Part 2
Featuring… @VATROU
Featuring… @VATROU
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Inside the Warehouse
The inside of the warehouse was rather normal. All the shelves were modern stacked with crates and forklifts sat in the corners. There was quiet, as the inside was obscured to the outside world, rows upon rows stacked towards the ceiling. The forklift was the only light source as the charging light blinked. As men patrolled the grounds two stood out, as gloved hands reached for the door into the warehouse office. “Boss wants a check done, things have been crazy ever since someone hit us in Lost Haven.”
“Yeah, you’re telling me Klein. Wasn’t happy about explaining things to the local buyers. Don’t know why we’re here, no one’s gonna mess with us in our territory.” The door clicked and the lights flickered on inside the office. “Klein, call a few boys to check the inventory. Make sure everything’s in place. Make sure the Mimic isn’t eating the crates again.”
“Sure sure. I’ll have them do some legwork.” Klein rustled through his pockets as he gripped a black phone. “Take a few guys and inspect the warehouse right and proper. The Mimic should be doing it’s job at pest control but make sure it’s not damaging any of it’s surroundings.”
“Got it boss. Doing a sweep log now.”
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Lekh, dressed not unlike a paintballer or some sort of special ops agent in his facemask and kevlar vest, crept along the corrugated fencing that lined the outskirts of the warehouse. On the other side he estimated a sixty foot dash to the walls of the building itself, through an area used by delivery vehicles which would park up with their rears to the loading bay doors for easy movement of goods. The place was basically deserted, apparently business hours were irregular in Barron’s organisation though Lekh was not to know that the inside of the warehouse itself was practically empty, for whatever reason.
With an athletic leap he caught the edge of the fencing and pulled his body up so as to peek over, checking the coast was in fact clear before nimbly vaulting the barrier and dropping down on tarmac. Creeping quickly but quietly across the gap he swiftly reached the loading bay doors, two large corrugated things that looked locked tight. Luckily, it seemed they had put in a side door for use when opening and closing the doors would be an excessive hassle just to let one man in or out. He just hoped the thing wasn’t alarmed while there were still people inside the warehouse, because he knew not everyone had gone home from work yet.
It was a relatively minor effort for the practiced thief to pick the lock with a metal pin and screwdriver designed for the task. With a click and a squeak that made Lekh wince beneath his mask, the door swung open and before him was the warehouse proper. And it was dark. So very dark. Illuminated only by the dim amber lights of forklifts sequestered away out of sight, presumably on charge for later use. Usually, darkness was Lekh’s friend, but with the sort of creatures he was expecting to encounter the balance had shifted and suddenly his old friend had become his worst enemy. With a gulp to master the fear that any reasonable human would feel going into such unknown, Lekh sought out the damp wooden stake from his waistband and clutched it tight while with his free hand he drew his pistol. Knocking the door shut behind him, he was plunged into near complete darkness. With weapons close at hand, he began to cautiously advance into the warehouse, awaiting the smashing of glass from on high.
---
Meanwhile, upon the afternoon-lit roof, Mandate faced a conundrum. It was a simple matter, but confounding.
Did Miss Ambassador want me to count fast, or slowly? Upon reconsidering, the golem decided that the matter was actually not that confounding at all; humans (like Miss Ambassador) were extremely slow on their feet sometimes. Logically, the fey-dealing woman would require some time to get into position, as would as her strange friend.
Okay, slow it is. Metaphorically patting herself upon the back for her quick deductions, Mandate resumed her slow count upon her fingers, using the rhythm to allow herself some further space to think. It was not particularly difficult to count to 100, but it was even easier to do it with her digits.
The realm of her idle thoughts was not a particularly enlightening experience, she found. If one killed a vampire, did the blood count as its own? Did vampires disintegrate, she wondered? She hoped not, for the sake of her own curiosity regarding their inhuman innards. And metahumans, an even more wondrous proposition; they were mostly non-magical things.
