Waking up was something of a chore, not really helped by the gnawing hunger that she was currently stuck with. Still, she'd known that there were going to be any number of inconveniences when one was acting as a hostage-in-all-but-name. When she felt the familiar weight of her unbound hair spread across her back and neck, Alice sighed in annoyance. That, of course, drew the attention of the other person she'd become aware of in the room with her.
She suspected that it was another vampire, both since she couldn't hear their breathing and since no one in the room smelled at all human.
"Ooh," said a particularly grating voice from the other side of the sheer curtain Alice found herself awakening behind. "You are cute."
Narrowing her eyes, Alice studied the room she had awakened in; adjusting her eyes so that she could see through the thin weave of the bed curtains. It was swiftly becoming more and more obvious just where she was, and Alice narrowed her eyes in annoyance as her building recognition clicked fully into place.
"Hey, are you ignoring me?!" the annoying-voiced vampire said, whipping aside the bed-curtains to reveal… a spiky mullet, pale reddish hair, and an outfit that was a fair bit less colorful than she'd been expecting of someone working with Kars and his remaining crony.
Has anyone ever told you that you have a really annoying voice? she didn't say, instead simply narrowing her eyes at the vampire currently harassing her. He made some more noise about how she should respect him or some such, but Alice was rather more focused on the fact that Kars – in his apparently infinite capacity to annoy her – had stripped her down to her underclothes before dumping her in her room. Taking a moment to check the status of the radio-transmitter she'd tucked into her liver, and to throw the annoying-voiced vampire to the other side of her room when he attempted to dive-tackle her, Alice stood up and made her way over to her closet.
Dressing herself in a pair of pale lilac slacks and a powder-blue long-sleeved top, Alice grabbed another of her hair-ribbons, chokeslammed the annoying vampire into a nearby wall twice, then tied her hair back and out of her face. Sighing as she adjusted her newfound outfit, Alice grabbed the annoying vampire, slammed him to the ground, and shattered his pelvic bone with a downward heel-strike. If nothing else, that ought to keep him off her back long enough for a meeting.
She was going to have words with Kars about setting up in one of her summer homes; particularly considering the fact that Cobain had chosen to stay here, since she'd found that the climate of Switzerland and the people of San Moritz agreed with her much more than any other place they'd been to in the intervening half-century that separated them from the time they'd spent back in London.
=BT=
The sound of swift, purposeful footfalls making their way toward the throne he'd set up for himself brought a small, pleased smile to Kars' face. He knew that stride, just as he'd known the scents within this building, faded by time and overlaid by the scent of that other vampire that had been living in this place for such a long time.
"It seems we're about to have a guest, Wham," he said, turning a smile on his fellow Pillar Man, before returning his gaze to the entranceway of the room that he had seated the pair of them in.
The chairs that he and Wham were seated in had clearly been crafted from the finest of materials, since he could smell the mingled scents of animal hide, goose down, and some kind of exotic wood, even dulled by the passage of time and the lingering scents of other vampires – that other female in particular – as well as the annoying humans who seemed to be endemic to his clever pet's life. He didn't know what she saw in any of them, but such a habit could easily be corrected with time and effort.
Both of which he was fully prepared to devote to this particularly worthy task, of course.
Smiling in satisfaction as his clever pet presented herself to him once more, Kars found that she had once again covered herself in more of the fine, soft garments that he'd stripped from her when he had first brought her back to this place that she'd clearly made her home in some time ago.
"Pet, why do you insist on covering yourself like that?" he asked. "Aren't you proud of what you are?"
"Well, it was either this or body-paint," his clever pet said, folding her arms and standing before him with an adorable expression of quiet defiance. "And that stuff itches terribly."
Chuckling in amusement as he observed the fall of delicately embroidered snowflakes across the right side of the pale blue shirt she was wearing, Kars smiled as he noted the way that she had seemed to have captured the very wind itself in frozen motion. So, you use your very body as a canvas; you're not only inventive, but artistic as well, he grinned. Every time I find out more about you, pet, you only prove yourself more and more worthy of me.
"She truly does remind me of you, Lord Kars," Wham said, and he turned back to his old friend, grinning in return at the pensive smile the last of his companions was wearing.
Taking hold of his clever pet, before she could say so much as another word, Kars settled the pair of them in his throne, carefully arranging the little vampire so that he could properly display her across his lap.
"There's still something on your mind, isn't there, pet?" he asked, flicking his fingers through her hair so that he could quickly snap the ribbon binding her golden hair; he'd get rid of such an annoyance soon enough, and then he could show his clever pet just what kind of canvas her body could truly become.
