A Shadow Over Chicago

Chicago. On the surface, just your typical bustling city with loads of business opportunities, but if you bothered to look a little closer, you would soon realize that this was just a cover for a place filled with crime and corruption at all levels and the poor people were subject to those who wielded actual power. Obviously, something had to be done. The people needed to to have their hopes restored...even if that meant breaking a few rules.

At a warehouse, a meeting was happening between two local gangs. As one might expect, both were dressed from head to toe in black and wielding various weapons. Duffel bags lied on the floor, both filled with loads of cash. "I trust this is acceptable, John?" asked the head of one group.

"Indeed, William," the other gang leader replied with a small smirk, "What a bunch of idiots live around here. All we gotta do is rough them up a little or promise we'll "protect" them and they'll fork over every last dollar they own.," He tossed a couple bills in the air and laughed, "We keep this up and we'll be living the good life down in Hawaii before the year is over!"

Suddenly, screaming could be heard as two of the patrolling guards on the rafters fell from above and crashed into a pile of boxes. In the time it took the others to realize what had happened, another pair found themselves being lifted off the ground by an invisible force and hurled in opposite directions, crashing into the walls hard enough to shower plaster everywhere before crumpling to the ground.

The men began to panic, become disoriented, as more of their cohorts were picked up and hurled around like bean bags. Boxes tumbled over onto them, their weapons were hauled out of their hands and clunked them upside the heads, and at one point, tentacles emerged from the shadows to grab and hurl about even more of them. It was pure chaos all around.

Before long, all of the men lied either beaten, battered, unconscious, or some mix of the three. Those who could still partially see could make out an almost alien-like figure dressed in black descend from the rafters and pick up one of their cellphones and dialing 911, "Hello? I'd like to report a dispute in the warehouse district. The warehouse number is 90012," With that, "she" hung up and crushed the phone, chucking it at their feet.

"Enjoy rotting in jail, you no good wastes of humanity..." With that, the figure walked out the door and into the night...

Being made a convicted felon made finding legitimate jobs difficult, and getting money even more annoying. Which lead to him falling into what one would call bad circles, one of those people in these circles requiring something along the lines of an assassination. He wasn’t given anything beyond a name and that he needed to kill someone, which paid well upfront. 200,000 dollars and he would do about anything. Being infused with knowledge from the Book of The Raven did fill him with more hope, considering that he had greater power within his reach. He had been told that there would be a chance for ambushing at a point with a few thugs doing their best to be the scum they were, and that was where he would be.

Being granted a sniper rifle would have made things easy, but Samael was never one to give into the easy way. Holding two pistols, runes of lighting inscribed into the clips, bullets reingofrced and veil cast over him. He watched the  chaos itself ensue or close enough. He would let the hero have their fun, stop crime before stepping in. As the figure emerged from the warehouse they would find the light dim, before giving way to total darkness itself. Seeing through darkness perfectly was something he could also appreciate now.

”Normally i’m not the kind of guy to assassinate someone but..I guess the phrase is nothing personal.” Luckily they couldn’t see him, otherwise the whole leather jacket and sunglasses at night thing would have looked edgier than he wanted. Raising the two pistols he let off the shots, hoping that alone would do something.

The Siren let out a yawn as she walked out into the night.  "Well, that was a good way to work off some stress..." Alan commented in their shared mind, "Think the rest of those gangs around here are gonna get in their heads to stop being such pieces of garbage now?"

"We can hope but it's unlikely," Aurora admitted while sighing before perking up, "Hey, you wanna see if any take out places are open at this hour? I could really go for a chicken burger right about now."

"I think I noticed a 7/11 on our way over here..." Alan suddenly stopped at seeing everything around them go dark. It definitely didn't feel natural, that was for sure. "Oh great, who did we piss off this time?"

Sure enough, they heard the voice speaking to them from the darkness which only further raised alarm bells. Especially when they heard the gunshots go off. They had no time to react as the bullets slammed against their skin, not enough to deal real damage or even puncture the skin...but being reinforced and the shock they gave was enough to at least stagger them and draw a little bit of green blood.

Siren scowled as she tried to ignore the pain and scan the area, "Alright, who are you and why are you after me? Were any of those people in that warehouse friends of yours? If so, I apologize but they kinda had that thumping coming to them for a while." Siren should've just blasted her target away, but she wasn't naive enough to think the person attacking her was outright evil either.

He saw the bullets collide with the odd person, drawing some blood but it was nothing impressive. This would not be something that he could deal with in one go, and that meant the chance of getting his ass kicked increased. ”They aren’t any friends of mine.” He said with a low growl, releasing a few more of the rounds upon the alien, brief flashes of light within the nigh impenetrable darkness. Oh great, this is one of those tough types. Hate trying to kill them. Circling around them was the plan, maybe make it difficult to keep a lock upon his location.

