The Problem With Mopping...

[Razor]

In the interest of making others aware that no one is safe no matter where they are, I want to share an experience I had last night.

It was 10:30 PM C.S.T. or 22:30 Zulu for those of you that prefer to think in military time. I know because I looked at the clock on my cell phone before heading outside. I had just finished my detail, which for this week was mopping, and I was in the process of taking the mop bucket out. I still had the mop water in it as I took it out and rolled it outside, around to the side of the residence hall, where we store the mop, buckets, and squeezers.

Let’s be frank… I hate this campus, because I can’t even carry a simple pocket-knife which most of the time I use as a tool, rather than a weapon. It makes me feel naked, because I’m one of the few honest people around here. I know there are people on campus who –do- have weapons and have no qualms about using them. Anyway, I got the feeling something was up as I came around the side of the building. By this time, there are usually a lot of people out and making noise, especially since it was warmer last night than it has been for a week or two.

The persistent feeling of something not being right was bugging me, that and the feeling of being watched. My stomach wanted to knot up, which is usually a sign of a large amount of negative energy in the area, but due to some personal issues, I thought it was my own negativity coming back to haunt me. I pulled the squeezer out of the bucket and turned to toss it on the wood palate (sp?) that is in the area we use, and I turn back, feeling the air behind me move.

I know that person wasn’t there before, and if they just appeared out of nowhere without a sound, then they’re likely there to do me harm in some fashion, especially since my senses are sharper than most and I would have heard this person. No, I just felt movement. Most people don’t even feel that. Out of reflex in the turn I snapped out a side-kick at gut level with it angled upward to lift the person up off the ground and throw them back. I caught a small exclamation of surprise from the person. The impression I got was not that they didn’t expect to be attacked, but that my attack was effective. They still landed on their feet, in a half crouch and looked up at me. Then I saw the crimson eyes and pale skin, as he opened his mouth to hiss loudly, revealing glinting fangs.

It’s been almost 11 years since I’ve had vampire trouble. I thought I was done with them for a good long time. Already I was calculating that this was probably a Secondary, hopefully a lonewolf. Without waiting I grabbed the mop out of the mop bucket and flung a shower of water in its face, starting its skin burning. I knew it wouldn’t burn so for very long, as soon as the water stopped moving. I swung my make-shift short staff around, but he got his arms up in time. The force of the blow splintered the end, but that was what I wanted.

Back when I was first finding out about the paranormal and was having vampire troubles, I was also doing some serious martial arts training, and as a recourse I developed a system for fighting vampires, and I still remember it well. The thing laughed, and lunged at me, saying something about it being nice to have a challenge for a change. As it lunged I stepped to the outside, already spinning, to drive the broken and sharp shaft toward the longtooth’s chest, and I hit him square on, running out the back of the shirt he was wearing. He shrieked, and dropped to his knees, clawing at his chest to try to dislodge the 4 foot stake through him. Then I saw him start to concentrate, and I figured he was going to try to turn into mist to get it to fall out, so I gave the wooden shaft a good kick, and then dumped the mop bucket over him. That broke his concentration and within a few moments the skeleton was left behind. I made sure the rising sun found him this morning, and hopefully when I get back to my room tonight, I will go see if there’s anything left.

This spells bad news though… if there are vampires loose in the area, no offense Mrs. Darken… I like the ones that use their nature for the right reasons, but this one, I’m sure wasn’t one of the ‘good guys’.

[Celeste Darken]

This spells bad news though… if there are vampires loose in the area, no offense Mrs. Darken… I like the ones that use their nature for the right reasons, but this one, I’m sure wasn’t one of the ‘good guys’.

None taken. Give them no mercy, for they will give you none. Have you learned anything more? Was the vampire a rogue, or was it a scout? And was this the first time it had shown itself on your campus? Its comment on finally having a challenge suggests that it has done this sort of thing before, that is, not a new vampire. But has its meals been in your area, or was it a wanderer? Just some more food for thought . . . sorry about that. Just some more angles to think through.

[Razor]

No need to apologize, my lady... Indeed, it -is- food for thought. I really didn't have time to do a more thorough investigation at the time. Tonight though, I'm going to do some poking around, and though I won't be able to get off campus, ShadowStalker isn't the only one who can RV, and such. I have some other sensitive abilities to play as well.

And no, this was a new face. I think that this one wandered in from San Marcos. He's probably been feeding off of bums and such, and decided for a better tasting meal. Though someone showing up dead on campus would raise a lot of questions so I doubt he would have drained me completely. However, I'm in no mood to falling prey to being turned. Maybe a few years ago, I would have entertained the idea... But not right now.

