Picking up the Pieces

[Phoenix]

--The following transcript was a live chat roleplay--

<Phoenix> "Last time I was at the temple, I gave one of those monk guys my number and told him to call me if anything weird happened." Phoenix laughed softly, chancing a glance over her shoulder to the man trailing behind her - Axel. After the argument the night before, she should have been worried that he was standing behind her, armed and ready to stab something, but she wasn't. She simply turned and stepped over to the temple, carefully pushing open the door and slipping inside - he was obviously expected to follow.

<Axel Rosen> Being that he has never gone toe to toe with one of these creatures he follows her lead. Each step of his follows in behind her seemingly silent ones as he move through the doors and then starts to look around. If he were to be honest he doesn't know what one looks like out side of what others have told him. He doesn't draw his weapons just yet, just looks at her waiting for some sort of sign of where they were going.

<Phoenix> Doppel had given her the coordinates of the beast and so she headed to the back of the temple. Of course at this time of night it was silent - grave silent, one could imagine. As Nix rounded the corner, she spotted the creature. It’s misshapen face was made even more hideous by mounds of flesh where eyes should have been, its hulking, monstrous form exaggerated in every way and seemingly stitched together by darkness itself. Her eyes flicked over her shoulder, a wild, feral grin on her lips. "We'll call this one Harold. Go play - I'll make sure you don't get too beat up." With a playful waggle of her brows, the woman pulled a handgun from her belt and took aim (at the fadebeast, of course).

<Axel Rosen> She's going to let him mess with it? That's sweet but at the same time rather terrifying and thrilling as he's never come across one before. That is other than the ones summoned during his mudrun. He was still dexterous enough to not be hit by it. The hunter's blade makes a singing sound as he pulls it from the sheath and then starts his charge past her. Unlike her, his footsteps are heavy, hitting the ground with the full mass and weight of his body. His style isn't exactly the most reserved or well taught either. More like a barbarian he charged at it and swings. The blade comes down and misses. A look of shock comes over him a little bit. Obviously fadebeasts are just as badass as people have said, and he should stick to hunters.

<Phoenix> She watched, amused as he rushed for the thing. Clearly, he'd not encountered one of the beasties before, else he'd have been a hair more cautious on the approach. As soon as it dodged and looked to be turning on him to deliver some real hurt, she whistled to catch the creature's attention. For a split second, it glanced towards her - as usual, the immense beings seemed to dismiss her due to her stature - or lack thereof. Small meant weak... but not in her books. As soon as the creature went to turn back on Axel, she fired off three bullets in quick succession, all of which lodged in the creature's skull. That got its attention. Grinning, the redhead traded her gun for a short blade she kept hidden along her spine and, in three quick strikes, left a pile of darkness and rotten flesh on the ground. "We'll stick with smaller things for you... for now."

<Axel Rosen> His blade, while missed, is actually stuck in the ground from the swing that he had given. Even if he didn't hit, he sure had a ton of confidence that he could have done something to it. Putting his foot at the ground, next to the blade, he pulls and finally pops the steel from the wood. There is a nice little hole in the ground where his blade once was and he looks back to her. "Yeah..." He's not sure why he's embarrassed that he couldn't at least get a hit on the damn thing. All he does is do martial training. He hasn't even focused on tracking that much lately. His days have been hunting Ferals, Hunters, and Paladins.

<Phoenix> "Impressive," she teased, nodding to the hole in the floor left by his blade. "You'll get the hang of 'em someday. They're kind of assholes, really..." she trailed off, carefully using a scrap of material to wipe the ichor from her blade. "The monks will clean up the mess - they always do," she explained as she headed for the door with a confident sway of her hips. Killing something big and bad just felt good.

<Axel Rosen> Internally grumbling at himself for making that worse than it had to be. She says that he'll get the hang of them one day and now it has become a sort of goal. If she can handle them so easy, he will do his best to do the same. His eyes look to her as she sways her hips and he smirks. A shake of his head and he walks casually after her, blade over his shoulder. Once they are about outside, he sheathes the blade again. The sewers is probably the next locale for them, and it means his highly sensitive nose is about to get assaulted by the smell of ****.

