Siren In The Night

Alan sighed as he sat in his hotel room and took a look around. It wasn't anything fancy, a bed, table with a chair, and a small mini bar full of drinks and snacks. A window was nearby that actually had a pretty good view of the city. All and all, it was pretty decent and served its purpose. The former human pulled out his laptop and set it up on the table.

It was Saturday evening and he and Aurora had decided to take a break from heroics...or at least the traditional kind and provide a different kind of service to the community. After all, there were more ways to help out aside from sending folks to the hospital. As such, Alan booted up his computer before clapping their hands and letting themselves switch over to Siren.

Putting on a pair of headphones, Siren turned on Skype and activated her account along with the Voice Chat function before clearing her throat and getting into character, "Good evening, folks! This is your host, Siren here, and you're listening to Siren In The Night! I'm gonna be on all evening so for those of you out there who are having problems and need advice, or just need an ear to hear you out, our channels are open to you. So go ahead and don't be shy. No matter what it is, I assure you...I'm here to help, not to judge."

They cracked open a can of root beer and kicked back while waiting for people to call in.

Tonight had been one hell of a night. A rolling, rumbling noise could be heard as the little boy lay there, coughing a little.  Letting out a pained groan the little boy tried to stand. His black leather jacket was covered in dust, his blue jeans sliding on the concrete ground as he began to see different shades of orange and brown. The rumbling was not the same as thunder, which produced a strange combination of pale colors. His breath quivering as he tried to steady his breathing, looking to the floor on his hands and knees. The room was dark, only a few lights to be seen in the abandoned parking garage, but nothing to give him substance. Concrete walls, floors and ceilings with the faded yellow and white paint, some old signs that had long since stopped operating.

  Ow. Why didja have to go and make 'em mad? the thought passed his mind as the rumbling noise faded for a moment. The little boy pushed off the ground, posting up on his knees and taking a hand to the mop of black hair, brushing it off and looking around, his breathing finally under control. The lack of orange color made ti all to apparent that the rumble had come to an end, though the little boy was left confused and dazed. "W-Where did they-"

   The boy hadn't had the chance to finish the statement before the large concrete wall beside him broke open, large chunks of the rock mixture flying forward in an explosion of grey dust and haling debris. An easily seven and a half foot tall humanoid with a lean and toned frame had burst forth, it's large human-like hand gripped around the spherical head and messy brown hair of The Hound as it landed, the ground cracking beneath the pressure exerted by the creature with the skin the color of cornflowers.

    The large humanoid creature released The Hounds head, removing it's hand and standing to cross it's arms over. The little boy stood in horror, scared and worried of what would happen to him if his mentor and handler had been so easily dismissed and tossed about as a rag doll. The creature's form was both enrapturing and horrifying, the boy honestly would have believed it to have been a shark-man from the color of the skin and the several hundreds of needle like sharpness and thickness. It stood with a human torso and human arms that was unarmored from the waist up, long wiry black hair that reached to the creature's mid back and seemed to be tousled all about. It had a human like nose, a chiseled jaw and a very strange set of eyes with prismatic, color altering pupils that were akin to a cats, in the formation of an almond slit, while the sclera of the creature were black in color with a Magenta colored Iris. From the waist down the creature's legs were covered in a shiny black chitinous material, revealing a human bipedal structure, though a very different style of footing. The creature's black feet were akin to that of thicker and larger human hands, and previously had proven to be entire prehensile. Around the creature's waist there were five chitinous tear shaped fragments that seemed to float around the creature's waist, as somehow attached as a tasset of sorts.

   "You were contracted to find us the Blessed Ones. We offered generous compensation for other Interstellar species as well." The creature growled, it's mouth barely moving as it's eyes narrowed on the child. "You contacted me stating that you had uncovered a potential subject, yet now you waste my time and refuse to speak." It scoffed as it's foot came down, the prehensile chitinous foot gripping The Hound by the head as the creature lifted it's leg and threw the grown man forward with absolutely no problem, letting him drop to the hard ground. A viscous, black substance seemed to seep from the man's body and spread outward, like a black ink stain spreading across a pristine white shirt. The young boy watched as the man lay several feet from him, tossed off to the side.

