Dr Archeville Posted December 3, 2010 Posted December 3, 2010 Midtown; Sunday 28th November The Millenium Mall was always quiet on a Sunday morning. As the blond- scruffy man sauntered across the main plaza, no one even noticed his passing, but for one grim man with greying hair and a walking stick. The blond man smiled through the glare, even as John Fraser turned his irritance at the early hours upon some poor unsuspecting barista. Casually, the blond man walked into a side door through into a small janitor's closet. The janitor inside put down his coffee mug, but could barely open his lips to protest the sudden intrusion before his head had been slammed clean through the folding steel table into unconsciousness. Siobhan Drake browsed through the small occult books section of the bookstore, frowning. They were all either too expensive, outrageously misinformed, or both. While flicking through a slender volume on the lycanthropic 'myth', she felt an odd throbbing at the base of her skull, her hands shaking of their own accord. Something big's happening. Putting down the book, she briskly left the store and headed towards the female bathrooms. John Fraser frowned as he sipped the vile, cheap coffee. Better than nothing, I suppose. Still garbage, though. Then the smell hit his keen sense. Brimstone cloyed up his nostrils and made him sneeze. Glancing around, it looked like nobody else had really picked up on it. Fortunately, (or unfortunately) he had much keener senses than the average joe on the street. And as such, he quickly picked up his cane and headed off to the parking garage to get his motorcycle and costume. The mystic blast blew a small chunk of wall out from where the maintenance closet once was. Unnaturally red and green flames burst forth in a cloud of acrid grey smoke, the explosion sounding less like a bang and more like the bark of a hundred angry Rottweilers. The few shoppers present in the shop fled as the blond haired man, Keter, strode calmly and unharmed forth from the flames, soaked in blood across his torso and on his arms up to his elbows. At his heels pranced three dog-liked creatures, hair- and skin-less, each with teeth like daggers and claws like swords. Every one had four eyes a deeper, more putrid green than the saliva dripping from their jaws, sizzling as it hit the floor underneath them and melted the cheap tiling. Keter reached down and petted one absently, fingers running through the scaly ridges on the back of its head where its ears should be. Snarling, it lunged to bite at his hand, only to have its head blown clean from its shoulders in a shower of ichor, hellfire spouting from Keter's splayed fingers. "Bad dog," he growled in a low tone. With casual disinterest, he watched the woman in the black trenchcoat glide down towards him from the upper level. Her translucent white wings faded into nothingness as she dismissed the spell, wand levelled at Keter's head. "Simon," she said simply, expression neutral in spite of her blazingly white eyes. "I see you've not changed much." Keter scowled at her, but held a hand out to keep his two remaining hellhounds from leaping at her. "Siobhan, you know I prefer my real name," he said, annoyance not even present in his tone. "I've come to ask for your help. We could achieve so much." He looked pleadingly at her. "I know our methods don't agree, but perhaps I could try and convince you." "No, Simon," Equinox said wearily, shaking her head. "Last time, we both nearly died. Please, just give up. I'm not helping you. We can talk about it, but I will never do things your way. It costs too much." She flicked her wrist, a white aura of force appearing around her like a balloon. "Come with me. Please." Keter shook his head, nostrils flared. "I don't think you understand me, Siobhan. I was offering you out of courtesy. Bring her in, boys." His posture and tone didn't even change as the two hounds leapt at Equinox, slavering and roaring. Without a second thought, she'd pointed at one with the wand, a brief blast of air at tornado velocities meeting it headlong and casting it back to the floor. But the second leapt into her mystic wards, spewing acid from its maw. Sweat beaded on the witch's forehead as she braced her shields, trying to keep that clinging acid off of her skin. Summoning up a burst of wind once more, she tossed it to the ground and pushed up off the ground, white wings forming once more to hold her off the ground and away from the hounds' snarling leaps. But Keter merely smirked and did the same. Only, instead of white force, his wings were blazing red hellfire, and constantly shifting in shape and size. "Go hunt some prey," he said to his hellhounds, pointing at a couple of fleeing cashiers from the food court. They hungrily bounded off towards them. "No!" cried Equinox, going to fly after them. But a gout of hellfire hit her square in the chest, smashing her down to the floor, helpless as the hellspawned animals leapt at the young workers. Keter still was hardly reacting, just watching the imminent slaughter. One of the dogs leapt, maw opening wide with fangs about to close on a soft, unresisting skull. The arrow exploded into it, blowing a huge chunk of black ichor out of the creature's neck and tearing its lower jaw off. The carcass crashed into the ground, dissolving into black goo, before fading into nothing. Even as it did so, the second hound had turned to look at the fate of its companion, only to receive another arrow straight into its open jaws. The headless body fell still as the tall man dressed all in black glided down to the floor on a cape shaped like hawk's wings. "Not very good demons," growled Arrowhawk, another arrow already nocked and pointed at Keter. Blazing red eyes glared from underneath a hood. And finally, Keter laughed. "Excellent show," he applauded, raising two hand wreathed in hellfire high. "Now, kindly roll over and die while I conduct my business." Arrowhawk let the arrow fly... into a sudden cloud of hellfire appearing in the air. Even as the arrow passed harmlessly through nothingness, he felt a burst of agony in his back as something incredibly strong and on fire slammed into it. But the distraction was enough for Equinox to leap to her feet, summoning a cushion of air to slow the impact and bring Arrowhawk safely down to the floor. She then flicked her wand in a tight circle, and pointed it at Keter's face. A brief, but blindingly bright, flash of flame appeared and then immediately dissipated, leaving him reeling and unable to see. "I see your skills have grown," he snarled, raising both hands up above his head. "But I've got more power than you idiots can comprehend." And he slammed his hands downwards to the ground, hellfire flooding up from nowhere to crash across the entire level. The destruction cleared, leaving the mall an absolute mess. Shops were wrecked, their windows exploded into millions of shards, their merchandise torched. The floor was scorched, riddled with acid burns and reduced to muddy craters at certain points. And Keter was just... gone. Equinox lowered her shields and fell to her knees. "That was close," she said in a strained voice, weary from having had to make so strong a shield in so short a time. She didn't hear Arrowhawk drop from where he'd managed to grapple up to on the ceiling. "Who was that psycho?" he asked in a low voice. "You seemed to know him, from what I heard." Equinox looked up at a harsh, weathered face. "One of the mistakes from my teenage years. And he's apparently got much more dangerous than he used to be. That kind of infernal magic isn't exactly easy to do," she mused. "And he's still convinced I've got enough magical juice to get him what he wants." The man's expression hadn't changed once. "And do you?" he asked. Equinox just shook her head and accepted the hand he'd just outstretched, pulling her up to her feet. "I'm Equinox, by the way," she said, more out of politeness than anything else. "Arrowhawk," came the reply. "Thanks for stopping me hitting the wall there. It might have hurt some." Equinox just looked at him incredulously. Might? Of all the arrogant, pig-headed...! "Yeah," she said slowly. "And thanks for stopping those hellhounds. I... don't know if I could have lived with myself for failing to save those poor people." Arrowhawk just nodded. "You'd have learned to. Anyway, I have to be off." "But aren't you going to help clean up?" protested Equinox, a note of indignation entering her voice. "Not my style, kid." And she just watched as the older man walked off, a barely perceptible limp in his steps.
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