After a quick trip to the back of his car to pick up the supplies, Miguel darts across the street to the warehouses and slows down his pace to a walking speed as to not arouse suspicion. Luna’s voice electronically reaches his ear as he walks around the back corner of the property, crouching down and producing a pair of pliers to cut his way through the fence.

-”I can’t see anyone near you, but sword guy went inside.”-

It takes a moment or two of effort, but Miguel eventually makes a cut high enough for him to pull back and sneak into. Along this side of the building was a single door with a rather simple looking doorknob on it. Miguel crouches and starts to turn the knob, but it doesn't budge. Locked. He swings himself out in front of it and takes out a set of lock picking tools and a small flashlight. He shoves the flashlight in his mouth and turns it on while working the door. A small click of success is heard, and he withdraws his tools, returning them to his pocket.

Miguel barely speaks above a whisper, just enough to let the transmitter in his ear pick up on it. -”Luna, how many people do you see? And can you see anything inside?”-

The werewolf pauses for a few seconds before responding.

-”Uh...not really. The place has a lot of boxes in it. There’s a truck outside. But I’ve only seen about...six people, counting sword guy.”

Miguel puts an ear to the door, listening for any sounds or voices, but doesn’t pick up on much of anything.

-”I’m going inside. Watch the front.”-

He opens the door a tiny crack and peeks inside cautiously. As Luna said, there were indeed boxes, including a pallet full of them stacked directly in front of the door. Wasting little time, Miguel crouch-walks inside and quietly closes the door behind himself and stands up behind the boxes and gets a feel for his surroundings. The warehouse wasn’t well lit, which was indeed an advantage, but he spots the office for the place, which is on a metal walkway above his current location. He looks for a way to get up, but the ramps for the office place were on either side of the main entrance. Considering he was towards the far back wall, sneaking up there might be difficult. It also didn’t help that the railings up there were well lit and provided no cover, meaning that he’d be easy to spot from a great distance.

On the ground floor, there were dozens upon dozens of pallets filled with nearly identical looking boxes. They were packed in fairly tightly but left enough room between each one in order to allow single-file foot traffic. After sneaking around a few of the pallets,

Miguel spots a way up for someone at the back of the warehouse; a singular ladder, that was, unfortunately, in the middle of an aisle and therefore easily visible to anyone who even glanced in that direction. Miguel silently curses as he sneaks his way over it, making sure that nobody saw him crossing lanes.

-”Luna. How many people do you see now?”

Miguel waits tensely for a response.

“Five. I still don’t see sword guy.”

Footsteps draw near Miguel as he freezes up. Without being able to see, he had to guess where probable sword guy was going. He waits patiently as the footsteps draw closer and closer...and then the door where Miguel had entered from opens.

-”Oh, there he is. Sword guy went out that door. I can’t see him anymore now though.”-

Miguel breathes a sigh of relief as he sidles forward, hiding behind the crates nearest the ladder.

-”Is it safe to go up?”-

-”I...think the guys outside are just talking. I think they finished unloading from that truck.”

Miguel grabs the ladder and climbs it as quickly and quietly as he could manage, sneaking up onto the higher walkway. Cursing the lack of thick safety rails, he quickly moves over to the corner office, eager to get out of the open. The room itself had a window in the door and looked dark inside, minus the pale glow of sleeping electronics. Miguel finds the door unlocked and sneaks inside, letting out a huge sigh of relief for his luck. Lockpicking that in his position would have been a nightmare. The flashlight is turned back on as he looks over the office interior.

The dark office looked pretty basic with no sign of anything out of the ordinary. The owner of said office is fairly unorganized as papers were scattered across the room, though none were on the floor. A computer sits in on the desk in the center of the room, as well a single shelf pinned against the wall and a pair of filing cabinets. Miguel decides to try the computer first, reaching over to touch the keyboard.

The computer’s screen lights up, and a password box appears, demanding input to proceed.

Miguel curses a second time and leaves the computer be, putting his flashlight in his mouth and sorting through all of the papers. Most of them appeared to be shipping manifests, but closer inspection mentioned shipping a material called ‘Rust.' In fact, several of the manifests mentioned this material. Miguel’s cursory glances also found that this stuff was shipping from other countries, and seemed to be heading to...clubs. The Silvernote Jazz Club, Ravages, and the Dragon’s Inn, to name a few. He grabs one of the papers that mentions a recent overseas shipment of Rust and folds it up, putting it in his back pocket. Miguel then leans over to open a few of the drawers in the desk to check their contents.

