"So what's this Aglophoetis?" Serra asked. "Maybe we'll know when we see it?" "Yeah, I'd like to know that, too," Quentin said. He hung back a little, covering the rear of the group, though he doubted there were any cultists left alive behind them. They had pretty much bulldozed through this camp. "Ya mind getting us non-magical people a quick briefing?" he said to Clayton, but the vampire's attention seemed to be elsewhere. They reached a burnt-out warehouse and stopped to investigate. Quentin circled around, keeping his back to the wall and scouting for hostiles. None yet, but this mission had been too weird thus far; anything could happen. He poked a melted car with the tip of hie rifle and flakes of charred metal fell away like ash. "Who, or what, did thi-" "MEEEEEEAAAAAATTT!!' Quentin was instantly on-guard. He quickly turned to the direction of the sound and aimed his gun into the darkness, waiting for what was about to come. "So, ummm... you think he means 'meat' like he's inviting us to dinner or... nevermind, forget I asked." After a pause, he muttered under his breath, "I'm not really hungry anyway."
Evangeline whistled through the night sky like a white arrow, headed straight for her intended target. There was a brief moment where she wondered if she should have told the others Hikaru was fleeing. After all, the girl might be armed with stolen aglophoetis, or worse. Going after her alone wasn’t the brightest idea. Fuck that, Evangeline thought. The others had already proven to be incompetent. As usual, it was up to her to clean up their mess. I’ll deal with her myself, my way. She should have been dealt with the moment she showed up. Catching up with her wasn’t too hard. Hikaru was fleeing on foot, while Evangeline was flying high above her. When she spotted the girl, Evangeline dove down, flying right through the bare branches of the swamp trees. The trunks and limbs bent out of her way; she didn’t even have to dodge them. Within seconds she was hovering alongside Hikaru, effortlessly keeping up with her. “Going somewhere?” the woman asked, with her arms folded and a slight smile on her face. “Running home to your mother, dear? Or a late night rendezvous, perhaps?” All around them the trees began to rise until they were torn from the ground. Dozens of thick trees, some of them hundreds of years old, were uprooted and began to swirl around them. The circle closed in, getting narrower and narrower, until Hikaru was forced to stop and found herself hedged in with Evangeline, with nowhere to go. “Was I not invited to this little party?” Evangeline said, pacing in front of Hikaru. She was no longer smiling. “I thought we were friends, darling. What, not in a hugging mood anymore? You were sooooo friendly earlier. Not so charming without your Joe, hmmm? Don’t worry, he’ll join you soon enough.” “Party? Shouldn’t you be raising your grandkids?” Replied Hikaru while studying her surroundings. No blind spot huh? Fighting is not an option, neither running, then…. Thought the girl “Sigh… what do you want?” Gotta get ready the plan B…. "You, dead," Evangeline said coldly. Her eyes were like icy daggers sinking into Hikaru's soul. An awkward silence lingered in the air until she laughed. "I'm kidding, I'm kidding! What do you think I am, some kind of homicidal maniac? I only want you maimed... a little... only alittle." She sighed and smiled. "No, I just want to know where you're going, dear... and who'll meet you there... and what did you take from that warehouse?" She leaned in closer and whispered, "It'll be a secret, just between us girls, hmm." Somehow that didn't felt as a lie. Hikaru knew that fighting the mage was a wrong choice, something she had to avoid at all cost. All her senses gave her that simple warning. "Meeting? No one, Where to? I have a boat hidden ready to escape from this place. What did I took? three vials of Apogloetis" Stated "It shouldn't be a big deal. I need the vials and there surely are more" "Interesting. Exactly as I thought," Evangeline said. "This is the part where I should ask why you burned down the warehouse to conceal your escape... but that wasn't you, was it?" She studied Hikaru's face for a moment. "No, of course not. It was merely an unpleasant coincidence that the place went up in flames the moment you left, potentially destroying the rest of the apogloetis." She gestured to the wall of trees and an opening suddenly appeared, a narrow passage through which Hikaru could leave. But that passage was lined with razor sharp thorns and vines and jagged branches that could snap shut at any moment. "You're free to go," Evangeline said in a friendly tone. "But, before you do, I wonder: what's a sweet girl like you going to do with all that nasty apogloetis? How about I take it off your hands, dear? Better with me than this cult or Maniacles or ROSE. Consider me a neutral party. Consider me a friend." Hikaru scratched her head. She wasn’t considering her options anymore. There were never options to begin with. The girl produced two vials of red liquid from within her robe. She slowly handed them to Evangeline…. Slowly… Slowly… NOW! Her hand waved and threw the vials to the woman’s face. At the very same instant Hikaru’s fingers snapped. A small enchantment to the vials, a small miniature explosion that would barely hurt anyone, yet enough to throw the liquid against the woman’s face. The same moment was used by the girl to send a vector enchantment toward her legs, allowing her to jump higher than the tree’s height. If I can’t escape throw the ground I’ll have to use the air. A second vector enchantment was sent to propel a vector that would