Chuckling briefly to himself as he continued working on his newest stone mask, Kars reflected happily upon the story that ACDC had brought to him. Oh, my clever little pet, he mused, carefully shaping the stone claws that he would soon be able to set within the mask that he was creating. I can hardly wait to lay proper claim to you. Moving on to the more intricate parts of the mask, those that would crack open the little vampire's skull and allow for the growth of a her own proud set of horns, Kars imagined the look on his soon-to-be pet's face when he was finally able to lay his hands on her.

There was little question that she would fight; truly, his little pet was such a clever, defiant thing.

He would, therefore, need both time and care to cage her properly, at least until such time as she had come to fully understand her new status and place in the world. After that, they would truly be able to create things together. Of course, there would also be the matter of reshaping her from the mere vampire she was into the new, glorious form that he would give to her.

Truly, she should have been mine from the start, Kars reflected, a slight frown settling on his features as he continued his work. She should have lain beside me, in those caves that our people were so foolishly content to call settlements; should have stood beside me as I created the first of my masks. He and ACDC would have taken turns, marking her face with the designs they had chosen for themselves, at least until such time as she had been old enough to create her own.

He should have been the one to bring her out of the caverns; the one to teach her of the world and everything that could be done with it.

Truly, it was a frustrating situation; still, the fact remained that he had met that clever little vampire of his. And, even if she hadn't been born one of his own, with enough time and proper training even she herself could be made to forget that. Smile returning to his face as he considered that, Kars continued about his work in a far better mood.

=BT=

When he and his chosen corps of scientists and engineers arrived before the proud, imposing form of Brando International's Triestina tower, Rudol von Stroheim grinned as he considered the breakthroughs that he and his would soon be able to make with the aid of the vast funds and abundant resources that Alice Brando possessed almost as a matter of course. True, the vampire woman had made their mutual collaboration conditional – in that he was not to share any of what the pair of them created with the Third Reich in any way, shape, or form – but the Führer was a stubborn, prideful man, and would doubtless refuse to make use of anything that had passed through the doors of Brando International in any case.

Beyond even that, however, Rudol had no desire to find himself or his countrymen facing staring down the toothy maws of her armored siege-beasts; considering how completely the woman had managed to overcome the single greatest weakness of all of her kind, Rudol knew that it was all too likely that she had developed a means of shielding her most formidable creations from the UV light that would have otherwise destroyed them.

Stepping through the doors after a momentary pause, during which time Frau Brando gave them temporary passage through her security system, as well as a warning that any attempt to stray from the areas that have been opened to them would have thoroughly unpleasant and quite possibly dire consequences. He takes note of the warning, assuring the vampire that he will keep his people within the areas that she has designated for their use. He'd admit to some curiosity as to just what would happen if one of his own were to overstep their bounds, but Rudol wasn't actually stupid enough to press his luck in such a way.

Truly, Alice Brando was not a woman to be crossed lightly.

=BT=

Working with Stroheim and his cronies had proved to be rather surprisingly non-terrible, especially considering the kind of truly spectacular ass the man had shown himself as, that first time the pair of them had been forced to work together. And, considering the rather interesting ideas he was bringing to the table, as well as the fact that he'd seemed to have gotten the memo that harassing any of her employees would ultimately result in the removal of his spine by way of his nose, Alice had found herself actually starting to enjoy working with the man. It wasn't so much of a revelation, of course – that someone who espoused a stupid or abhorrent worldview didn't, in and of themselves, have to be a stupid or abhorrent person – but it was a helpful reminder, all the same.

"Thank you for allowing us to make use of your facilities, Frau Brando," the scientist that Stroheim had introduced as the leader of the team he'd brought to her, a man named Till Lindemann. "All of this would have been much more difficult without access to your facilities."

"Clearly," she said, smirking slightly as she looked out over the ranks of slowly-being-assembled constructs standing before them. "It also looks like you've been taking some cues from a few of my own projects."

"Yes, Frau Brando," Dr. Lindemann said, chuckling softly. "We have."

=BT=

They'd gone straight down to one of the weapons-testing rooms, since that was the closest thing to a dojo they were going to be able to find in a place like Alice's Triestina tower, and Jonathan had quickly set about gathering the tools that he and his would need in order to begin honing their skill for the battles that were soon to come. He knew that Alice and Stroheim – disapprove of the man though he might – were making their own contributions, but he didn't wish to place any more strain upon his and Dio's sister than he had already imposed. It would be completely unbecoming of a gentleman to do so.

And, even in such bizarre circumstances as he found himself facing so much of late, Jonathan would always strive to hold to the values of a true gentleman.

