On My Own

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If one was passing by on the street, particularly in front of what was supposedly an abandoned building, they would first see a pool of blood at their feet. If they hadn't fled from that and had actually decided to look upward, they would notice a mangled body hanging from a window on the top floor. Furthermore, if that hadn't caused them to turn tail and book it, they would be able to hear screams from the top floor. Inhuman, guttural roars.

"Shoot 'im! Shoot 'im dammit!" A man in a black suit yelled from behind the table at the last of his crew standing. The younger, blonde haired man's knees were trembling as he aimed at the pale form lurking in the darkness on its knees. If he had been two seconds sooner on the trigger the greenhorn would have killed the beast, but, alas, some things were never meant to be.

Just like Randolph's hopes of finding the bastard who had made him this way.

With another roar, pupils dilated beyond natural means, the chimera leaped at the last of them, tearing out his throat between his sharpened teeth. Spitting it back out, he turned to the one still living. Stepping forward, he smiled sadistically before jumping over the table and landing to loom over the broken and beaten gang head.

"You can rest easy knowing that Victor Dresden was not the one who sent me. No..." Randolph, eyes back to normal now, pulled a gun from his pocket. The same one he'd been given nearly a year ago by his boss. Aiming it down at the man, he spit upon him. "No, the hit on your heads was decided by me alone. Your information was disappointing, but no more than everyone else's."

Letting out a low giggle, he pulled the trigger before falling to his knees next to his final victim of the night. Blood was spilling from his shoulder, mixing in with the corpse's once he fell to the ground. There came nothing from that point. His eyes fell, lidded, to the ground. His father, the man who made him this way, was dead. His prime hunt was over, and so unsatisfying. The chimera would never know the feeling of the life draining from the sick scientist under his own claws. He would never be able to ask him why he'd done this, and, what was worse, Dresden had left him in charge of things in the arms business next to his pretty little sister. There truly was no rest for the wicked. The sick irony pounded at his skull.

Sometimes knowing nothing was better than knowing at all...

[Guest]

London. Streets of the bourgeoisie, the rich, the political, and... the overpowered. London. City of propriety, etiquette, and terror. Terror not born from the Bolsheviks hiding beneath their beds, nor the foreigners that strode down its pavemented walkways. No... the Terror all came from within. From the snakes that lurked beneath the surface of the pretty city with all its righteousness. And the snakes were hungry tonight. There were cries echoing off the gutters, the brick walls dripping with blood. Or at least, that was what Selina saw. Sure, everyone else saw its pretty facade, but it was just that, a facade. She knew its dark underbelly as well as she knew Philly's, and there was no unseeing what had been seen. It was like one giant big, stupid meme. Tonight was a night of relative relaxation for the Dresden twin, the street lamps appearing to grow dimmer as she passed, not that she had anything to do with that. Call it a happy happenstance.

She was dressed in a more subdued fashion, exchanging her normally vividly red clothes for a black motorcycle suit left unzipped enough to expose that delicious cleavage of hers. There was even a hint of a black and red laced bra. The skin tight smoothness was like silk against her skin, her boots thudding quietly against the ground despite their heels. They weren't outrageous, just perhaps an inch or two off the ground to raise her up a little bit higher. A black leather jacket wrapped itself about her shoulders with a belt hugging her hips with its paraphernalia attached. A hood overshadowed her bright red hair though those crimson eyes still stared out with a chilling clarity from beneath it, her hands stuffed into her pockets. A small, one shouldered backpack was slung on a diagonal over her left shoulder, the contents inside seemingly small and compact.

People were running away from some building, their screams rising up into the air before splitting and spreading faster in ever growing rings. Tsk tsk, someone was being naughty. A smirk grew on her perfectly painted lips as she could smell that slight tang of iron in the air, her booted feet carrying her closer and closer to that supposedly abandoned building. It wasn't a perfect evening hunt if there weren't the cries of the desperate and the cowardly, of the demons that prowled it. She slipped in through an old open window, following that trail of blood until she reached a room with voices still lingering from it. "....decided by me alone. Your information was disappointing, but no more than everyone else's." Ah yes, there he was. She slowed and listened to the gun fire off, the fresh renewal of that scent of blood and death flowing into her nostrils even through the door.

