Blood runs beneath our feet(Nekro; open to 1 other)

“I am Harada Katsumoto. You have shown your worth as a warrior, and thus you have earned the choice. Join us in our curse, or die with honor, in combat, or in seppuku. I swear your body shall not be defiled.” The voice of what was probably the most frightening thing Noah had ever battled echoed in his dreams as that night repeated itself in his mind. Vampires, invincible skeleton warriors and a magical super samurai vampire that controlled everything. What had Noah really stumbled upon?

Noah slowly awoke from his sleep, he was pasted waking up startled and usually only woke up in a cold sweet. Thugs, super humans, and crime lords paled in comparison to those creatures. They weren't human, they were evil or cursed, whatever it was they were it scared him that such a world existed beneath the one he's grown accustomed to. Reaching under his pillow, he pulled out his equip and examined the blue hue coming from its center. Not to long ago Noah was a normal person living a normal life with who he thought was a normal girlfriend until the not so secret meta human world came in and swept him into their madness.

Getting out of bed, Noah approached the curtains to his room and drew them open revealing Los Angeles at night. The city looked beautiful by appearance but Noah knew that at that moment someone was dieing, somebody else was being mugged, and somewhere, if the intelligence AIVAS gathered was correct, there were vampires feeding on the innocent. Made him wonder what other sort of supernatural beings existed. Looking at the equip again, he remembered Connor told him its core was powered by magic which Noah had no idea how that worked. Noah once asked AIVAS the origin of the equips core but AIVAS simply told him it was classified.

He didn't like secrets but he trusted Connor and if there was any danger in using the device he wouldn't have given it to him or Nicole. Turning from the window Noah put on a compression shirt. His suit was probably the most comfortable thing he ever wore, making maneuverability easy for anyone who wore them. Noah opened the window, and simply jumped of the building while tapping the equip. His suit appeared over his body and he fired a grapple to a near by building and pulled himself to its roof top landing heavily he performed a roll and was back on his feet.

"AIVAS, access the cities surveillance system and find me some vampires." Blue stated, walking to the edge and peering out into the unfamiliar territory. He knew there was more going on then just a few vampires sucking some blood but he remembered what Red had told him during training.

"We can't focus on everything and we sure as hell can't stop everything. Our objective is to identify the greatest threats and then shut them down. We take it one mission at a time. Remember, we aren't the only heroes out there."

'but still....how can we turn a blind eye?' Blue thought to himself as AIVAS pulled up a live feed on his HUD. A few men were unloading crates outside an old building, AIVAS identified it as an abandoned car factory, one of the men had dropped a box full of bagged blood. 'Well if that doesn't seem vampiric I have no idea what would.' Using his grapple and some par core skills Blue made his way through the city of angels not knowing what he may be heading into.

The Warehouse’s Office, second floor

Above the hustle and bustle of the busy work floor the rotund, suit wearing manager of the warehouse crew looks over the day’s shipments. He leaves the door open to let in his skimpily dressed up blonde girlfriend follows behind. The goons down below know what follows next and makes snide remarks while at work, as the manager closes the door behind her. The guards put distance between themselves and the office, knowing they’ll hear... distracting sounds.

The lady promptly takes a seat on the sofa, lifting her exposed legs up onto the furniture, fixing her make up in her pocket mirror. The manager smiles and remarks, “Babe, we are gonna be rolling in the dough by the end of the week. You wanna go to Vegas? Babe?” He had only looked away perhaps ten seconds, and his girlfriend rolled onto the floor, out cold.

He looked around and the lights went out, and beside him was the silhouette of a mysterious female figure, with a tengu mask set within a samurai helmet.

“Steven Novaks. I have questions.” She spoke with a slightly deep female voice.

Warehouse Manager Steve goes for a gun under his desk, but a strong wrist halts him. Before he could even defend himself properly, a clenched fist blindsided him in the eyes, and he found himself hurled into the far wall, smashing against the masonry and smashing a bulletin board. Confused and disoriented, his face was smashed into the metal desk twice, and his head used to clear it of papers.

