Daniel Broken Hammer

[End Transmission] There's a lot of strange stuff that happens in this city.

Nobody who has lived here for even a few months could deny that there were things that went bump in the night and sometimes the things that went bump, also grew teeth and claws and snuck in your window while you slept. For the Garou of Maelstrom's Sept, this was especially true. How many times have they heard the terrified screams in the streets, or smelled the indisputable stench of the Wyrm sliding its way through the alleyways?

Tonight -- there are things at play among the snow, but they aim to stain it red, not build snowmen in it.

Echo had made the call to her pack a little while earlier, she'd been out over in the Southside on the job and while circling back to return her Helicopter to the flight-school, her keen eyes had glimpsed something very odd going on behind one of the older meat processing plants. That being; there seemed to be a large amount of meat, stacked outside the back of the factory, left to rot even in this cooler weather.

Call it an inkling; something struck her as wrong.

So she'd doubled-back and snuck through a hole in the chain-link fence.

--

Mr Anderson's Fresh Meats was the name etched on the front of the plant, but the paint was faded, and peeling at the corners. The windows were covered in dust, and were dark when one got close and pressed their hands to the glass to peer inside. From the front, it seemed regular enough. Inside were rows of empty meat hooks, plastic door guards and stainless steel bench-tops with tools set against the wall for carving up the meat before it was hung.

There seemed to be a front serving area for customers, and behind it the frozen storage area proper.

It is around the back that the Sentinels find their Ragabash -- she is sitting on an old barrel, watching the back of the building with a furrowed brow. What she's staring at, the others can smell and soon enough, they'll see -- see what it is that occasioned such totem-linked concern earlier:

Guys, caught sight of something weird flying over some factory in Bronzeville. Think it's that old meat factory, you know the one, Anderson's Meats with the creepy smiling porker face on the logo?

And then again, later:

Oh my Shit. You guys gotta come see this.

What Echo and the others can see, is a stack of meat, rotting where it has been left in the snow, maggots crawl inside it, and during the daylight hours the chaos of blowflies over it must be overwhelming. It is not simply the meat however, that paints the picture as strange.

Pinned to the rolling service entry door is a body. It's been tacked upright with carving knifes, wedged through the wrists and ankles as if in some unholy rendition of the Crucifixion. The face is unrecognisable, only pulp remaining so beaten is it. The chest cavity broken open, white rib bone can be seen among the entrails left to the elements.

The worst of it; written above the body in blood is the cheerful greetings of the season.

MERRY XMAS CHICAGO

[OOC: okay guys, post in as you like, Ethan, since you're probably not with the pack, I'ma let you post first then write you an in. :] ]

[Broken Hammer] (Hatred! Frenzy check. Short Fuse. -2 diff. -1 diff, half moon.)
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 1, 2, 4, 8 (Success x 1 at target 2)

[Ethan Yates] There's really no good reason for anyone to be out this time of night. It's cold, for starters, even if one could argue that for the season there is a warmth that doesn't seem fitting; it's raining, for another, that sort of wet misting drear that cuts to the bone and makes one wish for indoors. For a third, it's two days before Christmas, and most sane people are either finishing up their shopping or spending time with their families.

He is not out here because he's meeting someone, or because he's out for a walk, or because he derives pleasure from trolling through the shittier sections of the neighborhood where he lives. The Volvo's in the shop, and the nearest El station has him hoofing it for several blocks, and so here he is, picking up the pace to get past the old meat processing plant before something jumps out at him.

[Buried Hatchet] Check it out. Be careful. If something happens... stay out of it til one of us gets there.

They are not together tonight. Hopefully Daniel and Joey were on patrols; Hatchet was at the caern, tending to a few Graves. The ones of Fianna. He no longer watches over the one to a certain Bone Gnawer. He thinks -- and he may be wrong -- that it's forbidden to him to do so. He does nothing but look at it. He no longer grieves.

Not outwardly.

So he's across the Gauntlet when he hears from Echo, shifting to lupus to run through the penumbra to the part of the city where he senses her, where she told them all she'd be. When he catches sight of her impression in the penumbra, a faint blue glow in the shadow realm indicating where a being that is at least half spirit is in the material realm, Hatchet pulls up short and shifts back to homid before stepping across the boundary between worlds.

He looks at her. And then he looks at the meat. And the body. And the message. His eyes are silvery, reflecting more light than revealing what's inside him. He lets his eyes scan the entire thing, and then he turns back to Echo.

"Joey and Daniel are on their way," is all he says, rather flatly.

[End Transmission] A can rattles in the nearest alleyway Ethan is passing.

Could be anything, nothing to get all worked up about. A few more steps onward and there's what could almost be the sound of someone's heavy breathing, though you'd imagine if that were the case you'd see their breath misting in the freezing cold air.

The can rattles again, and then crunches as if someone had stepped on it.

There's nothing quite as off-putting as the sensation that you're being observed, is there?

[Broken Hammer] When Daniel sees it --

When Daniel sees that display, that sort of horror, that sort of cheerful, jeering atrocity visited upon one man by another, his face blanches with rage. His fists clench. He bares his teeth. His breath blasts out in short, audible, harsh snarls; he literally vibrates with fury.

It's almost surreal, how much anger is inside the rather unassuming, humble, sad-eyed young Fenrir. On a day to day basis one would hardly think him capable of raging, let alone frenzy. Then sometimes it's like a shroud descends over him -- or falls from him -- and his rage is sharp and crystalline, towering like a column of flame, and he can barely control it.

"This is ... " he seems to have lost all human intellect; he stammers for silent moments until the word comes to mind, " ... unspeakable, Alpha. We have to stop it. Now."

Unless rather forcibly restrained, the Forseti starts forward, meaning to heave the rolling door open. Or tear it down. Whichever.


[Resist Pain: ON!]

[Ethan Yates] [Alertness+Perception: Don't Fucking Laugh.]
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 5, 6, 7 (Success x 2 at target 6)

[Face of Death] Joey was not out on patrols. She was not at The Brotherhood, nor was she at the Caern, tending to the grave of her fallen brother. She was out, in an empty parking lot, doing donuts in her car. Some of them were not on accident.

She hears Echo's voice across the link, followed by Hatchet's. It doesn't take her long to get to Bronzeville. The rumble of the engine does not disturb the area around the meat packing plant by virtue of the Rotagar parking a few blocks away and trekking the rest of the way on foot.

When she arrives, she's dressed for the weather, her hood pulled up over her blonde hair, her bomber jacket zipped up, jeans and sneakers to keep her legs warm. Her baseball bag is strapped across her torso.

She sees the pile of meat, the body pinned to the door, the grim message of bloody cheer writ with blood, and her eyes go wide.

[bah! Curiosity]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 4, 5, 8, 8, 9 (Success x 3 at target 6)

[End Transmission] Echo's been staring at that display for a while now and her eyeballs feel as if when she finally closes her lids; the memory of it will be seared to them forever. She's seen a lot of disturbing shit in her time, but this sort of -- well, butchery seems the most fitting term but it's so ironic given where they are that it almost makes her want to laugh hysterically.

Butchered at the butchers -- Christ, it was so damn wrong.