 "W-We didn't know what you were gonna do to them!" The Pup said as he looked to the large creature, his hair standing on end. Despite the creature's possessing a smooth and calming jazz voice, it produced a strange purple vibe through the boy's eyes and caused an inherent sense of fear.

  "That's none of your concern. We desire them. You supply them as best as your feeble little forms can." The creature stated in a very emotionless tone, the young boy's hand began to reach for the device strapped to his arm, though was quite startled when the creature closed the distance between them rather quickly, it's own hand now on the boy's bicep and lifting the boy from the ground. With careful claws attached to the human-like hand, the creature pulled back the sleeve of the jacket and examined the device. With a curious hum it pressed a few buttons and it's eyes narrowed when it came across the composed dossier of one such subject. The creature pressed a button which lead to a link, opening a new application on the wrist-device and tapping into the web a bit.

   "Good evening, folks! This is your host, Siren here, and you're listening to Siren In The Night! I'm gonna be on all evening so for those of you out there who are having problems and need advice, or just need an ear to hear you out, our channels are open to you. So go ahead and don't be shy. No matter what it is, I assure you...I'm here to help, not to judge." The voice was a rather calming one, a very bright color vibrated and echoed from it, causing the boy a slight discomforts as the creature grunted and dropped him.

  "I will detain the specimen myself." It grumbled as it turned and walked off, disappearing into the darkness behind the large hole in the wall it had just made. Once the moment of shock and awe was over, The little boy scampered over quickly, almost falling as he tried to rush to his feet and make it to his mentor's side. The male's body was slowly healing, but he was covered in his own black blood, his face beaten and bloodied.

   "Flynn!? A-Are you ok? Still with me?" The kid asked, genuinely concerned for a moment, until he saw the man's chest rise a bit and heard a groan. A relieved sigh left the boy as he smiled and nodded, wiping the panic-induced sweat from his forehead. "Ok...so how do we stop that thing from getting Siren?"

   "C-call in." The man said weakly, a grunt as he seemed to try and clear his throat, only to cough up blood.

   "Oookay. Here... I think she'll believe you more than me." The kid said as he tried to send through the Skype call, sitting cross-legged and resting Flynn's head in his lap as he angled his wrist-device to capture the image of the battered man. He hoped they would get through in time.

Siren was about halfway through their second can of root beer, idly tapping their foot on the desk and wearing a slightly annoyed expression on her face. "Huh...guess some folks got their paychecks and are out partying tonight..."

"A likely possibility...kinda makes you think maybe we should do the same?" Aurora proposed in a rather insistent tone of voice.

Alan frowned while looking at thin air, "Nice try, Aurora, but I'd like to go at least one night without over-eager drunken bloats trying  to grab my butt or making whistling noises as I walk by, thank you," He reached into a half-eaten bag of potato chips and grabbed a handful, "And no, all the free drinks I get is NOT enough of an incentive anymore."

"You're a real party-pooper, you know that?" Aurora huffed and crossed her arms in their shared mind space.

"Maybe,but one night of peace and quiet is not gonna kill us," Alan knew his partner meant well but he felt that there was a time and place for everything, and going out to parties and clubs every other night was not his idea of a good time.

However,it seemed his desire for quiet time would be interrupted as he suddenly got a call. However, what made this strange was that it was a request for a VIDEO chat. Curiosity getting the better of him, he pushed the Accept option. What he saw though shocked and horrified him. The face staring back at him was bloodied and beaten to the point that it was a miracle said victim was still alive.

Siren suddenly sat up straight in the chair, "Sir? Sir! If you can hear me, tell me your exact whereabouts and I can have an ambulance over in no time."

