Continuum: Bloodletting (The Shanty Town)

[Tantalum]

As focused as she was, Carmen growled as her target escaped her sight a third time; but now that she had seen it directly, there was far more happening than him simply escaping her line of sight. Rather, the shadows seemed to reach out to cater for him - not at all unlike an ability an affiliate of hers had used. Regardless, the shapeshifter had indeed jumped to the roof as a lure above anything else, but she had hardly expected for it to work so quickly.
"-Oh?" she instinctually raised her shield, turning to her left as the vampire raised in turn. Finding herself short for personal space, a steady pace back followed another, until Null warned that two more would lead her off the edge.

Barely over six feet away, the pale-skinned assassin stood threateningly, flexing his bloodied claws at his sides. Ever grinning, each of his seventeen words were saturated with ill undertones - and to Carmen, not one seemed to hold any relevance to their situation. Still, Carmen was not one to simply dismiss conversation, if only so it gave insight into her enemy's motives and mindset.
Shrugging off her confusion, her own fanged mouth opened - passing an inhuman, airy shrill, undertoned with a growling yet high-pitched murmur. Carmen herself flinched at this; it was the first time since she had tried such a combination of vocal chords, and apparently doing so had rendered her words incomprehensible.

Ignoring the mishap, she swallowed and paused, actively loosening her earlier modifications.
"Right," She started again with immaculate confidence, "Do I... uh." Which lasted until noticing her tone now perfectly matched that of a kitten's, phonetics included.
"Nyearrrrww..." Much to her distraught, her audible frustration only made her sound even more docile; but knowing the capacity of the killer before her, her embarrassment was not let to distract her from the task at hand. Her shield-arm held firmly in front, albeit with a weak grip, and her revolver was placed in her pocket, doubting she would need it in such close range.
"...I'm afraid I'm n't about t' discuss anything while like this." Her words were definitive, and paced such that her slurring was minimal.
"M'ind if we talk after you're in a jail cell?" She said with a forced hint of optimism.

[MelonHead]

Instead of answering him like a civilised being, the woman then proceeded to screech at the vampire causing his ears to send sharp stabs of pain coursing through his head. Although his slightly dulled senses reduced what pain he may have felt otherwise, he still turned slightly in annoyance as the pain quickly passed, not showing her blatantly that he had a dislike for loud noises.

Eventually after some adorable cat like noises which caused his face to etch in confusion, she managed to answer his mysterious greeting with her demand to put him in jail. His face grew slightly sullen then, as he drew his hands together in mock surrender and presented them to her as he strode forward. Although he was unsure if she even had hand cuffs, he knew his immediate forfeit would cause her some measure of confusion which would make things all the easier as he reached the two feet mark.

“Would you cage a beast
after he escaped to feed;
or would you slay him?”

Still he presented his hands forward to her, waiting to see her response as he assumed she would attempt to take him into custody. His dark smile returned to his face then under his hood, and his eyes watched her movements more carefully than one would think possible.

[Tantalum]

"...Huh." Carmen's brow furrowed at the man's response - slowly catching on to his apparent haiku prose, but taking little note of it at the present.
Naturally it was his actions that bothered her more, as his arms were lifted in front as if to surrender. After quite literally calling the police after him, it was more than a little far-fetched for her to believe - though at the same time, with her enhanced prowess there was little harm to expect from playing along...

Discontentedly, her yellow eyes raised level with the offender's own: "Just be glad I'm n't tuh one making c'esse rules here."
Altering between her two earlier voices as she spoke, Carmen managed to settle on a compromise. A varied mesh of pronounced growls and clicks now accented her every word, while a faded, wavering tonality beneath made them almost understandable. It was still painfully shrill, but otherwise she considered it an ample improvement.

"If n't for c'iss badge I'm wearing," the Sargent hissed without emotion, "I wouldn' consider giving you a second char'ce at life. H'w fortunate for you, no?" Her free hand calmly flicked back to her waist again and, assuming the man ahead made no sudden actions, drew in front no less than a pair of shiny rainbow-coloured handcuffs, easily visible behind her transparent defence.

[MelonHead]

Now she had good reason to be suspicious, someone in Adrian’s line of work seldom gave themselves up without a fight after all. This point filtered through his mind fairly quickly, and so he decided a fight may just be in order.

