Owner	Pose
Jacqueline Falsworth	It's late. Most Manhattanites have retreated to their condos and apartments, or disappeared into bars and nightclubs. There's an old frieght elevator entrance behind the Waldorf that leads to a secret entrance into abandoned rail tunnels beneath New York. Earlier in the evening, an old drunk was found passed out and slumped against it. He looked like he'd been attacked by dogs. Or maybe big cats. Either way, given there aren't packs of dogs or big cats roaming the city, it was weird. Having been at a function at the Hotel, Jacqueline became aware of the earlier commotion. Now, some hours later, after the police and the EMTs have gone, the speedster follows her nose and, using super strength and speed, manages to open that door -- sheltered as it is by a construction canopy that conceals it from the street -- and disappears within. She lowers herself down into the old rail tunnels. These aren't subway tunnels. No. There's an old railway station down there. These rails once connected New York to Chicago. It was used by presidents and industrialists. Now, it is a ruined, broken mess. As she steps into the darkness, Jaqueline pulls a handful of what appear to be small ball bearings from a pouch on her belt. She shakes them sharply in her hand and then tosses them away from herself. Each ball is about the size of a small LED light, an they glow with faint red light. Enough light for her darkvision to work. She pauses near the base of that elevator, crouching. A gloved finger trails through a dark, sticky substance. She raises it to her nose and grimaces. Blood. A few hours old. That's not good news.
Jacen Knight	New to the city or not, some things just mark themselves as necessary to have a look into. The ambulance passed through here earlier and Jacen saw something moving that he couldn't identify. He's seen a few strange things in life, but far from every weird thing. Abandoned rail road tunnel it is and something less than human looking was moving around. Curisoity is not the greatest personality trait so the cowboy arrives back where he saw the strangeness. A normal person would have went home, instead he follows the impulse of seeing what it was. Pushing his hat back from his face a little and looks around. His hand slips into the strange pouch at his hip, tucked behind a kinfe pouch and focuses for a long moment. What he is doing is anyone's guess, but though he doesn't see her at first Jacen's attention moves towards where the woman investigates as he he knew she was there all along. He walks towards where she is, making just enough noise so he doesn't startle her. Might as well see where things stand.
Nazo Sarwani	It's easy to lose track of time when sightseeing for the first time in Manhattan. By the time Nazo realized how late it was, the final ferry to Happy Harbour had been and gone, stranding her in New York City. This being the City that Never Sleeps (like, you know, almost every city in the world), she decided to make the best of things and explore. Why was she behind the Waldorf at night? Two words: short and cut. It seemed a way to get to her next destination more quickly, so she dove into the gloom, blinking as her eyes adjusted to the darkness. That's when a door opening by what appeared to be application of brute force caught her attention and she melted into the shadows, her black abaya, hijab, and niqab helping her in the task, only her dark eyes visible, as well as the red sash holding the ensemble together. A woman seems to have opened the door, and slid inside. Then a ... Cowboy? America is such a strange place. Urban cowboys now. Nazo decides to follow suit, flattening against the wall, quite literally, and sliding down as a mass of sand and dust, flowing with only a faint susseration giving any clue that something is movement. Like the sound of a dry wind in a desert. She slithers her dusty way down the steps, reforming in a dark corner to watch the strangeness unfold.
Jacqueline Falsworth	Jacqueline is aware of the heartbeats around her before she's aware of the people themselves. Garbed in a form-fitting anti-friction suit, including a tight hood and goggles, both of which are currently pulled down around her neck, she is a dark figure in a dark corner. Still, she rises and turns toward the newcomers. "Hello," she greets, her tone quite, even, and very British. "I wasn't expecting company." Still, company, it seems, is here. "Tell me you're here to help, and not going to try to add to the blood on the floor here, hm?"
Jacen Knight	He looks around the area and nods, replying softly,"Evenin'." That accent marks him as not from around here,"Caught sighta somethin' weird earlier'n thought it might be interestin' ta see what it was." Good luck making that make sense. He considers her for a moment and then looks back down towards where the nasty things might be,"Gotta say I wasn' expectin' company either so I reckon it's luck. Good'r bad remains ta be seen. F'r both of us." His eyes widen and he looks back towards the sound of sand on sand. He looks exactly where it would be even if he doesn't see the person in question yet.
Nazo Sarwani	"I am observing," the woman's strongly accented voice says from the darkness. "I saw curious behaviour. I thought I would watch." Nazo doesn't seem like she's planning on stepping out anytime soon. "I have no intentions of interfering ... unless evil is done. Then I will step in and make the evildoers rue their choice to go against His will." Yes. It appears there are people who speak this way. She doesn't appear to be speaking ironically. And she's not leaving her corner just yet either.
