Title: The Placeholder
Well that was a fun little 'fight' with the Triumvirate. Not that I actually did any fighting. The moment the flames appeared I'd dashed away at my full speed and left a Chimerstry'd illusion of myself behind because fuck that shit. Fire bad.
Overall it was actually loads of fun, standing on a nearby rooftop, watching everything with Auspex-enhanced senses while directing my illusion around to play with them. If I was slower and actually had to fight them then such a fight would've been much more difficult. That much fire was no joke and had been scary as shit. I'd almost lost it to Rötschrek right at the start when the flames appeared. There's a world of difference between knowingly approaching a small barrel fire the thin-bloods had made on the beach and suddenly having fucktons of flame spontaneously dumped all around you while needing to keep Beast-kun from suddenly taking the reins.
Still, it's surprisingly easy to take people down non-lethally when a) your illusionary copy doesn't need to breathe, b) the 'heroes' do, and c) you can just use Chimerstry to just replace all the air in the area around your decoy with pure nitrogen gas and hold it there till they drop. Even better, it killed the fires too.
Not to toot my own horn, but I thought the angelic chorus singing me to heaven was a particularly nice touch to distract them. Plus my five dot acting skill came in perfectly to make it look like 'I' was on the ropes for most of the fight.
Damn Chimerstry was honestly just bullshit at this level.
Still, the Triumvirate are kinda fun to play with, so probably better to sandbag again next time we fight so they don't get too disheartened. Hell, I even got to do a ridiculously overhammed death scene! Sure it'll fool absolutely no-one, but I could still totally use it against LaCroix when I tell him I 'died' against the heroes.
Chimerstry is so much fun.
Not to mention watching Lexi realise that her Doors weren't going to work was absolutely priceless. Pity I'm 'dead' right now, so I guess no more Calamity FM for her for now. At least till they show up to annoy me again.
I also made sure to swap the air back to normal after the three amigos were down. Don't want to accidentally give them brain damage. Then again it may actually improve Cauldron's overall decision making skills.
Certainly couldn't worsen them.
I'd also zoomed back with Celerity and put them all all in the recovery position as well. Don't wanna let them drown on their own saliva while unconscious or whatever. That, and I also may or may not have also taken the time to doodle fake moustaches and glasses on their faces/masks with some permanent marker. I admit nothing.
To be honest the only real disappointment with this whole fight was I only got a single experience point for the whole thing, which was bullshit! I soloed the entire Triumvirate, and I didn't even kill them which would've been the easy way to win!
Was it because I'm so stupidly overpowered now that they're worth basically nothing to me? Because if so that completely sucks.
I know what'll cheer me up. Pranking LaCroissant.
I pulled my phone out of Beorn and gave the Prince a call, also activating Obfuscate so I could start making my way past the growing crowds as I made my way towards the pier. It was easier to get past his annoying secretary this time and get connected through to Croissant-boy.
"Hi Princey." I chirped once I was connected.
"Pandora." He sighed, and I could hear the weary resignation in his voice, hehehe. "To what do I owe this… pleasure?"
"Just letting you know the Masquerade is totally secure and Calamity died after a huge climactic battle against the heroes. Anyways Bearington says hi. Have fun doing prince things." I replied, then hung up before he could reply.
Such a pity I can't see his face right now but ah well. I'll have to troll him in person next time. Anyways, time to go find Caine. There's some Sire-Childe bonding to be done, though hopefully he didn't notice the slipup when I almost accidentally called him Dad. That was kinda embarrassing…
Hmm, I wonder how Brook's doing. Hopefully she's having as much fun as I am.
"Fuck! You!" Brook yelled, ducking under another claw swipe before shoving the barrel of her trusty Utica M37 into the Gangrel's face before pulling the trigger.
The Sabbat vampire slumped back to the floor, missing his head, giving the young serpentine fledgeling time to catch her breath. Metaphorically of course, since she didn't actually breathe anymore.
She shouldn't even be here right now. She just wanted to take a break from studying that spell Pandora had gifted to her, just to check in quickly with Beckett who was still studying the sarcophagus and to see if he'd managed to track down any leads for that damn missing key. Just as something to do while Heather and Yukie - who'd popped by to spend time with Heather - were out and about doing more shopping.
