Dizzy (Baroness & Kurt)

[Gummy]

((((OOC note: This runs parallel to Spirilling out of Control.))))

Kurt made it to the location he was told and walked into the cave entrance. The sun had set fifteen minutes before. He knew what this implied as he knew what Jubilee was currently. He was tired of all the games. The sealed parchment in his pocket was enough to sink his spirit just that little bit more. Last one he remembered. This was the last one.

He was already bruised and exhausted from his last task. He blinked in the darkness then spotted another pair of small eyes. A red Bamf who grinned at him only mischief on its mind. Kurt sighed then kept on walking with the little red Bamf in tow.

"I've come to see the Baroness."

The person looked him up and down.

"I have a message."

The person moved forward and frisked Kurt. The person only found the letter, a cross and a small bible. Kurt took the letter back but the cross and bible were thrown in the bin. His hat was removed and thrown at a stalagmite where it spun before resting in place. He made a silent prayer for strength. One last task and he was heading straight into the proverbial lions den.

He followed the person along touch lit tunnels until they entered a larger cavern where a woman was sat on the thrown. Kurt smiled and bowed low before slowly straightening.

"I come baring two messages. The first is, I am to follow your instructions for the night. The second is sealed in this letter. My little friend here is to observe."

[BWS2K]

"In the colonies barely a week and already receiving visitors," replied the figure on the makeshift throne. She made no movement to stand but a mere glance to one of her minions was all the signal needed for him to approach Kurt for the sealed envelope. "How droll."

The minion - a rather deathly pallor and demeanor and wild hungry eyes, Kurt would note in the dim torchlight - scowled at the mutant but dutifully performed his task and handed the letter to the Baroness.

She lay it on her lap, unopened yet.

"Those who bring messages to me rarely return, to say nothing of what my instructions might be. But Yanks do understand how introductions work, yes? I, for instance, am called Baroness Blood."

She still hadn't moved from her seated position but the torches casting their flickering shadows about the small cavern revealing no more than half a dozen of her followers. It was hard to tell whether they were in their right minds at all - a difference between them and Jubilee, perhaps. They did shuffle around silently to surround Kurt though, clawing their way up the rock walls and hanging from outcroppings as necessary. The room was otherwise featureless. Given its location off the sewers, it was likely a temporary abode at best.

Or maybe it just hadn't been in use very long.

"And now you say...?" It was less an invitation than command, but the Baroness had gestured openly with one hand to introduce himself which was progress of a sort. Probably.

[Gummy]

Kurt smiled to Baroness Blood and bowed with a flourish of arms once more.

"My apologies, mein name is Kurt Wagner, also known as Nightcrawler. It is an honour to meet you Baroness Blood."

He straightened up a little simpler. It was all a matter of pleasing at the moment. Stay in good graces and hopefully he would come of of this alive. His smile shined as did the genuine smile from his tired eyes. How bad of him to have forgotten his manners. He really needed to have a good sleep. He looked around the 'room' and took it all in. The different places for escape but he knew if he tried the little red Bamf would just bring him right back to this spot.

"If I knew you had just got here I would have brought you a better gift. As it is I can only offer you this."

He reached into his pocket and took out a small black box. Too slim for a ring but big enough for another kind of jewlery. Inside a dainty gold bracelet with pearls and a carved blood red rose. Kurt held it out with out hand behind his back at a slight bow.

[BWS2K]

The trinket was gorgeous in its own right and even the Baroness raised an eyebrow at its unveiling. Such things had little value in her world, of course, but the knowledge that they were expensive to mortals was not lost on her. One of her minions stepped forward to accept it.

She remained seated.

"Ah, Kurt Wagner. This name is not unknown to me, and neither are your... exploits." She put a slight emphasis on the first syllable of that word and gave a curt nod. "Well met."

Baroness Blood rose to her feet and took a couple steps forward. She wore some sort of plate armor, black with red highlights, and her pale complexion and hair were almost otherworldly in the torchlight. Equal parts regal and deadly. She held Kurt's message in one hand.

Behind her, the vampire who had the bracelet set it on a small display table next to the throne, upon which already lay a bat-like half-helm - the mask worn by the late Baron Blood, surely - which could be seen now clearly.

"And now to your message," she said, opening and reading the missive. Several moments elapsed during which the only movement in the chamber was the flickering flames of the torches. "Intriguing. This says you are to entertain me with battle."

She took a few steps closer to Kurt, now no more than three meters away, as murmurs and whispers echoed throughout the small cavern from the undead blood-drinkers.

