter died. "Guess that's all I can get sacrificing that much blood…" He pulled his twinblade from a dead demon's neck as he moved, weaving to the side as he dodged, weaving to the side to avoid something round hitting his head as it rolled on the floor.
Realizing what the abominable ball was, he ran; jumping behind a car as the demonic bomb went off, tearing up a part of the street and sending debris everywhere. Andother rolled under the car he was hiding next to as he suddenly got up and made another run for it.
It went off before he could get some needed space, but for whatever reason he wasn't sent flying into the air or enveloped in scathing pain.
"You ok Noah?" Lenore asked as she lowered a hand, dropping the barrier that had contained the explosion as she started stepping back and dodged.
"Yeah, thanks!" Noah shouted as he looked at his city and then the bomber tossing out his toys. "Be careful with those barriers." He said seemingly out of nowhere. "Remember Blood magic-"
"I know." Lenore stated as she stepped back and dodged another demon before making her way towards her older brother. Noah for his part cut his finger again and reached for the car he was hiding behind. An aura reached out for him as he used it to lift the car over his head before throwing it across the street and towards the demon to get it to back away. "There's so many of them."
"I know, isn't it great!?" Viviane shouted as she bisected another demon and made to stand with her siblings. "I love these kinds of workouts. Really gets the blood pumping." She stated.
"You know its lines like that that make wonder how your NOT a berserker." Noah muttered as his twin ignored him. "But yeah, theres a lot of demons in this hunting party."
"Call it." Viviane called out as Noah seemed to think as they saw the horde start to surround them. "I'm up for dragging this out as long as we can, but~ if you want to run~" She didn't finish that sentence.
"We can't spend all day with these guys." Noah grumbled. "We need to get to the radio station."
"Right, so run it is." Lenore reached into her backpack as she pulled something out of it. "Heads down. She pulled out a bomb as they nodded and watched her toss it into the air. The flash that went off was for all intents and purposes, blinding to the dregs of hell as the three siblings took off.