Have You Seen My Sons? (Open)

[thecrimsonraven]

Hazaar watched at the werewolf hobbled over; and he found it oh so very strange that two creatures in such perfect physical condition could be so completely devoid of the will to move. Sure, they're just been through a life destroying ordeal...but really now. Still he stifled his passing criticism until either of them were asleep or very far away. He waited for the lamenting father to finally limp his way down to the back of the church; the necromancer growing throughly impatient with it. His voice was sharp as he answered the inquiry, "What happened on the roof top; you'll have to ask your friend here; right now he's got some smoke to get out his lungs, but is no worse for the wear. " He took a glance at the awakening David; scanning him for any real damage. If there was one thing a necromancer knew the look of it was a life threatening wound.

He flexed a concerned eyebrow at the hunter's request for a dimming in the lighting. The place was already half dark as it was! About the only light was coming from the off set group of candles nearer the entrance, and those were hardly any help as it was. The dying light of the early evening was long gone and outside was engulfed in the dark and the sound of sirens as the fire departments of the city mobilized against their own monster: a rather mysterious blaze that was spreading fast in one of the poorer districts of the city. He looked at Lourick with some exasperation. He wasn't used to helping people and it was, quite frankly, driving him more mad then he mite had already been. "Please watch him while I go find something to patch you two up...and do something about the lights...apparently." Hazaar wandered off towards the back rooms again, shaking his head with that same face of some concern and hidden frustration.

At that moment he was walking off, the lumbering creature he'd had carry David all the way across town thumped by with two large glasses of ice water. In some spike of intellect it had managed to not only find the glasses without breaking them all, but get water and ice inside them without dropping in even a single finger. This was, in any circles that know something about the lesser undead, to be quite a technical achievement. In any other circumstance Hazaar would have paraded this creature as a paragon of necromantic researcher...but right now it was just playing butler and did as it was told, presenting the two other awake occupants of the church with their glasses of water. Hazaar was muttered to himself, slowly oblivious to the others as he walked passed the candles; snuffing them out with a pinch.

[lourickbaker]

Despite the terminally crippled state of his left leg, there was little doubt that Lourick was capable of becoming dangerous, particularly if he had been telepathic enough to know precisely what Hazaar had been thinking in that moment; still, though, he had little to no regard at this point about what he and others may have been muttering to themselves and others about him. If he had truly been concerned about it, he would never have been muttering like a delirious madman about his sons earlier when they had come up missing, but rather would have taken the time to form coherent sentences and possibly wasted enough time for both children to be dead at the hands, or tongue, of the foe that all involved had just narrowly escaped from.

Well, almost everyone.

Lourick was wordless as he kept his vigil, keeping one eye on David as he accepted what was offered, once more without relieving himself of the child in his arms. He couldn't help but to notice that the boy had unceremoniously begun staring at said butler with a pair of eyes would have rivaled the diameter of military hubcaps, wide with his disbelief, wide with his fear. Both father and son had to wonder just who was friend and who was foe in this town, but until they were certain of anything otherwise, both Lourick and Cory had to settled for considering the man who was lying in a suffering-type state a friend. After all, he had technically been the only one present and fighting to save the other child, at least that Lourick had seen. The disappearance of the other man until recently would have struck him as slightly suspicious if the death of Ambrose hadn't been swung at his head like a two-by-four.

Without a further gesture to the figure who had offered up the water, Lourick turned his attention to the man with the actuators. "I want to thank you..." he murmured very quietly, so quietly that it became hard for him to force it out without first clearing his throat. "For finding my sons...and for putting yourself into that kind of danger to..." He took a deep breath, trying not to let the incident rattle him up again, as it had been incessantly since the flight from the warehouse. "To save them..." he finished. "I...don't know how I am going to repay you..." Despite how low it had grown, there was unsteadiness in there werewolf's voice, as well as uncertainty. "What service...I could offer to you as payment for putting yourself into that situation...for the sake of a stranger...I cannot let it go unrequited-" He stopped when he heard the sounds of air through the nose, and when he looked over to the child clutched to his chest...

Cory appeared to be sniffing distantly at the butler from the safety of his father's grip.

[david]

David hesitantly opened his eyes, relieved to find that there was hardly any bright lights to burn his forever dilated pupils. However, his near-sightedness didn't exactly allow him to see very well. Practically blind still, but the actuators made up for that through their eyes.

One of the mechanical appendages reached out and grabbed the glass of water from the "butler", in which the others took up a reading on it. Nothing came up. Another dead organism still able to move. Then it hit David. That man, the one with the hat. He created it, didn't he? And the monster in the warehouse...another being of necromancy.