<Phoenix> The nearest sewer entrance wasn't far from the temple the pair had just exited, leaving behind the mangled bones and torn flesh of the fadebeast. Her blade sheathed as they walked through the streets, Phoenix took a moment to savor the clear night air. That, like all good things in life, was about to end. As soon as she spotted the manhole, the woman reached down and lifted the thing with a single finger. It was heavy, but she could manage with a bit of effort. "Après vous," she gestured to the darkness below, offering Axel a wicked grin. "How do you feel about sing alongs?"

[Axel Rosen]

--The following transcript was a live chat roleplay--
<Axel Rosen> As they come to the manhole, he moves quickly to try and grab it before she can. He has no doubt that he could have done it, but by the time he gets there she already has it open. He shrugs little bit and then looks at her as she asks him about sing-alongs and he wants to ask if she's being serious. Instead he looks into her eyes with his silver-blue ones and tilts his head to the side. "Are you teasing me again?"

<Phoenix> "Maybe," she admitted. Apparently he didn't want to go down first, so she heaved a bit of a sigh, shifted her grip on the iron lid and started the climb down. Of course, she held it open long enough for him to grab before letting herself fall to the ground several feet below. "Sing alongs can be fun though... in the shower. Not in the sewer."

<Axel Rosen> He would have gone down first if it weren’t for the question that was posed to him. It has off set him and made him feel a bit awkward. Though killing and singing seems like it would be rather hysterical. Still, he’s not sure if he’s one to do something like that. He grabs the large metal lid and then starts to follow, closing it as he sinks down below the street surface. Instantly the smell hits his nose and he shakes his head a little. Finally he responds to her with a grin. “Oh?” Axel will have to keep that in mind.

<Phoenix> She nodded very somberly, as if this singing in the shower business was indeed very serious. As her eyes adjusted to the lack of light in the underground depths, the woman retrieved a flashlight from her pocket - one of those tiny ones that fit on keychains. After clicking it on, she shrugged, chose a direction and wandered off, fully expecting him to follow. They would see the light from the hunters before the hunters saw the feeble beam of her keychain.

<Axel Rosen> As he comes down the ladder and sees that she has pulled out a flashlight he shakes his head. Making his way to her he places his hand over hers and then turns off the flashlight. With a blink of his eyes he can see almost inferred, heat signatures and the lack there of. His eyes scan around, deciding to take point. This is what makes him excel at hunting human prey. A hand hits the wall, and then a foot, he is now suspended from the wall as if there is no gravity. He makes his way like a bug, skittering along the brick. Coming around a corner he looks for a hunter. Spotting it. His voice comes into her mind: ”Paladin, fifteen paces from the turn coming up.”

<Phoenix> She was momentarily blinded by the lack of light. After a few blinks, should could make out the faint silhouettes of the walls, but not much else in the absolute darkness. Which was why she found it strange that she could no longer see him - she could hear her grandchilde, but where was he. She followed after the faint sounds of his footsteps, even if they seemed to be coming from the wrong place. The sounds seemed too high. Finally, she looked up, then let out a squeak of surprise that bounced off the walls. “What the **** are you doing up… there!?” No comment about the mindspeak.

<Axel Rosen> She practically yells at him and he almost loses his grip on the wall with his powers before regaining some composure. His eyes look back at her and he looks at her. She is, despite the area around her, the same temperature almost as the air around them. He sees the same when he looks at himself. It happens to most vampires, he’s yet to meet a vampire that doesn't match the air around them when it comes to their sight in this vision. “Calm down, and try to be quiet. This one’s alone and will likely flee, if it finds out there is more than one of us.”, he pries into her mind again, though he knows that she dislikes it. He hopes that she will understand the need for them to be at least little quiet as they come around the corner to attack this one. He crawls his way to the ceiling, going unnoticed by the paladin just beneath him. Paladin; however, should he easier to see as he has a light. A dim one, but a light none-the-less.

