Beauty is in the eye of the beholder (Alexandrea)

[Alexandrea]

Alston's sad look in his eyes and the way he said 'Sire' made her want to give him some comfort, so she did. She finished locking up and pulled her childe into a tight hug and then kissed him chastely on his cheek.

"A lot has happened to you today, you have a lot of changes to deal with. I am sorry if I was pushing. Now let's get you to your first hunt and kill. That should help. Once you can release some of that tension I can tell you are experiencing, I'm sure you will feel better and can rest. So follow me."

Alex took her time walking towards the train, she knew Alston wouldn't be able to keep up if she ran. Her attitude shifted to match her uniform and she led them both onto the train station and flashed a fake badge before handing over the train fare at a military discounted rate.

They were at the Wickbridge station in just about ten minutes and making sure her childe was following, Alexandrea led him to the sewer entrance behind the Metronome. Glancing around, Alex saw that the coast was clear and ushered Alston to enter. She pointed out where the ladder was and once her childe had gone ahead and reached the bottom, Alex got on the ladder herself and pulled the heavy grate over the opening.

Hopping down with a slight splash in the muck, a few rats went scurrying in opposite directions as Alexandrea allowed her vision to adjust.

"Now I want you to stay close to me, Alston. Have your eyes adjusted enough to follow me yet?"

[Alston Hughes (DELETED 4923)]

The hug was all that he needed, the embrace of his sire made his mind calm and his mood a little bit better. Following her instructions he moved along with her to the train. Hoping on he stood there looking at everyone and having a few people look at him. Of course he ignored it, he was in a military suit, so people were going to stare.

When the train finally stopped they got off and walked down a street. Cringing he watched as his sire opened a sewer drain and told him to go in. Shaking it off he plopped down and stood back. Looking up he reached his hand out to help her down. Though she didnt need it, he still wanted to be a gentleman. Hearing his name a few moments later he listened and blinked as she asked him a question. "Alston. Have your eyes adjusted enough to follow me yet?" Standing there he looked away and felt his eyes change. He saw the rats running around and saw the muck that his shoes were standing in. "Yes, yes they did."

Standing back he allowed her to lead once again. Excited he couldn't wait to see this quarantine zone and kill a few monsters.

[Alexandrea]

Standing back he allowed her to lead once again. Excited he couldn't wait to see this quarantine zone and kill a few monsters.

Alexandrea nodded as Alston confirmed that his vision had adjusted well enough to follow. It was a good sign in her opinion. If his eyes had taken longer to get used to the darkness? Well, Alex would have been worried he needed to rest a few more hours to complete his change from human to vampire. It seemed to take different amounts of time for everyone, at least those ones that Alexandrea had gotten the chance to notice whom had recently been 'turned'. Breyanna had slept for days and even now still was asleep far more than she was ever awake. At least it kept her own of trouble, most of the time.

She didn't see any reason to delay, she had brought him down here in a uniform so they didn't have to sneak around on the way to the Quarantine Zone. Marching at a brick trot forward as if she was on a mission, Alexandrea sent to Alston.

*Keep your eyes forward and frown. Pay attention to where I turn and which which way I go. Think of it like a combination lock.* Alex thought with a grin. Those were so easy to pick. *You know, it's Left one, Right two, Left three and Right four to get there and pretty much the exact same on the way back. You'll see.* At the first turn, Alexandrea started to send the number of the turn to her childe. L1, R2, and so on.

They progressed without incident and came to the wider opening of the sewer tunnels just before the the turn to where the exit to the QZ was. Alex looked over her shoulder back at Alston with a grin and sort of waved a hand around the larger space as if to say; 'See? Take a look.' as she sent; *L3* and then she continued on. *And R4.* She finished as she turned the last corner at the same time. She stood below the open grate, someone before them hadn't bothered to replace it after the went through in one direction or another.

Pointing up, Alex spoke out loud now to Alston.

"Never do that. Just don't. Close those after you pass through. Unless your life depends on just running as fast as you can. Might be what happened here, someone was in a rush to get as far away from something out there as they could. If they were a human? They might not have even made it down the ladder."

The blonde shook her head as if if to express that she thought it was a shame if something bad had happened to someone. But right after that the sympathetic look on her face vanished and she shrugged her shoulders.

"Some humans just have to explore the unknown." Alex sighed. She had been convinced that exposing vampire kind to humans and trying to make an alliance was a long way off if it ever happened at all. But it still struck the woman as a huge waste. So many human lives lost just due to them being curious. So many jobs that were dangerous to them that wouldn't harm a vampire in the least.

"So, you ready to rock and roll?" Alexandrea winked at Alston and then with a grin just jumped straight up and out of the sewer, not even bothering with the ladder.

[Alston Hughes (DELETED 4923)]

Her voice was inside his head, listening to her instructions he followed behind her and memorized the layout of the sewer. Before they could even go to the surface he was stopped and told a valuable lesson looking at the grate he gave a nod and felt a burst of energy. He could almost taste the excitement that he was about to part take in.

Jumping up after her he closed the lid and looked around. It looked like a small town with run down buildings. His eyes looked around at the fencing and what looked to be disfigured people. Curious he started to move slowly and explore on his own. Looking at the ground he saw a pool of blood and scraps of clothing, his sire was right a human must of gotten in and was injured or worse killed.

