WoD - Life at Dusk

Stark switches from guns to magic, hoping that getting the spirit's own body to hurt itself will prove more debilitating than his inaccurate gunfire did. It proves to be only slightly more effective, but succeeded in exposing Kovak McKallister to distinctly less risk of injury from friendly fire. Kovak was promptly thrown into the center of the warehouse where several boxes marked as fertilizer were effortlessly collapsed by his transformed weight. He let out a wail as a blade of silver broke through his skin, hidden inside the fertilizer. Kat shifted into near human while Rigel shifts fully into war. As the two engage the spirit with definite effort, Stark gets in a lucky shot to the base of its skull and it slumps to the ground devoid of life. The warehouse is strangely not filled with an unexpected silence, instead the dreadfully familiar sound of spider legs meeting various surfaces in haste fills the air. Kat was the first to spot one of the smaller spiders climbing a pile between the three by the still collapsing Azlu and the recovering Kovak. She managed to kick it, sending it rolling toward Kovak, who grabbed a blade by the non-silver handle and flung it at the spider. The spider managed to find its footing and leaped onto Kovak, biting him. Rigel turned away from the fallen Azlu to spot a group of spiders and promptly charged into them. As stark retreated away from whatever hostiles he could make out, some of the spiders began to attack each-other. Kat looked about for a fire alarm, spotted one, and pulled it to set off the sprinklers. The water quickly washed down the webbing that filled the majority of the warehouse's open space. Kovak, again, attempted to dismember the spider attacking him with another sword, but missed. As Kat turns away from the wall to engage the spiders, Marcus kicks open the door, shotgun in hand. Rigel continues to maul and claw at the group he charged while stark gets a shot off at the spider that had been hassling Kovak. Kat charges in and manages to get a hit on the thing just before Kovak cut it to pieces with the sword. Stark nearly got hit by a spider the size of a compact car that snuck down the wall beside him, only to have his leg bit into by a cat sized one that was behind him. His leg immediately starts to numb. Kat avoided being bit as Kovak finished off another one. Marcus overcomes the initial shock of the scene and uses the shotgun to shred the larger spider by stark to pieces. Stark quickly turns to the smaller one and splatters it with his handgun. Kat discerns which of the spiders started the infighting, assuming it was Stark's doing, and assists it. Kovak heads over to assist Stark by slashing at another small spider that had approached. Marcus manages to kick another away after being bitten and notices his leg numbing as well. Stark manages to finish off the one Kovak sliced into as Rigel crushes another in his jaws. Kovak turns to find another target, but the spiders have all retreated. After a moment of concentration, Stark says "The rest of them seem to be setting up defensively in the other buildings…" Marcus asks, "What are you doing here?" Stark grins and replies, "Having fun!" Kat explains how the group found out that the spiders are taking over the warehouses. "Okay… What next?" Rigel heads over to investigate the office, but it's locked. When he asks for someone to pick the lock, Stark shoots the lock instead. Rigel rifles through some papers until he finds an order form for the fertilizer that Kovak fell into. It was ordered by Menard's, and the General Manager just happens to be John Craig. Before relaying this to the rest of the group, he decides to put on a jump suit to replace his shredded clothes. Stark's cell phone rings, it's the girls, he picks up long enough to say, "We're busy," and puts his cell phone away on silent. Kat starts opening crates and finds 6 of them crates with silvered swords. Kikyo calls stark again, he hangs up again. Then Kat's phone rings and she ignores it. Finally stark picks up on the next call and listens. Kikyo explains that she wants to help out and join the pack. Stark tells Kat as much after ending the conversation with Kikyo. Marcus then gives Kikyo a call and asks her to bring the HumVee to the warehouse to help haul the weapons away. Once she arrived, loading of the weapons began. Kikyo spots the wounds on Kovak and asks, "What happened to you?!" and grabs a first aid kit from the HumVee to bandage him up. Once the weapons were loaded, the group drove over to Ruth's to let her know what they'd been up to. Ruth was able to answer some questions about the swords and John Craig. As the conversation progresses, everyone at the table slowly notices that Kikyo looks like she had a fight with a wolf at some point, but nobody mentioned it. At least not before the conversation was interrupted by Kovak receiving a call, "You're shitting me!" He hangs up and asks to borrow a bike, rushing out after Kat gives him a nod. As Kovak walked out, Marcus suggested that the pack's territory was much too large and they should cut it down. Stark promptly replied, "You're insane, shut up and sit down!" Before Marcus had time to reply, the air was filled with the sound of