The Animal

Whoa she is the nicest Fed I ever met. Which is kind of weird, but nice weird. Silver bullets, but they are for...

"Aly, I guess nice to meet you. Um, yeah I do have an extra silver magazine for a 9 millimeter, but it is I mean the boys, Rome and Raws, doesn't know about it and I was saving it for them."

Elenna stared shy at her knees while she mumbled that.

Damn it she needs silver bullets when she wants to go in and Rome asked me to take care of her so I guess I should give her the magazine. And she said I can go in with her AND she said she will protect me. Normally the boys do that but well they are busy playing hero.

"You won't go in without me and yeah I am um not used to guns so thanks for um the offer, not that I am totally stupid and don't know how to protect myself but it is nice to know that there is someone who um protects me. So here use it wisely and I hope you can aim, the heart is the target you need to hit."

Elenna checked once more her hands and watched Aly taking the magazine.

"Oh and sorry I was in the beginning not really nice, it is just um you are a Fed and came out of the station with Rome in hand cuffs so I didn't think you are on our side so sorry for that. Let’s go in and get my boys out oh and the others."

The lunatic with the battle rifle squeezed the trigger, shots hammering into the Skin Walker's chest and pitching it backwards, smoke rising from the wound as it roared. It hit the floor, it's back arching as it half-rolled onto its side. It slumped, smoke rising slowly from the various silver wounds all over its body. It held its breath. Clearly they thought it was just some common Shape Shifter. Hadn't been paying attention. It gauged the distance to the targets by scent and hearing. It rolled backwards over its shoulder, then launched itself at the one swinging around the battle rifle. It collided with the gunslinger, rolling through with the attack and casting the German-made hardware aside. Speed was its greatest asset. It wasn't that human policemen and Hunters were incompetent. It was just very hard to mount an effective attack when the target could move like quicksilver.

"Wrong! Target!" the Skin Walker growled as it twisted towards the now-unarmed foe.

It moved again, getting too close to the Hunter for the other Remington brother to open fire. Not so much fear from these two. But it had fed on more than enough raw terror from the bog-standard human police. It could keep going for now. It hooked the Hunter around the back of the leg, its claw-like fingernails slicing into his skin as the Skin Walker lifted him from the floor and hurled him at the scrawny Remington - the one it had infected.

It hurled itself at the blonde girl next. Mostly to eliminate her from the equation. Shots were flying wild again as Hunters found themselves aiming at empty space. It made impact feet-first this time, rolling to its feet and twisting around again to return its attention to the experienced one - Rawson Remington. That would be a skin worth taking. Strong blood. He would make powerful Corpse Powder. But this was not the place to even attempt such rituals.

It lurched back at the blonde, raking the back of its hand across her face, then twisted and lunged at Remington. Remington was good. He almost reacted fast enough to defend himself. But no dice. The Skin Walker had landed almost half a dozen blows before Rawson could keel over, the final one slamming the Hunter to the floor with nerve-jarring force. It turned on the one who had fired first. The man was good - but had underestimated the Skin Walker's speed. Even so exhausted, it was faster than any human, and much more agile. It didn't much need technique as it rained blows on the man's guard, clenched its fingers in his hair and brought his head down to meet its upwards-moving knee.

It hurled the man out through the back door of the station, tearing it from the hinges and shattering the lock. Then, the Skin Walker wheeled back to the blonde woman. She was tough - it hadn't come across many slim blondes who could get back up after taking a solid hit. It rasped as she squeezed off a shot, then lunged at her, shoulder-barging her against the wall. It bellowed and hurled her at Remington when she tried to sink her teeth into its face. It returned to Rawson as its primary target, kicking the Hunter back to the floor, catching him by the jacket and throwing him upwards against the ceiling - knocking one of the light fittings loose with the impact.

"Rawson Remington, you are mine to kill," the Skin Walker snarled, its voice utterly inhuman as it lifted Remington by the hood.