But no. Instead the Sabbat had decided to lose its last remaining brain cell and gone completely nuts, attacking the Venture Tower itself. It was honestly a miracle the PRT or Protectorate weren't here already sticking their parahuman noses into kindred business.
LaCroix's sheriff swung his massive sword, leaving piles of ashy dust and dismembered corpses in his wake as he cut a bloody path forward. Brook followed in his wake, providing support with her own enhanced lizard-snake-cat monster creatures.
A bit of experimentation and Brook had figured out they could be infused with some extra vitae, which then allowed them to use her other Serpentis powers. Including Typhonic Avatar.
Which meant instead of a dog-sized adorably-serpentine abomination spawned from her own flesh, her creations could now grow to full, man-sized snakelike monsters akin to her own Typhonic Avatar form. With all the physical boosts that entailed.
It was taxing on her reserves - costing a fifth of her vitae reserves in one go, per minion - but it was more than worth it for the increased combat potential they represented.
It was that boost to their effectiveness that actually had her decide to go forward and actually opt to to spawn off a third one, even with the costs in vitae and the pain involved in doing so.
Brook grimaced against the pain as first eyes, and then a bony maw formed beneath her skin and bulged outwards. The already rather tender flesh on her back stretched as the new creature formed from her own undead flesh pulled itself free and landed on the floor with a meaty thump.
Her latest pet immediately hissed and darted forward to join its siblings in harrying the attacking Sabbat maniacs. Once it had a free moment it would begin the process of slowly transforming into a Typhonic Avatar like the rest of its siblings had, but even without that boost it was efficient in its job.
"Fuck that hurts." The Indian vampire grumbled to herself. She was sore everywhere, and felt hungry something fierce. It was something to worry about later. Fortunately these damn shovelheads couldn't focus on her pets and the hulking, dead-silent Sheriff at the same time and any attempt to try to focus on one led to a swift Final Death at the blades or teeth of the other.
She slithered along in their wake, swapping back to the Brokk she used as a secondary firearm and keeping well back from the fight in her injured state. She'd recover, once she retrieved her pets and reassimilated them back into her flesh. For now it was best to let the large, silent meat-shield and her pets handle the up close work.
This attack - a seemingly last ditch effort to try and steal that damn sarcophagus - was an act of pure insanity. What could they honestly have hoped to accomplish when they knew for a fact the Sheriff would be here to repel any attacks on the building.
Already the attack was almost entirely repelled, though the cost was high for the mortal security forces the Prince employed.
Sadly the cost to the Sabbat was almost negligible. Brook eyed up the bodies that weren't collapsing to dust, signifying freshly turned kindred. Very fresh. According to Jack, only once you'd been a vampire for more than a day or two would you burn away into dust. Before that you left a very real corpse.
Steeling herself, Brook continued on behind the silent giant and slotted a fresh magazine into her Brokk. LaCroix had better reimburse her for all the ammunition she was spending. He was rich, it should be claimable under expenses or something.
And she'd better not have to go out later to deal with this shit. She'd already had it up to here with all this bullshit over a damn ancient box! Ugh, she should've just stayed in and spent the night studying magic while snuggled up in bed with Heather again.
Now as much as I dislike the Tremere - mostly for being power hungry, diablerising, conniving, underhanded, self-serving, backstabby, plotting, untrustworthy, sneaky, devious, oath-breaking warlocks - I do have to admit that them creating Schere's disease was an absolutely amazing idea. It meant the attractions at the pier were still open. Unfortunately not for the entire night - unlike how banks and most supermarkets had a legal obligation to stay open - but still definitely late enough that Caine and I could spend some time just having fun.
We were standing by the railing, looking out over the dark water after having enjoyed all the rides with my Sire. The Elizabeth Dane was no longer there, having since been towed away to the port where presumably someone boat related was dealing with it.
I was leaning against Caine and enjoying the feeling of him scritching my scalp while I mourned the fact that being a vampire meant I could never enjoy cotton candy again.
Sure, blood is like sooo much better, but it's the principle of the thing! I miss cotton candy. And fudge. And caramel. And other sweets.
Caine started chuckling at me.
"Siiiiiiire" I whined, leaning more heavily against him as he tried and failed to suppress his chuckles. "It's not fuuuunnnnnny. Stoooooop reeaaadiiiing my miiiiiind."
Suddenly my phone went off, providing a perfect distraction from my cruel, mean bullying Sire. I quickly fished it out of Beorn and checked the number.
