Blind Justice? (Shadowoof)

A small bit of light trickled through the half open blinds of Jett’s office. Her fingers quickly glided over a piece of paper that was part of a file that had been thrust upon her desk the second she had sat down to work. She slightly groaned and bit the inside of her lip as she read the file. As the offices sole lawyer that handled metahuman cases, Jett was usually a very busy woman. Today seemed like it was going to be no different as she continued to feel over the report. The client was a young girl who had been busted for a breaking and entering case.

From what the report said, the young girl had been caught in an alleyway fleeing from the back entrance of a pharmacy. Two eye witnesses had seen the young girl and had reported her to the police. For reasons unknown the two men asked to remain anonymous, but that wasn’t going to fly with Jett. Her face contorted into a scowl as she continued to read the rest of the report. She didn’t have much time to waste either as she had to be at the courthouse to represent the girl in just a few hours. “Somethings fishy with this one….We can smell it!” A voice said over Jett’s shoulder. “Yeah there’s definitely a lot more here than meets the eye…” the two sat in awkward silence before both let out a small chuckle at Jett’s terrible pun.

After breezing through the file, Jett left her office and headed down to the police station that had handled the arrest. Once there she managed to persuade the police to give her a copy of the report as well as the names of the two men that had reported the incident. All the cops that Jett had to deal were extremely reluctant to hand out any sort of information pertaining to the case. The young woman would not be underestimated however, and eventually she’d get her hands on the information she needed albeit wasn’t in braille. Lucky for her she had a guardian demon with a perfectly good set of eyes.

Jett would catch a cab to the courthouse and Vaedren would read the report she had gotten from the police station to her. As she had suspected, the two key witnesses were actually career criminals both of whom had managed to fool the police and pin their nefarious crime on a young unsuspecting girl. With this information in had, Jett confidently stormed into the courthouse and easily won her case. Landing a victory here was a big boost in morale for Jett and as she left the courthouse along side her client, she reached out to the girl. Her arm clumsily waved around in the air until it landed on its target. Jett stared in the direction she assumed the girls face was, which was way off, and smiled. “Hey look. I know I’m not your parents or anything, but take it easy on the whole hero thing yeah? Just because you have powers doesn’t give you a free pass to just stop any crime you come across. I know it sucks and you want to do the right thing, but if you don’t follow the law this kind of thing will happen. Or worse you could get hurt. Just do me a favor and stay out of trouble ok?”

Today had been a horrible day, let's start. She had tried to be a hero for the first time. That didn't work. Pretty obvious because she was now just leaving a court room, something that was silent on the most part, not a lot of material on court cases these days. Which was good because Clair hated cameras, and if her parents were to catch wind of this. She was lucky this lawyer came in, Jett.

After the embarrassing event, Jett led her out of the building. Before she thought herself away from everything, she felt a hand on her shoulder and tensed, but calmed down a little when Jett spoke up, not realizing that she wasn't looking her way because Clair herself was looking at the ground. Nodding her head to Jett's words, she knew it was a lot to take in. But she also knew that as much as she wanted to thank this woman in helping her the way she did, she couldn't. She had just decided that she wasn't going to hide anymore... She was going to be stronger, she was going to be better. And to be better. She needed to bring those criminals to justice for what they did to the store and what they did to her. And she couldn't do that if she just sat down and did nothing, this necklace gave her a purpose, she was going to be a hero! "Thank... Thank you Jett. I'll try." Clair said very softly, moving away from Jett, planning on what she was going to do next. Right after she got home and made sure her parents did not know anything about her being a hero of it.

Later that day

Clair found that finding people was not the easiest thing to do. She didn't have a car, and she certainly couldn't fly or jump, so getting around meant... walking. Or jogging. But jogging could be embarrassing, so could walking, people starring at you... She felt uncomfortable in her skater skirt with bike shorts under, just showing, a plain white t-shirt on top. Was she too normal, too anything. Who knew just dressing for the job could be so... so... Painful. Clair stuck to walking near the area of the clinic where she was wrongly arrested at, hoping that maybe the men she had been chasing would maybe stick around as she had seemed to interrupt them, not that she didn't move outwards, but she stayed in the general area. Hoping that at the very least, she could stop them this time. If she was going to be a hero, well. She couldn't let her first criminals get away the way they did. She had to stop them, or she would never let herself forget it, for how could she stop other villains if she didn't stop these ones. Simple thinking sure, but it was the only thinking she had.