To finish the job, it slammed its knee into his throat. Rawson went limp in its grasp as it brought a booted foot down on the blonde's head to keep her complacent. It checked Rawson's pulse - faint, but there - it needed the Hunter alive for the rituals. It lurched through the police station - the back hallway was at the wrong end for a quick path back to the caves. It didn't bother waiting for the automatic doors in the entrance lobby to open, moving its body to protect the unconscious Remington as it hurled itself through the glass and took some of the frame with it. A car pulling around the building almost skidded into its path.

Didn't matter.

The Skin Walker jumped and used the car's hood as a springboard to clear the perimeter fence, leaving a visible boot print in the steel.

With a parting snarl it turned and rushed away from the glaring lights of the town.

Towards its caves. Its home.

Aly took the magazine and loaded it into her Glock.

"It won't do the boys any good in the car, now will it?" She flashed the woman a reassuring smile and then went into Federal Agent mode. Unfortunately she didn't get the chance.

The skin walker impacted their hood carrying a man like a ragdoll. She burst out the side door and opened fire before the other girl could stop the car. The skin walker was caught in the knee on her second shot, but it still didn't slow it down.

"Damn. Pick up the others and let's go--it's headed east."

Danila tried to dodge, but the rifle was flung far from him. Without reaching for it, he drew a Glock and squeezed off a few rounds.

The Skin Walker seemed distracted. aiming at other enemies. He emptied the clip and reloaded, aiming more carefully this time.

Not that it did much use. The thing seemed invincible.

It was coming back at him again. "дерьмо. . ." ((an offensive word for poo ))

Danila emptied another clip. Didn't matter. The creature was upon him in an instant, completely unfazed smattering its torso.

It smashed its fists and knees into him like cannon-fire. It was like being strapped down and having a dozen baseball launchers pointed at you.

Danila's limbs went limp. The creature picked him up. He was slammed into a door - which, lucky for him, was an emergency exit. He chanced to hit the release, but the door still flew from its hinges. He landed outside the station, aching and barely conscious.

Danila lay for awhile. It was all he could do to breathe; even a Russian assassin knows when he's beat. He opened his eyes eventually, looking around. The shooting had stopped.

He reached beneath his coat once more, pulling out a silver-edged sword and using it to pull himself up. He used it as a cane, limping through the ragged hole where the door once was to survey the damage.

He had barely had time to take in the carnage - surprisingly, none of the Hunters were quite dead yet - when he saw the car pulling up outside and the brunette run up behind it. They motioned for the rest, still recovering, to come outside.

He sighed, looking about at the other Hunters. None of them, himself included, seemed up to the task.

But, what the hell, they could recover on the ride there.

"Evereebodee zteel leeving?" he asked, half-joking despite the circumstances.

"I hate frigging skin walker!" screamed Elenna while she jumped out of the car and run into the police station without caring what Aly's plans were or if it was safe to go in.

The frigging thing was carrying a body and when I am a skin walker I wouldn't take a stupid police officer when there are three hunters and one hunter Barbie.

The station looked pretty bad, the door was broken and well basically everything, some officers were lying around and some just in pieces. Elenna started to panic, she started to feel dizzy. When she saw Danila standing or more trying to stand between the shattered station.

"Evereebodee zteel leeving?" he asked.

"Hey Danila. I guess the silver didn't work huh? Where are the others we need to go? The walker is heading east and he has a souvenir." said Lenna when she suddenly saw Rome, he didn't look better as she saw him the last time. She run over the last bit more sliding on her knees as running.

"You are you okay? I told you I am coming in when you are not out in five minutes."

Elenna didn't look worried anymore, she looked terrified of the whole situation.

All Romulus knew was that first he was going around a corner, his left arm cradled against his chest to protect it, pistol out in front of him, checking doorways and rounding corners like a professional. Once a marine, always a marine, even if he had gotten somewhat lazy in the past couple of years.

Next thing he knew a flying body had hit him, slamming him back into the next room against the wall.

"What are you doing here?! Who the hell do you think you are, dude?" The body--Rawson--shouted at him.

"Something soft for you to land on, apparently," Rome grimaced, trying to sit up. "You're welcome."

Rawson shook his head. "Do me a favor, Rome, stay there until this is over--wait no, on second thought go to the security room and destroy the tapes--then come back here and sit tight."

