Edgehaven Yard

[Tori Kane]

Tori sighed. Man this girl is ditzy. "Uh.. thanks." She decided not to question why the phone wasn't working, it was probably safer to let someone higher up deal with that. She thought about declinging Eliza's offer and using her own phone, but for the purpose of not being rude, she took the ridiculous, sparkly object she was being offered.

After a few seconds of staring at the... well, it had to be a phone... she dialled 999 and got put through to the operator. Luckily, she'd caught enough of Captain Wright's instructions over the radio as she came in not to have to ask Eliza to repeat the adress. The phone, naturally, was answered quickly and she rattled off the details of what would be needed. Thankfully, the woman on the other end must have been used to calls from Edgehaven because she didn't question the 'dhampire' part.

She hung up the phone and handed it back to Eliza. "Thanks," she said, sitting at her own desk. She sniffed. "Have you... been painting your nails?" She asked Eliza slowly. "It stinks of pear drops in here."

[Eliza Flowers]

Eliza gave Tori a wide eyed look of impressed shock. How had she worked that out!? Tori was a genius! She was born to be a detective! The overwhelming evidence didn't occur to her. And she certainly had no idea what pears had to do with it.

"Like, yeah!" She answered happily, holding the little pink bottle to Tori. "Do you wanna borrow it? It's totally cute!" Eliza actually thought that would sell it to Tori. She struggled to understand that people didn't always think like her.

She beamed at Tori. She liked her more now. Not only had she sorted out the phone call for her, but she liked her nail polish too. Working here was going to be fun!

[Nicholas Wright]

Even Wright had turned a little green. He hated seeing people drink blood. Especially people he knew. Still, he'd never admit it, and gave Eleri a grin, attempting to disengage the hug in a subtle way that still let him support her. He tried to ignore it. People did strange things, sometimes, when nearly dead.

"Come on, Sergeant, show some backbone." He said instead, leading her down the steps. "We're fine. Dawn got away. We're trying to save everybody downstairs. Corporal Beaumont is on it." He said kindly, not wanting to worry her given the state she was in. Even Wright could be nice sometimes.

"Oh, and you hit like a girl." He added with a sly smile. Okay, so a girl who could bench press a bus, but he wouldn't admit it.

[Tori Kane]

"Uh..... no thanks, I'm good." Tori replied, eyeing the pink bottle with disdain which she attempted to hide. She offered Eliza a half-hearted smile and then sat back in her chair, hit the power button to her computer and waited for it to boot up. She was sure she was supposed to be helping with the paperwork or something, but paperwork wasn't really Tori's game.

Instead, once the computer had booted up, she settled infront of one of her favourite gun forums, joining in a debate about the merits of semi-automatic versus manual. After a few minutes, she stood up again. "You want a drink?" She asked the other girl. "I'm pretty sure there's a bottle of cola in the fridge."

[Eleri Mortymer]

Eleri smiled back at Wright, trying to ignore the queasy feeling building in her stomach. "Right you are, sir." She replied, limping alongside him. "How did Dawn get away?" She asked, concerned. Then she shook her head. "No, never mind. I don't want to know right now."

Instead, she asked, "What's the damage downstairs? And what can I do to help?" She winced a little as her leg moved awkwardly. "Of course I hit like a girl. I am a girl." She told him with a small smile. Then she frowned. "Wait, how would you know?" She looked at him suspiciously. "What actually happened up there?"

[Eliza Flowers]

Eliza totally failed to pick up any disdain in Tori's look, and instead put it down to kindness, letting her keep the bottle for herself. The smile confirmed it. Tori was so totally nice! Eliza finished her nails happily while Tori clicked around on her computer.

Then Tori made a classic rookie mistake. Not of policing, but of 'dealing with Eliza'. She offered her sugar. If Eliza was like this now, what was she like on a sugar rush? And you could just bet Eliza was somebody easily affected by sugar.

"Ohhhhh, like, yes please!" She beamed happily."Like, my mum never let's me have coke! She says I go, like, too hyper..." The fact that Eliza, who was living in Edgehaven alone, said a lot about her emotional maturity. In truth, Eliza didn't have any friends, since nobody could put up with her for long, but her mum had always looked out for her. If Tori had looked at her call history, she'd of just seen 'Mummy' repeated. Yes, Eliza still called her 'mummy' sometimes...

[Tori Kane]

Tori nodded. "Sure, be right back then." She raised an eyebrow as she left the room. 'My mum never lets me have coke...' Tori had stopped asking her mum for permission to drink/eat things the second she hit 16. Obviously Eliza hadn't quite cut the apron strings yet.

She suddenly had a very uneasy feeling about actually giving Eliza something with sugar in. She poked around in the small fridge that stood in the main office and unearthed half a bottle of full-sugar coke. She shrugged, poured some into two mugs and put the rest back in the fridge. What harm could it do, really?

She kicked the door to the little office shut behind her as she came back in, set one mug down on Eliza's desk and sipped her own. As she did, she caught sight of Eliza's desktop picture. "Cute cat," she remarked.

[Nicholas Wright]

Wright gave Eleri an amused look, trying to hide his worry. She didn't even remember? That was some powerful mind control Dawn had over her. What else could she be made to do then forget? He didn't want to think about it right now.

"Just another day, Sergeant. Hit a little snag when you tried to eat me. Nothing serious." But it'd give him a good excuse to stop Eleri getting on to him about paperwork later on. He wondered how far 'you tried to kill me' went on the guilt trip stakes.