<Phoenix> The woman just stood there, staring at the man crawling on the ceiling. That wasn’t normal, not even for a vampire. Looking rather like a fish, the woman’s mouth opened and closed, contemplating several snappy replies to his chastising. Indignant as she was, she realized he was right about being quiet, at least. Finally, she nodded and simply followed him, lowering her voice to the barest of whispers. “That was a total damsel in distress squeal.” She paused once he rounded the corner and silently drew her knife. In her head, she counted to ten, watching eyes tracking the dim light source as the man approached. As soon as the count was up, the woman whipped around the corner, eyes locking onto her target: the man’s jugular. Her blade whipped through the air and bit into flesh before he even had the time to react. Of course, being a Paladin, the naked, tattooed man was hardly incapacitated by an ultimately minor slit throat.

[Phoenix]

--The following transcript was a live chat roleplay--

<Axel Rosen> Even though the attack of his grandsire hadn’t gotten them any fruitful results, he is now just far enough past the males head that he can drop down. His hands go to the ceiling, pushing his body down silently. He’s glad that Phoenix has given him the distraction needed for his quiet movements to go rather unnoticed. Once feet hit the ground, he pulls the blade from his sheath. Of course it gives away where he is as it sings for the super human male. Naked, Axel doesn’t had will likely never understand why they choose to be nude down here. It’s filthy. Nevermind that, now the male is seeming to turn around. As he turns, the blade leaving it’s home in the sheath, he switches the position of his hand. His hand now grips the blade, blood trickling down his palm as he juts the hilt of the blade up against the male’s jaw. The shock sends him back toward Nix. A twirl of the blade and it’s in the right hand and right position.

<Phoenix> She’d distracted the hunter long enough to give Axel the chance to stun the man. Once he came reeling back towards her after being knocked on the chin, her blade switched position and sank home, straight between a set of ribs and directly into his heart. It was like ping pong between sire and grandchilde. Looking psychotically pleased with herself, she wrenched the blade free and let the man struggle for his last ragger breath before going still. Now covered in blood, she sighed - this was why she always opted for black and red hunting attire - it didn’t show the damage quite so readily. Turning to Axel, the redhead arched a brow in the darkness. “You really have to teach me the Spiderman skills.”

<Axel Rosen> The shot to the heart, sure to be fatal; however, Axel has a certain personal hatred for the paladin group. His sword has already been returned to it’s home once this evening without having the blood of a victim on it. As his personal code of combat stands, that is not in adherence. Stepping between her and the paladin, his wrist twists again. Holding the sword just as if it were a knife itself. The blade comes back behind his body in an upward thrust. Using his powers, looking through the eyes of the human before him, he makes sure that the blade is heading the right direction. Making contact, massive sword parts halfway through the man’s neck. A grin on his lips, vengeance of the night has been taken on this one paladin. Until he gets his hands on the other, which is now a vampire. “Maybe… Though I’d like to talk to you about something now that we’ve got some alone time.”

<Phoenix> Her eyes followed his movements, curious more than anything at the level of vehemient hatred towards this one simple creature. One naked, simple creature. It was a Paladin, she supposed, so the abhorrence was somewhat understandable. Their mere presence was usually enough to drive her to kill - even without that silly power the elders seemed to possess. She couldn't fault him for following his natural instinct, though she wouldn't have faulted him anyway. Her head tipped in silent question at his reply. What the hell did he wish to speak to her about? "Alone time?" She asked, an amused smile on her lips. "What couldn't you talk to me about before." Satisfied the man was dead, she reached down, plucking the shards of a broken mirror off his corpse before venturing farther down the darkened corridor.

<Axel Rosen> This is probably where the evening is going to take a turn for the worst as it had the last time he had come to meet with her. His question will likely invoke the same rage as it had before. His eye close after watching her pick something off the paladin that he usually picks up and sells. He’s never really had a need for them before, and isn’t really sure what they’re used for. “I wanted to speak to you again about Jesse”, at least he’s keeping a better tone this time as he speaks to her. “I told you that the way in which he was spoken to in the family, even from my point of view was usually.. like being spoken down to.” His blue eyes glance over to her as he walks at her side. He reaches out with his senses, sniffing though he doesn’t want to for other paladins in the area. Not sensing any yet, he turns back to her and continues. “The rate at which it escalated seemed even more uncaring.” Finally beating around the bush. “I’d like you to try and take a look, think about it again…”, of course he’s speaking about the apology.

