An Evening of Blood and Thunder

[alderwitch]

She reached up to trace her fingertips lightly over his cheek, enjoying the feel of the skin under her questing touch. Under the hand on her throat, her pulse leapt in response at the dark promise in his eyes. Taylor cupped her palm against his cheek, her lips quirking in a smile that really was answer enough itself, that, yes, he could touch her and, yes, she would enjoy it.

"Jack," her voice came out, husky to even her own ears. "If it bothered me, I'd tell you. I am far, far from bothered."

[Avenger Assembled]

Jack leaned in and kissed her soundly, his arms going around her, and they moved out of view of anyone looking in the front windows. Time passed and the movie played out, the loud, explosion-filled soundtrack and action on screen keeping the attention of almost everyone at the drive-in focused on the heroic Dirk Angst and his AEGIS team as they battled Umbra King and the wicked machinations of the villainous Countess. Eventually there was steam on the windows and Jack sat up to realize the first feature was almost ending. "I'm going to hit the bathroom and wash up," he suggested to her, "before the crowd starts." He was just buttoning his collar up. He also needed a breath mint, but it was rude to come out and say that. "Unless you want to go first?"

[alderwitch]

Taylor shook her head, pushing herself up a bit on her seat. She reached up to start gathering her hair to knot it back from her face once more, and she wasn't exactly where the clip had ended up, "You can go first. I never have problems with crowds."

Plus it would give her time to locate the absent hair clip. Maybe it had landed in the back seat? She watched Jack head off to the restrooms and once he was gone, twisted and wiggled halfway over the center console to see if she could figure out where it had dissapeared to.

[Avenger Assembled]

In the privacy of the tiny men's bathroom in the drive-in office, Jack sighed a little as he washed his mouth out and popped in an orange Tic-Tac. His conscience nagged at him in an unpleasant way, but the rest of him remembered how pleasant everything had just been. He certainly hadn't heard any complaints from Taylor. If I stick with vampire women, I get Claudia. If I date outside my kind, I feel like a heel. When he was sure that no one could see him in the bathroom, he studied his lack of reflection in the mirror. Still not used to that. Did that really kill off what was left of my soul? He shook his head. I just...I just need to stop! Is it really that hard?

[Avenger Assembled]

Even distracted by recent events and the quest for her hair clip, Taylor was easily alert enough to hear the sound of someone jimmying at the trunk lock. Peering up and out the back window, she saw a skinny teenager in a black cloth cap picking at Jack's trunk lock with a large, menacing crowbar. She must have looked a little too long, because the "kid" looked up at her and saw her looking back at him! A menacing look on his face, he turned and made a bee-line straight for the door nearest her!

[alderwitch]

Taylor had just found the clip with a little 'ah-ha' of victory when the skin on the back of her neck prickled. Not the 'something magic is afoot' sort of tingle but more of that gut-deep sense of unease that usually preceeded bad events. She'd had her hand half fisted to form an eldritch blast before common sense prevailed. Taylor was in Jack's car in the middle of a highly crowded theater. She wasn't even in costume. Taylor glared at the man with a look far more of accute irritation than anything like fear.

I've got to get out of the car. Draw him somewhere less populated.

Cursing under her breath, Taylor twisted in her seat and braced herself so that she could slam her foot into the door as he went to open it. If luck was with her, she might be able to dive past him and run. Unfortunately, Taylor had a feeling that her luck was run through for the evening.

[Avenger Assembled]

Just as Taylor had feared, her hit with the door missed the thug. With a snarl on his face, he reached for her inside the car, fumbling around with a desperate look on his face. It wasn't hard to guess why; the feature was almost over and people would be coming out of their cars at any moment now! It was dark, but not that dark.

[alderwitch]

Taylor scooted back over into Jack's seat, trying to get out of the way of the grabbing hands and went to unlock the door, cursing quietly at how clumsy it all was. If she could have just gone insubstantial, she'd have been out of the car with a thought. Of course, there were lots of things she'd have been able to do to him if that were the case. Now she was stuck like some ninny from a movie, running from a bad guy. If Jack got back he might just laugh himself sick before helping. Taylor pulled the car keys from the ignition as she went. She had no intent of giving the lout the car.