The first few contained more papers, none of which were any more illuminating than the last, but the bottom-most one appeared to contain a bottle of red liquid. Miguel grabs the bottle and inspects it, spinning the bottle in his hands. The liquid is thick and greatly resembled blood, but the label on it read ‘Brandy.'

Confused, he put the bottle back and closed the last of the desk drawers, sighing. He clicks the flashlight off and scratches his head. This wasn’t going as well as he hoped. Miguel places his hand on the wooden workspace and scratches his head, unsure of what to do next. He could try to interrogate those guys, but if those were of the same sort of weird guys that invaded his home all those years ago, then it wouldn’t go well. He walks around the other side of the desk and starts to speak but as he does he hits a power cable coming from the wall and unplugs it with a small spark of light.

Miguel stoops over to investigate the outlet when a voice speaks into his ear.

-”Hey...uh...all the guys went inside. I can’t see anyone anymore.”-

Miguel’s pupils shrink. The last thing he needed was an audience when he was at the most critical part of the escape. He slowly moves towards the door and peeks out of the window. The warehouse looked just as it did before, but he couldn’t see anyone either. He eases out of the door and onto the catwalk at about the same time an accented voice catches his attention.

“You know, I’ve never been fond of rats.”

Miguel turns to look at the one who spoke, only to find that the whole crew was up here. They’d been hiding in his blind spot. Miguel turns towards them and closes the door, reaching to his side and pulls out his combat knife. The dock workers were all pretty tough looking guys, well muscled with larger builds than Miguel, heavy jackets and work slacks of varying types. The one who spoke is very clearly Russian, with blond hair and a cossack hat.

The Russian man snickers at Miguel’s knife and elbows the nearest man to him, pointing at it.

“Oh-ho! A knife. He has a knife. That’s cute. I’ve got one of those too you know.”

The Russian pulls out a butterfly knife, flipping it around expertly to unsheathe it’s blade, smirking at Miguel’s stoic expression.

“So what will it be human? Are you going to fight me? Please say yes. I do so enjoy prey who...resist.” The man’s tongue rolls over his teeth, showcasing his sharp, thick canines. Miguel stiffens as he notices that not just the Russian, but all of these men had larger than normal canines.

Miguel smirks towards the Russian before taunting him, curling a finger back towards himself.

The larger man takes a step forward and swings the weapon at a downward slash, to which Miguel easily side steps and stabs him three times in quick succession, once underneath the shoulder and two more in the gaps between his ribs. Miguel follows up with a swift knee to the groin, sinking the Russian to his knees for a moment, clutching his goods. Miguel stands back to admire his handiwork, still with his knife at the ready.

“Those fancy tricks might mean something if you knew how to use that thing.”

The Russian growls with rage, completely out of breath from the minor scuffle. He clutches his bleeding side with a hand as he struggles to get to his feet.

“Bfah! God...dammit! Just! Get him, GET HIM!”

The other four brandish weapons of their own and come after him. The first one who attacks wields a heavy monkey wrench, swinging it wildly to the side. Miguel takes a step back as the tool misses him entirely, bashing the glass of the office door window wide open. Miguel swings his knife into the man’s belly, cutting it open before driving a fierce fist into his head, sending him to the side, off of the catwalk and onto the wooden pallets below.

The next two attack in tandem with a smaller hunting knife and a pair of brass knuckles. The knuckled man jumps at Miguel, ready to drive a fist into his face but Miguel intercepts him by simply using his free hand to grab the man’s throat. As he comes down, Miguel shifts his weight to the side and drops him on the metal safety rail of the catwalk, rattling it so hard that it reverberates throughout the warehouse. Miguel drops the now limp attacker just in time for the hunting knife to miss stabbing his chest by mere inches. He retaliates by spinning and driving a hard elbow into his gut, forcing the attacker to double over. Miguel then takes a step back and brings his leg up, dropping an ax kick on the man’s head, driving his face into the harsh metal grating of the catwalk.

