Symphony of Blood

[Demon Lord Gira]

The crossbowing vampire had little chance to react before Minos was upon him. The weapon has only enough time to fire, but the arrow, and the cross bow, were cleaved in two. With its other hand, Minos grabbed the vampire by the throat, and lifted him off the ground. Its nails dug into the vampire's neck, and Minos was about to rip into it, when it sensed the fleeing presence of the Wendigo. Suddenly, callous behavior gave way for caution, and Minos put the scythe back within the cloak.

The vampire gargled and thrashed, trying to free itself from the fiend's grasp, but Minos's grip was immovable. The creature quickly turned, and walked off, but not before using its other hand to grab at the ruined carcass of the first vampire. That it would feast on later tonight, but the live one... it had other plans for it.

Persephone would be quite interested in hearing what this one had to say.

[Vatarian]

"Drones are on the s-"

Just as the techy began to speak, there was a noise like a gunshot from the cargo plane's camera-feed, and, far below, a section of ice exploded. It took up only several pixels on the screen, but it was so violent and so fast, and the chunks of icy debris flew so far, that it was clearly visible.

"LORD MARCEL! SIR!"

The captain and several of the technicians on hand shouted and sputtered for the Vampire Lord to come back inside.

Something moving too fast for the camera to properly capture blurred up and across the screen from the hole in the ice below.

Alongside the view from the plane, the much more capable recon-drones began recording high-quality footage, and taking inidividual stillshots. The anomaly flickered in and out of view several times as it ascended the 10,000 feet between the ice and the plane. Literal flickers-- complete with flashes of light. Strobes that resembled tiny lightning strikes.

"It's coming in hot-"

The shape slammed into the underside of a drone, causing it to flip laterally. The shape finally came into clear focus, clinging to the wing of the drone, and captured by the cameras of the other drones. It looked like a cross between a starfish and a bat. Muscular, boneless limbs clung to the wing of the reconaissance craft, and streamlined, damp-looking membranous wings sat folded on its center of mass.

But abruptly it no longer looked like that. The rubbery starfish arms elongated and narrowed, and suddenly they were hard and chitinous, like the limbs of some giant insect or crustacean. They were tipped with glistening black talons.

The limbs flexed, twisted their grip.

The drone came apart like a toy, wing snapping away under the thing's grip. It leapt free of the ruined aircraft, kicking off, and knocking it backwards and into one of its sibling units. Both tumbled goundwards as the anomaly spun like a dervish, and landed on the third drone. The same drone which was currently serving as the POV.

It cut to that of the fourth drone, which observed, backing off and up, as its twin was crushed, the creature shifting into something like an enormous organic vice; a hardened, ossified looking thing, which clenched and shattered the fuselage of the drone between its two halves, which spun away towards the ice below, trailing smoke. The thing opened its wings again, and turned into something that looked like a pterydactl. If pterydactls had far too many huge black eyes, all located along the horrible looking thing's neck, and a trio of muscular tendrals wiggling like the coils of a snake, instead of legs,

It was heading for the plane.

[Godzilla165]

In a blur of speed, Marcél dashed back inside the room and looked right at the screen. His mouth went slightly agape at what he saw. Not at the carnage unfolding before them, but at the... Thing causing it. Marcél sneered as he witnessed it gaining on his cargo plane.

"Alert the pilots of the incoming bogey, NOW." The vampire firmly commanded. "I need immediate protection for that plane, do you hear me? We will NOT lose that vessel."

[DinoMaster]

Schlager had not missed the sudden arrival of the new being that hid itself in the shadows beneath him. It seemed more curious in the few mannerisms he had seen, and the tone it spoke in showed no malice. The massive head, ears swinging for better focus of the noise of her voice from the din that was the facility. Seeing as the carnage was visible here, there was no real reason to hide anything. He wouldn't have any issues tearing someone apart in the case that the information wasn't supposed to be spoken about. There were few that could ever outpace his flying.

