Korina groaned as he patted her cheek then left. The world closed in around her again, and she went limp beneath his sweater. She jumped when he came back in and groaned, her eyes fluttering as her head pounded wildly from his yelling. "Vest..please..." She whined softly. Then he struggled with the handcuffs and she stared longingly at the bottle. As soon as he freed one of her hands she grabbed the bottle, then put it between her teeth and twisted the top off. She spat it out and drank greedily, closing her eyes again and groaning as the tepid water caressed her dry parched tongue. They had to have given her something, some drug.
She watched the male head quickly to the door an open it before turning back to her. She frowned looking at him. "Vest...I can't walk. My walking thing is at the apartment if it is even still there. We also have no wheelchair...I'm kind of stuck here Vestral. I can't walk. At all..." She drank the rest of the water, them looked at him. "You should just go....and give me a knife....I will take care of myself."
Post by Vestral Umbris Karain on Aug 5, 2013 23:02:02 GMT -5
He couldn't believe what he was hearing. It wasn't the part about not being able to walk, his father had been working on a prototype on something similar to it some years ago. What surprised him more was the fact that she was expecting him to just leave her there. While there were bags of bricks that were smarter and twice as soft as the heads of Grinder thugs, they were dangerous. She'd be lucky if they took her apart to sell for body parts.
Vestral snapped. "HELL NO!" He bellowed, making full well he had the clearest amount of attention she could give him. "I am NOT about to let you stay here by YOURSELF to get SLAUGHTERED by GRINDERS IF YOUR LUCKY!!" Still out of control, he took his knife out and hit her in the head with the pommel. It knocked her out, but knocked out was better than dead, or worse. "I'm sorry for this, but it's for your own good!" Still frustrated with her, he closed up his sweatshirt on her, hoisted her up onto his back, and practically launched himself out of the room's door. He rushed out of the warehouse and almost fell over onto the ground as he made a sharp turn into the nearest alleyway towards the hospital.
As he rushed into the hospital, now finally calmed down, he brought her up to the desk. "Please help her, she's been attacked by Grinders! I managed to chase them off, but not before they had drugged her." He filled out a short form while they got her into a room. "Excuse me, may I have a piece of paper? I want to leave her a note. It's for the best that I'm not here when she wakes up." The nurse behind the desk produced a blank piece of paper and handed it to him. The note read as followed:
Dear Korina, I'm sorry for the extreme actions I took in the warehouse, but I don't know if I could live with myself if I left you in there. Just because you feel ten-foot tall and bulletproof, it doesn't mean you can take on the world when you can't even move. Again, I'm sorry for my actions, but I still feel justified.
Vestral
"Could you make sure she gets this?" He said, laying the folded up note on the desk before turning around and leaving.
Korina glared at the man as he yelled at her, then the next thing she knew....well she didn't know. Anything. Darkness claimed her again and the last thing she saw was the pommel of a knife coming at her. Then the darkness.
Korina woke up to a soft beeping, and she groaned. Her head was pounding where the knife had struck her. If anybody could see her face they would see something most had not see on the beautiful face of the female. She was angry. How DARE that male strike her and knock her out! It wasn't the knocking her out...she had been knocked out before. It was the fact had sat there and flirted with her then KNOCKED HER OUT!!! Then wasn't even here when she woke up!! Oh, Vestral was definitely gonna get it when she found him. And find him she would.
She opened her eyes an sat up an instantly pressed the nurse call button. She waited impatiently, until a nurse finally entered. "Good, I need medicine for a headache please." The nurse reached out and put a hand on her shoulder.
"Ma'am, we need you to lay down. You where hit in the head and apparently have lost the use of your legs." Korina blinked and grabbed the nurse's collar
"Look you idiot! My legs didn't work BEFORE the knock. Now, get me my headache medicine. And a wheelchair! I am leaving. Also tell the police I am awake and ready to give my statement." She smirked watched the shaken nurse leave. She waited, drumming her fingers against the bed. Pretty soon a police officer entered the room and she smiled at him. "Sir, I want to report that I was assaulted by a murderer. I saw his face clearly, and can give a description for you to put an APB out for him. Also...his name is Vestral."