"I've been sitting here watching it," the Glass Walker says quietly. "The whole place. It seems completely dead. I mean," she grimaces. "Not just this poor bastard, but the whole place looks as if it's locked up for the holidays, but then there's all this." She waves at the rotting pile of meat.

"What kind of Butcher's leaves its stock out like this?" She shakes her head slowly, flakes of snow settling in her dark hair.

[Ethan Yates] Eight years ago, there would be absolutely no deliberation as to whether or not he would investigate the innards of the alleyway as he hurried past. Eight years ago it was just him and his oath, it was just his neck he had to worry about, it was just potential that was keeping him alive. Things changed when a little blond boy came into his life, when a little blond boy became his life.

Eight years ago he would have pulled his service pistol and gone towards the alleyway with his voice giving him away. That isn't even an impulse right now. It isn't the first thing that comes to his mind.

What stops him from walking faster, though, isn't that he's forgotten who's at home with the babysitter. It's that he swore an oath, and that oath still defines who he is and what he does. There is no such thing as an off-duty police officer, no such thing as a kinsman on vacation. If he walks away, there is no one else to potentially end a threat to this city that is doing a piss-poor job of defending itself.

So when it registers in his blisteringly bright brain that something in the alleyway was gleaming, he slows. He pauses. He draws a breath.

And then he turns back around.

[Face of Death] [my kinfolk sense is tingling]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 3, 6, 8, 9 (Success x 2 at target 6)

[Buried Hatchet] Daniel is, infact, forcibly restrained.

The other Half-Moon's broad hand is clamping down on his shoulder before he's taken more than a couple of steps, hardening and pulling backward if necessary. Hell, if necessary it's not hard to imagine Hatchet putting the lean, dour Fenrir in a headlock without a trace of malice or intent to humiliate.

"Daniel," he says levelly, almost serene-sounding considering the grisly spectacle before them, "we're packed with two No Moons." Duty. "I need you back here, not charging in headfirst." Dominance. His hand tightens. His focus is on the Forseti.

Though he does speak to Echo then: "What kind of meat is it? And how likely do you think it is that this is bait?"

[Face of Death] Joey watches silently as Hatchet restrains Daniel, her hands shoved into the pockets of her coat. She's been quieter lately, not as talkative, and some nights when she goes to bed she lays curled around her pillow before sleep finally takes her.

As she watches, images, impressions made while she hurried to join her packmates, resolve themselves in her mind. A lone figure walking down the street. Curious, she glances back over her shoulder. A moment later she's walking to the end of the building, stopping at the corner like a hound that reaches the end of its tether. Using the building's edge to conceal the bulk of her figure, she looks out. There's a man over there. She sees him hesitate before turning back around.

She doesn't risk alerting whatever created the mess behind the meat plant by calling out across the distance.

Hey, Boss, there's a guy across the street. Little late for a stroll, don'cha think?

[End Transmission] The closer that Ethan gets to the alleyway, the worse the sense of dread gets. It's like walking towards your worst nightmare come to life. It's as if he's headed into an inky black chasm of space that he knows that for all his training, and his skill with arms -- he can't prepare himself for.

The closer Ethan gets -- the easier he can hear the breathing. It seems to hitch as it realizes that the Kinfolk isn't retreating from it but coming closer. It's about the same time that he hears the giggling.

Something is delighted that he's decided to stay and chat.

--

Meanwhile, over at the Meat Factory, poor Daniel is having a hell of a time restraining himself from charging into the fray. His Alpha restrains him, and turns to ask the Ragabash a question. Echo slides down from her long term resting point, rubbing away the numbness in her ass. "It's mostly beef I think, hides of it like you see hanging in freezers. I got as close a look as I wanted to."

That is, too close.

"It's poisoned, or at least it smells like it."

How likely that this is bait?

The young woman's features knit, she looks from the grisly ornament hung to the door to the meat. "Pretty fucking sure, boss. Whoever," she amends, "or whatever left this here was just waiting for someone to stroll in and see it. Maybe that's what happened to this guy."

She stares at the dead corpse a moment, shakes it off.

"I think we should try the other doors, there's one around the front that looks like it goes in through the store, and another on the other side."

[Broken Hammer] Daniel's shoulder is narrow and utterly without give under Taggart's hand. It's hard to tell the difference between muscle sheet and bone girdle; each is as slender and hard as the other. The Forseti lets out an audible snarl at the touch, and then drops forward out of Taggart's hand

and to the ground, fourlegged now, Hispo-form just like that. All four paws braced, head level with his shoulders, he growls softly, ceaselessly at the desecrated body on the door.

He doesn't move forward, though. Not yet.

[Face of Death] [do i hear what you hear? (please say yes!)]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 1, 4, 4, 5 (Botch x 2 at target 8)

[Face of Death] [please at least don't botch]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 3, 6, 6, 8, 8 (Failure at target 9)

[Ethan Yates] His heart is in his goddamn throat. He can feel it thrashing, making breathing almost impossible, and his world has tunneled until there is nothing left but the alleyway and the dread and It. It is breathing as though it's vastly excited, It is giggling as if in absolute delight, and It is sheathed enough in shadow that Ethan can only imagine what it is is in there.

He wants to run. God, he wants to run.

"Chi--" His larynx trips over itself. He winces, draws a breath; draws aside his coat to rest his hand against the butt of his pistol. When he speaks again, his voice is harder. "Chicago PD. Come on out."

[Buried Hatchet] I don't think much about the evening constitutionals of human beings, Hatchet says back to Joey, rather wryly, even as their packmate is dropping down into hispo. Keep an eye on it.

'It'. Because he doesn't know it isn't a human being, it's a kinsman. Then again, they're looking at an enormous pile of potentially poisoned meat with a crucified, eviscerated human body above it, so Hatchet's not entirely convinced that the guy across the street that Joey's checking on is entirely human, either.

He remains on totemphone for the rest of the conversation, taking a deep breath that seems to harden his very being, that seems to make him -- briefly -- carry the stalwart, untouchable resilience of their totem. Let's go in the back. Echo, you're on point. Daniel, behind her. Joey, that guy still there?

Even as he's speaking, he's shifting, dropping down to the same form as the slightly smaller Broken Hammer.

[-1WP, Resist Pain
Shifting to hispo]

[Face of Death] The comparitively small Rotagar leans against the brick facade of the building, keeping an eye on the man across the street. She's too far away to hear the giggling, to far away to make out what the man says. All she knows is that he's not going into the alley.

He's just...talking to it?

Still there. There's someone or something in the alley. Looks like he's talkin' to it.

Now would be a wonderful time for Gifts a No Moon would have. Gifts that make it easy to sneak and scurry and hide. Joey has none of these Gifts.

She glances back over her shoulder, watching as her packmates shift from people figures to huge wolf figures. Then she looks back out across the street, watching.

Waiting.

[End Transmission] "Chicago PD!" The giggling voice sing-songs back at him like some twisted echo and keeps repeating the title in a jeering, high-pitched tone as a shadow seems to disengage from the others toward the other end of the alleyway.

Ethan can glimpse that shining light again, only this time as it scrapescrapescrapes along the brick-wall he can identify what it is, or at least what it sounds to be -- some sort of blade.

