Title: The Placeholder
Honestly that was a great way to spend Halloween, snuggled up on the couch under a blanket with Yukie while watching awful Horror B-movies and tossing popcorn at the tv for all the stupid things the protagonists did.
I woke up before Yukie, as I'm guessing her sleep schedule is still a little iffy after she had to guard me during the daytime yesterday. She was latched onto me like a limpet as usual, but I don't mind. Being cuddled is nice.
"C'mon Yukie, time to get up." I said, poking my demon hunting cuddlebug in the side. "Don't wanna ruin your sleep schedule."
"NNnmmm… nemutai…" She grumbled sleepily at me as she shifted about before clutching me tighter into her koala grip.
Feeling mischievous, I formed a small piece of ice in my hand before reaching round and pressing it against the back of her neck.
"EEEiiieeeee!!!" She shrieked, instantly pulling away, now wide awake.
"Demon!" She glared at me from across the bed.
"Sorry not sorry, Yukie. We need to get up." I giggled.
"That was mean, demon." She pouted, crossing her arms.
"Sorry, but we gotta get up."
"Fine." she grumbled, before yawning. "What is the goal for tonight, demon?"
"Not sure yet." I shrugged, rolling out of bed and hopping to my feet. "I enjoyed last night. It was relaxing and nice."
"Me too." Yukie nodded in agreement, before a mischievous look appeared on her face and she crawled back over to me. "Though that ice wasn't very nice, demon." She shoved me back down onto the bed and faux-glaring down at me.
"I think I deserve some revenge."
Uh oh.
I think I may have miscalculated. Shih demon hunters are all about getting revenge for stuff.
Hehe, I'm in danger.
And then she pounced, hands lashing out with precision and tickling me mercilessly until I begged for mercy.
I sighed in contentment as Yukie washed my hair. My cruel, evil demon hunter was still radiating extreme smugness over having exacted such a harsh revenge upon me but I'll get my revenge eventually.
After all this pampering of course.
Honestly I'm lucky to have such an attentive friend and ghoul. Our joint bathtime was definitely becoming one of my favourite things. Along with feeding. And clawing zombies. And making a nuisance of myself to pompous frenchies.
Hmm, I have a lot of favourite things.
Honestly life has become amazing since I was murdered and turned into a vampire. I have a proper family and friends now.
I mused on what we should do tonight as Yukie gently lathered in the shampoo into my long hair and massaged my head wonderfully. Brook is nearing the 'endgame', and though I'm not exactly sure where she actually is in the 'story', especially since we definitely hit the monastery earlier than it originally would've been hit.
And not to mention the weird Worm bullshit that's been mixed into all this World of Darkness bullshit. Who knows how that could change things. It also doesn't help that my memory is terrible when it comes to the later part of the game.
Let's see. There should be an attack by the Sabbat where they try to grab the box from Frenchie. Then I think Ming Xiao reveals she has the key so the protagonist goes and murders all the Kuei-jin. Then afterwards there's the big fire with the werewolf over by Griffith Observatory because that's where Nines is hiding out.
Yeah that part of the game sucked. Rage-doggos are scary. Definitely gonna need to give Brook a hand there. Especially as she's a Setite so all the extra light from the fire is bound to make things even worse for her.
Then after that it's finally dealing with LaCroix. Hopefully Brook listens to both me and Rosa about not opening the box, which is secretly full of C4 and not full of sleeping ancient vampire like LaCroissant thinks it is.
Hmm, so since it's gonna be the Sabbat attack up first I should probably keep an eye out for that. There's been nothing on the news, so that'll probably happen either tonight or tomorrow. Then LaCroissant will send Brook to finish them off, which if I'm remembering things correctly that Tzimisce asshole shows up as a boss fight and Heather gets k-
Heather! She gets kidnapped by the Sabbat and killed in front of the player character, aka Brook. Shit, I can't let that happen. I like Heather, even if she is shamelessly lewd. Seriously, handholding with Brook in public. So lewd.
"Hey Yukie." I said, getting the demon hunter's attention as she rinsed the shampoo out of my hair.
"Hmm?"