Only then did the masked figure begin to speak. Steven found himself listening intently despite the blood on his head, when the masked figure pressed a tazer to his crotch. “I know you sound proofed this office. Let’s talk.” The masked figure spoke in a deep growling voice, the whole ensemble meant to intimidate.

“Fuck...Who the hell are you?!” Steve found it very effective.

“I am Red Ronin.” She said in sinister tone, tightening her grip on his throat.

“Nice gimmicks lady... You a new vigilante, thinking to clean up the streets? Flashy and quick... got a whole Asian theme going... When my boys get their hands on you, oh the things they’ll HUUURK!”Steven found his windpipe slowly being crushed.

“I want to meet with the Shadow Triad. One of their safe houses, brothels, anything. ” Red Ronin said once she relented her grip to let him breath and speak.

“What?! You’re not here to shut me down?! I don’t deal with the Asian market anymore lady!” Steve protested, trying to struggle out of her grip. The woman was a foot shorter than him, but she had an iron grip.

“Not the right answer. Perhaps we can start with teaching you about how ninjas in ancient Japan got answers...”

Steve looked into the smiling demon mask and screamed in terror, all in vain as he soundproofed his office...

It took some time for Noah to make his way across the roof tops, carefully plotting his jumps and swings as to not fall to his death. Not every city was the same, and it took a little bit to get used to it. Thinking about it now, Noah wished he had brought a car or something but he had to take a commercial flight if he wanted to get here before his leads could get cold.

Without a sound Noah landed on top of the warehouse buildings roof, night vision in his HUD kicking in to reveal two men armed with machine guns. 'Guess they've learned that heroes love roof tops.' Noah thought to himself, slinking through the shadows to at as close to his target as possible without being detected. Quickly but silently come up behind the first gunman, Blue wrapped his hand around his mouth to keep him from making a sound and locked his arms with his weapon dangling off its sling as he dragged him back into the shadows. Placing the man in a sleeper hold, Noah placed the sleeping body to the side and then charged at the second guy.

He was just lighting up a cigarette when a force sent that gunman tumbling to the ground. Confused, went to pick his gun back up but it was already gone. Quickly pulling out a knife the gunman looked back to where the force came from only to find a foot swinging directly into his face. With the two gunman knocked unconscious, Blue peered down at the group of men and their crates. It was as two story building, and off to the side Blue spotted what he assumed was the office. Switching to Thermal vision, he would try and get an idea of how many were in the office before proceeding to try and sneak in.

The inside of the office was fairly spacious. There in the corner was an unconscious woman, while a second, big fat man was kneeling, his body temperature and heart rate rising. Something was making his life difficult, working on his outstretched hands, breaking his fingers and twisting his arms in very painful angles. That something didn't register on standard thermal vision- The Red Ronin's armor had no discernable heat emissions, among other technological advantages developed by its wearer.

'No time to think, have to act before my only lead ends up dead' Noah propelled down the wall using the shadows in the dimly lit Warehouse as cover. The men had cleared away from the general area of the office which conveniently made it easy for Noah to get to the door. 'Only got one shot at this...' Noah held the palm of his hand at the key of the door and sent a pushing force into the lock locking the keys into place for the lock allowing him to quickly swing open the door.

Quickly closing the door behind him, it locked automatically as Noah took in what was going on in the room. A woman unconscious on the ground and a man in red armor over top Noahs' only lead. "let the man go, or there will be trouble" Noah stated boldly, his adrenaline kicking in as he prepared himself for some close ranged confrontation. Noah had to be honest with himself at this point, finding a guy wearing samurai armor was both good news for his investigation but also bad news because this woman, which Noah deduced by the her shape, could be directly involved with the vampire samurai who was fairly powerful.

Red Ronin relents her grip on the man's now completely crushed hands, the man screaming from the pain, clutching his fingers and hands which had now been twisted at bizarre angles, ways the human body was never meant to be bent.