Is a vampire bat a vampire or a bat first? Oh, that’s 90. Standing tall upon the roof of the warehouse, the ever-curious golem cast her gaze out. Her thoughts momentarily drifted in the wind, and the warmth of the afternoon sun soaked intriguingly into her unyielding surface. The glimmer of the light upon her mercurial ‘skin’ was a fascinating effect that she wished to observe further.
But sadly, her time was up. Up to 100, specifically. Mentally patting herself upon the back once more, Mandate refocused. Her fingers curled, her foot thumped upon the roof of the warehouse, and she threw herself forward.
The golem descended head-first through the window, preceded by a spray of debris and followed by a shaft of afternoon light. Her landing was almost as hard as the blows that would soon follow.
“THE HELL was that!! I’m gonna check it out. Get your golems ready Klein.”
“While you do that I’ll call up the boys.”
--Outside--
Odette approached the edge of the building peeking around, there were a couple dozen vehicles parked in the lot. The entrance was generally quiet, the odd person heading inside or exiting. Beckoning Bach to follow she walked straight through the doors, looking lost and confused. She walked right up to the desk, one lone woman smartly dressed in business casual diligently typing away at her computer. She peeked up already with a smile to greet Odette. Bach was already behind the desk looking over her shoulder at the computer. Visibly the woman shivered involuntarily. They only had a less than a minute before Mandate began the distraction.
“Good afternoon...” Odette peered down to the woman’s name tag, “Abigail. My name is Jennifer, I’m here to drop off my husband’s lunch. He forgot it at home. Do you mind if I sneak it into the break room?”
Abigail smiled sympathetically reaching for the phone, “Of course, Mrs…?”
“Smith.” She supplied smiling pleasantly. Odette noted, “That is an awfully cute blouse, perfect for work.”
Abigail smiled politely typing across her keyboard, “Bought it on sale.”
“What a deal.” She replied.
She tapped her manicured nails across the surface of the desk while she waited. The phone rang, Abigail promptly picked it up and paused when the person on the other line panicked, telling poor Abigail to call for help. “What’s- slow down, what’s happening-” Bach promptly smashed her head off the desk cutting the phone call short.
He ripped the phone from the desk throwing it to the ground. “I believe Mandate has begun.” He plucked the security badge off of her hip throwing it to Odette to catch. She quickly stepped up to the front doors, twisting the locks. She pulled out her tome from her purse and began casting traps along the front doors, little yew tree symbols etching into the glass windows. Effectively booby trapping the entrance.
They pulled off to the left pressing the badge to the magnetic door lock, stepping through to one of the offices, surprising not only herself but Klein and a few other office employees.
--In the Office--
“Blue haired gals don’t belong in here. So I’ll have to ask my friends to escort you out, sic her.” Klein yelled and pointed Odette’s way as the two rubber golems finally reached their maximum size the other three workers reached for their weapons in response.
Odette tensed at the sight of the golems, unique in composition. There was no space for her to move in the office. Desks, furniture and golems stood between herself and the mage. She moved her hand, snapped at the closest desk, “Bouge toi!” The desk lifted at her spell command blocking their sight of her. She pointed to another desk, repeating the spell but this time to throw it, aiming generally for the the mage. Closing her eyes she concentrated, brow furrowed. Every bit of furniture in the office began to glow slowly lifting a few inches off the ground. Chairs, office supplies, desks, ergonomic peddlers.
“I appreciate the offer of an escort but I feel as though I’ve only arrived.” She said smugly. Bach moved past her, dodging between the floating furniture. His target was one of the golems.
The golems charged through the desk and began to make their way to Odette. “Open some room tear down the mage with the walls.” Klein called out as he readied some floating bubbles. Intent on striking from afar.
Bach ran straight, stumbling into a newly formed magic bubble seeing through the slightly transparent bubble, struggling against the molasses-like substance. Even through the nearly opaque bubble, Bach’s form began changing colour slowly growing, pushing against the resistance.
The golem came crashing through the furniture, taking the most direct route to Odette. She sidestepped nearly right into a magic bubble, catching glimpses of Bach. She looked at the rushing golems, now stuck between a rock (rubber) and a hard place no time to move without lodging herself into that ridiculous bubble. She shielded herself with her arms hoping the blow would be absorbed by her wards.