After finishing up with her one case for the day, Jett had returned to her office where she had Vaedren assist her in putting away and organizing all the files she had sprawled out across her desk. Before coming into contact and teaming up with Vaedren, Jett’s office looked like a tornado had torn through it. Luckily now she had a spare pare of eyes. Though they weren’t her, Vaedren was extremely good at giving directions. Jett still moved around her office clumsily until finally putting away all of the rogue files. Sliding the top drawer of her filing cabinet shut, Jett crabbed her coat off the back of her chair and flung it over her shoulders.

Jett followed her daily routine as soon as she had clocked out. After leaving the office, she made her way through the ever inconsiderate mob of people that lined the side walk until she made her way to the corner where a small Chinese take out place rested. Jett would proceed to enter the building and order a two item combo to go. She frequented this place so often that the young woman was always given a warm greeting when she entered. She had also been here so many times that the workers already knew what she wanted and would have her food ready to go by the time she walked in the door.

Finally after leaving the little restaurant, Jett would make her way back to her apartment. Once she was back in the safety of her home she’d throw her bag on the table by the door, hang up her coat, and then sit down at the bar, that blocked off the kitchen from the living room, and eat her food. Jett’s life was pretty mundane even with all the different challenges she faced with her cases. Jett was just a plain old person, the same could not be said for her extra-dimensional partner. Jett could be considered to be a bit too trusting, especially when it came to Vaedren. She knew he was a living being and deserved his own time to do things he wanted. She couldn’t willingly bring herself to keep another living being cooped up all day, and as such she allowed Vaedren time everyday to take over and roam the city. There were ground rules of course and despite his best efforts to abide by them, Vaedren always found himself giving into his baser emotions, and tonight would be no different.

After taking over and morph into his full glory, Vaedren would leave Jett’s apartment and sneak into her office back at work. After making his way into Jett’s office he’d open up the filing cabinet and retrieve the file for the case Jett had handled earlier. The two thugs had set up an innocent girl and managed to slip away in the confusion, allowing them to get off the hook for a crime. Vaedren did not like this and although the girl had been saved in court by Jett, it was this demons turn to enact his own form of justice. “We will see to it, that justice is truly served!” the demon growled as he closed the cabinet drawer and made his way back to the window he had entered though.

Leaving the office, Vaedren would make his way to the alley way that the altercation had occurred. As soon as he arrived he heard the sound of an old engine rumbling. This brought his attention to a beat up looking van that suspiciously rolled down the alley. Dropping down to ground level, Vaedren would lean up against the wall opposite the back door to the pharmacy and would turn invisible. His ambush was set, it was all up to the thugs to walk right into it now. Vaedren salivated at the thought of the carnage he was about to unleash on the alley.

With each step, worry grew, every action felt like it mattered to Clair, she even began to fuss with her clothing, eventually taking a scrunchy out to tie her hair into what could pass for an acceptable on the move pony tail. With that done, she headed back to the pharmacy, more worry filled her, what if they didn't come? What if they were elsewhere, doing harm all because she failed to stop them the first time? She hated the mere thought of it, yet she had to accept that it could very well mean true. The only bright side? Maybe someone with better skills then her could stop them with no blunders at all.

Yet secretly, she hoped it wasn't true, she wanted them to come back, she wanted to them to appear, even if the thought scared her, it also... Excited? No, appeased her. Yes, she would feel appeased. Clair's inner rambles came to a stop as she closed towards the pharmacy and heard a engine, an old one... A familiar one, at least, she hoped. Peeking into the alley way that she had blundered her first act of heroics in, she spotted the van that housed the men who had gotten away. Taking cover by the wall, out of sight, Clair took a deep breath in before raising her arm to her face, feeling the strange power gifted to her from the necklace form in the wispy white mist that soon surrounded her, a white like wolf mask also formed along her face from the mask, keeping her face visually hard to recognize, at least, to anyone that wasn't those two evil doers.

