I Freakin' Hate LA

A lit cigarette hung loosely from the corner of Omen's mouth from the pulled up bottom of his mask as he surveyed the scene before him. The horrificly mutilated corpses of a several people layed strewn around the room crucified on improvised wooden crosses. The causes of death were not suffocation as was the normal with crucifixion, but blood loss from the wounds that had been done to them beforehand. The various cuts and slices which decorated their bodies had been done using some kind of double bladed weapon, most of the cuts having been perfectly parallel with one another. Another thing to note was that the seven victims each had a word carved into their backs, or to be more specific, had one of the seven deadly sins each: Sloth, Wrath, Greed, Envy, etc. Just from what he could see, it looked like the culprit had wanted to punish them for something they did, but from the way things seemed done so effeciently and in such an organised way, whatever they did wasn't personal.

The local police force had already invesigated, but they couldn't find anything to hint at a possible suspect. The perpetrator left no fingerprints, hair or any form of DNA and despite being in the middle of the city in a fairly populated apartment complex, no one had seen anything suspicious or anyone even enter or leave the apartment. It was clear whoever did this had been good, very good in fact. However, while the police may have been stumped, Omen had something they didn't. Tapping into his powers, Omen examined the room again, but this time was aiming to see if one of the victims would communicate with him and be able to tell him who was responisble or at least hint at his identity. He then noticed that one of the walls had appeared to suddenly start decaying, as if it had instantly aged fifty years in a second. Then he watched intently as blood began to pour out from the cracks which scarred the wall. The blood slowly then started to take shape in the form of words spelling 'GET OUT'. Omen examined the writing closely; it was one of two things, a threat from an angry phantom, or a warning.

Before he could have more time to think it over, another apparation faded into sight infront of him. This time it was a woman who looked slightly similar to one of the poor people nailed to a cross. It was probably what she was in life, before having undergone such serious injuries. She looked blankly into his eyes and stood silent. As he was just about to ask her what it was she was trying to get at, she lifted her arm and pointed to a part of the floor in the middle of the room. He looked over at where she was motioning to, but when he tried to turn his attention back to her she had disapeared. He sighed heavily. Sometimes he really hated it when the dead did that. He then went to investigate the part of the floor she gestured to. He crouched over and traced his hands over the wooden flooring. He knocked on the surrounding floorboards a few times until he heard a hollow bang. His right eyebrow raised questioningly under the mask. Investigating further he started to pry open the boards, which had oddly seemed looser than they should have been. Then, his eyes widened in shock at what he saw; a bomb attached to a timer, and there were only four seconds left.

"Son of a...ugh, BOMB!" He shouted loudly as he broke out into a sprint for the window, intent on not being blown apart today. He threw himself out of the window at top speed, sending him crashing down to the pavement three floors below. The resounding explosion had decimated the room he had only a few moments ago been in. He used his shoulder to break his fall, normally he would have rolled out his landing, but he hadn't built up enough speed or distance to pull it off. The pain he felt was excruciating, he knew his shoulder had probably been dislocated and likely fractured. He didn't have time to focus on the pain at the moment though. He rolled over onto his front and covered the back of his head with his arms to shield himself from some of the smaller falling debris and glass which rained down from the floor above.

The people in the street started to panic, it was only natural to do so after an explosion goes off in the middle of a city. The police surrounding the building were startled by the sudden destruction of their crimescene and went on full alert. Groaning in pain, Omen lifted himself off the ground using his one good arm. He was still a little shell shocked by the whole experience, bombs having that effect on most people. With a pained grimace marking his face, Omen pushed himself back up onto his feet. He used his left arm to test the pain in his right shoulder, squeezing it lightly and trying to determine if his shoulder was in fact dislocated, which it was. He winced in pain when he popped it back into place and said "I freakin' hate LA."

Ace loved LA, it was the best place in the world, even though the sentinels weren't big news anymore his recent exploits had gotten into the news, headlines read "Teen Hero saves Assaulted Girl" they completely forgot to mention the fact that he was KO'ed afterwards or the fact that he was dragged away and suddenly somehow lost his powers after the incident, but they got all his witty comments and how he beat most of them against all odds. Turns out the girl he saved was the daughter of one of the richest men in the city, and when her birthday came around guess who was on the guest list. Ace was dressed rather smartly for this occasion at least better then he was compared to when he went out the night he saved the girl. Dress pants, highly polished shoes, slicked back hair and a striped collared shirt, all that topped off with his almost signature orange glasses perched on top of his forehead. He'd had Sullivan drop him off. Ace sat in the car as Sullivan rounded a corner revealing a public centre lit by purple and blue lights, the flash of cameras was constant. Ace was famous, but he wasn't paparazzi fodder famous, he got the occasional autograph thing but not paps. "Looks like there's quite a following out there" Sullivan said to him from the drivers seat
"No Kidding, looks like there isn't just local celebrities here"
"Isn't this just a 14 year old girls birthday?"
"Yup" Ace smiled as he said this, Sullivan usually despised rich people flaunting their money, his anger was hilarious.

