Ether's Story

Virtus watched, a young man attempting to recruit a young lady. She was experiencing trepidation, and he was overtly forward. A father figure was in the mix, perhaps dead to the chaos of this world. If he had headed to the store, looters might have already got him.

Virtus had a bottle of napalm in one hand, a rag sticking out of it, a makeshift Molotov cocktail. His face was obscured by a hand-made mask, all white with black lips and eyes sockets. He wasn't sure where the night would lead, but without a second thought, the young man strode up to the locked door, handing the make-shift grenade to the boy in a white hoodie.

"You'd best back up cheri," The masked youth planted a boot on the chain-locked door, knocking the chain from it's tiny fastening place, and sending the door sprawling open. "Did you know the end of times is called the Eschaton? I happen to be an Eschatologist, and I'm here to study humanity." He stepped into the small ruined house, grinning underneath his emotionless mask. "Nice place you got here, dearie. Shame your dad won't live to come back to it. Got any food left?" His stomach growled, he had food stashed somewhere, but he was unwilling to eat it. Not as long as he could find food elsewhere, only God knew when he'd come across more.

Jenniffer stared at Virtus in fright. She was starting to regret not going with the man in the white hoodie.
She decided it would be foolish not to obey this man. It was likely he would kill her without hesitation. "Um... yes, we have some, but not much. My father, he went out to get more... did you... did you kill my father?" she asked, this last part with a bit of eagerness in her voice.

"Eehh? Your father?" The boy queried while rummaging for food. The girl living here was right, there was practically nothing to eat here. He settled for a box of crackers, tearing the box open and lifting his mask only slightly to reveal his mouth. "I've never killed anyone, it's the Chaos in this world that kills." He shoved a handful of crackers in his mouth, chewing and speaking while still eating. "Something like, guns don't kill people, molotov cocktails thrown at stores kill people. Just cause I made the thing doesn't lay blame at my feet, does it?"

After eating most of the box of crackers, Virtus made his way to the kitchen and took a long swig of water from the sink. "'Sides, if your father wasn't immolated, he was might've been caught up in the shooting that followed. Gangs these days, am i right?" He barked out a laugh, as it was his gang that had mugged the survivors leaving the store. "What'd Hoodie guy give you? I saw him slip you something? It wasn't valuable, was it?" He cracked his neck by rotating his head a bit before re-adjusting his mask to cover his visage.

"It-it's nothing," she said quickly. She needed to get out of here. "If Father might be hurt, I should go check if he's alright..." She edged towards the door. Jenniffer didn't actually care about her father. He could go to hell for all she cared. But she needed to get away from this man. Fast.

"Hey, hey, easy now.... Your dear old Pa is going to be just fine. Or not, who knows. It's a wicked world. Regardless... I got a guy watching the exits. Wouldn't want you getting hurt in the confusion or something." The girl was getting spooked, not that he could blame her. The door had been kicked open, and couldn't really latch close anymore. So the next best thing was for Virtus to take a large rock, slightly larger than a fist out of his pocket and roll it across the floor, into the door, slamming it shut and holding it closed.

There wasn't anyone outside, of course he didn't mind bluffing. If she ran, he could probably catch up regardless. "How about we play a game? It's called Truth or Dare. I'll go first. I pick Truth." He produced a piece of white paper with some names on it. "The truth is, white hoodie is on a very short list, and I have that list. Now it's your turn Gothie, Truth or Dare?"

Jenniffer stared at the man with large, frightened eyes. "I..." She stammered. She slowly turned so her back was to him, then quickly turned back and lunged, a long kitchen knife in hand.

The masked man listened intently to the girl, she seemed flummoxed. Then all at once her surprise turned to action, lunging at him with a knife. "Pish Posh, i've more laceration wounds than I care to count." He rolled with the lunge, catching the knife in the upper shoulder. A mere flesh wound, cutting instruments need to target arteries to be lethal.

With a kick, his boot-heel connected with the girl's stomach. They rolled for a moment, in a confused mass of fighting, before he disconnected with the girl. The knife had hit bone, but knives were ill-suited to pierce bone, and he pulled it free with an angry shrug. "Hey! Do you know how rare Novocaine spray is nowadays!?" He grumbled some more, feeling the knife and its weight. It was ill-suited as a weapon, and he tossed it behind him.

