Dog eat dog

The three kindred were still standing in the sparsely lit hallway, with David hiding in the shadows, when Brunswick, mechanic extraordinaire, sprung into action. He positioned himself in front of the door and readied himself to smash the wooden panel out of the frame, when the doctor gave him a calming gesture and responded to the resident’s inquiry, “We are here to ask you some questions. You have nothing to fear from us. We just want to know what happened at the mall.” The moment Victor had opened his mouth, David felt enchanted. Somehow the words of the doctor had a magic undertone, compelling you to listen very carefully and follow the directions he was giving. Unfortunately it did not seem to have the same effect on the man inside the apartment and the Brujah, who started to get impatient, decided to knock down the door and skip the measly introduction. As soon as the door swung open, his eyes fell on the growling dog in front of him. A second later he saw its master standing at the far end of the corridor, with a 12 gauge pointing at him. Before he could react, the pit-bull jumped in his direction, aiming for his right arm, cheered on by its master, “Get him Scrat!” The giant suddenly dodged and the dog bumped off his right shoulder against the wall. David was impressed by the speed with which his new friend had reacted to the dog’s attack.

“STOP!” The thundering voice of Vathek had surprised the other investigators. He was looking at Mike, the gun slinging maniac at the end of the hall and was concentrating very hard. The young vampire had heard that some of the Ventrue have the ability to control the minds of others by giving them specific commands. It was impressive to see how the man inside the apartment suddenly froze up and turned into a living statue. Just as David wanted to express his amazement, Ian once again turned into Action Jackson. He grabbed the stunned dog by the throat and darted towards Mike. When he passed a door on the right he threw the dog into the adjacent room and rushed forward until he stood just centimeters from the other man. With a quick grapple maneuver he punched the gun out of his opponent’s hand and grabbed him at the neck. The speed with which the Brujah had executed these three actions was impressive. ‘Finally a true demonstration of Celerity,’ thought David, still reminiscing the earlier display Ian had given him at the mall. When the young man had first chosen to vanish in front of the Brujah, he had tried to avoid alienating him by simply running of unseen. So he let him in on his secret, showing him how he managed to dissipate into the dark and move around unnoticed. Ian had in return shown David the merits of being a Brujah. “This is called Celerity,” he had said, before closing his eyes, concentrating real hard and then punching a whole in the concrete wall. Apparently the enormous fellow could spend some of his blood reserves in his body to accelerate his movements or increase his strength. Ian explained to him that it was an ability inherent to the more physical inclined clans, like the Brujah and the Gangrel. So there he was, standing in the door, looking down the corridor where the human statue’s neck was tightly stuck in Ian’s right hand. David quickly snuck inside and tried to step behind Mike, when he notices something odd. The shotgun that had been knocked out of the antagonist’s hand seemed to be floating in the air just next to the guy. David grabbed the shaft and tried to pull it away from the Gangrel but he noticed that, as he pulled on the gun, its former owner’s armed also jerked into the same direction. It took him a while to realize that the weapon was fixed to the man’s arm with a thin silvery wire. Victor and Ruthven, who had finally also moved down the narrow corridor, saw that David was pulling on the 12 gauge and noticed the wire glistening in the dark.

The doctor stuck his hand in his right pocket and pulled out a small shard of glass and put it in the palm of his hand. He closed his eyes and suddenly the piece of glass was hovering over his hand. Seconds later it flew towards the wire, but the impact did nothing except shatter the shard into little pieces. Apparently the wire was not thin enough to snap it with a piece of high velocity crystal. After this display of magic, David was finally convinced that Victor Brauner must be a member of the Tremere clan, who have the ability to control things with their minds and sometimes even command fire. Just as the young Malkavian tried to give the gun another yank, his opponent suddenly awoke from his frozen state. With his left hand he grabbed Ian’s wrist so hard that he was released from the giants grip. Almost simultaneously he pulled back his shotgun, put the barrel under his chin and fired. With a loud bang, the almost headless body slid to the floor and seconds later, turned into ashes.