Sullivan pulled up and Ace got out he tightened the grappling hook around his wrist and closed the door he started walking down the red carpet-esque walkway as he heard tires squealing and the sound of a valet screaming "MY FOOT!!" Ace smirked as he walked down the walkway, cameras flashing around him, Ace knew more than anything to smile for the cameras, PR was a big thing in the sentinels before they came tumbling down. Ace entered the complex to a chorus of girlish squeals and wails. Ace sensed something coming towards him *At a girls birthday party, seriously?* Ace thought to himself as he turned to face the attacker. Before he could throw a punch arms embraced him *Huh?* Ace thought.
"Thank you" a voice whispered into his ears and it finally clicked.
"No need to thank me, i was just doing my job" Ace whispered back to the girl, flashes went off around him, this was going to be some sort of tabloids thing, he could just tell. The girl released him and stepped back, Ace finally saw her fully, without a hood covering her face, she had shoulder length blonde hair that curled at the tips, blue eyes with some sort of sparkly glitter eyelid thing her lips were a deep red and, like the eyelid powder, also sparkled. Her dress was a dark purple and went down past her knees and, like pretty much everything else, sparked as well. She was, to put it simply, beautiful. "Im Annie" The girl said, her smile had Ace almost hypnotized
"Nice to meet you Annie, i'm Ace" was all he managed to get out, Annie smiled and looked down at her feet before she turned back to Ace.
"I'l see you around the party" She smiled at Ace before turning to meet the other guests. Ace turned around and went the other way.
*My god, she is so pretty, so so pretty* Ace thought to himself as a pack of girls walked towards him, hushed voices swept through like a forest in a heavy wind. Ace put on a smile and headed towards almost certain death by teenage girls.

The next couple of hours were strenuous to say the least, it was conversation after boring conversation. he got about 5 numbers from giddy girls high on sugar, they were all pretty but none compared to Annie, someone who Ace couldn't get off his mind for the whole night. They brought out cake and all that but Ace wasn't hungry he wasn't focusing that whole night. It was nearing the end of the night and Annie was finally free from talking to people, Ace decided to go over and make small talk.
"Quite the party your throwing" Ace said to Annie
"Really? I thought it was quite dull, i mean, i barely know any of these people, its basically a charity event with my name stuck on it" Annie explained in a hushed tone so that no one else could hear
"Thank god, Im not the only one that thought that." Annie laughed
"At least I got to meet you in person, you know, with no gang members"
"Yes, those gang members were quite a pain weren't they" Annie looked like she was about to say something but Ace's phone rang an alarm "Uh Oh…" Ace said
"What does that mean?" Annie asked
"It means i need to go, duty calls" Ace said rather reluctantly "Its been lovely meeting you i'd love to-" Annie poked Ace with her finger and gestured towards a man standing beside them, he clearly had a microphone sticking out of his shirt "Ah, i see" Annie forced a piece of paper into Ace's hand and smiled at him, he smiled back. "See you around" Ace said as he headed towards the door. Sullivan was parked outside, arguing with the Valet who's foot he had crushed
"I think i know who's feet i run over and i did not run over yours, good day sir!" Sullivan exclaimed as he rolled up the window. Ace got in the back and opened up the folded piece of paper it had a string of numbers across the top followed by "Call Me <3* -Annie" Ace smiled as he read it.
"You're smiling a lot in the backseat there, what's on that piece of paper?"
"Nothing" Ace smirked as he said this, and probably blushed
"I see, Did you meet someone in there?" Sullivan asked
"Yes, i met a lot of people, most we're dull and boring, you'd like them" Ace replied
"I mean di-HEY!" Ace laughed at Sullivan's response
"So why did you pull me out of that invigorating party?" Ace asked as Sullivan pulled out on to the road
"There's been an explosion a few blocks from here, apparently it was a bomb, the police thought since you're Detective Brokedell's apprentice you might be able to decipher this case"
"My god, i do one case with Frankie and suddenly i'm his apprentice?"
"The LAPD cops ain't too bright"
"No Kidding"
"You're stuff is in the bag" Ace looked to his right, there was a sports bag, it had sneakers, a black t shirt, white jacket, Jeans and a collapsable Bo Staff. Ace changed into the clothes and grabbed the staff.

The car arrived at the scene of the crime, the fourth story was blown up and a man in a mask stood on the sidewalk. Ace got out of the car, jacket hanging over his shoulders, "Hello" he said to the masked man "You must be the man that had the common sense to jump out the window, im Ace"
he held his hand out to shake.

