The Siberian Wilderness

[dudedude2211]

'If she still isn't here, then how did she catch me in America?' he asked himself mentally.
"I prefer not drinking the poison that humans make. It clouds the mind, and I almost always have someone trying to kill me. And to the rest of that crap, no I will not participate." he said to Vagus. He had never tried alchohol, and never would. The last thing the world needed was yet another intoxicated daemon. He didn't do any of those human games, and wouldn't if his life depended on it.
The rustle of leaves was more obcious than a lighthouse in the middle of the ocean on the darkest night ever with the silence in the background.
'Guess I spoke too soon... at least this time I have help.' he thought to himself as a daemoness with eyes that matched his, and had hair of the same color. Her wings, nearly the same color as his, were poking through holes in the back of the dark grey jacket she wore. She never told anybody her name, unless it was the last thing they heard.
"So you found me again..." he said to her.
"The campfire made it obvious... And who would you three be?" she said. The first part was directed to Nakashi, the second to the others. Nakashi stood up and pulled out both of his daggers. The fight that everyone knew was coming was starting, and the male daemon was on the side of the other three. Neither of them moved, both waiting for someone else to move.

[Richard G. Hale]

Richard audibly sighed as things started to escalate. The airy sound flowing through his mouth causing a very slight whistle as it passed over his bony teeth. 'And so it begins...' the primary thought running through his head. His hand remained steady on his concealed Webley as he sat, his other hand starting to point at the small pot of water by the fire.

The Reaper's head craned upwards from it's position to look over his shoulder at the two newest members of his camp, and then turned it to look at the nice Daemoness. Richard's bony face held it's contours in such a way as to give it a look of exasperation, paired with a thin frown. No words were said by the skeletal face, though none needed to be said.

The Reaper would bide his time until the actual fighting started to make his move, otherwise remaining in the same position, with his head turned ever so slightly.

The fire crackled in the background of the scene, and the wind rustled eerily through the leaves of the forest a short distance away. There were a few clouds in the sky, and the lack of any light pollution ensured that the view of the stars was superb. The entire arm of the Milky Way and all it's glory was visible, a sight that otherwise would have been breathtaking.

[Rennia Trayvold]

Rennia idly watched that newcomer arrive within their camp. This one will be a problem, she thought as her eyes flicked from her to Nakashi and back. She knew that that kid was trouble as well, or rather would bring trouble with him. Here it was, in plain sight. Why was she not surprised?

Those red eyes calmly shifted between the newcomer, Nakashi, and Richard. Even one on one the new arrival would have been at a disadvantage. Three on one wouldn't have been much of a fight. Still, she began working her mental gears as she watched the scene play out for a moment. Meanwhile her thumb lightly pressed against that safety switch. Hidden by the entire gun itself, it would be extremely difficult to have heard the sound of the safety shifting into the fire position over the crackling of the fire.

Once her rifle was ready to fire, Rennia began weighing her options. From anyone else's point of view, the daemoness seemed almost bored, merely looking for something to interest her. Even if the other daemonic figure had sixth sense, she wouldn't have detected any impending danger, as there wasn't any. Rennia hadn't made up her mind to actually harm the other being yet, so there would be no read from her.

Focusing on her own sixth sense, Rennia then decided on a rather curious move. Instead of bringing her rifle up to bear and giving the woman something to focus on and attack, Rennia simply kept her rifle, still in her hands, pointed down and to the side. Her left hand was already resting atop the barrel in a non-threatening way. It was more akin to leaning against a stationary weapon than anything. However she applied just a little bit more force with that arm, and lightly flexed her right arm, though those shifting muscles would have been hidden by her parka. The result was a stiffening of both arms to restrain the weapon for her next move. Without warning, the daemoness pulled the trigger. It would have been hard to see that single digit moving from across the fire, and thus came with little warning before the deafening BANG of the rifle going off filled the area.

The round would launch out of the end, causing the rifle to buck a bit against her tightened grip. Thankfully she was a lot stronger than the average human, and managed to keep the rifle within her grip despite the improper firing position. Aimed down towards the ground, the round would dig into the earth, spraying up a ton of dirt as the heavy round impacted so close. The casing would be launched out and away from her, landing only inches from the fire pit as it dropped to the ground.

The intention was simple. Instead of trying to shoot at the woman, she merely wished to provide enough of a distraction for someone else to make a move, regardless of what it was, or at least see what the woman's reaction would be. Having kept her senses on alert, Rennia would wait for any incoming strikes from the woman, either in the form of being shot at, or otherwise. If the woman leveled anything in Rennia's direction with the intent of shooting her, she would drop to the side, narrowly avoiding the incoming fire.

If she was just startled, Rennia would sit there with a somewhat surprised expression, albeit it faked, and she would reply with a simple... "Oops."