"Do you mind keeping an eye on Heather for the next couple of nights? I've got a feeling the Sabbat may try to hurt Brook by going after Heather." I explained.
She looked conflicted. On the one hand she'd obviously rather spend time with me - because I am amazing and stuff - but on the other hand Heather was her friend and was pretty much a defenceless damsel in distress. "Okay demon. I'll keep Heather safe." She sighed.
"Thanks Yukie. You're the best." I grinned, turning round and pulling her into a hug, making her blush at the praise. "Just think, you can hang with Heather and have a 'ghouls night out'." I giggled at the play on words.
The Asian ghoul shot me a flat look. "That was a terrible joke, demon." She grumbled in disgust before splashing me with water.
I splashed her back and things degenerated into a water fight.
Yukie watched on rather anxiously as I worked an extra bit of magic on her sword after our language lessons with Jabal. Caine was still out doing his usual Caine things I assume. Haven't seen him yet tonight anyways, but he'll probably show up like normal the moment I need a lift somewhere so I'm not too concerned.
Anyways Yukie was being kinda silly. Telling her I wanna put some anti-whatever enchants on it for 'demon-slaying' and it's all A-okay, but tell her I wanna try a bit of experimental magic and suddenly it's all worry and anxiety.
To be honest though it was an interesting bit of spellcasting, working on a way to hide her sword.
Well, spell probably wasn't quite the correct word. It was more brute-forcing a magical effect into being using all the accumulated knowledge of blood magic I had. Certainly cost a fair bit of vitae too, and if I didn't already have ten dots in blood magic and a couple dots in Obfuscate I doubt I'd have been able to pull this off.
I figure I could probably craft a proper spell path that could pull this off at a fraction of the cost and effort, but that'll need to be something for future-me to worry about. That or make it a ritual, which honestly might be simpler and easier. Still, it's future-me's problem.
And anyways, for a brute-forced magical effect it at least worked out alright. Yukie's sword will now be hidden under a temporary fragile veil of Obfuscate until she actually uses it. That way she can carry it around without arousing suspicion.
"Here you go." I said, handing it back to her. "People won't notice you're carrying it, until you unsheath it anyway. Then the effect will end." I explained.
"Arigato demon." She replied, giving the sword a quick look over - and seemingly happy everything was still okay - before strapping it in place on her back. Contessa's fedora looked a little out of place on Yukie's head, but Yukie seemed happy enough with it and as far as spoils of war go it was kinda cool.
Yukie left after a quick goodbye hug, leaving me alone in the suite. Jabal had left soon after our lessons to go do something. Not sure what, since I didn't wanna be rude and ask.
Anyways I think this'll be a great task for Yukie. She'll get to use her skills protecting the innocent, aka Heather, and hopefully have some fun as well. I have no doubt she's capable of taking down a couple of Sabbat vampire scrubs too, especially with how tricked out her sword, not to mention the vampiric disciplines she's been practising. And her own chi powers.
Though just in case…
I flexed my Glaciem powers a little, forming up what looked like one of my lesser servitors in the shape of a raven. Unlike a proper lesser servitor this one was more akin to the more advanced clones I had made the other night. Intelligent, with larger reserves of vitae and fully capable of using my disciplines.
And most importantly with orders not to make any other servitors so it can go skive off and divebomb pedestrians or other funny bird stuff.
It nodded to me, flexing its own Chimerstry powers to layer illusionary feathers and other features over the dark ice, leaving it looking like a proper raven. Then it took flight, heading towards Brook's apartment.
There we go. If it looks like Yukie is in any real danger that servitor will step in and murder everything that's even slightly a threat.
I shut the window and then grabbed a couple blood bags to drink before flopping down onto the couch to consider my next move. In the end I decided to do a little hunting and then go bother the thin-bloods and Alex. Maybe go and see if Romero has some zombies that need killing. That could be fun.
First though, doing some hunting. Blood bags are nice and all, but there's something so much better about drinking from the tap.
Pickings were a bit slim downtown. Seems I've already drunk my way through the majority of the criminal population in the area. I'd ended up needing to just follow random strangers into alleyways - hidden via Obfuscate and using the odd bit of Chimerstry to ensure privacy - before quickly jumping them for a quick drink, taking care to only drink a little since they're just random civilians.