With the golems crashing through the walls debris flew in every direction as Klein prepared more bubbles to defend himself with, he needed to put a gag on her something to prevent her spellcasting. “Take her down, bury her in your weight!” The golem charged Odette again tackling her outside into the warehouse floor below as it fell from the second floor office. “Mute the bitch err witch.” The golem pressed its large hand over Odette’s mouth and left a melted print of rubber as it rose off her. “Watch her,” Klein said as he felt his phone ring.
Klein looked at the restrained mage. “I’ll be back to question you later.”
She struggled kicking against the golem fruitlessly, its dull featureless head unmoving its weight keeping her pinned. Her mouth filled with bitter rubber effectively silencing her. Odette’s nostrils flared as she glared at the mage walking away. With a huff and sigh through her nose her legs relaxed while the golem increased pressure to compensate for her relaxation. She glared up at the construct, was that necessary?
Je le tuerai.
--The Warehouse floor Mandate VS Lynch--
Lynch on the other hand flew on the scene while a silvery golem fell through the roof. As people scrambled into place the lights kicked on, but Lynch didn’t need them as he gave off his own light source as he circled the intruder. Knowing that it was some sort of golem he decided getting too close was just a bad idea and began firing blasts of energy from his hands. Outside however the doors busted open as goons who heard the racket came rushing in, armed with small arms they went to try and secure the building. The five of them split up to find the intruders and check on the offices.
In hindsight, Mandate considered, perhaps burying herself headfirst into the earth was not the most elegant of entrances; certainly not as elegant as Miss Ambassador. Tearing her head free from the floor with a spray of debris but relatively little fuss, the towering golem staggered to her feet- and promptly slipped as an immense heat washed over her frame, and tore into the floor in the process. It weakened beneath her feet, and gave easily. Stumbling but unharmed, the golem wiped frantically at her singular eye in an effort to clear it of rubble, focusing on the curious shining man and his equally curious blasts of heat. She considered her approach, but did not yet move.
As the blasts fired at Mandate her exterior absorbed the attacks, which was not quite correct, it appeared to Lynch that her body could withstand the heat. Keeping his ever decreasing distance he called up Klein for some assistance.
“Right. Kinda need help Klein, got a golem here and melting it isn’t working.” Lynch kept his distance as he pelted Mandate with plasma balls.
In truth Lynch’s attacks were affecting the mercury golem just not enough to melt away her body as the heat made her swelter. A golem rushed through the warehouse charging directly at Mandate with the directive to pin her against the wall.
From stumbling to her feet in the midst of melting floor to being pushed rapidly across the warehouse, Mandate found herself deciding that it was something of an off day. The golem planted her feet into the floor as she was sent skidding towards the wall, her internal sense of weight shifting. The great force behind her opponent was halted with a final stomp upon the floor, crumbling it and burying the golem’s feet up to the ankles.
”Get off me! I’m busy!” The haze of smoke and dust made spotting her opponent difficult, so Mandate didn’t bother; Instead, she lashed out at the space in front of her, attempting to slam her fist into where she guessed her smaller opponent stood. At least the uncomfortable prickling of heat had temporarily abated.
Whacking the rubber golem produced a reverberation as it took a knee while the impact dispersed into it, shaking but holding steady. Klein was growing more and more impressed with the golem a marvel of sorcery. “I’d love to study it, but, Lynch. See if you can’t get out of here. The gunfire is dying down that’s never a good sign, inform the boss.”
“You sure?” He said tossing fireballs every couple minutes. “If things aren’t looking good maybe I shouldn’t take off.”
As Klein raised his arm and commanded his golem to attack, he felt a surge of power. “My golem. The bitch destroyed it somehow.” His hands glowed with magic, as he looked towards Mandate. ”I’ll break her toy! Get going Lynch.”
