Taking Stock

[Avenger Assembled]

Late on the night after Knight took Grimalkin to the Pyramid Plaza, he got a call there from Avenger. "Time for action, Wesley. Meet me at the Atlas Stockyards when convenient tonight." Avenger hoped Wesley wouldn't take too long in his efforts to get out there; spending all day nearby the barely functioning stockyards brought back too many foul memories of his childhood trips to Bedlam. The old blood in the air was rotten, enough to turn his undead stomach. "Time to help Grimalkin."

[Sandman XI]

Wesley approaches the stockyards slowly through the power of winged flight. His eyes glow green, searching for the weird unlife signal that is Avenger's. The vampire isn't hard to find, it seems he is waiting on Wesley's arrival. The pigpen is quiet as he lands next to Avenger. "Hey," he says quietly trying not to wake the sleeping swine, "What we up to?"

[Avenger Assembled]

"Here's the plan. Need to convince Grim's landlord that she is dead. Need a head for proof." Avenger cocked his head towards the sleeping pigs. "You shape the head of one of the pigs to match hers. Then I present it to her landlord, and she is freed from his influence. And I am able to help the people in her hotel find their own liberation."

[Sandman XI]

Wesley pauses for a moment to think, the just gives up and thinks alloud. "OK, you want me to take one live pig and make it... not living? Avenger, my powers can't do that. Hell, I don't think I can do that."

[Avenger Assembled]

Avenger stared at Knight, his face implacable behind his mask. He decided it was best to lay his cards on the table. "Knight, I'm going to kill the pig when you've done your work. I want you to change it while it's still alive."

[Sandman XI]

Wesley's minds snaps at attention when he hears his surname. His codename. He wanted to be heroic, but is this really heroic? He saves one life at the expense of criminal charges. "So I gotta change one of these pigs into Grimalkin. And then we're," he pauses, "you're going to kill her?" He gulps at the realization that not only is he in for pig theft but an accomplice to muder. Lynn, he thinks, I really hope you don't find out about this. He nods quickly with no real eye contact, his voice hiding the fact that he was scared to death, "If it's what we gotta do, then it's what we gotta do."

[Avenger Assembled]

A bit concerned, Avenger gave Knight a suspicious look. "No need for human intelligence in the pig, Knight. You can transform a head without instilling intelligence, yes?" A tad unnerved by the idea that Wesley could put souls into things by changing their physical makeup, he decided to make sure that point was very clear before they went any further. "Will not be killing anything with human intelligence."

[Sandman XI]

"No," Wesley says quickly and confusedly, "I can't do intelligence. Not that I have tried." Nervously cracking his knuckles, he looks to the pig pen, "Let's just get this over with."

[Avenger Assembled]

Avenger vaulted the fence around the pig enclosure with eerie, silent grace, landing with a barely audible splash in the filthy muck inside the animal pens. The stench was powerful this close, but Jack didn't breathe and Wesley had a fairly sturdy constitutition. He led Wesley to a single pig a little away from the others, a ponderous female sleeping on its belly. "Do this one. I'll take its head." From inside his costume, he produced an exceedingly large carving knife, looking at Wesley questioningly. "Borrowed this."

[Sandman XI]

Wesley winces when he sees the knife. He tries not to think about what he will witness in a few seconds from now. The woman he cared for, or a reasonable facsimile would be butched before his eyes. Reaching his slightly trembling hand down, he touches the pig. With a slight glow of an awkward orange, he and the pig begin to shine. The pig's flesh begins to twist and contort with the sounds of snapping and squishing from underneath the skin. Wesley tries to remember the body as he felt it. A few seconds leter the glowing stops and a fully forrmed woman lays before them.

[Avenger Assembled]

Avenger moved with near-blinding speed, striking a single sure, sharp stroke that did the deed before the transformed pig had a chance to cry out. He set the blade down on the body and picked up the head, depositing it in a box he'd secreted nearby for just such an occasion. "Well, that was unpleasant," he muttered. "Thank you, Wesley, I...wait." He put his hand on his face for a moment, leaving crimson prints on the already-stained mask. "The body. The body has to stay as it is, doesn't it?"