When the door popped open behind her, she half fell out of the vehicle onto the ground below with a quiet 'oof' before scrambling to her feet.

[Avenger Assembled]

"Now you're showing sense!" the thug hissed as he circled the car after her, waving his crowbar at her. "Gimmie the keys, honey!" he spat, his chin covered in peach fuzz and his teeth capped with silver. He loomed over her, very big and with a very large crowbar. "Gimmie the keys!"

[alderwitch]

Taylor would like to think that she'd seen enough not to be scared of a common thug. No matter how big he might be. She lifted her chin pugnaciously and looked distinctly unimpressed at the threat even as she took a few steps back from him.

"You want the keys?" She taunted him in a low voice that was far too close to tipping over into Phantom's, "Too bad. You'll have to catch me first."

Before her eyes could start glowing, Taylor pelted off between the cars. Just for good measure, she mashed the alarm button on the keychain as she ran, giving the would-be-thief little choice but to follow her.

[Avenger Assembled]

Taylor and her antagonist made their way into the woods even as people started getting out of their cars at the noise of Jack's alarm going off. It was only when they were alone in the woods that the thug laughed menacingly, tossing aside his crowbar to growl "You just made a big mistake, girlie!" With a roar, he began to grow, his back popping open and head shifting, bones and flesh shifting around to transform the man into a lupine monster! "Now I'm going to eat you!"

It was at this juncture that Jack appeared out of the darkness,smashing his fist directly into the back of the werewolf's head. The man dropped without a sound, making a single awp as he twitched and groaned, completely unconscious from the power of Jack's blow.

[alderwitch]

Taylor looked down at the unconcious brute with a slightly dissapointed look on her face. She was still panting slightly from the run and her eyes were glowing white in her face. Honestly, she was exhilerated from the entire affair. She never had managed to get her hair clip back in and now it was probably gone for good along the fight.

"Rats, he fell down quickly." She looked up at Jack, her expression shifting into a grin that dimpled her cheeks. Her cheeks were flushed from the run into the woods and she was still coming off the cascade of adrenaline. Sadly, without the face-smashing part of the plan. Oh, well. "I was really looking forward to knocking that sneer off his face. I should thank you for the rescue."

She lifted up his car keys, offering them out to him. "I'm not used to playing damsel in distress."

[Avenger Assembled]

Jack took his keys, but bent down over the unconscious werewolf, frowning angrily as the creature lay there in its half-animal form. "I don't recognize it," he said thoughtfully. "I've dealt with lycanthropes in this area before, but they didn't look anything like this." He picked up the fallen crowbar and studied it thoughtfully, tapping it back and forth against one hand. "Do you recognize him? Is this one of the magical sub-species, or is it a magical creature? It-SONOVA-" The werewolf had just sat up and grabbed him by the collar!

[alderwitch]

Taylor had leaned over Jack's shoulder to examine the critter but before she could even start to cast her detection spel, the brute had started to move.

Taylor's hands whipped up, black crackling energy forming around them. She sent the bolt lancing at the creature without a moment's hesitation. Anything that could shake off a blow like that she was not going to pull her punches on.

"Hands off, fuzzy!"

[Avenger Assembled]

Jack grabbed the were-fox by the wrists, a look of murderous fury in his eyes. "Release me!" he spat, glaring into the man's eyes with a look of intimidating wrath. Suitably chastened, the fox-man did so, just in time to take a blast to the chest from Phantom that knocked him out for good. Dusting himself off, Jack rose to his feet. "Guess you got your chance," he said with a feral grin at Taylor, "Good shooting. Glad I got out of the way in time."

[alderwitch]

"You're very quick, fortunately for us both. I did warn you about the whole blast then ask questions problem I have." Taylor said as she gestured to lift and hold the unconcious creature with bands of black energy. "And, yes, hitting him was quite cathartic. Especially after the embarassing parking lot chase."

She flashed him a quick grin before turned her head to study the creature. Taylor's expression was thoughtful as she studied the creatures face and bone structure before she made the universal mystic noise: "Hmmmm...."

