[IN PROGRESS/OPEN]

[dancewithadevil]

WHO: Alucard/toothsomehound, Usopp/longnosedliar, Sam Vimes/stonyfaced, Jessica Sanders/DIVIDEDSANITY, Otacon/justlikeoneofmy, Lauren Reed/dancewithadevil, Ken/artiglio, Zoro/resolute_edge, AND - anyone else who would like to be trapped is welcome to join!
WHAT: BOOM.
WHERE: Guilty Pleasures.
WHEN: Evening.

Comments

SECTOR 1; THE ELEVATOR

[stonyfaced]

Usually, Vimes avoided places like this. The restaurants he went to had severely overweight waitresses named things like 'Maude' where they filled your cup with the bottom of the pot before serving you burnt bacon drenched in grease, rubbery eggs and toast helpfully devoid of any fiber whatsoever. Unfortunately, Dean had given Vimes information that Guilty Pleasures was run by Vescovo, so dutifully, here Vimes was. Checking it out. Not in uniform, because that was like putting a 'Shoot Me' sign on his back, but he had his gun and his badge, and that was enough.

Sickeningly cheerful elevator music tinkled as he rode up to the club. There went the cheesy saxophone ensemble, and oh, some asshole of a sellout was beginning to croon, and...

BOOM.

...That didn't sound like elevator music. Heart racing, Vimes gripped onto the side of the trembling elevator, its cables screeching above them. A piercing scream from outside of the elevator alerted him to the fact that things were exploding. The elevator swayed.

Don't snap. Don'

Re: SECTOR 1; THE ELEVATOR

[toothsomehound]

Alucard, leaning against the wall of the elevator, watched his fellow occupants through his lowered lashes. Integra was checking her watch. The man who had just gotten on was impatient-looking

[stonyfaced]

Vimes gave a sharp grunt of pain as he felt his entire body jerk to the ground and the back of his head slam into a bar that was, apparently, far pointier than it looked. Grimacing, he reached a hand clumsily to the back of his head and noted with disgust that blood was trickling down his shirt. The pain didn't seem to register, though, nor were his eyes working

[toothsomehound]

The other occupant's response relieved Alucard, to some degree- not that he cared deeply about the life of a stranger, but it was nice to know there was an extra set of hands to help in this nightmarish situation. Integra was a deep-breathing weight on his lap, bleeding heavily from a forehead wound (but they always bleed so deeply, forehead wounds, so much blood you could go blind from it

[stonyfaced]

Getting out. Yeah. Right. Vimes set to look around, a bit sheepish at not being able to get things underneath control first, as someone of his status ought to. Oh well. Things like that didn't really matter when he had a great big bloody hole in his head and there was some concussed woman lying in front of him. Priorities, priorities

[toothsomehound]

Alucard couldn't help but stare at the gaping wound on the man's head. His own vision, unencumbered by the darkness (and it was dark, oh, so dark), could still pick out each hair stuck together with blood. There was no notable indent on the man's head when he walked by Alucard, though, and for that he was grateful. "Here, let's pull together." He joined Vimes and began to pull on the opposite door, trying to get the doors' gears to give. His vision started to streak white, then black. Losing sensation in his back was a small price to pay for the comforting moan of metal giving way. Even so, he doubted he would have succeeded had it just been himself- Vimes was strong, despite his gaping head wound

[stonyfaced]

As soon as the door finally opened, Vimes fell forward through it, hissing a curse at his lack of foresight. Gravity. He forgot about that. If you leaned on something and it opened, you'd fall. Getting over the pain of smashing his nose into the concrete floor (which really wasn't too bad; Vimes' nose was crooked from how many times he broke it), he clambered to his feet.

"It's Vimes, thanks," he said hurriedly, not even bothering with the whole 'sergeant' thing, "and I think I know the layout well enough to give it a go." He regarded the dark basement, filled with clutter and debris grimly. A map of the area had been provided for him, sure, but it would be hard enough navigating in the dark, let alone around all the crap lying around.

Closing his eyes, he hummed underneath his breath, bouncing on the balls of his feet; where his eyes failed, his feet would lead. Yeah. He got this. "This way. And be careful, Mr...?"

He took two steps. Stubbed his toe. Kept on going. That's what coppers did--they kept on going.

[damnabletart]

Integral stirred on the vampire's back, consciousness returning with throbbing ache in her skull. It took her a moment to realize where she was, but her attempt to straighten resulted in a very painful protest in her skull. The blond inhaled sharply as her head spun, darkness doing nothing to ease the headache that was suddenly splitting her skull with bright bursts in her vision.

"Put me down, Alucard." Her voice wasn't as strong as she would have liked, nausea and disorientation blurring her usual clarity.

