Then it falls from his hands and he gently kicks it away. Slumping against the top of the stairs, he closes his eyes completely exhausted. There's the whisper of smoke and burning wood from the dance-floor.
Initiative
ROAB shotgun, leader - 9 Acted
Sal - 6 Acted / Readying
Danny - 5
Aximeus- 4
Dragon Emperor - 2
Kenneth - 0
Danny rolls his eyes in relief as the wounded man drops his gun and staggers out.
"Nice work." He says with a tired smirk to Sal. "You ever think about taking that act on the road?"
Danny looks at the Emperor, and the leashes still lying on the floor behind him, and his smirk dies, to be replaced with cold, furious anger.
He doesn't remember moving, nor picking up the shotgun, but he's standing there, holding the shotgun in one hand, fully extended, leveled at the 'Emperor's' head.
He realizes somewhere inside that it is not the best way to be holding a heavy firearm. But it looks cool on all those movies. And he's not really in a rational mood right now.
"You come here. You attack and hurt people, you kidnap and hurt MY friends. You rant about being the dragon, but your just a Geico Gecko with delusions of grandeur. Go ahead. Give me ONE good reason not to kill you." He growls.
The armoured figure starts to shake as he parries yet more of the attacks, motion getting more vigourous until it explodes in a belly laugh. A hoarse and painful laughter that grates on the nerves.
Through the helm there is the wide glimmer of pale eyes, staring in concentration.
"..haha....Foolish Mortal." He screams, the fires licking at the ceiling.
Danny's eyes narrow.
"Yeah. That's what I thought. You got nuthin'."
The shotgun starts to weigh heavy, and it begins to lower slightly. So Danny grips it in two hands, like a normal person. When he speaks, it is through clenched teeth, speaking oddly out of one side of his mouth in a snarl/drawl.
"You know, in all the excitement, I lost count of how many shots this thing fired. He!!, I don't even know how many shots it holds. But considering that this is a shotgun, at point-blank range one of the deadliest weapons in the world, you have to ask yourself one question."
"'Do I feel lucky'?"
"Well,... Do ya?,... PUNK?"
"Bwahahahahahahahah"
Whether he get's the quote or not his hysterical laughter echoes violently in the small room.
Danny blinks at the hysterical Emperor.
"Yeeeeeeah,... Dragon go bye-bye now."
Axe in rage keeps attacking the Emperor until he is dead; if he is already dead then attack a ghost
sword back to normal.
petty mortal, I think NOT!
Spinning wildly the armoured figure deflects blow after blow, clearly an exquisite swordsman - his martial prowess is evident. Though clearly pressured by the pair of excellent swordsmen, he deflects blow after blow as they get closer and closer to scoring a significant hit.
Despite the delirium he battles on, clipping away Aximeus' thrusts causing them to just miss. Whilst with a pivot he slides away from the flaming arcs of the Celts blade. Then Danny's words, as sharp and piercing as any foil, they pierce the Emperors' mind.
Deep bass of the maniacal laughter reverberates through the chamber, sonic waves echoing in the chests of those around. Then Kenneth feints in a deft series of strokes causing him to back away, the kata would end with a killing blow. However Kenneth throws it not, the figure ducks from the expected stroke.
Aximeus, survivor of a thousand battle fields, knows what to do. In his fury; the ancient weapon swings in an inexorable arc predicting the future. The sound of tearing metal is horrific.... cutting off the laughter.
Turning into the heroes blow, shearing through the neck of the armour. The occupied helm falls to the floor, the neck stump pulsing blood as the still beating heart throw the last remnants of vitae to splash upon the deck.
As the headless body thumps to the floor, it seems like the armour darkens and corrodes. Specks flake away, it cracks and breaks - the anima lost. Ageing accelerates as the armour looses coherency before the eye.
Black motes, ashen flecks break up and burst from the body - in an explosive wave - a final farewell from the armour. A concussive blast capable of knocking the sturdy from their feet. The roof of the chamber explodes outwards.