Peeking out once more, Clair saw that the men had left there vehicle, moving slowly towards the backdoor they had escaped from a day ago. Reaching a small arm towards them, she commanded the mist forwards, the white mist itself moved along the ground, looking almost natural if not for the fact the night was not a misty one and that the mist itself was almost too white to be normal. Thinking hard, Clair needed them to be distracted, so that she could think of a way to stop them, and so far, her only plan was to use the mist to move there car, they would be distracted by the car moving on it's own, right? With only hope the plan could work, Clair focused the mist on the side of the car and with a quick swing of her arm, she flung it right, the mist working with her also pushed the heavy van a few centimeters to the right, the audible sound of the wheels moving across the ground with the brake on broke the almost eerie silence. Now with the distraction in play, Clair had a few precious seconds to figure out what to do next, for this next part was uncharted territory, she had never thought to use the mist on people before, but did she have any other choice? These next few seconds... They would decide.

Vaedren remained as still as a statue, his camouflage making it nearly impossible to see him as he leaned against the wall. The old van rolled to a stop right where Vaedren expected it to. The no good thugs had returned to the scene of the crime to finish what they started. This time there would be no getting away for them. They would learn the error of their ways right here and now. The two thugs would exit the vehicle wearing ski masks over their faces to conceal their identities. “Conceal your looks all you want, We know who you are.” Vaedren mumbled to himself as he watched the two thugs retrieve some gear from the back of the van and make their way to the back door of the pharmacy.

One thug worked on the door while the other kept a look out. Vaedren was ready to make his move. He pealed himself off the wall slowly and began to keep forward but stopped dead in his tracks when a strange fog crept across the ground before him. It was definitely something the demon had never seen before especially when there was no evidence of their being any fog in their surroundings. Then almost as if it had a will of its own, the fog sprung up and slammed into the side of the van, causing it to slide to the side a few inches.

Thanks to Vaedren’s ability to see from every angle of his body, he was able to pinpoint the source of the mist once and for all. He wouldn’t have time to confront they young girl however as the sudden movement of the van had spooked the two thugs. The one that had been keeping a look out soon realized there was some sort of strange distortion on the wall across from him and immediately reached for the gun he had tucked into the back of his pants. Before he could retrieve the gun however, Vaedren broke stealth and launched himself at the two goons.

“Holy FUCK!” the look out shouted before handing his body slammed against the wall next to the door and pinned to it under Vaedren’s hand, which had grown big enough to keep the man’s torso suppressed under it. Before the other thug could even rise up to face Vaedren, a tendril shot right through his leg keeping him on the ground. Vaedren slowly crept in close to the thug he had pinned to the wall. “Enjoy framing innocents do you? We will see to it that true justice is served.” the demon’s free hand then shot up and tore the mask clean off the man’s head.

The symbiotic vengeance seeker was taken back as the goon beneath the mask was not one of the men that had framed Clair. Vaedren snarled and growled, visibly upset that he had been dooped. This rise in aggression prompted him to remove the mask from the other thug only to find he was different as well. Vaedren let out a roar of frustration before slamming his fist into the wall next to the pinned thug, leaving a decent impact crater. “UGH! WHERE ARE THEY! TELL US, NOOOOOOOOW!”

The plan had worked! The two thieves had turned towards the van, yet much to the dismay of the young girl, she took notice that one had a gun. Instinctual fear took over her at the mere sight of it, leaving her scared for the few short seconds of what could be considered peace compared to what happened next. For what happened next was... Terrifying. A mass of red muscle shaped like a man but lined with a strange black goo.

Clair could only watch as the strange creature appeared from nowhere. Surprising her and the thief who called out, which had momentarily switched her thinking from the scariest looking thing she had seen besides those creatures of darkness to the man's voice. How different it was to the one she had heard before, even with whatever muffle the masked offered, that man was not the same man that had framed her last night. She would have been disheartened if not for the fact that she was annoyed at the fact she was walking around for the wrong people, quickly accepted the fact that even when they are the wrong people, she should be happy she was here to... hopefully stop and catch the thieves this time and also the muscle being with a very scary voice now currently holding one of the thugs against the pharmacy wall, the other had a hole in his leg, created from the strange tendril like thing from the strange things own body.

So much was happening at once that Clair began to feel overwhelmed. It was just meant to be her stopping some thieves, proving to herself she could be a hero, she could be brave. Now a red monster was attacking completely different people, rather then the ones she wanted to catch. She contemplated leaving right now, going away before she was noticed by any of the three in this alleyway but then smacked the side of her head in retaliation to the stupid thought. She was meant to be a hero, hero's didn't run right?