I even briefly considered if it'd be worth sneaking into the Confession nightclub under Obfuscate to feed there but discarded it. Everyone would probably be drunk and/or on drugs and I'm not entirely sure that Drunk!Amity and/or High!Amity would be a good idea.
Pity too, because I've just figured out an amazing idea for hunting in nightclubs now. Stay under Obfuscate and make an illusionary attractive person of the appropriate gender to lure victims where I need them to be. Actually I could probably use that for regular on-the-street hunting as well. Should definitely help with my temper if the odd wannabe rapist gropes at an illusion instead of me.
Ooh there's Caine's taxi.
"Hi Sire."
"Childe." He nodded back.
"Thanks for the gift." I grinned a toothy grin as I fished the amulet he'd made for me - to keep me safe from idiots - out from beneath my top and held it up. "But out of curiosity what'd you do with the rest of the leg?"
Because there's all sorts of shit you can do if you have an enemy's body parts and I have ideas.
My Sire chuckled darkly. "It was used to encourage her to walk carefully in future." He explained, but didn't elaborate further.
I pouted at the lack of explanation before giving it up as a lost cause. "Anything else?"
"I set some ground rules for them to follow in regards to you." He replied, smoothly overtaking some old lady motorist despite not having his eyes on the road.
"And if they decide not to listen?" I asked, because I doubted the morons who thought they were absolutely in the right no matter what would be willing to listen without any incentives.
"Then there will be some retribution." He said with finality.
I winced. Caine's retribution was likely to be biblical in nature, and probably really bloody. Caine let off another evil chuckle as I thought that.
Ah well, I guess we'll have to see if they're stupid enough to piss off my Sire or not. Then a thought occurred. Brook is probably doing Brook stuff and Yukie is with Heather, so tonight is the perfect time for some Sire-Childe bonding!
"Hey Da- Sire, wanna go to the Santa Monica Pier with me I just remembered I haven't actually been on any ridesoranythingthereyetanditcouldbefun?" I asked, rapidly blurting out the rest and hoping he didn't catch my accidental slip. I added some minor sparkles with Chimerstry to my eyes to maximise their pleading cuteness, hopefully simultaneously distracting him from the embarrassing almost-slip as well as encouraging him to go to the pier with me.
Caine was silent for a while and I was considering whether or not I'd have to also enlist Jabal's help in bullying him into having fun when he finally spoke up.
"Very well." He sighed theatrically, seemingly put upon but I could tell he was both interested and rather happy. Hell, I was willing to bet he's never actually been on a roller coaster before either.
"Ooh can you drop me off at the clinic first? I wanna pick up some blood bags for the others." I asked, since I was planning on swinging by the monastery later to hang out with everyone.
Credit cards are so useful to pay for things. Much easier than carrying loads of cash about.
It also made buying all that blood from that lunatic in the clinic's basement so handy since I didn't have to count out the money.
And now I was skipping my way down the streets - with Beorn now full of some nicely chilled blood for all my buddies - and making my way towards the pier to meet up with Caine, making sure to keep the street between me and the crazy doomsayer guy across the road.
Ooh and that's the salvage yard where the Southland Slasher is supposed to be hiding out at. I wonder how Brook decided to handle that quest? I'm assuming she took care of him since there hasn't been anything on the news about any more victims that I've seen and the PRT isn't crowing out about how amazing they are at stopping the serial killer. Not that I really watch much news but still.
Hmm I guess that means that's Bertram's hideout over there. I wonder if I should say hi? Gary got all pushy and shit but that's no reason to just write off all the Nosferatu. They could probably actually make life annoying for me if they really wanted to, despite my Sire's warning to them. I suppose I could go chat and maybe offer to do a small task or something as a peace offering?
Yeah that's a great idea. I might even be able to get some more xp out of it as well.
I was walking right by the scrapyard gate when a loud thump sounded out behind me.
"Calamity." Came a stern and uncompromising voice. A very familiar stern and uncompromising voice.
Alexandria.