"The people down below are dying. We need to get medics to them as soon as possible." Wright quietened down and thought he could hear faint sirens approaching. "C'mon. We have to get them down there now!" He announced, leading Eleri down the stairs.

[Eliza Flowers]

Eliza took the mug with a happy, ditzy, smile. She didn't question why it said 'world's best captain' or why even she had a sneaky suspicion Wright had bought it for himself.
"Like, thank you!" She said happily, and genuinely. Eliza was as annoying as hell, but never let her manners slip. "Ohhhhh, I know! He's, like, soooooo cute! I call him Baxter!" She answered in response to Tori spotting the cat. Yes, Eliza even named her desktop cats.

She drank her coke quickly, gulping it down with excitement. The effect was rather sudden. She started jittering and swinging around in her chair more. And then, suddenly, she burst out with:
"Like, ohmigosh!!!" Obviously, Eliza had just had an idea. "We should, like, totally go and offer back up! We've got, like, the address! We'd totally look good on our first day if we showed up to help!"

[Eleri Mortymer]

Eleri stared at the captain in horror. "I did what?" She shook her head. "No, you're right. That can wait too." She concentrated for a second. "I think there are ambulances coming," she said, "but I'm not sure." She kept limping alongside Wright, but already she could feel the pain in her chest easing up. She didn't like to admit it, but blood was powerful stuff and it worked wonders on an injured dhampire.

The fact that she didn't even remember trying to apparently eat her commanding officer worried her no end, but it was a worry that she shoved to the back of her mind. It could be brought out and fretted over later. Right now, she needed to focus on one thing - getting as many of those poor people out alive as they could.

[Nicholas Wright]

Wright ignored Eleri's shock at the story. He could deal with that later. He counted the floors as they headed down, and then when certain on the ground floor, he kicked the plaster down, tearing his way through. God, you could smell the basement from here.

He was slightly hurt that the ambulance crew didn't bat an eyelid at a plaster covered, blood soaked, bruised Captain Wright anymore. When had that happened? Still, an entire fleet of ambulances had turned up. Wright was impressed. Eliza either had pulled through, or gotten serious help.

"She's injured. Thirty more in the basement in unstable condition. We can't risk moving them yet." He barked, wanting them to respond quickly rather than ask questions.

[Eleri Mortymer]

Eleri brushed the plaster dust away from her face and sighed with relief when she saw the ambulances. You could say what you wanted about the hospitals, they always seemed to come through when it really mattered.

"I'll be fine," she said, shooting Wright a mini-look. "I'll live. Those people in the basement are the ones you should be worrying about." Still, when a paramedic offered her a chair, she disentangled herself from Wright and collapsed into it gratefully. Then she looked up at Wright critically.

"Hey, you're not looking exactly healthy yourself." She told him. Then she rubbed the side of her head. "Oww... it feels like someone hit me with a steel bat." She was starting to feel better, and considered demanding to help the paramedics, but common sense overruled her instinct to protect and she decided against it. An injured dhampire that got queasy at the sight of blood was probably the last thing they'd want getting in the way during a rescue operation.

[Tori Kane]

Tori smiled and sat down at her desk. She'd noticed the mug's legend as well, and that's why she'd given it to Eliza. If anyone was getting into trouble for using the captain's mug, it sure as hell wasn't going to be her. "Baxter, huh?" She said, swigging her coke again. "Sweet."

She'd just sat down when Eliza suddenly got a whole lot more hyperactive. She gave the redhead an appraising look. "Are you sure that's a good idea?" She asked slowly. "I'm pretty sure the captain told us to, y'know, stay put..."

She had to admit though, it would look quite good - show that they weren't just desk monkies type of thing. And she as curious, she'd admit that. She figured she'd leave it up to Eliza. If the other girl decided to go running off, she'd follow. Tori got the feeling Eliza could be trusted on the streets of Edgehaven alone about as much as a new-born puppy.

[Nicholas Wright]

Wright managed a bit of a guilty look at Eleri.
"Truncheon. It was a truncheon." He mumbled, trying his best not to look too guilty about it. He broke off the awkward moment, turning on his heel and heading back towards the building. Admitingly, every part of his body hurt, but he knew right now somebody else needed their captain.

"Corporal Beaumont!" He yelled, making his way down the stairs surrounded by paramedics. "Stand down." He did his best to maintain a steely neutral gaze when he saw the blood soaked young man. "Get up top. That's an order." He said simply.

Wright wasn't letting himself take in the horror of this room. Not yet.

[Eliza Flowers]

Eliza gave another big smile, drunk on sugar.
"Nu uh! He just said I, like, had to write a report." She waved some printed paper happily. "I had to take out the bit, like, about where he inserted the attacker's weapon because it was, like, rude and I'm not sure what an 'Edgehaven special' is or like why you can't use your fingers afterwards, but I, like, just put it down as, like, 'necessary force'." She gabbled off with hyperkinetic sugary energy.

"Besides, I can, like, drive us!" She practically beamed at this idea. "Captain Wright won't let me use the, like, police car, but we can, like, totally, use mine!" Eliza's car was her pride and joy, and looked upon with total horror by anybody else. A bright pink smart car with playboy bunny transfers in the windows, bright pink furry dice and a tiny furry pink bunny on the dash board, it was easy to see why she loved it and everybody else hated it...