Vigor [Typhon members only]

Well, in an essence, the brand new vampire was nothing special if compared to her brothers and sisters..yet. Just wait until her blood becomes more potent and potent it would be, but time was what was needed and time was hers abundant like water, a deep fountain of ever flowing eternity. Ash would bid her time as usual, all shall go as the sensou keikaku - the war plan - dictated. It dictated as follows, which was going o the Cerberus headquarters for all kinds of tests were bound to be made. Medical care and physical training, Mental evaluation and brain storming.

The Ashikaga knew that it was going to be busy day. Quietly as usual, her nimble feet led undetected her through the busy like bees building staff of all kinds, PMC augmented training in the background in their grounds and lastly the newly constructed executioners doing their nasty little homework, that no one really wanted to know of what kind of business they were into.

First phase,

A medical follow up, Scientists always wanted to make check ups taking samples of her blood. They say that Ash is still a fledgling, a childe who is aware not of her true potential. Her blood is in it's primary phase of evolution, according to myth vampire blood was capable of doing miracles. That what the Kuei-jin hoped to see and for that reason she let the lowly kine to do their job with no sighing or intervention. Next on the list, the physical training. Probably, some sort of battle mock training to evaluate her current prowess and that too what she wanted to know.

Know thy self.

The Cerberus facility is one of the many multi-role facilities Typhon houses for its operatives to use much to their own discretion as it goes. Metahumans were ferocious bastards today, irritating prey to stalk and eliminate by any means necessary. Three man Executioner teams went after them for a stealth job, wigs had to be worn, and mouths were meant to be shut along with whatever physical inclination towards animalism made bare and for all to see and observe such a most... verbose change. It was vicious fighting, jabbing a knife into someone with the capacity to disintegrate things upon a touch, and 1408 avoided such a close call by substituting herself with a trench coat in this ferocious fight. Both of her Executioner comrades disintegrated into nothingness because they got too careless. They are nothing more than lambs to the slaughter as this job was done by any means necessary, evidence destroyed with the destruction of the body with a special solution, and a retreat back to base into Chicago.

LATER ON.

The nasty business such an Executioner as 1408 was going through was being re-outfitted and cleaned up till the next operation takes place, otherwise questions would be asked about a bloody Executioner running around smelling like death itself. Often their needs are taken care of by a group of personnel that kindly decided to hose them down and wash them given how Executioners have an innate dislike of water and whichever instances of getting wet. Shaking fast like a wolf of feral proportions as her clothing splattered liquid everywhere, as if it were a secondary fur. Next thing was blowing hot air on 1408 till she was dried up, angrily staring at the air like a werewolf defying the clutches of a vampire as they are the predators in this case. Such a process would've incurred that 1408 would be stripped of her vestment, but nay! She refuses to part with her clothing as if they were but second fur to her!

With what was done, it took a while before she was ordered by a scientist to stand down, and her programming deemed it so that she accepts all orders from superiors regardless, finally towing in to be redressed into another standard set of clothes and let off to explore the site to her own whims to stretch legs, finally given cleaner uniforms as opposed to the one rife with blood and chunks of gore from the vicious attack. Executioners, some of them, are given a degree of freedom to roam about in their merry ways as long as they don't stray off the base, and if that were to ever happen, it would require permission and immediate informing, because as far as Typhon was concerned, Executioners are corporate property.

The trench coatless 1408 took to stay around in combat training exercise, sitting on a heightened platform up to waist level and watching several PMC's punch each other out from behind her new issue shades illuminating with red orbs in a curious sighting. But then there was one smell that tingled most... the smell of a Child. They have a certain smell about them, this one smelt like Typhon's personnel, she knew that personally, she was in the base for a while now too, 1408 knew that, is female, adult, but beyond that, can be tracked if so it were to be. Children by defaults were superiors, and yet were hunted down as targets to those that do not associate with the Typhon incident. Confusing but 1408 got along in her head that this is the way things function.

