Sorry this has taken so long guys, my internet has just not been working for a while, it's a short one but here's the next part. Also my grandmother has become quite sick, I'll try to update but it may remain a slow updating schedule...sorry about that.
~*~*~*~*~Just a fair warning that this chapter gets pretty graphic at the end~*~*~*~
Jake hurried through the door of a small teashop with the still unconscious Rex on his back, his clothes had since been saturated and dyed blue with the dark elf's blue blood making Jake worry about just how badly hurt he was. When they were beneath the overpass he hadn't had much time to look over his injuries other than just a quick glance before Ajax was telling them to get out of there. He knew that Rex had a neck injury and there was a cut over his chest but he wasn't able to see just how deep the wound ran. Judging though from how badly Jake's back had been soaked on the way here though he could definitely take a guess.
The others from his team were already rushing in the back where a frantic woman was talking to them In Japanese while gesturing wildly with her hands pointing to a line of tables and then to a string of benches that were along the far wall. All the elves in the room were talking in Japanese as they hurried this way and that making it hard for Jake to figure out just what it was he should be doing. That changed though when the woman who appeared to be giving orders saw him and just how badly Rex was bleeding. In a loud and firm voice she said something in Japanese as she brushed away everything that was occupying one table and spoke again. Jake didn't need to understand Japanese to understand what she wanted as he hurried over and with the woman's help he got Rex off of his back and onto the table.
Once that was done though he was all but pushed aside by the woman and her helper as they hurriedly cut Rex's shirt off and began to do the same for the bandages around his neck. Jake wasn't right next to the table, but he didn't need to be in order to see that the bandages weren't just covering a neck wound, they were all that was keeping a slash across his throat from bleeding out. Once they were removed the blue blood began to flow now that the pressure had been removed dying Rex's pale grey skin a shade of blue. On top of that now Jake was able to see the wound on his chest and saw that it actually extended from just above his hips all the way up to his collar bone.
Jake would be lying if he said that seeing his friend looking like that didn't bother him. So far Rex seemed like one of those people who would always be around, but now that he was lying there on that table while the medics of the Shinobi frantically worked to save him it made Jake realize. This was going to be a whole new level of violence than what he'd seen during the Siege on Alcatraz. There he'd seen people being quite literally being torn apart, but here there was another Shinobi fighting alongside Stark. He'd managed to break a member of the most efficient of the three factions, and had him fighting against his own people. What was worse was that he seemed to be better than all the rest.
Jake took a few steps backwards still looking at Rex as the medics continued to try and stop the bleeding when he suddenly heard another voice call out a term in Japanese that he actually did know. It was one of the members of his team, a young girl that screamed the Japanese term for vampire making all heads snap in her direction. There Jake could see the child draw a sword from one of her bracelets and held it in front of herself though from where he stood Jake could see the blade was trembling. She was terrified! He was nearest to her and as he got to her, he saw that she was referring to the one that had been stabbed through the back, a boy with black hair and very pale skin. He was pulling the blade from his back while the rest of the group hurried toward them with their swords drawn.
One of the kids, a slightly older boy lunged at the vampire with his katana only to have the vampire's hand come up and catch him by the wrist. Their black hair fell out of their eyes as the vampire turned their head up revealing to glowing blue eyes that Jake recognized as soon as he saw them. The other members of his team hurried to the defense of the boy but Jake was faster getting between the vampire and the boy that was a part of his team.
"Issac!" He yelled and with those words Jake could visibily see the change in his friend's eyes and his pupils began to grow so that they were no longer the size of pins. His eyes were still glowing quite brightly but Jake knew that was just because his vampire body was trying to heal itself while the sword was still in his back.
The other members of his team began to advance on them when Jake turned back around. "Don't he's a friendly!"
None of them seemed to listen but his team leader was giving Issac a hard look, while at the same time a woman Shinobi was voicing some protest in Japanese. Jake didn't understand what it was that she was saying but it didn't seem to be getting through to the team leader who still hadn't called them off. When Jake saw that they weren't going to back off he stood up and draw a sword of his own. It wasn't a katana like the ones they were brandishing, but after seeing his performance against Sojiro earlier today the rest of his team thought twice about advancing.
"Tell them to back the hell off." Jake said glaring at his team leader whom he knew for a fact could speak English. When all his team leader did was narrow his eyes Jake spoke again. "This is one of my partners. I'm ready to die for him right now, but are you willing to out more Shinobi lives on the line? I'll vouch for him, you have my word that he's not like the ones that you've been fighting."
