Tempting Fate [Open][NR]

A break, that was what the Malkavian needed. Or some entertainment.

She had spent hours last night having her sister hit her over and over again to test Devon's combat abilities, her speed, and her overall strength. She was incredibly pleased, and had figured she had more than deserved a break, some 'fresh air' so to speak.

She walked down the street slowly, moving around people without touching them, the hood of her short sleeve hoodie up, purple and sea green eyes staring out from the darkness, and her hair hanging down around her shoulders. Hands were dug into her black cotton pants, and there was a soft flip-flop sound caused by her flip flops as she walked. She was whistling a cheery little tune, causing several passersby to turn and stare.

The Goons had been driving around Edge in the Escalade Goonmobile looking out for the hero or the chick. A kid in a suit and a cape wouldn't be hard to find, he'd stick out like a sore thumb. The girl was probably his side kick or something along those lines, after watching the news and seeing the footage of them in that Bank, and hearing the stories from the other goons themselves.

Loud music was blasting from the Goonmobile's speakers. All 4 goons were average humans with street fighting skills. Each of them were equipped with 9mm pistols. 20 minutes passed before they spotted the chick with the hoodie that had the cat ears on it. She was alone. Good. Nab her and head back to the hideout, get in good with the bosses. Perfect plan.

The driver swerved the Goonmobile over lanes of traffic to the curb and slammed on the brakes. All 4 doors opened and the Goons got out to go surround the girl. "Hey baby, you're coming with us!" one of the Goons said. He licked his lips while looking her up and down. "This can go easy or hard, do us a favor and don't have us make a scene!"

"Get in the car!" said another one, clutching his pistol. "Now! Move it!"

She saw the car with the loud music coming from it swerve of lanes of traffic to the curb near where she was standing and slam on the breaks. Both eyebrows rose: she had been sure they had planned on hitting her with the car, and had been more than ready to jump out of the way. Then they were getting out of the car and barking orders at her...

Was this a joke? Were these... well, they smelled human... were they really trying to kidnap her? Oh, this was good, and probably worth a good laugh. She could only assume they didn't know what she was, and that they figured she was some sort of human or something. So, she figured since her cover hadn't been blown yet, that she would play along: she had never been kidnapped after all, and felt it was an experience she should have.

So, she contorted her face into what would look like fear, looking at each one with this frightened /mask/ on. "Oh okay! Okay! Don't hurt me!", she said, voice shrill as she acted out her kidnapping, while on the inside she wanted to cackle.

She climbed into their car, keeping the frightened look on her face...

She got in the back seat, and was surrounded on both sides by 2 guys with cheap suits, cheaper cologne, sunglasses and pistols. The two other Goons got up front and all of the doors closed. The driver put the truck in drive and began speeding off.

"Your superhero boyfriend really found himself a cutie, didn't he?" asked the Goon to the left of Cala. "He shouldn't have stuck his stupid cape wearing nose in our business, so now he's gonna suffer. If this is anybody's fault this is happening to you, it's his."

"Yeah, the boss is gonna have fuuuuuuun with you," added the Goon to the right of Cala. "And when he's done with you, we get the seconds! And i'm gonna be first to get insid'a that!"

"Fuck you! You got first last time. It's MY turn," said the driver, quickly turning a corner while headed back to the massage parlor. "You can have what's let when I get done. If there's anything left..." The Goon grinned, confident that they'd get to have their way with her after the boss got his turn.

Well, at least she knew the why behind this kidnapping of hers; they wanted to get to the Vigilante, and had probably seen her on the television with him, she was going to have to get a mask or something to hide her face from now on if they went to go save anyone else from getting robbed, or anything along those lines at all.

Just like every other thug, they detailed their /plan/ in front of her. Right... that was going to happen... never. Yeah, never sounded good. But, she wasn't going to tell them that. Nope, she was going to continue to play the helpless little victim, the damsel in distress. It was definitely a first.

She kept the frightened look on her face, still playing her part. "Oh no! Don't... don't hurt me!"

This was really going to be interesting: and she'd hopefully get to see Matt come save her and play her hero... which was awesome, she figured she was really going to enjoy getting to see him in action: coming to save the day and all that romantic comic book stuff.

