The Broken Bottle Pub

[Austin]

Austin's thoughts came back to Azrael, made slightly faint by distance
hold her there if you can brother, I'm on my way

[Kana Lémartes]

The black Lamborghini pulled up a few streets away from the pub - just far enough to be out of hearing distance - and Kana Lémartes stepped out. He had deliberatly parked away from the pub to eliminate the chance of Zack hearing him pull up and making himself scarce. It wasn't something that he would have expected from the hitman anyway, but the element of surprise would make it all the more satisfying when he got hold of him.

He walked to the end of the road on which the Bottle stood and then flickered to the door silently and shoved it open, unaware that Azrael was crouched on the other side. He had toyed with the idea of flickering through the door - something he'd been practising but not yet perfected - but decided against it. It would not have done to make a less-than-pristine entrance at the moment, especially as he had not yet established himself as the new force to be reckoned with in Edgehaven.

[Carla Glenn]

Carla eyed Azrael's gun wearily. Madoc's self sacrafice had almost been cute, if it hadn't been for the obvious fact that Azrael would have gunned him down in cold blood. This in itself had given Carla new fighting spirit. In a sense. She now had ammunition to use against the Watch. She had an idea. If she couldn't defeat them through strength of arms, she'd destroy their heart. She'd make it so the entire city rose up against them.

"Thanks for trying." She gave Madoc a sincere smile, and turned back to Azrael, her hands held high.

"I'm not going to fight you, Azrael. Shoot me now if you want, but do it outside, yeah? If my body does cause a discharge, at least we won't trash this pub, and even if I don't, I don't want to awake any blood lust in Felix over there." Using names made her sound like the nice, good guy. Azrael was the gun wielding bad guy. Madoc had made her see it. She was the unarmed innocent woman. Azrael was the attacker. She didn't care if she lived or died. Without Rino, what did she have to live for? But if Azrael took her down now, she could die a martyr. Murdered by the Watch. She could only imagine the snowball effect it'd have. And if not, even then doubts would arise about the Watch's methods.

"Look, I'm unarmed. Sure, I've got my electricity powers, but I can't leave 'em at home, even if I want to. They're no match for bullets anyway. You wanna execute me, go ahead. But I've had no trial. Hell, I've comitted no crime. Okay, so I stole that jewel, but so did your organisation. And I threatened Austin Darkora, but me and half the city's done that." Mostly Carla had been an assistant. She'd fought for Rino near the end, but hadn't killed anybody. She'd come close, before that damn ninja had escaped, but she hadn't succeeded. Force wise, killing her seemed a bit extreme, but she wouldn't put it past the Watch.

"But at least do it oustide, yeah?" She asked, just before the door opened. She winced. That was all she needed. A newcomer would blow the fuse on the situation for sure.

[Azrael Jiraco]

Azrael wasn't sure where Carla was getting to. Did she want to die? What were her motives? There was something fishy about this, and Azrael couldn't see through her plot. Austin had told him to keep her here, which he was more than happy to do. If he wanted her to die, he would've ordered Azrael to execute her where she stood. Og course, Carla didn't know this. Azrael stood up, loosening a bit, but still training the weapon on her.
"No, we'll stay right here. I have a few questions myself, which, of course, you will answer."
The Watch HQ wasn't far from here so Austin shouldn't take too long.
What is your intentions brother? Azrael thought to himself, unconsciously.

Then, Carla's attention went straight to the door. Was this her plan? Was she stalling for backup? Of course, it all made sense. He moved to the side slightly, so the newcomer would come straight into his front arc. Drawing a second gun, he kept Carla in place with one, whilst overwatching the door with the other.

[Kana Lémartes]

Kana surveyed the situation in front of him. It would seem he'd walked into the middle of a very tense situation. He recognized all of the people in the room except Carla, and she seemed to be the source of all the trouble. The figure in front of him, the one who had just shifted out of the way to let him pass, was without a doubt the second in command of the Night Watch, Azrael Turnbull. He smiled, although there was no humour in it. This could be interesting after all.

"Well well, it seems I'm interrupting." He said in his usual cold tone. He gave Azrael a disdainful look and walked properly into the room, allowing the door to swing shut behind him. Seemingly without caring about the Azrael-Carla situation that was now behind him, he strode over to where Felix was shielding Madoc from a potential bullet to the head and stopped, turned half to the side so that he could keep an eye on Azrael and the woman whose name he didn't know.

"I assume that Kalen is here." He stated to the blonde and the human. "He usually is when I need him." The comment came out sounding somewhat malicious, although in fact Kana didn't really begrudge Zack his time away from his work - it meant that he worked better when he was there. He kept a wary eye on Azrael - the woman was no threat to him at the moment, being unarmed and, frankly, female. But he wasn't as naive as Madoc and he knew that Azrael would shoot him in a heartbeat if given the opportunity.