Yukie!
"Hey Yukie." I said, answering the phone.
"You were right, demon. Heather was in danger."
"Of course I was right. I'm always right." I grinned smugly, not that she could see it.
Caine snorted.
"Siiiire." I whined at him again, my hand over the phone receiver to cover up the whine before refocusing on Yukie. "Does Brook know?"
"She does. We called her first. She's on her way here now." She explained.
I looked up at my Sire - why is everyone so damn tall?!?! - since I wanted to spend tonight hanging out with him, so naturally the Sabbat was ruining things. He simply gave me a little nod and ruffled my hair fondly.
Okay then.
"I'll be right over." I told Yukie before hanging up. "Sorry Sire." I sighed.
"It is fine, Childe. You have responsibilities too." He ruffled my hair again.
"I know, it's just…" I trailed off, unsure how to explain, before giving up and just hugging him. "I wanted to spend time with you too."
He awkwardly hugged me back, one hand resting on my head and giving me headpats. "It is okay, Childe. You will have plenty of time after current events are settled."
"Okay." I sighed. At least I got to enjoy some of the amusement rides with Caine before the Sabbat decided to mess things up.
I hugged Caine a little tighter before loosening up and heading off towards Brook's after receiving a goodbye headpat.
It's within walking distance, so no need to bother Caine for a lift. Actually I wonder how many cabs he actually has? Like does he have multiple taxis and use clones, or just the one and simply uses Temporis time travel bullshit to let it be in multiple places at once? Because I'm sure he's given both me and Book lifts at the same time to two different places at least once before.
I shrugged. Doesn't really matter anyways.
I had to pop Obfuscate on the way over there, as the scrapyard was positively crawling with PRT mooks. No sign of the three amigos from what I could tell, but their forced unconsciousness should've ended ages ago anyway. I guess they probably have puppies to drown or whatever it is they do over at Cauldron HQ.
Though I will admit, watching PRT mooks having to awkwardly listen to the ramblings of a crazy hobo yelling out about the end of the world and shit was pretty funny.
I skipped past, unnoticed by all and quickly made my way to the shitty apartments above the pawn shop. Soon enough I was knocking on Brook's apartment door.
"Who is it?" Heather's voice came through, tone clearly uneasy.
"Pandora." I replied.
The door opened, revealing a relieved-looking Heather and along with battle-ready Yukie who immediately sheathed her flaming sword when saw it was me. "I'm glad you're here." The redhead said with relief. "Some vampires tried to kidnap me, but Yukie took care of them." She explained.
Surprisingly the redhead was dressed in something sensible for once.
"Good job Yukie." I said as I pulled my demon hunter into a hug.
"It was no problem." She replied as she returned the hug. "They were weak, much lesser compared to you."
I slowly broke free of my ghoul's grasp - she was always pretty clingy because her weird demon hunter training left her touch starved or something - and turned to the redhead. "Probably better if you pack up your and Brook's things. You guys should probably stay at the monastery for the next couple nights till things are safe."
Heather quickly did as I suggested while Yukie explained what happened. They'd been out and about shopping - which explained Heather's reasonable clothing choice - when Yukie had sensed something wrong and they were jumped by some shovelheads. The usual Sabbat cannon fodder were nothing compared to Yukie, and she swiftly cut them down without even needing to rely on her ghoul powers.
Heather was halfway through packing when Brook burst in - through the door at that - in her serpentine hybrid form and looked about frantically before relaxing and wrapping the redheaded ghoul up in a snakey hug.
"Hi Brook." I gave a little wave after Brook had finished reassuring herself that Heather was okay, leaning back against Yukie who had come up behind me and wrapped her arms around me while we waited.
"'Dora, Yukie. I can't thank you enough." The serpentine vampire said with much relief, before she dropped her transformation and her legs reformed. "I…I don't know what I'd have done if I lost Heather."
"We get it." I said as I leaned back against Yukie. She hugged me tighter, resting her chin on top of my head. "Anyway I was thinking you guys should maybe stay at the Monastery until things blow over. It's safe there."
Brook sprouted a savage grin. "Oh I would love to see what Alex would do to a pack of shovelheads." She chuckled darkly before aiding Heather in packing up.
"The Sabbat attacked Venture Tower earlier tonight." Brook explained.
"Let me guess, they were after the fancy old box?" I replied.
