Sabbat : The Next Chapter

[Keira Kelly]

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7 MONTHS LATER
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Since the destruction of the rival Sabbat pack, other packs in the area have held our pack in higher esteem.. or maybe it was just fear, but in any case, our status amongst our brethren has risen in the past months. Desanic and Nitocris have also departed, going back to their own lives though it wouldn't be unfathomable for them to show up at other times when called upon. The Fight Games are going well, now set to lower league matches once a week and one higher league night once a month. As word has spread, more and more Cainites show up for these, to watch, bet and even to try their hand at combat. We've had to make rules about deaths in the ring though, ways to limit true Cainites being killed as it would have hurt the packs and the Sabbat cause too much to lose too many good fighters. Humans, animals and shovelheads though are a different matter.

Jenn sat just on the outside of the arena in the warehouse they had converted those many months ago. Her pet sat slumped in front of her, leaning up against one of the metal cargo containers that made up the walls of the fighting pit. The last fight of the night had not gone quite as she'd hoped and Brutus' wounds told the whole story. He had one in the end but had taken a lot of punishment; so much so that many of the bone plates that had been crafted on his body were broken and one of his arms had been severed. Jenn swore softly to herself as she looked over the mess of her pet. Someone in the crowd had lifted the limb as the opponent had thrown it over the barriers but that didn't really matter, a new one could be regrown easily enough once Brutus had enough to feed on. She stood up, trying to figure out what to do first. At least all the visitors had left already and the only ones around were the rest of her pack. "What am I going to do with you..." she said to Brutus.

"I'm sorry, Mistress." he tried to say past a broken jaw and missing teeth. Half of his face was almost caved in and he had lost the eye on that side as well.

She offered no sympathy and felt none, just annoyance. "How did he almost get the better of you?" she asked.

Brutus shook his head. "He was good but... that wasn't all. He could take my hits and hit back. He got a lucky shot when he hit my eye." he replied.

Jenn frowned angrily. "That wasn't it though..." she said. "I saw. Something distracted you." she said accusingly.

Brutus growled at that, not at his mistress of course, but at what had caused him to miss the block he should have taken. "A bright red light, Mistress. It blinded me for a split second." he said finally. He had not wanted to cast blame, to try to excuse himself in front of his master.

"Damn." Jenn exclaimed, beating a fist into the container and sending the ring of metallic echo through the warehouse in anger. "A laser pointer.." She'd been to the side of her pet and hadn't been able to see the red dot that would have been visible from other angles. She was going to have to have a talk with her packmates, see if anyone saw anything. She looked down at her pet again finally, only now noticing the fear and dejection he was showing at having failed and her reaction. Some fear was all right but not this much, she decided. She knelt again beside him. "It wasn't your fault, my pet." she said soothingly, stroking her pet's head and face gently. "Not this time. Just make sure almost losing doesn't become a habit though." she warned.

She stood again, about to try to help Brutus up but realizing he wasn't much fit for anything. Telling him to stay where he was, she strode over to some nearby cages, likewise made from cargo containers with bars welded over the open end. She opened the lock on the nearest and threw the barred door open. There was still one meat-bag cowering inside. He would do. She grabbed him by the arm as he tried to pull away, tried to cower into the furthest corner of darkness in the make-shift cell. He was stronger than her but that wouldn't help; she cracked him in the temple with a fist and felt his body go partly limp, not unconscious but fighting it. She dragged him with some effort out and over to Brutus, dumping the near-dead-weight into her pet's lap. She saw him stare at the man hesitantly and then look up at her. "You still won." she said bluntly. "Eat. Heal yourself. When we're done, maybe we can talk to Priest Basil about some way to keep this from happening again. Come find me when you're done." she added, and then strode off, looking for her packmates.

[Aedan Travius]

Nico had finished dealings on the port when he and Isis arrived at the Arena. He'd recently been turned on to a connection to a corrupt Tremere bloodline who had, through their blood alchemy, made cannabis that cainites could use, and thus far, they were the first in the area to have access to it. In the past few months alone it was adding considerably to the profit offered by the fights. Many of those attending had asked for harder drugs altered, but all requests thus far had been denied. Maybe one day he would pay a visit to this little chantry and show them what true power looked like.