Mandate’s preoccupation with her fellow golem prevented her from overhearing the exchange between the men. Personally, she found herself impressed with the rubber thing, and the manner in which it stood against her punch, however weakened the blow was for the sake of the warehouse’s integrity. Her weight had dropped again by the time the rubber golem attacked once more, driving her further back towards the wall. More annoying, however, was the constant fire. The smoke and dust was making it impossible to coordinate, and that was just rude. ”Enough!”
Filled with a sudden idea, the mercury golem took advantage of her counterpart's continued attack. Her fists, planted against its sides, uncurled and clamped down upon the smaller construct’s limbs. Her grip was that of an indomitable vice. Rather than attempting to tear open the golem, however, she instead heaved upwards, trying to lift the rubber creation in between herself and the fire of her other opponent. Her strength was momentarily lowered even further to avoid accidentally throwing the other golem around.
”If you don’t stop that, I’m going to throw burning stuff all over the place, and then I’ll find your boss and tell him it’s your fault his warehouse burned down!” Mandate’s voice was raised to a threatening holler, directed in the general direction of the illegible voices a good distance from where she had started.
“Good for me then!” Lynch said as he flew higher, “I ain’t fighting you no more. There are better places I have to be.” He said flying through the skylight Mandate made.
The rubber golem struggled at Mandate’s grip, “It ain’t fighting you, thanks for the skylight!”
As the rubber golem struggled in Mandate’s grip Klein held up a lifeless rubber golem totem in the palm of his hand. He pressed his lips towards the little statue and whispered words unbeknownst to normal men, words that invoked magic and began tearing at the souls that lay within Mandate. To anyone it would be harmless but to other golems it began to suck the soul that bound them to their body and with it he could reforge Mandate to his will, if that was Mandate was a typical golem. It tugged at her very core while Klein willed his own magic to tear her apart.
--The Warehouse floor--
Lekh heard the sound of concussive energy blasts bursting on the mercurial form of his temporary golem ally. The sound was awesome, loud and shocking following the smashing of glass and the heavy thump of Mandate falling to the concrete. He couldn’t have asked for a better distraction really. Hell, he knew what was going on and even he wanted to head towards the sound of that fight and see what was going on. The men who were sent to sweep the warehouse would be betrayed by their own curiosity.
The lights came on with dazzling suddenness and Lekh took a moment to shake his head. Daylight was flooding in from shattered windows up above, but he hadn’t expected all the lights to get turned on so suddenly. He was starting to wonder, was there really any vampires here? Wouldn’t they be losing their advantage turning the lights on like that? He shrugged, if the enemy wanted to do his job for him, all the better. Keeping low and allowing stock upon the shelves to conceal his form, Lekh crept through the outskirts of the warehouse and looked for internal cataloging systems. Numbers, symbols, whatever really. Anything that would allow him to determine what was in each crate, so he could ascertain if he had found what he was looking for. He kept his eyes and ears open in any case. If any of the sweepers were unfortunate enough to cross his path they’d do well to avoid a bullet in the head.
As a guard held a small handgun he went through the isles knowing two confirmed intruders were inside he sought out to check if anyone else had gotten in, taking a general peak between the middle shelves to see if he could spot anyone at chest height he was unwittingly moving closer and closer to Silence.
Lekh was rifling quietly through a cardboard box inside an open topped wooden crate. The outside of the box had just said ‘Dangerous’ and the natural thief in Silence was intrigued. Perhaps he should have been more cautious, but inside he saw only small silver rings, unadorned with gems or anything similar. There was some sort of markings written on them, but it was not something he was familiar with. Shrugging, perhaps recklessly, he took one of the rings and pocketed it. Then, looking up he caught a furtive movement between two crates two aisles across. It would seem some of the guards had resisted the urge to head towards sounds of battle. Lekh dropped into a quick crouch, ducking through the racking to hop into the next aisle with a quick glance left and right. It was all clear, for now. Tracking the sound of movement, Lekh held his pistol at the ready, though he’d pocketed the stake for the time being. Then, he waited. Eventually the sounds of footsteps drew near, and he ascertained that a guard was closing in on him.