<Phoenix> Her lips pressed into a thin line, clearly displeased by the man’s choice of topic. After wiping the blood from her blade, she’d sheathed it; now, she regretted putting that damn weapon away. It wasn’t that she wanted to lash out, to hurt him - she just felt comforted by the presence of something sharp, pointy and dangerous. It was almost like her security blanket. Though, there was none of the previous night’s hostility in Axel’s voice, none of the hatred or outright rage. He wasn’t giving her a reason to balk, simply speaking to her as… a friend. Her expression neutral as he spoke, then she simply stopped mid step and stared at him, balling her hands into fists though they stayed at her sides. After a long moment of silence, “Spoken down to how? I never felt like he respected me much, so I treated him exactly the way he treated me.” The woman shrugged, folding her arms over her chest, opting to avert her gaze to the slime covered wall.

<Axel Rosen>The blue eyes shift downward toward her hands as they become tight fists, and he expects for a moment that this will go just as the last time had. Axel prepares himself for a full defensive, hand in his pocket for the book that will take him home. She doesn’t act so he won’t take an action to do anything just yet. She asks her question and supports her own reasoning to the way she feels. This is going much better than the last time now. At least they’re making some headway. He’s not truly neutral to the whole thing that is going on. While he does want the best for both sides, there is and will always be a part of him that clings to Jesse as if he is a messiah. That being said he wants to do the best that he can to see that an outcome comes of this that is not just good for her but good for his sire. His eyes look over to her and he nods to say that he has been listening, just once. “I saw it. ‘My mute Jesse’, as if his problem were a crutch of some kind. Sometimes hardly focused on in points of conversation…” He pauses, ready to dodge a punch if he needs to, “As for how you feel about Jesse’s attitude. I never once got that impression from him. When I was sired, he told me if I brought danger to Altaire, and by rite of that being your line, you, that he would kill me. I count that as respect in my book…”

<Phoenix> “Hm, funny. That’s how it seemed to me. Not to mention him taking everything I ever did for him for granted… Maybe I was hurtful. Maybe I upset him, but if he had a problem with the way I treated him, why didn’t he man the **** up and let me know? He’s mute, he’s not incompetent. He’s fully capable of expressing himself - he’s an adult. If I’m such a horrible sire, he had plenty of time to tell me how he felt. He chose not to. Apparently nobody thought to mention it to me.” She sighed, her eyes falling shut as she turned to walk a few steps away from him. “If you have a problem with someone you claim to care about, you owe it to them to at least mention it. You owe it to them to give them a chance to make it right instead of sticking your head in the sand and waiting until you can use it against them.”

She was shaking and she couldn’t tell if it was hurt or anger. At that point, she was glad to not know - anger was easier, so she chose to believe it was that, despite the pressure behind her eyes that screamed otherwise. “I made mistakes, but I’m not the only one. All I wanted from him was reassurance that he wouldn’t stab me in the back. He said he wouldn’t, then he did because I did something he didn’t like.” She turned back to face him, eyes lost and brow furrowed in confusion, “That’s not how loyalty works.”

<Axel Rosen> Their pace begins to slow as if they’re not really looking to hunt anymore humans, which is kind of a let down as he was having fun. He should have known better though, it was likely to end the moment he brought it up, he knew it but hope right. He would shrug, but doesn’t want her to think that he’s shrugging off the serious thing that they are talking about, just because he’s having an internal conversation with himself. He listens and hears that she is actually crediting herself with some of the fault, which is good because it’s the first time that he has heard so since the whole thing has taken place. He wants to smile, but again that might lessen the meaning of what she is saying to him. So instead, he waits and then she finishes. She walks away from him, which causes him to stop and lean up against the wall there. Her back is to him as she finishes. “I don’t know all the details of what happened, nor do I need to know them”, this isn’t him saying that he wouldn’t listen if she told him, just that it’s not his place. He’s just serving as a mediator. “I’m not asking that you two get all buddy buddy immediately. I’m just asking that you apologize, and try to work toward being civil first.”

