Belhaven

The streets of Belhaven were dark now, nearly pitch black thanks to the disrepair Eldritch had let the city fall into. The only sources of light were the few street lamps that still worked, flickering on for a few brief seconds every now and then, and the bars. There are dozens of bars in this city, and in almost all of them you could find members from one of the various gangs.

It was outside one of those such bars that a figure dressed all in black. At his waist was a simple katana, in the many pockets of his jeans were many different explosive objects with fuses. Reaching into one of these pockets he retrieves a golf ball sized object that seems to have some weight to it. Tossing it up and down in his hand he smirks behind his dragon mask, then takes out a lighter and lights the fuse before rearing back and throwing it towards the tinted bar window. The men inside jump as the glass shatters, then move away as the fuse causes the object to spin around a few times. Finally the fuse seems to die out as it reaches the base, then suddenly black smoke begins to fill the room.

While the men inside run around in a panic, the masked man kicks in the front door and draws his katana. Like a ghost he moves among the panicked men, dispatching one after the other, delivering a single stab or slash to them all one at a time. By the time the smoke clears there are but three people left alive. The man in the mask, the barkeep, and one of the gang members.

"Who...who the hell are you?!" the member asks, drawing a pistol and pointing it at the masked man.
"Just an angry ghost..." the man replies, turning towards the gang member, "You would do well to put that toy away..."
"No chance fool!" the man says before he begins to fire off the rounds.

The masked man ducks behind an upturned table, staying calm, counting the bullets as they leave the gun. After a few seconds he moves to another table, then another, as the lead eats through the hard wood of the table tops, and as he moves he searches his pockets, feeling for the right explosive. When his fingers finally wrap around it he sheaths his blade and lights the fuse before tossing it high into the air. A moment later there is a blinding flash of light. He takes this opportunity to rush the man, take his gun, and bring him to his knees.

"I'm not going to kill you..." the masked man says in a dark, angry voice, "Because I want Eldritch to know that, unlike him, I can actually spare the lives of those around me..." He pauses a moment, then continues after looking around the room, "I've taken the souls of these men, the souls of Eldritch's men... I'll take more if he doesn't leave this place...understand?"

The gang member looks up into the black eyes of the dragon looming over him, then his vision goes black as his own gun slams into the back of his head...

An hour later the masked man finds himself on a rooftop across town. Reaching up he pulls the mask from his face, revealing dark brown eyes and hair. He sighs as a cool breeze touches his face, then grimaces as he touches his left shoulder, where one of the rounds from the man in the bar grazed him. It seemed like a good time to retire for the night, but he knew it was still too early, so he would just have to suck it up, tend his wound as best he could, and press on.

"I've got more souls to take," he says with a laugh, in a lighter, more friendly voice than he has been using while the mask was on, "Sometimes I even believe myself. To bad it's just something to scare those goons..."

Alice looked ruefully around at the state of the city of Eldritch's Belhaven. Under what was virtually the rule of the megalomaniac named Markus Eldritch, Belhaven had become a hellhole, a festering wound infested with gangs, thieves, rapists, murderers, prostitutes--every thing one would expect from a veritable crime haven. And it wasn't as if Eldritch had worked oh so hard to get where he was now to make life easier for Belhaven's people. What did he care if the city was slowly burning away as long as he made a little more money off of it?

It reminded Alice of the cretin she had once been forced to consider a father.

She shook her head with a sigh as she continued to walk down Belhaven's cracked, forlorn avenues. She could yet remember a time when at this time of night one could walk the pristine roads beneath the ethereal lights of the street maps without fear of being assaulted by a mugger or a gangster. It was long ago since that thought was more than just a dream, however, and now no one dared stray out past the dark hours, fearing the petty scum that awaited in the night to accost anyone foolish enough to venture out into the city's alleys and streets after the sun had fallen.

