Return From Darkness

Alan frowned as he sat at an outdoor cafe, sipping from a chocolate milkshake as he used the cafe's Wi-Fi to do some research. However, this wasn't any normal kind of research he was doing. He was looking up various news articles with a rather bizarre pattern he'd been noticing lately.  A lot of dead bodies were turning up but what made this really unsettling was the manner of the deaths.

Either the victim had puncture wounds in the neck and was missing almost every drop of blood in their body, or they had just been torn into as if some wild animal had gone into a frenzy. Needless to say, either method was all kinds of horrible, but one thing was for sure. These deaths were not being caused by human hands.

Alan glanced up at the sky and saw the sun beginning to set, to which he sighed, "Well, guess we should get a move on, partner. We got a long night of searching ahead of us..." He put away the laptop and headed on out to an alley, morphing back into their Siren self before taking to the rooftops and heading to an area they had found held the highest number of these strange deaths, hoping to find a clue of some sort.

Cain had been lying relatively low for a while. Instead of his general blood thirst, act now and damn the consequences style of living he had taken to sitting down and learning. He had become the Lord of Shadows in such a strange way, giving him a new scope of possibilities. An entire legion of creatures of the night all willing to do what he said, an army at his beck and call. It was thrilling at first, dispensing them left and right to do with as he pleased but the fact of the matter was he knew practically nothing of leading. Something that had been drilled into his head by all those who saw him as some upstart usurper. A fool hearty boy only playing at being King. He had brushed it off as nonsense and crushed most of the voices, literally, but after some time he decided to take the talk seriously.

Which of course is what brings us to today. After months of studying and educating himself on leadership, the true purpose of the Lord of Shadows and all those under his domain he finally had an inkling of understanding of what it was he was supposed to do and who he was supposed to be. This of course lead to changes in the way he had been doing things, some turning back to the old ways but others? Well he was still Cain Vulsore. He did things his way and some of the old traditions were just plain boring or outdated. How could he truly just sit around in a castle all day everyday until his 'kingdom was threatened'? He couldn't that was he answer. He was a man of action, and if his subjects, underlings, or whatever one wished to call them, got to go out and spread terror or feed on the populace who was he to stop or reign them in? In fact on most occasions he even joined them on their hunts. To watch over them and protect them if need be. Damn heroes were everywhere these days. A king had to be responsible for those he lorded over.

Tonight he was out on the town, watching from above. The creatures of the night had been growing lax, becoming bolder in their hunts. New York, although growing, was still no where near as safe or beautiful a city as it had once been. Thus invited criminals, crooks, and others who dwelled in the night. Normal people should have kept to safety but their time in the shadows had made them lax as well. It was their undoing of course as those that called the darkness home took advantage of this. More and more were taken each night, claimed by those who followed the Lord of Shadows with no fear as he was there to protect them. They believed tonight to be no different as he stood atop some cafe, his eyes closed feeling everything through the shadows of which he resided in.

A flicker of movement caught his attention, someone exiting the cafe before heading up to the rooftops. They passed by Cain, unknowingly, as he was currently merged with the shadows and took off in the direction of his people's last publicly known kill. A hero trying to do investigative work eh? Those types were always so fun. Putting pieces together and sticking their noise where it didn't belong. A sinister grin spread across his face as he followed them moving through the shadows as he went. When they arrived upon the scene he slowly rose up from the shadows and leaned against the wall, looking the individual up and down questioningly. They left the cafe a man but arrived here a woman. So many questions, so little time. "Can I help you?" He asked, his pearly whites glistening in the moonlight. The shadows around the two of them seemingly dancing to some unheard rhythm.

The Siren stopped at hearing the voice behind them and turned their head slowly to see the figure that seemed to be wearing the darkness like it were a cloak of sorts, "Aurora...please tell me you can feel that aura this guy is giving off..."

"Oh yeah. I don't need to be an empath to tell this person has power...and most definitely is NOT our friend..." Aurora remarked, trying to hold herself together under the weight of this man's sinister aura. Being connected with Alan also made it no secret he was feeling overwhelmed too.

Regardless, the hero sighed, "You know, it's considered rude to sneak up on someone without their knowledge or even bothering to introduce yourself," Even Alan couldn't believe he had just said that. Regardless, no taking it back now, "And I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume you been watching me...you...you're not human are you? Who are you and what do you want?"