I spun on my heel to face her, instantly swapping my outfit over to my Calamity one, with Beorn back to being disguised as a large squirming cocoon. "Oh hi Lexi. Ready for a rematch?" I waved mockingly and let my fangs extend. "Or are you here to avenge your one-legged Boogeyman?"
She was only a few meters from me, crouched in a classic superhero three-point landing with some unnecessarily cracked concrete beneath her. Still, it would be a rather menacing distance if it wasn't for the fact I was faster than her. Not that she knew that, since I'd sandbagged quite a bit in our last encounter.
I honestly have no idea what she expects of a rematch, especially a public one like this. Already some bystanders were forming up to gawk at us. Just wait till camera phones become even more prevalent, her idiocy can then be immortalised on the internet forever.
"She's not alone." A new voice spoke.
I looked up in the direction of the new voice.
"Ah, this could complicate things." I said dryly, looking up at the other two members of the Triumvirate.
"End of the line, villain. Surrender." Eidolon ordered, smugness evident in his voice.
I flicked my eyes onto my Character Sheet, feeling irritated. I'd wanted to spend these points later at the monastery for improving my singing and bumping Melpominee up to seven dots, but no, that's looking unlikely for the moment.
If I'm going to be fighting a flying brick with control issues, an overpowered jackass with an inferiority complex big enough to destroy cities, and lastly Captain Rainbow Lasers who can travel at light speed I'll need to bring out the big guns.
Or more specifically a different batch of big guns, because I can't just go full lethal right off the bat and simply freeze all the atoms in their bodies with Glaciem. Well, it's a good thing I keep a buffer of experience points for just such an occasion.
I dumped all my remaining experience points right into Chimerstry, taking me all the way to ten dots. It's something I'd been contemplating for a while now, but I'd honestly been fairly happy with just the regular six dots so far.
As the power settled in I grinned as my understanding of the world expanded. Nothing is real, and yet everything is true. Reality was only as real as everyone believed it to be, the world being far more subjective than I'd ever realised. Even now my illusionary outfit was becoming not quite so illusionary, existence itself now believing the lie of it so much that it became the new real. I reject your reality and substitute my own!
With ten dots of Chimerstry I'm basically a full fledged reality warper, at least on the local scale. That should let me handle whatever bullshit Eidolon throws out.
The only real threat to me is Legend, since I'm unsure how fast he can get while fighting - I think he gets dumber as he gets faster maybe - and I don't know if I have enough Celerity to truly outspeed him.
Then again, with illusions strong enough to trick reality itself into thinking they're real I shouldn't need to anymore.
"You three stooges sure you want to pick a losing fight?" I asked curiously, ignoring the surrender demand. Already there were a few random bystanders across the street busy gawking at the showdown between the Triumvirate and an unknown villain.
Except for the doomsayer guy. He was still spouting off about the end times. The commitment to his schtick was actually kinda impressive.
Now how to play this? I did promise LaCroix that I'd 'die' tragically to the heroes eventually. Perhaps I'll let Lexi get a couple good hits in I think, just to sell the illusion that they can take me? Hmm, may need to sandbag my speed some more till I get a proper opening to fuck with them.
Legend gazed down at the teenage villain beneath him and prepared himself for combat. They had a plan and this was likely to be the best chance at capture they could get. The three of them had been prepared for this since last night, but unfortunately the villain hadn't left her apartment and nobody wanted to risk the potential retaliation of attacking her there.
The plan was simple. Locate the villainous teen somewhere relatively clear of civilians, corral her with fire to prevent her escape and then engage her in combat until she could be forced offworld.
Doctor Mother had already found the perfect alternate earth to contain her. Air quality was poor - not that it mattered as Calamity didn't need to breathe - and the largest form of life was a primitive species of fern that grew everywhere. Nothing for her to eat and no shelter but a simple cave where she could hide from the sun.
Somewhere perfect they could dump her until she starved enough to enter hibernation so that she could be retrieved safely. Ideally they'd be able to rehabilitate the teen, but barring that they could at least keep her somewhere where she wouldn't be able to harm anyone else. Alternatively, if they couldn't manage to force her through a Door they would have to injure her until she was forced into hibernation that way.
