[The Human Element] Alliance City Streets

[Lady Jane]

Much of Central Alliance City is built nearby the escarpment, overshadowed by the Alliance City Shopping Center, a colossal mall built into and extending above the rock face. Up against what once was the Niagara Falls is a well-maintained residential area populated by the upper-middle class. Downtown is northeast of that, housing most of the city's people, as well as several pop-up stores and chain restaurants. It's also got its share of skyscrapers and business offices.


The streets are Mister X's domain. Crime rate has plummeted over the last three years, though there are pockets of downtown that are ruled by the gangs who have yet to meet the Legend--or are in his back pocket in an effort to fry a bigger fish. Things are usually particularly quiet on the days that Blink and Stryker are scheduled to patrol the streets.


Though, with the recent tragedy, that could all change.

 

[Belial]

Vlad walked out of one of the nightclubs in downtown Alliance, Watching the youth of this generation in there mating ritual was enough to keep his interest for about half an hour or so but ultimately decided that non of them of them suited the particular "taste" he was looking for, also the music was absolutely god awful. It was nothing but some idiots trying to preform really bad poetry about not having any kid of legitimate job and being nothing more then a drain on society and idiots giving them loads of cash to do so while they do lots of drugs. While Vladamir was by no means an angle, or in most cases these years anything resembling a productive member of society it was still beyond his desires to listen to. The goth and industrial clubs were more to his liking, the beat was usually more tolerable and the people who inhabited them were often more appealing visually.


Despite popular belief about vampires Vlad did not walk about the streets in a 12 century Gothic nobles outfit, instead he wore a 21 century eccentrically rich mans outfit with a more Gothic appeal to it. He was very aware that he stood out as a target fore any one looking to try and rob some one, but that was exactly what he was looking for as he started wondering into the more questionable parts of town, his mind probing those around him gathering information on his next meal, whether it was a crack dealer trying to sell drugs to some kid or a mugger jumping some poor woman in a back ally.


As he walked he could here the hushed whispers of hundreds of thousands of voices talking about him, some wondering who he might eat, others crying why them, some simply conversing amongst themselves and others cursing him for what he had don to them. The Legion of those whom he had dammed over the past thousand years followed him down the streets, some of them belonged there in fact to this point most were conquest of battle, some were just people he had never known, and yet many more were innocence, people who had probably never don anything wrong, people who's lives he cut short either because he did not care or for the shear sake of cruelty, what ever the reason they were there, there was not a single face he could forget and every one haunted him. Those who deserved a place amongst his dammed did not bother him in fact for the most part he payed them little mind, it was those that did not belong that bothered him. It was not always so, in his younger years he had little care for those he killed, a peasant bad mouthed him he removed their entrails a noble got upady thinking he owed them some level of respect and he placed them on a pike and never gave it another care. But then things began to change, he grew to find all the killing he had don distasteful, and those whom he had wronged began to follow him. It started with one, a woman whom he had once loved and was on the verge of being betrothed until he slaughtered her in a fit of rage. At first he could put her out of his mind, but within a few years she would begin to follow him where ever he went, her ghastly white image wearing a blood stained white dress. Never chastising him but always offering him her pity for the monster he was. He could ignore here but in time the others would arrive, one or two at first around his bed then the entire room would be filled, and then it out into the hallway and eventually became a sea. The pity she offered became drowned out by all the hatred of those he he had wronged. Eventually they became so strong that he choose to disappear from the world, wallowing in his self loathing until finally could they no longer weighed as heavily on him, or more so he simply accepted what he had don and decided that this was his punishment, gifted with a unfailing memory and tremendous strength and an undying body he was doomed to remember every thing he had ever don and every one he had ever killed.


He continued to walk threw the ally ways looking for his next meal, his hunger now becoming an annoyance his mind continued to probe those around him trying to find those who no longer belonged in this world

 

[Lady Jane]

Voices came from around the corner, deeper into the alleyway. "Are you out of your bloody-ass mind? Stryker's on patrol tonight. The hell are we--"


"What, you late to the party where they were handing out brains or summin'? Or you just plain ignorant? Somebody just did us a big ol' favor and fed a bullet into the guy's brain."


"Wha...?"