[Sandman XI]

Wesley had never witnessed an execution before this moment. His heart told him to not look but his head didn't turn fast enough. It was grisly. He remembered every part about it. His mind seemed to play it in slow motion as it happened. He heard the snapping and tearing in exlusion to any other noise. The pig-made-Grimalkin was still alive up until Avenger deft relieved the creature of it's head. He saw it's life force wane and the woman he had feelings for die infront of him. Wesley is not a man of weak fortitude, but he has a conscience. He was horrified. And quesy. Then and there he promised to himself that he would protect Lynn with his life. That and he would never eat a formerly living creature. Half a minute of of giving up everything he ate that day, he still felt his fear but not enough that he couldn't stand up. He is a bit shaky and can't look Avenger straight in the face, but he shakes his head. "I can't do anything with anything dead," his voice trembles.

[Avenger Assembled]

"Oh, jeez, Wesley..." Jack coughed a little behind the mask, a nervous habit rather than a physical reaction. He'd have gone over to pat the man on the back, but he had a feeling doing that when his hands were so dirty would only exacerbate Wesley's condition. This wasn't that bad, was it? He looked over the "scene of the crime." OK, maybe it is bad. It's hard to tell what'll offend people sometimes! For a moment he entertained thoughts about how much easier it was to work with vampires sometimes, but then he realized how guilty those thoughts made him feel. He wasn't a monster! Evidence to the contrary not withstanding. Keep it together, Jack. Remember that this wasn't a person. You didn't actually kill a person today "Wesley, are you all right?" Avenger asked him seriously. "If this is too much, I can finish this myself."

[Sandman XI]

Wesley shakes his head again and takes a deep breath before talking, "I said I would do this. Ly- Grimalkin needs help. We're supposed to protect her. Sometimes it takes more extreme measures to do it. And dammit we're going to do it!" He looks around at nothing in particular trying to focus his mind. a lightbulb goes off in his head as his eyes brighten. Not happily brightened but bright none the less. "There was this movie," he explains in a grim tone, "A man owned a bunch of pigs. He was explaining to these other guys that pis will eat anything, even their own kind. So if you could," he sighs exasperatedly with a twinge of regret, letting the horrific scene sink in as he continues with a terse tone, "If you could get the body into smaller pieces the pigs will have the body gone in sixish hours." He looks to Avenger, his eyes glazed over. "Make it quick, I gotta get these pigs awake and hungry."

[Avenger Assembled]

Avenger blinked, horrible images filling his mind as he contemplated what Wesley was suggesting. Despite the risk to his own secret identity, he couldn't dump those kinds of memories on Wesley. "Knight," he said, rattled enough to use normal diction though he kept up Avenger's voice, "I have ways of dealing with the remains. You...you shouldn't see that kind of thing. It changes you.

[Sandman XI]

"I have ways of remedying certain things," Wesley abruptly stops talking. as another epiphiny crosses his mind. "You know what let's do this the easy way," he says angrily walking over to the headless corpse. The sight stops him. This for Lynn, he thinks, This is for Lynn. Kneeling down he closes his eyes as his aura turns pitch black. When he touches the body, it seems to fade away, decomposing in mere seconds. The black aura fades when there is nothing left. Picking himself up, he turns toward Avenger with tears streaming down his face. His voice was choked, but laced with determination, "Now, let's get this over with."

[Avenger Assembled]

"It's done, Knight." Discarding his worries about forensic evidence now that he'd had a chance to see Wesley's ability to clean up organic evidence in action, Jack clapped his friend on the shoulder. "Go home. Hug your girlfriend. Tell her how much you love her." Envy crept into Jack's voice, real and honest. "Enjoy humanity," he told Wesley in his own voice. "Tell her that the people of the Imperator will be free."

[Sandman XI]

Sprouting wings, Wesley takes off as fast and as far as he can into the ait. Higher and higher he flies until he see's the city, the whole city, in one view. He didn't care if anyone heard him, he just had to get far far away from that place and let out the loudest primal yell he could. From his gut, from his lungs, from his heart. It doesn't help. He has to see Lynn to know if she's OK. Swooping back down to earth, he heads towards home. The home he and she currently called home. The Scarab's Tomb. When he gets there, she's asleep. He breathes a sigh of relief. "I'm glad you're safe," he says not not enought to wwake her, "I'll tell you what Avenger told me in the morning. Now you just sleep." Walking to his own area he falls on his bed, exhausted.