In the Deep, Deep Dark (SS: Trouble in the Deep. Closed)

[Levi DAmico]

There was no doubt in the Italian’s mind that Prudence would easily make her way past security and meet him as instructed. As it was, Thompsons & Moore took safeguarding measures about as seriously as they took their ethics. And why not? They didn’t have any enemies, just a lot of connections to some very bad people who had ample amounts of money and power to protect them. So when Levi had told the man on the front desk to expect a redhead, the officer didn’t even blink and let the woman take the elevator to the designated floor. Levi wouldn’t be difficult to miss either, despite having his back to the elevator, umber eyes still set on the target. A short corridor divided them, but Levi was almost caricatural with the way he dressed uniformly in a black suit; the two buttoned variety, sharp yet casual with a crisp white shirt beneath. You could be forgiven for thinking that Levi hadn’t exactly been prepared for this eventuality given the way he was dressed, but, he’d done more athletic, maybe some more questionable activities in these clothes. Admittedly, the operation with the Hebigumo was a lot more elaborate than Levi had originally thought, but that was why he’d called in the big guns.

Levi was the type to over-think everything, to make back-up plans to his back-up plans, and to make arrangements for every eventuality. He had a package on route to their location. Ordinarily a packing list may contain anything from medical supplies to arsenals, clothing, food, electronics, survival gear and, of course, booze and cigarettes. The Italian had gotten slightly out of the habit of carrying this **** around with him when he’d settled some place and could hide caches around the city. Harper Rock was no exception to the rule, though Levi mostly stashed his **** in three key areas: work and his apartments. He’d stopped visiting the property in Veil Towers when he and Lorelai went their separate ways – well, that was the polite way of referring to her little disappearing act – but that didn’t make it any less of a good place to store supplies. Levi had supplies back in Boston too if he needed them, and even Shiro, Caro and Barzetti could be relied on for emergencies. This certainly seemed like one of those times when the Italian needed his team to get their asses in gear and be on call. The Italian didn’t wholly trust anyone, not merely because few people were even competent enough to scratch their own assholes, but because everyone had their own agenda.

So when Prudence arrived, he gave her a glance and ushered her over to the window. He wouldn’t be able to know exactly what was on her mind as she viewed the construction site, not even by watching her like a hawk because he just didn’t know the woman well enough to form many assumptions, but Levi figured she would probably expect some kind of explanation. The Italian did have a few things he needed to tell her, even if there was a chance that Prudence was just here because he’d asked, and that was all it really took was for him to admit he needed her assistance. Of course, he didn’t think that people were really like that because his whole life had taught him the opposite: altruism didn’t exist and everyone – every single motherfucking person on the planet – did what they did because they had something to gain from it. Levi had something to gain from this, after all.

“See that down there?” Levi began, not really bothering to pause for her reaction. “That’s our target. Trucks have been going in and out of there inconsistently for the past hour. There’s guards at the door. A few more inside. But I’ve got nothing else in terms of intel. They’ve been digging though, and we need to get in there to figure out what for. Sound alright to you?”

Umber eyes turned on the redhead to register her reaction, but then a quiver of movement beyond the window just reeled him right back away from her again. A truck was on its way into the compound, but this one wasn’t alone. That figure had returned to view, shadowing the side of the vehicle and concealing his approach from the guards. A few quick pumps of his gun and one of the guards was taken out. Not even their supernaturally heightened senses could hear the gunfire from the building, but the flashes from the nozzle were as dazzling as firecrackers in a night-drenched sky. Still, it wasn’t until the truck passed, ushered into the yard, that the second guard recognised just what the **** was happening. They readied their weapon too late. A gust of sentient shadow tore at them, pummelling them into the ground. There was another round of gunfire and then it was over. The way was open and Prudence and Levi were standing across the street as bystanders. That didn’t go over too well with the arrogant man, who quickly made that apparent to the redhead when he looked back to her with a growl and stormed off toward the elevator.

“Looks like we got more players. Better hurry before we miss the game entirely.”

When they made it down to ground level, Levi didn’t pause to greet the security guard who’d stood to see them out of the building, or wait to answer any questions Prudence might have had, he just blazed on through like nothing existed beyond the mission. Prudence had no doubt seen Levi in a bad mood before, had seen him take out a thug with wild abandon, but this was not one of those situations. Every step, while hurried, was purposeful and controlled and yet Levi seemed like he was a million miles away from where they were right now. He was thinking ahead, to what they might have to do with their little uninvited guest, but also about what might be greeting them beyond the construction yard. Just what were the Hebigumo digging into, what was their ultimate strategy?

By the time polished Italian loafers hit the sidewalk, a black Cadillac Escapade had pulled up on the road opposite. The tinted windows gave nothing away as to who was inside, but Levi knew who to expect and what to expect right along with it. Of course the Vampiro liked to keep a low profile, it was in his nature to sneak about like that unseen rodent right into the pantry – that was why he went around with two guns and a knife; and even that seemed like overkill to the majority of cases that Levi walked in on. A capo never really needed to carry a weapon – he had men for that – but Levi was the type of guy who figured that it was better to come over-prepared than under. That was why the boot of the SUV was packed full of high-powered assault rifles, submachine guns, semi-automatic shotguns and a number of canisters containing pepper-spray, tear-gas as well as a number of flash grenades. It was like a psychopath’s version of being a kid in a candy store – so much choice, but all of them delightful. He passed another glance at Prudence at this point and was actually smirking.

“If you wanna take one, go right ahead,” he offered in a voice as sinister as his smile. “There’s plenty to go around.”