Legend would've preferred something less open and with less members of the public nearby, but this was likely to be the best they could hope for, so Alexandria gave the order to engage.
Overwatch's drones had been tracking the villain since she'd left the hotel she'd been staying at downtown.
Her latest hunting method was intriguing, following lone civilians into alleyways while hidden under a Stranger effect - one that the tinkertech drones were more than capable of seeing through - and ambushing her target to feed.
Assuming the latest psych profiles were correct, this was because she saved the violence for 'deserving victims', though alternatively she could be attempting to lay low after her encounter with Bastard Son. Regardless of reasons they now had her in as perfect a position as was possible in this busy city, on her own and clear of potential civilians getting caught in the crossfire.
Alexandria was to her right, Eidolon to her left and himself to her front. Behind her was an old scrapyard where the local Protectorate had cornered the Southland Slasher a few nights ago. More specifically the three of them could let loose against the murderous teen without fear of endangering any bystanders.
As one both Legend and Eidolon let loose, flames spreading onto the empty street and corralling the girl back into the scrapyard. At the appearance of the sudden blaze the villain flinched back a step, and he had no doubt that if she breathed she would've let out a panicked gasp. She definitely had the standard Case 13 pyrophobia. Already he could see her eyes wide and worried behind her skull mask with his enhanced vision. Definitely scared, but keeping it together. For now. Legend felt a professional sense of satisfaction, the one he always did when villains began to realise how truly outclassed they were. Against the full Triumvirate she had no chance.
As the murderous teen darted back - and straight through - the gate and into the scrapyard proper Alexandria stayed close on her tail, ensuring the villain couldn't try any illusionary trickery to escape.
Just as planned.
Overhead multiple drones from Overwatch allowed the Tinker to operate as mission control and warn them of any trickery now that the Triumvirate has begun the engagement, each one monitoring the fight with a vast array of tinkertech scanning devices that should limit her capability to fool anyone with her suspected illusion capabilities.
Legend and Eidolon both nodded to one another before darting forward, remaining high overhead and beginning to encircle the area with high walls of flame. Calamity was now trapped in here with them.
And with the battlefield set Alexandria could begin to engage properly and get a better feel of Calamity and her powerset.
So far she hadn't used her illusions, probably realising her smoke and mirror psychological tactics would be less viable against the three of them working together. There would be no sudden breaks in line of sight that would allow the villainous teen to escape. Not with Eidolon slowly shrinking the outer ring of fire.
They had contingencies planned for if she attempted to summon the ice golems she'd utilised against Bastard Son, not that they expected her to attempt it. Ice was fragile and Alexandria would easily be capable of plowing through any minions Calamity formed up with ease. Calamity probably knew that too, if the lack of minions was anything to go by.
The villainous teenager definitely had enhanced speed however, now that Alexandria could test her in a proper fight. It was a known capability of some Case 13s, but as subject zero for a new infection strain she must be on the upper levels of the ability. In fact she was roughly on par with Alexandria herself when it came to speed.
Her durability on the other hand was severely lacking, almost entirely coming from the ice the Case 13 would manifest over vulnerable parts of her body or to block an incoming hit, with the rest appearing to be a layer of blood coating her form to limit incoming damage.
The ice was tough, but the girl beneath it was much less so. A punch sent ice fragments flying and knocked the girl backwards, where she dug her icy claws into the ground to halt her backwards skid.
Alexandria eyed the gouges those claws had furrowed into the dirt as the villain stood up from her crouch, ice reforming over her chest. Yes the ice was tough, and those claws were sharp, but against a Brute like her she was nothing special.
Legend shot out with his lasers again while Eidolon launched off a series of sonic blasts meant to disorientate, both letting loose against the villain to harry her while Alexandria moved back to swing around for another hit.
Calamity dodged, before grabbing a rusted wreck of a car and hurling it up at Legend with surprising strength, causing him pause in his assault to briefly dodge. Eidolon likewise broke off his attack to deal with the errant projectile before it cleared the scrapyard and risked damaging property or injuring someone.