The Goonmobile pulled into an alley behind the 3 floored Massage Parlor. The driver pulled into the underground garage, parked, and got out. The two Goons in the back restrain the girl as she is escorted into the building. The Goon on the right took some of Cala's hair and sniffed it, then made a grunting sound.

Cala would be lead up 3 floors through the Massage Parlor. Besides what the name of the place entailed, there were other activities going on, including prostitution and drug making going on in various rooms. Shady looking men in suits and sunglasses holding high caliber weapons were in other rooms, indicating to the trained eye that back room deals at black market prices were taking place.

The Goons took Cala up into Xan's area. "Here she is, Boss, just like you wanted," said the driver.

Meditation.

Weed smoke.

He'd been to hell and back, hell, maybe he was there right now. He had every reason to rage out and just tear out all ass, but, what good would that do. If he knew Kane, he had that crazy Dead Zone bullshit going on anyway, so leveling several city blocks probably wouldn't be a good idea anyway. Sit right here and roll up another--

Here we go with these fucking young'uns again. Always popping up and wanting something, like a certain horny annoying bitch he used to know. The idiot started talking. She? She who? Karin? Yall actually found the bitch?

He turned to look, coughing. "...What?" he said. "Like I wanted? What the fuck--Who said I wanted some girl god dammit? I told Cripple that this shit--- Look, put the girl over there on the couch and get the fuck out. Don't make me get up! Get the fuck out!"

She took note of the things she passed and saw: or heard. From what she gathered as she was lead from the car to the office was that there was more than met the eye about this place. That.. and she was going to bleach the hell out of her hair when she got home, just because that guy sniffed it.

She kept the frightened look on her face, and continued to play her part; taking hesitant steps, and every so often letting her limbs randomly shake like someone's would who was scared to hell and back. Her mismatched gaze darting back and forth like wild.

And then her mismatched gaze fell on the man one of the goons called boss. She took in the man's appearance while she listened to the words he spoke to them. Sounded like he wasn't too happy with the goons from what she gathered, but she wasn't about to willingly move over to the couch: figuring they'd enjoy throwing her ass over there or whatever they had in mind: instead, she continued to play the startled, scared, helpless victim. Meanwhile, she wanted to do nothing more than laugh or cackle: this really was all very amusing to her, and she was wondering exactly how they were going to get Vigilante to come the whole way here and get her: or even realize that she had been kidnapped after all. It wasn't like they had snatched her from right in front of him, right? So, she was very interested to find out...

Joe entered the room with a grin. "I got this from here," he said, whipping out a camera phone and pointing it at the girl Cala. The camera took a picture of her, and he rummaged through the phone a second to make sure the pic got taken. "There we go." He looked at Cala. "We're gonna use this to lure out your boyfriend! Some idiot named "Stretch" has a fanclub website online, and even claims he can get in touch with this Vigilante guy. If it's legit like he says? Ya boyfriend's ours. Lead him straight into a trap, and then blow that stupid V on his chest to kingdom come," he said, then he pushed Cala onto the couch. "And then we're gonna go to town on you, sweetheart! So don't get comfortable!"

Joe looked at the other goons. "You idiots stay here and look after the girl. Don't disturb the boss either! Show some respect," he said, then he left. He went downstairs to the office there and uploaded the picture from the phone online to the website, with a nice note attached. "We have your girlfriend, want to see her alive again, show up to the Factories District," where there was a nice surprise waiting. The Boss would definitely make him his right hand if this all went down without a hitch...

The Goons were about to leave like Xan had told them to, but then Crippler told them to stay here. All 4 of the Goons looked confused. 2 of them took seats on the opposite side of the room, staring toward Cala with devious intentions. The other 2, who were in the back seat with her, remained nearby her.

The one that sniffed her hair looked at her and said "So how old are you, girl?...You and your hero boyfriend, ya have to be boning each other behind the scenes, right?... We're all gonna get a ride on that before the night is over, but how bout a little preview, huh? How about you show us the tits, or pull your pants down so we see what color those panties are. Because i'd rather you take them off instead of having us rip them off of you."

The 2 Goons on the other side of the room laughed and grunted while still staring at Cala, indicating that they were all in agreement in Cala removing certain articles of clothing.

