The Sons of Crimson: A Scarlet City Adventure

THE SONS OF CRIMSON #2

RED QUEEN | Alice Drake

"You're going to tell me everything about the men that attacked this place last night." Alice smiled, her eyes piercing through the gruff barman's strong exterior.
The man shuddered, puffing out his large chest and standing up straight to reassert dominance, "I say that's none of your business." he spoke, a clear threat as he made cautious eye contact with many men behind Alice, alerting them to her meddling. She didn't have to even think to look behind her, she knew what was coming.
"I don't think your boss will be very happy with you," Alice replied ominously.
"I beg your pardon?" he scoffed, genuinely confused.
"... when he finds out your lack of co-operation was the reason all his men's bones were broken."
"You little bitch!" the barman snarled, striking out with his clubbed fist.
"Heh." Alice caught the man's fist in the air and pulled him into a through, hurtling him over the bar and into the path of the three men behind her that suddenly brandished knives.

Alice jumped, pulling off her hoodie and tossing it into the face of a fourth man as she drew and flourished her eskrima sticks. While the first three assailants were dazed from the incoming barman she pounced at the fourth, jabbing him full force with her right elbow in his gut before bringing up her forearm to collide her right stick with the man's face - flooring him.

As he fell Alice threw herself over her right shoulder, taking out the remaining three men that had recovered and moved to jump her with a single jump kick.

Bang. Bang.

Behind her, from the billiards table stood three men with pistols. Up the stairs, from the balconies an addition man rained submachine gun fire down onto the floor. Alice flew into a flip, kidding off of the bloated body of the barman and into the air where she landed on the billiards table and took out the three gunmen. She then dived out of the firing line of the submachine gunner, landing back by the bar where she produced a grapnel gun and fired her line toward the two, sailing into a kick taking him out as he reloaded.

But then, stood in the upper floor of the Jackals' bar she found herself surrounded by a slowly enclosing circle of a dozen bikers with a bone to pick, decked out with guns, knives, baseball bats and even lead pipes. Alice cocked her head to the side to throw her ponytail back behind her and stretched out her hands around the sticks, ready to fight.


Guy Graves awoke in bed by the dim light flickering with the blinds fluttering in the wind. He'd always been a light sleeper. Standing up, he straightened out his back and pulled on some dark jeans, having already slept in his grey shirt. Stepping through the threshold of his room and into the main room of the abandoned Scouts hut, Guy - a strong and serious 20-something white man with short, sharp black hair greeted his troop of three as they too groggily rose from their sleeping bags on the concrete ground - another man and a women.

"Good morning, Cardinal." Jane smirked, her eyes fluttering as she brushed her short blond hair out of her eyes with her hand. She was tall, around 5'7" with long legs and a small frame, she stood in black shorts and a white shirt.

"Mornin' boss," Will added nonchalantly, a slender black man with a shaved head, just taller than Guy and wearing nothing but boxer shorts and a black vest.

"Morning," Guy smiled, reaching for a carton of orange juice from the table and taking a sip, "And Jane will you cut it out with the codenames. We're not on a mission."

Jane flashed a cheeky grin and shot a glance at Will, about to mock their leader, "Sorry Cardinal." she sniggered.
Guy sighed at her joke while sucking the orange juice he drank dry. Tossing it aside he asked, "Where's Dan?"

Will shrugged, and as he did the doors of the Scouts hut swung open, the lithe Japanese man - youngest of their group - entered in a rush carrying a box.
Jane glared at Dan, while Guy and Will slowly turned to face him. Dan laughed nervously, "It's 6am," he stated, "So what if I got up early and went out the store, I'm here on time."
Guy gave a single closed-mouth chuckle as he stepped forward, peaking into Dan's box, "What'd you get?"

"Donuts...?" Dan answered cautiously, getting a laugh out of Guy and Will.

THE SONS OF CRIMSON #4

The air was thick in the Scouts hut that made up the base of operations of the Sons. In silence, each of the Sons stood at their own edge of the empty hall, reading themselves, preparing. By the door Jane pulled at and tinkered with the blue and red circuitry that streamed through the brassy gauntlet she flexed on her right hand, her focus fully on her machinery as her fingers routed finely and precisely through the wires and bolts until blue electricity sparked to life.

Dan scrambled back and forth around the room as he plucked a myriad of blades and sharp implements from various surfaces, as they were previously strewn about due to his untidiness. Guy - the leader - on the other hand was almost entirely still, facing against a wall and simply staring at it. He'd said it helped him drive focus away from distractions and focus on his primal feelings, in order to access them to fuel his performance. Whatever his reasons, they weren't healthy.

