Last Hurrah [Chapter 8]

[Blaike]

[aid_admin][/aid_admin]

“Say what you want but I know you wanna see it Baby B-” His words were cut off as Luca hit the gas, his hands flew off the gun as he reached for the seat belt he had stupidly not put on. It was to late though. He felt his large body move from the seat crashing forward into the bullet proof glass in front of him. Everything had seemed to move in slow motion at that point, he was flying forward as they crashed into the back of the other truck. His hands tried to move to cover his head but were all too slow. The large blonde head of the man hit the glass, not breaking through but causing enough of an impact to cause the glass to ripple just a bit. At the same time he felt the end of the assault rifle he had held in between his legs flying upwards into his crotch. Double K.O.


Blaike let out a groan while his fist met the dashboard of the now wrecked SUV. One hand coming to his head to clear the blood that was flowing down his forehead the other cradling his now tenderized private parts. “****!” He growled out for a moment trying to get his bearings, glad he didn't have to catch his breath anymore, at least that was one perk of being a vampire. That's when he felt it. Her. ******* Red. He knew she was there of course he knew that but this was different he could almost sense that she was in need of help. It was enough to bring him back to the world around him, yeah he ******* kind of hated her but he also kind of ******* loved her to, he'd have been lost without her, probably just a ******* murder without her. The large man punched the dash board again as he kicked the door of the SUV open.

“Fuckin Mountie warn a brother before you decide to crash the car next time!” With out even a second thought he crawled out of the vehicle, noting the arm that had splashed onto the window. He smirked a little at the thought of it, grabbing it before he really even knew what he was doing. Assault rifle in one hand, severed arm in the other Blaike limped his way against the side of the truck. He had to get to her and if that meant being blatantly dumb in a firefight **** it. He moved with his back against the side of the vehicle then took the arm and stretched his own out so he could wave it through the window of the passenger side of the truck.

“Hey, it looks like you guys could use a hand, some asshole ran rammed into your *** end, how ******* rude of him huh? I thought Canadian's were supposed to be ******* nice.” It caused Blaike to let out a laugh while he threw the arm inside of the window and stepped around pulling his assault rifle up at the same time, two shots, one to the man with the severed arm the other to the driver's head that was slumped over the steering wheel for good measure. He laughed then let out a slight yell as he felt a bullet whiz past his shoulder. He turned quickly back to find cover behind the truck once more. “I thought you guys were supposed to be ******* good shots.” He yelled out from behind his cover point.

[Sullivan (DELETED 11708)]

[aid_admin][/aid_admin]

As the gate closes on the SUV, they shunt to the side; Helheim soldiers and Paladin crushing into a single mass of unhappy meat. The sound of metal scraping against metal is probably one of the worst sounds in the world right now and it relentlessly fills Sullivan’s head alongside this high-pitched ringing after he’s bumped heads with one of the vampires seated next to him. He’s glad he’s got his seat belt on because it’s one impact after the other as they enter the docks and rear-end the truck in front. Suddenly his insides want to become outsides, but, he swallows it all down and whips his head around to check out their situation. Blaike’s cries of frustration are quickly masked by the sound of gunfire. The front doors of the SUV are flung open and Luca and Blaike make the first charge by the time Sullivan’s organs return to their rightful places.

“****. Ok,” Sullivan says - he already feels out of breath.

He’s thinking out loud at this point and his thoughts slam into a stop when an explosion ripples through the dock. He didn’t see what happened, but, the truck at the very front of the convoy is already in flames. There’s even more gunfire that follows and Sullivan lets out a heavy sigh. Just for once he’d like to be able to resolve a situation without getting violent.

“Right. I guess you boys are with me,” he says.

The vampires glare at him and Sullivan arches a brow as his lips form a line. He unbuckles his seat belt, but, when he’s ready to open the door a bullet whizzes past his right shoulder. It pelts into the seat cushions between him and the soldier, which would have been his chest if he hadn’t moved so incidentally. Sullivan doesn’t know too much about ballistic glass, but, he does know that it takes an exceptional calibre to pierce it. This can only mean one thing.

“Sniper!”

Sullivan kicks open the door and they file out of the back of the SUV to find cover behind a shipping container. This isn’t a normal weekday night for him; the closest Sullivan’s ever been to an escort mission is playing Call of Duty and he hopes that these soldiers are better suited for warfare than those dumbass AIs. He gets his answer as one of their heavily armoured obstacles come around the side of the shipping container and the vampire behind Sullivan points his gun at the man’s head and fires: Deadeye. In one second, Sullivan is alerted to the man’s presence - the muzzle of a SMG leering at him - and in the next second, he’s watching the same man jolt backwards and fall flat on his back with a bullet hole in his forehead. He nods his head to the vampire and readies his firearm; they’ll make their way around the back to take out any stragglers.