momentarily surpass the air and gravity’s own vectors allowing her to dash a few meters in the air, hopefully outside the tree’s perimeters I just hope she doesn’t follow me, I really don’t want to hurt Joe. Evangeline immediately erected a barrier to block the incoming liquid, but it was too late. She felt a few stray drops splash across her face and even inhaled some of it. The effect was instant. The woman dropped to her knees and clutched her throat. She struggled to breathe. It felt like fire in her lungs and acid in her veins. Within seconds, she was curled up on the ground, convulsing. Hikaru leapt away while Evangeline struggled to use her fading magic to extract the poison from her body. She focused her psionic powers inward, isolating the aglophoetis and quarantining it. The barrier of trees began to wither, turn black, and collapse. Their tips fell to ash, easing Hikaru's escape. By the time Evangeline recovered, the girl was long gone. Still on her knees in the filthy mud and swamp water, Evangeline Albrite stared into the night sky, with a look of absolute rage in her eyes. She remained that way for a very long time, simply staring off into space, while all sorts of terrible, vengeful thoughts swirled inside her head. Her silver hair was a disheveled mess and she looked like a madwoman, or some sort of white demon alone in the night. But then she smiled, stood up, and brushed herself off. Evangeline spat out a red marble --a sphere of condensed acglophotis, the poison that had nearly killed her. She admired its ruby color in the light of the moon before tucking it into her pocket, for safekeeping. "I guess we're not friends after all," she said before she turned and began to walk back toward the others, exhausted, but too proud to show it.
After a brief pause, the massive, grotesque monster came charging out of the trees and swamp, screaming wildly. Mud kicked up behind him, as he knocked junk out of his way with what looked like a big...rusted junk metal axe, on his way to attack Quentin. Before Quentin knew, despite his efforts, the monster had Quentin gripped by the throat, raised off the ground. "MEEEEAAAT!" It screamed, angrily, yet triumphantly, as it dragged the rusted war axe through the mud, ready to chop Quentin in half like a piece of meat. When suddenly, everyone's ears were filled with deafening explosive cacophony which a proper merc would recognize as gun shot sounds from a particularly powerful revolver, as the beats face was hit, with round big enough to leave massive blemishes in both the armored and unarmored bits of his face, yet the force was barely enough to jog its head. A second later, Clayton's heel came down on Meat's head with great force. While the monster seemed to barely notice, it dropped Quentin in the mud, and grabbed for Clayton, who leaped out of the way.
Sigh... Aeon thought he could take a short nap hidden within the woods close to the church, yet the turmoil he could heard coming from the warehouse turned into a bother. He was bound by a contract, surely, he would faithfully follow it, yet he would also not follow any extra problem that arises and it's not stated within the contract, at the same time, he would work however he feels like unless his contract tells otherwise. Hence why he didn't worry about throwing a tree and gathering the attention of pretty much all the cultist. He was told it was a stealth job yet nothing bound him to that rule. There was a clausule though that specified: In case of direct engagement with the enemy, A (Aeon) should bring all his support to F (The team) and, by the use of any skills, preserve the safety of F. As Joe and Rue weren't originally part of their team, he didn't care about whatever was going on in the church. Yet those close to the warehouse were apparently in trouble and that meant he couldn't rest. He lazily stood up, picked a rock and mumbled. "Rearm" His magic commanded the rock he disarmed previously to rejoin into its previous form, said rock was close to the warehouse. All this traduced into the small portion of rock flying at great speed to the warehouse while being held by Aeon, turning it into a quick method to return to the place. In a couple of seconds flying at moderate speed he saw it, the creature. "Isabella, rearm" He ordered to some of the plates within his clothe to recreate the shape of the gun, or at least a portion of it as it had only one cannon. Aeon aimed carefully and shot against the creature hoping to not miss this time. Is really hard to aim while you're flying at 60 mph thought with a dumb smile plastered over his face.
The rock smashed into the ground inches away from the monster, kicking up dust and briefly creating a smog around the monster. It looked like if an artillery shell had been shot and blasted right in front of it, but it remained unphased (as should come as no shock.) "MEEEEEEEAAAAAAATTTTT!" It yelled again, this time getting on Clayton's nerves. Didn't this fucking...thing say anything else? Speaking of Clayton, the rock Aeon shot had landed closer to Clayton than the monster, ripping flesh away from the ribs. This bugged Clayton, but not the pain. Vampires were substantially dulled to pain. What bugged Clayton was the reckless behavior of Aeon and how he seemed more apathetic to the mission than anything. Once again, Clayton leaped into the air to attack the monster, but this time clinging to it like a bug, and, pulling out the automatic shotgun, unloading on it's face (of course, this did a hell of a lot of good the first time, so you can guess the result this time.) Ignoring Clayton's shots, the monster swung an arm wide, and grabbed for Aeon.