"There was an attack on the blood farm. High heat damage, unknown on what they wanted. Only a single person was taken, which worries me that there was someone important. Marcel and his lieutenants are inside dealing with some issue I know little of."
_______________________________________________________________________________

Mira passed the package on with a smile, and followed him to the crime scene. As he opened the door, the first and most noticable thing was the stench. It reeked of rotten flesh, but there was something familiar that wasn't a part of the rotten scent. Pushing it to the back of her brain, she went and inspected the body first. There was little left, as if it had been torn apart. She didn't need to pry at it, seeing as there was little left there to actually touch. She scanned the room instead, looking over the shack's contents. There was admittedly little, with only sparse furniture of a bed, a dresser, and a bookcase. The shelving unit caught her attention however, as a faint light seemed to crack through from behind it.

Moving towards it, she was able to tell something was wrong pretty quickly. The disarray was as if the contents had been shifted, and things were amiss on the floor. The memory of what the odd smell was suddenly clicked in her head, and she immediately checked the sides. On both, there were three odd holes that had pierced the wood. Caring little for the contents of a dead vampire, she reached around the side and shoved the bookshelf over onto the floor. Clattering onto the floor, the room was lit up by a bright moonlight streaming in from a fairly large hole in the wall. Looking down, she found what she had feared the most. An elongated pad with a single dot was outlined in blood on the floor, and more in the dirt outside lead away into the slums. Turning around, she faced Trevor and spoke with humor and dread in her voice.

"You got a good exterminator in town? Because you have the largest ant problem this side of the Mississippi"

[Godzilla The King]

Trevor's eyes widened in shock and his movement became less professional. Rushing to look at the evidence, it had only confirmed what he had feared: the ants had returned. The only time Trevor had dealt with them...

"The ants. Goddammit, the fucking ants are back." Trevor muttered as he paced, thinking of a plan. "Last time...no it's too dangerous."

He looked towards Mira, thinking for a moment, still panicked but trying to be professional.

"Do...you have any plan or suggestions?"

[M.U.T.O.]

"I see," Zoe looked up towards Schlager before herself climbing up to the roof and letting her long tail curl around her. The carnage was indeed severe. Though it was certainly overkill for killing just a single person. Or vampire. Whichever species it was didn't matter exactly. The job the perpetrator did was done sloppily. Not that tons of evidence was left behind. More that it could've been done faster and cleaner than as to cause intense commotion.

"So Marcél is here?" the lamia spoke coolly, eyeing the observatory. "That would explain why Lucre was here too."

______________________

"Called it." Lucre grinned with displeasure; clearly an odd combination of emotion. He strummed his fingers along his folded arms, watching as the chaos unfolded. "Weird, isn't it? It looks very...unusual. Not to mention its abilities." He clapped his hands together, rubbing them with enthusiasm. "This'll be a treat."

[Vatarian]

The techy looked back in fear.

"Sir, there's nothing we can do-! The jets are still ten minutes off and-"

The captain set her lips and marched forwards.

"Give me that,"

She pushed him out of his seat, and took the controls for the last remaining drone. The creature was no longer paying attention to it. It had set its sights on the cargo jet, and was currently moving steadily towards it, while the jet in turn did the best such a large vehicle could to rapidly put on speed and increase in elevation.

"C'mere, bitch."

The captain hissed under her breath, mashing the throttle stick forwards, and bringing the drone onto the same path as the monster. It had maneuvered itself over the cargo jet...

She slammed the drone's left wing into the creature's neck, and it opened its beak in what was most likely an agitated shriek.

Both of them spun out of control for a minute from the impact. The creature eventually disappeared in a flash as the drone managed to right and stabilize itself in the air. Its wing was dented and slightly warped where it had slammed into the creature, but, for now, it was still airworthy.....

And the creature, when it reappeared, was oozing maroon-ish ichor from one of its enormous black eyes. It kept its distance for a moment. It was impossible to tell where it was looking in any direct sense, as featureless and black and strangely placed as its eyes were...... Nonetheless, the ray of focused malevolence it was directing at the damaged reconaissance drone was unmistakable, even through the medium of a camera.

