Blind Justice? (Shadowoof)

The demon tapped the claw like tips of his hands against the side of the wall as he contemplated how best to proceed. Turning his attention away from Clair for just a moment, in order to look at the two thugs playing bouncer, Vaedren noticed that they were sharing a laugh. About what, the demon couldn’t immediately answer, or at least he couldn’t until he noticed the large of the two men pointing in Clair’s general direction. “This is bad……” Vaedren thought. His worry only continued to mount when the large thug began to make his way across the street. “Run you foolish child. RUN!” he mumbled to himself.

When Clair turned around and began to jog away down the alley, Vaedren let out a sigh of relief, though perhaps that was too soon. The larger thug seemed intent on chasing after the young girl and now Vaedren was left with conflicting objectives. On the one hand he felt deeply inclined to help Clair, but on the other hand, Vaedren really wanted to see these two men dead.

Back in the alleyway, the larger thug was enjoying his success in overpowering a girl a third his size. As he seized her by the waist, he reveled in the way she tried to squirm free. “What’s a matter girly. Thought you came all this way to see me and my friend.” Before the thug could take his sick fantasies any further a mass of panic and chaos broke out back in front of the nightclub.

Woman and men alike all screamed and yelled in horror as Vaedren darted out into the street. His crimson muscle like flesh, salivating maw, and that grotesque black goo that writhed around his body were more than enough to send chills down most peoples spines. The remaining thug guarding the door nearly shit his pants before attempting to reach for his gun. His hands would never make it however as the demon’s hand extended out and snatched him up by the head.

The large thug switched his grip on Clair to holding both of her hands behind her back and slowly marching her forward towards the street. He’d stop almost right away however as the source of all the pandemonium made it’s presence known. Vaedren slowly shambled forward, dragging the goons partner behind him, by the head. The man in Vaedren’s clutched wiggled and squirmed to get free only to feel the demon’s grip tighten around the crown of his skull.

The demon Slowly lifted the man up so he could stare him in the eyes. Beads of sweat ran down the man’s face as he was brought within inches of Vaedren’s deadly jaws. “Shut your mouth little piggy. The grown ups have business to discuss.” the demons gaze then shifted to Clair and then to the large man, who by this point had pulled a blade out of his pocket.

“Don’t you move another fucking muscle you freak! Let him go or I swear to god I’ll kill the little bitch!”

Vaedren didn’t like the way he was being spoken to. A prideful demon such as himself would never have let such filth talk to him like this, and yet here they were. His grip once again tightened on the man’s skull, eliciting a few groans of pain. “that’s really sad. Big man thinks he can hide behind a frightened little girl. Let us tell you how this is going to go. You will let the girl go or I’ll pop his head like a balloon. Then I’ll kill you. We’ll pummel you so badly THAT THEY WONT EVEN BE ABLE TO IDENTIFY YOU BY YOUR DENTAL RECORDS!”

The thug took a step back as the demon yelled at him. He thought he was stoking a fire when in fact he was just pouring fuel onto a raging inferno. Vaedren wasn’t going to let the man hurt Clair either and was already using the cracks in the ground to extend himself to the other side of the alley.

Her mask vanished into mist as she continued to struggle, a flush of red taking over her cheeks as the thug spoke, far too close for Clair's comfort. She wanted out of this situation, to be as far as she could from him. But she knew she wasn't going to be lucky unless she could just get an arm free. However, Clair stopped struggling when she, same with the large thug, heard the cry's and confusion from the street, back where they had come from.

Clair would have been just as confused as the thug if not for the fact she knew the one thing that could cause confusion and had a really good reason for doing such. The red monster. Having the grip on her arms changed, with them twisted around her back, she was dragged out of the alleyway towards the chaos, coming face to face with a very angry and scary demon about to from the looks of it, eat the other thug she had come to catch.

However, the sight brought the thug that held her to let go of one of her arms for the knife he now held and pressed against her throat. While the situation continued to terrify her, Clair had the sense to realize that one of her arms was free and she held it out, looking to the red monster meta as she gathered mist under her hand, with more mist seemingly beginning to pour from her clothes. She wanted this done, she wanted the thug that was far too close to her to be gone, she just wanted to be a damn hero.

Turning her head to see the bigger thug, she felt the knife nick her skin, a pain took her by surprise with the feeling of a small but warm trickle sliding down her throat, continuing to freak her out from the pain. But she couldn't, didn't allow herself to care at this moment. With him in sight, she threw her free hand to him and watched as the mist that had been gathered into her hand shoot, crashing into the man and sending him flying back from the force, but because of the fact he still held onto her arm, he took her with him, a factor that changed mid fall as she felt herself free from the confines of his hand and the threatening knife before landing on her back, her head whipping into the ground.