"Yeah, like big splatter on the sidewalk. Red and gray matter splashed up all over the coffee shop windows, it was glorious. So anyway, long story short, I got the money. Lifted it from the coffee shop while everyone was runnin' around like a chicken wid' 'der head cut off." He shoved a plastic bag into the other guy's hands, who opened it and pulled out stacks of money.


He didn't seem impressed. "Fuck is wrong wid' you? This isn't like, even a fraction of what you owe. Look, boss is pissed. Yer a deadbeat, and the only worth he's gonna get out of you is the lesson he can teach about how not to cross 'im." He pulled out a gun. "Thanks, though. Boss was running out of crap to line his birdcage with. This shit you just handed me'll do nicely."

 

[Belial]

Vlad raised an eyebrow and turned down the ally way as his obfuscate draped over him invisible to the human eye, and decided to stand next to the man with the gun and began probing his mind in an attempt to find out any information he could on this "boss". And if he tried to shoot the small time robber he might find his arm removed. With striker dead these people may want to know there is still something horribly inhuman prowling the streets.


(Mind reading on the the thug with a gun to probe for inf, this is versus his will save.)


[dice]1324[/dice]

 

[Lady Jane]

The 'boss' went by the name of Jackie McNally, a bookie that showed up on the streets every once in a while when a meta fight club event was going on. In the spirit of the whole masked hero thing, the guy wore a disguise that was something like Zorro crossed with Sam Spade. Word was he had some sort of high society life, but hell if anyone knew who he was--and with the man's rep for disappearing people that displeased him, there wasn't anyone who was going to find out.


Unaware of the inhuman monster that stood beside him, the gunman leveled his pistol at the other man, who backed up in terror. "N-no, please, I'll get the money, I swear to God, please!"


The man smiled, and Vlad would get the impression that he had taken the job of McNally's enforcer because he liked seeing the fear in people's eyes as they knew their life was going to end. His finger tightened on the trigger.

 

[Belial]

Vlads speed kicked in as he reached out with his left hand and grabbed the thug by his ribs lifting him up in the air and reaching out with his right hand grabbing the mans arm with the pistol in it and pulling it away from the guy on the other side.


"Now friend if I don't figure out where Jackie boys at I'm going to make paste out of some one who should that be?" He said grinning and showing off his teeth hinand probing is mind and hoping to find where this Mcnally fellow might be.


[dice]1333[/dice]


[dice]1334[/dice]


[dice]1335[/dice]

 

[Lady Jane]

The gun clattered to the street. It was almost comical the way his face changed. His eyes grew so wide they nearly enveloped his face, and the power of speech left him entirely. His mouth worked, but the profanity that wanted to come out in response to his pure terror bottlenecked at his mouth and dammed up anything else that he might have said. The man had no idea how to control his thoughts, and even if he did, he was far too terrified. Any thoughts he might have had on the subject was immediately brought to the surface. All he seemed to know about McNally was he was rumored to be at a fight in a run-down warehouse on Hess Street.


The other man backed away with an equal amount of terror, ready to turn and run while the monster's attention was somewhere else.

 

[Belial]

Vlad winked at the other man as he backed away then turned to the thug he had captive. "You have spent your life trying to find the fear in eyes of your victim as you robbed them of life, how fitting that I then find the terror in your own eyes as you leave this world." He grinned as crushed the mans ribs with his brutal strength and bit down on his neck draining what life remained.


(So Im assuming this is a typical thug and that he wont be able to survive the 15 point rib crushing nor be able to do anything about it or the drain effect. If you want Ill roll for it, but otherwise i didnt see a point.)


Vlad used his immense speed to catch up with the scared man "You! where is Hess Street?" he asked him dragging the lifeless corpse behind him.

 

[Lady Jane]

The man's rips popped easily beneath Vlad's hands, crushing any breath he had to scream. He coughed once, spraying blood from his mouth. As Vlad drank, he twitched, every nerve in his body crying in vain for life. He died, the night air washing over his open eyes.


The other man just stared at Vlad. "Sh-shit! Ya killed 'im!" It hadn't seemed to have yet processed that he would have been killed by the now-dead man. He swallowed twice before he remembered Vlad had asked him a question. Furthermore, it seemed to him as if the other man hadn't been forthcoming with information, and look what happened to him. He pointed down the street. "F-five blocks that way. For the love of god, don't hurt me!"

