-Black Thursday- Group 6

[Elizabeth]

The blonde vampiress sat in a large, high back leather chair in a darkened office. Her USB drive lit a bright neon green as she downloaded the required files, then yanked the small device out after everything had been copied over. A satisfied look was evident on her face as she rose, pushed the chair back as she found it and exited the office. Elizabeth closed the dark oak door, without any real concern about leaving fingerprints around. What would they find? Or who would it go back to? No one.

As the woman walked through rows of cubicles, she stopped and peered over the ones closest to her. It wasn't enough that she stole thousands of dollars from under this real estate company, but she wanted more. Something tangible and proof that she was here and had taken something valuable. After peeking over five cubicles, Elizabeth found a very nice, granite silver ballpoint pen with the company's logo on it. With the pen tucked away safely, Elizabeth moved to the elevator and pushed the '1' button. As she waited for the elevator, there was a sound of static in the distance and a female voice. She couldn't make it out, but there was someone on the floor with her. Probably a security guard.

She moved away from the elevator, to the nearest cubicle near her and crouched in it. Just waiting until the floor check was done and it was safe for her to make her way out. She heard the set of keys jangling as the woman walked with heavy steps and a small flashlight beam sweep across the tops of the cubicles, before an, "All clear," was heard. Until the elevator opened and a larger beam of light spilled across the floor. "Kenny, you send the elevator up? You know I take the stairs during rounds." Elizabeth inched down further in the cubicle, as she pulled out a knock out device. Just to be prepared and ready.

There was a long pause and then a code spit out over the walkie talkie system, indicating that the guard named Kenny hadn't done it and that something wasn't right. The woman gave a 'copy that,' and began a more in depth search of the floor they were both on. Her search started with the bathrooms, then at the cubicles closest to the bathrooms.

The knock out device was put away, as Elizabeth decided to take a different route. With two guards knowing something wasn't right, she'll need to be more stealthy. If a guard didn't respond after a couple minutes, the police would be notified. It wouldn't be a big deal if she wasn't on the fifteenth floor. She waited for darkness to cocoon her petite frame before Elizabeth stood and moved to the elevator that was now making a loud buzzing noise because it was being held. It seemed the guard decided to make it so that whoever was inside had to take the stairs.

Elizabeth shook her head at the detail the woman spent trying to capture her. It was impressive and had she no thrall, the blonde vampiress might have thought to enthrall someone so detail oriented. Fingers slipped into her other pocket; the one with the pen in it and pulled out a fool proof escape. Elizabeth tossed the bomb into a garbage bin at the elevator and then bolted for the staircase as various documents caught on fire. Fifteen flights of stairs was an insane number to run down, but she had no choice.

With her tracks covered and the guard busy, Elizabeth went down floor by floor, taking steps two at a time. That was when she felt the building she was in shift and she sidestepped and slid down an entire flight of stairs. She laid on her back, looking at the cement wall next to her as another rumble was felt and sirens were heard. Alarms. Alarms from cars, actually. She got off the ground, put her designer heel on that had fallen off her right foot and kept taking the stairs two at a time, while the building she was in started to crack along the seams of the west wall.

Once she was outside, escaping out a fire escape door, all she could do was stand there and look at the world around her. Alarms and lights were going off. Wire from telephone lines hung from the skies and threatened to electrocute anyone that passed near them. Elizabeth grabbed the tome from her pocket, read the words and waited to be teleported back home to her family house where she would start to get answers and make certain everyone was safe. But nothing happened. She remained where she was. Elizabeth tried again, with no different results. She frowned, tucked the paper away and started to head towards the wickbridge area to catch the train. Only as she turned, a large gush of water came in her direction.

"I loved these shoes." Elizabeth cried when she realized that the best way to make a run for it, was without them. She started running, or more like hopping as she took one shoe off at a time and tossed them over her shoulders as Elizabeth made a break for the first stable building she saw. The Buddhist temple. Once inside, she looked around to see half a dozen or so individuals in the temple with her, all in varying conditions. Some injured, some wet, but most wore fear upon their features. "What is happening?" She asked, as the door closed behind her, and the world outside started to find itself in a form of chaos.