Looking back at her he draw his gun and followed the pool of blood as he round the corner he was greeted by a large monster. "What the!" Stepping back the creature roared and came at him, perhaps he should of stayed near his sire for a bit longer.

[Alexandrea]

Alexandrea nodded in approval as her new childe replaced the sewer grate and joined her. She paused to send Kira a short message. *We're here. Just left the tunnels.*

In the short moment it took Alex to speak into her friend's mind, Alston had managed to wander off and find trouble. The kind of trouble that comes as a misshapen Mooncalf. His exclamation of surprise had Alexandrea rushing around the corner he had turned seconds later and as the undead creature lunged at Alston, Alex whipped out her gun and a dozen bullets slammed into the Mooncalf's face.

Staggering before it fell dead, the beast landed right on top of Alston and Alexandrea fought to keep from chuckling at the sight. The creature had been so much larger than her childe, there was no sign of the young man. He was buried completely in Mooncalf gore. It was a good thing he was no longer human, he would surly have been crushed to death.

Alexandrea kicked the dead monster's corpse off of Alston and held out a hand to him.

"We having fun yet?" She said with a grin and a wink.

[Kira]

Kira were seeking out the ferals, she just got done finishing one off. She grinned, she may not have found anything useful but it was a good fight so it was still good. She hurried off to the next room, looking for more but only saw zombies. "How boring.." she muttered but then got the message from Lexy.

She headed out of the building to look for them. She raised an eyebrow when she saw the mooncalf. "Well, that's unexpected.." she said, tilting her head. Being a freshly turned vampire, he sure wasn't ready for a mooncalf.

"I saw some zombies in that building over there that he can start off on." she added.

[Alston Hughes (DELETED 4923)]

Sarcasm rolled off his tongue and he gave a grin back at his sire. "I am having tons of fun. Now what is this thing? Its hideous." Eyes look to the beast on the ground next to him and stood up as he did his eyes shot forward and saw Kira standing before them. "Zombies sound much easier, thank you." He tried sounding a bit more polite to her and added some warmth to his voice though he had to admit he did not know how he would come off to her. Moving around the beast he stood next to Kira and looked at his sire, he wasn't going to go far after that encounter.

[Alexandrea]

She chuckled at Alston's quip back. In Alexandrea's opinion, the young man showing some sense of humor was an improvement. All she wanted from her new childe was for him to adjust well to his new life an try and find some happiness.

Alex gave Kira a one armed hug as the other blonde joined them and chuckled a little more. "Yup, think my lad here just had a heck of a surprise. I'm sure he'll find the zombies boring to look at after his first Mooncalf."

Nodding at what was left of the creature, Alexandrea looked at Alston. "That, my childe, was a Mooncalf.Bits and pieces of dead thing all sewn up together and brought to life by a Necromancer's magic." One dainty foot of Alex's reached out to flip the monster over again so it was face up, two gaping mouths filled with teeth taking up the majority of the beast's head. "Pretty ugly, isn't it? That's about all the have in common, they can look pretty different sometimes but they are all ugly."

"Kira, why don't you lead the way and I'll bring up the rear? I don't want my Alston to go wandering the wrong way again." Alexandrea smiled as she spoke and gave the fledgling a kiss on the cheek before shoving him gently in the right direction.

[Kira]

"Zombies will get pretty boring after you get stronger. Then you can move on to the ferals." Kira said with a grin. "Mooncalves....they're fun after you get good at killing ferals. Not something to start off with though. Ancient zombies would be before mooncalves.." she tilted her head at the dead mooncalf. Fadebeasts were ugly too. She wasn't sure which one was worse, other than fadebeast can snap your neck.

She looked to Lexy, she wondered if this could be considered bad luck running into one right now. She raised an eyebrow, that's how they were made? Well, one learns something new everyday. She nodded about leading the front, taking out her bladed tonfas and had them ready. She raised an eyebrow again as Lexy kissed the young man's cheek. She really was too friendly for her own good wasn't she? Don't men get the wrong idea when women get that friendly with them.

Eh, whatever. She turned and headed off back towards the building that she had been in, that had some zombies. Once inside, she about got distracted by a feral, she turned back to see how they were coming along but had to turn back when the feral charged at her. Not having enough time to dodge, she let it keep coming, grabbed it as it knocked her to the floor and pushed it off over her head with her legs. She flipped back and drove her blades into its shoulders.

"Want a close look at a feral?" she asked as she sat there on its stomach as it growled and tried to move but couldn't.

[Alston Hughes (DELETED 4923)]

He stood in the middle looking from left to right as he felt his cheek was kissed. Was this a motherly kiss he thought or something more? He dismissed it as being friendly, he did like his sire but he felt weird when he thought there could be more between them. How should he view his sire? A mother? Or could the lines be blurred? Zoning back in he was being spoken to by Kira, moving towards the feral he cringed slightly. "Only a mother could kiss?" He said staring down at the creature. Thinking back for a moment he looked back at his sire and blinked. "Whats a uh. Necro? Something? And how do they make though things? Do they also make uh Ferals too?"

Eyes dart for a moment to see something moving slowly towards them. Pulling his gun out he moved and shot at it, watching it fall to the ground he smiled and stood proudly. "I killed something!" He beamed. Almost feeling heroic he played a scene in his head like he was saving both of them and how they thanked him for his heroism.