=BT=

Even with all of the freedom that he, Dio, had been granted as the co-owner of the company that he and his sweet sister had presided over the creation of, Dio still found himself restless as he strode through the halls. Those damned Pillar Men – particularly that bastard Kars – were an annoyance that had yet to be properly addressed. Yes, he knew that his sweet sister was working on some kind of project that would, like as not, give them all a far greater advantage over those arrogant bastards than they'd previously possessed, but he still couldn't help wishing that it could all be done with sooner.

However, dear Alice's staff were human, and humans all seemed to move so damnably slowly.

=BT=

"You're sure you want to get into this?" she asked, narrowing her eyes slightly as Stroheim made his way into the room that his people had been working out of.

"I am completely certain, Frau Brando," the man said, that same, stubborn look overtaking his face once again. "There's too much of a chance that any other kind of control device might be destroyed during our next engagement with the Pillar Men," he said, already beginning to remove his shirt. "This is the only way that we're going to have any kind of chance at defeating them!"

She sighed, grabbing the lab coat that Dr. Lindemann was offering to her. Even if it had been meant as something of a joke, Stroheim had clearly taken it seriously enough to submit himself to the process.

"All right, then," she said, slipping on the lab coat and buttoning it up even as she made her way over to the table that had previously been laid out with surgical instruments. "Let's see what we can do."

As she organized her people, prepping for the surgery that she was soon to be performing – considering the fact that she did have steadier hands than anyone with a pulse, no one had seen any real reason to gainsay her on the matter – she gave half an eye to Dr. Lindemann as he and his prepped Stroheim for the procedure. They were about as professional as anyone could ask for, so that was nice; meant that she didn't have to give them any more than a bit of a backward glance to make sure they were keeping on-task. It was almost like working with her own people, really.

For a bunch of Nazi scientists, at least this group wasn't all bad.

Detaching her tympanic membranes as she finished cutting away the flesh of Stroheim's scalp, Alice fetched the motorized bone saw from the medical tray that one of her people had wheeled in. Pinning back the flaps of skin that she'd separated, Alice activated the saw, smirking in a slightly annoyed manner as she recalled just how recalcitrant the man had proven himself to be on even the simplest matters. Of course, once she'd threatened to have him gagged if he'd opened his mouth a second time, he'd gotten the message and allowed her to administer the proper anesthetics while she worked.

Really, all this machismo is seriously a pain in my ass, Alice reflected, tempted to shake her head at the sheer, pointless absurdity of it. The sight of Dr. Lindemann waving to her drew Alice's attention before she could act on what had ultimately been a mere, passing impulse. Taking a moment to both shut off the saw and reattach the tympanic membrane in her right ear, Alice turned her attention to him.

"What is it?"

"You couldn't hear me?" Dr. Lindemann asked, the expression of clear surprise on his face providing her with a bit of amusement.

"I had my tympanic membranes detached," she said. "Was that all you wanted to ask?"

"Actually, I was about to ask if you wanted me to fetch you any ear protection," Dr. Lindemann said, looking fairly sheepish.

The pair of them shared a brief chuckle, then Alice returned her attention to the work that she was doing, detaching her right ear once again.

=BT=

He'd offered to look for that little vampire that he'd underestimated that first time, both since Kars had a rather personal interest in her, and because he himself was beginning to fully understand just why that was. After all, she'd been intelligent enough to recognize an untenable situation when it was presented to her, and instead of staying to fight like a fool, she'd been perfectly willing to retreat to a more advantageous position. It looks like you just might be a good match for Kars after all, little vampire, he mused, grinning softly.

He'd taken one of the long-coated humans who'd seemed to be a common presence within the city, devouring their body so that he could have both sustenance and a means of shielding himself from the sun, and found that they were actually some kind of secret guard force. They also seemed to be in the employ of the little vampire he was searching for, so that made things all the simpler. Still, ACDC supposed that he wouldn't allow himself to become too complacent.

After all, the little vampire had already proved herself to be far more clever than he'd been expecting of one of her kind.

Tracking one of the others who he'd spotted in the same type of uniform that he himself had appropriated from the human who'd been unfortunate enough to cross his path, ACDC raised an eyebrow as he watched the human take out a small, starkly-white rectangle from what was clearly some sort of hidden pouch within the long, concealing, cloak-like garment he was wearing. The odd little rectangle had rounded edges, and a strip of some kind of darker material that didn't seem quite like any kind of paint or pigment that he'd seen in his long life.

