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Location: Reach
Previous thread: Stand and Deliver!
Introduction: The fugitive trio have escaped Earth from the bounty's that sought Xumarz. Now with two of them injured they seek a backstreet doctor in the slums of Reach as hospitals would result in their capture by the UNSC, or worse, other bounty hunters. 

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Elias' eyes were torn from his book as he heard the disturbing rumbling of an ancient, half operable, freighter swooped down through the atmosphere and towards one of the Slums' handful of small ship spaceports. Those places looked rickety and unsafe, but nothing could be nearly as dangerous as flying in such a junk heap of a ship like he just saw. The wizard double checked his bag for the tools he brought with him on a regular day: his regular wand, the necromancy wand, his spellbook, revolver, and a couple of granola bars he had brought as a snack. He thumbed the amulet hanging around from his neck, making sure the emergency barrier was fully charged. 

The wizard approached a group of three men. They looked kind of ridiculous in all opinions, one was missing an arm, another had his face well covered, and the last one was a robot.

"Hey there," Elias greeted them, "Isn't it dangerous to be flying around in that junk heap?"

Xumarz exited the shuttle wiping his eyes has he trailed behind Red. "So where are we heading?" as he yawned. "Shh!" Red replied "We should go unnoticed until we get to the city, its not safe out here." "Um alright..." The boy rubs his arm as the droid and the demon walk towards the city entrance, smoke trailed from one building, bright flashing lights, colors arrayed from pink, blue, and green. Advertisements and shops covered the street buildings, and trash kicked through the wind, the people on the streets varied they were mostly hooded or covered so they didn't draw attention to one another. From the crowd the boy stuck out like a sore thumb, people made rude comments and bumped into the boy as they walked by. "Red!" as he whispered "Where are we going?"

"Were almost there." as people make looks at Kath over the droid's shoulder. A man walked towards the group "Hey there," Elias greeted them, "Isn't it dangerous to be flying around in that junk heap?" "It is yes. We'll be moving on now human, excuse us." Xumarz stared back, thinking to himself "Ive never been on another planet before, but I've never seen someone so nosy in all my life." trying to hide behind Red unnoticed.

Blood descended in a viscous manner down Red's robotic arm, Kath's wound had sprung open again. The droid stopped mid step, twisting its robotic head, it glanced at Xumarz and then at the Human. The neck-slung amulet glinted in the droids robotic light-sensors, its magical-output signature became apparent. Reds eyes now turned to the bag that slung lazily around the Human. An outline of a book caused angular ridges in the fabric, possibly a wand or two accompanied. Red had been trained to detect his kind. 

"Human user of magic. Yes you will do, you look like a local." While Red, like most droids, are rather monotone. There was something subtle about Red's making it seem off-putting to humans, rather like it was joking with itself. "I'm afraid the bleeding meat sack on my shoulder will not make it to the planned destination in time." Surveying the streets Red continued, "Know of any 'off the book doctors' so to speak? 'Back ally butchers'? Even doctors with a criminal record and some shoddy equipment will do." Kath coughed, briefly drifting in and out of consciousness weakly mumbling, "M-y a-rm...". 

Elias had to step back and take a moment to really look over the three idiots flying in a junk heap. One looked pretty young, and clearly annoyed with Elias' presence. The other was a sassy robot, and the third was missing an arm and bleeding. They were certainly a weird group, so naturally, Elias wanted to know more about what they were up to.

"I don't know much about the neighborhood, but I think I can help," Elias said as he pulled his normal wand and a granola bar out of his bag. The wizard crushed the hard packet in his hands and opened the top while pullig the dirty cloth off of the bleeding man's shoulder, sprinkling little bits of oats and other grains over the guy's stump. He raised his wand and pointed it at the wound and channeled a concentrated stream of mana over it. The force of magic flowed through the oats, transforming them into a strange fibrous material as it covered the wound and stopped the flow of blood.

"That should stop the blood flow for a while," Elias said cheerfully, "I haven't done stuff like this before, only read it in books." He stopped and twirled the little stick in his fingers before sliding it back his pocket. "But It'll probably hold for an hour or two." Elias paused for a moment, "Hold up. How'd you get your arm blown off in the first place?"