Alice stood aloof from the Sons, aware of their every move while they seemingly payed her little attention at all; instead focusing on their own prep and rituals. She watched them each ready themselves for what would soon occur each in their own way and couldn't stop thinking about each of their ties to that traumatic night in her past. Though as her eyes scanned each of the Sons rigorously, searching for tells, details, anything that might come of use later, her eyes finally fell upon Will Jones. Will simply sat atop one of the tables left behind by the Scouts and gazed deeply into space. Guy too was doing very little but Guy seemed purposeful; Will? Lost.

Hesitantly Alice approached the man who had earlier pulled a gun on her and simply stood perhaps a metre away from him. Still he continued to stare, having not noticed the stranger beside him yet.
"Alice." she introduced herself, clearing her throat and holding out her hand to him. She had so far neglected to give anyone of them a name for her - pseudonym or not. Normally she had found it very difficult to ever share her real name with anyone; Sienna and Oren being the only prior exceptions, but as each of the Sons turned their heads towards her as she spoke her true name to them aloud she knew she could trust them. Whether she believed in their cause or not, these were her people... and what harm could come of them knowing her forename anyway?

Will glanced up, startled as he was sucked out the pocket dimension had been encapsulated in, "S- Sorry?"
"Alice," she repeated, firmly reinstating her hand for a handshake, "My name is Alice. What is yours?"
"..." Will stopped for a moment, thinking of the warnings and instructions that Guy - his leader - had given him; no real names, "William. B-Wi- Will." he fumbled over his words, anxious but shaking her hand nonetheless, "Call me Will."
"I don't want you to worry." Alice responded, not quite sure how to console him.
"I'm sorry?"
"Don't worry about your brother," she continued, "You will only hinder your efficiency in rescuing him if you do."
Odd. First Will and then Guy and Dan each turned their heads at Alice's words. They were meant to be helpful, supportive, but rallying the troops was almost the only thing Alice was good for when it came to morale.
"Sure..." Will replied, uncomfortable and finding his feet to move away.
Guy interrupted quickly, ending the awkwardness with a declaration boldly, "If everyone has everything they need... get your suits on and we're gone."

THE SONS OF CRIMSON #6

RED QUEEN | Alice Drake

With the quick approach of nightfall, The Sons of Crimson and their newfound ally who referred to herself as "the Red Queen" arrived at the eastern waterfront. Alice stalked through an alleyway draped in darkness, joined by the intrepid Oxblood and Tuscan, two many of very contrasting body types but seemingly similar temperaments. Up above, Cardinal and Ruby skittered across the high rooftops.

"Halt!" Alice hissed, raising her right arm with a clenched fist, signalling the two Sons who tailed her. It felt odd going back to giving orders, in such a different circumstance. The trio came to a quick stop at the corner of the alley, as the walls on either side of them opened out into the street.
"What is it, Red?" Tuscan replied, pushing himself past his partner to get within range to speak to her.
Quickly, with an apparent impatience, Alice gestured over to the other side of the street, a tall streetlamp drenching the surrounding buildings in an amber hue.
"That's Warehouse 337." she barked, pointing to the specific building closest to the streetlamp.
"What?" Oxblood interjected irritably, "There are hundreds of buildings here an' you know it from just lookin' at it?"

Alice shut her eyes, swallowing. "It's not just a building," she said slowly, choosing her words very carefully, "It's the warehouse... that Pain-" all three shuddered as she uttered his name, "That he lured Cold Steel to, the empty one, the night that... Red Fire died." Red Fire. Alice's father. Not that they knew that.

Oxblood looked down introspectively as Tuscan was left in confusion. "Red Fire." Oxblood said plainly, "Yeah I remember my... my mom talkin' about him. He was Cold Steel's old partner. Cardinal reckons that Red Wonder - that Crimson - is his son or something."

Evidently Cardinal wasn't as empty-headed as Alice gave him credit for.

"Why would the Mercer's bring Trent here?" Tuscan interrupted, pulling himself out of his confused stupor with an idea.
Alice sighed. She had no idea, and the two Sons saw that. "We need to get moving."

"≈ Oxblood. You've stopped. What's the holdup? ≈" retorted the gruff voice of Cardinal - the leader - down comms.
Oxblood quickly pressed the communicator in his ear with his finger to hear more sharply, giving a concerned glance to Tuscan. They shared a wary look, they knew about Cardinal; Guy's temper. They knew that something like what Alice had just told them would only get him riled up; off him game.