<Phoenix> “He had ample opportunity to apologize for the things he’d done… But you want me to apologize to him?” The redhead frowned, that look of sheer incomprehension not leaving her eyes. That didn’t make sense. She had removed Jesse for perfectly logical reasons, as far as she was concerned. He claimed he was loyal to her, then he’d attacked her. That was dishonesty and petulance, and deserved a slap in the face (or a bullet to the brain, as it were), not an apology. She shook her head slowly before speaking again, voice soft. “Why do I need to be civil? He severed his line from Altaire - he’s useless to me.”

<Axel Rosen> He opens his mouth, his hand coming up to raise a finger and then he puts it down and shuts his mouth. There is a tremor of irritation at the moment, but he lets it pass. That hand, along with the other, moves into his pockets. The brick behind him is kind of slimy, but he’s already filthy from the ankle down, he can shower later. The useless thing is something that could have gone unsaid, his retort was going to be if he was useless. The argument isn’t needed. “And you’ve shot him, and yes. I’m asking you to apologize or this will never be resolved.” His voice is almost pleading though he doesn’t realize it. “You don’t have to, but all I’m doing is asking. Think it over?”

<Phoenix> But she didn’t want to think it over. She wanted to curl up in bed in a nest of pillows with a blanket over her head - and stay there. His irritation was obvious, as was the tone of her his voice, but… she still just didn’t want to. Apologies were far too dangerous, as far as she was concerned; it was just too easy to get hurt. As she watched him, she grew conflicted. He was asking, not accusing… he was being reasonable. Although her frown never lightened, Nix picked through the slurry on the sewer floor to join him, carefully leaning against the wall despite the inevitable mess it would make of her hair. “You did ask nice, unlike the first time.” Then, her lips twisted into a faint smile. “Alright. I’ll apologize, so long as you’re there.” Honey brown eyes flicked up to meet his in the darkness before she tipped her head, nodding down the corridor.

[Axel Rosen]

--The following transcript was a live chat roleplay--

<Axel Rosen> She turns to face him, the look on her face, it was rather obvious that she was wanting to talk about something else. Or at least get out of this some how. She could, if she wanted to, change the subject it’s not like he’s just here to talk to her about this. His hand removes from his pocket and flicks at a fly that comes near him. It’s as if he’s thinking, ‘No Sir, not laying eggs here’, though he probably already has a few larvae in him. She mentions last time that he had asked, and no.. it was not nice. That time didn't go so well, he broke the windows in her apartment and not even on purpose. She makes a proposition, or really a bargain in order for her to apologize and he thinks for a second. If he was to be there it might not be so bad, he cannot keep his sire calm, but at least he can try and keep things civil. “Alright, I’ll be there. But you know the rules…” He of course is talking about no weapons allowed, except for her hands, which he can’t rightly expect her to leave behind. She cocks her head in the direction of the corridor and he takes point. The darkness of the sewers, “Still wanting to hunt?”

<Phoenix> “Mhum, we’re covered in…” she trailed off, pushing herself away from the wall in order to wave a hand to indicate everything and everything growing, dripping and scurrying about the dank hole beneath the city, “... everything. We may as well get covered in more fun stuff before cleaning up.” She grinned, grateful for the change of topic as she set off in search of some other creature, more than likely a human hunter, to savage. “Yes, Axel, I know the rules,” she added, scrunching up her nose as she tried to mimic his voice the night he’d called her, tight with barely concealed anger, “No weapons.” Of course, she was teasing, so she danced out of his reach with a playful grin on her lips. “Don’t hit me.”

<Axel Rosen> Excited to get back to hunting and the possibility of everything being at least at an ‘okay’ level between his sire and grandsire, he moves along with her. Re-taking his place on the wall, he starts to crawl up the side. He wants a blood bath, not just one hunter. Oh no, he wants to soak the walls in carnage, and wear their skulls as hats. This is just the hatred of Paladins and their little sect of humans coming out. She mimics him and he glares over at her. His hand shoves her lightly, but not enough to push her into the grimy wall. Actually it’s a shove toward the ground as he’s above her. He’s pushing on her shoulder, so he doesn’t have any chance of really pushing her down anyway. He doesn’t say anything. Again he is wanting to create the illusion that she is alone, that there is no one aiding her.

