red_oni | PSL . Laura, Dante

In the evening, a grey-painted van tore up the driveway of an abandoned chapel at the edge of town. Parked at a diner down the street, Dante dropped his spoon at the bottom of a sundae glass and dropped his cash at his booth. It had been a pretty dull stakeout and finally getting to meet his targets sounded like a fun time. Cultists, desperate to find arcane secrets and powers from hell? He loved giving those kinds of jackasses a good scare.

Striding through the dark, a ways from the footpath that crossed up the hill, he'd come to a half at the edge of the trees. Wine red leather and a great silver sword hung over his shoulder, he wouldn't stand a chance playing a stealthy game but by the time he'd gotten to the top, they were gone.

Dante hunched beside the parked van and looked over the footprints left in the mud, lips squeezed into a scowl. Mixed with the big footfalls, there were smaller ones. There wasn't much detective work to do there. Dragging his hand over his face and letting a dark thought go. He'd seen another set of prints round the back of the church but they looked spaced out enough to just be another crazed adult. Someone who really, truly cared about the lives of the children that were taken would have planned their move carefully but he wasn't the rational type. He'd crossed his arms with one another, shoving his fingers between the massive archway doors and ripped them off their hinges with splintering cracks. He'd lunged forward, his pistols from behind his back and taking in the scene with a wild and toothy grin.

There were kids, huddled together between hooded people with different weapons. No smell of blood--not yet. They'd turned to look his way and he'd seen wild expressions of fear that made him think with no small amount of glee that it was, no doubt, going to be the scariest thing they'd seen in their entire lives. He fired twice, punching a hole in one man's hand as she'd leaned over one girl with a knife, reaching out to drag her away from her friends. What stole Dante's smile hadn't been that moment of fear on the girl's face but the way she'd moved her face away when four platinum blades burst from the man's chest.

He'd locked eyes with Laura, held in place for only a moment by a flash of genuine shock. A hooded figure beside the door lunged at him in that opportunity only to crumple at the floor when Dante shot the knife out of his hand and elbowed him halfway through the wood-framed wall he'd come from. Was that Laura?. She looked like she'd lifted that guy up with a bunch of stilettos. There was muffled screaming, people were pulling out bladed weapons that looked like they were made of fire and Laura was already moving onto the next guy. The flashes of light coming from the end of his pistols, as he'd punched holes in people that were well on their way until turning into demons, had lit the room up well enough that he knew for sure--Yeah. That was Laura and the knives were coming from her hands. In the back of his head he'd just thought, almost embarrassed, that he'd been so busy with work he hadn't texted her for a month.

They could talk after.

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From:

anesthesia

Years ago Laura had met what was left of her mother's family: her aunt Sarah Kinney and her cousin Megan. The girls had been the same age and had instantly hit it off. Unfortunately, Laura's enemies had found them and they'd had to flee to a new city with new identities. To keep them safe they had to avoid almost all contact with each other. Which meant when Laura got a message from her cousin she knew it was serious. Her cousin had told her that some of her friends had gone missing. In fact a lot of people had been going missing lately, including kids.

Naturally Laura packed up a small bag and headed out to find out what was going on. She'd slipped in the back, kept to the shadows with the intention of trying to get the kids out before violence could erupt around them. The fear on the children's eyes changed those plans quickly enough. Rage filled Laura almost completely. These were children who would never sleep quite the same again. They wouldn't see the world as safe and harmless ever again. Instead they were doomed to forever look over their shoulders as they grew up.

If they even got the chance to grow up.

No. They would get the chance. Laura would see to that. Silently, mechanically, she plunged her claws into the nearest cultist they went for a child. At the exact same moment a gunshot fired out and she picked up a different scent. Another few shots fired rapidly after those and she tossed the dead cultists body to the side like a rotten bag of fruit. With a clear view in front of her she spotted Dante and tilted her head in mild confusion. How had she not picked up on his scent earlier? Had he just blended in with the cultists who were already turning or had she been that focused on the task at hand?

Now wasn't the time for dwelling too much on that. Not with another cultist coming at her from behind. She spun quickly, raised her leg into a roundhouse kick, and popped the single claw in her foot along with it. The kick sliced right through his throat causing blood to gurgle out as he tried desperately to wrap his hands around the wound to hold it back. Without skipping a beat she kicked his chest and sent him crashing a few feet back.

Then it was immediately on to the next human in the throes of transformation. Even as he screamed he clung to the ritualistic dagger he held and so she did the logical thing: sliced his hand off. It dropped to the ground still gripping the precious dagger. The flash from Dante's guns lit the room up enough to give flashes of her blood covered face as she finished the man off by plunging her claws into his chest. A cold emotionless expression stayed on her face as she stretched a leg out to stab an almost fully transformed demon in the chest as it came from behind her.