[toothsomehound]

Watching the other man stumble around, Alucard couldn't help but wince as he smacked into object after object. "Alucard," he offered in response to the other's question, sighing deeply. Reaching forwards, he caught the man by the elbow and stepped in front of him, shaking his head. "Please, tell me which way to go. I seem to be able to navigate the particulars a bit more... efficiently... than you can." He gave Vimes a rather nasty smile, one filled with entirely too many teeth and entirely too little kindness.

The stirring of Integra on his back made him start. "Master Integra," he hissed in pain as her grip shifted, spiking into a particularly wet-feeling spot on his back. "You are in no shape to walk, regrettably. Hold still, if you will, and we'll be able to escape soon." Alucard didn't say it, and nobody but he could see it, but his expression cleared significantly. His master alive and snappy was something he was deeply glad of.

[damnabletart]

His back was covered in something damp; She could feel it soaking through his shirt beneath her hands, and the feeling of something wet on the back of her own neck as well. It smelled like blood when she rather reluctantly rested her forehead on him once more. It was strangely chilling, to realize he was so badly injured and still walking.

"What is the situation?" She couldn't remember the moments past checking her watch, for some reason.

[toothsomehound]

Alucard wasn't sure what to make of his master resting her head on him again. Had she hit her head too hard? Was she unable to move her neck properly? Or... was she simply upset? Any rational human being would be, he decided. Alucard was focused on getting Integra (and Vimes, he supposed) out before anything worse happened inside the building. A small part of him centered on that contact and didn't let go, memorizing the feeling of somebody turning to him- him!- for comfort.

"There seems to have been some kind of explosion," he explained, picking through the rubble casually. To him, after all, everything was bright as day. "The elevator dropped down to the basement and some sort of beams seem to have followed as well. Currently we're trying to escape the basement."

[stonyfaced]

"No, thanks," Vimes replied--he barely trusted himself to navigate through this mess, let alone a man he didn't know. Actually he just didn't like the look of him in general. He smiled, and people generally didn't smile unless something was funny (and Vimes didn't consider this particular experience to be humorous in the slightest) or if they were hiding something. Nasty business was why he was summoned here in the first place; it wouldn't surprise him if this Alucard man was involved in it as well.

Regardless, Vimes had to get all three of them out. Protocol was important. If you killed a man, you were just as bad as those basatrds running around on the street claiming sacrifices for the revolution. "I wouldn't know this place well enough to give directions, and..." He patted his pocket, trailing off, and felt a packet of cigarettes. Good. He could use--

Wait. How stupid could he get? He had his cigarettes, which meant he had a lighter, which meant fire, which meant light! He lit it, hoping briefly that there

[damnabletart]

Integral closed her eyes, though it didn't make much difference from one interrupted darkness to another. "Don't try. Do it." She certainly wasn't going to die in some dusty basement from a silly explosion. "That's an order."

She felt like her head was jumbled with gravel or something, a fuzzy feeling like barbed wire rattling in her brain. Hit her head too hard, obviously, on whatever it was.

[toothsomehound]

Turning up his nose at Vimes' dismissive words, he scanned the area for another path out. "Yes, my master." He ignored the lighting of the match, knowing full well what Vimes would see. "There is another path through here," Alucard told the man. He moved towards it soundlessly, listening to the heartbeat of Integral in his ear, the sounds of Vimes cussing and searching for a way around.

He kicked aside a small bit of rubble, surveying the corridor of crushed wood ahead of them. The entire thing looked ready to fold in on itself. In fact, it seemed to be in the process of it. Because of that, he had no concerns about walking straight into the spiked maw. "Please do try to keep up, Mr. Vimes," he called, hands tight on his master. His own energy was seeping out of him like a fount of water. He had to get them out- all of them- before he lost all will to go forwards.

[stonyfaced]

Vimes watched as the guy...walked straight through the fallen wood, which was most probably full of splinters and nails and other such unpleasant things. He called the woman slung over his shoulder "My Master," and it made him recoil in disgust. The man was a genetic mutation whatever, probably. Couldn't stand the things. And really, right through the debris? Really?

Please do try to keep up, Mr. Vimes. Feeling as if he was being treated as some sort of insolent child trailing behind (which he damn well wasn't), he didn't dignify that with a response, merely kept at his attempts of bashing wood off to the side. He was prideful, yes, stupid, no. Pride wasn't enough to make him run headfirst into a pile of pointy objects

[damnabletart]

If Integral had been a bit more coherent, she probably would have suggested leaving the arrogant policeman behind to fumble about on his own, and see how much good it did him. Right now, however, she was not terribly coherent. She just wanted to get out of here.

"Kitchen or front door. Fire escape."