Callous Beauty

Later the next night, Chell wakes up, her body transitions from her stone form into her awake form. She brushes off the warning note off her body as she gets up and stretches.

She instinctively reaches over to the table nearest, thinking it were like her castle, there would be a bottle of blood to drink from, she is met only by a stray piece of paper on the coffee table. "nnnmm... ugh... why is... there so much twilight... hmm? oh right..." She then gets up and continues to stretch before she begins to float as she usual does.

"The... mm... the girl was Raine... this is her place... I need to find something to drink..." She floats over to the kitchen and searches the fridge, spotting a small box of orange juice, she takes it and stabs her fang though the box and drains it all. She then goes over to the window and looks out it. "Hmm... there is some mischief in this city... I wonder if Raine won't mind me going out and finding someone who deserves seeing my bad side..."

She then opens the window and floats outside, keeping within the same block as Raine’s building, draining the blood of a few birds and small animals before returning.

Raine returns opening the door, holding a white bag with a folder in her mouth. She kicks the door shut with her heel and enters the main room. Placing the bag on the table and the folder on the floor, she asks, “So, what have you done while I was gone?”

"Oh... well I had some orange juice; I did go out but I made sure no one saw me" She has some blood on her fingers, however her fingers are already red so it is difficult to spot. "Okay, ‘cause I don’t want to have to keep reminding you to not draw attention to yourself, if Howling Moon finds out about you, then they will destroy this building and experiment on you.”

"Experiment..." she goes silent in thought about that word for a moment, remembering the word, floats up to Raine and looks at the folder on the floor.

Raine notices Chell looking at the folder and removes a white container from inside the bag. She opens it revealing a Philly cheesesteak inside, as she grabs it with one hand, she opens the folder with the other. The words Project Callous Beauty is all that’s on the front page.

Chell seems to be more interested in the folder than the steak. "Project Callous Beauty? I thought you were an investigator not a cosmetologist."

“No, no this the latest project that Howling moon is working on, it's all bad news.” Raine says taking a bite. “This hasn’t been released to the public yet, only a few individuals outside of Howling Moon know of its existence”

"Oh, so they're planning something big? I mean project sounds like it would be big." She floats over to a chair set up in the living room and sits down.

“That’s the thing, its supposedly a device that can filter ninety-nine percent of toxins, however while looking at the blueprints,” Raine removes a drawing from the folder.” Theres an empty space at the top of the device, that's capable of holding a cylinder object.”

Chell's vertical pupil narrows as she looks at the cylinder. "Ninety nine percent of toxins... is this because they pollute the air? Everyone will have to wear these I'm guessing..."

“Here’s the thing, why would Howling moon only plan to make 5? if it's not a mask then what is it?”

"Wait only five? that can't be right..."

“That’s why I was the depot last night, to see if they were getting a shipment of whatever that empty space was.” She says moving away from the counter, turning on the tv at the front of the room.

Chell then turns to look at the tv, she shields her eyes for a moment. "Ah... but I guess my explosion ruined that investigation..."

“Yeah, thanks for that.” She says sarcastically. The news comes on, the image of the burning depot in the background. “Last night, A medical supply depot owned by the Trixtus Foundation, was attacked and destroyed in an arson attack by an unknown terrorist, while we only have one image of the attacker,” A blurry image of Raine appears only showing blue and black colors. “This person is wanted on multiple charges, so please contact Torius PD if you have any info on the identity of this terrorist.”

"Oh damn... that brings things down to reality..."

“Fuck, Fuck, Fuck!” Raine screams at the tv nearly throwing her gun at it. “At least Howling moon has a shitty security camera.” She whispers to herself in an attempt to calm down. Turning the TV off, she removes her hat and stares at it for a second.

Chell's eyes widen at Raine’s sudden loss of temper, she remains silent until Raine calms down.

“Sorry you had to see that, when you have a dad who leaves a mom to take care of an eleven-year-old me and an 8-year-old brother, a lot of resentment and anger builds. Ever since I was in high school, I always had these outbursts.” She says placing the hat over her face.

"It's fine, it just was unexpected... they really are writing you up to be some menace..."

“Howling Moon has always had a target on my back ever since I came to this rotten city, I refused their recommended programs multiple times and for that I’m on some blacklist. They know it's me, but they want to pretend there is such a thing as justice”

"Yeah, Fritz always had it against me back in Petros, he treats every vampire like a power-hungry demon of the night, scooping up lives by the hundreds, I had to flee here to earth..." She quietly whispers to herself "although there are some bastard vampires out there"

“No matter where you go death and chaos follows. That saying has so many meanings. This city is nothing but those two words.”

Chell nods her head.

“You know what come with me, I know you can’t drink alcohol, but I need to go somewhere.” Raine says placing the hat on her head again.

"Oh! well I actually don't mind drinking wine!" Chell's body language becomes much livelier as she floats up.