"No. No look, I'll heal myself. I'll be fine. You need to go, now!" The Hound said before cutting the video call short. It didn't take long before his faithful little pupil had return with a huge slab of meat, dropping it down on the ground next to him. Then he ran out again, huffing and puffing as he tried to scour as much biotic material as possible. The Hound seized the opportunity to open his mouth, black tendrils flying out and piercing through the meat like spears, pulling the meat slab into his face as it began to shred and grind apart under inky, black tentacles in the back of The Hound's throat. The Hound felt his leg beginning to heal up as he rolled onto his side, looking over to see a rather large dog walking about without a collar.

"No..No-no-no stay away from me." He said, feeling his entire body beginning to unravel as the friendly looking animal began to trot towards him with it's tongue lulling out. "No! STAY AWAY!" He yelled, but it was too late as his chest ripped open and black tendrils shot out, blood splattered across the pavement as tendrils wound out around the firm ones that had pierced their prey. The flimsy tendrils dug under the fur and skin, causing horrible, painful whines. He could feel the tendrils, like they were part of his body moving and wrapping throughout the creature, wishing and hoping they would stop, trying to pass every command from his brain to make them stop. But all he could do is feel while the tendrils reached the spine. A sickening snap and a violent twist of tendrils he could not control caused a feeling of dread and hopelessness before the entire creature was pulled inward, assimilated into his body.

The pupil returned with more uncooked meat, shocked to see that his mentor was back in tip top shape, though his black blood still crusting over him and a stern and cold look to his eyes. The little boy cocked his head to the side and smiled a little.

"Healed up already? Cool!" He said, genuinely thrilled to see The Hound back in commission so quickly, though he was met by a snarl and a very angry response.

"No. It's not. Unless it's raw meat, something has to die." He seethed with anger, The pup looked over and could see the blood splatter and could only think that something happened that his mentor did not want. It took him a moment before he realized the clock was ticking for his favorite late night time talk station hostess.

"But because of that sacrifice, someone else might live. Right? Let's make it mean something." He said, to which The Hound only nodded. "Ok cool! So how are we going to do that?" He asked, the older male scoffed and rolled his eyes, disappointed in himself that he believed that the boy might have actually had an idea.

"Focus on finding concentrated EMF. To find it's target, we're gonna have to find it." The Hound said as he started running after where the tall creature had calmly exited moments ago. They'd probably need to hijack a bike, or something to that extent. There was also the tendril-slinging, but they'd find a way. They had to.

"Hey, wait! What do you mean by-" However, Siren never had the chance to finish that thought before the video cut out. She cursed to herself before getting to her feet and shutting down the computer and beginning to pack her things.

"Whoa, hold on a second, partner. What you think you're doing?" Aurora quizzed, "I thought you wanted to take the night off."

"There's been a change of plans, Aurora," Alan remarked as he finished zipping up his knapsack, "We're getting out of here, maybe go some place a bit more secluded."

"Alan, are you sure this wasn't just some prank call meant to spook you?" The space siren offered, trying to relieve her friend's worries, especially considering he sometimes let his emotions carry him away. Of course, she left that part out since she didn't want to seem like a hypocrite.

"The thought crossed my mind," He acknowledged as he opened the door, "But you heard that voice too, and I can tell you from experience...nobody, no matter how good they are at acting, can make up being scared like that. Besides...do you really want to take that chance?"

"...No, I guess not," Aurora sighed, "But you know, we should really use a different form if we don't want to attract attention..."

"What are you..." Alan stopped himself at passing a mirror and seeing their alien face staring back, "Oh....right...thanks," She ducked into a nearby bathroom and morphed back into his human guise before going to drop off the keys and booking it out of the hotel, knowing he needed to get as far from any urban districts as possible.

Disappearing into urban areas were always a good idea, though given the time of night it wasn't the most opportune time to get lost in rushes. Getting out of urban areas would be important too. The large cerulean skinned creature had been on the prowl, searching and scanning everything it could get it's mind into or it's hands on. This species of being had gone unknown to humanity up until a few years ago, and even now their species had entirely been dismissed as a single metahuman that was present at Detroit before things went horrible for the already dilapidated city. The Hound and the younger boy had "borrowed" a motorcycle from a civilian that was a little too drunk for his own good. The Hound was going to simply knock him out and take the bike, The little one, however, insisted he was a valet and that he would go get the motorbike for the man. Why the man believed he needed a valet for a bike that he was literally sitting on was beyond the boy, but it worked none the less.

