Alex decisively deals with a small number of vampires in the time it takes Jiro to arrive on the scene. He drops down the hole she made just in time to see her tear the head off the last vampire, causing it to explode into dust.

Alex doesn't turn at the sound of Jiro's entrance. "What. Do. You. Want? she asks, her voice flat.

He kept his voice calm, and did not approach, standing in the hole he'd entered through. "To see if a friend wanted help. I am not going to deny that I hurt you. I am not even going to throw such a fragile excuse of 'I never meant to' out there. I will tell you that I am more sorry than I can easily explain that I caused you pain. Also, I promised you I would help you find a way home. I do not make promises lightly, and I would prefer not to go back on this one." By the end of the statement, the calm tones had turned strained, and he knew that his own pain at failing her so utterly - by his ignorance and by poor judgment calls - was coming through in his words. He did not know if this was the right thing to say, he could merely go with his gut feeling.

A long pause, and he stood with open hands and relaxed, casual stance. "Is there any way I can help, or has this one given too much offense?"

Please, please, Kamis, let this reach her. I do not want to fail her...

Alex is silent for a long moment, standing utterly still. Finally she moves, pulling a stake from under her coat and gently tossing it behind her. If it had been thrown harder, it would have stuck Jiro point first in the heart. As it is, it would simply bounce off his chest if not caught.

"Don't get in my way." she says, her voice still flat. "I mean to end this."

Alex steps over to a fire ax embedded in the wall over a pile of dust. She grabs it and uses it to smash through the floor.

Jiro caught the stake. Better than nothing. Better than her deciding just to murder me.

He followed her through the door. "I will do my best to be worthy of your trust."

Alex doesn't give any signs she heard Jiro's words.

Floors four, three, and two provide no serious resistance. The scattered vampires on those levels simply die. Those that attempt to flee receive a thrown stake to the heart.

On the ground floor, the pattern repeats. A few scattered vampires are dusted without problem. Alex sneaks up on the last one standing.

Alex prepares to decapitate this last vampire, when she suddenly reverses her grip on the axe. Instead of the blade, she hits him with the flat back of the axe head.

The target crumples to the ground. Alex steps over him as she heads towards the stairs to the basement. "Leave him. It's still human."

And if he's still an ordinary human, that much blunt force trauma could kill him anyway. And how, dare I ask, could you tell?

For a moment he hesitated in indecision. No, I won't have another accidental death on my conscience. I'll make sure. Not like she'll be hard to find. He paused, quickly checked the injury and the man's vitals. He won't be moving out of here under his own power, but assuming the paramedics aren't too far behind...

Picking up his pace, he headed down to the basement, trying to catch up to the indomitable engine of destruction that had taken ahold of his friend.

[OOC:
21:22, Today: Jiro Koji rolled 15 using 1d20+9. Medical check on the guy Alex crowned. ]

The basement has more resistance, but not enough to stop Alex and Jiro. Alex fights aggressively, taking a few hard hits but she wards off any offers of healing with a glare, relying on her own swift healing.

The basement is soon cleared of foes, but Alex continues to stalk around it. Finally she stops in front of an unassuming wall. With a glare, she smashes it with the ax, revealing a dark passage.

[OOC: You've all dusted enough common vamps that I'm just not bothering to roll dice here. I'm saving it for the something that can actually slow you down like... you'll see.]

Alex strides down the passage without pausing. She yells down the corridor "YOUR MINIONS ARE DUST BLOOD SUCKER! THIS ENDS TODAY!"

Keeping his own council - like, this deep underground throwing them into sunlight is going to be non-trivial - Jiro follows, stake in hand, senses alert and tuned for any danger that might spring upon them.

And his mind was racing - something, fairly clearly, was at work on Alex. The ability to tell, at a glance, a vampire without his fangs out from a human was beyond my own acute senses and I am fairly sure they are better than hers. Also, her rampage of destruction had not been random, but, and this I am sure of after watching her somehow instinctively find secret doors and hidden foes in this building, something was leading her to its targets. If nothing else, she has developed some strange and uncanny new power. She DID say she'd realized something when Sarah nearly tore out her soul, and something about the vamps yesterday drew a very strong reaction, and I'm not seeing any of the usual signs of posession...

She is also fighting without her usual finesse. She was exhibiting a casual brutality, one that lacked consideration for her own safety. She does not care if she survives, so long as she kills a whole lot of them. I will do everything in my power to help you, Alex-san, but your Gotrek impression is going to make that much harder...