Alice herself had no such fear. If she were to die now, Alice knew, she would be leaving nothing behind in this world--no family, no belongings, certainly no wealth. But she had no intention of dying now. Alice intended to do one thing right now, which was why she was currently headed for one of the most dangerous neighbourhoods in Belhaven--where, at this moment, a number of Eldritch's gangsters were (according to information Alice had 'obtained' from a few...talkative operatives) about to confer with contacts in the Belhaven Law Enforcement Department to acquire a man who had been recently imprisoned for charges of murder, assault, battery, rape, possession of a deadly weapon, and who knows what else Eldritch had dreamed up. Of course, all that was a fancy way of saying the man had opposed Eldritch and had had the misfortune of being caught in the act. Well, Alice was not about to allow that.

Striding down the streets, Alice reached the general area in which the meeting would take place a few moments before the scheduled time. It would have been faster to travel by car--but the only thing more foolish than traveling outside at night was traveling in a car, which would attract massive amounts of unwanted attention; no sooner would you have reached your destination than you would find yourself being politely asked by Eldritch's men about exactly what you were doing out so late. These days the only people who really traveled by car were Eldritch's men and the police--and nowadays the two groups were more or less indistinguishable. The police did not want to take the prisoner directly to the Eldritch headquarters because even now Eldritch attempted to maintain the transparent illusion that the police were still independent--but anyone with half a brain would be insulted to think such a lie would work.

The young woman ducked agilely into a nearby alley as she heard the sound of an approaching vehicle--three or four of them. The police, coming to meet Eldritch's representatives. The cars stopped near the alley in which Alice hid, pressed against the cold brick wall. She heard the sound of car doors opening and slamming shut, and then voices speaking. Slowly and silently, she sidestepped out of the alley after peeking from the edge of the wall at the situation. There were three black cars signifying Eldritch men and a police car with the acronym 'BPD' across the side parked in the middle of the street, and alongside each of the Eldritch cars stood two men, all in suits. Two police officers had exited the police cruiser and were escorting the prisoner, his mouth gagged, his eyes blindfolded, and his hands cuffed, towards the Eldritch group.

The darkness was Alice's ally as she crept up to one of the cars, her form-fitting black shirt, coat, and pants blending in well with the brooding night landscape that engulfed her. As two of the Eldritch men strode forward to take the prisoner, Alice moved to stand now behind two of the men standing stationary next to their car. She slowly raised her hand, fingers outstretched, and then brought it down powerfully on the back of one of the men's head, striking the rear central portion--a technique that directly targeted the autonomic nervous system centre, the part of the brain regulating the brain's consciousness. The blow caused the desired effect--the collision caused that portion of his brain, shocked by the physical contact, into shutting down, causing him to fall unconscious without uttering a sound. She repeated the attack on the man next to him, and then, catching the two bodies before they fell, slowly lowered them to the ground, preventing a single noise.

Alice had made her way towards another Eldritch car and repeated the process on the two men there when finally, one of the goons in the last car turned his head and noticed his comrades were missing. Sensing trouble, Alice rushed forward as the man cried out and reached into his pocket for a gun. Before he could even grasp the handle of the pistol, Alice's fist collided with his jaw, sending the man reeling backwards before another strike to the throat put him out of commission. She turned then to the police officers, who were now drawing their own sidearms. Alice responded with a strike that immediately knocked the first officer straight out; the second was about to fire off a shot before Alice knocked the gun from his hands with a swift kick. As if unfazed by this attack, the officer decided to attempt a physical grappling attack--a bad decision.

The man grabbed her wrist with one hand and used the other to grapple onto her shoulder. Alice swept her arm in a circular motion, throwing the man's hand from her wrist, and then using her free hand to grab the arm that was grappling her shoulder. With a single fluid motion, Alice threw the man to the ground and then placed a hand on his throat, pinching directly on his carotid artery. The man struggled for a second, and then the man fell unconscious as blood flow was cut off from his brain.