   "So are you gonna tell me why you think this chick was an alien?" The kid yelled to the driver, whose eyes squinted as they blew past with  a roaring and ripping motor. He would pretend that the noise drowned out the question, but in his mind he knew the truth. He couldn't help but be distracted for a moment as an image flashed before his eyes. A memory of a woman utilizing some manner of strange power to rescue a civilian. The image flashed away before the Hound Sighed, pushing the knowledge to the back of his mind.

   The large creature with the dusky blue skin continued to survey the streets from building top, jumping and utilizing it's tech to navigate mostly unseen or entirely dismissed. The creature finally took note of the anomaly amongst them all. She may have been disguised to the eyes of man, but to this creature she stood out clear as day. With narrowed eyes and a leap, the creature came flying down from the tall building and landing not all that far away. It's landing was not that of a huge crater, rather that of a graceful touch down as it's eyes focused and fixated upon The Siren within the taxi. From sidewalk as she was there, probably stuck at a red light, or unable to move due to traffic. The few people began to back away and gasps and shocked screams could be heard as the creature landed and began to walk, people parting around it and running like Moses splitting the Red Sea. The creature walked up to the car and placed it's hand on the roof.

  "You do not belong here." It said as it looked to Siren through the glass, despite the smooth voice being spoken so quietly, it left an impression. The Cab driver began to panic and began to fidget for the shift stick.

Alan had let out a sigh of relief as he sank into the back seat of the taxi. Being away from that hotel and away from the more busy districts finally gave him a chance to catch a breath.

Of course, it seemed like some otherworldly force had decided to have some fun at his expense tonight, as was proven when some type of shark-like creature landed on the streets in front of them and stalked towards the taxi. Any chance of it being a mindless brute though were squashed when it actually spoke.

Deciding he would rather avoid getting anyone else involved, Alan stepped out of the vehicle and cleared his throat, "Ahem...um, sir? I don't know who you are or what your beef is with me but I'm pretty sure whatever it is we can sit down and talk it through like civilized individuals."

"Alan, are you sure this overgrown calamari is actually going to be civil?" Aurora quizzed in the back of their head.

"With our track record?...Not really, but it never hurts to at least try." Alan replied in an calm, even tone.

The creature looked over the siren, it's eyes narrowing as it took a breath in, it's eyes shifting and watching, almost as if looking where she was going to move next, letting Alan exit the car before pushing it aside with little effort and examining it, uncertain as to what it looked at. Alan claimed that they could handle things with a level of civility, to which the strange skinned alien agreed with, though to what level of civility had to be negotiated.

"Civility can be managed, based upon your compliance. First we must be away from these rudimentary creatures." The creature stated with a bit of distain towards a nearby human that ran in panic. It looked back to Alan and let out a snort as it looked about, realizing that it was about the strange humans, immediately being out of place. The sound of a motorcycle could be heard roaring and ripping through the crowd.

"MOVE! OUT OF THE WAY!" A voice shouted as the motorcycle's horn flared through the road, the bike screeching to a halt as it turned off to the side, the stubble filled face of the man in a trench coat dismounting as a little kid in a black leather jacket and a mop of hair pulled off his helmet. The man was focused on the alien with an intense glare. "Get away from them!" The Hound shouted as his hand began to twitch.

"....Oh God. I swear, I don't know him! Stranger Danger!" The kid shouted as he backed away from The Hound, wondering what wrath he might receive from the creature, or the crowd of spooked people.

"You have failed in your directives, Detective. I have the subject here and we will begin discussion in a less public location." The creature scoffed at The Hound and looked to Alan expectantly.