Before the rage in him built up long enough to force him to go after the one responsible for so much pain; he drew his attention back to the werewolf speaking to him. He had almost forgot that Lourick was a werewolf; possibly because he realized finally that they weren't always just mindless killers.

Lourick's words registered and he shook his head. "You shouldn't be thanking me at all. I still failed, after all," he added with a grim smile. "You don't owe me anything, either. I think I've caused enough problems." He coughed then, covering his mouth. At least it wasn't blood this time. The smoke in his lungs was slowly leaving, albeit painfully.

His damaged eyes followed the father and son's stare at the butler, and he remembered again. David began to whisper. "You should get out of here. That man isn't to be trusted. He is a necromancer...and..." he coughed again, the actuators forming concerned thoughts and noises in his head as they coiled about him. "I think he was the one responsible...he makes those things...and that monster had to have been created by him."

[thecrimsonraven]

Their petty plans where not without witness. As the glasses were taken and words exchanged; the Wrights mouth opened slowly and our poured the voice that had been seen shuffling off, muttering to himself; though it was strained and muffled. "You really don't know anything; do you?" The creature was acting like some sort of gramophone. A two way radio that could do heavy lifting too. Something of a great achievement, or at least Hazaar thought. "I was thinking you mite figure it out sooner or later." This time the voice was direct and clear. It came from the man himself, standing before the Wright with a white metal box in hand. He set it down on the pew beside the hunter and his evidently disgruntled metal friends. He turned and looked at the Wright before snapping his fingers; the creature going imp and dropping off to the side; shifting into fine earth and course salt which spread around the fine vanished floors.

Unbuckling the box's snap lock with a metallic clack; he flipped it's lid open with his index finger and began to sift through the content. "Firstly, my name is Hazaar, and yes; as far as either of you need to know, I'm a mostly human necromancer of some talent... Usually I'd ask how do you do; but I'm fairly certain we're past that point in the pleasantries. " There were pieces of cotton and tubes of odd ointments flying from the medical box as Hazaar rifled through it, his eye focused on teh task when he continued to explain. "I'm sure you don't want me patching your gashes, but you're not about to blend in to any hospital with those accessories of yours." He turned to the two men before him, holding a needle and white thread from the box and a injection he'd fished out from his pocket. He placed them side by side before the hunter and his new found, but rather trumatized allies in all this mess. ". Now if you can keep them quite, I'll tell you everything I know about that construct you slew, and the people that made it..." he sat himself down a distance away from the group, drawing a breath, not looking at the three as he sent them what seemed almost like some conditions of surrender.

[lourickbaker]

There was a well-placed lack of trust by the time Hazaar had begun speaking, Lourick feeling that he had really gotten into a situation, a bloody place, that he knew nothing about. Up until the time he had come here, necromancers and the like had been something of a myth to him. Obviously not anymore.

In truth, Lourick was freshly brought to the point that made him unsure as to whether or not he really wanted to know just what had been involved in the glorious awfulness that had just occured. More than anything, he appeared to want to leave. By the look of these people, it seemed to be something that was easier wished-for than actually executed. There was surely something darker than anything that he had ever heard of, ever witnessed before in his long years walking amongst the living. He could only imagine just how terrible the unadulterated truth would turn out to be.

Cory, though, seemed more inclined to hear what was said than his father, his head turning as he eyed both of the benched men quietly. Moreso, he seemed to keep his eyes dead-focused on Hazaar; he had been more the child to stare at people as it was, and old habits seemed to die hard, especially in dog-like people. From time to time, though, his eyes would shift to the actuators keeping a warier eye on them. After all, he had seen them work, and even a child knew danger, whether or not they chose to acknowledge it being an entirely different prospect.

Lourick's voice was stern when he heard this. The man had lied to him about his identity. "The unadulterated truth." It wasn't a question or a request. That only left it to be two other possibilities, and both were present in the stiff sound of his words.

[david]

David knew the actuators wanted this necromancer dead; especially when he dared to show himself after he had figured out the truth. Even if only "someone else" made it, Hazaar still knew about it, and that was still suspicious. "You're right," David said, having yet to make the actuators calm down at the man's presence. They had every right to despise him. "If you try to touch me, whether I will it or not, they will attack you. Besides," he said as he forced himself to keep sitting up, despite how much it hurt him. The pain was so much that he practically felt numb. "I can fix myself up in the bathroom. I heal rather quickly."