[OOC:
10:03, Today: Jiro Koji rolled 26 using 1d20+12. Sense Motive on Alex.
10:03, Today: Jiro Koji rolled 26 using 1d20+9. Arcane Lore - what's granting Alex knowledge/info?]

The air grows cold as the pair travels deeper into the Earth, following the winding passage. There is no light sources in the passage, and only their special abilities allow them to see anything. Finally it widens out into what looks to be a natural cavern. It's been furnished and decorated to look like some kind of black cathedral.

There is only one other person in the room, standing at the profane alter with his back to you. It is man dressed in red robes, long black hair down his back.

"Welcome, Slayer." he says, voice sounding like nails on a chalkboard. "Have you come to join my family? Finally seen reason and forsaken your foolish resistance to the inevitable?"

He turns to face you. There is a mirthless smile on his face. "No, I can see that you have not. You are even more then stubborn as your predecessor was. She finally accepted the truth. Perhaps you will to, in time."

Alex snarls at the man. "Jiro. That's him. He's the source of all this."

"Oh, but you were always so astute little Alex. Are you truly surprised to see me here, after our last meeting?" He pauses as he glances at the one Alex was talking to.

"But where are my manners? I see you have a new friend, and one so against type. Did you finally tire of your endless succession of mindless toys?" He chuckles coldly, then fixes his eyes on Jiro.

"Please allow me to introduce myself. I am Father Jack."

"A man of wealth and taste?" The quip slipped out before he could stop it, a sign of his nerves and one he mentally cursed himself for. "Forgive me if I find your politeness to ring hollow. And your judgement of me... I am not her toy. I am her ally. And I do not fear your kind, Vampire."

He took a few steps closer, trying to get juuuust close enough to get into Fist of the Oni range in a single bound, or at least clear his line of sight for a ki blast. "And as for Alex, do not insult her again. Such as she would never be content to be a mindless thrall of a monster such as yourself. She is a hero."

A step closer, and he drew on his powers, letting the ki roll off of his body in a corona of blue, especially around his right hand, held before him. "And you and those like you will never win so long as you are opposed, not just by saints or heroes or gods, but by anyone who refuses to go gentle into the night." Focus on me, bloodsucker. Focus on me, either as a nice meal with all this life energy or as a threat or something... let's give Alex an opening...

[OOC: 11:21, Today: Jiro Koji rolled 26 using 1d20+10. Intimidate on Jack to draw aggro. Array is in Fist of the Oni]

"Oh, Alex dear. This one looks to be so much more fun then your last ones. How do you keep finding this unending stream of fools so eager to meet their deaths? Tell me, did she train you in such words or did you pick them up on your own?" He chuckles again.

"But what is this? You call me a Vampire? Did she not tell you? For shame, little Alex, for shame. Were you afraid he wouldn't come if you told him the truth? I honestly expected better of you. You are, after all, a hero. Your friend here just told us so."

"Yes. She's a real hero, isn't she?" A voice sounds from the darkness, hidden behind the pillars.

"That is to say, a fool." A woman in a simpler set of red robes steps into view and walks up beside Father Jack. "I once thought as she did, but Father has shown me the truth."

Father Jack reaches up and caresses her face. "Ah, Destiny. So good of you to join us for the festivities."

"Where else would I be, but by your side Father?"

"Well said my dear, well said. Shall we show them that there will be nothing gentle about how they go into the night?"

The man tilts his head back and laughs. It's a horrifying sound that sends bolts of terror into your heart.

[OOC: The laugh forces you to Will save (DC 20) or become shaken. If the save fails by 5 or more, you flee. If the save fails by 10 or more, the subject panics, dropping any held items and fleeing from as quickly as possible.

You earn a hero point for the fiat to let him do so before you can react.
Then you should probably roll init.

http://i63.photobucket.com/alb...-1201150_367_500.jpg]

The man's laugh touched something deep in Jiro's soul, and for a moment an inner voice screamed to flee. But he shouted it down inside.

"You know nothing, creature. And as for you not being a vampire... well, I find myself not caring about the details." He grinned, wolflike. "Vampire, oni, akuma, sorcerer... You have made it your goal to hurt people for your own gain. That, I will not let stand." His stance shifted as he prepared to fight.

Two on two. Figures. But it won't stop us.

