Breckenridge and Birmingham

Corinth drove through the wet streets of London with Magdalena sitting beside him. The weather had shifted from overcast to a gentle drizzle, transforming London into a blurred watercolor painting as seen through the car's windshield. The Templars remained silent during their journey, a fact that suited Corinth just fine; his mind was too preoccupied with numerous thoughts to engage in casual conversation or to even make speculations about what they would find when they got to the crime scene.

Breckenridge and Birmingham was an abandoned warehouse area. The homeless often gathered there due to the abundance of vacant buildings, while various petty to medium-level crimes unfolded in the vicinity with alarming frequency. Normally, that was regular beat cop work in a regular beat cop area, but now that an Empusa was running amok, it crossed over into Templar jurisdiction.

Pulling up in front of an old warehouse, Corinth counted at least three cop cars and about five cops milling about under a large awning to keep clear from the rain. When he exited the care, he drew all their attention. Or maybe they were all focused on Magdalena and her hammer. Either way, it wasn't a comfortable feeling, but one that he was used too.

The warehouse was old, probably built in the fifties. The inside was cleared out with only random scattered pieces of wood, metal, and other junk. Junk, being what most of the illegal inhabitants brought inside and then left when they were forced to vacate for one reason or another. Most of the windows were broken and the metal stairs leading up to the second floor looked to have seen better days, but were still sturdy.

"Looking for Detective Sewel," he asked the group.

One of the older looking cops motioned his head to the side, indicating that the detective was around the back of the building. Corinth gave the man a nod and followed the sidewalk in between the warehouse and a perimeter fence. Arriving at the rear of the warehouse, Corinth spotted Detective Sewel standing over a prone figure on the ground, umbrella in hand.

"I had a hunch your lot might turn up." said Sewel looking up as the two Templars approached. "This is bound to give me a bleedin' headache, ain't it?"

"No more than it will give us," Corinth replied looking down at the body.

The body was a male, and judging by his clothes, wasn't the homeless type. Blue collar worker that was most likely walking home or passing through. Or...maybe he was passing through looking for some company and chose the wrong companion.

"Should I expect to be stumbling upon more corpses like this one?" Sewel had returned his gaze down to the corpse, his eyes drawn to the empty hole in the middle of it's chest.

"That is a distinct possibility. We'll need some time to find this thing and it's not going to be easy."

Sewel turned back towards Corinth and stepped towards him. "What won't be a walk in the park is keeping this under wraps if the press catches wind of it. By the time we're done, I'll be needing someone to take the fall."

Corinth nodded in his understanding. Luckily, that wasn't his department. The Templars had a lot of allies and contacts in the police force as well as in other mediums across the city, but even their resources could run dry if an investigation ran on longer than it should or more noise was made than could be silenced.

"The coroner's been held up, but he should be arriving shortly. Do what needs doin', then make yourself scarce." With that said, Sewel moved past the Templars and made his way back up to the front of the warehouse.

"So wot's the plan now, then," asked Magdalena as she leaned on her hammer.

Kneeling down, Corinth took a better look at the corpse. "Not real sure. He looks just like the other ones. Heart ripped from his chest, he has some bruising around his throat from where she tried and maybe succeeded in choking him." He lifted up his hands to look at his finger nails. "No signs of him fighting back...she moved quick." Lifting up the mans head, he saw a small puddle of blood on the ground. "He either hit his head when he feel or...," Corinth rose to his feet and turned his attention to the brick wall, his gaze drawn to a small tuft of hair snagged on the jagged edges of the bricks, "...she slammed his head into the wall to help knock him out."

"She's a right handful, she is," quipped Magdalena.

"She was hungry," he corrected. "She needed him silent and subdued." Continuing his investigation, he noticed more blood droplets leading away from the body that were slowly disappearing because of the rain. Following them with his eyes, they trailed off in the direction of Ardent Road which was about a block or two away.

Motioning for Magdalena to follow him, they walked away from the body and towards the direction of the blood. Reaching Ardent Road, he saw that to the left of him, there were a few vacant office buildings that were being renovated for future buyers. There were three that were almost complete and more that had yet to have been started on. Corinth sighed at the possibility of having to canvas so many large building.

"Be nice to have some extra help."

"You sayin' I ain't up to snuff, are ya," asked Magdalena as she slapped Corinth on the shoulder. "Oi, come on then. Let's 'ave a butcher's 'round."