With that, Alice stood up, surveying her surroundings. Six Eldritch men and two police officers lay unconscious, and would remain so for the next half an hour or so. Alice strode up to the prisoner, who had no choice but to stand, blindfolded, wondering what was going on; she tore the gag from his mouth, removed the blindfold, and, using a key from one of the officers, removed the cuffs from his hands.

"Get out of here while you can," she muttered quickly in a low voice. "You know what to do."

The man nodded gratefully before turning the other way and sprinting down the street. Alice turned back to the officers, retrieving numerous pairs of handcuffs from their bodies and from their car, using them to cuff the Eldritch men and the officers to their car doors before turning to leave.

Not long after, Alice was striding down the streets of one of the significantly 'nicer' parts of Belhaven. She blew out a stream of mist, the cold creating a fog as she exhaled. It would soon be time to return to the tiny apartment that was home to her, but for now, she found herself not wanting to leave the cool of the outdoors. Here it was less dangerous to remain outdoors at night, even if in other sections of the city--

Alice swept around as she thought she saw something from the corner of her eye. Indeed, when she looked up, she saw, standing on a roof, their figure silhouetted against the moonlight. A moment later, he spoke, the words drifting down to Alice. "Sometimes I even believe myself. To bad it's just something to scare those goons..." Accompanied with a laugh. She frowned briefly as she looked up at the figure, suddenly forgetting to move in case he was not exactly a friendly...though his words seemed to mark him as a fighter against Eldritch's goons just as she was.

Demon looked up into the night sky as the stars shone brilliantly, billions of miles away from him, yet still providing him the light he needed in which to work. The universe was a wonderous place indeed, and the only blemish on the list of things that existed in this universe, was humans. They were a virus, something that would be best left extinct so that the planet would survive since co-existence was apparently impossible...

He sighed, grabbing a pistol from his armory before he closed the garage door, taking a moment to admire his set up at this old cereal factory he had come across years ago. This was his lair, the hell of his own design, and in it he had a variety of tools with which to torture, and behind this now closed garage door, tools with which to cause immediate death. Over the years he had stolen weapons shipments, large amounts of money, and even Eldritch's men, though he didn't keep them long...

Even with the interference Demon had made the past few years, Eldritch still slept soundly at night, unafraid and unintimidated by anyone. He needed to do something bigger... something that would catch the attention of the vile serpant himself, and cause him to feel that emotion Demon had grown to become addicted to...

Fear

He sat and thought for a moment... wondering what he could do to Eldritch that would get his attention... and a thought occured.

"Edlritch has a prison full of people he has deemed dangerous, people that have the same thirst for destruction that I do... Why keep all that potential locked away when it could be wandering the streets?" Demon said with a wry smile, going back into his armory to collect some explosives before loading them into the back of the delivery truck he had stolen on his last heist. He would drive it until he got close to the Belhaven prison, then make it on foot from there. Security should be lighter now, as the guards didn't need the numbers advantage when the inmates were locked away sleeping, so the only trouble would be making it to the "control room" to open all the doors... but Demon was relishing the challenge as he hopped inside the truck and drove off, the brim of a hat he had found in the truck brought low over his face to hide his face paint.

"This sucks." William says sitting on a curb on a deserted street . It had been a routine patrol for him but once he ran into a group of muggers harassing a women. He had been able to stop them fairly easily however one of them had been able to get a call out to the higher ups. Within minutes a hit squad had shown up. Realizing he had no chance against that many guys he was forced to run. he had been able to get away from most of them however in doing so he now found himself in a unfamiliar part of town. He had only recently moved back to Belhaven though he wasn't even sure if he could call it the same city, now it was merely a shadow of its former self. Sighing he slowly begins to walk the dark roads trying to find a familiar landmark.