Alan allowed himself a small sigh of relief at seeing that the creature was at least open to negotiating, especially since he would've liked to avoid a brawl if possible. "That's fine with me. We can go wherever you wish just as long as there aren't people around," However, his attention was suddenly redirected by the sound of a motorcycle riding up towards him and the fish man. A look over revealed two men, one older and one younger, and judging by the expression on the former's face, he wasn't in a good mood.

However, Alan had to do a double-take at the older man's face as it suddenly dawned on him whom it belonged to, "Hey, wait a minute..." He gasped and pointed, "It's you! The guy who sent me the message on the Skype chat! Which means..." Feeling his skin starting to crawl, he nervously turned his gaze to the fish man as it all started to click, "Oh no..." He backed away several steps, glancing back and forth between the men on the motorcycle and the other fella.

"Ok...I would really appreciate it if someone was willing to explain what the heck is going on right now!"

Siren had begun to put the pieces together, although they had seemed to get the wrong impression about things. The large blue skinned creature with needle fangs and black hair looked to her with their incredibly strange eyes and a snort from flaring nostrils. The creature folded it's arms across it's chest, weaving and interlocking them as it's focus turned to The Hound and the young boy that had vanished.

"We were rudely interrupted." The creature said as a smile turned on the corners of it's mouth, bemused as it looked at the restored man, though the traces of black blood still dried and crusted over his clothing. "You humans really are stubborn. I should be more thorough in my pest exterminations in the future." It said as the floating black tear shaped chitin discs floated forward, the tipped end flying out to impale The Hound, tearing his arm clean off, letting black blood squirt, seep and spill onto the pavement as he struggled to stand up, his hand still twitching as he looked at it.

"GAH! Damnit!" The Hound snarled as he tried to stand up, grabbing at the dismembered arm and lifting it, the sliced area producing small black tendrils that reached out and interlocked before slowly beginning to bring the two back together, though for a good while, his arm would remain limp and useless.

"It does not belong here. I do not belong here. We will be leaving and no harm need befall anyone." The creature said as it found itself focused entirely at The Hound, who looked over and made motions with his head for Siren to run, hoping she would opt to trust him over the large blue alien.

Anything that truly required him to exert himself was a rare occurrence, the typical heroism that Atlas found himself doing being at worst being small bank robberies that were cleaned up within a few seconds. It made any activity that caused him to actually sweat a relief in a sense, though that ended up being his daily training regimen which only grew harder with each incarnation. How they were able to continually improve something was unheard of, thoughts that were flowing through his mind as he was on another of his less than advised flies around the city. Luckily things were not too hard to find when he stopped, sound fast enough now to reach him and his rather powerful sense of hearing.

Nothing really new there, people driving and the occasional honk of a horn. The city never like it was portrayed within the movie as he heard the odd motorcycle being revved loudly within that otherwise mundane cloud of cars. Lowering his path of flight to the streets, he realized that people were..acting a little oddly. Muttering among themselves, something he needed to strain his hearing to get a word about but this something was an odd creature. His eyes followed to what appeared to be an odd humanoid figure, almost shark in appearance standing alongside someone else. A person, followed by someone else with a shorter figure explaining the motorcycle sound he heard before.

His mind was already half made up when seeing the display happening, and yet made itself up even more upon seeing an arm severed with an odd device. Making sure the small excuse for a mask covering his eyes was set on right, he swooped into action without much fanfare. Large gust of wind causing most civilians to step back while he touched down on concrete several feet in front of Hound, brows knitted and glare settled upon this….person?

Metahumans made it hard to tell if something was a person, demon or even an alien. The latter two being more things he hoped existed rather than knowing as fact.

Mismatched eyes smoldered with threatening heat. ”Alright, don’t know what’s going on here but I definitely know cutting off arms is illegal. I’d suggest you come in peacefully before I have to get forceful.” Trying to get an alien arrested, now that was an amusing thought. Damian did it fine in his own mind, resting his hands on his hips in a confident fashion.