 

[Belial]

Vlad lifted up a man hole cover and dropped the corpse down in the sewer then stood up and took the moment to enjoy his the rush of endorphins his meal had just granted him. After wiping the blood from his face he turned to the scared man and handed him his business card, witch simply red Vlad Drakul... Thousand year old vampire... And had a phone number on it. "I strongly suggest you go home, get some sleep, wake up, and in the morning find a honest job, and if you haven't already start a family and live a long mundane life. The one you are living will not last long. Give me your name, and if they bother you again give me a call, if i have time I might look into it." he said as he turned in the direction of hess street and started walking.

 

[Lady Jane]

"Ian," the man called after him. "Ian Collins. A-and be careful. 'E got a army of meta bodyguards, and a cache o' weapons supplied or stolen from a place that makes shit that'll make powers stop working." He stood frozen in place as Vlad walked away, part lingering terror, part awe at the vampire before him. This would be a night he'd remember for the rest of his life, as short or as mundane as it may be.


There was a crowded bar nearby the alley. Vlad could hear the sounds of the party just getting warmed up, as people drifted outside for the first smoke of the night. They seemed completely unconcerned with the drama going on so close by. Just another night on the streets. A few broke apart from the crowd, drifting in the direction Ian had pointed.


The warehouse seemed deserted all right. The half-drunk party-goers slipped in behind the building and down a short flight of stairs. With a few whispered words, they got past the bulky bodyguard, who looked relatively normal, but that could just as easily be deceiving.

 

[Belial]

Vlad thought for a moment then decided it would be betetr to call Samantha before showing up and wrecking buildings and offing people... "Hellow Ms Clive? Yes this is Vladamir, there is a particular establishment of ill repute on Hess street, particularly the that of a meta human fight club. If a certain Mr Mcnally and um... More then one of his goons were too... Stop existing along with perhaps the building would I be stepping on any ones toes per say, or causing any problems with any plans that might be in place.. Apparently they have some kind of small army of metahumans or something in place along with a cache of weapons... Also you might notice a report of a desanguineated fellow in the sewers within the next few days or so... Just a heads up.."

 

[Lady Jane]

It took a minute for the call to go through, and then her secretary took it. Another minute after that, and he was finally forwarded to Sam, who sounded an awful lot like she'd rather not be on the phone. Still, ever the gracious woman that she was, her polite tone came though. "I appreciate your forethinking and giving me a call, Mr. Drakul, and I could take the time to look it up, but accuracy then would be dependent on Mr. Hacherobie giving me full and complete information. To be on the safe side, give him a ring. He could better inform you than I. Most operations on the streets are his duty." She thanked him and disconnected the call immediately.

 

[Belial]

Vlad Crossed his eyes and called the Hacherobie guy "Hello this Vladamir I am In need of information on a Hess street, if iI start trouble trouble there, sutch as removing some one like Mr Mcnally and some of his metahuman goons with the weapons that can sap metahuman powers will I be pissing off any one I might actually give a single shit about or possibly ruining any plans? Also there may or may not be a dead man in the sewers missing large quantities of blood.... Just saying..." he said hoping to get something useful this time.

 

[Lady Jane]

"Got them under investigation right now to see if Solstice is supplying them with weapons, and why." Drake's voice was low and gravelly, meaning he was using the voice modulator built into his Mister X costume. It seemed he was on the streets, doing what he did best. "If you want to follow up on that, make sure I get a full report. First, though, I want you at the scene of Stryker's assassination, Lower McNab and East Seventieth Street. Sniff out McNally if you want. Case the joint, even, you got a bit of time. Would be good to have another pair of eyes on the place. But this case takes precedent over bashing heads at a meta fight club."

 

[Belial]

"Ok" Vlad said as he tured and started heading towards McNab Street. "Anything in particular Im looking looking for?"

 

[Lady Jane]

"Hm...well, it's unlikely you'd know what to look for in the weapons, so forget that. Don't even touch them. You're likely to blow something up, and you'll be fine, but I'll have lost weeks of worth." Drake was notorious for micromanaging. If there was a mystery, he couldn't not be the one to have control of its investigation. "Tell ya what. See if you can't figure out who McNally really is. It's an alias, obviously, cause only an idiot would use his real name there, especially if he's got high society ties like the rumors seem to suggest. So how 'bout you find out what's up with him?"