The specks darkness float upon convection currents, slowly fluttering like butterflies in the night. Then they coalesce for a moment, high in the sky into the form of a black dragon. It moves east before drifting organically apart, it's magic lost... for now.
Min and Lin look from where they are stood upon the deck, while Letitia looks on protectively. "Is it over?" they ask in unison.
Kenneth watches the display, paying little attention to the burning boat, Aye, Lady, when I agree tae fight for ye, I dinnae ever think I'd be called 'pon to slay an actual dragon.... He chuckles slightly at that thought and then turns back to his companions with a smirk, "I hope the rich politicians enjoy the fireworks.... Just as well Axe finished him off... The St. George's cross is the symbol of the bastirt English oppressors, ye ken."
Seeing Sal's state, he whispers a word in Gaelic, Ionnlaid, the Flames of Kildare rising through him, and releasing the Fires of the Hearth, slowly erasing the damage caused by the shotgun blast.
Danny watches the final display, pursing his lips appreciatively at the theatricality of the dragon's flaming farewell.
Min and Lin look from where they are stood upon the deck, while Letitia looks on protectively. "Is it over?" they ask in unison.
The familiar voices snap Danny out of his reverie, and into the realization that they aren't, quite, out of danger yet.
"It's all over but the curtain call! 'Exit! Stage Left'!" He smirks in his best 'Snaggletooth' drawl.
He stops only once as he hustles the girls towards the boats. He looks back at the rising flames and grins,
"Now THAT'S what I call a finale!"
A sudden burst of fire and sparks make him duck.
"Yepshow'sovertimetogo!" Danny pushes Lin and Min unceremoniously towards the boats.
Sal sighs with relief as the singer picks up the fallen shotgun. She is tempted to relax her guard on the bloody man in the suit, but fears he might have a concealed pistol. Unfortunately, getting up the stairs to check would be way too difficult with her head spinning, and she doesn't want to show weakness to the enemy.
She can hear the clashing of swords and armor and risks a glance, but the swirling battle is far too dynamic to risk shooting into. Not with her vision slipping between one, two, and three images with alarming regularity.
The man at the top of the stairs is slumped unmoving still, and she begins to relax, ignoring the sounds of battle, when the sudden concussion of the Dragon Emperor's passing catches her by surprise, hurling her to the floor to curl up protectively yet again.
The sharp odors of blood and gunsmoke bring memories rushing back, and she is surprised, when she opens her eyes, to see wood and fire and stars instead of rocks, dirt, and the bloodied corpses of comrades and friends. She rises groggily to hands and knees, then to one knee to see the three men standing over the Dragon's headless corpse, sparks spiraling lazily into the night sky. The blue-eyed man's lips move, but she cannot hear him over the roaring in her head. Then he turns to her and speaks briefly, eyes suddenly ablaze, and warmth washes through her injured shoulder. She raises it gingerly, testing, and it seems to function better, though any diminution in pain is lost amid the clanging agony in her skull. Kenneth. That was Kenneth. The one Trip told her about.
The singer sprints upwards, ushering the three women - she had forgotten about the Warden - away from the steps, presumably to the boat. Good. They hadn't gotten caught in whatever this was, and he had the shotgun, keeping it away from the bodyguard. Good again.
Sal staggers to her feet and up the stairs. The suited man is still slumped, breathing heavily. She grabbes his suitcoat shoulder and shakes it with her left hand, keeping him covered with the pistol in her right. "Come on. We've got to get moving." Her speech is probably too loud, but she isn't certain he can hear well either, after that blast. She tugs, trying to haul him to his feet and to the boat and leave the swordsmen to their moment of triumph. It has to be a brief moment, though. The fire is still burning.
Upon the varnished hardwood floor is the naked body of a youthful Chinese man.
To one side his head lies a serene, but vacant, smile upon his visage. Not the hard-bitten arrogant sot that his voice implies; instead the is the shadow of his teens still a memory over his countenance.
The small fires slowly flick up the walls...
