Gato Community College. (game thread)

[Outcast107]

Both William and Tomas follow Viktor down deeper into the building. Keeping a eye open as they watch the surrounding area for anything fishy while traveling in the groups. Soon after they finally met up and Viktor explain what was ahead.

William

William felt wrong about this whole mission as soon as they enter the building. Now he knew it wasn't just his nerves acting up. This place could most likely be fill with demons, and there were a few right infront of them in the next room. Will watch as they started to "Clean up" as Viktor puts it. Will had hope they wouldn't run into anything here, but it looks like his luck fell short once more.

Viktor came up with a plan, and William wasn't too sure about. He never really use his gun form against anything living, especially a demon at that, but Viktor needed his help. He gulped slightly but nodded at the end as he transform into his gun form once more. It always felt odd to fully transform into something, which is one of the reasons Will never done so. He felt Viktor holding him as he pointed the barrel towards the demons. William gave off a silent pray that he able to kill the demon as he felt Viktor pull the trigger and a shot rang out.

*CRACK!*

Tomas

While Tomas would never admit it to anyone in the group, he was actually feeling a bit of fear right now. Not due to the small chumps in the next room. It was due to the whole setting, the whole building giving him the goosebumps. Something felt off about this place and he didn't like it. While he was confident about this mission before hand, but now that he was here, he didn't know.

He watch as Viktor and Juliet prepare their rifles at demons ahead. Tomas hoped this wasn't a trap like they suspect. He didn't know fully if they were ready to take on how ever many demons were here, or even their boss if he was nearby. 'Shit..' he thought to himself. 'I should have atleast sent goodbye letter or something to my mother...'

*CRACK!*

 

[DarkRawen]

Even with all the weird, dried up people/beings inside, Sol realized that there was nothing more to see. The cave was empty, and he was holding what remained of documents. Something had gone down there, but it no longer did.

I do wonder... are all the places going to be like this?

If so, would it really be worth it, simply looking in every place?

Come on now, Sol, don't be so silly. Obviously it's worth checking every place, at least until we know for sure there won't be anyone there. What kind of hunter would you be if you didn't do your work properly?

A bad one, presumably. Regardless, he decided to go outside, and report back.

"Hi, Sol here. This place is clear, someone knew we were coming, burned most documents, and... some sort of ritual took place, I've drawn the symbols and circle around it, perhaps someone will recognize what it is, and what it is used for. The beings around seems to have been drained entirely."

Stepping back and forth, Sol looked around in order to make sure something wasn't sneaking up on him. "Anyways, that's it, you can come get me now."

 

[IFS]

"Ok, both barrels are rifled, so just think of it as an oversized pistol; plus it's only a twelve gauge so recoil shouldn't be an issue for a demon. Alright, you take the one on the felt, we hit them on 'three'."

"I know how to handle a gun, believe it or not," she replied, taking the weapon and quickly lining up the shot. It had been some time since she'd used a gun, and she'd never had to fire one in combat before but these weren't exactly fast moving targets and she didn't tend to forget skills easily.

*CRACK*

Headshots, two of them. Not that that was guaranteed to bring a demon down permanently depending on the type and strength of the demon but it was as good as you got usually. Granted she wasn't sure moving up to ensure the kill was the greatest idea anyways so for the moment she simply kept her sights on the demons.

"I am somewhat surprised you trusted me with one though," she said, giving a slight smirk "given you've been rather prickly since we met."

 

[Athol]

With both demons down, Viktor set the ?rifle? on the ground and waved for the others to move up. ?Thanks William.? He said. ?Best you come back now, we?ll probably need another set of hands more than a weapon.?

"I am somewhat surprised you trusted me with one though, given you've been rather prickly since we met."

Looking towards Juliet, he shrugged. ?You wouldn?t have been my first choice, but you?re the only other ?person? here who I know wouldn?t flinch at pulling the trigger.? He said flatly, holding out his hand for his weapon. ?That, and you only had two shots. Even if you turned on us, I?m close enough?and I know I can kill a succubus if I have to.? The last bit held a bit more pain in its words than he?d intended, but he quickly pushed it aside.

?C?mon.? He said to everyone gathered. ?Let?s see what these pricks were up to.?