It was a matter of moments of deliberation for the criminal, but in the end he had come to the conclusion that the overly active guard was going to have to go. He was hoping to avoid murdering too many people for this, but moral quandaries were going to have to wait until he had what he came for. Keeping low and nestling himself in the lower level of the racking, he waited with his body obscured by crates. He’d have preferred it to be darker, but the spot he found was good enough to avoid detection for long enough to get the drop on the guard walking towards him. As luck would have it, the man was looking in the wrong direction when he passed Lekh’s cover. His head started to swing around, and his fate was sealed. With a loud pop Silence’s silenced pistol put an end to his life with a bullet to the head. He dropped like a stone, his gun clattering to the ground, but with all the noise in the warehouse that wasn’t enough to perturb the Pole. What he should have realised was that the blood pooling from the man’s open skull was the real threat, glistening crimson as it soaked the stone grey concrete below.
The air was filled with iron as a vampire sniffed the scent of freshly spilled blood. He stepped out into the main aisle way and sure enough saw the other vampire doing the same as they narrowed down the smell. Rick had cut his finger three months ago, and they had never forgotten that smell. It was unfortunate but his death would lead them to another intruder as they scurried off climbing the shelves and vaulting over the aisles with ease while avoiding sunlight, it had helped that the broken windows were the opposite direction. As they neared his body the female dropped down first impacting the ground with enough force to kill a normal human.
Lekh had relocated back across to the aisle he was in previous and was rummaging through a box that looked promising when a faint rattling sound reached his ears. The vampires were quick, and they were quiet, but even they couldn’t quite negate the sounds of the racking creaking and groaning as they hopped from one to the other. Lekh cocked his head for a moment, trying to work out for himself what was coming his way, and then decided whatever it was, it was going to be bad for him. He turned on his heel and started running, down the aisle to an intersection, and then across, so as the create the most distance possible from him and his pursuers. If they wanted him, they’d have to catch him. The vampires heard his footfalls turning to his direction and began chasing him down their yellow eyes focusing solely on him. Their reach swiftly catching up to the running man their clawed fingers scraping away at his back, while the other produced a knife.
Shit. Turns out vampires were even faster than Odette had told him. Silence was no slouch, in fact his athleticism bordered on the supernatural itself though it was in fact at the peak of human performance, perhaps some by-product of his meta-human genes made him naturally faster and stronger than he should have been by rights. Despite this, the vampires gained ground on him quickly as he led them on a merry chase around the outskirts of the warehouse, the first to catch him made a grasping motion with their claws, and were met with the barrel of his gun poking underneath his left arm. Or rather, the extended suppressor at the end of it. He fired wildly behind himself, emptying his magazine into the creature behind him to buy himself some time. He had a destination in mind, he just had to get there.
The vampire staggered as the intruder fired shots into her, her momentum faltered but mere human bullets weren’t enough to outright kill something that wicked and although injured wounds of that nature will heal in time though with this intruder she feared it wouldn’t be fast enough. However even as she stumbled her companion was still gaining on the man knife drawn ready to lunge just as soon as he saw an opportunity.
As his gun clicked to empty he shoved it into his trousers and withdrew a still slightly damp wooden stake. As luck would have it, just in time before a heavy impact drove into his upper back and the tearing of fabric and the cracking of ceramic filled the air. Silence stumbled for a few steps and then fell, heavily, his own momentum driving him onto the concrete. He only just maintained the wherewithal to turn his ungainly fall into an untidy forward roll, before jumping back up onto his feet and turning to desperately stab his stake at the vampire advancing on him. His brain hadn’t quite caught up yet, but the vest he was wearing had just saved his life.
The vampire grasped at the intruder’s arm before he fully noticed what was happening his form combusted falling into a pile of ashes as his self contained spontaneous combustion quickly burned through his flesh and bone.
The female vamp screamed in anger as she charged towards Silence. “ARRGH!!” Pulling out her own side arm and firing towards him.
