06/23/15 A Laundromat [Attn: Ben]

With a snarl, Mitch throws himself at his opponent, shifting to Crinos as he does so.  The ragged old Bone Gnawer shifts as well, and the two collide forcefully, in a whirlwind of claws and fangs and fur.  Mitch is larger, but Pitstop has a wiry strength to him that allows him to hold his own.  Despite his skill, though, he fights with an air of resignation...as if he knows in advance how the fight will end, and welcomes it.

He may know how the fight will end, but he doesn't go down easily.  Ducking under a blow that likely would have decapitated him, he tackles Mitch, driving him backwards into a concrete support pillar, which shatters from the force.  "Open your eyes!" he snarls.  "Wake up! You're so busy watching for the Apocalypse that you can't even see what's happening!"

He picks up the dazed Mitch...and he's weeping.  "Don't you get it?  Can't you see it?  It all has to come down!  All of it!  Ain't no halfway on this one!  Ain't no unjustified cost! I did what I had to!"

And with that, he drives a fist with roughly the size and force of a piledriver at Mitch's head...only to have it stopped, inches away, as Mitch catches it.

"And now I'm gonna do what I have to do," the younger Bone Gnawer says, grimly.

He hurls Pit Stop halfway across the room, through a dividing brick wall.  He's on top of his opponent before he can recover, slamming him into the unyielding floor again and again.

"You say any cost is justified?  Bullshit!  You betrayed your family!  You betrayed Rat!  You betrayed Gaia!  Those things are not fucking justified!"

He pauses, chest heaving.  Pit Stop lies at his feet, broken and bloodied.  His muzzle works for a few moments before he manages to speak.

"F-finish it."

And with a howl of rage mixed with grief, Mitch does just that, raising a claw high and driving it down, into Pit Stop's chest.  The fallen Gnawer stiffens and then relaxes, going still.  He reverts to Homid, and for the first time, his features are calm, at peace.

The only sound is Mitch's hoarse breathing.  It sounds almost like sobs.

OOC: I don't want to pee on the end of this scene, if we agree this is a good stopping point. That said, I can still keep it going. What say you?

OOC: There's still a bit of business that Steelheart will be handling here.

Steelheart walks over to Mitch and the fallen body of Pit Stop. He rests a hand on his packmate's shoulder and says, "Sorry if this comes off as salt in the wound, but we gotta know..."

He stands over Pit-Stop, pulls a plastic bottle out of his pocket, and opens it. With care and ritualized motions, he pours the spiritually-charged dust over the corpse of the fallen Garou.

"Pit Stop, fallen child of Rat. Your crimes are not absolved. Your service is not ended. Your debts have not been paid. Rise and speak."

OOC: Using Death Dust talen, and if successful, a Command Spirit will soon follow.

Mitch takes a minute or two to calm down, talking quietly to himself. "He...he didn't have to make me do that....why? Why, goddammit!?!" He slowly pulls himself together and then returns to the body, resolve etched on his face. "I'm gonna see this through. You're right, Steelheart, we're not done yet."

A dry chuckle comes from the body. Well, it would be dry if not for the blood--it's actually a little bubbly.

<< Well, crap. Shoulda figured you kids had something up your sleeve. >>

Steelheart nods and paces around the corpse in a circle.

"Quite right. We appreciate everything you've told us, but there's still more we need to know. We don't take our duty lightly."

He stops by Pit Stop's head and looks down with a gaze as hard as his name.

"Spirit and shade, by ancient pact and the authority of the Crescent Moon, I make my demands upon you. You will answer all questions we put to you completely and honestly, holding nothing back, with no deception or obfuscation."

OOC: Command Spirit being used here.

The member 'STBen' has done the following action : RPS

'RPS' :

"Hey," warns Artemis, "he didn't make you do anything." She shoulders her bow. "He attacked with the certainty of a man who knows he punched his clock. You attacked with Rat on your side. The fight was just and you, YOU, made those choices. Be proud of them."

The member 'STBen' has done the following action : RPS

'RPS' :

<< Ah, hell. You had to go do that voodoo that you do so well, didn't you? >>

Kinda weird to hear the pawky-cynical voice emerging from that broken body.