=BT=
"All right, the signal has stopped moving," Von Stroheim reported, and Joseph let himself relax from all the tension that had been slowly building in both his body and mind while the signal had been in motion.
"Good, at least we know where they are," Gramps said, fists unclenching slowly.
"Yes," Stroheim said, nodding as he took out a map. "Now, all we need to do is determine exactly where that is."
"Hey, wait, that's Aunty Alice's summer chalet!" he gasped, once Stroheim had managed to determine the precise coordinates of the radio-signal from the transmitter his Aunty had swallowed just before she'd gone out to get herself captured by Kars and his last remaining crony in an effort to play Trojan horse for them.
"Those miserable bastards have set up there?!" Uncle Dio growled, looking almost like he wanted to tear the very map from Stroheim's hands, just to prove to himself that what Stroheim had said was indeed true; or, more likely knowing Uncle Dio, to disprove it.
"It's one of your sister's properties?" Stroheim asked, turning to Uncle Dio with a confused expression.
"The old owner of the hotel was simply going to allow it to close, so Alice bought it from him," Uncle Dio said, eyes narrowed as he looked into the past. "Though really, Cobain was the one who ended up appreciating it the most, since she actually enjoys living in a place like this."
"Well, I don't think your sister would appreciate having one of her properties destroyed, though I expect she has others," Stroheim muttered, narrowing his eyes as he looked down at the map in front of them.
"Oh, yes," he said, laughing softly. "Aunty Alice has summer homes, and even winter homes, all over the world. She travels a lot; CEO of an international company, you know," he finished, grinning.
"Yes," Gramps said, sounding as grim as he ever did. "It seems as though the Pillar Men have taken advantage of the safeguards that Alice had built into that place when she laid claim to it."
Sighing as he looked back down at the map laid out before them, Joseph saw Caesar clenching his fists out of the corner of his left eye.
"Boss, I swear I'm going to save you from those bastards!" his fellow student growled, glaring furiously down at the innocent map in front of them all.
=BT=
Lord Kars' little vampire had wished to know just what had become of her retainer, a female vampire by the name of Cobain, and so Wham had picked her up and carried her from the room where the three of them had all seated themselves.
"I can walk, you know," Lord Kars' little vampire said, the expression on her face seeming to state without words that she was entirely unimpressed with her present situation.
"Lord Kars instructed me to look after you," he said, flicking his eyes over the unimpressed expression on the face of Lord Kars' little vampire before returning his gaze to the hall before him. "And, since he himself is clever and determined, I must assume that you share the same qualities, since he considers you an equal. And, since he would attempt to escape if he were placed in this kind of situation, I will assume that you yourself would do the same."
Lord Kars' little vampire laughed softly, as the pair of them continued on their way through the corridor still before them. It seemed that she truly understood his dedication to Lord Kars, and therefore the hopelessness of any attempts at an escape she might think to make. The sound of another vampire's footfalls on the floor, as well as the soft swish of fabric, told him that the pair of them were closing in on the other female vampire who stayed within this large house that Lord Kars' little vampire had once been the sole, uncontested master of.
"Miss Alice!" the other female vampire exclaimed, hurrying over to where he and Lord Kars' little vampire were making their own way into the room where she'd been staying.
"Hello again, Cobain," Lord Kars' little vampire greeted; the calmness and good-humor in her tone reminding him all the more of Lord Kars.
Truly, the pair of them had indeed been destined to meet.
"Is there anything you need, Miss Alice?" the other female asked; this one had the heart of a proper retainer, and so was more than likely to survive once Lord Kars laid claim to the Red Stone and was able to take the last steps that he desired to do for so long.
"A strawberry milkshake would be lovely," Lord Kars' little vampire said, her tone slightly flippant, and a look of subdued amusement on her face a clear match for any that the last of his masters had worn.
"Oh, of course," the other female vampire said, bowing slightly and the turning to hurry away.
"I'm glad to see that you fully understand your new situation," he said, turning to make his way back to the room where he and Lord Kars had settled themselves when they had taken this place for their own use. "Lord Kars will take care of you, I can assure you of that; anything you desire will be yours for the asking. You will live, along with us, forever."
"Forever is a long time, Mr. Pillar Man," Lord Kars' little vampire said, still sounding as perfectly amused as she had been before she had spoken to her retainer. "Still, you take over my summer home, bring one-hundred vampires into my parlor, and stick me with one of the most irritating people I've been forced to interact with for the past few decades. Really, you and your fellows have terrible manners."
