Decisions To Make

JP with Jaxx, mdman, Trustno1 and Cindy

Being there seemed to be an agreement to go tomorrow morning. Alyssa went back to work. She seemed to find something interesting, then said. "Elder Prince Graff, The Undying, that's his title. He was the Prince of Detroit. The city has been without a Prince since 2020 and is more than likely an anarch free state." Alyssa read outloud. "I'm not sure why that information is in here. Anarch free state? I guess that means it's a form of anarchism - as in it without a ruling body.”

“Maybe the Anarchs were chased from the state of Michigan?” Choi queried, trying to put it into the context of the known clans.

“Alyssa,” Dahlia was about to bring a suggestion, “you are a hacker, correct? Could you hack into any security system that the home may have? This could get us in and out without any alarms going off.”

Agent Powers gave the team a smolder before he replied, “Maybe Anarchs is the name for the gang of vampires that don’t belong to any of the clans. I have had to deal with gang members in the past.”

“So,” Dahlia interjected, “since you have more experience in facing vampires, what do you suggest?”

Dahlia recognized that the man might give some pertinent information. Anything would be useful to the team.

"It would be best to wait until tomorrow morning, that way we can perhaps figure out some more information." said Sartre.

Agent Powers gave Dahlia a smolder before he replied, “Well I recommend sticking to the consistent information such as fire, sunlight and beheading if possible. The stake to the heart has a good chance of working, but I doubt anyone will stand still long enough to let us stab their heart and it's debatable on what material is best used to destroy their heart other than fire. We can blast holes in the house in the daytime to bring in daylight. We can use white phosphorus shotgun bullets for massive fire damage and of course blades for beheading IF you get a chance. However this is just my gut instinct on this, but that ass-mite vampire was really fast and able to dodge bullets. If each clan has a different super power we will have to quickly change the hand to hand combat part.”

Choi looked to Alyssa. “So what do you think, Little Hacker? Can you hack the security system?”

A grin came to Alyssa's lips, "Of course, I can." And she wasn't just bragging, she knew she could. "Now, to just find out about it." The hacker went back to work but this time checking out the Prince's estate.

Choi grinned in return. “It sounds like we have a good plan then.”

Dahlia added, “Agent Powers, that’s good ammo. The phosphorus will become fire with the holy water making it more intense. Alyssa will take care of the security system, Choi will have a sword, Kat will have her minions, and I will provide the fire. I’m sure you have something useful too, Agent Sartre.”

Sartre asked, "Wouldn't it be possible if we just perhaps knocked on the door and respectfully asked to speak to the prince? Alyssa; can you find out what clan he is?”

"You want to knock on the door of a vampire that we aren't supposed to know is a vampire and ask to speak to the Prince. Or I'm assuming they would be far more noticeable if we were supposed to know they existed. What are you going to say to him, if the response is yes?" Alyssa asked.

Ekaterina smirked as she replied, "And I suppose they would simply invite us in for tea and crumpets.”

“Wait,” Choi responded. At first he wanted to dismiss the suggestion, just because it was Sartre. He loved to get under the guys skin, as thick as it was. But this time, Yeong saw some sense in it. He looked at Ekaterina and said, “What if a princess were to arrive to acknowledge a prince? We could be her entourage.”

Dahlia looked at Choi. “No! No! No!” She was shaking her head back and forth. “That is not a good idea. I’m not endangering my teammate for a fool scheme as that.”

“Dahlia,” Choi calmly explained, “we will all be with her. We will have the Princess’ back.”

“Would you put your partner into this type of danger?” Dahlia asked.

“What partner?” Choi flatly expressed. “Oh, you mean Eun-Ji, Miss Solo. She would have to be here to do that, as well as be a princess, but yes, knowing we would be there for her support.”

"I don't think its that kind of Prince anyway. It seems to be more of a political title, like mayor than a birth right title and once again, we're not supposed to know they exist. The dates for the Prince being Prince, and by the way Peter the Prince is a Ventrue, whatever that is, certainly don't line up with it being a birthright, it also states, "Put in place by the Elders". I have a feeling we don't want to know much more about the Elders if they gave the Prince his position." Realizing she was veering off, Alyssa of course corrected. "Nosfartu seem to be in charge of the database. I would bet that if they knew the base had been breached by a human, one of them might talk and might be able to get us in to see the Prince. Getting a message to them, that I can easily do." Just a little blackmail, nothing too bad.

Sartre used his profiling ability slightly. "Correction Agent Wilson." He smirked at the hacker. "The Prince is a Toreador. They seem to have an affinity for the fine arts.”

Alyssa had looked at the information quickly, so, she looked again, and nodded. "Ok, Peter, you're right. He's a Toreador. " Someone else in the info was a Ventrue, not that it mattered.

“Toreador as in a bullfighter or the song on Five Nights at Freddy’s?” Choi asked.

Agent Powers cocked his head to the side as Sartre revealed the Prince's clan. He wondered how in the world he managed to pull that info, since he didn't know it earlier. He figured it was one of the many secrets he had. Over time Agent Powers managed to figure out his fellow Illuminati members as well the Dragons and Templars had many secrets they kept quiet about. Of course he was no different with his slime body. He then replied, "Isn't the bullfighter call a "Matador" and the "Five Nights At Freddy's" song called "Toreador March"? Well I can see how they get mixed up.”

Ekaterina elegantly looked at Agent Powers with a smirk as she replied, "Mr. Powers, you seem to be quite knowledgeable about such things?"

Agent Powers gave Ekaterina a smolder and then replied, "Ummm just on some current things. I had to fight a few bulls in my time and I learned about the whole Freddy media in my down time between missions."

Ekaterina elegantly smirked and then said, "So now that we have more information on the vampires, what is our game plan?”

