Scene Listing || Scene Schedule || Scene Schedule RSS
Owner Pose
Roxas A job posting had been issued by a man merely identified as JONATHAN M., offering a reasonable cash payment for the extermination of a sudden vampire infestation in the city of Detroit.

It is just before sunset, at a familiar dry cleaner that none of the locals really seem to notice. Standing out front is a man with short-cut black hair and a neatly trimmed beard, dressed in a dark grey suit. He is leaning lightly on a curved-handled black cane with an elaborate silver grip. Standing next to him is an ambiguously-gendered individual wearing a red and a black hat that conceals their face. A pair of sketchy-looking black wings juts out of their back, physically disconnected but altogether clearly theirs.

The man, presumably Jonathan, has all the appearance of a lawyer or a doctor. He smiles thinly at the approaching group and says, "Thank you for responding to my job posting. My name is Jonathan Morris, and I've come here on behalf of the local Reaper's Game to investigate an ongoing incident. A large number of vampires have been appearing in Detroit recently, and I understand that a scion of the Black Court is most likely responsible."

"Your task," he continues, "is to patrol high-risk areas of the city until you encounter suspicious ongoing activities. As these vampires do not appear to have been educated on what they are, it's most likely that they will be attacking recklessly and in no particular pattern even if they're relatively lucid. You may be concerned with the moral implications of butchering newly-turned, conceivably innocent vampires."

"The reason for my own presence here is due to the erratic behavior of these vampires. It is ordinary for a newly-created vampire to kill unintentionally shortly after undergoing the change, but it appears as if these vampires have instead been berserk whenever they've appeared. We aren't certain if their creator has done something to them or if there is something else afoot. So if possible, I would like you to bring one of them to me alive. Only one."

"If any of them you encounter are /not/ acting erratically, it isn't necessary to kill or subdue them. Are there any questions?"
Deelel Deelel was pleased with her showing at the tournament she didn't win overall but she ranked higher than she hoped and was in good spirits. She'd even taken some time off, that came to an end. With the new job posting by this Johathan. Vampires in her world view were akin to userspace viri, it was quite a binary choice to her. Deelel's clothing looks a bit strange almost like one might wear to a dance club. Curiously? There are no seams anywhere on them she does smile back to the man.

"The name is Deelel good to meet you, sir. As for the vampires? They are viral I have no issues in mercy killing them."

The Basic notes the odd digital warble to her voice is very clear.

She takes note of the mission profile for a moment.

"I understand bring one of the erratic ones back alive, eliminate the rest? As for ones who are not behaving in such a fashion. We are to leave them be if they do not start anything. It seems pretty clear to me Mr. Morrison. Just one just where would the best place be to go hunting for the targets?"
Roxas "You might be more right than you think about that." Jonathan says to Deelel, grimly. He shifts his weight a little, and gestures quickly with his cane, "You won't need to go looking very far once the sun finishes setting. They're not in their right mind enough to hide anywhere complex. They'll start coming out in the open and start trouble soon enough. Just... start walking down the street."
Raziel 'The familiar dry cleaner's that seemed otherwise ignored by the common man stood before us.  In front of that was a man who seemed a type of professional, well dressed.  There was an otherworldly quality to him, but this seemed to be more par for the course for these lands.  However, the job he had offered...this was the one that had caught my interest.  I had wanted to take the measure of this man in person, to sess out his intentions.  Was he in genuine need, or simply a zealot?'

Raziel himself manifested from the other side, willing his body into the material, as he himself too became material.  The ghost was dressed in not the normal rags, but the outfit that seemed to cover some of his more...extreme features, though his eyes were still glowing, his arm still swirling with the deranged soul that was the Reaver, and the fact that he was very thin.  Though most of these features were easily dismissable upon initial inspection.

"While vampires in my world and yours are different in some way, it is not out of the ordinary for a hungry vampire to lash out and devour a poor human unexpecting of the nature of the pale skin monster.  So you are saying they are continuing to be berserk after eating?" he asks, Raziel was thoroughly disgusted that a vampire would sire children and then cut them loose like this.  It is irresponsible, stupid, and the reason why many crusades against their kind are made.

"You are not wrong in that assessment, Deelel.  If they are anything like vampires from Nosgoth, fledglings have little control of their instincts, and without a sire to guide them it...tends to not go well.  More so if these vampires are being made naturally unstable."  

"And attacking so openly.." Raziel sighs, "Even Kain did not bother to do so until he had an army ready.  This is just madness."
Riku     Anyone who knows anything about the UG in this world knows that Detroit is, if anything, even more metaphysically the Bad Part of Town than some areas of it are in the RG. Decades of societal and economic pressures and the ease at which one can slip into the area and simply do one's thing without being cracked down on by the authorities has created a somewhat unique blend of place that you simply Don't Go To.

    And then there's vampires. Riku is not fond of vampires. For Reasons. Combine the two, mix well, and bake for 45 minutes at 375 and you have a recipe for a hellacious time.

This is perhaps why it would be unsurprising that Riku has arrived. He looks from Jonathan to the Obvious Reaper, then back, and nods. "All right. This seems kind of suicidal for vanpires to do, especially the Black Court, but if they want to think they can do this and get away with it, we'll just have to prove them wrong." Riku nods to Raziel, who has made the same observation.

