It was time. Hunter's arm, while not fully heal, could now lift in excess of what any human could attempt. The injury aside he was in top physical form, and was well practised in his own personal hybrid of fighting styles from across the ages. In short, he was ready for battle.

The perticular battle he would be fighting today was one that had been a long time coming. Originally he had intended for Paragon to be at his side as he engaged the enemy, but recent expriences had changed that. So Hunter had rethought his plan. As he would be one against many he could afford to offer his oppnents no oppertunity to strike him back. He would hit them hard and fast, slaughtering their troops and leaving their leaders at his mercy.

The location of the battle was well know to Hunter, and he had factored in all avenues of attack. He knew when and where his foes would be, and also that they were not expecting and attack. Their escape routes would be few, and easily blocked, ensuring that once he had established control he could mantain it.

Stepping out of the car he took a look up at the building before heading inside. Today was the day the Church of Humanity would die.

(Continued a little while after Research: Humanity and the Inhuman)

Sebastian waited by one of the side doors. From his observations, he had noted that some of the more suspicious members of the church didn’t use the main doors when they entered. Today was no different. Soon enough, a limo pulled up to the end of the ally and the chauffer got out to open the door, looking around carefully to make sure no one saw his rider. He didn’t see Sebastian, hidden in the shadows behind a dumpster. Most of the chauffer’s attention was towards the street, where passersby might notice something odd about the vestments of his passengers. The two men who got out were wearing robes. One was in black and one was in red. Sebastian heard a bit of their conversation as they passed.

“… meeting of the whole council. I can’t believe they made in mandatory. It’s freaking Easter and they want to call a meeting. I was with family…”
“I was supposed to lead the church service this evening, you can’t imagine…”

Then they were inside the doors and Sebastian heard no more. He’d heard enough though. A mandatory meeting would mean trouble. He kept waiting. He needed someone who was arriving alone.

Soon enough a black Hummer pulled up, let out a solitary man in a suit who was holding black robes in his arms. The vehicle drove away leaving the man alone as he walked toward the secret entrance. Sebastian stepped out behind him as he reached for the door, simultaneously reaching for the man’s neck. There was a nerve in the neck that would render a man unconscious for at least an hour if it was pinched. Sebastian pinched it.

“Forgive me,” he told the unconscious man as he slipped on him robe and pulled the hood over his face and horn. There was a necklace with the robe, too. An old fashioned silver cross. Sebastian slipped it on over the robe. As for the unconscious man? Handy things, dumpsters.

Inside the doorway was a dark corridor, lit by candelabras on the walls. The smoke from the candles made the walls behind them sooty. At the end of the corridor were two men in red robes. One of them stepped forward. The other grabbed his arm. “It’s Demitri. The cross…”

“Rules are rules,” answered the first, then turned toward Sebastian. “Purest of blood,” he began in Latin.

Sebastian almost laughed out loud. Of all the passwords they could pick, they ironically chose one that had once been used by a coven of mutants in Rome who hoped to overthrow Julius Caesar. They probably didn’t realize that the phrase originally meant the purest of mutant blood.

“Holiest under the sun and moon,” Sebastian responded, likewise in Latin. The two guards nodded and let him pass by.

Inside the church, Sebastian found himself in a hallway full of pillars leading to a set of intricately carved oak doors. High overhead was a rose window. The weak winter sunlight had a hard time filtering through the colored glass, and the hallway was very dark. Sebastian leaned against one of the pillars, hidden in shadow. He would wait here to see what would happen next.

Hunter made his way through the building, passing all the security check points. He carried no weapon, for he had no need of one. Unlike the robes that others around him wore he instead had on an immaculate suit.

Passing throught the final security point Hunter entered a long corridor flanked with pillars. At the end of the corridor was a pair of ornate oak doors. Hunter immediatly took note of them and to be wary around them. The odds were up against him enough as it was without him injuring himself on one of the few things that could actually harm him.