And it was true, Levi certainly had enough firepower to arm a small army of his own and he definitely had the manpower to match the Hebigumo ten times over. The only reason he didn’t call in his people was because he suspected that the operation wasn’t exactly… Human friendly. Levi still had an image to keep up, he had to pretend that he was one of them, and worst of all, he couldn’t be losing men for unidentified reasons. Lives were like property, currency even, and every dime was counted. If Levi lost soldiers without having a good enough reason, well then that warranted an investigation. The Vampiro couldn’t have The Commission snooping into his business – it was as bad as having the FBI show up on your doorstep. No. It was better just to handle these small matters personally and if he died in the process, well, he could explain things in seven days’ time…

But that was why the Vampiro had an arsenal at his disposal – to make the possibility of his death a terribly slim one. Levi removed his jacket, unbuttoned the sleeves of his shirt to roll them past his forearms, and tied himself into a couple of gun holsters. He already had a couple of high-powered pistols strapped into his side, so those could perform a few intimate final head-shots. Levi packed in a pair of submachine guns for crowd control and anything big could probably be handled by an explosive round from a shotgun. Prudence had reached for one of those to complete her set, so, Levi decided that they were effectively armed. He closed the boot of the car and slapped the door twice to signal his men. After that, they were off, no need to hesitate any further.

[Prudence]

Only in Harper Rock at this time of night can people get away with carrying multiple weapons of the illegal kind as they crossed the street. There were a lot of questions running through Prudence's mind, like who was the other person? How much of a problem would they present to Levi and ultimately her plans now, and why did Levi even care? People did seedy **** in this city all the time and it went unnoticed the majority of the time. Either these people did something to Levi, or they posed a potential threat to what she assumed was his business in the building they just left behind. She had thought about asking him as they moved around the car that was on its way to some location that she didn't know about and didn't care about either.

With the entrance wide open thanks to the unidentified guy they watched through the windows of the tenth floor, there was no need to waste any time. It was like someone rolled out the red carpet of welcome for Pru and Levi, even if they were heavily armed, looking for some **** to **** up. No one would be so willing to leave the gate wide open, if they knew it still was, thanks to the guy that was ahead of the fully loaded pair.

What greeted the duo wasn't exactly expected from Prudence, but not out of the realm of possibilities either. She had seen a couple guards trolling the grounds as they looked down below, but a couple turned into half a dozen or so, some standing guard at an entrance to something...and others walking around, doing a perimeter check. Discretion as much as possible would be the best solution in this case, and so the woman slowly pulled out one of the two gold and black handle magnums brand hunting knife, and crouched down low behind a parked skid steer loader. The woman glanced over in Levi's direction, who took it upon himself (correctly) to go left and break up, while she went right. He darted between different types of placed construction items, from a stack of four by fours, to bags of gravel, dirt and who knows what the hell else, and other things Prudence wasn't all too familiar with. She saw him disappear behind a large stack of stuff, indicating to her to keep moving forward.

The red head turned around the skid loader, attempting to keep tight to the parked machine, only to brush up against some sort of metal rod used for who knew what the hell for, and heard it clang against the metal side of the machine, alerting anyone and everyone in the yard that company had arrived. “Well, ****!” Prudence dropped the small knife without hesitation, lugged her semi-automatic from off her shoulder and swung it around and decided to go with the shoot a lot of **** kamikaze style, sort **** out later, mentality. Bullets sprayed in every which direction, deciding to take out those closest to her, because duh, they posed the most direct threat. Bullets riddled the chest of a guard closest to Prudence, making a spray upwards from his chest to his head, while another guard came running out from the left at her. Prudence couldn't help but catch Levi in her peripheral, seemingly going unnoticed for the mos part. She watched as he lifted a gun to a guard that turned around too little too late and then fall, dead to the ground from what Prudence suspected was a bullet or two to the face.

Since Levi seemed to be slipping in, relatively unnoticed, Prudence's focus returned to the approaching guard who now held some sort of staff, or something man-made and blunt, in his hands. He swung at her head with it, causing Prudence to step backwards and narrowly miss his swipe, as she continued to press the trigger of the gun, bullets grazing the side of the body as she once again pressed forward. A final bullet lodged its way into his throat, blood spluttering everywhere, even on Prudence as it gushed outwards, as he collapsed forwards at her feet.

With a few seconds of free time that Prudence had, she glanced over to Levi, who seemed to be getting more heat than her. Either they were wary of the man that appeared from no where, or he just happened to be very unlikely. Levi leaned against the stack of four by fours and fired off two shots as he held cover, waiting for one of the two to come out in the open, or for him to get a half way decent shot.

She decided to move forward on her side, thinking that if she had to get Levi out of a bind, she could flank back from behind the two that were on him like white on rice and take one or even both of them out before they knew what hit them. In the far distance, Prudence could see a guard running for something near what appeared o be an elevator of some kind. Her best guess was some sort of mechanism that would alert others of **** going down on the main level, thus bringing more guards on the scene. Something neither one of them needed.

The red head lifted her gun, took aim and then squeezed the trigger, only to have nothing happen. “Mother ****!” Prudence swore loudly as she tossed her preferred gun to the ground, yanked her glock out and took aim at the fast moving target. Bullets riddled along the wall of the elevator, but the guard was too fast to actually hit it seemed. But that was of no matter because suddenly Prudence was struck in the shoulder from a bullet that found a home inside of her from another security guard coming at her from behind some materials. She rolled behind the loader and took cover as to reload her glock hand gun, and see how Levi was fairing with his own little mini battle. It seemed one guard was left by this time and keeping Levi on his feet with the way the guard was cowering behind his own stack of four by fours. More shots came in her direction, pinging against the metal of yellow truck that kept the red head covered while she slid the clip in the gun. The unusually tall killer moved to the opposite side of the loader and pinged off a few shots, one hitting the guy in his thigh, one in his gut and finally, one in his face. He spasmed for a second, then went limp, but was no longer paid any attention to, as the woman looked at Levi, as the back of her left hand dragged across her bloody face.