Jacqueline Falsworth	Jacqueline arches a ginger brow at the woman's words. "Suit yourself," she says to her. To the cowboy, however, she gives a tight smile. "And I think you may be right, lad. I don't know if we'll find evil down here, but I'm quite certain we'll find predators. That poor sod earlier looked half torn apart. I haven't seen wounds like that in a while. And when last I did, it was bad news. I'm rather hoping this turns out differently." She's also rather doubting it will. She starts to move slowly across the space. Her sharp eyes and attuned nose follow the droplets of blood where the drunk must have fled from further along the tunnels. "That way," she says, raising a hand to point the way. "That's where the trail leads." She glances at the cowboy. "Not to be indelicate, but we are in a city full of metahumans and adventurers of various stripes. You wouldn't happen to be among them, would you?" In other words: Anyone else got some hidden talents here that might be handy in a fight?
Jacen Knight	He smirks a little and listens to the assessment that Jacqueline makes,"I didn' see th' body, just some sorta...shadow that wasn't natural at all." he replies,"Connected to something like I ain' ever see b'fore." So decisive and well spoke. Her question about abilties causes him to smirk a little wider. "Whatever it is, there's somethin' large down th' way a bit, larger'n seems natural." he replies,"It's breathin' heavy. I dunno if it's outa breath'r just needs ta breathe heavy." Looking back in the direction of the other person he comments,"That one sounds like sand an' more sand against itself." Apparently his hearing is ridiculously adept for starters.
Nazo Sarwani	A wave of sand spreads out from where the woman crouched in the corner, flowing in the direction Jacqueline pointed toward, slipping forward, around, over, under, and through obstacles, moving forward to the edge of where she can see the other two before reforming. "I might have one or two," she says with a certain grim irony in her voice. "What are we looking for?" Aside from a quick glance behind her at the other two, she strains her eyes and ears in the gloom ahead looking for any hint of light, listening for any hint of sound. "If things become chaotic, I can veil us from the sight of those who would do you harm." A ghost of humour enters her voice. "I would close my eyes, however, were I you and becoming veiled. Or wear goggles." The voice hardens. "And if evildoers seek to do harm I will rend their flesh from their very bones." You can almost hear the eyebrow raising in question. "Is that 'handy' enough for you?"
Jacqueline Falsworth	"It will do," Jacqueline replies, dry humour in her voice as she proves her Britishness in her understatement. "I'm fast and strong," she tells them. "And I heal very quickly. So, please, don't fret if I get injured. It won't last long." She looks off down that bloody corridor. "As for what we're hunting... if you can hear it breathing, that means it's already hunting us. Under London, once, there were a pack of shugs -- a type of demonic canine creature originally from the moors that adapted remarkably well to the sewers. You can think of them as a sort vampiric werewolf, but without the human characteristics. If I'm right, and I really hope I'm not, this may be a New World variant." A beat. "That, or they've migrated." Also not a fun scenario. She rolls her head slightly and looses her shoulders and limbs with a little shake. "Right then. Let's take a look, shall we?" She gives another tight smile to the pair and starts off down the tunnel.
Jacen Knight	Listening to what she says Jacen nods and removes something from the medicine bag. He hangs it around his neck, a necklace that appears to be made out of an animal's claws. He pauses a moment and focuses. An instant later he nods and mutters,"Whatever it is...I dunno." he admits,"Th' magic comes with a radar f'r hearin' an' a ridiculous amounta strength." He doesn't sound like he is bragging either. His attention moves to the other and he studies her for a moment, considering her. A nod and he admits,"Reckon chaos's prolly waitin' just around th' bend. Could be helpful." He matches Jacqueline's stride, though his steps fall almost silent on the floor, a natural stalker or hunter it seems,"Reckon we shall." he replies and settles an easy stride, ears out for any change of movement,"I reckon once this's over I wanna have a talk with ya 'bout th' nasty monsters ya done talk 'bout like it's normal. First rounds on me."
Nazo Sarwani	"The worst monsters are human," Nazo says bleakly to Jacen, "though the threat from them is rarely as direct and as immediate as these creatures the woman we're following describes." She sighs as she looks down the dark tunnel. "Do not worry about harming me either." The inky shadow that is her figure in the low light turns its head toward Jacqueline, eyes visible to any who can see in the gloom. "You appear to have taken charge. You appear to know what we're facing. What shall we do?" The eyes turn away and she's back to being a black outline with a red sash. "I can lead on as a decoy and pull it out of its stalking, if that helps."