Taking a seat on the air conditioning unit fixed to the roof, he reaches into one of his extra pockets and takes out a roll of bandages. He has no time to clean his wound, so he simply wipes the blood away on a rag he took from one of the dead men and wraps the bandages as tight as he can around his upper arm. Thankfully it wasn't his main arm, so he could still effectively use his katana. Below he had seen movement, someone stopping, but he hadn't bothered to take a good look, he had to get his wound looked after and his mask back on before he made his next move.

With his wound bandaged he pulls the mask back on and closes his eyes for a moment, once again taking on the persona of the Silver Dragon, the guardian ghost of Belhaven, the consumer of wicked souls...or so he preached to the people he killed or threatened. There were ghost stories about him, or so he had heard, among Eldritch's men, though he had never actually heard any of them. Mainly because he only cared about taking the men out as quickly as possible.

"I think it's time to blow this scene," he says, walking over to the edge of the roof, taking a moment to judge the distance before turning back, taking about fifteen paces, then turning once again to face the next building, "Okay...three, two, one...let's jam..."

And with that the man in black takes a running start before leaping from one roof to the next, not realizing he had jumped right over the head of the person he had seen watching him from below. Continuing in his momentum after landing on the next roof he rolls, gets up, and does the same thing three more times before finally coming to the edge of town and dropping down to the ground. After slipping back into the shadows he makes his way quick and quietly down the streets, stopping only when he sees a man sitting on the sidewalk across the way, looking similar to himself, but with a more sci-fi flare about his outfit.

"Hey, spaceman..." Vincent says, using his Silver Dragon voice, as he steps out of the shadows just enough so that only his mask can be seen, "You look more than a little out of place there on the corner, maybe you should go home before someone finds you and wants to send you back to the moon..."

Although it didn't sound like it, he was careful with his words, making sure this man was the only one to hear him, and that he did not out right threaten him or offer for help. For all he knew he was a special hired hand for Eldritch.

"youve been a bad boy carl" Diana's voice whispered silkily, her arms draped on Greasy Carl's neck, almost as if she was hugging him from behind. Only the sound of his choking and reddining eyes gave away that she was strangling him. Diana had aprehendid this man earlier, when he had mistaken her from a prostitue, wich was her plan. In this form though, she was no longer Diana wolffe, she was Blue wolf. Giggling she let go of Carl, who was still alive, gasping for air, she looked him in the eyes with her own cold blue grey ones, grabbing her switchblade she moved close to his ear, running the knife along the side of his neck, though not cutting it.

"Now for the fun"

She poured a pail of kerosene around Carl, sometimes she wandered if it was her who was the real criminal, but she didnt care. He deserved death. She walked away laughing, then lit a disposable lighter and throwing it into the puddle. The fire erupted around the man in a ring, his screams echoed, unable to run because he was bound to a chair. Withen minutes his screams died away as he burned to death.

Blue wolf exited the building from the roof, perched ontop of it looking up at the moon. Her silohoutte became black against the light of the moon. She threw her head back, and let out a howl, making sure everyone withen ear shot knew she had killed, and knew she was on the prowl.
She watched with glowing eyes as they talked, who were they? Where they thugs metting up on the corner? Blue wolf questioned, mouth open in a slight grin as she fumbled for her switchblade just incase. The outfit she was wearing was good for catching thugs, skimpy, but not all that revealing. The dress was part of her costume, it stopped halfway to her knees and clung to her frame, blue flowers decorated the silver background. The only way to tell who she was, was by the mask covering her face. The mask in question was what looked to be a wolf, with the same colorings as the dress, all that showed of her face being the dusty gray blue color of her eyes.

Walking with brisk steps she appeared beside the men, like a ghost. Blue wolf's wide grin became even wider as she snaked a hand onto the talking mans shoulder, a light giggle escaping her, "You boys going to a costume party?" She whispered, just realizing they were dressed similar to her, or as similar as you can get to a female, she could tell the one sitting on the curb was wearing some sort of edited motorcycle mask, and a Kevler vest over a tracksuit, he seemed almost like something of of sci-fi. Blue wolf examined the one she had a hand on, he was wearing all black, with a dragon mask, of Blue wolf didnt know any better they were like her, but she knew that it couldnt be true, they were probably a few of Eldriches men.

