Vampire: The Masquerade - Nirvana

Then when it came to take actions, the conversation in the room had again been steered into a useless political argument, and the confession of truth from Skelter had added complications. At first when the CI of this Gangrel Judicator at Last Round saw this boy talking to Anarchs and them heading for Tremere Chantry, they thought he knew the exact location of the plague-bearer—Brother Kanker, but it turned out to just be about Damsel's hiding place.

Knowing that was definitely good enough for Nines and Jack, but the Camarilla agents by then had more concerns than just getting Skelter: the Judicator made a proposal of using him, as a bait to draw Kanker out…or a hostage to threaten him to surrender.

And that just escalated the conflict. Now the Anarchs were screaming heartless children-murderers, while the Camarilla Kindred accusing them of missing the greater picture, but the most bewildered side in this whole mess was the Tremeres—as the supposedly only force that was safe to use against the plague-bearer, both Nines and the Judicator wanted them to be on their teams, and it just seemed like both would be a terrible choice: to stand with Anarchs would be definitely political suicide for the clan, especially considering Tremeres were already the least trusted in the Camarilla because of their "secrecy"; But Strauss was also most unwilling to see Tremeres' connection with Nines' people worsen like this, too, when it was finally getting somewhere, thanks to Leona.

As for Leona, while everyone was concerned about public relation issues, she couldn't help but feel sorry for Skelter, who was sitting there, speechless, with his head down. She remembered that feeling, from the trial, where everybody was arguing about how to deal with her life, but no one was actually standing up for her…even the one who insisted she should live.

They were both pawns, used in the battle of ideologies…at best.

Suddenly something came to Leona's mind, giving her a light of hope about solving this dilemma facing the Tremere clan, and asked Skelter: "Did you ever hear anything from Kanker…or the Sabbat soldiers, about the weak points of plague-bearers or the…zombies they were making?"

If there was such thing that could be made use of, then them Tremeres wouldn't have to be torn between the two forces, thus problem solved.

Looking at the expectation in Leona's eyes—the only one in the room who ever cared enough to give him some chances to speak for himself, Skelter tried his best to scavenge something from his troubled memories, and fortunate for them, he did: "I think fire to them is deadly…"

"Well that's no use, boy," Jack shrugged, "We are all like that."

"I know that! I mean like it's much worse for them, they literally become ashes when touching it, not just get bad sunburns." Now that he got all the attentions, Skelter seemed much more confident, "I think this is the thing that's bugging them now. They want to keep experimenting to get rid of that."

This was a very interesting discovery, and Strauss confirmed it: "It matches with what I found on Paul. Whatever the Tzimisces did, the infected is dead and still in decomposition, but the muscle cells are still kept alive by the 'altered' Strings of Curse from the plague-bearer, to support their movements, and the strings themselves are on the fringe of Cremation…and very ignitable, to some point"

When Kindred are dead, there will be a special red flame with golden halo that burns on the strings and turns their bodies into dusts, a process many scholars call "the Cremation". Nobody really knows what causes it, but lots of people believe that the fire is a sacred belonging of the Archangel Michael, as is recorded in the Book of Nod, and it will descend whenever the life of a vampire is ended for the total cleansing of its existence in God's world—something that is written in the Strings of Curse ever since the beginning, like the gene of it.

Nobody is bothered by the Cremation, really, because it helps uphold the Masquerade: Kindred won't need to worry about bodies being found by humans after a street fight. However, in an unexpected situation like this, it actually became more useful than just a automatic stiff cleaner.

"Then we will just need some flamethrowers. Nothing too troublesome." Feeling a bit awkward about the disgraceful and unnecessary quarrel before, the Gangrel Judicator cleared his throat and continued, "But we still need to know at least a range of area where the plague-bearer could be to do the search…"

So finally, they got to the point of real actions. As Skelter pointed out, because of the appearance of Brother Kanker, the only way he could travel without catching attention was through sewers, and based on the "hide-and-seek" place Nines pointed out on the city map, they deducted all possible sewer routes from the slum Skelter spotted Kanker following Damsel to this destination, and the Regent immediately called the Prince about the update on this situation. They would need more people to cover the routes.