Clenching her fists, mist began to converge around Clair as she held her breath, stepping out into the alleyway, she would thrust both arms towards the man and the monster, moving the mist in-between the two, she would swing her left arm to the left, using the force of the mist to hopefully push the monster back against the wall opposite and away from the man but she also kept her right hand to the right, focusing a portion of the mist into pressing the man against the wall still. Only having two hands, she hoped the injured third man would not move as she kept her focus on her two arms to pin the man and hopefully monster to their respective walls. Somehow finding her voice in the madness. "I... Please. Look..." Clair struggled to find her voice once more, taking was just so... But she had too. She couldn't back away now, she just performed an action and now she had to faced the consequences. "You. Thief. Answer what the monster said. Or I let him go and you end like your friend. Or worse." Clair was lying, she wouldn't do that, but she found her voice and she sounded strong, felt strong. And that had to be enough... It had to be.

The thugs mouth hung open, utterly speechless by the sight that stared him in the face. Sure there were plenty of metahumans running around with strange powers, but this, this took the cake by a mile. Vaedren grew visibly angry as his lip began to quiver, revealing the strange maw behind them. “You will tell us what we want to know, or things will get very unpl-” Before the vicious demon could finish his sentence a strange force slipped between him and his prey. If Vaedren had been less focused on the goon then he would have seen the strange mist coming, but alas here he was now pinned to the wall opposite the thug, his arm still firmly kept the guy from running.

A very meek and timid voice rose up amongst the chaos. Vaedren turned his head to see a small girl with a fox mask standing near the end of the alleyway. The shape shifting demon could have sworn he’d heard that voice before. As the girl spoke, Vaedren shifted around against the mist just to test how much force was being applied to him. He so very badly wanted to be unleashed on the thugs.

The one goon that had been impaled by Vaedren propped himself up against the door of the pharmacy. His entire pant leg was covered in blood from the hole the demon had punched into his leg. More afraid of the demon that the scared girl at the end of the alleyway, he thought it wise to answer the question, after all he valued his life more than those of his coworkers, if you could call them that.

“Look I’m willing to talk, I swear, But I aint got no idea who you’re talking about!” he whimpered as he stared at the demon.

Vaedren let out a low growl. “Ughhhhh You’re lying!”

“No! Please! I swear, I aint got no idea who you’re talking about. Maybe if you had a name or somethin’ I could tell you more!” the thug pleaded.

Vaedren squirmed against the mist before snapping his head in the girls direction. “Girl! Let ussssss go! We can show him who we’re looking for.” Vaedren had photos of the thugs he was searching for safely concealed inside his body. If the wounded man was telling the truth, showing him the pictures could lead the demon to the true culprits.

Clair was hoping, oh so hoping that the men would talk before the monster could manage to break out, luckily, one of them did, the injured one from before, who was willing to share but had no way of sharing. Biting her lip, Clair thought of any way, words to make sure he was telling the truth, even considered using the threat of the monster once more. But she was surprised when the monster spoke up, revealing that they could show the man who they were looking for.

Clair turned her head to the red monster, thinking about what to do for a few short seconds before quickly but timidly nodding her head, lowering her left hand, the mist following suit, releasing the monster from it's pressing hold. "If.. If you hurt him any more then is necessary.. I'll.. I'll pin you to the wall again!" Clair warned the thing as best she could, following him with her hand, the mist silently swirling around the legs of the monster but not interfering. Clair was trying not to let the thing's sight scare her into submission, the way it talked.. What it said... What did it mean by us? The thief? But she wasn't pinning the injured one, her right hand still commanded the mist that held the one pinned to the wall.

Now that she thought about it, it had said something about framing a innocent and was visibly upset when these men turned out to be different to who she and it wanted.. It was just far too strange and confusing to get any good read on it, and violent too. She had to be careful in her dealings with this thing. What a night this was turning out to be.

As the mist eased up off of his chest, Vaedren lowered down to all fours and crawled along the ground like a predator stalking its prey. As he drew closer to the wounded thug, he flashed the masked girl a nasty look. “You’re gonna have to step up your game if you think you can hold us back.” the demon said before crawling uncomfortably close to the scared man. At any moment it looked as though Vaedren was going to just bite the man’s face off. He opened his maw wide, nearly large enough to engulf the thugs head whole. Leaning back just a bit, the visceral looking demon took his right hand and reached way down its own throat.