an Uzi firing in the parking lot, bringing the sound of Kovak's motorcycle engine to an abrupt end. The entire pack runs outside to find Kovak bleeding profusely and two men standing outside a caddy with weapons. Stark stops in his tracks and one of the two men starts to immediately convulse before a shotgun rings out from Stark's left. The convulsing assailing manages to unload his weapon into Kovak while the other returns fire toward the shotgun blast. Marcus bolts for the HumVee while Kat lights and tosses one of the two Molotov cocktails she'd forgotten to use in the warehouse toward the two men, engulfing one completely. Kikyo notices where Marcus is heading and follows while Rigel charges the less crispy man, shifting into garou form, but misses him. Stark concentrates for a moment and the space around Rigel begins to distort to his advantage. The mysterious shotgun-wielding ally finishes off on the flaming man as the other dives into the caddy and slips it into drive, slamming on the gas with his hand. Marcus gets to the HumVee has to wait for Kikyo to catch up with the keys. Kat runs up, lighting the second Molotov, and manages to toss it into the Vehicle. Kikyo reaches the HumVee and starts it, but Marcus decides to shift and intercept the Caddy personally, flipping it on a side. Stark, seeing that the fight is almost over, calmly walks into the diner and begins glancing around at the patrons, who start to comment to each other about the events that just unfolded. Some say how they didn't know a movie was going to be filmed here, others make grave comments about the gang violence getting worse each day. The newcomer pulls out his cell phone and makes a call, "Yeah there was a car accident outside… Ruth's Diner…" He finishes with some short instructions and enters Ruth's, following Stark to the booth in the back. As he approaches it, Ruth says, "You're not supposed to be here." "I'm not with them, got very important news," is his reply as he hands his gun to her, handle first. Marcus ensures that the two in the flaming car are dead as Kikyo drives the HumVee full of weapons away from the scene. Rigel storms over to the vehicle and knocks it back onto its wheels before shifting back. Kat manages to get some sweatpants and a sweatshirt for the, once again, naked Rigel. Marcus rushes over to Kovak, still pinned under the bike, and is saddened to find he didn't make it. Kat stands next to Marcus and the two stare and mourn for a moment. Marcus states that they have to do a death ritual for him, Kat agrees and calls Kikyo to return quickly for the body. They manage to get the body in the back of the HumVee and drive it down the alley and over to Kat's garage before the Police Sirens get too near. They stash Kovak's lifeless form in the garage and slip back into Ruth's just as the police vehicles arrive. Stark and the newcomer, who introduced himself as Mark, are already in the back of the diner, sitting across from each other. With some slight difficulty, Stark managed to realize that Mark is a vampire, but the wolves smell it immediately. Marcus sits and Mark tries to make nice, but Marcus claims that he's, "not letting you out of my sight." A man in a uniform approaches the table looks to Mark, who gives the officer an explanation for the accident. The uniform immediately walks out to ensure nobody is able to disprove the explanation. Marcus then demands, "Explain yourself!" Mark calmly starts with "You know how people have been going missing? I know where they are and I'm not with them…" He then explains that the vampires responsible for the disappearances are coming for the pack next. He was being introduced to the group, and was to go through initiation, but intends to "turn them down." When asked if he knew Kovak, since Kovak was in training, Mark said that he had only heard of him. Then returns to the issue of disappearances, stating that he is an hour late for his first meeting with the group in question and invites the pack to "raise hell". Kat asks who the people are, Mark replies, "I'm not naming names." Kikyo hastily writes out a text message to Marcus with "We could get help." Marcus doesn't check his phone when it vibrates, too busy berating Mark with comments of distrust and demands for proof. Tired of listening to Marcus waste time, Stark walks away from the table and calls Walken. "Yeah, I got a lead on the missing mages, can you send me anyone to help with a fight?" Walken asks, "What's the timetable?" "Five minutes." Walken lets out a long sigh at that, states he'll need at least then, then asks for Stark's location. "I'm at Ruth's." "Oh, then hand the phone over to Ruth, that's who I needed to call." Stark returns to the table to hand the phone to Ruth, who walks away and talks to Walken quietly. While waiting for Ruth to finish with the phone, Stark listens in on the conversation at the table again. "There were a dozen there last time… and three dozen werewolves chained to walls." Mark fills in more details about what the possible situation might be. As Mark tries to describe the location, Ruth returns to the table, giving Stark the phone and says she'll commit two mages. Then she grabs a napkin and begins drawing the location Mark was describing…