Symphony of Blood

[M.U.T.O.]

He smiled -- a slightly unsettling toothy grin filled to the brim with malice toward most -- and patted Marcél on the shoulder. "It's good to see you, friend. Philadelphia's holding up perfectly. No humans to report. Real estate prices are at an all-time juuuust fine." He looked northeast. "I was actually taking a stroll through King Of Prussia. They have some...very interesting stuff there." He smiled, holding a card for the Lockheed Martin offices in the town.

He then looked over to the desecrated blood farm, seeing Samuel and Danielle walking toward it. "I see you brought the general and the tease, too." He smirked, chuckling a bit before sighing.

He plucked a leaf from the Scarlet Oak, holding it in front of his face. The water droplets reflected the rich red of his eyes, glowing a passive orange from some streaks of his iris' stromae. He smiled again, that revolting and yet friendly smile, before pocketing the leaf in his suit-jacket "How's the estate holding up under this weather?"

[Demon Lord Gira]

As the air grew colder, the hooded figure moved along the forest undergrowth. it could smell the blood in the air, a scent it well familiar with. Only a few hours ago, it had enjoyed a light course at a nearby town, and the scent of a kill nearby was driving its senses mad.

There was only room for one apex predator in this landscape.

It stopped. There, on a nearby leaf, was the blood it had picked up, and it was fresh. The being leaned over, and licked the blood, lowering down the hood to do so, before raising it back up. It was a mixture. A scuffle had happened not too long ago...

And the trail lead toward one of Marcel's blood farms.

The being narrowed its eyes. On the one hand, it was Persephone's orders to go and deal with this intrusion, but on the other... was it worth causing a potential issue over whatever was already going on there?

A low growl escaping its mouth, Minos moved on, moving toward the blood farm, and Marcel's territory. It would have to move quickly, or things could escalate... And though it craved for more flesh and blood, that would have to be put on the back burner for now...

[Godzilla The King]

In a remote part of the forrest, chanting can be heard in a large fortress. Inside vampires knelt, beasts and savages went into their tribal dances, held on leashes but still dancing to the chants. Several vampires were chained up, dressed normally, clearly several of Marcél's lower level workers. They were beaten and bleeding but left alive.

"Look at these lost children, these impure souls, the offspring of an impure world. Plagues upon this Earth." A deep and cultured voice boomed. "But we are not without mercy. Do these lost souls have any last thoughts? Maybe they have chosen to repent."

There was silence among the chained up vampires, none dared speak. Until one stood up, the owner of the deeper voice walked up to him. The deep voice belonged to an old man with red robes and white hair and a beard, which gave him an ancient look.

"What is it, child? Do you have any second thoughts? You can alter the course..." The voiced said sympathetically.

"Yeah...I have something to say." The vampire said.

"Go on."

"GO FUCK YOURSELVES! WHEN THE BOSS FINDS OUT-" The vampire shouted...

Only for his head to drop onto the ground, cut off at such a speed that one could barely see it.

"Poor children..." The leader mused to himself. "Do they not know the errors of their ways.

[DinoMaster]

The offer had been a tempting one. On one hand, such an invitation was an honor to receive from Marcel. The chance to go out, and let loose was always something of a boon. Too much time in the human form always led to a more terrifying and wild transformation, and less control. He would have easily have chosen the time to go out if the old soldier in him didn't hesitate with the "rag tag" group of humans that had been mentioned. He had seen it all too well when they had gone after some before. They had tried to sneak close, and attack the compound before. They had been able to handle it easy, and had sent a few after the last lone survivor up north.

But before he could pick a choice, Marcel had returned with bad news: One of the Blood Camps nearby had been hit, and pretty hard. The fact that only a single "donor" had been taken however, showed that this was far from a random assault. There was a target, and someone wanted them badly enough to kill the guards for. They weren't looking to free them at all, and a foe that would strike as such was something to be wary of. He said none of this as the trio prepared to leave, and watched as they drove off. Standing there out waiting, one of the servants of Marcel approached him cautiously.

"Would you like me to call a vehicle for you?"


"That won't be necessary. I'll follow by the sky."

With that, he simply turned and began the transformation. As bones shifted and changed, muscles reworked themselves, and skin tore to fur, he remained fairly silent. Marcel had asked once if the process was a painful thing to do, to which he had replied no. For him at least, it was as if he was popping jammed joints and becoming what he really was. His face jerked as it lengthened into a snout, and fangs erupted out of the jaw. The arms soon became wings, and the beast took off into the air with only a single, piercing screech. His mind, thus far, was still intact inside the body, and Schlager had full control. Taking with the currents some, he began to follow the car while remaining as a sentry from the sky. Anything that seemed fishy, and he'd swoop down without a second's hesitation.