Levi apparently had finished off the ***-clown that had been humping the pile of wood during her play time with the ****-twat that shot her in the shoulder a few seconds ago. With a less than half filled clip in the small hand gun, Prudence discharged it from the gun and replaced it with a new one that was pulled from her backpack on her way over to her partner in crime for the night. While she was busy doing that, another guard crept up along side Prudence and pressed a gun to her temple. “Such a waste. Get this far just to die.” He pulled the trigger and she felt an explosion against the side of her head before she went reeling to the side and smacked down hard on the gravel surface. Prudence blinked, her vision almost criss-crossing as she groaned and got on her hands and knees, just for her Italian accomplice to make his presence on the scene known, releasing at least five bullets (she wasn't sure on the number of bullets as her head was ringing) into the guy who landed dead, right at Prudence's side.

[Stonehouse]

As a young boy growing up in England, Grant Stonehouse loved to visit the numerous castles that were dotted throughout the British Isles. Majestic masterpieces of medieval masonry that dominated a hilltop or a town centre still commanded that sense of magical respect. Edinburgh in Scotland with its clifftop fortress, Warwick Castle in central England with its jousting and battle reenactment showpieces, and the mighty Conway and Caernarfon castles in North Wales were held dear in Stonehouse’s youthful heart. They were a window into a bygone era, fuelled by fantasy and romance, chivalry and an epic feeling of something truly awesome.

The concrete compound, within which Stonehouse now found himself, was hardly a spectacular citadel, but there were uncanny resemblances. Having burst his way through the gatehouse using the truck as his metaphorical battering ram, and slaughtering the sentries with the modern day equivalent of a crossbow, the brave knight that was Stonehouse had breeched the defensive ramparts. He now found himself in some kind of courtyard, a courtyard that appeared to be swarming with men-at-arms.

Stonehouse quickly rolled to the side and took cover behind the tracks of a small bulldozer that was parked up for the night. There were several items of heavy machinery close by, no doubt tools of the building trade. His eyes were peeled, keener than a fresh lemon, as he scoured the vicinity. He watched as the truck ploughed forward, coming to rest close to a squat cement building that occupied the central area of the enclosed compound. A second wagon was already parked up adjacent to it, presumably being filled with excavated rubble before it was packed off and shipped away on its journey.

Taking his time to double check everything, Stonehouse counted nine guards, all armed with pistols that were strapped to their hips. A tenth figure exited the central hub, also armed, and began chatting to the driver of the newly arrived truck. Stonehouse’s attention was split. He wanted to watch the conversation unfold between the two men, but his eyes were continually drawn back towards the concrete bunker that nestled in the middle of the yard. The giant crane that he’d seen peeking out above the scaffolding ramparts was behind the concrete keep, like a protective tower. The only thing missing was a flag fluttering from the top of the crane bearing the family crest. The Duke of Harper Rock, or the Lord of Swansdale Manor.

There appeared to be some kind of gapping hole, leading to what or where was anyone’s guess. Stonehouse wasn’t a gambling man, but if he were, he’d bet his last dollar that the answers to many mysteries involving the Hebigumo Foundation could be found deep within the opening, not to mention a plethora of items just waiting to be stolen. Getting access the central keep and investigating the chasm were two tasks that were going to be tricky to accomplish. The ten guards were unlikely to simply step aside and allow Stonehouse to stride through like a conquering emperor.

The foot soldiers weren’t the only potential hurdle to overcome. Gazing back to the entrance, Stonehouse was acutely aware that it was only a matter of time before somebody noticed that the gate was still wide open, and that the two sentries had mysteriously disappeared. Alarms bells would be ringing in a matter of minutes. Add to that the distinct possibility that any random stranger could, in theory, wander in. There must surely be others in Harper Rock with an inquisitive mind; others who wanted to know the secrets that lay hidden behind the veil of concrete and tarpaulin?

Call him a prophet, but it literally took less than a minute for Stonehouse’s fears to turn into reality. Who were these gun-toting lunatics who had come rushing through the open gate like it was a Black Friday sale?

[Levi DAmico]

Time has a way of changing a man. It can mould his perceptions into a tightly spun web of expectations that not even a wasp’s stinger can break through. It can make him believe that nothing will ever change, that life is linear and predictable and boring. Forever was a long, long time though, and time had a way of changing things – not just the man. When Levi had called on Prudence to be his muscle for the night, he hadn’t expected her to get blind-sighted so easily, so soon. Something had changed in her, made her lose her wits like she’d forgotten how this whole thing worked. That was what surprised him, that Prudence had become complacent. She had never looked like the type to just… give up doing what she was good at, but maybe that’s what women did when they got married. They gave up their careers and hobbies and lives to focus on their husbands. Levi had no clue about that kind of thing, not intimately, but the women of the Cosa Nostra seemed to adopt that livelihood almost as if it had become part of their wedding vows. I will honour and obey you, I will make sure the kitchen’s clean, that there’s food on the table when you get home, and in return, you’ll give me money to go shopping and I won’t ask where that cash even came from…