It vanished in another flash, and the captain pulled down and to the side hard lightning-fast

Where she had been a moment ago, the thing appeared, beak snapping like an enormous pair of shears, inches from the metal of the drone's wings....

[DinoMaster]

"Wait, you've dealt with them before? Knew that it was going to bite me in the ass later on. I hadn't realized that the escapee queen had made it out this far. Would've been here a whole hell of a lot sooner had I known. Especially with them being the more massive variety than the usual garden varierty."

She held her ground, thinking things over in her head. The last time she had dealt with them, she had lost quite a few good friends to them. Their only saving grace had been poor ant nest placement. They struck lucky, and had put the main heart of the nest in an iron foundry. With enough of their escape holes shut, they took an old exterminator trick and poured the metal into the nest, killing most of them in the molten liquid. One hatchling queen had escaped, and vanished completely off the radar. She hadn't heard anything in years, and had assumed that she had died without a guard. Apparantly, that hadn't been the case.

"Who's in charge of the immediate area? If we're going to deal with this, we're going to need some backup. And firepower. Firepower will be needed."

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

So the intruder was with Lucre. That was a bit surprising for the werebat. He had not expected such a long living vampire to take in another species, given what he had heard of more classic vampires. Then again, it was always good to have an ally that wasn't of the same kind these days. He shifted slightly to allow her more room on the roof. He was more surprised that his newfound companion was a reptilian. The woods of Pennsylvania were not friendly to the ones that couldn't take the cold. But then again, if she was here, she had ways to deal with it.

"Yes. Marcel was made aware, and due to the immediate proximity came in person. I believe he contacted Lucre as well, but I know not the specifics. The farther I remain from him, the safer I tend to feel."

[Demon Lord Gira]

As Minos dragged its quarry out of the forest and toward the walled city, distant sounds caught its ears. The fiend turned skyward, and tried to locate what it had heard. For an outside watching in, it was as if it had been entranced by some invisible show. For but several moments it stood there, and a thin growl escaped from its mouth.

Snarling in distaste, Minos turned away and continued back toward where Persephone awaited it. What was going on was none of its business... not yet, at least.

[Godzilla The King]

"This area's vampire named Marcél but...I dunno if we're worth protecting. He might take them out himself or get his men to do it but...I fear it might just be us against the ants." Trevor sighed, crossing his arms. "So...screwed is a great way to describe us."

[Godzilla165]

"Keep it up until reinforcements arrive, captain. We cannot falter, not now." Marcél stated from behind. He watched on with the slightest bit of angst, as the vampire knew that the drone wouldn't last much longer. The captain simply needed to keep the creature busy until the fighter jets got there.

_________________________

Back outside, things had calmed down considerably, and guards were still working tirelessly to get the farm cleaned up. Samuel and his squad soon appeared from the forest, and marched back inside the farm's walls. Looks of disappointment from the guards, and frustration from Samuel were clearly evident. They found absolutely nothing during their relentless search.

As Samuel neared the main building, the stocky figure of Schlager perched above, caught his eye.

"Schlager, where is Lord Marcél curren-"

Samuel trailed off as his eyes jerked to the other creature sitting with the bat.

"Who is this?" He asked.

[M.U.T.O.]

"Hm?" the half-snake turned her eyes to the new arrival before slithering back down the tower. "Please excuse my unannounced presence."

Her dark tail trailed her as she reached the ground, her arms folded. She gave Samuel a look-over, sizing him up to determine how much of a threat he was, or would be. A small smile curled onto her face, rather rare of her, and moved a foot back from Samuel.

"Zoe. That's my name," she let her arms drop to her sides. "I have no intention of being apprehended, nor of being injured. An..." the lamia paused, head tilted to the side in thought as she chose her words. "...acquaintance of mine is here, and I was just asking Schlager, as you call him on the watch-tower, where he was."

The lamia's tail curled up beneath her, waiting for the vampire before her to make its move.