He looks over to the Reaper, then, and gestures. "Anything we should know about what's been going on? You probably know what's going on in the local UG better than anyone here. Any leads or info on anyplace that's seen activity? Though apparently if it's bad enough all you have to do is walk down the street, this is even worse than I thought."
Roxas "You are quite right, sir." Jonathan says to Raziel, "Ordinarily I would expect and sympathize with a fledgling who has awoken unexpectedly, turned as a shock trooper in a war they were not a part of. But these souls are acting out more than is usual for their subspecies."

"Near without exception, each species of vampire from this star will, as their first action, attack and kill someone to feed themselves whether they wish to do so or not, and regardless of whom they are attacking. Most often, it is someone they are close to. A relative, a dear friend. But after that first murder, they regain themselves and their bearings."

"The majority of the vampires that are being created here are not following this pattern. They have been in what we might call a fledgling's frenzy since their first night. They seem to recognize each other as 'friendly', but they're too erratic to be properly on anyone's leash. The purpose of recovering one of them is to ascertain the nature of their malady."

The man turns his attention towards Riku, "It is suicidal, and that's part of why it is of interest. The local Reaper's game was all but wiped out by the vampire behind it all, which is why my expertise was requested. It's possible that it is typical immature Black Court tantrums, but more than likely there is a purpose behind it. Or... something much more unusual is happening."
The Janitor      Nobody is here. Nobody walks out of a nearby alleyway. Nobody is wearing green garbageman coveralls, a flat cap pulled down over their eyes, and carrying a push-broom in their left hand.

     ... But if they were really 'nobody', would they be here? The garbageman's mundane slouch straightens up into a tight, alert posture, shedding the disguise of inarticulable normalcy. Her face is set in an expression of distant neutrality so perfect it has to be practiced. She doesn't say anything as she leans on the corner of the dry-cleaner's, but she's clearly listening more than any of the nondescript passersby ought to be.

     Finally, she cuts in after Jonathan Morris with a quiet voice, but one so preternaturally bland as to be arresting. "Do we start now?"
Ash Williams EARLIER

https://youtu.be/hHOrpFeXUao

     A middle aged man drives a middle aged Oldsmobile Delta, towing an elderly airstream trailer. Deep Purple is blasting on the radio. He's singing along. His wooden prosthetic hand is on the wheel. His good hand grips a beer, and he's checking himself out in the rear view mirror. All things considered, he's setting a sterling example for safe driving.

     Detroit's a few hours away from his native Elk Grove--and while that place is Nowheresville, he at least knows the warpgate route to get there. As such he's en route well in advance of his peers, but they wouldn't guess it. 'Clever' (illegal) use of detours has put him most of the way towards his destination. He pulls into the parking lot of a shopping center, then heads into the trailer to get ready.

     'Getting ready' involves a few things. First, there's the girdle. He can't look fat! That's gonna be ten minutes, at least, getting it to cooperate. Then, some shoe polish to get those pesky grey spots out of his hair. Then some cologne. Anyone else would be charitable indeed to call it that--it's basically just there to cover up the smell of the Bengay. The whole time, he's bobbing his head, amping himself up along with the music. Finally, the finishing touches--his shotgun, slipped into the holster in his back. His jury-rigged cybernetic hand, made from the innards of a failed video game peripheral from the 90s. And his chainsaw, stuffed into a duffel bag. The shotgun is one thing, but he can't afford TOO much suspicion.

NOW

     A beaten yellow Oldsmobile rattles up to the curb at sunset. The driver looks like a dad trying desperately to escape his climbing age. He closes the door. Then closes it again when it doesn't close right, owing to the fact that he closed it on the strap of his duffel bag. Then tries to play it off like he didn't do any of that.

     "No problem," says the creepy guy with a shotgun, a mysterious duffel bag and a car that screams 'axe murderer.' "I know suspicious like I know how to party." He hefts the bag over his shoulder. He then makes a statement which does nothing to assuage fears of his proclivities. "Y'know, usually with this kinda thing, I'm a shoot first, ask questions never kinda guy, but I'll give this 'subdue' thing a shot since you're paying money." He leans in conspiratorially. "But, uh... just between me and you... if one attacks me, one attacks me."
Roxas Ash Williams approaches in his car. The car itself gets a good long look out of Jonathan, and it doesn't seem to be an agitated or unappreciating look either.

He smiles genially at Ash and replies, "I am quite sure you will do. I don't expect any of you to risk your lives to acquire a live one, so consider it optional. In the interests of fairness, I will include a... bonus, for a live capture. It wasn't a part of the listed job, after all."

Jonathan Morris considers the Janitor, and reaches into a pocket to withdraw an old-but-extremely-well-kept pocket watch out, flipping the cover open to look at it. He nods, "It looks like it's about time, yes."

He gestures up at the sky, "There, you see?"
Roxas Shortly after sunset, the streets of Detroit get a lot grimier, and not for the usual reasons. Jonathan hadn't been kidding about an unusual infestation of vampires, and it's easy to believe that it's not hard for random people to come across them. Out of manholes and abandoned buildings, out of dumpsters and out from beneath underpasses, the vampires just start appearing. Sometimes, in bursts, they don't move quite like people-- instead dispersing into wisps of black smoke that slips through space and then re-materializes at some point within relative line of sight.

They don't appear to be able to enter homes, but they prowl near open businesses -- restaurants, service stations -- obviously looking for food. Occasionally, two especially aggressive vampires run into each other and get into a scuffle.

