Bounty Hunters: Apocalypse

"Please don't call me that...", Dean said to Blight and without another word he entered his room. The truth was that he knew little about exorcising werewolfs except for some rumors, but he had no proof of whether they worked. One way was to make the person wear a collar of blessed iron, but who would have the courage to do the deed? He had also heard that someone had used wolfs bane, but the plant was very hard to come by. With a sigh he began his preparations for bed. He took a small cup from his duffel bag and put a pinch of dried herbs from a small box he had and lit it with a lighter. He always burned some herbs before he went to sleep, because the incense helped repel some demons, but he still slept with his sword across his chest.

He woke up early the next morning, as he always did and thought about going outside for a calming walk when he found out that it was raining. The only company with him at the time was the cat that blight took everywhere with him, "Sorry little one but I don't have any snack to give. Nor do I have any for me.", Dean said as he petted the cat, although he knew he wouldn't get much of a response. For a while he simply gazed outside the window as the sound of the rain was a bit relaxing and allowed him think. Mentally, he was preparing for what was to come if they did come face to face with a werewolf.

Research is what I'm doing when I don't know what I'm doing- Wernher von Braun Until proven otherwise, Everything is Relevant

The door to Ross's room opened, and Ross emerged with a yawn. Instead of wearing his coat, it was still draped over one arm, showing that he wore a simple dark blue t-shirt underneath. "Mornin' Dean" Ross greeted, laying the coat out on the table. He looked at Dean then glanced down, noticing Blight's cat. "And you, cat. We're not in for any surprises from you, are we?" he said jokingly, kneeling down and attempting to scratch the cat behind the ears.

Then he stood and turned back to his coat, starting a process of checking the many pockets and making sure he had the equipment he wanted. "Anyone else up yet?" Ross asked Dean, without turning away from the coat.

You are reading this.

Clark came up the stairs, shaking his head. "It's still fairly early." He said. "I just checked, looks like the place is quiet for now."

"Your mission is not to nuke the squid god." —Faramir

Ross glanced up as he heard Clark's footsteps, and gave him a nod before turning back to his coat. "Hmm, morning signals are probably gonna start soon then. Whoever's up for it could probably go watch. Good chance to know of some of the other communities nearby if you don't already" Ross offered while sorting through shotgun shells.

edited 31st Mar '12 8:57:44 PM by FirockFinion

You are reading this.

Dean thought about it for a moment and then stood up, "It might be nice to get outside and to know other people for the time being.", he said as he made his way towards the stairs leading to the roof. Although he knew that as a bounty hunter his stay here would be short (maybe a week or a month depending on what work there was) he still enjoyed getting acquainted with others, despite the fact that he might never get to see them again.

Research is what I'm doing when I don't know what I'm doing- Wernher von Braun Until proven otherwise, Everything is Relevant

"I'll follow you up in just a bit" Ross said, still sorting through items for his coat. For the moment, that left Ross and Clark alone, with Blight's cat.

Dean would pass by the twenty-fifth floor on his way up, the door to which had 'POLICE' written on it in blue paint. It was also locked, if he tried opening it. If Dean presumably continued, he would eventually arrive at the roof access above the thirtieth floor.

From the doorway he would see about a dozen people, all wearing something blue or that had some blue paint applied. Some were standing around chatting, a few were working with a large floodlight pointed off the South edge of the roof, currently turned off, and the rest were looking out in various directions with binoculars.

The roof itself was mostly open, with some tarps set up on poles to act as minor shelter from the rain. The only person not doing one of the tasks mentioned above was a man in an actual police uniform looking over a map of the city set up on a table under one of said tarps.

None of them had noticed Dean yet.

---

(OOC:April Fools day fun. The following is not canon.)

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edited 1st Apr '12 8:00:27 PM by FirockFinion

You are reading this.

Dean made a mental note of where the police headquarters were as he passed by it as he climbed the stairs. Walking outside onto the rooftop he looked out towards the city enjoying the view, but also getting a good sense of the terrain. He strolled around for a bit as if sightseeing, leaning over the edge and looking down to see how high he was.

When he was finished, he stepped over to where the police officer was (because of the uniform he assumed that he was in command) and peered over his shoulder to get a look at the map.

Research is what I'm doing when I don't know what I'm doing- Wernher von Braun Until proven otherwise, Everything is Relevant

With the clouds still covering the sun and the light rainfall, the view wasn't quite as much to see as with a clear, sunny day. A couple of the chatting police saw Dean as he went to the edge, and were watching him a bit intensely. To the North and West wasn't much to see besides the lake, but to the South and East was a more residential area, giving a more clear view across the landscape.