Nothing had really prepared Silence for the explosive reaction the holy water doused stake would provoke in the vampire as he managed to plunge it into its flesh. The sudden burst of flame that rendered the man turned monster into ash and dust in mere moments caused Silence to step backwards in alarm, a wordless exclamation on his lips as his eyes flickered to the vampire he had wounded. Doggedly, she still pursued him, screaming as she drew a pistol on him. He was caught in the middle of the aisle, his own weapon expended, with nothing but a sharp wooden stake to his name. He couldn’t outrun bullets. So, he charged at her, stake at the ready, the first shot hit him square in the chest before he had covered half the distance, and they came thick and fast afterwards. Two more crashed into the vest covering his torso, and he felt a crack and a sudden pressure as one of his ribs broke from the strain. Still, it was life or death, and even as felt a round cut clean through his vest and through his lower body he drove his stake down hard towards the vampire’s left shoulder blade, with enough force to pierce through to her heart.
As she was prepared for a hidden stake she reacted as quickly one would imagine a vampire on edge would respond taking the stake directly to her hand avoiding a fatal blow as she struggled with his arm attempting to wrench control away. As Lekh tried to pull the weapon clean her own flesh and fingers clutched the stake, twisting it and his wrist so that the wooden spike flew from his hand. The pain of the bullet that had tore its way through his flesh hit him at this crucial moment, grinding away at him as he slung a low cross in with his gauntleted left hand, aiming for the hinge of her jaw. It was a tactic for fighting humans, but that was what Silence knew. The force smacked her jaw popping it out of place as her brain rattled around inside her body seized and mind blanked long enough for Silence to retaliate. However, after delivering such a blow the over-extension of his torso had further torn the bullet wound in his abdomen, and Silence’s left hand flew to his side instinctively. He staggered a moment, barely capitalising on the vampire’s momentary disorientation, before finally lashing out with a side kick to her right leg with his left, after which he followed up with a straight right aimed at the bridge of her nose. Angrily snapping back she ripped the stake free from her hand tossing it to the side clear from the burning sensation she tried to clock Silence with a punch attempting to slaughter him with her fist.
Silence was trying to drag his mind away from the pain flaring up across his chest and the already ragged, piercing sensation in his lungs that told him he was getting winded. It worked, sort of. Focusing entirely on surviving, his mind flipped the switch on his power and the debilitation aura seeped out into his surroundings, at such close proximity the vampire was about to feel like she had drank one too many, and not blood either. Pulling back away from the creature’s sudden onslaught his arms drew together in a boxer’s guard, catching her fist half-way between each armoured forearm. Already the bracers he was wearing played their part, absorbing a heavy impact as his feet slid across the ground. This was combat he could understand, for the time being at least. Hoping to capitalise on the sudden addition of his aura, he stepped forward and unleashed a quick combination of punches towards her head, trying to force her to cover up if he could. With her prey fighting back she was backed into a position where she had to guard, it was embarrassing to be cornered by a weaker creature but her mind was groggy feeling like she was about to chuck up her last meal after one too many benders it was all the time someone like Silence needed to grab for a weapon.
Which was exactly what he did. Albeit, not a very conventional one. As if by magic, a squeeze bottle appeared in Silence’s hand, half-full of what seemed to be water. Which wasn’t far from the truth. Waiting for the inevitable drop of her guard, Silence sprayed Holy Water full into the vampire’s face and eyes. Reeling back as the blessed water seared her face she tried wiping it off with a cloth as furiously as she could in order to see as it burned her eyes obscuring her vision. At which point Silence staggered past her, wincing and groaning beneath his mask as he scooped up the discarded stake. With a shaky step, he hit her from the side, driving the stake between her ribs and into her heart. Her chest burned, a heat sweltered up from within as she burst into flames as her limbs crumples into dust letting the stake fall to the warehouse floor. Hardly a moment after, Lekh too fell to the floor, dropping to his knees as his breath came in gasps. He lifted his mask to suck in more air, but his lungs rejected it and he coughed painfully, spitting blood onto the ground. That, is not good. He knelt there, calmly reloading his pistol, going through the motions. He wasn’t exactly sure how long he knelt there for, but at some point he realised something had changed. The sounds of fighting from elsewhere in the Warehouse had ceased…