This won’t be the first time in the night that he’ll have his hide saved, but, he can try to minimise the chances. Eve would love watching him struggle through the night. Fortunately, he doesn’t have to worry about her safety.

[Storyteller]

==========AUTOMATED POST==========

Amalea attempted to hack a tough target, and was successful!

[Amalea]

[aid_admin][/aid_admin]

An hour later, the red-head was more than willing to declare the first site of her search a bust. There was nothing on the server that indicated anything about the Foundation and Harper Rock. Sure, it dealt with vampires and hunters, but it was more of a fictional creation than reality, if her guess was right. She had painstakingly gone through each of the character sheets she had found yet none seemed to fit with any vampires she knew within the city; as far as she knew, none exploded into bats like in the lastest Dracula film.

The second site, while promising on the surface, had produced nothing of real substance even once she had shifted through the file servers. Mainly, it was a lot of boring statistics and theories about vampires. If the red-head had to guess, most of them had been compiled out of books and video rather than real-life studies. Last she had checked, garlic and crosses weren’t about to ward off or harm your run-of-the-mill Harper Rock vampire. One might get you projectile vomited on while the other would make most roll their eyes. It was possible it was a cover for an organization that used the information to test out potential new members.

The next couple hours were spent digging though the sites on the rest of her list. Most were duds or contained minimal new information towards her venture. After a small break to get a drink and a snack, Amalea returned to the computer to give the last entry on her list a try. The cursory scan through the visible pages piqued her interest; it wasn’t precisely the information that did so but more of a hunch. A first poke at the file server told her she had something, even if it wasn’t precisely what she was after. The security was too high for a normal site even if the owner or designer was paranoid. Now she just had to carefully navigate her way through and hope the dance was worth the effort.

Twenty painstaking minutes later, the red-head hit the jackpot in the form of an address. She wasn’t able to discern for certain if it was connected to the Foundation and their movements but it was clear there was something going down there that wasn’t precisely legal. Given the context and the time crunch, it was the best she had to give. Nabbing her phone, she pulled up the address in the map app before sending off a text to the group chat.

[t] Found an address for a warehouse that might be our target. Location incoming.

With the warning off, she returned to the map app to use the share feature to send the link to everyone. Hopefully, it wasn’t a dud lead.

[Storyteller]

==========AUTOMATED POST==========

Every attempted to overpower a tough target, and was successful!

[Every]

[aid_admin][/aid_admin]

When the explosion rocked the building, Every caught her balance on the wall. She didn’t know what had gone off as she steadied herself. It wasn’t until she looked through the eyes of her doppelgänger that she understood. “Beset on all sides by idiots.” She murmured under her breath as she took in the truck that had been ran into the other. There was the sound of an alarm going off somewhere and she cursed under her breath. It took her a few moments to gather herself before she lifted her hands to connect a wire to the rigged camera that she had placed.

Every knew not to dawdle. As she ran, she connected to the internet through her mind and began to hack. She hesitated, causing her to ping against the authentication process. Turning the corner, she got it on her second try before resetting the security system. The man that blocked her exit didn’t notice her until she was right behind him. “Hello,” She paused her hacking to smile brightly and focus her pull on the shadows, drawing them towards him in an instant. His surprise registered as the shadows pierced his chest, but he slumped to the ground as she released them. ”Goodbye.” Her smile dropped as soon as she stepped over his corpse and her eyes flashed an animalistic gold.

The device in her pocket began to ring, three short buzzes to signify a text message.

“Go Lea.”

She grinned, sending a group text in response: Meet me there as soon as you can. Blaike, if you caused that explosion, I got a boot with your name on it. The point was to be subtle.

Every wasn’t above casually threatening her adopt-a-perve grandchilde as she slipped the device away and teleported. She stumbled as she landed, but focused to summon her wraith to her. Zachary’s arrival was immediate and his comments unwanted as she sent him ahead to scout before calling for her doppelgänger, the shadowed creature turning invisible before following after the dead vampire. She didn’t know what they would find, but she wanted the others there before she entered, so they could go together.

[Storyteller]

==========AUTOMATED POST==========

Caligrace attempted to use a power against a tough target, and was successful!

[Caligrace]

[aid_admin][/aid_admin]

In the blink of an eye, everything fell to pieces.