"It was my fault..." Stepping from behind the tall droid, Xumarz walks into closer to the street light so Elias can see him better, "Yeah, they uh, decided to help me out." nervously speaking

Kitty appeared from around the corner of one the streets Red surveyed, a calm look on her face. After the failed alliance offer with Atir she had decided to stick around, partially because she was slightly concerned about the young wizards well fare and because she was genuinely interested in the activities of Atir's gang. "Let you out of a cell and you get your arm blown off." She murmured under her breath,  surveying the man slung over the cyborgs shoulder. She could smell the blood even from a mile off, but it was the familiar smell that had peaked her interest. 

Kitty came to stand beside Elias, although she leaned forward a bit more to take a look at what he'd done to stop the blood flow of the wound. "Interesting." Kitty sniffed the air and cocked her head towards Elias, "Oats?" She gave him a slightly amused smile before looking to the cyborg once more. "I can heal him. But not here. Too open."

Clouds began to amass blotching out Reach's dull night sky, light thud of rain droplets descended onto now the only five figures left in the middle of the street. "The irony of magic, but... thank you wizard. It was is a nice trick coagulating the site bleeding with organic material, clever." Red then waved his free hand at Xumarz in a non-chant gesture, "Child it is no fault of yours. It was the meat sack on my shoulder's choice to enter battle with the bounty hunters, therefore his own doing." The droid sounded pleased with its logic, but wondered why the ragged boy did not. 

Turning its now wet metallic oval head towards the obvious vampire that gracefully and eerily appeared from a side street, Red computed she knew the wizard, but it pondered how she knew Kath. "A vampire?" The droid began to analyse the figure. Two magic users either side made it feel rather uneasy. "Curious" it continued. "Very well, but vampire, he may look tasty just remember not to eat him instead of heal him." The droid nodded in the motion for the now group to get a move on, "Show the way then." 

The guy who hid behind the large droid revealed himself, he had horns and looked vaguelly troll-ish or orc-ish. Elias couldn't tell since he never interacted much with the rest of the supernatural world back on earth. The wizard also noted Kittania's arrival, she seemed to like the plant fiber spell Elias had cooked up on the fly. He was pretty proud of it himself but, in the end, it wasn't anything terribly special. 

Was there anything that sassy droid didn't know? It made Elias want to fry it's circuts. Not only did he instantly point out that Elias was a wizard, but the Kittania Lady from weeks earlier not only appeared to be stalking him, but was a vampire as well. At least she complimented his spell.

"Woah, don't drink my blood either," Elias commented, taking a slight step away from the girl standing next to him. "I kind of need it to live."

The droid then asked Elias to lead the way. The wizard had no idea where exactly where the thing wanted to go, but it was probably to find one of those prosthetic doctors.

"If you're looking for prosthetics, I think they're in that way" Elias pointed down one of the dozens of alleyways throughout the slums towards dull looking road. Many of the gangsters told Elias that a number of underground doctors and shamans lived down there, out of the way of prying ONI and police eyes.

Xumarz observed Elias and Kittiania holding his wounded arm, Red stared back as they walked "Ah, yes. This one here too is in need of medical attention." "Red, I'm fine, seriously." as he quickly butted in trying not to get the others attention, "You've suffered from a bullet wound, so I suggest you also get some help." as the droid cut off the boy.

"No, I don't think you understand--" Kitty turns around observing the conversation as Xumarz stops and looks back at her in fear.

Kitty's amused grin grew wider when Elias stepped away from her and spoke, even going so far as to chuckle. "I do have some self conttol. Besides Kath is A-, which tastes disgusting might I add." But her eyes flicked over to Elias, suddenly looking hungry. "But you are O+ and that is my favorite..." She kept the hungry look up for a couple seconds, just to see his face, then dropped it with another chuckle. "Joking. Kinda." 