Omen grumbled incoherently under his breath as the paramedic tried to pick and prod at his arm and shoulder. While he was pretty insistant that he was fine and didn't need their help, the paramedics were damn pushy about taking a look at his arm. However, he outright refused to go to a hospital. He had been in far worse scrapes and was NOT going to get himself admitted to a hospital for a wounded shoulder, that would just be insulting. So, once he had chased off the annoying health professionals, Omen stood on the sidewalk leaning against the wall of the partially ruined building. Reaching up, he grabbed the rim of his hat and pulled it off. He smacked the hat weakly against the wall to clean it of some of the dust that had covered it from the explosion. Once satisfied that it was back to a presentable condition he placed the it back onto his head and then started to rummage through the pockets in his coat. After a second or two of searching he pulled out the thing he desperately needed right now. A cigarette packet in one hand and a lighter in the other, Omen needed to relieve some stress and nothing did that better for him than a smoke. God however seemed to like watching Omen suffer as, to his dread, he found that the packet was empty and his last cigarette had been lost in the explosion. His eye twitched a little under the mask, and his face adopted a look of despair. Today officially sucked. He felt just about ready to give up and go back to the motel to sleep the rest of the day away, that is until a car pulled up and a kid dressed in superhero garb stepped out and approached him. From a glance it was clear he was just a teen, hell he couldn't have been more than fifteen. He could briefly recall a newspaper article about teen superhero performing some valiant heroic act or another and this guy fit the bill.

"Hey." He started simply, replying to the kid's greeting. "And yes, I be him." He stopped leaning on the wall and took a step forward, closer to the fellow superhero, grabbing his hand and returning his handshake. "Name's Mason. Now what brings you here? Sorry to tell ya, but it's a little late to check out the crimescene now that's nothing but ashes and miscellaneous...parts."

Ace shook the man's hand "So your name's Mason? Interesting, not a lot of heroes tend to give away their almost secret identity to any other hero, I do because of PR and the fact that i don't have a better name." Ace prattled on "The crime scene exploded, i can see that, but it's still a crime scene, but the crime changed."
Ace adjusted his jacket so it was sitting tightly on his back. "I assume you know the drill, regular superhero stuff, find the guy that did this then beat the crap out of him, sound good?" Ace didn't wait for an answer "Meet you up there" Ace smiled at the man before heading to the side of the building.

"Lets do this" Ace said to himself, he aimed his grappling hook upwards at the top of the building and reeled himself in, at a breakneck pace, flinging himself upwards into the sky "Pfft, who needs super powers to fly" Ace said as he whizzed upwards through the air he started to come back down at speeds faster than he came up, "Oh yeah" Ace latched the grappling hook on to a nearby light post, his momentum spinning him around and around until he lost enough speed and launched himself back up at the semi destroyed 4th floor, flinging through the window and rolling. He hit the wall with a thud, dislodging bits of rubble, "No one saw that, that was freaking awesome and no one saw that, damn." Ace said as he got up and dusted himself off.

Ace examined the room, most of it was blackened with charr the rest was missing, the middle of the room, where the bomb had been, was completely destroyed there was a hole to the third floor in the floor, Mason was right, there wasn't much left of anything really, still, no criminal was perfect, there had to be something.

Omen rolled his eyes at the antics of the teen. At least he was enthusiastic, unlike Omen at this point. All he really wanted to do was find a bed and pass out, being blown out of a building would do that to a guy. Rolling his injured shoulder slightly he began to make his way back into the building and up to the crimescene, but his method of travel was a lot more conventional...the stairs. He exhaled heavily as he walked, a few seconds with that kid made him feel old. He was twenty eight years old damnit! That was no age to be feeling like this. As he walked up the stairs of the building up to the fourth floor with his hands stuffed into his pockets only one thought went through his head. Why do so many of these guys have grapplers? The first thing he noticed when he reached the fourth floor was the door, or what was left of it, of the room he had once been in scattered around the floor in the halway, burn marks were evident almost everywhere near the room and bits of debris and rubble littered the ground.

Walking inside of the room, Omen analysed the damage. It didn't exactly take a genius to see that things had gone to hell in here. Everything looked cindered and burned. Taking a few steps forward, he looked down into hole in the floor that went right down into the room below. Thankfully no one was there at the time. Glancing around he could vaguely see the remains of the crosses used to crucify the bodies, as well as some of the charred remains of the bodies themselves. In all honesty he didn't think they could have been in worse condition before the explosion, he was wrong. He then noticed the pattern in the soot that covered the ground, indicating that Ace's landing in the room hadn't exactly been graceful. Sighing, he looked up at Ace.

"Could you at least try to be careful? No need to damage this place any further than it already is." He then carried on looking around. If the chances of finding evidence before was slim, now it was damn near impossible. At least bombs couldn't hurt dead people, well their spirits at least. He felt the need to be discrete about it this time though, no need to let Ace know about his 'gift' just yet. Making the kid think he was insane wasn't exactly the best way to inspire confidence when trying to find a serial killer together. Crouching down, he looked carefully at one of the skulls which lay on the ground, burnt and with only some of it's flesh and muscle still remaining. Accessing his power, he waited for some kind of message or a sign to point him in the right direction. The answer to his unspoken question came in the form of blood. From one of the empty sockets in the skull a trail of blood poured out slowly and crept over to the corner of the room. Omen's eyes followed patiently as the trail met its end at a small pile of ash on the floor. Dismissing his abilities, the blood trail disappeared from sight. He walked over and reached his hand into the ash to find a book, and not just any book. The book, the bible. Pulling it out from the burnt remains, Omen brushed off the soot and started skimming through it carefully.