"Nothing." Oxblood lied, turning his eyes to look at Alice, who promptly understood too, "We've found the location. Carmine?" he addressed the hacker extraordinaire that was surely listening in from a secure location, "Can you ping the location on Cardinal's map?"

"≈ Sure thing, boyo! ≈"

THE SONS OF CRIMSON #7

CARMINE | Christian Reid

Sitting in the dankness of his chamber, draped in a blue hue from the multiple monitors he faced, Christian watched over every detail of the mission from multiple camera angles. His fingers scrambled across the keyboard he had so disgustingly overused the last few years, sending a signal to "son_1" - Cardinal, highlighting the building on the team leader's sunglasses HUD.

"You see it, boss?" he smirked, stretching out.
"≈ Perfect, Carmine. Thanks. ≈"

Christian relaxed. He smiled to himself as he finally took the time to brush the spilled beads of cold mochaccino off of his lap. He shook his head, jesting about Cardinal's reluctance to ever give extended answers in the field. Guy would always tell Christian that chatting in the field of unnecessary. For Christian - who talked so much he deserved his own daytime talk-show - this was unfathomable. But just as he had finished his own introspective chuckling and his eyes resumed tracing the camera feeds Christian's eyes widened in horror.

He watched as a cloaked man made quick work of disposing of two Mercer patrolmen before breaching the side staff doorway and - literally - going in the warehouse all-guns-blazing. But what was worse than an anomalous factor potentially jeopardising the mission was that Christian recognised the man; Brendan Foley, The Black Whisper, reknowned assassin and his former client and associate.

Foley got himself busted two years ago, with Christian only avoiding arrest with his masterful skill at covering his tracks, and with his prime client behind bars in an impenetrable hole in the ground he quickly fell into a lot of debt. For a year he turned to drugs, before going sober, leading to the events that would eventually bring him to meet Guy Graves and form the Sons of Crimson. But now somehow Foley was back, and he wasn't playing.

RED QUEEN | Alice Drake

"≈ Car- Carmine! ≈" Cardinal barked down comms, "≈ What was that?! ≈"
"Cardinal!" Oxblood hushed the man, entering comms, "You need to calm down man-"
"≈ I'll calm down when I want to come down! ≈"

"We're losing time. On me." Alice said plainly, cutting through all the others on comms as she pushed through the ruckus and ran right into the street. The Sons all watched from different points as Alice effortlessly glided up the side of the warehouse and ran across the walls, hooking her feet on the barred windows to propel herself onto the warehouse roof with a flip.

Left behind, Oxblood and Tuscan shared a look of confusion and awe before equipping their grappling guns, firing them to join her on the roof.

"≈ You're going to want to find an alternate entrance, ≈" Carmine interjected, "≈ I believe you can find one a-- ≈"
"The right balcony." Alice spat, unblinking while continuing to run.

Gunshot, screams, and the sounds shattering glass and crumbling debris filled the air, roaring and raging while the vigilantes readied their assault.
"At least this guy'll be a fucking distraction." Cardinal cursed with Ruby hot on his heels as they quickly approached and rejoined the others.
"Doesn't matter." Alice spat once more.
"We just need to get to Trent fast." Oxblood cried over the sounds of war and bloodshed a few feet below.
"Here!" Alice commanded, swinging around from the roof to dive feet first through the glass and into the warehouse, raining glass shrapnel down upon the musty grey floor.

Alice hit the ground with a thud in the moonlit warehouse. As she raised from the ground Alice expected to find herself in some intricate maze but, much to her surprise and somewhat dismay, instead found the warehouse to be quite open, with about thirty men flooding the building. She looked the the edge of the room where the anomalous man; the assassin had engaged a few foes, but as the glass settled it was clear she had made her presence known. Just as many men as were charging on the assassin too flocked to Alice as she identified the figure of Trent Jones, a scared young man tied and bound to a chair at the centre of the building alongside a smooth man in an orange suit.

Immediately Alice began to strike out against her assailants, her flurries of kicks and jabs along with his extended escrima sticks more than enough to hold her own. But as more and more of the men proved to be armed they prove too to be more of an issue. But as soon as she could begin to worry, through the already smashed window crashed the reassuring figures of the Sons of Crimson; first Tuscan and Oxblood, then Ruby, who was shortly followed by Cardinal.