Cain could almost taste the fear radiating off of this . . . individual. It was beautiful. He was starting to question why he ever gave it all up. Of course, he knew why he hadn’t done this in quite some time, but old habits die hard. When an opportunity like this presented its self who was he to pass it up? A low chuckle escaped his mouth when they had the audacity to try and lecture him. Or rather pointed out how it is apparently rude not to introduce one’s self. If he were of a gentler nature he’d point out that they too didn’t introduce themselves and all poor Cain had done was asked if he could help them with something. So, who truly was the rude one in this situation?

Stepping forward the shadows seemingly moving with him, closing in around the two of them with every step he made, the alley they were in slowly getting darker with each passing second. “Please allow me to introduce myself. I am a man of wealth and taste.” He replied with a sinister grin, his pearly white fangs flashing in what little moonlight still pierced the veil of darkness before of course he rolled his eyes and placed a hand down upon the inky black and seemingly shifting Kilij resting on his hip. “The name’s Cain. Cain Vulsore, and you’re right I’m not human I am the Lord of Shadows and I don’t take too kindly to those who ask questions or dig their noise around where it don’t belong.” Without warning or movement from Cain to indicate anything was happening Siren’s own shadow would rise up from behind them and shoot forward attempting to pierce into their back and out the front sort of like a spear.

Oh great. Another one of these folks with an ego the size of the flipping moon. In all honesty, if it weren't for the fact this guy was radiating power like no tomorrow, Siren would have been rolling their eyes. However, they knew that when dealing with the supernatural that one wrong move could spell your end, and this fact would soon be proven right.

As the shadow went to attack them, the hero spun around with their arms raised to hold back their shadow from stabbing them. However, due to their less than ideal reaction speeds they were only partially successful and the shadow was still able to scrape their hands and even manage to break the skin on their chest, causing them to wince in pain.

Despite the attack, the two managed to glare over at the shadow lord and opened their mouth as if to say something...only for a loud scream to erupt from their lungs. Their sonic scream with the power to shatter solid concrete aimed at their enemy.

They were able to not only anticipate and react to his surprise attack but also able to spin around and, mostly, stop it? Sure, he hadn’t been using his full power per say but he was still the most powerful Umbrakinetic alive and perhaps to have ever lived. Cocking his head to the side at this new development with a smile. Needless to say, Cain was very intrigued. He wanted to see just what she, he, they could do. Before he ripped into their throat and drained them of all the blood they had. Maybe he’d be nice and keep them alive just enough so he could turn them into an obedient servant. He hadn’t done that in quite some time. What he wasn’t expecting was for them to turn around to face him and scream.

His eardrums were definitely going to be feeling that tomorrow but Cain himself? He could take punches from Gwharr and Pain themselves, this scream pushed him back a bit and he could feel the vibrations pounding against his skin but the look in his blood eyes was that of hunger. Or perhaps curiosity rather than pain or anger. No. This was definitely not Cain mad, this was Cain having fun. Cat and mouse (or cat and bird) type situation if you will; two guesses on who the cat was and who the mouse was and one of them doesn’t count. Stepping forward while scratching the inside of his ear with one finger the shadows around them condensed forming a sort of barrier around them while cutting off any exits from both the top of the alley and the entrance on the ground. Essentially boxing the two of them in a cage of his own sinister making. “Little birdies got a voice. Good. You’ll be screaming my name much more later.” With that two tendrils whipped out from the ground attempting to hit into Siren like whips.

Siren had felt that scream would not be enough to knock out the shadow lord in one go but was still slightly surprised at seeing him acting as if she had hit him with a gentle gust or a mosquito bite. Needless to say, they would definitely have to bring their A Game if they wanted even a chance at winning,especially since he had just trapped them in a realm of darkness.

"Aurora, you with me?" Alan asked his friend.

"To the end, partner." Aurora replied with a nod in their shared mind as they took flight into the air, narrowly avoiding being impaled by the tentacles. Their limbs seemed to bubble and convulse before they morphed into a pair of giant curved blades with a serrated edge. They descended downwards, picking up speed, before spinning their body, becoming like a whirling spinning top of doom that cut through the tentacles like a hot knife through butter.

They burst through the crumbling shards of darkness with one arm morphed now to have a bunch of spikes jutting out of it as they went to attempt a devastating blow to their foe's face.