Blood seeped from his shoulder, staining his nice jacket. "You're really starting to irk me, you know that? Do you have any idea how painful it is to stitch up a knife wound!?" He spat on the ground, moving towards the girl. "Now listen up, I'm not here to hurt you, but stab me again and we'll see where the evening takes us! I've asked very little of you, the least you could do is oblige." He fumbled a can of anesthetic spray out of his pocket, spraying his shoulder down thoroughly.

"Now.... I'm going to ask nicely, one more time. Then you get to be reunited with your father. What did Hoodie give you?" Virtus pulled a small Zip-Gun out of his jacket. A gun made of improvised material, but by no means any less lethal. It was small, a simple .22, but he had a feeling Jennifer had never been shot before, and the shock was more than most people could take.

Jennifer lunged at the masked man, managing to plunge it into his shoulder. He then kicked her in the stomach. She grunted with surprise, but not pain; she'd been hurt far more painfully by her father than a kick in the stomach. They tussled for a bit before he clambered off and yelled at her for a bit. As he asked his question, he pulled out a gun, and she started to freak out. She'd never been shot before, not even by Father. She didn't want to answer this man or be reunited with her father, but she definitely didn't want to be shot. Suddenly, an idea occurred to her. "All right," she said, acting defeated. She was very good at acting, because she used to take theatre before her dad started treating her poorly. She fished in her pocket, pulling out a ticket to an opera house. "He gave me this, telling me to meet him here. He said nobody would expect anything, because it was only a movie ticket." She held it out to the man.

Ether stood in the towers, going over what supplies he had. He knew sometime soon someone would stumble upon his base and try to raid it. He quickly packed up everything and hid it away so no one would find it. He comes to a window to overlook the once beautiful city that promoted so much peace and prosparity, but soon the raiders came in and everything went south from there. Pillaging, murder, all crimes were commited, and no one could stop it, as the government collapsed and people became almost unnaturally wicked.

Virtus tested out his arm's mobility, the new shoulder wound didn't seem to inhibit his motion. The girl was also finally making an effort to be cooperative. She had a small ticket, to some Opera House, which she offered to him, but he didn't take. "How gauche!" For some reason the idea of visiting an Opera house was enough to elicit a laugh from the masked man. He dropped the zip-gun, kicking it behind him, away from Jennifer and himself, while keeping a distance from her. She was wily, that's for sure.

"Damn things are just as likely to blow up in your hand as actually shoot." He took out three pieces of pipe, screwing them together into a shotgun in a short five seconds while keeping an eye on the girl. "Well, it's YOUR invitation, you'd best attend it. Lead the way, ma cheri." He gestured towards the door with the shotgun, "It'd be rude of me to show up uninvited, so let's just say im you're plus one, yeah?" He rolled his shoulders, bleeding a little from the knife-wound. "Jesus girl, you've got spunk, you know that? Play your cards right and you might survive the night."

"I don't want to hurt you, I just want the Hoodie guy. I'm not the bad guy here, he is. Last person who stabbed me ended up flayed alive. I don't want to do that to you, I'm not that guy. The guy who flays people is at the store..." He walked behind her, a few feet between Jennifer and himself, hand ready to unload the shell. It was a single shot weapon, but at this range, with a shotgun shell, it was hard to miss.

Oh crap. Him coming along shaked up the boundaries of her plans. She didn't believe a word of what this man said about wanting to not hurt her.
There were two loud thumps at the door, and then it was knocked all the way down the hallway as a giant man. He was like a cold mountain, standing over seven feet tall with a grizzled beard and a permanent scowl etched into his face. He carried a hunting rifle, a metal bat, and two large backpacks that had the look of being overstuffed.
"Jenniffer?!" Father boomed. "Why did you bar the door on me?! Are you asking for a beating, wench?!"
He came in and stopped when he saw Virtus there behind Jenniffer. "Who are you? Get away from my daughter!" He raised the hunting rifle, ready to fire.

Footsteps at the door, someone was coming in, someone big and heavy. He started yelling, he knew the girl, but he wasn't one of Virtus's guys.

"Get away from my daughter!"

The man, Jennifer's father, The girl's name was Jen...? Besides the point, the guy had a gun, a real gun. Virtus felt like a kid at Christmas. He loped forward, throwing the free arm around Jen's throat, using her as a human shield. and leveling the makeshift shot-gun at the father's chest.