"1,2 … coming out to you…"

Sluggish, excited breathing.
A rasping, wet sound.

"3, 4… gonna see you crawl…"

The stench is growing worse, it's enough to cause Ethan to choke, or gag. It's a smell one would couple with fetid meat, of things long rotten and left to grow worse and worse as time wore on. When at last a figure seems to be discernible it's almost too horrific to be believed. It seems to be man of no impressive height, though his face is covered in deep scarring as if at some point in his life he had suffered third degree burns.

The steps he took were by no means rushed, he seemed to be dragging one leg as if it were lamed and both his hands held objects. In the right; a dripping butcher's meat axe, in the left, what appeared to be a dead animal.

The figure giggled.

"You're bigger than a cat! Bigger than a rat. Come to play, little cat?"

--

Echo nods at her Alpha, and shifts into her Hispo form along with her brothers, her coat a mottled brown and grey affair. She takes the lead, and her paws are near silent on the snowy earth as she guides them past the decaying meat -- the pungent oder of which seemed far stronger out of their human skins -- and around to another door, this one quite regular with naught but Staff Entry Only affixed to it by means of a plaque.

End Transmission stops before it, turning her head to await her pack-mates before she reaches for the handle -- and turns it.

The door swings open with a low creak and inside, everything seems hushed; utterly still. They are entering into what must be the staff's quarters, a squashed little room with little in it but an outdated computer, a locker for the coveralls the employee's no doubt wore to deal with the meat products and another door straight on from the first that lead through to the main processing area.

The office had no windows, but for a small pane in the inner door; it was covered by blinds that were half-drawn, hanging lopsidedly over the glass.

All seemed still.

[Resist Pain for Echo, shifting to Hispo.]

[Ethan Yates] It's a sad, strange consolation that this is not the most frightened Ethan Yates has ever been, that this is not the worst situation he has ever lived through; there are scars on his body from encounters both mundane and supernatural that have nearly wrenched him from this earth, there are memories that no indulgence in vice can take away, things he can't unsee, and while this is not the worst, this is the first time in a very long time that he can remember being legitimately terrified.

He thinks of Micah. He thinks of this thing following home if he were to run, thinks of this thing still skulking the streets after he's left, and then his thoughts become instinct, become action: he draws his weapon, leveling it at the madman's chest as he takes one, then two, steps back.

"Drop the knife!" he barks. It's the most ridiculous thing he's said recently.

[Broken Hammer] It's a little better when they leave the mockery of a crucifixion behind.

It's a little easier for Broken Hammer to think. He pads after Echo, head lowering to sniff at the ground. He takes a single whiff of the air near the rotting meat and turns away, snorting out several times.

When the door squeees open, Broken Hammer lifts his head over his packmate's haunches and sniffs the air.

[Broken Hammer] (percep/alert!)
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 1, 3, 3, 5, 6, 6, 6, 8 (Success x 3 at target 6)

[Buried Hatchet] [perception + alertness]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10 (Success x 3 at target 6)

[Face of Death] Joey pushes off from the wall, watching the scene unfolding across the street. The man at the mouth of the alley, the thing coming for him. Faintly, oh so faintly, she hears the scrape of claws on brick.

Ethan calls out, and she recognizes the voice. In a flash, she remembers the bonfire, a strange handsome man trying to drink with The Sentinels. She doesn't remember much of the night after that.

It's that guy from the bonfire tried to drink with us.

And then the scarred figure emerges, wielding a knife and the carcass of an animal.

Which is awesome, 'cause the thing in the alley's gotta knife.

She doesn't wait for instruction. The man is kinfolk. He might not be her tribe, but he's still someone to be guarded, protected. The girl darts across the road, pulling on Bear's gift even as she shifts, going from freckle-faced blonde teen to hulking grey wolf.

[-1 Rage snapshift to Hispo, -1 WP activate Resist Pain]

[End Transmission] The Office is dusty, and clearly hasn't been in use for a few days, if not more. There are papers stacked haphazardly on the desk that dominates the right wall, and a locker hangs half open behind it, just adjacent to the door the pack-mates enter through. The coveralls hanging in it reek of meat product, and there's the logo for the factory stitched onto the front, the happy porker beaming at them, absurdly proud of his wares.

There's also that other smell.

The scent of rotting meat, of something horrendously rotten seeping through the closed door before them.

It smells like everything they've been told is wrong.

And through the glass window pane of the inner door; they can see a figure, a shadow, moving around.

There's something in there.
to Broken Hammer, Buried Hatchet

[Face of Death] [changing that to a slowshift, THEN running across the street]

[Broken Hammer] (Hatred! Short Fuse! Frenzy Check! Diff 5-2-1=2!)
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 2, 2, 4, 8, 9 (Success x 5 at target 2)

[Buried Hatchet] Right now one of his packmates is behind, is not with the others, is watching across the street as ordered and as her curiosity dictates. Hatchet's heavily muscled form is oddly not tense with apprehension; he moves as fluidly and steadily as he always does, even as he brings up the rear behind Echo and Daniel, ears pricked and paws silent as they file through the door, the Ragabash and the Fenrir splitting off from each other so that Hatchet can get past, then coming back together.

They move as a unit. They move like a pack.

Recognition flares briefly in his mind over the totemlink when Joey tells them it's that guy from the bonfire. His name is Ethan, he says, with the undercurrent of thought that Joey might need to call out to him, might need to use it. Then she says that thing in the alley has a knife, and she's shifting and Hatchet is levelling Go! into her mind, unaware that she's shifting into a form in the middle of a street that is not protected by the Veil. He doesn't know, so he can't say anything.

He's slightly distracted.

Because Daniel... just lost his shit.

Though truth be told, this time Hatchet has absolutely no intention of stopping him. Get out of his way, is all he tells Echo, and veers off to the Glass Walker's side.

[Broken Hammer] The instant Broken Hammer lays eyes on movement inside

with that thing outside. with that stench in the air. with that crawling creeping feeling that everything's wrong, it's all wrong and fucked up and perverted beyond repair

it's all over. The Forseti's constant, low growl spikes into a ferocious, snapping, snarling bark. He forgets that he's supposed to stay behind Echo. He forgets his place in the pack. He forgets everything, and a curtain of red drops in his mind.

He leaps, fluidly, his grace preternatural as he soars right over Echo's head. Claws scrabble on concrete and tile when he literally hits the ground running, the stretch of his forepaws reaching for distance, the flex of his hindlegs eating it. In three strides the Forseti crosses the floor. His claws scar the floor when he takes to the air again, slamming into the inner door with all four paws and riding it crashing to the floor.

[End Transmission] Drop the knife, the Bone Gnawer snaps, leveling his weapon at the creature as it stops, tilts its head as if bemused and capable of comprehension of what on earth he means.

It drops the dead cat, instead.

"Gonna see how you work, little cat."

The blade is lifted; it fits heavily, perfectly in one scarred hand that is missing a finger or two. The clothing the man wears are faded, torn, bloodied up. He stinks to high heaven with Gaia only knows what -- and he takes another step toward Ethan, lifts that butcher's knife and drives it downward at the Kin's body.

