9107/Filling the Void

Filling the Void
Date of Scene:	07 September 2019
Location:	The Cherry Blossoms, Midtown
Synopsis:	Doctor Octopus moves to raid a gang front for quick cash. Blade and Doctor Strange show up, and Otto escapes with two captives in the chaos of vampiric activity.
Cast of Characters:	Doctor Octopus, Blade, Doctor Strange

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Doctor Octopus has posed:
With the Foot clan cleaning house, a number of opportunities have just become available for those with the means and initiative to sieze them. Where there was a fairly large gang using the local restaurant/nightclub The Cherry Blossoms as a front until recently. With their leadership and numbers taking a hit, rivals have taken a keen interest in expanding. One of these rivals are the Octoboys.

Usually, they keep under the radar, their own rackets and other activities handled in their own turf. They've had occasional skirmishes with neighbors... but this will mark the first time in a very long time they've gone on the offensive, sensing weakness.

Three brown and black vans pull up to the front of the Cherry Blossoms, and out of the backs come six figures in various casual wear. They have a reservation, and all six get in without much trouble, and go right for the back tables.

Outside, moments later, a lone gray tentacle snakes down from above, grabs the bouncer, and slams him against the side wall, knocking him out. Doctor Octopus comes down on two tentacles to the ground right afterwards, clearing out the remaining bystanders with two other tentacles as he walks inside.

"Greetings, Ladies and Gentlemen." Doctor Octopus starts, his voice carrying, "I'm not here for most of you. Get out." A tentacle moves to the side of his head, and the pincers snap twice, intimidatingly.

As one might expect, a hurried panic ensues as people start to leave the main area.

Blade has posed:
Blade isn't here to stop Doctor Octopus. In fact the diversion suits him just fine because he needs to get into the VIP area and then into the door in the back of the VIP area. Down into the basement where the "VVIPs" are at. He bull rushes through the crowds of people, easily pushing them aside, but not enough to cause anyone harm. In the chaos he easily reaches the VIP room and kicks the door down. Sunglasses still on he scans the empty room, his eyes soon fixating on the basement door, a rather plain entrance that could very well be a janitor's closet if one doesn't know where it actually leads.

He makes his approach slowly now, unsure of whether his quarry will be fleeing with the humans.

Doctor Strange has posed:
    Stephen was sent to Cherry Blossoms and was told by Felicia to be here at twelve sharp. Though now that he's standing here, wearing a simple button up shirt a tie and even a sports coat, he feels like he showed up at the wrong time. "Felicia's never up this early on a saturday." Stephen sighs to himself as he looks up to the sign of the building and then around at the three vans and wonders what's going on.

    Stephen decides he could use some lunch and figures he'll go inside and gets some lunch and the sometimes clueless doctor steps into the scene and finds a Doctor run amok and the sense that there's something devious going on beneath his feet, even with the fact ley lines have been off lately Strange can still feel that odd stench of vampires.

Doctor Octopus has posed:
There's a moment as Blade heads inside that Otto looks towards him, and there's a raised, curious brow in that direction for a moment. The man isn't getting in his way, and he's not interested in stopping him. Doctor Octopus says nothing as he heads for the VIP room, letting him go.

Doctor Strange is left behind as Otto walks further inside. As the remaining bystanders leave, two tentacles come up and pluck two people trying to leave out of the crowd to dangle by their legs in front of Otto, "Ah, I was wondering if I'd have to go into the back to find you two. The combination to the safe, now. Unless you two want to know what it feels like to be hammered into the floor repeatedly."

Blade has posed:
Blade opens the wooden door and slips inside, descending the stairs quietly, his sword drawn and at the ready. So far there's no noise, which is to be expected since the vampires are likely sleeping. He soon hears music, probably to muffle to goings on upstairs. Coming to a locked link gate he grins. That's why the upstairs door was unlocked. The dark basement before him is cold and smells like mold, typical fledglings, probably sleeping in coffins. Probably trying to live up to whatever they read in their comic books as mortals. He crushes the lock with one hand and slowly opens the gate... won't be long now.

His plan will be to send them into a frenzy, scare them so much that they run upstairs and into the sun. If they don't then they will die down here. It doesn't make much of a difference to Blade.,

Doctor Strange has posed:
    Stephen blinks up to the man with the metallic limbs coming from his body and lifts a black eyebrow. "Okay." He says to no one as people flock out of the building in fear. This causes Strange to frown as he previously would have been bound by his second oath to not act in such a situation but this time however, Stephen smirks slightly as he's discovering a new found freedom.

    Snapping his hands down to his sides, a pair of green mandalas and spell matrixes start to spring forth from his feet, extending the wizard into the air to be higher up than Otto. "Nevermind the souls of the damned below us, you will cease these actions." Strange says, assuming these people Otto has captured might know something about the energies Strange feels below their feet.

Doctor Octopus has posed:
Otto turns around, and looks to Doctor Strange. Stephen can see himself reflected in the safety glasses wrapped around Otto's head, "Who are-wait. I recognize you." The two dangling in the air shout and scream as they flail about, but they can't manage to find any sort of purchase anywhere. Otto turns in place then, looking to Stephen. "Stephen Strange? I haven't heard about you in a long time, Doctor." Otto brings up both of the other tentacles to his sides, the heads aimed directly towards Stephen as they stay there. "And I see you've learned a few tricks."

Otto looks back to his two captives as they dangle, then back to Stephen, "These two are imbeciles who are one of the few remnants of a group that used to control this area. They're not worth your time."