It hurt, but not as bad as the pain from the blade that had nicked her throat even more from the throwback, blood seeming to pour at a much faster rate, leaving the girl fairly confused as she sat herself up and rested on the wall of the alleyway, a hand finding it's way to her neck. She was unaware of where the thug had landed, not noticing the fact he had just landed a few feet away, too focused on the warmth that slid down into her chest and covered her hand... And the fact it was seeming to die down. As if the blood loss was slowing down and the pain was lessening... And all Clair could think was of how funny that was. Leaving her giggling at her own pain, stuck in her own drunken euphoria of pain, her sight going hazy before refocusing and going hazy again, making her giggle all the more.

If the bright white patches Vaedren called eyes weren't so large already, they might have actually widened in anger at the scene that played out before him. He wasn’t quite sure who to direct his anger at, at this moment in time. For starters he was a bit baffled that the masked girl he had come across earlier in the evening was in fact Clair. Then there was the very stupid and rookie mistake she made by causing a sudden movement while a knife was to her own throat. The second the knife nicked her skin and the moment the first sign of blood trickled down her throat, Vaedren all but lost it.

Letting out a loud roar of anger, the crimson demon applied his full strength to his left palm. The massive amount of force caused by his constricting fingers caused the thugs head to nearly shatter. The sound of bone literally turning to dust and all the fleshy bits beneath the surface being crushed under immense pressure was enough to make anyone sick. Vaedren tossed the lifeless corpse with all his anger, causing it to slam into the wall next to him with a sickening thud, the impact causing blood to splatter all over.

The large of the thugs lay stunned on the floor for a few seconds completely caught off guard by what had just happened to him. Does the girl have powers? He thought as he stared at the night sky from his back. The only thing to snap him out of his daze was the grotesque sound of flesh colliding with brick. He quickly sat up to see his buddy’s limp and headless body sliding down and out of the small crater it had caused when Vaedren threw it against the wall. The thug quickly turned to face the now hysterical young girl, obviously she was in shock. The large man made an attempt to reclaim his bargaining chip but was halted immediately by a single tendril that exploded out of a crack in the ground and now sat pressed against his jugular.

“Hurting the girl was a big no no. We told you this would be your fate. We will make you suffer for hurting an innocent!”

“Are you fucking crazy man! She did that to herself. She made me do it!”

Vaedren let out a low growl as he slowly advanced towards his prey. The tendril quickly shifted from a point to a noose that wrapped tightly around the goons neck. The small tendril acted as an extension of Vaedren and as he lifted his hand upward, the tendril began to lift the thug off the alleyway floor. The thug reached for the strand of strange flesh and tried to loosen it up, but the pressure only tightened as Vaedren slowly hoisted the thug up.

Soon Vaedren had gotten within arms length of the goon. It was hard to tell, but the man knew the demon was smiling at him. Without any sort of warning, Vaedren began to throw punch after punch into the mans gut. He was purposefully pulling his punches to maximize the amount of fun he could have with this low life, all the while using Clair’s panicked laughter to fuel his rage.

Clair would have continued giggling if not for the resounding noise that surrounded her, and how the pain in her neck became a dull throb, in fact, as her fingers rubbed along the skin of her neck, it felt smooth, wet but smooth, like no cut had been there before. Eye sight sharpening to her surroundings, Clair used the wall to stand herself up and looked around, gasping in surprise and horror when she saw the body without a head, recognizing by the clothes that the body with the missing head was one of the thugs... She felt bile rise to her throat as she turned away from the gruesome sight, a hand covering her mouth. Who would do such a thing... Snapping her head up to the horrific realization that she knew what would do it. She turned to the mass of red and black, which was now hanging the larger thug, repeatedly punching the man.

She focused her disgust on the creature rather then the bloody sight that had etched itself into her memory. She wanted to slap them, tell them how this was just wrong, but she was scared, afraid of it. Scared of what it was and what it could do. She tried to muster up the magical mist she controlled but found her will lacking to rise against it, and seemingly, the mist she did rise felt weak with it, as if it shared her will, and felt defeat, a sense that it could not continue, just like she felt...

Of course, nothing was ever easy. "What the fuck is that thing?" She heard the voice, alarmed and heavy come from the entrance of the alleyway, and she turned her face to see a collected group of men, armed with bats and guns, dressed similar to the two thugs that she had come for. Knowing that what they saw, they would ether feel as frightened as she was or enraged at the death of their comrade and the torture that was being inflicted on the other one. With a heavy heart, Clair knew if any of them charged, the monster would no doubt use the excuse to exact his own version of justice, and Clair knew she would not be able to stand it, and that she would be worse then them to run away and let it happen.

Not willing to let anyone else die if she could help it, Clair clenched her fists and gathered the mist she had made earlier, more seeming to pour out from her clothes, with a thrust from both of her arms, a wave of mist shot towards the incoming men and slammed into them with enough force to send them all flying back. Turning towards the monster, Clair allowed her mask to form over her face, finding strength in knowing it was there, she started to gather more of the mist and would practically throw the magical power with each thrust of her arms, missiles of blunt forces firing at the demon from her palms, aiming to push the demon back and away from everyone. "Leave them alone!" Clair cried out to it as she kept throwing the mist at him. She couldn't know how well it might work, but she had to have hope, hope was all she had to try and save everyone from this monstrous being, she just had to have the hope that this magical power of hers worked the way she wanted it too. Or risk letting all those behind her die, and that would not be very heroic.