[dudedude2211]

[blue=hunters pov, red=nakashis]
[An oc is only allowed 200 points to start with, and thus she only has 200 points worth of abilities; Jet Steam and Pyromania]
The hunter appears the same age as Nakashi, looking like a fourteen year old human. She has the same hair color, and her wings - which were underneath her shirt - appeared the same color as his.
The gunshot didn't startle her all that much. It is the reason for what she does next.
The fire went out, and the water in the bucket boiled into steam. The water could possibly be a weapon one of them could use, and Nakashi would have used the fire. Not that he can't create more, but...

The gunshot wasn't something he expected, only because it had been pointed at the ground.
As the water boiled and the fire went out, another fire started. The new one was behind the hunter, but she manipulated it and it went towards Rennia. He had been expecting this, and puts out the fire before it hits her. He did have a reason for doing that...
The tree behind her was on fire. The fire was spreading. It could spread hugely at any moment, and she didn't exactly like fire.

[Richard G. Hale]

As soon as the .50 BMG cartridge slammed into the ground, an almost tangible wave of adrenal-gland-overloading fear rolled out of the Reaper like a tidal wave, rapidly spreading out over the entire area, almost reaching to the town five Kilometers to the south. He slowly stands from his position as the dust continues to fall from the air, and has his Revolver drawn and aimed in a dead line between the two newcomers.

Richard's jacket settled as the last of the soil fell from the air, and his action had only taken half the time it took for the fire to go out, and the water to vaporize into steam. A split second later, the distinct sounds of plastic ripping itself to shreds could barely be made out over the din of the events unfolding, and a surge of water brought a gleaming trench knife into the Reaper's outstretched left hand.

Meanwhile, the atmospheric pressure in the area is almost crushing those within who are not immune to the effects of the Reaper's ghastly aura. The air would seem to boil, and the very blood within their veins would be akin to frozen needles. The sky would be almost red, and the area would almost instantly be devoid of any wildlife. The skeletal figure almost shimmered with energy to the unfortunate, who would quickly find themselves in possession of a severely damaged ability to think straight.

The Reaper would wait for the first Daemoness to open fire before he marked his own target, and then fired upon them in an amazingly quick succession of four shots from his Webley. Each one slug being followed almost imperceptibly closely by a small marble-sized drop of water, which would expand inside the target, and cause much more damage than the slug would on it's own.

If no one opened fire on anyone, he would remain in his position. The knife in his hand would remain ready for use at a moment's notice, and his Webley would remain trained. Likewise, the water from inside his satchel would encase his hands, also at the ready.

[Rennia Trayvold]

Rennia's eyes flashed as her shot had the intended effect she'd hoped for. In that intensely brief moment, the daemoness kicked back with her feet. The effect launched her up and backwards. In mid air she rotated around by shifting her upper weight forward, and using her tail as a counterweight. The effect pushed her upper body forward in comparison to her lower body. As she came back down, she landed on both feet and her left hand, managing to keep her rifle off the ground as she skidded backwards into the darkness.

Rennia was used to the darkness. She was also insanely good at hiding within it. From where the rest were, they might only see blackness where the daemoness loomed, waiting for her moment. The sudden wave of fear hadn't been expected. Her heart suddenly started beating rapidly as adrenaline began running through her system. Thankfully she'd been trained to handle the adrenaline rush, and while she could still very much feel fear, she wasn't going to let it control her. It put her on high alert, causing her to raise that rifle up, ready to strike out at a moments notice. While she could do the same, she felt no desire to, feeling that using natural means would be more than sufficient to resolve the situation.

If confusion further broke out, Rennia would bring her rifle to bear on the other daemoness. When she felt she'd have a clear shot, Rennia would snap off a shot at the woman and then instantly jump to the side, darting off left, right, or away from the group to avoid any counter attacks. Snapping off a shot would light her up for the briefest of instances as the powder ignited, but thankfully the flame would be too quick to make any use of unless the woman had remarkably fast reflexes. It also wouldn't serve much use as a point of ignition, as she would be gone as soon as she'd squeeze the trigger, leaving only empty space.

If nothing happened, she'd keep her eyes squarely on the other fiendlings, watching their every move, while listening to her heart pounding in her chest, threatening to work it's way up her throat. Rennia didn't hate her ability to feel fear in the slightest. It was a very useful emotion that served to keep her alive in hairy situations like these.

[dudedude2211]

'Fear is the emotion that seperates life from death... One who could not feel fear would charge headlong into every situation they were faced with.'
He remembered someone telling him that... but who was it? He couldn't remember, and now wasn't the time to try to.
He took that information into mind as the reaper used the ability that causes fear in others. He didn't push away the feeling; he fought best under conditions like that. He instead attempted to charge silently, but before he reached her it appeared as if ne was torn in half by something... but the others wouldn't see it, and would instead see him smirk, facing the hunter.