[Ursula Wolfe]

The wind howled outside, even from where Ursa sat - tucked away in the side area of the Buddhist Temple, where she was meditating - it was loud. Even still, Ursa sat facing one of the alters, not one that she used in her apartment or in the court, but one dedicated to this temple. Being born pagan, she was taught to respect all religions. In this case, she was spending time praying, chanting, and meditating like she was now. It was a good thing to do tonight, for the streets were already beginning to flood, the sewer systems she didn't even want to think about. Thankfully, once she was done doing what she came here to do, she would be able to just Tome to the court.

Or at least, that was the plan until all of a sudden the floor shifted. Sitting on the bamboo floor, it was easy to feel. It started with a jolt, quick, exhilarating. Her eyes shot open, just as that jolt became a rumble slowly growing until all of a sudden it was rattling the walls, glass and other things in the temple started to shatter, floor boards lifted from their rooted spots, statues toppled over. It was just as one of those statues started to fall that Ursa noticed and quickly backed away on her hands and feet in a spider-like crawl. The huge statue shattered before her but thankfully missed her.

Though it was only minutes that the shaking lasted, it felt as though she had been up against that wall, staring at the broken statue for hours. However, she snapped out of it, getting to her feet and looking around. Though it was chaos in the temple with the humans running this way and that, she knew that she couldn't risk using her teleporting power to take her home, and she wouldn't even think of Toming in a public place, just to make sure she didn't break the Masq. With that thought in mind, she grabbed her things, reaching for the tome as she started for the door. She would get wet, but she didn't care, at least it was less likely to get her in trouble outside where she could slip into one of the alleys.

At least, that had been the plan. When she got outside, she saw the storm had gotten even worse. She moved to just off to the side of the temple and tried the tome... it didn't work. Ursa blinked then and tried again... again it didn't work. That was when she tried to send a text to Jesse, Renee, any of her family. Yet that was when she noticed the lack of a signal... any kind of signal. The towers were down. That's when she decided to move back into the temple, hoping that it would keep her dry enough. Ursa moved to lean against one of the walls, a large crack beside her causing one brow to arch. That was when a blonde entered and asked what was happening. That was the $20,000 question wasn't it? What the name of the gods had happened? Yeah, she could cause a little tremor... but what had just happened had been huge... Unbelievably huge. She was shocked that the temple, light damage aside, had survived as well as it had.

With a sigh, Ursa shook her head. Wither she was answering the woman's question or her own thoughts - even she didn't know. Yet what was happening was clearly someone's bad Karma times three billion. Perhaps the entire's city bad karma just coming back to bite it in the *** because of all of the darkness and evil and bad that happened. That thought amused her a bit, because realistically, she was one of those dark, evil creatures... all she had to do was walk over something living and it would grow weeds that would wilt at her touch. Of course, she hid this well with being nice and friendly with people when she talked to them. But she knew, those weeds, that wilting touch of hers... were just physical aspects of a dark and sinister soul.

[Calix Archer]

Calix had been rummaging through all of his random crap that he seemed to have accumulated lately in his pack. Way too much. Setting it all out on the floor, he began to organize it all into piles: Things Nique might want, Things family might use, I might use, Sell. It seemed most of what he had was garbage to be sold at a local pawn shop. Grabbing up his phone, he checked the time. It was getting pretty late. Where was Monique? He shot out a quick text to her, just to see where she was and which of their locations she'd be staying for the day. Just as he set it down, he felt it. There was a faint vibration in the floor. His piles of stuff started to topple over. The faint vibration grew to be something more. There was a rumble, the whole building was shaking. Pool sticks were falling from their rack on the wall, the balls which had been neatly set on the table scattered. What the hell was happening?

Quickly, he jumped up and moved to the window to check out the streets below. Cars littered the streets, stranded. Cracks in the road made it impossible to drive on. Power lines were dangling and the street had begun to flood. A water main must have broke or the banks to the river must have collapsed. Calix grabbed up his phone once more...no reply. He dialed her number. Dead silence. ****. The phone towers must have been down too.

Thoughts immediately went to his childe, Satine and his Pyper. Were they ok? There was no way to get in contact with them, so he snatched his coat and headed toward the elevator. Power was down. Elevator therefore out of service. ****. Stairs it was. He sprinted down all five floors to the main lobby. The front door was blocked by a fallen tree. There was no shoving it open. His elbow slammed through the glass, shattering it so that he could get through. Climbing over the tree, he made his way straight for the Quarantine Zone.
All around him, buildings were cracking, bits of them starting to crumble off. The street was splitting as he ran. He focused himself and used his powers to run faster, using celerity to get him to where he needed to be. Everything around him became a blurr as he made his way around cars, limbs, and poles to get to the fence. He was almost there. The blockade was in sight. All he had to do was hop it and make his way into Corvidae Flats to check on his two girls. But that wasn't to happen.

