Cops & Robbers on the Pier:
The two police officers look at each other warily, before the female uses her radio.
"Copy that. HQ, I need ID on two suspects immediately. Also, please send immediate backup to follow two suspects east of the western docks. Suspects are armed and dangerous, presumably high on PCP." She steps back, and holsters her weapon.
The male does not, however, and he proceeds to yell across the gap. "You there, with the badge! Toss me your ID, stat. Any wrong moves will cost you! And you, with the knives, get down on the ground and put your hands where we can see'em." He takes a few tentative steps foreward, eyeing the scene suspiciously.
The female looks around. "We've sent for backup to follow your suspects. Now, if we can just get a couple questions answered..." She walks quickly toward Theo and Ryu. "Davidson... it's ok. Keep an eye on the one with the knives, but I think I've seen the one in the wheelchair before. He's a security officer."
The police do not notice Angel, nor do they see him quietly slip away into the shadows to follow the Vampires. Theo is now too far and not in range to attack the brute.
Not meaning to sound too disrespectful, Ryu groaned. It was only his first few days in this place, and he was already getting himself arrested? Fantastic.
"Theres no need to be paranoid. Look, I can't exactly stretch." he mumbled, kicking at the handles of the Wakizashi, so each one would slide on the ground to them, before laying himself down.
"Whoa, whoa, easy there,
Officers! The kid's okay... He jumped in to keep seven or eight of the perps from finishing me off!" Theo uprights his wheelchair and sits down in it, turning off the laser sight.
"That was me you heard broadcasting... and while you two are here, questioning us, the real perps are getting away! So I'm gonna want to see YOUR IDs, too!" He holds his up, again, pulling a flashlight and shining it on his wallet.
"Now, let the kid up, and give him back his wakizashi... and I'm going to bandage this wound in my arm, made by that sword over there, in the pile of dust with the black leather clothes sittin' on top of it..." He turns and points, as he pulls out a first aid kit, and wraps his arm in gauze. When done, he wheels over to the pile with the sword.
"Now get a good look at this, Officers, and turn the ''Professional Scepticism'' off, for a minute. You're going to see things that you won't understand, and they won't make sense... So just observe the crime scene, and remember what you see, so you can report it to Mr. O'Brien. I'll explain it to him."
He pulls a grabber off the back of his chair, and the digital camera out, then snaps a picture of the pile of dust with the sword and black leather clothes. After taking the picture, he moves the leather, revealing shattered toothpick flechettes, and a pair of silver bullets...
"I bet neither of you have seen piles of dust and clothes, before... but I may be wrong. Now notice the unusual ammo... Wooden toothpicks with fins on the ends..." He motions towards the jacket and shirt. "See the bullet holes? The rounds went in here, came out here..." He moves the jacket, revealing the two silver slugs embedded in the wood of the dock. "...and here's where they stopped. Now notice the blood..." he indicates some on the sword, toothpicks, bullets, and the pool made by Ryu's blades, "...but notice anything odd?..." He pauses for a moment, looking each officer in the eyes.
"Look around... Notice anything missing? Lots of blood, but only what's on this big sword is mine... So where did the rest of it come from? What happened to all the bodies?"
"Well, there are a few things you can assume... One's pretty Sci-Fi; somebody has a raygun that reduces people to dust!..." He pauses, grinning. "Pretty far-fetched, huh?"
"The other is that something pretty weird is going on, here, that's outside what they teach you at the Academy... and the evidence will back me up, on that. You see this big pool of dusty blood, here? When you analyse it, at the crime lab, your forensics people are gonna tell you that it came from a corpse... same thing for all these piles of dust, too... maybe even ones hundreds of years old... and that aint gonna make sense to anyone but me..."
"Then there's the robbery... That blue van, over there, with four flats from my shotgun? It's loaded with occult esoterica, and I'll betcha two things: 1) They're all illegally imported, and 2) I bet you'll find the dead body of someone with the authority to get things through customs, floating dead under this wharf, with his throat ripped out... and the cause of death will be blood loss, not drowning..."
"Now you can puzzle yourselves for the next couple of years about who did what to whom, and how the heck you're going to explain all this craziness... or you can believe my seemingly far-fetched explanation, even though it sounds crazy. Your choice..."
"But before I tellya what I know, I'm gonna have a look-see with my night-vision scope." So saying, he opens the chamber, and slowly brings the scope up, to make sure both of the police officers have body heat, only revealing the rest if they do!
"Okay, you're both clean... Now let me see YOUR IDs." He checks to make sure they're real, and writes down the names on his notepad. He turns off the scope (and rechambers the shell) as he reslings it.
"Okay, here's what I know... The big, bumpy-faced brute who ran off, just as you two drove up, is the leader of a gang of vampires... Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know what you're thinking, but it doesn't matter if you or I believe that they're vampires, the point is that
they believe it, and act like it... Which explains the bloodless corpse you'll find floating under the wharf..."
"So, anyway, seven or eight of these vamps get together, led by the big brute, and all decked out in black leather, and swords - you know, all ''Children of the Night'' Goth schticky - and they decide to act like vamps. So they import something called the ''Arc de Terra'',that they believe will give'm immortality, probably killing the guy who sneaks it through customs, for'em."
"Unfortunately for them, I get wind of it, and come down here to investigate this blue van getting loaded, late at night, with no lights... Then I get surrounded by seven of'em, who attack me with swords, and toss my wheelchair three yards through the air... I do for three of'em, before pajama-boy, here, shows up and gets another one, and together we finish off the one who left all this mess..." He kicks at the holed jacket. "Then you interfere with an Officer in the performance of his duty, and let the perpetrators escape." He rakes the two police officers with a very cold, hard look.
"And that's all I know. Anything else I have to say is for Lane O'Brien's ears, only. You wanna treat me like a crackpot, he'll hear about it, and you can explain letting the Arc escape on yer own!" He looks at Ryu.
"So, Ronin-san, what's your part in all of this?"
Blinking between them after this rather trigger happy, far-fetched explaination, the boy seemed to want to stay on the floor. Being seen with this guy really must drag you down in terms of respect. But, getting to his feet, Ryu simply dusted off his jacket, looking over to him.
"My part in all this is that I'm not even supposed to be here, baka. If you must know, my name's Ryu. Ryu Katsuragi. I was taking a short-cut home through here, and I heard some screaming, and voices. I thought it could be someone getting mugged, or raped, or whatever, so I thought I'd try to help, only to find these walking bags of sand!" He huffed.
***
At this point, Theo's player quit the game, and TR became an NPC run by an incoming player whose PC hasn't appeared, yet. TR will, henceforth, be used as a "Plot Device".