Chuckling at the admonishing tone in her voice, even as Lord Kars' little vampire leaned up as though to whisper something in his left ear, Wham shifted his grip so that she would be better able to reach his ear. She had demonstrated courage, cunning, and tenacity, and so he would remember whatever soft words of defiance that she wished to give to him.
=BT=
Screaming directly into Wham's ear, Alice backflipped out of his arms as the Pillar Man fell to his knees from the sudden assault. Before he could regain his bearings, Alice spread her arms wide to balance herself, opened up the back of her body so that she would have a constant supply of air for what she was about to do, carefully adjusted her larynx, then let loose with a keening, two-toned wail that would serve to disorient anyone in her vicinity. She'd already told Cobain to evacuate, using the coded phrase that let her fellow vampire know to go to ground within San Moritz, and to link up with her people or Stroheim's as soon as she could manage.
With her cochleae collapsed in order to withstand the unrelenting sonic barrage she was bringing down on Wham's head, Alice was immobile for the handful of moments it took for her to completely destroy the Pillar Man's balance. Once Wham had fallen to the floor on his hands and knees, Alice stopped keening, leaped backwards out of the range of even the most enthusiastic of sudden lunges from her incapacitated opponent, she turned and ran deeper into the halls of this particular summer home. Her best bet for getting out of this place, and finding out just where it was that Kars had gotten himself off to when he'd left Wham in charge of her, was to make for the courtyard at the center of this place.
The solarium she'd designed would be the best place to put the last phase of her plan into action.
Smirking slightly as she heard Wham's heavy tread following closely behind her, Alice turned a corner and saw Wham turning the one just behind her. Chuckling softly as she blew through the second-to-last pair of doors standing between her and the courtyard that she was aiming for, Alice smiled a bit wider as she heard Wham's annoyed growling slowly closing in on her as she continued on her way. Grabbing a nearby fedora from a hat stand just outside the last of the doors that stood between her and the courtyard, Alice burst out through them, adjusting her hat and then slipping on the pair of gloves she'd had neatly tucked away in her pockets.
She'd had a pair tucked away in the pockets of every pair of pants she owned, simply so that she wouldn't end up forgetting them those times when she was in a hurry.
"You can't hope to escape me in a place such as this," Wham said, a look of stern disapproval on his square-jawed face. "Though, I suppose I must commend your inventiveness once again. Before this day, I never knew that sound could be made into such a potent weapon. However," the Pillar Man narrowed his eyes, clearly thinking he'd managed to get one-up on her. "Your own inventiveness is working against you now; you were the one who created glass that could filter the very light of the sun itself, enabling me to freely walk in daylight within this singular place."
She smirked, opening her back once again so that she would have the air she needed for this next task of hers. "Oh ye of little faith."
Before Wham could so much as open his mouth, Alice adjusted her larynx and belted out a high, sustained note. Holding it, even as the UV-filtering glass of her solarium began to crack and shatter around the metal support structure that had once held it up and now served to carry the resonance to each corner of her solarium's sun-shield. Wham leaped backwards as broken glass began raining down from what had once been the roof, with lethal rays of sunlight pouring in as the shattered pieces broke apart entirely.
Pulling up the hood that she'd sewn into every one of her shirts, for those times that she had to go outside and didn't actually feel like wearing a hat, Alice pulled up the lower part of her mask and leaped to the top of the steel cross-beam she'd been standing under.
A series of long, easy leaps took her up to the roof, where Alice quickly found one of the false chimneys she'd added to the leftmost and rightmost sides of the building, grabbed onto a hidden catch in the stonework, and pulled the lever concealed under it. Diving into the opening of the tunnel inside the false chimney, Alice fell through the entire length of the mansion, landing lightly in the hidden tunnel she'd had excavated beneath it. Grabbing a pair of UV-filtering ski-type goggles from a nearby hook, and quickly extracting the radio-transmitter from her liver, Alice pulled the hood of her shirt forward, clipping the edges to the hooks on her goggles and wedging the transmitter into a convenient gap in the wooden walls.
Moving quickly down the tunnel that would take her to the sub-basement of a café she'd bought out when she'd began making herself at home in this quaint little town, Alice turned her current situation over in her mind. There were all kinds of things she'd need to do in order to fully escape from her current situation, foremost among them being to implement the contingencies she'd developed to disguise herself from one of her own kind. Oh, this is just going to be lovely, Alice groused, rolling her eyes as she turned a corner and stepped onto the circular base of a hidden elevator.