Chihaya entered the fray, the to be called arena where the PMC were training. Nothing fancy, lowly kine brawling with one another. Not interested to say at the least. PMC members were playing their own tournament on the side, they acknowledged an oriental visage invading their training abode and slugfest grounds, they wanted to show her who was boss. Yeah, who was boss, because she bossed them right. A tournament, one on one fights which ended pretty well into her end. Later on, when she showed them invincibility, the others teamed up against her and the result was an entire platoon visiting the wards for medical check. Ash was merciful, the Kuei-jin didn't show up too much..destroying Typhon's property was not one of her priority not that she really cared, it was just strategically unwise.

However there was a presence, Ash could feel. The wise awareness that proved her useful whispered in language of caution that someone was observing, unaware that the watcher was an executioner and mostly importantly the most natural predator for Vampires such as like herself. Ah, Typhon and their minds. If Ash would know about this, the twisted plan of creating a vampire and lycan to watch her from behind to ensure the former's loyalty not giving her the slightest of chance to defect or show betrayal. Ash didn't want to end up like bolt in the figurative sense of meaning or rather Dr. Aldrich who ended up like nobody and died as such. Of course, The Kuei-jin knew not of the Lycan's deeds so maybe she would know them later or maybe not depends on how much her pale hands would reach.

Cautiousness and prudence, Ash didn't show any. Instead the Kuei-jin subtly hid them like the Kunoichi she was. The vampire approached the lycan ultimately addressing her directly without reserves since both in an essence were a typhon property.

I am Chi, Who are you? The Ashikaga declared the only thing she knew about her ancestry, a capsule child, a vampiric childe..her true history, of that she didn't really know.

The Executioner watched in her silence of the fighting going on, PMC's, humans all of them lacking the strength to stand up to a powerful being fighting it out and being taken out easily. Breaking bones, bruising skins and dislocating whatever it was which she touched. The vampire was well within her league as one of the Children, targets normally Executioners had the very singular purpose of driving a stake through their hearts and killing them, but this one was not of the targets but of the non-targets. The superior, those that control the myriad of hunters whom prowl to ceaseless ends merely to destroy their prey in a single intense battle for supremacy in their teeming masses. Executioners, never political officers, merely those that clean up the mess left behind.

She could smell the blood intermingling with the sweats, labors of combat all of them in this disgustingly abhorrent room filled with people that are on a high protein diet, better food than the goop her kind have been resorted to, disgusting food that she does not derive the pleasures of the tongue to which they resound with the luxuries of food they can choose most appropriately known as military rations and even the freedom to buy food from restaurants, units meant to dispense consumable items upon the traders whom give worthless paper money that can be ripped with a single grip as opposed to something more valuable as a long lasting material object.

Silently she watched the vampiric figure approach her up as she sized the woman, contemplating mechanically over functions to derive and purpose for this approach only to be met with a simple greeting that is not really necessary, perhaps to derive identity to classify purpose of the Executioner?

"I am Chi, Who are you?"

Chi... the codename of one of the Children. In her memory database, not of the Children hunted down and to be exterminated on sight, but an asset of Typhon's, "I am Executioner unit 1408, designation Keeper 9. You're not my target, or my handler. Why is it you speak to me, Child Chi?" She asks in her monotone matter of fact tone in the English transmitted to her brain lobes in the form of instantly learnt information.

"I am Executioner unit 1408, designation Keeper 9. You're not my target, or my handler. Why is it you speak to me, Child Chi?"

Well, there was no life in that voice of hers, completely void of any feelings, utterly null of all emotions. The perfect predator, the vampire thought to herself. But if 1408 was such, with a mindset of an android, programmed to execute both orders and children alike with absolute precision, then why the Children were considered superior? Was it the emotions that fueled them, was the feelings that gave them the desires to keep pushing forward and advance? And if the children were superiors, then why fell to the might of execution teams? Perhaps, a miscalculation or wrong decision in a critical moment, the Ashikaga pondered such existence and contemplated the strange roles of predators and preys continuously shifting from a day to another. Today, you are the hunter. The next, you are to be hunted, cruel existence and ruthless subsistence befitting this vampire and lycan.

So, the Ashikaga thought to herself. If she was to declare defiance against the new sovereignty which tentacles clutches reaches the different four corners of this earth, if she would let others know about her treacherous nature then that woman in front of her, with that ivory hair, like a wolf's white fur, would visit a vampire's lair, to lull the later with fangs and claws into an eternal slumber. The thought itself was breath taking; the game of intrigue was nice and sweet. Of mistakes, the Ashikaga was allowed none else she would be skinned. About machinations like a carefully made spider web the kuei-jin must weave else she would be enslaved either by Typhon or Gaia. Power was her salvation, Vigor was the ultimate deliverance.