The cop blinked rapidly at her in confusion, not use to 'victims' being so up front with him. She quickly gave her statement and description, the entire time smirking as the cop began putting the APB out on Vestral. She watched the nurse bring in her medicine and she popped them in to her mouth, swallowing them with some water. A wheelchair was brought in as well.
"Well, I thank you all and hope you catch the male. I shall be leaving, and don't you argue nurse. I am fine. However can I keep the gown? I seem to be missing clothing. A taxi as well please...but I can pay for it. I appreciate everything." She smiled and got in to the wheelchair and wheeled herself out. She paid her bills (always those hospital bills...) and went outside finding the taxi.
She went back to her apartment. She got went upstairs and entered her apartment. It was torn apart, but most of her cloths where there. She put together a outfit of her cargo pants, then a white wife beater shirt. She also managed to find her Bluetooth, although it had been stepped on. After a little tinkering she fixed it and placed it in her ear. "Raphael....are you there?"
"Yes Korina. You name has popped up in the Dresden police files. It says you where attacked, almost raped. Are you alright?" Korina smiled happily, and wondered if that inflection of true concern had been real. She put it off as her imagination.
"That's right, Raphael. Now, I need you to monitor the police bands and for the name Vestral. I need to find him...and the cops are going to do the hard work for me. Let me now as soon as you have it." Korina smiled and began cleaning up, packing everything as well as she could in to the last remaining bag that had not been ripped apart.
Post by Vestral Umbris Karain on Aug 8, 2013 10:38:43 GMT -5
After seeing that Korina was taken care of, Vestral left to reclaim his knives from the Grinders, before they came to see just what he had done. Retracing his steps at a slightly slower pace than he had left, he made his way back to the warehouse. Hearing sirens, he hurried his retrieval, hoping to not have to answer questions he may not have answers for.
As he pocketed his last knife, several cops came through the door. "TURN AROUND AND PUT YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR!!" He did as he was told and turned around, raising his hands as he did so. "Ah, I see you finally came to do your job. Too little, too late, I suppose. I've already taken care of them for you. If you care to stay around, though, I'm sure you could catch more." As he called them out for their slowness, he scanned over them. Several of them held their pistols, ready to shoot if given a reason to. One of them, however, held a shotgun. Vestral disdained the use of guns, but more so hated the use of shotguns. They were louder than most other guns, and made much larger holes than it needs to. He could use this to his advantage, however, if need be.
"We found him, he's in a warehouse with a bunch of dead thugs not far from the hospital." What? Were they looking for him? Why? Rather than stay to find out, or risk killing the police officers, he wormed his way into the mind of the one that held the shotgun. As he did, the floor under the cop swirled to life in a flurry of shadowy tendrils. Scared shitless, the officer began shooting at the "tendrils" along the ground, screaming as he did so. the other officers turned to see what was the matter, allowing Vestral to phase through the nearby wall.
What the hell? Why are the cops chasing me? He questioned himself. Who would want to have him caught? then it dawned on him. Korina. He seethed in his mind, a fire lighting in his eyes. He needed to find her and ask her questions. He saved her from a situation where death would be favorable to whatever the Grinders would have in store for her, and she repays him by calling the police on him?! He was not about to let this betrayal go unpunished if she had done so without good reason.
He went back to the hospital, keeping his hood down as he did so. He asked if Korina was still there, to which he was found that she had checked herself out. He then went to each hotel he could find, asking for Korina under the guise of a business partner, trying to find her. In one of the windows, he saw her as he left the hotel Not here, my ass. He scoffed under his breath. Knowing he couldn't just march his way through the hotel, he took out two of his knives and plunged them deep into the decaying mortar of the wall, climbing up the side of the hotel. It may have not been the most discreet way he could've made his way up to her room, but he didn't care. His blinding rage building at the thought of her betrayal against him.
As he climbed up to the window, he brought his head back and smashed it against the window, shattering it. He crawled through it, standing up quickly. Two police broke through the door, to which they were each met with a pommel to their skull. "Alright," He said, eyes burning and voice seething with anger, "Why the HELL DID YOU BETRAY ME!! I SAVED YOU, AND YOU REPAY ME WITH AN ARREST WARRANT!??!" Vestral was truly enraged, once again this woman getting under his skin. He wondered if she were a demoness. If that were the case, he'd have no choice than to kill her, as anything she was doing in in Dresden couldn't be good.