Upon the stairs the suited man looks at Sal, apathy written over what few parts of his face you can see. He yields to her pulling and slowly rises to his feet leaning his head near the snipers shoulder. The man seems to be uncaring about the pistol pointed at him.
Against the dark night there is the flicker of flames below the deck, the centre blasted away in the explosion from the dragons death.
Upon the foredeck there's a wane call. "ERrrr .... Help? Are you leaving me." The man with his hand skewered to the table stands ther looking forlornly
The damaged shotgun man looks at Sal through thin slits of eyes, his face already dark with black blood. It's peeling slowly away as he leans into the woman and whispers. From his pocket is a slight crackling and the tablet there seems stuck on a single page, fused by magic.
The Conclave
It has come to our attention that the Lady Marionette, of the Red Court, is to visit York. The exact details are not known however; it is an important conclave. She is to meet with the Ghoul King, Winter Court and another Faction at the conjunction of the rivers. It is rumoured the werewolves will provide some measure of security.We must kill them, for someone of her power to be vulnerable is unusual. We should call in "Lee Haskins".
Sal calls "Somebody grab my knife, and make that guy carry his friend to the boat, if he's not dead." She escorts her prisoner to the boat and makes sure he gets into it, whispering back to the man.
Axe slumps to his knees, I need a second to catch my breath
Danny looks back and forth between Axe and the twins. Obviously torn between concern for his injured (if large and very self-sufficient) friend, and the twins holding on to his arms. Although for their part, they may be clutching Danny in relief, but they are glaring venomous daggers at the former shotgun-wielder and injured goons lying on the deck.
"Make it a quick second big guy, The grill is heating up!" He says, looking nervously at the flickering light now showing from the doorway they just exited.
With a nod, Danny and the girls head over to assist the injured Greek warrior. Looking at Axe's wounds he purses his lips in surprise at the mans fortitude. "Hey Ken! Lend a hand here willya?" he calls. With a look at the goon with the hand still pinned to the table, he rolls his eyes. "I'll get the human pincushion.' he adds resignedly.
As the girls try to help Axe stand, Danny heads over to the man with the knife through his hand. Danny grins charmingly as he leans over and wraps a hand around the knife handle.
"Hi there. Tell ya what's gonna happen. I'm going to 'unpin' you, your going to pick up your friend and get to the boat. Your going to row like the devil himself is after you. Your going to make an anonymous call from a pay phone, and tell the police everything that you saw here. Then your going to vanish, get a real job, and never stick your nose anywhere near this line of work again."
Danny leans in closer and whispers, "Because if the lady or I EVER see you again, it won't be your HAND she puts the knife through. Kapish?" He asks with a dangerous grin, glancing pointedly below the man's belt. Danny then yanks the knife out without any warning.
"After you!" Danny says charmingly, gesturing the way to the boat with the knife.
Danny steps over towards Sal and holds out the knife towards her, handle first.
"I believe you dropped this?" He grins.
I'll be ok; just need a pressure bandage or two real quick, if you can wrap it real quick we can go.
Sal gives the ROAB man a final shove in the general direction of the escape vessel, then tries to take the knife from Danny. She misses miserably a couple of times, then holds her hand still. "Set it there, please," she murmurs, "Ugh. Blood." She wipes the blood off on her skirt and resheathes the knife slowly and carefully. "Thank you."
She waves at the ROAB man with the pistol, directing him to the boat. "In. Now. Monster." Anxiously, she glances back towards the stairs to see if the others are on their way out before she makes any attempt to board the small boat.
Kenneth looks at the iPad and scowls, grabbing the thing and dropping it into his sporran. Hopefully, we can use this information to find that monster..
As Danny calls, Kenneth shakes himself out of the dark place, and nods, "Got it.". He approaches the mighty warrior, surveying his wounds and then chuckling at his suggestion, "Bandages? I can dae better than that, ye ken.". He places a hand on the woven cross around his neck, whispering, "Ionnlaid", slowly directing some of the healing powers of the Fires of the Hearth into Aximeus while helping him to his feet.