<Phoenix> When Axel took to the walls once more, she was hardly surprised. However, that didn’t mean she didn’t think the sight wasn’t entirely unnerving. She saw the glare before he shoved her, then glared right back. Not that she actually meant to kill him with enough, but enough to let him know she didn’t much appreciate the extra slime handprint on her once clean leather jacket. For once in her silly little life, Phoenix took his lead and kept her mouth shut. There really was no good reason to speak when hunting, especially if the reverberations of the sound waves would alert their prey. And there was indeed prey to be found in the sewer. On silent feet, she picked her way down the tunnel towards the sound of footsteps. This wasn’t the silent, nearly predatory grace of a true Paladin, but the march of soldiers’ boots through the muck - and not just one footsoldier, but a group of them. A feral grin twisted the redhead’s lips as she let the tunnel’s shadows cloak her from sight, simultaneously drawing her blade in the darkness.

<Axel Rosen> Seeing the heat imprint of the humans before him, he smirks. This smirk grows as his teeth become daggers. The entirety of his mouth becomes sharp fangs, almost as if in rows as he skitters along the ceiling. She goes missing, disappearing from sight and he almost assumes that she has left him, that is until he uses his power to see through her eyes. She hadn’t teleported away. This is good news to him. Not that he can’t take these beings on his own, but rather that he’s having fun painting the sewers red with her. He does the almost same as he had before, only this time he skitters his way just above the group as a whole. As they march, he pulls his sword, dropping down into the group of them. Instead of swinging his blade as he pops down, his mouth opens and takes a bite, a chunk out of the throat of the unsuspecting mortal. Chewing it, he grins with fleshy bits in his mouth.

<Phoenix> Had she known he’d gone full on fang, she’d have shivered. Despite her love for all things macabre, there was something about a mouth full of fangs that made her uneasy. Then again, she supposed, it did fit with the whole wall crawling thing. She’d been selfish their past two enemies - the fadebeast and the poor ping-pong Paladin - so she let her grandchilde get the drop on this group. Literally. As the first scream echoed off the stone and mortar walls, Nix grinned. Then she spotted the fangs - they were going to have to have a serious talk about teeth someday. Sighing, the woman closed the distance between herself and the group, dismissing the man with the torn throat. In total, there were six hunters. All of them seemed very interested by Axel the Sharkman, which gave her ample opportunity to strike. Without leaving her shadows, she rounded on one of the men and casually slipped her blade between his ribs, directly into his heart. Death was instant. Unfortunately.

<Axel Rosen> A man before him dies as he chews idly on the flesh of the now bleeding man. He doesn’t even bother to kick him out of his way. There are others all around him that he could kill. The blood spray from the man before him makes him grin a little bit. It covers his shirt a little bit before turning on his heels. The sword in his hand, now the weapon of choice as he lashes out. Hunters hold no issue for him, but they take a bunch of effort for him to hunt. So he thrusts his blade forward. The length of the steel is longer than his arm, but acting as an extension of himself. The blade hits the arm, actually severing it at the elbow, glad he didn’t get such a fatal hit. Withdrawing the blade, he swings it back behind him and sticks it into the gut of another man. Realizing it’s stuck he quickly turns to kick the man off his weapon.

<Phoenix> Once the man before her slumped to the floor, she frowned. One down, five to go. The one nearest to the man she’d just killed, a tall brute with a shock of golden blond hair and stunning blue eyes, turned to investigate the noise of the fallen man. When he spotted her, he let out a start of surprise, clumsily drawing a gun to aim at her. Axel was on his own with the other four - and really, she owed him two from before - while she flicked out her blade, slapping the gun away and slicing into his hand. The gun discharged, but the bullet lodged harmlessly in the floor before he dropped his weapon, fumbling for a knife with which to defend himself. “Aww… sorry pretty boy - was that your friend?” she cooed, trying her very best to seem sympathetic and failing so very hard. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of Axel with his sword once again lodged in something. At least it wasn’t the floor. “Your aim’s gotten better!”