 

[Lunar Templar]

Hotel Team

With the demons down the team moved in to collect what they could. Several documents of note would be found laying ready to be burnt, all written in one of the many demon realm languages, one how ever, in addition to being written in a demon tongue, was also written in code, one usually employed by Vul Ruk, and was mostly a list of ingredients and a few times that Juliet would know as several important Lunar phases in the demon realm, one of which was a day or so away, while the other was a couple months away. So it wasn't just some one on they're tail that was causing them to 'clean house'.

Any inspection of the body's would yield them as being dried out, like in the cave.

Sol

Seth, as well as the other two team leads, listened in as Sol reported in. The fact Sol find signs the enemy had begun some sort of clean up didn't sit well with them, but he needed to see what Sol had found before snapping to judgements. More over, Red and Yellow Team reported something similar at they're first sites.

"Good work Hunter, extraction is on the way." A coms officer replied.

"When the Hotel team reports in tell them to return to base." Red Teams leader, Daughtry, the same Daughtry Tomas had meet earlier, ordered.

A short time after Sol reported in, an SUV, like the one that dropped him off. Apparently it had been waiting for him to finish, given how little time passed between Sol radioing in and it coming to pick him up.

 

[Outcast107]

William would turn back into his normal self and had a little smile on his face. Glad that his rifle mode was effective. Then both Tomas and William would walk with the rest of the group to look at what these demons were trying to hide. Though most of it wasn't under stood by the two due to it being in demon.

"Not much to look at..." Comment Tomas as he picked up a few pages, while William was looking at his own. Trying to becareful in not damaging anything here as he didn't know how fragile these pages would be.

 

[IFS]

"That, and you only had two shots. Even if you turned on us, I'm close enough...and I know I can kill a succubus if I have to."

There was something in the vampires voice as he spoke, clearly he had some history with demons perhaps succubi in particular. Interesting, will have to learn more, might be why he mistrusts me so much... of course whatever succubus he dealt with was quite foolish to get close enough to a vampire particularly in the human realm.

"Sounds like you've got some experience there," she said "hope you aren't holding whatever it was against me."

She continued with the others, finding some documents written in ciphered demon language. It was a code she recognized though, one employed by Val Ruk. This is odd, has his code been compromised? I imagine he might have mentioned if he had other agents in the area, and if this is part of his plans then I probably shouldn't translate it. Hmm, then again there isn't much here, giving a little information will help foster trust. Plus if it isn't related to Val Ruk then I definitely should share the information.

"Its written in some sort of code," she said "give me a sec and I'll see if I can figure it out."

She pretended to read over the document a few times, then spoke "difficult to make out, but I think there is a date here," she said "sometime tomorrow I believe."

 

[Athol]

"Sounds like you've got some experience there, hope you aren't holding whatever it was against me."

?? He muttered in his native tongue. Reaching into the lit brazier, he began to pull burning papers free and smacking them out; the fire singed him, but he ignored the burning flesh. ?Grab everything you can.? He said a bit louder, looking at the others.

"It?s written in some sort of code, give me a sec and I'll see if I can figure it out."

?Save it.? Viktor replied. ?There?s a good chance whoever Tweedly-Dum and Tweedly-Dee were working for will expect them shortly, so we need to grab what we can and leave before they realize something is up.? As he spoke he was gathering anything with writing on it into a pile to carry.

 

[DarkRawen]

"Good work Hunter, extraction is on the way."

"Cool. How long?" He ignored the second remark, unsure of whether it was intended for him -why would it be? He wasn't in charge of the other team, as far as he knew- and besides, it came from someone he didn't know who was. Regardless, Sol stood, waiting, wondering when he would be picked up, hopefully it wouldn't be too long...

Oh. Nevermind.

A SUV, like the one which had dropped him off, drove towards him, and though he was hesitant to simply walk into it, he figured it was remote enough for it to be safe. Or this car belonged to a serial killer, because why not.

"Hi there," he said, and opened the door. When he was sure it was indeed the correct car, he stepped inside, eagerly. "Now you've picked me up. We're returning to base, right?"