--

Echo is sniffing at the air, sensing that growing feeling of foreboding and utter wrong when she feels all the fur on her body rise. Her pack-mate has just spotted the figure shuffling around inside the factory -- and he's lost control of his senses.

She doesn't need to be told twice to get out of the way as Daniel's claws scrabble across the tiled floor and he leaps over her, colliding with a door that was not built to endure such beatings -- the wood and glass shatter and the Garou goes down hard, tangled in the blinds that once protected the inner workings of the meat plant from the office.

Inside --

There are rows of empty meat hooks, the chains faintly jangling as they're jostled by the air of Daniel's sudden entry. Across the span of steel tables set up for treating the meat; the hoses hung on the wall, there is the figure they've been searching for chopchopchopping at something long dead and bloodied on the table.

Blood dribbles down the drain.

The figure looks up; and without a word, shoves aside the workbench in favor of the new toys he's been given. The face is hidden behind a child's mask -- the crying face of Sadness mocks the Garou as the sound of a chainsaw being revved brings sudden din where before there was silence.

[Inits!]

[Buried Hatchet] [+9]
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 9

[Ethan Yates] [+6]
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 4

[Face of Death] [+9]
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 5

[Broken Hammer] +9!
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 1 (Botch x 1 at target 6)

[End Transmission] Echo [+10]
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 6

[End Transmission] Freddy Half-Kruger
[+8]
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 3

[End Transmission] Jason Needs Some Friends
[+8]
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 10

[End Transmission] [Declare Order

Hatchet 18
Jason 18
Echo 16
Joey 14
Freddy 11
Daniel 10
Ethan 10

Declare in reverse!]

[Ethan Yates] [1a: Shoot!
1b: Shoot!
1c: Shoot! With a shot of WP.]

[End Transmission] Daniel

1. Bite Jason!
R1. Bite Jason!
R2. Chomp moar! I IZ ANGRY
R3. Chomp

Freddy

1a. Slash Ethan
1b. Slash Joey
R1. Slash Ethan again
R2. Slash Joey!

Jason

1a. Sawsawsaw the Garouuuuu! Daniel
1b. Saw Daniel again
R1. Saw Hatchet
R2. Saw Echo]

[Face of Death] [1a: bite knife hand (called shot), spending WP
1b: Bitey
R: Bitey some more
All attacks on Freddy]

[Buried Hatchet] [Reflexive: Telling Echo over totemlink to hold back (ie, not use Rage) in case she needs to heal him or Daniel.]

[End Transmission] [Echo:
1a. Jam Technology on the Chainsaw
1b. Bite Jason's arm]

[Buried Hatchet] [1a. Move to flank Jason
1b.
R1.
R2. ...all bites on Jason]

[Buried Hatchet] [1b. Bite! -3 (split) // -1 diff (flanked)]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 8 (Success x 5 at target 4) [WP]

[Buried Hatchet] [Damage!]
Dice Rolled:[ 13 d10 ] 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 4, 5, 5, 7, 8, 8, 8, 10 (Success x 3 at target 6)

[End Transmission] [Jason Soak]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 2, 3, 5, 6, 6, 7 (Success x 3 at target 6)

[End Transmission] [Jason 1a. Saw Daniel! -2 Split Action]
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 1, 2, 4, 7, 9, 10, 10 (Success x 2 at target 8)

[End Transmission] [Damage for Chainsaw!]
Dice Rolled:[ 13 d10 ] 1, 1, 2, 4, 5, 5, 5, 6, 8, 8, 8, 10, 10 (Success x 4 at target 6)

[Broken Hammer] (soak!)
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 3, 3, 4, 4, 5, 10 (Success x 1 at target 6)

[End Transmission] [Jason 1a. Saw Daniel! -3 Split Action]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 8 (Success x 2 at target 8)

[End Transmission] [Damage]
Dice Rolled:[ 13 d10 ] 2, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 6, 7, 7, 8, 8, 9, 10 (Success x 7 at target 6)

[Broken Hammer] (soak!)
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 2, 6, 8, 9, 10, 10 (Success x 5 at target 6)

[Buried Hatchet] [Reflexive: He feels really bad about this, you guys, but Hatchet's calling dibs on Echo's second split to go HEAL THE FRENZIED ASSHOLE.]

[End Transmission] [Echo! Jam Technology! -1 Gnosis -2 Split Action + WP]
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 1, 2, 7 (Failure at target 9) [WP]

[End Transmission] [Second Split: Heal Daniel! -3 split]
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 1, 2, 5, 7 (Failure at target 6)

[Face of Death] [1a: bite knife hand: dex + brawl - 2, diff + 2 (called shot)]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 1, 3, 7, 7, 7, 10 (Success x 4 at target 7) [WP]

[Face of Death] [damaeg: str + 2 + 3]
Dice Rolled:[ 12 d10 ] 1, 2, 2, 4, 4, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 9, 9 (Success x 4 at target 6)

[End Transmission] [Freddy Soak!]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 1, 2, 3, 5, 9, 9 (Success x 1 at target 6)

[Face of Death] [1b: Bitey on Freddy: dex + brawl - 3]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 4, 4, 8, 9, 10 (Success x 3 at target 5)

[Face of Death] [damage: str + 2 + 2]
Dice Rolled:[ 11 d10 ] 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 5, 5, 7, 7, 8 (Failure at target 6)

[End Transmission] [1a. Slash Ethan! -2 Split Action -2 Wound penalty]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 7, 7, 9, 9 (Success x 3 at target 7)

[End Transmission] [Damage on Ethan]
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 2, 3, 5, 6, 9, 9, 10 (Success x 4 at target 6)

[Buried Hatchet] Ethan
[Soak!]
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 2, 9, 10 (Success x 2 at target 8)

[End Transmission] [Freddy 1b. Slash Joey! -3 Split -2 Owie]
Dice Rolled:[ 2 d10 ] 1, 7 (Failure at target 7)

[Broken Hammer] CHOMP!
Dice Rolled:[ 9 d10 ] 3, 3, 3, 4, 5, 6, 6, 6, 7 (Success x 5 at target 5)

[Broken Hammer] +4!
Dice Rolled:[ 12 d10 ] 1, 1, 2, 3, 3, 4, 9, 9, 10, 10, 10, 10 (Success x 4 at target 6)

[End Transmission] [Jason, soak!]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 3, 4, 5, 6, 6, 10 (Success x 3 at target 6)

[Buried Hatchet] Ethan
[1a. Shooting Freddy. Dex + Firearms -3 (split), -1 (ow)]
Dice Rolled:[ 2 d10 ] 7, 9 (Success x 2 at target 6)

[Buried Hatchet] [Damage. 4 + 1]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 6, 6, 7, 8, 10 (Success x 5 at target 6)

[Buried Hatchet] Ethan
[1b. Shooting Freddy. Dex + Firearms -4 (split) -1 (ow)]
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 9 (Success x 1 at target 6)

[End Transmission] [Freddy - Soak]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 2, 5, 5, 6, 6, 10 (Success x 3 at target 6)

[Buried Hatchet] [Damage. 4 + 0]
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 1, 1, 6, 10 (Failure at target 6)

[Buried Hatchet] Ethan
[1c. Shooting Freddy. Dex + Firearms -5 (split) -1 (ow) WTF MAN YOU GOT NO DICE.
-1 WP]

[Buried Hatchet] [Damage. 4 + 0]
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 5, 7, 9, 10 (Success x 3 at target 6)

[End Transmission]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 1, 2, 4, 4, 8, 8 (Success x 1 at target 6)

[End Transmission] [...that was Freddy soaking, which he sucks at.]

