January,21 2011 Saturday Brockton Bay, Wards area. 10 pm.
"Sup Druid. So who's your friend?" Clockblocker asked as he came out of this room in the Wards area, looking to Druid and another girl sitting on the couch. The warning light for someone in the room had been on, so when he got out of the shower he just put on a clean costume instead of his civies. He took note that Apocalypse Meow was not in the room which was odd.
The girl was pale looking, though she was tall, she had the hunched look of a social introvert with how she sat on the couch, he was pretty sure she flinched when he spoke. She was wearing a PRT t-shirt, likely from the gift shop. The Miss Militia Sweat pants, and the Assault themed 'Socks and sandals' slippers she wore added to the huddled look as the clothing was clearly too large for her. Clockblocker also noticed her long hair was wet and she had a temporary Domino mask on her face.
A cape most likely, or judging by the clothing, a victim of one.
Clockblocker ran through a number of options in his mind and dialed himself back until he could get a better read on the girl. She might not be up for his full brand of humor.
Druid pulled her hand off the girls bare arm and frowned. "Sorry still nothing." she offered to the girl before she turned to Clockblocker, the look in her eyes promised pain in his future if he did anything, Clockblocker simply nodded slightly and the glare relaxed.
"Alucard and Aegis brought her in, Director Piggot asked me to check her out and show her around while they discussed things and got her father in here." Druid offered. Clockblocker mouthed the word 'Trigger?' to Druid when he was sure the girl wasn't watching and noted Amy's shrug.
"Whelp anyway, nice to meet you, names Clockblocker, the fact I named myself should tell you everything you need to know about me. Either of you two want a drink? We got water, we got twelve kinds of soda, we got some of those gods awful energy drinks that Aegis drinks..." Clockblocker turned heading into the small kitchen area.
"Just .. a water, thank you." the girl muttered.
"On it, we got the fanciest bottled spring water you can get from the nearest discount bulk store chilled to perfection unless Gallant forgot to put it in the fridge again." Clockblocker called back as he walked into the kitchen. "You want anything Druid?"
"I'm good." Druid called back. "What are you doing here?I thought the Wards area would be empty tonight"
"Just got back from a patrol with Battery a little bit ago. She's surprisingly fun when she's not intent on being so serious." Clockblocker offered heading back to the wards area with the drinks offering a bottle to the quiet girl before taking a seat across from her in plain view as to not spook her and opening his Dr. Pepper. "What about you?"
"Apartment fire downtown had me called in to treat some pretty bad burns and smoke inhalation. Luckily no one was killed." Druid explained.
"Yeah heard about that over the com. Battery and I were to far away to come help, but the console channel was buzzing as Mouse Protector and Shadow Stalker were over there. And Mouse went over there to be Mouse and Stalker followed and was Stalker. She'll probably be through here in a few, they were right behind us when we got back." Clockblocker warned.
Druid took the hint."Alright, your dad should be here by now, let's get you something to eat and then check in with the Director."
"There was a sudden buzz and a a red light by the door started flashing, the buzzer had barely finished sounding when a dark shape flowed through the steel door and reformed into the masked figure of Shadow Stalker. The smell of smoke filled the air as the girl cursed and pulled her face mask off with a swear.
"Fuck everything smells like burnt plastic. I need out of this crap. This rescue shit sucks..." Sophia trailed off her bare face turned towards the girl on the couch who was staring back at her. The domino mask the girl wore did nothing to stop the recognition Sophia had of the girl there.
"The fuck? Herbert?"
"̵̞̬̤̲̳̥̬͈̏̀̍̌̓Ḩ̴̛͙̑̄͠E̵͔̓͛̓̄̅͠S̷͎̞̟͉͎̯̝͔̺̀͗̔͂͂̾̚ͅŠ̸̗̖̠̩̖̘̮̪̠̿!̸̛̗̞͍͋̒̀̋͑͒̄͂͠"̵̊̎͊͋͋͘̚͜
The rooms shadows suddenly lengthened and a sound like a thousand angry wasps filled the air, a number of lights shattered and bugs and spiders poured out of every conceivable corner as the girl lunged off the couch at Sophia with an inhuman growl and a mouth like a sharks.
"Ah fuck." Sophia managed.
"Now I know what you're thinking: "How did all this come about?" Well, it all started in a stroll through the city. The air was clear, the moon was full, I was dying to sink my teeth into something. Get it? Because I'm a vampire... mwahahaha-- it's funny.
"Alucard stop disrupting the narrative!"
"Fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine!!"
January,21 2011 Saturday Brockton Bay, 8 pm.