The bullets themselves were aimed mostly for the joints, anything that would slow them down and just make it overall an easier fight. ”I’m just supposed to kill you, nothing more and nothing less.” Making use of an agility run around his ankles, well that made mobility a little easier.

Apparently, their attacker was not in much of a mood to talk, opting to instead focus on just blasting them again. Siren hissed in pain and crossed their arms over their face to better withstand the attacks. "Hmm, well, you gotta hand it to this guy for actually having something resembling a brain," Aurora commented in their shared mind, "He must've done his homework and figures that trying to take us head-on would be a very dumb idea."

"Yeah, gotta give him points for that," Alan admitted without a hint of sarcasm as they scanned the darkness once more, "Aurora, you got any ideas?"

"I do, but it requires taking advantage of that little voice of ours...if you catch my drift..." Alan knew what she was talking about but didn't bother saying anything at first, "Look, we either use it or we stand here until we got more holes in us than a slice of swiss cheese."

"....Sometimes, I hate it when you're right..." Alan conceded as the two readied for their counterattack, "Sorry, but even if you got your reasons, I'm kinda not in the mood to die tonight...so..." With that, she took a deep breath...and screamed.

From her mouth emitted a huge blast made up of sound waves that echoed through the area with the level of frequency and force to knock most people off their feet.

Each shot seemed like it was doing more damage, getting him closer and closer to wearing down his target into the kill. A human part of him despised the concept of it, but that was a part that was likely getting him broke. Taking out the limbs was a good strategy, but he was not fully prpeared for what the metahuman could do against him. It was odd how they didn’t use any manner of power against him, and that was when the element of surprise was on Sirens side. One minutes things were going smoothly, and the next ear shattering screams filled the ground.

His ears were racked with pain as if being stabbed into, and his feet lost all hold with the ground as he was propelled backwards. The pain from his ears spread outwards as he collided with a wall, the collision enough to cause cracks to spread outwards from the veil around him, and likely do damage beyond it as well. ”Fuck.” He growled, sliding down the wall and landing on his feet rather clumsily. His ears were ringing, though that made balance difficult when he was suffering from what could only be describe as tinnitus.

Light had begun to slowly return to the area, making him become a vague shape within the darkness that was fading away.

The Siren's sonic scream was a powerful move, but used too long could be costly. Thankfully, that was not needed for they stopped it after several seconds when they saw the gunshots had stopped and they heard a sound like breaking glass. The dark dimension they had been trapped in was crumbling away around them and they could finally get a look at their attacker.

"Look, I don't know who put you up to this, but you said yourself you're not the kind to go around assassinating people, right?" Alan/Aurora folded their arms and tilted their head, "Now, you caught me in a bit of a good mood and I'm not the kind who likes to kick people when they're down so why don't you tell me what this is about?  Or are you gonna make this more difficult on yourself and get me to beat you around a bit more before you talk? Personally, I'd rather the first option."

Samael attempted to rise, but his right leg gave out in a spasm of pain under him, indicating that he likely broke something. Well that made running away a pain in the ass, not that he was under any illusions that he could do that if he wanted to. ”Here I thought you heroes liked beating up bad guys. Got a real stiffy out of doing it or whatever.” Like shadowy tendrils, the shadows now made manifest with faint light began to work at his leg, forcing the bone to mend and causing pain to ebb. ”Besides, i’m sure you know what this is about. You probably pissed someone off, and they want you dead.  Vigilantes tend to butt their noses in places they’re not wanted and get killed because of it.”

He shrugged the best he could, keeping hands on his weapons. ”Something tells me I won’t exactly be helping myself if I both fail and tell you information. These underworld types really love sending hitmen after people ya know.” Plans were already forming through his mind, mostly ways he could get out of this situation if nothing else. His leg would repair itself within two minutes, but that was time that no one had. ”So, this the part where you blow my head up or something?”

Well, this lad was a barrel of sunshine. Siren sighed and massaged his temples as they let their would-be attacker fire off his mouth until he finally stopped. Once he did, they spared him a glance, "You done throwing your tantrum now? Good. Now we can properly talk," They held up one finger, "First off, I don't get a "stiffy" from doing what I do. It's a job, just like you trying to kill me is a job,"

A second finger went up, "Also, if I really, truly wanted you dead...do you REALLY think I'd even bother having this little discussion with you?" He let that question hang in the air for several seconds before moving on, "Now, you got a choice. You can either come with me and we can work this out like civilized people..." They glanced down the roadway where the sounds of sirens could be faintly heard in the distance, "Or I can leave you to join the rest of those drug smuggling scumbags in the slammer. Your choice."