Her phone vibrated in her pocket, the heat from the explosion danced across her skin and lit up the night sky, the scent of blood and ash clung to her senses. It was pure and utter chaos, and she knew without a doubt, that she had brought far more attention to them than she had intended - and, as her mind connected to her cell to access her texts, it was proven. Despite having the man behind her, she managed to keep herself rational - and calm - enough to connect her mind with Every.

:: Nah, girl. The explosion was all me. I got caught unaware and did the only thing I could think of. I’ll meet up with you as soon as I get out of this little… uh…predicament. ::

The gun pressed harder to her temple, distracting her then, and she felt the ragged breath the soldier took in. His chest vibrated against her back, his breath tickling the strands of crimson atop her head as he released it. A low curse filled her ear, barely discernible above the sound of gunfire and shouts. “Who the **** did you bring with you?” The words were growled, then, and she had to swallow back a panicked laugh as she felt the swell of emotion around her. It surrounded her, pressed against her. His attempt at intimidation only made it worse, because his fear was palpable as it beat against her. He held her - a five foot three college student - in his grasp, and he was terrified of her.

“I didn’t bring anyone,” she whispered, her voice soft and melodic, Canadian French accent thick as she tried to charm him into releasing her. It was the truth, at least. She hadn’t brought anyone with her - unless she counted Every, who wouldn’t have had the time to make such a grand entrance between the moment she was captured and now. No, whoever had shown came uninvited. Blood trickled from her scalp and fell into her amber eyes, impairing her vision, but through the haze of crimson she was able to make out the muscled shapes that poured from the SUV. The way they moved was familiar, but it was the voice that called out above the rest that caused her lips to twitch.

Blaike.

And then another.

Sullivan.

She didn’t have to hear the third to know he was there, his presence demanding attention, though she would never tell him as such. No, his head was already filled enough with his own self-worth.

Luca.

“**** you. Your kind travels in packs, don’t they? Nests?” His voice wavered, the strength fading from his tone as he dug the gun into her temple, and she swallowed. Conversation was going to get her nowhere, and so with a low sound in her throat, she slammed her elbow back. Catching the man in the chest, she twisted, nails digging into his arm as she flipped him over her shoulder - copying the moves she’d committed to memory from her training - and she watched in satisfaction as his back connected with the debris covered cement beneath him. As he scrambled to catch his breath - and his gun - she kicked the latter of his reach as her power thrummed through her.

“I told you, I didn’t bring anyone,” she repeated, her voice still as soothing as ever as she pressed her fingers to his jaw, pacifying him. Within seconds, the anger bled from his eyes, leaving him as docile as a newborn pup against her. Guilt churned in her stomach as an acidic taste coated her tongue, but she forced it back. She didn’t have time for an inner war with her humanity in that moment, and as if to prove her point, a bullet ricocheted off the building next to her, causing her to twitch. Reaching down, she curled her fingers into the man’s vest and tugged, dragging him out of the line of safety - before her own gun cracked against his temple with enough pressure to knock him out, but not kill him. No, they were going to need him for later, if the rank sewed into his uniform was any indication.

Leaving the soldier tucked safely between a few crates, she spun on her heel and crept low, making her way towards the gunfire - instead of away from it. Just as she reached the sidelines, a heavy body slammed into her from behind, sending her stumbling forward. It took a second for her to realize that it was enemy - not friend - as a beefy hand curled into her hair. Seriously, what is it with these soldiers and hair pulling? Did they learn fighting from cheerleaders? Before he had a chance to do any damage, though, his head snapped back and a small hole appeared between his eyes. Once again, that feeling of guilt made her stomach churn, and she scrambled to her feet, her gun clutched between both hands as her wild, large eyes found the source of the bullet, full lips twitching into a smile at Luca.

“Oh, hi boys,” she called out, allowing her voice to remain soft - and even adding a touch of innocence to it, as if she hadn’t caused the scene around her. As if her clothing wasn’t charred and the scent of smoke and fire didn’t cling to her hair. As if she hadn’t caused an explosion.

“You got the message. I’ve got someone tucked away - alive - to use if we need. Let’s find our way out of this and go meet up with Eve.”

[Blaike]

[aid_admin][/aid_admin]

Gunfire was exploding all around them, he'd lost sight on the rest of his bro's. His back was planted against the side of the truck they'd crashed into. He felt the adrenaline rushing through his body. Remembering the moment's when he'd stepped into the ring, only this time there weren't people cheering instead there was just a lot of god damn ******* yelling and no chanting. What a ******* shame. His pocket vibrated and he rolled his blue eyes stuffing his hand into the pocket of his cargo pants, he pulled the small phone out and huffed when he read Every's text. His large fingers typed out with difficulty

Not ******* me Braino, BUT now that you mention it I should turn some truc- His phone exploded into a million pieces and he hoped that at least he'd sent the message before it had been destroyed by a bullet. Blaike tossed the pieces of the phone on the ground and shrugged his broad shoulders. Rolling them out as he smiled to himself. **** guns, **** shooting things. That could be anyone and everyone else's job but his own. To be fair he never really liked having to learn to shoot. When it came down to it he would rather use his hands to get the job done.