<Axel Rosen> He can hear her sort of patronizing voice in regards to the man that just tried to shoot at her. The shot misses her and the human is lucky, but Axel is also lucky that he is able to control his anger. The very shot at her makes the human a viable target at the moment. If it weren’t for the fact that his sword is stuck in the gut of a human. She teases him for it and he turns to her with a massive, sharp toothed grin. Finally the blade is removed from the creature, the animal, lowly and pathetic.. This is before he actually gets struck. His eyes were already black from Nix almost being shot, but this time he howls out. The ground shakes around them. Cracks along the walls. The dam that was holding his rage in, now faltering.

<Phoenix> Her attention remained focused on her grandchilde for a few moments more. Even in the darkness, she could see the change in his eyes from a dozen feet away. Not to mention the damned teeth. Clearly, her hunter is hardly a challenge. She kept watch of the man out of the corner of her eye as she turned back to her opponent. He looked angry and in pain… Aww. She only had time to dart her knife out and nick Blondy’s cheek before the floor, ceiling, walls - everything shook around her. She recognized it as the same trembling that had shattered her apartment’s window. As bits of dirt began to rain down on them, she turned to Axel, eyes wild, “Stop that! You’re going to cave the whole tunnel in!” Being buried alive surely wouldn’t kill them, but it was hardly on her bucket list.

<Axel Rosen> Blind rage fuels him for a moment, a gun is pulled from his side. Now with sword in one hand and the firearm in the other, he swings in the direction opposite of her voice. Axel does this to miss her and does so on purpose as he thrusts the blade into the throat of the male that had cut him. He growls out in response to her as the ground starts to calm around him, the rage is still there. Quick movements are what he starts doing, quick very articulate movements. It’s almost as if his rage makes him an even more competent fighter than he was sane. The gun goes to the head of the one that he had his sword in. “Sleep well.” Pulling the trigger.

<Phoenix> The shaking stops and she sighs. The Blondy looked pretty worried about this whole cave in business, too. So worried, in fact, that he’d stopped to stare at the source of the problem - Axel. Or… that’s what she figured, at least. When your enemies started screaming at each other when weird **** happened, you usually paid attention. No matter. Axel had incapacitated most of his share of the hunters, so she figured it was time to put Blondy out of his misery. The big man looked confident, despite the few nicks she’d managed to land, but that probably had more to do with her stature and gender than an accurate assessment of her skill. Sexist pig.

“You should be afraid,” she snickered.

“Of you? Please. Him, maybe, but not you little girl.”

“Those are really piss poor last words.” And she lunged.

While he managed to slice her arm in the struggle, she made short work of the ********. The arterial spray from his nearly severed head had coated her in blood. Once he slumped to the floor to join his companions, she stepped over to the pile of bodies surrounding her grandchilde, though she hardly thought he needed help. The man with the torn throat was bleeding out on the ground - he was still alive, though barely. With a sad smile to the dying man, Phoenix casually stepped on what was left of his neck and finished the job.

<Axel Rosen> Grey matter splats the wall of the sewer as he pulls the gun back and then swings the blade again. This time the blade cleaves through the neck of the man before him before he turns around to the woman who had just mercy killed the man on the ground. He hadn’t noticed, and it is probably for the best. He leans his head down, eyes turning back to their color. He counts and then thinks they’re all dead for a second. He sheathes his blade.

<Phoenix> "That was messy," she admitted, thought her carefully chosen attire looked no worse for the wear. Black and red hid the grime and blood so very well. However the blood, as it were, stood out starkly on her pale flesh, almost as eerie as his general being in the darkness. At least his eyes were back to normal. After kicking each corpse, assuring herself that they were indeed corpses, the woman slipped over to Axel's side. She wiped the gore from her blade onto the side of her pants before returning it to its sheath. "I think we could both use a nice, long shower..." She trailed off, arching a brow up at him before carefully leaning against the man's side.