Rome did what he was told, wiping the tapes that had their faces on them, then returned to his hiding spot. His brother motioned for him to get down lower--just like Raws, always nitpicking...

And Rome was beginning to agree with him. He wasn't sure his arm could take much more abuse before it fell off at the shoulder or snapped off at the wrist. Anyway, Rawson, Danila, and Georgie looked like they were taking care of it...

Bam! Bam! Bam!

...or not.

"Raws!" Rome cried as Rawson went limp in the creature's arms. He tried to stand up but failed somehow, instead falling over as a spike of pain lanced through his head. Suddenly his vision twisted, he was seeing double, or seeing two visions at once: now he was being thrown into the ceiling, he was the one being kneed in the throat, and he was the one dragged off by the Skin Walker...

No, that's wrong, he thought, Rawson's in trouble, he needs me! trying to get up, trying to breathe through his closed throat, trying to think, but his bracelet was glowing white-hot and somehow he knew Rawson's was glowing, too, and then everything went dark.

...

When he woke again, not a minute later, the pain was gone as if it had never been there.

But so was the Skin Walker. And so was Rawson.

Rome was on his feet in an instant, running back into the lobby of the police station, watching the rest of the group just standing around, shell-shocked.

"What the frack are you people doing?!" Rome bellowed. "Elenna, I thought I frakking told you to stay in the gorram car! That rutting monster's got Raws!" He ushered everyone into the car, using his gun as a necessary encouragement. "After him! Come on, let's go! It's got my brother!"

Danila walked to the car at his leisure, ignoring Rome's gun. "Look, keed," he said with a slight growl, "Half of ze ribs in my body were juzt broken vor your zake, and the ozzer half have fractures."

He cast a withering glare at the youngster as they arrived at the car, "Now. Think ahead. Don't just follow blindly, get inside zee Skin Valker's head. Where vould you go, iv you vere a monster dragging along a Hunter's mostly-dead body?"

"Mostly dead? That's my brother you're talking about!"

Rome was seeing red. And that was a first for him. What did this guy know? What did he honestly presume to know about pain? Of any kind, really, but as for physical pain: a dislocated shoulder, bone bruises, handcuff burns, corpse powder, claw marks destroying his new Captain America shirt and a good portion of his skin to boot, and this guy wanted to talk about a few broken--probably just bruised--ribs?

And his brother was unconscious in the clutches of this thing and no one was helping him.

Rome really wanted to lay into this guy. Even if he lost--which he could pretty much guarantee, even on his best day--it would make him feel better. He settled for verbal abuse, though, because he had better things to spend his strength on. He was getting hot under the collar, but whether that was rage or that his fever was coming back worse than ever, he couldn't be sure. "Who died and made you King of the Hunters, huh, Pops? You're just some outdated Eurotrash trying to horn in on a business you've got no place in!"

Rome stalked to the FBI agent's car, snatching the keys from Elenna without looking at her (but feeling a little bad about that) and getting into the driver's seat. "I'm going after my brother," he said.

He just worried about Raws, he is not mad at me well not really. And he would never shoot me. And when I am lucky he would similar panic when the skin walker would have taken me which in fact would be hilarious.

"I'm going after my brother," Elenna heard Rome saying while he got into the driver seat.

I heard that before today.

Elenna follow Rome and climbed into the car, even she was for the first time since a year scared of Rome. When she got into the seat next to Rome, scared or not she trusted him that she would follow him, but she saw that the symbol she had drawn on his left hand was gone. She knew taking the heat from him wasn't really curing him but it was the only think she could help him.

"Rome? Sorry I couldn't just wait in the car. I was wondering, I know we don't have time and need to safe Raws and I am sure he is not mostly dead we are talking about Raws I bet he will never die, but maybe we should kill this skin walker really. We tried it with silver bullets and it doesn't really work, we are just pissing him off. I mean you are infect by his corspe powder and now he has Raws. We need a plan, a real plan. Don't you think? Um marine always have a plan before they attack, don't they? How many times did you met the walker and just silver didn't work? Too many for me, please Rome be not the headless hunter how storms into the walkers hiding place and get killed."