Korina was looking out her window, still in a wheelchair. Her walking apparatus was gone, stolen apparently by the thugs who had attacker her. So she was trapt once again in her prison. However it was alright she supposed. She had a flight back to America in two days, and could attempt to by another one. Or perhaps simply build one that was just as good or even better. However, Raphael's voice interrupted her musings.
"Korina, the police attempted to apprehend a male who looked like the description of the male you gave, the one known as Vestral. He escaped, and has not been seen since." Korina smiled and nodded as if the voice in her ear could see her as she smiled to herself.
"Thank you Raphael. I have an idea where Vestral is. He's coming here. Don't worry however. I am certain he is coming here to yell at me." She turned away from the window and rolled away to the center of the room. Then she turned back to the window. The police had shown up and where living outside her door now. Vestral wouldn't come that way, but through the window here or in her bedroom. Either way she was going to watch him come in, and she was sitting there waiting for him. After only a few minutes, and there he was. He smashed through her window and the cops instantly started beating on her locked door which was barred with a chair. Vestral began yelling at her. However she wasn't afraid.
She rolled towards the male. Her right arm drew back and she slapped the male across the face. "You left me you bastard! You LEFT ME! You knocked me the fuck out then left me in a god damn hospital with nothing but a note! Not even clothing! Of course I turned you in! How else was I going to get you to come here? I set you up. Now...you owe me, because I didn't actually set you up. If I had you would be in police custody this moment. Alright...so...I need something. I need you to grab my bag and meet me downstairs in the alley. I need a place to stay for a night, those thugs may come back here and I don't trust the cops. One was looking at me funny."
She picked up the bag and handed it to him. "Here, now you better get downstairs quickly because the cops are gonna smash through that door in a few seconds. I will be down in a second." She leaned up and kissed his cheek softly where she had slapped him. "Go, I'll be there in just a few minutes." She pushed him towards the window gently.
Post by Vestral Umbris Karain on Aug 10, 2013 0:49:05 GMT -5
After allowing her an in to explain herself, she calmly rolled up to him, cocked her arm back, and smacked him across his face. "What the he..." He was cut off by her berating him for leaving her, then explaining how he "owed her" for setting him up but not really. She obviously underestimated his ability to avoid capture. However, dumbfounded by her actions remained quiet as she handed him a bag, most likely containing what was hers that wasn't stolen, and kissed him on the same cheek she slapped him on. Still dumbfounded, he stood there for a minute before making his way back through the window and down the building. I'll never understand women. He thought, shaking his head.
He quietly made his way back to his apartment. He understood her discomfort with the police, especially with the Grinders roaming in full force. Those cops who weren't in the Grinder's pockets were either too crazy, apathetic, or green to try and stop even a couple Grinder thugs. Often it was the cops who started crimes; just one of the reasons that Vestral had taken up the mantle of vigilante justice.
As he walked into his apartment, he took the time to look over it slowly. It wasn't much, but it was better than the scum-gathering slums. The front door opened into a living area, separated from the kitchen by a waist-high cabinet. On one of the few open sections of wall hung a dart board with several poorly fixed holes from where his earlier days practicing his knife-throwing ability had resulted in missing half of the time. Next to that was the only actual bedroom in the apartment, although he personally only used it half of the time, as the mattress made it about as comfortable as the couch, which was what he usually ended up using anyway. Lastly, his eyes fell on the door to the bathroom and it's neighbor, the closet. He tensed slightly as his eyes fell on the door. It had nothing to do with the bathroom itself, it had more to do with the fact that if he hadn't suggested the shower yesterday they, most likely, wouldn't have been in their current situation to begin with.
He shook his head slightly and walked into his home. He got the bedroom ready for her, since he thought it rude to even think that she should sleep on anything other than the bed. Having finished, he heard the door to the elevator open. Thinking that it was Korina, he opened the front door and stepped out. "So THIS is the punk that scrapped our men? What a puny twig!" Vestral slowly turned to see a monster of a man standing just outside of the door to the elevator, two large thugs behind him carried automatic guns. It only took a second for him to realize who this beastly man was. Sterben. One of the leaders of the Grinders, his name was aptly given, as those who opposed him often died.