"The air is clear, the moon was full, I was dying to sink my teeth into something. Get it? Because I'm a vampire... mwahahaha-- it's funny. "
"Sir, who are you talking to? Did console send a new patrol pattern?"
"What ? No, I'm monologueing... you know what never mind." Alucard huffed glancing over to the teen in red floating next to him before letting out a long sigh. Babysitting duty, his master had reached a new low in her orders.
"I am trying to enjoy myself on this patrol. We've not even seen a mugger. I thought the bay was supposed to be a hot bed of crime and a cesspool of scum and villainy?" Alucard whined.
"Normally it is but there's usually a lull of sorts after the holidays, and the strike on Hookwolf's New Years eve party has made most of them keep their heads down." Aegis offered. "On the plus side sir we are half way through the patrol route from here we cut up market past Winslow High School and once we get to 8th we head back towards HQ."
"Well that's just great, hopefully something will happen because I would take even couple of late night vandals trying to spray paint 'school sux' on the side of a wall right now." Alucard whined.
"You and Shadow Stalker will get along well then sir. She hates slow nights too." Aegis offered trying to make conversation with the hero he was side kicked too, though Alucard was bitching more than Stalker did. He was still sure this was some sort of punishment detail, or a gauge of how much he could deal with from an annoying coworker, as if Clock wasn't bad enough.
The pair of them strolled along the sidewalk passing by Winslow when Alucard stopped dead and sniffed the air before staring at the school.
"Something wrong sir?"
"Blood. Old, new, so many different types, and... complaints of failure in an old tongue?" Alucard muttered. "Curious."
Aegis blinked before calling it in, Alucard ignore him and strolled up to the front door simply yanking it open.
"Sir don't break government property." Aegis called.
"It's not locked..." Alucard offered heading in with a huff a confused look still on his face, his coat flickering with what looked to be bloodied shadowed faces.
Aegis frowned and relayed their entrance to The Console before quickly following after Alucard taking a flashlight from his utility belt and clicking it on as he went inside the dark building.
The inside of the school was far from what Aegis expected in a place of learning. Trash was strewn along the halls, graffiti covered parts of the walls and many lockers, he was sure there was a poster taped to the wall and half ripped away asking people to join the Hitler Youth club.
Alucard strode down the halls not making a sound other than a faint rumbling noise that seemed to come from under his coat.
There was a stench that was growing stronger as they moved down a row of lockers. Something that was already starting to make Aegis feel like he was choking back bile.
"Frustration at the failure? No..attempting? What is making this noise." Alucard hummed to himself before stopping before a locker.
Aegis frowned noting several padlocks on the locker Alucard stopped at, they were less holding it closed and more forcing any one with bolt cutters to have to cut through five other locks before they could get to the one holding the locker shut. The stench was much worse here and judging by the scattering of bugs as he swung his flashlight across the lockers.
Looking over the locks he frowned noting there was what looked like a mass of glue dumped over the locks as well, and the vents on the steel door had duct tape covering them. The locker clearly looked like some one was trying to keep something in. With the icor that was oozing out of the seam along the bottom of the locker Aegis wasn't sure he wanted to know what it was.
Probably the stench.
Hopefully JUST the stench.
Aegis brought out his work phone snapping a few shots of the locker as Alucard muttered to himself seeming to look into the middle distance, though several eyes formed on his coat looking around the hall, a few focusing on Aegis
"Sir?!" Aegis began only to watch Alucard grab the locker, his fingers tearing into the cheap steel before he yanked tearing the door from the row of lockers.
Aegis choked back a wave of nausea as he was hit with the smell, forcing him to stagger back but he didn't miss the body falling out of the locker, nor did his finger miss hitting the camera button a few times,snapping a series of pictures.
His camera light flashed over the locker, letting him note chunks of rotted meat, chicken, and possibly old hotdogs. There was garbage, what he thought were used tampons and pads along with the wrappings, he was fairly certain there were some used syringes and needles and what he hoped was not feces of some sort bunched in the bottom of the locker .
A bucket sat on the top shelf of the locker poked full of holes and oozing some mess down into the lower part of the locker. Bugs swarmed out of the locker scattering from the light, before Aegis phone stopped taking pictures and he shoved it in his pocket as his flashlight beam fell on the figure that had fallen out of the locker.
The girl was a mess, her long wavy hair blackened with the sludge that had been set to drip down in the locker, her jeans soaked in blood and other horrendous things, the hoody she wore caked in the filth with bugs scuttling over it. She was pale, far too pale and not moving at all.
Despite the revulsion, and the bile rising in his throat Aegis acted and was down with a finger at her neck brushing away the filth. She was still warm, but he couldn't feel a pulse.