As he watched the fight, Isis saw a dot from a laser pointer, "What the hell, Nico, look," she said, pointing to three kindred who seemed to be amused by their little prank. "Well, how cute." Nico replied. Isis began calling shadow tentacles, but Nico put his hands up, "No...I've been meaning to have a control exercise with you. Will do it at the next game, for tonight will just snag them up and cage them."

The three were leaving when it happened. One by one, they disappeared, as Nico came from the shadow, and pulled them back with him, right in the cage. The third one had just enough time to scream, but it was to no avail, after leaving him there, he came out a shadow on the other side of the cage. "You little bastards almost cost us tonight. Make no mistake, your going to die. Horribly. I'll be training my childer a control exercise to better use her shadows, she'll be helping me tear you apart, limb by limb before a cheering crowd, and after words, I'll give your flesh to our local priest to make a garment from the skin of your corpses. Depending on his suggestions, you may not be lucky enough to die at all." He walked away slowly, while laughing to himself. Isis smiled as she waited for Nico, "I love it when you play with your food." Nico gave her a kiss."Lets go find Jenn, shall we?"

When he found her, he walked up to her with a smile of the cat that ate the canary, "Your Brutus had a complication tonight, and in turn we have a spectacle for the next fight night. I caught the little rats responsible and put them into a cage till we found a proper use. I was originally going to tear them apart before all with Isis using our shadows, but I may ask Basil for his suggestions, he may decide to make them into something...more useful."

[Keira Kelly]

Jenn growled in response to the first words from Nico's mouth. She was still angry but had nowhere to direct it right at that moment. The next part stopped her dead. A slow smiled slipped onto her face as it contorted into a pleased yet sadistic look. "You caught them? How many of them?" She chuckled, a dark sound. She started walking to where her pack-brother had come. "I'm going to kill them.. tear them up piece by piece..." she began but Nico caught her arm, telling her that he was going to talk to their priest. She looked back at him, debating for a long moment whether to just slip free and find the dirt bags herself or.. no, maybe Nico had a point. Basil could definitely do worse than she could. They'd be dead by the end of the night if she got to them but.. Basil could make their lives an eternal hell.

The smile returned. "Ask Basil, then." she responded eventually. "I'm sure he could use them and give them what they deserve... and we need to have examples made so it doesn't happen again." she added but then paused, giving him a hard look as she briefly showed one of the daggers she carried. "One thing though: before he gets to use them... I want some playtime with them first." she growled. "They almost broke my favourite toy. I think I deserve some recompense." Her sadistic smile became just a bit playful. "I promise I won't kill them... They caused Brutus to lose his arm, well for now anyways, but.. I think I should show them what a limb being cut off feels like." She shrugged with an innocent look that did little to disguise itself as merely a facade for what lay underneath. "Basil may not want arms or legs.. or heads cut off, but there are other things that can be that he won't need..." she added with another chuckle. "Let's go and talk to Basil then and find out what he wants. I want my pound of flesh for Brutus' injuries as soon as possible.. Well, I'd imagine it would be considerably less than a pound seeing as how cowardly they are..." she trailed off.

[Aedan Travius]

Nico and Jenn went to Basil to ask for his opinion on the matter, "Well, we do regenerate, so long as you don't get too carried away, it shouldn't be a problem. With that said, this represents more then an isolated problem. There are riches at stake in these fights, after all, and as such, there will always been some looking to fix them. We need enforcers. Creatures that exist for the sole purpose of policing the games. I think we can make the punishment and the solution one. Hmmm...for what I'll need...tell you what, Jen, pick the one with the laser pointer, you can do the most to him anyways. I'll need only his limbs, his torso and head have no use to me whatsoever. Make them watch before I change them forever, and if you hate him enough to make him want to feel it with his friends, leave the head, I'll graph it to one of the bodies." He said with a twisted smile, "Nadia is in need of some practice, anyways, I find this very well times, very well timed indeed."