Cardinal jumped into action as soon as he identified the threat, equipping and extending his bo staff with a flourish. Quickly he relieved Alice of three men ready to strike her. Ruby too began to fight, her electrified gauntlet proving to be most useful in catching bladed weapons and using them to partially fry her opponents. As Tuscan began to leap and dance from enemy to enemy Alice was able to begin disarming her foes, parrying rifles and shotguns with her sticks and breaking a few arms when she could. No-one said she couldn't still be brutal. But Oxblood was the latest to respond, as he stood there for a few moments too many simply glancing to the centre of the room, to his brother, and pawing for him.

"Just go!" Cardinal cried to Oxblood while beating two men down, "You and Red grab the boy, we'll catch up!"

Alice looked to Cardinal, with whom she now stood back-to-back as the other Sons began to fan out, and nodded before disengaging to follow Oxblood. Oxblood sprinted towards the centre of the room as fast as he could, rugby tackling an unfortunate few men with his great, athletic body, with Alice giving quick chase. As they ran and fought of the remaining resistance in their way Alice saw more and more men approaching the assassin for combat. Though Alice paid most attention to the man in orange that they approached far too quickly, who she know could see was holding a mobile phone to his ear.

CARDINAL | Guy Graves

Cardinal's staff collided with an unarmed man's head with a crunch, Cardinal carrying the strike through the throw the man to the ground, he then swiftly swung his back weapon back, turning in a circle as he took out three more men than had pushed in to replace him by swiping at their feet with great force. Parrying the gun out of another man's hand, Cardinal allowed himself to finish the man with a headbutt.

As this occurred, Ruby ran past Cardinal to take on the men playing with their stalling rifles. The first she struck with her elbow in his chest, bringing her closed fist up with a pivot to punch him in the face. The man staggered back with a curse, grabbing the nearest available objects leading him to throw himself forward to strike Ruby over the head with a bolt-action rifle, gripping it by the shaft.
"Oho!" Ruby winced with a cackle as she wrapped the fingers of her clawed gauntlet around the stock of the gun, catching it from the air, "Big mistake!" She squeezed her hand, allowing current to coarse through her glove and along the rifle, not only giving the man a horrific electric shock but also - as she thrusted her grip forwards - misfiring the loaded rifle into his foot.

"Fuck!" he cried moments before Ruby punched him out.

But as quickly as all of this could occur, and as the second man - now prepared with rifle in hand - made his move towards Ruby, only to be taken out with a throwing knife to the back of the knee from a self-impressed Tuscan.

NICK

Nick smiled, standing by his comfortable leather chair, somewhat out of place being loose in a warehouse. His blonde hair slicked back and his eyes seeming almost fox-like, he looked to his right to the sight of a young fifteen year old boy tied to a metal chair, his mouth taped shut, squirming. Nick relished the sounds of gunfire, the crashing, the smashing as he watched the black Son of Crimson and the new girl barrel towards him.

Making direct eye contact with the furious Red Queen from afar, he spoke down his phone. "I've got it, sis." Slowly he clasped the flip-phone shut, replaced it in his pocket, and just as the two vigilantes grew close held out his hand - his fingers pursed - to watching the flickering flames grow and flourish in his palm.

RED QUEEN | Alice Drake

"You bastard!" Oxblood roared as he approached the orange-clad villain. He quickly drew a sizable revolver and slung it up in the dapper man's direction, but unexpectedly Nick, with a single thrust of his arm, disarmed the raging Son with a fireball. The handgun flew threw the air, clattering against the concrete floor as another ball of flame collided with Oxblood's chest, sending him skidding along the ground.

As quickly as Oxblood when down Alice leapt into the air towards the man, bringing her force down upon him with two strikes with his sticks; first to his neck and then his ribs. Nick recoiled backwards in pain, though Alice's next movement to continue the beating was interrupted as a mysterious assailant appeared from out of the blue with a sword slash across Alice's back. As Nick clutched at his ribs, his eyes darting around, Alice spun around to lay eyes on her new foe to watch as an elegant and fearsome woman clad head-to-toe in black gear with an orange visor landed on the ground, flourishing her two mighty blades.

"Nice one, Blight!" Nick chuckled, before his eyes happened upon the first intruder; the assassin Brendan Foley. As Alice was surely engage the mysterious Blight, Nick disengaged to show Foley the extend of his powers.

THE SONS OF CRIMSON #8

NICK

Walking towards his newest foe, Nick was quick to through a ferocious pulse of fire at his feet, singeing his chelsea boots slightly while propelling him ten feet into the air. Nick rocketed forward towards the assassin and promptly rained three individual explosive fireballs down upon him before combat rolling into a safe landing a safe distance of around 12 feet away from him.