"Sir, I don't think she's breathing, I can't find a pulse." Aegis stated.
Alucard continued to half stare at the locker muttering something about a queen and bugs.
"Sir! SIR!.. ALUCARD!" Aegis shouted pulling the girls hoody open and rolling her onto her back before starting CPR. He noticed her hands, the nails cracked and bleeding where she had clawed along the inside of the locker, dried blood flecked her lips, likely from screaming until she tore her throat. School had been out for hours, how long had she been in there.
"Fuck." Aegis pressed the side of his head with a clean knuckle . " CONSLE , we have an emergency at Winslow High School, we found a girl trapped in a locker, I'm preforming CPR but she's unresponsive."
"Console acknowledges sending paramedics."the com chirped. "ETA unknown due to an apartment fire. Druid is on standby at Bockton East, will route there."
Aegis continued what scant training he had, checking her pulse and cursing to himself that he was not trained to deal with this sort of shit when Alucard finally responded to him.
"Huh. Some one threw away a perfectly good teen girl? What a waste. Bodies go in the compost not the trash."
"The fuck is wrong with you? She needs help and I'm not trained for anything past basic CPR!" Aegis snapped.
"Quite a lot is wrong with me actually. And she's already dead so you can stop. Well Sorta dead, like not all the way dead. Queeny seems rather intent on this one. But she's not doing very well in connecting."
"What!? Never mind we need to help her."
"Really?" Alucard questioned like he was surprised. Aegis glared at him only for his eyes to widen as a smile split the older capes mouth showing the sort of teeth that were usually accompanied by a fin cutting the water.
"Yes really. Can you help?"
"I can."
"Then why the fuck are you just standing there?!" Aegis snarled already writing up a report in his mind on how fucked this guy was.
"Several reasons. Though little hero I have a question for you." Alucard hummed, the hall getting darker as the light seemed to bleed away from everything. "If I help her will you bear the responsibility for what happens?For the damnation, the strife the hatred of a godless existence? Do you agree to what fate will await you with your choice?"
"What the hell kind of question is that!?"
Yes. Or. No."
"Something is fucking wrong with you." Aegis glared while Alucard simply smiled down at him, he looked down at the girl laying there, the blood and mess she was in and felt anger and sadness at this, she couldn't have been that much younger than he was. Who ever did this... "Yes! I agree, now do something!"
"An accord has been reached. I hope you are strong enough for what is to come little hero." Alucard cackled.
Aegis yelped as he suddenly found himself alone in the mess spilling out of the locker, his eyes snapped up spotting Alucard in a darker part of the hall cradling the girl, his hand ran up through her hair, the detritus falling from it to the floor as he bared her neck his mouth opening wide as if to bite.
Aegis surged from the floor towards the vampire just as he bit down into her neck, he was still too far away to stop him as the sound of flesh rending under unnatural teeth filled the hall before he could even shout. He nearly had him in reach when the girls eyes snapped open and Aegis felt his conciseness leave him as he crashed to the ground in a heap sliding forward with his momentum to bounce against Alucard's leg.
THRESHOLD
DESTINATION
AGREEMENT
TRAJECTORY
AGREEMENT
RELIEF
"So this is what all this is about huh?"
QUERRY
"Oh nothing, just been wondering how all these cape people are made and I just happen to be in the right spot to see how it works this time. Neat."
WORRY
"Oh it won't be that bad, that over blow deli worker gave me a template but I didn't know how to activate it until now. Ooh I am going to have sooo much fun with this. And you are going to help me."
QUERRY
"Oh it's simple, you connected with the girl and she's now mine, so therefor you are connected to me."
CONFUSION
"Oh it might not be how it's supposed to work, but to hell with that, it;s how it works NOW, because fuck the rules that's why."
PANIC
Aegis woke with a wince, a foul scent assailing him, a sharp pain in his neck ,and a weight on his chest . He sat up with a groan, the weight easily shifting though the pain in his neck grew sharper . Most of his vision was taken up by brown hair, it took him a moment of processing to realize the girl who had been in the locker was clinging to his armor, and more importantly she was biting his neck and he was pretty sure she was drinking his blood.
"The fuck?"
"Ahh welcome back to the world of the coffee drinkers and insomniacs." Alucard chuckled.
"What happened?"
"Side effect of a crisis point, I think you call it."
"Is she alright what is she...?" Aegis stammered not sure how to deal with a girl clinging to him let alone biting his neck.
"Awww is this your first hickey?
"Fuck you sir."
"That an offer?"Alucard hummed as sirens could be heard approaching." Cause I think the boss might have issue with the age gap."