Vaedren continued to physically dominate the thug as he had intended to do all night. Oddly from a glance, the fleshy demon looked almost like a professional boxer in stance. Every punch was thrown with deadly accuracy and just enough force to cause pain but not enough to kill. No, Vaedren wanted this man to suffer a little while longer. The alley continued to echo out every blow as fist collided with flesh and occasionally bone. Vaedren was so dead set on making this man pay for being an awful human being, that it was no surprise that he refused to cease his beating as a group of goons from the club approached the alley.

Using his ability to see out of pretty much every cell of his body, the vile demon only bothered to pass a glance over the group while he continued to throw punches. It was actually part of a scheme he was playing at. If these men were friends of the man he was beating up, then they were probably terrible people to. Refusing to let up on his beating would only prompt the small group to advance into the alleyway where there would be no turning back.

Amid the echoes of the mans groans and Vaedren’s knuckles landing on their mark, Clair had managed to find some resolve and rose to her feet. The crimson demon’s attention now seemed to fixate on the young girl as she began to manifest her power. In his mind he still couldn’t believe that he was stupid enough to not realize that she was the same girl he ran into earlier in the evening. Her forceful removal of the thugs friends was enough to provoke a small mental chuckle from the demon, but that’s where the fun ended as Clair’s anger was now directed at him.

Vaedren began to move out of the patch of the mini mist bullets. His gaze shifted back to the thug who was still in their path, and with a reluctant growl Vaedren manipulated the tendril around the man’s neck and threw him against the wall, Not as hard as he had with the other man’s corpse, but still hard enough to probably break something. Normally Vaedren wouldn’t have minded letting the thug get pummeled by the stray attacks, but Clair was still young and was in the process of trying to figure out her life and identity as a hero. Allowing the thug to be hurt or possibly killed by the mist attacks would have no doubt scared the young girl for the rest of her life, not like anything he had done up to this point hadn't already.

Vaedren turned to the young girl almost seething with anger. “Stupid girl! Don’t get involved! GO HOME!” the Arcadian demon demanded, with no doubt in his mind that his words would fall on deaf ears.

Clair hated it, hated how every shot seemed to miss, hated that she let her anger out. She always hated anger, thought it was a silly emotion, of course she had no reason to be angry, not when she was just a protected girl who was too afraid to talk to anyone but her parents. Yet.. She hated that part of her, that shyness she lived with all her life. Even now as each missile of mist passed harmlessly by the demon, dissipating into the air or clashing with a wall, she was afraid she would break down to a whimper.

So, what was she going to do? The man that had been tortured had been thrown into the wall, a sickening crack coming with it. She wasn't impractical, she knew the man had stuck a knife at her throat, had possibly far worse plans then her mind wished to imagine. But he was still a man. And when the monster yelled at her to go home, in the scary voice he had, part of her wished to be compelled by it. But every other part of her, was not.

Letting her arms fall to her side, Clair stared hard at the red monster, knowing that under the muscle and teeth and... everything. Was a man. There had to be. "Go home? Yea. Why me?" Clair asked as she stepped towards the man behind the red, mist pouring from the sleeves of her arms. "The men behind me should go home too." Clair stepped towards the monster again, mist seeming to pour from her skirt. "You want justice? These men don't deserve death. Punishment, yes. But death? You're not dealing out justice.. That's just murder." Clair stepped towards the demon one final time, almost within arms reach of them. The mist that had been pouring from her clothes had spread throughout the whole alleyway now, rising into the air, if one dared to notice, it would take a shade darker then the pure white it had been every time, grey rather then the pristine white it had been as if it was changing to the girls words, which shook with anger and fear.

"A blind woman did more good today then you will ever do killing people just because they've done something bad. Yes, that man did something bad, yes he might do more. I know that. Nothing is perfect in dealing with it. But he should learn from a cell or just a really bad hit to the head. Not..." Clair almost motioned to the headless man but stopped herself, not willing to look at the dead man once more.. "Just... Please. In the end, a few drugs isn't worth these men losing their heads... I'm not even worth these men dying."

And just like that, the darkened mist that had surrounded all of them began to die down, falling back towards Clair, as if her clothes were a vacuum and the only thing being drawn in was the mist that had begun to take back it's clear and pure form. And Clair herself slid to her knees, exhausted for some reason, maybe it was this whole ideal, but she managed to find the strength to raise her hands to her ears and cover them. If nothing worked, if her words didn't reach him, from what had been proven, she couldn't stop this being, so she held her ears tight, hoping she wouldn't be able to hear the screams.

Clair had managed to muster up enough courage to confront Vaedren, something he was both proud and worried about. Still the demon couldn’t quite understand what she was so angry about. These men were savages, they framed her for a crime they had committed. Vaedren had seen their rap sheets when Jett picked them up from the police station. Both men were repeat offenders, no amount of prison time was going to correct their attitudes. These men were incapable of having a change of heart and the only option left was for them to be taken off the streets.