The first building was a three story building that was completely gutted, but smelled of fresh paint. Nothing looked out of place as the Templars investigated the empty rooms. Most of the rooms had no doors so it made looking in closets easier. The second and third floors were the same; all open spaces with nowhere to hide.

As they exited the building, they made their way to the two story adjacent one. Before ascending the steps to reach the door, Corinth's eyes caught a drop of blood. Upon closer inspection of the door handle, he observed traces of blood smeared across its surface.

"She may not be inside, but she was here at some point," he told Magdalena as he pulled Powel from its holster. She gripped the handle to her hammer and readied up beside Corinth.

He motioned for Magdalena to open the door while he took aim inside. Nothing. Unlike the previous building, this one had a front desk and partitions set up to create makeshift offices. They were flimsy little walls, but would make searching difficult. Boxes of unopened office furniture were stacked up in piles at various intervals, remnants of the space's previous identity, now overshadowed by the sleek modernity of its renovated form.

The floor layout split in two directions with pathways leading down each side of the building. Magdalena took the left side while Corinth took the right. They each slowly moved forward, peeking into each office space before moving on to the next. It wasn't long before Magdalena called out that she had found some blood on the floor and it looked to be leading towards the farthest back room on the floor.

Corinth moved to join her. The room was situated well away from everything and it reminded him of a janitors closet as it was next to the restrooms, advertised by the male and female placard next to the other doors. Upon closer inspection, the door knob had smeared dried blood on it. Looking over to Magdalena, he nodded and reached out for the knob.

As he he gripped it and started to turn, the door exploded off its hinges, throwing Corinth backwards with the door landing on top of him. Inside the small room, was Ivy. She wore a wide bloody grin across her face. Her lips were dry and chapped and looked to have had pieces missing. The whites of her eyes were jaundiced with her normal blue eyes being replaced with a yellow and red explosion of color. Normal fingernails were gone, replaced with sharp points that were either sharpened nails or worse, sharpened bone. It was too hard to tell. Her clothing was mostly intact, but she had developed some rips since the last time he saw her. Bloody feet completed her look as she had been running around for hours and hours without any type of foot protection.

Magdalena wasted no time and swung her hammer, missing Ivy, but taking a huge chunk out of the door frame with an explosion of power that sent splinters in every direction. Ivy looked wide eyed, but still kept her psychotic smile on her face.

"Too slow," she hissed.

"Just 'avin' a little dip in the pond, ain't I?" Magdalena shot back as she spun around, swinging the hammer with extra momentum and closing the distance. She missed again and hit one of the doors to the restrooms, shattering it in half, with the top half hanging off it's hinges.

Corinth tossed the door that was on top of him to the side and rose back to his feet, aiming his gun at Ivy. Unfortunately, Magdalena wasn't doing him any favors by constantly getting into his line of fire. "Dammit Mags! Move! I got a shot!"

But Magdalena was too focused, too much in the zone to stop. She was a Demolisher and if her enemy was still standing, like the walls around her, then she wasn't doing her job. Ivy rolled to the side as another swipe of the hammer cut like a scythe through the air, breaking and knocking over anything that was in its way. Corinth ducked, barely missing the flying pieces of office deco that went flying towards him.

Ivy leapt forward taking a swipe at Magdalena's arm, drawing blood and leaving four long red streaks from shoulder to elbow. Magdalena howled in pain, but Ivy over extended her reach, allowing the Demolisher to get in a heavy swing into her back with her war hammer. The force of the blow sent Ivy across the room like a wrecking ball, taking out numerous office walls and knocking over a stack of unopened office furniture.

Magdalena flexed and stretched her shoulders and neck before stomping her way over to Ivy. Before she could get there, Ivy was back on her feet, the smile gone from her face replaced by a sinister snarl. Swinging her hammer again, Magdalena aimed for the creatures head, but only caught the wall behind it, making a new hole to the outside.

Ivy ducked the swing and then ran off towards the stairs leading up to the second floor. Corinth took two shots, but missed them both due to the remaining walls that were still standing. He cursed and tried to make his way towards the stairs, stepping over and around all the debris in the room. He watched as Magdalena raced up the stairs after Ivy.

"Mags! Wait," he yelled after her, but she wouldn't listen. Corinth stepped on some broken wood and then jumped clear of everything else. A few seconds later, he was running up the stairs after Magdalena.