Tossing his gun to the side he slip his black tank top up and off of his body. He laughed a little thinking about how he was legit stripping in the middle of a ******* gun fight but if anyone was going to do it, he knew it'd be him. Another bullet whizzed by and he didn't even flinch; to focused on what he was about to do. He crouched down to unlace his boot's letting the ******* Mountie and Baby Boi focus on the gun fight. The large man knew the best way to get through this was shear force and currently they were simply outnumbered. His head tilted side to side cracking his bones his shoes were then kicked off and he started working on the buckle of his pants. Remembering how sore he was from this earlier altercation with the *** end of his gun and his junk. He took a little more time until finally his pants dropped. Out of the corner of his eye he noted a man coming around the side of one of the trucks in front of them with his gun raised. The solider paused for a moment eyes going wide, **** who's eyes wouldn't go wide there was a ******* gun fight going on and here was this mountain of a man standing on the battle field in tight bright ******* pink boxer's that read Papi on the top of them.

Blaike broke out into a loud boisterous laugh, his head falling back hands resting on his abs. The solider seemed to freeze, confused as to shoot or to simply let the mad man go because who the **** would be naked on a battle field. It gave Blaike just the amount of time that he needed. “Sorry to cut your show short buddie, but-” His neck snapped, bones crushed together, threatening to burst through his skin. He'd practiced this, a quick shift just for a moment like this. The pale skin turned gray and hard. His bones burst through sending blood splattering against the cement ground and the side of the truck. If the soldier had been in shock at the sight of a naked man Blaike could only imagine how he felt about seeing Blaike's bones expand and become the size of the truck he was standing next to. He bent over coming onto all fours as the last portion of his shift finally completed.

Blood surrounding him he stood there at about five foot six on all fours his skin gray and hardened over the large mass of bones and muscles that covered him. His horn stuck out at the front of the truck. Exit naked man on the battle field enter the ******* rhino. Blaike let out a squealing trumpet of a sound, knowing it would draw all attention to himself, but really he was already a god ******* damn ***** *** rhino how the **** was the attention not on him in the first place. His large foot scraped against the ground and he knocked his head side to side. He then charged towards the soldier that had came around the side of the vehicle. The solider apparently hadn't been ready to be fighting a ******* rhino today; He stood there a deer in headlights, his gun wavered and Blaike's horn went right through the middle of the man's torso. He jerked his head up ward to send him flying back behind him and off his horn. He’d be covered in blood when he shifted back, but that wasn’t anything he wasn’t used to, though the thought of staying in his Rhino form and going through a car wash did pass through his giant head. Hearing the splattering of his body as it hit the floor Blaike continued his charge forward. He felt bullet's focusing on him, if anything he was at least drawing target's out to be shot at. He could deal with a couple bullet holes, **** it wouldn't be the first time he came out of a god damn fight a little more holey than when he'd entered. His head tipped down and he aimed for the back of one of the trucks at the front of the train of vehicles.

Momentum and sheer force followed behind him as he hooked his horn under the back side of the truck. He lifted his head and the truck moved like a toy car flipping forward into it's front end teetering there for just a moment before it crashed to the ground the gray of his hide became splattered with blood as it squashed two soldier's that had their guns trained on his sire, ******* bingo. Don't **** with the sire or you'll get ******* smashed.

He turned his large ugly as **** head and snorted nodding his horn to his sire as he heard her acknowledge their presence finally. A since of peace washed over him for a moment as he realized she was in fact safe. He felt a few more bullets hit his hide and let out a low grunt, moseying his way in front of his sire to protect her from any passing bullet's. Yeah sure the ammo they were using was high quality but it wasn't anywhere near rhino killing quality. They'd been prepared to fight vampire's not some ******* giant bulldozing beast after all, and to Blaike's knowledge there weren't any other rhino's in the city. The giant rhino took a moment to turn it's large head around waiting for Luca and Sullie and the two soldier's they'd brought with to take out the rest of the targets.


[[[Results for Truck flip roll: Blaike | Other NPCs/Objects | Difficult | Physically demanding | Lift | Succeeded ]]

[Luca]

[aid_admin][/aid_admin]


“Next time, wear your ******* seatbelt.”