[Buried Hatchet] [R1. BITCH YOUR ASS IS STILL FLANKED.]
Dice Rolled:[ 9 d10 ] 1, 2, 2, 4, 4, 5, 5, 6, 7, 10, 10, 10 (Success x 8 at target 4) Re-rolls: 3

[Buried Hatchet] [YEAH THAT'S RIGHT. SUCK IT FOR DADDY.]
Dice Rolled:[ 14 d10 ] 1, 1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 7, 8, 8, 9, 10 (Success x 4 at target 6)

[End Transmission] [Jason - Soak!]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 1, 1, 4, 9, 10, 10 (Success x 1 at target 6)

[End Transmission] [Jason - R1! Chainsaw Hatchet!]
Dice Rolled:[ 10 d10 ] 1, 1, 4, 5, 5, 6, 6, 8, 9, 10 (Success x 1 at target 8)

[End Transmission] [Damage + 0]
Dice Rolled:[ 12 d10 ] 1, 1, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 4, 5, 7, 7, 10 (Success x 1 at target 6)

[Buried Hatchet] [Dude, don't bring that weak shit to my house.]
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 1, 1, 4, 4, 5, 7, 9 (Failure at target 6)

[Face of Death] [R: How much teeth do you want?]
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 1, 1, 2, 3, 3, 5, 7, 10 (Success x 1 at target 5)

[Face of Death] [damage: str + 2 + 0 (None? KINKY!)]
Dice Rolled:[ 9 d10 ] 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10 (Success x 3 at target 6)

[End Transmission] [Freddy, owww.]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 3, 6, 7, 7, 9, 9 (Success x 5 at target 6)

[End Transmission] [Freddy R1: Slash Ethan -2 owwie]
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 3, 4, 5, 6, 6, 7, 7, 9 (Success x 3 at target 7)

[End Transmission] [Damage + 2]
Dice Rolled:[ 9 d10 ] 1, 1, 2, 4, 4, 5, 6, 7, 7 (Success x 1 at target 6)

[Buried Hatchet] Ethan
[Soak!]
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 4, 5, 5 (Failure at target 8)

[Broken Hammer] R1. ME FENRIR, ME CHOMP!
Dice Rolled:[ 9 d10 ] 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 6, 7, 7, 8 (Success x 5 at target 5)

[Broken Hammer] Damage: ME CHOMP HARD!
Dice Rolled:[ 12 d10 ] 2, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5, 6, 6, 7, 8, 10, 10 (Success x 6 at target 6)

[End Transmission] [Jason - Soak!]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 1, 5, 7, 8, 9, 9 (Success x 3 at target 6)

[Buried Hatchet] [R2!]
Dice Rolled:[ 9 d10 ] 1, 3, 3, 4, 5, 6, 6, 8, 8 (Success x 3 at target 6)

[Buried Hatchet] [Damage!]
Dice Rolled:[ 9 d10 ] 1, 1, 2, 3, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9 (Success x 1 at target 6)

[End Transmission] [Jason Soak]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 1, 1, 2, 6, 8, 8 (Success x 1 at target 6)

[Buried Hatchet] [Attack was diff 5, suxx = 4. 1 more damage!]
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 10 (Success x 1 at target 6)

[End Transmission] [R2 Jason - Saw Echo!]
Dice Rolled:[ 10 d10 ] 1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 4, 5, 5, 6, 8 (Failure at target 8)

[End Transmission] [R2: Freddy - Slash Joey -2 Owwie]
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 7, 8, 9 (Success x 4 at target 7)

[End Transmission] [Damage]
Dice Rolled:[ 10 d10 ] 1, 2, 6, 7, 7, 9, 10, 10, 10, 10 (Success x 7 at target 6)

[Face of Death] [soak!]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 2, 2, 3, 3, 10, 10 (Success x 2 at target 6)

[Broken Hammer] R2: MOAR BITEY.
Dice Rolled:[ 9 d10 ] 1, 1, 2, 3, 3, 5, 7, 7, 8 (Success x 2 at target 5)

[Broken Hammer] Damage +1
Dice Rolled:[ 9 d10 ] 3, 3, 5, 6, 7, 7, 7, 8, 10 (Success x 6 at target 6)

[Broken Hammer] R3: EVEN MOAR BITEY.
Dice Rolled:[ 9 d10 ] 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 10 (Success x 4 at target 5) Re-rolls: 2

[End Transmission] [Jason - Ack! Soak!]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 1, 4, 4, 7, 8, 9 (Success x 2 at target 6)

[Broken Hammer] Damage +3
Dice Rolled:[ 11 d10 ] 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 6, 7, 7, 8 (Success x 3 at target 6)

[End Transmission] [Soak]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 2, 2, 2, 3, 4, 7 (Success x 1 at target 6)

[End Transmission] In the alleyway all that can be heard are the vicious snarls of an angered Garou; the clang of a knife being wielded, over and over and the excited breathing of the Gorehound as it advances on the Werewolf and her Kin. Face of Death leaps upon the monster after it hacks at the police officer's chest, slicing him open and mauls the once-man's wrist nearly off the bone; but still he does not lose his weapon, still he giggles with a maniac's pure glee as he strikes out at the Garou, again and again.

His shrieks of glory are only intensified when he connects with the Rotager's body and sees the splatter of blood shining off his blade; decorating the alleyway walls. Ethan fires then -- the gun-blasts ricocheting around walls, the bullets penetrating into the torso of the creature and seeping blood; they stagger Freddy -- but they don't stop him.

Nothing can stop him.
With a yell, he charges.

--

Meanwhile, within Mr Anderson's Meat Goods, the other Gorehound, the far more malicious Gorehound who was responsible for the macabre decorations outside was having a wonderful time of it, revving his chainsaw and wildly swinging it out at the Garou he suddenly finds surrounding him.

End Transmission attempts to channel the Gift taught her by Gremlin to stifle the roar of the machine in the monster's hands but she cannot quite seem to focus enough to damage it; instead, she leaps across the space between herself and her pack-brother and lays her hand upon him to heal. The Fianna, sensing the time was right for a more stealthy approach, snuck behind the rear of the Gorehound and struck; his teeth sinking into the flesh and bone but not quite managing to do the damage they ought.

Again and again they strike, the Sentinels united and outside on the street -- their pack sister doing what she could alongside one not her tribe against his deadly playmate.

It is not until Broken Hammer, incensed from the beginning and in full frenzy, leaps at the tainted creature and tears at it, pulling great chunks of flesh from its limbs that the Garou begin to feel that they may win out after all. The creature who called itself Jason was bleeding; but it still carried its weapon, and it wasn't going to stop until it was torn asunder.

[new inits!]