 

[Evrant-Knight]

Whilst everyone was busy gathering up the tattered remains of documents that the demons were planning to burn, Daniel meanwhile was busy examining to the ritual site itself to try and make sense of what kind of business was going on here. Upon closer examination, he could see that all the bodies used in this profane display were that of humans, which came as no surprise to the Angel; humanity was the often favoured target of demons when it came to such matters.

The first body he examined had a singular, vertical incision made in a place between the heart and the stomach; and judging from how deep the wound was, it appeared to have been made by a scalpel like instrument. Daniel made note of this as well as facial descriptions of all the bodies that were here by using his cards, he'd pass on the information to the proper authorities to see if any kidnappings were reported recently, and if there were, the families could have some peace of mind. Normally this wasn't his department, but it was the right thing to do given the circumstances

As all this was going on though, there was one thought that niggled at the back of Daniel's mind; namely how easy it was for them to get this far, surely something should have happened by now, whether it be reinforcements arriving or a trap of some kind being set off.

"There's a good chance whoever Tweedly-Dum and Tweedly-Dee were working for will expect them shortly, so we need to grab what we can and leave before they realize something is up." Said Viktor in response to Juliet as Daniel returned to the others.

"That's a good idea Viktor; though something about this whole thing doesn't feel on the level to me. I mean, if this place was of any importance to them, we should have encountered a lot more resistance, or any resistance by now."

 

[Outcast107]

William

William heard what Daniel said and gulp a bit. "Please don't say stuff like that..y-you'll jinx us badly..." He look around quickly before going back to picking up papers as quickly as he can. He wanted to get out of here as soon as possible. Worried a bit more now since it did seem a bit to easy to get here and take out just two guards.

Tomas

Tomas shook his head at Danial and William. The for first, while it did seem a bit easy, it was more likely due to the fact that the guards were being lazy and thought no one would find them in time. For the second, William getting worried too easily. Though He would guess they did have a point, they shouldn't over stay their welcome any time soon.

"I think we should have gather enough boss..ready for us to get going before company shows up?"

 

[figment of mind]

Once the demons were dead, they all moved up and started investigating. Unfortunately, some of the others got to the pages before she did so while they gathered those, she searched around for anything else that could be useful. Still, she kept herself from zoning out and becoming inattentive, catching the conversation the others had as a result.

"Save it. There's a good chance whoever Tweedly-Dum and Tweedly-Dee were working for will expect them shortly, so we need to grab what we can and leave before they realize something is up.

"That's a good idea Viktor; though something about this whole thing doesn't feel on the level to me. I mean, if this place was of any importance to them, we should have encountered a lot more resistance, or any resistance by now."

"Not to interupt...but maybe this place just isn't of any use to them anymore? I mean, they were burning all of their information so nobody could find it, and Juliet did say something about some date tomorrow...maybe they were just the cleaners, picking up after everyone else left while the others were out preparing whatever it is their doing?"

She didn't know why she wanted to speak up now but at least she was contributing...she hadn't really found much to help. Still she had found a worn box that she figured was from when the original owners left (or maybe the demons brung it, or a homeless person, who knows) that she figured would help move anything the others could find. Making sure that it was relatively clean and bringing it over, she started grabbing things that the others were stacking in a pile and putting them in, hoping that the box wasn't too small for their purposes.

 

[Lunar Templar]

With all the potential Intel secured, the Hotel team made all haste to extraction, due to not wanting to tangle with who or what ever might come to check on the workers and where in short order on the road back to base. With a report in from Viktor the three team leaders had confirmation all teams where on the way back and where safe, though the initial reports where not promising, and eerily similar.

Something was clearly up, a something the Intel Viktor, Sol and Red team where bringing would hopefully shed a light on.

Meanwhile ...

Sierra's Hospital Room

During all this, Sierra had been, largely bored. She'd done all she could with the Armor Shard and Bullet with what she had on hand, and while she had talked to Alexander about getting a translation of the markings on the Bullet, or a reference for translating it her self, something seemed to be up in the Demon Realm that had more or less put a halt on her request for now.

Which struck her as all kinds of strange, asking demons for help. But such was the reality of the situation.

Her bored stare at the TV was, blessedly interrupted by one of the nurses trying to tell some one to 'keep it short, she needs to rest', shortly after a being in white armor modeled to be wolf like walked it, with a great-sword on his back. Sierra eyed this person a moment as they came in a closed the door.