Kitty stepped forward again and reached out, running her fingertips against the fibrous material that Elias had created. "I can heal it and most certainly provide him with a magically enhanced limb, or grow him a new one, or just simply heal the nub. But I don't think he likes magic very much and I've only regrown limbs with magic a few times, it would most likely cause him intense pain." Once more Kitty stepped back, a concentrated look on her face as she crossed her arms. "I've rented out a motel room a couple blocks away, I can heal him there and ask him if he'd prefer any of those options once he's completely conscious." The red headed vampire turned, starting to walk away from the group with the intention of having them follow her. Then she paused and glanced back at Elias.  "You should come too, might stand to learn a thing or two. Unless you can't keep up." Kitty smirked then turned, continuing to lead the way again.

Kath's limp body jerked as Kitty ran her wiry fingertips across the 'bandaged' wound, "A-r, A-rm" he mumbled still in a delirious state. Turning towards the vampire Red nodded approvingly to her reference of preferring to eat the O+ wizard over the A- Kath. "Yes" it quipped "wizards are much tastier then normal humans, I like to think the magic acts as a sort of marinade." The vampire crossed her arms as she spoke, swiftly turning on her heals she marched away towards her motel room. The droids long legs began to stride keeping a precise one metres distance behind her, it looked down towards the wizard surprised he was keeping pace. Red measured him at 5'11", still looking down to the 5'11" wizard the droid began in its most annoying tone possible "Would you like a piggyback little wizard?". Red couldn't help itself, it was too tempting.


As the group followed the practically running vampire the streets became noticeably more dark and grungy with the rain continuing to beat onto the pavements below. The once neon advertisements stuck onto the sides of the looming buildings slowly began to gradiate into disrepair. Red leaned over to Xumarz noticing the half-orc's shoulder wound looking slightly healed, in a low tone out of the others ear-shot it spoke "Interesting, you kept that quite quiet child.". The vampire stopped outside her motel.

Evidently, the robot wanted to listen to a vampire rather than an actual human. Elias didn't quite appreciate it, but he didn't have much else to do and he wasn't nearly focused enough to read his book anymore, so he followed Kittiania. If that even was her real name. It sounded like she needed a fake one and happened to be thinking of cats at the moment.

In the meantime, the robot decided to berate Elias more and more, talking about how magic power acts as a sort of marinade and how 5'11" was 'short'. Elias was positive 5'11" was not short. As for magic being a marinade, he wasn't so sure. He hadn't talked to many vampires back on earth.

As the group followed Kittiania, the streets became dirtier and it started to rain at one point. Elias had his wand pointed into the air, barely visible barrier of mana in the shape of an umbrella hung above his head to block the downpour.

"Are you sure you're not taking us to some underground vampire cult," Elias muttered as he walked.

Xumarz looked up in amazement as he watched the water bounce of the invisible field. Only to approach a beat down motel. The neon green sign glistened in the rain reading '24 - Hour Service' as the hologram raced along the screen, repeating the message. The boy wore a tattered black tee with dirty wrappings covering his arms, like the covering on Kath's wound the gel gave out acting like a temporary wrapping, black blood started to drip down the demon's left shoulder.

Stepping out from the magical barrier unnoticed, quickly washing the blood from his arm. He didn't have much to say and from his past experiences from the last few days, he didn't want to draw any more attention to himself, matter of fact he wasn't even looking to be here with these strangers. He stared at Kath feeling bad for the situation hes in, knowing it was his fault somehow, Xumarz felt wrong walking away form the situation until this man was better. Turning it Kittiana he waited for her to give further instructions to everyone one what was going to happen next.

Kitty rolled her eyes at Elias's comment, glancing back at him briefly. "I haven't heard about the existence of vampire cults since the 1800's. And even if I was, chew on the fact that you were stupid enough to follow me there. Cute umbrella by the way, although that is usually taught to those at the most remedial level of magic." Then she turned back to the motel, retrieving her key from the pocket of her black over coat, she was dressed similarly to what she had worn the first time she had met Elias but had swapped out the dark blue turtleneck with the cutout for one in violet. She didn't seem bothered by the rain that was pouring down on her, thoroughly soaking her.  They all followed her into the motel and down the hallway, there were various unpleasant odors in the air which made Kitty wrinkle her nose but when she inserted the key into her door and ushered them inside it thankfully didn't smell as vile. 