Though Clair had found confidence in herself and she had managed to bring herself to approach the demon, Vaedren would not allow a girl that was vastly younger that him, tell him how the world worked. “These men deserve far worse than death. They rape, peddle drugs, and frame innocent people for crimes they commit. They have zero regard for life, and if they aren’t willing to respect life then they don’t deserve to liiiiiiive” Vaedren’s normally high pitched voice turned to a low growl as he responded to Clair.

Her entire demeanor had changed once again. It was almost as if it took all her strength to confront Vaedren about his morals and the wrongful acts he was committing here in the alley. As she slid to her knees small groans of pain and slight whimpers alerted the crimson demon of the beaten thugs presence. Vaedren wasn’t much for listening to anyone except Jett, but after seeing Clair try to stand up on her own, he found a small degree of respect for her. Even if she had completely ignored Jett’s warning. That being said, Vaedren moved over to the thug and grabbed him by the top of the head, much in a similar fashion to how he had manhandled the now headless thug.

The familiar grip was more than enough to strike the man with fear and panic. Despite his injuries he tried to wiggle free and pleaded for his life. Vaedren lifted a single finger to his mouth, motioning for the thug to be quite. The man quit his crying almost instantly out of fear for what the monster would do to him if he didn’t comply. Vaedren proceeded to drag the man over to Clair and stood him up right in front of her. “Apologize….NOW!”

“I…I…I’m sor-” before the man could finish his apology a single gun shot rang out. The man fell silent as blood tickled down a small hole in his head. Vaedren peered out from behind the body partially caught off guard by what had just happened. Here he was willing to give the man a second chance and to abide by Clair’s wishes, and yet in the end, the man had died anyway. When Vaedren looked to the end of the alley he noticed the group of thugs Clair had knocked down was now accompanied by the very large man from earlier.

“I’ll be damned if one of my men is going to be reduced to a whimpering, snot infested puddle of piss by some little girl and what ever you are.” the man’s deep voice boomed.

If Clair hadn't wasted all the bravery she had just used and wasted the moment before, she would have retorted. She knew what the meta said was sensible. It was wrong to think such, yes. But it was... He wasn't always right. Had she not listened to her when she stated such? Not all of them had zero attachment to human life. That just wasn't true, cause if it was. Then what was the point. Human greed could not be so powerful that every person who was a criminal had zero empathy for others. Not everyone.

As she held her ears, watching the red skinned monster move past her, she waited. Only she hadn't heard anything at first. But then she did, a gunshot. The monster did not, use, guns. Standing to her feet, Clair turned to face man who had shot his gun, his gang right behind him, having recovered from her mist attack. Wasting her effort to remove them. But she wasn't focused on that, she was focused on the fact that the man that was held by the meta.. Was dead, not because of who she thought, but someone else, someone who had the stupidest reason to kill. Just because he was scared? Just because he was beaten to a pulp and had his life threatened and had every right to cry?

She was right. Not everyone was truly bad. Every evil action has a reason for becoming such, a past selection of actions and reactions that led to that one action... The man with the deep voice. His action... The meta was right as well. And as much as she hated to even think that, she felt nothing but loathing for the mob's leader. She promised herself she wouldn't let anyone else die if she could help it. And he just...

Walking behind the the red skinned meta, Clair would timidly went to tap his shoulder but held herself back, not wanting to touch the man, being close to him in her state was already a push. So, she began to Quickly speak before he acted like she knew he would. And she wouldn't stop him. That and guns scared her, being behind him just made her feel safer. "Mr. Don't kill them. But that one... Beat him. Break him bad enough. And you'll find the justice will be..." She hated every thought that went into this word, she hated the mob leader even more. "Sweeter." She stated, stepping back. She still felt tired, but the rush of the gunshot, the anger she felt was enough to keep her standing, waiting. Wanting. Did that make her greedy too? To want ones pain to become bad enough, maybe. But she wasn't perfect, she knew that all to well, and maybe in time she would learn how to balance all this out, all these emotions she felt. But right now, anger and greed and fear was all she felt...

There was also a reason in all this emotion, already if the police hadn't been called because of the meta's actions, a gunshot would certainly be the icing on the cake, that man killed someone with a gun, a gun he held, which would have his finger prints all over it. If he was beaten, broken. Found with the gun, the bullet casing would match the one in... The recently deceased man. She was shy, angry, all these things. But she was still smart and watched a lot of cop shows, a lot of shows in general. Dramas. Who knew they were so educational in the line of heroism.

Vaedren reared his ugly head in Clair’s direction obviously not to thrilled that the girl, despite all she had seen him do, thought she could tell him what to do. Vaedren allowed the crooks body to collapse to the floor as brushed past Clair. He peered back at her over his shoulder briefly before turning his attention to the large man. “I don’t take orders from you.” he said to Clair. “Why did you kill him? You took all our fun away!”

