The headquarters of The Last Alliance were located in an old storefront that had seen better days. It wasn't much, but it was all Penny could afford. The young witch was dressed in a t-Shirt and jeans. She looked around at the small supernatural gathering. Gonna need a lot of work, but this has some potential.

"I'm Penny Martin. You're probably wondering why I called you here. The truth is simple: Mortals are in danger, here and on dozens of other planes. Danger from supernatural beings they refuse to acknowledge exist. Yet we know, and we will protect them. It's not going to be a glorious job. They aren't going to thank us, or even realize what we've done for them.

So, who's in?"

@shagranoz
Dante keeps his arms crossed while in a strip club. The club isn't bad, and the pay for him want bad either. He got to insure the safety of some women while getting paid. Oddly, he is among the few bouncers who don't try anything with the women, rather make sure they are okay...sometimes he even walks them home some nights. This night though, he was walking home alone when he stumbled upon a poster. odd...hmm...seems urgent though guess ill go

Dante later found himself sitting in some old storefront after finding a poster stuck to a light pole. His arms cross as he raises an eyebrow at the young woman speaking. "Wait...other planes? Going to have to explain that a bit before i fully get into this...whatever this is" His tone holds skepticism along with the tone of suspecting the person speaking has lost their mind.

Feeling small Antonia stood in front of the weathered store front. He only possessions were the clothes she was wearing, the flyer that had directed her to the storefront in the first place and her own name.

Though Penny had a lot to say, important things about why the small group was even there, Antonia was more fixated on her mannerisms. They were so nearly related in mortal things, or at least they were more similar than she had been to her en-slavers. Every little thing from the way she held her hands to the way light reflected on her eyes, all was foreign to Antonia.

As penny finished Antonia reveled in the thought of helping unwitting humans. To harm 'supernatural' things as penny had said wasn't something Antonia had ever dreamed she'd be doing. It was such a drastic change from her old life. But the old feeling of knowing crept close behind her fear. If someone had been there for her mother perhaps she wouldn't have made such a mess of Antonia's own life. If only someone had saved her from more than two decades of imprisonment. But the past was set in stone, and although Antonia crazed to have those years back, to know her mother, she knew the chance was gone. But there where others, just like her, who needed help just the same.

The large mans sudden questioning was unexpected, his voice humbling like a distant thunder before the rain has begun. He held an air about himself, a way of seeming used to be answered without hesitation.

Antonia spoke up before Penny could reply. "I'll go. Wherever you lead." She said, voice like a whisper, "I want to help."

Penny sighed at Dante's comments. Playing dumb, are we? Or worse, maybe he's a vanilla who got the info via a leak. If that's the case, we're in for it. Focusing on her annoyance at Dante, a small globe of black Hellfire appeared in her hand, just to prove she wasn't lying.

"Yes. Other planes. Other Earths. I should know, I'm from one. Now, are you going to help us or not?"

Meanwhile, the other girl seemed to be far more interested, even saying that she'd follow Penny's lead. Well, that's a relief. One down, billions to go. "Glad to have you aboard. What's your name, and what can you do?"

Dante tilts his head as the other girl speaks up. He was being more careful then anything else. His focus goes back to the woman as she speaks, he can tell from her tone that she seemed annoyed.
"Okay...cant be too careful"

He gives a light shrug and removes his sunglasses, allowing his lion like eyes to focus on her. He turns slightly to focus on the one that spoke up...albeit quietly earlier. His eyes now focused on her.

The girl shifted her eyes toward the storefront and then back across the room, finally dragging back to Penny's shoes and her question. "Antonia," She said "I fix plants... i don't know how helpful that is, really."
She stole a glance at the man, his eyes pale staring like a full moon, before looking back at the floor. "sometimes i can fix people to," She said, with more energy, "little things mostly. Like a scratch or cut. but..." Her voice trailed off with a shrug of her shoulders. Her magic wasn't anything particularly special in her mind.

A sleek black cat crept along the street, eyes green as they stared up at a poster. Why not? Al had nothing better to do.

The air blew harshly against the fur he currently wore, his familiar shape so very comfortable. Cats were common-place around here. Especially strays. Al prefered a life of running around and looking for something new than a life being pampered. He'd done it once, shifted into a beautiful tiger and was bought by royalty. Treated like gold, he'd been, but grew tired of it and slipped away in the middle of the night, coming back here.