The ground was flooding in front of him, becoming deeper and deeper. Power lines were dangling down, touching the water, causing huge sparks to fly up. There was no way around it. Calix was ducking and dodging the swinging of the lines and branches, the falling objects from tops of buildings and broken signs. If he was going to get to the girls, he would need to make sure he was safe first. With that thought, he ducked into the nearest building, The Buddhist Temple, to reassess and figure out where to go from here.

[Athanase]

The weather had gotten nasty and a lot of people had ducked into the pub to get out of it, which meant that Athan found himself more busy than usual. A nice change of pace all things considered, but he was more than happy to service the customers with his special brand of service. This meant he made them laugh, listened to their problems and did his usual social thing. The winds began to get really rough and the always reliable lights flickered overhead, so the decision was made to close for the night and for those within to head home. Jacket pulled on Athan headed out into the storm, with the idea to just head home and wait for Aly there rather than try to make it over to her job. The water began to gather in the streets and he thought it might be best to just try and use celerity to make this trip a little shorter, when an outcry caught his attention.

Up the street, stranded, was a mini-van with a woman who pulled on the back door to try and get the door open. From what he could tell, it looked like she had lost control of her vehicle which was now pressed up against a power pole one side and with the water as high as it was, the door did not wish to cooperate. Barely a thought was spared as Athan found himself there at her side.

“OH, PLEASE HELP! MY KIDS THEIR STUCK!”

“STAND BACK!”

He shouted to her over the rain and then gripped hold of the handle of the door. With his back to her, he pulled, the metal groaned in protest but eventually there was loud. POP[]/i] as the lock gave and the door slowly slid open against the pressure from the water. Inside he spotted a car seat with an infant in it and another with what he would guess to be a toddler. Both were crying, to be expected, but he did not have the time to try to sooth them. Overhead he heard the powerlines creak against the pressure of the wind and he knew this was not the best spot.

“Here we go,” he said to the kids. The infant he got first, the car seat easy enough to disengage and hand back to the frantic mother, the toddler next though he had to break the seatbelt to get her out in any kind of rush. “Ok, let’s get moving,” he said to the woman who held the toddler and traded the more awkward car seat to him. He started up the block once more, though now he had a small group with him. They did not get too far, however, when he realized they forgot something that was kind of important.

“Damnit,” he said and handed the baby over to its mother. “Wait here!” he said and jogged back down to the van, where the power pole had shifted more and looked about ready to topple over onto the van. As fast as possible he ran to the van retrieved something from the backseat and then ran back to the waiting woman, just as the pole finally succumbed to everything and fell over. Now, toting a new shoulder bag that was adorned with teddy bears and stars, Athan led the group up the block. Again, he expected to get home and then just wait out the storm, with their new guests. Yet, whatever was pissed at Harper was far from done with it.

The earth began to tremble and shake, violently, which prompted him to instead take the small group into the nearest building they came across. One that looked to be in better shape than the others and as safe as anything else there, which was not all that safe when one thought about it. Regardless, the change from the downpour to nothing at all was a near startling one, especially given how loud the cries to the children suddenly appeared to be in contrast to the silence within and the chaos without the building. At a glance, he figured they were in some kind of place of worship, which made him shake his head at the irony of it.

“Here,” he said to the woman with her children as he guided them past a couple of people over to a spot where they could sit and rest. Once she was settled, as settled as she would be and stopped her repeated thanking of him, Athan went back over to where the others were. One he recognized right off the bat, as what one would call his sibling though he and Elizabeth had not had too many interactions. Still, she was familiar, so while he removed his jacket to find a place to hang up he walked over to her.

“Hey,” is all he said in a simple greeting as he took stock of just who all was there in this building.

[Elizabeth]

Husband, where are thee? The blonde vampiress called out to him as a tinge of panic started to strike her. Was he alright? Was the family alright? There were too many to speak to individually, so she pulled out her cellular device and started typing a group message to them, but as she did this, the screen on her phone went black. She shook the phone, then smacked it and frowned. Did they not pay the phone bill this month? That was next to impossible as she had it directly withdrawn from her account every month. A frown rode upon her features before she heard a masculine 'hey,' thrown in her direction.