The large man looked at the monster and scoffed. “I didn’t shoot him. This man here did.” the rather dapper man raised a gloved hand to Vaedren and Clair before motioning to one of the thugs at his side. “You don’t honestly think I’m dumb enough to commit a murder near my own club do you? I run an empire. I know my way around the law. If anyone is at fault here, it’s you two for attacking my associates.”

Vaedren’s hand tightened into a fist, and he bared his teeth at the criminal boss. “You! No REGARD FOR LIFE! WE WILL BUILD A NEW EMPIRE ON THE ASHES OF YOURS!” The man seemed completely disinterested with the vile demon and waved his hands forward, motioning for his men to engage the beast. The men rushed forward with their bats and pipes in hand, the fear they had shown before was completely replaced with conviction and honor for their boss as they rushed Vaedren.

As much as the crimson demon wanted to eviscerate the men, his number one priority was protecting Clair. Vaedren quickly generated and piled on extra mass which made him about as large as the crime boss, if not bigger. This was an effort on his part to eliminate the amount of space the thugs had to get past him, and for the most part it worked as he was able to brush half the group aside with one of his large arms. Vaedren’s focus wasn’t on the fodder, but rather their leader. He wasn’t going to let the man get away with what he had pulled. The fact that he was the man in charge of the crooks that framed Clair only served to enrage Vaedren more.

With another swing of the arm the large demon brushed aside the other half of the group unconcerned with the status of their mortality. With a large roar, several tendrils shot out of Vaedren’s body in an attempt to seize the big man. Things didn’t go exactly as he had planned however. As the tendrils got within arms length of the mob boss, he grabbed a hold of one and gave a very forceful tug. Vaedren was not expecting the mob boss to have any sort of super strength, and in hindsight he probably should have considering the man’s stature but nevertheless the crimson demon found himself flying through the air.

Vaedren landed with a hard thud on the ground of the alleyway before sliding several more feet. The large man the lifted his foot and stomped down on Vaedren’s head, pinning him in place. “What are you? I’m curious to know, so I can write it down in my book of achievements when I crush you into the dirt.” He then looked up to his goons as they all staggered to their feet. With a nod of the head, the men turned to face Clair.

Clair just glared at the man, hatred growing with every awful word that came from his mouth. It didn't help that the red meta was ignoring her, which should not have come as a surprise to her, yet it still stung. Cause if he wasn't listening, then he was going to do his own thing and his own thing was killing. However, killing was not yet now as his body began to expand and grow, almost as if covering the entire alleyway so that she could not see the mob anymore.

Stepping back in annoyance, Clair could only sit and wait for the being to be done, swinging arms producing unseen but heard grunts and surprised chortles. From men that opposed the red meta, she held her hands over her face, just... She felt tired, so tired. This night had just done everything it could to drain her. Hoping that the mobster would be dealt with non lethally at the very least, Clair widened her eyes in surprised as the red meta, one she assumed would be able to handle this with no problem, was flung towards the head mobster, sliding along the ground before being pinned by the mans foot.

And then with a nod, the men that had been knocked aside all seemed to turn to her. Clair was horrified to have so many faces on her, and she quickly manifested the mask to her face, feeling more comfortable with all the staring faces coming towards her. She knew she couldn't do nothing with what was happening, she needed to act, to help the meta. So she rose her hands and gathered mist to them, more mist poured all around her and she swung her arms forward with not as much force as she could have used, the mist seeming to take a physical form in it's misty state as it clashed with several of the men, causing them to be flung back. She flung her other arm and did the same, more men being knocked to the ground and thrown back.

She was about to do it again, gathering more mist around her arms, but was stopped when a loud bang spread throughout the alleyway and a incredible pain shot though her stomach. Stopping her. It took her a moment to register what had happened and she felt her legs grow weak, falling to them, her mist covered hands going to her stomach. She felt blood for a moment, welling around the cut in her shirt where a bullet had shot though, but the pain was dulling itself, and the next moment she felt something hot pass her skin and fall to the ground, causing her to finally realize that... She healed. Wow she should have really found the limits of these new powers before she did anything. Too late now, no now. She had to use the ore offensive powers of hers to do something.

Standing back to her feet, she looked forward to the men still on the ground from the constant punishment they had been suffering over the past few minutes, and the ones standing or just getting up, some looking mildly surprised by the girl standing before relaxing, as someone who regenerates was obviously not the most surprising thing. But she used the few seconds to throw her arms forward, a array of mist wide spread shot along the ground under the feet of every thug still standing, and even those still on the ground. With the mist in place, Clair gave a yell as she threw both her arms upwards, her fist clenched as she focused the mist into it's forceful state and every thug between her and the mob boss shot into the air by several feet before falling back to the ground, the sounds of bodies hitting the ground repeated for a few seconds before it finally stopped. And when they were all on the ground, Clair once again covered them in her mist, throwing her arms down so that they were pinned to the ground, unable to get up if they were even capable.

She wanted to help the red meta, but she knew it was capable of handing itself, so she had to have faith it would do what it needed to do, and that the mobster would not proceed to shoot her while she focused on keeping his men pinned to the ground.