So much was going on right now that Alan was finding it a bit hard to focus. First, there was shark man, then there was the two dudes on the motorcycle, and now there was flipping Atlas. The last one was somehow even more surprising than the first two since this was supposedly one of the most well-known and powerful superheroes in the world. Either his arrival here was just a huge coincidence, or this matter was even more serious than initially thought.

Things only got worse when shark man decided to cut off one of the motorcycle dude's arms only to show a fountain of black blood. Alan could feel his stomach getting queasy at just the sight of it. A quick look around and he knew that staying here was NOT a good idea. He took a few steps back, keeping his eyes trained on all those present, "Well, this has been...interesting, but I don't really deal well with large crowds so I'm gonna have to-WHAT'S THAT?!!" He shouted before pointing at the sky in a random direction, hoping with all his might they would somehow fall for that, before ducking behind a car and transforming before taking off like a bullet into the air and away from the area.

He knew this was a bad idea but staying where he was happened to be an even worse idea, and at the very least he could lead them all away to a place where there'd be minimal risk of casualties. He just hoped Atlas wouldn't see him as the enemy.

"Avoiding the human populous is the sole reason I- what is what?" The large creature stated as it squinted it's odd eyes and looked up towards where siren had pointed. The Hound's eyes drifted up for a moment as well, though a Siren began to drift back towards the car, she'd likely note the shaggy, black haired boy in the small leather jacket there. He was focused on a strange piece of technology wrapped around his arm, it obviously wasn't something that you'd likely find within the modern world, it looked something a little more futuristic. He continued to hum as he put information into it, almost ignoring siren.

   "Nice one. The old 'look a distraction' trick." The kid said as he continued to work, not looking up as Siren transformed and took off through the air. The kid continued to work on his litttle arm device as he heard the creature speak.

  "I don't see anything. The photolumin pollution in this region is too great." It looked back down to where Siren was before realizing she was gone, it's eyes drifting and fixating on her as she flew away. "Yes, lead us away from the masses." It mused to himself as it slowly began to lift off of the ground, floating up before firing out at a blinding speed.

 "Hold on. Take me with you. I've fought this thing, I know a few tricks." The Hound told Atlas as he began to tighten his trench coat over him, slightly worried about the super-speed travel through the air. This was not the time to worry, however. Someone's very freedom was at risk, and The Hound wasn't going to let the same life be ruined because of him.

Not again...

Atlas had turned in the direction that was pointed, wondering what he would see and seeing nothing but the sky. He let a small huff through his pursed lips, attention drifting back to the odd blue creature that he was here to stop in the first place. That was to see said person flying away, eyes narrowing in an almost annoyed fashion. They were moving fast, faster than a human could move but not out of the realms of possibility for him. A chase but one that he did not expect to be very long, when someone shouted at him to bring them along. This involved turning to them, arcing a brow when he saw the arm that was now attached, stitching what remained frayed together with black tendrils.

Well that meant he would not be so breakable as he thought he would be.

”Alright, just hold onto me.” He said with a nod, wrapping an arm around the trench coated male, letting the iron grip hold into place. While he might have not felt it, his body would likely be much tougher thanks to the tactile telekinetic field rushing over him. In a split second he took off into the air in his casual speed, something that would keep up with the two of them and maybe even surpass if they were going slower than mach 3 at any rate.

His passenger wouldn't feel the discomforts of the speed, rather just the wind rushing past them in an almost annoying sense.

Siren looked back to see that the others were already on her tail. Although she was ahead right now that would change in no time. As such, she began scanning the area for a place where they could all work things out, and if necessary, fight it out. Before long, she noticed a wide open space in the middle of a park so she let herself descend in that direction.

She put her arms behind her head and looked over her shoulder at where she figured fish man would land, "Alright, you got me where you wanted, so I'd appreciate it if you start talking and tell me what you want with me. Also, let's be clear on one thing. I don't care who you are or about those you work for, but if you so much as lay a hand on that guy you assaulted again, unprovoked...I'm gonna turn you into sushi, got that?"

Not the wisest choice of words, perhaps, but Siren's usually pleasant mood had been soured by tonight's events and if worse came to worst, she had the capability to back up her claims.