The room was small, but not small enough for the five of them to not have any room to breath. The wallpaper was a yellowish color and peeling on some walls, the carpet was dingy and looked like it had seen better days and had some suspiciously squishy spots. The bed was decently sized and about three or four feet from the end of it was a table with an old looking tv on top of it, the table looking to be around the same age and wood as the nightstand to the left of the bed. Up against the wall was one of the few things in the motel room that looked clean, a gleaming long sword with its sheath lying on the ground under it. "Lay him on the bed, there isn't enough floor space for me to work." The amusement was gone from her eyes, now looking serious suddenly. As the cyborg lay Kath on the bed, Kitty's eyes finally cut to the demon boy. She had been smelling his blood for awhile but had not said a word, quite frankly demon blood tasted like boiled cabbage. "If magic makes you uncomfortable I do know the traditional ways of healing. Kath's case is different simply because his injury is more severe." 

She let the demon deliberate on that while her eyes moved to Elias, "The healing itself will only take a couple moments but it may take half an hour for Kath to rouse from his current state, and should he choose to allow me to help him regrow a limb or create him an entirely new one made of a different material through magic it will be even longer, but most likely some useful for magic for you to see. So take a seat where ever you like, I think there are some folding chairs in the closet."

Surveying the reasonably sized room, Red stepped through the door way picking out the peeling wallpaper and mould along the skirting boards. "What a lovely place you have vampire.... suits your style." Lowering Kath's body onto the questionably clean bed, Red continued. "It would be best if you form an arm. He will not like it. But, it is urgent to return him to his full functionality as soon as possible." Kath began to stir shaking his head weakly, his eyes opening and closing trying to stay awake. Red took a seat that Kitty put out in the corner of the room, picking up an old newspaper that lay on the floor it quipped, "Ignore him."


As Kitty approach Kath to perform her healing Red swung his head over to Xumarz, "Xu, do remember to get your shoulder fixed while the vampires at it." The metallic head swung back down to observe the newspaper after briefly glancing at the wizard who was standing awkwardly in the middle of the room. "What is your name wizard?".

"At least it's not a vampire cult," Elias commented, looking around the musty little hotel room, "Though it looks like the kind of place you'd catch AIDs or something." The musty air was tinted with a faint smell of salt and smoke and the bedsheets appeared unwashed and some kind of white stains. As if the owner hadn't cleaned up before Kitty took the room. He nervously eyed the yellowed wallpaper. Everything about the motel room looked as if it hadn't been cleaned in years, causing cockroaches and discarded rubber to build up in the somewhat covered corners.

The sassy robot kept talking, commenting on the room, and other things. Kitty scoffed at Elias' umbrella spell.

"Heyyy, I came up with it on the fly," Elias muttered, "I like to think I'm well endowed in a magical sense." The wizard walked towards the closet to grab a chair from the closet. He opened the door to an oblong purple stick of rubber and a rusty folding chair. Elias quickly shut the door and walked to the other side, trying to ignore the tiny speck of white cloth from inside the microscopic, cockroach ridden, bathroom. He wondered if Kitty had even bothered to make sure the place was clean before renting a room. He quickly reexamined the spell he had worked up to block the armless guy's stump. "Looks like the plant fiber is getting sticky and whiter," Elias commented, "I guess that means the spell is about to wear out." Elias leaned on the wall next to the door, his wand at his waist raised and ready to explode the door open if Kitty tried anything other than regrowing the armless guy a magical limb.

The boy weakly looked around the small dark room as a couple of rodents ran into a hole in the corner, quickly pulling out a metal folding chair leaning on the wall, shutting the door behind him. Xumarz scrunches his nose in disgust as he smells his hand after touching the door nob, unfolding the chair in the process he plops down onto the metal frame letting out a deep sigh. "Magic won't work either." the boy shook his head at Kittiana, as the room got quiet "Oh, I also found out that physical treatments don't uh, really help either." the demon sloppily added. "Well, what is it then child, we got more important things at hand!" Red cutting in.