Luca grumbled at the man as he took his precious sweet time getting out of the car, lifting himself up to take careful aim as another round slammed into the back door of the truck, leaving a long, silver streak in the black paint and showering sparks in a quick, brilliant flash. He stood there, calm, steadying the sway of his hands, carefully lining up that center post of his front sight as he watched the man that had grabbed hold of Caligrace.

Caligrace.

He still wasn’t sure when exactly he had realized that she was there, but the entire fight going on around them was just a minor annoyance as his focus zeroed in. Another bullet caught the glass of the windshield and ricocheted to graze along his forearm. He didn’t flinch as he squeezed the trigger, the roar of the gun in his grip belching fire from the muzzle, the heavy kick of the recoil drawing his hands high as the back of the man’s head erupted in a shower of bone and gore, throwing him from where he held the petite woman at a disadvantage, and crumpling to the concrete like a sack of rotting meat.

At her greeting, he lifted a hand and offered a quick salute, before another trio of bullets slammed into the hood of the SUV, bouncing off somewhere into the night. He ducked behind the car again and pulled his phone from his pocket. He tapped the screen and saw the first ribbon notification before someone came around the front of the truck. It wasn’t any of their group.

He set the phone on his seat, and lifted up to fire at the man through the rolled-down window of the SUV, the first .45 slug hitting a bulletproof vest, not enough to penetrate, but enough to knock the wind from the man and surprise him. The second round hit the already compromised vest, and managed to dig a little deeper, like getting punched in the chest with a small stud. The third shredded straight through the kevlar and pierced the man’s heart, all three rounds fired in the matter of two seconds, from such a short range, the man was lucky to have survived the first. He shook his head and dropped his magazine from the glock, checking his round count. Keeping conservative, he was still sitting on nine rounds, with two more magazines loaded.

There was an explosion of sound, and a body was launched through the air to slam against the concrete by his side with a sickening splat, blood spattering in a ring around the corpse as it smashed itself into the unforgiving ground. He grimaced, and watched as the rhinoceros moved to place itself between Caligrace and the rest of the firefight. That was enough to tell him which of the vampires it was. He let his lips curl into a smirk, and he shook his head.

It would figure that the big dumb animal was a big dumb animal.

He lifted his phone again, not checking it a second time before checking that Sulli and the soldiers had cleared the car, and had made their way to a safe spot to lay down fire. He’d heard the warning that there was a sniper, and knew that between the lot of them, if he didn’t manage to grab his gear from the back of the SUV, that one of those soldiers were going to be their best bet to take it out.

He kept his head low, and turned the phone on again to see first the message from his sire, and the second from Blaike. He rolled his eyes at the both of them.

TEXT
To: Group Chat

It doesn’t matter who did it.
It’s done. We need to mop
this up and get out of dodge
before the first responders
show up, or we’re going to
have a lot more trouble on
our hands than a few
private military goons.

He tossed his phone into the seat, then, and left it behind as he moved to the back of the SUV, where his police rifle lay still in its case. He moved to open the hatch door of the rear end, and pulled the case free as the hatch’s window gave a sharp crack as a bullet smashed through it, puncturing a neat hole through the thick glass. Shards of the glass rained down on him as he opened up the rifle case, piecing it together as he leaned around the rear end of the vehicle again, only to have the tail light burst just next to his head, he saw one of the soldiers line up a shot from where they had taken cover.

A chain of barks from the vampire’s assault rifle and a meaty thud onto the roof of the truck in the dock told him that the soldier got the sniper. He slammed the barrel of the rifle home and grabbed his phone, though now he didn’t think that it was even all that necessary. When he stood, his pistol slipped into the holster at his hip again, the rifle tucked across his chest as he stepped out into the empty space of the lot, littered with broken glass, spent brass, and bloodied corpses. He sighed, just *imagining* the paperwork that some poor sap was going to have to file, as he moved to where Caligrace stood with the behemoth of what had been her childe five minutes ago. His hand pat dotingly at the rhino’s side as he stepped around the brute, fingers trailing through the gore that coated his horn.

“Good work out here, all of you, but we need to move. Fast.” He lifted a hand to his lips and whistled sharply, before motioning Sulli and the Helheim soldiers their way. “Let’s link up with Eve, and get over to that warehouse fast, before someone realizes Lea’s been digging in their server.” He knew that, in this line of work, the entire warehouse could be emptied and moved in minutes. They were likely already running out of time. He cant his head and they moved, each of them in their own way, under whatever power they possessed, to get them to that warehouse with as much expediency as they could manage.