“A matador,” Dahlia explained, “fights bulls from the ground, whereas a toreador fights on horseback.”

“No don’t believe they would set up an interview,” Choi discussed. “I think they would be suspicious of someone contacting them requesting an interview with a vampire.”

Dahlia chuckled at the movie title drop. “We should hack security and go in unannounced during the day.”

"These vampires seem to have stability and laws. I say we talk to them." said Sartre. "What would you recommend Alyssa?”

Alyssa was about to throw her hands up, hadn't already said her preferences? "I don't think you'll get past the front gate if you just walk up the Prince's estate and ask to speak with him. I don't think anyone in power would talk to any of us, having no idea who we are. We need an in if we're going in that direction. So, we either sneak in or go through some kind of channel." Alyssa responded.

Agent Powers sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose like he had a headache. Ekaterina elegantly looked at him and asked, "Something wrong Mr. Powers?"

He gave her a smolder and replied, "Well this whole thing is getting complicated."

Ekaterina asked, "What do you mean?"

Agent Powers then replied, "Well think about it. We are trespassing on vampire territory, hacking their computers, planning to kill them in many ways and debating on setting up a meeting with them. If it was the drug cartel they would shoot first and talk afterwards. I can't see the vampires being much different than the cartel. From my perspective there is a ten percent chance of this ending peacefully and ninety percent in violence."

Ekaterina smirked as she replied, "Indeed that is a lot to take in.”

Choi was glad Alyssa thought as he and Dahlia did. Powers didn’t exactly say which way he was leaning. It almost sounded as if Powers was thinking they should leave it alone.

“Which is why we should go in as Dahlia said. Well, I originally said it, but almost gave in to Sartre’s thoughts.” Choi shook his head not believing that he had momentarily agreed with the man. “So, tomorrow morning?”

"So we sneak in during the day time." Wouldn't he be sleeping? They can't be anywhere around sunlight. How can we talk to him if he's asleep? Alyssa, can you look up Toreador?" asked Sartre.

Agent Powers rolled his eyes up as he replied, "Well they may have the ghouls or half vampires as bodyguards during the daytime while they are sleeping. It would not make sense that they would drop their guard like that.”

"You are right. How do we wake him up?" asked Sartre.

Alyssa shook her head, as she stared at her laptop screen, she knew she could get them a meeting with the Prince but her idea seemed to be shot down. "So, we are going to talk to the Prince? I doubt we'll get a chance to wake him. We might have to go with Peter's idea and wait until the evening. Even if I get past the security system there's guards and dogs, big dogs, I have no way to deal with them. There'd be a lot of bloodshed, then we really aren't likely to get to speak to the Prince.”

Choi palmed his face and stretched out in the chair. “Who says we want to talk; we’re looking for clues. Something that tells us who’s responsible for the attack at the theater. By the way, did Eun-Ji or Marina pass on info on their meeting yesterday?”

Ekaterina pondered as she rubbed her chin then elegantly replied, "If you are adamant on meeting the Prince. You can send them an email and tell them to meet you at a park tomorrow night, so we can set up some security in advance.”

"If you don't want to talk to him, why did you bring up waking up the Prince?" Alyssa asked, as that part made no sense. "So, maybe we should decide what we are doing with the Prince before we decide when we're going because no one seems to be on the same page. I'm not the one going in, so, it's really on the rest of you to decide.”

Agent Powers seemed stressed out about the whole topic then he put his hands up as he said, "Alright it looks like we have two options on this. First we can wake up early and storm the Prince's home which is probably well guarded and has hidden rooms. Or Second we can send them a message to meet at a secure location during the night where we can have eyes everywhere but they are stronger at night. I don't like either one but I will do what needs to be done. If we do the first choice I'll break the door down and wreck the place. If we go with the second choice I'll meet the vampires and hold a monitor or speaker so one of you can talk to them. This way Alyssa is out of the line of fire.”

"Ohh, I want to talk to him." said Sartre.”

Ekaterina elegantly smiled and replied, "Well then shall we take a vote on which option we prefer? I myself prefer the second option since I can have eyes set up everywhere in advance to reduce the odds of an ambush. What do you prefer, Mr. Powers?" Agent Powers shrugged as he replied, "The second option involves less risk so I prefer it.”

"We can sneak in. Alyssa, can you find out what a Toreador is?" asked Sartre.

"I..." Alyssa was getting a headache from all of this, why did Peter suddenly change his mind? Why was Max willing to meet with the vampires alone? Why... ugh. "Yeah. .. there's not exactly a description of the different clans in the Nosferatu database. Let me look at a few other things.”

"Let's let Alyssa have the final decision on what we do, she's the most logical and analytical." said Sartre.

"I already said, I'm not deciding. I'm not going in or talking to them, it's up to the rest of you." Really, between her idea being shot down, and the group constantly changing its mind it was beyond annoying. "Maybe, we should find out more about them, if we can't make a decision.”

"Good idea, see if you can find some sort of channels we can go through on the internet with your hacking skills," said Sartre.

Alyssa stood up, wanting to scream, but somehow didn't. She had already mentioned going through the Nosfartu, i.e. channels. "You know what...." She breathed deeply, and actually decided against what she was going to say. "I'm going to get some air....lunch should be here soon anyway." She left the room, let them argue amongst themselves, the hacker had had enough.

Choi grinned. “Mr. Sartre,” he expressed, “did anyone ever tell you that you would make an excellent Dragon. You’ve definitely created a lot of chaos here today.” He audibly chuckled, as he typed a text.

Dahlia chuckled to as she received Choi’s text: Dinner tonight? She quickly texted back in the affirmative. This meeting was definitely not the order with which she was familiar.

Dahlia turned to Ekaterina, saying, “What do you think, Kat?”