And here he was now, listening to a young woman say something about other planes, helping humans. There was another man there, who seemed to want an actual explanation but honestly, Al didn't care about that sort of thing. He'd deal with it when he got to it. So he shifted into his human form, squaring his shoulders and pushing back the deep grey of his sleeves to his elbows. "I'm in. What's first on the To Do list, then?" If the red-headed woman wanted a demonstration of his abilities, they'd need a warehouse or something akin to that but he assumed she didn't need much of anything but his word for now.

@shagranoz

"First on the agenda?" Penny pulled out several folders and passed them around. "Vampires. We've got a decent-sized Court over on Twenty-second Street. They've been preying on the homeless for some time now, and we're going to put a stop to it. I've got some stakes and garlic, but we're going to try talking them to a resolution first. We solve the problem without any bloodshed, makes us look better. Any questions?"

"Sounds perfectly boring. But anyway, I think I should go ahead and scout out the place for traps. I highly doubt a coven of leeches or whatever isn't cautious enough to put in some basic security," Al said, lifting a brow and rolling his shoulders. This sounded like a supernatural police force and therefore so far, no fun at all. Al joined wanting action and a full carte blanche when it came to using his abilities. Surely if the vamps were that much of an issue someone else would've handled them. Then again maybe they were some super hybrid vamps with stupid powers like super speed or telekinesis. Al wasnt overly concerned with the humans, nor was he concerned with the leeches. He just wanted to beat someone up.

Dante raised an eyebrow as he looked at the newcomer. So far this group seemed rather...different. As soon as penny said vampire his focus turned back to her. "Not all vampires hate garlic....beheading would be the safest bet. You can miss with a stake" he shrugs. "So when are we going to go deal with them?" He didn't seem excited, but focused.

---

Charlie was only recently informed of his elven ancestry, and really, it was something he'd abused ever since discovering it. While most preferred to keep things like this secret, he went around flaunting his abilities (though most humans just thought it coincidental). Only seven years after his discovery did he find someone else who was similar, a light elf - of which he saw no difference, but whatever - and adopted the poor kid under his wing. His apartment, cheap and basically in shambles, was picked up pretty quickly by the ever-so-touchy Fletcher O'Sullivan. That was about the only good Fletch had ever done him, in his pessimistic mind: cleaning up the place. Still. When Charlie was eighteen he'd learned about something like an 'alliance' was in the makings, and put off actually going until now because pfft, no way there was anyone else like him. Fletch was kind of the straw on the camel's back.

And here he was, practically dragging the light elf off to the first meeting. He’d only woken the poor sap up about five minutes ago, and already he was pointed toward the door ‘cause apparently all Charlie’s morning routine was went like this: tug a cleaner shirt on, grab a slice of toast and Red Bull, move along. He’d done just that. ”SULLY! You ready? Pretty sure we’re late.” Charlie paused, realising the harshness in his tone might not go over too well, and shot a look around the room like he was just waiting for the younger elf to come darting out. Pretty typical of Fletch to show off his ridiculous agility, especially around Charlie. ”...and make sure you get, like, one of my jackets, ‘cause it’s fuckin’ forty degrees or whatever.” When his voice went low, his stereotypical Chicago came out, and immediately he arched an eyebrow expectantly. Fletch might pick up on that and tease him, that lil’ twink. In preparation to give him a noogie or jump him in some other way, Charlie pressed against the front door, hands turning to fists at his side.

Fletcher hated waking up indoors. He hated the blinds Charlie insisted on keeping over the windows, not allowing any sun to stream into the little rooms of the apartment. The artificial lights of the apartment always bothered the light elf, even after nearly three years. He hadn’t learned everything of the human world from Charlie - TV helped a lot too. So, his morning routine was a little longer, since he came to really like the minty taste left in his mouth after brushing his teeth, or how clean his skin felt after washing his face. He used streams as his source of water for everything back in the forest. Showers were on the top of his most amazing things about the human world. While Charlie had gotten him clothes of his own, he still went into the older elf’s closet; for some reason, he liked the feel of Charlie’s clothes better than his own. He cringed when he heard Charlie and rolled his eyes as he finished shoving his feet into his tennis shoes. He still hated that constricting feeling on his feet. If the dark elf hadn’t mentioned getting a jacket then, maybe, Fletch would have done something to piss him off. But, instead, a grin broke out across his face as he opened the hall closet to get one of Charlie’s jacket. As he slipped it over his arms, shrugging it onto his shoulders, he caught the smell of Charlie clinging to it.