[OOC: 12:34, Today: Jiro Koji rolled 12 using 1d20+10. will save.
12:34, Today: Jiro Koji rolled 17 using 1d20+10. will save HERO POINT REROLL. Adjusted total 27.

12:41, Today: Jiro Koji rolled 14 using 1d20+6. Initiative. Array is in Ki Strike]
This message was last edited by the player at 02:58, Mon 25 July 2011.

Alex's vision clouded and her knees threaten to buckle. She KNEW that woman, she KNEW that man. She remembered, and she wished she didn't. Terror filled her and she froze in place, a heartbeat away from running.

Then she remembered something else, and the fear was driven back like night before the rising sun. She would endure, she HAD endured. The fear was nothing. She was the Slayer. And these were demons to be SLAIN.

23:09, Today: Alex rolled 21 using 1d20+4. Init.
22:57, Today: Alex rolled 30 using 1d20+11. Hero point re-roll.
22:53, Today: Alex rolled 16 using 1d20+11. Will Save VS Fear.

Father Jack smiled as both heroes flinched from his laughter. He spread his arms wide and said "Come! EMBRACE THE DARKNESS!"
OOC: 14:12, Today: Gamemaster rolled 9 using 1d20+3. Father init.
14:13, Today: Gamemaster rolled 8 using 1d20+6. Destiny Init.

Alex snarled and pulled one of her stakes from under her coat. "EMBRACE THIS!"

[OOC: 14:24, Today: Alex rolled 20 using 1d20+15. AoA5, throwing. At Jack ]
This message was last edited by the player at 18:33, Fri 29 July 2011.

If she's got Papa Jack, that leaves me with her predecessor... Jiro surged forward, moving quickly to intercept the pale former vampire huntress. Mind racing, he could not put as much attention as he normally would into the uneven and cluttered terrain beneath his feet. I'm not closing fast enough... Oh, this is going to suck. He was still short of punching distance when he ran out of time...

[OOC: 11:42, Today: Jiro Koji rolled 17 using 1d20+14. Acrobatics to close on Destiny. Array is in Ki Strike]

Father Jack doesn't flinch as the stake strikes him full in the chest. He casually pulls it out and tosses it aside, the wound closing almost instantly. "I have done as you asked, and now I shall embrace you."

He reaches out with his left hand towards Alex. The entire arm stretches in a grotesque fashion, the skin splitting to reveal bone, blood and muscle. As it reaches farther a black fluid starts dripping from the distorted limb. It suddenly surges forward, extending across the room to wrap itself around Alex.

Destiny grins as she sprints forward to meet Jiro, and swings her now clawed hands at him. However she is slightly off balance from the run, and Jiro ducks without a problem.


[OOC = 19:28, Today: Gamemaster rolled 31 using 1d20+11. Toughness Save.
19:31, Today: Gamemaster rolled 30 using 1d20+12. Unarmed attack.
19:31, Today: Gamemaster rolled 37 using 1d20+30. Grapple Check.
DC 22 toughness save for Alex. If you fail the Grapple check he will elect to pin, make a DC10 fort save as it starts to choke you thanks to chokehold.

19:56, Today: Gamemaster rolled 13 using 1d20+10. Claw attack. ]
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:59, Wed 03 Aug 2011.

Jiro slid away from the arc of Destiny's claws, cocky grin on his face. "Thank you for meeting me halfway, that makes this much easier." Ki flow shifting, the blue glow gathering around his left fist. He bounded lithely on the debris, then darted inside her guard. "Fist of the Oni!"


[OOC: Array is in Fist of the Oni. 11:42, Fri 29 July: Jiro Koji rolled 27 using 1d20+10. Fist of the Oni on Destiny; DC 25 toughness save. Acrobatic bluff for 17]

Alex doesn't let the black tentacle wrapped around her throat stop her. She struggles with it as best she can, trying to free herself.

[OOC - 20:24, Today: Alex rolled 21 using 1d20+17. Unarmed attack AoA5.
20:15, Wed 03 Aug: Alex rolled 28 using 1d20+12. Fort Save.
20:15, Wed 03 Aug: Alex rolled 25 using 1d20+19. Grapple Check.
20:14, Wed 03 Aug: Alex rolled 13 using 1d20+10. Hero point re-roll.
20:12, Wed 03 Aug: Alex rolled 17 using 1d20+10. Toughness Save. ]