Or maybe Levi just had to accept that people changed. He never had, and everyone he’d ever known had stayed the same too, but maybe that was because they were them – incapable of being different. Or maybe he’d just misread the situation, misunderstood a tiny fraction of what he thought Prudence was and had never really known even the tiniest detail about her. Whatever it was, it didn’t matter. The present was the most important thing. Prudence had gone and fucked up something royally, but he supposed he could push through with the distraction and she’ll be alright in the end. When she’d alerted the guards to her position, Levi crept in close to a sitting duck, expecting to take him out with a quick shot to the face. However, it seemed as though fortune did not favour the bold. Levi might have had speed and surprise on his side, but the second he came out to take the shot, the enemy turned. It was as if they had a sixth sense, but that wouldn’t matter shortly. Levi wasn’t about to drop his plan, he abandoned cover, focused his aim and walked out shooting. Several bullets caught the guard in the face, several more in the stomach and side. It felt like a whole clip had been emptied before that guard slumped to the ground, and when that one finally went down, Levi grimaced at his luck.

It was as if they’d abandoned the real world upon stepping through those gates and had entered a full-sized game of Whack-A-Mole because there was another guard, right on cue. Umber eyes spotted his next target before he stepped behind a stack of lumber, but he couldn’t wait there forever. The Italian stayed covered for what must have felt like minutes and when he finally rose out, he took a few quick shots – blind ones that hit the space where his target used to be. Sensitive ears caught that all too familiar pang sound when his bullet ricocheted off a wall and Levi decided he needed to up his game a little bit here. Moving out of cover meant putting himself at risk of fire, but he needed eyes on his target. Levi broke cover, but only slightly, arching around the stack of lumber just enough to view one of those gun-toting pricks. Yet, it seemed that that was enough to make a target out of him. Like a flash of lightning in a murky sky, Levi’s white shirt was making him stand out. The guard roared and leapt toward the Italian, unleashing multiple rounds, but he might as well have been firing Pez at him for the effect they had. One of the bullets had sliced through Levi’s shirt, brushing past his bicep like a lover’s touch, but every other bullet kissed the air. Levi didn’t wait and immediately countered, entering a whole clip into the guard’s face.

There was no point being subtle and no point being merciful. When Levi was in assault mode, he didn’t take soft shots, he aimed for the torso, the face – the places on the body that would practically guarantee a kill shot. Besides, he didn’t know just what the **** these things were. Judging by how quick they reacted, how their senses were wired so high that they were like coked-up Energizer Bunnies, Levi figured he had the right to assume that these bastards were magically enhanced. They weren’t Vampiro, no, but there was something else that seemed strangely familiar about the way they fought. They were practically eating bullets too – it wasn’t normal to have that much lead pumping through your body without at least reacting to metal poisoning. Levi had to reload the submachine guns as his back hugged the wall of timber, and despite the pelleting bullets making his wooden wall twitch from time to time, the Italian felt remarkably calm about this whole thing. He even stole a moment to check on Prudence, to see her smearing a bloody hand across her forehead, and somehow he no longer felt so relaxed.

Something twisted in the Italian’s gut, like one of those fuckers had come around with a knife and stuck him. There was no time to consider just exactly what that strange feeling was, however, as Levi quickly found himself in the path of a shitstorm of bullets. Levi didn’t like having to perform acrobatics, but then he didn’t really like being shot either. Levi ducked low, narrowly avoiding the maelstrom and returning fire at the same damn time. And they said men couldn’t multi-task. Levi slid along the ground then, pumping off round after round while still keeping low. Being as close as they were to each other, those high-powered rounds made Swiss Cheese out of his attacker. The guard was knocked backwards, several bullets hitting him in the chest, another couple peppering him in the stomach, but the majority whistling clean through the face. By the time Levi was done firing, he’d realised that he could see through the back of the man’s head like a crudely punctured hole in a ring of crimson jelly. The body fell backward, connecting with the earth in a sickening slump, but it still sounded far better than missing bullets.

While he’d been surveying the construction site back at Thompsons & Moore, Levi had counted ten guards inside the compound. In just less than two minutes he’d managed to take out three, meaning that the odds were still no way close to being on their side. Plus, they also had their wild card to sort out, didn’t they – the mysterious figure who’d opened up the way for them in the first place. The chances were that while him and Prudence were making a racket and shooting up the place, the guy could sneak on past and get into the elevator. Levi couldn’t let that happen. He glanced back to the redhead, eager to make his way over and give her a new directive, but she had company. Umber eyes narrowed as a flash of light stole the fight from his comrade. Her body staggered forward and then crumpled like a suspended marionette. Of course he would have to question it later, but at the time, the Vampiro didn’t think about anything. Levi moved to rush toward his enemy, but the power of Celerity seemed to be failing him tonight. Maybe it was rage, maybe it was something darker than that, or maybe there was some enchantment about the place that was making Levi feel like God was pissing in his Cheerio’s tonight. Whatever it was, it was just going to make him more determined to fight.

So the Vampiro didn’t blur toward his target, but he did get there pretty ******* quickly and maybe the lack of speed just allowed for him to get more rounds out. It was overkill, really, even if it wasn’t quite a Tony Montana style massacre. The submachine gun lit the compound up like it was New Year’s Eve; first came the speckled bangs, the bright flashes and then the tails of the fireworks sprayed red high into the air. Only, nobody was ******* cheering – except for the little voice inside the Vampiro’s head acknowledging that now they had one less ******** to worry about. Looking around him briefly, Levi counted another three bodies, bringing the total up to seven. So they currently had three guards unaccounted for and one mystery figure in black. If you looked past the fact that they had been inside the compound for about four minutes and one of them was bleeding through the side of her head, they weren’t doing all that badly. Levi decided he therefore had a minute to call Prudence out on her dumbfuckery. After all, she certainly hadn’t spared any kind words for him when he had been the weaker link in the past.

