zg_shadows | A bit ego-stroky, but quite probably relatively accurate..

The house was still standing, despite being one of the more tempting targets in the area. It was large, well-to-do, clean, and white, decorated along classic lines and surrounded by a tended garden. Almost since the first moment when the ratkin surged forth on to the streets, the house had been acting as a place of refuge for those who were fleeing the violence and destruction, and now it was full to the brim of fragile, frightened humans. In short, it was everything the ratkin desired to destroy, and for half the night Scorcher McGill and his mob had tried.

They'd tried to burn it down, and watched the flames go out in a hiss of steam and smoke. They'd flung pieces of masonry at the windows, and watched the shards of glass knit themselves back together near-instantaneously. They'd even recruited a couple of near-by Twitchers to set a few home-brew-specials against one of the walls, and discovered that the structure was almost entirely bomb-proof.

They had, however, managed to smash down the ornate steel gates blocking their way here, to the doorstep of the house. Here they were being confronted by a tall well-dressed pretty-man, whose reaction to a horde of crinos-form wererats assaulting his property had not been to run or hide, but to start talking.

And he was still doing it.

"Let me explain again" said the man, in a very patient fashion. "These people are protected by the house. The house is protected by my power. And my power in this particular regard trumps even your apparent delight for destruction. So you see I cannot and will not permit you to destroy any part of this house and therefore by extension harm the people under my protection. And if you persist in trying I will, most regretfully, be forced to kill all of you."

Scorcher drew himself up to his full homid height (5'9), and hissed, letting the righteous fury (and copious amounts of looted vodka) burn through his body.

"Yeah? You and whose army?"

Daniel Fletcher smiled gently, as a ceramic tramping sounded behind him and the front door was pushed open by the first of many figures.

"Do you know, I've been waiting years for someone to ask that.."