Narrowing his eyes as he continued watching the human who stood before the doors of a particularly tall tower, ACDC watched as the human stepped up to a small, odd-looking little panel by the side of the double doors. Focusing his eyes so that he would be able to see just what it was that the human was doing, ACDC raised an eyebrow as he saw the human take the rounded rectangle and run the side with the darkly-colored stripe through an indentation that had clearly been made to accommodate just that sort of thing.

It took a moment for even his superior intellect to decipher just what it was that he was seeing, but ACDC had soon realized that he was looking at some kind of lock; and, as strange a thing as it was to think about, it seemed that he was looking at some kind of lock and key.

Reaching into the cloak looking garment that he had taken from the human he'd previously consumed, ACDC dug into the hidden pouch there. Smirking widely as he grasped the strange, rectangular key that the human had presumably been presented with once he'd begun working for Kars' clever little vampire, ACDC made his way over to the double doors. Taking out the odd little key that the human had been carrying, ACDC pushed it through the indentation in the same way that he'd seen the human who'd just let themselves into this tower that stood at what had to be the center of the human settlement it presided over.

Repeating the same steps that had gotten the other human into the tower had a rather odd reaction: first, the green light that had briefly flickered on after the human had tapped out an identical pattern on the strange tiles was red, and made a rather irritating buzzing sound; however, the most drastic difference was revealed when ACDC attempted to open the door; that is to say, he couldn't.

The double doors before him stayed stubbornly closed, and there also came the sound of a deep, heavy thunk; as though something made of heavy iron had slammed into something else very much like itself. Narrowing his eyes – he would not be defeated by a mere door – ACDC raised his right leg and slammed it into the seam between the doors. He'd expected them to burst right open, but found himself laughing in sheer surprise as they held firm, even managing to repel him, if only just.

Well, little vampire, it looks like you really are worthy of Kars, he mused, grinning widely.

=BT=

"Standard procedure," Alice reminded her people, narrowing her eyes as she made her way over to the central monitoring station. "Taio, bring us online."

"Yes, ma'am," Taio Cruz said, nodding as he brought up the view from the surveillance cameras monitoring the front of the building.

"Lovely," she grumbled, watching as ACDC himself turned around to mule-kick the front doors; he'd need something a lot better than that to get through her front doors, particularly since he'd already triggered the deadlocks that first time he'd tried to punch his way through.

Really, she'd tested her electromagnetic deadlock system against everything from tanks to missiles to various kinds of acids; ACDC would need something like a shaped-charge, or some kind of napalm-based flamethrower to get through them.

"It looks like we finished the operation just in time, Frau Brando," Stroheim said; she caught sight of the wide grin on his face out of the corner of her left eye.

"Looks like," she muttered. "Taio, keep an eye on things out here," she said, pausing for a moment to make sure the man understood. "Well, Rudol, let's roll out the welcome wagon."

"Of course, Frau Brando," Stroheim said, a wide, fierce grin overtaking his face as the pair of them turned and headed for the elevator.

Once they'd made it back down to ground-level, Alice sighed softly as she proceeded Stroheim into the vehicle bay where his people were making the final preparations to one of the transport trucks that she'd lent them for just this sort of occasion. The fruits of their collaboration had been lined up neatly inside the back of the truck, and once Stroheim came within range of them, he grinned all the wider; Alice chuckled softly.

"We should only need about five more minutes before we finish the last of the refits, Frau Brando," Dr. Lindemann said, stepping neatly over to her and Stroheim, as the pair of them continued on their way up to the side of the truck. "Do you think this building's defenses can hold out for that long?"

"I'm reasonably sure," she said, since that was really all she could be, under the circumstances; this was a truly unprecedented occurrence, after all.

"Good," Dr. Lindemann said, nodding.

Turning away, as Stroheim began speaking with Dr. Lindemann and she caught sight of the flashing light on the nearby wall-mounted phone, Alice made her way over to answer it.

"Hello?" she paused, a smile pulling at her lips as she heard the voice on the other end.

"Are you truly certain that you won't be needing us for this battle?"

"It's all right, Jonathan," she said, smiling even though she knew that her adopted brother couldn't see her. "ACDC's pretty much the perfect counter to any of your guys' skill sets right now."

"I… Yes, I suppose so," Jonathan said, and Alice could all but see the dejected, kicked-puppy look on his face; really, a man Jonathan's age should not have still been able to manage the sad puppy eyes so well.

"Just sit tight," she said, smiling for the both of them; she knew he'd get the idea, even without the pair of them being within sight of each other. "I'm sure you guys'll have plenty of chances to take on one of the Pillar Men. Just not this one, okay?"