“Come on, sweetheart. This ain’t the time to be napping,” he growled, reaching for her arm and tugging her onto her feet. There was no point being reserved now, right? “I heard you tough bitches went soft in your old age, but wow. Didn’t think you’d be just another statistic.” And, just in case she wasn’t already feeling the need to shoot him in the face, Levi added, “you’re doing excellent work being a bullet magnet tonight. And that’s great, but I kinda need you to kill them, not let them kill you. Got it?”

For once, the Italian was all talk shielding his actions. As he was goading her, he was subtly checking her wound. From that range – standing right up next to her, the gun sitting on her temples – there was no way the guard had missed and Levi saw the evidence right up close. Blood poured out of the wound like it had some place better to be and since Levi had pretty much dragged her up onto his shoulder, all that rich crimson was pouring right on down his chest. Nice. Well, the plus side was that he wouldn’t stand out like a rabbit’s tail in the brush any longer with the way his nice white shirt steadily turned maroon. The down side was that it felt heavy, cold and clingier than a prom date. Levi didn’t know quite what to do with his damsel in distress other than to move her out of range of any further gunfire, but just when he felt like he was making a difference by gradually retreating behind the shovel of a small bulldozer, something sharp struck the outside edge of Levi’s thigh. Without warning, Levi’s leg buckled beneath him and the pair of them staggered to the left. Levi had enough awareness and strength in him to push backwards as they fell, clearing them of any further gunfire. It wasn’t much, but it was safe for now.

[Prudence]

Prudence blinked what felt like half a dozen times, trying to focus as her eyes rolled in her head and the ear-piercing roar got louder in her head. She could see Levi talking, but what he was saying fell on deaf ears. She could only imagine and that alone spurned an angry reaction from her as she was hoisted in the air. While she was primarily dead weight, Prudence let her swinging leg hit him in the side of his gut with a little more than just a fall of gravity. It wasn't enough to do anything other that cause anyone o get winded, but since he was a vampire, chances are it did nothing other than appease the red head for the moment.

At least that was what she thought, but suddenly Levi was heading down to the ground, and consequently so was Prudence. She braced herself for the fall she thought was going to be going the other way, only to find herself on top of Levi. She took the moment of stillness to focus on one of the two wounds...the one in the side of her head. Between the wound in her shoulder and the one in her head, feeding was going to be a top priority as they wen along. Bullets, she can handle, and a lot of them at that...but she could only take that many as long as there was still blood in her body. Dead just wasn't on Prudence's agenda for the night, even though that appeared to be a different story from any on looker.

The tall and lithe red head rolled completely off of Levi, shook her head a couple of times and then blurted out, “Thanks, but I had him.” A decibel or two, too high, but there really wasn't a need to be overly quiet anyways, anymore, was there? Prudence was sure she could have devised some sort of plan while she was on the ground, after all, the shot hadn't killed her like the guy hoped and intended. Her hand went to the wound, rubbed at it and noted her missing ear. “Ain't that a *****?” It was obvious that with her lack of mouth that the woman hadn't heard a single thing Levi had said to her while she was on the ground collecting her bearings. “So we got three or four more guards, which shouldn't be too...” Prudence stopped the train of thought before an explicit came out of her mouth. “****!” A fist slammed down on the ground in realization of how much time had passed from when she got shot in the head, he killed the guy that shot her, picked her up and fell to the ground. “Levi, there was another guard heading inside the building or whatever it is.” Prudence jerked her head up and around the side to see just what was being unfolded upon them, expecting something utterly ******* ridiculous due to her own clumsiness, but was met with something completely different.

[Stonehouse]

The one thing that could set a great army apart from being just a good army was not the quality of its weaponry; it was discipline. The ability to remain focussed and organized on the task at hand, no matter what it entailed, was essential to success in battle. The medieval men-at-arms wielding their huge pikes and halberds needed to act as a cohesive unit when faced with bold knights mounted upon charging war-horses, otherwise the cavalry would mow them down like fresh wheat. They had to be regimented, a collective like an ancient equivalent of The Borg from Star Trek.

The security guards within the Foundation’s compound were effectively a small battalion of foot soldiers, patrolling the courtyard in their matching uniforms, shiny polished boots gleaming underneath the artificial lighting. They looked every bit the well-drilled platoon of loyal serving marines or commandoes. The same could most definitely not be said about the pair of gunslingers who had rushed into the construction site barracks like a modern day version of Bonnie and Clyde.

The couple, a fiery redheaded woman and an Italian-looking man, dressed totally inappropriately in a suit like Harper Rock’s answer to Al Pacino’s character in Scarface, had blazed in through the open door, throwing caution to the wind. Gunfire was crackling through the warm night air turning the atmosphere into something akin to a giant fireworks display to celebrate New Year. Stonehouse watched in almost utter disbelief as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid faced the corporate troops with their don’t-give-a-**** attitude, unloading numerous showers of bullets towards the guards. So much for Stonehouse’s well laid plan to infiltrate the facility!

Behind the cover of the stationary bulldozer, Stonehouse counted several casualties on the defending side. The awesome twosome clearly meant business, and were determined to storm the keep and plunder the loot, whatever the “loot” may actually prove to be. This sudden change of scenario had left Stonehouse in a rather awkward predicament. Should he remain hidden and attempt to play the stealth card, or take a gamble and go all in, throwing his hand into the melting pot. Clearly this was going to be one of those crazy nights where caution had decided to stay at home to enjoy some Netflix and chill, and its mad cousin, recklessness, had been left in charge of planning the party.

