Some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice

[skeggsismad]

The creak of a door being opened could be heard as two men stumbled out of a bland building, soaking wet head to toe. High pitched laughter could be heard echoing in the abandoned alleyway, glass glittering on the floor crunching under the weight of the two individual’s footsteps.

“Now that was a time, Lamar! Why, I’m half a bubble off plumb!” Emil spoke, whipping his curly damp hair around, flinging water every which was as he went. The brown pinstriped suit he had been wearing was completely drenched alongside his felt hat of the same color, yet the vampire still seemed in a jovial mood. The man beside him who was much younger looking was an equal disaster, dressed in a blue dress shirt and business pants, you’d have thought a water balloon fight broke out in the office. The darker haired male with the blue shirt looked much younger- perhaps in his mid-twenties, and brandished a thick cigar between his mouth, spewing smoke throughout the region and saying not a word in response to Emil’s comments. Sometimes Lamar was like that.

The two stepped together onward into the darkness- not even a streetlamp lit this street but both bodies seemed to know the correct path. As they moved exhaustedly, Lamar slipped the opposite direction from Emi, which went completely unnoticed by the vampire who was still reeling in the excitement of the events they had partaken in. Still, Emil spoke on as if the young lad was right by his side, cranking his neck from side to side yet never hearing that satisfactory crack sound he yearned for.

“Time to call it a day, I suppose. What say you, Lamar?” He paused, waiting for a response…which regularly was quite instantaneous. His friend was not one to bite his tongue or contemplate what answer might be suitable- usually the fae just spit out whatever he was thinking without refrain. The atmosphere was silent. Emil turned his head beside him for the first time since leaving the building to realize that all that was left of his friend was the lingering sent of cigar smoke. There was no Lamar in sight.

“…Lamar?” Emil called out softly, deciding this must have been another one of the male’s tantalizing jeers, likely to get back at him for a mistake Emil had unintentionally made in front of company that had sizzled underneath the fae’s skin. Yet…there was no response, and quite out of the blue the smell of smoke because pungent in the air and the immortal’s senses could tell that this smoke was not of a cigar at all…it was of a fire.

Crinkling his eyebrows together in query, the immortal continued to breath in the scent and his body began to wander towards the source of the scent. He rounded the corner of the ally way, only to see flames licking upon a pile of what appeared to be only old newspapers and empty plastic bottles…a picture perfect catalyst that had in an instant brought the file of flammable objects to their fate. At the bottom of the pile, Emil could still faintly make out remains of a cigar.

LAMAR! Emil mentally screamed, eyes wild and hands clenching the air reminiscent of strangling the fae.  

“By Jove!” He finally shrieked out loud, taking off his coat and hitting the flames as best as he could…though it didn’t seem to be working and his jacket soon caught aflame, prompting him to remove it from the fire and stomp it out with his own two feet. He was in a predicament…surely. There was only so much that a fellow could do when they didn’t have a truck to spew water from.

From his pocket he pulled out a fairly water blotted cellular device, pressing the red ‘emergency’ button the front that was available even in its locked mode and pressing it to his ear.

“ 911 what’s your emergency? ” The voice on the other line called out.

“There’s a fire and I’ve tried to put it out but it’s not quite working and-” Emil was cut off by the operator once again.

“ Hello? 911, what’s your emergency? ” The voice spoke out once more.
 
“I said, there’s a fire and I’ve tried to put it out but-”

“ I’m disconnecting you now. I can’t hear anything,”

“Now wait a minute here! I-” The line went dead. Emil sighed heavily.
 
Apparently, water damage did things to a phone. He looked to the fire. It was only growing. Heavens…he couldn’t just walk away from this!

“…Fire! Somebody! Help!” He hollered out as loudly as he possibly could…which was terribly loud considering his skills at projection, likely amplified enough to span miles for those who had extraordinary hearing capacities like he did.
 
He decided firmly, and with much love, that the next time he saw Lamar he was going to beat him backwards with a shovel until he came up with a rational reason why he’d started a fire for heaven’s sake and left him to deal with it. Wherever that boy was, he’d be in deep doo-doo later.

Help, I need somebody,
Help, not just anybody,
Help, you know I need someone, help.