[End Transmission] [Declare Order

Hatchet 18
Jason 18
Echo 16
Joey 14
Freddy 11
Daniel 10
Ethan 10

Declare in reverse!]

[Buried Hatchet] Ethan
[1a. Shoot Freddy
1b. 3RB on Freddy]

[End Transmission] Daniel
[1. Bite Jason!
R1. Bite Jason!
R2. Bite Jason!]

Freddy
[1a. Slash Joey
1b. Slash Joey
R1. Slash Ethan
R2. Slash Joey again!]

[Face of Death] [1a. Bite
1b. Bite + WP
R. Bite
All on Freddy]

[End Transmission] Echo
[1a. You are giving UP that chainsaw! Jam Technology again
1b. Bite Jason]

[End Transmission] Jason
[WHIRR WHIRR!
1a. Slice 'n dice Hatchet
1b. Repeat on Hatchet
R1. Slice Daniel
R2. Slice Echo]

[Buried Hatchet] [1a.
1b.
1c. -- all bites on Jason]

[Buried Hatchet] [1a. -3]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 1, 1, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 10 (Success x 4 at target 5) Re-rolls: 2

[Buried Hatchet] [Damage. +3]
Dice Rolled:[ 10 d10 ] 2, 2, 3, 5, 6, 6, 8, 9, 9, 9 (Success x 6 at target 6)

[End Transmission] [Jason Soak!]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 1, 5, 7, 9, 10, 10 (Success x 3 at target 6)

[Buried Hatchet] [1b. -4]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 3, 4, 6, 6, 10 (Success x 2 at target 5) Re-rolls: 1

[Buried Hatchet] [Damage. + 1]
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 5, 9, 9 (Success x 2 at target 6)

[End Transmission] [Soak!]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 1, 5, 8, 8, 9, 10 (Success x 3 at target 6)

[Buried Hatchet] [1c. -5]
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 3, 4, 6, 6, 10 (Success x 4 at target 5) [WP] Re-rolls: 1

[Buried Hatchet] [Damage. +3]
Dice Rolled:[ 10 d10 ] 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 7, 8, 8, 9, 10 (Success x 7 at target 6)

[End Transmission] [I JUST WANTED SOME FRIENDS - Soak!]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 1, 3, 3, 6, 8, 9 (Success x 2 at target 6)

[Face of Death] [1a: Bite!]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10 (Success x 4 at target 5)

[Face of Death] [damage + 3]
Dice Rolled:[ 12 d10 ] 1, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 5, 5, 5, 6, 6, 8 (Success x 2 at target 6)

[End Transmission] [Freddy Soak]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 1, 1, 2, 2, 6, 7 (Failure at target 6)

[Face of Death] [1b: Bite!]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 2, 6, 7, 8, 8 (Success x 5 at target 5) [WP]

[Buried Hatchet] [Reflexive: When Jason drops, Hatchet's voice echoes across the totemlink, the roar of a bear whose den is being threatened, whose cubs are being glared at. Echo! Go to Joey!]

[Face of Death] [damage + 4]
Dice Rolled:[ 13 d10 ] 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 9, 9, 10 (Success x 5 at target 6)

[End Transmission] [Soak!]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 3, 5, 5, 6, 7, 8 (Success x 3 at target 6)

[End Transmission] Freddy
[1a. Slash Joey! -2]
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 1, 4, 5, 5, 6, 8, 10 (Success x 1 at target 8)

[End Transmission] [Damage + 0]
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 1, 4, 4, 8, 9, 9, 10, 10 (Success x 4 at target 6)

[Face of Death] [soak!]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 1, 1, 3, 5, 5, 10 (Failure at target 6)

[Face of Death] [rageback!]
Dice Rolled:[ 2 d10 ] 1, 3 (Failure at target 8) [WP]

[Face of Death] [*squeegees out that rageback*]

[End Transmission] Freddy
[1b. Slash Joey -3]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 1, 6, 6, 7, 7, 8 (Failure at target 8)

[Buried Hatchet] Ethan
[1a. Shoot it! Dex + Firearms -2 (split) -1 (ow)]
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 4, 4, 5 (Success x 1 at target 6) [WP]

[Buried Hatchet] [Damage. 4 + 0]
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 4, 6, 8, 10 (Success x 3 at target 6)

[Buried Hatchet] Ethan
[1b. Shoot it 3 times very very fast! Dex + Firearms + 3 (3RB) -3 (split) -1 (ow)]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 3, 9, 9, 10 (Success x 2 at target 7)

[Buried Hatchet] [Damage. 4 + 1]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 2, 3, 8, 9 (Success x 1 at target 6)

[End Transmission] [Freddy Soak 1]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 1, 5, 5, 7, 7, 7 (Success x 2 at target 6)

[End Transmission] [Soak 2!]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 4, 5, 5, 8, 8, 9 (Success x 3 at target 6)

[End Transmission] [Freddy R1: Slash Joey! Cuz I'm like, evil and shit. - injuries]
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 1, 1, 1, 2, 5, 9, 10, 10 (Failure at target 8)

[End Transmission] [Freddy R2: Slash Ethan! -injuries!]
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 5, 6, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 10 (Success x 4 at target 8)

[End Transmission] [Damage + 3]
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 10 (Success x 2 at target 6)

[Buried Hatchet] Ethan
[NOOO I WANT TO LIIIIIIIIIVE]
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 2, 3, 10 (Success x 1 at target 8)

[End Transmission] The Gorehound within the Meat Factory barely has time to raise his chainsaw for the next blow before Buried Hatchet is upon him and his vengeance is unstoppable. The Fianna Fostern rips into the Gorehound's flesh and tears great chunks of it away from his torso -- in the wake of it, the creature calling itself Jason when really it is nothing more than Jason's shell and a monster within -- rocks on his feet, trembles and abruptly, bloodily -- falls.

The chainsaw whirrs on amongst the gore that had been a monster plaguing the city's streets, the sound of the tainted creature's blood trickling down the drain the only other sound to be heard. Such is the way with these battles that they are often impossibly vicious and inhumanly fast.

--

Meanwhile, in the alleyway Face of Death is not faring quite so well against the one known as Freddy. The Gorehound's blade is red, absolutely red by this point and the Kinsman is clutching at his side where the sharp-edged blade had been driven against it, again and again. Empty vessels that they were now, these monstrosities feel nothing, see nothing but the pain and death they inflict.

Joey is near collapse, the Gorehound does not fare much better; wet with his own fluids, but still -- like a nightmare -- he comes for her.

Even as he does -- the bounding figure of the Glass Walker appears from out of the factory, her great form headed to aid her pack-mate.

[Broken Hammer] I can see clearly now!
+9
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 1 (Botch x 1 at target 6)

[Buried Hatchet] [+9]
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 5

[End Transmission] [+10]
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 5

[End Transmission] Freddy
[+8]
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 5

[End Transmission] [Declare order:

Echo 15
Hatchet 14
Freddy 13
Daniel 10

Joey: X_0]

[Buried Hatchet] [+6]
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 7

[Broken Hammer] 1a. run over!
b. jawlock freddy for someone else to keell.

[Buried Hatchet] Ethan
[1a. 3RB on Freddy]

[End Transmission] Freddy
[1a. Slash at Joey
1b. Slash at Ethan, stop shootin' me!
R1. Slash whoever comes near!]