I hope it was just the one, wandering on his own. I really do. Last time I dealt with vampires, there was a whole gaggle of them in a really small town. That was not fun, especially since I didn't have much experience with the supernatural back then. Now, it's not quite the same story, but I know that I'm not in the shape I used to be in. Back then I was 200 pounds and in shape, and training Tae Kwon Do and Jeet Kune Do 5 days a week between an hour and five a day. Now, I've spent the last few years being a computer geek, and have fallen out of shape.

Oh well, this gives me something to do and focus on, considering I've been working on getting back into shape for the last few weeks.

[Willie Long]

I was also doing some serious martial arts training, and as a recourse I developed a system for fighting vampires....

Sounds like Eskrima or Silat would offer useful training.

He shrieked, and dropped to his knees, clawing at his chest to try to dislodge the 4 foot stake through him. Then I saw him start to concentrate, and I figured he was going to try to turn into mist to get it to fall out...

That surprises me. I thought they couldn't do anything if you nailed the heart.

[Bert_the_Turtle]

Yeah, maybe this thing was a little more than a vampire. Usually they just poof to bones.

[Ron Caliburn]

It depends how much of the heart you get. A good square hit and they drop into corpse mode. A little piece and it shakes htem up for a few moments but they can try to free themselves.

[Razor]

Yeah, Ron's right on that one. I didn't hit it dead-center of the heart, but I did manage to peg it pretty good.

And yeah Willie, when I was training in my younger days I did use some Escrima and philipino kali. It really comes in handy, especially when trying to be able to get to the heart from each side of the body and of course at least the moderately accessable angles to hit the heart. Bone is a pretty good shield when using a stake.

[Razor]

Update: I did some snooping around mentally, using a cross of RV, AP, and Telepathy. I didn't find anybody else running around with that loner at the time, but I did see the trail of negative energy he left behind and either he's been hunting the area for a while, or there's a group of them.

If it's a group, I really hope its a solitary pack and not one with a Master. Last time I had to deal with a group of vampies... well it wasn't good. Before their Master had made his deal, he was a Summoner, and he still had many of his summoning abilities. We had hell for a while. It was almost a 3 month mop-up, after the Master got stabbed through the heart with a silver knife.

[Razor]

(( Long Post coming up...))

Update: Well, the campus safety officers are in an uproar.

I don’t think I’m dealing with a lone group of secondary vampires. I think I’ve got a Master on my hands. I was walking back from Tejas and Guadalupe dorms when my danger sense, or 6th sense as some may refer to it as, went off. I had just picked up some CD’s from a friend that I let borrow. I guess between dealing with my leg, and an ex-girlfriend that was in the area, as well as focusing on getting my stuff back, I lost track of my environment, not checking rooftops. I only got about a block before they struck.

I was just outside the Independent Living dorm cluster when I heard the creak and flap of large wings. I knew it wasn’t from any bird, because I’d heard the sound before. I turned and spotted the underbelly of a large flying animal, which I made out to be a bat. I remember having an ‘oh shit’ moment, but then I decided to stop and wait for them as they were already coming in on a dive. At the last second I rolled out of the way. Rolling across a paved parking lot covered in loose gravel really hurts, especially if you dive first and land on your hands. Both of them slammed into the ground with loud, deep thuds, cracking the sidewalk as I was getting back to my feet. By now, I could feel my equivalent to ‘The Rush’ coming on, mostly because I was being attacked. I could feel their presence quite easily. I remember bringing to mind a concept that my teacher, Dr. VanDusen had stressed so much, “That part of me, which is you…” It was a simple reminder, in this case, that I could move them as extensions of my will and mind. I raised my hand more out of instinct than anything. With a quite strong telekinetic shove I sent my would-be assailants tumbling across the pavement into the grass.

I lowered my hand, and then reached out again with my mind toward the bus-stop, more specifically its tin roof. Using telekinetic strength born of desperation I peeled it off like the skin of a banana and sent two pieces hurtling toward them, wrapping the whining metal around their heads. My mind was racing at lightspeed between commanding abilities that hadn’t been used in a year or more and figuring out my next course of action. I was out in the open with –no- weapons, and nothing to defend myself with. I couldn’t be in a worse spot.

Both of them staggered from the unexpected metal wrapping around their heads, but already a steam or smoke was coming off their skin and the wings shrank down, thickening and shortening into arms, and the legs elongated and the barrel shaped body slimmed down and shortened, forming into the torso of a human and the head shrank some and reformed into the face of a person. One male, one female, and it confirmed now that I was in fact dealing with vampires.

I know that hand to hand with a vampire is foolhardy, even if I am a trained martial artist, and specially trained to handle these types of people. However, I haven’t actually had the opportunity to try Chi against the supernatural in a very long time. I owe that inspiration to Willie. The female got out of my metal towel first, ripping it apart. She threw the shredded metal at me with a flat spin, edge on. It seemed to cut the air as it sailed my way, curving in a deadly arc. Reacting with sub-conscious speed and efficiency, I used the telekinetic power I still had built up and pushed it to the side with a small nudge sending it sailing past to sink into the Security and Corrections Trade building a good forty yards behind me. Safety is still wondering about that one. The male ripped off the tin as well wrapping it into a ball and dropped it. A moment later he was airborne as he jumped as high as he could, intending to land on me. If they hadn’t figured it out by now, they soon would that I was my high-school’s champion at dodge-ball and well… I still have it.

