Alex Udinov (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
facethewolves) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
undergrounds2016-05-28 01:30 pm
facethewolves) wrote in undergrounds2016-05-28 01:30 pm
Entry tags:
IT'S GOING DOWN I'M YELLING TIMBER (aka the one where Millicent dies)
i. Let's Make A Night You Won't Remember [closed to Jean-Claude]
a bar, earlier this week
Alex doesn't know who she's supposed to be meeting, just that somebody wants to meet her. She arrives twenty minutes early, makes notes of the exits, and orders herself a dry martini to blend in. It doesn't hurt to take a few extra precautions when apparently half the city knows that you're planning to murder a high-ranking official, which is why she also has her silver knife hidden in her pocket.
She doesn't touch the drink, just sits and glowers at the bar's main entrance, waiting for the person she's supposed to be meeting to show.
ii. I'll Be The One You Won't Forget [open to all]
Westminister, May 26
Millicent is leaving the Night Council building, and Alex plans to follow her. She's not going through with the hit for a couple more days, but she needs a better grasp of the vampire's schedule. So she's lurking about half a block away from the building, waiting.
To the untrained observer, she looks like a bored girl leaning against a wall eating a muffin. Someone paying closer attention, though, might notice how often she looks down the street, and the fact that she's been very slowly eating the same muffin for the past forty-five minutes.
iii. The Bigger They Are, The Harder They Fall [closed to Evie]
Islington, May 28, nighttime, before Millicent dies
For the past week, Alex has been sharpening her stakes, going over all the info she has on Millicent's usual habits and schedule, planning the hit. She's decided on a close-quarters kill. For once thing, she's not sure that a wood-tipped bullet, even if it hits right between her eyes, would actually kill Millicent. For another thing, and more importantly, she wants it to feel personal. She wants Millicent to know who's killing her and why.
She knows it'll be risky, but risk never stopped her doing anything before. On the night she's picked to do it, she makes her way stealthily into Islington territory, towards the place she expects Millicent to be. A few blocks away, she pauses in a doorway to double-check her weapons - three stakes and a gun with wood-tipped bullets - and to go over the plan, such as it is, one more time in her head.
Maybe she's just jumpy, but she thinks she sees something move out of the corner of her eye. She whirls around, but nothing's there. Frowning, she goes back to checking her gun.
iv. I'm Slicker Than An Oil Spill [open to first response]
Islington, May 28, nighttime, after Millicent is dead
One of the vampires saw her. Which is bad, really bad. She ditches her jacket on a bench as she hurries past it, hoping that changing up her look slightly will shake off any pursuit. If they're looking for a girl in a black jacket and they spot her... It's not much. It's barely anything, really. If they spot her they'll know who she is. She should have kept the jacket, it was a stupid idea to lose it.
If she does get stopped, she needs to not be carrying suspicious things like stakes and guns with wood-tipped bullets. So she finds a sewer grate under a broken streetlight and pulls out three stakes and her gun. It's not that she has any sentimental attachment to her weapons, but it's not always easy to get replacements. She drops two of the stakes down through the grate without hesitation, but decides to keep the third. She'll need to defend herself if she does get caught.
She catches a shadow moving out of the corner of her eye and turns towards it, keeping the third stake and the gun out of sight.
"Somebody there?"
v. End of the Night, It's Going Down [closed to Natasha]
Ealing, May 28, late night
Alex can't go home. One of the vampires saw her face. It won't take them long to figure out who she is and where she lives. She's ditched most of her gear and her jacket, but that won't throw them off the scent for long. She needs somewhere to lay low for a while. Maybe a long while.
She can't go to any of her known acquaintances, either. The vampires will look for her there, and she doesn't want to put anyone else in danger. She needs someone that nobody knows she knows, someone nobody would expect her to hide out with.
It takes her longer than she'd like to admit to think of Natasha. She'd cautioned Alex against killing Millicent, so it's entirely probable that she'll want nothing to do with the fallout, but it's worth a try. Alex makes her way to the Redbright Institute and sneaks around until she finds a familiar smell. Carefully, just in case this goes south fast, she pulls her stake out and keeps it down by her side as she quietly follows Natasha's scent.
vi. One More Shot, Another Round [closed to Kyle]
Kyle's secret new apartment, May 31, morning
For the past few days, Alex has been in hiding. She can't risk anyone finding out where she is, so she's been very careful about contacting people she knows. When she gets a note from Kyle telling her to meet him at an address she's never heard of, she briefly wonders whether it's really from him or a trap set by someone trying to catch her.
She decides to risk it. She puts on a pair of shades and, trying to look as inconspicuous as possible, takes an extremely circuitous route to the address, hoping to shake anyone tailing her. Finally, she makes it. Instead of going through the front door, she climbs the fire escape and knocks on the window of what she hopes is the right apartment.