His heightened senses quickly picked out the robed figure hiding in the shadow of the pillar, but he said nothing until he had approached to within the distance he judged a human would percieve the man. "Hello," he said plesently, "Coming to the meeting?"

Soon there was a man coming down the hallway.
>>> "Hello," he said pleasently, "Coming to the meeting?"

Sebastian stepped out from behind the pillar. Time to find out more about this meeting. “Indeed. They picked a dumb day to have the meeting though. Honestly, Easter? Did you just come from church or something?” He indicated Hunter’s suit. “Do you know why they would have called it today of all days?”

"Why it just so happens I do," Hunter said with a smile, "As a matter of fact, I'm the one who called them all here. I know, I know," he said, raising his hands defensively, "Bad timing. It's easter and I'm sure everybody wants to be home right now relaxing with their families. But, this is really important, something that the council really must know."

Offering a warm smile Hunter gestured towards the doors. "Shall we?"

This man was the one who called the meeting? A meeting of the elders of the Church of Humanity in a church with few exits. A meeting no one knew the reason for, except this mysterious man who did not need to dress for the part like everyone else.

A memory was jogged in Sebastian’s mind of another church in another country, similar to this one, but brighter and happier until someone came and murdered the entire wedding party except for the groom. Sebastian hadn’t been there, but stories of vampires had spread quickly through England. Sebastian shuddered. That’s what he got for spending too much time at the library, mixing research on the Church of Humanity with research on the only other immortal that Sebastian had ever heard of. It was just the creepiness of the Church getting to him, but Sebastian had to check.

“What is the meeting about?” Sebastian asked in Hungarian, making it sound like he was muttering to himself. If the man was human, he wouldn’t hear. If he was not human… things could get very interesting.

Hunter's acute hearing picked up every word. What concerned him was that it was in Hungarian. He knew for a fact that none of the council members nor any of their guards spoke Hungarian. Hunter himself spoke it fluently, and so was now curious as to who this man was.

He stopped smiling and stared diractly at the man. "I know you're not a part of the council, so tell me just why you are here." Hunter did not need an unaccounted variable in this battle. Rather than play coy he would deal with this head on, and remove it if nessecary. The doors up ahead were sound proof, ensuring that any comotion out here would not disturbe those inside. Time to find out just what this man was up to.

The man stopped smiling and stared right at Sebastian. Ah, so he had heard him.

"I know you're not a part of the council, so tell me just why you are here."

“I believe I asked you a question first,” Sebastian said switching to English. He narrowed his eyes. The man had answered in English in such a way as to make it seem that he hadn’t heard or understood Sebastian’s comment, but the sudden change in subjects made him feel uneasy. He wasn’t worried about getting caught by the Church members. He could survive that. This, he was not so sure about.

"Out," Hunter said firmly, "Now." His tone showed that there was no room to argue. The man had two choices, leave or die. Today was not the day to try Hunter's patience. If the man wasn't heading for the exit in the next five seconds he'd be leaving in a body bag.

One...

Sebastian narrowed his eyes, “Alright.” He turned to leave. He walked halfway down the hallway, well out of hearing range. Then, he muttered to himself in Hungarian, “Young whippersnapper. No respect for his elders.”

Iris rubbed her eyes with one hand, fumbled with the apartment lock with the other. It wasn’t early in the day; in fact it was several hours later than she usually woke. However, she’d spent the entire night out, away from the apartment she and Hunter had been sharing for the last few months, and was just coming back. Crystal had decided she needed intensive practice with the onyx gem. Since it seemed to work best in the dark, the hologram had a bright (no pun intended) idea of working at night. Iris would have preferred to simply stay in the apartment. But Hunter, seemingly in constant earshot lately, offered the use of a security-locked warehouse. Thus, for three nights running, Iris found her schedule flipped upside down, sleeping during the day, practicing all night. The only good thing was that she was beginning to get a handle on the ‘living shadow’ ability. Plus she was getting in quite a bit of practice with her Ice abilities as well, during the intervals while she waited for the onyx to power up again.