She opened the door with narry a sound, leaning against its frame as she lowered her hood and folded her arms over her chest. "Well now Mr. Styxx, making a mess again? I trust this was a fruitful hunt then." She spoke, a small little smirk upon that delicate mouth of hers, staring evenly at the chimera before her. Yes, her brothers lackey, the man that had been helping to keep his workflow steady while he was... absent.

[Guest]

Another voice spoke out into the dark room. He was so sure he had killed all of them, had there been a straggler? No. No, this was a familiar voice, unafraid. Someone used to the smell of bloodshed and the sight of a beast drowning himself in the pool left by his prey. Victor's sister stared down at him with those crimson eyes, and, with a single turn of his head, Randolph's own red eyes shone right back unto hers.

"The only fruit here is that which I've spilled to the floor." With those words, his mouth contorted into less than a smile, teeth still visible. Patting his tongue to the pool, the chimera lifted himself up and sat down upright, half of his white hair now dripping with the life water he so cherished from his hunts. The usual rage he felt when smelling the liquid didn't cloud his mind now, the news learned here was too much for what little of the human side of Mr. Styxx was left. Tonight proved more than any other how little a monster this lunatic could seem at times.

"The alchemist is dead, just like these fools. There's nothing more than that to say about it."

Randolph's eyes never left the girl's, still only half-open as they were. He dared not look at any other part of her, he never did; his own little show of respect to his boss. Sitting there, mind blank and cold, the man didn't move for quite some time. Minutes passed by with them just locked in place there before he finally brought himself to his feet. Spitting at the ground, his claws were soon shoved deep into the pockets of his black jeans. The shark was done with this place.

"Look at them lying on the ground, wasting time... Heheh..." Stepping forward, he nodded, blood dripping in front of Selina's boots. "But what do I know?"

The last line, spoken in Amestrian, came out as barely a whisper before he continued to walk around her and then through the door. After that there was only silence from the hunter as he walked down the metal, spiral staircase that lined the walls of the upper floors. The laughter he truly despised dared not even escape his throat now. With nothing more to search for, Randolph felt a deep emptiness inside. There was more he could do, more goals for the future, but at this point... He couldn't even feel the constant hunger. He was nothing without that hunt, his path of destruction and chaos already carved proving meaningless in the end.

But would that path end here?

The chimera finally smirked at that thought. No, there was no reason for death to cease leaving his hands. Men and women would continue to crumble beneath his grasp. For the rest of this night, however, London would see no more of his art. The painter's brush had been laid down to rest.

[Guest]

The two of them were beasts. He was the obvious claws and teeth, snarling and ripping people to shreds. But she? She was a spider, weaving her webs to ensnare her targets, sucking them dry in as slow and painful a way as she could. Unless she didn't have the time, then she cut things short. So did that make her a spider, or a snake? Either one applied, but it was all a matter of perspective and situation. For now, she was content to observe the lieutenant as their eyes formed greater red pools, reflecting the blood that each of them had spilt in their life-times. "The only fruit here is that which I've spilled to the floor." Glancing down, she smirked and scoffed quietly, her eyes flicking from pool to pool before meeting his gaze once more. "Yes... I can see that." Such a mess fruit too, the human body. It was obnoxious to clean up after, was so high maintenance, and decomposed so bloody slowly! You could hardly get anything done! And then there's the matter of the bits left behind... Bones and the like. A most annoying fruit indeed.

She could tell that there was a difference about him, a knowledge that he now carried that weighed him down. She had read his file, hell she had pulled it together after Victors meeting with him for she wasn't about to work with a man that was more of a loose-cannon than her brother. Her brother she could predict, but this man? No... she had to do her homework first. "The alchemist is dead, just like these fools. There's nothing more than that to say about it." Another chuckle rolled out of her as she straightened up from the door frame, her eyes not leaving his until he broke that gaze. What was he going to do now? She knew he was in town for the night, and she had already completed her own, personal task. She wanted to be sure he hadn't gone too mad. "Look at them lying on the ground, wasting time... Heheh..." Her smirk twisted about itself despite its subtlety, staring at those bodies scattered about the room that was sprayed with blood so. "But what do I know?"