“Aw, you care so much, Char.” he said, tone teasing, as he came up to him. He took a short pause, eyes cutting to the left briefly as he shuffled through the thoughts in his mind. “We’re late ‘cause of you and it’s kind of hard to leave with you just leaning against the door.” he pointed out, crossing his arms and giving Charlie a shit-eating grin. Charlie responded with a sneer, bobbing his head for emphasis, before stepping aside and mock-politely opening the door. ”Chivalry’s not dead.” He acted like he was waiting for Fletcher to go first, before quickly stepping through at the last moment, laughing wholeheartedly over his shoulder. He darted down the hall, prompting Fletcher to race him, and obviously lost their little race. Nevertheless, he flagged down a taxi (after reminding Fletch what exactly taxis were), and they made it to a strangely desert shopping square.

The same flyer he had tucked away in his pocket was up on one particular store, so Charlie gestured for the light elf to follow before sauntering over curiously. They were in, jingling the bell over the door, just in time to catch one of the folders being passed around. ”Fuckin’ vampires,” he breathed incredulously to Fletcher, although admittedly the dark elf may have been a bit too loud. Hastily, Charlie surveyed the rather underwhelming group, and realised exactly how late they were for the first time. ”Oh shit, y’all already do intros? I’m Charlie, this kid here’s Fletcher. We’re, uh, elves.” He placed a heavy hand over Fletcher’s chest, half-shoving him, when he said his name; and, of course, Charlie was still iffy on calling himself an elf. Jesus, of all things. He furrowed his brow, flipping through the folders, but he wasn’t exactly one for reading. ”What are we doin’, fucking up some vamps? Listen, you don’t need garlic and a stake, just these…” Rather immaturely, Charlie stuck up his fists, dropping his folder in his lap.

Fletch wasn’t bothered that they were late to the little gathering. He took in each person after getting a folder, and opened it up to stare down at it. At Charlie’s quiet words, he glanced over at him with a small, agreeing nod. His eyes didn’t even leave the folder when Charlie half-shoved him. Instead, his elbow shot out, catching him in the side in a hard nudge, flipping to the next page, brain taking in the pages and committing them to memory for him to not forget. However, his eyes finally looked up at Charlie’s behavior, and his eyes narrowed just the slightest. “Don’t be an idiot, Charlie.” he said, voice matter-of-fact and not harsh or angry in the least, before glancing towards the others. He took a short pause. “Everyone ignore Charlie, he thinks he’s a badass or something.” he said, tone casual now, as he slapped the folder shut.

Turning his head, Al found new people staring at them. Elves, huh. How perfectly uninteresting yet again, but introductions apparently seemed to be of great import. Al didn't know the abilities of any of these people -people being a word he used loosely internally at the moment- nor their personalities. So for now he'd respectively keep to himself for the most part. A name however, he didn't mind disclosing. "Alcatraz. Shapeshifter," he said, eyes sliding from one elf to the other. "Why ignore him if he might have a point? I don't mind a good ol' fashioned beat-down," he chuckled, turning away from the people and snickering to himself, fingers dancing over his forearms. "But like I proposed," Al said, looking to the red-headed woman. "I'll scout out the place so we don't run into a trap of some kind. It'd a uh..heh, be a right shame if one of our own were to get decapitated," Al smirked as he repeated the suggestion, the familiar painful tingle of a shift already crawling up his spine. Not being in control was frustrating, but Al would be fine as long as they got to the action soon. The itch would subside.

Dante tilts his head at the new comers. Two elves a spell caster and a shapeshifter. May as well actually introduce himself, oddly finding himself feeling not himself. His ease of agitation must be from not shifting for so long. "Dante....manticore" He gave a light head nod to the two elves. Hopefully his name wasn't known by too many here...or at least hopefully his violent reputation isn't known.

"Elves, huh? Welcome aboard, in any case." Penny nodded as Al volunteered to go scouting. "Good idea. I've got plenty of intel on the vamps themselves, but not much on the hideout. Nosferatu strain. Just be warned, their hearing is far better than the average human. They're mildly telekinetic, too. Not enough to throw a human around like a rag doll, but they can put you in a psychic stranglehold. If you get caught, run for sunlight, but it will only slow them down. It will not ash them."

Penny then turned to the others. "There's a reason all that folklore about silver hurting werewolves and garlic killing vampires survived, folks. It works. Now, I don't use holy water myself. Interferes with my magic too much. But I've got a nice stock of everything else, along with a couple old pistols and swords. Pick and choose, everybody." For herself, Penny selected a .38 caliber pistol. No silver bullets, but regular old lead would ruin the bats' day pretty effectively too. "We move out as soon as he gets back."