Vaedren struggled to free himself out from under the large man’s foot. For some reason he was finding it really hard to break free from this guys grip and it was beginning to wear the demon thin. Vaedren scratched and clawed at the ground as he watched Clair attempt to take on the small horde of mindless minions. His aggravation was ever so apparent in his struggle to free himself. This vulnerable position Vaedren found himself, left a sour taste in his mouth, and it reminded him of his meeting with Jett. To be completely honest the amount of similarities occurrence in right now, compared to back then were disturbingly close.

A loud bang echoed throughout the alleyway, and Vaedren felt a sensation he thought he’d never feel. His entire body went cold, as if all the blood had just fled his body. Through the mass of goons, Vaedren could see Clair, a small red stain on her shirt was the only thing the demon needed to see. In that very moment he felt he had failed in more ways than one. Seeing the young girl fall to the ground left a terrifying vision implanted in his mind. What if that was Jett? What if Jett found out he let Clair die? How could he have let this happen?

The questions flew around Vaedren’s mind as if they had been picked up by a hurricane and were being trashed about. The large man had bent in to say something cleaver, but by this point, Vaedren’s fear was changing, transforming. It wasn’t fear any more, it was all out rage. Vaedren had not felt this angry in a very long time, and just being in this state of mind cause his blood to boil. Steam began to rise off his body. He slammed both of his hand into the pavement at his sides and to the Mobster’s surprise, Vaedren began to push himself off the ground.

The large man lifted his foot in an attempt to bring it crashing down on the demon, but Vaedren exploded off the ground, which send the now unbalanced man flying into the street. Vaedren reared his ugly head in the direction of the thugs who were all pinned to the ground by….mist? Vaedren’s gaze drifted up from their bodies and found Clair, alive and quite well, exhausted from the looks of it, but otherwise fine, as if she had never even been shot. Seeing the young girl alive soothed Vaedren’s savage heart only briefly. She may have been alive, but these man soon wouldn't be, not if the crimson beast had anything to say about it.

Vaedren let loose a blood curdling roar as the steam continued to raise off his body. In the process of scaring the hell out of anyone still in the area, Vaedren’s mass increased again, this time he was far larger than the mob boss, as a matter of fact, he towered over the large man. With a mighty slam of his foot, an eruption of fleshy spikes emerged out from under each of the thugs. The force tore through each of their bodies which caused a fresh coat of blood to splatter all over the walls of the alleyway. Bodies and parts that once belonged to them littered the floor of the alley. Man torn in half, others being hoisted up by the spikes like the scene after a battle with Vlad the impaler.

By this point the large man had recovered from being knocked flat on his ass. He couldn’t believe the sight before him. It didn’t bring him fear like one would have thought, no instead it posed a problem. This thing, this demon was a problem, one that would haunt him and cause him nothing but agony if he didn’t handle things right here and now. Reaching into his coat pocket, the large man produced a small inhaler with a glowing orange liquid. After taking a puff from the inhaler, the mans body seemed to bold up, veins so stressed they looked like they could blow at any moment. “You have made a very grave error in judgment. You should have taken the girl and left when you had the chance.” he said calmly as he began to roll up his sleeves.

“We will rend your flesh from the bone, CRUSH YOU INTO DUST!” Vaedren retorted, letting out one more battle cry.

Clair at first was happy, the meta had broken free, seemed to gather more mass. It was going to escape and kick that man right in the ass. Do worse, of course, she knew that. But she wasn't sure what to feel about the man who killed his own men so... Mercilessly. But it was from there, that Clair realized her mistake, as she had to cover her ears when the red meta gave a inhuman scream, a roar so shivering she could feel her hairs tingle. She continued to watch, her mist momentary relieved of her power with her arms covering her ears, only it didn't matter anymore. With a single stomp, all of the men were suddenly shot into the air and Clair at first was confused, she hadn't used the mist yet, to raise it into the air and bring the men with it. It wasn't till she heard the thunk of wet flesh hitting somewhere in front of her to the right that she realized that fleshy tendrils rose from the ground, and atop them, were all the men she had made useless mere seconds ago.

Some of them were bleeding from the chest, crying. Some were silent and still, others were missing parts of their body, the missing parts on the floor. Clair found her voice was gone, she was surrounded by blood and death and she couldn't find her voice. Yet her mouth was wide open and looked poised to release a scream from under her mask, yet not a sound came out. What was it, she wondered at that moment. The surprise of the instantaneous murders. Maybe all the pain and her tired self just sapped her of all her strength to let loose a scream. So she stood there for a few seconds, looking dumbfounded, standing in the midst of an alleyway that was now pooling with blood and she could not feel. Feel scared, or sad or angry. Just... Cold. She didn't know if she should thank this cold feeling or hate it, hate it for taking away all the emotions she should be feeling right now. She had... She had disabled them... They were not a threat. And he... He just.