Xumarz wipes his nose as he glared at Red "Rude..." then continues to draw his attention back at the Vampire "I'm Sunstruck... so any natural, material, or magical healing to my body is suppressed. It uh, just makes it worse actually." holding his shoulder once again. He watches everyone's face change into a questionable look, Xumarz flips his head up staring at the ceiling as he waved his wounded arm towards everyone "Just take care of uh, Kath, first, I'll figure something out." a low growl emits from his stomach as he sighs "Lundurrr~ I forgot Roh." under his breath. "Carry on now." waving still looking up.

"Ignore the mess," Kitty spoke as she used a piece of cloth to remove the rest of the fibrous plant material from the wound. "It's the fourth motel I've moved to, you and smurfette aren't the only ones trying to stay out of ONI's sight. I'd rather not have another run in with that psychotic spartan." Kitty then cut her eyes over to the demon boy briefly, "I don't think I've ever run into someone with that issue before, but either way the bathroom is next to the closet so feel free to clean up the wound." The instant the plant fiber was completely removed, the scent of blood hit Kitty's nose and for the briefest second her jaw twitch, something sharp and white peeking out from under her top lip, then it was gone. "First I'll heal the wound to stop the bleeding." Kitty sat down on the bed beside a barely conscious Kath, looking at the stump where his arm used to be intently.  "After I heal the wound I'm going to need to transfer more blood into his system, he's lost quite a lot. I'm O- so my blood should be fine, and it shouldn't cause any disruption to his DNA either, so no chance of vampirism unless I also bite him then kill him. Not on my agenda."

Kitty pulled out a very thin and narrow looking knife from inside her over coat, then she brought the knife to her finger tips. Slowly and with a bit of wincing she began to etch Greek letters into her fingertips, controlling her own healing factor so that they wouldn't heal before she finished. Once she finished carving up her fingertips she pressed them to the sides of the bloody arm stump. Her eyes were closed in concentration, her lips moving but no sound coming out as slowly the tips of her left hand glowed a light green while the other glowed a silvery color. Slowly she drew her fingers away from the stump, green and silver tendrils of light following her fingertips. Then her fingers began to move nimbly, weaving the tendrils together into an indiscernable pattern. Once it seemed like she had finished her weaving she brought her hands towards the wound again, layering the tiny box shaped green and silver glowing tapestry over the wound. Once it was laid on she began to tie the tendrils to his arm by tying them around his shoulder. Once she decided that was sufficient she curled her fingers and tied the last of the tendrils around her fingers, with a sharp pull they broke and the ones attached to her fingertips vanished. The tapestry bandage and ties on Kath's arms glowed brightly for a few moments, then seemed to disappear under his skin, the tapestry bandage being replaced with smooth brand new skin. "Apollo and Athena..." Kitty muttered, a slight grin on her face. 

She then straightened, the letters on her fingertips healing over and disappearing as she wiped away the blood with the cloth she had used to get rid of the plant fiber. Then she took the knife once more and slid it across her palm, blood easily pouring out as she held it over Kath's neck, right above the carotid artery. The blood poured down on his neck for several minutes, then Kitty muttered something and the multitude of blood that Kitty had made pour from her hand was absorbed into Kath's skin. Once again the wound healed and she wiped the blood away with the cloth, looking at Elias. "You need to calm down. Unless you give me a reason to I'm not going to hurt you. Your heart is beating incredibly fast, if you ever wanna try and act tough in front of someone who can hear that then you're screwed." 

Then the vampire looked to the sassy robot, glaring at him with a look in her eyes that said there would be no arguing. "I will not use anymore magic on him without his consent. His life is no longer threatened so I will no longer preform magic without his consent." Kitty crossed her arms over her chest, her jaw clenching. "And my name is not vampire. It's Kittiana Youngblood, and yes it's my real name. I was born in the Viking Era so that's why it seems strange. Now, we will wait for him to wake up so he can make his choice. Deal with it you bucket of rusty bolts."

Lowering the newspaper Red tilted his head at Xumarz wondering what Roh was. At that moment the vampire brought out a thin knife and started to procedure healing Kaths arm stump. The droid watched as the tendrils danced intertwining with one another with a green and silver glow, as she finished skin began to appear replacing the once magical weave.    