The top left actuator kept its heart light on Cory, curious as the boy was; but not half as wary. It let out a soft chirping, mechanical chatter towards him before cocking its head like an animal. The others seemed to turn towards its direction and didn't quite understand its actions. Had the monster damaged its circuits somehow?

David kept his attention, however, still on Hazaar. "Whatever you have to tell us, it better be true. Otherwise you'll end up the same as that beast I just barbecued," he growled, the three other actuators snapping their claws angrily with adjoining hissing sounds. "And I know when one is lying. You can't hide anything from them; and I can't promise your safety if you do anything to set them off."

As tired and angry as he was, David knew he would have little control over the actuators if they were threatened enough. He only hoped that if they were, they would known ot to harm the two innocent victims in this hellish mess.

[thecrimsonraven]

Hazaar gave them both a flat look. It was hard to take men seriously when they floated a prideful sense that they remotely deserved the truth. He took a deep breath in, holding it a moment to relax the tension the two had blindly built in him. He ran his tongue along his teeth in quite contemplation and swallowed before he begun again.

"Ekidna. Thats the name you're after. And the name thats after you." Hazaar turned those ghost eyes right at David, that blank gaze digging deeper then even those metal monsters could. "I lied about my identity to ensure I was still here when you returned. How was I suppose to know who either of you were? But thats beside the point..." He slipped his hand down into an inside coat pocket and produced yet another pocket watch. This time it bore a strange symbol: a circle with seven fangs driven through it's circumference. He held it out to David with his right hand, finger tips slightly blacked and bruised. "They're were a research group. Masquerading as a mental institute, they were into research of a very...similar sort to yourself." Hazaar looked down at his shoes, the shine of a crescent moon, filtered through eh long stain glass church windows, bouncing up at him and caught the glow of his eyes.

"I don't understand why, but they seem to be after you. They used that monster to draw you out. Assess your strengthens, processes your weakness. And let me be frank...those aren't exactly being hidden..." Hazaar stressed his final words, a remark on David's lack of subtlety, in any respect. "though one can;t blame you for being chivalrous." He then noticed the boy. Though he did not wish to tempt enraging his two guards; Hazaar gave the child a softer expression then he was giving his father and friend. He'd never thought much of children until today. The human will to survive was always strong, no matter what monster's they mite become.

[lourickbaker]

Unconsciously as he listened to this so-called explanation, Lourick had begun to grit his teeth tighter than ever, something in his expression starting to savagely shift without actually changing. Perchance it was the look in his eyes. Maybe the tensity of his jawline. Maybe the sharp, vengeful glare he developed. Or maybe it was because what he had begun to think had become rather obvious.

Hearing all of this suddenly made his chest heavy again, and before taking what sounded like a hostile breath, he swallowed hard against the urge to completely go wild and run out of the church to start some sort of ill-founded investigation. "And for all of this," he interjected at the end of the statement, "my son was killed, this man's life endangered?" Lourick suddenly wasn't tired anymore, ever gear that kept him ticking now turning at full speed, even faster. For a man who had just moments previously been too lethargic with his mourning to move, he looked like he was ready to tear someone a new one - now he had a target.

Cory, though, had lost his attention toward the conversation and had instead chosen to set his sights on the actuator for a moment, only staring at it and blinking a few times helplessly as he watched it move and heard it chirp, as though it was talking to him. He wanted to smile; the will wasn't there, though. When he felt Hazaar's eyes on him again, he turned to face him, light blue irises maintaining what would prove to be another short-lived focus. Aside from the eye color, Cory had a strange tendency to look just like his father with that mistrusting, wary way that he held himself. In all reality, he was still too small to completely comprehend what had happened today, but credit was deserved for his trying.

[david]

It looked, at first, as though David wasn't going to respond. What Hazaar told him was not something he ever expected, and how was he to react? The hunter rubbed his forehead, trying to take in all that was said as the actuators kept their guard up, hissing dangerously at the necromancer. It was clear that they hated this man. He upset their Master. Unforgivable.

"So these people," he said slowly, trying to make some sense of it. "Took his two boys, put them in a warehouse, created a monster; and expected me to come crashing through to save the day? What if I never knew about those boys? What if he never came into the church? Or if I wasn't at the church? They couldn't have possibly planned that I would have come!"

He was confused, that was for certain. But he was also enraged by this. A trap set for him? Why did they have to bring innocent children into it? And one wasn't even here anymore - something David would never forgive himself for. "If you knew all about this, why didn't you stop it from happening?" he snapped. The actuators spread out their claws, heart lights glowing. They were in a striking stance. "This Ekidna doesn't at all sound realistic. But," he concluded. "I've seen no interrupted readings to show me that you are lying..." Unless he found a way to trick the machines. David was always unsure.

