Bad Blood // Wolf in the Fold ~ Part I

[x-dazzler.livejournal.com]

Following the results of the supper with Leland, Alison heads off into town under pretext of a shopping trip. Of course, her real purpose is to pass along to Pete the data she was given two days ago. Important data, meant to save Pete considerable trouble - and perhaps even his life, should it get to him in time.

Sometimes however, plans get derailed.

Wolf in the fold, Part I
City Streets, New York
Satuday, early afternoon

It would have been, Alison decided, a good day to be out on your own, had it not been for the underlying worry as to whether Pete would even be there after the emergency meet message she'd left at one of the drop boxes, or the burning weight of the portable hard-drive in her purse. Still, she was grimly determined to make the most of it, somehow, the time she had taken to ensure she'd arrive well in advance meaning it was actually downright necessary to wander about town a bit before heading off. That the time to head off, if slowly so, was nearly at hand was leaving her with mixed feelings, to say the least.

Victor Creed was a predator. As a predator, he liked to walk among his prey - study them, get to know their ways, their habits. He was a hard man to miss - six and a half feet of solid muscle, wild blond hair, muscled like a powerlifter. He drew more than a few appreciating looks from the ladies (and a few men) but Vic wasn't looking for a partner.

He wanted something of a different order altogether.

But he wasn't seeing anything that moved him - too fat, too old, too frail, too young. No challenges, nothing that would give him the all-over glow that he needed. Stepping out onto the street, he sniffed the air cautiously and then grinned.

He smelled something familiar.

The air was nice and warm outside, typical of the season really though the mugginess which had been pervasive of late was blessedly absent. After a brief pause to just stand there and enjoy the moment, Alison stepped aside to let an older couple walk by and then resumed her faster than most heading towards Vandoren's Musicians Studio on West Broadway. It would be an ideal shortcut for where she had to go, and there were far more suitable places around there to start up the image inducer and move along to the pub.

With an amused grin she dodged a pair of children racing out of nowhere and down the sidewalk, barely glancing at them before looking in front again to make sure she wasn't about to crash into anyone.  Which was barely avoided, as was usual, both she and the older man chuckling at the rapid dodge before they kept going their separate ways.

Victor followed the tantalizing scent - he knew it now, and he knew that his boredom was about to end. He was at liberty at the moment - Red didn't need him for anything, and Hopalong was tongue-deep in some new project. Even the Big Blue Bitch was amusing herself on her own with some new project or other. And since he didn't have the distraction he'd gotten used to having, his own little bit of Shiny, slipping his leash to wander off on his own for a while had been too appealing a notion to resist. He sniffed the air again - yep, definitely her. This was going to be fun.

Unaware of the attention she was receiving however, Alison simply kept going, allowing herself to be easily distracted by the random store front every now and then. She still had time to kill before she had to stop lingering here and there, still time to pretend this was nothing but a regular day out in town. Pensively she wondered if she had time to stop in front of the music store to at least try and scope out a clarinet for the school. Someone had expressed interest at one point, she thought she remembered.

Victor was stalking Alison - this much was clear by now. He amused himself by practicing good fieldcraft - switching sides of the street, ducking into shops, and never losing sight of Alison. But the game was getting dull, and it was time to take it to the next level. He ducked into an alleyway and used his claws and great strength to scale the side of the building - so that he could pounce from above. His favorite tactic. His golden eyes scanned the street, waiting for Alison to duck into a relatively secluded area so that he could strike.

She was reaching some of the quieter areas by now, the less frequented shops drawing fewer people, the place dotted with side streets she knew well - an apartment she'd stayed in for a while after leaving her parent's home was two streets away at that. She wrinkled her nose, remembering how much fun (not!) that time of her life had been. A straight cut down the one of the side streets would shorten her trip by that much and she waved off a newspaper salesman with a smile as she made the decision, taking a right while humming to herself idly.

After a moment she stopped, straightening a bit, and paused to look around, scanning her surroundings intently. She'd had the oddest feeling for a moment - that of being watched. Alison was far past the days where she would have dismissed that out of hand and taking a moment just to make sure everything was fine wasn't at all paranoia as far as she was concerned.

Sabretooth ducked behind a wall - she'd felt something, and he needed to stay out of sight until she satisfied herself that it was nothing. But the time was almost right - he could taste it on the air, feel his blood beginning to race. So little excited him nowadays, but a good hunt never failed to move him. Looking around the small shopping district, he frowned. He couldn't do anything here. He needed some room to play, a private place where he could enjoy his prey.

He knew just the place.

There didn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary, though Alison knew better than to think that meant anything at all, really. Still, she adjusted the strap of her purse and started walking a gain, paying a bit more attention to what was going on than she'd had previously. The sneakers didn't make all that much noise on the asphalt of the wide alley, the most predominant noise that of someone sweeping the ground somewhere out of sight once the usual city sounds were filtered out.

Sabretooth waited until he could hear the sound of her footsteps, and then he pounced. From the roof of the building that made up one side of the side-street, he descended as quietly as he possibly could - looking to land a double-fisted blow to her head that would, with luck, knock her out cold without cracking her skull like an egg.

A large mass moving that quickly through the air created sound, no matter how silently the person moved normally. The alley's usual soundscape drowned this out nicely and Alison wasn't sure what made her pause briefly to look up - but it was far too late anyway. Darkness descending and the sharp blow to her temple took her out instantly and she crumpled to the ground with a thud.