The last man brandishes a length of lead pipe and charges straight toward Miguel. Immediately noting his form to be sloppy, Miguel raises his cybernetic arm high and blocks the attack outright. Miguel then goes to work, using his other knife-wielding hand to simply stab the man several times in quick succession, poking holes through each one of his ribs and spurting a decent amount of blood from each stab wound. Miguel then drives another strong fist straight into the man’s nose, sending him tumbling back and onto the catwalk, gasping and dropping his weapon off to the side, the pipe clattering on the floor below.

Miguel steps over the various groaning men he defeated, taking the time to violently elbow the Russian that started it in the face, knocking him over. He walks hurriedly towards the front ramp of the catwalk, eager to get out of here. A voice speaks into his earpiece.

-”I still don’t see sword guy. Have you spotted them yet?”-

Miguel steps down off of the catwalk and starts making his way towards the front door when a figure in black dashes towards him at an unbelievably high speed. Miguel barely has time to blink before the figure is in his face, and they strike him with enough force to toss him out of the large entrance ramp, rolling head over heels. He blinks to clear his blurry vision, as the hit had nearly drove all the air from his chest. He sits up and sees the figure standing over him, staring down with that sleek looking motorcycle helmet.

The figure reaches up to take off their helmet and immediately reveals himself. Now that Miguel had a close look at her, it was easy to see that this Asian girl is in her mid-teens. She was very lean in stature and had nearly no feminine attributes to her at all, but like the others, she also had elongated canines. Her hair is cut short with a spiked bit near the top, but other than that she didn’t appear to wear any cosmetics. She speaks with a growing smile, smugly crossing her face.

“You are new to this, aren’t you?”

At about that time, Miguel looks past her to see the various men he’d just beaten up start to stand and walk over towards him, a few of them snickering while others were more than ready to get their revenge. Miguel’s head finally clears up, pushing himself to his feet. He shakily takes a few steps back from the group, holding his knife at the ready.

The girl rolls her eyes and swipes her hand to the left. Miguel feels an intense wind push him off of his feet and into the metal wall of the warehouse. He growls in pain as his knife is dropped somewhere out of his reach.

“You just don’t get it. You were supposed to run.”

Miguel tries to stand, but the motorcycle girl kicks him straight in the stomach, dropping him to the ground. He looks up as the men join her, the view being something Miguel was all too familiar with. She speaks again, letting her teeth glinting in the moonlight.

“Buddy, listen. Lemme level with you for a second. I don’t know what you think you are doing pulling that cute commando shit back there but it’s not going to fly. Little hard to be sneaky when you are leavin’ footprints underneath fences. In case you haven’t figured it out yet, we’re vampires old man. And let me break a few misconceptions for ya. I’m not here to sweep you off of your feet, I’m not here to glitter and look pretty and I’m not here to make bleh-bluh noises like some idiot.”

She kicks Miguel hard in the chest to dissuade him from even thinking about trying to stand up again.

“But I will tell you what I do. I drink blood. I live in the night. I enjoy my life and, that includes beating my fair share of ass, including yours. Say your prayers now, because buddy boy, you aren’t going to get up from this.”

Sakura starts driving her foot into Miguel, who instantly curls up into the fetal position to block as much damage as he could. The other men join in the party, stomping on whatever body part they could reach.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Luna had done everything Miguel said. She followed his instructions and gave off any important information she could. She even stayed up against the wall in the snow and did her best to remain quiet otherwise. Amongst all the video games she played, she didn’t particularly enjoy the ones based around stealth. It was a frustrating mechanic to her and one she just felt bad at. Too many rules. Too many restrictions. But watching Miguel sneak his way in was rather fascinating, even if she lost track of him once he got inside.

That all changed when Miguel is sent bodily out of the front door by 'sword guy.' Luna’s ears shoot up in worry as he tried to fight them, but the other guys showed up, and just as suddenly as sword guy showed up, Miguel was flung into a wall by an impossible force. Was that...telekinesis? What was going on? She immediately decided that she needed to get down there and as quickly as possible, screw waiting around for him to be beaten to death.

She considers the somewhat awkward fire escape for a moment and darts towards it, grabbing the edge of it and climbing down between stories for speed. She heads to the end of the alleyway towards the warehouses and double checks the empty streets for any sort of pedestrians. Everything seemed empty at this moment, with not a moving car in sight. Luna goes on all fours as she runs across the street as quickly as she could, going around the side of the Vyers warehouse. She easily leaps straight over the tall fence and lands on the property and does her best to imitate Miguel, sneaking over towards the adjacent parking lot.