Fletcher rose an eyebrow when this Alcatraz character addressed them. It took him the time that Alcatraz spoke again to finally say, "Don't encourage him." to be honest, he hadn't seen Charlie interact with many others. He, himself, hadn't gotten the chance so he was a little on edge, eyes flickering between everyone. He caught Dante's nod, however, and wondered what the hell a manticore was. He really wasn't sure; the light elf didn't do much reading. He already had enough swirling around in his head. He listened to their new leader's, he guessed, instructions, the toe of his sneaking lightly tapping against the ground without him noticing. He hated shoes. He did wonder if his weapons would be effective against a vampire. He had never dealt with one before... okay, Charlie was the only other supernatural being he had actually dealt with before, so this was new. He turned to the older elf with a bit of confusion in his brow - he'd never admit that he often looked to Charlie for guidance. "Think my bow and arrow would work or...?" he nodded towards the array of shiny weapons ready for the picking, looking like they were set out just for this purpose.

Alcatraz. Weird name. Usually Charlie's an idiot when it comes to history, but he briefly recalled the origins of such a name: that goddam penitentiary from the fifties or whatever. Ever the delinquent, he knew what it was, but nothing about it. 'cept that brother Al stayed there for a little while. It occurred to him that maybe there was no correlation between the kid's name and that hellhole, but he didn't entertain the possibility for very long. "Boy. You from San Fran? More specifically, the Bay?" He was horsing around, of course, and showed as much with a delightful little sneer. 'Shapeshifter,' while surprising, was nothing he could deduce much from, and he figured he'd look like an idiot if he asked anything now.

'Why ignore him if he might have a point? I don't mind a good ol' fashioned beat-down,' HA. Finally someone with some sense. Charlie shot his elf-pal a look of told ya so, only to be met with a little mutter against prison kid. Charlie decided he didn't like that attitude and rolled his eyes resolutely. What he did like, though, was this Alcatraz fellow, who seemed to be on the same page, and he nearly offered his helping hand for the scouting spiel; really, it was more important to stick to Fletcher, and if all three of them went along to look around, they'd make a right crowd. Plus, unbeknownst to him, that wouldn't exactly help Al in taking the reins. Instead of speaking up further, he looked to the "manticore" who introduced himself. Similar to Al, his name had some implications. Not that Charlie was very religious, but Hell, everyone knew of good ol' Dante's Inferno. He looked pretty damn amused at the thought of this guy in charge of Hell. Still, the dark elf had no idea who this Dante in particular was, nor any clue what the hell a manticore was able to do.

He nodded along vaguely as someone he assumed was the leader went on about vampire facts. Jesus, it was like her goddam party trick, pulling these anecdotes out of her ass. Clenching his jaw to keep from mentioning it, Charlie simply nodded in understanding when she waited for confirmation, then arched his eyebrow inquisitively when Fletcher turned to him with a question. "Well—" He paused, stuck his foot out to step on Fletch's tapping one, and pieced through his handy-dandy folder to find the information he was asking after. "Are they made of pure, undiluted silver? Whatever the hell 'undiluted' means. I mean, you could bake some garlic arrows, I dunno." Charlie just snickered to himself about his own cleverness before realising Fletcher had some issues 'getting' jokes. "No, hey, yeah, make sure they're silver, but it's not, y'know, the most important thing." He didn't bother to explain. Surely Fletch knew that shooting something with an arrow would fuck it up regardless of material. Rather, he went over briefly to grab hold of a baton - Charlie was much less of a ranged fighter, more of a destructive centre force.

Dante noded and made his way to the table. He grabbed two silver swords before he sat back down and got to work. With audible snaps Dante broke the swords up into pieces, then wrapped his claws as they appeared, but left the tip of each exposed in case he needed his poison. He formed each piece to each claw before he moved on to his horns. This took much more effort since they are on his head and that they are relatively large. Once finished he sat back and let his scorpion tail appear.

He debated what to do with that for a moment before he went back to the table and broke up on last sword. This he carefully wrapped the venom sac of the tail and left the very tip exposed in case he needed his poison from it. Once he is all finished he is unable to go full human until he removes the metal. This means that Dante is sitting down with silver covered horns, claws, and scorpion tail.

Oh, boy. They were already destroying Alliance property? This wasn't good. Penny turned to Dante and said with an edge in her voice, "You break it, you bought it, manticore."

"Silver or wood will work equally well on them, but those modern carbon-fiber arrows, well, they won't do as much. I've got some arrows that are as pure as I could get my hands on." The demonic witch smiled. "And actually, they are dipped in garlic oil. I like to be prepared."