Releasing a reluctant groan of resignation, Stonehouse knew precisely what he had to do. Stepping out of the safety of his mechanical cover, Stonehouse once more took careful aim, this time at a guard who was about to disappear into the central bunker. He let rip with a volley of bullets, like an archer firing his arrows through the slots in the battlement walls. Within a split second, the foot soldier was knocked backwards as a bullet, perhaps two, crashed into his chest. As the guard stumbled, Stonehouse went in for the kill. Roaring forward like a rampant lion hunting down a zebra, the marksman unleashed another barrage of bullets as he leapt towards the wounded warrior, once again striking him full in the chest, narrowly missing the hapless soldier’s heart. As he fell to the floor, the guard managed to fire off a few wasteful rounds that whizzed aimlessly into the concrete walls behind Stonehouse.

If nothing else, this focussed Stonehouse’s determination to finish the job. The businessman could be ruthless when needed, and he had no problem with kicking a man while he was down, so to speak. Pointing the barrel of his sub-machine gun towards the prone guard's head, Stonehouse fired off multiple rounds, catching the guard slap bang in his face. It was game over for that particular player.

One more down, but how many more were still to go? Stonehouse scanned the area with the eyes of a hawk, noticing several incapacitated bodies lying flat on the dusty floor of the yard, presumably victims of the double act who were carving up the place like a Christmas turkey.

Before Stonehouse could pinpoint his next target, he felt a strange tingling sensation deep within his skull, as if an army was trying to march straight through his forehead and into his brain. It must have been some kind of mental attack, trying to confuse him, or mess with his abilities. Stonehouse shook his head, as if he were attempting to rid his hair of invading ants.

“Get the **** out of my head!” he yelled, spinning around, trying to locate the perpetrator of the attack.

To his left, kneeling besides some steel girders, was another guard, deep in concentration, channelling his psychic assault.

“You cheeky bugger!” said Stonehouse angrily. “You are going to get a face full of hot lead!”

[Levi DAmico]

“Yeah, right. Sure you had him. You were just bluffing with the hole in your damn head huh,” Levi grumbled at her, shaking his head and sneering. His tone was lighter than you might expect, sounding as if he was actually enjoying this whole thing – like **** ups brightened his day and he wasn’t a control freak. “We got three guards left,” Levi corrected, after Prudence ran her mouth a little, but he seemed to get cut off almost immediately when the woman swore in his face. It was like a bomb had gone off too close, leaving the Vampiro’s ears ringing. He grimaced, made the point of pressing a finger against his earhole like he was dislodging the sound and then huffed angrily at her. If Prudence was right – and he had to agree, she could be about this one – then letting any guards go on for much longer would mean really bad news. The Italian’s plan had been a little rough, he could admit that one, but they hadn’t had a lot of choice in the matter. Time was of the essence and no matter how stealthy they could be, if by some miracle they managed to sneak past ten ******* patrolling armed guards with super senses, there was no way on God’s green earth that no ****** was going to notice an unauthorised use of the elevator.

“Don’t worry,” Levi said. “I’ll get him. Just… stay here or… whatever. Sort your head out and guard the elevator.”

Before Levi could move, he was alerted to activity. There was gunfire again suddenly, somewhere off to their right. Levi couldn’t see bodies past the machinery from where he sat, but he’d have to be a blind man not to notice the strobe-like fluoresce striking up the yard like a disco ball on a dance floor. So their guest had given away his position too – helpful – and despite the fact that Prudence and Levi could be considered easy pickings for the three armed guards remaining, the sudden activity called them away to investigate this new threat. Like moths to a flame – how terribly cliché. It seemed these augmented warriors were sprightly enough not to get caught out from behind, but what they had in terms of overwhelmingly sharp perceptions, they made up for with being slow in the head before subsequently being shot in the head. The guards were like scattered ants, broken off from the colony. Maybe together they were once strong, but, between the three of the gun-toting sociopathic Vampires, their numbers had dwindled considerably. Whatever was left of the Hebigumo warriors – and judging by the gunfire, it was probably just the two of them now – were most likely calling in back-up while Levi sat there guarding the princess. Obviously, that had to be dealt with.

Without any further delays, the Italian pushed himself onto his feet using the metal siding of the bulldozer’s shovel. The wound in his thigh reminded him of its existence with a screaming howl as he made the sudden movement too. Levi felt his muscles tighten reflexively as electricity shot up his nerves attempting to ignite an explosion in his brain, but like a trained bomb disposal expert, good old adrenaline got in there first. The circuit was broken, the explosion negated, and Levi began to pick up the pace from a hobbled walk into a purposeful jog. Using the flash of bullets as his central point for circumnavigation, Levi moved quietly around the yard looking for the remaining guards. Leather soles made comparatively little sound despite the rolling rubble, the dust and gravel that littered the yard. The Italian kept his ears alert to any sudden movement: footsteps, rustling clothes, a gun being pulled into aim. What he wasn’t exactly expecting was to hear the voice of a man screaming some kind of garbage-threat in an accent that invariably reminded him of Gino Valachi’s. Initially, the Italian paused to pull a face of confusion, but all in all he was happy to have it appear out of the abyss. Levi clocked his uninvited guest’s new position – three feet to the right behind a roll of steel rope and wooden panels. He recalculated his path, turning left in the hopes of getting behind anybody else who was moving in to put a lead bullet between the Englishman’s teeth.