He pauses a moment and calls back over his shoulder, "And, Danny, laddie, dinnae think I dinnae notice ye keeping the cute girls for yourself during our escape..."
He pauses a moment and calls back over his shoulder, "And, Danny, laddie, dinnae think I dinnae notice ye keeping the cute girls for yourself during our escape..."
"Sorry. HAbit." Danny grins impishly, winking at the twins.
"I promised him some medical assistance if he'd stand down. And he did." Sal points at the bloodied ROAB man. "I'd like to not be proven a liar, if you gentlemen can see your way clear to helping him. You were... a bit busy at the time, fighting that dragon thing. But it didn't look like a dragon..."
"We'd better get out of here before the cops get here. Trip's letting me housesit while he's laid up. If you can drop me there...? I need aspirin and to sleep for a week," Sal slurs, looking muzzily towards the shore. "Much as I agree with their idea of taking out the Red Court, I couldn't take out a militant rat right now."
Kenneth says, "He dinnae seem likely tae bleed out just yet -- let's get away from the flames and I'll look at him on shore?"
Sal nods at Kenneth, grabs her head as she wishes she hadn't nodded, and gingerly clambers into the boat, squeezing past the current passengers to the bow, where she crouches as before and leaves the seats for others.
She scowls at the pistol in her hand as she waits for the others to board. With deft, practiced hands she pops the clip and pockets it, clears the chamber, and wipes any prints off it with her shirt. It goes over the side into the depths of the lake. "No point having more of these things around for amateurs to hurt themselves with," she grumbles, then leans her head against the gunwale wearily.
"One, one, two, three, five, eight, thirteen, twenty one, thirty four..." she mumbles softly, eyes closed.
Axe looks up at Danny in surprize at the healing hmm; interesting
How much does this heal Axe?
looks about,
so, we sinking this ship? I dont like leaving my blood around and don't want any water creatures getting it; need a fire or some sand or something to scatter on it then we can leave
Danny points to the flames now visible through the doorway as he hops into the motor boat after the girls.
"It's all taken care of! Anything you left will be toast long before the boat sinks. Can we go now?" He asks with a big, nervous smile.
The boat pulls out onto the lake, the sentries from earlier have made their getaway in the non-motorised dragon boat. Thus their path across to shore is slow and faltering. Although after Danny's warning maybe they will go upon the straight and narrow.
Looking aboard the small motorboat, the twins lean into Danny and Letitia sits in the prow looking back down the length of the boat. The ROAB man sits slumped at Sals words, appearing downcast although there's a slight smirk to the beaten man.
In the distance, the house is illuminated with the flashing lights of the flashing lights of Fire & Police services.
Sal raises her head to regard the flashing lights, then lays it back against the gunwale with a groan. "Great. The authorities are always so understanding about things like this. Let me out here, please. Not sure I can stand much scrutiny, if you know what I mean. I can swim."
Letitia looks to the blood-stained man, concerned. "We can still sneak away.... although I have some clout. What do we do about him?" The boat starts to chug towards the dock, down the slope and nearly a mile from the house.
"He tried to nuke London, Warden. He needs to stand trial somewhere, in some court," Sal replies tiredly.
"And since he was trying to blackmail the Prime Minister, I'm sure he won't get away with it." Letitia adds.
The mans' face slightly drops realising that they have foiled all his plans. "Make a deal?" he wheezes out.
Kenneth smiles, "Perhaps lad, though I warn ye, we're not exactly Monty Haul, ye ken. My own justice tends tae be a mite more... permanent than you may like."
He looks up, accidentally catching Letita's gaze for a moment and unable to break the shared glance for a moment.
Sal tilts her head to glare back at the suited man. "I said we'd get you healed up. There were no more promises. You have nothing to deal with. What do you think could outweigh the lives of all those people in London? Frankly, I don't give a damn about blackmailing politicians. But killing innocents? How do you expect to get out of this alive, mister?"
