Welcome to Gaia! ::

*Catching hold of the coat of arms, Roan stalke dout of teh water holding it*

That's just about it.... Im getting REAL peeved now. Hurry it up General.. I have an old friend to go save before he does as I ordered and stand sup to an enemy even he cant take...

*Her arm raised again, the phoenix settling on it*

Besides... your brother craves blood.

Behave yourself boy... and dont think to give ME orders.

*she vanished, the coat of arms falling to teh ground like a leaf as the Detective on scene sighed and started to talk rapdily into his walkie-talkie*

Below the Metropolitan Cathedral, Mexico city.
______________________________________

Emmerging from a man-hole with a bandana tied around the lower half of his face above his nostrels, Corbin took a deep breath of the, relatively, fresh air. Finally he had gotten out of those wretched sewers and once he had removed the bandana from his face, went bout lighting a cigar.

Garbed in a fine silk black shirt with all but the middle button undone, Armani slacks and akin attire he looked somewhat stark in the crowd. It took alot out of him, but he managed to supress his pride and not wear his insignia in public, this including his DeSeer brands, swords, or Longinus the pistol..Considering it was engraved openly with the DeSeer name. This was, after-all...Sabbat territory.

With a sigh he found his way to a bench seat and slumped down, letting his arms lazily arch over the back of the bench as he hung his head and closed his eye to not allow the smoke from his cigar to dry it out with a sting.

"This is troubling..."

.: Do you mean, us being here in the Sabbat capital of all places, or perhaps the various smells you encountered down there in the lair of the Nosferatu? :.

.:Well I wont deny its un-nerving, being in this place, and the smells we encountered down there dont aid the disfavoured reputation of bad mexican food in the diet, but i'm more worried about the information we gathered. :.

.: AHhhh, The GREAT General is actually taken back by the idea of the Sabbat making a forward move. You talk tough all of the time. Preach about the Camarilla and even spit on the faces of anyone with anything to do with the Sabbat, but when it comes down to the idea of going to war, even a slight tussle such as this may very well promise to be, you sit back and sigh with grief and remorse. How...Human. :.

.: I stand by everything I have ever said about the Sabbat, Magra. The lot of them are ravenous heathens. Vultures trying to demolish order and society. I might not like the polotics I have to face these days, but I know its damn well needed. Without it monsters would run rampant and creatures like the Syn, and respective comparisons would be the only living things left. Vile things like the Setites. However, I find myself wishing it were Setites that we were up against. :.

.: Unfortunately for you, you dont get to choose your foes in this case. Your stuck with the three given to you by the Sabbat. A Ravnos, a Samedi, and the worst of the trio, a Salubri Antitribu. Quite the nasty little mess you've managed to fall into. You know how I am, Corbin. I am the diety of blood and therfor ruler of Cainite unlife, however I dont tae the sides of the sects, nor the self ejected clans. However I know power when I see it, and these three have it. :.

.: No need to remind me. However, These goons aren't regulare. As powerful as these three clans are they cant command the abilities these enemies have thus far under normal circumstances. I suspect that they are diablorie active. Thus far thats the only reasonable explanation that I have come across, there is nothing else that could explain how that Samedi could produce a flesh clone that actually fitted a perfect description of him, or atleast as best we could tell. A humunculos(sp?) is traditionally only mere inches in height. Its Vicissitude i'm sure of it. :.

Suddenly a whistle rang out crisp and clear in the air, and Corbin's ears twitched as he opened his eye and raised his head.

With a moments notice a loud bang rang out in the night and an explosion of pavement and dirt appeared in place of Corbin and his bench, followed the rain of bullets. A military morter cannon had been fired and military soldiers wearing absolutely no insignia on their uniforms were emptying rounds on the target location.

As the dust settled and the gun fire silenced lights began to flicker on all across the district as civillians awoke to the terrible racket.

A whole two minutes passed silently among the soldiers, this under these circumstances equally to what seemed like an eternity to them, since there were no visible signs of a successful hit about the shelling crater. Finally one soldier spoke in a whisper to the one beside him in their hide.

"Do you think we got him?"

Cocking a wide eye at his comrade, the soldier replied with sharp sound with his index finger raised and pressed against his lips.

"SHhhhh!"

Both eyes went wide however before he could lower his finger, and the soldier that had broken the silence gave his rather gob-smacked comrade a confused look, however the source of his woe became evident as he noticed the reflection in his goggles on his helmet.