Their appearance isn't quite what would be expected, though.

Although they have all the trappings of ordinary people, a closer look at them reveals that they're quite sickly. Their skin is pocked and scarred in strange ways, occasionally thick with pustules and sores. Even those that might otherwise have been attractive have been reduced to something in between a vampire and a zombie-- not rotting, exactly, but visibly diseased and unwell.

The Black Court Vampire from the last encounter with these things wasn't like this. Something is seriously wrong with these vampires. Not just in body, either. As soon as they catch sight of someone who isn't them -- which happens more or less simultaneous with first contact -- they turn wildly hostile, and the first act of hostility that the particular cluster emerging from a nearby alleyway has is conjuring spears of blood and hurling them in a great volley towards the nearest conceivable targets.

Those happen to be 'you'.
The Janitor      The garbageman leans away from her corner just in time for a lance of blood from behind to gouge the brick, sending up a spray of rubble and dust around her. She pulls down her cap a fraction of a degree further, then turns around, neatly pushing another blood-lance aside to swish over her shoulder where it should've taken off her head. Rather than stay in one place to weather the rest of the volley, she runs straight up the side of the building for ten or twelve feet to get above the fusillade!

     A second later, she twists deftly at the apex of the wall-run and falls back down, swinging her push-broom like a hammer to clonk one of the vamps over the head. The other end comes up to jab at a ribcage as she ducks under another lance, then sweeps the legs of those around her as she shoves at another's shoulders with her free hand...

     It's all simple, all bland, all crude. She's not breathing hard. But somehow, it manages to suffice by the narrowest of margins every time something ought to overpower or eviscerate her.
Raziel 'As the sunset, casting the land with the night, they stirred.  They came from abandoned buildings, from under the earth, from the hidden and areas that were never touched with the light of day.  While almost human to look at, a closer look revealed a more ghoulish appearance.  This was more like a disease than proper vampirism.  This was not just the indiscriminate actions of a sire, but something else.  Something that did not sit well with me.'

Raziel was ready as they turned to fire at them.  The Reaver at the ready as the specter blade manifested, smashing into blood spears as they attempted to impale his body.  His eyes narrowed as he focused on one of their numbers.  

Raziel holds out his clawed hands towards that one and makes a motion upwards, aiming to encase its body with his psychic might, attempting to hold it in place...and then attempting to LAUNCH it through the air towards him.  

If successful, Raziel would dismiss the Reaver for the moment, moving to attempt to grapple the fledging to the ground so that it could be contained.
Deelel Deelel makes note of what both Jonathan and Raziel and file it away for later.

"This sounds like a very likely possibility sir."

She doesn't seem to have an issue with Raziel form how she's talking to him. She also takes note of Riku's questions and asks another of her own.

She hums at the further details about how the local vampires work.

"So this is quite the aberration for their normal behaviour?"

Then someone new pops in she takes a moment to look over Ash as he enters for a moment and she sizes him up.

"Greetings human!"

She chirps at Ash as he makes his entrance and makes his statement about how he'll deal with it. Hearing their employer gets the idea of you can't spend it if you are dead? Sits well with her and she will do her best to deliver but not at the expense of her teammates. The janitor seems to have Deelel's attention for a moment as she tries to size them up but if they are here? They likely can handle it, right? So what should she worry about? Nothing most likely.

"Well then we should head out."

Once they group heads out Detroit get grimmer if that's even possible as the night sets in. She gets set on edge looking about like she expects them to be attacked at some point.

Then it starts they start showing up. So far she notes they can't seem to enter homes but they are prowling near where people hang out, bars and the like.

Then comes the attack with the blood spears. She flips back landing in a crouch Keyblade appearing in her hand, a second later she's taking off like a shot right for the one who launched the spears of blood.

"Sadly for you I have no blood."



The moment she's up close she will launch into a triple strike combo on one of the vampires in question. She's attempted to make good use of the Janitor's actions to get this hopefully she's not acted in error.
Riku     It's time to move out. Riku does so, the Darkness boiling over his body as the sun vanishes behind the buildings, transforming his casual street clothes into his... unusual battlesuit. You just don't move around at night in Detroit without protection, whether mundane or supernatural. Optimally both.

    Jonathan they'd find the vampires just walking down the street. Riku didn't seem to entirely believe it, but the disbelief is visible on his face as he sees them begin to stalk the area. One look at them shows that there's something going on with them, though, the rampant diseased appearance and disfigurements giving the game away.

The hostility simplifies matters immediately. As the blood spears whip out at him, Riku's shadow surges forward, manifesting in a distorted, inhuman shadow-creature with a gaping heart-shaped hole in its chest that brings its clawed arms up to tank the majority of the strikes. Riku lunges forward past it as his Eidolon takes the alpha, leaping up onto a building opposite the Janitor to wallrun himself across the gap and rebound off. Soul Eater manifests in his hand as he cleaves downwards, striking down into the vampire mass with an angle to decapitate. Raziel says he's got a plan to capture one so he's leaving that to the wraith.
Ash Williams      Ash had a certain picture in his mind, when the word vampire was used. It involved cloaks and Transylvanian accents, yes--but not people turning into wisps of smoke. "Whoa! That's new." He says it like a sports commentator, with a kind of casual conversationalism utterly inappropriate for hunting dangerous game. And perhaps a little too loudly. Maybe it's what drew the attention of the vampires, maybe not. But it was probably too loud, all the same.