Seeing that the fly over had been smooth, Schlager landed in a tree not too far away from the sight of the camp. While not in direct eyesight of the other viewers, he could see (and hear) them with general ease. Black fur helped blend in to dark trees at night anyhow. With the other person that they greeted however, his blood chilled some. He had seen that face before, many years ago and much sooner too. While he did not know Lucre well personally, he had seen the carnage he could do back on the battlefields in Romania. If he was here, then this had gone more serious than he was anticipating.
_______________________________________________________________________________________

The Wendigo had stopped on his prowl south, as something had actually approached him. The knowledge of the shell that he occupied labelled them quickly as "Dover Demons." The spirit however, knew better. These were guardians, nature spirits that patrolled around back in the first age of the Supernatural. The fact that there was one that had greeted him, let alone the dozen or so around him, was impressive. Even he had felt in his banishment from the mortal realm the destruction that they had done to the planet. Perhaps these vampires were doing more good than he had placed on them. He communicated with them in ways that no living thing could do, which was only interrupted by one thing.

The scent of blood.

He instantly snapped his head, the hunger inside suddenly tearing at him. The Dover Demons scattered back and vanished, just in case. The being of the north tore through the forest at break neck speeds, passing through trees faster than any human could ever dream of. He soon found the outskirts of the source of the smell as a reinforced fortress. Remaining in the trees, he eyed with frosted over lids at the place. While he could smell the blood and meat inside, the outside was fairly formidable. Seeing the canons at the tops was no joke, and he had no way of knowing if this was Marcel's or not. It chose instead to go and wait, simply to see what would happen. Patience was something that he had in droves at the moment.

[Demon Lord Gira]

Several dozen meters away, and perfectly still, was Minos. It too had been drawn by the smell of blood, and was aware of the Wendigo's presence. It lay at the edge of the forest, serpent eyes focused on the fortress before it. This was where the blood had come from... This was where the feast lay.

it prepared to step forward, but froze. Patrols were moving around the exterior of the fortress, mere meters away from Minos's hiding place. If it tried to make a move now, the sentries above would spot it, and any element of surprise would be lost. Even worse that the defenses on the outside, it knew not what lurked within.

But, the scent was tantalizing. It drove the being mad, saliva dripping down from the hood.

But first, it had to report back to Persephone. This was news she would definitely want to hear.

Turning around and supressing the hunger urges, the shadow slunk back into the approaching night, not a sound to be heard. Soon, they would get their due...

[Vatarian]

"Lord Marcel?"

Came the voice of the blonde Vampire captain who had discovered the carnage. She moved at a walk-jog towards them, standard-issue boots, well polished and free of wear, clipping quietly against the earth as she approached.

"It's an honor I wish I was receiving under kinder circumstances."

She bowed her head, then saluted, expression severe, and faintly nervous.

"Sir there are.... Unusual circumstances surrounding this attack. The destruction here..... None of it matches the MO of any weapon in the resistance arsenal or... Well. Any arsenal availible to domestic terrorist groups or insurgents. None of it matches any weapon at all."

[M.U.T.O.]

"Hmm?" Lucre leaned over Marcel's shoulder, eyebrow raised in curiosity at the security woman. Giving a quick one-over toward her attire, the tall vampire strode forward and bowed.

"I don't believe we've met. You can call me...Lucas, if you wish." He chose to follow his pseudonym. "An old friend of the Lord's. Mind if I have a look around?"

[Godzilla165]

Marcél listened carefully to the captain's words, and was a little baffled by what he heard. If resistance groups weren't behind this apparently, then who or what was? Marcél needed answers and details, of which he wouldn't get by standing out here. As such, he motioned Lucre to follow he and the captain inside.

"I want a detailed sweep of the entire area, understood? No stone needs to be left unturned, and whatever security footage that we can salvage will help greatly. We'll find who's responsible." Marcél calmly ordered as he walked deeper inside inside the farm. He spotted Samuel and Danielle talking with a human security officer, and all three quickly bowed upon seeing him.

Marcél gave them all a small nod, before refocusing on the task at hand. "Samuel, I need you to gather a small team together, and check the area surrounding the farm for any clues. Whatever samples, or scents you may find, report back to me at once." He stated firmly.