<< Screw me with the entire starting lineup of the Cleveland Browns. What do you want to know? As if I couldn't guess. >>

"What is this job of yours that is almost done, the sin you wouldn't reveal because you knew we would try to stop it? And where is the plan most vulnerable to interference so that it can be stopped?"

<< Well...crap. >>

<< Plan's simple. I'm actually kinda surprised you didn't pick up on it. Hell, I mentioned the name of one of the patients there, and the fact that she was tied to the Weaver's damned machines.

Children's Hospital. You've got...well, hell, I'm not sure what time it is. Maybe an hour, hour and a half before the charges go off. Stopping it's simple: disarm the charges. You're gonna have to work fast, though: there are ten of them. >>


((OOC Disclaimer: This post refers to a fictional roleplaying game, and in no way condones or suggests any such action in the real world...just in case Homeland Security happens to be listening in! ))

Steelheart cracks his neck and rolls his shoulders as his lips compress in a tight line and the rage within almost surges forth. With great effort, he's able to maintain control.

Taking a breath to steady himself, he continues.

"Where are the charges located, specifically? How have they been concealed? How can they be disarmed?"

"No better way to rally the troops to your cause than to lead with, 'let's get some kids!,' you sick bastard."

She jabs an angry finger at the screen of her phone. "Andreas? Honey, do you think you could help with a problem? Call your friends over at the police department."

"Never mind what I said before. This guy REALLY deserved to die. Not everything the Weaver makes is worth destroying." He clearly ponders and starts rooting through his bag. "If he's wired the main support pillars there might not be enough time to get everyone out. That said, if you can get me in there I might be able to start some UN-bombing. Otherwise we're gonna have to wait it out on this end."

Steelheart pauses for a moment and then adds to his list of questions.

"What sort of anti-tampering measures are in place on the charges, and how can they be safely avoided and disarmed?"

A ragged sigh emerges from the body.

<< See, I knew you wouldn't understand. It's not the patients. They're collateral damage, and that sucks--but they're already infected. That hospital, it's doing more than just treat patients. Would you take out a building full of kids, if they were infected by the Wyrm? >>

<< Now, as for where they are...what do you expect me to do, draw you a map? I'm frigging dead, here. They're down in the basement, at key structural points. Didn't bother to rig up any safeguards, because I didn't expect to need any. Disarming 'em's a matter of disengaging the triggering mechanism, and the way you phrased things, I can't do what I'd like to, which is explain it in a crapton of detail so you don't have time to get there and actually stop it. So what's it gonna be? Do I explain it step by step, or do you go and figure it out when you get there? >>

Artemis, visibly rocked, chokes down a wisecrack. "What's it doing?" she says, warily, already thinking she knows.

"It's like that formori school we took down, but on the Weaver's dole. If he's telling the truth..."

She doesn't wait for an answer, "Never mind, love. Call it off," she says quietly into the phone.

Steelheart looks back and forth between Artie and the corpse, with shock evident on his face.

"Wait, what? You're going to believe this guy, sight unseen? He's a nut!"

Vinny shakes his head in confusion as he pulls out a burner phone and makes a call.

Police influence to get the intel submitted as an anonymous tip and acted on by a top bomb squad immediately.

"You made him tell the truth, remember? No deception or obfuscation?" She's grim, and guilty. "We took down that Formori nursery. Did it just like he did. Charges in the basement. Babies were in that building, small children that could have been treated. I let it go."

She buries her head in her hands. "New war, new enemies. Same old shitty choices."

Steelheart finishes his call, stuffs his phone back in his pocket, and looks at Artie.

"Yeah, but it's the truth as he knows it! His perceptions, his truth. If he thinks that little green men are monitoring his brain-waves through the holes in Swiss cheese, he'd be able to say that as true under this command as well!"

He drops his head, and then looks at her again. "As for the Fomori target, I...I didn't know it was like that. I didn't get a full description, but I assumed it was a warehouse training facility set up like a Wyrm barracks. Never knew it was a school, nursery, whatever...With kids..."

With a shake to resettle himself, he turns back to the corpse.

"So for a moment let's pretend that you're not entirely nuts. What do you know about what's going on in that hospital? What is this infection you're so dedicated to eradicating?"