"You seem well for some one who almost got cut in two." He said walking to the end of her bed.

"And you are?" Sierra asked as he pulled out a stone and tossed it to her."The replacement for Lady Rozalin. Something came up and pulled her away from the mission. I'm here to make sure the stray Lucy left behind is put down." He said as Sierra examined the stone, which glowed in her hand. "And this?" "Some stone, Rozalin's sister gave me to hand to you, something about looking for the 'keys' to those ruins she likes to poke around in. Apparently, these 'keys' she's after are only found in people descended from or have mixed with, those human lines who are naturally gifted with arcane power." He continued as the stone grew a bit brighter, then vanished in a flash of light.

"Lovely, I assume that's all then?"

"No." He said as he leaned against the wall. "I'm also here to do what Seth should have, but didn't, and since I'm not stuck sleeping in the depths of your subconscious anymore, I can bring you up to speed on who's been after you, and why." If he didn't have Sierra's attention before he did now, but he held is hand up in that 'just wait, I'm getting to it' manner. "Firstly, I'm sure you wanna know how I got in your head to begin with. Simple, you where born with me there." He then went on to explain about a spell called the 'Rebirth Arcanum', and how, when pulled off correctly, would effectively allowed a demon to resurrect them selves via a birth to a human woman, and how when said demon reached maturity it would be exactly as it was before it died. A perfect clone, memory's and all. He also explained that it's not really used much anymore, save a very small number of demons. This was due to Demon pride and the distaste of having to rely on a human to 'save them'.

Sierra remember hearing something about this method of self resurrection in class, apparently there was a human version as well, but how that one was executed was lost some time ago. Even knowing that, she still called his story into question, citing the very clear differences between them, which he addressed, and she did not like the answer at all. In short, she was never supposed to exist to begin with, and the only reason she does, is because he screwed up on the spell. He gave her a few moments to let that settle before moving on to, why, she, or rather, 'they' have been hunted. He explained that a while back, during Ansoth's campaign for his throne, he and his Ravens did a lot of work for both Ansoth and his younger brother, Baalarung. He also explained how nether Ansoth nor his Brother liked hiring them, since nether liked hiring outside their army to do their army's job.

However, Ansoth always understood the value of outside help, Baalarung on the other hand, just tolerated it because he was told to, and it was that contempt that eventually lead Baalarung to set an ambush for the very squad of Raven's he had hired, and almost totally wipe them out. Only two got away, but only one survived the trip back to base to report what happened. He paused a moment to collect himself, Sierra could tell from his tone that just recalling the story was really pissing him off, and despite the 'your an accident' bomb she just had dropped on her she was inclined to allow him a moment. The story continued as she figured it would, the survivors reported back, he got in the Brothers faces about it, which turned out to be a waste of time, and only served to make him even more angry, because, naturally, Baalarung had lied about why he had the Raven squad killed, and Ansoth took his brothers side.

The Mercenary said he waited only a couple days before he marched into the camp Baalarung was at, slaughtered the platoon he had stationed there and murdered the soon to be Greater Demon Lords brother in revenge for the deaths of his people.

"Which lead to Ansoth coming after you, which then lead to you screwing up that spell before dieing, which lead to me, and Demons calling me 'Karis' thinking I was really you putting on an act." Sierra said, as she processed everything, then something accrued to her. "How did they find out about me though?"


Gungnir parking garage

The SUV's carrying the last returning teams, including Viktor's team and Sol, arrived, and they where greeted by staff who came to bring them to the briefing room for an immediate in-depth report on what happened at the Cave and Hotel, as well as going over what they found in relation to what the other teams found.

The room they where escorted to was fairly large, with the other teams and team leaders already there, Yellow Team was just finishing up reporting their findings when Viktor's team and Sol entered the room. "Good to see you lot made it back safe as well" Daughtry said, as a couple staff remember came to claim what they had found. Noticeably though, some of the staff on hand where dressed differently, not in the Gungnir uniform but in a suit similarly to Seth's. Clearly Seth brought in his own people to help sort and translate the information, even though Gungnir had people for that on hand. This meant ether Seth had taken issue with the quality of work, or, judging from how Seth's staff and Gungnir's staff where interacting, the other teams found something that shouldn't be found on Earth, and thus was out side what Gungnir would have known, even with the extra help Intel wise Seth had likely given them.