"Yeah." She sighed as she ran a hand through her dark hair. "Between the Sheriff and myself we handled it, but the Sabbat were certainly there in force. I'm genuinely surprised the Heroes didn't show up to interfere."
"Ah." I chuckled nervously. "I may have been distracting them. Accidentally."
"Demon…" Yukie sighed with resignation while Brook looked at me all confused.
"It's not my fault." I grumbled. "The Triumvirate jumped me, so really it was their fault."
"Wait wait wait! What?!" Brook yelped. "You fought the Triumvirate? Why?!" She asked incredulously. Even Heather was staring at me, rather than continuing with packing their stuff.
"Because the heroes have like zero chill. Anyway it doesn't matter. I faked my death and escaped so it's all good."
"Hang on." Brook said. "LaCroix found out where the Sabbat are holed up and gave me a mission to kill them. Why do we need to pack our things?"
"How sure are you that these are the only Sabbat left?" I countered with a raised eyebrow. "I wiped out an entire pack last week and I doubt it had much of an effect on their numbers."
Honestly I'm not actually sure how many Sabbat packs are in this city. If I was leading the Sabbat here I wouldn't want all my eggs in one easily smashable basket, and unlike the rank and file the Sabbat leadership do tend to have brains.
Also I want Brook and Heather safe at the monastery, since that way when Frenchie calls that stupid blood hunt on them they'll both already be somewhere safe and fortified.
The Indian fledgeling deliberately sighed to show her annoyance. "I hate that that makes sense. I bet LaCroix only found out about these ones because they're right under his nose."
"Yeah that wouldn't surprise me." I said honestly.
While Brook and Heather continued packing, I continued to snuggle against Yukie before I had an amazing idea.
"Hey Yukie?" I asked quietly.
"Hai?"
"Feeling up for tagging along with Brook tonight? The two of you should be able to handle the Sabbat no problem." I asked, nudging Yukie's chin off my head and leaning to the side slightly so I could look up at her a little easier.
She considered it for a moment before smiling. "I think that would be enjoyable."
"Thanks." I grinned back.
Once Heather was packed we helped her bring her bags down to Caine's taxi. As I stepped outside the servitor I'd made to keep an eye on Yukie flew down and landed on my head for me to absorb, giving me a pretty cool bird's eye view of Yukie being all slice and sheath on a bunch of shitty shovelheads. I shook my head in exasperation. She's so damn anime it hurts.
My Sire raised an eyebrow at all the extra luggage but said nothing for now.
"I call shotgun!" I said, heading over to the door.
"Wouldn't it be better if Brook was in the front, demon? You're small so you'd fit between me and Heather better." Yukie countered with treacherous logic.
"But… but shotgun…" I wilted.
"We can cuddle in the back demon." My conniving demon hunter used puppy eyes against me. "And you like cuddles."
Hmm, that is true.
"Fine." I sighed, relinquishing the dibs on the front seat. Curse my innate weakness for cuddles and physical affection.
After dropping Yukie and Brook off downtown to deal with the Sabbat - Brook was perfectly happy having some backup - Caine drove Heather and I over to the monastery.
I gave him an apologetic smile as I helped Heather get all the luggage inside.
Or my freshly made servitors helped, while I stood by and 'supervised'.
We made our way towards the monastery, waving to Julius and Alexander up on the parapet as we approached.
"Do you really think there's more Sabbat?" Heather asked me as we headed inside.
"It's certainly possible, they're like cockroaches. Blood drinking, violent cockroaches. The real question is do you want to risk things on the chance there won't be any Sabbat packs around?"
"No." She sighed.
Ah, there's E. I waved hello and skipped over, dragging Heather along with me.
"Hey E. The Sabbat are after Heather, so her and Brook are gonna stay here for a couple nights till things die down."
"They won' come 'ere will they?"
"Nah. No one else knows about this place and even if they did I'd love to see a pack of shovelheads try get past Alex." I explained, causing him to smile when I mentioned our resident Gargoyle protector.
"Yeah. That'd be a sight ta see." He chuckled.
"Anyways, can you show Heather a spot to set up her and Brook's things? I've got blood to hand out." I asked, handing him his own blood pack.
"Right." He nodded, before heading off with Heather towards.
I took a circuitous route through the monastery, having a quick chat to make sure everyone was okay as I handed out blood packs, finishing with Rosa.