Behind the soldier that had spoken up Corbin stood bathed in the shadows of the Cathedral pillers, a dim luminacy in his emerald eye. Opening his mouth to holler the soldier's cry was met with an empty gasp as a hand was driven down through the base of his neck just above his shoulders and fingers tightly wrapped about his wind pipe.

In response the gob-smacked soldier turned his rifle and fired however the rounds met with his comrades torso, as Corbin picked the struggling body up from its crouched position to shield him.

"The agent is here! He is he-"

another long winded gasp came at the end of this soldier's cry as a long spear of obsidian had pierced his Trachea, the spear produced from an elongated thumb nail.

Grunting, Corbin shifted his thumb inside the first soldier's neck which removed the head of the second as the thumb nail sliced through flesh and bone clean. He then jerked his hand free of the first man's neck, this leaving the head attached by mere threads of skin as the two bodies hit the floor to cascade crimson down the cathedral steps.

Corbin now held his right hand before himself, a necklace that had been worn by the first soldier dangling from his wrist. Blood dripped in viscouse drops from the end of a spiked inverted Ankh.

Narrowing his eye at the jewelery, Corbin hissed.

"Sabbat."

With no time to spare another word bullets began raining down on him and his position gradually chipping away at the pillers and architecture around him. Snarling he turned his back on the incoming rounds as the destinctive whistle of more shells approached. As the shells hit the front of the cathedral however Corbin had already vanished. Well on his way back to the mansion.

By the next morning, half of the soldiers in the warehouse were gorged on feed and resting. The other half however were positioned all over. Some lined the interior of the walls, some the outside donning cloaks to conciel their uniforms and weapons from the civilians that passed the outside of the property and managed to catch a glimpse through the fences.

On the outside of the fences and gates soldiers marched the perimeter in police uniforms, or the uniforms of the gaian military. In all firections however, at every available vantage point Cainite soldiers were fortified with high powered rifles, and explosives of every description, leaving not one road, street, alley or footpath un-watched for two kilometers.

The entire area was painted from head to toe by cross-hairs and range finders as Cainite soldiers sat, lay or crouched behind cover with their rifles, turrets, morters and rocket launchers.

Inside the warehouse, Number two sat snug on a couch, arms folded over his lap as he slept, and number one sat half watching the news on the television, and half listening to a police scanner with various well worked maps lay out infront of him on a bench top.

"Vell itz ovvicial! Vee are standing on zee vront line!"

Raising his head to look down from the balcony, number one cocked a brow down at Engel who was now suddenly walking up the stairs.

"Ist zat zo? I take it you had zee vun zen?"

"Oh, Veangenze ist a cruel, hungry miztrezz. She und her men vill give us zee var vee have been craving! I haven't felt zuch a rush in decadez."

Engel walked across the balcony, and with this shouting, soldiers began waking up, one by one on the ground floor, glancing up at the man as he walked steadily to the railing over looking the rest of the warehouse.

"Vee, zee var-mongerz! zee Söldner! VEE, zee Jagdhunde des Krieges!"

By now, soldiers were getting to their feet everywhere, gathering, grouping together beneath Engel with fire in their crimson eyes and a look of manic excitement in their grins, smirks and laughter.

"VEE, zee deutsche Männer des nie Endkrieges!"

With such a climatical expression of excitement that looked almost as though he were in his erotic paradise at its peek, Engel threw his arms over his head, holding his hands over his head as though he held the world in his grasp, his hands shaking, like he intended to crush said world in his fingers.

"Vill burn zis zity to zee lazt man und hail ash down on zee headz of zee DeZeer faction vith zee pierzing cry of zee battle vield! Zey vill know nothzing but zee thunder of our bootz und zee boltz of our gunz! ZUM KRIEG!!!"

With only the crazed man before them, and his cry to lead them the soldiers began thrusting their rifles, fists and helmets in the air, bellowing out in sync to Engel, to the sky itself.

"Engel! Engel! Engel! Engel!"

Turning on his heels, Engel threw his arm out, pointing at Number two who had woken during the stirring speach and roared.

"Öffnen Sie die Tür zu unserer Schlacht auffangen!"

Smirking, number two picked up an RC car like remote control device from the bench before him, and flicked the clear plastic cover of a switch, and placed his thumb to the switch.