 

[Athol]

They policed up the area, fell back for extraction and returned to Gato all without incident, much to Viktor?s surprise. Entering to large debriefing room, a flair of automatic dislike flickered across his face momentarily as he saw some of Seth?s lackeys greet them to collect what they?d found.

"Good to see you lot made it back safe as well."

The dislike faded away as he shifted his focus to the other Team Lead. He?d only met Daughtry a couple of times in passing, but he seemed like the capable sort. ?Blindsided a couple of ?henchmen? doing clean up, but other than that no problems.? He replied. ?Keep waiting for the other shoe to drop?maybe I?m too much of a pessimist, but that seemed way too easy.?

 

[DarkRawen]

Sol spent the ride back with eyes closed and in deep thoughts. His thoughts went back and forth between the past and now, wondering if he was making a mistake by staying at the college, or if he even was suited for it. He also thought of his past, and past hunts, they had always been more suspense-filled than this had been, though he wasn't sure if that was confidence or overconfidence.

I'm almost a little disappointed.

By the time the car had stopped, Sol had gathered his thoughts enough. Thanking the guy picking him up for the ride, he got his hat, and stepped out, only to see the others standing there. From the looks of it, their trip had been as uneventful as his, or just about.

"Good to see you lot made it back safe as well"

"I'd have to be a particular brand of terrible to mess that up," Sol said with a wry smile and a shrug. "Seeing as there was no one there. I'm glad you guys are fine, though," he said, looking over at the others in his group. He didn't particularly care right now that there was more people than them there, Sol wasn't going to let the crowd distract him. "And I swear it's not only because I'd feel like it would be my fault if any of you died." He gave them a brief wink.

"Blindsided a couple of 'henchmen' doing clean up, but other than that no problems. Keep waiting for the other shoe to drop...maybe I'm too much of a pessimist, but that seemed way too easy."

"Well, they clearly knew we were coming," Sol said, the fact that Viktor said someone had cleaned up at their location as well was making it painfully obvious. "So, either they didn't have the time to set up a trap for us, or they've got something else in mind." Sol knew it probably wouldn't make the vampire feel less pessimistic, but being too much of an optimist could be dangerous. He knew a thing or two about that. Looking towards the team leader for the other team, he raised an eyebrow.

"So, is this it, then? I thought we were supposed to do... well, more."

 

[Lunar Templar]

Debriefing

"You where, but, with all reports being the same, 'little or no opposition, signs of a ritual and the of clean up potentially sensitive information, I thought it best to bring every one in. Something is very clearly up, we should have caught at least one of these sites with they're collective pants down. Yet the best we've managed to do is get the drop on the clean up crew." Daughtry said as Seth walked back over with a few papers, and the other team lead, a raven haired woman with pale skin, but not an 'unhealthy' pale, continued where Daughtry left off.

"More over, the data we've recovered is troubling" She started as Seth handed copy's of the papers he had to the other two and sat down. "Some of the data acquired relates a time table, and was written in some demon realm code, that Seth's people have been good enough to break for us, as well as a strange list of items, likely related to the time table. Though how is not yet known."

"Not even my net work has turned up anything yet on what this stuff is for. So what every it is, it's likely something they cooked up in house, or they stole it from some hermit magic user." Seth added.

Sierra's Hospital Room - Same time as the Team leaders started addressing the teams

"They found you, us, because Humans and Abyssal Demons, are incompatible in a sense. The energy's of an Abyssal are toxic to everything that isn't another Abyssal. So if a human woman where to try an bare an Abyssal offspring, she'd die like before giving birth, and if an Abyssal where to try and bare a human child, the mother's body would destroy the unborn half breed long before a heartbeat could be detected. The reason you, and your mother survived is because the Rebirth Arcanum is designed to suppress all demonic traits until after birth." Sierra just sighed and leaned back after hearing that.