At that the team leader scoffed and made a motion with his hand before turning back to the wounded, and just like that the rest of Jake's team backed off. Though he couldn't help but notice the hostile looks he was getting from every single dark elf in the room save for the medics, and the woman that had spoken out. Jake returned his sword within his necklace before he turned back around and knelt in front of Issac who still looked to be in a great deal of pain.
"Why didn't you call when you landed?" Jake asked putting a hand on his friend's shoulder making the Gargoyle wince. "Hold on let me get that out for you."
Jake stood up while Issac turned halfway around while Jake took hold of the blade. Issac hissed in pain upon Jake simply touching the handle and let out a cry when Jake tried pulling it out. "Hold on!" He called out looking over his shoulder with his eye closed showing that he was still in quite a bit of pain. "I think it went through a bone."
"Okay then what do you want me to do?" Jake asked removing his hand from the hilt and taking a step back as he looked at the sword. Issac was probably right the position of the blade it was likely going right through a rib and probably biting into his sternum. "There aren't any witches here, and Eve's back at the Palace, it's gotta come out Issac or else your body is going to try healing around it."
"I know." Issac said taking several deep and raged breaths before breathing deeply through his nose. "Just rip it out. Do it fast, less risk of doing more damage than if you try to wiggle it out."
"Alright..." Jake said again making Issac hiss in pain as he took hold of the hilt and with one fast motion he tore the blade from between his shoulders.
Issac let out a loud and very inhuman sound screech. An action that got the dark elves on edge once again as Issac's ears suddenly grew long and pointed and from behind Jake could see that the skin where his wings would break free had begun to writhe beneath his shirt. His back began to arch very much like a cats as Issac took in a deep breath, holding it for several seconds before he slowly let it out and with it his back began to slowly go back down. Not only that but when Jake looked down at where the wound had been he could see that Issac's body was already starting to close itself. Once that was done Issac let out a big sigh before falling back against the bench he was sitting at while Jake took a seat beside him.
Issac was still breathing semi-raggedly when he turned to Jake and spoke. "You were right. Gabriel's here." He said, confirming to Jake that the young vampire he saw really was Issac's estranged son Gabriel. But the thing about it was that Jake couldn't decide whether or not that was a good thing. "He did something Jake." Issac said with a very heavy bit of gloss over his eyes as he threw his head back against the wall. "That monster did something to my boy! He doesn't know who I am... He doesn't even remember his own mother.
"I'm going to kill him Jake." Issac said clenching his fists so tightly that Jake could actually hear the slight stretching of his skin as his fingers bit into his palms. "I swear by my wife's grave that I will kill Stark if it's the last thing I-"
Issac stopped midsentence however when his hand reached up to his chest where the stone was that his son had given him. He began patting his chest and checking all of his pockets, a frantic look appearing on his face as he searched for something. "Jake it's gone! My son's stone is gone!" His eyes had grown wide as he stood up patting down his pockets. "We have to go back and look for it!"
~*~*~*~On the other side of the city~*~*~*~
Kyo was walking along the still quite busy streets with his assigned group trailing behind him. He knew that the likelihood of them running into a group of vampires, even with these new groups was still pretty low. Still he knew that was no reason to let his guard down, the number of attacks on patrols had gone up drastically within the past week. A time frame that corroborates with the story that the Saint Shield had told them about this rogue Shinobi named Oda.
Though Kyo himself still found it difficult to believe that one of their own would betray them and their cause to side with a vampire, he couldn't deny the facts. Patrols do their best to avoid using the same route too often yet still these new vampires seem to be able to pick them right out of a crowd of people as if they knew exactly what kind of patterns to look for. Lady Tai had said as much to them before they went to collect their teams. 'If a Shinobi really has gone rogue than you'd better be prepared to come across vampires that will know our habits." That's not something that Kyo wanted to think about, the prospect of these monsters being able to pick them out based on their formations and tactics had just raised the level of danger of this war.
Kyo looked around his surroundings, using only his eyes to make sure he drew as little attention to himself as possible. But- What if him doing that only brought even more attention to himself, especially since these vampires might know what to look for now? A light sweat began to form on Kyo's brow as he turned his gaze from his surroundings to the sea of people that he was trapped within. Any one of them could be a vampire he thought, as his eyes darted frantically from one direction to another as people continued to move past him. Many caught his eye, even more looked back at him as they passed, and all of them looked pale under the darkness of night.
None of the usual tactics will work, he thought to himself his heart now thundering in his chest so much that it was a wonder that it didn't hop right out of his chest. The sweat that had begun to form on his brow had begun to make its way down his chest and back as he continued to look for more vampires. But, his mind was racing too much at the thought of these vampires learning their tactics and then figuring out ways to beat them. What if one was right behind him? He'd never know it! Kyo turned around and saw a pale figure slip back into the crowd making his eyes widen and his throat close on him.