Lenna tried the second time to be the one that doesn't lose her head, even she is worried. But she didn't expect it to work, but hoped that Rome would listen.

"And just that you know, I am so done with arguing when I have to stay behind or not. You know actually we drive back to the motel try to figure out how we can kill the SOB and you and the other can recover. I want to get Raws back as much as you want, but when we go after the think in the stage you are all you need to do is lay down and say eat me. So do I have to get rough or will you listen to me and trust me I can take you down. There is no point in chasing the walker now."

Lenna looked at Rome begging but at the same time authoritative.

Much softer and not hiding her worries for Raws and Rome in her voice she said. "You don't have to listen to Danila or Georgie, they don't know you, they don't care, for them you and Raws are just a life to safe on their list. But for me you are my friends, my best friends and I don't want you two get killed. I am certain Raws is kind of okay. Please Rome you need to rest look at you, not even I can take the fever."

Normally Lenna would have taken Rome’s hand but she didn’t want to hurt him and a little bit was she afraid he might don't want the contact right now.

Rome tried taking a deep breath, but it sounded more like a choked sob than anything resembling respiration, as though his inner child had worn itself out crying continuously. He gripped the steering wheel with one hand as Elenna talked to him. What she said was right--totally right--but...

"Rest won't help," he said quietly, petulantly, and sniffled. "Only thing'll help is killing the SOB. And it's got Raws. Resting and regrouping won't do anything, Lennie, we're not gonna get a chance like this again...and it's getting away!" God, he was really going to start crying now, wasn't he? He rallied, sniffling it all back. He hoped Elenna wouldn't notice that he was seeing double and couldn't really concentrate.

"There's no plan," he continued, rambling, confused, and becoming increasingly upset because he didn't know why he couldn't think straight. "Shoot it in the head, that's our intel. With the White Ash bullets. The heart might work but Raws is the only one who can aim like that. Please, Elenna, we gotta go." He turned to her, frantic again, pleading, and then checked his gun with stumbling fingers. Six bullets. Okay, yeah, that wasn't going to do much.

He fumbled for the door handle. "Need more bullets," he slurred. "I'm taking the Camaro..."

Standing up proved fantastically painful. The spike of agony compounded with the grief and terror and the fact that he couldn't really see past how badly this fever was boning him. He took about half of a step before dropping like a load of bricks, unconscious, toward the pavement.

Figures this would happen the only time Rawson ever needed his help.

Lenna started crying the moment she realized that she couldn't help Rome at all. Nothing can make him better except killing the walker.

The kids in the hospital all they could do for them was do make it easier to die. Nothing helped.

"I'm taking the Camaro..." was the last he said before Rome fall unconscious toward the pavement.

Aaaaaa not good.

Elenna lifted her right hand and said as firm as she could. "Hauch des Lebens, Luft ich befehle dir komm zusammen!"

For the first time she really felt her powers. She needed the same strength as if she would hold Rome's body directly. She air around her seemed to get thinner, but Rome was safely floating in mid air. Lenna was out of breath and her right arm did hurt, but Rome didn't got more hurt from falling out of the car.

"Yeah right you are taking the Camaro? How do you drive? By calling him Bumbblebee and hoping he starts to drive by itself?"

Elenna got out of the car making sure while she walked around not to lose her concentration and checked if Rome was still breathing. He was. That was such a relief that he dropped into her lap.

That is not fair. What am I supposed to do now? I am not the leader of the team; I am the girl for the myths. And now are you unconscious, Raws not here and I won't let Danila or Barbie take the wheel and say what we are doing. I will end up in a pink car. No friggin way.

Lenna looked at him he was really, really far away from being okay.

"You can't die Rome; because when we get Raws back and he discovers that you died while I was supposed to watch you he is going to kill me a slow and horrible death. Or he posts in the web that I am a witch, which I am not! But it would be bad; every hunter would want to kill me. So hang in there okay?"

Let's see. What do we need? We have to rest, get more ammo -I think in the mustang is a crossbow could be useful-, patch up all the injuries of my warriors and we need to find the Walker's hiding place. We could try to find it the way Raws and I found Andre last year, but for that I need Rome awake.