"Oh yeah, these are fresh as well." I said, pulling out two more packs once everyone had their own. "So they should be usable for alchemy practice. Not sure what the resonance would be, so you may need to taste them first."
Rosa's eyes lit up at that, the latina obviously eager to try and experiment. Of the thin-bloods she was the one who was the most interested in learning alchemy besides Julius.
"Thank you, dark daughter." She took the blood and eagerly headed towards the kitchens where the alchemy stuff had been set up.
"Rosaaa…" I whined as I followed along behind her. "What'd I say about calling me that?"
"Keep it quiet." She rolled her eyes and began setting things up to do some alchemy.
I simply pouted as I quietly watched her work. She tasted one of the blood packs and 'hmmed' for a moment before double checking the alchemy book I - or at least my clones - had made for her.
She added some blood into some small pots, along with some of the ingredients she'd gotten from somewhere and some of her own vitae, simply trying out different ratios of each as she experimented. It was honestly fascinating watching her 'cook' like this.
We chatted as each brew simmered away.
"So what's actually cooking?" I asked once she had everything bubbling away, giggling at the pun.
"You said you didn't want any spoilers." She arched an eyebrow back at me.
"That was about your visions." I sighed. "Not your alchemy."
"Are you sure, dark daughter?" She teased back.
"You know, for someone who was originally shit scared of me, you certainly got over that fast if you're willing to tease me now." I pouted back, crossing my arms.
"I only had my visions to go on before." She grimaced briefly before continuing to stir one of her mixtures with a wooden spoon. "You are… terrifying, a force of nature… when you choose to be. Frozen wastes that hunger for warmth and-" She shook her head with a shudder, pulling herself from her visions.
"But the rest of the time I'm pretty chill and not terrifying at all, right?"
She didn't answer.
"Right?" I pressed.
She remained silent and I was starting to get worried, before her shoulders began to shake with repressed chuckles.
"Oi stop teasing me." I grumbled when she gave in and laughed aloud.
Cruel thin-blooded seer. Stop bullying me.
"No, you're not scary anymore." She chuckled at my annoyance.
We chatted a little bit more before eventually her alchemy experiments were ready for testing.
She tried out one of the different… brews - for lack of a better word at the moment - that she'd cooked up, levitating a nearby chair with a wave of her hand. She tested out the other brews - some working better, others working worse - and made notes in a separate journal.
I made sure to make suitably impressed noises each time in encouragement. This was new territory after all.
From my own imparted knowledge of Thin-blood Alchemy I knew that each formula would be unique to each alchemist and required proper experimentation to learn the correct ratio of ingredients, even if the overall requirements for each potion were the same. It'd probably take her a lot more trial and error to figure out the best method that worked for her vitae, but it looked like she was already on her way to become a proper alchemist.
I can't wait to see how far she can take things.
Plus there's gotta be a formula that lets a regular vampire eat food, which means eventually I'll get my cotton candy.
After watching Rosa experiment for a bit, as well as add some insights from my own alchemy knowledge, I left her to it and went to go bother Alexander. I did promise to teach him some Thaumaturgy training as a 'fuck you' to the Tremere
I found the old Gargoyle at his usual spot on the parapet - having passed by Heather, Lily and E who were chatting together about fashion of all things - where both he and Julius were hanging out stargazing.
"Hi guys." I said, plopping down on the bench we'd hauled up here when we all had that fun singalong a few nights ago.
"Elder." "Hey Pandora." They both nodded back.
"So Alex, Got time to start learning some Thaumaturgy?" I asked. It'll probably be ages before he can actually cast his first spell, and even longer before his first ritual, but I could at least begin to go through some of the symbology and background theory.
"I would like that." He rumbled.
"Okay, well to start with, the Tremere discipline of Thaumaturgy grew out of their original Hermetic magic, so they re-used a lot of…" I began to teach, adding in illusions with Chimerstry to help explain various points.
I even used the new reality-warping aspect of the discipline to create a large notebook and pencil for him to slowly make notes with. Julius was likewise paying attention to the lecture, and received his own notebook, even if he wouldn't be able to actually use the knowledge as a Thin-blood. Who knows, maybe he'll be able to use some of this theory stuff when he tries alchemy?
"Whoa, t-t-thats a big f-f-fire." Julius said, peering off into the distance. I hadn't noticed anything since I was perched on the parapet and the view was behind me.