[eterna_rimorso]

It had been quite some time since Chisoku had gotten out of the shop. He felt like getting some fresh air. The problem was that there really wasn\'t much in the way of fresh air anymore. When he filled his lungs he smelled the scent of garbage and the pollution of carbon monoxide, the second of which really never bothered him, but it did tonight. He hadn\'t had been working in the shop for some time and had finally reached several stopping points. There wasn\'t much futher he could go until the parts he had ordered arrived.

He had the look of a jogger tonight as he locked up the estranged little warehouse he had been using as a workshop. Inside several cars sat in various states of disassembly needing various amounts of attention. He let out a soft sigh, stretching his back and then starting to jog. He pullied up the hood of his sweatshirt over his headphones and turned on his music. After a few blocks Chi turned and climbed a fire escape, emerging on the roof of an abandoned building, some four stories tall. He usually drove, and did so very fast, but tonight, there was no car to drive and so he ran. He ran across the roof of the building and leaped, a strong gust of wind carried him across the street and up to the roof of a fifth story building, setting him down softly on his feet. He continued his run across the new roof, feeling the wind at his heels. It was invigorating to feel something he had been denying himself by staying cooped up trying to fill the orders coming in. And now he had the distinct feeling of running away from something, most likely his past.

He readied himself for the next jump, the wind swirling around him in preparation when a man\'s yelling broke his concentration. He skidded to a stop, nearly tripping over the building\'s parapet wall, a gust of wind helping to keep him from the fall. The scream was loud, "Fire! Somebody! Help!"

It had been loud enough for Chi to hear clearly even over his music. It had come from the alley on the side of the building. Chisoku crossed the roof and looked down into the alleyway. Five stories below a man was standing near a fire that had seemed to be going out of control. The demon lowered his headphones so that they were around his neck, an obscure toccata by Bach was playing loud enough that he could hear it still as he made his way down the fire escape, not bothering to try to hide his pressence as he clammored quickly down the fire escape. He stepped onto the sliding ladder on the bottom tier, his light frame causing it to lower slowly to the ground, appearantly too slow for the small Japanese man who leaped off long before the ladder touched the ground.

The man in the alley was a full foot taller than the demon and already soaking wet for some reason or another, "Troubred?" he asked the man in the brown pinstriped suit, his accent foiling his attempt at pronouncing the letter L as his hand moved in a rather odd fluid manner at his side with many dips and flourishes, the only evidence that he was attempting to call in a storm. The demon was in a giving mood this evening and somewhere in the distance the sky above answered his call with thunder, he hadn\'t been trying for lightning, but it seemed to like him well enough to come anyway, "I wourdn\'t worry about fire. The storm wirr put it out," he said despite the fact that there was no rain expected for weeks. The demon gestured a little more forcefully and in the span of a few seconds a few light drops of rain sizzled in the fire, followed by an escalating torrent of water.

Chisoku seemed rather antsy, bouncing on his heels. The truth of the matter is that he was particularly unable to stand still as he watched the fire suffering from the liquid assault. The flash fire mirrored the demon\'s nature, constantly moving, burning out those things that caught his attention with little time. It was a shame that the fire had to be put out. He doubted that the folks in charge would bother to even thank him for putting out the fire, but that wasn\'t why he was doing it. He was doing it because...well...it was something to do.

[skeggsismad]

Emil was able to hear the approaching being before he actually saw them. One of the gifts of super-hearing, of course- but he hadn’t entirely expected that the footsteps would continue all the way to where he was at until the fire escape had a rattling and the vampire’s eyes fixated on a rather young, tiny looking man of Asian descend approaching.

And my was he fast!

Emil thought a number of things during that moment, thinking that there was no way in the world that this person could possibly be human with the way he was moving like he did, but as well, the music playing from the fellow’s headphone rung as distinctively classical music. That in itself gave the musical fanatic reason to smile, despite the tragic situation of flames flickering in front of his eyes.