But what kind of power the vampire seductress sought to have? Logically, tactics without strategy is just the noise of defeat. There must be a long term strategic plan to follow; The vampire would speak to the lycan, the same way the lycan spoke to her.

"Inquiry, what is your animal DNA? Another inquiry, How I can be your handler?"

"Inquiry, what is your animal DNA? Another inquiry, How I can be your handler?"

Why is there a less logical emphasis on the tone as opposed to an Executioner's logical dictation and proclamation? A momentarily flash quick contemplation brought to heed the notion that what she had was substance, like a wet cotton. Soft, yet hard when prompted. The Kuei-Jin tried to adopt the moniker of logic, as if it was something that one can adapt to, as opposed to an Executioner whom had it as a second nature to them, a part of them, denied proper development like normal people that such was it they were nothing short of expendable, yet capable of being born out in huge quantities. It doesn't trouble 1408 that she is nothing more than a statistic, nothing more, nothing less, and it never troubled her now. Her sentience, her purpose, are all for the singular elimination of the target whatever the means necessary. To hunt and eliminate.

"I was spliced with a wolf, hence my role in a team as a tracker," She says neutrally, giving a momentary pause, "It is not in my knowledge in how a person becomes a Handler. I am an Executioner, mine is not to ask my Handlers questions but to follow orders as I was designed. All Handlers are untapped humans as my analysis indicated. It is not a role suited towards Children, as their purpose is not administrative, but combative."

There really wasn't much speculations, she sat there patiently as if waiting for the time to watch and observe new methods to come to an end. It would be by then cold cryostasis sleep would sooner or later come to claim her, till 1408 was needed again for another assignment as a weapon, a tool to use, a living, breathing commodity, till her use leaves and wanes from her capacity to do things. The Kuei-Jin was curious, that much could be inferred, curiosity, a human emotion for something as inhumane and treacherous as a Kuei-Jin wearing the cowl of a woman, yet what resides inside is a beast to be unleashed.

"I was spliced with a wolf, hence my role in a team as a tracker,"

A lycan! A werewolf! It was then that the Kuei-jin knew about such existence. A tracker, definitely good to sniff out fellow children. The vampire thought to herself how could she use such an asset, how can she forge this unholy alliance between two creatures meant from the dawn of man to have this relationship of predator and prey. Vampires hunted humans and werewolves hunted vampires, the unending food chain. However, those creatures were myth to begin with or perhaps maybe not.

The plan was simple provided that they were just mere thoughts, but the implementation was totally something differrent. The lycan explained that the role of handlers didn't belong to children since the orders were meant to come from people sitting comfortably behind their desks, strategists and tacticians at most. The Kuei-jin couldn't deny the usefulness of their decisions wondering in the same time how would Gaia be able to face a Mega-corp backed up with originators, strategists & tacticians, militants and Executioners ready to be set on the wild for the hunt and lastly but the least, the children who sided with Typhon such as the Kuei-Jin herself.

Ah, the Keikaku. The kuei-jin wanted the lycan to be on her side, this would make Typhon feel assured that the vampire wouldn't show any displays of treachery or betrayal. They would trust Chihaya that way and eventually drop their guard but the plan was truly dauntless. Since if the lycan was able to sniff Ash's defiance, it wouldn't bode well for the latter. Regardless, the pure unholy blooded Japanese decided. The presence of tracker capable of hunting down follow children if the the need arise is beneficial.

The question was how to hire this executioner.

Inquiry, To whom should I speak in order to benefit from your services? According to the Lycan's analysis, the handlers were normal humans. A lead to whom she would speak to was certainly nice rather than searching the whole Cerberus facility. If so, guide me there. If the lycan knew, then Ash would politely ask.