Cain was taking it easy, that much should have been obvious to anyone who knew the King of Darkness. What he didn’t expect however was for the bag o’blood before him to change their arms into blade like appendages. Or to be able to take flight into the air and spin like a top.  He especially did not expect for them to be strong enough to cut clean through his shadow whips. He was so amazed by the feat, because of that reason and because it looked impressive as shit that he didn’t have time to react to the fist morphed out like it was some medieval torture device. Said fist smacked square into his jaw pushing the New York Vampire’s face down to the side with a resounding crack.

Blinking in shock the Lord of Shadows laughed as pain flooded into him. Spitting on the ground next to him, to get out the bit of blood that gathered in his mouth from the unexpected hit. “Oh now that was fun. My turn pretty.” His fist of course would then swing out aiming to punch Siren in exactly the same way. However, at the same time the ceiling above them would grow into spikes jutting downwards, that would shoot out of the ceiling, about ten of them aiming to pierce through both Cain and Siren. Not that the shadows could hurt Cain of course, but his little birdie didn’t know that.

Although it was a bit early to do so, Siren breathed a small sigh of relief at seeing her blow had actually done something. At the very least, this meant the shadow lord could be injured, maybe even defeated. However, their relief was short-lived when they heard him start to laugh. Did...did he actually enjoy that?!

It was their turn to be surprised, and for that surprise to cost them as they took a rather nasty knuckle sandwich to the face, causing them to recoil in pain as blood flew freely from their mouth. However, the recoil had also given them the chance to notice the spikes falling from above. In response, their limbs morphed again, only this time taking on the appearance of tentacles with bladed tips.

Siren whirled one of the tentacles above their head like it were a helicopter to act as a shield against the descending spikes before lashing out with the other tentacle to try and restrain Cain.

They were creative it seemed. Had an imaginative mind that allowed them to use their creations, or extremities, in ways that were not all that different from some of Cain’s simpler uses of the shadows. However, what they probably didn’t expect that even if they were somehow able to dissipate his shadows and cut through them in the way that was much too easy the shadows were not out of the picture just yet. The sliced and shattered darkness would simply form back up rising from whence it came but this time they did not take the form of a weapon but instead that of a silky black shifting humanoid like form. At blinding speeds it would strike forward attempting to jab its blade like appendages into Siren’s side while she was preoccupied with Cain himself.

Speaking of the Lord of Shadows, he was currently entangled by whatever it was she used to lash out and wrap around him. Well, entangled was such a strong word. Sure, it was wrapped around him but preventing him from doing things, restricting his movement? Even just sort of flexing against it he could tell it wouldn’t be able to hold him if he lashed out. Possibly. The individual before him was seemingly stronger than they looked. Not wanting to risk it and because he wasn’t done toying with them yet he laughed a glint of something in his blood red eyes as his form shifted, becoming as black as the shadows around them before dissolving into the ground. Moving through the shadows all around them, his laughter echoing from everywhere in this seemingly never-ending darkness. “My, my, aren’t you full of surprises. Let’s see if you can keep up though. I do so hope you don’t disappoint before I decide what to do with you.”

It was becoming more and more evident that Cain had the advantage in this dimension. The hero frowned as they watched the shadow lord retreat into the darkness around them. As if that weren't enough, an humanoid blob of darkness rose up and went on the attack. Siren snarled and formed their arms back into their blade mode before lunging to cross swords with the creature. As they began to parry and strike back while using the extra mobility provided by flying to strafe around it, they began to think.

Cain was obviously a supernatural entity, and a powerful one at that. However, the Siren was nothing if not resourceful. As such, he continued to duel with the shadow entity as they reached out with their mind to the objects outside this realm of darkness. Dumpsters and whatever else was in the area that could be used was picked up and brought together in the crude shape of a giant fist.

The strain was great enough that Siren could feel a small nosebleed coming on but they kept up their efforts...until finally they timed the fist's attack from the outside with a powerful sonic scream of their own from inside.

The shadow monster was dispatched with no problem, they weren’t tanks or shock troopers even. They were disposable cannon fodder. Defeating one of them as quickly as Siren did was nothing to be impressed about and to be quite honest Cain wasn’t. He actually would have been very disappointed if Siren had had trouble in defeating the shadow being. What happened next however was one that interested him greatly. He couldn’t truly see as you and I do while he was traversing through the shadows as he was, merged with them and all. He could however see in a different sort of way, vibrations, movement, sort of like how the world looks to that one blind girl from the one show about the elements and what not. Except not at all like that.