The plan was simple, and despite the fact that these guards appeared to have an extra set of eyes located at the back of their heads for sighting Vampires, Levi still felt he had some kind of chance of performing a sneak attack. The guard would be distracted, thinking he was sneaking up on the Englishman, and as he closed in to attack, that was when Levi would strike.

[Prudence]

(OOC: Anima count after quickening: 15 remaining)

About half way through Levi's retorts to Prudence's comments, the ringing slowly subsided to a low droning dull fog horn (as she could best describe it), but muffled significantly. She was supposed to stay here and sort herself out, which was fine. For now. Irritability fine, but she knew he was right, which only brought more fire to the spark that had been ignited seconds ago from the male as they lay on top of one another. If it had been any other man, Prudence was absolutely positive that a comment and maybe a sly *** feel would have been made, but not with Levi. He never made any inkling that he was that sort of guy, which gave him a few extra freebie points in her good books. Levi had slowly grown on her, much like an infection on a wound, when left untreated. Annoying at first, but then people get used to it and it sort of is just there until it gets treated and goes away. Which, Levi went away, a lot. Needless to say, their sort of dynamic was always the platonic sort, tied in with the few berating comments here and there from the both of them.

Levi's looming frame had Prudence looking up at the male, only to recognize that he had been injured at some point, which was probably due to her. Either before he came and played super hero, or while he was playing it, he took a bullet in the leg for her. It wasn't hard to miss the wound in his thigh because there just happened to be tufts of black seeping from the hole in his pants and his leg. Apparently the gigantic red headed killer owed Levi more than a few words of appreciation; he probably needed a new suit by the time this was all said and done.

Levi was off and on a mission before Prudence could really say or do anything, not that there was much to say. She could see it in his eyes, that the Italian male knew what he needed to do. He knew who the main target was, the potential source for all their problems, but as Prudence glanced around, she had no idea where the guy had gone to. Was it the guy lying dead on the ground? How the hell had that happened? Was her eyes and brain (the one with a bullet in it), playing tricks on her? The woman leaned back from the machinery she had been forced to take cover behind due to Levi's fall, and propped her still throbbing head against the cool metal surface. Her blue eyes looked up at the night sky as she focused on the fullness of the moon and concentrated on closing the bullet hole in the side of her temple up, so she didn't look like a walking zombie (which was probably a pretty good possibility, all things considered).

She closed her eyes and forced herself to push past the pain of what might be a fractured skull, with bits of brain and flesh missing and focus on the task at hand. Levi needed her, otherwise he wouldn't have called on her. He believed she could be useful, but here she was, anything but ******* useful at the moment. The red head clenched her teeth and took deep, purposeful breaths through those closed teeth as she thought about what she should be doing. Loading a gun, killing some more punks, assessing if the sneaky person was an enemy or potential friend (or at least working towards the same goal/agenda), and getting further inside this fae fuckery of **** to shoot the asshat that was in charge of the assholes they just killed. Shaky fingers dug around in her back pack as she pulled out another clip for her glock hand gun and proceeded to unload and reload it, before zipping the pack back up, and coming to a hunched stand, slowly but surely as she peeked around the corner for another time, after checking her back blind spot to make sure there would be no more surprises.

(Anima after zombie constitution activated: 13)

[Stonehouse]

One’s mind was supposed to be a sacred temple, a sanctuary for those personal thoughts and feelings that were nobody’s business except for the person who created them in the first place. Invaders, mind pirates, were most certainly not welcomed inside Stonehouse’s head. Recently, several nosy fuckers had tried to snoop around the corridors of his cerebral cortex, totally crossing the boundaries of decency and privacy. They’d receive their repayment, with interest, at some stage in the future, but for now the annoyed businessman needed to address the brain bandit who was attempting to cause skulduggery within his skull.

It was perhaps a tad ironic that Stonehouse had studied psychology at university, and picked up several cunning tricks to worm his way inside the minds of unsuspecting acquaintances. Of course, the intellectual graduate had no problem using his skills and techniques to probe deeply into the subconscious of his subjects; after all, it was a respectable branch of medical science. However, jiggery-pokery and magic powers were “cheating”, and quite simply rude.

A small handful of the conspiracy theories regarding the Hebigumo Foundation that had surfaced on the Internet were based on the assumption that the charitable organization’s work in the neurotherapy field of science & technology harboured a few ulterior motives. There were accusations, all unproven, that the Foundation was involved in what could only be described as “thought theft”. God help the person who stole Stonehouse’s frontal lobe files containing his fanciful fantasies. The Thought Police would surely have him arrested and condemned to lifelong imprisonment for the storylines and imagery that his creative mind would conjure up on a regular basis. Perhaps it was no surprise that guards employed by the corporation were talented in mental warfare. No smoke without fire?

Stonehouse blinked repeatedly, hoping that clarity of vision would somehow dispel the disorientating wasp that was buzzing around in his head. Filled with a sense of mental violation and subsequent anger, the gunman rushed forward, unloading half a clip of bullets. The normally ultra-focussed Englishman had clearly been shaken by the mystic power of the guard; his bullets skimming passed the uniform-clad flesh of the thought thug without causing any damage except for the most minor of scratches. Downright clumsy to say the least.

Stonehouse prided himself on his accuracy with firearms, so a complete miss was simply rubbing salt into the mental wound. To add insult to injury, the guard returned fire with his pistol, striking the onrushing confused marksman on his left shoulder. It was hardly a critical blow, but it stung like hell.