Samuel nodded firmly and marched briskly toward the main building to gather some troops. Marcél then turned his attention onto Danielle, whom of which was already eyeing him down saucily.

"As for you, Ms. Riley. See if you can help the guards in the security tower, in trying to recover any footage of what happened here." Marcél calmly instructed.

Danielle smiled sweetly. "Anything for you, my liege." She winked and strutted off to the tower.

Marcél sighed to himself and glanced at Lucre. "Whoever is responsible for this, you can be damn sure their head will soon decorate my office." He sneered. "Oh, and the estate here is just fabulous. I own most of everything, after all."

[MoarCrossovers]

It is logical to fear the dark, for that is where monsters are born.

Dozens of ugly, snarling forms crawled out of ruined buildings, from under upturned vehicles and from loosened manhole covers. The creatures were not a pack, they cared little for one another. They were a swarm, attracted to the same thing as their sane counterparts: the smell of blood.

The horde of feral vampire scuttled like bugs across the sides and roofs of buildings towards the source of the smell that assaulted their nostrils. For a human, to injure yourself during the night was like ringing a dinner bell for the starving swarm. Up ahead, beams of light shone up to the darkened sky, alerting the hungry creatures to the location of their next meal.

It was only minutes later that the horde arrived at their destination. A brief spark of confusion crossed their sunken features at the sight of mutilated corpses strewn up in thick white webbing, but was quickly replacing by the hunger that gnawed at their insides. One of the beasts stepped forward...

...And screamed as its legs began to dissolve in a pool of acid.

The others scrambled back in alarm as their 'comrade' was dissolved before their very eyes. Of all the creatures of the night, feral vampires were not the easiest to scare. A hulking figure took the horde by surprise as it slammed into one of their number from the side. The mindless creature howled a terrifying sound as a bone sword pierced its heart before it went limp on the blade. Its owner flicked its corpse off and turned to face the amassed bloodsuckers. It opened its mouth, bringing rows of triangular teeth to bear. The feeling of fear passed over the swarm like a wave, filling what little of their souls remained with dread before quickly dissipating. The creatures were starving, and desperate to the point that they would dare attack a solitary lycanthrope.

Two more forms emerged from the shadows and joined the wereshark as it brandished its weapons at the horde of ferals. Humanoid, hulking versions of a shark, crocodile and spider snarled at the bloodsuckers, letting them know they would not take their meal without a fight. The vampire swarm quickly dispersed, crawling back to whatever dark hole they crawled from. Taking on one lycanthrope was risky enough. Fighting three was downright suicide.

[M.U.T.O.]

"Of course, friend. Of course." Lucre smiled, laughing as he strode forward into the blood camp. It didn't take long to notice the deep gashes in the concrete. He stooped down, eyeing the profile of the cut and laying his head down next to them to get a good view of the shape.

What he could discern from these gashes is that whatever had made them must've been powerful. But the semi-crudeness of the gashes, however...not to mention the lack of any sign of a machine capable of making the shape of the gashes in the immediate area, it led to one conclusion. But it didn't make sense.

"Well, I have some doubts, but..." The towering vampire said, standing up and folding his arms. "I'm just gonna go out on a limb and say it doesn't seem mechanical. Other than that, I don't know."

He brushed some hair from in front of his face. "I just don't know what could've caused this, Marcel." His lips grew taut as he looked around. "Think it'll be easy to repair, though?"

[Vatarian]

"Those are burns,"

The captain offered, gesturing to the concrete.

"Use your nose, and you'll detect carbonization directly within and around the area. It took us a little while to realize. The odor surrounding the entire camp.... Cooked flesh, burnt bones, molten metal."

She took another step.

"It's a little overwhelming. And once we did realize that what we were looking at were burns.... Very clean burns, with little visible evidence of a critical-point or any visible charring.... We realized, well, sir, that whatever did this was extremely powerful, extremely hot, and extremely controlled and precise."

She stepped past a vampire using welding-tools to very carefully parse up chunks of wreckage.

"As for security footage..... The data we recovered from onsite cameras and monitors was... Trash. Garbage. Completely corrupted by massive amounts of short-wave and broad-spectrum interference. Shear signal noise, if you will. We have no usable video to go off, and the only recovered audio consists of washed-out crashing noises and what was probably gunfire."

She continues walking.

"What we do have.....And this, if you'll forgive me sir, is apparently "very interesting" to the tech-heads at our data labs... Is.... MASSIVE radio noise during and proceeding the attacks, recorded inadvertantly by our local tower and shortwave sensory equipment."