The view down was still fairly impressive. Thirty stories up with the closest buildings around coming up to only about ten made the building seem giant. That it was the only community building around would seem obvious now, if it wasn't already.

When Dean wandered towards the officer reading the map, the two watching him tensed up and put their hands on their weapons, in case Dean started anything. The map was of the local area, with red dots drawn on it in marker, some of which had Xs running through them. There was a slightly larger dot where the building itself was, and lines drawn from it to other dots.

The man in uniform, who Dead would now see had short dark hair and a trimmed goatee, turned his head to look at Dean. "... Are you one of our new bounty hunters?" the man asked after a pause to look Dean up and down. His accent was clearly British of some sort.

---

(OOC:More AF fun!)

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You are reading this.

Blight woke up, and quickly stretched, before getting out of bed and heading to his bag, grabbing a handful of cat food.

"SLY!" he called, "EAT!"

The cat got up from beside Ross, and headed into Blight's room, where she wolfed down the meal.

Blight walked into the main room, and sat on the floor.

"New?", Dean said as a thought ran through his head, Were there others before me? I didn't think there were or maybe Ross just forgot to mention it.. "Why yes I am one of the hunters residing here and I go by Dean. I just came up to see how the other camps are doing and such since its better than being stuck inside."

Research is what I'm doing when I don't know what I'm doing- Wernher von Braun Until proven otherwise, Everything is Relevant

"Morning Blight" Ross said, finally picking up his coat and putting it on. "You wanna come see the morning signals?" he asked, heading back to his room to grab his shotgun.

---

"You can call me George, or Sargent. I'm in charge of the police here" George responded to Dean, offering a handshake. The two police watching Dean relaxed their hands away from their weapons, but kept watching. "Personally I'd rather be inside in this kind of weather, but the morning signals demand my personal attention. They should be starting any second now" he added, and glanced over at one of the policemen watching South-West with binoculars.

"Anything yet?" George asked loudly.

"Nothin' yet" the man answered, still watching.

"Habit around here goes that the airport signals first, then everyone who can see them signals and you don't start signaling until you can see someone else signaling or enough time passes" George explained after turning back to Dean. He glanced at the policeman again for a moment, then looked back to Dean. "Well, we've got at least fifteen minutes before-"

"Chester Avenue is signaling" the policeman at the edge of the roof said, cutting off George.

"You keep doing that on purpose! Stop it, it's not funny!" George yelled, evidence to the contrary apparent in some of the other police suppressing laughter. George turned with a glare to the police near the floodlight, who snapped to attention. "Start responding already! Tim you start on Fairfax; Eric, you're on Forest Hills" he ordered to those around the floodlight and two others. Those other two, the latter of which was wearing some kind of football uniform with a hockey mask,*

grabbed large flashlights.

The men quickly got about to their assigned positions and started flickering the lights on and off to signal. George then looked back to the map, taking a bullet out of his pocket and placing it on the red dot drawn on Chester Avenue near the freeway. That one, along with the others at locations George ordered the men to signal to, were all ones with lines drawn going to the dot at Saint Clair Superior.

edited 4th Apr '12 4:34:22 PM by FirockFinion

You are reading this.

"Morning signals?" Blight asked, "Are they important?"

He couldn't remember if his people had used that name for anything... Mostly he remembered them grumbling in undeath, as he broke their spines.

"Let's us know who's still alive and who isn't, usually" Ross said, stepping into his room for a moment then emerging with the shotgun already slinging over his shoulder. "And it could be good to know in a pinch where other people are" he added, heading for the door.

---

"Forest Hills is responding" Eric said, prompting George to put another bullet on the dot drawn there.

"Clark Freeway is signaling now" one of the police with binoculars said.

"Swing that around and make sure they see it" George told the police with the floodlight, and then put another bullet on the dot at the East end of the freeway. There was a pause as he looked over at the policeman named Eric and one with binoculars next to him. "Anything from Fairfax?" he asked the two, his voice slightly worried. The one with binoculars looked back and shook his head. "Damn, that makes two mornings in a row" George muttered, looking back at the map. If Dean were to look off the edges of the building again, he could probably make out the distant, blinking lights coming from Chester Avenue, Forest Hills, and Clark Freeway.

"Think the wind could be moving that sign in the way again?" Tim asked.

"They said last week that they'd tear that thing down. We're gonna have to send someone over there to investigate... Maybe we can get Ross's new team to do it" George said, glancing at Dean as the thought occurred to him.

Around then, a policeman on the North side of the building spoke up. "Hey, we've got someone signaling North of us!" he called, looking out that side.

"What? Since when is anyone up there?" George questioned rhetorically to nobody in particular, heading over to that side and waving one of the binocular wielders over.