Jacqueline Falsworth	"McSorley's," Jacqueline tells Jacen. "On East 7th St." She gives the lad a speculative look. "I reckon," she says with a lopsided smile, "you'll feel at home there." He can buy the first round there. It has a rough-and-tumble, cowboy feel in many ways. "You can call me Spitfire, by the way," she tells the pair. "It may be more helpful than just, 'hey you!'" She pauses as the tunnel grows darker and the scent of blood becomes thicker to her sensitive nose. "If it's a pack of shugs," she says, "we need to separate and isolate them. Alone they can be dispatched quickly. Break the neck or sever the head. In groups, they have near-human intelligence and will work cooperatively to bring down. They've got claws like wolverines and teeth like bears. And they're supernaturally strong." She looks about. "I'm going run ahead and see if I can lure one or two after me. I'll bring them back this way and you can ambush them." Providing no one objects to that plan, she's off less than a heartbeat later, her speed so fast that the only way to know where she's gone is the brilliant trail of heatless, golden fire that trails after her like a sort of fiery afterimage. After that... it won't be long before the growls and howls of the hunt resound and echo through the tunnel.
Jacen Knight	There is a nod when she mentions the place that a drink can be found,"Spitfire." he repeats,"I ain' got nothin' fancy, jus' Jacen." He idea of a pack mentality get a nod and he looks up that way,"Neck breaks'n head removal got it." He starts to point out that the other offered to go ahead, but the speedy departure gets a soft laugh. He looks to Nazo and shrugs,"I gotta say I like a woman with impulse issues." He moves into a lower stance and he moves quickly towards the sound. He isn't hyperfast, but he runs fast enough. An athlete obviously. He moves back and around to try to separate one and get on the nastiness of it all."
Nazo Sarwani	"Spitfire." The code name is internalized with an oddly almost-ceremonial repetition. Followed by repeating Jacen's name. "I go by ... Habub, I guess, will have to do." Hesitation. "I've done work under that name before," she finally decides to say. She follows the golden fire, thankful for its light for quicker navigation. In the light her transition from black, almost shapeless gown to dust storm is visible as her body dissolves, followed by the gown, to be replaced by a whirling, writhing mass of sand. The sand moves forward in ropy psuedopods at good speeds, like that of a top-flight athlete running, before reforming into her body later. Her strategy is different from Jacen's. She's going straight at a knot of the creatures, if possible, reforming into sand in a headlong rush, like a desert storm after which she takes her codename, in the small.
Jacqueline Falsworth	Over drinks, Jacqueline might give the young man a less ostentatious name to call her by -- when she's not in the dark red anti-friction nanomesh suit that defines her as Spitfire. As it is now, she displays just why she has that name. The speedster flashes through the midst of the pack, perhaps some ten or fifteen creatures in all. Her flames, even though they fad behind her, make the hulking brutes clear. They're twice the size of a large wolf. Red eyes, red ears, black bodies. She breaks the neck of a pair of the creatures, flinging them forward toward where the other two approach. This brings the other creatures to life. They dash after her, shying away from the fire, but following the trail nonetheless as she leads them back to the others.
Jacen Knight	Jacen doesn't have that flashy speed, but he is fast. The nearest aggressor moving at him gets a slight side step and he moves into a grappling mode. He slips his arms around the creatures waist and throws it, dropping it on its head and driving it into the ground, a happy crunch sound when the neck breaks. He turns to look towards another as it starts to close,"Gotta say you're'n interesting first date Spitfire." he more or less teases while settling to grapple with another. Probably the second one won't fall for the same trick so it's a good thing he has more than one.
Nazo Sarwani	Nazo's attack is simultaneously both more direct and less direct than Jacen's. The sandstorm goes straight at the closest creature in the cluster. More direct. But then it swarms over it and ... invades every breathing orifice: nostrils and mouth, filling nasal cavities, mouth, throat, and lungs with cutting, abrasive sand moving at high speed like a sand blaster. From the inside. Much more indirect. The result is more explosively gory than Jacen's attack, while being approximately as lethal. Nazo (or Habub) flows out of the creature's shredded lungs and breathing passages and reforms outside, watching it cough blood while it desperately tries to do what is no longer possible for it. Breath. "A curse I bring upon you and your siblings and your progeny," she says calmly as she watches the creature die. From behind her another leaps, rending claws and tearing teeth aimed at her, teeth about to wind up clamped on her neck.