[If anyone wants their own prompt, hit me up at
perfect!
"Thirty seconds from when you notice it starts," she points out- it was better to underestimate the amount of time you had to accomplish something like that than it was to overestimate it and find yourself in a very hairy situation.
Evie looks over the map again, absentmindedly placing her gloved fingers over a few spots, mulling over her own thoughts.
"Go through the balcony- I can get up to the roof and take out the one there." She pointed. "It will give you more time, and an easier way out. In and out the same way, you'll only have to take out the guard inside the room before Millicent, then back up to the top of the roof and down."
That, and you don't want to forget the layout of the building half-way through sneaking up a few flights.
But even then, Millicent and the guard in the room were going to be hard for Alex to handle, she worried.
"Let me give you something for the guard in the room-" she reached into a pocket, and pulled out a few small pellets. "Smoke bombs. They leave no trace once they fade. It will help confuse the guard, in case something goes wrong."
no subject
Alex takes the pellets, and rolls one curiously between her fingers for a moment before dropping them into her pocket.
She's still not entirely convinced that she's not about to get stabbed in the back, but as long as she keeps a close eye on Evie, the new plan might be less risky even with that possibility.
"Okay. I go in by the balcony. We have to do it after the shift change, though, so the guy coming on shift doesn't notice the guy he's coming to replace is down."
no subject
And if Alex failed...?
Well, Evie wouldn't get caught. This was an easy enough assassination, if it had just been her. But Alex was here, and the question was, if worst came to worst, did she finish it? Knowing Millicent, if she survived this attack, she'd come down harder on the wolves than before. Which meant one thing.
"I'll stay on the roof. If you need help- you know how to whistle?"
no subject
It's been a long time since Alex worked with another person. She nods curtly, frowning. "Yeah. I can whistle."
She stuffs the map back into the bag and adjusts the strap to sit more comfortably on her shoulder, giving her a little more freedom of motion.
"Come on." No point in putting it off. In about twenty minutes, the guard will change, then it'll be do or die time.
no subject
As Alex shouldered the bag, Evie pulled her hood up and down low over her eyes. Best get there sooner rather than later, in case the guard change goes through sooner than expected.
"I'll head up to the roof and wait for the change there. Will you be able to reach the balcony, or would you like a lift?" She flashes the rope launcher on her wrist.
no subject
She takes off towards Millicent's hideout, not letting Evie out of her sight as she walks.
no subject
She follows, keeping to the shadows, but still in Alex's line of sight. Easy enough. She can lead fully from here on out. Giving her more control would hopefully assist them, in the end.
no subject
"Alright. I'll wait here. You signal once the guard's down."
no subject
Without waiting for an answer, she fires the line, and disappears up and into the shadows.
Not thirty seconds later, a low whistle sounds from the spot where the guard once was. Coast is clear, Alex.
no subject
When she hears Evie's whistle, she waits another few seconds before moving. She got rid of the guard awfully fast, and Alex can't help but wonder whether it was too fast. What if Evie was just pretending to have taken out the guard, and Alex was about to get a nasty surprise?
She walks down the street quickly but cautiously, keeping her eyes on the shadows, looking for even a hint of movement. Once she arrives in front of the building, she pauses again, surveying the wall she's going to have to scale. Sheer, made of brick - difficult but not impossible. She finds a handhold and hauls herself up, relying on her strength to pull herself up the wall pretty much by her fingertips.
Finally, she's able to grasp hold of the balcony, and pulls herself onto the edge of it as quietly as she can, sticking close to the wall and hopefully out of sight of the people in the room. She can hear their voices clearly now - or rather, Millicent's voice. A man, presumably her guard, only occasionally chimes in with a word here or there.
Alex glances up, looking to see if Evie's there, or if there's someone else watching her, before she makes her move.
no subject
Evie keeps to the shadows, her hood still pulled down. By the time Alex hauls herself up on to the balcony, Evie's there, waiting. At the glance, she offers her a smile that she's sure is lost in the darkness. No, she's there. She hasn't betrayed her. Yet, or ever.
no subject
She uncoils the rope and ties one end of it to the balcony railing - she'll probably need to leave in a hurry and if she just jumps off the balcony she'll wind up with a broken leg at best and a cracked skull at worst, either of which would make it hard to get away.
One deep breath and a quick glance into the room is all Alex allows herself before momentarily squeezing her eyes shut, gritting her teeth, and then hurling one of Evie's smoke pellets right at Millicent. The guard goes down fast: headshot, right between the eyes. Alex whips the gun towards Millicent, but instead of going for another headshot, she aims at the vampire's chest and stomach. She wants to stake Millicent, and she wants Millicent to be conscious when she does it. The whole point of this, after all, is revenge, and what good is revenge if the victim doesn't know what's happening?