Some people still harbored doubts about Skelter's fidelity of the information, but the way he didn't even bother to respond to those suspicions somewhat served as a contrarily convincing support of him. Skelter simply walked towards Leona, who was about to take off with Nines to go directly to Damsel's hiding place, and said:

"I want to join you guys."

While the Camarilla were about to send people for the plague-bearer, Leona would go with the Anarchs to get Damsel out of danger as soon as possible—and just in case, Strauss sent an apprentice who was very good at defensing Thaumaturgy like the blood armor with Leona, to make up her flaws in self-protection.

Nines looked the dirt and cuts Skelter got on his face when he was trying to escape from Sabbat's scrutiny, sighed and reasoned with him: "Listen, kid, I'm sorry about being edgy before, and I appreciate your help, but no matter what it is it's going to be bad for you. If you are with us, Kanker won't let you go for your betrayal, and if you are with him, we won't let you go, so…"

"You guys assumed Damsel hasn't been caught, right? What if she is?" The boy showed quite a sharpness in heated situations like this, "Are you really that sure about the safety house she's hiding? If she is caught, then it will be much harder for you guys to fight him, and I can be a hostage you used for bargaining."

"…"

A room of a.d.u.l.ts went silent, stared at the kids with all types of complex emotions, feeling more or less astounded by the…carelessness of self in Skelter's words. Leona mulled over his offer and observed his expression for a few seconds, then nodded with her permission: "OK, then, you watch out for yourself."

Seemed couldn't believe what she just decided, Nines intended to oppose it, but Jack just tapped his shoulder and beckoned him to shake it off: Time was the essence, they didn't have any more for disagreements.

So after everything was settled, the Kindred went on their own way, and the Chantry was back to its usual tranquility. On Nines' RV, people started to get themselves equipped, putting on firefighter outfits and checking the flamethrowers given to them by Jack. These were quite "non-professional" stuff, and some of the flamethrowers were even painted in colors, made it look like the props used in some theme parties.

"This spells Anarchs…" The Tremere apprentice complained in a lowest-possible voice about his old, smelly suit and crappy weapon, and was immediately bit back by one of the Anarch vampires:

"Well if you don't like our shit just give it to me, Mr. Cammy Fashion, you have your spooky blood magic anyway."

"Yeah, I could use one more suit against the fire and that Resident Evil junk."

"I'd stand ten more. Planning on being Baymax in this one…"

As they chatted away, the RV was driving straight to Damsel's hiding spot: an old, fancy Asian restaurant that had been abandoned in Koreantown. It was the place where Damsel would shelter the homeless children temporarily, give out food and play hide-and-seek with them. It was a three-storey building with a very complex structure intended for an indoor garden, and there was a huge underground cold storage room, too.

Initially Damsel picked this place because it would be great fun for the kids and they could easily stay out of sight if someone like the house owner paid a surprise visit…Right now, however, they could only hope that it would help stall the plague-bearer that was after her. When they arrived at this restaurant, there was no sign of fighting in there yet, which reassured everyone a little.

"It's a huge building." Leona looked around and asked Nines, "Any idea where we can start?"

Nines was at lost, too, but then Jack suggested something: "Maybe the place she would usually tell the kids to hide when they have visitors."

"Then it will be the cold storage."

It was a sheer guess, but luckily it was a good one—when they reached the empty storage house, Nines gave a tentative shout, and Damsel's voice was coming out from a crack on the wall:

"…Nines?"

She was hiding in an empty space inside, covering herself up with a piece of already-fallen wall surface. Just as everybody was glad about their mission being accomplished easily, and Damsel was able to come out in relief, a twisted, animal-like voice creeped out of the water-leaking whole on the floor:

"Tsk, tsk, tsk…look what we have here..."