[Buried Hatchet] [1a. Mother's Touch on Joey
1b. Gaia's Breath on Ethan
1c. Bite Freddy, he's fugly]

[End Transmission] [Echo:
1a. RAR BITE
1b. RAR BITE
R1. RAR BITE]

[End Transmission] [1a. Bite Freddy! -2 Split]
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 1, 1, 1, 3, 6, 8, 9 (Failure at target 5)

[End Transmission] [1b. Bite Freddy! -3 Split]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 2, 2, 2, 3, 8, 10 (Success x 2 at target 5)

[End Transmission] [Damage + 1]
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 1, 3, 3, 7, 8, 9, 9, 10 (Success x 4 at target 6)

[End Transmission] [Freddy Soak]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 2, 7, 8, 9, 9, 10 (Success x 5 at target 6)

[Buried Hatchet] [1a. Mother's Touch on Josephine. Int + Medicine. -1G]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 2, 2, 2, 6, 6, 9 (Success x 4 at target 6) [WP]

[Buried Hatchet] [1b. Gaia's Breath on Ethan. -1G. Look Ma, No More Lethal.]

[Buried Hatchet] [1a. Mother's Touch on Josephine. Int + Medicine -3 (split) -1G]
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 5, 8, 10 (Success x 3 at target 6) [WP]

[Buried Hatchet] [1c. -5]
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 3, 6, 9, 9, 10 (Success x 4 at target 5) Re-rolls: 1

[Buried Hatchet] [Damage. +3]
Dice Rolled:[ 12 d10 ] 1, 1, 1, 2, 3, 3, 5, 7, 9, 10, 10, 10 (Success x 2 at target 6)

[End Transmission] [Soak Freddy]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 3, 6, 7, 8, 8, 10 (Success x 5 at target 6)

[End Transmission] [Freddy 1a. Slash at Joey! -2 Split -owies]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 2, 3, 6, 8, 8, 9 (Success x 3 at target 8)

[End Transmission] [Damage]
Dice Rolled:[ 9 d10 ] 1, 1, 1, 4, 6, 6, 8, 9, 10 (Success x 2 at target 6)

[Face of Death] [Soak!]
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 6, 8, 8 (Success x 3 at target 6)

[End Transmission] [1b. Same to Ethan!]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 2, 3, 9, 10 (Success x 1 at target 8)

[End Transmission] [Damage]
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 1, 3, 3, 5, 7, 10, 10 (Success x 2 at target 6)

[Buried Hatchet] Ethan
[Soak. Fuck you. I have a child, man. WHERE IS YOUR DECENCY, WYRM-MINION?]
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 2, 5, 9 (Success x 1 at target 8)

[Buried Hatchet] Ethan
[3RB]
Dice Rolled:[ 9 d10 ] 2, 3, 4, 5, 5, 7, 9, 10, 10 (Success x 5 at target 7) [WP]

[Buried Hatchet] [Damage. 4 + 4 I WAS NOT KIDDING. FUCK YOU.]
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 1, 1, 3, 3, 5, 7, 9, 9 (Success x 1 at target 6)

[Broken Hammer] (jawlock! full dice pool!)
Dice Rolled:[ 9 d10 ] 2, 3, 4, 5, 5, 6, 8, 8, 9, 10 (Success x 5 at target 6) Re-rolls: 1

[End Transmission] [Freddy - LOL petty human]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 6, 7, 8, 10, 10, 10 (Success x 6 at target 6)

[Broken Hammer] (str+ath+4)
Dice Rolled:[ 12 d10 ] 1, 1, 1, 3, 3, 5, 5, 6, 7, 7, 9, 10 (Success x 2 at target 6)

[End Transmission] [R1: Bite Freddy!]
Dice Rolled:[ 10 d10 ] 3, 3, 4, 4, 5, 5, 5, 7, 7, 8 (Success x 10 at target 3)

[End Transmission] [Damage?]
Dice Rolled:[ 16 d10 ] 1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5, 5, 6, 7, 8, 8, 10, 10, 10 (Success x 6 at target 6)

[End Transmission] [Soak?]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 6, 7, 7, 7, 9, 10 (Success x 6 at target 6)

[End Transmission] [Freddy: SLASH Daniel! +2 diff partially immobilized -2 dice owies]
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 1, 2, 6, 7, 7, 7, 7, 10 (Failure at target 10)

[End Transmission] [ST ruling: since he's soannoyingclose to dying but WON'T QUIT, I'm going to rule that Echo and Hatchet, with Daniel immobilizing him, finish off Freddy. RIP Freddy, you mean bastard.

Re-cap coming!]

[End Transmission] Two Gorehounds.
Four Garou.
One Kinfolk with a gun.

It shouldn't seem so hard to imagine what the outcome would be of such a battle. While the Gorehound Freddy wielded a heavy butcher's knife at Face of Death and Ethan Yates; the pair had weapons of their own. They had guns and teeth and claw.

But the Wyrm was never so easily destroyed; it was insidious, and it was sneaky. It ducked when it should have died, it dodged when a claw should have lopped off its head. And it withstood an amazing amount of beating by a pack of Garou before it finally, finally … fell. It takes the Alpha of the Sentinels and the combined strength of the Glass Walker No Moon and Fenrir to finally silence Freddy's laughter.

It trickles to a gurgle, the fingers slacken around the knife and with one last forceful bite, Hatchet severs the thing's head from its shoulders and it drops like a rotten coconut, rolling against the alleyway floor. The knife clatters down beside the ruined corpse and the poor animal that had met its end so soon before the Sentinels had discovered its lair.

Abruptly -- where before there was violence and horror everywhere around them -- there is suddenly only silence.

Bronzeville the nights before Christmas.
The faint noise of traffic.
But nothing else going bump in the night where it ought not.

[Broken Hammer] Broken Hammer shouldn't, by all rights, even be here right now.

He should be running mad in the streets, howling, tearing into one (imagined) foe after another. Or curled and wild-eyed under some makeshift shelter, snapping at any who came near. Or...

...anything, really, but here, pinning the last gorehound down while his Alpha tears into it.

When it's over, the Forseti's breath frosts white in the air with every panting exhale. He's shaking all over from rage, from adrenaline, from the aftereffects of frenzy. Foaming slaver is still gathered at the corners of his mouth, pink with blood. For a moment he stares around, glassy-eyed, as though not entirely sure of where he is, or how he got here, or what he was doing, even, outside the building and across the street from the last place he remembered being in -- with a creature he's never seen before seized in his jaws.

Then all at once he drops the dead thing and prostrates himself, going to his belly, whining his contrition to his Alpha and his pack. He broke rank. He disobeyed orders. He lost his fool head, dividing their efforts, nearly costing them the battle.

[Buried Hatchet] One of these things opened up a human being, pinned it with knives to the wall, made his packmate frenzy. One of these things shredded long swaths of bloody pain through his packmate's body. This thing nearly killed his Rotagar. This thing stabbed and slashed at a passing kinsman over

and over again.