"...Didn't I tell you sons of bitches to GET THE FUCK--"

...You know what, whatever. Stay here. I don't give a damn. I'm just gonna drown you idiots out through the blissful meditation anyway. I win. A quick glance to this girl these idiots kidnapped before turning around, twisting the buds up to be rolled and smoke--

...Wait. Another glance at the girl with squinted eyes. She looked familiar. Xan never forgot a face, even with his mind turned to basic oatmeal after years of torturous experimentations that turned him into the mechanical monster that he was now, hardly looking or resembling anything of the human he used to be. But he never forgot a face.

"...I know you," he said. "...I'm old, but these eyes never forget a face...You. You were in... Murder Inc, weren't you."

Cala smiled as he lifted the phone: figuring he was going to take a picture of her. The smile slipped away when he lowered the phone however. The terrified look on her face appearing once more. And then she was put on the couch; and threatened once more. Right... if V didn't show up sooner, rather than later, she was likely to turn this whole place into a bloodbath. The game was only fun for so long after all...

As she was asked a question about her age her mismatched gaze snapped to the one who'd asked. Beating around the bush was her specialty after all she she responded with, "You probably wouldn't believe me if I told you..." She wasn't going to respond, or move, when it came to the suggestions of her to remove her top, or her pants: though she found herself waiting to kick the first person who tried in the face.

However.. she found herself distracted as the older guy spoke to her, and his sentence to her caused her usual, always worn, unhinged grin to suddenly appear on her face. "Aye, I was... " She stared long and hard at the guy, trying to figure out who he was. "How do you know that, old man?"

Cala wasn't at the tower when he came back. He hoped he didn't offend her with how he went quiet yesterday in his suite, then jumped out of the window and bailed on her. Sitting inside all the time like he used to back home, that was boring. Maybe he could run into her outside somewhere? It was better than just sitting here waiting.

It was when he got up to the roof of this tall building that Stretch appeared in the heads-up display with a picture of Cala smiling. 2 other guys were next to her. There was a message: "We have your girlfriend, want to see her alive again, show up to the Factories District." What the hell?

"Who the hell did you guys piss off?" asked Stretch. "If they're strong enough to catch that girl friend of yours, you gotta be dealing with some heavy hitters!"

"I don't know...those guys with her in the picture look sorta familiar though, like the guys who tried to rob that bank, they're dressed the same. 'Show up to the Factories District?' That's bad guy talk for 'come walk into this trap i'm setting for you.' Are these guys serious?"

"What's the plan?"

V crouched on one of the corners of Darkman Tower while he had his computer cross reference the pictures of the two guys with Cala with the ECPD database. He was soon looking at an entire crime family, a tree that started with the boss, and branched down into several dozen other Goons and Thugs. V recognized many of them. The ones behind the chemical plant. The ones in the bank. They were all connected.

Spoiler:

The top guy had no picture and no name, just "Unknown." The guy beneath him, he was named Joseph Crippleton, aka "Joe Crippler." Former Athlete, boxer. In and out of jail many times on charges ranging from armed robbery to extortion to drug possession to carrying a concealed weapon. Known to frequent a Massage Parlor in the Red Light District. That had to be where they had Cala. What kinds of guys were these if they could get their hands on Cala? He didn't know, but it wasn't going to stop him from getting her back.

"They have her at a Massage Parlor in the Red Light, i'm sure of it," said V, dive bombing off of the side of the building. while falling, V began to pick up a tremendous amount of speed, and collect the kinetic energy to be stored for later use. "I'm on my way there now."

"Be careful bro, this might get rough. But look on the bright side! Pull this off, and she's almost guaranteed to pull up her shirt for you now."

"For you, you mean, you pervert...."

[Kinetic Energy Count=1]

"Oh you wanna play hard to get huh? You might as well start showing off some of that pretty skin cause in a minute you'll be butt naked serving all of us." He was obviously sort of frustrated that he got no response in his order for her to start stripping. He wasn't stupid enough to try anything in front of the boss, nor were the other 3 Goons, he knew this.

The 2 across the room started to rub the bulges that had appeared in their pants while having naughty thoughts of what they wanted to do to the girl. "Yeah," one of them said. "We're gonna get you, you should know this...So why don't you at least tease us in the meantime. Show us something, show us your stomach. You young girls like getting those piercings and freaky tribal tattoos, right? Show us the tat you have in a naughty place."