She gets enough of a line of sight to tell that they were all pretty much crowded around him, kicking the crap out of Miguel’s curled up body. She whines internally as she considers her options. She might be able to rush in and take them all out, but that’d still be five versus one, and they all had weapons. And somebody there had some sort of supernatural ability that could be an issue. Was there anything she could use as a weapon? The werewolf scans the parking lot for anything useful, but minus a few cars and a sword guy’s bike, there wasn’t anything she could...wait. Luna turns to regard the compact car nearest to the beat down.

Could she throw a car?

It’d be worth a try at least.

She sneaks around behind the dark green car in question and lifts up the back end of it. Oddly, it felt somewhat easy to pick up, and within a few seconds of shifting her grip, she was now standing firmly underneath it, the car above her head. A smile crosses her muzzle. She takes a step forward and leans back as far as she could manage and throws the car, sending it sailing over several dozen feet, flying straight for the gang of supernaturals.

The vampires take a step back to admire their handiwork, the bleeding mess that was Miguel. The abrasions were nothing he hadn’t taken in the line of duty before, but the worst was certainly the bloody lip and nose. The men grin as Sakura gestures towards the downed Miguel.

“I think we’ve tenderized him enough boys. You know Scar’s rules about intruders, so you guys can get your feed on-”

Sakura suddenly realizes that there is something big...heavy..and metal flying nearby her. And that she should probably move...immediately. Out of pure reaction, Sakura backflips out of the way of the car as it lands on the other five men, squashing them to the ground in a symphony of crunching noises. Miguel immediately flips out as the car JUST misses him by a mere few inches, drawing his legs into the wall of the warehouse.

“SHIT! Shit!”

The car bounces into the side of the extended wall of the front of the warehouse before slamming back on the men, all of whom were writhing in pain. Sakura finally hits the ground and looks towards her men, a small blood pool forming beneath the sedan. She turns to look at the werewolf that threw it, and as soon as she did, a black sports bike slams into her face, knocking her over. She rolls backward and gets back to her feet almost instantly, staring at Luna.

“Hey! Did...did you just hit me with my bike?”

Luna grins as she draws her hands back from the recent throw before calling back. “I don’t know, you tell me, what’d it taste like!?”

Sakura leans her head back a little bit as the insult zings back towards her, nodding. “Cute doggy. Cute. I didn’t think a bunch of hippies like would come this far in the city, but I guess you guys do something besides sit in the woods and chant all day.”

Luna blinks innocently as she the comment breezes past her, not knowing what to think of it. She simply stares blankly at Sakura, clearly lost. The Asian girl reaches towards her katana and slowly unsheathes it, intentionally running her thumb over the blade. A line of blood trickles down the blade and turns it’s silvery sheen to a crimson red one, almost magically. When she’s done, the whole blade is red and drawn, and she points it towards Luna.

Sakura speaks in a mocking tone. “Done talking already? Whatever. You’ve got to go out for the night, whether you like it or not.”

Luna comes to a startling realization as she gets a good look at Sakura.

“Wait, sword guy is a sword chick?”

Sakura’s peers at the werewolf harshly. “...What’s that supposed to mean?”

Luna holds up the palms of her hands in surprised protest. “Uuuuuuuuh nothing! Just mistook you for...n-nevermind.”

Sakura frowns and charges Luna almost immediately, and that same blinding speed from before is present, with her crossing the gap between them in a mere second or two. She brings the blade to bear, aiming to cut the werewolf in half, but Luna reacts in the knick of time, rolling out of the way to avoid being hit. Just as soon as she turns around, the female vampire is on her again, and without something to parry with, this was going to get hard. Sakura swings several times in just as many seconds, but Luna continues to back out of the way and on the last horizontal swing, jumps over her head.

Spotting an opening, Sakura spins around and stabs her sword forward, catching Luna as she lands. Even so, she only manages to graze her side with the blade, cutting through cloth and fur alike, drawing blood. Luna lands and immediately jumps away as she holds a hand to her bloodied side. Sakura smiles at the landed hit, looking down at her blade as it absorbs the werewolf’s sanguine liquid and starts to glow with a red aura.