He spoke to Felix again. "I see the standard of your clientele has descended further than usual."

[Felix Dolohov]

Someone upstairs was having a right laugh as they practically pissed misfortune down on him this morning. Not quite the worst day ever, but certainly the worst one in the past few months.

Felix frowned, Carla was giving up? Well, he couldn't say he wasn't surprised, she had pretty much admitted that with Rino dead she had no reason to live, no motivation beyond killing the Night Watch but she was far too aware of her physical limitations and affectiveness to actually make that desire much of a driving force. Now she was letting herself be killed? He didn't get it. Well, he could see certain ways it would work against the Watch. For one the loose order she had over the Demons would be dissolved and they would go on a rampage, Blessed Weapons weren't exactly the easiest of things to come across in Edgehaven, sure they had churches but the Priests had a bad habit of getting eaten. The only place you technically could get Blessed weapons were either from the Watch, who had their own trade routes and didn't exactly have a shop or a shopping catelogue, which left the Weapon Supplier in the East Quadrent but he rarely stocked Blessed weapons - knowing full well how dangerous it would be for him if word got out.

But there was also the knock on effect that the civilians would get pissed off with the Watch for unleashing a bunch of pissed off uncontrollable Demons on the general popul- that was it!!

Mismatched eyes widened as he stared somewhat slack jawed at Carla, that cunning bitch! She was matyring herself to curry hatred with the Watch and causing them a buttload of grief in the form of Demonic Rampages. He wasn't sure if he should have been impressed or somewhat pissed off because that would also mean trouble for him and his.

Then Kana walked in and Felix started swearing in Russian under his breath.

Great, just what they needed. The only way this could get any better was if Austin Dakora himself marched in to give his buddy over there some heavy artillery back up....

He probably just jinxed himself but hot damn, if this carried on he may as well sell the pub and try to get a job as a Fortune Teller because thus far every sarcastic thought he'd had seemed to come true!!

It was all he could do not to throw his mop on the floor and declare that he'd given up and they could tear each other's heads off for all he cared but someone was going to get sent the bill if anything got broken.

"Don't remind me," he told Kana darkly, "Sometimes it just doesn't pay to get up in the morning. With any luck, Dakora will show up and then what a fun party this will become." You could have bottled the sarcasm that dripped from his tone of voice and sold it in a third world country.

[Carla Glenn]

Carla rolled her eyes at Azrael, and shook her head.
"You want to kill me, you're not doing it here." She told him as a statement of fact. "Those guns are metal. I can melt them before you can pull the trigger." Electricity wouldn't quite travel that fast, but it should cause enough damage to the gun to stop the first bullet hitting her and killing her, faster than Azrael could react. "I'm choosing not to start a fight though. And I want to protect these guys. You really telling me the Night Watch, you big damn heroes, want to stay here and threaten the lives of innocent civilians... and Carla Glenn, the head of Devil's Advocates, is trying to save them!? C'mon, grow a brain cell! Take it outside!" She insisted, genuinally hoping her coming across as the 'good guy' would help the others support her.

She eyed the newcomer with a raised eyebrow.
"Also, Kana Lemartes is here, and I'm pretty certain he's a lot more evil than I am, so why do I get the 'executed' treatment? All I ever did was follow another demon. I mean, do you execute all the henchmen or what?" Carla knew the players in Edgehaven enough to know exactly who Kana was. Unfortunately, he was going to cause more problems. It was hard to martyr yourself when somebody like that was around, and rumours would spread that he'd done the deed if she died. And that'd be bad, as the Watch wouldn't suffer like she hoped.

"Anyway, I've said my bit. I'm unarmed. I'm gonna walk out of here. You can follow me. Or shoot an unarmed woman in front of three civilians. I'm not gonna fight you." Carla began to step forwards towards the door, to watch what Azrael would do. Being shot now would be awkward, but she could hopefully react fast enough to fry the gun and survive the shot. Maybe getting injured would be just as effective?

[Azrael Jiraco]

((Reposted as I thought Carla said something she didn't.))

Azrael shot a bullet passed her as a warning. He wasn't going to let her drag him where she wanted to. Not whilst he had the gun.

"I told you, I have questions. However, if you push me, I will end you on the spot," Azrael barked.
Come on, Austin...
Azrael begged for the opportunity to end her. Keeping her at guns length was beginning to feel awkward.