"That answer that, but then why are you here? Like, 'here' as in existing as a separate being and not still stuck in my head." She asked as he walked over to the table with one of the Gunpla she'd been working on as a break from the research she'd been doing. "That, I fear may very well be related to the mission." He said, picking one [http://www.mahq.net/mecha/gundam/00/cb-0000gc-g.jpg] up "Does this one have those spells on it? The ones you use to control them?" he asked "Of course" "Good, I'll be taking it with me then, though in answer to the question I know your going to ask. 'She hates Abyssals and found a non lethal way of effectively committing genocide.'" The Demon Merc said. "The rest, will have to wait till I've got the ear of the others." Sierra just nodded, and he left, taking the Gunpla with him. Sierra waiting a few moments before activating her control enchantments, then just lay back, processing, or trying to process everything she just heard, and the more she thought about it, the more pissed at Seth she got.

Team debriefing

The Demon Merc walked into the room the teams and the leaders where in and talking, just after Seth had had finished stating how they didn't know what some of it was. He sat the Gunpla on the table, which immediately darted over to Seth. "YOU ASSHOLE!!! YOU FUCKING BASTARD!!! You knew about Ansoth and his idiot Brother, you knew those demons that where after me where really after the demon that killed that moron Baalarung!!" Sierra shouted through the Gunpla at Seth, with the large rifle on it's arm swing up and into it's hand, with a golden glow emanating from the end of the barrel. Before Seth could react to that however the Merc spoke, and Seth had this look of surprise cross his, everything, the kind of surprise that you just don't get to see. "Calm down Sierra. I didn't bring the little golem so you could threaten 'Fangs McSlithers' with it." He said as he pulled his helm of and tossed it to one of Seth men, who clearly wasn't ready for it. He had the same dark hair, eye color, and eye shape as Sierra, even the horns where a like, making it hard to misplace who he was in relation to her.

"Allow me to introduce my self, I am the Raven Mercenary, General Karis, I will be standing in for Queen Rozalin as she and her sister deal with political end of this growing shit storm in the Demon Realm." He said as he picked up a sheet of paper with the spell circle drawn on it, and walked over to the where the leaders where seated. Sierra, had shot Seth a dirty look through the Gunpla then flew it over to William and parked it on his shoulder, the Rifle folded back into it 'resting' position as she need that hand free to steady the balance of the Gunpla on Wills shoulder.

Seth for his part was still surprised, very much surprised. "I though they'd be sending Legilis. Didn't think they'd go through the trouble of resurrecting the enemy of one of they're allies." Karis just smirked "Well, when you want a job done right, you do what you have to do." He said, and turned tot the group "Let be bring the lot of you up to speed on just how truely fucked the situation really is." And held sheet of paper up "This Spell circle, was created by Queen Riviera, and kept under tight lock. It draws energy, life, Aether, what ever from one space to another, with the added bonus of if the target vessel is a biological entity, like oh, say, a body you can bring it to life, or if you have a soul, resurrect that person." He said before torching the page with a black and gold flame. "Riviera suffered a break in, in which some one got into her lab, and stole the reference copy from it's vault. That shit stain Ansoth, also had something stole from him, an artifact that lets the user locate any soul they desire, regardless of where it is in the after life." Karis said tossing the ashes aside. "But wait it gets better. Two artifacts of great power have been stolen from a pair of Vampire Clans, one Artifact is the Sword of Vladimir, King badass of the Vampire him self, and just silly in terms of how much power is packed in the blade. The other is a ring capable of drawing souls in from the other side taken from the Bathory clan."

Karis let all that sit for a minute. "And in case any of you need the dots connected, do remember, The Demon they report to, is one of the few remaining remnants of Lucifer's army, and he'd really like his boss back."

 

[Outcast107]

William

William didn't know how to handle what just happen in these very short minutes. From being debrief about what they found and what the other teams found. To Sierra and the Raven merc coming in and Sierra yelling angrily at Seth. Things calm down a bit and Will peak his head over the table. Getting down incase shots were fired while here. Sighing out loudly in relief, that was, until Sierra Gunpla flew over to his shoulders.

"Um...s-Sierra. A-any reason you came to me?" He whispers to Sierra,not wanting to interrupt the meeting in anyway. Though he was not sure if he wanted to be center of attention at the moment. Gluping a bit as he look around a bit and seen some eyes going back and forth. Knowing they were looking at the gunpla and not at him, but he couldn't not help and think that they were staring at him as well.