Pulling the lever that stood on the right side of the platform, Alice allowed herself to relax ever so slightly as she was carried up onto the ground floor of the café that this particular tunnel exited into. Feeling a slight shudder through her feet as the base of the ornamental column that she'd had installed when she renovated the café she'd been standing underneath only a few moments ago, Alice smiled with some satisfaction as she saw the faux candle holder pop out and heard the two sides of the faux column rolling open.
Stepping out of the center of the concealed elevator, Alice turned to grab the tilted candle-holder, tilting it up and triggering the two halves to roll closed once more. Pushing the arm of the candle-holder until it popped back into place, Alice turned and quickly made her way out through the back entrance of the café. Her next destination firmly in mind, she hurried out to the edge of the town, out to what looked – for all intents and purposes – like a perfectly ordinary, boring building that one might use for storing any number of things. And yes, if anyone asked, they would be told that it was a storehouse that supplied a good number of the shops in the area.
And, for the most part they did just that; but, when dealing with the kind of weird shit that she seemed to end up facing on a near-monthly basis, one was rather obligated to take precautions.
Ducking under an overhang on the side of the building shielded from the sunlight by the bulk of the structure itself, Alice ran her hands over the entrance, spreading enough of her scent that Wham would follow this one, specific trail that she was leaving, and then quickly ducked inside the hidden back area of the warehouse. Shedding the clothes that she'd worn, after spreading her scent over a decent portion of the back room, Alice hung them on a concealed hook, and launched herself over the lip of the wall at the back of the building.
The structure had been concealed by both the height of the inner-wall itself, as well as the shape of the ceiling, which had been built with an eye to making the interior of the inner- and outermost rooms look just that much smaller than they actually were, and as she pushed down the small lever that would open the trapdoor beneath her, Alice wrinkled her nose. What she had to do next was not going to be pleasant.
Once she'd landed in the concealed room beneath the warehouse, Alice closed up her sinuses grabbed hold of the handle that dangled before her, and pulled hard even as she closed her eyes tightly. Sealing her nose against the onslaught of harsh chemical cleaners – yet another advantage of her vampire physiology, on top of not actually needing to breathe for anything but speaking – Alice spread her arms and fanned out her hair in an effort to wash away the last, lingering traces of her scent.
After the last of the cleansers had been rinsed away by powerful jets of distilled water, Alice opened her eyes and made her way off of the grate she'd been standing on, and over to a second patch of floor, this one constructed of high-grade, heat-dissipating ceramic. Powerful jets of heated air blasted her dry, and Alice continued onward to a small closet that had been built into the wall.
Taking out a body-stocking – one that had been designed not only to completely occlude her scent when she wore it, but to seal her off almost completely from the outside world – Alice pulled it on and carefully adjusted it so that she was as completely covered as she could get without effectively blinding herself. Making her way down through another tunnel, this one connected to a clothing store, Alice stopped beside another hidden closet and grabbed a set of clothing and a wig from the opened closet.
Wham would, after he realized he couldn't track her by scent, be looking for long blonde hair and a ponytail, and perhaps something with a hood if he'd been paying particular attention to what she'd been wearing. He wouldn't be looking for someone with bright red hair and a pageboy cut, and he was particularly unlikely to stop someone who had a distinctly masculine body shape under their clothes. The many things one can do with proper padding, Alice reflected, a slight smirk on her face as she donned a pair of dark, UV-filtering shades and made her way up and out of the sub-basement room she'd entered.
Pausing to listen for the sounds of a crowd within the clothing store, Alice made her way out of the back room, walked among the racks and shelves as though she was browsing for the benefit of the few people who were inside the clothing store at the moment, and then headed back out into the street once more.
She knew that both her people and Stroheim's would have gotten the data from the transmitter by now, and so all that remained was to link back up with them so that they could begin making proper plans to deal with those troublesome remaining Pillar Men.
The sound of running footsteps traveling in her general direction drew Alice's attention as she made her way down the road leading into and out of San Moritz, but it was the sight of the running figure – twisting as he dashed around the corner of a nearby building, an expression of implacable rage on his face – that drew Alice's attention. Really now, she groused, rolling her eyes as she reached out to firmly arrest the runner's forward momentum with her left arm around his shoulders.
"What the hell do you thing you're doing, you bastard?!" Caesar demanded, legs kicking madly as she hefted him off the ground.
"Agent Zeppeli," she said, in her this-is-your-last-warning voice. "You know what I expect."
"Boss?"