"What do you say to that, Kurt Wagner?" The Baroness made a small gesture and a young woman dropped from the ceiling, landing arms' length from the X-Man. Feral and with tattered clothes - a police officers uniform, judging by what remained - she stood waiting with savage eyes, teeth bared and ready to feed. "Are you up to the task?"

[Gummy]

So that was his father's plan. Make him fight? Was it just that? Did he expect Kurt to lose? Was he the distraction? Then it dawned on him. His father always wanted Kurt to help fight with the battles of hell. He had always refused. Always turned away and said no. The female who jumped down was young in age but also in being turned but that he knew made her possibly even more dangerous than her ... sire! An old police officer that meant she was trained as well.

Kurt looked around the cave.

"Here no, I have the advantage."

He knew that was something he would have no matter where they were. He didn't want to do it but he knew what needed to be done in order to 'entertain'. The circus had taught him that well enough.

"Too much room."

He added. Also he really didn't want any who were able to follow him to end up in a den of vampires to ruin the day. It was bad enough that Jubilee was turned let alone all of these possible vampire makers. He was already tired but his posture said otherwise. He smiled showing his own fangs.

"If you want entertainment, you will need somewhere more... confined for the fight. Or at least confined for the fighters, good viewing for those watching."

The red Bamf next to him eyed him cautiously.

[BWS2K]

Kurt's initial response drew a curious look from more than one visage in the cavern. Several pairs of hungry eyes turned to the Baroness, who was, herself, smirking at the boldness of the X-Man. The young officer was perhaps most confused of all, thinking that she was only moments away from having an furry blue snack.

"You do know how to entertain," Baroness remarked after Kurt had finished. "And I think we can accommodate."

She made no movement, no sound, but the undead in her thrall withdrew as one, commanded by some unseen telepathy. They could be heard leaving the main chamber, leaving Kurt and his chaperone alone with the Baroness.

"While my children see to preparing your second task, let us re-visit the first. You are the follow my instructions for the evening." In a blink, she was back on her throne, seated, with only a slight breeze to mark her supernaturally accelerated movement. "This is not typically something I have problems with," she said, her eyes flashing a dangerous and somehow intoxicating hue for the briefest instant, "...but there'll be no call for coercion between us."

Baroness Blood had, until this point, held herself with the utmost poise and manners of nobility, however dark and blood-stained her ultimate plans may yet turn out to be. But her strength, her cunning, her vampiric thirst was not for blood - that was merely a necessary sustenance. It was knowledge she craved, lore like that which had brought her to be who she presently was.

And so it was that her demeanor shifted. No less powerful or commanding, the Baroness assumed an almost eager youthful countenance. Insatiably curious, she spoke candidly to Kurt: "Tell me your story, Kurt Wagner," she said, inviting him to approach and make himself comfortable, if he desired. "You have done and seen much. I wish to know firsthand the accounts of your life that you deem worthy of sharing."

[Gummy]

Kurt gave a flurrished bow with a wide smile and his charm showing with flair.

"If you wish for a story then I'll give you some highlights."

He moved forward tail swishing and Bamf following. Kurt didn't need to sit his performance was going to be good enough.

"To start, once there was a mother running in fear of persicution. They chased her to the edge of a waterfall where she cast her infant over and begged for forgiveness. Little did she know but the infant was saved and given to a fortune teller who traveled with Herr Getmann's Traveling Menagerie. Her fortunes were true to a point of sorcery. The infant never questioned his parenthood as the circus taught him their ways. He grew in strength, agility and dexterity. The talents were far beyond his years. When he was old enough to fly through the air he joined his two friends as a star. People cheered for him with admiration and only saw him as a human wearing a costume. He was happy there, accepted by his extended family and the audiance. Never did he see the cruelty that man could hand out.

"It didn't last, but his love continued. An American saw the circus and bought the whole thing. How much the young teenager never knew. They were all shipped over to Florida and reassigned. After discovering the star was not human he drugged the teen and caged him to then star in the freak show a devil man. The teen was treated rough and hope started to fade. Until another mutant saved him. He sought the only family he knew. The only family who had ever cared. His friends back in Germany.

"Going home was hard it was even harder to hear that one of his best friends had gone mad and taken the lives of several children. The teen had made a promise that if his friend was to ever hurt and innocent then he was to stop him. Something, at the time, the teen had not taken seriously. It took him a few days to find his old friend and he tried to stop him. A fight started and blood was spilled by both but in the end the teen was left alive and his friend lay dead. Only it wasn't his friend but his brother, the only blood son of the fortune teller. He would later visit hell because of that.