1408 stared at the Kuei-Jin's contemplation in a dull fashion, not now, and not before has she even produced a spark of emotion besides a lack of amusement, a sense of languor till the next prey beckons for the Executioner's fullest and most vivid basest attention. Like a lazed feline puma that finds no sense of joy but neither any sense of sadness, there was no senses at all wasteful or the like because the very sole purpose is to exist to kill whomever Typhon deems targeted by Executioners. Swinging her leg back and forth to get it worked up and the blood flowing, sitting down tends to make one's blood slow and takes away the energy from even running around, especially when considering the fact that Executioners should always be acquainted to the aspect of running about and around without an end, keep up the cardio work out so that their prey lingers not far away. But back to reality as it smacked 1408 square in the face.

"Inquiry, To whom should I speak in order to benefit from your services? If so, guide me there."

Is this child attempting to solicitate an Executioner's service? The pale faced Executioner 1408 only gave out a surprised look, but screwed by the fact she wore shades and not really that present in facial expressions. But then she had to comply with a Child's request, they are superiors, superiors dictate orders, but not her superior, oh no, merely a superior outside of the branch but regardless one above in the chain of command, whereas Executioners are the lowest one given their tendency to be rather expendable. Especially Tier 1, whereas Elites and Commanders tend to be the most valuable one of them all.

"Affirmative, complying with your wishes ma'am." The Executioner rose from the place of seating, "My analysis and speculations of whom to talk to re-acquisition my services would be my handler, however there is a statistical odd a Child may have to talk higher up in the chain of command to get the services of an Executioner."

The pigmentless haired Executioner then walked the way through the facility and unto where the Executioners did their "Homework", filled with many myriads of tubes, pods and the medical ward had many cold bodies of many Executioners deemed no longer necessary, and euthanized as a result of it. The Handler the Executioner spoke of was a glassed diminuitive woman of a smaller frame, someone so weak looking to handle a batch of Executioners, already standing in a room in front of a white board with objective writings in marker ink to another batch of Executioners for briefings in their objective. The entry of 1408 beckoned for the attention of the Handler, but not the Executioners, whom stared at the board obediently.

"Have you finished with your R&R, Keeper 9?" Asked the Handler of raven-like mane.

She shook her head, "Negative."

"Then what is the purpose of this visit?"

She steps aside from the doorway from within the confines of the room, giving view of whomever is behind her, "Child designation Chi requests an audience with you, ma'am."

"Very well, as you were Keeper 9."

1408 nods, and silently watches whatever ordeal it is to unfold.

"Affirmative, complying with your wishes ma'am."

Oh, how very respectful of her! The Ashikaga was able to easily deduce that she was one of those superiors, Executioners were ordered to follow their commands despite not being a direct one. So, there were many channels to speak with and address to, if the Kuei-jin wanted the company of the lycan. One step was just the beginning, and oh, how can be this very first step so consequential being based in a decision, the decision was built by a myriad of tactical thoughts, those myriad of thoughts wove a strategy and this strategy would direct her to certain end realizing a hidden goal. It was the art of war and Ashikaga would read Sun-Tzu's pinnacle sooner or later.

So they passed through hallways and their like, then to medical wards. Ah those medical wards, The Kuei-Jin never liked them. They just rejuvenate memories not that old, since the days of being a capsuleer child inside a tube defenseless incapable to raise a finger if one was to have aggressive demeanors against her dark entity. The dreams, the continuous perils she had to fight through again and again. But momentarily thinking about it, reality was more harsh and ruthless than nightmares that couldn't kill. And thanks to those visions, Chi feared no longer.

"Negative." They arrived and the handler inquired why the lycan didn't make her R&R. Of course, the reason behind it was a chit-chat with a vampire. A lycan and a vampire chatting peacefully with each other, impossible but it happened. 1408 stated X's wish to speak with the handler and latter accepted.

I wanted to convey my wishes about hiring unit 1408, her tracking capabilities and physical prowess are very useful against stray children. So, what are the procedures to make this come true? Ash directly asked.

The glassed woman stared at the Child Vampire with great disinterest and a lack of amusement at whatever it was she was playing at, with 1408 standing sideways still and about without even flinching, like a stone itself as were the rest of the Executioners. Save the fact they lacked any sunglasses to conceal their hideous eyes, and some even lacking any balaclava to conceal their features further than before. Marred and scarred, hideous and unsightly to see, it is no wonder many are like Nosferatu, taking upon cosmetics to infect their faces as to hide their true nature. Ugly creatures with nothing but the hunt, as is 1408, an Executioner.