[Keira Kelly]

Jenn chuckled. "I'll leave his head." she replied. "I don't think I'll be taking any bits that they'll be needing.. probably bits they don't even use anyways.." she added. She gave a nod. "Thank you, Priest." she said more formally. She knew her place in the pack.. for now. She knew deep down now with all the teaching she had from Elisabeth that it wouldn't be enough until she could control all around her, until she had the ultimate power. It was only then that she could make sure things were perfect. It would take time to get to that point but she could wait; she had eternity now anyways. She turned to leave, gesturing for Nico to follow. "You need to show me which one had the laser." she told him as she headed for where he had indicated the captives were caged up. "I couldn't see them or even that there was a laser pointer from where I was standing at the pit doors."

Eventually they stopped at their destination. She could see three trapped inside. Despite her own abilities and Nico's powers,they were still outnumbered and who knew what disciplines these Cainites had.. but it seemed it wasn't ranged ones or else they might have been having more trouble right now. She heard a clicking sound coming up behind her but did not react. She knew it well enough to know the sound of Brutus' approach, the way his armoured plates and claws rubbed and scrapped as he moved. The sound stopped close behind her. She had told him to find her when he was done and he was being a good little pet. Well, now at least they were more than in control of the odds. She looked over at Nicolai again. "Have them out one at a time?" she asked him. Between Nico's shadow tentacles and her pet's brute strength, they would do more than enough to hold the victims down while she did what she wanted to do. In front of the other captives was even better. "Let's get one of the ones that didn't try to cheat the fight with the laser pointer." she told him.

One of the Cainites in the cage screamed out. "We didn't do anything! We didn't have a laser pointer!"

[Aedan Travius]

Nico opened the gates, calling 8 tentacles, 3 to surpress the other two, and used two tentacles to pull out the one she seemed to be eyeing, and then slamed the gate shut and locked it, letting go of the 6 tentacles that held the two still caged up.

"Brutus, be so kind as to hold this fuck down as your master has her way with him," he said with a wink.

[Keira Kelly]

Brutus looked to Jenn for confirmation to which she nodded. The armoured beast of a man did not hesitate to comply, pinning the captive Cainite to the floor by kneeling on the vampire's chest. Jenn winced but savoured the sound as she heard a few ribs snap under the weight of her pet. The Cainite struggled but it was in vain as Brutus was easily well over two times the weight of the man. Jenn knew well enough how heavy her pet was with all the armour plates and added muscle and bone that had been crafted onto him. She wrenched her mind back to the present. "So this was the one that almost cost me my pet, hm?" she asked Nicolai. When he nodded, she knelt down beside the man's head, staring at him, her smile twisted sadistically. "I don't know where you came up with the idea to try to fix the fight.. you are probably too stupid to have come up with it despite it being a not well thought out plan to begin with. And guess what... I don't care who thought it up. You did it. You're gonna pay for doing it." she whispered to him in a gentle voice, tone belying the words. She started to chuckle. "You are going to suffer for eternity.. and what I am about to do to you.. will be nothing compared.. I just want to take my own trophy from your hide before our Priest takes you off my hands."

She drew out one of her daggers, a lethal short, curved blade. The prisoner began to try to talk, to plead but she paid him no mind, instead working her blade into his mouth. He tried to clench his teeth but she squeezed the thin metal through, twisting and forcing his jaw open. The blade was far enough in that it only took one more quick twist and she pulled a fair chunk of the Cainite's tongue out and threw it aside. He could regrow it relatively quickly but it prevented him from talking for the moment and served as a warning not to try again. She got up again, totally disinterested once more in conversing with the captive and moved to the other side of Brutus, to where the captive's lower have protruded from underneath her pet's bulk. She unzipped the man's pants and went to work with her blade, carving away slowly for a couple of minutes, stringing it out as she listened contentedly to the sounds of agony being emitted before she finally allowed a quick flash of the blade severing the only appendage that Basil would not need. She heard Brutus' involuntary sound as he grimaced at what she had done; not in judgment but just male empathy. She chuckled at that, dripping the now withered piece of vampiric flesh to the ground behind her. "What else can I do without affecting what Basil needs but without killing him?" she asked Nico. She could carve him open a bit but that was risky.. too much and he would expire just from the sheer damage..

She shook her head and redid the man's pants and then stood staring at him. "Heal anything back and I'll cut it off again." she warned him. Exposed severed nerves would cause enough pain that it would satisfy her. She put a hand to Brutus. "Stand him up and hold his arms behind him. He can walk to the Priest." she said. She looked at Nico. "Can you find out if Basil is ready for his first victim?" she asked. She looked back over as her pet had the captive up. She glided over, putting her had against his groin, checking to make sure he followed her orders. He gasped in pain at the touch, making her smile. Oh, he was definitely paying for his transgressions but this was only the start.