The actuators seemed to calm down some, the top left still studying the boy, almost protectively in case something were to happen to him.

[thecrimsonraven]

The necromancer gave out a slight sigh of impatience with the metal claws tensed themselves to strike; he had assumed that the hunt would have enough self control, but even as David railed his self righteous interrogation, Hazaar could not help but fade out his focus or a moment. Such lectures only served to rub him further the wrong way then eh was willing to let them. He gave David a look of malcontent, as if the slowly calming threat of the deathly actuators had little effect on him. "Like her name sake, Ekidna is one mother of a monster. You think they didn't have a hand in guiding this poor man here?" He waved at a hand at the growing rage that was Lourick. Though his words were of pity; Hazaar still treated the man like a variable in the experiment rather the victim of this tragedy.

"Even if he hadn't; even your 4 little friends never heard the screams for help or felt the heat of their panic; they would have found a way of making you go. Even if you didn't want to." Hazaar then drew himself up, taking some effort as he'd only just started to get rather comfortable in his spot. The darkest of the church and the warm evening air not helping with his laze. He stretched for a moment, almost cracking every joint in his body in an otherwise skillful display. Removed of the onset stiffness; he started again. "And the reason I did not try to stop it was because I use to work for them... but they did not inform me just what their intentions were. This, I will not stand for. Thus I stand before you now; telling you just what hunts you. And what hurt you." The necromancer knew how to read people, even one's as...interesting as these two. He could sens their agitations, their rage boiling beneath a surface desperately trying to keep control over the bestial fury of what he was telling them. It was hard work, but he would have to push the tether lines further to tell them what they needed to know.

"You will want to pursue them. I can feel that much from here. The best lead would be the old mental institute they use to have as a base of operations. After their plans collapsed the first time the place was abandoned in a hurry. Perhaps their are other secret groups in this city that could tell you more, seeking them out wouldn't be against your interest. You may even find allies." Hazaar finished and watched the two for any reaction. Perhaps he had been wrong in his assumption. they'd been through much, maybe they would just want to be left alone? No doubt Ekidna wanted nothing from the werewolf. It was doubtful that the group had realized who's children they had taken and only that some innocent was screaming loud enough for that damned metal monster's to hear. Certainly revenge was on that father's mind. As for the hunter, human curiosity and self concerned justice would always be strong motivators in Hazaar's point of view.

[david]

It took all of David's will power to keep the actuators under control. Even though this necromancer was willingly telling them all these horrible things only to help them, they felt that if they were to attack anything, it should be him. No, he ordered, his mind still quite disoriented from all that had happened, but they listened begrudgingly and sank back again. The hunter had to steady his breathing, having found that he himself looked ready to go on a rampage. Keeping a forced, calm composure, David looked back at Hazaar.

"So you worked for this Ekidna, and just because they didn't tell you everything, you leave them behind? How could I even trust what you are saying? What if this is just another trap," he said, damaged eyes narrowed at the corpse summoning thing before him. "I want nothing to do with these people," he growled. "Their interest in me - I personally don't care. They can do whatever they want with me, but they better keep their distance from others. I will not tolerate their methods. If they want to study me, why don't they just take me then?"

They could try, at least. David wasn't to go out with a fight, if anything. He would take them down with him, or die trying. The actuators hissed their approval, clicking their pincers in earnest. They wanted to fight, badly; but they knew their master was not in the greatest shape for the moment. Still squinting and unable to see properly, David felt around in his coat to see if he still had his spare shades; or had they been lost in the fight, too?

Lady Luck seemed to think fondly of him now, he figured, as he retrieved his shades and put them on. Now he had a much better view. Especially if Hazaar or a new creation of his tried something.

[lourickbaker]

In all actuality, this new load of information was proving to be quite scary and burdening to Lourick, but the aggression still resting in his expression cleared any of the overwhelming essence away entirely. He hadn't asked to be caught up in this, just like this man had obviously not asked to be targeted and lured by this person...these people...whatever party was responsible. He rubbed at his temples again, a nervous habit that he found himself doing quite repetitiously in these situations. Especially in these situations. One could agree, after all, that they were not pleasant.