She looked up to see Athanase. "Good evening." She said, though it wasn't all that good anymore, was it? "Hello, I mean. Do you happen to have a cellular device? I was trying to send a message to some people and mine died? in the process?" She was uncertain if that was the correct way to use those sets of words together, even though she had heard it been used before upon the television. One could heard that uncertainty in the tone of her voice as she asked him that. "Do you know what has happened?" Elizabeth put the phone in her coat pocket before lowering her voice. "Is there a war?" Her blue eyes doubled in size at the font.

"I cannot tome home, and going outside is not an option at this moment. If we have to make do with our surroundings, and stand our ground here, we should work together." Elizabeth continued on. "I am not as weak as I appear. Though a woman I am, frail I am not." She assured him. No, she might not be as strong as her 'sibling' was, but Elizabeth did not lack in the area of trickery and deceit against foes. "If we are at war, we could survive. I was one of the last elders standing before, well, you know." She said, her mouth drying as she thought about another potential holocaust upon her doorstep again. "It is really the only option we have, I believe."

[Calix Archer]

Calix glanced around at the others as they gathered. Everyone seemed as if they would be able to take care of themselves, so he didn't waste his time checking on them. He had other things he was concerned about. He needed to figure out a way to get into the Quarantine Zone. His childe was still very new, barely any powers at all. She would have no idea how to take care of herself in a situation like this. He hadn't had a chance to prepare her for anything but the basics of this new life.

Grabbing his phone from his pocket, he checked to see if there had been a reply yet. Nothing. There wasn't even a signal. He wasn't as worried about his wife, knowing she would be fully capable of taking care of herself, but still he wished he could get a hold of her. Just so he knew where she was.

Without a way to contact his family, he needed to get back out there in the storm. He didn't bother acknowledging the others as he slung his pack back onto him and pocketed his phone. Focusing his energy into his powers, he teleported himself into the Quarantine Zone completely unaware of what sort of situation he might find himself in.

[Athanase]

Cellular Device?

It was in a moment like this that he remembered she came from a different time, literally and while she had done a fine job in not showing it often there were times when it did. Like this one and he likely would chalk it up to the situation than anything else. Still, there was a bit of amusement in hearing her speak of a cellphone in such a proper fashion and had they been in a different moment he would have likely said something about it. In a teasing and friendly fashion, though their strained and somewhat non-existent relationship would have made even that awkward.

“I would never think anyone weak just because of their gender,” he assured her and then added with a bit of a smile and a hope to ease things a bit. “I never thought that prior to being married and I damn sure know better than to assume that now. She would likely remove bits of me that made me a man for even thinking such a thing, let alone saying it aloud.”

Could she be right? Could it be an attack? Or some kind of war?

This was an area he had no expertise on and he would have gladly deferred to her experience in the situation. Still, his gut told him that it was not that, or at least he and his gut hoped that was not the case. Regardless, whatever had happened she was right and they should work together. It made sense in more ways than one and like him, he knew she had people waiting for her that would ensure she did what was needed to not only survive but reunite with them as well.

“I do not think it is that, at least I hope it is not, but yes I agree working together we do stand a better chance of surviving this,” as he spoke his hand fished out his phone to check for a signal or anything such as that. Nothing. Nothing at all. “I have a full charge, but there is no signal. The towers were probably damaged in all this chaos so we can’t use that as a way of communicating with anyone out there.”

He sighed and ran his hand through his still wet hair and looked about the temple, “Maybe if we could find a land line? We might be able to reach someone somewhere? Landlines usually still work even if the power is out because they have their own power.” When had he become such a doomsday preper, he was not sure, it probably had to do with the late night television he watched when he had nothing better to do and Aly was working late. Still, in a time like this he was grateful for it, as it gave them a direction and a means to get going and do something.

“Let’s try and find an office or something, yes?”

[Elizabeth]

Athanase seemed to be in agreement with Elizabeth, which was fine with her. The fact that her husband hadn't responded back, slipped into the back of her mind for now, as she listened to the male that shared a sire with her. She made a note to install a land line in the family home, in case such a thing were to happen again, since she just acquired some new knowledge from her 'sibling.'

"Do you think she is alright?" Elizabeth said quietly after nodding her head at his suggestion of finding an office or any place that had a land line. "Your beloved that is." Elizabeth added because it seemed to be a random question thrown at him after the conversation about a land line and the lack of usages with the cellular devices. Her mind wandered, temporarily to that of her husband to assess his current state, which seemed to be normal for the man, due to the question posed. With her mind at ease, Elizabeth refocused on what it was they were going to be doing.