All the stuff she was picking up were things that were inside the alley way with them, locked in the shadow like bubble or prison that had encased them within the alley in the first place and she was able to form them into a fist. A telekinetically held together fist of things that slammed into the wall of the shadows at the same time she screamed into the dome. Now, thankfully Cain couldn’t exactly hear that as he was quite certain he’d be deaf for a while and the part where Siren concentrated their attack definitely was enough to fluctuate the wall and even dispersed for a second or two before molting back in with the rest of the dome. Cain’s voice and laugh echoed from everywhere within, a cackle of delight “You tried so hard. You got so far. I truly thought you would get out.” The voice paused as if considering what they just said. “No. No I really didn’t.”

He was not known as the Lord of Shadows for nothing. You did not mess with him in his domain. With a wave of his hand the dome disappeared and the alley returned to normal. Cain was standing there in front of Siren, having risen out of the ground with a gleam in his blood red eyes. It seemed his shadows were too much for poor little birdie to handle and he wasn’t having much fun with that. So, he’d have to just get his hands dirty. A punch rocketed towards Siren’s face while his other made to go for her gut. He hated to bruise and batter his pla-actually no. No he didn’t, he enjoyed it when they fought back all the better.

To say that Siren was happy to see the realm of darkness finally dissipating would be an understatement. Feeling something drip, they put a hand to their face and pulled it away to reveal bits of green blood decorating it, and then remembered the nosebleed. Oh right, almost forgot that's a thing when I push myself too hard...

However, it seemed that Cain was far from finished with them as they looked up in time to see a fist rocketing towards them. Of course, if the shadow lord thought they were down and out, he would soon be proven very wrong.

Siren put up her hand caught the fist while making it look like she had put barely any effort into catching it. The same happened with the punch aimed towards the gut. They held tight to both fists as they focused on getting the fallen debris that made up their giant fist to hover in the air at the end of the alley. "I won't let you or the rest of those like you treat humans as your food!" With that, she soared high into the air as the debris flew at Cain from behind at high speed.

He was honestly a little stunned when she stopped his fists. Sure, he wasn’t the fastest being on the planet, and honestly wasn’t even superhumanly fast in this form but the strength required to stop his punches? That was what surprised him. They didn’t look strong enough to stop him, at least not with their physical prowess. Which was why he allowed his dome to drop and got up close and personal. A nice little drag out brawl of sorts. But then they took into the air and started flying. Because of course they could fly. Cain growled and made to send a shadow whip out to snatch them out of the air and fling them back onto the ground when he was pelted from behind.

The items from the alley slammed into his back and made him lose his footing, and with enough force to shove him into the wall directly in front of where he had been standing. However as for actually damaging him? There was not a scratch on him. They’d have to try much, much harder than that. “You’re starting to become increasingly annoying little birdie.” He had tried to be civil, keep things isolated to some fisticuffs as it were but no. With but a flick of his eyes the walls seemingly grew a good ten feet higher but black as the night around them and flung forward at speeds not even he could track intended to smack into Siren and press the hero in between them before separating and letting them fall to the ground.

Judging by the shadow lord's miffed reaction, it was obvious now that Alan and his partner were starting to get under his skin. In a way, this was good since it increased the chance of him being more reckless in his attacks which they could take advantage of. On the other hand, it also meant that he'd start demonstrating some actual power in this fight.

That thought process was proven right when Cain got walls of darkness to rise up on all sides of them and flew forward in an attempt to crush them. At first glance it looked like the attack had succeeded, but on closer inspection, deep growling could be heard as Siren could be seen holding back the walls with her hands and feet! Sweat streamed down her brow as she fought to keep them from crushing her.

The clash of person and walls went on for several tense seconds as Siren finally mustered the strength to morph one of her hands into the medieval torture device from before and with one mighty cry that echoed through downtown...she slammed her fist into the darkness...and after another second, cracks formed in it and broke apart along with the others.

Breathing heavily, Siren glared down at the shadow lord from on high, "Come on, you coward...why don't you come up here and fight me head on? Or is the great "Shadow Lord" scared he'll get beaten by a girl?!!!"