[h1][color=crimson]Veronica Marlowe (Red)[/color][/h1]
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Under the hail of gunfire, Red raised his arms and shielded himself. The two strange creatures clung to his skin, and he felt them injecting… [i]something[/i]. After a few seconds, he snapped out of his little defensive state and roared again, tearing off one of the phages and smashing it against the sewer wall. The other one, he grabbed it and swung at the charging Fiend, breaking the strange glass head of the creature over the assailant. The white, milky covered the Fiend, but all it did was cause him to rear back from his charge.

Red grabbed the Fiend by his neck and lifted him off the ground. The saw blade dropped onto the sewer floor. Red roared once again and, under more gunfire, charged at the group of intruders with the Fiend’s head slowly being crushed between his meaty fingers. The group’s firing began to cease as Red closed in, and a few of them began turning in the other direction and running down the tunnel. Red caught up to one of them, a young woman, and swiped at her with his free hand. She was launched towards the sewer wall with and audible thud, landing on the floor and clutching her arm. The retreating group turned and began firing once more as one of them moved closer to aid the woman.

Red held up the Fiend to use him as something of a shield, but it didn’t do much. The prior assaults had weakened his exterior some, and whatever those phages injected him with was getting to him. In the heat of the moment, he took the Fiend in his hand, who was probably already dead by now, and grabbed one of his legs with his other hand. It didn’t take much for the Fiend’s thigh to split apart, severing the leg. There were muffled screams, but they quickly silenced themselves. Red tossed the leg at the retreating group, but they were already well away. He breathed some in exhaustion, and tossed the rest of the body to the floor. He turned and he began lumbering back to the cistern.

Veronica sat there, having seen everything through Red’s eyes. Not all of that was her doing, the actions were… [i]overtaken[/i] by Red’s fearful rage. She widened her eyes as the crimson brute weakly stumbled back into the enclave, dropping to his hands and knees. Veronica stood up and rushed over to Red’s side, placing her hands on his shoulder. He breathed and breathed, slowly dropping to the cistern floor. Veronica grew a look of worry, but it was slowly replaced with the usual, monotonous gaze.

Whatever the creatures injected him with, it was acting fast. And it was tainting what would become Red’s remains very soon. But it didn’t matter, she had plenty of jars for him in the stockpile. She stood back up and stared at Red for a moment more. She watched as he pushed himself off the floor, head raised, neck extended. He grabbed the front and back of his head with his hands and he… [i]tugged[/i] in both directions. A bit of creaking, followed by a snap that would unsettle most other folks.

Not Veronica. She’d already heard it many times before.

As Red’s body keeled over, Veronica returned to the wall of the enclave and sat down, hugging her legs. She was, to say the least, [i]worried[/i] for her own safety. Maybe she’d have to start relocating in the midst of all this turmoil. Maybe she’d have to leave Verthaven and find somewhere else to scrape by. But she wasn’t going anywhere at the moment. Best she could do was hold out until Red returned.

She grabbed a jar of the crimson remains from one of the crates and waited, watching as the current Red’s body began to disintegrate.

This one’s sludge was tainted, and useless. She took none of it.