Tomas

Tomas just sigh and shook his head at the whole thing. Though he return focus back on the matter at hand. Raising his hand as he ask a question. "So...if Lucifer is brought back...shouldn't one of the sisters be able to beat him again. Hell, why not both to be on the safe side. "

 

[Athol]

The debriefing was going as poorly as Viktor had feared; nobody knew anything concrete other that ?ominous shit might be going down soon?, and whoever they were chasing seemed to always be at least a step ahead. Should check in after this, let them know this is probably going to get much worse sooner rather than later. He thought.

A new person/demon entered the room, in what appeared to be a full set of medieval plate armour. Before Viktor could even begin to hazard a guess at just who the new arrival was, one of Sierra?s toy launched itself at Seth, while she hurled abuse at him.

Unfortunately for Viktor, before Sierra got a chance to try and redecorate the wall with Seth?s face, the demon stopped her?and Viktor cursed himself for not getting a picture of the look of surprise on Seth?s face. About time somebody tripped up that smug prick? He thought, chuckling to himself. This ?Karis? was able to fill in some of the holes in their own scant information, but one of the last things he said made Viktor visibly flinch.

"But wait it gets better. Two artifacts of great power have been stolen from a pair of Vampire Clans, one Artifact is the Sword of Vladimir, King badass of the Vampire himself, and just silly in terms of how much power is packed in the blade. The other is a ring capable of drawing souls in from the other side taken from the Bathory clan."

"So...if Lucifer is brought back...shouldn't one of the sisters be able to beat him again. Hell, why not both to be on the safe side. "

Stretching slightly he sighed, and stepped forward a bit. ?Before you answer Tomas, I?ve got a little background that I think you should all hear, in regards to the sword and the ring...[small]the Elders are going to want to stake me for this?[/small]? After another sigh, he shook himself and spoke up once more. ?I ask you all to bear with me because I need to set some background.?

?When most of you think of ?vampires? you either think of those things Hollywood calls vampires, or individuals like me; but we?re not, not really. ?True? vampires rose when humans were still using sharp sticks as their main method of warfare. I?ll skip the long history as best I can, but the ?First Ones? as we call them, formed ?Houses? and warred with each other for tens of millennia. Unlike vamps like me, they can produce live offspring, but have a very low fertility rate?you can imagine how that works out in the long term. End result is Lord Tepes and Lady Bathory are the last two ?First Ones? left, mostly because they were both minor vassals of minor Houses themselves.?

?All this brings me back to the sword and the ring. While I don?t really know anything about the ring?until just now I didn?t know it had been stolen as well?I know the sword it the same one that Lord Tepes has carried form the beginning, so I can imagine the ring is of similar vintage. While I?ve never been told for sure, everything I?ve heard puts Lord Tepe at 1 to 2 million years old, and I think Lady Bathory is only slightly younger, so you can imagine the power contained in an artifact that old.?

Viktor visibly slumped as he finished speaking. This was some of the most closely guarded information the clan?s possessed?hell he hadn?t even known it all until the Elders told him he was going to Japan?and he just spilled it all to a bunch of demons. Perhaps they?ll let me at least apologize to Lord Tepes before they stake me. He thought bitterly. ?One upside though. The only way to ?unlock? all that power is with a vampire?and anything less powerful than one of the First Ones will simply burn to ash.?

 

[Evrant-Knight]

"One upside though. The only way to 'unlock' all that power is with a vampire...and anything less powerful than one of the First Ones will simply burn to ash." Viktor said after providing information regarding the powerful vampire artefacts that had been stolen; he looked rather shaken as he spoke, no doubt what he just said was meant to be kept privy to only the House he was apart of. All this information, both from Viktor and recent arrival Karis, who he had heard of at one point many moons ago; would no doubt be something that The Order would want to know, in the event the situation managed to breach the borders of Japan.

"So what you're saying Viktor, is that those we're after would either need to get one of the First Ones on their side; which in my opinion seems highly unlikely, or abduct one of them and force them into taking apart, which again seems doubtful, as I bet neither The Countess or The Impaler would go quietly without some form of confrontation." Daniel said from the back of the group. He then looked towards Karis.