Lenna tried to stand up, so that she could try and get Rome in the back seat. But there was just one problem.

"Guys I need a little help over here. Sick heavy hunter is on lying on the little hunter. And I have a plan what we are doing next."

((Begin OOC random post:))



((/End OOC post.))

You never went into battle (or, in Raws' case, any major confrontation or job) expecting to live. Starbuck was right about that- there was a woman after his own heart. Still, in the back of his mind Raws had hoped to go down in a balze of glory winning an epic fight against werewolves and vampires (werewolves were, according to Lenna, far mroe difficult to kill and psychotic when they turned but vampires would just be a downright cool thing to take down- real ones, that is, none of that lovestruck teen romance crap). The point was, getting killed and potentially flayed by a skinsuit creep while a whole fracking group of hunters were in town was pathetic.

"Ow." Rawson tried to sit up, eyeing his surroundings. Last he knew he'd been shooting up a police station. Oh the perks of is 'goody goody' job could sometimes be sweet. Now? He appeared to be somewhere underground. And slightly damp. And something was moving nearby.

Alright kids. Time to come play hero. An appearance right about now would be greatly appreciated.

Whatever was moving was coming closer.

Danila was completely silent when the young Hunter spurned his advice. He was used to the insults; they came in his line of work. They also came with being older and wiser.

But it was no matter. Sooner or later the lack of planning and rashness of the youngster would have a severely negative effect, and the elder would get his short "tolja so" moment. Sooner or later.

He had still been pondering whether to follow on the hunt or not when Rome passed out. Despite his tendency to avoid displaying emotion at all costs, Danila smirked slightly. That moment had come sooner rather than later, it appeared.

"Guys I need a little help over here. Sick heavy hunter is on lying on the little hunter. And I have a plan what we are doing next." he heard Elenna said.

Danila strode over to them, hoisting the man from the ground. Rome was tall and muscular, and thus rather heavy, but this old "Eurotrash" still had some strength left in him. He laid the man atop the Camaro's roof, then turned to the three Hunters remaining conscious, focusing his attention on Elenna. "What iss your plan, Elenna?"

“Okay, um we go back to the motel, recover our strength, see if one of you needs to be patched up, there is some more ammo in my car, might be even silver. And we find the walkers hiding place. There must be some myth we just weren’t looking at the right places for it. This stupid rush and fight doesn’t work. So get in the car all of you! We are going to do some research.”

Elenna pulled Rome of the roof; since she was standing she could shove Rome into the backseat of Aly’s car.

After this is over I want to read a hundred books just for fun. And if anyone dares to disturb me I am going to shoot him or her.

“Aly you take the Camaro with Georgie and follow us. Danila please get in the car, would you mind to drive back to the motel? I will sit with Rome in the backseat. So get in the car all of you! We are going to do some research.”

Ariel Buttercup wrote:This is a post by Aly not Raws, it got posted accidently with the wrong character profile during the move.

Aly reached for her keys.

"If you don't mind I'd prefer not to owe the FBI a vehicle." The Russian handed the keys over and got in the camero with the girl in pink.

She shot out of the parking lot as the first sirens could be heard in the background. Allison tried not to think of the police station video cameras that showed her very clearly shooting her partner. She had thrown her lot in permanently  with these hunters--whether she or they liked it or not.  

She took a quick look in the backseat before returning her eyes to the road.

"Is he going to be okay? Everyone's talking about this corpse powder stuff and I'm a bit out of the loop. I know that two hours ago I was your enemy--but I just found out the world is a lot crazier than I imagined it to be and I need information or I'm going to lose my mind--if I haven't already. Hunting a skin walker and needing silver bullets feels pretty insane to me. I want to understand what there is to understand--if anything in this whole insane business can be understood."

She stopped talking to give her passenger a chance to respond and focused on following the car in front of her.

Lenna was holding Rome’s head.

Never ask that question of course he is, he has to be!