"There's always an angle, especially when you wield power." he replies smoothly; "You see, I know she's coming to town... I know who our death-squads are supposed to hit." his grey eyes glance at the fritzed iPad.
The twins look up at the mention of 'Nuke London', then look at Danny, who makes 'All taken care of. No big deal' noises.
Danny then looks at the bedraggled man with a smirk.
"I think you seriously overestimate the value of power. Especially when compared to the value of lives. But go ahead, give us your best shot." He says, No Obvious signs of realizing the pun, but the twins both groan.
He smirks: "Me no. I'm not one of you Satanic freaks, I trust in the power of politics, networking and being of proper social standing." Leaning against the boat, his words hold no anger. "What I can give you in knowledge, security and maybe redemption."
Kenneth says, "Ah, so you trust in the kind of power that you dinnae hae tae sacrifice for, and can wield however you may like, rather than tha' what comes with obligations tae make the world a safer place for all, and nae just those who share with you a taste of their power?"
He looks the man straight in the eye and says, "And tha kind of power, and your offer, dinnae really sound appealing tae the likes of me, ye ken."
The bard shakes his head and asks with a sigh, "Hae we really learned so little from the old tales?"
Sal giggles softly, an unnerving sound. "Redemption? What do you know of redemption? Politics, networking, social standing -- none of those have anything to do with redemption," she says quietly. "So what do we do with this man who promises everything and offers nothing?"
Danny's eyes widen. A lot.
"Satanics?!? Really? I just love dealing with morons who get all judgmental when they don't have a CLUE what they're talking about." He sighs.
"Easy, Ms Salazar. Release me, I'll leave you alone - even give you some much needed intel and you'll never see me again." sat in the bow his eyes barely open, he turns his head to Danny. "I have a clue about alot of things and to give them a name gives them Power. Sacrificing is for your opponent to do to weaken his forces. You only give up a pawn when you can get one."
"I'll bet you were a joy back in chess club." Danny smirks.
But inside he worries, just a little. Despite Danny's earlier wisecrack, he DID talk like he had a clue. And the only thing worse than a fanatic,.. was a person convinced they were doing the right thing, no matter what they might have to do to achieve it.
"You don't have much to bargain with. I suggest you tell us whatever you can. We can decide if it's worth your freedom. We've already proved good faith, after all. You're not dead... yet," Sal scowls at the ROAB man, watching the lights on shore draw nearer. "Stop the boat. We need to finish this business before the authorities can see us."
Letitia stops the puttering engine, and the boat stops. Bobbing up and down upon the inky lake, the sudden chill after all the excitement. Upon the air is a slight tint of burnt wood. For a second the bloodied man looks to the depths of the lake considering his options.
But only for a moment, his arrogant smirk slips back across his features; "Well, where do you want me to start?" he waves his hand floppily waving away the question.
"Well, you heard that the Lord Lawrence, the Vampire fop, pervert and psycho. He has acquired a new servant, someone of great power. It's disturbed the balance here more, the other reason for your friend visiting." He looks spitefully to Letitia; "Thus the Poppy Court is sending his Sire, Marionette over here."
"There is to be a conclave, a conference with other Powers. Vampires trying to take a strangle-hold upon the city and eventually the world." he smiles visciously, knowing the import of his words.
"If that is too vague for you, well... I can tell you more." he offers softly.
Sal sighs and pulls her own pistol from its shoulder holster. "I hope for your sake that means something to the smarter people here. Because from where I sit, that's useless information. Vamps are always trying to take over the world." She manually chambers a round and levels the weapon at the suited man. "What do you think, ladies and gentlemen. Has he paid enough in information to make up for the millions he was willing to kill?"
Danny looks on with pursed lips.
"Yeah,... but they don't usually cooperate to do it. But I'm more in touch with the fae side of the street. Vamps aren't exactly my specialty. What do you think?" He asks, Looking at Letitia, Axe and Ken.
He keeps his arms around the girls, and notices that they go completely still at the mention of 'vamps taking over the world'. Almost as if they are holding their breaths.