"Blood on his hands and blamed for the children's deaths as he looked more like a monster than his brother. He would accept his death, it was due wasn't it? Only he was saved by Xavior who took him back to America. Where he changed from Kurt Wagner to Nightcrawler an X-man and teacher. I did many missions all over the world trying to help other mutants like I was helped myself. Over the years I grew in faith. I met the Bamfs"

He indicated the red one.

"In an alternative dimensions where all the creatures were Bamfs, I became a pirate and was very successful. Fighting other pirates, being chased down and then taken captive. That was all in one day but for me... years had passed. I became the barer of Excalibur for a while. Served at a church. Saved lives. Dated many. Fought demons, aliens, mutants, humans, androids and died..."

He paused there with a faint smile to his lips and a very distant look on his face.

[BWS2K]

It was an engaging monologue and Baroness Blood listened attentively. Some elements she already knew, as being an X-Man lends one's deeds to public knowledge (whether for good or ill), but it was always best to have information straight from the source. His last words, however, piqued her morbid curiosity for obvious reasons. It had taken some years and considerable resources to locate and obtain the legendary Holy Grail that had granted her vampiric form immunity to sunlight. That was just a neat trick compared to resurrection though.

"...died?" she gestured for Kurt to elaborate as her eyes narrowed, focused and rapt. Hungry. If there was a way for the Baroness to transcend death - or at least to return from it - she would have it at all costs. "And yet here you are. Curious..."

Elsewhere, her minions skulked through shadows towards a the basement level of a parking garage and made preparations for battle there. Signs posted a curfew and it was empty but there were a few security features to render inert. Cameras, a security guard...

[Gummy]

Kurt looked up and smiled sadly.

"Ja, I died."

He looked at her just as curiously wondering what would actually happen to her soul. He had no idea what hell she might end up only just where he will never be welcome again.

"I was in heaven and somebody used my connection to them to try and break into heaven. Yes, heaven is real. Hells... there are various. In order to stop the person breaking in I had to leave... or as some put it fall or resurrect. I am not welcome in heaven but I hope..."

His speech faltered again as he knew the next hour or so would determine if he could return but the benefits of doing this would outweigh the cost to him.

"...hope is for fools as some say."

He tilted his head as he looked at the Baroness.

"I have no idea what would happen to you. It is not for me to decide. Gott.. he knows and afterlife is real. It is what you do here and now that matters. Since returning I have been working as a teacher at Xaviors mansion teaching languages and guiding new mutants when they let me. Teenages can be... challenging. It hasn't been all nice and easy. Recently there have been the horsemen of the apocolypse who needed defeating. Sentinels attacking the school and young mutants to get to safety before they cause harm to themselves or others. So never stopping."

[BWS2K]

The Baroness listened intently. Heaven, Hell - or hells - were outside the purview of her interest, and yet...

Was it shortsighted to not ponder her own destruction? Surely that was one way to avoid it? She was no stranger to the supernatural and 'holy'.

And breaking into Heaven was definitely something that needed looking into later.

"We have both died, Kurt Wagner," was the Baroness' eventual reply. "And yet your Gott did not see fit to usher me anywhere. Here I remain, and I shall do so for quite some time yet, walking in the light of His sun at my leisure and unafraid of any Apocalypse."

She paused here to let the full effect of her words sink in.

"I've heard of this Xavier, he-"

A rustling and whispers from somewhere above halts her words and the Baroness stares into the shadows for a moment before giving a small nod.

"Your arena is ready, Kurt Wagner. Are you prepared?"

Four vampires emerged from the entrance, two flanking on each side and moving to surround Kurt as escorts. Their destination is the sublevel of a nearby parking garage, lit with fluorescent bulbs that occasionally flickered. There were no cars here, though there were easily at least a hundred parking spots among the concrete columns. A handful of fresh bloodstains and signs of violence makes one wonder just what sorts of preparations had been undertaken for the event...

[Gummy]

Kurt thought about what she said. He didn't know how things were with vampires. He thought about it for a few seconds and then thought of Jubilee. Was he soul doomed or was she able to come back to them? He hoped so. There were a few things in life which he was certain of, love and kindness were two. He had never heard of a vampire reforming.... apart from perhaps Blade. Maybe part of their soul had already moved on. If the bite of embrace was against their will perhaps that was true. If they volunteered then just maybe they could choose not to be as they are. However, having seen mutants prosecuted they way they have been he could understand why vampires with all their years can become bitter and hatred of others unlike them.

"Forgiveness is always there for those who seek it."