Not waiting for the obvious orders to come, the lady with the binoculars peeked through. "Looks like a warehouse near the shoreway" she said, looking back at George.

"Then we've got two places to go check on today" George stated simply, walking back to the table.

You are reading this.

Jadis stepped forward. "Two options then. We can split up into two teams, and cover both at the same time, or we can cover one then the other." There were tradeoffs between the two options, firepower vs versatility.

"Personally, I vote sticking together. We have a possible threat out there, so bringing a larger concentration of firepower is the smarter move."

"Ah." Blight said, going into his room and fastening his crossbow-thing onto his back. He came back out, and followed Ross, Sly at his feet.

edited 4th Apr '12 7:36:22 PM by Falkon

"If the new signal is more people, then there shouldn't be much trouble checking that out. It's the people not signaling I'd be more worried about" George said after Jadis's arrival at the roof. "You bounty hunters are more used to going into places with monsters, so I'd suggest you check Fairfax while we send a few of ours to check the new signal" he added, right around when Ross and Blight arrived.

"New signal?" Ross asked, not having caught the whole conversation.

"Some place North near the shoreway. That and Fairfax not signaling are the only things off today. I was just having the idea of sending you to check Fairfax while we check the shoreway" George explained to Ross.

"Oh, and what would we get out of it?" Ross questioned, his tone slightly joking.

"If everyone there is dead and there's still monsters about? You can have whatever you can scavenge plus the monster bounties. If there's still people there... I'll give you each five bucks for wasted time" George offered, crossing his arms.

Ross thought for about a second, then nodded. "Well it sounds alright to me. You guys like that idea?" Ross said, realizing the job was practically guaranteed pay, and figured that was better than aimless hunting.

edited 5th Apr '12 2:50:13 AM by FirockFinion

You are reading this.

"Sure." Blight said, "Maybe they have some heads for Demon-Baby to play with."

Dean frowned at Blight's comment of using heads as toys, before responding back to Ross, "I believe thats the plan of action. The sooner we leave, the better chance we have of finding any survivors...if there are any left.", he said heading for the door. "Besides...at least it'll give us something to do and keep the demon busy."

Then a thought came to mind. What was she doing now?

Research is what I'm doing when I don't know what I'm doing- Wernher von Braun Until proven otherwise, Everything is Relevant

(OOC:Slight skip ahead again here. If there's any other preparations your character would've needed before going, feel free to add it in like with the nighttime transition.)

"Good point, then let's not waste any time" Ross said, his tone getting serious as the notion that there might be people in trouble came up. "I'm heading down to the first floor, meet me down there as soon as you're all ready" he told the group as he went over to the roof access door and started down the stairs.

Those who followed Ross immediately would arrive at the ground floor when he did, and see Malena there again. It looked like she had been waiting there a little while. "Ross! I wanted to talk to you about an idea I had" Malena said, perking up as Ross entered the lobby. "I was thinking, we could team up when you guys go hunting sometimes. You all are good at fighting and I can break into just about any place. You guys take all monster bounties while I get the scavenging, yeah?" she continued, smiling expectantly.

"I'll keep it in mind, but not today. We're going to check on Fairfax since they didn't signal" Ross answered simply, heading over to the door. "Besides, weren't you going to go get hair dye for Blight?" Ross asked, glancing through the door at the rain.

"Ah, yeah. Just telling you now" Malena muttered, pulling up her hood and heading out the door.

Once everyone else had caught up, Ross gave them a nod then opened up the door, stepping out into the rain. He glanced upwards at the clouds, then pulled his goggles down over his eyes. "Well, let's go then" Ross muttered, and started heading South towards Fairfax. The combination of wind and rain was cold, and Ross seemed on edge due to the could cover making things dimmer. The group managed to reach Chester avenue with no trouble though, and Ross paused as he stepped out onto the car-strewn road. "Head West along this road far enough and we'd hit another community" he pointed out simply, though it wasn't within sight from there.

You are reading this.

As he followed Ross down the street, Dean kept an eye and an ear out for any signs of possible hostiles. Although it was quiet and empty, save for the sound of rain, he knew from experience that at a moments notice things can go bad fast.

As they walked down the road, he reminisced about the life he lived before he became a hunter. He remembered the evenings out in the plains, where he used to live at, helping out with whatever work there was to be done such as farming or helping his caretaker tend to the patients. She wasn't his mother nor was she related to him, but she cared for him as if she was. Those were the most peaceful times of his life (of what he could remember), but it all came to a quick and terrible end.

Although he was wearing his helm, he felt a drop of water run down his cheek before he realized it was a small tear. To take his mind off the memories he started asking Ross questions about their destination, "Do you know how many people live there? Do they have any special skills they provide or equipment?"