     What's also new is the blood lances being thrown at him. By the looks of him, this guy should eat shit, faced with such an attack, even without the cumbersome duffel bag. What happens instead is baffling. Ash weaves through the volley of hurled blood spears like a basketball player moving up the court, starting and stopping without so much as a complaint, while the bag rests safely on his back.

     He uses his momentum to hurl the bag, then catches it by the zipper. The weight causes it to unzip itself. Out falls a chainsaw. A humble work shoe catches it by the handle, tossing it up into the air. With chainsaw mid-flight, Ash detaches the bright red prosthetic hand, and lifts his stump high. The chainsaw lands and snaps into place with a satisfying click.

     "Alright, you blood-suckin' bums! Soup kitchen's closed..." Ash presses the pull-string to a loop on his holster, yanking the string and cranking the chainsaw with a roar of a gasoline engine. "For good." The lawnscaping tool revs up, and Ash charges the vampires with his shotgun in the other hand. He jukes left at the last moment, bringing the bladed weapon up in a twirling lateral slash that sprays sparks in their direction as it collides with the pavement.
Roxas The vampires aren't all there upstairs, even instinctually. They know the basics of a defense, and some few of them even conjure shields of blood that seek to blunt the incoming attacks-- but they're weak, very weak. The Janitor punches through a shield with her descending swing, and then comes in to melee with a blunt style of fighting that is extremely effective even amidst the crowd of clawing, mad hemophages.

One of the vampires steps over its fallen fellows to swipe at the Janitor with abruptly-clawed hands, bones jutting out of his fingertips like grotesque talons. The breaking of skin reveals an /awful/ smell, as pus oozes out of the open 'wounds' on the vampire's fingertips and a gangrenous stench fills the surrounding air.

Raziel plucks a vampire from the crowd and hurls him at Jonathan Morris's feet. Deprived of a swarm to... well, swarm with, it's relatively easy to deal with in isolation. It still has all of the brute force somebody would expect of a vampire -- Raziel's is greater, because /he/ is greater -- though there's a sense of /lesser/ to it up close that is hard to deny. Like something went wrong in the process of turning it.

Jonathan Morris quickly steps forward to help, and proves surprisingly physically robust himself. He draws two things-- first a part of incredibly old but well-maintained iron shackles, which he forces the vampire's arms into. Second, a... flashlight. It's an odd-looking flashlight, and when he turns it on and keeps it centered on the vampire the creature visibly weakens as what appears to be artificial sunlight -- perhaps a miniaturized UV lamp -- shines down from the light.

Morris drags the vampire backwards, closer to the dry cleaners, nodding towards Raziel.

"Do you prefer drachma, or munny?"

Simultaneous, one of the vampires in the swarm points in Raziel's direction, swirling darkness dancing against its hand. The ground beneath him churns and swirls, a black vortex expanding at his feet and threatening to swallow him violently.

To Deelel, Jonathan says, "Vampires are, generally speaking, people. They murder initially because they are starving and can't help it. Some go and watch a sunrise after that. The rest... well, they mostly just want to keep on going. The decent ones find decent ways to eat. It's not that unusual for a wild vampire of the Black Court to cause some trouble, but this many? Not if any of them were in their right minds. They all act like Renfields."

Deelel 'cuts' her way through one of the vampires, resulting in the /same/ sort of injuries as the one that 'made' claws for itself. The foul stench intensifies as the vampire that was struck crumbles, and another steps into its place to try to grab hold of Deelel and throttle her.

Riku's charge causes the first flicker of some sort of real recognition in the crowd. Until he decapitates a pair of them on his descent, the vampires seem to regard him with some confusion-- possibly, identifying his darkness as similar to something within them. As a pair of them hit the ground and begin to disentigrate, Riku might feel himself beginning to grow warm-- and then, if he's especially unlucky, very /hot/.

Ash Williams on the other hand is under attack even as he weaves through the blood spears. The vampire that he's charging most directly twists its hand in the air, and uncanny darkness -- similar but different to the vortex beneath Raziel -- which lingers on the ground at his feet. It remains there even as he cleaves up and through the offending vampire, and if Ash should fail to get clear of it it explodes up underneath him, a painful necrotic rot eating at him like some sort of grotesque land mine.
The Janitor      The garbageman leans back on her feet as the ghoulish vampire lunges for her, locking the haft of her gore-pinked broom into its bony fingers. She steps backwards, seeming pushed away by the force of its charge... until she can walk backwards up the alley wall, forward-flip over the horrid creature, land on the other side of it, and exploit its own momentum to shove it into the dark side-street.

     She tries to shove the vampire headfirst into a metal dumpster, hooks her broom inside the metal lid to bring it down like a guillotine, and then leaps high into the air to slam her entire weight down on top of the blunt decapitator a few times for good measure. If she does manage to kill it that way, she'll walk out of the alley with a suspiciously-heavy black trashbag in one hand, the vague shape of facial features pressing out of the plastic.

     You've got to cash in your kills somehow, right?
Riku     Riku frowns but keeps his face pointedly partially covered as the vampires hit the ground and spray their rotten fluids about. Their hesitation is something notable. He immediately can guess that they are mistaking him for a fellow creature of the night. They might not be entirely wrong in that assessment, but the fact of the matter is... They're preying on people. He preys on them.