The sword and dagger on his person could still be put into use, but less than three feet away from Carmen it seemed ill advisable to attempt to draw either one of them as she plucked the handcuffs from her waist. The sound of fighting still echoed below although it was decreasing noticeably as the police began to regain order. The vampire watched, in the briefest of pauses as she prepared to cuff him he suddenly burst forward a step, his hands breaking away from each other as the right reached out and forcefully yanked the shield back, with the intention of pulling it out of her grasp and throwing it to the ground to his side.

As he did this, his left hand shot out in a simple but forceful blow, with the intention of slamming his palm into her sternal notch as she was pulled towards him, as he tugged the shield from her hand. The blow was not a dangerous one except in certain conditions, and the conditions of the rooftop did to some degree provide just that. Provided his strike landed as he expected she would be forced back by the push, and very likely thrown from the rooftop as only steps separated her from the edge.

[Tantalum]

The bait was given, and the foe's actions followed as expected. With a sudden advance, the rim of Carmen's riot shield was grasped, long before she could make any action to prevent it.
Instead, reactively, the shifter let go, allowing the defence to be pulled far from her reach. All but another bluff from the start, she hardly needed to rely on such an encumbrance after what her own abilities could provide - not to mention, it was a matter of time before she rendered herself unable to wield it anyway.

She staggered back, balance held on her right leg, with marble-black nails scraping against the steel below her. Ahead, her pursuer followed up the disarm, directing a frontal strike to her exposed, chitin-coated torso. Given the distance, he was but narrowly within range - enough for Carmen to feel the hit, but not nearly extending enough to throw her off balance.
Teeth were bared as she endured the strike, forcing her concentration to withhold. At the same moment, her freed left hand swung to intercept Adrian's arm - attempting to take hold of his inner elbow, and applying an inhuman vice-grip if successful. Backed with overgrown muscle, the four-inch pincer replacing her thumb would easily lock itself into skin or armour alike, maintaining constant pressure. All the while, her right arm raised to defend any following attack, the shiny handcuffs hanging from a half-open claw.

Continually shifting and reacting, Carmen's height was now matching Adrian's own. Her ears lengthened further, each extending a ten inches behind, and her nose was soon absorbed into a short, rounded and streamlined muzzle. Her fingers began to conjoin, merging into singular lengthened digits, while the soles of her feet widened to facilitate her claws' retractability. Jagged folds of skin laced the inner of her forearms, and her marble-black armour began to encompass her swelling wrists...

[MelonHead]

Adrian quickly realised as his lightning fast reflexes sent nerve impulses shooting through his mind that his attack had not been as successful as hoped. However, he was more than willing to improvise and as he did so he noted the strange changes taking over his prey. It was all becoming distressingly uncomfortable, but even as this childish thought took over his mind he was moving far faster than humanly possible. His left hand colliding with her body unsuccessfully, the right hand which had pulled at the shield now moved to his hip, drawing the dagger with incredible speed and skill.

In a reverse grip he whipped it upwards towards the rapidly approaching ‘crab hand’ to swipe across the wrist as simultaneously he prepared to launch his left hand forward to reach around her neck. Her right hand was perfectly set to prevent this attack, but her less than hasty attempt at gripping his left arm may be met with far more dire consequences as the obsidian blade would be more than capable of slashing through what natural armour she had managed to prepare, albeit lightly.

If his blade managed to cut her as intended, and his attempt at gripping her around the throat and crushing the life from her near instantaneously was thwarted, he would duck low under both her arms taking advantage of their now equal size to plunge his dagger into her abdomen and then pull away. Gaining the space to size up whatever his opponent was made of.

[Tantalum]

With blinding speed Adrian drew one of his blades, striking the outer of Carmen's left wrist at the instant she completed the grab. Against her modified crustacean plating, his dagger struck unnaturally far for any blade she had dealt with, cleanly chipping through half an inch before reaching the bone beneath. What was meant to be a grunt of pain, was strainingly amplified to a cacophony of stammered squeals; but as the situation stood, no level of pent-up embarrassment could be afforded to release him.
Even as she tried to press through his arm, his clawed digits raised ever predictably to her guarded neck, faintly etching the skin along the grooves of her armour. Eyes widened in alarm of her outmatched strength, which she knew in itself was greater than any similar-sized animal. Unable to dispatch his threat through raw force, every ounce of her other abilities were used to redirect him at all costs.

Mimicked on both hands, her fingers had been entirely replaced by serrated, half-sized, mantis-like appendages. Though seemingly retractable, both were currently folded open, with the left claw crawling around and into Adrian's upper arm. Unlike a mantis, a similar black-plated substance unevenly covered the outer and edges of the claws, catering for the bulks of unnatural muscle beneath.