"I was here about a year ago. Maybe less than. There are bedrooms on the top floor, with beds stacked upon the other. Two to each bed frame." She obviously had no idea that the common term was 'bunk bed,' so she described it as best as she could. "Mayhaps one of those rooms may have what you are referring to?" She only knew because Elizabeth had been looking for a vampire that she believed to have been in the building after a quick search through the city. One that was connected to her through one of her childre. This was not important to share, and so she did not share this information with Athanase.

"Can you teleport? If so, you could mayhaps teleport me somewhere else in the city and I could summon thee. The streets are too flooded to even attempt walking, I believe." She gave him a simple roll of her shoulders along with her opinion. "Do you know anyone else within here? We may need the assistance, depending on the state of beings upstairs or if we have to hunker down for a while here." Once again, Elizabeth's eyes moved around the room, and away from her sibling so she could see who, if anyone was injured and if there were others in here that were connected to them in some way or another. She could see there were some vampires within the room, but who they were, she knew not.

[Ursula Wolfe]

Ursula blinked for a moment, coming out of a random moment of brain fart. She had been completely out of it mentally speaking even though she had not closed her eyes or been wounded in some way, not that it mattered if she had - the perks of being able to heal herself. No, this was just her not thinking of anything, her mind completely blank of thought. Now though, she glanced around. The lady who had been wondering what was going on wasn't where Ursa remembered her being and had found someone that she was talking to, and then she spotted Calix. She had met him once or twice at his attempts to get her to go to family gatherings she felt she was not truly part of anymore, but that didn't mean that she didn't find the guy's presence at all unwelcome. He was glancing at his phone and that made her reach for her own, glancing at it and realizing it was for naught.

The earthquake no doubt not only knocked out the power, but the cell towers as well. That is when she heard what the other two were talking about and she had to smirk, what the guy said was close to being out of a movie she had seen. She had to wonder if that was actually true. That said - or rather, thought - she turned her ice colored eyes on Calix once more and eased her way over to him. "No service for you either huh?" She asked, and then felt silly for asking it, it was an obvious question. "I don't suppose you have any freaking idea what is going on any more than anyone else here does, do you?" She asked in a quiet tone, glancing around. Being here for any length of time, using any power, would likely get them seen... The temple was just too busy, with too many panicked people to do anything odd.

[Athanase]

Athan frowned slightly, “I feel that she is still here in this world…you know?” A man usually with words to spare was unable to describe the sensation he had to the one whose soul he was bound to. He felt her, always felt her and knew she was still in the world of the “living”. However, to her actual state and condition he could not discern, so there was the chance that she was somewhere in pain or needing help. “I hope that she is,” he said after his moment of inner reflection. “Probably one of the strongest people that I know, if not the strongest and I am not referring to just physical strength either,” he smiled as he thought about Aly and how to him she was perfect in every way. “I would expect her to be trying to stay safe and make her way to me, so that is what I plan on trying to do for her,” he nodded as if to help confirm or reassure himself more than anything else.

The stair way was blocked with some fallen debris, so he paused their conversation to inspect it, before he figured he could move it without much worry. A few grunts and a push later, the debris was pushed out of the way so that he could get to the door, which he opened and held open for her to pass through.

“Unfortunately, I can’t. Never thought to try and study that path, content with the allurist/killer that I have become,” the words said with little regret, mostly mild frustration at the situation. “I tend to keep to myself and the most that I know or knew of belonged to what was once the Noble line,” he looked back to the room behind her. “There is no one there that I recognize though I know we are not the only ones of our kind in this place…” the words left to just drop off as he took measure of those within. They were mostly human, which made sense. One vampire had disappeared out the building entirely, probably that teleportation that Elizabeth had spoken of. “This might sound…odd, but right now I only trust you, so if it comes to getting out of here in one piece you will be the one that I rely on and I will be that for you too. Okay?”

The pair of them had not had much contact; for the most part it was friendly though he knew they have had their issues in the past. Though it was usually about the “Noble” family and nothing personal and that entire situation was not helpful to anyone if he were to be completely honest. Right now, the two of them had ended up in this insane situation and he felt (hoped) he could count on Elizabeth to help them get through this ordeal.