[i]Watch out for Anna; Carlo's older, but Anna's the brains here, guys. She's the adaptable bitch that wrote those books and runs the thralls. She ought to be the priority.[/i]

Yuri frowned. He hadn't been able to get in the thick of the action, his biggest regret in this test run. He had to hurry. After all, it would be unfortunate if he didn't get to tear apart one of those monsters himself. Standing still, he closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. A readout of various chemicals and various ration filled his vision, resolving itself into a mess of colors, each mapped to some color that gave him an idea of what he was was looking for.

The dingy yellow of background smog was ever-present, but nowhere near as stifling as it was in, say, Moscow. He breezed past the orange of cooking meat, the beige of human scent and the green of ambient decaying organisms, and looked frantically for the one thing he was seeking: the brilliant red signifying the subtle difference in body chemistry between thralls and regular human beings. Vampires, unfortunately, didn't have a glowing scent trail leading to them, but their conspicuous lack of it was as good an indication as any. Still... you find the workers, and the queen bee isn't too far behind.

The trail was faint, but he could smell it in the air, and pick out the general direction of where it may be.

[i]This is Yuri. Chasing a trail. Will post updates as they come. Hopefully, I'll find a friend on my trip who will be quite talkative, and perhaps I will get to Anna's in time for tea.[/i]

With that, he picked up the pace, quickly cutting through a side street, and dodging into an alley. The scent was picking up. He was nearly salivating now. What would he try for today's friendly chat? That was a hard question. Breaking bones was always an option, but he also had an electric baton which, at maximum amperage, had enough power to kill someone and set their corpse on fire within seconds, and a few other implements he could try out. And if threats didn't work, well... there seemed to be plenty of thralls to go around. At least one of them had to have something to say.

And speaking of plenty of thralls, the latest turn through the alley seemed to produce three of the least friendly-looking thralls he had ever seen, one armed with a chain, two armed with clubs. And all three were looking straight towards Yuri, with the kind of look that said they weren't going to invite him to dinner. Perhaps this impasse could be smoothed over with words.

Yuri took a step back, grinning idiotically and giving his best "Simple Ivan" voice.

"I simply immigrant being new to country. No trouble is meant."

Perhaps he had laid it on a bit thick, but the "Simple Ivan" routine seemed not to have worked on the thralls, who were most likely paranoid due to this latest disruption.

Good, Yuri thought as they approached with their weapons held high and their faces twisted with aggression. As he fingered the voltage modifier on his baton, he had truly begun to worry that he wouldn't have his fun.

The one with the chain struck first, and Yuri pulled up his forearm to block the blow. He felt his forearm stiffen as the armor below his coat hardened on impact, and with a wave of his free hand, struck the baton across the chain, causing the thrall to spasm, drop the chain, and fall over. Another rushed forward around the same time, presumably thinking the chain had trapped Yuri and not reacting quite quickly enough to catch their mistake. With a step, Yuri narrowly avoided the reach of the club, tapping the baton on the thrall's neck.

"And then there was one," said Yuri, as he stepped around the two twitching thralls in front of him.

The thrall, no longer confident without the elements of surprise or numbers, turned tail. Unfortunate, since Yuri didn't have the time or really the will to give chase. He needed to have a quick and dirty tea party. Yuri looked down at the two thralls, each of them semi-conscious from having twice the voltage of a commercial high yield taser running through their bodies. He didn't feel like being jumped while he was chatting with one of them, so he flicked the amperage meter up. This important decision called for the same arcane and unfathomable problem solving methods that he used for all important decisions: go with the one that's closer.

With a playful tap that was accompanied by an audible surge and crack and the smell of burning flesh and hair, Yuri nonchalantly put down one of the thralls on the pavement, before resetting his baton and squatting down by the one whose insides weren't rendered extra crispy. Flipping the thrall over, Yuri noted said thrall was a young man, probably late teens by the look of it, and beginning to stir from the shocking. He figured he'd wake the man up and keep him from running in one swift motion, namely by swiftly stepping down on the thrall's femur. A resounding crack was followed by a choked, warbling shout. Yuri knelt down, placing a finger at his lips and slipping his baton back into his coat, swapping it for the small pistol.

"You know exactly what I'm here for, and exactly why I din't have the time to waste being pleasant. So please, if you want to make this difficult, do know I have no trouble with making you scream a little."

Yuri smiled as the thrall's eyes widened, the kind of proud smile a father would have seeing his newborn walk for the first time. ANd with that, he decided to send a message to the rest of the team.

[i]Found a friend. Commencing friendly chat. It will likely be short.[/i]