Another vampire approached her, handing her a slender tablet, and she nodded, thanking him.

"My lord,sirs, if you'll look.... This data represents normal radio-traffic and signal-detection on any given night..."

She pressed play on the video filling the left hand of the screen. A greenish-black screen was periodically lit up by neat, vaguely conical and eliptical bursts, coming from security officers' personal radios, the in-vehicle radios of the camp's armored gunner-jeeps, and larger, distant signals sent directly to the on-site tower from hundreds of miles away.

"That's any given night at the camp. Normal activity. Now,"

She stopped the video, and pressed play on the other. The one that dominated the right hand side of the screen.

"Here we have very early this morning. During the time of the attack."

Something like an enchroaching amoeba, some protoplasmic mass of signal and noise, crept onto the outskirts of the screen. Other transmission sources went haywire, seeming to glom onto the encroaching blob, or be absorded or drawn into it. It continued moving onto the screen, until it obscured nearly a third of the display, which represented over 54 square miles, in thick, chaotic, opaque radio-noise. The video flickered, as if disrupted. The screen grew silvery with staic for a moment, then cleared. The mass seemed to spin and girate.... Like. Almost like a sort of storm.

"We believe the camp may have tried to contact outside forces. Alert them of the anomaly before the attack. But we'll never know. No one could get a signal through that, and, well.... No one did. Or the situation might be different."

The video continued, and, rapidly, the signal-storm fell over the camp, holding there for several minutes, then..... Dispersing. The video reached its end.

"My lord, at first we thought it was some sort of mechanized jammer in action.... Resistance groups could very well come into possession of something like that. But no jammer.... No manufactured technology is both that constant and utterly chaotic. What we are looking at is not human or vampire technology as we have ever seen it before. It behaves more like a storm. Or..."

She sighed.

"A signal-burst from deepspace. The byproducts of a star."

She shook her head.

"Everyone I've spoken to about the issue has said that thing is baffling, no acception here. No one has seen anything like it in this context."

[Godzilla165]

Marcél studied the footage and frowned. This was unlike anything else that he had ever seen before. Worse yet, every bit of footage was apparently all but useless. Marcél glanced down at the scorch marks in the ground, and saw just how deep they were. He eyed Lucre with a look of bemusement, and then looked at the tablet in the captain's hands.

"I want all of this information catalogued and sent out to our specialist labs offsite, in Ohio. I want it ready and in transit by morning. " Marcél ordered whilst strolling toward the central tower, containing the human subjects.

"If they can't decipher even the tiniest bit of information, then no one can at the moment. In the meantime, let's get this place cleaned up, and all ruined materials scrapped. I'll order some new gear tomorrow."

Marcél then motioned for both Lucre and the captain, to follow him into the main discussion room. They needed to come up with a plan of defense, should anything like this were to happen again.

Meanwhile, Samuel had gathered a ten man squad of guards together. They were all currently and methodically scouring the landscape outside the farm, for any possible tracks, skin fragments, ripped clothing, etc. Anything that could possibly be valuable information, would be like finding gold.

[Demon Lord Gira]

The forest's silence was both a blessing and a curse for Minos. With no other noise beside the occasional rustle in the leaves, it meant the fiend had to be particularly cautious as it moved about. It made sure each step she took avoided any fallen twigs, loose footing, branches that could give away its position to anything else at a moment's notice.

But, it also meant if something else DID make a sound, Minos would know of it instantly.

As such, when the sounds of chains and snarls reached its ears, Minos was quick to lay low and approach slowly. Before the eyes of the fiend, was a trail that lead back toward the fortress it had seen. And coming along that trail, as if without a care in the world, were three vampires, wearing identical garb to the ones at the top of the fortress. No doubt, they had come back from some failed raid or patrol. Though they had weapons and chains in hand, Minos watched as they came down the trail toward it, obscured by the foliage and leafs. It was a neutral wind, favoring neither side.

The predator tensed, waiting for just the right moment to spring...

[Vatarian]

"Yessir,"

The Captain nodded her head sharply.

"Cleanup is already in progress so far as I know, sir. It's just going a little slow--- forensics want to sniff around every single speck of dust before we so much as touch it. Anything to find evidence pointing towards what might have done this, sir."

She handed the tablet back to the vampire who had given it to her, muttered Marcel's orders to him quickly and quietly, and sent him off, before following the vampire lord herself.