A second later the arm came flying out of Vaedren’s mouth, two photos were clutched tightly in his hand. Letting out a low growl, Vaedren flashed the photos to the wounded goon. “Look familiar?”

The goon looked at the pictures and then back to the salivating demon. Today was definitely going to be one he remembered. “Y-Yeah, I know those two. They was here earlier this mor-”

“WHERE ARE THEY!” Vaedren shouted, cutting the man off mid sentence.

“I was just getting to that part. Please don’t eat me. The boss was really mad with them for botching the job earlier, so he put them on a different assignment. They’re pulling guard duty at his night club downtown.”

Vaedren’s gaze looked over to the masked girl, who refused to creep any closer. “Well would you look at that, you can be useful. Thanks for the info dirt bag.” Vaedren backed away from the two men, his gaze seemed fixated on the would be hero.

“s-s-s-so were…were free to go right?” the wounded thug asked, the fear still audible in his voice even though the hideous beast had backed off.

Vaedren’s gaze trailed back to the wounded thug, his teeth flashing a menacing grin. “Of course you are. We made a promise after all.” Vaedren the looked at the girl one more time before turning his back to her as he decided to go pay this night club a visit. He took only a few steps before he stopped dead in his tracks. “Of course that was for your life, not his.” with that a sudden spike erupted out of the demons back and shot right through the other thugs skull. With that Vaedren would continue his walk out of the alleyway.

As Clair watched the red monster... Crawl towards the injured man, only to follow though with equally terrifying actions, reaching deep into it's own gullet only to draw out photos. Clair could feel herself shuddering as she watched it commence it's... interrogation, while also considering another strange thing. How did it have photos of the men it was looking for, and if she was right, who she was also looking for.

Maybe this monster wasn't really a monster, just a violent meta, a man who could evolve into this strange.. thing. Or maybe he was turned into this thing by his ability and was forever stuck like this, a curse. Could explain his angry mood, even with her shyness, stuck looking and sounding like that would be a painful experience. But whoever or whatever they were, they got the information, a night club downtown. This was getting more and more difficult, Clair was not sure if she could invade a nightclub, the idea sounded insane!

But then, the red monster began to speak, stating that the men were free to go. Clair was about to object, say that they were still criminals and they should tell the authority's about it, only to hear the last words of the monster. Clair couldn't think as she processed the words. Not his. They sounded strange on her tongue, and when the realization hit her, it was too late, the man she had pinned to the wall was stuck in the head, dead on contact. She could only stare at the lifeless corpse, held up by her mist, the monster leaving without a care, not that Clair cared at that moment, she was too focused on the dead man, mouth open and in a surprised gasp.

Lowering her arms, the mist dropped the corpse with a thunk, blood filling the alleyway from the open hole in the mans head. She wanted to scream, to run away. But a thought nagged her, the injured one lived because he was useful. Gave information, the two she wanted to take down... That... Things targets. They and anyone else that got in it's way were in danger. She had to stop it. Make it see reason or... Or... Walking forward, she came to the injured man, wincing as she stepped in the other mans blood to make it over, bloody footprints left from her shoes. "The nightclub... Where is it."


Knowing that the monster had a head start, Clair began running as soon as she got her answer from the thug, leaving him to sort himself out, ambulance, friends, police, she didn't care. That thing was the biggest problem she had tonight, a killer with moral but a killer none the less, didn't help he had the look of a predator about him. From the way he moved, the way he could just morph his body. Anyone not a meta could die just from being near it. She had to stop it. So she ran, ran as hard as she could, trying to ignore the wet sound of blood mixing with the steps of her shoes with every step...

Vaedren soon realized moments after leaving the alley way that while he was given the location of the nightclub, he wasn’t exactly given an address. As he bounded from rooftop to rooftop, he wondered just how many nightclubs he’d have to visit before he found the right one. His quest for vengeance was once again at best, a game of luck. The demon only had one solid clue to go on, and that was, that the men he was looking for had been pulling guard duty, which meant they had to be standing outside. This would narrow down Vaedren’s search and would reduce the amount of clubs and people he’d have to get close to.