"Wundervoll"

And with that he flicked the switch. Seconds later, the thunderous roar of chaos filled the city. Explosives began plooming all over outside of the two kilometer perimeter. Buildings were leveled, roads caved into craters and bridges collapsed in every direction. By the end of the initial explosions a ring of devistation surounded the center of the city where the warehouse could be found, and engel's laughter, raining over the cries of his men enveloped the warehouse, as the news was quickly swamped by special bulliten reports, and the police scanner went into fits.

*When Phoenix had landed in the council room, it had been only seconds before all Syn had gathered - save for their most worldly member.
No words had been spoken, 12 eyes simply turning towards the four at the top. With only a nod given, the Syn had moved out.
Lead by Ego, in his totem form of Lion, they had swiftly marked out the location of Vengeance and begun their deployment based on this.
Ego, Appetence, Avarice, Grudge, Fury, Voracity and Lethargy had moved to take up flanking positions around ground zero, their orders to contain and minimise. Anyone trying to leave the area would be detained, if not killed, and any further trouble blanketed by the Syn's unique combined power.
Lye, Fear and Vanity had also deployed, taking up positions around the enemy base in their undetectable totem forms - wolf, chameleon and peacock respectively. Deciet however dropped in on Vengeance, returning to her with Phoenix only to find the woman fooling around with some metal monstrosity, swiftly taking on the form of a massive tri-pod mounted anti-personel canon, which she was stuffing with clothing off the dead bodies around her for some reason*

Well... that tells us what you've been up to.
Shut up Ice, Im not in a good mood.
Nor are the bosses. We're here to assist.
But not to actually make the kill. I know - thats MY job. Or Corbin's. Doesnt matter which.
Right. How is the boy? He didnt get caught in any of that, right?
No, last time I saw him he was threatening to use the skills YOU gave him to incapacitate MY men.
Nice to know he's using it for good then.
Ice, shut up before I test out the new ring system on YOU. Pass me that bottle.

*Snickering and passing the bottle of absinthe over, Ice watched as Roan swallowed a few large mouthfuls until the bottle was half empty, then loaded it into the gun*

Pernod? Nothing compared to what we USED to drink! Arrogant a*****e! I WILL teach him to underestimate ME!

*She fired. The bottle, protected by the materials cushioning it arced gracefully through the air, then in through a window, Roan's red eye glinting as she smirked at the perfect aim. The bottle should smash within the building, flooding it with the sweet scent of absinthe, AND announcing her presence without.
Nodding to Ice, she swiftly reloaded the gun, idly picking up one of the corpses next to her and drinking as she spoke*

Get your arse down there and make yourself useful.

*Nodding to the woman, Ice shifted to his totem, Wendigo, and removed himself from sight to watch the scene as it unfolded*

*Sitting on the rooftop, supping the still hot blood of the dead, she casually replied to Quint through the headpiece*

Do as you must Quint, but remember, I dont pay the dead. Watch your back.

*glancing to the side, she half smiled*

So.. modern. Im getting too old for all this. Too old fashioned.

*She dropped the man she'd been calmly eating and crossed her arms*

Still havent even tried out that injector you gave me - mostly out of stubborn pride.

*Lighting a cigar, she stationed herself at the canon's scope, glancing down at the building below*

Just one thing, General. I want Engels blood. b*****d owes me. Other than that... what'd you find out about the bullet?

With a sadistic grin, Engel moved to ne of the computers and began tapping keys. Within moments, flares errupted all over within the ring of destruction he had created. These flares sored high into the air, before exploding into a glorious display of variously coloured lights.

With these lights raining down all over the field, a map displayed on the screen began to display, one by one the position of every in-human creature within the vicinity. Even the Syn.

With a chortle, Engel turned to number one, and raised his hand to his chin, stroking with a thoughtfull expression.

"I zuppoze its your turn, ja?"

Responding, Number one got to his feet, and saluted Engel.

"I vill fight till my lazt breath herr Engel!"

"Nein, nein. Juzt show zem a good time. Zo, if you vant, fell free to fight zem to zee end. Nr. zwei und I vill be leaving now. Have vun, deary."

And with that, both Engel, and the masked number two stood, and walked together towards a wall, walking clear through it to leave. This left the cloaked number one, to move to the railing of the balcony, and cry out.

"All stationed men, you know vere zey are now. VIRE!"

Suddenly due to the flares which highlighted mana, and spiritual energy, high powered rifles, rockets, turrets, and morters began fireing at will upon Roan, Corbin, Quint and 99.