Incena Fleuri's Story

Skyler noticed that the intruder just... disappeared. It seemed odd, but nothing was really said during the meeting. With that, she could relax a little more... or not. Seraphina proposed a blood pact between the royalty; that practically sets their deaths in stone. Sofia interjected, hopefully everyone knowing the obvious dangers of something so hazardous.

"Why essentially guarantee everyone's destruction? Even a contract sealing someone's death isn't going to be enough to stop some of the more daring of us. We all know how provocative much of the Fire clan's members can be, regardless of if they're faced with their own demise or not."

"Let's ease them in to it instead of forcing everyone with the consequence of death or making a battlefield out of what used to be a home," Skyler started. "Start with the armies; we could have commanders from every clan work with and train another's. It at least assures that we'll be able to hold our own against a different clan's elder, and it lets the most dangerous of each clan get introduced to the fighting style and culture of the others.

"The Blood Contract can simply be a last resort, as in 'if all else fails.' We don't have to pull it out right off the bat, that's just too risky."



Incena woke up a little earlier than the other elders, as per her normal hyperactive self. She took the extra time to explore the new, industrialized world around her, get a little meal, get a haircut, and pick out some new clothes; a blazing and fairly revealing outfit fit for the Fire Elder, with a new hairstyle to match. She learned French, too, because the word "Français" rolled off her tongue nicely. But then she had to find the others. However, she realized something.

"I haven't even tried using my powers since I woke up. I must be getting lazy." Snapping her fingers in an empty place she found called a bathroom to create a flame, no spark formed; no oxygen burned; no heat was generated whatsoever. "The hell?" Trying again, Incena received exactly the previous result. "What the hell's going on? Can I at LEAST still transform?"

Spreading her arms and taking a deep breath, a fire engulfed the woman's entire body before emitting a pair of blazing wings in place of her arms. A flowing tail took its place over her entire lower body, and her torso and head were replaced by flames, too. Bursting out of the room and rising into the air to a safe height, she spoke to herself as a burning beak opened from her face.

"At least that's checked off."

Flying over cities in search of any of the other woken clan elders, Incena found that she could generate a ball of sparks and flowing lightning in front of her beak when she was trying to play with the fire she used to control so well. Releasing it, the ball of lightning turned into a bolt and seared a patch of ground totally black. Amazed and happy to have something new to play with, she fired off more of the electric blasts and wondered what else she was able to do, but she ended up finding Saren and Melissa before she could experiment.

"How can I surprise them?" she thought. The next thing she knew...

In a flash of lightning, she was back to normal and standing in a now-seared tree near the pond where Melissa and Saren were residing.

"Oh ho, that is so SWEET!" She couldn't wait to find out what else she can do.

"Have you seen any of the others while you were doing a little sightseeing? I can't find any of them."

Saren could see that the rest of the Elders were finally starting to appear at their little pond. He couldn't say that he have, nor could he say that he haven't, simply because he was having too much fun being in the open once more.

<Not that I can say, too busy having this amount of freedom>

And within seconds, a flash of lightning struck a tree next to them, and another Elder appeared from the smoking ashes. This time, it was the Fire Elder that had made her appearance.

<Ah, I see that you've found something new to play with, perhaps? But why exactly are we meeting, hmm?>

As Saren formed these sounds by using the air around him, he stretched his wing-like arms, slightly hovering above the ground, his emerald tinted skin glimmering whenever the moonlight falls upon it.

Now they were waiting on the other three to show up...

Melissa

Just as she thought Saren was about to speak she saw yet another bolt of lightening strike a tree close by, smoldering it on impact and making a pile of ash form beneath it. Once again too close for her own comfort. It wasn't exactly a comforting thought to have a real lightning bolt strike her. Something about bursting into flames didn't sound very appealing.

As the smoke from the tree started to thin, the ashes underneath it begun to form some figure. Sure enough, from the ashes emerged an ecstatic Incenea. "Incenea, cheerful as always." She said. For some reason the fire elder hardly seemed like she was in the fire clan at times. They were normally portrayed as hot-headed, or something of the sorts anyways. But most the time she was just bright and happy. Quite unusual but in a way still fitting.

"Well it's nice of you to join us, I was just asking about where the other elders were a moment before you made your grand entrance." She said to the elder. She was so happy she was awake and using her powers again, if only Melissa could be like that. But no, she had her own way to be that happy. Destruction.