The vile shape shifting demon eventually made his way into the hear of down town. Several nightclubs were concentrated in this area, more specifically they all lined the same block. One of them had to be the place the vengeance seeking demon was looking for. Vaedren’s glanced over the entrance of each club, each one had a bouncer or two posted at the door. He let out a small groan out of annoyance with how difficult this whole ordeal had to be. Vaedren needed to get close to identify the two men he was searching for, but the congregation of loud and obnoxious young adults all lined up for entry to the clubs was going to make that difficult.

As vicious as he was, Vaedren was smart enough to know that just waltzing up to the front door would cause to much commotion and could even lead to his targets getting away. He didn’t want that, and as such he played out a varying number of scenarios in his mind. Each one played out the same every time. He just looked two menacing and out of place, not that it had stopped him before, but he really wanted to see these two men squirm and beg for mercy like the cowards they were.

Vaedren paced back and forth on the rooftop across from one of the bars. He seemed rather fixated on the two guards posted out front still uncertain if they were the ones he was looking for or not, all he needed was proof. Vaedren’s nonexistent prayers would be answered however as a black stretch limo pulled up in front of the club he was keeping an eye on. A rather large man pulled himself out of the car, puzzling the demon as to how a man that large could fit back there in the first place.

The large man approached the two bouncers posted at the door, choosing to give them an earful before entering the club. Vaedren’s mouth began to salivate a bit as he assumed he had just pinpointed his targets. The grotesque demon dropped to all fours, his grip tightened on the ledge of the build, causing the stonework to crack under the force. With a hard kick off the roof and strong pull of his arms, Vaedren went air borne, launching himself clear across the street and onto the roof of the night club. Slinking his way to the edge of the roof, Vaedren gave a peek over the side to confirm that the two bouncers were the men he was looking for.

…...They were.

By the time Clair was done running, she was having trouble taking breaths. She wasn't unfit, no she was just mildly unfit, never really indulging in sport or food, a perfect mix of active and inactive. And right now the inactive was kicking her in the calves. She lost the mask a while ago, feeling that a kid running around with an animal looking mask would be weird, not that a kid running at night was already weird...

Taking in a breath, Clair looked at the nightclubs before her, knowing the address, she found the place quickly, and seeing as the monster hadn't really asked, she had to hope that whatever head start he had was blocked, even if it was only by a few minutes. Still, whatever advantage he had in speed, she had in knowing. Finding the intended club as soon as she got there. But that was just the beginning. She didn't have an Id, so getting in normally would be a problem, she was also underage... At least she assumed that seventeen was underage, she hoped at least.

Then there was the fact she would be facing an entire club of people who were criminals, she was not prepared for that, no all she wanted at this point was to stop the red monster from killing more then he needed too. Those two would be brought to justice, what he did... It was not justice. It was then a limo pulled in, a very large man exiting, who then went to the two guards out-front and began to seemingly berate them. Looking over the two men, Clair realized that they had builds similar to the two she was looking for, in fact, put the clothes they wore, and masks. One could say they were exactly who she was looking for. Now all she needed was a way to move them to a secluded area or something, keep them safe... Or call the police or something. But they wouldn't have any evidence, reason or rhyme, she didn't have any evidence. How did anyone do anything when it came to being a hero... Witnesses, and she was the only witness.

Well, she had another option, the monster. It seemed to know more about them then she did, seeing as he had photos, and knowledge of where they were last night along with knowledge of her court case. Meant that it had some way of finding things in the law side of life. So if she could just convince it... Him. To do the right thing, maybe. Just maybe that could work. However, it was finding the monster and convincing it her idea was much, much better then his when it came to justice. And because she had no way of finding when the thing came... She would have to wait for it to act first. With that knowledge in mind, she rose her hands slightly, letting the white mist flow from her slowly, and spreading out along the ground, mixing with shoes and gravel. Clair focused on keeping it looking natural, like a night fog that just swept itself in. But focused more of it near the two criminals, making it denser then the rest that floated above the ground. Waiting for the right moment. She almost had a urge to put her mask back on while she waited, feeling naked without it with so many people nearby.

Vaedren needed to get the two men away from the crowd if he was going to enact his sweet, sweet vengeance. The vile demon leaned away from the ledge and began to pace back and forth. He was quite frustrated with himself in this moment as he thought back to how he would have done things in the past. He was one of Arcadia’s strongest demons, he could raise entire kingdoms single handedly and now here he was pacing back and forth on the roof of a nightclub having a hissy fit over how he was going to kill two lowly humans.