Research is what I'm doing when I don't know what I'm doing- Wernher von Braun Until proven otherwise, Everything is Relevant

Blight stopped at his room, and grabbed his knives and pistol.

He stayed quiet in the rain, having put on his hood, and busied himself with his own thoughts.

Ross glanced at Dean, but unfortunately slightly misunderstood the question, thinking Dean meant the community Ross had just mentioned rather than the one they were headed to. "Chester? Well, they've got about sixty, seventy people or so held up in some kind of university. I've heard they've got working computers there, but I doubt they'd have any internet" Ross said, knowing the internet practically died everywhere except the completely held and fortified cities.

As he turned back towards where they were going, an overturned bus got Ross's attention. It was just a bit to the side of where they had been walking towards, but Ross was eying it warily.

You are reading this.

As the little motley group of Bounty Hunters went along their way, when they passed the upturned bus, they would find a rather odd sight.

Well...not so odd in their professions but still...

It was clearly a werewolf. A dead one if the bloody foam around its mouth was any indication. It was covered in yellow boils and blisters, as if it had been exposed to some sort of chemical that had reacted badly with its skin and lungs. It also stank to high heaven.

It had stumbled out of one of the side buildings it seemed before collapsing and expiring.

There was a muffled 'thump' from within the building and a scream of a creature in pain. Clearly, something was going on inside.

---

From inside the building, the man nicknamed the Chemist was going about his work.

The first Werewolf had been a pain in the ass. It had jumped him as he had approached the building and he luckily managed to smash a beer bottle full of one of his concoctions over its head and body. It was only after he had broken the bottle had he realized he had broken one of his bottles full of home-made Mustard Gas over the thing's head. It had breathed in the awful chemicals and it had only taken seconds for the gas to start tearing apart its lungs. The boils on the outside had come later, but by then Alexander had been inside hunting for the second creature. These two had a short history, but the fact two of them worked together so well said to him that these might have been brother and sister or husband and wife. Or just really good friends.

He had left the first creature to die slowly and moved inside after the second one. It was dark inside, but the gloom outside had let his eyes adjust as he slowly moved inside, keeping the doors covered with his shotgun. Loaded with slugs, he hadn't had time to get silver for it, so he was relying on the slugs to slow the damn things down long enough to douse em in chemicals to kill them.

There!

Alexander fired, sending a 12 gauge slug ripping through the thin walls after the beast that had jumped across his vision. The gun cycled cleanly, loading another shell in place. He had missed, but now he knew the thing was close. Letting go of the shotgun with his left hand, Alexander reached for another bottle, bringing up he saw in the darkness the mix and the letters MG written on the outside in his scrawl and knew he had the right bottle. Wait for it...

Clearly the beast knew what he had done to its partner and it came around the corner at him.

Right into the path of the bottle as he hurled it at the creature. Unlike the first one, the beer bottle slammed into its open jaws and the creature bit down instinctively, crushing the bottle.

And filling its mouth and lungs with the corrosive chemicals as it inhaled.

It screamed long and loud, taken aback by the pain, giving Alexander enough time to bring up his shotgun and opened fire once again.

Ross cringed back a bit, the smell compounded by the rain giving the group the unique experience of knowing what a dog might smell like if it was simultaneously dripping wet and burning in acid. Thankfully Ross had his goggles, which at least protected his eyes from any lingering chemicals, though the same couldn't be said for his throat or nose.

"Ugh, stay clear" Ross said, stepping away from the bus to give the thing a wide berth. He took some deep breaths, to clear out the smell a bit. That was about when the unmistakable sound of gunfire started, and close too. Ross quickly whipped his shotgun around, turning in the direction of the building. It took only a moment for him to determine the gunfire wasn't coming at them, and gave a quick glance at the rest of the group before uttering "come on" and moving towards the building.

The original purpose of the building was a bit unclear; by the looks of it possibly a small business at some point. Most likely raided already, based on the broken windows and forced door.

Inside, the remaining werewolf flinched back as the slug slammed into its chest. While normally an injury it'd be likely to shrug off, it was finding dealing with both it and the burning chemicals simultaneously a difficult prospect. Roaring in rage and pain, it bounded back around the corner and out of sight.

Ross stopped at the doorway, glancing inside but not entering. "Hey! What's going on in there?!" Ross yelled with his shotgun ready, having heard what was most likely a werewolf roar. A werewolf in werewolf form during the day was a bit odd, but not unheard of. Regardless, this was no time to relax.

You are reading this.

Clark followed behind, toting his Judge loaded with silver shot.

"Your mission is not to nuke the squid god." —Faramir