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Lucre's arms dropped to his sides with a single exhalation. His hands in his pockets, his lips grew taut. He could feel Marcél's angst.

"Marcél," the vampire said with a sigh. "I'm gonna go for a little walk outside. Just outside of here, won't be far. I...I need to think." He looked back to his shorter friend. "Care to join?"

[Godzilla165]

Samuel raised an eyebrow and looked the creature up and down. Without a word, and emitting nothing more than a disinterested grunt, the vampiric commander walked past Zoe and towards the main building. Schlager had made a little friend, it seemed.

___________________________

Marcél glanced over Lucre lazily, and nodded. As he was leaving, the vampire lord stopped and back at the tech staff just standing there, watching the captain battle that creature relentlessly.

"Don't just stand there and watch; find a way to help her out, and tell the jet pilots that I said to pick up the damn pace!" Marcél growled in frustration, and left the room in a huff.
___________________________

As Samuel was making his way down the hallway, he was met by Marcél walking towards him. The former stopped and gave a quick bow, before following after him.

"My Lord." Samuel murmured respectfully.

"Samuel." Marcél retorted. "The look on your face tells me that you found nothing?"

Samuel gave a hesitant nod. "Indeed, master, we couldn't find anything out there. No evidence, no DNA, nothing. Whoever did this, knew exactly what they were doing." He hissed.

"So I've learned." Marcél sighed, before stopping to look at Samuel. "Lucre and myself will be out for a minute. I want you to go and supervise the observatory; make sure that everything is going the way it should."

Samuel nodded firmly and walked briskly to the technical room.

[DinoMaster]

Schlager had been ready to reply out of habit, when "Zoe" took control before he could even speak. He looked on in silence as his newfound friend retorted to Samuel, waiting for his snap. Instead, he found the vampire compliant and walking away a little miffed. He held his small chuckle as a smirk until he was sure that he was out of earshot. It was a loud, higher pitched sound, but nothing too shrill for anyone's ears. When able to breathe after it, he turned towards Zoe and spoke with as much kindness as the strained voice of the beast could give.

"It has been far too long since someone has done that to the uptight bastard. I think you and I shall get along well, even with the one you wait for."

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"No, I don't think Marcel would help. Seeing as he's in charge of the world, he's got lots on his hands and probably wouldn't be bothered. They weren't last time either, back in the Mojave. Are there any armed human groups in the area? Resistance, millitas, etc?"

She crossed her arms, and looked out towards where the hole extended out into the night. Her mind went back to what they had done last time back in New Mexico, when they had first appeared and been a problem. It would be far more difficult to track them here, as there was not sand to leave obvious tracks. But they would have to do it soon, otherwise it would escalate into something far more dangerous.

"Well, unless you have any better ideas, we better start tracking the buggers, pun intended. Locating the nest will at least help us figure out where they're operating out of."

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The body didn't last long, quickly vanishing into the stomach of the Wendigo. It only made the hunger slightly slated, and thirsting for more. Leaving the scant remains and frozen blood on the ground, the beast of legend meandered back towards the place of the vampires. Perhaps these ones would be useful in bringing back humanity to the north. Perhaps they would just be food for his unending hunger. Only time, and a bit of good luck, would tell.

[M.U.T.O.]

Zoe smiled gently at the werebat, chuckling as her tail stretched back out. The vampire she had just encountered certainly seemed high-strung, so she had figured he needed to be put down a few notches. She folded her arms again, though her face was much softer in appearance than it was toward Samuel.

"I hope so, too." Her eyebrow raised at his last comment, but decided not to speak on it. "I suppose we should get to know each other formally, then?"
___________________________________

Lucre stretched his arms out before adjusting his red suit-jacket as he walked alongside the Vampire Lord. "Looked like you needed a bit of a breather back there," he began, opening the door to the outside. "I would be lying if I said I didn't, either."

[Godzilla The King]

"Hunting ants wasn't what I expected when I started this case." Trevor laughed. "God, my life is weird."

