Chronicles of The Omniverse Archived Lutetia City: The Phantom Quarter

"No wait! Both of you stand down!"

Crista tried to keep Ethan calm and Korius outside of the vestry before turning back to Ghast. She tried to present herself as harmless as she could be in full plate Lumex grey steel. She relaxed her shoulders, left herself open, but prepare to draw should they fire, and extended her hand slightly towards them with an expression of sympathy.

"Please, I just want to help and settle this peacefully on both sides."
 
Ghast kept the sword held out defensively in front of him, eyes flicking between Decker's pistol and Korius' shotgun. "Yeah, peaceful ended around the time your pal there blew half my best friend's head off," he snarled. "I'll tell you how to settle it, you can all fuck off, yeah? Leave us the fuck alone."
 
Crista sighed softly, things were not going the way she'd hoped. Unless Korius left and Ethan at the very least lowered his gun this was going no where. She turned and spoke over her shoulder.

"Korius, if we're planning to get anywhere with this I'll ask you to please remove yourself from the situation."

Now she turned to Ethan.

"Decker, please lower you weapon."
 
Decker grinned ear to ear. "Ahh Sorrel. You never disappoint." He lowered his weapon, taking the ghoul off his sights. "Only doin' this because I'm genuinely curious to see how things are gonna go from here."

Korius, however, was not listening. "Are you kidding me, dame? He's a paranormal. An undead. A freak. He doesn't have rights." He clacked his Repentance - aware that, from this distance, he wouldn't do much damage to the ghoul. "If you're not gonna shoot him, then give me your goddamn lawkeeper and let me do it."
 
Ghast's grip on the sword-hilt tightened, and his face twisted with rage. "Fuck you," he hissed at Korius. "Should've let Bex shoot you. Probably would've saved lives in the long run, fucking psychopath."
 
Crista turned on Korius with a expression of righteous rage. She pointed directly at him and spoke sternly.

"Now you listen to me! He, his friends, and every good-hearted person in Lutetia has the right to live safely within these walls. It doesn't matter if they are human, werewolf, or undead. They are equal and deserve to be treated like anyone else, based on their actions, not on their being. From what I can tell these kids were attacked by you and did nothing but try to defend themselves. If you continue to attack them without just cause I will be forced to fight you and I do not wish to fight with anyone today."

Crista narrowed her eyes and pursed her lips as she stared Korius down.
 
Korius growled at Crista. "Last I checked, wolves and necromancers have rights in this city - but not undead scum." He shoved her pointed finger away from his body. "Don't threaten me, Sorrel. I'd have dropped you two minutes ago if you weren't a sister." He turned away from the trio, making to leave the church. "Do whatever the fuck you want with the ghoul. Just get my fucking sword back."

Evidently Korius didn't think the undead youngsters were worth coming to blows with another paladin over. Unless deterred, he would leave the church whilst flipping Ghast off. "You're lucky she was here, filth."

Decker, meanwhile, began to clap. "By God. Well done, Sorrel. Good show, hear hear!" He laughed, his smile wide and shit-eating. "Now... you actually gonna talk to this ghoul, or can I blow his brains out?"
 
Just moments after Crista turned her back, while Korius was still ranting at her, Ghast judged it to be the best opportunity he was going to get. He'd bought the others a good block's worth of running, and it looked like the paladins were going to be keeping themselves busy without any further interference on his part.

And so without another word, he turned and dived out the window, landing in a crouch in the snow the short distance down, and started to sprint.
 
Before Crista could answer she turned to see only a glimpse of Ghast diving out the window. She sighed heavily in disappointment.

"It looks like talking will have to wait for another day. Just let them go."

Crista had truly hoped she could have talk to them, she wanted to help, but she understood why she wouldn't be trusted. At least Luka trusted her.

"We should get going."
 
"Welp," Decker twirled his lawkeeper and holstered, "good job, Crista, you let the bad guys escape." He stretched one of his arms behind his back. "No skin off my nose. If it were anyone else but Korius, I'd say he'd write you up or complain to the Council." He smirked. "But that ol' bastard isn't gonna tattle on you. He will hold a grudge, though. Especially since you didn't get his sword back."
 
"That doesn't matter. He hates me and I hate him so I don't expect any less and I can handle whatever he decides to throw at me. Unlike him I'm actually level headed."

She walked out of the church already prepared for the tirade of curses that would come out of Korius' mouth. Right now she only wanted to things to talk to those ghoul kids and go "home."
 
Later that evening

The Revenants' 'hideout' (such as it could be called) was an abandoned dive bar, once named 'Dean's Diner'. The sign proudly declaring that name, along with a deal for 'Unlimited Sides!' had since been creatively vandalised, and now read:

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When Faith and Ben had returned to the diner from their activities for the day, they had found it empty. This wasn't altogether unusual; the gang spent a lot of their time out in the city, either roaming the Phantom Quarter or slinking around inconspicuously in the more populated parts of Lutetia. Not being obviously undead had its benefits when it came to avoiding drawing attention in a crowd. Provided nobody needed to check your pulse, and you remembered to fake breathing, you were usually good to go.

Inside the bar wasn't quite as decrepit as most other buildings in the quarter - the main reason that it'd been chosen as their little base, aside from clever wordplay. Stools and other furnishings remained, and though the leather was worn and torn it was still present, and the legs of the stools were only mostly rust. An old and partially water-damaged pool table sat on the far side from the entrance, with a full set of comparatively new-looking balls and cues ('acquired' by one of the gang from a bar in Vargeras a few months back). The shelves behind the bar were largely empty, although there were a few bottles of cheap alcohol back there. It took a lot to get a ghoul drunk, but that wasn't going to stop them from trying.