There was a brief delay in the Ronin's response, as she had to review her script on her HUD inside her helmet. She turned to face Noah, to let him have a good look at the demon mask she wore, which was a contrast to the deliberately fitting costume on her female form. "Who are you to this dirty child stealing gaijin? I warn you..." She drew her mono-molecular edged sword. "...Think about your answer very carefully." Ronin spoke in a heavy Osakan accent, suggesting her to be Japanese.

"To him I am nobody." Noah stated, examining the condition of the man from behind the visor of his HUD as AIVAS tried to do a back ground check on any vigilantes or villains who resembled this woman. "But to me he is my only lead on a case I am working."

'She might be a vampire, the way she doesn't show up on thermal, she can be fast too and the way that mans arms are bent I have to assume she has super strength' Noah wasn't a great of a fighter as Nicole or Connor but he made up for it by knowing how to use his powers which was the one trump card he had at the moment. He generally knew more about her than she could possibly know about him.

"I need him and I don't necessarily agree with your methods so you should step away from the man right now." Noah could feel the tension, and he could also feel that a fight was brewing. He had a few ideas on what to do but one thing for sure is that he had to get information out of the man and get out of there intact.

Ellie weighed her response against the character of Red Ronin. An unstable sociopath would have attacked by now, but a vengeful character would not indiscriminately attack. She decided seeking those who understand her cause would save her tons of trouble.

"Strange. He also has knowledge I seek. A common cause between us maybe? does that make us allies? Did he also take away your loved ones?"

'Should I just be forward with her or try and see what she is about?' Blue thought to himself, examining the situation. He wasn't attacked yet which was nice for a change but he still needed to get his information from the man if he was still able to talk. '...fuck it'

"I am Blue, a while back an innocent woman was nearly killed by a group of vampires who had tried opening up shop in my city." Noah stated, deciding to be honest and straight forward. 'sure, that doesn't sound ridiculous' He thought, but thinking about it a bit deeper he realized it really didn't considering all the things this worlds been through. "Amongst these vampires was a very dangerous one, old and powerful. He poses a great threat and needs to be dealt with before more innocent people are killed or worse...turned into monsters." Noah pointed at the man. "He is my only lead, trafficking bagged blood for vampire dens that I believe this ancient vampire runs. Coincidently, this vampire wears samurai armor, he also doesn't give off a heat signature just like you."

Noah was still waiting for AIVAS to pull up whatever information it could on this woman but so far it had nothing.

The vast covert encryption protecting Ellie's database was finally probed by an external source, which Ellie traced to the fellow in front of her. There was a cat-and-mouse game going on in cyberspace, and Red Ronin let him have his Red Herring. With a mentally issued command, her own network released controlled information to AIVAS. The AI would quickly bring up the file for Noah, appearing as if it had just penetrated one of the world's most well-defended networks without triggering alarms.

"File found. Source: Danger Divas/ Wong Enterprises military database, encrypted files."
Code name: Red Ronin, Shadow Ops division.
Real name: Mochizuki (family name) Kurenai (given name).
Status: Active
Age: 52.
Family: Husband: Katsuyori (deceased. 1963-2014)
Cause of death: Murder of the 1st Degree. Perpetrators: unknown. Suspects: Yakuza
Children: Akemi (deceased. 2005-2015)
Cause of death: Heroin overdose, physical and sexual abuse.
Chiyomi (deceased. 2003-2015)
Cause of death: Heroin overdose, physical and sexual abuse. "

There was even several news articles concerning the kidnapping of a certain Japanese Scientist's family suspected to be done by the Yakuza. The perpetrators were never found, and Kurenai disappeared. It seemed the Danger Divas picked her up years ago, before the formation of Wong Enterprises, and gave her a new lease on life. She is currently a metallurgical engineer with Wong Enterprises... and was armed by the massive Tech Conglomerate's shadow security force with battle armor and a mono-molecular sword, at her request. Her background also states extensive study of kenjutsu (swordsmanship), karatejutsu (hand-to-hand) and jiu-jitsu (grappling). Noah would think he just stumbled on one of the Company's secrets.

All the above happened in the space of a few seconds, behind each others' masks. Ellie weighed Noah's words... the vampire angle would make sense for the blood.