Demon contemplated how heavy the security would really be at this time of night... hoping his earlier calculations would be correct. If not, there was an insane asylum near the prison which should get the same results with less guards, though the prison would send the message much more clearly to Eldritch. As he drove, he noticed Silver Dragon talking with some others on the sidewalk, which prompted him to frown a bit more than he already was. Demon had run into him in the past before, both being skilled with swords and neither being squimish about shedding blood, the two had worked together a time or two, but Demon kept putting innocent people in harms way intentionally, and Silver Dragon had had enough of it.

Fool can't do what is necessary to stop Eldritch... Demon though to himself as he drove by, giving Silver a glare as he passed them. He hoped Silver didn't attempt to stop him tonight, as he occasionally did when Demon planned something big like he did tonight, but he had the advantage of his truck tonight, so catching him now wouldn't be that easy.

"Hey, spaceman... You look more than a little out of place there on the corner, maybe you should go home before someone finds you and wants to send you back to the moon..."

Glancing up Will sees a masked man, well really only his mask at the moment. Standing up he moves towards him slightly.
"Hey! I know you, you're that Sliver Dragon bloke all the mobsters talk about. I gotta say I'm a big fan mate." He says taking off one of his gloves to not accidently shock the man while giving him a handshake. "Actually if you got a second you mind pointing me back to the west side I'm a bit lost. Unless you want someone to back you up? I'm Volt by the way."

"You boys going to a costume party?"
As he finishes a women appears and places her shoulder on Dragon. Chuckling slighty there is a slight pause before Volt speaks again
"Sooo... do you two work together? You got the whole costume thing down." Volt says as a truck drives behind him.

As the man in the mask stood and took his gloves off Vincent watched him carefully, not sure, at first, what his intentions were. When offered the hand to shake he hesitated, but did so, then slipped his own back into the shadows. Before he could say anything further the voice of a female was in his ear, and her hand on his shoulder. Looking out of the corner of his eye he recognized the Blue Wolf right away by her mask, and the dress. There were only a few women brave enough to do anything about Eldritch anymore, but she was definitely one of them, even if Vincent thought she did tend to blur the line between good and bad sometimes.

"Volt, right?" he asks, "And you must be..." Just then the truck drove by behind them, and as he looked up into the driver's window he recognized the man he called Demon, another person who tended to blur the line, but even more so. On several occasions he had ended up trying to stop Demon rather than Eldritch, which is why they usually stayed in the opposite side of town as one another. "Shit...this can't be good..." he says as the truck drives on past, "Looks like he's headed towards the prison...what has he got planned this time?"

With a sigh he steps away from the other two, still in his Silver Dragon state of mind rather than his own, which tended to make him a bit colder than he actually was. In the light of day, and especially in his restaurant, he was actually a pretty nice guy. But, the cover of darkness, and the mast, seemed to change him completely.

"Sorry, I have to get going..." He snaps at the two of them, turning and taking off after the truck. He only makes it to the corner, however, before bullets ring out through the night and he moves to the building beside him to take cover. "Shit..." More bullets are fired, and now the sound of an engine can be heard approaching. "Take cover!" he yells back to Volt and Wolf as he pulls out an explosive the size of a baseball and lights it.

As the car turns the corner the men spot Vincent and open fire, but they only get a few rounds off before the explosive detonates underneath the car, right under the gas tank actually. A small explosion rocks the car, pops the tire, and ruptures the tank, spilling gas all over the street, then a second explosion causes several red sparks to fly out from under the vehicle, causing a third and final large explosion that shatters the glass in the nearby buildings and destroys the car, and those inside. During all of this Vincent had simply curled up against the building, not having enough time to avoid the blast, and now lies unconscious, surrounded by glass and shrapnel from the car, in a small pool of blood.