The sound of gunshots has ceased to resonate from wall to wall in the alleyway, Ethan having lowered his gun as the pack of hispo-formed wolves dogpiled on the gorehound and began tearing it to pieces. Literally, savagely, rending limbs from torso, biting out chunks of muscle and raking teeth across bone, until finally the largest of the four decapitates the thing that shrugged off so many of their attacks, so many of Ethan's bullets.

When it's over, Buried Hatchet is soaked in the blood of two fomori. There's a wound on him, comparatively small -- considering how bad it could have been. It's just a slash from the chainsaw across his stomach. It'll heal in a day. Joey is recovering from a literal near-death. Daniel is still in the process of coming back down from a frenzy that saw him attacking one fomor in the meat plant over and over until it was dead, then rushing out and across the street to jump on this one. Echo and Hatchet have both healed the others with quick touches. Ethan has dust on him from a broken gourd, his clothes bloodstained by his body bearing only one long cut on his chest now. It'll heal. Not in a day, but fast enough. Faster than a mortal would.

Hatchet, for the longest time, stands on all fours over the corpse of the gorehound, his sides heaving not from rapid breath but from the sheer effort of control. His rage eclipses his will right now, strains at his ability to restrain himself. His fur is on end, his teeth bared, his golden eyes gleaming with bloodlust and wrath.

If he could speak right now, he might tell Daniel No. I shouldn't have let Joey fight alone. I should have called her back to us, or sent Echo sooner, or we all should have investigated the alley, or --

There's any number of ways he could take responsibility, as their Alpha and as a Half Moon. But right now, when Daniel crawls on the ground on his belly and whimpers, keens, Hatchet just whips his head around and snarls at him. It's part demand for silence. It's part expression of dominance. It's partly just that... he feels like death stalking the darkness right now, and he wants something to kill. It is not a good time to feel weak, or feel vulnerable, in front of this Fianna.

Which brings us to Ethan. Whose reserves of inner strength are tapped, whose gun is hot in his hand, who was healed and then injured again, who just watched a pack of werewolves send blood and tissue flying in an alleyway, which is a gruesome and terrible sight no matter how experienced one is. Someone -- perhaps Echo, of a tribe once called the Warders of men, or perhaps Joey, the defender of kinfolk -- tells Ethan he should go. And for whatever reasons (they are his own), Ethan goes, away from the wild things, away from the scene.

When he's gone, some of the tension actually seems to leave the Sentinels' Alpha. He does not have to worry so much about keeping control, does not have to worry about the near-human. He is with his pack. It will be alright, even if his rage pushes at the very boundaries of his skull, seeming to threaten his very sanity. He pads a few steps over to Joey, and nudges at her with his muzzle in question.

[Face of Death] Joey throws herself at the gorehound, snapping her jaws, trying to break its arm, trying to destroy it as she's destroyed so many other agents of the Wyrm.

Luck is not on her side. She bites and nothing happens. The thing slashes at her with a blade, a simple blade, and wears her down. It's her blood that pools in the dark alleyway. And in the end she, great warriors of Fenris, had to be protected by a kinfolk. She had to be revived by her alpha.

When she opens her eyes to look around, her first thought is that at least Charlie isn't here to see her, lying on the ground in the middle of battle, her clothing slashed, covered in her own blood. The thought is pushed away and she takes in the scene around her. Her brothers and her sister, each sporting blood both their own and belonging to the hounds. The kinfolk, his clothing slashed, blood from wounds healed soaking the fabric.

Daniel throws himself to the ground, prostrating himself before Hatchet. It's not until Joey's reaching into her bag for her cleansing gear that she remembers the talens, the small vials of Gaia's Breath that Hatchet gave her when they fought spiders in the Umbra. The thought that she could have healed herself -- or healed the kinfolk at least -- and didn't makes her wince. She failed as a warrior. She failed as a healer.

She has to get better, stronger, more resilient. She has got to stop fucking dying all the time.

There are a lot of things Joey needs to do. First is tell Ethan to go on his way, go home to what family he may have, and be glad he'll see another sunrise. Hatchet nudges at her. 5'7", by most standards, is not small. Standing among her Hispo-formed packmates, Joey is tiny, child-sized. She meets the golden gaze of her alpha, and a corner of her mouth twitches, the closest she's come to smiling without the aid of alcohol in almost two weeks.

A moment later she shifts up, becoming taller, bulkier, shaggier. Her nails thicken into something like claws, her jaw becomes heavier as it nears a shape that more closely resembles a canine's. Her wounds will heal soon.

She holds up a vial of water and a willow switch in question. It's late, the streets are mostly empty, but the alley is still very close to the realm of humans.

[Broken Hammer] If Broken Hammer's rage were higher, his hackles would go up when he's snarled at. Other than that, however, his reaction would be the same:

His ears pin back. He keeps his chin to the ground, lying there until his Alpha's attention has moved on.

When Joey starts cleansing, the Forseti slowly gets to his feet -- forequarters first, then hind. He turns away, pivoting on his haunches, loping into the building. A moment later he's back, dragging the body of the other gorehound, neck arched against the weight. He lays it beside the first, and then sits to wait for the Cleansing to finish.

[Buried Hatchet] They're okay. Echo is fine. Daniel is up again, Joey is cleansing and healing herself. Hatchet settles down somewhat, but there's still a sharp edge to his voice when he tells both of the Cliaths to stop what they're doing. They have a dead human and a ton of rotted meat to deal with, too.

He has them get the body of the knife-wielding fomor and even the corpse of the small dog he'd been dragging around across the street and into the plant with the gorehound with the chainsaw. They'll cleanse there, remove the taint from all of it, the plant and the bodies and the meat, just in case. The poor dead sap who Hatchet insists they pull down and keep separate from the gorehounds.

He and Joey Cleanse.

He and Joey and Daniel and Echo clean up. It takes a relentless, exhausting amount of time. Hatchet, at least, gets a little easier to be around -- he burns his rage to shift into crinos while hauling bodies and meat around, climbing up a wall to get a body down. He brings down the level of his own fury until he can manage it, and at random, odd little intervals, he touches them. They aren't lingering touches, but firm. A hand on a shoulder. On the back of a neck. A nudge between their sides.

It's all thoughtlessly done, regardless of blood and gore covering them. They survived. Two goddamn gorehounds, should have taken moments, but Joey nearly died and Daniel frenzied and it could have been much, much worse than it was. He doesn't talk a lot. They get the cleansing done, and since neither of the fomori were mutated, this time

they use fire.

Granted, after they've gotten the four of them into Cassius and away from the plant, Hatchet waits awhile -- they need to get away, and the fire needs time to work -- and has Echo call the fire in to emergency. No sense in letting it get out of control. Besides: there is a body there, outside the plant, and his body needs to be recognizable so that they can find his family, tell them that he died, give them this news before Christmas.

But Christmas means nothing to Buried Hatchet. All he knows is that if it were his son, or his brother, or his partner, he would want to know. He would want to stop wondering.

For the second time since Charlie's death, Hatchet sleeps in Room 8. After getting washed, after they've all showered away the blood and the grime, after the last patrol has been done, after he's sure they're all safe. He sleeps on the rug, heedless of the dirty laundry here or there, and he stays with his pack.

They all stay together.