"I wanted to convey my wishes about hiring unit 1408, her tracking capabilities and physical prowess are very useful against stray children. So, what are the procedures to make this come true?"

The handler only gave a gaze, emotionless, devoid of any feeling tempest inside her as to feel naught but a lack of appreciation for this woman's want of her own subjects, "No." She says in her British quintessential accent, nonsensical as it was as a retort, "There is no procedures to attain an Executioner, I assign her a mission, and she obeys. There is great need for 1408 in this batch, the other trackers count as KIA, 1408 is the only one we have left, therefore I deny your request. If you want to track down children, just rely on intelligence like the rest of the Typhon personnel, otherwise don't waste my time."

1408 knew how stern her handler can be, if not anything more than stiff or so the saying goes. A woman holding out against whomever is the case, whichever the case, and however the case. She felt feelings bubble throughout the room as part of the hivemind as many Executioners lingered with curiosity, and some nihilism, those were but holes that gap in the hivemind. There was no sense of alertness or the like from 1408, only a sense of calm, as were the others soon stifled their wondering. Only staring at the Kuei-Jin.

NO!

There can be 'NO' against against Chi and there can never will be. Such a despicable act coming from a lowly and filthy kine, how dare that woman with the black mane utter such unbelievable words. Still, the Kuei-jin controlled her rage and urge to break the woman's ribs with a single strike of her fist. There was no need to make a commotion and being a Child didn't grant her the freedom to do as such..yet.

There was still the power of words, the Ashikaga can understand the need for 1408 for the latter seemed to succeed where the others failed. The others, the cold bodies which were incinerated perhaps they were her former companions. It was quite the predicament, the handler wanted her tracker in her team and Ash wanted that tracker. The power of words, the handler was in need and all what was needed was to fill that need. If Ash was correct, it was power, the handler was seeking.

With no interest in other executioners, the Kuei-jin approached the handler taking her into a side whispering some words I know your wanting for such fine specimen. But as you can see I am child, I am capable of passing some good words for you in high command. If 1408 performed well with me, it's going to be your name which would get the fame..think about it, I will make sure as well to provide you with more trackers ASAP through my own channels. Ash said her sublime words hiding it with so much good, she truly hoped that the handler would be rational and take the bait else she would end like Dr. Aldrich in a way or another.

1408 can feel the tensions in the air, Handler was never one for cordial conversations, but to be brief, and as blunt as possible regardless of the authority in question. The black maned handler stood still, not out of fear but out of a lack of sensing the deep and strong aura of murderous intent oozing out of the Kuei-Jin, something 1408 could very well feel so very well, as were the rest of the Executioners. Whom turned their gaze for the first time, dropping their stony and apathetic exterior to give observations at the Child, as if primed for combat, myriads of feelings flooded through 1408's brain lobes into this progressing tension so very well known to the Executioners, yet this one was not a target. 1408 on the other hand silently stood as she were, stoned as feelings of the other Executioners flowed through her grey matter.

Her appearance graced by that of the other woman, as sweet honey promised to her of things most vainglorious and greedy, as if it were ambition for the sake of reputation would appeal to the otherwise staunch stalwart woman of great fortitude that being the Handler, taken aside as it were as if the ears of the Executioners were naught but horrid, had this been any other entities, certainly such fallacy would befit them, but not the hunters of rogues, "I know your wanting for such fine specimen. But as you can see I am child, I am capable of passing some good words for you in high command. If 1408 performed well with me, it's going to be your name which would get the fame..think about it, I will make sure as well to provide you with more trackers ASAP through my own channels."

She pushes the frame of her glassed spectacles up her nose bridge with the tip of her fingers, light shined briefly and reflected off of it, whitening the glasses as she scowled further from her otherwise neutral expression most purveyed thus in a norm, "I refuse, I don't care for fame but to get the job done. If you are capable of attaining your own trackers, then what's stopping you from getting them? The decision is final anyways, 1408 stays with me, and there is nothing you can say to make me change my mind," She turns around, and looks Ashikaga square in the eyes with her fierce optics, "Do I make myself clear?"

OOC: The computer crashed and I had to rewrite it again, please forgive the post being short. Certainly, my laptop is pissing me off.