Ah, I see that you've found something new to play with, perhaps? But why exactly are we meeting, hmm?

Looking at Saren she couldn't help but show the dumbfounded look on her face. He didn't know why they were meeting? She replied to that statement starting with one word. "Really?" She asked. "We've been asleep for thousands of years, doing nothing but laying dormant as all the other lesser vampires stood by and planned on what to do if we ever awoke. Now that we can finally have some payback, you wonder why we are meeting at all?"

She had more anger than she had once thought. Sure she knew that she wanted to make the little children pay, but she never realized until now how much. She wanted them dead. She wanted every single one individually executed by none other than herself, only to go on and finish what she had once begun to do. Power was what she wanted, power was what she would get. She wanted to rule over something. At one point that something had been their children, but now she despised them. Humans maybe? Yes, they are weak as well as stupid. It would be easy to tell them what to do.

While Melissa welcomed her, Incena sat herself down and started playing around with her new abilities. She clapped her hands together and made some kind of electric webbing between her fingers, which she promptly shook off. She'll probably figure out how to use that later. Next, the girl started playing catch with herself with a ball of lightning.

<... Why exactly are we meeting, hm?>

Then she flashed over to another tree, scorching it.

"That's so fun~."

"... Now that we finally have some payba..." Flash. Incena looked where she was and noticed a stray discharge of electricity left in her wake, a light blue glow that seemed invisible to the others. She'll have to fix that so she didn't leave that any more. Watching Melissa and Saren for another moment, the glow was absorbed into her body, back where it came from. Maybe now was a good time to get involved again; certainly the Fire Clan would be surprised about a member not even using Fire anymore, and an elder at that.

"I heard something about payback?" And right away, hundreds of ideas were flashing through her head, as if her thoughts were on fast-forward. She started muttering to herself in high speed to match the imagination. "Like that one; too gross; that might work but it's too close for comfort; I might need construction equipment for that; wait, a network of electricity? The hell's a 'network'? Why do I even know that word? It sounds like something spiders or fishermen would use...." And she trailed off in her own thoughts.

Warmth. That is what Akane felt. As she slowly opened her eyes she saw that she was in a meadow. Then she sat up. Akane shook her head. How long had she been asleep? It had been too long. She carefully got to her feet and looked around. It was a peaceful meadow full of life. She turned her behind her and saw a deer. It seemed to be drinking from a small stream. Speaking of drinking Akane hadn't had any blood in a long time. She longed for it. She also decided that this was better than any other time to test out her powers. She then formed a small dagger out of dark matter. It was short and sharp. She then looked over at the deer and waited. When it finally bowed down its head to get another drink she shot at it. She managed to hit the deer straight in the neck, then it went down. Akane quickly ran over towards the deer knelled down near it. She took out her knife and twirled it in the palm of her hand. She then put her mouth to the wound and drank deeply. As the red liquid flowed through her it rejuvenated her, but it wasn't enough. She needed more. More blood and destruction.

When Akane was finished she looked around wondering if the other elders woke up. She wouldn't have been surprised as she was always one of the late comers. She didn't really mind Saren or Incena, but she hated Melissa. She decided to try and do a location search for her. Akane sat down in the meadow and closed her eyes. Searching, searching got it. She found Melissa. Akane started to laugh. So this would be fun. She looked at the area where she was and pinpointed it. Then she took a shadow and stepped into it. Akane traveled through the shadow and appeared behind Melissa. Grabbing her arm she said, "Missed me?"

Saren was getting restless. There are three of the Elders at this pond, in the middle of practically nowhere, and the other three were god knows where. Suddenly, a laugh came out from behind them, the laugh of Akane. Turning around, it had appeared that one of the late arrivals had grabbed the water Elder's arm.

"Missed me?"

Finally, another had made their appearance, and now two were remaining. Saren tried to keep himself entertained by making small flips and acrobatic maneuvers where he was. But that was hardly helping.

<Well, while we wait for the other two to stop wasting time and get here, I'm wanting to do some sightseeing. This meeting of ours is starting to cut into my fun time...>

Saren stretched his arms for one final time, and slowly hovered out to the middle of the pond.

"Sorry, sir," Tenebre answered. "No news on this end. Believe you me, I'm just as bored as you." Not so much irritated. He liked seeing a bit of chaos amongst the strongest in the land.

"Don't you dare leave me alone here, husband." From his queen's tone, it was pretty obvious who wore the pants in the relationship. But he'll have to pick on that another time. Everyone started chattering again, even the Air clan.