That turns out to be a mistake. Millicent's too fast. A single bullet hits her in the ribs before the gun is wrenched out of Alex's hands and Alex is flung back into the railing, hard enough to crack the stone.
The guard who was outside the door bursts into the room, but seems to get lost in the cloud of smoke.
Stake in hand, Alex lunges at Millicent. Her first strike is blocked, the second dodged, and though Alex manages to scrape the tip of the stake across Millicent's chest, the vampire's hand quickly clamps down around Alex's throat. She thrashes, kicking and hitting with all her strength, but Millicent barely seems to notice.
That's when the guard finally emerges from the smoke, and Millicent snaps some order at him that Alex barely hears through the blood rushing in her ears. The momentary distraction is all she needs, though, to stab the stake at Millicent's arm, piercing it straight through. Millicent drops her, and as she rips the stake out of her arm, Alex whistles as loud as she can. As much as she wants to do this on her own, a tiny realistic part of her knows she probably can't handle both the guard and Millicent without a little help.
no subject
Evie reaches into her boot and pulls out a slim stake. Without any hesitation, she threw the stake just as she dropped to one knee behind cover. The stake flew towards Millicent, striking her in the calf to distract her. From behind cover, Evie let fly with another smoke bomb, plunging the room into fog. Using the fog as cover, she came out from crouching along a desk, and placed herself directly behind the guard.
A hidden stake up her sleeve flies out and find it's way into the guard's heart. He drops, and Evie steps away. Now it's just them and Millicent. Evie doesn't wait another second before drawing her sword, ready to step in where Alex needs her.
no subject
She can't afford to be slow or unsteady now. A few seconds to clear her head could be all the time Millicent needs to get in a fatal blow. So even though Alex's ears are still ringing and she can barely see through all the smoke, she pulls out another stake and, pushing off as hard as she can from the ground, rushes Millicent.
She rams into her, driving the stake hard into the vampire's chest. They both end up on the floor. Alex feels Millicent grasping and clawing at her shoulders, her throat, her face. One of her shoulders dislocates with the force of the vampire's struggles, and there's a bad gash across her throat, but she'll heal. She yanks the stake out of Millicent's chest and slams it back in again, not caring whether she's hit Millicent's heart this time, just wanting to hurt her. Alex punches Millicent in the face, again and again until she feels blood on her knuckles, then yanks the stake out one more time and stabs it right through Millicent's breastbone.
Finally, Alex sits back, realizing that whether the second or third stab killed her, Millicent is dead.
She puts a hand protectively over her dislocated shoulder and looks around for Evie.
no subject
"Get out of here." She tells the girl. "We don't have long to escape. Well done." It was messy, but it had worked. Honestly, not the worst thing she'd ever witnessed, let alone taken part in.
"And get your neck looked after." She was long used to the sight of blood, but that didn't mean it wasn't appetizing. Evie didn't want there to be too much of Alex's blood at the scene, either. The DNA evidence would be strong, unless the blood from Millicent's face and Alex's neck mixed. Then they wouldn't be able to separate the two, but it was still a risk.
no subject
It hasn't occurred to her to worry about DNA evidence or anything like that yet. The implications of what she's just done have barely registered at all.
She stumbles towards the balcony, where she makes an attempt at popping her shoulder back into place, but all that does is make it hurt more. Apparently violently jerking your upper arm isn't the best way to fix a dislocated shoulder.
"Can you..." She gestures vaguely at her shoulder.
no subject
"Of course. Bite down on something, this will hurt." She waits for Alex to get ready, and when she is, Evie uses her considerable strength to easily pop her shoulder right back into place.
"Good as new. If you need a quick heal..." She looks down at Millicent. "Her blood will fix you right up."
no subject
She glances over at Millicent's body. The thought of drinking a vampire's blood makes her stomach turn - even if it would help her heal faster, she'd rather die.
"No, I can heal." She touches her fingers gingerly to the wound on her neck, which is already starting to close. Despite the fact that her shoulder still hurts like hell, she grabs the rope she tied to the balcony earlier and prepares to climb back down to the street.
She turns back to Evie, unsure of what to say. She likes to think she would have found some way to succeed without the vampire's help, but she also knows that Evie definitely did help, more than Alex expected her to. Still somewhat dazed, Alex ends up simply nodding in thanks before starting to lower herself down.
no subject
Alex's look is returned, her jaw set. It's a thank you, a good luck, and a take care all at once. And an understanding that they'll never speak of this evening again if they ever run into each other again, as far as she is concerned.
Evie waits, however, until Alex is out of sight before going off in the opposite direction. She'll spend a long time losing any possible tails before returning home.