The change in her routine had her grumpier than normal, however. In fact, as she walked through the front door, she immediately snapped, ”It went the same as usual, and no I’m not hungry,” in anticipation of Hunter’s usual, ”How did it go?” and ”Are you hungry?”.

She didn’t even notice the lack of questions until after she entered her room. She paused, blinked, then opened the door again and poked her head out. ”What? No smart remarks?”

Nothing.

”Hello?”

.... .... ....

Iris frowned. She walked back out into the living room. No one. She checked the kitchen, and the bedrooms. She even knocked on the bathroom doors. Hunter was no where to be found. When was the last time he.... went out? She checked the clock, and decided it was to far into the day for him to be out hunting. So where was he?

Security cameras.... where was the silly security monitor he had installed? Did it record?

In the end Crystal had to help her figure things out. Her frown deepened as she watched him leave the apartment. She hadn’t realized that his arm was fully healed now, meaning he was back to top form. There was now way to know for sure where he had gone. And really, it wasn’t any of her business anymore. She was through with that ‘mission’ of his. And once it was finished, she had no reason to see or speak to him ever again. She could go back to being normal, boring, blonde and somewhat traumatized Iris again, responsible for just her own actions again. Not worried about what anyone else did.

Or worried..... that they might get hurt..... Or feeling guilty.... for not trying to stop them....

A pit began to form in Iris stomach. She stared at the security monitor for several minutes, not really seeing anything. Abruptly she balled her fist and punched the wall.

”Stupid conscience.... Just hope no one kills him before I do....” She turned and stomped out of the front door, back downstairs and to her car. She headed for the Church, muttering the whole way.

Hunter turned to watch the man leave. He wanted to make sure the guy left before he proceeded. Success today was far from certain, and he did not need some punk intefering at an inoppertune moment.

3/4 of the way to the door. Sebastian continued muttering in Hungarian. Why did he have this suspicious feeling? He, Sebastian, was the suspicious one in this setting. But if this man was who he suspected, the council of the Church of Humanity was in deep trouble. It also meant that he would have a short temper. It was a weakness Sebastian hoped to use to his own advantage.

"Queen Victoria would have been shocked by your manor, sapling. You'd think someone your age would have learned manors by now. Or perhaps that was why you finally had to leave the courts."

If he didn't bite at the insults, perhaps the reference to his past would make him jump. In this setting, it would be very dangerous to allow someone who knew too much about one's past walk away.

The referance caught Hunter off guard, but he swiftly recovered. "Just who are you and what do you know?" he demanded. His work with Queen Victoria was common knowledge at the time, but not something that had made a mark on history. The only way Hunter could see the man knowing was that he was alive at the time. That made him immortal, a mutant and potential a serious problem.

One he might have to deal with right here, right now.

The man had been watching him leave, but after that last comment, he had responded
>>>"Just who are you and what do you know?" he demanded.
Sebastian turned and faced the man who had called out after him. It was still a possibility that the man was a normal Church of Humanity creep who had just realized that he should probably question suspicious lurkers, but it now seemed more likely that he was not an ordinary creep.

“I am Sebastian Csendes,” he replied to the first part of the question. It was a relatively new name, not one Hunter would be likely to recognize. The last name, though, was Hungarian, perhaps it would hold some meaning for the other man.

He continued in Hungarian, “I know a lot of things. It would take me a long time to recount everything I know, so I’ll skip to the parts that would most likely be of interest to you. First, you are older than you look. Second, I know of a man named Hunter Antonescue who once was a Duke in Transylvania and later served the Queen of England. Much later. Third, if I let you go into that room you will likely be the only one to walk out again. Blood follows you.”

The language, the mention of his past, and his name. If the man was Hunter Antonescue, he would definitely not let Sebastian simply walk through the door. Provoking the man who left a trail of blood through the centuries was probably a bad idea, actually. Sebastian had survive a lot of things, but he wasn’t sure he could survive whatever Hunter could do to him. Did Sebastian have a death wish? He wasn’t even sure if he could die, but it would be interesting to find out.