Korina watched the male hesitate, then slip back out her window and vanished. Then the cops came smashing through her door. She smiled at them sweetly. "What is it? Are you two looking for something?" They glared at her and began scouring her room. They tossed what she hadn't packed and hadn't been stole around the room, searching violently. Then they began with the bedroom, and almost ten minutes later they came back in. She smirked watching them, then came back in. The larger of the two grabbed her shoulder, squeezing viciously.
"You may think your being smart...but when our real bosses get here in several hours, they will get the truth...and everything else from you." He smirked and looked her over slowly. Korina rolled her eyes and shoved him away.
"Over my dead body asshole." She hissed. That only caused the man to laugh as they moved towards the door. He glance back at her. "I don't think they would care of you where dead. As long as your still warm." Then they slammed the door laughing nastily.
Korina smirked. She wasn't afraid this time. She was ready now. Rolling to the window she looked down and picked up a piece of glass. She slipped it beneath her leg, smiling then went to the bathroom. She got out a pack of dental floss and began pulling a bunch out. After she had a three foot section she broke it off, then made five more three foot sections before the floss ran out. She hummed to herself and wrapped the ends around the knob of a cabinet. Then she slowly began braiding the strands together. It took her about twenty minutes, making certain to pull them tight and weaving them carefully and methodically. When she was done she had a foot long or so piece of string and she pulled on it with all her might. It didn't break.
With her new tool wadded up in her hand, she rolled to the front door. She pushed herself up on her armrests, her palms pushing down upon them. She peered through the peephole. The cops where across the hallway, harnessing a young female over there. Harassing, she snorted to herself. They where molesting her. Which only made her feel all the better about what she was about to do. Lowering herself in the wheelchair she opened the door silently, and stoutly ignored the poor girl's cries for help in what was probably German. She wheel herself almost silently behind the two cops.
Reaching beneath her leg she pulled the shard of glass out and gripped it tightly. Then she pulled her hand back and drove it forward. Being at a lower vantage point Korina aimed for something she knew would kill, yet was with in her reach. She drove the piece of glass at an angle in to his back, below his ribs for the glass would never pierce those. Instead she aimed for hi nkidney and renal artery. Watching the blood spurt from the wound she then flung herself from her wheelchair on to the back of the larger male. The one who had threatened her.
The make shift garrote in her hands slipped around his neck and she pulled back as hard as she could. She clung on as he began yelling and thrashing around. She gritted her teeth and pulled harder, struggling to maintain her grip on maybe thin rope. Then it all went still, the male collapsing beneath her as he passed out. She held the rope harder against his throat until she felt the body beneath her completely still, not even a breath coming from him. She released the makeshift weapon and crawled to her wheelchair. Suddenly a thin female hand helped her in to the chair and Korina looked up in to the eyes of the girl she had just saved. She thanked her in her foreign words then disappeared in to her room. Korina sighed and quickly left the hotel.
Several hours later she was sitting before Vestal's door, and she reached up and knocked. She waited patiently for the male to answer, her hands folded in her lap. She looked up and down the hallway, making sure nobody was watching her or seeing her sitting before the door.
Post by Vestral Umbris Karain on Aug 11, 2013 0:19:52 GMT -5
"You've caused our boys quite a bit of trouble, 'Mister' Vestral." Sterben said, walking slowly up to him. "You even managed to stop a rather sizable operation earlier tonight." He said, matter of factly, the air around him permeated with the smell of cigars and alcohol. "Yeah, well, I was in a pretty bad mood then. Your appearance at MY home isn't exactly helping that mood." Vestral was biding his time. Waiting for someone to go to one of the higher levels, as the bell chimed at each floor. He hoped to keep them preoccupied until that happened, then he would show no mercy. "You gettin' a load of this guy?" Streben said, turning back to his men. "You gotta lot of nerve talking to me like that. Don't you know who I am? I'M STREBEN! In case you don't remember, i your language that means death! You better show me some respect, boy!" His finger wagged in Vestral's face as he spoke, his sulfurous breath was oppressive. "I would've thought they called you that because of your breath." Vestral was goading him at this point, and he knew it.