"Now, calm down, y'highness. It'll be over soon; at least I hope. Then we can get on with our endless lives and prepare our army for the elders' arrival." Adding his opinion to Vladimir's news, "We're outmatched as it is now, with our most aggressive royalty reduced to a pile of smoldering dust." He said it with a stylish and sarcastic tinge of false sadness, as if he wanted it totally obvious that he was enjoying the chaos he could feel about to ensue within the Fire clan.



Incena wasn't paying much attention when Akane appeared. "Got it," she said. "I'll be back in a good hour or so!" With that and another flash of lightning, she disappeared. Granted, her sense of time was probably as distorted as a surrealist's rendition of a clock, but that's beside the point.

Searching for her victim over the skies, Incena was playing with her new power a little more. She made a ball the first time, so she wondered if she could make anything else. A knife was the first attempt, and while it fizzled out the first time, it was fully formed the second go around. Looking almost like a regular knife as it floated in front of her phoenix form's beak, the little lightning blade glowed a light orange, almost like a fire. Matching sparks jumped around the entire construct, practically eager to stab into something. However, with all the playing around, she nearly missed who she was going for!

Down below, in a nice glass-roof building was none other than the king of the Fire Clan, Kenshi Reikokuna. Even from up in the sky, Incena could hear him practice-flirting... and smell sex. Ugh. Hasn't he ever heard of a steam bath? [Okay, Incena hadn't even thought of the term until she learned these new-fangled languages, but she's been doing it for a while!] Regardless, it told her exactly how to deal with him. Retreating to the ground outside the building -- well, it was more like a castle... mansion? Yeah, that's it -- Incena returned to her normal form. For a bit of pity effect, she singed parts of her arms and face.

"Excuse me," she started, fake-struggling her way inside and using the walls to prop herself up. The interior of this place was pretty amazing. The ceiling between the first and second floor, as well as all the interior walls were made of lightly-tinted glass, so the decor could be seen regardless of where you were inside. The kitchen seemed to have the newest cooking tools except for a stove; the Fire king probably liked to use his powers more. Right next to it was the dining room, with a table big enough for six. Why would he ever have visitors? Or at least that many. Moving on, there were at least four full bedrooms; each one seemed to have their own adjacent bathroom, too. It must have taken years on end to get this swanky place.

"I hear the voice of a beautiful young lady." Kenshi was already in pervert mode, apparently. Either that or he'd never been out of it. After talking to himself in the main hall's mirror, he turned to his elder and tried to show some hospitality, unaware of who the guest actually was. "Oh my, you're in terrible shape. Come in, come in, I'll make sure you're taken care of promptly." He rushed to Incena's side, leading her to a spare bedroom, but not before a little intentional spark jumped between the two. For the next minute or so she could feel Kenshi mind-groping her, even if he was just holding her arm over his shoulders. Nothing seemed out of bounds to hit his 5,000 mark.

Wait.... How'd she know that? Incena didn't realize the brain had electricity running through it; the impulses reached her thoughts like mind reading, and she couldn't control it. The entire way to the bedroom, all he was thinking about was the odd chance of a pretty girl he hadn't met coming into his home.

Deal with it, Fleuri, her inner voice reassured her, he'll be dead the moment he tries to get any.

The moment they reached the spare room's bed and Kenshi tried to set her down, she pulled him down on top of her, arms wrapped around his back. One hand was free, a knife just like before forming in her grasp.

"Nn, sorry," she apologized, trying her best to keep looking defenseless. Kenshi responded, chuckling as he held himself up on the mattress.

"It's no trouble, miss." He leaned in ever closer, the couple seconds spent doing so feeling like an eternity and a half for the poor gal.

With only an inch of air left between each other's lips, Incena sank the knife into the Fire King's lower back, and was answered by him arching outward, opening his mouth and trying to sound out, "What the hell?" His voice didn't come, though. The entirety of his body was nearly paralyzed by the flowing electricity. From the inside out, the heat was searing everything and liquefying his organs. Before long, his skin burst into flames to try and get away, yet the sparks disappeared, not only unable to harm Incena but kept from being effective by the constant and increasingly intense shocking. Since he was probably wondering why he couldn't stop her, the elder clarified.