She carefully observed the situation. Her options were to kill the reaper, to just kill Nakashi and get it over with, and to burn everything. The fire behind her went out, and then Nakashi charged at her... but before she even swung at him he was torn in half. It caught her off gaurd, and in seconds he was behind her.

She fell for it, and he ran behind her. If noone acted, he would make a cut down her right arm, causing it to bleed. The white dagger would then move on to the other arm.

[Richard G. Hale]

The Reaper's eyes twitched to follow the kid as he ran towards the woman as she was blown to pieces by the combination of a single .50 BMG slug, followed by four of his own super-expanding .32/200 slugs. The effects of the deadly hail of lead and copper were devastating, and beautiful in their own right. Fountains of blood and water poured out of the woman's chest as the flesh finished contracting around the large slugs, only to be expanded and ripped to pieces by the residual shock waves and the now expanding water.

Richard kept his aim trained on the same spot, though this time his attention was focused on the boy. The Reaper still had two cartridges left in his Webley, which he had saved specifically for the boy if he needed to use them. He kept his concentration split, and the water inside the woman continued to shred through her interior, along with the slugs that hadn't gone through.

The Reaper sighed inwardly at the outbreak of violence in his camp, and the wasted water now flooding through the dead-woman-standing. He wondered who else would turn up in the night. Maybe a unit of Spetznaz? Some other paramilitary force? More senseless violence and killing? Speaking of which, where did that woman go? Too many questions. Now was the time to act, and to exercise extreme caution.

[Rennia Trayvold]

The daemoness kept her eyes on the daemoness as she jerked to the side after her shot. The impact of the massive rounds caused her insides to spray out behind her as the heavy slugs tore her apart. It was unfortunate that the woman was too soft to make the round truly effective, as it would have exploded and then lit her on fire if she had been a little firmer. It still did a good job of creating a nice cavity within the daemoness as it charged through her at well in excess of the speed of sound.

As Rennia came back down, she intently watched the daemoness as she collapsed from the trauma of the massive assault unleashed upon her. Almost in a cliche nature she began to drop right as the soft, muted 'chink' of the spent cartridge her gun had ejected reached her ears. It was a time like this when she wished the ground had been hard stone or something, to let that metallic sound ring out.

The fiendling kept her rifle up and trained on the other daemon, her eye now gazing down the scope as the crosshair was centered directly over the other man's chest. She kept her finger ready, but away from the trigger, waiting to see what he would do. Every passing moment was intense as her heartbeat seemed to hammer right in her ear, causing most other sounds to become muted. Except footfalls, footfalls were always somehow louder to the daemoness.

She had eight rounds ready and able in her rifle, and eight more ready in that hidden .45 acp. She had more magazines on her, but they'd take some reaching to get to, and would likely give him the chance to strike if he was quick enough and she not on her game. She also had her blades, however, which she could use if she needed to slice the man apart if she needed to. For now, it was merely a waiting game.

[dudedude2211]

He wasn't planning on fighting either of them; and he dropped both of his knives to the ground. He then showed that his hands were empty, and if one could sense his intentions, they would not have been bad.
'But noone can sense intentions... right?' he thought to himself as the thought had actually occured to him.
"So why do you think I'm suddenly going to attack you? I didn't come here for trouble; I came here to get away from it. Humans are always sending people after me. I didn't expect her--" he pointed to the bloody mess, the water still going through it and destroying it-- "to follow me here." he said. There was no deceit in his voice, he was being completely thruthful.
'Why are people always pointing guns at me...' he thought to himself. It did seem like every day at least one person pointed a gun in his direction, most commonly aimed at him.

[Richard G. Hale]

The Reaper merely stared expressionlessly at the boy, and kept his firearm trained stoically. He had met older people with stranger friends, and all of them usually tried to fool him into putting his gun away so they could take him down. He never let it happen before, and he wasn't about to let it happen again. He also knew from experience, that children were excellent liars.

The body on the floor convulsed slightly as the residual brainwaves began to falter, and her muscles started to contract. Slowly, her chest-cavity began to collapse, and the ground slowly started to flood with a tide of watery crimson blood. The oppressing atmosphere only magnified with the releasing of the woman from his watery bullets, the Reaper's attention now able to focus more on his aura. The remains of the pure fear coiled around the skeletal figure exploded outwards in one enormous wave of adrenaline-pumping, heart-bursting, petrifying fear.