"You know plenty Mr. Styxx." She answered him quietly, turning her eyes back upon him even as the blood droplets threatened to fall on her boots. He left and she followed after him, quietly descending the same way that she had come up, her hands unfolding from over her chest to hang at her sides, pulling her hood back up. It wasn't until they had reached the outside with the night air attempting to brush away that stench of death from them, when she finally walked beside him, her back straight and tall. "So, Mr. Styxx, I must ask," She didn't look at him as she stared at the faltering street lamps down the street, extending before them in such a long expanse, "Is our current business arrangement with you still working for you? If it isn't I must know now, though I do realize you made your deal with Victor and not me." She had a right to know, for if she was to continue taking care of both sides of their business for the moment until her brother finally returned for good, she needed to know if she had to start assigning others to more duties.

[Guest]

Walking out into the cool night air, Randolph shook his head about to get what blood hadn't dried out of his hair. He'd need a shower now, or at least a nice soak in a pool somewhere. The water would bring him back to his senses, it always did. Something about being under a nice stream or the weight of water pressure over his body was calming. As the woman made her way out as well, he stopped his shaking, being sure not to sully her clothing in any way as she chose to stand next to him.

"So, Mr. Styxx, I must ask," She sounded more serious. What would she be getting at now? "Is our current business arrangement with you still working for you? If it isn't I must know now, though I do realize you made your deal with Victor and not me."

The chimera's smirk grew into a wide smile before he crossed the street, keeping his pace slow so she could follow behind evenly. He gave no answer until they had reached the other side of the street, nary a word spoken until the precise moment his left foot made contact with the sidewalk.

"I want to hear it out loud, Ms. Dresden." He continued walking, not even bothering to see if she was with him now. "What would it be my pleasure to do for you?" His giggles after this gave small echoes against the buildings' walls at either side of the street. He could hear sirens in the distance now, coming from the opposite direction of their path. They would be long gone once the police arrived at the scene of gore and untraceable prints though. Stopping after rounding a corner, he leaned against the wall behind him, looking down to his feet.

"Besides, there's not a reason in this world for me to cut such ties, not even now. My work continues as scheduled. It was decided the moment I crossed onto Creta's soil." Lifting his head back up, he exhaled slowly before ending his banter. "I owe too much to your brother to simply end our relations here."

[Guest]

Clack. Clack. Clack.

Her boots sounded off quietly as she walked beside him with her hands in her pockets, glad that she hadn't parked too terribly far off from this location. She did note how he stopped trying to shake the blood from himself like a dog, making sure that she would remember to tell her brother of Mr. Styxx's excellent manners. Some of her lackeys lacked even that common sense, but... A smirk rose her lips beneath her hood as she had to resist chuckling to herself, they did learn. Ohhhh did they learn. How many lashes had she given the last one? 30? 40? Perhaps it had only been 20. Although, she HAD been wearing one of her designer dresses so she might have been a bit harsher.

Ah but yes, now for the matters at hand. A wind of change was blowing through the world and she wanted to be sure that the people they had at their side were the right people to be there. She trusted their lieutenants a little bit more than she trusted anyone else, but the only person she truly trusted was her brother. Considering he was absent for the moment, Randolph was next in line. She followed after him, her head turning slightly as they stepped onto the pavement to observe his features. He was smiling now, "I want to hear it out loud, Ms. Dresden." An eyebrow raised ever so slightly, "What would it be my pleasure to do for you?" She lowered her head a little as her smirk grew into a little smile, shaking her head. She didn't even turn as the sirens began to blare unconcerned at their show of force. Too slow, too little, too late. The police were just so very easy to buy out, or even threaten. They might as well be back in Philadelphia. "I have no requests at the moment, though I may need your assistance with a deal in the future. Times are changing, and we much pay attention to those little breezes." Yes.... she could sense that she may be getting a business proposition soon from some very important clients, but she wanted to be sure. If it were to happen, she would prefer to also have him with her unless the law should stand in their way. Again. She rounded the corner with him, glancing down the street to gain a sense of where they were. Good. Not too far from her bike.