This time the nearly freshly born demon caught her leg and pulled her out of his former companion's dead body. Anger flashed in her face as he tossed her against a wall with unfamiliar strength. Pain that should have slowed her down jolted through her body, but had been trained to ignore pain. Within a few seconds she was back and charging right back at the one that had tossed her.

While ignoring the fact that a few other hooded figures may have just finished their transformation.

From:

red_oni

The flash of surprise he'd felt when he'd seen Laura earlier felt particularly unprofessional. Getting distracted and letting a basement-dwelling wizard sneak up on him? That was just embarrassing. The sounds of screaming children who'd seen a flash of hope and hell come to mix horribly in a scant few moments sobered him up. Dante followed Laura with his eyes, doing hit utmost to not overthink what he'd been seeing. Laura took a couple of the hooded figures out and got taken out twice in only a few moments and was already back to laying hateful lashes on them. The mix of dark black cloth and specks of crimson made them look terribly cliched but so had the grey and green skin that bubbled and burst to replace what they'd lost.

"Gimme a break," He sighed, leaning one way and placing his hand on the that hung over his back. In one tremendous arc, he'd cut off one ghastly appendage and left its owner writhing on the floor in agony--unable to complete his transformation. Stepping over him, he put on a smile and slipped between lashing claws, boney fists and barbed tails come from the ones who'd sold their souls to fuel their lust for arcane power. They were falling, one by one, to the terror of Laura's rage and the cool, fun-loving grin Dante had worn. When the last one was left standing and the corpses of his associates shifted and returned to being human, he'd stared up at Dante through the opening in his hood to ask in a trembling voice.

In the havoc of the battle, a thorny tail had been driven through the devil hunter's chest. Wrapping his fingers around it, Dante sighed and tore it free, leaving a hole wide enough to see from one side of him to the other. It began knitting itself together as he'd twisted and hurled his sword across the church and right past Laura. In the mayhem, one man tried to slip away and the razor-sharp and pointed edge of the Rebellion stabbed through his shoulder--pinning him to the wall, "Party foul-- trying to ditch early."

He'd crossed his arms and leaned against the wall, a mere inches out of the range of that twisted man's clawed fingers.

"Hey," As if he were chatting someone up on the street, he leaned his head one way and offered up that friendly smile once again but Dante wasn't speaking to the twisted monster he'd pinned. He was looking at Laura and trying not to meet the eyes of any of the frightened children that witnessed him being skewered. "Was it any good?"

"That Alice in Chains album."

From:

anesthesia

For her part Laura kept her focus on mowing through those that came to her. While she might not tend towards Wolverine levels of berserker rage she certainly did have a tendency to tunnel vision when she got mad enough. Unlike Dante she didn't talk as she cut through them, shifting effortlessly between vicious slashes with the two blades on her hands and stabbing with the ones in her feet. The acrobatic movements she utilized almost resembled a well practiced dance.

The moment she heard flesh party she turned to face Dante, concern flickering across her face until she saw his skin knitting together just as hers did. A hand, with it's two claws still out, fell down to trace an open wound of her own that was closing up at almost the exact same speed as his. Mirror images for just a moment, with the biggest difference being her more subdued expression compared to Dante's clearly amused grin on his face.

As she made her way over closer to him she kicked a cultist on the floor who attempted to dig his demonic hand into her angle. He managed to cut through her skin but it was hardly enough to make her trip. Instead she just jammed her foot, claw out, straight through his head.

"Yes," she replied as she jerked her foot out of the mains head. Slowly he was transforming back into something human. Human and most assuredly dead now. For a moment she wondered if they would still think their plan had been worth it after so much bloodshed and terror. "I liked Down in a Hole."

Her eyes stayed on him as he kept that monster pinned to the wall, cuts already vanishing from her face as her body worked in overdrive to stitch every wound on her up. Too bad that wouldn't account for the viscera and blood caking her body and clothes.

From:

red_oni

What she could survive--there was no doubt in mind that she was a mutant. Demons and devils all had that particular scent that reminded him of Hell but it was absent from her. The blood she was covered with had already lost its scent when the people it came from diminished and became human once more. Mutant. Not a devil. Good.

Even better, she liked the album.

"Ain't that a thing?" His eyes lit up for a moment and just that, as if he had to seize that elation and shove it down for a hundred different reasons. He twisted the fake smile right back at the man he'd pinned to the wall who, by all accounts, knew he had to hold onto his transformation or the wound he'd taken would have killed him instantly. Dante patted his cheek, mocking with that false friendliness. "Hear that? Seems like I've got good taste, bright eyes."

"Now," He was still at work. With a click of its hammer, he'd pressed the barrel of his pale silver pistol beneath the monstrous thing's chin where it could it in his hand. In plain view to Laura, just under the heel of his palm, there was a portrait of an older woman set into the grip. She wore a dignified smile. "Last chance at repenting. Tell me where your tools are and I'll make sure nobody gets to use 'em ever again."