Richard knew he couldn’t trust the boy in front of him. Him and his tendencies to burn whatever he felt like were too dangerous to leave unchecked, and so he kept his aim still. He wondered where the woman and her large rifle disappeared off to as he stood still, noting the woman on the ground as dead as she started twitching. It wasn’t every day that he had to shoot someone, and using water to make sure the job was done had been done in the spur of the moment. He would have to remember that for the next time he got into a shootout. A small part of his mind cringed at the thought of using water to rip through the poor woman’s chest cavity, though it was largely overshadowed by what he considered the need to do so. If he hadn't shot her, then who’s to say she wouldn't have been able to start her own fires? Who’s to say she wouldn't have drawn her own firearms, and used the last of her strength to shoot someone?

Surely, he had done what was best… Right?

[Rennia Trayvold]

From her spot in the darkness surrounding what had once been a proper campsite the daemoness was perfectly well hidden. Like the reaper she too kept her rifle trained in silence. That daemoness hadn't come here for her and she somehow doubted that it had come here for the reaper. That left only one logical choice. It came here for that daemon. Why? Rennia wasn't sure she would like the answer. But what about this daemon? Hadn't she heard about one causing shit in the States? If this was him it would be problematic.

She ran through her options and settled on the easiest one. She lowered her rifle from her face and shifted her gaze to Richard. She had recently expanded upon her illusion projecting abilities. Now they had a myriad of uses. In this case she could reveal her general location to him without giving it to the daemon. She proceeded to project an image of her shining a laser over in his direction. The image didn't come from her exact location but it would be close enough. Then she decided to wait, curious to see what would happen next.

[dudedude2211]

He did nothing. As it was, he wasn't much of a threat to either of the. He figured he was outmatched, outnumbered, and outgunned. Considering he never used guns, duh he was outgunned.
He decided to speak.
"Any reason you're suddenly acting like it was me that attacked you?" he asked, wondering what this whole unfortunate sereis of events would come to... most likely something bad for him. He wasn't planning on fighting either of them... they would probably win.
This turn of events didn't surprise him... he had known something like it would happen.
Meanwhile, the hunters corpse Shifted, ever so slightly. The Shifter-Doppleganger had already looked much like the hunter that was after Nakashi, so it was just the simple matters of eye color, hair color, and size.
The body didn't shrink, but now that it was fully dead, the hair and eyes Shifted. The hair lengthened; the eyes turned green.
Meanwhile, in Rome, the Traitor to Nakashi and Rennia's kind was just waiting to ambush him... She had hired a gang of shapeshifters, who all knew that they would most likely die, as a backup plan and to set up the ambush in Rome. Little did Nakashi know that his human "friend" was actually an ally of the traitorous daemoness, and was feeding her information.

He simply waited, to see what would happen next.

[Richard G. Hale]

The Reaper stared at the Daemon boy in the darkness, weighing his choices on an imaginary scale. He observed the woman's position now revealed to him, and placed it on one side of the scale.

He could shoot the kid and be done with it, but executing him might piss the woman off. He didn't think it was very likely, but it might still happen. In any case, it wasn't like him to execute people anyways, so that option was out.

Now as for his other option, he was already formulating a plan for. The water quickly flowed down from his hands, and glided over the frozen tundra he stood on, disappearing into the brush shortly thereafter. Richard knew exactly where is was going, but he didn't need the boy to know.

The Reaper made a circular gesture with his Webley, which remained trained afterwards. A wordless signal to turn around, commonly used by someone with a gun.

[Rennia Trayvold]

Noting no real change in Richard's stance, she turned her gaze toward Nakashi. Now it was his turn to be tested.

It would be nigh impossible to detect the difference between reality and illusion as from the darkness 'Rennia' came walking out. She had her in hand, the barrel resting against her shoulder facing skyward as she came to a stop a few feet from Nakashi. She pulled it from her shoulder and swung it so that she was holding it off to the side and down with both hands. She pulled her right hand off the pistol grip and reached out to detach the magazine, grabbing it and storing it under her cloak in one of her many large pockets. She then pulled the charging handle back slowly and carefully ejected one of the rounds. Afterward she'd bend down to pick it up before doing the same with it as she had done the magazine. This left her rifle completely empty.

"It seems rather convenient that this night has been mostly quiet until you came along. Then we get a hired gun, and this.... bitch that come out here and try to pull things. You want me to believe you're innocent? You've got a lot of explaining to do. Like for starters, why I should believe you. Even if you're not with them... They're certainly not here for me, and somehow I doubt they are here for the reaper either. So that just leaves you. And if they're after you. That's a problem, because you're attracting them to us. I can't speak for him, but I'm not exactly appreciative of that. So, the possibilities as they stand are that you're with them, or you're attracting them here. Either one doesn't look good for you. So, start talking."

To Richard however, nothing would be happening. There would be no further sign of the daemoness as she had never actually left her hiding spot, where ever it was. No, she was much too smart to open herself up so readily to this punk after things had gotten so hairy. Even if he wasn't hostile towards them, he might become so when he was cornered as he was.