RED QUEEN | Alice Drake

Oxblood writhed on the floor, his chest smoking after being hit with a fireball. Alice however held her breath in the intense action as the slashing blades of the mysterious Blight forced her to throw herself backwards in a lurch. As her feet hit the floor Alice launched herself into a bounce, performing a twist as she pushed herself back an additional eight feet, skidding slightly as she hit the floor.

Alice watched Blight's movements carefully. The woman had stopped, her swords spinning viciously and her neck twitching unnaturally. The woman seemed otherworldly, almost robotic. Groaning while watching the blades spin, Alice regretting not bringing her own swords, stuck with only a pair of reinforced escrima sticks; they'd withstand Blight's swords but wouldn't deal much damage past all of the armour Alice could see she was wearing.

In a flash Blight threw herself at Alice, beginning a mad but precise flurry of slashes and strikes. Anticipating it, Alice began to move back with her, blocking as many of her attacks as she could, but - as Alice soon discovered - Blight was fast, even as fast as Alice. One, two, block. Three, four, block. Five, six, FUCK! Alice reeled with her chest bleeding, her armour penetrated. Invigorated by the pain, Alice pushed back, forcing Blight to start backing up as Alice came back with faster, more powerful series of blows. Her sticks did nothing to hurt her combatant, but the force would sure as hell push her back.

RUBY | Janes Davies

As the Mercer goons began concentrating their forces on securing the hostage, or aiding Nick in his assault on the assassin, Cardinal and Ruby soon managed to work through the thugs crowding against them. As the resistance against them began to thin Ruby's eyes darted over to the conflict by the centre of the room, with the enigmatic armoured woman going all out against the Red Queen and Oxblood writhing on the floor next to his brother, with a number of armed thugs closing in on their position.

"Cardinal!" she cried, throwing her hand over in the direction of the downed Oxblood.
"Ox!" Cardinal called, grabbing the downed Son's attention and alerting him to the incoming threat.

OXBLOOD | Will Jones

Throwing himself to his feet, Oxblood shared a moment with his captive brother, his wary gaze meeting with Trent's wide, bloodshot eyes of fear. Trent screamed through the duct tape, making an unintelligible sound as Oxblood forced himself to pull away and focus on the threat of the Mercer men. Shakily, he scrambled for the revolver strewn across the floor, dodging approaching gunfire with a pushed sprint. Passing over it, Oxblood swooped his hand to the ground, bringing the revolver up swiftly and emptying the barrel into the shoulders of six incoming men.

Tuscan ran and jumped onto the back of another man, shifting his weight to force him to the ground before kicking the man in the head until he stopped moving. At the same time, Ruby and Cardinal doubled up in taking out another three men. Nodding to each other, while the Red Queen kept Blight occupied, Ruby, Cardinal and Tuscan all moved to form a safe radius around Trent to allow Oxblood to untie him. There looked to only twenty men remaining, as some downed foes began to pull themselves back up.

Oxblood jumped to the aid of Trent who continued to scream vehemently at his older brother through the tape, his eyes desperate and his face sweating.

"Shh, shh, shh!" Oxblood hushed him, "I've got you."
"HMPH!"

RED QUEEN | Alice Drake

Kick. Hit. Swipe. Alice refused to relent in her attack on Blight, striking her multiple times in the side of the head. Slash. Fuck! Alice was cut again, across her side.
Blight struck again, with Alice once more catching the strike out of the air, her stick smacking against it with mighty force. But this time Alice pushed herself into a parry, disarming Blight of the right of her twin swords. Alice jumped towards the flying blade, soaring through the air. She swung her right arm towards her chest and then quickly swung back out, releasing her stick as she did and propelling it at great speeds towards Blight. Blight of course simply smacked the weapon out of the air but it also allowed Alice the opportunity and free hand to take a hold of Blight's lost sword, plucking it out of the air before it could hit the ground to use in battle.

"Heh." she tutted, landing and springing forwards to clash with Blight on better terms this time.
The two danced back and force, the moonlight sparkling and ricocheting off of the lightning quick movements of the steel blades the two threw at each other. This time Alice had the advantage. She used her off-hand escrima stick to block Blight's slashes and stabs when she could, leaving her right hand free to slice into Blight with the woman's own sword. Alice delivered blow after blow, slashing into Blight's armour and then flesh from many angles and directions. One. Two. Three.