He was right! These creatures know their habits and were using ways to get around them so that they could catch them from behind! Behind him someone bumped into him and Kyo's body reacted without thinking. He grabbed the woman's arm, pulling it forward and hitting her in the elbow making it bend in completely the wrong direction. She let out a scream as a red splotch began to form on the sleeve of her coat. A man let out a cry and shoved Kyo hard while others began to stop to see what had just happened. Kyo's eyes were scanning every single one of them while just on the outter edge of the ring of people he saw a pale skinned man slink away.
Kyo called out and tried taking off after him only to have one of the men push him back while others were trying to help the woman. They were getting out their cell phones and calling for an ambulance but Kyo couldn't let himself be held back by this. He tried getting through the line of people but this time one of the men tried grabbing him. Again Kyo's body reacted before he could think and the man was on the ground in an instant with a dislocated shoulder. Now more people were coming in to try to dogpile on Kyo who was systematically taking them all down with a series of movements. He called out for the rest of his team to be on the lookout, but as those words left his mouth he could see a number of pale grey figures come out of nearby alleyways.
There was a loud screaming sound and suddenly people were scattering. Among the chaos Kyo could see a hairless grey body atop one of his team, the figures head twisting and tearing as blue blood began to spurt out onto their body. The member of his team though Kyo could see was still very much alive because she was trying to stab her attack but couldn't even muster the strength to lift her arm anymore. To his side Kyo heard another cry and saw another member of his team being lifted from the ground to a small over hanging canopy. The boy tried fighting back but there were two vampires up there and they were both tearing into the young boy.
Kyo drew his katana and began screaming for everyone to run and began headed for the rest of his team, he was waving at a terrified looking girl of maybe six years. She had a sword out but she was shaking so badly that she couldn't get a proper hold of it. Kyo was a mere inch from reaching her when a grey body crashed into her. He followed the two of them with his eyes just in time to see the screaming girl being dragged into an alley by the grey figure, her nails being pulled off as she tried to get a grip on something to pull herself back. Kyo's eyes went wide at the sight of one of his team being dragged away like that but knowing it was too late to help her as he screams had already been reduced to nothing but gurgles now he began looking for the last two members of his team.
He found one of them standing over one of the grey vampires, he was stabbing it repeatedly with his katana. When Kyo reached them he saw that there was a group of four of the vampires and they were fighting over the last member of his team like dogs with a bone. Each one had a piece of the boy in their jaws but the worse part being was that he was still screaming while his teammate was screaming for them to let go. Kyo grabbed the boy by the arm and pulled him away as more and more of these grey skinned vampires poured into the streets and pounced on anything that moved.
"We have to go!" Kyo screamed as he pulled the sobbing novice after him while they fought their way through the crowd.
As he looked around he could see more and more people being ravaged by these monsters and there wasn't anything that they could do about it. There had to be over 30 of these monsters and only two of them, with one only being a Novice. Kyo and his teammate were nearly out of the crowd when he felt his body being jerked backwards so hard that it took him right off of his feet. He hit the ground hard enough to drive the air from his lungs, and when he turned to look he was met with the screaming face of the boy he'd just tried saving. There were three grey vampires on top of him, one was savaging his shoulder, another had his cheek and the last one was ripping apart his arm. Kyo's eyes went wide with horror as the boy's grip finally let up and he fought his way up to his feet with katana still in hand. He tapped the jewel on his bracelet bringing out a Orb.
"Sector 18 quadrant 2 is being overrun!" He yelled as one of the grey vampires flew at him with a nightmarish scream. He brought up his katana and managed to cut off its head turning it into a cloud of ash. "Do not send back up repeat-" Again he had to decapitate one that came at him. "DO NOT SEND BACK U- ARGH!"
One of the vampires flew at him but this time as he swung a second one pounced as well sinking its fangs into his arm and twisting his entire body around. No more than a moment later did he feel something crash into him from behind and Kyo let out a scream as he felt the other vampire's fangs shredding his hand. As soon as he was on the ground he felt several more sets of jaws sink into his flesh and tear away at him until his blue blood was flowing into their waiting mouths. Still screaming he made an attempt to get another message out through his Orb.
"St- Stri- Strigoi!" He screamed just as another of the hairless vampires came at him, its powerful jaws clamping down right on his face.
He was still screaming even as he heard the crunching and cracking of his own bones, until suddenly there was just nothing... Nothing but a street running red and blue as the Strigoi continued to flood the streets and chase down more people.
A/N Yikes sorry for that graphic finish guys. So what so you think? Do the Shinobi stand a chance against a growing horde of Strigoi when the Saints couldn't even hold them off with their guns?