Lenna sighed. “Fine Rome said you are good so I guess I have to introduce you into our world. Let’s start with every monster you can think of is real. So we skip that part okay? Let’s get to well a day ago I would say the good stuff; right now it is more the scary stuff. A lot of cultures all over the worlds believe in some version of a Skin walker. They are evil human beings who have gained supernatural power by murdering another human. Some powers come from the corpse powder they made from human cadavers. This corpse powder curses humans with sickness and death. Corpse powder is really evil black magic made by a witch. The only way to stop the effect is by a witch of the same or greater power of the creature that made and uses the powder. But witches aren't fun either as we know, there is no witch strong enough to kill the skin walker. A Skin walker can uses the skin of his victims and wears them like a dress, which he did with your partner. I think this corpse powder kill the victims and make it easier to remove the skin from them. But I don’t know that for sure. You know that silver cause the skin walker pain, no idea how to kill it anymore Rome said aim for the head. And as you know this thing is friggin fast so do not try to catch it if it flees the field of battle. While it cannot outrun a bullet, a Skin Walker will outrun the wind. We will never catch up. Answer this all you questions? Sorry it is dangerous to ask me question like this. Because you know Rome and Raws are the fighters and I am the nerd behind them.”

I don’t want to explain all this stuff over and over again. I want the boys back and get teased by Raws who calls me a witch and annoyed by Rome who wants every girl we meet.

Lenna was shivering even though she was holding the fevery hot Rome who was much too warm. She raised her left hand to get some of the heat from his fever out of his body. She knew it wouldn't help a lot but to see him suffer made her suffer nearly in the same way.

It was dark. And damp. Underground somewhere.

What? Was he now in the clutches of the Skin Walker, too? Last thing he remembered, he was talking in the car with Elenna, on his way to rescue Rawson. Had things gone so spectacularly wrong on that attempt that his memory was b*tch-slapped back a few hours?

Where was Rawson?

"Raws!" he called, "Rawson?" His voice echoed around him. And what was that thing creeping up towards him?!

And why couldn't he move? Was he tied somehow? What was going on? Where was he? And where was his brother?!

Allison tried to focus on the road but everything that Elenna said made her skin crawl in more ways than she could count.

“Wait, I’ve hunted my share of serial killers, but none of them were like this.”

That isn’t exactly true.

“There’s evil, and then there’s black magic evil.”

“Right, gotcha—no I don’t. I get this thing can take people’s forms—that’s what happened to David—and that they use this magic dust to kill people—wait—is this corpse powder contagious, like anthrax or something?”

“Not exactly.”

Allison pulled the dark blue sedan into the parking structure of the hotel and stopped.

“Hey, his bracelet is glowing again—what is that anyway—some kind of occult-telephone? It happened at the station just before David…wasn’t David anymore.”

“Sorry, I never know how to explain the supernatural world without scaring people.”

Lenna said with a shy excusing smile. Before Rome started to struggle and call Raws name.

“Um the bracelet yeah, you know it is special.”

Damn it, I can’t tell her everything. She doesn’t need to know every detail about us.

He struggle as if he was tied somehow.

“Help me Aly to get him inside, please. I can’t explain what the bracelet does, not now.”

The Skin Walker sat in the dark, watching Rawson shift and move around. The Hunter was awake. The Skin Walker shifted towards Rawson and looked the wounded man from head to toe. In it's own lair, the Skin Walker chose the legendary attire of its fellow Witches. Naked, save for the skin of the creature whose shape it would take. An old Native American Legend. The skin of a Wendigo. The Skin Walker's eyes glowed like an animal's in the dark as it threw a stinking red powder from a small jar into a hollow in the centre of the cave. It rasped a low incantation that sounded more like a collection of primal grunts and syllables than words. A sickly yellow flame leaped up in the fire pit, illuminating the chamber.

The Skin Walker rose to its feet and paced for a second, selecting two ribs and two femurs from a pile on the wall. It returned to the fire pit, where a stone with a blasphemous symbol caved into it lay. Without a word to Rawson, it began grinding the bones against the stone, producing a low rasp as they slid across its surface. The Skin Walker smiled faintly. The sigil for murder still held power. The ribs held a razor edge in a matter of mere minutes, and the femurs soon formed an admirable pair of knives. It tossed an old rat skin into the air, holding one of the ribs out for the skin to fall on. The rib sailed clean through with no resistance, the skin cutting in half around it. The Skin Walker chuckled and turned to Rawson as it wound what looked like tanned human skin around the bone knives' hilts. ((OOC: Clicky))

"The Great White Hunter graces us with his presence, brothers," the Skin Walker announced to the cave as he stood up, lifting a small pot and dipping its fingers inside.