The Goon next to him started licking his lips. He was the one that pretty much knew out of the three that they had no chance in the world with this chick, and everything would probably end up painful, so it was better to get a glimpse at some sort of body part before the hero boyfriend shows up and kicks the crap out of everyone...

She wouldn't recognize him now. No, back then he was human. He was strong, fast, proud. Now, now he was a creature. She didn't know who he was at first glance, this was good. Xan reached up and grabbed the collar part of the cloak around him, popping it like he used to have it when he was Leader of Murder Inc. If Cala remembered the cape Xan used to wear, she know exactly who he was when he took the action he did.

He looked around at the horny goons, then back to Cala. Xan knew she could easily rip the limbs of the hormonal numbskulls and use them to play the drums with their skulls. She must have let herself be put into this predicament, and realizing this Xan shook his head. What the fuck was it with these kids that they're out here letting themselves get kidnapped and shit. Was it really that boring out there?

"What... are you doing?" Xan asked this while pointing at the Goons, then to Cala. He gave her an obvious expression to let her know that he knew that she could very easily escape the situation she was in. "...Seriously. What are you doing?"

Cala turned her mismatched gaze back to the goons and flashed a fangy smile; as she imagined over a hundred different ways she could murder them right then and there. But, she would keep her hands to herself for the moment.

Right, enough of the helpless victim game. If they had been paying attention to more than their bulges in their pants they would have picked up on Xan's question to her: she certainly had. Just as she had suddenly recognized him with that simple gesture he had made before he had asked her that question.

She turned her mismatched gaze back to Xan, unhinged grin sliding across her face once more. "Well, to answer your question...", she responded, ".. I've never been kidnapped before. I mean.. most people take one look at me and shit on themselves, so I figured this was probably a one-time chance to experience it. Besides, sometimes a girl just needs a hero to come rescue her... and I enjoy watching V whoop ass."

Her head tilted a bit to the side as she continued to look at Xan. "So... what about you? Why are you surrounded by these morons? Take a turn to the lovely dark side? I heard the cookies they kept tempting me with while I... disappeared, for a lack of better word... were a lie."

Vigilante thought of sneaking in and taking them all down silently with the Stealth Tactics Upgrade that he recently installed. But that approach didn't seem very appealing. He was going to send a message to these gangsters, show them that it was a bad idea to dare put hands on one of his people. While gliding above the Red Light District by the use of his cape, he dive bombed toward the front entrance. When he landed on the ground, causing a huge indent in the concrete from his landing, he used the stored kinetic energy from the flight here to destroy the front doors, and most of the wall with them when he released the massive shockwave from his gloves. Vigilante was sure to have done serious damage to the whole first floor; whoever was standing in a wide radius of him was knocked down. The shockwave was enough to overturn furniture, knock over bookshelves and send everything not held down flying away.

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

Vigilante entered the mayhem. Somebody was about to be on the ground seeing stars with broke bones. Cala wasn't on this floor, she had to be upstairs. Scan the building...Familiar signature with cat ears on the 3rd floor in a room surrounded by guys. That's where she was.

Spoiler:

Something blew open the front doors and the wall with it and made a huge mess. Most of the Goons were sent flying and were knocked out after crashing into things or landing head first.

2 Goons were left unfazed on the 1st floor. The were ordinary humans. One had a switch blade, the other a 9mm pistol. Without the weapons, the Goons were street fighters. When they caught sight of The Vigilante, the Goon with the knife lunged toward the kid, aiming toward the neck with it. The Goon with the gun let off 3 shots, aimed for the chest and head area.

_____________________________

The Goons upstairs, sitting across from Cala, suddenly found themselves going limp when the girl smiled and showed her fangs. The one next to her's grin quickly melted off of his face as he hurriedly moved away all of a sudden, but the one in front of her, the one that asked her to take off her clothes, he wasn't catching the hint, determined to see some part of this girl even though there was a loud crashing sound on the 1st floor. The whole damn building was shaking. The Goon reached out to grab the left breast of Cala.

"What the---what's that rukus??"