Something seized up in the man, his wild red eyes darting from Dante to Laura, to the children and to a fireplace in the corner of the emptied building, "We had to scrape to get that! I'll nev--"

Dante pulled the trigger, ending him with another sharp pang and a flash of light. With a sigh, he stood up straight and yanked his sword from the wall, letting the monstrous body slump to the floor and dissolve. Unlike the other human cultists there? That one was going to a whole different part of Hell. Straightening himself and stowing his weapons one by one, Dante half-turned to Laura and relaxed somewhat. None of the kids were visibly hurt. None of them got turned. No demons came popping out of a portal. As jobs went, it was a resounding success but there was one blemish to it all.

At a time like that, he hated that he couldn't get a read on people when they saw what he really was and it stung to think there was that chance that she'd see him like the rest of the monsters. Even if she didn't care that he was like her, there was always that possibility that competition was wholly undesirable. His fears hidden beneath, Dante kept that mask on with good humor, "What brings you here, sunshine?"

From:

anesthesia

With an unreadable expression she watches Dante as he plays with his prey. At the very least he could at least tell there was no judgement towards his methods there. Or for the fact that he had fun with it.

"Acceptable taste." Said as she rotates her left ankle to pop bones back into place. Funny, she hadn't even realized she'd gotten that injury. Maybe she was a little too used to pain. Other bones popped and cracked as she moved even closer to Dante and his exceptionally captive audience. Though what caught her attention was the portrait of the woman, curiosity crept into her green eyes. Of course now wasn't an appropriate time to ask about it but it was something to file away. For now she just moved a hand to her hip and tried to look menacing.

Something she managed to do a decent job at with the layers of blood and gore caked up on her face and in her hair. The second she caught the man's eyes going to the children she moved in front of him to block his view. Not that it would turn out to mean much because within a few seconds Dante had taken care of him. She watched him dissolve with a small huff and then turned to the children. Tension coiled in her as she noticed the way their tiny eyes darted from her to Dante still wide with fear.

Well, it wasn't like she could blame them there. Her eyes searched through the group for a moment as if she were searching for someone specific and once she confirmed they weren't there, she turned her gaze to him.

Intense was the only way to describe how she looked at him as her eyes roamed from his boots up to catch his blue eyes. Whether she was studying him for injuries or to determine if he was a threat himself might be impossible to tell.

"Someone important to me contacted me about missing people. She was concerned and wanted my help." She'd almost just said 'my cousin' but a part of her still held back, uncertain if she could risk trusting anyone with too much about her cousin.

From:

red_oni

He skirted the edge of the room with his eyes at first, making sure he hadn't looked even one of them in their eyes. It even managed to make his life a little easier to think he could get away without those girls screaming again.

As he'd walked across the floor to the black-stained fireplace, he thought about Laura's answer. The whole time, Dante carried himself with that grim confidence and the veneer of an unflinching, uncaring man and Laura wore her distrust on her sleeve.

"That so?" Dante reached into the dark chamber and turned his hand over. Feeling around, blackened stone gave up chunks of ash which broke apart beneath his gloves. Eventually, he happened upon something that slid inward and opened up. From the depths, he withdrew what looked to be a small glass bauble, swirling with wisps of accented purple light. There was something that flitted across Dante's face. Once he knew what the thing was for, there wasn't much of that false smile left.

"Good thing you got here when you did."

It was disgusting. He closed his fist and crushed it to glass powder between his fingers and wisps of fiery red demonic power--wholly unlike what came from the orb itself. Reduced to dust. What power it held faded and the circle beneath the children broke away. Wordlessly, Dante dusted off his gloves hands and looked Laura's way--holding her gaze one more time. She still had something left to do or say and he wasn't looking to ask upfront. With the bindings removed, there couldn't have been anything left to keep them all there.

From:

anesthesia

Her eyes followed his every move intently, only briefly flickering to the kids. It was not that she thought he might be a threat, despite the fact that his scent did seem oddly similar to the ones they'd just killed. None of their previous conversations had indicated he was anything to be too weary of. He might be strange and confusing, but he didn't seem bad.

Just unpredictable. Which could cause it's own problems.

She moved slightly behind him as he took out the glass bauble and scrunched her eyebrows in confusion. "What was that?"

This was out of her depth, something foreign in more ways than one. While she'd had run ins with demons before she had never studied them, never learned their quirks and the ways their rituals and spells really worked. The realm of magic was a very different side of the world to her. Perhaps she would have to change that given how much she disliked not knowing something.

As the circle fell away Laura moved over to where the children were in a blur of movement. That was what she had come for after all. She checked through them then gestured for them to go to the door.

