undergrounds | [OPEN] Bromley & Bexley Claims + Afterparty

Ringer remained where she was, caught between her desire to see things through and her realization that the risk was too high now. She looked around with nothing in sight except the wall beside her and the snow both stacked against her legs and falling in a blizzard around her. The hunter squinted into the storm for the source of the second voice, blinking the moisture from her eyes when the snow suddenly stopped to see the ice queen, a cat of some kind, and the large fox. The fox who had asked her about horseshoes.

She lifted her hands to wipe away the snow from her face and hair as best she could, her fingers stiff and mostly numb. Whether the fox had come to her aid or was on the side of the frigid witch was unclear. Ringer wasn't keen on the idea of dying, but she also didn't like the idea of obeying the fae's orders. Humanity was already on its back foot with the supernatural beasts and proving themselves subservient wouldn't help the situation at all.

So, instead of obeying, Ringer did the dumb thing and remained where she was, looking between the cat, the woman, and the fox. She crossed her arms again, hand sliding around the grip of her weapon in its shoulder holster, remaining poised and ready with no move to actually draw the gun. Something wasn't adding up. "Why let me live?"

Mab frowned as Ringer decided to stay her ground. Very well then. Her speech though becomes more modern. Absolutely understandable. "Grimalkin you may defend the door against the foolish. Indulge yourself." Her gaze on Ringer stayed for a moment longer. "Such a question's answer would cost more than you could pay." And with that she turned and walked toward the fox. The malk made a sound that was disturbingly like laughter, the large pads of it's feet making it easy to walk across the top of the snow toward the girl.

Walk is really the wrong word, it's definitely a stalk and a cat that big has very long teeth and very sharp claws. As he stalked forward, his eyes lifted to the girl with homicidal eagerness. He gathered his body and leapt at her claws slashing and it might just be coincidence but it's across her upper chest with the potential to sever her backpack straps if it was still on her person. When it did it let out a scream somewhere between that of a mountain lion and bending metal.

Ringer watched the woman walk away, then turned her attention to the creature. She was about to move in the snow when she realized the thing was already moving toward her. It looked ferocious and the fae's parting words were not encouraging to the hunter's chances of survival. Ringer uncrossed her arms and drew her weapon in the same motion as she intentionally dropped backward, knowing the snow would catch her fall.

She managed to dodge the first slash, the second cutting one of the straps to her pack clean into pieces and gouging into her skin with it. The hunter pulled the trigger easily at the same time as the attack came, sending one bullet into its chest a couple feet away and another into the thing's shoulder area at point blank range. The third narrowly missed as the animal pressed her shoulder deep into the snow, twisting her arm uncomfortably as the rest of the creature followed. Claws dug into her shoulder, its other paw scratching her side and elbow as it pinned her opposite arm. It made its bizarre scream again and shredded the other pack's strap.

Heiji, running toward the scene of the conflict, batted the weapon out of Ringer's hand with a slender paw and used his own body to bump the two of them apart -- he didn't know Grimalkin, and he didn't trust Ringer not to try and shoot him while she was at it.

"Stop," he said. Hopefully the cat would know well enough to obey the orders of a higher-ranking fae. Hopefully the bullet hadn't simply enraged it, because injured animals were infinitely more dangerous than ones on the hunt.

"This isn't what we came here for. Leave her to the cops." And indeed, there were sirens wailing in the distance, summoned in response to the sound of shots fired. Presumably, they wouldn't be too happy about finding the explosives.

Grimalkin yowled in pain then snarled and was about a quarter of a second from ripping the girl's throat out when Heiji intervened.

Mab turned and frowned at Heiji's interference. Something severely annoyed passed over her features.

Meanwhile Grimmalkin's fur burned blue around the exit wounds. The malk barred his teeth at Heiji. "You interrupt, fox." With conflicting orders he took them from the fae he owed allegiance to. He prowled around the outskirts of Heiji's reach, limping on his hurt paw, a low growl rumbling in his belly. "Mortal authorities." He made a hissing noise and spat to the side. "They will not avenge the use of the bane." His voice was awful, cats aren't made to speak human languages. Everything about it felt wrong.

"The girl was given a chance to leave peacefully." Mab said, cold imperiousness in her voice. Her eyes tracked Grimalkin, assessing the Malk's injuries. As far as she was concerned, whatever happened to the girl now as her own doing and if it provided play for her servitor, all the better. They could wait until the last minute and step through the door if they needed to. But it would be interesting to see how the mortals dealt with explosives in the middle of a park. Terrorism was such a fear among the humans these days.