Red looked at the vampire and nodded reluctantly, "very well... Kittiana, leave it up to the meatbag when he wakes." The droid paused for a moment taking the time to model the out comes of what it would speak next. "A Youngblood? That would make sense why you hide in this dump, you're quite infamous among the ONI lot." Flicking up the newspaper it continued, "Rusty bucket of bolts? At least i'm not a granny from the viking era." Red seemed nervously please with the comeback swiftly looking to Elias and Xu for reassurance as they waited for Kath to wake...


After about 10 minutes the figure on the bed stirred, eyes quickly opening he bolted upright on the bed staring at the wall in front of him. "Any funny side effects we should know about Ms Youngblood?" Said in a chuckling rattle by the droid who had long finished its old newspaper. Kath began trying to formulate words, "W-Where the hell are we? God damn it Red, I said not some scummy back street doctor!" Leaning over with slight pain Kath checked his once life threatening wound now neatly healed, then with a moment of realisation glanced around the room from corner to corner. A wizard, barking boy, the bucket of bolts, and the vampire who seemed familiar for an unknown reason. "Who these other..." formulating his words carefully after the vampire gave him a glare, "people?". The droid butting in now pointing at the unknown figures rattled "Those two, Elias and Kittiana, saved your miserable life meatbag so you better say a thank you." "Ah" Now sitting up on the side of the bed Kath continued "er thanks then?".

Elias watched silently as Kittania worked. Ripping off his rather clever spell (much to his dismay) and deftly weaving a new layer of green stuff over the 'meatbag's stump, though it appeared more akin to flesh considering how it melded almost seamlessly into the meatbag's flesh. He noted the names Kittania muttered, Apollo and Artemis. Both ancient greek gods who once possessed powerful magic over the mortal realm, but nowadays they were all but forgotten, not to mention probably dead. He knew almost nothing about them since the ancient magic that referred to them wasn't exactly Elias' style, not to mention the Greek civilization had been irrelevant for thousands of years.

The 'meatbag' waking up was easily the definition of awkward. He woke up shocked, dazed, and completely confused. It wasn't every day that a guy got his arm blown off and then got carried into some third, no, fifth rate motel. Elias didn't blame the guy for not immediately thanking them for saving his life. The wizard figured he would have had a similar reaction.

"No need to thank me," Elias said in response to the 'meatbag', "It's just the nice thing to do." He shifted slightly and tucked his wand into his bag, "Oh, and by the way. What's your name?"

Stumbling through the motel hallway Xumarz leaves the complex's main doors. He'd the left room once he knew the man was conscious and well, thoughts raced through his head knowing he couldn't wait any longer for everyone to come to his aid, hes done enough already for Kath and wasn't looking to rely on others for his personal aid.

The streets were dark, but lit enough to travel through, unlike Humans the demon knew with a wound bleeding out at a rate like this even for his age they wouldn't make it very long. Arau was determined to fix his problem as he stared up at the sky wiping water off his eyes. "Lut baumt ska ave Han?" Clouds coated the sky blocking any astral light to heal his skin from the burns and the bullet wound. Looking back towards the rundown motel the boy sighs at his stupid decision, remembering before he docked off the ship with Kath and Red there was a cluttering of trees behind the run down ship bay, hopefully a place he can call home and rest for the moment till the sky cleared up, possibly soon because he didn't know how long he could last before he passes out from exhaustion.

Kitty gave the robot a chillingly calm smile, her fangs in full view. "If you know who I am I would caution insulting me." Just for effect she raised a palm, flames curling around her skin. "I might not know what metal you're made of, but I guarantee you it won't take me long to find its melting point." Upon hearing Kath awaken the fire on her palm died off, her hand moving back to her side as she looked over to him. "You're awake, good." 

The vampire gave Kath a calm smile, but not one as chilling and threatening as the other had been. "You probably wouldn't recognize me. Last time you saw me my clothes were ripped to shreds and I was covered in blood, and on fire. But I did help bust you out of that cell, kinda." She leaned against the wall to the side of the bed, running a hand through her hair. "I figured that you probably weren't fond of magic, so all I did was use it to heal you. But if you aren't against it I can either grow you a new limb, make you a new one out of metal and attach it magically without any wiring which would probably prevent it from ever being hacked or short circuited, or I can just point you in the right direction to someone who could give you a prosthetic magic free."