"What?" I said, kipping up to my feet and looking off at the massive glow in the distance. "Shit!"
That fire wasn't supposed to happen until tomorrow night, right?
I racked my brain trying to think. Wait a sec, you go after Ming-Xiao and the Kuei-jin after the whole trying not to be eaten by a werewolf thing in-game. Shit.
"I gotta go, Brook and Yukie're in trouble." I said, jumping off the side of the building, ironically landing in the small crater Alex had kicked up when he did the same a couple nights ago. My knees protested, but a flex of blood fixed any damage.
I've got a need for speed right now, so I dumped my sole experience point into Celerity, bringing it up to ten dots.
I rushed forward, then stopped when I noticed something off. Then I darted forwards in a run again, paying more attention. Everything I was running towards changing colour as if it was getting slightly bluer. I glanced behind, everything behind me getting a faintly redder.
Holy shit. Am I actually red/blue shifting? At least slightly, while running?
I shook my head. I can worry about it later. Yukie and Brook are in danger.
Pushing everything to the side for the moment I focused on my speed and accelerated.
I ran through the streets at maximum speed - glad my undead nature meant I couldn't get tired - sprinting towards that damn park with the approaching world tinted that faintly ominous blue. It was unlikely in the extreme I was attracting any attention, not as quickly as I was moving. Not unless there was some parahuman bullshit involved. I don't even think Legend can get this fast, or if he can I don't think he'd be capable of thinking properly.
It's quite fortunate too. I wanted to get to the park and rescue my friends from a giant murder rage-doggo before the heroes get wind of the flames and stick their unwanted noses in things, so the faster I get there and save the day the better.
It was eerily quiet moving this fast, everything seemingly frozen in time, but I ignored the weirdness and focused on keeping moving. Who knows how long the fire had been going before Julius had spotted it? Every second - time-slowed or otherwise - counted at this point because werewolves are serious fucking business and that damn park is most definitely werewolf turf.
I arrived at the tram station at the bottom of the mountain and raced up, running gracefully along the cables themselves without falling off thanks to all those dots in Celerity. I passed the tram on the way up, the empty passenger cart about halfway up the mountain. I couldn't tell if it was ascending or descending as I was moving too fast for that, everything may as well be frozen in time to me.
I kept moving, hoping Brook and Yukie would have figured the puzzle to kill the werewolf.
Oh who am I kidding? Yukie is probably trying to stab it in the face right now. To her an enraged fucking garou is just another Hengeyokai in need of killing.
I made it to the tram station, swinging down from the cable and flipping onto the empty platform in one fluid movement. Then I smashed my way through the doors and rushed towards the observatory.
The interior was ruined, claw marks and shattered bits of debris littered the floor. I contemplated for a moment dropping my intense speed so I could hear where the werewolf was, but chose not to. Every second could count here.
Instead I rushed through the building, giving each empty room a quick look before moving to the next.
I breathed a sigh of relief, deliberately taking in and exhaling air in order to help calm myself down after my frantic rush here.
Yukie and Brook were fine.
Mostly.
Both had some nasty claw wounds and scratch marks, Yukie being the worst off, with the front of her previously intact top hanging largely in tatters and blood pouring from the horrific-looking claw marks that had shredded through the soft flesh of her chest and exposed some of her ribs.
The only reason I wasn't ripping the werewolf apart right this very instant with my claws for harming my Yukie was because the demon hunter was currently standing atop the downed werewolf with one foot on either of the the beast's broad shoulders and with her blazing katana in a two-handed grip piercing right through the monster's head.
I dropped out of Celerity, the werewolf's dying growls echoed loudly in the observatory room as the sounds of the world suddenly assaulted my senses as I dropped down to a more natural speed.
"Yukie!"
"Demon." There was no hint of pain in her voice despite the grievous wounds, so I correctly surmised she was using that pain-nullification technique of hers. "I have slain another Hengeyokai." She said with a proud grin on her face.
I laughed half in relief, half in disbelief, before moving forward and carefully helping her down as Brook untangled herself from where she was wrapped around the werewolf's body, trying to crush its ribs with her muscular coils. "Good job Yukie." I smiled back.
I bit my wrist and held it to her to drink. She eagerly latched on, using my vitae to heal her wounds and replenish the vitae she must have used in combating the werewolf. I felt nothing but relief when I saw the worst of her injuries mending a little and stopping the bloodflow.