Ringer being parted with her gun felt like the greatest loss of all. She was entirely convinced she was about to die until things unfolded in an unexpected way and she found herself free to move. The hunter immediately grabbed her gun again. Instead of trying to shoot anyone, however, she immediately holstered it and pocketed the two shells dropped in the snow. The fox was right about the police. To Ringer's benefit, she was nothing if not prepared. It had been eight minutes since the gunshot and the police averaged a fifteen minute response time to this area with a best of just under ten. If she hurried, and if luck was on her side, she could still make it away without her sanity being questioned. Or worse.

Ringer wasted no time in grabbing her pack and moving to the wall to retrieve the explosives. Knowing exactly where she placed them and never having completed their wiring, it wasn't difficult to retrieve them, just time consuming. She kept a wary eye open to the fae, fox, and panther thing as she set to work, wondering if she could shove the backpack through the fae's door if needed. Hopefully it wouldn't come to that.

"Millenium Park by the Ecology Pavilion, 9:00 PM, in one week," Ringer muttered to the fox as she worked. She had questions and she was hoping that the fox, if not the woman, might be willing to give some answers. It was a park not far from where they were, comfortably in their new territory. "A peaceful talk."

Edited (literally just icon) 2015-07-13 05:14 (UTC)

W h y was this happening. Wasn't it bad enough that Ringer had apparently shown up with a bunch of explosives, determined to face off with two fae who could eat her face? Was she really going to try and use him as a living shield while she collected all her junk? Because there were definitely two of Mab and Grimalkin and only one of him, and while he could reasonably hope to stave off one of them, he definitely would not be able to prevent the other from doing whatever the hell they wanted in the meantime.

Left with no other alternative, Heiji did the only thing he thought might have a reasonable chance of this encounter not ending horribly: he stalled.

"No, they won't. But think about it. Do you really wanna kill her now? I mean, you could do it, but it'd just leave a mess and get everyone on high alert. And wouldn't that be a little too easy a death for someone who used the bane on you? One and done? 'Cause it seems to me like it'd be a lot more fun to stalk your prey. You know, follow her around, show up when she least expects it, do a little terrorizing? Make a little game of it before you decide to end it for real?"

Cats... liked games, right. They liked playing with their food, right.

Heiji resisted the urge to slap a paw over his face."Cats have excellent hearing; how d'you think they always know when you're gettin' out the Purina? You show up there and he's gonna use you for kitty litter. What you should be doin' is remembering your promises, so hurry up and scram!"

Grimalkin paced in irritation spitting out his disdain for people on high alert. Let's just say some of the lesser fae are more 'in the moment' types. Not so much evil as hyper violent. But if she got away there was no way he wasn't going to cause her grief in the future. The cat's eyes moved slowly from Ringer to Heiji and something close to a laugh left it's ... lips? Whatever you'd call it on a cat.

Mab just sighed and turned to continue walking. "Join me when you are finished saving the human from herself." She glanced over her shoulder at Grimalkin and something silent passed between them that needed no verbal cues. The cat sat, fire slowly dying on his fur and he waited for Ringer to scat. Because if she stuck around he was going to finish what he started. Though Heiji might have added a little torture to the death if it went that way.

Ringer was well aware that the fox had saved her life. Even as he metaphorically threw her under the bus, suggesting that the other fae and its pet stalk and torture her. It wasn't very reassuring in the realm of heroics, but vinquit qui patitur as her old mentor had once told her. She could worry about the rest of it later, when she wasn't running on pure adrenaline. After all the pain of the evening came rushing back to her and she had time to deal with it all.

She finished with the explosives while the sounds of sirens grew closer, not yet arrived. The fox's words to her specifically only served to confuse her. The girl couldn't remember making any promises as of late, other than to make an appearance at a girl's party this weekend and to check out that one coffee shop. It wouldn't occur to her until later that one of those promises might be related to the fox.

For now, she slid the broken straps into the bag as best she could and cinched up the top, carrying it under her arm as naturally looking as possible. Without hesitation, she gave the fox a quick nod and then bolted in the opposite direction of the woman, trudging through the snow and then running once free of it. She only hoped her blood would wash away with the melted snow.

Good ol' torture followed by death. Relieved that things hadn't gone even further south, Heiji slipped back up onto the rooftops to hopefully attend to a situation that was slightly less tense. Maybe he'd run into Mab, if she wasn't too far off.

Otherwise the whole night was ahead of them.

[OPEN] Bromley & Bexley Claims + Afterparty

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