"You shouldn't try to burn your elders, honey." That said, he couldn't really understand what she was saying. He didn't need to; his body was being burned alive without need of a blaze. She rolled Kenshi over on the bed so she couldn't be stuck under him, and pushed the knife completely into his back, letting the lightning completely course through every fiber of his being. The next few moments were spent feebly struggling, before Kenshi's body was reduced to ash. The innards fell apart, scattered in a big mess in a shell of skin that was held together only by the still air. Stepping away from the husk, Incena took a good look at what she'd made.

His legs were hanging between the bed and the ground, already crumbling. His arms were spread out as if he was trying to push the elder away, and his mouth was open just as it was when the knife was dug into his back, like he was screaming for his dissolute life. All in all, it was an arguably sadistic and murderous work of art.

"That felt good." Leaving what used to be the lord of the Fire clan behind in the mansion, Incena disappeared to return to Saren and Melissa. In her new trademark flash of lightning, she was back in the clearing with the three elders.

Melissa

Melissa was about to just leave to find the others when she felt a hand grab her from behind. Out of instinct her hand swung out and grabbed the throat of the person behind her. However she stopped before she did when she realized who it was. Missed me? Asked Akane as Melissa slowly retracted her hand, partly wishing she had let her long nails dig into the elders throat when it would have seemed like an accident. She despised the elder, for more than one reason that may or may not have been her fault.

First off, she annoyed her. It was plain and simple. You can't like somebody that's voicemakes you react like nails on a chalkboard. Another thing was the fact that her clan was the one that put her to sleep! That alone was enough to want to rip out this elders throat, even though it wasn't her fault. After all, Akane went to sleep before she did. But she was still the reason that those vampires had existed in the first place. So in a way, she was responisble for her long slumber. So no, she did not miss her.

But instead of saying how she truley, really felt, she said this, "Dearly. You should stop being so late, you had me worried." At that moment both Saren and Incena left her alone with Akane. Wonderful! Now she was going to have to deal with her lunacy alone! But her worries were rested when only a minute or two later Incena reappeared, but looked somewhat different. Blood stain, there was a small bloodstain on the side of her shirt. The throbbing in her gums worsened and she said to Incena, "Seems like you were having fun without me." She needed to feed, but yet she still refused to for reasons she could not quite think of.

Alex

The girl she had bumped into remained wordless and just continued to look at her. Scowling Alex said to the girl, "You know it's not nice to stare." Looking at the girl she couldn't help but wonder how she managed to run into her. I mean, sure she wasn't paying attention, but she should still be able to tell if there was somebody in front of her. Maybe her eyesight was getting bad. No, if it was, the girl's face would look all fuzzy and unfocused to her. But she could just appear out of nowhere right?

"Where did you come from? Did you just walk in front of me purposely so I could run into you or something?" She had never seen this girl before, and she didn't like her already. Rude enough to purposely run into her or weird enough to do some weird invisible or teleportation thing. But fire clan members can't teleport...that has nothing to do with fire. Awesome, now she had a headache because she was thinking to hard about something as simple as a collision while walking. It wasn't that big of a deal, but it still didn't make any sense.

How long've I been flying? It couldn't have been more than eighteen hours. Wait, how long is eighteen hours again? It feels like five. Time must move faster as you age. Train of thought probably gets off-track more often, too. Whatever. It can't be much longer now, can it? After another hour or so of flying around, he even contemplated putting an ad in the news, or on the internet. Thankfully though, he found at least something before he went through with it.

Landing on the roof of a meeting hall in the form of a crow, Gero could hear voices inside. He could smell the stench of vampire. A lot of 'em.

"We have to hunt down these damned Elders and end their miserable lives once and for all. Now who's with me?" Obviously, he came at a bad time. He only just recently recovered his memories -- not even all of them -- and he's already got a target painted on his back. What'd he do anyways? Now figuring he'd have to find the others even more so than before, Gero lifted off into the air to look around again.

It took surprisingly much less time than the first flight, only about fifteen more minutes. Granted, he was flapping quite a bit harder, and this time the wind wasn't against him, but it's still a surprisingly short time. A nice distance from the bounds of the clans' territories, Gero spotted a safe area where the Elders were converging. It was easy to tell who they were, at least except for Saren and Incena. Melissa and Akane didn't change a bit, but the other two took a little longer to recognize, and even then Gero only figured out that Saren was the one turned into a monster through the fact he was floating and that the other elders weren't killing him.

Taking his place in a tree nearby, Gero the multi-colored crow watched to find out what was going on before joining in.