    Their magical retaliation is exceedingly unpleasant, however. Riku breaks into sweat as he feels his body warming up, starting to create intense pain as his bodily fluids jump in temprature. "Are you serioiusly pulling this?" He gasps, reeling for a moment as he suddenly seems to realize what's going on. He deals with the blood-hex in the most crude and direct of ways.

    He stops striking with the blade, instead s torrent of dark power rushing around him as he attempts to flood out the enemy magic before it consumes him... "You think you're going to get away with that?" He mutters to the vampires, before backflipping into the air. As he spins, the energy gathers into his hands, a pair of lambent purple-blue flames in his hands as he hurls them down into any enemy groups he sees in an attempt to shock them apart with the blasts of black flame.
Raziel 'The lamp used was...odd, yet repulsing to my senses all at the same time.  Though it did not hurt me or even weaken me, there was something about it that repelled me.  Though sunlight had long lost it's effect on me, even as a vampire, it was not something we as a species reveled in.  Odd, that such a lamp could produce such a response.'

"Munny will be fine," It seemed easier to convert that into credits on the outside.  Turning, he only catches the vampire's cast slightly before he realized what was happening.  The swirl below him threatened to take him down, straining at his body as his eyes widened.  There was genuine fear there.

Because for a moment, he wasn't seeing the shadow vortex, but the Abyss.

'I could feel myself falling, thrown off by my former brethren.  Betrayed for the crime of having surpassed Kain and his fragile ego.  Soon I could feel the water on my skin.  The feeling of tumbling, burning with white-hot fire as I plunged into the abyss was as keen as the day I actually was thrown.  The unspeakable pain, the relentless agony.  Time ceased to exist; only the torture and a deepening hatred for the hypocrisy that damned me to that hell.'

However, Raziel's claw grabbed at the opening, slowly, but eventually dragging himself out of the vortex.  

'This time, I would not so easily be tossed away.  The ghoulish vampire, reminding me of my degenerated kin, would feel the full weight of his mistake.'

Raziel leaps out, he was hurt but he was FAR angrier.  His clawed hand reached out towards the source of the spell, gripping tightly around the vampire.  Without mercy or hesitation, he flung the vampire towards the nearest spike, aiming to impale him through the heart so he might bleed out.  Aiming to draw out his suffering.

"Would anyone else like to try that again?  Or are you too far gone to even understand reason?  Come now..." he says, with an edge to his voice that was usually far more reserved.  A tinge of bloodlust that simply is rare to hear on his voice.
Deelel Deelel keeps Jonathan's words in mind as she fights. There is something wrong with these vampires, as more and more signs of the wrongness just stack up as the fight gets underway.

These vampires have lost their mind and are rampaging. There's no doubt about that. She keeps moving in on the vampire, she can smell the stench the concept of decay is horrifying and alien to her. The idea that outside of her world things are so stubborn? That they persist after death in some form of remains for days, weeks or even longer.

Then she gets grabbed it's not a good hold she's able to break free but not before the vampire had done some injury to her causing a few glowing cracks to show the signs of the injury and the clear look of pain on her face says it all.

"FIRA!"

She cries out as she gets free sending a burst of flames at the vampire which she'd just wriggled free off, as she moves to fall back so far no one is down and out just yet, which is good but there are so many other vampires left to deal with, after this she's going to have to step things up.
Ash Williams      Ash fails to get clear of it because he doesn't even try. He's too busy coming up with a one-liner. As the vampire splits in half, spraying his work clothes with gore, he hollers like a frat bro that just made a sick shot in beer pong. "Oh!" He's on the verge of saying something else when the vortex--which he assumed to be just vampire mumbo-jumbo--explodes beneath him.

     The force knocks him backwards, sending him flying into an assemblage of trash cans with an embarrassing clatter. That'd normally be the point where he takes a breather, dusts himself off and jumps back in. Normally, he doesn't deal with gangrene landmines. Ash sets the shotgun down for a moment, fishes in his pocket, and produces an unlabeled amber bottle with a safety cap--full of dubious-looking pills. He downs a few of them, with a swish of someone's thrown-away soda. After a sniff to make sure it's safe, of course.

     At least, he's not doubled over in pain anymore. Something clicks, though--munny. Well, he heard it as 'money.' He's gonna be pretty annoyed when he finds out it's not U.S. Dollars. Ash holsters the shotgun with a deft twirl. He lifts a full trashcan with his non-chainsaw hand, dumps it out, and charges into battle again. He isn't... really thinking about how moronic his plan is. Par for the course, with him.

     The first vampire in range has the empty trash can slammed on top of its head. Since the average adult person can't quite fit into a trashcan, Ash 'makes an adjustment.' That is to say, if he can manage getting the trashcan on top of the vampire, he simply attempts to saw its legs off with his chainsaw hand, and kick the can over to Jonathan with surprising strength.
Roxas The Janitor forces her assailant backwards and decapitates him with a metal dumpster lid. The smell continues to grow worse, even as the head tumbles into the dumpster. Assuming she didn't collect it with the /rest/ of the body, somebody is in for a uniquely rude awakening. Unlike some vampires, /these/ don't seem especially prone to completely dissolving upon being killed.

But they also seem less regenerative. Possibly, it's a part of the malady they're suffering from.