[Kana Lémartes]

Kana nodded at Felix's words. "Judging by the cat-fight you have by the door, it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest. Darkora's never been one to miss a fight." He scanned the bar critically. "If you have anything resembling a decent wine, fetch me some," he told the bartender patronisingly, turning to watch the scene that was unfolding behind him. He'd caught his name being mentioned. As he turned, he narrowly missed a bullet to the face. Well, that was just rude.

"The girl makes a very good point, Turnbull." He said with a cold smile. "I object somewhat to being called evil, but I certainly have a lot more resources than she does and a motive for revenge. Luckily for you, I'm not stupid enough to take you on alone. Doubtless you have backup on the way and frankly, I'm not idiot enough to make my brother's mistakes."

He took a look at the seats in the bar, scowled and decided to remain standing. "Incidentally, if you can't fire that damn thing straight, don't fire it."

[Felix Dolohov]

Felix arched an eyebrow at the patronising tone but took in as good a humour as he could, under the circumstances.

"I have a well kept 1970's French red in the basement," he muttered. Moe had been particularly rabid about this bottle, the only way this one would be cracked open was if he got married one day, that was how much that wine was worth, both in expense and in taste. "Expensive though."

He jumped and swore viciously in Russian, ducking slightly out of reflex, when he heard the gunshot. He glared hot death at Azrael muttering under his breath various allusions about the man's sexual history and that of his mother's and whether or not she'd conceived him with the help of a mentally deficient ameoba or a rock.

He contemplated informing Azrael that he would be scrubbing any bloodstains from the floor before deciding he quite liked not being shot and went to get Kana that wine - he could definitely afford it. The blond dropped his vomit mop and gestured for Madoc to follow him, if nothing else it would get the human out of dodge and into the backrooms where it would be marginally safer for him.


((Modified because Azrael changed his post. Stop shooting my bar damnit!! *shake fist* I will throw the vomit mop at you!!))

[Madoc Wythers]

Madoc, who had not moved since Felix yanked him out of Azrael's way, had been watching the scene over the blond's shoulder. He backed away as Kana came in - Azrael he could live with, but the younger brother of the worst vampire to hit Edgehaven in centuries was a different kettle of fish.

He followed Felix gladly when he left to go and get Kana's wine. "That," he said, gesturing behind him to the bar, "is one hell of a tense situation."

[Carla Glenn]

If having powers over elecriticity, a very fast and unpredictable resource, gave you one thing, it was good reflexes. Carla saw that the shot wasn't going to hit, and therefore, impressively in her opinion, didn't flinch.

"And now you've put a hole in their wall. You gonna pay to fix that?" She asked with the pounding realisation of somebody who now knew they're opponent was faking. Warning shots only scared amateurs, in Carla's opinion. "I mean, it's not their fault I'm holed up here. And hey, look, even Kana thinks he's worse than me." She added, casually pointing at him.

"So, Turnbull...Ohh, I like that calling you by your last name thing. It makes me sound all badass." She grinned, although it was obvious she was just mocking Kana's pathetic 'villain' schtick over in the corner. As far as she was concerned, Kana, and even Vincent, had been children playing in Rino's backyard. After you'd worked for the High President of Hell, it was hard to view jumped up vampires as serious threats.

"I'm going outside. You can come along and ask your questions. But I'm not gonna cause any more trouble for those two." She pointed to Madoc and Felix. "And frankly, Kana's gonna start gnawing on someone's neck soon, and that'll start a ruckus, so let's take it outside." She began to walk that way again, this time not intending to stop unless he shot her.

"Oh, and Kana's right. I'm sure you've asked Daddy to come by too, so that's another thing. I don't want a three way fight between me, you and your boss and Kana breaking out. It'd just make my head spin watching." She added with a discaring roll of her eyes.

[Azrael Jiraco]

Unfortunatley for Carla, she was mistaken. Azrael's warning shot was serious. He had decided that whatever Carla was up to was bad for him, and he had failed to keep her in the bar as Austin had asked. It was his decision to put her down as he was originally intending to. He shot his gun, this time aiming for her head. However, he had underestimated whatever quick reflexes she may have. He had also presumed that his coke attack would have prevented her from using her powers, for she hadn't yet unleashed them.

[Felix Dolohov]

Felix made a sound of disgust as he moved towards the door that led to the basement downstairs, "Fate hates me. Chances are we'll have fucking Zombies walking- no, no, oh hell no, I'm not finishing that statement or it'll come true," he growled as he kicked the wall angrily.

[Madoc Wythers]

Madoc grinned. "Come on, Fe, everyone knows there's no such thing as Zombies." he chuckled. "Still, either fate hates you or you did something really nasty in a past life." He glanced at the ceiling before following the blond towards the cellar. "You know, I reckon Zack's gone back to bed. Probably a good thing." he added.