She's still quite hurt - werewolf claws are no joke after all - but at least she isn't in danger of getting worse and bleeding out anytime soon and should make a full recovery with some time to properly rest.
"We have to help Nines." Brook said, having waited while I saw to my Yukie. "He was tackled by another one outside."
She was injured as well - there were massive rents along her body and especially across her serpentine tail - though she was busy healing up the worst of those as we spoke, her Serpent's Flesh power was bullshit for durability.
The fledgeling also looked genuinely freaked out by this whole situation. Not that I could blame her as someone - cough LaCroix cough - clearly just tried to get her and Nines killed via giant furry rage monster.
I was sorely tempted to pop over and rip his head off for endangering them.
I shook my head. "Fire's too big and he's a big boy. He'll have to take care of himself." I said, pulling my wrist away from Yukie's lips and closing the wound off with a quick lick. "Plus this fire will be drawing in all sorts of unwanted guests. We need to get out of here as soon as possible."
I glanced at both Yukie and Brook's damaged attire, especially at Yukie actually. Definitely needs some new clothes, and some bandages for those wounds.
Thankfully I'm bullshit. A flex of Chimerstry had all their clothing back to how it was before they decided to kill a fucking werewolf, as well as some sterile bandages wrapped tightly around Yukie's injuries beneath her shirt.
"What?" "Nani?" They both poked at their clothing, surprised to find out it was actually real and not just an illusion to keep them modest.
"No time to explain, let's go." I jerked my head at the exit. I also boosted up my strength and ripped the werewolf's jaw off. I'll make a cool necklace or earrings or something for two of them with the teeth, maybe enchant the shit out of it too.
We headed out to the tram station - pausing briefly for Yukie to retrieve her blood flask that she'd used up during the fight - with the damn tram thing only just now arriving. I had flashbacks to the mission from the game, happy that Yukie and Brook got through it at all. I had distinct memories of running around screaming in terror and trying not to get eaten, so they certainly did better than my player character.
"So how'd you know where we were?" Brook asked as we took seats in the tram, Brook - having swapped back to having legs again - took one side while I tugged Yukie into my lap for a change so I could hold her - carefully, as she is injured after all - to make sure she was okay.
"I saw the fire and came running. I figured if something was going down you had to be in the middle of it." I said, earning some laughter from the caramel-skinned fledgeling.
"I hate how that makes sense." Brook sighed.
"Were you not at the monastery?" Yukie piped up.
"Yeah I was." I nodded.
Brook blinked. "'Dora. That's miles away. I knew you were fast, but that is a little hard to swallow."
"Celerity - aka vampire super speed - is bullshit." I giggled at her. I am so bullshit.
"There's bullshit and then there's crossing the city in minutes." Brook groused back. I didn't bother correcting her that it was a bit faster than that.
"The real bullshit is the two of you killing a fucking werewolf." I countered.
"Language demons." Yukie chided the pair of us with a party-pooing frown.
"It was teamwork and luck." Brook shuddered. "I tried to keep it in one place as best I could, while Yukie killed it with her sword."
Not a bad plan I guess, especially since the busty fledgeling actually has a warform - her Typhonic Avatar form - and the other clan that has a warform - the Tzimisce and their Zulo shape - made theirs specifically to combat werewolves.
Although the Tzimisce that fought werewolves were unlikely to be young fledgelings, which makes what Brook had done even more absolutely bullshit. Yukie at least has the excuse of being a demon hunter trained from childhood for this sort of shit. Of course neither had come through the fight unscathed - obviously - but the two of them had made it work somehow.
Brook also explained that they'd encountered Ming-Xiao earlier as well, who revealed to my complete lack of surprise that she'd been the one disguised as Nines when Grout died. That, and she was the one who had the key for the sarcophagus.
We continued on in silence after that, looking out at the blaze that was burning out of control. I took a moment to refill Yukie's flask with more of my blood as well, as she'd used what was leftover from the Sabbat attack during the werewolf fight. Soon enough we reached the station at the bottom.
Jack was already waiting for us beside my Sire's cab as we exited the tram station.
"Quick get in!" He yelled as we approached, gesturing to the taxi and stealing the front seat before I could call shotgun.
I narrowed my eyes.
Bloody pirates…