"Blood packs? Vampires? You're serious? I don't quite believe it. They're just traffickers... I can believe you want something from him, but I'll keep my doubts about the living dead." Ronin said, feigning disbelief at the story. To Noah, this woman was an unstable 52-year old lady out for revenge. That was all Ellie needed to be to him.

She sheathed her sword and stood aside, to let Noah have at Steve. "You have two minutes."

All the while, the manager lay on the floor in pain. He looked up at Noah. "Please don't hurt me anymore! I'll tell you everything! Just get this crazy bitch away from me!"

Taking a few steps forward towards the man, Noah could tell he was already in rough shape and that he would be lucky to ever be normal again after this encounter. It was obvious that 'Red Ronin' was very experienced, and very dangerous plus with such a tragic past its safe to say she was not of sound mind either. "Whose the blood for!" Noah demanded, getting straight to the point. He was still on alert, he still wasn't sure what she had planned for this man but he couldn't let her kill him. "Tell me or she gets to play with you again!"

The man looked at them both in disgust. "Oh I'll tell you alright... The blood packs are for the smaller covens and new vampires who can't attack people directly yet... this shipment's for a party at the Hilton... tonight...buncha C-list celebrities who wanna turn..."

"You still haven't answered my question." Ronin said.

"Zhao... Augustus Zhao! He runs an Opium Den in Chinatown! He'll be in attendance!"

"Good. You can go to the hospital and get those hands fixed."

"BITCH! I'll be lucky to see tomorrow! THEY'LL BE COMING FOR ME! Then they'll be coming for you, I swear it! You buncha vigilantes think you can just bust me down? think you're gonna stop us? You got no idea who you're messing with. You're nothing you hear me... Nothing! they'll track you down... they'll do unspeakable things... you'll be dying for weeks..." The man was either laughing or sobbing, a broken wreck of a human being laying in the corner.

"Then, we should probably kill you so they won't know, will they?" Ronin drew her sword and approached him slowly, gradually raising her sword overhead, the man having resigned himself to death, waiting for the blade to fall.

Being closest to the man, Noah extended his arm to signal for Red Ronin to stop. "Leave him be, we got what we came for and he isn't worth another second." His arm was in her line of attack, if she swung down she'd have to cut through Noah first who was already ready to release a shock wave from his arm if he saw her make a move to swing at them both. He wouldn't shed blood, not living at least. "I suspect we both have a party to bash anyway."

Red Ronin uses the sword one handed... to cut the wire on the booby trap she rigged on the window, rendering it harmless. She sheathes her sword.

"Very well then." Red Ronin said, as if reaching a revelation. She discussed their courses of actions. "If we stop the shipment here and now, then our enemies may not show themselves..."

"...But if he lives, they will be warned, and they will be prepared for us." She told Noah. She was fairly unstable, but just coherent enough to weigh the consequences of their actions.

Unfortunately she was right, the shipment would have to be made and it was far to late to try any other approach since Ronin practically maimed the boss to the men outside. Noah lowered his arm, thinking about the next course of action. This man wanted to be dead, maybe he could use that to his advantage. "Hey, buddy, I know you don't think we are much but I know a way you can get out of this alive to continue living your miserable existence."

Reaching into the mans pocket, Noah pulled out the mans cellphone and looked at it. Wirelessly AIVAS began to hack into it to receive the proper number to call for the man to give the order to deliver the shipment. "You tell your men to deliver the shipment as scheduled without warning the blood suckers and we'll be sure to kill them all. You get some freedom from the ungrateful vampires and we get our targets. We both win."

Noah knew it was a long shot, but if the man agreed to his deal AIVAS would dial the number and Noah would hold the phone up to the man so he could make the call out to give the command, hopefully he wouldn't do anything stupid. "Don't try anything either, your men out there have a bunch of well trained snipers ready to take them all down in less time than you can say dinner is served." Noah was bluffing, but he sure as hell didn't sound like it and this would hopefully give the man a bit of confidence that they could pull off taking out the vampires so that he could live.