Luna gulps as she watches that, pressing her wound shut. “Well, that’s not good…”

Sakura smiles coyly. “For who?.”

Miguel finally recovers as he stands up with a pained grunt, one of his eyes starting to swell shut and his lip swelling up. He could move well enough on his own, but he’d be limping for awhile. He considers just leaving but this might be his only chance to check the last place that might have something interesting before blowing it to hell; the moving truck. He hobbles himself over to the open door of the vehicle and scrambles inside, quickly looking around for any personal effects. In the center seat is a panel phone, though picking it up and turning it on presented him with an empty battery symbol on the screen.. He grumbles in annoyance and gets a quick idea. He fishes around in the glove compartment, sorting through various small papers and air fresheners before finding a bundled panel phone charger. He slides both of them in his pocket and hides in the truck, turning to watch the girls fight.

Luna attacks first this time, rushing towards Sakura with a fist raised, but Sakura simply trips her, sweeping her foot around to throw the werewolf off balance. Luna tumbles to the ground and rolls to her side to get up, but as she does Sakura swings her blade into the ground in an upward motion, firing off a blade of scarlet energy towards her. Luna sidesteps it as the energy hits a shipping container and cutting through it cleanly. The werewolf lands with large pupils as she stares at the damage, turning back to look towards the vampire’s annoyed expression.

Luna points back towards the newly created hole. “Excuse me. What? Like what?”

Sakura frowns at her. “Will you just friggin’ hold still already? Good god.”

The aura around Sakura’s sword fades, returning it to its normal red color. Luna watches that and sighs. With any luck that might mean no more long range slicing. The vampire girl charges in again, slicing and swinging her katana with swift strikes. For some reason, the attacks weren’t hard for Luna to dodge. It’s like she knew where they were going, so she could just endeavor herself to just not to be where the blade was going to be. Even with all this going on, the fight was...exciting. Almost intoxicatingly so. When Luna was human, she wasn’t much for physical combat, even if those were her favorite kinds of video games to play. But here? This was a side of her she didn’t even know existed until now. This was...fun.

Luna’s dodging skills were impressive nonetheless, with the werewolf bending, rolling, jumping or sidestepping every single one of Sakura’s attacks. Growing angry that she was striking nothing but air, Sakura focuses and goes for a sword lunge straight for her opponent. Luna’s back bumps against the car she had thrown earlier, so when she ducks underneath the blade it plunges into the car’s door, getting stuck.

Sensing a wonderful opportunity, Luna grabs Sakura around the middle and holds her tight. She struggles for a moment to break Luna’s grip, but it’s immediately obvious that the werewolf is far, far stronger than she is. Sakura grins sheepishly towards her and speaks through clenched teeth.

“Be gentle.”

Luna’s expression is a little more serious but still quite humorous, speaking through similar but far more intimidating clenched teeth.

“I make no promises.”

Luna leaps into the air with Sakura in tow, tearing her away from her sword and leaving her weaponless. While high in the air Luna shifts Sakura over her head as if she were going to dunk a basketball, with Sakura panicking, sweeping her hands rapidly, trying in vain to grab at some part of the werewolf.

“WAITWAITWAITWAIT WE CAN TALK ABOUT THIS! I DON’T WANNA BE DUNKED!”

Luna grins as she brings the both of them back down to the ground, body slamming Sakura into and through the canopy of the car.The top half of Sakura’s body is in the interior, and her bottom half is sticking out of the top of the car. The sedan rocks with the impact as it’s pierced, the glass on all sides of the car fracturing but not breaking. Worst of all, Sakura didn’t even look hurt just...disappointed. Mostly in herself. Luna knocks on the car’s window quickly with her knuckles, getting Sakura’s displeased attention. She leans into the car window, putting her large black nose up against the glass and whispers loudly.

“Nothin’ but net.”

Sakura sighs and facepalms as Luna happily skips away, leaving the vampire upturned. She...just sort just hangs out here for a moment, not making much attempt to move as the recent turn of events had to be seen to be believed. Seeing the fight end, Miguel steps out of his truck and winces as he hits the ground. Luna instantly comes to his side and helps him stand, slinging an arm underneath his own to prop him up.

“Hey, Mr. Morales. Are you alright?”