One of the Goons caught in the shit downstairs that managed to shake off the stun from the initial attack managed to make it up to Xan's quarters. "It's that Vigilante kid! He didn't fall for the trap we had set, he's here!"

"Don't YOU JUDGE ME DAMMIT, YOU have NO IDEA---"

...urgh. No. Don't rage at the kid, not her fault. Too much bullshit going on. All of this shit was beginning to blow his buzz. He just wanted to meditate in the peace and quiet and not be bothered with this comic book bullshit. All of you mother fuckers can just get the fuck on. Get the fuck out, leave me be.

"...These idiots... they might be idiots, but they bring me things from time to time. They do things. I don't ask for much, but they get it done. I don't ask the how's and the why's---"

A big crashing noise downstairs. God dammit. As if shit isn't already bad enough as it is with these horny mother fuckers kidnapping a powerful Vampire that can go on a rampage and tear through their asses in a violent tornado of teeth and claws at any given moment. Now this hero was in his establishment, tearing shit up from the sounds of things. This... this was all seeming like a bad idea.

Her grin only grew more unhinged and deranged looking as she watched the reactions to her fang-filled grin, at least until there was a hand going towards her breast. She quickly fixed that problem, however, as she reached up, catching the hand before it could touch her; slowly her hand closed around the other, turning into a fist as it began to squeeze. It was a slow and painful process as she added more and more force, bending the hand in ways that it shouldn't and couldn't move: the resulting snaps of fingers and the palm of the hand sounding as bones were broken. When she was sure she had done enough damage to leave a reminder of herself for a very long time she let go, and folded her arms across her chest as if she hadn't just broken the goons hand with little to no problem.

"Did I forget to mention I have a serious problem with people trying to touch me that I don't know?", she said as an after-thought to the goon whose hand she had just broken.

Vampire Physiology:

Then the commotion downstairs reached her ears: it appeared that Vigilante had arrived to save her. This was definitely going to be interesting. However, she was momentarily distracted by Xan's sudden and quickly dispersed rage. Both eyebrows rose again, and her head tilted to the side in a crazed fashion. "Well, I suppose if they're helpful they can't be all that bad...", she said with a shrug.

She fell silent after a moment, listening to the sounds from below. She knew she had been brought up to a third floor, and from the current sounds she could easily assume that V was somewhere on the first floor: probably breaking everyone in sight as he started his battle up to her. Did he even know that they had her stashed up here?

Only time would tell, she supposed. So, she turned her attention back to Xan once more. "So, do you still have that bitch around here? What was her name? Karin? You know, I really wanted to just sink my teeth into her and drain her ass dry..."

V was easily able to counter the man swinging the knife. The scanners told him that these guys were just ordinary humans with no special powers or anything of the sort. They wouldn't be half as fast as he was. Enhanced Speed would be enough to allow V to grab the wrist of the arm that swung the knife, and twist it in a clockwise motion as he maneuvered the Goon's arm behind him. This would cause him to be sent into a forward flip using his own momentum against him. If he didn't flip? His arm would snap like a twig because of his own weight. This wasn't the end of this action: if flipping him was successful, V would then kick the Goon while upside down and cause him to fly across the room like a ragdoll.

The goon with the gun was next. Standard bullets would cause no harm; whatever damage they did manage to inflict upon the armor wouldn't stay there for long, because of the Nanoids. The 3 bullets hit, causing 3 different explosions of sparks as V moved toward him next. Low to the floor while he moved with Enhanced Speed, unless there was some miracle that this man could get out of the way in time, V grabbed the left ankle of the gun slinging Goon, while stepping on the right foot with his boot. V yanked the leg up off the ground toward the ceiling, far past the limits that the leg should have been able to stretch, creating a disgusting pop and crunch sound.

Both of them would have a lot of pain to deal with in their futures, and with those 2 down he headed for the stairs and up to the second floor.

Spoiler:

The Goon with the knife couldn't believe that he was being flipped and kicked across the room as if he was just a children's toy. He smacked into something while flying across the room, which caused him to start flipping and smack into a wall to collapse on the floor unconscious.

The second Goon with the gun had his legs split apart, and he started screaming, loudly, sounding just like a female. He screamed so loud that everyone in the building would be able to hear it.