Was all he spoke quietly as he nodded about being ready. If that was for his own benefit or the Baroness' or both it was to be speculated.

As he was 'escorted' out of where they were he kept quiet and tried to speak a few prayers. The red Bamf that followed him looked grumpy, a witness to more of his suffering. He loosened his long coat and removed his hat. He knew what he had to do. Entertain.

The bloodstains were also noted and he prayed for whatever the blood came from. Then in one moment he was adjusting his gloved hands and looked up at the woman he was about to fight - the first time since she had been introduced. The leer he gave her was sinister in its own rights. Kurt did know how to play up evil when it suited him. He also had not revealed his teleporting skills but then most who had heard of him will already know. He stopped moving as something dawned on him.

His father had won. In that moment Kurt felt odd, different. He spoke one word.

"Nein!"

[BWS2K]

"Do not be so quick to speak of my forgiveness," Baroness Blood replied. "It's going to be a long night, and you may soon regret those words."

They traveled together to the arena in a silence and parted in a simple nod - the Baroness was almost certainly going to enjoy whatever happened but which fighter she favored was anyone's guess. She looked at a brown metal folding chair which had clearly been meant for her, glared in disdain, and turned to watch the impending fight without sitting down. Motor vehicles of all makes and models had been dragged to the edges of the garage floor blocking exits and essentially setting up boundaries around a fifty-foot square-ish fighting area. Artificial lighting continued to flicker. The energy was palpable, a mix of feral hunger and morbid curiosity.

Tattered uniform hanging loose upon her beastly frame, the young vampire opposite Kurt merely eyed him hungrily.

"Very well, Kurt Wagner. Entertain me."

A cacophony of hissing and gnashing teeth in approval followed.

[Gummy]

Kurt stayed still watching the young vampire. He looked at her and felt for her soul. Was the part that was human able to rest in peace of was the vampire's touch too much for even a soul to endure if it was taken unwillingly. He knew what he was fighting for and this was the last. The very last and he had been told to do something that he had always refused. A fight.

Even now stood here he felt his world teeter. He prayed for forgiveness and a gentle passing of the young woman's soul from this world. He prayed for strength to carry on, the red Bamf had moved to a new location and had started laughing at Kurt. Kurt had been forced to do things before but this was different. He wasn't fighting for his father he was fighting for more.

He needed his conscious stable, his soul protected. He shrugged off his long coat revealing his slender frame below and put it on one side. Then he looked at the woman and smiled. His grin becoming just as evil as any demon. His lips moved as he continued to mutter a single prayer of forgiveness over and over. This was a spa nothing more for him. He just hoped that back up would arrive sooner rather than later.

In two quick strides he was in front of the woman and right fist moving slowly, purposeful but slow towards chest. left fist moving faster at other side. His tail.... that helped as he swerved to his right.

[BWS2K]

Being a vampire means a number of things:

1) Unless you're one of the few fortunate ones, the disease will probably reduce you to minion-status. That's just the way it works, especially if you're in the thrall of Baroness Blood. You gain superhuman abilities alongside incredible disposability.

2) Those superhuman abilities, however, are nothing to laugh at. Even modest vampires could take serious damage without perishing.

This former officer in the ring with Kurt was a great example. The time may come when she needs to exercise a more agile tact, when dodging and bobbing and weaving will be called for... but not yet. She tanks the punches and slashes with razor-sharp claws in Nightcrawler's direction. If a brawl is what he wants, she'll happily oblige. A growl rises from within her throat and she vaguely wonders if this delicious treat has blue blood to match his fur. Her comrades cheer on the impending carnage with a series of hisses and snarls from all around.

The Baroness, for her part, looks on with a stone countenance of disinterest.

[Gummy]

Kurt felt the claws scratch at him a few time tearing lines into his skin. Shallow to start but couldn't be helped. His mind stayed sharp, his eyes sparkled as he focused on the woman in front. He knew the pace he was setting would at least tire her a little but it wasn't going to be enough. He was already weary and prayed for the forgiveness of the vampires soul and strength to continue. His heart was pure and good. He knew what this would cost if he backed down now. He had been to heaven when these people could only dream of what it could be. Just as the woman tried to barrel into him one more time he Bamfed for the first time.

He was behind her as he slashed at her. The energy was there for the time but he didn't know how long it would last. A few more blue and red bamfs appeared. The red cheering on the female while the blue cheered on Kurt. All trying to stay away from the vampires. Hearing them gave him hope as he vanished just as the woman turned towards him again.

This time he reappeared on the ceiling above her. Now, he was working harder and smarter.