Jacqueline Falsworth	Jacqueline moves at speed, simultaneously herding and separating the pack. Her fire, heatless though it is, is visually enough to cause the black creatures to shy away and balk. They snap at her heels as she passes, always too late to catch her. She also circles back toward the two 'youngesters' (by her century-old reckoning) periodically to ensure they're not overwhelmed. But once she's seen how they handle the first one or two to come at them, she becomes far more confident in the separate and ambush plan she proposed. She returns to the center of the pack, claws extending from her fingertips as she begins to rip the throats of the rearmost of the group. The creatures are trapped -- death ahead and death behind, fire weaving in between.
Jacen Knight	To the educated eye, Jacen is a master wrestler. To the uneducated eye he sure looks lucky. The next one draw fast and he grabs it belly to belly and then throws it straight up into the ceiling, crushing the skull and waiting for it to fall. Once the creature hits the ground, he stomps on the throat and crushes the windpipe and spinal cord. He looks up to see the one closing on Nazo,"Watch'it." he calls towards her and is too far away to help. His consideration causes him to get tackled by one into the floor, though he doesn't fall completely. A twist and the creature is thrown from his back and both rise to go at each other again.
Nazo Sarwani	There's a glint in Nazo's eye as she looks up at Jacen. Paired with a wink. She knows she's in "danger". The jaws close around her neck and snap on ... nothing but sand. Her body explodes outward and into a vicious, tremendously localized sandstorm that widens to engulf two more of the beasts. Horrific howling can be heard over the sound of loudly rasping sand that is stained red, screams of monstrous agony filling the echoing tunnels as 'Habub' does something unspeakable (and thankfully invisible) to them. The noises stop. The rasping sand stops seconds later, pulling back into a woman's shape, leaving three bloody, skeletonized masses in her wake that drop to the ground, one still twitching ever so slightly. "Thank you," she says dryly to Jacen. And she turns, looking for more targets, ready to rend.
Jacqueline Falsworth	By the time the trio have finished their work, a dozen or so bloody, canine-esque corpses lay scattered over the tracks. Jacqueline's claws retract, her black-orbed eyes returning to their usual blue as she returns to the others. "These won't bother anyone any more," she observes. "But that was a large pack. They didn't arrive here by accident or happenstance, I wager." She'll need to look into that. "It was good you showed up," she tells them. "I appreciate the help. I'm going to do a sweep of the tunnesls, just to make sure we've missed nothing, but I think we're good. For now, at least."
Nazo Sarwani	The lack of further movement from creatures who aren't her (possibly temporary) allies allows Nazo to relax, turning her eyes on the pair to assess them. "These creatures are not native to this land, then, I take you to mean?" she asks Spitfire. "It is good, then, that I chose to come to this land myself. Perhaps I can make myself of use." She pauses and takes a breath. Her eyes wrinkle like the barely-visible top of her nose. "The stench is overpowering here. These are filthy creatures. They do not deserve to grace His Creation." Yes. Spoken with the capitals and all.
Jacen Knight	A few dead things make for an otherwise dull day more intersting. THe last square up on him gets caught in a front face lock and Jacen falls on his back. His foot goes to the critter's chest and he monkey flips it...without letting go of the neck. Another crack and he is done. Standing up he shakes his head,"Gravity'n body weight's a bitch." he mutters to the creature and then nods to Jacqueline,"Reckon we done made a mess. Glad ta help. Ya want me ta back ya up'r rather make sure we c'n clear out without trouble?" He looks at Nazo and nods,"You're a good hand'n a scrap' right 'bout th' smell."
Jacqueline Falsworth	Nazo is certainly right about the smell. "I know... someone... who can deal with the clean-up here," Jacqueline says. "I doubt we'll need to worry about random citizens stumbling across it -- aside from the occasional indigent, looking for shelter, such as that poor sod earlier. And they're not likely to stay where the blood is quite this thick." She shakes her head lightly to Jacen. "I'll move faster on my own. Quite frankly, if I do discover something more down here, a fuller assault team might be in order." A beat. "Preferably one with occult or supernatural experience." Which might explain why she happened to know what the monsters were. "But, it seems to me, we're all owed a drink of something after this." She looks to Habub. "Even if it's simply a strong tea or rich coffee." She's not sure that the woman refrains from alcohol, but she's willing to wager so, given the devout indications she's made thus far. "I shan't be long. I'll meet you back at the elevator." And, with that, she's gone in a flash of spitfire.