Clair looked to the mob boss and the red monster, thinking nothing less of him. He was just that, a monster. He just.. He just killed all these people, defenseless people, defeated people. Was it because of her? Because she was injured? She felt her stomach and felt no wound, wet blood stuck to her skin and she felt disgusted as it stuck to her fingers when she brushed over it. She was not in any trouble... It knew she was fine, otherwise the men would not have been on the ground. He, it. They were a monster. All these thoughts that it had to have had a conscious somewhere inside that mass of muscle were gone now, she considered it a stupid choice of hers to think such in the first place. She should have realized When he killed the first man. This thing was a monster, the mobster was equally a monster. He must have been the only reason all these men mindlessly followed orders that led to there deaths. He was strong, he killed mindlessly and he was smart. You did not escape such a powerful combo so easily once you were in. Even she could see that now. It was this thought that helped the cold stay in place, and keep the emotions out, for if they took over now. She would break, she would fall to her knees and cry as the blood of men covered her.

And with the cold, the thoughts, she looked at the two monsters in-front of her, watching them. Watching whatever they did as monsters. And she began to let loose the power whiten her, the mist that was granted to her from the artifact that hung around her neck poured all around her, from her clothes, from her face and her skin and her hands. If ether of the two monster even considered to pay attention to the young girl at this point, they would have seen how the mist twirled and spun all around her, hanging off her like a thick coat, she kept gathering her power as she watched them, waited. She was sick of all this death, just tired of all of it. And she wanted it stopped. If she could, she would, she will stop it the best she could.

Screams of terror filled the street as many of the nightclubs patrons had rushed out into the street the moment they had heard the earlier gun shot and were now witness to the terror that was the enraged Vaedren. The crimson demon dropped to all fours and rushed the large mob boss like some rabid animal. Vaedren’s speed was something the large man couldn’t quite keep up with and took a vicious spear to the ribs. The force of the impact was enough to drop the man down on his back. Vaedren was running solely on pure rage by this point. All he truly cared about was pummeling the smug look off of the big man’s face.

After knocking the unbelievably large man down, Vaedren scrambled to climb on top of him to commence said pummeling, but where Vaedren had surprised the boss with his speed, the Large man caught Vaedren off guard as well. Just as the overgrown demon was getting into position, a pair of large feet slammed into Vaedren’s chest, launching him skyward. With a loud bang Vaedren collided with the sidewalk at the entrance to the alleyway. He let out a small groan but rose to his feet just as fast as he had been knocked down.

“Vile creature! You dare knock me down! You’ll pay dearly for that.” the large man spat as he launched himself at Vaedren, fist drawn back and poised to strike. As the massive fist rocketed forward, the black goo writhing around Vaedren’s body, converged on his head where it immediately solidified. There was another loud thud, this time followed by the sound of crunching bones. The large staggered away from Vaedren, and it was made apparent that his hand was broken.

The man let out a grunt through clinched teeth. He cradled his hand and stared at the crimson beast with great disdain. The black goo retreated from Vaedren’s head and went back to its natural state of writhing around his body. Because of his freakish maw, it was hard to tell, but Vaedren was literally grinning from ear to ear as he began to slowly advance at the man. “Whatsssss the matter fat man! I thought you were going to make us payyyyyyy.” Vaedren was feeling overly confident and it was showing as he approached the large man with his arms wide open. “Go on. Just try to pound us fat man!”

The excessive name calling was beginning to get on the bosses nerves and it was showing. He was almost visibly red with anger as this strange creature he had never seen before in his life was causing him so much trouble. The large man let out another groan that he tried to hold back as the bones in his shattered hand began to reset and heal. He used the massive size of his hands to hide this fact from the creature as it drew closer and closer, until it was finally within arms reach.

What came next was something that Vaedren was not expecting, namely because he was pretty sure he had won this fight. The large man’s hand collided with Vaedren’s jaw with so much force that the shock wave could be seen rippling throughout Vaedren’s malleable body. The crimson demon found himself flying through the air once more, this time crashing down into the ground a few feet in front of Clair.

Now that the momentum seemed to be in his favor, the large man began to slowly march back into the alleyway after his prey.

As the two fought, Clair found it hard to see as the white mist, the magical power she knew so little about, surrounded her and seemed to grow stronger and denser, draining her of her energy all the same, not that she had much to share with the amulet at this point. Still, she found that when her mind was sharp and focused on a singular objective, tiredness seemed to be irrelevant. Of course tiredness seemed to be irrelevant as well when you get shot and find the bullet is pushed out of your stomach, the skin itself sewing back up as if she was never shot.

A loud thud took her away from thought and she looked forward, just a shadow in a ever growing mist, but she could see the shadows of the two she hated most right now. The two very large men were only so far away from her. Moving her hands to part the mist in front of her masked face, she could see that the red monster was on the ground, judging from the monstrous strength both seemed to share, the red monsters willingness to use sharp tendrils, she assumed they had to both also share a healing like her own. Good.

Throwing her arms wide, the large gathering of the mist split in two, becoming a wall that created a hallway, sticking her on one end, the mob boss on the other and the red monster in the middle. Clenching her fists, Clair pushed the mist towards the wall of the buildings, feeling resistance as body's began to pile onto it, blood seemingly would sweep away except for whatever refused to be moved from the ground. Pressing the mist and body's against the walls. Clair would look to the mob boss who had so far ignored her, focused on the monster. She hated this man, hated the thing only a few feet in front of her, she hated the man more.