Then it happened. The bell on the elevator dinged, almost ominously. Time seemed to slow down as the two thugs turned to face whoever would be coming through the elevator, even if no one would come through it. Big mistake. with an almost blinding speed, Vestral pulled two knives out of his pockets and jammed them into Streben's shoulders, seperating the arm from it's socket. Continuing with his speed, he pulled two more knives out and pegged the thugs in their lobes, causing them to fall harmlessly, dead as can be. Crippled and in immense pain, Streben yelled at Vestral, "JUST WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU!?" Vestral knelt down in front of him, pointing his hunting knife between his eyes. "More than human." Was his calm, simple reply, forcing his knife into the bridge of the man's nose, ending his suffering.
Dammit, now I have to deal with these bodies. He cursed himself under his breath, shouldering the man as he opened the window that lead to the fire escape at the end of the hall. He had nothing to fear of the alarm going off, as it hadn't worked since he moved in. He took the bodies of the crime boss and his cronies, as well as their weapons and threw them into the dumpster at the ground floor. Not very respectful towards the dead, but perhaps a somewhat aperpro, given their ilk. Having finished "taking out the trash", a saying that wasn't beyond him, he went back into his apartment, cleaned his knives, and waited for the knock on the door.
The knock came shortly after the whole incident. He opened the door slightly, making sure that it was, in fact, Korina. "Well, they should back off some now. One of their bosses was stupid enough to come here. Needless to say, neither he nor his cronies will be coming back anytime soon." He stated matter of factly, opening the door the rest of the way, allowing her entrance.
Korina smiled and rolled herself in to his apartment and looked around. It was the same as before, yet she felt an air of tension, possibly something else. She turned to look at him then nodded at his words. "I see, well I don't have much longer here. My flight leaves tomorrow afternoon anyways. I just need a place to crash cause the cops will find me at my place." She sighed and shifted in her chair uncomfortably and looked at his face before dropping her eyes.
She turned back around and sat staring sullenly at the opposite wall. "Sorry for getting you in to this mess. I didn't mean to get you in a fight or in trouble. That just seems to come naturally and follow me around like a loyal puppy. I don't know why. Usually I can get myself out of trouble myself but...being trapt in my wheelchair with out any of my..." She paused contemplating then decided she better not mention all her high tech stuff, "stuff I can't really so much." She shrugged her shoulders. "Once I get home I'll be alright and able to take care of myself again." She rolled herself farther in to the apartment then looked around. "Decent place you have for yourself...what is it you said you do for work? To earn enough money for this kind of place?"
Post by Vestral Umbris Karain on Aug 12, 2013 21:56:00 GMT -5
Vestral listened to her intently as she spoke. It was clear that she had been through many hardships, and not just because she was in a wheelchair. She was clearly trying to change the subject. There was something that she didn't want to talk about, but he decided better to let it slide. "It's mostly the location. Not exactly a good part of town. As for my job, I work morning shift at a local store. Not much, but enough to get by on."
"What I don't understand is how you were able to walk when we first met?" He mulled over the question as he thought of an appropriate answer. "It reminds me of a prototype my father was working on when he started making his transition from geneticist to quantum mechanic. It's a somewhat long story, don't ask. Anyway, the prototype he was working on was for an apparatus that would reduce muscular atrophy by supporting most of the weight. Think they sold the designs off before they could make any decent headway on it." He wasn't sure if it was exactly smart to talk about his father's old work with someone he hardly knew, but she wasn't exactly going anywhere until morning. "So yesterday you said you were in town seeing a specialist, what for?"
Korina smiled and waved at her lower body. "What else Vestral. I have been all over the world seeking a cure for the mysterious illness plaguing my body. It acts like cystic fibrosis, yet none of those cures worked and it doesn't affect the same things. So I do not know, and over one hundred doctors have been unable to find a cure. Supernatural healing only helps temporarily, and painkillers don't work to dull the spreading pain." She shrugged her shoulders and wheeled in to the living room. Once there she bent and locked the wheels of her wheelchair in place.
"As to how I walk, I don't know. It's something I bought. NASA made it for their astronauts, and have been selling to disabled people as well. I didn't make it unlike most machines around me. Unfortunately it seems your grinders stole that as well as anything else valuable I had. Thank goodness they obviously didn't know how to read or they wouldn't have left my plane ticket. So I guess when I get home I can start researching it and try to find a way to duplicate the technology or create my own version. Else it seems I am simply back in the chair again until I find a cure or another way of walking."