IC:

"Do I make myself clear?" No, she didn't and never will. Insolent her words and arrogant her spectacles brimming with white were. The only one capable of closing the conversation was the Ashikaga herself and no one other, the vampire would enjoy breaking the woman's devoted steadfastness and the staunch of her stiffness to smithereens. That woman will bow to The Ashikaga, she would know her place and lick the ground and if not, if the vampire's words didn't reach her well..then a shadow in silence would do the job right.

The reverse side also has a reverse side. The kuei-Jin could feel the wisdom in such words, the proverb encourages to look beyond the obvious and not to stop just at the surface one sees, the reverse is what one cannot see and yet exists. Certainly the handler must have a weakness, something Chi was would abuse to full use. Ash decided, there were many other ways she didn't yet approach.

Not even bothering herself to answer the last remark. Are you sure ? you are now bossing around a higher authority than that of yours. Showing animosity towards a child wouldn't bode well with your position as a handler. If fame was not your aim, if you want to get the job done, Typhon's goals to be well executed. Then I say, those plans would go very well with 1408 on my side, on the battlefield. You are not the end of the pyramid chain, there are others who would outrank you in authority and position and they are my next stop if you kept denying me of the personnel needed for the completion of my missions.

A smile settled on 1408's lips briefly as she watched the spectacle, touching her lips to realize what she has done as it lingered with a light feeling, something that deprives her of anything less but a detachment from apathy. Her handler was giving the Kuei-Jin such a hard time, the otherwise apathetic and stony stoic exterior of the statuesque and ugly eyed 1408 found herself amused at such prospects with giddiness, as if peeled to see further developments, but she hid it well before anyone would even catch a glimpse of her emotional holes. Her Executioner peers were averse to realizing that brief faint feeling of emotion to be produced from the emotionless stone cold killer that is 1408.

"Are you sure? You are now bossing around a higher authority than that of yours. Showing animosity towards a child wouldn't bode well with your position as a handler. If fame was not your aim, if you want to get the job done, Typhon's goals to be well executed. Then I say, those plans would go very well with 1408 on my side, on the battlefield. You are not the end of the pyramid chain, there are others who would outrank you in authority and position and they are my next stop if you kept denying me of the personnel needed for the completion of my missions."

The Handler didn't even fret or break a sweat from the high tensions purveying in the atmosphere of this room, a mere human talking to a Child like that is quite a sight to the Executioners of the room, wary of the discussion and lingering in their curiousity of any further development as a collective, as she goes, "Negative, you don't belong to the same chain of command as I do, henceforth you are not my superior. I will repeat myself as you keep going on over a moot point, if you can attain your own Executioner trackers, then go get them and stop wasting my time. If these 'superiors' of mine are your next stop, then go ahead and acquisition the trackers from them, my decision does not change until I gain an order. Otherwise, I made myself clear on the matter, and..." She gestures to 1408, "She can show you the way out, are we clear?"

Oh, how lovely was her 'Negative' all the handler's words were more of passive denying the Kuei-Jin from her request. The vampire couldn't believe such audacity but what she could do? A threat? No, it was not a wise act to be done in front executioners known for their hive mind. Oh, how much the Ashikaga wanted to Pierce her fangs into someone's neck whose name shouldn't be mentioned out of scorn and disdain. Ash would learn from the history of her elders despite not reading it, perhaps it was inscribed in her mind. The lesson of patience taught to her by Tokugawa Ieyasu, the very man who outlasted all other powerful Daimyo of his era including Toyotomi Hideyoshi unifier of japan with his sly and wry tactics and antiques. And from his bloodline, The Tokogawa shogunate lasted for centuries and even if they didn't rule japan by then, their bloodline is still worm at Aichi-ken.

Sure..Have it your way. The Kuei-jin adopted an act of surrender to fool her enemy feigning weakness for the other to drop her guard and found her away out as 1408 guided her. The question was, what was her next step to be? Another superior to meet, would that prove useful or would he or she give her the same feeble reasons of we can't provide you with a tracker. It was yet to be determined but if the next superior attempt to fail, the Ashikaga would retreat to devise another fresh plan.

!408, please direct me to that handler's superior. And that the Kuei-Jin requested from her fellow tracker.