Trevor checked to see if his revolver was loaded and walked forward, letting out a hand gesture for Mira to follow.

"Nice to have a partner for once."

[Godzilla165]

"It comes with the territory, unfortunately; you and I both know that." Marcél sighed. "Someone or something is always trying to get to me. Making desperate attempts at weakening my foundation, is what these wannabe marauders know best."

Marcél spotted an abandoned and scorched humvee, and decided to put it out of its misery. As such, the vampire lord pulled his pistol out from its holster, took aim, and fired. The bullet slammed into the ruined military vehicle with explosive force, at the same time the gun itself roared savagely into the night. The humvee erupted in a shower of burning metal, rubber, and glass. A proud fireball raced into the sky, and illuminated the farm with an orange, and dancing light show.

Satisfied from his work, Marcél blew the excessive amount of steam away from the barrel, and returned the gun to its home.

"Nothing has really changed in centuries, Lucre; people are still the same. The only thing different now, are the faces that commit the crimes." Marcél calmly pointed out.

[DinoMaster]

"You're telling me. Been a long time since I haven't had to deal with an issue by myself."

Mira gave a small chuckle, before slinging around the rifle to check the ammo in it. Seeing the four rounds still loaded into the chamber where she had left them. Being satisfied, she put it back around her shoulder with the sling, and stepped out into the cool night. She gave a whistle, and got a reply whinny from Sleipner. Satisfied with the response, she began to follow the fairly obvious trail of the ants that had come up.

"So, if you don't mind me asking, when did the ants become a problem for you the first time? I'm just trying to tie in when they could've come in from the Mojave all the way here."
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"I suppose that official formalities are in necessity. I am referred to as Schlager, German for bat. While not the most unique of titles, it suits me more now than my old name did. I serve under Marcel as a supervisor/ambassador for the other supernatural creatures that dwell within the world other than vampires. In theory. In truth, there has been little need for that, and it is mainly a reason for him to keep me close."

The boxy head turned and gave a grin meant to be friendly. With four inch fangs however, the smile looked far more predatory than he really ever meant it to be. Giving a small nod, he spoke to the lamia with an inquisitive tone of his own.

"And who are you, if I may ask in a more formal tone? We rarely get more reptilian visitors this far north anymore. They barely can stand the snow and the cold of winter."

[Godzilla The King]

"A year...maybe two?" Trevor said trying to count in his head. "At first they were only sightings in the woods, people would claim to see giant bugs. No one believed them, no one saw a reason to. Well, that was a big mistake."

Trevor remembered the damage they did, they killed 10 people and injuried dozens more, he was lucky that no one else got hurt. Boss was pissed afterwards but also grateful that the problem disappeared.

"For two weeks they declared war on us and those bastards don't hold anything back. One day, I was drunk and had a stupid-ass idea...I stole my boss's gasoline and took a shotgun and walked down to their nest. It wasn't easy, they nearly killed me but I eventually torched the colony. We killed any stragglers."

[M.U.T.O.]

"Greetings, Schlager," the lamia smiled gently with lips sealed, a gentle hiss with the s in his name. "So I take it you're supposed to...'deal' with the likes of me, diplomatically, lest things go severely wrong? I understand completely. It's a pleasure to meet you."

She let out a small chuckle, before smiling back with semi-retracted fangs.

"Zoe Sabrina Alexis Sage, descendant of the Irish Lamia clan of Nathair-Súl. Born in West New Jersey. I'm...a wanderer. Hunter...and as you probably picked up, an old friend of Lucre's." she held out a hand tentatively. "Call me Zoe if you will."

---------------------------

"Indeed it hasn't, really," Lucre chuckled, pulling out his own gun and shooting a hole straight through the fireball with a swift motion.

The tall vampire brushed a thick lock of hair back from in front of his face as he strolled alongside his old friend. The fireball from the humvee's explosion dissipated, curling into the colder air.

"Take it from me, pal. I would know. Least we got each others' backs."