Following one of my usually bad habits when it comes to sparring I took a good step back. Normally backpedaling would be bad, but it gave me the moment I needed to charge a large ball of positive Chi in my right hand, and send it slamming forward with a full power, full extension palm-strike to it’s chest. It’s chest caved around the blow as if he had been hit by a bowling ball hurled by an angry god and flew backward, its chest smoking as if burned by sunlight or a holy symbol. It landed with a hard thud, writhing in pain.

By then I knew people had to be watching as they were used to seeing me spar. That and with the shrieking of the tin, and the sound of it being crumpled up and another piece making a very loud bang against another building… and another thud, I know that the very large handful of people out there had to have seen it. I even heard some clapping in the distance as well as some cheers. I guess people thought they were seeing some sort of show, not a fight that could go really wrong really fast. My danger sense went off again. Where was the female!

Cold, murderously strong hands seized my chin and right shoulder , yanking me backward and down, bending me backwards and cranking my head to the side so fast it almost gave me whiplash. Nearly tore half the muscles… off. I heard her hiss and felt her breath on my skin as she came in for the kill, then I heard ‘Ong-Bak!’ from behind me, and felt a large impact. I see her stumble past, only to get a foot planted in her back that actually made her arch backward, sending her sprawling. It was my friend, and one of my partners in crime, Crab. Yes, that new member that registered yesterday, if you guys got to see him is the same guy. He’s been doing this stuff for almost as long as I have. He’s also trained in some of the same ways.

“Damn, ‘bout time you showed up,” I muttered, then spotted motion out of the corner of my eye. It was the male again. I got a good look at him this time. He looked to be about 27, probably was Italian in decendancy, stood 6’ even, weighed 176 or so but hit me like a Mack truck as he took me down like a defensive lineman. I may have been falling, but I was no retard. I went with it, rolling backward while I grabbed his shoulders and planted my feet against his stomach. As I hit I kicked upward, pulling along his shoulders to get his rotation going. Sure enough, he flew upside down like a little birdie and slammed into my RA’s windshield on her car. (Oops…) Continuing the motion I came back to my feet, which resulted in a loud pop… and a consequent “FUCK!” from me. My knee had popped out of place again, and then right back in. “Foster, you okay man,” Crab asked as he evaded several claw swipes. Luckily I’d used what I know of Tiger and Leopard against him enough that he didn’t have much trouble. Think he might need a new shirt though. I got to watch her growl with frustration and lunge at him, arms outstretched to grab him… Crab smoothly trapped her arms and circle stepped to pull her into a circular motion, then brought her hands down, toward the ground breaking her connection to it with her feet, sending her into a spinning flip to land on her side, her arms pinned. Then he jumped, and this time I saw the Chi gather around his foot as he came down, slamming a side-kick into her knee, dislocating/hyper-extending it in one direction. ‘Good, he knows to use positive,” I muttered as I turned back just in time to see a set of claws sweeping toward my face. I spun to the outside just barely evading them, then seized my telekinetic abilities again and blasted him with as much force as I could muster. It lifted him off the ground and sent him flying into the light pole, knocking out the light and bending the pole by a good twenty degrees.

I turned back to look at Crab and the female, shuddering to look at her knee. Not in sympathy, but knowing how bad that hurts on a mortal… especially since I had the pleasure of something similar Sunday. That’s when I saw him (Crab) step back and his stance change… bouncing on the balls of his feet slightly. I could tell he wished he had a rapier or saber right then… maybe a stake or dagger. I wish I had one too. At this point I was happy that it wasn’t 2 on 1 anymore. I’d sparred enough with Crab to know that he could easily handle himself when it ‘got real’. That’s when I turned to our coldest-of-the-cold foes and shouted, “You’re gonna let two cripples beat you that easily?”

“Don’t mock ‘em, man! They’re mad enough already!”

I shrugged and ignored Crab. I wanted them to be so mad they weren’t thinking, acting on instinct… making mistakes. Yes, I was thinking of Celeste. Sorry my dear lady but I have seen it before, and I recently read your encounter with the hunters and it came to mind. I know I have to use whatever I can if I want to live. Anyway… I reached out mentally again, looking for the area we store the mops and shit in, and grabbed two of them and sent them sailing our way, one to me, and one to Crab, which happened to hit him in the side of the head. “Sorry!... Stake the bitch!”