In truth, the werewolf had nothing to say to either of these men, opting to stand back and listen to what was being said as he began to formulate a plan in his mind, a plan of revenge that had started small but was slowly starting to blow itself wildly out of proportion. The more twists and turns it took in his mind, the deadlier and greater in magnitude it became, bulking up and ripping itself like a well-muscled thought. The grey in his eyes was slowly beginning to disappear with the dilation of his pupils, an eerie black beginning to replace the slate as he let his thoughts wander on without him true acknowledgment. If he could just get a hold of this "Ekidna"-

You're squeezing me... Cory's soft voice echoed in the father's head, and when he looked down, he realized that his grip had actually tightened significantly. He relented smiling apologetically.

I'm sorry, Cory. He followed his son's gaze to the actuator, frowning at it as he tried to figure out the interaction it was having between itself and his son. It was a most enigmatic thing for him to watch, but it was at least distracting him from the blind rage that was sure to come later. He found it interesting that these things could move and think for themselves, or so it seemed. Cory had seemed to take an interest them, and now it seemed that Lourick was on a similar train of thought. He was still too mentally fatigued to really be hearing the conversation as it was.

[thecrimsonraven]

with a nonchalant shrug Hazaar wiped the seriousness from his tone. "Do whatever you please, Hunter. I'm she'll find away to force your hand. " The necromancer seemed to loose interested after that point; as a loud growl beckoned up form his stomach. He mite have been half dead, but he still hadn't had lunch yet...and it was already supper time! He took a curious look around the church and, picking a direction of destination, took himself a stride away from the three other creatures and towards those common back rooms he seemed to be frequenting.

He hopped over a step or two in the dark, his ghostly perception working wonders in the near darkness of the night covered church. "Personally, I remember seeing some beef roast and french loaf back in that kitchen. If you can call this seeing...I'm surprised none of us have tripped over our own coat tails in this dark..." The necromancer disappeared behind that office doors again. He waved his hands about a little to find his way passed a particularly oddly placed file cabinet and finally got his meek fingers around the refrigerator handle. Pulling the heavy door open with small hiss of suction from the seals, he was greeted with the sunshine of freezer light. Hazaar didn't take much to be made happy, so he just grabbed the plate of sliced roast beef and was on his way to the kitchen counter. The surprisingly modern open plan of the church office allowed him to get a clean line of sight back to the pews upon which David and Lourick were left sitting. "Oi! Either of you want anything?" He gave a shout a he fumbled around the draws for anything that could cut the bread he was still needing to locate. Ghostly perception didn't quite help with the finer points of finding things in a kitchen. It's why he never cooked with spices.

[david]

The necromancer's comment left David hollow inside, his hidden eyes burning hate at Hazaar's back as the man walked off into further darkness to get food. Force his hand, eh? Not only would he fight that, but four other entities that were a part of him wouldn't stand for it either. No "Ekidna" was going to take control of their human; he was theirs. If he had heard them think this earlier he would have been greatly disturbed, but right now he was relieved by their "over protectiveness" to say the least. The hunter looked away then to glance at the top left actuator who seemed to still be watching Lourick and the boy.

Sensing the unusual curiosity coming from said actuator, David caught its attention with a thought. What are you doing?

He is so small. it whirred as it cocked its metal head and clicked its pincers.

Well, yes, he's only a child. You do know that, don't you?

The actuator looked back at him as if annoyed and clicked its pincers again louder. Of course, Master! It's just I've never seen one before..."

The other actuators took that into consideration and all began studying Cory. David rested his head in his hand and sighed. "All of you,stop it." The actuators pulled back and chattered to themselves, making David's head feel dizzy. Hazaar's question went unanswered. There was no way he was hungry; not after what he had seen and killed.

[lourickbaker]

In an act of mourning and general lack of appetite, Lourick stayed quiet, too, inquiring to his son who only refused in the same manner. There had been too much blood today for them to really feel like stomaching anything at all - the earlier milk had been a far stretch for either of them at this point. Food was only asking for disaster if neither of them felt like partaking, unless one particularly liked to waste or see food-composed sputum on the floor. In realizing, though, that there was truly a limited number of people in the world who enjoyed that kind of thing, himself and his son excluded, he decided not to make the suggestion. After all, Lourick was prone to say anything when he wasn't feeling friendly.

Cory continued to study the actuators with particular vigor, the father's concentration having long since subsided to the voice that questioned. Instead, he put his focus on David. "If we aren't to trust this man..." he said in a low whisper to him, "then what do we do? I'm at a loss..." He kept his eyes peeled for suspicious activity, almost as though he planned to take Cory and flee to the confines of some unknown location until he could rebound and be readily deadly. Just like he was meant to be.