Nearby great bursts of ghostly flame erupt into existence atop the sorcerous mutant vampires, who for all their ability to start /boiling people's blood/ do not appear to have equal ability to take the same treatment. Several are engulfed in the flames, one of which vanishes into a puff of smoke reflexively and the other two of which just sort of flail about before hitting the ground and dying.

The one that vanished in a puff of smoke re-emerges on the other side, seizes another one of the mutant vampires, and tears into its neck. The scorched, diseased flesh is renewed as it kills its fellow and hurls its corpse to one side, and it reaches up into the air dramatically to conjure... another blood spear? Yes, but a much larger blood spear. It rears back and hurls it into the mass of fights, spears splitting off the main mass and streaking towards both Riku and the Janitor.

Meanwhile Raziel impales another of the sorcerers on a broken stop sign, which is the easiest-to-reach jagged environmental feature. As it turns out vampires tend to need their heart, and when it is lifted and skewered on the sign it stops moving immediately.

Another burst of Fira from Deelel, this time of more natural colors, reduces one of the remaining vampires to a scorched, unmoving ruin on the ground.

Last, but /certainly/ not least, Ash recovers and promptly slams a garbage can over one of the few remaining vampires that isn't some kind of motherfucking sorcerer, sawing its legs off and scooping it up into the sturdy container.

It fights against this, but doesn't appear to have the energy to actually tear its way out, especially after having its legs sawed off that way. The pooling of blood and pus within the trash can immediately turns the whole thing foul and disgusting to be near, something that will surely not be a problem for Ash Williams in particular.

The sole remaining vampire that isn't subdued is the sorcerer-hemophage that hurled splitting blood lances. It surveys the situation with lamp-like, bloodshot eyes, not quite sapient but more aware for a certainty than its fellows.

It turns to smoke, not fleeing but moving to where Raziel impaled a vampire on a stop sign. It materializes there, rips the stop sign from the ground and swings it at Raziel, hurling the corpse right back at him. Immediately after it dissolves back into smoke, re-materializing at Deelel's side and swinging the stopsign at her in a blunt, artless blow before vanishing into another puff of smoke alongside Ash.

It gestures at him, eliciting a momentary feeling not of pain but of increasing awkwardness, like the moments before one's muscles are about to cramp horribly, except for the entire body instead of the usual suspects.

This is evidently intended to immobilize Ash long enough to get a bite in, because immediately afterwards the Sorcerer-Vampire stalks forward, mouth stretching open to reveal rows of sharklike fangs as it tries to clamp down on his shoulder. Curiously, it seems to know to avoid the prosthetic-- it can probably detect blood flow.
Raziel 'It appears these things suffer the same weakness to impalement that Nosgoth vampires do.  Fortunately, unlike Nosgoth vampires once impaled they are dead instead of being put into a topor state.'

The corpse is flung at Raziel, but the ghoul was prepared, leaping back as the corpse crashed into the ground and splattered, his eyes narrowed at one of the last remaining vampires.  These ones also seemed to have mastery of sorcery, which caused Raziel to muse on it but for a moment.

'This one seemed to have some control over sorcery.  Was this something unique to this vampire...or perhaps it was still some state of lucid but instead pretended to be in such a state?  Something was not right, but right now I could not muse.  Not when action needed to be taken.'

The Reaver burst to life and took on the properties of flame as he ran towards the vampire moving on Ash.  His Blade moved swiftly, trying to cut through the monster as he swung, and then turned around to repeatedly thrust at the creature.  

This was when the Reaver was brought up, and a torrent of fire was released from the Reaver blade, aiming to swallow the vampire in it.  He wanted to avoid its soul being devoured by the Reaver, instead of hoping it would become a specter he could question once it was free of its mortality.  
Ash Williams      As someone who is often considered foul and disgusting to be near (even when not covered in entrails), Ash is indeed unbothered by the putrid smell of the trashcan. He kicks it towards Jonathan--or failing that, towards the curb. There is a thumbs-up, either to Jonathan or to his allies, with his good hand, and a surprisingly charismatic smile. Really, it's good enough you can almost hear the 'ting!' and almost see the twinkle of his pearly whites. It's somewhat spoiled and unnerving by the fact that his face is smeared with vampire blood. "One live vampire!" This, he says,as blood and pus are literally sloshing out of the can like a bad comedy skit. "No checks or money orders, please."

     With his back turned, he's again wide open to an attack. His entire body locks up in a cramp. "Nngh..." His first thought is that he's been betrayed by the painkillers. It's really a shame, because that guy in the restroom he bought them from gave 'em away super cheap. Then the rows of razor sharp teeth dig into his shoulder, tearing past the cheap fabric of his dress shirt and bloodying him. He howls in pain.

     "AGH! You wanna chew on somethin'?!" Ash powers through the pain and leaps backwards, easily clearing the height of the dumster in the alley. The goal is to slam the vampire into the wall long enough to stun it. Things are happening too quickly for him to keep track of where his assailant is--but he knows he hits the wall hard enough to crack the bricks. His feet hit the ground.