Bleeding profusely, Blight couldn't take any more and - like Alice earlier - was forced to jumped and bounce back in retreat, landing doubled over, clutching her bleeding chest. But as Blight ran off in a flash, disappearing into the darkness, Alice noticed immediately something off about Blight; that she was bleeding white.

OXBLOOD | Will Jones

"NO!" Trent cried as Oxblood tore off the tape in one clumsy yank, "No, Will, no, you can't!"
"Can't what?" Oxblood replied, already kneeling behind his brother to observe his chained together hands.
"You don't understand. They did something to me. Dorothy Mercer, she changed me!"
"Bro, we don't have time!" Ox retorted back dismissively, readying his gun to shoot the lock of the chains, "We need to bounce pronto, we can talk later."
"No!!"
BANG.
The chains grew loose and fell to the ground, clattering as they reverberated off of the cold concrete.

"Come on," Oxblood ushered his brother, "Let's go."
"No..." Trent continued to say, continually, as he seemed to grow faint and his words were reduced to murmurs, "No! No... N... N-"
Trent collapsed to the ground, conscious but clutching at his head, beginning to let out a bloodcurdling scream of pain.

"O- Ox?" Cardinal worried, glancing over his shoulder at the two as he continued to hold off the Mercers' men.

"Trent?" Oxblood threw himself down to Trent's side.
"Get away!"
"What?"
"GET AWAY!" Trent flung his arms towards his brother, launching Oxblood five feet away with shocking, inhuman strength, his eyes now a fearsome yellow. "Ahh!" he dropped back down to the ground as Oxblood, the rest of the Sons, Alice and even the Mercer men alike began to panic, their eyes widened.

They watched as - clawing at the ground desperately - the small yet athletic frame of Trent twisted and contorted, undergoing an agonising transformation. His back muscles began to ripple, his hind legs began to strengthen and his arms grew gargantuan in size. His bones elongated, his jawbone dislocating and taking the form of a ferocious fanged mouth. His fingers grew alarmingly, tearing through his fresh as they developed into monstrous claws. Trent was right in saying that Dorothy Mercer had changed him, and Oxblood was so, so wrong in not listening to him, for Dorothy Mercer had changed his DNA; given him powers; turned him into a werewolf.

THE SONS OF CRIMSON #9

RED QUEEN | Alice Drake

Alice watched in horror as the frail frame of the young boy was mutilated and deformed into the shape of the fearsome, disgusting creature that had took his place.

What in the world?

"T-Trent!?" Oxblood cried in fear and disbelief, pawing towards his younger brother while still bloodied and bruised on the floor.
"Oh fuck no!" Alice heard one of the faceless goons exclaim before a party of around ten men began sprinting away and towards the door as fast as they possibly could. This angered the beast.

In a single bound, the beast soared past Alice - knocking her aside - as if she weren't even there and set off after the hired crooks. The one of them that still had a weapon began unloading his SMG into the beast's chest, the rounds appearing to do minimal damage as most of them ricocheted off of its rippling muscles. His efforts were for naught. The monster made quick and terrifying work of the criminals as it swiped one from the ground and began pummeling the rest to the ground. Still in it's immediate radius, Alice and the Sons moved desperately to avoid its attacks, with Oxblood safely out of range after Trent's warning. Alice jumped and maneuvered gracefully, dodging the beast without a hitch, while Tuscan dashed backwards and Cardinal combat rolled to safety. As a single moment passed, Alice leapt to protect Ruby, who was too slow and too near to the monster to evade the attack, tackling her to bring them both back a couple of feet. Done with its living improvised weapon, the creature then tore the man in half, throwing either half of the body to the ground as his guts spilled out on the cold concrete.

"Shit..." Ruby wheezed, defeated.
Slowly Oxblood crawled to his feet, observing the remains of his brother's atrocities, "Trent..."

The team grouped together behind the beast, readied for another assault. In the seconds of safety that remained Alice flourished the long, thin blade she'd appropriated from the disappeared Blight, her eyes fixated on the creature before her. Behind her steely eyes that showed nothing but hate she hid a great conflict; would they have to kill the monster? Would they have to kill Trent Jones, a young boy? Before she would never question it, but now, for whatever reason, she was having second thoughts. Now, she didn't want to kill.

NICK MERCER

Nick ran, pushing through the thick night air as he charged back the assassin's stream of bullets. As he moved he persisted in literally returning fire, unleashing a flurry of projectile fireballs along with a burst of flame.