The floor itself was a mess of grime from the regular floods in the quarter, but there was a second floor over the bar itself that had once been a flat. Up there were stashed a collection of blankets and old mattresses, as well as the few personal belongings that each of them still owned. After all, they might not need to sleep to survive, but that didn't mean it wasn't nice to shut down for a few hours every now and then.

It was late in the day by the time the door of the bar swung inwards to admit most of the rest of the gang. Corby was the first to enter, a scowl set on his face. He was carrying an oversized pistol loosely in one hand, and paused to hold the door with the other to allow Bex to walk in past him. Arty was still slung over her shoulders, and though by this point most (but not all) of his head had regenerated, he was still unconscious and covered in blood.

The last to enter, filing in nervously behind Bex, was a boy that neither Faith nor Ben would recognise - although they would instinctively realise he was 'one of them' upon sighting him. The boy appeared to be around sixteen or seventeen, with a head of dirty blonde-brown hair. He had a slender build and stood at an unimpressive height, lingering awkwardly in the doorway for a moment before moving fully inside. Corby let the door swing shut behind him.

"Paladin trouble," he grunted preemptively, shrugging his shoulders moodily at the two of them. "Ghast said he'll be back soon."
 
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Ben had been lying on one of the mattresses up top when the door to the dinner swung open. He jumped to his feet at the sound and ran to see who had come in. He visibly relaxed when he saw the rest of the gang file in. Hearing that they got into fight with the paladins set Ben on edge.

"At least you're alright. Well, mostly...they didn't follow you did they?"
 
Faith was sprawled on the pool table, having grown bored with playing the game on her own. She was holding a pool cue and was swinging it around like a sword or even a wand, she wasn't quite sure what she was doing exactly, but it was quite entertaining. Humming as she amused herself, the blonde shifted her gaze towards the door when it opened, brow arching at their appearance. Sitting up, she exhaled deeply, glancing up towards Ben at his comment before sighing softly, nodding in agreement. "Who is the new kid? And if they followed them, we'll take care of it. Been itching for a fight anyways."
 
"Uh, hey," the new kid said, flashing a nervous smile at Faith, then at Ben. "I'm Liam. Uh, Liam Fenn. Haven't got the full story myself, but... your friend ... well, didn't technically saved my life, but gave me a new one. Or something."

"Ghast's latest new recruit," Bex clarified. "Arty found him dying on the side of the road, but a paladin showed up before he got there. Me and Corby were in the area so he picked us up on the way to go help. Drove off the paladin but he went and got backup while Ghast was turning this guy. So we ran. Ghast stayed behind to distract them, so they shouldn't have followed us."

She walked over to the stairs. "Gonna set Arty down upstairs. Might be a while before he wakes up. When we got there half his head was missing." She grimaced.

Corby just scowled. "Ought to have shot the fucker that did it," he muttered, turning the lawkeeper in his hands over a few times. "Worst Arty'd have done to him is sass him, and he gets his head blown off? Fuckin' 'justice' and 'righteousness' my ass."
 
Ben sighed heavily. He knew the paladins were instinctively antagonistic towards them, but that didn't stop him from hoping that would eventually change. He came down the stairs to greet the new kid. Ben reached out his hand to shake his.

"Nice to meet you, Liam. I'm Ben."
 
"Hn. That sounds about right, can't be sassin' those self-righteous Paladins." Rolling her eyes, Faith slid off the pool table, setting the cue back down before moving over towards Liam, hanging back a bit when Ben stepped forward to shake the kid's hand. Her blue eyes instead drifted towards Arty and she winced in sympathy, knowing he would be fine, but what a thing to happen to someone that didn't deserve it. Grunting a little, she waved towards Liam, head tilting off to the side. "The name's Faith Blade, but I generally go by Jax or even Blade, depending on my mood. Welcome to the club." Faith grinned a little before moving towards the door.

"Maybe someone should go check on Ghast?"
 
"Uh, hey," Liam reached out and shook Ben's hand. "Back atcha." He nodded back at Faith, cracking a half-grin in response but still clearly a little bewildered by the turn of events his life had taken. "Club, huh? So ... what, I'm one of you guys now?" A pause, and a nervous laugh. "Without you knowing anything about me?"

"Know enough to know you haven't got better prospects," Corby remarked dryly. He set the lawkeeper down on the old bartop and perched on one of the old barstools, turning to face Liam. "So yeah, you're one of us so long as you don't give us any reason for you not to be. Not many other places for an undead to go in this city that isn't in the ground or into a paladin firepit."

"Right," Liam nodded, pulling a face. He'd never really paid any attention to church or police prejudice against the more dubious supernatural elements of the city before. Now, it was suddenly very relevant. "Well..." He made an attempt at a winning smile, glancing at each of the other three. "Glad to be here? Maybe? Okay, I'll admit, this is going to take getting used to."

Corby shrugged, before turning his eyes on Faith. "If he's not back in ten, yeah. You and me'll go."

A few moments later, Bex came back downstairs, having shed her now-bloodstained hoodie. "So," she looked to Ben and Faith. "We miss anything while we were out?"
 
"It's fine. Being part of the group takes some getting used to."

Ben turned away from Liam to face Bex as she descended the stairs.

"Not in particular. We've just stuck around here waiting you all to get back."
 
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"Ten minutes then and not a second longer." Faith nodded towards Corby before shifting her gaze back towards Liam, shrugging a little bit. They weren't exactly a club, but she didn't really want to call them a gang either, though in truth, that was what they truly were. She moved back to the pool table and slid back up to the edge, sitting down with one leg crossed over the other, dusting some dirt or mud off her dark jeans.

"You don't have to be glad to be here. Be glad you're not being blown into a million pieces by those scum Paladins." She snorted in disgust before glancing towards Bex. "Naw, well, you missed my wand show... it was magnificent."
 
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