     "Chew on this!" Ash reaches deftly behind his back, grabbing the shotgun with his non-chainsaw hand. He twirls it, aims it over his shoulder, and blasts it at the vampire with both barrels.
The Janitor      The garbageman drops her dripping trashba, dusts her hands off on her coveralls, and holds onto the brim of her flat cap with two fingers as she elans out of the way of an incoming blood lance. It passes close enough to nick her ear and slice off a few hairs. She leans the opposite way to dodge another, then catches the 'main' spear in her bare hands an instant before it ought to impale her through the chest. The momentum is enough to slam her back into a building, bruising her spine-

     But without flinching or hesitating, she's already moving again, weaving around the remaining spears and batting them aside with the magical projectile clutched in her hands. She tacks back and forth, all the while advancing on the sorceror-vampire through its various teleports, each time turning sharply with the high-pitched squeak of rubber sneakers to head for its new destination. Digging her left hand into the vampire's hair as Ash unloads into it, she tries to jerk its head back away from him.

     The blood-spear clutched in her right comes up a moment later, seeking the loathsome creature's spine.
Deelel Things are rapidly getting crazy with the fight there are a large number of vampires that keep coming. These strange sick rotting vampires, they are so damn wrong.

One of them though that is coming after her. Which looks less wrong than the others. Yet there are still more than that, they keep coming. She's going to have to do something about this. She has an idea for a new attack but the vampires give her no time to rest she get smashed hard with the stop sign there's a crunching sound and a series o cracks have formed on Deelel's torso where it's impacted. Deelel's face twists a bit into a rather mean expression

"End of line, virus."

She will pull a puck off her hip and toss it into the ranks of the vampire while she uses her keyblade as she hacks and slashes with it. She moves to get away from the light charge and just before it ticks down she launches into a further barrage of fire spells just trying to cut down an take out as many of these vampires as she can in one go.

It's going to be one hell of a light show between the fire blast and the exploding light charge.
Riku     This is an incredibly messy and revolting situation. Someone is going to need to get a cleanup crew out here for this one, there's no guarantee that the horrifying disease fluids being released from the corpses might not be contagious for the normal people around here.

    It may be Detroit, but that's no excuse to leave /corpses/ everywhere.

    At the moment, however, the magically-inclined vampire proves to continue to be a bane in everyone's side, especailly Riku's own. The empowered blood spear strikes out towards him, the magic making this even more deadly than one might expect from a solidified spire of hemoglobin. Again, the Eidolon comes to Riku's rescue, taking the hit dead-on as it punches straight through the shadow-creature. putting another hole into it. Riku might have been pierced from it regardless, but Riku himself used the split second of time available to leap back into a gaping hole in space, darkness boiling around him as he vanishes out of normal existence for a moment.

Riku erupts a moment later, lunging up from the ground behind the sorceror-vampire at the same time Raziel unleashes his purifying flames. Soul Eater cleaves upwards, cutting off escape for the undead before he plunges back into another portal... And a dozen or more of them suddenly yawn open throughout the battle area, Riku beginning to quickly plunge out of one, slashing past as he wall jumps into a second, dropping down to spin-kick a vampire and using the pushback to rebound back into a third... Riku is suddenly blurring and popping into and out of portals everywhere, a blade-wielding murderous shadow that rips past, trailing darkness as he expends intense amounts of energy to keep up speed and power while navigating the tangled backdrops of these streets.
Roxas It might feel like an eternity, but it all happens with alarming speed. The Janitor seizes the Sorcerer-Vampire, drawing it away from Ash momentarily and allowing him the space he needs to push it into the nearby dumpster all the while planting a spear in its spine. This injury, although visibly dreadful and eliciting a horrible screech at last, doesn't seem to induce the sort of lack of mobility it really should. The subsequent shotgun blasts force it back, driving the spear deeper into its body until it emerges out the other side, joining the gaping holes in its torso where the shotgun blasted away great chunks of flesh and left ruined bone visible underneath.

Deelel sets it ablaze with a great burst of fire, and even /then/ it has the strength to conjure one of the blood barriers that the weaker vampires used to diminish the damage coming towards them. But it doesn't matter.

Raziel and Riku finish the creature, the former cleaving through it solidly and turning to follow his fiery slash with a series of solid jabs, while Riku harasses it from every angle through portals. In the end, by all of their combined effort, it is a pile of ruined, putrid, burned meat and bone that sloughs loose onto the floor.

Watching closely with his spiritual senses, Raziel might in fact see the soul of the thing slipping free. It isn't a wraith, exactly-- one might call it a ghost, but it isn't trying to linger. It is simply a naked soul slipping on its way. It does speak as it goes, bemoaning that he trusted the wrong gothy lady some nights ago, and wondering exactly what that means for him now.

"Jonathan M." is gone with his bound vampire, but the red-coated Reaper is still there at the dry cleaners. There are several bags -- yes, bags -- of money laid out in front of the dry cleaner. Two for each of the people assembled, plus a few extra for the captured vampires and the vampire head.

The Reaper, who speaks with a feminine voice, points, "The tan bag is munny. Brown bag is drachma-- silver. Bonuses for the live captures, and I guessssss for what she's got in the bag."

A young woman approaches from the main road. She is wearing the distinctive uniform of Luna Nova Magical Academy.

Charlotte Aulin is a brown-haired young woman carrying a broom under one arm while a metal wand is grasped in her right hand. She couldn't be much older than Riku, if she's older at all.

She looks between the carnage of the battle site, to the Reaper and the Dry Cleaners.

"But why would someone hijack our job posting /and/ pay for it...?" Charlotte wonders.
The Janitor      The mess is gone.