Miguel simply stares at the side of her face like he’d never seen her before. “...Remind me to never. Ever. Ever make you mad.”

Luna grins shyly, showing off all of those sharp teeth. “Did you find what you were looking for? Can we go?”

“Ah..hold up. Need to get rid of this stuff first. Make sure that...nngth...I teach Scar a lesson.”

The two walk over towards the front of the warehouse and Miguel pushes off from Luna, stepping up the loading ramp. He opens his vest to expose the grenades he had brought for this very purpose. He pulls the pins on each one of them and tosses them into the warehouse, quickly moving back to Luna.

“Let me onto your back and carry me to the car. I don’t know how much of a racket that’s going to cause.”

Luna leans down for Miguel to climb onto her back and once he was properly boarded, she takes off, leaping over the fence. As she’s crossing the street, the timed grenades detonate and the explosion they create nearly blow the walls off of the warehouse. Luna’s ears cry in agony at the sound of the boom, it being nearly enough to drop her to her knees temporarily As she reaches the alley she looks back towards the Vyers warehouse, seeing a huge plume of blue smoke rising from the building, as well as a raging inferno of fire.

Sakura cringes as she feels the sudden heat of the hit her legs, and while they were toasty, she was unaffected by the blast. She pulls her legs together and slides through the hole that held her upright, falling into the interior of the car. She reaches the door and unlocks it, stepping out of the vehicle crisply. Sakura leans over to check the condition of the dock workers underneath the car and finds nothing but ashen remains. She sighs again and reaches up towards her sword and yanks it out of the car with an annoyed snort. She flicks the blade out and throws off the enchantment, turning the blade back to silver and sliding it back in her sheath. She reaches into her pocket and pulls out her panel phone and puts in a call towards Scardino, angrily pacing over to where her bike landed from hitting her in the face.

Scardino picks up rather quickly with loud jazz music blaring in the background. His voice is soothing but grating at the same time, like velvet sliding over jagged rocks.

“What is it you require? I am quite busy at the moment.”

Sakura winces at that.

“Uh...so about those shipments? Yeah, I don't think you'll need to be worrying about them anymore."

Scar goes quiet for a moment, letting the statement sink in before speaking again. "Meaning...what exactly?"

Sakura hesitates, knowing full well that his reaction was likely to be...negative. And that was putting it lightly. Scar speaks again in a far more annoyed tone.

“Either tell me now or I come down there. And trust me, I will be far less hospitable if I have to make that trip.”

Sakura panics. “No-no-no! Uh! No that’s...fine. You are fine. A mortal dude and his pet werewolf came in here, killed everybody except for me and uh...blew...up..one of your warehouses.”

A moment of silence passes over the phone as she relays that information, Sakura gulping in fear. Her shoulders retract a bit as she expected yelling but instead a calm voice speaks.

“...How much of the shipment is gone?”

Sakura turns to look back towards the hellscape that was once a warehouse. Only fire lives in there now.

“A-all of it.”

Scar’s voice grows faint for a moment as several series of curses could be heard. Suddenly Scar’s voice explodes back onto the phone, forcing Sakura to lean back a bit to hear properly.

“What the hell do I pay you people for!? Don’t you understand that plans are in motion, things are finally picking up and I have an endgame to worry about? Specifically, for a highly trained guard who’s supposed to be an assassin, you have been surprisingly shitty track record at both, don’t you?”

Sakura finds her bike just then. The black vehicle is still in one piece, but it’s been scratched all to hell and back thanks to sliding across the asphalt.

Scar’s voice roars again. “SAKURA VYERS, you listen to me, and you listen well. One more time. You make one more mistake. One more misstep. ONE. MORE. And I will end you and your chances of advancing in this family. Do you understand me?”

Sakura sighs as she pulls her bike up from the ground and straddles it. She speaks defeatedly, shaking her head. “Yes. Yes-sir.”

Scar calms down. “Good. yes. Very good. I will be sending your next assignment over shortly. Please do surprise me with competence.”

The conversation ends with a beep as sirens scream in the distance. Sakura starts her bike and drives, stopping over by the spot where her helmet fell and slipping it back on her head. She speeds off from the burning warehouse, which had started to collapse in on itself now, focusing on the road in front of her.

She puts drops her foot on the accelerator, pushing the bike as fast as it would go as the sirens closed in.