Blade has posed:
Blade can see in the darkness as well as any vampire. They are sleeping on mattresses on the floor, seemingly dead, stiff even. With a grin he lights a match and tosses it onto the nearest vampire. His screams aren't human in any way and if heard above, would no doubt cause most people pause. The other vampires struggle awake, after all it's day, and they're not at full strength. But panic sets in when they see their nest mate on fire, and then they see Blade, a face that most of the undead will easily recognize. The frenzy and ensuing chaos is.. loud. Two more vampires are cut down before they start to flee.. upstairs.

Just like Blade planned. He follows them slowly, knowing that they can't win, especially with metal man upstairs. Blade has nothing to prove and isn't above using his environment to win an easy fight like this.

Doctor Strange has posed:
    "I've learned more than simple tricks." Stephen says, the wash of recognition from Otto means little to the former surgeon as he continues to float in the air on his flying spell. The sounds of screams below the floor draws Stephen's attention for the briefest moment. "Right, wrong, good, bad, these are nothing to me, I seek only to preserve and protect life." The wizard says as he begins to float towards Otto, or at least the middle of the room.

    Stephen's hands move up above his head, and with a peculiar wretch of his fingers, a beam of light erupts from the center of the floor. A glowing yellow light with mystic rings outwards from the center as Stephen strives to remove the floor of the bar to unveil the horrible screams and sounds below. Stephen seeks knowledge while shocking Otto.

Doctor Octopus has posed:
A frown comes to Otto's face as he watches Stephen. What's he doing?

When it becomes clear the rings are doing... something... Otto drops the two men immediately, and uses all four tentacles to leap up into one of the ceiling corners, suspended there by the tentacles piercing through the walls as he watches from afar. When the screams start filtering out of the basement, there's a confused expression on his face. "What... is that?"

Blade has posed:
Blade continues to follow as the shrieking vampires sprint up the stairs, through the VIP room, and out into the club proper. Immediately they begin to scream in pain as those in front collide with the sunlight peeking through the windows. They try to flee back into the basement in a panic but Blade is in the way. Another vampire literally bites the dust as the dhampir's sword cleaved her neck from her shoulders. The others frenzy and two of them attack Blade. The other three rush towards Doctor Strange, begging for mercy...

"We'll never drink blood again! Just get us out of here!" One of them promises in desperation. Another cries out, "I'll only drink pig's blood! Cow's blood! Rat's blood!" They don't seem to know or care if Strange will have any idea what they are talking about. But then fear will do that.

Doctor Strange has posed:
    "That, is, a bigger issue than your petty squable." Strange says towards Otto as he sends out a spell of teleportation as well to the people Otto dropped, aiming to drop them through the holes in reality to the outside of the building. Or so Stephen hopes.

    As the vampires rush him, Stephen places a scarred palm between them and himself, ready to defend himself should he need to, but he does hear their pleas for help. "I would do far more than to remove you from this location." Stephen begins. "I would rid you of the very curse you are captured under." Stephen says, as if he has a way to reverse the vampiric problem from their bodies.

Doctor Octopus has posed:
This is far more than Otto was interested in dealing with. Blood? Strange people coming out of nowhere?

Otto takes all but a moment to 'leap' away from the corner and back towards the entrance using his tentacles to go far quicker than a normal human would be able to as he leapfrogs through the doorway and out into the day.

Right into the two that Strange tried to keep away from Otto.

"What luck." Otto grins, menacingly, as he grabs the two /yet again/, then uses his two free tentacles to leap onto the front of the building and start climbing up to the roof, his captives screaming all the while as they dangle from the other two tentacles.

Exit, stage up.

Blade has posed:
Blade carves through the two vampires attacking him easily. They are all young, under a year embraced, and aren't very good at fighting. Blade hears Strange offer to.. cure them? He pauses and waits to see what he will do. He's never met Strange and doesn't know that the man is a wizard. But even still he wants to see if this is some kind of rouse or if the man is serious.. or mad.

Doctor Strange has posed:
    Stephen turns his head as Otto goes past and back out the door and Strange assumes that the man is done with his outrageous and brazen attack in broad daylight. Shaking his head at the oddity of it all, the wizard turns his head back to the vampires. "I do not know of a method at the moment, but I'm sure with time I could return you all to your human states." Stephen tries to promise but he's also curious who the figure down below is, that's going on a punisher like spree of carnage, so Stephen lifts a hand and walks past the blood suckers to stand between them and Blade. Though he may soon regret such actions.

Blade has posed:
Blade rubs his chin, this has never happened before, and for the first time in decades he.. doesn't really know what to do. Strange is clearly human and he doesn't kill humans unless they are villainous scumbags. But he does talk, that much he can do, "Cure? Impossible. I'd have heard of it by now if it existed. You're protecting three parasites driven by an uncontrollable thirst for human blood. Their promises are empty, driven by fear, desperation. If you let them go they will be killing again by tonight. I can count on one hand the number of vampires who've managed to kick their habit enough to stop killing."

Doctor Strange has posed:
    Stephen stands between the daywalker and his prey with a proposal. "Then give me till dusk to find what I have promised." Stephen says, frowning deeply as by simply saying the words he's created a timelimit for himself and it's something he'd very much like to get started on, asap. He's already recalling all the books he's read in the sanctum and yet very little information on vampires was stored there. This mean's he'll have to go to one of the sources. He's already planning on speaking with and dealing with some very heavy hitters that barely even respecting him enough to speak with when he was the Sorcerer Supreme, now he's just a lowly mage. Things are already against the wizard.

    Strange locks eyes with Blade as he waits for the anti-hero's reply.

Blade has posed:
Blade shrugs, "Fine. But if they kill anyone, you have to live with yourself. They won't be hard to find if you fail." He starts to leave, "It'll be interesting though if you succeed.."

Doctor Strange has posed:
    Strange quickly nods to Blade and then without a word, the man disolves into a dust and then the particles fade away into the air and nothingness. He's gone. He's got work to do.