     It's just gone, when nobody's looking at it, like the entire street's been power-washed. The garbageman is shoving one of the last corpses into a dumpster in a serial-killer-esque bite-sized bag; the other bodies have already been tidied away. A blood-pinked mop is dripping over her shoulder. A smell vaguely like Windex fills the air. Her coveralls are, still, preternaturally spotless.

     She doesn't look at Charlotte- or at the Reaper, for that matter- when she's done. She just picks up two duffelbags of silver and starts walking off into the darkened streets, towards no particular discernable destination.

     As she walks, her shoulders droop, her gait slackens, her cap falls down a little further over her perpetually-obscured eyes. The shadows don't catch her in quite so striking a fashion, and her footsteps become quieter, but not quite alarmingly so. Jane Doe becomes 'nobody' again.

     If you take your eyes off her for a second, nobody's there.
Ash Williams      "...so we're getting paid after all?" Ash grins, his teeth and eyes lone fields of white in a plain of drying red rivulets. "Groovy." He twirls his shotgun, breaking it open to eject the spent shells. A flick of the wrist snaps it back closed, and he deftly holsters it, slipping it into the spot on his back. The chainsaw, covered in gore, is also put away.

     Ash twists it, revealing the stump upon which it locked into place. The articulated red prosthetic is put back. He wiggles the fingers, admiring his handiwork, then stuffs the bloody chainsaw back into his duffel bag and zips it up. There is a thoughtful expression on his face as he ogles the money. Ash takes his payment and stuffs the bags in along with the bloody chainsaw, oblivious to how dire the circumstances would be if were caught with those things in his possession by the Michigan Highway Patrol.

     Ash slings the duffel bag over his shoulder and turns to speak to Charlotte and the Reaper. "Hey," he says, finishing the garbage soda he found earlier. "If I were you, I wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. That little ad said 'too many vampires,' and now look!" He gestures with his prosthetic.

     "It's like a church out here." Ash swats with mild annoyance at a buzzing fly attracted to the gore which covers his work clothes. "Clean as a whistle." Some garbage shifts noisily.
Raziel Raziel's eyes narrow as they learn that they were tricked.  However, money is still provided, which leads Raziel to be more suspicious.  Raziel surmises if they attempt to question now, they would simply indicate 'Johnathan' left to secure the vampire, and this lady is lying.  To be fair, he has little reason to believe either of them.

Though the comment of the spirit as it passed on caused some suspicion.   Especially with the masked feminine voice.  Something was not right here.  However, Raziel decided to play his cards close to his chest, and instead of making a deal about it, moved to collect his silver.  

He continues to keep a side-eye on the Reaper, in case.  Though thankfully he could speak without having a visible mouth to move, as he communicated quietly.
Deelel Deelel comes to the end of her assault upon vampires as her allies also do massive purging of the attack she's not sure who Jonathan M was? Yet He was right these vampires had to be stoped right? She looks around and calls out.

"Is anyone seriously injured I may be able to help."

She looks to Ash for a moment.

"Looks like it."

She then turns to the odd girl once she gets her cut of the money and says.

"He said his name was Jonathan M, other than that I know nothing about him if you like I could get you an image of him?"

Deelel looks at the new arrival curiously for a moment waiting to see what she has to say.
Riku     The vampire menace is pushed back. For now. In the aftermath of the murderous battle, Riku hits the ground, walking back to the drycleaners and observing the tableau before him. Mostly, the fact that they're getting paid anyway.

    He doesn't take any of it, instead opening up one of the bags and picking up one of the silver Drachma, turning it in his hand, keeping only that as he gets a thinking expression. The Janitor does her job and slips away without Riku even noticing, the excessively nondescript cleaner simply melting past his attention after leavintg the place spic and span.

    The arrival of Charlotte draws Riku's attention, though he maintains a somewhat flat expression. "I think he paid for it because we still did whoever it is a service." Riku says, coming to a certain conclusion. "My guess is they wanted the sample for some reason. You guys wouldn't have. Either they're looking into this on their own or they have something else in mind."

    He straightens, then, tossing the coin back into the bag. "So what are you and the /actual/ Jonathan up to, Charlotte?" Riku asks. "Who put you up to this? You're a long way from the Academy."
Roxas "People don't usually hijack our jobs /and/ see them through to completion. You even got us a live one." Charlotte replies to Ash, looking sincerely disturbed at the entire thing. She nudges at the trash can with her toe, "Why go to the trouble? Why not just collaborate openly? It doesn't make sense. It reeks of secret societies sticking their hands in our business, and that's not good."

"But," she sighs, "for now that's good enough."

Neither Charlotte or the Reaper do anything at all suspicious.

In fact, the Reaper girl heaves a great sigh of her own and waves a hand around, "Listen. I /just/ died, my boss is only a little less of a rookie than I am, and we barely have any Players. Whatever scheming is going on, it's from somebody with time and energy."

Charlotte turns to Riku, looking at him appraisingly. He can tell even at a glance that she's recognized him immediately. She replies, "Jonathan /Morris/ and I are out here because of a vampire epidemic that might be spreading by unconventional means. We grew up together, and we work together. That's how things are. None of the elder members of Clan Belmont proper are available for this situation, and Jonathan is more familiar with the americas than the Belmonts are anyway."

She nods towards Deelel, "I would appreciate a picture of this man, if you can provide it."