10 goons on the second floor were preparing an ambush for the hero as soon as he came upstairs. They thought they were hidden perfectly behind the walls of the doorway, planning to jump him all at once when he came upstairs.

__________________________

There was a loud scream somewhere downstairs. "...Holy shit that sounded like that hurt," said the driver.

That scream was joined with another scream; the scream of the Goon that reached for the breast of Cala. He collapsed to his knees clutching his arm and wrist. "You fucking bitch you'll PAY FOR THIS!!"

The other Goons in the room began to look scared. This girl wasn't what she was pretending to be a second ago. A second ago she was a helpless little girl that they'd planned on taking into the next room and taking turns having their way with, and now she was a freakishly strong monster girl with fangs?? This was a baaaad idea...

"...Stupid. You idiots don't listen. How many times do I have to tell you stupid fucks that's it's better to make the woman want to rape YOU? It NEVER works out the other way! You end up in jail getting butt fucked by some big hairy lifer, or on the ground with broken bones, like you! Stupid! Let that pain be a reminder of what happens when you try to dip your hands in the cookie jar without permission!"

Dumb asses. In one ear, out the other. Someone obviously never told these wastes of flesh to respect their elders for they are old and wise. Somebody got fucked the fuck up downstairs, that guy is crying like a straight bitch. The hell is that hero down there doing? Besides making a gigantic mess and racking up a bill. I'mma have to clean all of this shit up. I'mma have to get new guys too, cause this hero is beating the shit out of their asses. Why did I agree to leave this in Joe's hands, again? Speaking of Joe, where the fuck was he??

Karin... the name alone gave him a headache. It was a bad taste that he couldn't spit out. "The bitch is not here is what you need to understand," he said. "She's probably in hell, where monkey demons are gang raping her for all eternity in all of her holes... Come to think of it, she'd probably like that. Well... insert some nasty torture pain filled type scenario here and use your imagination, I don't know, fuck that bitch."

Cala nodded in agreement to Xan's words to the goons. "He's right you know. Far better when the woman rapes you than the other way around. You should listen to him more often, you'd be in less pain, less often." She shifted into a more comfortable position on the couch, crossing one leg over the other as she looked at the rest of the non-injured goons in the room. She figured they'd take their buddies broken hand as a warning not to try to be the next one to touch her.

She kept her ears peeled for Vigilante's movements, continuing to listen to the ruckus downstairs while also listening to Xan explain about Karin possibly being in hell being gang raped by monkeys or some such. She hoped not... she really had hated that woman, and could think of far more inventive ways to make the rest of her life torture; things that hell would pale in comparison to.

A chuckle escaped her at the images her own mind created of different painful things that could be possibly happening to Karin: being burnt alive while not dying, her flesh being peeled off of her bones like the skin of an apple from the juicy inside, or some sort of mental mind fuckery that left her drooling and broken for the rest of eternity. "You should know not to tell a Malkavian to use their imagination... I'm going to be amused for the next week with the images popping up in my head." Yup, that's exactly what was going to happen, if of course something better didn't come along to distract her: like V saving her like a comic book hero. She was definitely going to have to think of some way to say thanks to him, something far better than a hug this time around: maybe a kiss. Would he like that? A hero's kiss... She knew she'd like giving him one.

Yup, now all she could do is wait and count down the seconds before he smashed through the door to save her, or whatever he decided to do...

The ten idiots in the next room thought they were hiding. Previous scans had already shown V the position of the rest of the humans left in the building. 10 on this floor, 4 surrounding Cala above. Someone else was somewhere up there, but he couldn't get an accurate bead on him. Another in a corner of the room, sitting. He got strange readings off of this one; it appeared that he was part machine. Closer inspection showed that the man was more bionics than human now. He could be the reason Cala got caught, because the rest of these morons were just average goons.

The Vigilante entered the next room and immediately adopted the position as if he were punching the floor. When his fist touched the floor, his body would be surrounded by a shield that could not be penetrated by any means, a loud hum sending a vibration into the room. The drawback to such an ability was that Vigilante could not move while it was active. "Armor Lock" as it was called, came with a second function: the release of an electromagnetic pulse upon deactivation. It could be charged to lethal proportions, but in quick bursts it could stun those within the vicinity.

[Armor Lock Charge= 1 post]

Spoiler: