The Hunted (Hobbs)

[Dante Stark]

Stark had winded up god knows where but he'd been able to communicate with Hobbs through various ranges of static.. He'd heard her footsteps and been tracing them the best he could.. He'd heard her have her own scuffle and he'd heard some of those things crawling out of the vents they where nimble fuckers and knew how to peruse someone.. Dante got tackled as he ran through one of the corridors the Bloodhound clambering on top of him brandishing a knife.. Searing pain entered Dante's shoulder as the fucker stabbed at him snarling and biting into the fresh wound.. Dante's searing scream echoed through the building.. He'd needed to find Hobbs.. And they he needed to live.. In a moment of pure adrenaline Dante pulled the knife out of his shoulder and kicked the feral bloodsucker off of him..

Dante grabbed him by the neck and rammed his head through the drywall.. Over and over till brains ran down the walls.. Dante dropped the knife shivering slightly as he grabbed the crossbow... His eyes had almost felt like they wanted to close and he wanted to lay down but he had to push on for Hobbs. they needed each other as of now.. And he wasn't going to let her down, Dante walked through one of the rooms and noticed a hole in the wall and he crawled through realising he was close to where he'd been pushed off the ledge.. Dante saw the downed Junkie's body and trailed her moments from there.

Dante passed another body.. He'd heard them scrambling around yelling at the vampire to finish the job and Dante saw Hobbs pinned by it, Dante ran not like he'd usually run but more faster.. as if his life depended on it, He'd barged through the group and slammed the crossbow into the vampires head knocking her off of Hobbs.. Dante dropped the crossbow next to Hobbs as he pulled out his pistol and began firing shots into the crowd.. They dropped like flies and Dante sighed turning around noticing the vampire getting back up.. He'd one bullet left in the chamber and he'd hoped to hell it had been a UV one as he aimed his pistol up and fired.. Bang the vampire slumped back to the floor.. Dante sighed in relief as he helped Hobbs to her feet.. He didn't grasp the crossbow instead he leant against the wall.. He breathed deeply removing his jacket, the shirt he'd been wearing had a large blood splotch where Dante had been stabbed and he looked at Hobbs with the most serious look he'd ever given her..

"I'm not going to leave you again.. Now let's finish this together.." Dante spoke his voice almost gone... He nodded towards Hobbs as they began to draw up a new plan of action.. "The Plan still goes.. we try to rescue any survivors and then we'll torch this sucker.. Any input.. I'm done rushing through this.. We've still got a lot of ground to cover and ammo's getting scarce.. I'd like to hear your ideas, i value them.." Dante sighed as he applied pressure to his wound, he couldn't believe a non bloodsucker had sipped up some of his blood and he was still feeling the shock as he looked back to Hobbs..

[Hazel 'Hobbs' Yeung]

The Vampire's nails were digging into Hobbs' wrists as she pinned her. Tiny crescent shaped marks began to cut and bleed, and the Vampire's fangs were almost at her skin. Hobbs tried to bring a mechanical knee into the Vampire's side, but the woman pushed her down with such force that Hobbs' skull whacked the floor. Her vision went blotchy, and white spots danced in her vision.
Was that footsteps she could hear?
The Vampire's breath was against her neck, just about to-
Stark seemed to come from nowhere and struck the bitch in the head with the crossbow. Hobbs felt the weight lift from her, and she laid against the floor, panting heavily as Stark finished the Vampire off and killed many of the others.

Hobbs took the hand he offered gratefully and pulled herself to her feet. "Holy shit dude, am I glad to see you," she said, her voice steady but her body trembling, from shock or muscular fatigue. Seriously, that guy had no idea how close she came to kicking the bucket just then. So this was what it was like for Stark those other times she'd saved his ass? They were almost even now. Almost.
"I think I-" she stopped dead as she saw Stark peel layers of blood soaked cloth away from his shoulder. Oh no... that looked anything but good.

He looked up at her, and Hobbs met his grave gaze. She thumbed on the safety on her gun and stuck it in the back of the waistband of her cargo shorts.
"Lemme take a look," she murmured, her hands trying to take over. She gently removed his hand and poked a finger through the hole in his shirt. It was a thin slit, not a hole, so it was a stab wound not a gunshot wound. That was marginally better, she supposed, but only slightly. She pulled the shirt away from his shoulder and could see barely anything beneath; it was all blood. Hobbs grabbed the white glow stick and held it up so she could see better.
"Ah shit, that'll need stitches," she breathed.

She put down the duffel bag with her sniper rifle in it and shrugged off her leather jacket. Underneath she wore a red chequered shirt over a plain white tank top, and she now pulled off the plaid shirt and folded it around itself so that it formed a long strip of cloth.
"I don't think facing the Vampires will be a good idea," she said, folding the shirt up. "I have UV grenades; we can locate them, block them in, chuck in the grenades and let them do their job. Or, failing that, we stay the fuck away from them and I have a go with the sniper rifle. We're not getting into brawls with Vampires, not tonight. As for survivors... frankly I'm starting to doubt there are any. Any that we can save, at least. I reckon the best thing to aim for right now is just shutting this place down." She laid the folded shirt over her shoulder, ready to patch him up with. But it needed cleaning first.
"Firstly, though, we need an escape route," she continued. "I have only a faint idea of where we are and it's like a maze down here. We'll need to know how to get our asses out before the place goes boom. I don't suppose you know a way out?"
She pulled out her hip flask and sniffed the contents. Vodka. Beautiful.
She glanced up at him, her eyes filled with apology. "Keep still. This is gonna hurt like a bitch." And without waiting for a response she upended the vodka over his shoulder wound.
Pocketing the hip flask, she took the folded shirt and wrapped it firmly around his shoulder like a bandage. It should keep the pressure on for now, but he'd need proper medical attention once they got out.

[Dante Stark]

Stark winched in pain as she'd doused his wound in vodka and he almost wanted to cuss and curse at her.. But frankly she was like his own guardian angel and he didn't care if she'd hurt him.. He'd heal Dante looked at her once finished cleaning his wound and applying the shirt as a bandage.

"I say we first make our bombs... and then from here we can probably double out to the sewers..We'll let the grenades deal with these fuckers.. and then I think this is one of the old prohibition buildings so it should have a tunnel that we can get out to the front of the building.. Then we can watch as this place burns to the ground... We're done here, let's just get the materials we need for the explosives.. And i think the tunnel is near the meth lab.. It's like one of those Hidden behind a bookcase deals.. It's how they did it during prohibition.. " Stark sighed as he moved his arm lightly to adjust to his stitches..
Dante looked at some of the bodies he'd wasted.. He closed his eyes and looked at Hobbs once more nodding, he'd known they'd been near the meth lab, but they'd still need to travel a few corridors and down a flight of stairs... Dante had walked in silence, he'd had a hell of an evening getting stabbed, attacked had some of his blood drunk.. but Hobbs.. She'd almost been ripped apart by a Vampire and Dante knew what it was like to look death in the face.. He'd wanted to say something to her and reach out emotionally but his voice wouldn't communicate the words instead just a gasp escaped his mouth.

They walked past one of the empty halls and Dante stopped outside one of the rooms and grasped the handle.. "This is it... I can tell by the cat piss smell.. Meth.. and crudely made at that." Dante leaned against the door and counted to three.. Hobbs and He had formed an unlikely partnership and this was almost reminiscent of one of those cop shows.. He swung the door open and one of those things had been wearing as gas mask making meth..

Dante walked up to the man who growled and snarled at Dante.. It'd been holding something and he'd jammed the glass shard, into Dante's arm and he grimaced but kept his grip on the man regardless and slammed his face into the desk as his body slumped unconscious.. Dante pulled the shard out and tossed it the ground.. He didn't care about the blood it was a small cut nothing to serious.. He'd torn the bottom of his shirt and wrapped it tight around his arm.. This mission had taken its toll on him and he'd given up caring about the pain..

"I know a small amount about making explosives.. But I think we can probably build a makeshift timer with some of the stuff in here.. and for the timer we can use my watch.. Dante removed his watch and placed it on the table and grabbed a couple of the brewing beakers.. He'd no idea how to make a powerful explosive.. but he'd got Hobbs and she knew a fair bit..

"Do you think we can mix those UV grenades into the explosion to make a UV Induced Explosion that'll still make a fire that would bring this entire building down as well as ganking the vampires.. " Stark looked at her with a mad glint in his eye..

[Hazel 'Hobbs' Yeung]

With Stark mostly patched up, it was time to move out. Hobbs pulled on her leather jacket and slung the duffel bag across her back again. Her head hurt, and her tongue was still bleeding into her mouth, not to mention the cuts on her wrists now bleeding freely as well. Once they got out of this shit hole they'd need to drop by a convenience store and hole up somewhere to get patched up. Hospitals would only ask questions, and in any case Hobbs didn't fancy paying the medical bill. What she missed most about home other than her family was the NHS.

They were closing in on the meth lab, and Stark commented on the smell. Hobbs didn't really know the smell of meth labs herself; she wasn't experienced in that area, but she trusted Stark's nose. She shouldered herself up against the door, the usual protocol, and drew out her Glock from her shorts again. As usual, Stark went in first, and proceeded to get himself stabbed in the arm with a shard of glass. Eew. That could have all kinds of germs on it. risk of infection was probably high.

"Jesus Christ, man, not your lucky day is it?" she said, watching him tie a shred of his shirt around his arm. "Hope you're up to date with your tetanus shots." Hobbs eyed him with worry. She was gonna need to patch him up heavily by the end of this.

Hobbs picked up the watch he'd put down on the table and examined it. It was a digital, which was needed, but it would take her a while to pull off something like this. "Nah, that's not gonna work. Tampering with the UV bombs would only make them duds, and I think I have enough to target Vampires alone. For these other bastards we're going to need to use old fashioned incendiary stuff. Fire will get the job done." She put away her Glock and dismantled his watch, examining the contents.
"Right. Stand back, Stark. Expert coming through, here." She paced up and down the room, raking her fingers through her short hair and looking around her at the bottles and chemicals she had to hand. She stuck her hands in her pockets and pulled out all of her bombs, including those that she stored in her leg. She had five UV grenades remaining, and three incendiary.

"We'll be able to make Molotov's with what we have here, and if I have enough time I could make a massive bomb on a timer. Set it somewhere central to the building and then get the hell outta Dodge."
She rolled up her sleeves and began to move around from work bench to work bench, collecting what they'd need to make Molotov's. "You start making the Molotov's, I'll set to work making this son of a bitch."

Hobbs was more used to making explosives back in her lab at the base. She had everything there; it was candyland to her. But here, in a limited time period and with only what she had around her, Hobbs could do just as well. It would be crude, but powerful if she pulled it off right.

[Dante Stark]

Dante stood next to Hobbs and began mixing the required chemicals he'd needed to make the Molotov's he'd ripped off more shards of his shirt and crammed them into the bottle necks.. He'd need a new shirt once they was done.. this one was practically shreds.. He'd placed his finished bottles to one side and out of the corner of his eye, he'd watched Hobbs set about her work.. He was no expert but he could do a thing or two and had his uses. Dante took his tattered shirt off it was no use any more it was mere shreds.. He'd re-wrapped the makeshift bandages around his arm and shoulder.. He'd need to buy Hobbs more time as he could hear some of the Bloodhounds massing in the halls.. "I'm all medically up to date.. Just for your information and I'm going to buy you some more time.. " Dante sighed as he grabbed a pipe off the opposite table and he walked towards the door they came in and closed it behind himself.. There was five Bloodhounds all looking at Dante with their grins and they all looked at him as he'd walked forwards.. Nobody had made a move yet..

Dante stared them down and then they struck coming at him from all sides.. Dante was able to avoid the shuffle as they all bumped into each other he'd taken the moment to bash some kneecaps in with the pipe.. He'd heard wails of pain and grunts.. punches and kicks later Dante's body ached from the onslaught he'd taken a few kicks and punches to the stomach and one to the face he'd spat the blood onto the floor as one Bloodhound remained standing..

Dante slowly walked over and looked the man dead cold in the eye before grabbing him and thrusting him against the wall.. "It's over.." His voice croaked as he raised the pole up and crammed it through the man's eye.. blood seeped out as the body fell to the floor.. the man tried to scream but Dante covered his mouth as he slowly blacked out.. Dante removed the pole and his eyeball before tossing it next to the group pile.. He'd opened the door back to the Meth lab and spat some more blood out.. "We've got ten minutes before they swarm us.. We going to be ready by then?..." Dante trembled he'd never committed so many violent acts towards a hunt.. He'd almost felt like one of them.. Brutal and merciless.. But he'd had Hobbs here to reassure him it was their job.. He'd closed the door and waited for her response.

[Hazel 'Hobbs' Yeung]

As Stark went outside conducting the junkies in a nice choir of fighting sounds and screams, Hobbs worked fast. Most of the time Hobbs was just your average woman and a fine Hunter. But when it came to weaponry or technology, she fit the stereotype of Chinese genius to a T. Her knowledge of chemicals was unmatched in the Hunter ranks, and her efficiency was well known.

Hobbs found three different plastic bottles, mixed an explosive fuel mixture in two and poured the reactant chemical into the third. Taping them all together roughly, she threaded in the wires and set to work on the hard bit. Getting the chemicals together was easy, the tough part was rigging it all up to an explosive charge that would detonate when the watch timed out. But, Hobbs wasn't known for her technological expertise for nothing.

Stark had returned just as she was finishing wiring it up to his watch. She laughed. "What do you take me for, an idiot?"
She lifted up the taped together bottles of chemicals and screwed the caps back onto each. When the explosive charge went off it would explode down the hole made by the three battles pushed together. once the plastic casing split, the resulting chemical formula would result in horrible fiery death for any in the vicinity.

"I'm ready now. We need to set the timed bomb somewhere central so it'll take out as many as possible. Get together the bombs and Molotov's, I'll carry the UV grenades, and lets blow this place to hell."
Hobbs put the timed bomb under her arm and gathered the five UV grenades up, clutching them against her stomach awkwardly with her hands. "Let's get going, I'll follow you."

[Dante Stark]

Dante grasped the Molotov's and walked out where the bodies lay.. He'd known the central room was a couple of corridors away.. and he could hear the feral beasts in the wall cavities.. He'd know they all would suffer a fiery death once Hobbs & Stark had been through with them.. "We're almost there Hobbs.. " Dante spoke softly and they arrived five minutes later to the room.. Stark opened the doors it was a barren room.. But it was the central room.. Stark had looked out the window and to his luck they wouldn't have to parade through the sewers there had been a perfectly good fire escape right here.. "Hobbs, set that thing for a minute and we can escape down this fire escape.. It'll take us twenty seconds to get clear..." Dante was glad to escape a trip to the sewers knowing the darkness would not be their ally...

Dante did as Hobbs commanded with the Molotov's and she'd laid the bomb down.. Dante broke the window and pulled the lever which dropped the ladder into the alleyway giving the two hunters there break... Stark looked out at the sky, it was getting slightly brighter.. there night was almost over.. All they had to do was blow this place into oblivion..

"You can take the ladder first.. and I'll follow your lead.. Keep any Bloodhounds off your trail then i can meet you where i came in and we'll watch the fireworks.. together.. ." Dante smiled at the thought of blowing this place to the ground he'd be glad once it was finally over, Dante breathed in the air his lungs rejoicing in the sweet air.. They'd be free so soon.. Dante sat on the bench.. He'd watched Hobbs and looked around the room the Bloodhounds had stopped converging on their position and Stark & Hobbs was almost home free.. Freedom was so close.. They could almost taste it.

[Hazel 'Hobbs' Yeung]

Hobbs followed Stark silently through the building. Carrying these explosives made her uncomfortable for two reasons: if the time bomb got jostled in any way, bumped, knocked, or otherwise disturbed, the charge could detonate without the timer and they'd all be goners. Making quick and crude bombs wasn't conducive to the safety of the explosive itself. Secondly, with her hands full she couldn't reach her Glock, and since she wouldn't be able to defend herself, she was relying on Stark who was probably reaching his limits at this point.

When they got to the central room Hobbs set the timed bomb down and knelt beside it. She began to thumb the timer, and set it for a sixty second countdown. Her thumb hovered over the button that would start the countdown, so for now, the timer was frozen, waiting. The fire escape would be a quick getaway, but Hobbs didn't want to take any chances.

Stark told her to go first, and Hobbs looked at him sharply. "Me? In case you haven't noticed Lieutenant, out of the two of us, you're looking the worse for wear." The timer hadn't been set. They still had time. Stark should get himself out and quit worrying about her. She stood up and pulled out her Bic lighter, held it up to the light to check how much fluid was left in the yellow transparent plastic case. There was enough.
"I'll set the bombs and light the Molotov's, and you get out," she said, a look of dead seriousness on her face. "Go on, start moving. I'll be fine." She started to light the Molotov rags one by one. She'd set the timer last; the slow burning of the rags would give her enough time.

[Dante Stark]

Dante nodded as he clambered out the window he'd gripped onto the ladder, he'd felt the cool metal in his palms.. They'd seen quite a bit together and he'd be waiting for her once she'd climbed down the ladder..

Stark clambered down the ladder finally his feet touching the pavement he knew it'd all be over soon.. Dante had waited a minute to allow her to light the fuse and he'd leant against a trash can waiting till he'd seen Hobbs join him... Dante looked out into the streets and he'd thought he'd seen another bloodhound but it was just his mind playing tricks on him after this evening..

Dante breathed slowly, why was a job never simple.. Everything always became some kind of twisted mental challenge.. He'd never thought it was this gruesome and involving so many casualties..

There had been no survivors.. that's what sickened him the most.. But it was going to be cleaned up soon.. Hobbs & Stark was the cleanup crew that humanity would never have known about.. Keeping them safe at night.. from dangers like this.. "Tis' the life eh Jimmy.." Dante said as he looked right.. He'd spoken to himself.. and he shrugged it off as just a poor reaction from the nights events.. He'd never actually spoken as if a person was next to him.. Dante rubbed his face with his hand as he tried to shrug it off.. It was just a weird coincidence in his mind that's all..

[Hazel 'Hobbs' Yeung]

Well, that exchange went better than expected. She'd honestly expected him to argue, to say she should go first and leave the dangerous job to him. But nope, he was down that ladder in seconds. That sure made a change.

Hobbs struck at the lighter, igniting the last few rags of the Molotov's, and rolled them out into the hallways around her, to ensure a wider blast radius. More destruction, more chance of killing everything in this shithole.

Scratching sounds in the walls. Hobbs looked up, trying to pinpoint the location as she gathered together the bombs she wouldn't be using and pocketed them.
The Molotov she'd lit first exploded in the corridor behind her. Hobbs raised her arm to shield her face from the blast as she set the timer to thirty seconds instead of sixty, and another Molotov exploded as she bolted for the window. She vaulted over the windowsill, hooked one foot onto the ladder and leaned back. Her weight made the ladder slide down on its springs, and it lowered her to the ground, where she got off, making the ladder retract back up the fire escape.

She hurried over to where Stark, bloodied and roughly bandaged, was waiting for her in the road. She stood on his right and looked back up at the building, counting down under her breath.
"Five... four... three... two... one."
Boom. Right on time, almost as if her countdown had been rehearsed, the building exploded in a roar of sound and light and heat. The glass was punched from the windows and Hobbs raised an arm to shield her eyes as tiny, harmless fragments rained down over their heads like glittering crystalline rain. The roof ignited in seconds, and under the roar of the flames it was almost possible to hear the sounds of voices shrieking. It sounded like Angel song to her.

Hobbs lowered her arm now that the glass had stopped falling. One hand went to the strap of her duffel bag, and the other went to the pocket of her cargo shorts. She stood there next to Stark for a long few moments, her dark eyes reflecting the bright orange flames.
"Hey Dante?" she said quietly, using his first name for the first time ever. "My real name's Hazel," she said. "Hazel Yeung."