[Avenger Assembled]

The more Taylor studied the were-fox, the more obvious it became that this was no creature of the supernatural. The markings were all wrong for a genuine lycanthrope, and true kitsune would radiate a very different sort of mystic energy. This was nothing other than sheer hokum; science designed to look like magic. Next to her, despite his secret familiarity with this sort of thing, Jack was thoroughly baffled. "I don't even know where to start. I'm tempted to just kneecap him with his own crowbar and bring him to the cops." He wound up slipping the crowbar into his beltloop, though, ultimately opting not to beat up on the unconscious monster. That wasn't very nice.

[alderwitch]

After a long moment of intense scrutiny from her all white eyes, Taylor finally pulled back from the fox-thing. Finally she said dismissivly, "It's not a supernatural anything. Not really. He's either some mutate or a science experiment. He's not one of the Cursed or any of the hereditary lycans and the behavior is all wrong even for the most perverse of kitsune."

She slanted a glance at him, finally taking her eyes from the creature. She wasn't overly worried about it breaking free if it did wake up at this point. "Which in some ways is more worrisome. The supernaturals tend to police their own. This or whatever created it, will not."

[Avenger Assembled]

"He's probably a DNAscendent, then," said Jack thoughtfully. "They take street thugs and give them powers in return for being their goons. Don't know why he'd want to break into my car, though..." Actually, he did have a couple of ideas, but neither of them were very pleasant. "I'm sure my identity is better protected than that. Maybe this guy is just a cast-off. He didn't seem nearly as competent as some of the other street guys I've heard about."

[alderwitch]

Taylor gave a slight shrug and raised one hand as if to absorb him into the pocket dimension before she paused. "Well, he didn't seem to think anything amiss with me. He also was very intent on getting into your trunk. He had to have noticed the car was occupied. Speaking of which, we might want to get back. I set the alarm off when I ran."

She dropped the mystical bonds and finished the gesture to draw the thug into the void through one palm. He'd be safe enough there until they figured whether or not Jack wanted to question them.

[Avenger Assembled]

Jack came up with a BS story for the people who'd seen the robbery about the thug he and his girlfriend had chased off, his arm protectively around Taylor's shoulder as they headed for his car. Once there, with the doors closed and both of them inside, he looked over at her and remembered both the excitement of the chase and the enjoyable time they'd spent together before that. He leaned over and kissed her, tasting faintly of orange as he pulled back. "Lord, you're beautiful," he told her with a grin.

[alderwitch]

Taylor did her part for the people by keeping her mouth shut and leaning into Jack's shoulder with her face slightly turned away. Better than anyone she knew that she wasn't so great at the 'look how delicate I am' routine' so she simply best to let him tell them what he would. The face that she tipped up to receive his kiss was sparkling with amusement of the ball of yarn he'd spun.

"Thank you. You're pretty amazing yourself," she murmured bemusedly. Taylor had never considered herself a great beauty, nor did she fancy that she was even in the top ten of women Jack had probably dated. It was flattering to hear, however, and she returned his kiss with one of her own before asking, "Did you want to question the thug or should I just drop him off by some police station later on?"

[Avenger Assembled]

"I'll deal with that," promised Jack. He hesitated a moment, then said simply, "You probably aren't going to want to watch that," he said after a couple of moments. "My work when I'm not with the Knights is fairly...fairly intense. It's not something most people enjoy seeing." He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel, an unhappy look on his face, as he waited for Taylor's response.

[alderwitch]

"Hey, this is me, remember?" Taylor reached out to touch his arm to get his attention. She left her hand in place as she spoke, her tone strong, "I don't have your methods but I've got my own tasks that other people find questionable, or distasteful. I'm not going to look at you differently afterwards, you know."

She squeezed his arm once, "I know what that's like, you know. To have someone flinch away after you've done something you felt you had to. In the end, you're the only one who can count the cost of your actions, Jack."

[Avenger Assembled]

"All right, Taylor, if that's what you want," he sighed. Well, he was going to have to use strategy for this one. He thought of the crowbar at his belt, remembered the emotions he felt when he saw Taylor running, and thought of a pretty viable line of attack. (As it were.) They drove past an abandoned warehouse near the edge of Grenville, and Jack unexpectedly pulled off into the grassy parking lot behind it. Grenville was a new area, but not so new that it didn't have businesses that had already failed. "We'll do it here," he said, stepping out into the darkened lot.