Eventually he stopped dead in his tracks and clenched his fist tightly out of agitation. “What are we doing?! There isn’t a single person down there that could stop us.” despite this revelation, Vaedren remained reluctant to just leap down onto the sidewalk and go nuts. He peered over the edge of the roof one more time to see where the two thugs were exactly so that he could position himself better. Vaedren was ready to take the plunge up until the moment he took notice of a suspicious looking fog that had just rolled in. Vaedren’s grip tightened on the ledge, breaking off a large chunk in the process.

The sound of cement breaking overhead was more than enough to catch the attention of the two men and a few of the bystanders standing near the door. They all seemed to look up in unison, but only managed to catch a glimpse of the demons crimson dome as he ducked back out of sight. “Stupid, stupid girl!” he managed to growl through his tightly shut maw. Why would she even be following him? He figured she’d have gotten the point with his execution of the one goon. The malleable demon shifted down into a small puddled and began to drip down the side of the building, nice and out of sight.

As his red puddle of a body slid down the side of the building, Vaedren tried to scan the crowd for any sign of the girl who was manipulating the fog. His sight instead pinpointed something that would take him by surprise. Among all the faces Vaedren could see, one of them was very familiar, mostly because he had seen it earlier that day. As the last bit of his mass landed with a sickening plop on the pavement, Vaedren reformed himself and focused his gaze on the girl. “Stupid Clair. She didn’t heed Jett’s warning. Why come here?!” the demon argued with itself.

Meanwhile, the two guards had turned back to the crowd and attempted to get them all back in order. This is when one of the thugs noticed a lone girl standing by herself across the street. Giving his partner a nudge on the arm, one of the thugs pointed across the street. “Yo she look familiar to you?”

The other thug squinted his eyes as if that was going to make his vision better. “You know what, I think it is. Wonder what shes doing here.”
“Maybe she thinks she’s gonna get payback for setting her up?” the two thugs broke out into laughter before the larger of the two wiped an imaginary tear from his eye and began to head across the street. “Wait right there. I’ll take care of this.” the large thug said as he began to cross the street.

Vaedren had hardly been paying attention to his targets this entire time and could only stare in confusion as to how or why Clair was there in the first place.

Clair like everyone, had looked up when the sound of breakage happened. Curious to every eye, Clair herself was worried by it. Things like cement didn't break easily. It had to be broken and the only thing she could imagine being here and willing to break cement was the red monster. At least, she hoped it was him. Anything else would mean there was another meta nearby and she could not handle more then one thing tonight that was so unplanned for.

Putting her focus back to the two men, she watched over them a little longer till she saw one of them pointing. Right. At. Her. Eye's widening in surprise, she watched as the larger of the two began to cross towards her. Gulping, let go of her focus on the mist, the white fog slowly vanishing as it's source lost interest in powering it. Clair began to side step before turning to walk away, spotting a nearby alleyway for her to escape too... And to be alone. Walk-jogging to the alleyway, she entered and turned back to the entrance, spotting the large thug as he followed her. "Before you say anything... I do this for your own good." Clair stated before raising her hands, the mist pouring out all around her. Sending it forward with a quick thrust of her arm, she rose her other hand to her face, letting the white mask form on her face as the mist began to take form behind the thug, physically pushing him towards her.

Thinking she had him, she began to move her arms to push him against a wall, but the man was not going to let her use her power on him so easily and rushed forward with a quick burst of speed, not super human, but enough to surprise the young girl as she felt two hands grip her wrists and twist them, emitting a small cry of pain from the girl. She tried to shake her way out of his grip, but failed to do so against the larger man. Her breath quickening, she couldn't control the mist, and she wanted to get away from the man but could not, panic rose in her chest as she began to silently whimper.

Scared because of the situation she got herself in, the closeness of the thug and cursing herself for being a idiot and letting him get close. She just didn't... She thought she could... She tried to just push him gently with her mist rather then using it like she had to trap the red monster meta earlier, she was a fool, she didn't even know the extent of what she could do with this mist and decided that being a hero was something she should do now, be good at... Stupid.. But as someone said, you never learn till you lose, and this.. This was just a step in the process of being a hero. She was stupid now, yes, but as soon as she could get one of her hands free... She would not make the same mistake twice.

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.