From her leaning stance, she pushed off her right leg, hopping three feet back and to her right with truly explosive strength. Halting just as suddenly with her left hind-claw, her actions inadvertently cornered herself upon the edge of the building, but with any success it would pull Adrian by the limb within a convenient range. Her right arm extended to swing leftwards with unnatural speed - making the most of her advantageous reach, and directing the inner of the spiked appendage towards Adrian's middle spine.

[MelonHead]

Adrian snarled in general annoyance as his arm was gripped and then pierced by claws, his blood coating the clawed appendage as his armour protected him from the brunt of the attack. His claws were tentatively close to Carmen’s neck, but to no avail, his only saving grace the blood which stained his own weapon as it was drawn effortlessly through his outstretched left arm.

Carmen was quick, considering she was facing someone far beyond human capabilities, in his element, darkness. However she had made a fatal mistake, crossing one’s arm across their own body was a bad move, it left it trapped if the person they held in their grip had any idea what they were doing. Adrian had some small notion of a plan.

As his hand drew the dagger into the air, he felt the grip begin to strengthen and Carmen threw her weight backwards, obviously intending to throw the vampire back with her. He was more than happy to oblige, twisting his left arm so the hand clasped her forearm, the movement caused a dull pain to emanate from the region pierced by the claw. As he felt himself pulled, he twisted and turned himself completely around, spinning 180 so his back was to Carmen’s front and his left arm was stretched out towards her. Meanwhile, his movement brought him too close for her attack to work, however the spines slashed at his right arm and cut through the armour in places drawing drops of blood.

With his back to her he used every ounce of his vampiric speed to slam downwards with the dagger, still held in a reverse grip at mid height, into her right thigh. Then, he would slam his right foot down into her foot, draw the dagger from her leg and jam his elbow into her stomach.

If all that failed to make her let go with the pincer, he would simply spin full circle and use his exceptional strength to launch her off the building, obviously if he was still grappled at this point he would be dragged off with her, but the landing would be significantly worse for Carmen as Adrian dropped on top of her.

[Tantalum]

She squinted as the blade was removed, rather unsettled as her vibrant blood trickled alongside Adrian's dirtied own. Against the monstrous chimera's might, his own prowess twisted and forced his way inwards - an daring move, but one which Carmen could not see working in his favour.
All the while, her body developed further still, adapting an arched back, widened neck and fully digitigrade feet not unlike that of a wildcat's. Her potential height held steadily at 6'4", although her stance lessened this to give further control over her centre of gravity.
Upon sighting the motion, she stepped again to her left, crouching ever slightly. while the inner of her right forearm snared his respective side. Shifted into ample position, the end of her mantis appendage near-instantly snapped around him, with intents to lock around his right upper arm and latch diagonally across his chest. The reach of her claws were lengthening still by the second, and the thin teeth jutting along them surprisingly grew identical to those lacing her own maw.

However, again her speed was too easily outmatched. What would have been a swift evasion against any normal opponent his size, instead resulted in his dagger penetrating through her muscular thigh.
Without time to even acknowledge Null's warnings, she held stiff in shock, doing little more than to force her weight forwards off her left leg. His right foot struck atop her own, mildly amplifying the pain already dealt - but were Carmen's grab to succeed, Adrian would have difficulty removing the knife or shifting his arm for a further assault.

[MelonHead]

Although he kept striking at the woman, if she could still be called such, Adrian was still gripped by her clawed appendages. His blade plunged into her flesh, almost piercing through to the other side as the obsidian edge effortlessly parted her muscle. His right side was gripped by another claw, but the pain filtered through as dull and lifeless, hardly enough to incapacitate him but for now enough to immobilise him. Sensing removing the dagger would be difficult in his current circumstances, his grip on the blade strengthened momentarily as he twisted it, forcing the tip through more of her flesh and hopefully disabling the leg.

He struggled in her iron tight grip for a moment, before releasing his hold over the blade and leaving it stuck deep within her leg. Judging any attempt at breaking her grip from the top foolish, he continued the grisly and methodical work of disabling her from the ground up. With a snarl of pain as the teeth dug into his chest through his armour, he kicked out backwards with his left foot, aiming to drive the heel into his opponents shin with all his vampiric strength.

Immediately after that he would twist to the left, painfully tearing himself away from the pincers enough so that his right hand could reach up to grip her right appendage. If he managed to manoeuvre into that position, he could fairly easily judo throw her over his right shoulder, releasing her forearm with his left hand and assuming she let go throwing her clear off the building.