Nonetheless, it was a relief to hear the phrase, and especially what came next, "Besides, there's not a reason in this world for me to cut such ties, not even now. My work continues as scheduled. It was decided the moment I crossed onto Creta's soil." Excellent. "I owe too much to your brother to simply end our relations here." Smiling to herself, she drew out her keys and pulled her hood back a bit to grin at him, "Most excellent. Now, I imagine you want to get that blood off. Shall we head back to the barn?" She asked him, twirling the keys on her finger as she let her hood fall back over her face a bit. She might as well get a bit more familiar with her brothers Lieutenant, just a thought.

[Guest]

The smile on his face grew, curling inward, his teeth barely visible now. His mind raced at the possibility of a new job. A new contract meant more money. More money meant more things the chimera could buy. More things meant happy Randolph. Randolph liked being happy. Remembering the little parcel he'd brought with him, he reached into his pocket and dabbed his finger inside the small plastic bundle within.

Pulling his hand upward, he acted as if he was wiping under his nose, snorting up the white powder. Then, patting his hand on his pants, he looked up and giggled. Even if he couldn't be happy about the information received tonight, there was always cocaine.

"Heheh. Yeah, a shower'd be nice." Looking over to Selina, he gave a big, toothy grin before reaching back onto the fire escape ladder behind him. "You've got wheels, I'll meet you there."

Then, with one quick tug, the chimera sent himself halfway up the metal ladder before spinning and grabbing hold firmly. Lunging upward two steps at a time, he eventually reached the caged platform. Instead of entering, however, he climbed up the railings until he'd reached the top of the building.

"THE NIGHT'S A PARTY, AND I GOTTA GET MY BODY JUMPIN'!" Laughing hysterically, the chimera ran to the edge of the building, jumping over to the next one almost effortlessly. After a shower and maybe two hours of sleep, he'd be right back out here again, on the search for a new prey. A new hunt.

[Guest]

She could see the light in his eyes at the prospect of another job, and honestly? It made her actually smile as twisted as it was beneath the surface. Excellent. Unless he suddenly proved incompetent for some reason or another then she would bring him with her on her travels. Her eyes narrowed as she almost seemed to sense a change on the wind, looking towards him as he brought his finger up to his nose. She didn't need to see the white powder that she knew was there. She didn't need to ask him what it was because she already knew. It was that fucking powder that her brother also loved, that fucking chemical that increased his insanity so. Cocaine. She hated the stuff. Hated it with such fervor and passion, and yet there was little she could do about it.

She pulled back on her expression so it was more neutral, meeting his gaze as he looked up and giggled with impassivity. That was her brothers man, not hers and so she did not correct or comment despite the likelihood that she could and he would listen. No point in it really, the damage was already done. "Heheh. Yeah, a shower'd be nice." Of course. Blood was a real bugger when it got hard and cracked and clung to all of your clothes. It was like being encased in molasses. "You've got wheels, I'll meet you there." Fine with her. Backing away a bit more into the shadows, she did not look up as he went climbing up to the rooftops, vanishing from sight. It took her a few moments, but she did reach where she had hidden her bike from view of the public eye. Her hood went down and a helmet was produced from the compartment on the back of it, tightening the strap of her bag so it would flutter or move.

"THE NIGHT'S A PARTY, AND I GOTTA GET MY BODY JUMPIN'!"

She glanced back the way that she had come, shaking her head slightly as her leg slid over the body of her bike, the engine roaring to life as the key turned in the ignition. Revving it, she relaxed at the hum and vibration of the great beast beneath her, kicking off as she tore off down the street. She would beat him there, but that was no real matter. The more she didn't have to deal with the effects of cocaine on a person, the better. Let the company of a fresh man tonight, or maybe one of her girls, comfort her. Let the sounds of her casino soothe her soul. Yes... It was time to report back before the police began looking.

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