"My my, the great White Wolf of the South himself; it is an honour to finally put name to a face. If I may be so bold as to enquire, if you were inside Sierra, and judging from sharing some similar facial features you were, how did you get out?"

 

[Lunar Templar]

Debriefing

"It's be more likely they have a no account Vampire or two on hand that they plan to use with the Ring, as for the Sword. Lady Rozalin thinks they plan to, or already have used her spell circle to drain the power from the blade, as in her words 'It's theoretically possible, since the power is just sitting there regardless of whether a Vampire is on hand to unleash it or not.' And if I had to hazard a guess, they intend on feeding that power to Lucifer, which would make him FAR more powerful the all three Greater Lords combined." Karis said while looking over the map with the target sights, though he did stop and turn toward Daniel, eyeing him a moment. Seth should be the only one in the room that knew that title.

"I'm sure some of you have noticed how Sierra is no longer Half Demon? The short of it is when Riviera came and cut the Abyssal out of her, she got 'me' as well." He said turning toward the group. "Once she realized who she had and with what was looming on the horizon, she figured it would be best to resurrect and tap me as an asset. She said two things though. 1) She was tipped off to Sierra being half Abyssal, by an anonymous source. One that seemed to know about both Sierra, and The Queens pathological disdain for Abyssals. 2) Who ever it was that tipped her off, likely did so in an effort to try and strain relations between the two Kingdoms." Karis explained as his gaze turned back towards the map. Clearly he was looking for something they missed. "As to how she was even able to remove the 'Abyssal' from us with killing harming ether of us, I didn't ask. Didn't have time to, what with more important issues at hand."

Sierra 'whispered' to William. "That's why I'm here."

"Get ready to send your teams back out." Karis said after a moment. "And You'll want to set up a forward base here, just in case" Karis said, bringing the map over and showing the team leads where he was pointing, it was an old run down temple, one they over looked due to the lack of shielding. "Seth's team, your coming with me. What? You think I'm going to just sit here and wait for you to find Vyrlian?" The Merc said with a scoff to his tone "I was hired to kill him, not sit on my thumbs. Anyway, I think I see a potential place you all over looked." He said tapping a spot on the map. "We'll be check it out and reporting back."

"What makes you so confident of this site?" Daughtry asked. "The area in question is confirmed to to not have an sigh of shielding." "There's an old Gate there. It used to lead to Asmodeus keep, but with him being very much dead, and it's counterpart in the demon realm equally so, it's fallen out of use. It might be nothing but it should still be checked, if for no other reason then to make sure it's nothing" Daughtry looked at the map again, where Karis suggested the forward base be, in relation to the gate. "But your gut is telling you it's something..." Daughtry said, his tone denoting his own agreement it could be important While Seth thought on this a bit, he did know about the gate, but hadn't considered it due to it being 'inactive' for so long, then he had this look like something just occurred to him. "You all said you saw them make off with some Crystals?" Some one on Red team nodded. "That Clever bastard, well played you eight legged asshole." Seth said. "Blue team, We're accompanying the Merc to this Gate, be ready for hostiles." Daughtry the other handler issued orders on what to do.


The Lost Gate
Less the 5 minutes later the teams where all on they're what to they're respective locations. With Blue team having the additions of both Karis and Seth, and less the 20 minutes later, the where standing, staring at a large rock face. Seth walked over to the rock. "When was the last time the two of us sortied together?" The Serpent Demon asked, putting his hand on the rock, which glowed for a second before revealing a path downward. Karis thought a moment. "About a year or so before you told Mammon to go fuck him self. What was it again? 'With rusty spiked cudgel wrapped in Blade Wire'?"

The Path downward was dark. But a little ways down, not even fully out of sight of the entrance the group saw some lights, and started to hear the sounds of activity. A little ways further they saw several Demons, these in armor, and clearly warriors, about six in total. Next to a pair near the back was an ancient Gate, one big enough to easily drive a city bus through with room to spare on ether side, though it lacked a certain 'life' to it the ones at the shrine had. Hooked up to it was some sort of magic device that looked like it was supposed to hold something. Not far from that was several Crystals, just like the one they saw the worker demon vanish with earlier and there was about 15 of those.