The Trump dropped the defensive Brute Power he'd been running in order to do so - it being largely unnecessary against the ground bound teen - and managed to draw a telekinetic power he'd used before. Manton-limited unfortunately, but it was more than capable of catching the flying vehicle and sending it hurtling back at the villain.
Legend let off a snort at the wide-eyed panicked dive Calamity took to avoid being splattered by her own projectile. Yes she was strong, but against the full might of the Triumvirate she was a mere child with delusions of grandeur, inexperienced in a proper fight.
All they needed to do was wear her down, force her to make a mistake before hitting her hard enough and fast enough to force her into hibernation. They already had her on the back foot - she hadn't attempted to use her emotional Master power - and it was only a matter of time before they had her.
Not that any Master powers would help her right now. Alexandria was outright immune and Eidolon was running an anti-master power much like he did when facing the Simurgh. Legend was the only possible weak link, and he was ready at any moment to enter his breaker state and flee if anything untoward happened.
Attacks were traded back and forth, with the outmatched villainous teen clearly on the backfoot.
And then it happened.
They attacked in unison once again and Calamity grunted in pain as she took laser hits and sonic blasts, her ice and blood armour weathering the attacks before shattering and then reforming almost instantly.
But not quite quick enough.
The villainous teen took a direct hit from one of Legend's lasers to the upper arm, the limb blasting off and burning down to ash. The villain herself gasped in pain and collapsed backwards onto the ground, clearly dazed by the pain of sudden limb loss.
"Alas, I am slain!" Calamity cried out dramatically.
Or perhaps not.
Calamity continued to speak aloud dramatically, as if monologuing from a Shakespearean play in a theatre, rather than disabled and bleeding all over the dirt. Clearly she wasn't bothered by the injury at all. "Oh woe! My wound is too great, woe is me!" Her remaining arm waved dramatically in the air as she lay on her back in the dirt, hamming it up.
"But it is only fitting… that it would take the greatest of heroes… to bring down… Calamity…"
The teenaged drama queen went limp and stopped moving with a final loudly voiced 'bleh'. A bright column of light appeared, shining down upon the downed villain while a chorus of disembodied heavenly voices softly began singing Amazing Grace.
Alexandria inhaled sharply in irritation, lone good eye twitching beneath her helmet. She finally figured out just why this particular Case 13 got under her skin so much, aside from the auditory torture she'd put her through.
The brat was like a younger, horror-themed villainous version of Mouse Protector. Except worse, because Mouse Protector at least couldn't provide her own special effects.
Still, the girl was down a limb for the moment and in a vulnerable position. She glanced at her companions who nodded in agreement. This was their chance. They'd open a door and Alexandria would force her through it as the other two kept the girl from escaping.
"Door." She said, preparing to dive down at the downed monster while Legend and Eidolon floated above at the ready for whatever ploy the little shit was attempting.
But nothing happened. No Door opened at all.
"Door!" The Triumvirate Brute all but screamed. Still nothing.
And then fires suddenly died, guttering out in an instant. Alexandria glanced over to Eidolon who looked as confused as she was. Calamity was definitely not out of the fight yet; there was no reason to cut the flames keeping her trapped here.
The strongest Trump in the world waved his hand, the fire reappearing only to be snuffed out again. Legend tried a beam of his own, which likewise failed at restarting any of their fires.
And Calamity was doing something to them. Messing… with their senses somehow? She felt… light-headed…?
There was a tinkling of bells and then the 'dead' villain dissolved into sparkly motes of light that drifted up into the beam of light and into the night sky, all the while the angelic voices continued to sing.
Alexandria didn't buy it for a moment, already casting her gaze about and fighting off her lightheadedness, trying to spot the real Calamity. And there she was! Leaning against the broken scrapyard gate costume gone and instead dressed up as a classic goth girl with a shit-eating grin on her face, with no sign of injury at all.
Alexandria was about to charge her again - plan be damned, she was going to pummel the little shit into the floor - when Eidolon and Legend suddenly dropped out of the sky, collapsing to the ground in a jumbled heap. Her vision went dark as she felt herself being affected by whatever took down her two comrades.
And the last thing she'd remember before falling unconscious would be the damn girl's shit-eating, fang-filled grin…