It returned to the (seemingly) wordless snarls and grunts, uttering the brutal syllables with a slow rhythm that eventually began to sound like chanting. It removed its hand from the pot and splashed the stinking mixture from its fingers across Rawson's face. It crouched next to the Hunter and ripped his shirt open, drawing a spiral on his chest with the sticky, lumpy, blood-red concoction from the pot. It then dipped its whole hand into the pot, withdrawing it and pressing the massive, spread-out hand to Rawson's face, leaving a blood-red, death-scented print on most of the front half of Rawson's head. It stood again and set the pot back down next to the fire.

"Anasazi Ruins, Rawson. This is a Mausoleum. Many of my people, the Navajo, believe that the Anasazi had much to do with witchcraft in our society. Their ruins and graves are strictly taboo. This ... particular hallowed ground breaks that many times over. Their bones make such fine knives and charms though," the Skin Walker mused aloud, picking another pot up from the fire pit, "Don't be so shy, Rawson. The Rituals will begin shortly. Then perhaps you won't be so tight-lipped."

The Skin Walker repeated a series of less-primal word-things, a strange language that seemed to make the air buzz with primal energy. The Skin Walker crouched next to Rawson again, dipping its thumb into the pot it held and smearing a thick line of the wretched, tar-like substance from the pot across Rawson's forehead, then below his eyes. The smell was wretch-inducing. Like a hundred dead bodies rotting on a landfill site. The Skin Walker noticed Rawson's discomfort and dug its thumbnail into the skin of the Hunter's forehead, dragging a painful line from the dead centre of Rawson's forehead to the tip of his nose, blood oozing slowly from the light wound.

"The charms require a small blood sacrifice, and your compatriots were not as forthcoming as you were to join the celebrations. But they will come. I can feel it in my bones. I can feel it in the bones around us. In the air, and in the ground. I can taste their fear. They think they might be too late. I don't aim to disappoint them in that regard," the Skin Walker stated to Rawson, as if explaining that water was wet, "You and your brother are twins, yes? You two will make powerful Corpse Powder. Ironic that I should use the bodies of two Great White Hunters to wreak my vengeance on the White Man."

The Skin Walker set the pot down and picked up a chunk of dark flint almost as big as its massive hand and began chipping away with the same engraved stone it had sharpened the bones on earlier. Slowly, but surely, a blade began to take shape. The Skin walker chipped away at the tang and slid the heavy blade into a piece of antler from another pot by the fire. It secured the blade by winding more human skin and sinew around the blade and hilt, forming an admirable knife. ((OOC: Clicky))

"You know as well as I do that the right tools are required for the job, Rawson," the Skin Walker rasped, setting the blade down reverently with the bone knives, and picking up yet another pot from near the fire.

It didn't crouch near Rawson this time, simply stood and began chanting in a more recognisable language, but still not quite Navajo, scattering handfuls of the powder the pot contained over Rawson.

"Be easy, Hunter. It isn't Corpse Powder. I wouldn't want to poison my own well now, would I?" the Skin Walker chuckled as it tossed some extra powder over Rawson's face, "So, Hunter, now we can begin."

The Skin Walker crouched, picking up a new pot and tentatively removing the lid. It reached inside hesitantly and removed a pinch of the dust inside, glancing at Rawson.

"Very old, very powerful Black Magic, Hunter," the Skin Walker informed him, "We want the Spirits on our side for the harvest."

The Skin Walker tossed the pinch of powder into the fire, sitting down as the flames turned a dark shade of red and leaped high enough to burn a black mark onto the ceiling. Or it would have if there weren't already a series of black marks where the flames now licked. The Skin Walker smiled as it noticed Rawson noticing the marks.