Although Emil had sized the man up as short from a distance, by the time Chi plopped down on the ground in front of him, the vampire found himself somewhat shocked. The boy was more than a feet shorter than he- and Emil, considering himself a man of short stature to begin with, was entirely taken aback of it that it was almost amusing. He didn’t have time to comment on that either- for after Chi had spoken his first words, he seemed to be doing some odd hand gesture that Emil didn’t recognize.
What was that, martial arts?

Was the man going to attempt to start a brawl with him?!

Emil raised an eyebrow as he observed, but it didn’t seem the younger smelling fellow’s gestures were meant as aggressive. The energies flowing from him didn’t seem to indicate anger or a threat and so the vampire watched and listened attentively, entertained by the unnamed stranger that had walked so suddenly into the scene.

Right when Emil was to ask what storm it was that he didn’t need to worry about, his attention was brought to the sound of rain and the vampire’s eyes fixated on a dribble coming from the sky right onto the flaming mess. In an instant it seemed the liquid went from a drizzle to pouring what was likely gallons of rain very suddenly onto the aflame material until the fire was no more.

A moment of shock overtook the vampire, but once he recovered, the gentleman brought his hands together in the start of a slow clap. He couldn’t help but belt out enthusiastic laughter.

What a show!

In his eagerness, Emil clasped the weather demon’s shoulder to give him a congratulatory pat, all the while spitting out in his theatrically animated tone,
 
“That was fantastic! My! Enough to quicken my pulse, I do declare!”
As soon as he had made the gesture, Emil realized how much of a mistake it had been. Since he was soaked head to toe, a signifigant amount of wetness had drenched onto the man’s running attire and Emil stepped backwards with an apologetic look.

“Oh, bally- I’ve gotten you all wet. It seems that I just wasn’t paying attention as much for you’ve excited me quite a bit, no doubt! That was absolutely gorgeous and what have you.”

One of the gentleman’s hands gestured to the scorched but no longer blazing area that the miracle had been performed on, other hand slicking back his hair as words just continued to roll out of his mouth.

“I must do something for you for all of your much needed assistance! I am eternally grateful. It appears you’re dressed to suit a mighty fine jog. I’d love to buy you a drink sometime, or a meal if you’re not one for alcohol, to repay the debt for both helping me and course how I so rudely soiled your clothing!”
 
Indeed, he felt guilty on both counts, even he hadn’t been the one to start the fire. Chi’s heroic entrance and rescue had swept Emil up in the flurry of action and adventure. For once, he met someone who seemed exciting in this city, and by all means, he wasn’t going to let an opportunity such as this slide away.

[eterna_rimorso]

Emil had touched him and now his shoulder was soaked. He glaced at the wet place on his sweatshirt and his eye twitched. He took a deep breath to try to control himself. Then, suddenly the man mentioned alcohol and Chi\'s mind quickly changed subjects all but forgetting the unknown transgression, "A drink does sound good...where do you usually drink?" The demon hadn\'t had a night out of the shop in some time and had grown quite restless. He was always one for vodka, but since his arrival in America, he had grown much fonder of the stuff.

Chi had not yet realized that the man was a vampire. He didn\'t seem to notice much about him at all, other than his peculiar tan and highly excitable nature, not even when he became nearly as animated as chi by the rainshower, of course he was already rather excited when the demon arrived. Chi\'s mind was moving like lightning right now, having been imprisoned in the machine shop, overhauling engines, rebuilding transmissions, replacing turbos.

Chi was already walking out toward the street, he paused for a moment and looked in both directions. He hated waiting, he waited for the man to answer his question so he would know which way to go, more than likely he would be told to turn to the left, which was the direction of downtown, and all the bars down there. Either way, the demon was bound to be irritated. None of his cars were in working order right now, except the tow truck. Unless the stranger had a car, they would be walking. Something that Chi didn\'t particularly enjoy. He could fly himself to wherever they were going, but he had never tried to carry a passenger, and though he knew he was capable of whipping up a whirlwind that would carry the both of them, the trip would probably not be as luxurious as the stranger was used to, judging by the demon\'s quick inspection of the man\'s attire.

"Whatever the place is, I hope they are well stocked on vodka," he grinned at the stranger, "Sorry, I\'ve been remiss. My name is Mifune Chisoku. You can call me Chi for short." The demon bowed slightly and then offered his hand as well.