[Godzilla The King]

As the patrols walked along the walls, they felt a coldness in the air, something that even in their armor they were afraid of. Broadswords and crossbows, while used efficiently, could only do so much against sheer power. So they turned to another.

"Brother, do you feel this same darkness, an eye lingering on us?" The vampire asked.

"Aye, something...somewhere, wants a feast. We'll give it a fight." The swordsman of the group said.

[Demon Lord Gira]

What the vampires didn't realize, was that death would greet them so soon.

There was only a moment of realization as the cloaked figure leaped out of the foliage like a starved lion, metallic talons glistening in the fading light. The third member of the patrol who had lagged behind was just a little slower than the other two, a little too late to realize what was happening, and Minos landed on top of the vampire. Beneath its weight, it was crumpled in an instant, the metal claws ripping into its flesh and crushed bone.

Wasting no time, Minos whirled, and from the cloak emerged a sinister scythe, almost as large as Minos itself, and a venemous growl rumbled from the fiend's maw as it eyed down the other two, who had their weapons trained on it.

Now began.... the feast.

[Godzilla The King]

The vampires screeched as one shot his crossbow at Minos, hoping to damage the beast with the bolt. Fear was what led the Brothers to fight this thing, the swordsman letting out a savage yell as he swung his sword in an almost certainly futile attempt to kill the beast.
_________________________________________
Trevor found nothing in the little shack beyond the body, he let out a sigh as he walked out into the cold air. But the mystery was not over, he had to find out about the people drained of their blood...not usual vampire behavior. Odd...

[Demon Lord Gira]

Minos ducked low, letting the bolt and the sword swing miss with ease. Following the motion, it swung the scythe upward, and knocked the blade out of the other vampire's grip, before following up with a swift kick into his stomach, sending the disarmed bloodsucker sprawling on his back. Refusing to let the momentum stop, it then used its other foot to leap toward the crossbow vampire, scythe prepared to slice it in half...

[Godzilla165]

"Search the area! Lord Marcél wants whatever information we can find on hour attacker. No stone will be left unturned, and we will scour the area all night if we have to. Get to work!" Samuel barked as he and his squad made it out into the forest. The guards immediately got to work in covering every inch of the Earth, trying to locate any clues.

In their hands were handled thermal and residue detectors, specially designed for picking up high amounts of heat and any kind of waste. On their faces were custom made night vision goggles, and infrared lights mounted on top.

Samuel, on the other hand required none of that. He only needed his highly sensitive nose, natural vampiric sight, and his extraordinary tracking abilities. They might not find anything spectacular, but Samuel would make damn sure that they'd find something.

____________________

Once Marcél reached the meeting room, he took a seat at the head of the table, and motioned for the captain to find a seat. The room was nothing special or luxurious, but it was functional and got the job done. An incredibly long and wide white board decorated the front, while a giant flatscreen TV covered the rear. The lights were currently at their highest setting, and automatically adjusted with the time of day.

"Have a seat, captain." Marcél casually ordered. "We need sufficient defense procedures in place here, in case something like this were to ever happen again."

Marcél leaned back a bit in his seat, and began tapping on the steel table. "We cannot afford to have another strike of this caliber, to happen again. I understand that none of us were really prepared for this to happen, but that's merely an excuse now, isn't it? Excuses aren't exactly an option for me."

Marcél leaned himself forward and crossed his hands together. A look of both determination, and subtle anger enveloped his face.

"What a night this has been." He murmured.

[Vatarian]

It seemed in poor taste and potentially very dangerous to mutter that the night had only just begun, and that tempting fate was unwise, so the captain simply found a seat, not quite suppressing a small sound of fatigue as her butt hit the chair.

"My Lord, as of now, the only pre-emptive measure we have is to comb the perimeters of all faculities equipped with radio-scanners and watch out for system-brownouts. We've already broadcast a high-priority memo on the issue to all facilities and units, and sent discreet emails urging caution."

She massaged her forehead with one pinky finger. Vampires couldn't really get wrinkles or grey hair from stress, but the captain looked, at the very least, like she'd seen more than she wanted to see in a lifetime over the course of the day. Haggard, was the word. Like a human did after crying. It was very possible the captain had been crying at some point.

"Relations and intel departments both agreed it was in everyone's best interest to keep details fairly minimal. We want to keep people on their toes, not scare them."

She maintained an aura of professionality despite her obvious stress.

"Of course, your decision supercedes theres. If you wish to send more detailed reports, or.... Well. Anything else?"

She waved a hand.