With a yell, she would punch the air to her sides, and like the mist was commanded, it pushed the buildings, moving them with a horrid sound of things breaking and weight being moved when it shouldn't be and it was not moved slowly, the mist seemed to heave no resistance from the buildings they pushed several feet away. With the extra space, Clair stepped forward and flung one of her arms at the mobster boss, the massive wall of mist moved from the position that it had moved the house to, leaving behind a fairly cracked wall and even worse looking body's as it pushed to strike the man with it's wide radius. Her other hand fell to her side and the large wall of mist moved to her, shaping itself into a swirling coat that began to move around her, ready to be used.

Turning her face to the red monster, Clair held up her hand and the mist rose, forming into a pillar that she aimed at him. "...You... Are a Monster. I suppose you already know that." Clair said no more as she let her arm fall to her side, the mist falling back to it's old routine. She didn't know what she wanted to do with him, for as much as she wanted to hurt him... He was simply.. He was... He was a monster. A monster for monsters. God she wanted a police siren to sound in the distance. She just wanted this to end. She almost forgot about the mobster boss, but decided that this... thing, man, monster, meta. Wouldn't let the mobster near her, he had already proven that, plus she did send that mist at him and that seemed to have done something to the buildings. She hoped it did the same to him.

Vaedren let out a low growl as he lifted his upper body off the pavement. Just as Vaedren had done moments ago, the mob boss now slowly advanced down the alley way with his arms slightly parted. He was just begging for the crimson monster to attack him again. The crimson demon shot Clair a glance, noticing that she was surprisingly still conscious after taking a bullet to the gut. Upon further inspection, Vaedren spotted the bullet casing laying on the ground next to the young girls leg. He mental let out a sigh of relief as he rose to his feet ready to begin round two with the large mob boss.

Hissing noises began to fill the air as steam seemingly vented from Vaedren’s large body. The crimson demon slowly shrunk back down to his original size. He wasn’t tired, as a matter of fact he couldn’t fatigue like most beings. Instead, Vaedren reduced his size to give himself the speed advantage over the large mobster. His larger size slowed him down to much, he realized that after taking the shot to the jaw that put him on his ass. He could outwit this fat guy, he had centuries of combat experience and he was an Arcadian demon, this mobster was just that, a mobster, a lowly human.

Vaedren began to match the large man’s footsteps stride for stride but came to an abrupt stop when he noticed the mist expand from Clair’s body behind him. The alleyway’s walls were quickly blanketed by the thick mist but it didn’t deter the large man from continuing his march. Sounds of the corpses being crushed even further beyond recognition soon began to fill the night air, only to be overtaken by the inhuman groans the two buildings on either side of the alley began to make.

The pressure being exuded by Clair’s mist caused the brick walls to crack and soon give way under the stress. There was a sudden blast aimed at the boss that he confidently tried to withstand, only to have his large bulbous body flung out into the street. As he tumbled into the road, the sound of sirens rang out in the distance, growing closer by the minute. Though it was hard to see, the large man began to grin from ear to ear. Vaedren noticed the sirens as well, that wasn’t a good sign. Hearing Clair call him a monster, Vaedren reared his ugly head in the young girls direction. “We don’t need your sass child! Now get out of here before the police arrive!”

Claire stared down the head of the monster, resisting to wince at it's appearance, she instead let out a small sigh and let go of her focus, the mist vanishing into her clothes. "You're good.. At not listening. Aren't you." She all but whispered to herself as she turned away from the monster and the mobster, beginning to walk away from the mess that was tonight. She made a few steps before feeling weak and collapsing to her knees for a moment, a reminder of her body's exhaustion, but she found the strength to stand herself up and continue away. Taking heed of the red monster's words. Police, that was a good sign... But she didn't want to be here when they arrived, she didn't want to go though that whole ideal again. She was just... Just so tired.

As Clair found a steady rhythm of steps, the sound music to her ears compared to the sounds she heard earlier tonight. She thought long about everything... How she found the will to keep moving despite everything, and the more she thought about it, the more she realized that want to cry over the deaths of all those men she didn't know die down. She tried to connect it to panic, to whatever part of her she could, to rationalize this unemphatic response but she couldn't.

In fact, a part of her began to accept it, like this was normal. Because it was.. Death was like the passing of the day, from light to darkness and while you can't stop it, you can delay it, and with this thought, one that calmed Clair stuck to her as she made her way home. Unaware of why this thought was so calming and so... right. Just that it was... That and she'd have to go for a shower to remove the smell of death and clean the blood that had stuck to her though this whole ordeal.

For a first encounter in her beginning career as a better person.. Clair admitted this was the worst case, that this was something she never wanted to repeat ever again... But for all the horror, it taught her, taught her things she never would have learned in any other situation. And with this calming feeling that stopped her from breaking down. The only thing she could do was take this lesson in stride and move on. To hopefully a better tomorrow.