 

[Belial]

Vlad felt insulted for a moment, then realized he doesn't even have a birth certificate, or any kind of identification thats current in this century. "Well some of us Idiots Dont have any real connection to the normal world, at least none in this century and would need a fake name to interact with it....... Why am i trying to explain my self to a.... Never mind. SO lower Mcnab street, some one need to be questioned, killed, mutilated, or simply intimidated? Or should I go menace Mcnally and have some fun with his goons?" He said making his way to where Drake wanted him.

 

[Lady Jane]

"Well, I wasn't about to call you an idiot unless you walked in there handing out cards that said 'Vlad Drakul, thousand-year-old vampire', but ya know, if the shoe fits." He let that sink in. "You could try subtlety. I here that you're capable of it. Be your suave, charming self, Vlad." There was amusement in his voice. "If you're good, I promise we'll go out and do some maiming later, just the two of us."

 

[Belial]

Vlad rolled his eyes. "And now I know exactly HOW much of what gos on on these streets... That or you've been following me since I left Sams office.. besides subtlety is only fun when you do something drastic directly afterwords..." He stopped when he got to the crime scene and started looking around. "So ET did he have any particular vulnerability's that you know of that some one could have exploited.. Or did some one have to develop something special just for him?

 

[Lady Jane]

Drake was quiet for a moment. "Yes. Stryker had a weakness." His voice lost all play and took a dead-serious undertone. "A very specific one that isn't easy to know how to exploit. And I know you don't expect me to discuss it over the phone. We'll talk details later when you're here. Make it quick, in and out, and don't screw anything up."


He hung up.

 

[Belial]

Vlad put the phone away. "So I don't have to worry about them nullifying my powers.... But from the sounds of things ETs defenses were very difficult to get past, witch means mine will probably be less of a problem for them to beat." he mumbled to himself as he started looking around the street for any place to start his investigation, or if he would get lucky and some one with all the answers would just show up and tell him everything.

 

[Lady Jane]

The whole street corner was taped of, the flimsy yellow and black barrier flapping briskly in the wind. There was a storm coming. The coffee shop was closed, its front glass window shattered and sprayed with darkening blood. More blood stained the sidewalk. People still crowded around the yellow tape, as if by staring at the scene, they could be part of the tragic horror while still being far removed.


Investigators milled around inside the tape, taking pictures and samples. Some wore the colored triangles of the Delta symbol as a patch on their shoulders of their otherwise black uniforms. Drake was absent at the moment, but after Vlad beheld the scene for a moment, he appeared behind him as if he was always there. He wore all black, a long, enveloping cloak swirling about his combat boots in the wind. A cowl covered his face, and was in turn hidden by a large hood pulled low over his eyes.


"The shot was taken from that high-rise hotel over there." He pointed some distance away. "Unrented room, some depressions in the carpet indicate a tripod. No one in the hotel seemed to have heard or seen anything."

 

[Belial]

Vlad paid no mind to the man appearing behind him, its not like there was a hole lot that could be don to him.. Then again if there was any one who could give vlad a bad day it would probably be Drake. "Well Im not all that effective at crime scene investigations, my powers of investigation extend to mind reading... Then again you could probably just fill my head full of bullets and see if I get up with a knew power." Vlad half jked as he made his way to the taped off area. His mind reached out trying to pick out any information on the crime he didn't already have. Maybe some one saw something, maybe the criminal was still around.


[dice]1465[/dice]

 

[Lady Jane]

"Don't tempt me. I'm already a little curious what wooden bullets would do to you." He may or may not have been joking.


There was a few people there who had witnessed it. They stood shellshocked when they weren't being questioned by authorities, their minds going over and over the image of Stryker's last moments. Blink saying something, then Stryker laughing. A soundless gunshot. The look of stunned shock and horror on Blink's face as it was splattered in blood. Catching his friend's body as it fell beside the broken window.


And ever so faintly, Vlad felt another mind brush against his. Someone was watching them. Something that wasn't quite human.


If Drake was surprised when Stefan showed up with Marcus and Allen in tow, he didn't show it. He glanced in his direction, then stepped into the still-lit coffee shop to look around.


This wasn't Marcus' first mission. He was obviously disturbed at the tragedy that hit so close to home, but he held together well enough. Allen was another story. The scene wasn't much different from something he saw hundreds of time on television, but it was different to see it for real. It was an eerie rendition of life imitating art, a macabre painting of blood on glass and concrete, and Allen paled at the sight. He took it like a trooper, though, and didn't look away.