[Aedan Travius]

"Its my understanding that our dear priest needs all three at once," He said with a cocked eye and a smile, "That was just...damn." he said with a cringe. "Well then, did you want to play with the other two, or should I get them over to our dear priest so he can get started?"

[Keira Kelly]

She glanced towards the cage and gave a shrug. She couldn't help but be amused by Nico's grimace at what she had done. Men were so empathetic when it came to that area of the body. She shook her head. "Nah. If this was the one that did it, that's all that matters to me. Their punishment for association will come at the Priest's hands." she replied. She turned her attention to the two in the cage. "You boys ever get work done by a Tzimisce?" she asked with a chuckle. "No? Well, you're gonna get one hell of a makeover!" Her smile was simply sadistic as she looked back to the offender. She hit him again in the crotch, not hard but his reaction yet again was more than what it would have been had he been whole still. "You need some help, Nico or can you handle both?" she asked. "My pet can take another if you need.." she offered. She turned back once more to the primary captive, glancing down at the severed piece of flesh still on the ground and stepping on it before she leaned in close to the other Cainite. "Okay, boy.. well, I don't know if I should even call you that anymore.. We're going to start walking. Those exposed nerves are going to chaff but if you even think of healing.. well, I'll cut off whatever I need to, how many times I need to and keep marching you around until you learn.. Got it?" she asked, holding her dagger under his chin.

She waited until he nodded. She drew back, smiling. He was going to get exactly what he deserved for trying to interfere in what was hers. She could tell he knew enough of the Tzimisce to fear what was ahead but he totally didn't want to be around her any longer either. There was no way he could win here and that was the most entertainment she'd had in weeks. Elisabeth had taught her that praise was not something to give out often but at this moment, it was deserved. "Good job in catching them, Nico." she said.

[Aedan Travius]

Nico smiled. He had far more power then he should, and it was due to his pack, the pack priest in particular had been the one with the connections to have such ambitions, and to make them happen. To catch his sire, the elder Lasombra, and to sacrifice his body so he could live. In the trade, he got all the power of his sires blood, a kindreds life of power in a fraction of the time. These poor bastards were not so lucky, "No, I only had Brutus hold that one because he's your pet, who better to hold down your victim?" He said smiling, "I can easily handle them."

He didn't handle them lightly, throwing them around and dragging the on the ground brutally with his tentacles, he delivered them to Basil.

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Later, outside of Basil's Arena lab
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Screams, and sounds of flesh tearing could be heard over pathetic, horrified sobbing. Animals in their dying throws often made the most mindwrenching sounds, and though they weren't technically being killed, the effect was the same, if not worse. He ripped off their limbs, closing them off to stop the bleeding, then added all 6 arms to one torso. There was an extra torso he didn't need for the most part, so he took about half the muscles from it and grafted on the arms, mostly focusing on its grip. The head he cocked up permanently, flattened and widened it. Then opened up its mouth and throat to be the same width as the torso as a whole, mutilating the muscles in the jaw to make clampers, much as would be seen on a spider.

For the second creation he used all of the legs, of course then one took a great deal more work, he had to work on each foot to bring out the toes and heels to make 'hands' so to speak, monsterous talons to be more accurate. The heel pulled out, thinned out, and made into a joint, with the needed muscles grafted to control it.

Then he ripped out the extra spinal column, as well as both of the ears from the excess head, and its brain, and made his most ingenious inovation as a Tzimisce he may have ever made. He split the brain into two, as well as the spinal column. He grafted the ear nerves to a side of the brain, and connect it to the half of the spinal column, which was then grafted into its existing spinal column. Its purpose? To fill the body with crippelizing pain upon command, through this, bonding was no longer an issue, he had hardwired it to his voice, and would add Jenn, Nico's and the ductus voice, though he would need each around for that when it was time, the basis was setup. He put them backinto their cage.

Pitiful sobbing filled the chamber, this made Basil chuckle. Nadia smiled, she loved seeing him this happy.