"Run. Quickly." Surely police or something would have been called with all the noise in here. Someone would come for them soon. As each one moved by she watched them only glancing up at Dante once all the children were heading outside.

"She is not here. My cousin." Relief entered into her voice at that. She had been worried that maybe her cousin had ended up taken in the time it had taken her to get here. But she had not. Her shoulders relaxed some.

"Why were you here?"

From:

red_oni

He hadn't answered Laura at first. While the glass fragments flowed between his fingers, wholly inert, he had kept his eyes closer to her rather. Stone still, Dante waited. Somehow, it hadn't shocked him that she'd left him to check on them for just how recently he'd seen her tearing men apart with a butcher's efficiency and a madwoman's ferocity. The corpses that were still human bore striking differences. Where Laura had cut them, clothing and flesh had been severed clean. Where Dante had cut them, there were scorch marks where the friction from the Rebellion left them burned.

It said little else of Laura's claws that they were sharp and that he realized he'd recognized the shape of them. The first time he'd stolen a motorcycle, its owner gave him fair warning before he decked him with a fist heavier than a bowling ball. It was the first time he'd experienced the process of regrowing a tooth and the first time he'd shot someone in the face. There were a lot of firsts for him that evening, especially as the guy spat that blossom out and they both got the police called on them. Maybe that was why he was tense--remembering an old angry man who'd bought him his first drink at thirteen. She didn't feel much like Logan. Even that guy didn't square off quite that much.

"I'm just on a job from a client that wanted me to fetch it for them. It's a power source for a devil's weapon," He'd answered the moment they were gone and when she had seemed to relax. Little by little, the tension eased up in him as well but there was the real topic--who was he? Who was she? There weren't any demons hidden in the woods and he knew there weren't any traps on the main path. Kids that scared wouldn't go through the woods when they could see the main road from the top of the hill. They'd be running and huddling close and safer in a group. Alone, they could strike up that topic and come to an understanding or at least he'd hoped. Recently, he'd given up on positive thinking. "Hell leaves little things around all the time. Devils trick rubes into doing their dirty work and summoning them with sacrifices with promises of power and stardom."

"Client didn't make it through our first chat but I did get the location off them," He drug a finger straight across his throat for emphasis before canting his neck one way, offering Laura an inquisitive, playfully curious smile. By then, his body language ready particularly lazy, as if he'd forsaken his earlier demeanor the moment the kids were out of earshot. "So, don't get me wrong--I wasn't here to save anybody."

From:

anesthesia

Laura's expertise on rescues really ended on 'go, find someone better to keep you safer.' Of course there were more selfish motives for her not wanting to go with the kids all the way out to safety: she didn't want to deal with authorities. Questions. Who is she? What was a mutant doing here? Was it officially sanctioned X-Men business? The answer to that one was a definite and resounding 'no.' She hadn't even told Logan where she was going, she'd just taken off without a word. And she wanted it to stay that way. Because questions from anyone, including Logan, would lead to her having to talk about her cousin and her aunt and she wanted them to remain anonymous and safe.

Still she worried about the kids. Obvious in how she shifted awkwardly in place as she watched the kids dash out together, her hand going from one hip to the other as if she couldn't decide how to stand. Surely they would help to take care of one another. Finally she pulled her eyes away to focus in on Dante and listening to his explanation of what the item was and why he was here.

"People will do anything for power." Even utilizing children as sacrifices. Considering she was literally bred to be a weapon for people to use for power she had ample experience with that idea.

"At least that means your client cannot use the item to gain power." A bright side to the client dying. She mirrored the way he canted is neck, doing hers in the opposite, and rolled her eyes slightly. In fact it's such a slight eyeroll that someone could easily miss she'd done it. "But you still saved them."

From:

red_oni

It wasn't outlandish or new for him to be put in a predicament in which he had to rethink how he spoke to someone. Often times that change came about in the heat of battle or when he was through with an investigation but, for the first time, it was with someone he thought to act towards as if he was human from the beginning.

Laura was a first but, even as he began dusting the ash from his gloves so he could be rid of the last fragments of that demonic artifact, he felt like he wasn't totally at the end of his road with her. The disgust and distrust he expected to radiate from her ever word wasn't exactly absent but it wasn't directed at him. It felt no different than talking smack about a creep on the street.

Placing that hand on his hip, he offered her a sigh. The smile was set aside for the moment but he didn't seem particularly unhappy with it gone. Instead, he only seemed a little empty--as if he just needed to keep himself busy for one reason or another.

"You ought to write their eulogy," Gaze drifting from the church to the woods opposite of the road, he squeezed one eye shut. The sad feeling welling up in his guts was unpleasant but he hadn't the slightest clue of how to actually deal with it. He just knew that he didn't like having that domino-effect of secrets being revealed thrust on him so quick into any evening. "You feel like talking to the cops or going for a hike around the neighborhood instead?"