Raine backs up slightly, then sighs grabbing her motorcycle keys and heading to the door.

Chell then follows Raine out the door and outside to the motorcycle. "Oh, and quick question, floating would be suspicious, right?"

“Yeah, don’t do it in public. Here I got you a helmet.” Raine says sitting down and turning on the motorcycle.

"Oh, thank you!" she puts it on before getting on.

They pull up to a brewery in which, Raine parks her bike in a discreet corner of the area. Walking up, she waves to the bartender. “Yo, Nathan how is it going, I’m going to get my usual tonight. Chell?”

"Can I get wine, the whole bottle please." she then puts some golden jewelry down onto the table "I don't usually use money, so I have some of this for you!" she is clearly overpaying for just a bottle of wine

Raine laughs before getting put a large glass in front of her. She takes out gold and silver coins, passing them over to the bartender. Looking around, there was only about five other people in the place.

Chell then takes her wine bottle and gets a fancy wine glass before she spots a guy alone at a nearby table. she walks past him with her wine glass and pretends to have bumped into his chair, and spills some wine on her own breasts, the guy looks at her and immediately looks away seeing her breasts covered in wine.

Raine immediately spins around and shrugs to the bartender, “I don’t know her, she followed me inside and I felt bad for her so I paid for the wine”

Chell’s ears twitch, then she somehow licks the wine off herself before she goes back to the bartender table with her wine. She then spots a girl walking past her, she whistles to her before blowing a kiss at her, somehow creating a visible heart that floats up to her.

Raine upon seeing this lets out an audible sigh, taking a swig of her beer, waving it in the air. “Going to hit on everyone, really?” Two men in uniform walk into the brewery and go up to the bartender. “Have you renewed your serving license, for these two weeks?” Raine gets angry at the fact they were wearing Trixtus uniforms.

Chell turns to see the conversation, the girl she blew a heart to looks confused at her vodka before putting it down and going to the coffee maker.

“Are you two actually Trixtus or Howling Moon?” Raine says to the two men. One of them draws a handgun as Raine looks at the bartender. “I’ll give you an extra twenty for the broken glass, sorry.” She breaks the glass on the edge of the counter, and stabs the man in the neck.

Chell then gets up and quickly gets behind the other man, in preparation for anything that he may do

The other man freaks out upon seeing his comrade, get stabbed and presses a button in his hand before reaching the weapon at his side.

Chell then grabs his hand before he can grab his weapon. "This is a bar fight, get some glass for a weapon!"

A loud noise comes from outside as the wall breaks down, revealing a raptor. “Oh, come this isn't fair. “Raine says shooting the guy on the floor with her pistol.

"Wait one of these again?" she hides behind a table "let's not have a repeat of last time!"

“They’re basically like guard dogs, this one is the M1 which doesn’t have a gun, the only way we can take down this one is short circuiting it.

The word short circuit sparks an idea in Chell's head, she grabs her wine bottle and pounces onto it, she breaks her wine bottle open and drenches it in wine before jumping off.

Raine grabs a wire from an electrical outlet and throw it at the raptor. It stops moving then shuts off in front of them. The entire building’s lights shutoff.

"Whew! wait getting it wet helped right?"

“Yes, it did, but I guess this is time for us to go. Bartender, I’ll take any case of yours for free, as compensation. Chell lets get out of here before, any more Howl-Trixtus goons show up.”

"Alright!" She then takes one look at the girl she blew a heart at, who is now extremely confused, Chell then follows Raine back to the ride.

Raine stops at a convenience store along the way and walks back out with a brown bag. “My drink was ruined anyways,” she says sitting back down. Arriving back at her place a short dirty blond teenager was sitting on the bench outside the building. “Chell, go on ahead, she’s a client for a separate case, one of the few that did everything to contact me, and saw my face”

"Oh, ok, good luck on that case!" she then floats to their room.

Raine opens the door, her face red as a strawberry, “I acidentallf graffed vodka.” She says nearly falling over in the hallway. She burps then laughs throwing her hat against the wall. She drops the notebook she had on her. “So ‘burp’ many colors.” She says laughing again

Chell goes over to her and helps her walk over to the couch "oh jeez, I knew humans get intoxicated drinking that stuff but this is the worst I've seen."

Raine looks at Chell’s face before grabbing her cheeks. She pulls them a bit, laughing in a childish manner. She then starts reciting the alphabet.

"Hey! Not my cheeks! I know you don't feel that way towards me!" she has Raine sit on the couch before she goes and grabs some orange juice for herself.

A barfing noise is heard as Chell closes the refrigerator door.

She turns around and sees the mess "oh... Ew... this is why I have a liquid diet..."

Raine passes out on the sofa with the vomit next to her on the floor

Chell stares down at the mess, she lets Raine sleep on the couch while she cleans up. "All that cheese steak, gone to waste..." She then gags for a moment before going outside, and locking the door behind her.