"All right," Jonathan said, still sounding a bit reluctant. "I suppose, under the circumstances, we truly would not be of much assistance."

The pair of them said their goodbyes, and Alice hung up so that she could rejoin Stroheim by the side of the truck they were soon to be departing on. By that time, of course, the oversized UV lamp was fully finished and fixed to the roof of the truck's cab. Raising an eyebrow as she found Dio jumping into the cab with her and Stroheim, Alice pulled up her hood and turned to her brother.

"This is hardly the time for a joyride," she deadpanned, pulling up the cloth mask that had previously hung loosely around her neck, then settling her polarized UV mask firmly over her eyes, snapping the clasps on the edges closed on the corresponding hooks sewn into the inside of her hood.

"Come now, sister," Dio said, grinning as he pulled up his own mask-and-hood combo, then bringing his own UV mask up into place. "You didn't think I'd let you go out to face that oversized blood-spewing brute all alone, did you?"

"Alone?" Stroheim scoffed. "And, what do you think I am, Herr Brando?"

"You'll be chopped liver if you don't behave yourself," Dio said haughtily, not missing a beat.

"Down boys," she said, pressing a hand to both their heads as the pair of them began glaring at the other. "This is hardly the time."

=BT=

The sound of another of those same interesting, self-propelled chariots that he'd seen so many of already nearly didn't register to him for a long moment, at least until ACDC took notice of the fact that it seemed quite a bit larger than any of the others he'd heard on his way to the tower whose fascinating double doors were only just beginning to yield under his continued onslaught. Turning as he realized that the large chariot was aiming itself to collide with him, ACDC grinned as he caught sight of Kars' clever little vampire riding inside of it.

Yes, there was also one of those dull, interchangeable humans, as well as the male vampire that Kars wasn't particularly interested in riding alongside her, but those two would be easy enough to dispose of after he'd taken possession of Kars' clever little vampire. Of course, it was plainly obvious that she intended to make it a struggle – at least as much as any vampire could manage when they were in conflict with such a superior being – but that would only make his inevitable triumph all the more pleasing. At the very least, he'd have an amusing story to share with his old friend.

=BT=

It was plain that ACDC had been prepared to fight the three of them, but the look on his face when she and Dio opened the back of the truck and unleashed their ranks of robotic Deinonychus on him… It was times like this that Alice wished she could reinvent the Smartphone with the current level of technology she currently had access to; scenes like that more than deserved to be preserved for posterity. With only a single, side-eyed look at each other, she and Dio quickly joined the fray alongside the group of robot dinosaurs that Stroheim had directed to attack ACDC.

While the robotic Deinonychus all around them harassed and harried and snapped at him under Stroheim's direction, she and Dio moved in closer. She'd never had to strip anyone in combat before, but if they didn't get that uniform off him – she knew just where he'd gotten it, too; the asshole – then all that UV lamp that doc Lindemann and his people had spend all their time mounting wouldn't do them one damned bit of good. So, as the only two with hands that had any kind of appreciable manual dexterity, the task of getting ACDC out of his stolen Brando FiSec uniform would naturally fall to her and Dio.

With the main focus of ACDC's attention taken up by the attacking robotic dinosaurs – Alice would never fail to find the concept amusing on pretty much every level, but now was hardly the time – she and Dio had a great deal more freedom of movement than they otherwise would have; all the same, she knew that this was hardly going to be a cakewalk.

Signaling Dio forward, she matched him step-for-step as the pair of them yanked off the armored greatcoat that the Pillar Man had been hiding under, and then tore their way through the underlying garments that had acted as further protection for him. Forced to dodge to opposite sides of their current battleground by a gout of blood hot enough to melt the tarmac they were standing on, Alice stood back up as ACDC's gaze fell on her again. Really, it was becoming more and more clear that, whatever else the Pillar Men wanted, they clearly wanted her.

It was weird, possibly useful, and a bit annoying all at once.

Another veritable explosion of blood slathered the lamp, rendering it basically nothing more than an oversized, slightly misplaced, hood ornament. Hissing a soft urry through her teeth, Alice leaped up to the top of the truck, kicked her boots free as quickly as she could manage, and then hopped up to perch on the generator that had been installed to power the lamp. Quickly re-balancing herself, Alice plunged both feet into the wiring of the generator, quickly channeling as much electrical energy as she could up through her nerves and into her hands.

And then she grinned, because really, how many chances was she actually going to get to do this?

"And now you pay the price for your lack of vision!" she shouted, as Stroheim alone knew how many volts of electricity went blasting out of her hands and straight into ACDC.