Post by Vestral Umbris Karain on Aug 14, 2013 22:13:54 GMT -5
"Well, if my father was still a bio-engineer, I'm sure he'd like to meet you. But, sadly, he's already moved on to what he wanted to do as a quantum mechanic. He was trying to see what made elementals different from normal humans. Got it funded by saying it was some research into psionics. Anyway, he found that elementals are 98% exactly the same as humans. Apparently that last 2% is the key. I don't know the why's and wherefore's, I try to keep out of advanced sciences like that."
As he spoke, he made his way over to the fridge, opened up the fridge and grabbed a couple bottles of hard cider. He finished talking as he walked up to her. "Drink?" He asked, extending the unopened bottle to her. "Seems to me like you lead a rather interesting life." He observed before taking a large swig out of the glass bottle in his hand. "You ever think about just accepting what the universe, fate, whatever you want to call it has dealt you and just settle down? Y'know, wherever it is you call home?"
He had taken up an interest in her, as she was a rather unique person. He still wasn't entirely sure of her, which is why he wanted to ask her questions like the one he had just asked. He wanted to find out just what kind of person she was, but if she didn't want to answer, he wasn't going to push her.
(OOC: To any Gods who may read this, I realize that most supernaturals can't learn human/hunter abilities, I just needed something that Vestral's father would do for a living that he could ask Vestral to go get things for him as a way for him to get out of the country)
Korina smiled as he spoke. Intriguing what he said, but she wasn't a geneticist. She was an engineer, of weapons and robotics specifically. So most of that went beyond her. She took the bottle he offered her and twisted it, opening it deftly and took a swallow from it. "You should see me open that with something else...." She left the suggestion vague an open to simply toy with him and see his reaction.
"Why don't I settle down an accept fate? That isn't a question I have been asked before. I would also think the answer is extremely transparent. Do you want to die young and before you ever accomplish anything, Vestral? I most certainly don't. I want to do something, whether it be invent something that changes the future, or be part of the change itself in someway. I want to leave my mark somewhere upon the world so I just don't...fade away. My whole life I have been a pretty face, good to look at and fuck, but nothing else. I don't want that to be all. Call me selfish, call me conceited. I don't care. I just wanna be remember by somebody for something." She took another large swallow of her drink and slumped back in her chair.
Post by Vestral Umbris Karain on Aug 17, 2013 1:05:33 GMT -5
Vestral flashed her an odd look as he sat down on the couch. While he was a social outcast, the concept of some, admittedly odd, sexual activity wasn't outside of his mental grasp. It just seemed out of place for what seemed to be a relatively serious person such as her to make.
As she explained herself to him, he listened intently, taking swigs out of his own bottle. Once again it became obvious the kind of life she'd been forced to live. As she slumped back, he stood up. He walked toward the bedroom door and opened it. "Thank you for telling me. I think I know what I need to about you. I'll stay awake and keep watch in case someone else decides to come. You can either stay up with me or go to the bedroom and get some sleep. It makes no difference to me." He drained the last of his bottle as he made his way back to the fridge to procure another. "I got more if you want to stay up, though."
He wasn't about to lie to himself, he enjoyed her company. Whether it was her intelligence, her "never say die" attitude, or something else he couldn't put his finger on, but something made her different than anyone else he had met. Whatever it was, it almost made him regret that she was leaving. But, such is the way of life, forever shifting, even when you take a firm grip upon it. THAT much he knew.
Korina glanced through the open door way as she was offered a bed to sleep in, then shook her head. She finished off her bottle then smiled. "Another please. I can sleep on the plan. I can't talk to you on the plan." She leaned forward and placed the bottle upon the table before leaning back in to her chair. She leveled her gaze at Vestral as he returned and simply stared at him for a long minute to make him uncomfortable.
"So...Vestral...what is it you really do. Because that load of bull you offered up about what your job was earlier clearly isn't gonna fly now." She smirked and took a sip from her bottle then crossed her arms over her chest pointedly. She wasn't going to budge or change the subject until he told her now. She was just stubborn like that sometimes, yet she didn't mean any harm by it. She was silly curious and wished to know the truth of the matter.