They say that every cloud has a silver lining, and in this painfully stormy case, the piecing metallic bullet seemed to refocus Stonehouse’s foggy attention. Squeezing firmly on the trigger of his sub-machine gun, Stonehouse emptied the clip, and delighted in watching multiple projectiles race into the cheeks and forehead of the guardsman. There was a sweet justice in witnessing his bullets penetrate deeper into his opponent’s head than the mental magician had into the gunman’s mind.

Slamming a fresh magazine into the body of the firearm, Stonehouse pumped off several more rounds into the chest of the soldier, just to ensure that he was well and truly dead. Sometimes it was best to take no chances. Now was definitely one of those times.

Pausing to take stock of the situation, Stonehouse clenched a hand to the injury on the top of his arm, the obsidian coloured wispy blood blending seamlessly into the black material of his overalls. There was a reason that he chose to leave his expensive tailored suits back at home, unlike the Italian stallion who was parading about the park waving his guns around like flags at a carnival. Where had he gone?

[Levi DAmico]

There were too many unknowns for this situation to be considered comfortably under control. The Italian had no idea how many of the Hebigumo army were truly out there – or in here for that matter – and neither did he know their calibre. Levi didn’t know if this compound was even a one off, or that maybe they were simply using this base as a distraction for more insidious, inconspicuous work. Worst of all was the idea that there was a whole army of supernaturally gifted mortals on the march to their position, or poised in some God forsaken bunker somewhere systemising a strategy of attack on Vampire kind. It was impossible to tackle the long-term game when he had no idea how many pieces were in play. It was like playing a game of chess blindfolded and with ear plugs while you relied on somebody else to move the pieces for you. The thought made the Italian anxious and since he was already feeling like there were tiny fire ants crawling through his nervous system, it wasn’t likely that he was going to be providing much mercy tonight. He had to focus on the situation one step at a time, which meant finishing off these guards and confronting their guest – the Englishman.

The sound of light shoes stepping across a carpet of pebbles and dust stopped when he found the stilled form of a guard knelt behind some wooden pallets. Levi could make out the figure aiming a rifle between the slats, but he couldn’t make out the gunman’s target from the current distance. The Italian was certainly too stressed to acknowledge that his finger was already threatening the trigger as he walked up behind the guard in a controlled, quiet jog, and he was definitely too ******* distracted to notice that wisps of black blood were coming out of his leg like a chain-smoker’s insistent puffing. What couldn’t go ignored, however, was the sudden snap of movement. The guard must have heard him coming or smelt him or sensed him with some sort of psychic intuition. The guard turned and fired in immediate succession, but his aim was well of its mark. The Italian didn’t even have to dodge as the rounds turned concrete into dust behind him, but then, Levi wasn’t exactly planning on dodging much either. Pistol in hand, Levi closed in and aimed for the guard’s shoulder, using the need to reload and aim as the perfect opportunity to strike. The bullet smashed through the socket connecting the head of the humerus bone to the scapula – a fatal shot to a Human, but an otherwise inhibiting one to the supernaturally charged guard. Well, he couldn’t raise his arm to fire off another shot – that was for sure.

The Vampiro was in hunting mode – every sense as sharp and keen as the blade of a scalpel. His ears listened out to the tiniest flutter of movement almost unconsciously; umber eyes held a steely focus on the space around him and, in particular, the guard before him; his nostrils flared slightly with each inhale, tasting the flavour of the air like snakes seeking prey; and even his skin was primed for any shift of movement that would disturb the space in between. That wasn’t to say that Levi’s perception and reflexes were without fault. The blood which had left him had made him slower, the injury to his leg made him weaker, and the Vampiro was still bothered by the pain. Still, he was more determined to kill than perhaps the guard was determined to live because there was practically no respite between Levi blowing the crap out of the man’s arm and then moving in, firing a whole clip into the guard’s face.

It was messy too. The guard’s head snapped back violently, the force of the impacting high-powered bullet practically blew his head off, cracking the bones in his neck as it ricocheted off the ground. Levi could see the rubble and concrete through the messy remains of his skull since he was looming over the final guard like a soul-sucking Deamon, but then he fired further bullets into the guard’s chest causing him to spasm along the ground. Not knowing what the guard was, and since Levi was a wee bit pissed off about the fact that he had a hole in his ******* leg and appeared to be more noticeable than a giant purple monkey with a second head, it seemed necessary to ensure the ******** was dead-dead. Levi heard his pistol click, signifying that the clip was spent, but that made one more Hebigumo ****** down and just him, Prudence and their unknown visitor remaining. Levi knew that his attack on the final guard had left him exposed again – gunfire practically screamed I’m over here! to anybody listening – and even at the risk of receiving yet another wound, he made the effort to walk quietly and calmly around the corner to see if their guest had paused a while.

What were the odds that Levi was the only one curious about the unknown company anyway? The Italian wasn’t a man with a lot of patience for people and he wasn’t very good at playing the ally role. The fact of the matter was that Levi was used to be being the boss and resented those he took orders from. Since he rather doubted that anyone enjoyed taking orders from anybody either – least of all strangers – this meeting with the Englishman was going to be a giant pain in the *** and severe test of his patience. The fact of the matter was that there were three parties in one pool: Levi and Prudence, the Englishman, and the Hebigumo. Two teams were cut from the same cloth and there was a chance that the Hebigumo would treat all three Vampiri like they were a team anyway. It made a lot of sense to join forces under these circumstances, but could Levi do that? Could he really let his ego step aside and play nice with the other children in the school yard? It had taken years for him to be comfortable enough asking his own sire and grandsire for their assistance, so the odds didn’t look particularly good…