I suppose you’re wondering why Crab has that nickname… and of course the cripple comment. Well… remember my knee? Yeah. As for Crab, his right hand is screwed up… or is ‘a gimp’ as he puts it. He can still use it, but it sort of resembles a crab-claw, hence the nickname. Aaye!! Anyway!!! *shakes head hard as if to clear it*

Without waiting he picked up the mop and spun it twice, catching her across the head once, knocking her back down some as her knee had already started to pop back into place. Gotta love vampiric regeneration. (No, not really…)Then he brought the mop end around across her head, snapping off the end, leaving a sharp pointy hurty painful stabby thing of death. I really didn’t have time to look either as already I was turning around to have my mop grabbed. Thankfully this one was not so smart and grabbed the middle section between my hands. I would have turned it to the side and flipped him, but undead muscles corded with unholy strength and my makeshift weapon went nowhere. I planted my right foot against his chest, standing on my left despite the pain and instability in it, and pushed. The handle snapped, coming off in two sharp ends. I staggered back, catching my weight properly, leaving the vampire in surprise. I tossed the mop head at him as a distraction, grabbing it with TK to make it fly pointy part first. He got his hands up to guard himself, but the make-shift stake still went through his hand, making him hiss. I followed right behind with my own stake. Desperation is the mother of invention, as it is the mother of survival instinct. I struck, expecting wood going through skin and grating on bone. I got air. I stumbled forward and immediately dropped to my knee, making it look like my injury had just caused me another problem. Yeah the drop hurt, but it was a ruse. I swept backward and bashed his ankles together dumping him to the dirt. The force of my sweep brought me around and I flopped onto my hip, and charged positive chi into my leg, some of which got stuck at the knee, alleviating the pain, but the rest blasted out of my foot with great force, and I heard bone crack. It shrieked and grabbed its head, as I came up into a one-knee position, and jammed my stake down into its chest as hard as I could, trying to pop it through the ’10 ring’. A few seconds later it dropped into ‘corpse mode’.

I glanced over to Crab and saw him staggering in mortal combat with the bitch. She’d apparently grabbed the stake when he went to stab her and was using her grip on it to hold him at bay. I grinned an evil grin. I charged Chi between my hands, and began ‘flaring’ it. That is an advanced energy manipulation technique to make it visible even to Joe Schmoe, and it also ups the power and sometimes damage. A blue-white ball began to form between my hands, until it glowed like a chem-light (see glowstick). I then hurled it forward with both hands, looking remarkably like a Kamehameha wave from Dragon Ball Z, or a Hadoken from Street Fighter (closest examples I could think of). It slammed into her chest and sent her sliding back through the gravel, igniting the grass in the resulting shower of sparks, as well as a bit of her gray hoodie and black tanktop she was wearing. That’s when Crab took a running start and stabbed her in the chest like he was going for a world record pole-vault.

Yeah, I don’t think we’re dealing with a lone group of secondaries. These two were sent. I searched their belongings and I found information to ID me, as well as a pic. I’m not happy. Crab is a little. I quote, “Stabby! Stabby! Poke with the pointy! Vampire die again!” … Before he was here at Job Corps he was his coven’s main protector. Never thought I would have need of his skillz for this kind of thing. Guess I was wrong.

More to follow I… We will stay in touch.

[Willie Long]

Damn. How did you explain the double "murder" to your audience?

[Shadowstalker]

Have to ask the same question just how did you not find yourself in Jail?

[Bert_the_Turtle]

Errr, and arrest them for what? Stabbing two assailants in the chest and rendering the flesh from the bone in a matter of seconds?

[Shadowstalker]

I think Willie and I were thinking more about witness statments. Not to metion the Idea of some hapless M.E. coming along and removing said stakes.

[Bert_the_Turtle]

Remember, people don't want to believe in this stuff. It'll be written off as an off-stage play that got out of hand or something.

[Razor]

Well, see right now everybody is about to be sent home for X-mas break. Crab and I almost got sent home for 'horseplay'. (Fuckin retarded if you ask me.) As for the double 'murders'. The property damage is 'under investigation.' They have pulled up camera records, but the camera records show Crab and I struggling... but the camera doesn't pick up what we were struggling with. (Gotta love cameras with mirrors in them.) They can't explain how the RA's windshield got broke, and the lamp pole got bent. Nor can they explain the bus stop loosing its roof and wrapping around ... -something-. They also can't explain a piece of it flying across the parking lot like a make-shift shuriken.

I think they're going to explain the bus stop and stuff as 'unexplainable wind phenomenon.' As for the other property damage, I don't think they have anything for that. The skeletons don't show up on camera either.
As for students statements, they are being disregarded as a result of 'heavy hallucinagenics use'. The skeletons, neither of us have been questioned about, but ... I think some Suits will probably show up soon.

I dont know.... *is very tired right now*

[Willie Long]

I want your luck. No way I could get away with that shit.