"Ehhh??? You survived the Chaos at the store? Such a shame, looks like you're full of goodies. If you want your daughter to live, the-" The shotgun erupted into a spray of pellets, it was better to catch people off-guard when it came to Mexican stand-offs. Besides, Virtus knew one of the best underground surgeons in the tri-county area. He could afford a few rounds from a hunting rifle, as long as it didn't hit anything immediately lethal.

With that, he shoved Jennifer at her father, sprinting out the back and circling back around to the front. In the rush of adrenaline, he couldn't even tell if he'd been shot. Hidden near the front of the house were a variety of hand-made grenades. Chlorine bombs, moltovs, tear-gas, anything Virtus could throw together when the Anarchy hit.

He put his index and middle finger of both hands into his mouth, letting loose a piercing whistle, then... he waited. Reinforcements would be coming, and people who were shot tended to make a lot of noise before dying. He had to be sure the father wasn't armed and waiting for him before he went back in.

"Look, Jen, I killed your father just like you wanted. Or... about to have killed.... In the process of killing? Semantics, really. No father should call their daughter a wench. I did the dirty work for you! You're welcome." He grinned madly while shouting, truly the world was more fun now that Chaos had hit.

Ether looked up, fully sensing something was wrong, hiding the gear while taking a 9mm glock with a M14 rifle along with other defensive gear, he runs out the twin towers towards Jeniffer's home. As he ran by, people noticed him and began to follow in hopes to kill him as steal whatever he had. Ether noticed the crowd and took a turn at a corner to run into a closeby alleyway, where he set up traps for the crowd to fall into. Soon enough, loud booms can be heard before he continues to Jeniffer's. When he got there, he heard a loud whistle, knowing there would be a swarm of people soon, hiding, Ether sets up his final traps and rounds Jen's home.

Jenniffer looked at the dead body of her father, covered in alchemical solution. It had all happened so fast, faster than seemed rationally possible.
She stared up at this strange man. He seemed oddly happy. She wasn't sure whether she should thank him or run away. So she just stared at him like a deer in the headlights. Her thoughts were a bit muddled. Why am I-
Then she saw it. The bullet hole, near her abdomen. Her father had tried to shoot right through her. She mustered up all the hatred she could for the man, considering she was partially in shock from the wound and partially from the action.
She tried to speak, but found she felt too dazed to do so. So she knelt down on the floor, staring at the body of her father.

It was quiet in the house, oddly quiet. Virtus at least expected the girl to run, maybe something had happened...? The masked man scooped up a satchel bag full of hand-made explosives and peered through the door frame. The dad wasn't moving, laying on the ground, rigor mortis rapidly setting in.

"Ah, yeah, he's dead?" He probed the body, kicking the corpse. It didn't move much, and Virtus gingerly took the dad's hunting rifle and slung it around his shoulder. "Right, glad that's over wi-" Jennifer was bleeding, a rifle round in her abdomen.

"UGH! Your good for nothing father shot you. Talk about crap parenting. Come on...." People usually go into shock when shot, Jennifer seemed to be taking it all in stride. Virtus grabbed her, throwing her free arm around his shoulder, holding her hand on that arm to keep her upright. "Come on now, you need to see a surgeon. Lotta guts right there, chance it hit something fatal. Rifle rounds are gnarly, not like getting pegged with a hand-gun."

Members of the gang were arriving, ready for war. There was no need, however, and Virtus directed two of them to support Jennifer. "Take her to a nice bed, I'll call Hachet, she's been shot." Hoodie guy would have to wait, how he had to be loving this. Of course Hachet was in the middle of something, it took Virtus's constant nagging to get him to drive down to see Jennifer, but he was good at his job.

Jennifer would be fine, just in a little pain, maybe a small scar. She'd be fine. Virtus could've done the surgery himself... but people in distress made him uncomfortable, especially girls with open wounds.

Soon, Ether... Soon. The masked man bit his lip, blood seeping through the wound, but obscured by the mask. "Soon...." He growled.

Ether, deciding to be an idiot comes out his hiding spot. "Virtus! Come on out! I'm right here!" he called out, attracting the attention of the army. They all try to swarm him, but fail horribly as the end up disarmed by a surprising amount of acrobatics. He pulls out the pistol and pops off a few rounds through the army, making sure it wasn't leathal. All the while, he kept an eye on his traps that he set up.