"No, Rawson, you and your sheep are not the first Hunters to track me. You will not be the first Hunters whose lives I have taken to extend my own," the Skin Walker stated as it watched the flames for some signal, "Nor will you be the last."

"I was scared long before you started explaining things to me, so no worries about that. I get you and your friends have your secrets, and I'll try not to pry--but you need to understand, I'm involved in this now--and if there's anything I need to know that could be useful, you need to tell me. I won't be left behind. That SOB skinned my partner and wore him around town like a Sunday suit. It could have been me. I want it dead and I'm not sitting around waiting for the experts to handle it."

She got out of the car and opened the backseat, helping the twitching man out of the car and supporting half his weight while Elenna took the other half--actually more than half as Aly's broken ribs decided to throw in their two cents. They got him into the room and onto the bed before the others arrived.

"Alright, what can I do to help and what di we need to do before he wakes up?"

“Um sorry, did I say normally it is Rome the one who does the talking. Okay look the bracelets, yes there are two Raws wears the other one, they are dated back around the time of Romulus and Remus. They are meant to bind people together, it is said they increase empathy between wearers, and supposedly even allow for shared pain and healing, and the creation of a telepathic bond. I never really believed in it, but Raws bracelet was glowing when he had the vision of Rome. So I guess they are some kind of magic.”

Lenna made sure Rome was safely on the bed. She stood up and took a deep breath.

Okay so far I am not so bad a leader. It is pretty similar when I met Raws. So I just do the same. I did survive him; the others can’t be as bad as it was with Raws.

“Okay, here are the keys to my Mustang the black one outside; I guess you know my car. Have a look in the trunk; there is a second floor in it. When you open it there is my arsenal, do me a favour and bring the crossbow and everything else you think could be useful. I start searching in these books I um got from the library,” Lenna looked innocent at Aly, “they will get the books back, I promise. Anyway they are on local myth. Oh and we need to check if one of you guys need some medical attention. Um yeah that is all we need to do. Well kind of we just have to find the skin walker and kill it, so totally easy job.”

Lenna looked up if the said to much and offended Aly.

"You carry an arsenal in your trunk?"

Who the hell am I getting entangled with?

The other brunette nodded like she had asked if it was going to rain.

"Okay, so how do you expect to get such high powered and very illegal weapons out of your car without being caught? How have you not been caught so far? Is there like some kind of hunter underground in law enforcement that help get you guys off the blotter?"

Elenna seemed very uncomfortable now.

"Sorry--I'm not going to turn you in or arrest you or anything. Call it professional curiosity."

Allison could still tell her companion was not pleased, so she took the offered keys and went outside. Once there she found the classic black Mustang immediately--these people sure knew how to drive in style. She wondered how they could afford such cars--best not to know.

The trunk looked like any normal trunk until she found the secret lever, then it looked like an anarchist's wet dream. The gun rack was impressive, dotted with various knickknacks of what appeared to be cult origin. She took down a silver crucifix and turned it over in her hands--for vampires maybe? She couldn't help the laughing, it was laughing or curling up in a ball weeping at this point. Next to a canister of gasoline and a jug of holy water was a stack of ancient books. She almost stopped to look through them, but then remembered that it would probably be a bad thing for someone to notice her rifling through a trunk of illegal weaponry.

Aly collected all the weapons and anything that remotely resembled silver and brought it inside.

"Okay, I feel like a criminal--what's next?"

“Rome I know you are unconscious and can’t hear what I say, but I am still not sure if I like Aly the most of all the girls you ever hit on or not at all. It is scary that she is a Fed I never know what to say. I mean I just told her where my arsenal is. Rome? I hate when you are not here, you are supposed to laugh at me and say to relax.”

Elenna looked with tears in her eyes at her best friend. She took the book from the library and sat on the floor next to Rome.

“Can you just be fine again, I um we need you here.” Mumbled Lenna, before she did what she was best in, research.

Aly came back with all the weapons and anything that remotely resembled silver and said. "Okay, I feel like a criminal--what's next?"

"Um how much do we have? I guess you should have a look if all the stuff from my trunk is okay, I not really often use it. Sorry."